Apologies for the delay. I hope this was worth the wait.

XX-XX

It was another hot day in July and the Watson boys were outside enjoying the nice weather. The week before it had rained and only now was the yard deemed dry enough to run around in. Which was ironic as due to the heat their father had set up the small inflatable pool to play in. No matter how the day shook out they were going to be wet and muddy when returning inside.

Which is how the boys ended up being outside alone for a while as their father, seeing the mess potential building, went to prepare the living room for their eventual migration indoors. The sliding door to the house was open though so he could still hear the three at play so long as he was in the main rooms.

As for the boys themselves, none of them seemed to even notice their father was gone. They had set up a game of sorts with the pool, a broken kite and several other flat-ish items ranging from a deflated soccer-ball to old outdoor flats no one wore anymore.

Currently Wilbur was balancing on one of said flats as he tried to see how to jump to the next object. The pointing being, of course, that none of them could touch the ground and had to travel the random laid trail to the pool. Techno was currently standing with Tommy on the broken kite which was a few spaces 'behind' Wilbur on the path he was making up for them. The first to reach the pool was the winner and became 'King of the Pool'.

Tommy was eager, but had fallen several times making him restart. Techno had taken pity on him and was now holding his hand and progressing together with him. Wilbur, of course, was trying his best to actually win and making the route as hard as possible for his brothers. Unfortunately, it was also making it hard for himself as well.

In his master plan Wilbur had placed the flats a fair distance from each other knowing that Tommy would never make it past them on his own and that Techno wouldn't be able to get Tommy across with him. However, he wasn't exactly of the greatest balance either and he wasn't sure he'd be able to make the jump…within the rules.

He just needed to get an extra inch further on his next step to be on the next flat. There wasn't any way for Techno to be able to tell with where he was standing-

"What are you doing?" A voice called into the yard and almost causing Wilbur to stumble.

Looking to the right Wilbur let out an annoyed breath as he caught sight of the person speaking. It was the weird kid that had been popping up around the house for ages now. His was wearing an oversized white shirt with a green leafy looking character on it that was hard to see through the fence. As usual, on his face was a yellow smiley sticker, however, there was also a red frowny one on his other cheek this time.

The kid annoyed Wilbur for two reasons. One, he was just, annoying. But also because his parents didn't believe the kid was real. Assuming Wil was making the boy up for when he shouted at his siblings or something. Even Techno agreeing the kid was real didn't seem to help. Wilbur was not in the mood to get in trouble today for some stupid strange kids amusement.

"Go away. We're playing." Wil replied bluntly as he looked back down to his feet.

"Ok, but what are you playing? It looks dumb."

"Its not 'dumb', you just don't understand it."

"I might understand it if you told me about it." The kid insisted, leaning on the fence and clearly looking like he was sticking around.

Techno was glancing between the kid and Wilbur, seemingly like he had something to say but wasn't sure if he should. Tommy wasn't interested in the kid at all as he tried to hop from the kite to the next place in the path.

"Or, you can just go find someone else to bother. We're busy." Wilbur insisted as he crouched down and prepared to jump.

"You wont make that. Its too far." The boy commented and Wilbur only huffed in response.

"He can jump really far." Techno stated finally, his voice quieter than when it was just him and his brothers.

"He wont make that one though. I've been watching. His not that good at jumping. He's already touched the ground like, three times."

Wilbur snapped his eyes back at the kid with a heated look as Techno let out a gasp and looked at him in turn.

"Wilbur! You're cheating again?!" Techno shouted, not caring for his volume now.

"I'm not cheating! He's lying!" Wilbur defended.

"I am not. You've missed your landing on basically every jump after the soccer ball." The kid pointed out, actually pointing at the spots for good measure.

"Shut up! Its none of your business! I am not cheating!" Wilbur shouted back with a glare, "Just go away and stop being a shit!"

"Wilbur!"

All four boys jumped at the shout and turned towards the house. Standing in the doorway with three beach towels in hand was Philza Watson himself. At first he was giving a stern look at Wilbur for his cussing, but it quickly shifted over to the boy over the fence. He seemed equal parts confused and concerned as he looked the other over. The boy in turn stared back, shifting on his feet awkwardly.

"Hey, mate." Phil greeted as he slowly made his way out of the house and glanced down either side of the alley where the boy was stood.

The backyard fence was 'accessible' only by the alley and it was no place for a child to be. Especially a child without an adult of some sort.

"...hi." The boy greeted back in a far quieter voice than before.

He didn't run from the fence as Phil approached, but Phil still made sure to walk slow so as not to spook him.

"My boys talk about you a lot, but I have to admit I thought they were making you up." Phil chuckled, hoping to put the kid at ease.

The kid smirked at that but didn't actually say anything as he nodded and leaned back on the fence.

"My name is Philza, but just 'Phil' is fine." Phil turned to look at his sons now, who were all watching the interaction, "That's Wilbur, Techno and Tommy."

The boy nodded as a grin took over his face.

"Wilbur cheats."

"I Don't Cheat!" Wilbur shouted as he stomped his foot.

"He does." Phil nodded with another laugh, especially when Wil let out a furious half scream of frustration, "What's your name, mate?"

"Dream." The boy replied with a wider grin than before as he laughed at Wil's anger.

"Dream? Essempi native then?" Phil asked with further amusement.

The boy nodded but seemed confused about the question. He looked just about Techno's age in Phil's opinion so he guessed the boys' parents, whoever they were, had been a part of the 'abstract naming movement' or whatever the papers had called it at the time. He and Kristin admittedly had soft balled it with Techo's name, but they had friends that had pushed their limits with it. It was…an odd time.

Shaking his head with another light chuckled Phil looked the boy, Dream, over once more. Sandy blonde hair, a smiley sticker on his left cheek and a frowny one on his right. His clothing was a bit big, but not in an 'unfitting' way. He wasn't dirty nor did he look under cared for in any sense Phil could note.

"What are you doing around here, mate?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

"Just, watching them play." Dream replied casually as if that were just, entirely normal.

"I didn't think there were other kids around this part of the city. You live nearby then?"

"No. My mom doesn't like the city much." Dream replied with a shrug, " 'Too many people' she says."

"Oh? So then where are you from if not L'manberg?" Phil tried again, hoping for at least a bit more information to work with if he had to report a missing child.

"...I'm not supposed to say." Dream answered in a quieter voice than before.

"Its okay. You don't need to tell me where exactly. Its just, for someone who doesn't live in the city, you're pretty far into this one." Phil reasoned.

Dream nodded at him and seemed to relax again.

"My mom is doing a walk through for a house near here. Or, an apartment, cus its stuck to another house." Dream considered before looking down the alley, presumably the way he came from, "There were a lot of people for it and I didn't want to get in the way. So, I came over here."

"You visit my boys pretty often I hear. Does she work in the area a lot then?"

Dream nodded again, this time with a smile.

"Yea, she's really good at her job. I get to help her sometimes. When its for a family because I can run around and show its good for kids." He explained, "Even though she doesn't like the city she really makes it sound fun."

"Does she know you're out here right now?" Phil asked, glancing at his own sons.

Wilbur and Techno were now standing off to his side and watching, clearly interested, though Tommy was still more invested in the kite on the ground instead.

Dream didn't respond right away to this one and instead was looking down at his feet. Slowly he shook his head and bit as his lip.

"She was busy." He finally said in a smaller voice than before, like he knew well enough he shouldn't be where he was.

"You shouldn't wander off like this. The city isn't exactly the safest place to be. Especially at your age." Phil stated gently, to which Dream nodded.

"Should we keep him here until his mom comes for him?" Techno asked which got a scoff from Wilbur.

"If she doesn't know he's out here she wont know to come get him." Wilbur 'whispered' to his brother with a shove to his arm.

"Wilbur, Techno, don't start." Phil warned with a sigh, "But Wil is right. She won't to come get him and I don't like the idea of just sending you off alone."

His last words were said to Dream directly before he wiped a hand down his face.

"How about this. I will walk you back to your mother, to make sure its safe. I'll talk to her to try to keep you out of too much trouble too. Deal?" Phil asked as he held a hand out to the kid.

The boy stared at the offered hand and seemed to be thinking on it. He looked down the alleyway once more as he fidgeted in place. Letting out a sigh he turned back and took Phil's hand in a firm shake for one his age.

"Deal." Dream said with a defeated tone, "But, if I get in trouble then you get the frowny face."

"Deal." Phil nodded with a chuckle before getting to his feet and turning to his own kids, "Okay. Your mother is napping in our room, but if you need anything just go let her know. I'll go tell her now what's going on so she wont be surprised by it."

The two older boys nodded and Phil looked at them as he considered something.

"No fighting. If I come back and hear from either of you, Tommy or your mother that you so much as shouted at each other….I'll think of something and you wont like it."

Techno and Wilbur looked at each other with a measure of unease at the openness of that statement as Phil turned into the house once more. Both boys looked to Dream and the three seemed to silently agree to put off any further bickering for the day.

Xx-XxX-xX

It was well over an hour, almost two, before Philza returned. He looked a good deal less stressed than when he left.

The boys were still playing in the yard, but by now all of them had retreated into the pool itself. Wilbur and Techno were sitting with their backs to the wall of the pool while Tommy stood between them, jumping and splashing in the water with a bubbly fit of giggles.

Kristin was awake now and had been sitting in a chair pilfered from the kitchen just beside the sliding door. There was an empty one beside her with a towel draped over the back. She still looked a bit tired but had a coffee in her hand. As Phil approached back down the alley Dream had lead him through, much to his unease, Kristin stood up to meet him at the fence.

There was no door in the fence since they had no interested in having someone, either them or a stranger, being able to come and go depending on the strength of a single lock. Not that it mattered as the fence wasn't all that tall. Even now Phil was setting up to hop over it in the one place where a shrub had failed to grow properly. She hoped none of the boys would notice and try doing so themselves one day.

"So, how did it go?" Kristin asked once Phil was safely within the yard.

"Safely delivered, though the distance he walked was a bit concerning. Bit more than three blocks from here." Phil replied as he did a brief look over of their own kids, "His mother was proper worried by the time we got there. If it were one of ours I'd probably ground them for a month easily."

"And?" Kristin nudged a bit more, a smile already on her face.

Phil stared at her a moment before a grin broke out on his own. Without missing a beat he raised left hand up and showed off not one, not two, but three frowny face stickers. Kristin's brows both raised as she let out a whistle.

"Three? Oh, she maaad." She said with a laugh at the end which Phil joined her for.

"I managed to work out a deal with her though." Phil was saying as he moved to take a seat on the extra chair beside his wife's.

"What kind of deal?"

"So, she's going come over to meet us all in the next few days to start. But after that, if she has work in the area and we're available she's going to drop Dream off with us." Phil explained easily, "That way he isn't likely to wander off and she can know where he is."

"Are you sure you can handle a fourth one?" Kristin asked with a grin as she likewise returned to her seat and sipped on her coffee.

"How hard can it be?" Phil asked with a tone that said he wasn't at all sure but he was doing it anyway, "Besides, it would be a good chance for the boys to make proper friends with him instead of just shouting over the fence at each other."

"We don't need to make friends with him." Wilbur's voice cut in, the eldest Watson child having wandered over without notice.

Phil looked at him with a mild confusion while Wilbur just continued to frown at him.

"What's wrong with him? He seems nice and you talk about him often enough."

"He's a brat! Why can't he just, stay with his mother?" Wil huffed as he crossed his arms, his wet hair slowly falling over his face once more.

"Wil, honey, it's a good thing to make new friends. Even if you don't like him now, you might once you actually talk with him more." Kristin tried to explain as she gently tucked his hair back out of his face and behind his ear.

It was almost time to get another cut.

"I don't want to get to know him. He's annoying." Wilbur insisted.

"Wilbur, mate, at least give him a chance. Okay? Just because you don't like him doesn't mean your brother's wont." Phil added in, reaching for one of Wil's hands and giving it a gentle squeeze, "This would be a good chance for Techno to make a friend his own age."

Wilbur frowned deeper at that but didn't say anything else.

"You just don't like him because he caught you cheating." Techno stated from behind Wilbur, Tommy held awkwardly in his arms.

Wilbur whirled around with a fresh anger on his face.

"I Didn't Cheat!" Wilbur shouted.

Kristin and Phil both couldn't help but laugh, a reaction that had Wilbur glaring back at them before he let out a frustrated shout, stomped his feet and stormed into the house ignoring the fact he was still soaking wet.