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"Come on," Todd muttered, grabbing Dirk by the wrist and dragging him along. His nose was bleeding and he could feel a bruise forming on his face, and it was all Dirk's fault. Dirk was pretty beaten up, too - his lip was busted, dried up blood was surrounding his lips and chin, and there were scratch marks on the side of his face. Todd cursed to himself for letting Dirk get involved in this, but it was the detective's idea to talk to Dorian anyway. He just wished he could mind his own business.
They couldn't go back inside to Todd's apartment, so he bitterly flung himself into the driver's seat of Dirk's car. Or rather, the stolen car. He wiped at his eyes, trying his hardest to not let any tears fall, no matter how much he was hurting. Dirk opened the passenger door and slowly climbed in, not saying a word.
"I should probably let you know that I was lying about my strength," Dirk blurted out, not being able to stay still for one minute. "Dorian is one hell of a fight."
"Yeah, no shit, Dirk." Todd said, crossing his arms. He refused to make eye contact with Dirk.
Dirk hesitated. "At least.. at least we're not hurt too badly.. right? I mean, we made it out without a lot of injuries, so that's good."
Todd sighed. He clenched his fist, banging it on his thigh. "We - you could've gotten hurt a whole lot more."
"Why does it matter how much I get hurt?" Dirk asked. He was looking in a mirror, chipping off the dried blood from his face and wincing.
Todd stared at him, his eyebrows furrowed, frowning. He mumbled something that Dirk didn't quite catch.
"You what?" Dirk said, still looking at his own injuries instead of at Todd.
"It's because I care about you, Dirk!" Todd shouted. Dirk jumped at the sudden sound, then turned to Todd, interested. "Can't you fucking see it? I don't hate you as much as I - as much as I act like it. I do care about you. I don't like seeing you like this." Here we go - tears started to form in the corners of his eyes, big tears, and he didn't want to blink in fear of them falling, but his eyes started to sting.
"Todd.." Dirk whispered, reaching his hand out to hold over Todd's. The soft touch was what did it - Todd began to cry, and it was ugly and a mess as he leaned over and laid his head on Dirk's shoulder. He watched as his tears rolled down the leather of Dirk's jacket. Eventually he stilled, regulating his breathing, sniffling every now and then.
When Todd pulled his head away from Dirk's shoulders, he could feel how wet his cheeks were from crying. He felt terrible - he hadn't cried that much in a long time. Dirk slowly reached his hand up towards Todd's face, and Todd didn't refuse the touch as he wiped away some of the wetness with his thumb. They were close - closer than they had been before, and with one more swipe at the tears on Todd's face Dirk leaned in, pressing his lips against Todd's as gently as he could. He smiled as Todd kissed back and laid his head back on Dirk's shoulder.
"It'll be okay," Dirk whispered, running his hands through Todd's hair lightly.
"..I know." Todd said quietly. He wrapped his arms around Dirk's waist as best as he could. "It'll be okay." he repeated, and his heart fluttered as Dirk embraced him.