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When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again...
-- From 'Helter Skelter' by The Beatles
(original song) (cover)
__
The record playing in the background skips and makes a squealing scratch noise, and that gets your attention. Karkat makes fun of you sometimes for keeping the old-timey gramophone setup you’d had on the Meteor, but it serves a greater purpose than spinning vintage jams for your entertainment.
You don’t know what it is about music that jives so well with your aspect, the relentless pattern and pulse of basslines and beats sing in your blood at the same frequency as the flow of the timestream, like a voicing of that unconscious tick and tock that echoes in your bones. It was there long before the game but that was when you picked up on it, recognized it, brought it to the forefront and used it for more than laying down sick fires and mixing tracks. It still makes anxiety curl in your guts to think about what you’ve done in the name of Time, how even the smallest missteps left you cleaning up after your own corpses, but the music helps, keeps you focused, level, synchronized.
So when the record skips you know it can only mean one thing.
Motherfucking Time Shenanigans.
You sigh, shutting your laptop and turning in your desk chair to face the inevitable, crossing your arms. “I was listening to that,” you say. “You come into my present, make my White Album skip? Shame on you, dude, fucking shame on you.”
“Should have put on that shitty dubstep record, bro, then you wouldn’t even notice the difference.”
Future you’s always a smug tool. You know as well as he does it’s part of the ironic hilarity of being able to have a future self, you gotta play up the omniscience angle as hard as you can or you’d be wasting valuable opportunities. Doesn’t stop it from being annoying as fuck though.
“So you got my attention,” you say, trying to ignore that feeling you get around other iterations of you that makes your skin feel like it’s pulsing with electricity, vibrating with the sound of twin clocks ticking in tandem. The beat is steady, the time in rhythm and not out of balance, so you know he’s not a doomed Dave. Not that he would be unless you had really fucked something up, which wasn’t impossible even if three years had passed since the end of the game, but that didn’t mean it was a possibility you wanted to entertain. “Why are you here?”
“Stable time loop,” future Dave said, shrugging a shoulder as he states the really obvious. “It’s four thirteen in the afternoon, that’s when I saw you, so voila. Keeping that shit locked down tight.”
“I’d kick your ass if you didn’t," you say, and he offers you a fist, which you bump. “The question still stands.”
He grins, smug. “Shenanigans,” he says. “Shenanigans and the wildest red fantasies of one Karkat Vantas.”
Your eyebrows go up. Karkat’s gonna be home soon, he spent most of the day moirailing for Dirk (because whether he likes it or not your boyfriend seems to be entrenched in all things Strider) and you promised him dinner and a movie. Apparently Future you has other ideas.
“Which fantasies?” You ask, but more in the interest of transparency. You and Karkat have been together for years, sweeps, whatever terminology you use on any given day, and you were intimately familiar with even the most embarrassing of his kinks, as he was with yours.
He gives you a look, exasperated. “Dude,” Future Dave gestures between the two of you. “What do you think?”
You feel your lips twitch up into a smirk. “Strider times two combo?”
“Dave Double Reacharound?”
“Strider Spitroast?”
“Sweet Semi-Selfcest?”
“Vantas Sandwich?”
“Simultaneous Sensory Strider ExStravaganza?”
“We could come up with these forever couldn’t we?”
“You know it.” Future Dave’s grin could be easily described as Cheshire, and you know yours is identical. Dinner and a movie’s a classic idea for a date, naturally, but this? This is the stuff of legends. “I’d ask if you’re in, but I know you are, because I’m you from about an hour after all this went down the first time, and I still remember it.” He slides his shades off and gives you an ironic wink. “Vividly.”
“Your reliance on the inevitability of the situation would be fucking annoying if this weren’t a scenario that I’m one hundred percent down for,” you say. You keep your shades on, and he doesn’t object. “You’re in charge, Future Dave. How does this go down?”
Future Dave crosses the room to stand in front of you, tilting his head to one side in thought. “Karkat walks in the door in two minutes and fifteen seconds,” he says. “We’re gonna give him a show.”
Your eyebrows get lost in your hairline. “Dude, when Karkat tells me to go fuck myself, I’m almost positive he’s kidding.”
Future Dave snorts and rolls his eyes. “You gotta trust me, Past Dave,” he says. “Let me run the show for now, and look forward to the second round. It’s beyond worth it, you know I wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I don’t know that,” you point out. “We got really good at that when we were kids.”
He rolls his eyes again. “You know what I mean. Fuck I was an insufferable prick in the Past.”
“Was?” He punches you gently in the arm. “Okay, okay, fuck. I trust you. Safeword?”
“Same as it always is,” Future Dave nods. “Not that you’ll need it. You’re gonna enjoy this.”
“Is that right?”
His grin is straight up evil now. “Hell fucking yes,” he says. “I know I did.”
You look up at him, standing over you now, one hand on his hip and another resting on the desk. He’s cocky, confident, smug, excited. Everything you know you would be if you knew exactly what was about to happen.
Whatever it was, you were about to find out.
“Alright,” you say, leaning back in the desk chair a bit. “Let’s make shit take place.”
He gives you a thumbs up as he moves forward, and before you can make any other biting sarcastic remarks, Future Dave sits in your lap, puts his arms around your neck, and pulls you into the sloppiest and straight up dirtiest of kisses.
You’d be lying if you’d say you’d never thought about the fact that you had the power to make out with yourself. Sure, you’d deny it if anyone ever asked (except for Karkat, you told him everything), but it had crossed your mind. You prided yourself on being pretty smooth with your lips, well-practiced, a finely tuned kissing machine, but nothing was proof of that like having your future self on your lap with his tongue in your mouth.
It was surreal, the pressure of his lips perfect against yours, his hand against the back of your head with just the right kind of grip, fingers twined in hair and tugging just enough to send an electric jolt to your groin. Future Dave knows exactly what to do to have you breathless and letting out those embarrassing little moans that are normally the result of the makeout stylings of your boyfriend. But of course he knows how to do that, he’s you.
You sigh into his mouth and reach your hands around to grab Future Dave’s ass and squeeze it, pulling him more securely onto your lap. You’d originally been prepared to keep a time count in the back of your mind, remembering how long he’d said it would be until Karkat got home, but the details were slipping your mind as you felt him sucking on your tongue, drawing out another obscene softcore porn noise from the back of your throat.
Okay, so maybe Karkat wasn’t the only one with the selfcest kink. You were gonna log so many hours on Rose’s therapy couch this week, right after you went straight to hell for being this into Dave-on-Dave sloppy makeouts. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred boonbucks, you were a grade-A sinner of the highest caliber, and damn did you love it.
You hear the door open across the room and make to break away, turn your head, but you hear a little growl come out of Future Dave’s mouth, his hand pressing into your neck more insistently. Right, it was Karkat, obviously, the entire point of this exercise. Had to commit to the bit. You press into the kiss more insistently, grinding your hips, and you can feel that Future Dave’s already hard. You can’t blame him, this is hot as fuck, and it’s only going to get hotter, you don’t need his knowledge to be perfectly aware of where this is going, especially when you hear Karkat’s reaction.
“OH MY HOLY FUCK.”
Future Dave breaks the kiss and leans back a little so that his boner tent presses against yours, like he’s trying to create a miniature pants circus between the two of you, here’s the big top, send in the clowns. “Sup,” he says, shit eating grin on his face.
“Hey,” you add, waving weakly with one hand, the other still firmly on Future Dave’s ass.
Karkat looks between you and Future you, his expression shifting through what you affectionately have referred to in the past as the Vantas stages of reactionary facial gymnastics. Shock turns into confusion, then makes an up-shift to indignant, to anger, that classic ‘how fucking dare you’ look that never fails to make you weak in the knees. After that it’s understanding, like he finally gets the message, and quickly settles into your absolute favourite: exasperated arousal.
“Dave, what the everloving fuck?” he puts his hands on his hips and fuck it’s adorable, you don’t care that your troll boyfriend is strong enough to bench press both you and Future you at the same time, he’s still the scrawny troll boy you met years ago, the guy who stole your heart long before his adult molt gave him two inches of height on you and brick shithouse musculature. He’s always your Karkat, exasperated and frustrated and so in love with you and the stupid shit you pull, and this was going to go in the top five Dave Bullshit Antics Hall of Fame, you just knew it. Maybe even the top three.
You let Future Dave do the talking, he’s been through this before. “Date night,” he said, leaning back a little further, his dick now pressing against your stomach while his thigh has yours trapped in the sweet spot, just enough pressure to drive you wild but keep you in place. Fuck, future you is an asshole, that feels amazing. “Thought I’d come back in time and give you a special treat. Two Daves for the price of one, get your tickets here, price of admission is dat sweet Vantass.”
Karkat bristles, he hates it when you refer to his ass like that, but damn it’s hilarious because he’s trying so hard to be angry, trying his damndest to chew you out for this ridiculous stunt. He can’t though, you know he can’t, you can see the revelation that this is really happening sparking in his eyes, the fact that his boyfriend-matesprit-whatever-quadrant-they-were-in-on-any-given-day had basically time-cloned himself for a sexy rendezvous fantasy has just come true moving him right past annoyed into ‘fuck yes’ town, population you and Future you. When he finally speaks, his voice is choked, he is failing utterly to keep his cool and damn is that satisfying to see.
“You are such an asshole.”
You and Future Dave both grin, twin smirks, and as you say “You love it” you hear the same words come out of his mouth, simultaneous. Holy shit this is awesome, it’s like you’re in stereo.
“That’s beside the point,” Karkat grumbles a bit, and as he crosses the room Future Dave finally climbs out of your lap, freeing your suffering boner and leaving you to spin slightly to the left in the chair while he slips his arms around Karkat’s waist, pressing his hips against the troll in that sweet spot that makes his breath hitch, his claws flex.
“It’ll be fun,” Future Dave says, leaning up to plant a kiss on Karkat’s jaw. “Trust me, this is my second time on this ride, and it is absolutely killer. Critics agree that the Strider Tunnel of Double Boner Fun is the crowning event of this carnival, ten out of ten, would hop on that dick again.”
“Jegus,” you mutter, finally recovering enough control over your legs to stand up. “If you don’t shut me up, I will.”
“Now you know what I have to deal with on a daily fucking basis,” Karkat growls at you as he dips his head down. You know he’s not angry, how could he be angry when he’s got Future Dave presenting a full salute right in front of him, close enough to grab by the back of the neck and pull in for a kiss. It’s like you’re watching a movie of yourself, seeing yourself make out with your boyfriend, it should be disturbing but instead it’s almost embarrassingly hot. You almost don’t want to get in on that action.
Almost.
It takes about sixteen seconds for you to move in, Future Dave taking a step to the right so you can take the spot on Karkat’s left, and he starts to kiss down the edge of Karkat’s jaw towards his neck so that you can take the lead on the mouth, and Karkat meets your lips with a greedy gasp, like he’s finally realizing what it means to have two Daves instead of one. His chest starts rumbling with that deliciously familiar chirring sound you can’t get enough of, and you hear Future Dave make a noise you’ve only ever heard coming out of your own mouth, that reaction to the knowledge that Karkat’s all about what’s going on, that he wants this as much as you do. Sweeps together and that shit never got old, and you knew it never would. Hell, clearly it was good enough that you came back for a second round.
Future Dave steps away for a moment, but you don’t care because you’re too lost in the feel of Karkat’s tongue curled around yours, the warmth of his kiss, the way his teeth graze just so over your bottom lip, not enough to cause any pain, just enough pressure to make you feel the electric shock combination of shivering with sensation and your body going white hot with need.
“Hey.” You hear your future self from across the room and you and Karkat break the kiss, looking over at where he’s standing, next to the bed. He’s got that grin cemented on his face, it’s not going anywhere, you’re sure of that, and he’s got something in his hand. You squint through your shades, hearing Karkat suck in a breath, and when you you see what’s going on over there you do the same.
“Really?” you ask, incredulous. “What are we gonna do, draw straws?”
Future Dave tugs on the restraints like he’s telling a horse to giddyup, smirking. “Nah man,” he says. “This first round’s gonna be a little all-Dave show for our long-suffering boyfriend.”
“You… what?” Karkat’s voice is a little strained, and you feel movement where his crotch is pressed against your leg. Feels like you guys are on a fast countdown to getting a visit from the elusive but adored Vantas Bulge, and all it takes is that thought to get your own dick hard again, struggling against your pants as it attempts to greet the writhing tentacle attempting a similar escape routine.
You get where Future Dave is going with his plan and you smile, stepping away from Karkat and leading him to the bed, knowing he’ll follow even if he’s gonna be walking a little awkwardly as he deals with the lovecraftian situation in his pants. “Good plan, Dave,” you say, smirking a little. This is way more entertaining than it should be, like talking to yourself in the third person for ironic purposes. “Karkat’s had a hard day, let’s get him comfortable and give him some soothing entertainment.”
“I regret ever sharing my fantasies with you,” Karkat grouses as he climbs onto the bed, not fighting as you and Future Dave each take one arm, carefully buckling him into the cuffs that are securely attached to lengths of chain hooked around the headboard. Troll-tested, Dave approved. “Why I ever thought two of you would be a good idea is a complete fucking mystery, if I were a time player I’d go back and kick past me square in the bulge for this, I swear to fuck.”
He’s secure now, testing the cuffs like he always does, assessing his range. Future Dave has moved back to the foot of the bed, well out of reach, and you follow, leaving Karkat chained to the headboard, fully clothed and somewhere between indignant at your assholeish antics and hungry to discover where this is going.
Then Future Dave takes a step towards you, hand at your waist, and pulls off your shades, turning to give Karkat a wink. “Enjoy the show,” he says, and he pulls you into a kiss.
He’s rougher than he was when the two of you were on the chair, his free hand immediately going to the back of your neck, the one on your hip gripping at the perfect pressure. You gasp a little, this shouldn’t be so hot, you shouldn’t be enjoying the feeling of your future self macking on you so hard like this, but you stop worrying as soon as you hear the rumbling start up in Karkat’s chest again from the other end of the bed, the strained noise in the back of his throat at the sight of two versions of you getting sloppy together.
Future Dave’s hands start to wander, tugging at your shirt, and you see where this is going, of course you do, it was your idea, so to speak. In moments you both have your shirts off, both tossing them casually to opposite sides of the room, and he’s got his hands pressed against your back as he continues to make sure his tongue is real friendly with yours. Karkat groans at the sudden exposure of naked flesh, and his sounds spur you on, driving you to take the lead and run your fingers down Future Dave’s chest, find the zipper of his pants, press your hand against his cock. He lets out a yelp, slightly exaggerated for effect, but your own dick twitches in response, because you know exactly how hard to press, exactly which spots to run your fingers over to make your future self shake and lean against you, hard, almost needing your support to keep from dropping to his knees.
Except you’re pretty sure that’s where you want him.
Breaking the kiss, you look over at Karkat, who somehow simultaneously looks like he’s won the lottery and been condemned to the most horrific of tortures, because on the one hand he’s watching you feel up your future self, and on the other hand he’s chained to the headboard and can’t do anything about the fact that his bulge is probably ready to tear a hole in his pants.
It’s hot as fuck, and you know exactly how to handle it. Future Dave looks at you, his expression a little glazed, breathless, and his hands make their way to your own zipper, tugging your pants and your boxers down so fast that you swear your dick almost makes a comical ‘boing’ noise as its freed from its cloth prison, waving naked in the cool afternoon air for the briefest of moments before you press one hand to the top of Future Dave’s head, push him until he’s down on his knees, and slide it into his mouth.
Your eyes roll back in your head and you groan because fuck this is what every hormonal teenage boy dreams of, the opportunity to suck your own dick, and even though it’s not the classic fantasy you had when you were thirteen and lying in bed with your knees to your ears, craning your neck to see if you could get just a little closer, just enough to boldly go where no man has ever gone before, hot damn if it isn’t even better this way.
At the other end of the bed Karkat is straining against the chains, trying desperately to free himself so he can do something, anything, you’re not sure if he just wants to watch the show or join in, but right now he can’t do either, and he’s about to mcfucking lose it. Between the noises he’s making and the way Future Dave is absolutely going to town on your dong right now, you’re about to lose it yourself, your breath shallow and hitched, your hands tangled in blonde hair, your head thrown back as you moan, long and loud, mostly for Karkat’s benefit but also because it’s absolutely the truth: “Fuuuuuuck yes. Fuck, Dave, that’s it, yeah, ohhh, Dave.”
“I’m going to fucking destroy you, Strider,” Karkat growls from the other end of the bed at your exaggerated self-praise, and you look over at him as your hips involuntarily thrust forward as Future Dave grabs them and takes you even deeper into his throat, moaning low so you feel the vibrations from the tip of your length to the pucker of your asshole. Fucking damn you’re good at sucking dick, you make a mental note to give yourself a high five and a hallelujah when you’re done with this. It crosses your mind that you’ll be the one with your lips wrapped around your own dick in a few hours, and that thought tips you over the edge. Future Dave pulls back and stays on his knees with his mouth open, and your vision whites out as you come all over your future self's face.
Karkat lets out a desperate sound and you manage to look at him once you can actually see, and his face is so full of need that you feel your dick twitch again, like you’d go for another round faster than you can say ‘your turn.’ There’s a red stain on the crotch of his pants, and Future Dave stands up, wiping your jizz off his face with a quickly decaptchalogued towel. You lean against him, resisting the urge to go completely boneless, which is your usual MO after you hit the finish line, but you can’t stop now. Future Dave doesn’t have to tell you that this was just the appetizer in the sexual feast you were providing for your troll boyfriend, you know what you’re about, and you are all about making Karkat scream your name just like you had screamed your own.
Future Dave offers you a hand and you give him a high five, Karkat letting out an indignant noise at your display of restrained coolness in the wake of getting yourself off. Every time he ever told you to go fuck yourself in the future, he’d remember this moment, and that was the greatest gift you could have given to any iteration of Dave, past, present, or future.
“Don’t worry,” Future Dave says, all shit-eating grin as he pulls down his pants, his dick doing a perfect impression of yours only minutes ago, much-needed comical bouncing noise and all. "We're just getting warmed up." He climbs onto the bed, giving you a nod and you understand, climbing after him and getting to work taking off Karkat’s pants.
“You are the fucking worst,” Karkat hisses at you as you peel off his pants and his boxers, his bulge already unsheathed and lashing around, desperate for attention. “Both of you.” His shirt would have to wait until you got the cuffs off, but you suspect he won’t give you the chance, not the way he’s looking at Future Dave now, his muscles coiled with tension and his gaze absolutely ravenous.
You smirk as Future Dave gives you a nod, and you scoot out of the way, ducking off the bed so you can get to the cuffs. As you do you lean down so you’re close to Karkat’s ear, your voice low and thick with that fresh off the high of that just-fucked feeling, the sound of it going straight to your boyfriend’s bulge. “Go take it out on him, gorgeous,” you say, unbuckling the first restraint. “Remember, Future Me started it.”
“That’s right,” Future Dave shifts around so he’s almost within reach of Karkat’s free hand, smirking but also breathless, like he knows exactly what’s about to happen and he can’t fucking wait. Which he does, of course. Holy fuck your aspect is awesome. “I’ve been a bad boy, Karkat, I need to be punished, I’ve got an ass ready to jut out impudently at the sight of your bulge, please take me now.”
“Dude,” you say as you fiddle with the second strap, going slowly on purpose, Karkat almost snarling at you. “Bad porno dialogue? Are you for real?”
“Respect the irony,” he says, and you see him brace himself as Karkat’s growl gets louder. “Gotta maintain the brand.”
“Whatever,” you snort, and you finish unbuckling the cuff around Karkat’s wrist. This was going to be good.
Your boyfriend growls low in his throat and you almost get bounced back into the wall as he throws himself at future Dave, knocking him flat on his back and attacking him with a kiss that leaves you breathless even halfway across the room. You’ve never been much for watching the action before, always keen to participate rather than spectate, but you’ve gotta be honest with yourself, the sight of Karkat pinning Future you to the bed is hot as hell.
“Fuuuuuuuck, Karkat,” Future Dave’s eyes are squeezed shut as he breaks the kiss, his hands gripping Karkat’s perfect ass, pulling the troll down to him and letting out a gasp and then a groan. You’ve been on the receiving end of this scenario countless times, and the desperate growls and moans you hear Karkat pressing into Future Dave’s neck and shoulders combined with your time clone’s shifting and sudden wide-eyed groan tells you that they have completely dispensed with the foreplay, and that bulge is going straight for the prize.
“Ohhhh fuck,” Karkat’s groan is the sexiest thing you’ve ever heard in your life, and you’re not surprised to feel yourself getting hard again. In this scenario, how could you not? You’re standing at the edge of your own bed, watching your boyfriend’s tentabulge work its way into the willing ass of your future self, who’s shaking and moaning with every probing inch that’s sliding into him. He’s a mess, just like you’ve been a mess when you’ve been in this situation. Karkat does that, takes you apart with every touch, every moment, with his hot breath on your neck, his arms wrapped around your shoulders as he shifts, bringing you - future you - into a sitting position, tilting his hips upward to work his bulge in carefully, almost gently, despite the way his entire body seems to pulse with need.
You love him so much you can hardly stand it.
Future Dave gasps as he gets settled, meeting your eyes and giving you a thumbs up, mouthing ‘Karkat sandwich’ over the troll’s shaking shoulder, his mouth still firmly latched to Future Dave’s neck. Oh hell yes.
You return the thumbs up and climb onto the bed, and you’re definitely hard again, you’re gonna be walking funny for a couple of days after this but you couldn’t give less of a fuck about that, all you can think about is the way Karkat gasps slightly when he feels your hands at his waist pulling his shirt over his head, feels you move in behind him so that his back is pressed against your chest, supporting him as you lean back a bit, guiding him into your lap. Future Dave props himself up with his arms, keeping Karkat steady, and as he leans back into you, the head of your dick feels the slick heat of his nook and you let out a moan, fuck he feels amazing. He always does, he’s perfect whether he’s pressing you into the mattress or biting your shoulder while you fuck him up against a wall. You’ve been together long enough to try as many sexual combinations and positions as the two of you could think up, flipped pitch or pale or red time and time again, but the chance to take him like this, to give this to him while he does the same to you, a future version of you but still you, it’s absolutely mind-blowing.
Troll nooks aren’t designed for human dicks, the two of you figured that out in the early stages of your relationship, but you know the exact right spot to place yourself, inside him just enough to apply the pressure that makes him cry out, makes him scream, makes him drop his hips low to grind against you a little. It feels fucking incredible, and you wrap your arms around him, keeping him steady as you make sure you’re in the right position, make sure you aren’t throwing off Future Dave’s groove.
As one, the two of you start to move and Karkat tips his head back, howling at the sensation of it all, the way his bulge is worked deep inside one iteration of you while his nook grinds desperately against the dick of another. It’s everything he’s ever wanted, a perfect concert of filling you and being fulfilled by you, hands tracing every inch of his skin, reaching up to gently rub the base of one of his horns while the other clutches one of his arms, Future Dave pulling him into a deep and desperate kiss.
He won’t last long, none of you will, it’s too much, between the feeling of his nook hot and wet on the head of your dick, the sound of his unrestrained moans as he works himself in and out of your future self, your own moans in perfect harmony with Future Dave’s. You’re going to come again, fuck, you’ve barely recovered from the first time but you’re already almost there, this is the single hottest thing that’s ever happened to you and the fact that you’re going to get to experience it all over again just makes you want it more, keeps you matching your partners’ paces, hips thrusting and hands grabbing, lips kissing every available inch of Karkat’s skin.
You hear Future Dave let out a moan you instantly recognize and you move a hand down to wrap around his cock, Karkat’s hands unavailable because he’s clinging on to the Dave in front of him, riding your dick as the other Dave rides his. You’re all being loud now, gasping and moaning, using each other’s names like swears that echo around the room, and you wonder who’s going to give in first, who’s going to get to the top first and freefall into ecstasy, set off the chain reaction that’ll leave you all completely undone.
“Dave,” Karkat moans desperately one final time, his legs shuddering as he grinds down on you hard, his nook quivering around the head of your cock, and as you press into him as far as you can go, he tenses, hard, going off like a goddamned rocket, nearly bucking future Dave off the bed, coming hard inside him, all over you, all over the bed, keening and howling and gasping for air, taken absolutely and thoroughly apart by the two of you, shaking and gasping and almost crying, you swear he’s got tears in his eyes, as he rides you and is ridden by your future self into sweet oblivion.
You and Future Dave come within seconds of each other, unsurprisingly, and he covers your hand with his release as your own mixes with the genetic material already between you, both of you making an absolute mess of Karkat as he breathes the two of you in, going limp in your arms at the feel of your orgasm, of his orgasm, of the two of you also being the three of you. It was too much, it was everything, it was fireworks on the fourth of July and unwrapping presents at christmas and chocolate chip pancakes and exhaustion and breathlessness and joy.
“I love you,” you whisper in Karkat’s ear, and you smile as you hear Future Dave’s voice in unison with yours, the two of you cradling your boyfriend between you, close and gentle and tender.
“I love you too,” Karkat’s voice was a shaky whisper, soft and full of adoration, full of exhaustion as he slumped down a bit, sliding out of Future Dave and wobbling dangerously sideways.
You lean back, careful, cupping under Karkat’s arms to support him as he finally goes boneless. Future Dave helps, both of you shifting until you’re on either side of Karkat, lying on the bed in a tangle of sweat-sheened limbs, breathless and spent.
“So,” you kiss Karkat’s shoulder, Future Dave planting a kiss on the other side. “Everything you’d hoped for?”
Karkat shifts a little, sleepy and satisfied, his chest rumbling with contented little clicks and chirps. “Maybe some warning next time, shithead,” he mumbles. “Shitheads. Whatever. Fuck you is what I’m saying.”
“Pretty sure we already did,” Future Dave smirks, gently scooting closer to Karkat and tipping him over on his side so the troll’s back is pressed against his chest and they’re cuddling jetpack style. You stay facing him, resting a hand on his chest and running the other through his hair, smiling. He’s already almost dozing, snuggled close into Future Dave’s back with his arm around your waist, intimate and smiling lazily. He’s beautiful and wonderful and you press a soft kiss to his forehead as he drifts into a comfortable post-coital sleep.
The three of you stay that way for a while, an hour and fourteen minutes to be precise (because when it comes to time you just can’t help but be precise), silent and just breathing each other in. You roll the afternoon around in your mind as the sun sets through the windows, bathing you in golden light that you bask in like a smug cat. Mind-blowing sex with boyfriend? Check. Exploration of mutual kinks? Check. The chance to go back in time and do it all again? Well.
You shift a little, looking over Karkat’s sleeping shoulder at your future self, who’s also dozing off. You could ask him when you needed to get your ass back in time to kick start this stable loop, but the ticking in your bones tells you what you need to know, the seconds rolling within you like a countdown. You figure you have enough time to shower before the final round. Nice.
You kiss Karkat on the cheek, making him stir a bit and mumble a little buzzing click sound. Future Dave watches you climb out of bed and head to the bathroom, and when you return from your shower, towel slung around your waist, he gives you another thumbs up.
“I’ll take it from here,” he says, and you smile, returning the gesture as you find your pants. “Have fun on the other side. I know I did.”
“Word,” you say, pulling your shirt on. “See you when I see you.”
He gives you a little salute and settles back down, pulling Karkat a little closer, and you grin, taking a step backwards into the inexorable shift and flow of time. You move through the stream, feeling it around you and through you, seconds turning into minutes, an entire timeline stretched beautiful in front of you and behind you like strings of red thread curled and swirled around clockwork cogs.
It was like this had been a test run, an experiment. There were probably better ways to use the power of time travel, but look in Karkat’s eyes, the way he’d screamed your name, the almost reverent appreciation in his voice when he’d told you that he loved you, they convinced you that this was the best use you could make of this aspect, no question about it.
As you approach the exit point in the timestream, you hear the sound of Past Dave’s record playing in his room, the lyrics suddenly all the more meaningful, all the more relevant to what had just happened, what was about to happen, what was going to happen over and over again to Daves all through Paradox space.
“When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide,” you find yourself singing along as you approach you point of exit. “Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride, till I get to the bottom and I see you again…”
You step out of the flow of time and hear the record skip and make a scratching noise, repeating those last three words a few times before it goes back to playing the song. You smile as your past self turns around, the lyrics echoing in your ears.
“See you again… see you again… see you again…”