Star-Filled Eyes | A DSMP Fanfiction

Mask

"Fundy?" 

Dream looked around, but Fundy was nowhere to be found. 

The sky was a peaceful shade of dark blue, the sun spilling out over the horizon. The stars still shone brilliantly in the sky, as they did all day in Opale, lighting up the soft, early-morning mist. The market was already bustling for such an early time in the day, a crush of people enfolding Dream in a claustrophobic way. 

He was not having a good time. 

A dozen minutes in, and he had already been spat at twice, refused service from a rude shopkeeper who sold armour, and now he had lost Fundy to top it all off. The fox had spotted something, somewhere, apparently, and now he had run off to go and grab it. 

Dream sighed, rubbing at one of his eyes. Fundy really needed to be more careful. There was absolutely no telling what could happen in marketplaces, and even though Fundy was covering up his ears and tail with one of Dream's spare cloaks, there was still a fair chance that someone could accidentally knock the cloak off. Or spot Fundy's fangs. Or notice the slight glow to his amber irises. 

So basically, anything could happen. 

Falling onto a nearby bench, Dream gazed up at the sky, trying to figure out a course of action to take. The stars twinkled mysteriously as if they were smirking at him, and Dream suddenly had the strong urge to lean over the side of the bench and puke. 

Unlike most people in the Opale kingdom, Dream hated the stars. He hated the constellations. It went deeper than disappointment at not having any magic-- he had developed the hatred early on, back when he was just a child. He had run home to his mom after his teacher had tried to teach the class the twelve major constellations, sobbing, and confessed that he despised the stars. At that time, he hadn't even known that anyone had magic, let alone that he was missing out.

Dream tore his gaze away from the sky and looked down at his hands, embedded with their own constellations of freckles. What if Fundy decided he would just run all the way back to Topsaz? He wouldn't blame Fundy, honestly; that's what Dream would have done if he had been trapped in enemy territory with no end in sight. 

In fact, Fundy probably saw Dream as some sort of idiot or a danger, taking advantage of Fundy for his own, personal reasons. Dream crumpled a little bit inside, knowing guiltily that he couldn't very well deny the claim. Years, a few weeks ago he had been sitting on his bed, planning no end of ways to grab hold of the Games. 

It didn't seem so fun now. 

Biting the inside of his lip, Dream sat back up, stretching slightly. Someone nearby almost tripped over his legs, and they threw a curse at Dream. It was one that he had heard many times, so he just waved his hand lazily in the hopes that they'd soon go away. 

"You-- you don't get to wave me off like that!" the woman sputtered, eyes blazing in astonishment and rage. Her eyes flicked to Dream's face, where the circular birthmark told of which zodiac sign the owner belonged to. 

Instead, she saw the simple black circle on Dream's upper cheek. There was no zodiac sign on his face. The Sidus had chosen to grant him with a curse instead, and he was powerless to change it. The black circle on his face told everyone, whether he liked it or not, that he was different from them. 

Dream wondered if she saw the red marks over the birthmark, telling of every time he had tried to claw it off of his face. But her eyes snapped back up, her Pisces birthmark beginning to glow with anger, and Dream knew she didn't care. 

"You're not even qualified to serve me tea," she hissed. "Don't dismiss your elders like that, you cursed fuck." 

Dream just stared back at her, dead-eyed. "Sorry, miss, but your insults are twelve years too late. If you think this is the first time I've been called a slur, you're dreadfully wrong, and I feel like your mirror deserves that name more than I do." He didn't bother responding to her sputters after that, and stood heavily up, dusting off his legs, and left. 

He yawned widely, glancing around the market again just to check if Fundy was anywhere near him. Which he wasn't. 

"This is just great," he muttered. "Years, he's probably moons away by now." If I were him, I'd certainly be, his mind hummed. 

He scuffed the heel of his boot on the cobblestones, silently cursing himself out when a familiar voice called to him from a few paces away. Dream lifted his head, just in time for a pair of golden-tan arms to shove a bright green cloak in his face. 

Dream yelped, sputtering, and pulled the fabric off of his face to stare, confused and a bit annoyed, at Sapnap. When had he gotten here? "Um. Hello," Dream began, scowling. He glanced down at the cape. It was made of a soft, flowing fabric that sparkled in the early sunlight and felt like water. The hood draped a little over the face, and the edges were cut in a jagged fashion. 

Looking back up at Sapnap, Dream failed to gather any semblance of reasoning from his friend's smile. "Is there any particular reason you're--" Dream began, and then something clocked him in the back of the head. 

He hissed out a curse, whirling around with the cloak still gathered in his arms. 

Fundy was standing behind him, wearing a bright, teensy bit guilty expression. His eyes were sparkling. Dream glanced around, stunned, then bent down to pick up whatever Fundy had thrown at him. "Is anything else going to be tossed at me?" Dream asked. 

"Sorry," Fundy laughed in heavily accented Opalite (they had agreed it was better to not use Topsian or Garnian, in case that arose suspicion). 

"Sorry not sorry," Sapnap added in a dramatic whisper. 

Dream shot him a glare and he shut up. Glancing down at the bundle in his arms, Dream lifted the cloak up to see whatever had hit him in the head. 

To his surprise, it was a mask. The mask was made out of a cool, milk-white stone, and was somehow simultaneously light and hefty at the same time. It was round, and two dots had been drawn onto it with kohl paint to imitate eyes. A sloppy smile was painted underneath the eyes, and some of the paint had dripped down so there looked something like a fang under the thin smile. 

Dream turned it over and over in his hands. "What...?" he murmured to himself. He ran his fingers over the smooth stone, tracing the smile under his hands. 

Fundy looked down at the ground, embarrassed. "I saw it in the market and I just thought you'd like it. But, um, no money." He spread his hands to indicate that they were empty, and under the cloak, his ears visibly twitched. Dream cringed at how careless the fox was being, and he stepped forward to rearrange the cloak and cover Fundy's ears more. 

"Lucky for us," Sapnap grinned, "I had a little bit of money. I was out here for some pears 'cause Karl wanted a pie or something, and I saw Fundy and thought, hey, why not say hello? Well, I had enough money, anyway, and yeah, I thought you'd like it too." 

Sapnap's eyes glanced towards Dream's circle birthmark, and Dream's cheeks burned with embarrassment. He turned away, scowling. Was that all this was? An attempt to cheer him up and hide his curse from the rest of the world. 

But then he looked at Fundy, and the expectant smile on the Topsian's face, and he knew that wasn't all the mask was. Fundy didn't care about things like that, even if Sapnap did. 

Dream looked down at the mask and cloak. He did like it. More than he'd care to admit, really. 

His mind was still reeling slightly from being hit with a stone mask, and from the realization that Fundy hadn't run off, and he probably wouldn't, too, and Dream really had been overthinking everything way too much. He found himself smiling, first down at the mask, and then at himself, and then he was laughing, a sound that he usually hated but that he was-- for some reason-- finding himself happy to hear. 

Fundy grinned up at Dream, eyes bright, and clapped his hands together. "That means you like it, right, Dream?" 

Looking back at Fundy, Dream smiled, playfully fitting the mask over his face. To his surprise, he could actually see fairly well in it. "Yes, Fundy, that means that I like it." 

Dream looked over at Sapnap, who had been suspiciously quiet for the past few minutes. 

And his blood turned cold. 

Sapnap was looking at Dream, his eyes full of sudden, cold understanding, and clutched in his hand was the admission slip to the Games. 

"Dream." Sapnap's voice was a scythe, cutting through the warm laughter and turning it into frost. "I think that we need to talk."