At first he was angry, with himself, with alpha Dave, that he had practically no chance in getting on with a life. He was a fucking bird, and as was well established, he didn't think too highly of them. After so long an unexpected existence, probably largely thanks to his Bro, he was finally okay enough to handle this whole situation. He had lived his own life the best he possibly could and it was a great feathery life. He had pretty much fallen off the deep end for this crazy cool girl, and she was totally into him, totally on him right now conked out like a light.
Davesprite thought fondly about his entire time being, well, Davesprite. The initial head rush of mystery and unfathomable knowledge that came when he first prototyped himself, the conversations he had on Pesterchum, seeing alpha Dave run around like the biggest badass. God, he had to admit he was pretty cool. Pretty stupid sometimes, but pretty alright. He remembered kicking imp ass as Dave slept, and the swell of relief that filled his everything when he finally found Bro.
Then the fight with Jack happened. They fought together, side by side. It was something he wasn't used to at all. It was really one of the coolest things he had ever done. It was fucking fantastic not receiving a harsh beat down from his brother, getting to be his literal wingman in combat for once.
When they both realized that this was a losing battle, Davesprite told Bro to abscond the fuck out of there, but his brother refused to move. He held his ground and told him as coolly as any of his anime heros to go fuck himself. When he tried to convince him that he wasn't the real Dave, Bro just repeated himself louder. Bro never saw the difference between the kid he raised and Davesprite, because there was no difference. None whatsoever. He raised him to be a badass, now he had wings, so what? Same Dave. Abscond.
And that was that. He wandered off, taking a moment to bandage himself before finding Jadesprite. Half a wing less and minus a sword through the chest, he was in pretty shitty condition. Being with her was pretty peaceful for a while. She also made him feel like a lot less of a freak, being all furry and green ghosty herself. Then the asteroids came and he had pretty much given up at that point. He thought, 'Well shit, there goes that plan Bro. Way to get killed over nothing.' The thought dissipated as he looked to the girl next to him. It was just Jade, looking at him scared and hopeless even though she had already died once. He knew the fire was too bright for his shades to do much for covering his eyes. He was scared to die. He didn't want to, but he thought that if she was next to him then fine. End it.
Then she was dog tier Jade all of a sudden, stopping asteroids as if it was second nature. Just as quickly as she was gone, she was back and fucking huge. And then they were on a ship with a bunch of salamanders, and he was alive.
He sighed at the thought.
A year into the adventure, Jade and him had already gotten pretty close. He'd make jokes to her over Pesterchum when they weren't actually near each other. When she and John got together it was like a comedy show featuring the derp twins. He cared about them both a lot. Sometimes he'd miss his own sister, but with him being a mental mess as a bird sprite, he could almost appreciate her absence. No psychoanalysis to mess with his brain further. He resigned to the thought that he did miss her a lot, and was really happy she was okay and when they got off this ship and met up he would... greet her? Greet her in a sibling manner. Hug? Something. He hadn't decided what the best course of action would be, but he wasn't going to dwell on that. Greeting Alpha Dave was sure to go smoothly, so no sweat there.
Now that their reunion was coming close, he was getting more and more apprehensive. He didn't really let it show, but Jade had always had transparent emotions. Today she finally poured her heart out to him, and damn if it didn't make him the saddest guy out in paradox space.
Honestly, he was pretty much a bipolar wreck about the whole thing. On one hand, meeting up with everyone would feel like their journey came full circle before they crashed the Alpha Session. It seemed like there were more cons on his end though. First of all, what the shit was going to go down was probably going to end with him dead and covered in his own Sunny Delight colored blood...maybe a severed wing again. He was fucking doomed worse than the minor characters in a horror movie. Second, Dave. Maybe that was first.
He'd gotten very accustomed to being the only Dave again. It was almost like he was normal, albeit in a world full of various species of non-humans. He was Dave Strider, the one and only, or Davesprite the one and only. He didn't hate alpha Dave or anything. It was envy?
His options at the time had been very limited. Die in a pointless timeline where John was dead and Jade was... also probably dead, or save everyone's asses knowing that he'd be offed at some point later. Die later here or die later there. Die a loser, or die helping everyone else win. He didn't have it as easy as Rose or Jadesprite. He wasn't going to morph memories with alpha Dave. As powerful as time was, there were rules and only so many loops to jump through.
He'd even thought about some sort of prototyping with alpha Dave. It couldn't happen, he concluded. First, how the fuck would it? Second, as much as he really didn't think so, sacrificing himself in this instance to save John and Jade seemed like it'd go under "hero's death" in the Sburb book of 1000 Ways to Fuck over Davesprite.
Then there was Jade. She wasn't a problem in herself, but she had become so immensely important to him that he... really fucking didn't want to go. Stuck on a ship with her forever sounded great. Romantic novel shit. Giving that up... seemed really difficult. Especially after all this time and all they had been through. How much they, Dave the sprite and Jade Harley, had been through. It wasn't alpha Dave.
Jade didn't just spend over half an hour crying her eyes out to that Dave, but to him. He was the one that made her laugh for the past few years. He was the one who rapped her birthday songs and remixed her bass tunes. He was the one she'd hover over protectively while growling when Jaspersprite stared at him with a catty gleam. He would've laughed if he didn't feel like such a chick, as fucking literally as that could possibly get. He made some comment to point it out, which made Jade blush and laugh later when John had lured Jaspersprite away with a toy mouse.
It was all him. He held her small hands, had her sleep on his shoulders, made stupid bird noises at her just to see her grin. He did.
What was alpha Dave going to do? He could kind of be a dumbass sometimes when it came to emotions and shit like that.
Davesprite sighed. He had become so close to Jade now, that he was worried about how much she'd have to backtrack with alpha Dave. First there was getting over her insecurities, trying to uncover his, lots of talking, and lots of intimate stuff that made him flushed just thinking about. Oh, and Dave himself realizing that he was and had been in love with this girl since before the game even started. Ugh, too complicated. Feelings. How was he supposed to probe himself for feelings? Yo, Dave you dig Harley? You should because she's all into you. Wait no, he can't confess for her.
Fuck this was giving him a headache.
Jade stirred against him but did not wake.
God he fell for her so hard. Focusing on her rhythmic breathing calmed him down.
So, if it was the end for him in a while then he'd just have to deal with it. He was mostly at peace with it. Mostly sometimes. He was the most okay with it when he thought that... really he had to have done it.
He had to save John and Jade, not because they wouldn't win the game otherwise, but because... he would. He needed them to be alive and well. He needed John to be an idiot of a lovable asshole, and prank and continue on loving his shitty movies to infect whatever universe they created. He needed Jade to breathe, smile, laugh, live a full life. They needed time, and he gave up his for them. So at the end of the days and days and days that he never expected to have, there was no alternative. He'd jump back to save them as many times time would allow.
One of his wings folded over Jade's sleeping form protectively.
Yeah, it was worth it.
"Jade?" He let his wing brush over her arm a bit to wake her.
She blinked to a groggy awakening, lifting her head from his arm to look up at him.
"Hm?"
In a gesture that was completely unnecessary, he folded both wings to cover them up and enclose them both entirely.
If he didn't have a minute left, a second left, there was still something he wasn't going down without.
He brought his hand to lift her head further. He lowered his face to hers, his hair sweeping over her forehead. When their lips touched he felt her tense, tightening her grip around his forearm. She was obviously caught off guard, but then she was kissing him back and he was melting; everything was, the world they left behind, the life he rewound, the life he wouldn't have. It was just them right now. He told himself then that he would kiss her as many times as paradoxically possible for the rest of his life.
x-x-x-x-x
EDIT: Didn't double check before I posted this chapter, so hopefully most if not all the silly typos are gone. Thank for reading
