#it's a davekat au about the world of btd ending btw

[thegempage]

i went into this evening intending to write more beyond the divide (linked bcus i do still like it, pls go read my fic) but instead my brain started thinking about an incredibly sad btd au that i'll finish one day. so have some previews of that

and like. it's an apocalypse story and it is sad. this is not a story with a happy ending, so fair warning that that's the vibe of these pieces (but i'm gonna stay away from the worst ones)

He has told four people the world is ending.

Part of him feels guilty for not telling more people, but with one-hundred and sixty-three days left before it all crashes down, it’d only cause more issues than it’d solve. Staring at the ceiling, Dave somehow still regrets telling the four other people he did.

(But he couldn’t not tell his mom, she’d been worried sick about Rose, and after two weeks of seeing her cry and fret he couldn’t hold back anymore that she was probably never coming home, because she’d done something and now the whole world was on a timer.)

(And he couldn’t keep it from Roxy or Dirk because they’d come down to see him after their mom had called them and asked if they’d heard from Rose and how could he explain why their mother hadn’t come out of her room in three days except with the truth?)

(And Jade he regretted the most, but she’s his friend -- was Rose’s friend -- and she didn’t deserve any more lies than Rose had already given them.)

(He doesn’t have the heart to tell June. He hasn’t asked if Jade has or will. He tells her every time she asks that Rose is off on her own and she must’ve broken her phone or something and the lie won’t hold forever but maybe it’ll hold for another one-hundred and sixty-three days. Or maybe one-hundred and sixty-two, so he can make sure to tell her goodbye.)

-

(He has accepted the dual truths that he is in love with Karkat and will likely never be able to indulge in what that would’ve meant, but that doesn’t make him ache any less, doesn’t rid him of the constant need to be close.)

Karkat looks startled for a moment but he settles against Dave’s shoulder with a grateful sigh. “It’s not actually that exciting,” he confesses, and Dave can’t tell if it’s his imagination or if Karkat is staring at his hand. “Mostly it’s just… a day you take off together. You’re supposed to spoil your partner on their birthday, you know? Get them food they like or help them cook or watch something they like or… whatever normal intimate shit you don’t always have time for. My dads like to spend the whole day sightseeing since it’s hard to find the time otherwise.”

There is a possibility that the question he wants to ask will backfire. Dave is too used to having Karkat around, now, the idea of losing him, of spending the rest of the world alone again, tears his stomach to pieces, but it doesn’t even bother coming out as a question with how hot it burns on his tongue. “I could, I dunno, do that for you.”

-

sup june

by this point we've either sent out our last texts to you or you haven't heard from us in a few days, but im not sure which. this is a gift, an explanation, and a goodbye, because rose wouldve gotten a kick out of the amount of efficiency i crammed into this thing.

our world is ending.

like full-on, universe-destroying, doomed-timeline ending. rose made a mistake but none of us got to her in time to help fix it nor can we leave this world without just dying anyway so its curtain calls for us. i wish youd gotten to see it honestly, its pretty dope, and we wanted to invite you for your birthday but. nothing to do about it now huh. so im sending this

-

sup june

by this point we've either sent out our last texts to you or you haven't heard from us in a few days, but im not sure which. this is a gift, an explanation, and a goodbye, because rose wouldve gotten a kick out of the amount of efficiency i crammed into this thing.

our world is ending.

like full-on, universe-destroying, doomed-timeline ending. rose made a mistake but none of us got to her in time to help fix it nor can we leave this world without just dying anyway so its curtain calls for us. i wish youd gotten to see it honestly, its pretty dope, and we wanted to invite you for your birthday but. nothing to do about it now huh. so im sending this

-

Dave does not cry thinking about his family. He can’t, he has nothing left to give that he won’t need for tomorrow, for giving Karkat the best he can manage at the end of the world. He is haunted by the realization, the slow, creeping realization, that he is the last one left.

It doesn't feel as shocking as it should. It's not hard to be the most careful in a family of risk takers.

-

and that's it jfkldsafds this au does in fact make me want to cry so <3 hopefully one day i'll finish it and inflict it on everyone