End Of Days

30: Sleepless

!!!!TRIGGER//CONTENT WARNING!!!!
This chapter contains themes of death ideation and suicide ideation. That is, thinking of death or suicide as a positive thing. Please read this chapter with care.

You are so important, and you need to be as okay as you can. If this chapter is too much, please take a break or put the book down. Be safe, friends <3

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"Come on, when has a bit of fresh air ever hurt anyone?" Dream asked as he dragged the two boys from the tent, ignoring their groans and swats at his arms.

"Dream, I was sleeping." Tubbo muttered, giving up and allowing himself to be led away from the tent and across the campground, squinting at the sudden brightness.

"Fresh air, Tubbo! It's the key to recovery." Dream sounded far too happy for this early in the morning.

"But I'm literally dying." Tommy grumbled as the three of them came to a stop at a small stretch of pavement with a basketball hoop of all things, looking just as shiny as a newly bought one. Tommy glanced suspiciously at it. "If there is no recovery, let me decay in peace. You know, in the tent?"

"Why is there a basketball hoop?" Tubbo asked, pushing right past Tommy's death comments. "This wasn't here last time I was outside."

"Sam thought it'd be good to have something fun around." Dream said as he stepped away from his two friends, only to return a moment later with a basketball. He turned the ball over in his hands, fingertips brushing over the familiar texture. "You know Josh?"

Tommy and Tubbo nodded, both recalling the burly man with the kind smile who they'd seen around the camp a handful of times. The three teenagers were integrating into the small community bit by bit. They knew almost every face and name now, and there was enough trust to engage in light conversation.

"He used to be a construction worker." Dream said as he gave the ball a bounce, a smile tugging at his lips as he caught it again. "When Sam went out on the last supply run he found some cement and one of those fold out hoops. He told me it was for a bit of fun. You know, since we don't have to spend all day walking aimlessly anymore."

Tubbo raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Sports aren't fun." Tommy deadpanned, as though he hadn't spent half a year dedicated to playing lacrosse, as though he hadn't dreamt of running the length of the field again with the ball in his net, the murmurs of the crowd in his ears and the goal in sight.

Dream tossed him the ball. Tommy caught it with only a slight stumble, blinking at Dream with an unimpressed expression on his face. "I'll make you a deal, then."

"We're listening." Tubbo agreed, a small smile already beginning at the corners of his mouth.

"You get one shot in the hoop and I'll let you go back to the tent. You can wallow in misery for the rest of the day." He gave them an open shrug, eyebrows raised as his hands came up to further his point.

"One shot?" Tommy asked, giving the ball an experimental bounce, pushing back the way his limbs were already buzzing at the prospect of a basketball match. "Just one?"

"One shot." Dream confirmed, his smile as confident as ever. "The two of you against me."

Tommy glanced to Tubbo, who raised one shoulder in a shrug. "How hard could it be?"

"Alright." Tommy agreed, eyeing the hoop. "One shot." He didn't hesitate before he launched the ball towards its target.

Dream was impossibly fast-- as though he already knew what Tommy was going to do, perhaps even before Tommy did. He leapt into the air and swatted the ball away, retrieving it easily and dribbling around behind his two opponents. Tubbo tried to intercept, but Dream seemed to expect his motions.