#silbur

On the other hand, she wasn't sure whether Tommy was in the right state of mind to be seeing Dream at all. She didn't want him to do anything he'd regret, she didn't want him to act as erratically as he often found himself to be.

"Tonight." He muttered in response, his eyes still fixated on the darkening clouds above. "I came to tell you that."

"I appreciate that." She squeezed his hand. "I'll be waiting for you right here."

He sat up, turning his torso to face her, "I also came to tell you that I don't want that."

She sat up, too, urging him to keep on speaking. So, he did, "I want you to go see Techno again. He missed you and you missed him and he will keep you safe, he promised."

"You didn't tell me you spoke to Techno."

"I am now." His face stood unrelenting, he was insisting on it. "I've taken care of everything."

"Tommy, I'm not going anywhere until you return from that prison unscathed." He opened his mouth to retort, but her maternal instinct had caught his words before he had even thought of them. "And that will be the end of it."

"Fine, whatever." He pushed himself from the ground, quickly wiping the dirt and grime from his clothes and hands. "Stay here, see if I care."

And with that, she was left alone.

It felt odd to have another falling out with Tommy, but for the first time, it had nothing to do with her desire to see Dream. If anything, it had to do with the slight tremble of fear she carried with her, fear of what the man she loved truly was capable of. Tommy thought he was entirely invincible, that no harm would ever truly catch his scent; he was incredibly and utterly wrong.

The grass she had picked at flailed up into the air, swirling down into her lap. "I know, Wilbur, but nobody's looking out for him anymore."

"We're the only ones that care."

A cold print rested on her upper back. She jumped at the contact, he had never gone as far as to touch her before. She didn't even know he could. "Was that you?"

A phantomed thumb rubbed circles in its place, comforting her entirely. She smiled as she leaned into the touch. "I'll wait for him however long it takes."

"For both of them."

The hours passed ever so slowly, they had always seemed to crawl along the clock when it came to her. Perhaps her lack of agenda was what kept them from ticking at a normal pace, perhaps the lack of a rush was what did it. There was no looming threat of delay running after the minutes threatening to beat it with a stick. They crawled past ever so slowly, knowing damn well nobody would be chasing the spare seconds they left behind.

She'd watched Tommy walk past her in the reflection of the murky water. She reckoned the tide had changed once again, bringing the mud up to the surface in whifts. The water had been clear for as long as she had sat there, but today it was practically visually impenetrable. He hadn't said a word, only his pattering steps and the spectral, almost melodious grunt of the portal being utilized.

She could hear the creaking of the vault faintly in the distance, it was a spookily silent night. The moon stood high in the night, especially for the time of the evening. It was early, she was hungry.

She didn't dare to stick her feet into the cloudy waves, whereas normally she'd have no trouble getting them dirty; today she felt uneasy doing so. She pulled grass from the soil beside her, she had decided to permanently move to the fresh spot Tommy had assigned her to.

She loved him with all her heart, nobody would ever be able to take that from her, even him. He could commit the most heinous of crimes, die a horrible death and take thousands with him; she would mourn the death of his wickedness the same way she would of a saint. She'd apologize to him the second he came out of there, she'd tell him she was sorry for treating him like an imbecile that couldn't hold his own, even if it was a little true. She was gonna tell him that she'd leave for Techno's first thing in the morning, that she'd already notified Niki that she'd be taking Bastard back into her own care. She had taken care of everything.

But then sirens started blaring, alarms started screaming at her for being so goddamn naive. The prison shook in its core, the small waves it emitted into the water felt like fucking tidal waves as they splashed onto her feet. Her hair was being pulled at mercilessly and her skin felt like it was rotting, sliding from her skin.

The sirens were blaring loud enough for everyone in the realm to hear, and still, they succumbed to Sam's menacing screams of despair. She could hear him screech at the two men locked inside, she could hear the absolute desperation lacing his tone as he shouted, "Get away from him, Dream! Leave him alone!"

And then, it was quiet. It was quiet in the way it had been the first night she'd sat there. Quiet in a way the whole world had been smothered, the whole world had muffled and muted itself to listen to her agonizing sobs. When they took Dream, she had been inconsolable.