Chapter Text
-- tipsyGnostalgic [TG] began pestering golgothasTerror [GT] at 16:14 --
TG: somebodys running late 2day
TG: and it aint me for once hallelujah
TG: did u strangle urself putting that suit on is that it
TG: do you need some help back there
TG: bzzt bzzt jakey this is your phone notifying you of a very important series of messages
TG: come onnnnnnnnn
TG: balls
TG: hmm
TG: shit maybe you really did run off after all?
TG: did u leave your phone tho?
TG: nah you wouldnt leave the phone
TG: might miss some hot texts from a CERTAIN SOMEONE
TG: who is here right now not texting BUT he sure is trying to see what im texting like i dont notice exactly what hes up to over my shoulder back there
TG: look dirk thats tacky af
TG: yeah u better look embarrassed
TG: f yeah sure showed him
TG: jake english i s2g if you actually ran off im gonna hunt u down after this and pummel your handsome face
GT: Jesus christmas roxy!
TG: oh dang
GT: That wont be necessary i assure you!
TG: youre alive!
GT: Alive and well thank you very much! And no of course i havent run off anywhere this is janes big day. What kind of cad do you think I am?
TG: well
GT: Wait!
GT: Actually you know what dont answer that.
TG: u sure
GT: Very.
TG: yeah good call walkin that back ;D
GT: Eugh. Now listen here! Youd best believe i am absolutely tickled over this invite and one hundred percent primed to get out there and back jane just as well as you or dirk can!! So you just worry about yourself. Or maybe dirk! You never know dirk might run.
TG: hmm o rly?
TG: lets see
GT: Wait no!
TG: dirk saaaaays and i quote "go fuck urself english"
TG: "furthermore the only yellow bellied turntail coward round these hills is ifjiasf
GT: God damnit roxy you werent supposed to show and or possibly tell him that!
GT: Whats the matter with you!
TG: lmfao
TG: hold please
TG: i need to break a grabby hand
TG: nm he let go
GT: ...
TG: ok ok ok 100% honest he only said the first part
TG: the go fuck yourself part i mean
GT: Fantastic! You know what I dont have time for this!
GT: I need to finish gussying up for this grand opening and youre probably distracting me with embarrassing bullshit on purpose. Well thats it im through!
TG: yowza
TG: alright fine
TG: finish prettying urself up u damn peacock
TG: just hurry it up janes getting p nervous
TG: ok?
GT: Okay. Right. I won't be more than a minute or so.
TG: ty <3
*
The stage was massive.
Jake stood near the back of it, suited up with his hair slicked back and a nervous smile plastered on his face. Jane's presence still somehow filled the space completely, which was a real relief because it made it easier for him to pretend no one out in the dizzying crowd was looking at him. He rocked on his heels, hands clasped behind his back, and kept his eyes on the back of Jane's head.
She was right in the middle of her grand speech, standing steel-backed at a polished black podium, done all up in a smart red button-up suit. She had a big old pair of wicked looking scissors clutched in one hand, and sometimes she'd get real excited, all riled up with her fierce rhetoric and lofty ambitions, and wave them around in the air. The sun glinted off the blades and Jake pretended that it was cheap lens flare in a really cheesy movie shot. That he was standing guard, keeping watch for assassins or thugs or all around dastardly saboteurs.
It wasn't true, of course. He was standing there because Jane was about to cut the red ribbon on a brand spiffing new production facility, and she'd wanted him and the others to stand up here behind her in front of the whole crowd and all of it because -- her words --, she'd hardly done it all alone. The design schematics and initial prototyping had been integral to the eventual operation of the whole shebang. And he couldn't say no to Jane. Not at all, generally, but especially not when she was so excited and thinking she was being so gracious, letting him share a little piece of the spotlight.
The only thing that made it bearable was that he wasn't standing up there alone. Roxy stood beside him, resplendent in a dazzling pink and purple confection of a dress, grinning ear to ear. She elbowed him every so often, waggling her eyebrows at some turn of phrase Jane had just put out, and that was fine. It was something to focus on that wasn't all the cameras pointed at them, or worse, all the curious people that had turned out to see what new thing their creators were up to now. Mostly humans, here in Jane's corner of the world. A bit of everything, sure, but mostly human. Probably the species he did the worst with out of all the inhabitants of their new home.
He snuck a glance sideways. Roxy didn't see him, but that was good. He wasn't looking at Roxy, because Dirk was there, too. Exhibit A, he thought a little ruefully. He might have chuckled a bit, quietly to himself. No one heard him. Jane had the microphone, after all, and the woman could project. She was speaking in grand tones about the Crocker Empire and manifest destiny and so on, and Dirk was staring right at the back of her head like it was the most interesting thing in the world, just the way Jake had been a few seconds before.
At least, Jake was pretty sure that was where he was staring. It was hard to tell with the shades, which he had insisted on wearing despite Jane's many protests on the matter. Dirk's arms were crossed, his back was straight, his posture stiff, and he probably felt all hells of awkward about being up here, too, but to anyone who didn't know him, he just came off... intimidating.
If there were any would-be ne'er-do-wells skulking about, they'd probably be rightfully more worried about the stoic, imposing guy in the pointed shades than the spacey goofus in the inch thick glasses.
Jake bit his tongue to keep from sighing. He snatched his gaze back and focused it up to the other side of the stage. Back down again. Anywhere but straight ahead. Something about all the faces just got him right in the gut, even if they weren't staring right at him. A whole big frigging ocean of them. He was sweating, and the late summer heat was only partially to blame.
"And so," Jane said, in magnanimous tones that suggested she was nearly done, "It is with enormous pleasure that I declare the latest and greatest addition to Crocker Corporate officially open for business!" She stepped around the podium and snipped the ribbon primly, and Jake watched the silken tatters of it flutter apart while at least a million cameras dazzled them with a round of blinding flashes. The crowd cheered. Roxy let out an excited whoop and dashed forward to bear hug Jane from behind, and from the corner of his eye, Jake saw Dirk turn ever so slightly to watch them. The girls were laughing, cameras continued popping off in blinding bursts left and right, and Dirk raised one hand to scratch awkwardly at the back of his neck.
So, of course, Jake did the only reasonable thing he could imagine: he turned and practically ran off the stage. The thick crimson curtain separating the press set from the factory proper swished, heavy behind him. Probably no one noticed. He was far from the main attraction, after all, and he'd done his due. He'd stayed out there for the whole damn thing.
Blessedly, it was cooler inside the factory. Jane had said it was open for business, but that wasn't strictly true. The real life gears and belts and whistles in the place wouldn't get going full speed for at least a little while yet, and for now it was just dark inside. Dark and quiet, familiar and a little bit peaceful. He chewed his lip. Internally, anxiety did the same to all his internal organs.
Jane had a whole celebration shindig planned at her estate. An after party for this very event. She and Roxy and Dirk were probably already gearing up to part the crowd and head out, but he honestly wasn't sure he could do it. Jane would spend the whole night introducing him to people, quipping at him about making connections and sharing some of his ideas with people that could help him go big, really go global with the whole robot production line thing and his grandma's tech, the SkaiaNet to her CrockerCorp, and ... and.
And that was her dream, not his. Wasn't it?
He thought about the people cheering, the stage and the lights and the applause, and then he heaved a great big dramatic sigh there where no one could hear him grouse.
Maybe not all her dream. But Christ, it was a lot! She dealt with so damn much every single day, an endless march of people in and out of her office and her space and her life, and Jake didn't think he could ever be like her.
He wasn't sure what he wanted to be, really. They were near a year in now, everyone busy scoping out their roles in this new world, and it felt like everyone had made progress except him. Rose said they all had to cultivate their own sphere, whatever that meant, and it seemed to come to the others naturally just by being themselves. Well, who the fuck was Jake English, really? Besides a great big faker that sometimes lucked into good ideas that Roxy and Dirk always had to refine for him anyhow? What kind of sphere was that? Not the kind for cultivating, sure as anything.
"Hey."
He froze, staring at a dim reflection of himself in the burnished metal shine of a ludicrously large oven. Dirk's voice, echoing in from the front. His lips parted to reply, but his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, so instead he just silently studied the oven, his brain ticking rote over the spec sheets he'd helped write. Measurements and formulas and max load and optimum temperature and all sorts of figures aligned themselves in his mind's eye, and it was funny how much easier it was to conjure all of that than a simple fucking hello.
"You in here, somewhere?"
It didn't look like much from the outside, but boy howdy, on the inside there were all sorts of belts and switches and precisely calibrated mechanisms to ensure everything that went in was perfectly measured and perfectly baked, every single time.
"Jake? Come on, man, I know you went in here."
He knew exactly how it worked, because he'd invented the damn thing. Well, the interesting parts of it, anyway. Roxy and Jane had spent months calibrating it, but he and Dirk had made it tick. Nearly burned all the hair off his body a thousand times doing it, but by god, they'd gotten it done.
"Jake. Seriously?"
He sounded good and annoyed, now. Jake snorted. Stood up straight. Squared his shoulders.
"Now listen here, Strider," he began, flinging the words out like a challenge. "If you already knew the answer, why'd you bother asking the question?"
"Don't give me that shit."
Dirk found him easy, even though their voices echoed strangely in the space, bouncing off the neat rows of new machinery and echoing up into the red-painted steel rafters. Jake made sure his arms were crossed and his face was neutral enough to make even a Strider proud by the time Dirk rounded a corner and found him between baking behemoths, like it was the most natural place in the world to be standing. "Jane is worried you're upset at her, by the way."
He blinked. "Why the blue fucking blazes would I be upset at Jane?"
Dirk shrugged. "She said something about forgetting to namedrop you for the crowd, or something. She thought maybe we expected more credit for all of..." he gestured aimlessly around. "This."
"Is she joking? Thank god she didn't, I'd have probably died right there on the stage." He sucked in a breath. Fuck. "I mean -- I don't mean that -- Not that I'm, you know, ungrateful! It's not like --"
Dirk shook his head and cut him off with a nonchalant wave. "I get it," he said.
And the thing was, he probably did.
Knowing that should have made him feel better, but instead his heart just squeezed wearily in his chest and he felt a thousand times worse. Hey, Dirk, he thought, staring at the floor, not actually saying a word of it, Not that building battlebots and delivery drones and weather machines and like a thousand ovens with a hundred flamethrowers inside them each hasn't been really great, and all, but...
Dirk coughed, already turning away. Jake could mostly handle awkward silence. Dirk absolutely one hundred percent could not. Never could. "Anyway," Dirk said, probably just to fill it.
Anyway, I miss being allowed to tease you about blushing. Jake shook his head. Couldn't say that.
"I'll talk to her," he offered instead, wincing at the prospect even as the words left his mouth.
"Cool," Dirk said, back still turned to him. "So you're coming to the thing tonight, then."
"Right, the thing." Absolutely friggin' not, are you crazy? That was what he wanted to say, anyway. What a sane man would have said. But he opened his mouth and a question popped out, instead. "Are you?"
This, Dirk answered first with an incredulous laugh. "You think Roxy would let me get away with not going?" It all echoed weirdly in the expansive room like everything else, and Jake nodded. Of course. Damnable obligation. "Or Dave, for that matter. He keeps saying I have to go because I'm his ticket in. Which is bullshit, because he already worked out a whole thing with Jane, he's bringing his music, he's got a side stage all set up. He's probably just make fun of me. Which is cool and all, don't get me wrong."
And there, finally, Dirk cut himself off, wincing. "Never mind," he said, waving it off, like he could erase the last few things he'd said with a gesture.
Jake's eyebrows, which had been climbing steadily throughout, sat pretty about as high as they could go on his face. Dirk dropped his gaze, shook his head, abruptly turned and started walking.
"Hey!" Jake jumped into action, following after him. "So you're going!"
"Yeah." Dirk sped up, and Jake hurried after.
"Then I'm going, too," he said, and it was out before he could really stop to think about how it'd sound, and Dirk stopped and Jake nearly bowled them both right over, skidding on the metal floor to a stop just in time.
Dirk looked at him, wearing a faint frown. "You don't have to go just because I am, man. I can find some excuse for you." He shrugged. "Spare one of us the indignity, at least."
"You're so friggin' full of it," Jake elbowed him, shaking his head. "I'm not saying you aren't awkward, because you damn well are, sometimes you're just as bad as me, even, but you're going because you want to be there and we both know it. You're not..." Like me, he wanted to say, but that didn't sound the way he wanted. He frowned. It was Dirk's turn to turn upraised eyebrows at him. "You'll have a good time," he finished, but that wasn't quite right, either. He threw his hands up, exasperated. "Indignity! You say that, but you love it when Jane brags about you to all her fancy corporate-suited investors. And if Dave and Roxy and Jane will all be there --"
"Okay, fine," Dirk interrupted, already walking again, and sounding more than a bit sour, "Still doesn't mean you have to go, man. I'll tell her I found you back here in a puddle of your own puke and you had to take a rain check."
"Not a very heroic story," Jake muttered. Dirk snorted.
"Right. My bad. I'll say you found a corporate spy back here reverse engineering one of the flame belts, instead."
"Hah! And what, I got clobbered trying to pummel the cheeky bastard?"
"You were pretty bad off, sure, had to miss the party and all. But hell, Jane, you should have seen the other guy."
Jake laughed. Even Dirk was smiling a little. His heart did that stupid squeezing thing, again, and for a second he almost forgot he wasn't allowed to grab Dirk's hand whenever he pleased anymore and very nearly did exactly that. Shit. He crossed his arms, tucking his hands safely into his pits. Dirk tilted his head at him. "Well?" He said.
"Not that I don't appreciate the offer, chum. I do. But you know I'd better go. This means a lot to Jane, and... you know."
Dirk studied him for a long moment. Then he shrugged. "Fair enough," he said, so damnably casual.
They were nearly to the loading dock. Massive, hangar-like doors stood all in a row, but only one was open, and only partially, at that. Nice of him to lead them out the back way. Sunlight cut across the metal floor, and Jake squinted as they stepped into it together, holding a hand over his eyes. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky. Of course it was. Jane would have triple checked the weather, given her gala was to be held mostly out of doors, and all.
"I suppose she and Roxy took a proper functioning vehicle."
"Have to be relatable to the mortals," Dirk said. He was back to sounding faintly amused. "The whole corporate empire thing apparently works way better when they think of you as one of them."
A startled little laugh escaped him. "Jane is one of them, come on now! We're all still human, Dirk."
"I didn't say anything about human," Dirk said. "I said mortal. Mortal humans can't do this." He kicked off and lifted a few feet into the air and just hung there in a faint dusty updraft, hovering in the light. He was so --
No, none of that, now.
"Good point," he said. Dirk was obviously expecting him to jump up and join him, but the thing was, he just couldn't. He absolutely couldn't do it. He couldn't just fly there together side by side and show up like a pair and watch everyone watch them, gossiping and taking pictures that would show up in the papers under embarrassing headlines for weeks after. "Guess I'd better be off, then. Wouldn't want to be late."
Jake had just enough time to see Dirk cross his arms and take a breath to press the issue before he closed his eyes, willed gravity to go bother someone else, and shot off into the sky like a rocket. He heard Dirk's surprised little grunt as he sped by. Jake figured that Dirk would probably think about following after, but wouldn't follow through, because it had kind of been a bit of a rejection and he knew Dirk well enough to know he was sensitive to that sort of thing.
It felt miserable.
He'd been living with Dirk on an island for near a year, now. They were co-rulers, they were kings, they were literal friggin' immortal gods.
They were best friends.
They were ex-boyfriends -- his fault -- and Jake wanted him back so fucking bad he felt like every day he came a little closer to dying of it, immortal balderdash and all.