There's a pause as Ranboo actually processes what exactly Dirk just said-- and then they laugh. It's a breathless huff of sound, their eyes crinkling with a rare genuine smile that lights up their flushed face and shows off a frequently hidden set of dimples before it's pressed back against Dirk's neck in embarrassment.
"Jesus christ, dude."
It's a goofy-ass thing to say. It is flattering, though, and honestly, Ranboo would be inclined to agree if only with the first half of the statement-- that was... intense.
As they lay in the quiet together, however, the real world encroaches as it always does on moments like this; Ranboo's mind is able to wander back to their conversation before this, to what they both needed the distraction and stress relief from in the first place, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to put off unpacking it any longer.
Learning that Dirk spent so much of his early life going through something like that-- Ranboo might not know the details, but they don't really want or need to. It's enough to recontextualize things that Dirk has said before simply to know that those things happened at all-- to make sense of things that previously seemed entirely random, or statements that seemed incoherent. They're still incoherent, really, for the most part, but at least Ranboo now has some kind of explanation for why. They're not a psychologist-- they have no idea how exactly that kind of thing messes people up, what the exact symptoms it can cause are, but they're certain that it definitely wouldn't leave anyone unscathed.
Dirk is like this because he's been hurt.
That's really the important core takeaway, the context that Ranboo had lacked before but now can finally fit into place. He's been hurt terribly by the people he should've been able to trust the most, and that hurt has... really never gone away, by the sound of things, even if Dirk seems to refuse to admit that himself. Dirk is still... confusing, some of the hoops that he seems to jump through mentally obscure, but at least now Ranboo has some frame of reference to try and puzzle things out.
"I'm... sorry," he murmurs softly against Dirk's skin.
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"Jesus christ, dude."
It's a goofy-ass thing to say. It is flattering, though, and honestly, Ranboo would be inclined to agree if only with the first half of the statement-- that was... intense.
As they lay in the quiet together, however, the real world encroaches as it always does on moments like this; Ranboo's mind is able to wander back to their conversation before this, to what they both needed the distraction and stress relief from in the first place, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to put off unpacking it any longer.
Learning that Dirk spent so much of his early life going through something like that-- Ranboo might not know the details, but they don't really want or need to. It's enough to recontextualize things that Dirk has said before simply to know that those things happened at all-- to make sense of things that previously seemed entirely random, or statements that seemed incoherent. They're still incoherent, really, for the most part, but at least Ranboo now has some kind of explanation for why. They're not a psychologist-- they have no idea how exactly that kind of thing messes people up, what the exact symptoms it can cause are, but they're certain that it definitely wouldn't leave anyone unscathed.
Dirk is like this because he's been hurt.
That's really the important core takeaway, the context that Ranboo had lacked before but now can finally fit into place. He's been hurt terribly by the people he should've been able to trust the most, and that hurt has... really never gone away, by the sound of things, even if Dirk seems to refuse to admit that himself. Dirk is still... confusing, some of the hoops that he seems to jump through mentally obscure, but at least now Ranboo has some frame of reference to try and puzzle things out.
"I'm... sorry," he murmurs softly against Dirk's skin.