A Guide To Medicine and War

12

Dream finds them in the morning, cuddles up next to one another with Patches splayed across them. Purpled wakes up first, as he always does, though Tommy gets up quickly afterwards. Dream, wearing a medical mask rather than his usual circle one, sits down next to them.

"Hey," he whispers, looking at Patches carefully.

"Did you need something?" Purpled asks, tightening his grip around Tommy protectively. Dream from before Sapnap's disappearance was somewhat trustworthy. Dream now, though?

It was safer to shy away.

"I um, I realized that you guys never got your dog tags. You were supposed to get them after training, but there was a shortage of iron. I was given these this morning."

Dream pulls two necklaces out of his pocket, two little rectangles dangling from each of their chains. He passes one to Purpled, one to Tommy.

The rectangles, with their names imprinted on them, are clean. Shiny and just clean in a way that war never is. In a way that they will never be, because they are soldiers, and their strength and actions make them battered and soiled.

The two boys take their necklaces.

"They're important, boys. They're your dog tags, they will tell us who you are if you...if you die," Dream says, and he's calm, oddly so, like something sinister is happening but he's hiding it.

"We're not going to die, Dream. I refuse," Tommy replies, Purpled glaring at Dream for even the suggestion that one of them could die.

"Look, Dream, I appreciate the concern. But Tommy already died once, he's not dying again. And if I die? If I die, I'm dead. I'm not coming back, I've died twice already."

"We'll be able to identity you, if you die. That's the point," Dream says, clearly getting frustrated. Tommy can tell he's glaring even with the mask on, can sense the budding fury that can only be stifled by George or Sapnap.

"Purpled isn't gonna die," Tommy whispers, and that is the end of the conversation. Dream huffs, then stands, turning to head out the door.

He's halfway through the door when he turns around. "Oh, I forgot about this. While the two of you were sleeping, the rest of us took over the cliff face. You two are going on a mission."

"What do you mean, a mission?" Tommy asks, standing up alongside Purpled. He wrangles Patches into his bag, zipping her in carefully as she closes her eyes comfortably.

"We need intel."

"That much is obvious, Dream. We're practically losing. Sure, we're moving forward, but soon enough we aren't going to have the manpower to go any further," Purpled says, sick of the conversation. He just wants to sleep, at this point. For the past week, they've been working constantly to push forward, and Purpled hasn't gotten a break in the shooting and killing. And Tommy hasn't gotten a break either, his uniform shoulders stained red from carrying person after person.

"The two of you are sneaky. And smart. You're the perfect team to get up there, figure out where sapnap is, and what two groups that are working as neutrals are doing, and then come back."

"You want us to sneak up a cliff, spy on people that we don't even know exist, and then sneak back?" Tommy asks, huffing a sarcastic laugh. Dream nods in response. "Seriously? Dream, I don't know what happened with you, but I'm a medic. Not a spy. And Purpled is a sharpshooter. Also not a spy."

"Oh, I'm aware," Dream says, and Purpled can feel the fact that he's grinning wildly under that ugly, faded neon pink mask.

"...why are you sending us out there, Dream?" Purpled asks cautiously, taking a step in front of Tommy.