How to Establish Your Gang and Take Care of the Children in It (On Hiatus)

Rule 21: Seriously, Your Brother Has a Personality Too. Jackass.

Nightmare was napping when Dream came back. The lavender skeleton had a book in his lap- of course- and his breathing was deep and even. Knowing his brother, it was easy to guess he wasn't going to wake up for a while. It took a lot for Nightmare to actually go to sleep, but once he was out of it there was no getting him up again.

But that was good. Mare really hadn't been sleeping well lately, even worse than normal, not since-

Nope. No, no, no. Not thinking about that. If he thought about it, he would get angry and end up breaking his promise.

Anyway, Dream thought as he sat down next to his brother, It's good he can sleep for a while, at least. Maybe for once we can both just rela-

Shit.

Dream jumped to his feet with a growl, his hands clenching into fists. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Hey, I don't want a fight." The villager held up his hands, and Dream relaxed somewhat. It was Isaac, one of the more reasonable of the idiotic kids in the village. He had been one of the only people to give Mare the benefit of the doubt, back when Malcolm had died. He was still a prejudiced asshole, but definitely less so than everyone else.

"Then what do you want?" Dream snapped. In a small part of his mind, he realized that this hostility was somewhat unwarranted, seeing that Isaac hadn't actually done anything wrong and was actually one of the only tolerable people in the village.

But damn it, he couldn't take out his anger on the ones who actually deserved it because of his brother's sappy "nuu don't start fights with them you'll get in trouble!" shit and he didn't want to have to deal with Mare's sad and droopy disappointment attitude yet. So yelling at someone who didn't actually deserve it was the next best thing.

Even though the villagers had committed an act of FUCKING WAR and he was going to MURDER EVERYONE THEN REVIVE THEM TO MURDER THEM EVEN MORE.

Instead of getting angry and snapping back, Isaac simply held up a familiar golden circlet. "I was asked to give this back for the trial. It's tomorrow, by the way," He added mildly. "In case you forgot."

"FORGOT?! Forgot that your stupid ass council is putting my brother on trail for an event he was the VICTIM of?!" Dream shouted, patience wearing down to the point of snapping. "How the hell would I FORGET that?!"

"There was no evidence of Nightmare being attacked," Isaac said with a small, carless shrug. "There was, however, plenty of it suggesting he attacked Noah and his friends."

Dream clenched his fists tighter to stop himself from lunging at Isaac. Attacking him now would do nothing but lower their chances of success at the trial.

The ridiculous, biased, unwinnable trial, whispered his mind. You've tried doing things your brother's way. You've been trying for years. Nothing is going to change if you keep playing nice. It's just going to get worse and worse, and he'll keep getting hurt. So change it. Switch it up, Dream.

"Give me the damn crown and get the fuck out of here," Dream growled. No longer was he guilty about yelling at Isaac. He deserved it. All of them deserved every bad thing that came their way.

Isaac shrugged again- how could he not care how dare he be so casual- then lightly tossed the crown. It landed at Dream's feet, and the villager turned and walked away.

Dream picked up the crown and sat down, tracing a thumb over the engraved crescent moon as Mare stirred next to him, leaning his head on his shoulder tiredly. Dream noticed his brother was cradling his right arm, holding it close to his chest, and the golden skeleton's anger rebounded tenfold as he growled softly to himself. Nightmare would never hurt anyone else, but oh he would he would kill all of them for what they did they would all regret what they'd done they would-