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sleepyfan-blog · 5 years

Text

Sleepy Dream [Part 1]

fandom: Undertale AUs

continued here and here.

Characters: Underswap Papyrus, Dream

warnings: none

Word count: 1,462

Summary: Dream tiredly eats tacos. He’s fine, he promises.

Dream let the smile on his face drop as soon as he closed the kitchen door. He bit back an exhausted groan as he shuffled over to Blue and Stretch's fridge, pulling out some tortillas and fillings, barely caring enough to fill them properly before stuffing the monster food in his mouth. Dream sat down with a near soundless thud, leaning against the partially open door, the cool air kind of nice against his face. The energy boost was minimal, despite the fact that the food had been made with love and care. But a half-dozen hastily made cold tacos was enough to stave off the looming exhaustion. Hopefully while Blue and Ink sparred, he would be able to take a nap. He just… Needed to put the food away first…

“Uh… Dream are you okay?” Stretch’s voice called out, causing the positive guardian to startle a little and flail, nearly spilling Blue’s cooking - which would be terribly rude.

Dream shoves the food back into the fridge after re-wrapping it up as best as he can with his shaking fingers before turning around and giving the other a big smile, nodding as he looked up at the taller skeleton “Yes, I’m fine! Do you need something, Stretch?”

The younger being squints down at him, a concerned frown on his face that does not in the least bit abate the longer that they continue to stare at one another. Stretch folds his arms over his chest and sits down next to Dream, asking quietly “... I don’t need anything, but I’m wondering if you do. You’ve been dead asleep for the past six hours. Ink and Blue’ve been causing well meaning chaos that entire time and haven’t come in yet. This is the first time you’ve reacted to me calling your name. I would have tried to shake you awake, but I couldn’t actually get into the kitchen until you woke up. Every time I tried to get close to the door, you’d activate some sort of yellow shield thing. I couldn’t even use a short-cut to get in here. Unless you were just ignoring me for some reason.”

“I… No… I didn’t… I didn’t mean to pass out on your kitchen floor like that! Hahaha… I had your fridge door open and everything. That was so rude of me! But really. I’m fine. And sorry about subconsciously keeping you out of part of your own home. It’s just that before I left my timeline, for the longest time I only slept when I passed out from exhaustion - which took several months of staying awake and moving around constantly trying to…” Dream paused for a moment, blinking as he realized that he had been about to admit to have been trying to flee… From a certain someone. He must still be in need of sleep if he was about to say something like that. “Help people in my home timeline.” That wasn’t exactly a lie. Dream had been doing what he could to help the scattered and miserable survivors of Dreamtale. Nightmare fancied himself the king of their world - and it wasn’t as if he could actually rule an empire of dust and dead human bodies. There would be no one but him to torment, which as he’d been told repeatedly, was boring. He couldn’t quite suppress the shudder and hoped that Stretch hadn’t noticed.

The worried frown that only deepened on the other’s face told Dream that he’d failed miserably. “Uh… Dream, I’m pretty sure that Ink sleeps more often than that. You do sleep more regularly than that now, right? Or at least since you’ve been running with Ink and my bro?” Stretch pressed, frowning at him in concern.

“Of course! I’m… Not entirely sure why I passed out on your kitchen floor, actually. I knew I was tired, but tile isn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep on? Then again, it’s pretty clean, which is nice! I’ve definitely slept in much worse places.” Dream answered cheerfully… And mentally beating himself up over the fact that he’d just said that.

Particularly as, predictably, Stretch’s concern and worry over him grew, not lessened “Dream… You know that you can tell me anything, right? Even if you want it to just remain between the two of us. You’ve done a lot to help me and mine. I care about you and want you to be okay.” The other reached out and lightly patted the top of his skull in an affectionate gesture that the positive guardian was wholly unprepared for.

“I… I know. I promise that if there’s ever anything bothering me I’ll tell you.” Dream lied, still smiling cheerfully up at Stretch, hoping that the other would buy it. “Really, I am fine. Just a little overtired…”

“... Are… Are you sure about that? I don’t meant to press… It’s just this is the third time in two weeks I’ve found you huddled in the kitchen over a pile of food and passed out, unable to get to you until you wake up. But you snuck off the other two times and I wasn’t able to talk to you then.” Stretch pushed, still watching him with a surprising amount of care and concern.

“... I…” Oh hell. He might as tell someone. Stretch might be able to help him come up with a better option rather than shoving food in his stomach and sleeping in weird places, as it was incredibly inconvenient and… Worrying. He’d very nearly collapsed in that last fight against Error due to exhaustion and he’d never done that before. “... I don’t have as much energy as I used to. My mana recovers slower than before, and I don’t know why. Even when I’m up at full strength, it doesn’t last nearly as long as I used to… I’ve been trying to sleep a bit more and grab MP restoring potions when I can but… They’re kind of hard to come by and most AUs tend to regulate them if they are sold and not just for the use of the royal guard, sentries and any court magicians who work for the magical royalty or leadership in the AUs I visit. It’s been… For the past three weeks it’s getting worse and I… That last fight with Error I nearly…” Dream stopped talking when he felt Stretch’s emotions shift from concern and worry, to something closely resembling panic.

He let out a tiny sound of surprise when the Papyrus grabbed him by the shoulders and Checked him, staring hard at his stats. “Dream… You’re not beginning to Fall Down, are you?”

“No! No it’s not anything like that. I have lots of HP and am full of positivity. I kind of am the guardian of such feelings, you know. Haha. People feel much happier and more hopeful around me, so why wouldn’t I?” Dream answered, telling the truth… More or less. He wasn’t falling down. “Besides, I can’t die from natural causes, so I’m unable to Fall Down.”

“I… What do you mean by that?” Stretch questioned, frowning a little “How do you know that?”

Dream sighs and shakes his head “Due to how I was created, I cannot die of natural causes. Not from illness, hopelessness, starvation, old age, cold or heat exposure. I can only die if I’m killed - and it’s a lot harder to kill me than it may look. In part because I heal really quickly. I know this because the previous guardian of… The previous guardian told me. They were dying and created me to take their place. They gave me a lot of information so that I wouldn’t be helpless at first as I adjusted to my form and role.”

“Okay… Does any of that information that they gave you explain your recent lack of energy? Or is it just that you need a bit of a break from running all across the multiverse? Maybe stay someplace safe for a couple of weeks and just chill.” Stretch was pretty sure that he could talk Blue into staying in this timeline for a while - or hell. Dream could go to the omega timeline to rest where there was absolutely no chance of a reset and everything suddenly going horrible on him. Ink was… Generally a reasonable sort about taking breaks and the like.

“Yeah, I figure I just need to recharge in a high-positivity timeline. We have been fighting more with Error than normal… And we were fighting to try to protect a neutral-run Underfell so… That usually takes a bit more out of me than other timelines I’ve been to.” Dream responded, the smile on his face mostly genuine this time. They’d been battling in darker timelines as of late. That’s probably just what it was.

#my writing #underswap papyrus #dream

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