22. Showers

Summary: Davesport 'cept they shower together.

CW: there's nothing sexual and no (explicit) nudity described but they are naked and in a shower together so if that makes you uncomfortable please turn away [thumbs up]

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Requested by my friend Soda!!

Also no I have not studied yet I LIED

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They were wet, moist, dank, but most of all soiled from the rain. It'd caught them unexpectedly while walking back to their motel; that point in the evening where the Nevada heat subsided into an unexpected downpour, and all the humidity manifested in raindrops. Jack had given up on trying to cover himself a long time ago, but Dave was still rushing through the streets as if he wasn't already soaked to his underwear. This was a problem, because Dave and his freakishly tall limbs walked way faster than Jack, who was borderline jogging to keep up with him.

"Slow down, it won't make a difference anyway-"

He had said, but Dave kept picking up his pace again after less than a minute of slowing down. There was something about Dave and storms, he had taken note of that overtime. He always seemed tense when there was thunder in the air and he hated being outside in the rain, Jack'd observed. He let the topic go for Dave's sake, trying to keep up with him while painstakingly sobering up because of the cold rain straining his muscles.

Just as their motel came into view, the pouring finally seemed to calm down. He cursed the universe and whoever its creator was supposed to be for always sending rain his way whenever he was outside; more of that fate bullshit he'd gotten so annoyed with lately. Dave fumbled with the key to their room, a tremor in his hand which could be from both the cold and the irrational fear stormy conditions invoked in him.

"Fuckin' hell-"

He cussed, once they finally stumbled inside. Drops of water already began falling from their clothing, and Dave made quick work of undoing the buttons of his shirt. Jack took a moment to let his body acclimatize to the warm surroundings, wiping orange makeup from his face. He took the moment to watch Dave shed his soaked clothing, taking notice of how filthy he'd gotten overtime. He rarely took the time to shower, not that Jack was any better, and his hair was a tangled mess that only showed the surface of a body sticky with spilled beer and whatnot.

There was something unmistakably beautiful about their shared filth, about how they could rot together if they wanted to. Fester in their room, drink their misery away, in the company of another. It all seemed bright when they were together, and the only real evidence that it wasn't was what displayed itself on their bodies. It was astounding that he could see through the layers of dirt and still see a person, a person worthy of love and empathy. When Dave's gaze met his, he knew from the look in his eyes that he must have felt the same.

"I'm showerin' first old sport!"

Dave said, narrowed eyes and a teasingly mean grin on his face. Snapped back out of his dreamy state, Jack also began tugging at the collar of his shirt. The cold returned to him, replacing that warm feeling of affection with a shiver that made him long for a hot shower.

"Oh hell no you aren't!"

He threw his shirt to the floor as he dashed after Dave, who was now only in his underwear, and just barely managed to stop him from locking the bathroom door on him. He pushed his weight against it, easily winning from Dave's frail figure as he gave way and allowed Jack to stumble into the bathroom. They couldn't help but laugh at the whole chase, a heavy sound in the small space.

"Hell yes I am old sport, I called dips!"

Jack hurriedly unzipped his pants, as if he was truly in a race with Dave to get under the shower. Their bathroom was equally as filthy as they were; a product of their residence there. Before he could mutter a reply, Jack tripped over his jeans while he was trying to pull them over his ankles, causing him to lose his balance. In a reflex, Dave caught him, just barely preventing him from falling to the floor.

Despite not having a heart, he could almost feel it racing in his chest as he held Jack up with his arms around his chest. It took a split second for either of them to comprehend what was happening, and another for Jack to regain his balance. He set his feet back to the floor and quietly thanked Dave, now properly stepping out of his jeans. The contact was brief and it could hardly be called warm with the cold temperature of their bodies, but it resided nonetheless. Some of Jack's makeup remained splotched on Dave's arms and collarbone as he fully let go, almost opposite to his own skin.

The room was suddenly filled with silence instead of laughter, and Dave swallowed thickly. There was something in their contact, no matter how rushed and seemingly meaningless, it was always there. Jack was equally as cold as he was, and hardly any cleaner. He looked to the additional scars on Jack's chest, and then down to his own. Would intimacy hurt, he considered as he glanced over to the fairly spacious shower.

"We can shower together?"

Dave asked, the words already having left his mouth before he could reason with himself. It was bold, he knew that, but it seemed right in the moment. Jack's gaze snapped towards him, and the unreadable expression on it made him fear that he pushed it too far, that he said something weird and irreversible that would make Jack disgusted.

"Wait, what?"

But he spoke of confusion instead, raising a slitted eyebrow at Dave. He wasn't opposed to it, it was more so that he'd never considered it. Such an outright act wasn't like them in the slightest, not when any and all affection had been hidden behind ulterior motives.

"I mean- It's big 'nough for the both o' us?"

He shrugged, tried to play it off as casual despite the sudden nerves wrecking his body. He never understood why he felt that way around Jack; it was like being on edge, but not at all in the negative way he had learned to adopt around Henry.

"Hm, I guess..."

He'd never really looked at their shower that way, but now that Dave pointed it out; it was indeed quite big by motel standards. Jack was an average sized man, and with Dave being incredibly lanky, they should easily fit. They were both cold, soaked from the rain and shivering lightly.

"Sure, alright-"

Jack said, because there was no reason to fight over who got to go first if the solution was right in front of him. He knew Dave's body was like his, he'd seen it already and if he hadn't yet he could now.

"But you're not making it weird!"

Continued Jack, half jokingly. Dave raised his hands between them defensively, a weight falling off his chest with it. He laughed lightheartedly, and responded with a chuckle to his words:

"I would never old sport! I can't believe you think so low of me..."

Jack wisefully shook his head and gave Dave a playful punch in the shoulder, before walking past him to scrounge for anything to wash themselves with. Much to his surprise, he found both a bottle of shampoo and conditioner alongside some body wash, handing the first two to Dave as he was the only one of them who still had, admittedly malnourished, hair.

It was a little strange, at first. They were comfortable around each other, they'd seen one another naked in passing glances plenty of times, but this was still new. Jack offered to get the water started, holding his hand under the stream until it was a pleasant temperature. When he turned back around Dave had already shed his underwear, and he had to hold himself back from making a crude comment.

There was no use in prolonging the inevitable, especially not with Dave already stepping under the stream. He seemed to bask in the heat that emerged from it, the water hitting his chest and streaking down towards his groin. Jack sighed and discarded his underwear too, walking over towards Dave. It was spacious, sure, but it still forced them to be closer than usual. He didn't want to meet Dave's eye, didn't want to make it awkward, so he instead looked down to where his orange makeup began to mix with the droplets of water.

Dave seemed to notice though, as he took Jack's wrists in hand and pulled him further towards the stream; closer. The warmth of the water was what kept him there, the sensation pleasant and refreshing against his cold body. He tried not to pay it any mind; tried to ignore how close they stood, how different Dave looked like this, how the scars on his chest were somehow worse than his own. It worked for the most part, but he couldn't turn his eye away from how the droplets seemed to embrace all his features, how he looked content in the heat.

"You're staring sportsy..."

Dave observed, with no real bite to his words. He laughed, lighthearted and airy, when Jack immediately shot his eyes the other way.

"Difficult not to look at what's right in front of me-"

He muttered, less confident than he'd hoped. He watched from the corner of his eye how Dave reached for the shampoo bottle, his arm brushing his own in the process. He was making this more awkward than it had to be, and was actively looking for any other topic of conversation when he saw how Dave applied his shampoo. He squirted a good amount of it on the top of his head, and proceeded to stand under the water without doing anything to it.

"What're you doing?"

Jack asked, watching how several splotches of the shampoo fell to the floor and washed away with the water. Dave looked at him with genuine confusion on his face, as if Jack had just said something ridiculous.

"Washin' my hair?"

He replied, and now both of them had an equally as confused expression on their faces.

"That's not- That's not how you wash your hair."

Jack stuttered, looking as the last of Dave's shampoo was flushed out of his hair. He'd always presumed he just didn't shower a lot from the state of his constantly tangled hair, but this explained a lot.

"Says who, old sport?"

Dave bit back, crossing his arms between them.

"I- Me! Everyone!"

"Old sport, you don't even have hair!"

Dave said, physically withholding himself from slapping Jack's head as he did. In response Jack pinched the bridge of his nose, wiping water and makeup with it from his eyes.

"I wasn't always bald, you know that right-"

Dave shrugged his shoulders, indifferent. His hair was just as much of a mess as before, and Jack concluded that this must be his regular routine from the way it looked almost matted in a few spots.

"Okay- How about this: you let me wash your hair for today, and you can tell me if it's better or worse?"

He looked up at Dave, who stared back at him with a skeptical expression. For one second he thought he'd discard the offer whole, before Dave responded:

"Alright then old sport..."

He agreed, and Jack couldn't suppress the small smile that emerged on his face.

"Right- You can either sit down or bend through your knees, but I need to reach your head."

Dave abided by his demand and sat down under the stream of water, uncaring for how gross the floor must've been. Now at perfect height to reach Dave's head, Jack was faced with the greasy birdsnest that'd formed in his hair. He briefly stepped out of the shower to grab a comb that happened to be laying around, setting it beside their soap as he picked up the bottle of shampoo. Gentle hands positioned Dave's head at the right angle, applying a rich amount of the shampoo on it.

"Has noone ever taught you how to wash your hair?"

He asked, massaging the substance into Dave's hair section by section. Quickly encountering a variety of knots, he tried his best to untangle them to the best of his abilities.

"I thought ya' were just supposed to figure that out yourself..."

It was astounding how Dave was both a genius and an utter dumbass at the same time. He had mechanical skills like noone Jack'd ever met, and yet he lacked the most mundane knowledge. Picking up the comb, he brushed through a particularly stubborn knot, causing foam to drop from his head. Dave picked it up and studied it curiously, like it was new to him.

"My mom taught me, I supposed that was the norm..."

Jack hummed, too caught up in detangling Dave's hair to process what implications were carried by that sentiment. He made his way through the mess with surprising ease and expertise, applying extra shampoo as he began massaging his scalp. Dave opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again as he leaned into Jack's touch almost automatically. It felt foreign but comfortable nonetheless, the feeling of being cared for on a physical plane. He closed his eyes, absentmindedly leaning against Jack's thigh with a soft hum. Jack allowed him to, simply kept tending to his hair as he watched Dave's muscles lose their tension.

"I can braid it for you, y'know."

He thought out loud, the words escaping his mouth before he could reconsider them. Dave opened an eye, quickly shutting it again as Jack began washing out the shampoo.

"My hair?"

He asked, barely avoiding getting foamy water in his mouth. Jack hummed approvingly, studying the length of his hair. It was much longer than it looked when tangled, and Jack couldn't help but wonder how he'd maintained such a bush of hair after his springlock accident.

"You know how to braid hair old sport?"

"Yeah, I- I used to do it for my sister, when she was young."

He didn't know why he said that, why he let Dave in on that, but he couldn't take it back anymore. When he looked down at Dave, his eyes still shut and with such a peaceful expression on his face, he decided that it could just be okay this once.

"If you don't mind sportsy, I'd like that..."

"We'll do that, then-"

Jack responded, swapping the shampoo for conditioner. He repositioned Dave's head to be out of the stream of water, applying the conditioner in rich amounts. It made his hair softer and smoother almost immediately, more easily allowing Jack to comb through the remaining tangles. When he finally got through it all and washed out the conditioner, Dave had hair that reached midway down his back.

"Look!"

He ordered Dave, who still had his eyes shut. He opened his eyes, wiping water from his lashes, as Jack held out a streak of hair to him. For a second he looked at it, dumbfounded, before taking it from Jack's fingers. He ran a hand through it, undisturbed by knots and tangles, and then picked the majority of it into his hands. Standing up from the floor, he let go of his hair to grab Jack by the shoulders.

"Shit sportsy! You were right, it hasn't looked like this in ages...!"

Jack, a bit startled by the sudden gesture, was glad when Dave released him to run his hands through his hair again, looking mesmerized. He rushed past Jack out of the shower, wiping fog from the mirror to look at himself.

"Hell! It's grown!"

Jack couldn't suppress the prideful grin that painted his face, taking the moment to stand under the stream of water by himself. Dave twirled around, nearly jumping from excitement and continuously running his hands through his hair as if that was the only way to truly express his joy. He returned to Jack, his hands enthusiastically jittering from side to side, with the biggest grin on his face. His mouth opened and shut, as if he couldn't put words to it, and he ended up just letting out a high pitch squeal.

Jack didn't need words to understand Dave, not anymore, and simply stepped aside to allow him back under the stream. Water splashed onto his freshly washed hair, which he couldn't stop toying with as Jack picked up their body wash. Most of his makeup had washed away from standing under the shower for so long, but he still squirted a rich amount of the soap onto his hands. He tried handing the bottle to Dave, but he was much too caught up in twirling a strand of hair around his fingers.

Instead, he just set the bottle down again and washed himself up while Dave remained in that ecstatic state. It was fun to watch him, to see how much it really did for him. As much as Dave was collected during their time in the restaurant, he was sporadic and full of surprises anywhere else. It made Jack content to experience him in such a manner, it made him more human than anything; exposed, not only physically but emotionally.

Sooner than later Jack was washed up, benefits of being bald. The scars on his face and the rest of his body were exposed to the light once again, showing what was beneath a facade of pretending. He told Dave to wash up and get out when he was ready, before getting out of the shower himself. Dave watched him as he dried himself off, trying not to make his staring obvious as he was still toying with his hair. There was something beautiful about seeing Jack the way he truly was, no longer hidden behind layers of foundation and whatnot, naked as the day he was born.

When Jack left the bathroom, he was left to actually wash himself. Looking down at the bottles of soap, he scoffed a little at the fact that he somehow never figured out how to wash his hair. It wasn't that surprising, really, seeing as he never had parents to teach him and Henry didn't have a particularly rich bush of hair either. He always hated doing anything with his hair, the greasy structure of it freaking him out whenever he ran a hand through it, which was why he usually just let it develop into a mess. Occasionally, when he was feeling particularly motivated, he'd brush through the excessive knotting and it'd look presentable for another week or so.

But now, it was long, entirely untangled, and even pleasant to the touch. He hadn't cut his hair since his springlock accident, too afraid that it wouldn't grow back when he did, and surprisingly enough; it had never fallen out. He bent down to pick up the body wash, but instead reached for the shampoo as he decided he'd wash his hair again; just because he could. After a while of tending to the purple locks, and then his body itself, he finally got out of the shower.

Once dried and dressed in fresh boxers, he exited the bathroom to find Jack sitting on their bed, clothed in a loose shirt with his back towards him. Smoke curled in the air above him and the room smelled of cigarettes, a familiar scent. He sat beside him, the mattress creaking dangerously beneath their shared weight. His hair was still damp, stinking to his back in several spots. When Jack looked towards him, he had the biggest smile on his face, which managed to spark one on his lips as well.

"Alright, alright, I'll braid your hair..."

He smiled softly at Dave, who immediately got up to scrounge for a hair tie. He found one, although neither of them knew where it came from, and sat crossed legged on the bed. Jack scooted behind him, legs on either side of Dave's hips and a cigarette still between his lips. Still filled with excitement, Dave squealed a little before settling in place, allowing Jack to adjust his head.

"You know, if you let it dry in a braid it'll turn out wavy, or even curly..."

Jack said, sectioning his hair. It felt softer than when he washed out the conditioner not long ago, and presumed that Dave had joyfully shampooed it again. It was pleasant to work on someone's hair again, he always enjoyed doing it for his sister and frankly; he'd missed the repetitivity of the task. From the way Dave immediately relaxed in his spot, he could already tell he'd be fond of it too.

"You know a lot for a bald man, old sport!"

Dave joked, and Jack gave a playful tug on his hair in response. He feigned a painful cry, but couldn't withhold the giggle that interrupted it. They sunk back into silence comfortably enough, simply enjoying the contact as Jack started on the braid. He left a single strand of hair out for Dave to keep toying with, hanging by the side of his face whenever it was not wrapped around his finger.

With the sensory nightmare that once was his malnourished hair gone, he could relax into the silence much more easily. There was nothing worrying him, bothering him with overwhelming sensations, and the only experience he could focus on was the gentle touch of Jack's hands braiding his hair. There was something soothing about Jack, something that brought him inner stillness, leaving his thoughts quiet for once.

He didn't have to worry around Jack, it all went easily. He rarely thought about Henry or even Freddy's in his company, rarely worried for how he was perceived when Jack looked at him. It'd taken a while for his mask to crack and his genuine traits to be exposed, but Jack somehow seemed to be happy to see it all. It was rare for people to do that, Henry had scolded him for showing excitement in his own way plenty of times.

"It just feels nice..."

Spoke Dave, not entirely sure why he'd said that out loud. That too was something; he always voiced his thoughts around Jack, no matter the nature of them. He didn't feel fear anymore like he used to, knowing that Jack would never give him a truly hateful reaction. Just as suspected, Jack hummed contently in response.

"Y'know what I mean?"

And again; Jack hummed, letting sections of hair run through his hands. It all felt so incredibly soft, a pleasant sensation against his skin that reminded him of his physicality. As astounded as it sometimes seemed; he was there, letting long purple locks flow through his fingers like everything seemed to do around him. There was something precious about it, how there could be beauty in his skill and care despite all the death that surrounded him.

"Yeah..."

He responded, a hefty sound of which the breaths hit Dave's neck. His hair was still warm from the shower, pleasant against his hands despite the moisture. For once in his life Dave didn't smell of cigarettes, and it was both strange but welcoming to experience him as such. It showed that there was a possibility for things to be normal for them, for them to take care of themselves like any living human would.

"Hand me that hair tie?"

Jack asked, and Dave set it down in his outstretched hand. He tied the end of Dave's braid and lay the finished product over his shoulder, just long enough to reach past his collarbones. Dave studied it with his neck at an odd angle, initially surprised with the expertise that showed through the tight braid. Then, that same wide smile crept back up on his face and his body shivered with excitement.

"Sportsy, I love it-!"

His voice was soft yet enthusiastic, as if the joy was too much for him to comprehend. The hand that wasn't holding his hair in it was already jittering in his lap, and it made Jack happy to see that he liked it. It was nice seeing Dave in general, but it was even nicer to see him genuinely happy.

"Thank you!"

He chirped, having found his voice again as he turned around and tackled Jack onto the bed, arms around his waist. He fell back with laughter, landing on sheets that were only comfortable because they got to share them. He hugged Jack close, burying his face in the crook of his neck as Jack wrapped his arms around him too.

"Thank you-"

He repeated, now whispering. Those two words, so simple yet so heavy at the same time. It'd never embody what he truly felt, how thankful he really was to have someone who saw and treated him as a person.

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[4170 words]

Dave Miller autism propaganda real

Okay now I'm actually going to study and also secret santa soon so... Expect slow posts