Heartbeat [DaveKat]

Something

Karkat was fairly surprised to find that all the classes he would take were just the same as those of "normal" school, except with one extra period during the day where he'd be trained on how to control his individual freak mutation thing, and learn to not kill people on accident.

Even more to his surprise, he didn't hate it. It's been a week, and he wasn't yet completely fed up with being at the school. Sure, the kids were all nuisances, and the teachers all had annoying voices that only spit out things he didn't understand, and the constant chain of heartbeats was generally overwhelming, but he didn't hate it.

It didn't take his full week of being there for him to feel close to Dave. It didn't take the whole week for him to realize he felt something kinda special for Dave, or that he was at least much different than everyone else. It seemed reasonable enough, considering they spent the most time together as they were roommates, yet Karkat couldn't help but feel there was something else, too.

He and Dave shared about half their classes, and Karkat would find himself waiting impatiently to see Dave again. God, what was happening to him? This was all new. He'd only known this hipster douche kid for just over a week and yet he cherished their friendship.

Karkat liked being around him. For years he'd done all he could to avoid any direct contact with other people, and would stay in his lonesome for hours, days. He couldn't stand being around so many people at once, he couldn't stand having to talk to strangers, he couldn't stand the impending inevitably that he could look at someone the wrong way and accidentally leave them gasping in pain. So.. why did this change everything so quickly?

Karkat jumped a little as an arm was thrown around his shoulders. "Hey, Kat." Dave was there, his face right next to Karkat's.

Karkat turned only his eyes, so his cheek wouldn't collide with the other boy's. "Hey, Dave. What's up?"

"Just wondering what you're doing out here by yourself," Dave said, removing his arm from Karkat's shoulder and walking in front of him. "I haven't seen you since this morning."

Karkat looked around at the open courtyard. He was seated alone on a metal bench, surrounded by shrubbery and a stone walkway ahead of him. "Um, I dunno," he shrugged, looking back to Dave. "Just thinking."

"Well, I'm sure we can find something much more interesting than that, dontcha think?" Dave pushed his sunglasses up on his nose before shoving his hands in his back pockets. When Karkat didn't answer right away, he stuck out a hand to him. "C'mon."

Karkat stood with a sigh, reluctantly grabbing Dave's hand as he led him out of the courtyard. Instead of walking back towards the building, though, Dave turned the other way, leading the other boy out onto a path in the nearby trees.

"Where are we going?" Karkat asked, slowing down as Dave headed into the trees.

Dave stopped, tugging on Karkat's hand. "No where in particular."