~The Arcade~DSMP//DNF//fluff

Shattered

Dream was pulled from his thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" He yelled, hoping whoever it was couldn't hear the shake in his voice as he quietly wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie.

The door cracked open carefully, as Dream's grip on his guitar loosened and it fell from his grasp, falling to the cold cement floor with a nauseating crack. The tall man opened the door wider, his eyes flicking from Dream the the guitar. A sad frown crossed his cheeks as he saw the damage the fall had done to it. Snapped the fret board clean off and broke a chink off the back of the lower body.

Dream looked too at his broken guitar, the man watched as Dream's already glassy eyes filled with thick tears. He assumed the instrument had old sentimental value. The man stood in silence as Dream's quiet choked sobs stemmed from his cheeks. He didn't ask questions, but he didn't comfort either. He just stood and provided a somewhat comfortable silence for Dream.

They stayed like that for a while, until Dream was able to calm his breathing and silence his tears. The man still said nothing, waiting for Dream to be the one to break the silence.

"R-Ranboo right? That was your name?" Dream asked quietly.

"Yeah. And you are Dream correct?" The tall man replied.

"Yes, that would be me."

"Are you alright Dream?" Ranboo asked, his voice dripped with apathy but his face told Dream that it was meant as comfort.

"Yeah. Yeah just-" his voice broke for a moment before he continued, "in my head I guess."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't wanna bother you. It's alright." Dream said, his voice filled with defeat.

"Alright."

Dream was confused as to why Ranboo hadn't asked about the steamy tears and why his cheeks had scared. His eyes fell back into his broken guitar. No one he had ever known he played except for Jennifer, and no one else would.

"I can fix it," Ranboo said, following Dream's eyes to the broken instrument. "It might not be quite as pretty, but it'll sound the exact same."

"You would do that for a stranger?" Dream asked hesitantly.

"Well you're upset and I want to help, and my mom used to play many instruments. She once broke keys off her piano and I had to put new ones on, so I would consider myself a bit of an expert."

Before Dream could answer, Ranboo swept the broken pieces of wood into his careful arms. Dream could see the care that the man had for the broken instrument.

"So, what color do you think would look nice with the wood?" Ranboo asked. It was a burnt wood look, the main color was dark but the designs in the wood stood out in a lighter color.

"Um, gold?" Jennifer only wore golden jewelry.

"Sure! I'll have it done later today."

"Can you do me a favor though? Please don't give it to me in front of everyone."

"Of course, I'll leave it in the closet in that one back room, I'll work on it there too."

"Thank you. Really, this means the world to me." Dream couldn't express his gratitude.

"No problem man. You should put some treatment on those burns though. Keep your head up, ok? You don't need your crown falling."

Dream only nodded in response. Ranboo left him and headed to the old closet-like room. Dream left soon after, passing all the sleeping body's into the bathroom to inspect the burns. After concluding that the injuries weren't very noticeable, he returned to the main room.

He sat in his claw machine, lost in thought until he heard Alex return. He climbed out carefully, meeting the other man at the door to the kitchen. The two cooked breakfast, while waiting for bacon to cook Karl turned up out of nowhere to help. Dream wanted to ask where he had need, but decided against it seeing the way he and Alex looked at each other.