3 / Culminations
For afractionof, the most thickly frosted of cupcakes. That you for sticking with me if you have, and I do hope you enjoy! Now on Ao3.
1 / 2 / 3
“Dave says Bro kissed you, G’npa,” Jade greets you that night, as you try to tuck her in. Her eyes are wide and eager, and innocent enough they remind you to bite back the terrible curse in your throat. “Y’gonna kiss him again? D’you like him? Like, like like him?”
Of course Dave knows. Why are you even pretending to be surprised.
“I haven’t decided yet,” you answer carefully, using the blankets to catch the blighter as she tries to wriggle free. “He likes me, apparently.” Well, he made that damn clear, no point denying it. Goodness, you can’t even have one night to consider this before being hounded by adorable questions that sound far too close to accusations in your mind. “Do... you like him, Jade?”
“Not like like, ew!” She wrinkles up her nose at you, and you roll your eyes at her expression.
“Just one like, Jade. Just a good old, plain single like.”
“Oh!” Jade beams. “I do, G’npa! I do! He tells th’best stories an’ he’s always th’dragon when I’m gonna save P’incess Dave!” She sighs dreamily, not noticing your eyes glaze as you have a terribly appealing image of a bescaled Dirk draped over your desk and asking if you’ll be the princess in his tower. “An’ he listens t’me when I tell him my dreams an’ Dave says he’s super cool but really he’s not an’ that’s even better.”
“I see,” you reply, but in honesty, you had no idea he had already left such an imprint upon her. He’s been terribly busy, your Strider. Making a good impression on everyone but you.
Cripes, you don’t know what impression he’s made on you at all.
Good and bad and up and down like a roller-coaster with far too many knowing smirks and far too few explanations. He’s dreadful, but it’s in some way that enamours you, even now, even after you’d made up your mind to dislike him.
You are a weak man, you suppose.
“When’ll you choose, G’npa? Soon? Please choose soon!” Jade manages to get her arms out despite all your best attempts to the contrary, grabbing your arm and pulling you down into a hug. “Then you can marry him an’ he can be my Bro too an’ me an’ Dave can be real bros even though I’m a girl ‘cause he says that doesn’ matter!”
You laugh, rubbing her hair affectionately as she finally slips away to wiggle down below the blanket. “...Is that all you care about, dearest?”
“No!” Her answer is short and defiant, though the shrug that follows it is decided sheepish. “Maybe if Dave an’ Bro stay you’ll be happy.”
“I’m already happy, Jade,” you lie, and she looks at you like she can see straight through you. She doesn’t speak though, so you take what solace you can in the quiet, kissing her forehead and mumbling a goodnight before you creep out and leave her to sleep.
It takes a long time to figure out what you think about Dirk Strider.
Obviously, the man irritates you immensely, and his bizarre attitude and apparent allergy to being straight forward is painful at best. He works hard, and you can’t fault how he is with Jade, but... Well...
He’s been an absolute pile of fermented bull’s bollocks to you, so why in blazes do you feel so fond of the bugger?
You watch him run about with Dave in his clutches as Jade pursues with a might wooden sword clasped in her hands, and as they all collapse in a pile of the grass and he laughs, loud and bright, the smile on your lips is far too gentle for the likes of him. Watching him scuffle with the children and transition seamlessly into a princess for them to come and save is something that should not pluck so effortlessly at your heartstrings, yet here you are, and so it does.
He catches your eye and winks at you, his smile broad and open. It consumes your face with heat, slays your train of thought, and with a flustered choke on your pipe you scuttle inside, and try your best to force the lingering memory of that face- and the knowledge of how those lips feel and taste- from your mind.
Oh, Christ on a cracker.
You’ve been downright hoodwinked into this, you’d swear it blindly to any who asked. You may have had your stupid suppositions, but it was never meant to turn into this. He was just- it was just some fun, wasn’t it, some company, and maybe you’d imagined a few rolls in the hay if the good sir Strider was willing, but even after his atrocious assholery you’re pining like a lonely Magpie come mating, and he seems to have you pinned with every little look, and smirk, and infernal slide of tongue or teeth over the lips that held yours without room for denial.
And yet, you don’t hate him for it. Honestly, you don’t even truly dislike him, and that really does ruffle your feathers something rotten.
You just want to stop playing games.
But- he did, didn’t he? He made his thoughts on the matter astoundingly obvious. You’re the one still fretting and fussing over whether or not you can, dare you say, be brave enough to face up to them.
You aren’t in love with him, but you feel like you could be.
All it would take is that first, little step.
You decide to give up and just announce your feelings loudly one afternoon, when he is halfway through stitching up a soft plush of Bec to gift Jade, who herself is off somewhere with Dave tackling the fearsome wildlife you actually suspect to be a frog.
“I would like to kiss you again,” you say firmly, some sort of bizarre business negotiation for the right to mingle lips.
Dirk takes his shades off slowly, folding them up maddeningly slowly, and setting them and his work aside. He steeples his fingers at you.
“Really?” His tone of voice is the same you would take after Jade tells you a particularly sweet fact about flowers, and you despise it, even as you’re expecting it. You scowl at him, and he beckons you, patting his tiny, much-too-small-for-you lap.
Fine. If that’s what he wants. You stalk straight over and drop onto it, pleased you make him wheeze.
“This an answer, then, Harley, or you just fucking with me?”
“Not yet,” you answer sweetly, shifting when his hand rests on your thigh in a terribly delightful manner. “Give it time, though, and we shall see.”
“How the hell do you make such old fashioned bullshit sound so nice?” Dirk sighs. You’ve started leaning against him, because he’s comfortable, and familiar, and... well. He’s Dirk, and somehow that has come to mean something to you that you take great comfort in.
“How do you make such irritating tomfoolery so hard to care about?”
He laughs, and then he’s cupping your neck, tugging you down, and you willingly slide into the embrace. This time, you don’t jump back, and no moment of dawning sense halts you. You are well aware of what you are doing, and foolish as it may be, you have already thrown caution to the wind when it comes to your Strider.
This short little troublemaker will be the death of you, but oh, what a fun death you suspect it will be.
He laughs and pulls back first, resting his head to your arm and letting out small giggles that are nothing like the stern image he tries to project in your work hours. You think you want to get to know this side of him far more intimately, to untangle the mess just a few glimpses of it have left you in.
Yes. You could love this man, and the thought has you smiling rather stupidly.
“Just... riddle me one thing, Harls,” he murmurs, and you’re so giddy you don’t even complain. “You actually got a first name, or-?”
“Oh heavens.” You laugh, light and free, and tussle up his dark hair without a thought. “Of course, you ridiculous boy. You can just call me-”
“G’NPA!”
Jade’s scream cuts you off, but there she is, running in, grinning like the Cheshire cat and eyes all a-sparkle as she sees you both together. Dave follows, and his face shifts so fast you can’t even tell what half of his expressions are, but he settles on a grin that’s the brightest you’ve seen him make.
The children have no sense of privacy, and are climbing onto the chair and over you in a moment, babbling questions about if you kissed and if you’ll hold hands now and if this means Dave can stay forever-
And you smile, and shake your head at their silly laughter, and just tell them you have no idea what to expect.
