[No pushing and Dave is saying—much kinder things than Karkat deserves, fuck, does he actually think it's that simple? Is this confusion over moirallegiance, Dave being fucking stupid, or some misconception he has about Karkat in general? It's probably all of the above; there's no fucking way he'd be saying any of that if he knew the full picture.

Karkat shudders and burrows closer, fully exploiting the space offered and nuzzling determinedly back because eve ry thing is fuck ing fine, he's perfectly calm and not breathing too fast and definitely not still clinging to Dave like a lifeline. Give him a minute and maybe all of that will even be true.]

What fucking standards? I know I'm not—that I don't have to be perfect for you.

[He's sullen but no longer panicked, not that he had been or ever will be panicked. What the fuck is wrong with him? Dave's already let it go, so it's fine.]

I mean, perfectly well-adjusted and, and fucking rational, because that oceanic exploration vessel has fucking sailed. I just, I should be better at knowing when you... knowing you. And not fucking up whenever I open my mouth.

[Like now, for instance. As usual.

He takes a deep breath, holds, releases.]

And I'm—I'm shit about telling you things and knowing when to back off and I still don't understand how your fucking human relationships work. You're the one who's new to moirallegiance, but you—you're adapting better than I am. Fuck, I've already said half of that shit before, haven't I? This is stupid.

[And a point to Dave because yeah, it's going to keep coming up until he deals with it.]