"Glad you could finally make it, Clay." A distorted voice, vaguely resembling his own, speaks up.
Dream winces at the sound of claws scraping against his metal-adorned armor, slowly releasing his arms and allowing him to turn and face the reason for his delay.
"Who-?" He breathly questions before coming to fully face the figure. Dream's eyes widen at the sight of a 'man' abnormally towering over him, the top half of his face covered by a circular white mask holding the letters of 'XD' in charcoal black. A large smile is present on the individual's face, right below where the mask covers.
"Don't tell me you don't recognize me," the figure swoops around him in an unnatural way, a large shadow looming over him. Dream narrows his eyes in his direction. He's wearing a forest green cloak in which its hood covers his head, the rest of it draping off his shoulders and almost reaching the ground. Near his neckline, it connects together with a jewel that almost seemingly resembles a green eye, and it's accessorized with light gold chains that hang over his shoulders. The rest of his clothes are covered away by the cloak, just dark black armor peeking through the opening as well as tall black boots that cover just below his knees.
"I'm not an idiot, and your mask is a huge giveaway." Dream crosses his arms.
"Oh come on, Clay~" XD's smile widens as his head tilts a bit to the side, "You don't have to ruin the fun!"
"Don't call me that." Dream spits out.
"Why not? It's your name, is it not?" XD places a hand on his shoulder and Dream immediately swipes it off.
"You're not my friend and I don't care what you're doing here, I'm just grabbing George and getting out of here." He turns back towards the tower, immediately starting towards it. The figure snickers from behind him.
"Even if you get George out of there, you still have to complete the story." Dream stops in his tracks.
"What do you mean, complete the story?" He turns to face XD, who was suddenly directly behind him.
"Ah, now you're interested." The figure smirks.
"Explain." Dream commands impatiently.
"I'm surprised you haven't further questioned this sooner, but right now, as you already know, you're in the story of Rapunzel. In order to get out of it, you have to rescue 'Rapunzel' from the tower and complete the story by giving them their happily ever after. And what better person to play the role of Rapunzel than the love of your life!" Dream pauses for a moment, contemplating his next words.
"What's the catch?" He keeps his eyes trained on XD, whose smile still remains present.
"No catch, just finish the story."
"And then we can get out of here?"
"And then you can get out of here," XD confirms.
Dream takes a deep breath and turns back towards the tower.
"Just one more thing," XD's voice is placed directly next to his right ear.
"Don't let George find out about me." Dream feels the exhale of breath crawl on his skin, "And if you do, the consequences won't be pretty." There's a light blow of wind and he turns to find the suddenly missing presence of XD.
"Fantastic!" He exclaims sarcastically, "Just what I didn't need!"
Dream huffs out an exhale of breath before facing the tower once again, scanning for the best possible way of approach.
~ ‧₊˚ ʚ♡ɞ ˚₊‧ ~
Flashback
"DREAM!" George's voice screeched loudly through his headphones, Patches immediately jumping off Dream's lap from the sound.
"George! You scared Patches away!" He huffs while re-adjusting his desk chair.
"So? Not my problem." Dream could just imagine the eye roll accompanying the brunette's expression, "You promised a movie night!"
"I know I know," the dirty blonde huffed, "I just gotta finish editing real quick."
"That's what you said AN HOUR AGO!" George complained louder, "Pay attention to meeeee"
"Fine, but I'm choosing the movie." Dream closed his editing windows and redirected his computer to the first streaming service he could think of.
"You're just gonna choose another Disney movie." Dream paused his scrolling.
"How do you know that?" He raised an eyebrow towards his monitor as if George could see him.
"'Cause you always do?" The brunette snorts before Dream falls into a fit of giggly wheezes.
"Just for that, I'm gonna choose the one of the most princess-like one I can find." He announces before clicking on Tangled and sharing his screen on call.
"Nooooooo" George exclaims dramatically.
"You're lucky we already watched The Little Mermaid last week, or else I would've made you watch it again." Dream smiles fondly at the sight of George's icon viewing his screen.
Flashback End
~ ‧₊˚ ʚ♡ɞ ˚₊‧ ~
Now you might be wondering; why does a 22-year-old man like Disney princess movies?
Well, it's simple- he was initially forced.
Dream had always been stuck watching them growing up, beginning from the first time his mom put Cinderella into the DVD player for his younger sister at age 5. Ever since then, she had always promptly asked him to join her for movie night before he could escape.
Being forced into watching princess movies for hours on end had proved to be quite difficult to deal with when he would try to look anywhere but the tv. It was one specific night of Tangled when he had finally decided to give in and watch; tired of staring at the same spot on the ceiling for so long. He was thankful for the bits of violence included in the movie, though he enjoyed the rest of it just as much.
After this night he had made it his mission to finally watch the rest of them, to be able to call them all bad of course, (not that he'd admit that he actually enjoyed them).
Slowly, he learned to accept his fate and finally gave in to his almost newfound interest in Disney movies and fairytales. But when he learned George hadn't actually seen any of the movies, he knew he had to change that and introduce him into the world of happy endings and fanciful romances.
And here we are now... almost.
~ ‧₊˚ ʚ♡ɞ ˚₊‧ ~
Dream smiled to himself at his thoughts, enjoying the simpler times when he wasn't stuck in god-knows-where.
He kept his eyes trained on the top window as he finally approached the tower, realizing that the story logic made the tower seem so much bigger up close than it had been from far away. Hell, he couldn't even see George anymore he was so small-looking and far away. Damn fairytales.
"George?!" He called out through the birdsongs and the light chirping of crickets from a nearby thorn bush at the base of the tower.
Silence followed immediately after.
"Fuck," Dream muttered to himself. He scanned over the tower again in search of any possible way up, but there were no protruding stones or strong enough vines that ran all the way up. He sat there pondering for a moment when a realization popped in his head; what would a fairytale character do?
Well, he knew that in Tangled he would just climb up the tower himself, but Dream wasn't skilled enough like a rogue thief. Immediately tilting his head towards the top of the tower, he sighed knowing what he was about to do would definitely make him feel idiotic.
"For George." He muttered to himself over and over, creating a mantra to ease his mind. Taking a few steps back, he stopped about 7 feet away from the tower and called up.
"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" After a beat of silence, Dream almost flinches and watches as the longest rope he had ever seen fell from the window of the tower, knots adorning it all the way up.
He steps up to the rope and grips both hands around it, furrowing his brows and giving it an experiential tug to make sure it's actually attached to something. When he's met with resistance, he moves his right hand up above the highest knot he can reach and starts to pull himself up, placing his feet on the knots for support.
He reaches 50 feet up before he stops for a moment to sit on a knot and take a minute break. Minecraft streamers aren't exactly built for this kind of thing, even though occasionally Dream might work out a bit throughout the week, nothing that crazy though.
Looking out towards the direction of the forest, Dream is met with the sight of large trees poking out past the rocky walls of the valley. He sighs as he takes in the otherworldly view as hints of unnatural colors seep into the sky surrounding the forest, tiny rainbow-colored fireflies slipping out above the forest roof.
He looks off to the side more and notices the sun seems to be reaching the horizon faster than he had anticipated.
"Shit," he mutters to himself before starting his exhausting climb to reach the top once again.
~ ‧₊˚ ʚ♡ɞ ˚₊‧ ~
Twenty or so minutes later, Dream finally reaches the bottom trim of the lonely wooden window and uses his right hand to desperately grip at it, attempting to pull himself up. But he almost immediately freezes when he feels a hand on his, seeking to help him up.
Without saying a word, he lets the hand pull at his wrist and he tumbles right through the window, knocking over whatever's in his path. He groans after landing on the floor, still managing to hold himself up on his arms to avoid crushing something. What he didn't expect was that 'something' to be George.
His eyes widen as he looks down at the brunette lying frozen on the floor, silence still taking hold of both boys. George is dressed in long midnight blue trousers and a lighter blue low-cut cloth vest that's laced and with light tighter sleeves to accompany. Though seemingly formal, the outfit remains humble with the absence of shoes.
The brunette continues to silently stare up at him, meeting his own gaze as Dream feels his chest fill with warmth at the sight of George's well-being.
"George," he smiles excitedly as the other's eyes light up at the recognition of his own name.
"Dream?" he questions back in shock and utter unbelievement, "Is it really you?" The brunette asks before Dream pauses for a moment to collect his thoughts, the realization just now dawning on him:
He hadn't revealed his face before.
(Word Count: 1762)