Unspoken Attraction (Dave/Karkat)

Dave stepped beside Karkat so that he was blocking most of the troll's view of his half-naked brother. Not that he was doing this very efficiently considering how difficult it is to conceal someone taller than yourself with only your body as a censor. Maybe he was just being a tiny bit over possessive of Karkat. Or maybe he was simply trying to keep the walking, talking, sex-on-a-stick from etching into the troll's retinas. "Yeah, we're heading out just now," he stated with an underlying tone of warning.

"Alright. Have fun." Bro replied with a little smirk. "Won't be be here when you get back." He turned as if he was gonna hunt for something to wear, before turning quickly back to them, but slow enough so it looked like he was hesitating. "Ah, Karkat, why don't you give me a hug since I won't see you until tomorrow, unless you guys are up when I get home, which I doubt."

Karkat nodded obediently, moving to step around Dave and hugging the elder strider carefully so he didn't smudge his make up.

Bro wrapped an arm around him, holding his towel on with the other.

Dave simply stood there and waited where he was, trying not to get riled up by his Bro putting the moves on his crush. He warned you, Bro. Couldn't you tell by his subtle, yet not so subtle undertone? No, he could tell. Dave knew Bro knew and Bro knew he knew that Bro knew. That knowing bastard. He was ten years old again with his older brother sticking his tongue at him and walking off with the last pizza slice in the house. Not that Karkat was like a pizza slice, but fucking Christ, if it wasn't hard to come up with a proper analogy when his mind was fuming. Now he understood why Karkat was such a terrible conversationalist online; he must feel as angry as Dave was feeling right now every time the troll fired up that laptop of his and started spewing bitchy garbage left and right.

Bro smirked, just so Karkat couldn't see, but Dave could. "How about a kiss for the road, little man?" he asked, somehow managing not to sound smug.

Karkat made a little face, but tilted his head up with his lips puckered and his eyes squeezed shut.

Bro leaned down, flashing Dave his smuggest smirk yet, before pressing a chaste little kiss to Karkat's lips. He straightened slowly, almost like he was hesitant to let Karkat go, but released him none the less.

Karkat turned and walked to the front door, opening it and giving Bro a small wave while looking to Dave expectantly.

Dave hadn't realized that he had stopped breathing until Karkat was relinquished from Bro's grasp and he was silently sucking cold air back into his oxygen deprived lungs. His eyes never left Bro's and he knew that was a mistake. He had to act impassive, like it was no big deal. Whatever. It was just a little kiss, like kissing a relative on the cheek because you were told to and didn't want to get an earful from your folks about not just bucking up and doing it. Big bro just stole a kiss (a miniscule, relative kiss) from a troll whom Dave was freaky enough to have a crush on. It gets even weirder considering that his brother was kissing someone around Dave's age which is a Hell of a lot younger than Bro is. It's all irony. Creepy. As. Fuck. Irony. Like rubbing smuppet butts in his face or keeping candid cameras in said smuppets.

Dave finally pulled his blank stare away from Bro and stepped through the door Karkat was holding open for him. No one would have been able to tell what that expression he had on truly was as it seemed so inhumanly calm on the surface. Except for Bro.

Karkat hopped down the stairs with a happy little chirp, waiting for Dave at the bottom. Once Dave was down there Karkat paused, biting his bottom lip gently with sharp teeth before signing out his request. 'when I go out with John or Mr. E they let me hold their hand. I don't like being out around people much because I can't talk or answer them. Is it okay if I do that?'

He looked up at Dave over the top of his shades nervously.

"May you what?" Dave asked plainly, not catching most of what the troll signed other than 'Dad', 'John', 'May I' and a few others that got chopped up in there that didn't make much sense no matter how he put them together. Karkat looked so shy about what he was asking, Dave just wished he knew what that request was.

Karkat blushed dark enough for it to show up under the make up. He signed extra slow, mostly because he was nervous about asking, but also so Dave could possibly understand him. 'Can I hold your hand while we're out today?'

Dave smiled warmly at the sight of all of that blushing Karkat was gushing and he offered his hand to the bashful troll. "I don't see why not."

Karkat returned the smile shyly and hesitantly slipped his hand into Dave's before pushing his glasses up. He kept his gaze on the ground and just let Dave lead him since he didn't have any idea where he was going anyway.

Dave squeezed Karkat's hand lightly before guiding them down the rest of the stairs and around the bottom of the apartment complex then onto the sidewalk. It was at about this hour that he was grateful to have shades on since the sun was setting at that angle where it's eye level. It's like it's giving one more shot at blinding everyone before it sinks back down and terrorizes someone else's country with its out of whack brightness.

After a twenty minute walk, they were finally in the parking lot of the movie theater and Dave lead Karkat into a small line that had formed at the front of the ticket booth.

Karkat fumbled with his pocket with his free hand to pull out his wallet, which he handed to Dave with a soft noise. Most people didn't know ASL so he was pretty much depending on Dave to talk for him.

Dave nudged the wallet away, producing his own from his back pocket and flashing it in front of Karkat as they got closer to the ticket booth. "Nah, don't worry about it little dude. I've got it, see?" Once they were at the front of the line, he told the movie theater employee which movie they were going to see and paid for the accommodating tickets before slipping his wallet back in his pocket.

Karkat pressed his wallet to Dave a little more insistently with a frown and pointed towards the candy counter. He wasn't going to let Dave pay for everything, it wouldn't be fair. Even John let him take turns paying for the tickets.

Dave brought them over to the candy counter and nodded towards the glass case covering the vibrantly colored boxes and wrappers of sweets, "Well, it's your money, so, you know, pick out whatever you want."

Karkat skimmed over the choices until he spotted what he wanted. He pointed them out to Dave eagerly, smiling and wondering if Dave might like something as well, but he was interrupted by the employee behind the counter before he could ask.

"Is he too good to talk to us or something?" The young man sneered. He was obviously a high schooler, sixteen or so and a jock by the look of it.

Karkat visibly cringed at the accusation, the hand pointing the candy out to Dave, retreating back to his side as the Jock eyed their linked hands.

"He's mute," Dave explained, finding some satisfaction in making someone else feel awkward for teasing the handicapped without knowing it. He pointed at the candy Karkat had been a moment ago, stating, "We'll take that and a Good n Plenty."

The boy flushed in embarrassment and rushed to comply, nearly tripping over himself in the process.

Karkat tugged Dave's hand gently and used his free hand to sign water to the best of his abilities before handing Dave his wallet.

"Oh, and something to drink," Dave added, nodding over at the different flavors that held a soda brand name over each tap for Karkat to pick.

Karkat freed his hand a minute so he could correctly sign water for Dave. He didn't care much for soda anyway, plus having a free hand opened him up to ask Dave a question. 'Do you want anything else?'

"Just a water then," Dave told the employee, turning back to Karkat and signing, 'No thanks. Did you?' Just to make sure that there wasn't anything missing in the troll's need to satiate his sweet tooth.

Karkat shook his head, slipping his hand back into Dave's. He watched the boy hustle around to get their order done, probably hoping that they wouldn't tell his boss how rude he was.

Dave opened up Karkat's wallet and handed the money to the employee after he was finished setting their candy on the counter as well as an ice cold water bottle. He took the change afterwards and slipped it into Karkat's wallet before handing it back to the troll incognito.

Karkat slipped the wallet back into his pocket and took his share of the candy to slip into his jacket pockets. He kept the water bottle in his free hand, looking to Dave so they could go to the right theater. He even started to wonder If Dave would mind him leaning on him during the movie.

Dave took the black licorice box and held it in his free hand since it was a little too big to fit in his pocket before leading them towards the correct theater. "Thanks by the way," He smiled, gently shaking the Good n Plenties at Karkat. He'd have to keep in mind for them to drop by the minimart at the gas station before they did this again so that they could buy much more reasonably priced candy next time.