You knock on Roxy's door. No one answers. You figure she is probably off hanging out with her mom.

"Lalonde?" You call out, just to be sure. Again, there is no answer.

You decide that she is probably fine. She had been pretty ok after that feelings jam you had the other day, so you suppose it will be all right. You still don't know what that was entirely about. She just kept going on about making mistakes and screwing everything up.

You walk down the hall aimlessly, not sure about what to do. You could talk to Jake. But no, he's probably working on that Halloween thing with Jane, Feferi and the Lalondes. Also things are still kind of awkward between the two of you. No need to reopen old wounds.

The door to the rec room opens as you pass it and your bro steps out. He stops when he sees you and glances behind him. He shrugs to himself before letting the door close.

"Sup?" He says.

You shrug.

"Not much. You?" You say.

He shrugs.

Truth be told, this is probably the longest conversation you've had with him since you've been trapped in this house.

"Want to hang out in my room?" He asks. You are kind of surprised.

"Sure, but my room's closer."

"No!" He answers too quickly. You're a little taken aback.

"I mean… it's fine, my room is uh… yea." He fails miserably at covering up his lapse in coolness.

"Whatever." You say, motioning for him to lead the way.

You follow him in silence. You think of possibly trying to make conversation, but decide that the resulting conversation would probably be very awkward and not ironic at all. Or, maybe it would be ironic seeing as the two of you are the coolest people in this house and can't carry on even a simple conversation.

You get to Dave's room and he leads you inside. He's got a bed, desk and chair like everyone else, but he also has a stand with turntables on them.

"How did you get those?" You ask. He glances over at them before sitting down on his bed and picking up a random magazine.

"I actually don't know. They were kind of just there when I picked the room, like the game new I would choose this one."

"That makes sense." You say, "There's a bunch of robot parts in my room."

Dave glances at you over the top of his magazine.

"That's the only stuff it gave you?" He asks.

"Yea. Why?"

He returns to his magazine.

"No reason. I just would have thought… you know what, never mind."

You shrug and return your attention to the turntables.

"So… you actually use these?" You say, trying to make conversation.

"Sure." Dave says. For someone who invited you to his room, he sure doesn't seem to want to talk.

You spot his sword propped up against the wall. You pick it up. It's a lot heavier than your katana. And broken for some stupid reason. To each his own you guess. You try fiddling with the timey thing on it.

"Hey bro, don't mess with that." Dave says. He gets up and tosses the magazine onto his bed. He holds out his hand for the sword and you give it to him.

You watch as he does something with it that makes it glow. Suddenly the sword is whole. He does it again and it goes back to being broken.

You take it back from him and inspect it. You can't quite figure out how it works and it's kind of frustrating. For someone as good at mechanics as you, you should be able to figure out how this stupid thing works.

"I use my godteir powers to cycle it through different stages of its existence." Dave explains.

That makes a lot of sense. You nod and hand it back to him. He swings it around a bit before glancing at you. He seems to be debating whether or not to ask you something.

"You know… we could have a couple rounds of strife, just so we don't get out of practice."

"It has been at least a week since I've used my katana." You agree.

You think you see your bro smile slightly, but you can't be sure. You swear this guy is an enigma.

"I'll meet you on the r—uh I mean, in that big empty room the mayor is using for cantown, in ten."

You nod and leave to get your katana. As you walk down the hall, you can't help but grin stupidly. No one is watching, so you let your guard down and allow yourself to bask in the warmness that envelopes you.

You have a brother.

Vriska, feel guilty.

Dave is so cute when he's flustered. :P He also is still terrified of puppets. He doesn't even want to go into Dirk's room. I like thinking that Dave and Dirk will be very awkward when they meet. Especially Dave who is torn between missing his bro and being kind of traumatized by him.

Oh! One other thing. The only reason I replied to a review through author's note the other day was because it was a guest review so I couldn't reply to the reviewer and I wanted to explain my thought process. :) I wasn't trying to target anyone or anything. Apologies if it came off that way!

Once again thank you to everyone who is reading this story. I hope you like it so far. :)