Red (Davekat)

Life is too Short to Last Long

<Your name is Karkat Vantas. Again>

I woke up in the middle of the night to Dave mumbling. At first, it sounded confused and his muffled voice seemed to fall on my ears as though they were being caught on a dense bed of cotton. My eyes opened and I looked at him, confused. He usually wasn't very restless at night. In fact, he generally seemed more calm. However, that didn't seem to be the case in the moment. I had already woken up before to him shifting around next to me.

His face was flushed red and his hair was plastered to his forehead. My first thought was to check him for a temperature, but when I did so, he didn't seem feverish. I heard him whimper my name pathetically, his brows knitting together as his lips trembled and pressed into a tight line. Putting a hand on his cheek, I tried to hold him closer and help relax him. It seemed to help for a while, but I was too tired to keep monitoring him, so I had fallen asleep soon after.

The next morning, I woke up feeling hazy. I would say it was what a hangover felt like if I had any idea what that might entail in the first place. Dave wasn't at my side. Instead, he had perched himself on top of the chair at my desk and was scrolling through his phone with a disinterested look on his face. The raw emotion I had seen the night prior was completely gone, replaced by the same neutral jackass I know and love.

Sitting up, I stretched my arms up over my head, only to realize that my shirt at somehow hiked up to my chest during the night. With a squeak, I made sure to pull it down over my stomach as quickly as possible. I didn't need Dave seeing that. Or asking questions about my grubscars. However, the only attention I got from that was his eyes briefly flickering in my direction before gluing back onto the screen in front of them.

"Give it a rest, Karks. There's nothing you could show me that would change how I feel about you. Besides, I'm gonna see it eventually, AND you've seen me shirtless plenty of times" he punctuated his words with the loud popping of the bones in his neck as he cracked them, rolling his head from one side to the other.

Flushing, I tilted my chin up indignantly, "SO? t-that's different! just because it MIGHT happen EVENTUALLY doesn't mean i need it happening NOW. hence why it's gonna happen in the fucking FUTURE, douche-canoe. AND you don't have anything to hide."

He gave me a wry smile and shrugged, "Whatever you say."

Sliding out of bed, I went over to my dresser and tried to find some clothes. It was a little warm, but I didn't really own any regular t-shirts. Grabbing a slightly more thin light grey long-sleeve and a pair of black jeans, I ducked out of the room and fled to the bathroom. I got changed quickly, not wanting to leave Dave alone for too long. There wasn't really anything special or secret in my room and if he really wanted to snoop, he would have done it while I was asleep, but I was still nervous that he might find something. It was the same feeling that I got whenever I'd go through airport security. That somehow, a bag of cocaine magically found its way up my ass.

I ran a brush through my hair and tried to make it look less like a rat's nest before returning to the bedroom. When I returned, Dave was still right where I left him. He glanced up at me and flashed me a gentle smile. Something about him seemed off. Somehow, he seemed more timid than he usually did. More nervous.

My head tilted to the side as I stepped closer to him and put one hand on his head. He sighed softly and wrapped his arms around my waist, letting his head press into my stomach. A little unnerved, I ran my fingers through his hair a few times.

"you okay? i heard you talking in your sleep last night. you seemed scared..." his head shot up as I spoke, but he quickly relaxed and cleared his throat, pushing me back an arm's length.