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“You simply cannot stand negativity, brother, even still, can you?” Nightmare comments one day, staring down at his cocoa. They’d stepped out to the courtyard after dinner, Nightmare asking his twin to join him as he sat on the bench by the door.
Dream sets his own cup back down in his lap. “Excuse me?” he asks, confused.
“Negativity. You still have a deep hatred for it. We’ve had a truce for nearly two years now, and yet you still drop everything at the first glimpse of hardship.” Nightmare watches his brother closely, sipping his drink as Dream furrows his bone-brows.
“I’m not sure what you mean- I deal with bad things just fine,” he retorts, sitting his drink down and crossing his arms defensively.
Nightmare’s eye travels outward, looking at the large tree that stands at the center of his courtyard. “Ah, yes. Like how you handled the knowledge of my torture by the hands of the villagers. I don’t suppose I would call that well-handled, ” he hisses. Dream flinches.
“I was- we were eight , Nighty, surely you can’t hold that against me even still-”
“Or how about how you handled Ink, your best friend, when he gained knowledge of his past and broke down? He came to you, terrified and needing support, and you dumped him on me . You didn’t show up at the castle for three days , Daydream, and you left again when you saw he wasn’t better.”
Dream has shifted to looking at the dirt that has drifted onto the leg of the bench, almost glaring at it. “I can’t- I’m not good with that kind of stuff-”
“You would rather drop people than help them if it meant multiple hours of negative emotion. You would rather ignore years of abuse and your brother needing you. You-”
“It hurts, Night! I- You know that- negative emotions hurt!”
“And positive emotions hurt me , but I have accepted that if I want people to be in my life I have to live with that! ” Nightmare snaps, his cup shattering in his hand. He pauses, takes a deep breath. “I did not mean to yell. Dream, I am bringing this up because I am worried for you.”
“So you berate me? For- for being uncomfortable? ” He snaps back.
“No, I’m berating you because you can’t accept anyone into your life fully if you don’t accept the good and the bad, Dream! You surely cannot expect people to stay one-dimensional, perfect rays of sunshine! People do not exist like that! We are complex beings, and if you keep hating negativity then you will push away every person who ever tries to care about you! ” Nightmare’s tentacles coil around his own chest, as if self-soothing. He looks almost misty-eyed, and quickly looks away again. He tucks his hands together in his lap, thumb rolling over where the broken mug had cut at his phalanges. “I do not want you to be alone, brother. It is a terrible way to be.”
Dream scoffs, “I’m not alone , Nighty, my friends wouldn’t do that, they understand,” he says.
“Sure, sure. Your best friend, Ink, who you haven’t talked to in… what, two months? Three? Who has been asking
me
how you are because you won’t respond to messages, and he can’t seem to find you around the castle? Or.. Swap?”
“Swap was-” Dream snaps his jaw shut. “That was complicated , brother, you know that.”
Night rolls his hand. “Did it have to be? You two loved each other, wholly and fully, and you left him without a word,” he says coldly.
Dream picks up his rapidly-cooling cocoa, making a soft-pitched noise in the back of his throat. “He- he wanted kids , Night, it- it was..” he trails off.
“He mentioned them offhandedly, brother, and you panicked at the idea of having to talk to him more seriously about it. You didn’t even try ,” he says, “You pushed him away, pushed away his attempts to reconcile, and then dropped him as a friend because that could have been difficult .”
“It- you don’t get how hard that is!”
“ Don’t I?” Nightmare snaps, his magic flaring. His eyelight is cold. “Daydream, I suggest you rethink that. I have multiple partners, and at least a few long for children. You think we haven’t had to talk seriously about it? You think I haven’t had to break the news to Cross or Horror that I can’t give them children? You think I haven’t had multiple hard conversations about this? Dream, I understand that it’s hard, but they deserve that! They deserve for me to sit down and be honest and try for them! Just like Swap deserved your attempt to talk to him!” Nightmare stands up. “You have such a fear, such a hatred for all things negative, Daydream, I had hoped you would realise by now that bad is needed for good to exist! You- do you understand why I’m upset here?” He paces across the grass, tendrils lashing behind him.
“I’m- I don’t- I’m not scared of negativity!” he yells back, breaths sharp in his chest. He stands as well, following Nightmare. “I get that- that a balance is needed, I just-”
“You just believe you can be the exception, ” Nightmare turns on him, snarling. “Daydream, prince of all things positive, doesn’t need negativity in his life! He doesn’t need all of the disgusting, difficult parts of life! Just give him a couple scoops of sunshine and everyone around him will cheer and smile! ” Night spits sarcastically, arms thrown wide. “He doesn’t need those gross, goopy emotions!”
“Night- wait, that’s-”
“He doesn’t need his twin brother!” Nightmare finishes, glaring hard. His breath is heavy, laboured, and he suddenly sags, falling to his knees in the cold, damp grass. His voice is broken when he asks, softly, “Why’d you even bother with a truce, Dream? Why would you get my hopes up, and continue to look at me like I’m something that needs saving?”
Dream kneels beside him, “I- I just- I want my brother back,” he whispers, and Night’s grief seems to give away to fresh anger.
“ Seriously? ” he snaps, a sob behind his voice. “It’s been two years, you still don’t believe me?” he asks.
Dream swallows hard. “I just- you- I believe that he’s in there, yeah, but- you’re still…”
Night’s eyes scan his face, and he lets out a pained laugh. “I’m still too negative for you. Right? I’m still corrupted, I’m still the monster that took your twin, ” he laughs again. It cracks into a sob, and his tentacles curl around his humeri.
“You’re just- not there yet! I know you can be good, fully, I just need to-”
“You don’t listen, ” he interrupts. He stands up, glaring down at Dream. “Ink, Swap, me… You can’t accept anything that could be a flaw, anything that could lead to hardship. You’re still refusing to even understand why negativity is needed. Why I exist. You still, unintentionally, see yourself as something higher than me, as someone actually needed. So you shove me back. You can’t accept that this is me , that I am your brother and I have always been this way.” He seems to think. “Do you need more proof..? Genuinely..?”
Dream looks almost hopeful, and Nightmare can’t help but scoff, looking down at his twin brother, down on his knees in the grass in front of him. He brings a hand to his face, his single working eyelight bright as he stares at Dream.
Black tar gives way, the permanently dripping goop moving faster suddenly. Porcelain peeks through, and Nightmare watches as his twin brother gasps, tearing up. He lets the goop fall away, then moves his hand. Ivory bone is visible, and so is the gaping hole where Night’s eye socket used to be. So are the cracks that spider-web across his skull, under the corruption that holds his body together. The abuse he suffered right before his rebirth is unavoidable, and Dream cannot look away, not as Night’s tentacle cups his chin and makes him look, though he’d tried.
Night stares at his brother, watching a thousand emotions cross his face and ignoring the urge to devour them. He replaces the corruption, blinking a few times and shifting as it settles. His tentacles return to their self-soothing positions around his ribcage.
“You still mimic those gods-forsaken villagers, as if they were ever people to be respected. I want you out of the castle within the week, Daydream. I’ll keep with the truce for our friends’ sakes, but I cannot deal with you anymore,” he says simply, then leaves the courtyard, almost sprinting out.
Dream sinks onto his haunches, then falls to his side in the cold grass, curling up as he’s overwhelmed. He watches through tears as Night opens the door, able to watch through the glass door as Nightmare’s partners greet him warmly, worriedly. They catch Dream’s twin as he collapses, and they carry him further into the castle.
Nightmare was right, of course he was right. He’s always been the smarter one of the two. And now Dream is alone, kicked out of his only family’s home and heart. He’s abandoned his friends, his lover, and now his brother, too.
“ What have I done?”