Chapter Text
Fixing his horribly greasy hair isn’t first on Dream’s list after escaping the prison. First is gearing back up. Punz comes through for that, also handing him some nice, warm clothes so he can be comfortable in cold weather that he’s no longer used to.
Next on the list…Dream visits Logstedshire. He just can't help it. He has so many good memories of the place. And lucky him, when he digs underneath that new marker he notices, he finds Tommy's gear buried there. Waiting. He takes it all and then waits himself. Tommy doesn't leave him waiting for long, and then Dream gets to play with his favourite puppet again for a bit.
Tommy's hair has grown out as well; it'd been much shorter the last time Dream saw it, when Tommy had broken into the prison. Now, it looks more like it did during his drawn-out second visit. Like a longer and less unkempt version of how it looked right here, during the near-perfection of exile.
He grabs at it while Tommy runs from him. It's just another way to play with his food, but the memory of the last time he grabbed Tommy's hair comes to mind unbidden. And judging from the reaction when he actually takes a fistful, it comes to Tommy's mind as well. His cheeks start to hurt from grinning. This is so much fun. Tommy is so much fun. He's missed this.
But the hunt happening in the same place as exile means that it suffers from the same issue: there are two people who live just a bit too nearby, and they happen to be maybe the two only people Dream wants to avoid making enemies of. So Tommy runs to cower behind Philza, and Dream has to leave him.
He’ll see Tommy again soon. He turns away from where he’s hidden to go get his original armour and weapons back. The stuff Punz gave him is fine, but he'd rather have the full enchantments of his Nightmare set again.
Later, still without any of Nightmare, he paces back and forth with a scowl. That is his gear, and he is going to get it back, and that idiot Sapnap is going to pay for daring to try to keep it from him. He uncurls one hand to run it through his hair, and the feeling of residue it comes away with makes him halt. Oh yeah. His hair.
Well. If he can’t get his gear back for the moment, getting his hair dealt with seems like a suitable next best step to reestablishing himself.
He has to go to Punz to borrow some product, and he...does not have high hopes. The unsurprising sight of the 2-in-1 bottle makes him heave a sigh. This may not be much better than the stupid 3-in-1 bar from the prison. He might have to resign himself to having greasy hair for even longer.
When he washes all the product out, his hair feels nice and clean for the first time in ages. Huh. What a pleasant surprise.
He gets ready to cut his hair back to his normal look, but Punz stops him and says now that it’s clean, the long hair seems like it might actually look nice on him. Says maybe he should give it a shot. After all, he can always chop it off later.
Dream’s big hangup with that is that he has no idea how to cut a longer hair style. Fortunately, Punz does, since he has longish hair himself. Some of it has to go due to nearly a year without even semi-decent hair care, but Dream still ends up with hair that’s a fair amount longer than what he’s used to.
Once it dries, it turns out Punz was right: the long hair does look good! Dream might like it even more than his typical, short look. He runs a hand through it again, and then he finds it hard to keep his hands out of it. The feeling of long hair between his fingers is so so nice now that it’s clean and soft.
Punz chuckles to himself and tells Dream that he's realised their hair almost matches now. Dream snorts and says it’s only because Punz is the one who gave him this haircut.
He pauses combing through his hair as a realisation of his own hits him, one he’s surprised he didn't have until just now. He tugs on it with a smile as he considers the thought.
He's a little disappointed the next time he sees Tommy.