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"Yo, tin man, say cheese."
Before he could follow the instruction, a brilliant flash had left the apertures in his eyes adjusting as his shutters blinked, the room before him swimming back into view. Dave was in front of him, camera now lowered, his thumb swiping over the screen on the back. Without a word the camera was back up, but this time he was ready as Dave's finger twitched on the shutter, avoiding being blinded again.
"...cheese?" Dirk said slowly, after the camera was lowered again, and Dave snorted and smirked.
"Little slow there, bro, but have a sticker for trying."
Dirk waited patiently for his sticker until he realised, disappointed, that it was just a term of phrase. It was fine! It didn't matter!
...when his father returned from the shops he was going to ask for one just so he could experience the human ritual of swapping adhesive laminated tokens of appreciation.
"Why are you taking pictures of me?" Dirk inquired, watching Dave start bobbing to and fro around him, snapping shot after rapid shot.
"For my album. I was ninja snapping all of Christmas, got a ton a candid shots of everyone there, but I was looking back through realising I still ain't go no Dirk, man. Need everyone in there. Gotta snap 'em all."
"What is the purpose of this album?" He asked curiously, watching the blonde's nimble fingers work across the touch screen as he adjusted settings and checked back through the shots.
"It's purpose? I dunno. Memories, I guess." Dave continued to talk as he danced about again, voice a little muffled by the positiong of his arms at times. "I mean, I got all the pictures of my first Christmas away from the shithole, y'know, first time I met all my friends from the net. My other friends? I got about a million fucking photos of them, it's pretty much a play by play of everything I've done with them, I swear, but I got a special section just for stuff like my first day at a real school with real kids, and my first dates with Tav and Rez, and...yeah." He leant in close and Dirk shifted back a little, still not sure how he felt about anyone but Jake being so close to his face. "Plus there's so much Bro, 'cause that fucker was basically my whole life for way too long. First picture I ever took was a blurry one of his smug face, and my latest addition is that same face with the fucking bruises I put there at Christmas, because I am fucking awesome and he's an overconfident asshole sometimes."
"Sometimes?"
"All the time." Dave smirked, then airily waved a hand. "I guess I just...moments and things I like, I take pictures of. Photography's one of my things. The best shots, the ones that mean something, they go in the album. The gorgeous pictures of my own face I take I hang in my room to remind the world what damn fine piece of perfection I am."
"Am I something you like?"
"Yeah, you sorta are. Helps you look like one of them fancy androids out of the animes."
Dirk's eyes grew brighter, a smile spreading over his face, and instantly the camera flashed as Dave caught the expression, a few more rapid pictures following. He would never grow tired of hearing Dave call him cool, or chill, or say he liked him. Dave had been the first person other than Bro he'd interacted with, in this form. The first person to accept him, to welcome him, as Dirk, with his own body and voice and mind. He'd been the first to spend time with him, have fun with him, to ask him questions and laugh with him and give him a chance.
He valued him immensely.
The only problem he had had, so far, was what to call him. They certainly weren't brothers, given his choice to view Bro as his father. The elder Strider only had one genetic child, according to what Dirk had ascertained in his scans so far, and he doubted he would actually see them again any time soon. It felt wrong to think of Dave as an uncle, given despite his childish personality, Dirk still had a higher mental age that made the thought sit uncomfortably with him. In fact thinking about him as family at all seemed strange. He had spent so long with only Bro, his view of his family was small and fixed.
He supposed that made him an acquaintance, then. They were at a level of familiarity that was an acceptable term. Unless they had surpassed it? He was unsure of precisely where the distinction was, so after dwelling on it for a minute, he cleared his throat.
"Dave, are we friends?" Dirk asked, quietly, fingers anxiously running over the joins in his other hand.
Dave looked up at him without moving his head from where he had glanced down at the screen, his red eyes turning to Dirk's face over his downturned shades. "...well I guess you're at the level of coolness I could let you into the highly coveted inner circle of Strider broship, a level of approval that few will ever achieve. Only step higher is the ball to my chain."
"That was a yes?"
Red eyes rolled and focused back on the screen. "That was a yes."
Dirk's smile widened, his hands clasping together in his lap.
He had a friend.
A real person in real life who wanted to be his friend.
"Oh my God." Dave snapped another picture, almost actually grinning back. "I thought John could be cute, but holy shit. You're like a fucking puppy."
"Is that good?" He hummed cheerfully. Dave snickered and nodded. "Then I am glad I am like a fucking puppy."
"No, no, drop the fuck...y'know what, never mind. Wanna take a look at these?"
Dirk agreed quickly, and Dave came and crouched beside him, holding the screen so he could see it. He brought up a long stream of pictures with a few taps, starting to swipe through them as he commented on the composition of each one in turn. Dirk was just happy looking at them. He didn't often spend time actually looking at himself, in mirrors and such, so it was pleasant to see his body and remind himself of how him he looked. He emotional his expressions were. How unique he had actually been made.
"What is that little square?" He asked after they'd been through a few, pointing at the white outline around his head. Dave snorted.
"Face detection."
"It knows that is my face?"
"Well yeah, anything with human enough features it picks up. Hell if a wall looked like a face it'd read it."
Human enough features. Dirk clapped quietly to himself.
"You're still fucking with my camera, dude, it's bitching about your red eye on every picture." Dave pressed a button and abruptly his vivid red eyes went a sort of messy black-brown that bled out with the glow, making the blonde laugh. "Holy shit. I need a mode on this thing for you. No, dude, his eyes are meant to be that way."
Dirk felt relieved when he swiped and fixed the picture, deciding he quite like his own smile. It was more like Dave's than Bro's, spreading ear-to-ear and puffing out his rounded cheeks. It looked very alive. He liked looking alive.
"I'm gonna go print this shit. I used to use a darkroom all the time but the chemicals started fucking with my head so I only use that for special occasions now. Wanna come help? You were sorta just sitting around, before."
"I was browsing the internet inside my head."
"Nice."
"Your comic is...perplexing, but somehow riveting in its non sequitur."
"I'll take that as a compliment, bro. Now come on. Cutting and sticking like we're in preschool, this shit's gonna look like a fucking blingee escaped the web when it's in my album."
Dirk followed him, cheerfully, and never stopped smiling through his glitter-filled afternoon.
.:.
(That night, when Bro got home, he got a shiny golden star stuck to his chest.)
(He wore it for a week, with pride.)