Work Text:
Being trapped in some sort of coma for who-knows-long and suddenly being thrown back in the world of living is harsh. One moment there was nothing and the next his soul was assaulted by too much, too fast. Dream could feel it all, the lingering feelings of sadness, fear and hate, the smell of blood and dust, the darkness around him which was nearly as palpable as the barren land under his knees. He could still hear the echoed of distressed yells and pained cries ringing in his ears as loud as his pounding new apple soul, and he was aware of all that was beyond this universe, positive and negative feelings alike. It was too much for the poor unprepared guardian, who succumbed back to the darkness nearly as fast as he had freed himself from it.
It took him long before waking up again, this time a little less overwhelmed, though he still didn’t feel like moving. He stayed still, awake, trying to clear his foggy mind and comprehend all that had happened. He had so many questions, on where he was, on what happened to his universe, or where was his dear brother.
Luckily for him, two being entered the room, rushing to him with relieved expressions. He laid silently until they finally calmed down and addressed him directly, asking him general questions. Lost, confused and with no one else, Dream let himself trust those two knew beings, hopping he wasn’t making the same mistakes again.
The next months, Dream learned a lot about what had happened to him, to his timeline and to his brother. He still refused to believe that Nightmare is dead, taken over by some horrible being, but he got along with things, recovering and learning how to tame his newly acquired magic from the last Golden Apple he ate.
Soon enough though, an extra violent attack on a universe forced Ink and Blue to ask him for some back up. He wasn’t keen on fighting, but he couldn’t let his friends get hurt and so he accepted, albeit reluctantly.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting upon arrival to the targeted universe, but the familiar feeling and smell of fear and blood overcoming his senses nearly threw him in a panic attack. His friends stayed by his side, making sure that he will really be fine, before plunging themselves in the middle of the battle field.
Dream watched from the sidelines as Ink used his brush to create a huge wall of paint, protecting a rabbit monster and her child from a skeletal monster wielding a knife, and bleeding black liquid from his sockets. With Ink still in the air, the two weapons crashed against one another, the momentum sending both opponents flying away from each other. They stared for some seconds before charging anew.
He turned his head and watched Blue handling another skeletal monster, this time covered with a dusty hoodie, purple magic flaring from his eyelight as he fired five huge strange-looking skulls at his friend, who retaliated with the exact same number of skulls, the blasts crashing mid distance as the two gauged one another, planning what to do next.
A cry made him look away, in time to see a skeleton with a hole in his skull cut clean the leg of a dog monster. The other raised his axe again to finish the monster and Dream couldn’t stay here without doing anything. Using his staff as a bow like he learned to do in those short months, he aimed at the handle of the axe and shot, light arrow flying quickly and hitting its target straight, effectively disarming the other monster.
His reaction was slow as he turned his head to his axe, which had landed feets away in the snow with a broken handle, and then looked to the general direction the arrow could have come from. His singular blood-red eyelight landed on the little guardian, before teleporting and appearing right behind him. Dream had to dodge the other as he tried to impale him with what was left of the axe’s handle he still had in hand.
He jumped off of the building, catching himself thanks to the snow and rushed to the edge of the city, hoping his opponent would follow him and stay away from the remaining villagers. He heard behind him the crunch of the snow as the other landed on the ground, but also some sort of digital and dysfunctional laughter, which repeated itself like some broken recorder.
He heard Ink yell, many more footsteps approaching his general direction. He stopped in the middle of the path, between the bridge and the city. He could see something on top of the bridge, some kind of black mass, with strange dripping appendages waving behind it.
It took him some time to understand what he was seeing, and a little more to pinpoint the distorted aura he could feel. But when he did, there was no mistake. It was Nightmare, his brother, looking somewhat like what he remembers from the Apple Incident, still in his corrupted form.
He saw Nightmare open his singular cyan eyelight, the glowing orb staring right at him. The darker let nothing pass through his schooled expression but Dream could feel a sample of many emotions waft from the other. There was some kind of shock, anger, sadness, regrets and a very faint bit of happiness and relief.
Dream didn’t had the time to dwell on that. A violent shake of the ground made him nearly loose his balance as some bits of codes were taking off and disappearing into the sky. He heard Ink shout:
“The world is crumbling, we have to go! Right now!”
The positive guardian was suddenly forced through a paint portal, ending straight on his bony ass in the Doodle Sphere house. Ink was growling in frustration, annoyed to have lost a world to the ‘Bad Sans’, as Blue tried to calm him down despite all the injuries littering his frame. Finally, they all settled down, healing injuries while Ink vented his frustration. Dream decided it best to not mentioned the fact that he faced his brother.
Many battles like those happened after. They were almost always defeated, the world ending up dying because of their lack of power and the enemies outnumbering them. Dream hadn’t really had the possibility to talk to his brother, the other purposefully ignoring and avoiding him on the battlefield and letting the others fight with the little guardian.
Sometimes, he could also catch snippets of ‘conversation’ between his friends and their opponents but he wasn’t sure he really understood what was being said between them, certainly because he was missing the full conversation.
One day, their group succeeded in catching the gang before they scattered to go hurt the people around. It had been the first time Dream had heard Nightmare say anything other than short orders. He had reply to Ink’s demands of leaving with a full speech, worth the best classy Disney villain you could encounter. The positive guardian tried his best to memorize this, hoping if he was as good as his brother with the vocabulary, he will finally be able to understand him and convince him to stay with him.
The whole speech only had the effect of frustrating and railing up Ink, even more than what he had been before. That’s when the skeleton with his soul out – Killer he believed – decided to strike in, a manic grin nearly splitting his face.
“Come on Ink blot, how are we suppose to play with our new toy if you don’t come and try to stop us?”
At that Dream made a noise of realization. That made all eyelights turn to him. “If that’s just all for a toy, maybe you can ask Ink to make you a knew one so you don’t have to destroy?! Then we could even play all together!”
The way the guardian said that with so much seriousness and pride made them all stop dead in their tracks. Then, except Nightmare who sighed in desperation, the whole gang burst out laughing at the little guy misconception. Even Ink was kind of laughing while Blue wasn’t sure of what he should do exactly. Instead, he patted Dream’s shoulder saying a quiet “That’s not what he meant.”, shoulders shaking.
Killer, between two bouts of laughter, gasped. “Fucking stars that’s golden!” He wheezed. “Where in the world you fond someone this naive, squid brain?”
Dust joined him. “Yeah! Where you too short of members, you had to drag a naive kid in this?”
And the puns and the mocking finished to fried Ink’s already thin patience. “Fuck you!”
Dream looked at Ink with wide eyes and his jaws gaped, letting out a quiet “Wait what?”
Ink again turned to his friend. “What?”
Dream looked away with a slight golden blush. “Oh uh it’s just that I didn’t know you two were uh… having that kind of relationship?”
Blue and Nightmare looked at him mortified while Ink was wheezing, Killer and Dust rolling on the floor, laughing out loud.
Dream was just overly confused and tried to justify himself. “I’m just surprised that you would… uh do that to … them, that’s all. Just don't force them if they don't want to, because that's not nice. ”
It made Ink and the two doubled over while Cross and Horror were trying their hardest to contain it at least a little. Blue was shocked out of his mind and Nightmare had turned so pale his goop was nearly gray.
Finally, when Ink recovered slightly, he wheezed. “Don’t worry Dreamy, I’ll use protection!”
That finally succeeded in breaking everyone, the whole gang laughing and rolling on the ground, Blue so mortified that he teleported elsewhere and Nightmare lost it.
“ENOUGH! The battle is over and we are leaving! So shut the fuck up Ink!”
Dream shocked expression made Nightmare realize his mistake faster than the striking light.
“Br-brother? You would…?”
He let out a strangled sound. “NO!” The other were still wheezing on the floor, not even listening to Nightmare’s orders anymore. Nightmare shot a tendril to Dream, who didn’t had the time to dodge before it ensnared him.
“That’s it! You are coming with me and I’ll teach that not all words are to be taken to face value!”
Nightmare opened a portal under his boys, dropping them on the castle floor, purposefully harder than necessary. He let Ink crying of laughter on the ground as he made his way through his own portal, Dream in his tentacles. Dream was confused but wasn’t complaining. If that meant he could spend some time with his brother, he was totally up for it!