Movie Night

AU. The Alpha and Beta kids have a movie night every Saturday. They alternate between houses and have long-since come to the agreement that whoever hosts gets to pick the movie. Usually it's just the eight of them. But then they enter high school and boyfriend and girlfriends start to enter the equation.

Characters: Roxy Lalonde, Rose Lalonde, Dirk Strider, Dave Strider, Jake English, Jade Harley, Jane Crocker, John Egbert, Kanaya Maryam, Karkat Vantas, Kankri Vantas, Gamzee Makara, Kurloz Makara, Meulin Leijon, Meenah Peixes

Pairings: DirkJake, RoseKanaya, KurlozMeulin

mentioned: DaveTerezi, JohnVriska

Guess I should warn you all that the trolls are human in this.

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Movie Night

Dirk raised an eyebrow when he saw the crowd that had gathered in the Lalonde's living room. When Roxy mentioned that they had a few extra people joining them, he hadn't thought much about it. He figured that they would have three guests at the most. John had been bugging them for weeks about letting his girlfriend join them and it was clear that Rose and Dave wanted to let their significant others in on their "sacred" night as well.

And he was cool with that. Really.

As Dirk hung back and watched the chaos unfold, he couldn't help but notice that he didn't spot Dave's blind girlfriend nor John's rather psychotic one. (Okay, maybe she wasn't psychotic. But she did have a fascination with spiders that he quite frankly found disturbing and she had a habit of shoving people past their limits to see if they'd break or survive and—how the hell did she end up with a sweet kid like John?) He did, however, spot Rose curled up with her brunette girlfriend on the recliner, looking happier than he'd ever seen her. The two were smiling and whispering to one another. Every now and then Rose would lean forward and brush her darkly painted lips against Kanaya's cheek.

After watching the two girls for a few minutes, he tore his eyes away to see who else Roxy had invited. He almost groaned in misery when he spotted the red-haired Vantas boys sitting on the couch. The younger one - Karkat - wasn't too bad, but Kankri was one of the most insufferable people Dirk had ever had the misfortune of meeting. He made a note to keep track of where the teen was for the remainder of the night, lest he get dragged into a long, one-sided conversation. At least Karkat had the younger Makara brother next to him to serve as a distraction. (Even if Gamzee appeared to be much more interested in staring into the depths of the popcorn bowl in his lap.)

As for the older Makara… Dirk didn't feel too surprised to find him sitting on the loveseat with his girlfriend Meulin, rapidly Signing to her as John and Jane practiced their stand-up comedy routines at the front of the room. Roxy, Meenah, and Jade laughed and applauded from their spot on the floor in front of the loveseat, while Dave smirked and covered his mouth to hide the fact that he was chuckling.

Dirk started to relax a little. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad having a little company. He could handle it if it didn't become a regular thing and if Roxy would give him a better warning. And at least it was Rose's turn to pick a movie. She had surprisingly sensible taste in films, though every now and then she'd find an odd foreign one to share. (Her last choice had been a French film about a sentient tire that could blow things up with its nonexistent mind. It still made more sense than the majority of the things John, Dave, and Roxy subjected them to.)

He was content to stand in the doorway and watch everyone for the time being. He had to admit that it was nice that they could all get together without an argument breaking out.

A little too late, he realized there was one member of their usual party who was absent from the room. Dirk was about to turn around to search for the adventure-loving islander when a sudden warm pressure at his back stopped him.

"Daydreaming, love?" Jake asked, wrapped his arms around Dirk's middle. He stepped a little closer so he could rest his chin on the blond's shoulder and look into the room to see what everyone else was doing.

Dirk chuckled and leaned back into the embrace. "I was just wondering where you had run off to."

"Ah, well, you know. Nature calls," Jake said with an easy grin. His cheer slipped once he got a good look at what their friends were up to. "Gadzooks! Have I really missed Jane and John's magnificent routine?"

Dirk made a small noise of protest as his boyfriend detached himself to go join everyone else. Rather than hang back and sulk about it, as that would be the exact opposite of cool, he silently followed the dark-haired teen and started to formulate a plan. He always made the best plans.

Roxy glanced up when the two enter, her pink eyes gliding over Jake to rest on Dirk instead. Even though his sunglasses hid his bright eyes from view, he knew she could tell by the look on his face that he was unhappy about something. She was disturbingly good at reading people. Dirk could only be thankful that she was sober, or else he'd spend most of the night worrying about what private matters she was blurting out to the girls (and Kurloz).

The albino girl grinned at him and wiggled her eyebrows, implying things that Dirk wasn't in the mood to dwell on. She was so weird sometimes. Thankfully, Meenah quickly drew her attention back to the comedic duo.

Seeing that Jake's attention was also focused on the theatrics of John and Jane, Dirk took the opportunity to scan the room for a decent spot to sit and then stepped forward to take Jake by the hand and lead him to his chosen destination. The green-eyed teen glanced at him curiously, but let himself get pulled along without question even as they approached the already-full couch.

"Hey, Gamz, scoot over," Dirk said, his tone leaving no room for denial.

Gamzee blinked at him slowly and then shrugged and moved over so he was pressed up against Karkat, who in turn had no choice but to slide over and decrease the foot of space that he'd left between himself and his brother. Gamzee followed, but didn't crowd his friend as badly as he did the first time.

Dirk sat down in the space that the clown-loving teen had abandoned and, after flicking away a few popcorn kernels, smirked up at Jake, who looked down at him with a confused expression.

"I hate to break it to you, but there doesn't seem to be any space for me," Jake said.

"Of course there is," Dirk replied, patting his leg. "C'mere and park that plush rump of yours on my lap."

A hint of cherry red blossomed on Jake's cheeks. "I-I most certainly will not! We have company, Dirk!" He hissed, trying to keep his voice low.

"They won't mind."

Kankri opened his mouth to say that yes, he did mind, and Karkat used that opportunity to snag a handful of Gamzee's popcorn and cram it all into his brother's mouth. The older redhead choked and sputtered around the food, trying to chew it as quickly as possible so he wouldn't breathe in any of the pieces. Gamzee looked dismayed by the misuse of his favorite movie treat and Karkat quickly promised to refill the bowl for the rest of the night.

Dirk used the distraction to his advantage, tugging his boyfriend into his lap while the green-eyed young man was too busy worriedly watching Kankri deal with his snack food dilemma. Jake squeaked in surprise and Dirk vowed to tease him for the very unmanly sound at a later date. But in the meantime he was going to make sure his boyfriend was comfortable.

"Relax," Dirk whispered into his ear, sliding one arm around Jake's waist. He could feel the muscles of the brunet's abdomen flex beneath the soft cloth of his shirt before Jake huffed quietly and leaned back into him, settling comfortably with his back against Dirk's left shoulder, practically in the crook of the couch where a few decorative pillows were arranged for maximum comfort.

"That really wasn't fair," Jake complained quietly.

Dirk just chuckled and stretched his other arm over the back of the couch. Later, when everyone was too engrossed in the movie to pay attention to him, he would lower it back to his lap and then slowly sneak it across Jake's leg to trace circles over his thigh. But for the moment he was content to watch Jane and John wrap up their comedy routine and take their bows, while Rose slowly detangled herself from Kanaya's arms so she could set up the movie (making sure the subtitles were on, for Meulin's benefit).

All in all, it was a good night.

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End

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