Dreaming of Demons (Dream x oc)

[21] Hugs and Healing

After I told him that I believed him, Dream took a shuddering breath. "You do?" He asked.

The questioning note in his voice told me he had expected me to say otherwise. But I really did believe him. I did because I had visited him so much that I realized something wasn't right. And though I was disappointed to see his friends hadn't noticed anything either, I could still see why they thought of him as a villain. Whether or not Dream actually did all those horrible things himself, the people he had hurt were in pain as well, and that pain clouded their judgement. They couldn't see that he was suffering just as much.

I nodded, letting a small, reassuring smile on my face. "I do. I know what's going on."

He muttered something under his breath, and his hand suddenly squeezed mine with surprising strength. "You need to go—You need to leave, Taryn." A frantic tone had reached his words.

I gave him a dubious look, but I didn't budge. "Leave? Dream, you need these healing potions."

"No—no no no." He started moving, pushing himself up and trying to stand, using one hand on the wall and putting the other to his head. His breaths were heavy and pained just from the movement

"Dream!" I scrambled to my feet, quickly capping the vial of the healing potion and taking a hold of his arm to steady him. How was he standing with all the injuries he had? Moving around was only going to make things worse and he had yet to use the healing potions.

He moaned and then staggered forward, collapsing right into me. I sank to my knees, trying to support him at the same time as we ended up in a sort of hug on the floor.

He started to push off of me, but I tightened my arms around him.

"Dream, stop." I said firmly, but my words quickly softened. "You're just hurting yourself more."

He finally stilled, his mask pressed into my shoulder, his back rising and falling with each strained breath. I closed my eyes in relief.

And then we just breathed.

I propped my chin on his shoulder and softly rubbed my hands up and down his back, careful to avoid any injuries. The tense muscles in his back and shoulders began to relax and he was silent as his breathing slowly calmed down. His shaking arms wrapped around me with the little energy he had. But he still hung on as if I was the only thing keeping him grounded. And maybe I was.

We stayed like that for a while, and I got the sense that he hadn't hugged someone in a long time. I didn't want it to be his last, though. One way or another, he was going to hug his friends again. He deserved that at least.

Dream suddenly moved, lifting his head from my shoulder and carefully moving a hand. I couldn't see what he was doing but something slipped near my face and a second later an object clattered to the ground. He exhaled steadily.

"It's gone." He murmured.

I stared over his shoulder at the orange light wavering on the wall. My brows ticked in. "It's gone?" I repeated. "What do you mean?"

He blew out a breath, sounding skeptical when he answered. "It was taking control, but...now it's gone."

I pulled back to look at him and froze when I saw his maskless face. I glanced at the ground, piecing together the fact that the mask was the object that had been tossed earlier. The white surface gleamed brightly from the lava and the smiley face continued to grin, even though it no longer took the place of someone else's expression.

When I looked back at Dream again, I felt like I was seeing an entirely different person. But his facial features weren't the only new thing that could be seen. His mask didn't seem to protect his face from the damage Quackity had done, and trails of blood had dried down the side of his face. Blood had also dried on the top of his lip from one side of his strong-lined nose and scars crossed over his face. His straight eyebrows were pushed together in contemplation, one of them dashed with the purple bruise I had seen earlier. With all the scars and blood littering his face, he looked worse for wear and it took me a moment to realize his grey eyes were actually green. They must have dulled during his time spent in the prison—and the dark circles under his eyes didn't help.