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Tommy sat on the wooden dock, watching the darkening sea.
The sun was slowly sinking, causing the calming waves to reflect dull reds and oranges on their surface. The air was somewhat cold, the occasional breeze making the hairs on his arms stand up.
He swung his legs back and forth, the tips of his toes just barely skimming the water. It remained cold, as it always had been, freezing his skin slowly. His breaths danced with the waves. His fingers traced random letters.
He didn’t speak, didn’t raise his head when a familiar set of armour appeared in his peripheral vision. Tommy refused to pay any attention to the fact that he knew who it belonged to.
He just sighed.
When he finally moved over to the side, Dream sat down next to him. He didn’t say anything either, instead staring out into the horizon, not joining in Tommy’s staring contest with the water.
They sat in a semi-comfortable silence, until Dream silently muttered, guilt tinting his voice in shades of green, “It’s been a week.”
Tommy hummed in agreement. He gave no other answer.
“Has nobody visited?”
Tommy hummed again, this time in disagreement. Dream shifted awkwardly. Tommy felt oddly proud, but it wasn’t enough to make his blank face waver.
“You know…” Dream hesitated for a moment, “I’m sorry nobody’s here. I asked them to visit you. Nobody deserves to be completely alone, you know?”
When Tommy offered no further answer, Dream sighed audibly, but didn’t try again. They just sat, both absently watching as the sun pulled the stars to cover the sky. At some point, Dream had set a torch down, which crackled and blinked in tune with their pulses.
Long after the sun had gone down, now far below them, Tommy slowly stood up. He glanced down at Dream, an edge to the frown on his face, and stated, “Good night, Dream.”
Dream turned back to watch as Tommy walked away from the dock, entering his tent instead and closing it behind himself. He turned back to the sea, continuing to sit cross-legged on the dock, watching the server move by.
He breathed, closed his eyes, and let the night pass around him.
Tommy was leaning on a post on the dock, gently swaying along to the waves. The sun was slowly rising, transforming the sky to a light blue. Tommy couldn’t see a single cloud.
He stared into the distance. He missed his friends.
Along with his swaying, his legs hung just above the surface of the water. The soles of his feet were stained green, along with the dirt which still stuck to them.
Inevitably, he heard the dock creak as someone walked on it. He didn’t acknowledge Dream beside a subtle dip to his head, and a slouch to his shoulders.
Dream didn’t sit. Judging by his boots, which was all Tommy could see, Dream had instead opted to just stare ahead of them. He seemed to also sway along to the waves, albeit far less noticeably.
So they stayed, moving with the rhythms of the slow winds and the calm waves, until Dream breathed in.
Tommy knew he was about to speak. What Tommy wasn’t expecting for him to ask, in a deceptively conversational tone, “How have you been?”
Tommy raised a hand to answer. He pointed a thumb out, turning it on its side. Average.
Dream didn’t comment on his lack of verbal cooperation. He did, however, try again, “Nobody’s visited, have they?”
Tommy tilted his head minutely. He didn’t want to give Dream the satisfaction of hearing his voice. He didn’t want to reveal how the loneliness had been slowly carving away at him.
Dream scoffed, “Of course they haven’t.”
Tommy blinked. When his eyes opened again, it was noon. Stray raindrops landed on his arms.
No trace of Dream remained on the dock.
“Enjoy your stay, Dream.”
He sighed. When he blinked again, the rain had turned heavy.
Tommy sat on the dock. His knees were pulled up to his chest, his arms tightly wrapped around them. He was staring at the water, lapping against the supports of the dock a metre or two below him.
His eyes were full of longing. He wished to touch the sea.
He wanted to sink into the waves, feel them above him as the light would fade from his vision and his breath would stop.
Instead of any of that, though, he just stared on.
All he heard were footsteps, before a voice spoke, “Where is everyone?”
Tommy winced at the undertone of sarcasm in the voice. It wasn’t meant as a polite question or a conversation starter; it was a mean-spirited remark, ill intent on full display. A way to twist the knife in Tommy’s heart from where it had already sat for days.
He didn’t wait for an answer, “Oh wait.”
It hurt. Tommy’s chest hurt like nothing else ever could, and maybe he finally understood what people meant when they spoke of heartache, because that was the only way he could possibly explain the intensity with which his sadness had grown over the past seven days.
Externally, Tommy didn’t react to anything he said. Not a word, nor a gesture. The voice seemed to scoff.
“You should talk to your friend, you know,” it spit. Once again, footsteps led away from the dock.
Tommy just kept staring at the water. It was a sunny day.
Tommy stood on the path just before the dock. The horizon, the distance, called out to him. The vast, empty blue sea screamed his name.
It all vanished when a hand landed on his shoulder, “You will never see them again,” and vanished once again.
He was left more hollow than ever before.
Tommy took a step forward in the infinite white plane, calling out, “Dream?”
Dream, the only other person there besides Tommy, turned around from his place sitting on a ledge, legs hanging down from the edge. He wasn’t wearing the mask, exposing the toxic green glow of his eyes. He looked tired.
“Hey Tommy.”
Tommy came to sit down next to him, shuffling closer.
“I’m tired of this,” Dream spoke, slowly falling to the side to lean on Tommy. He continued to move around, not content until his head was sat in Tommy’s lap, “I don’t want to continue.”
Tommy tangled a hand in Dream’s hair, “I’m sorry. I wish I could help,” he comforted as he slowly untangled Dream’s hair.
“It feels so weird to- to hurt someone and know they don’t remember the million times you’ve done it before,” Dream vented, leaning further into Tommy and only barely keeping his eyes open, “I know you say you forgive me, but… but it doesn’t make it okay. I don’t know anymore, Tommy. I don’t know.”
“It’s okay, Dream,” Tommy sighed, “All that matters is that you’re not the one doing any of it. You’re not to blame for that suffering. That’s all I care about.”
Instead of answering, Dream relaxed further into Tommy.
Tommy knew there was so much left unsaid. So much that had already been spoken about, so much that would never be spoken out loud.
But Tommy also knew Dream needed the rest before he would have to surrender again, before he couldn’t be himself again.
As he felt their time run out once more, he cursed the gods.
When Tommy blinked, he was alone again.
It was a sunny day in Logstedshire. The hot, mid-day sun warmed the grass around the massive TNT craters, its light casting a shadow from the pillar which stretched far above the clouds.
Behind the mask, Dream smiled blankly.