“Why do I smell smoke on you?”
Dust froze as he heard the poor fool on the other side of the tree ask the now Most-Wanted-Criminal-for-good-reasons-now why he smelled of smoke. He braced himself for the sound of the fool being killed, but instead he heard embarrassed laughing, coming from Nightmare.
“Sorry little brother, but I saw smoke over to the east and I went to go check it out. I wound up getting a little too close and… well, I now smell of smoke.”
“Be careful next time, Nighty! I don’t want to lose you…”
“Alright, my little Dream.”
Dust’s eyes widened. Dream was alive? Although…
He remembered clear as day when the betrayal happened. It started when Killer, one of his date-mates, announced that he was going for a walk and to not worry if he came back late. He started doing this about a month ago, and shortly after it became a routine.
Then, around dinnertime, Horror said he had to leave as well. Which was… unusual. True, the taller had started leaving sooner, but he always stayed until the food was done to at least have something to eat before going. Nonetheless, he didn’t question it. Now, he wondered if asking about it would have changed what happened later that night.
It was four o’clock, and he was curled up, sleeping in their shared bed when he awoke to the smell of smoke. He jumped up and quickly grabbed his and his mate’s things before rushing towards the exit. To his great distresses, he saw fire outside. He burst out into the flames and rushed as fat as he could through the smoke. Once through, he looked around to see if his date-mates were anywhere nearby when he saw them.
Smiling, he rushed towards them… that was, until Horror and Killer turned around. Dust stopped, looking in shock at his lovers. They both wore JR uniforms for the JD, and behind them was a large squad rushing towards them. Gulping, Dust tried to talk to his lovers.
“R-Ro, K-Kills, we need to-“
A smack across the face with a baton was his response. He whipped his head up at his sneering loves, shaking.
“Do you really think we’d love someone as disgusting as you?”
Dust froze, looking in shock at his former loves. They both turned and walked away, only giving one order to the squad that accompanied them.
Afterwards, everything blurred together. Somehow, he managed to make a portal to a random place and get through before he was dusted by the JD. He faintly recalled how he collapsed in a heap, sobbing and crying, his former date-mates belongings weighing him down, despite them being in his inventory. He remembered rummaging through theirs and his things, pulling out a small pregnancy test and two rings, placing them down, and smashing them.
Days turned to weeks, then months, when he finally portaled to a very empty yet peaceful AU. He wandered around in a daze, nobody to help him in his vulnerable condition. His summoned ecto-body showed a very prominent swell in his stomach, the magic carrying the baby until it was time for it to be born. Today, however, he saw smoke and began to head in that direction, hoping that it was some friendly people who would help him, or at the very least the baby. He had gotten as far as this tree when the rain started. However, he was beginning to wonder if that was such a good idea to start with when he heard talking on the other side, starting with Nightmare.
But as fate would have it, he started feeling the contractions starting to become more painful, and the feeling of water running down his leg when he was dry made him tense. His water broke, and now he had two options. Brave the rain and deliver the child on his own, or go and ask for help from the two people on the other side.
Another contraction hit, and he gasped. Quickly, the voices stopped, and the sound of movement reached his ears before a face entered his field of vision briefly before everything went dark.
When he woke up, Dust expected to be dead. Instead, he was looking up at the eaves of a tree, and two people beside him.
Dust glanced to his right towards Nightmare.
“My name is Nightmare. The one holing you kid is my little brother, Dream.”
“My name is Dust. Thank you for bringing my baby into the world… what gender…? May I…?”
Understanding immediately, Dream helped him prop himself against the tree before handing him his baby.
“It’s a girl. May I ask what you’re going to name her?”
Dust glanced down at the small infant as he stirred and opened his eyes, showing soft red eye lights. He thought for a moment, before it came to him.
