sortinghat_logs | Striders have feelings too

WHO: Bro and Dave Strider
TONE: Serious and Ironic
RATING: ...R? Strider language.
WHEN: Easter hols
WHERE: John's House
WHAT: Bro gets tired of Dave's shit.
STATUS: Ongoing

It wasn't often that Bro snapped, but he finally did. Ever since parent's day, ever since that stupid discussion where Dave found out the truth, it had been one passive aggressive and downright hurtful comment after the other. Not that Bro would have admitted to being hurt, because fuck that shit. But Dave was not as subtle as he probably thought he was, and each one was a punch in the gut. Or maybe that was the intention.

Either way, Bro was tired of it. He'd shown up at the Egbert house because... damn it, there was nothing to do without Dave. He was bored! So he hoped that going to the Egbert house would be a fun time. But nah, it'd been pretty fucking miserable. He should've known, but he'd pretty much stupidly hoped that Dave would have gotten over it by then. Nope.

So it was after Dave's last comment that Bro stood up, and he was pretty much radiating anger. He went over to Dave and gripped him by the arm and headed towards the first room that he found, which ended up being the office of one Dad Egbert. "You and me need to have a fucking chat," he stated. He pushed Dave into the room and pulled out his wand, pointing it at the door. It shut and locked by itself, and then he murmured a soundproofing charm.

"Alright, say whatever it is you've gotta fucking say because I'm getting sick of this shit," he said, his voice low and angry. "Or are you too much of a fucking pussy that you can't just come out and say it, you've got to make passive aggressive remarks that are about as subtle as that pimple of John's forehead. Man up, Dave, stop being a fucking coward- except that's me, isn't it? My fucking bad."

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Dave's entire demeanor brightened just a little when he made Bro laugh (he made Bro laugh), and he briefly squeezed a little tighter. He was intensely happy when Bro hugged him back. He was relieved that they'd fixed things, that things could go back to normal now. But at the same time, he didn't...want to let go of him yet. He wished they could just stand there for a little while longer. He knew that when the hug broke, it would go back to normal. Which was an awesome thing!

But still, when Bro pulled back and looked in his eyes, there might have been a flash of...longing, that Dave wasn't old enough or practiced enough to hide without the help of his shades. But then his pokerface was firmly slapped back on, and Dave slid his own shades on as well. "Shit let's sign a goddamn treaty," Dave replied with a small smirk of his own.

When Bro stood, the spell was broken, and Dave reluctantly accepted that, looking toward the door. "I dunno, but maybe we oughta leave before his dad starts thinking that we're trashing his office."

When Bro saw that look in Dave's eye, it made him feel relieved that Dave obviously didn't want the moment to end either. He didn't feel like such a pussy for it. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he began realizing that maybe he didn't have to keep his guard up... that moments like that didn't have to be so rare, if they both wanted them to.

Maybe he could afford to be a little less cool more often.

But either way, that moment was over, and any other ones would have to wait. "Shit, I bet he's probably freaking out and calling the british army or something," Bro said as he went over and retrieved his hat, planting it firmly back on his head. As he headed back towards the door, passing Dave, he reached out and put his arm on Dave's shoulder. It was a simply gesture, but it was one that said just because they were leaving, didn't really mean things had to go back to the distant, emotionally withdrawn way things used to be.

He was willing to try and change that, if Dave was, though he glanced at Dave through his shades, his eyes unsure, wondering how Dave would actually react. He was glad that he had his shades on, because he knew he probably looked stupid. He felt a little stupid, if only because he was so new to this kind of thing. Hopefully he'd get used to it eventually.

If Dave had known what Bro was thinking, he would have supported the idea. You know. On the inside. He would have tried to be tough and denied it outwardly, because wow they'd already spilled a hell of a lot of feelings, and now their shades were back on, which meant it was a no feels zone again.

But yeah, Dave could definitely get used to letting their guard down a little more often.

Dave scoffed but said nothing as he watched Bro cross the room and pick up his hat. What he wasn't expecting, when Bro crossed the room to come back to him, was the arm on his shoulder. After he tensed initially, though, Dave smiled a little and relaxed, bringing up his arm and putting his hand briefly on Bro's arm in a gesture of acceptance. Yeah, that was totally okay. He looked up at Bro, and he felt for a moment like he found eye contact, even through their shades.

And he just. You know. Held it for a moment. Because it felt nice, you know, to just have a moment with Bro that was completely smuppet free. Irony-free. And he tried to make sure Bro knew that he was grateful for that.

Bro felt the eye contact too, and between the hand on his arm and that eye contact, he realized there was a mutual agreement between the two of them that there could be less distance between them more often. He held the contact too, because once found it was surprisingly hard to break. Finally, a small smile crossed his lips, discarding even more irony from the fire.

Yeah, he could get used to that. It felt pretty good to smile, to not hide behind the wall of impassive assholishness he'd built up over the years. But only for Dave; he couldn't see himself doing it for anyone but him, because... Dave wouldn't judge him like other people would. Dave was the only one who understood him enough, the only one he would ever feel comfortable enough with to open up to.

Finally after a few more seconds, he nodded his head towards the door. "S'go," he murmured, reaching into his pocket as he withdrew his arm from Dave's shoulder and reached for his wand. Before he dispelled the privacy spells, he looked back to Dave with a smirk. "Wanna really mess with 'em, give Egbert what he's been trying to hear the whole damn time?" He flicked his wand and the spells were lifted, "Yell at me. Let's give him a fuckin' show."

Dave's pokerface broke a second after Bro's did, and hell, the grin that broke across his face was probably enough to make him look more like a 14-year-old kid than he had in a long time. He hadn't really grinned like that in front of...well, almost anyone. John got it out of him on rare occasions. But it was an expression that Bro wouldn't have seen since the days of Dave's emotional constipation training had started.

And damn, it felt good. It was like catharsis, just to grin like a kid for once. Because if Bro was doing it, that meant that Bro wasn't going to judge him for doing it too.

Then Dave fought to bring his pokerface back under control when Bro pulled away and withdrew his wand to lift the privacy spells. He'd already started preparing himself for the barrage of questions that he was inevitably going to get from John and Jade as soon as he left the room, when Bro paused and looked at him with a smirk. Dave's eyes widened behind his shades, his eyebrows arching up, and his mind went totally blank for a moment when he was told to yell at Bro. So he just sputtered for a moment and yelled the first thing that came to mind.

"WELL?"

Striders have feelings too

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