Your name is June Egbert and you had never been so shocked in your life.
Dave Strider is your boyfriend, and he had everything so well put-together, it put you to shame. Any time you had to cry your eyes out or you needed an ear to listen to, he would always be there to listen. Which is why you were so shocked to see him lying on the floor, curled up in a ball, crying. A soft blanket lay over him and he didn’t even notice you standing there until you involuntarily muttered “Dave?”
He turns around instantaneously, body parts moving as if they were cogs in a machine, head twisting and arm moving up to attempt to conceal the obvious tears. This was one of few times his sunglasses were off. Your mouth opens, and yet nothing comes out.
“Hey Egbert.” He chokes out, almost as if nothing was wrong. You saunter towards him cautiously, sitting down across from him.
“Did something happen?” You ask
“No.” He says. Somehow you doubt this.
“Dave… is there something wrong that I can fix?” You try to repeat what he had said to you all those times.
“Don’t worry about it…” He says. Obviously, you will.
“Well, uh… can I… comfort you in any way?” God damn, he makes it look so easy.
“Trust me, I’m fine…” He puts on his sunglasses and tries to force a sly smile. “Don’t gotta worry about me, alright?”
“Dave, of course I worry about you!” You say, surprised at his overall dismissiveness. “Hey, come here…” You slowly put a hand on his shoulder, waiting for him to reject or accept it. He sits still, somewhat pulling himself inwards toward you in what could only be described as the world’s weirdest and most awkward hug imaginable. A stray tear breaks through his sunglasses, and he begins to rest his chin on your shoulder. You decide to simply sit there while you wait for further development.
A strange immobile exchange begins. You both just sit there, wordlessly, for what feels like aeons. The Sun had expanded to a red hypergiant and collapsed in on itself to form a white dwarf when Dave first spoke.
“Thanks.” He said, almost as if to be a snide remark, yet you knew within your heart that it was real. You tighten your hold slightly as you respond “You’re welcome.”
Dave’s eyes began to close, yet of course, you wouldn’t have any idea of that due to the sunglasses he’s wearing. He takes in a deep breath and begins to lean on you even more.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” You ask him
“No…” He replied. You shrug internally at his response. He doesn’t have to tell all if he doesn’t want to.
You gently raise one of your free hands and begin to place it on his head. He was normally quite prideful of his hair and wasn’t very pleased at outside meddling, but he seemed to allow your hand to run up and down his hair. A soft noise escapes from his mouth as he begins to rest his head almost completely on your shoulder. His glasses come loose as gravity pulls it from his eyes, but he doesn’t even care as he lets his glasses drop onto the floor behind you.
His current attire didn’t exactly scream “ideal sleeping clothes”, yet that is what it appeared he was trying to do. You almost stop for a moment at the realization that he’s sleeping while you hug him. It’s almost unbearably cute. You make sure to note to never live this moment down as the smoking gun that he loves you the next time he pretends to not care that much for ironic purposes.
“Egbert…” He sleepily mumbles.
“Yeah?” You reply.
He lifts his face up and opens his eyes momentarily “I love you.”
“Dave…” You respond almost automatically, but already Dave has begun to close his eyes again and lean against your shoulder. You can’t help but grin at the sight before you. You still have no idea what caused him to get so worked up in the first place, but you’re glad that you could at least momentarily dull the pain.
You wait about an hour until 11pm, the time you normally go asleep at. Usually, you’d get bored while waiting for time to elapse like this, but you can’t help but enjoy just looking at the sleeping guy in your hands. Dave Strider was the cutest. You also would stroke his hair from time to time, or hear what his sleeping self had to say, which usually consisted of nonsense sentence after nonsense sentence. You begin to slowly wake him up.
“Dave…” You say calmly. Nothing
“Dave.” You say, being a bit louder this time and somewhat adjusting your arms. This time, he wakes up
“...huh? What’s goin’ on…” He mumbles, not enjoying having been woken up.
He raises his head slightly before realization dawns on him. “Wait, did that actually just happen?”
“Yes.” You reply. His face looks mortified.
“Wait what’s wrong?” You ask suddenly.
“Nothing…” He says. “It’s just a bit… embarrassing?”
You can understand where he’s coming from, somewhat. “Ok, I can get that.”
“But also I was crying over what in hindsight was basically nothing so who even cares?” He says
“What? Dave, what were you crying over?”
“I don’t even fuckin’ know, I kinda just…” There was a deliberate pause there. You tilt your head, waiting for the rest of the sentence. “I felt kinda lonely or scared. I don’t know why… So then I started crying, but you came in and…” He doesn’t bother to say the rest.
“Oh.”
That… explained things you guess.
“Well I was going to say that I have to go off since I need to prepare for bed but if you want me here then I can stay here.” You say. He just clings to you tighter, not saying a word. You knew how to interpret his answer.