Of a Flock

Chapter Seventeen

Dream stared out the window, watching as the sun sank into the ground. As his hidden emerald eyes wandered over the bright colors in the sky, he let out an exhale, and felt his muscles relax.

Cool, fresh air. A soft bed. Warm voices and loving glances cast his way. Why didn't he realize sooner that he was starving for those types of luxuries? That he had been missing out on an entire chunk of life before?

Letting out a content chirp, he pushed himself even deeper into the pillows at the end of the bed, his lime green wings fanned out on either side of him. They were still covered with an insane amount of fluff, but he's been making sure to take special care of the real feathers that were poking out in between. And they were a beautiful color.

"Hey."

Glancing over, a smile warmed his face when he saw Techno leaning against the doorway to his room. "Hi, dad! Where's Puffy?"

At the mention of his new title, Techno blushed but came to sit on the edge of the bed. "She'll be back soon. Apparently, Phil doesn't know how to cook anything decent for us."

Dream hummed and returned to watching the sunset. The sky began to darken, and the reds, yellows, and oranges began to become more vibrant and rich.

"Thinking, much?"

He shrugged. "I guess."

"About what?"

Pausing, he shrugged again. "Well, about my new life now, I guess. It's so different from how I used to live. Before, I would have scorned the thought of finding a new family. My old one was dead and I've been living without one for years. Who needed another one? And now?" He exhaled. "And now all I want to do is to come up to that past me and shake some sense into him."

Techno snorted. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

Dream whipped his head around to face him. "What do you mean? You've never lost your family."

"I know." Techno waved his hand and Dream crawled to the edge of the bed, opening up some space for him. He settled down, sliding under the covers and wrapping an arm around Dream. "But I've once decided to, well, run away and never come back. I wanted adventure and glory, you know? And, I couldn't find that here, farming potatoes, delicious as they are. Some could argue that I've been gone for years. Everything was fine and dandy. I had a few enemies, sure, but doesn't everybody?"

He went silent and Dream looked up to him. The man's pink hair was smoothed out now, no longer a messy fray like how it used to be, and in a new braid. His golden eyes flashed in the dimming sunlight, but less than the crown did. Now, every night Techno polished it up, like he was worried that if the crown lost its charm, then he himself also did.

Part of Dream wanted to tell him that this worry was stupid; they had that father-son click already, and chick's don't just randomly abandon that. But he was also kind of worried to talk about it, and then find out that Techno was making sure he still acted like a magpie so that if he really wanted to one day, he still could go to the Magical Tower. Another part of Dream thought that it was nice Techno decided to shine his crown just for him, like it was a way of showing love. He was a bit torn on which reason Techno was doing this for, and so he said nothing at all.

"But then one day I got injured really badly by an enemy of mine. I couldn't go to the hospitals because I'm a wanted man, or to any healing clinics, because none would take me. I had no other option but to head back home, to my boring old family. I was going to leave as soon as I was healed up again, and to learn how to heal myself once I got back out there, but I wasn't going to stay. Not when an entire world is out there, waiting to be explored.