Butterfly Reign

13.And your eyes, they are honest; your heart is loud and bold

Dream's parlor is the same mess as it was on the day of Ranboo's sudden visit. Pillows, cushions and blankets are all piled up on top of each other - Dream insists simply lying on the rug is in equal measures uncomfortable, disgusting and cold.

"Maybe don't lie on the rug, then," Sapnap suggests, sliding up a chair and sitting on it backwards.

In response, Dream drags another pillow off the couch and tucks it under the elbow he props up himself with. Sapnap only rolls his eyes.

"You're such a cat. And a bird. That's a nest if I've ever seen one."

"That's kind of my thing," Dream huffs. "So, about that dinner..."

By the time Dream finishes his retelling, the bored expression on Sapnap's face is replaced by one of disappointment - clearly regretting that he missed two princes almost getting into a duel. Dream has no doubts that leaving him behind was a good decision, otherwise Sapnap would've been foaming at the mouth, riling up the fight; not a good image for a knight who was supposed to be the prince's prime protector.

It's been years since he and Sapnap first met, yet sometimes Dream feels like nothing has changed from the boy who he got into a fight with on his first day of boarding school. Foolish had good intentions sending Dream into a private establishment for noble offspring: he wanted him to mingle with people who were outside their tight circle of three siblings. He notified the principal, pasted together a fake identity, and a ring with the symbol of a family that didn't exist; Foolish thought of just about everything, except for the school going up in flames.

Unlike Dream, who begrudgingly agreed to study in the school, Sapnap wasn't given a choice at all, so he did the only acceptable thing in that situation - light it on fire. It was during the winter break, when there were barely any students or teachers in the building, and nobody got hurt, but his parents didn't come to bail him out of the town jail.

Sapnap was fourteen, shaking in a moldy cell, smudged in soot and hissing from the pain of untreated burns, yet his eyes had the same unyielding shade of ember as Dream approached the iron bars. The heavy lock budged after two turns of a rusty key, and he took a step inside the cell. With his crown once again present on his head, with the king himself behind his back in his whole golden glory, ridiculously at odds with a pungent grim dungeon, it was painfully obvious who Dream really was.

"Do you want to get out of here?" the prince asked.

Sapnap stared at him with dumbfounded disbelief. "I gave you a black eye."

"But I broke your nose," Dream reminded him. "And I'm seeking round two. So, what do you say?"

It was something that wasn't supposed to happen in real life: stories of miracle rescues and second chances belonged to childish fairytales, yet there Dream stood, not a mythical creature but a very real boy of flesh and blood. He saw something more in the white-knuckled clench of Sapnap's fists and his sharp glares - a challenge for the world to try and crush him. Most would call it aimless stubbornness. The prince, however, saw it for what it truly was: loneliness sealed in a prickly shell that, with right guidance, could be turned into blazing loyalty. Dream extended his hand, and after a moment of shaky hesitation, Sapnap took it, sealing a friendship that would last a lifetime.

Sapnap grew to be a skilled fighter. He moves at a fuming pace that not every skilled swordsman can keep up with, and any weapon he takes turns into an extension of himself: unpredictable, rampageous, and probably capable of setting something on fire. However, it's a steady routine for Dream to drop him face-first into mud during their morning drills. Sapnap shakes his fists each time, swearing that he'll overpower him some day.