Title: Epilogue
Summary: For once, all he wanted was a happy ending. —Dirk/Roxy
Notes: I started a DirkRoxy fic the other month to get my writing mojo back, but I never ended up finishing it. Once I started this challenge, though, I figured I'd implement the scene I'd written into an entire fic. I just want to see my babies happy together, okay.
Disclaimer: Homestuck and all related characters are property of Andrew Hussie.
Prompt #10: Sunshine
It had been more than four months since they'd won the game.
It had also been more than four months since Dirk's decision to move in with Roxy Lalonde, and sometimes he wasn't sure which of the two was more significant.
Sunlight streamed through the large kitchen window, bathing the room in brilliant gold. Before Roxy, he hadn't bothered to open the curtains in his old apartment until well past noon. The sight of collapsing steel and miles of ocean had only served as a bitter reminder that he was living on a planet that had been destroyed by the Batterwitch, a fact he had not wanted to acknowledge first thing in the morning. Now, due to his roommate's influence and their vastly improved living conditions, he was the first to let in the view of their new planet.
Dirk slid his thumb and middle finger beneath his sunglasses to rub the sleep from his eyes before setting his coffee mug on the kitchen table with a soft clink. If Roxy were awake, she would no doubt make a comment about how wearing his shades all hours of the day would ruin his vision ("And need I mention the totes sad fact that they cover your pretty eyes?"), but he was currently nursing a splitting headache and she wouldn't be up for a few more hours. While Dirk could survive on four hours of sleep a night, Roxy seemed to require about nineteen.
It was all right, though. She always woke up before the silence got to him.
He downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp, grimacing at the bitter taste the dregs left behind. The old Dirk would have kept his expression impassive, but he had long since discarded the idea that keeping up his cool guy façade took priority over acting like a fucking human being. He supposed that was one habit his auto-responder had been right about.
Dirk busied himself with loading the dishwasher before moving on to various other tasks throughout the house, most of which involved picking up stray articles of clothing and food wrappers Roxy had left scattered throughout each and every room. He was no neat freak, but even he had standards.
(He drew the line at the pair of lace panties she had left in the dining room, though. She would take care of that herself.)
Just as he had finished retrieving an empty Nutella container from between the couch cushions, Dirk heard stirring from the top of the stairs. He lifted his head just as Roxy was beginning her descent. She looked like something out of an indie film, all messy hair and an oversized band t-shirt that ended mid-thigh, and he couldn't help but thank every existing deity that her movie had had a happy ending.
When her feet finally touched hardwood, he nodded in her direction. "Hey."
It took a while for his greeting to compute in her still-foggy mind. Roxy stared at him a long moment before sending him a smile that put the sunrise to shame.
"Hey."
With the end of Sburb came a serious adjustment period, but not an unwelcome one. Months of waiting and intense fighting had come to an abrupt stop that had left nearly everyone at a loss of what to do. At first, the remaining players—himself included—had decided to live in the same compound until they could collect their bearings. Nearly all of them had suffered from post-traumatic stress, but as days had turned into weeks, they had pulled themselves together enough that the number of inhabitants had begun to dwindle. Excited at the prospect of exploring their new planet, Jake had unsurprisingly been the first of them to leave. Soon afterward, Kanaya had moved out on her own in hopes of finding a suitable area to raise a Mother Grub. John and Rose hadn't wanted to venture far from everyone else, instead deciding to construct a quaint townhouse just down the street in order to easily keep in touch with them.
Gradually, the rest of them had followed suit until Dirk and Roxy had been the only two remaining. It was he who had proposed that they move in together, and despite her initial hesitance, she'd quickly become ecstatic about the idea, as he'd hoped she would.
During the following construction plans, Roxy had suggested that their new home look nothing like their previous ones.
Dirk had been more than happy to comply.
Sometimes, when his stress-induced insomnia kept him awake long into the night, Dirk would remember what it had been like to live in solitude.
The room was silent aside from the rhythmic ticking of the alarm clock resting on his bedside table, but even that was entirely too loud tonight. The sound seemed to reverberate off the walls, causing the subsequent echoes to give the room the illusion of infinite space. He was instantly reminded of his suspended Texas apartment and the life he had left behind, one that had been filled with far too many lonely nights with only the low whirring sounds of his robots to keep him company.
Dirk would never understand why people on historic Earth had been so obsessed with mansions that had rooms the size of the average apartment unit—or as big as his had been, anyway, as it'd been the only one he'd ever known. On nights like this, his meager twelve-by-fifteen bedroom felt like it had more space than any one person could possibly know what to do with.
He shifted to his side, one eye cracked open in order to view the wall and reassure himself that the chasmic illusion was just that—an illusion. It helped a little, but the echoing tick-tocks remained and Dirk felt like he was on the verge of having a panic attack because everything was too damn big and too damn loud and his mind was raceraceracing and God, did he hate being alone.
Shadows danced on the wall, and Dirk curled the pillow around his head so that it covered his ears, blocking out the emptiness and the not-silence that came with it.
That was when he heard the muffled click of a twisting doorknob.
And that was when he remembered that he wasn't alone.
Dirk didn't say a word as Roxy entered the room and approached his bed, her footsteps padding lightly against the hardwood floor as if she were trying not to wake him, though he was certain she knew he was awake.
He also didn't say a word when she climbed into his bed and curled close enough for him to feel the heat of her back radiating against his without them having any physical contact. He could feel wisps of thick, heavily hairsprayed blond hair brush against his shirt collar and the back of his neck, and although the scratchy sensation should've been uncomfortable, Dirk found the familiarity and barely-there contact to be strangely soothing.
Slowly, he eased the pillow back into its original position, his eyelids drooping with a sudden tiredness induced by relief.
The room didn't seem nearly as big anymore.
He and Roxy never spoke of those nights. The next morning, he would wake up to find her in her own bed, and when she made her way downstairs hours later, she would act as though it had never happened. In return, Dirk never chastised her whenever he caught her wistfully gazing at the empty wine cabinets. Instead, he would place a gentle hand on her shoulder and silently lead her away.
After all, addiction was a powerful thing. A new start couldn't magically erase old habits, just as it couldn't automatically heal old wounds. Dirk knew this well.
"Hellooooo, Ro-Lal to Di-Stri! Do you copy? Over!"
Dirk pulled himself out of his reverie and tore his gaze from the open window. He turned his head to look at Roxy, who was standing behind him, looking a combination of amused, indignant, and slightly concerned.
"I copy," he replied. "Over."
"What's your dealio? You've been checked outta the world of the attentive—A.K.A. that place where people don't ignore their indisputably attractive roommates—for a hella long time," she said, laying a pale hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"
Dirk let his gaze linger on her face a moment before turning his attention back to the window. He watched as Karkat chased a laughing John down the street, shouting obscenities and waving his sickle around in a threatening manner. He saw Terezi and Rose standing together, palms against their foreheads in exasperation as they watched the scene unfold.
He thought about Jane, who regularly visited with sweets from her home bakery, and Dave, who occasionally called Dirk for spontaneous rap-offs or advice about Jade.
He considered the hand on his shoulder and everything it represented.
Their new life was far from perfect. Half the time, it was really fucking hard. But the little things reminded Dirk that things had gotten and would continue to get better. They would persevere, just as they always had.
"Yeah," he finally answered. He reached up to take Roxy's hand into his larger one and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm okay."
They stood together, hand in hand, until the setting sun painted their skin in golden hues.