Awesamdream - His Beloved Warden [Fic 1]

1. Too Far

It was hard to keep track of the passage of time. Quackity's visits were supposedly daily, but then, how could Dream know for sure really? Maybe he was coming by weekly. Maybe it was every few hours. Everything just seemed to blur together as he sat there alone in the sweltering hot cell, sometimes pacing or writing, but usually just sitting in the corner against the chest, arms wrapped around his knees, staring into nothing. Sometimes he thought about all the events that led him here. He thought about what he could have done differently. He fantasized about ways he could possibly escape. And sometimes he just didn't think about anything, gazing toward the lava that covered the only exit from the cell, wondering how fast his death would be if he simply shed all his clothes and just jumped in. It would hurt, but then everything would end.

He didn't have any lives left to be able to respawn. He would be gone.

But despite how much he wanted to take that plunge, something kept him from doing it. Some hope that he would be freed, that he would be able to walk outside and see sunlight again. Feel a pleasant breeze and maybe just lay down in an actual bed, rather than sleeping on a hard obsidian floor.

He had to make it through this. Surely they would let him out one day. Until then, he just had to wait. He sat there, the loneliness eating at him, body itching to be able to do something, to spar with someone or build, to go mining, and he could do none of it. He could only dwell in the monotony, which was only broken by him going to eat whenever a meal arrived, or use the toilet, or just finally stretch out on the floor to sleep for a few hours on the thin little blanket he was given, before doing it all over again.

There had been a day when Tommy showed up, accompanied by Ghostbur, threatening to kill him. It had been a tense visit, Sam berating Tommy when he realized he was there, Tommy screaming back at him, all while Ghostbur paced nervously and Dream watched him, realizing he could use this. He hadn't really wanted to, but knowing he could use it as leverage, he had decided to revive Wilbur. All Tommy and Sam saw was him seemingly slaying the ghost, before lava had crashed down between the cell and the control chamber, and Sam had taken a protesting Tommy away.

They would find out later that Wilbur was back, and after that, Tommy never returned, and Sam seemed to regard Dream with an extra level of wariness, yet also curiosity. And the days would drag by, as boring as they had been before Tommy's visit.

Really, there was only one thing that he was able to look forward to, though he dreaded those moments as well. When Quackity came by for his visits, and Sam would be there to escort him, watching Dream from afar. His gaze impassive, and he wouldn't move a muscle to stop Quackity's interrogation. Didn't seem to care when Quackity hurt Dream, beating him or slicing his skin open. Dream would withstand it all, refusing to give Quackity what he wanted, and eventually, he would give up and leave. And Sam would escort him out, before returning.

And he would cross over to the cell by himself, and look Dream over with softer eyes, checking each of his injuries and then tending to them. He cleaned the blood away. He applied potions directly to his skin to close up the wounds and wrapped bandages around spots that needed more time to heal. And he would hold bruised limbs so, so gently in those large hands that Dream knew could also easily take someone's life, if Sam willed it. But he only showed Dream tenderness during those moments.

Dream hadn't liked the other touching him at first, but slowly, he had grown to crave Sam's care, and it was his longing to be touched that helped him bear whatever new tortures Quackity thought up for him. He didn't even care if it was the isolation driving him to want Sam's company so badly. He just wanted to have the other near, looking at him and speaking to him with that gentle voice. Those brief minutes of comfort were the only time he could really say he felt good these days.