Chapter Text
Dirk shouldered his bag and approached his parents causally in the family room. He'd already told them earlier where he was going and had asked permission. This was merely a formality telling them he was leaving now.
"I'm going to head over to Jake's now, okay?" He waited, knowing what question would probably come.
"Are you going to take your brother with you?" And there it was. It was his mother that asked it this time. Dirk wasn't sure if his parents thought Dave hung out with him and Jake, or with Jade, who was closer to his age, but supposed it didn't matter all that much. And oftentimes it didn't. At some point, it usually ended up in a fused group of four, despite the age difference.
Dirk quickly moved to the staircase and yelled up to his brother, "Yo! Dave!"
He backed up a bit from the stairs and waited as the footsteps approached and the form of his 11-year-old brother appeared. "'Sup bro?" Dave greeted.
Their mother answered before Dirk had a chance, approaching them as she spoke. "Dirk is going over to his friend's house today, would you like to go too?"
The tiniest, almost unnoticeable smile came over only one half of Dave's mouth. "You mean his boyfriend," he teased, surely without thinking that statement through.
Dirk's body immediately tensed from head to toe. He was extremely grateful for his shades, not the first time in his life, so that no one could see the fear radiating from what they covered. He could only hope or assume that if his stiffness was noticed, it would be attributed to the same thing as his father's...
Speaking of which, Dirk could feel the anger emanating from behind him, like the heat of a bonfire. He didn't turn around to look, but he could see Dave's expression quickly turn into a massive 'oh shit'.
"You will not dare suggest that about your brother!" Their father bellowed like a furious storm. "I didn't raise any homo faggots!"
Both brothers were unsure in that moment if it was them shaking or the entire house.
Mr. Strider continued ferociously, "Dirk is at least twice the man you are! Now go to your room before I get my belt!"
Previous to the last statement, Dave had had his mouth open, as if trying to find a place to defend himself, to say it was just a joke, but the last word made him take off as fast as his pre-pubescent legs could carry him, his door slamming shut just a moment later.
The house was locked in silence for what felt like forever, but was probably less than a minute.
Dirk felt his father's hand on his shoulder. He just barely kept himself from jumping out of his skin.
"I'm sorry son," came much calmer words, "I know you aren't no pansy. He'll be taught a lesson."
The words, 'I'm sure he was only joking', wanted to leave Dirk's lips, but he swallowed them. As much as his little bro was undeserving of this treatment for his little quip, defending him could bring back the fire with a new direction, and Dirk just really wanted to escape from this place. So he just nodded, a bit numb.
His mother attempted to smile at him, but he could tell she was still upset by what just occurred. "Have fun at your friend's!" she told him, a bit forced.
Dirk nodded at her as well and took the chance to get out of there. Though, restraining himself enough as to not seem like he was fleeing.
Once he reached his bike, he took off as fast as he could pedal. It would take ten minutes to reach Jake's house, and he used every minute to work the tension out of his body, so he at least felt like a person again when he arrived, stashing his bike in the usual place and walking up the drive.
He spied Jake almost immediately, and headed toward him. Jake noticed his approach and turned his head. He was holding a toy gun in his hand, and he moved his arms so that it was pointing toward the sky, rather than aiming at something, as if it were real. He smiled.
Before Dirk had the chance to finish opening his mouth for a greeting, a young girl stepped in front of him, pointing a similar toy gun at him and pulling the trigger, causing it to light up and make electronic noises.
"Got ya!" she exclaimed triumphantly.
Dirk clutched at his chest and pretended to die, for her benefit. She exploded into a mass of giggles. He could hear Jake laughing, too.
Jade was Jake's half-sister. Their mother, lovely person though she was, never seemed to be able to settle on any one man. Neither of their fathers was currently present, their mom having gone through one more husband and countless boyfriends since then. Her only lasting relationship was with guns.
As soon as Dirk raised his head back up from being "dead", Jade asked him a question.
"Where's Dave?"
"Grounded," Dirk told her, keeping his nerves from that particular incident from showing. "He's probably on Pesterchum, though, if you want to annoy him."
Jade ran into the house, dropping the toy gun along the way and not bothering to shut the door behind her. Dirk reached out to pick up the abandoned toy.
"Hi, Dirk!" Jake finally greeted him, a grin on his face.
Dirk could see just within the house from the front door that Jake and Jade's mom was approaching, looking back at the retreating figure of her daughter.
"Hey," Dirk replied, before she reached them.
The woman popped herself out, her bewildered expression turning into a beam. "Now how is my son from another family?" She hugged him, and Dirk allowed it, looking at Jake from over her shoulder, who was still grinning.
"Decent enough," Dirk replied vaguely.
She released him. "Your brother?"
"He was grounded."
"Whatever for?"
Dirk swallowed, feeling the tension rise in him again. "For being a brat," he told her, not entirely lying, but not wanting to tell the whole story.
She frowned, but didn't press him. She backed up to the doorway and put her hand on the knob, then stepped aside and waited for the boys to enter.
They did so, and she shut the door behind them. After putting the toys away, Jake grabbed Dirk by the wrist and led him upstairs to his bedroom, where he let go and shut the door. Dirk swung his bag down on the floor near Jake's bed and then sat himself down. Jake followed him.
"So why was he really grounded?"
Dirk sighed and ran two fingers up the sides of his nose to rub the corners of his eyes behind his shades. "He said you were my boyfriend."
"Oh." There was a beat of silence during a moment of realization. "Oh. ...Wait, does he know?"
Dirk shook his head. "I doubt it. And if he did, he wouldn't have outed me like that, he's not that much of a little creep. Besides, it would be my word against his, and he knows dad always takes my side, since I'm such an 'examplary manly son' or something. And obviously, I can't be that and homosexual at the same time."
He rolled his eyes, not that Jake could see it, and then continued.
"I find it far more likely he was just joking and has no fucking clue. Dad just has hair thin trigger about that sort of thing, and he should have known better."
Jake nodded and placed his hand over Dirk's on the bedspread. "Golly. You know if something ever happened, you could stay with us, right? Mom wouldn't mind. I think she loves you just about as much as she loves me!"
Dirk made a short laugh, but one that lacked amusement. "Yeah, I know." A thought struck him. "Does she know about us?"
Jake put his free hand to his chin, thinking for a moment. "I don't believe so. I never told her, at least," he replied. Then quickly tacked on, "Not that I think she'd be disagreeable about it. It's just that she doesn't allow girls in my room, and I doubt she'd treat you much different if she knew we were more than friends. And what would be the fun in that?"
His mother's 'no girls' policy wasn't without merit - Jake definitely liked them, and was also rather popular with them - there was a group that flirted with him practically ceaselessly.
"Does she know that you are bi or pan or demisexual or whatever the hell it is that you are?" Dirk inquired further.
Jake shrugged. "I don't understand what half of that even means!"
Dirk tilted his head to consider this answer. "How can you not understand half? I said three terms. I could understand a 'half' answer maybe if it was a larger odd number and it was about half, but three? Did you understand one or two, Jake?"
Jake shrugged again and granted him a half-smirk. "All these friggin terms are just so tedius to remember, Dirk. I can't be bothered with the minutia of these definitions!"
Whatever struggle he might have had with it beforehand, he had accepted it and moved on without much further thought. Jake liked who he liked. At the moment, he liked Dirk. To him, it was as simple as that.
There was a knock at the door, and Dirk slipped his hand out from under Jake's before it opened up to reveal Jade.
"Dave says he was grounded because he said you two were boyfriends - is that true?" she asked bluntly and without introduction.
"It is why he was grounded," Dirk answered carefully.
Jade shook her head. "I know that, I didn't think he was lying or anything," she clarified. "But is it true?"
Dirk and Jake looked at each other and then back to Jade.
"He was only joking," Dirk answered her again.
"Again, I know that! He told me himself," Jade was starting to get a bit exhasperated. "But are you boyfriends?"
Silence. Jake looked at Dirk. Dirk looked away.
"Are you?" she was insistant.
Jake tugged a little at Dirk's sleeve, not knowing what to say. Dirk looked back at him.
Jade crossed her arms. "You aren't saying no," she stated.
Dirk sighed quietly and nodded.
"We are boyfriends," Jake confirmed.
Jade dropped her arms and her eyes went a little wide. "Really?"
Both boys nodded this time.
"But you can't tell anyone," Dirk warned, "especially not my brother."
"And don't tell Mom, either," Jake added.
Jade tilted her head again, as if considering their requests. "Why not Mom? She wouldn't care."
"Because if she knew, she probably wouldn't allow Dirk alone with me in my room anymore, at least not with the door closed."
"And why would you need the door-" Jade stopped herself short, her brain arriving at an answer. She made a face. "You mean so you can kiss and stuff? Eeeeeeeeeeeeew."
Jake laughed at her reaction. Dirk waited until it had died down a bit to comment, "You'll think differently when you're older."
"No way!" she denied adamently. "Kissing is gross! Boys have cooties!"
"And here I thought it was the other way round," Dirk remarked back, wryly.
Jade looked into his shades, trying to find where his eyes were, she was pretty accurate with it. "Everyone has cooties if you kiss them, Dirk," she told him. "Boys also have them naturally, but thankfully they can be nutralized if you shoot them."
Dirk's gaze turned automatically toward Jake's pistols, which were kept in the open, leaving him to often wonder if they were loaded. He knew their mother felt her own gun policy was above the law.
Jade noticed this. "I mean in a game, stupid," she clarified.
Dirk felt the bed shake slightly from Jake holding in laughter.
Dirk decided his best course was to continue away from his subconscious blunder. "So wouldn't that mean you cured me earlier?"
"Only temporarily," Jade explained, as if giving a lesson. "And if you kissed my brother, they'll have come back full force." She smiled at him before delivering one more line. "I might have to shoot you again."
"Well, thank you for your analysis, Dr. Jade Harley, Ph.D., Cootieology, I'll keep that in mind."
Jade looked rather proud of herself and beamed. "You are most welcome!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.
"Anyway, Dirk and I haven't kissed yet today," Jake piped in.
"Yet." She looked at him suspiciously.
"Means get out!" Jake told her with his biggest smile.
Jade made a face again and started to leave. Before she was all the way out she turned back to them. "Okay, but I'll have the gun ready when you come back downstairs!"
Once the door was firmly shut, Jake turned back to his boyfriend. "Siblings," he said, shaking his head.
"I hear you," Dirk agreed, taking his hand again.
Then they both leaned in toward each other, meeting halfway for a kiss.