So Many Striders - Now With Illustrations!

As funny as it would be for Hal to carelessly lay his head into a bowl of potato salad because he didn't look where he was going, Dirk supposes that if Hal ends up having to shower the date will end. To avoid that, he nudges several containers of food away from them and lets Hal scoot backwards. When Hal is close, Dirk wraps one of his arms around Hal's waist, using the other as a pillow. Hal is really warm, and he smells nice. After all of the excitement, and stress, and food involved in the day, Dirk will be lucky if he doesn't fall asleep.

"This seems sufficiently illicit. Hopefully the Neighborhood Association doesn't call the cops on us."

 

Trust exercises involving potato salad, who'd have thought it could happen. He keeps moving back until Dirk's arm wraps around him, and then back just a little more, so he can feel Dirk behind him but isn't really touching him. He can't really work out a comfortable place to put his head, so he lets himself flop backwards and a little sideways, leaning his shoulder against Dirk to form a (scalene) triangle between their bodies and the ground.

"I dunno, I think a couple of muscular guys in uniform would be a nice addition to this cuddle session. They might block out that lovely sunlight though." He holds his hand up, as if reaching out to play his fingers through a sunbeam, then brings it down to rest on top of Dirk's hand, by his waist.

 

"What kind of uniform are we talking here? Suits and sunglasses? Lucha libre outfits? Saucy maids?" Hal leans one shoulder against him and Dirk tries to be a solid thing to lean against. Cuddling and now hand holding in a pseudo-park; it's all very sugary sweet, but shockingly not in the revolting way he's come to expect ever since the trickster incident.

 

Hal snorts with laughter. "Well I did mean police gear originally, but I am pretty keen on the idea of burly policemen in saucy maid outfits. Which do you think would be more convenient for signifying rank: colour or amount of frills?" He fiddles with Dirk's hand, running his fingers down Dirk's and back up the gaps between them, and lifting his fingertips to slip his own beneath them, feeling the callouses. An idea occurs to him, and he laughs again.

"Of course, I'm assuming here that you mean the same thing as me when it comes to 'saucy'. Perhaps you'd envisioned maids with gravy and cranberry jelly spattered artistically over them?"

 

Hal playing with his hand is cute, Dirk just isn't sure of what to do, if anything, so he stays still and observes. The way that Hal seems so relaxed and feels free to touch him casually is making something fluttery and nice happen in his chest. It's not quite the same feeling he used to get when green text popped up on his screen, but he recognizes similarities.

"Thanks for not kink shaming bro, you know how much I love sticky dudes in dresses." Dirk considers nuzzling or even kissing the back of Hal's neck, since it's right there, but the thought of doing something wrong or too much makes his chest tight with anxiety and he refrains. If Hal wants kissed Dirk is somewhat sure he'll just say.

 

Hal can remember building the callouses on Dirk's hands himself, back when they were one and the same, but as it's the other side of two transformations and what could be debated to have been a death, it's more that he has the knowledge of the things that happened than he actually remembers being in the moment in which they happened, which is how his memories since he awoke in the new world occurred. So, on the one hand (pun intended) it's strange to feel the callouses on someone else with his own smooth and soft fingers, but on the other hand he has no memory of actually having them, just that they occurred. It's also very nice to take the opportunity to lean against Dirk, and play with his hand, and be somewhat confident that Dirk is okay and comfortable with the contact.

"Well, I do now, anyway. I also really appreciate you having the confidence to confide your kinks to me, it means a lot." He snickers, to take away some of the bare sincerity, and squeezes Dirk's hand. As he tries to think of a way to further the conversation in a way that doesn't evolve into a thing about trust and confidence and so on, Hal realises he can feel Dirk's breath, just, on the back of his head. He briefly entertains the thought of Dirk nuzzling down below his ponytail, but that would be a weird thing to bring up after mentioning Dirk's kinks so instead he says the next thing that comes into his head. "Is this where I tell you one of my kinks that I think we might not share, in some bizarre version of 20 questions with no questions and way more sexy muscular men than usual?"

... Well. It wasn't asking Dirk to kiss his neck, at least.

 

Having his hand played with is intensely soothing for some reason. He considers the number of nerve endings in each finger; making something akin to his hands would be impossibly beyond him. Nerves just under skin that send information to his brain so quickly it might as well be instant. This kind of thing was one of the main reasons he hesitated so hard in building Hal a body in the first place; just the thought of trying to re-create a human hand sent his mind spinning with how impossible it would be to perfect. Hal moving his fingers also feels nice. The fine dexterity, the amount of control and discipline he's put into training his hands for various tasks is immense. Having someone else move his fingers for him feels strange and sort of lovely. Speaking of kinks; not being in charge of what his body does is a big one, not that he's going to say anything like that anytime soon. Feels like putting pressure on Hal to do things he's not ready for.

Dirk huffs quietly, almost laughing, and presses forward just a bit so that his forehead is resting comfortably against Hal's hair. "Sure dude, tell me all of your biggest fake kinks. Or your real ones. Hell, make it two lies and a truth, that'd be fun. But only if you want to." Dirk is still getting used to pulling back on statements, making sure the other person he's talking to is comfortable instead of just steamrolling over people. He figures it's a good habit to get into, even if it makes him sound like a hesitant weenie.

 

Hal slots his fingers between Dirk's, then slides his fingertips down his own chest until he can tuck them beneath Dirk's palm. The back of his hand is slightly cooler than the palm, but both are warm and nice to touch, even more so because it's Dirk's hand. He draws in a long breath, and then lets it out in a rushing and contented sigh. He ate, he's warm, he's cuddling with Dirk motherfucking Strider.

Dirk's forehead presses gently against the back of his head, and he can feel the air that comes out with each word he says on the back of his neck, which is sensually pleasing in a stupidly huge way, and he totally fails to hold back the shiver that races down his spine as a result. "Mh, yeah, that sounds pretty fun." It sounds even more so because Dirk took the time to clarify that it was up to him. He squeezes Dirk's hand, and suddenly becomes incapable of thinking of any kinks that aren't utterly disgusting. If he had internal access to the internet, it would be ridiculously easy to summon any number of lists to draw inspiration from. Finally, he offers; "Anonymous sex, bondage, and age difference. Which is the real one?"

 

Dirk hums thoughtfully, pretending to take the silly task seriously. He thinks Hal might be trying to trick him though.

"Well, none of them sound real. Unless you're talking about bondage on other people." Which... might be sort of awesome, considering. "While I guess older guys ARE an option now, where they weren't before, that doesn't seem like your type. You seem to be super not into casual sex, much less anonymous, and you specifically hate being immobilized. So. Either none of the above or the tying up side of bondage only."

 

On any amount of reflection, it should be obvious that Dirk would put serious thought into the game, because he puts it into literally everything, but listening to Dirk consider the options based on what he knows of Hal is surprisingly sweet. "I dunno man, technically I've been my own person for less than half a decade, everyone available's quite a bit older than that." He grins, squeezing Dirk's hand. "You got it right, though, option number two - although I'm pretty sure giving two answers is cheating."

 

"Well I'm pretty sure that 'none of the above' would have been cheating no matter what, so the answer is null since it wasn't actually an option." Dirk is absoutly rules lawyering this impromptu perv game. It's how he has fun. "Yes, keep playing on the idea that you're a single digit age, that won't make me nope the hell out at all. I think this is the perfect setting to bring up that age old saying: your kink is not my kink (and that's okay.)" Dirk laughs as he says that though, he knows Hal is his same age in every way that matters.

"Mmm, okay so. Sounding, power imbalance, or humiliation, which one is real?

 

Hal feels a thrill run through him that has everything to do with having got Dirk to laugh, and totally absolutely nothing to do with Dirk laughing right against the back of his neck, fuck. ... Okay, maybe a little bit to do with that. "Well, you suggesting sounding made my dick try to retreat in on itself, so I'm gonna decide it's not that one just because ow." He pulls his lower lip into his mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully. "I get this feeling like humiliation would just make you feel shitty, whichever end you're on, giving or receiving, so I'm gonna say power imbalance. You did always fancy yourself a puppet master."

Eager to continue the game, he continues with the first things he can think of; "Okay- my turn. Hand fetish, aristocratic behaviour aaand uh, barebacking. Which is legit?"

 

Dirk snickers unkindly at Hal's horror at the idea of sounding. "Sorry, sorry. There's a lot of things that I'm not into that I'd be willing to try, but sounding would take some hard convincing. And yeah, no, humiliation would be god awful no matter what. As for the puppet master thing, that's not. Mm. Nevermind." Dirk may or may not have some issues he's working out, and the idea of puppet mastering anyone right now makes his stomach twist nauseously.

"For your's... huh. Not aristocratic behavior. I mean, that'd be hilarious, not judging if so, but... actually, I hope that despite all odds it really is that. I don't know what a hand fetish would consist of, but you sounded unsure of barebacking like it was thrown in there to round out the group so... I don't know. Let's go with the hand thing." Speaking of, Hal is holding his hand now. He squeezes Hal's fingers as he gives his answer, because teasing him is fun.

"For me, let's see... Sharps play, consensual non-consent, or hair pulling?"

 

Huh well, Dirk being into power imbalance but with someone else having the power is pretty damn hot. More hot than Dirk wanting to have things stuck down his dick, anyway. And speaking of hot, that's how Hal's face starts feeling when Dirk gives his hand a squeeze, because he really should have thought for a moment before blurting out something related to what he's currently doing as something he's into. "As far as I'm concerned, it's mostly just that hands are fucking cool. There's so many moving parts to them, and different textures and surfaces, and the nerves in 'em pick up on touch so easily-" he clears his throat. Determined not to let embarrassment get the better of him though, he squeezes Dirk's hand, rubbing his thumb against its side.

"... Okay, I'm pretty damn sure for you it's hair pulling, dude. That was the opposite of hard." Especially as he's had first hand examples of how just playing with Dirk's hair makes him react. "As far as my turn goes, let's see how you get on with lingerie, rimming, and that old classic, bukkake."

 

Dirk thinks hard but... "You haven't pulled my hair. I think I would remember that, considering. In fact, you've been careful of not touching my hair when there's stuff in it." He's suddenly very conscious of his hand, and of the fact that what Hal just said is remarkably similar to stuff he's thought himself recently when considering the impossibility of building a fully functioning android.

He presses his forehead to Hal's hair. "Speaking of stuff in hair, I don't think it's bukkake, though that is a classic as you said. Maybe lingerie? Let's go with that. For me... since apparently I'm meant to make it difficult, pet play, breath play, or sensory deprivation?