Love is a funny thing, at least to Punz. There are different types of love, but the two most known types are platonic and romanticized love. Platonic love is like the kind of love you feel for your loved ones or friends, a type of love that Punz is very familiar with. Even if most of the time it's something they are not able to have too often, always used as nothing more than a mercenary and forgotten. Those who did stick around longer than they expected, usually ended up leaving eventually. Leaving a sad, broken Punz behind. 

Even Purpled, his own brother, had left them in the end. 

Then there was romantic love, the type of love that Punz wasn’t too familiar with. It was something that scared Punz, if they were honest. This type of love, or at least what they had learned or heard about it, makes you do foolish things for the person you have fallen for. You feel on top of the world, like you could take on the universe with the said person at your side. It's an exhilarating feeling that's supposed to leave you breathless and uncertain, yet excited for what lies ahead. They are the bearer of your secrets, someone you can rely on and not have to worry about being weak around. 

Weakness. Something that Punz hated. They never let their weakness show, no matter the situation or how badly they were injured. Both emotionally and physically they do their damndest to hide it. 

They’ve seen many people fall in love while on the server. And every time something on the server would ruin that sweet feeling they would feel for the other. Punz had seen many couples turn on one another. Watched as they fought on different sides with anger flooding through them. Watched as they tear each other apart like wild animals. It was something Punz had seen too many times to count.    

Love, a thing that is still a mystery to this day. It's something that some chase after, thinking they can find the person that was just made for them. 

Some study it as if it was a type of science, trying to understand what love exactly is. 

Some ignore it, seeing it as nothing more than a weakness that could hold them back from succeeding to their greatest potential. 

But Punz, they just never felt love before- or at least not in a romantic way. At least… not until they met Dream. 

It wasn’t sudden, their feelings towards Dream. Dream from the beginning was intriguing to watch for the other. Dream held himself much like Punz would, a stoic look and an always running brain ready to make plans on the whim if things went sideways. Even then they think the feelings were forming for the mask wearer. They’d look at the other with this type of admiration, intrigued as the other talked or planned. 

They remember when Dream first saw them, how Dream had held his hand out for a shake, his mask tilted as he looked at the other. Punz had taken that scarred hand, squeezing it as they shook their hands. They had joined Dream’s cause after that, coins and diamonds galore promised to them for their help. And like that a unspoken friendship began to form. Through it all Punz was there, either in the shadows or visibly at his side with their sword drawn. 

They followed Dream blindly, protecting him like Dream whished. 

They listened when Dream talked. 

They laughed when Dream joked with them. 

And they betrayed him when Dream asked them to, of course reluctantly. 

Dream, unlike the rest of the people on the server, stuck by their side. Dream held Punz when they cried, talked to the blonde as if they had known each other since the beginning. They shared secrets or simple conversations that had nothing to do with whatever Dream was paying Punz to do. They stayed up during the night walking the woods or laying in the meadows as they gazed up at the stars. 

They remember gazing at Dream’s sleeping face, how relaxed the other looked as he slept. They remember the freckles that splattered against his nose and cheeks, making the dirty blond look adorable in their eyes. They remember reaching out, but stopping their actions. They remember realizing what they were doing, and why. They remember staring at Dream for a long time as they figured out their buzzing brain, gray eyes searching the other’s face as if desperately looking for some type of hidden clue. 

They never spoke of their feelings to the other, always clamping their mouth shut when they felt their cheeks redden. When Dream was supposed to be imprisoned, They had to watch the same man that gave Them unfamiliar butterflies die before their very own eyes. They had to force themselves not to act on their rage, only letting themselves look away when they heard the swish of an axe and splatter of blood. 

They knew that Dream had done despicable things. They know that the things they helped Dream do were horrible too. They know that letting Dream reign terror across the server was something they could have stopped. 

But They never did. They watched from the shadows or stayed by Dream’s side as he shattered the SMP to pieces. 

“I want things to go back to how they were, Punz. Carefree and happy. And if I have to destroy this place until it's barely savable to get that, then I will.” Dream’s eyes held determination, a sweet smile plastered across his face as he gazed at the other. “Will you help me?” 

And help Dream Punz did. And maybe in even more ways than the SMP will ever learn. 

Love, a complex thing that seems to infect everyone eventually.

Even Punz. 

But now, almost a year later from that same night, Punz finds themselves climbing up a snowy hill that the two had planned to meet back up on after Dream broke out of prison with uncertain eyes. A year. A year without Dream. A year to sort out their feelings. 

They looked up, eyes gazing at the sun as a gust of wind passed them. A smile grew on their face, eyes twinkling with an unfamiliar look. Dream stared back, his green eyes still the same emerald green that Punz adored to no end. His hair was long now, almost snow white other than the dirty blond that they remember sliding their fingers through on late nights of planning as the other ranted about the plans the two would come up with. He had many new scars too, surly barring stories that Dream would share in time. The white-haired male was still wearing that ugly orange jumper, burned, wrinkled, and torn from the prison break. And then there was the crooked smile, something that only the luckiest of people got to see. 

Something that now, only Punz got to see. 

“Punz!” His voice was the same as the other remembered, still sending butterflies flying in his stomach. They ran forward, a huge smile on their face and arms wide open. 

“Dream!” The two embraced, Punz squeezing the other close to themselves as if Dream would disappear. One of Dream’s famous wheezy laughs left his throat, ruffling the slightly shorters hair as they departed. 

Love, what a strange unfamiliar feeling. A feeling that Punz wished they could feel more often.