Chapter Text
new student: Tommy Innit Craft
Help needed in English,
any other troubles: has been known to distract both students teachers and tutors alike, he can take a five-minute break and turn it into an hour conversation about something unrelated, Might need some assistance in Maths
dream read over his new student assignment, he had to know Tommy, he was the annoying younger brother of one of the opposing popular kids in his grade, Wilbur. The kid was in 9th grade and apparently needed assistance in his English class, which was easy enough. Dream thought himself to be a good English student.
"Another student?" George whined, leaning over his shoulder to see what dream was holding,
"Not all of us can get to Berklee on a full scholarship. Besides, it's just another hour on Tuesday. You have a club on Tuesday anyways." Dream shrugged. He didn't want to take out his frustration on George. George was an amazing student, but Georges family also had enough to pay for George to go to Berklee, dreams family had enough for him to go to Flordia state, with three siblings, it was only fair so, if he wanted to go to Berklee for media studies, he had to get the funds somehow.
"I know," George started to mumble, looking down at his hands,
"hey, you worked hard, you deserve it, ill figure it out," or he'll go to Florida State. Dream hasn't exactly told George that he hadn't accepted the Berkley offer, just if his funds didn't look to be there, and he could go to Florida state instead. Flordia state is a good school, he knows it's a good school, and if he goes there, he doesn't have to pay for residence, and he can drive there. He already has a car. And it's much cheaper to go to Florida state.
But Berklee has George, and it has been their dream since 6th grade, though the dream was made with sapnap. He's already told them he's going to the University of Miami, even more so, most of their friends would be staying in Florida or neighbouring states, bad and skeppy were going to the University of Florida, Alyssa was going to Georgia state, Callahan was going to auburn unvirstys. In fact, even though Wilbur had spoken of going to LA when he was an adult, he was going to Florida state for music studies, joining his twin who had skipped a grade and was already there.
Dream didn't tell any of this to George, who was looking forward to being in California at Berklee.
"I know," George smiled, and they quickly kissed before they joined the rest of their friends before class. They weren't really out as a couple yet. Mostly because of everything George didn't know, Sapnap did, and would 100% tell dream he was stupid for putting himself in debate for George and a school he isn't sure he really wants to go to.
Tommy is late, and when he does show up, he's got a black eye.
"are you okay?" Dream asks, which for some reason Tommy takes defensively
"Yeah, I'm amazing," Tommy bites back,
"chill out. Do you have the book your studying for class?" Dream asks, and Tommy pulls out a book that dream isn't sure is even his reading level. When dream was in 9th grade, he read lord of the flies and catcher and the rye. Tommy is reading the giver.
"the giver, I like this book," dream says, trying not to question it,
"it's fine. It's kinda lacking," Tommy shrugs, looking at the book, and he starts to fidget with the pages,
"what do you mean" Dream pulls out a notebook, thinking maybe he could take note of some of the things Tommy says for the essay he'll have to write,
"I mean, it's just boring," Tommy shrugged again, his shoulders bobbing up and down as if that was an actual answer to anything.
"come on, I've heard you give a five-minute speech on why your brother's shirt is bad. You can do better than that" dream shook his head. He had actually heard that, and Tommy had spoken so fast he had briefly wondered if there was a record for how many roasts a person could have in a single second, and if there was, had Tommy beaten it.
"o-Kay, its slow, and it takes forever to build the world, and the moment things start to happen, the book ends, and it's not clear how it ends, I like my story to have clear endings," Tommy offers,
"right, but that's because it up to interpretation," dream points out, he had read the giver in 7th grade, and dream had liked the book well enough for something he had been required to read.
"but it has three squeals, and it's clear that there is a right way to interpret it, the only reason we believe there's more than one way to see it is because English teachers only let us read one of them," Tommy huffed out.
"I didn't know it got sequels," dream shook his head,
"exactly, because teachers don't want you to know," Tommy pointed out.
"I'm not sure that's why," dream rolled his eyes.
"I am," Tommy defended, and dream snapped out of it,
"Tommy, we're off-topic," he snapped,
"no, we are talking about the book," Tommy defended,
Dream wished he could say that the rest of the session went any better, but every three minutes, dreams seemed to find them off-topic, and Tommy seemingly didn't know that he had done it. When the time had come to an end, Tommy packed up his bag and said he had to go; otherwise, he would miss the late bus and he would have to walk the hour walk home.
"If he's such a bad student, then give him up," George says. He's relaxed and lying in between dreams legs as they play Minecraft on the x-box in dreams basement. If dreams older sister hadn't beaten them home, then they would be up in his room, but since she had, they were down in his younger sibling's basement.
"he's not bad. He's just, well, I think he might have some undiagnosed ADHD, and for some reason, he's reading a book that two years below his grade level," dream shrugged, "besides, his dad is playing pretty well, like more than just the school payment, for him being a 'trouble student,'"
"I guess," George shrugged, "why do you even have Minecraft on the x-box," George tosses the controller he has to the other end of the couch when he dies yet again,
"ask my brother, I play pc games," dream shrugged,
"Hmm," George snuggled in closer as dream kept playing, trying to distract himself from the faint worries he had about Tommy. Maybe the x-box version of Minecraft can help him with that.
George seems to have other plans. As dream jumps down into a raiven, George squirms around before he leans up and starts to kiss dream right where his jaw meets his neck because George is bored, and he wants to get a rise out of dream.
And because George has to know dream since they were eight years old, and even if they had only been dating for three weeks, he knows where dreams ex-girlfriends (and boyfriend, but he didn't tell anyone about that short-lived relationship) left hickies.
And because George has been secretly pinning about it for nearly a year, George decides he's going to be the one who does it.
"George" Dream lets out in a breathy voice,
"dream?" George fakes some sort of innocence before he gently bites at dreams neck again, "are you sensitive on your neck?" George asks, "Is that why you hate it being touched?" George then moved down dream's neck. Feeling dreams heart rate increase as he leaves hickies in a trail down dreams neck. As dream lets out harsh breaths and sound verging on moans.
"Dreammmm," a girls voice calls down the stairs, and George nearly throws himself across the couch in shock, "Drother and I want the basement,"
"Yeah, one second," Dream yells back. George should be used to the way that dream and his sibling yell at each other. and he should be grateful that his 14-year-old younger sister didn't walk down on George sucking on dreams neck. "come on, we'll probably have to sit in the living room,"
dream used to share a bedroom with his younger brother, but when his older sister went to college, his younger brother had moved into that room, and dream had been left with the slightly bigger bedroom. But now that dreams older sister was back home for her internship, they had to share because it was the bigger room, and it was too much work to move his younger brother back into the room.
So it was always a fight. If dream got home first, his older sister would work in the dining room, but if she got home first, she would work in the bedroom at the desk, and the dream would have to find a different space in the house for him a George.
Which normally meant little to no privacy. If he were lucky, his younger siblings would have too much homework to have time for video games, which they were only allowed to play before dinner if they had finished their homework. If they didn't have time before dinner, that worked out for dream because George was always expected home for his own family dinner.
Alsa, today was not one of those days.
Dream rose from the couch, stretching out his back and turning off the game, Drista and Dean bouncing down the stairs, both with a drink and snack,
"hey, George," Dean greats George as he jumps over the back of the sofa,
"hey," drista shrugs walking over to her spot and dream is already on its way up the stair. George mumbles a quick hello, then is quickly following dream. Who leads them to the living room,
"We can watch something," dream offers to grab the remote and to turn it on to first some random cable channel then to a menu with Netflix, youtube and Disney plus,
"sure," George shrugs, dropping down on the couch. While he felt somewhat protected in the basement, the living room was very often passed through in the dream household, so George knew his hopes of anything else happing were dashed.
But he let out the hope that maybe this would move dream to do more with George.
"do hickies hurt?" Tommy asks, hes spinning around in his chair because someone thought it was a good idea to let him sit in a chair that had wheels on it. At the same time, dream reads over Tommy's paper, and honestly, dream thinks it's pretty good, sure. It's full of tangents, and the structure isn't really there, but that could be fixed with editing.
"what?" dream asks
"hickies those things you have all over your neck you're trying to hide and failing at, do they hurt to get?" Tommy guesters to dreams neck, which he not very carefully dotted some of his sister's foundation over. They were about a week old, now he had been much better at covering them up in the first couple of days, but now, well, they were faded enough.
"not if your partner does them correctly, not that you need to worry about it," Dream shrugs, because hes never thought of it, sure. He had gotten some hickies that did actually really hurt, but it had never crossed his mind beforehand. Well, that's not true, he had, when his sister had come home with a couple, but he had never asked.
"I'm not worried I'm just curious," Tommy defend himself,
"I just meant that you shouldn't be getting or receiving any hickies any time soon," Dream shook his head, disarming the boy's shields before he became argumentative and the rest of the day would go awful. they had only had three sessions, but, dream thought he was starting to understand Tommy.
"oh, I guess not, but I've never really like anyone anyways," Tommy shrugged,
"that's fair," dream nodded, then turned back to the essay,
"so, do you give George hickies to, or do you only receive them?" Tommy asked, and dream dropped his pen,
"What!" dream let out in shock.
"what?" Tommy turned to dream, quirking his head
"How did you know that me and George," dream whisper yelled.
"I live down the street from you, and tubbo lives a door down from you, his car is always at your house, plus I saw you kiss him before school yesterday," Tommy shrugged,
because of course, of all people Tommy had seen, and to be completely honest, dream should have known, Tommy is always at the school early, and says pretty late after, and wanders the streets at night, much like a street cat.
"right, I'm not telling you what I do with George," dream shakes his head, picking back up his red pen, going back to circling little points and making arrows to where things should go instead.
"so its nothing then," Tommy says, and hes back to spinning around in his chair,
"Tommy, I need to mark your essay," dream reprimands
"I'm not stopping you," Tommy defends
"you're distracting me" dream looks over, and Tommy huffs out
"Oh Kay," Tommy keeps spinning, but he quiet for a moment, then seemingly out of nowhere, he goes, "your scared to do things with George, he seems to want it, but you always seem to push him off,"
"Just how much have you seen?" dream asks,
"hey, I don't want to, don't make out in the alcove near the freshman bench," Tommy shrugs,
dream had forgotten that was where the freshman bench was because none of his friends went there. After all, they were seniors, but Tommy was likely to spend his time in that area.
"me and George are fine, Tommy. It's none of your business," dream glanced over. Still, he kept working on the essay.
"whatever," Tommy shrugged. The rest of the session went well, but then they ran late, and Tommy missed the late bus, and it was raining,
"fuck," the young blonde mumbled under his breath,
"why don't you call your dad?" dream asked. He remembered that Wilbur and techno dad was always picking them up in 9th grade,
"hes busy, work and shit" Tommy shakes his head as he looks out into the pouring rain,
"your brothers?" Dream suggests he knows this boy isn't going to walk home in the rain. He just doesn't want to have to drive him.
"ill just walk. It will be fine," Tommy shakes his head, pulling his jacket around his school bag to try and keep it from getting wet.
"come on," dream pulls out his car keys, grabbing Tommy's wrist before he was stepping too far out of reach.
"what?" Tommy looks back
"I have to go get George, then ill drive you home," dream shrugs. The kid does only live up the street from him.
"Thanks," Tommy mumbled as he stepped out of the car, making a mad dash towards his house. Dream wasn't going to bring up that both techno and Wilbur's cars sat in the driveway.
The car ride was quiet, Tommy seemed to shut down completely when they pulled onto his street, and it was still pouring with rain. Tommy pulled his bag over his shoulder and shot off like a rocket towards the front door. Dream stayed to watch him pull a key out of the plant pot and then unlock the front door. Which dream, though, was odd since both of his brothers seemed to be home.
"Why did you drive him home?" George asks as they start back over to dreams house.
"because I didn't want him to walk home In the rain, and he seemed really agiesnt calling to get picked up," Dream shrugged, "if the kid got hypothermia, it would be on me,"
"such a good moral compass you have the dream," George mocked but didn't push it, father,
"He knows we are a thing," Dream sighs as he pulls into his driveway. His sister's car is ahead of him, so they both know they won't be getting it.
"you told him?" George looked over in what dream could describe as a shock more than anything.
"no, apparently, he saw us, and-" Dream jesters to his neck and the quiet faded.
"you've been hiding them pretty well, though," George said. Dream chose to ignore that George sounded like he was pouting,
"I guess the kid is observant," Dream shrugged, putting his car in park and turning off the engine.
"Hmm," George shrugged, "wow, you can barely see anything out there," George mumbled.
"Yeah, it's really coming down hard," dream shrugged, leaning into the back seat to grab his bag,
"We are gonna get all our stuff wet," George said once more, not making any moves to grab his stuff,
"yeh, I guess we have to run, the doors probably unlocked," Dream shrugged,
"dream..." George sighed
"what?" Dream looked over, and George leaned over the car console and kissed Dream, "oh, we should just- say in the car?" Dream smiled,
"you're so oblivious," George rolled his eyes. He unblocked his seat and crawled into the back seat. Dream quickly followed suit.
Dreams small car wasn't exactly a comfortable spot to make out, but it was a private one.
Dream pulled George onto his lap and carefully pressed his lips to Georges, keeping his hands secure on Georges's hips and George draping his arms over Dreams shoulders as he tried to get closer as if they weren't on top of each other already.
George had craved this for nearly a week. Since they had been kicked out of the basement, they hadn't exactly been able to find a private space to do anything other than short kisses before the start of school in the acovle. George wouldn't mind going public, sticking it in all the cheerleaders, poli-sci girls, and debate team girls who all crush on him, who do anything to be close to him, and out of all of them, the debate team girls are the most shameless.
George just wants to scream at them, pull dream into a kiss in front of every single one of them to prove a point.
But he can't, Because dream doesn't want to. He says he has reasons, but he's out to his whole family. His family knows George as his boyfriend. Dreams mother never questions Dreams hickies or George, which are actively worse.
Speaking of hickies, George decides that he would try once again at them. Pulling away from dreams lips, he leans down to kiss at the base of dreams jaw. It would have helped if George had dated anyone before he dated dream.
Dream had girl after girl. He knew what he liked. He knew how to please someone else, George knew that both had he experienced it, he had heard the whispers, the girls who giggle when dreams latest filing tells her friends about the night she had, and when George use to listen as some form of self-hatred as he grew jealous of random girls.
But now, he should be who people are jealous of, and he can't tell anyone. He cants grab dream's hand or kiss his cheek when someone is staring. He can only hope they move on quickly, and knowing all of this, George leaves a mark on dreams somehow sun tanned skin, the red bruise blooms on his neck, and George goes for another one, dream tilting his head father back as to reveal more skin.
And because the universe hates George, or at least he thinks it does, there's a knock on the window, Drista, standing with her long blond hair soaking wet, holding out her cell phone.
"I should probably take you home," Dream sighs. He gently pushes George off of him and then steps out of his car, just for drista to start yelling about something, George climes into the front seat and wonders if they will ever catch a break.
Tommy gently closes the door after he steps into the house. It always so quiet now, and he no longer feels allowed to break the quiet. He takes off his mud-soaked shoes, leaving them on the shoe mat. he takes a deep breath and then starts to walk up the stairs to his room. Shooting a text to tubbo to ask if he wants to hang out.
Because Phil is at work and techno has college, and Wilbur is in his final year of high school and it all much more important than remembering to have dinner. At tubbos house, he can eat with tubbo. Lani and ranboo and their parents and at least tubbo's mom will ask how his day was and won't harp on Tommy about having a c- average, and tubbos dad will indulge Tommy to talk more about the soccer team and his training so he can be on the football team next year.
because Phil won't, he has worked,
and techno has collage
And Wilbur has his last year in high school.
Next year, he will be alone in the big house because Wilbur and techno will be getting an apartment near their college.
Tommy hates being alone. He's always hated being alone.