Chapter Text
Things didn't exactly settle down quickly, but it didn't take as much time as Dave had feared. Terezi got over it first, as he'd expected - she was far too drawn to the enticing new scent Karkat apparently gave off. It was as bad as when she'd first met Dave and was hounding him to let her sniff his eyes, except it was harder for Karkat to fend her off since he had a lot more surface to defend. She still winced when he started off on one of his rants, but she stopped outright cringing.
Kanaya took a little longer, but eventually she seemed to grow accustomed to the change as well. Dave did notice that both of the female trolls now always let Karkat enter or leave a room first, waited until he sat down before choosing their places, and other small signs of submission that were probably subconscious. Karkat didn't even take advantage of it or get a swelled head, which surprised Dave. Maybe the troll's personality had matured along with his body.
Actually that made a certain amount of sense when Dave stopped to think about it. Humans matured slowly over time, so it wasn't as noticeable when the hormones and chaos of adolescence finally released its grip on their thought processes. But if trolls matured all at once, their brains would also go from child to adult in a sudden jump.
Kind of disturbing, really, but he mostly tried to keep it out of his mind. Overall Karkat still reacted predictably to having the same buttons pushed, and their wrestling matches had gotten a lot more fun again now that Dave didn't outweigh him by half as much again.
Pretty much only the subject of Terezi had changed significantly among his triggers. Before, bringing her up would inevitably send the troll into a rage about the inappropriateness of Dave's relationship with her, or set him off ranting about a schedule to share her with flipping affections. Now when Dave mentioned her name Karkat's jaw would clench and he'd go quiet and look away, sometimes even getting up and leaving.
Dave was a self-admitted prick and an asshole, but even he knew there were some boundaries you just didn't push. Whatever it was that was hurting Karkat so much about the change in his circumstances with Terezi, Dave wasn't quite cruel enough to rub his nose in it.
Besides, having him just walk off quietly wasn't anywhere near as much fun as pushing him into a rage, and there were so many other ways Dave could still do that.
"You know you're doing that wrong, don't you?" he commented, hands in his pockets as he slouched just behind the chair Karkat was sitting in. He didn't need to be that close to read the screen over the troll's shoulder, but then again the point wasn't actually to read the screen. The point was to push Karkat's personal space bubble and annoy him.
"Don't you have something better to do than hang around criticising something you know less than nothing about?" Karkat said, hands clenching on the keyboard.
"Oh yeah, totally," Dave agreed, nodding his head. "There's like, a million and one things for me to do on this asteroid floating in the middle of nowhere that are way more important than this. I could be polishing my swag, I could be mixing some sick beats, I could be getting my grill ready for the bitches that will be all up in it the moment we finally land..."
"Then why don't you go do one of those things and leave me the fuck alone," Karkat demanded.
In answer Dave leaned down and crossed his arms on Karkat's shoulder, making certain to jab one elbow into the troll's neck. "Nah," he said, letting his accent draw the word out until it was practically a sentence in itself. "This is more fun."
Growling, Karkat surged up out of the chair, grabbing one of Dave's arms and digging his claws in as he tried to turn in such a way that he could flip Dave over his shoulder. Dave was faster, side-stepping out of the way of the lunge, but he couldn't break the iron hold on his wrist.
He used it to pull Karkat to him instead, ducking under their combined grip and sweeping his leg out while the troll was still unbalanced.
Karkat went down all right, but he still didn't let go of Dave's hand, pulling Dave down on top of him. For just a moment Dave thought he'd gotten the upper hand, his knees digging hard into Karkat's hips, one hand pinning his shoulder down and the other one pressing his wrist to the floor.
Then Karkat pushed off with his other hand and flipped them both over. Dave went with the motion and turned it into a roll, and they both battled to come out on top.
In the end they fetched up against the wall and were forced to come to a stop, both of them panting and Karkat's low growl vibrating in the scant space between them. To Dave's disgust Karkat had ended up on top, both hands pinning Dave's wrists and their hips and legs pressed together. Dave had no leverage at all, and now that Karkat weighed more than he did, he couldn't just lift the troll up with sheer strength.
He cursed, and Karkat grinned down at him. The whiteness of his fangs was still startling in his dark face, and Dave couldn't get used to the way it was so difficult to actually see his features. It made the troll appear to be all bright red eyes and shining white teeth, which gave him more than a bit of a sinister look.
"Oh no, Strider," Karkat said when Dave tried to throw him off anyway. The growl made his voice vibrate in a queer way, almost like a menacing purr. Which absolutely did not send a shiver down Dave’s spine. "I've finally got you right where I want you with no witnesses around. You're not getting rid of me that easily."
The comment about lack of witnesses made Dave wary. "I don't care how well you hide the body, Vantas, they're still going to find it," he said, trying to appear cavalier and not like he was worried it could be an actual thing. "If Rose doesn't see it coming, Terezi will sniff it out after."
Christ, he kept forgetting just how much bigger than him Karkat was now. The troll could probably tear him in half without thinking too hard about it. Dave was sweating, but he was determined not to let it show.
"Not killing you just yet, though I won't say it's off the table entirely," Karkat countered. He transferred both of Dave's wrists to one hand, freeing the other. Dave tried to take the opportunity to pull free, but Karkat was the proverbial immovable object.
Then Karkat reached for his face, and when Dave understood what he was after, he let out a growl of his own. Somehow he managed to get enough leverage to buck up, and they struggled for a long moment, but when the dust settled they were right back in the position they'd started in.
Momentarily exhausted by the effort, Dave lay there panting, trying not to freak out. Or at least trying to do it quietly. Karkat took the opportunity to snatch his shades right off his face and ditch them to one side... and then his red eyes widened as they met Dave's own.
To Dave's surprise, the next thing the troll did was throw his head back and laugh. "Ha! What do you know. Karkat Vantas and Dave Strider actually have something in common, and the universe hasn't imploded under the sheer mass of shock and incredulity. Maybe it's a good thing it was revealed while we're technically not in any universe at all?"
Despite himself Dave snorted. It was a valid point.
"So now that I've got you pinned down and you can't hide behind your stupid fucking shades, you and I need to have a little talk, Strider." Karkat smirked down at him. "You know what the single most aggravating thing about this new adult body is?"
"The fact that your horns didn't grow with the rest of you, so now they look even smaller?" Dave taunted him, buying time while his mind raced to figure out the seeming non sequitur. He felt achingly vulnerable without his shades, and it was distracting him from the already difficult process of following a troll’s line of thought.
"The way it's trying in no uncertain terms to remind me that the drones ought to be arriving any minute now, and I'd better get down to pailing like my life fucking depends on it," Karkat informed him. "Because it does. Or rather, it would, if there were still any drones and they wouldn't cull me for being a mutant freak anyway."
"Awww, poor widdle Karkitty is all grown up and his sex drive finally kicked in," Dave laughed mockingly. "What the fuck has that got to do with... me. Oh."
Oh. Fuck. Suddenly the way Karkat was grinding his hips down a little harder than was actually necessary to keep Dave pinned took on an entirely different meaning. "I thought you didn't hate me that way?" Dave said, his heart rate picking up until it felt like it was pounding at double time.
"I didn't, when we were just stupid kids fighting over Terezi and trying to see who could push each other's buttons harder," Karkat replied, his smirk ratcheting up a notch. "Then you saved my fucking life and turned a blind eye to the most vulnerable moment I will ever experience. That'll win you just about any troll's favour, Strider, for the record."
"So what, you're flushed for me now?" Dave exclaimed, horrified at the thought. The day Karkat Vantas pitied him, he would cut his own damned head off in mortified shame.
"Kismeses need to be able to trust that they won't kill each other in a moment of weakness a FUCK of a lot more than matesprits do," Karkat pointed out. "It's far more vital to know that even though your partner hates you, he won't take that one, final step."
Okay, hatred Dave could deal with, even the weird troll romantic kind. He didn't need to end his life in disgrace. "You're forgetting one important detail, Vantas," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm human, remember? We don't do your fucked up hatred romance thing."
Slowly Karkat leaned down until their faces were just inches apart, red eyes boring into Dave with the intensity in his gaze. Dave could feel every breath Karkat exhaled entering his lungs on the inhale, until it was like they were sharing the same air back and forth. He realized that he was breathing too hard about the same time he realized that the way his palms were sweating might make it easier to break Karkat's grip.
He lay there absolutely unmoving, not even trying to get free. Hypnotized, he tried to convince himself, not anticipation. Certainly not submission.
"Tell me that the first thing you think about when you wake up every evening isn't plotting the ways you're going to make my life hell that night," Karkat breathed out, scarcely more than a whisper. "Tell me that the last thing you think about at dawn isn't a smug review of every time you got one up on me, or got the reaction you wanted out of me. Tell me I haven't caught you staring at me when I'm practicing with my sickles, especially when I'm not wearing a shirt. Tell me, Strider."
Well, when he put it that way. Dave opened his mouth to give a flip answer - he'd come up with one in a second, he was sure of it - but he couldn't make a sound through his parched throat. Without thinking about it he swallowed and licked his lips to try to wet them, and that made the heat in Karkat's eyes flare higher.
"Put yourself in my shoes," Karkat said. "Here I am, at the peak of my sex drive, and not a god damned adult troll in sight. You and Rose are at or near the human equivalent as far as I can tell, but she's taken and I'm not horning in on Kanaya's territory, even if Kanaya's not ready to take full advantage of it yet. And there you are, taking every god damned opportunity to drape yourself aaaaall over me, or provoke me into a close-quarters wrestling match, or watch me working out. Don't even try to pull that stupid fucking 'not a homosexual' card with me."
Damn it, Dave couldn't deny, on an objective level, that Karkat's new body was... well, fucking smokin' is what it was. Tall and lean and muscled, and once Karkat had gotten used to it, he moved with a lethal grace that Dave couldn't help but appreciate. Combine that with the fact that Dave was a sixteen year old boy with a perfectly healthy body, surrounded by his biological sister, two other trolls who for all intents and purposes were still about thirteen, and a stray carapace creature who as far as Dave could determine might have no sexuality at all. He'd tried thinking about Jade and even John a time or two, but in his mind's eye they were still only thirteen, too.
So yeah, presented with the tantalizing view of Karkat's new body, he might have had a stray fantasy or two. Thousand. That didn't mean he was in love with the little prick.
"Karkat, I would rather fuck a god damned smuppet than give you any kind of satisfaction, let alone the sexual kind," Dave told him. "It's not exactly my life's ambition to frustrate you at every opportunity, but it's sure as hell the most entertaining thing I've found to do on this rock. Just because you are literally the only thing in my life right now I can legitimately fantasize about, that doesn't mean I intend to actually follow through. All the more so if you actually want it."
"Yessss," Karkat hissed, eyes gleaming as he kneaded at Dave's wrists with his claws. "Exactly. Which is why I'm going to take satisfaction from you, and you're going to like it, and then you're going to get me back. Aren't you."
It wasn't phrased as a question. It didn't need to be, because Dave had finally gotten it through his admittedly sometimes thick skull that they were describing the same thing. He lived to torture Karkat, but he would jump to defend the troll against any outside threat. Huge blocks of his time were taken up each day with nothing but thinking about the little asshole, plotting his next move in the unending one-up war between them. He wanted Karkat, badly, and the only thing stopping him from admitting it was knowing that it would give Karkat far too much pleasure.
Christ, if that wasn't hate-love, what the fuck was it?
Perhaps seeing the comprehension in his eyes, Karkat backed off just a fraction, enough to let them see each other's expressions properly. "You want this to end, all you have to do is say the word," he said, his tone taunting. "Go on, say it. I dare you. You'll regret it for the rest of your desperate, lonely life, wondering what you could have had if you'd just shown some fucking courage. The word is ‘no’, in case your pathetic little human walnut of a think pan isn’t capable of comprehending a concept that complicated right now."
Oh, it was on. "You are the most vile sack of shit I have ever seen. I would sooner stick my dick in a blender than into your nook, or whatever the fuck freaky equipment you've got down there," Dave told him bluntly.
"That's not a no," Karkat pointed out.
"Wow, I did not know that," Dave said in mock-wonder. "Here with all my vast expertise at mixing words and sounds together into the very sickest of beats, not to mention listening to Lalonde natter on in her eternal quest to use every single word our language contains, I never once realized that the sounds I just strung together were not equivalent to the consonant 'n' followed by the vowel 'o'. Thanks so much for enlightening me, bro."
For a moment Karkat looked confused, but then his eyes lit up as he caught on. His grip on Dave's wrists got tighter, enough that Dave grunted and tried to yank them free again, but Karkat held on. "I am going to make you scream for surrender," Karkat hissed against his mouth as he leaned down again. "And then I'm going to make you scream my name, over and over, until it's literally the only thing you can remember."
"As usual you talk a good game, Vantas, but the reality is nothing but hot air," Dave laughed.
He waited, forcing Karkat to take the initiative, but the moment their mouths met Dave was fully engaged in the kiss, biting and licking at every inch of skin he could get between his teeth. Karkat's fangs were sharp, but he was surprisingly careful with them, and Dave refused to let so much as a single sound of protest escape him. On the flip side, Dave could apparently bite down as hard as he wanted and all he'd get out of Karkat was a warble that didn't sound anything like a complaint, so he happily went to town.
He didn't realize Karkat had released his hands until his fingers were digging into the troll's back hard enough to make Karkat grunt. Dave laughed around the kiss. "You asked for it, now you can suck it up and take it," he said.
"Oh, I fully intend to take it," Karkat said, with a hard thrust of his hips that startled a moan out of Dave. "I might suck it as well. Depends on how much you aggravate me into wanting my teeth near your sensitive bits."
"Valid, ah! Point," Dave got out, rocking his hips up into the downward grinding pressure Karkat was exerting. Either that bone ridge was bigger in the adult form or Dave was remembering it wrong, because it felt fully as big as his cock, if not bigger. It also felt fucking amazing pressing against him like that.
They tore at each other's clothes without much regard for the idea that they might have to put them back on again at some point. All Dave was thinking about was getting closer to that incredible heat, and maybe inflicting some damage with his nails while he was at it. He could already tell he was going to have to work hard to get any gouges or bite marks to stay on Karkat's tough black skin for longer than a few minutes.
Karkat was having no such trouble marking Dave with his claws, though as with his teeth, he was just barely riding the line between 'fuck, no' and 'fuck yeah'. Dave was going to be walking wounded tomorrow, and he discovered that he did not give one single flying fuck what anyone else thought about it.
He got his hand inside Karkat's pants first, fingers exploring that mound of bone. It was definitely bigger than he'd remembered it, and he discovered that the flap of skin that covered it didn't quite go all the way beneath it, leaving a hollow area he could press up into with his fingertips.
That got him a hell of a reaction, as Karkat jerked and cried out against him, every muscle going tense all at once as he fucking quivered in visible anticipation. Laughing, Dave hastily withdrew, which got him the predictable swearing and claw gouges in his side.
"Go back, asshole," Karkat hissed. "I told you, I'm taking my satisfaction from you whether you like it or not. You don't have the right god damned equipment to do it properly, so you can fucking well make do with your hand."
Dave was trying to put what he'd seen a month ago together with what he'd just felt, and coming up a little confused. "What, do you guys take turns getting off or something? There's no way two trolls could get both bulge things against each other in the right spot at the same time unless you were sixty-nining, and even then it would be more like you were just squishing your nooks together."
"Unless we were what?" Karkat scowled down at him. "Of course we take turns, how the fuck else would you do it?" He scrunched his face up in a way that Dave would never admit was actually kind of adorable. Probably doing the same mental gymnastics Dave had just gone through, trying to picture it. "Even if you could both get off at once, how the hell would you ever hit the bucket? Your material would get everywhere."
"Fuck that noise," was Dave's considered opinion. He was not getting Karkat off and then trusting the troll wouldn’t just leave him hanging. "Pants off. Now."
"First sensible fucking thing you've said all night," Karkat grumbled, and they raced to get each other's pants off.
Predictably, Karkat paused to stare at Dave's junk with a sort of repulsed fascination, but Dave was having none of it. "Gawking afterwards, Vantas," he said impatiently, grabbing a handful of Karkat's hair at the back of his head and yanking upwards. Karkat hissed, but didn't fight the hold, and that half-lidded look in his eyes sure as hell resembled pleasure. "Right now, fucking."
He pushed his hips up again, trying to aim for that hollow spot beneath the bulge with his cock. The incoherent noise Karkat made in response was definitely pleasure. At least until Dave succeeded in getting the head of his dick wedged into that spot and pushed up again, at which point Karkat gave a strangled yelp and jerked his hips away.
"What the fuck are you doing, Strider?" he growled.
"Yeah, okay, that's not gonna work," Dave conceded, panting. He thought hard for a moment, then grinned. "I got this. Turn over."
"What?" Karkat frowned at him suspiciously.
"Turn over," Dave repeated. Karkat was just distracted and off-balance enough that when he heaved upwards again, this time he managed to flip Karkat over and roll himself on top.
Karkat struggled, of course, but Dave managed to get him on his front and pressed up against him from behind, aligning their bodies from chest to thigh. The troll subsided for the moment, breathing hard, but Dave didn't make the mistake of thinking he'd given up the struggle for dominance just yet. And given a moment to collect himself, he was more than strong enough to throw Dave off and do it his way.
"Like this," Dave told him, and nudged Karkat's legs apart just far enough to let him slide his cock into the crease of Karkat's ass. Not aiming for the hole there, but pushing between the tight pressure of his legs. Karkat protested and tried to throw him off for all of about five seconds before the head of Dave's cock hit that hollow spot from behind, and then he groaned and went limp.
"That's more like it," Dave said, his own voice rough with eager need. "Looks like if you want it, you're going to have to take it, all right. Take exactly what I'm giving you, that is."
Of course the taunt made Karkat tense up and thrash again. "Like fuck I am," he snarled. "This is my victory, don't even try to pretend otherwise. You didn't even want to do this!"
"Yeah well, now that we're doing it, we're going to do it on my terms," Dave replied, pulling back a little and thrusting forward again. Karkat's legs were clamped so tight it was almost painful to move between them, but GOD it was the best kind of pain he'd ever experienced. The hollow beneath the bone was warm and wet, fuck it was absolutely soaking, and the fluid made the glide of flesh against flesh a lot easier.
Hell, it was only supposed to be the first couple inches of your dick that had any real sensation anyway, right? It sure as fuck felt amazing every time his tip pressed home into that soft heat.
"If you don't want it, all you have to do is say no," he taunted Karkat with his own words.
"Go fuck yourself with a rusty sickle, Strider," Karkat snarled. "I'll lend you one of mine, just let me bang it up a little more to make sure there's lots of nicks to catch your nook and rip it to pieces."
"I don't have a nook, dipshit," Dave reminded him. "And that wasn't a 'no'."
"I will MAKE a nook for you, I'll carve it out with my own goddamned claws, and pack it full of sea salt to make sure it never stops hurting," Karkat said.
"Still not a 'no'," Dave laughed. Two could play this game, and he was winning both ways. Karkat's words might be a protest but his body was shouting 'yes' loud and clear, rocking back into each thrust Dave made.
With another struggle Karkat managed to get his knees under him for leverage, but rather than throwing Dave off as he'd expected, the troll dug his claws in and arched his back so his chest was flat on the floor, putting his ass at a better angle for Dave to thrust against. He was making an odd little keening noise with each movement now, getting louder each time as he started to tremble with building tension.
Alien anatomy or not, Dave knew an impending orgasm when he saw one. He stopped messing around and started thrusting with serious intent, wrenching a sharp cry out of Karkat with each impact. Dave had to grit his teeth against a cry of his own as Karkat squeezed his thighs tight around him.
It was too much, and despite his intention to get Karkat off first Dave couldn't take any more. He collapsed against Karkat's back, one hand braced on the floor to keep from pushing the troll flat as his world exploded.
Karkat was scrabbling at the floor with his claws, fighting for purchase or maybe just desperate for anything to hold on to. It took Dave a few seconds for his brain to catch up to reality and parse what the troll was babbling. "Don't pull back don't pull back FUCK more..."
Remembering the steady grinding pressure Karkat had used when trying to entice him, Dave jammed his hips as far forward as he could and held them there. He was starting to soften, but it was apparently enough. Karkat gave a hoarse, warbling cry and gushed fluid all over his legs and Dave's cock.
Then he collapsed, taking Dave down with him. They both lay there limply for a long minute, breathing hard and, at least in Dave's case, trying to figure out what the fuck had just happened.
Finally he decided that he really didn't care exactly how it had fallen out. It was the most amazing thing in his life, he wanted to do it again, and he wanted to do it again soon. And... yep, he still thought Karkat was an arrogant prick who needed his face bashed in most of the time.
Topping him in sex was just as valid as beating him through any other method, Dave concluded. It was far more enjoyable than most, though.
"All right, get the fuck off me, you weigh a tonne," Karkat grunted, shoving at the floor with his hands and heaving Dave to one side.
"Way to bask in the afterglow," Dave said dryly, stretching languidly before sitting up to assess the damage. His shirt was pretty much a write off, but his pants were probably salvageable. Not until they'd been thoroughly cleaned, though. He made a face as he switched his current outfit for his god tier. "Jesus christ now I see why you need the bucket."
"You're the one who wanted to do it some perverted human way," Karkat said. "How the fuck was I supposed to get a pail in place?"
"Also, we just totally had sex in the most public area of the entire asteroid," Dave realized. If it hadn't been so far beneath him, he might just have blushed. Quickly he retrieved his shades from where Karkat had tossed them and slipped them on, just to cover any lingering sign of embarrassment. "If anybody came in, saw us, and left, we probably wouldn't even have noticed. And we'll never live it down."
"No worries," Karkat said, stretching his arms up over his head. It made him look even taller, and emphasized the rippling muscles in his torso. Dave watched out of the corner of his eyes, the shades helping to hide his admiration. Karkat clearly had more than enough ego about his appearance without any affirmation from Dave. "I told Kanaya and Terezi not to let anyone in here today. I do try not to abuse the fact that they seem to have trouble disobeying me now, but I might as well take advantage sometimes."
"Thereby announcing to absolutely everyone that you were planning to jump me," Dave sighed. "Good going, Vantas, you might as well have posted it on facebook. Well, the carapace dude might still be clueless."
"Who said I was ever planning to try to keep it secret?" Karkat retorted, raising one eyebrow. He grabbed Dave by the shirt front and hauled him in for a hard kiss, and Dave didn't fight. Much. When they pulled back, they were both panting again. "You're mine now, Strider, and I want the whole fucking world to know it."
"Uh-huh. Who belongs to who?" Dave crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow right back at him. "Pretty sure I topped that round, Vantas. I'd say that means you belong to me, not the other way around."
"Oh, you are so finished," Karkat exclaimed, a predatory gleam in his eye that made reluctant heat stir in Dave's groin despite the very thorough satisfaction he'd just gotten.
"You'll have to catch me first," Dave taunted him, and slowed time to make sure he would reach the transportalizer before Karkat.
Not too slow, though. He only planned to run as far as his room, after all, and he didn't want Karkat to take too long to catch him.