Funeral
"Do you...want to talk about it?" Terezi asked quietly.
There was a long, long silence between them. The wind rustled around the sixteen. They huddled together in a circle, their knees curled up to their chests, their eyes casted down into the dirt in front of them. No one cried. Not even little nepeta.
Dave and Terezi stayed far from the group, side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Dave hadn't spoken since he read the letter, which was nearly two hours ago. As he read the words Dirk had written for him his jaw clenched, his hands trembled and quaked like a bone shattering explosion had happened inside him. His friends watched, terrorized, their hearts sloshing in their guts. No one had ever seen Dave- calm, cool, collected Dave- so distressed. So distraught. From behind his opaque shades slid tears glistening in the moonlight. He clenched the letter tightly before throwing it down on the grass.
"Dave?" Terezi asked.
Dave staggered back, holding his gut with one hand and his other hand cupped over his mouth. He shivered, making little noises like whimpers and squeaks, sniffling and hacking, until finally he couldn't take it and he turned on his heels and bolted- bolted -from the scene. Terezi fled after him, her legs going as fast as they could carry her. As soon as she was close enough she sprung, tackling him head on and, out of sight from the others, they skidded far. Dave writhed and squirmed beneath her.
"Shh, shh," she hushed him hurriedly, pinning his wrists, feeling his body heave breath beneath her. He panted, tears dripping down his face, until finally he was calm and she let go of his wrists, and rolled onto her side next to him. He rolled over, hugging into his chest, in complete silence. Terezi carefully reached out a hand, very gently touching his soft blonde hair. She wiped a tear away with her thumb. And for a long, long time, they were silent. Finally, Terezi asked the question. Dave didn't answer her. She heard him suck in a big breath and slowly allow it to escape from his lungs, his chest slowly lowering back down, his twisted mind at ease. He moved his hands, which lay palm-down on the soft dirt, onto his stomach and overlap. He looked up with his big blue eyes and looked up to the stars.
"He really was my big bro." Dave said softly, almost as soft as the kisses the wind on Terezi's cheeks. "He used to...he used to short sheet my bed and pour honey in my shoes. One time he superglued my hands into fists when I was nine."
"I remember that." Terezi giggled. "You were so mad."
"Yeah," Dave felt a smile take home in his lips. "He had to melt it off. And there was that one time when he locked me in my room with three tarantulas. I think Vriska helped him with that one." Terezi laughed. "You know...when I read the letter, I wasn't actually that sad. I was just scared, you know? I was scared to be what I am- a genetic mistake. I was scared knowing that the place I grew up in is gone, and that I can never go back, and everything I left behind I would never see again. And I was scared to be alone. I've been training to be independent all my life and still...I'm scared."
"I am, too." Terezi shivered.
And then there was silence as they stared up into the sky, watching the whole universe from their spot beneath the trees. The trees shielded them like a mother's warm embrace, the mother they never really had. "Terezi." Dave said, his voice no more than a breath, the syllables slipping from his lips and spilling out into the air around them, her name dancing around in the wind, like a kiss on the forehead. "Look at how small we are. How insignificant. Just little specks, tiny little cog wheels in the big machine of the universe. We're just...tiny. So tiny."
"I think this is what growing up is about." Terezi said. "Being small. Being scared. Not necessarily getting bigger. Just...terror. Beautiful terror." Dave took his hand from off of his stomach to hold hers, entwining his fingers with her nimble, soft ones.
"Terror." He repeated.
"Dave? Terezi?" A feminine voice called through the forest. Dave sat up, taking back his hand. He strained his ears to hear two feet lightly scuttling through the leaves on the ground. "Come back now! We need you!" Dave rose to his feet, and Terezi right behind him, as they followed the voice back the way they came. (It was Nepeta's voice, of course- who else but the little feline scout?)
"What is it, Nepeta?" Dave asked when they found her. Nepeta didn't answer, but her mouth drooped into a frown as she turned around and scuttled away, Dave and Terezi on her tail. She led them into the space they had camped in, while the sun rose a fire blazed. They all stood around in a circle, all hands holding, and a big smile painted on Aradia's face. Equius held out his open hand for Nepeta to join him, and she did willingly, her paw resting in Dave's hand. Dave gently held Terezi's hand and Terezi held Vriska's. Aradia cleared her throat and painted an even bigger smile on top of her previous one.
"As the destined Maid of Death, I hereby call to order this funeral." She smiled. Dave looked at her like she was the devil himself. "We hold our hands together to ensure the prevention of any evil spirits ruining this moment that our Professor Dirk passes onto the next life. Now, in order to wish him well in his next life we'll all go around the circle to say what we love about our Professor Dirk. It can be absolutely anything, just so long as you believe it and it's real. I'll start." She cleared her throat again. "Professor Dirk, you were really, really smart and funny. I didn't understand most of your irony but I still laugh, and it always feels real when I do. You protected my friends and I respect you for that. Thank you so much, professor Dirk. May you become a big happy animal and sass the faces of many more as you do. Now it's your turn, Tavros. What would you like to say?"
"Me? Um.." Tavros wobbled on his feet. Aradia gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. Regaining his self confidence, he looked up. "I didn't know you well, Dirk, but from everything I've seen you were really one of a kind, weren't you? I-I mean, I always sort of...you know, looked up to you. I mean, I didn't idolize you, but the self-confident version of myself that lives in the back of my heart, now that I think about it, really resembles you. Like a lot. I admire you, I guess. So...yeah. Jade?"
And so it went on. Jade tearfully confessed a childhood crush and always trying her hardest to be the best in his classes. Karkat quietly complimented his handiwork on the countless shirts he ripped fighting his friends and the many times he had come crying complaining of a torn doll. John thanked him for the pie he made him on his birthday, because he knew that he didn't like cakes. Vriska called him witty and adorable, and though most people didn't believe she meant it she did. And finally it was Terezi's turn to try.
"Pro-Professor Dave?" Terezi stammered. "W-Well...I guess...he was funny. He was nice. He was tough on us, I mean, but he was a great teacher. He taught us well. I wouldn't have survived if not for him. None of us would. We would all just be rejections. Monsters. Trolls under the bridge. That's all. But with him we weren't. With him we were kids. Not regular kids. We were the cool kids. The kids that could fight an alligator. The kids that walked tightrope over a raging river. The kids that literally had to survive with no clothes for a month at twelve years old. Professor Dirk made us them. Dirk was all of our cool uncle. Or whatever. And we love him for it." She looked at Dave.
But Dave had nothing left to say- Terezi had said it all. But everyone was watching him, and how...how ironic would it be should he have nothing to say. He grinned. Irony. Isn't that great. "He was my bro." Dave said and turned to Nepeta. Everyone was stunned- that's all? They thought. But Dave felt inside him, a sense of achievement, like that's what Dirk would have wanted him to do, and forgetting the moment the group continued with their funeral until finally it circled back to Aradia and she spoke again. "And thus concludes our funeral. You may now drop hands." And all hands rested at their sides. "Karkat will now take over this meeting."
"We need to know what to do next, people." Karkat jumped right in. "We need to fucking figure shit out."
"The letter," Rose said. "Do we still have the letter? It might be the next clue."
"Our professors don't tend to be repetitive."
"Didn't." Kanaya mumbled. "Past tense. They're dead. They don't tend to do anything anymore."
"Shut up." Karkat glared. "Our next clue is in Atlanta. It's about a twenty mile walk from here. At the same pace we can cover that in about, what? Six hours?"
"But where are we supposed to go?" Eridan answered. "Atlanta is glubbin' enormous."
"I think we can find that in our letter." Kanaya said. "Read it over again. I've noticed a few things."
"That's incredible."
"You honestly noticed this? We're you not paying attention to anything he said?"
"Seriously. Wow."
What Kanaya had found in that letter, when she flipped it over and put a match up to it, revealed a secret message of questions. Riddles.
The thing about these riddles was that they asked questions, specifically, so that those who knew the answers would have to answer riddles of their own to speak them aloud. There were three of these questions.
At what point does a friend become an enemy?
When does a third party destroy a friendship so strong?
Who's fault is it?
Of course, no one knew shit about what Dirk meant. Eridan had other ideas.