Karkat mentioned his crab watch in their earlier conversation and that got Dave thinking.

After the game Dave was furious that Karkat had mysteriously not made. His emotions got the best of him and made him reckless and the recklessness made him rip off the communicator watch he had made and throw it to the ground. Repeatedly. It was broken ever since. Now Karkat had mentioned that his never worked but maybe, just maybe, it was just that Dave's own communicator wasn't working properly so obviously he never received Karkat's messages. If he could find and fix his communicator then he could finally receive Karkat's messages. Sure they might not be useful now but in all honesty, Dave was curious as to exactly what Karkat was trying to communicate. That wasn't the only reason why he was doing this though, maybe having both their communicators working will give Dave more confidence in leaving Karkat alone, that way they could be in constant reach of one another and nothing could happen. The only problem here was that A) Dave had no idea if Karkat still had the damn crab communicator and B) Dave had next to no idea if he had his own communicator. He had an idea though.

"Karkat," Dave knocked on the door once before it swung open. It had only been a couple of days since Karkat decided to open up a bit but ever since then he's seemed a bit more at ease. At least he didn't answer his door with his weapon in hand. "Listen man, I need to ask you something really quick." Karkat nodded and stepped aside to let Dave in. "The other day you said that your crab watch didn't work right? Well I was thinking, it probably wasn't yours that wasn't working it was mine!" The troll raised an eyebrow and was about to speak when Dave cut him off. "To make an incredibly long and unnecessarily boring story short, I may have of broken it and shit but that's cool. I think I know where it is! Now I just need to know if you have your watch. You do still have it right?" Dave was clinging onto the shred of hope that Karkat kept the contraption even if it was completely useless to him. Maybe he kept it out of spite? Who knows as long as he kept it.

"Of course I kept it." Dave cracked a smile. "I still don't know why I need it though. Or why either of us need it."

"Because the ass and crab watches are something great for the both of us to use to be in constant communication. I was planning on buying you like, the latest smartphone or some shit but I feel like these will be better for us. For now at least. They're just to hold you off until you're more accustomed to life at me Earth." The troll shrugged and went to kneel down besides Dave's bed, crawling underneath and moving the junk away to find his crab communicator. A moment or two of scouring through the mess and Karkat pulled out the small purple crab. Dave's heart leapt with joy when he saw the small contraption. God it's been ages since he saw it and it brought back happy memories of dumb make believe scenarios of secret agents and Rose putting in little effort to be the villain along with late night conversations about personal topics. Fuck he missed that.

"Okay, I have it. Now where's your?" Dave simply shrugged and grabbed Karkat's hand, gently of course. He didn't want to accidentally press on a bruise he might have there or something.

"That's the fun part of this whole thing. It might be in storage."

"What do you mean 'might be'?"

"I mean I packed away all my old shit and gave it to Rose. I'm pretty sure she put all that stuff in storage along with everything else everyone didn't want but then again I have no fucking clue. Here comes the fun part, you and I get to dig around through the boxes and look. Plus you get to be out and about in the world." Hesitation was clear on Karkat's face. In all his time here he didn't actually think about going outside. What if he was to snap again? An innocent troll, human, or carapacian could get hurt. Karkat didn't want that.

On the other hand, this could be good. Like he kept trying to remind himself; he had to get used to living life as normally as possible. And if he wanted to do that he'd have to go out into the world and explore. This task didn't seem that difficult anyway, just go out to the storage block, dig through some boxes and that was it. Plus he would have Dave with him the entire time. This would be a piece of cake.

~

Karkat forgot how bright the sun was when you weren't inside. Yes he was supposed to be practically used to the sunlight since he did often stay up all day to keep watch over Her Imperial Radiance, but for one reason or another the sun here on Earth was brighter than the sun he was used to. Dave, being the overly prepared helicopter parent, pulled out a pair of dollar store sunglasses for the troll since he had a distinct memory of Karkat mentioning how sensitive trolls were to the sun. That and Kanaya pointed out that if Karkat had been flung back into an all troll society them Karkat would of course be back to his previous nocturnal behavior. Karkat however rejected the shades, stating that he was tough. He could survive some sunlight and eventually he would get used to it.

Oh. Okay. Dave defeatedly slipped the shades back into his jacket pocket and continued the rest of the walk in near silence. However, every so often Karkat would tug on the human's arm and ask what was what, which was understandable. Things that seemed like basic everyday things such as cars, planes, and day cares (which Dave described as a giant room where babies are stored for hours) were probably alien to Karkat. Dave had to admit, it was nice seeing Karkat like this. Curious at every new thing he saw. It almost seemed as if he had managed to officially destroy that shell he had been hiding in from the second he arrived here, but Dave knew better. Once they were back home in the small apartment then Karkat would most likely scurry back into the room and do whatever it is he did. Oh well. Dave would just have to enjoy the few minutes he had while Karkat seemed like his old self.

~

"All my boxes should be labeled Dave. Only look through those," Dave said as he pulled open the giant storage room door, "but if you happen to find a couple with your name on 'em you're more than welcome to dig out whatever you'd like and take it home with us. Cool?" The troll nodded and obediently began poking around and looking for boxes labeled with Dave's name.

It didn't take that long to find the boxes and open the up. They were one of the few ones stacked on top of the endless rows of boxes. Karkat sat down behind a stack of boxes as he tore open the tape and dug through its contents. It didn't have much, just Dave's old godtier outfit and his now useless iShades along with other junk he constantly kept with him in his sylladex during his time in the game. Everything in that box was completely useless and Karkat knew that. Even so, once Karkat saw that red god garb he tensed slightly. Whenever he did have those nightmarish dreams Dave was always wearing that stupid Knight outfit. Karkat hated the fact that he couldn't even see what once was supposed to be a little safe haven for him without thinking the same things he's tried to push out of his mind for a long time now; "Get out. Leave. Dave is a threat to you. He doesn't want you here, every time you go to sleep you're giving him an opportunity to strike. Kill him before he kills you." Now that Karkat had this hellish piece of clothing in his very own hands it didn't make him feel too much safer.

"Dave isn't like that," Karkat thought to himself, glaring down at the red fabric, "he hates these kinds of things. He hated this outfit. He hated killing and fighting."

"But if he hated that then why would he always cackle once he spilt your precious blood all over the floor?" No. No not here. Not now. Not again. Karkat tried so hard to not look up but it was like an invisible hand tilted his chin up and made him stare into the lifeless eyes of his deceased moirail. "If does not enjoy killing or any sort of violent activity why did you always picture him doing such things to you? Why did you always picture him slicing open your chest and slashing you to bits just for fun?" Fuck. Fuck no, this wasn't real. Karkat shook his head.

Suddenly, it felt like the walls were getting closer. He felt surrounded by these boxes, his chest felt tight and couldn't breathe properly. Dave was in here, in here with Karkat in this tiny tiny tiny room. Fuck, Karkat needed to get out. Karkat needed to run away. He couldn't stay here with Dave. Dave was a threat. Dave loved to hurt him for sport. He was probably just. Keeping him alive and tending to his every need so Karkat could trust him. Yeah. That was it. That disgusting human was using him, he was tricking him. Karkat needed to leave, to run away as far as possible. Karkat needed to--

"You need to kill him." The troll looked up at his dead moirail. The ghostly image of the blue blood looked serious, dark even. "Get rid of the threat before it does anything to harm you. You and I have trained this. Listen to your palemate, Peacekeeper. Kill the alien before he does what you always envisioned he would do to you." Yeah. Equius was right. He needed to keep himself safe, what a better way to do that then kill the bastard Strider? Karkat would kill Dave. Karkat would kill Dave. Karkat would kill--

"Found it!" Dave exclaimed excitedly as he pulled out the little sandwich bag where his old communicator was. It was broken into several different pieces and the only thing still in perfect condition was the little foam ass he insisted on planting on top of it. This was fine though, he could repair this in no time. Well maybe not Dave but he sure knew a couple of trolls that were good with technology that could repair this in a jiffy. Dave glanced over to where Karkat was sitting on the floor and frowned. The troll looked he had just seen a ghost. "Dude, you okay?" Karkat nodded stiffly and closed the box in front of himself and slid it away before standing up. He looked tense, this only worried Dave. Maybe he had seen something in that box that brought back painful memories? He was about to ask before stopping himself. This wasn't the place and it wasn't the time. Karkat would come to him later if he needed to talk, Dave just had to be patient. "All right, if you didn't find any of your boxes we'll come another time. For now let's just go home."

~

Dave was gone again. He said he just needed to drop off the demolished communicator off at Dirk's so it could be repaired. He would only be gone for at least fifteen minutes though so Karkat didn't have to worry about anything. Only Karkat was worrying. The troll was pacing back and forth in Dave's room, sickle in hand and his mind torn in half.

"Kill Dave. He is a threat. You don't know what he's capable of, he may kill you. He may have developed a blood lust while you were gone. Remember that sickening smile he had plastered on his disgusting face as he sliced you open and let your blood run free on his sword. Remember that horrible laugh and degrading words. Get rid of the threat before it hurts you. Protect yourself."

"No, don't kill Dave. That Dave you always had in mind back then was an evil concoction of those two lunatics. They wanted to throw you off. They wanted to destroy you emotionally so you could be easier to kill. This Dave is different. This Dave is your friend. He would never hurt you, he would never even dream of wanting to kill you or anyone else. This Dave is no threat to you and never will be."

Karkat snarled and clasped his hands on both sides of his head. The stupid voices, they were his voices. He was arguing with himself on something so stupid it was frustrating him. This whole thing was frustrating and angering him. He didn't know which side of his thinkpan to believe. Kill Dave and probably be wrong, causing an uproar and potentially getting himself killed. Or, not kill Dave and leave himself vulnerable and potentially get himself killed. Fuck. This was all so frustrating. Why did he have to choose Dave to stay with of all people? Why could he not have of stayed with Sollux and Equius? He should've just endured the emotional pain of seeing them everyday and just spare himself the constant worry and fear of living with the human.

"Kill Dave. Kill Dave. Kill Dave..."

"Let him live. Let him live. Let him live..."

The stupid voices in his mind wouldn't stop chanting those phrases and it was driving him crazy. He needed to make up his mind before he tore his own hair out.

He dropped his sickle on the bed and walked out into the small living room. If he killed Dave, who would take care of him? Who would want to take care of him? Everyone here would surely shun him away if he murdered Dave. He couldn't take care of himself, not here on Earth at least. Everything and everyone was so new and intimidating. He needed Dave to guide him through his new life. Besides, Dave was becoming a good friend. Or at least a friend. He was trying his best to get Karkat to be better and it meant so much to Karkat considering he didn't have much at the time.

However, if Karkat didn't kill him things could get worse for him. Every second Dave was alive was another second he may be using to plot Karkat's death. Every second Karkat was asleep Dave might be hovering over him with that knife with a crazed grin on his face. Every second Karkat wasted on not killing Dave was a second closer to Dave killing Karkat. Fuck. Karkat's head was pounding. This stupid paranoia was taking a toll on him, if he didn't do something soon things could get worse. If they got worse who knows what Karkat might do.

The troll sighed and forced himself to relax and think things through. Once he was done, only one voice was chanting it's stupid little phrase.