A City of Secrets and Masks

-Four- Stitches and a Story

"Alright, good. Uhm," Dream stepped inside his new home. The apartment was nice. It felt homely. He stepped inside and looked at his new roommates. Usually, he would introduce himself and then spend the rest of the night getting comfortable in his new home. He'd had most of his stuff shipped in advance, so he should be checking up on it and unpacking now.

This time wasn't typical. Dream had a still bleeding stab wound. He winced as he took another step into the room. "Hey, by the way, can you not take me to the hospital? I've got reasons for that too, but I'll tell you when you're treating my wound."

The one with the weird sunglasses- George, probably- looked around frantically. "Uh, sure, alright, no hospital," He lowered his phone, from which he was just about to call emergency services I guess the bathroom would be the best place for treating a wound... Sap, can you help him get there?"

The one with a headband- Sapnap- nodded. He walked up to Dream and wrapped an arm around him, helping him walk over to the room. George got there first and was rapidly googling on his phone. "This's gonna put me on a watchlist somewhere, I swear," he muttered as he began to get out their first aid. They didn't have much- the basics, a roll of bandage a friend had left there, and a small sewing kit. He sorted through the new info Google had given him.

"Sap, go boil this needle and thread- we may need it for stitches. Dream, take off your hoodie- wait, maybe don't do that. Just roll it up. Sit there, in the tub. Also, Sap, can you grab me a cup and some..." George looked at his phone again. "Some Dawn dish soap."

Sapnap scrambled into action, grabbing up the needle and thread. George rummaged through the cabinet until he found some plastic gloves in the back. He washed his hands. Sapnap ran back in with a cup and the soap. 

George began to clean the wound out with soap and water. Dream winced as George poured water over the wound. Sapnap came in after he set the pot with the needle and thread on the stove.

"Hey, so can you tell us what happened, or is it illegal and you don't want to involve us?" Sapnap said.

"Sap, give him a bit of a break. The man's been stabbed!"

"No, no, it's fine. You guys have every right to know," Dream hissed as George rinsed his wound again. "It happened when I was walking in from the ferry." 

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Dream was back in his city. He took in a deep breath and scanned the area he could see. He was glad to be back. His family moved out about five years ago and he wanted to make sure they settled in on the mainland before he came back. He'd figured about a month or two.

That went a bit long.

Five years later, he got to step back on the city he was raised in. He'd walked a bit into the city before someone grabbed his wrist. He'd whirled around and a tingling sensation filled his body. He was teleported into an alley.

Aw shit. Forgot about this part of the city.

The person- hooded, Dream couldn't catch their face- pressed their forearm against his throat. Not enough to choke him. He could almost laugh. It would be simple enough to get out of.

//tw needles, drug mention

"Hold still- this won't hurt if you don't struggle." The figure withdrew a needle from a small satchel. He 

"No thanks. I'm good. No drugs here. Also, I don't like the idea of my blood being on the black market." Dream 

The figure laughed and grabbed one of Dream's arm, wiping where his vein was and preparing to insert the needle.

Dream swiftly took his other hand and began to slide his mask off.

The figure looked up. Into his eyes. Perfect.

Dream knew his eyes were dangerous. He didn't like to use them often. The specifics of his power were loose- If you looked at his eyes, something painful would happen. Apparently, it felt like a headache, but much much worse. Often, blood would come from the person's ears. Sustained eye contact could kill. Dream's power didn't work on him, either.

So he imagined the attacker was shocked when he made eye contact and his brain decided to short circuit. The needle fell to the ground and shattered. Dream took advantage of the shock and pushed him away. The man had growled at him. Dream fixed his mask. 

//tw over

A split-second opening was given and taken. White-hot pain lit up Dream's side as the attacker jabbed a knife into his side. Dream inhaled sharply as the attacker removed the knife.

"Leave me alone!" Dream said, his hand going up to his mask. The attacker backed away quickly. Dream ran out of the alley. He looked around, realizing he knew no one nearby

He had some old addresses from friends he hadn't talked to in five years. He could go there. Then he remembered the new address. He walked all the way here. No one came to help- not surprising, Dream was actively trying to hide the wound.

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"So yeah, then you know the rest." Dream said. George finished cleaning out the wound- they were just waiting on the needle. Sapnap went to go get the stuff to stitch the wound.

"Wait, why didn't you want to go to the hospital though?" George asked. He'd taken off his goggles. Dream wondered why he wore those inside, but quickly realized he had no reason to judge.

"It's my mask. My power isn't very accurately described in my paperwork and they make me take off my mask. It endangers them, and if one of them gets hurt, they could sue or something and I don't have the money for that right now. Also, I don't have the money for medical fees."

"Understandable. Oh, stitches time. Get ready- I think you're supposed to bite on something" Sapnap walked in with a needle and thread carefully held in a plastic gloved hand. Dream nodded and rolled up his hoodie farther, biting onto it.

Dream learned something new that day- Stitches without any anesthetic hurt. He thought the pain from the stitches would rival the pain his power caused, but he couldn't be sure.

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After the stitches, they wrapped some bandages around Dream's torso and called it a job well done. The three crashed on the couch and ate room temperature pizza.

"I think that brought us closer together than any icebreakers ever could," Sapnap said. "Oh hey, Dream, we know your power, wanna hear ours?"

"Yeah, hit me." Dream said, carefully leaning forwards to grab some pizza.

"Cool! My power's heat and fire. I can control it- watch." Sapnap waved his hands and the air around Dream got a bit colder. His pizza got a bit warmer, though. "I pulled the heat out of the air and transferred it to the pizza. Can't make heat though- have to get it from elsewhere."

Dream nodded. "That's cool! Easy to use, minimal drawbacks- It's hero quality."

"George, you wanna say yours?" Sapnap said, flicking George in the shoulder. George seemed distracted. It took a second flick to get him to focus.

"Sure, sure. Basically, if I look at someone's eyes, I can see ten seconds into their future. I have to have a clear line of view- sunglasses block it. It's hard to use in large crowds- too many people, too many eyes. But it works on everyone else," George took his sunglasses off and looked at Dream's mask.

"Actually, Dream, you're the first person I've meet who I couldn't read."

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A/N-

Shorter update, but there's your dose of Dream Team!

Hope you enjoyed!! Sorry for any mistakes in this, I wrote it pretty late at night lol

See you next chapter! 

-Ace :)