Down with the King- Dream SMP

25- Dream

WARNING: Mild language

His days were spent training with Tommy and helping him adjust to his new leg while the nights were filled with some of the most restful sleep he'd had in quite a long time. The day that Tommy was able to outrun him in a race was the day Dream knew that he would be just fine.

"Take that you green bastard!" Tommy crowed after winning, though the words contained nothing but joy in them.

"Good job," Dream said, acknowledging that he had lost fair and square. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Tommy beamed at him, a huge smile lighting up his face.

"I told you that leg would work for you if you only tried," he said, ruffling Tommy's blonde hair.

"Yeah, you did," Tommy grinned, ducking away from Dream and running back towards the cabin, calling over his shoulder, "Race you home!"

Dream laughed to himself and refused to quicken his brisk walk, instead choosing to watch Tommy run ahead. It was strange, this new bond between them. This had not been what Dream had intended when he decided to take Tommy away from the castle, but it had been a welcome change of plan. Tommy trusted him now more than ever and, if he admitted it to himself, he wanted the boy to genuinely like him. With a start, Dream realized that he'd come to see Tommy as a friend and, dare he say it, a brother.

The realization left him with a fierce ocean of emotion tumbling within him. Is this what he wanted? Where was the line between lies and truth? He wondered what it would be like to live out the rest of his days here with Tommy, secluded in the woods away from the castle. Drista could come and live with them and they could be something like a family? George and Sapnap would visit on weekends and-

"No," he said aloud, clearing all such ridiculous thoughts from his head. That could never happen. Not when Tommy still had such a strong attachment to things of the past. Dream heard the boy cry out in his sleep at night, calling for his brother and best friend.

He reached the cabin, sighing in exasperation at the wet footprints tracking into the house.

"Tommy!" he called, shutting the door behind him after knocking the snow from his boots. "You forgot to leave your shoes by the door!"

"Sorry!" came his voice from upstairs.

"Come clean your mess up!"

"Fine!"

He swung down from the ladder and jumped to the floor, his metal enforced foot clanging against the wooden floors. Dream tossed him a towel he'd grabbed from the kitchen and watched as he got to work cleaning up his soggy footprints.

"Are you always this messy?" Dream asked, hanging his cloak by the door.

"No!" Tommy exclaimed, but he paused. "Well... maybe."

He shook his head at that, a small smile on his lips.

"I was impressed today," Dream said, sitting at the workbench. He smoothed out a piece of paper in front of him and dipped his quill in ink, preparing to write a letter.

"Why wouldn't you be?" Tommy asked. "I'm awesome."

"I was trying to compliment you, but I guess not," he chuckled.

"Whatcha writing?" he asked, leaning over Dream's shoulder to see what he was working on.

"A letter to George," Dream replied.

"Why?"

"Must you ask so many questions?" he asked, shaking his head. "If you must know, I am writing to inform him of our return."