Work Text:
The sound of the alarm bells is loud in the night air, the snow crisp on the ground and Dream can’t help but laugh as he slides down the roof of the church, hearing his enthusiasm matched and echoed back from down the street.
So he continues to laugh, unrestrained, bright, smug, throws a look over his shoulder to ensure Sapnap is still on his heels. He is, footprints melting into the snow where his adrenaline pulses. It has always been one of Dream’s favourite things, even when it becomes inconvenient, that Sapnap blazes with heat when he’s excited. Plus, the grip on the city streets is better without the ice underfoot anyway.
To one side, they see the little flare of mustard yellow that tells them Niki and Wilbur have managed to get their living quarry out. Bit of a double job, this one- a too-young bride begging for help, and one of the nobles of the city- her father- being paid to marry her off despite her pleading. Niki and Wilbur have stolen the would-be-bride away into the night, quiet, whilst Dream and Sapnap take off in the other direction with a bag full of papers proving his misdeeds. Not something they’re adept in, but Dream has a contact that’ll take care of it all for him once they turn the papers over.
They careen through streets, scrambling around townsguard as they emerge and fire their bows too slow, their swords too clumsy. A gunshot rings out, and Dream laughs, but it’s more fear this time. Flat land doesn’t lend well to being missed by gunfire, so he shouts over his shoulder,
“Sap!”
It gets whipped away by the wind, but he accompanies it with an offered hand, shaking palm extended back. Sapnap knows the gesture, the cue, he scrambles up and sets his palm firmly in Dream’s, clutches tight as Dream plucks a silver crystal from his side and pushes the magic out to coat the two of them in a thin film of light and they leap, soaring high above the rooftops and silhouetted by the fat, full pink moon of Pompus above, the slither of Neon almost set on the horizon.
They clatter to the roof and continue to run, and they do not let go. Dream is faster, but he’s adept at slowing himself so Sapnap can keep pace, and they’re careful counterweights on the opposing sides of a slanted rooftop, careful where they leap between houses. They’re still being tailed, even if it’s less efficient than on the ground, and they need to shake them somehow.
“Don’t drop the papers!” Sapnap half-yells at him brightly, watching the bag flutter at Dream’s side. It’s tightly sealed and fastened to his belt, but it’s fun to poke at panic. Dream wheezes, cut in places where his footfalls shock air from his lungs,
“I’m not stupid!”
“Yeah you are!” Sapnap retorts, and there is sickening fondness in his voice. Dream rolls his eyes, gives him a sidelong look that Sapnap can’t see behind the mask, filled with just as much affection before he snaps back into work mode.
“They’re still tailing us,” he tells Sapnap, “We’ve gotta shake em before we can cloak- with you melting the snow with your footprints, we can be tracked! We either need to get somewhere without snow-”
“Everywhere has snow!” Sapnap yells back, breath catching when he almost misses a jump and is saved by Dream throwing his weight forward. They scrabble onto the roof, “There’s snow everywhere! This is the north!”
“Exactly!” Dream replies, grin audible even where it isn’t visible, “So- c’mere, you big baby,” and he pauses at the top of a roof, watching snow melt and sizzle away under Sapnap’s feet before Dream scoops him up, literally sweeping him off his feet to carry him bridal style. He presses another silver crystal to the two of them, riming them both in silver light before he leaps off of the edge of a house, eyeing the forest in the distance.
The air is a massive dark void below them. Above, the stars shine and twinkle like they’re urging them forward.
They hit the ground lightly, the gravity magic meaning that Dream makes no indent in the snow as he plunges ahead toward the treeline. He moves as quickly as he can without weight- wind resistance is a bitch, but the God of the breeze must be on his side because the winter whips from behind and helps to push him forward. He wheels around corners, in zig-zags, alleyways and roads, maintaining the thread of magic that stops them leaving footprints, clinging to Sapnap as he giggles into Dream’s shoulder. He burns like a hot water bottle in Dream’s arms, spreading warmth down his chest in the biting cold night, and Dream knows that it is not just the magic that makes him feel warm from within.
“Almost out of town,” Dream tells him, switching to a new crystal so the magic doesn’t fitter out, though he cringes when he does so like it’s a waste, “I think we’ve shaken them, but we should still go cloaked in the trees for a bit before we loop around to meet up with the others.”
Sapnap doesn’t verbally reply, but nods against his shoulder. He’s starting to cool down now, simmering to a little above normal body heat rather than near-burning as the energy spills out of him. Dream doesn’t doubt he’ll struggle to walk. That’s okay, Dream doesn’t mind carrying him.
With the last of the crystal as they enter the treeline, Dream springs up into a tall pine with branches sturdy enough to stand on. He sets Sapnap down to sit in a fork and smiles at the way the stray snowflakes melt away around him. He holds the branches beside him and hovers between Sapnap’s thighs, reaches up to push the mask to the top of his head so Sapnap can see him smile, and Sapnap does the same.
“Hi,” Dream says quietly.
“Hey,” Sapnap replies, and one hand finds Dream’s waist, holding like he’s trying to steady him in the branches.
“Good work,” Dream says, a whisper of his work voice, “Are you doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” Sapnap promises, “Just the adrenaline crash. Gimme thirty seconds, I’ll be alright.”
“Okay,” Dream agrees, “At least moving through the forest, we’re harder to track. No fresh melted footprints, and nothing tracking us to the forest itself.”
“Let’s hurry it the fuck up, then,” Sapnap presses against Dream’s middle with his knees, “I’m cold as fuck, and I wanna cuddle.”
Dream snorts a laugh.
“Idiot.”
“Your idiot, though.” Sapnap grins, and Dream rolls his eyes,
“Certainly my favourite idiot.” He replies sweetly, and before he pulls his mask back down, he leans over to press the quickest kiss to Sapnap’s cheek. Mask down, he thumbs through his crystal cache until he finds one of Wilbur’s that he recognises, then lifts it to glow between them.
“Let’s get going.”
Sapnap nods, snagging a cyan crystal from his own, smaller cache, and he loops an arm around Dream’s neck before loosing the magic over the two of them and pushing them both out of the tree to float through the branches to the forest floor.
It’s mostly clear of snow under the canopy, scattered only in parts among the wet mud and dead grass and leaves.
Once on the ground, Sapnap finally stands on his own feet, though Dream mourns the warmth of his legs wrapped around his waist. Sapnap pulls his mask back down, and Dream takes his hand so that he can shiver the mustard yellow cloaking spell across the two of them, blinking at the spot he knows Sapnap should be that he can’t comprehend. He pats the pouch on his belt, listens to the crinkle of papers within, and satisfies himself that everything is in place.
Silently, the two of them move deeper into the forest to hook east, to meet up with Niki and Wilbur and flee into the night. Sapnap’s hand is warm in his, and the stars shine above to guide them home.