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“…And they’ve been more harsh than usual, I really don’t know what to do anymore, you know? I thought maybe, just maybe, that it’d get better over time, because surely they wouldn’t do this for several years, but it just keeps happening- his skull was fractured yesterday, I was terrified.” Dream rambles to his 2 friends, Ink and Blue. They’re sitting under the apple tree in his backyard as he continues on. It’s been several minutes.
Dream is very obviously stressed out about the situation, he’d been going from speaking to crying and shutting down over and over again. Both Ink and Blue had met Dream’s twin, Nightmare. He was oh so similar to Dream, yet completely different. They both weren’t good with noise, they were both really smart, they had specific interests they’d talk about for a really long time, neither had a massive group of genuine friends.
Nightmare was very quiet when Ink first met him. He’d been friends with Dream for about a year before his father let him hang out at his house. Dream’s dad wasn’t there, though, apparently, he was busy. Strange, leaving your child with a stranger after all this time of insisting they shouldn’t meet up at Dream’s house for so long, but whatever. Night hardly spoke at all, he looked awful.
Most of his arms and legs were covered in bandages, his left eye had an eyepatch over it, and he seemed so incredibly tired and out of it. Dream told him it was just the painkillers he had to take, but still, seeing someone that matters so much to his friend in this much pain…it kind of sucked. He wanted to help.
“Well, what about we just go deal with them ourselves, if nobody else is going to stop it? I can be very intimidating, I’m sure I could scare them off,” Ink smirked, standing proudly before his other 2 friends. Blue chuckled, shuffling a little closer to Dream and wrapping an arm around him, “why don’t we do that, who’s going to stop us? These guys can’t be that strong if they’re still picking on your brother, no offense, but he’s kind of weak.”
Dream shakes his head, “He knows it too, it’s fine. I wish he’d stand up for himself sometimes, though. I don’t think I could do much else other than just be there for you guys, but if you think talking to them will solve the issue- “
Ink laughs, “Oh, we’ll do a lot of talking, and some more. Dream, I don’t think much is going to change if we just talk to them, now come on, let’s go look for them. Do you know what they look like?” Ink pulls both Dream and Blue up to stand with him, Dream loses his balance and leans against the tree for a moment. “Uh, grey-ish bunny, yellow dinosaur, blue fire-person, but we shouldn’t hurt them too badly- what if they lash out even more because- “
Dream’s friends have never been the patient type, immediately climbing over the other’s fence and facing the road, all whilst calling for him to join them. He quickly follows, of course, but it takes him a bit longer because he’s not at all used to this and has no idea how to climb the fence.
Blue takes the lead, as he’s apparently seen one of the three at his parent’s work before, during a ‘bring your child to work’ day. Dream isn’t too sure as to how he got this person’s address though, that doesn’t sound like something that’d get discussed during the small-talk phase.
Regardless, he manages to find their house. To their luck, it’s the fire…person…what exactly are they called? Dream should know, he started off like that too! But he has no clue what they’re actually called. They open the door, and Ink steps forwards. “We want you to stop bullying Dream’s brother!”
They just blink, before kicking Ink in the knees. “Who are you, exactly, and why should I listen to the personification of a rainbow, a 6…? Year old, and some guy wearing a banana-peel for an outfit?” Ink slowly backs away, whimpering and clutching onto his knee. It’d been kind of bad for a while, apparently, he’d need surgery on it after he’d injured himself badly, but his mom was still saving up for that. “W-we’re friends of- of Nightmare, and we think you should- “
“If you’re friends with him, I don’t want to listen to another word from you, my dad has a gun, you know? He’ll find where you live if you keep bothering me.”
Blue quickly checks if Ink is going to be alright to walk, as Dream slowly starts backing onto the sidewalk, further and further away from Nightmare’s bully. He’s seen what the other is capable of, he doesn’t need another reason to give up. He reaches the footpath, and then keeps going unconsciously. He takes a step back, then another, and then another.
He doesn’t hear the sound of a car just barely missing him as he’s preoccupied with the bully slamming their door. Ink continues to whimper, and Blue picks him up, rushing over to Dream. “It’s hurting a lot, do you think we could get him back to his mom’s house? I don’t think they’ll let us take him straight to a doctor because we’re, y’know…” He looks down, “small, childish. Maybe he could have some of the painkillers at your house?”
Dream immediately shuts that idea down, “No, you don’t take unprescribed pain meds, and my brother also needs those. Are you okay to keep carrying him? We can probably take him to a nearby hospital- They’ve let me come alone with Night a few times as long as I give them dad’s contacts- Ink? Ink do you know if your mom has a phone they could call? Adults usually have phones, right?” Blue shrugs a little, Ink just sobs.
.
.
.
He ends up being mostly fine, although Ink’s mom pays for the surgery early. They didn’t kick him lightly. The patella bone was already fractured straight down the middle, but now it was also dislocated slightly and both pieces of bone rubbed against each other painfully. He was likely going to make a full recovery, but he couldn’t walk properly for a bit. It’d take a couple of months to heal up fully, Dream felt really bad because he made it so much worse for his friend.
He wouldn’t be able to do any P.E classes until it was all healed up, and he couldn’t go upstairs either. This would be an issue because a lot of their classrooms were upstairs- he’d had an issue getting up before, but nothing Blue carrying him couldn’t fix temporarily. Now, though? They were supposed to put minimal pressure on his knee for a while, and they didn’t want to risk further hurting him.
What’s going to happen now?
He gets discharged a few days later, Dream is one of the first people he gets to see. His knee is in this awful-looking brace, and he has to use crutches for a while. His mom is behind him, helping him figure out how to use them properly because the hospital staff neglected to do so. He and Dream lock eyes, and they both rush up to each other.
“Are you alright? Is it anything permanent?”
“Should heal completely in like, 6 months’ time, but I might be able to walk a bit before then. No stairs though, unfortunately. Oh yeah! I met someone in the children's ward- his name is Error! He was super nice but really shy- kind of like when we first met- oh you guys should meet when he gets out!”
Dream tilts his head to the side before Ink answers his unspoken question, “he had a couple of rib fractures, I guess everyone’s breaking something in there.”
“Oh, Ink, sweetheart, we really need to get home,” Ink’s mom comes back over to the two of them, trying to get Ink to come back home with her. He protests quietly, whining and earning a quiet laugh from Dream. He looks up at his friend’s mom nervously. “Oh, you must be Dream? Ink talks about you a lot, and Blue too. So nice to meet you, I’m Comyet.”
Dream just nods his head, not really knowing how to respond.
Shit fuck balls piss.
.
.
.
Ink struggles in school a lot, seeing as he’s currently missing half of his classes. His mom files several complaints because this is entirely because of his injury, which they should be accommodating. Regardless, the school does nothing. Dream and Blue have been doing their best to catch him up on any work he missed, but it just became more frustrating as the work got more difficult. Both of them were horrible at explaining.
Their friend didn’t seem too bothered, though, school wasn’t extremely important to him anyways. He’d much prefer to be at home drawing. The trio was spending a lot more time together than usual, now that Ink was injured. They didn’t want him to feel left out or alone, but one time when Dream went over, there was someone new. They were writing something whilst sitting in a corner, and he thought at first this might just be a relative.
“Dream! Meet Error, he’s my friend from the hospital!! Error, meet my best friend, Dream!”
He wasn’t ecstatic with the idea of Ink having other friends, as bad as it sounds. He liked being one of Ink’s only friends, it meant he wasn’t getting replaced. And sure, they were best friends, Ink would never just replace him like that, but having little to no real friends, who aren’t just with you for your positive influence messes with you. It makes you paranoid. Dream waves with a forced, smile before sitting next to Ink to watch him draw.
“Is Blue coming over too?” Dream nods, glancing over at Error for a moment. He’s being mean, he knows that. His dad talks about how he might be coming off as aggressive or mean by accident, because of the way he talks to people, his tone of voice, and his expression. It was a lot to factor in!
Why can’t human communication just be nice and simple, without tone and facial expressions, just speech, and writing. Without sarcasm or anything like that either! Sarcasm was so hard to interpret- he knows what it is, but it’s hard to know when someone’s being sarcastic and when they mean what they’re saying.
It takes a while before Blue shows up, his parent right behind him.
Twilight Sparkle from My little pony.
Blue takes immediate notice of Error, rushing over to greet him first. Error seems a little frightened, because he doesn’t speak, just looking up from his paper. Blue starts reading what he’d written, before picking it up and praising it. “Oh wow, this is really good! Guys read glitchy-friend’s writing, it’s good right?”
Dream tilts his head, taking the paper from Blue’s hands. Error walks over, most likely to take the paper back, but he seems too nervous to do anything at all. “Oh, this is good. Do you take writing classes?” He looks back over to Error. Okay, maybe this could work. They both liked writing, maybe they could be writing buddies.
Error nods, whispering a response. Blue doesn’t seem to hear, but Dream does. Curse his sensitive hearing, it’s awful when it’s loud, but it’s helpful in these situations. “Oh, yeah I go there for writing stuff too, I’ve never noticed you there before, are you new?”
Time passes quickly. So quickly, he doesn’t even register he’s supposed to go home until his father appears.
Glamrock Freddy.
He doesn’t retaliate when his dad says they have to go now, but he’s still a little upset about it. Blue is leaving around the same time, taking his hand and smiling at him. “We can come back tomorrow, don’t worry.”
Dream smiles back, fighting back a golden blush, turning around to wave goodbye to Ink, who is preoccupied with his art. When he gets back home, Nightmare is asleep on the couch. There are tear marks next to his face, he looks up at his dad for answers. He just sighs, patting Dream’s head. “His eye. It’s…not working anymore.”
His magic flares up with anger, joints turning a golden color as he fights back the instinct to summon a bone attack. Violence is bad. He’s so upset, so incredibly upset, those damn bullies are hurting everyone- Ink, his brother- he’s so mad. He wants to kill them right now- but that’s bad, violence is bad. He feels so bad for Night. He didn’t deserve this.
Dream can’t sleep that night.
.
.
.
“My mom said we’ll be moving in a few days…She got a new job opportunity, and the schools there are a bit more accessible- there’s no stairs…” Ink has to break the news to his closest friends, and Dream can feel how upset everyone around him is. Blue feels hurt and betrayed, Ink feels scared and alone.
Dream doesn’t know what to feel, or what he’s feeling.
Blue’s talking, but he can’t make out the other’s words. He hears a ringing sound, he’s frozen in place. There are tears dripping down his cheeks but he can’t find it in him to move, to wipe them away. They’re talking to him now, before he can do anything, Blue pulls him into a warm embrace. Tears fall faster, a gold puddle forming on the floor.
“…Dream…? Dream can you hear me?” He looks up at Ink, hearing his voice through the staticky noise playing in his head. “We wanted to know if you wanted to spend some time together before I leave. We can watch a movie or something, make our last moments positive ones,” he pauses, looking away nervously, “I know negativity makes you kind of weak, too, and I don’t want you to feel bad just because I’m moving away.”
He doesn’t say anything, he just nods. Words don’t come out of his mouth when he tries to speak, Blue just repeats that it’s okay, and he doesn’t need to talk. It’s a shutdown- he’s had these before, where he can’t really move or speak. Shutdowns were embarrassing. He can feel Blue picking him up and putting him down onto a beanbag as he slowly regains control of his body.
Dream can’t bring himself to focus on the movie, just hugging Blue, who’s sitting on his lap, and leaning onto Ink’s shoulder. He stares up at his friend to get his attention, before looking away. “I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too.”