Sam was many things, but he was not a doctor. Despite the amount of wounds he’d experienced and seen on others, he was honestly still pretty bad with the whole healing thing. That had always been Ponk’s domain.
God, what Sam wouldn’t give to have Ponk here right now.
No time for that now.
Sam had Dream, the man was alive. He was, he was still breathing.
You weren’t supposed to move people who were injured, but Sam didn’t have a choice. He carefully lifted Dream in his arms and felt his way forward until he found the edge of the cave. The Warden shouldn’t follow them up here. Not when it had... other prey to deal with.
Other mobs shouldn’t be much of an issue either. Most took one look at Sam’s flashy green colors and decided to mind their own business.
With that in mind, Sam set Dream down as carefully as he could. Okay. Right.
It took a lot of blind groping, but Sam eventually managed to peel Dream out of the leather armor he’d had on- (god, had he really decided to tangle with a Warden in leather?)- and get his shirt unbuttoned. Dream’s pack was set to the side.
Sam tried to search for wounds but-
Fuck there were too many scars. Everywhere he touched had some sort of mar or carving. He couldn’t tell what was old or new.
It struck him after a minute that he could search for bleeding, but his own hands were already slick with blood.
Sam quickly tried his best to wipe them off, and then felt around to see what he could find.
Quickly, it became clear this was not going to do anything effective. Sam was a shit doctor on a good day, and blinded he was utterly useless.
All he could really do was shove potions-
Fuck.
He was so dumb.
Sam scrabbled to open his pack, the potion was thankfully a distinct shape that was easy to pick out. It wasn’t a splash, the glass was thick and strong.
Dream had mentioned he had a healing pot too, right?
Searching Dream’s backpack was a bit harder. There was cloth in there, likely to cushion the glasses against Dream’s more erratic movements. Still, Sam managed to get his hands on the other potion bottle.
Right. Okay. He had healing and regen.
You were... you were supposed to use regen first, right?
Wait. no. It was the opposite. Healing first, then regen. Since regen lasted.
Sam honestly wasn’t sure,but that sounded right to him. He needed to act quickly regardless, no time to overthink.
Carefully, Sam went to lift Dream’s head, muscle memory guiding him, memories of how best to tip Dream’s face to avoid the-
Oh.
Sam’s hand was cupping the back of Dream’s head and it felt different.
Of all the things to notice first, it was that Dream’s hair as softer. Like, way softer. It was extremely fluffy, but also strangely light. Like toughing a cloud.
The second thing Sam noticed was that as his hand moved to grab Dream’s jaw, it knocked into something floppy and soft. An... ear?
Sam tried to ignore it, he didn’t have time, he really, really didn’t have time.
With some very careful positioning, he managed to get Dream’s mouth open and tilted slight to the side. He had to pour the healing potion down slowly, watching to ensure Dream drank it. As soon as it was down, he repeated the process with the regen.
Then... Well, there wasn’t much left to do but hope that was enough to keep him alive.
Sam tried his best to clean off his hands and search for any injuries still bleeding. He did manage to find one of the bottles of alcohol and used that to rise off his own hands and whatever areas he could find with blood on them.
During this process, he discovered two things, first, Dream’s lower legs were also covered in that same soft fur. There were a few still oozing cuts present on them, and Sam did his best to wrap them after cleaning them off. It wasn’t great, but it was what he could manage.
The second thing Sam discovered was that Dream was, without a doubt, a rabbit hybrid.
His feet were unmistakably rabbit’s feet. Not that Sam had that much experience with rabbits, but the long forefoot and powerful bunching muscles were a dead give away. The long floppy ears on his head just sealed the deal.
Sam... didn’t know what to make of that. It didn’t make much sense to him. Sure, he logically knew that a hybrid’s species didn’t define them, and Dream kept his form constantly hidden, but... a rabbit? Nothing about Dream said ‘prey animal’ let alone ‘soft and fuzzy’.
It made something in Sam’s itch in all the worst ways, so he tried to ignore it.
Instead, he set about getting some food and water, and trying to get Dream to at least drink a bit.
Dream’s breathing was steady, but Sam had no idea when he’d wake up. He also wasn’t entirely sure how long they could stay here. There might still be more hunters on the way, and they weren’t exactly hard to find.
Dream had said... he’d said to go east. How did he expect Sam to do that?
Sure, navigating blind had gotten a bit easier but...
Very suddenly, Sam remembered the apple Dream had found. Fuck, he really was an idiot.
It wouldn’t do Dream any good, what with being unconscious and unable to chew, but if it could restore Sam’s sight then...
Having nothing to lose, Sam fished around for the golden apple, feeling the magic pulse off of it, and only hesitated for a second before taking a bit.
It tasted good. Like a long nap in the sun. Sam could feel his injuries from the hunters, all the little cuts and sores on his feet, all fade. He wolfed down the apple and blinked his eyes, hoping for... something.
Nothing.
He waited for several minutes. Nothing happened. Not so much as a dot of light.
Fuck.
Sam huffed in frustration, getting to his feet to pace. To try to find something. But all that came to mind was ‘we’re fucked’. They needed to go east to get back to the SMP, but Sam had no fucking clue where east was.
As he paced, Sam accidentally exited the cave, out into the warm morning sunshine. It felt good, and soothed him for a moment.
Wait.
Hold on, hold on.
Sam hurried back to the cave and felt around until he found the stick Dream had given him at the start of their journey. He was better at navigating now, and with a bit of practice he was able to use it to find a big tree.
It wasn’t perfect by any means, but freshly healed from the gapple, his skin was sensitive to everything, including the warmth of the sun and the cool of the shade.
After nearly ten minutes of shuffling around and making marks on the ground, Sam was able to estimate the direction of the shadow. It was the end of summer, which meant it following the rising sun would be relatively accurate.
It was... it was worth a shot.
Sam hurried back to the cave, gathering up the supplies and carefully fitting everything into his own backpack, which he then strapped onto Dream. Dream himself was the lifted, and after a bit of debate, Sam maneuvered the other to rest on his back. It was an odd feeling, his spine wasn’t really meant to have a person’s weight on it. Still, Dream was light enough to make it work. Sam was able to secure him with the left over cloth. That left both his hands free to navigate.
Traveling like this was painfully slow. Sam did get better with his stick, and the forest floor was blessedly uncluttered. The apple gave him plenty of energy and relieved all the aches from the prior days of traveling.
Still, the longer he went on without Dream waking up, the more nervous he got.
Was he really going the right way? What if Dream misspoke and meant for them to go west? What if he overshot? Or the jump point was narrow and he couldn’t find it? What if he took too long and Dream died?
Sam had nothing to distract himself from his thoughts and anxieties. All he could do was try to push through them.
Finally, finally, he felt it.
A jump point. But not just any jump point, it was one home.
In his excitement, Sam very nearly ran into a ditch. He just barely caught himself in time to jump over it. And even then, he probably sprained his ankle on the awkward landing. Ugh. Right. Not home safe yet.
Still, from the moment he felt it, it only took fifteen minutes to reach a safe place to make the crossing.
Sam didn’t hesitate. With one hand on Dream to secure him, he made the leap, eyes shut tight in anticipation.
When he opened his eyes again, he was still blind. Which made sense. He wasn’t quite sure what he’d expecting.
He didn’t know where on the SMP they’d ended up. It wouldn’t be anywhere near any of the cities, but at the very least it didn’t feel particularly cold. There were no familiar sounds or smells.
Still, Sam couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. They made it. They were home.
Speaking of home, the communicator still on Sam’s arm finally woke up with a sharp ping. Acknowledging his log-in.
Honestly, Sam was shocked it still worked. Hunters usually disabled them. Although Sam’s was modified to be harder to hack. Looks like that paid off.
Sam fumbled around to get a proper grip on his communicator and paused. There were accessibility settings, a narrator and text to speech. He just had to remember how to access them.
It took almost twenty minutes of fiddling, trying button combos, and resisting the urge to curse out the stupid device, but finally Sam managed to enable both and navigate into the communications section.
And then he got stumped.
He needed help. There was no way he was making it back to the main SMP safely on his own, and Dream desperately needed medical care.
But...
The overlap between people who would help him and people who would help Dream. was. Non-existent.
Techno and Phil both might help, if only because of the risk of hybrid hunters on the server, but both of them were awful at checking their communicators.
Quackity would come help him, if at a price. But if he knew Dream was here and helpless...
Sam couldn’t do that. Not when the only reason Dream was helpless was because he had to protect Sam himself.
After thinking it over, Sam settled on the one person who he hoped would answer. It was a risk but, well, Sam didn’t have many options.
Pressing the call button, Sam waited through five rings, He’d almost given up hope when-
“Sam, I told you to stop-”
“Hunters got into the SMP.”
Ponk stopped his rant dead in it’s tracks.
“I got- I got away, but I can’t- they gave me something and I’m- I can’t see. Anything. I can’t- I’m at a jump point. I don’t know where or how to get back.”
“Shit, okay, are you being followed? I can get some people, can you hide somewhere?”
“Not being followed, but you can’t bring anyone else. I- I didn’t get kidnapped alone. Dream- they caught him too. We’re both- We both got out but...”
“I... okay. I’d imagine that’s a story for another time. Is Dream blind too then? Are either of you hurt? And are you absolutely sure you weren’t followed?”
“Dream- he’s been out for... 12 hours? I don’t know. I can’t- It’s been awhile. I had a regen and a healing pot, gave them both to him. He’s... breathing?” Sam tried to find a way to explain, then remembered the second half of Ponk’s question. “He uh, the hunters were after us. And they- we were in a cave. With Sculk. The hunters triggered a Warden near us, and Dream... lead it back to them. I don’t know- I couldn’t tell what was happening, but he managed to get out then he just... passed out. The Warden took care of the hunters though.”
“... Right. Okay. Fuck. Can you get your cords? I can... I can get to you. I’ll... fuck, I dunno, figure it out when I get there I guess. He took on a Warden?”
“Yeah... here-” Sam rattled off the cords he’d managed to wrangle out of his communicator. They were several hours off spawn by horseback, which wasn’t ideal but at least there was a plan in place.
Ponk gave Sam strict instructions, find a sheltered spot, move Dream as little as possible, try to get some water in him and pray.
Sam managed to find an alcove, and settled in to do just that.
Dream was still breathing. It wasn’t much, but it was... it was all Sam could ask for right now, as he waited for help to arrive.
221 notes
·
View notes
His message was passed through the usual discreet channels ( primarily, a folded note in the fingers of a crafty blonde ). It was simple : a request to meet at their usual place, the old house no one ever went to, that Friday evening.
Daigo was waiting for her when the time came. He looked rather striking in his dark suit as he pathed around the bedroom with a cigarette between his teeth. At the sound of her footsteps on the stairs, Daigo grinned, all teeth and joy. Quickly, he extinguished his small guilty pleasure in an ash tray.
The handsome scoundrel greeted her first with a kiss. He couldn't help himself. Embracing Melissa returned a fire to his belly that he had long thought killed after he married his wife. While he held great affection for Mayumi, he felt no real love for her. Not like this wild, unrestrained thing that overtook him every time he drank in the sight of Melissa Crawford or touched her flawless skin.
"I have something to tell you," Daigo murmured, hands gently holding his beautiful mistress by the hips. "I will not be returning home at the end of the month, as it was planned. Shun and Guinevere . . . Guinevere is expecting. They are going to stay until the baby is born ; they are afraid the trip back would be too hard for her and the child. I have already said I would linger with them."
Daigo sighed. "For us, Melissa. We can continue to do this until the fall." His black eyes glittered with his excitement at that.
unscripted asks . always accepting
The last couple of weeks had been complicated for Melissa, to say the least. The woman was sure that at least the maid suspected of something being amiss - the brunette was not too great at hiding her emotions, bad or good ones. Life with Jonathan was... Bland. A show of politeness, respect and civility, but boring. Tedious, really, to the point that Melissa felt as if she suffocated.
But then, there had been Daigo Dojima - and it was as if life had suddenly been painted with bright colors, as if some sort of fire had been alight in her eyes and the laughter flowed freely again. It wasn't too difficult to realize that it couldn't have been linked to her husband - not when Jonathan's routine had not changed for a split second, still devoted to the well-being of the local citizens as ever and providing for his home as well as he was able.
And yet, the more numerous the hours that councilman Crawford spent at his office, the happier his wife appeared to be; with a life of her own away from the home, even if her excuses were decently elaborated and the politician seemed pleased that she was in good spirits.
The charitable efforts that Melissa supervised at certain parts of the town were real - and good cover. The home where she met with Daigo had been located in the right area of the city for that to work rather flawlessly and for most people to be used to seeing her there, alone (councilman Crawford was always busy, after all). If people suspected of the Japanese immigrant being there, she didn't know - frankly, Melissa didn't care.
And it showed in how fast she was to respond to the kiss pressed to her lips - hugging her lover as if her life depended on it and as if he was the source of the air that had liberated the brunette from the suffocation of a dull and colorless existence. Even the foul mood of the last days had been wiped away - after all, Melissa knew she was so close to losing Daigo; to losing the one man she truly loved.
But, as he unveiled the news, her honeyed eyes blinked with surprise - a baby? Was her newest friend (and ally) pregnant and this was how she found out? But the minor disappointment in not being told outright by Guinevere was vastly outweighed by the news that Daigo was not leaving - not now, at least; not within the foreseeable future so they could remain together.
An affair that should have been ended eons ago, but which neither of them seemed capable to pull away from. No doubt the blonde had guessed that Melissa would be more pleased to know that her secret relationship would survive for a few more months than the idea she was to be a surrogate aunt to her child - and the councilman's wife would need to thank Guinevere later for that.
"I came here prepared for goodbye," she said eventually, smiling up at him, "I thought I was losing you forever," the woman laughed softly, but clearly overjoyed with the news. Her petite arms brought the former criminal back down, enlacing him by the neck and pulling Daigo for another kiss, but one that was longer and hungrier than the welcoming one. Melissa then tugged at him, the motions a signal for a practiced move - and soon enough the man moved to capture her effortlessly in his arms, somehow not interrupting the kiss during the entire thing.
He walked through the familiar room to deposit Melissa on the bed, kneeling over the mattress and joining her soon as he loomed over the feminine figure. Melissa breathed deeply, cheeks flushed and hair splayed all under her head. Well, it was a good thing the room had long been equipped with personal items and toiletries, because they'd both need it later.
"I will take each and every single minute with you, Daigo," she murmured to the Japanese man, running the knuckles of her right hand over his face with impossible tenderness and feeling lost in his eyes - the twin pools of darkness that seemed eager to swallow her whole but which contained just the right light. Like stars in the sky above, Melissa could watch his dark and beautiful gaze forever and the way it shifted when she was around.
"Make love to me, Daigo, please. I need you now," she made room for him, and they both shifted around the mattress in a dance they had long mastered, "I'll need you every single day until fall, my love."
2 notes
·
View notes