Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Dirk was bored, easily stating. Being dead didn't really give him anything to do. He usually just hung around in his dream bubbles and spent his afterlife pondering over what had went wrong down the line. He kept to himself, well, until a specific moment in the timeless space where he had the urge to get up and actually go. Where he went? Nowhere for a while, he had gotten lost in his own bubble of course, wondering circles and doing eights around trees as he tried to figure out how to get around. Until he had to stop in his tracks and listen closely. Was that crying her heard? Sniffling and choking sobs? Orange eyes searched behind his shades, soon spotting some kind of clearing behind some trees. He followed this path into a room, an unfamiliar yet nostalgic feeling overcoming him. It wasn't his room, though a strider's room it was. It was a certain Strider's bedroom, Dave Strider to be exact.
And to speak of the devil, he was seated into a chair, arms and head resting on the desk in front of him, shoulders shaking. Dirk felt himself tense in the more than awkward tension. Striders weren't known to cry, and here Dave was. Dirk pulled a lip between his teeth, fingers combing back through his hair. He opened his mouth to speak, exhaling a breath before quickly closing his mouth as Dave froze.
"What are you doing here?" Dave asks, voice blunt. He doesn't move though, stays right where he is, face pressed into the creases of his arms clothed in his god tier outfit. Dirk suddenly feels horribly out of place and invading.
"Don't take this the wrong way, I didn't purposefully pop up into your space, man." He swallows and pulls at his own clothes, the wretched pink of being a prince. He tilts his head as he tries to get a better look of Dave. "I got bored, went wondering around. Heard someone crying and followed the sound here... are you-"
"I'm fine, I wasn't crying. I don't cry." Dave cuts in quickly, moving as if to sit up but stays where he is. This is when dirk realizes that Dave's glasses are folded up and set aside. He would have to face Dirk to put them on. "It was probably John, maybe even Karkat. You probably wondered in here by accident."
Dirk pauses, knowing well enough that it was Dave he heard crying. And he knew Dave knew he knew. "I don't think that's the case." He states, brows knitting in confusion. "What's going on, Dave?"
For a while Dave stayed silent, frozen where he was, Dirk nearly thought he had fallen asleep if not for the slight shift in his posture.
"If I were crying, which I wasn't, but if I was, it may or may not have been the fact that these damn dream bubbles like to fuck with my head and lead me into memories I would really rather like to just forget already." Dave sighs, arms tightening beneath his head. Dirk was ready to comfort Dave until he had begun to talk again. "How many times do I have to just wander down that blood trail, knowing what I'm going to find? Knowing that I was too late and I wasn't strong enough. All those years of training he put me through, and I still didn't do enough. I couldn't save him-" Dave's voice cracked and his shoulders raised. "I couldn't save you."
"Dave-"
"Don't pity me now, I wasn't crying, okay? I don't cry."
"Fine." Dirk pleads, stepping closer. "But don't put yourself through this. You couldn't have done anything any ways. It had to be, to carve the path for you, it made you stronger and I- he knew that. Do you really think he would let himself lose?" Dirk, was trying hard to make a point, and when Dave hadn't answered he stepped up and pulled him around by his shoulder, holding him there with both arms. Dave held his breath, red eyes wide as he stared at Dirk, cheeks red and damp. 'Like hell you haven't been crying.' Dirk thought, gritting his teeth. "I will not let you think like that."
"Dirk-"
"No, Dave. I won't put up with it. You out of any one have done so much, you have saved countless people, lengthened their lives as far as I know. Why hurt yourself over this?" Dirks eyes shut close and his head drops a bit. "It's not fair how these dream bubbles work. But you don't just get forced into them. You go there because you want to. You think you're going to find him in times to save him but you won't Dave so just stop. Stop with all of this."
"Dirk, you're hurting my shoulders." Dave mutters, looking down himself. He knew this, and he knew he had a choice not to follow that damned blood trail. And yet every time he did, maybe just to hurt himself more because he wasn't hurt enough. He wasn't in as much pain as he deserved to be.
Dirk loosened his grip yet stayed where he stood, glancing at Dave though his shades. "This afterlife probably lasts for a very long time. And I'm not going to let you live in agony throughout it. You hear me?" he meant every word he spoke, meant every sound and movement. Although he wasn't just saying it to comfort Dave. It was a speech to remind himself the same thing. Funny how Striders had a tendency of tearing themselves a part. Who knew that the Strider bloodline would be so miserable?
"I get it man, I just... can't I just mourn? You know, he was, we were always strifing maybe, but I loved him. He was my guardian, aren't I allowed to feel even a little bit bad about that?"
Dirk sighs, standing up. "No."
Dave drops his gaze, knowing that that was going to be the answer. "Oh." Silence soon suffocated Dave and he quickly put his shades on, turning to his desk. Dirk watched him, watched as he tapped his fingers on the desk, sometimes pausing to pick at the wood falling apart in splinters. He also watched as Dave sighed and reached over pulling open a drawer and pulling a piece of paper out. "I couldn't give this to you when you were alive, I always thought you would be to cool for something like this." A small smile ghosted his lips. "I drew it when I was young, barely able to read you know? That age where I looked like a wrinkly grape and I still couldn't curl my toes all that much."
Dirk nodded with a shrug to silently show him he understood what he meant. Dave looks up at him then quickly looked away, handing over the paper. Dirk took it silently and looked over it. It was very messy coloring, but he could make it out. There was a blob of orange in a center of a squared of person he was guessing, with wicked glasses like his own anime shades. Beside him was a smaller box colored in red with similar shades as well. Above them were unrecognizable letters and other dots and stars of red and orange. The two boxes even had lines that connected them.
"I have no idea what I meant to write at the top, thought I was smart enough at the time I suppose." Dave says under his breath bashfully. Dirk by now gave up on holding back a smile, a sad grin.
"I... it's amazing, bro." he says quietly. Dave was the one to speak up again, clearing his throat.
"Do you think... maybe while you're here, we could maybe... watch a movie, or some shit?"
Dirk bites his lip, looking over the paper at Dave. He knew what this implied. It implied some perfectly great Strider snuggles. He set the paper down and lent a hand out for him. Dave looked at it then up at Dirk before taking it and they both ended up wrapped in each other's arms on Dave's bed, totally ignoring the whole movie ordeal. Dave didn't want to make it awkward by getting up and having to crawl back. He just wanted to lay there, Dirks warmth surrounding him. His eyes slowly began to close, fingers curling into Dirks outfit behind him.
Dirk watched Dave's face relax, watched his breath even out and his rose colored cheeks fade out into a pale tone. His smile curved into his lips as he pulled the younger strider closer, thinking the unsayable as he too closed his eyes.
