So Many Striders - Now With Illustrations!

"Yeah but... I think there's a difference between being friendly with people and being friends with them? Like, you can be friendly with people you're not friends with, you dig? And from what Davepeta was saying I'm fairly sure they place you in the being friends with category."

Dirk continues to voice doubts, and wow his suggestions are uncomfortably close to what Davepeta was originally saying that he pushes himself up onto one elbow so he can grab his phone, then arranges himself so he's lying with his torso across Dirk's, propped on his elbows on the other side so he can pull up pesterchum. "Hang on, I'll find it, then you'll see." It takes quite a bit of scrolling to get up past the rp scene, but he manages to find it, clearing his throat ostentatiously. "Davepeta: I do like Dirk, Hal. Davepeta: I like the way he talks quietly but at length. Davepeta: he's reliable and always asks fur purrmission befure touching any of us even for small things. Davepeta: I like that you like him." He closes the window, before Dirk gets a chance to look at what else was said. This is so not the right time to address the bad shit. "And yeah, I wanna drag you along to movie streaming, and I know I don't have to. I mean, damn, I'm pretty sure it's the first thing I've invited you to so that's definitely a thing I'm aware of."

 

Hal shuffles around until he's laying across Dirk's stomach like some kind of weird, heavy cat. Speaking of, he listens while Hal painstakingly pronounces each one of Davepeta's cat based puns. His reply comes out slightly breathless from being squashed. "That's. Thank you. You're-" 'Being so nice,' he does not say. His mind slowly works itself around 'I like that you like him' and chews on the implications of that. Does Davepeta mean like, or like-like, and if so what happens if Dirk turns Hal down? Would Davepeta like him less? Would Hal stop being so nice to him? It's a lot to consider.

Hal is right, he's never invited Dirk to anything before. "I suppose this is a momentous occasion. Let me just bust out the appropriately themed balloons."

 

"I'm what? And, I mean, thank Davepeta not me, it's their opinion of you I just read it out." Conversation now hidden, Hal sticks his phone in his sylladex and shifts around again, lying more on Dirk's side than his stomach, head on Dirk's chest and hand tucked beneath Dirk's far shoulder, his other arm awkwardly just sort of there.

He snickers slightly at the suggestion of appropriately themed balloons, fingers absent-mindedly and lightly rubbing from side to side on Dirk's shoulder. "What would be an appropriate theme? Like, old fashioned movie projector shaped, or something? But in distressingly clashing green and orange. Shit that actually sounds kind of cool."

 

"Well, you told me what they said. You definitely didn't have to. You're, um, you know. Being really nice." He wants to respond to the balloon comment but Hal is touching him lightly, seemingly only because Dirk sounded unhappy earlier. It's distracting, makes him think of the more exciting bits of yesterday with a fluttery, slightly twisty feeling in his guts.

 

"Well, I am nice. Sometimes. At least I try to be. And I noticed I maybe haven't been being that nice to you, which is a thing I'd like to change now that I've realised it, because I like you and want to try and make you happy and other sappy things such as that. So, yeah. If they're a thing you'd be interested in having, expect more physical-type affection things in the future." Wow Hal sure is glad he's not having to look at Dirk as he's saying this. He keeps moving his fingers on Dirk's shoulder, focusing more attention on that and trying to ignore the creeping blush on his face.

 

Oh. Wow. This got rather uncomfortable very fast. "I haven't noticed you being particularly unkind to me, you don't have to worry about it." It doesn't feel like he deserves all the friendliness he already gets from Hal, he doesn't quite know what he'd do with more.

Dirk shifts a bit to stare intently at the wall, taking a deep breath and letting it go slowly to try and keep tight control of himself. "You want to be nice to me because you like me. That makes sense. I think I might... like this." He shivers a bit, on edge and anxious and maybe a little bit nervously excited. "I guess I better keep you liking me, huh?" Dirk brings his fingers to the side of Hal's head, carefully running them through his hair and along the outside edge of his ear.

 

"I mean, yeah, I wouldn't say I've been being unkind, but I haven't necessarily been kind either, just sort of coexisting. I dunno, I just feel like I should have been..." He lifts his hand off Dirk's shoulder to gesture, then drops it back into place. "Doing more, I s'pose."

"Being nice to people and liking them are generally things that are connected, yeah. I'm... still a little new to the whole 'whoa I can actually touch people and things whenever I want' thing, so I might forget again that it's a thing that I can do, but I'm digging this too and I wanna keep doing it, although maybe not constantly, that'd get a bit much and not splitting up to use the toilet would be really weird and I'm going to stop talking about that now and just enjoy the moment." Hal squeezes his eyes closed because wow, really, that's where his mind had to go. It really is nice to lie like this though, mostly on the mattress but with Dirk's sexily firm chest beneath his head, and now as an added bonus Dirk's fingers running through his hair. The touch to his ear feels kind of tingly - nice, but tingly - and Hal makes a deliberate show of nuzzling his cheek against Dirk.

 

Dirk grumbles, "You still didn't have to though. But sure, feel free to treat me however seems appropriate." He's not about telling people how to act around him, trying really hard to back away from the whole controlling douchebag thing, not barrel right into it.

A small smile hitches itself onto Dirk's face half way through Hal's increasingly flustered ramble. It's about time he embarrassed someone else, even if it's himself. Dirk continues petting Hal's hair and stops for a moment when he nuzzles Dirk's chest. Once he's still again he expands his light touching area to include some bits of Hal's face and neck.

 

"Yeah but I wish I had been, because of liking you as a person, and this is starting to feel circular." Hal's been getting more 'doesn't feel he deserves shit' than 'controlling asshole', so Dirk's good, if also being ignored a bit because no, dammit, you will receive affection even if you think you shouldn't.

Hal is pretty damn flustered, so he's going to keep quiet and hope Dirk doesn't notice the warmth expanding across his face with that light touching he's doing. That really nice light touching that's giving Hal a glowy feeling in his heart area.

 

Dirk shrugs, and then smirks. "Well, as you wish then." The petting continues, and if it does not stop from happening in this manner Dirk is pretty sure he's going to fall back asleep.

 

It takes Hal a moment to realise, because having his face stroked is really nice and super distracting, but Dirk totally just as-you-wished at him. As in, the thing that Hal did when they were in a not entirely dissimilar position, that made Dirk realise Hal had a thing for him.

Hal pushes up onto the elbow that's not currently resting on Dirk's chest, looking down at him, the blush in his cheeks forgotten thanks to more important things. "I'm going to kiss you now, if that's okay."

 

Dirk is surprised when Hal suddenly leverages himself up and over him with a deep blush on his face. Hal's declaration of intent surprises him even further, making his eyes go wide and his breath shudder to a halt. He swallows convulsively and licks his lips, worried about not having brushed his teeth yet, but still manages to say "O-oh. Okay."

 

Dirk's eyes go all wide and surprised, although Hal's gaze is drawn briefly down when he licks his lips. He waits (although he's 40% confident that Dirk approves of the idea) until he's given approval, then lowers his head, pressing his lips softly against Dirk's warm, damp ones, his own still split and cracked from all the worrying he's been doing to them lately. Hal isn't planning an open-mouthed assault, as he's not brushed his teeth either this morning, so Dirk's halitosis secret is kept safe.

 

When Hal's lips press against his Dirk breathes deeply through his nose and closes his eyes. Even early morning (and it IS early morning gosh dang it) Hal smells nice, though his lips are slightly scratchy. This feels quite different from yesterday, less freaked out and desperate for reassurance. It's... kind of nice. He kisses Hal back, shifting under him to get comfortable and allow his hand to loosely hold on to Hal's arm.

 

Hal kisses Dirk for a little while longer, eyes closed, just enjoying the moment. He pulls away after a little while, though, kisses Dirk on the nose, then rolls off him to lay on his back by his side. "I've gotta let Davepeta know you're doing okay, before they crawl all the way over on all fours to check for themself, but we should maybe do the kissing thing some more afterwards."

 

"Ah. Okay." Dirk is super communicative, it's him. He awkwardly sits up and tries to navigate himself out of his own bed in order to escape to the bathroom. Once there he isn't sure of what's meant to happen. If he showers now it'll be at least an hour before he makes it back to his room, likely more. He's also not sure of what kind of care he's supposed to be taking with his head wound. He ends up doing the most basic of morning hygiene routines and foregoes dealing with his hair until he's had the opportunity to wash it.

It's... kind of awkward to go back into his room now for some reason, like he's not sure of what to expect, but it's his room so fuck it. He may shuffle in like a tousle haired zombie but at least his breath smells minty fresh.

 

Dirk's response seems a little muted, but it's a testament to Hal's good mood that he only briefly considers the possibility that it's because Dirk is annoyed at the kissing ending. He watches Dirk leave until he's out of sight then pulls his phone out again, mumbles a quiet hokey-pokey joke to himself regarding how it's gone in and out of his sylladex all morning. Davepeta's offline, so Hal shoots them a slightly rambling message about Dirk feeling much better and not requiring a hospital visit, then exits out of pesterchum to save his phone's battery. Electronic devices might have had godlike powers of never running out of charge during the game, but no longer.

Hal yawns, and as with Dirk gone he's not got much business in his room, he gets up out of the bed, picking up Dirk's pizza plate from last night. He takes it through to the kitchen, leaning against the counter to eat a couple of slices, then leaves it there in case Dirk wants to finish it and heads through to his own room to change his shirt and underwear. He's rather surprised by how early he hears Dirk leave the bathroom, but grabs the opportunity to go in himself and wash his face, brush and retie his hair, and brush is teeth. Thus made fully presentable for the day, he leaves to find out where Dirk is.

 

Huh, the room is empty. Dirk feels unsettled and slightly anxious, mostly because there are a lot of unknowns right now and he's not sure of how to go about getting the information he's missing. Being without internet is particularly difficult; like having whole sections of his brain suddenly inaccessible. He feels drawn to sit at his desk like normal but that's right out until he talks to Hal, or maybe a nurse at the hospital even. As someone who prides himself on his intelligence inflicting unnecessary brain damage on himself through carelessness is unacceptable. Of course, the internet might be able to tell him what he's meant to be doing about his condition right now... Ugh.

Instead he sits on his bed and continues to try and carefully consider the many aspects of his current situation. Along with the injury thing, he also doesn't know how to feel about what he's done to his and Hal's relationship. Trying to think out the whole situation makes him nauseous, not because it's bad but because he doesn't know if it's good or bad. Perhaps uncontaminated data would help.

 

Hal still has it in mind to call a nurse, soon, to see what they recommend for Dirk, and is headed to find him for that exact reason, because calling the nurse and having them ask for Dirk's symptoms and not having Dirk there to talk about said symptoms would be pretty fucking pointless. Because he is a learning program, as all humans are, Hal does not walk straight into Dirk's room and instead knocks on the door frame, because Dirk just went from the bathroom to his bedroom and sometimes when people do that they aren't wearing any clothes.

 

Dirk is lost in thought when Hal knocks. "Sup?"

It feels weird to not know what to do but he doesn't totally remember the list of things Hal read off as not allowed so he's just sitting idly and fretting.