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“Dude, you’re not supposed to touch my cape. That is not allowed. It is A Rule. And look at you, look at what you are doing! Do you know what you’re doing Karkat?” A pause, for dramatic effect. “You are touching my cape. You are not just touching it, you are wrapped up in it! It’s a cape, not a blanket!”
“Fuck off, Dave. It’s freezing in this goddamn hellscape of a meteor. And a cape is a long rectangular piece of comfortable fabric. A blanket is also a long rectangular piece of comfortable fabric, so I repeat: fuck off,” Karkat says, glaring out at you from his crouched position on the floor, wrapped up in your god tier cape. Where did he even get that? You could have sworn it was in your sylladex…
“That is not the point!” you say. “The point is that it’s mine! And you’re using it!”
Karkat does not seem moved by this logic. Well, actually, he is moving. No, wait, he was just getting a hand free of the blanket so he could flip you off. “I’m not fucking giving it back, Dave. It’s mine now, at least until this meteor warms the hell up already.”
“What if I was cold, too?” you ask, an idea forming in your mind. A very gay idea, but you will let it slide.
“I’d say get your own cape blanket.”
“That is my cape blanket” you remind him.
“Too bad.”
“Fine.” You plop down on the ground next to him and tug at the cape. “Move over.”
“What?” he asks.
“I said ‘move over’ if you want this hot piece of Strider cape so much, you’re going to have to share.”
There is a fair amount of grumbled swearing, but you and Karkat end up both wrapped up in the cape, pressed up against each other. God, this is so gay. But that doesn’t matter, because this meteor is freezing, and Karkat is oh so very warm.
After a few moments, you say “Do you want to watch a movie or something?” just to break the silence.
“That requires movement, so no,” Karkat replies.
“But this floor is cold and my ass is going numb. Do you want my ass to be numb, Karkat? What if it falls off? And I won’t even know because it’s numb, because this meteor is made out of ice, and the game has cleverly convinced us it’s rock, but you cannot hide the obscene ass-numbing coldness! I am going to lose my ass because this game is a liar and you don’t want to move, Karkles! My ass! My beautiful butt!”
Karkat groans. “Oh, gog if I agree to move to the couch will you shut the fuck up about your ass?”
“Absolutely. But really, my ass is amazing, and you should enjoy hearing about it.” Karkat attempts to smother you with your own cape.
On the walk to the transportalizer, Karkat steals the cape once more, wrapping it around him to the point where he can’t even properly walk, he just has to shuffle. You end up on couch is some out of the way portion of the meteor, and Karkat pulls a DVD from his sylladex and sticks it into the player.
“What, don’t I get a say in what movie we watch?”
Karkat glares at you on his way back to the couch. “WIth your tastes? No, no you do not.”
He graciously allows you into the cape cocoon, and settles down next to you. The movie plays, and predictably, it’s some romcom. He’s done you the favor of putting it in English for you. You’re still not sure how that works, but it did.
About an hour into the movie, you pipe up. “Wait a minute, I thought those two were moirails, why are they making out?” Karkat shifts and grabs the remote, pausing the movie. The screen now displays the main lead and what you thought was his best friend, caught in a tender kiss. You look away, and your eyes land on Karkat’s lips. Whoa. You immediately flee, your gaze fixing on your cape, safe territory.
“They were moirails, you got that part right at least. But the whole film has been building their relationship, showing how they’d actually be better off flushed.”
“But what about that other chick? I thought he was trying for flush with her?” you say, confused.
Karkat snorts. “Yeah, like that’ll ever happen. She’s pitch for him, she just hasn’t admitted it yet. Not watch the fucking movie, you moron.” Karkat hits play and sets the remote down, returning to his position by your side. Except this time he’s a little closer, curled up against you. You put a cautious arm around his shoulders, simply because there’s nowhere else for it to go. He allows it.
The movie plays on, and you have to admit that the lead has much better chemistry with his best friend. It’s just weird for you seeing the best friend actually going for it. Earth movies usually don’t, no matter how close two guys are. Maybe it really isn’t as much of a deal for trolls?
One movie turns into two, turns into three. At some point between the end of two and now, Karkat shifted, so you’re lying back against a pile of pillows and the arm of the couch, and Karkat’s snuggled up like a bug in a rug with his head on your chest. You can’t see his face, but you think he might be asleep.
Acting on impulse, you raise a hand and slowly start carding your fingers through his hair. It’s coarse, but also somehow really soft. You don’t understand it. He shifts, and you freeze. But he doesn’t say anything, and with Karkat, you know damn well when he disapproves. So you guess you can take that as permission to keep going?
You do, idly turning back to the movie as you play with his hair. Some time later, you become aware of a strange sensation. Karkat’s….. Vibrating? You put a hand on his back, and yeah, it’s vibrating slightly. Almost like a cat.
The cat comparison becomes more appropriate when the vibrations increase in intensity and you start to hear a purring sound. Not exactly like a cat, and trolls are actually insects so there’s gotta be a more scientifically accurate term here, but you said cat earlier and now the term’s just kinda stuck.
You only realize that you’ve been stunned into stopping when the purring quiets and Karkat shifts, nuzzling into your hand. You think you hear him murmur “why’d you stop?”. He sounds sleepy, but he’s definitely awake, and he apparently wants you to keep going, so you do.
The purring starts up again, when you return to running your fingers through his hair. You scratch a little at the base of one of his horns, and the purring goes up a few decibels.
You feel the corners of your mouth pull up into a slight smile, and you don’t hide it. He can’t see you anyway. He’s just cuddled up to you and purring up a storm, and you can’t do a thing about because it’s too fucking cute. He’s like a kitten… a grouchy, grumpy kitten who’d usually claw you before letting you do this. But now he’s sleepy and cuddly and you cannot handle it. This level of cute really should be illegal. Maybe it is, but Terezi’s really the only one enforcing rules, and you are not bringing this up to her. So you’ll just have to deal with Karkles being criminally precious on your own. Which means you’re just going to keep playing with his hair and scratching at his horns until he tells you to stop, or you fall asleep.
You don’t mind.
You wake up to muffled laughter and snickering. You keep your eyes shut because you do not want to wake up. You’d much rather be asleep under this nice, warm blanket pillow nest. You’re still mostly asleep. If you ignore them, they might go away, and then you can more than likely go back to sleep.
Except the weighted blanket is growling. It’s a low, but very menacing sound. You tense up, and the blanket moves slightly. You feel a hand reach up and touch your cheek. You open your eyes slightly, and see Karkat. He’s still curled up on your chest, and that is indeed his hand on your face, but his attention is elsewhere.
He’s still growling, staring off at someone behind you. You can’t see who it is without moving, so you stay put.
“I swear to god, if you fuckers wake him up, I will tear your bulges off and shove them down your throats,” Karkat says, managing for once to be quiet. You realize that with your shades on, he can’t see your eyes. He thinks you’re still asleep.
The person leaves, and Karkat removes his hand, returning to resting his head on your chest. Well damn. Now you can’t wake up. Not when he’s gone all scary to ensure you sleep peacefully. You must endure being snuggled a little longer.
You continue to fake sleep for another ten minutes before carefully shifting with a yawn.
“Hey, Karkles,” you say, trying for a sleepy voice.
“Hey, you moron,” he says, before sitting up. He rubs at his eyes before raking a hand back through his hair. Wow. If you thought his hair was unruly usually, it’s so much worse now.
“So…. Can I have my cape back?” you ask.
He glares. “No.”