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"You got yourself into a bit of a mess, didn't you?"

We're back in the cavern, and I'm wrapped in a blanket next to a crackling fire, Sam's arm draped securely over my shoulders, Tommy lying against my legs. They dragged Tubbo's bed next to us, and we're all circled around the camp fire Wilbur set up.

"Yeah." I sniffle, wiping my red rimmed eyes, dried out from the endless tears that I've shed. 

"You should have told us, instead of going there all alone." Wilbur says, but it's kindly and gentle, and I know he doesn't blame me, he just doesn't want me to get hurt. 

"We're just glad you're safe now." Niki says softly, rubbing my other arm, while Sam squeezes me in agreement. 

"He's not going to hurt anyone, no fucking way." He declares firmly, eyes fixated furiously on the dancing flames. "I'm not letting him come close okay?"

"I-I just didn't want him to hurt Tommy." I whisper, shoulders slumped forwards, curled under the weight of the day, and the familial comfort of Sam's arm, that feels so unjustly foreign, and the knowledge that Dream has won. Again. Over me. That no matter how strong and how indifferent I make myself, the walls I build to keep me safe from that shit, to stop it ever happening again, do not work. They don't fucking work. 

"You did what you had to, to save him." Niki agrees. 

"And we're never letting him put you in that position again." Wilbur adds on, before looking up at me guiltily. "I owe you an apology, Rose."

I laugh, even though this isn't funny, even though I would cry if I hadn't run out of tears. "I thought this would make you think I was even more of a traitor, meeting up with Dream in secret and everything."

He has the sense too look sheepish, and I can see Niki's withering glare out of the corner of my eye. "Yeah- yeah well I did, when we realised you had left and Tommy followed you and told us, but uh- Niki showed me some sense."

"She smacked him." Tommy adds excitedly, eyes wide as he looks up at me. "It was so funny."

I manage to choke down an errant snort that shoots it's way up my throat. "You followed me?"

"You left without telling anyone, so I wanted to see what you were doing, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have-"

I smile down at him. "Thank you Tommy." I ruffle his hair. "You saved me."

He practically beams. "Yeah, I did. No need to thank me, just doing the usual."

Everyone laughs and I have to roll my eyes with a scoff. "Yeah okay buddy, don't let it go to your head." I turn to my right, to look at Sam, sitting with the remnants of a smile on his fire-lit face.

"What are you doing here?"

"Punz. He told me where to find you so I could come down, and then he told me to get the hell over to that house in the woods, something about Dream meeting you there or something."

Punz, caring, beautiful Punz, the man who kissed me before he let me escape, the man who held me while Iost my mind over that room, the man that got my brother to come here so I could see him, who made sure someone was there to rescue me from his boss. 

He's so fucking good that it hurts and I don't know how to handle that. 

I don't deserve it, he doesn't need someone like me to crash into his life, but I want to be selfish, I want to be so, so badly, because he is everything good, something fucking nice and normal in this hell scape, in the horribly messed up life I lead. 

"I'm glad you're here." I lean into his side. "I missed you."

"Yeah." His fingers dig into my shoulder, like he can stop us ever being apart if he just holds on tight enough. "I missed you too."

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