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Soft lighting greets Punz as he wakes. Lichen vines covering the walls and soulfire torches give their underground base a comfortable feeling. Punz’s gaze catches Dream. He’s pacing around the room, clearly so lost in thought that he doesn’t notice the other is alive again.
As Punz takes his first breath of air, forcing their lungs to work again, they cough. The noise makes Dream turn his head to Punz instantly. “You’re back,” he says, fondly.
Punz attempts to get up from where he’s laying. His respawn point was set on the bed there. It’s yellow and nearly big enough for both of them. They rarely sleep there together, though, as Dream insists on having someone keep watch over the other at all times.
Dream walks over to him, and reaches out his hand for them to take. Punz gladly accepts and holds onto him while standing up. Their knees feel wobbly and weak and their head pounds mildly. He will be okay in a moment, based on what Dream told them from when he’d been revived before this. Dream’s shoulder sits under his arm, supporting them directly. Punz smiles.
The other turns to them, moving his hands to Punz’s waist to still help them be stable on their legs.
“How was it?” Dream’s voice is just a whisper. Punz leans their head against his chest and sighs.
“It sucked,” he pauses. Vivid images of his limbo come back to them and they nearly get dizzy again. He forces himself to change his course of thought. Their arms move to Dream’s back and Punz pulls him impossibly close.
“I’m glad I’m back now.”
Dream knows better than to address the terror in their voice. Punz will bring it up when the time is right for it.
“Me too,” Dream murmurs into Punz’s hair, and kisses their head dearly.
The world goes quiet around them until only an occasional crackle of soulfire from the walls can be heard. Dream had opted for that while designing their base, instead of the lava Punz had first suggested. He didn’t like the sound of lava and still doesn’t, for obvious reasons. Besides, Punz looks almost ethereal in the flickering blue light.
“It’s time, love,” Dream breathes out.
“Time for?” Punz bends away from Dream slightly. They still feel like their legs may give in at any time now. Dream holds onto them still, one hand on his shoulder now. Punz’s eyes look enchanting like they’re made from soulfire. Like magic is captivated in them. Maybe there is.
“Time for me to die.”
He turns to take his knife from the table nearby, then holds it out for Punz to take. Punz’s own blood on the knife taunts them. Dream probably left it dirty for a reason. A weird, fucked up kind of sentiment, to have Punz kill him with their blood in the same knife. It would mean that even after death, they’re bound together forever. The thought makes them warm for no more than a second.
“I’m not killing you, Dream,” they look back at him. “I refuse.”
Something in Dream’s gaze softens. Punz almost feels high from how he looks at him, there’s so much love.
“Allow me to put my trust in you,” he reasons.
“You already showed me so much trust, love.” They gently hold Dream’s cheek in their palm. “You’ve given me too much, so take some.”
Dream tilts his head to kiss Punz’s palm.
“I don’t want to take your life,” Punz whispers. Dream looks at him and nods.
“Then I’ll take it myself.”
Punz’s breath hitches as they squeeze their eyes shut, pushing his head into Dream’s chest again. He looks up at him, the blue fire barely lighting his face. “Do you really have to?”
“Love..” Dream starts, and Punz immediately interrupts him.
“Because.. what if I fail?”
Dream isn’t sure what to say to that. Punz takes his silence as their sign to continue.
“Dream, what if I can’t bring you back?”
“You’ll bring me back,” Dream forces the anxiety down. “You can do it, I believe in you.”
The fire in the room flicks its shadow onto Dream’s face and the thought of losing everything suddenly hits Punz like a slap to the face.
They grab the knife from Dream’s grasp and for a moment, the other thinks this is it. He’s proud, even if this is it. He trusts Punz with far more than his life, but if they fail, this will have been worth it.
Punz doesn’t twist the short blade into his stomach, though. Instead, they throw it to the side and look back at him in tears.
Their eyes are wide, in shock at his own action. As Dream reaches out to take his hand, Punz breaks down.
“I don’t want you to go,” he cries. “I can’t live this life without you, Dream. I wanna go through life and beyond with you. We could ride dragons and feel the thrills of the void.”
“We will, Punz. I promise.” Punz doesn’t have words left to disagree. Not only because their throat hurts from pushing down the sobs, but also because he believes him. They don’t need blood to be bound to each other. Dream’s soul reached out for him long ago, and Punz hadn’t hoped to do anything other than accept.
The soulfire grows stronger as if it hears Punz’s thoughts. Dream walks back slowly, taking Punz’s hands and drawing them with him. Punz sits down on the bed first, Dream takes the spot in his lap and sits between his legs.
“What will you do now?” Punz’s voice is but a mumble. It’s spoken next to Dream’s ear, though, so the other hears clearly.
“Now I wait,” Dream says.
Punz despises how calm he sounds, it makes them panic. “What do you mean?”
When the other doesn’t answer, they grab his chin to force him to look at him. “What did you do, Dream?”
Dream closes his eyes and a pained smile forms on his face. His breath hitches as he speaks, and now finally, Punz recognises it as pain. “I took poison.”
Punz’s blood runs cold, he should’ve seen this coming. Their grip on Dream’s chin loosens, making the other open his eyes again and look right at them.
“It’s okay, love,” he smiles. It’s not okay, love. I’m barely a person without you.
“Why’d you do it,” Punz asks.
Dream chuckles, forcing him to cough right after. “Figured you’d refuse to take my life.”
Punz looks at him in full panic now, “when?” Their hands cup his face. “How long ago did you take it?”
“Calm down, Punz, fuck.”
Blue eyes scream at him to talk, though.
“Took it when you were still out, I was waiting for you to wake up again,” he confesses.
Punz is furious, they’re anxious with all the constant impulsive decisions of this love. They push their forehead against Dream’s. “You took that risk?” he sighs.
Dream remains silent again. He just breathes out heavily and holds Punz’s face the same way they are.
“You don’t have to be this reckless, Dream.”
“It’s not reckless, it’s thoughtful. There’s so little time and so much There’s so much knowledge and we don’t know how much of it will go, some could be getting lost as we speak-” he raises his voice, cuts himself off when Punz looks away.
Punz hates it when their conversations go this way. As much as Punz trusts Dream with their life, as much as he loves him and will stand by his side forever, it scares him.
“It’s fine, love,” Dream mutters, reassuring the other. He thumbs at Punz’s cheek, they turn their head back to him. “Kiss me, please,” he whispers.
And who would Dream be to say no to them, with a voice that soft and eyes that blue? So he kisses them like it’s the last time. Because, to be quite honest, it could very well be.
The two get back on the bed after a while, Punz leaning against the wall, Dream sitting between his legs. Near the bed, there’s moss on the walls. It comes from the occasional, small amounts of water that creep through the stone. There’s mushrooms, they grow bigger and creep closer whenever there’s more death.
Dream’s head is leaning back on Punz’s shoulder. His breathing has slowed down a lot, so much that the other thinks he might have fallen asleep. He’s not dead, Punz knows that for sure. They’ve been holding him, arms wrapped around his chest. Tight enough to feel his heartbeat underneath their palm, but not uncomfortable.
Just as Punz is about to press another kiss to the back of his head, Dream shoots forward with a horrible cough. In a matter of seconds, he’s coughing up blood. Punz will clean it up later, just as silently and effortlessly as Dream wipes the rest from his chin.
Sometimes, though, the blood will mess up his throat and he won’t be able to breathe. Punz finds this worse than the knife could’ve been, but they won’t admit to that.
Dream nearly throws up from how tight his lungs feel, and how little he can breathe. When that happens, Punz frowns and squints his eyes shut. They patiently wait for Dream to lean back against them, breathing heavily, and then gently comb through his hair.
“How long will it take?” Punz talks softly as if Dream’s ears could start bleeding if he talks too loudly. Maybe they will, Punz doesn’t know how the poison works.
“Not sure.” Dream’s voice sounds terrible and rough. He attempts to clear his throat and it seems to work for now. “I don’t think I’m dying yet, but I can feel it spreading.”
Punz feels sick after hearing that, he’s dying in their arms.
“Does it hurt?” He wonders, not sure how the words actually made their way through his mouth.
Dream has no immediate answer to that. He closes his eyes and takes in the feeling. The poison is slow and brutal, but it’s everywhere. It’s like acid, eating away at every part of his body, it’s nearly the only thing he feels. That, and the knowledge that Punz is there with him. They’re giving him all the strength he needs to stomach this, warming his heart and keeping it active.
It’ll take hours to kill him if he tries hard enough. There’s a weird reasoning behind all this that Dream refuses to think about. If he survives, if Punz can successfully revive him - which they will - he’ll think about it.
“Yes,” Dream finally croaks. The pain is agonising.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, it’ll all be worth it.” Because after this, they’ll be ready to go much further into this. To dive into the depths of what life means, and how far it goes. To dive into the light and void of this earth, quite literally.
Punz kisses his head once more, “it will”.
Punz is combing their fingers through Dream’s hair again. It’s long and blond, though it’s been turning more white as they’ve been experimenting with the revival book. His hair is most of all very fragile. Punz takes notice of it when long strands hang onto their fingers as he pulls his hand away from it. Sometimes, full locks come out.
“Your hair is far too gorgeous for this, I’ve never seen it fall out in these amounts,” they murmur.
Dream takes a deep breath before he answers. “It means I’m dying, love.” He rolls his head to the side so he can place a single kiss on Punz’s neck.
“So soon?” Punz sounds so scared, oh how Dream wishes he could give them more than the entire world, life and death. He’d give him his soul if he could.
“I’m afraid so.”
Punz hums, “I’ll miss you.” He kisses his head.
“You’ll see me soon.”
It’s unclear how much time passes before the two speak again. The fire is taunting them, screaming in crackles and dancing in shadows on the walls. Dream ignores it, his body hurts too much and he’s trying to enjoy the last of Punz’s warmth against his back.
“Do you know how long..” Punz wonders. He doesn’t have to finish the sentence.
Dream weakly shakes his head, “can’t be much longer now.”
“Oh,” Punz swallows deeply. “How do you know?”
Punz’s arms still ghost over his chest, wanting to be as gentle as possible. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he hurt the other more than he already is.
Dream’s lips feel dry as he licks them, preparing himself to speak. “Can’t feel myself anymore.”
He tries to lift his hand, in an attempt to then hold Punz’s hand and squeeze it. They quickly realise he’s unable to, very softly taking a hold of the hand. Dream’s squeeze is barely noticeable, Punz sucks in a breath. It really can’t be much longer now.
Punz moves their foot against his and snorts, “can you feel this?”
“No.”
The smile on their face cracks. They rub their thumb over the back of his hand. “How about this?” he asks, much quieter this time.
Dream shakes his head. Punz can hardly hear him when he says “no”.
He kisses his cheek, “and this?”
Dream forces a smile, “yeah.” He clears his throat again, “I can feel that.”
Punz kisses his hair and wraps his arms around him. Dream sinks into his chest, letting go of everything. He’s not dead yet, but the other can tell it’ll be soon. His breathing is too hitched, his heartbeat is too slow. Punz isn’t sure how the poison does its work, but they swear Dream’s hands are shaking from more than just terror.
Minutes later, true to Punz’s assumption, Dream dies in their arms. They cry until his body feels too empty and heavy on him. He can’t wait for too long. Dream doesn’t deserve to be in limbo for any longer than necessary. The longer they take, the more Dream will suffer.
So Punz gets up, grabs the revival book and wipes at their tears. As they look for the right page, he thinks back to his own death. He’d died first, they insisted on it. That way, if something went wrong, Dream would still be there. Punz always deemed the other’s life more valuable.
They died by Dream’s knife, while the other held him. He can’t remember if he was the only one who was crying at the time.
”Dre- Dream, hold my hand, please,” they’d sobbed.
”Of course,” he said, doing right as they asked. He placed sweet kisses on his palm, his wrist, and the back of his hand. “Are you in pain?”
Punz had squinted his eyes, gritting their teeth. “Need to be strong for you.”
Dream smiled at him in compassion. “You’re dying, my dear, no need to be strong now.”
With those words, Punz let go of everything he was fighting for still.
”You’re not alone, Punz. I’m here with you, and I’m bringing you back.” vThey’d died long before hearing that, but his soul already knew.
As Punz revives the other on his turn, the entire room fills with a toxic green grow. Dying on the bed is strategic, the needed magical energy to respawn Dream’s body stays low like that. It’s essential because Punz needs all the power they can get.
Dream’s entire body glows. From the nerve endings in his fingertips to his head. His throat lights up, it must’ve hurt so much. Only now, Punz could see how much damage the poison had really done.
Before he had time to doom himself over that, though, Dream coughed heavily. Punz wastes no time pulling him to their chest. They don’t let go for a while after that, and eventually the two fall asleep together. Dream’s desire for someone to keep watch at all times will have to wait. Regardless, they’re both immortal now.
The two fall asleep, tangled in each other. Dream’s dead blood is still on the floor, and the green still glows on his skin. On the floor next to the bed, lies the revival book, open but unreadable.
“I didn’t notice we’re matching, now,” Dream mumbles as he sees Punz’s hair. He pets the soft locks, they’re noticeably white.
They frown, “I can’t see.”
Dream just snorts. “Your hair is too short for you to see it like this.”
“Can you show me?”
The other nods and gets up from the bed. He takes a bowl of water and lights a lantern on the wall. Punz tries to see the white locks in the water’s reflection.
“Maybe my hair is too light to tell,” they figure.
Dream coos, “do you want me to tell you where they are?”
Punz smiles at the suggestion, “yes please.”
His hands carefully glide through their hair, sorting out pieces of white hair. He then takes Punz’s hand and places it over his own fingers, where he's holding the locks. “Here, it’s this part.”
“That’s a lot,” Punz swallows.
“Do you want it gone? I can cut it out if you want, or neutralise the colour with blaze powder?”
Punz turns down the suggestion, “it’s fine, I’ll get used to it.”
“Makes me feel closer to you,” they breathe.
Dream smiles at them, “it suits you, love.”
Punz reaches for Dream’s hair, to look through it and find his locks as well. Dream looks down for him, so they can inspect easier.
“You have so much more of it, now,” he notices. v“Yeah?”
“Almost a third of your hair, I think.” Punz sounds like he’s frowning. He knows it has something to do with how long he spent in limbo, they feel terribly guilty for that.
“How was your limbo?” they ask quietly.
Dream lets out a sigh and smiles at them. “I won’t bother you with all that, it’s done now, it doesn’t matter.”
“No, please, I wanna know. I care, Dream.”
So Dream does. He tells them about his limbo, about being stuck at spawn. About how he’s never able to leave the chunk, no matter how hard he tries, no matter how hard he hurts himself trying. How he’s invisible, and can’t talk to a single person. About how every time someone’s respawn had failed, he wasn’t alone for just a second.
Punz feels sorry for him, he kisses him until Dream’s lips leave, and then doesn’t let him go. He won’t be alone as long as Punz is here, they’ll make sure of that.
A long silence follows.
“Do you want the white pieces gone?” Punz finally asks.
“Not gone,” Dream thinks about it for a moment. “Maybe dyed.”
“Green suits you,” Punz suggests.
Hours later, Dream’s long hair has toxic green locks. Punz thinks they look more like him, an endless reminder of the magical energy, and his bond to them. They’re not losing each other after this. Punz smiles.