((Disclaimer: I own neither Homestuck nor the characters mentioned in this fic.))
"Be back in a couple of days, little bro. Pizza's in the fridge."
Dave crumpled up the note.
Gone again. At least he had left a note this time.
Dave threw the piece of paper into the trashcan with practiced ease, then grabbed the pizza out of the fridge and dumped it. They had gotten it a month ago, and mold had twisted a vine from top to bottom. He opened the pantry and took out a box of macaroni, getting the ingredients together with quick, fluent movements.
It would've been recognizable to a five year old that Dave had done this before; Dave himself was only nine.
Settling down with a paper plate full of macaroni in front of the TV, he wondered exactly when Bro had left him the first time. He was, in fact, pretty sure that most adults didn't leave kids home alone for days, even weeks on end. But what did he care? He liked being home alone. Striders were cool, confident. Striders didn't need anyone.
The TV blared on, rupturing the silence long after he fell asleep, a fork dangling from his fingers and an empty plate on the ground.
"Dumb, stupid, really stupid, dumb, seen it, seen it, stupid…" He flicked through the channels uninterestedly, occasionally glancing at the clock. Two in the morning.
It had been a month since Bro had left, and he had already had to go to the little corner store twice, staving off questions and insisting that his "father" thought him big enough to walk there alone. He was a very busy man, Dave said. He worked a lot, Dave said.
So many lies in such a short amount of time.
The door unlocked and opened with a creak, causing Dave to jump up, a sword flashing in his hand where there hadn't been one before. In this regard, he was quite like his Bro, and he wasn't really sure that he was proud of that any more.
"Hey, little guy. Missed me?"
The thought caused a volcano to erupt, bursting in his mind and trickling out like lava.
"Missed you? You know what you wrote? A few. Fucking. Days. Did you lose track of time, Bro? Forget about the kid that fucking relies on you? I don't know if I should even call you Bro anymore!"
He shuffled his feet, messing around with his anime shades. The fact that he didn't immediately counter as Dave was so used to made him soften a bit.
"Yeah, I know. I owe you one. Sorry, I got a bit caught up. Think I can buy your love with some Chuck E Cheese and an ice cream?"
Dave brightened, all anger forgotten. "Fuck yeah!"
"Alright, you head out to the car and I'll be out in a sec. Put in some good rap music and we can laugh them to shame, 'kay?"
"Okay, I'll be waiting!" Just like that, Dave was a little kid again.
Bro sighed and drew some crumpled money out of his pocket, throwing it perfectly into a jar on top of the pantry that read, Dave's College Fund.
A little bit closer, a little less time.