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Dream was tired. No, that was an understatement. He was exhausted. It was the night of Halloween. Most people would be out in costumes hanging out with friends and partying their nights away. Kids would be trick or treating. It was just a fun night overall. Not for Dream though.
Halloween meant people getting all kinds of crazy ideas in their heads. Statistics proved that there is more likely to be a masked armed robbery in the night around Halloween than any other point in the year.
There’s also a lot of crazy murder stories from around Halloween. Psycho going after their lovers. Kids being taken. It was just a lot and as their city’s number one hero, it was his job to be on highest alert in the past week.
He didn’t know how many times he had been called already this week. It was crime after crime after crime. He would get home to finally shower only to be throwing on his uniform in the next half hour because someone else thought it would be a good idea to rob a store in a Halloween mask.
So yeah, he was tired. He had woken up to the loud blaring of his phone. The alarm rang through his ears as he begrudgingly crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom. He pissed and brushed his teeth. Looking at himself in the mirror was a bit rough. Large eye bags hung below his eyes and he looked exhausted. His hair was a mess and Dream tried to fix it up in the mirror a little.
Maybe he should take a shower? He looked over at the small shower in their apartment. It would probably feel nice to wash all the sweat and tiredness from his skin. Dream yawned as he decided to. He began stripping off his shirt when he heard a loud ping from the other room.
Dream groaned loudly, stalking back to his room. He picked up the device that was sitting on the side of his bed and clicked it into his ear. He immediately heard the voice of the commander.
“Smiler, we have a robbery on East street, go.”
Dream didn’t even turn on his mic. He quickly pulled on his uniform and waved to George and Sapnap as he left. They were both sitting in the kitchen eating cereal, also exhausted. Sure they didn’t have as much to do as him, but it was still a lot.
The next eight hours passed in a massive blur. It was a mess of fighting, being so tired that his head hurt, and just everything all at the same time.
By the time it was dark, Dream was stumbling into his apartment. His legs were aching beneath him, his hair was filled with sweat and grime, he just felt nasty. Dream fiddled the key to his apartment. He turned it into the lock and stepped inside with a sigh. His head hurt and his eyes wanted to slip closed.
“BOO!” The flights were flicked on and about eight different people jumped out at him. Dream shrieked, jumping backwards in fear. His powers flared out in front of him, moving through the air in a distorted image. Dream heard laughing in front of him and he grabbed his chest heaving in a couple of breaths as he leaned against the door. Fucking hell. Dream peaked his eyes open to see George, Sapnap, Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, Philza, Bad, Techno, and Sam all there.
Each of them were in ridiculous Halloween costumes. Things like witches and zombies and skeletons. They looked funny and it made a genuine smile crawl onto his face for the first time today.
“Holy fuck,” Dream laughed, still panting a bit from the jump in his heart rate. He heard more giggling in front of him before George and Sapnap were both rushing towards him. They wrapped him up in a hug and Dream gladly fell into it with a content sigh.
“Happy Halloweeeennnnn,” George laughed with a giddy smile on his face. Dream smiled back. It was sweet. Sapnap had his arms wrapped around his body and George had his own arms looped around Dream’s neck. Dream was doing his best to hug both of them at the same time.
George leaned up and placed a kiss onto his lips. Dream hummed into it and chased George’s lips as the shorter one pulled away.
Tommy coughed on the other side of the room.
“Happy Halloween bitch,” he shouted loudly and Dream rolled his eyes, “I was promised candy.”
Philza laughed and Tubbo hit Tommy’s shoulder from where they were standing. Dream grinned at all the people in front of him. The heavy feeling weighing down on him was slowly disappearing. It was nice.
“What’s going on here?” Dream asked with amusement present in his voice. Bad pulled out a small party popper and blew it, making the kids in front of him jump.
“Surprise!” Bad exclaimed, “we wanted to have a small party so things could be fun today.”
Dream felt gratitude swell up inside of him so strong it made him feel slightly shaky. How had he been given such amazing friends? He didn’t deserve them.
“We didn’t want your Halloween to only be spent catching idiots, so why not do something fun?” Philza added with a smile. They were all smiling. Dream cheeks were beginning to hurt from how wide his was.
“We got candy, drinks, pumpkins, movies, just about everything,” Sam laughed happily. Dream could distantly hear the Halloween music in the background of the other room. The apartment smelled like pumpkins and fall. Warmth flooded into his chest and Dream couldn’t help but grinning farther.
“I- that’s awesome, I don’t know what to say,” Dream stuttered gratefully, “thank you guys.” The group nodded at him with happy faces and giggles. Dream felt a sigh run through him. After all this exhaustion, he was finally going to relax. He was going to have fun.
The buzzing of his comm ruined it all. Dream’s face fell and the room went still as the buzzing came from his pocket. Dream sadly picked it up and clicked unmute. A voice immediately blasted through it.
“Smiler, we need you by the river, armed robbery,” the man ordered, “we need you here now.” Dream clicked the comm off and slipped it back into his pocket with a large sigh. He tried not to let tears burn in his eyes. It really wasn’t a big deal. He just wanted to rest.
He blinked. It was fine. He could do one more. Dream opened his mouth to speak, slipping away from George and Sapnap. They looked up at him with frowns.
“No,” Sapnap grumbled, reaching into Dream’s pocket. Dream moved forward trying to snatch it back but the other kept it out of his reach.
“Sap-“ Dream tried but George cut him off.
“No, no more tonight,” he hummed with slightly anger in his voice. The smaller man pulled him away from Sapnap. Dream let his body be pulled. As much as he didn’t want to let anyone down, the temptation of rest was too much. It seemed too nice.
“Send someone on it,” Dream heard Sapnap growl into the communicator, “he’s busy. You have already sent him out plenty today.” The man left no room for argument as he shut off the device and shoved it into his own pocket with a scowl.
“It’s fine Sap,” Dream huffed sadly, taking a step back, “they need me.” He couldn’t let the city down. The league couldn’t think he was weak. He could take one more. He had to take one more. His city needed him. He couldn’t just be a normal person and have fun on Halloween. His job was to protect. Nothing else.
This wasn’t about him. He wasn’t supposed to be happy. His enjoyment could come from watching a happy city. He just had to keep fighting.
“Dream, no.” Sapnap argued, grabbing his arm and pulling him closer.
“Sap, they need me. I can’t let them down,” Dream began to ramble in a small panic, “what if someone gets hurt or something happens? I need to be there. It’s just one more. I'm fine.”
Apparently the ramble was not the right way to go because suddenly he was lightheaded and stumbling sideways. He breathed all of the air out of him and now his head was fuzzy. George caught him with and steadied him as Dream tried to get his footing back. He took a couple of deep breaths in.
“Take it easy buddy,” Sapnap hummed from beside him, “they’ll be okay without you. Stay with us?”
And the offer was something he wanted to take so bad. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew his city was way more important than his own feelings, but it was just too tempting. He slipped his Agfa into Sapnap’s with a silent nod. The man lit up at his acceptance.
“Okay let’s go,” Sapnap said excitedly, pulling his arm forward. Dream smiled widely as he was taken forward. George walked up beside him.
“After he showers.”
There were laughs from the room and Dream suddenly remembered that they weren’t alone.
“Wow. You can just tell me I stink,” Dream pouted sarcastically and George rolled his eyes.
“Yes you do!” George huffed and Dream shook his head fondly, “now go shower.” George tried to shoo him off. Dream went to where their bathroom hallway was. He turned back to George and Sapnap.
“All alone?” He joked.
Dream heart Tommy gag and he laughed loudly.
“Stop doing your weird flirty shit around me!” the young blond shouted as Dream moved through the hallway and into the bathroom.
His shower was nice. It was the first time that he had felt so relaxed in ages. The warm water rolled across his skin in a way that made Dream want to cry in relief. Washing days worth of grime, dirt, blood, and sweat from his body was an extremely refreshing feeling.
He spent a total of 30 minutes in the shower before turning the faucet off. He stood in the steam for a minute longer before stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel from the cabinet. He dried the droplets of water from his body, carefully avoiding putting too much pressure on bruised areas.
He brought the towel through his hair and scrunched it, trying to dry the mop of curls on his head. He then looked around for clothes to put on. His eyes fell on a skeleton onesie. Dream huffed through his nose as he picked it up. Of course this is what George and Sapnap had left him. He shook his head fondly as he stepped into the inside and out it one. It was slightly hot, but the soft fabric felt really nice against his skin.
Dream yawne. His limbs were aching still from all the work that he had been doing recently. He felt better after the shower though. His bones were a little less stiff than they had been before. Dream stretched his arms above his head, hearing his back crack, before stepping into the couch room.
One their couch was George, Tommy, Tubbo, and Sam all squished together. Philza and Bad were sitting on the floor together watching the younger people on the couch play fight with a grumbling George between them. Sapnap was stumbling into the room with bowls of candy in his hand. Techno was beside him, also carrying a bowl of something. It was popcorn.
Dream smiled as they saw him again. His onesie matched the other silly onesies that each of them had on. It was sweet. Dream walked over to the couch and plopped down beside George. The younger three on the couch scrambled to make room for him, but Dream found himself pushed between Tommy on one side and George on the other.
Sapnap threw a piece of candy at him and Dream caught it with a grin. It was a KitKat, one of his favorites. Dream gladly pulled the wrapper open and ate the candy bar.
Whoever said eating chocolate was like falling in love was completely right in Dream’s mind. It was so fucking delicious. It tasted like the best thing he had ever gotten to eat after so much work.
“Thanks!” Dream called out to Sapnap who coiled back and set the bowl of candy down on the coffee table. Techno sat the popcorn beside that and Techno crawled onto the floor to sit beside Bad and Phil.
Sapnap was grabbing their Nintendo switch controls from where they had them placed by the TV. He looked back at the group with a grin, holding multiple controls up in his hands.
“Who’s up for some mario kart?”
There was a collection of yes and Dream heard the younger boys already begin their trash talking. Dream chuckled and leaned over to George.
“I'm gonna kick your ass,” he playfully teased the boy. George rolled his eyes.
“I’d like to see you try,”
Dream shoved against George softly and the older shoved him back. Dream fell into Tommy who instantly started screaming about being attacked. The couch then turned to absolute chaos until Sapnap handed each of them their controllers with a concerned smile.
The games of Mario kart went well. Dream did up kicking almost everyone’s ass but Techno, who was very close to beating him. Dream still won though, which he considered a major win in his book. Dream hollered a victory shout as his name appeared in first place. He heard groaning and annoyed congratulations. Dream laughed with a large grin on his face.
Techno muttered something about only being a couple of points behind and Dream stuck his tongue out at the older man. Techno narrowed his eyes at Dream and Dream could only cackle back
They eventually decided to watch a bunch of scary movies. They weren’t particularly Dream’s favorite choice of movie, but it was fun in a group like this. He had everyone around to protect him and scream with him.
It was only when Dream got up halfway through the first movie that he met George in the kitchen. He had come out to grab a glass of water and cool off a little. They were all wrapped in blankets and leaned close against each other in the couches. It was nice to be close like that and Dream loved it, but it got hot really fast.
George looked up as his footsteps walked in. The older smiled at him and hummed.
“Everything going well?” He asked sweetly and Dream nodded quickly. He was having an amazing night. It was much better how he thought this night was going to go. He thought he would be alone in his sheets, body hurting and aching and cold. This was nice though. This was warm. This was happy.
“It’s great!” Dream said truthfully, “you all didn’t have to do this.” He sighed it softly and George looked up at him. The older man shook his head taking a last sip of his drink. He set it down on the table before moving over to Dream. He wrapped the younger boy in his arms and Dream gladly accepted the hug with a small sight. He melted into the smaller boy's arms.
“You’ve been working so much lately,” George hummed, softly running his hands through Dream’s hair, “it’s okay to enjoy life sometimes, love. It’s okay to take things easy.” Dream nodded slightly into George’s arms and the boy squeezed him tighter.
“Cmon,” George smiled at him, “let’s go watch these movies.”
George pulled Dream back into the room with him and Dream followed happily. He squeezed back into the couch, Sapnap on one side and George on the other. It was so warm. All his friends were in the room.
He felt safe.
He felt protected.