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The crying of the baby is what woke Dream up. He sat up, a little dizzy, and went over to the baby in the crib in his room. He picked the baby up, gently bouncing them.
“Shhh, it’s ok.” Dream hushed. He could feel loneliness from the boy’s aura. He gently patted his back, kissing the top of his head.
Dream had been put into lots of situations, but he had never been in this situation before. Two weeks ago, a baby was left on his doorstep. He’d never even held a baby before that night, he didn’t know what to do with a baby, he didn’t know how to hold a baby, and he didn’t know anything about that. He took the baby to the doctor, made sure they were healthy, and asked for advice about what he should do, and they advised him to keep the baby while the police looked into whoever abandoned their baby.
It was a big responsibility, he had to learn so much so fast. Most people had nine months or more to learn how to do this stuff before having to be responsible for a helpless child who couldn’t even feed themself, but Dream had to learn it all in a day. He was hardly getting sleep, the baby always needed his attention, always needed more time and resources, and energy. But an even bigger issue arose.
Dream loved him.
He tried not to get attached, he tried to remind himself that they’d find the baby’s family and they’d go back with their grandparents or aunts/uncles or something. But he failed. Really, Blue was to blame for that. Dream was adamant about not naming the baby because he wasn’t Dream’s to name.
“What about Rue?” Blue suggested. “It’s these cute little flowers, and I think it really suits him!”
Looking into his eyes that day with a name to put to his sweet little face, Dream realized that he absolutely did NOT want to give him up. It was so difficult to balance being a guardian of the universe and a parent, but it was rewarding. He never thought he wanted to be a parent until suddenly there was this tiny little thing needing him constantly and yet growing into their own person every day. If he could, he would keep them.
But there was an issue with that.
“I can’t bring you everywhere with me…” Dream mumbled, more to himself than the baby.
Nightmare and his crew. Right now, he had to leave Rue with CORE when he went on missions because if he brought Rue with him, 90% of the time it’d be ok, but in that 10%, when he runs into Nightmare and his men… It was a risk he didn’t want to put the baby through.
What was he supposed to do? He wanted to keep Rue, and given the fact that there had been no one from his family volunteering to take him, he could probably just ask the social workers and gain custody of him. But the issue of his brother had to be addressed first.
Dream didn’t know what he was supposed to do. If he mentioned having a son to Nightmare, that would be leverage for his brother, but he had to do something. Maybe he should find Nightmare and attempt to negotiate a peace deal. But it’s not like Dream hadn’t tried that before, he had tried a few years ago and Nightmare blatantly laughed at him. But this time, he’d have to be more persistent, he’d have to compromise more.
The next morning, Blue showed up as early as always. He loved Rue just as much as Dream did, which is evident by how he immediately got on the floor and started playing with Rue as soon as Dream set him down for tummy time. Dream couldn’t help but smile as Blue tried to get Rue to reach out and grab the rattle. Of course, he’s still a bit too young to do that, but getting him to try was what would help improve that skill.
“Let me take a shower, then we can go.” Dream said.
“Mkay. There’s a tip we should look into.” Blue said. Dream went over to the laundry basket, shuffling through it to find a towel.
“What kind of tip?”
“Well, Nightmare and his men have been seen a lot in one of the positive AUs,” Blue said. “They’re there almost every day, but nothing has been destroyed or killed or anything, so I think they’re doing something else there.”
Dream hummed in thought. Whatever they’re planning, it has to be stopped before someone gets hurt. But first… He hadn’t had the opportunity to shower for a few days and probably smelled terrible.
He went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Dream took a shower, lost deeply in thought. In his head, he practiced what he’d say if he encountered his brother, how he’d try to broker this deal. He had to be careful and clever and persistent.
About twenty minutes later, they took Rue to CORE and then they went to the AU they had to check. In that AU, they met their friend who’d reported it. Very freaked out, she eagerly offered to lead them to where they’d been spotted.
Much to Dream’s confusion, their friend led them to a school near her house. “Every day they’re here!” She said. “And I just- I can’t think of any reason why they’d be by the school- or, I can, but none of the reasons are good!”
“Yeah, that is weird…” Dream mumbled. He made eye contact with Blue who also looked confused. “Well, thank you for the information.”
“We’ll go in, talk to the staff, and see what’s up,” Blue said. Their friend nodded.
“Ok, thank you. Oh, yes, by the way, my boyfriend proposed to me! When we know the date. You’re both invited obviously.” She said.
“Alright, thank you! We’ll be there if we can.” Blue said. With that, they said their goodbyes, and their friend went home.
Dream looked around, as if he would see what caused his brother to pay so much attention to a random school in a territory he didn’t own. It was strange. He hoped it wasn’t anything too terrible. Maybe he was just trying to claim this AU as his own and this school just so happened to be the center of the AU? That was possible, right? Whatever the creator’s focus was on was considered the center and it’s where people would default to if traveling to this AU without a specific destination in mind. So maybe the creator was just… focusing on this rather unremarkable preschool?
“Are we allowed to just walk in?” Blue asked.
“I’m pretty sure. But it’d be a little odd. Like, ‘hello, we’re here to ask you if you’ve seen any suspicious skeletons around here. No, not us’.” Dream said, grinning at the ridiculousness.
“True.” Blue sighed. “Well, we kinda have to do it, so…”
Dream nodded, but then froze. All of a sudden, he could feel his brother’s aura. Not just Nightmare, but Dust and Killer too. He turned around quickly, staring up the road.
Nightmare’s demeanor instantly changed. From pretty calm and even a little jovial to closed off and guarded. Dust seemed outright hostile, ready to kill at the smallest order from Nightmare. And Killer… Dream paused as he realized Killer was holding a toddler in one arm and holding the hand of a second toddler.
His twin looked over at Killer, said something, and then teleported him and the kids back to wherever they came from. But it was too late. Dream and Blue had seen the kids and Nightmare and Dust knew it. Dust moved to stand right next to Nightmare and the guardian crossed his arms.
“Good morning, brother.” He said, faux joviality in his voice. “Kind of weird for you to be lingering outside a preschool, don’t you think?”
“Brother… You have kids? I’m an uncle?” Dream asked, suddenly very sentimental.
“What was I going to do? Tell you about them?” Nightmare asked, unable to deny it.
“But I don’t understand…” Blue said. “Why wouldn’t you put them in a school in a territory you control?”
Dust huffed a laughed. “Oh, yeah, which AU?” Dust asked. “Horrortale? Underfell? Amalgamtale?”
“That’s a good point…” Blue mumbled.
“This is actually perfect…” Dream said softly. “So, brother, I was thinking… No matter what happens between us, can we agree to keep the children out of the fighting?”
Nightmare was quiet for a moment, likely reading into the subtext of that suggestion. “Of course.” He said. “As long as my family remains unharmed, I swear we’ll never hurt your children.”
“I-I never said I had any kids,” Dream said. Nightmare rolled his eyes. “But, uh, thank you.”
“Who’s the mom?” Blue asked, almost absentmindedly. Nightmare and Dust glanced at each other.
“Me and… someone else ended up accidentally getting pregnant at the same time, so we had to deal with two babies at once.” Dust admitted.
“And this is perfect timing considering…” Nightmare hesitated for a moment. “There’s another one on the way.”
“Oh my god, that’s a lot of kids,” Dream said, genuinely just shocked. Then, he blushed at his reaction.
“You’re telling me.” Nightmare huffed. “But things happen and you have to learn to deal with them.”
Dream hesitated. The other two were still very wary of them, but this was the closest they’d had to common ground in centuries. He had to take advantage of this. And the way to get trust was to give trust, so…
“A few weeks ago, a baby was left at my door and I’ve been just watching him while the police or social workers try to find a relative to take them. But… I really don’t want to give him up, so I was thinking about adopting him.” Dream said. Maybe it was his imagination, but he could’ve sworn Nightmare’s face softened a little. “His name is Rue and he’s a cow monster, but he’s so sweet and I love him already.”
“Our first is named Crescent, he’s as smart as they come. And then there’s Dust’s first, his name is Ember and he’s a bit of a wild card.” Nightmare said. Dust huffed a laughed.
“Understatement of the century.”
“And now, we have another one who could theoretically be born any day now. And my partner decided on the name Viktoria Lynette the second we learned it was a girl.” Nightmare continued.
“Aw, that’s such a cute name!” Dream said.
“Yeah, he’s-… He’s a genius with names.” Nightmare said, grinning. Then, he cleared his throat. “Anyways, yes. I agree wholeheartedly to the deal that protects our children from any potential conflict.”
“I’m glad.” Dream said. “Well… I’ll see you later.”
“Alright. Goodbye.”
“Bye.”
With that, Dream and Blue left. After that interaction, he really wanted to see Rue. He wanted to hug him, to call his social worker and ask to adopt him, and he wanted to spend time with him while he was still a baby. But…
“We should take a break today,” Blue said as if he could read Dream’s mind.
“I mean… I want to, but…”
“Come on, when was the last time we took a break?” Blue asked.
“At least… two years?”
“Exactly! Come on, just one day.”
Dream sighed, truly debating it. “Ok.” He said. “Just this once.”
And so, they went back to him to pick up Rue. CORE was a little sad to have to give up Rue so soon, but did so anyway. Dream held the bay close, patting him on the back sweetly.
“I’ll gladly platonically marry you if that means I will have custody of Rue as well,” Blue said. Dream laughed a little.
“Don’t worry about that, I’d gladly let you take him for a weekend or something if you’d like.” Dream said. He sat down, listening to Rue coo lightly, reaching for his face. “I couldn’t have figured all this out so fast if it wasn’t for you.”
If it wasn’t for all of Blue’s help, if it wasn’t for Blue watching Rue when Dream needed to sleep, if it wasn’t for Blue making bottles for him while Dream struggled to figure out how to change a diaper, he wouldn’t have gotten this far. As far as Dream was concerned, Blue already was Rue’s other father. Blue beamed.
“Well then, let’s call the social worker! Let’s ask for updates, see if we can adopt him!”
“Ok, ok.” Dream laughed, reaching for his phone.
This was the start of something bigger. Dream gained custody of Rue very easily considering his father was a convicted felon and his mother was a sixteen-year-old girl who panicked and abandoned the boy at Dream’s door because she didn’t want to tell her family and the grandparents wanted absolutely nothing to do with the baby. But it was just the beginning.
He couldn’t wait to see how Rue would grow, what kind of man he’d be in the future. Each milestone felt like a monumental accomplishment. He was happy, satisfied with the life that came to him.
-
“How are you feeling, love?” Nightmare asked, sitting in the bed next to his pregnant mate, rubbing his back lightly. He could feel how uncomfortable Hate was, the small shocks of pain that ran through his body, and the exasperation that plagued him.
“Ugh… I feel like I’m gonna pop if I move.” Hate mumbled.
Nightmare kissed his cheek, hand moving to rest between his shoulder blades. “Well, luckily you won’t have to move. Anything you want, you can have.”
“I want this kid out of me, that’s what I want.” He grumbled, turning onto his back and setting a hand on his stomach.
“Well, you’ll get that wish sooner rather than later.” Nightmare said.
“Not soon enough.” Hate said, closing his eyes. He glanced up at Nightmare. “I-… Never mind, that’s fucking stupid.”
“What is it, my love?”
“I just…” Hate sighed. “I wondered if you still think that I’m… you know… pretty.” He mumbled, voice getting quieter with each word.
Nightmare cupped his face, kissing him sweetly. “Of course, sweetheart.” He said softly. “Of course you are.”
Hate smiled a little, then tried to force it off his face, looking away. “Horror has been so sweet, but it’s not as fun ordering him around. When is Cross going to come back?”
Nightmare laughed. “Don’t worry, your favorite man to order around will be back in an hour or so. He’s actually out getting you a gift right now.”
The other’s eyes glimmered greedily. “Really?”
“Mhm. But you can’t open it until the baby is born.” Nightmare said. “It’s this thing Killer saw online called a ‘push present’.”
“That’s kind of lame.”
“I know, weird modern stuff. But at least you’ll get a gift for all your effort, yeah?”
Hate laughed a bit. “I guess.” He said. “Uh, I’m… very tired right now.”
“Of course.” He said, standing up. “You just keep your strength up, love.”
“Can you send Dust in?” Hate asked. He’d never admit it, but he liked cuddling with Dust the most. Nightmare grinned.
“Of course. Goodnight, dearest.”
“Goodnight.”
He stepped out of the bedroom and was immediately met by his son standing there. Crescent held a book to his chest, looking up at Nightmare with pleading eyes. Nightmare huffed a laugh.
“Ok, ok, we can read a little bit, but then I have work to do, ok?”
“Ok!”
His tentacle reached out and looped around Crescent’s waist, picking him up. Then, they made their way to Nightmare’s office. To do that, they had to go across the living room.
Inside the living room, Ember had his hands on Dust’s shoulders jumping up and down on the couch as he loudly sang the theme song of his favorite cartoon. Horror and Killer were chatting at the far side of the room, as if unaware of the obnoxiously loud toddler. Luckily, Crescent was way calmer than Ember. Most of the time. Sometimes he could throw crazy temper tantrums, but otherwise he was pretty chill.
“Dust.” Nightmare called. The other looked up at him. “Hate wants you.”
“Kay.” He got up, lightly shrugging off the toddler and encouraging them to play with Horror or Killer instead. Then, made his way to the room.
Nightmare and Crescent continued on their way, heading to the office. He dropped Crescent onto the couch which made the toddler shriek with laughter. Then, he took the book and sat next to him.
“Alright, let’s see… Where were we?” He asked, flipping through the book.
“The dragon woked up!” Crescent said.
“Oh, yes, the dragon wakes up.” He said, swiftly finding that page.
As he read, Crescent sat pressed against his side to stare at the page as well. From the living room, he could hear Killer shouting and Ember laughing loudly, and faintly the TV was still playing. Things were loud and chaotic here. Nightmare would be lying if he said he never messed up. He could get mad and yell from time to time, but he was trying each day to be better so he could raise his kids to be better than he was.
Sometimes he slipped up. Sometimes, when Ember was throwing a tantrum about wanting to play outside despite it being late and Crescent was crying about not wanting to go to sleep yet, he could get very frustrated. But in the end, he knew he wouldn’t trade his family for the world. He loved them. His mates, his children, this life here. And with their support, he’d get better at managing his temper and things would get better.
His love for them made any barrier seem like an achievable goal. For them, he’d find a way to make things work. For them, he would make it through any obstacle.