Nightmarecember Day 12: Tree | in time this time!
Nightmare climbed up the tree after Dream left for the village, hands and legs moving on their own, the best way up already memorized in his very core from how often he did this. With a sigh he settled on the highest branch he could reach and pulled his book out of his tunic.
It was a nice day, the sun shining bright in the sky already, having fought off the clouds as soon as she could. On days like these Dream would always drag him off to the river to play..
Nightmare sighed. These days were gone, destroyed by the village that formed, by the people's arrival that made it necessary for him to guard the tree at all time, for Dream to go as soon as the first rays of sun illuminated the tree and only come back when it had long settled behind the village. It saddened him.
Nightmare yelped as he got hugged from behind, almost dropping his book, his fight or flight instincts kicking in. None of the villagers ever managed to climb the tree, so who-
“H-hey Night, a-are you.. okay?”, Dream asked as he let go of his squirming brother.
“D-dream?”, Nightmare asked and turned around to see the person that had managed to sneak up on him really was the bright guardian.
Dream nodded. “Sorry, did I scare you?”
Nightmare started laughing, mainly to cover his shock, to not show his fear to Dream. “Oh stars, yes you did!”, he said, lifting his hand to his head to wipe off the tears that had almost spilled. “I thought.. y-you just left.”
“Hmm”, Dream nodded in agreement. “I came back. I want to spend the day with you, like we did before..”
Dream's voice was raised, implying he intended to say some more, but it seemed he had decided not to and Nightmare didn't want to push it. He was just happy to see Dream. But..
“But the villagers..”
“They can wait”, Dream said. “They don't need me today, they can manage without me for these few hours. I want to spend time with you today, Night!”
“We.. we shouldn't leave the tree..”
“I know”, Dream sighed. “That's okay, trust me.” He settled on the branch next to Nightmare and looked over the other's shoulder. “So, what are you reading..”
As Nightmare woke up and slowly opened his eyes all he saw was the red sky of his destroyed AU. He sat up with a groan, seems he had fallen asleep against the old stump of the tree again.
He sighed and took his head into his hands, it felt so heavy..
He quickly pulled his hand away again, it was wetter than normal.. he had been crying again, huh? He angrily wiped at his face, that time was long in the past and there was no use mourning it. They could never.. get those days back.
Not that he waned to anyway.
