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There was nothing quite like running for your life at nine o’clock sharp in the morning.
Feet pounding on the cobblestone streets, splashing in puddles and leaving wet footprints behind, Dream glanced behind him. George’s hand was still clenched in his, and the brunet grinned at him while using his other hand to keep his goggles still on his face. A dead sprint meant a whole lot of bouncing glasses, to be fair. “Having fun yet, Gogy?” Dream panted, and they ducked around a corner at top speed.
Shoving the two of them down an alley, Dream climbed up a couple boxes, pulled George after him the whole time. “They’re down this way!” One of their pursuers yelled gleefully. Holding onto George’s hand still, Dream hauled him up onto the roof, rolled over the peak of it with George clutched right next to his body.
“Hold your breath and hold still.” He whispered. Head forced into his chest, George nodded. Both of them went deathly quiet, and Dream could feel George’s heart racing. To be fair, his was as well, pounding in his ears.
Below them, the teenagers walked into the alley. “Where did they go?” Tommy asked, looking around and sounding distinctly disappointed. If he closed his eyes, Dream could practically imagine the frustrated look on the young man’s face as he threw the crossbow launcher over one shoulder. “Oh, Dream! George! Come out and play! Don’t be lame.”
“Maybe they went another way?” Tubbo suggested, and Tommy let out a long groan.
“Ugh, they’re probably being gross.” Pitching his voice up, Tommy yelled, “Alright, losers! Have fun making out or whatever the fuck you’re doing!”
(Dimly, somewhere else in the town, Bad screamed, “LANGUAGE!”)
“Oh, we found Bad. Let’s go track him and Skeppy down and shoot them!” Jack said, and the other boys cheered. Running off, they vanished somewhere. Dream could still hear Tommy and Jack shouting curses as loudly as possible (Tubbo was probably making sure they weren’t running into anything) while following Bad’s offended yells.
For a long while, both Dream and George laid there, breathing quietly and trying not to laugh.
Once they’d determined they were safe enough, Dream let out a low, wheezing laugh. George huffed out a similar sound, shaking his head. “They’re idiots.” George whispered, face still buried in Dream’s chest. He just…hadn’t moved, for whatever reason. “They said we were making out. I hate them.”
“No, you don’t.” Sighing, George shook his head again.
“No, I don’t. They’re just annoying.” Smiling, he cracked, “Annoyinnit.”
“Jack Annoyfold.”
“Annoybo.” Both of them burst out laughing softly. Then, for a little while, they went quiet again. The heat of the sun basked down on the roof tiles they were lying on. A pleasant warmth, sort of like when you were lying in the grass on a nice summer afternoon. It had rained a few days before, hence the water balloons (which had soaked the streets). The sky was bright and the very definition of the word azure, a gorgeous blue colour with puffy white clouds dancing along in the breeze. Speaking of the breeze, it was playing with their hair gently, like a mom running her fingers through the strands. Everything about the day had been nice, honestly.
After about five minutes of that, George’s hair started tickling Dream’s nose. Lifting his head, he asked, “You asleep there or just warm?”
“Warm.”
“You’re such a cat. Come on, get off me.” Rolling to the side, Dream pushed George off of him. They still had a death grip on each other’s hands, but they pulled apart mostly to start nursing some circulation back into it. Glancing over, he laughed. “Catboy George.”
Sending him a look that looked way too similar to how Patches did when Dream interrupted her during grooming, George snapped, “Shut up or I will kick you off this house.”
“You wouldn’t do that.” George smirked—not smiled, honest to God smirked—and planted a foot squarely on Dream’s shoulder. Then, he shoved, and Dream nearly toppled off the building. Thankfully for them both, George didn’t actually push him too hard. “Alright, alright, I get the point, I get the point! Chill out, man. You’re going to kill me.” Both of them paused, took another breath of fresh late spring air. George stretched, Dream sat on the edge of the roof kicking his legs over the edge and reminding himself that there was a hay cart there to break his fall on the off chance he did slip off the edge. Eventually, he looked to George and jerked his head towards the woods, “Come on, I want to show you something.”
George tilted his head, opened his mouth to ask, but by then Dream had already pulled him off of the roof and was leading him towards the woods, fingers gently wrapped around his.
“Whoa—Dream! Slow down!” Laughing, Dream kept running on. Golden sunlight darted between the green leaves of the trees, dappled the sticks and stones lining the dirt path and the foliage on either side of it. Golden-brown bracken swallowed their footsteps, and George glanced around at everything. Somewhere, a brook trickled by, and frogs croaked. Birds chirped. It was a rather idyllic forest, honestly, like something beyond out of a fairy tale. “You know, this is a very romantic spot to—Dream?” The other man had released his hand and disappeared into the woods. Taking a breath, George spun in a quick circle. “Dream? This isn’t funny, Dream.” Pausing, he cupped his hands around his mouth, “Dre—”
A hand covered his mouth, one arm wrapping around his waist, “Quit shouting, Tommy and the others will come running.” A voice whispered in his ear, and George nearly kicked him where it hurt without thinking. Once he realised it was Dream, he almost kicked him there anyways. Before that could happen, though, Dream released him, and George ducked away with his hands raised defensively. Smiling, the blond shook his head good-naturedly. “You’re such an idiot.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, George tried to fire back, “Sure, Mr—uh…” He winced and forced out, “Mr…I don’t know. Dumb blond I guess.”
“Oh, we’re going there, pretty privilege?”
“Sure, Mr 20 Mil.”
Wrinkling his nose, Dream replied, “It’s not 20 Mil.” With a laugh, George hip-checked him as they walked.
“It’s 19.4 right now but it’ll go up.” When Dream rolled his eyes, George shot him another look. “Dream.”
“George.”
“Duh-ream.” Both of them stared at each other and then burst out laughing. Then, wiping the corners of his eyes with his sleeves, George asked, “Alright, alright, I give up. What do you want to show me?”
Grinning broadly, Dream laced their fingers together again. “Come with me.” Then, they were off running once more, Dream jumping over fallen logs with practiced ease and George just trying to keep pace with him.
“Dream! Dream, hold on, I’m shorter than you are!” He gasped, trying not to accidentally hurt himself or tear his jeans (a small part of him in the back of his mind thought back to when Skeppy and Bad had been racing Ant to the top of a seventy-foot tall tree. Ant, of course, with his catlike…everything, made it to the top within about forty-five seconds. Bad was behind him with a total of five minutes forty-two seconds, and Skeppy…well, he ripped his jeans. On the inside of both thighs, couple inches above his knees, both sides. In front of everyone. They referred to ripping one’s jeans as “pulling a Skeppy” from then on) as he went. Laughing, he forced out, “Dream!”
Ahead of him, the blond was laughing, and George shook his head while laughing, too. It was hard not to. Dream just had that kind of contagious laugh, it made it so, so very hard not to burst out right along him.
They came to a stop and Dream paused. Stepping around him, he put his hands over George’s eyes. “Do you trust me?” Blinking in the darkness, George swallowed and then nodded. “Alright, just keep walking forwards—oh, step right, there’s a log there and you don’t want to step on it.” Ferns brushed against his legs, and George could just hear the sound of rushing water. Underneath his feet, pebbles scattered, and the ground began to slope down. Still, he didn’t trip. Dream kept guiding him quietly in a soft tone. “Hold on, there’s gonna be a sort of a…thing here. Lip.” Wood creaked under his feet, but the ground evened out, and Dream’s fingers left his eyes. “Alright, you can open your eyes.”
Blinking, George looked around, slowly at first to take everything in.
It was a really pretty place. He and Dream were standing on a little wooden bridge with no rails, right above a small creek. Off to their left, there was a small dam built out of rocks, and George could just make out the back of a turtle’s shell and some fish swimming along. Brightly coloured salamanders swam along the ladybug-strewn grasses and ferns lining the shoreline. There were more rocks, and some bushes stuck out of the water on little islands.
Slowly turning in a circle, George saw where they would be going if they had kept walking. The ground began to slope up, and there was a little building there. Not quite a shack—certainly not a cabin in the woods, but it wasn’t exactly a cottage in the forest, either. It was still something well-kept and neat, looking, with trees that towered above them. Golden leaves reached above them, dancing in the faint breeze against the bright blue sky.
Off to their right, the river continued, off to where George couldn’t see it anymore. A fox trotted along in the shadows, pausing to look at him with intelligent amber eyes. It lapped up some of the water from the creek. Then, turning, it vanished into the foliage at the end of where he could see with a flick of its white-tipped tail. Cherry trees in full bloom lingered on that side of the creek as well, sending little white blossoms down on them in the breeze. Blinking, George took his first breath in a while. He hadn’t even realised he’d been holding it.
Turning, George paused when he saw Dream standing behind him. The man had been watching him the whole time, a soft smile on his face that widened and brightened when their gazes met again. Reaching up, George tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear, smiling at him. “What, uh—what’re you staring at, Dream?” He asked, smiling sheepishly with a little bit of heat flooding to his face.
Tipping his head to the side, Dream kept up that smile. “Just you. You’re so pretty, you know that, right?” George’s eyes wandered to where the sunlight danced on the creek water. The biggest fish he’d ever seen swam by lazily, disappearing underneath the bridge. Even if he laid on his stomach and peered over the edge, he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to see it in the shadows.
Swallowing and taking a breath, he turned to look at Dream and fired back, “You’re pretty hot, too, you know.” Dream started spluttering, turning red, and George let out a laugh. “Why’d you bring me here, anyways?”
“Just thought it’d be nice. Come on, sit down. Trust me, this thing wouldn’t break even if we were galloping horses over it,” tapping the wooden slats, Dream slowly got down to the bridge and starting stripping his shoes off. “It’s pretty cold water, though, just warning you.”
“Oh, sure.” As Dream set his boots and socks aside, George settled down, crossing his legs and staring into the water. “Why do you come here?”
“To think, mostly.” Letting his feet dangle in the water, Dream shrugged and mused, “I used to come here a lot more. Haven’t had as much time, thought I might as well share it with someone else again, you know?”
“Yeah.” Dream started kicking his feet, sending little splashes and ripples across the lake. As he did, he started scaring some of the little fish swimming around. “You’re scaring the fish.”
“Ah, they’ll be fine.” Smiling softly, Dream mused, “Pandas and I used to come here a bit. Did you know one time we took my shoelaces, tied a safety pin to them, and stole some food from the kitchens to try and fish one out?” When George’s head jerked up and he looked over, Dream laughed and added, “We weren’t going to keep it, we were going to throw it back pretty much immediately, we just wanted to see if we could catch it.”
“That sounds like something you and Sapnap would do, honestly.” Rolling his eyes, George settled his chin on his palm and watched one of the fish as it swam around. “You ever wonder if alternate realities exist? Like…maybe in one universe, you and I never met?”
“Please. The universe couldn’t keep us apart if it tried.” Dream scoffed, and George laughed lightly. “Come on, dip your feet in. Day’s only going to get hotter.” Looking up at the sun, Dream shielded his face with a hand and then took an audible breath. Meanwhile, George shook his head and started rolling his jean leg up. It wouldn’t do any harm, would it? “Oh! And one time, a couple years back, Tommy and Tubbo and I decided to go walking that way.” He pointed down the direction the fox had been. Nodding, George untied his shoes and set them behind him with his own socks. Dream kept talking animatedly, moving his hands. “And Tommy ended up stepping on a turtle! I felt so bad for the poor thing, but we named it Sticky and then took it back over there.” Nodding behind them, Dream laughed and added, “You should have seen Tommy’s face back then. He thought he killed it! Well, that wasn’t that funny, but oh my gosh his expression!”
“Sounds like it would have been something to die for.” George commented, touching the water with his hand. It was cold—pretty close to freezing, actually. “Dream, this isn’t cold water it’s freezing.”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby. It’s not that bad.” When George scoffed, Dream shot him a look. “Come on, Gogy. Live a little!” Nudging him in the shoulder, Dream leaned over and put one hand on his shoulder, so close his breath brushed against George’s neck and cheek. In a singsong voice, he said, “If you do it I’ll give you a kiss on the cheek.”
“Please, you’re the one who wants to kiss me, Dream.” Still, George watched the fish swim closer to his feet for a second. “It’s not bad.”
“Whoo!” Jokingly, Dream grabbed his face and kissed his cheek like he said he would. “There, deal’s over.” When George stared at him, Dream wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Green eyes darted to meet brown and he tilted his head to the side. “What?”
“You just kissed my cheek.” Blinking, Dream looked to the side and then froze.
“Oh. Right.” Both of them went quiet for a while. “Well, you—you were laying on me earlier and I-I thought that maybe—”
“Nah, it was fine.” Twiddling his thumbs, George kicked his feet in the water a little bit. Beside him, Dream kept shifting awkwardly. Eventually, though, he did need to talk. “So…uh, when do you think we should be heading back?”
“Oh. Uh…” Glancing at his communicator, Dream swallowed and said, “Well, we could probably stay out here for a little while longer. Trust me, Tommy and the others are going to have their work cut out for them when Niki and Puffy decide to team up with Techno and Phil to try and water bomb literally all of them again and again.” Letting out a weak laugh, Dream rubbed the back of his neck and added, “They probably don’t even know that we’re gone, honestly.”
“Maybe.” George glanced over at him. Dream met his gaze. Both of them started talking at the same time.
“Hey, I’m really sorry a—"
“You know I didn’t mind—”
Both of them cut off. Smiling, Dream said, “You go first.”
“Nah, you go.” Dream paused, letting him reconsider. Then, he dropped George’s gaze again, looked down to his own lap where he was messing with his hoodie sleeves.
“I-I’m really sorry. I probably should have asked before…you know.” Dream paused and started playing with his fingertips, tapping each to his thumb and poking them together, interlacing them without even thinking. “Just wasn’t really thinking. Trying to have fun. You know?”
“Oh.” Looking to the water again, George kicked the water a couple of times. “So…you didn’t mean it?” He watched Dream’s eyes widen and his head snap up in his peripheral. Looking over with wide eyes, the blond just stared at him with the same slightly derpy look for a moment.
“What?”
Looking over, George pointed out, “Look, I know you’re not homophobic. I’ve seen the way you look when Ant and Velvet are being gross and cute and all that and a bag of a chips.” Waving a hand, he continued, “You don’t look at Karl and Quackity and Sapnap that way, either. Even though that’s gotta be hard because they are disgustingly sweet with one another my GOSH—” Beside him, Dream let out a soft laugh. George looked to him. “You didn’t care when Fundy came out as trans. Hell, you jokingly married him for the series. So you can’t be homophobic because otherwise we have an issue.” Leaning in, George planted one of his hands right between them, knuckles brushing Dream’s own, and moved so they were basically nose to nose. His gaze held Dream’s. “Are you jealous?”
“What? N-no!”
“Then did you mean it? In a different way than friends, because I’ve seen you kiss other people as friends.”
“Oh, give me some evidence of that—”
“New Year’s Party, you and Sapnap did it as a joke. I’ve seen you say hi to Puffy and Niki by kissing them on the forehead or the cheek, you’re a very tactile person you know. Alyssa, too. You’ve kissed multiple people on the forehead when they’ve been hurt and either they or you are scared. Every single time, it’s been a different vibe than what happened right now. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but I’d rather you just tell me.” Dream paused and stared at him nervously. Sighing, George pulled away and then slumped down, rubbing at his arm with his free hand. The other one stayed where it was, brushing against Dream’s knuckles. “Please, Dream. I…” Closing his eyes, he took a breath and jerked his head slightly, words lodging in his throat.
Calloused fingers brushed his.
Opening his eyes, George glanced at Dream. The blond wasn’t looking at him. Glancing down, he found that Dream’s thumb was resting against the side of his hand, the other fingers on top of the back of his hand. A soft smile threatened his face, and George moved his own fingers so that theirs were linked again. This wasn’t like earlier, when they had done it almost without thinking while they were running. This was on purpose.
This was something different.
Dream’s breathing hitched slightly, nervously. “Do you remember how you brought up alternate universes earlier?” He asked quietly, voice barely a shade above the rustling of the leaves around them and the creek babbling away to their front and back.
“Yeah.” Leaning in, George asked, “What about it?” Around them, the breeze brushed more cherry blossoms from the trees around them. It was something almost idyllic. “Dream?”
Green eyes flickered from the water to their hands, then back again. “I meant it. A-about the universe not being able to keep us apart. I meant that.”
George smiled, then glanced into the creek for a moment. An idea occurred to him, and he smiled wickedly. Not the kind where teeth showed, the kind that kids got when they were being mischievous (aka Tommy and Tubbo’s entire vibe when they were put in the same room together for longer than two minutes). He slid his arm up to Dream’s communicator, started undoing the strap. He set it aside, did the same with his own. “Quick question.” Dream looked up and met his gaze. “Any chance you have anything important in your pockets?”
“What?” Frowning, Dream shook his head. “No, I don’t—GEORGE—”
George shoved him into the water.
Yelling, Dream grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him in with him. Cold water crashed over George’s head. Gasping, he clawed over to the bridge and then grabbed onto the wooden slats, looking over at Dream. Flipping his head back and running his hand over from his hair, the blond looked at him panting. “It’s c-c-cold.” He said, and Dream threw his head back with a laugh. Smiling at him, George planted his feet on the bottom of the little pond, feeling fish swim around his jeans.
“No shit, Sherlock!” Laughing, Dream swam towards the edge of the pond, beckoned him. Shaking his head, George rubbed at his arms. “What, are you going to stay in the freezing cold? Come over here, it’s sunny and nicer.” With a sigh, George waded over, felt Dream’s hands dart to grab him around his waist when he slipped on a mossy rock. “You could have told me that you were going to throw us both in the pond, I could have taken my shirt off and made it a show.”
Laughing, water dripping from strands of hair clinging to his forehead and from his eyelashes, George shook his head. “Shut up. Where are my goggles, I can’t find them.” Dream glanced around, then disappeared under the water for a few seconds. When he resurfaced, goggles in hand, George held out his own. Dream didn’t hand them over. “Uh, Dream. Can I have my goggles back?”
“Sure. Hold still I don’t want to stab you in the eyeballs.” Blinking, George froze in place while Dream fiddled with the goggles and gently put them on him. Smoothing George’s hair back with his hands, Dream smiled softly, held onto his face for a moment longer than someone would have with a friend. There was a peculiar expression on his face, and George blinked a few times before smiling softly at him.
“Thanks.”
“You’re such an idiot.”
“So you claim.” Dream scoffed, then dragged him backwards into the water. (It was still freezing. Just because they were laughing didn’t help in the slightest. It was still ice-cold water, and freezing, in the kind of skin-pricking way.) When George got away, swimming a good two arm’s lengths away from the blond, he could see Dream laughing again. Swiping some of the water from his hair, he flicked it at the blond, who splashed him back. “Cheater!”
“Oh, says the one who dragged me into the water!” Laughing, Dream moved over and touched George’s face. George froze up, staring at him with wide eyes for a moment. Then, touching Dream’s wrist, George gently kissed his palm and then glanced over at him, looking for what reaction would be there. Dream’s eyes widened slightly. Then, he smiled softly, touched George’s cheek, and they both seemed to be about to do something. There was a long pause.
“Oh my gosh will you two just kiss already?”
Both of them jolted, screaming. Water splashed around for a second, Jerking his head around, George saw Tommy standing on the edge of the pond with Jack and Tubbo standing behind him. The young man’s hands were in his hair, and clearly he was irritated with the pair. “Tommy!” Dream yelled, leaving George in the pond to start wading towards the teens.
“Oh, sh—”
“LANGAUGE!” Bad yelled as they ran up, too. “Also, get back here!” Bad, Skeppy, Niki, Puffy, Techno, and Phil were charging up. Screaming, the teens sprinted away with their crossbows strapped to their backs and running away immediately. Skidding to a stop as the others ran by, laughing loudly the whole time, Bad looked to George and Dream and pointed at them. “Have fun! Figure your feelings out but don’t get stressed! I love you no matter what! Okay, gotta go kill some kids, bye!”
Both of them paused and stared after him for a few moments.
Then, they met each other’s gazes again and George smiled first. The moment stretched on, getting slightly awkward. Then, Dream quietly started singing, “Under da tree, under da tree—”
“You idiot.” Laughing, George grabbed his hand and started carefully walking over the stones, pulling Dream along with him. “Come on, let’s go figure out…whatever this is.”
Behind him, Dream laughed.