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You spend the next few hours by Dave's side, and at some point, you actually fall asleep- only to be woken by a soft beeping from your watch alerting you that it is about 5:45.

You blink a few times before straightening up a bit and prying Dave's arms out from around you.

You stretch your arms and work out the kinks in your back and neck when you suddenly freeze. Idiotidiotidiot! You know that Dave's a light sleeper! You search around frantically for an extra pillow to serve as a temporary substitute for you but alas- you find none. Now Dave is stirring, letting out a soft groan before opening up a bruised eye. "Hey."

You smile, "Hey!"

He sits up slowly, straightening himself. "What's the time?"

"Almost six," you reply.

"Oh," he says; and even though he wasn't exactly smiling, you can still see his face visibly drop. "Visiting hours almost over?"

You nod, "Yeah. Sorry for waking you."

He shrugs half-heartedly. "S'okay."

The two of you are engulfed in a heavy silence. Desperate for something to break it you look to the bedside table. "Hey Dave want more juice? I could get some before I leave if you want."

He shakes his head, "No, visiting hours are almost over. I'll ask the nurse for some later or something."

"Okay then." And once again you two plunged into silence. You take a step towards the bed and take a seat on it. You run a hand through the silvery blonde hair and wrap your hands together. "Dave... I'm so sorry I have to leave..." You withdraw your hands and instead opt for wrapping them around his waist.

You feel him bury his head in the crook of your shoulder as his arms snake around your midsection once again. "I'm scared, John.." you just barely hear him whisper.

Not daring to tighten your grip- for fear of hurting him, you bring a hand up again to his hair. "Shh, don't be." You know this is a dumb thing to say. You wish you could take it back and say something a little more inspirational, but nope. Not today.

He lets a dry sob out, "I don't like hospitals. Too much white.. And when I finally see red, it's not good."

You pull away from him and, as lightly as you can, you pap his forehead and shoosh him. "Don't say that..."

"But-"

Knock-

The door slides open to reveal Bro and Jake. Your cousin steps forward and waves; "Well cousin, we need to go soon. I'm bringing you home. Tally ho! Your backpack's in the car. I'll be outside, yeah?"

You nod as he and Bro close the door once more. You run a hand down Dave's bandaged arms and once more twine your fingers together. "I have to go.."

He closes his eye and nods, "Yeah."

You pull away completely and help him settle back into the bed. Leaning in, you place a soft kiss on the crown of his head and smile, "I know you'll be fine. You're a big boy now Dave."

You stand up and you see just the slightest smirk, "Thanks."

You give him a huge smile and blow him a kiss. "I'll see you right after school tomorrow, okay?"

He nods.

"See ya later! I know you'll be fine, honey!"

He scoffs, and rolls his eye, "Night."

You smile once more and head towards the door. Blowing him a kiss and a wink, you wave bye and make your way down the hall.


Your name is Dave Strider, and you are motherfucking happy. It is Friday evening, and you are on your way home right now- then tomorrow, you have a date with your longtime boyfriend, future partner, and the love of your life: John Egbert. You are especially excited, because you've had to call off the past two dates because you've been working overtime to get a surprise for John.. And tomorrow is the day you are going to unveil it! You're absolutely sure he's going to love it.

You allow yourself to sigh like a lovestruck schoolgirl, because it's not a very inaccurate description of you. Just replace the 'schoolgirl' with 'schoolboy', and it's got you down to a tee.

You're so caught up in your daydreaming apparently, that you don't even notice the large man in a coat that smells of cigarettes and alcohol until after you bump into him. "Sorry," you mumble.

He ignores you and continues on his way.

You shrug and continue on your way. By this time, it's fairly dark. You turn onto a less busy street and push on. Just another mile, you think. But as you pass by a larger building, you suddenly feel a hand on your shoulder.

You are suddenly and very roughly pulled into an alley. Your strife senses are kicking in, and other than the one that pulled you into the alley, you can sense three or four other men surround you. Keeping your stoic facade, you gauge your situation. Four guys against you? They don't stand a chance.

Once you can see the whites of their eyes and the haughty smirks on their faces, you strike. The one in front of you goes down with a yelp, and you pull your leg back before delivering a sharp kick to the groin of the man on your right side. He goes down too; but unlike the first- he doesn't get up.

Ricocheting off of your kick, you punch the man on your left. Within a matter of seconds, there are only three men left: the first man you punched, as well as the second- and the man behind you, who should be thankful you haven't touched him yet.

You let out a growl, back-kicking the man behind you and slamming him into the wall. Grabbing one of the other men, you push him into wall as well, burying your hands in their unruly hair and begin repeatedly bashing their heads into the wall.

Once you feel them go limp, you let them fall to the ground. Slowly, you turn on the last man, slightly cowering behind you.

You know he's scared. And you know that he knows that you're not.

You smirk before dropping down and sweeping his feet off the ground. Once he lands with a satisfying thud and slight crack, you smirk and wipe dust yourself off.

You straighten back up and start walking to the opening of the alleyway to pick up your dropped backpack.

You don't even hear the sound of footsteps on gravel behind you.

CRACK-

You groan quietly, blearily opening your eyes. You're face down somewhere gravelly. Your head hurts like shit.

You try to bring a hand up to run your head, but find that you can't. What.

You struggle and realize they your arms are restrained, as well as your legs, bound together at the ankles and wrists.

You take a deep breath, trying to stop yourself from hyperventilating. 'Stupid stupid stupid! Why? Why did you let your guard down?' you scream in your mind. You take a few more minutes to calm yourself. Once you're there, you take a deep breath and scan your surroundings.

It's dark, you notice. Not as dark as it would've been if you had your glasses, but they're not with you right now. Damn bastards... They probably broke when you were hit on the head.

You slowly make your way up to a sitting position and look behind you. There, you see light. It's faint though... But thankfully you're not so far. You get back on the ground and slowly wriggle over.

The light definitely is coming from behind the door, and now you can hear voices. Faint, gruff voices. But you can't hear anything specific because you're too far away.

You decide to sit up against the wall right next to the door and just wait it out. Maybe fry up a plan in your think pan while you're at it.

This gets very tedious very quickly. It makes you very uneasy listening to voices when you can't really hear what they're saying.

You once again make your way to the door, but your foot gets caught on something and sends you slamming face first into the door with a loud thump.

You pull back with a gasp, holding your breath in anticipation. After a few seconds, you realize something is off.

They've stopped talking.

You scoot back as fast as you can while the sounds of approaching footsteps grow ever louder. You make it a few feet before the door slams open. Your eyes adjust quickly to reveal two men; one in black, and the other: a man taller than Gamzee, clad in a long tan coat. His beige blonde hair is similar to yours, and his eyes are a menacing purple color. There is an aura about him.. Despite the fact that he is smiling. Actually, his smile makes it worse.

He raises his hand and you see that he is holding a large metal pipe. He rests his on his shoulder as his smile twitches just a bit. "Oh no, you were not spying on us, were you?"

Your staring at him with your mouth wide open, eyes bugging out of your head. Holy shit this guy was creepy.

He takes a step towards you and raises a gloved hand, whacking you across the cheek and effectively knocks you to the ground. "Answer me!"

You fall with wide eyes. You're frozen, but your mouth opens, and out comes the first thing you think of: "N-No."

The smile drops momentarily, and the glint in the tall man's eye blazes darkly for just a second. "Oh, and I suppose you didn't hurt my best men either, huh?"

You don't dare move a muscle. This man is dangerous. You don't even care that your usual coolkid facade has completely shattered. When you don't reply, he hits you once more, and grabs you roughly by the hair. He pulls you up and looks you in the eye. He sneers at you, spitting in your face. You cringe and he throws you down on the ground.

He walks away and snaps at the man in black, "Go with the omega team to teach that brat a lesson, da? Rough him up a bit." he pauses before walking out, "Kill him if you have to."

At that, you black out again.

...

The first thing you register when you come to next, is an almost unbearable shooting pain in your leg. You try to scream in pain, but you can't even open your mouth. Duct tape.

You look up and see the same man in black from before, as well as two others, and a woman.

As soon as you make a move though, they stop their conversation and glare at you. The woman sneers like the blonde from earlier. She has that same menacing aura. "So, the little one has awoken."

You scrabble back, trying to create at least a little bit of space between you, but the two men walk forward. One is short with a ponytail, and the other is fairly tall with hair as light as yours, and eyes even redder.

The one with the white hair grabs your collar roughly, "We're gonna have fun with you."

Your eyes widen as the others step closer. The woman pulls a knife out from her large skirt and holds it out. "We'll teach you to mess with us."

You tremble in fear and let out a whimper. As the group approaches, your scream as loud as you can with the tape covering your mouth.

...

Your eyes shoot open and you shoot up, gasping at the pain in your side. Groaning, you grab at it and curl up as best as you can. You feel a hand on your shoulder, and you tense up. "Wha-"

"Dave! Get yourself together!" It's Bro.

You flinch, but loosen up just the slightest bit. "B-Bro," you breath.

"You all right?" he asks.

You shake your head wildly, the hair that sticks to your face reveals that you were sweating profusely. The pain in your side hasn't gone away either. You look down and see a dark spot growing.

Bro looks down too and blanches slightly, "Shit. I'll go call a nurse. Sit tight, 'kay?"

You nod shakily as he runs out of the room.

Soon there is a nurse and doctor fussing over your re-opened wound. After you're in a fresh, blood-free hospital robe, they leave you be again.

Bro steps out from his place in the shadows and sits by your side. "Nightmare." he asks more than states.

You nod shakily. You don't look him in the eye, instead focusing on your knuckles, white from gripping the sheets so hard. "Y-Yeah."

He nods, "You wanna... Talk about it?" You can tell he's hesitant. Nothing like this has ever happened to you two before. Of course he wouldn't be sure about what to do. He cares about you and wants you to feel okay- but at the same time he knows that normally neither of you don't talk about things like a normal family would.

You're torn, silent for some time before finally opening your mouth; "I let my guard down. I know you always tell me not to, but I got cocky. I didn't even hear the guy behind me.." your voice fades a bit as tears start pricking your eyes. You tighten your grip on the sheets, "S-Sorry Bro, I let you d-down." your shoulders are shaking as you try desperately to keep the tears from escaping your tightly shut eyes.

You hear a sigh as your bro wraps an arm around your shoulders. "'S not your fault man. I shoulda... I shoulda gone after you when you didn't come home on Saturday."

You sob into his shoulder, not caring how much of a coward you probably look like right now. In return Dirk holds you closer and pats your injured head comfortingly, stroking your hair like he did when you were just a little kid.

You're not sure who said it exactly, but you hear a quiet "Sorry bro.." before everything fades to black and you're unconscious once more.


Your name is John Egbert. You are currently in a painfully domestic situation, peeling apples for a bedridden Dave- but you don't mind one bit. Actually, you wish you can do more, but you honestly can't think of anything. He's been awfully quiet since you came in... He barely even acknowledged when you walked through the door.

"So..." you begin in another attempt to start a conversation. "They're discharging you tomorrow. Isn't that exciting? You can go home!" you pause in your apple peeling and look to smile at him, but it falls almost immediately when you see he hasn't reacted. "Dave...?" you ask tentatively. "Do you want some apples?"

He sighs and shakes his head. At least that was some sort of response.

"Do you want anything?"

Another shake.

"Are you tired?"

A nod.

"Would you like me to leave?"

This time, he shakes his head with more energy.

"Okay. Do you want me to lay down with you?"

He nods again.

You sigh and stand up, placing the plate of uneaten apples on the bedside table next to the apple juice as Dave settles himself on the bed, scooting down and to the side a bit.

You swing one leg onto the bed and bring the other up to meet it as you lay down. Wrapping an arm around Dave's too-thin shoulders, you can feel him curl into your chest, and circle his arms around your waist, pulling you just a little bit closer.

His breathing is a little uneven, but it soon grows raggedy, and you feel a wet spot on your shirt. Looking down, you see one of his hands- knuckles white from exertion- gripping at the cloth right over your heart, as if it were the only thing keeping him anchored on Earth.

"Dave?" you ask, bringing your free hand over to pry the one on your shirt away. "What's wrong?"

He lets out the smallest of whimpers and buries his face in your shirt.

"Dave..." you twirl your fingers together and twist your arm a bit to brush through his hair. "If you don't tell me I won't be able to help yo-"

"You can't."

Your eyes widen, a little shocked at Dave's sudden interruption, as well how shaky his voice sounds, cloudy from tears and a clogged up throat.

"I... What?"

"You can't. This isn't something that can just go away.."

You suddenly feel relieved, in a twisted sort of way, and a smile can't help but creep up on you. "I know that Dave. I know that. But you can't just tell me I can't help."

You see him open his mouth slightly to retort, but you gently shoosh him with a finger. "I'm going to keep worrying about you whether you like it or not mister. I may not be able to help you fully, but what little I can contribute to your cause, I'm going to give because- dammit Dave-" you cup his cheek and tilt his head upwards. Slowly, you bring your foreheads together. "I love you."

It's barely visible, but after knowing Dave for so long, you're just able to detect a slight blush. "I love you too," he murmurs.

You beam at him and rub your noses together, sighing again- contentedly this time. Dave gives you the smallest of smiles in return and, to your surprise, leans forward to peck you on the lips.

You're left in shock once more as he curls in on himself and grips your shirt- though not as tightly as before.

You smile again and replace your arms around him protectively.

Maybe he would feel better tonight..

...

Your name is still John Egbert, but this time you're a few hours younger. It is currently Tuesday morning, and you have just arrived at MapleValleyHigh School, home of the flying ponies.

...Yeah, you didn't think it was that good at first either. But now that you're in your senior year, you've learned to deal.

The second you walk onto the campus though, almost all eyes are on you. You've never really been in the spotlight- not popular at all except for your group of friends, so this is a little unsettling. But what can you expect after running out in the middle of class yesterday? And the mysterious disappearance of your coolkid boyfriend (definitely a lot more well known than you).. It was bound to spark a few rumors.

You keep your head down and bite down on your bottom lip as you make your way to the front of the library- your group's usual meeting spot.

Like the other kids, all conversation dies down once you come into view. It is a fairly awkward silence until Karkat sighs in annoyance and steps up, "You asshats should just ask if you're curious," he says with an exasperated roll of his eyes. He turns to you and begins asking what most people were wondering too: "So what the fuck was with that yesterday? You apparently ran out of third period. And Strider's missing? What do you know?"

You look over at Rose and Jade for moral support as you shuffle on your feet. "Uhm..." but they just motion for you to go on. "Err, Dave got into an... Accident. He'll be back on Monday." You scan the faces of the others and, for the most part, they seem to believe you.


A/N: So... Second chapter. Fairly slow, but I liked this because of the emotions. The first chapter has been edited. My update policy definitely applies to this, but... If someone PM's me about my little character cameo in here- and tells me all the names of the (four) characters, then you all shall be rewarded with the sequel of Birthday Surprises.

***Please please please critique/point out errors with your comments!

Edit 5/30: Spelling- there are probably more grammar things, so keep an eye out!