on temporizing || Dream SMP Timeloop Fic

Chapter 9

41. adoption arc, pt. 3 

"Thanks," Purpled muttered as Dream dumped another stack of concrete into the chest. He ran a hand over the blueprints laid out before him. "I think that's enough."

Dream dusted off his hands, then leaned back and stretched, spine cracking. Purpled wrinkled his nose.

"I'm going to have so many posture problems when I'm older," Dream muttered. He leaned over to peer at the blueprints. "Is that everything?"

"No. I still need lime stained glass." Purpled stalked over to another chest and yanked it open, rummaging through its contents. "I don't have enough dye."

"Then I'll help you get some."

Purpled paused, then straightened and turned to him. "Okay, for real. Why are you doing this?"

Dream blinked at him. "I told you, I wanted to get to know the people on my server better."

"You don't get anything from that," Purpled insisted. "People only ever help me because they want something. So what do you want? A favor? Someone dead?"

"Friendship," Dream replied. "I'm not going to ask you to kill someone, Purpled. I invited you to my server so you could meet the others and have fun."

Purpled laughed. "Yeah, right. I'll ask again: what do you want?"

Dream reached up and pushed his mask to one side of his head so Purpled could see his face. "And I'll say it again. Friendship."

Purpled stared at him. "You're being serious."

"I'm being serious," Dream confirmed. "I know you fought in the underground Hypixel rings. You were one of the best. If you wanted to fight, you would have ignored my invite and stayed where you were. But you accepted. You came to this server for peace, and that's exactly what you're gonna get."

Purpled watched him for a long moment. "I don't trust you."

"Understandable," Dream agreed casually. "Guess I'll have to work for that."

Purpled huffed out something close to a laugh. "Guess you will," he drawled, turning away. ". . . And you can start by helping me gather some green dye."

Dream grinned. "On it."

42. toddler tales, pt. 2 

"Phil!" Technoblade hissed, pounding on the door. "Phil, open up, it's me!"

"You're gonna drop me," one of the toddlers tucked under his arm complained.

"Why are you whispering?" the other asked curiously.

"Shhhhh, we're in enemy territory. "

A scoff. "Then why the fuck are we sneaking around?" Tommy demanded, trying to wriggle out of Technoblade's grasp. Technoblade was forced to grab him with his free arm, an act that was somewhat difficult due to the fact that he couldn't see either of the children. He'd hit them all with a splash potion of invisibility before they'd entered L'Manberg borders; he wasn't about to pick a fight with two children in his temporary custody - even if the two children happened to be his current semi-mortal enemy/ally (who he still owed that favor) and a gremlin he'd caught hiding in his basement.

Despite what he had said, he actually had no plans to return Tommy and Dream to L'Manberg. Or even expose their condition, for that matter. Given L'Manberg's track record, he was pretty confident in the assumption that they would rather commit child murder than risk the two returning to their normal ages-- Dream especially.