( I haven't ever written a fanfic for this fandom, nor have I ever written for these characters in any way, so bare with. Also, this is SOMEWHAT HOMOSEXUAL, you should've seen that via the description, but if you're here and that bothers you, back the heck out now. I also haven't used to actually publish anything in nearly 8 years, sooo the formatting for this might be wonky until I tweek it enough. Sorry!)

I Can't Hear You

He was leaning back into the sofa, almost sinking down in it as he stared at the ceiling. His eyes stared at what was practically nothing, as his mind went nearly a thousand miles per hour. He heard only the music that blasted through the headphones covering his ears. The entire headset was solid black, with a red circle design in the center of each headphone. The colors matched perfectly with that of his broken record shirt. The boy hardly ever said a word when he was by himself. Dave Strider was fairly quiet when he wasn't looking to bother his friends, and that mostly happened only when typing was involved. In the reality of things, he found himself locked in his own thoughts a lot of the time, especially lately due to reasons he wouldn't admit to anyone.

So he had to stop himself from looking too surprised when his rather lively best friend swung the door open like he was going to warn Dave about the apartment having caught on fire, or something. The gigantic grin on his face told Dave that there at least there were no fires breaking out anywhere. John had been staying with him for a couple of weeks now, just as a visit until he would eventually go back home, and he seemed to be enjoy himself enough. "Hi there, Dave!"

Though the grin on the dark-haired boy's face took a momentary turn into a guilty expression as he took in the aura of the room. "Oh, um.. did I interrupt anything?" he glanced off to the side for a second or two, before looking back at his friend.

Dave found himself briefly wondering why a kid sitting alone listening to music, probably the same music that he'd listened to countless times before, would be something worth apologizing over if it were disturbed. It didn't take long for that thought to slid into the back of his mind, however. "You're fine", was his short-winded reply after leaving John's question to hang in the air for a number of seconds.

This was okay; John had never needed much to recover from any awkward moments, so two words were all it took for him to shut the door, bound inside, and then proceed to lunge himself onto the sofa next to his friend. The blond found himself having to roughly scoot out of the way, moving his legs closer to him in a struggled reflex as John had nearly sat on them with not much of a care either way. "Hey!"

"Hey! What're you listening to, anyway?"

Dave's remark had been one of protest or annoyance, and he questioned whether John had missed that, caught it, or perhaphs had pretended not to take note of it.

They had started out a safe distance apart, but like always when they hung out, that didn't last long. Before Dave could even blink, or so it seemed to him, John had moved into a sitting position right next to his friend, eying the headset that the blond still had on. Dave had since given up staying in a restful position and moved to sit up next to John. He found himself being nearly squeezed against the right arm of the sofa, with John directly next to him, and the other half of the couch remaining annoyingly empty. Annoying to Dave anyway, whom found it hard to have the other so close to him.

"Dave, Dave, Dave-"

There he went thinking everything out without speaking again.
"Yeah, yeah, bro. I heard you the first time."

John grinned again, holding a similar expression to that weird, smiling green blob on his shirt, in Dave's opinion. The boy's green jacket had nearly started to slip off from his journey of nearly speed diving into the sofa. During his pestering, the boy had managed to nearly topple the blond. Obviously, any sort of personal space bubble was being sorely ignored.

Before he spoke, he took the opportunity to regain his barrings, and managed to lightly push against John, getting him to scoot over to at least allow the blond to have more than five inches worth of sitting room.

Now with a bit more breathing room, Dave continued on.
"It's instrumental."

"Okaaay."
His friend's tone was sarcastic, and his eyebrow raised. John obviously wasn't having anymore two word answers.

"It's- what the fuck, John?"
All too quickly John made a swift movement to snatch the small iPod out of Dave's jean pocket, and Dave then realized his heart was beating a good amount faster than it should've been. Why did he have to pull this type of shit? Probably because John thought nothing of it being weird. Not that it was exactly weird to Dave, that wasn't the correct term.

The heir momentarily propped himself up on Dave's legs, supporting most of his weight with his arms. He was now nearly laying down on his stomach as a result of grabbing at the iPod rather clumsily.

Dave made a quick motion of kicking his legs a bit, and then letting them slide off to the side just enough to cause John to lose his barrings and slide off onto leather below himself. He made a light "Oof!" noise, which was barely audible through the music that was still going in Dave's ears, and then sighed. John moved to sit back up then, still uncomfortably close, and having not lost his grip on the small music player. He looked at the track name as it scrolled across the small screen. The title read 'Cascade', though that meant little or nothing to the boy.

"C'mon, stop gettin' all up in my shit."

John gave one of his typical eye-rolls, and Dave had almost seen it coming.

Dave mimicked it, but held his gaze onto the posters covering the nearby wall rather than letting it fall back onto John.

"Maaaan, I just wanted to know what was playing, gosh!"

The blond gave a defeated sigh in that moment, and made a single fluid movement to turn around to face his friend, and slid the headphones off of his head. He stared the other down rather harshly for a couple of seconds before realizing that in John's point of view he had nothing to be mad about. So right in that second of realization he dropped any attitude that was there. "You wanna hear it?"

"Well.."

There faces were inches apart, with the headphones being held in the air between them. Dave had a grasp on them with both hands, and still wasn't flinching away from John who was watching his every move and expression. For once, his dark-haired friend had dropped any sort of playful act, and was looking at Dave like a bomb had just dropped on him. Dave, for one, had no idea what was going on in the others mind, but any sort of paranoia lead him to figure that maybe John was thinking he completely lost his shit. That was it as far as he was concerned, because John still wasn't talking. It was amazing to him what they could roll out through text, but in person it was a different story. Maybe it was the absence of only being able to communicate through words, he wasn't entirely sure, but he had always cared too much about what others thought about him to bother being too lively and messing something up.

This was part of what he liked about John, because John didn't seem to care. In fact John didn't seem to give half a shit, and could break the ice in situations a lot easier than Dave could.

Though, he was still quiet, peering at Dave and watching his eyes through his sunglasses. They weren't hiding them nearly well enough, not when they were this close.

Well, this was awkward, and it was going to stop.

If John wasn't going to respond, then Dave would take matters into his own hands.

He snapped the headphones into a slightly smaller fit, and slid them so that they were over John's ears. The iPod still read the same song that it had when John had first come into the room. They slid on a bit roughly due to his glasses being somewhat in the way, and John seemed to crack then. He let out a small laugh at Dave attempting to put headphones on someone elses head, which wasn't too easily done.

As the track continued to play, John fiddled with his glasses to fit them back on correctly, so he failed to pay too close attention to his friend. At least for the few seconds that it took for Dave to watch him rather wistfully, and then reach over to brush John's bangs back to their normal form. They had been ruffled by the headset. Dave made a few gentle motions to fix them, not taking his eyes away from the other for the few seconds that he was given. His heart was still beating entirely too fast.

After fixing his glasses, John's eyes closed as he took in the music.

Apparently he liked it enough.

Dave let a small smile play onto his lips as he watched the other, and made one more motion to touch the others bangs before taking his hand back. His eyes went from the iPod back to his friend, who was still only inches away. Neither of them had backed up, and he moved to rest his forehead against his friend's own. John made no movement of protest, as he was still lost in the music. He could be so peaceful sometimes, so off guard, and Dave wasn't quite sure how react to that given his situation. One that his friend would never know about unless he would someday manage to catch on to it himself.

Both of the boys remained still, and continued resting against each other, giving Dave far too much time to think.

No matter how he felt, it was almost a sure bet that John would never feel the same. Dave had already admitted at least that much to himself. John had told Karkat such, and he had told his friends such as well, after the happening with the troll.

"John..", Dave breathed, moving his head back away so that he could bring his hand to brush against John's hair again. It was some hopeful attempt that John would assume he was still just trying to get his bangs moved from the clutches of the headset. They had been nearly okay from the start. Though, Dave was too afraid to let his hand touch elsewhere.

His friend hadn't responded to his name being said, as what was intended.
He was also glad that the other couldn't his heart beating, because it was ringing in his own ears.
"You're so-"

Dave could probably scream how he felt at the top of his lungs and John would never really hear it, regardless of whether or not he had music playing in his ears. Because that's how John was. Yet for Dave, there was a strong impulse to shatter that and to make him notice. All it would take was one quick movement, and pushing himself just a few inches forward.

It would be so simple, and so quick.

John swayed slightly along with the sounds he was hearing.

Dave could hear the music picking up louder, the faint sound of a violin echoed and he shut his eyes momentarily, realizing then that he was clenching his fists.

Upon re-opening his eyes, he moved closer to John again, studying the other boy for just a few seconds. The space between them closed in more, and his lips were now only inches away from John's. Single digits. He was fairly certain that his lungs had stopped their normal intake of air as of couple of minutes ago, and his heart kept up it's racing beat.

And then the music stopped.

The player's screen loaded between songs, though neither of them saw it.

Dave froze.

John opened his eyes then, directly meeting Dave's stare as his own eyes opened as well. The blond had managed to move back a few inches quickly enough, but his gaze was locked nervously onto his friend. The dark-haired boy barely questioned the others expression much, and slid the headphones back off, then moving forward to slip them around Dave's neck, their typical resting place. He had regained his smile during this, and seemed enough at ease as he moved back to sitting beside the other again. They weren't directly facing each other anymore.

"Hmmm.." John seemed contemplative.

"U-uum.."

"I gotta say, I have no idea what that was, but it was cool!"
There went another wide grin, and Dave tried with all the effort in him to lose his deer-in-the-headlights look. He cleared his throat, and shift into a normal sitting position beside John once more.

John spoke again, leaning into the couch.
"Thanks."

Dave looked at him from the side, and forced a believable smile.
"Cool, Glad you liked it."

(( Hurray for awkward endings. I almost kept this going, but it's point was to be a shorter one-shot, and that's likely how it's staying. I was trying to keep this as IC as possible, considering the circumstances. I find John hard to write for some reason! )