Howdy folks

This was actually pretty quick to update :D apparantly Bliss n Eso, Poets of the fall and RED make great insperation music~

I'm hoping the next chapter will be up just as quick

Chapter Nine

Four days down the track and everything seems to be a bit more relaxed. Karkat was a bottomless pit as he devoured everything edible he could get his mitts on (which was definitely showing as he isn't nearly as skinny as he was) and would spend a majority of the day sleeping in his tub of slime. It was actually good that Karkat was sleeping all day; it gave Dirk and Dave some overdue and much needed brotherly bonding.

"Alright little man, can you say 'Cal'? C-aah-llll?" Dirk asked as he lifted the puppet in his hand up in front of Dave.

"C…C…Ca-Ca!" Dave chirped.

"Not bad, little man," Dirk smiled as he ruffled the little blonde's hair, causing him Dave to giggle. His little brother may not have gotten it right but Dave seemed to see it as an accomplishment and that's all that mattered.

"BRO!" Dave squealed in delight as Dirks hand moved down to his brother's stomach and tickled him.

"That's right little man." Dirk's tickling became a lot more vigorous, making the young blond to laugh even louder until he fell onto his back. "Alright, I think it's about time for lunch, you hungry?"

Dave responded with clapping his tiny hands and giggled.

"Alright," Dirk started as he picked up Dave and pushed himself off the floor, "I'll get you some apple juice since I know how much you love that shit."

Dirk walked into the kitchen and sat Dave in his high chair before moving to the fridge, to make an awful discovery.

The fridge was completely empty.

"Shit, I didn't think Karkat would eat enough to clean the fridge out." Dave muttered to himself, glancing back to Dave who had picked up his sippy cup from the table and began banging it lightly on the wooden surface.

"Change of plans little man, we're going grocery shopping and I'll make sure to get you your apple juice on the way."

Dave tilted his head, only understanding that his guardian was talking to him and nothing else.

Dirk moved out of the kitchen to grab the stroller out of the closet in the hallway and back to the kitchen and strapped Dave in. Dirk then stalked into his bedroom where Karkat was still sleeping soundly, and very carefully picked up the troll and wrapped him tightly in a blanket without disturbing the sleeping troll.

On the first afternoon, Dirk made the rookie mistake of waking the troll, which led to Karkat lashing out and shredding a lot of the skin on Dirk's forearm. He could have gotten one of his neighbours to babysit but Karkat is incredibly clingy, and the only person he could think of was the guy living under him who's very friendly but also a walking hazard, so that was out of the question.

Once Karkat was safely bound in the blanket and strapped into the stroller, it was time to hit the streets. The sun was certainly out and it was warm, not quite that perfectly pleasant temperature nor was it overly hot. Dirk was pretty convinced that Karkat will probably wake up from overheating in the blanket, but right now he's still out like a light, so they'll cross that bridge when they get there.

The streets weren't as crowded as they usually are, since school has started up again and adults were at work, it was refreshing to walk without getting squished in a mob of people. Making a quick stop to a small Café at the corner of the street, Dirk bought a bottle of apple juice which he filled in Dave's sippy cup before letting his brother guzzle down the fruity drink. Dirk took this as a chance to get himself something to eat, so he ordered a sausage roll, along with 2 cupcakes for the tykes later on and sat at an empty table.

Karkat woke up a little before Dirk had finished eating, and began panicking when he found himself in a completely different environment by letting out loud whining noises.

"Hey, calm down Karkat, your big Bro is here." Dirk said as he moved his face into the infants view. Karkat seemed to calm down enough and made a few chirping sounds before he pulled strained face which soon turned into a grumpy one.

"You just took a dump, didn't you?"

Karkat huffed.

Dirk sighed, "Alright stinky, time for a diaper change."

Getting up from the table, he rolled the stroller into the disabled/change room where the grown up had unbuckled the red blood and sat him onto the changing bench to unwrap the troll from his blanket. Once free, Dirk began to rub one of the nubby horns on the baby's head, instantly making the tiny troll's eyes dilate, body go limp and began purring. It was a little trick he picked up when Dave played with them, it rendered Karkat completely harmless and it prevents him from lashing out and tear up his still recovering arm.

With Karkat being a pile of goo, Dirk made quick work of changing the soiled nappy, buckled Karkat back into the stroller and soon were off to the supermarket.

"Doritos…Chips…Ham…Chicken…Bread….Butter…Cheese…Coke…Apple juice…Pizza, what else?" Dirk muttered to himself as he picked the box of frozen pizza out of the freezer. There's no denying that Dirk has probably got the worst diet known to man but vegetables and fruit just didn't do it for him…nor did he really know how to cook.

"Alright I think that's everything." He said to himself as he dropped the box in the basket and headed to the self-serve check out. When he got to the check outs, he was a rather familiar face who seemed to be struggling with the machines.

"Heh, having a bit of trouble there English?" Dirk called out, causing the other male to jump slightly before facing him.

"Ah, Strider!" Jake chimed with a goofy grin on his face, causing a faint blush to dust Dirk's cheek.

It's a fact that Dirk often has women fawning over him, unfortunately he had other interests. Jake was the first and only person the older Strider has ever been smitten by when they first met in High School. Sadly, his feelings were unrequited when Jake went out with Aranea for a few months. Dirk holds no grudge against either of them, Jake is clearly straight, but at the very least they could still be best friends.

"You're still struggling with these machines?"

"Unfortunately, their just a tad fiddly is all."

"Alright, give it here, I'll show you how it's done." Dirk gave a hand gesture to tell the other male to pass him the box of cookies. Dirk then proceeded to press some of the select buttons on the touch screen and scanned the box, then placing it in the plastic bag on the scales and then grabbed another of Jakes items to repeat the process.

"-Then you press the button that says to 'Pay in cash' and put you notes in here, and the change and receipt should come out here. See, simple."

"Thank you, Dirk." Jake grinned as he placed the grocery bags under his own stroller that Jade was sitting in, completely oblivious to the outside world as she was only focused on her blue squiddle.

"Not a problem. Damn, Jade's getting big." Dirk commented. Sure it's only been a few weeks since he last saw the baby but they do grow fast.

"She has, and she can already say my name, Nana and Pop!"

"Well, she's doing better than Dave, he can only say Bro." the older Strider stated as he began scanning his own items

"Give it time, I'm sure he'll be able to say more." Jake laughed with another one of his silly grins and then turned his attention to Dave who was fidgeting out of boredom and Karkat who had fallen asleep again. "By George, Karkat has certainly grown! Though he looks a bit…underweight."

"Yeah, he grew out of his grub body a couple of days ago, and trust me when I say that he's filling out. The crazy little bugger cleaned out the fridge."

Jake raised an eyebrow but didn't question it. "You wouldn't happen to be busy right now, would you?"

"Not really. Why?"

"I was just wondering if you would like to join us to the pet shop, we've decided to get a dog."

"Sure, why not. I've got nothing better to do." Dirk said while shrugging his shoulders, "I'll meet you outside; I just need to finish paying for this."

"Right-o." and with that, Jake took hold of the stroller and headed outside the building, leaving Dirk to finish off his business.

...Jake, why are you so difficult to write? I mean, I thought Striders were hard since I'm the complete opposite to them! We share the same sense of adventure but then our speech is very different, you talk like a gentleman and I talk like the country bumpkin I am XD

If people are getting hopes up about DirkxJake...I can't promise anything :\ I dunno, I mean the ship is cute but it's not one I'm overly in to (I ship Karezi, Davekat and Rosemary as my OTP's). Also despite the facts that I couldn't write romance to save my life (I'm a lot like Karkat...I get all my knowledge of that area from crappy movies my sister makes me watch and people in relationships XD), but what ever happened to just being friends? You'd be surprised how many times I talk to people, and someone I know will always say that I'm trying to hit on them (of both genders).

I just can't win *sobs*

I'll shut up now