vatheon | There's a stranger in my bed

So. Roxy was pretty sure that today was supposed to be some sort of holiday? Something about excess and turkeys and Indians and shit that probably had historical significance but was definitely lost by the time it got to when they lived. Thanksomething? Who cares, not as awesome as other holidays, clearly. (Or at least, not as awesome when one couldn't cook.)

She's walking from the kitchen to her living room in her usual hanging around the house attire (shirt, no pants, but not at all naked, just almost) and clutching a box of "stuffing" whatever the hell that is, to try to find her roommate in crime. "Diiiiiiirrrrrrrk, we don't have any cel--holy shit."

Hi sort-of stranger.

"Dirk! Dirk quit dicking around with your bots or whatevs and get out here like right the fuck now."

Dirk is, in fact, dicking around with his robots, up in his room. He hears the door opening downstairs, so his attention is already directed toward the living room of the house. He wouldn't put it past Roxy to look outside wearing her house clothes, but that sounds more like someone visiting.

And then Roxy shouts for him. In a moment he's grabbing his sword and flashstepping down to the living room, prepared to deal with whoever is in their house, or so he thinks.

He's not, because when he comes to a stop, at the foot of the stairs, sword at the ready, he's staring at a guy in shades, with a certain haircut, who looks a whole lot like him... And a little bit younger than him. Right. Well, he knows who this is. Thank god he's wearing his shades.

"Well. To say the obvious, this is completely fucking unexpected. What brings you here?"

Wow, this got really weird really fast. He recognizes Roxy, but when he met her, she was asleep. Well, her dreamself was asleep. This is obviously not her dreamself. And then she calls out for Dirk and holy shit Dave suddenly understands even less.

Also, he's so glad for shades because he's inwardly LOSING HIS SHIT. Because it was one thing for him to barely meet the other. It was an entirely different thing when the other is actually speaking to him directly. It takes Dave a moment to find his voice. Stay cool, Strider. Don't fuck this up. Holy shit, really don't fuck this up.

"Uh. I used to live here." Maybe...more time has passed since he's been here. Does that mean John and Jade were gone? He kind of shoves his hands into his wet pockets, shivering a bit as his shirt, pants and cape stuck to him. "I guess I don't anymore," he said quietly. Maybe he should abscond. ABSCONDING SOUNDS PRETTY GREAT RIGHT NOW. Obviously he is knight material.

Edited 2012-11-23 01:22 (UTC)

"Oh." Well, the coincidence in that sort of smacks her full on in the face like immediately. Other Strider used to live here. And now they do. It's like they were destined to live in this house or some cosmic bull like that. Pretty cool, but now was definitely not the time to think about that.

Roxy is just going to casually... glance from one to the other and wonder what exactly she should be doing. Because right about now the tension was ridiculous levels of thick.

"Yeah we kinda... took over I guess. Here." She's just going to go grab the blanket off the couch and toss it at Dave since it really doesn't seem like either of them will be moving. "Start warmin' up with that. I'll go get a towel."

Awkward Abscond.

Some part of Dirk's brain is contemplating the interest of it too. Some very small part. Most of his attention cannot be dragged away from Dave standing by the door, dripping water all over the place. Some time later he'll wonder about things like why John and Jade and Rose never mentioned this when they visited the house. Some time later he might even ask about it.

Now, he is awkward enough that he has to take a moment to nod to Roxy as she retreats back into the house, presumably (hopefully) to put on some pants or a skirt.

Except with her gone, that just leaves... him and Dave. Standing there. Right. He should... do things. God, where does he even start?

The obvious sounds good. "Sorry about her. She was raised by carapaces, which is in theory better than wolves. Now, this is a rather interesting question, but... do you know who I am?"

Dave is currently thinking about not forgetting to breathe. It's really important not to forget how to breathe. That would be really awkward and really embarrassing. He is supposed to be the epitome of cool right now. Even if he suddenly feels like he's thirteen again and not fifteen.

"I'm just going to pretend she was wearing pants the entire time. I think I'm about done with dealing with drunk Lalondes for a little bit." Case and point? Rose Lalonde missing her date.

"Yeah. I know who you are. You kind of just appeared for a moment. It was like a cameo appearance in your favorite reality tv show who conveniently comes in to take someone else off set. It was kind of a really shortlived meeting, so I don't actually know who you are. I mean, I know you're Dirk and that you're supposed to be my bro except swapped over because of the scratch, but we're actually talking instead of you just ollie outting like it weren't anyone's business and all that jazz." Dave. Dave, no. Stop talking. You're embarrassing yourself. He just wraps the blanket around himself. Maybe he can hide...in this blanket and disappear. "But that happened awhile ago. I don't know. Time moves kind of weird and let's be honest that nothing actually moves in linear order." Nothing for him really does at least. "Rose pretty much made sure that I was always in the know. We kind of already went over what was gonna happen with your session the first year we started traveling. You're like my bro from the future, except you aren't my bro and I think we switched roles or something."

Dave, please stop talking. You are just babbling.

That rambling should probably make him feel better. Maybe it would, if he knew how Dave acted normally, and could tell it apart from normal Dave rambling. But the truth of the matter is that he doesn't. He has no idea what's normal for Dave- the only things he knows about him are from scraps left around his apartment and pieces of media from hundreds of years ago. And that's only his universe's version of Dave. This one is completely different even from that, and while he can think that that's nervous rambling, he doesn't know.

Okay, whatever. He can deal with this, he can take it in stride. He doesn't have to explain his existence to Dave entirely. They just have to deal with the discrepancies between the universal incarnations of each other. No big.

"Right. That wasn't that long ago from my perspective, when I first got into Vatheon. We're about on the same page regarding that particular set of information. You're right, by the way. In your universe, I was the elder. In mine, that was you, although the age gap was more- significant."

"I believe I should apologize for my abrupt departure. There were things that needed doing to keep our entire session from going to complete shit and ending with us as a bunch of creatively hole-punched corpses."

"What month is it exactly?" His sense of time was terribly off. It's still supposed to be April or something. It's kind of hard to keep up with time when you're on a meteor and there's no actual sense of time passing for you to indicate what time of the year it was.

It was nice to be reaffirmed of the information he already knew, but it hurt. Because this wasn't the Bro who died a goddamn hero and raised him. That wasn't Dirk's fault. Dave just missed him a hell lot. And he wanted nothing more than to maybe throw his arms around Dirk and completely throw away any resemblance to cool because it has been two years since Bro has died. Two years and he has yet to really accept it as a fact nor would he talk about it. But that wasn't fair to Dirk and he had too much pride for it.

But that also meant he had no idea what Dirk was like. Who he was as a person. How he grew up. He had nothing to work with.

"Naw. We weren't actually expecting to run into you guys so early. Our little three year vacation through the great nothing on a remote meteor wasn't expecting any early arrivals. You two just happened to wander into our dream bubble shit, so don't worry about it." Which is to say, Dave wasn't even close to being ready to seeing Dirk face to face. Actually, he still isn't, but he's winging it as best as he can. "I mean, it probably isn't three years for you guys, but it's three years for us. It'll probably be a short wait for us to arrive to your session. I don't think you guys can do anything much until we arrive anyways." If they talk about the session, they don't have to talk about feelings. He can do this. He's got this.

Roxy eventually returns with not only a couple of towels in hand, but also one of Dirk's shirts (that he hasn't worn yet) and she even managed to put a skirt on before she came back (no use having Dirk telling her to go do it again).

Of course, the fact that they're still in the exact same spots as when she left them hasn't lost her notice, and she barely resists the urge to roll her eyes. She does, however, sigh very heavily as she walks over to Dave to hand him a towel.

"Here. This is for drying off. And this," she holds up the shirt, "is for getting changed in to."

There's this brief pause where the awkward tension grows around her again, which is her cue to do something ridiculous to break it. This means that instead of waiting for him to actually dry himself, Roxy promptly wraps her arms around him and hauls him in for a hug, grinning. "The tiny Strider is here! You are a god damn adorable thing aren't you? I could just keep you in my pocket."

"It's the end of November," Dirk manages to say before Roxy returns, carrying a pile of towels and a shirt. At least it isn't one of the pink ones, really. Not that there isn't a bunch of irony in that, which he thinks Dave would appreciate. But he just showed up.

And then, of course, Roxy is being Roxy. Which he can't really protest, but this is Dave who had a version of him create movies and fight the batterwitch and she's talking about putting him in her pocket. This affront to Strider dignity can only be weathered with the most blank of faces. "He's practically the same size as me, RL. That hardly counts as a tiny Strider."

"There's a bathroom that way, if you want to dry off and change." Dirk gestures down the hallway. Doesn't matter where you put the towels when you're done with them. We can talk more after."

"Holy shit." No way. It was April when he left. But that explains why John or Jade weren't inhabiting the place. Now he wonders if its only been months or actual years since he's left. He doesn't know they're in Vatheon, and it kind of depresses him at the thought that his friends aren't here. He hasn't seen John and Jade in awhile.

Mentally keysmashing aside, HELLO alternate universe, teenager ectomom. This is so many levels of awkward, except he can't be completely against the physical contact because she's warm and he's cold as fuck. "Unless you guys are secretly in your twenties, we're probably around the same age. And Striders don't exactly do god damn adorable. That isn't an adjective one really uses when referring to one." Nope.jpg. HE IS MANLY AS FUCK. Cooler than ice cold. Adorable and tiny is not a valid description.

Dave does his best to shrug while in the arms of the happy Lalonde. "I think I'll just dry off. It seems kind of counter intuitive to wear a dry shirt but stick to wet pants." There's a pause. "That came out so wrong. Fuck." Wow, Dirk must thing he's a complete tool and loser.

"Hmmm... nope I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to stick to adorbs, here. You could be like twenty years older than me and I'm pretty sure I'd still think you're cute as shit. Probably a little hottie, too, you look like you're gonna grow up nice. You got some class A genes in your system." Wink wonk.

She turns her head to cast her gaze on Dirk and promptly sticks out her tongue. "And you can be quiet. I think you're cute as shit, too, I just rarely say it out loud. Put you in my fuckin' pocket, too." Why did that sound like a threat?

She eventually lets Dave go, but not before fucking with his hair, and nudges him toward the hallway. "It's not a lot, but a change of shirt'll make you feel at least a little better. If you want, you can try taking a hair dryer to your pants for a bit."

"We got here a few months ago, and we've been living here since then. Plenty of shit has gone down." Which is an unspoken invitation for Dave to ask, if he wants.

Dirk will weep anime tears, Roxy, don't think he won't. "You're very humble about your own genetics, of course." That sounds like such a threat. "Well, thanks for letting me know. I'll keep it locked in my memory, Ro-Lal thinks I'm kawaii as shit. Best compliment I ever received." He drawls it in the most sarcastic way possible. Can't go around undermining another Strider's declaration of manliness.

He glances over at the mention of pants. "I don't know if mine would fit, but you could try them. Or we could always go and grab something from one of the shops."

He's not gonna bother. He's familiar with the stuff that happens here. He got turned into some part bird hybrid for instance. He rather...not know what's happened. "You must have came after I left. I guess the last month I was around was April. Time flies when you're traveling through the great unknown."

"Your fac-I'm not going to finish that." Because your face is adorbs is not an insult in any way, shape, or form. Curse the need to reply back with childish insults. Also, please stop flirting with him. Kay thanks. He's going to deliberately ignore your comment about him being a hottie. He kind of has a very complicated thing going on back on the meteor.

If he weren't so high strung and still nervous as hell, he would gladly make a joke about getting into Dirk's pants. But he doesn't know if homosexual jokes with someone he doesn't actually know all that well and has only been speaking him for a very short amount of time would really fly. That sounds awkward as hell. "I can deal with it later. It's cool. I can handle my shit. I've been here before. No need to fuss." He feels really weird having them trying to help him.

Please, Dave, don't act like you're special. Roxy flirts with everyone.

She's just going to stand there for a moment, letting her gaze go between the two of them again, before she eventually tosses up her hands. "Fuck it. You two are awkward as shit and watching this is embarrassing me. Both of ya need to admit you've got some fanboy boner for the other and hug it out or somethin', damn."

Roxy opens a closet near the door to pull out her scarf and wrap it around her neck. "I'm gonna go see if Janey's shown up yet, since it looks like it's new people season again. Don't wait up."

Peace, bitches. Lalonde out.

No, Roxy, don't leave them to this. Except do, because you have been doing nothing but embarrassing the both of them since Dave accidentally walked into the house. Dirk won't comment on how likely or unlikely it is for Jane to actually have shown up. Instead, he simply nods to Roxy... and stares at the door as she closes it behind her. Why did she have to say the words 'fanboy boner?' He is showing proper respect to someone who has accomplished a lot of shit in SBURB and has the potential to grow up into someone much like one of the greatest people in their universe. Really.

Okay, he'll just need a moment to recollect his cool. "Sorry about her." He is not going to be taking her advice right now. Hugging it out isn't an option when they're both Striders and being awkward as hell about this.

"I suppose we should get this out of the way. If you don't mind me asking, what was the version of me in your universe like?" It's an awkward as hell question, but once he hears the answer, maybe he'll know more what and who Dave is expecting him to be.

He isn't having a fanboy boner, god damn it. He is merely having a major crisis about meeting his alternate universe Bro, whom he respected and placed on a pedestal for being some amazing hero he'd never attain too.

"Naw, it's cool. It must be a Lalonde thing." Except Rose did different things, but it kind of was on the same line.

Dave goes silent. He doesn't know how to answer that honestly. He wasn't sure if he was shivering from the cold anymore or shaking for other reasons. He shut his eyes for a moment. Bad idea. If there was an image that he would never get out of his mind, it was Bro's body with a sword through his chest. He's so goddamn glad for his shades, even if he inwardly realized he was definitely hiding behind them.

His relationship with Bro was complicated. He respected Bro so much, but their relationship wasn't the best. It bordered abusive at times with their strifing (not that he perceived it that way, but anyone that wasn't a Strider would think otherwise). "Elusive as shit." Dave thinks he's going to give himself a pat on the back later. At least he kept his voice steady. "Kind of just did what he want. Cool dude and I learned all my irony from him." He really didn't want to talk about this.

They're both hiding behind shades. Dirk is self-aware enough to realize that he's doing it, but he's not about to stop. The shades are a Strider thing, he's seen his universe's version of Dave say so often enough in interviews he's found.

He isn't sure what he's expecting to hear about Dave's Bro. Honestly, there's nothing he could hear that wouldn't surprise him, at least a little. The irony thing does, a little, for all that he considers himself nearly a master of it. The mention of elusiveness, less so. It must be a universal constant with him. Dirk Strider does not let people in on what he's thinking, even if they're his own brother. Fine, okay, he can deal with that.

"Anything you want to hear about alt-you?"

It was kind of annoying in that he never knew where Bro was while in the session. He kind of hopes Dirk isn't going to end up doing the same thing for his own peace of mind.

"I...I don't know," Dave admits. He doesn't know if he actually wants to hear about the alternate version of him. It just meant bigger shoes to fit and he already can't fit the ones he's given. Dirk's Bro must have been something else. Something much bigger than he is. Wouldn't that just make him a disappointment?

Which made this really difficult because he wanted nothing more than to impress Dirk.

"... Right, sure." He can understand that. Except he can't exactly separate that Dave out from this one, it's hard not to think of Dave Strider in any form as worthy of respect and a bit of admiration. But, they're not talking about this, and that's fine. Now he just needs to find something else to talk about.

Dirk sets his katana aside and shoves his hands into his pockets, standing silent and still for a few long moments. "I haven't been here since April, but Rox and I got here in the end of July. I can give you some info, if you haven't gotten it already."

He'd just be more overwhelmed if Dirk spoke nothing but good things about his alternate self. He'd try so hard to try and be that person and it would be embarrassing and end in complete failure.

"Unless the place has changed significantly in these nine months. I think I'll be okay. I kind of already know how to get around. It's not like they made it very hard." They sure as hell are gonna keep standing there. Dirk with his hands in his pockets. Dave with the blanket Roxy gave him wrapped around his wet form. "Easy breezy, beautiful cover girl. I got this shit in the bag." They are truly amazing at this conversing thing.

He doesn't think his version of Dave is perfect- he has his flaws, there are places where his work could be improved, in Dirk's opinion. But when you're stuck alone for most of your childhood, you tend to latch on to the idea of a person who cares about you. As much as he's tried to alleviate that with facts later in his life, the impression still remained.

They are the best at this conversing thing. Long periods of silence are a sign of a healthy dialogue, aren't they? "I suppose not. The biggest change is likely in the foreigner population."

It's still better than whatever a fifteen year old can probably do.

"It'll be more people than the company I've had for the passed two years." What does he say. Oh god he doesn't- "So about clothes I can borrow. As much as I love being a wet cat, I really think that cold weather should die in a fire and I'm basically making a tiny lake the longer I stand here talking." A break. It'll give them time to think of something! Or...more time to panic to themselves.

"The water's no problem." Seriously, they don't care that much about what water does to their house. They are not good homeowners at all. But, after a moment's consideration, Dirk flashsteps upstairs to grab some things, then flashsteps back down. When he gets back, a pair of pants is added to the pile of towels and shirt that Roxy already got and set down before she left.

"Here. They ought to fit reasonably, bathroom's that way, you can dry off and get changed." He won't comment on the fact that they're his clothes. The hat symbol on the shirt probably makes it obvious.

Dave just gives a nod and goes down the hallway and into the bathroom. He shuts the door and stands there for a moment.

Oh. My. God. That was like fifty shades of awkward and fifty shades of Dave-Strider-you-are-the-hugest-tool-and-biggest-loser-ever. Dave stares down at the shirt in his hands. This is most definitely and obviously Dirk's shirt. His face dropped a bit as he stared at the hat symbol. God damn it.

But Dave starts peeling off his wet clothes so he can dry himself off and change. He didn't want to take too long in the bathroom. That would make it seem like he's stalling or something. He can't let the other know he's totally trying to bide time to maybe pull his head out of his ass.

Dirk, in the meantime, isn't just standing around in the living room. Instead, he heads to the kitchen, carefully bypassing the immediate area of the bathroom door. He's not going to do something ridiculous like try to clean up the house. Dave's already seen it, and besides, there's nothing wrong with the mess. (Besides, Roxy would be sure to comment when she got back.)

Once in the kitchen, he grabs several unopened bottles of orange soda, the only safe drinks in the house, and brings them back to the living room with him, where he takes a seat on the couch.

What even comes next? Dave will probably want to find his friends once he's dried off. Dave seems reluctant to ask questions of him, and Dirk doesn't know what to ask himself. How much are you like the brother I never actually knew? Who knows if Dave even wants to keep in contact with someone who's not actually his Bro?

He opens one of the sodas, listens to it fizz as he takes a sip. He wishes he had Cal right now.

Dave slips on Dirk's pants. They were a little bigger on him than they probably were on Dirk, but he wasn't surprised. They fit well enough. The shirt was a little big on him too, but he wasn't going to care too much about it. Really, the size of it wasn't the problem. The face he was wearing Dirk's clothes was making him internally scream inside. Well, no. Striders don't freak out. He's just having a moment.

Dave glances into the mirror in the bathroom before glancing down at the hat symbol on the shirt. He doesn't know what to do. Was Dirk going to expect him to be like his alternate older self? Was he expecting Dirk to be anything like Bro?

He shook his head a bit. That would be unfair. As much as he'd desperately like that, it wasn't really going to bring Bro back. Bro has been dead for two years now. Dave scrubs at his eyes for a moment before bundling up his wet clothes and carrying it out with him. "Uh. Thanks. I'll bring your shit back when I get my own clothes."

Dave kind of just drags his feet as he heads back to the living room, shoulders slightly hunched. "Would it be cool if I left my clothes here? I can totally take it with me if it isn't okay. I mean, if it ain't cool, it ain't a problem. Just wet clothes. Not gonna kill me if I carry it around a bit or whatever."

Dirk looks up from where he's now sitting on the couch, seemingly impassive behind his shades. The short break was enough time to school his poker face back together, even if he isn't really any more calm than he was before. Appearances are everything.

"Sure, no problem. We can dry them out, and you can pick them up when you drop off my things. You just got dry, no point in keeping wet things with you." In fact, he can take those from Dave right now, and head to the laundry room that they actually have. Dirk may not be the best at general cleaning, but when it comes to personal hygiene, he is fastidious. And he made sure he knew what he was doing, after one load of shirts actually got turned pink early on in his time here.

As he stands, Dirk considers Dave. "You got any plans? Now that you're don't live here any more."

Thank god for their shades and their poker faces. This would be so much more awkward if they didn't have these things to hide behind.

Dirk, you never do your darks with your whites. Come on.

He kind of nods a bit when Dirk takes his clothes, shoving his hands into his pockets. Dave hadn't really thought about it. He was still stuck up on the fact that he was actually having a conversation with Dirk and now he was wearing the others' clothes. "I dunno. Just find a new place to crash, probably. There's a crapton of places around I can commandeer. Other than that, nothing. I guess the locals cleared out all my crap while I was gone. I get the feeling that the garage is empty now. I had a makeshift darkroom set up there." It also means acquiring a new camera and film while he's at it. "Why do you ask?"

Of course, maybe they would get around to emotional admissions sooner, but who needs those, right?

He can do his own laundry, he knows that! It was the curse's fault.

"Not empty. I have some robotics and shit in there. Takes up too much space in the house otherwise, and some of the things I use are prone to exploding. Better to be safe."

He's admittedly a bit taken aback to learn that Dave had specifically used that space too, but it won't change how he uses it. He's never been into photography, and learning that Dave is isn't a reason to start. Maybe he'll just study it.

Dirk adjusts his shades with a free hand. "Simple curiosity. Unfortunately, all the bedrooms here are accounted for or in reserve, or I'd give you an offer. You might try hunting people down, though. There are plenty of residents who have been here longer than a year, someone's sure to recognize you from here." He simply assumes Dave already knows that Jade, Rose, and John are here. Surely the first thing he did was check for them, even if he didn't contact them immediately.

What? Striders actually give into their emotions? How silly.

"At least it's put to use. Sorry 'bout the smell." Although it may have aired out by the time Dirk and Roxy had taken residence. He finds it painfully ironic that Dirk seems to have taken residence in his previous place and even used the garage for his own doing. "Let's go three for three. Did you snag my room too, while we're at it?

Well, Dirk could probably watch Dave. Dave had no intention of not picking the hobby back up, that's for sure. "Don't worry. This place has a crapton of free space. I can easily just take residence anywhere, and it wouldn't probably matter. If they show up, I'll bug them." Dave kind of gotten used to being around a limited amount of people.

Unfortunately, he actually has no idea who's still here or not. He was more determined to get warmed up before finding out, so...

"Depends. Did you have the room on the left closest to the bathroom?" It would be weird if that was true, but this day has been so weird that he can probably handle it without too much of an internal freakout. Depending on the answer.

He shrugs. "True enough. There haven't been enough new foreigners that we're running out of space for them, after all. Can't say how the general numbers compare to when you were here, though."

"Yeah. Because fuck everyone, bathroom is mine when I want it." This entire day is weird, so really, there's not much else that can make this even more weird.

Dave shrugs. "I guess I expect more now than before, but I never really paid too close attention to how many people were around."

"Guess fate has conspired to give us the same room, then. That's the one I'm using." Also because it's convenient to steal the shower early that way, and take his infamous insanely long ones.

"In that case, I should probably let you find out who remembers you. Unless you'd like to stick around to warm up a bit more."

"Because I didn't need more reasons to think this place was weird." Although, maybe it's nice that Dirk occupies the room he used to be in. That was kind of nice, even if it was kind of weird and unsettling.

"Uh..." Oh god. He...isn't sure how to respond to that. Honestly, he didn't really care to find out who remembers him right on the get go. On the other hand, this was getting awkward. But he didn't actually want to leave right this instance, despite the awkwardness.

It's certainly going to make Dirk look at the room differently for the next few days. It was empty of furniture when he and Roxy claimed it, so now he's going to wonder what kind of things Dave had there, how it was set up. Maybe Dirk will visit Dave when he finds a place to stay, so he can find out how Dave keeps his room. It's one of those things he never managed to learn about his Bro, despite tracking down basically everything the paparazzi had on him.

"I'm not trying to kick you out, or anything."

Unfortunately, Dave is probably sharing a room with the other Beta kids, so he'll only get a partial understanding. But hey, Dave is also commandeering a room to remake his dark room, and who knows how long it'll be before he starts hanging wire everywhere so he can hang his photos.

"I know." He shuffles from foot to foot. "Its just-" Dave kind of just steps forward and he kind of just starts hugging Dirk. Yeah. That's a thing he just did. If Dirk isn't gonna kick him out now, he probably will after this. He just...he really wanted to do this.

"Uh-"

Oh.

Of all the things that could have happened right now, Dirk somehow didn't expect this one at all. He stands still for a long moment, processing it. He'd hugged Roxy before, when they both had just arrived. He's had plenty of hugs from her since then. He hasn't ever wondered much what his Bro's hugs were like. But then, Dave isn't exactly his Bro, anyway, and he's not Dave's Bro, either... Unsure and hesitant, he returns the awkward hug.

Dave's grip tightens just a bit, and he has to resist all urge to bury his face against him. Because this isn't Bro. This is Dirk and he knows Bro will never come back. The man was dead and has been for years. But this was still comforting in some way. And it was probably really fucking unfair to Dirk for doing this, but he just really wanted (he'll never admit to needing something like a hug) this. He should probably let go. Get his emotions back under check.

At the very least, he can pat himself on the back. No embarrassing tears were shed in the making of this hug. That's something to be proud of. Hell yes.

Dirk isn't sure how to react to this. He can certainly suspect what this is about, but it's not a comparable experience for him. He's technically never lost his Bro, because he never had him in the first place. The hug itself is probably enough to make it obvious to Dave that this isn't his Bro. Aside from the physical differences, it's pretty obvious that this hug just doesn't have the same kind of meaning to him that it does to Dave.

He still doesn't pull back from the hug, though. He isn't sure what else to do.

Dave knows Dirk isn't Bro. He can't replace Bro and it would honestly be a dick move for him to try and force that kind of thing on Dirk to begin with. But there's something nice about hugging Dirk. Even if he's pulling away now and he looks kind of embarrassed for hugging the other in the first place. That probably was really awkward for Dirk. Whoops.

"Sorry. I...maybe I should head out now." He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Yeah, I guess." Dirk says. It's probably not the answer Dave's looking for, really, in that it's not a positive yes or a no, but he's not really sure how else to react right now. He just nods instead.

"You can come back whenever," he finally continues, just as awkward. "Not just to pick up your things, I mean."

Maybe next time they see each other it'll be a lot less awkward. He isn't sure what answer he was looking for in the first place.

"Yeah. I mean, yeah. I'll see you around. I guess. Thanks again. You know. For lending me clothes."

"No problem. It's a good thing they fit." He shrugs, and starts them on their way to the door- not that Dave can't find his way to it on his own, when he used to live here. It just feels even more awkward to stand around by the washer and dryer while Dave makes his own way out.

Dave walks alongside him, obviously still a little awkward about what just happened. "Thanks. Shit. I already said thanks again, my bad. I'm just. Yeah. I'll see you around."

There's a stranger in my bed

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tw: strider tldr

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... I have no idea whose room is actually whose, so. :>

me neither 8D whatever

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