Almost But Not Quite Human

Nightmares

"I really hate the rain." Niki grumbled.

It had been four days since the Dream Team - plus Niki and Ranboo - had left the tree house. It surprised Dream how quickly he was able to fall back into the old patterns of travelling through the wild, and it surprised him even more how fast Niki and Ranboo were able to as well. It looked as though they'd lived on their feet for years.

Point in case, Niki had just finished tying a perfect knot for the tent even in the pouring rain. She looked at it with a satisfied smile before wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Dream guiltily adjusted his mask, thankful for the cover it provided.

He jumped down from the slick tree branch he'd been resting on just in time for Sapnap, George, and Ranboo walk back into the temporary campsite with forlorn looks on their faces and empty hands.

"We couldn't find any dry firewood," admitted George, who in spite of the weather refused to pull his goggles  over his eyes.

Sapnap plonked himself down on a rock, not worried about getting wet because he was already soaked through, "This rain is totally bogus. The weather wasn't even that bad a few days ago!"

It was true. While the weather had been cold before, there hadn't been much rain or snow so the sudden change surprised everyone. Dream spitefully wondered if Philza felt guilty as he saw how much it rained and what he'd sent them out into.

"I guess we'll just have to do a watch again," said Ranboo, "I can go first tonight?"

"Okay, I'll go second then" Dream raised his hand and cocked his head to the side.

Niki and George protested with "I literally have night vision!" / "I can take a watch guys really!" but to no avail.

Sapnap tried to get them to ease off, reminding the two that they'd taken yesterday's watch and were of no use if they were too tired or sick. George and Niki had nothing to say against this, and were forced out of the argument.

"I'm taking a watch tomorrow though," said George stubbornly, "It makes sense."

"Fine, but tonight you'll just have to rest and let Ranboo and I protect you~" Dream teased, giving George a cheesy bow that made the shorter  blush and walk away in frustration.

Sapnap punched Dream lightly on the arm and joked, "not cool dude: hitting on my best friend like that? Don't make me fight you."

Dream wheezed, and between breaths managed to promise he was not hitting on George.

"Yeah, and I'm not standing in the pouring rain." Sapnap smirked and poked the masked mutated, "You definitely like him."

"Don't be an idiot Sapnap."

"I'm not."

"Yes you are."
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The rain had barely slowed down as the sun slipped past the horizon, coating the whole world in an inky black.

Dream knew he should be trying to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes a fat droplet would roll off the canopy above him and slap him awake. The masked mutated still refused to sleep in the tent, in such a small space.

He almost couldn't stand it back in the tree house, but somehow the open door relieved his stress somewhat and the room was quite bare really. Lots of room... That meant safety, right?

Dream paused. Since when was that true? He didn't remember being averse to tight spaces his whole life, certainly not while he worked in cramped laboratories and made his way through the busy streets of his home.

Perhaps, Dream thought, that so much time outside of civilisation had reduced his tolerance for closed spaces. His mulled over this fact for a while, until a pair of blindingly white eyes jarred him from his thoughts.

"Hello Dream,"

Was that... "Halo!?"

"Who else you muffin head?" He giggled, "did you really think you could get away so easily?"

The Dream's heart leapt into his throat. Halo had caught him, totally off guard. Blood pounded in Dream's ears as he realised he was probably about to die. Halo said something that he didn't quite catch over the noise.

"Wh- what did you say?"

"I said it's your turn to take watch Dream. Are you okay?"

Dream blinked, and the glowing white eyes became red and green. The pounding in his ears dulled then stopped, and everything felt a little more... real. Ranboo watched Dream take deep breath.

"Yeah I'm fine," He looked around, still shaking slightly. "Probably just a nightmare."

"You sure?" Ranboo titled his head to the side, concerned. He'd never seen Dream so afraid before and selfishly that made him afraid.

"I'm sure Ranboo. Get some sleep okay?"

Still not convinced but unable to do anything, Ranboo nodded and climbed down from the tree. He carefully unzipped the tent, and disappeared inside.

Oh boy, they needed to get to Last Hope quickly.
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By the time the sun rose, Dream had almost completely forgotten about the nightmare. It was entirely stupid anyway.

The sky was thankfully clear as if it had given all it could the night before and now was depleted of rain. While the ground was far from dry, they might even be able to find suitable firewood tonight.

It wasn't long until they'd packed up camp and were on the move again, sticks and leaves crunching underfoot. Ranboo and Sapnap were enjoying an interesting conversation about the X-men comics as the latter had been ecstatic to find Ranboo was as big a fan as he was.

Every now and then, Niki would smile brightly and bend down to inspect a certain rock or pebble. Despite their already heavy bags, Niki would then pocket a few of these pebbles she deemed worthy.

With nothing much else to do, George fell back to walk next to Dream. "Hey Dream. How are you doing?"

"Uhhh, pretty good pretty good. You?"

George smiled, "Not too bad myself. I feel a bit antsy though, nightmares are the worst."

"No kidding, I had one last night. It was about Halo."

George shivered, "Me too actually. That's pretty strange."

"What uh- what happened in your nightmare? If you don't mind that is." Dream looked down at his short friend.

"Nothing much - Halo just sort of appeared." He shrugged, then sort of laughed, "I thought I was going to die."

That was... That was exactly the same as Dream's nightmare.

The masked mutated hummed his acknowledgement and frowned behind the mask. That simple nightmare he'd been prepared to forget about didn't seem so innocent anymore.

The luck became even worse when Dream felt the first drops of rain from the sky. So much for dry firewood. He sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he might have to sleep in the rain again.
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I'm in a bit of a tussle with the next few chapters, so it might be a wait after this one. I'm terribly sorry, but I want it to be at least readable.

You might not be able to tell from the poor quality here, but I can be quite the perfectionist.

While you're waiting why not check out: i-tinkled-in-church

Their SBI one shots are superb, and bonus if at any point any authors I mention do not want to be mentioned, please tell me and I will remove them immediately!!

Sincerely, a poet? Probably not.