Dave dragged several crab shaped helium balloons behind him, wringing his wrists and swirling the ribbon they were tied to around his wrist. Today was Karkat's wriggling day, and the whole gang had decided to throw him a party. If Dave was going to go, he'd need a reason, so he figured balloons would do.

 As soon as he made it to Karkat's hive he gathered with the rest of the people who were about to enter. One troll with messy black hair and strange long horns stepped up to the front door of Karkat's hive. He banged on the door lazily and Dave wasn't sure Karkat would hear it, but was soon proven wrong when the entire street could hear him stomping towards the front door.

 Karkat swung the door open aggressively, his angry glare soon turning to a slightly softer smile - you'd barely notice it unless you were inches from his face - when he saw the troll in front of him.

"HaPpY mOtHeRfUcKiNg WrIgGlInG dAy."

 After troll after troll passed through the door, Dave handed Karkat the crab balloons and went to go inside. He did so after everyone else had walked in to keep his cool kid act. Karkat spun on his heels.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

"I bought you crab balloons because your always crabby."

"SERIOUSLY STRIDER?"

 Karkat's facial expression was a mixture of frustration and confusion, staring at the balloons as if they were some kind of alien invention which Dave supposed they were.

"It suits you."

 Karkat gave Dave a death stare, letting go of the balloons and letting them hit the roof. They didn't pop, but rather stayed up there, much to his dismay. 

"FUCKASS."

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 At least an hour had passed of doing random things, including playing a game called: 'staying away from any fragile object or Karkat will literally throw you out of a window.' You can probably guess who the first to break the game rules was.

 The group gathered in Karkat's living room. Nepeta (One of the trolls he had met during this weird troll birthday party) had decided to play spin the bottle. After all the talk of shipping she had been doing, Dave wasn't surprised. Dave wasn't about to tarnish his Strider pride, so there really wasn't any other option.

 He sat between two other trolls. A troll girl with a black shirt, a blue Scorpio symbol on the front of it sat to his left and Equius sat to his right. This seemed pretty safe. First to spin the bottle was the troll girl beside him, whose name he had just learnt from Equius. Vriska spun the bottle quickly, so much so it moved at a pretty incredible speed before landing on a troll across the circle from her.

 The troll had large bull like horns, and sat in a wheelchair. A brown Taurus symbol was only just visible on his shirt. Soon a shade of bronze very similar to the one on his shirt was dusting his cheeks as Vriska stood and walked over to the troll.

 Dave soon noticed that one troll looked uncomfortable with what was happening. Gamzee. He looked away in an effort to avoid seeing Vriska kissing this troll. His face displayed envy as he avoided the glance of anyone else in the circle.

 Soon enough, Vriska sat beside him again, passing him the bottle, a determined look that was stopping him from backing out in her eyes.

 Dave spun the bottle. He yawned while he waited for it to stop spinning, not afraid of the consequences. Until it landed on Karkat. Karkat sighed heavily, hoping he could get out of it but before either could object at all Nepeta was already pushing Karkat towards Dave.

Karkat crossed his legs and arms angrily. Dave smirked at the pout on Karkat's face. Karkat seemed to avoid Dave's eyes completely until he began to grow impatient.

"ARE YOU GOING TO KISS ME OR-"

Dave pecked Karkat on the cheek. Karkat's face flushed red at the sudden feeling of Dave's lips against his cheek.

Nepeta squealed and scribbled into a book she had in front of her. She dubbed it the 'portable shipping wall.'

Dave slid the bottle over to Equius.

"Your turn Mr strong."

Karkat was still flustered. He blinked slowly, still processing what just happened. He attempted to hide his flushed cheeks with his sweater.  
       
The game went on for at least half an hour. After the game was finished everyone but Dave had left. He decided he would stay to spend more time with Karkat. But also just to piss him off.

Karkat glared at Dave.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?"

"Because I can be."

Karkat opened his mouth to object, but decided not to. He would never say it, but he wanted Dave to stay.

He decided to sit beside Dave, who had made himself at home on Karkat's sofa. Dave looked up from his phone, looking over at Karkat. Karkat ignored him and continued to stare at the TV.

Every minute or so, Karkat would inch closer to Dave while he was distracted. His main goal was to get close enough to annoy him. Or was it for another reason?

Hours passed by and eventually the darkness from outside lured Karkat to sleep. As soon as his eyes closed his body began to fall sideways.

Dave jumped as his phone was knocked out of his hand and a sleeping Karkat found its way into Dave's lap. Dave's expression changed from his usual stoic one to more of a soft and caring one.

Karkat snuggled into Dave's stomach. Dave poked him a few times just to make sure he was asleep. He didn't stir at all. Dave wrapped his arms affectionately around the sleeping troll in his arms.

Until eventually Dave fell asleep too.

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A/N

I was supposed to post this for Karkat's birthday, but lazy author is lazy 😂
So happy late birthday Karkat!

Until next chapter!