Abominations for Solutions

Bubbles

--4 Years Earlier--

For some reason, Dream felt the impulse to run a bubble bath. He sat upright in his bed, knees pulled up to his chest, fantasizing about the mere loveliness of scalding hot water seeping into his bones, the luscious realm of bubbles piling up past his face, the scent of sudsy soap. The silence, the darkness, the numbness...Something told him he needed that that particular night. It was like some sort of energy, an instinct that he must fulfill.

Dream peered over at the little clock that stood on his dresser, right next to the two frames holding recent photos of Lux and Starcross. Beside that stood a picture of Cross devouring a box of truffles.

Dream's eyes reflexively averted away from the bottom drawer of his dresser, refusing to think about the things that were inside of there. It was safe... it was safe; he'd placed an energy field around the drawer, so that only he could access it. He sat straight up, his body rigid against the headboard, his eyes wide open against the soft darkness of he and Cross's bedroom.

Oh, wait, what was the time?

~3:27 am.~

But sleep was unreachable.

Dream sighed and slowly shifted so that he was at the ledge of the bed, trying to reduce the crinkling from his legs sliding across the sheets. He shuffled around the floor for a bit with his feet, eventually locating the fluffy blue and yellow slippers that he forced Cross to buy him last Gyftmas.

Now that he was standing, Dream could almost touch the invading negative energy that had been drifting about the house recently. He knew it must have been a side effect of the recent explosion in negative energy throughout the multiverse. The guardian didn't know where it was all coming from. It wasn't like he had any help to determine the source; the Star Sanses had split up years ago. Quite subtly, consisting of an estrangement between Ink and Dream, and unexplainable spikes in Blue's new busy schedule, which he didn't elaborate much on. And one day they just stopped seeing each other and went their separate ways. Of course, Dream didn't want to think much about Ink, or the thing that happened between them so many years ago. As for Blue, Dream can't even remember the last time he'd seen him.

Besides, Dream was busy with his own job and homelife nowadays, especially with fretting about Lux's new behavior. Lux, who, against Dream's constant prodding and acts of comfort, now pushes him away and spends most of her time alone in her room. She didn't even talk to him, or anyone in the house, much anymore. So Dream had no way of helping her.

Lux's unkempt hair and lack of hygiene and almost unreactive behavior signaled that something was completely off. Cross said it was just her being a teenager, but Dream knew deep down that something else was going on, something that couldn't be written off as mere teenage hormones. Dream just deep down hoped that it wasn't because of what was inside his drawer. Sometimes he didn't even want to confront his own daughter for fear of himself being confronted at the same time. Dream selfishly hoped Lux's moodiness was a side effect of the negativity fumes drifting about the house, rather than something he did to possibly ruin her life in any way. Or maybe it was something as simple as teenage angst after all.

Like the smell of food wafting about, the negativity lightly yet noticeably strung itself around the home. Dream could sense it... and Starcross too, which left the guardian on extra high alert since he knew irritants like this triggered his son's rib disorder. Star would often complain of an aching in his chest, requiring Dream's aura to counteract the effects. Dream would have to drop everything, rushing to his son curled up onto a ball, fearing death. With these instances happening multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day, Dream was exhausted. And terrified. And he hated himself. For many many reasons.