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dream's ears echo with the words of his closest friends, both said and unsaid.
they think you hate them.
the sky is slowly darkening, almost to golden hour. he's wandering, the trees around him taller than usual, ambient sounds of mobs barely heard in his muffled, blurry understanding of the world. he's stuck in his thoughts. what could possibly be more important?
they left you.
there's a hollow in his chest, one that feels rotten around the edges. as if someone stuck crying obsidian into his stomach. he thinks that, if he were to think hard enough, he could trace the exact place the knife cuts into him, the one that grows bigger with each second he spends alone. he has nobody anymore. he's truly alone, for the first time in his life.
dream finds a rock on the bank of a small river. he sits down, swinging his axe to rest in the softer dirt, handle up, which he rests his head on. he closes his eyes.
didn't they say "us against the world"?
the sun glazes him. mobs will start coming out soon, and dream doesn't think he cares. maybe dying will bring feeling to his bones.
he listens to the stream, to the leaves in the wind, to the server he built, from flesh and blood and pieces of his own soul, everything for them, always for them. there's no dream without them.
maybe i deserve this.
he remains sitting, eyes closed, even as the sun goes across him, then below, mobs coming from their hiding spots. he doesn't pay attention as a skeleton stands behind him, drawing his bow,
releasing-
what's the point anymore?
//
sapnap is on a walk through the woods, sword at his side for the stray mobs all around him. it seems like there's less than usual, someone might've been here.
he comes to a stream, one with pink water running in it. he squats down, sticking a hand inside. it's cold, as expected, but sap can't imagine a reason it would be pink. he decides to follow it upstream, as the water becomes more and more red. there are no mobs anymore at all, although there's no human noise his sensitive ears might pick up. it's concerning, especially as the source of the hue reveals itself.
there's a group of rocks at one side, unremarkable compared to the bright netherite in front of them. in a heap laying in the river is dream, most of his armour removed but small parts still stuck to him, with multiple arrows sticking out of him. he's bleeding as the river rushes at him, carrying his blood away.
sap rushes to him. he's still breathing, slowly, shallowly, water probably already in his mouth and nose. he's cold, freezing, his skin with a purple tint. sap pulls on one of his arms, and it's stiff.
he raises dream out of the water, carrying him back to their house, one hidden in the woods under layers of plants and mounds of dirt. it's safe, warm, their own.
//
dream wakes up under blankets, in a room he knows, before a fireplace he's too familiar with from nights upon nights of idle banter and whispered confessions.
he wishes he was anywhere else.
sleep leaves him slowly; there's a weight to his bones, one that makes him want to sink into the couch, until he's one with the wood floor.
he still rises to sitting. his back hurts with each movement and his limbs don't quite obey him. but he rises, the blankets fall off him and he's left in the cold air after the fireplace has stopped burning. he stares at the ash, once a tree and now reduced to stains on the brick.
a door opens behind him. "you're awake."
dream hums a response, but he doesn't turn to face sapnap.
"you scared me," he says, coming to sit on the armrest, and thus, close to dream. sap is emanating warmth, like the blankets, like the smell of wood that follows him.
"why did you do that?"
dream lets the silence linger. it's quiet, the house, with only moonlight exposing every imperfection carved by their own hands into these planks. "...why did you save me?"
"dream, that's-" sap starts, sharply turning in dream's direction. his eyes are still on the ashes. "because i don't want you to die?"
"but you hate me."
sapnaps shoulders fall. he turns to stare into the ashes as well. the brick was laid on a rainy day, when they hadn't had better to do. dream knows exactly where all threes handprints are hidden, in a small pocket in the wall, mortar spread across some wood. there's traces of all of them in this house.
"we said some things we didn't mean," sapnap finally stutters out, "and we're... we're really sorry. genuinely."
dream shifts, and it pulls on the bandages wrapped around his chest. "is george asleep?"
"he is."
dream turns to set his feet on the ground. sap's hands immediately shoot out to steady him, but retract when dream flinches away. the floorboards aren't cold, but his socked feet still feel like they've been dunked in an ice bath.
"you almost froze to death, dream."
dream processes that. he remembers being shot, landing in the water, and...
not much else, really. only cold, fear of death, and choking on water.
"you had- you had seven arrows in you. all from skeletons."
dream finally looks at sapnap. his face is lined by the bright blue light from the outside, hair tussled and hands red from scrubbing. there's fear written in his pinched face, the way he's sitting.
dream looks away again. "i didn't... i didn't mean to worry you."
"just-" sap raises a hand to his face, groaning, "tell me you won't do it again. please."
when dream doesn't respond, sap hunches back down. "how can we help you, dream?"
"you can't."
the house feels cold, so cold. even with all its parts inside, when dream's sitting amidst all of it, it feels hollow.
and later, when he sits under crying obsidian, feeling the tears fall onto his legs and burn holes through, he thinks back to those same ashes, only cleaned when the house was burnt down.