“You know there’s one thing I never really understood,” Tommy said, rubbing his thumb idly on the bottle.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Why would anyone trap another person in a lamp, or a bottle? It’s kind of stupid, if you ask me. Seems a lot easier to just kill them.”
Dream shrugged, his form ebbing between smoke and solid. “Couldn’t say. You’d have to ask my captors.”
Something wry crossed his face, but it was partially obscured by the veil over his head. Tommy hadn’t known him long enough to be able to read Genie anyway.
“It doesn’t really matter to you, anyway. I’m at your service, now, ‘Boss.”
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“What happens, y'know? When I run out of wishes?”
Dream looked over at him from where he lounged on a pile of looted objects. Tommy made only the best and coolest of wishes, of course. Being able to steal anything was a genius idea.
“Well…” Dream tilted his head back and forth. “I mean, that’s assuming you ever actually make three wishes.”
“Hey! Why wouldn’t I?!”
“Cause I’m still here, Kid.” Dream pointed out. With inhuman grace, he floated down to the pile of blankets Tommy was attempting to nest in. “It’s been a year. Most would have made their wishes already. I’d be back in that bottle right now, waiting for the next one.”
Tommy’s stomach lurched. “Next one?”
“Yep.”
“You’d go back in the bottle.”
“I thought it was kind of obvious? I’m a genie. We go in bottles, Kid.”
“Yeah, but,” Tommy’s fist tightened around the bottle neck. When had he started holding it? “You’re supposed to like, become free at some point, right? You’re magic, surely you’ve got a plan to get out? It’s gotta be boring in there all alone.”
Dream waved him off, but Tommy could see the way his shoulders tensed. “I give wishes Kid, I don’t make them. The only way to free a genie is to wish it so, and people aren’t really interested in making wishes like that-”
“I could do it.” Tommy blurted. “After my second wish, I could do it. Makes sense, doesn’t it? I get what I want and then you get your freedom.”
Dream paused. Stilled. For the briefest moment, his outline was so ghostly Tommy feared he’d vanish right out of existence, but then-
“You’d be giving up your third wish,” Dream said quietly.
“So? I got almost everything I want already! Being able to steal whatever I'd like is a pretty great power, innit? I don’t even need that third wish.”
Slowly, hesitant, Dream became solid enough to touch. He sat at the foot of Tommy’s pile.
“It’d be nice. I guess. I haven’t thought about it before.” He said. Despite his words, he picked at the braces around his wrists. Shackles, Tommy realized, then tried very hard to ignore.
“Well, now you’ve got to. You’ve gotta lot of time to think about it, cause obviously I’m not ready for my next wish yet, but when I do, prepare to have a whole bucket list of things for us to do when you’re free!”
Dream smiled behind his veil. It looked like fragile hope. He floated up to tousle Tommy’s hair. “Whatever you say, 'Boss.'”
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.
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No. No, no, no, no!
Tommy scrambled over barrels and crates, his form shape-shifting to squeeze through a gap in a wall. If Dream was around to see it, he’d show off a bit more, boast a bit about how handy the raccoon-shifter wish had become.
Dream had thought Tommy was an idiot for making it? Well it was going to save his ass, so who’s the idiot now?
He should have made the third wish right away. Dream had never asked him about it, even if he probably wanted to. He was a good pal like that. He never made Tommy do anything he didn’t want to without reason. Wouldn’t let Tommy leave him alone.
Because he would be alone, Tommy realized, back after making the second wish. Dream was a genie, and he was magic, and he was trapped in that little bottle for so long. Dream wouldn’t stick around to play stupid big brother forever, and Tommy… well.
What was he going to do when he went back to being alone?
But now he was alone anyway. He was made a liar and a bad friend, and all because of that stupid Sam and his stupid fixation on that stupid fucking bottle.
“Say something or I’ll put you back in there.”
Tommy froze. He scampered around a dumpster and peeked out beneath. Sam had stopped in an alleyway.
“What do you want me to say?” Dream asked. He seemed small in Sam’s presence, a faint outline that could disappear without anything to ground him.
It seemed Sam agreed with the sentiment, because he gripped Dream’s arm back into solid form. “You’re supposed to talk. You’re always- chattering, making a scene. What are you planning?”
“What? What could I possibly plan? You have the bottle now.”
“I do. And that means you have to- to listen to me. Only me. No one else.”
“That’s how it works.” Dream agreed, tonelessly. Sam shook him a little, and Tommy spied the clink of lime glass against the warden’s belt.
“Don’t test me. I know you’re going to try something. You might think you can fool every other person who comes across your bottle, but-”
Sam yelped as Tommy bit down on his hand, letting go of Dream’s arm. Tommy unhooked the bottle with his (very awesome) raccoon fingers, before releasing Sam and darting away. For a single heartbeat, Dream smirked.
“Bye Sam.” He waved. His figure turned to dust.
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“C'mon, c'mon, c'mon man, please,” Tommy muttered, rubbing the bottle as best he could while bleeding out. It took forever, but finally Dream ascended; his figure billowed out of the smoke to smile without cheer. His depressive air evaporated instantly when he saw Tommy.
“Kid? What the hell?! What happened?”
“Bit of an accident,” He rasped. “Turns out running from a bitch like Sam is harder than it looks. Should be fine now though.”
“It’s not fine.” Dream shrunk down to inspect the wound. He cringed as he took in the damage. “You’re not gonna survive this, you have to let me heal you.”
“No sir, nope. I made a bloody promise, and I have to make it right.”
“What? What are you talking about? Tommy, wish for me to heal you!”
“Fuck off, big man, and let me have this.” Tommy inhaled, ignoring his chests rattling wheeze. “I wish for you to be free, Dream, forever.”
Dream stopped.
“What?” He whispered.
“You heard me.”
And he knew Dream did, because the shackles around his wrists snapped. The white veil fluttered away, out of existence, to reveal an awestruck face.
“Oh.”
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When Tommy woke up again, he was faintly surprised at having woken up at all. When he told Dream this, the genie laughed.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t heal you after getting access to all my magic again?”
Tommy flushed a bit.
“Well, I don’t know, maybe you’d just leave after. You were free, you could go to the fucking moon for all I know.”
And Dream would stare at him. Piercing, baffled. “Why would I go anywhere without you, Tommy?”
Tommy would look away then, mumble, barely audible. “Free forever is free from me, too, yeah? You don’t have to stay.”
He’d remember the softness of Dreams smile for the rest of his life.
“Maybe that’s my choice. A little brother isn’t a shackle, Tommy.”
But for now, Tommy would blink bleary eyed at the ceiling, and grumble to Dream about turning off the sun. Dream chuckled faintly.
“Sure thing, Tommy.”