ORPHANED

:: ninety-nine ::

with thanksgiving quickly approaching, bad canceled work early for the entirety of the week. dream was sure he did it because he thought it would relieve him of the stress he had put on, but in reality it had only added onto it. with no responsibility to wake up early for, he slept in and stayed up late, sitting under his desk lamp light and bearing a hand cramp as he wrote whatever came to mind.

eventually his sister would meander her way into his room to refill his water bottle and sit beside his desk, offering company they both benefited from early in the morning, when they'd stall accepting the beginning of the next day. she was quiet then, still fighting off the parts of her brain that wanted her to fall back asleep. slowly she gave in, her head luling to the side, heavy to keep holding up on her own.

dream ripped a page out of his notebook and crumpled in his hands before tossing it as her head. "hey idiot, there's a bed literally right there." he pointed a thumb in the direction of the mattress he spent so many sleepless nights laying awake on. she'd probably get more sleep on it than he ever had.

she smiled at him with big eyes, setting the crumpled page on his desk, quick to disappear behind him, he didn't bother watching her movements, turning to uncrumple the page in front of him. "try to keep the snoring to a minimum though."

"shut up." her voice was quiet, most likely already tucked into his pillow.

his eyes scanned the rushed letters on the page. he could never seem to find the correct words to describe how he felt, his sentences oversimplified or too complicated, always making him feel like a poet that tried too hard to be faux deep. he gave up on these letters which had been signed with exclamation points where he had so badly wanted to add hearts.

he recrumpled the paper wasting no more time focused on the words he had discarded on purpose, after all he still had almost an entire notebook full of letters he'd written from different instances, describing different feelings, but all meant for the same person.

if he felt like this from not hearing from someone he knew a little less than a year for a few weeks, he could only imagine how techno felt with him being gone this long.

he turned in his chair at the noise of his door creaking open. his mom peeked into the room, patches sat at her ankles. "im going to be out for a few hours, are you okay to watch over your sister till i get back?" she whispered.

dream turned to the head of hair that peeked out from below his blankets, unruly blonde scrawled all over his pillow. "more like, she'll be watching over me." it's not like he had plans to go anywhere anyway.

his mom smiled, stepping away from the door, patches didn't follow, instead she stuck around to swat at the door frame. he retrieved his phone from his pocket, and his eyes took him to a message he hadn't opened in a while.

he debated with himself as his fingers traced the keyboard, contemplating what would be the best way to start a conversation after his sudden disappearance. he figured he'd have to explain himself before anything else, so therefore he typed in a simple "hey."

it was a start, and that was good enough for him.

he clicked off his phone, knowing it was too early to get a response just yet. his eyes returned to the cat who now sat patiently at his door, her head tilted slightly to the side as she stared back at him. he let out a breath, turning off his desk lamp before standing from the chair with the intent to leave behind the room and his sleeping sister.

patches weaved in between his legs, rubbing her face on his shins as they advanced down the stairs. she was always very passionate in the morning. the blonde avoided stepping on her, using more brain power than normal to avoid falling down the stairs. "patches please"

together they adventured into the kitchen, the blonde sat on the counter beside where his mom unloaded the dishwasher.

"coffee?" she asked, motioning to his mug which had gone unused for too long.

"sure." he passed her the mug as she hid away glass cups in a cupboard that everyone could access.

he stood from the counter, heading to the fridge to scan for something to make for breakfast.

"have anything planned for today?"

he sighed, handing her the carton of milk before taking a seat at the island. "nope."

he watched her stir sugar into the mug. "well try to get something done today, thats always better than just sitting around doing nothing." she sat opposite from him, patches jumping onto the counter to include herself in the conversation.

"yeah, ill probably call sapnap and see how he's doing." his eyes lingered on the lip of his mug, "haven't talked to him in a while."

"i think that's a great idea." she glanced at the watch on her wrist, "i should get going now, ill be back for lunch and then we can watch a movie or something." she stood from her seat, pressing a kiss to dream's temple before she started out the kitchen.

"bye, mom."

when he heard the front door close he laid his cheek on the cold laminate of the countertop. patches towering above his eyesight as she swatted at her tail. he figured he should start making breakfast now, knowing his sister would be a handful and a half if she woke up hungry.

he pulled a bunch of things out of the fridge, stopping himself when he heard his phone ring. he didn't rush for it, slowly stepping around the counter to see who it had been. a sigh of relief left his lips when he came to recognize the contact name.

—

i'm going to learn how to type with my toes so when i go back to school i can pretend i used my time for something good. i started writing this chapter two days ago with a lot of energy and i've been exhausted since i opened the document