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Gamzee wasn’t present at first when the others arrived. Most of the clowns time was spent sleeping, living in his dream bubbles and distracting himself from the rest of the group trapped on the meteor with him for God knows how long. Well, apparently God did know, because at a backbreaking agonizingly slow pace, three years passed by and the kids were reunited.
Both Dave’s hit it off just fine and the blue flying motherfucker was glad to be back with the grim girl. Karkat was supervising the reunion with the tenderness of a military soldier, screaming at John when he flew around out of pure excitement and raged as the nakkodiles crowded around him with excitement. The Juggalo sat back from the commotion, leaning back on his hands as he eyed the two Striders with great disdain. One of those fuckers around was more than enough; a second one was pushing it. Even as Gamzee watched from afar, a deep frown interlacing with the greasepaint, he didn’t automatically count this change as a bad thing. This new Strider had to be better than the other prick.
But as the clown watched, the sprite happened a glance over to the far side of the roof, spotting the Juggalo hanging behind by himself. A faint smirk came to his lips and Gamzee glared darkly. He was just the same as Dave.
The sprite went missing a week after he arrived. It wasn’t a long absence, close to an entirety of a day, but it was the state of him when he returned that unnerved everyone. As Dave promptly put it, the sprite had ‘sex hair’, which was easily explained by the paint smeared over his face and neck. Karkat was the one who was feeling the most awkward by this change, but undoubtedly all of the humans and trolls were.
But Dave Strider himself was the most annoyed by this. Davesprite had taken to floating after the Juggalo as he strode around, tickling the back of his ear with the tip of his tail, which earned him a playful growl, the underlined sexual innuendo almost painfully obvious in his tone. The two would whisper in hushed tones, watching Dave as he walked by, Gamzee laughing as Davesprite said something that he was sure was about him.
And that downright infuriated him.
Davesprite was as much Dave as Dave was to the sprite. It was undeniable that the Capricorn hated the human and the sprite, but he never acted that way with Dave himself. There were no cheek pinching, no random springing from behind doors to dry hump each other against the wall, mumbling insults to each other to spur the hatred on. Nothing like that at all. Dave wasn’t going to let this fly. No fucking way.
“Makara!”
Gamzee turned as he heard his name being called, leaning against the hallway wall with an arrogant air, a smirk playing at his lips. “Oh look who it is. Sup Strider.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Dave demanded, grabbing the front of Gamzee’s shirt. The troll rolled his shoulders, the smirk never faltering. “I’m having fun with your sprite self. What the fuck else does it look like?”
“This isn’t happening anymore. It’s stopping right now.”
“Are you jealous brother?”
The pure blunt amusement of the question had Dave faltering, hesitating. It was too late to catch himself. Gamzee started laughing, a smile of disbelief over the paint. “Oh mirthful fucking Messiahs, you really are. You’re jealous I’m getting it on with your sprite bro instead of you.”
“Fuck you.” Dave growled, slamming the clown against the wall before shoving him off, storming down the hallway. Gamzee’s laughter echoed behind him, and Dave knew this wasn’t over. He was here first and there’s no way some doomed timeline version of himself was just going to weasel his way in and take what was his away from him.
The clown had his back to him when he entered the lab. Perfect. Stealthily, the Knight made his way up to his target, moving quickly to get this over with and to stop himself from quitting while he was ahead. He wanted to feel the claws at his shirt, wanted to feel the paint smearing onto each of their skins as they moved, he wanted to feel all of it. Davesprite could, why couldn’t he?
Before he could reach Gamzee he spun, tackling the human to the cold floor and pinned him down with ease. “You again? I thought it was the sprite bro. Damn shame.”
“And what the fuck is so wrong with me? He’s a copy, I’m the original.”
“You’re both mine.” He says, watching Dave as he struggled under the grip. “You’ve been mine for so fucking long and you didn’t even know it. Well the sprite bro’s mine too. And maybe I like copies for toys better than the original.” With that he obnoxiously papped the side of Dave’s cheek, got to his feet, and left the room.
Dave sighed and sat up, starting when he heard a delighted bird whistle echoing from the hallway, followed by Gamzee’s soft and mocking laughter. This didn’t make things any less awkward for anybody.