So Many Striders - Now With Illustrations!

The wobbly voice and turning away from Hal are not... reassuring. He moves closer, putting Dirk's laptop on the bed and hunting around for a moment for a socket to stick the charger plug in. Plug secure in socket, he climbs onto the bed at the foot, shuffling up it on his knees (avoiding kneeling on the laptop) to sit up, back against a cushion, and slide his legs down under the blankets. There's a good few inches between him and any part of Dirk, just in case that's what the no and the not looking at him meant. He doesn't think that's it, but... just in case. "Well, too bad. I'm not leaving again now I'm here and can leech your warmth under the covers. What's Dave's favourite flavour of juice?"

 

The jostling of the bed moving isn't pleasant but after a minute Hal is still and Dirk is able to rest his head against Hal's leg. He really really just wants to go to sleep, but crying about it isn't going to make it possible. He curls up against Hal's side and mutters "Apple" into his hip.

 

"Mmhm." Hal frowns slightly, dragging the laptop onto his knees then wrapping his arm around Dirk's shoulders. "You sound like you're feeling worse than before, bro. Is that right?" At least Dirk putting his head against Hal's leg reassures him that Dirk hasn't decided to start hating him in the less than five minutes since he was last in the room. He opens the laptop and presses the start button, his other hand rubbing up and down Dirk's upper arm comfortingly.

 

"Um... I dunno about worse." He shifts even closer to Hal, because warm. "When I tried to sit up this time I didn't almost throw up, but I did get a really nasty head rush like before. I'm also just... really stupidly upset about seriously nothing? I was tired and cold and alone and couldn't easily do the easy thing and suddenly that just made me the saddest. It's completely annoying, and I would like it to stop." Crying still isn't helping so he wipes his eyes and puts on his game face. "I just need to do the initial sitting up without pitching myself off the bed or, you know, falling off the world and then it'll stop."

 

Hal feels a little like Dirk would try to stab him if he said 'aww,' but the temptation is there. He continues to rub Dirk's arm instead. "You want me to help you get under the covers before we put a movie on? That way you won't be cold any more at least. And for what it's worth, the world is round and you're held to it thanks to gravity, so you'd have to exert a great deal of force deliberately in order to fall off it, it's not the sorta thing that happens on accident." He puts his free hand on the laptop, ready to move it off his legs if Dirk does want help with moving. If he tugs the covers out from under Dirk, he shouldn't even have to move at all, except maybe to lift his hips up or something.

 

Dirk scoffs quietly. "Don't you try and placate me with your 'science' and your 'round Earth theory' Hal, I know what's up. It's the sky, and I'm totally going to fall into it if I move too quickly. That is exactly what this feels like." He wraps his arms around as much of Hal as he can reach while still laying down. "If you're so stuck to the ground you should hold onto me so I won't fall." Also being held just makes him feel better, even if he's too much of a grouch to say so.

 

"I am so stuck to the ground it's like I got dipped in glue or some shit, you flat Earth conspirator." Hal grins, wrapping both arms around Dirk's shoulders and squeezing. He rubs his hand firm and fast up and down Dirk's back, trying to warm him up. "It's seriously absurd levels of glue in here, and the only person we can blame for this prank is John, which is ironic considering his apparent love for flying back when that was a thing he could do. Just coated me in his sticky white fluid. Fucking disgusting."

 

For some reason having attention paid to him is relaxing this time instead of infuriating. "Mm, next time we see John remind me to explain the importance of to him."

Dirk has been slowly working himself up along Hal's side so that he's kind of half sitting up, but he needs to do the thing for real. "Okay, I'm probably not going to throw up on you but fair warning." After mentally preparing himself for an onslaught of dizziness he pushes himself up and away from Hal so that his back is resting against his pillow and headboard. Leaning back and bumping his head against the wall turns out to be a bad idea as he accidentally hit his cut and that sucks, but he's not actually as dizzy as he expected. He knows Hal is probably worried so grits out, "I'm good, just need a second. Can I sit with you though? If you're expecting me to keep all this," he gestures to his naked torso, "on display, I'm going to need a heated pillow.

 

Hal is so up for paying Dirk all the attention he wants, you don't even know. "Are you expecting him to visit sometime then?"

He's been trying to help Dirk up, as he moves, arms still around his shoulders until he moves away. He drops his hands away at that, although he winces in sympathy at the thunk back against the wall. "Yeah dude, take your time that sounded painful. And you can absolutely sit with me, lemme just tug the covers out from under your legs first, so you can have some warmth containment at least." He tugs gently at the blankets, which are easier to free now Dirk's butt and therefore a large part of his weight is up off them, where someone's head would go if they were lying down in bed. "Want me to try kissing your head better, by the way? From the bump I mean, an attempt at kissing concussion away would probably involve opening your head up to get at your brain and, honestly, that's pretty fucking gross."

 

When Hal moves the blankets Dirk shifts and slouches forward so that Hal can scoot behind him. "I dunno, John has been trying to be friendly, you know, like he does." He rests his forearms and head on his knees for a short rest. "I don't think brain kisses are a thing except for zombies, but... yeah. I liked, I mean, sure." Being unsure like this is very uncomfortable; Dirk is used to being the aggressive, assertive one. He doesn't know how he feels when he's not 9001% sure of and dedicated to an end goal.

 

"He's definitely a friendly sort of guy." Hal pulls the blankets up to cover Dirk's lower legs and sets the laptop down in front of him, then inches around behind Dirk. He sticks his legs out down either side of Dirk and wraps his arms around him, dropping a light kiss next to the cut on his head before leaning back again, gently tugging Dirk back with him. "C'mere, I like holding you. And what was it you liked? Me kissing you? 'Cause I like that." Hal on the other hand is rather liking being the one to take the lead rather than going with what Dirk tells him to do (okay so he's never just done what Dirk tells him to do, but now he's far more open and obvious about making his own choices.) It's new, but it involves caring about and looking out for Dirk, which are things he's been doing pretty much since he was an independent person.

 

Leaning into Hal's warmth is no hardship; he is becoming increasingly sure that Hal got his shirt wet earlier on purpose and hasn't offered him a new one for nefarious reasons. They have pretty much the same body though, so Dirk isn't incredibly sure what Hal is getting out of it. That doesn't me he's going to stop grumbling though. "I said I liked something? That doesn't sound right." He tucks his embarrassingly fluffy head under Hal's chin and pulls the blanket as high up around his stomach as it will reach.

 

Just because Hal has a great appreciation for Dirk's muscular figure does not mean he's planned this out. As Dirk has apparently forgotten, he freaks out whenever Hal stops touching him, and shirts take a lower rank in priority than Dirk being not freaked out and this priority ranking is not swayed by anything so simple as the feel of Dirk's skin under his hands as he wraps his arms loosely around Dirk's middle. "You're right, that does sound pretty out of character. I must have misheard." He leans his head back against the wall, enjoying the feeling of Dirk all wrapped up in his arms.

 

Concussions are annoying, but comas are worse so Dirk decides to be a bit more proactive on the not falling asleep front, even if he's pretty sure it would be okay.

"Let's watch something before we both fall asleep. I have it on good authority that making out with me is significantly less awesome when I'm a corpse. Maybe something without lots of bright flashing colors, which leaves Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff right out. Something Studio Ghibli?" Hal is warm, and surprisingly soft to lay against. Having arms wrapped around him is apparently wonderful for his emotional state. Surely not all of these feels were head trauma induced though. Dirk might be even more touch starved than he previously thought.

 

"Yeah, I think I prefer you alive to dead. Both to kiss and, you know, just in general." Hal gets his foot under the laptop and nudges it closer to Dirk's hands. Knowing him, it's going to have at least one password on it. "A Studio Ghibli movie sounds good, although it's a shame we can't watch one of Bro's. Maybe Ponyo? Ooh, or Howl's Moving Castle, I've not seen that in a while." He can't see Dirk's torso clearly from this position, and he wants to explore it with his hands, map out the muscles and the scars and find out how sensitive his nipples are, but that seems a little forward, so he keeps his hands where they are, chastely resting on Dirk's thighs.

 

The laptop whirrs to life and and Dirk navigates through the password and into the network that hosts all the movies they'd managed to save from the old universe. "Howl's Moving Castle it is." Dirk situates the laptop on his legs so that they can both see. Reading the subtitles should keep him awake- wait. "Okay, our two options here are brain damage by reading the screen, or brain damage by listening to the dub. Which are you going to inflict on me?"

 

Hal snorts with laughter, nuzzling briefly into the hair just above Dirk's ear so he can murmur into it. This is totally unnecessary but he wants to see if he can make Dirk shiver. "Well, the shit I was reading about concussions seemed to be saying you shouldn't read stuff off screens too much, so brain damage by listening to the dub it is. At least their voices aren't too annoying."

 

He isn't expecting Hal to speak softly into his ear, it makes him shiver with a little "Ah!" sound. His first instinct is to blush and pull away, but that's so sickeningly tsudere when he's already laying against Hal's chest that he just rubs his ear on Hal's shirt to get rid of the tingling. He still goes pink before demanding, "I thought you were bringing me candy" and hitting the play button for the movie.

 

Hal's mouth tugs up into a grin at the shiver and the little noise, and he drops a kiss onto the top of Dirk's head. He opens his sylladex, pulling out the oranges and bags of chips, dumping them on Dirk's lap. "You said snacks not candy, before. These are marginally healthier and also the first things I saw in the kitchen. I was rushing slightly to get back."

 

Dirk's eyes widen, that liar. "What, no, chocolate, we both agreed." But it was so that he wouldn't leave Dirk alone for too long, which it turns out was something Dirk needed. He sighs and fiddles with an orange, staining his fingers with the zest in the skin. The movie is adorable, and Dirk completely sympathizes with Howl about the red hair thing.