The Bonds We Share

by Ashynarr

The Game is over, won at long last, and now it's time to settle into their new homes together. (Possible spoilers for Act 6 onwards, though hopefully just minor ones) (Beta / Alpha kids fluff)

The Bonds We Share (Homestuck)

Author: Ashynarr

Summary: The Game is over, won at long last, and now it's time to settle into their new homes together.

Warning: Definitely spoilers for Act 6 onwards, though I tried to keep most stuff a bit ambivalent to avoid the worst ones.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

"Thanks for helping with my gardening," Jade grinned at her companion, face and arms and clothing smeared with the dirt she'd been digging out all morning in order to plant all of her various vegetables and flowers. "It would've taken a lot longer to get everything done on my own."

It was a new world, and new opportunities, and the Witch of Space had taken the chance to create the full-blown garden she'd imagined creating as a kid. Her old garden had, unfortunately, blown up with a good chunk of the upper parts of her house during her entry, and the alchemized materials just hadn't been the same somehow. Combine that with her few attempts at gardening on her planet being thwarted by the various consorts eating the half-grown crops despite her protests, and one started to see why she'd all but scrambled to buy the supplies once they'd started settling into normalish lives again.

Jake, still reeling from the aftermath of the final battle and with not much else to do, had agreed to help out his 'grandma' with the task, something Jade agreed to easily since they'd never really had a chance to get to know each other while in the Game itself. Though he didn't know as much about plants as she did, having just subsided on whatever appearified plants had survived and thrived on their own (along with the ample storage cabinets Grandma English had put together before she'd died), he was an enthusiastic and fast learner.

"Not a problem!" He replied, also smeared with plenty of dirt. He'd been busy digging out larger holes for where the fruit trees would eventually go, and was leaning on his shovel while watching her plant the last of the iris bulbs. "You could have just used your witchy powers to get everything done in a snap, though."

"I know," She replied, looking out over their large yard. Neither had wanted the isolation of their island home again, but neither of them were quite as comfortable in the city as the rest of the Beta Kids (and Jane) were.

(Dirk and Roxy, understandably, had their own issues with large crowds of people, though their parent-kid-siblings were helping with that.)

So a large plot of land on this Earth's California, both far and close to civilization, had been considered the best compromise, especially since the rest of their friends lived in the same large country. Jake had been more enthusiastic once he'd realized this was the same California that many of his favorite films had or would come from, a tangent that John had joined in on until all eight of them had agreed that their next get together would involve a road trip down to Hollywood.

She shook her head and turned back to Jake, still grinning. "But it wouldn't have been as fun, you know? Getting dirty is one of the best parts of gardening, and it's such a nice day out, it'd be a shame to waste it!"

"Can't argue with that," the Page agreed after a moment's thought, grinning back. "Though I could use a bit of a pick-me-up before we finish the task."

Jade giggled behind a hand. "We should probably wash off a little bit before we go in - I don't wanna get dirt all over the food."

"Right on, you are," Jake nodded, starting to look around for the misplaced hose. "Now where'd we put that blasted hose?"

The Witch simply smile, using his distraction as opportunity to retrieve the end of it with her powers, twisting the handle until the water started flowing. She then lifted the end so it was pointed straight at the distracted young man, her thumb covering half the opening so as to block some of the waterflow.

Naturally, the rest compensated by spraying out far faster and more tightly, causing Jake ot yelp as his back was abruptly soaked through. He sputtered as he turned into the flow, covering his face with his hands while Jade laughed at his expression.

At least, until his face set into a determined grit and he rushed forward, grabbing the end of the hose and, after a bit of wrestling with her for control, managed to direct the pressurized spray up into her face. He chortled as she sputtered and spat out a glob of water, matching the challenge in her eyes with one of his own.

They both stumbled inside ten minutes later, soaked through and laughing breathlessly, agreeing that Jade had ultimately won thanks to her ability to make the water shoot back towards him if the hose were far enough away.

~0~0~0~

"C'mon, you can go faster than this," Dave complained, controller clutched tightly in his hands as his character almost failed to make a sharp turn. "Get the freaking powerup!"

To his left, Dirk remained completely silent, focusing entirely on maintaining his slim lead against his brother. He'd almost fallen behind when he'd been hit by a stray green shell from another player, but Dave had taken two reds shortly after, allowing him to reclaim the lead on the final lap.

Upon winning the Game and claiming their new universe, the two had chosen to move into a modest apartment in one of the less trafficked sides of Austin. Dave had had enough bad memories of growing up in Houston to want to avoid it for a while, even if those had been mostly the fault of the upbringing of his bro. Dirk just wasn't used to people in general, and after having nearly collapsed from nerves the first few times out, they'd agreed to try and ease into normal human interactions with people other than their friends again.

Part of that process had, amusingly enough, become the video games they played together. Since the technology of the future apparently included online gaming via consoles, they'd shrugged and shelled out cash to get a few systems, quickly brushing off their rusty gaming skills and discovering their shared competitive streaks.

(As it turned out, Dirk's Bro had left behind some of the finer things in life alongside the necessities, such as one of the few consoles of his Earth that hadn't ended up subsumed in the Batterwitch's empire. Only the sporadic existence of electricity and the constant need to repair the lone television of the house had kept him from truly mastering all the games he'd had lying around over his fifteen years of near-absolute isolation.)

As Dirk scraped across the finish line first, Dave a second behind, the Knight groaned and almost threw down his controller in disgust. "I can't believe I'm losing to someone who's never played Mario Kart before."

"I had two racing games as a kid," Dirk admitted as he sat back against the couch, exhaling in relief at having maintained his streak. "Same principle in the end, really."

"At least it's not as embarrassing as when Karkat managed to win three rounds in a row," Dave grumbled, pushing up his sunglasses enough to rub at the corners of his eyes. "At least Rose lost those too, or else I'd've never been able to show my face again. Would've thrown myself off the meteor and everything, let paradox space carry me away into the trash bin all the other dead Daves ended up in."

"Trust me, there's far more embarrassing people to lose to," The Prince replied, slapping a hand on his brother's shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.

"Yeah, like who?" Dave challenged, looking over to the other just in time to catch the end of an embarrassed flush before it was covered up. "Wait, don't tell me-"

"It was only once-"

"Holy shit, you actually lost to Jake, didn't you?" The Knight started to laugh, even after his (nominally) older brother had shoved him over so he was lying on his side.

"Yeah, well, I bet you lost to Jade yourself before," The Prince shot back, face threatening to redden again despite his attempts to control it.

"As if," The younger scoffed, meeting the skeptical look of his brother with the grin still on his own face.

Dirk said nothing in reply, instead reaching over, grabbing the half-empty glass of apple juice, and dumping it unceremoniously on Dave's face.

Dave yelped and swore, shoving himself up to his feet even as he pulled out one of the shitty swords he'd stocked his strife specibus with. Dirk stood at the same time, pulling out his own shitty brade while grinning. Neither would last for more than a few solid strikes at their skill levels, but that was all they really needed.

"Loser buys dinner?"

"You're on."

~0~0~0~

"Could you give me a red spool next, please? A lighter one, if you could."

Roxy groaned and put down her book, hands held half a foot apart as she concentrated. With a soft whiff of displaced air, a spool of yarn appeared in midair, barely having a chance to fall before the Rogue caught it and handing it over to Rose. "You know, when I first figured out these voidy powers, I wasn't expecting to use it for something so redonks."

"It's good practice, is it not?" The Seer asked, setting the spool down beside her along with the other half dozen she'd asked for, unwrapping the thread and pulling the end up so she could start knitting it into the scarf she was making. Perhaps she was working on them a bit early, but she had thirty-three to make overall, and she had a feeling there'd be more than enough interruptions to merit getting ahead of schedule now. "And we've been able to chat while otherwise occupied."

"I know, I know," Roxy sighed, flopping backwards so she was lying on the plush violet rug, hand reaching up to rub the head of one of the half-dozen little muties they had wandering around the house. "Just feels different from what I expected."

"Oh?" The younger paused in her crafting, looking up to the older.

Both of them had - for their own reasons - felt the keen absence of their mother figures in their life, and so had been rather uncertain how to deal with each other once the stresses of the Game had passed and they were allowed to settle their new universe. They obviously were too close in age to be anything close to parental with one another, and they were both inexperienced and a bit unsure of how to go about being sisters.

For now, they'd settled on being friends. One day, perhaps, the family bond would come, but they had enough time that neither felt pressured to push it.

"I just- back before we really knew you were kids like us, we thought that, well, you'd be our parents and grandparents, only still alive and stuff. And that when we'd met we'd catch up on all the stuff we missed and it'd be super awesome and- well…"

"You'd get to enjoy the childhood you missed out on," Rose finished softly. "I think, at one point, I'd hoped the same, once I knew who we were rushing towards and the full weight of my mother's death had sunk in."

And wasn't it ironic that where the stress of the Game had pushed the Hero of Light into the voided depths of the bottle, it also nudged the Hero of Void into the light of self-control and determination?

(Both of them had agreed, on seeing their new home, to pour out every bottle and never allow another drop to come inside. Their friends had never heard this vow, silently made between the two of them, but somehow it stayed true even when their house was bursting with guests.)

"Well, you're still pretty cool anyways," Roxy replied after a bit, rolling around so she was propped up on her arms. "And you're a lot easier to talk to, 'cause you're my age and stuff, so you get it more than she would've, I think."

"I'm flattered to be called such a thing," Rose fluttered her lashes, smile on her face. "And you're happier and more invested in the lives of those around you than I think a new copy of my mother would have been."

"D'aw, ain't no big thing," The rogue waved off, smiling as well. "I'm glad we got to meet."

"I am as well," The seer replied, setting down her knitting as she pressed a finger to her lips thoughtfully. "Would you like to try Thai today, or Chinese?"

"Oh, the first one, Janey and Dirk say it's great!"

~0~0~0~

"Dad, the cookies are almost done!"

John looked up from the bowl of cookie batter he was stirring long enough to see Jane's dad renter the kitchen, Jane herself holding another bowl as she peered into the large oven. There was a bake sale upcoming at their school, and she'd agreed to help make some of the sweets they'd be selling the next day, and he'd somehow ended up roped into it despite his protests.

(To be fair, he hadn't really protested too hard, not when Jane's dad had laughed and ruffled his hair in that way his own dad had a lot. It filled a bit of what had been left behind in the old session and in the Yellow Yard, all those years ago.)

Jane's dad entered the kitchen almost the moment the words left her lips, nodding to them both even as he grabbed the conveniently placed over mitts and opened the oven. Opening the door and peering inside, he judged the treats with a critical eye before nodding and reaching in, pulling out the platters and setting them onto the much-expanded counter to cool.

"I think I'm done stirring," John looked down into his bowl, deciding the chocolate chips and oatmeal had been blended well enough at this point. "Should I start putting them on a tray?"

"Might as well, while the oven's hot!" Jane replied, returning to her own stirring with a greater cheer. "Oh, this will be the best bake sale ever, I just know it!"

"You say that every year," Jane's dad replied, laughing despite the fact and ruffling her hair despite her half-hearted protest.

John didn't allow himself to feel a bit left out, instead quickly measuring out the dobs of cookie dough the way his dad had used to show him onto the two trays already prepped for them before taking them and shuffling them into the oven. Closing the door and resetting the timer, he sighed and turned around, seeing Jane's dad temporarily distracted by the phone ringing.

He then looked back to the trays of freshly baked cookies, and then to Jane, and felt his trickster's gambit start to climb ever so slightly. Making sure not to whistle - the number one sign of prankster shenanigans - he made his way over to the tray on the pretense of grabbing his own empty batter bowl, and without missing a beat grabbed one of the cookies from its spot and put it in his mouth.

Mmm, chocolate.

"John, don't eat them!" He heard Jane complain, and he turned and gave her an innocent look that completely failed to absolve his crime due to the fact that half the cookie was still sticking out of his mouth.

"We have to make sure they came out right, don't we?" He asked reasonably once he pulled the rest of the cookie out. "No one will want to buy them if they turned out to be bad and we never realized it because we didn't test them out."

"Are you saying I'd make anything less than the best cookies in the universe?" The Maid asked, one hand over her heart. "I believe that would be considered slander, my good sir!"

The Heir just grinned wider, waggling his brows. "Hey, you never know - some wily prankster could have snuck in tabasco sauce or even horseradish while you weren't looking, and all that effort would have been for nothing."

He shook his head in mock despair, looking to Jane's dad. "Luckily I think they've avoided the kitchen this time, but who knows what could happen!"

"Dad, he's threatening the birthday cakes again!" She protested, also turning to her dad as she always did when John joked about the times he and his dad had put strange (though not lethal) things into each other's food. Obviously, his dad had been far better at it, though thankfully it'd dropped off after the unfortunate peanut incident that'd had him out of school for two weeks.

Jane's dad seemed to take the threat seriously, stepping forward while giving John a disapproving look… before it morphed into a sly grin and a wink once out of the view of his daughter. Without missing a beat he reached over, snagging his own cookie before his daughter could realize his treachery, and took a nice large bite out of it.

"Indeed, it seems the mysterious wind pranksters have left our baked goods alone for now. It was good of you to think of that before it was too late."

John laughed as Jane fumed for another few seconds, the girl finally giving in and laughing shortly after her father did before accepting a cookie from the tray.

It wasn't quite the home he remembered, but it was getting there, and that was enough for now.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

AN: Wow, even I don't know how I managed about three thousand words for this mess, but here it is, just in time for the Minipause. These probably aren't the best characterizations or whatever, but they were fun to write and an idea for how things are divided up after the Game. I guess we'll see on 4/13 when Act 7 is released, huh?