Chapter Text
Every single inch of Dream’s body ached with a dull, throbbing pain. His legs and arms were scraped from where he’d fallen on the stone, and there were small slashes on both of his hands. The warm blood dripped and pooled in the creases of his skin, making his grip on his sword slippery. His helmet had been long discarded, and the tips of his sweaty hair were dangling in his eyes. He tossed his head to get the strands out of the way, letting out a small huff.
“What, tired already?” Schlatt taunted him. He looked almost pristine, perfect, untouched. Not a hair out of place. Dream hated it.
“You wish,” he hissed back, doing his best to circle Schlatt. His attempts were met with a smirk and a swipe from the man’s long sword.
“It won’t be that easy,” Schlatt informed him, surely watching as Dream’s eyes flicked back to George again, fear clouding his judgement. His king had the Butcher at swordpoint right now, but Dream saw the barely perceivable shake of his hand, as well as the desperate, caged look in Schlatt’s executioner’s eye.
He gritted his teeth, focusing on his fight again, pushing his full energy into it. A tiny bead of blood welled up on Schlatt’s cheek, pouring over and streaking down it, catching in his beard.
“I despise you,” Schlatt hissed as they clashed once more, spit dribbling from the corners of his lips and a mad look in his eyes. “You’re the one loose thread I couldn’t pull. You represent everything I wanted to squash in my people.”
Dream snorted, a trickle of blood dripping down his face. “What, hope?”
“It is where I’m concerned,” Schlatt replied, gritting his teeth and swiping again. “Lost little prince, you’re so fucking entitled. You don’t deserve shit.”
“Neither do you!”
“Me?” Schlatt’s sword cut his arm, more blood flowing freely from the wound. “I deserve everything I ever took. I fought tooth and nail and I deserve every single moment of it.”
A feathery arrow flew through the air, embedding itself in Schlatt’s shoulder. The dictator howled, whirling around and spotting-
George. Relief made itself at home in Dream’s heart as he realized Quackity was nowhere to be seen. It was only George, standing there with his head held high and his lips in a tight line, already moving to nock another arrow.
With a growl, Schlatt redoubled his efforts, and Dream stumbled back, his line of sight on George breaking as he moved to combat the dictator’s sudden burst of speed.
“Someone just kill him already!” Schlatt barked at his guards, who had been standing motionless off to the side up until this point.
“No!” Dream howled in response, horror clutching at his chest, but George’s cry never came, only more blue feathered arrows, one after another. They streaked through the air, landing in Schlatt’s bicep, back, and calf. Blood trickled steadily around the wounds, staining the ground with drops of red.
Schlatt’s knees buckled and he hit the ground, panting heavily. He looked up at Dream, his eyes burning with hatred. “What,” he spat out, around globular blood, “What are you looking at, little prince?”
Dream leveled his gaze at the other man and slashed, his sword cleanly decapitating Manberg’s dictator. The body slumped to the ground in front of him, and just like that, it was all over.
Everything hit him like a brick, and Dream sank to his own knees, kneeling in front of Schlatt’s body with tears streaking down his cheeks. The salty wetness mixed with the blood and dust covering his body from head to toe. He felt a soft touch on his shoulder, nothing more than a gentle pressure.
“Not a prince,” George corrected the headless dictator, “A king.”
Dream looked up at him, at his king.
“Hey,” George just murmured, sinking down to Dream’s level and touching his cheek. “You’re okay, Dream. He’s gone.”
Dream just dissolved, shaking as he sobbed into George’s shoulder. “You hate me,” he managed to sniffle out between the cries, but George just shook his head and carded his fingers through Dream’s hair.
“No.”
“I hid so much from you,” Dream protested.
George hummed thoughtfully. “And I’ll kick your ass for that later. Now is not the time. You hid it from everyone. It’s not exactly something you can publicise.”
Dream sniffed, painfully aware that he was bleeding and sobbing all over George’s shoulder. “You’re taking this surprisingly well.”
“Well, I figured out what was more important to me,” George replied.
Dream looked up at him through teary lashes, but the king just laughed and scratched at his scalp for a moment. Dream felt himself melt into the touch, a deep rumble catching in his throat.
“It’s you, dummy. You’re what’s most important to me. I don’t care if you’re secretly half enderman, it wouldn’t make me love you any less.”
Dream’s eyes widened only second’s before George’s did, realizing exactly what he said. “Oh,” the blonde whispered, dumbstruck.
“You really still think that even after all that, I would hate you?” George asked him, his cheeks now flushed to match Dream’s.
Dream made a noncommittal noise, glancing down.
George’s finger tilted his chin up. “Well,” the young king whispered, leaning close enough for their breathing to mingle, “Would someone who hated you do this?”
Dream opened his mouth to respond, confused, but then George’s lips were on his and he was absolutely lost, mind blanking as his mind went haywire. He gasped against the older’s lips for a moment before pulling him impossibly closer, grabbing for whatever of him he could reach, struggling to hold him in his arms, wanting to savor every second he spent with George’s frame pressed against his own.
It was horribly, addictingly enchanting. George slotted so nicely against him, like he was always meant to be. Of course he was. Dream smiled into the kiss, feeling his king do the same.
“What?” George mumbled, barely disconnecting their lips long enough to get the word out before Dream had pushed forward and reconnected them . “Dream,” he groaned, but Dream could feel the brunet’s smile still pressed against his own.
“Not now,” he managed to get out between kisses. “Later.”
“Dream!” George said, wrenching away from him. Dream felt a piece of his heart go with the other boy, retreating five horrible, painful inches apart.
“What, George?” Dream groaned, trying to lean in again, but George smashed a finger against his lips, and he frowned, sitting fully back on his haunches and taking a moment to admire the brown eyed king. George’s face was flushed a bright red and his pupils were blown wide. His lips were slightly puffy and red, and even as Dream looked, he took the bottom one between his teeth and bit down nervously.
“We’re being watched,” George muttered, nodding behind him.
Dream whirled around to see Puffy standing there, inspecting the armor on her horse incredibly closely. “Jeez, George!” He had scrambled to his feet in an instant, grabbing for his sword.
Puffy was already backing away, hands in the air. “Woah, woah, woah, hey now. That’s not fair, I didn’t even try to kill you while you were making out.”
“Dream, no!” George jumped up as well. “She went out of her way to specifically not kill me!”
Puffy offered them a tense smile as well. “Killed the people who were trying to kill you too. No biggie.” She turned to face Dream then, a host of different emotions flashing across her face. “Hey there Duckling. Long time no see. You’ve grown so much.”
Dream stared at her for a moment, and then everything clicked. He was running at her before he even knew what he was doing, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing tight.
-----
Everything didn’t snap back to normal, but there was a definite slide. The fighting outside stopped shortly after Schlatt was announced dead, most of Manberg’s army put down their weapons and shields and raised their palms to the sky. Tubbo and Tommy and Techno sat in the middle of the wreckage and hugged one another and cried. None of them brought it up again.
Wilbur and Niki found a way to dispose of Schlatt’s body stealthily. They had been the first to find Dream and George and Puffy, after everything had ended. The two of them had just shared a look, and gotten to work with an efficiency that made George a little suspicious they’d had to deal with a situation like this before. He didn’t pry.
As for the arranged marriage, it was called off within hours of Schlatt’s death. Both George and Niki agreed it wouldn’t be necessary, and they both gladly shed that weight from their shoulders with bright smiles and a tight hug. There was a silent agreement they would stay close, of course, and stay in contact as well. Niki whispered something in George’s ear while they hugged and he blushed a furious shade of red. Dream stood on the sidelines, foot tapping with nervous energy.
Quackity and Karl disappeared. At least, that’s how it seemed to the general eye. The noble and his mysterious friend packed up and disappeared without a trace, just the meager belongings they had brought to Traumreich and the clothing on their backs. In time they may find another, but for now the two of them were enough.
Quackity woke up in the mornings and appreciated life not only for Karl, but for himself as well. He still took Techno’s pickaxe with him everywhere he went, but he carried it differently now, with a sort of reverence, not regret. Some days, he spent the entire morning out in the forest, walking by Karl’s side and taking in the world and appreciating it for what it was. He began to heal.
Dream gave his speech to the people of Manberg a week after Schlatt’s death. He shuffled nervously and straightened his clothing and combed through his hair until it was a fluffy mess and George reached out to grasp his wrist with slender fingers. “You’ll be fine,” the brunet told him firmly, pressing a small kiss to the top of Dream’s hand, and then shoved the stuttering king onstage in front of all of his people with a smile and a laugh.
“Uh, hello there!” Dream started his speech. “Some of you may know of me, some of you… won’t. Some of you may have only heard of me in stories, but, uh,” he adjusted his crown once more and looked out over his people’s distrustful and wary faces. “I’m Dream. King Dream, if you’ll have me, I suppose. The lost prince.” He smiled awkwardly. “Nice to meet you.”
The rest of his speech was met with positives and negatives and everything in between. Dream thought it went pretty well. As soon as he finished he had fled and all but collapsed into George’s arms, picking the smaller up and twirling him around.
Phil went back to the Arctic Empire a week after that, taking Techno and Ranboo with him, along with a promise from Tommy to visit. He and his soldiers packed up and left Traumreich early in the morning, departing before dawn. George, Niki, Wilbur, and Dream saw them off. Tommy was still fast asleep, curled up next to Tubbo on one of the castle’s many oversized couches.
Dream appointed Puffy as his personal knight in an official ceremony later that day. The knight knelt before him and cried, and he matched her tear for tear, weeping over the loss of his parents, the loss of his childhood, the loss of all the years they could have shared if not for Schlatt.
George didn’t take on a new knight, for now. When the people asked him, he merely grabbed Dream’s hand in a tight grip and dragged him to his chambers, closing the door behind them.
It was there that the two of them sat, bodies intertwined and basking in the comfort of one another. George could feel Dream’s heartbeat, thumping softly underneath his hand as he kissed him slowly.
“So you’re done pushing me away?” Dream murmured into his mouth, hands fluttering from George’s jaw to his hips and back up again to thread softly in the brunet’s hair.
George pulled back with a small smile. “Life’s too short to push you away. If I had waited any longer, I might not have gotten any of you at all.”
Dream laughed against his lips, a little breathy sound that George just wanted to devour. “If I knew a near death experience was all I had to do to get you to kiss me, I would have told you who I was ages ago. Would’ve sped this whole thing up.”
George laughed back, if only at the absurdity of the situation. “No, you wouldn’t have,” he whispered back, lips ghosting across his knight’s jawline.
Dream leaned in to recapture his lips with his own. “You’re right,” he admitted softly, “I wouldn’t have.”
-----
Niki was the last one to leave Traumreich. She had sent the rest of her people home to Pogtopia, except for her small escort, but she had wanted to stick around for a couple of reasons. For one, she had to publicly announce the annulment of her marriage. That wasn’t fun. The people had booed and grumbled angrily, and she’d gotten more than one nasty look from George’s people, who had been so hopeful to have a queen again after so long.
For another, the streets of Traumreich, as well as the surrounding area, were absolutely trashed. It was only fair of her to stick around and help George out with whatever she could, as a show of her thanks. Without his help, her people would have likely been slaughtered. She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if that had happened, as a result of her inability to keep them safe. She would always put her people first, no matter what that meant for her.
Which was part of the reason she let Jack Manifold speak in the first place, let him offer the option of an arranged marriage. George’s advisors were old fashioned, they wouldn’t let a thing as big as siding with Pogtopia in a war slip through their fingers without getting their hands on some of the kingdom’s wealth. She knew that, and she had come to terms with the fact that she was going to have to do something she didn’t want to, to keep her people safe.
Until she came to Traumreich, and found her soon to be husband hopelessly in love with his knight. She had suddenly felt so much guiltier about her impending marriage to George, when she realized that he lost more by agreeing than he did by just turning her down. He’d had so much to lose that she almost didn’t believe he’d agreed to marry her. (Of course he did, that’s just the kind of person he was.)
But now, with the two of them free to do what they pleased, George had some business that he should attend to, and she was going to be there for moral support whether he wanted her there or not. Besides, she was fairly confident that he wanted her there. So she sat off to the side in Traumreich’s main hall, waiting for her third reason for sticking around to play out. So far, it was horribly slow going, but that wasn’t exactly George’s fault.
“You know…” George offered up, glancing casually over at Dream, “Traumreich might benefit more from a slightly more… strategic alliance.”
Dream looked over at him, eyes glowing in the sunlight. NIki’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them, watching for that spark of recognition in Dream’s eyes. So far they remained painfully confused.
“Not to mention how useful this alliance would be to L’manberg, what with their recovering economy and recent overthrow of their dictator,” George continued to hint, shooting Niki a small, disbelieving grin. Help me out here, his eyes seemed to scream.
“That is a good point,” she agreed, directing Dream’s attention back to her. “And Traumreich would certainly benefit from gaining an ally they felt they already knew…”
Dream cocked his head slightly to the side, and George loved him but damn was he oblivious sometimes. “But Traumreich is already allied with Pogtopia,” Dream said.
“Not quite yet allied,” George replied. “Not officially. Besides, I’m sure Pogtopia and Traumreich can continue to be close trade partners and work out some kind of other agreement, I’m talking about a traditional alliance.”
Niki would have paid good money to see the look of realization on Dream’s face as George’s words dawned on him recreated as artwork. His eyes widened, his jaw dropped for only a moment, and then he surged forward, grabbing George’s hands in his own.
“You’re kidding,” he breathed out, studying George’s face like he was trying to commit it to memory.
“Yes, Dream,” George replied dryly, “I called you here, in front of my ex betrothed to joke around with you about the rest of our lives. That sounds like something I would do.”
“God,” Dream muttered, cupping George’s cheeks. “You’re such an idiot. I can’t believe you said I love you first and you proposed first.”
George let out a breathy laugh. “I mean, to be fair, you say I love you all the time, it’s like the word has no real meaning for you anymore-”
And then the two of them were kissing, and Niki was respectfully averting her eyes, a huge grin on her face. Good for them. It’s about time. George shot her a thumbs up from behind Dream’s back, and she giggled a little bit too loudly.
-----
Dream and George stood in front of the floor length mirror in Dream’s room, awkwardly adjusting their respective clothing and generally giving themselves final once overs. Every now and then, George would feel Dream’s hands skim over his skin, feathery light touches with more weight than he could explain.
“How do you think they’ll take it?” Dream asked him, holding a golden crown in his hands, twirling it lightly. It looked strange to hold a crown. Not a bad strange, just different.
George hummed to himself. They were announcing their alliance today, officially, to the people of Traumreich. “Some will take it well. Some will reject it. Some won’t care. Same as usual. Why, having second thoughts?” His tone was light, but he looked up at Dream nervously.
The blonde just chuckled, pulling him a little closer to himself and pressing a chaste kiss on his lips. “Never,” he breathed out. “I love you so much.”
George was trailing his hands along the red and black trim on his tunic with a small frown.
“What is it?” Dream asked him, reaching down to envelop George’s hands in his own.
“Nothing, it’s stupid,” the shorter mumbled, tearing his gaze away from the fabric.
“It’s not stupid if it involves you,” Dream urged, “Tell me.”
“It’s just a shame,” George murmured, running his hands over Dream’s red and black uniform. “I liked you in blue…”
“And why is that?” Dream replied, amusement flickering within him.
George’s eyes flicked up to meet his, a deep blush on his cheeks. “Because you looked like you were mine,” he murmured.
“Oh, Sunshine,” Dream cupped his hands around George’s cheeks, smiling down at him. “I’ll always be yours. You’ll always be mine. No flag is ever going to stop that.” He resisted the urge to press another kiss to George’s face. If he started that now, the two of them may never get to making their announcement. “Now come on, let’s go make sure that all of your people know that too, okay?”
George just grinned up at him, sounding horribly, sickeningly in love when he whispered, “God, you’re such an idiot.”