Chapter Text
Your first thought upon leaving your room and not immediately being able to locate Dirk is the irrational thought that you've lost him.
You force yourself to take a serious step back, because not only is he not a child and is -in fact- older than you, but you're also fairly certain that he wouldn't just leave the apartment. Not only because of what happened that morning, but also because he doesn't know his way around, and Dirk seems like the kind of person who is a bit too practical to go wandering around a city that he's never been in before.
While that does help you reframe your thought, it doesn't actually help solve the problem.
You don't know where Dirk is.
It's not like he's your responsibility or anything, and maybe you're just being paranoid, but you can't help the fact that you feel uncomfortable letting people out of your sight. You figure you have enough practical experience with your friends dying to earn the right to have those worries without having to label them 'irrational'. There's a reason you keep retreating to your room to check in with people. You're too far away to actually do anything if something does go amiss, but you feel like you'd prefer to know rather than having to find out after the fact.
You're in the middle of composing a list of all the places you could look to find Dirk (and also Hal, because now that you're thinking about it, you don't see him either) when you hear Davesprite scoff at you and say, "They're on the roof."
You breathe out a slightly, totally chill, sigh of relief. Your paranoia was irrational, hashtag Confirmed. What a surprise.
The groceries never actually got put away, so you handle that first. You're pretty sure that this is the most food that's been in the apartment in literal years, but you're still not satisfied with the look of your haul. Maybe you've just been spoiled by the surplus of supplies that were stocked on the meteor, but you're pretty sure that it's actually just common sense this time.
Used to be that you got most of your meals at school (and fuck, you're sixteen now. What fucking grade are you supposed to be in? 10th? 11th? You didn't even finish middle school. Are you going to have to go back to school??), and then hoarded food in your room to eat while you were at home.
Obviously, school meals aren't an option anymore, but you're also running low on alternate ideas. You were thirteen the last time you lived here, which isn't exactly an age known for its ludicrous monetary opportunities. You're pretty sure that Dirk is good with computers; with any luck he'll be able to figure out wherever it was that Bro hid his money, and you'll be able to get some real good, not just ramen and fruit cups.
One thing at a time though.
That doesn't actually help. You don't know where the hell to begin to even try to sort out this absolute clusterfuck of a messy situation.
You sigh heavily and resist the urge to drive your head into the counter. You're here worrying about food, and Dirk and the others spent the last day and a half eating absolutely nothing. They hadn't even seemed too annoyed or anxious about it. Barely brought it up to you, hadn't mentioned it before that at all. You wonder just how typical going without food was for them. Well, for Dirk. You're pretty sure the others just forgot that they had to eat now that they were human.
You kind of hate all of this shit. Somehow, the game was simpler than this. For a twisted moment, you vaguely miss it.
Then Hal comes down the stairs from the roof, looking vaguely shaken, and that shakes you out of your thoughts quick.
You make yourself finish putting the groceries away, and then you go back to your room. They probably don't want you hanging around out here anyway.