Afternoon Pulse

oOo

"Here." Dave's voice was huskier than usual, almost breathless, but all Karkat heard was the dull thunk of his own skull on bark as he was shoved against a tree. Before he could get his breath back to spit out a rebuke—before he could even want to do so—he was being kissed.

The throbbing at the back of his head melted immediately. So did the rest of him.

Damn it...

I can't fall. I can't fall I can't—

But he was being pulled down anyway; the arms around him, uncaring of the heat and their mingled sweat, tugged insistently downwards until Karkat found his knees buckling. He all but tumbled into a laughing Dave, spluttering and flailing for curses.

"Don't", Dave said the moment Karkat showed signs of struggling against their embrace. "I know it's hot but don't."

It's not the heat... Goddamn it...

Foreheads pressed together and their breaths grazing their red faces, Karkat gazed at the human boy's chest with heavy, half-lidded eyes. They'd put their shirts back on before stepping outside, having learned the hard way that dream bubbles could never be made completely private; every single inch of Dave's shirt dripped with sweat now under the memory of his Texan sun, the fabric clinging to his skin like a lover. Karkat allowed himself one covert but fascinated glance at those nipples, which stood out perkily against the white shirt, before closing his eyes as though afraid that Dave would know.

It's not the sun I'm being burned by...

"Karkat."

It's you.

"Karkat." His name was carried on a warm, raspy breath, and swirled against his ear with such intensity that, in spite of the heat, he had to fight down a shiver. It's you. This time there was no mistaking what would follow.

It's you, he thought, raising his shaky hands to either side of Dave's face, slipping his fingers into the fine blond hair that had been set alight by the sun. You... Dave with his blazing red eyes and stupid silky hair and ghost-white face and coolkid shades... shades that currently rested on the bridge of Karkat's nose as he leaned in and took the pale, firm lips for his own again.

Why did he have to tremble like this, why when they had all the time they needed and a shady tree above them? Why did his body insist on quivering with impatience when they had nothing to lose by going slow?

Why did he have to gasp so loudly, with such relief, as a long-fingered hand finally slid beneath his sweater? Why did he have to cling to Dave now? Why?

"Karkat."

There was no suppressing the shiver this time. "What?" he choked against a bony shoulder.

"Take them off", Dave breathed into Karkat's hair.

He couldn't do this any more. He couldn't think. "Take what off..?"

In one fluid motion, he was pressed flat against the tree again; the heat was on his neck, swirling wetly below his earlobe, humming with satisfaction when a whimper ripped itself from Karkat's throat against his will. "I was going to say the shades", Dave mumbled between nips and kisses, "but fuck it. Take everything off."

The few parts of the troll's face that hadn't fully reddened now joined the rest. "Wha—"

But now there were two hands on his skin, roaming leisurely in meaningless patterns over his stomach and chest. The sweaty turtleneck had already risen up, exposing several inches of his torso to Dave's bare eyes; too unsteady to object, Karkat clenched his eyes shut and nodded.

It's hot, anyway.

The rush of air on his sweat-slick skin, though warm, felt deliriously fresh as he allowed the hands to hoist his sweater over his head and toss it away, yanking the shades with them as they went. Biting back a hiss of satisfaction, some part of mind registered that he was no longer being touched... When he opened his eyes to give Dave an inquiring look, his heart thudded to a halt, then picked up at double pace.

Shirtless and gleaming in the sunshine, Dave winked. "Welcome to Coolkidsville. Population: us."

Fuck.

"You're way more of a dork than I'll ever be", Karkat tried to say as the taller boy leaned in close, but those hands—those goddamned hands—were circling his wrists now, pinning them above his head, and his voice had absconded. The bark was rough against his hands as he stared numbly into the fiery eyes.

"Karkat."

"Shut up", he didn't say. He couldn't. His lips had been captured again. Above and below the texture of Dave's tongue in his mouth, he felt a hand leave his wrists and reappear lower on his body seconds later; it stroked the length of his torso once, twice, thrice, and then almost absent-mindedly wandered south.

"Karkat", Dave was whispering. Karkat twitched convulsively. Down below, separated from the slender, nimble fingers by his pants, his bulge did the same.

You said to take everything off, didn't you...

He did not need to say it; already the button had been undone. He barely had to think to lift his hips as his pants were tugged down to his ankles, then flung away.

You said.

Karkat tried not to think. He shut his eyes tight again and fought the impulse to reach for his sweater.

"Karkat..."

But Dave was still there and so was the remaining hand that held his wrists in place. He felt lips brush his eyelids in a motion that was at once soft and urgent; forcing his eyes open, he was met with a small smile. "No point being shy."

"I'm not being—!" His words fell over one another.

The second hand released his wrists altogether and now he was in bare, lean arms, the lips back at his ear. "Don't be shy. No point being shy. We're done this before."

A single finger began to trail up the inside of his thigh and he gasped.

"You gonna let me in?"

The voice said It's not like I care. The thumping chest pressed against his own said Please.

Why do you sound so afraid... Like I'd say no now... Like I could ever say no...

We fought the green sun, and now I've been captured by a red one.

"Yeah", he whispered, as the finger reached its destination; he slumped against the crook of Dave's neck, allowing the touch to become an entire fire-skinned hand that gently began easing his legs apart.

And at some point the human boy's pants had come off and Karkat could feel it now, feel the soft, afternoon-kissed dusting of hair on the pale thighs that sat between his own. Feel the trembling of his lover's body resonating with the mad, mad thumping of his heart, feel the hardness of the strange human bulge throbbing softly against his own groin.

Dave.

"Dave", he murmured without thinking, his eyes still half-shut, tasting the name on his tongue with a meditative yearning. The arms around him tightened. "Sup, buddy?"

We're fucking outdoors under a tree in what you'd call broad daylight and you ask me what's up. "You tell me", Karkat said wryly. He hoped it was wry, at least; he could barely hear his voice over the heartbeat in his ears and their short, ragged breaths.

"Well, I'd tell you that showing makes a better case for itself", Dave panted, and Karkat sensed his whole body twitch as that pulsing hardness began to slide, first against, then into him.

He wanted to swear as he clung to the blond's shaking torso, red flowers blooming and exploding and wilting over the darkness of his eyelids in time to the bulge inside. He wanted to curse, to give in to his initial reflex and struggle, to spit out anything vile that he could think of... But he was no longer capable of thinking. The gentle prickling grass and the bite of the tree bark on his back, the pulsating length of muscle buried deep in his nook, the heart and head that spun with his own; they had all become the same thing. They were all Dave, and the only word that crossed his lips, over and over, was Dave's name.

"Karkat—"

"Move!" Karkat gasped helplessly.

And Dave moved. The troll was pressed into the tree once more as the hips he was straddling moved away, then slammed forward again; again and again he was speared, the world fraying and reforming and dissolving with each wild thrust, his own bulge keening with delight and need and desperation and he knew not what because he knew nothing any more save the bucking of Dave's hips, and the arms around him, and the faint moan of his name floating around them with the liquid heat of the sun.

Was he moaning too? Was he begging for the boy to move even faster, crying out as his order was obeyed with something akin to ferocity? Karkat could not know; his senses had ceased to exist and yet, at the same time, took over everything else within this universe and without.

He was only sure of Dave now.

Dave with his hair like a fiery phoenix and white-hot skin, Dave who shone brighter and hotter than any sun in any universe, Dave and his infinitely red eyes that he hid behind his shades—not to save his eyes from the sun, a thought flew up in Karkat's fragmented mind like ash from a hearth, but to save the sun from his gaze. Dave and the way he moved, the way he burned, the way he pulled Karkat into the dancing red flames of his love and searing emotion until the world was burning

The world was red

Red, laughing leaping tongues of red and the raspy heat of Dave's breath in his ear, gasping Karkat, Karkat I can't—I can't keep—

"Dave—"

I'm burning

It was no use. He had nothing left to fight it with. His limbs tensed and spasmed once, twice, thrice; the red fire within him seemed to spurt out all at once, pooling in the crooks of his splayed body as his mind began drifting, feather-like, into descent.

High above him, a last strangled moan wafted down; a heartbeat rode out of rhythm and a molten haze burst inside him, wringing out a hoarse cry from Karkat's unsuspecting throat. He had gained enough control over his lips to keep from whimpering as Dave collapsed against him and the softening muscle slid out of its own accord.

The prospect of staying like that, surrounded by a feeble yet vehement embrace and panting, almost laughing breaths, sticky with their cum and the sweat that they had multiplied tenfold, seemed overwhelmingly attractive; so much so that when Dave made to shift around a little, Karkat found himself mewling in protest, too far gone to feel embarrassed. Too far gone to feel anything but clingy and desperately needy.

I'm hopeless. We're hopeless. I'm being burned by the sun.

"Dude, I just wanna get us cleaned up." Dave's voice was heavy with exhaustion, but an undercurrent of laughter rippled underneath his words nonetheless. It seemed to fade away as the boy added, "But look at you."

Karkat forced his eyes open with some effort and was greeted by a face that, despite its flush of exertion and tear stains, was uncharacteristically serious. "What?" he asked numbly.

Dave held the young troll's bleary, uncomprehending gaze for another moment before looking away. "I've made a mess of you."

What else could you have done? You burned me.

"You're far from dapper yourself at the moment, pajama boy", Karkat growled tetchily.

"Stupid..." His eyes worked faster than his foggy mind, fluttering shut the moment he felt the brush of lips against his still open mouth, even as his questions raged away. "I mean I like it. You look lovely when you're a mess."

Ignoring the flare of color in his cheeks, Karkat mumbled against Dave's neck, "You say shit like that but apparently I'm the stupid one?"

"Yeah", Dave whispered in a reddened ear. "You're the stupid one. I'm the dork. Welcome to Coolkidsville, Karkat."

"Nobody in Coolkidsville is cool at all", Karkat muttered. The giggle rising in his throat both horrified and delighted him. "They just wear stupid shades and think they're the shit because people can't look into their eyes. I want out."

They burn me inside and out and the world is red.

A thumb ghosted over each of his eyelids, seeking entrance; he looked into Dave's face again and was relieved to see a smile there. "You can see me though, can't you?"

"Yeah", Karkat said quietly. "I can."

"Am I cool?"

You are a raging fire. You are sunrise and noonshine and sunset. Karkat felt his own smile peer out, and was glad.

"You are."

We can watch the sunset too, he thought before succumbing to Dave's lips again in the whirling firestorm that he would never tire of, ever. We can burn together under the Earth's sky and meld together in the darkness of the night. Then we can watch the sun come up again.

He was ready to spend forever like this, melting, catching fire, watching the colors of the world spin around the sun—the sun in my arms? The sun in the sky?—coming back, always, to a never-ending red.

oOo

Um. u_u; It's been a while since I tried to write sexytimes and I'm not sure how well this has turned out, so... I'd love a review or something telling me if there's anything I've messed up~ :*