1,577,847 minutes.

1,068 days.

36 months.

1.38 solar sweeps.

Your name is Dave Strider, and it has been three years since you last heard from John Egbert. 1,577,847 minutes, 1,068 days, 36 months, 1.38 solar sweeps: Three years. It has been three long, dragging, tiresome years since that bucket clocked Karkles in the face with one last message from that bucked tooth derp. Three years since his blue text has contrasted pleasantly with yours over Pesterchum. Three years since you've seen that stupid smiley that he loves to use.

Your name is Dave Strider, and it has been three years since you've spoken to the love of your life.

The first year was arguably the worst, when you think back on it (and you generally don't). You keep his bucket letter in your room to read when you're feeling down, or when the days on this God forsaken asteroid get too long, or just when you want to look at that familiar, blue Egbertian scrawl. You end up cooped up in your room so much that you make Rose start to worry. She tries to analyze what's going on with you and comes uncomfortably close. You kick her out of your room.

She sends Terezi after you.

And at first, being forced to help the Mayor construct his town of cans was an absolute chore that you did under threat of death from a certain blind troll. But as time went by and the town began to expand, you started to enjoy yourself. Terezi lended you some chalk and you graced the town with the presence of Sweet Bro, Hella Jeff, and Geromy. You're on the jury at many of the trials and, while you try your best to save the townspeople from the unfair trials they're subjected to, you're also the witness to many an execution by the cruel hand of justice.

You're not given time to dwell on that as the Faygo immigrants begin coming in, though, and for awhile John is not on the very forefront of your mind. He's still there, but you have other things to focus on. You cope and manage and pass the time slowly. You find yourself looking at the letter less and less.

During the second year, you run into him in a dream bubble. And you're ecstatic in the most un-ironic sense of the world because this is as close to meeting him face to face for the first time that you're going to get for now. You're at his house and he's in the gear that he had towards the start of the game, one of his goofy suits and some phone glasses. You can't see his eyes with those things on, but he insists that he can't see without them. You aren't sure how he sees with them on, but you roll with it. You resist the urge to kiss him, too, because as tempting as it is he obviously is in more of a talking mood. And you're cool with that because you've missed talking with him.

Your conversation doesn't go on very long until you notice something is terribly off with your boyfriend. He seems confused about some of the more recent events. He doesn't know what you're talking about when you ask how his side of the three year journey is going. He has no idea who Davesprite is and no stories to share about the Scratch.

You ask him to take his glasses off. He complies.

His eyes are white. And not just any kind of white, they're dream bubble ghost white. You feel your heart shatter into pieces because this isn't your John. Wait, no. That's not true. He IS your John, technically. You've been speaking to the Egbert of Davespite's doomed timeline, who is the same as your John, just at a different point in time and lacking in the experiences that the John of your timeline has. This is the John who died before you got the nerve up to ask him out and at the same time the reason you got the courage to ask him out at all. This was ironic in all the worst ways possible, and the doomed John seems to realize it too.

"I'm sorry," He tells you as he replaces his glasses, "I really probably should've said something, huh?"

"It ain't a big deal." You tell him, even though it really IS a big deal, but you don't want to make him feel bad, because even if he's isn't your John he's still your John. Just from the wrong time and place, and dead to boot. "It's just nice to see your derpy face, even if your eyes are creepy as Hell." You tell him smirking, and he glares at you and you're sure he's rolling his eyes behind those obnoxious glasses.

"Geez, doesn't matter what timeline you're from, you never change do you?" He asks with a laugh. And you smile, glad to know that even in the dream bubbles you've still got a reputation.

And so the two of you sit and actually chat for awhile, passing the time until you inevitably wake up. He tells you of his adventures in the dream bubbles and says that despite all of the versions of you running around, he doesn't see you very often. He talks about all of the cool things he's seen, including your John flying around on Skaia and occasionally playing with the salamanders in a dream portion of LOWAS.

He asks about Davesprite and you explain that he's the 'you' from his timeline. He seems sort of confused, but he goes with it. He says he's going to keep an eye out for him from now on because as much fun as it is talking to you, he wants to talk to his Dave. And you understand the sentiment entirely.

"Hey, if you do see him, can you pass on a message for me?" You ask, feeling slightly light headed as you start to wake up, "Can you tell him to just…tell him to take real good care of my John, would ya?"

And the doomed John smiles. He smiles that derpy, bucked tooth smile that makes your heart soar and crash all at once because you really want to just kiss him silly, but you know that you can't and it hurts, and he tells you cheerily "Of course." And you close your eyes, ready for this dream to be over.

You wake up in your room on the asteroid to the sound of Karkat banging on your door over something and you can't find it in yourself to care. You hunt through your room for John's letter and read it for the first time in months.

You never run into that doomed timeline John again. You never run into Davesprite, and have no idea if your message got to him. Most importantly, you never run into your John in the dream bubbles.

Ok, that's not entirely true. You ALMOST ran into your John during this huge dream bubble pow-wow early on in the third year, but just as you were arriving he got offed by this punk looking sea troll and vanished. If it wasn't for the fact that the John lookalike who was apparently a weird alternate version of Jade's grandpa from the post-scratch universe started beating the crap out of her, you would have wrecked her shit. It was too bad Harley-John didn't even really phase her, and all Hell broke loose not long after.

That was a weird, weird, weird day.

You spent the rest of the third year anxious and impatient. You wanted to see him. To talk to him. To hear his voice. To see his smile. To hug him to death and then hug him again once he was brought back by his God Tier abilities. You wanted to watch crappy movies with him. You just wanted him to be with you.

You started getting distracted. You started rapping more, hoping that by some odd chance he'd hear it. You missed jury duty a few times and Terezi got pissed at you. She tells you in so few words to get over yourself.

"You're acting like a love sick idiot!" Is what she tells you.

And you just sort of look at her, before replying, "How about you completely cut off all contact with Karkles for the Troll equivalent of three years and then come talk to me."

You know it's a rude thing to say and that really, she probably has a point, but you don't care very much. The Troll storms off in a huff and you're sure, no you're positive you're going to have an angry crab attacking you at some point later today. And you still don't care. It's around this point that the Mayor wanders up to you with a blue can of TAB in his hands and gives it to you.

You're totally lost until you roll the can around in your palm a little and come upon a crudely drawn Breath symbol. You embrace your second best friend in a bro-hug and leave to put TABert on the stand next to your bed. You keep an eye on it later that day while Karkat is biting into you for apparently trying to start a black romance with Terezi.

You begin checking Pesterchum daily to see if you're in range to message him yet, but every day you see the exact same handles that you've been seeing for the past three years. You keep checking anyways.

You go over in detail with Rose the possible consequences of using your abilities to jump forward in the timeline to a point where the asteroid is closer to the new universe.

"At the speed we're going through the Furthest Ring, jumping forward in time would be a very risky endeavor." Is what she tells you, "Time moves differently out here, as I've explained before. If your timing is even the smallest bit off, you might end up on the asteroid earlier in our journey or even too far ahead when this asteroid inevitably leaves the new session. Or in the event of a worst case scenario, you could miss the asteroid entirely while jumping through time and be stuck forever in the company of the eldritch beasts who call this Ring home."

You shiver at the very thought of that, "Well, we can't have that happening now can we?" You asked redundantly, "Can't you, you know, use your grand Seer powers to find the best time for me to get ahead safely? I mean you plotted out a three year asteroid trip helping me shouldn't be too huge of a challenge."

Rose gives you that knowing look of hers, like she's trying not to start lecturing you, "Plotting the course of the asteroid was pure luck, Dave. I would not trust my luck to try and find a pathway through time for you to travel safely, especially when my understanding of time travel is imperfect." She says, before glancing at you ruefully, "I'm not about to bet your life on a lucky draw, Dave. I would never be able to forgive myself if something went wrong. And that is not news I want to have to break to John when we meet."

That thought honestly hadn't dawned on you, and you're very glad that your ecto-sister was able to think more clearly than you. You drop the topic of time travel after that, and pass the time talking about other things such as the serious lack of apple juice on this space rock.

As you get closer and closer to the new session, you start to worry. You're worrying so much that it apparently starts to filter through your amazingly stoic façade to the point that other people start noticing. Surprisingly enough, it's not Rose or Terezi, but KARKAT VANTAS who pulls you by the cape to another part of the asteroid for a serious feelings jam. And to your ever growing surprise you actually sit down in the horn pile and tell him what's up. And he's silent all throughout.

You tell him that you're afraid of the possibility that John and Davesprite have gotten into a relationship, that Davesprite has replaced you in the past three years. You tell him you're scared that John might have lost his feelings for you. You tell him you're afraid John might have forgotten you. And as you ramble on you actually start to feel a little better. It's nice having someone to talk to about things like this that's not Rose. Rose would be analyzing right about now. But the troll with the nubby horns is just listening to you quietly and he stays like that until you run out of words. For someone who's usually screaming profanities at the top of his lungs it's weird seeing him quiet.

After you're done venting he watches you for a second.

"You are a FUCKING idiot." He tells you. "Seriously, has your thinkpan gone rotten? That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say, and I've heard you RAP."

You glare at him for that last comment, because your raps are sick, and tell him, "Yes, thank you. Those are the EXACT words I want to hear when I'm in emotional turmoil. Thank you, Karkat. Your words have soothed me to the core of my very soul."

He rolls his eyes at you, "Cut the sarcasm, Strider. I'm being serious here." He states, papping you on the forehead and messing up your shades, "How can you even be worried about this? We're talking about John FREAKING Egbert here you nooksucker. You two idiots have the romance of a semi-tragic romance novel for Gog's sake; the idea of that idiot even thinking about replacing you is hilarious."

After you fix your shades, you regard him carefully, and ask, "You really think so?"

He scoffs. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't." Karkat says, "And knowing Egbert he's probably thinking the same thing you are, but he doesn't have my fucking fantastic support to keep from panicking about it."

And now it's your turn to roll your eyes, but you shake your head afterwards a little in disbelief, "Why the hell would he even think that?" You ask.

"Why were you thinking it?"

You open your mouth to retort, but find that you actually don't have an answer. Why were you thinking those things? They were sort of unfounded worries in the first place now that you think about it. And you know that Karkat is completely right (which is annoying, but helpful anyways) because John wouldn't have forgotten you. He wouldn't have replaced you because he just isn't that type of dude.

You're surprised that you forgot that.

You close your mouth without saying anything and you nod. Karkat tries to smile at you. It comes off as kind of terrifying and you tell yourself to ask Terezi make him practice. But you appreciate the effort.

You didn't even notice how much time had passed until Kanaya comes looking for the two of you to say that dinner is ready.

It is now a few hours before the asteroid flies into the new session and you're excited. If you were less cool of a guy, you'd be giddy. But you aren't giddy because you're too cool to be giddy. You try not to think very much on that thought.

You've already captchalogged TABert, John's bucket letter and all of your other miscellaneous belongings. You and Terezi split the population of Can Town between your respective Fetch Modi, but left the transportation of the Faygo population to Gamzee. You comfort the Mayor over the loss of yet another of his towns and promise to help him rebuild when the time is right. This seems to cheer him up and for that, you're quite happy. Time begins passing quickly as you prepare to disembark from the asteroid.

You're passing by what appear to be pieces of Derse when Rose tells everyone to get ready to jump. You're actually nervous now. The idea of jumping off an asteroid that's going just under the speed of light is actually sort of terrifying.

"Now!"

And you jump without a second thought. You tumble clumsily through space for a few moments before you get your bearings. You turn to watch the asteroid speed off into the infinite depths of space and much to your surprise you find that you're not the only group of people out here. In fact the asteroid just crashed into what looks like an adult Troll (with the poofiest hair you've ever seen) and went soaring by a group of God Tiers. And one of them is suspiciously wearing the Heir of Breath hood that was identifiable from any distance.

As you and the rest of the asteroid residents approach, it becomes easier to tell who exactly is hanging out in space out here. Two of the faces are familiar; you recognize them from the dream bubble pow-wow earlier in the year. It's your Bro and Rose's mom from the new universe. Your Bro's outfit is absolutely ridiculous, but Rose's mom is rocking the Rogue look. And you look forward to later when you'll have the chance to actually get to know them, but there are more pressing matters at hand now.

Such as the third member of their trio who has just noticed you, and is giving you the happiest, derpiest bucked tooth smile you've ever seen.

"Dave!" The two of you meet for the first time, face to face, in what could easily qualify as a high speed hug for how quickly you flew to each other.

He's talking ecstatically, but you don't hear a word he says. You're too high on joy to actually register anything other than the feeling of the person in your arms. You kiss him to shut him up.

"Hey-"

"Shh…only hugs and kisses now."

He looks at you oddly for a moment before he laughs, and enthusiastically complies with your request. Your heart soars and for the first time in three years it doesn't come spiraling back down to crash and burn.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you're meeting the love of your life, your boyfriend of three years (1.38 solar sweeps, 36 months, 1,068 days, 1,577,847 minutes), for the first time. It feels like the passage of time has stopped for this very moment right here, right now, and you can't say you care.

Fin

Hi there! So, I did this for a Valentine fanfic trade on Tumblr, and I sort of figured why not post it here too? This is my first time posting over here in the Homestuck section though, to be honest.

Anyways! Hope you enjoyed it, and happy Valentine's day!

~Sleepy ;D