Frigid | Dream x Reader

Chapter 5

I'm happy when night begins to fall once again, and Dream hasn't returned. It means he gets to stay where he's happy, stay at his comfortable home.

But instead, just after I finish picking at some lamb and berries and start to go up my ladder towards bed, I hear a soft, almost timid knock on my front door.

I wouldn't have heard it if I was upstairs, without a doubt.

Looking out the window, I see it's yet again Ranboo.

For a change, he's not busting the lock on my door. I prefer not to have to replace it again.

I open the door, expecting the usual of him just staring at me silently like actual Endermen do, but as he walks in, I realize he's different.

"Um...hi."

Ranboo's not sleepwalking this time...

"Hi?"

Ranboo awake is far more timid than he is when he's sleep walking. Unlike this morning, when he literally caried me over ice and has made almost consistent eye contact with me each time, he can hardly look me in the face.

"Is there something you need, Ranboo?" I ask after a charged minute of silence, of Ranboo fidgeting with his hands and looking around the living room of my cabin.

"Oh! I...I'm sorry. I just-I didn't—no one knew where you went. We thought...we thought maybe you were in the prison, or—or dead." We?

"What're you talking about? I was exiled, remember? Dream literally escorted me out of the Dream SMP in front of everyone." I remind him of the march Dream led, of how so many people watched on but did nothing.

"Yeah, but...but Tommy's in exile too, and we at least can visit him."

My chest aches painfully at knowing that they visit with Tommy, but no one has tried looking for me.

Well, minus Ranboo it seems.

"Why were you looking for me then?" I ask, genuinely confused why the hybrid guy who hardly knew me would be the one to find me.

"I was?" Ranboo sounds as confused as I feel, even looks me in the face before wincing and looking away. "I...I kind of sleepwalk sometimes, I like to call it enderwalking more."

Yeah, I've noticed. My broken door lock speaks loudly to you "enderwalking" into my cabin.

"I've seen you enderwalk twice now, it's a little creepy. No offense."

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to scare you if I did, I promise!" For the first time in a while, a giggle bubbles up out of my chest as I watch him wave his hands in front of him frantically while apologizing.

Ranboo seems so kind, it's such a drastic change from the company I've had here so far.

After giggling at his awkwardness and kindness for a moment, I notice the way Ranboo's looking down at me with something akin to sadness on his face now. "Does he leave you all the way out here all alone?" Ranboo asks, voice soft again like when he first walked in.

My mood sobers at the reminder, frowning up at him in return. "It's part of the exile."

"You don't deserve this." Ranboo whispers, shaking his head before looking around the room again. "Tommy didn't deserve exile, and neither do you. You...I always remember you being so nice to everyone."

The nostalgia in his voice makes my chest ache, wanting to miss the home I once had.

But the hurt in me fights back against the longing. Because no one tried to come find me. No one tried to save me, tried to help me that day.