First time actually finishing a Homestuck fanfiction! :D I've got like 50 AUs in mind, so if people actually like this then I may get encouraged to type them up.
I'm not sure exactly where on the timeline this is set.
Your name is John Egbert.
You're sitting alone on the blue rocky cliff in your wolrd watching the little salamanders below you rush around going about their busness. You admire them. It was an amazing little town that they had created all on their own and you watched as they fought bravely against the imps that tried to destroy it.
it was a rare moment in the game where you could actually just stop running and stop fighting for once and just chill. It was nice and relaxing, despite all the death and despair going on below you.
"This is a nice place."
The voice is chill, cool, and vuagley familiar. You turn around quickly. No one else was supposed to be here, just you!
The person - well, not exactly person - closely resembles your best friend of all time, Dave Strider. Some things were different, though, Last time you checked, Dave actually had legs, not a long orange tail that flickered about, kinda reminding you of a ghost. This dude had huge, orange feathered wings, another thing you don't remember Dave having. Wait. Strike that, only one wing. The other was chopped off at the point where it bent, and the messy, feathered, stumpy joint twitched as if on it's own and spurted out an odd yellow ectoplasm. His hands were on his hips (and would probably have been in his pockets if he had them) and his stomach was wrapped in bandages, again oozing the ectoplasm. He had a ring of fluffy looking feathers around his neck, covering his shirt almost like a fashion scarf, and he wore dark shades over his eyes. Everything about him was orange, like he had been born and raised in a Dorito factory.
You knew exactly who this was. This was the other Dave you were talking to earlier. The Dave that had gone back in time and phased with Dave's sprite. This was Davesprite.
You realize just then that this is your first meeting with Dave. It doesn't matter that it's not the actual real Dave, you're still meeting a Dave! You jump to your feet and run up to Davesprite and throw your arms around him. He grunts, obviously not expecting the reaction you gave him. You bury your face in his feathery neck and greet him excitedly, squeezing him tighter. He makes a sound in the back of his throat and you let him go, looking up at him smiling.
"Hi!" You greet him.
"Sup." He replies, his broken wing twitching.
You look around. Normally the sprites are suposed to watch over their kid, right? So the real Dave must be around here somewhere. You look back at Davesprite. "Where's the real Dave?" You ask.
Davesprite's good wing twitches and he flutters back half a step. "I am the real Dave." He says smoothly.
You jump back, embarassed at what you just said. "Oh! Right. Sorry." You look down at your feet awkwardly. "You are the real Dave. But I meant the Dave from my tim-"
Davesprite interupts you. "I know what you mean, man." He says, shrugging his shoulders. "No big deal."
This was not how you imagined your first meeting to be. To be honest you expected a huge party with balloons and streamers and hugs and maybe a few kisses and ice cream (but no cake). You didn't expect it to be awkward, especially not this awkward.
Davesprite made a small cooing noise that sounded suspiciously like a bird sound, and a tiny ripple ran down his entire body. His tail flickered and the tip of it seemed to disappear. He frowned.
"What's wrong?" You ask, looking down at Davesprite's tail. It twitches and jerks about, obviously not in Davesprite's control and he tried to hide it by curling it upwards and behind his back.
You don't know what to say. Start with the usual, you guess.
"So.. uh... How are you?" You ask Davesprite, not at all awkwardly.
He shakes his head at you. "Shit, Egbert, way to start a conversation." He says. He ignores your stupid question and asks one of his own. "Why are you out here all alone? You're not responding to any of your PesterChum messages."
You shrug. "I turned my PDA off." You say.
Davesprite does that bird-fluttery-chip-coo thing again. "Why?"
You look behind you, back over the blue cliff to the salamanders and their town. "It just wanted things to be calm for once." You tell him, "Instead of hectic and confusing. Don't get me wrong, I love the adventure. But sometimes there's such thing as too much adventure, you know?" You give Davesprite a meaningful look.
He stares at you (probably, you can't see through his glasses) for a moment and then nods. "I hear you, man."
You turn your back to him and walk back to your spot on the cliff's edge and sit down. Davesprite flutters after and hovers behind you.
"Sit down." You tell him, smiling. "You can sit, can't you?"
Davesprite scoffs. "Of course I can sit, you moron." He plops down beside you, his tail curling around itself.
You quietly watch the salamanders together for a while before Davesprite speaks up. "This is your world." He says quietly.
You roll your eyes. "Well duh." You say.
The Sprite shakes his head. "No, that's not what I meant." He says.
You look at him, confused. "What do you mean?" You ask.
He looks back over the cliff, avoiding eye contact. "Everything about this world is you." He murmmurs. "It's blue like your text, such a beautiful colour. It's got lots of areas to adventure and explore and goof off in. The inhabitants are somewhat intelegant, I'm sure you've probably slacked off and acted out a hundred shitty movie scenece by now, haven't you?"
You smile. "Maybe a few." You shrug.
Davesprite smiles. A real smile.
You felt special. You're the only one who gets to see Dave's smile.
But this wasn't Dave. The was not the real Dave, your Dave, the Dave that you loved. This was some orange feathery asshole who also happened to be Dave. He was different than your Dave. Yet exactly the same at the same time. Of course. He's your Dave. Throughout the time travel shenanigans, all the Daves are your Dave. They are all the real Dave.
But this Davesprite. He is the Dave from your timeline. The correct timeline. You are doomed to die and you know it. You've known it for a while, even though Vriska hasn't even told you yet. It's gotta be the suit. No one can live with a suit as awesome as yours. You-
Dave spasms next to you, interupting your thoughts and you look over at him. He's facing away from you, his arm pressed into his side on his bandages. Yellow ectoplasm is leaking from in between his fingertips onto the rock, and his tail is flickering and jerking like a dying animal.
"Dave!" You exclaim, full of worry. "What's wrong?"
"N'thing." Dave grunts. "I'm fine." He pulls his hand away from his wound, exhaling sharply. His intire image flickers a bit, like an old TV screen, and then he returns to normal, still curled around the gushing wound.
"You're hurt." You say to him, placing your hands on his shoulders and kneeling so that you're leaning against him, trying to see his stomach.
"Dave, let me see." You demand.
He smacks you back with his wing and puts it around himself, sheilding him from you. "No." His responce sounds like a stubborn 4-year-old coming from behind the divider.
You roll your eyes at him again. "Daaaaaaaave." You whine. "I can help you!"
He pulls his wing down a little bit and glares over it at you, like one of those scenes in a Disney movie or something. "No you can't." He claims, and then flicks his wing back up so you can't see him anymore.
A cool gust of wind blew over the land, quickly lowering the already cold temperature quite a bit and Dave's feathers ruffled. You heard him inhale sharply and felt him shiver a bit and then you remembered that Dave - whichever one he was- was used to Texas heat. You were used to Washington's weather, and you hardly noticed the cold anymore.
Dave shivers, though he tried hard to hide it. He lowers his wing allowing you to see him again and you notice that, though his hand is still on his bandage, the blood isn't gushing and he isn't applying as much pressure so the pain must have passed.
You can hear im making small, uncertain bird noises in the back of his throat and you scoot a bit closer to him and wrap your arms around him in a small hug.
"Caw- what are you doing, Egbert?" Dave asks, trying to hide surprise in his voice.
You giggle. "Did you just caw at me?" You ask him, tightning your grip and trying to pull the cold bird-boy into your lap to share your warmth.
"N-No-!" He exclaims, trying to decide whether to fight you or let you hold him.
"Did you just stutter?" You laugh out loud. You squeeze him like a giant stuffed animal and he squeaks. You continue laughing and bury your face into his neck feathers.
Dave relaxes a bit, and he wraps his good wing around the two of you protectivly.
You nuzzle him a bit more, and then look up at him and you realize that he has freckles. Maybe it was just Davesprite in particular that had the freckles or maybe all the Dave's had them, but you couldn't be sure. All you knew was that you found it adorable and you squeezed him and he squeaked again.
"Dude you're like that squeaky penguin toy from Toy Story 2." You laugh.
"No I'm not." Dave replies crossly and he looks down at you and you smile at his stupid freckled face.
Honestly, you're surprised he hasn't pushed himself off you yet or muttered "no homo" or made a stupid gay joke. It's nice, being able to share a bro moment without one of you calling it off because it gets "too gay."
Your heart flutters when Dave smirks at you. "What am I, your own personal Teddy Bear?" He asks in a mocking tone and you snicker.
"Yes." You reply and squeeze him yet again and this time a feather jumps off of him and floats down to the valley below.
The two of you are quiet, and you snuggle Dave in your lap and he doesn't complain.
Suddenly you feel a rush and you just want to tell Dave everything and anything. You just want to talk to him and tell him how you feel about him, and how you miss your Dad and could really use a bite of cake right about now, and how homesick you are. You also want to tell him that you've got to die, and soon, and you just want to ramble on and on about things and just talk to him and hold him and love him.
"Dave, I-"
"Hey Jo-"
You both start and stop.
"You first." You say.
"You first." Dave shrugs.
You stare at him
"Together?" You ask.
Dave nods slowly.
"On three..." You say. "One... Two... Three-!"
"I love you."
"I l-!"
Awkward silence.
Dave had stopped in the middle of what he was going to say, his wings twitch in shock. You felt awkward, embarassed.
"You chickened out." You whisper.
Dave shakes his head. "I did not."
Another awkward silence.
"You do?" Dave asks, looking at you.
You nod and bury your face into his chest-feathers, flushing red with embarassment. "I'm sorry." You mutter.
Dave chirps and he wraps his arm around you. "Don't be." He says.
You open an eye and peek up from his feathers and he's smiling, and you can feel him twining his tail around your legs carefully. Your heart skips a beat and you toy with the idea that maybe, just maybe, he likes you in the same way back.
"Uhh.." You murmur. "What were you going to say?" You ask him.
He stammers for the second time this evening. "Uhh.. T-the same thing you were gonna say." He shrugs casually, trying to put his coolguy act back on. "I love you." He shrugs like it's nothing, but, OH, it's something alright.
Your heart nearly bursts out of your chest and you squeak a bit and hug Dave tightly and he bird-squeaks and then suddenly you're both laughing and all the awkwardness and embarasment is gone and Dave turns to you and he removes his hand from around your back and gently places it on your jawline and he pulls his face up to yours and he kisses you and it was the greatest first kiss ever. Dave's lips are soft and sweet and you're smiling and almost tearing up and its making the kiss really hard to maneuver into but you manage anyway, holding onto the moment. The kiss breaks and you're both still smiling and you hug.
The happy moment is ruined when Dave has another spasm and coughs up a bit of ectoplasm and you shudder. He gasps in pain and that pain must have been tripple the last spasm and he doubles over in your lap panting. You don't know what to do, honestly, and you're afraid if you touch him you will just hurt him more so you wait it out. It hurts you, too, not being able to help him. You want to take care of him. You want to make him smile again.
The spasm is over quickly and Dave is shaking like a leaf. He cuddles up to you for warmth and comfort, like a wet puppy and you hold him 're the only one who will ever see Dave in a vulnerable state. You'e the only one he trusts enough to see him like that. You're special and he loves you and it's obvious.
You stroke his hair, trying to calm him down, trying to make him feel better. He sighs, frusterated you have to see him so broken up- litterally. You notice his tail is twitching and getting smaller. He flickers like a old TV again and you clutch him tighter, not wanting to let him go.
You continue to stroke his hair, moving your hand down to the base of his neck and scratching like you would scratch a dog. You continue moving your hand downwards into his neck feathers. You comb them with your fingers, picking out bits of dirt and globs of dry ectoplasm-blood. You absentmindedly straighten his feathers and pick them clean, making them shine again. He grumbles at you, animal instincts unsure of what you are doing and as you continue to pet him he makes soft cooing noises to the rythem of your hand. You don't make fun of him, because you know if you do he'll stop.
You pap his back, and he coos softly. You giggle.
"Shut up, Egbert." Dave grumbles through chattering teeth.
You pet him again and after a while the wind picks up and he wraps his tail tighter around you. He flickers a bit, cuddling up to you and while you pet him you hear him start to hum a soft song in the back of his throat. You lean your head on his and smile.
"Sing." You request.
"What?" He asks, lifting his head a bit, obviously surprised by the request.
"Sing me a song." You say to him, resting your hand on his shoulder.
He pauses. "What song?" He asks softly.
"Any song." You say. "I just want to hear you sing."
Dave sighs. He could have gone on a rant about how fantastic he was at singing, and how his sick beats and sweet moves brought all the girls (boys?) to the yard, and he could have douced what he was saying in irony and general cool-ness but he didn't.
He just sang.
"Love of mine
someday you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark."
You lose yourself in his voice, beautiful. Hitting every note perfectly. Keeping his voice even, not too loud, not to soft.
"No blinding light
or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
waiting for the hint of a spark."
As he sings, you grab his hand and hold it in your lap.
"If Heaven and Hell decide
that they both are satisfied
Iluminate the "NO"s on their vacancy signs
If theres no one beside you when your soul embarks
then I'll follow you into the dark."
A loose tear slides down your face. You didn't even know you were crying. Dave looks up at you and stops mid-song.
"I'm dying." He whispers to you as he flickers a bit.
You nod. "I know." You say, choking back tears.
"Oh, come on, man, don't cry." He says, sitting up straight and you assume he would be looking at you with judging eyes if you could see through his glasses.
You cautiously lift your hands to his sunglasses. He jerks back a bit and flinches when you remove the glasses. His eyes are closed tightly, and you notice a few curious drops of moisture clinging to his eyelashes. He opens them after a moment and stares at you. His eyes a red. Bright, blood red. And they are the most beautiful thing you have ever seen.
Smiling, laughing, crying, you more-or-less throw youself onto him and wrap your arms around him, hugging him a squeezing him because you're not going to let go any time soon and he kisses you deeply, passionatley and you fall onto your back, pulling him down with you.
Dave's laying on top of you with one arm wrapped around your body while the other hand tangles up in your hair. His tongue prods at your lips and you open your mouth a bit to allow enterance, stiffling a soft groan at the new sensation. He cooed softly in responce, deepening the kiss. After a moment he broke the kiss, and you whimper in displeasure. Dave rolls off your chest onto his back and uses your shoulder as a pillow. The two of you stare up into the blue night sky and watch the stars together, hands together and fingers intwined.
You turn to face him. "Finish your song?" You request.
Dave cleared his throat ironically and started singing again.
When he's finished you nuzzle into his chest feathers and sigh. It's so peaceful. The salamanders have enven stopped the fires and beater away the imps and were beginning to repair the damage to their villiage. You listen to the heavy breeze, and smell the cool, oily air. You could stay like this, protectivley snuggled away into Dave's chest, listening to his breath rise and fall, forever.
But you can't.
You can feel Dave's strength failing. You can feel him flicker beneath you and the grip his tail has on your legs slackens. You hear his smooth breathing pick up pace and become more labored and he wraps his arms around you and pushes his face into your hair. His bad wing jerks violently, splattering you both with gooey ectoplasm. He squeezes you tighter, and you can feel him shaking. He does a good job hiding it by keeping his breath even, but you know he's crying.
You're crying too.
And you're saying eachother's names and shaking and it's hard to hear but you're telling eachother how much you love eachother, and how you wish you would have confessed earlier.
Dave starts coughing and jerking again, and his tail is flickering violently, it's almost gone. Dave is literally fading. His orange sheen is disapearing and dimming to the point where you can't exactly see through it but you know if you look hard enough you'll be able to see the ground through him. His feathers are becoming choppy, and unconfortably sharp and his tail is almost gone now.
He sniffles and whispers "John, I don't want to die."
You look up at him, your eyes red and puffy. "I'm doomed to die." You say. Dave lookes a bit shocked. "I won't be far behind."
Dave's grip on you loosens and he choaks back a round of tears.
"We'll be together again soon, okay?" You say.
He tries to grip you, but he can't. He looks panicy and he can't do anything. His bandages fall away from his waist as his waist fades and fliskers the way his tail did. You can see completly through him, now. He only has a few sencond left.
He grabs his sunglasses from the ground, you assume he can hold them because they were a part of him, and thrusts them into your hands. "Promise?" He asks.
You grip his glasses to your chest and kiss him. "I promise."