So Many Striders - Now With Illustrations!

Hal squeaks when his neck is nipped both because it's a surprise and also because the flush of heat that comes with it lets him know it's apparently something he's into. He shifts himself carefully off Dirk, gives him a kiss on the tip of his nose, then rolls over to lie on his back beside him, hand still held. "I could go fetch an extra blanket or something if you let go of my hand." He squeezes Dirk's hand briefly.

"Also, recite pi to the first three decimal places."

 

Dirk smiles when Hal squeaks, and really wants to see if he can make that happen more, but lets him go anyway. Nose kisses are weird and Hal is weird for doing that, he wipes the kiss germs off his nose with his free hand but continues to hang onto Hal with his other one. In fact, it's not like the warm is gone, its merely relocated, so Dirk rolls onto his side and hangs onto Hal's whole arm instead of just his hand.

"I can't not feel anxious and sad right now. It's getting better I think, but I'm still overly upset about the idea of you leaving. I'm sorry I'm being so clingy and weird, it's embarrassing." Oh, right, Hal asked him a memory question. "What, just the first three? You don't want me to serenade you with The Pi Song? If you must know, its three point one four one."

 

Nose kisses are cute and it's not like he slobbered on it or anything. Dirk rolls over and onto Hal's arm and he's a solid weight on it, but he could tug his arm away if he had to so it's fine. He uses his free hand to fold the pillow beneath his head over once, to make it more comfortable when he rolls to face Dirk, wrapping his arm around him and rubbing his back. "It's okay, dude, I'm up for sticking around if it makes you feel better. Don't worry about it. Aaand as tempting as it is to say yeah, serenade me with the Pi Song, I think we'd both fall asleep, so put a rain check on that idea."

 

"Mm." Back rubs are nice. Dirk wraps an arm around Hal's waist and nuzzles Hal's shoulder. "No falling asleep here. Nope." He says sleepily.

There has to be a middle ground between 'cuddles that make him fall asleep' and 'cuddles that make him alarmingly dizzy' but Dirk is entirely too far out of it to figure out where that is right now.

 

Back rubs are great, but Dirk's reaction is suspiciously like falling asleep. It must be time to use the secret weapon.

"Dirk. Hey. Don't fall asleep on me man that's like the opposite of what you're meant to be doing right now. If you do, I'll have to pin you down and tickle you awake." He won't actually tickle Dirk while he's all dizzy and sick, that would be such a dick move, but hopefully the threat will be enough for now.

 

Dirk hears 'pin you down' and his ears metaphorically prick up, but then 'tickle you awake' is said. Utmost betrayal. He cringes away from Hal, arms pressed tightly to his sides. "Don't! I'm awake. You wouldn't, I'm injured, in the course of saving your thankless life even. Of all the things you could do to me while pinning me down to wake me up." Dirk is wide eyed and upset. "How long do I have to stay awake?" He wraps his arms around himself, just in case, and shivers at the cold. "I'm just... really tired."

 

That was a more extreme reaction than Hal was expecting. He raises his hands, his own eyes wide in surprise. "Hey, hey, I was just saying it to wake you up a bit, I swear. No tickles are actually scheduled to occur. And... I think you have to stay up until you stop feeling all dizzy?" He puts his hands back down and scoots a little closer to Dirk, running the inside of his foot up and down Dirk's lower leg. "I'm not really thankless. For you saving my life, I mean."

 

Dirk relaxes. "Yeah, I over-reacted. My head doesn't hurt that bad anymore but I'm pretty sure it would again if you tickled me." He's still a bit grumbly over the threat though, he hates being tickled, and hates admitting how much he hates being tickled. The whole stupid business it one he could do without.

"I guess I am still kind of dizzy, but less so now that we're not... yeah." He lets Dirk scoot closer, but that little shot of adrenaline to his system has him less sleepy soft and more back to normal. Part of which includes an intense awareness of how undressed he is. Hal's foot is distracting, but isn't putting him to sleep like back rubs were. "I didn't mean that, and I'm." Oh great, this again. He swallows. "I'm glad you're okay. Even without a mild brain injury screwing with my emotions. Which is a really frustrating thing, by the way. You're not going to die if I let go of you." Dirk rests a hand on Hal's waist just above his hip. "I'm trying to freak out less but knowing it's a concussion thing isn't helping. I didn't know that before, and it's still kind of difficult for me to believe now."

 

He hooks his foot over Dirk's leg, leaving it there, and feeling rather guilty that the kissing made Dirk so dizzy. Dizziness when being kissed is generally considered a good thing in romantic novels although Hal has definitely never read any of those, but it doesn't seem to be so great in real life, especially when it's spurred on by a concussion. "I'm glad I'm okay, too. And that you're not oh-god-we-need-an-ambulance levels of concussed. That would suck, obviously. And uh." His gaze drops from around Dirk's eyes to his chin, and he slides his hand slowly up Dirk's arm, all the way from wrist to shoulder. "It's probably... not the best time to find it out? But I kind of like the whole clingy thing. I mean, I don't like that you feel I'm going to die if you let go, that's pretty uncool, but I like the, the physical aspect of it I guess. There's something oddly reassuring about it."

 

Dirk hesitates for a long moment before drawing himself close to Hal again and hiding his face in the little space between Hal's shoulder and neck. "Well. In that case. I suppose I can be ridiculous for a little bit longer. For you." He further tangles their feet and legs together, and that helps him to feel a bit more anchored despite the dizziness. "I can't stay like this for very long, or I'll fall asleep." He sighs and hopes the warm breath bothers Hal the same way that shit bothered him before. "Just a few minutes should be okay though."

 

Hal grins, because the idea of Dirk doing something he's embarrassed by for Hal is as novel as it is thrilling, and helps Dirk with the leg tangling. He wraps his arm around Dirk, hand resting on but not rubbing Dirk's back, and does his best not to shiver at the breath puffing against his neck. Which is to say, he shivers at the breath puffing against his neck. "Ooh Mr Strider ooh, you're such a Romantic. Next let's dye my hair ginger and hang out in a graveyard while drinking sewer water so we catch cholera." Hal is making the unforgivable mistake of confusing the Romantics with the Pre-Raphaelites.

 

The concussion must be more serious than Dirk thought because Hal is suddenly speaking nonsense and he's pretty sure Hal wasn't speaking nonsense before. "I was under the impression that I had the head trauma, but sure man, whatever you like. Its a date. As long as-" Huge yawn. "As long as I don't have to dye my hair red. I've had my fill of red hair for a lifetime." Hal shivers and Dirk wraps his arm around him a bit more tightly. ...Hold on a second.

"Oh, wait, you didn't see me with red hair, the trickster bullshit was after ARquius became a thing. Never mind. I have never had and will never have red hair." Smooth.

 

"There'll be no forced hair dying, promise. And probably no going to hang out in a graveyard given how open spaces give me the creeps." He yawns widely, after Dirk does, flopping his head back. "You've never had and never will have red hair, and we've always been at war with Eastasia. Also, the chocolate ration has gone up." He yawns a second time, then makes a grumbly noise, flopping his head back down to nuzzle Dirk's slightly damp hair. It smells good. "We should probably move to a different position if you're yawning, huh?" He wants to just curl around Dirk and nap, honestly, post-adrenaline rush exhaustion finally setting in, but Dirk's not meant to sleep and he has to stay awake to 1) make sure that happens and 2) monitor Dirk's condition. Even if it sucks.

 

"Counter-proposal, you can keep doing that to my hair and we can watch movie or listen to an audio book while staying right here." Hal's warm breath on his head feels nice. He considers for a moment. "I'd be willing to shift under the blankets, but not a lot further." He hums quietly, letting himself enjoy having attention paid to him. "Chocolate sounds good though."

 

"Mm. I accept your proposal, but unless you've got some stashed in your sylladex, chocolate would require moving further than under the covers." He rubs his face into Dirk's hair some more. "I've got a tablet in my sylladex that I was planning on playing around with, but I've not started yet so we could watch something on that, if you feel up to sitting up a li'l. I could prop the pillows up, or you could lean against me."

 

Dirk pulls away from Hal. He can be a needy weirdo while eating candy, he doesn't need to go hungry just because the idea of being alone right now freaks him out a bit. "Snacks seem like a good idea, or actual food even, and my laptop with the bigger screen would be good for watching movies. It's in the work room right now." Dirk tries to sit up but urgh, dizzy. "I'll, um, stay here and work on the blankets thing."

 

"You sure?" Hal is reluctant to move away, given that Dirk said it makes him feel like Hal might die. "I mean, comfort is good and all, and food is certainly a plan for some point, but if it'd make you too nervy then I wouldn't want to move away yet. Like, far as I'm concerned, my priority for now is making sure you're okay. Or at least as okay as I can help you be for now." He pushes himself up onto one arm, the other hovering over Dirk like it could somehow be his saviour.

 

That's quite enough coddling for one lifetime. "Yeah, there's no reason I can't spend my confinement here in comfort. And by 'in comfort' I mean with candy." It's not like he's going to have a panic attack if Hal leaves for ten minutes, and even if he does he'll still be fine, he's about to fall off the roof or anything. "I'm fine, I'm not the one who has been in any actual danger today, I don't think this concussion is even that bad." He looks away grumply but quickly realizes he might be being an asshole. "I mean. Thank you, for the consideration. Just, er..." Dirk clears his throat. Asking Hal to come back quickly will just mean more babying. "Yeah. I'm cool."

 

It's not coddling dammit, Dirk. "... Oookay, I mean, yeah I was in danger but you're the one who actually physically got hurt. I was just fucking terrified for a while." He leans over Dirk, kissing him on the forehead before sitting up and climbing over Dirk's legs to get off the bed. He gives Dirk's ankle a gentle squeeze. "I'll be back quick." That said, he leaves the room and heads to the kitchen, loudly whistling the Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff theme song. When he gets to the end of it, he just starts back up from the beginning. That way Dirk can at least have some reassurance that he's okay. In the kitchen, he grabs several bags of chips, briefly considers putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave before deciding it would take too long, picks up the opened bag of oranges, fills two glasses with water, and slots everything into his sylladex. Next up, he heads to the work room, still whistling, and grabs Dirk's laptop and charger to carry back to the bedroom. He stops whistling. "I'm back, did you miss me?"

 

When Hal leaves Dirk starts the process of shuffling up and then under the covers. He can hear Hal whistling, which is silly and somewhat reassuring. He tries the sitting up thing again, but the dizziness and tiredness are just... too much to deal with. He ends up laying very still with his arm over his eyes, dizzy and upset about something but he really couldn't say what. His breath comes in short little bursts like he's been running, or crying, and that's stupid. Ugh. Whyyy.

He hears Hal come back and his first instinct is to scramble up because he told Hal he'd be fine but... effort. His wobbly voice ruins it when he tries to say "No." That didn't work out well, so instead he carefully turns onto his side and tries to fix his face where Hal can't see.