Au where Bro isn't an abusive asshole.
Trigger warnings; Panic attacks, blood mention, strong language.
This is unedited, please review!

Karkat opened the door and you were back on the roof of your apartment. It happened that fast. At one moment you were yelling to him, asking him why he was in such a hurry. You were covered in blood and cuts, running after him and away from the pile of your recently killed friends. The two of you were the only ones left. John and Jade died, Rose died, all of the trolls died. All of the alpha kids, the dancestors, every single person died. It was just the two knights standing among their dead companions. You continued to frantically question him, trailing close behind him. He responded saying there was no time to explain and threw the door open as soon as he could reach it. Everything was white and quiet and then you felt warmth.

You open your eyes and are on roof of your apartment in Texas. Your breath catches in your throat as you look around. Is this a dream? This can't be happening. Can it? You're still in your god tier, but the blood and injuries once covering you are gone. You have your shades again, they had been broken during the final battle so you didn't know what to expect. Other than you it looks like nothing had changed. While you continue to survey your surroundings your eye catches a bit of movement. You look that way and what you see makes your breath hitch again.

Bro.

Bro is standing right there, just a bit away from you. From what you can tell he looks relieved- really fucking relieved. A light smile is on his face that you've never seen before. Everything in your mind is telling you that this is not real. This is to good to be true. You've had countless dreams like this, of Bro coming back and everything going back to the way it was. But those dreams always ended and you woke up on the meteor in your drab grey room once again.

But man, it's really fucking warm.

Somehow this doesn't seem like a dream. You don't feel like you're going to wake up as soon as you start to approach him. So you take a chance, because you'll never know if you don't try. With shaky legs and an uneven breath you start to walk forward. With every step you become more and more confused. There is one thing on your mind in this moment; you aren't waking up. You feel weird as hell but you aren't waking up. You're right in front of him and you aren't. waking. up.

You reach out to his chest and lightly press your fingertips to where it was pierced the last time you saw him. Nothing happens. You step alittle closer and it feels like you're not in full control of your body. Like you're on autopilot, not entirely aware of what you're actually doing. Your other hand goes to his chest and again, nothing happens. It's just his chest, whole and unharmed. Both of your hands are now covering his heart, as if to protect it from an unseen threat.

You jump slightly when you feel him put his arms around you. It's a light embrace, just enough to know he's there without feeling trapped. You don't feel trapped though. Everything seems to be a bit too much. Somewhat too big. Like you're tiny while the whole world is huge. The meteor was cold, dark and silent all the time. So now the combination of the Texan heat, the inner city sounds and bright sun was alittle much for you. Your fingers move to fists, holding the fabric of his shirt in your hands. You're conflicted, your want this to be real. You really, really do. You want to believe this isn't a dream but you can't. Part of you thought that you would never win the game, it thought you would die in the veil on a desolate depressing meteor with Rose and a few trolls. That part of you was apparently alot larger than you had previously expected.

"Is this a dream?" You mumble. It's not exactly the coolest thing you could have said at this moment, but nothing else came to mind. Because you don't know, you don't know if this is a dream or not and you need some sort of confirmation.

"No, lil man. It's not a dream." He holds you a bit tighter.

When you hear this you realize how short your breaths have become. You're hardly breathing, just taking in short gasps of air while you try to process the situation. You are here, he is here, you are on earth and you can't breathe. Somehow he senses your panic and makes you follow him. He pulls you into the apartment corridor and you hear the murmurs of people talking around you. It is dark and bland but not like the meteor. Instead of the echos to your footsteps you hear the barking of a dog. Instead of gleaming metal walls there are signs of wear on the cream concrete. Instead of empty these hallways feel full. Full of life and it's too much. Everything is happening too fast and this is all getting way too hot to handle.

You hear the rustle of keys when he lets go of your hand. Your surroundings seem so superficial, so fake. Your whole world has been re-arranged and replaced. Made into a copy of the real thing but still...something isn't quite right. You're staring at nothing in particular when Bro pulls you into the apartment and shuts the door. When he turns on the light you freeze. The apartment is just like how you remember it. It's a puppet ridden mess, just the way it was before any of the madness started.

Your whole body goes rigid because all of this is foreign to you. You're still leaning towards none of this being real. So you just stop and Bro looks at you, like really looks. His eyebrows tilt up in an unspoken question. It's so unlike him that it makes you shut down. You officially have 0 control over your body or mind. You back against the door and slide down. Once you hit the floor you hide your face in your knees and continue to gasp for air.

Your name is Bro Strider and your lil bro is freaking out. bad. You thought bringing him back to the apartment would help. Maybe bring some sense of normalcy or something. You don't really know, you've never done anything like this before. But as Dave curls in on himself and struggles to breathe you realize that maybe you need to kick it into high gear. Act like an actual guardian for once in your life. The kids been through hell and back, so this reaction is probably normal.

You hope…

You sit down next to Dave and pull him into an awkward side embrace. This whole being a good guardian thing is going great so far. Being affectionate doesn't really fit hand in hand with being a Strider so you're really at a loss on what you should do. You just kinda...hold him. Hold him and wait for something to come to mind. You're so busy trying to think of ways to remedy the situation you hardly realize when Dave lifts his head and latches on to you. He wraps his arms around your neck and holds onto you like you're the last living being alive. Like you're the only thing keeping him grounded.

Becoming more sure of yourself, you put your arms around him and hold him close. He shakes and you can feel his uneven breath on your skin. Your stomach does this weird flip when you feel tears fall onto your neck. You want to help Dave, you feel a parental protectiveness that you haven't felt since he was a small child. You think back to when Dave would become upset in the past. It didn't happen often, and when it did he hid from you, so you don't have anything to work with. Instead you try and copy what good parents do in movies. You rub his back in small, soft circles as he cries.

"C'mon lil man, it's gonna be okay." You try to sooth him the best you can. Speaking hardly even a whisper, "We're both here, we're safe. There's nothing to worry about. Not anymore." Your hand runs through his hair as he clings to you tighter. "Everything is fine now. It's gonna be okay Dave."

Eventually Dave calms, he's still obviously shaken but no longer crying. The both of you sit, trying to calm your racing minds. You notice his breath become more and more even as he falls into a light sleep. You were tempted to put him in his bed but decided against it. You had to be here for your brother, and him waking up alone was not part of that. He would need all the help you could provide.

Dying fucked you up, you can admit that. When you woke up in your isolated dream bubble you were pissed. Pissed for a few reasons in particular. 1. You were pissed at the stupid black dog that killed you. 2. You were pissed that you had let the stupid black dog kill you. 3. You were pissed you let the stupid dog thing kill you in front of Dave. You always fought to seem like an unmovable force, to hopefully give Dave something strong to look up to. So dying in front of him created a huge hole in that image.

During your time in the dream bubble you came to terms with your death. It had taken some time, and for awhile you felt hopeless, alone and very un-Striderly. But in time you picked yourself up and got over it. You started to think of the brighter side to the situation. It seemed like you were still in the game. You didn't really know if that was a good or bad thing but at least you were still somewhat alive. You would just have to hope you trained the lil man well enough to beat this godforsaken game.

Dave, however. He did not have time to come to terms with his brother's death. The three years sitting on the meteor did nothing but let him marinade in the guilt of letting his brother die. He didn't grieve like a normal human would. He just shoved it to the back of his mind and acted like nothing was bothering him. Because that's what he thought a Strider would probably do. Nobody noticed, he thought Rose could tell for awhile but once she started drinking she was as oblivious as everyone else.

They all thought Dave was just as chill as he presented himself to be. But sometimes, while he sat alone in his room, he couldn't stop thinking about the blood that pooled around Bro as he bled out. He couldn't turn his mind away from the sadness, the loneliness, of knowing his brother was gone. He was dead and seemingly never coming back. And those were the nights where his breath became short and tears fell from his eyes against his will. It was only then that it could be seen how raw the wound of his brothers death was for the broken knight.

You wake up confused, extremely confused. You still have your eyes closed but you can feel someone carding their fingers through your hair lightly. When you shift the arms around you tighten and a soft 'shhh' is whispered into your ear. You settle again, breathing in the scent of cheap cologne and hairspray. Faintly you think it reminds you of Bro. Then you remember the events from the last few hours.

Bro is holding you, murmuring things you can't quite make out. All of it is very soothing though. You didn't know Bro could be so caring, so gentle. You don't question it. You just let it happen, taking in all the attention because you want it. You want to be loved and held, you want it so badly. You couldn't bring yourself to ask for any of it though. No, that would leave you too vulnerable.

But as you sit in Bro's lap and bury your face in his chest you don't care about being vulnerable. Because Bro can protect you, he always has and always will. You don't want to worry about anything anymore and as Bro whispers that everything is fine you find yourself believing him. Everything is fine because Bro is here and you are here and you're safe in this bright and shiny new world. The world you fought so hard to protect, to take back from the dark grasp of Sburb. Everything is alright now.