Chapter Text
It was an ordinary day, well truthfully every day is ordinary, everything is ordinary. It's what you choose to focus on that makes something extraordinary.
So if you chose to ignore the revving engine outside Todd's apartment you could categorize this day as ordinary. Choosing to not ignore it, today was anything but ordinary. That engine meant one thing and one thing only.
And though he was promised that his possessions would be safe, he still felt knots in his stomach, bracing for impact.
He sat on the couch, waiting for that knock when he heard it. He got up to open the door and was met with not only his sister but 5 other people.
"Oh no, I said they stay outside," Todd said.
Vogel and Beast waved enthusiastically while the rest of them stood emotionless. Martin, Gripps, and Cross all despised him. And he felt he deserved it despite Amanda's insistence he has improved. "Oh come on! They just want to say 'Hi'." She said.
"Where Bibbit?!" Beast pushed the rest of them out of the way to get in Todd's face.
"Dirk?" He backed up and she followed, smiling, "I-uh-he's, he's not here. Just me, no Bibbit." He mouthed 'get her away from me!'
"Come' ere Beast," Martin waved his arm in, "Leave Drummer's brother alone." She reluctantly walked back to the group.
"Ok, you've said hi, now please... leave." His voice raised slightly at the end.
"See ya soon, Amanda." Martin hugged her and the rest of the group followed suit and then left.
"BYE DRUMMER'S BROTHER!" Vogel waved again and hopped off.
"So... how've you been?" He asked, motioning for her to come inside. She dropped off her backpack next to the couch and sat down.
"Good, you?"
"Good..." He sat down next to her.
"Good."
"Good."
A moment of silence hung in the air before Todd finally spoke. "Oh, this is ridiculous! I know, I messed up. I messed up real bad. But why did you want to come visit if you hadn't forgiven me?! I mean... we haven't sat down and talked in months, no calls, rare texts. Why visit me all of a sudden?
"What?"
"I'm sorry, Amanda. I really am. I've changed."
She chuckled, "I know that. That's why I'm here. I wanted to hopefully try again, let you try to fix things."
"Thank you." He hugged her.
"I'm sorry for not texting or calling."
"Don't blame yourself, I could have texted or called, it's both our faults... mainly mine."
"Ok," they separated, "Tell me everything about your latest case. Eight months, there has to be one."
"Actually, there haven't been any. It's really, really boring."
"Really?"
"Really."
"How's Farah?" She smiled and nudged him.
"We broke up." He said nonchalantly.
"What?! Why?" She had actually been secretly waiting for this, she had someone much better for her brother in mind.
"We just kinda worked better as friends." He shrugged.
"How long ago?"
"Four months ago." She smiled, not too soon, but also was annoyed he hadn't told her.
"You ok?" Fingers crossed...
"Fine. Like I said, we just didn't work. Plus she realized she’s gay. She actually got together with Tina about a month after. I have no idea how they make long-distance work, Tina doesn't seem like the patient type."
"Oh good for her! So... that's Farah, how about Dirk? How's he?"
"You know him, always sunny, can't sit still. He's doing the worst out of all of us with the lack of cases."
"That sounds like Dirk."
"He texts me every time he sees anything! Doesn't matter what it is, 'Todd! I've found a piece of gum on the sidewalk! What do you think it means?'" He laughed. "Oh, this one's hilarious! He calls me one day saying he's watching a movie, 'TODD! There's this movie, Ringing of The Three Lords, and the main character Frito looks uncannily like you. It's like you're twins! Todd, I think there's a cult that clones people!"
"What movie was he even talking about?" Amanda joined his laughing.
"Lord of The Rings!"
"Wait, I've never thought about it, you do look like Frodo." She paused for dramatic emphasis, "Todd, maybe there is a clone cult!" She continued laughing hysterically.
"Dirk, he is something." He smiled to himself. Smiling to himself, that's good. Amanda thought.
"Actually, that was something I wanted to talk to you about."
"Dirk? What do you mean?"
"Yeah, what do you think of him?"
"He's great, he's Dirk.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up, you know what I mean."
"No, I don't, I actually don't." He furrowed his brows.
"You know... do you love him?"
"Like I said, he's Dirk, he's great. He's my best friend. Of course I love him."
"Stop lying. You love, love him, don't you?" He seemed taken back by her statement, offended to his core.
"NO!" He stood up defensively and walked to the kitchen, attempting to avoid the conversation. "Water?"
"Oh, you so love him." Amanda laughed at him.
"No, I don't!" Todd scoffed, obviously lying, "He's my best friend."
"Mm-hm, sure." She rolled her eyes. "It's obvious. From what Farah told me about when you met for the first time after months, you two definitely are in love with each other by this point."
"You think he loves me?" Todd blushed.
"Ah-HA! I knew it! You DO love him!"
"Ok... maybe I do. But so what?! You know I'm bi, why is this such a big deal?!"
"Because Dirk fucking Gently, the man who meets everyone through the universe's design, came into your life and is your best friend. Dude! He's like your soulmate or something!" She threw her hands up in the air, frustrated with his denial.
"But he could be into any of us! He came into all of our lives."
"He is literally the gayest man I have ever seen." She had a point. "Plus, Wakti said something about you two."
"Wakti?!" His eyes widened.
"Yep." She lied, she needed to say anything to get him to admit his feelings to Dirk.
"So it's official, it's destiny or something." He sulked in defeat, destiny... The thought was terrifying. Destiny.
"I wouldn't call it destiny, more like... I don't know, you know what? Let's just call it holistic."
"Holistic? So basically destiny."
"I guess." She shrugged.
Todd paced back and forth, struggling to wrap his head around all of this. Was it that obvious that he loved Dirk? Amanda was his sister, after all, he can't hide things from her. But even Farrah knew it. Does everyone? "If it's so obvious why doesn't Dirk know? If he knew he would have done something by now."
"He's autistic, he's not the best at social cues."
"Shit, Amanda, what if I mess it up?! I mess everything up. I'm an ass, Amanda! I fuck everything up!" He came back and sat down next to her and buried his head in his hands.
"You kinda are."
"Hey!" He laughed and playfully shoved her.
"Look, he loves you, you can't mess it up."
"Sure at first, but then what if we fight? Knowing me it will probably happen." Tears welled up in his eyes, he didn't tend to show emotion, but this? This was different. And he truly meant every word of what he would say next; "I can't lose him. I can't. My life sucked before I knew him. Sure everything is dangerous around him, but... it's fun. It's addicting. I didn't know how miserable I was before I met him until after I lost him. I can't lose him again."
"Oh Todd," she tried to comfort him. "You can't lose him. He always comes back. Even when you mess things up, people who are important come back... Look at me!" She threw her arms out, "You probably wronged me the worst."
"You don't need to remind me."
"My point is... I'm here. And Dirk Gently does not walk away easily."
"No, he does not." He laughed, shaking his head. "So... what do you want me to do?"
"TELL HIM GODDAMNIT!"
"Fine, fine. I'll tell him."
"Good."
Todd walked back and forth at the agency, panicking slightly. A moth fluttered by and landed on his shoulder before he shooed it off.
Where was he? He told Dirk to meet him here instead of the Ridgley, Dirk was out already anyways. So where was he? He wasn't late or anything, Todd was actually early. He's never early, he just wanted to get this over with. Telling your best friend you’re in love with him is never easy. Amanda and Farah seemed confident that Dirk loved him back. Hell, when he confessed to Farah she told him that Tina even thought they were a thing! He was still petrified at the thought of rejection. Petrified at the thought of losing him. He didn't drive Farah away after they broke up, maybe he won't lose Dirk? It felt different somehow. Even still, he wouldn’t say that he loved him. That was too much. He couldn’t handle it.
Just then, he saw Dirk's red Jeep pull up. His heart was lifted when he saw that brilliant smile.
"Todd! You actually asked me to come and talk to you." Dirk ran to him to give him a large, friendly hug. "That's rare for you. Either something is very, very wrong or we have a case! Do we have a case! We have a case, don't we?! Oh, I'm so excited! So what are we-" As much as he loved to see Dirk happy, he cut him off.
"No, we don't have a case."
"Oh no! What's wrong? Something has to be wrong then. Did you have an episode? Wait no, as bad as those are they're normal for you. You wouldn't tell me to meet you in person after you had an episode. It has to be REALY bad then. Is it Blackwing?!" He began to panic like Todd was just before he had shown up. "Is someone dead?! Who died? Oh no!"
"No! Everything is fine. I just wanted to talk to you about something, in person."
"Oh thank goodness, you had me worried for a second." He sighed in relief, his hand over his heart. "So what's so important that it has to be talked about in person?"
"Umm... uh... fuck this is hard."
"Oh for Christ's sake, spit it out, Todd!"
"I LIKE YOU!" He said quickly, eyes squinted, bracing himself for rejection.
"Aw... Todd, I like you too, you're an amazing friend, but I already knew that."
Todd mentally face-palmed at Dirk's innocence. "No, Dirk, I like you... as more than friends, romantically."
Dirk stood stunned, eyes wide, heart leaping out of his chest, cheeks cherry red. "Todd, I... I-"
"Crap, I went and fucked everything up. I'll just go, I get if you don't want to be around me anymore." He began to walk away. That's it. In two minutes he had managed to fuck up his entire life. There he went, the best thing that ever happened to him. He wanted to bang his head on a wall, good thing they decided to do this outside. How could he be so stupid? How could he listen to his sister? What did she know? It was his life, not hers. That's the last time he ever listens to her. It hit him then, he would go back to being depressed and miserable all day. Shit, he had to find a new job!
"No!" Dirk jogged after him and put his hand on his shoulder. "I-I... I like you too, as more than friends, romantically."
He turned around to see Dirk wearing the biggest, Dirk-y-est smile he had ever seen. His sparkling blue-grey eyes filled with tears of joy. He suddenly hugged Todd and wouldn't let go.
"You do?" Todd said, muffled because his face was tightly buried in Dirk's shoulder. He could feel Dirk nod.
"Yes. Most definitely." He let go to look in Todd's eyes.
"You sure? When I say I like you, I mean I really, really like you. Not just- you know- attraction and shit... I mean-I mean, honestly, I don't know what the fuck this is because I've never felt like this before.” He did know, he didn’t want to say it quite yet, he was afraid it was too much. “And that's what I mean when I say that I really, really like you. My feelings are fucking intense and-Dirk you deserve so much better than me. You're fucking perfect Dirk! Me? I mean... I'm an asshole! I was an ass to you for a long time."
"You know I hate it when you call yourself an arsehole!" Todd smiled and hid his face as he bit his lip. "You're the first person who actually cared about me, and I fell for you because of it. And I fell hard. I was so scared to tell you because I was worried I'd lose you. I can't lose you again, Todd." He internally swooned at what Dirk had just said. He said the same words to him that he said to Amanda about Dirk only a few hours ago.
That's it. He couldn't contain himself anymore. Just so, SO happy to hear Dirk say he liked him back. So happy to look in his eyes as if he were seeing him for the first time. So happy that the weight was lifted off of his shoulders.
And for some stupid reason-he wasn't usually a romantic-he wanted their first kiss to be something wonderful, magical, and memorable. Like something out of a romance book, but screw it. He couldn't hold himself back anymore, this was memorable.
He grabbed Dirk's tie and quickly raised his hand to his neck to guide him down to his lips and kissed him. Dirk's eyes widened in shock but then fluttered closed as he put one hand on his lower back and the other went up to his cheek to pull Todd closer until there was no space left. It was perfect. A year, a year and it finally happened. Months and months of fantasizing on both their parts had finally come to fruition. They were finally together. And it was breathtaking. Electric even. With each fast and loud heartbeat they could feel as they pressed into each other's chest, a spark was exchanged on their lips. Reminding them that it was real, but they still felt like they would float away at any moment if the other wasn't holding them tight and to Earth. They leaned into each other like their lives depended on it. All of their worries floated away leaving only them. Only this perfect moment, this perfect kiss.
As Todd pulled away, much to both of their dismay, Dirk squeaked in delight, bouncing up and down slightly with a goofy grin. Todd chucked looking at his adorable-ness.
"Todd, you have no idea how long I have waited for that." He said still squealing. God, Dirk is so cute. Todd thought. "Wait..." He was so caught up in the moment he didn't really think about it. "I thought you were straight. I mean, I'm gay but I didn't-"
"Bi, and you don't have to tell me, it's very obvious." He laughed.
"Is it?" He sunk a little.
"Oh, definitely. But it doesn't matter, what matters is I like you, Dirk. You and all of your craziness. I live for our adventures. I wake up happier in the morning now that you're in my life. And now, that I've told you, I'll wake up even happier because I can actually act on how I feel." Hearing this made Dirk's heart melt. And it turned to liquid, even more, when Todd pulled him in again.
Dirk squealed like a fangirl at the touch of Todd's lips on his, causing Todd to smile into him and laugh slightly.
"Are you going to do that every time I kiss you?"
Dirk just smirked and said slyly, "Well... you'll have to keep kissing me to find out."
"Dirk Gently, are you flirting with me?"
"Maaay-be..." he was still bouncing.
Todd just smiled and pulled Dirk in again. He couldn't get enough of him. He liked his best friend and his best friend liked him and they both knew.
And so, for a moment, everything was right in the universe. Everything fit, it was... holistic.