Archive of Our Own ^beta

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POOF.

It had all ended pretty quickly. 

Davepeta had gone in for the kill, chopping Lord English and killing him- but they suffered such wounds that they died in Jasprose^2's arms.

It wasn't the happy ending Dave had secretly hoped for at all.

He hoped that he would somehow save all his friends and they'd all get to grow up, they'd all get to live and no one had to die.

All the trolls that had been killed in the timeline were gone. Karkat cried a bit as Davepeta died- half of them used to be a troll who had a crush on him. Nepeta Leijon was gone and there was no fixing it.

Dave kind of wished he could have apologized to Davesprite. For what, he didn't know. He just wanted to say "i'm sorry."

But now, all the kids were in front of their homes.

Rose in front of her house, Jade on her island and John in front of his suburban home.

Dave in front of his apartment complex.

All ran inside, hoping their guardians were waiting inside with no worries at all and alive and perfect-

except Dave.

He stood stagnant outside the building, staring at the door blankly.

Dave didn't want Bro to be alive.

He wished he could have gone with Dirk back to that timeline where older brothers were kind and knives didnt fly at people randomly and puppetts werent thrown at people suddenly.

Not to mention no.. "strifing."

It was never as two-sided as it seemed.

Dave's phone buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket. 

'EB: DAVE DAVE DAVE MY DAD IS ALIVE HES RIGHT HERE IN FRONT OF ME MAN IM SOBBING'

'TG: David, our ecto-mother is living. It fills me with joy. What of our ecto-father..?'

'GG: DAVE!! MY GRANDPA'S OKAY!!!!!'

He sighed and put his phone back in his pocket.

Dave didn't want to go inside.

A tear fell from Dave's eye. He wipes it away, half angry and half sad.

He's angry with himself for crying but sad that it had to come to that.

'Suck it up,' Dave tells himself, stepping toward the door.

'I dont deserve anything but this.'