Jade pressed herself up against the door of Dave's room. She was breathing fast and trying hard to push down the tears that were stinging at her eyes. Calm down, calm down. It's fine. Everything is fine. She tried to reason with herself. She was the inconsolable, emotionally fragile dream self and the reasonable part of her was growing steadily angrier with her own emotional irrationality. She laughed at that, and momentarily considered finding Karkat so he could yell some sense into her. She resolved herself to focus on tending to Dave's injuries and pushing aside her selfish desires and disappointments.

She made her way tentatively through the maze of a lab that her friends had turned into a home. She realized that she had absolutely no idea where anything was and she was going to get herself lost. Almost as an answer to the anxiety, Terezi rounded the corner to face her. The red glasses and bright shine of her huge grin in the dark tipped Jade off to her immediately, and she let out a sigh that was both exasperation and also relief. "Terezi!" she smiled as wide as she could manage and the gray face of the girl in front of her tipped gently to the side in response. "I can't find my way around here at all. I need to find something to dress Dave's cuts. Can you…" and she faltered as Terezi held up a bowl of steaming water in one hand and a mess of dressings, rags, and a tube of something she did not recognize in the other.

"Calm down." Terezi told her, cackling. "I can smell your human fear pretty easily. Come on, Jade, carry these." Without waiting for a response she placed everything but the bowl of water into Jade's upturned palms and used her new free hand to turn Jade gently back in the direction she had come from. After a few moments of silence as they made their way back to Dave's room, Terezi spoke again. "I know you don't know me well, Jade, but I'm not going to hurt you or anything."

"I didn't think that." Jade responded truthfully.

"What, then?" Jade stared forward, unwilling to look her straight in the face, and she laughed nervously. Finally realizing that she wasn't going to answer, Terezi placed her hand on Jade's shoulder comfortingly and let her keep her secrets.

"I'm glad Dave had you around. I can see how much he cares for you." Jade finally said stopping in front of Dave's closed door to look the troll girl in the eyes. She wasn't sure if it was necessary, but she felt it was the right thing to do regardless.

"He cares about you, too." She said with a wild smile as she brushed past Jade to open the door and slope inside. Jade made up her mind in that moment that she really liked Terezi Pyrope, despite the way her heart sank at the thought of how Dave might feel about her. She smirked happily at that and followed her into the room.

Terezi was setting the bowl of warm water on the ground near where Dave was lying, and she noticed with a smile that his breaths were slow and shallow, indicating that he had fallen asleep. She looked at Terezi for a moment and, though the troll girl did not look back at her, she knew that she was waiting for her to say something. With an intake of breath she finally spoke. "Will you help me get his shirt off, we need to clean his injuries."

Terezi smiled wide when she sensed the blush creeping up Jade's cheeks. In easy compliance, she moved to the right side of Dave and motioned to Jade to mirror her on his left. Together they gently lifted him forward and his glasses went slightly askew on his face when his head rolled limply. Terezi responded quickly, pushing them back up the bridge of his nose with one long, spindly gray finger.

Together they pulled his shirt off, and it was worse than Jade had expected. It was a small wonder that he had been able to ignore it for as long as he had. There were cuts literally everywhere on him, and there was a patch of dried blood and the beginnings of bruises surrounding each one. Terezi threw his nearly ruined God Tier top onto the floor and slowly helped Jade lower him back onto the blankets. She noticed as they moved that there were small red marks marring the blankets beneath him. She frowned slightly as she surveyed him, worry showing freely on her face. Despite his condition, she found herself unable to ignore how beautiful he was. His pale skin was smooth and there were lean cords of muscle in his arms, chest and stomach.

She felt ashamed and a blush rose to her cheeks again before she tried to push the thoughts away and focus on the task at hand. Terezi was already at work, pressing a rag now soaked with warm water against his face with a tenderness that made her feel as though she was intruding on an intimate moment. Terezi, seeming to respond to her apprehension, faced in her direction and held out the rag she had been using to clean his face. "You take over, Jade. I will take care of his arms." She was not sure why she was handing over this particular task to her, but she did not complain and simply took the rag from her hands, slightly red from blood already.

Jade sat herself up against him on the bed and touched the side of his face with her left hand while the right one went to work. Slowly, gently, she pressed the rag against his flushed cheek and the mess began to wash away, leaving the rag dark and stained. There was a tiny cut below his left eye, and she took care not to press it too hard when she wiped away the grime surrounding it. She stared at him while she worked, taken aback by how young he seemed as he slept. Far younger than he had looked when she had left the room. Almost helpless, even, though she knew he was not. His features were soft in a way they rarely were when he was awake, and she was transfixed by it. Her fingers gently caressed his cheek as she continued to press the rag against his face, and he seemed to lean slightly into it.

"You guy's are not going to believe this, but I had this cracked dream that the two of you were undressing me. Crazy, right? Man, I feel dirty just thinking about it." Jade was so startled that she nearly fell backward off of the bed. She had pulled her hands away from Dave's face to steady herself. To her complete surprise, he was laughing harder than she had ever seen Dave Strider laugh. His arms were folded up against his stomach and he just laughed and laughed. Both her and Terezi looked like they wanted to rip his head off, and that just made him laugh harder.

"Dave Strider I would hit you if I could!" Jade yelled, her face a bright red. Terezi was laughing now, and it just made her blush deepen.

"Aw, c'mon Harley. I was just kidding." Dave said, trying his hardest to stop laughing and sound concerned.

"Hmmph." She responded, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. Annoyed at how close she felt to tears from the embarrassment. The look on Dave's face broke her though and she finally smiled, and after a moment broke into laugher herself. His hand tangled into the hair on top of her head and he smirked at her. She blushed again, but for a completely different reason this time. He had, she thought, the most amazing smile, and she never wanted it to stop. He leaned back onto the blankets and his face straightened, but there was a trace of contentment still lingering there.

"Alright, I'm leaving. Jade, can you take care of this?" Terezi pushed the bowl of water toward her on the ground and started toward the door.

"You don't… want to stay, Terezi?"

She simply smiled at her, huge and slightly insane looking with her razor sharp teeth, and left the room, shutting the door silently behind her.

Jade looked at him, a little lost, but he was resting again, humming low under his breath and tapping his long fingers. She leaned over him and she heard him stop humming as he turned his head toward her. She decided to take the opportunity to tend to the wounds on his back. "Sit up and turn around, I am going to take care of your back before you pass out again." He stared at her for a moment before he sat up slowly to face her, face a little closer to hers than she anticipated. He leaned a little too heavily on his hands and she realized he would have trouble keeping himself upright. He began turning, but instead of letting him, she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him a little closer. "Lean on me, I can take care of it like this." He nodded silently and pressed his shoulders against hers and she felt his chin pressing lightly on her neck. She dipped a clean rag into the water and reached around behind him to begin cleaning the cuts on his back. She felt him breathing, rhythmic and soft. After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke up for the first time since Terezi had gone.

"Why would you think she would want to stay?" he paused for a moment and continued, in a softer tone, "Is it bothering you to be alone with me, Harley?" Are you angry with me? Do you want to get away from me? Jade shook her head. He seemed to relax a little at that, and put a little more of his weight on her, his lips brushing for a moment against her neck as he repositioned himself.

She shuddered, a heat building in her. He either did not notice, or didn't mind, and his fingers found their way to her arm, grazing the skin with an impossibly light touch. She wanted to touch him back, heart thrumming in excitement as she moved her free hand toward his now suspended one, frozen in anticipation. When her hand found his, when their fingers intertwined, it was like a bolt of lightning was running through her body, heating her and making her shudder. They did not simply hold hands; instead they were constantly moving, brushing fingertips, twining and untwining between themselves. It was incredible to her how such an insignificant touch could send her heart fluttering so fast and hard in her chest. He brushed his face against her neck and shoulder and she could feel his breath against her. The hand that was holding the rag had almost stopped moving, all of her attention on the feeling of him against her.

He could not seem to help himself with her pressed against him. His heart was beating fast in his chest, the wonderful anxious feeling of touching someone this way. No, not someone. Jade. Ridiculous, wonderful, beautiful Jade, so close to him now that he could smell the flowery scent of her hair. She was responding; she was not pulling away from him, and he was beaming, quietly glad she could not see his face. She was winding his hand with hers, moving and brushing as if she wanted to memorize every curve of it. He wanted to kiss her, he had almost pressed his lips against her neck, but he wanted to kiss her, really kiss her, first. He wanted to put everything he had been feeling, everything he had been hoping for in the past three years into the kiss. He wanted this but he did not act on it. Not then. Not yet. The sudden smell of blood reached him, and he opened his eyes to examine her. She had been covered in blood after she had fallen, and now it was dried onto her neck and face and clothes. He took his hand away from hers and placed it gently on the side of her face and pulled back to look at her more clearly. She was staring at him, eyes wide and searching.

"Give me that." He pointed to the rag in her hand, and she looked at it for a moment as if she had forgotten what it was that she was holding. She handed it to him silently and he reached over to put it back in the water, his hand never leaving the side of her face. After he had washed a bit of his own blood off the rag and rung it out as best he could with only one hand, he brought it back up to her face and started wiping the blood off. She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand, and he took the opportunity to stare at her, taking in her soft, long features, the blush of her cheeks. You're beautiful. He wanted to say.

He finished getting the blood off her face and started down her neck, her head leaning to the side to allow him to reach it more easily. The pink, bruised scar on her neck made him frown and he avoided it carefully, not wanting to accidentally hurt her. Jade's breathing was soft and calm, her eyes still closed and he stroked the side of her face with his thumb absently. Her brow furrowed slightly at that, and he dropped the hand holding the rag and just looked at her. Her eyes opened when he did not put the rag back against her.

He pulled her slightly closer to him, though they were already a foot or so away from each other to begin with. He dropped the dirty rag and raised his hand to cup the other side of her face. "What's up?" he asked, his voice calm despite the worry that gripped him at her reaction. Abruptly, he felt a wave of dizziness grip him and he leaned forward, pressing his eyes shut to wait for it pass.

Jade was about to ask him about Terezi, ask him what was going on between them. Whatever was going on here felt amazing, but it was also confusing her, and she needed a straight answer. He was looking sick again, though, and all the questions she had wanted to ask died in her throat.

"Dave, lie back down."

"No. No, fuck that, I'm fine." He said, his light eyebrows creased and his eyes were still tight shut. His hands had moved from her face to her shoulders as he attempted to steady himself. "This is fuckin' ridiculous."

"Lay down." She pressed. He did as she asked, his eyes still tight shut, but the rest of his face was inexpressive.

She turned around to the laptop and wiggled the mouse. Dave had himself signed into Pesterchum and she logged him off, logging herself in instead. She was glad to see John was also online, and she opened a chat window to talk to him.

- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 19:47 -

GG: joooooohn!

EB: jade! how is my best bro?

GG: not doing very well :( I need you to help me out here john

GG: it is a matter of

GG: significant importance!

EB: gosh, jade, I am feeling slightly inadequate at the implied gravity of the situation. what is it that you need me to do?

GG: you need to bring in the big guns, john.

GG: bring in

GG: the apple juice!

EB: :O!

GG: i know.

EB: hehe.

EB: :B

- gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 19:49 -

Dave had made his way over to her as she was turned and he was now staring over her shoulder at the computer screen, bracing himself against her back. "You did not just tell John to bring me apple juice, Harley. Please tell me you did not just tell him to do that. Please tell me, I need to hear it coming out of that grinning mouth of yours that you did not just tell fucking John Egbert to get me, Dave Motherfucking Strider, any gog damn apple juice."

She just smiled.


In which teenagers clean each other instead of totally making out.
Trolololololo.

Strangely proud of that pesterlog.

-CS