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“Sapnap! Stop!”
“You have to catch me first, George!”
Dream sighed at the antics of his friends. They were trying to build the community house. They were trying to build their house. A place where they could live together and they would invite their friends and everyone would live in one big house in the center of the land. They’d built the platform a few days ago. Finished it off and George had built the adjoining patch to hold their wheat field.
They were all meant to be working together for it but so far Dream had been the only one that was genuinely working on the house. The three of them had joked around that he was the dad of the trio but that didn’t mean that he didn’t want help when he was trying to make something for all of them. He could already feel a headache thumping against the back of his eyes. It started this morning when he first woke up. It hadn’t gotten any better throughout the day. He was starting to feel worse the more he worked. But he kept going.
Sapnap and George started with splashing each other while working on the frame of the house. It devolved from there to be them swatting at one another and tossing little rocks and small things at each other. There were scraps and random objects spread everywhere across the main platform. Crafting table floors made it easy to make things so they didn’t have a need to put things away. They could just drop and work when they got to their spots. They could clean up after the house was built.
As it was now, the two of them were chasing each other around the platforms and bridges and paths to try to get even while Dream was stuck crafting and placing brick after brick for the walls. The sun was burning down on them and the sweat dripping down his back made him feel worse by the second. He tried calling them over to get him a bottle of water but they turned it into a race that then turned into what they were doing now. His water was completely forgotten in the crosshairs.
Dream sighed and wiped his hand over his forehead for what felt like the millionth time. The bricks were starting to make him dizzy. The sun told him that it was a little past noon by this point. They’d been working since sunrise. A zombie burning a little too close to their beds waking all of them up in a bit of a mood. Dream had made breakfast for them all while George and Sapnap had made the plan for the day. He thought he’d be fine. He thought it’d be okay.
They both acted like they were going to help him and be productive. He thought they would have the walls up and be able to clean and relax for a while before dinner. He thought they’d have a lunch break where they could sit on the hillside before they reached the community portal and have a bit of a picnic. Instead it was just him working while George and Sapnap played around.
He placed the bricks he’d formed up around. Building up the walls and trying to check the designs he was seeing against the blueprints they’d made when they mathed out the size of their platform. He ignored resolutely the black spots that danced across his vision when he stood up.
He was just tired. That was it. Nothing else. He just hadn’t slept enough. He would be fine. He could get his revenge on George and Sapnap by making them smaller portions for dinner.
“Dream! Catch him!”
George’s yell pulled his focus away from the wall. He hadn’t realized they were circling around the outside edge of the platform. The edge where he was now standing. He looked up to see Sapnap barreling straight towards him. The glint in his eye told him that he wasn’t going to slow down or stop. He looked more likely to push him over.
Dream didn’t have time to move. Not with his body feeling as sluggish as it was. He couldn’t get out of the way in time. He’d built a wall right where he would have needed to go. He didn’t have time.
Sapnap slammed into him with enough force to make him see stars and twist his stomach into knots. He felt his arms push him to the side and then the ground was gone from under his feet. There was air for a split second before there was water. He couldn’t stop himself from falling. Couldn’t stop himself from crashing through the surface and into the water.
He choked immediately. His body working on instinct alone to pull him to the surface. He blinked to get the water out of his eyes but it didn’t do anything for the spots dancing through his vision. His nails scraping the wood planks of the platform as he dragged his body back onto it. Coughing and gagging and sputtering while he collapsed into the ground. The thumping headache spiked as soon as he saw the sun. He felt dizzy. If he moved anymore he was probably going to throw up.
Maybe he was more than just tired. Maybe he was a little sick. But that didn’t matter when he felt like he’d been dragged through an ocean's worth of water despite being under for only a few seconds.
He was going to throw up or faint. He couldn’t tell. His heart was racing. He had to close his eyes to stop himself from the feeling of rocking and swaying even though he knew he was staying still with his elbows braced against the wood while he coughed and gagged.
He didn’t hear Sapnap or George coming back to him. Didn’t hear them asking if he was alright or trying to check on him. He only knew they were there when he felt George’s hand lightly pat the center of his back to help him cough up any water he might have swallowed. When his lungs calmed down he lowered his head to rest on the wood. The rest of his body didn’t move. He stayed with his body sprawled out on the platform and struggled to get everything to settle. He felt like his stomach was attempting to do gymnastics while he was just trying to breathe evenly.
“I didn’t think you’d swallow water. You okay?”
If he nodded right now he would throw up. Even with his eyes closed the feeling of vertigo was still too strong for him to try the motion. So he forced himself to speak even though his throat felt clogged and he felt the need to cough more and more until his lungs were laying on the planks with him.
“‘Sokay.”
He felt like his ears were plugged by water. He couldn’t hear them that well but he assumed it was just from the water in his ears. He didn’t see the concerned look shared between George and Sapnap above him.
“Dream?”
He groaned out a response. The small sound being enough to let them know they had his attention.
“What’s wrong?”
He breathed for a few more seconds. Trying his best to get himself under control to be able to sit up. He was starting to worry them and that was the last thing he wanted. But the second he flexed his abs to pull himself up he felt bile rush up his throat and he had to stop to swallow it down. His body went tense. Both of them were fluttering their hands over him but if he didn’t stop them they were going to move him and he was going to lose the battle against his stomach.
“Head hurts. Gonna be sick.”
“Sapnap go get a bucket.”
George was grabbing him by the shoulders and trying to pull him up no matter how much Dream was trying to stay comfortably laying against the wood. His eyes were squeezed shut and his stomach was revolting violently. He couldn’t even open his mouth to tell George to stop because if he did then he was going to throw up and there would be no saving anything after that. He couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t get his body to cooperate the right way. Couldn’t get himself to speak to tell George to stop. Couldn’t stop it when his stomach lurched and he couldn’t swallow it back fast enough.
Lucky for him Sapnap thrust a bucket under him when he bent forward to empty everything he had for breakfast into it. He wasn’t sure how much time passed while his body tried to get rid of everything it had inside. But by the time he was done he was sagging against George’s grip and his headache had spread to every part of his brain pulsing in pain.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were sick?”
“Didn’t think I was. You were both busy.” He hiccuped a little. Weathering out the cramp as his stomach tried to reject substance it didn’t even have. “Were having fun.”
He could practically hear Sapnap’s pout when he spoke up beside him.
“You could have told us you didn’t feel good.”
“Tried.”
He hadn’t really. But the guilt he could practically feel radiating from his friends when they remembered the requested water bottle made him think maybe they would help him for the rest of the house. Was it right? Probably not. But it wasn’t going to change anything and he could tell them once he was feeling a little less light headed and nauseous. Or maybe he’d tell them after they finished the house.
Whenever he decided to tell them his friends would listen. They’d make fun of him and he’d likely have to sit through lectures from the both of them about white lies and the trust of the Dream Team with smiles and fake tears and disappointment. For now they were going to take care of him. They were going to make a terrible dinner and all three of them would live on sick food while he recovered.
They had their home. They didn’t have to run from hunters and they didn’t have to worry about staying on the move. They had their home. They had their family. They had each other.
And that was more than enough.