Work Text:
Once again, Jake isn't responding to Dirk's messages.
Ok, that’s misleading. So Jake told him that he wouldn't be really checking Pesterchum for the next few days or so, and Dirk knew that his inquisitive double (triple, quadruple) texts would likely go unread, but damn if it didn't make his jaw ache from grinding his teeth for hours on end waiting for his phone to buzz. He always felt like Jake would disappear into thin air if he wasn’t in Dirk’s direct line of sight, a feeling he was worried he would never be able to shake.
They talked about this. Jake would be taking a few days for himself to decompress, and Dirk would respect his need for space. Jake, for all his bravado and affection, was a huge introvert. Spending too long socializing with others made him antsy and unpleasant, and Dirk had learned this the hard way when they had first dated.
Now that they were giving this relationship a second try, after a lot of talking about feelings and other sappy bullshit Dirk's embarrassed to even think about, they were determined to be better partners to each other. If Jake needed to wander off on his own for a few days, Dirk would let him and not insist on coming with, as long as Jake let him know when he would be back and messaged him at least a couple times to let him know how he was faring.
Three days, he had said. He was going to do some hiking and sightseeing around the farther off areas from where they lived on Earth C for three days, and then he would be back.
Today is officially the fourth day, since the clock had just struck 12:05 a.m and Dirk had not heard a word from his boyfriend since 1:31 p.m when he sent him a picture of a half-eaten cake slice with the caption, "Wish you liked sweet things more, this is the best thing ive ever eaten!" Which, admittedly, had made him all the more impatient for Jake to come home.
Dirk is laying down on the couch, eyes glued to the time on his phone instead of the political debate livestream he had started watching to keep himself entertained (it had failed, these people are both utter morons, and it serves as nothing more than mildly irritating background noise to Dirk's buzzing anxieties). The only light source in the room is a lamp on the end table, dim but warm.
12:07 a.m, still no word from Jake. Dirk promised himself he wouldn't overwhelm Jake’s logs with pathetic, insecure bullshit anymore. It didn’t help anything and just made both of them feel worse. So instead, he just flicks his eyes between his phone clock and the analog clock on the wall, watching carefully between the two to see if one had a delay. They’re in perfect sync, he knows this, he had adjusted every clock in the house to be in perfect time with one another a few weeks ago when he and Jane had gotten into a minor disagreement and he needed something to fix.
At five seconds past 12:13 a.m Dirk whips his head around to the sound of shoes scuffling outside the front door. His breath hitches when keys jingle and the doorknob begins clicking and wiggling slightly. By the time the door is open with Jake English himself standing on the other side, Dirk is standing at attention barely a couple of feet away. Jake jumps slightly in surprise.
“Hello, Jake.” Dirk greets, absolutely not accidentally sounding like some murderous loan shark coming to collect a debt.
“Cheese whiz and crackers, Dirk, way to nearly give a fellow a heart attack!” Jake takes a deep breath, coming down from the initial shock of the ambush, “Yes, hello, I’m home, though a little late. My apologies there, chap.”
Dirk stares at him, fingers twitching as he mentally fumbles for what to do next while Jake shuts the door behind him and starts setting down his belongings. Should he hug him? How would he initiate that? Should he ask first or just go for it? Should he kiss him too? Fuck, he’s starting to sound like some little housewife greeting her breadwinning husband home from work. That’s not mortifying at all. Really, you would think he would know how to welcome his boyfriend home after this long, but the truth is Jake makes him second-guess himself every time he sees him again, wanting to be the best he can be for him. He doesn’t want to mess this up any more than it has been, even with something as insignificant as an unwanted hug.
“Dirk?”
Jake’s voice kicks Dirk’s train of thought off the rails, sending it rolling through the snow and down the steep mountain it was passing through. It’s a tragic event that makes national news, nobody survives.
“What?” Dirk winces inwardly, his tone there was sharper than he meant it to be. Fuck, Jake will probably think he’s being pissy about him leaving, that he’s not over his clingy douchebag shtick and that this won’t work out after all. He might as well just turn around and walk back out. God, why can’t he stop being such an asshole?
Instead of that, though, Jake shrugs off the last bag off of his shoulders (Holy shit he was carrying, like, five. Dirk probably could have helped him with those, nice one Strider) and then he opens his arms out to Dirk.
“I missed you” he says softly, and oh sweet Jegus all of the longing and loneliness Dirk had been feeling over the last few days crashes into him at once and he leaps, actually fucking leaps , into Jake’s waiting arms, throwing his own around Jake’s shoulders and pressing as close as he can against him.
He mumbles something like “I missed you too” into the collar of Jake’s jacket. He smells like sweat, dirt, and gasoline and it’s exactly what Dirk needed after days of puttering around their house like a short-circuiting roomba looking for something to do. It was grounding.
Jake wraps his arms tight around Dirk’s waist and squeezes, sighing into Dirk’s hair and pressing a light kiss there.
Dirk doesn’t want to say the corny shit he’s thinking right now for risk of humiliation, but it’s dominating every corner of his mind, and fuck if he and Jake didn’t promise that they would be more open about their feelings to each other.
“Thank you for coming back” he whispers, and cringes at himself. He feels Jake tense up and fuck, he knew he shouldn’t have said anything. He’s just ruined the moment so hard and- oh shit Jake’s picking him up.
His feet leave the ground as Jake pulls him up and Dirk’s legs scramble to find purchase around his waist. Jake cups a hand behind Dirk’s head, threading his fingers gingerly through thick blond hair, while the other stays clasped around Dirk’s torso for leverage.
Dirk pulls his head back to look at Jake and ask what he’s doing before Jake preemptively shuts him up by kissing him gently. Dirk’s eyes flutter closed and he just barely keeps the presence of mind to not lean completely into Jake so that they don’t risk toppling over.
They stay like that for a moment, and Dirk firmly believes he could stay like that for eternity, before Jake gives him one final tiny peck on the lips and pulls away. Dirk opens his eyes to peer at Jake whose bright smile is saddened by the worried knit of his brow.
“Thank you for waiting for me” he whispers.
Dirk gapes for a moment, at a loss for what to say in response, overcome with some deep, warm emotion in his gut that still scares him even after all this time. He knows what it is, and they’ll cross that bridge when they get there. They aren’t rushing this time. For now, he settles for cupping Jake’s face in his hands and kissing him again, which Jake doesn’t object to, still smiling wide.