𝙍𝙀𝘿𝘼𝙈𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙔 || ᵐᶜʸᵗ ˣ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

ghostbur x reader - someone to love

kinda angst (?) mostly sad fluff
dsmp au

this is so long but i promise it's amazing

everyone has three canon lives. every time you die, you lose one. this makes it so people are careful, careful of how they move, who they kill, and when they kill them. nobody wants to throw away their canon lives, or throw away somebody else's. but all of that is thrown away, with war.
dream told tommy, tubbo and y/n to meet them all at this place. to talk. he claims. he gave tommy a compass and it pointed directly toward where he wanted to meet him. the two teenagers and their parent-like guardian worked for weeks in order to prepare for this battle. they had netherite armor maxed out with axes and swords and pickaxes. potions stacked in their inventory along with golden apples stacked on top of each other.
surely, there's no way that they could die, no way they could get overtaken, they had this. three against one, they'll be fine. it started with the three of them, it had to end like this. they knew they had to do it, for themselves, for their nation, for wilbur.
     the boat journey was long, unnervingly long. the usually long silence was filled with jokes that were made out of nervousness. tommy's hand often found their way to his neck, wiping off the sweat and wiping it on his pants from the beating sun. y/n noticed this, and turn to him.
"tommy," y/n started, tommy turning his head slightly. "it's gonna be okay, i promise." they said, and he nodded his head, breathing in and out.
y/n and wilbur were always a kind of mentor to tommy and tubbo, telling them the right and wrongs and showing them the ins and outs of this world. wilbur was gone, from his fathers hands. well, he wasn't gone. he was ghostbur now, but he'd forgotten most things from his life as wilbur. as a leader, as president. he couldn't even feel a hug from someone anymore, his ghost body didn't register any touch from alive people. she had to make him happy.
they ended up at a Savannah, climbing up the mountain in which the compass pointed toward. finally getting up, y/n wiped the sweat from her forehead, the sun slowly setting on the mountain, marking the night. y/n pulled the boys closer to her, making sure they weren't separated. she placed down her ender chest, getting her crossbow out of it.
"stay close boys." she ordered, loading her crossbow in one swift motion.
tommy eats a golden apple, tubbo sharpening his sword on a nearby stone, looking at it in the light of the glistening moon. he could see his reflection in it. the burn scars from his execution creeped up and stopped on his cheek, just below his eye. his second canon life lost, and he promised himself, promised tommy, promised everyone, that dream wouldn't take his last.
grass being squished underneath someones boot could suddenly be heard, catching the attention of the trio. tommy drew his axe, the axe of peace, y/n aiming her crossbow, and tubbo pointing his sword ahead, all of them beside each other. dreams mask gave him away, lit up dimly by the moon, but showing against his deep purple armor. he builds up with obsidian, placing a juxebox on the top of his tower. tommy gasped. dream got out mellohi and placed it into the box. the familiar tune covered the mountain and flowed down it like a stream of water. he covered the box with obsidian and jumped down, laughing a little.
"why so defensive? i haven't done anything yet." dream says nonchalantly, taking out his sword and inspecting it closely, looking at his cracked mask in the reflection.
y/n straightened up, "what have you brought us here?" she asked, demanding to know the answer. she lowered her crossbow slightly, getting in front of tommy and tubbo slightly.
dream only laughed at her attempt to look strong, "i'm not here for you. i'm here for your friends." he said matter of factly, stepping up closer to her, sizing y/n up.
tommy grabbed y/n's arm, pulling them back closer toward the base of the smaller hill that laid on the mountain. y/n just shook him off, and looked up at dream. "then why did you want all three of us here?" she asked.
"leverage." dream said, and in one swift motion, grabbed y/n. he pulled them closer to him, putting the purple shiny sword resting just under her chin. dream laughed a little, looking at the two afraid boys under his mask.
y/n was too scared to speak, feeling the tip of the sword press into her neck was enough for her to shut up. tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks. was she going to die like this?
"let her go dream!" tommy barked, advancing toward him, but that only made dream press the sword closer into y/n's neck, causing her to whine and struggle.
"i wouldn't do that if i were you, tommy. do you want a chance to save her?" dream teased, keeping the sword against y/n's neck and with the other hand grabbing all of her things throwing it off the mountain as far as he could. he ripped the crossbow out of her hands and threw it on the floor, stomping on it as much as he could until it was just a piece of shiny wood.
"what has she ever done to you?" tubbo asked, desperation in his voice, watching his only adult figure still present in his life get stripped of her belongings.
"she helped you. she clearly holds meaning in your life, it would be stupid of me not to kill her," he starts, tommy and tubbo's eyes widening, "but i won't. if you do just one small favor for me." dream says, digging a small hole with his foot. "put your stuff in the hole." he demands.
y/n immediately looks at tommy and tubbo, shaking her head immediately, but carefully. "don't." she says simply, and dream laughs manically. "i don't care if he kills me, do not fucking do it!" y/n yells, the tears spilling down her cheeks and hitting the sword resting on her neck.
"but y/n," tommy starts, y/n immediately cutting him off, "no! tommy or tubbo don't you fucking dare put any of your stuff in the hole." she says. dream pressing the sword into her neck closer.
"she's crying!" dream joyfully laughs, turning y/n's head to him. the eyes of the mask bore into her soul, as he laughs at her. "you're so stupid! you'd die for them, when they aren't even gonna win this stupid thing? you're gonna die for them when they haven't done anything for you?" dream mocks her, moving in closer.
y/n stays silent, contemplating everything. they're like her kids, if they put all their stuff away, they'll die surely along with herself. they'll be gone, forever, no one will know what really happened at this place. he'll lie to everyone. she has to give them a chance to be apart of history in this stupid smp. y/n's hands fly to dreams face, ripping off the mask quickly, throwing it to the dirt and stepping on it, hard. it breaks in two, right in the middle.
dream immediately drives the netherite sword through y/n's stomach, it poking out the back over her, blood beginning to spill out of her mouth. just like wilbur, except to the hands of a monster. dream grabs his mask and tries to piece it together, muttering curses under his breathe. tommy and tubbo run over to y/n, but it's too late, she's gone.

the light is blinding, covering y/n's vision and blurring her senses. she closes her eyes to try to get away from it, but it doesn't go away. they rub their eyes quickly and suddenly the vision is back to normal. she sits in the rubble that once was lmanburg, the nation she built from a caravan. she looked at her skin, pale. it's blue, almost. she stands up, feeling light on her feet. she jumps, and is suddenly suspended in the air.
she's dead, but she isn't in the afterlife. she's home, she's back at lmanburg. tommy and tubbo. where had they gone? are they okay? did they do it? she had so many questions that she didn't know would be answered. all she knew is that her head hurt, every movement caused her to become dizzy. she lowered herself back onto the ground, and laid there.
"friend?" she heard a small voice come from a little away. ghostbur. she's like ghostbur! she's with him again finally.
she jumps up, not caring about the pounding headache that screams at her to sit down and runs to the sound of the voice and soft footsteps. she sees ghostbur, and smiles. he's still wearing that yellow sweater, his hair is a little dirty but he looks more real than he did when y/n was alive. "will?"
ghostbur turns his head, his eyes widening and then breaking out into a huge smile. he runs over to y/n and tackles her in a big hug. they fall onto the ground, his hand on the back of her head so she doesn't hit it. he snuggles his head into the crook of her neck, tears soaking into her skin and sweater.
ghostbur shakily looked up at her, y/n's eyes swimming with tears as well. "i-i, i can feel you. i can hold you, y/n." he says happily, pulling his arms from around her and putting his hands on the sides of her face, rubbing her cheeks and tears with the pad of his thumb.
"i know wilbur." she said happily, looking into his eyes and smiling, rubbing his back softly and slowly. they soak up each other's presence and affection.
"i haven't felt touch in so long. i missed you." wilbur said shakily, melting at the feeling of her hands in his hair.

y/n was dead, but at least she wasn't alone, and never will be again.