Davekat Headcanons and Oneshots

Only Mine

        Karkat hadn't waited to hear his answer. All he'd needed to hear was "I can't". Two words that had ripped his world apart. He'd run off without waiting for an explanation. It had been a long time since he'd felt this hopeless, but this was pure fucking agony. He stumbled and fell on to his bed, sobbing. Red tears streaked down his face as he bit his lip and dug his fingernails in to the skin of his arms.
        "I'm such an idiot!" He sobbed to himself. "How could I be so stupid?!"
        He lay there for a while, sobbing and halfheartedly clawing at himself. He wasn't sure how long it was, but eventually the heartbroken rage liquefied in to a cold heavy sadness that weighed down his lungs. He heard footsteps and the door creaked open. He didn't care. Then he heard the voice.
        "Karkat?" His voice was soft. Gentle. So different from his usual smooth, easygoing tone that Karkat almost didn't recognize him.
        "What do you want, Strider?" His voice was still choked up.
        "Are you okay?"
        Karkat sat up. "Yeah. I'm perfectly fine. I confessed to my flush crush, which took me weeks to actually find the confidence to do, only to get rejected. This is pure fucking joy. I totally don't want to go throw myself in to the void!"
        Dave winced. "Karkat-"
        "Don't talk to me!" The troll boy snapped, breaking down again.
        Dave took off his shades and went and sat beside Karkat, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy despite his squeaks of protest.
        "We need to talk," he said softly, holding Karkat close in a way that was far too close to a red advance, considering what had just happened. "But that's not gonna happen until you calm down. I'm not going to say what I need to say until you can talk to me without screaming or crying."
        Karkat nodded, deciding to just give up and let himself calm down slowly. He was so confused. Dave was holding him like a lover, and comforting him like a Moirail, but... he wasn't either one. He'd refused.
        When Karkat could speak, his voice wasn't angry. It was soft. The fire that usually controlled him had been put out, and replaced with something soft and cold that laced his voice with weak defeat. "Why?"
        "Why what?" Dave was still perfectly calm, and his red eyes seemed to stare straightin to Karkat's soul.
        "Why do you do this to me? You act like you want me, but you rejected me."
        "I didn't reject you," Dave reasoned. "I didn't say no. I said I can't."
        "And what's that supposed to mean?"
        "It means I love you. But you asked me to be your Matesprite, and I can't do that. I hate the idea of quadrants."
        "That's right..." Karkat mumbled. "Humans only have one romantic interest..."
        Dave nodded. "Exactly. I won't agree to date you if I know there's a chance you'll run off to hatefuck somebody or cry on someone else's shoulder. Do you have any idea how jealous that would make me? Look... I won't lie to you, Karkat. I'm a selfish guy. I don't like the idea of sharing you with two or three other people."
        "But... that's the way things work. Humans don't have quadrants, so how could you possibly know-"
        "That's what I mean. Humans don't have quadrants. Because human love is kind of a combination, I think. A little bit of all the quadrants. Mostly the heart one. But then there's a little bit of teasing, which is black I think. And human lovers are always there for each other, which is what Moirails are, right? And then the other one where someone stops a fight... well, humans kind of do that too because people don't like to let their friends or lovers do stupid shit like that."
        "...you've really been thinking about this a lot, haven't you?"
        Dave nodded. "Of course. I care about you, Karkat, and... I just want you to be happy. I love you, Karkat. But it's love the way I understand it, not the way you do."
        Tears pricked Karkat's eyes again. "I'm sorry Dave... I... I want you to be happy too. I love you and want to be with you." He took a shaky breath. "Even if that means giving up on quadrants."
        Dave looked surprised. "Really? You'd do that?"
        Karkat nodded. " I've never had much luck with quadrants anyway... and I'd rather human love you than lose you. We've been through so much bullshit, I don't think I could handle losing you."
        Dave smiled. He pulled Karkat close and kissed his forehead. "Thank you."
        "So... how do I do this? I mean, I don't know anything about human love..."
        "It doesn't matter that much, really. Love is different for everyone. I just want to be sure you aren't dating anyone else. I want you to be only mine." Dave laughed to himself. "I really am a jealous asshole."
        "That's okay." Karkat leaned in to Dave's arms, purring. "I'm all yours. I'll try my best to get this human love thing right."

Authors Note: And that's how that happened!