AN: I was considering going on a hiatus, but the newest update has given me more to write on! Yay! So I'll have another chapter up soonly, I hope!

Nobody brought the incident the next day, but Dave could tell it was on all of their minds. Kanaya asked how his hand was once, but that was the closest anybody got to mentioning it. Karkat didn't follow Dave, nor did he try to pick fights with him. Terezi was oddly quiet. Even Rose didn't mention it, but the expression she used to look at him had changed into one of pity. Only the mayor remained unchanged, so Dave spent his time with him that day.

Dave hated how they'd all changed. He hated the pity in their eyes. He didn't need their fucking pity! God damn it, this was why he'd kept it to himself!

In the next few weeks, he spent all his time alone. He converted the room nearest to his, which used to be Sollux's, into a new training room. He padded every inch, and would simply train until he collapsed from exhaustion. When he'd wake up, he'd get food and then go back, ignoring everybody. Even the way they talked to him had changed. Then he'd start over again.

He hated them all. He was now glad that it'd taken John and Jade so long to get to the meteor; he wasn't sure he could take it if John suddenly started treating him like he was a fucking kid. He wanted bro to be there again. He'd know what to do, and he wouldn't patronize Dave. That wasn't going to happen, though, and so Dave found himself working to the point of collapse again and again to keep himself from thinking.

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It had been three and a half weeks of non-stop training when Dave had the seizure. He was rather lucky to have it when he did, because Rose was standing right next to him. He'd come up for a meal, and she had decided to approach him about his unhealthy behavior. She'd done it before, but he never seemed to listen. Whether that time would have been any different or not was never to be determined, because as she started talking he fell backwards into her.

Every muscle in his body seemed to be tensed to the point of violently shaking, and his eyes had rolled back into his head. The game had adjusted Rose to remaining calm in high-pressure situations such as this, and she laid him back carefully and called for Kanaya.

His aviators were removed and he was placed on his side until the fits stopped. He lay perfectly still for a moment, and for that moment Rose was afraid he'd passed away. She reached forward to check his pulse just as he rolled over and emptied his stomach. She jerked her hand away quickly, pulling a face, but was really relieved.

Kanaya and Rose carried him to the closest room, which happened to be Rose's, and lay him on the bed where he slept for hours. Kanaya, Rose, and Terezi took turns watching over him and occasionally he would stir, but it was Rose who was sitting beside him when he finally woke up.

"What's your name?" She asked, as soon as she saw his eyes open.

He looked confused for a moment. "Dave."

"Last name?"

This time he had to think for a moment, and when he spoke he sounded as if he had a cotton ball under his tongue. "Strider."

"Birthday?"

Again, he had to think before the answer came to him. "December _."

"Age?"

This time the answer came to him faster. "16."

"Do you know my name?" She barely gave him time to recover from the last question when she fired the next.

"Rose." He replied without hesitation this time, and his mouth sounded slightly less numb.

She continued the line of questioning, checking his pupils for proper dilation and checking almost every muscle in his body until she was satisfied.

"What the hell happened?" He asked, finally able to get his own questions in.

"You had a seizure." She replied, taking his temperature.

"Seriously? Fuck." He sighed. "I'll save you the trouble of asking," he said, seeing her open her mouth again, "No it hasn't happened before."

"You overworked yourself." She said sternly.

"I know. That was sort of the point." He shrugged and looked around, suddenly realizing how naked his face felt. "Where are my Stiller shades?"

She handed them to him from their spot on the desk. "I swear to Cthulu, you are the most infuriating person I've ever had the misfortune to meet." She sighed. "Why would you decide to do that to yourself?"

Dave just shrugged the question off and instead told her, "My head hurts."

"Don't you dare turn the subject on me, Strider." She snapped. Her tone offered no way out. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you? Not just me, Terezi, Kanaya, even Karkat! We were seriously about to go down there and stage a full-scale intervention, self-help books and all. You can't just do that to us! First you slice your fucking hand open, then you disappear for days, only to ignore us when you finally come out? Why would you think that's okay?! Despite what you may think about yourself, you deserve to be taken care of just as much as anybody else, if not more so! Jegus Christ, I will tie you down to a bed and feed you through a tube if you try anything like that again."

Dave listened to each word, shame boiling up in his chest. His expression remained neutral and almost un-caring, but he felt truly bad. Rose was right, he had fucked up and he truly felt bad about it even if he didn't show it outwardly.

When she finished, he just nodded. That was all it took for her to understand that he was sorry, and that he would fix it. She knew her etco-brother's reactions like the back of her hand, even if she couldn't begin to understand what was going on in that crazy mind of his.

What was, in fact, going on in Dave's crazy mind was the re-evaluation of the importance of each thought in his head. He filed them into their respective places carefully, reorganizing them to a more appropriate level. Emotions were shoved away into the dark, unvisited recesses again, and logic reasserted itself as the driving force.

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