Beware the AJ

Part Seven

Dave groaned, his face smushed into the wall of Karkat's gut from the unexpected lurch.

"Ugh.. Gross. Stomach slime.."

He sighed, sitting up and wiping the goo off of his face. He grimaced, biting his bottom lip. That whole conversation hadn't exactly gone well.. Dave sighed, shaking his head. He could never figure out the right things to say to Karkat.

'Dammit. This is much harder than I expected..'

Trying to romance a troll from the position he was in at the moment probably wasn't the best idea either, but no one called Dave 'Smooth Strider', so that could have attributed to the issue. Him and Karkat had been quadrant flipping for the past couple months, as Dave had been trying to pluck up the courage to admit something, anything, to Karkat. But being the awkward dork he was, he had no idea how to tell him. He sighed, shaking his head.

'If I ever get out of here.. I'm finally gonna do it. I'll tell Karkat I like him.'

-                              -                               -

Karkat had actually managed to doze off a little bit. For some reason, he actually felt considerably relaxed. His body seemed to find some sort of comfort in the fact that his friend was actually safe, even if his 'friend' was a sarcastic douche half of the time, and a flirtatious piece of shit the other half. He curled in a little on himself, subconsciously gripping his arms a little tighter around his middle. Maybe some part of him liked this, in some sick way.. He'd never been this close to Dave before, physically or metaphorically. The door to the library opened, and Karkat's ears perked a little bit, causing the troll to sleepily open his eyes. It was Rose.

"Rose..?"

"Yes, it's me. Terezi and Vriska just took off to find Jade.."

She walked across the room, her orange god-tier pajamas making a soft swishing sound as she pulled a book off of a shelf, and moved to sit down next to him. Karkat carefully propped himself up on his elbows and sat up slowly, his arms still loosely draped over his middle. He slipped one of the ear pieces of the stethoscope on and pressed the disk lightly to his abdomen.

"What's that?"

"It's a book of Troll culture and anatomy. I'm thinking there could be a way to extract Dave safely before Jade gets back. I thought I read something about this in here- ah. Here it is."

She pointed one black nail polished finger to a passage titled in alternian.

""Troll Marital Customs"..?"

"Yes, that's right."

Rose nodded, and started to read aloud. Dave and Karkat both listened intently.

"It was customary, before the ruling of Her Imperial Condescension for trolls who had just become parents to ingest their grubs shortly after birth-"

"Wait, what?!"

"Be quiet and let me read."

She gazed at him, raising an eyebrow analytically.

"Did you honestly not know this? Kanaya originally told me
about it."

"No I-"

"Good. Then this will be both educational and advantageous to our situation."

She resumed reading, despite Karkat's slightly disgusted expression.

"Where was I.. Ah yes. "While many of the trolls spent weeks or months at war on other planets, the only safe place to keep their young was within them. The grubs could be stored within a preliminary sack, safe from digestive fluids and other bodily harm.."

Dave gagged in an over exaggerated manner.

"Gross. I'm inside a grub womb."

Karkat rolled his eyes, and decided not to relay that bit of dialogue to Rose.

"At the age of half a sweep, the grubs could be safely regurgitated. At this point, the grub would have lost its external leg casings, resulting in the bony outer growths of leg slits to form. This custom was outdated at the time of the new ruling, lussi taking over the matronal duties of the parent trolls."

Karkat blinked.

"So.. In some way.. My body recognized that Dave was alive and.. Kept him safe..?"

"Well yes, that's the basic gist of it."

Karkat paused, feeling Dave shift slightly, but remained silent.

"It's a good thing too."

Rose's eyes roved over the page, skimming the information written there.

"It says that a... strong emotional connection is required for something like this to happen. In most other cases, the grub, or in our case Dave, would be stewing in stomach acid right about now."

"ROSE!"

Karkat yelped, covering his ears with his hands.

"Don't say that!! This is sickening enough as it is!"

"What? It's the truth.."

She shrugged, a small secretive smile slightly curving her lips upward. She hadn't mentioned that the 'strong emotional' connection she was referring to didn't mean just friendship.. No, if something like this had happened, and Dave was safely residing in Karkat's body, it would have to mean that the troll felt something a little more than friendship towards her brother. And she couldn't be happier.

'Kanaya owes me a drink.. I knew Karkat had a crush on him.'

Not to say that those feelings weren't reciprocated.. Dave felt the same way. She was the only person he confided these things in. How ironic. Karkat groaned despairingly, dragging a hand down his face.

"So.. Aside from all the weird troll lore I DEFINITELY could have gone without learning.. The long and short of it is that.. I could get Dave out? He'd be safe?"

"Well.. Yes, you could. But it would be incredibly uncomfortable for the both of you.."

"I doubt it could be any worse than this.."

Dave said softly, shaking his head. However.. And this was a big however.. He sort of.. Liked it in here.. Hearing all that stuff Rose had said about a 'strong emotional' bond and all made him feel safer, reclining against the soft surface of Karkat's insides. It was warm and safe, and knowing that Karkat felt so close to him made his insides flutter a little bit. It made him practically giddy, smiling in the muted light of his insides.

'God this is so strange.. But.. It's just our luck, really.'

Karkat nodded.

"I think it would be best for the both of us to just.. Get him out."

"Well then, I'll leave you two to it."

She sighed softly, and got to her feet, putting the book back on the shelf as she headed towards the door. 

"I'm going to go see if Terezi and Vriska are back yet. Have fun you two."

"Yeah.. Sure."

Karkat replied dryly, shaking his head as the door swung shut.