a/n so I was reading smut and suddenly felt like writing something sad. I've had this half-formed idea in my head for a while, and I don't feel like writing my other fic at the moment, so this one it is! I have small ideas for how to continue this but at this point I think I'll leave it as a oneshot. If that changes I'll…do something idk.

Acceptance

"Dude, shh!" Jake says, squirming away as his best friend tries to tickle him, "Dirk you aren't even supposed to be here, be quiet before they come in here to check on me!"

"I could say the same to you, English." Dirk smirks, following after Jake and tickling his neck.

Jake bites his lip and covers his mouth to quiet down his laughter for a moment, before elbowing Dirk in the shoulder. Dirk backed off with a chuckle and rubbed his shoulder, feigning pain.

"Well that's what you get!" Jake responded, sitting up and crossing his arms over his chest, "Come on, let's play. I got a new action game!"

"Good. My bro refuses to get a new game until he finishes that stupid Tony Hawk game, which will never happen since he keeps glitching it."

"He really needs to get a better taste in games," Jake comments as he gets up to set up the game and tosses one controller to Dirk, who lets it fall to his side.

"I'll just watch for the first round, dude." He scooted back to lean against the back of Jake's bed, not bothering to even touch the controller, "Want to see how it works and shit."

"Yeah, alright," Jake sits on his bed and takes the controller he had tossed for Dirk, starting up the game.

Outside of Jake's room, his sister Jade listened. She stayed there for a moment, listening as Jake quietly laughed and joked. After a moment, she frowned, quietly walking down the stairs where her cousins sat on the couch.

They looked at her sadly and she nodded in response to their silent question. John shook his head and Jane set her hand on John's shoulder to comfort him as she frowned, placing the other hand on Jade's shoulder as she joined them on the couch.

"What are we going to do…" John whispered as he pulled out his phone, sending a quick text to Dave to give him an update.

"I don't know. It's been three years...wasn't he supposed to remember by now?" Jade whispered back.

"The doctors said it might take a while," Jane reminded them, "We just have to be careful not to say something to…disillusion him. He'll come around in time."

"But Jane…three years? It's really starting to wear down on Dave, and Roxy and Rose too. They can't just keep pretending whenever they see Jake," John pointed out, "They need to be able to mourn and move on."

"Yeah, I know. He was close to all of us. But if we just tell Jake…it'll break his heart and I don't know if he can take it."

"I don't know. I think we need to talk to somebody about him. He really, honestly believes that Dirk's in there with him," Jade added.

"It's going to be terrible…" John ran a hand through his hair, "I can't even imagine how terrible it'd be if I were in his place. If I were to ever find out that Dave had been dead and I didn't know for so long…"

"But he'll make it through, I'm sure of it. He's always been hopeful, I'm sure he'll make it," Jane comforted, mostly saying it for herself.

Jade and John nodded. They all had to hope for the best, and the next day when Jake came down for breakfast, somebody would have to act as though they heard him laughing and ask what the noise was about. They just had to keep pretending, because Jake refused to accept that Dirk wasn't there.