Caged Wings

CHAPTER 16

Seven Years Ago. . .

“Dream.” The older blond looked down towards the curled up child in his arms. They sat in front of the living room fireplace, both curled up and slowly dozing off. Tommy had come into his room once again, crying and talking about the same nightmare he keeps having every night. Dream was afraid and worried for Tommy, the avian seemed almost traumatized by whatever takes place in these nightmares. The young avian has never given explicit details on what happens, only that he killed his older brother without mercy. “What if the nightmares never go away?” Dreams hold on the other tightened some, just the thought making his blood run cold. Nightmare was quiet during this interaction, not saying anything. 

“Then I’ll stay up with you every night until you fall asleep. And when you come into my room, I’ll just hug you and remind you nothing like that will ever happen.” Tommy sniffled, burying his face into Dreams' chest. The older man soothingly ran his fingers through the child's hair, Green eyes drooping in sadness. 

“I-I love you dream.” His grip on his older brother grew tighter as he spoke. Dream only smiled though, leaning down to place a kiss on his forehead. 

“I love you too, Toms.” 

Present. . .

Niki was busy plopping some pancake batter onto the pan sitting atop the burning stove in the small kitchen on this boat. The general had taken it upon herself to make a late breakfast for everyone.  Puffy sat in the entrance watching with sparkling blue eyes. Niki hadn’t noticed the other general yet, fixated on making sure the pancakes don’t burn. So, when Puffy walked further in, trying to start a conversation, Niki jumped, the bowl of batter in her hand flying towards the goat hybrid. Puffy was knocked off of her feet, batter splattered everywhere on her and a bowl covering her face. She layed on the ground, groaning in pain from the impact. The pinkette gasped, realizing who the person was and quickly ran over to the other. “Oh my gods! Puffy, are you ok?” Niki lifted the bowl off of the other’s face, who was laughing as she slowly sat up. 

“Yes, I’m fine Niki.” Niki smiled, relieved that Puffy wasn’t badly hurt. The goat hybrid got up, Niki following the movements of the other. 

“C’mon let me get you an awash cloth to get that off of you.” Niki said, dragging the white-haired female into the small kitchen. Using the bucket that was acting as a sink,  she grabbed one of the clothes sitting next to it, dunking the fabric into the container to wet it. Puffy watched, amused by the other’s actions. 

“I can do that myself, you know.” The pinkette huffed, pulling the cloth out and squeezing all the access water out before handing it to the other. Puffy took it gratefully, getting to cleaning the batter off of her face as the other rushed over to the stove to flip the pancake that was still cooking. 

“Thank you.” Niki hummed, looking over a few seconds later with a smile. 
“I should be saying sorry.” Puffy rolled her eyes. 

“I snuck up on you, I should have known better. Really, this is all my fault.” The two paused, Niki looking at the other intently, a small smile forming on her lips. Puffy herself smiled, forgetting about the batter that was all over her face and admiring the other female’s looks. Niki walked closer, still smiling and the goat hybrid could feel her heart stuttering. She couldn’t understand what the nervous feeling was, but tensed as the pinkette grabbed some of her hair, pushing some of the curly locks behind her ear. Yellow met blue, and Puffy was about to ask what the other was doing before the L’manburg general interrupted. 

“You have batter in your hair. It’ll be a pain to get out if you don’t go shower now.” The atmosphere broke when the human said those words, Puffy relaxing a bit.