Chapter Text
acceptance
dream wasn’t the type of person to give up easily. he was competitive, sometimes to a fault. his desk would often take a beating when he died in minecraft, and his microphone would sometimes struggle to live on whenever dream would scream too loudly into it. but, it was in dream’s nature to fight for what he wanted.
dream had decided to not fight for george.
the consequences of failure greatly outweighed the benefits of his success. dream would rather have george as just a friend than lose him entirely, any day of the week. no question. dream figured that one day his feelings would fade into the background, and he would simply remember them and laugh.
that didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt when he felt his chest tighten at a joke sapnap would make about the two of them. or when george would spew hundreds of roses at him for no reason in particular. he would sometimes go quiet at the end of the jokes. he really tried to keep his brain focused on the things that wouldn’t send him spiraling again, but it was hard.
luckily, sapnap and george hadn’t let dream go this time. in fact, in the two weeks since dream had stumbled out of his depressive state, he couldn’t remember a time where he was simultaneously awake and not on a call with either george, sapnap, or both. there had even been several nights where dream woke up with his face on his desk, discord still open on his computer and his friends still on the call.
dream found himself thankful that george liked to have his facecam on. dream would spend most of the time with george’s face filling up the entirity of his second monitor, and a half-edited video open on the other screen. it was hard to get work done when everytime george would laugh, dream would swing his head around to get a peak at george’s smile. dream let himself take advantage of moments like that. maybe it wasn’t the ideal situation for someone trying to get rid of a crush, but dream wasn’t angry at himself anymore. he wouldn’t shut down in anxiety everytime a joke was made, or feel the depression rotting away at his brain.
for the most part, dream made peace with his emotions. sapnap had not, however.
“ dreammmm,” sapnap whined to him one day, “you’re a fucking idiot.”
it was early morning, and dream and sapnap were alone in a call. dream was writing code for an upcoming video and sapnap was determined to annoy him.
“sapnap. i’ve told you. the risk of losing george entirely- ’
“ isn’t worth the benefits of dating him,” sapnap finished mockingly, “you keep saying that and it’s bullshit. it’s bull. shit.”
dream scoffed on the other end, too focused to bother with responding. sapnap let out a groan.
“dream, you’re suffering. you have no idea how bad you sounded those couple of weeks. we were so worried, dude. i just, i couldn’t stand it if you got like that again and i could’ve done something to prevent it.”
“i’m not going to get like that again, okay? i promise. everything’s been a lot better now anyway.”
“dream!” sapnap screeched, “please, just listen to me for once in your fuc-”
a chime signaled that someone joined the call, and the only person that had access to the server was-
“george!” sapnap yelled as a greeting, “thank god, you’re here. dream needs someone to talk sense into him.”
“sapnap, i swear to god.” dream said, his face heating up in embarassment. though, he did switch tabs so discord came to the front and george’s face lit up his screen.
“what? why?” george said, his voice tinted with actual concern.
“sapnap. leave it.” dream muttered, knowing full well that sapnap was not going to leave it.
“georgie, our dear friend dream has gotten himself into a pickle,”
dream dropped his head into his hands, his stomach doing backflips in anticipation for what sapnap was going to say next.
“dream’s a coward, and he refuses to tell the person he likes that he likes them.”
dream could’ve screamed right there and there, because no matter what he had expected sapnap to say, he didn’t expect him to say that.
“sapnap i’m going to absolutely murder y-”
“got-to-go-class-now-bye!” sapnap rushed out, and dream heard the beep and saw sapnap’s profile picture leave the call. he didn’t even have time to mention that it was a saturday.
he sat, open mouthed at the screen. he barely remembered george was still there, he had yet to say a word.
“um-” george coughed into his hand awkwardly, and dream flicked his eyes over to the screen. george’s face was slightly red and his brow was knitted together. “who is it, then?”
it came out stiff and clunky, like george was speaking the words for the first time. dream hated it. he turned his eyes away from george without thinking. he didn’t say anything for a second, so george decided to fill the silence.
“i mean, you should probably just tell them right? it’s not healthy to keep all of it bottled up like that.”
dream almost laughed at the irony. he wondered if george would still be saying that if he knew dream’s feelings were for him.
deep down, he knew george and sapnap were right, that this wasn’t going to just fade into the background. dream would have to deal with this, or would come back to bite him like it already had before.
he wanted to tell george. he wanted to stop running from his problems. the thought was terrifying.
“uhh, it’s um, heh.” dream exhaled roughly through his nose, “it’s you. i like you.”
it came out kind of muffled and uncertain, but dream was certain george had heard him. the silence was deafening. dream felt tension leave his shoulders. it was done. no matter what came next, at least dream knew he was strong enough to say the words.
dream had his forehead resting on the palm of his hand, and he could barely find the strength to lift his head up. but he needed to see george’s reaction.
george’s eyebrows were furrowed even further together, his face so twisted in confusion that it looked painful. his mouth was slightly open and he was blinking slowly.
after a few long seconds, george finally found the words to say something, “can you- can you turn your cam on?”
dream hesitated, but ultimately he was fighting a losing battle. dream would’ve done anything george asked him too.
he flipped his webcam on and changed a couple of settings on his discord. it took a second, but eventually dream’s fuzzy, low quality camera loaded. dream ran a hand through his hair, subconciously remembering that he hadn’t bothered to brush through it this morning.
his eyes flickered back over to george, who now was gnawing on his bottom lip. the lighting on george’s face changed, indicitive that dream’s facecam had loaded on his screen.
dream saw george’s face relax and he stopped chewing on his lip nervously. he george saw let out a deep breathe and his mouth opened slightly, like he was searching for the words to say next.
“can you, uh, say it again?” george said with more confidence than he previously had.
dream blinked a couple of times in confusion, and his eyes dropped to look at his desk.
was george making fun of him? why did he need to hear it again?
it’s not like it matters , dream thought solemnly.
so the words tumbled out of dream’s mouth for a second time, “i like you.”
he was staring directly at george that time, and the words came out clear.
george’s eyes lit up subtlely, in a way that dream could have missed if he wasn’t looking at him in that exact moment. george’s eyebrows unfurrowed and the faintest hint of a smile curled the ends up george’s lips.
“you mean it.” it came out more as statement, rather than a question, “i like you, too.”
wait, what?
“huh?” dream said. it came out louder than he intended, and the tension became more bearable as he saw george crack a smile and turn a deeper red.
“ i like you.” he giggled, and dream could see the relief dawn on george’s face. he recognized that relief, it was the same feeling he felt when he had said the words only a moment ago.
dream felt every bit of stress he had in his body and heart flood out of him, and he smiled despite himself. he felt dizzy with a mix of emotions, adrenaline running at the top of the list.
george was still grinning on the screen. dream couldn’t take his eyes off of him.
“we’re fucking idiots ,” dream groaned, still smiling.
“ yeah, jesus.” george breathed out another sigh, “god, dream. i thought you hated me.”
“ hated you? what? why?”
“because,” george huffed, “you should’ve seen the vlog footage, i was all over you. i thought you had, like, figured out i liked you and hated me for it.”
dream stared at george through his screen, remembering what he had felt like on that day. to see and feel and touch george. part of him wished he could go back to that day, knowing what he knew now.
dream watched george, still holding his grin. his eyes were crinkled, his cheeks flush. the pale light of his computer screen reflected onto his face. they sat there for a second, grinning at each other like two awkward kids on a first date.
nah, dream thought, i wouldn’t want to change anything.