So, yeah, 'Striders don't cuddle', psshh, Dirk cuddles Lil Cal all the time. Anyway, here's your meat you animals, you! I updated the summary, so it says; "maybe smut." instead of 'no smut', because, well, there might be smut. Enjoy your meat.


The intimacy was strange that night, the Strider brothers had never cuddl-slept in the same bed before. In fact, they'd never had intimatic moments. Maybe a few times when Dave was young and had nightmares, but it was never like this one, this one wasn't comforting for chasing away fears, this was comforting for loss.

Dave had been tossing and turning that night, struggling to sleep or keep still. His bed just didn't seem comfortable, the darkness just wasn't the same, neither was the silence. No matter how uncool it was, no matter how stupid Bro would say he was, he was scared.

CPS had been involved a lot when Dave was just young, but only for help. They never threatened to take him away, they saw Bro as a confident and assuring guardian, although he did struggle. Dave had felt like he was lying in a thick pool of guilt instead of his bed and blankets, he had done this to Bro, he had caused all this. 'Just because of my fucking feelings.' He had thought to himself, over and over again, until the darkness had pushed his thoughts away.

Finally he had pushed himself from the bed and looked for the person he wanted to be with the most; Bro. The guy who had been there all those years, just for the sake of being there. The one guy who never looked down on Dave, who never made him feel unwanted or not good enough. The only guy he trusted.

And now, for once in his life, Dave was cuddling with his older brother. He wasn't afraid to admit it, he'd admitted a lot of things so nothing was going to bother him anymore. The warmth of Bro against his calming body, the feel of safety wrapping him up, never letting anyone hurt him. It was all too unironic for both of them, all too surreal, but as they both lay there, sharing the intimacy, irony wasn't important.

0x0x0x0x0x0x0

It took a while for Dave to notice the warm presence of his brother disappear, and when he did notice, he let his arm spread out over the bed and feel the cooling space next to him, he let himself smell Bro's scent from the spot as he finally decided to wake up. His whole body neglected the aches and clicks of stiff bones as he sat up.

When he did, he screamed.

Blue, glistening eyes stared back at him as his horrified face formed a grimace. The childhood destroyer, Lil Cal, sat on the end of the bed, just staring with those dead, souless eyes. Dave fell back against the pillow and let an arm drape over his eyes, "fucking son of a bitch." He mumbled before kicking the sheets fully off his body and making the doll at the end of the bed fall off with a soft 'thump' on the floor. He was going to get back at Bro, some way or another.

'Wait.' Dave thought, 'I'm in Bro's room. I can do anything to get back at him right now.' A sinister smile crept across his face as he jumped out of bed, but not before looking at the digital clock on the bedside table. '12:58pm. I can wait a while.' He picked up his shades and, in his amazement, he realised Bro's bedroom was not a complete black hole of puppets and porn, in fact, it was quite parent-like, with the odd tossed shirt here and there, a few puppets in the corner, shit loads of paperwork.

After looking around the strangely tidy room, Dave walked out of the room without bothering to shut the door back up as a sign of disrespect and walked into the livingroom, where Bro's form was lying on the couch, watching some animal programme, "Did you know thirty-two percent of the average rate of dogs die virgins? How sick is that." Bro commented, knowing Dave was in the doorway.

"Pretty sick." Dave replied and placed himself on the arm of the couch, "the fuck are you watching?"

"Some programme about dogs." The elder replied with his usual tone of voice.

"Figured as much."

"Enjoy your surprise, huh?" Bro asked, an amused tone to his voice. He'd heard the scream, no doubt about it.

"Fuck you, you're paying for my therapy sessions." Dave shoved Bro's legs off the couch and sat down properly. He saw Bro put his arm over his side of the couch to grab something, before he could ask what it was, he saw the similar cap and orangle limbs.

"How the-He was just-I didn't even see you this time." Dave stuttered looking at Lil Cal with a dumbfounded expression.

"I'm getting good, admit it." Bro smirked slightly at Dave, who only caught a glimpse of it before it disappeared back into the pokerface expression, "hee hee hee, admit it Dave." The high-pitched voice of Lil Cal was spoken as Bro didn't even move his lips as he waddled the doll towards Dave.

"You're so messed up." Dave snorted jokingly, he was about to speak but stopped himself, the words choked in his throat and he coughed heavily. Bro put Lil Cal beside him and patted his brother's back.

The unspoken words could have seriously changed everything, even Dave's thoughts. 'That's why I love you.' Dave had wanted to say. He wanted to expect a smile and a kiss from that sentence.

"Shit, don't fuckin' die on me now, people will get suspicious." Bro spoke as he patted Dave's back. After a few moments of Dave regaining his voice he finally spoke, "I'm good, I'm good." And the elder backed off.

Dave thought hard for a moment, 'I love him because he's messed up? Where the fuck did that even come from?' Two fingers snapped in front of his face as he regained focus on relality, "You sure you're good?" Bro asked and had obviously been speaking before Dave had heard him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm cool."

Bro nodded and leaned back against the couch. Dave did the same, but he wasn't focusing on the television, his words left his mouth before he noticed what he was saying, "I don't know what to do."

This caught Bro's attention again as the elder looked at him in the corner of his eye behind the pointed shades, "what?"

Dave couldn't stop now, his thoughts were leaving his mouth, "I haven't gotten over you."

A silence followed his words, soon smothered in more confessions, "I still think about you constantly, and in the most unironic way possible, I still love you." After he'd finished, his face still remained impassive as he hid behind his darkened lenses, just the same as Bro was doing.

He heard shifting next to him as Bro leaned foward to take Dave's chin gently and turn the other's face to his, from there he spoke as softly as he could without completely losing all his 'cool', the thing he'd lost a thousand times, "some day you'll find a really nice chick, or dude, doesn't matter which one, and those feelings will go away. You don't need to worry, just trust me."

Dave stared back, eyes wide behind his shades as Bro spoke. He hoped Bro was right, Bro was always right so he could trust him. He didn't stop the smile that passed his lips as he replied, "I trust you, bro."

Bro smiled back, an actual smile, and patted the other's cheek comically, "I better shower, 'else mould'll start growing in my hair." Dave held back a complaint as the hand left his cheek, but he replaced it with a small laugh, "was wondering what that smell was."

"Fuck you, and wash up." Bro pointed towards the sink in the kitchen while walking down the hallway towards the bathroom.

"What? When did I become the maid?"

"Hey, you live in this apartment too." The elder called from the bathroom. Dave sighed heavilly as he shoved everything in to the washing up bowl and smothered it in washing up liquid. He waited a few minutes after the shower had started up and snuck down the hall and in to Bro's bedroom, quietly opening the door and heading towards the drawers on the far end of the bedroom, next to the computer desk that was piled with long-forgotten paperwork and receipts. He tried carefully not to knock anything as he pulled the top drawer open and shoved the various coloured boxers in to a black bin bag.

During his misson, Dave came across a framed photo on the work desk. Forgetting the task at hand, he grabbed the shiny, clean, silver frame of the photo and looked down at it in the dim light. There were four teens standing with their arms draped over eachother's shoulder.

The first guy on the left had black hair and thick rimmed glasses, 'what a dork' Dave thought, then there was a girl with short black hair and red rimmed, oval shaped glasses, 'also a dork' Dave thought again, then he came across the next girl, who looked extremely similar to Rose, her hair was neck length and blonde, her lips were painted black with lipstick and her face held many freckles. 'Wow, she's pretty hot'

Then there was the last dude, lips curved ever so slighty into a small smile, hair spiked back like a goofy anime weeaboo and...and...the shades. 'Oh shit, is that Bro?' Dave looked at the figure again, which was indeed, Bro. *'And the girl next to him must be Rose's mom. And...and that other chick must've been John's mom, and that dude must be Jade's dad. Woah, this is messed up.*' His mind exploaded with questions, 'how could Bro have been friends with all my friend's parents before I even met my friends?' He suddenly heard the shower switch off and put the picture back, he grabbed the rest of the boxers and stuffed them in to the bag before darting out of the room and in to his own. When he'd hid the bag well enough, he strolled in to the livingroom like nothing had happened.

He held back an excited smile as he heard the familiar steps of Bro's coming out of the bathroom and in to the hall. He heard the door to the room shut, and he counted to ten before hearing, "Daaaaave." Drone out from the room. When he didn't reply, Bro made his way to the livingroom and leaned against the doorframe with just a towel round his waist, "Dave, where's all my underwear?"

"I dunno." Dave replied, face stotic and voice too. He didn't dare look at Bro's half naked body, he knew the thoughts that would enter his mind and never go away if he did.

"Prank's up, dude, give me my underwear." Bro said, a slightly amused and proud tone in his voice.

"What do you think I've done with your undies?" Dave smirked while looking at the television.

"Give me a hint."

"I could've sewn them all together and made a gaint smuppet just for you."

"Bullshit, you can't even sew."

Dave paused and then sighed, "fine, I'll get them." He stood from his spot and walked to his room quietly as Bro followed. When in there, Bro leaned against the doorframe and scanned the messy room, a long whistle pushed out from his lips, "Jesus dude, do you ever clean this shithole?"

"Why do I need to clean it?" Dave asked while unloading a pile of clothes from the corner of his room. Bro could swear that he saw something move.

"It's not that you need to clean it, it's just that you needed to keep it clean so it didn't end up like this." Bro commented and pointed at the various almost-empty glass bottles of, what he hoped was apple juice, scattered across the room.

"Well aren't you just the world's biggest critic." Dave said as he shoved the black bag in to Bro's arms, "can't promise that something didn't crawl in. Get bit on your arse and you'll know."

"If I find it, I'll put it in your bed." Bro commented as he strode back to his bedroom.

"I'll be waitin'." Dave called out before the elder's bedroom door was shut.

Sadly, nothing did bite Bro on the arse that day, so as he came out of his room and knocked on Dave's door, he had nothing to put in the youngster's bed. "Dude, ordering pizza."

"'Kay." Was Dave's simple reply. Bro frowned even though no one was there to see it, "yeah, what do you want?"

"Not hungry." Dave replied.

"Extra cheese it is." Bro left the kid to do, whatever it is he was doing, and called up the pizza place from the livingroom. He sloped back against the couch and put his feet up on the coffeƩ table, but just as he was getting comfortable, Dave's door opened harshly and the teen stormed down the hallway. Before Bro could ask anything, Dave was in the livingroom and on top of him in an instant.

"Dude, what the fuc-" Bro's words were interrupted when two lips seized his desperately, which were quickly pushed away by the elder, "Dave! The fuck do you think you're doing?" He felt a familiar feeling of deja vu.

"You said I'd find someone else," Dave began, his voice just over a whisper, "I don't want anyone else." He dipped his head again for another kiss but Bro grabbed his shoulder's harshly, that's when Dave looked him dead in the eye and said, "I want you Bro."

Every sense of decency in Bro's mind collapsed in on itself. He was powerless when the younger kissed him again, he did nothing but hiss slightly when his brother ground their hips together. He pushed back in to the kiss which became more intense and the pace changed to slow and deep, when Dave pushed his hips against the elder's again, Bro felt the erection push against his stomach. 'God it's been long since I last got laid.'

"Dave, seriou-" Bro began quietly, his breath as a mere pant. Dave stopped him with another kiss, Bro wondered how this kid got so talented. The heat between the two was slowly increasing as hands travelled to hips and shoulders, chests and soon under clothing.

Heat was welling up in the pit of Bro's stomach, the familiar feeling of guilt wormed it's way into his joints as he forgot every little pleasurable thing that was happening. 'Fucking hell you're making out with your sixteen year old brother-holy shit, what the fuck.'

The two parted as Bro jerked his head away. Dave stared at him incredibly pissed off, "oh my God, you are not going to cockblock me, tell me, for fuck's sake, that you are not going to cockblock me." He complained. Bro shook his head,

"This isn't right, just no."

"Oh Jesus, here we go again, what's the worst that can happen?"

The elder stared at Dave, an unbelievable expression plastered on his face, "your ass, that's what."

"I don't care about your frigid bullshit right now, my dick is aching and I'm tired of playing with it myself." Dave pointed out the obvious erection under the material of his pants.

"What do you expect me to do about it?"

Dave gave an expectant look as he crossed his arms, "suck my dick."

On the inside, Bro was running laps around the livingroom in panic and oh my God what have I gotten myself into. But on the outside, his face remained impassive, eyebrows raised in a sign of disbelief. "What?"

"I can spell it out if you want."

"No."

"If you're not going to get rid of it, I'll just have to sit here and wait for it to go away. I'm really impatient."

"No."

"Can you not do this stubborn-parenty-thing right now?" Dave shifted so he was now seated on Bro's hips as the elder was still laid on the sofa.

"This whole thing has to stop." Bro said as he was about to sit up and force Dave off until the younger forced their lips together again, slipping his tongue roughly into the elder's mouth as the grip on Dave's shoulder's sub-sided, that's when Dave knew he was in control. He let his hands slip Bro's cap off and toss it away, his fingers got lost in the locks of the other's hair, gripping and brushing.

Dave couldn't wait any longer, he quickly loosened the button on his jeans because they were getting extremely tight. A sigh of relief left his mouth once the jeans were loose and his erection stood out from under his boxers. He went in for another kiss when...

"Strider!" A female voice yelled as the front door slammed shut, "a pizza man was left at your door, you now owe me seventeen dollars sixty."

Bro froze, everything he could see just became a massive blur as the female voice of Roxy strolled closer to the livingroom. They couldn't act fast enough, just as Dave had done his jeans back up, "I'm afraid I left my-" She trailed off as she stood in the doorway of the livingroom, her body frozen in horror. 'The Strider brothers...Dave on Dirk, both flushed. Where's Dirk's hat?'

No one spoke, nothing needed to be said. "Dave...remove yourself from your brother." Roxy commanded quietly,

"Or what?" Dave challenged, Bro saw Roxy stiffen and butted in,

"Just do as she says." He said quietly as he propped himself up onto his elbows. Dave lifted himself from his brother's hips, he was about to leave the room when Roxy held him by the shoulder, "you're staying put." She gave a threatening tone to her voice.

Dirk remained laid on the couch quietly looking everywhere except the two other bodies in the room, Roxy pointed to him, "you, get up right now." And when he did, she stormed over to him, "what the fuck were you even thinking, Strider, he's your brother! All this shit that's been going down is the reason for your miserable life, which wasn't even supposed to be fuckin' true, turns out it is!" She ranted to him as he looked to the side, "what will you do when he's taken away from you? What in fuckin' Christ do you plan on doing? Inspire me with your story, Strider, let me in on this ironic whatever-the-fuck-bullshit you're sitting under, I-"

"Just shut up!" Dave shouted, "I did all this shit, I'm the one that fucking started this, 'cuz I have some fucked up incestual crush on my brother."

Roxy turned towards him, her face not as angry as before as Dave continued, "it's not his fault, it's mine, so shout the fuck outta hell at me."

Roxy was silent for a moment before sighing, "you two need to seriously talk."

"Don't bullshit yourself, this doesn't concern you." Dirk spoke up, "don't you think I've tried talking to him, don't you think that was the first thing on my mind when he was straddling me and waving his dick in my face?"

"We've never spoken, you're never here to talk to!" Dave yelled,

"No Dave, you never listen. Maybe if you just shut the fuck up once in a while and took note of what I was saying-"

"I would've never had this shitty crush on you, is that what you're saying?" Dave interrupted.

"Does it sound like I'm saying that?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then I am."

"This is why I never fucking listen, because you never have a simple answer! All the times I asked you about something, you'd just wait for me to find out myself, was it because you wanted to dodge awkward conversations that a parent should encounter?" The younger Strider shouted as he clentched his fists in anger.

"You're seriously not getting butthurt about that shit." Bro scoffed as he crossed his arms,

"And so what if I am? Fuck you, asshole." Dave bit.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Freak." Bro bit back, obviously trying to strike a nerve. He did.

Dave went silent, his mouth parted slightly. Roxy stood between the two as she felt the anger in the air fade slightly. "Just calm down, both of you."

"So now I'm a freak?"

"Dave-"

"No, fuck you and your bullshit, I'm out." Dave headed for the doorway before Bro grabbed his arm, "no, you're not running away from this-"

"What? You gonna hit me again?"

Bro paused and let go of Dave. Roxy gave him a questioning look as that familiar hand of guilt smacked him in the chest, the younger Strider slammed his bedroom door shut.

"You hit him?" Roxy asked quietly. Bro nodded silently as he sat on the couch, "yeah. I did." He placed his head in his hands, waiting for Roxy to begin yelling again. Instead he felt a hand on his shoulder as the female sat next to him. "Talk to me, Strider." She spoke softly.


Oh lord what have I done?

** Obviously this is an AU, I know that Jake is Jade's granpops and I know Jane is John's nanna, but it'd all seem really strange if Bro had been friends with these old people when he was suppose to be in the same year group as them as a teen. It wouldn't make sense! And in my fanfics, things must make sense!