The remainder of the trip was all a fantastic, static blur. John was anxious as ever to meet up with Dave and Rose, and the trolls of course. He would talk and explain in great detail the epic bro-hug that would ensue with Dave- after he greeted Rose.
Seeing her as a grimdark corpse had been his last encounter, and he really just needed the closure and assurance that she was alright. Jade had a similar anxiousness about meeting Dave, though it was coated with a good sense of guilt seeing as he'd been shot with her bullets. The thought that he resented her, that she had caused him pain, made her sick to her stomach. Davesprite constantly reassured her that it was really not a thing to worry about, but the worry would ebb and build like waves. Sometimes she would worry about Dave, sometimes Davesprite. She wouldn't always say it, but he could tell easily from the way that she would look at him with glassy glasses-clad eyes, hold his hand tighter, wrap her arms around him wordlessly.
Other times were bubbly. Literally, fucking salamander slob bubbles everywhere. They all particularly liked John for some reason or another, which was fine. He liked the occasional praise, but entertaining a bunch of reptiles was really not on his bucket list. As much as possible, he just wanted to spend time with John and Jade. As much as he thought John's stupid Ghostbusters were the shittiest thing to ever unironically exist (in a close tie with the gross Nic Cage cinema he adored), making his best friend happy was usually worth it. He usually had Jade right next to him as he played anyways, so that always made it exponentially more tolerable.
When they weren't playing computer games, sometimes the three of them would get back into their music. John would play it up on piano or keyboard, Jade usually on bass rather than flute, and Davesprite would mix up whatever he felt like; plenty of collaborations and remixes ensued. He showed Jade the photography he had done over the years. She seemed to like practically everything, but John just ribbed him and accused him of being a hipster. In the end he showed Jade a few tricks, how to work the lens and such, and she took a liking to it. Her shots weren't so much profound as they were honest. He was sure they'd make a nice scrapbook or something when it was all over. That thought is what kept him from absconding the fuck away whenever the camera pointed his way. She'd probably accumulated over several hundred shots of him, and as selfish as it may have been he was glad that... there'd be some proof that he had existed. After he was gone, she'd have something to look back on and make her smile. It was the least he could do to unironically smile on rare occasions. The rest of the shots were either whimsically candid or poker faced mug shots.
Sometimes he'd take a few shots of her. Wouldn't be a complete story without one of the main characters, would it? He actually wanted evidence of just how much she'd changed. He wished he had more pictures of her at the beginning of the journey, but he figured maybe he could get a few screenshots from his computer. Eh, didn't need them much.
She never much liked to carry the camera around with her so she'd appear and disappear the thing whenever she felt like it. At the end of the day, she'd flip through the images, pointing at any particularly funny pictures. Sometimes she'd fall asleep right there against him, camera going slack in her hands and head falling on his shoulder. If he was tired himself he would rest his head on her and get a little shut eye. More commonly, he would just sit there listening to her breathe until she stirred awake. He never left without telling her.
John had pretty much gotten used to them being so close. Both Jade and he had done their respective share of confiding in him. He picked on them both now and then like a true trickster, but overall was very supportive. On the occasional bicker, he'd be the one to end it with brotalks or some lighthearted, well intentioned prank to bring them back together. He was also mostly good at giving them their own space when they needed it. Of course, there were so inopportune moments of barging in, but nothing that didn't send Jade into a fit of giggles in the end.
Jade's room was probably his favorite place to be. Unlike her actual room on her island, the room on the ship was much smaller and less colorful. A few posters and plush squiddles were scattered about, but otherwise the room was somewhat bare aside from a bed and nightstand. Oh, also a buttload of computers, all of which she deemed necessary. He didn't really mind, save for the times when some salamander managed to hack John's account- probably the doofus had forgotten to log out of pesterchum- and the room would explode with sound bursts of a new message received.
As un-ironic as it was, Davesprite really liked spending moments alone with Jade to do all those stupid romantic things that John could ramble about in his movies. John responded back that that was more of Karkat's jurisdiction, but honestly Karkat was one of the last people that he wanted to think about when he and Jade were spending time together.
...
"Caw."
"Woof!"
"Caw."
"Woof! Aw, c'mon. You know what I want to hear!" Jade said with a wide grin.
"Caw caw." She really ought to be happy that he was indulging her this much.
"Nope!" She giggled.
"Jesus Jade, give a guy a break."
"Not until you do it!" She grabbed his hands in her own. "C'mon cool guy. You've done it before, I don't know what the big deal is!"
"I can't be your farm animal toy Jade. The dog goes: 'woof,' the cat goes: 'meow,' the bird says 'caw.' "
She frowned up at him, hands gripping his tighter. He rolled his eyes behind his shades and sighed, leaning his head to rest on hers.
"You're really gonna do this to me, huh?"
She nodded, their foreheads rubbing as she did.
"...peep."
She squealed. God, he knew she was all into furries way back when, but she must be in fucking heaven. Well no, the road to furry-dom was paved with a lot of shitty things so maybe not, but getting so giddy over animal noises was something he would have to get used to. At least though, it was a quirk that made her like him more. That being the case, he supposed it wasn't that bad. Weird, but... relieving that she approved of the feathers and all that so readily.
He pressed his nose against hers, in what was one of the easiest ways to show her affection. He nudged it a little, feeling warmth begin to radiate across his face.
"Peep." Shit. That one slipped. Oh well.
She smiled now, and he made sure to tighten his lips so no more noises would involuntarily escape. She nuzzled him and he followed by pecking her on the lips. Much more effective way to distract his mouth from those infernal noises.
...
That was one of his favorite memories. Moments like that, only a collection of them in his brain, were his absolute favorite. He held on to them as desperately as he wanted to hold her now.
The ship had landed.
Or well, made its first landing, he supposed. They had met with the asteroid in what was the final stretch of their journey to the new session, so he wasn't quite screwed yet. But fuck that, this was a whole other line of shit. Time for his (ghostly lack of) ass to fall back into place. Dave Strider, the alpha Dave Strider, official Knight of fucking Time, was here.
x.x.x
Thanks for the comments guys D,: it really means so much! I was worried that it wasn't really good... anyways, I'll try to get chapters out more quickly. It's kind of a when-the-feels-hit sort of thing that I'm winging though. Anyways, thanks for reading! Mwahs!
