Predator (DWT x OC)

96

"I don't see you complaining." I snap back. "And I swear to god I will stop if you keep being too loud-"

His arms wind around my waist, pulling me flush against him, enveloping me in his comforting, steady warmth. "Rosie, it's gonna be okay." He whispers into my ear. "It'll be over soon."

"Is it too ridiculous to hope Dream just gets killed during the war?"

Punz scoffs. "He's like a cockroach, they could drop a payload of explosives on his ass and he'd probably just scuttle away."

I lean my heart against his chest, where I can hear the strong, rhythmic thumping of his heart. I have nightmares now, ones where I listen but hear nothing, ones where he never comes back. Dream tells me I thrash in my sleep, and I tell him it's nothing, just like he does when I feel him flinching in his. 

My fingers ball themselves in his shirt, and his arms tighten around my back, resting his chin on top of my head. He smells like he always does, and it threatens to bring tears to my eyes. My knuckles ache, and it's like if I hold onto him tightly enough, they'll never get him, and I'll never lose him.

"After the war I'm going to kidnap you." He tells me decidedly, after a minute of silence. 

I look up at him, a grin on my face. "Oh are you now?"

"Yep, I'll steal you in the dead of night and take you to my lair and no one will ever find you again."

"I'm sure Dream would have something to say about that."

"He just doesn't like it when his own moves are used against him."

I barely contain the snort of laughter that tries to escape. "You'd have to abduct a lot of people."

I meant it as an offhand remark, but both of us stiffen a little, a reminder that leaving isn't just that easy, no matter the fantasy, not matter how good it could be. A reminder that our lives are tied back here, that until we finish this, running away will never solve anything. I can feel Punz shrug. 

"I'm very good at a lot of things Rosie, don't underestimate me."

And just like that, Punz does what Dream could never do, could never learn. There's a lot of differences between Punz and Dream, I pour over them in quiet moments of contemplation, but the biggest is highlighted by the microcosm that is my family. 

Dream would wipe them off the face of this planet, and Punz would lay down his life for me to have them. 

I think both of them and their ways infuriate me, but Dream's is selfish and Punz's is selfless and therein lies the difference. I want to punch him and tell him that I am not worth his sacrifice, but I'll never convince him because that's unconditional love. 

Every ounce of affection with Dream has strings attached, careful forethought, a well-planned upper hand, and action and reaction and an affect. Every ounce of affection with Punz pours out of an open heart that has given so much already. 

I'll probably end up dying for both of them, but that's just the path I've been lead down, more than anything. My sacrifice is obsolete in this landscape, in the face of these men. It has been promised, a long time ago and all I've been doing is living on scraps of time I've squirrelled away. 

"Don't think too much." Punz's soft voice brings me back to the cupboard, to him and me, to now. "I can see it on your face."

"I can't." I answer quietly, barely. I don't want to tell him that I hate him for being so reckless with his own life, because I know I do the same with mine. I'm a hypocrite and unfair and it doesn't matter anyway because he's a better person than I ever will be, because the part of me that was human was ripped out and stomped on and burned. It's gone, and I am left empty, but god he makes me forget sometimes.