#calmvsstormfic

The first day of school that year, Rose’s very first real day of school, not preschool, not kindergarten, but real school, Dave still wasn’t back. Dirk held her hand all the way from the car to the main building, only letting go reluctantly because he had to go to his own classroom. 

She wasn’t supposed to be here alone. But it was okay. Mom said, a million times, that it’d be okay; the police would find Dave, and he’d be home, and everything would be back to normal. She just had to keep believing that. It would be fine. 

(The police thought that Dad had taken Dave. Rose didn’t understand; he’d never really gotten on with the kids much, and he’d always been extra weird about Dave, and anyway, he had decided he didn’t want to be their dad anymore. Why would he come back? Why take Dave? Why only Dave?? Thinking about it all hurt. Nothing made sense.) 

Dirk had said that the two of them just needed to be brave and keep it together, because Mom was depending on them to stay strong. Mom was always depending on them, it seemed to Rose. Whatever, they would manage. They always did. 

So Rose walked into class, and she didn’t cry about walking in alone, and she didn’t cry when another kid took the seat next to her that should have been where her brother sat, and she didn’t let slip that anything was wrong until the teacher reached Dave’s name on the rollcall list, and kept calling it, over and over, and Rose didn’t understand why she didn’t just move on, instead of digging the knife in—

“Miss!” the kid next to her shouted, waving his arm in the air. “Miss, this girl’s crying!” 

And something in Rose went snap, 

Later, when asked why she hit that boy, she couldn’t answer. She just did it. And she had to sit outside the principal’s office, and wait for Mom to come deal with things, and listen to Mom explain how she was so sorry, it’s been so stressful, she just forgot to call in about Dave being missing—

Nothing was fine. She couldn’t pretend it was. Everything was terrible and her twin was gone and people wanted to just, just keep on living, like the entire world wasn’t broken, and she hated it. 

***

Her birthday that year was even worse. Mom made her make a bunch of invitations to invite people and hand them out to some classmates, because she should have friends. But no one came, because Rose was that weird girl who cried during attendance and then punched Ricky for no reason on the first day of school. And still, Mom and Aunt Ramona, and Roxy all tried to act like nothing was wrong, as if the entire day wasn’t just a big reminder that they should’ve been having a party the day before, too. Nobody even said Dave’s name, and it just made him not being there even worse. Everyone just kept acting like things were fine. 

Everyone except for Dirk, who didn’t smile all day, and only gave her a half-hearted hug around the shoulders, and who she found sitting alone in the middle of Dave’s room after everyone else had gone to bed. 

It was almost enough to make her forgive that look he’d had, the day Dave went missing. 

ok first heres ~500 words following after the line in question 

Derek didn’t turn around. Dirk watched as his face changed ever so slightly from whatever vague condescension it’d had before back into full neutrality, utterly unreadable. “Me an’ your brother were just…establishing a few things,” he said. “Boy’s gonna need to understand how things work around here, after all.”

Dave hesitated a moment longer, and then stepped closer, his right hand clenching and unclenching into a fist as he spoke, his voice growing in volume as he did. “You — you said you’d leave him alone, Bro. You said if I fuckin’, behaved, did shit the way you wanted, you’d let him be, and I’ve — I’ve been doing every mundane bullshit thing you asked me to do!” Derek’s face settled into the slightest hint of annoyance as he turned his face halfway toward Dave, who kept talking. “Fuck, I’ve been cleaning this shitty old house all day, putting up with all kinds of bullshit from the rest of the goddamn Usuals, come on! Leave him alone, that was — that was the fuckin’ deal!”

The blow landed so quickly, Dirk didn’t even register what had happened at first; there was a loud crack and then the old man was standing, fully facing Dave, who was reeling backwards, his whole body spinning sideways with the force. His shades clattered off into the darkness of the cellar somewhere as Dave, now facing away from Dirk, leaned one arm against the wall, shaking.

It took seeing Derek lightly flexing the fingers on his right hand for Dirk to piece together what had happened, and at that point, Dave had already recovered enough to scramble to retrieve his shades.

“Git t’ fuck back over here, I ain’t done with you yet,” Derek said. Dave mumbled something Dirk couldn’t make out, and scrambled back over, his shoulders hunched and trembling. Dave leaned back against the wall as Derek loomed over him, dead silent for a long moment. With just as little warning as the slap (if it could be fucking called that, Jesus), Derek’s fist collided with the wall above Dave’s head. Dave jerked, startled. “Fuckin’ look at me when I’m talkin’ t’ you,” Derek hissed, and Dave straightened up, still pressed tight against the wall but with his head facing towards his father (and Dirk could see the side of his face already looking red, see cracks on the lens of his shades). Derek leaned down slightly, his voice dropping so low and quiet, Dirk had to strain to hear it. “I didn’t say shit about leavin’ him alone, and I know for a fact I raised you better than to talk outta turn.”

“Sorry.”

what a douche

but alright so 

Derek like…did actually care about Dave once upon a time. he was always abusive but (and this is no excuse mind u) he was at one point genuinely doing it because he had this idea of shaping the kid to be a warrior…and then he took Dave out on a raid for the first time and was surprised when his thirteen year old son who’d always been the gentlest of his kids (which isnt necessarily saying a whole lot but still worth noting) refused to kill. And starting at about that point (like it didnt change overnight but it was p rapid) Dave went from being his son to basically an easy target for Derek to be angry at, which. Is a thing he’s constantly looking for for reasons I can’t go into much because Spoilers. (It starts w/ Uncle Dave ofc but I mean beyond that I can’t say much yet). The kid’s a disappointment now, a failure, and the more Dave fails to live up to Derek’s ridiculous expectations the more reinforced that becomes. 

There was also that one single time Derek caught Dave directly disobeying him, the moment he got caught talking to Jade over pesterchum that he told Karkat about, and Derek thinks he taught Dave not to disobey him ever in that moment (he didn’t, he just taught the kid to not get caught but he doesnt realize this). 

So anyway all that backstory is to set up that in this particular scene he’s here talking to Dirk, and his long term plan for keeping both the boys here basically amounts to ‘Dave won’t run, and he’ll do anything to keep Dirk safe, so he’ll be easier to manipulate with Dirk here; and Dirk won’t leave without Dave, and will do things he doesn’t want to for Dave’s sake’ and he’s confident enough in this that he’s basically telling Dirk what he’s gonna do to Dirk’s face. And then Dave comes in and talks out of turn, which is something he’s doing because he got used to living with people who, you know, respect him and see him as an actual person. And Derek’s thinking here that this kid knows better than to question him or talk like this, especially when he’s in the middle of something, so he’s just waiting at first for Dave to remember the goddamn rules. Not very long, because he’s not patient when it comes to Dave, but still. And when Dave doesn’t get the message from Derek looking slightly annoyed at him, he, as Derek would put it, ‘gets to deal with the consequences.’ 

Clearly, Dave’s gone soft in his time with Rachel, which is about what Derek expected, and therefore the kid’s gonna need a firm hand to get him back into shape and blah blah boy i feel like a douche just writing how this guy thinks sometimes lmao. anyway ofc Dave snaps back into his old way of thinking as soon as he’s hit, which is exactly what Derek wanted – plus it has the added bonus of demonstrating to Dirk that Derek’s got Dave right where he wants him. 

he’s also like. ‘what the fuck kid what makes you think that i make /deals/ with you, you’re not my equal you’re gum on the bottom of my shoe’ and doesn’t actually care if he did say anything about not hurting dirk if dave behaved. the important part is that Dave knows his place.