Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dix's eyes fluttered open as morning sunlight poured in through the baby blue curtains of her bedroom window and eased her from her rest. Her arms stretched out over her head as she let out a long yawn and heard her joints crack from age.

A sigh blows out of her nose before she pushes the bedsheets backwards and shifts out from the warm covers.

The floor is cold under her feet as she patters across the room into her bathroom, another yawn slips from her mouth and exhaustion waves over her. She catches her grey eyes in the bathroom mirror, noting how bloodshot they look, along with her tangled red hair.

She frowns at her reflection before trying to rub the sleep away from her eyes and turning around to get ready for the day. She runs through her normal routine, but everything is in muscle memory as she falls into thought.

Honestly, she's grown used to being woken up abruptly in the middle of night, such is the way of parenthood.

Mainly things she's been woken up from, such as the night Aubree went into labor, or when one of the kids has thrown up, or someone wet the bed. The amount of things that have woken her up are limitless, but she never expected to be woken up by a phone call from one of Dream's littles.

Her head hit the pillow only an hour or two earlier when her phone blared to life. Groggily she pulled it from her nightstand, paying no attention as she answered and held it up against her ear.

Punz's voice was frail through the phone and she felt her heart shattering as she was jump started with an overwhelming motherly instinct to protect the other.

Although she hadn't spent much time with the other, she knew that something was wrong by the way his voice shook through the line and his words were a trembling mess to be heard.

Her senses were heightened by adrenaline as she pulled on good enough clothes and rushed out her front door. Her hands shook as she drove over to Dream's house, heart racing as she watched Punz come out from the shadows and approach her car.

The man looked so broken and distraught as he sat in the seat, not even willing to catch her eyes.

She just wanted to pull him into the tightest hug and tell him how loved he was, but she couldn't.

When they got back to her house, she guided him towards his own room and let him settle down. When she came back to check on him roughly twenty minutes later, Punz was already passed out and curled up in the covers.

She just sighed and closed the door before heading back up to her own room. She slipped back into the covers with her wife, arms tightening around the others waist and sighing as she tired to sleep again.

Dix doesn't know how long she actually slept, but she remembers briefly walking up when Aubree got up at her normal time. Aubree is a heavier sleeper and was left undisturbed the night before. So, Dix tried to sleep for just a little bit longer before her brain wouldn't shut off again and she decided to force herself out of bed before Punz would stumble downstairs and surprise her wife.

She heads down to the kitchen once fully dress, greeted by her beautiful wife standing over the coffee pot and pouring her a cup. A smile lights up on her face as she heads in Aubree's direction, heart fluttering happily at the sight of her gorgeous wife.

"Morning my love," Dix murmured, stealing a cup from the other and sipping on it.

"Morning," Aubree smiled back, turning in her direction and reading her face, "Late night?" she asked as her head tilted to the side.

"Ugh, you don't even know," she sighed, shaking her head.

Aubree's head tilted farther as her pretty face scrunched up in confusion, hands moving in a motion to get her to explain farther. The sparkling of brown eyes melts her heart as she tries to not get distracted.

"One of Dream's littles, Button- well Punz, but you know, Button," she explained, watching her wife nod her head, "He called and needed somewhere to go, but he didn't explain why, but he did sound upset."

"Oh," her eyebrows knitted together, frowning, "Do you think something happened with Dream or Karl or something?" she asked, knowing so much about the family without ever meeting one of the family members.

"I'm not sure, nothing like this has happened before."

Aubree nodded her head again, black hair falling into her face before she pushed it backwards and sighed. Their eyes spoke wonders as they moved through a silent conversation, just as they would normally around their children.

Neither conversation provides much before Punz comes stumbling into the kitchen, frowning to himself and pausing awkwardly in the doorway and unsure if he was allowed to come in any farther. He unconsciously shifts from one foot to the other, nervously looking between his hands and the concerned couple.

Dix offers him a gentle smile as she places her cup down, opening her body language to be more approachable.

"Hey, how're you feeling this morning?" Dix asked sweetly, watching him shift.

"Okay," he whispered quietly.

He misses being at home. He misses having the freedom to move around the kitchen without feeling like a burden.

Or, when he didn't feel like a burden.

Aubree eyes him for a long moment, and once she senses that nothing is going to come out from Punz without it being prompted, she spoke instead. She's always been the kind to levy out uncomfortable situations.

"Sorry, we haven't met yet," Aubree said, pulling up the others eyes, "But I'm Aubree, Dix's wife. It's nice to finally meet you," she smiled her sugary sweet smile as she extended her hand and looked at the other.

"Hi," he whispered, shaking her hand back before sinking down inside himself.

He's so scared, and tired, and wants to be small so he doesn't have to deal with all of his big emotions and so things can magically feel better, but he can't be small because he's not at home and new is scary.

He misses his home.

Why'd things have to turn so badly?

He wants his Papa and Baba, but he can't have them. They aren't his Papa or Baba anymore, because Bug wouldn't like that. Just like Bug and Bean aren't his brothers anymore because Bug wouldn't like that either.

He's so lonely.

"Do you want some breakfast?" Aubree ask, motioning towards the stove and pulling him from his thoughts.

"If it isn't too much to ask," he whispered nervously, honestly feeling like such a burden for them, even though he was taken in willingly.

"Of course not, now sit," she laughed, motioning towards the table.

Punz does as he's told and sits down at the table, letting his fingers tap anxiously against the smooth wood and find himself getting lost in thought. 

He still just wishes he was at home, even if it isn't his home anymore.

Dix slides into a chair beside him and catches his eyes, even though the little wishes she hadn't.

"Hey, do you want to talk about what happened last night? I'm not sure why you want to leave."

"'mm," he hummed, "Gotta go back to Massachusetts, but didn't want the others to know because it'd hurt them."

"Why are you going back to Massachusetts?"

"'Cause Sap doesn't want me there, and burden," Dix doesn't miss how his eyes start to water and his voice breaks, causing her to frown and tap against his chin to look back up at her again.

"Have you talked with Dream or Karl?"

Punz shakes his head unhelpfully, looking down again.

Dix frowns to herself and rubs him back in comfort. Aubree sets down a plate and they catch eyes again, holding another silent conversation about trying to get the other boy back home already.

They at least want to have the boy talk to Dream or Karl first before making a rash decision like leaving to Massachusetts.

They don't know how to fix it, but they'll figure something out.

At the very least, they hope that they will.

Dream could since something off the second his eyes flickered open and he realized that the sun hadn't risen just yet. He checked the time and saw that it was just after six thirty, so he pushed himself up and stumbled out of his bedroom in search of the source of his unexplainable worry.

His head ducked inside George's room first, finding the other resting soundly and curled up in the bedsheets. Dream smiled faintly to himself, just enjoying the peace in the room before heading towards his office space.

It isn't the most optimal, nor is it what they wanted, but after what happened with Sapnap, they put the blow-up mattress back in his office for Punz too use.

Their house is far too small for the amount of people in it, having run out of room a long time ago, and now Punz is suffering for it. Hopefully they'll be able to move very soon; god does he hope so.

He pushes the door of his office open, expecting Punz to be at least laying on the mattress, but his heart drops into his stomach when the other isn't in the room at all.

Dream tries to not freak out, needing to take in a deep breath even as he has a horrible gut feeling twisting his stomach and turning it sour. He tries to think of places the other could possibly be, and heads towards the hall bathroom first.

The door to the bathroom is propped open, light left off and empty.

Next, he heads down towards the nurseries hoping that the other was small and wondered down there by himself.

Surely, Punz couldn't have gotten fair.

Could he?

Both of the nurseries are empty, but he notices the missing clothes from Bug's closet that belong to Button, causing the twisting in his stomach to worsen.

Did he run away again?

That couldn't be possible, because his phone never alerted him of motion outside. Surely he's still inside the house.

Dream prays to every god that Punz is still inside the house as his panicking worsens.

He goes into the kitchen as he feels his hope dwelling already, flickering the florescent lights on and blinding his sensitive eyes. He traces around the room for sight of anything helpful when his eyes land on a sticky note left on the table.

The bright pink is daunting as he steps towards it, hands shaking as he picks it up.

It's messily written across the paper, but clearly Punz's handwriting and Dream's breath catches as he starts reading what it says. His hands only shake worse as he skims the words before letting them sink in.

A couple of words are scratched out, parental names, but it's still legible where he tried scribbling it out. His heart sinks seeing his half-regressed brain scattering words across the paper and breaking him apart.

Dear Papa and Baba

Dear Dream and Karl,

I'm not too sure what to write here, but I'm sorry for doing this. I know that you both still love me, but I feel like im ruining everything and making things hard for Sap. I wish I could stay, but imma head back home to Massachusetts.

I love you and m very sorry

Please don't hate me, kay?

Button Punz

He feels sick to his stomach as he reads his baby's name scribbled out, tears crowding his eyes as he stumbled back up the stairs towards his bedroom again. He doesn't know what he's doing, but he can't wait around; he has too find his boy.

Dream pulls their closet open and tosses a pair of his shoes out to try and pull out, waking Karl up in the process.

The man rubs his eyes tiredly, only partially sitting up and looking at Dream in confusion.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked, speech slurred.

Dream feels his throat restrict and knows he won't be able to answer as he shakily hands over the paper. He turns back around to pull his shoes on, not bothering to get changed into anything different because his pajama's are good enough.

"Where're you going?" Karl worried, breathing becoming shaky as he reads the note.

"To the airport... Massachusetts..." his face turns red, beginning to breath awfully hard and trying not to cry as he feels his lungs restrict his air flow and everything feels horrible, "I don't know... I want our boy back..." the words tremble out, pulling him apart as he breaks down into tears.

He starts breathing faster, unable to to control again as the world spins.

"Dream, baby, hey, breath with me," Karl said, grabbing his hands and trying to focus the other with him.

He gets Dream to force a breath out before grounding him by checking out his different senses. He works on a count down of his different senses until he's a sniffling mess still shaking a little in his arms.

"I have to get our boy back," he whimpered, hiding his face in Karl's shoulder.

"I know Dream, but going to Massachusetts won't help anything. We don't even know if he's left yet, or even where he's at. I want to know he's safe first before trying to find him, alright?"

Dream nods his head, trying to calm his shaking from the panic attack.

They don't know what the best thing too do is, so they start calling his phone to see if the other would pick up or not. However, it goes to his voicemail every single time and they feel their hearts shatter every time they hear it.

Hours are spent trying to get him to pick up his phone and Dream starts growing frustrated with everything and especially him not answer his phone.

It's after nine when Karl steps out of the room for a moment, leaving Dream to keep calling the other. His frustration is making his head spin as he dials his number for what must be the millionth time.

He feels himself breaking apart as the voicemail message plays again.

"Luke Punz Jones," he scolds, biting back faux anger as tears gather in his eyes and he sighs, "Please come back home Punz, please. I don't know all that happened, but I'll try to fix it, just please come back home. Me and Karl are worried sick, please baby, please," he pleads, seconds away from breaking out into tears.

Dream sighs as he hangs up the phone and throws it behind his back, burying his face into his hands as tears slip down his face.

"Dream!" Karl shouted from downstairs.

He sprints in the direction of his yelling boyfriend in a heartbeat, running down the stairs to see the front door open and Karl standing astonished in front of it. His eyes widen when he sees Button standing on the porch, the boy very frightened and needing his parents.

"Button," they sighed in relief, both pulling him into a big hug and holding the boy close.

"'m sowwy Papa and Baba," he cried, words muffled.

"No, you're okay baby. We're just so glad your safe and at home, you scared us." Dream said, holding the two other impossibly tighter and never wanting to let them go again, even though he knows he has too.

They stand their and hold the baby for as long as possible, until he starts to squirm and tells them he has too potty.

They chuckle happily and Karl takes the baby to the bathroom and too get changed into more comfortable clothes as Dream finally shuts the front door and welcomes Dix inside, the woman smiling too him in worry.

She quickly explains the phone call that happened with Punz last night and how she came to get him. She explains everything that she understands and he's never been more grateful for a person in his life.

He hugs her and thanks her, saying he'll get everything fixed up and too not worry about it.

She believes him and heads back too her own home, feeling better than she had for the entire time.

They're all just happy that Button is home and keep the baby extra close to them throughout the day, and they keep Punz even closer too them to make sure he knows that no matter what happened with Sapnap, that doesn't reflect anything else that's happened.

Punz does start to feel a little better and decides to not run away again because it's too hard to be away from either his Baba or Papa.

Chapter Text

Sapnap couldn't stop the adrenaline pumping through his veins as it mixed with anger and the door slammed behind his back with trembling hands.

Words raced a million miles a minute in his head as he collapsed against the door, tears flooding his vision as he realized how bad he just fucked up.

'I fucking hate you Dream!'

Those stupid words playing in his head cause his breath to catch; his brain couldn't even catch up to what he was saying before it was said, the horror slowly sank in as his legs buckled and he slide down his door until he touched the ground.

The anger clouded his hurting brain and those words took over, but it was never something he wanted to say, because it isn't true.

His chest heaved, but the anger quickly dissipated into an overwhelming sadness as he hide in his knees and sobbed. He tried muffling any noises so Dream wouldn't hear him cry, but his entire body shook with the tears.

He hadn't meant too say it, he hadn't.

He doesn't hate Dream; he could never hurt the other. He just wanted to be alone and his brain knew saying that would get him away, but now Dream probably doesn't love him anymore.

He never meant to hurt anyone.

A week elapsed since he slammed his bedroom door in a firry haze, living up to his brand, and he's been alone ever since then.

A couple of times George knocked on his door, trying to figure out what happened, but he refused to receive comfort from anyone after hurting the others.

Anytime someone would knock on his door, he refused to answer it because he didn't deserve anything nice.

They probably don't even want him in the house anymore, and that's the actual reason they've been knocking on his door. He's ruin everything that they've spent the last year or so building up; he's such an awful person.

He's been small a couple of times, mostly Bug cries alone because he doesn't think he's Papa or Baba's baby anymore and they'll be annoyed having him around, causing more issues than necessary.

Bug tries his best to care for himself, but he's never done that by himself before and it's really hard. He spends most of his time small crying and sleeping, only really eating when he's big and the others are sleeping.

They'll leave food outside his door, but sometimes he'll sleep past the point of it being good anymore, so he has to wait for longer than he would normally.

He has no idea what's been happening in the house and he misses his family; Dream hasn't even checked up on him once and he wishes he had.

Bug's gonna frustrated with being cooped up in his big room, mainly because there aren't any toys for him to play with and he can't touch anything. He also doesn't understand what happened being big him and his Papa, so he doesn't think about it as he slips out of his bedroom door.

No one is around the house's common area as he creeps down towards his nursery.

The door pushes open easily and he slips inside, going over to his crib wanting to lay down for a little. His hand grabbed on the latch, trying to open it, but as he twist it downwards it snags the skin of his finger and cuts him.

His bottom lip wobbles as he looks at the broken skin, red running down his hand before his head goes backwards and he cries out.

He falls down onto his butt, wanting to be held and reassured that everything was alright. His lungs hurt from screaming out, just wishing everything was like it should be inside of messy like it is.

He wants his Papa and Baba!

Dream scrambles down the stairs towards the nursery, hearing the crying from the baby monitor as he laid in his bed.

His heart heart seeing Bug crying alone on his nursery floor, finger bleeding.

He just wants to pull the boy up from the floor and kiss all his worries away, but he doesn't do that, even as Bug reaches out for him and cries harder. Dream worries about the boy, moving closer to look at his cut finger.

"What happened Bug?"

The baby doesn't say anything as he holds out his bleeding finger and tries to clench onto Dream's shirt.

Dream can't stop himself and pulls the little up from the ground, taking him into the kitchen to clean up his cut.

He runs the boys finger under some water, before disinfecting it and putting a panda band-air around his finger. He can't help it as he presses a reassuring kiss to the finger, smiling at the boy for comfort.

Bug reaches forward and tries to cling onto him, still crying slightly and needing the man to hold him tight.

He needs his Papa!

Dream pulls back enough to look into his eyes, needing to check with the baby before doing anything, because he doesn't want to step over a boundary he doesn't know about again. He'd hate himself for hurting Bug like he did Sapnap.

"Hey, we need to talk little one," Dream tells him, swapping long hair out of his face.

"Otay," he sniffles, dropping his hands to rub his nose.

Dream takes a deep breath and looks into the little's teary eyes, needing to look in them as he does.

"Look, you said some pretty hurtful things when you were bigger," Bug's green eyes water more as his lip wobbles, "And I just want to check up with you so I don't cross a line again, alright?"

The baby nods his head slowly, just wanting to be held already.

"Do you really not want me to be your Papa anymore?" Bug already starts to shake his head, trying to babble back but no words are clear. Dream can already feel himself think the worse, before he's continuing on, "I won't be Papa if you don't want me to be, I'll be Dream. I'll be whoever you want me to be." His voice cracks, causing him to clear his throat and bite his lower lip.

"Want Papa," he cries out, hands twisting up into Dream's shirt and trying to pull him close.

Dream sighs out a relieved breath, but knows he's still going to have a talk with Sap. At least Bug still wants him to be his father, that's all he could ask for at the moment, he'll savor it for as long as he has it.

He wraps the baby up in his arms, snuggling him close to his face and pressing a million kisses onto his face and keeping the tears from leaking down any farther.

He doesn't dare to set the baby down, not even when he feeds him lunch, promising to keep the baby as close to him as possible and make up for a lost week.

Dream held the baby in his arms for almost the entire day.

Around the little's naptime, they stumbled over to the couch together, not wanting to be away from each other for longer than a moment. Dream stretched back with Bug resting across his chest and burying his face in Dream's neck.

They snuggle up tight, both of them sleeping for a little while, even if Dream wasn't that tired.

Even after the baby had woken up again, they still stayed snuggled up together and enjoyed some Papa and Bug time, with Dream reminding the baby that he loved him still and trying to reassure the little.

That's how they stayed until Sapnap aged-up.

The energy between them shifted quickly, Sapnap tensed up in Dream's arms as his brain figured out the situation they found themselves in. He blinks to focus, before he gently pushed up against the couch and sat.

Dream watched as he rubbed his eyes that held quickly forming tears, the older man following him up into a sitting position and adjusting himself backwards to give him space.

He felt as his heart started racing in fear, unsure about what was going to happen.

Dream half expects the man to get up and leave, or scoff and say something distasteful, for him to crush his heart once again. He hadn't expected Sapnap to say there and look up into his eyes, still trying not too cry.

This is the moment things could change forever.

"'m sorry," he whispered, throat sore and hurting from trying to not cry.

Dream doesn't say anything back, just staring at him cluelessly because he doesn't want too push or prod; he just wants his best friend back, too fix back their broken pieces and know things were never as bad as his brain told him.

"Um," Sap's voice shakes, hands reaching out to grab Dream's for comfort, and he lets him, "I'm really sorry for saying what I did. I know that I hurt you, and it wasn't my intention. I'm so fucking sorry Dream."

Dream sighs, squeezing the others hand and seeing the remorse on his face. However, he doesn't want to keep his feelings inside, because that's how they got here in the first place.

"Sap, you really hurt my feelings."

"I know," he sniffled, eyes falling down too his hands as more tears flooded his eyes.

"So why did you say it?"

Sapnap is a little taken aback, because he hadn't expected Dream to ask that question.

He sighs out, blowing a watery breath before swallowing.

"Truthfully?"

"Obviously I want you to be truthful."

Sap nods his head and sucks in another deep breath, forming his thoughts.

"I was frustrated that had to share my space and toys with Button, so I acted out."

"You pushed him," Dream corrected, because it wasn't just acting out, Sap hurt more than one of them.

"I pushed him, and I shouldn't have. I just got so angry and knew if I stayed any longer I would end up hurting someone, so I tried leaving to calm down." He paused for a moment, quirking his mouth around, "I knew that it would hurt both of you by doing what I did. And I'm so sorry," tears slipped down his face, causing him to pull his hands away to rub them off, "You don't have to forgive me, but I'm sorry, and feel horrible for hurting you both like that."

Dream sighs, but he can understand where he's coming from, just ever so slightly.

Sapnap's and Bug's emotions got too much, and he had been trying to get some space, but he did it all in the wrong way. Although knowing that doesn't fix things, it's at least a start.

He'll talk with Dix because she probably has a solution to help with his anger issues, at least he hopes.

"Okay," Dream sighed, deciding.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I forgive you Sap," Sap sighed, relief flooding his features as he smiled, "But next time, let's talk about your feelings instead of leaving them bottled up until you explode." Dream told him, causing him to nod his head.

"I agree."

Dream pulls the boy into a tight hug again and pulls him into his lap, before laying them back down on the couch again. They let out content sighs and cling together for all the comfort they've been missing.

Dream pushes back long pieces of Sapnap's hair from his face, realizing that he'll need a haircut soon because it's getting too long for the boy.

"We'll move Button out of your nursery," Dream tells him, hand patting the middle of his back.

"No, it's okay, he can stay," Sapnap tried, both of their green eyes meeting.

"No baby," Dream chuckled shaking his head, "It isn't. That's your space, and you deserve to have it too yourself like it was meant too be."

"Okay."

Sapnap begins to slip again as he feels the most loved he has for an entire week.

Buggie clings tightly to his father and rubs his face in the man's neck. He's exhausted from all the crying and big emotions, causing his eyes to droop and him to fall asleep once more.

Dream even lets his eyes slip back closed, both relaxing.

Karl stumbles down the stairs when Dream doesn't come up to bed, finding the two of them on the couch still but Dream's awake this time. He steps quickly in their direction to check up on how everything is, not completely sure because he's been streaming for the better part of the day.

"Everything okay?" Karl whispered, running his hands through Bug's hair.

"Yeah," Dream whispered back, smiling.

"Want me to take the baby so we can go to bed?"

Dream squinted his eyes as he tightened his arms around Bug, refusing to let the other have his baby.

"My baby."

"Okay," Karl chuckled, rolling his eyes, "Well, why don't I go get him something to change into and then we'll head up to bed together?"

Dream likes that idea much better and nods his head happily, still holding Bug as Karl left down towards the nurseries. He starts to shift himself up into a sitting position and lays the baby down to make it easier for him to be changed.

Karl just hands him a onesie and diaper, sitting down beside the couch and letting the other change Bug.

Once the baby was put into proper clothing, Dream stood up and pulled the baby from his spot carrying him up to their bedroom. Karl walked in front of them, leading the way up the staircase.

Dream quickly changed his own clothes before crawling into the bed with the two others. Only a little bit of light was left in the room as Karl and Dream stared at each other from over Bug's head, the green eyes meeting with blue, but not skilled enough to have a fully understandable conversation.

Dream's arm was over Bug's middle, but his fingers were holding Karl's as he rubbed the others index finger.

"You feeling better?" Karl asked.

"Yeah," he sighed, "Things are perfect, but at least he doesn't hate me."

"He'd never hate you, kids are just really good at saying hurtful things." Karl said, causing Dream to smile at him.

"I know."

They do their best to lean in together over Bug's head, trying too not crush the boy as their lips meet in a chapped kiss. It was sweet, far too short, but meant the world as they pulled back apart.

With 'I love yous,' shared between them, they finally let themselves go to sleep.

At least the family is back together again; there are plenty more broken pieces that they'll need too fix, but this is perfect for the time being.

Everything feels perfect.