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“Twas the night before Christmas,
When all through the house not a creature was stirring,
Not even a little mouse.”
The little toddler in Dream’s arms squirmed just a little bit before, his full attention once more to the story.
“The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their head.”
The other children in the orphanage were sitting down on the rug in front of Dream as he comfortably leaned back in the lounge chair, reading the poem that was printed in his hands. They were focused on Dream as he read the poem, however this didn’t bother Dream. He loved reading to the children, especially around the holidays. It gave the little ones a sense of wonder and happiness, which warmed his soul.
“Now Dasher! Now Dancer!
Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid!
On, Donner and Blitzen!”
Dream looked up from the words to see Ink messing with the Christmas tree, rearranging the ornaments into something that met his standards…which were not high. The two met eye contact briefly but long enough for Dream to give a glare as to warning Ink of the consequences of burning another tree down. Quickly, Ink left the tree and stood elsewhere, fidgeting because of his boredom. Satisfied, Dream continued on with the poem.
“His eyes-how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow!”
The children, who most didn’t understand the words that Dream was saying, were smiling with glee. Their imagination was indeed working to picture the poem in their head with Dream’s voice being the narrator in this fantasy world. A world that was much better than the one they lived in every single day.
“He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle.
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight.
‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!’”
Once he finished, the children clapped along with the caretakers at the orphanage. “Boys and girls, what do we say to Lord Dream?” one of the caretakers asked.
“Thank you Lord Dream” all children said in unison. Dream smiled at this, a small joy filling his soul to the brim. He gently placed the small boy off his lap while saying, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must talk to the adults for a little bit.” The children were slightly disappointed, giving out pouts and whines but one of the Papyrus’ stepped around and said, “Now everyone please! Lord Dream is a very busy person. Go on and play while the bigger people talk.” The children begrudging agreed, and they scatter off to designated play areas in which the scene look rather chaotic at first. Dream got up from the chair he was reading from and readjusted his coat before approaching the workers.
“Thank you for coming and reading to the children today”, a Toriel said, one of the three working there, while shaking his hand in gratitude.
“It means so much to them whenever you come by a visit” another worker, an unnamed rabbit, said as her cheerful smile spread across her face.
“It’s the least I can do. These children have been through so much. They deserve a good Christmas after everything that’s happened to them.” Dream looked around the rather small building to see the children playing with well-worn out toys. For many of them, it will be their first Christmas in a safe environment while for the rest it will be the mark of another year of abandonment, rejection, and disappointment. None of them had many possessions such as their own toys or clothing, but thankfully the ‘Justice Reigns Orphan Rescue and Protection Program’ had enough donations, whether in the form of money or items, to help each child enough to get by. However, it was running low because of so many children in need and high-dollar contributors couldn’t see much of a point in it. Dream frowned just a little at this thought, which caught the attention of the Papyrus from earlier.
“Sir? If you don’t mind me asking, what’s wrong?”
“Oh! It’s something…that has been a bit disappointing as of late.”
“…Does it concern the children?” the young rabbit asked, a little worried about the change in the Dreams’ mood. Dream sighed, trying to push away the concern for now. “It’s fine. Nothing for any of you or the children to worry about.”
“Speaking of the children, when are we expecting…um…the delivery?” Toriel asked. Dream knew immediately of what she was speaking of. Every year, Justice Reigns had a fancy Christmas-themed fundraiser in an effort to provide toys to every orphan in the Multiverse. Then the presents were going to be delivered to every orphanage around. Even the orphanages outside of Justice Reign’s protection would receive a delivery (whether or not those places was willing to give the children the presents rather than selling the toys around JR’s back made things slightly more difficult on Dream’s part).
However, this year ended up in disaster. It started near Halloween when someone acquired a photo of Dream at run-down bar, getting drunk and being forced to leave. That someone ended up sending the photo to many paparazzi agencies whom did everything in their power to make Dream look like a relapsed alcoholic; the real truth was that the photo was taken long before Dream even met Ani not to mention that he hadn’t touch the stuff for more than a decade now, despite his cravings. Still, nobody would listen and rather believe a lie, thus tarnishing his name enough to cause problems. When the fundraiser finally came around, nobody wanted to help because it would only support Dream’s supposedly relapsed drinking. As such…they didn’t get far out of the starting gate when donations opened. The fundraiser itself didn’t make enough for one orphanage to receive presents, much less all the ones under Justice Reigns’ domain. They couldn’t deviate any of the funds from other programs because of the tight budget from the previous year. This upset Dream greatly, causing most of his depression, stress, and insomnia as of late.
Now, how was he going to explain this to these orphanage caretakers? Those working at Justice Reigns knew better than to believe such things, as this was not the first time paparazzi caused problems and they knew it would not be the last. They remained loyal to Dream, to which he was grateful. Most volunteers who worked in the programs provided by Justice Reigns knew that he wasn’t some drunk sycophant, because he would visit often, be friendly towards everyone, and smelling clean and being presentable, not like an ungrateful creature covering the stench of rotten alcohol and making a fool of himself. He hoped that they would understand as he explained in full detail of what was going on and why there wasn’t anything to delivery.
“That’s…horrible” Toriel said, in such a soft whisper as if she didn’t believe the words herself.
“No…” the bunny said, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
“There…isn’t…the children need something for Christmas! There is something we have to do!” Papyrus exclaimed. Dream agreed, however it was so close to Christmas already – only a week away really. But what could they do? He had been trying to figure out a situation since the fundraiser. Dream had even resorted to pleading with many of his past contributors, however they would not budge. He talked to many toy makers in an effort to donate some of the older toys they had failed to sell, but they were more concerned about their profits. It pained Dream to see how truly selfish and cold-hearted people were becoming this Christmas. It was a time of giving to those who are in need…and these children needed something good to happen in their lives!
“I will find a way. I will.” Dream said these words to the caretakers and he was determined to resolve this problem. He was. But after he left that day…things happened. Many of these problems were the ones that forced Dream’s attention away from this predicament, which would sometimes take an entire day. Sometimes it felt that the entire Multiverse was against him. Despite being able to make some progress, Dream ran out of time.
He was lying down on the floor in his office once Christmas Eve came, disappointed and depressed. The lights were out, leaving the office dark and hard to see if it were not for Dream’s wings glowing; however the wings were also dim from their usual brightness. The office slightly trashed due to Dream’s temper, however nothing valuable broken. Facing the ceiling with blank stare, he knew that he failed. The happy and proud atmosphere that once filled the castle called Justice Reigns was nothing but bitter moods and terrible attitudes. For once, Dream didn’t care. He was more worried about the children. He put so much effort into their well-being that…it hurt knowing they were going to wake without anything for them underneath the tree, thinking that they not good enough for Santa’s Nice List. His hand had grabbed the necklace softly, wondering what Ani would think of this. He concluded that they would be disappointed in him for not doing better.
The door cracked open, revealing Ink. His blank stare reached Dream’s eyes, but nothing was said. Instead, Ink huffed and went to sit on the desk, as it seemed that every chair and the couch were destroyed. “Things not going as planned?”
“Things didn’t go as planned” Dream replied dryly, his teeth clenched in anger as he scowled. Ink looked around the room a little bit but finding difficulty in seeing in the darkness. Ink looked up, seeing the remains of the fan still spinning.
“You killed the fan?”
“Yeah”
“…It was ugly. It needed to go.”
“Yeah”
They sat in complete silence for many minutes after that. Ink started up another conversation, perhaps out of boredom. “I don’t see what the big deal is. After all, isn’t this whole Christmas thing like a competition?” Dream sighed a little at this, understanding where Ink was going with this. “It does seem like it sometimes. Who can get the best gifts? Who can be the nicest?” Dream shut his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. “Christmas isn’t supposed to be like that though. It’s supposed to be a time where you help each other, despite what bad times might come through the winter.”
“…What were your Christmases like?”
Dream smiled a little. “You mean before Justice Reigns happened, correct?” He could tell that Ink shrugged, even though his eyes were still shut. Memories flooded back to Dream, most of them good this time but it still felt like his soul wanted to tear apart. “Nightmare and I would get each other presents. It was so hard to hide his because he was so damn nosy. But every Christmas, we managed to surprise each other every time. We even had a Christmas tree, but no matter how hard I tried to prevent it or redecorate, Nightmare would always botch up the appearance of the tree. He always claimed that it gave the tree ‘character’ though honestly it looked like a mess. I remember one year he managed to set it on fire. It didn’t burn down all the way though and we didn’t feeling like getting another one so it just stood there. I don’t even know how we managed to get the smell of smoke out of the house.”
Dream opened his eyes, done with reminiscing. He turned his head to Ink and asked, “What were yours like?”
“Never celebrated it.”
Dream’s stern gaze faltered for a second. “Never? Why?”
“Like I said, seems like a competition more than anything else. Besides, if I want anything then I just buy it or something like that.” Dream sighed, however it was a fair point. Nobody but Dream ever got Ink any presents and Ink never bothered to give any. However the thought itself was disheartening. The phone rang on Dream’s desk, to which Ink grabbed in quickly to answer it.
“Ello’? Who’s this?” Dream rolled his eyes, but in all honesty he didn’t feel like talking to anybody. He would rather let Ink mess this up than get up from the floor that he found comfort in. Ink listened to the phone call and finally answered, “Ok” before hanging up. “Someone just broke into one of the orphanages. Wanna come or just leave me to do it?”
“I don’t ca- WHAT?!”
“Yeah, someone broke into one of the orphanages. The worker said it was probably a thief. They’re still there.”
“GET OFF MY DESK AND LET’S GO!”
It was official. Dream was pissed. Who would rob an orphanage on Christmas Eve? Assholes, that’s who. Since the children didn’t even have presents in the first place, the only thing left to steal was the children’s belongings! That was not going to happen on Dreams’ watch! It didn’t even take them an hour to reach their destination. There they noticed that the door was ajar, the lock broken and everything.
Dream motioned Ink to stay behind him, than quietly sneaked through the door without making a sound. He noticed dirt and snow tracks leading into the foyer, so he crouched down and sneaked along, following the path. The tracks then lead to the chimney area which was big and mostly bare except for the Christmas tree, which gave enough light to see the bare minimum. There was shuffling sounds nearby so they huddled the corners where there was no light to avoid detection. Dream saw someone messing around the Christmas tree before going to the chimney itself. Dream could tell that this person was wearing a red and green outfit but he couldn’t clearly see. Seeing as though there was only one person there though, Dream jumped out of his hiding spot and drew out his sword, yelling, “This is JR! Freeze and put your hands up now!”
The figure froze in their spot, hands automatically shooting upward in the air.
“Turn around slowly and do not try anything, or I will kill you”
“...I don’t think that’s a good idea, Dream” the stranger said, with a familiar voice that Dream knew all too well. Dream was shocked as the figure turned around. It was Nightmare, in a rather ornate red and green outfit that was similar to his normal one, only the moon symbol was replaced with snowflakes. His purple eyes show their usual mischievous look and his black messy hair was mostly covered with an elf-hat while his circlet was probably in his inventory. Nightmare smiled a cocky smile, which told Dream he was up to something.
“What are you doing here Nightmare?” Dream demanded in a strict tone, not backing down. Nightmare lowered his hands and started speaking, but a large paintbrush swung out of nowhere and struck him down onto the floor. Ink looked so please with himself as he kneeled down and handcuffed Nightmare behind his back. “DUDE WAIT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! WE’RE ONLY HELPING OUT!” Dream motioned Ink to stop for a moment, and looked at Nightmare for an explanation.
“Okay so we heard about how bad the whole fundraiser thing went and we got to thinking about the kids at the orphanages and Error started panicking about the whole thing and went into a rant about ‘Kids need something for Christmas Nightmare!’ and so we decided do something about it” Nightmare explained quickly, not making full coherent sentences. Dream, however, quickly pieced together what Nightmare said. “You…you’re helping? How exactly? By stealing from them?”
Nightmare looked insulted from this statement. “No! What do you take me for? Sure I can be an asshole sometimes but I’m not soulless.” Ink narrowed his gaze at Nightmare, to which Nightmare turned his head slightly to face him and said, “You know what I mean.”
Dream had to think about what Nightmare said, which did make sense. Nightmare and his gang still had standards and if they stole anything it was for a decent reason or pure survival. They weren’t the type to hurt a little kid on purpose, unless it was an evil ‘Frisk’ or ‘Chara’ but that situation would fall under self defense. There was a problem with Nightmare’s story though. Nightmare had no toys on him nor was there any present nearby. “Pray tell how were you going to help then?”
“Well…here’s the thing…the presents that we brought are in the chimney…with…‘Santa’.”
Dream paused when he heard this before he directed his attention to the chimney. He approached it slowly and looked up, noticing someone stuck up there as evident by the casual swinging of his black boots. “…Who is up there, exactly?” Dream asked as he stared back at Nightmare; however he got his answer quickly as a person hollered out, “Nightmare! Nightmare, what are you doing!? Help me down already!” It was Cross’ voice.
“Yeah, ‘Santa’ had too much chocolate this year. Will you let me go now?” Dream was exasperated to say in the least, but he did motion for Ink to get up. Ink obeyed, but did not uncuff Nightmare. “Dude!” Nightmare hollered out as he got up from ground and glared at Ink. “Do it yourself.” “You have the keys!” “Why should I? I’m soulless after all”
“Boys, stop” Dream said in a low growl, not wanting to deal with this right now.
“Fine Boss”
“Fine Bossy”
Dream had to bite back a remark before returning to the task at hand. “Uncuff him, Ink, and help us pull Cross down.” Ink reluctantly done as he was told before Ink and Dream huddled in the chimney, each one grabbing a foot that was swinging and started pulling; Nightmare decided to go outside and investigate the top of the chimney to see if there was anything he could from there. Dream and Ink pulled as hard as they could but Cross only slightly moved downward.
“Stop Nightmare! That hurts!”
“Not Nightmare!” Ink hollered back in frustration.
“…INK? What are you doing here!?” Cross cried out in shock, clearly unaware of what was going on.
“Getting your fat butt out of there!”
“I’m not fat! My muscles are too big!”
“Yeah, your ‘table muscles’!” said Nightmare in a loud voice as he ran back inside and headed for the kitchen. Dream barely saw him go by, only to notice that they were not alone anymore. The children were all gathered downstairs along with the caretakers, watching the commotion with confusion and nervousness. “It’s all right everyone! Santa is just stuck right now but JR is working very hard to set him free” Dream explained nervously.
“Is Santa gonna live?” asked a small little monster child, who wasn’t but a foot tall and probably only two years old.
“YES! He will live!” Dream exclaimed, only to notice Nightmare running out of the kitchen with a few gallons of something and bolting straight outside before he could say anything else. “What’s going on?” Cross asked, to which Dream could tell he was panicking slightly.
“Don’t worry ‘Santa’! It’s just the ‘children’! They’re worried about you!”
“…Children? …OH! HO HO HO! I’m fine kiddos!” Cross hollered out; however it was clear that he was using a deeper voice than normal to fit the persona he took on. Dream groaned, knowing that he was only one right now realizing how terribly this was all going. Soon enough Cross cried out, “What are you doing Nightmare!? What is this stuff?!”
“Just pretend its chocolate!” Nightmare cried out, which was fainter and clearly farther above Cross. Dream didn’t understand what was going on until he saw cooking oil dripping down the sides of the chimney. Both Ink and Dream continue pulling on Cross’ legs, despite the complaints that the other was giving. They tried to be careful but the oil started getting all over Cross and themselves as well. Unfortunately, Cross had only moved a few inches. “Now what?” Ink asked Dream directly, however Dream had no time to think of another solution before chaos happened.
“SORRY NOT SORRY!”
“HOLY-!”
Cross was forced out of the chimney finally, colliding with Dream and Ink underneath him with full force. All in all, everyone could see the three dirty, oily men in a defeated pile with Nightmare casually sitting on top of them, saying, “I call that a ten out of ten.”
“I am personally adding ‘physical assault’ to your criminal records when this is all done” Dream growled on his back while Ink was squirming to get out from underneath.
“Ha. Bold of you to assume that those charges weren’t already in there!”
They all managed to get up, but they looked awful. Their clothes were practically ruined with the debris and cooking oil sticking to their coats and jeans, their hair sticking out in different positions, Cross’ beard was practically black at this point, the Santa suit that Cross wearing ruined-WAIT.
Dream stared at Cross’ face in disbelief, surprised at the foreign hair that was attached to it. It was awful looking, being untamed and un-kept. It wasn’t even that thick too, making it harder to look at. He even had side-burns and a mustache to go with it, being whiter than what his beard is now currently. All-in-all, Cross appeared like a sixty year old hobo instead of his normal age. Cross narrowed his eyes back at Dream, agitated at the fact that Dream was even staring at him. Ink merely looked at beard and decided to yank it to test if it was real.
“OUCH!”
“Huh. It is real. Go figure” Ink thought out loud while Cross tried to rub the discomfort out of his face.
“…Why?” Dream asked, slightly disturbed by this new look. Nightmare shrugged as he replied, “He wanted to look the part. Error and I wanted him to wear a fake one but he absolutely refused.”
“…Santa?”
All the men froze in their spot and looked down at the little human girl who walked up to them and spoke in such a soft voice. Cross, immediately in character, kneeled before the little girl and asked in a deep jolly voice, “Ho ho ho! Yes, little one?” The little girl looked up in awe, her eyes bright as she saw the nice man that she heard so many stories about. “Did…did you come to bring presents for us?”
“I sure did! Ho Ho Ho! Little elf, bring the presents!”
“You might not want to call me little, ‘Santa’” Nightmare said in a cheery tone however his eyes were definitely twitching from the insult. The bag of presents that was trapped in the chimney with Cross, which wasn’t fancy to begin with, made it safely down surprisingly without breaking anything. Nightmare had begun passing out presents while Dream, Ink, and Cross needed to wash up and get changed out of their clothes before helping out. The caretakers and other workers at the orphanage managed to find some extra clothes that fit Dream and Ink while Cross ended up with the spare Santa suit that was two sizes too big. At this point, it was evidently clear that Cross looked ridiculous however at this point he didn’t care as he was too busy having fun and being ‘Santa’ to the little ones.
After many of the presents were given out, Dream noticed a few things that were…off with them…so to speak. One, all of them was unwrapped so either Nightmare’s gang ran out of time or didn’t bother to do it. Two, some were crotchet stuff toys in a familiar blue string, being strong, sturdy, and soft as well. They were friendly looking and the smaller children took to the dolls extremely well. Three, the rest of the toys were like Frankenstein abominations, such as a walking doll with duck feet while wearing a rain coat, toy pirate ships with monster truck wheels, and a lot of stuff ostrich toys that had a horse for a head and reptile feet that actually wiggled; Dream showed this particular one to Nightmare and asked for an explanation. “Oh! That one there is what we call, ‘Harry the Horsetrichsauras’. We’re pretty sure it’ll be in popular demand before long.”
“Why is there mutant atrocities disguised as toys coming out of that bag?”
“Well, we knew that Error couldn’t make enough toys for all the kiddos, so Cross and I broke into this warehouse full of broken or poorly made toys that were going to be discarded. We decided to make actual suitable toys out of them. It was hard but looking at this scene…it was so worth it.” Nightmare looked at the kids playing with their toys with an endearing smile on his face, something that was very rare for him. To Dream’s astonishment, Nightmare and Cross did a good job on the variety and quality on the toys as the children play with toys ecstatically. It made Dream smile as well.
Nightmare’s phone rang, which interrupted the scene and getting everyone’s attention. Nightmare answered it without hesitation. “Error! What’s up?”
“Where are you? I just got the last of the toys finished!”
“Uhh…the first stop…”
Nightmare flinched as Error practically hollered through the speakers of the phone. “ARE YOU CRAZY? You can’t there any longer or Dream will find out!”
“Already did” Dream answered, a little startled as well after the screaming. There was a pause before Error said, “You have got to be kidding me…”
“Listen Error, it’s a long story but we finished delivering the presents for here, so we’re going on!”
“Nightmare, you don’t have enough time! You’ve been there for more than two hours and at this rate you won’t even get half done when Christmas is over!” This caused Nightmare to wince, and when the duo looked over they saw Cross staring back at them with a worried look on his face. Dream straightened up when he realized what he needed to do. “I can help, and I can get Ink to help whether he wants to or not.” Ink groaned when he heard this while Nightmare looked at Dream with surprise, but Dream continued talking. “I can get these presents delivered to these orphanages faster than any of you can, and I can do it legally for that matter. The caretakers or workers won’t hesitate to let me inside and I don’t need to slide down tiny chimneys like an idiot.”
“Hey! It was a accident!”
“Let me help…I failed these kids once so let me redeem myself.”
Dream was dead serious…and Nightmare knew it. Nightmare smirked and said, “On one condition; you don’t arrest us right after this.” Dream smirked as well and remarked, “Only if Cross shaves that rat off his face.”
“Now you guys are just being mean…”
‘Operation Save Christmas’ was a go. The plan was relatively simple. Nightmare and the now beardless Cross would bring all the presents to Justice Reigns where Dream and the other employees (who agreed on the truce just for tonight) would deliver the presents to each orphanage quickly and silently. They, along with the orphanage workers (who were informed by the sudden news) quickly got the presents inside and under the tree before any other children woke up.
It was a race against the clock…and they were a few bumps in the plan that caused Dream to personally intervene…
…but they did it.
Every orphan got a present for Christmas. Everyone in Justice Reigns celebrated and before long a party broke out in the entire castle with booze and quickly made hand-size food. Dream was swept up in the thrill of it all and celebrated as well. Nightmare and Cross attended too as well as Error, who was so happy about the results that he could barely stand it. It was a blast as everyone celebrated Christmas Eve with each other, deciding to ignore past the hardships of the year and be thankful for the upcoming new year. The party itself lasted even after every orphan woke up and opened their gifts, which they all loved their toys dearly.
Eventually Dream was forced to retire from the party, leaving the employees still giddy in their celebrations. Even though Dream did not touch any form of alcohol, he still felt light-headed and emotional from the whole experience. He walked into his office, since it was closer than his bedroom, only to be reminded and disappointed by all the broken furniture that he cannot sleep on. He did see Nightmare though, lying down on the floor and curl away from Dream. He was so sure that his twin was asleep until Nightmare turn to him and simply said, “Hey.”
“…You too. Tired?”
“You have no idea. I can’t remember the last time I slept…maybe before this whole Christmas ruckus started.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah…I was so sure that if I slept then there wouldn’t be enough toys and everything would fail. I was starting to have nightmares from the whole thing.”
“…Same here.”
They looked at each other for what seemed like several minutes in awkward silence before Dream asked, “You’re just going to sleep here?” Nightmare laughed before dryly commenting, “I was going to use the couch for a little bit but someone decided it shouldn’t exist anymore.” Dream smiled and shook his head, a little embarrassed. “It was not my finest moment.”
“Obviously. This whole thing must have made you upset and for good reason.”
“Yeah…were you the one who…you know…?”
“I didn’t get that picture or use it against you if that’s what you’re asking. You know that I will never stoop that low when it comes to embarrassing you.”
“I see…”
“Whoever that guy was must be pretty vindictive though. Or he could be just a general everyday asshole. Either or.”
“…Thank you.”
These words took Nightmare off guard for a moment. He studied his twin’s face, perhaps wondering if Dream really meant it. Dream swallowed his pride for a moment before saying, “Thank you for doing this. I couldn’t give those kids their Christmas this year and I was ready to give up. Then, out of nowhere, you swooped in and fixed it like some kind of superhero. While I was pitying them and just becoming more stress over the while situation, you and the others basically did the hard work for no reward whatsoever. So I want to say thank you.”
“…Uh…I really don’t know what to say”
Dream only sighed and decided to lie down beside Nightmare on the floor. This caused Nightmare to physically flinch but he did not move away from Dream. “Dude, your bedroom isn’t that far away.” “I know” Dream said, turning his gaze toward Nightmare after he got comfortable. To his surprise, Nightmare’s face started to heat up as he appeared flustered. Nightmare lightly punched Dream in the shoulders before curling up to him, slowly closing his eyes to rest. Dream smiled at this, closing his eyes and listen to the other one breathe in and out peacefully for what seemed like forever. Nightmare did wake up sometime later and grabbed Error and Cross before heading back to their hideout, just in case somebody got the bright idea of breaking the truce. However, Dream didn’t mind. Deep down, he was happy about the entire outcome.