Chapter Text
“Alright guys, I think I’m going to end the stream after these last few messages come in.”
He watched as George smiled into the camera, reading out the last donations, most of which were just fans asking for “I love you’s” or whatnot.
“Thank you Katie for the fifteen dollar donation!” George read aloud. “Can you say ‘I love you’ to my friend Dr— Oh I see what you’re doing here.” The brunette grinned and shook his head, tapping his pointer finger to his temple. “I’ve gotten smarter, I’m not falling for your tricks anymore.”
Sapnap snorted on the other end of the line, “Someone’s going to get you to say it one day.”
“No, they aren’t. Alyssa, thank you for the five gifted subs!”
“Yes they will,” Sapnap groaned as he stretched. “Right, Dream?”
Clay stirred as he tore his eyes away from the monitor on his right, focusing on the game on the screen in front of him, “Say what?” His voice came out raspy from the disuse.
“Of course he’s not paying attention.” Sapnap yawned, “Well, I’m heading off. Goodnight!”
Discord chimed as Sapnap left, seemingly taking all the energy with him. George read his last donation and waved goodbye to the viewers, saying something about the next stream. Clay watched as it ended, the good-bye message glaring back at him. It annoyed him, and he didn’t exactly know why.
“Dream? Are you there?” George’s voice echoed in his headphones.
He cleared his throat again, latching onto George’s voice as it pulled him out of the murky waters of his head. “Yeah— Sorry. Patches was just uh… She was distracting me.”
“Oh,” George quieted for a moment before speaking again. “Are you feeling alright, Clay?”
The sound of his name coming out of the brunette’s mouth sent shivers down his spine. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine him saying it. Imagine the little smile he made after he or Sapnap said something dumb, the little quirk in his lips after rolling his eyes. The way he toyed with his hands when he felt uncomfortable, the keyboard clicking as his in-game character jumped around.
“Yeah, I’m alright. Just one of those days, I guess…” he trailed off. Reality set in again as he opened his eyes, murky green meeting the light emitting from the computer screen.
George hummed in understanding. Clay heard his chair creak as his friend assumingly leaned back in it. “I get it. I wasn’t in the best mood today, either.”
“Talk to me about it.” A small pang of worry echoed in his chest as the man on the call sighed into his mic.
“It wasn’t anything important… It’s just been hard y’know? There’s been a lot of things happening all at once and it’s very— Whatever. It’s not serious. Um, what’s been going on with you?” George quieted as if he were thinking about what he was going to say next. Clay idly wondered what was making George so anxious.
He realized that it was his turn to speak. Clay looked around, searching for another lie to spin to excuse his behavior, “Well, nothing specific really. I’ve just been confused about some things and it’s frustrating, I guess. Nothing too bad.”
“Oh,” George yawned. “I’m getting pretty tired, even though it’s like, four in the afternoon.”
Finally, a change in the subject.
“Your sleep schedule’s so messed up!”
Despite his statement, Clay let out a yawn of his own. He’d gotten up earlier than usual to film for his channel, and he realized that George must’ve lost more sleep than he normally would’ve because of him. Guilt dripped from his heart as the brunette muttered something about needing to wake up early again.
“It’s synced with yours because I didn’t feel like getting up in the middle of the night to record with you and Sapnap.” George retorted. Clay could almost hear the eye-roll that probably came with the response.
“Yeah, I just noticed. Did you do that on purpose?”
“Honestly, it just happened on default. We started talking so much that it became easier for me to run on America-time than to wake up in the middle of the night to stream with you. It’s not as accurate though… We should do a sleep-call with Nick and so the three of us can all be on the same schedule.”
He let out a laugh at the thought of Sapnap and him making fun of George for sleeping-talking, “We should. Forty-eight-hour live stream so we can make money easily?”
George chuckled tiredly on the other end, “I don’t think I could survive being sober for an entire forty-eight-hour stream. I’d have to get drunk like half-way through it.”
Clay raised an eyebrow even though no one was there to see it, “Who says you can’t?”
“A drunk stream?” George says it like he was actually contemplating it, which slightly worried Clay. “Alright.”
He froze, “Wait— Really?”
“Well, yeah? I mean we could just put whatever drink it is in a solid-colored bottle, and like I dunno, just tell them that’s it’s special juice or whatever. Like, to imply that it isn’t water, but not enough so we get banned or something.” George paused for a minute, “But I’m not getting drunk on stream alone! You have to do it with me. Nick can be the designated driver or whatever.”
Clay let out another laugh at that, this time being harder than the last. “Designated driver for a stream?”
“Well, someone needs to stay sober so we don’t get ourselves canceled or whatever on stream. And since Sapnap can’t drink…” George dragged the word out.
“It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen,” he shuddered at the thought of potentially ending his career due to a slip-up whilst being under the influence. “Who are we kidding? Nick would egg us on or something, he wouldn’t do anything to help!”
George snorted, “True!”
A clatter echoed from George’s end of the call, resulting in a string of swears leaving his mouth. A second, slightly softer crash ran out again, coaxing out another line of curses.
“Is everything alright, George?”
He groaned, “Yeah, my cat just knocked over like everything I have in my room— Oh don’t look at me like that, you know what you did!” Clay wheezed as George fumed. “Whatever. Anyway, I’m tired and I have to go fix everything now. Goodnight, Clay.”
“Goodnight George.”
The room blackened once he shut off his computer. His eyes had started to get sore from sitting in front of the screen all day, and a nagging hunger was sitting in his stomach. He groaned, rubbing his palms over his face as he tried shaking off the feeling that George left with him.
The way he felt when George said his name wasn’t normal, it wasn’t something that friends do. And that’s what they always will be. Friends.