Equius is half-asleep -- his hair drying, his scalp still tingling a little, even now, with the phantom touch of Karkat's fingers, the water lapping softly at his skin with each of their combined breaths -- when the damp head tucked under his chin suddenly lifts, almost clocking him in the jaw with a round little horn.
"Vantas?" he says, a reasonable compromise between Karkat and Sir. It doesn't seem quite a Sir moment to him somehow but he isn't sure yet, after all, and... and Karkat is staring at him with his eerie red eyes and looks startled and -- and mildly horrified. Equius's eyebrows knit. "What is--"
"Is your bulge alright?"
... What. "I... beg your pardon?" He would shake his head in a hopeful attempt to recalibrate his hearing if he could but it's nestled nicely against the rim of the tub; his horn almost touches the wall, too close to move that way.
Karkat growls down at him, the sound resonating from his chest and into Equius's, different from a purr, deeper. "Is. Your. Bulge. Alright. Is it bruised, sore, or otherwise painful? Come on, I know you're so pacified you're about to fall asleep but stop dozing off and think about it for a second, here!"
Equius furrows his brows a little deeper with faint disapproval. "I believe you are getting hysterical," he says, but he doesn't even get growled at over that; Karkat's eyes are getting this strange glint in them, half-wild and very unlike his earlier commanding, assured attitude. Equius rests a cautious hand on the small of his back, rubs that bare, wet skin gently.
Karkat keeps talking. "Shit. I don't even know how much pressure it can take, yours or even generally -- and an orgasm would camouflage a lot of bad things, okay, shut up, it's a totally legitimate concern!"
Equius blinks, and then he chuckles; he can't restrain it entirely. "My bonebulge is fine, thank you for the concern. I would be hesitant to, ah, deploy it--" Karkat snorts despite himself; Equius flicks him a helpless little smile, and purses his lips back together to try to keep hold of the necessary serious, non-puerile mood. "-- for another few hours at the very least, but that is more to do with how empty my genetic material bladder is at the moment."
It's very empty. All in one go, too; Karkat drained him. The thought makes his face feel a little hotter.
"Oh. Yeah, okay, dry orgasms aren't all that great for most people." Karkat grimaces, even as he slowly relaxes on top of Equius once again. His toes reach the middle of Equius' calves. He makes him feel so anchored.
"I believe I could enjoy them in the right frame of mind," Equius finds himself saying, and then flushes some more. "Ah, not that I was suggesting --"
Karkat pats his chest, even as he fits his cheek under his collarbone. "Yeah, yeah. Something to keep in mind for later. We'll make lists. Charts. Plotting--"
This time Equius is the one who pats him quiet, between his shoulder blades. He leaves his hand there when he's done; Karkat doesn't protest, starts chirring quietly at the back of his throat. Equius hums in answer, eyes closed, feeling the way the vibrations meet and interact inside his body. If he wasn't so sated this would leave his body feeling so alive; right now it makes him feel... buzzy, but comfortably so.
It's almost pale, even though it isn't strong enough yet to send him straight into an altered state of consciousness, but right now he's so relaxed he can't even imagine that Nepeta would mind, and that he can't manage to make himself outraged in her name (his moirail is so silly like this, she doesn't get offended half often enough.)
It's so nice in here, Karkat's purring and Karkat's warmth, how strong he feels for how light he is, and the way he takes in a slightly deeper breath and sighs...
"This water is as frozen as a load of our glorious Empress' spunk," Karkat muses without moving at all.
Equius sputters, lifts his head to stare down at him, eyes narrowed reprovingly. Karkat just stares back, one eyebrow slowly creeping up, daring Equius to protest his lewd language.
If Equius wants to be honest with himself, the language and the way it makes him imagine horrendously inappropriate things all the time is one of the big draws of one Karkat Vantas. He sighs and looks away first.
"May I caress the wild hope that filling your mouth with much-needed protein will stop you blaspheming?"
Karkat's mouth twitches and his eyes gleam like Equius just -- oh lord, no, he didn't mean that kind of protein; but Karkat shushes him with a kiss to the jaw before he can say so. He braces his hands on both sides of the tub's rim and pushes himself up over Equius, water streaming off him and onto Equius's body, shoulder musculature standing in stark relief. There's a white blade scar curling over his collarbone and down toward the middle of his chest, a pair of claw holes over his hip; he's gorgeous.
He smirks down at Equius, eyes hooded in cynical amusement. "Yeah, okay, I'm going to give you a chance to see how well that goes."
-- Oh. Oh.
"But first I think we'll try it the normal dinner way."
Equius feels entirely, reprehensibly childish when he throws a handful of water at him in retaliation, but the way Karkat sputters and laughs even as he pounces on him for revenge makes it entirely worth it.