Archive of Our Own ^beta

 Four months. It has been about four months since you all began flying through space in an inane speed boarding a really big ship with whole planets at your disposal, courtesy of Jade and her spacey powers, so much to explore and see, yet you, John Egbert, have been bored out of your mind. Don't get you wrong, Jade hangs out with you as much as she possibly could and you honestly have a lot of fun with your kind-of sister. It always feels like a lot of time has passed, maybe days, when you're with her.

 Then you would come across Dave and he always knew the exact amount of hours had passed, you've come to realize time passes a lot slower when you want it to go by fast. And no, you don't mean Dave Dave, the sprite one! Jade calls him Davesprite, but all you see is still your best buddy. That is, if you were to ignore the fact that he's orange, has wings and no legs, but those are just small details, right?

 Today was a morning like all the others preceding it, or was it night? You just couldn't tell, you sleep when you feel like it and eat anytime you get hungry and that's good enough for you.

 But today you wanted to hang out with Dave, you've decided. It's a bummer you do it so much less than with Jade but when the guy doesn't want to be found, you better believe you aren't going to find him and just give up on the search. You have no idea how he manages to stay alone for such a long time, doesn't he ever get bored?

 Each step you take towards the secluded open room at the top of the ship you send a little prayer to whoever might hear you that Dave doesn't mind being found today.

 After ladders and stairs and a multitude of hallways you get to the room you hope to find your sprite friend in. You open the door with no hesitation — it would creak if you did it slowly anyway so there's no reason to hold back — and what you saw made a smile make its way to your face.

 “Dave!” You fail to notice the way the boy's shoulders tensed, your eyes squinting while you make your way to the other's side on one of the big square openings that mimic windows of the room. “What you up to?” You ask as you jump and use your windy thing to make sure you land painlessly on the hard material the ship is made of.

 “Yo.” At the response, you take a good look at your traveling buddy for the first time since you entered the room. Dave was with his shoulders slouched and he had his usual poker face, except for a barely visible frown behind his orange shades.

 But most noticeable of all, he held a plate with a small, simple cake — almost a cupcake — which made you raise an eyebrow. “Where did you get that?”

 “Oh, this thing?” He looked down, “Grandma-Bert made it.”

 “Are you talking about my nanna?” You giggle, “Well, of course she made it! I'm pretty sure she's the only one who knows how to bake in this entire ship. But like, what's it for?”

 He shrugged, “Nothing, I just felt like eating up some cake alright.”

 You hum, you didn't believe that at all, but you don't comment on it, deciding instead to inspect the small cake — it was a far cry from Nanna's usual baking goods, lacking the details and her signature blue hues. This one was red, though that could barely be seen beneath all the orange topping.

 Dave's wings shifted on the corner of your vision so you look back up at your friend who was looking far straight ahead to the nothingness of space, this way you kind of get a glimpse of his eyes — they're orange, like the rest of him, you're pretty sure it's not supposed to be that color, but you think they're pretty cool regardless.

 He starts talking, “It's been fourteen years, five hours, thirty eight minutes, forty seven seconds, and still counting, since the day I came into existence. Not as a sprite, but as a human being.” You let him run his mouth, you find it amusing how Dave couldn't seem to be able to stop talking as soon as his mouth opened you would always wait for him to stop, and only then tried to make sense of all the words that were thrown at the air.

 “...Is this your way of saying it's your birthday?” You're pretty sure you got it right, but Dave said nothing for a minute. Your buck teeth pressed hard against your lips — Did you say something wrong? — before you had the chance to ask what did you do, the other teen opened his mouth, “I guess you could say that.”

 The corners of your lips turned up, this was awesome! You could throw a big party, you, Jade and Dave, maybe Nanna too- Hell, even those silly salamander guys! It would be the first real deal in these boring past months. “Dave-” He wasn't looking at you. In fact, his whole body was not facing you right now, you were left staring at the sad remnants of his wings on his back and the plate of cake abandoned on the floor.

 “Is something wrong dude?” You try reaching out for him and after having no answer, you notice with growing anxiety that your friend's bandaged torso was getting more and more soaked with his weird yellow blood. “Oh god!”

 “It's august, dude.”

 “Huh?” You fumble around with your arms, unsure of what to do.

 “My birthday is in december. And it is not.” Every time he talked, more of his blood leaked through the cloth.

 “I really think there's more important things to worry about here..!”

 He groaned, “You don't get it, Egbert.” he turned slowly, his mouth the biggest frown you've ever seen on him, a bead of sweat running down his face, “I'm supposed to turn fourteen on december, like a real Dave, but I don't.”

 “I'm… not following?” Your eyes kept darting from Dave's stomach area to his shades, eyes widening when you realized the guy's hands were clenched on his torso, squeezing it, making yet more blood gush out, your insides turned.

 “It's so stupid and I know it, it's dumb and uncool, but I can't. Not being the ‘real’ Dave, it's killing me,” He paused to look down and forced a smirk, “Quite literally. Every new thing I notice, or worse, that you and Jade notice, about me that isn't like him makes… my blood boil, you have no idea.” you just stare at him, lips parted, “‘Haha Dave wouldn't do that’ or ‘Wow does the real Dave do that too?’ it's a real pain in the ass dude.”

 You can see he's trying to keep the ironic unfunny act, but you can't bring yourself to comment on it. You've… been doing that? It just felt natural and he never even twiched a finger at your phrasings. Does Jade ever do that? Or are you the only asshole around? You feel sick, you're the reason your friend has been feeling like shit, it's you.

 You feel your eyes begin to water, you hesitated for a moment to reach for your friend's shoulders but mustered up the guts and rested your hands there. You feel like you should bonk yourself on the head with your own hammer for never caring enough to ask him how he felt all this time.

 You frown when Dave tries scoffing through clenched teeth, “Dude, are you crying right now? Shouldn't that be me?”

 You roll your eyes and stare softly at your friend.

 “Don't stare at me like that bro.”

 “Come on, this is serious!” You shove his shoulder slightly, “Look.”

 You don't know what to say, honestly, how could you? You can't say you know how Dave feels, you've never been on his shoes, but you can't just leave him hanging like this, the guy is literally hurt, besides, it's still his birthday! You should be able to try your best, at the very least.

 You run your hands down Dave's arms, reaching for his hands and stroking them in what you hope is a reassuring gesture, when the hands stop grabbing painfully at the bleeding area you let yourself a sigh of relief.

 “I'm such an idiot for not noticing you've been feeling like this.”

 “What, dude, no I was a pro at hiding it. If anything I'd be offended if you noticed.”

 You decide to ignore the dumb remarks, “Look… I know that there's nothing I can say to make your problems go away, it doesn't work like that, but I want you to know that I'm your friend.” Dave made a face, “I mean it, Dave.” you sigh, “And I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like that isn't true, you're a really cool dude and I like hanging out with you not only because you're Dave but because you're you! Does that make any sense?”

 “I guess so.” You both decide to not comment on the involuntary peep that blurted out of him, excitement maybe? You really hope so.

 “I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, but like, if you want to stay just Dave that's fine I could even tell Jade to drop the Davesprite thing if it bothers you.” You try shooting a smile, “But you don't need to be just like the other Dave, it's fine to be different!”

 He hummed, thinking, then a small smile made its way to his face, “It's cool Egderp.”

 “Hey! I'm trying to be nice here.”

 “Yeah… Thanks dude, for saying all that and shit.” A faint yellow hue appeared on his cheeks — Is that a blush? — “It kind of means a lot to me, ya know.”

 You chuckle, “No problem dude! What are friends for?”

 “By the way, about the name thing, I think. I think I might need a new name.” His face screwed shut.

 “Wow, are you sure?” You frown, “You don't gotta do that man.”

 “I'm still thinking about it, so you can just keep calling me Dave, for the time being.”

 “Heh. Time.”

 “Shut up you dork.” Dave squeezed your hands that were still entertwined with his, “So, how bout we fuck this cake up and go watch one of those shitty movies you like so much, it's still ‘my birthday’.”

 “Oh yeah! Happy birthday Dave!” You let go of your friend's hands and spread your arms, hugging Dave, careful to not crush his wings or worsen his bleeding wound- “Wait!” you pull away, as if he was on fire, before the other boy could react to the hug, “What about that?” you point a finger at Dave's torso, worry back on your face at full force, internally facepalming for having forgotten “Aren't you bleeding out?”

 “Nah. It'll stop soon enough, I'm pretty sure I got like, infinite weird ghost blood pumping in my veins or something.”

 “Oh, okay, phew!” You get up, running a hand through your hair, still not eager to be seeing so much blood pouring out of your friend. You offer a hand for Dave, even though he doesn't have legs and can just float, it's the thought that counts.

 Dave “got up” and did not let go of your hand, leaning closer, he slipped his arms around your neck, “Thanks again, John.” he said barely above a whisper next to your ear and let go almost instantly.

 You smile, placing a hand on your warm cheek — are you blushing now!? — you look up to see Dave was already at the door, cake back on his hands “You coming or not?”

 “Oh, y-yeah! Hehe.” you follow him out of his hiding spot before you have the time to dwell on the warmth that filled not only your face but also your heart.