Hi there. I am so sorry this took so long. The inspiration fairy went to go do the absinthe dance on my friend's Moulin Rouge/Homestuck crossover and left me all alone. So the development of this chapter has been really slow. Anyway, read and review, thank you for sticking with me and all. –edited-
You are John Egbert once more and you're pretty much freaking out right now. "Uh, are you sure you want me to get on it?" You ask, looking at the cool, expressionless face of the red eyed Strider. Dave only nods, worryingly silent since the incident with the horse an hour earlier. You sigh softly, looking at the horse standing in the small enclosed pen, happy as a clam and looking, to you, like the embodiment of all evil. You know you're going to look like a fool in front of Dave the moment you try to get on its back and all you can imagine is the horse finding a way to dump you on the ground.
"Quit procrastinating. You'll never learn if you don't try." Dave said, a tad impatiently and an edge in his voice. You jump at the tone and glance back at him one more time. Is it that he's angry at something? If so, what? He hadn't been like this until he'd gone to check on his brother in the ranch, and now he was almost starting to scare you.
"Hey, are you ok?" You ask him, concern obvious in your expression.
Probably not the best thing to ask. He glares at you, pulling his hat down over his eyes. "Look, I don't have all day to do this. Either you get in there and listen to me, and keep your questions to yourself, or I scrap this whole teaching thing and go back to my chores." He growls.
You climb over the fence and approaching the horse. As all horses seem to, it eyes you malevolently before skittering away from your hand when you try to touch it. "Oh come on, I'm not gonna hurt you!" You complain, chasing the horse around the pen as it continues to skitter and jump away from you. After a few minutes of this you find yourself falling face first into the dust, coughing as the dry powder flares up in the air around you and you inhale some of it. You swear you hear a low chuckle coming from the direction of your 'teacher' and you huff, pushing yourself to your feet to glare at Dave. "Are you actually going to teach me how to ride the horse or are you just going to keep laughing at me." You're pouting a little, and his expressionless face finally cracks a small grin.
BE DAVE STRIDER
You are once again Dave Strider and you can't decide if you're angry, confused, or just relieved. You've been standing outside your brother's room, leaning against the wall between his and yours, for the last ten minutes, listening to his conversation with Jake. You can't believe you just heard Dirk make the confessions he did, let alone actually saying that bitch's name out loud. You want to throttle your brother about that, but you're confused about why he felt he could tell the green eyed nuisance.
Why did your brother trust him at all, when he's fully admitted that his attraction to the boy was showing similar effects as when he'd been around Roxy? Dirk had been putty in her hands every time she looked him in the eyes, and it was holding true for Jake. But, despite your anger and confusion as to his brother's leniency on the subject of a certain Harley, you're relieved. Because while you're not exactly fond of this situation developing, you haven't heard Dirk laugh quite like that when talking about Roxy in… ever.
Standing outside your brother's room and eavesdropping is only making you angry, and not doing any good for him, so you push away from the wall. You figure you can maybe leave them alone together for a little while as you make your way down the hall, needing something to distract you. You know you're not exactly the best at dealing with these emotional problems so you decide to do something physical to distract you from having killed the horse. Which meant dragging Egbert over to that enclosure so you could teach him how to ride one of the beasts.
Your plan seems to work because while you start off in a bad mood, Egbert's attempts to catch the horse soon have you chuckling softly, Dirk and Jake receding to the back of your mind. When he gets up from his latest fall and puts his hands on his hips, pouting at you while he complains about your teaching methods. You get an image in your head at his position and you blink it away quickly, not wanting anything like that in your head when you're trying to teach him something completely unrelated.
"Alright, let's try it this way." You say smoothly, reaching a hand up to whistle for the horse. It reacts immediately, trotting over to the fence where you're standing and you give the horse's nose a quick rub before taking the lead rein and walking the horse to the gate. "Since you can't even catch this little beauty, you need to get her to like you more. Come on." You lead the pouting blue eyed cutie back into the stable with the horse where you set him to work on grooming. He's doing it wrong at first, agitating the horse and your roll your eyes eventually, stepping up to help him.
BE JOHN EGBERT AGAIN
Oh look at that, you're John Egbert once more and you have no idea what you're doing. It seems that since you can't even get on the horse, Dave wants you to try brushing it. And you don't know how to do that either. So you're dragging the brush across the horse's side as it starts to fidget when Dave sighs and walks up behind you. "You're pushing too hard, and you're going in the wrong direction. Here." That one word is the only warning you get before he moves just a little closer, gently taking your hand with the brush in his and guiding it's movements.
You can feel the cowboy's breath on the back of your neck as his other hand comes up to rest lightly on the horses flank on your other side and my it's certainly getting hot in here isn't it? You can hear him chuckle again when you completely freeze up and it takes a moment for you to regain your mobility. When you do you have to take a deep breath in through your nose, trying to focus on what he's showing you with the brush. Your heart feels like it wants to jump out of your chest, and you know for a fact that the burning heat in your cheeks is a blush.
"Um… Dave? What are you doing?" You ask after a moment when he stops your hand and removes the brush from it. He doesn't answer as you turn around to face him and you're eyes widen when you realize just how close he is. There's barely an inch between you and for a moment you can't move. He's completely still for a moment before one of his hands slowly goes up to touch your chin, lifting it just slightly before suddenly his lips are on yours.
BE DIRK STRIDER
