Chapter Text
His hair was soft.
It was probably good that his hair was soft. Bro liked soft things; spent time on them; worked with them in his hands. Fabric and cotton fluff and Dave’s fine, soft hair like white thread. He messed up Dave’s hair roughly, or patted him on the head so hard Dave wasn’t sure if he was being praised or punished. It was always like that; pats and swats and scruffing but Dave didn’t mind cuz that’s how cool dudes operated. He was 9 years old and he didn’t need stuffed animals and nightlights anymore. He was way too old to crowd Bro on the futon after a nightmare only to be kicked out or dumped back on his own bed.
The soft puppets Bro used to let him cuddle to sleep mostly stayed in haphazard piles of junk in his room and the living room now. It was only “mostly” because ever since he’d stopped taking one to bed with him, random ones sometimes appeared in his arms over-night. He’d go to sleep alone like a big kid only to wake up curled around some weird plushie or another. It was unsettling, especially the way Lil’ Cal seemed to stare at him from random spots in the room when it happened. There were more nightmares too, and more involving Lil’ Cal which only firmed his resolve to keep his puppet interactions to daylight hours only. Puppets were cool, and Lil’ Cal was the best, clearly, but consciousness was kind of a base requirement for truly appreciating a thing’s radness. It made total sense, so when Dave nervously started getting rid of his stuffed animals and shuffling anything plush into Bro’s messy piles he tried not to feel guilty. He wasn’t snubbing Lil’ Cal, he was just growing up.
Besides, there were other equally cool things he could use to decorate his room now. Fossils and other dead stuff he found online and carefully saved up for. It was a shame they lived in the middle of the city; according to the internet finding, cleaning, and preserving animal bones was a popular hobby among rural weirdos. As an inner-city weirdo Dave would be lucky to find road kill, much less an interesting intact skeleton. Dead shit was like, double cool; skulls and death plus science. Clearly this was a very grown up hobby for an awesome dude. He didn’t exactly ask Bro if he thought it was cool, but if it wasn’t Bro would say something. He was sure of it.
Hanging out with Bro was the best; always had been and always would be even if Bro didn’t exactly interact with Dave all that much when they were together. When he was little it hadn’t mattered, all Bro had to do was be present in the room and Dave assumed he had Bro’s full attention. Now that he was older Dave was starting to see that just because he was excited about something didn’t mean that Bro cared. It was a little bit humiliating to realize how much of a pest he was.
To try and fix that, Dave did his best not to whine for Bro’s attention, or irritate him by crawling all over him when he was excited or bored. That was little kid shit and he wasn’t a little kid anymore. He knew it was working, that he was becoming cool just like Bro. They strifed more, and Bro ruffled his hair more, and Lil’ Cal followed him around more. That last thing was also… obviously a good thing because usually Lil’ Cal only hung out with the coolest of dudes, right?
Lil’ Cal was hanging out like usual, watching them play shitty videogames from somewhere in the living room. For a second Dave wondered at the fact that he could practically feel the puppet’s dead-eyed stare, but in his moment of distraction he lost control of his stupid skateboard dude and managed to glitch the game so badly it froze. Bro gave an almost silent huff of laughter and dragged Dave sideways for a noogie. After a few seconds of dismayed grumbling and wincing at the hard knuckles digging into his scalp, Dave found himself toppled against Bro’s side with his leather clad palm resting on the top of his head. Just resting there. Dave held his breath and stayed as still as possible. Bro didn’t usually… he almost never… his hand was really warm. He was too on-edge for it to be comfortable, but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this close to Bro.
Any second Dave expected to be shoved away, to be told to reset the game so they could start over, to be sent to his room and back into an isolation he hadn’t even recognized before. Instead Bro pet his head. At first he just mussed his hair more gently than normal, but it wasn't anything completely out of the ordinary. He smoothed it down like he was absently petting a cat, and Dave huddled against him completely frozen; terrified Bro would realize what he was doing, think it was lame, and stop. Dave shivered and relaxed a bit when Bro carded his fingers through his hair, lightly scratching his scalp. The inside of his head went fuzzy and indistinct with pleasure. This must have been how dogs and cats felt when they were petted.
Dave wasn’t sure if he wanted to fall asleep or start crying; he could have stayed like this for hours. His hair felt silky smooth under Bro’s hand and he swore he’d let it grow out like a girl’s if it meant having it touched and played with like this. Bro was scratching his scalp intentionally now and if Dave could have purred he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself. As it stood there was probably a doofy smile on his face but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Sometimes Bro's fingers almost trailed down onto the back of his neck, but then he'd drag his fingers through Dave's hair the other way so that it needed smoothed down again. The process relaxed him immensely and he finally melted into Bro’s side, closing his eyes happily. No one ever touched him unless they were pushing him, or strifing him, or hitting him. One of Bro’s fingers trailed lightly around the shell of his ear. His breath shook and he might have made a small, contented noise when suddenly Bro stood up and walked away.
Dave watched him disappear into the bathroom, feeling bereft but then also… kind of weird. He was right before – Bro never did stuff like that. The game’s characters twitched and glitched on the screen but Dave didn’t feel like playing videogames anymore. He slunk into his bedroom and propped the door mostly closed so that it wouldn’t be weird when Bro came back out. If it was weird he might not do it again.