So Many Striders - Now With Illustrations!

Hal shifts slightly, drawing his legs in closer to Dirk's, trying to find a more comfortable position to sit in. "I'd not thought about the incest thing." There's a whole lot of things he'd not considered, apparently. "It's more like a sort of selfcest though, really? Because we started off as the same person, I mean, rather than being created from the genes of one or two of the same people. Divergent timeline style selfcest, where people look the same but have different personalities. Although we don't look exactly the same, because you've got all that muscle, and I... am rambling. Oops." He bites his lip, shutting himself up.

He can feel his face going red again when Dirk says he was flattered, and presses it a bit more firmly into Dirk's shoulder. "Well. Flattered is a good thing at least, right?" And technically, Roxy liked Dirk in that way, before Sburb, but Hal's certainly not about to bring that whole mess up. He wants to suggest that it might be a good thing for Dirk and any prospective partners for it to be this way around, rather than Dirk making a 50-step wooing plan and then stubbornly ploughing on through it. But that would be a bad idea. There are many times when it's not a good idea to antagonise Dirk and while talking about his accidental crush on him is one of them.

Well. That's. He lifts his head a little when Dirk cringes away, his own eyebrows pinched together in concern, and then Dirk says what he says and Hal is grinning and it's not on purpose, but it's also something he can't stop. Which is weird. But more importantly Dirk just said Hal can court him which is both adorably old fashioned and also a more positive response to this whole thing than her ever thought he'd actually get. "I. Yeah, I want to do that. I'm not sure how, exactly? And I feel like a meticulous plan probably isn't the best way to go considering, well, our experiences with that, but uh. I definitely want to... to court you. Yeah."

 

"Hm. Considering sburb weirdness, I think that alt-timeline selfcest feels a little less awkward to consider, though it's still real weird that any version of me could have positive feelings toward me. Eurgh, that's depressing, ignore that." Hal... certainly pays a lot of attention to how Dirk looks. His comments yesterday about him wandering around in a towel make a lot more sense. The mortification does not stop from piling higher.

Every time Hal moves Dirk becomes more hyper-aware of all the places they are touching. "O-okay." Oh god, what has he just agreed to? Hal isn't even used to having a physical form and Dirk has been becoming increasingly skittish about basically all of the new Striders (except ARquius, they have a very straightforward, businesslike relationship based on a mutual love of horses and robots).

He's letting a boy who likes him sit in his lap. Everything just got hella complicated. "You have the reigns on this fledgling clusterfuck." With great effort he stops himself from going off on a horse related tangent that likely would have gotten awkward fast. He's very proud.

He leans his head against Hal's a little, savoring what might be their last chance to hold each other if this thing explodes in their faces. "What should we do now?"

 

He's not going to ignore Dirk saying he can't imagine any version of him liking himself, because that's fucking tragic, holy shit, but he won't say anything about it which is basically the same thing as ignoring it. Saving it for later maybe, although not to bring up, just as something to work on or fuck is that manipulative? Maybe it is ugh. Okay, he'll just... be nice to Dirk. Being nice isn't manipulative, or not in a bad way anyway.

Hal rests his head back against Dirk's for a little while, then pulls slowly back to sit up, hands sliding from Dirk's back to his hips, then to rest on his own legs. His face is so close to Dirk's, it would take so little movement to just lean forward and kiss him, and his eyes flick down to Dirk's lips before he jerks his gaze quickly up again to just below Dirk's eyes. Much safer place to look at. (His own lower lip, now that he's thinking about it, feels slightly swollen from how many times he's bitten and chewed on it today.) "Well. We could always try Backrub 2: Electric Boogaloo?"

 

Hal draws away and Dirk's hands end up resting on either side of his waist. Somehow him being further away is more intimate, not less, and Dirk understands the urge to talk while cuddling even better now. He sees Hal looking at his lips. An abrupt stab of want goes from his chest to his stomach, and wow, he's never gotten that from Hal no matter how close they were. Its tinged with panic though; does he want Hal to kiss him or is he just reacting to the idea of being kissed in general? He has no idea. He's not sure if he's ready to find out. Maybe. Hal's lips look anxiety bitten and. Soft. His stomach flutters again. Stop thinking about it.

His voice is lower than he'd like when he answers Hal, but it's either that or a high, crackling squeak. "Sure. You'll have to get me o- get off me." FUCK. This color of red can't be attractive on him. Maybe he can avoid this whole situation in general by transforming into an oddly shaped, unappealing tomato.

 

God, that lower voice is hot, Dirk should do it more often. And he's actually allowed to think so now! Which is so fucking great, seriously, he feels a little giddy just thinking about being able to think about it. And it's totally the giddiness' fault that he doesn't do the polite thing and pretend he didn't notice Dirk's slip up there. "That can be arranged." He waggles his eyebrows, smile turning mischievous, before sliding off Dirk's lap, swivelling around to present his back to him.

"So, when I did you the other day, you kinda just leaned forward over your knees, right?" He gets onto his knees, leaning forward with his hands flat on the bed, arms straight. And then wiggles his hips.

 

Oh god. He basically just agreed to let Hal flirt with him as much as he wants. To let Hal, with his fucking... Hal personality. He covers his face with his hands. "Look at my life. Look at my life choices."

Then Hal starts acting like a weirdo and things at least partially feel normal again, even if there is an added layer to his teasing. "You know I wasn't sitting like that." He's not paying attention to Hal's wiggly lack-of-ass. It's not that easy to fluster Dirk, this reign of terror must end. "Sit up properly and then lean over your knees."

It's good that he has a moment to squish his emotions back into their proper configuration. He is really, really done with feeling things for a while. "Again, we don't have a clicker yet so if you need to stop tap out."

 

He laughs, rocking back on his perfectly there ass which, sure, doesn't mean it matches up to Dirk's, but it certainly still exists. Pulling his knees up to his chest, he wraps one arm loosely around them, reaching out behind him with his other hand. "If you put your leg up beside me, I can hold your ankle and squeeze it if I need to tap out. That's gonna be more noticeable than me bapping the comforter." It also means he gets to touch Dirk, which will be nice. God, look at that, he's getting clingy already. He kind of likes it. He likes even more that he has something to be clingy about - well, hypothetically. There's the possibility of there being something to be clingy about.

"Would it make the massage easier if I took my shirt off? Honest question."

 

Dirk rolls his eyes and scoots up behind Hal. He sits with one leg curled in and one extended out to serve as Hal's 'oh shit' button. He's almost touching Hal when he asks about the shirt thing. Serious question, right. "Scandalous. That is not how a gentleman courts a delicate flower such as myself." He snorts and answers for real. "It's a bit easier, but as you like."

 

Hal laughs again, wrapping his hand around as much of Dirk's ankle as he can get a hold on. He wishes he could thicken his accent, get it nice and vaguely Southern more naturally, but he can't, so he puts on a deliberately over the top and terrible one instead. "You don't need to fret none lil man, I was only intendin' it as a joke. This shirt will stay safe and chaste on my back, I promise."

 

"Ugh. No."

Dirk hesitates and then runs his hands up Hal's back and tries to find the spot that had been giving Hal trouble before. He was touching Hal exactly like this earlier without any trouble and its the same. It should be the same. He finds what feels like a knot and presses but he's finding it difficult to use as much force as he knows would be helpful. He's also distracted by the strands of too short hair that curl on the back of Hal's neck. Argh, this is stupid, he's exactly the same asshole from before with the same back problems and the same issues with physical touch. Dirk really needs to stop thinking about this.

 

Closing his eyes when Dirk puts his hands on him, Hal focusses on keeping his back as loose and relaxed as he can make it. He still winces when Dirk presses into a knot of muscle, making a quiet noise of pain. "That's good, keep pressing there. Bit harder though?" For Hal, this is... pretty much the same as when they did it before? Except he feels a lot more relaxed about enjoying how close Dirk is to him. That, and Dirk's unlikely to straddle him this time.

 

The knots in Hal's back are surprisingly bad for them only having built up during their day long work session. "Are you sure that this wasn't hurting your before the other day? I'm concerned about how one night of work put your back into this state. It seems like a really good way to developing something permanent and debilitating." Dirk remembers Hal being offended when he asked to check him over, saying he could do it himself. "Have you figured out what kind of muscle tone you have, or what your stamina is? You might need to occasionally leave your computer chair and exercise if you want to survive future engineering projects." As one knot becomes less discernible under Hal's skin Dirk shifts and rubs in other places. He's slowly becoming less keyed up, hopefully that stops being a thing and he can just interact with Hal normally.

 

"It might've been building up for a while? I thought not, but.. I know I was stiff- fuck, bit closer to the middle, on the right? Uh, stiff, but maybe it just built up slow enough that I didn't notice it was hurting too." He lets himself just enjoy the massage for a moment before speaking up again. After doing this so often for the sprites, Dirk is fucking gifted, holy shit. "My muscle tone's a bit to the high side of normal, I think, but that might just be stress-based stiffness rather than the natural tone of the muscle. And I have too been exercising, just not in front of you. Or, perhaps, as much as I should. Mm, press a bit harder?" He arches his back slightly, under Dirk's hands.

 

"Yeah, that makes more sense. Even if it didn't hurt the stiffness is something you need to pay attention to and address or it'll become much more painful than the sort of regular bullshit that can go wrong after, say, hunching over a thing for half a day." He follows Hal's instructions, glad to be getting so much feedback. It's when Hal goes quiet that he starts to second guess himself, but thankfully Hal is constitutionally incapable of staying silent for long if he is at all capable of speech.

"You should probably work out more doing things that'll work your whole body. Swimming is out until you can leave the apartment but maybe running on the roof would work. The roof is basically the apartment, right?" Hal moves and it's like his body comes back into focus after Dirk had been able to zone out for a while. He's very slender, not quite as thin as Davesprite but still weirdly unlike himself. He digs his thumbs into the offending muscle, throwing his weight behind it.

 

Hal has a terminal case of the running mouth, the constant spew of words only alleviated by a plug of some sort, whether it's food or sleep or anxiety. "I'll try'n do that from now on. Stretch my back out every night like I'm getting my snooze on in Procrustes' house, although maybe not quiiite to the extent that he tended to do it." He grunts, leaning into Dirk's thumb rubs slightly when he hits the right spot.

"I could try going up to the roof? There's, uh, not exactly a high probability of meeting strangers on it, and oh ow, ow, fuck that hurts." He squirms where he's sat in front of Dirk, all the way down from wriggling his shoulders to flexing and curling his toes, but he neither moves away nor squeezes Dirk's ankle, even deliberately flexing that hand open to avoid closing it tighter by accident.

 

"Is that the guy who stretched people out Willy Wonka style in their sleep? I have to say, I dunno if I could deal with you coming to breakfast one morning as Slenderman."

Dirk hits a muscle in Hal's back that rolls under his fingers. "Jeez, for a second I thought this was a bone, it's that solid." He shifts and leans forward as much as he can, but he can't get a lot of leverage in this position. He feels along the whole muscle, trying to find the edge of where the knot starts so that he can work up to where it's most painful slowly. "This might hurt pretty bad, we can take a break during if you need; causing further muscle cramps from the pain is not the goal here." This focus on the task helps him to zone out again, despite how much Hal is wiggling around under his hands.

 

"Yeah, or cut their feet off if they were too tall, that's the one. Guess I'm not really cut out for the Slenderman look, I don't think I could rock the all black and white suit." Hal says, while dressed in black and grey.

He hisses in pain, chewing on his lower lip because dammit it's good for him to get this worked out, muscles are not supposed to feel like bones, but his lip is starting to feel raw from how much biting it's getting and it's even harder to deal with the pain without chewing on his lip. He tries biting on his upper lip instead but it's much harder to get a grip on and hold, and the same amount of pressure seems to hurt it more than the lower one. Finally, disappointed with himself for having to cave in after all, he squeezes Dirk's ankle, gasping; "Too much- hurts too much."

 

Dirk tries to get the worst of the knot out as efficiently as possible, but he can feel Hal tensing against the pain. He makes soothing, encouraging noises, and stops immediately when Hal squeezes him hard. "Okay, good, thank you for saying." Dirk hesitates to continue touching Hal, he did signal him to stop, but he'd said it was the pain that was too much. He tentatively smooths his hand over Hal's back, hoping that it'll help him collect himself.

"Do you need a break, to work on a different part of your back, or to stop all together?"

 

Hal feels a little like he's in some kind of no-sex troll porno, a little bit, with the back rub and all the shooshing. Not that he knows what happens in a no-sex troll porno. He's pretty sure the intense pain is saved for the other kind of weird troll porn, though. When Dirk stops pressing on the awful muscle, Hal relaxes, shoulders sagging, and leans in towards the hand smoothing over his back. There's no benefit to the action that Hal can see, so Dirk must just be doing it because he wants to, which is nice.

"D'you mind if we take a break? I'm not trying to be a wimp or anything but that really fucking hurt. Whiiich is probably a good sign that it needs seeing to, hence breaking for a bit instead of stopping. If your hands are hurting or anything though we can stop of course." He twists around slightly, enjoying the fact that he can, to look at Dirk.

 

"Yeah, sure." Dirk sits back against the wall and stretches out his hands. "I'm good. ... um." Talking. Non-awkward conversation. Hal is looking at him. Ugh. How does someone interact with a dude who likes him? He suddenly has much more appreciation for how awkward this must have been for Jake at first.