I'll Make You Mine

Candy Corruption: Dream

Since the coffee date, Dream has been feeling much better.

He pinned it on being in the sunshine. He's been spending so much time in his room, trying to find him, that he didn't have any time for himself. The open window wasn't enough. Dream spent most of his childhood outside, so of course his energy would be greater here.

He practiced his archery in the field close to the Star Sanses base. They set up targets to practice, at least a dozen. Dream loved archery, not just in battle. It gave him positivity and excitement, rushes of adrenaline. The wind blew past his frame and tickled his cheeks. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool, the birds sang and chirped in glee. Dream hid the targets amongst the trees and he fired. He missed one, but he made two bullseyes.

Nightmare still hadn't attacked since then, and that was still so strange to him. Three months and almost no attacks. Something was wrong. He was sure Nightmare would start attacking again once he murdered Ink. Why else could he still be hiding?

His positivity faded the second he thought of Nightmare. His bow lowered in his hand and Dream clutched his head. He took deep breaths to calm himself. Killer's words came back to haunt him.

We thought you would save him, but I can't blame you if you didn't want to.

If Dream worked harder, found Ink a little sooner, forced him to talk that morning . . .

Dream flipped and fired at a target between the branches. It's been so long since he's had a full night of sleep. But he couldn't rest, not until Nightmare and his team were brought to justice.

He wished Cross was here. He was put on double-guard duty with the rising threat of Nightmare and Ink's death. Dream didn't blame Cross, or the commander for putting him on the job. It was for the good of the multiverse. And at least Cross loved his guard work, he would be more upset if he was doing a job he hated.

The guardian shot another arrow. The reason he fired arrow after arrow in the first place wasn't for practice, but for procrastination. They were going to clean out Ink's room with Blue today, but they didn't want to. A fragment of his soul hoped Ink would someday come home. If they kept his room the same, Ink would settle right back in and everything would return to normal. Dream imagined it every day and it became his comfort fantasy.

Even if he knew it would never happen. It couldn't. They saw his dust and clothes. Ink wasn't suffering anymore.

Wasn't he?

Dream sensed an aura. He cupped the side of his skull and listened to someone's boots walk on the gravel path. He looked over and spotted Blue walking through the trees. Dream snapped his fingers and the positivity arrows vanished.

"I got all the boxes from Core! They're already in Ink's room so . . . are you ready to do this?" His voice was gentle. Blue knew Dream procrastinated the task since the funeral, he made excuses all the time. But Dream knew he couldn't put it off forever, it must be done.

"Yes, I'm ready. Thank you for finding me." Dream put his bow away. He would clean the targets later. They wouldn't harm any of the animals.

Blue turned the light on. Nobody had entered Ink's room since the funeral. When he did, Dream felt as if his throat was tightening a rope around itself, trying to choke him. The feeling persisted, but it was less extreme with Blue by his side, even if he still felt sick. As he said, the corner held dark brown boxes. A black marker rested on top of one of them.

Blue removed the blankets from the bed, shook them out, and folded them. "I'll do the left side of the room, and you do the right, okay?"

Dream looked around the room until he spotted Ink's wall of paint and photos. He smiled at it. It was of the three of them in Outertale. They all smiled and hugged each other. Dream dropped it into one of the boxes marked 'Keep'. Dream made sure the photo was face down, trying to push the sad thoughts out of his head. "Okay."