Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/13348668.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Rape/Non-Con, Underage, Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence
  Category:
      M/M, F/F
  Fandom:
      Homestuck
  Relationship:
      Dave_Strider/Karkat_Vantas, Jake_English/Dirk_Strider, Rose_Lalonde/
      Kanaya_Maryam, Dave's_Bro_&_Dave_Strider
  Character:
      Dave_Strider, Dave's_Bro_|_Beta_Dirk_Strider, Rose_Lalonde, Jade_Harley,
      Karkat_Vantas, Dirk_Strider, Jake_English, Kanaya_Maryam, Roxy_Lalonde,
      Dirk's_Bro_|_Alpha_Dave_Strider, Roxy's_Mom_|_Alpha_Rose_Lalonde
  Additional Tags:
      Other_Additional_Tags_to_Be_Added, Implied/Referenced_Child_Abuse, Sexual
      Abuse, Underage_Rape/Non-con, Abusive_Dave's_Bro_|_Beta_Dirk_Strider,
      Trans_Dave_Strider, Humanstuck, Dirk_Strider_and_Dave's_Bro_Aren't_the
      Same_Person, Background_DirkJake, Mental_Health_Issues, Dysfunctional
      Family, More_plot_than_originally_intended, Minor_Rose_Lalonde/Kanaya
      Maryam, Non-Quadrant_Relationships, Time_Travel, alternate_universe
      shenanigans, Parent/Child_Incest, Angst_and_Hurt/Comfort, SBURB/SGRUB
  Stats:
      Published: 2018-01-12 Updated: 2018-03-20 Chapters: 9/? Words: 26213
****** A Touch of Evil ******
by h3ll4c1ous, nomisupernova
Summary
     In Which A Young Man Named Dave Strider Attempts To Have A Normal
     Life Despite Ongoing Abuse Leading To What One Can Only Describe As
     Time Shenanigans.
     Big thanks to my editor @h3ll4c1ous for working hard with me on this.
  This work was inspired by
      M.C._Escher_that's_my_favourite_MC by Unda
***** Chapter 1 *****
Chapter Notes
     Chapter revised 3/12/2018.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
"Shhhhh, do you hear that? It sounds like someone is hiding, are you hiding,
Dave?" you hear Bro talking loudly in the hallway. You huddle closer into the
back of the closet, pulling your pile of clothes tighter to yourself for
camouflage.
"Dave, come on. I made you something." he says with impatience, "Don't you
wanna see, little man?"
You’re not going to lie, you want to scream for help. But you know it’s
fruitless. The neighbors won’t hear or care. You don’t have your phone on you
and you don’t have a computer either. You haven’t since Bro barged in and
wrecked it a week ago.
You think for a moment, trying to plot some kind of escape.
"Can I get out? I could run to the door. No, no... he'd catch me. The window?
No, you'll fall and die or worse, he'll catch you if you don't get moving fast
enough. I could attack him. Hmm. I do have a sword, he's strong but I've got a
lot of stamina."
You make sure to be as careful as possible when you peak out from underneath
the pile. He's not in here, thank god. He's still looking everywhere else,
making a fucking game out of it.
"Fuck," you bite your lip as you remember your sword is out in the living room.
Of fucking course.
"Dave. Lil Cal wants to talk to you, don't you love Cal anymore, Dave?" he does
his best to sound sad about it.
"No, I do not fucking love that thing," you think.
"He's been telling me some things about you, Dave. Like that you've been a
piece of shit to him," his voice is getting louder, he's getting closer.
"I know you're in there," he whispers hoarsely, "If you come out now, I'll go
easy on you. I swear."
He makes a point. He always is less of a douchebag if you just come out and
take your beating.
"I'll give you ten seconds to decide," you hear metal clanking against your
doorknob. Fucking bullshit keys.
"Ten."
Your breath hitches in your throat, you'd give anything to leave and never look
back.
"Nine."
You feel your legs tingling with fear, your heart starts to race.
"Eight."
You shove all the clothes off of yourself and pull a stray shirt over your
head.
"Seven."
You drag a comb through your hair, checking it in the mirror. Gotta look cool
as always.
"Six."
You steady your breathing, slap your cheeks a bit so you won't look like you're
scared shitless.
"Five."
When was the last time you ate? Probably a day ago at school. That's good. More
than usual, you suppose.
"Four."
You pull your shoes on and tie them quickly.
"Three."
You stand in front of the door and take another deep breath.
"Two."
You slide your sunglasses onto your nose.
"One."
You unlock the bedroom door and open it.
 
"Why are you ignoring me, Dave?" he asks, looking down at you, his expression
is readable even behind his glasses. Disgust. Anger. And... ugh, you feel sick.
"Sorry dude, I was getting dressed," you try not to make it obvious that you
were cowering in fear and still are, just internally now.
He pockets the keys, his other hand is busy coddling Lil Cal. You think for a
moment about being coddled like that, loved even. You used to think he loved
you like that until...
You swallow hard, trying to keep the fear down.
He throws your sword at you, you catch it, being careful not to touch the
blade, it's pretty fucking sharp and you don't want a revisit of four months
ago.
"Let's fucking go, shitstick." he sets Cal gently on his desk and points his
thumb toward the front door.
You wish Jade never told you that your older brother hurting you like that
wasn’t normal.
===============================================================================
 
"Finished already?" he stretches his arms skyward, sun glinting off his
porcelain skin. It'd be more olive like yours but he has more “albinic traits”
or some stupid shit Rose pinged off your brain when you were tired.
"Yeah, dude, I'm fucking beat. And I'm hungry as fuck," you use your shirt,
which is now in shreds, to wipe your face off.
"Pizza?" he asks, but he already has his phone out dialing.
"Four meat, bacon, not that stupid Canadian bullshit either," you answer,
walking down the stairs back into the apartment.
You sneak a glance at his desktop, it’s unlocked. Your phone is probably nearby
somewhere. You’re sure he's expecting you to look for it.
You rummage around for a bit, sifting through piles of swords and puppet asses.
Ah, there. It's in the blender next to some green douchebag with the most
bulbous ass you've ever seen, you can see the camera lense glinting in his eye.
You unplug the blender, safety first, then you reach in and pluck out your
phone.
It's unharmed and still locked. His desktop starts pinging like crazy,
Delirious Biznasty is practically shitting itself with message beeps. Like it
just ate a Five-Alarm beefy bean burrito, beep beep, bitch, time to spend an
hour with the porcelain god himself. Time to meet your maker.
You smile, that was pretty rad. You make your way over to the desktop to see
what the fuss is about.
TA: Crazy dude, he just gonna stick his hand in there?
GT: Oh fuck, I was hoping to see some gore.
TC: Lame shit man, shoulda duct taped the plug in the socket and put a motion
sensor on the damn thing.
Creeps.
Of fucking course he's broadcasting the house's security footage live now,
because there are just no real boundaries to avoid. At least he doesn't have
any cameras in the bathroom.
You swallow hard, jesus, he's broadcasting your every move. You know for a fact
there are cameras in the bedrooms. You look into the closest camera and flip it
off.
"Pizza's here," Bro is down the stairs, Cal is plopped over his shoulder like a
parrot on pirate island, "Catch." He throws his wallet at you.
You hitch a ride in the apartment building's elevator with the neighbours kid,
on his way to soccer practise or something, ‘cuz those are serious cleats.
"Yo," he says, eying you for a sec before smiling to himself. You make a non-
committal sound before hopping off at the first floor, he stays in, probably
going down to the basement parking garage.
"Sup," you say to the pizza guy.
"17.13, little man," he says, sounding weird, like he's holding back a laugh.
"Twenty, keep the change," you pass him the bill like it's the Declaration of
Independence and you’re Nick Cage, ‘bout to pop that shit in the oven and
discover the secret map on the back.
"Tell Derick I said nice camera quality. Really lets you see all the details,"
he coughs once, "Sorry, 'broooo'." he moans it long and hard.
"Whatever man. Glad you're enjoying it. Creeps like y'all give us enough to pay
to live in a decent place like this." you respond and take the pizza out of his
hands.
He gets in his piece of shit car and revs the engine before taking off down the
road.
Chapter End Notes
     Oh my god, I just re-read this now and I really hate the way some of
     it is written, but I'm not going to change it much. The first chapter
     was written in December of 2016 and I only got around to writing this
     fic more in November of 2017. So you're going to notice a tonal shift
     as I started taking this piece more seriously.
***** Chapter 2 *****
Chapter Notes
     Chapter revised 3/12/2018
See the end of the chapter for more notes
You set the pizza on the table and grab a slice or three before you run off to
your bedroom, your phone is warm against your leg. The pesterchum app lights up
like Christmas day, Rose sends you one very long paragraph, you skim it and
then decide to read it later. Jade hasn't said anything to you in a week.
You consider messaging her for a second, then decide its best not to after what
you said to her. Too awkward right now. Instead of dealing with that, you pop
open a bottle of AJ from your stash under the table that your mixing gear is
on. Shit's getting dusty, now that you're looking at it. You’re gonna have to
clean it up before Dirk, your half brother, comes over and lets you have it for
having a messy room.
You decide to haul your skinny ass up on the bed and chill for a sec. Back
hurts like hell, but that shouldn't be a problem after you shower later. The
hot water always helped better than any pain pill did. As you start to zone out
staring at the window, your phone lights up. It's Jade. You open up your phone
and take a look at her messages from the last week.
GG: sorry dave, but...
GG: dave, are you okay?
GG: dave??
GG: dave...
GG: hey, look, just say something and tell me you're okay?
GG: dave, you're not mad at me, are you?
GG: dave please, i'm sorry.
GG: i was only trying to help.
GG: dave?!
GG: i'll assume you're ignoring me and that you're not hurt?
GG: just... please don't be mad at me.
GG: i couldn't just sit by and say nothing, david!!
GG: look... we can just pretend i didn't say anything if it'd make you feel
better?
 GG: dave, are you there?
And you finally get to her most recent one.
GG: it says you're online, please message me back.
You prop your phone up by your pinkies and try your best to chill her out.
turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG]
TG: hey
GG: oh JESUS dave!! you haven't said anything in a week!! i've been worried
sick about you!! D:
TG: sorry dude
TG: ive been really busy
GG: yeah, right dave! honestly!! ://
GG: i don't expect you to tell me everything but at least don't openly lie!!
TG: ok i just didnt have my phone for the last few days
TG: but before that i was kinda ignoring you
TG: sorry
GG: thank you for telling the truth, you butt. :I
GG: sorry for thinking you were avoiding me so much on purpose.
TG: its cool man
TG: so...
GG: so...
GG: ... how are you feeling?
TG: tired honestly
TG: dont think ive slept right since we last talked
TG: also i need a shower like a bird needs a nest man
TG: god
GG: well i think i can handle giving you a while to shower! go shower!! :0
GG: please message me when you get a chance though? i worry about you, dave.
TG: aight
 TG: ttyl jade
turntechGodhead [TG] has ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG]
Alright, now that you've chilled Jade out, you can go take a much needed
shower. You grab your towels out of your closet and head over to the bathroom.
"He wouldn't put cameras in here, that makes no fucking sense. He doesn't want
people seeing him showering." you comfort yourself with that thought.
You undress briskly and check out the damage in the mirror on the door. Not too
bad, you guess. Mostly some long sword-shaped bruises and some scrapes on your
upper-back from sliding against the roof's asphalt. Not the worst you've
gotten. It sure as hell ain't shit compared to what you know is coming tonight
after your royally shitty breakdown earlier in the closet. You frown a bit at
that thought, feeling suddenly disgusting. You step into the shower and try not
to think about it.
Chapter End Notes
     Short chapter because I've got big ideas for the next one.
***** Chapter 3 *****
Chapter Notes
     Warning for a CSA scene, not super graphic but I'm still going to
     warn you here in case you missed the tags for some reason. Please do
     not read if this type of thing upsets you.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
After toweling off, you hit the lock button on your phone so you can check the
time. 8:57PM. You sigh, don't suppose there's any real reason to stay awake any
later since you work best at the shitty early hours of the morning. You grab
your toothbrush off the back of the sink and get busy brushing your teeth. You
try not to think about how drunk Bro probably is right now. He always has a
beer with his pizza and one beer is never one beer. You spit in the sink and
wipe your mouth with the towel. After stalling long enough, you finally open
the bathroom door and step out into the hallway.
You can see Bro tapping away at his keyboard, writing something down in a
WordPad document. At least he's busy, so maybe he'll leave you the fuck alone.
You also notice he's formed a pile of cans and bottles next to his chair,
mostly beer of course, it’s his favorite after all. You shake your head a
little at that. His glasses are perched on his head so you can actually see his
eyes clearly, but the question is can he see you clearly? You smell his breath
from all the way over here, and beer isn’t a particularly nice smell. He
glances over to you and then starts typing faster.
"Change?" he says, his eyes trained to his computer screen.
"Gave it to the pizza dude." you answer while rubbing the towel you’re holding
through your hair.
He hums flatly and chews at his bottom lip, "'Kay."
He redirects his full attention to whatever he's doing so you take that as your
cue to leave. After you're in your room, you lock your bedroom door behind you
and lean against it. You exhale deeply and try to figure out what to do about
Jade, or rather, what not to do about Jade. At least she didn’t go telling
everyone what she saw.
She shouldn't have been Googling your Bro's name in the first place, it's not
your fault that she saw his website. It was locked and passworded for adults
only anyway, it really wasn't her business, so why should you have to deal with
that?
You run your hands through your hair.
"Then again, he shouldn't be doing that shit with a minor and posting it for
everyone to see," you think.
You put on your pajama pants and crack open the door, "G'night," you say to
Bro.
"G'night," he parrots back to you.
You flick off the light-switch and put your phone on the charger next to your
bed.
After you're comfortable, you pull the blanket over your head and steady your
breathing. Maybe if you pretend to be asleep he'll fuck off?
Ten minutes pass, then twenty more. Thirty minutes becomes forty-five.
"Maybe you got lucky?" you sigh with relief and close your eyes.
 
You're just about to nod off when you're awoken with a jolt at the sound of the
door knob turning. And then keys unlocking it, the door opening and closing,
but not locking after a minute.
You wince and squeeze your eyes shut for a moment and tug the blanket up to
your eyes, but not covering them because you need to see your enemy at all
times.
Jesus dick, he's breathing really softly and shit, like he always does when he
busts into your room at night. It's making your brain do... god, what did Rose
call it...? Whatthefuckever.
He stands there for a bit, it's too dark in the room for him to see you peeking
at him from under your blanket. He's... watching you. Fucking creep.
"I know you're not sleeping," he says flatly.
You hold still, so so so still. You don't move an inch. You can feel something
stirring in the pit of your stomach, like you're going to throw up or scream.
He just stands there and pockets his keys. Shit.
"Dave," fuck that soft voice bullshit. Like a fucking cheetah luring prey into
a field by laying all low and shit in the grass. Ready to pounce on a
motherfucker as soon as he hops on by. Say goodnight to your breathing
privileges mister.
You watch him kneel down and put his elbows onto your bed, making the mattress
dip awkwardly.
He runs a hand through his hair and sighs. He takes the same hand and slowly...
so fucking slow, he touches your face. He starts at the bottom of your chin and
drags his rough fingers up and over your cheek and into your hair.
"I felt you flinch," he says in a low rumbling tone. Well, shit, the jig is up.
You pull away from his hand, not too smart. He grips onto your hair, not
exactly pulling it, but he sure isn't being gentle either.
"I'm not going to hurt you, calm down," he whispers.
Your brain is screaming, "Yes, yes you fucking are!!!!" but you say nothing and
lay there helplessly.
You really wish you could just disappear, just fucking blink out of existence
right there.
He stands back up and pulls at your blanket. You hate this part. He presses a
finger to your lips, as if to say "Shhh." Like anyone would even listen or care
if you screamed. He grips your face by your cheeks, forcing your lips to pucker
forward. You feel disgusting and you wince when his face smashes into yours.
You can taste the alcohol on his lips, like you always do when he comes in here
like this. He's starting to tug his belt clumsily when you swallow the lump in
your throat and finally speak.
"You know this is wrong, you don’t have to do this," you still haven't given up
trying to convince him.
He stares at you and for a second you see the brother you used to play with as
a kid, somewhere deep in his eyes, you can still see him. It's only for a
second, though, it always is.
He starts to talk gently to you, "Dave I-"
"Please... just..." you pause to take a breath, "Don't... don't talk."
 
He's at least nice enough to shut up for now.
When he yanks the blanket up and climbs into it, you're vaguely aware of the
feeling of the waistband of your pants sliding down, but your mind isn't
exactly working. It's hard to place the feeling on one word. It's like you're
watching yourself from inside of your brain and in front of you, and nothing
feels real. You can't deny what you know comes next.
Bro is placing sloppy messy lips on every inch of your skin, mumbling
incoherently to nobody in particular.
You can smell the beer on his breath... gross.
Whatever daze you were in is quickly snapped when you feel his nails on your
thighs, your pants are lost somewhere in the blankets, which is unceremoniously
on the floor in a heap. You try not to look at him but you're really scared and
you don't know what he's going to do.
He laughs, a deep rumbling sound in his throat, "I've... I've never touched you
here... I wonder what that's like?"
Oh god, oh god, please be joking. Please be joking.
"You shouldn't..." your head starts to spin.
"Come on, Dave... why would you have one if... nobody was ever supposed to
touch it?" his fingers are dangerously close.
"That's not the damn point and you know that, can't you just do what you
usually do?" you snap before you can catch yourself.
He stares at you, as if he really can't believe what you just said to him. The
tension in the air is unbearably palpable.
"I call you by the name you want and this is the thanks I get?" his other hand
grips the soft skin of your thighs too hard, you can feel the bruises starting
to form under the pressure.
"I don't tell anyone about this shit and you just threaten me like that! What
the fuck is your deal, Bro!" you're getting too worked up, he's noticed how raw
you're feeling.
His eyes narrow and he reaches for your face, you flinch preemptively for your
slap in the face but... he doesn't smack you.
No, instead he grabs your hair and yanks you into a kneeling position.
“Turn around. Now.” he hisses in your ear.
You comply, but he still has an iron grip in your hair, so it hurts to turn
around. He lets go of your hair and slides his hand down to your neck and
shoves your face down in the pillows. You can feel his knees dig into your legs
and you squeeze your eyes shut. Your thoughts and feelings float away from you.
You unfortunately remember what Rose called it; dissociating.
You’re aware that something is happening, but your brain feels like it’s
floating in ice water and your arms feel like jello. You think about smoking
weed with your buddies behind the school, giggling and passing the pipe to each
other. They all cheered and hooted for you when you held it in longer than
anyone else. You think about that cute kid in your science class who has a keen
eye for the bruises and cuts on your arms, but promised you that he wouldn’t
tell anyone until you said it was okay.
What did he say his name was? You think for a moment… Oh, that’s right. It was
a weird name. He told you it a respelling of the Latin word for “crab” of all
things. Karkat. He’s a short kid, a transfer student from Spain. He moved here
with his dad to learn English and get into a good college.
You focus on what it felt like when he touched your arms when you ran into him
in the hallway after school, he was checking to see if you needed any help with
cleaning the wounds. You remember him pulling you into the bathroom and
demanding that you show him your other bruises. You complied because you didn’t
know what he might do if you didn’t show him. His eyes looked so sad when he
touched the scars on your stomach and he hugged you and started crying.
You mentally take hold of that thought. You think about his soft, dark hands on
your skin.
You breath deeply, inhaling the smell of cologne and laundry soap from your
pillow. You exhale slowly and feel a horrible stinging pain that radiates in
your hips and legs. You fade back into your brain, eyes fluttering open, still
holding that thought tightly like a life saver in an ocean. Something sharp
bites into your shoulder, it feels like teeth and honestly, it probably is. Bro
is breathing into your ear, the disgusting smacking of flesh on flesh is in
your other. It hurts so badly that tears well up in your eyes but you can’t
help yourself or stop the feeling in between your legs. You feel your body
shudder as Bro hooks his arms around you and pulls you off the bed and into his
lap.
You imagine what it would feel like if Karkat was doing this instead. He would
be so soft and nice with you, you think. A noise threatens to slip out of your
mouth so you clench your jaw shut. A finger hooks around your lips and pulls
your mouth open. Bro apparently doesn’t want you to be quiet.
You radiate with shame at the noises that spill out of your mouth and you just
keep thinking about Karkat.
“Got a boyfriend or something?” Bro says in your ear.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck. You said his name out loud.
“Boy- boyfriend? I don’t- I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” you
manage to say, albeit shaky as hell. If only Karkat would date you.
You hear him exhale and he picks up the pace. God, it hurts so much. You can’t
hold it back anymore and start to sob, you feel your whole chest shaking and
your legs tremble like leaves in a windstorm. Suddenly, he drops you and you
land face first into your pillow. You grab it and shove it over your ears, you
just want the sounds to stop.
Bro digs into your back with one hand, you can hear that he’s finishing himself
off behind you. Now you feel something familiar, something wet and sticky on
your back. He sinks back down into the bed and you hear him yank his shirt off
and it lands your back.

He speaks after a minute, “Clean up and go to sleep.”
You peak out of the pillow to watch him stumble to the door and leave your
room. You inhale sharply and hold it for a minute. You crawl out of bed and
wipe your back off with his shirt, throwing it over by the door. You take a
minute to steady yourself before you grab your phone and use it to look at your
bed. There’s blood on the sheets and you can feel the bruises on your thighs
sting you as you realize the worst thing that could’ve happened… happened. You
pull your knees up to your face and cry. You feel so disgusted with yourself,
you just want to die. You sit there and cry until your phone beeps at you,
pulling you out of your daze.
You scoot over to the table where it’s sitting and click the lock button and
you see the notification on your phone. You sigh. Of fucking course.
 
“Happy birthday, Dave Strider!”
Chapter End Notes
     Aaaaand, I made it Davekat because of course I did.
     I actually want to do something with plot in this.
***** Chapter 4 *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
You jolt awake, sprawled out on the floor after having a nightmare about
drowning. It really sucked and you couldn’t feel your toes, but you could feel
the water entering your lungs and burning like lava on the way out when you
would dip your head above the surface. After coughing to make sure there isn’t
any water actually in your lungs, you turn your phone’s alarm off. It’s 6:30 am
and that shower is calling your name after last night’s… grossness.
“It’s my goddamn birthday, and I’m going to do some shit today.” you cheer
yourself on. It’s not everyday you turn 16 after all, and 16 means you’re
finally old enough to qualify for your surgery. With a happier thought in mind,
you grab a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt and head for the bathroom.
You catch sight of your Bro sprawled out on the futon snoring like it is going
out of style. He at least cleaned up after himself last night, because the big
pile of cans and bottles are in a plastic shopping bag in his computer chair
instead of on the floor. You tiptoe into the bathroom and turn the shower on.
You remember to rip your sheets off the bed and bag them up in your closet.
After making that mental note, you step into the warm water and sigh.
 
Sweet, sweet relief. Nothing like the icy cold salty water from your dreams.
You’re probably going to ask Karkat to ditch with you today so you can hang out
with him at the arcade. The owner, Ben, is a cool dude and hates your Bro, so
he’s not gonna narc on you. “It’s not a date or anything,” you tell yourself
after your cheeks warm up at the thought. You wash your hair and remind
yourself to double check for visible marks and cover them up with the tube of
make-up you pocketed at Walmart. It was the good shit too, so even if you get
all gross during gym, it’s not gonna come off.
You inhale the warm air and smile, you’re not going to let anything fuck today
up. Your other brother, Dirk’s ex (or are they dating? You can’t keep up.)
Jake, said he’d give you some weed for a birthday present and you’re seriously
looking forward to that. Karkat doesn’t smoke as far as you know though, so
you’ll be solo in that department.
After you’re done, you step out of the shower and pull on your binder and
shirt. You might as well go the full way and you make your hair look nice today
too. You tell yourself a million times in the mirror that you are not going to
let that asshole on the couch get you down and ruin your day. You pull your
skinny jeans up and button them, they’re just tight enough to keep your legs
warm and just loose enough that you don’t have to pack today. You let your eyes
slide to the bite-mark peeking through the neck of your shirt, it’s already
purple and gross looking. You rummage around in the drawer of the sink and get
your makeup out to cover it up.
Hmm. A little here… a little there… some powder to make it blend in and… done.
You won’t admit to watching about fifty beauty videos to make it look so
seamless to anyone, much less to yourself.
You look at yourself in the mirror again. The hormone treatments are really
doing wonders for your facial hair, although you hate how itchy it gets when
it’s hot out. It’s just a little bit on your chin and the sideburns, but it
just looks so… right.
You slide your sunglasses back onto your face and breathe. You’re Dave Strider.
It’s December 3rd, 2011 and you’re going to be out of this house in a year’s
time. Maybe less. Things can only get better from here… right?
“Right,” you tell your reflection and head back out the door to clean up your
room. Your legs and back feel a lot better after a hot shower so walking to
school isn’t gonna suck so much today. Besides, it’s still a little early so
you can catch up with Karkat on your way there. His house isn’t too far from
here, anyway. You check your phone again to see how much time you have to screw
around in your room before you head out. 7:01 am.
You hit decide to hit up Jade before you leave, even though it’s probably the
middle of the night for her right now.
 
 
turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] 
[gardenGnostic is an idle chum!]
TG: heyo just wanted to hit you up and let you know im not dead or anything lol
TG: also morning
TG: or i guess night
TG: its like midnight for you right now or whatever
TG: hmu when youre awake and we can look at dog memes or something
TG: not during school of course because id probably be in the deepest of deep
shits
TG: anyway ttyl
 TG: later
turntechGodhead [TG] has ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG]
 
 
Friendly guy? Dave Strider? Haha, hell yeah man.
You can hear Bro groaning, he’s probably got a crazy ass headache from all that
shit he drank last night, thus surprising absolutely no one. You walk back into
your room and rip the sheets off the bed, stuffing them into your pillow case
and toss it into your closet. Burning them is another problem for a future you.
You grab your skateboard and sling your backpack over your shoulder.
“School. Later.” you say to Bro.
“Hmmm wha-? Oh, later.” he says, throwing his hat on the ground from where it
was haphazardly clinging to the back of his head.
You grab your shitty earphones out of your bag, put them in, and open up your
music app. You play a_song from a mix that you and Rose collaborated together
on, so it’s got a nice vocalist and decent beats.
You’re about halfway into the song when you roll up to Karkat’s house, you’re
not a stalker, you just walked with him a few weeks ago and mentioned that you
could walk to school together sometimes if he was cool with that. Totally not
weird, he was cool with that. You pull an earphone out and watch him.
“Oh, hey.” he says as he turns around and notices you standing there, “You
watching me?”
“Just a coincidence man, I’m just good with time. Me and Time are old friends,
practically ex lovers who still get together sometimes. You ever met Time? He’s
DTF, if you feel me.” you put your hands up defensively and hold your
skateboard in place with your foot.
“You always ramble like that? Jesus, you must really love the sound of your
voice.” he smiles as he walks up to you.
“What can I say, I’d fuck me.” you laugh and playfully shove his side.
“You’re insufferable!” he’s trying hard not to laugh so he’s biting his lip,
“Did you remember to study for the test in Bio today?” You pick up your board
and start the 4 block walk to school.
“I’ve never studied a day in my life.” you stare right at him, “Don’t plan to.
You just gotta remember what the teacher said, and if you don’t remember, you
just fucking wing it.”
“Okay Mr. D in Algebra, but I don’t want to hear you crying to me when you fail
your test.” he chides you, waggling his finger in your face.
“Actually, dude, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to ditch with me today? It’s
um, it’s my birthday today so I was gonna take you to the arcade, uh, if you
want.” you pull your other earphone out and let it dangle around your neck.
“My dad is gonna kill me if he finds out, but it wouldn’t be the American Dream
if you didn’t miss shit sometimes... We’ll head out after Biology because I
really need to pass this test.” he thinks for a moment, “Give me your phone so
I can save my number in it. I’ll text you after I grab my things from my
locker.”
“If you wanted my number, you could’ve just asked.” you smile a bit and pass
your phone to him.
He focuses on typing in your phone for a second and passes it back to you.
“Yeah? That’s the nickname you’re picking for yourself?” you raise an eyebrow
at him.
“It’s what you called me after I told you my name, loser.” he jokes.
“Oh my god, Karkat, your number has 420 and 69 in it. Aww yes, you lucky
fucker.” you sling your arm around his shoulder, “Crabby, you’ve been blessed
with a gift, you better take care of it like a first-born son.”
“Remind me again why I’m friends with you?” he shakes your arm off his
shoulder, his cheeks darkening slightly.
“Because I’m… awesome?” you test.
“That will do.” he nods sagely.
“Ahaha, you’re such a dork,” you’re finally in front of the school, “Oh hey, I
have to go get something from Jake from my English class, meet me at the usual
spot?”
“Alright, I will see you there,” he waves to you and you spin around and head
to the usual spot where Jake and his buddies hang out behind the school. You
hang out here with them sometimes.
Though you know they’re hanging out with him mostly because Jake’s grandpa has
a legal weed plot in his greenhouse for medicinal. Old dude doesn’t seem to
notice when Jake snags a few to impress his friends. Either that, or he knows
Jake doesn’t smoke it.
 
“Hello, Dave!” he yells to you when he sees you, “It’s been a right bit since
I’ve seen you, old boy! How’ve you been faring?”
“S’cool, I can’t complain too much.” you shrug with a smile, “You remembered my
birthday didn’t you?”
“How could I forget about you? Finally 16, things will only be on the up and up
from here.” he smiles brightly, and slaps his hand against yours and you take
the baggie from his hand.
“You talk to Dirk lately?” you say and his smile dies down a bit.
“Ah he’s… well he’s being Dirk. You probably know how that is, he’s your kin
after all.” he says. You pocket the baggie while no one is watching you.
“Half-brother, but yeah, I feel you dude.” you pat his shoulder, “Cheer up man,
a smile looks better on you. Dirk will come around, he’s just not sure how to
deal with our dad’s death.”
“I personally didn’t give a shit about that asshole, but I know Dirk cared
so...” you trail off, your dad left you with Bro after he ran off to California
to make it big as a screenplay writer and he never called you, so he obviously
made it clear he didn’t give a shit. Dirk got to stay with his biological mom
and you got Bro because of fucking course you did.
“Well, all this doom and gloom is no good, like you said, a smile is better.
Have a jolly birthday, Dave.” he smiles back at you.
“We’ll hang the next time I go over to Dirk’s place, later Jake” you wave
goodbye to him and walk in through the back entrance of the school and head
down to your locker to stow your things.
You shove your earphones back into your ears and replay that playlist, Rose may
be mysterious as all hell, but damn if she don’t have great taste in music. You
decide to leave your Biology book in your locker, since you’ve got it second
period and you’re not going to need it after that.
You’re notice a headache on the back of your head, probably from Bro pulling on
your hair like it was a rope and he was a mountain climber. You grab a few pain
pills from your stash in the back of your locker and pop a few in your mouth.
They’re not anything hardcore, just some ibuprofen for when your eyes hurt too
much.
You stand up and look down the hallway as your phone fades into the next_song,
one that you picked, and you ignored Rose when she called you out for why you
picked it. You see Karkat walking around the corner and heading down toward
you.
“Jesus, is this a romcom or some shit?” you mumble to yourself. You think
Karkat would find that either funny or romantic, as he loves rom-coms with a
burning passion.
“Hey Dave, I uh, hope you don’t mind but I actually got you something for your
birthday, I needed to grab it out of my locker.” he looks down at the gift-
wrapped box and then back to you.
“Really? I… thank you.” you take the package he gives you and you stare at it
for a moment. It’s got a nice red wrapping on it and something is written on a
card in Spanish with your name underneath it.
“Should I open the gift or the card first?” you feel a genuine smile on your
cheeks and you feel your ears warm a little.
“Uh, actually, you should open the card in.. later! Not here, actually. Just
later when I’m not around.” he twists his finger around a loose curl of hair
and pushes the gift toward you.
“Well open the gift already!” he puffs up a little, how adorable.
“Alright alright…” you chuckle and tear the paper off and slide out the gift.
It’s a pair of headphones that you talked about getting for yourself for
Christmas if you had the money. You didn’t know Karkat was paying attention to
your blabbering, much less had the amount of money for these.
“Karkat I don’t know what to say...” you look at him.
“Silly, that’s not all, look underneath.” he reaches into the box and pulls up
the headphone box to show an old Polaroid camera with instant-developing film,
“It was my dad’s but he doesn’t use it anymore, so I fixed it up and bought you
some new film.”
You suddenly feel overwhelmed.
“You didn’t have to do this for me,” you say steadily.
“Of course I did! What are friends for?” he pokes you in the arm, “You deserve
nice things.”
You really want to hug him, but your arms are too full of gifts to do that
right now.
“I’ll murder you with thank you’s later, my arms are too full.” you smile
brightly at him and he smiles back at you.
“What about this card?” you raise an eyebrow and hold it up between your
fingers.
“Later! When we are at the Arcade, I’ll read it to you.” he waves you off.
“Oh shit, what time is it?” you say as the first bell rings.
“Well I’ll see you in class, bye.” he runs off. What’s got him so worked up?
You pop open the card after stowing your gifts in your backpack and… oh. It’s..
it’s not in English. Does he want you to translate it? You did ask him to teach
you some words in Spanish but.. You didn’t think that he’d write two whole
paragraphs in Spanish with the only English word being “Dave”
“Shit, I’m gonna be late and get in trouble.” you close your locker and run off
to class. Hopefully you can keep your chill around Karkat today.
Chapter End Notes
     Get it? Get it? Jake English... from English class *ba dum TISS*
     Shit's about to get romantic, or at the very least, there's a Davekat
     date coming up.
     Also there's clickable song links in here!!
***** Chapter 5 *****
Chapter Notes
     Warning for homophobic slur (f* slur)
     EDIT 3/8/2018: Made a very very minor change to some wording.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
You slide into the locker room and pop open your gym locker. Hey, if anything,
gym is easy as all hell because you can rup laps around the pathetic kids who
can’t do half the shit that you can. After grabbing your running shoes, you put
on your long sleeved gym shirt because no way in hell are you dealing with
people asking about your bruises. You’re the first one here, so you’ve got the
changing room all to yourself. The teachers are cool about keeping everyone in
check around you, because teenagers are dicks.
After changing into your gym uniform, you check to see if anyone messaged you.
Nothing yet. So far so good. Jade probably won’t say anything to Rose without
your permission and nobody wants to deal with Rose when she’s pissed off. Even
you are afraid of incurring her wrath. You tie up your shoes just as the other
kids start to pour in. Some kid who you don’t know stares at you for a second.
You shoot him a look that’s somewhere between ‘say anything to me and I’ll rip
your head off’ and ‘go fuck yourself’ and he sneers back at you. He opens his
mouth and starts to say something but quickly bites his tongue when Dirk comes
around the corner.
“Morning, bro.” he holds his fist out. You don’t wanna leave a bro hanging, so
you bump it back. He obviously reads the room, ever the watchful of people
fucking with you, and looks at the kid staring at you.
“What’s wrong? You got a crush on him or something?” Dirk says cooly, “Get the
fuck lost.”
“Fuck you and your freak ass brother.” he spits at you before stalking off to
the other side of the locker room.
“How’ve you been?” you lean back on the bench and look at him as he pulls his
shirt over his head.
“I feel like shit if I’m honest, but I’m here, so there’s that. Oh, happy
birthday, by the way.” he mumbles.
“Thanks. And I don’t mean to drop a bomb on you, Dirk, but you gotta talk to
Jake sooner or later.” you poke at his side. He whips his head around to stare
at you. His shades are hanging on his locker, so you can see the guilty look on
his face.
“God, I know. I already feel like shit for getting pissed at him for something
that wasn’t his fault. Who’s side are you on, anyway?” he pauses, “I suck at
saying sorry, you know that.”
“Just tell him! You don’t gotta’ beat around the bush with him. He’s gonna
forgive you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” you assure him.
“I will, man. I should ask how you’re doing instead…” he leans his head in
closer to you and whispers, “Bro treating you okay? You look rough, man.”
Your mind flies back to last night and you’re still too scared to tell anyone.
You only talked to Jade about it because she SAW and you can’t smooth-talk your
way out of that.
“I had a bad night. You know how Bro is.” you say and his face falls into a
frown. He knows about the forced fighting and the whole ‘Bro can’t be bothered
to feed or clothe his kid’ thing but he doesn’t know about everything else.
“Yeah, I do. Which is why I’m worried about you.” he pats your head. Everyone
and their sister’s brother’s cousin’s boyfriend knows you two are related, so
you’re not worried about anyone saying mean shit to you. Even if they did, so
what? You’d kick their ass in a second.
“Nothing I can’t handle, Dirk. I would like it if you would come by more,
though. He’s considerably less of a giant fuckface when you’re around to judge
his crazy ass. At least he has some fucking shame left in his soulless body.”
you whisper.
The kids have started leaving the locker room and you take that as your cue to
leave. You stand up to do so and Dirk catches you by the elbow.
“Man, what?” you look at him over your glasses.
“I’m… I’m sorry about everything, Dave. If my mom wasn’t such a fucking bitch
you could come live with me. She preaches her love of LGBT people but she sure
as shit doesn’t put her so-called ‘acceptance’ into actual fucking practice.”
he slides his sunglasses back on, “Is tonight okay?”
You nod and he lets you go, so you head out to the gym. Some people look up at
you, but everyone else seems to ignore you or just doesn’t give a fuck. You see
Rose wave at you and you walk over to her, sitting next to her on the ground.
She’s your best friend in the whole world and she genuinely cares about you, as
much as she tries to hide it behind her signature Lalonde snark. She’s shorter
than you by nearly half a foot, curvy, and Japanese. She’s a die-hard lesbian
though and makes damn sure everyone knows it.
“Hi Dave.” she says with a smile, “Happy birthday.”
“Happy fucking birthday to me.” you lean back on your elbows and kick your feet
out from under you.
“Cheery as always, I see. Long night I presume?” she smirks a bit and tucks her
hair behind her ear.
“You know me. Full of that genuine 100% real beef Strider Cheer. Trademark
pending.” you shoot her a finger-gun.
“Ah yes, avoid and evade. My personal favorite tactic for making sure nobody
knows I was up all night looking stressed out of my gourd.” Rose winks at you,
“And the finger-guns are a nice touch.”
“Stop seeing right through me like I’m made of glass. It’s creepy as hell.” you
laugh a little.
“Ever the clarity with you, Dave. Creepy just happens to be something that
comes naturally to me like breathing or sleeping.” she pokes her tongue out at
you and you mirror it back to her. She’s known you longer than anyone else and
she knows literally everything about you. Or, at least, she used to. You
internally repress that thought. You’ve been known to mumble your thoughts
aloud and this wouldn’t be a good time to do that.
“So, how’s… things?” you want to step on yourself for how unsure that sounded.
“Well, you know how it is with things. They are that they are. But if you’re
asking about me in general, I’m just peachy.” she smiles a bit, “You been
talking to Karkat?”
Your face drops a bit, “How’d you know that?”
“Well a little birdy, by which I mean Kanaya, told me that she’d seen the two
of you walking together to school today. I must say, you have good taste in
men.” she side-eyes you at that.
“Ah, well, it’s...” you stammer, thank GOD the teacher just walked in. At least
you can avoid this for now. You sit up a bit straighter and Rose looks at you
with curiosity on her face but doesn’t press it further while the teacher is
there.
You zone out mostly on what she’s saying. Something something, endurance,
something something, how many laps you can do in thirty minutes.
You’ve been doing the same shit in class all week, so you don’t even know why
she bothers to explain it. She unlocks the doors to the track area and lets
everyone outside. You let Rose walk ahead of you and you hang back because
you’d rather do anything than run alongside her where she can pick your brain
about Karkat. You’re not avoiding this, you’re really not. Just putting it off
for now.
“Oh, Strider, Happy birthday.” the teacher, you can never remember her name,
smiles at you. She annoyingly calls everyone by their last name.
“It’s not my birthday though!” Dirk calls from across the gym and you hear his
friends chuckle. Asshole.
“She obviously means the better Strider, nerd.” you smile with a snark you
could’ve only gotten from hanging out with Rose. You look over at him as he
flips you off.
You’re back outside again and you can see the kids from Jake’s mom’s class out
here. She’s a hippy-dippy Creative Writing teacher and just loves to take her
class outside when the weather’s not blazing hot. She sees you looking and
waves at you so you wave back to her. See? You’re not an asshole.
You finally get over to the actual track and your class loiters around the line
waiting for your teacher to finish gossiping or whatever teachers do when
they’re not teaching. Rose spots you and mouths something like ‘You’re gonna
have to tell me sooner or later’ and well, joke’s on her, because she was so
busy reading you that you didn’t get a chance to tell her you’re leaving after
your next class.
After your teacher gets outside, you finally take off running. You’re going to
kick everyone’s ass anyway, nobody but Dirk is as fast as you and he’s not in
your class this semester. You’re at about seven laps when the teacher says it’s
time to go back inside to tally out your laps. Rose never made it up to you and
that’s just dandy with you, but she does catch you at the door.
“He’s good for you, I say go for it.” she says as she fans off her face. You’re
standing next to her so you can’t just say nothing.
“Thanks.” you say, “Easier said than done, but thanks.”
“Have fun at the arcade, love.” she blows a kiss at you and you swat it away.
“Karkat is damn gossip. I should kick his ass for that.” you say as you part
ways for your respective locker rooms. You’re not alone in the room this time
but nobody is paying you much mind. Dirk is still out with his class but he’ll
be in here soon.
You pull your gym shirt off, quickly grabbing your regular shirt and getting
ready to pull it over your head. You’re about to mentally kick yourself for
that thought because that stupid kid from earlier rounds the corner with a
friend in tow.
“What the fuck do you want?” you say, your arms going lax with the shirt still
in your arms.
“I want you to get the fuck back where you belong, you crossdressing fag.” he
spits the words at you and, yeah, that hurt a bit, but you know better than to
show any emotion to these people. You turn your head away from him and ignore
him. This apparently pissed him off and his friend puts his arm out to grab at
your binder. He nearly gets there before you feel hands on your waist and you
gasp. Your brain is throwing up signals that Bro is near you but the other hand
reaches out and grabs the kids head and slams it into a locker.
“You piece of shit, what did I JUST tell you?” It’s Dirk. He swings his body in
front of you and you just stand there. You don’t see the other kid but you can
hear footsteps running toward you. It sounds like an older guy so it’s probably
the teacher coming over to break it up.
Dirk is still standing in front of you and his eyes flick behind you. You turn
your head to see what he was looking at. The kid from before wrenches your arm
in his hands. Not fucking smart. You jerk your elbow back at him and it smashes
into his nose, sending him stumbling backwards. Dirk’s fist connects with the
kids face and you finally remember you’re standing there shirtless and, god,
Dave, have some dignity. You pull your shirt on and step back.
The teacher finally gets there after what feels like years and sees the two
idiots standing around staring at you while Dirk stands by you protectively.
Everyone is looking over at you because, holy shit, your brother just punched a
kid in the face for you.
“What’s going on?” the teacher, you recognize him, he’s the baseball coach,
looks between the four of you.
“They just assaulted my brother, I had every right to attack them.” Dirk says,
pushing you back.
A few boys are whispering to each other and a few of them look damn afraid.
Everyone who knows Dirk is either scared shitless of him or is his best friend.
He’s tall, made of muscles, and is terrifying when he’s angry. He’s never
gotten angry at you or ever taken out his anger on you like Bro has. He’s
always just protected you.
“Yeah, they came around and started ganging up on Dave, don’t blame Dirk for
helping!” someone Dirk’s age pipes up.
Your brother softens visibly and steps forward, letting you get out from behind
him. The teacher pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.
“DiStri, I feel you, but you can’t go punching people.” he says. Ew, did he
call Dirk ‘DiStri’? You’re totally going to pick on him for that.
“Yeah, well, Mr. York, it’s not like you were here to do anything.” Dirk hisses
and the coach has the decency to look ashamed.
“It’s fine, I’m fine. Dirk was just helping me get away from these creeps.” you
put a hand on Dirk’s shoulder and you feel him relax.
“You and you, in my office.” Mr. York points at the kids, “Dirk, Dave, please
get out of my locker room before I change my mind.” You have nothing to add to
that so you quickly change back into your regular clothes and bolt from the
locker room.
The hallway is empty and it’ll be another ten minutes until everyone else is
out here besides Dirk, so you let yourself have a moment. You remember to
finally breathe so you let it out and take a deep breath. You hear the locker
room door open and shut quickly. Dirk is by you on the floor. Oh hey, you’re on
the floor now, that’s a thing.
“Dave, hey, you okay?” he says softly and flutters around you like a bird.
“Yeah, I’m-I’m fine.” you say. You are not fine. He knows this and rummages
through his backpack until he finds a bottle of water and passes it to you. You
take a long drink from it and it makes you feel a little better.
“You good?” he pulls your shades up over your head and you notice he isn’t
wearing his at the moment. They’re hanging on the neck of his shirt. Ah, he’s
making sure you’re not going to lie.
“I’ve been worse.” it’s not a lie. “Thanks.”
“Hmm. I don’t think you’re lying but…” he’s a good people reader,
unfortunately. This is why you’ve been avoiding him.
“It’s okay man. I’m okay. They didn’t get to touch me.” you almost want to
laugh at the irony here, because sure, those two didn’t, but someone else did.
“Dave…” he locks eyes with you, “Are… are you okay today? You seem more jumpy
than usual.”
“Boy troubles.” you say as you stand, which is also not technically a lie.
“Were you fighting with Bro yesterday? I saw the bruises on your back when I
grabbed you.” and okay, he’s observant, and this you can actually tell him
without feeling like Bro is going to murder you or worse.
“Yeah, and it sucked, and then he got shitfaced after. Super glad Dad decided
to leave me with him.” you try not to sound angry about that last part, but
hey, you sure as fuck are.
“He left you with Bro because my mom is a horrible parent for you.” he reasons.
“And what, Bro is better?” you clench your teeth and try not to yell about
that. What the fuck is wrong with your family?
“It’s better than being hurt because of who you are.” he looks really sad. You
hate airing this shit to him because you know he feels bad, but you feel like
shit too. Neither of you had a say in this. You grab your glasses and slide
them back over your eyes. Much better.
“If something were to happen to you, I’d murder Bro for hurting you, but I’d
understand if you couldn’t or didn’t want to tell me. I won’t ask if you don’t
come to me first,” he promises. You almost want to hold him to that.
You nod and the bell rings. Other students are leaving the locker rooms, so you
put a little space between yourself and him.
“Thanks for sticking up for me, Dirk.” you actually are telling the truth here.
“It’s my job.” he shrugs and rubs your shoulder before walking off with a wave.
Rose sees you standing there and jogs up to talk to you, pulling you off to the
side. She looks angry as hell.
“Who the fuck touched you?” her lips curl and, damn, she’s looking around for
the guys.
“You gonna kill ‘em?” you joke, but she looks serious as hell.
“It’s the plan. Maybe break a leg or two.” she says.
“It’s okay, Rose, Dirk already punched the one kid and the other is probably in
deep shit with him. How did you find out?” you ask, even though you know the
answer.
“Dirk told Roxy and Roxy told me. If I so much as see those two…” her eyes lock
on someone and, oh shit, she’s really fucking pissed.
“I’ve got it, Rose, take Dave and go on to class.” the coach from earlier says,
escorting the two scumbags off in the direction the principal's office.
“Motherfuckers.” Rose spits the words out like they’re poison, “Dave, you
should… you should say something to--”
“Hey, Rose, I love you and all, but I really would rather talk about anything
else right now if you don’t mind.” you interrupt her.
“Right-- no, you’re right, forgive me.” she hooks her arm around yours, “To
Biology then?”
“To Biology.” you say with a laugh. What a fucking birthday this is turning out
to be.
===============================================================================
 
You and Rose are just about to your science class when you remember something
you wanted to ask her.
“Oh Rose, you can read Spanish right?” you dig the card out of your pocket
where it was folded up.
“My, my, what’s this?” she says, taking it from your hand and eying it.
“Karkat gave it to me, I can’t fucking read it though. He’s testing me I
think.” you muse.
“Or, Dave, perhaps he has trouble writing in English and would rather read it
to you elsewhere?” aaaand now you feel stupid.
“Wow, I feel stupid.” you say, stupidly. The circle of stupidity is complete.
“Well I’m all for having a laugh at your expense because you’re very adorable
when you’re angry, but I’ll take a look and spare you this once.” she winks at
you and now you kinda want to murder her, but, nah.
You watch her as she reads it over quickly, leaned against the wall across the
way from your classroom.
“I don’t think I should read this.” she closes it and hands it back to you.
Weird.
“Why not?” you tilt your head.
“It’s... hmmm. I think you have not told me something I’ve read and now I feel
bad for knowing about it, so I’m going to let this be a thing between the two
of you.” She fiddles with her hair and looks away. Oh shit.
“Wait. Rose, what did you read?” you ask.
“Dave, I mean, I already had a feeling but I figured you would come to me about
it eventually.” she answers, cryptic as ever, “About you know, oh how should I
put this? Your um, scars.”
Oh. Right. You forgot Karkat didn’t know about… that. Or at least, he doesn’t
yet.
“Actually, why don’t we talk about this tomorrow? I want you to have a good day
today.” she brushes your hair out of your face.
“Rose I don’t-” the bell rings, because of course it does.
“Tomorrow, Dave. Please?” she squeezes your arm and pulls you in for a hug,
nuzzling herself into your neck.
“Okay, tomorrow.” you say as she walks down the hall.
Well damn if that ain’t a thing that just happened, because it sure just
fucking happened. And it’s never going to stop happening.
You walk into class and slide into your desk, you can see Karkat already
talking to Rose’s girlfriend Kanaya very quickly in Spanish. It doesn’t sound
like an argument, it seems like Kanaya is doing almost all the talking though.
You’re not going to lie, Kanaya is damn beautiful. She’s elegant, tall, a total
lesbian, and dark skinned like Karkat. You can’t pinpoint her accent, but Rose
says she was raised in Britain and now that you think about it, you can hear
that in her voice. She’s a bit snarky, kind, into fashion, and obviously
perfect for Rose. If soulmates were a thing, you’re sure Kanaya and Rose were
made for each other. You’re not staring at her, you’re not.
Karkat looks over at you and laughs, “You think Kanaya is elegant?” God fucking
dammit Strider. Kanaya laughs, holding up a perfectly manicured hand to cover
her lips.
“I don’t really know about snarky, but I agree on the tall point.” she says
with her wavering voice. She always sounds like she’s just on the edge of
sarcasm, but she’s never been sarcastic with you, you think at least.
“Yeah well don’t make a habit out of the snarky thing,” you blush.
She whispers something to Karkat in Spanish again and he makes a noise like she
just strangled him and she laughs again.
“¡Cállate!” he whispers, and you know that one. She seems to be poking fun at
him. She pauses for a moment and leans over to you.
“Need something?” you ask her.
“Happy birthday, Dave.” she whispers and smiles at you through perfect black
lipstick.
You mumble a ‘thanks’ and try not to implode. O-fucking-kay, Dave, it’s just
Kanaya and she’s not interested in dudes.
The teacher walks in and doesn’t say much, just a ‘Hello’ and passes out the
tests.
It’s not that hard, you’ve been doing animal anatomy and that stuff is easy
enough to remember. You think about the skeletons you have posed on the shelves
in your room at Bro’s apartment, okay well maybe the animal thing is more of an
interest than a thing you just know about.
You manage to finish it first but you don’t want to look like a nerd for this
shit so you fuck around with your pencil until a few people have handed theirs
in.
Anxiety: 1. Dave: 0.
You sit back down at your desk and pull your phone out. You consider messaging
Rose to talk about what she read, but she doesn’t want to ruin your day. That’s
fair, you suppose. You pop open Pesterchum to see you’ve got pestered by Jade
while you were in gym.
gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG]
[turntechGodhead is an idle chum!]
GG: good morning dave!
GG: oh dog memes you say!! :O
GG: i may have to take you up on that. :D
GG: oh i suppose you’re in school right now
GG: uh oh, i hope i did not just get you in trouble
GG: i’m going to say no since you’re idle and not offline.
GG: oh dave, i have a good meme right here for you.
[gardenGnostic attached the file dogmeme57.png]
GG: i hope that’s okay!! :)
GG: have a good day at school dave
GG: and happy birthday!! :D
gardenGnostic [GG] has ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG]
You tap on the attached file, it’s a picture of a black dog with the image
sharpened a lot and the eyes glowing bright red and it says ‘HAPPY BIRTH’ in
big letters that don’t fit in the picture. You’re laughing quietly to yourself
when you notice Karkat getting up and he looks at you and back at your phone.
“Lamento mi elección en los hombres…” he mutters to Kanaya and she laughs
softly.
Now that everyone has handed their test in, the teacher tell the class that
they can talk until the bell rings.
“¿Estás bien, Karkat?” Kanaya says to him, and you’re not going to lie that
this shit is fascinating to listen to. You know Dirk can speak and read
Japanese and so can Bro, but you were never really good at it so you can’t read
it well.
“Si, estoy bién” he answers and scratches his face.
“Karkat por favor. Dile a Dave que lo amas pronto. Él obviamente te ama.”
Kanaya says with a playful shove.
“I’m gonna be honest and say I have no idea what you’re saying, but hearing my
name in there makes me nervous.” you lean on your arm and stare at them as
Kanaya gives Karkat a pitiful look.
“It’s nothing Dave, oh look it’s almost time for you to talk to Karkat while I
go over here and speak with my friends from Design. Adiós.” she walks off
without looking back at Karkat.
“¡Kanaya, eres una traidora!” he grimaces at her and looks over at you, “Oh
hello Dave, you don’t speak Spanish suddenly do you?”
“Nope, sorry. Oh hey, I love the card but…” you pull it out of your pocket and
show it to him, “I can’t read it.”
“I know you can’t, but I’m not that good at writing in English so I thought I’d
read it back to you.” he says it like it was supposed to be obvious, and
looking back you feel dumb again for thinking it was some kind of puzzle.
“Wait, then why did you make the card if you were just going to read it to me?”
you shift the weight off of your right arm to your left.
“Well, it’s a tradition I thought? I didn’t think you would be so upset about
it. I can take it back if you don’t want it?” he reaches for the card.
“Uh actually I love the card and uh yeah, anyway I’m keeping the card.” you
stow it under your phone back in your pocket.
Karkat looks at you and flicks his eyes to your neck and then back to you.
What?
“Dave are you okay?” he touches his neck while he says it.
“I’m fine, why?” you wonder why he is touching his neck.
“Dave, Are. You. Okay?” he keeps tapping his neck. What is he…
Your stomach drops. Oh good, that’s a thing isn’t it. You peek down at it and
luckily it’s just the bruised part showing, not the actual damn teeth marks.
But when did it come off? Right. Fuck, Rose gave you that big hug in the
hallway.
“Yes, I’m okay. I just bumped myself when I was screwing around the other day.”
you know this won’t draw any attention to yourself that you don’t want. And
Karkat will probably think this is from Bro being the world’s shittiest
guardian and not a fucking… you know.
“Sorry to hear about that.” he says, looking genuinely hurt to see you hurt.
You hate seeing him with that sad look on his face.
“So, Karkat, can you tell me something in Spanish? It’s so weird hearing you
speak it.” you change the subject.
He knows what you’re doing, but he plays along with a laugh, “Do I ask you to
say English things because you can speak English?”
“I can do Japanese if you like. あなたは私が今まで見た中で最も美しい人です.” you rattle off and he
looks surprised.
You see Kanaya look over at you from the corner of her eye and she gives you a
wide smile. Oh fuck, you didn’t count on her knowing any of that. You hope
Karkat doesn’t-
“What does that mean?” he looks at Kanaya and she sneers at you. Okay, you take
back everything you said about her being kind, now you know why Rose loves her.
She’s pure, beautiful lesbian evil. You give her a pleading look and she thinks
for a moment.
“Unfortunately I didn’t catch all of it, something about ‘all these stairs’
perhaps?” she says and you want to cry and hug her and kiss her-actually maybe
not that bit but she could’ve ratted you out and she didn’t.
“Damn memes.” Karkat says with a shake of his head.
The bell finally gives you sweet mercy and… oh that’s right, you asked Karkat
on a date. Wait, no, it’s not a date!! It’s just two guys being dudes and
hanging out together. Alone in an arcade while the owner plays games in the
back. Oh fuck, oh fuck. You didn’t think this through. Shit, how much money do
you have? That’s enough for lunch, right? You can take your da-not date. Your.
FRIEND. Out to lunch.
Guys being dudes.
You hate yourself sometimes.
Chapter End Notes
     Translation notes:
     "¡Cállate!" = Shut up!
     "Lamento mi elección en los hombres…" = I regret my choice in men
     "¿Estás bien, Karkat?" = Are you okay, Karkat?
     "Si, estoy bién" = Yeah, I'm okay.
     "Karkat por favor. Dile a Dave que lo amas pronto. Él obviamente te
     ama." = Karkat please. Tell Dave that you love him soon. He obviously
     loves you.
     "¡Kanaya, eres una traidora!" = Kanaya, you're a traitor!!
     "あなたは私が今まで見た中で最も美しい人です" = You are the most beautiful person I've ever
     seen.
     Casual flirting in other languages?? Who's that?? I don't know 'em.
     ;)
***** Chapter 6 *****
Chapter Notes
     You've gotten this far, enjoy a nice afternoon outing with Karkat and
     Dave. :D
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Karkat follows you down to your locker and just stands there, watching you put
your things into your backpack and zip it back up.
“Hurry up! I don’t want to get caught.” he’s looking around, as if someone is
going to grab him and shove him in detention for being near a locker.
“It’s fine, Crabby. My locker is right next to the back exit and they don’t do
hall monitors down here. I’ve skipped more than just this once and I’ve been
going here longer than you.” you think it’s kinda cute how nervous and twitchy
he is though, but you don’t want him to panic, so you do hurry up.
“Alright, alright, we’re going. You’re making  me  nervous.” you grab his
sleeve and lead him to the back exit. Nobody is watching and there are no
cameras here, so getting out is easy enough.
“Where to?” he says once you’re behind the school.
“Follow me.” you cut through the underneath of the bridge by the school and
walk down the path until you’re far enough away that any staff looking outside
of the windows couldn’t possibly recognize you if you turned around.
“Arcade is this way, give me your hand.” you’re already up the side up the
ravine and you hold your hand out to help him up.
“This better be worth it. Damn glad… I didn’t go to gym class.” he huffs as you
pull him up toward you. He crashes into you and you mutter a ‘sorry’ and give
him some room.
“Well I already did gym and you don’t hear me complaining.” you smirk.
“Yes. Well you’re also… uh-- nevermind.” he fiddles with his hair like he did
this morning.
Aaaand now you made it awkward. Nice work, Dave.
But…
It’s kinda nice just being out here on a colder day with Karkat.
“Oh, I know.” Karkat claps his hands together, “I can read your card to you
now.”
“Just a sec, it’s in here.” you reach into your pocket and hand it over to him.
“ ¿Ingles o español? ” he says. You know this one because you watched Dora the
Explorer at least once in your life.
“Ingles, please,” you say. Wow, he smiled at that. How cute.
“Dave…” he begins, “I’m really glad to have met you, even if the circumstances
weren’t preferable. You’ve been a good person to me and made me feel welcome
when everyone else thought I was a weirdo. I hope one day you can be in a
better situation and your Brother won’t be around anymore to beat you up, but
even so, I’m glad you’re my friend and I treasure you. Karkat.”
“I could’ve written it in broken English, I bet you would’ve liked that.” he
says and pokes you with his elbow.
“You know me too well. Either way, thank you for the gifts and just being nice
to me. You’re awesome.” you throw your arm around him and give him a squeeze.
He’s really nice to hug because his sweater is so thick and soft. He squeezes
you back and your stomach is doing its best impression of a gold-metal pole
vaulter.
“Ah, is this the place?” he says and points up to an obnoxious neon sign.
“Yep. Just opened too, so it’s gonna’ be empty.” you can hear the annoying
sounds of ‘GameBRO!!!!’ inside, but it wouldn’t be a classic arcade if it
didn’t have annoying music playing.
“After you.” You hold the door open for him and he waves you off but steps in
ahead of you.
“Dave! What’s up, my best customer?” Ben says holding his hand out for a high-
five. You slap your hand to his and ow, yeah, that fucking hurt. “You want a
wristband or coin-play today?” Coin-play is for when you’re just stopping by
for a few games, wristband is for the long-haul.
“Wristbands.” you answer. He grabs a green wristband from behind the register
and hands it over to you.
“Who’s this?” he points at Karkat.
“This is my… friend… Karkat.” Smooth, Dave, real fucking smooth. You mentally
slap yourself in the face and hell, might as well shoot yourself in the foot.
Gore the whole damn corpse with how badly you fucked up that one.
“Any friend of Dave is a friend of me, here you go, dude.” he says in his
stupid surfer-dude accent and hands Karkat a wristband too.
“Thanks-- Ben was it? You’re not gonna tell anyone you saw us here, are you?”
Karkat says, ever paranoid.
“Benny’s cool, he hasn’t narc’d on me yet,” you put your elbow on the counter.
“As long as Dave keeps his weirdo brother Derick away from me, we’re always
cool.” Ben says.
“Why don’t you like Bro?” he asks. Oh boy, here we go...
“Lemme’ count the reasons…” he pauses, “One, dude’s a paranoid mother fuck and
never lets anyone in his apartment unless he personally screens them, which
means you gotta’ give him all of your personal info. Two, he broadcasts his
security footage live on one of those creepy people-watching websites, which
sure as fuck can’t be healthy for my dude here. Three, Derick is a closet
alcoholic. Four, the fucking puppets my man. The fucking puppets.”
“Oh.” Karkat says, like he’s not sure if he believes them or if he does believe
them, but doesn’t understand.
“He’s… complicated...” you say. Sure, that’s a good word, let’s say that. You
know Ben doesn’t watch the live-footage, he just heard about it through Bro
himself and that pretty much made the decision that he doesn’t want to be
around him.
“Alright, I’m gonna go play PS3 in the back. Holler or ding me if you need
anything.” he slaps the bell on his desk for show and walks off.
“Wait, we don’t need to pay?” Karkat asks.
“Nah, I’ve got a membership. ‘Was worth every penny.” you shrug and walk in the
direction of the tallest arcade cabinet.
“Oh, my friend back in Spain had this on his Sega. Street Fighter Turbo.” he
perks up and you smile at him.
You waste a good chunk of time playing games with him. He gets arrogant when he
wins and super angry when he loses, but he hasn’t stopped smiling since you got
here. You even hit up the pinball machines and he kicks your butt each time,
mostly because you can’t stop staring at him. 1:30 pm rolls around and your
stomach starts begging you for food.
“Hey, uh, do you… wanna come get lunch with me?” you say while he’s focused on
beating you in Tetris.
“I could eat, sure. What do you have in mind?” he asks.
“I think the only place that will let us in without caring if we’re students
outside of school when we’re not supposed to be is McDonalds. Fuck. I lost.”
you slap your hand on the start button when the ‘GAME OVER’ screen plays and
Karkat inputs his name in the high score screen.
“Hah, alright.” he’s still got a big smile on his face.
“Hey, Benny, we’re heading out!” You slap the bell on the desk obnoxiously and
Karkat rolls his eyes at you.
“Later, little dude! Tell Dirk I said thanks for the repair job when you see
him.” he yells from the backroom.
You walk Karkat out and he practically hisses at the sun, “Dios mio! My fucking
eyes!”
“That’s what happens when you spend three and a half hours in a dark arcade.
You get used to it. Or you wear shades. I’d lend you mind but I actually do
need these.” you tell him.
“Why? What’s wrong with your eyes?” he asks innocently.
“They’re crazy sensitive to light. Remember how you felt just a second ago? Now
you feel fine but I’d probably die if I went out in the light after being in
the dark like that. I got a doctors note and everything that lets me wear ‘em
wherever and whenever I want.” you explain and he looks guilty. “Aw, man, I’m
not saying you can’t complain about the light hurting your eyes, it hurt me
too. I just live with that all the time so it’s no big deal to me if I’ve got
these on.” you touch your shades for emphasis.
“I guess I never thought about why you wore them.” he says thoughtfully.
“Well, I’m a pretentious asshole, but I don’t think even I could get away with
wearing these in school without getting into deep shit.” you shrug and start
walking.
It’s quiet again but it gives you an idea. Karkat is into romantic stuff,
right?
“Hey, hold this for a sec?” you stop Karkat on the sidewalk and he holds your
backpack for you so you can fish out your new earbuds. You unwrap them and plug
them into your phone, picking a  song  that reminded you of Karkat. It’s
something from some band that Rose listens to, but this song was really nice,
so you added it to your regular mix as well as Rose’s mix.
“Here, put this in. And thanks for holding this.” you exchange your right
earbud for your backpack. He looks a little wary, but puts it in anyway.
You walk together and listen to the song, you look over at Karkat and he looks
over at you. He takes a step closer toward you and you feel his fingertips
graze yours.
“ Oh shit, this  IS  a date. ” you start to panic, but you push the feeling
back. It’s cool, it was just an accident. He didn’t mean to do that… probably.
Unless he did. He looks at the ground and back over at you, shit that’s so
cute.
“Hey, hey, look at that we’re here.” you laugh and open the door.
“Great, I’ll get the food. What do you want?” he says, looking at the menu
board.
“Oh, you don’t have to pay if you don’t want to.” you rub the back of your
neck.
“It’s your birthday. Consider it my treat.” he smiles softly at you.Holy shit,
you’re in love.
Calm down, Dave. Tell him what you want and  chill.
“You can just get me a burger and some fries. And a drink too. Any size.” you
exhale the breath you’ve been holding.
“Alright, go pick somewhere to sit. I’ll be over in a few minutes.” he touches
your arm reassuringly.
Right, a seat. You pick a booth in the back corner and scan the room. You might
as well people-watch while you wait. There’s a few of college kids sitting
together and laughing, two girls sitting together and playing on their phones,
and one weirdly blond guy sitting by himself in a booth. Wait, that last one
was just you.
You check yourself out in the window reflection and you can see the smear of
makeup that Rose rubbed off when she hugged you, it barely came off, but it did
enough that it looks like you have a nasty bruise on your collarbone. You take
a deep breath, Karkat is standing at the front waiting by the register, he sees
you and waves. You wave back and pull your phone out.
turntechGodhead [TG] started pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]
TG: rose holy shit
TG: i think this is a date
TT: You’re very lucky I’m in lunch right now, then.
TT: Need any tips?
TG: idk he touched my hand with his and hes being really nice to me
TT: ...Dave, did it ever occur to you that Karkat may be romantically
interested in you?
TT: If you asked him, I’m certain he will say yes.
TT: Dave?
TG: shit sorry you were saying
TT: I’ll gloss over that for the moment.
TT: Perhaps he was trying to make the first move, Dave.
TG: why would he do that.
TT: …
TT: Wow, Kanaya is right. You really are this obtuse.
TT: He is interested. Either you make a move or he will. It’s really up to you.
TT: And please, promise me not to openly flirt with him in other languages
aloud in class.
TG: wow kanaya you narc you ratted me out
TT: She says, and I’m directly quoting here “I Promised I Would Not Tell Karkat
But I Made No Such Promise To Rose” end quote.
TG: what if i mess up though
TT: I think you’ll find that difficult to do, Dave, because even if you mess
up, I can promise he will reciprocate your feelings.
TT: Now stop pestering me and get back to Karkat.
 TG: ugh fine
turntechGodhead [TG] has ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]
Okay, so he likes you. That’s a hell of a mystery that didn’t need solving but
damn if it didn’t just get solved. He walks up to your table just as you stuff
your phone in your pocket.
“Hey, here’s the food, what drink do you want?” he sits the tray of food at the
table and tilts his head at you inquisitively.
“Sweet tea?” your voice breaks a little at the end. Fucking voice cracks. He
bites his lip and walks off.
You take another deep breath. It’s fine, Rose said he likes you. What are you
even panicking for? Now that you think about it, the light looks kinda nice
from here, in an artificial way. You dig around in your bag until you find the
Polaroid camera, lets see...a Polaroid SX-70. It looks like it was cleaned and
touched up with paint in some places, but it’s a classic and nice camera. Okay,
don’t get too excited over a camera, Dave. Point, focus, shoot.
You point the camera in Karkat’s direction. He’s chewing on the tip of his
thumbnail and not paying you much attention. Focus, deep breath, no shaking…
and… Oh shit, the shutter is really loud, but you got the shot. He turns his
head toward you and looks a little annoyed and rolls his eyes. His middle
finger flies up and you snap another shot of him.
“I’m going to kick your ass,” he growls at you with pseudo-anger.
“I’m terrified,  really …” you smile at him, but you put the camera down on the
table. You pick up the photographs and look them over. The first one is really
dreamy and sleepy looking. If you ignore the fact that you took it in a
McDonald’s, it’s a nice shot. It’s going up on your wall as soon as possible.
The other one is blurry, but you can still see Karkat’s face clearly. He has
the look on his face of a kid when you tell them they have to take their baby
bro to a party. Hahaha, that’s awesome. You think you’ll let Karkat have that
one.
“Ugh, god, what a horrible picture,” he slides into the seat across from you
and points at the blurry picture, “Here’s your drink, asshole. Maybe ask me
next time?”
“I could but then everything feels posed and unnatural.” you shrug and take a
drink. Mmm sweet tea.
“If anyone else had done that, I’d rip their damn head off. I’ll let it go this
time because it’s your birthday,” he narrows his eyes at you and angrily bites
a fry.
“Eat me.” You flip him off with a smile and dig in. Shit, the last time you ate
was pizza last night… ugh, you swear to never get four-meat pizza again.
“What’s… with that face?” he asks between chewing on his sandwich.
“Nothin’,” you say, “Just thinking about how thankful I am that you bought me
food today.”
“Well you don’t look like you’ve eaten since yesterday and I could hear your
stomach growling from across the arcade.” he answers, “Can I ask about the
bruise now?”
“Oh that’s…” you trail off. What do you even say? “ Yeah sorry my Bro bit me,
hahaha funny isn’t it? ”
“I heard that you got into a fight this morning. What happened?” Oh, he thinks
its from the locker room issue. Well.
“Just some dudes being assholes to me.” you didn’t really want to talk about
this if you could have avoided it.
“You seem normal enough to me,” he asks. Maybe he doesn’t know that you’re
trans? You’ve got a bomb to drop and that shit’s a-tickin’.
“Karkat, what do you know about me? And I don’t mean my hobbies, I mean the big
stuff.” he probably doesn’t get where this is going.
“Uh, you’re Dave Strider, today is your 16th birthday, you’re a male, you’re
bisexual… So what?” he rattles off. Okay, but everyone knows all of that. So he
really doesn’t know.
“Male huh? I’m glad I pass so easily now. Didn’t used to be that way,” you say
thoughtfully. Yep, there it is. His eyes go a little wider.
“Wait, you’re… oh, you’re… what’s the word…” he thinks for a second,
“Transgendered? So what? Lots of people are.”
You weren’t expecting him to take it so easily. But hey, he did, and that’s
good fucking news to your ears.
“Yeah, well, that might be true, but not everyone is as nice as you are.” you
sip your tea, “Some people can’t handle anything different and some of those
people are damn violent.”
“Is that why your Brother…?” he trails off. He’s got the wrong idea of course.
“You’ve got the wrong idea, and it’s just Bro. Bro is just an asshole, he’s
like that to everyone. He’s… well... he’s more accepting than most everyone
else, so no, that’s not why he beats the shit out of me.” you scowl, “He’s just
a fucking creep and a terrible guardian.”
“Sorry for assuming that’s why.” he apologizes.
“You’re fine, thanks for… not making a big deal about the whole… trans thing.”
you rest your arm on the table.
“It’s not my business, if you’re happy and comfortable that’s all I care
about.” his hand is creeping closer, “I… I like you either way, I have no
preference.”
His hand curls around yours and your stomach is about to jump out of your
throat. Shit.
“I like you too.” you say. It’s the truth. He smiles and blinks softly at you,
he’s really beautiful when he lets his guard down like this. He leans on the
table and leans toward you, he’s…
Time feels like it slows down as your eyes flutter closed and you lean toward
him and his lips catch on yours. It’s not your first kiss by any means, but you
almost kinda wish it was. His lips are pillowy soft and thick and they fit so
nicely against yours. He groans and his lips leave yours way too fast and time
seems to catch back up to you.
He sits back with a thump and looks at you, “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”
“Why are you sorry? I obviously didn’t hate that.” you reach over and touch his
arm.
“I.. uh, we’re… we’re in public and I just…” he shifts in his seat. You look at
him, his face is darker around his cheeks and he’s curled in on himself. His
eyes meet yours, they’re soft and brown like hot cocoa, “I think I liked that
too much.”
Oh.
“Oh.” you say, like a giant idiot. He doesn’t seem to care how dumb you are,
though.
“So… Dave… it’s 2:45 and I have to get back home,” he says and you feel your
face frown, “Would you… want to do this again? With me, of course. I can pick
where we eat next time, if you like.”
“Karkat, are you asking me on a date?” you say and he buries his face in his
hands.
“Yes?” he answers cautiously and you smile.
“Of course. I’d love to. Want me to walk you home?” you ask.
“Yeah, okay.” he blushes as you take his hand.
===============================================================================
 
You clear up the table, grab your stuff, and head out the door. You’re about
two blocks away from Karkat’s house when you spot Dirk, riding your skateboard
toward you. He waves at you, jumping off and jogging up to you.
“Hey, you… forgot your board in your locker,” he wipes his forehead and his
eyes flick down toward your hand, still interlocked with Karkat’s. He smiles at
you, “Finally, now I won’t have Rose and Rox’ breathing down my neck about
getting you dorks together.”
“Dave, who is this?” Karkat asks putting his other hand on his hip and sizing
up Dirk.
“First, Dirk, please ask before breaking and entering in my locker. Second, Ben
says thanks for the help with the repair job. And third, Dirk is my brother.”
you list off and Karkat looks enraged. Uh oh.
“Your Bro?” he hisses.
“You’ve got the wrong asshole. Bro is our older brother. Don’t worry, I don’t
like him any more than you do.” Dirk smirks, “I’m the cooler, better brother,
obviously. Dave’s my baby bro.”
Karkat relaxes and sighs, “I didn’t know Dave had another brother. But I see
the resemblance.”
“Heading home? I was just about to stop by there and see if you were there.”
Dirk asks.
“Yeah, walk with us.” you answer and start walking again. It’s only another two
blocks from here.
When you finally get to Karkat’s house, Dirk has the decency to wait by the
fence and not watch you.
“I had fun today.” Karkat says.
“Me too, thank you for hanging out with me.” you smile at him.
Karkat looks over at Dirk, who is playing with his phone and back to you.
“Kiss already, damn.” Dirk yells.
“Dirk!” you scowl at him, “Fuck off.”
Karkat does, in fact, kiss you, but it’s on the cheek. “See you on Monday.
Goodbye Dave.” He opens his front door and walks in, waving to you before
closing it.
You sigh and flip off Dirk when you get over to him. “Dick.” you give him a
shove.
“Stupid.” he shoves you back.
“Ugly.” you call him and he narrows his eyes at you.
“Inconsiderate.” he says.
“Asshole.” you reply.
“Bastard child.” he sneers.
“As much as I love a verbal slap-fight, I’d love it even more if I weren’t
standing in front of Karkat’s house when I beat the shit out of you,” you flick
his nose.
“Don’t want your boyfriend to see you lose?” he jokes but doesn’t argue and
starts walking the last half-block to your shitty apartment building.
“I don’t think he’d like you very much if he saw us beating each other up, even
if it was just for fun.” you point out and Dirk’s mouth flattens into a line.
“He knows about Bro?” his eyes widen a little behind his glasses.
“I made him promise not to say anything, I really don’t think he wants me to be
on the streets at sixteen.” you run your hand through your hair. Dirk sighs and
throws his arms in the air.
“One more year, Dave. I’ll have enough money to get an apartment big enough for
both of us and I’ll get you away from that fucking creep.” He wraps his arm
around your shoulder. You’re finally at your building, you and Dirk take the
elevator up.
“One more year,” you fist-bump him and open the door.
Chapter End Notes
     This story is about to take a crazy turn. Enjoy the song that's
     linked in this chapter btw, a lot of the music I use is stuff I
     actually like. :)
     Hope you like the in-jokes in this chapter too! I like writing them
     lol.
     Also, you can follow me on Tumblr http://nomisupernova.tumblr.com/
***** Chapter 7 *****
Chapter by nomisupernova
Chapter Notes
     Hey this chapter is a little intense. Here's a warning for graphic
     imagery and major character death.
     This and the next chapter were one big chapter but it was really big
     so I cut it in half. I'm also working on a semi-coherent update
     schedule! New chapters should be posted two weeks from the date of
     the last one.
     This fic has an official playlist series now! There's going to be a
     companion playlist for Rose, but this one is for Dave. New songs will
     be added with the new chapters.
     https://open.spotify.com/user/nomisupernova/playlist/
     1mFtWGlnbIuABbg63plcnt
“Home. Dirk’s with me.” you flatten out your voice and Dirk winces.
Bro leans his head back from his desk and looks at Dirk, Cal is on his
shoulder. Fucking weirdo. “What are you doing here?”
“Hanging out with my brother on his birthday. Not that it’s any of your
business anyway.” he flattens his voice out like you did. Bro can still be
relentless with Dirk like he is with you but Dirk knows better than to piss Bro
off too much for no reason.
“Whatever. Just be quiet I’m fucking working unlike some freeloaders around
here,” he turns back to whatever he’s doing, typing something into his stupid
Word document.
Bro looks unsettlingly like Dirk, but Dirk is kind to you, in a ‘Bro from an
alternate universe where you were Dirk’s parent’ kind of way. You know if you
ever had a kid in an alternate universe, you’d make sure they had everything
they needed and they were taken care of, even if you weren’t around to do it.
You shake your head, that’s a weird thought. Whatever. Dirk is here, time to
chill the fuck out and maybe dip into the weed that Jake gave you. Relax for a
little while, maybe Bro will leave and you and Dirk can hang out on the couch
and watch some movies or something. Yeah, that sounds good.
You drag Dirk into your bedroom and close the door. He plops down onto your bed
and makes an annoyed noise. “Hey, you don’t have any sheets on this,” he says.
“I was going to put some on when I got home.” You reply as you dig around in
your closet for your clean bedsheets. Uh, that’s a shirt, no… not sheets, not
sheets, that’s a pair of pants. You spot the pillowcase with last night’s
sheets in them and feel sick. Why didn’t you just get rid of them this morning?
Past you is a fucking loser.
“Need any help?” Dirk says from behind you and you nearly jump out of your damn
skin. You didn’t hear him get up, not that you ever do. He’s always moving
super quietly like his mom and Bro do.
“I-I got it,” you take a deep breath, “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry?” He shrugs and you hand the clean sheets to him.
“Why did you take the other ones off?” he asks as he shakes the folds out of
the new ones.
“They got dirty and needed to be cleaned.” you answer, hoping he doesn’t look
too into this. Knowing Dirk though… he’s going to, you’d better think of
something quick.
“Mmmhmm…” he hands you the corner of the sheets on your side and you pull them
over the edges of the mattress, “What’s with the blood?”
You freeze, think Dave, think.
“I got cut,” you answer.
He looks up toward the camera in the corner of the ceiling and looks back at
you, “Okay.”
He obviously doesn’t believe you, but he’s not going to ask about it in a room
with cameras. You hear the front door open and shut, sounds like Bro left or
went up to the roof.
“What is he getting drunk on your birthday? What a fucking asshole.” Dirk grits
his teeth, “Want to talk about it in private?”
“Okay, sure.” you can’t say no without accidently making yourself blab on
camera.
He leads you into the bathroom, closes the door, and sits on the edge of the
tub.
“Come here for a sec?” he asks and you sit by his side. He pulls your glasses
off your face and sets them on the floor. He reaches into the shower and grabs
a damp rag from the peg it was hanging on and rub it across your face and neck,
exposing the bruised bite mark on your neck and collarbone.
“Jesus christ! Dave...” he gasps and drops the rag on the floor with a plop.
“Are you okay?” he grabs your head and tilts it upward, “Does that hurt? Fuck,
dude. How did he hurt you like that?”
“How did you know about that?” you look over at him, pain is written all over
his face. Shit shit shit shit shit.
“How about the magical appearing bruise on your neck when you were with Karkat?
I know you didn’t get it from the kids in the locker room, they didn’t touch
you.” he pulls you in for a hug, “God, I-I’m sorry I didn’t see it earlier.”
“I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt.” you push him away.
“Like hell you’re ‘fine’! What did that mother fucker do to you?” he grips onto
your arms tightly and looks you in the eye.
“Dirk please, I want to tell you but I don’t know how,” you answer, curling
your arms against your chest.
“I… I’m sorry, I must be scaring you,” he scoots back, “Did he hurt you?”
You nod and he looks angry, “How? How did he hurt you?”
“He…” you pause, “I don’t know, it happened so fast.” You close your eyes and
see images from last night, cowering under your blanket, him coming in and
staring at you, climbing under your sheets and… hurting you.
“I-I went to sleep. Bro came in my room and he was drunk.” you look down at
your hands, you can’t look Dirk in the face when you tell him this, “He came
into my bed and he… he…” You can’t say it.  If you say it, it’s real and you
can’t handle that.
“Dave, Jesus, I-I don’t know what to say. Do you want to go to a hospital?” he
brushes the hair from your eyes.
“I can’t, I just can’t. He’ll know if I did,” you swallow the lump in your
throat, “Please promise me you won’t say anything.”
“Dave… I’m so sorry, I couldn’t keep you safe.” he pulls your head into his
neck and embraces you, “I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Please don’t… say that.” you grip his shirt in your hands, “He’s not worth it,
Dirk, I can’t lose you.”
“No, you’re right, he’s not worth it.” he’s shaking with anger, “But you are.”
He pushes you away gently before storming out of the bathroom. Bro is sitting
at his desk again, his websites are open and he’s watching a recording of the
house’s footage. You grab your glasses and follow behind Dirk and grab his arm,
but he brushes you off.
Bro turns his head and looks at Dirk, “What’s wrong with you?”
“What wrong with me? How about what’s wrong with you!? You fucking disgusting
piece of shit.” Dirk yells and grabs Bro’s sword from the coffee table.
Oh no. No no no. Your hands fly up to your face defensively and you can hear a
faint ticking in your ears like a clock.
“Put that down,” Bro commands, standing up, he tries to grab Dirk’s head, but
Dirk backs away, his arm in front of you, protecting you like he did this
morning.
“You’re disgusting. How could you do that? And to your own fucking brother!
He’s your brother, you’re supposed to protect him!!” Dirk yells, his voice
teetering on hysterical. The sword in his hand swings in the air, nearly
connecting with Bro’s head. The ticking is getting faster and louder, it’s
unbearable.
“Dirk, stop! Stop!” you just want the ticking to stop, you want the yelling to
stop.
“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? Are you even fucking sorry?” Dirk
clenches his teeth, his hands tighten around the grip. Tick, tick, tick, tick!
Bro is backed up to the wall, his eyes are darting around the room looking for
a way out. He smiles and looks Dirk in the eyes.
“I’m not sorry for taking what he wasn’t going to use anyway,” Bro grabs
something and throws it at Dirk’s head, but he ducks and it misses his head,
embedding in the wall next to your head.
It’s a short-sword, sharp too. It probably would’ve killed you if you’d been
six inches to the left. Dirk is suddenly against him, sharp sword pressed to
Bro’s throat, preventing him from moving without goring himself.
Dirk leans into it and it cuts into Bro’s neck, his blood oozing out of the cut
and onto the edge.
“I hope you fucking burn in hell, you festering pile of human waste,” he hisses
through clenched teeth.
“Don’t! Don’t do it Dirk, he’s not worth it,” you step forward carefully, you
can still fix this. You have to.
Dirk’s eyes flick toward you and Bro lunges toward him, but Dirk is faster. You
clench your eyes shut as you hear the sickening sound of bone against metal.
Bro makes a strangled sound and screams.
“Oh god…” you hear Dirk whisper and the sword drop to the ground, a thump, and
heavy strained breathing. Like someone gasping for air while drowning.
Something wet pools at your feet, your eyes are still tightly clenched as you
fall to the ground, backing up to the wall.
“Dave, Dave, we… we have to get out of here.” a hand grabs your shoulder, “We
have to run, Dave. Dave?”
“Don’t touch me!” your eyes fly open, Bro is laying face-down on the plush
beige carpet, a pool of blood forming at his throat, he’s still sputtering for
air, wheezing and choking on blood at it fills his lungs.
Dirk steps back cautiously, his hands and shirt are spattered in blood. You
need to go back, you need this to change.
“I-I’m sorry, god, I’m sorry Dave,” Dirk is muttering, his blood covered hands
fly up to his hair. The wheezing sound from Bro has stopped. He’s approaching
you and fear curls in the pit of your stomach. Dirk… killed someone.
“Don’t touch me! Stop!” your arms fly up in front of you and then…
Nothing. No sound, no feelings, no ticking.
===============================================================================
 
You look around, it’s like time itself has stopped around you.
“Dirk?” you reach forward and touch his shoulder carefully, his body is frozen
in place, “Dirk? What’s going on?”
“Oh hey, you can time-travel now, sweet,” you hear a voice call out to you, it
sounds oddly like yourself. You stand and whip your head around behind you,
someone is standing there, he looks a lot like you, but… he’s obviously not
you. At least, not this you. Wait, what? Not  this  you? What are you saying??
He’s wearing a red outfit with a long stupid cape.
“You okay? That was pretty rough even for me,” his hands touch your face, it
feels wrong… almost like when you touch your own face but… not quite.
“Who… who are you?” you ask him, you can see Dirk’s horrified face is still
staring at the spot where you were sitting behind you.
“To save you the longest explanation this side of Skaia, I’m you, but I’m not
you,” other-Dave says, “I’m you from a different timeline. You froze time. I
don’t get how but hey, here you are, you bullheaded little fucker.”
“How are you me? You… you can’t be me.” you step back from other-Dave.
“Why, cuz ‘ you’re the only you!! ’ fucking lol,” he says, “Here’s the thing
about time-travel, Dave, there’s a fuck ton of us. I’ll let that sink in for a
moment.”
“But… but you’re…” you gesture toward his entire body.
“Yes, I know. You and I have different bodies, I died for this one so I’m
taking damn good care of it, it’s the body we always wanted and more, if you
get what I mean.” he winks at you. His voice is also different from yours,
deeper and smoother.
“Wait, wait, hold up. How? How did you...?” That’s not possible... what the
fuck is going on here?
“Skaia can be a cruel mistress, but she’s kind enough to give her disciples at
least a few of the things they want. I see she gave you Karkat in this timeline
too, but he doesn’t look like the Karkat I know at all. She also let you have
Dirk, but cursed you with Bro. You should be so lucky, you cute little fucker.”
he leans forward and pinches your cheek, “Now, let’s talk about the elephant in
the room, and by that I mean the body.”
You look down at Bro’s body, the blood stopped pooling and he doesn’t move or
make any sounds. Well fuck, Dirk really got ahead of himself, didn’t he?
“Dirk really got ahead of himself, didn’t he?” he mirrors your thoughts,
because of course he does, “So, where did this start?”
“What?” you ask, confused.
“The timeline, ugh. Come here a sec,” he grabs your arm, “First, I want to say
damn I was hot as fuck when I was your age. I mean, how does Karkat not melt
into a little puddle when he looks at your cute self?”
Your face heats up and he laughs, “Aww, so that’s what I look like when I do
that.”
“Hey, fuck off,” you try to push him away, but he’s got a strong grip on you.
“Alright, alright... I’ll be serious. Close your eyes,” he pushes your glasses
up onto your forehead, resting on you the way you like them to.
“Okay, now what?” You’re skeptical that this just a dream, but if it’s a dream,
then what’s the harm in complying?
“Focus on the feeling you felt when you stopped time,” his voice sounds far
away but you can feel that he’s still gripping your arms, his forehead is
pressed against yours, “I’ll help you visualize it.”
You see nothing and then…
You see a line, a red line. You turn around and see it’s forked just behind
you, the one you’re standing on ends abruptly just ahead of you. You can see
the other-Dave’s arms on you as he guides you backwards and around the fork,
onto the other path.
“See how that one goes on? That’s another timeline, it’s not the right one but
I’m just giving you an example.” he whispers into your ear, “The one you’re in
right now ends because something kills you. You don’t want to be there when
that happens.”
“What kills me?” you ask, eyes still shut but your head tilts toward him
anyway.
He hesitates for a moment, “You.”
Oh.
“Oh,” you feel numb and gross. You wouldn’t do that, right?
“Trust me, you would,” he says like he can read your thoughts, “Your brain
thought it would be better to die than live without your brother. And by
brother, I mean Dirk.”
“Now listen, you see that line, all the way back there?” You can see a long
line, leading all the way back. A picture is moving in front of it, swaying
back and forth slightly as if being blown by the wind. You don’t feel any wind,
though.
“Now, we’re going to walk back toward it, you’re going to feel something, but
don’t be alarmed, it’s just your body healing your wounds,” he says it like
he’s done this before. He probably has.
Your legs move in time with his, walking closer to the picture, you can see
it’s a Polaroid picture of yourself when you were fifteen, six months ago,
before you first moved in with Bro. There’s a bright smile on your face and
Dirk, Roxy, and Rose are all standing with you. You remember taking this
picture, you were all hanging out at your dad’s house before he left on
business, it was the last time you saw him. You remember that he never called
you once while he was gone and died in the big car crash a month later on his
way home.
“Remember that? You tell everyone you hate your dad, but you and I both know
you love him,” he grips your arms tighter, “But he wasn’t my dad in my
timeline, he was Dirk’s dad only. He was us from another timeline. Same stupid
name as us, too. We were always going to be David fucking Strider.”
“All this timeline shit makes my head hurt,” you grimace, he’s not this Dave’s
dad? He’s actually you? What the fuck??
“You get used to it,” other-Dave says.
You notice the dull stinging on your back and in your legs has turned into a
sharp feeling like a knife.
“Healing, huh? Then why the fuck does it hurt so much, assface?”
“Don’t fucking open your eyes, whatever you do. If you do, I might drop you in
the middle of some rando timeline and I don’t know if I’ll be able to see you
again until you nearly die.” his hand is suddenly over your eyelids, “I mean
it, I don't want that for any of us. Dying sucks. If I drop you off where
you’re supposed to be, I can see you anytime I want and you can keep your
powers. That’s why I’m here, to help you cheat this time a little.”
“What? Cheat? Cheat at what?” you ask, the picture is in front of you and your
feet land on the red line leading up to it.
“You can ask me questions tonight, right now I need you to listen. I’m going to
let you go, the Dave in this timeline is going to split off and become you, but
you need to do something. Here’s where this timeline converges into yours, this
is the closest one and I’m sorry that it isn’t closer to Karkat.” he sounds
genuinely sad about that.
“You need to hide your dad’s passport, burn it for all I care. He won’t have
enough time to get a new one. You’ll still have your memories but nobody else
is going to as far as I know, so you’re on your own. You need to stop your dad
from going on the trip, or you’ll get sent to live with Bro and you’ll die
again.” he sighs, “Don’t fuck this up, you’ll still see Karkat at school. Talk
to him, he likes you in every timeline, he likes you even more when he’s not
completely pale for you.”
“Pale?” you ask.
“It’s a long story, we’ll talk tonight. Don’t fucking forget the passport. I
mean it, this Dave bought you time and went to the bathroom, your dad is
downstairs with Dirk, Roxy, and Rose. Go into his room in the bedside table,
grab the passport, get rid of it, and he should still be there in the morning.”
he pulls his hands away from your face, “If you need to use your powers, you’ll
know what to do. I can come to you anytime, but make sure it’s a damn emergency
or really important, Karkat will be pissed if he knows I’m fucking with your
timeline.”
“Open your eyes.”
***** Chapter 8 *****
Chapter by nomisupernova
Chapter Notes
     I have a vague feeling people are going to be a little tiny tiny tiny
     bit upset with a thing in this chapter, so I'm going to clarify it
     before you read it.
     Roxy and Dirk are both 18 and they are both seniors in Dave's school.
     You'll see why I'm pointing this out when you get to it. If you don't
     get it then that's probably okay too lol.
     Dirk and Roxy are getting playlists too, they're not done yet so
     they'll be linked in the next chapter. But for now, here's Rose's!
     https://open.spotify.com/user/nomisupernova/playlist/
     6rZouaZsc2VAkrLIcMSIfv?si=yiPZWsiNTG-I6eLnS7Riww
See the end of the chapter for more notes
You gasp and grab at your arms, they feel less… muscular. Your legs and arms
also have less hair on them. You remember this house. You remember this moment.
You were up here taking a stretch with your binder off, your dad was going to
get you surgery on your birthday, he promised you. Your lungs breathe in and
out easily, no cracked ribs, no badly-stitched wounds. No scars on your stomach
and chest, no bite mark on your neck.
“Dave? You okay up there? You were coughing pretty hard earlier, kid. Did you
cut your mouth? That was a lot of blood...” it’s a voice you haven’t heard in
half a year. It makes your heart ache in a way you never thought you’d feel.
Like seeing an old friend after the last time you spoke was an argument.
“Dad…” you sigh, “I’ll be down in a minute, I’m okay!”
“You sure?” he yells back, but you don’t hear his feet coming up the stairs.
“Yep, just finishing up.” you go to pull your binder back on, but you were
apparently playing chicken with yourself and put the tightest one on today. You
remember how much this hurt, so you yank it back off and instead pull your
shirt back on over your head and dash across the hall to your old bedroom.
The walls in this room were painted by you and Dirk when you were kids. You
remember Dirk uses… used… would’ve used this as a darkroom in your old
timeline.
“No time for that now Dave, you’ve got to listen to what I said. Get the
passport, get rid of it. That’s it.”
You tiptoe out of your old… your bedroom and down the hall to your dad’s room.
Okay, he said it’d be in the side-drawer? You slide the drawer open and pull
the passport out, stuffing it into your pocket.
“Nice,” you whisper to yourself and turn around.
“Whatcha got?” Dirk asks, standing with his arms crossed in the doorway.
“Uh, nothing. Why are you following me around?” you lock eyes with him and he
stares at you for a second.
“Hmm… you’ve got a strange look in your eyes,” oh no, he’s head-shrinking you,
ALERT ALERT, RUN!!
“What do you need Dad’s passport for, Dave?” he whispers.
You think about something Dave said... what was it? It’s already starting to
slip from your brain.
“You’ll still have your memories but nobody else is going to as far as I know,
so you’re on your own.”  Nobody else  as far as he knows?  Was he suggesting
Dirk might know? But how to see if he does know... Think, Strider, think.
“Daaaaave?” he waves his hand in front of your shades, you must’ve spaced out.
“Hey Dirk, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about time-travel would you?”
you ask, fiddling with your nails and trying to look innocent.
“...That’s a specific question. Who wants to know?” he tilts his head at you
and scratches at his chin.
“Let’s say... some douchebag in a red cape asked me about time-travel. What
would I tell him?” you look at Dirk as his eyes widen.
“A… red cape... huh?” he swallows thickly.
You knew it!
“You know, don’t you!?” you point your finger at his face, “About the other
Daves and the other timelines!”
“I mean… I know that there’s other Dirks... theoretically?” he shrugs with a
smile like he got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do, “What do you
know about timelines?”
“Dirk, okay, thank  fuck.  We can talk in a bit, I have to hide this passport.
Please don’t say anything to anyone about this. This is important. If I don’t
hide this, I will  actually  die again and I can’t risk that. I made a
promise.” you walk quickly into your bedroom and stuff the passport underneath
your dresser.
“What do you know?” he asks again, grabbing your arm.
“Dirk. Later,  please.  I have to get back down there and act like I’m fifteen
again and our dad didn’t die in a horrible accident. I don’t know what’s going
to happen tomorrow so let’s just play it by ear, okay?” you remember how angry
he was for your safety. He literally killed a man for you.
You’re honestly not sure if that terrifies you or makes you feel safe.
Maybe both.
He lets go of you and stares at you for a second. He crosses his arms and sighs
deeply before padding off in the direction of the stairs. You close your
bedroom door and decide what to wear instead.
You take your shades off decide to forego the binder and just change into a
tight undershirt instead. six-months-ago you wasn’t very kind to himself. You
throw your regular t-shirt on over that and you brush your hair back into place
in your old (wow, you’ve got to stop thinking of this stuff as your old stuff)
mirror and head back down to the closed-in porch.
You recall your dad threw together his best impression of a family dinner;
Rose, Roxy, their mom, Dirk’s mom, Dirk, yourself, and Dad were all having
lunch when you started coughing up blood. You remember you hadn’t thought much
of it but wanted a break from your binder incase that was the problem. It’s a
little fuzzy, but you remember that Rose was offering to run upstairs with you
and help you out, but you demanded to be alone for a little bit. You don’t
remember why you wanted to be alone, now that you think of it.
“Hey, Davey, you doin’ okay, little guy?” Roxy, Rose’s older sister and Dirk’s
best friend asks you.
“Rox...” Dirk rolls his eyes at her and looks over at you, “He’s fine, right
Dave?”
“Yeah, I’m cool. Not sure what that was, but it wasn’t really much of anything
I guess,” you shrug, you really don’t remember anything being wrong.
“Well, keep an eye out for more of that, I don’t want you getting hurt, Dave,”
Rose looks over at you, her hair is shorter than it was when you saw her not
that long ago. She also still had it naturally sandy brown instead of the
blonde and purple she has… will have now.
You can see Dirk’s mom roll her eyes, “I don’t see what the big huff is, she
said she’s fine so she’s fine!”
“Mother,” Dirk hisses at her, “Knock it off.” Now you remember why you and Dirk
fucking hated her so much. Not seeing her for six months will do that to you.
She tilts her head, like Dirk and Bro do when they’re about to adjust something
to their worldview, “It’s just biology honey… if she wants to put on a tight
shirt and call herself Dave then she can deal with me calling her what she is.
A damn woman playing pretend.” She tilts her glass back and downs the rest of
it in a big gulp.
Everyone stares at her, you remember there was an argument over something.
There’s a tickle of a voice at the edge of your brain.
“Ask Rose about her girlfriend, get Dirk’s mom to leave.”
“Hey Rose…” you start, is this really smart? You sure hope so. “I heard you
have a girlfriend now, how’s that going?”
You see Rose smile softly, “Oh, Dave, did you see us? I thought we were being
secretive… I guess the cat’s out everyone…”
“Aww, Rosalinda, congratulations!” Rose’s mom, Roxanne, leans over and kisses
her daughter on the top of the head.
“I don’t see why it has to be a thing! Why can’t you gays just do that in
private?!” Dirk’s mom curls her lip in disgust at Rose.
“Don’t be like that, honey, Rosie isn’t hurting anything. Dirk and his
boyfriend are publicly affectionate, I’ve seen them do so at your house,”
Roxanne chides Dirk’s mom, you really can’t remember her name but it’s not like
it matters because you remember how this goes down.
“Well my Dirk may still be able to be saved by the grace of the Lord unlike
your heathen of a daughter,” she hisses, “God forgives those who repent for
their filthy sins.”
You see Dirk’s face fall, the smile he had before now a far-away look like
someone just smacked him in the face. Roxy seems to have noticed too and she
stands up and walks over to Dirk’s mom, glass of ice water in hand. She looks
fucking furious and ready for a fight.
“What?” she looks up at Roxy, just in time for Roxy’s drink to come spilling on
top of her head.
“Go fuck yourself, you transphobic, homophobic trash-queen,” Roxy smiles
sweetly, “I hope hell burns especially bright for you.”
She stands up, make-up smearing down her face and gasps dramatically before
stomping off out the front door. She slams it behind her just in time for your
dad to come out the inside door.
“What the fuck crawled up her ass and died?” he watches her as she revs up her
engine and drives off, “She can’t even be normal for one damn day.”
“Dad…” you feel so relieved to see his face that you run up to him and wrap
your arms around his torso. You remember how you blamed him for living with
Bro, but Bro was the only one in your biological family still alive and over
twenty-one so you didn’t get much of a choice. You wish you could take that all
back.
And you can.
“Oh, Dave, are you okay?” he leans down to look at you with soft eyes.
“I’m fine Dad, I just… I’ll miss you when you leave,” you squeeze him tighter.
You hear your brother “aww”ing with the Lalonde family and Dirk’s arms wrap
around you and your dad. Impromptu group-hug it is, you guess.
“I love you boys, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon if I can help it,” he
ruffles your hair and then pats Dirk’s head too, “I’m sorry about your mom,
buddy.”
“Don’t be, Dad, she’s just… like that.” you hear the smile in Dirk’s voice.
God, you miss that.
“Oh David, I don’t understand what you saw in that woman. She’s a frightful
piece of work,” Roxanne laughs politely, she didn’t even bother to lecture
Roxy. She seems damn proud of her, if anything.
“Well she didn’t used to be like that…” Dad squeezes you once more and drops
his arms to his side, “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, everyone, who’s up for
dinner? I just finished it. It’s your favorite, Dirk.”
Dinner is… weird. You don’t really remember how to act at a regular family
dinner so Dad chides you a few times for playing around with your phone. But
when he’s talking to Roxanne long enough, you get to check the date. June 11th,
2011. Dad was going to leave for California tomorrow to head in for the
director’s meeting. But he can’t leave now. You silently wonder what’s going to
happen when the timeline breaks off into the new one. Will you have to relive
the next six months or will your consciousness drop off on your birthday six
months from now? You’ll have to ask other-Dave tonight. He said he’d see you
when you sleep. Does that mean he can talk to you in your dreams?
“Dave?” Dirk’s elbow jabs you in the side, “You paying attention? Roxy asked
you something.”
“Oh, sorry. I spaced out, what’s up Rox?” you shake your head.
“I asked if you saw that cute boy that moved in down the road from Derick, he’s
your age Davey.” she winks at you. Oh, that’s right. Karkat had moved to
America today, what a fucking coincidence.
“Uh, no. What.. what’s his name?” you don’t want them to know that you already
know. You remember this is when you first heard about Karkat.
“His name is Karkat Vantas, he’s a little cutie. You better make a move on that
one,” she giggles.
“Wait, why were you at Derick’s house?” Dirk asks, drawing attention away from
you, “Don’t tell me you were…”
“Eww Dirky no! God, I’m desperate but I’m not that desperate. Besides, Derick
is old enough to be my dad!” she throws her hands up but her face is red.
“He’s only thirty-three, Roxy. Do you have a thing for older men now?” Rose
teases.
“Even if I did it sure wouldn’t be for Derick! That guy is… not my type and I
don’t think I’m his type either.” she leans on her hand, “He’s so obviously gay
it hurts.”
“He’s not gay, Rox, he’s just not into kids. Which is what you are to him.
Please don’t hit on my older brother,” Dirk points toward her with a fork,
“Don’t know why you’d be interested in him in the first place.”
“Jeez Dad, can you make any straight sons?” you laugh and your Dad sighs.
“Apparently not, it seems.” he sips his drink, it’s his classic ‘one glass of
celebratory whiskey and then soda for the rest of the night’ whiskey, “Alright
y’all, I’ve got to get my case packed up and ready to go. I’ll be back in a
bit.”
He pats your head as he walks past you and up the stairs to his bedroom.
As if on cue, Rose’s mom’s phone rings. She grabs it with a sigh and heads over
to the front door. “Girls, I’ve gotta answer this. I’ll be outside. Holler if
you need me.”
“So Dave, where’s your glasses?” Rose asks. You didn’t even realize you didn’t
have them on.
“I uh, forgot to put them back on, I guess.” you shrug, “S’not a big deal, my
eyes don’t hurt.”
Rose looks at you, or rather, through you. She’s always had this weird feeling
about her, like she can see right into your soul.
“If you insist.” she reaches across the table and she takes your hand in hers,
still looking you in the eye. “You know… something is strange about you this
evening, Dave. It’s like you’re a different person.” She can’t know too, can
she?
“You think so too?” Dirk asks, “I caught him running around upstairs earlier
like he just got dropped off in some haunted house.”
“Oh you two! Stop picking on him,” Roxy gives Rose a push and her hand comes
away from yours, “Davey is just gonna miss his dad, there’s nothing wrong with
that.”
“Yeah, exactly. So back off, y’all,” you fold your arms against yourself, you
try to ignore the gross feeling of your chest. You’ve got bigger fish to fry,
afterall.
Rose and Dirk are being weirdly cagey today. You know why Dirk is, but Rose is
ever the mystery to you.
Your dad comes back down the stairs, phone in one hand and scratching his head
with the other. So he found out that his passport is gone, you guess.
“I can’t find my passport and it’s too late to get a replacement, I’m gonna
have to call and see what the director can do and if he can’t do anything, I
guess I have to miss this shit,” he runs a hand down his face, “Just my fucking
luck.”
“Mr. Strider,  such language!” Roxy fake-gasps.
“Oh shit, sorry kids.” your dad blushes, it’s pretty hilarious to watch him get
worked up over it.
“I’ve heard worse from Dave’s potty mouth, Dad. You’re totally fine.” Dirk
smiles.
Roxanne leans into the door, her phone still pressed to the side of her head,
“Hey girls, we have to head out. I’m needed back at the office, sorry. See you
soon, boys.” She ducks back out of the door and presses a button on her phone.
Roxy sighs and stands up, carrying her plate over to the sink. Rose follows
behind her, grabbing up your plate and Dirk’s as well, you nod to her and
mutter a thank you.
“Alright, guess I’ll see y’all around then,” Dirk holds up his fist and Roxy
bumps it.
“Bye kids, tell your mom to drive safe,” Dad says to Rose and oh  boy,  the
irony here.
“I hope things work out for you, Mr. Strider, if not then we’ll see you later,
dude.” Roxy says with a smile and leads Rose out of the front door.
 
===============================================================================
 
“Wanna watch a movie?” Dirk asks you.
“I’m actually pretty beat, I think I’m gonna head off to bed… if you don’t
mind,” his eyes are hidden behind his shades but you can feel him staring holes
through you.
“Good night, Dave. I’ll see you in the morning if this doesn’t work out.” your
dad hugs you and kisses the top of your head.
“I’ll walk you up, I wanted to talk to you about something anyway.” Dirk wraps
his arm around your shoulders and pulls you in for a side-hug.
“Can’t say no, we live in the same damn house,” you shrug.  Great!  How are you
even going to explain this?
He lets you go and you head up to your bedroom. It feels… almost weird to be in
here. Dirk’s mom ended up getting the house after your dad died and Dirk took
over your bedroom and used it as a darkroom. It only has one window so it was
good for that. You never really came in here unless Dirk needed to show you a
photo or you borrowed some of his chemicals for your own photography.
His mom was never here when you were here, she was always gone drinking or
fucking off doing her own thing. Bro’s old room down the hall was used to store
your dad’s old stuff, but while Dad was alive, it was Dad’s office.
“So, timeline stuff… where are you from?” Dirk asks bluntly.
“I’m not some fucking stranger dude, I’m still your brother,” you laugh a
little at that, “You never really changed much.”
Dirk sits on the beanbag chair in the corner of your room and you sit on the
bed. It feels almost like a therapy session, except the patient is asking all
the questions from his idiot chair.
“What happens if Dad dies?” he doesn’t cut any corners. He reaches up and rubs
at his throat absent-mindedly.
“Well… I’m not sure if you really want to know that. You think you want to know
but, do you really  really  want to?” you lean back and look up at the ceiling.
Still got those stupid plastic glowing stars up there, you remember that Bro
helped you put them up there when you were a little kid. Before he was a
complete piece of shit and Dad kicked him out.
“I think I do, I need to know what the deal is with this,” he tilts his head up
and there’s something that looks like rope burn on his neck, “I was playing it
cool at dinner but… I think some version of me just… y’know… killed
themselves.”
“What?” you don’t remember other-Dave saying anything like that…
“Another me just hung himself. I’m always vaguely aware of what they’re up to,
or at least what they’re feeling. I only really get to feel anything intense
from them if they die. And that Dirk really hated himself for something he
did.” he says.
This doesn’t make sense, you’ve never felt anything from another Dave… Maybe
Dirk is different somehow?
“I mean, I can tell you what I know but… I can’t exactly give you all the
answers, I can’t even use my time-shit yet, I only stopped time, not moved it.”
Now that you’re thinking about it, this stuff kinda makes sense to you. Time
travel movies always fascinated you in a way nothing else really did, besides
the whole ‘collecting cool dead shit’ hobby, of course. Photography is about
the same really, pictures are almost like capturing a moment in a physical
form.
“Well, future-you kinda… killed someone. I think it’s pretty safe to say you
probably got arrested. Apparently the ‘me’ in that timeline, which is me right
now, ends up dying or something, but I don’t get why you would die. Can’t say I
really want to be myself in that timeline now then, do I?” You watch Dirk’s
face rapidly shift between the five stages of grief, you think that’s a pretty
normal reaction to hearing you would kill someone, even if it’s not really you.
“One question, who… umm, who did I kill?” he asks. You were really hoping to
avoid telling him because he might ask why and you’re not sure if you’re ready
to talk about that. You’re also not sure if he would do it again, if given the
chance. But… this is Dirk, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“Does it matter?” you chew at the inside of your lip, please just drop it dude.
“Yeah, it does. Besides, I think I have a right to know,” he narrows his eyes
at you, studying your face. Another lie detector test, huh? Fine.
“Bro,” you shrug, he hopefully won’t dig any further.
“I can’t say I’m exactly shocked but still… fuck, dude,”  he buries his face in
his hands, “I hope whatever future me did wasn’t in front of you or anything.
I’d hate to do that to you and mess you up for life.”
“Well if it helps, I wasn’t exactly watching you do it… I was kinda freaked the
fuck out,” ugh, you can’t stop seeing Dirk’s blood covered hands, and Bro’s
body just laying there gasping for air, drowning in his own blood. The ticking,
the fucking ticking. It wouldn’t stop and you just had to make it stop.
“You okay? You look... not so good, we don’t have to talk about it anymore if
you want to stop.” He’s standing in front of you now, you didn’t hear him get
up. You never really do unless he wants to be heard.
“Dave, I’m sorry for what it’s worth,” he pushes your hair back and tucks it
behind your ear.
Your dad always used to do this when you would get hurt as a kid. He’d scoop
you up in his arms and pet your head and hum to you until you calmed down, then
he’d tuck your hair behind your ear and kiss your cheek. Dirk may not be fully
related to you, but he’s more like your dad than his disgusting mom and you’re
forever thankful for that.
“I just want to sleep, I didn’t… I didn’t get much sleep last night,” it hardly
feels like it was twenty-four hours ago, it feels a million years away that you
were in your bed last night… or rather, where you slept on the floor.
“Okay, I’ll leave you to it then,” he gives you a long hug, he doesn’t give
these out too often so you’ll take it when you can get it. He may be bony as
all hell, but his hugs are nice.
“Good night, lil’ dude,” he walks out of the door and closes it softly, leaving
you in your… your bedroom by yourself.
“ You’re safe here, there’s no Bro coming to hurt you ,” you think to yourself,
“ Everything is going to be okay .”
You walk over to your closet and look through your clothes. You had some of
these in your other timeline, but some of these are a bit old. Your pajamas
should be around here somewhere…. Ah, there they are. Hmm, you really thought
purple was such a good idea back then so you’ve got tons of purple t-shirts
with big crescent moons embroidered on them. Maybe it was an irony thing you
picked up from Dirk? You vaguely recall him having something similar… It’s
probably nothing though.
As you change, you notice that all the scars and old bruises on your body that
you’ve accumulated in the last five months are gone, but the first one Bro ever
gave you is still there. You guess time can only heal wounds that happened
during it, not before it. You still have the bloodstain on the carpet in this
room from the first one.
When you were thirteen, Bro came in here under the pretenses of playing games
with you and he just… stabbed you. You screamed and screamed and Dad scrambled
upstairs and berated the fuck out of Bro, he threatened to have him arrested
too. Weirder thing is… Bro seemingly doesn’t remember doing it in the first
place. Even when you showed him the scar, he screamed at you for lying and just
beat the shit out of you even more for asking him so you’d stopped bringing it
up. You miss how nice he used to be before he got a taste for puppets and got
that weird one he’s always with… Cal.
You feel a shudder up your spine, man, fuck puppets. And now you hate yourself
for missing your brother, but you just can’t help it. You really, really do
miss when he was a nice person. Doesn’t stop it from feeling gross, though.
You flick the lights off and look at the ceiling, you make another of your
famous mental notes to rip the damn stars off and paint some of your own on.
You want nothing to do with anything Bro touched if you can help it.
It takes a while to fall asleep, your body is still convinced that at any
moment, Bro is going to come in here and try to hurt you or worse. But he
doesn’t, and after nearly an hour of laying there listening to Dirk’s movie
through the wall your bed is pressed against, you finally fall asleep.
Chapter End Notes
     It was really hard not to post this sooner, but I'd like to stick to
     my schedule as strictly as possible lol
     I've been working really hard editing with @turntechGeneticist717 on
     Book Covers (which if you haven't read, you absolutely should!) so
     I've only got up until Chapter 11 written, but things should get back
     on track. Hopefully y'all won't notice any difference. :)
***** Chapter 9: Intermission *****
Chapter by nomisupernova
Chapter Notes
     Two chapters? In one day?? THE AUTHOR HAS GONE INSANE, SURELY.
     Haha, kidding mostly! The next two chapters are absolutely massive,
     though. And this is an Intermission Chapter so I felt it was best to
     go ahead and post it!
Something is slapping your face, what the hell?
“Duuuuuuuude, how long are you going to lay there? If you want to get your
sweet Karkat wet-dreams on, you need to get up and talk to me.” It’s your
voice. Oh, right. It’s other-Dave.
“Stop calling me other-Dave. I have a name and just because it’s the same as
yours doesn’t mean you get to stick some stupid prefix on it and call it a day,
asshole,” you open your eyes to see him pout at you.
“Sorry, it’s… jesus dick, where the fuck are we?” it looks like your bedroom
but it’s… all wonky and warped. All the pictures on the wall are warped
glitched garbage or Karkat’s face. The walls are also a deep shade of purple
and there’s scribbles all over the walls.
“You’re sleeping, this is your dreamself’s room in the bubbles. Notice anything
different about yourself?” he’s smiling smugly at you, like you’re missing a
really obvious joke.
“Like what? Other than I’m wide awake and I’m still tired as fuck,” you throw
the blankets off and get out of the bed… wait a minute... what… the  FUCK.
“Hahaha! Holy shit dude! Your face right now! Laugh. My. Ass. Off.”
You want to punch him for laughing at you, hey this is a dream right? Why the
fuck not! You punch him in the side and he keeps laughing.
“What the fuck is this! How are you doing this?” you stand up too quickly and…
ugh! What the FUCK is that!?
“Dude, chill out. It takes some getting used to, but you’ll live. You wanted
this body so badly, well now you have it. But only here.” he finger-guns at
you, “Alright, be serious Strider.0, you can jerk it later when I leave but I
need you to pay attention, ‘kay?”
“Man, why the fuck would I do that?” your voice is noticeably deeper too, just
like othe… Dave’s.
“Dude, that’s like, what you do with a different body. You get to touch all
over the parts you don’t normally get to touch,” he shrugs, “S’what I did.”
“Ugh! That’s fucking gross, TMI much?” you sit back down on the bed. Having
something… flapping around down there is not exactly  pleasant  when you’re
hyper-aware of it. Great.
“Real shit though, did you do what I said?” he floats upward and crosses his
legs, “And before you ask, yes I can always float, you can right now if you
really want to. You’re in a dream bubble afterall. Go ape shit, I guess.”
“I wasn’t gonna ask but o-fucking-kay. And yeah, now I’ve got some questions
for you, uh, if that’s cool?” Christ, are you always this smug and irritating?
“Yes, you are. Ask away, you smug piece of shit.” he finger-guns at you,
“Rapid-fire that shit, homie.”
“Why is Dirk connected to the timeline shit?” you ask.
“Heart players and their fucking splinters man. It doesn’t make sense to me but
it’s kinda like…” he adjusts his legs and pushes up his shades, “It’s like when
you’re play tug-of-war and someone in the front falls down. You can’t see them
but you feel them fall down because the line slips, right?”
You nod, that makes sense. Just because you can’t see them fall doesn’t mean
you can’t feel the rope tug when they leave.
He nods back to you and continues, “Now, imagine millions of Dirk’s and any
given Dirk slips and falls or walks off and away the rope, all the other Dirk’s
might not be able to see him, but they can feel him leave, right? Just replace
rope with timeline and… yeah. It’s like that.”
“I guess that makes sense… but I’ve never felt anything from any other Dave,”
you say, “Why is Dirk able to feel them but I’m not? And what’s a heart
player?”
“Well from what I  can  see, you’re not going to be playing the game for a
while, but I don’t suppose it’ll kill you to tell you this shit,” he sighs, “So
there’s this game that makes a new universe and you’re supposed to play it. I’m
from a successful version of the game and in most of your timelines you don’t
play it, but…”
He pauses and fiddles with his nails, “I can’t actually tell what’s going to
happen in this timeline, which is kinda why I wanted you in it. I can see the
doomed ones just fine, but this one timeline I can’t tell what the deal is. If
you stay here I can jam with my Dirk about what we should do for you next.”
“Your Dirk?” your head is spinning, is Dave just… using you? No, he wouldn’t do
that. That’s not something you would do.
“Super complicated timey-spacey bullshit, my Dirk is technically my dad but
from another timeline, but he’s my bro to me so… yeah. You’ve still got your
biological dad here too so you didn’t get off that easy,” he frowns a little.
Wait a minute, what?
“Biological dad? What are you talking about?” your head might be spinning a
little too much.
“Aww fuck, guess you didn’t know then, huh?” he stops floating and rests on the
bed next to you, “Your Bro, the one Dirk killed? That’s your biological dad.”
No, that… that can’t be right. Your dad is your dad. David is your dad.
“David isn’t… I mean, he is! Don’t get me wrong, he raised you since you were a
newborn, he practically is your dad. But the one who supplied the genes wasn’t
him, it was Bro. He’s your dad. David is technically your grandfather,” he
bites his lip, “Christ, I’m sorry, I thought you knew. This was a Grade-
A fucking dick move. I’m sorry, Dave.”
“How is that even possible? He’s way too young to have a kid as old as me,”
he’s got to be wrong, he just has to be.
“Mmm, ‘fraid not. He was eighteen when you were born. Some girl he went to
school with is your biological mom, she skipped out on you in the hospital.
That doesn’t matter, your real parents are David and Roxanne as far as I’m
concerned. They helped raise you together and all.” he leans on your side.
“No! No fucking way! He  can’t  be! David is my dad! Bro can’t be! I’m nothing
like him!” you shove him away. This can’t be fucking happening!
“Dave… I know you’re mad as hell, I know I was! My Bro didn’t hurt me like
yours did, but I… I just want you to know I’m here for you,” god, he’s so
fucking insufferably nice.
“He… he knew I was… He knew I was his kid and… he still…” well, it’s a good
thing this is a dream, you can barf on the floor and not worry about cleaning
it up.
“I don’t- I don’t know what to say here, man. God, I’m such an asshole.”
You look over at him and you wince at the look on his face. You wonder if
that’s what you look like when you’re having an episode.
“It’s… it’s fine. I just- I just need a minute,” you wipe your face with your
sleeve, hey no barf! This really is a dream.
“You wanna talk about something else?” he cradles your face in his hands.
You take a deep breath, yeah, it would be good to think about something else
right now. “Anything else. Please. What’s Rose’s deal?”
“Rose is… weird. She’s a Seer of Light. She can see all the shit you don’t want
her to see, it’s pretty annoying but…” he lets you go, “I think your Rose has
an idea about Seeing, but she’s blind right now. Metaphorically. She has…
problems… she’ll come to you when she’s ready, I’m sure. It’s not really my
business to blab about your problems, obviously I’ve already done enough of
that...”
He tilts his head at you, “You gonna be okay? I can wake you up if you want
to.”
“No, no. It’s fine. Let’s… do something else.” you stand up and dust your shirt
off.
He grabs your arm and you twist your head to look at him. What now?
“What?” you ask.
He bites his bottom lip again, “I really am sorry, Dave. C’mere.”
He pulls you in for a hug. Okay, this is a thing. A weird thing but… a nice
thing. You can feel his heartbeat, it’s almost like a ticking clock. It’s… a
little creepy, if you’re being honest. Didn’t he say he died or something like
that?
“Yeah, I died. It wasn’t all that bad. Rose was with me so I wasn’t alone. I
don’t know the deal with the heartbeat thing. Maybe it’s a time thing? Karkat’s
doesn’t sound like mine, I know that.” he whispers to you softly, “I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying sorry so much, you sad sack of shit. It’s a little… annoying.” you
laugh softly.
He lets you go and wipes at his face, shit, is he crying?
“Fuck off,” he smiles at you, “Wanna fuck with the bubbles?”
“Uh, sure man.” you shrug.
“Watch this,” he closes his eyes for a second and the room is suddenly
blindingly bright.
“This is… my house.” he waves his arm around lamely.
There’s someone sleeping in the bed, they’re breathing quietly, “That’s Karkat,
he’s… yeah. He’ll be with us shortly. He likes to sleep during the day.
Nocturnal species and all that.”
You look around and take in the scenery. It looks a little like your room right
now, but there’s a bunch of posters and a weird… pod… thing on the floor.
“What the shit is that?” you point to it.
“Karkat’s usual bed, I’ve tried to sleep in it before but it’s not exactly
comfortable for humans to sleep in.” he sits on the person-shaped lump, which
stirs underneath him.
“Why do you keep saying ‘humans’ and weird shit? You’re acting like Karkat
isn’t a human,” ugh, the stupid ticking is starting again. What’s the deal this
time?
“Babe, you gonna lay there all day or are you gonna get up and say hi to Dave?”
he shakes the person in the bed and they yank the blankets back.
They’re… grey? And apparently have horns and claws, too.
“Dave, oh my fuck! Why did you have to come specifically to this bubble where
I’m trying to relax and get some damn peace and quiet for once, you bulge-
chafing nookstain!?” he sounds a LOT like Karkat, it’s almost an exact match,
but this guy is… weird. He’s really fucking angry, for one.
“Who in the absolute fuck is that? And why is it so fucking bright in here?!”
he rolls his eyes and the room gets dim, almost like it’s sunset.
“Aww, babe, love you too,” Dave scoops him up in his arms and kisses him. Oh,
this must be…
“Karkat?” you ask and he tilts his head at you, thick black bed-head hair falls
into his face and he brushes it back.
“I see, so Dave has been screwing with other timelines again.” he sits up
completely and glares at Dave. You notice Karkat’s eyes are yellow where they
should be white and pure red where they should be dark brown. He looks kinda
like a demon, but… he’s still Karkat, right?
“Karkat, this is Dave, obviously. Dave, this is my Karkat. He’s a troll, not a
human,” Dave rests his head on Karkat’s shoulder.
You hear this Karkat sigh, “Dave… we’ve been over this, you’re not supposed to
fuck with the timelines of Past Daves.”
“He’s not a past Dave, he’s an alternate Dave. You’re a human in his timeline,
look…” he reaches into his pocket and grabs a familiar looking picture… hey!
“Hey man, what the shit?! Did you fucking steal that off my desk?” you march
over to him intending to take it, but Karkat starts actually  growling  at you
like some fucking feral animal when you get near him.
“Babe, chill. He’s cool,” he pats Karkat’s leg, “I can’t give this to you, it
could cause a paradox and doom your timeline if I give it to you now. It’s nice
though, I’ll hold on to it for now, if that’s okay?”
You stare at him for a second, mostly in disbelief that his… weird Karkat
stopped growling when he touched him and that he’s holding onto a picture of
your Karkat for no reason.
“I’m not gonna fuckin’ jerk it to Karkat’s human face, god. Chill out, Dave.”
he waves his hand at you, “I grabbed it so I can give it to you later, it’ll
jog your memories when you wake up.”
Karkat looks over at you and back at the picture and then back at you, “So, are
you human-dating this Karkat?” he asks.
Dave rolls his eyes, “We talked about this. You can’t just say things like
‘human-dating’ and expect to be taken seriously. And I’m pretty sure they’re
pale with benefits, if you wanna put it in a quadrant.”
Karkat smiles and you’re kinda taken back by the amount of terrifying sharp
teeth he has. You’re starting to this Dave has some kind of death wish or
torture fetish.
“That’s solid fucking gold, holy shit. Of course alternate-me would be Pale for
this you, just look at him! He’s all… soft and sad. Who wouldn’t pity the fuck
out of him?” he laughs.
Dave pipes up before you get to say anything, “Before you get mad, pity is a
troll thing. It’s not like the human pity at all, really. It’s a compliment, I
say take it and go with it. You don’t have too much time left, so I don’t wanna
hear about how mad you are at my boyfriend.”
“Is that what the ticking is?” you ask and he nods.
“It’s your time powers letting you know you’re running out of time, literally.
You’ve only got about… twenty more minutes before you get dropped off in your
new timeline.” he answers.
“Right, I meant to ask you about that… is that why you have the picture? So
when I get dropped off in the new timeline I’ll remember getting my powers and
everything?” you say.
He nods and sighs, “I’ll leave the picture next to your bed on the table, as
soon as you’re done getting your memories back, put it somewhere that nobody
can find. If anyone else sees it, it’ll fuck things up, probably. But like I
said, I’m not sure because your timeline is all fucky.”
“Let’s just chill until you leave, c’mere.” he pats the bed and floats off to
the side to give you space. Karkat also scoots back so you can have some room.
“I’m not going to fucking eat your head off, muscle-beast shit for brains. Sit
the fuck down and relax,” he rolls his eyes.
“...Alright…” you walk over to them carefully and sit down on the bed, crossing
your legs underneath you.
Karkat looks you over and huffs, “Gee, Dave, you picked a winner this time,
didn’t you?”
“Aww, Dave, he likes you,” Dave laughs and ruffles Karkat’s insane bed-head
between his nubby horns.
“I do not!” Karkat grimaces at him, “He’s LITERALLY just a different you so of
course I like him a  little  bit but it’s not like that!”
“Is this the kind of thing you two always do?” you ask with a sigh.
“Yes, Dave just loves to psychologically torture me with Past Daves. Hmm, maybe
you’re right Dave, this Dave is pretty fucking super…” he scoots a little
closer to you and Dave narrows his eyes at you.
“Don’t even try it, I made you exist, in case you fucking forgot. I am
literally your god,” Karkat chuckles.
“This is weird… you two are fucking weird,” you say because you have a feeling
they’re going to go off on some long-winded tangent if you don’t stop them now.
“Wow hey, would you look at that… You’re out of time. Bye Dave, see you later,”
Dave is practically floating away with his head buried in his hands.
“Strider is just embarrassed, you’re not out of time, you’ve got ten more
minutes.” Karkat says loud enough that Dave can hear it.
“Am not.” Dave says floating back in your direction and plopping back down on
the bed a little closer to Karkat’s side than yours.
“Whatever you say, Dave.” you laugh a little, these two are the biggest dorks
you’ve met. You wonder if this is how people feel seeing you and Karkat
together.
“Alright, real talk? Don’t use your powers unless you have to save people or
finish a loop,” Dave rests his head on Karkat’s shoulder and Karkat leans into
him.
“Why not?” you ask.
“Loops are stable stuff, if you don’t finish them you’ll cause a paradox.
You’ll just know when you need to go back but you have to say the same things
or else it’s paradox time.” he answers.
“Haven’t you seen time-travel movies? The thing about time powers is you only
use them when you have to or you risk fucking up really important small stuff.
Ever heard of the Butterfly Effect? Think about that before you go back to…
say… pick a flower or something. That flower might need to exist because in a
million years, that flower might be necessary to create a whole new kind of
flower, and that flower might exist for a certain kind of animal, and that
certain animal might be eaten by a certain human. So when you fuck with that
one tiny thing, you fuck up that human and you can kill a whole family of
people because they didn’t get to eat that one animal and I-”
“Dave, you’re rambling.” Karkat bumps into him.
“Dude, shut the fuck up, I know all of that.” you roll your eyes, does he think
you’re a dumbass or something?
“Oh, sorry, it’s just…” he takes a deep breath, “really fucking important that
you don’t mess with too much, y’know what I’m sayin’?”
“Hey, tell me how much time you have left?” he asks.
“Two minutes… wait, how… how did I know that?” you scratch your head.
“You’re getting better at it.” he smiles at you, “I still don’t get how you got
your powers before you God-Tiered but that’s the least of your worries.”
“So, when am I going to get dropped off?” you ask, one minute and forty-five
seconds.
“August 8th. You’ll be waking up for school, first day of your junior year.
Dirk’s probably gonna be confused because your body has been running on
autopilot doing stuff you’d normally do. It helps to write things down
somewhere that your autopilot-self won’t find it and mess with it.” he answers,
one minute and eight seconds, “Karkat is gonna run into you at school today in
the hallway just like the first time. Don’t forget to pick up his books for him
and walk him to class.”
Fifty-two seconds, “Why? Is that important?” you ask.
“If you want to date him like you are now, yeah. I’ll be able to give you some
pointers like I did yesterday. Just think of it as me being your time-wingman.
Don’t worry about waking up tired, you’ll be fine.” he says, forty seconds.
“Jesus, this ticking thing is annoying. It’s like a digital clock in my brain.”
you shake your head, thirty-two seconds.
“Try not to focus on it, dumbass. It won’t bother you unless you think about it
too much. You’re like a human clock now, you’ll always know what time and day
it is no matter where or when you are.” he gives you a light shove and leans
away from Karkat, ten seconds.
“Guess I got ten seconds, later y’all.” you shrug and Karkat frowns a little,
eight, seven, six…
“Bye Alternate-Dave,” he smiles at you, three, two…
“Later,” Dave says as he raises his hand and slaps you across the face at full
force.
The last thing you hear is Karkat yelling at him and Dave muttering “Fuckin’
loops.”
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