Broken Together (MCYT au)

Chapter 17: Oceans of Flashbacks

A mere few hours since the incident and it has yet to sink in. All were advised to rest after such an adventure, yet Dream has yet to even enter the cabin. The axe he kept outside was enough to get firewood, he didn't like spending lots of money or trade on some fancy axe.

Using all his might and swinging at one of the nearby trees. This wasn't like him at all, it was a chore to cut wood, especially with slight injuries but he swung the axe until the small was off from its trunk.

A few beads of sweat went down his forehead and he continued to cut the nearby trees until his axe was nearly broken. Despite needing to rest, feeling the need to mellow in sadness, yet he couldn't help but rage in fury.

Angered by the fact that the ghost chose them and forced him to wound him. Angered at his own weakness to not be able to fight, angered at George's soft heart which caused him to get so hurt in the first place. Angered how he foolishly dived right at Hero based on a string of words.

Those thoughts of anger soon turned into feelings of denial.

What if I was strong enough to stop myself?

If only we had never found the map in the first place.

It should've been me!

Cutting the wood until his arms felt as if they were going to give out. Letting the iron axe rest by the anvil, leaning against the small house until he crumpled to the ground and sobbed. Warm tears were rolling down his face. How long had he been lashing out in anger? Anger is shown in many ways. It can be of simple anger yet anger and sadness are rooted by the same feeling.

They are both rooted by strong emotions and feelings, it can be hard to tell the difference between the two. It can even be thought of as both being sadness or being anger, a thought he did not want to think about.

The tears continued to stream down his face, the rest of his anger feeling warm like fire. He couldn't even see the sky becoming dark gray as raindrops fell from the sky. Feeling each bead of water roll from his neck to his back, sitting still until he could manage to stand up.

Each step felt hollow and empty as he walked through the house doors for the first time. It was hauntingly quiet, which made some sense. The other two were most likely asleep. His thoughts were confirmed by the closed bedroom door.

Walking around and looking at the cupboard of bread, dismissing his hunger and downing a cup of water. Going through one of the chests in the corner of the room and taking out a black hoodie with a smile, then being able to wash the green hood he usually wore.

Sitting in the main room, his eyelids felt like lead, yet no slumber arrived. The world spun ever so slowly but he was brought out of his delusion by the shifting of the bedroom doorknob. Quickly getting up and walking out the door.

As much as he loved his siblings, it would hurt Dream even more to see them. Heading to the exit and closing the door before they even got a chance to speak up. With that the door shut and he found himself aimlessly walking around the village.

Bringing up the energy which he lacked to walk around the streets which they used to walk together. Some of the shops where they would trade items for others, the school they spent so much time in. Memories washed along the shore like shells, and he admired them one by one.

His footsteps dragged along as he hummed a tune he picked up from Nadia as a child. His mask was fixed as Dream pulled up his hood. The streets felt longer than usual where his pace stopped, the sun shining brightly in the afternoon.

Turning his head to the doors of the training dojo where he and George would practice their skills before... everything happened. He could hear something from inside, lazily reaching his hand on the doorknob.

Dream walked in slowly and saw a young girl training. Simple drills like lunging with her sword or protecting herself. With her hair tied back in a bun and a red hoodie. Dream was not in the mood for social interaction, but he couldn't help but scowl at her improper form.

Walking over and looking at her hands. "Do you use an axe or a sword?" He spoke, wincing at how harsh his tone was at the girl. It wasn't supposed to be on purpose, for the most part. Watching her tilt her head in confusion, he tried to think of a better way. "Do you hold your weapon with two hands or one? A sword is much lighter than an axe, so you don't need that much strength to hold it with only one hand."

The girl nodded in understanding and replied, "Oh, I usually hold my sword with two hands. It's quite heavy." Her voice wasn't annoyingly high but not low enough to be considered deep.

Dream nodded and brought his hands to fix her grip. "You want to point the tip of the blade at your opponent's eyes, at least for people and human-like monsters," he adjusted the direction as the girl nodded. Feeling her small and gentle hands, reminding him of someone.

The same hands which adjusted his grip on weapons when he started learning. He felt lost and it has only been a mere few hours since he was admitted. Hardly a day and he was already beating himself over this.

"Um hello?" The girl spoke, bringing her practice weapon down and looking up at him. "Man, I don't know what happened to you but like- you going to be this moody forever?" She didn't smile, hoping her tone didn't come off as insensitive.

"Oh, my mom told me about you. Dream, right?" She gave a soft chuckle, putting the practice weapon on one of the shelves and letting her hair run loose. It was slightly on the longer side, reaching below her shoulders.

Dream nodded and bit the inside of his cheek. 'The daughter of the strange doctor who just moved to this area of Minilus, both are weird,' he internally sighed and looked up.

"See I don't know about your case or stuff, but I do hope everything turns out okay. You'd be surprised at how weird life can be. Sorry- that sounded so sappy and depressing but if you need something, I'm usually at the clinic in the afternoons," the girl waved and headed out of the training area before Dream could even get her name.

The memories would come flooding in and step by step, he made his way out of the ocean of flashbacks. The hours they spent here almost every day just fighting for the fun of it. The laughter, smiles, it all came crashing down.

Slamming the door shut and leaning against the wall, Dream had only just realized how tight his grip was in nervousness.

Just a week, only a week of agony.