In between pages

Chapter 2: Ew sappy people

A/N btw this isn't daily, it's when I feel like it unlike my other story!

Dream gasped. It was true; this girl didn't just look like his old friend, she knew his name. Which means that.... This was her. He put a hand over his mouth as he began to tear up.

"Dawn? Is that really you?"
Before she had a chance to answer he rushed over and hugged her. She laughed before hugging him back tightly. Dream couldn't help but start crying, and that caused Dawn to cry. So, in the middle of a crowd of friends or potential employers, there were two people crying and hugging each other.

Nightmare clenched his fist and turned around quickly. He hesitated and looked back before scoffing and storming off to hide in one of the rooms upstairs. Killer went to stop him, but Dust caught him.

"Killer, we don't know what's going on. It might be better to let him cool off."
Killer tried to come up with a retort, but failed. He sighed and gave up, just staring at the two in the center. Error cleared his throat; earning a glare from the vast majority of the others for breaking up some sort of sweet moment. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Geez, sorry. Does nobody else want to know why the interviewee is hugging Dream like a long lost sibling?"
Reaper squinted at them. He leaned on Geno's shoulder, who just brushed him off with a small glare, followed by a small smile. He raised his hand like a kid in school before blurting out;

"Is that what's happening? Was there another sibling?"
Dream laughed at that, finally pulling away from the girl who he had called 'Dawn'. He wiped his face and smiled.

"Sorry about that. No, she's most certainly not a missing sibling. She was one of my best friends growing up. She spent more time with Nightmare but.."

Dream clasped his hands over his mouth and turned to her with pity in his eyes. He slowly reached out to touch her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have said anything about that. As much as I'd obviously give you a job in a heartbeat, I doubt you'd want it. It's also part... my brother's company."
He shifted on his feet apologetically. She just smiled and looked away sadly. After a short break, she shook her head.

"It's fine. I'm not going to linger in the past. It's all over now, and everything happened when I was just a kid. It's been about 10 years, I don't think refusing a job where I can work with one of my long lost friends over some past drama is worth it."
She shrugged and smiled, but her eyes flickered to the floor. Everyone was silent; they were all trying to get as much information out of this as possible. It was all so mysterious; who wouldn't be fascinated by this? Dream sighed.

"I hope you really mean that. I'd promise to try and keep any drama from resurfacing but my guess is that you'll both avoid each other like death. No offense Reaper."

Reaper shrugged and grinned.

"As usual, none taken."

Ink couldn't take it anymore. He had walked downstairs just after the hug. He had tried to speak but Error just shushed him and covered his mouth. He had to know what drama there was between the mood king and this seemingly scatterbrained new recruit. He cleared his throat, and Error sighed in defeat.

"Hey, so, might just be me who's curious? But uh, what's the drama behind king emo and random drop in here?"

Dream choked on air and hastily shook his head as fast as he could. It was too late though, the damage had been done. Dawn looked down and fidgeted with a necklace on her neck. Ink was too far away to see what it was. Oh well, another mystery for him to ask her about later. Finally, Dawn broke the awkward silence.

"It's... complicated. We were really close as children, at least I thought we were for a while. I don't really want to talk about it."
She weakly smiled at Ink. He was about to fire another question until Blue punched him in the gut. He turned to Dawn with a big smile.

"Don't worry about that anymore! We're hiring artists anyway, and he's a writer. You won't have to deal with that blob if we have anything to do about it!"
Nightmare's group stayed mostly silent, except for a grunt and nod from Horror. It made sense that he would be the one to agree from that group since he was generally pretty kind hearted. Fell and Error just stayed silent. Sci gave a weak thumbs up, and Outer nodded in agreement. Geno hummed while Reaper just grinned like a crazy man.

Dream sighed in relief. Lust walked over and draped his arm over her shoulder.

"Don't worry honey, we can keep him away from you. I don't know what drama you guys have, but the guy had it coming anyway."

Dawn smiled weakly and bowed slightly in thanks. Still, she wasn't sure she was really happy with that arrangement. She never wanted to be kept away from him in the first place. He was the one who ran away. She ran her fingers over the cool surface of her crescent moon necklace. It had been a gift from Nightmare. Dream had made them both necklaces that represented them in some way. Hers had resembled a sunrise.
She and Nightmare had traded them as a reminder that they'd always stick together. Back then he was the one who didn't want her to leave him. Funny how much times can change. She had waited for him. About a year, she stayed there for him. After he had failed to show up, she believed he'd be back for some eight years. Two years ago, she gave up all hope she would ever see him again. Now, here she was.

She'd hoped maybe he'd reply. Then again, was she ever actually expecting him to? He had left long ago. They had just been thirteen. She should hate him, but maybe he was just afraid. Still, it felt like an arrow to the heart he had never returned. That day, she had never thought that she would have to wait until her twenties to ever see him again.

Everyone fell into easy chatter; everyone but Nightmare. Head buried in his hands, he sat with his back to the locked door of his office. He never would have guessed that she would show up in his life again, especially not here. Knowing Dream, he would hire her.

Then he'd be plagued with his guilt every single day. He sighed. He knew that he had probably made her life worse. He knew that he'd probably hurt her even more. If he stayed though... would she have hated him? Why couldn't she just have ignored him? Why couldn't she just hate him?
She'd looked over at him with those melancholy eyes. She acknowledged him, and he was too dumb to say anything back. What could he really say in that situation though? He was the one who screwed it all up. For him she...

He shuddered. He hated thinking about it. He hated remembering that time. It was awful. Now her face was like that; he didn't know for sure that it was there because of then. He had a pretty good idea about why it might be there though. He absolutely hated it.

Worst of all, he really hoped she would take the job.