All the Time in the World
"Hey," Dave said, approaching Dirk silently.
"Yo," Was the only reply.
Dave knew that he would find his brother here. This is where he had spent a lot of mornings, as if waiting for something besides the sunrise. If Dirk had ever been asked why he stood outside every morning, there would be an unsatisfactory response. For more than just standing outside, though. Dirk had always been very secretive about everything.
"I think I understand now, about why you were always so distant when I was growing up." Dave leaned against the wall of their apartment as he spoke.
Dirk simply turned to face the sunrise that he had come outside to see. He put his hands in his pockets and did not turn to face Dave as he responded, "Then I'm sure you can forgive me for all the time we spent apart."
Dave nodded, even though his brother's side was facing him, he knew that Dirk would see.
"I think I would've done the same."
Now Dirk nodded, watching as the first beams of light from the sun spilled over a distant mountaintop. As far as the eye could see, the world was aglow in a flaming orange color. It looked like the world was set on fire, with tendrils of red leaking down from above.
That is what the world would soon look like for good.
"Younger me is about to start the Sburb session, you know."
Dirk turned to look at Dave. "Why did you come here?"
Dave looked down at the half-yellow lawn as he replied, "I don't want you to die."
The other turned completely around, so his back was facing his little brother. "We all die eventually."
"You know that's not what I mean," he balled his fists in his pockets, "I want you to come back with me."
"Go with you? Where?"
The sun crept up over the distant hills, the glow embracing Dirk until he was just a silhouette against the brilliant orange sky. The younger brother remained unfazed by the sudden light display.
"Further in the alpha time line, where I just came from."
Dirk turned to face his brother now. "Dave, you know that I died."
"No, younger me saw you die. I don't know what happened after that."
With a straight face, the older Strider walked over to the younger, placing his hands on his brother's shoulders. "I died after that. A kiss won't wake me up Dave, I am my dream self, remember? I will die, and that will be the end."
Dave just looked up into his brother's shades. "What if I don't want to watch you die again?"
Dirk let his hands drop from Dave's shoulders. "I'm sure that if we do that, then it will cause some sort of paradox and we will doom everyone."
Dave took his shades off, revealing intense red eyes. "Bro, we are already doomed."
Now Dirk put his hands in his pockets and looked away. "Would you still be doing this even if you didn't know?"
Dave hesitated.
"That's what I thought. Dave, I'm sorry that it will end the way it does, but think of all the good times we've had and-"
"Dirk, listen to me," his brother cut him off, "You don't know what I've been going through, okay? You weren't around to see what happened to me after you died. Before I had you, you had English. How do I explain our history to you when you have some sort of boyfriend? What do I say? Hey you don't know me yet, but I'm your paradox brother and you end up raising me!?"
The older brother just stood there silently.
"Come on, Bro. I just figured everything out and you expect me to watch you die again? After seeing you with your boyfriend all the ti-"
"He's not my boyfriend," Dirk interrupted again.
"After seeing you with your male romantic partner all the time," Dave continued relentlessly, "And wondering where I missed my shot."
The sun was higher in the sky now, and the fiery orange was reduced to a soft glow. The light bathed the brothers in early morning warmth.
"You never missed your shot," Dirk started, "I just missed mine."
Both of them fell silent, but they were both thinking the same thing. If Dirk had told Dave any sooner, then Dave would not have known what to do. The rift between them would have grown even wider. There is nothing that could have been done to change the outcome. They knew that these moments would be moments remembered not as brothers, but as something more... Intimate. The last chance they may have to see each other like this.
After the silence, Dirk asked, "How did you know?"
Dave shrugged and replied, "I just put the pieces together, I guess."
"I suppose you would be good at that, as the Knight of Time."
"And I suppose you were doomed to a fate like this as the Prince of Heart... It's ironic isn't it?"
"I suppose it is, but it's not that bad."
Dave brought a hand up to his face to cover his eyes.
"Now that I have all the time in the world to spend with you, we can't be..."
"Together?" Dirk completed for him.
"Yeah."
Dave was fighting tears and Dirk was awkwardly avoiding looking at him, not knowing what to say. Years of not understanding why his Bro did the things that he did had suddenly come together and clicked. He had all the pieces, put them all together, when Time came along and smashed it to bits. What was there to say except-
"I understand, and I'm sorry," Dirk said.
He took his shades off, revealing astonishing orange eyes that put the sunrise to shame. Then he held his arms out, offering silently to hold his brother.
Dave stepped forward into the embrace. Both dropped their shades onto the grass.
"Isn't there something I can say to get you to come with me, Bro?" Dave asked, keeping his face buried in the older brother's shoulder.
"No," came the reply, "You're going to need me once you start the game."
They released each other.
"What am I going to do?"
Dirk picked both their sunglasses up off the ground and handed Dave his pair. "You have all the time in the world, I'm sure you will think of something."
The younger brother put his shades on, and turned away. He turned away from the sun and away from Dirk. His time tables appeared out of nowhere, and he mentally pulled himself together in preparation to leave.
"Dirk?"
"Yeah, Dave?"
"I love you."
"I love you too, don't forget that."
With that, Dave was gone.
Dirk stood for a minute, with the sun warming his back. He just stared at the place where Dave had disappeared. Putting his own shades back on, he started heading back upstairs to the apartment that he shared with a younger version of his brother. It was nearly his thirteenth birthday, and Dirk knew what that meant.
He walked into the apartment, went into his room and sat on the end of his messy bed. Dirk rested his elbows on his knees, and his face on his hands. He felt, for all the world, like a teenager that had just gotten dumped. Then a welcome pressure came on the bed behind him.
"How'd it go?" Dave from even further in the time line asked. This Dave was about Dirk's own age.
"So much harder than I thought it would be," Dirk replied, as he flopped back onto the bed.
Dave's face appeared above his.
"Good, it was hard going back with 'no' as an answer."
They pulled each other's glasses off and set them on a side table, as they did every morning. Then they laid down in bed together, falling asleep in each other's arms.
...oOo...
Sometime in the distant future...
Dirk had just gotten dumped.
He sat on the end of his bed, trying not to cry. His face was buried in his hands, and his blanket was wrapped around his shoulders. Dirk pushed his laptop off the bed, and it fell with a clatter. That must be the worst way to break up with someone, ever.
Suddenly, he felt another presence in the room. Dirk lifted his face from his hands to see a person clad in red pajamas and wielding floating time tables standing in front of him. Before he could say anything, the person said:
"Hey, you don't know me yet, but I'm your paradox brother and you end up raising me."
The older brother was one to take things in stride, so he simply said, "Not that I'm not digging this whole getup, but I just had a pretty bad breakup. Could you maybe come back later?"
His supposed paradox brother approached him swiftly.
"No, I'm afraid I can't do that," this person had a look of fiery determination in his red eyes, "I've figured some shit out recently. I don't know when it happened, but you fell in love with me and I fell in love with you. But sadly, I'm going to get to watch you die in front of me twice, so I'm going to spend as much time with you as I can. I may have all the time in the world, but you don't."
Dirk could tell that this person was not kidding. So what else was there for him to say, but:
"Oh... Okay."