Work Text:
“You sure you want to do this, Snapmap?”
Holding up his fists in front of his face, Sapnap watched Dream with narrowed eyes as they paced around in the sandy training arena. Bandages were wrapped over their knuckles, over their arms, over Dream’s weak shoulder where one too many smashes had jolted it to the side. Now, they paced around one another, ready to fight at any moment.
Grinning at him, Sapnap fired back, “One hundred percent. I’m going to kick your butt.”
“No you’re not.”
“Oh, really?” Sapnap lunged in throwing a kick at Dream’s ribs. Catching his ankle easily, too easily for Sapnap’s taste, Dream threw him off-balance and ducked in to grab his hand and flip him. If they were actually in a fight, Sap probably would have been dead by then. Especially in a manhunt, if it weren’t for their armour and tools. But this wasn’t manhunt. This was a sparring match between friends.
And since this was a match between friends, that meant two things:
One, Dream knew Sapnap like the back of his hand,
And Two, Dream probably knew every single one of his moves.
Hell, Dream had taught Sapnap a significant chunk of them. Others were new, some he’d picked up from Karl and Quackity while working on the SMP, some from helping Ranboo develop his own unique fighting style of teleporting and attacking in a flurry, or sparring with Techno or Wilbur or Phil. Phil was scary. Maybe not as much as Techno or Dream at first glance, but the man lived and breathed Hardcore worlds like they were nothing. Hardcore filming licenses weren’t easy to obtain, especially ones for multiple seasons of episodes. Actually, Sapnap wasn’t even sure how many people he knew who were allowed to film on Hardcore. Most of the time the film higher-ups ruled it “inappropriate” and “too graphic” for audiences, even though usually the worst part about it was a) when the person died and the world deleted within a few seconds, or b) when they started out or first got hurt. Other than that, it was just swearing and they got plenty of that with the SMP series in most people’s opinions.
Ducking under Dream’s arm, Sapnap rammed his shoulder into the green hoodie and heard a grunt as the wind was knocked from Dream.
Grinning, Sapnap threw a few more punches and then blocked as Dream did the opposite, the pair fighting in tandem easily. “Stop playing with me, go harder!” Sapnap ordered, and Dream laughed lightly.
“Go harder?”
Laughing, Sapnap jabbed him in the ribs and Dream flipped him again. Kicking his legs around, Sapnap planted his feet on the ground and tried to do the same, sitting on his friend’s stomach when they both tipped over.
“Ooh, Sapnap. So forward, how hot.” Dream cracked, and Sapnap dragged himself to his feet and then yanked Dream himself upright. “I’m sorry, Sap, but I’m married to Fundy now and I’m very much in love.”
“Shut up you cheated on him with George.”
“Uh! No!” Waving him off, Dream threw a few more punches, ducked and weaved and feinted easily. “George kissed me! I just didn’t pull back.”
“Right, sure, like you don’t ask him to constantly say I love you. You want me to kiss you?” Jokingly, Sapnap leaned in, and Dream rolled them forwards easily. Flipping him, Dream slammed Sapnap into the sand and then pinned him down. :If we were love interests I can almost guarantee that we’d be kissing.”
“Well I mean homies kiss homies eh?”
“Obviously.” Sapnap grabbed his shoulders and flipped them. Planting a foot in his stomach, Dream threw him off against and they rolled upright, stretching his shoulders before jumping back into the fight, There were a few quick kicks and punches.
Dream slammed a fist into Sapnap’s ribs, felt some buckle under the punch and felt the crack before hearing it.
Sapnap grabbed his arm and flipped Dream to the side, eyes narrowed. “Sapnap—” Blocking Sapnap’s strike, Dream stepped back. He ducked under a punch. Eyes narrowing, he repeated, “Sapnap—”
“What? Are you scared?” How doesn’t he feel it? Is he faking? Glancing his friend up and down, Dream growled under his breath. “Aw, Dreamy’s scared—”
“Shut up.” Dream dodged around him. As Sapnap stumbled to the side, Dream moved again. Grabbing his friend’s wrist, on the side where his ribs weren’t hurt, he twisted around and then flipped Sapnap over his shoulder. There was a smack of muscle against sand that sounded more painful than it really was—and Dream could be careful. He didn’t want to break Sapnap’s shoulder, obviously. Or injure him even more.
“What—” Sapnap stared up at him. Planting a foot down on Sapnap’s chest, Dream stared down at him.
“Enough.” Dream snapped, and his friend’s eyes widened. “Stay down.”
“What?” Confused, Sapnap tried to sit up. Immediately, Dream returned his foot to his friend’s chest and pressed him down. “Hey! Dream!”
“Stay—still.” Turning, Dream went over to the medical kit sitting on the bench and pulled out a few things. An icepack, some bandages, and—
“Dream, I don’t like needles.” Sapnap eyed the thing in Dream’s hand, swallowing nervously. “Dream—”
Glancing at him, Dream replied, “You’re fine, if you pass out I’ll be right here and I’ll wait until you wake up.” He rucked up Sapnap’s shirt, pressed down on the edges of his ribs until he noticed the wince. Under his fingers, he felt the ribs buckle. Sapnap hissed in a breath, and Dream checked that the syringe was good before covering Sap’s eyes with one hand and jabbing him with the needle with the other. When it was over, he sat back and shot his friend a look. “There. Was it that bad, you big baby?”
“Shut up.” Dream pressed the ice bag to Sapnap’s ribs and then made him sit up, brushing dirt from his back as he carefully wrapped the bandages around him. “Why are you doing that?”
“You’ve broken several ribs. The ice and painkillers will keep it from hurting every time you breathe. We don’t need you getting pneumonia. We already have Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo down with it because they were being idiots. And then Eret.”
“Hold on, Eret’s got it, too?” Sapnap asked, and Dream slowly helped him upright.
“You know that corset that Minx and Niki were making? Yeah, turns out that Eret put it on for way too long and way too tight the other day, and they ended up getting a chest infection from inhaling water. Of course they didn’t tell us about it, because Ranboo was pretty freaked out and they didn’t want to scare him more. I love Eret, total sweetheart, still an idiot.” Slyly, Dream hipchecked him, then added, “Like someone else I know.”
“Oh, I know someone like that, too.” Both of them met gazes for a moment. Then, they said the name.
“George.”
Laughing, they both stumbled their way home. Sapnap tripped a few times, so Dream decided to just…grab him. And throw him over his shoulder. Very much like a sack of potatoes, albeit a very angry and loud sack of potatoes but a sack of potatoes nonetheless. “Stop struggling I’ll drop you.”
“Stop carrying me!”
“No way, Aurora.” Pausing, Sapnap looked at him. “You know. Princess. Sapnap. Sleeping Beauty’s real name is Aurora, combining Princess with Sapnap is Princessnap. So….Aurura.”
“Shut up I’m going to hurt you. Just kill me now. Please.”