Chapter Text
Loud music blared from the speakers as Sapnap’s car steadily sped down the interstate. He had the bass turned up to a borderline uncomfortable level in hopes that the reverberating thumping would help keep him awake, but if his heavy eyelids and frequent yawns were any sign, it wasn’t really working.
He scrubbed a hand over his face and wiped the sleep from his eyes with an exhausted sigh. He needed to think of a better plan to stay up or he was going to fall asleep at the wheel halfway to his best friend’s house. That would definitely be a shitty way for this visit to start.
It still didn’t feel real to him, he and Dream had talked about meeting up so many times and now that it was actually happening he couldn’t quite get himself to believe it. A soft smile spread across his face at the thought.
He would finally get to hug him--
In… eight hours, if he managed to stay up for that long. He groaned in frustration and cranked down the volume of the music with a tad more aggression than necessary. Blasting music may have done the job for a bit but it wasn’t worth the dull headache beginning to spread up his temples.
He was starting to lose hope in coming up with another tactic when he spotted the sign for a 24-hour drive-through Starbucks shine in the distance like a heralding angel sent down from the heavens. It was a miracle.
He squinted at the menu through his window, not wanting to let in any of the freezing cold air from outside the safe haven of his car.
The number of options in front of him was daunting. He kind of hated the bitter taste of coffee but he knew he needed as much caffeine as possible to get through this road trip. The crackle of the ordering speaker made him jump, the employee who greeted him sounding much too cheery for it being 4 in the morning.
“Hello and welcome to Starbucks, what can I get for you?”
His eyes frantically scanned over the menu in a panic to find something he could tolerate.
“Yeah could I get uh… Uhm-- sorry, gimme a sec,” he mumbled trying to stall while his mind made a decision. “Okay, I think I’ll have a venti white chocolate mocha but with like, five extra shots of espresso and a bunch of sweetener and whipped cream.”
“Did you say five shots?” The barista asked.
“Yeah,” he replied simply.
“That’s… that’s kind of a lot of caffeine,” they said, hesitating.
“Yeah, well, I’m halfway through a 14-hour road trip and I feel like my brain is about to shut down. That’s why I’m here,” he retorted. “So, can you do five shots?”
He felt a little bad for the poor barista who had to put up with him in this sleep-deprived state.
“I mean you’re the one paying for it so sure, why not. Pull ahead to the next window.”
He rolled his window back up and slowly rolled his car forward. The wait was short, seeing as he was the only one crazy enough to need coffee in the middle of the night, and soon enough he had a ridiculously large drink warming his hands. It was disgustingly sweet too, exactly how he liked it.
He found his way back onto the interstate right as the caffeine was starting to kick in. His whole body felt jittery and alert, his mind racing with thoughts faster than he could keep up with. His hands gripped the steering wheel to stop them from shaking.
It was clear he needed some kind of distraction to occupy him while he drove, like a podcast or an audiobook or-- or a friend! An incoming call from Karl solved the problem for him.
He hit the green answer button on his phone where it was stuck in a stand on the dashboard of his car.
“Hey Sap, still driving?” His cheery voice resounded over the speakers.
“Karl, perfect timing! Care to keep me company for a while?” Sapnap greeted in return.
“It’s kinda late, I don’t know…” he said, feigning concern for his non-existent sleep schedule.
“Oh fuck off, you were the one who called me in the first place!”
“Yeah I know, just messing with you. How’s the drive been? Are you getting excited?”
“The drive is killing me, but I got an abomination of a Starbucks drink and now I’m talking to you so it’s improving pretty quickly. And yeah, I’m so fucking excited dude you have no clue . I’ve been waiting for this for so long…” he trailed off, remembering all the times he had hoped this day would happen.
“Yeah! I was so excited to meet Alex and I’ve only known him a couple months, I can’t imagine what it’s like for you to finally meet Dream after, what, five years?”
“Six, almost seven,” Sapnap corrected automatically.
“Wow,” he breathed.
“Yeah.”
They sat in silence for a minute, Sapnap humming some song that was stuck in his head until Karl piped up mischievously.
“So, do you wanna fuck with everyone on Twitter?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Sapnap grinned.
---
“Karl, why would you retweet that!?” Sapnap screamed at him after seeing the notification pop on his phone while he scrolled through Twitter at a deserted rest stop.
“It was meant for my private, I was on the wrong account! I deleted it already, no one will see,” he whined, “right?”
“Dude, all of the stans have notifs on for like, everyone. They definitely saw it.”
“I can never show my face again now.”
“It’s not really that terrible honestly, remember when I had to tweet about jerking off? People still bring it back up every few days.”
“Yeah, and you’re too stubborn to delete it.”
“Listen, all I’m saying is that retweeting an incest joke about my tweet is not the worst thing you could have done.”
“Your tweet was perfect by the way,” Karl said, sheepishly guiding the conversation away from his mistake, “The whole timeline is freaking out already.”
“I wonder if anyone has figured it out yet,” Sapnap pondered, slurping down the last of his coffee so loud it made Karl giggle.
He had posted his cryptic sweet home alabama tweet at his first stop within state lines and was now already almost in Florida.
Under 7 hours to go, he mentally calculated. Excitement fluttered in his stomach up to his chest where his heart skipped in anticipation of what was to come.
“Uhhh lemme see… Oh, yep! Here’s a tweet of someone saying that Alabama is halfway between Houston and Orlando. That was fast,” Karl informed him.
Sapnap hummed in acknowledgment. It wasn’t surprising that people had figured it out so quickly, the size and dedication of their collective fanbase was mind-blowing. He couldn’t wait to see everyone freak out when they revealed what was going on. A dopey grin spread across his face in anticipation.
“Do you think Dream is awake?” He asked. It had been less than half a day since they had last talked when Sapnap was just heading out on the road, but he already missed his honey-sweet voice. Missed his infectious laugh that seemed to bubble up from nowhere and seep into every crack in Sapnap’s heart until he blushed a rosy pink all over, radiating with the warmth of familiarity and love for his friend that was such an ingrained part of him he couldn’t imagine a world where he didn’t love Dream.
“Probably not, but you know he’d wake up to talk to you in a heartbeat,” Karl said. And he was right.
Dream messaged him back just minutes after he asked to call.
give me a sec, he shot back eagerly.
Sapnap heard Discord’s user connect sound right as he was swinging back onto the highway.
“How’s it going?” Dream said through a yawn. Sapnap smiled stupidly hearing his sleepy voice. It was adorable.
“Good! I’m almost in Florida now.”
“Still a long way to Orlando, though,” Dream said, a hint of frustration lacing through his words. He wasn’t the most patient person, especially not when the thing he had been waiting for for so long was finally within his reach. These last few hours were going to be agony.
“It’s been six years of friendship, you can manage six more hours, Dream. And as a reward I’ll let you be little spoon when we cuddle,” Sapnap teased, trying to hide the urgency in his own voice, for the sake of his dignity, definitely not because he was worried Dream would pick up on his neediness. Not because he was worried of stepping too far, being too scared to express his affection any other way than through jokes.
Of course it wasn’t that , he told himself.
He was a bad liar.
“Oh shut up,” Dream argued back playfully, “We both know you’re too short to be the big spoon. It literally wouldn’t work!”
Karl, who had gone quiet to give the other boys time to talk, laughed at their bickering. “You haven’t even met yet and you’re already bickering like an old married couple.”
“Shut up,” they said simultaneously without an ounce of anger in either of their voices. The call broke out into giggles at their synchronicity, and again when they both called “Jinx!” at the same time. Sapnap wiped away a tear that had squeezed out in his hysterics.
They talked for a few more hours while he drove, and he was grateful for the company. He took in the fiery beauty of the sunrise over the horizon, the way it lit up the sky with strokes of pink and orange, and the stark white clouds that floated across the atmosphere weightlessly.
His eyes sparkled in wonder at how… wide everything was. It made him feel like his whole life was opening up in front of him. His life with Dream, in whatever way Dream wanted him there.
“Sapnap? You still there?” Karl said, interrupting his wishful thinking.
“Huh? I’m here, why?”
“You uh, you went really quiet. Everything okay?” Dream pressed forward cautiously.
Sapnap’s momentary worry softened at his concern. His friend picked up on everything, he’d come to be able to read Sapnap like a book after all these years. It was practically impossible to hide anything from him.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said wistfully, “I just can’t believe this is actually happening still. I’ve never wanted anything more in my life, and now it’s so close I… I almost don’t want to get there. Because then I’ll get to hug you, and see your stupid face in front of me, and I know--I know that I’ll have to let go eventually.”
His voice cracked at the last sentence, honesty spilling through his fingers with no chance of holding it back in his sleep-deprived state. He blinked away the tears that threatened to spill from under his dark lashes.
“ Fuck, Sap, I wasn’t ready for you to get all emotional on me like that,” Dream said, laughing nervously.
Sapnap sighed. “Sorry Dream, it just hit me all at once.”
“No, no, I get it. Honestly that’s one of the reasons it’s taken me so long to agree to this. I was… Scared isn’t really the right word but-- well, actually yeah, scared that it would hurt too much when you left. That things wouldn’t be the same when we have to go back to Discord calls and texting and everything.”
Sapnap held his breath as Dream fell silent, momentary regret bubbling up in his throat.
“But I’m ready now. I really, really want to see you.”
Relief flooded through him. He bit his lip but couldn’t stop the smile that turned up the corners of his mouth until small lines crinkled on his cheeks and his nose scrunched in the way Dream would always aww at whenever he had his camera on.
“Well that’s convenient, seeing as I’m currently on track to pull up to your front door in…” he glanced at the navigation app open on his phone, “just over four hours.”
They discussed what their plans were for when he finally arrived, spending a good 5 minutes arguing about whether to get pizza or burgers for their first meal together.
“It has to be pizza,” Dream said adamantly, “it’s like, the classic sleepover food.”
“Dream, I’ll have driven over 15 hours by the time I get to your house. If I don’t get to have Five Guys immediately upon arrival I will riot ,” Sapnap insisted.
“Karl, you settle this. Pizza or burgers?”
Dream’s question was met with silence.
“Karl?” Sapnap called out after a minute. Still nothing.
“What’s he… He’s on deafen?” Dream said after a few clicks of his mouse.
“What? For how long?” Sapnap asked.
“How would I know?”
“I don’t know, Dream, maybe by messaging him ?” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, good idea,” Dream replied sincerely. Sapnap snorted at how dumb his best friend could be sometimes.
He heard a quick burst of typing on Dream’s end and then a pause before Karl undeafened and spoke again.
“Hey guys!” He piped cheerily.
“How long were you on deafen?” Sapnap questioned.
“Since uh, since you guys started sounding all serious. I didn’t wanna intrude on anything, y’know?”
Warmth crept up the back of Sapnap’s neck as embarrassment flushed over his cheeks. He had completely forgotten Karl was in the call when got all sappy on Dream.
“Ah. Right,” was all Sapnap could muster.
“I think Sapnap means thanks ,” Dream said pointedly, “Everything’s good though. There’s just a lot of… emotions, with this meetup finally happening.”
Karl hummed in understanding, and Sapnap was just glad to move on.
Light conversation carried him to his next rest stop, exhaustion taking hold of his body as soon as his car was safely parked and shut off. Both other voices started to slow too, growing quieter through his speaker and fainter in his head.
The coffee had somehow worn off in only a handful of hours. As much as he had hoped it would be enough to keep him awake for the rest of the drive, caffeine can only do so much for someone who should have slept half a day ago. There was no point in fighting the unconsciousness that tugged at his mind. His eyelids fluttered closed. If he could just rest for a moment…
The bantered lulled, long pauses stretched between any speaking and it was only when Karl asked about how long Sapnap would be visiting did he realize that both his friends had drifted off to sleep. He smiled knowingly. This visit was going to be exactly what the two needed.
---
A bright glint of sunlight shimmered on Sapnap’s face, waking him from an uncomfortable sleep to squint out the windshield. The sun had jumped much higher in the sky than he remembered it being. His eyes darted around the car to find his phone.
11am, it flashed at him. He let out a loud string of curses.
“You’re awake!” Karl said out of nowhere, making Sapnap jump in surprise.
“Shit, man, I forgot we were on call,” he exclaimed.
He heard a muffled groan closely after, signifying that Dream had woken up too.
“How long was I out?” He mumbled, rough morning voice sending a stream of questionable thoughts and flashes of images through Sapnap’s head. It was enough to make a gooey pool of heat settle deep in his stomach.
“Like four hours, almost.” Karl supplied helpfully.
Sapnap cleared his throat. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom really quick before I get on the road, I’ll be right back.”
He was out of the car before either could reply, not wanting Dream’s gravelly voice to add fuel to the fire already smoldering inside him.
Ten minutes later he strolled back to his car, face damp from the cold water he had splashed in a futile attempt to cool his flushed cheeks. His temporary problem had been dealt with, slightly shamefully, but now he could move on from what was sure to be a one-time thing.
... If you didn’t count the previous time something like this had happened.
The slam of the car door closing alerted Dream that he had finally returned. He informed Sapnap that Karl had left to finally get some sleep of his own, leaving it just them for the rest of the drive. They jumped into a conversation as he found his way to the freeway entrance for hopefully the last time.
---
“These directions make no sense. Google maps is telling me to go one way but you’re saying go in the opposite direction,” Sapnap whined. He was sick of being in this stupid car already.
“My instructions are obviously right,” Dream said, “What, don’t you trust me?”
Sapnap rolled his eyes with an indignant huff. “If I didn’t trust you would I really be coming to stay at your house for a month?”
“Maybe I’m secretly a murderer who’s gonna choke you to death in your sleep.”
“Choking, huh? Kinky,” Sapnap smirked. Dream spluttered at that, lost for words for once in his life.
“ WHAT!? ” He finally coughed out. “Sapnap, what the fuck?”
His outburst sent Sapnap into a fit of laughter. It was easy to wind him up, but still so rewarding to see him freak out over jokes like that. He never actually got mad, though. It would be more than a little hypocritical seeing as Dream said shit ten times worse on the regular. It was always toned down for streams, of course, which was probably good seeing as how quickly an even slightly dirty joke sent their fandom into complete chaos.
And if he was honest, it was nice to have that side of Dream to himself. To see his real humor, the playful yelling and swearing. To feel the tension when one of them took a joke a little too far, waiting to see who would back down first. To hope that one day, maybe, it wouldn’t be a joke.
But it always was, and he was okay with that. He had made his peace with it, and he wouldn’t trade this friendship for anything more if there was even a sliver of a chance that he might ruin it all in the process.
They settled down again, Dream slowly explaining which turn’s Sapnap had to take to get to his house.
“Wait, did you say left?” Sapnap asked as he whizzed through an intersection.
“Yes, you didn’t miss it, did you?” Dream asked.
Sapnap’s silence answered for him. Dream groaned.
“I’m already turning around, don’t worry,” he assured him.
He made his way back to the correct turn and paid more attention after that, out of fear of invoking Dream’s wrath.
“So now look up ahead to the next right, that road will lead you to the neighborhood gate,” he instructed a few minutes later.
“Hold up. You live in a gated neighborhood ?” Sapnap asked in disbelief.
“...Is there something wrong with that?”
“No, no, I just forgot how loaded you are,” he said smugly, making Dream sigh in annoyance.
“Ignoring that, let me know when you get to the gate so I can text you the code.”
“Mmm fancy,” he giggled before shutting up.
The nerves were really starting to set in now, excitement and anxiety fluttering together in his stomach and chest. He was almost there.
His car rolled slowly through the now open gates, and he looked out at the large houses around him. He cautiously drove along, scanning the numbers on the mailboxes to find the right one. Dream broke the silence of the call.
“Oh my god, I see you!” He exclaimed.
Sapnap’s eyes darted up to look out the windshield. In the distance, he saw a tall boy with a mop of dirty blonde hair waving frantically from his doorstep.
He pulled up into the driveway and shouldered his car door open with more force than needed, but holy fucking shit he was here!
He ran blindly towards his friend, narrowly avoiding face-planting on the concrete when he stumbled in his haste.
Before he knew it, long arms pulled him into a tight hug. He wrapped his own arms up around Dream’s neck and nestled his head against the crook of his shoulder. He was so tall that even on his tippy toes the top of Sapnap’s head barely reached his chin. The warmth of Dream’s embrace enveloped him, it made him safe and whole , he hadn’t realized anything had been missing until now.
“Sap, you’re crying,” Dream mumbled softly by his ear.
Sapnap pulled away from the hug just enough to wipe at his face and find that, yeah, he was actually crying. The tears had dripped onto Dream’s neck and were starting to wet the edge of his shirt. He cracked a smile.
“So are you, idiot.”