royal amnesia | dreamnotfound

9- picnic date

"tell me."

dream's lips part wordlessly. "we used to come here a lot, before we had to be responsible." dream pulls a grape to his mouth. "we would run away from our princely duties. and even after we were in charge we would come here just to have a little peace and quiet. a safe space, if you will."

i look down at the blanket full of food. dream leans back on his hands and crosses his ankles, staring off into the distance.

"that sounds really lovely," i say.

he scoffs gently. "it was."

i grab a handful of strawberries and start pulling the green off of them. "did we always picnic?"

dream looks over at me with a smile. "sometimes, if we had time to get the stuff for a picnic. other times it felt like we were literally running away."

i start making a small pile of strawberry greens on my shoe. dream chuckles and i glance at him. he's watching me.

"what?" i ask, embarrassed.

dreams eyes move from my shoes to my face. he looks happy. "you... used to do that before..."

my jaw loosens. "oh. why?"

dream shrugs, a smirk lingering on his lips. "you called them strawberry hats."

i look out at the sinking sun. a sense of nostalgia envelopes my brain and a quick image of a laughing dream and feeding clementine 'strawberry hats' floods my mind briefly. i gasp.

dream doesn't seem to notice as he asks, "do you want to feed them to clementine?"

i jerk my head to look at him shocked. he seems taken aback.

"what?"

i question, "what did you just say?"

he looks concerned. "it's just... i asked if you wanted to feed them to clementine. we used-"

"i know," i interrupt.

dream's eyebrows furrow. "you know?"

i smile, nodding.

"you remember?"

"yes!"

he jumps to his feet, smiling brightly. i stand up, matching his energy. "i remembered something."

he scoops me into his arms before i can react and spins me in a circle, my feet leaving the ground. i scream, "dream!"

he is laughing wildly and then he stumbles and we collapse on the hillside, tumbling into each other down the slanted grassy hill. when we finally stop, we just laugh.

it feels good to laugh.

dream lays next to me in the sun warmed grass, our limbs tangled together after our tumble down the green. he stares at me with a soft smile. i stare back as my laugh-smile slowly softens as well.

dreams eyes flick across my face. "i... really want to kiss you." he says it so soft i feel like i've almost imagined it.

my cheeks feel hot. i swallow thickly and watch dream subtly move towards me, eyes sliding shut. my heart leaps in my chest, urging me to lean in, just kiss him, but i stop him inches from my face with a quick hand.

his eyes open, eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"i'm not..." i mutter breathlessly, heart still pounding. "i can't-"

just kiss him.

i shake my head, unable to form words.

dream seems to understand, despite his look of disappointment.