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sapnap hadn’t meant to slip. he was just becoming so frustrated with his editing program and the fact that he was being pressured into uploading for once that his walls were very quickly plummeting down faster than he could pick them back up. at this rate he knew he’d be too deep in his headspace to finish editing so the boy did what he typically did when slipping, shut his door. he shut it because this was a weird kind of headspace. it wasn’t cute like when dream became little and giggled, colored, and overall just melted their hearts.
no, this headspace made sapnap want to wear the clip on dog ears he’d seen on twitter despite the flush of embarrassment that rushed through him at the very thought of it. he didn’t necessarily have an issue with other people engaging in it, but for him? it made him beyond embarrassed. i mean he was a boy not a fucking dog… right?
luckily (or unluckily in his opinion) george had noticed how quiet his room had been the last thirty minutes and went to check on him. the brit would’ve walked away, assuming he just needed space until he heard a soft almost dog-like whine. “we don’t have a dog right?” he muttered to himself momentarily before gently knocking on the door. “sap? are you okay? i know you were editing and all but you’ve been doing it for a while and we miss you.” it wasn’t a lie technically. they did miss him.
george was also just secretly worried and wanted the other to come out of his room. “i’m-“ there was a pause, like he was trying to gather his words. “‘m alright georgie jus’ tired i guess.” the brunette raised an eyebrow at the usage of the nickname and the slurring of the others words. he sounded like dream did when he regressed younger and couldn’t quite form words properly. “well you could come out and lay down with me and dream in the living room? we’ll put on whatever you want.” he reasoned, deciding he needed to see the other to assess the situation.
“um-“ “please, sap? we haven’t seen you in hours. we miss you.” there was a bit of silence before the lock clicked and sapnap appeared before the boy. “there’s my boy.” george said with a smile, noticing how the other flinched as he spoke. “do… do you not want me to call you that?” the younger seemed to be internally debating with himself, fighting a smile when george took his face in his hands.
“theres- theres something i need to tell you? but i’m scared.” the brunette grew more concerned as he looked down at his boyfriend, giving him room to talk. “wan’ talk ‘bout this with dream too. is he big right now?” he nodded before leading the other to the living room where dream sat curled up in his seat waiting for them to return. “dream, sapnap has something to talk to us about.” george said as he sat onto the couch, allowing sapnap to crawl onto his lap and noticing how he fidgeted with his fingers before speaking.
“do-“ he paused since he was trying to form the words properly despite being used to being nonverbal when in his headspace. “you guys know how dream goes into little space sometimes to- uh, cope?” sapnap asked, deciding to connect this with what they already knew. “yeah! is that what this is about?” dream asked hesitantly whilst chewing on his bottom lip nervously since he wasn’t the best at serious conversations. “sort of? except i don’t cope with little space its- its something else. something more embarrassing.”
george gently ran his fingers through the others hair in a semi-successful attempt at soothing him. “sapnap you’re scaring me. i think i can speak for both of us when i say we’d never judge you for something you can’t control.” the boy picked at his fingers nervously before speaking, deciding it was better to get it out in the open now before he slipped at an even worse time like during a stream.
“sometimes, when i’m stressed i act like a fucking dog. or- atleast it happens and i can’t prevent it from happening.” the silence was deafening. the way he explained it wasn’t great but it wasn’t necessarily wrong. “like… a furry?” there was no mockery or malice in the question but sapnap still quickly struck down that idea. “no! i’m not a furry oh my god i shouldn’t have brought it up.” he muttered, burying his head in his hands instead of facing his fears and looking at them. “okay! sorry i’m just… confused? george?”
the brit looked like he was thinking about what sapnap had said before looking over at the boy who looked absolutely mortified. “hey, sapnap? can you look at me.” the other shook his head like he’d physically combust if he looked the other in the eyes. “i know you’re embarrassed but we can’t figure this out or help if we don’t understand.” he sniffled softly, giving away the fact that he’d begun crying and, surprising them both with the tears in his eyes.
“hey, hey, you’re okay. we’re right here and we aren’t judging you.” george reassured as dream took the others face in his hands and gently wiped away his tears. “just-“ sapnap hiccuped as he spoke, the tears flowing a bit more as he tried to speak. “okay, lets calm you down a bit and then go from there.” seeing as he was practically incoherent like this they decided to let him cry it out.
george muttered sweet words to him as he buried his head in the others chest whilst dream gently rubbed circles across his back. soft “its alright, pup” and “everything will be okay puppy” were mumbled into the others hair until he calmed down enough to finally speak. “i don’t mean to get like this. into this headspace. tried to hide it from you guys but- i needed help this time… crashed too hard.” the others were silent, letting him get it all out.
“it’s basically like i want to be treated like a dog? like, i want to be petted nd’ called puppy nd’ stuff.” as he explained his headspace sapnap gradually became more embarrassed and instead of looking at either of the boys beside him he took to staring at the floor. “oh! we can do that, can’t we georgie? it’d be like having a dog! since george won’t let us fucking get one.” dream said, smirking as george rolled his eyes at him. “yeah we can do that, anything else?”
sapnap hadn’t expected that to be so easy and he looked up at them confused, much to george’s amusement. “what?” he asked, the smile on his face just a little too cocky for the others' liking. “i- i just thought this would be harder. its not every day your boyfriend asks you to treat him like a fucking dog.” they both frowned at that, not liking the way the other had said it.
“don’t say it like that. makes it sound like its a bad thing and it's not.” dream said, smiling at what george said next. “yeah, pup its not a bad thing. plus now i get to call you a good dog.” sapnap blushed at the praise, burying his head in the other's neck in response. “do not call me that.” he muttered whilst trying to hide his smile. “why not? don’t you want to be a good puppy for me?” he was obviously somewhat teasing but they couldn’t help but think there was some truth behind those words.
“i- don’t tease, george.” sapnap whined softly, missing the way george smiled at that. “who says i was teasing?” dream simply rolled his eyes at the others behavior, letting the two talk. “cmon, don’t say it unless you actually mean it.” the brit gently lifted the others chin so he was looking him in the eyes. “i do mean it.” sapnap was somewhat speechless at that, scanning the other's face to make sure he was serious.
“if- if you’re serious… i wouldn’t mind if you said that.” as he gave in, george smiled and ignored the look dream gave him. “good. is there anything else about this… headspace you’d like us to know?” he asked sapnap, surprising him seeing as he thought they’d give up the conversation for a bit. “yeah! like what to call it?” he thought for a moment, never having thought about what to call his headspace since he’d been so preoccupied being embarrassed by it and couldn’t exactly look it up without feeling immense amounts of embarrassment.
“i’m not really sure what to call it? i guess you could call it pet space or- like- puppy space or something.” the younger muttered with a shrug.
“puppy space it is.”