Misery Loves Company

Preening And Clear Advice

It’s been almost three months since Dream was freed from his stone prison and started living within the castle, and it has been quite eventful; Dream and the captured Sans became close friends, though you’re still wary around him, Dream got back up to the level he used to be before he was encased in stone, and you had started a small garden with a variety of different flora.

It’s safe to say that you found yourself in a state very similar to happiness, though you could never truly be there. Dream was still persistent on his questions, even more so if you refused to answer them, you kind of wish he was like this before the incident as well.

But at the present time, it was a normal day, mostly. Today was what you deemed, ‘Preening day’; a day where you take particular care of your corruption, as small things always got stuck inside the sludge and sometimes even hurt, so you made this day to just take a break and clean the long appendages that had a mind of their own half the time.

At the moment, you were in your bathroom, filling the tub with warm water. It was the best when it came to preening. However, this time there was a difference, Dream had offered to help and under intense pleading, you gave in. You were weak against the pleas of your younger brother.

“brother, i’m here~!” Dream’s song-like voice rang out from your room, “in here, dream!” you call back. You don’t turn back as the door creaks open, only testing the water with care, you turn off the faucet when it’s at a hot enough temperature. Finally, you turn, facing Dream, who is bouncing in place.

You chuckle and Dream smiles, “just tell me what i have to do, brother!!” he exclaims excitedly, you merely nod, trying to muffle your ongoing laughter. You lay your tendrils in the water, “first, they must soak, to get all the blood, mud, and extra small things off” you say, Dream nodding as he follows along.

“so, how is your relationship with killer?” you ask, wanting to know if your brother returned the feelings that Killer so desperatly showed, “he’s nice, really sweet. and he does this little thing with his knife that makes him seem like such a show off, it’s the cutest thing!!” he starts, and already you know that he’s head over heels for him, you feel a bit bad for Killer, as Dream has never had a romantic relationship nor does he know what he’s feeling.

“dream” you start seriously, cutting off Dream’s rambling about Killer, “you like killer, romantically” you deadpan. Dream pauses, then gives a faint, distracted, “oh”, it was pure realization, and you full out laugh. You can’t help yourself over how hilarious this is, Dream is bright gold and sputtering out something, ‘stop’, you think, but you’re laughing too hard.

When you finally manage to stop, Dream is glaring at you, though his face is still bright gold. “sorry” you say, not really meaning it, Dream just huffs and turns away from you.

He only turns back to you when you lift a tendril from the dark, murky, red and brown water; the tendirl almost seems blacker, with more shining cyan than the usual dull black everyone saw. Dream seemed almost in awe until he saw the rocks, sticks, glass, and other objects that were painfully sticking out of the tendril.

You hand it to Dream and he holds it like it’d break with a singular rough touch, you feel warmed and grab one as well. “watch how i do it, alright?” you say, pulling out one of the deeper ones first, fast and hard as that was the only way to get it out with little pain. “be fast and hard with the deeper ones, going slow just hurts more” you say, gently massaging the area around the fresh wound that was spilling cyan and purple liquid.

Dream turns to the limp tendril in his hands and racks his eyelights across it, seemingly searching for the deeper objects. He finds a large shard of glass that sticks out like a sore thumb, “where did all the glass come from?” he asks, furrowing his browbones, you shrug, “i don’t actually know” you respond, wincing as he tugs on the shard.

Though you should have expected it, you’re caught off guard when he rips it out, making a rather sloppy and jagged cut, and you hiss. Dream pauses, placing the shard of glass in the bucket between you both before gently massaging the irritated area. “would’ve appreciated a warning” you growl, Dream chuckling softly, “sorry, brother”, you know he doesn’t mean it.

You sigh and return to plucking out the objects that stuck to your corruption. You feel Dream start pulling the pieces out too, not long after. You feel content to just sit in silence with your brother as you preen but unfortunately as you had said before, Dream is a social butterfly and could not stand silence for the life of him. “so, brother, how do you think i should go about this?”, you hum, “whatever do you mean?” you ask.

“killer and i, what should i do?” he repeats, and you hum thoughtfully. “tell him, no use in dragging it out, it’ll just torture you both” you say, picking at the end of your tendril before switching.

“b-but, what if he feels different?”, you deadpan, placing the tendril onto your lap, you turn to Dream, “you’re the guardian of positivity and keeper of dreams, i doubt that you haven’t sensed the way his hope rises around you, i also fail to believe that you haven’t gone through my members’ dreams, and knowing killer as personally as i do, i doubt that he hasn’t had at least one wet dream of you” you state, rolling your eyelight at the last bit as you return to your third tendril.

“h-he hasn’t” he reveals and you pause, turning to face him again, this time with a look of disbelief, “really?!” you inquire getting a solid nod in return. You smile a bit, “he must really fancy you then” you hum, more to yourself than to Dream but he seems to catch it anyway. “well, it’s certainly not just attraction, or your findings would differ”, your respect for Killer rises ever so slightly.

You chuckle at Dream’s bright gold cheeks before turning back to the tendril in your lap, “don’t worry, i won’t hurt him, unless he hurts you of course, but this relationship is yours to figure out” you say absently as you pick and preen, “though, i would recommend taking it slow, relationships are delicate” you advise. “thank you, brother!!” he exclaims, you can hear the smile in his voice.

Though some threats would be in order...