Work Text:
Two weeks, four days, nine hours.
That’s how long it had been since Dream had last talked to George.
Twenty-two hours, sixteen minutes.
That’s how long it had been since Dream’s most recent stream.
Apparently, George was the only one being ignored, how lucky was he?
One year, four months, one week, six days.
That’s how long the flowers had been there. The physical distance between them slowed the process, prolonging his pain.
The brightly colored poppies, some shade he knew he couldn’t see right, they wouldn’t leave just because Dream did, instead choosing to serve as a constant reminder of his friend’s absence.
Friend.
That word didn’t fit anymore, did it.
Best friend, crush, stranger.
Those all fit better at this point.
They were a duo everyone knew, everything they did being broadcast to the public. Even something as small as a haircut could hit the top of trending immediately.
So why had no one noticed the duo split?
George heard his phone start to vibrate from its place on his desk and he went to go answer it.
Bad was calling him.
Bad knew about everything, he knew about the extremely rare disease George had and the feelings that caused it. He knew Dream and George, since the beginning.
When George figured out what was happening he panicked thinking of what to do. He couldn’t call Sapnap, who was on call with Dream and him daily, and was even planning to move in with Dream soon when it happened (which he now did), so he did the next best thing. He called Bad.
Bad liked to call George daily to make sure he was taking care of himself.
George answered the phone.
“Hey, Bad.”
“Hi George, how are you doing today?”
“Same as most days, I do have one thing that’s changed, though.” George bit his lip, nervous to say it out loud and make it real.
“Well what is it?”
“I’m going to get the surgery.”
Bad gasped. “Oh my goodness, you muffin, that’s great! When?”
George let himself smile, relieved at Bad’s enthusiasm. He truly had a quality about him that made people happy.
“I was able to get scheduled very soon, if all goes well, Wednesday.” Today was Friday.
“That’s so soon!”
“Yeah, I have a lot to prepare for. Would you film a bit with me later, and maybe join my stream?”
George could hear Bad’s smile. “Of course!”
With a smile of his own, George got onto Teamspeak to film with Bad and they started to make videos to go out while George is in recovery.
—
A few hours later, George had to go live and explain what would happen.
“You gonna stay on, Bad?”
“Yeah, moral support!”
George smiled for the millionth time this call as he finished setting up the stream and sent out a tweet.
“Let’s begin, then.” He pressed the start streaming button, titling the stream “Important News” and putting it under Just Chatting.
Putting on a random playlist for the Starting Soon screen, George took another look over his talking points, mentally preparing to tell the internet something so personal.
A sudden influx of viewers hit, signaling that twitch sent out the notification and it was about time for him to start talking.
“Hey, everyone, today’s stream is a more serio one, I’m going to be talking about some personal stuff.” The chat started spamming messages of confusion, knowing how private the streamer was.
No point in stalling it.
“I’m just going to say it bluntly: I have a certain… disease… that’s causing me a lot of pain and I have had it for a while. In a week, I have a surgery to get the painful part removed, but it’s going to cause some things to change. The disease is called Hanahaki, which I’m sure some of you are familiar with, but basically it means I love someone who doesn’t reciprocate the feelings, causing flowers to grow around my vital organs that can only be removed through a surgery. It’s why I’ve been coughing so much recently, the flowers in my lungs started growing at an accelerated rate and affecting my breathing. Th-” The chat had started spamming the names of streamers it could be, and when the brunet saw a specific name, he cut himself off with a bout of vicious coughing.
Grabbing the trash can he had set nearby, he ducked into it and released a few poppy petals soaked in blood. He laughed dryly at the flower’s timing.
“Sorry about that, but as I was saying: The removal surgery has a high chance of removing the person from my memories entirely, to keep the flowers from returning. For me, the person is a friend, one I stream with, which is a bit of a problem. I won’t say who it is now, but after the surgery if I seem to have forgotten someone important, you can infer why. Please don’t harass me about the person afterwards, it would literally be impossible for me to give you any information.” He laughed nervously at that. Bad messaged him a thumbs up.
“After the surgery I have videos with Badboyhalo recorded to put out- Say hi Bad-“
“Hi!”
“Thank you, but I won’t be streaming afterwards for a while, I hope you guys understand and wish me luck!” The chat filled with positive messages and he smiled genuinely.
“Now, let’s play some Minecraft, Bad you up for that?”
“Yeah! Let’s do bedwars!” He responded enthusiastically. He was grateful for Bad’s presence and enthusiasm, he appreciated the man trying to keep him comfortable while doing something so unlike him.
After around two hours of playing, George finally ends the stream, getting hungry.
As soon as he outros and raids Puffy, he has an incoming call.
Picking it up without checking the caller ID, he grabs his keys and starts to head to the door.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE DYING?” Sapnap’s voice screamed through his phone.
“Oh, hey Sapnap-”
“George you could’ve died and I wouldn’t even have known why .” His voice was quiet now, he sounded like he was crying.
“Look, I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how to say it, I thought it would be easier to just tell everyone at once…” It wasn’t technically a lie.
“Bad knew…” George winced at how hurt he sounded.
“You’ll understand soon I’m sure, I’ll explain after the surgery, ok? I’ll write a note with all the details.” Sapnap seemed to accept this, a watery sigh coming through the phone.
“Just… stay safe, ok? I don’t know what I’d do without you, Gogy, Dream wouldn’t either.” George sighed at that.
“I will, I promise Sap.”
“Dream wouldn’t what?” George faintly heard a joking tone on the other side of the line and had a sharp intake of breath.
“George’s stream, did you not watch?” For some reason that hurt to hear.
“Hey Sap, I’ve got to go, I’ll call you later tonight, I promise.”
“Alright sounds good man.” George didn’t wait to say goodbye and just hung up the phone.
Making a split-second decision, George sent out a tweet.
Hey everyone, thanks for the support! My surgery is Wednesday, wish me luck!
Keeping it simple but to the point.
On the drive to McDonalds, George’s mind wandered to Dream, as usual
Dream didn’t see the stream. Did he see my tweet?
“People are gonna know who it is pretty quick,” He said to no one with a dry laugh.
“And it’ll be pretty funny to watch the chaos unfold, eh?” A familiar voice joked from beside George.
“I assume, I won’t know what’s happening.”
“Well, since I didn’t watch the stream I won’t either!” He wheezes a laugh.
George smiles.
“Then we’re two of a pair.”
The hallucinations of Dream started a few days after he went radio silent, probably a side effect of the hanahaki, but George learned quickly they were nothing to fear. They were comforting, he got to talk to Dream even if it was fake.
George made it to McDonalds as Dream faded.
—
George was getting ready for bed when he finally checked twitter. His mentions were blowing up with a clip from his stream, as well as a point the audience kept making.
The clip was him saying the flowers could only be removed through surgery, and the tweets were bringing up the fact that surgery wasn't the only way.
Confession.
George laughed at the thought alone, but figured he should tweet to clear it up.
Confession’s not an option guys, but thanks for the idea
With that, he went to bed.
—
It was Wednesday morning.
He had Sapnap’s explaination written, as well as one for himself. He had called Bad and gotten good wishes from him (though sleepy ones, as it was around one AM for the older boy), and his mom was driving him to the hospital.
“Whatever happens, everything will be alright, sweetie,” His mom said, kissing his cheek as the doctor called for him to go back.
“I know, Mom.” He gave her a hug and followed the doctor into an examination room.
He started droning on about the procedure as he gave George a basic physical exam. George was only half listening, half figuring out what to say to Dream, if anything, before he forgot about him.
“Alright, now I’ll leave and go prepare the anesthesia, and I’ll be right back shortly!” The doctor said, too peppy for the circumstance and time.
As he left, George got his phone out and sent Dream his final message, simple and to the point.
Gogy 🥽💙 : goodbye, thank you
And with that, he closed his DM chat with Dream forever.
The doctor returned with a cart and told George to lean back and breathe as deeply as he could as he picked up a breathing mask connected to the anesthetic tank, resting it over his nose and mouth. All he could smell was the sickly sweet gas.
“Now count back from 20.”
The room blurred around him, looking almost cartoonish, and then his head got fuzzy and numb.
—
Then he woke up, and immediately he sat up and threw up into his own lap, blood and anything he had left in his system.
With a grimace, he wiped his mouth.
“Not the best way to wake up.” His voice was scratchy and hoarse, but looking at the throw up he still smiled, seeing that there wasn’t a flower petal in sight.
Gone were the buds that haunted his every waking second, the blooms that served as a constant reminder of feelings he shouldn’t have, feelings for his best friend, feelings for…
Who did he have feelings for?
Someone important… his best friend, right? Sapnap? No, not him, they had more of a brotherly love… Wilbur? No, the man was nice, but not George’s type…
Who was it?
A knock sounded on his hospital room’s door, despite it being open, and he saw his mom peeking in.
“Georgie? I have a letter you wrote to yourself here, you said you’d wake up confused…”
She handed him a letter with his own name on top, then reluctantly left, having to get to work. He remembered writing this.
He opened it and began to read silently.
Future George-
They said when you wake up you’d have forgotten who you loved, to keep the flowers from coming back, so I don’t know exactly what that’ll do, cause we were pretty intertwined.
To be sure, we stream for a living, with friends from a Minecraft smp, usually.
Aside from the chat on streams, you shouldn’t have any problems with the person I loved, he’s been ghosting me for a while.
Go to your chat with Sapnap on Discord and press send, I promised to explain and already wrote it out for you.
Hope the surgery went well, for both of our sakes.
Well George did remember he was a streamer with his friends, and that there was an smp he wasn’t super active on, but the letter makes it seem like the guy he liked was important, leading George to wonder what happened to make him get ghosted to the point he’d be ok permanently forgetting him.
Pushing the thoughts aside, he opened Discord to give Sapnap his explanation.
A few moments after he pressed send, Sapnap was video calling him.
“Fucking DREAM ?!” Was the first thing Sapnap said to him, looking angry. “YOU COULD’VE SAID SOMETHING- I COULD’VE HELPED YOU, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO DO THIS!”
“... what?” George was confused, what did Sapnap mean? “Who?”
The anger drained out of his friend’s face, being replaced with something sadder.
“It really took all the memories, huh?” George just looked at the younger in confusion. “Nevermind, can I come visit you? Please, let me be there for the recovery, at least.” His friend has a pleading look, so unlike his usual self.
“I mean I guess, I won’t be much fun cause I can’t do much, but if you really want-“ Sapnap cut him off.
“I’ll be there tomorrow, George.” George smiled and the younger did the same.
“Thank you, Sap.”
“Yeah dude, you’re my friend. I gotta go though, I have to pack and tell…” he searched for the words for a moment. “My roommate, gotta tell him I’m leaving.”
“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Could you uber to my place? I can’t drive so…”
“Yeah, of course, see you then man.”
“See you then.”
They both left the call.
“Well ok then.”
—
George was at his flat, waiting anxiously for a knock at the door signaling Sapnap’s arrival. He nervously cleaned the best he could after his discharge, but it was still a bit messy, and his bathroom was stained from the blood he coughed and puke from the Hanahaki.
He did have the first flower from the disease in a pot on his table. He thought it was rude that the hospital gave it to him, but it was quite a pretty flower, so he kept it.
He heard the knock and stood up, walking over to the door. He had to avoid anything overly physical for a while, so it was the fastest he could go.
“Sapnap!” He cried, flinging the door open.
“George!” Sapnap screamed in reply, dropping everything to wrap his friend in a hug.
After an embarrassingly tearful embrace, the two separated and Sapnap looked over the older boy worriedly.
“I’m fine, Sap, the surgery was successful! Look, I’ve got the flower right here! I’m thinking of posting a picture of it, it’s so pretty-“
“I wouldn’t if I were you, trust me when I say it would cause a lot of issues…”
George gave Sapnap a confused look but he trusted his friend, so he won’t post anything.
Sapnap yawned.
“Damn jetlag… do you mind if I sleep today and we stream tomorrow?” He looked pretty out of it.
“Yeah, go ahead dude. Here, the guest room is right here.”
Sapnap disappeared into the open door and minutes later George could hear faint snoring drifting down the hall from his spot in the living room.
He smiled softly as he scrolled through social media, admiring fanart of him and his friends. Everyone drew him with a blond man, someone tall. The man always seemed to be wearing green, a hoodie usually, with the occasional cape when George had a crown. Sometimes he had a white mask, a fairly creepy one. He was drawn differently in every piece, but he seemed familiar in a way George couldn’t place, comfortable, almost? George couldn’t put a name to him or words to their relationship, or even determine if he was real, but George wanted to know him, to see him.
Turning off his phone, George decided to just go to sleep, needing rest to heal anyway.
一
“Yes guys it’s me, Sapnap, in the flesh! No pranks this time!” George looked confused at the ‘this time’, but brushed it off quickly, to smile at the camera with him.
“Yep! Me and Sapnap, here for a real-life q-and-a stream! We’ll take dono questions, so ask away!”
They made it an hour.
A new donation came in, for $30.
Will Dream be joining you guys? Dream team meet up lol
“... Dream? Dream team? I’m afraid I don’t understand who- what are-” Sapnap cut him off.
“No.” Sapnap was blunt, his words cold and harsh, a stark contrast from his usual tone.
“Sap, who’s Dream? The chat’s spamming their name and I guess I must’ve forgotten somehow and I-” George was cut off again.
“I’m getting kinda hungry, can we end stream now?”
“Uh- sure I guess, kinda abrupt-”
George finished up and ended the stream, turning to Sapnap in confusion.
“Sap what the fuck was that?”
The younger responded by sighing and dropping his head into his hands.
“Why did I think this was a good idea?”
While Sapnap sat there talking to himself, George decided to ignore the weird behavior and thought to check Twitter to see if anyone had noticed or commented on it and he was shocked by what he saw.
Trending Worldwide Today
1 ・#WHOS DREAM
2 ・GEORGE
3 ・#DNF
4 ・Sapnap
“Um… Sapnap, what am I missing?”
Just then, Sapnap’s phone began to buzz violently.
Lunging to pick it up, Sapnap’s breaths came out panicked and frantic.
“Dream I-”
“SAPNAP WHAT THE FUCK?” George heard the yell from the other side of the call and Sapnap flinched and pulled the phone away from his ear.
“Dream I’m with George right now, but I swear I’ll explain later, just please, let me go for now?”
George heard a sigh. “Later, fine.” Then they seemed to have hung up, if Sapnap dropping the phone was any indication.
“Dream’s the one you got the disease for, you guys were… pretty close.”
“No duh we were close, Twitter seems to be losing its shit over me not remembering him…”
Sapnap grumbled, “Damn Twitter.”
“Did I not tell anyone who it was…?”
“Bad knew, everyone else was left in the dark, even me.” He looked upset at the end, but shook it off. “I’m guessing you wanted to hide it, not that that turned out…”
“Did- did Dream know?” Sapnap looked away.
“No, that call, uh, it was from him, actually. He’s my roommate, but he was being a dick and ghosting you. I don’t even know why, honestly…”
George hummed in response, thinking.
“Is that why I got the surgery? If we weren’t talking or anything…”
Sapnap shrugged in response, but George wasn’t expecting a response.
If we were so close, why was he ghosting me? Why would I sacrifice my memory of him?
Well probably cause he was ghosting you, obviously.
“Call him.”
“What?” Sapnap looked at George like he sprouted another head. “Why?”
“I want to ask him why.”
Sapnap didn’t look like he understood, but he didn’t resist, and dialed the number.
“Ready to explain?” The man on the phone said harshly.
“Hello,” George said solemnly. “I’m George, but you already know that.”
“George.”
George heard a lot of emotion in that one word, it surprised him. He didn’t sound angry, not at all. He said George’s name like a wish. He’d heard things described as being said “like a prayer”, but this wasn’t a prayer, it was a desire, a longing. There was an emotion in it George could barely comprehend.
“George, George oh my god, George.”
“Why weren’t you talking to me? Why did I do it?” George was asking for answers to questions he didn’t even understand.
“George I-“
“Why,” His voice cracked, he was starting to get emotional. Something was still there, some deep care, for this boy he doesn’t even know anymore. “Why did I do it?”
Sapnap pulled him close, he had forgotten the younger was even still there, so caught up in the moment. George put his head down onto his shoulder, feeling the emotion tighten in his chest.
“George, I couldn’t- your voice it’s- George I’m sorry. You don’t know who I am, but I’m sorry.” Now his voice broke. “I- I love you, George, but I- I can’t, you couldn’t- George-“
He was having trouble getting the words out, they were both over emotional. This wasn’t a situation either of them has been through before, they didn’t know how to handle it.
“What do you mean?” He can’t comprehend what he’s hearing. “Dream I-“
Sapnap cut him off.
“Dream, come here. Don’t deal with this shit over the phone, for once in your goddamn life, Clay, don’t be a coward! ”
Sapnap hung up the phone.
George broke.
“ Dream- ”
—
That night, a knock came.
They were watching some anime, George didn’t know what it was called, something with a bear and death and court? He wasn’t really paying attention.
He was still pondering what happened earlier.
“I’ll get it,” George stood and stretched before making his way to the door of his flat.
When he opened the door he was met with the sight of a tall man with dirty blond hair. He had broad shoulders and an athletic build. Not overly bulky, but lean, with definite muscle. He had medium length hair and a defined jaw. He definitely wasn’t expecting a hot guy to be at his door at eleven o’clock at night. He definitely definitely wasn’t expecting the hot guy to then wrap him a hug.
“ George, my god.”
“George? You good?” Sapnap called from the living room.
The guy took a step back, glancing into George’s flat.
“Hey uh, I’m… Dream. I needed to explain. Can I come in…?”
George heard a gasp from the foyer behind him and turned to see Sapnap.
“You came,” He said, shock written on his face.
The guy- Dream- suddenly looked more nervous. He brought a hand to the back of his neck.
“Uh yeah- you were right, I needed to explain. In person.”
The two younger boys seemed to have a silent conversation with each other.
“Anyone care to fill me in?” George chimed in.
The conversation ended.
“Can I come in?”
George glanced toward Sapnap, who gave him a nod.
“Yeah.”
—
After getting seated once more in the living room, they sat blanketed in an awkward silence until Sapnap finally sighed angrily.
“Are you going to explain or not?” Dream broke from his trance of observing George with a start.
“Oh- uh, yeah. Right. I didn’t plan this far um-“
“Start with the fact that you love me, please?” George suggested.
“Right, starting with the big stuff. I fell in love with you and I couldn’t- I couldn’t-“ He cut himself off with a sigh, “I couldn’t tell you, and I couldn’t be around you and not tell you, so I just- I couldn’t be around you.”
The confession hung heavy in the air.
None of them knew what to say next.
“Then why did it happen? Why did I get sick? Why did I remove it? Why did I-“ George’s voice cracked, “Why did I remove you ?”
Sapnap put an arm around him, George could feel himself shaking.
Dream didn’t have a response. He only shrugged half-heartedly.
“I don’t know.”
Tensions that night stayed high, they didn’t know what to do next. Dream ended up going back to his hotel and Sapnap and George went to their respective beds.
—
George woke up coughing.
He stumbled to the en suite bathroom, the coughing refusing to cease.
*** Mentions of blood and puking! ***
His mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood and the slightly bittersweet flavor of poppies that he had become oh so familiar with once again filled his mouth.
Tears filled his eyes as he began to empty his stomach over a toilet.
He removed the flowers. He removed Dream, his best friend , why was it back?
Dream, piss-yellow skin, smiley face mask, an idiot.
His idiot.
He remembered .
Sapnap burst into the bathroom.
“GEORGE! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!”
George looked up.
“I remember,” was all he got out before a new wave of flowers and blood came. He suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded and the world faded out.
*** Mentions over!! ***
—
“Is he ok?” Were the first words George heard when he came to again.
“Dream?” He rasped out.
“George,” Was breathed out in return. “What do you mean ‘you remember’, George? You remember what?”
“You, I remember you, Dream.” He realized suddenly how light his chest felt, he had no problem breathing, he felt free.
He finally found the strength to turn his head to see Dream sitting on a chair beside his bed where he assumed Sapnap had moved him to. His once tanned skin looked pale.
“Wh- what do you mean?”
George reached out and grabbed his hand.
“I remember it, all of it, Dream. I remember you.”