Chapter Text
“C’mon Sam…can’t stay for a few minutes just to, I dunno….talk?”
The disinterested warden continued to pack up his glowstone powder and tools back into his inventory, giving no care to respond to what the prisoner had to say.
“Saaaaaam…” He begins to whine, it’s so boring in here! Like…! Obviously, I would rather be spending my time with other people besides you but…I can’t be too picky now can I?”
Sam can’t help but notice, from the corner of his eye, the sudden smirk that appeared on Dream’s face.
“Techno was alright, I guess. Not that interesting, but he was a body to talk to. Sapnap was boring…hm…Bad is agonizingly friendly…but Tommy, on the other haaaaand-”
“Shut up.”
Sam interrupts the smug-voiced prisoner before he gets to finish, “I don’t need to hear what you have to say about him for the millionth time. You have told me more than plenty. More than I would like to know.”
The warden begins to move towards the open side of the cramped cell, “You are disgusting. I suggest you stop finding ways to get me in here just to spew whatever nonsense you have stored in that sick mind of yours.”
He pulls out a potion of fire resistance, chugging it down. As bright orange particles begin to envelop Sam, he gets ready to toss an ender pearl out of cell before saying, “Your potato dispenser should be working again. Stop messing with it or I won’t bother to fix it next time.” He begins to reach his arm back, ender pearl in hand, before Dream starts to speak up again.
“I am going to ruin him y’know.”
Sam immediately freezes, unable to throw the ender pearl. He holds that position for a few seconds before slowly putting his arm down.
“I will break him all over again. And there’s nothing you can do about it!” Dream continues, his voice becoming cheerier with each passing second. “I am going to walk right out of this prison and you won’t be able to stop me from doing whatever I want to him! I mean…it’s not like anyone stopped me the first time…right?”
Still facing the open curtains of lava, Sam manages to keep his voice calm, despite the anger inside him feeling like it’s going to violently erupt. He has to restrain himself. He can’t let Dream get to him. He can’t act out on his desires. He has a responsibility to fulfill.
“You are never leaving this cell, Dream.” He proceeds to finally throw the ender pearl out into the main cell control room. Moving to hit the lever to close the lava wall, he leaves Dream with one more message, “You really should behave. I don’t know how much patience I have left for you.”
It was another freezing, cold day at Snowchester. Clean sheets of snow covered the grounds of the nation. Though, that could be attributed to the lack of footprints, as the only people residing here were the Beloveds.
The 4-year-old piglin baby took leisure in scribbling a multitude of crayons all over a poor single piece of paper, some of the crayon making its way onto the table. Ranboo would just have to clean that up later, probably best if they do it when little Michael goes to sleep.
“The porridge is almost done, so get ready to put your stuff away, alright, Michael?” His parent says gently as they stir a small metal spoon into a yellow bowl containing the piglin’s lunch. But Michael just lets out a small huff, clearly indicating he wasn’t interested in the food and would much rather keep making a mess out of the colors in his hand.
“You can keep drawing again afterwards, I promise.” Ranboo continues as they sit beside their son, placing the bowl next to Michael’s paper. “Both papa and I will be really proud if you finish your food first…”
Michael continues to pout some more before deciding to comply and pushes the paper and crayons out of the way to make room for the bowl. Ranboo lets out a small laugh before watching Michael feed himself. This time the baby piglin remembers to blow on his food before putting it into his mouth.
Michael still struggles to verbalize his needs and wants. After all, he is a piglin taken straight from the Nether. He wasn’t meant to be able to speak English. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t making any progress. Even being able to say a few words was a miracle enough for Ranboo and Tubbo.
“Prime, we got lucky.”
Moments like this are what makes Ranboo’s life feel so much more…
Worthwhile.
It doesn't take too long for the baby to finish his meal. Just as it doesn't take long for his sleepiness to kick in after eating. Seeing Michael's eyelids reach halfway down his eyes, Ranboo picks up their son and makes their way to his room upstairs. The piglin is carefully tucked under the blankets on his bed before Ranboo plants a tiny kiss on his forehead.
Just as Ranboo's about to leave Michael's room, they hear the front door creak open downstairs. Already knowing who it is, Ranboo descends back down, hoping for some good news.
"Nope."
Is all their husband says as he closes the door shut behind him.
Ranboo isn’t able to read the expression on Tubbo's face. Well, mainly because Tubbo's bangs cover up most of it, but either way.
Tired? Disappointed? Fed up? Distressed?
"Michael’s sleeping now, maybe we can go out and try together?"
"No…it’s alright, bossman."
"...I am sure he's fine…"
There's a few seconds of silence before Ranboo speaks up again.
"Do you think he knows about what happened to me?"
"...No. Definitely not. If he did, he would have come to find you."
"I-I guess…yeah…yeah, that makes sense." Ranboo says, scratching the back of their head.
"I am gonna try again in a bit, I just…I am a bit worn out. Gonna take a small rest before I go out again. Maybe I will try checking around his house again."
"Yeah…sounds like a plan." Ranboo says as they give the other a reassuring smile.
Ranboo walks up to Tubbo, gently putting his arms around the other in a well-meaningful hug. "It's not your fault."
Hugging back, Tubbo is only able to let out a mutter.
"It sure feels like it is."
Being the warden of a prison with only one prisoner should be a relatively simple job, in theory. But not when the prisoner exhausts every possible option to hurt as many as he can while he’s in there. Not when the prisoner is always trying to provoke the warden every time he’s just trying to do his job. And certainly not when that prisoner is sentenced to life .
Sam moves his hands over his hair, gripping his head as if he was trying to quell a migraine. He takes the opportunity to calm himself down as he sits on one of the few placed chairs in the break room of the prison. He really needed this alone time after what transpired in the main cell.
“ Dream’s just trying to get to you again. This isn’t anything new. He always says stuff like this. Just need to get through the rest of the day. ”
Even after Sam had basically chewed Dream out the day Quackity thought he went missing, Dream continues to act like- well. Himself. Sam had rendered Dream speechless for the first time in the warden’s life and he still acts like the king of the world. It’s like that day never even happened.
Sam had always tried his best to minimize his ‘one-on-one’ time with Dream as much as possible. The prisoner always knew what to say or do to get a rise out of the other. So, he’d rather not have to deal with him while fulfilling his job. But sometimes, it’s simply unavoidable.
He doesn’t want to hear how the man is going to feed his dog to ravagers. Or how he’s going to string up Bad’s, Ant’s, and Skeppy’s bodies onto Sam’s house. Or how he’s going to hurt Tom-
But he has to.
He has to because he is the warden of the prison.
He has to make sure the prisoner remains in that cell.
He has to make sure the prisoner is adequately fed.
He has to make sure the prisoner is alive.
…
He can’t kill the prisoner.
He can’t kill the prisoner no matter what.
“Or at least not unless he escapes the prison.” Sam mutters quietly to himself before realizing what he just said.
No way. Dream’s not getting out of this prison.
Sam continues to hold his hunched over position until he hears footsteps making their way into the prison.
“Hey, Sam! I scouted the roof of the prison for the past hour! No suspicious activity has been deeeeetected!”
The exhausted warden moves his head up to face the more than cheery demon making his way over to him.
“This is probably day…..gazillion! Day gazillion of no suspicious activity inside or outside the prison!” Bad continues, plopping himself down on a chair beside Sam.
“I know Bad, I know.” Sam responds in a somewhat disgruntled tone as he looks back down at the floor. “But that’s how it happens. That’s how Dream or…whoever, are able to mess with the prison…and get someone hurt .”
Sensing that Sam isn’t in the best mood…again, Bad just smiles. “I know too, Sam. I understand why we have to do these things. But…”
“But?”
“But surely you can take soooome time off…” Bad says as he plays around with his own fingers, his voice becoming squeakier, “I heard Hannah and Boomer are still waiting for you to tell them what to do next for the bank! Ant and I can take ove-”
But Bad is interrupted by a scoff.
“The bank? The bank that I have been barely working on for months now?”
Bad’s smile quickly turns into a frown. “Y-yeah! The bank! Don’t tell me you are giving up on the bank! Remember you were telling me about restoring the economy and all that muffiny business?”
“Yeah Bad. I remember. Except at the time I didn’t account for the prisoner to be a complete freak.” Sam’s voice becomes increasingly upset. “I also didn’t account for the ginormous egg STILL STANDING right beside the spider farm.”
Bad sits there for a few seconds, taken slightly aback by what his friend had just told him. “O-oh…you weren’t able to find a way to…get rid of the egg…did you…”
“Yeah…I can’t break it, I can’t bomb it, I can’t cover it up…or at least it cover it up on a permanent basis.” Sam begins to explain, trying to hold back the exhaustion and annoyance in his tone, “I took Tommy down there you know. I remembered Tommy was immune to the egg. So I took him down there a few times to help me to solve the issue with the egg. He still managed to not get infected despite the number of times we went down there but…we still couldn’t find a way to just…stop it.”
Quickly remembering something, Sam turns to face Bad. “Speaking of Tommy…and the egg.” Based on the worried look Bad starts to show on his face, Sam gets the feeling he already knows what he’s about to ask.
“You did apologize to Tommy about trying to kill him… right? ”
“Ahaha..!!! Um….!” Bad begins to panic a bit, “Well! You see Sam…I have been trying to talk to Tommy alone but…! I always either couldn’t find him or he was always with Wilbur! Well…nowadays I just don’t see him at all. Neither of them actually!”
Sam immediately sits up, Bad’s words becoming worrying to him. “What do you mean you haven’t seen Tommy at all recently?”
“Exactly that, Sam! I haven’t seen that muffinhead for like…the past month I’d say???”
“When was the last time you saw him, Bad?”
Noticing that Sam’s voice became more menacing, he quickly responds, “It was when Tommy was collecting redstone at a cave near Las Nevadas! I approached him but he was being so…so rude to me, Sam! He was like ‘RAHRAHRAHRAH don’t bother me, Bad! I have important stuff to do! You are distracting me!’ So I left him alone!”
“...” Sam remained quiet for a few seconds before speaking up again, “Bad. I need you to get Ant to come down here and cover me.”
Bad’s worry rapidly disappears, perking up as he misunderstands Sam’s intentions. “Oh…finally! Finally, you are gonna take a break, you muffinhead! I wi-”
“I need to talk to Tubbo.”