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Punz wanted to know what happened. Something went down in that prison that Dream won’t talk about. He remembers seeing Dream at the meeting point, how his prison jumpsuit was stained red in places and there were bandages across his skin. He would’ve asked, but the thought quickly left him when Dream had smiled brightly at him and the question was left both unasked and unanswered.
Punz had asked what happened the next time he saw him, Dream had blown it off saying they were wounds from when he and Techno escaped. He knows that’s not true, but he doesn’t pry.
When he walked in on Dream working on something, he had lightly tapped the man on the shoulder trying not to scare him. The slight touch had made Dream jolt and then Punz barely dogged a dagger aimed for his neck, the blade having just grazed his throat. Dream’s eyes had been blown wide, his gaze uneven and unfocused, as if he didn’t recognize Punz. When the recognition had kicked in so had the apologies. Punz wasn’t even able to ask what happened then.
Dream was jumpy, and often quieter than he ever was before prison. He at first chalked it up to paranoia, or maybe just the fact that the loneliness had made him quiet, but the scars he’d get a glimpse of whenever Dream’s sleeve would ride up
too far on his wrist, or his stomach weren’t there before and were far too deep to be from his escape.
Something had happened in the prison, and he was a little scared to figure it out.
It had to be done, so he went back to the safe house he and Dream had set up while things died down. He went there and waited for him to show.
—
The door creaks open and Punz perks up, his eyes darting over to Dream’s cloaked figure in the doorway.
“Hey Dream,” he greets, and the other gives him a startled look before sighing.
“Hey Punz,” he says back, slipping his cloak off his shoulders and getting the snow off it. Punz wants to know what he looks at him with fear, why he is so jumpy, why he’s more paranoid than he’s ever been. He wants to know what Dream won’t tell him.
Dream pulls his hair outta the bun he’d been wearing, and Punz really takes in how long it’s gotten. It falls over his shoulders and stops just above the center of his back. It hurts to think about how long he’d been in there.
“What’re you doing here?” asks Dream after the silence stretches on for too long. Punz stands up and shoves his hands into his hoodie pockets, finding Dream’s eyes.
“…What happened Dream?” The silence is back, and Dream stares at him with a neutral expression, but the way his lip twitches exposes him.
“Nothing happened today Punz, there wasn’t anyone nearby.” Punz narrows his gaze.
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.” Dream’s jaw sets and he turns away from him, his neutral expression falling away and now he just looks… numb.
“What happened in the prison Dream? What won’t you tell me?” Dream doesn’t answer, instead he pulls his hoodie over his head, and Punz’s heart stutters in his chest.
He’s wearing a sleeveless turtleneck under his hoodie, and scars of all shapes and sizes decorate the skin there. Some of them he recognizes from before prison, but there’s so many that are still fresh looking, like they’re not even a few months old.
“A few months ago, Quackity showed up to the prison. He came to visit, that’s all he should’ve been able to do, but… Sam had. Had let him bring weapons in,” he mutters, running his hands through his hair, the strands falling right back onto his face seconds later.
“He wanted the revive book, said he would do anything to get it.”
Punz feels bile crawl up his throat at the implications of that.
“Sam let him visit everyday for five? No, six months. He had free reign. The only days he didn’t torture me was when Techno was there.” Dream has almost fully looked away from him.
Punz couldn’t believe what he heard, or was that his brain just trying to forget what he heard? He thought maybe Sam was a dick a few times and hurt him, he thought maybe he’d tried to escape and Sam disciplined him, he didn’t even think that someone else could’ve hurt him and for so long?
How many days had Punz been relaxing while Dream had been terrified for his life and safety? How many times had Punz chatted briefly with Quackity without knowing the way his friend’s blood drenched his hands? How many times had Sam denied him visits to the prison with the lie that Dream had lost his privileges for trying to escape?
How could he be so stupid?
“Wh-?! What do you mean you were tortured ?! Are you okay?” he asks, walking towards him. Dream keeps his eyes downcast, gaze blurred and focus elsewhere, trying everything in his power to distance his mind from this moment.
“It’s fine,” he insists, “It doesn’t matter anymore. No one seems to care anyway so-” Punz grabs Dream’s wrists and the man turns sharply, eyes wide with confusion.
“What-?”
“ I do Dream!” he yells, almost pleads, and Dream falters, but doesn’t so much as utter a word. Punz’s grip on his wrists loosens and he gently holds Dream’s hand in his, running his fingers over the scarred skin.
“I care,” he whispers and Dream’s lip trembles.
“I care Dream.” Every wall of defense Dream has built up since prison crumbles before Punz eyes as tears drip down his cheeks. His shoulders tremble, and he’s trying to fight the tears, so Punz cups his cheek with his free hand.
No more words are needed as Punz moves his hand from Dream’s cheek to the nape of his neck, and he pulls him into a hug, Dream’s tears staining the white fabric of Punz’s hoodie.
Punz cradles him in his arms.
Even his crying is different from before, when it used to be loud and full of emotions it’s now quiet, and the only way he knows Dream’s actually crying is because of the way his shoulders shake in Punz’s arms.
He holds him close, and presses a kiss to the side of his cheek, running his hands over his scalp, whispering quiet reassurances into his ear.
With every tremble of Dream’s body, with every snivel, with every memory of Dream jumping, every scar on his skin, he feels rage stir in his gut, burning and writhing there.
He swears then and there he’s going to make Quackity regret every time he so much as touched Dream.
He let Dream down months ago, but he wasn’t going to let him down again.