Chapter Text
David Elisabeth Strider is a man of many words and few expressions. Coming from a family where your stolid expression means the world, he really had no outlet for what he really wanted to do. Music was wondrous, and making his own sounded like an amazing idea, no one could argue that. But, when your three older brothers all do the exact same thing and you have another passion that you love even more so than music, well, the latter sounds the most appealing.
Which leads us to where he currently found himself. In the Strider living room surrounded by his three elders. Bro was standing to his left, his arms crossed and his face not looking toward Dave. Dirk was in front of him, directly across the coffee table, seated in a recliner with his legs crossed and his fingers tapping each other atop that. D was to his right, sitting on the couch with one arm draped over the back, one on the rest, and his legs spread fairly wide. None of their expressions were readable. And, though none but Dirk were looking directly at him, he knew he was on trial.
"So you want us to help you get your own apartment," Bro voiced out.
Dave groaned, shoving his face in his hands. "For the thirteenth time today, yes!"
D leaned back even further into the beige couch beneath him, raised a hand to scratch at his scruff-beard, and hummed. He was facing the ceiling, more than likely in thought over the information given. “You’re saying that you have a job already that you start next week on. What is it?”
It was with this question that broke Dave’s pokerface. He felt his eyes widen- though it wasn’t as though the others could see that much- and his mouth open and close like a fish out of water. Heat filled his cheeks quickly and he looked down to his lap, one leg jittering a lot. He wanted to just brush the question off, but it didn’t look like that was going to be all too possible. He mumbled under his breath his current occupation, hoping they wouldn’t press the issue any further. Unfortunately, hope was not on his side.
“What was that?” Bro asked, now completely facing his brother.
A groan came from the youngest Strider. “I got a job at the flower shop… Floral Time.”
Dirk snickered loudly and D smirked, though thankfully Bro remained as stoic as ever. “So you seriously want to cut flowers for a living.”
Dave shoved his face back in his hands and nodded.
“What,” a snort of laughter interrupted Dirk, “what made you want to ditch music?”
D, apparently, jumped on this train of thought and leaned forward. “Yeah, you know the Strider lineage. Bro and Dirk are bouncers and clubbers and it was supposed to be you and I making the music and DJing. You just want to leave the family business-”
“Yes,” Dave interrupted, finally gathering his composure, “yes I do. It’s either make music you guys like and live with people breathing down my neck constantly or do something else I love and escape from this hell hole.”
It was quiet for a long time, and Dave thought it was finally over. That is, until Dirk decided to speak up once more. “What’s so great about flowers anyway?”
The youngest Strider rolled his eyes behind his shades, no longer caring about sounding embarrassing. After all, it wasn’t like these three haven’t seen him at his worst. “There’s a meaning behind each type of flower, each color, and each meaning is so starkly different from each other. These flowers bloom no matter what’s against them- coming up between concrete slabs to show that no matter how hard some heavy-ass motherfucker is holding you down, you can still rise up like a Shakespearean play’s popularity in the 17th century.”
D shook his head silently, a smirk playing on his lips once more. “You’re really something, kid.”
“Hey, shut it. You fuckin asked.”
Bro nodded and cocked a hip. “And if this fails?”
Dave grumbled loudly, wringing his hands in his lap as though he already regrets the words about to leave his mouth. This is, in fact, true. “If it fails… I’ll come back and admit you were right.”
“And I get all of our AJ for at least a week,” D popped off with.
Dave grumbled again and took a breath to combat it, though brushed it off. A week was a long time, but he had a feeling that if he tried to argue it, that week would turn into a month. “Fine.”
Dave stood in the center of his new, and finally unboxed, apartment with his arms crossed over his chest. He, knowing he was away from anyone bothering him, let a small smile slip. It was a simple, open flat, but to Dave it was the epitome of freedom. He had saved up enough for furnishings but not enough for the down payment or first month’s rent, so obviously that was what his brothers helped him cover.
At the furthest back portion of the flat was his queen-sized bed, covered with black silk sheets, a fluff red comforter, and matching pillows. At either side of the bed were large speakers. Further down were his turntables, the wires all neat and organized for once in his life, and directly behind that was a blackout curtain hanging from the ceiling. His kitchen was directly behind him, and while he didn’t have many dishes, he certainly had enough for himself. And the packages of ramen in his cabinets.
In front of him was the black and gold long table he had gotten along with the six chairs it came with. And, in front of that was the far wall, aligned from side to side with ten windows to let light in. To his right was the living area, where five bean bag chairs were stationed in front of a large, plasma screen television and all of his game consoles he had bought over the years.
The thing he liked most about his new place, however, was the amount of light that was coming in. It was perfect for the few houseplants he had around the place.
Thank goodness his brothers actually agreed to help him out. If not, the mostly-barren apartment would have been even more barren, because he would have left one way or another.
He casually walked over to his playstation, picked up his headset, turned on the console and plopped down in one of the bean bag chairs he had gotten. While the disc was loading, he turned the headset on and waited in a very impatient manner for his favorite video game to load up. Soon enough, he had it clicked on and the title was across the screen while it tried reaching the servers- Homestuck.
He saw his character- finally having ascended the echeladder to God Tier level ½ SwordKind Paragon- standing in the middle of the Skaia battlefield with mobs all around. It was then that he decided that he would no longer quit mid-quest in a mob field. Soon enough, right as he was beginning to feel overwhelmed, a blast of purple took out a few of the ones that had ganged up on him.
“You could have sent me a message saying that you were on instead of having your character die a few hundred times.”
Dave smirked at the voice coming from his headset. “Rose, calm down, I would have gotten it eventually and you know that.”
“Of course, Dave. Just join the party so we can split experience. Why is is absurdly quiet on your end? I thought my cousins didn’t work until later?”
“Oh yeah,” he said casually, slamming his thumb down on the X button a few times before hitting the O button for a time-skip teleporting move, “I made out like fucking E.T. and took off on a magical bike with some random ass kid and he’s currently trying to help me find my way home.”
“So you moved out?”
“Sure did,” he said. The line was quiet for a while longer while they fought some more mobs off. “Hey, get back here and use that light-beam-heal thing you have. I’m gonna tank these assholes.”
“Dave, we both know you can’t tank with a Knight. You need an Heir, Mage, Bard, or Maid to tank.”
“I got this, man, just cover my ass while I change equipped skills,” he said hurriedly hit the select button to do just that.
“Goddammit Dave give me more warning than that next time. Anyway, did you get the job at Floral Times?”
“Yeah, I did,” he said, adjusting his skill set. “Aradia says I’ll start tomorrow but I’m starting in the back first. I mean, it makes nine kinds of hella sense but wouldn’t it also make sense- I’m done by the way- to put my gorgeous ass behind the counter as a bait for people so come and buy more?”
“I can’t tell if you’re being serious or if you’re just being the asshole I know.”
“Little bit of both.”
For the next thirty minutes or so, the cousins simply shouted commands at one another to beat the quest needed for the game. Neither levelled up from how high they were already, but Dave was damned close to doing so. He suggested they go on a raid on Prospit, which Rose suggested they should get more players first, and he agreed. It ended up being about two in the morning when the two finally got offline for bed- which he admitted he’d probably regret in the morning.
Dave wiped his dirty hands on his pseudo-apron, the mulch and soil trying hard to stick to his hands. He was told to use gloves for the job, but they had obstructed him instead of helping him. Of course, he regretted the decision to work bare-handed, but this routine happened literally every single day he had to work in the back.
Aradia, his boss and the owner of the store, had liked his work ethic and not only have him a big raise but also boosted him to Manager in the three months he had been working here. Of course, that boost in position only came today. They had gotten a new coworker by the name of Tavros, who apparently wanted to do the work in the back, so Dave got to move to the front. Well, tomorrow he would.
A very tanned hand was placed on his shoulder and he looked over to see his Chinese boss, a broad smile on her face. “At least now you don’t have to waste any time after work washing your hands!”
He smirked and nodded, flipping his blond hair out of the way. “Yeah, I guess that’s one good thing. So I guess you’re here to tell me to hurry my fine ass up?” he asked teasingly.
She laughed loudly. “That’s one way to put it~,” she cooed, reaching into her back pocket and placing a key attached to a red spiral wire bracelet. “You should know how I lock things up by now.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, using his elbow to hit the lever back and turn the water off. “Back of the greenhouse, the left side then the right. The back door of the shop leading into the greenhouse, pull the switch, drop the gates, exit then lock the front door,” he rambled off whilst drying his hands.
Aradia giggled and patted his back. “You got it! My sister’s flight from China lands in about thirty minutes and I need to get to the airport. Lock up tonight and be here at five forty-five in the morning so I can show you how to open.”
“Gotcha. You better leave soon unless you’re planning on going roadrunner on me. Beep twice then take off like a flying fucking bullet,” he commented, tossing the used paper towels to the trash.
Aradia soon left the shop, leaving the young Strider to pack and lock up on his own. He had his shades in his hair, since the greenhouse lamps were off it was extremely dark. As per usual, he locked the doors and flipped the switches by each and every door. After he pulled the gates down and set the switch on those, he turned around to finish locking up the front door. With a bag of his work clothes at his side, he turned and locked the front door, afterward sliding the bracelet on his arm.
It was then that he made the mistake. He turned to his left to see a very broad shouldered, muscled man with messily spiked raven hair and a pair of square glasses slipping down his nose. He was wearing a blue shirt with the breeze symbol on it from the video game he and Rose stayed up playing. His legs were covered by a pair of stonewashed blue jeans with many worn holes in them. The worst part wasn’t even that. It was when that man turned towards Dave.
Thick brows, a lopsided smile showing pearly white teeth, and a bit of a stubble in the goatee area of his chin. But what struck a cord in the Strider were those bright, vibrant, strikingly blue eyes. He barely registered it when said hunk of a man stuck his arm out to shake hands.
“Hey! You must be Aradia’s new Manager?” he asked in a cheery manner.
Dave’s red eyes went down to the arm sticking out for him. A full sleeve tattoo was on what part of the arm he could see from those short sleeves, and he barely pulled himself together to shake said hand. “Y-Yeah. That’s me. Strider extraordinaire, Dave,” he stated in a voice that, surprisingly, held composure.
The man smiled even wider at Dave, whose heart began pounding so hard in his chest. “I’m John.”