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When ground started to tremble and everything that made Manburg soon became nothing more than the ruins that make ruins of abandoned nether portals, George was standing in the crowd, Sapnap was next to him, ecstatically making small jumps while Tubbo was giving his speech, two them and Fundy planned to go hunt ‘Dreamon’ after the festival. George had his hand firmly clasped around Sapnap’s wrist, to stop the younger from disturbing the crowd that was listening to the speech.
Now as he was lying under what once was a piece of one of the surrounding buildings George was thanking whoever was listening that he had Sapnap’s wrist in his hand. When he saw the first TNT go off he pulled Sapnap into a safer position shielding him from the podium that was first to go up in flames and burst over the Manburg. Many died right then and there when pieces of the podium hit them. He couldn’t keep them safe when the next round of TNT blew up and they were covered in heavy stone. Sapnap was right next to him, his head pushed against George’s hand that still had a tight grasp on his wrist. George was lucky he was conscious, he couldn’t see Sap from the beam that was resting on his chest, but he could feel breaths that Sap was making, he was alive.
“George?”, a weak and raspy voice spoke and George diverted his eyes down, still not able to see Sapnap.
He took a small breath, the beam was making it hard to breath: “‘m here. Are you hurt?”
It was a dumb question, of course he was, they were under whatever monstrosity Schlatt built and there was no way out, but he had to ask. It seemed like he should.
“My right hand hurts a lot… and my head… I think my head is bleeding”, Sapnap said, not moving, just trying to press closer to George’s hand. George wanted to yell at him not to shift around, it could move the ruins, but he couldn’t bring himself to yell at the boy. Not when he felt the said boy’s blood touch his thigh. That was a lot of blood.
Despite the fear in his gut he smiled and let out a laugh: “You’re good, heads bleed a lot. Remember that time when you freaked out because you thought Fundy would die cuz his head was bleeding a lot? What did Dream tell you?”
“‘S just a cut, Fundy’s not gonna die… heads just like to be dramatic like that. They”, he snorted a laugh, “They’re like George.”
“That cocky bastard, calling me dramatic when he was the one who wouldn’t let us go get him soup when he was sick because he thought he’d die”, he kept up the conversation, more Sapnap’s blood pooling next to his thigh. That was too much blood.
Sapnap didn’t laugh, his body shook in what George knew was either fear or pain: “Dream will come get us right, George? He said we will be safe here, cuz Dragon was locked away. Dream will come and get us right?”
And those small whimpers and shaking the came from Sapnap’s body broke him, because he knew that Dream won’t come, but Sapnap sounded so hopeful, so small, just like a child he was when the three of them set off to find a better place to live after their village was turned to nothing but city of ghosts. George remembered sitting next to the fire with a bow in hand and listening to the two boys talk about how they will create their own nation and how it will be safe from all the monsters, they would build walls and keep roads lit to keep them safe. If George just held his ground back then and made boys stay in the village they came across nothing of this would have happened, but he was so young himself, he was barely 18 at the time, he thought he could keep them safe.. He was just a year younger than Sapnap was now.
“Don’t be dumb, ‘ course he will, he will be here. He just needs some time, okay? But we can wait”, he promised.
He’d rather have Sapnap hope than have him fear that they will never get out. Even though he knew Sapnap didn’t believe him, he was not a boy anymore to believe anything George said, and even if he did he knew Sapnap wouldn’t make it to the nightfall, he was losing too much blood. George only hoped that blood loss will knock him out so he wouldn’t be scared when it came
Sapnap nodded against his hand, and George slowly let go of his wrist and took his hand and started rubbing circles on the back of Sapnap’s hand. His thumb would sometimes brush over younger’s cheek and wipe away the tears as his body started to shake even more from the cries and sobs he was trying to push down.
George didn’t know what else to say, there was nothing left to say, if he kept on speaking he’d start crying as well, so he kept his mouth shut, allowing Sapnap to cry it out. Maybe it would tire him out and he would fall asleep. As he breathed in stuffy air he could feel the beam feeling heavier and heavier on his chest, it will probably crush it soon enough. He hoped Sapnap won’t be there to see that, he doesn’t want to leave him alone in his final moments. His brain was slowly going over his memories.
He remembered the fight with Dream he had over the fact that he joined SWAG2020. He also remembered the fight they had when Dream went up against Sapnap and hurt him. When he sided with Pogtopia rather than his friends. It was just a huge screaming match outside of Eret’s palace as the King and Karl tried to keep wounds from infecting. Only reason it ended was Fundy coming out to tell them that Sapnap will wake up soon. Dream was the first one to rush in and check the wounds himself. He promised that he will end the war because he doesn’t want to see anyone dead.
He hoped that the bastard would be the one to pull out their bodies from what was left after the explosion.
That’s when he heard a scream, but it wasn’t Dream. It was Skeppy probably just arriving at the scene. Fashionably late. Bad was probably happy in his last moments that Skeppy didn’t wanna come on time to hear the speeches.
He didn’t have enough strength to call out to the man, but even if he did, both of them knew Skeppy wouldn’t hear them.
Air was getting chilly… night was slowly coming down and he knew that tonight the sky would be the only witness to the massacre that happened at the festival that should have brought them together. He felt Sapnap squeeze his hand and he squeezed back.
“George?”, it was much weaker, so much fear and hopelessness laced through the voice.
“Yeah?”, he called out, his eyes pointed to the ceiling. He just noticed the small piece of what was probably a window when wind blew off the plank that was covering it. There were no stars in the skies that night.
“Will you be angry at me if I take a nap? I’m so, so tired.”, Sapnap spoke, his voice laced with tears once again, as sobs stopped him from speaking further.
And George knew this was it, it was what he feared, Sapnap could feel it. He didn’t want Sapnap to feel the fear as death took him. It wasn’t fair, he deserved a peaceful death. But George took all the courage he had and took another breath in: “Nah, at least that way you won’t bug me every few seconds.” He worked so hard to keep up the facade. So hard to make sure Sapnap feels as if everything was okay and they weren’t about to die.
He felt a nod against his hand and he smiled, though it was watery and weak.
Soon after there was a whisper: “Love you Gogy… you were the best friend and brother I could have asked for.”
Sapnap never withheld affection, but this felt different, this wasn’t his usual affection. This was goodbye. They both knew it.
“Love you too… I’ll see you on the other side”, he whispered, he knew Sapnap heard it, because few minutes later Sapnap’s hand was limp in his, and he finally allowed tears to escape his eyes as he clung to Sapnap’s hand, keeping it tight, as if keeping it warm won’t mean Sapnap’s dead, and still feeling the skin against his fingers.
As tears streamed down his face, there were small drops of water that were heard in the background. Some of them fell through the hole and onto his face. It rained a lot lately. Tonight the sky was crying together with him as he held the hand of a boy that was taken too soon, a soul that was stolen away because of the greed and childish play of old men. Smell of blood that filled the air was no longer making him nauseated as rain washed it away.
He didn’t know how long he was there, but he could feel the beam slowly crushing his chest, that’s when he noticed the moon was right above him, looking down on his pain. He heard the all too familiar footsteps and ruffling of the cloak in the wind.
“George!? Sapnap!?”, yelling filled the surface of the Manburg, as George heard the tear filled voice of his best friend.
But he didn’t have enough strength to call out.