Notes: Sorry for taking forever folks! And this is yet another boring chapter that's heavy on dialogue, but I promise I'm setting up the scenario to something really great! Stick around the story gets better!

Chapter 11: Are You Nice? Are You Gross? I Just Don't Know

Shifting on his bed, Dave woke up to a hand shaking his shoulder. He almost instantly noticed that there was no sunlight coming from the window as he opened his eyes, and looking up he saw his brother's face staring down at him.

"Hey lil' man, is time for dinner." Bro said as he watched Dave sit up.

"Hmm... Hey, didn't you say we were doing it together?" Dave rubbed his eyes before putting on his shades.

"You were sleeping like such an angel I didn't want to disturb you." The older Strider said in a mocking tone, feeling the boy's glare on him.

"Asshole..." Dave said under his breath.

"Do you want the spaghetti or not?" Bro crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"OK, I do. I'm starving." Dave got up from the bed, following his brother out of the bedroom and into the front room of the apartment.

The smell of tomato sauce and meatballs was filling the air, and Dave could barely remember when it was the last time their home was permeated by such a smell. Not because they lived in starvation, but because his older brother was anything but a good cook.

Opening one of the pans tentatively, Dave peeked inside of it, and couldn't help smiling.

"Looking good, hm?" Bro asked, grabbing plates from the cupboard.

"Who did you hire to prepare this delicious looking sauce for you?" Dave teased, looking at his older brother.

"Hahaha... Very funny. Now stop teasing and start eating." Bro pretty much shoved a place into Dave's hands, serving him a large portion of pasta. "Put as much sauce and meatballs as you want in your plate."

The young boy nodded and proceeded to cover his spaghetti with plenty of red and three or so meatballs.

The rest of the night was spent with both Striders indulging in eating pasta and playing video game against each other. And Dave rushing, trying to get his homework done past midnight, when he realized he completely forgot about it.

When the younger Strider finally went to bed, he just briefly thought about the fact he completely ignored the stranger he was, more or less, in contact with. Maybe he would reply to that guy the next day.

Maybe.

The next day was, for the most, uneventful, until Dave came back from school and sat down on his computer to work on a paper. He was suddenly reminded of Mike and his last e-mail to him.

Message me whenever you have the time.

Why, Dave didn't have time to waste on answering some creepy Internet perv. He had a research to make, and lots to write about.

But then again sending a two line reply wouldn't take all that long.

When opening the inbox Dave saw there were no new e-mails from his so-called "admirer". At least the guy wasn't needy or pushy.

yo dude im here
you there
or did you get tired of waiting for me and moved on to prey on other boys

He hit "Send" and didn't have to wait much for a reply.

I've told you once and I'll tell you again. I am not the kind to go after boys. You are the only one because my interest in you is special.

You shouldn't accuse me of doing things when you barely know me.

Dave couldn't help but roll his eyes at the computer screen, letting out a sigh before getting up to pick up a notebook from his school bag. He sat down again, and before he got to his research he sent Mike another message.

ok fine
lets play your little game of getting to know each other better
tell me something about you that doesnt involve you being creepy around children

Letting out a huff of air, Dave shook his head and got a move on with his paper. It didn't take long for him to hear the notif sound, signaling he had a new message.

Dude sure is quick with answering, he thought to himself before checking the new e-mail.

You mentioned you make music. I'm a musician myself. I've been into it for a couple of years now. It's mostly electronic music.

I could send you one of my finished works if you are interested. I would like to hear your opinion on it.

Tilting his head to the side, the younger Strider didn't know how to react to that exactly. So this guy really wanted to have civilized conversation with him after all? It sounded like it.

And, hell, he was a sucker for new music.

hit me
im no critic but i can tell whats good and what is total crap

The reply Dave got from his message was a single link to a song hosted on some audio site. He decided to listen to whatever music that was while doing his school's research.

It was a manner of tribal-ish tune, which didn't seem all that impressive at the beginning, but it evolved to a quite flawless conjunction of deep bass lines and intense and varied drum samples. It had been a while since Dave heard such a well-constructed and finely composed song, and if Mike was the one who created it, as he claimed, the boy was jealous.

But he obviously wouldn't let that out.

it was an ok song
I mean I kind of liked it

I can show you other stuff if you want to hear it. And if you ever feel comfortable with that I would like to hear your tunes too.

I'm pretty sure you are quite good.

Dave shifted on his chair, thinking about the guy's request. He could send one of remixes to this guy, but he was suddenly feeling not all that confident about those. After all, he was still learning how to make things from scratch, so sending those was a no-no, and he doubted some mix of some random song would be particularly impressive.

And showing him any of his raps to him was completely out of question. He didn't need to know how his voice sounded.

you can send me more of your stuff
im doing some school work right now and i like having some music to listen to while im at it

Oh, I'm sorry that I'm disrupting your concentration.

Let me know when you are done and we will talk later.

Letting out a huff of air, Dave just shrugged and went on with his research. He wasn't sure how he should react to Mike's behavior towards him. At the same time the boy knew for a fact he was most definitely a creep just waiting for the right moment to show his perverted side, he couldn't help but think, like Rose said, there was something more to it.

Like… maybe the dude genuinely gave a fuck about him and didn't just want some young boy to stick his dick into? If the fact he was trying to hold normal conversations with him was any indication.

The younger Strider than shook his head. What was he thinking? That was obviously the kind of thought Mike wanted him to consider. Delude him into thinking he was worth anything just to have a free pass to be a creep.

He wasn't falling for that, no sir. That stranger would need to do more than sweet talk him and send him some nice songs to make things not so creepy.

Putting those thoughts aside he went on with his school work.

It took him a few hours, but around 7PM Dave was done with his paper, relieved that he wouldn't have to do anything past midnight like the day before. As he stretched on his chair, he heard the front door of the apartment opening. Bro had been away almost all day long, and finally came back.

"Hey, Dave, come here." Bro's voice echoed through the apartment and Dave took a second to lazily get up from his chair and walk to the front room.

"Fucking finally. Where have you been all day?" Dave asked as he entered the room, hands on his pockets.

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be, hm? Then I guess you aren't getting the gift I bought you." Bro said as he raised a small bag 'till it was on the same level of hi face.

"Wait, a gift?" Dave's eyes widened a bit behind his shades. That was the second thing Bro had bought him in two months, and he wasn't the kind to buy presents on such a regular basis.

"Yes, but too bad for you, because you aren't getting it anymore due to being a rude little shit." Bro lifted the bag above his head, and couldn't help but smirk when Dave gave a step forward, eyebrows knitting.

"Oh my fucking God, give me this thing already!" Dave got as close as he could to his brother, reaching up to try and grab the bad, even if he knew that was a failed plan.

"Apologize proper." Bro teased, holding Dave back by placing a hand at the top of the boy's head.

"I ain't doing shit. You leave me here all day long to do God knows where and you expect me to welcome you with open arms? Fat chance! The least you can do is to give me something to compensate for being so neglecting." Dave waved his arms, fits hitting the lower part of his older brother's torso.

"Jesus, where did you learn to be so damn obnoxious?" Bro pushed Dave back a little bit more, even if the boy's punches weren't actually hurting him.

"Maybe from the one who raised me?" Dave barred his teeth, frustrated by how he was just being pushed back and repelled as if he was nothing.

"Alright, fine, here, have your crummy gift. I almost regret using our money to buy you this." Bro lowered the bag, which was snagged by Dave almost instantly.

"Thank you." Dave said sarcastically, Opening the bag and taking out whatever was inside of it.

There was a dead silence in the apartment for almost a minute, as Dave alternated between looking down at the small box on his hand and up to this brother's unamused face.

"This is a… I mean you bought me…" Dave's words were getting stuck on his throat as he tried to speak up, eyes now fixed on the object in his hand, eyebrows almost reaching his hairline.

"Kid, it's just an iPhone. Don't act as if I just gave you Aladdin's lamp or some shit." Bro rolled his eyes, but he was also entertained by his younger brother's reaction.

"Why did you even buy me this?" Was all Dave could ask as he opened the box.

"Well, we had some money to spare, and, I dunno, maybe sometimes you want to talk to your friends and not have your ass glued to your chair for once." Bro leaned on the kitchen's counter, hands clutching to the edge of it. "Also, when you go out I now have a way to contact you."

"… Since when you are so worried about my safety?" Dave eyed his older brother from over his shades.

"Oh yeah, because I was never worried about your well being." It was Bro's turn to knit his eyebrows. "The other day when you were spacing out at the park and took forever to come back, I was getting really worried. Besides, with you being on the site, who knows what kind of creeps you can attract?"

A shiver ran down Dave's spine and he froze in place for a few seconds. Did he know about him exchanging messages with Mike? Probably not? Why, if Bro found out about such a fact, his most obvious course of action would be to track down the poor bastard and cut off his dick. Then send the boy to his room for a month without Internet and double their training sessions.

At least that's how Dave thought he would act in a situation like that. His older brother could be incredibly unpredictable 99% of the time. There was no telling on how he would react towards something for certain.

"Hey, what's wrong? Just now you realized people want it in your pants thanks to the site?" Bro looked at Dave with half-lidded eyes, and that seemed to startle the younger Strider a bit.

"That's… actually pretty close to what I was thinking of." Dave answered, letting out a sigh as he took the small gadget out of the box to take a closer look at it.

"Don't worry. If anyone just as much breathes a little bit more heavily next to you I'll grant them a one way ticket to the hospital." Dave could clearly see a hint of anger on Bro's eyes, even through his shades. He didn't doubt for a minute his older brother could fuck someone up just by looking at him funny.

Sometimes Dave didn't know if Bro truly cared for him or if he didn't give a shit, if their constant rooftop strifes and constant teasing counted for anything.

"So, based on you being rendered speechless and the way your eyebrows shot up, you liked the gift, hm?" Bro moved away from the counter and walked to the couch, sitting down and turning on the TV.

"Y-yes. What idiot wouldn't like a gift like this?" Dave asked as he turned on the iPhone. It didn't have much battery in it, but it would be enough for him to mess around with it for a while. As he fiddled with the small device, he went to sit on the couch, by Bro's side.

"Just don't go haywire with the apps. I'm not going to pay five dollars for some small program that makes the lights on this thing blink or something like that." Bro said as he flipped through the channels.

"Bro, I barely touched this thing and you are already ruining the fun." Dave felt the urge to stick his tongue out to his brother, but decided not to. He was more mature than that.

Both Striders sat down in silence, with only the sounds from the TV and some small clicks and beeps from the gadget filling the room. Dave was far too absorbed into exploring every single function on the phone to care about anything else.

Eventually, the younger Strider left to go to his own room, ready to set up everything on his computer so then he could use his gift proper. He was already planning which songs he was going to put in it, what wallpaper, and everything else.

And speaking of music, just so he wouldn't come off as rude – or ruder than had been already - he decided to answer to Mike's earlier message.

hey
it took longer than i thought to finish my school work
feel free to send me your shit if you are still feeling up to

Good to hear you are still interested in my works.

I'll send you a couple of files and you can listen to them whenever you feel like.

The next message from that stranger had a few audio files, all labeled with random names which didn't really mean anything. Dave couldn't help but be amused by that. For a guy who was apparently so creative at making music, his creativity for naming files was a really poor one.

He downloaded the audio files to his computer and began to hear them as he set up his computer and new phone, and, well he had to admit. Those were all good. They were almost professional level stuff. That only got him even more self-conscious about his own stuff. Because it wasn't like he didn't feel enough pressure by having Bro being better at rapping, mixing and composing. Oh no. He needed to cross paths with some random guy on the Internet who was also better.

But there was no way Dave would admit that openly to neither of them.

He didn't send any other messages to Mike before going to sleep, but he did get a new one from him.

I assume you are close to your bedtime.

I would like to wish a good night, and I hope you enjoyed my music, if you got to hear it. I still want to hear what you got.

Dave groaned to himself, turning off his computer. He honestly didn't know what to make out of that guy. Although, he was decided to solve that issue soon enough.

And that's exactly what he did.

When Dave got back home from school the next day, he pretty much inhaled lunch before rushing to the computer, making up some excuse like he needed to finish something for school.

In no time, he had his inbox open and was typing away.

look dude lets come clear here
from day zero you told me you wanted to get into my pants
and im starting to get really fed up by you trying to play mr nice guy
in a sad attempt to make this not sound creepy or unnatural but guess what
its never gonna be not creepy
you are probably some balding fifty something dude just waiting for me to fall for your dumb trap and let out more info than I could so then you can find me and bone me
but you must be fucking crazy if you think im that stupid and that some sweet words and some nice songs are going to do the trick

Almost angrily, Dave hit the send button, and impatiently waited for an answer. He knew the guy was going to try and sugar-coat the truth. He knew he could always stop talking to that man, but he also wanted him to admit what he truly wanted.

It took more than half an hour for a message to show up, but it did and Dave opened it in a rush.

You truly are one sharp kid. And also really bold. I'm leaded to believe you aren't the kind to accept things with your mouth shut, do you? These are both qualities I appreciate in all people I get in touch with.

Part of what you said is true. I do want more from you than just some casual chit chat. I want our conversations to evolve to something beyond.

But in no way do I intend to ever track you down and do anything to you. I know I promised I wouldn't compliment you, but I have to open an exception now. I find you beautiful, and I put aesthetics pretty high on my list of priorities. If I ever did anything to hurt you, in any way, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.

That said you can rest assured I am not working on trying to figure out where you live. All I want is to keep exchanging these messages with you, and get to know you better. And hopefully build a solid relationship with you through them. I still believe you are a fascinating boy.

Reading the message two, three times, Dave let out a small laugh, shaking his head. That guy was truly unbelievable.

ok i will humor you a bit if thats what you want
because apparently you get off by reading messages written by young boys
thats some really specific fetish right there
but ok lets do your thing but if i just get up and leave when you start acting weird you cant blame me

If you decide to stop answering me I only ask you to tell me. At leave wave me good bye?

well sure why the fuck not

And one more thing: I still have ways to go until I reach my fifties.

whatever you say gramps

After that, Dave spent the rest of the afternoon switching between playing computer games, talking on Pesterchum with Jade and having conversations with Mike about music, since their tastes seemed to be somewhat similar.

He honestly didn't know what he was getting into by actually giving that man any attention, but he couldn't deny it was entertaining.