Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Philza pounded on the door with a closed fist. He didn’t care how aggressive it sounded, he needed to speak with BadBoyHalo. Urgently. He was on a very tight schedule and didn’t have time for–

He was shocked out of his thoughts when the door swung open. Phil opened his mouth to greet Bad, but found empty space instead. Puzzled, he looked down and saw who it was that had opened the door. The little boy who stood at around the same height as the doorknob stared up at him in wonder. His silky black hair was tied away from his face with a white bandana and his stormy gray eyes were wide with excitement. “Philza?”

“Hello, Sapnap,” Phil greeted warmly with a smile. “Is your dad home? I need to speak with him. The seven-year-old nodded frantically, turning from the entryway and sprinting back into the house, screaming all the way.

“Bad! Bad, Philza Minecraft is here! Bad! He’s fucking awesome!”

“Language!” Came the answering shout as BadBoyHalo came into view, rushing to the door that his adopted son had left wide open in his excitement. Phil chuckled in amusement as Sapnap came tearing into view once more, nearly tripping the tall demon as he ran straight through his legs.

Bad had a fond smile on his face as he went to greet Phil at the door, but it soon faded into a look of concern upon seeing the now serious look on Philza’s face. “We need to talk,” Phil said, shaking out his wings - “Coooool,” Sapnap whispered from behind Bad’s legs - “Right away.”

Bad bit his lip and nodded, glowing white eyes searching the avian’s face for any clues. “Hey, Sappy, why don’t you see what George is doing? I have to go talk with Phil in my office for a bit. Why don’t you two–”

“I am NOT playing with Snapmap!” came George's voice from somewhere else in the house. Bad only sighed and shooed Sapnap off regardless, where he ran shrieking to his older brother yelling, “Oh yes you are!”

As soon as Sapnap was gone from the room and shrieks and giggles could be heard from the living room, Bad’s expression sobered up. “My office is this way,” he said solemnly, leading Phil down the hall. Walking past the living room, Phil caught a glimpse of George wrestling with Sapnap, trying to pin him to the ground to grab his book that Sapnap had supposedly taken from the twelve-year-old. “Give it back!” He screamed while Sapnap giggled hysterically, squirming to get away from the hands that tickled him.

Once in the office, Bad closed the door behind them. A solemn air filled the room, heavy and thick on their tongues. Phil went to take a seat across from Bad, tucking his wings close to his body to avoid knocking the various knick knacks off the desk.

“Syndicate business?” Bad guessed in a whisper. Mouth set in a straight line, Phil nodded in answer. The Syndicate is an organization that Phil founded many years ago. Its purpose is to protect admins across all of the worlds and servers from hunters that may be out to harm them. They were a fairly small group, only a handful of friends (Phil himself being the only admin among them). They had discovered a compound on a private world several weeks ago that had admins in captivity. Phil and Sam were the primary investigators on that front and had been working to find more information on the admins that were being held as well as the hunters that kept them there. The two had been working long hours the past few days trying to track down the world, find a way to get into the world and then the compound, and the logistics required to break them out.

Bad knew of this mission and sat forward in his chair, eager to hear about any breakthroughs.

“Sam was finally able to hack into their database and access the admin files,” Phil said at last, trying to organize his thoughts. How could he say everything they had discovered? And more importantly, how on Earth was he going to ask something so huge of Bad?

“Really? What did he find? Do you know how many there are? Or how to break in?”

“There are seventeen admins at the compound,” Phil said in answer. “Sam and Puffy are working on tracking them back to their servers right now so they have a place to go once we break them out.”

Bad looked relieved at this news. “That’s good,” he said. “I hope you’re able to find everyone’s home. I’m sure their families really miss them. I can’t believe that people would do that kinda stuff to admins. It’s terrible,” Bad sounded awfully close to tears at the end and Phil felt terrible about what he had to say next.

“Bad… there’s something else.”

“Hm?” he said, looking up.

“All of the admins are adults, according to the files. Except one.”

Shock filled Bad’s face. He was right to assume that the imprisoned admins would be adults. Hunters were able to track admins by their auras, which they generally didn’t start to emit until puberty or adulthood as their powers emerged and strengthened. But, according to the files, they had gotten their hands on a child.

“He’s nine years old, Bad. He’s got nowhere to go. We tried to track him back to his home world, to his parents, but they were killed when he was taken. I wouldn’t ask this of you if I had any other options, but–”

“I’ll take him,” Bad interrupted.

“--I’ve already got four of my own, and I know you’ve got two kids already and you’re busy, but you’ve already been through adopting traumatized kids and helping them, and I just think you are the best option he’d have.”

BadBoyHalo’s face swam in shadows and it was impossible to pin down any distinct features, but somehow he still always managed to be so expressive. With steely determination and a dose of sorrow, he repeated himself. “I’ll take him in, Phil.”

“Are you sure?” Phil asked, to which Bad nodded firmly. “His file says that, uh, that he’s been in captivity for six years,” Phil whispered. He physically couldn’t bring himself to speak any louder when he said. “He’s been there since he was three years old, Bad. Are you positive you’re ready for that?”

Phil could see Bad’s heart break right in front of him. “Six years?” he whispered in a broken voice. Phil only nodded dejectedly. If anything, this only fueled BadBoyHalo’s determination. “When will he be here?”

“Tomorrow, if all goes well,” Phil said in answer, thanking the gods above for Bad’s kind heart. “I’ll be on the mission personally, but I can’t disclose the other members until the mission is concluded. I’ll bring him here as soon as everything is settled. Bad, I can’t thank you enough–”

“You don’t have to thank me, you muffin head,” Bad chuckled, a sad smile on his face. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Phil nodded in answer, going to stand.

“Wait!” Bad said quickly as a thought occurred to him. “What’s his name?” The question was spoken quietly, almost timid. Phil ruffled his feathers, watching as a single black crow feather fluttered to the ground.

“Dream.”

Chapter Text

The next morning, Phil was up and ready before the sun. He had a big day ahead of him, after all. Pacing around his bedroom, he double and triple checked that he had everything he needed. His netherite armor was on and ready, he had his netherite sword and axe in his inventory, along with plenty of food, potions, pearls, and anything else he might need on his mission. He pulled his cloak on around his wings and over his armor and nestled his green and white bucket hat over his blond hair. 

With a glance out the window to see the sun rising over the trees, he decided it was time to go. He stopped first in his son Wilbur’s room. Wil was curled on his side with a fist resting at his chin, fluffy brown hair covering his forehead. Phil leaned down and placed a kiss on his eldest son’s forehead. The freshly-turned teenager curled into himself further, sighing in his sleep.

Phil then crossed the hall to Technoblade’s room and sat by his bedside a moment longer. Techno was a heavy sleeper, so he wasn’t worried that he’d wake him as he brushed his long pink hair out of his face. Phil couldn’t quite grasp the fact that his son was the same age as the young, abused admin he was going to rescue today. Imagines of his own boys in danger tugged at his heart and he couldn’t imagine what he would do if any harm were to come to them. Parting from Techno with a kiss to the crown of his head, Phil made a final stop to his youngests’ room.

Tommy appeared to have gotten in a fight with his bedsheets. Half were on the floor and the other half was wrapped so tightly around his legs that if he rolled over one more time, he would’ve gone crashing to the floor in a tangled mess. Phil smiled fondly and fixed his blankets, shushing Tommy back to sleep as he whined at the disruption. Reaching down, Phil grabbed Tommy’s stuffed spider off the ground that had apparently lost the nightly war with Tommy’s tossing and turning. Tucking Shroud, a name Tommy insisted on, back under the four-year-old’s arm, he gave Tommy’s head a quick kiss and paced over to the other side of the room. There Tubbo slept, the newest addition to the family. Phil had only adopted him a few months ago, but he fit right in with his other boys. Tubbo got a forehead kiss as well, and then Phil left the room, pulling the door behind him but leaving it open a crack. 

Upon reaching the kitchen, Phil wrote a note explaining his whereabouts (in case the kids somehow forgot where he would be for the day), and left it on the fridge. Leaving the house and locking the door behind him, Phil took to the air and flew to the Syndicate’s meeting spot.

When he got there, Niki and Sam were waiting for him. Both were suited up and ready to go. If looks could kill, everyone in Niki’s path would keel over and die. She had her white-blonde hair pulled away from her face in two short braids, enchanted netherite armor on, weapons strapped to every available surface. Sam wore similar gear, his standard gas mask strapped to his face, redstone dust making his gloved hands glow red. “The other three should be here shortly,” Sam updated him with a nod of greeting.

“Present,” Captain Puffy spoke from behind him, her long, curly white hair pulled into a high ponytail, her hands wrapped and ready for a fight. “I just had to finish with the world tracking, so we should be good now. We’ve tracked all the admins to their servers but the kid. You figure that out, Phil?”

All three turned to face him, to which he nodded. “Bad’s going to take him.”

Puffy nodded in approval. Just then, Foolish and Ponk arrived fully geared and they began the debriefing. They went over all of the plans, making sure that everyone was aware of their missions and the inner workings of what they had to do in order to pull off the rescue.

Once the plans were settled, they all turned to Phil. He took a deep breath and then reached out into the world code, opening a server portal and entering the IP address of the server they needed (credit to Ponk for finding the IP after weeks of searching). The group of them went through the portal and emerged on the other side on a new server.

“Alright,” Sam mumbled, pulling his map out of his inventory. “The compound is a few miles North, let’s go.”

…

Getting into the compound was easier than Phil had anticipated. Then again, he never should have underestimated Sam’s redstone contraption. There weren’t many guards and those that stood in their way were quickly disposed of. The group quickly dispersed, going along their individually marked paths to find and rescue their assigned admins. 

Phil took off down a side hallway to find the room Dream was being held in. He only had one assigned admin as opposed to everyone else having two or three. Following his map closely, he found the door at last. He didn’t bother with a key and simply sliced through the lock with his Sharpness V sword. 

With one last breath to steady himself, he opened the door slowly. He didn’t want to frighten the child. Light spilled in through the open door, illuminating the small room that otherwise had no light. It took Phil a few seconds for his eyes to adjust and find the little boy curled up in a ball in the center of the room. The poor thing was shaking in his sleep, dressed in only a pair of shorts. There wasn’t a bed or even a blanket in the room and once Phil made that realization, goosebumps spread across his skin. No wonder the poor thing was shaking.

Phil knelt next to the kid to assess the damage. He rested his palm on his forehead, frowning at the temperature, taking in his flushed cheeks. Phil was quickly feeling overwhelmed at everything he was seeing. Dream was skin and bones, his pale skin covered in bruises and scars. His cheekbones were stark, dark eye bags under his eyes, and Phil could count each of his ribs. Phil went to rest his hand on his shoulder to shake him gently awake, but the rattling of chains caught his attention.

Apparently, they shocked Dream awake as well and the boy’s eyes shot open, wide and terrified. He whimpered and jumped back, scrambling as far from Phil as he could go. Unfortunately, the chains that cuffed his wrists didn’t have enough slack to get him to the wall. Phil’s heart broke clean in two. He raised his hands in surrender and spoke slowly and clearly to not spook Dream further.

“Hey, Dream. That’s your name, right? Dream?”

Dream was panting, eyes swimming with fever and fright. His whole body trembled, but he nodded in answer to the question. “Good job, Dream. My name is Phil. I’m an admin, just like you.” Dream didn’t offer any response, so Phil scooted just a bit closer on his knees. Dream flinched at the movement, but there was nowhere else for him to go so he focused back on Phil, watching him closely for any sudden movements. 

“I’m not going to hurt you, mate,” Phil said softly. “Can I take those cuffs off you?” Dream just stared back at him. Phil sighed. He could hear shouting in the halls and he knew they were running out of time. “Look, mate, I’m just going to cut the cuffs off your wrists and then we’re going to get out of here, alright? I’m going to bring you far away from here and to a nice place with nice people that aren’t going to hurt you. Does that sound good?”

Dream once again offered no answer, but he didn’t flinch as hard when Phil approached and took his shaking hands gently in his own. “I have a Fire Aspect knife that I’m going to use to cut through the cuffs, okay? It’ll be quick and I promise it won’t hurt,” Phil warned, narrating his actions in the hopes that it would help Dream’s panic. 

As Phil unsheathed the knife, Dream’s breathing audibly quickened, turning to panicked wheezes as he followed the knife’s path to his hands. He started thrashing to get away from Phil, anything to pull his hands away, but there was nowhere to go.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you, remember?” Dream wasn’t listening to him and big, fat tears began to slide down his face as he cried. Phil was quick to set the knife on the floor and gently tilt Dream’s face up to meet his eyes. His eyes were very green, Phil noticed for the first time. Their added vibrancy could only be a result of the fever and the tears. “Dream, can you look at me please? Just focus on my face. It’ll be over in a second, just keep your eyes up here, mate.”

Hiccuping on his tears, Dream did as he was told, sobbing as the searing sound of the knife melting through the metal of his cuffs filled the air. As soon as the cuffs were off, Phil sheathed the knife and pulled the small and trembling little boy into his arms, wrapping him in his arms tightly and shushing him soothingly. Dream clung to him instantly, wrapping his arms around Phil’s neck tightly. Phil spared as much time as he dared to try and calm Dream, but when Sam burst through the door with urgency in his tone to tell him they had to leave now, Phil had no other choice but to stand.

“Sam, help me with my cloak,” Phil barked and Sam rushed forward, tugging the cloak from his shoulders and a bit roughly from his wings, though Phil gritted his teeth and let it slide. “Here, Dream,” Phil whispered, taking the cloak from Sam and wrapping it around the sobbing boy. Sam’s gaze softened and gestured for Phil to exit the little room after him.

Wings bared like a shield around the young child in his arms and Sam ahead of him with his sword drawn, they made their way through the now empty halls of the compound to where the others were all waiting outside. There was no time to talk and they all started making their way back to the portal as fast as they could with the newly rescued admins. The journey back to the portal took much longer than it had earlier and as soon as they reached the portal, Phil made sure everyone went through first before following and closing it behind them.

They stood in silence for a few minutes back on their own server, breathing heavily and letting the admins collect themselves after such a taxing escape. At some point, Dream had passed out in Phil’s arms, limp but still trembling. His tears stained tracks on his flushed cheeks and Phil’s face twisted in sorrow as he adjusted his cloak around the boy’s shoulders and held him just a bit tighter.

Once everyone was ready, Phil began opening server portals for the Syndicate members to bring their assigned admins home. It took hours and was very exhausting work, but finally all that was left was Sam and an admin with fluffy brown hair and reindeer antlers. “Ready to go?” Sam asked the admin, who shook his head and held up a hand in a gesture to ‘wait.’

He walked over to Phil, who backed away protectively. The admin met his eyes and his gaze eased some of Phil’s guardedness and he allowed the man to rest a hand on Dream’s shoulder and gently shake him awake. Dream didn’t have the same reaction he had to Phil waking him earlier. Instead, he blinked awake blearily, reaching out a shaking hand to the admin with the antlers. The man smiled warmly, taking the boy’s hand and pressing a kiss to his knuckles. Dream smiled, the first genuine expression Phil had seen from him that wasn’t terror. Callahan placed Dream’s arm back around Phil’s neck and rested his forehead against Dream’s who had his head tucked under Phil’s chin. The man then pressed a soft kiss to the boy’s forehead, a fatherly action that reminded Phil quite suddenly of his kids back at home, and ran two fingers very lightly over Dream’s eyes. They stayed closed and Dream drifted back off to sleep.

Phil looked back into the eyes of the admin who seemed to care a lot for Dream to see that he had tears brimming in his eyes. Thank you , he signed. Take care of him for me. Phil didn’t know a lot of sign language, but he was able to follow along well enough. “Of course,” Phil answered with a firm nod, watching as the admin, now satisfied with Phil’s answer, turned to leave with Sam back to his home server.

Phil waited in the still night with a sleeping Dream as his only company, lost in his thoughts. Eventually, Sam entered back through the portal and Phil closed it behind him. He wished Sam a good night and set on his way to the home of BadBoyHalo.

Chapter Text

After Phil left, Bad spent a few minutes in silence in his office, thinking over the last half hour. He would have another kid in just a day’s time. And an admin at that. Bad began thinking about the logistics of raising a kid with powers, but he wasn’t too worried. He was a demon himself and Sapnap set things on fire when he was mad (and claimed it was an accident, but Bad wasn’t so sure about that). Then Bad’s mind wandered beyond admin abilities and towards all of the terrible things this poor boy has been through. If what Phil said was true, then Dream was only three years old when his parents were killed and he was taken into captivity. Bad knew enough about admin hunting compounds to know how he would’ve been treated there.

For one thing, hunters often worked with potion brewers because admin blood is a key ingredient in regen, health, and strength potions. They can’t be made without it, and normally admins donate blood to breweries for potion makers, but admin hunters like to farm captured admins for their blood and then sell the potions on the black market.

Bad shuddered in his seat, hoping he would be enough for Dream. Bad had been here before of course, but it never got easier. He had been twenty-seven when he and Skeppy first found George. They had been on a day trip to a village a bit away from their home to get supplies specific to the area. The nights had been getting colder and winter was soon to set in and, as they always do when the weather changes, the diamonds in Skeppy’s skin were starting to irritate them. They had set off on the journey to get him some more ointment, but as they were leaving, they heard angry shouting. 

Bad was instantly on alert, looking around to see where the commotion was coming from. “C’mon Bad, I want to be home before the freaking sun sets, let’s goooo,” Skeppy begged, grabbing Bad’s whole arm and tugging. Bad didn’t budge, however, and Skeppy ended up standing at a forty-five degree angle.

A sudden scream cut through the still air and Bad rushed into action and followed the sound. Skeppy found himself crashing to the floor, but he was quick to pick himself off the floor and run after his best friend. They ran through an alley and when they emerged, Bad growled in anger. There was a big, angry man that had his whole fist wrapped around a boy’s bicep. The boy in question was the one who had screamed, and he beat at the man’s fist with his own, struggling in vain to get out of the man’s grasp. 

“Woah, woah, woah! What the hell is going on here!” Skeppy shouted, running ahead of Bad and getting right up in the burly man’s face. 

“He’s stealing my food!” The man roared, tightening his grip. “You take it, you damn well pay for it. This brat is getting what he deserves.”

“Ow, ow, ow,” the boy cried, tears welling in his eyes.

“Let him go,” Bad said darkly, eyes glowing with fury and leaving no room for argument. He could see Skeppy grinning at him from the corner of his eye, but he paid him no mind.

“But he’s–” the man tried, but Bad was not in the mood.

“I SAID LET HIM GO RIGHT NOW!”

The man let go immediately, stumbling back from Bad, pure terror clear in his eyes. In his anger, Bad had grown in height, now towering over the man as his fingers extended into long black claws and shadows snuffed out the lights from the surrounding torches. The man tripped over a red vine that had sprouted from the ground, tumbling to the ground. The vines grew in number as they wrapped around the man’s legs, holding him in place as Bad stalked over. “Bye!” Bad said cheerily as a crack opened in the ground and the man fell through it, screaming all the way. Straight to Hell. And as soon as it started, it all stopped. The vines disappeared, the crack fixed itself, and the shadows were sucked back into Bad’s skin as he shrank to his normal size. 

With a smile, Bad turned to see the boy hiding behind Skeppy, eyes wide with amazement. Walking over, Bad gestured to Skeppy and the boy to follow him back into the alley so they could talk away from the rest of the villagers who had gathered to see the scene. Skeppy jogged over to Bad and threw himself into his arms, hugging him tightly and rambling about how awesome that was and how much of a badass Bad is - language! He’d responded - with a wide smile. The boy followed at a slower pace, rubbing his arm as he went. 

Once in the alley, Bad had the boy sit down and roll up his sleeve so Bad could take a look at his bicep. “Ooh, that’s gonna be tender for awhile,” he muttered upon seeing the deep red marking on his arm that was sure to turn an even darker purple in the coming days.

The boy shrugged and rolled his sleeve back down, looking everywhere but Bad and Skeppy; the two of whom shared a look. “So kiddo, what’s your name? Mine is BadBoyHalo, but you can call me Bad. And that’s Skeppy.” 

The kid looked up at that, looking between the two before settling his gaze back on his hands. “George,” he said quietly.

“How old are you, George?” Bad asked in a soft town.

“Eight.”

“Where are your parents?” Bad dared to ask, though he had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer seeing as how George stealing food got them into this mess.

“Don’t have any,” George mumbled, biting his lip uncomfortably.

It was exactly the answer Bad had been fearing. “I’m so sorry to hear that George. Do you have anywhere to go? We can take you there if you do.”

George scoffed humorlessly, though he sounded awfully close to tears. “No. I don’t. I’ve been sleeping over there,” he said, pointing vaguely back the way they came. “And before you ask me, no I don't have food. That’s why I was stealing it. And I didn’t even get any, so…” He trailed off with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest like he was trying to protect himself.

Bad knew that he was going to adopt this kid before he’d even finished talking. The poor thing was so skinny and dirty and scared. He needed a nice meal, a warm bath, and to be loved and nurtured the way he deserved to be. And lucky for George, Bad had a lot of love to give.

“Hey, do you wanna come home with me? I have a few spare bedrooms, you could pick whichever one you want and it’ll be yours. You can decorate it however you want! And I’ll cook you something nice and we can get you all cleaned up and you can stay for as long as you want.”

George looked up at him with an expression that held such yearning, but reserved caution, like he couldn’t quite dare himself to hope. “For real?” He asked in a small voice.

“For real,” Bad echoed with a reassuring smile.

“Okay,” George answered with a small smile of his own. “That sounds nice.”

It took a little while for George to trust Bad and Skeppy, but once he did, he was an entirely different kid. He was energetic and loud, unapologetically so. He let himself be a kid again and left the responsibilities to the adults. 

Bad gave all of his heart to George.

It was two years later that Sapnap came into their lives. George was at a playdate with Philza’s oldest son Wilbur, so Bad and Skeppy figured it would be the perfect opportunity to go on an errand in the Nether. They had been meaning to for quite some time, but they’d been really busy with George and the Syndicate that they hadn’t had the time.

A few weeks prior, a creeper exploded a little too close to the south side of their house, destroying a section of the quartz wall. They filled the whole with wooden planks at the time, but now that George was out of the house for a few hours, they decided to head into the Nether to mine some more Nether quartz for their home. Well, it was Bad’s home, but Skeppy stayed there often enough he had his own room, so it was practically his as well.

After mining about a stack of quartz each, they ran out of the material in the area they were in so they ventured farther from the portal in search of more. As they worked their way farther into the nether, a distant wailing sound soon reached their ears. Bad dismissed it as a ghast at first, but the closer they got, the wailing began to sound distinctly child-like. Bad instantly put away his pickaxe upon this revelation and turned to Skeppy.

“Geppy, stop for a minute. Do you hear that?” Skeppy rolled his eyes and stopped mining, picking up the quartz that was on the netherack around him. Skeppy straightened up when a sharper cry pierced the air and the diamonds on his arms bristled, to which Skeppy winced in minute discomfort. 

“Was that–” 

Skeppy was interrupted by Bad, who had already started off in the direction of the screaming. “Definitely a kid.” The two picked up the pace as the crying got louder, signaling they were getting closer.

They rounded a giant mountain of netherack and found a steady stream of lava that had set parts of the ground around it on fire. And…sitting in the fire was a screaming little kid. “OH MY MUFFINS!” Bad shouted, rushing forward and around the lava and grabbing the kid under the arms to pull him away from the flames. Bad wasn’t too worried about getting burnt himself, not when the poor kid was screaming like that. Once sure the kid wasn’t actively on fire, he placed him on his hip, checking him over frantically. The kid kept crying loudly the whole time.

Skeppy was by his side in seconds, helping him look for burns. But… there were none. “How…” Skeppy muttered to himself, but Bad shushed him, bouncing the screaming child on his hip to try and calm him down.

“Buddy, buddy, hey, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”

“Mama,” he wailed, his big gray eyes swimming with tears. 

“Where’s your Mama?” Bad asked softly, rubbing his hand up and down the boy’s back as he hiccuped and coughed.

“No know,” the boy sobbed, head crashing suddenly to rest on Bad’s shoulder, thumb flying to his mouth. Bad simply took it in stride, soothing him in any way he could while he looked to Skeppy over the boy’s shoulder in panic. Skeppy only offered a bewildered shrug in response.

“What’s your name, buddy?” Bad asked

“Nap-nap,” he said around his thumb, voice thick with tears.

“Napnap?” Bad echoed.

“No,” the boy shook his head, taking his thumb out of his mouth and grabbing Bad’s shirt in his slobbery fist before trying again. “Sap-nap.”

“Sapnap?” Bad guesses.

“Mhm,” Sapnap answered, thumb returning to his mouth.

“How old are you, Sapnap?” Skeppy asked, creeping closer.

Annoyed, Sapnap took his thumb out of his mouth again but didn’t answer, holding up five fingers. “You’re five?” Skeppy asked. Sapnap nodded, nestling his head back into its spot on Bad’s shoulder. 

“Are you tired, bud?” Bad asked him fondly. The boy had finally stopped crying, sighing with content as Bad rocked him around. He nodded again, letting his eyes slip closed as he sucked his thumb. Bad still didn’t know how he wasn’t burning when they found him, but that appeared to be a question for another day.

Bad sighed and turned on his heel to start walking back to the portal. “Wait, that’s it?!” Skeppy whisper-shouted from behind, trying to keep up with Bad’s long strides. “We’re just taking him with us?”

“Yes!” Bad whisper-shouted back. “What, you expected me to just leave him there? Plus, just look at him. He’s darling.”

Well, Skeppy couldn’t deny that. And he knew that this little boy already had Bad’s heart. Sapnap didn’t take nearly as long to adjust to his new family as George did, and his energy was enough to rival George’s. The two of them clicked instantly and were brothers in all but blood. And of course, Bad loved his boys and did everything he could every day to give them the world.

Shaking himself out of his memories, Bad left his office and walked over to the living room where George and Sapnap were sitting next to each other on the couch. Bad watched from the doorway for a moment as George read quietly to Sapnap, who had his head resting on his brother’s shoulder as he gazed down at the book in their laps. He listened as George spoke in a funny voice for one of the characters and Sapnap giggled. Bad hated to interrupt, but they had some important business to talk about.

“Hey, you two, can I talk to you for a minute?” He asked, but they both knew it was a rhetorical question. Sapnap sat up and George closed the book. “I guess,” he said, dragging out the word with very exaggerated eye rolls and head bobbing, making Sapnap burst out in another round of giggles. George smiled to himself at making his brother laugh.

“So, as you know, Phil was just here–”

“PHILZA MINECRAFT!” Sapnap shrieked, standing on the couch and throwing his arms in the air.

Bad chuckled, “Yes, Philza Minecraft. He had some important news he had to tell me–”

“Was it about the Syndicate?” George asked seriously.

“Yes it– Wait, how do you know about that?!”

George shrugged, unbothered.

Bad sighed and regathered his thoughts. “Anyway, we were talking about some important, top secret ,” he gave George a pointed look, “things, and he asked me if I could take in another little boy. And I said yes. So, I know this is a bit of a surprise to just drop on you right before bed, but he’ll be here tomorrow, so–”

“A NEW BROTHER?” Sapnap screamed, on his feet again in an instant. 

Bad couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, Sappy, a new brother.”

“HELL YEAH!” Sapnap screamed, jumping from furniture to furniture in his excitement, screaming all the way.

“Language!” Bad called after him, but it was fruitless. Turning his attention back to the couch, Bad was surprised to see that George was having quite the opposite reaction to Sapnap. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest and he had a frown on his face. “Why the long face?” Bad asked.

George gave him a side eye. “I don’t want a new brother. I’ve already got one and he’s a handful enough.” Bad smiled and ruffled George’s hair, chuckling to himself when his hand was shoved away with a huff. Sapnap was still cheering from atop the coffee table.

“You didn’t like Sapnap at first either, remember? I caught you trying to smother him in his sleep with your pillow that one night.”

George blushed and looked away, fiddling with his hands.

“But you love him now, right? And you’re glad you didn’t kill him?”

“Yeah, I guess,” George mumbled, eyes flicking up to watch Sapnap dance and sing a made up song about brothers and how he was going to play all of his favorite games once his new brother got here. George’s gaze softened and he smiled to himself, eyes flicking back to meet Bad’s.

“Well, I’m sure the same will go with Dream. But– Hey, Sappy, come back here.” Sapnap, disappointed that his song got interrupted, stomped back over to the couch and sat down. “Okay, you two, this is serious now, okay? I’ve got some very serious things to tell you about Dream.”

Both boys nodded solemnly and gave Bad their (mostly) full attention. “Dream is coming from a bad place, okay? You know how you both came from bad places?” They nodded. “Well, Dream is too. The place he was at was scary and they were mean to him, so when he gets here, he might still be scared. So I need you both to be gentle and kind to him, okay? He might take a little while to warm up to us, and we don’t want to scare him.”

Sapnap nodded. “So does that mean we can’t play on the first day?” He asked seriously.

Bad nodded, “Yeah, buddy, maybe not the first day.”

“But the second day?” he asked hopefully.

“Maybe, I don’t know yet.”

“Okay.” That seemed like a good enough answer for him.

“Welp, it’s getting late. You two need to get to bed! We have a big day tomorrow! I’m going to get Skeppy to come over and we’re gonna do some cleaning and getting the house ready for Dream! Up, off you go. Brush teeth; pajamas!” Bad said, standing and shooing them up the stairs only to follow with a fond smile and tuck them into bed.

That night, he lay awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what the next day would bring.

Chapter Text

Bad never did end up falling asleep that night, instead giving up on his comfort and crawling out of bed in favor of getting the house ready for the arrival of the young admin. Bad worked the early morning hours away, doing the jobs that George and Sap wouldn’t want to help him, like scrubbing the counters, mopping the floor, and cleaning the toilets. He even baked a batch of fresh muffins before Sapnap stumbled down the stairs.

“Morning!” Bad called cheerily as he slipped off the oven mits and closed the oven behind him. Sapnap didn’t answer, I loud yawn leaving him as he slouched into the kitchen. He was rubbing his eyes as he went, bumping into the wall and then the counter before he made it to the stools and hopped up to be closer to eye level with Bad.

“Hey, muffinhead,” Bad smiled fondly, rounding the counter to smooth out Sap’s bedhead and give him a quick kiss on the forehead. Sapnap, still half asleep, made grabby hands at the muffins on the cooling rack. 

“Please?” Bad prompted with a sigh.

“Please can I have one?” Sapnap murmured, head dropping to rest on his arms atop the counter. 

“Careful, they’re hot,” Bad warned, sliding a plate in front of Sapnap (hopefully to catch the crumbs). Sapnap only shrugged, taking a big bite of muffin, chewing briefly and swallowing. Bad simply shook his head. He wasn’t sure why he even bothered, it’s not like Sap was affected much by heat. And even if he was, he wouldn’t have listened to Bad’s warnings anyway.

A sudden pounding on the door caused Bad to shout, a resounding thud sounding from upstairs. Bad rushed to the door, pulling it open to find his best friend Skeppy drumming on the door with both fists, a joyful grin lighting up his face. Bad sighed in relief and stepped aside, gesturing him inside.

It was then that George stumbled down the stairs, looking disoriented and disgruntled at being startled awake so suddenly. He must’ve fallen out of bed and made the thump Bad heard if the way he was rubbing angrily at his elbow was any indication.

“Geppy!” Sapnap shouted around a mouthful of muffin, running full speed at the man who shouted in alarm and dashed to the living room to avoid the boy’s chocolate-covered hands. A dull thud echoed from the room, a low “ow” following and Bad assumed that Sapnap had succeeded in his mission to tackle Skeppy.

“Good morning George,” Bad greeted.

George shot him a glare. “Hullo.” Bad chuckled and gave the boys each a task before pulling Skeppy aside to fill him in.

…

It was well after midnight by the time Philza arrived. By that time, Skeppy had long since gone home and the boys were in bed. Bad elected to stay awake to wait for Dream to arrive. His sleepless night was catching up to him, however, and he was starting to doze when there were a few urgent knocks on the door.

In an instant, Bad was awake and alert, anxiety and anticipation coursing through his veins as he raced to the door, yanking it open. Phil stood in the doorway looking exhausted, wings wrapped protectively in front of him. It took Bad a few seconds to notice Dream tucked under Phil’s chin, fast asleep.

Bad ushered Phil through the door without any further hesitation and locked it behind them. The little boy in Phil’s arms whined and Phil shushed him softly, beginning to rock back and forth. “Do you have warm clothes for him? All he’s got are shorts and my cloak.”

Bad nodded, turning on his heels and racing up the stairs. He snuck into Sapnap’s room as quietly as he could and started rifling through his drawers for boxers, sweats, and a crewneck before leaving just as quickly. Sapnap didn’t even stir.

Phil was lowering Dream gently onto the couch when Bad returned, resting his palm on the boy’s forehead. “He’s running a fever. Do you have a thermometer?” Nodding, Bad ran back up the stairs to the bathroom, rifling through the medicine cabinet and returning to the living room with thermometer in tow.

“Let’s get him into some warm clothes first,” Phil muttered, kneeling beside Dream and gently unwrapping his cloak from around the boy’s shoulders. Bad gasped, tears springing instantly to his eyes. The poor boy was so skinny Bad could count his ribs and he was covered in scars, little cuts in neat lines and other markings in a more disorganized, angry manner. Bad reached out and very gently ran his fingers over one of the boy's ribs that was definitely broken, a deep purple bruise absolutely covering his side. 

Phil grabbed the crewneck Bad brought down and gently slipped it over Dream’s head and Bad moved his hand and sat back, shocked. Once Phil had finished changing Dream, he grabbed the thermometer and took the boy’s temperature, frowning at what he saw. “What’s 100.4?”

“Uh…” Bad trailed off. “Not good? I think?” Bad wasn’t sure. To be fair, George never gets sick and Sapnap always runs way hotter than the average person, so neither of them are a great judge of what a bad fever should be.

Phil proceeded to fiddle with the settings and his eyes bulged. “38?!”

“Is that bad?”

“Well, not bad, bad. But it’s a fever for sure. If it gets up to 40 degrees, then that’s bad. Any higher than 40, and that’s really dangerous,” Phil said, switching the thermometer back to fahrenheit. “Looks like 40 celsius is 104 fahrenheit.” Bad nodded and logged that information in his brain.

The two of them stood side by side for a few moments, gazing down at Dream. And then Bad stepped forward to drape a blanket over the boy and Phil broke the silence. “I have his file with me. I’ll leave it with you if you want. It has his information–well, what they bothered to include at least. But his…the experiment logs are there too. I don’t know if you wanna read those.”

Bad could only nod, taking the file from Phil as it was handed to him. “I wanted to be here when he woke up so he wouldn’t be so scared, but I’ve got to get home and he looks like he’ll be out for a while.”

“Go, I can take it from here,” Bad reassured with a calming smile. “I’ll message you if I need anything.”

Phil sighed and all the stress of the day seemed to leave his shoulders. He gave Bad a heavy pat on the back and then he was gone, leaving Bad to wonder what the hell he was supposed to do.

He sat on the floor beside the couch for a while like he was standing guard over the nine-year-old, occasionally brushing his blond curls out of his face and feeling as they damped with more sweat as time went on. Eventually, he pulled himself to his feet and went about gathering himself some blankets and setting them on the reclining chair where he was planning to spend the night. 

He went to run up the stairs to find himself some pajamas and gave a startled shout as he almost tripped over George. The brunette had been sitting on the stairs for Prime knows how long, chin resting on his fist as his eyes were slowly slipping closed. He startled awake, face burning with embarrassment at being caught. “Couldn’t sleep,” came his quick, mumbled explanation.

Meanwhile, Bad was working on steadying his frantically beating heart. “Alright, back to bed. You can meet him in the morning, he’s sleeping now.” George didn’t put up much of a fight, stumbling back into his bedroom and yawning all the way. Bad made quick work of putting on his pajamas and settling himself back in the chair, content to watch over Dream throughout the night and make sure everything was okay.

Chapter Text

Bad woke several times during the night to check on Dream’s fever. Everytime he checked, the thermometer read about the same and Bad would sign in relief and gaze down at the boy for a few moments and then wander back to his chair. From there, he would stare at the file on the coffee table until his eyes slipped closed again, starting the cycle anew.

After waking up from a fitful sleep and checking on Dream’s temperature for about the fifth time, Bad grabbed the file on his way back to the chair. He sat there for a while, just staring at it, not daring to open it just yet. With a heavy sigh, Bad stood from his chair again and left the file on his chair, only to return a few minutes later with a steaming mug of black coffee and his reading glasses. With a glance over to the couch to see Dream sleeping soundly, Bad opened the file to the first page.

Name: DREAM

Age: 9

Captive: AUG 19, **** - PRESENT

Blood Type: [REDACTED]

Power levels exhibited: VERY HIGH

Notes: ADMIN DREAM EXHIBITS HIGH LEVELS OF POWER THROUGH ACCIDENTAL MAGIC AND TESTING. IN EXPERIMENTATION, IT WAS ABLE TO MASTER COMPLEX ADMIN COMMANDS SUCH AS /KILL, /TP, FLY, AND ON A FEW OCCASIONS, WAS ABLE TO ACCESS CREATIVE.

Bad gasped, looking over quickly at the sleeping admin. He could access Creative?! More than once? Accessing Creative was an extremely difficult task that most admins didn’t have the power to possess. Even Phil had only found the strength to do it a handful of times and he was revered as a fairly powerful admin. And Dream was only nine. And the accidental magic? Phil had mentioned that to him once, around the time Bad first joined the Syndicate. He explained it as something that happened when young admins were either suppressing their powers or hadn’t developed them yet, and that Phil used to have bouts of it when he was younger and upset.

Bad skipped past the first page and found a title page labeled TEST LOGS. He really didn’t know if he should keep reading, but he flipped to a random page about half way through. 

TEST LOG #302

SUBJECT: DREAM

AGE: 6

NOTES: Today’s test is a continuation of the last where we broke the ulna and radius bones in his arm to see how long his accelerated healing will take to mend the bones. In the three day healing period, the breaks now appear to be fractures, which is impressive without any cast or splint, although the arm seems to have healed at a slight angle. DREAM’s healing appears to be marginally faster than other subjects. The same bones were broken in BEAR and CLOUD, and though they are older and more mature, have not healed at the same rate as DREAM. Today, we rebroke the bones, this time with more force, to see if that affects the rate at which it heals. Next week’s test logs will look further into…

Bad slammed the file closed, blinking tears desperately out of his eyes. He felt sick to his stomach. He wanted to burn the file, rid the world of its terrible memory. He was about to, as well, when he reconsidered. Regardless of what was in there, no matter how terrible, he couldn’t just destroy it. Who knows what they might need it for in the future. Maybe…maybe Dream would want it someday. So Bad went to his office down the hall and stored it away in his locked cabinet for super important documents and went back out to the living room. He didn’t manage to fall back asleep for the rest of the night, images swimming through his mind about what he read in the file, and also what he was too scared to.

…

It was just past 6:00 am when Dream finally stirred. Bad’s eyes snapped to him as he whined, curling into himself tighter as shivers wracked his little body. Bad stood and approached the boy slowly, kneeling beside the couch and brushing his soft blond curls out of his pale, sunken face. He ran his thumb under the boy’s eye, catching a stray tear.

Green eyes blinked up at him and Bad’s breath hitched in his throat before he continued the steady movement of his thumb across Dream’s cheekbone. Dream whined again, fresh tears filling his eyes, reaching a shaking hand out to push Bad away from him, the blankets soon to follow. His cheeks were flushed red and sweat clung to his hair and his brow. 

As Dream woke up more, Bad could see his gaze shift around the room frantically, trying to find anything he recognized. When he couldn’t, he started to panic. His shaking got worse as he backed as far as he could into the back of the couch, broken sobs spilling from his lips as he began to hyperventilate.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Bad cooed, raising his hands in surrender - Dream flinched - “You’re okay. You’re safe. Can you look at me, bud?”

Dream’s eyes continued to dart all around the room as he wheezed and gasped, choking on his cries. Bad didn’t know what to do. How was he supposed to calm the kid down when he didn’t even know where he was or what was going on. He didn’t trust Bad to help him calm down, he didn’t even know who he was at all. He had woken up in a completely foreign place.

“Dream,” Bad spoke in an even, calm tone and Dream’s eyes finally flew to his face, heaving painful breaths and hugging himself tightly. Bad’s heart broke clean in two at the sight of this tiny nine-year-old kid so terrified. “Dream, I need you to take some deep breaths with me. Can you do that?”

Breathing usually helped Sapnap when he was getting overwhelmed, and asking him questions and guiding him through things seemed to work, but Bad couldn’t even tell if Dream could hear him. He wasn’t responding at all and Bad wasn’t sure how to get his attention. He was definitely on the path to panicking himself, with how wheezy Dream’s breathing had gotten and having no clear way to help.

“Kid, you gotta breathe. Come on, in with me, hold…and out. In…hold…out…”

Dream’s eyes were starting to roll and Bad could do nothing as they rolled all the way back in his head as he passed out. With a shout, Bad caught him before he could fall sideways and gently lowered him back to a lying position on the couch, leaning him over on his side and opening up his airways. He sat right by Dream’s head to make sure he was breathing and once the boy’s breathing had evened out enough to where it was still shaky but not wheezy, Bad allowed himself to sit back on his heels and cry.

Never before had he felt this helpless. Bringing his fist to his mouth to stifle the sounds, he sobbed, rocking back and forth on his heels and wishing with everything he had that he could take the pain away. If there’s anything , he prayed, anything at all I can do, please. I beg you. Help me help him.

…

Skeppy found Bad in the same position an hour later. He hadn’t even bothered knocking on the front door, just let himself in with his key. The early hour prevented him from loudly announcing his presence and he was startled to see a kid he didn’t recognize sleeping on the couch. He worked out quickly that the kid was probably Dream and made his way over to where Bad was kneeling, fist in his mouth.

Skeppy knelt beside his best friend and watched as Bad’s eyes slowly rolled over to meet his, heartbreak clear as day in the glowing white orbs. The faint sound of sizzling reached his ears and he realized with a start that the demon was crying. “Woah, woah, hey Bad, gotta stop crying,” he said in a hurry, reaching up to wipe away the tears. He hissed when they burnt his skin, but the skin below Bad’s eyes was already scarred to shit, so he figured he could deal with it. Bad’s face was really hard to see in general, being a demon of the shadows and all, but Skeppy  had spent enough time studying his best friend that he could see everything if he looked hard enough.

As Bad’s tears started to dry, Skeppy stayed with him, talking to him quietly and telling him about his crazy journey to the house, how a creeper blew up in his path and would’ve thrown him into the air had he not gotten his shield up in time. Skeppy had recounted the same story in three artfully different ways by the time Bad fully gathered himself and stood.

“Where are you going?” Skeppy asked, glancing behind him at the sleeping admin.

“Coffee,” Bad answered, tone flat. Skeppy shrugged and followed Bad to the kitchen, only for Bad to turn on his heel and go back to the living room. Skeppy’s eyebrows furrowed, but Bad was quick to return with a mug half filled with coffee that had long since gone cold. He dumped it down the sink and poured himself a new cup before turning to Skeppy with the coffee pot in hand and a questioning look.

“Sure,” Skeppy said in answer to the unasked question, reaching behind the demon to grab his favorite mug from the cupboard. 

“What are you doing up so early?” They both asked at the same time, giggling after. “You first,” Bad prompted.

“Well, I just felt kinda bad for leaving last night and I couldn’t stop thinking about everything, so I thought I’d get an early start and get here as soon as I could. Kinda figured you wouldn’t be sleeping either.”

“Yeah,” Bad agreed, staring into his steaming mug.

“Wanna talk about it?” Skeppy asked cautiously.

Bad shrugged, voice getting caught in his throat. He decided to keep the file to himself for the time being. “He woke up this morning. Just briefly.”

“Really?” Skeppy squeaked, leaning over to look into the living room.

“He panicked so bad he passed out,” Bad choked out. “I tried to get him to focus on me so I could get him to breathe, but he wasn’t responding to anything. He was so scared.” The last bit was spoken as a whisper.

Skeppy pulled himself up onto the counter and patted the space beside him. Bad stared for a moment before sitting beside him. “We’ll figure it out. You remember how George was. He stayed in his room for at least a week when he first got here. He didn’t trust anything we said because he had learned the hard way that he couldn’t. We had to teach him that he could trust us. Hell, you caught him stealing food from the kitchen one night and he freaked out so bad he tried to run out the front door. But you stopped him, you were able to calm him down, and the two of you had a long talk that night and you told me all about it the next day because you were so happy about the progress you made.”

Bad nodded, smiling fondly at the memory of hot chocolate in the middle of the night and how he got George to laugh for the first time. Skeppy continued, “That little boy in there has been through unimaginable things and he’s going to take a bit to adjust, but you’ve pulled it off twice before. I don’t have any doubts in my mind that he’ll be smiling and laughing in no time. Okay? Because you are the best goddamn dad I’ve ever seen and you love your kids more than anything.”

“Aw, Geppy, you’re gonna make me cry again.”

“Serves you right for doubting yourself,” Skeppy laughed, shoving Bad’s shoulder.

“Hey! Also, language!”

“How come you get to sit on the counter but I can’t?” A new voice spoke.

Bad startled, nearly spilling his coffee. Sapnap stood there in front of them, arms crossed across his chest, gaze accusing. Skeppy only laughed and slid to the floor, ruffling the boy’s hair. “Cuz we’re the adults,” he answered. 

Sapnap huffed, turning to climb onto one of the counter stools and made grabby hands at the muffins. “Sapnap, we’ve been over this. What do you say?”

“Ugh. PlEaSe?” He mocked, with an intense eye roll to accompany it. Skeppy had to turn around and refill his coffee to avoid laughing and ruin this parenting moment for Bad.

“Sapnap–” Bad started, hands on his hips, when George walked into the room, puzzled.

“Oh, hey George! Sleep well?”

George ignored the question. “I thought Dream was supposed to be here.”

“He is here– oh muffins.”

The couch was empty.

Chapter Text

“Well, he couldn’t have gone far,” Skeppy said.

Bad was instantly in panic mode, pushing past a still very puzzled George and rushing into the living room where he’d last left Dream. Sure enough, the couch was empty save for rumpled blankets. A quick glance to the front door confirmed that it was still shut and locked from earlier when Skeppy arrived, so he hadn’t gone outside. 

“Okay, folks, let’s split up. Try not to scare him,” Skeppy instructed, giving both boys a little push in the direction of the living room. Sapnap took off with a sprint for the stairs while George took a left down the hall towards the office.

Bad and Skeppy split up further and Bad continued looking around the living room. The kid was small enough he could fit almost anywhere, but he was also running a fever last Bad checked and he was most likely pretty physically weak so he wouldn’t have been able to go very far from the couch.

After deeming the living room empty, Bad was about to head down the hall to check on George’s progress when he heard heavy breathing. He paused, turning around. To his left was the big book shelf overflowing with books, so no room to crawl into a lower shelf. To his right, however, there was a corner table with little knick knacks and a long, deep red tablecloth.

Bad knelt and slowly lifted the cloth off the floor, big green eyes meeting his. Dream was crying again, panicked gasps wracking his frail body. “Hey, bud. It’s alright, I’m not gonna hurt you. Can you come out of there please?”

Dream shook his head frantically, scooting farther back into the wall and hugging his knees. “That’s okay. You can stay there. You woke up earlier this morning, do you remember me?” Again, the boy shook his head, choking on a sob.

“Hey, hey, that’s okay. That’s just fine. My name is BadBoyHalo, but everybody calls me Bad. Your name is Dream, right?”

Dream nodded before seemingly catching himself and burying his head in his arms. “You can answer me, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll stay right here and we’ll just talk. You don’t have to come out of there until you’re ready to.”

Dream looked up at him, whispering, “Okay.”

Bad smiled at him. “Do you remember Phil? He’s the guy with the wings from yesterday.”

Dream nodded again, breathing a bit steadier.

“Well, Phil is a really good guy and he got you out of that bad place and brought you here. You are safe now Dream, and I promise I will never hurt you. I will do everything in my power to make sure nobody ever hurts you again.”

“I miss Deer,” Dream whispered to himself, hugging his knees tighter to his body.

“Who’s Deer, Dream?” Bad asked with a reassuring smile.

“He’s my friend. I don’t know where he is. I d-don’t know where I am,” he said, lips wobbling as he dissolved into tears again. Bad didn’t know what to say. Looking behind him, he saw Skeppy standing in the hallway with his hand on George’s shoulder. Bad gave a thumbs up and then gestured them away. He needed time with Dream one-on-one to calm him down before introducing anyone else to the equation. Skeppy seemed to get the memo, guiding George past Bad and Dream, through the living room, and up the stairs.

Turning his attention back to the distressed admin, Bad tried his best to reassure the boy. “You’re in my home, Dream. I live here with my two sons. Do you wanna see? I can show you around?” 

“No, I wanna stay here,” his voice was so soft, so timid, like he was scared to make the request even though Bad already said it was okay.

“Okay,” Bad relented. “You can stay.” Dream’s stomach let out a loud groan then, and Dream curled into himself tighter, face shifting in discomfort. “Are you hungry?” Bad asked, though it was rhetorical. Dream only stared in response. “You can answer, it’s alright if you are. Do you want some food?”

Dream shrugged, but his stomach growled again and he nodded defeatedly. “I’m going to go get you some food, okay? I’ll be right back. Is that alright?” Another nod. Bad stood and walked to the kitchen, taking a shaky breath as he went. He quickly put together two plates of some break, apple slices, and some cheese. He knew Dream was hungry, but based on how thin he was and how malnourished he appeared, Bad figured letting him eat a ton of food right away wouldn’t end well. Plus, he thought it would make Dream feel more comfortable if he ate with him.

He walked back to the corner table with the two plates and sat down in front of it, lifting the table cloth once more. Dream flinched at the sudden action, but settled when he saw the food, eyes blowing wide. “Here you go. I didn’t know what you would like, so I brought a few different things.”

Dream took the plate from him with shaky hands, carefully setting it on his lap. He kept his eyes trained on Bad as he picked up the bread, holding it up in front of him to inspect it, all while keeping Bad in his line of sight, the latter of which stayed patiently still while the young boy did this. Once Dream determined the bread to be safe to eat, he brought it to his mouth and gave it an experimental nibble. Bad could tell the moment the flavor registered and Dream’s hunger returned tenfold, as he immediately got a crazed look in his eyes and started scarfing down the food like it would disappear if he took too long. Bad took that as his cue to start eating from his own plate.

Dream was done eating long before Bad, and he kept eyeing the second plate longingly, so Bad asked him if he wanted it. The little boy nodded hurriedly, not hesitating this time to reach out and take the plate. Bad smiled to himself as Dream started to do a happy little wiggle as he ate.

Once finished eating, Dream slid the plates back over to Bad and brought his knees back up to his chest. “Are you thirsty?” Bad asked.

“Yeah,” Dream said quietly, playing with the hem of Sapnap’s crewneck. So Bad went back to the kitchen with the plates and returned with a glass of water, which Dream drank quickly.

“Are you ready to come out yet?” Bad asked again, hopeful.

Dream’s gaze darkened and he scooted back, shaking his head.

“Okay,” Bad said. “My sons are gonna come back downstairs in a bit, so I’ll be around. You just take your time and come join us in a bit, yeah?”

Dream shrugged in answer and Bad offered a smile, letting the tablecloth rest back on the floor and letting Dream have some space.

Chapter Text

George, Sapnap, and Skeppy made their way back down the stairs shortly thereafter to find Bad straightening the blankets on the couch.

“Everything alright?” Skeppy asked in a low voice so the other boys couldn’t hear. Bad nodded in response, focusing on the folding and not looking up at Skeppy. “Well, I think I’ll head out now, give you guys some space to bond or whatever.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later then,” Bad said, setting the blanket back on the couch and giving Skeppy a hug before the latter headed out the door. Bad then turned back to George and Sapnap who were both trying their hardest not to ask questions. Bad gestured them on with a sigh.

“Where’s he hiding?” Sapnap asked at the same time as George asked, “Is he okay?”

“I’m not going to tell you where he is, silly muffins. You’ll try to find him and scare him more. And he’s doing okay for now, he just needed some space.”

Bad jumped suddenly as a small hand slipped into his. He looked down and saw Dream. The little boy had grabbed onto his hand and was half hiding behind his leg as he stared at George and Sapnap apprehensively. “Oh, hey Dream. Everything alright?”

“It was dark in there,” he said quietly, eyes trained on the ground as he kicked his foot into the carpet. “And small. Didn’t like it. I wanna stay with you.”

“Okay,” Bad said softly, kneeling beside the boy. “Do you wanna meet my sons? If you’re not ready to, that’s okay, too.” Dream bit his lip, thinking about it, all while looking between the two boys and BadBoyHalo. Finally, he nodded.

“Well this is my oldest, George. He’s twelve-years-old. George, say hi.”

“Hi.”

“Hi,” Dream echoed very quietly.

“And this is Sapnap. He’s seven-years-old. Sap, say hi.”

“Hi!” Sapnap shouted, waving wildly.

Dream managed a smile and waved back.

“And you’re nine-years-old, so you’re right in the middle!” Bad added with a smile.

Dream’s eyes flew to his face and he gasped. “I’m nine?” A smile grew on his face and he hugged himself, whispering quietly to himself to reaffirm the information. Bad’s smile fell.

Dream, upon noticing the sudden silence, looked up to be met with their confusion. “What do you mean by that?” George asked, tilting his head.

“Well, I just wasn’t sure. I don’t have a birthday and they never told me how old I am,” he answered with a shrug, grabbing onto Bad’s hand again.

“Oh,” was all Bad could think to say. He squeezed the boy’s hand and knelt beside him so he could look him in the eye. “How about this: whenever you feel like it’s your birthday or whenever you want it to be, you just let us know and we’ll celebrate, okay?”

“Okay,” Dream answered quietly, cheeks flushing red. Bad noticed then that Dream’s legs were shaking, pretty badly, too. It looked like a stray breeze could knock him over. Bad figured that standing for so long was putting a lot of strain on his unused muscles.

“Hey Dream, do you wanna sit on my shoulders? You could be so tall, I bet you could touch the ceiling.”

Dream’s gaze found the ceiling as he stumbled, but Bad reached out to catch him under the arms. He flinched at the contact, but calmed quickly. He seemed to realize that his legs wouldn’t hold him up anymore, so he accepted Bad’s offer. With a smile, the demon gave Dream a warning before picking him up and swinging the boy behind him and up to rest on his shoulders. Dream shrieked in excitement, giggling as he grabbed onto Bad’s hood and held on tight. Bad grinned and held onto the boy’s ankles so he wouldn’t fall as George and Sapnap giggled up at them, Sapnap whining about how Dream got to be up there and he didn’t.

As they started playing a lopsided game of tag, Bad couldn’t help but soak up the joyful giggles and wonder how long it would last.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, the joy didn’t last long at all. Late that night, Bad was startled out of a deep sleep by screams. He was out of bed and on his feet before he even really knew what he was hearing, but when it registered in his brain that one of his boys was screaming and crying like they were being murdered, he was off and stumbling into doorways and flicking on lights.

The screams were coming from Dream’s room, a spare bedroom that used to be occupied by Skeppy when he would stay over, but was now being transformed into a bedroom for the admin. Bad pushed the half opened door open all the way and flicked on the light, beside the troubled boy in seconds. 

Dream was thrashing in the sheets, the blankets wrapped around him in a stifling hold. His face was twisted in fear and tears streamed from his eyes that were shut so tightly, Bad feared he would get a headache. Dream screamed again, but it came out raspier and a bit hoarse. Bad felt goosebumps rise on his arms at the pure terror in those screams and his gut wrenched.

He reached out and settled his hand on the boy’s shoulder gently, unsure if waking him was the best course of action but not knowing what else to do. He shook Dream’s shoulder a few times and finally, the boy’s eyes shot open. He screamed again when he woke up, throwing himself back so violently that he flew off the bed and onto the floor, banging his head on the bedside table in the process before scooting back into the corner.

He was hyperventilating badly, each exhale sounding like a mix between a wheeze and a reedy scream. Bad was distantly aware of George’s door opening down the hall, and then Sapnap’s seconds later. “Dream, you’re safe. You’re safe, buddy. Look at me please, can you do that?”

“No, NO!” Dream screamed at him, eyes glazed and looking past him. Bad got the feeling he still wasn’t quite awake.

“Dream–”

“Leave me ALONE! NO!” His voice was going quickly and he dissolved quickly into frantic tears, burying his head in his shaking arms, knees pulled up to his chest. 

Bad could feel himself panicking. He really didn’t want Dream to pass out again. Against his better judgment, Bad reached out and gently grabbed Dream’s hands and pulled them away from his face. Dream fought to get away, resorting to kicking and screaming, but Bad held strong. He pulled Dream’s hands up to his chest and rested them there, palms flat, though the boy fought to bring them into fists. Bad started breathing deeply, exaggerating each inhale and exhale as Dream struggled.

“Dream, can you breathe with me? You’re safe. It’s just Bad, you know me. Breathe in…hold…out. In…hold…out. That’s it.” Bad wasn’t even sure if Dream could hear him, but the boy had stopped squirming so hard and was beginning to calm down. Eventually, his fingers unclenched and he allowed his hands to flatten over Bad’s chest and his breathing began to even out slowly but surely. Bad kept talking him through the whole process, reassuring him that he was doing good.

“Are you with me?” Bad asked softly after a while.

Dream, too focused on breathing to speak, nodding slowly. “You’re safe here, Dream. You had a nightmare, that’s all. No one is here to hurt you.” Dream’s eyes searched his desperately, looking for any hints of a lie in the glowing white pools. When he found none, he just about went boneless, exhaustion seeping through his bones as he let his guard down. “Can I give you a hug?” Bad asked him softly.

Dream’s tears returned after nearly stopping and he nodded, practically flying into Bad’s waiting arms. Bad could do nothing but whisper soothing things to him and rub his back reassuringly, as Dream decided he wasn’t going to be letting go anytime soon. “Go back to bed,” Bad instructed the two boys standing in the doorway without turning his head. Faint complaints reached his ears as they retreated down the hall, the doors to their bedrooms closing one after the other.

Bad sat on the floor with Dream in his arms for quite some time and when he deemed the boy asleep, he stood carefully and leaned down to lay Dream back in his bed, but the grip around his neck returned with a surprising strength as the trembling that had long since seized started once more. “Don’t let me go,” Dream whispered in a broken voice, and who was Bad to deny him that?

So he said, “Okay. I won’t,” and brought him down the stairs and sat in the reclining chair in the living room instead, draping a blanket over the both of them as they went back to sleep. Dream didn’t have another nightmare that night, but he slept fitfully, waking up every once in a while to make sure Bad was still there and that he was still safe and protected in the man’s careful hug.

Dream didn’t let Bad set him down for more than a few minutes the entire next day either, but Bad didn’t mind at all.

Chapter Text

Dream’s first week at the house was rough. He had a hard time adjusting to his new life and oftentimes got overwhelmed. Bad tried his best to help the boy, but there was only so much he could do. Bad knew that it would come with time and didn’t want to be too crestfallen after just one week.

Bad also seemed to be the only one Dream trusted enough to let near him still. Sapnap and George tried to get him more comfortable and to include him in their activities, but he just wasn’t ready for that yet. He’d only ever had one friend before, one that Bad surprisingly heard about fairly often.

“I miss Deer,” Dream said thoughtfully to himself as he sat on the counter in front of Bad. It was late at night, hours after the other two boys went to sleep. Dream had woken up from a nightmare some time ago, and in what has become their new tradition, Dream sat on the counter with a glass of warm honey milk while Bad stood in front of him to assure he didn’t fall.

“Tell me about Deer,” Bad prompted, leaning against the counter beside Dream. 

The little boy who had just calmed down from his hysterical crying a short while ago, still had some leftover shakes traveling through his body, and he held his mug close to his chest so he wouldn’t spill. “Deer is my friend. He is nice to me. When I was at the other place, he was the only person that would be nice to me.”

“I’m glad that he could help you,” Bad said sincerely. If there was any chance that Dream’s life wasn’t as lonely and terrible as he thought, he would take it.

“Deer can’t talk,” Dream added as an afterthought, tilting his head to the side.

That surprised Bad. “Oh? He can’t?”

Dream nodded. “Yeah. They cut out his tongue.” Bad gasped. “They did that before I got there, I’m pretty sure, but I don’t know. They told me they would cut out my tongue if I was bad and didn’t stop crying, so I stopped.”

Bad had absolutely no idea what to do with that information. He was pretty sure his jaw was on the floor and he had to manually remind himself to close his mouth. “Oh gosh. That’s terrible.”

Dream only shrugged, and then his eyes started to tear up again. “I miss Deer,” he said again. He set his milk aside in order to wrap his trembling arms tighter around himself. Bad opened his arms in a silent offer, and once he got the okay, he gathered Dream in another hug and held him until his tears seized and he was ready to go back to sleep.

…

It was a few days later that Philza came to visit and see how Dream was doing. This time when he knocked on the door, it was George who answered. 

“Hello, George,” he greeted kindly as the boy stepped aside to allow him entry.

“Hi Phil,” he said in answer. “Bad’s in the living room.” 

The two made their way in search of Bad and found him chasing Sapnap around the furniture while the little boy shrieked and giggled. “Get back here, you muffinhead!” Bad teased with a smile clear in his voice. Dream sat on Bad’s back, wrapped around him like a koala. He looked to be in a melancholic mood, tired and on the verge of tears. Sapnap squealed again and took a sharp turn around the coffee table and when Bad turned in pursuit, he noticed Phil.

“Oh! Phil! Hello!”

“Hello,” Phil greeted in return. Dream peeked his head up from Bad’s shoulder and looked at him tentatively. “Hey, Dream. Do you remember me?” Dream nodded and shrunk further behind Bad. “How are you doing?” Again, Dream said nothing, shrugging in answer to the question.

“Bad, could I speak with you?” 

The demon nodded. “Hey Dream, I’m gonna set you down on the couch now for a bit, okay? Is that alright? It’s just for a few minutes and Sappy and George’ll be here with you.”

“Okay,” he said quietly in response after a moment of contemplation, voice muffled by Bad’s hoodie. So Bad set him down on the couch and knelt in front of him to give him a quick pep talk to reassure him, and George sat next to him on the couch with a bit of distance to avoid making him uncomfortable. Sapnap sat on George’s other side and the two began playing a game while Dream watched apprehensively from across the couch.

Phil followed Bad down the hall and into the office, closing the door behind them and settling into the same seats they were in the last time. “So…how is he doing?” Phil asked.

“Honest?” Bad asked, to which Phil nodded. “He’s…doing alright. He sleeps in his own bedroom. With the door open and a nightlight. And he gets terrible nightmares every night, but he trusts me enough to help him calm down and we’ve started doing this thing where we have warm milk in the kitchen until he’s ready to go back to sleep. And he’s not as scared of Sapnap’s energy anymore, but he hasn’t actually engaged yet. Just watches. Poor kid is so touch starved, too. If he’s having a bad day, he doesn’t let me put him down, just clings to me. It’s really sweet. But…the panic attacks are still often and just…heartbreaking. And I found him sleeping on the floor the other night and I asked him why and he told me that he’s-he’s never h-had a bed before, and it’s too soft sometimes so he lays on the floor.”

Bad’s voice started to waver as he talked. 

“Oh! And he keeps talking about his friend named Deer and how much he misses him. I…I was wondering if there was any way that we could arrange some way for them to meet up or-or something.”

Phil nodded along, “Ah yes, Deer, I remember him. He seemed very protective of Dream. When tracking him to his home server, we found out that his birth name is Callahan.”

Bad’s eyes widened and his head flew up. “Wait, his real name isn’t Deer?!”

Phil shook his head. “No. All of the admins assigned one-syllable names upon entry as a sort of way to dehumanize them, I guess. Some of the others were named Blue, Bear, Rain, Cloud, stuff like that.”

“So…so Dream isn’t his real name?” Bad whispered.

“No, it isn’t. But there’s no record of it on his file and we weren’t able to track down his parents because they were killed, so unless he remembers what it was, then…he’ll stay Dream.”

“I had no idea…” Bad muttered. “Well, about De–Callahan, is there any way you can make that work?”

Phil leaned back a bit, spreading his wings. “I’ll look into it, see what I can do.”

Bad smiled warmly. “Thank you so much, Phil. I’m sure he would be ecstatic.”

Chapter Text

Sapnap wasn’t quite sure what to do. George was playing outside earlier when their swing broke, so Bad went out with him to fix it which left Sapnap alone with Dream in the house for a little while. So Sapnap stood in the living room, watching Dream. The older boy was sitting in the corner, halfway behind Bad’s reclining chair, where he’d been ever since Bad set him down, which was about twenty minutes ago.

He was staring into space an awful lot and shaking a bit. Sapnap wasn’t even sure if Dream knew he was there. With a sigh, Sapnap decided that he might as well try talking to the boy. With his hands in his pockets and an apprehensive look on his face, he crept forward to the corner and knelt in front of Dream. A puzzled look settled itself on his face. He was sitting right in front of Dream, and there was still no sign that Dream saw him. He reached out and shook his shoulder, to which the admin started blinking rapidly. When he finally did process that Sapnap was sitting right in front of him, he squeaked and jumped back, pressing himself further into the corner.

“Do you wanna play something?” Sapnap asked. Dream just stared at him, eyes wide with caution and a hint of fear, tracking every move the younger boy made.

“Well, Bad and George are still outside and I’m kinda bored, so…”

Again, no answer. Sapnap studied the boy in front of him for a moment. He seemed scared and on edge, like usual. Sap wished that there was something he could do to make the boy relax, because it was no fun being scared, Sapnap knew. What was something that helped him when he was scared? His face lit up when he came up with an answer.

“One second!” He nearly shouted in his excitement, and winced when Dream flinched at the sudden volume. “I’ll be right back,” he said quieter, “don’t go anywhere.” He chuckled to himself at his joke as he sprinted up the stairs and to his room. Of course Dream wasn’t going to go anywhere. Bad told him that Dream’s muscles were still too weak for him to walk much, and that they were gonna have to start something called ‘physical therapy.’ Whatever that meant.

Thundering back downstairs, Sapnap skidded to a stop in front of Dream once more. The boy kept trying to make himself smaller, bringing his knees up to his chest and hugging himself, peering up at Sapnap with cautious curiosity.

“Here,” Sapnap said, shoving his prize into Dream’s arms. It was an old stuffed plushie that Skeppy had given him on one of the first nights at Bad’s house when he couldn’t sleep because all he would dream about was his mama leaving him in the Nether. It was a well loved Panda, floppy and dirty from all the times he’d squeezed it in a hug so hard that the stuffing seemed to shrink, and how for the first several months he took it with him everywhere. One of its eyes was missing, but Sapnap didn’t mind.

That panda plushie meant the world to Sapnap and it was something that really helped him whenever he was lonely, scared, or overwhelmed. So he gave it to his new brother, hoping it would do the same.

“His name is Pandas,” Sapnap explained, watching intently as Dream unwrapped his arms from around himself to reach out and grab the mangled plushie. Sapnap felt a sharp pain in his chest when Pandas left his hold, but he pushed through with a smile. Dream needed Pandas more than he did. Dream gave him a hopeful look and Sapnap knew that he was asking with his eyes if he really could keep Pandas. He wanted reassurance that Sapnap really meant it, that he wasn’t lying and wasn’t gonna take it away as soon as Dream got his hopes up.

“Pandas helps me a lot when I’m sad, so I want you to have him now. So you won’t be sad anymore.”

Dream nodded, gazing down at the plushie. Slowly and carefully, he brought the panda closer to him and hugged it tightly, closing his eyes in peace. With a deep sigh, he opened his eyes again and smiled bashfully at Sapnap. “Thank you,” he said sincerely. 

Sapnap lit up with joy at getting a response from his new brother who rarely spoke to anyone but Bad. To Sapnap, that made his whole sacrifice worth it. “No problem,” he said with a grin all the way to his ears.

“So do you wanna play something? Or just stay in the corner? Cuz I can sit with you if you want. And I can tell you stories about Pandas.”

“Okay,” Dream said softly, gazing at Sapnap and squeezing the toy closer to him, rubbing his cheek against the soft fur.

“So, one day when I was playing with George outside…”

…

Later, when George and Bad returned from outside, they found Sapnap telling an insanely exaggerated story (with lots of sound effects) and Dream was…giggling and smiling. The two couldn’t believe it.

That night, after Dream and Bad had gone to sleep, George snuck into Sapnap’s room to ask him about it. He didn’t even bother knocking, just opened the door and slipped in. Sapnap was already sitting up in bed looking at the door like he was expecting George’s arrival. He patted the space beside him on the bed, so George tiptoed over and crawled under the blankets to sit beside his brother.

“How’d you do it?” he asked right away, not wasting a second.

“Huh?”

“Well…how’d you get him to smile so much? And how come he likes you all of sudden and not me? It’s not fair.”

Sapnap got a smug grin on his face and wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s a secret,” he giggled.

George pushed his shoulder so hard he almost fell out of the bed. Sapnap shrieked in surprise and hit him back, and through giggles, George had to shush him quickly. Once they were settled, George tried again. “Tell me!” he whisper-shouted.

“Hmm…nope!”

“Pleaaaase,” George begged.

Sapnap got an evil look in his eyes and he brought his hands up to his chin. “Bribery,” was all he said.

“You…you bribed him into being your friend?” George asked, confused. 

Sapnap laughed. “Your face! No, I didn’t actually bribe him. I was just being nice. Unlike you. I gave him Pandas.”

Somehow, that confused George even more. “You–you gave him Pandas ?! But you love Pandas! Pandas is, like, your favorite thing ever .”

That comment seemed to make Sapnap a bit sad. “Yeah, he was. But Dream needs him more than I do now, so I gave him away. And I guess he sorta trusted me after that, I don’t know. But…even though I’m sad that I don’t have Pandas anymore, and maybe I can’t sleep without him, I’m glad Dream can have him. Cuz Dream can’t sleep either without nightmares and he’s scared all the time. And Pandas is good at being a protector and helping calm me down, so I gave him to Dream.”

George was…shocked, to be honest. “That’s…probably the nicest thing you’ve ever done. Wow. I’m impressed, Snapmap.”

“Call me Snapmap one more time and we’re gonna have problems,” he warned.

George grinned, pulling the younger boy into his side for a hug. “I can sleep here tonight if you want. To help you sleep.”

Sapnap’s smile softened and he rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Okay. Goodnight, George.”

George shuffled around a bit to lay down and Sapnap followed shortly after, reaching over to turn off the lamp. “Goodnight…Snapmap.”

“That’s it–”

Chapter Text

Throughout the next few days, Dream was never seen without Pandas. Every waking and sleeping moment, the stuffed toy was clutched tightly in his hands or nestled snugly under his arm. He found great comfort in having the toy, and was immensely thankful to Sapnap for gifting it to him. He tried to express his gratitude in little ways like letting the boy sit next to him on the couch, sharing his food when he couldn’t stomach any more, adding more and more to their conversations as time went on. No longer was it just Sapnap talking his ear off and telling stories, now it had developed more into a two-sided conversation even if Dream’s input was still fairly limited.

Ever since Phil visited several days ago and Sapnap had given Dream Pandas, things had been looking up a bit. Dream still had bad days, plenty of them, but he was getting better at accepting help from not only Bad, but also Sapnap. George was slightly salty about this of course, as Dream wasn’t comfortable with him quite yet, but it would come with time.

The day before disaster was filled with giggles and joy. Sapnap was on his funny arc, as George called it, and was making the whole house die of laughter all day. Even Dream couldn’t contain his giggles as Sapnap cracked joke after joke. That night, all three boys went to bed full of good food and with grins on their tired faces. Bad went to sleep feeling really good about the day and hopeful for the future.

When he woke up to Dream screaming a few hours later, it hurt a bit more than usual. Like reacting to an alarm, Bad was up and in the hallway before he’d fully registered what was going on. Dream was frantically thrashing around in his sheets when Bad reached his side. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his fists were clenched so tightly that blood was dripping down his wrists and staining the blankets. His screams quickly gave way to sobs and wails as he shook and curled up into himself. 

Bad sat on the bed beside him and rested his hand on the boy’s shoulder, gently shaking him to try and wake him up. Dream only cried harder, starting to hyperventilate in his sleep. Bad’s eyebrows creased. Nightmares never lasted this long once Bad tried to wake him. Dream should’ve woken by now with a panicked shout as Bad tried to calm him down. But he didn’t, and Bad couldn’t seem to wake him.

“Dream, it’s just a nightmare. Wake up, buddy.” He shook him harder and Dream started screaming again, awful throat-tearing screams that made Bad want to simultaneously fight  whatever was scaring his boy so badly and curl up away from it. “Dream!” He shouted, panicking because Dream just wouldn’t wake up and he wasn’t breathing right, and he was crying so hard, and there was blood under his nails, and–

Dream’s eyes flew open with a startled gasp and Bad realized quite suddenly that he had still been shaking the boy’s shoulder maybe harder than was necessary and quickly let go. Dream kept screaming for a few moments as his eyes flew frantically around the room and he took great gasping gulps of hair as he struggled to calm his racing heart.

Bad snapped himself out of his stupor and spoke softly to Dream, waiting for the boy to notice his presence and help him through his breathing like he usually did. It took longer for Dream’s eyes to find his than it does most nights, but they finally did and he whimpered, shaking like a leaf. Bad reached for his hands and had to pry his fists open, unclenching his fingers and digging his nails out of his palms. Dream choked on his sobs at the pain of it and hissed as Bad wiped away the blood, trying to pull his hands away all the while.

As soon as Bad loosened his grip a fraction, Dream snatched his hands back, scooting farther away from the man and hugging his knees close to his chest. He rocked himself back and forth, keeping a fearful eye on Bad as the demon waited with him patiently. Dream struggled to get his breathing under control for quite some time, listening half-heartedly to Bad as he tried to count him through the sharp pains in his chest as hiccups and sobs broke through his hard-earned progress and made him start over again.

Bad frowned, scooting closer and opening his arms for a hug. “Aw, buddy, come here.”

Dream hadn’t processed that Bad was approaching in time, so when he felt Bad’s hands on him, he freaked out, screaming at him to get away and to stop touching him. Bad flew back from the boy, startled and feeling like he just got punched between the eyes. Dream had quickly dissolved back into panicked, painful cries, heartbroken wails, and stuttered breathing and Bad could only sit back and watch, gathering himself. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t think, couldn’t hear his own thoughts over Dream’s fear. He hadn’t reacted that way to Bad’s touch since his first day.

Dream was crying so hard, he started gagging. Bad jumped up to grab the trash can that sat beside his dresser and got it under Dream’s head in time for him to throw up, spluttering and spitting as his crying fit triggered more vomit. It continued this way in a cycle until he was stuck dry heaving. Bad had tried rubbing his back, but Dream had jumped and groaned as the movement sent pain through his body, retching all the harder. When he was finally done throwing up, Bad set the trash can aside and wiped Dream’s mouth with a tissue before the boy realized what he was doing and pushed him away weakly with a pitiful whimper.

“What’s goin’ on?” A small voice asked from behind him. 

Turning his head to look, Bad found Sapnap standing there with his arms wrapped tightly around himself, his gray eyes wide and fearful. “Everything’s fine, Sap. Go back to bed.”

Sapnap ignored him and took a step closer. “Does he have Pandas?” He asked, staring unabashedly at Dream’s episode, at the snot that dripped from his nose and the tears that mixed together on his cheeks with the blood from his palms as he wiped the tears that were quickly replaced with more. 

At the mention of the panda stuffie, Bad started digging around in the sheets as he looked for the comfort toy in the soft light of the lamp. “Here,” Sapnap said softly, handing the toy to Bad from where he’d picked it up off the floor, still not looking away from his brother. Bad whispered a quick thanks and then turned back to Dream.

“Dream, hey, I’ve got Pandas for you, I’m just gonna hand him to you now, okay?” Dream looked over at him, heaving air into his lungs and reached out a shaking hand to grab the panda, snatching it away quickly and holding it protectively to his chest. It seemed to help a bit, and after a while, he was able to breathe evenly if not a bit shakily. 

“Let’s go back to bed, Sappy,” George said softly, grabbing his brother's hand and leading him out the door with a sad look on his face. Bad hadn’t even noticed he’d been there. After quite some time of silence, in which Dream held tightly to Pandas and rocked on his heels while he shook and he cried, Bad tried speaking softly again.

“Do you want to go down to the kitchen and get some warm milk?” Dream took a few moments to process the question, and when he did he shook his head no, resting his head on his knees. His eyes were drooping in his exhaustion, so Bad asked, “Do you want to go back to sleep?” Again, the answer was no. “Okay,” Bad said. “Do you want me to stay with you?”

Dream hesitated on this question, before caving eventually and nodding without looking at Bad. “Okay,” the demon said simply. “I’ll be right here.” And with that, he laid down across the foot of Dream’s bed and stared up at the ceiling as the time passed slowly.

…

If anything, Dream seemed to get worse throughout the day. Sapnap and George stayed well out of his way and Bad tried everything to help and tried to stay patient with him. Dream spent the day on the floor in front of the living room couch, but he’d barricaded himself in with the surrounding throw pillows and didn’t leave his safe square except to go to the bathroom once. 

Bad had to remind the boys to be quiet on several occasions because Dream would get irrationally angry at them and lash out, screaming as much as his wrecked throat would allow and chucking pillows, growing more angry when part of his barricade was subsequently destroyed. He was irritated easily and kept snapping at Bad whenever he came by to check on him or offer him some food and water. Bad would often glance over to see the poor kid with his hands pressed tightly to his ears and his eyes squeezed shut as he swayed or rocked.

His behavior was completely different to how he normally acted. He used to be so timid, so afraid to act out or even to answer a simple question in case he got it wrong. And then, as he’d been adjusting to life in his new home, he’d shown some of his personality, his kindness and his deeply hidden happiness. But this…this was a caged and abused animal that felt backed into a corner, doing everything in his power to survive.

Finally, after a full day of everyone walking on eggshells, Dream snapped. Sapnap hadn’t meant to, it was apparent by the way he apologized profusely immediately after he’d done it. He had been running from George after forgetting to be mindful of Dream’s oversensitivity for the umpteenth time when he tripped over a previously thrown pillow and crashed through Dream’s barricade. Sapnap realized immediately what he had done and scrambled back with apologies spewing from his lips in a desperate play to appease Dream’s anger.

But Dream wasn’t having it. He stood on shaking legs, eyes livid and glowing a brighter green than emeralds in the sun, and he shrieked. It was a terrible, ungodly scream, made raspy by his sore vocal chords, and everything in a ten foot radius of him went flying outward as the house shook in its foundation. Lights flickered and blinked out and the windows shattered, glass shards coming to hover in the air around the boy as if to shield him from danger. 

Bad let out a startled shout, sprinting forward to where Sapnap had been forcefully pushed down from the blast. Being the closest to Dream in his anger, Sapnap didn’t have time or space to protect himself, nor the knowledge of what he was supposed to be protecting himself from. His nose dripped blood sluggishly and he couldn’t look away from the terrifying storm that was Dream–a nine-year-old boy with blond curls and a frail body that was far too small for someone his age. A little boy whose legs were shaking so much from the weight of himself that his knees clicked together. A little boy who possessed powers given to him by the gods and was so traumatized that he’d caused such destruction at a moment’s notice, accidentally no less.

“Are you okay?!” Bad asked a bit frantically, but Sapnap wasn’t paying attention to him. Bad picked him up under the arms and walked him quickly over to where George was hiding behind the counter. He didn’t even have to ask anything of George, the boy automatically pulled his younger brother into his arms and started petting his hair, keeping his eyes trained on the floating swarm of glass surrounding the admin in the living room.

Bad took a breath to steel himself and then approached Dream again. The young admin’s eyes zeroed in on him immediately, but this time instead of anger, his eyes seemed to clear and they widened. With a gasp, Dream dropped his hands and the glass fell all around him. His chest heaved as he struggled to get enough air, and he looked around the trashed living room in a panic, taking in everything in split seconds, even the blood dripping from Sapnap’s nose. 

Bad watched as Dream’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell, knees buckling. Bad lunged, sliding on his knees to catch the child before he could fall in the countless glass shards all around him. Dream was limp and unconscious by the time he made contact with Bad’s arms and the demon pulled him into his lap and wrapped his arms around him in a tight, panicked hug. It was the type of hug a parent gives their kid when they’re terrified they almost lost them. 

Bad’s legs stung with cuts from the glass and blood seeped through his pants slowly, but he stood anyway. He held his son close to his chest, lips pressed firmly to the boy’s feverish forehead with his eyes shut tight as he stood for a moment and cherished the weight of Dream in his arms.

Hearing Sapnap crying softly from the kitchen was enough to bring Bad back to the present and he laid Dream down gently on the couch, brushing his hair away from his eyes and pulling a blanket up to his chin before turning on his heels and hurrying to his other boys.

Sapnap had his face buried in George’s chest, blood and tears staining his shirt while George had his arms wound around Sapnap’s shoulders as he watched his dad approach. “Are you two alright?” He asked softly, brushing Sapnap’s hair out of his face and tucking it back into the bandana before resting his hand on George’s arm. George nodded and then Sapnap did too, sniffling and wiping his nose on George’s shirt. “Ew,” George complained, pushing Sapnap away from him, who giggled tiredly at the action, latching onto Bad instead.

Bad held him close, glancing back at the mess that was the living room. “I think I’m going to have you two stay the night at Skeppy’s house. I’m gonna clean up and I think it would be good if it’s just Dream and I when he wakes up. I’m sure he’s really overwhelmed and he’s probably going to be really sorry when he wakes up.”

Sapnap nodded into his shirt. “Just make sure he has Pandas, okay? And tell him…tell him I’m not mad at him.”

“Okay, Sappy. I’ll tell him.”

Chapter Text

As he waited for Dream to wake up, Bad went about cleaning the living room. He decided he’d better start with the glass. He carefully picked up the bigger pieces to throw in the trash before grabbing the vacuum cleaner. He vacuumed up the glass as quickly as he could because he didn’t want to wake the boy before he was ready to open his eyes; he was clearly exhausted. He ran his fingers softly over the carpet once he was done to be sure he’d gotten all the glass, and once he was satisfied, he put the vacuum back from where he got it.

He paced around the living room after that, picking up pillows, blankets, and all sorts of knick knacks and toys that had gotten thrown every which way. As soon as he deemed the room to be clean, he settled into his favorite arm chair to watch over Dream asleep on the couch. It was very reminiscent of the first night Dream stayed there and it made Bad’s heart ache in his chest. 

Bad took to staring out the window as a slight breeze blew through into the room and ruffled the curtains. Bad would have to fix that in the morning, probably. The sun was starting to set and the sky was turning into a beautiful mix of orange and purple when Dream began to stir. Bad’s eyes snapped to him in an instant, but he stayed put and waited for Dream to wake up a little more and to become more aware of his surroundings so he wasn’t startled too badly.

He watched as the boy pushed himself up into a seated position with shaking arms and gathered his legs close to his chest as his eyes darted around. Finally, his eyes met the demon in the corner and his breathing hitched and sped up as the memories of the afternoon came rushing back.

Remembering Sapnap’s advice, Bad looked around for Pandas almost frantically, catching a glimpse of his paw sticking out from underneath the couch. He made his way over to Dream slowly and with his hands raised, kneeling beside the couch and reaching under it to grab the toy and offer it to Dream as a sign of peace.

To his surprise, Dream wouldn’t take it. He just shook his head and buried his face in his knees, rocking himself back and forth as his stuttered breaths gave way to frantic cries. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” He started to ramble.

“Hey, it’s okay, Dream. Nobody was hurt, you’re safe. It was an accident, you’re safe. No one’s going to hurt you.”

“Imsorryimsorryimsorryimsorry…”

“Dream, listen to me,” Bad said strongly, placing his hands firmly on the boy’s trembling shoulders, a steady weight to ground him. Startled, Dream stopped his mantra and looked up at him through terrified, tear-filled eyes.

“You. Are not. In Trouble. You are not in trouble. I’m not mad at you. You are safe here, I’m not going to hurt you. What you did was an accident. You didn’t mean to. Sapnap is okay, you didn’t hurt him. He’s not mad at you either, okay?”

Dream couldn’t believe it. “But-but…I b-broke everything. I was bad, I need to be punished,” he said, offering Bad his wrists and tucking his chin to his chest, keeping an eye on him still from his defensive position.

Bad could feel his resolve crumbling, but he had to stay strong, even when all he wanted to do was cry at what Dream was telling him, of what he expected of him. God, what did they do to him in there? “No, buddy. You don’t need to be punished. You did nothing wrong, it was an accident. You were overwhelmed and you lashed out a bit. You don’t deserve to be punished, okay? You’ve done nothing wrong. Not now, and certainly not before.” He took a hold of Dream’s offered wrists with gentle hands and lowered them, placing them back in the boy’s lap. 

Dream’s breathing was still panicky and uneven and he was so, so confused, but he was calming down a little bit. His eyes tracked Bad as the demon stayed knelt in front of him. “Can I give you a hug?” he asked quietly, giving Dream time to think about his answer. The boy bit his trembling lip and nodded after careful consideration, and Bad got up to sit on the couch, pulling Dream fully into his arms and enveloping him in his hold. Prime, he hoped the boy could find safety with him; it was all he really wanted, just for this troubled little boy to feel safe.

Dream took a moment to relax, but once he did, he melted into Bad’s chest, squirming to snuggle in and get comfortable. With a deep sigh, he settled, and Bad began to run his hand up and down his back in a soothing manner, playing with the boy’s curly blond locks with the other.

It wasn’t long before Dream drifted back off into sleep and Bad didn’t have any intentions of letting him go.

Chapter Text

The next morning when Skeppy came by with the boys, they found Bad asleep on the couch, head tilted back in an uncomfortable looking position and his mouth open and a tiny trail of drool escaping the corner. Dream was fast asleep on his chest, holding Bad’s sweater tightly in his fist.

A fond smile found itself on Skeppy’s face and he motioned the boys up the stairs, going to sit next to Bad on the couch, reaching over to gently shake his shoulder. “Bad,” he whispered. 

Bad jumped to attention, startled. “Wha–huh?”

“Good morning,” Skeppy said with a chuckle.

“What time is it?” Bad asked through a yawn, tightening his arms around Dream whose nose had wrinkled at the disturbance before settling back into Bad’s hold.

“It’s a little after ten. The boys are upstairs. How’s he doing, by the way?” Skeppy said, motioning to Dream. 

Bad looked down at the boy, raising a hand to run his fingers through his blond curls. He seemed to think about the question for a few moments before answering. “He’s doing about as well as you could expect. I thought he was doing better, but yesterday was…bad. I don’t know what happened for sure, he was just really overwhelmed and irritable all day and then boom , glass everywhere. I think…I think he should see Puffy, but it’s probably still too soon for that.”

Puffy was trained in psychology and though she didn’t make diagnoses that often as she was more based in therapy (which was something Dream also needed), she still had the authority to diagnose people when the opportunity arose. Bad was almost positive Dream had PTSD, but he wanted her to make sure and do a full exam.

“How is Sapnap doing?” Bad asked, the boy’s bloody nose and shocked face still clear in his mind.

“He’s good. He had another bloody nose before bed, but that may have had more to do with the fact that George shoved him into a door frame than any leftover magic effects.” Skeppy explained. Bad spluttered and was about to ask more questions when Dream shifted, whining quietly. Skeppy scooted away quickly to avoid scaring him, as they’d only really been around each other when Dream was asleep or hiding under a table.

Bad started running hands up and down Dream’s back as he woke slowly, releasing Bad’s sweater and using his fist to rub his eyes. “Hey, Dream,” he whispered and the boy sighed, melting into Bad’s soothing touch, the epitome of peace on his features. Bad had never seen him look so calm. But of course, nothing can last forever. 

“ DREAM!” Sapnap came barreling down the stairs and leaped onto the couch in between Bad and Skeppy, bouncing lightly on his knees. Bad’s eyes widened almost comically as he prepared to frantically hush Sapnap and deal with a panicked admin, but instead, giggles reached his ears. 

“Hi, Sappy,” Dream said, green eyes spaced out slightly as he reached his hand out to his giddy brother. 

“Hi,” Sapnap said back, grabbing onto Dream’s hand and, before anyone could stop him, he started on a tangent about how freaking awesome Dream’s outburst had been, how the glass had gone everywhere and how it knocked Sapnap clean off his feet. Dream giggled in response, intertwining their fingers and holding on tight. 

“I thought it was cool too,” George siad, trying to insert himself into the conversation and be noticed. 

“Hi, George,” Dream said quietly, a soft smile on his face. George practically started glowing. 

Bad and Skeppy shared a look over the boys’ heads. Sure, it was great that Dream was being happy and giggly, but after the day he’d had yesterday, this was insanely out of character. Bad was more concerned than anything, and he gently put his hands between himself and Dream and pushed the boy upright a bit so he could look at his face. He had a calm and happy expression, and his green eyes were almost glazed over. 

“Hey, bud, can you look at me please?” He asked, and it took Dream a considerable amount of time to meet his eyes lazily. Bad could tell by their eye contact that after a few moments, Dream’s eyes lost focus. He still stared into Bad’s white, glowing eyes, but he wasn’t truly seeing them. His expression slowly fell flat and he stopped responding when Bad and Skeppy tried to get his attention.

“What’s he doing, Bad?” Skeppy asked in an uneasy tone.

Bad was growing frantic, feeling Dream’s forehead and snapping his fingers in front of his face, but nothing was working. Dream was staring off into space, not really there. 

“He did that before once,” Sapnap spoke from beside him on the couch. 

Bad whipped his head around. “What, this? Staring off and not responding?”

Sapnap nodded. “When?” Bad asked, frantic. 

Shrugging, Sap said, “I don’t know, the one time I gave him Pandas. He was like this so I just shook his shoulder. Then he saw me.”

Bad bit his lip. He didn’t know what was happening or what to do about it. If this has happened before, then it will probably happen again. He needed to know what was going on and what he could do about it. “Skeppy, would you mind messaging Puffy and asking her to come by as soon as possible? Tell her it’s an emergency.”

Skeppy jumped to his feet with a nod and left the room. “What’s going on with him?” George asked, head cocked to the side. 

“I don’t know George,” he said, pulling Dream back down so he could rest against his chest and began administering the soothing back rubs once more as they waited for Puffy to arrive.

Chapter Text

A little while of tense silence later, there was a knock on the door. Skeppy jumped up to answer the door and Bad could hear the clipped greetings from the doorway. Captain Puffy was led through the hall and into the living room where Bad still sat on the couch with an unresponsive Dream in his arms. Sapnap and George sat on the carpeted floor quietly, for once.

“Hi, Bad,” Puffy said with a smile as she came closer. She had a notebook with her that she set aside in favor of sitting on the couch next to him. “He looks like he’s doing better. He’s been eating well.”

With a start, Bad remembered that Puffy had been there for Dream’s rescue and had seen the boy at his worst. “He should be eating more, but I’ll take what I can get. We’ll get there.”

Puffy nodded. “So, what’s the emergency?”

Bad didn’t quite know where to start, so he sort of said it all. “Well, yesterday he was having such a bad time, he was overwhelmed and he was getting mad at every little thing. We were trying to give him space, but it wasn’t really helping and then he triggered accidental magic, like Phil said, and then passed out. He freaked out a bit when he woke up, but I got him to calm down and go back to sleep. Then, he woke up this morning all giddy and loopy, which was really strange, and then he just sort of…spaced out and hasn’t responded since, so I had Skeppy call you.”

Puffy nodded, thinking through different scenarios before asking Bad to sit Dream up. She studied his expression and then tracked how his eyes stayed focused on one fixed point as she moved a light in front of his eyes. She tried talking to him as well, even tapped his arm a few times, but nothing happened. 

Bad and Skeppy watched her anxiously, waiting on the results. Puffy grabbed her notebook again and began writing, flipping back to previous pages on occasion. Finally, she closed it and addressed the two. “He’s dissociating, I think.”

Bad and Skeppy shared a look. “What does that mean?” Bad asked. 

“Dissociation is a coping mechanism that the brain does to disconnect when there’s too much stress or triggers. It unfortunately is often caused by trauma.”

“Is it…is it bad? Is there anything we can do? It’s not hurting him, is it?”

Puffy shook her head. “No, it’s not…well it’s not bad , it’s just the way he has learned to cope with all the traumatic things in his life. I’m sure he’s had to do it a lot in the past to get away from intense things, so it doesn’t surprise me that he would keep doing it when he gets too overwhelmed. You can’t really treat it, but just…keep an eye on him. If you notice him dissociating, make sure he’s safe and that he can’t hurt himself. And it doesn’t always look like this either, he might not always know he’s doing it. Some people have dissociated for months or even years without really knowing.”

Bad let out a shaky breath. “Wow, that’s…a lot. I don’t–how often will this happen?’

Puffy shrugged. “Who knows? There’s not really a set timer. Just whenever he needs to, I guess. And it’s…safe, mostly. He just might miss time or forget things. Remember, it’s a survival tactic that he has had to learn to protect himself.”

“Yeah,” Bad said, nodding along. “Yeah, okay. I get it, I think.”

Puffy smiled warmly as Bad pulled Dream back down to his chest and wrapped his arms around the boy in a protective hug. “I’m glad I could help. Is there anything else you need while I’m here? Any questions I can answer for you?”

Bad thought about it, but nothing came to mind. “Oh! I was wondering if you would do an exam at some point? I’m suspecting PTSD, but I’m not an expert, obviously. And if there’s…anything else. He’s been through…a lot, you know, and I just want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to make sure he’s safe and happy. And…maybe we should start him on therapy?”

Nodding along with a reassuring smile, Puffy agreed. “How about this? Niki and I have a mission for the Syndicate, but I can be back next week to do an exam. And then we can discuss further steps then.”

Bad sighed in relief. “Yeah, that would be perfect. I’ll let you know if anything changes. Thank you so much for this, Puffy, I was really worried.”

Puffy leaned over and gave Bad a hug. “I don’t mind at all. I’ll see you next week!” And with that, she was gone.

“What’s PSTD?” Sapnap asked, silence spell broken immediately. 

“It’s PTSD,” Bad corrected. “And…hm. It’s, uh, something that happens to a person after something really scary or really bad happens to them. Yeah. Like, they get nightmares about it and stuff.”

“Like Dream does?” George asked.

“Mhm. But we don’t know yet if he has it, so we’ll just have to wait for Puffy, okay? And don’t ask Dream about it either, that’s rude.”

“How is it rude?” Sapnap asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

Bad gave Skeppy a pleading look. These questions were too much for him right now.

Spluttering, Skeppy turned back to the boys. “Uh…it just is. It’s like…if I asked you why you smell bad, you don’t just say that.”

“Do I smell bad?”

“Well, no, it was just an example–”

“Okay,” Bad interrupted, “that’s enough of that. Why don’t you three go play outside until lunch?”

The three sighed and got to their feet. They knew it wasn’t really a question.

…

Skeppy, George, and Sapnap had only been outside for about half an hour when Bad felt Dream shift. He was instantly on high alert, craning his neck to see the boy blinking rapidly before he pushed himself up to sit.

“Hey,” Bad said softly. “How are you feeling?”

Dream didn’t answer him, just lifted a fist to his eyes with a yawn. As he became more aware, he started to look around in confusion, fear slowly settling into his calm expression. “Wha…the-the glass was…I hurt Sapnap, where–?” His eyes filled with tears and his breathing picked up. He was about to have a panic attack, and if Bad could stop it before it happened, he was sure going to try.

“Hey, hey, slow down. It’s okay. Sapnap is fine, remember? He wasn’t hurt, what you did was an accident and it’s all been cleaned up. You’re safe, you’re not in trouble.”

Bad started counting Dream through his breathing while holding his hands and soon enough, the boy was able to calm down and take Bad’s word as the truth. He still looked around at everything, a bit puzzled, but then he turned back to him. “Can I see Sapnap? Please? I…I wanna make sure.”

“Of course,” Bad said, standing and swinging Dream around so he was sitting on his back, to which Dream giggled at the sudden action. “Off we go!”

And the rest of the morning was spent with laughter, however rare it may be at times.

Chapter Text

As it turns out, Dream didn’t seem to be able to catch a break. It had been a few days since his outburst and he hadn’t dissociated since. Things were looking up. Dream was playing with Sapnap more and more, and George was finally able to join them with little difficulty. As the evening stretched on and the sky turned darker, Bad and the boys played board games in the living room. Dream sat in Bad’s lap as they gathered around the coffee table. George was in the middle of teasing Sapnap for taking so long on his turn, when there was a sudden loud pounding on the door that made them all jump. 

The warm, cozy mood of their game night dissipated as silence crept over them. George and Sapnap shared a look and the pounding started up again, seeming more aggressive if that was even possible. Bad stood, setting Dream down between Sapnap and George. “Stay here,” he said firmly. Dream grabbed onto Sapnap’s hand tightly, fright filling his eyes and shaking in his shoulders.

Bad steeled himself as he went to the door, clenching his fists and preparing himself to do whatever he had to when he opened that door. Part of him hoped it was just Skeppy on the other side of the door, pranking him, but he knew it wasn’t.

The diamond sword he always kept handy in his inventory materialized in his hand as he reached forward to open the door. Two men he’d never seen before stood there dressed in dark clothes. One held a compass in front of him, the needle pointing past Bad and into the house. The other had a coil of rope fastened to his belt and a few splash potions at the ready. Bad’s eyes instantly narrowed and he flexed his fingers on the grip of the sword.

“What do you want?” He asked with a bite to his tone, a while-knuckle grip on the door, making sure it only stayed open exactly as wide as he allowed.

“I believe you have something of ours,” the man with the compass said. Bad winced when he heard Dream give a choked cry from the living room. That was enough for Bad, because clearly Dream recognized the man’s voice.

“You need to leave,” he said.

The other man ignored him, lunging past Bad with surprising speed. There was a flurry of sound all of a sudden, the shatter of glass as a potion of weakness exploded and the terror-filled screams of Dream as the man with the ropes grabbed him, his whole fist wrapping around the boy’s bicep in a way that reminded Bad starkly of the day he first met George.

Sapnap and George were spurred into action as Sap clutched onto Dream’s hand and then his whole arm all the tighter, not willing to let go and George, eyes flashing with craze, using his sharp nails to dig into the admin hunter’s fingers and trying to pry them away from where he was clearly hurting Dream with his grip. George even went so far as to sink his teeth into the man’s forearm, getting him to loosen his grip just enough for Sapnap to pull Dream away. 

The two fell in a heap on the floor and Sapnap pulled Dream with him farther away as the boy sobbed, George standing in front of the two with his teeth bared, growling low in his throat. Bad hurried to put himself in front of all three of them, keeping himself between his boys and the two men in front of him. The air was thick with the fumes of weakness and Bad’s anger rolled off him in waves. 

Fiery red adrenaline flooded his veins as the shadows crept from his body and snuffed out the lights and created cold and desolate corners. He was growing to his full height, head brushing the ceiling as horns crew out of his skull, fingers elongating into terrifyingly sharp claws and canines extended to fangs. His eyes glowed white and red vines spread across his skin and outwards, tripping the hunters and wrapping around them, squeezing and restricting while the vines behind Bad worked to protect his boys.

Bad stalked closer to the incapacitated hunters on the ground as they shook in terror. “I thought I told you to leave,” he seethed, voice low and gravely. He stabbed his diamond sword into the living room floor and split it open, the red vines slipping easily into the cracks and opening the chasm wider as vines from within fought to escape. “This will teach you not to mess with my family,” he said as vines dragged the hunters into the depths of hell. 

It was only after the crack had sealed itself closed that Bad realized what he had done. With a gasp, he came back to himself and spun on his heels to check on the boys. Sapnap was holding Dream in a steady hug as the boy clutched Sap’s shirt tightly in his fists as he shook with sobs, body heavy and almost limp from the weakness potion as George sat beside him, rubbing over his bruised arm.

Bad lowered himself to his knees in front of Dream, a bottomless pit of guilt eating away at his insides. He couldn’t believe he’d let himself go like that in front of Dream. He wouldn’t be able to bear it if the boy was scared of him now when Bad was one of his only sources of comfort. 

But to his surprise, when Dream realized he was right there in front of him, his eyes widened with pure awe and he threw himself into Bad’s arms with all the strength he could muster, melting in the embrace Bad was so willing to offer. He cried himself half to sleep, and right before he drifted off in what could only be a potion-fueled exhaustion, Bad just barely caught his whispered, “You meant it.”

Chapter Text

“What’s that?”

George jumped, whirling around in his seat to see Dream sitting next to him on the couch, peering over his shoulder. He had been so absorbed in reading his book that he hadn’t even noticed the boy creep up on him. He was also surprised that the boy was curious enough to break out of his nervous shell and ask.

George’s brows furrowed when he registered the question. He flipped the book over to show him the cover, keeping it open on his thumb. “It’s The Bastion Chronicles . I got it for Christmas and I’m on the third one already. There’s five.”

Dream mouthed the title back to him, focused intensely on the cover art: the blackstone structure with piglins in the background and the brave main character in diamond armor wielding a sword. George was finding this attention really out of place and a little strange, but he wasn’t complaining. Sapnap hogged Dream way too much and George was just happy to have some of his attention.

Finally, the blonde boy looked up from the cover and tilted his head. “But what is it?” He asked again, confusing George even more.

“What do you mean? I just told you.”

Almost instantly, George could see the boy retreat back into himself self-consciously, his shoulders raising minutely as he leaned away from George and averted his eyes. George was quick to try and get the curiosity back, kicking himself for accidentally making the quiet boy feel bad about asking a question. “Wait, no it’s fine, it’s just a book.”

Dream took the bait, his apprehensions leaving as he sat back up a little straighter. “A book,” he whispered to himself in awe and George gave it willingly when he mindlessly reached for it and took the book in his hands. He flipped through the pages, puzzled and confused. George could see him mouthing the words a book, a book, book, book, book, over and over again and it dawned on him that Dream truly didn’t know what it was. 

His first instinct was to scoff and demand how the hell Dream didn’t know what a book was, but he bit his tongue. He remembered what Bad said about the place Dream came from and how bad it was. George could tell it was terrible there if Dream’s timid attitude and terrible nightmares were anything to go by, but they didn’t tell him what books were? Did he even know how to read?

“Dream, can you read?”

Dream’s eyes lingered on the pages for a moment before he met George’s eyes. “What’s read?”

George couldn’t believe it. “It means you can tell what it says. Like, you know what it means…the words.”

“Oh,” Dream said, looking back down at the book without quite grasping the weight of George’s question. He shrugged. “No.”

George stood, and that took Dream right out of his focus. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I don’t know how, am I supposed to know? I can try, I’ll try, I’m sorry.” George’s mouth fell right open as Dream’s eyes widened and he spewed apologies, trying to force the book back into George’s hands. George didn’t know when it had happened, but he’d started to shake again. 

George just shook his head, pressing Dream’s hands around the book. “No, you can keep looking if you want. You don’t have to try, it’s okay.” And then, trying out a phrase he’d heard Bad use: “I’m not mad.” Oh, Dream mouthed to himself, looking confused and lost. “I’ll be right back, okay? I just have to ask Bad a question.”

George left the room quickly, speeding into the kitchen where Bad was singing quietly to himself as he made soup for lunch. “Oh hi George, what’s up?”

“Dream can’t read,” he said in a hurry. 

Bad put the spoon down that he was using to try the soup and gave his full attention to George. “Oh. Huh, I guess I didn’t even think of that. I guess–”

“No, you don’t understand. He didn’t know what a book was!”

That surprised Bad. “Oh no. That’s…Well. I guess we’ll just have to teach him, huh? We can have reading lessons!”

“Doesn’t Tommy know how to read though? He’s like, four.”

Bad gave him a look. “Tommy has a good, nice family to teach him how, George. Dream didn’t have that. We’re his family now, and if he learns to read a little late, so what? Okay? Don’t make him feel bad about something that’s not his fault.”

George nodded, looking down. “I know you don’t mean anything by it, but sometimes we hurt people’s feelings without meaning to alright? But, we learn from our mistakes!” Bad said, ruffling George’s hair and pulling him into a side hug. George cracked a smile and nestled further into Bad’s side. “Okay, go get your brothers, it’s time for lunch.”

Chapter Text

It seemed like the week had gotten away from them and before they knew it, it was time for Captain Puffy to make her return and start with Dream’s evaluation. Before she arrived, Bad went to find Dream and explain to him what was going on so he wasn’t scared. What he found warmed his heart. 

Dream was sitting next to George on the floor, both of them leaning back against the couch as they poured over a book in George’s lap. Bad recognized the book as one Skeppy had gifted Sapnap when he was first learning to read. It had short, simple words that all rhymed in a big font with lots of pictures. The book was about pandas eating bamboo, which was probably why Sapnap loved the animals so much. 

George was patiently helping Dream sound out the words, and when he got it right after a few tries, George’s eyes lit up in pride and he praised Dream enthusiastically, the younger boy beaming, cheeks flushing at his success. “Okay, try the next one,” George encouraged. Bad stood against the wall just watching for a few moments as Dream’s eyebrows furrowed and he tried out a few different pronunciations before settling on the right one, looking up at George right away to see if he’d gotten it correct. George threw his arm over Dream’s shoulder and squeezed him closer. “Yes! Good job!” Dream giggled, on top of the world.

Bad hated to interrupt, but alas he had to. He knocked on the wall to get the boys’ attention and when they both looked up from the book, he walked over and sat on the floor in front of them. “Hey, I heard you reading, Dream, you’re doing so good!” Bad had been teaching Dream the basics of reading throughout the week just like he had done with Sapnap two years prior, and whenever they weren’t having reading lessons, Bad would often find him practicing with George.

Dream practically melted with the praise, smiling so wide and hugging himself as he giggled. “Thank you.”

Bad smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair, ruffling George’s as well when the older boy gave him a pout. “Well I’m sorry to cut this short, but Puffy’s going to be here soon and we’ve gotta talk about what’s going to happen when she gets here.”

Dream started to look apprehensive at that. “Who’s Puffy?” He asked quietly.

Bad was about to remind him that she had come to see him before abruptly remembering that he wouldn’t have remembered because he was dissociating at the time. “She’s a really nice woman that helped rescue you from the Bad Place. She just wants to talk to you and ask you some questions okay? I promise she’s not going to hurt you at all okay? Pinky promise,” he said, offering his pinky. It was something they had started doing after the hunter incident a few days prior. Sapnap had asked Bad for a pinky promise to ensure that Bad would save his half-eaten muffin for after dinner and Dream had asked questions about the action which lead Sapnap to explain the sacred promise that could never be broken. So whenever Dream got scared and needed reassurance, or if Bad made promises, Dream started to ask for a pinky promise.

Dream contemplated what Bad said and nodded, hooking their pinkies and trusting his words. “All you have to do is answer her questions and be honest, buddy. She might ask you about some uncomfortable or scary things, so just tell her if you don’t want to answer at any time and she won’t make you, okay?”

“Okay,” Dream whispered.

There was a knock on the door and Dream jumped, grabbing George’s hand on instinct. “That’ll be Puffy,” Bad said with a smile, giving Dream another pat on the head before standing to get the door.

When Bad opened the door, Puffy greeted him with a wide smile. “Bad, hello!”

“Hi, Puffy,” Bad said, “Come in.” He stepped aside and motioned her inside. “He’s right this way.”

Puffy followed closely behind Bad, tucking her curly white hair behind her ear. When they got to the living room, Dream was already staring in their direction apprehensively, his fingers drumming on his knees anxiously. Puffy gave him a warm smile and stepped around Bad, kneeling on the floor in front of the boy. George stood and went to stand by Bad.

“Hi, Dream. My name is Captain Puffy, but everybody just calls me Puffy.”

“Hi,” Dream whispered back, watching her every move very carefully. 

“So Dream, what’re you reading?”

Dream cocked his head, confused. This was clearly not what he had been expecting, but he picked the book off the floor regardless to show to her. “It’s…Paw-Lee. Polly. T. Th…The. P-p-pan-da. Panda.” He sounded out the title very carefully, taking his time to get it right. He remembered the title from earlier when George told him, but he wanted to try and read it himself anyway.

“Wow, that’s a nice book, do you like pandas?” Puffy asked.

Dream nodded, relaxing a bit as he reached beside him to grab his stuffed panda. “Yeah. So does Sapnap. He gave me this. His name is Pandas, and I love him.”

“Aw, Pandas is a good name. Have you been liking it here? I heard you have your own bedroom!”

Bad steered George away from the living room with his hands on his shoulders to give Puffy and Dream space. “Let’s go find Sapnap for a bit,” he suggested quietly, so the two went outside where Sap had been apparently making a mud castle for his seven frogs that he somehow accumulated in the time he’d been outside.

…

It was some time later when the back door opened and Dream came tearing across the muddy lawn to join Sapnap and George in their frog endeavors. Puffy followed with a fond smile, her hands in the front pockets of her jeans. She met Bad’s eyes, jerking her head back in the direction she came. With a quick explanation to the boys, Bad followed her inside and the two stood right inside, both glancing out the window from time to time to watch the boys.

“So?” Bad asked. 

Puffy’s attention was on Dream as he giggled, picking up a handful of mud and dumping it in Sapnap’s hair, rubbing it into the strands as the younger boy shrieked. “He’s such a strong kid. He’s been through…unthinkable things. And not unscathed, but I have high hopes for his future.”

“Did you…find anything? Like, a diagnosis or something?”

She nodded, reaching behind her to find her notebook and opening it up to the most recent page. “So as we were talking, I eased him into the tougher questions and I can say with confidence that he has PTSD, depression, anxiety, and ADHD.”

Bad, although he expected most of that, was still shocked. Having it confirmed was different than just speculating. He had known with almost absolute certainty that Dream had PTSD, and he suspected depression and anxiety to be added to the mix at some point if they weren’t already apparent, but the ADHD diagnosis caught him off guard.

“ADHD? Doesn’t one of Phil’s kids have that? Techno I think? What…can you explain that one to me?”

Puffy nodded. “Of course. ADHD stands for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. It’s…a fairly common developmental disorder which…okay well, it’s in the name. Problems with attention, focus, hyperactivity, impulsiveness. Sensory issues are big with him as well, I think. I’m going to guess that he was experiencing something called a sensory overload when he lashed out last week, based on what he told me about how was feeling, or what he could remember at least. And as he got more comfortable with me, I found other signs, like how he was stimming to regulate himself as we were talking about some of the tougher subjects by tapping his fingers together and flapping his hands at times. There’s obviously a lot more that goes into every one of these diagnoses, so I’ll send you a few books that I have for you to read up on it.”

Bad nodded along, only sort of following. It was all a lot to wrap his head around. “So, for everything…is there anything I can do? To help?”

“Oh yeah, there’s loads of things. But mostly, it’ll take time and patience. There will be lots of tips and tricks for parenting children with mental illnesses and how to help. I would also strongly suggest therapy. I can start with weekly sessions with him if that’s something you think should happen.”

That was something Bad had already considered at length, so he agreed readily. 

“There’s also the question of medication. PTSD cannot be medicated, but anxiety, depression, and ADHD can be. We can start him on some meds to help stabilize his moods and help him focus, but there can be a lot of negative side effects to think about and it can be difficult and stressful for him to find the right medication. But it’s up to you if you think it would be best.”

Bad thought about it for a few moments, looking out the window. It had started to rain lightly while they were inside and he could hear his kids’ laughter through the door as they hopped around the grass, looking for more frogs. 

“I think…we should wait on medication for now. We can revisit later, but right now I think that’s a little too much.”

Puffy nodded, jotting that down. “So I’ll be back next week for a session?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.”

Once Puffy left, Bad went back outside in the rain, letting it wash away his stress and apprehensions for the time being as he let himself enjoy the joyfulness of a rainy, muddy day with the frogs.

Chapter Text

Just as promised, Puffy brought over the books the next day and Bad started reading immediately every spare moment he got. The Frog Palace had become a favorite play topic, so Bad would sit outside on the back porch and read while the boys collected their many frogs, named them, lost them, found them again, and built a mud castle for them to live in. Bad let them have free reign with their project as long as they promised not to kill them on purpose.

Bad added the ‘on purpose’ bit after Sapnap walked up to him with a smoking frog in his open palm, grimacing. “I cooked it,” he said.

“I see that,” Bad said back, wrinkling his nose at the smell. “Was it an accident?”

Sapnap nodded, staring intently at the fried frog. “Okay, well mistakes happen. Don’t do it on purpose.”

“Okay!” Sapnap said, leaving the burnt frog on the little table beside Bad’s coffee and running back to George and Dream. Bad gagged and quickly grabbed a stick to flick the frog off the table. He noticed that Dream had been watching the interaction intently, looking confused as to how Sapnap hadn’t gotten in trouble. Bad only hoped that in time Dream would get used to not having to be worried about being punished when he made a mistake or asked a question. He was getting better, of course, but there were still times that he’d get a little too lost in his head and would react badly to simple things he’d started to get used to.  

Bad sighed and picked up his book again. Puffy brought him a separate book for each mental illness or disorder Dream was diagnosed with and he was currently half-way through the first one about ADHD. It was full of things he hadn’t even thought of, but when he compared the symptoms and situations to Dream, everything started making a lot more sense. There were also lots of parenting tips for how to manage Dream’s ADHD without getting frustrated. There was even a chapter on fidget toys and how they can help with stimming, so Bad added that to his mental list of things to look into.

“George! What the hell ?!” 

Bad’s attention was officially grabbed and he looked up quickly, seeing Sapnap starting to get angry, a bit of steam rising off his forearms in the cool morning air as he shoved George backward into the mud. “Hey, language!” Bad shouted, standing to diffuse the situation.

George growled and sprung forward, tackling Sapnap and the two started wrestling, screaming at each other about who knows what. Dream had scooted away from them, eyes wide as his hands started to shake. Bad ran quickly to them, grabbing George under the arms and lifting him off Sapnap. He was still kicking and swinging but Bad held him firmly to his chest and spoke calmly to diffuse his anger. Eventually, George went limp, breathing heavily, so Bad set him down. Sapnap sat up, angrily wiping mud off his face but only succeeding in spreading it around more.

“What was this about?” Bad asked sternly. He was met with two answering grumbles. “Speak up, I can’t hear you.”

“George stole my favorite frog Mars. And he won’t give him back.”

“I did not! And you stole Beckerson! Beckerson is mine !”

“Woah, woah, slow down,” Bad cut in quickly, trying to diffuse the situation before it got heated again (literally). Smoke was starting to rise from Sapnap’s ears, which was his biggest tell for when he was really angry. “George, did you steal Mars?” George opened his mouth to answer indignantly, but Bad held up a hand. “Honestly.”

George looked down. “No. I didn’t.”

“Okay. Sapnap, did you steal Beckerson?”

“No,” Sapnap said. 

“Okay, so there’s been a misunderstanding. Neither of you took the other’s frog. Is there any way they could have hopped away?”

Sapnap shook his head as tears started to gather in his waterline, but they evaporated before they could fall. “No, they were in the fighting den. They were just about to fight, but then they were gone! They couldn’t have hopped out, the walls are too high!”

Bad hummed, trying to come up with another possibility when he heard a whimper. His Dad Instincts™ kicked in instantly and he turned to find Dream, terror in his eyes, sucking in quick, panicked breaths. In his hands were two frogs.

“Dream, can you take deep breaths for me? You’re safe, you’re not in trouble.”

Dream was hyperventilating at that point, even as Bad gently took the frogs and put them back in the ‘fighting pit.’ “I’m-so-sor-sorry, s-sorry. I j-ju-just w-wanted to g-give them a p-p-present. For, f-for good-good luck. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I d-didn’t mean it, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no you’re okay, Dream. It’s alright, you’re not in trouble, bud. Breathe with me,” Bad tried, exaggerating his breathing and reaching for Dream’s hands, because that usually helped to ground him. But when their hands made contact, Dream screamed and jumped back, slipping in the mud and scrambling to get purchase on the unsteady ground, trying to get away. Bad was quick to put his hands up in surrender, speaking firmly and calmly to Dream as he approached slowly.

“Please don’t hurt me, please don’t, I don’t wanna, don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me,” he cried over and over, trembling like a leaf. He stopped trying to get away and stayed where he was with his arms up over his face to protect himself, accepting his fate.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Dream. You are safe. Can you open your eyes for me?”

Slowly and with a lot of shaking, Dream lowered his arms and peered up at Bad with red, tear-filled eyes. “Can you look around, bud? You are in the backyard playing with frogs, not at the Bad Place. You are safe here, no one is going to hurt you. Can I hold your hands?”

Dream took a moment to process the question before he very cautiously held out his hands. Bad took them in his own and held them firmly, rubbing circles onto the backs of his hands with his thumbs. It had the desired effect and Dream was soon able to focus more on Bad’s words and follow his breathing instructions. Once Dream had stopped hyperventilating and was able to get a better grasp on his reality, Bad offered a hug, to which the boy readily accepted. 

“I’m sorry you felt this way, Dream. I know it’s a hard thing to remember sometimes, but I pinky promise that I’ll never hurt you. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay? Sometimes we just react without thinking, and George and Sapnap are sorry for making you feel bad.”

George and Sapnap nodded and voiced their agreements, both sitting with guilty expressions. Dream nodded into his shoulder, already committed to being a koala for the rest of the day, but Bad didn’t mind. “Do you want Pandas?” Bad asked into Dream’s curly blond hair. The boy nodded, so Sapnap jumped up and ran in the house, returning seconds later with the beloved stuffed animal. 

“Here you go, Dream,” he said quietly. Dream poked his head out from his hiding place and reached out for the panda, retracting his hand quickly back to his body once he had the toy.

“Thank you,” he whispered. 

From that point on, Dream decided he was going to stay attached to Bad while he read his book, and George and Sapnap went back to placing bets on their frogs in the fighting pit. Bad made a mental note to bring that up again later and explain why it was illegal (on a larger scale of course), but he figured it didn’t make much of a difference at the moment. 

As he opened his book back up and began reading again, Dream relaxed into his chest and the exhausted boy’s eyes unfocused as he stared off into the distance. He could hear George complaining about how the frog fight ended in a draw because neither had a good luck present from Dream.

Chapter Text

“Uh…Bad, there’s a crow at your window.”

Bad didn’t bother looking up from where he was helping Dream stretch his legs to answer Skeppy’s statement. “Cool,” he said, distracted. On top of Dream’s reading lessons, they’ve been doing exercises, starting small and working up. They were trying to build up Dream’s physical strength, as his muscles had atrophied in captivity. He had already come a long way from when he first arrived. Back then, he could hardly stand for more than a few moments without his legs giving out, but now he could run around with Sapnap and George for a longer amount of time before getting tired.

“No, but like…it’s been tapping the glass for five minutes now. It really wants to come inside,” Skeppy pointed out.

Bad sighed and stood, letting Dream know they could be done for now. The boy nodded and got to his feet, wandering off to find Sapnap, probably, Pandas clutched tightly in his fist. Going to the window, Bad found that there was indeed a crow that was furiously tapping the glass. Against his better judgment, he unlatched the window and opened it, letting the bird fly inside. Skeppy shrieked, “What are you thinking?!” But instead of the bird reeking havoc, it landed nicely on Bad’s shoulder and stuck out its leg. Bad noticed for the first time that there was a note attached, so he carefully reached up to untie the paper, wincing when the crow pecked at his finger. 

Unfurling it, he read:

Dear BadBoyHalo,

I hope this letter reaches you well. I am messaging to let you know that I was able to get in contact with Callahan recently to set up a visit. I have sent him the world address and the coords to your house, so he will be visiting in a week’s time. 

–Philza Minecraft

A smile broke out on Bad’s face and he looked at Skeppy, expecting him to be just as excited. “Bad, you gotta let me read it before I can know what you’re happy about.”

“Oh. Right,” Bad said, quickly handing over the letter and letting the crow back out the window, thanking it for its service.

“Who the hell is Callahan?” Skeppy asked.

“He’s an admin from the compound. Dream talks about him a lot. It sounds like he was pretty protective of Dream when they were there and he looked out for him, so I wanted to see if he could come visit because Dream misses him.”

Skeppy’s expression melted into a smile. “Aw, Baaaad that’s so sweet.”

“Thank you,” Bad responded simply with a shrug. “I figured it might cheer him up.”

“So when are you gonna tell him?” Skeppy asked. 

Bad tilted his head to think about it. “Hm. Maybe later? I have something else for him. A little surprise.”

…

Later in the evening after Skeppy had gone home and supper had been eaten, Bad went off in search of Dream. He found him where he often does nowadays, reading with George and Sapnap.

“Hey, boys,” Bad interrupted. “I have a few surprises for Dream!”

Dream looked up upon hearing his name and grinned when he heard there was a surprise just for him. He started squirming where he sat, antsy to figure out what it was going to be. 

“I had Sam help me pick out some toys for you. They’re called ‘fidget toys’ and they’re super fun. You can play with them whenever you want; if you’re in a good mood or you’re feeling not so good, they’re supposed to help you.”

Dream tilted his head to the side, a little confused. “Here, let me show you. This one’s called a Pop-It. It has little bubbles you can pop and they make a satisfying little noise when you do.”

Dream reached out for it cautiously as Bad held it out to him. He gasped slightly when it flopped in his hands as he hadn’t expected the material to be so droopy. He gave the bubbles a few experimental pops before flipping it over and doing it again. He quickly got into a cycle of popping all the bubbles on one side and then turning it over, and Bad figured he better introduce the other two toys he got before Dream got too focused on the first one.

“Okay, and this next one is called a Fidget Cube.” Dream looked up from his bubble popping and eagerly took the cube this time, no hesitation. “It has a bunch of different switches and buttons to play with.” A smile grew quickly on the boy’s face as he began flipping the light switch side, trying to balance it in the middle.

Bad’s heart warmed at the sight. “Okay, one more. This one’s not much of a toy, but it’s a necklace you can wear that has a charm on it you can chew on. Look, it’s green!”

Dream let Bad put the necklace over his head and then instantly grabbed at the silicone charm and stuck it in his mouth, giggling at the squeaky sound it made when he chewed it. “‘ank you, Bad,” Dream told him around a mouth full of charm, a warm smile and soft blush on his face.

“Aw, you’re welcome bud. I have one more surprise though, alright?”

Dream nodded eagerly, tipping to the side into George in his excitement, who giggled and pushed him back upright.

“Well, I talked to Phil, the nice admin with the wings, and guess what? Deer is coming to visit!”

Dream’s eyes widened as his mouth fell open, the charm falling back down to his chest, a thin line of drool following it. “Really? For real?” Dream asked. His voice was so quiet, like he could hardly dare to hope for such a thing.

“Yeah Dream, for real,” Bad answered softly.

Dream launched himself into Bad’s lap, wrapping his arms around him tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” the boy said, over and over.

Bad rested his cheek on top of the boy's hair and rubbed his back. “Anything for you, bud. Anything for you.”

Chapter Text

Ever since receiving the news, Dream had been in a constant state of ecstasy. He was practically bouncing off the walls with all his nervous energy, it was everything Sapnap and George could do to keep him entertained. And finally, the day arrived that Callahan would be visiting. Bad had informed Dream the night before he was expected to arrive, which in hindsight turned out to be a mistake, because the boy proceeded to not sleep. At all.

So of course, Bad didn’t sleep either. Dream was just so excited and jittery that he spent the whole night bouncing around on Bad’s bed (he’d snuck in an hour after he was tucked into his own bed and explained that he was just too excited to sleep). He told Bad all about his day and what sorts of games he played with the boys. He went on and on about the book he was reading with George and how much he loved his new toys. He demonstrated by holding out the fidget cube and seeing how fast he could click all five buttons on one of the sides. He would get frustrated because he wasn’t doing it as fast as usual, so he would try again. “Okay, ready? Go!” he would tell Bad, making him time it. This went on for several hours and all Bad could do was lay back in bed and watch with a fond smile.

When the sun rose behind the curtains and Dream showed no signs of being tired or even remotely slowing down, Bad sighed and pulled himself out of bed. He threw on some clothes and then guided the hyperactive boy to his own room and urged him to do the same. Then, the two of them headed down the stairs to the kitchen where Bad started the coffee and started toasting a bagel for Dream. 

Sapnap and George soon joined Dream sitting at the counter so Bad stuck another two bagels in the toaster and poured himself a cup of coffee. He was about to jump up on the counter to sit across from them but then remembered how the boys weren’t allowed to do that, so he decided against it.

“Guess what! Guess what!” Dream said to Sap and George, shaking their shoulders aggressively, so hard that Sapnap dropped his bagel cream cheese first on the counter. He picked it up with a pout, picked a hair off of it with a shrug, and took another bite. 

George gave Dream a side eye, slightly annoyed and still tired. “Deer is coming to visit today?” He guessed.

Dream looked a little deflated for a moment as George stole his thunder, but he recovered quickly. “Yep! I can’t wait for you to meet him, he’s the best! I haven’t seen him in…a whole lotta time, so I’m really excited!”

“Really?” George said, eyeing Sapnap with a grimace who was now licking the cream cheese off the counter. “I didn’t notice.” Bad gave George a look before passing Sapnap a napkin.

“Oh, Dream. One more thing before Deer gets here. I wanted to let you know that Deer is his pretend name that he was given at the Bad Place. Did you know it was a pretend name?”

Dream looked taken aback for a moment, but then he shrugged. “Huh. I think I knew that, but I just forgot. He never could tell me his real name cuz he can’t talk.”

Bad nodded. “Well, his real name is Callahan.” Bad suddenly remembered something Phil had mentioned during his visit. “Do you remember what your real name is?”

That question caused more pause as George and Sap both looked over at him expectantly. Dream’s nose scrunched up in heavy concentration and the longer the silence stretched, the more downtrodden and distressed Dream seemed to get. “Hey, it’s–” Bad started to say, but Dream interrupted him.

“I don’t remember it,” he said quietly, eyes not leaving the countertop. 

Honestly, Bad expected as much, but it still saddened him. “That’s okay, buddy. I think Dream is a really good name.”

Dream’s lip wobbled and he still refused to lift his gaze. “But it came from the Bad Place. It’s not mine.”

George, looking more awake then he did before, bumped his shoulder into Dream’s, speaking when Bad couldn’t find the words to reassure the boy. “Just cuz it came from the Bad Place, doesn’t mean it can’t be yours. I think it’s a really nice name. And it fits you. If anybody had the name Dream, it would be you, I think. And…you could make it yours if it feels like it's not. You could like, I don’t know, steal it or something,” he said with a grin. “Like, they tried to give it to you, but you’re like ‘screw you, I’m stealing it! It’s mine now!” George said the last bit in a funny voice, like the ones he uses to voice characters in the books he reads to Dream. George’s eyes lit up in a way only Bad noticed when the boy got a shaky grin from Dream in response to his antics.

“Oh! Yeah, yeah, you could be like: ‘argh, stupid Bad People! Fuck you! It’s my name now!” Sapnap added a little over-excitedly. 

“Language!”

Dream giggled, hugging himself and bumping his shoulder back into George. Bad couldn’t help the fond smile that spread across his face as he watched his boys. It was then that there was a knock on the door. Dream squealed in his excitement, limbs locking for a moment before he frantically started trying to get down from his stool. He tripped on the last rung and fell, but scrambled to his feet and sprinted to the door.

Bad had a brief moment of panic remembering the time the two admin hunters from the compound showed up at their door, but the worry quickly vanished when Dream yanked the door open and launched himself into the arms of the man at the door. That was the only clue Bad needed to reassure him that this man was Callahan. 

Callahan caught Dream in his arms and held him tight, tucking his face into the boy’s hair and rocking him back and forth. He had one arm strongly around Dream’s back and the other hand holding the back of his head firmly and protectively. Dream had gone full-blown koala with his arms and legs wrapped around the admin in a grip Bad knew could not be loosened by anyone but the boy himself.

Bad took a minute to study the man. As soon as he had Dream in his arms it seemed like a weight had lifted off his shoulders as he relaxed and gave a deep sigh as he held the boy close. What shocked Bad but maybe shouldn’t have, considering his given name of Deer, were the giant reindeer antlers that poked out of his curly caramel hair. Bad was impressed that the admin was able to carry the weight of the antlers on his head without losing balance, but he supposed he’d probably grown very used to the fixtures. They weren’t terribly large compared to his stature, but they stretched about a foot or two over his head. The bases of his antlers appeared to have a thin layer of velvety fur and his nose was flushed pink, freckles spreading across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

Eventually, Dream loosened his grip enough for Callahan to lower him to the ground, but the boy remained firmly attached to his side with his shirt held tightly in his fist as he looked up at him in wonder like he couldn’t actually believe he was there.

“Bad told me your real name is Callahan. Do you want to be Deer or Callahan?” Dream asked. Callahan smiled softly and Dream said, “Okay! I’ll call you Callahan now. Callahan, this is my new family!” He said, gesturing grandly at the three of them. “That’s Bad, and that’s George, my new older brother. And that’s Sapnap, he’s my new younger brother. Bad’s like my dad now.” And if that didn’t almost make Bad cry on the spot…

Callahan waved at them and started signing. “He said ‘Hello, nice to meet you,’” Dream translated. Though it was a very sweet interaction, Bad was a bit confused. 

“You know sign language?” Bad asked. On top of that, how had Dream known Callahan’s preferred name without the man doing anything to tell him?

Dream nodded. “Callahan taught me some at the Bad Place. He would whisper me the word and then show me how to do it with my hands.” Okay, so that really confused Bad.

“Whisper?” he asked.

Callahan began signing some more and Dream watched him for a moment before reporting back. “He said it’s an admin command. I don’t know what that means, but it’s how he talks in my head.” Callahan nodded as if that was a totally normal thing to say. Bad decided to let it go for the moment.

“Well, how about you come inside and settle in. Can I get you anything to drink?”

Callahan signed something. “Water, please,” Dream translated, resting his head on Callahan’s side, moving with him as he fully entered the house and closed the door behind him. As Bad went into the kitchen to fetch water, he overheard Dream trying to involve Sapnap and George in the conversation, showing off Callahan like he was a prize.

Callahan stayed the whole day, following Dream around wherever he wanted him to go. The two were attached at the hip and Bad had never seen Dream so happy. His true personality started to shine through the anxious, traumatized boy he’d grown to know. Dream had started to become comfortable enough in his new home, but the comfort of Callahan around, someone he clearly trusted enough to protect him and keep him safe, really brought out his true self. That was something that Bad was truly thankful for.

Later that night, after a full day of fun, Dream’s exhaustion from a sleepless night seemed to finally hit him. He went from talking Callahan’s ear off to sleeping in his arms in what felt like the blink of an eye. After excusing himself to get the other two boys ready for bed, Bad settled back next to Callahan and Dream on the couch after turning off the harsher lights and resorting to the lamps.

Callahan adjusted Dream in his arms to be more comfortable, resting the boy’s head over his heart, a spot Bad knew from experience that it calmed the boy down. Bad found himself studying the older admin and the way he gazed down at Dream with such a strong protectiveness and love. He found himself trying to imagine what it was like for the two of them in captivity, but his imagination didn’t get too far before he was caught staring. Bad opened his mouth to ask if he should grab a pen and paper, but was interrupted by a startling whisper that bounced around his mind.

Thank you for everything you’re doing for him. He deserves to have a family and a life outside of that hell.

Bad was too shocked and startled to speak. He could only stare with his mouth agape at the admin who stared right back into his eyes with an unwavering gaze. “What was–”

It’s an admin command. In captivity, I used it to speak with Dream and teach him sign language, as with the treatment there, my commands were taxing, so communicating without the use of commands was much easier.

“Oh,” Bad blinked. “So, can he…” Callahan shook his head.

Not to my knowledge. It wasn’t a command they wanted us utilizing. They didn’t want us to communicate with each other in a way they couldn’t monitor, so they never taught him. They only taught him the commands that they could test and exploit.

“What…what did they teach him?” Bad asked cautiously. Callahan’s eyebrows knit as he gazed down at the sleeping boy in his arms. He brought a finger across Dream’s freckles, his touch light but still causing a slight scrunch in his nose.

They taught him /tp which is a teleportation command. I understand he was unusually good at that one. He also knew the fly command, and was able to access Spectator on one occasion, which is even more difficult than Creative. And he’s accessed Creative multiple times to my knowledge. And…they made him use /kill. He was…very distressed after that. He was seven at the time I think.

Bad’s jaw dropped. Spectator was infamously difficult and rare to be able to access as an admin. It took a good deal of power to be able to do it and a lot of concentration to be able to maintain it and get back to Survival safely. He’d heard horror stories of admins losing their grasp on Spectator while they were in a wall or underground. And for a little kid to be able to access it after being abused and malnourished and experimented on? Bad couldn’t believe it. And it broke his heart to hear about the terrible things they made him do. A seven year old, being forced to kill someone? He couldn’t even imagine it.

Bad worked his jaw, resting a heavy hand on Dream’s knee. “I don’t think I could ever repay you for what you did for him in there. Thank you so, so much for looking out for him and being there, someone he could trust and lean on. I can’t imagine where he’d be right now if he didn’t have you. So, thank you.”

The tip of Callahan’s nose went a shade darker with his blush.

He was so tiny when they first brought him in. The poor thing couldn’t stop crying for his mama and dada. Everyone else there, we were all adults, we had lived our whole lives out in the world, but they took that from him. Because he was so little and couldn’t take care of himself, they put him in a cell with me and I knew then that I would do anything to keep him as safe as I could in there. They moved him into his own cell when he turned six which was really hard on the both of us, but him especially, of course. But I was still able to see him at meal times, at least.

Bad was hit with a profound, overflowing feeling of gratitude for the man that sat before him. It was so overwhelming that it brought sizzling tears to his eyes. He brushed them away before they could burn his skin and he signed thank you , staring strongly into the admin’s eyes. He’d mimicked the phrase that he’d seen Callahan use earlier in the day to Dream when the boy brought him one of Bad’s muffins to eat. The boy had giggled in response and signed back welcome while he said the words ‘you’re welcome’ aloud.

Callahan smiled softly. 

It was my pleasure .

A little while later, Callahan followed Bad up the stairs with Dream still in his arms and laid the boy down in his bed, tucking the soft blankets around him. Before he stood, he placed a soft kiss on the boy’s forehead in the warm glow of the nightlight.

As he was leaving, Callahan promised to visit again, suggesting that he bring along his best friend Alyssa. He explained briefly how she’d heard so much about Dream and couldn’t wait to meet him. Alyssa was apparently Callahan’s lifelong best friend and hadn’t ever stopped looking for him during the years he was in captivity and was overjoyed when he was returned home.

Bad agreed readily to the terms and thanked Callahan once more before the admin went on his way. Shutting the door behind him, Bad turned back to his home, breathing in the quiet air. He was very glad that Dream was able to be reunited with Callahan, and Bad was very grateful that he was able to meet the man that kept his boy safe all those years, and to learn from him and speak to him about the horrors that the young boy couldn’t articulate to him. 

With a soft sigh, Bad locked the front door and walked around, shutting off all the lights in the house. He checked on each of his boys before crawling into bed and drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

Chapter Text

It quickly became apparent that Dream was living the next week off the high that Callahan visiting had given him. When he first woke up alone in his bed the morning after Callahan left, he’d been sad, but brightened up considerably when Bad informed him that the admin would be back to visit soon. This joy carried him floating through the following days.

He was so happy in fact, that his nightmares evaded him for a few nights, a small miracle in Bad’s eyes. It was one such morning where everyone in the house had gotten a full night’s sleep, uninterrupted by the terrified screaming that usually echoed from Dream’s room late in the night. Bad was already in the kitchen with Skeppy, both with a cup of coffee in hand. George and Sapnap were sitting in the living room, cooperating for once as they played a game when Dream came running down the stairs.

Bad’s heart warmed at the big smile on Dream’s face as he rushed into Bad’s arms and wrapped his arms around the man’s middle. “G’morning,” he said, muffled by Bad’s hoodie. The demon steadied his mug to prevent hot coffee spilling on the boy and ruffled his blond curls. “Good morning, bud.”

Dream took his face out of the folds of fabric and looked up at Bad with big eyes. “Today’s my birthday,” he stated, with such prideful conviction. Bad smiled wider. 

“Is it now?”

“Yep. It just feels like it’s today, so. You said I could pick whenever I wanted so it’s today.”

Bad set his coffee aside and grabbed Dream under the arms and hoisted him into the air. Dream squealed when Bad set him on the counter. “Did you hear that, everyone? It’s Dream’s birthday!” This caught George and Sapnap’s attention. 

“Does that mean we get to have cake?!” Sapnap asked, on his feet in seconds and tearing into the kitchen. 

“Well, I suppose it does!” Bad said with his hands on his hips, standing in front of Dream to ensure he didn’t fall. “Wait, why does Dream get to sit on the counter?!” Bad heard Sapnap ask incredulously. Bad brushed the comment aside. “C’mon everyone, we have a party to plan and a birthday boy to spoil!”

They got to work immediately. Skeppy sat at the table with George and the two cut green and white paper into strips and worked on stapling them into a paper chain while Bad started setting out ingredients for a cake. Sapnap ran around helpfully/unhelpfully singing the birthday song and setting all of the boys’ combined stuffed toys into a crowd on the couch as guests for the party.

Dream sat giggling on the counter with a makeshift birthday hat that Bad had crafted on the spot, drawing ‘Happy Birthday Dream!’ with marker and decorating the rest of the white space with stickers before placing it on the boy’s head. Bad started mixing the ingredients together for the cake, measuring out the correct amounts and then letting Dream pour them into the bowl. Once the batter was made, he dipped a finger in it and spread it on Dream’s nose, who jumped back in surprise and started laughing giddily, reaching his own finger into the bowl and swiping the batter all across Bad’s face. 

Skeppy had to break up the batter battle before it became a full-blown food fight, much to Sapnap’s dismay, who had just been about to launch a muffin at George for some reason. Once the cake was in the oven, Bad pulled Skeppy aside and handed him some money and a list, sending him off to the nearest village to get Dream some birthday presents.

The day was filled with laughter and happiness. All three boys came together to help Bad frost the cake, which predictably ended in disaster, but Bad couldn’t find it in himself to mind. He knew that this day, Dream’s first birthday with them, would be something they will all remember for years to come.

When Skeppy returned with the presents, he hurried away to the office to wrap them and once that was done, the five of them gathered in the kitchen with Dream at the head of the table, flushed red and smiling so wide his cheeks hurt. Bad brought the cake in and set it in front of the boy who was practically glowing. They all sang Happy Birthday as Dream stared down at the ten candles, mesmerized. 

Once the song was over, he took a deep breath with his eyes closed, thinking up a good wish, before blowing out all the candles. Sapnap cheered extra loud, bouncing in his seat as he waited eagerly and entirely impatiently for Bad to cut the cake. Dream got the first piece of course, and he was quick to reassure everyone that even though it looked ugly, it was very good. Bad made sure to say that it must be because Dream helped him make it and that’s why it tasted so good, to which the boy glowed at the praise.

After eating the cake, presents were handed to Dream to open and he looked like he was about to explode with happiness, looking a bit bashful as well. It was clear he didn’t quite know what to expect for a birthday, because he’d never had one that he remembered. He didn’t know there were presents or cake or any of the other traditions until his new family told him and pulled out all the stops just for him.

For his birthday, Dream got several new books to read with George and Sapnap, a set of action figures with diamond armor and weapons, as well as a set of animal toys such as axolotls, pandas, llamas, and bees. When he opened a package with a few new hoodies, pants, and shirts, he hugged them close to himself. He had a few of his own clothes, but he was mostly wearing hand-me-downs from George and sometimes Sapnap because he was so skinny, still working on putting on enough weight, but having clothes just for him made him feel really special. And finally, he opened his last present. It was a plushy that was in the shape of a white blob with no arms or legs, but a head with a smiley face on it. Dream cocked his head to the side as he looked at it, a fond smile growing on his face as he squeezed it close to his chest. He reached beside him and grabbed Pandas, babbling on about how Blob and Pandas were going to be best friends.

The boys went to bed that night happy and full of cake and birthday cheer. Bad went to bed with a bittersweet ache in his heart. It was the middle of August, just a few days after the 19th, which was the anniversary of the day Dream was captured. It made a dark, uneasy feeling churn in Bad’s gut to think about the fact that this was the time of year that Dream associated with getting older, subconscious as it was. Bad wondered if they would ever find out Dream’s real birthday.

He hoped for Dream’s sake that one day they would.

Chapter Text

It was a few weeks after Dream’s improvised tenth birthday and the weather was getting decidedly cooler. Fall was on its way and with it came a cold that manifested itself first in Sapnap, then George, and finally Dream. It surprised Bad that Dream didn’t get sick right away. It was honestly something that worried Bad, because he knew that Dream wasn’t exposed to a lot of outside viruses while in captivity, so his immune system probably wasn’t the strongest. But Dream seemed to be faring well against the cold, so Bad focused on getting the boys lots of nutrients and keeping them hydrated. 

After about a week of the boys’ non stop sniffling, coughing, and sneezing, their house hit a lull. George and Sapnap got their energy back and were running around the house again in no time. The next morning, George and Sapnap were settled at the table finishing their breakfast while Bad prepared their lessons for the day. Their server didn’t have a school, but the kids all went to see tutors a couple days a week, so Bad was just putting their materials in their backpacks to send them on their way with Phil when he came by to pick them up. George was uncharacteristically chatty that morning as he talked about the science experiment he was working on with Phil’s son Wilbur and how excited he was to work on it.

Bad realized with a start that Dream wasn’t awake yet as he was putting the blond’s backpack together. A frown found itself on his face as he set the school work down and made his way quickly up the stairs. He knocked on Dream’s door when he got there, peeking his head inside when he didn’t get an answer. The air was still and the lump under the blankets didn’t budge. With a sigh, Bad walked over to the bed and sat down beside Dream, pulling the blankets back a bit. Dream still hadn’t stirred, so Bad rubbed across the boy’s back, gently shaking him awake. Dream groaned, swatting his hand away.

Bad would’ve chuckled at the annoyed mannerism that reminded him of George, except this was quite unusual behavior for Dream. “Hey, buddy, you feeling okay?” he asked as he brushed the boy’s hair out of his face. Dream’s eyes cracked open a sliver, squinting up at him and blinking the sleep dust out of his eyes. “Phil’s going to be here soon for your lessons, remember? You were so excited to start learning with Sapnap and George, and to meet some new friends? Are you still feeling up to it?”

Dream sat up wordlessly, rubbing at his eyes with a yawn, and he crawled out of bed and past Bad to change into his day clothes. Bad frowned at him but left the room regardless, heading back down the stairs to finish putting together lunches for the boys and reminding himself to keep an eye on Dream. Soon enough, Dream came stumbling down the stairs just in time and Bad shooed the three of them out the door for their lessons.

That afternoon, Bad is startled out of a nap when the door bangs open and Sapnap comes tearing through the living room and stomping up the stairs like he has cinder blocks tied to his feet. George is next through the door and he runs over to Bad, jumping up and down as he gives a detailed account of how the experiment went and what Wilbur said that was so funny. Bad nodded along and asked questions, watching Dream out of the corner of his eye. 

The admin walked sluggishly into the room and tossed his backpack on the floor, climbing up onto the couch, pulling the blanket up to his chin and laying down. Bad excused himself from his conversation with George after offering lots of praise for his accomplishments, and knelt next to the couch. Dream watched him with sad eyes as he rested the back of his hand on the boy’s forehead. He was warm, but not concerningly so. “You feeling worse, buddy?”

Dream nodded solemnly, causing Bad to frown. “Aw, I’m sorry. Do you want some tea?” Dream only shrugged miserably in answer. “Do you want Pandas?” Dream nodded, so Bad stood and went up the stairs to Dream’s room to grab the stuffed animal. While he was up there, he knocked on Sapnap’s open door and peeked his head in. “How did today go?”

Sapnap shrugged, distracted. He was quite intensely focused on building some sort of weapon of mass destruction out of the building blocks Skeppy gifted him for his seventh birthday earlier that year. “It was fine. I learned how to do subtraction in math. It was kinda boring though because Tommy and Tubbo are only four so they just sit there and color and I have nobody to play with like George does. Stupid Wilbur and their stupid science project.”

That was definitely something Bad would need to push further another time, but he had to get back to Dream. “I’m sorry, Sappy. We’ll talk more about that later, alright? Dream isn’t feeling well right now so I’ll be downstairs with him if you need me, okay?” Sapnap nodded without looking away from the blocks, making explosion noises as he took his contraption and smacked his action figures around with it.

Dream hadn’t moved from his spot on the couch when Bad got back downstairs, and he headed to the kitchen after dropping off Pandas. He started making some tea anyway, even though Dream wasn’t sure if he was going to drink it. A heavy feeling settled itself in Bad’s chest as he poured the hot water over the tea bag. He thought Dream had gotten over his cold and he had hoped that the boy would recover as quickly as he knew Sapnap and George often did whenever they fell sick, but he supposed he should’ve known better.

Dream didn’t move around a whole lot the rest of the day, and at supper he only picked at his food. Sapnap and George didn’t seem to notice, and excused themselves from the table as soon as they were done scarfing down their food. Dream however, didn’t even seem to realize they were gone until Bad drew him out of his thoughts to ask if he wanted some more vegetables. That evening, Dream sat in Bad’s lap in the living room as Bad read one of his books on depression in children. In no time, Dream was wiggling around on his lap, trying to get comfortable and he was quick to fall asleep. A few hours later when Bad found a good place to stop reading, Dream didn’t stir as he stood and carried the boy up to his bed and tucked him into the sheets.

The next morning when Bad went to check on him, he found that Dream was already awake. The boy looked miserable. He was shivering and his face was flushed, and he kept tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable under the sheets. Bad wished him a good morning and then quickly left the room, returning shortly after with a thermometer. His temperature read 100.4, just perfectly a fever. “How are you feeling today?” Bad asked him quietly. He only got a whine in answer.
“I’m gonna go get you some medicine, okay? Do you want one of your new books to read?” Dream nodded forlornly, so Bad grabbed the one he was in the middle of reading off his desk and handed it to him, situating Blob and Pandas next to Dream’s head on the pillow before he left the room again. He ran into George on the stairs who looked questioningly over Bad’s shoulder.

“Is he still sleeping again? ” He asked with a furrowed brow.

Bad nodded, walking with George to the downstairs bathroom and opening the medicine cabinet. “Poor guy’s got a fever.”

“But he just had a cold, I thought he was better?”

Bad clicked his tongue distractedly, rifling through the different medicines before landing on a children’s syrup to bring down the boy’s fever. “I thought so too, I’m afraid.” Dream took his meals in bed that day, eating only a few bites each time before pushing the food away from him with a queasy look on his face. He slept most of the day as well, which was quite unusual for the ten year old who had just started to come out of his shell and show off his energetic personality that was enough to rival George and Sapnap at times.

Though Bad checked his temperature frequently throughout the day, his fever stayed the same for the remainder of the day, only rising by .2 degrees the next morning. In fact, the next morning Dream was feeling up to leaving his bed and hanging out downstairs on the couch, but a nasty cough made itself known. He would be sent into coughing fits that left him gasping for air more and more as the day wore on.

Bad was woken up in the middle of that night by George shaking his shoulder. “Whassup?” Bad mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and sitting up. George was holding his own hand in front of him, nervously twisting his fingers as he looked over his shoulder out the open door. The hall light was on and the faint sound of crying made its way to Bad’s ear belatedly. 

“Dream threw up. I…I dreamed about it, so I went to check and he was crying. He wants you.”

Bad was on his feet in an instant, thanking George for coming to get him and hurrying down the hall to Dream’s room. He found the poor boy on the floor in the middle of his room, hunched over a puddle of vomit and sobbing. “Oh, buddy,” Bad cooed, kneeling next to him and lifting him up with a steady grip on his arms. He gathered Dream up into his arms to which the admin went easily, his limbs pliant. He tucked his head in where it fell on Bad’s shoulder, his tears dripping down onto Bad’s sleep shirt. “You’re okay, shh, you’re alright. I’ve got you.”

“Goodnight,” George whispered from the doorway with a wave before heading back to his own bedroom. 

“Are you gonna be sick again?” Bad asked softly. Dream shrugged with a whine, nestling his head further into Bad. “I’m gonna bring you back to my room, is that alright?” Dream nodded and Bad stood with him in his arms. Dream was still too light for his age. Bad laid Dream down in his bed and tucked him in. He offered his water bottle and helped the boy take small sips before suggesting he get some sleep. Bad left to clean the mess out of Dream’s carpet and when he got back, the admin was fast asleep, though he looked uncomfortable and sick. Bad sighed and crawled into bed next to him, making sure the trash can was beside the bed in case of any more accidents.

When Bad woke up again, it was to Dream shaking his shoulder. He snapped awake quickly and reached for the garbage can, shoving it into Dream’s arms just in time for him to start retching. His shoulders shook as he cried and heaved, eventually spitting bile into the bin. Bad could only rub his back as the boy’s stomach spasmed and twisted. Once he was done, Bad wiped his mouth with a tissue and guided him through taking small sips of water and getting his panicked breathing back under control, as he’d started hiccuping and gasping over his cries. 

A quick glance out the window confirmed that the sun had risen and Sapnap and George were due to start getting ready for lessons. Dream would not be attending today, he decided quickly as the boy started trembling. Dream whimpered, rubbing at his chest as his face twisted in pain. He started sputtering on his coughs, unable to control himself as he struggled to get air as the coughing tore at his throat. Bad stayed with him a few minutes more to help him settle down until he couldn’t put it off any longer. Promising to return shortly, Bad left to get Sapnap and George ready, surprised to see the two of them at the kitchen table with poorly spread cream cheese bagels, dressed and at least mostly awake.

“Wow, you two, I’m impressed. Thank you for getting ready!”

George shrugged, though Bad could see by the subtle flush of his ears that he was pleased with the recognition. Bad took this to mean that George had gotten his brother out of bed and made the two of them breakfast, which warmed his heart. Bad rushed around the kitchen while the two ate their bagels and made them both lunches, shoving them in their backpacks along with all the school work they would need for the day.

“Dream isn’t coming with today?” George asked, but it wasn’t much of a question. 

Bad nodded. “He’s feeling pretty sick still.”

“Did he throw up?!” Sapnap perked up, cream cheese on his nose. 

“Yeah, he did,” Bad answered, licking his thumb and rubbing the cream cheese off. 

Sapnap cringed away from him saying, “Ew!” Bad didn’t know if it was in answer to Dream throwing up or to Bad using his spit to clean Sap’s face, but just then, the doorbell rang. Bad opened the door to find Phil.

“Good morning,” Bad greeted with a deep sigh and a smile. Phil nodded his greeting, studying the demon as the two boys ran out the door to find Phil’s kids. “You sound exhausted,” the admin noted. 

Bad nodded, leaning against the door. “Dream’s pretty sick still. He won’t be coming today, poor guy’s been throwing up. Fever, cough…” Phil frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. Is he faring alright? I fear with his weakened immune system…”

Bad grimaced. “Yeah, me too.”

“Well, if he gets worse, make sure to reach out to Ponk. He’s not a doctor, I know, but he’s the closest we’ve got on this server and he’s trained in combat medicine and first aid. I know he’s been reading up on treating other illnesses, however. He was telling me about it at the last Syndicate meeting after Sam fell ill with the flu.”

Bad nodded along. He hadn’t been at that meeting, or any since Dream had come into his life. He knew Phil understood his absences, but he ought to consider attending the next one. “I’ll keep that in mind.” After Phil left, Bad made his way back upstairs to check on Dream. The poor boy was shaking from where he lay buried under the blankets. His face was flushed red and sweat made his hair damp. Bad frowned and went to take his temperature again, alarmed when it had risen to 103.8.

“I’m cold,” he whimpered, slow tears leaking from his fever-swimming eyes. Bad ran a hand through his hair and he whined again, breaking out into a coughing fit that shook his frame and tore its way out of his throat. Bad winced at the sound of it, listening to the way his lungs rattled in his chest. 

“I know, buddy. I know” Bad said, reaching over to wrap another blanket around the boy’s shoulder. Dream only curled into Bad’s side, letting out pitiful whimpers as he trembled like a leaf. They stayed that way for a while as Dream fell into a fitful sleep. Bad was jolted awake to the sound of the front door slamming open and happy chatter from George and Sapnap. He hadn’t even realized he fell asleep. Bad carefully detached himself from Dream’s feverish grip and went downstairs to greet the boys.

“Is Dream still sick?” George asked as soon as he saw the demon.

Sapnap perked up. “Dream’s sick?”

“Yeah, he threw up in the middle of the night, idiot. Remember?”

“Ohhh.”

“Yes, Dream is still sick,” Bad said, biting his lip. He walked past the boys to the kitchen and grabbed a pot and then started pulling ingredients from the fridge and the cupboards. “I’m gonna make him some soup, do you guys want some for supper?”

Sapnap must’ve jumped two feet in the air in his excitement. “YES! Soup! Oh my Skeppy, George. Soouuuup!”

George giggled and shoved his shoulder while Bad just glanced back in confusion. “Oh my Skeppy?” When he didn’t get an answer, he just turned back to the soup with a sigh. He made something that was plain enough for Dream to not upset his stomach, but tasty enough for the rest of them to eat as well.

When Bad returned to Dream’s bedside about half an hour later with the soup, he found the boy curled in a tight ball with tears streaming down his flushed cheeks in his sleep. He frowned and set the soup on the bedside table, reaching out to shake Dream’s shoulder. “Buddy, it’s time to wake up. You gotta eat something, okay?”

Dream’s face scrunched up and he whined softly, breaking into a coughing fit that finally roused him from his sleep. When his eyes finally adjusted to his surroundings, he started thrashing to throw the blankets off himself. Bad jumped to help him, and once the blankets were gone, Dream just about went boneless as he face-planted Bad’s chest. Bad cupped the boy’s cheeks in his palms and pushed him away so he could search his face. Dream’s face was flushed red and his eyes were glossy and wandered, never able to focus on one thing for long. There was a thin layer of sweat on his skin and he rubbed at his chest while his face twisted in pain, leaning into Bad’s touch. “‘M too hot,” he whined.

Bad reached over to grab the thermometer and went to check his temperature again. He waited for the beep, rubbing his hand up and down Dream’s arm from where he’d pulled the boy back into his chest so he could rest his heavy head. Bad’s eyes about popped out of his skull when he read the number. 105.1. That was definitely not good at all . His temperature had risen quite a bit since the last time he’d checked and he needed desperately to get it back down. This wasn’t just a little bout of sickness anymore that would go away with some rest and soup. This could mean life and death.

Reaching into his pocket, Bad hurriedly grabbed his communicator and typed a message to Skeppy.

BadBoyHalo: SOS

BadBoyHalo: Hurry

He didn’t wait to see if he got an answer, instead pushing the communicator out of his way (wincing when he heard it hit the ground) and began wrestling Dream’s limp body out of his sweatshirt. It was only a few minutes later when he heard the front door slam into the wall and thudding footsteps tearing up the stairs, but it felt like ages. When Skeppy burst through the door, Bad had Dream leaning against his chest, the boy’s head resting on his shoulder as he stared up at the ceiling and muttered deliriously. 

“What’s SOS?” Skeppy spit out, trying to catch his breath. 

Bad ignored the question. “Start the bath. Lukewarm water.”

“Huh?”

“Just do it!”

“On it!” Skeppy said, standing up straight to give a salute before dashing out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom. Dream had started crying again, looking off to somewhere far away from them as he twisted away from Bad’s hands and weakly tried to fight him off. “Buddy, I know, I know, but we have to get your fever down. I’m sorry.” Dream only took a shuddering breath in answer, terrible coughs making his whole body shake more than it already was.

Skeppy came back shortly to inform him the bath was ready right as Bad finished shedding Dream of the heavy clothes he’d been wearing. He gathered the boy in his arms and carried him over to the bathtub. Dream started shivering violently as goosebumps broke out over his skin. He was left only in his boxers and Bad lowered him into the bath gently. His head lolled to the side and Bad reached out a quick hand to hold it up, grabbing a folded up towel to rest his head on. Skeppy stood in the doorway, one hand on his hip and the other held to his face where he nibbled on his fingernails. 

They sat in silence for a little while as Dream’s flushed cheeks and delirious mutterings kept them company. Eventually, Bad had Skeppy kneel beside the bath and hold Dream up while Bad ran water through his hair and massaged soap into his curls. Once Dream started to shiver in earnest, Bad decided he’d been in the bath long enough and carefully got him out, wrapped him up in a nice warm towel and got him dressed in some warm clothes. He checked his temperature once again and sighed. It hadn’t gotten any higher, but it hadn’t gotten any lower either. 

Cradling Dream in his arms, Bad went downstairs and settled with the boy on the couch. A quick glance to the kitchen showed that Skeppy was serving the momentarily forgotten soup into bowls that he placed in front of George and Sapnap. He watched as Skeppy brought two bowls over to where Bad and Dream were sitting and set them on the coffee table. Bad gently nudged Dream awake, who groaned and blinked lazily. “Time to eat, bud.”

“Noooo,” he whined, weakly pushing Bad’s hand away from him, but he miscalculated and missed. “Yes,” Bad argued. “Just a bit. Then you can go back to sleep.” Dream huffed but stopped fighting and allowed Bad to spoon feed him. The bowl was a bit past half full when Dream started to turn away from the incoming spoon so Bad gave it a rest.

“Do you think we should call Ponk?” Skeppy asked nervously from the entranceway to the living room. Bad looked over and thought about the suggestion, biting his lip. He nodded slowly when Dream’s whole body was shaking from the coughing fit that tore through him, wheezing and whining at the pain in his chest. Skeppy nodded in answer and left the room to call their friend. Ponk of course wasn’t an actual doctor, but he was trained in combat medicine and he had the most medical knowledge out of everyone that Bad knew, so he was the one he and all of their friends always called on if they needed some extra help.

Bad frowned in growing concern as Dream started to gasp for air. He sat the boy up who was spluttering on coughs. His breath caught on every inhale and tears spilled from his eyes. He reached out for Bad’s hand in his fear and Bad used his other hand to rub the boy’s back, who was wheezing quite badly, now that he was really listening. “Can he breathe?” Sapnap asked from where he’d shown up out of nowhere. “He sounds really bad.”

Bad spared a glance in Sap’s direction, seeing the young boy looking at his brother with gentle concern in his eyes, biting his lip as he rocked from heel to toe. “He’s having some trouble right now, bud,” he said in answer. He didn’t want to lie to the boy and he didn't have much in the way of reassurance at that time. Bad felt terribly useless as he just sat there and rubbed Dream’s back as he struggled to get enough air into his poor lungs. He wished not for the first time that he could take away the boy’s pain and take it on himself. But alas, that was not possible. The best he could do was be there for the boy unconditionally, something he intended to do.

Soon enough, Bad heard voices at the door and Ponk made his way into the living room with a messenger bag over his shoulder, Sam following at his heels. When he saw Dream curled up in Bad’s lap leaning heavily into his chest as he wheezed and gasped and cried, Ponk didn’t hesitate to kneel beside the couch. “Hello, Dream. My name is Ponk, I’m here to help you feel a bit better,” Ponk explained while resting a hand on the boy’s forehead to gauge his fever. Dream didn’t seem to understand what he was saying, but he flinched away violently at the stranger’s touch.

His breathing picked up drastically and he pushed back into Bad to get away. “Hey, hey, buddy it’s okay. It’s okay, he’s not going to hurt you. You’re alright,” Bad soothed as he rocked the boy back and forth a bit, holding him a bit tighter. “Ponk is gonna make sure you get better, that’s all. He’s a very nice man.”

Dream eyed him warily and cringed when Ponk brought his hand slowly back up to his forehead, but didn’t try to escape, so Ponk took that as a win. The man cursed softly to himself and drew his hand away. “His fever’s really high. What was it last you checked?”

Bad gritted his teeth. “I know. Skeppy and I ran him a bath a bit ago but it didn’t really change his fever. It was 105.1.” Ponk’s eyebrows found a place in his hairline.

“Prime, that’s not good. Uh…and you tried to get it down? Sam, wet a few cloths for me, would you?” Sam nodded and dashed to the kitchen to carry out his task without a word. Then, Ponk reached into his bag and retrieved a stethoscope. “Sit him up a bit for me, Bad.” He placed the stethoscope on Dream’s chest and listened intently for a moment, frowning, before moving it to his back. “His lungs sound very congested. I wonder if it’s pneumonia. What are his other symptoms?”

Sam came back with the wet cloths while Bad listed off Dream’s symptoms to Ponk, who placed a cloth on Dream’s forehead and another across the back of his neck. Ponk nodded along, finally saying, “Yeah, that sounds like pneumonia.” 

Dream had since found his spot cuddled into Bad, his lungs rattling painfully as he cried silently, holding Bad’s hand tightly in his own. After a few more moments of thought, Ponk had come to a conclusion with a treatment plan and sent Sam back to their home server to gather the supplies and medicine he would need. “I have some health potions with me if he really needs them, but I’d rather not use them. Some admins have allergic reactions to them, especially if the potions are of their own blood, and I unfortunately have no idea where the potions I have came from. I try to source them ethically, but the villagers I trade with don’t always tell the truth, especially if there’s money involved.”

Bad nodded in understanded, gazing down at the exhausted boy in his lap as he ran his fingers soothingly through his blond curls. Soon enough Sam returned with the equipment, so Bad moved Dream back upstairs to his bedroom, laying the boy gently in his bed and making sure the pillow was fluffed to perfection and he had fresh cloths to rest on his feverish forehead. Ponk got to work setting up the medical equipment he had Sam grab, inserting an IV in the back of Dream’s hand to make sure he was kept hydrated. Then, he set up the oxygen and placed a nasal cannula under Dream’s nose to help him breathe a bit better. He left some more natural herbs and medication with Bad with instructions on when and how to administer them, requesting that Bad contact him again if needed.

Dream was off the oxygen and on his feet again in only a few days, as the fever broke later the same day that Ponk visited. He was still slow on his feet for the next few weeks and his appetite had suffered as well. The boy ended up losing some weight during the course of his sickness, which Bad wasn’t too happy about, seeing as the boy was already underweight as it was, though not nearly as bad as he was right away. With lots of nurturing and care from Bad and ‘moral support’ from Sapnap and George, Dream made a full recovery, though his laugh kept the wheeze he acquired from his illness.

Chapter Text

Bad should have seen it coming. Dream had been doing so well recently, he’d gotten his appetite back and his energy was climbing back to a normal level. He was finally able to keep up with George and Sapnap without getting tired or having any trouble breathing. But in that day’s therapy session with Puffy, she warned him after the fact that they tried to tackle a tough subject and Dream reacted negatively. She explained that she didn’t expect him to react any other way, but wanted Bad to be wary of his moods and be extra careful around his triggers and to watch for dissociation, just in case. 

Bad complied, but was startled to find that Dream seemed to be acting completely normal. He joked a bit more than usual, but he was smiling and laughing like it was any other day. If Puffy didn’t tell him about how the boy had a panic attack during their session, Bad wouldn’t have believed that anything had gone wrong at all. Later on in the evening, Bad did however notice a certain emptiness to the boy’s eyes, such a stark juxtaposition to the smile on his face.

That night, for the first time in a while, Bad was awakened by pained cries. Sitting straight up in bed before he was even fully awake, he listened closely in the still night, throwing the covers aside and making his way to Dream’s room in the dark. Upon turning on the lamp, he found the boy tossing and turning with tears rushing down his face. Bad reached out and tried to rest his hand in his hair, but Dream flinched away from him in his sleep, crying out. “I dunno how,” he whined, squeezing his eyes shut tight. 

Bad pursed his lips, unsure how to proceed. “I don’t wanna,” the boy cried, raising his trembling arms to cover his head, pained little gasps escaping his mouth as he shook. “I don’t know how,” he said as he started to sob in earnest.

“Dream. Dream, buddy, you gotta wake up. It’s just a nightmare; it’s not real.” Dream didn’t hear him, sniffling and hiccuping on his cries, trying to protect himself in his sleep with his arms over his head and his knees pulled up to his chest. Bad couldn’t stand to listen to his terror any longer and again reached out to him, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder to try and shake him awake.

Dream screamed at the contact and his eyes flew open, but Bad only got to see the fear in his eyes for a split second before his ears popped and Dream vanished. Bad gasped, panic racing through him as he patted the empty bed desperately. Purple particles danced through the air where the boy previously lay, blinking out of existence almost as quickly as they appeared, reminding him eerily of an enderman. 

A striking pit of dread stuck itself into Bad’s heart as he spluttered and searched the room helplessly. He had never seen an admin teleport before, but he’d read descriptions in books. Dream was gone.

A quick glance at the clock told him that it was just barely three in the morning. Bad raced out of Dream’s bedroom and tore down the stairs and out the front door. “Dream!” He screamed as loud as he could, eyes desperately searching the property in the night. Being a demon meant he could see in the dark, but everywhere he looked there was no sign of his son. He searched around the house and through the village and the countryside, yelling for Dream until his throat was raw, but he was nowhere to be found. Deciding he really couldn’t be around, Bad retreated back to the house, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid that he hadn’t thought to check the house before he left. He searched everywhere he could think of, in all of Dream’s hiding places. He wasn’t there.

Bad hissed as the tears that had been welling up in his eyes started to escape and burn his skin. He angrily wiped them away and hurried to his bedroom to grab his communicator. He opened up the Syndicate chat and sent a message.

BadBoyHalo: EMERGENCY!!!

BadBoyHalo: Dream was having a nightmare and somehow managed to /tp in his sleep. I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find him

BadBoyHalo: Please help O_O

Bad couldn’t help but pace the room while he waited anxiously for a response. In the meantime, he sent a similar message to Skeppy, who responded almost immediately with a promise to be at the house as soon as possible. 

Ph1lzA: Oh dear…I’ll start searching from my end of the server.

awesamdude: Holy **** how did he manage that?! That’s impressive. And alarming. Do you think he could have server hopped somehow? That's pretty advanced, never mind. There’s no way. I’ll have Ponk search our server anyway, and I’ll be right over to help you look.

FoolishG: On it o7

Skeppy arrived, with Sam not too far behind and the three of them set out with renewed efforts, spotting Phil flying above the trees every once in a while. They covered every inch of the server and still they found nothing. As the sun started to rise on the horizon, Phil touched down in front of them where they agreed to meet up after splitting up for much of the night. 

“He’s not here,” Phil said, worry clear in his tone.

Bad couldn’t stop the choked cry that escaped him. He didn’t want to imagine Dream waking up somewhere alone, unsure of where he was or how to get help. How vulnerable he would be against mobs or…Prime forbid the people trying to hunt him down find him. Maybe that’s why they couldn’t find him. Maybe the admin hunters got to him first and he was long gone, alone and afraid and hurt and–”

Skeppy elbowed him. “Deep breaths, man. We can’t find Dream if you’re panicking.”

Phil nodded in agreement. “Are we positive he couldn’t have server hopped?” Sam asked quietly.

Phil opened his mouth to answer, about to shoot down the idea, but he stopped himself. “That would be incredibly unlikely, as it’s very complex, but…not entirely impossible. I mean, if he’s powerful enough to /tp in his sleep, who knows what he’s capable of?”

“So he could be anywhere , then?” Bad asked hysterically, his panic mounting as he thought about the busy server hub and the millions of servers that Dream could have ended up on. He could be anywhere in the seemingly endless server IPs. Bad wailed as he realized he might never see the boy again. 

Skeppy wrapped an arm firmly around his shoulders and worked tirelessly to try and catch the tears before they burned Bad’s skin as Phil and Sam shared a hopeless look over their shoulders. They couldn’t stop looking.

***

When Dream woke up he was laying in the grass. He sat up, confusion shocking him out of the overwhelming terror that had been coursing through his veins only moments prior. The last thing he remembered was the Bad People making him do admin commands that he didn’t know how to do, and then hurting him when he wouldn't do them, then…well, then he woke up here. He took a few moments to get his heart to slow down and take deep breaths like Puffy taught him. It must’ve been a nightmare , he figured. Now that he really thought about it, he hadn’t been at the Bad Place for some time, so they couldn’t have found him. Bad wouldn’t let that happen to him, he promised.

So that brought about the question: where the hell was he? He patted the ground underneath him softly as he looked around. The grass was nice and soft, he could tell from the slight moisture on the blades that it was well hydrated. His eyes took a few moments to adjust to the darkness, but once they did, he could see all of the flowers around him. He must be in a flower field. He smiled to himself, feeling a lot more calm at the thought. George liked flower fields, he was reminded. He could almost imagine that his big brother was there with him to protect him and keep him safe. There were birch trees around him, reaching up into the night sky and Dream rose shakily to his feet. He let the light of the moon guide him as he wandered over to the trunk of a tree and settled down against its roots. He didn’t want to wander too far in case Bad was coming to find him, so he didn’t want to get more lost than he already was. And besides, he didn’t want to stay out in the open, because he could hear the faint hisses of spiders and creepers carried on the wind.

Dream pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his chin on his knees, gazing out at the many different colored flowers that sprawled across the open field. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but his calm demeanor started to diminish the longer he sat in the dark. The hissing started to sound closer than before, the birds in the trees sounding more haunting than cheery. Every time a branch moved in the wind or a stray animal stepped on a twig, Dream’s heart rate would skyrocket and his breathing would pick up, eyes flying anywhere and everywhere to discover the source of the sound. He was so tired and he felt like he was going insane, but he had to stay awake. Just long enough for Bad to come and save him.

In his hypervigilance, he failed to realize just how cold he was. It wasn’t even terribly chilly outside, but he was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night and the sun was gone. The slight breeze that filtered through the trees went right through his thin pajamas and straight to his bones as he started to shiver, teeth chattering as he stared harshly at a poppy at his feet with steadfast focus. The world around him faded to tunnel vision as he stared down the red flower, willing himself to stop shivering and crying; Bad would come for him soon. When did he start crying?

His ears perked up when he heard the faintest whisper through the night, but he lacked the strength and willpower to lift his head. He only hugged his legs closer to his chest. Soon enough, though, he could hear his name.

“ream? Dream!”

“Over hear,” he called back, barely louder than a whisper, but he couldn’t find it in himself to muster anything more. Footsteps swished through the grass and someone was kneeling in front of him. He hugged himself all the tighter, looking up through his lashes at a person he’d never seen before. A woman had found him, features soft and safe, short white-blonde hair tucked behind her ears. 

“Hey, buddy. My name’s Niki, I’m a friend of Bad’s. Let’s get you inside.”

He didn’t answer, so the woman–Niki, held out a hand for him to take. He grasped her hand with his shaking grip and she pulled him to his feet where he wobbled, but didn’t fall. Niki shrugged off the leather jacket she had been wearing and placed it around his shoulders, helping him to get his arms through the holes. Once it was on, he wrapped the extra fabric around himself and tucked his shoulders up to his ears and walked with Niki, who had an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into her side to give him a bit of extra warmth and to make sure he didn’t fall over.

“Do you know how you got here?” she asked him. 

Dream cringed away defensively, but Niki quickly squashed his doubts. “I’m not mad, just curious. You’re on a different server right now, quite impressive if you ask me. Bad’s been worried sick looking for you.” Dream’s eyes found his feet as they walked, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. He felt pretty bad, he hated to worry Bad, but he truly hadn’t meant to disappear like he had.

Soon enough, they reached a cozy looking brick house with vines and flowers, and Niki opened the door for him, leading him over to the couch where she draped a blanket over his shoulders. “I’m just gonna go let Bad know where you are, okay? Would you like some tea or cookies?”

Dream nodded shyly, snuggling his cheek into the soft fabric of the blanket as he slowly stopped shivering. Dream jumped when something soft brushed against his hand and he looked down to find a fox looking up at him. He gasped in shock, looking toward the kitchen to see Niki typing away on her communicator. She glanced up at him and waved, so he decided that if Niki wasn’t concerned about the fox, then it was fine. Dream reached out a tentative hand and ran it over the fox’s head and all the way down its back. The fox started making odd little squeaks and curled up beside Dream on the couch, letting out a little puff of air as it decidedly rested its head on Dream’s lap. Dream giggled and scratched behind its ears for a few moments before Niki returned with a tray.

“I see you’ve met Fungi,” Niki stated, handing Dream a warm mug, which he gladly wrapped his cold hands around. 

“Fungi?” he asked, puzzled. 

Niki chuckled. “That is his name. I think he likes you.”

Dream shrugged, looking down at the resting fox with a fond smile. He took a sip of his tea and melted into the feeling of being warm. “Cookie?” Niki asked, offering him one that he eagerly took and began munching on as Niki took another for herself. The two sat in a calm quiet as Dream ate his cookie and drank his tea. It wasn’t long before frantic knocking was heard from the door. Dream felt his muscles tense as his eyes widened, but Niki just gave him a reassuring smile, standing and brushing the crumbs off her shirt before opening the front door.

Bad didn’t even spare her a greeting, just beelined past her to where Dream was sitting on the couch. “Holy muffin, I was worried sick! Oh my gosh I’m so happy you’re okay. Wait, are you okay? You’re not hurt are you? Oh goodness, I’m so happy Niki found you. Oh my goodness.”

Dream could hardly keep up with Bad’s relieved rambling as the man took the mug from his hands to set it on the coffee table before wrapping him in a firm, tight hug. Dream feared the demon would never let go. 

After thanking Niki profusely and telling Dream countless times how happy he was to find him, Bad finally took Dream back home and tucked him into his bed, where Dream soundly slept through the next morning.

Chapter Text

About six months after the teleporting incident and a few days after Sapnap’s eighth birthday, Dream and Sapnap were playing together at the neighborhood park. George, now thirteen, couldn’t be bothered to run around the play structures with the other two, so he sat on the bench on the outskirts of the park and read a book in the cool spring air. 

Meanwhile, Dream and Sapnap were skirting around each other at the top of the play structure, shrieking with laughter as they dodged the other’s attempt at tagging. In a sudden burst of speed and courage, Dream shot past Sapnap’s outstretched arms and slid down the slide, erupting with giggles at Sapnap’s outraged shout. 

“Get back here!” The boy shouted, practically flying down the metal slide and heating it as he went. Dream backed up quickly, eyes following Sapnap’s movements with a frenzied alertness that one only learns from being in danger one too many times. He huffed a laugh as he ran around underneath the play structure, trying to lose Sap around all the metal posts. 

“DREAM!” Sapnap screamed, stomping his feet extra hard against the wood chips to play up his pretend anger as he gave chase, his skin heating so much in his passion that steam started to rise.

It was at that point that Dream decided he wasn’t really having fun anymore. Sapnap’s new tone had caught him off guard and he stumbled in his step around a post, giggling nervously as he tried to keep a distance between the two of them. He thought they had just been playing, but now he wasn’t sure. Was Sapnap really mad at him?

Sapnap finally managed to catch up with Dream, slowing his steps and putting more emphasis into each stomp of his feet. “Come here, Dream. You’re sooo in trouble now!” He said it with an evil little laugh that he’d been practicing using on George, jumping at Dream to catch him, to pull the great big ‘gotcha!’ moment.

What he wasn’t expecting was for Dream to shriek in such pure terror. Sapnap stopped dead in his tracks, frozen at the thought of Dream being scared of him again. Dream had fallen to the ground the second Sapnap jumped at him, scrambling back as fast as he could until he knocked his head on the bottom of the slide. His eyes were full of fear as tears welled and started to fall. He was watching Sap very closely, but at the same time, he didn’t seem to be watching him at all. Sap got the distinct impression that Dream wasn’t seeing him and was instead seeing something very different. It reminded him a lot of when Dream first moved in with them.

Upon hearing Dream scream, George was on his feet instantly, book long forgotten as he hurried over to the two boys. “What did you do?!” He yelled accusingly. A strangled cry escaped Dream as he curled painfully tightly into himself, raising his shaking arms up to cover his head, echoes of a different, older voice ringing in his ears. “Stop yelling, you’re scaring him!” Sapnap yelled. George shoved Sapnap’s shoulder, “you’re yelling too, you idiot!”

“Just–whatever,” Sapnap brushed him off, taking a slow step toward Dream, who was crying in earnest now, hardly able to get enough air as he hyperventilated under the slide. He startled badly when Sap took another step, hitting his head on the slide again. Sap didn’t stop until he was stood right over Dream and then lowered himself slowly to kneel right in front of the boy whose eyes were slightly unfocused. George was left to watch it play out. He didn’t want to startle Dream any further by approaching and fighting with Sapnap. 

Sapnap started with trying to find Dream’s eyes to get his attention, but he quickly found he was unable to. So instead, he wrapped his arms around Dream in a tight hug. “Sapnap!” George whisper-shouted, frantically gesturing for Sapnap to give Dream space as he cried harder and squirmed in his hold. “Just trust me a minute, George,” Sapnap said, closing his eyes and just holding his big brother. 

Eventually, Dream stopped fighting him and his erratic breathing slowed down. Exhausted, he rested his head on Sapnap’s shoulders and, tears still falling, dissociated. George and Sapnap both let out a breath and George shook the nerves out of his hands and ran a hand through his hair, startled to find that he was crying too. Sapnap looked up, meeting his eyes and giving him a concerned look, so George offered a smile in return and wiped his tears. “I’m just gonna go grab my book, then we should head home.” 

Sapnap nodded, resting his head atop Dream’s while he waited for George to do what he said, tightening his protective hold around Dream’s waist. When George returned, he helped Sapnap get Dream on his feet and together the two of them walked home slowly, Dream safely between them.

Chapter Text

It was a few days later when things started to get bad again. It was a day that the boys didn’t have schooling, and a sunny day at that. Those had been rare lately as the skies had been dominated by rain clouds. George and Sapnap could hardly be contained within the house’s walls and begged and begged all morning to go to the park. 

Bad, feeling more on edge than usual since Dream’s flashback at the park, was weary to let the two boys go by themselves, even though the park was only about a five minute walk away. Dream had been sluggish all morning since he woke up and did not share the same enthusiasm to play outside and Bad didn’t want to leave him home alone. 

“C’mon, pleaaaase?” Sapnap whined, pulling his biggest puppy dog eyes at Bad across the table where they were all eating the waffles Bad made for breakfast. Well…most of them were eating. Dream was pushing his soggy syrup and whipped cream waffle mush around his plate with his fork as with an intense stare leveled at his orange juice.

Bad tensed his jaw, chancing a glance at George who was pouting, eyes pleading. “Please?” He said. “It’s just down the road. And we’ll be back before lunch, promise.”

Fudge, those kids knew how to get what they wanted. Bad groaned. “Fine, fine. But if you’re not back by lunch we’re gonna have issues,” he said, leveling them both with a stern stare. Both boys didn’t appear to be intimidated in the slightest, beaming up at him and sliding out of their chairs. Sap made a mad dash to the door to put his shoes on, but Bad called him back quickly to put away his plate. 

“Do you wanna come?” George asked softly to Dream, but the boy didn’t appear to hear him, zoned out. “Dream,” George tried again. The admin startled and looked up, relaxing when he saw it was only George talking to him. “Did you want to come to the park with us?” George asked again.

Dream shook his head, eyes falling back to his plate. George frowned and nodded, following after Sapnap out the door once his plate was put away. Once the two were gone, the kitchen was left still and silent. “Hey kiddo,” Bad said, nudging Dream’s chair slightly to get his attention. “What’s up?”

Dream only shrugged in response, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “You feeling okay?” Bad tried again. Another shrug. Bad sighed, standing to finish clearing the table. “Are you done with this?” He asked, gesturing to the mostly uneaten food. Dream nodded, pushing the plate away from himself. He stood, looking a little shaky and walked out of the room. Bad watched from the sink as he sluggishly let his knees hit the couch before falling forward and curling up there, pulling the blanket up to his chin. 

For the next hour, Bad opted to give Dream his space as he went about tidying up the kitchen and getting ingredients out for lunch. He had just finished making himself an iced tea with a lemon perched on the edge of the glass and a mini drink umbrella from a set Skeppy gifted him years back when the door slammed open. He jumped so hard, he knocked the cup over, cursing as the tea spilled all over the freshly wiped countertop and dripped down the cupboards and onto the floor. 

He cursed under his breath, grabbing a towel and sopping up as much of the sticky liquid as he could, vaguely aware of the way Dream had jumped to attention on the couch, startled. He was about to make a comment about how he was impressed that the boys made it home early but he would appreciate it if they wouldn’t slam the door so hard, when he realized they had only been out for an hour. Puzzled, he dropped the towel and rounded the corner, gasping at the sight. 

George had Sapnap’s arm over his shoulder, which was awkward enough with how much taller George was, and poor Sapnap had tears streaming down his face, his knees scraped with blood dripping down his shins. “Oh, goodness,” Bad said, rushing forward and helping George get Sapnap to a kitchen chair. Dream had crept over from the living room, standing at a distance and ringing his hands anxiously, biting his lip in concern. “What happened?” Bad asked as he got up to grab the first aid kit.

George brushed his hair out of his face. “We were playing Magic, you know the game where you can’t touch the floor or else the person that’s it, that was me, I had my eyes closed so I was listening - Sap was, well he was on the monkey bars. I was tryna tag him or catch him on the rocks, but he was being quiet, and I was just walking under the monkey bars - I didn’t know he was there - and -” 

“Hey bud, slow down a bit, you’re not in trouble,” Bad reassured as he ran a wet cloth over the torn skin on Sapnap’s knees. The boy was trying hard not to cry out loud, but little pained whimpers were slipping through and George reached out to take his brother’s hand without even really thinking about it.

“Well I was It, and I was trying to get Sappy, and he was on the monkey bars. I walked right into him cuz my eyes were closed, and he fell and there was a chunk of concrete sticking out of the other rocks and he hit it really good on his knee,” the explanation was much clearer on the second try, and as Bad started cleaning Sapnap’s right knee, he grimaced. The cut was deep and jagged with little bits of gravel and dirt stuck in the raw, red skin. Blood seeped out at a higher rate than the other knee, which was just scraped, and Bad was upset with himself that he didn’t notice that sooner.

“Thanks for looking after your brother and getting home quickly, George. You did good.”

George seemed to sag with relief at the praise, knowing he did the right thing. Bad grabbed some tweezers and started picking out all the gravel he could see, grimacing and trying to soothe Sapnap’s cries all the while. “Prime, I wish we had a healing potion, this is pretty nasty. I think you’re gonna need stitches, bud.” 

He said it offhandedly, not thinking much of it. “Here,” Dream said, voice flat and toneless as a knife appeared in his hand seemingly out of nowhere. With a numb sort of expression, he brought the blade to his arm and sliced it open, no hesitation and with hardly a flinch. He had done it so quickly, before Bad could even think to stop him and for a moment, as Dream offered his bleeding arm, Bad was stunned. He didn’t know what to do.

Overwhelmed and panicked, “Dream, why would you do that?!” Spilled out in a rush as he spun around to grab the boy’s steadily bleeding arm. His own blood ran cold at how naturally Dream had offered his blood for a potion, like he’d done it hundreds of times before. Like it was a conditioned response. His fingers had barely made contact with Dream’s wrist when the boy flinched back at the tone of Bad’s voice, scared by the touch that was flung his way before he’d had the time to process that it was coming. Bad hadn’t meant to shout.

Dream stumbled back with a shriek, eyes clouding quickly as he realized what he had done to himself. He looked sick at the sight of all the blood, something that had frozen him in his tracks when he’d seen Sapnap covered in it earlier. Dream backed up several paces, shaking like a leaf and beginning to hyperventilate. 

Bad was at a loss. Sapnap was bleeding bad and was inconsolable at that point, crying and whimpering at the pain in his knee. Bad didn’t have a potion and would need to do stitches. And Dream was having a panic attack after he’d just cut himself, needing reassurance that he was safe and that he wasn’t in trouble or about to be hurt. Bad looked back and forth between the two boys, torn. They both needed him, desperately. 

With a heavy heart, he turned back towards Sapnap, brushing the boy’s sweaty hair out of his face and cleaned the fresh blood around the wound. He could hear Dream behind him stumble to the far wall and slide to the floor, choking on his sobs as he chanted apologies over and over. It took everything in him to not turn around and go to him, to hold him in his arms and comfort him. Sapnap needed him right now; he had to focus. 

As he quickly grabbed the needle to sanitize it and as Sapnap squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation, George took a step in Dream’s direction. “George,” Bad said sternly to stop him. “Give him space right now. You’ll just panic him more.”

George gave him his worst glare and rolled his eyes, taking another few steps. 

“George!” Bad warned, finding himself way more aggressive than he meant to be ever. There was just too much going on at once and he didn’t know how to handle it all. Once again, George ignored him, going all the way to where Dream was and sitting beside the panicking admin. Bad could only grit his teeth and instruct Sapnap to hold on tight to the edge of the table and start the stitches.

***

As Sapnap screamed and cried in the kitchen, George made his way quickly to Dream, sitting on his knees beside him. Dream’s breathing was erratic and he had his eyes squeezed shut as he rocked back and forth, mumbling nonsense and scratching harshly at his arm, smearing the blood everywhere and making the wound jagged and raw. 

George felt himself go into older-brother mode and almost on autopilot he reached forward, starting with grabbing each of Dream’s wrists and pulling them apart. Dream squirmed at the sudden touch, eyes flying open to George’s face as he fought with newfound strength to get away. But he was still weaker than George and lightheaded from his uneven breathing and wasn’t able to free himself. All the while George spoke calmly to him, telling him that it was okay, that he was safe and not in trouble. George started rubbing his thumbs along the boy’s wrists in an attempt to calm him more, grimacing at all the blood underneath the boy’s fingernails. With exaggerated breathing, George encouraged the younger boy to follow along. Dream still fought him half-heartedly, but his strength slowly sapped out of him and he slumped forward.

George wrapped his arms around the shaking boy, and Dream tucked his head into the crook of George’s neck as he shakily breathed the smell that he couldn’t describe, just that it was so intrinsically George. George imagined that he was protecting Dream from everything, like he was some magical shield that could keep out everything that wanted to hurt his little brother. Even the boy’s own mind. 

Dream had clutched George’s shirt clutched tightly in his fists and the two just sat there as Dream let himself settle, finally feeling safe where he was in George’s hold. Soon enough, Sapnap’s cries quieted, and with a final bandage, Bad was done. After handing Sapnap a popsicle and wiping the boy’s tears, he went to check on his other two boys.

When he knelt in front of them, Dream flinched back a bit, clutching tighter to George who tightened his hold in response. A brief glimpse of pain flickered across Bad’s shadowed face, but he pushed aside his own feelings. “I’m sorry I yelled, Dream. I was just worried for you and Sapnap and I got ahead of myself. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Dream didn’t say anything, only tracking Bad’s every movement with his eyes. “Can I see your arm, please?” Bad asked and before he had even finished the request, Dream stuck out his arm for him to see. Again, there was the look of pain from the demon. He tsked and lifted the fresh wet towel he brought over with him, running it gently over the cut to clean away the blood. Once it was covered in a bandage, Bad gently let go of Dream’s arm, who pulled the limb back to his chest, watching Bad carefully. “Do you know why I got upset?” Bad asked softly.

Dream looked away at the question, shrinking into George to try to make himself seem smaller. “I don’t know,” he whispered, barely loud enough for Bad to hear. Bad nodded at his answer, expecting it.

“I got upset because you hurt yourself. I was upset because of how you were taught that you needed to do that so the Bad People could make potions. I don’t ever want you to hurt like that okay, buddy? I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the Bad People for what they told you to do.”

“But they didn’t tell me,” Dream answered, confused. “I just did it cuz Sappy needed it. I’m bad; I did it.”

Bad shook his head. “No, Dream. You’re not bad. They didn’t tell you to do it this time, but they did before, and they hurt you when they did that. That’s why I was upset. I shouldn’t have shouted, I’m sorry. I was just scared.”

Dream still looked a little confused, but he nodded nonetheless. “Can we make a plan for in the future?” Bad asked softly, reaching forward and brushing the blond’s hair out of his face. Dream nodded, yawning. “If you ever feel like you need to hurt yourself, can you come talk to me please? I don’t want you to do that again, so if you ever feel like you need to, I want you to tell me. Okay? I don’t care what I’m doing, or what time it is, you can talk to me.”

Dream was staring up at him with wide, green eyes and Bad felt like there was a knife twisting in his heart. He never wanted to have to have this talk with his ten year old son. “Do you pinky promise?” Bad asked, holding out his finger. 

Dream, exhausted physically and emotionally, offered a small smile and hooked their pinkies together. “Promise,” he whispered. 

Eventually, Dream settled down for a nap on the couch. Bad didn’t want to let any of the boys out of his sight after the chaos of that morning, so he had George sitting in the recliner working on some school work while Sapnap sat at the kitchen counter sucking on his second popsicle as he watched Bad make a late lunch with tear tracks drying on his cheeks.

While the food was cooking, Bad quietly started putting away all of the first aid supplies, throwing away what was soiled and cleaning up the blood. On his way to the trash can, he kicked something across the floor. With a frown, he bent over to pick it up, his stomach dropping for a moment as he took in the sight of the blood stained blade. It was the knife Dream cut himself with. 

With a shaky breath, Bad was about to throw it in the trash as well, when he realized with a start that he had never seen the knife before. It looked nothing like the ones in the knife block on the kitchen counter, and it wasn’t like the dagger George kept with him from his father. It was a sleek looking knife with an intricately designed handle, set with emeralds at the base. “What–”

George looked up from his assignment, observing the knife with an indifferent expression. “He summoned that.”

“Hm?” Bad hummed.

George nodded. “I saw it. His eyes glowed for a second and then he had it.”

Bad regarded the young admin in shock. In the middle of all of that, he had accessed Creative. So effortlessly that no one really noticed until after the fact. Bewildered, Bad instead turned to the sink, washing the blade thoroughly and then tucked it into a drawer.

Chapter Text

“You’re kinda weird.”

Dream scrunched his nose and looked up at the boy that had spoken. “You’re kinda weird,” he shot back. The boy sitting across from him was his age, apparently. He had long thin pink hair that was braided at the moment and he had red eyes that were kind of scary if Dream looked at them for too long. This strange boy and his brothers were at Bad’s house for the day because their dad Phil had some sort of meeting he had to go to, so now Dream was stuck playing outside with everybody. He’d seen them all before because they went to school together sometimes, but he didn’t really bother learning their names.

The pink haired boy put down the stick he was carving into some sort of weapon and pushed his glasses farther up his nose and studied Dream intently. “So you’re an admin, then? Like my dad?”

Dream huffed, annoyed that he kept talking to him. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

The boy nodded thoughtfully. “My name is Technoblade. What’s yours again?”

Giving up on trying to play by himself, Dream turned his attention to the boy in front of him. “Dream. Why is your name Technoblade? That’s so long.”

Technoblade shrugged. “You could call me Techno, I guess. Or Dave, since that’s my real name.”

Techno’s older brother who had been talking to George shot his head up. “No it’s not, your real name is Ale–”

Techno interrupted, shoving his brother. “Way to go, Wilbur. You ruined it, good job!”

Wilbur spluttered. “Wha–”

“I was gonna trick this weirdo, and you ruined it. It was goin’ to be so funny, but since you are such a fun-ruiner…” he trailed off with a shrug and Wilbur rolled his eyes so hard Dream was worried they’d fall out of his head. 

“Shut it, Dave .”

“That’s it. The voices…they demand blood!” With that, Techno threw himself at Wilbur and the two started rolling around in the grass, shrieking and kicking. Dream felt his chest squeeze with panic as he hurried to back out of the way, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Looking up quickly, he found George’s calming presence, a smile on his face. 

“Don’t worry about them, Dream. That’s just how they are. See, they’re giggling. They’re not actually mad.” Once it was pointed out to him, Dream realized that yes, they were laughing as they tussled on the grass. His anxiety washed away and he returned George’s smile. He’d only ever observed Phil’s sons from a distance, always too intimidated by their boldness and their fearlessness to try and interact with them. But being around them in a setting outside of school where they could relax and have fun, they were starting to grow on him. 

“Tommy I swear to God!” Dream’s head whipped up and over to where Sapnap had shouted. “I’m not a fucking jungle gym!” Sapnap exclaimed in his special way of turning a growl into a shout. It was true that the four year old was giggling hysterically as he scaled Sapnap, hanging from the boy's shoulders as he kicked his ribs for stability. It was quite the feat seeing as Tommy really wasn’t that much smaller than the eight year old. Tubbo sat off to the side picking individual strands of grass as he watched the two.

Dream thought these kids that they were forced to play with were pretty weird, but he decided as he watched them interact that it wasn’t necessarily a bad weird. In fact, he kind of enjoyed their company. They spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the yard together, and Dream eventually worked up the energy and courage to join the other boys again. Sapnap stayed close to the admin’s side as if sensing his caution.

“We should make a new nation!” Wilbur shouted from atop a rock, his face pink from all his shouting he’d been doing the past hour. The boys had all gotten pretty tired, so Bad supplied them all with fruit popsicles to replenish their energy and Wilbur had been on a political tirade ever since. 

“A new nation?” George asked unimpressed from the grass where he sat with the others. “Only if I can be King.”

Wilbur studied him from atop his perch, one hand on his hip and the other at his chin. “Hm. Perhaps that can be arranged. But I’m the president. And Tommy…you’re my servant.”

“What’s a servant?” Tommy asked in his whiny, tiny voice, cocking his head to the side at the same time George said, “How can we be President and King at the same time?”

“It means you have to do what I say.” At Tommy’s pout, he added, “It’s the best job, Tommy. Promise.” He ignored George’s question.

“What would we call this new nation, then?” Sapnap asked from beside Dream, skeptical and scoffing at Tommy’s new enthusiasm for being his brother’s servant. What an idiot.

“Perhaps…Mantopia.”

Nearly everyone wrinkled their noses. “No. Absolutely not,” Techno said, crossing his arms.

“Well what might you suggest?” Wilbur responded with bucket loads of sass.

“I don’t know, maybe Pogtopia or something actually cool. ”

“Mantopia is cool!”

“What about Manburg?” Tubbo added quietly, still picking at the grass. 

Wilbur thought about it. “Make it French and you have yourself a deal.”

And thus, their backyard nation of L’Manburg was born. They would spend the majority of their summer days all together in the backyard, playing pretend as soldiers, revolutionaries, presidents, and kings. They decided they needed a castle, but they didn’t have any cardboard or sticks to use, so Dream spent one afternoon accessing Creative for whatever they needed. He felt really good about using his abilities for the first time in his life. It warmed his heart and filled a void in his chest to see their smiles and how happy it made them that he could do this for them. That his abilities were used for good, for joy, and for happiness, rather than for the horrors he was abused for in captivity. 

However, it didn’t come without a price. He hadn’t accounted for how exhausting it was to use his abilities so much in such a short period of time and he just about passed out. George caught him by his shoulders and helped him sit, tasking Sapnap with getting him a glass of water. Bad and Phil, who had been in the kitchen preparing supper for the joint families over glasses of wine, rushed out to see what the matter was. 

Dream was given some gentle scolding about using his abilities so much and for such trivial things as dress up costumes and building materials for a fake nation. He spent the rest of the evening napping on the couch with a cool cloth on his forehead while the rest of the boys made up a subplot about how Dream was captured by their enemy nation called the Badlands (because Bad had been the one to demand Dream gets rest) and they spent the rest of the time before supper planning how they would rescue their friends from the demon’s clutches.

Needless to say, the seven boys got along and became good friends that summer.

Chapter Text

Dream was startled out of his thoughts when Sapnap flopped backwards into the grass beside him. They’d been attempting to collect little sticks for their L’Manburg currency when Dream had gotten bored, zoning out as he ran his fingers soothingly through the soft grass. Sapnap groaned loudly up at the clouds as Dream glanced over at him, gathering his scattered thoughts and calming his racing heart. “I’m bored of this. Let’s play something else,” Sapnap said.

Dream was inclined to agree. It was one of those days where it felt like ants were crawling under his skin and he itched at them distractedly, paranoia creeping up behind him. He’d lost count of the amount of times he’d checked over his shoulder since the two of them had been outside. He was in need of a distraction. Sapnap didn’t seem to notice his inner turmoil and suggested they play Doctor, so the two of them walked over to the play structure which Sapnap instructed Dream was the doctor’s office now. 

“Okay,” Sapnap said, bustling around and laying out a beach towel that was left outside. “This is the patient’s bed and um…here, this is the door here. I’ll be the patient first, you can be the doctor. So go outside and wait a second before coming in.”

Dream followed the instructions wordlessly, tapping his fingers together anxiously. He chewed his lip, wishing he remembered to put on his special necklace that morning so he could chew on that instead. He watched from the corner of his eye as Sapnap laid down on his back on the towel-turned-patient-bed, turning his attention to stare intently at the wood of the play structure. He had just reached out to feel the grain of the wood when Sap announced he was ready. Startled, Dream pulled his hand back, hissing at the splinter stuck in his finger. There was no blood, Dream noticed as he stared down at his finger. It didn’t even hurt that bad, it had just shocked him. He poked at it to see if that would hurt, but it just felt a little tingly. Would it hurt if he pushed it into his skin further?

“Dream?” 

Dream jumped again and tried to shake the fuzziness out of his brain. “Coming,” he said to Sapnap, shaking his hands out. Splinter forgotten, he straightened his imaginary doctor’s coat and entered the imaginary doctor’s office. “Hello, I’m Doctor…uh, Dream. What’s your name?” He said, deepening his voice to sound more professional. 

Sapnap giggled, squirming. “I’m Sapnap.”

“Alright, Sapnap. What’s the matter with you? I mean, uh, why are you at the doctor’s?”

Sapnap faked a cough. “I’m sick. I was playing with George yesterday and I got bit by a spider, and um, it poisoned me! It was real bad, my whole hand turned purple! I mean green, and uh, I threw up and now I have a terrible cough, see?” And he coughed a few more times for effect. Dream nodded solemnly, scratching at his chin. “That does sound bad. Let me get you checked out.”

Sapnap squirmed again and giggled, fake coughing some more. Dream knelt down beside the towel and assessed the patient on the table. He winced at the bright fluorescent lights that were hanging from the ceiling and shielded his eyes as a headache started to form behind his eyes. Dream took a shaky breath and clenched his jaw. “I need to restrain you,” he said to himself. 

“What? Why?” The boy on the table said. Dream stared blankly into his scared green eyes, grabbing his wrists and holding them to the table, buckling the restraints so he couldn’t move. The boy struggled and pulled his hands to his chest. “Dream, what’re you doing?” he asked, voice sounding smaller than before.

Frustrated that the restraints weren’t working, Dream reached out and grabbed the blonde boy’s wrists again, forcing them down harder. “Keep them there,” he said. “O-okay,” was the shaky response he received. 

Dream stared down at himself on the table, fearful tears welling up in his eyes. He felt sick to his stomach as he picked up a knife (as he picked up a stick) from the table (from the grass) and regarded himself (regarded Sapnap) lying there tied to the table (laying on the towel). “I need to cut you open,” someone said. Dream’s lips were moving, but that couldn’t be him talking. He was on the table, he wasn’t holding the knife. But that was his voice saying, “I need to see if you look the same on the inside as normal people.”

As he watched his hand raise the knife above the version of himself laying on the table (as he raised the stick above a trembling Sapnap ), he felt so disgustingly far from himself, like he was outside of his own body. He couldn’t stop himself. It wasn’t really him that was moving his body. There was a ghost that was moving his body for him and he was screaming on the inside, telling it to stop hurting himself (hurting Sapnap) and to give him his body back.

Distantly, he can hear somebody crying and there’s a warm body beneath his hands where he drags the knife (the stick) in a closed fist down the boy’s torso, warm blood spilling out and onto the floor as he shrieks and screams, struggling to pull his hands out of the restraints. Except the restraints are broken and the boy’s hands are now around his wrists and Sapnap is asking him to stop in a shaking voice as he guides Dream’s hands away from him. The stick is pried from his fists and he realizes with a start that the tip of the stick hadn’t even been peeking from his fist and the most damage he’d done was to his own palm from how tightly he’d been holding it. 

He could feel his vocal cords vibrating and from some faraway world where his head was underwater, there was strangled sobs and choked screams, but they couldn’t seem to reach him. With his hands now empty, he reached for the grass, gripping the soft blades tightly, ripping them out of the earth and grasping for more just to feel them between his fingertips. It was getting really hard to breathe and he wondered if he really was underwater. His eyes darted around frantically, catching sight of Sapnap’s lips moving in front of him, but no sound reached his ears. When did fluorescent lights become the sun’s rays peeking through the clouds? When did they get outside?

“What happened?” Another voice joined the cacophony of blood rushing in his ears and Bad knelt in front of him. But that didn’t make any sense. Bad wasn’t supposed to be at the Bad Place, he was supposed to be at home. At home with George and Sapnap and…well, him. He was supposed to be at home. But he was stuck at the Bad Place.

…

The last time Bad checked on Sap and Dream through the window, they were giggling and running through the grass picking up sticks. Deciding they were fine, he settled in his arm chair to read. He’d been trying to give them more space recently to be independent and learn how to handle themselves. It was something Puffy had talked to him about and it was good for Dream to learn how to self-regulate and adjust to having a normal, safe childhood. He was trying to get Dream to trust his own boundaries and give him more chances to check in with himself to see what his limits were and to recognize when he wanted help instead of Bad hovering.

Engrossed in his book, he lost track of time. He’d just turned the page to the end of a chapter when he realized with a start that he’d gotten lost in reading and hadn’t checked on the boys in a while. He knew George was upstairs in his room doing homework and wasn’t worried about him, so he went to the back window to check on the other two. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the both of them still playing together, alive and well.

‘Well’ was maybe a stretch though, Bad thought as he squinted. Sapnap…was Sapnap crying? Bad opened the back door and what had been faint crying hit him full force. It wasn’t just Sapnap crying, he realized. Dream was nearly hysterical, wailing and scratching at his arms, torn blades of grass under his nails and sticking to his pants. Bad hurried over, giving Sapnap a look-over. “What happened?” he asked, getting a half-hearted shrug in response. He appeared fine, just shaken as silent tears fell from his eyes. He met Bad’s eyes and twisted a stick in his hands. Bad knelt in front of Dream, trying to meet his son’s eyes, but the boy wouldn’t look at him, eyes darting every which way.

His cries were heartbreaking as they tore their way out of his throat. He was shaking like a leaf, sobbing and scratching at his forearms until he broke skin, hardly able to pull air into his lungs. “Dream, Dream, buddy, look at me. You’re safe. I need you to look at me, focus on my voice.” Bad spoke as evenly and calmly as he could, but Dream wasn’t paying him any attention as his lungs wheezed and he choked on wails. Bad pulled Dream's hands away from his arms and held them, breathing exaggeratedly as a way to calm himself down and hopefully help Dream. It had been a little while since Dream had a panic attack, let alone one this bad and Sapnap looked lost as he watched his brother freak out. “How about you go find George?” He suggested over his shoulder and watched as Sapnap nodded and made his way inside on shaking legs.

Dream started to gag with how hard he was crying and Bad could only brush his hair away from his forehead and rub his back as the boy trembled and threw up in the grass. Dream folded near in half as a scream of anguish, terror, and pain tore through him, raspy and full of emotions no ten year old should have to feel. Eventually, when Dream stopped fighting his touch and instead reached for it, Bad pulled the boy into his lap and held him tight and firm, rocking him evenly back and forth, talking to him calmly, telling him he was going to be fine, that these feelings were only so intense right now, that it would pass. That he was safe.

Bad almost wished he hadn’t sent Sapnap away. He needed to know what happened, what triggered an episode as intense as this. But he had to remember that Sap was just a little boy and it was the right thing to do to remove him from the stressful environment so he could recoup. Bad, fresh out of reassuring things to say, pressed his lips to Dream’s head and continued to rock him until his breathing was even at last, albeit shaky and shallow. “Do you wanna go inside?” He asked softly, not too surprised when all he got back was a blank stare. He steeled himself, making sure he had a good grip on Dream before getting to his feet, carrying Dream inside the house and into the living room, settling himself on the reclining chair. He rearranged Dream to a position he knew the boy found comfortable and resigned to wait until the boy stopped dissociating and came back to himself, running his fingers soothingly through the blonde’s hair.

He jumped when a bowl clattered on the counter, followed by a hushed, “Quiet, Sap!” A glance to the kitchen confirmed that his boys were at the counter, George with an ice cream scoop and Sapnap guiltily steadying his bowl on the counter. George shook his head affectionately, waving sadly at Bad when he caught his eye. Once the two had their ice cream, they migrated to the living room couch. 

“Hey, Sap. How’re you doing?” He asked quietly. 

Sapnap shrugged. “I’m okay. I got ice cream now.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

So Sapnap tried his best to tell his side of the story, how they were playing Doctor, and Dream started to get a faraway look in his eye like he wasn’t really there and started saying weird things that scared Sapnap. As soon as Sapnap realized Dream was having an episode, he tried to help him and get him back, but Dream had freaked out, screaming and crying and panicking, which made Sapnap panic because he didn’t know what to do. That was when Bad came outside. 

“Thank you for being such a great help. I know how scary it can be when he goes into an episode or an attack and you don’t really know what to do.” Sapnap blushed at the praise and kept eating his ice cream. Bad sat on the chair with the weight of Dream on his chest, wondering if it was ever going to get easier.

Chapter Text

Headcanons:

• Manhunt was born by Dream taunting that he’s faster than George and Sapnap. This caused a race, then tag, and then the stakes grew and grew to create Manhunt
• Sam was a minor character, an adult in the Syndicate with a younger brother Punz who was going to be around the same age as Dream. They were going to be introduced and become friends when the boys got to be a little older
• Because of his childhood malnourishment, Dream was going to stay shorter than George and Sapnap for several years before getting a growth spurt at fifteen and shooting past them
• George was depicted as an avid reader in this fic, but after teaching Dream to read, Dream was going to quickly overtake him and grow obsessed with reading absolutely anything he could get his hands on
• George has clairvoyant dreams! This was teased a few times, but I never got around to expanding on it
• I was going to incorporate some moments from past videos and streams as little easter eggs. One example is that Sapnap, while playing with the boys, was going to say in a high-pitched voice, “I will sacrifice my life for George!” This is a throwback to one of the older Manhunts if I recall correctly.
• In his early teenage years, Dream was going to begin admin training with Philza
• Callahan was going to visit again with Alyssa
• Dream was going to ask George at some point if his parents were also dead. George would answer, “No. Well-maybe…I don’t know, they could be I guess. They just kinda decided they didn’t want me anymore and left me.”
• Dream’s smile mask comes into play when they start leaving their server and traveling. It is a way of protecting his identity from potential admin hunters
• This fic was originally meant to be a two part series with young Dream as part 1 and adult Dream as part 2
• Part 2 was going to be the creation of the Dream SMP and the new characters and plots that comes with it
• After growing out of his (new) home server, Dream sought out to create a world for himself and his family where he could ensure their safety from outside sources
• Bad and Phil could never guarantee the safety of their server because it was open to others joining, hence how the admin hunters were able to track Dream directly to the house
• He added his family first and then gradually his close friends as a way to build a community that was safe and welcoming
• After creating the Dream SMP, Dream goes off in search of his original home server for closure. He finds his old home in ruins and sifts through the wreckage. He finds old baby toys and a blankie, as well as a tattered family photo that’s burnt around the edges. Written on the back is Clay’s first birthday! August 12, [insert year]. At this point, he finally knows the faces of his parents, his real name, and his real birthday
• He subconsciously chose his pretend birthday in August (the 22nd)
• Guys it was gonna be super emotional but alas this is what you get