Karkat does look, but he tenses and his eyes go notably wide. When he's not the one demanding unambiguously platonic back-of-the-hand face touches it's a pretty surprising thing, made more so when it wasn't his idea at all. And it's the context: this isn't just trying to see if his weird dream ghost self is solid and tangible, but an effort at comforting him and making him stop being stupid about emotions. The jostle might not be a pap, but it's disorienting all the same. He keeps staring for a good moment after.

"Dave, hands." He heard what he said and he's not ignoring that, though there's not much he can do for it right now beyond stopping his verbal lingering. "You just stumbled prong-first into awkward cultural differences and you probably don't even realize it. Just keep the hands back when doing the you're-being-emotionally-stupid thing."

He swallows. Dave did say other things.

"Training--that would be fine. It can't hurt to learn new skills, or the thing you said. Reflexes, that stuff."