Chapter Text
They arrive in the hotel by midday, and Dream’s entire brain is empty except for being determined to stick to George as if they’re attached at the hip.
He insists on bringing George’s stuff up to his room while Sapnap just rolls his eyes, he makes sure to drill their routine tomorrow into George’s brain by repeating it three times until George shakes his head laughing and saying he gets it.
George listens to Dream’s rambles while Dream sits cross-legged on the hotel bed and Sapnap is laid down to look at his phone. George is busy with unpacking, and Sapnap only occasionally glances at Dream to pull a small laugh out of George, because Dream is far too busy stumbling over his words in excitement to notice.
“-and there’s this really cool park Sapnap and I went to that we’re definitly gonna stop by, and we even drove past a place with a view of the ocean, and once when we were driving by this small town we saw this massive industrial area out of the window, and when we’re by that it won’t be too long until we’re through, and past another border and the watermill we’ll be home!”
Dream throws his hands up in cheerfulness, but George only gives him a look before carefully placing a small pile of clothing onto a nightstand.
Sapnap glances up. “What’s that for?”
George looks over everything one last time. “What I’m gonna wear tomorrow, duh.”
He looks up to the two when he knows he’s done with pretty much everything, and Sapnap and Dream both move a bit to give him space to sit immedietly. George ‘pfft’s at them nervously, hand going to the back of his neck as he’s stuck, indecisive.
Dream and Sapnap both look at him expectantly, and it only makes his nervousness worse.
George mutters something and dissapears in the bathroom.
Dream feels something in him panic once the door to the bathroom closes shut.
Did he say something wrong? Was he rambling too much after all, though he knows that it doesn’t usually bother George? Why wouldn’t he want to sit with them?
Dream glances down again, shifting back to make more space. There’s already more than enough for someone to sit down without touching either of them, though. Sapnap is only taking up half, and Dream is sat at the very end of the bed.
He watches Sapnap humm to himself and calmly go back to his phone, wondering how he shrugs it all off so easily. They’re best friends, aren’t they?
Dream sighs to himself, closing his eyes. Why does this bother him so much?
George isn’t a touchy person, so it would make sense he might need more time. Dream knows that. George is still the same George that’s his best friend. The thought calms him, so he repeats it to himself in his head, chasing away the thoughts trying to tell him he’s being childish. He can do whatever he wants in his very own brain, thank you very much.
After assuring himself, he gets his shoulders to relax, fingers drumming on the bed as he thinks of what they could do now.
George is done setting up, and they still have a few hours to go, although they’re too deep in the city to be able to really go outside safely. He could ask George what he wants to do, maybe?
George finally comes out of the bathroom, and Dream immedietly sits up a bit when he’s in their sights.
“George! What do you wanna do?”
George blinks some sleepiness from his eyes. “Huh? You mean, right now?”
“For the rest of the day! Going outside is too unsafe, but we could do something else?”
George shifts from one foot to the other, looking to the side. “Mm, I actually kindof wanted to nap a bit, to be honest.”
It’s quiet for a moment as Dream and Sapnap exchange a glance. “Oh.”
George gives another small laugh, too nervous to be entirely comfortable as Dream and Sapnap quickly free up the bed.
Sapnap lingers a moment longer, looking back. “Can we stay in the room while you nap?”
George finally laughs with his full chest. “What?! No, you weirdos . Get out.”
Dream chimes in, only half-joking. “Awh, c’mon, we would be really quiet. We could sit on the floor.”
“To watch me sleep?! What is wrong with you!”
Dream and Sapnap both laugh as George does, finally, successfully manage to shoo them out of his room for some peace and quiet.
Dream waits in the doorframe before George can close the door on them. “My room’s 36, if you wanna join us before you go sleep for the night.”
George rolls his eyes at him, amused. “Yeah, yeah.”
Sapnap manages to cut in a “If you’re not out by 7:30 we’re breaking into your room!” before George can finally close the door, followed by a muffled “I know!”.
As the door is shut and the hallway grows quiet, Dream finally deflates.
Sapnap places a hand at his shoulder to push him along to his room while Dream lets out a long-suffering, dramatic sigh, elicting a snort out of Sapnap.
Dream plops himself onto his bed once in his room, Sapnap joining him.
“We were discarded, Sapnap! Abandoned.”
Sapnap shakes his head, a grin on his face. “Agreed. We should send him back to the UK if he doesn’t hang out with us.”
“But then we’ll see even less of him!”
“Aw, but we have each other!”
“But we could have all three of us!”
“Not if George is being a cooling pack.”
Dream snorts unceremoniously, grabbing his phone and opening his favorite red app. He’s hit with the realization that the last thing he watched is one of George’s videos, and he quickly flicks it away with some embarassment.
---
In the evening George does, surprisingly, come join them in Dream’s room. Dream opens the door for him, immedietly lighting up like a christmas tree, certain he’s never going to stop having such a serotonin-kick whenever he sees him.
“George! You came!”
Sapnap calls out from the bed, still spawled out on it. “Oh, that guy?”
Dream gives him a look as he lets George inside. “Yeah, like you weren’t complaining about missing George, like, 20 minutes ago, and how awesome it would be if he came to join us.”
“Lies,” Sapnap deadpans, grinning at George about as much as Dream is.
Dream doesn’t sit down on the bed, only glares down Sapnap to make more space. Sapnap glares back, raising a brow while eyeing the bed to show there’s plenty of space as is.
“Yeah, okay. As if, if I said you could hug me, you wouldn’t immedietly be at my feet.”
Sapnap sits up. “I can hug you?!”
George laughs. “That’s not what I-”
But Sapnap is already up, shyly spreading his arms in George’s direction, trying to give him puppy dog eyes.
George sighs, embarassed again, but singnificantly warmed up. “I- okay, okay, fine. C’mere.”
Sapnap finally squeezes George in a hug, immedietly causing George to once more complain about his poor ribs. Dream watches them with amusal for a few moments before George half-jokingly shoves Sapnap off of him, but Sapnap just returns to his spot on the bed, satisfied.
George swiftly goes to sit on the single chair, and Dream doesn’t let his dissapointment show as he takes his usual seat on the bed, cross-legged at the end of it.
After a few minutes, some of the tension between them finally subsides a bit. They start to talk, Dream and Sapnap growing tired while George seems to lighten up with every passing minute as he gets comfortable.
They talk well into the evening. Dream spots that it’s dark outside and immedietly thinks that it would be time to call George soon, only to discard that thought because he’s literally right across the room.
Dream grins to himself, a warm feeling spreading in his chest and catching in his throat at the thought.
---
George is not up and ready at the elevator at 7:30.
Dream wonders for a moment whether to try and knock first, before heartily tossing the idea out the window and using his fist.
“GEOOORGE! Wakey wakey, idiot!”
George’s muffled voice sounds through the door a moment later. “Dream! I’m almost ready! Five more minutes!”
Five minutes later Dream is getting ready to ‘knock’ on the door again, before George swings it open, looking horribly tired, but ready to go.
Dream lowers his fist when he sees George, a smile creeping onto his face at seeing him here, in front of him, in real, again.
---
They finally drive out, Sapnap sitting at the front because George wanted to have the back to sleep.
Dream thinks about how because their trip is inversed now, what they saw during the morning before they’ll be seeing in the evening now, and vice-versa.
A little poetic to him, forever more a romantic than the other two, how it constrasts with the way they came here empty-handed and are now leaving with everything they could possibly need to be happy.
---
They take their first stop.
They have five hours behind them, the car wired up to charge and a good few hours to kill.
Dream sighs, leaned onto the open car door with George still sat inside, curled up in the back. “George, come on .”
“Whyyy,” George grumbles, only half getting up, “can’t we just sleep in the car?”
“That’s boring! Come on, please?”
Dream knows he’s being whiny, but he isn’t going to let George sleep in the car for the next four hours. Not when he has other plans, and not when he knows George is prone to giving in if Dream sounds desperate enough.
“What are we even going to do,” George complains, all while already starting to get out of the car.
Dream steps back to give him space, more energy in his step now. George stretches his back, blinking against the sun.
“There’s a park nearby that Sapnap and I went to.”
“So you’ve already been there,” George comments, lazily trotting after Dream as they make their way over to an exit. Sapnap meets them halfway, drinks in hand.
“Dream, don’t forget your stale water,” he teases, handing Dream one of the cardboard cups.
Dream rolls his eyes at him. “It’s healthy.”
Drinks in hand and masks on, they make their way down to the park. Dream doesn’t remember all too much of it, and he almost takes a wrong turn, busy watching George sip from his cup of some pink soda.
Sapnap shoves him lightly with a laugh. “Dream, we’ve been here, stop staring at George or you’re gonna run into a lantern post.”
Dream feels his face run hot as George lets out an indignant snort beside him. He forgets he’s far more vulnerable when he can’t hide his face anymore.
“I was not ,” he mumbles in protest, pressing his lips together and focusing on where they’re going.
Dream doesn’t remember enough of the park to not be mesmerized by it, stopping them to point George at bushes with blooming flowers or some stone statue or a particularly old tree. George mostly grins and goes along with it all while Sapnap complains about their pace.
The gravel crunches beneath their feet and dapples of sun cover them, causing Dream to sneak another glance to his friend. The shadows and the patches of light make him prettier, somehow, giving his hair a small gold sheen, bright in contrast to the black color. He hears Sapnap and George laugh about something, too zoned out to notice what it is.
He feels happiness quell in his chest, filling his entire body until it reaches his face and he feels himself smile. He wants to burn this moment into his memory, the sounds of birds and laughter and the gentle, cool breeze and sweet spring air and dapples of golden sun.
The moment is broken when George stops for a moment, looking off to the side. They’re still in the shade, though close to where the sun will be beaming down on them full force if they continue down the gravelly path.
“What is that? ” George points off into the park with his chin.
Dream follows his gaze to see a white stone statue of some strange creature he hadn’t seen before. He has his phone out in a minute, trying to look it up.
Sapnap also spots it after a moment. “Hah, looks like a really weird dog.”
George scoffs. “No it doesn’t. It’s more like… a big cat or something. But the guy who made the face didn’t know how to make cat faces.”
“It’s from a creature from a myth,” Dream states, eyes still stuck on a wikipedia article. “Apparently it was a historical gift from europe. It’s supposed to be a... ‘case-eater’.”
Sapnap gives Dream a weird look, but George just nods, finishing the last of his soda. “See, told you it looked more like a cat.”
Sapnap shrugs. “Yeah, whatever, I still think it looks like a weird dog.”
George continues talking even as he heads over to a trash can. “Clearly,” he tosses his cup into the trash with intensity, “it’s a cat. Have you seen it’s back legs? The paws?”
Sapnap grins. “No, definitly a dog. It has a muzzle.”
“So do cats!”
“Not like that, though.”
George shakes his head, joining them again. “What does that even mean. ”
“It means it looks like a dog!”
“It really doesn’t.”
They keep going as George and Sapnap keep bantering back and forth rather pointlessly. Dream keeps walking by them, feeling a little excluded. He tries to find something else to catch their attention, but the park is evening out into more trees and flowers they’ve already seen.
“The myth says it ate kids late at night,” Dream finally cuts in, and George gives him a look, ignoring Sapnap.
“It what .”
“Yeah! It would like, eat bad kids that didn’t listen to their parents.”
George snorts. “How would it even know.”
Dream shrugs but keeps going, listing off the origins of the myth and more facts about the small town that probably made it up. He keeps talking about it until they’re back at the parking lot and he’s neck-deep into his fifth article.
Sapnap finally cuts him off by asking about if they should get George to sit at the front this time.
Dream shrugs. “Whatever George wants.”
George sighs, sounding exhausted. “I’d sleep, but I think if I do I won’t sleep at night.”
“So sit at the front then,” Dream says. “You can make a playlist out of whatever songs you like.”
Sapnap pffts. “When we were driving here, we only listened to my playlist when we’d heard yours on repeat for an entire day straight.”
George tsks. “It’s not my fault my music taste is better.”
“Your music taste is not better, Dream is just a simp.”
Dream snorts. “Hey, it’s George’s second day with us. Let him have fun.”
Sapnap stuffs his sandwich for the road in a plastic bag. “Yeah, yeah. Simp.”
Dream shakes his head, opting to ignore his friend as they settle back into the car.
---
Dream holds himself at the wheel pretty well the next two and a half hours. He ignores the street signs for the most part, thinks of George sitting next to him and staring out the window as a soft guitar rings through the car.
When a particularly vivid memory threatens to worm its way into his brain, he’d glance over to George, half-wrapped in his coat and wearing a green shirt, to the soft incline of his jawline and slightly messy hair and the sun catching in said hair, and it would root him a little bit back in reality.
They stop, and he and Sapnap swap places. George insists on staying at the front, and Dream, of course, lets him.
Only once they’d been driving for a few minutes does he realize that might’ve been a mistake.
George keeps his music quiet, trying to be considerate despite his usually smug attitude. It only makes Dream’s thoughts louder, though, and a part of him wishes he’d just turn it up so he can forget everything else, everything but George being here with them.
The even lull of the car, the half-familiar streets beginning to be coated in the colder shades of dusk slowly nudge his mind to drift off. He gulps, hands already searching for his phone.
He knows he thinks too much, especially of things long past. Especially of lone, cold nights that he spent wondering what he did wrong, spent wondering how something so bright could burn out so quickly.
But the thoughts nag at him again, here, and he feels himself start to think.
Did they not take each other seriously enough? Did he really feel enough to commit himself? Should he have never tried in the first place, to avoid all this mess? Wasn’t it obvious from the start how it was all going to end?
He sighs, staring at his phone without seeing anything there. He doesn’t know. No matter how much he thinks, and reads, and re-reads, he never quite figured it out, never quite figured out his big mistake that he had to pay for so dearly. The only mistake he can see is that maybe, had he been more committed, he’d have tried harder, had given it more than he did, and maybe, maybe they would’ve made it-
He knows it’s just wishful thinking. Problems don’t arise from nothing. They had roots, spreading, growing until they couldn’t ignore them anymore. Did he not communicate well enough? Is he not good enough at communicating how he feels, what he wants, what he’s ready to do, what it all means to him?
Was he ready for a connection like that in the first place then, at the time? Is he now? Will he ever be?
He gulps again, feeling the way pain stings in his throat. He looks up, forward, to see his two best friends, quiet and calm. He sees George yawn to himself, scrolling through his phone.
Dream watches the sun catch a little in his hair, watches him roll his shoulders back to stretch a bit, or hum to himself as he thinks of what song to play next. He’s so much more considerate than he likes to let on, picking every single song carefully, making sure they would all like listening to it.
Dream has everything he needs right here, doesn’t he? His two best friends, soon his two rommates, that he loves more than anything else in the world. And here, in the quiet privacy of his thoughts, he can admit to himself that he loves them both with all of his heart.
The thought tugs his mouth into a smile. It’s not that he never told them that - he has, a lot - but it remains true. He wouldn’t trade a single minute with them for the world.
And now, with George, they’re going to be complete. He’s going to be complete.
He loses himself in his thoughts again, eyes stuck to a stubborn strand of raven hair that George keeps reaching back to brush back in order. His hands look nice. Small, delicate, precise, coordinated. There’s a tiny bit of red around his knuckles, and his movements are graceful, capturing Dream’s attention fully. They look nice.
The rest of the trip is a little easier, and he pushes out his overthinking in favor of imagining all the things they’ll be able to do now that they’ll live together. The places they could visit, food they could try, all the ways in which his life will feel a little brighter.
A small smile ghosts over his face, both a little sad and hopeful. Seeing these places that tugs at his memory so much again, in the dark this time, while they drive further and further away from it all, reminds Dream that he probably won’t be seeing these streets again for quite a while.
And if he never sees them again, well, that would be fine by him.
---
They arrive at the hotel, tuckered out to the point that they convince George to check in for them. A few sandwiches and ‘goodnight’s later, they leave to their rooms. Dream tries to burn the memory of watching George walk down the hallway to his room, tired but seeming happy, as much into his brain as he absolutely can.
George turns back once he’s at his door, catching Dream’s gaze. Dream sees him grin before they both turn away, and his heart is doing summersaults again. Dream gulps down the excitement bubbling in his chest, going to his room and letting exhaustion take over him.
He manages to convince his body to lay down, and lulls himself to sleep with the promise that he’d see George first thing in the morning.
---
They’ll pass by the ocean again, and Sapnap and Dream both know with only a look between them that they’re definitly stopping there again for the view.
Due to the different time of day, the place is somehow even more packed than before.
George sits up, giving them a confused look as they stop and both put their masks on. “Why’d we stop?”
Dream just nods for him to get out of the car, and George follows suit after a moment.
They head to a relatively quiet spot near the railing, looking out to see the sparkling ocean smiling back at them through stacks of hotels and rounded by the white beach, dotted with people.
George is dead quiet at first, eyes wide at the view, before breaking out into awed laughter. Dream follows suit with a chuckle, eyes alternating between the view and George, who is too busy leaning over the railing to notice him.
Dream is still grinning, watching George from the side. “We saw it on the way here, so we just had to show you.”
George looks at him, dark eyes wide and awestruck. “This is awesome! I thought all of Florida was flat, holy shit.”
Dream lets out a quiet giggle to himself, relishing in the feeling of the sun on his skin and ocean down below and George next to him.
“Yeah, but the highway was elevated ‘cause of traffic.”
George just nods, busy looking out into the busy streets below. Dream breathes in the scent of freedom, salty and refreshingly cold compared to the heat that usually stills in the air wherever you go this time of the year.
Somehow, with George by his side, he feels more free than he ever has before. He feels his heart soar in his chest, enjoys the bright light and overwhelming peacefulness of it all until they have to head back.
They settle back into the car, grinning and fueled with sun and sky.
They take back to the road with a newfound motivation, and Dream feels his heart sing at the thought that they’re going to be home soon.
---
“Is that a palm tree?! Are we in Florida already?”
Dream’s attention is turned to the rear view mirror to watch George twist his entire body to get a better look out the window.
Dream chuckles softly. “No, but we’ll be in Florida in 20 minutes.”
“Oh my god!”
Dream sighs softly, eyes also gazing out the window quickly before focusing back on the road. He hears George gasp again behind him at something else he saw.
Something stubborn in him twists. He isn’t the only childish one here, if George’s continued excitement is anything to go by. He glances over to Sapnap, but his other best friend is too busy trying to remember a song name he forgot while typing in every lyric he remembers into his phone.