I stared at the infant sleeping in the smoldering crater, nestled against the charred corpse of a… was that a horse? The situation was strange in itself, but the fact that an insanely large meteor impact took place in the middle of Houston, Texas, and no one besides me decided to check it out made it even stranger. Another oddity was the niggling feeling I'd had all day to simply wait by my favorite record shop without entering it. Every time I tried to either enter or leave, I'd get an overwhelming sense of foreboding, forcing me to remain close enough to see it but far away enough that in the event something immensely destructive occurred, like, say, a meteor obliterating it from the face of the earth, I would be unharmed. In fact, it was almost as though I had known the meteor would land right where the record shop used to be. But something like that… wasn't that impossible? Of course, as I gazed at the snoring child, that thought was clearly proven wrong.

"Hey li'l guy," I said, reaching down to pick up the child. He blearily opened his eyes at the sound of my voice and the breath was momentarily knocked out of me. Crimson eyes burned themselves into my soul and I realized who this child was. Blurry memories of nightmarish visions surfaced once more, images of a future filled with metal and blood superimposing themselves on the present. This was my mysterious baby brother, the one who would become a reluctant knight? The fates truly were cruel.

I slipped a small replica of my sunglasses onto his face, schooling my expression into something relatively neutral as he scrunched up his face, clearly uncomfortable. He'd just have to learn to live with it. My heart swelled with affection towards this mysterious infant, feeling an immediate connection to the child. Was this what it was like to be a parent? I never intended to experience the feeling but it appeared I had no say in the matter. At least he was a cute baby. And I had Li'l Cal to help me care for the kid. Realizing I didn't really know his name, I quickly reviewed the snippets of his future I had received throughout my lifetime. Surely I'd be able to find it in there somewhere. I caught a brief glimpse of it in a vision of a Pesterchum log with someone with the handle EB. My mouth quirked into a small grin. "Well, it's very nice to meet you Dave," I murmured, somewhat sadly.

The cooling horse cadaver was thrown over my shoulder, the added weight not affecting me in the slightest. Had I been training for this my whole life? The dark images of his future burned into my retinas, flashes of pain and suffering filling my mind with uncertainty and worry. From those images it was clear I would be the one to train him for his duty, whatever it was, but it was also painfully obvious I would also be the object of his hatred his entire life. As I flash stepped home, I decided to treasure the few weeks I'd have with him before I'd be forced to start training him. Then, when all was said and done, at least I'd be able to claim I'd truly loved him for a while.

AN: Yes, I'm Homestuck trash now. Shut up. Moving on.

This plot bunny has been bouncing around wildly in my head for months now, ever since I read that yes, Bro was an absolute piece of shit towards Dave. I had trouble reconciling the image of abusive!Bro with my personal headcannon of caring-but-distant!Bro and thought, "hey, maybe I should try and write out what happens when Bro genuinely does care about Dave but abuses him anyway because he can't think of another way to make him tougher!" and thus, Guardian of the Knight was born.

Please note that this will be a series of drabbles set at random points pre-Sburb, possibly a few taking place before Bro and Davesprite battle Bec/Jack Noir. I haven't attempted to write a story with multiple chapters in several years, so I won't be able to update this story regularly unless I manage to crack out several chapters in one go.

If you've made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Leave a review on your way out if you feel so inclined, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for dropping by!

-Dismay