Chapter Text
“You’re doing WHAT?”
“I told you, I’m going to sky-dive into the island volcano!” Jake responded cheerfully to his dear friend Jane as they chatted on the phone.
“Jake, don’t you think that’s a little bit TOO dangerous?” Jane asked, sounding incredulous and exasperated. “Remember that time your parachute didn’t open?”
“Yes, and by some stroke of luck, all the island tree limbs seemed to reach out and grab me, breaking my fall!” Jake responded happily.
“Jake. There aren’t going to be any trees when you fall down into a volcano!” Jane exclaimed. “Where do you plan to LAND?”
Jake paused. “Oh right. You have a good point there, Jane my dear!”
Jane sighed, audibly relieved. “Please tell me you’ll never jump into the volcano, Jake. There’s nothing but hot magma in there!”
“You drive a hard bargain, but all right,” Jake sighed.
The phone conversation finished and then Jake was left to his own devices in the middle of his deserted island.
Alone. Always alone.
A strangely tingly feeling began to form inside his stomach. He was nervous, just itching to do something to get his mind off the fact that he was stuck here on this island alone.
Jake swallowed as he thought about the terrible feeling again.
Anxiety.
That’s what Roxy called it. She said that she had it too. Of course, Roxy’s methods of ridding herself of her anxiety were not to Jake’s liking. He didn’t have any alcoholic beverages on this island to consume anyway, even if he wanted to.
But what he did have was a plethora of danger. Booby trapped tombs, dangerous spooky jungle caves, and hazardous island wildlife were all available in abundance.
It was the perfect distraction.
When he was a child, his grandmother watched over him, keeping him safe. He wasn’t alone. He had no need to rid himself of this terrible feeling.
But after she died, it slowly crept up on him. It filled him with sadness, rage, and fear all in one. It was terrifying, and Jake didn’t know how to rid himself of it.
He often talked to his friends Jane and Roxy on the phone. His cell phone and the internet were his only lifelines to the outside world, installed by his brilliant grandmother ages ago.
But though he would never admit it, Jake knew he was less than brilliant. He knew that the technology would fail him at some point, and when it did, he would never be able to fix it.
And then he would be alone. All by himself again.
The feeling filled him to the point that he wanted to shout, and he actually did. It scared some of the local birds into flying off his windowsill. He quickly grabbed his knapsack and took off for the jungle, unable to stand sitting around in his house any longer!
But just as he stepped outside the front door, he heard his phone ring.
Was it Jane calling him back? Did she forget to tell him something?
Quickly, he fumbled in his pocket for his phone. His cell phone was ancient. His grandmother made it for him long ago, so she could keep track of him when he went off on his own into her pumpkin patch.
The display had broken years ago, and he couldn’t see who was calling. “Hello? Janey? Did you forget something?”
“Do I sound like Jane to you?” A distinctly male voice reached his ear.
“Strider!” He exclaimed, sitting down instantly on his front porch step.
When Dirk Strider talked to him, something shifted in the world around him. Something became more perfect, and the sharp edges of the cruel world softened. He found himself smiling as he stared off into the distance, the gentle waves of the canopy of trees seeming to be waving ‘hello’ to him now too.
“That would be my name,” Dirk agreed. “I’d hope you knew it was me after all these years.”
Jake scoffed, “All these years and you still only call me once every month or two!”
“Sorry, bro. Job’s keepin’ me kinda busy,” Dirk said, his voice stretching into that lazy drawl that Jake found completely enamoring.
“What exactly is it that you do again?” Jake asked, frowning at this thing that would rob him of his time with Dirk.
“Told you, I’m superman,” Dirk responded easily, like before. “Gotta save damsels in distress.”
“That’s not a real job, Strider!” Jake huffed with indignation that Dirk would keep feeding him these silly lines and not tell him the truth!
The fact of the matter was, he really knew very little about Dirk. Even though he had talked to him for years now, Dirk remained a mystery. Jane and Roxy had asked about Dirk for a long time now, and he knew that they doubted his sanity.
They thought that Jake was so lonely he had made Dirk up in his mind. Honestly, even if he had made Dirk up, he didn’t care. Dirk made him happy, and that in itself was real enough.
“So, what’d you have on the agenda today? Probably somethin’ like skydivin’ into that volcano of yours,” Dirk asked.
“Why yes! I had wanted to do that!” Jake agreed. “But Jane talked me out of it.”
“She’s a good friend,” Dirk murmured. “You should listen to her more often.”
Jake stuck his tongue out. “If Jane had her way, I’d do nothing but bake pumpkin pies all day!”
“Probably true,” Dirk agreed.
“No sir,” Jake continued. “I couldn’t live the way she lives. Jane bakes to calm herself. Roxy drinks to calm herself. And I—”
“You try to kill yourself,” Dirk interrupted, his voice flat-toned as usual, but somehow there was more weight behind his words.
“I—” Jake trailed off, fumbling for words after that.
“I know desperation when I see it,” Dirk said quietly. “Jake, don’t go there.”
“Then where should I go?” Jake asked softly, tears forming in his eyes. “My blasted phone is already on its last legs! And four of my computers have already broken. I only have one left. Once it’s done, I won’t have Jane or Roxy anymore. I won’t have you. I’ll be alone!!!”
“I’ll help you fix your computers,” Dirk offered.
Jake stood up, brushing the tears from his eyes. He ran back inside the house, grabbing another pack from the dusty floor. “No, Strider. We tried that already, remember? I’m too much of a ruddy imbecile for that!”
It was finally time. Time to bare his secrets to the world. Time to tell the complete truth and not lie to himself or anyone else any longer.
“Jake, what are you doing?” Dirk asked, likely hearing the rustling of the trees and snapping of twigs as Jake ran through the forest.
“I’m going to carry out my plans today,” Jake said, running through the jungle. He shouted, jumping out of the way as a deadly dragon snapped at him. He hit the dragon in the head with a large tree branch, silencing it for a little while.
“Jake, bro, this isn’t a good idea,” Dirk tried to reason with him.
“I can’t live alone, Strider. You and I both know that there’s no way off this island for me,” Jake growled as he ran through the jungle, swatting at the giant flying insects as they swarmed around him. He reached the edge of the jungle and the foot of the volcano. Determinedly, he started climbing up. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“Jake,” Dirk began to speak again, but was cut off quickly.
“I’m parachuting into the volcano, Dirk,” Jake said. “You won’t be stopping me.”
Dirk talked to him as he made his ascent up the volcano, pleading with him not to do this. But Jake wouldn’t hear any of it. Rather, he would. He heard Dirk’s voice. He wished that Dirk could be here next to him. Could be with him and not… wherever the hell he was.
He reached the top of the volcano, staring daringly into its hot molten depths. Jane was right. There wasn’t anything for him to land on. And that was assuming that his parachute even decided to open. A couple of times it hadn’t, but he had been lucky enough to survive both times.
“Dirk, you’ve been a good friend, but I’m afraid this is it,” Jake said. He couldn’t see any way out of it this time. There were no trees to break his fall. No large pools of water for him to land in after the wind miraculously blew him aside.
There would be no miracles that saved him today.
Jake hadn’t been aware of the tears when they started, but he blinked them aside, making his vision clear and sharp. The molten lava bubbled inside the volcano, singeing his face with its heat. He held onto his half-way broken phone like it was his only life-line.
And truly, it was.
“Jake, don’t do this,” Dirk attempted one last time.
“I-I suppose it doesn’t matter now that this is the end,” Jake said, a strange laugh bubbling forth to his lips. “I love you, Strider. Even though I’ve never seen you. Never met you. You’re the one I always felt closest to, even though you’re likely the farthest away.”
“Actually, that’s Roxy,” Dirk murmured.
“What?” Jake asked, caught off-guard by that peculiar response to his confession. It was almost as if Dirk knew about his love. Knew and didn’t care. It made this all the more painful. “N-nevermind. I’ll—I’ll see you in the next life, Strider.”
Dirk must have said something, but he had already dropped his phone to the ground by his feet. He also dropped his travel pack, which had been his only companion on all his hazardous journeys. He held onto his parachute, counted to three, and jumped in.
Partway down, he felt the flames of the magma burning him, and he pulled his parachute, knowing this would be his last sad thrill in this life. The parachute opened, it blossomed into a brilliant green canopy that caught the convection currents of the hot air, blowing him upwards at an astonishing rate.
A rate too impossible to be normal.
Jake cried out with frustration and anger as he was blown out of the volcano and tossed back to its edge. He tore the parachute from his back, rubbing a bit of soot from his eyes as he looked at the volcano with desperation in his eyes.
Without another thought, he ran and leapt in.
This time, he was certain it would be the end.
This time, he would finally die.
The heat of the volcano again began to burn him, and he prayed that this would be it. That he would finally find happiness once and for all.
And then strong arms wrapped around his torso, nearly crushing him with their strength.
The scent of oranges wafted to his nose, and the sensation of being lifted high into the air left his stomach with a swooping feeling. He hadn’t realized he closed his eyes until he opened them, to find himself high in the air, soaring back towards his home.
What cruel joke was this? That he would imagine being saved despite his inevitable demise!
Except, he hadn’t imagined the arms around him, because they were still there, holding onto him tightly and refusing to let go.
Another person was here. Someone else was actually on the island with him.
Before he knew it, he was being dropped on his front step, gently. The strong arms that had circled him unfolded, sliding from around him.
A wave of panic passed through him, and he quickly held onto one of the hands before they could disappear. Quickly, Jake whipped around, turning to face his savior, and the only other person he had ever met aside from his grandmother. He gasped as his breath was taken away by the beautiful creature in front of him.
Radiant wings framed the blonde haired creature, with vivid unusual tangerine eyes. Jake couldn’t help reaching out to touch first his chest, and then his cheek, wanting to see for himself that he was real. “You—you’re an angel,” he said, with a note of wonder and also certainty.
“Yep, 100% certified angel. Right here,” the angel spoke, and as soon as he did, Jake knew who he was.
Jake’s eyes filled with tears and he lunged towards the angel’s body, circling his arms around his chest. “DIRK!!!” He cried, holding him tightly as the tears spilled from his eyes.
Dirk didn’t say anything. He merely circled his arms back around him and held Jake close. As the two embraced, Jake felt his world shifting. Somehow he knew things were different. It was like when he talked to Dirk on the phone, only to a larger degree.
The weight of the world seemed to lift off his shoulders. A new brightness appeared that wasn’t there before, leaving him sobbing but also overwhelmingly relieved.
“You… aren’t going to disappear on me now, are you?” Jake finally asked, sniffling and wiping away his tears. “You won’t leave me alone, will you?”
He looked up to find Dirk shaking his head, “Jake, I haven’t left you alone since we started talking. I’ve always been here with you.”
“Really?” Jake asked incredulously.
Dirk nodded and continued, “as an angel, it’s usually our job to protect thousands of people each. But you, Jake… you’re a special case. You needed more protecting that anyone I’ve ever met. You’re the only one I guard.”
Jake blinked at him, still speechless because how was he supposed to suddenly accept that guardian angels were real? That his good friend Dirk was one and had actually been here the whole time?
Jake flushed as he realized what that meant. That Dirk had likely seen everything he had done in the past few years. From making himself breakfast, to bathing, to—
“Ehrm…. Strider,” Jake stammered, feeling flustered. “I suppose then you know how much I care for you?”
“I wouldn’t have stuck around if it hadn’t been mutual,” Dirk said softly, tipping Jake’s head up and meeting his lips with a gentle chaste kiss. When he saw Jake’s wide eyes, he smiled. “Jake, I’m here to stay.”
Jake was overjoyed. As he led Dirk inside his humble house, he thought that for once fate truly was smiling on him. There were so many unpleasant outcomes that could have come from his situation, but somehow he was lucky enough to be part of the small fraction that survived. Not only survived, but found the one who truly mattered the most to him in life.
In time, Dirk brought Jake away from his island. He took him to see Roxy and Jane. They lived together all over the world, and Jake was never lonely again, even when Dirk said he had to pick up his other responsibilities now that Jake was safe.
Jake didn’t mind. Because he knew he would never truly be alone again. That Dirk would return to him every day and spend every night with him. That they would share the adventures of life together, no matter how fantastic or how improbable.
Never again did Jake have the desire to put himself into dangerous situations. And if misfortune ever did strike again, by chance and not by Jake’s choosing anymore, he knew a comforting truth for a fact. Dirk, his guardian angel and much more, would always be there to protect him.