I know I just posted a chapter, but I had this one ready! Enjoy!

This is a John chapter and the end is pretty damn gay, so there u go. I don't know what else you expected from this fic. You ask for the gay, I give you the gay.

*All intellectual property belongs to Andrew Hussie*


John

Dave held the photo in his hands, delicately, as if it were about to crumble in his fingers. John saw his face, struck with wonder at the story that he had just confessed. John had told him about Jane, and about her death. Two years ago, John's cousin Jane had jumped off the roof of their school building and fell to her death. They used to be really close when they were kids, but it had been about four years since he had last spent time with her when she killed herself. In that four year gap, Jane gained quite a bit of weight and became horribly depressed from the pressure her parents put on her.

John's uncle was quite the harsh man. His dad never liked his brother, and often invited Jane and her mother over to avoid him. That was why John saw her so much in his childhood. But once they hit middle school, John's uncle pulled Jane out of school with John and sent her to private school. She returned to the same school as him when they entered high school, but by that point they had drifted apart. He saw her around, and she definitely seemed different than she had years before. It wasn't just puberty, too! She was more solemn, less of her cheery self. She looked stressed every time John saw her.

He never knew that she would do something so horrific. He described how he was there when she jumped, how he watched her fall and fall limp on the ground, blood pooling around her head. John had wished every day that he had put in more of an effort to stay close to her. When he told Dave this, Dave faced him and shook his head with more ferocity than John thought was possible. Dave's nostrils were flared in anger, and John wished that he could see into Dave's eyes, to actually gauge what was going through his head. He knew that Dave had to also be confused about Jane's skin color; she was half black due to her mother's heritage, so he quickly explained that as well.

"John..." Dave finally spoke. Although he had only said his name, it relieved John that Dave finally had responded. He was worried that he had said too much too quickly into their friendship, or that Dave wouldn't want to come back with him. "I'm sorry. It's really hard to lose someone."

"It's okay. It was two years ago so I've had a while to think about it." John shrugged. Although he was still deep in mourning, he didn't want to cry in front of Dave and reveal how weak he was.

"Is this the only photo you have of her?" Dave asked.

"Yeah." John nodded. "I keep it around to remind me that people die and that's reality. Almost to like... Remind me that she's gone." There was a pause as Dave looked back down at the photo, running his long thin fingers across a face that he didn't know. "I stole it from her parents' house."

"God, John. I'm so sorry." Dave shook his head, looking back one more time at Jane before handing the picture back to John. John faked a smile. "It's... Hard... To lose someone."

"Yeah." The pauses suddenly became awkward and breathy.

"I uh... Lost my mom." Dave murmured. John frowned, looking at the tall boy next to him who suddenly seemed so fragile.

"I'm so sorry." John said quickly, his eyes threatening tears. He gulped to hold them back. Unlike Dave, John didn't have shades to hide his eyes.

"It's okay. We weren't close." Dave said, threading is fingers together and then pulling them apart, and repeating that motion over and over again. John watched him do that, his eyes following Dave's fingers' suddenly awkward movements. It was finally getting dark enough that it was hard to see. John couldn't imagine how little Dave could see.

"Can you see anything?" John asked, finally getting to his feet. Dave shrugged and stood as well, placing a cold hand on John's shoulder.

"You might have to lead me the right way." Dave chuckled.

"Or you could take your sunglasses off!"

"Nah man, not happening. They're cool. It's kind of my shtick." Dave followed John closely to the car. John rolled his eyes at Dave as he walked him over to the passenger seat.

"Thanks for coming back with me. For her." John blushed.

"Of course, man."

Back at John's house, John and Dave sat on the big bed in John's room watching a movie that John had picked. It was Ghost Rider, a favorite of his featuring one of his favorite actors. A movie about a motorcyclist that makes a deal with the devil? How could that not be fantastic? John knew that it wasn't exactly Dave's first choice, but he thought that if they watched it he might end up liking it. It didn't matter to John that he had seen it before; he often rotated through his collection of movies instead of watching new movies. John and Dave sat on the bed like this, watching the movie with their school books on their laps, finishing whatever homework they had to do.

Around thirty minutes into the move, John found himself glancing at Dave. The boy next to him had stopped writing and had stopped watching the movie. Dave was just staring off into space, tears running down his cheeks. John started panicking inwardly, clenching his teeth. He didn't know how to comfort someone, and he didn't even know what he would want someone to do if they were watching him cry. He quickly adverted his eyes in hopes that Dave didn't see him staring.

"Hey... Dave?" John said tentatively. Dave's head whipped toward him, and he quickly wiped the tears away with his hand. He sniffed and then the cool, composed look returned to his face. He offered John a small smile. "I uh, know we're not close yet but..." John continued, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" Dave said through tight lips.

"Whatever's making you upset!" John pulled his legs up toward him and sat cross-legged, pushing his books aside and facing Dave. Dave looked at him with the most shocked look, as if no one had ever talked to him about any of his problems. He looked away from John for a while, which didn't bug John because he knew that Dave was just contemplating heavily whether he wanted to talk about anything or not.

"Yeah." Dave finally said. "I think I do."

"Go for it!" John grinned, resting his chin on his hands and staring intently at Dave.

"Well uh, my brother kicked me out. I yelled at him." Dave paused for a second and then suddenly jumped into story. "Well, I did yell at him but that's only because he's being an idiot. After our mom died he started doing heroin, which is what she pretty much died from. Well, she died from AIDS but she got it from sharing needles, you know blood and shit? So it's fuckin' dumb that Dirk is doing fuckin' heroin just like mom and is all sick at night when he does it. And I have to take care of him even though he's supposed to be taking care of me." Dave let out a long breath. John was shocked. Dave's speech made every problem he had ever had seem trivial. He made direct eye contact with Dave, as much as he could through the dark shades.

"Do you want to keep going?" John asked, sensing that something was still bugging him. There was another long pause, and then Dave nodded.

"I'm worried about him tonight. He was angry, and the idiot does bad things when he's angry. He fuckin' does every drug under the planet and drinks a shit ton so what am I supposed to do? How can I help him from here?" Dave's jaw quivered slightly. "Dude, he's the last thing I have." There was another long pause as John looked at Dave, and Dave looked at John's feet.

"I think you're just going to have to trust the fact that he's okay. Sometimes it takes dealing with your own problems and stuff to realize you need to change. Maybe your brother just needs to take care of himself for a night and he'll see that he can't do heroin anymore because it's dumb!" John tried to make his advice sound hopeful and positive. Tears started streaming from underneath the shades again and John gasped. "No! I didn't mean for that to sound harsh at all, I'm so sorry!"

"John, you're right. You're so right." Dave started shaking his head. John was amazed by the lack of emotion in his voice, the same emotion that was so clear on his face. "Can I be honest?"

"Absolutely! Of course, Dave!" John put a hand on his friend's arm.

"First off, that was cheesy as fuck. Second, I don't think I've ever had someone give me advice before. Like, I've never gotten all deep and emotional with anyone. God dammit, I'm the cool kid. I bet you don't think I'm cool anymore." Dave let off a small laugh.

"No Dave! I think you're really cool!" John exclaimed. John thought that Dave was probably furrowing his brow, but he couldn't tell because his eyebrows totally disappeared behind his shades. "I think you're really strong, and that's pretty important!"

"John. You are the biggest cheeseball I have ever met. Holy shit." Dave sniffed again, revealing the slightest bit of insecurity underneath the words that he had just uttered.

"Dave, I'm going to hug you now." John warned, rising to his knees. He threw himself onto Dave, who froze for a second, and then clutched onto John with genuine gratitude. John smiled into the hug. He always loved hugging, which was unfortunate since most guys were too afraid to hug another guy. Masculinity, John thought, is so fragile. Thank God Dave wasn't a fragile idiot.

"Okay," Dave sighed, "this is getting pathetic. Let's watch the movie." John smiled and let go of Dave, flopping back down to his spot on the other side of the queen sized bed.

Time with Dave passed very easily. He was the easiest person to hang out with that John had ever met, and they were so conversationally compatible that John found himself talking about pretty much everything. He didn't know that he and Dave would be sharing so much with each other so quickly, but he didn't feel nervous at all telling him all about how his Dad was hardly ever home and how his parents had divorced when he was five. He basically told Dave his life story, and Dave did the same thing to him. He seemed a little more reserved, as if he had never had a best bro before. John hadn't really either but there were people that he was close to. Dave didn't seem close to anyone.

John wanted to be close to Dave. He didn't know what it was about him, but John really just wanted to protect Dave. He knew that Dave himself was strong, and didn't need his protection, but John promised silently to be there for Dave through every trial. It was strange to John that they had practically just met each other, but were suddenly so comfortable sharing all of their pasts with each other.

They talked about insecurities quite a lot. John was a fairly secure person with himself, and when Dave admitted that his confidence was what he found most interesting about John, he was shocked. John never thought it was noble to be confident, but he had simply just accepted that he was the way he was and wasn't going to change that for anything. John had accepted that he was a dork, and that he wore glasses, and that his interests were far from cool. That was just the reality of his existence. He didn't really care what other people thought, but apparently Dave really did.

"Is that why you wear the sunglasses?" John asked, both of them having totally abandoned their homework.

"That's kind of a weird story, maybe I'll tell you some other time." Dave suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"Dave, we've shared pretty much everything with each other tonight. What's different about this?" John pointed out, giving Dave an encouraging smile.

"I don't know, maybe later." Dave wasn't looking at John anymore, and he looked like he was on the verge of tears again so John decided not to push it.

At around 10:00 pm, they decided to start getting ready for bed, knowing that they'd both have to be up for school in the morning. They both changed into their pajamas, their backs facing each other. At least, John was facing the wall. He hoped that Dave was too. When he turned back around he saw Dave standing there in red boxers and a black tank top, grinning sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head.

"I uh, don't really sleep in pajama pants." Dave murmured. John suddenly felt overdressed and warm in his flannel pajama pants and long-sleeved t-shirt. He also took the second that he was looking directly at the Strider to examine him. Dave was way too fit and chiseled. It was almost ridiculous. John pushed the verging-on-very-gay thoughts out of his mind and smiled to cover whatever was going on in his head.

"That's fine!" He said chipperly, looking over at the bed that they would have to share. He paused before turning toward the door. "I'm going to brush my teeth and stuff now."

"Okay, I'll come too if that's cool." Dave replied. John didn't understand why it suddenly felt awkward. He had brushed his teeth every day of his life; it wasn't weird to be brushing his teeth with another guy in the room. But for some reason, his stomach tingled with nervous energy. He found himself looking at Dave as he brushed his teeth, feeling nervous about the domestic actions that they were performing. Toothpaste dripped down John's chin and he panicked, reaching for a towel in hopes that Dave didn't see the clumsy action. Unfortunately, Dave snorted in a laugh at John's fumbling, revealing that he had in fact witnessed the dorkiness. John spit the toothpaste out and inhaled a deep gust of air, feeling the cooling sensation that the mint left in his mouth. When he looked back at Dave, the other boy was sitting on the edge of the bathtub watching him with a nervous look.

"What's wrong?" John asked. Dave did the same nervous action that he had before, rubbing the back of his head.

"I have to wash my face." He responded.

"Oh! Go for it." John said, moving out of the way of the sink. Dave shook his head.

"I uh... I have to take my shades off. Can you leave the bathroom?" John was suddenly flooded with realization.

"Is it your eyes? Do you not want me to see your eyes?" John felt a little weird about talking to Dave as he sat on the edge of the tub. He wasn't used to talking down at Dave; Dave was much taller than him. It felt unnatural.

"Yeah. I just, don't really like them." John could see a slight blush creeping up Dave's cheeks.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I'm sure there's nothing wrong with them. We're you going to sleep with them on too?" John asked.

"Yeah."

"Dave! That's ridiculous! I don't want you to be uncomfortable!" John was almost shouting in disbelief.

"It's okay, I'll be fine."

"Dave, I seriously won't care. I promise. You can absolutely trust me." John put a hand on Dave's shoulder in reassurance. He almost didn't notice the blush deepening on Dave's cheeks.

"I... I don't know. Only my mom and my bro have ever seen my eyes." Dave paused. "It's not that I don't trust you, I just don't want to scare you."

"I think I can take it Dave. You really don't have to wear them." John smiled, the hand on Dave's shoulder giving a soft squeeze.

"O...kay." Dave said, giving John a really nervous smile. Dave's long, thin fingers reached up to the corner of his sunglasses, pinching the frames and slowly pulling them down. He kept his eyes closed so John didn't see immediately, but John was quick to notice the light blonde eyelashes that he never got to see. Dave's eyelashes were so blonde that John could hardly make them out against his pale skin. Then Dave was opening his eyes and John was met with shock.

He didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. He literally had no idea what was going to be underneath the shades and what abnormality someone could possibly have in their eyes. Framed by slight purple bags were eyes so red that they didn't look real. Dave's irises were the color of super Mario mushrooms. John wasn't sure why that was the first thought that came to his mind, but it was the reddest thing he could think of. His entire iris wasn't that red, but the majority of it was. The outside of his iris where John had a black band around his iris, Dave had a brick red band. Because of this, his eyes were soft but still striking.

After about fifteen seconds of John just staring at him, probably with his mouth wide open, Dave adverted his eyes nervously and looked down toward their feet. He was biting his lip too, an action that showed John that he was much nervous than normal. A giant smile erupted onto John's face.

"Dave." He said, gravely serious. "Your. Eyes. Are. SO. COOL." John exclaimed, pausing between every word to put heavy emphasis on his belief.

"Thanks." Dave said sheepishly, refusing to make eye contact with John. He pushed the shades back onto his face, making John frown.

"You can keep them off; I just want to know about them." John nodded encouragingly. "I'll try not to stare as best as I can, I just think they're really cool to look at."

"You're in the minority. Most people think they're kind of creepy. I've gotten 'demon' a lot."

"Why are they red?" John asked, not able to hold the question in any longer.

"I'm albino. Pretty severely albino. My bro is too, if you saw him you'd get it since he doesn't try to hide it." Dave bit his lip again. "I dye my hair darker to look more normal. My skin would look really weird and pasty if we didn't live in California. Luckily here I get enough sun so I have like a shit ton of freckles."

"Can you take them off again?" John asked, standing still in amazement. "I'm sorry, I just really like them." John blushed.

"Yeah." Dave said, pulling them off. "I'm just a little sensitive to light."

"Oh!" John exclaimed, pushing the dimmer down on the bathroom lights. He sat there for another thirty seconds as he looked directly into Dave's eyes. He expected Dave to start squirming with discomfort after some point, but he sat still, staring back into John's eyes.

"John?"

"Yeah?"

"This is pretty gay." Dave murmured. John burst out laughing, grinning at his friend.

"Sorry man, you just have crazy cool eyes!" John moved away from the sink again. "You can wash your face in peace, I'll let you alone." He stepped out of the room, looking back at Dave one last time.

They met back in John's room. When Dave got back, John was already in bed, scooched all the way to the left side of the bed so there was enough room for Dave. John noticed that Dave wasn't wearing his shades and grinned. Dave climbed into the bed, and flopped down against the pillow on his side so he was facing John. His eyes were almost instantly closed.

"Night, John." He murmured.

"Night, Dave!" John responded, tucking himself in as well.

"Hey, man?" Dave said. John made a noise to let the other boy know that he was listening. "Thanks for making me do that. I'm glad I did."

"Don't sweat it!" With those words, John drifted off into a heavy sleep.

The heavy sleep didn't last for very long. John was awakened by a loud, bed shaking snore erupting from the boy next to him. As he opened his eyes, he realized that the source of the snore was a lot closer than he had expected. In his sleep, Dave had moved close to John, so their bodies were fully touching. Dave's long arm was thrown across John's chest, his top leg tucked between John's so they were intertwined at the knee.

A heavy warm blush creeped up John's face. He swore that the blush covered his entire body. Seconds later, he realized it had. He looked down to see a very solid, very hard peak in the sheets. John cursed himself, and his dick for making the most inappropriate appearance that it ever had made. Quickly he tried to pull his shirt down to cover his raging boner, but then realized that if he shifted at all, Dave would wake and see whatever gay shit was happening. Another snore roared in John's ear. Dave's face was tucked into John's shoulder, the breath from his nose tickling his neck.

John clenched his teeth, pressing his boner down, trying to think of anything but the warm body clutching at his side. He didn't want to think of the leg between his legs, or the close distance between Dave's lips and his neck.

Fuck, John thought, this is really gay. His thoughts dipped into that mindset, thinking for a minute what he would do if he actually were gay. Of course, he wasn't, but this boner thing was really confusing. The most confusing part of it was that it seemed to grow the more he thought of Dave.

He tried to convince himself that it was just hormones and that his body was just reacting to a warm body being pressed so closely against him. Part of him knew that wasn't true. It was the same part of him that knew that John had a crush on the man who was becoming his best friend. It was the same part of him that was - no matter how much he protested - pretty damned gay.