Chapter Text
Your sleepy eyes scan the screen, monitoring the dream you set in motion a few hours ago. So far so good, you think to yourself as you smile at the wondrous world you’ve created for the lucky dreamer.
You are a Dream Maker. And well, you do exactly that. You make dreams for the people of the world so when they fall asleep, weary from reality, they’re welcomed into a world of their own where anything can happen. However; it’d be a bit insane to think that you’re the only one making dreams for all the people of the world. Even for a high-level Dream Maker or your Boss, that workload is unimaginable. The relationship between Dreamers and Dream Makers is the reason both sides can rest easily. Every time a child is born, a new Dream Maker is born. Well, born is used loosely, more like a Dream Maker is formed from happiness, pixie dust, and clouds. But anyway, this makes it so that each person has their own personal Dream Maker who knows them best: knows their fears, their gifts, the things that make them jovial, even knows if they prefer cute, fluffy bunnies or fierce badass tigers as companions.
Now usually, everything is fine. Dreams are produced, the Dreamer wakes up well-rested and it’s time for the Dream Maker to recharge only to repeat the process once the day comes to an end. It’s only a problem when a Dream Maker doesn’t recharge fully or is too affected by their Dreamer’s mood… This leads to nightmares. When a Dream Maker produces a nightmare, our Boss is alerted and they’re punished based upon the severity of the nightmare. Thankfully the punishments are never too bad, a few days in the land of the living but never anything permanent.
Only thing is, it takes a lot of concentration to control dreams and right now, you feel your eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Shaking your head, you sigh and try to concentrate on the screen before you and resist the urge to shut your eyes. What’s left of the night? Maybe an hour or two more? You can last. You’ve done it before, just add a few more cats in top hats and watch how your Dreamer ( Who’s currently donned in suspenders and a top hat himself) would react to the absurd number of dapper kitty companions he has. A soft laugh passing your lips as his surprise yet welcome reaction to the furballs. Yeah, you’ll be just fine!
A loud yell pierces your slumber as you bolt up instantly. Your (e/c) eyes look around frantically only to meet harsh, steel blue eyes that are all too familiar. “H-Hey, Boss, what’s up?” You stammer out, trying to not let your fear show. For someone who is supposed to be the ruler of the ever so delightful Dream Realm, he’d be able to terrify the bravest Dreamer on Earth.
“‘What’s up?’ What’s up?!” He fumes, silver brows furrowing in anger, “What’s up is you dozed off and made a nightmare!”
And surely enough, when your eyes shamefully look back at the screen you see your Dreamer scared beyond belief as he runs away from giant, cat-like creatures with multiple heads and glowing red eyes. Instead of replying, you merely hang you head in humiliation. You’ve rarely done this, maybe a few times while you were a rookie, but not in at least sixteen or twenty years.
You can’t see your Boss’ expression but guessing as there isn’t more scolding, his anger has faded into disappointment. You raise your head a bit only to confirm your suspicion.
“You know what this means, right?” He asks expectantly, his voice holding a crestfallen tone rather than annoyance. One of his previously crossed arms reach out to you, though before you take it, your eyes meet his and share a sullen glance.
“How long will I stay?”
“...”
“Boss?”
“At least twenty moons, you’re experienced. You should know better and recharge fully by the time your Dreamer is asleep and with how scared he had gotten, it earns at most fifteen moons in itself.” Your Boss informs while adding in a light scolding. He's like a father-figure to the Dream Makers since you don’t exactly have parents yourself. It pains him to give harder punishments as this, especially when seeing the reactions. And to say the least, yours broke his heart.
“At least twenty moons?! Twenty?! But, Boss I swear, it’s a one-”
“Time thing, yes, I know. I’ve heard it before. A punishment fits the nightmare, (Y/n), and that’s yours. No ifs, ands, or buts. Got it?” He more sternly informs this time.
While you’re about to protest once more, his raised brow stops you. You sigh and accept the fact that you can’t escape your sentence. Your eyes leave his and travel down to the hand reached out to you and finally, you take it.
A blinding, golden light disorients you for a moment. Your body weighing down, your Boss’ hand disappearing from your own. Oh goodness, you’ve forgotten the feeling of flashing down. A heavy pit in your stomach and your feet feeling like lead, dragging you down from your cozy cloud above the ground. You want to scream, you so badly want to scream, but your voice seems to have vanished along with your former weightlessness body. There’s no control and all you know and recognize is that the light is beginning to fade. Suddenly, you have contact with another object, a giant weight hitting into you alongside the new weight of your body you feel.
Groaning, the pain starts to fade as you sit up. You look beneath you, curious to see exactly what you’ve hit. And much to your surprise, it’s a bench. You furrow your brows and decide to see exactly where you are and why your Boss could have possibly thought to leave you on a bench. Yet, you’re only confused more as you analyze your surroundings.
You’re outside.
At a bus stop.
In the middle of nowhere.
And it’s still dark outside.
Yeah, great Boss you have.