Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I"m a kitchen sink, you don't know what that means, because a kitchen sink to you is not a kitchen sink to me. Okay friend?" X

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Sperm fertilizes an ovum and that changes and grows to a full on fetus. The fetus stays inside of a mother's uterus for approximately nine months, growing and developing. The fetus' organs and limbs all grow in the womb until finally it's ready to escape it's small prison inside of it's mother. After hours of grueling labour and the baby is finally free. This new life is born into a family, with a mom and dad and siblings. Sometimes no siblings and just a mom or just a dad. Sometimes two moms or two dads. Sometimes the baby has only grandparents. Whatever the case may be with this child, it has a family. It will grow up happy and healthy.

That's how it is for normal children.

Dave Strider isn't a normal kid.

Dave Strider doesn't have a mom or a dad. Dave Strider doesn't have grandparents or aunts or uncles or cousins. Dave Strider has an older brother.

Dave Strider wasn't the end result of a drunk fun or the end result of a romantic evening. He wasn't an accident or planned. Dave Strider wasn't even born per se. No, this baby was created years in the future, but years in the past as well. Beginning as a glop of weird looking slime, that slime took form of baby Dave. And baby Dave was sent hurtling through paradox space on a horse. Now that's how Dave Strider was created. Dave met his older brother in a sort of peculiar way.

Whilst hurtling a million miles a second through paradox space, along with about seven other children all things other than horses, gates opened. These gates were special. They took all of these children to separate places, and for some, separate points in time. Dave was thrown into a gate which took him to a specific time and place on earth.

And that's when he crashed down onto the ground on his horse.

The horse, obviously, was killed by the impact. But Dave remained perfectly safe. Not a single scratch ruined his perfect pale skin and not a single tantrum was thrown as he was thrown down onto the ground from space. The baby remained quiet and calm and waiting.

Dave Strider didn't have to wait too long though, soon after an adult wearing ridiculously pointed shades appeared. The previously thought meteor caught his attention, but when he saw that it wasn't a meteor but in fact a baby and a dead horse the adult didn't even bat an eye. The adult merely scooped up the still calm child and the dead horse and made his way back to his apartment.

That's how Dave Strider was "born."

Most would say that this story is preposterous, that there's no way that a baby could crash down on earth from millions of miles up above and not get hurt, let alone not throw a single tantrum. But it did happen.

Now that baby that had ridden in on a horse to earth was sporting a heart bib made of the horse's on skin. And now it was wearing pointy shades to match its new caretakers. Through all of this the baby remained quiet and calm, showing absolutely no sign wanting to cry now, or ever for that matter. It remained as stoic as its newfound guardian, which was perfectly fine for him because he wasn't one to deal with crying children.

So this was Dave's life now, living with an adult wearing pointy anime sunglasses for the sake of irony. Some would think that this would be a stroke of luck for the baby. The kid just crashed down to earth on a horse and some adult automatically took him in without pondering if the baby was an alien bent on world domination. Yeah, most people would stop to think about that before adopting babies that just fell from the sky. And most people would say he's lucky to have a family.

Well Dave wasn't lucky. This supposed "family" that Dave had was one of the worst things in the world.

And he hated it.

Chapter Text

"I haven't found a drop of a life" X

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At age one Dave was already living in hell.

The adult that had adopted Dave had instructed him to call him "Bro". Dave just sat there like a lump. He couldn't say Bro. He was only one year old and couldn't properly form words. The adult didn't seem to care.

Age one was the point of time when Bro was at home more, even he understood that infants couldn't properly take care of themselves. The only problem here was that Bro had no idea how to take care of babies either. Bro didn't know where babies were supposed to eat or sleep or play with, he didn't know what to do with the kid in general.

Feeding Dave wasn't hard. Feeding Dave was probably the easiest part of raising Dave. All Bro had to do was set the food in front of Dave and Dave himself would just grab it and shove chubby handfuls of the goop called baby food in his mouth. That was the easiest part of raising Dave.

The hardest part was probably figuring out what Dave would do for fun when Bro wouldn't be around. Bro figured that his trusty (and terrifying) puppet Lil Cal could keep a cold, unseeing eye on the infant but that took a turn. The moment Dave laid a shaded eye on the creepy puppet he lost it. Baby Dave lost it. It gave him an uneasy feeling and what do babies do when something just isn't right? They cry and kick and scream of course. And that's what Dave did. The poor kid cried and swatted at the horrible puppet trying its best to wiggle away. Sure he could've crawled but Dave didn't know how to do that, he had spent a majority of his first year of life sitting on the couch.

Bro slung his favourite puppet over his shoulder to avoid Dave's tiny fists of fury, and picked the screaming child up. Of course that just made him scream even more, he was now closer to that godforsaken puppet. Bro didn't know what to do with the screaming kid, he just wanted the awful high pitched screeching to stop. Spotting an open closet, Bro held the crying baby an arms length away before plopping him down inside the closet and shutting the door. This actually muffled the sound and satisfied the adult.

Dave on the other hand was terrified. It was suddenly darker than normal and he was alone. He saw shapes in the darkness and froze up in fear, he didn't know what was going on and he didn't know where he was. All he wanted was to be back outside and maybe even be held a little. But that didn't seem like it would happen any time soon, so he just sat there. Alone in the dark. Alone and afraid. He was alone and scared and sobbing his little eyes out.

That basically summed up the first year of Dave's life.

Age two wasn't much different.

Age three took a turn for the worst though.

Age three and Dave could now properly walk, run, and jump. And because of these basic physical activities he finally learned, Bro saw it right to teach Dave the other basic "necessities" of life. What was that you may ask? Strifing.

At age three Dave didn't know what to expect, he didn't know what it was to strife. He didn't know it involved being up on the roof of his apartment complex and being absolutely terrified. He didn't know it involved his guardian, his guardian, to attack him repeatedly with a goddamn sword. He didn't know it meant getting his ass handed to him on a silver platter. He didn't know it involved nearly falling off the goddamn roof. He didn't know it would leave him cut up all over, that it'd leave him in more pain than he was ever in.

But it did. And Dave was bleeding all over, and he was scared. The bleeding wouldn't stop and when he asked Bro to help patch him up, his guardian just said that he had to go to work and left. Leaving Dave alone and scared and in pain and bleeding. The blood was soaking through his grey shirt and he was starting to get scared. Three year olds should not have to deal with this.

Dave didn't know what to do. Dave was only three, the only thing that popped into his mind was that he was going to die, that thought only made him cry and the tears streamed out of his eyes and into the open wounds on his cheeks and oh my god, that stung like hell. The new stinging sensation only made him cry even more. It was like one endless cycle of pain and he didn't know what to do. Eventually, he had enough of a mind to try to not cry and that helped. His bleeding eventually stopped and all he had to do was clean himself off and change his shirt that was covered in dry blood. So he did, as best he could. Being three, that was kind of difficult, eventually he did though. He changed into a nice clean black shirt and tried his very best to ignore the stinging of his fresh wounds.

No three year old should have to deal with this.

Chapter Text

"I don't want to be heard, I want to be listened to." X

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Dave is seven now. He's seven and still can't properly talk. He's seven and he's covered in scars from head to toe. He's seven and vastly underweight.

Normal people would see this as horrible. They would do their very best to take Dave away from such a fucker up household and put him in a caring one. A house with a nice family. A family he deserves. That's what normal people would do and think, unfortunately, Dave wasn't like normal people. He was isolated from the outside world, he didn't know that this was bad. Dave just assumed that every other home was like his from the swords in the fridge to the freaky puppets and absentee guardians. Dave just saw Bro as the superhero most kids saw their parents as. Dave didn't know.

Dave also didn't know what to do with himself. Now that Dave was older, Bro saw it fit to leave the seven year old alone as often as he needed. He also saw it fit to be able to just up and leave without notifying Dave beforehand. The first couple times Bro did this, Dave freaked out. Dave didn't know what was going on. Dave didn't know if something or someone was going around taking people. He didn't know if he needed to hide or fight. He was scared.

All afternoon that day Dave hid in Bro's bedroom, a tiny sword clutched to his chest just in case something were to pop up. At least then he could have some form of protecting himself. He stayed hidden on top of his brother's bed, curled up underneath the blankets as quiet sobs escaped him. That's what Dave did the first time he was left alone, until Bro came back home and kicked Dave out of his room and showed no desire to explain to the sobbing child why he was gone. Now that Dave has been left alone a few times without warning he didn't have a reason to go crying in Bro's bedroom again.

Dave didn't know what to do with himself and he was bored. He needed to do something, he was restless. He tossed around the idea of going exploring in his brother's bedroom but he knew that if he did any such thing he would get surprise strife's for weeks on end, more so than usual. He finally just settled on digging through closets, hopefully he would see something interesting. Maybe one of those toys he kept seeing on the television. So he dug through the closets. An hour and a half of his life was used up searching through closest a and finding nothing but swords or broken swords or endless puppets. He was just about to give up hope when suddenly, there it was. Dave didn't exactly know what "it" was. But he knew it was something special.

Pulling out the box, Dave giggled happily. Finally he'd have something to occupy him every time he was abandoned by his Bro. He carefully pulled out the new piece of equipment and examined it. It wasn't anything too specials, just a regular Polaroid camera, but to Dave this was the key to the kingdom of imagination he's longed for for so long. He held the newfound camera up, holding it carefully. It had a strap so he could carry it around his neck which was convenient. He glanced up and saw a button on top of the camera, curious to see what it did he pressed it. Nothing happened at first and he frowned. Maybe it was broken? He examined it again and saw a little button on the side, he pressed it and off popped a small cover to reveal an empty compartment. Now Dave wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but even he knew that something had to be in there.

After about half an hour of digging through the box, Dave finally found some film cartridges. He excitedly slung the camera around his neck and walked around the apartment. He had to find something to take his first picture of. Something he'd look back to in the future with fondness. Something he'd show his kids in the future. Dave walked around his apartment for hours and hours, looking for something, anything, special to take his picture of. His stomach growled the entirety of his search in that special something but he ignored it, not like there was any food in their apartment to begin with.

He kept searching. Walking in and out of rooms, digging through piles of those weird smuppets or swords or clothes, picking up old issues of GameBro, looking underneath furniture, even going as far as going up to the roof of his apartment complex, nothing special so far. Dave was defeated, nothing in his home felt worthy of his first photo and he had searched everywhere-- almost everywhere. The closed door of his brother's room stared him down, taunting him-- no, beckoning him. The door was doing to him what cartoon pies cooling on the windowsills do to cartoon characters. He knew he couldn't go in there, he knew if he was caught he'd get his ass kicked and handed to him on a silver platter. Yet, something was calling him over. Slowly, Dave walked over to the door and wrapped his hand around the cool knob. Just one turn and a small push and he'd be in his brother's room...

The lock of the apartment door clicked and Dave squeaked. Quickly he grabbed the box he found the camera in and dragged it over to his room. He gently set his newfound camera inside the box before shoving the box under his bed. He'd just have to find that perfect photo another day.

Chapter Text

"I ponder of something great, my lungs will fill and then deflate." X

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Dave was nine years old now. He could talk fluently. He knew how to read and write and go online and all that. The sad part of that all was that Dave was the one who taught himself how to do those basic things. He had taught himself to write and talk and read because Bro was barely home and when he was home he would either lock himself up in his room or be battling him. His brother never really taught him anything. Except maybe how to strife.

Dave was home alone again and had nothing to do. His pictures were currently in the makeshift darkroom he had in his closet and he was waiting for them to finish developing so he could look them over and see which ones he'd end up keeping. Photography was sort of his hobby now. Whenever Bro was out Dave would go around his apartment and snap pictures of things he found interesting. Some days Dave felt brave enough to venture out the apartment, going up to the roof or even daring to go as far as the park that was a couple of blocks away from his building. He didn't go out often though, he found that people gave him odd stares, he couldn't blame them though. Dave was always covered in scars or slashes or bruises of any kind, those were the things causing the attention. He didn't see what was so bad about them though, Bro told him it was normal for kids to be a little scuffed up and if Bro said it was fine then it must've been fine. Right?

Sighing, the nine year old stood up from his spot on his bed and decided to take another crack at his newest idea of a digital comic. It wasn't something too great but it was something Dave came up with, and he was proud of it. He turned on his computer and his tablet automatically synced up. He should probably work on the name of his soon-to-be famous webcomic. He had one already, but it just didn't fit his idea. Picking up his pen, he began vigorously working on his newest masterpiece. Drawing was surprisingly difficult.

After a solid hour of attempting to find the perfect character design for his latest comic Dave decided to check on his photographs. Shutting off his computer he pushed himself up off the chair and quickly walked over to his closet and inspected the photographs. The pictures came out clear as day, giving the white haired boy an immense feeling of pride. He was starting to get better at these things, maybe he could have some sort of career in photography? He gingerly picked up the newly developed pictures and flopped down on his bed. These pictures came out perfectly, nothing was blurry and it all was just so perfect. A vast majority of the pictures were of crows, crows that Dave had befriended throughout these past years. He's go out on the roof and toss them some food and in return the would fly up on his windowsill and offer Dave some company from time to time. It was nice to have another living thing around him every once in awhile.

Dave decided on keeping all of pictures and he slid them all into a shoebox, overflowing with previously taken photographs. This new hobby sure was time consuming but it didn't matter. Dave had all the time in the world. As he pushed the box of pictures away his stomach growled loudly, it was about time for Dave to get some food. The nine year old quickly walked out of his room and into the kitchen. Dave searched through the cabinets, finding only a variety of colourful puppets and the occasional sword. He sighed and just stood in middle of the room, eyeing the refrigerator. He knew there would be nothing in there but shitty swords and he knew that if he fell for it there would be some sort of creepy puppet camera around to record Dave's idiocy. There was only one thing to do now, and Dave knew what it was.

The albino boy walked back to his room and slipped his shoes on and grabbed his wallet. Okay it wasn't really a wallet. It was an envelope that he wrote the word "wallet" on which had a couple bucks in it. It wasn't much but it held the small amount of money that Dave had. With his few possessions on his person, the Strider confidently walked out of his apartment to venture out into the world and get some food. Yes today truly was an adventure.

There was a knock on Dave's door, ripping the boy's attention away from the rock he was currently studying to whatever made the noise. It was none other than Bro of course. Dave didn't know what was going on, if Bro was going to strife this was a new technique to do so. Luckily though, it wasn't. The man held up his own cellular device which proudly displayed Dave's newly made Twitter account, and pressed follow. That was another account that Bro had followed. Another piece of social media that Bro knew Dave had. Another piece of the internet in which he wasn't safe from his brother's line of fire. Another place he could never feel like he was exactly safe.

Chapter Text

"And now I just sit in silence" X

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EB: you and your bro do what?
TG: strife. you know what i mean man, you and your old man do it too.
EB: we do but uh...
EB: dad and i don't exactly use...weapons.
TG: what?
EB: okay we do strife
EB: and we do use weapons, sort of, it's mainly like cakes and shit
EB: you know, a prankster's weapons
EB: anyway, we don't use actual weapons like swords
EB: and dad makes sure i don't get hurt
EB: it
EB: it isn't exactly...normal dave.
EB: for your bro to be intentionally hurting you
TG: what?
EB: i
EB: uh
EB: nevermind.
EB: listen i gotta go, dad's calling me!
TG: alright man, have fun with whatever wacky prank dadbert has planned for you next
EB: i will!
EB: later!

-- ectoBiologist[EB] ceased pestering turntechGodhead[TG] --

Dave sat there at his computer for a moment, trying to comprehend what was just said. 'it's not normal.' What did John mean it's not normal?

The ten year old boy shook his head and stood up. It was probably nothing. Maybe just John trying to prank Dave or something. He shut off his computer and walked over to drawer pulling out a cool, refreshing bottle of apple juice. Normally it was filled with clothes but today it was filled with ice and bottles of apple juice. Summer was quickly hitting Texas and the air conditioning was broken so Dave did his best to try to keep cool during the day. He had gone out and bought himself a nice big bag of ice and several bottles of his favourite drink after emptying out a cabinet of clothes. Sure this probably wasn't the best idea but it wasn't the worst. As long as Dave had something to keep himself hydrated.

The Strider opened his drink and began chugging down the drink, John's words still echoing in his mind. Not normal. Not normal Dave wasn't normal. How was he not normal? Bro had told him that this was normal. Bro had told him it was normal to fight using real weapons. Bro had told him it was normal for kids to be pretty beat up at times. How was this not normal?

The boy put down his now empty bottle and took off his shirt, walking over to the mirror on his wall to take a good look at himself. Scars we littered across his chest and arms, some were old and faded and some were barely starting to fade. There were a couple of new cuts on his arms but not many, since he got better at blocking and dodging attacks he hasn't been getting hurt much as of late. Dave decided to take off his shades, just to see what he'd look like. Once he had set the pair of dark sunglasses down, he looked back at his reflection to see a pair of piercing red eyes staring back at him.

Dave examined himself in the mirror. He didn't look too bad. Sure his body pretty scratched up but the scars weren't that noticeable. He continued to examine himself. His body type wasn't the best. Sure he was always moving around but all that exercise he was getting wasn't helping him get big bulging muscles. He was scrawny. His ribs were clearly visible and it was a little off putting but Dave was okay with it. Yes he knew he'd need to eventually fix that but this was his body and he was fine with what he looked like right now. Finally, Dave examined his face. He has freckles scattered across his cheeks and nose, he had some dark bags underneath his bright red eyes and his white hair was a bit messy but still nearly parted to the side. Not so bad. He didn't look too bad.

The ten year old smiled a little as he continued to look over the reflection he saw in the mirror until his brother came home. Dave wasn't embarrassed to have been caught half naked and checking himself out in the mirror. His older brother did that as well. Hell he did it every chance he got. So when Bro peeked into the smaller Strider's room and frowned instead of doing the universal nod for "hey" it sort of caught Dave off guard.

"Put your clothes on 'lil man. No one wants to watch a bag of bones strutting around." That's all the man said before shutting the door and walking away. Dave frowned. The comment wasn't much no, but it was enough to start making Dave feel self conscious. Was he really that boney? He didn't think so. But Bro said it. If Bro said it then...maybe he was a little boney. Dave frowned and glanced at his reflection again, suddenly noticing things he didn't before.

His legs looked like two twigs. His ribs were poking out and his collar bone was clearly visible, it was very nauseating for him to look at. His fingers were long and boney, looking as if they were literal bones just painted a pale flesh color. His eyes looked sunken and dead, he looked like the living dead. The only thing that didn't seem too bad was his hair but the more Dave stared at it the more he started thinking. Only old people have hair as white as his. Why was he cursed with such a milky white color when Bro had golden locks?

No. No stop. It was just one comment. Just one. This was nothing for Dave to get so worked up about. It was just the one comment. Bro was probably just taking the role of the snooty older brother, always picking and teasing the younger siblings. Yeah, that's what was going on. Dave stood in front of the mirror for a second more before picking his shirt up off the ground and slowly pulled it back on.

It was just the one comment, right?

Chapter Text

"This is not what I had planned, this is not what I had planned." X

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It was hot. It was hotter than hot. It was the worst heat wave Dave has ever experienced. It was a scorching 110 degrees and Dave was outside wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt underneath a tank top. Sure he was sweating like crazy but Dave couldn't just go outside showing off his arms now could he? Besides, he was only out here for some food. That's all. Just some food. Dave wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve and quickened his pace a bit, he just wanted to get inside that air conditioned convenience store soon.

Finally, after a few more painfully long minutes, he walked inside the shitty little convenience store and began grabbing the things he needed. Apple Juice, microwaveable lunches, a water or two and Dave was good to go. The lady behind the counter seemed a bit surprised that Dave was there alone buying food. Alone. No adult in the small convenience store seemed to be paying attention to him. She hesitantly scanned the items and told him the total, watching as Dave pulled out crumpled up bills and set them on the dusty counter. She counted the money and bagged the food before handing them to the boy and told him the normal 'Have a nice day!' Dave simply nodded and gathered his things before turning around to walk out the store.

Before the albino could even take a single step forward in came quite possibly the most beautiful person he has ever seen in his adolescent life. Dave's eyes widened a bit as he watched the tall teenage boy scan the refrigerators for his favorite soda. This wasn't happening. Dave was not developing a tiny, minuscule really, crush on a boy he's never even met. The boy turned around and oh my god. He had the greenest eyes, it was like emeralds were there instead of actual eyes. Oh no, he was walking right up to Dave. Oh god what was he going to do? He didn't know what to do. His legs didn't want to work. His brain refused to do its job and suddenly the light plastic bags of food weighed ten tons each.

"Excuse me, I sorta need to buy my drink man." The boy spoke and Dave blinked before nodding. He hadn't moved from the spot in front of the cash register. The boy's pale cheeks heated up and he quickly scurried out of the store. Dave could hear the cashier's chuckle fade away in the distance...

Dave was shoving his drinks in the drawer he had filled up with ice, his mind was still on that boy with gorgeous green eyes. He had to tell John about his semi-awkward, okay very awkward, experience with him. He quickly finished putting his beverages away and hopped on his laptop, fingers furiously tapping on the letter keys.

-- turntechGodhead[TG] began pestering ectoBiologist[EB] --

TG: dude holy fuck
TG: i literally just saw the most beautiful person in the world
TG: like damn, those looks should be fucking illegal.
EB: oooh, what'd she look like?
TG: she?
TG: dude i saw a grade A+++ guy
EB: a guy?
TG: yeah man.
EB: you saw a good looking guy?
TG: yeah. why is something up?
EB: no no! i was just...
EB: i didn't know you were gay is all!
TG: gay?

Gay. That was a new word. Sort of. Dave had heard his Bro use that word to describe his friendship with John and several other things but Dave never bother go look it up. It wouldn't hurt to look it up.

He added a new tab and Googled the word, a second later thousands of results popped up. The first, of course, was the definition. Dave shrugged and leaned forward and read it.

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual.

Alright cool. Dave now knows what gay means. But he doesn't know what homosexual means...he sighed and quickly typed up the new word before scanning the screen for any sort of useful result.

ho·mo·sex·u·al
ˌhōməˈsekSH(əw)əl/
adjective
1. (of a person) sexually attracted to people of one's own sex.

Okay.

Okay.

So gay means liking a dude, in Dave's case at least. Dave frowned a little. He didn't like dudes. Okay well he did. But he didn't like guys exclusively. He had his fair share of crushes, mainly on the only two girls he knows, so he wouldn't say he was gay per se.

Or would he?

Dave's frown deepened as he quickly added more words to the search bar.

What's so bad about being gay?

In an instant, thousands of searches popped up. Almost every search as bashing homosexuals, each telling their own story on how it "goes against God" or how it "ruins society." Dave sat there in his chair, just staring at the screen. Did Bro believe these things? Is that why Bro had called his close friendship with John gay? Did Bro believe Dave was ruining society? Did Bro believe Dave needed to be sent to straight camps to learn how to be straight again or go to hell? Did Bro believe that Dave was an abomination?

No. No stop.

Dave wasn't gay. All he did was say he saw a good looking guy. That's all. Dave only commented on another person's amazingly good looks. Dave wore dark shades all the time but he wasn't blind. No, Dave wasn't gay. He was never gay. He likes girls and only girls.

Right?

EB: yeah, gay.
EB: you do know what that means right?
TG: yeah bro
TG: course i know what it means.
TG: and im not gay.
EB: oh, okay!
EB: wait, then why did you say you saw a good long guy???????
TG: it was a test man
TG: or more
TG: a prank.
TG: to make you think that i was gay.
TG: it worked.
EB: >:( yeah I guess it did.
TG: fuck yeah it did man.
TG: now i gotta go man.
TG: later dawg.

-- turntechGodhead[TG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist[EB] --

The albino logged off and sighed, running a hand through his white hair. He wasn't gay.

Dave Strider wasn't gay.

At least, he hoped he wasn't.

Chapter Text

TG: yo lalonde
TT: Hello Dave.
TG: i have a question
TT: I have an answer.
TG: ha fucking ha.
TG: hilarious.
TT: I know.
TT: In all seriousness though,
TT: Fire away Dave.
TG: right well
TG: alright so i sort of have this friend right
TG: and hes freaking the fuck out
TT: Is that so.
TG: yeah
TT: Tell my why your friend is freaking out then.
TG: i was getting to that.
TG: so apparently he saw this dude in one of those shitty little 7-11s and he just sort of thought "damn this dude is smoking hot." so he tells his best bro about this grade a hunk of beef and his bros like holy fuck are you gay
TG: my buddy looks that up, figures out what it is and is pretty damn confused as to why his friend said it so like
TG: ya know
TG: negatively
TG: so he searches up why its bad to be gay and blah blah blah
TG: long story short my friend is confused as FUCK and doesnt know if hes like gay or not. if he is than like whatll he do? shits mad frowned upon apparently.
TG: then again, maybe he just had that one gay moment in life and the rest is pure girl thoughts.
TG: ya feel.
TT: Mhmm. I feel.
TT: Well Dave, we can never know for sure can we?
TT: Your "friend" might be gay and he might be straight. Or he may be neither, is an entire spectrum of sexualities.
TG: first of all how do you know this shit.
TG: were ten.
TG: hell im not even supposed to be talking to an online stranger and look at me, im sinning up a storm here.
TT: I spend a vast majority of my free time exploring the Internet and its many many websites on different hot topics.
TT: It's truly a magical place, the Internet.
TG: fuck yeah.
TT: Anyway, if your "friend" may be gay or he may not. Like you said it might be this one time thing.
TT: I've had my fair share of curious glances at attractive females and males but I've found I'm leaning a lot more towards females. Perhaps I'm gay. Or perhaps I'm going through a "phase." TT: Or perhaps I'm gay.
TT: It's most likely the latter.
TT: It is the latter.
TG: okay im going to repeat my earlier statement.
TG: youre ten. im ten. were ten.
TT: My age has nothing to do with me trying to identify who I am or who I am more attracted to.
TT: Yes I am young and yes my feelings may change in the future but that is part of growing up.
TG: wow
TG: you really spend a fuckton of your time on the internet huh?
TT: Mhmm, scholarly articles are especially interesting late at night when insomnia hits.
TG: right.
TG: well thanks for that little piece of therapeutic knowledge, im gonna marinate in that for a while and get back to my friend about all this shit you just told me.
TG: thanks again
TT: No problem Dave.

-- turntechGodhead[TG] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist[TT] --

Dave didn't immediately close his laptop when he disconnected from his long distance friend, instead he sat there and stared at the screen. Turning the words that had just been said over and over and over in his head. Everything Rose said had made sense. Dave-- fuck. Dave's "friend" could be gay. Or he could be going through a phase. Or he could be experiencing the single time attraction. Or he could be something else. Fuck. Why was this so confusing? And why was Dave thinking about this? He was ten. He was supposed to be thinking about chicken nuggets and hot wheels and the newest episodes of his favorite cartoon, not when gender he liked.

He wasn't going to deal with this now. He'd deal with it later when he understood more about it. When he actually went out of the house more often, to hang out with friends and not just to buy food or take pictures of collect rocks and shit. When he was older and understood himself more. Yeah. That's when he'd figure it out.

The albino boy stretched himself out on his messy bed, letting out a sigh of relief. He didn't have to stress himself out with anything right now. And he was actually grateful that there was one thing in life that wouldn't make his life harder than it already was.

Chapter Text

"...you have no plans for me..." X ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dave was melting. He was wearing his usual long sleeve under short sleeve and pants ensemble in yet another scorching Texas heat wave. Today though, he was laying face up in the sun on the roof of his apartment complex, a little beat up from his most recent roof top strife with Bro, a couple scratches on his cheek and a bruise beginning to form on his collar bone along with other minor wounds covered up by his layers of clothes. Bro had managed to push Dave down when Dave froze up at the sight of that creepy puppet and he refused to get up. Yes, Dave was sweating like fucking crazy and he knew that he'd probably end up looking as red as a damn tomato but he didn't care. All he cared about right now was how relaxed he was.

His recent stress of his sexuality crisis had just blown over and Dave was back to normal. Or so he hoped. In all honesty, the albino boy just decided to ignore the problem completely and hopefully it'd solve itself. So far so good. Back to his chillaxing time on the roof though.

Yes the blazing hot Texan sun sure was relaxing. Dave was just laying there without a care in the world. Crows were flying around and landing beside him, allowing Dave to extend a finger so they could perch there. Nothing was more relaxing than spending a nice Wednesday morning on a burning roof basking in the sun. Of course Dave didn't think that three hours later when he walked back in to find that his skin color now matched his eye color. Oh fuck no. He wasn't going to walk around like this, Bro would never let him live this down. The albino boy hopped onto his computer and like many students today, searched the Internet for answers. About five minutes later, Dave was trying hard to keep his stoic expression perfect while he scrambled around to find his makeshift wallet. Once he found it, he headed out the apartment and back into the world.

The red faced boy strode calmly down the side walk to the merest drug store, hoping that he would have enough money for that one product he needed and hoping that this little rinky-dink Walgreens had it. Thankfully the store did carry the product he needed. Dave grabbed any random bottle of Aloe Vera sunburn cream and quickly walked to the counter, putting the product down and pulling out his little wallet to hand over his money.

Dave walked out the store, the Walgreens bag swinging idly by his side, and made the trip back to his house. This time though, Dave walked slower. He wanted to take in the day, to actually have a moment where he could slow down and enjoy being outside. The Strider's shaded eyes took everything hungrily from the trees to the grass to the people walking their dogs. It was all so nice. So magical. It was all so peaceful-

"Hey!" A gruff voice pulled Dave out of his little nature lull and he turned to see a buff looking man leaning against a wire fence. Dave instantly prepared for a sword fight before realizing that A) he didn't have his katana and B) the guy was on the other side of the fence. "Aren't you supposed to be in here?" Dave blinked.

"Dunno. Probably not though since I'm out here." He mentally kicked himself. Dave knew he should never be a smart mouth to someone bigger than he. He learned that the hard way with Bro.

"Real funny. Here I'll open up the gate for you and you can head back to class." The man walked a few feet and pulled out a ring of keys to open up a locked gate. Dave didn't know what to do. What the hell was he supposed to do in this situation? There was a mysterious man telling him to go somewhere that he had no idea what it was and his instincts told him to fight whoever this guy was. Bro never prepared him for this. "Alright it's open, get in." Dave slowly walked in, clutched the little plastic bag in his hand. He was scared. "What's your class number?" Dave blinked and shrugged. "Okay, what's your grade level." Another shrug. "Jesus, okay how old are you." This Dave could answer.

"Ten." The man sighed and put a giant hand on Dave's shoulder, he tensed up almost immediately but didn't say anything. This was scary and Dave was terrified. He had no clue what the hell was going on but he hoped that this wouldn't end in a fight, he was still a little beat up from his strife. The man led him down the hall, past a series of doors, until he finally came to one door and pushed it open.

Instantly, thirty-two heads shot up to look at Dave and the man. This room was filled with children, each sitting at their own desk with a paper in front of them and a pencil in hand. A friendly looking woman was walking around and upon noticing Dave she walked over with a friendly smile. Okay, what the fuck was going on.

"Is this one yours Alicia?" The man asked the woman who simply looked Dave over, frowned, and shook her head.

"No, I've never seen him here before. Maybe he's new?" The woman kneeled down and smiled warmly at Dave. "Hello, what's your name?" Dave considered not telling her, but then again what could be the worse that would happen?

"Dave Strider." The woman frowned again but quickly changed it back to a smile.

"Well hello Dave, I'm Mrs. Aurelius but you can call me Mrs. A. Are you new here?"

"Here where? I don't even know where the fuck I am." The woman's eyes widened slightly and the rest of the children gasped in shock.

"Well Dave, you're here at school. And here at school we don't use grownup words like that one you just said." Dave didn't know what was so bad about it. All he said was fuck, no harm done. Mrs. Aurelius stood back up and mumbled something to the man that still had his hand on Dave's shoulder. When she finished, the man let go of Dave and his hand was replaced with the woman's. "We're going to go on a little trip alright Dave?" Dave shrugged and the woman led Dave out the room and down the hall.

The two walked in silence for a while, Dave was confused beyond doubt. He had no idea what was going on or where he was going and he had no idea if he was going to get home before Bro. All Dave knew was that he was somewhere where adults stored children that apparently couldn't say a 'grownup' word like fuck.

"Is your lunch in that bag?" Mrs. A asked Dave and Dave shook his head, not bothering to explain what actually was inside his little Walgreens bag. After another moment of walking, the two of them entered yet another room. Mrs. A gently pushed Dave inside and led him to a row of chairs pushed up in a line against the wall before speaking to a man sitting at a desk. The albino boy sighed and sat down, watching the two speak before the man left. Mrs. A turned around and sat besides Dave.

"Where did you get that bruise?" Oh. Dave almost forgot he had that. Almost instantly Dave's hand went up to gently touch the forming bruise. The boy explained about his rooftop sword fight with Bro and how he had frozen up in terror at the sight of a creepy puppet. The lady sitting besides him frowned and her mind was already beginning to form a plan of action for this. Of course she would only be allowed to carry it out if Dave were an actual student, and so far it didn't seem so.

Another woman walked in, along with the man that left earlier, and Mrs. A instantly stood up and scurried over. The two whispered and the new woman said something to the man who instantly began typing on his computer. This was all so confusing. What was going on? Dave didn't know. What would happen next? Another thing Dave didn't know.

Dave looked over at the man who seemed to be scrolling through something. The man shook his head and suddenly all three of them turned to look at Dave then looked back at one another. Mrs. A seemed was whisper yelling at the other woman, just loud enough for Dave to hear.

"...sword fighting. He said sword fighting! And his 'Bro' pushed him down when he got scared. If that doesn't scream child abuse I don't know what does." Child abuse. That was something Dave would have to look up later. "And the boy doesn't even go to any school in our district. There are no records of him being enrolled anywhere! What kind of a parent does that to a poor child?" School. Something else Dave would search up. The boy stood up and tugged at the sleeve of Mrs. A who instantly looked down at him.

"Is this going to take much longer? I gotta get home before Bro does. If he gets back and I ain't there than I'm gonna have hell to pay." The two women looked at each other, the woman who's name Dave didn't know shook his head at Mrs. A and Mrs. A looked at her pleadingly.

"Alicia, you know the rules. As much as we'd like to interfere here we can't. This child isn't under our legal protection. I'm sorry and I wish it could be different. Take him back outside so he can get home." Mrs. A sighed and nodded slowly before setting a hand on Dave's shoulder before leading him back outside.

Dave was still beyond confused. His confusion only grew when Mrs. A hugged him tightly and told him to be safe before gently pushing him outside the gate he entered through and closing it. As Dave walked away, he swore he heard her sobbing gently.