Oleander

awkward meetings

Dream was amazed by how much paint ended up staining the carpet. He obviously had noticed it before, but it's so much worse when he was looking for it. He had been trying to cover or clean it.

Ink had helped him quite a bit. Particularly with turning on music to keep his mind from wandering. As well as cleaning a lot of the stains up. He was helping at least until an au was being destroyed or something of the sort, because he left in a panic.

Leaving Dream to finish cleaning the house alone. He really didn't mind for it was his idea to clean the house up in the first place. It wasn't really dirty, just dirty enough for the prince to be bothered. If Ink wanted a helper then Dream wanted a good first impression.

Ink seemed to take his sweet time before coming back to the house. The prince nearly having finished cleaning everything that need to be done.

"Hello Ink."

"You sound annoyed." Dream quirked his eyebrow at his friend. He wasn't annoyed. Ink was just reading into things to much.

"I'm not, just confused about where you were." That seemed to click with the artist more then just talking about emotions. Dream always had to explain what caused them. Which could be frustrating at times.

"I went to see Blue," Ink grabbed a scrub pad from the bucket next to the prince, helping him scrub the stains up, "he wants to come over as soon as possible."

"If you help me I'll be done faster." Dream said in a teasing, sing song tone. Making his friend half heartedly roll his eyes and the prince snicker.

"I get it, i get it. I'll help clean." Ink hated cleaning with a spite that would allow him to fight gods. He didn't want Dream to feel underappreciated.

So he put up with the horrible smell of cleaning products and the boring, repetitive task. It felt like forever but he ended up completing the cleaning.

Getting to leave the house to get Blue was great. Ink tracked him down quickly. He was just in his living room, he seemed happy to see the artist. Ink took Blue to his home. Meeting Dream at the door.

"You must be Blue, I'm Dream." He held his hand out to shake Blues, which the wannabe guard took.

"That's me!" Blue grinned at the new person ahead of him, "I like your... Crown?"

Dream reached up to touch his circlet to check if it was actually there. It was unsurprisingly, so he took the complement. Smiling in a way he hoped was graceful.

"Thank you! And your right it's a crown."

"Are you royalty then?" Dream chuckled awkwardly. He was really unsure of the fact himself. He was called a prince but he never did any ruling. The priests of the village and elders did that.

"In name only." The 'prince' sat down on the couch with Blue and Ink following his lead, like he was old story teller or something, "I was but I never ruled so I'd hardly count it."

Blue rested his head on his hands and leaned on his arms in interest, "were you in line for the throne then?"

"No not at at all. I was closer to being a healer in a way." If Dream had known what a therapist was he would have used that word, but he had been only out of stone for a year. His au took place during older times, before therapists. So he didn't understand a lot about newer things.

"So was someone else in line for the throne?!" Berry was really keen on the royalty thing.

"My family didn't hold any power really. As I said, elders were the people in charge."

"Oh. Okay!" Dream couldn't imagine being in charge of the village. Even when the people were alive it would have stressed him out to much.

Night maybe would have been good at it from what he's heard. He has a whole group of people he's in charge of. A whole big family of his own.

"So..." The prince began awkwardly. "You uh- Are from.... Underswap?"

"Yep! It's a pretty basic au in comparison to most! But it's quite cozy!" Blue was happy to talk about his home. He loved it there, "I live in a house in Snowden with my younger brother there."

Dream grasped at something to say, looking at Ink for help. Only to find him snoozing away on the couch. Blue looked to see what the prince was staring at.

"Oh-" the wannabe guard started whispering, "should we move him or something?"

"You don't need to whisper. He's gonna sleep through anything we say. He probably overworked himself again." Dream picked Ink up, careful not to jostle his friend, "stay here. I'm just bringing him up to his room."

The prince disappeared upstairs, carrying Ink with him. He walked really quietly for someone carrying something heavy upstairs. Dream came downstairs alone after a tiny bit.

"He just passes out sometimes. He doesn't know when to stop sometimes." Dream smiled lightheartedly, he was used to Ink over working himself, "Would you like to help me make some food and tea for Ink?"

"Of course! Our friend needs our help." Blue hopped up from his spot and headed towards Dream, "What can I do to help you?"

"We should probably make him breakfast food. I didn't see him eat this morning." That was definitely the reason. Dream totally didn't only know how to make eggs and only eggs. That would be ridiculous.

"That sounds good to me!" The wannabe guard skipped over to the kitchen and to the stove, Dream following close by.

"Would you like to do the eggs or tea?" The prince grabbed the eggs and milk out of the fridge. Setting them out of the way on the counter.

"I don't know how to make eggs so I can do the tea!" Blue looked in a random drawer for the tea. Dream grabbing it off the counter for the wannabe guard.

Blue went and grabbed a kettle from a shelf where pans and other things of the sort was kept. It was very well organized in comparison to Blues own kitchen.

Dream filled up the kettle for Inks friend. Leaving him to put it on the stove. Making Ink food really wasn't a two person job, but being kind and all of the sort.

"So what is Underswap like?" Dream stirred the eggs in circles quickly. Trying to keep the heat even. He made fun of Ink for burning food a lot but he was barely much better.

"It's a normal au, but from what Ink has told me it's a switch of personalities from certain people!" Blue hopped up on the counter, there wasn't much work in making tea.

"That sounds like a cool place to live in." There was silence with the only exception being the sound of cooking for a extended period of time, "The eggs are done. Let's bring them up to Ink."

They had fancy food holders and s thermostat for the tea, that Dream stored the food in. They hopefully would keep the food warm enough.

The rest of the visit was really hot and cold. At points of the night they couldn't shut up. Most of the night was spent in silence.

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Gods you can tell I didn't know how to pace this and that I wrote this at different points in the day.