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dream was stressed. ever since sapnap had come out about his own headspace and started becoming more comfortable regressing he’d been holding himself back. it’d be too much for george to deal with them both at the same time and the younger had begun to spend more time regressing than not. but twitter drama was weighing heavily upon him as well as the need to finish editing the latest manhunt which was becoming more difficult as he desperately struggled to meet the deadline he’d internally set for himself.
“dream?” upon hearing the others small voice he exhaled softly and turned to sapnap who’d walked into his office without knocking, something he tended to do whenever small since he didn’t quite understand why there was a door keeping him from his boyfriend in the first place. “yes, sweet pea?” he asked before noticing the ears the other held in his hands once sapnap was sitting in his lap.
“will- will you put m’ ears on me? georgie is streaming an’ know you’re busy but-”
“of course i’ll put them on you. i’m not that busy, did- did you want to hang out?” even tired and stressed dream wanted to be there for sapnap especially since george wasn’t available. “mhm! thought we could play?” the blonde grinned at that and nodded before sending the other to george’s room to get his ball and then proceeding to run his fingers through his hair after momentarily putting his computer to sleep. dream could see his reflection in the monitor and god when did he get so tired? he just wanted to sit with his sippy cup and babble about the things he likes while george makes rice krispy treats for them.
meanwhile, in george’s room sapnap had found his ball and took special interest in a certain plush he’d found sitting next to his ball on the nightstand. it was the penguin from adventure time and despite currently drawing a blank on the name he did recognize it as dreams. experimentally, he squeezed it and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t squeak. he enjoyed his dog bone but sometimes he wanted to bite into something without it squeaking, plus he could tell his boyfriends were growing annoyed with the sound and it made him nervous to use the toy even if he knew he could. the younger sat on top of george’s bed momentarily and thought it over.
surely he could bite the toy without leaving a mark, right? and in reality if dream wasn’t already stressed and upset he wouldn’t have been nearly as upset when he walked in on sapnap biting down on his beloved penguin. “sapnap!” almost instantly he dropped the toy, guiltily moving away from it. “you- you bit him!” the younger struggled for words to defend himself as the toy made its way into dreams arms. “bad dog! we got you a toy so you’d stop biting our things like a fucking untrained mutt.” the blonde was upset and as the words tumbled out of his mouth the room went silent except for a soft whimper escaping sapnap as he moved farther away from his boyfriend, and thats when the tears began. “wait, sap i’m-” he didn’t even get to finish his sentence before the other was rushing out of the room, ears forgotten but ball clasped tightly in his hand.
dream sighed softly, sitting at the foot of the bed and curling up with his toy. his mind was becoming very foggy very fast, the tears were forming in his eyes even faster and dream just let them. he let it all out in favor of pulling his plush closer to him and crying softly to it. “messed up. y-yelled at dada.” he mumbled softly into his penguin as if it’d magically respond and fix everything. “wan’ george.” the blonde said but made no move to get up and find him, leaving the brunette to walk in on him sleeping in a rather uncomfortable position at the foot of his bed. hesitantly the brit leaned down to the others level and shook him, surprised when tear stained cheeks came into view. “hey, whats going on love?” george wasn’t one to make verbal assumptions but the crying coupled with the fact that dream had practically jumped into his arms upon waking up was enough to make him believe the other had regressed.
the brunette let him continue crying into his shoulder until dream was left in sniffles and whimpers, then moving them onto the bed to try to get some sort of explanation. “angel can you tell me whats going on? do you want me to get sapnap?” upon seeing the practically panicked expression flash across his boyfriends face at the suggestion the worry inside of george grew. “you- you don’t want me to get him?” there was a pause, like dream was trying to collect his words to form them properly. “made- made him upset. said bad things.” he frowned at that, unsure of where sapnap even was as he’d gone looking for dream upon finishing his stream.
“what kind of bad things?” the blonde fidgeted with the hem of george’s shirt nervously as he tried to respond without choking up. “called- called dada bad nd’...” he grew a bit quieter at the end, the brunette not understanding what he’d said but from the sound of it sapnap was in puppy space now alone and thinking he was bad. “and?” he asked, noticing how dream was holding onto the penguin for dear life. “and a mutt.” the room went silent once more, dream realizing it had the tendency to do that.
“you- dream you know that name upsets him-”
“didn’t mean to! dada bit my penguin! n’ was already upset at other things.”
george could tell dream already felt guilty enough so he decided explaining to him how his lapse in judgment hurt sapnap wouldn’t do much nor did he really want to do so. “we need to find him and talk.” the brunette spoke as if this was definite and moved off of the bed, going to pick the blonde up after doing so. “daddy, what- what if he doesn’t love me anymore?” dream sounded so small in that moment he actually felt his heart break upon hearing him. “of course he still loves you, dada is just little right now and what you called him made him sad.” he allowed the other to pick him up, clutching the stuffed animal in his hands.
“little? like me?” thats when george remembered the two had never regressed at the same time, chewing on his lip nervously as he tried to explain it the best he could. “no, little in a different way. honey have you ever had a dog before?” as he spoke george set the other down and began searching sapnap’s room for signs of his boyfriend. “nu uh. only have patches!” the brit sighed softly at that before deciding sapnap wasn’t in this room and moving onto a different one. “okay, well you know how patches is our pet? and we feed her and give her pets and such?”
as george searched rooms he tried his best to connect how they treated patches to how sapnap wanted to be treated in his headspace. “mhm! n’ patches sleeps with us and wakes me up really early for food. i don’t like it when she does that.” the brunette smiled at little at how easily he’d gotten off track before concluding that sapnap wasn’t in any of their rooms or offices. “well, sapnap is sort of like that when he’s little. he wears ears, likes to play, asks for treats, and likes to be called pup or puppy.” upon the explanation being over and george finishing searching the living room, dream found that he understood. “thinks i understand. so, dada’s is just like a dog? ” he smiled a bit, glad dream understood the basics of it even when little. “yes! he can be a bit different from an actual dog but thats basically how it works.”
“will- will he still be there for me? when m’ little?” george was unsure of how to answer that, not wanting to speak for the other. “i’m not sure. when we find him we’ll ask, yeah?” as he said that dream noticed a ball residing on the floor next to a cabinet. “look! ball! dada had this earlier.” the brit leaned down to the cabinet that the ball laid next to and hesitantly knocked on the cabinet, startling the boy inside. “puppy?” there was silence for a second before sapnap spoke up. “g- go way’” george’s heart broke at how broken the other sounded, almost able to hear the tears welling up in the younger's eyes. “puppy i can’t do that. we- we want to help and sort this out.” he turned his head when hearing shuffling behind him to see that dream was sitting next to him criss cross.
“d- deserve to be in here. m’ just a dumb mutt like dream said.” george turned to dream who was nervously fidgeting with the flippers on his toy at the others words. “dada?” sapnap’s demeanor changed almost instantly. dream was little. he couldn’t be little at the same time as the other, right? “y- yes?” “‘m sorry for what i said.” the younger attempted to wipe away the tears rolling down his cheeks, succeeding momentarily. “puppy please come out. i promise we’ll give you all the kisses and treats you want, we just want to talk about this.” there was a pause before the cabinet door opened, revealing a teary-eyed sapnap. george went to speak, only to be cut off when sapnap practically pounced on him and buried his head in the others chest, whining almost pitifully. “okay. we’ll stay like this for a little, yeah?” and so they did.
their position didn’t change much from then except sapnap allowed the blonde to hold his hand. eventually he was reduced to whimpers and was being set onto the counter by the brunette. “theres my pretty puppy. do you think we can talk?” he blushed a little at the name before nodding, glancing nervously over at dream who was looking up at him with painfully hopeful eyes. “firstly i dont want you trying to push yourself out of your headspace just because he’s little too.” was the current internal argument about being in his headspace or not that obvious? “yeah! dada nd’ me can be little together!” dream said enthusiastically, grinning at the blush that crept onto the youngers cheeks. “and… i think we should talk about dream calling you a mutt.”
the soft atmosphere was broken in one swift move, visibly throwing him for a loop. “s’ okay.” he attempted to brush it off despite it very obviously not being okay. “no its not. you were hurt by it, and its not okay that he did that.” dream looked down at his feet, tears forming in his eyes since he didn’t particularly like disappointing george. “no! don’t- don’t wan’ upset dream.” he says quickly and attempted to get down from the counter himself to comfort the other before moving back onto it upon realizing he was stuck there unless he was helped down. “no no dream its okay! please don’t cry.” taking care of them both was harder than george had expected, not knowing how to comfort one without upsetting the other. even in his headspace sapnap could tell the brunette was struggling, it being obvious in the way he seemed a bit more all over the place whenever comforting dream who was looking at him guiltily.
“george s’ okay. dream didn’t mean it when he called me… that. right, dream?” in the process of sapnap finishing that sentence dream had made grabby hands at george and was now perched upon the others hip. “mhm, didn’t mean it! was just upset.” the blonde responded with a nod, noticing how george visibly relaxed a bit now that nobody was outwardly upset. “and i shouldn’t have bitten your toy. knew it was bad of me i- i dunno why i still did it.” the brit frowned at that and gently took the youngers hand in his own before responding. “making a mistake doesn’t make you bad. do you think maybe you wanted one of your own to bite? the squeaky toy is nice but maybe you want something softer that doesn’t make noise every two seconds?”
nervously, sapnap shrugged at the question unsure of how he felt about actually having a stuffed animal. “we can get dada a stuffie too! then he won’t bite mine nd’ we can play, right daddy?” george smiled at the others suggestion and looked over at sapnap to try to get a read on his emotions. “if he wants one then yes, but angel either way i don’t think he’ll bite your stuffies without permission.” the younger quickly nodded in confirmation, his fear of being yelled at again showing through once more. “i jus’ don’t like it when he bites them. it makes them sad.” sapnap couldn't help but smile at that before nodding in agreement. “i didn’t mean to make them sad, ‘m sorry.” george found he enjoyed it more when they got along, it being easier to keep track of the two and their emotions.
“down?” the brunette jumped a little, unaware of how he’d spaced out until he heard sapnap speak directly to him. “yeah of course, sorry pup i spaced for a second.” the younger didn’t mind and instead was happy to be on the ground once more, especially when he was handed his ball, having exclaimed happily for a moment before it was cut off by a yawn. “i think its time for you to nap, pup.” sapnap frowned at that and continued to do so as he was led to the bedroom by george who carried dream on his hip until he too requested to get down so he could get his toys. “not-” in the middle of his sentence the other yawned, george waiting patiently for him to finish. “not tired. wan’ play!” he reasoned despite the clothes being set out for him looking exceedingly more comfortable than the ones he was currently in. “you can play after you nap. i’ll even make you rice krispy treats later, yeah?”
with the promise of treats and playing later and sleep already weighing heavily on him, sapnap agreed and reached for the pair of boxers and hoodie that had been laid out for him, deciding pants were lame. “pants aren’t comfy.” he complained softly whenever he saw george eye him with a smile. “i figured. i’m going to go check on dream, can you brush your teeth for me?” after a nod of confirmation george left the room to find dream in his own reaching under the bed for something. “dream? are you alright?” genuine concern was laced in his voice, remembering how just minutes ago sapnap had been in a cabinet.
“mhm! m’ princess is under here.” he said before turning to george with a pout on his face that stayed until the brunette had successfully retrieved his princess peach toy. “yay! thank you, up now?” with a nod dream and george were making their way back to the room with almost all of the others desired toys clasped in their hands. “left penguin in m’ room.” quickly george recognized the whine in the others tone and said he’d go get it, hoping (and failing) to get back before sapnap returned. upon walking back into the room, the brunette grinned as he saw dream introducing his toys to a already half asleep sapnap as if the younger wasn’t there when he’d gotten most of them.
“dream?” george said quietly in hopes of keeping sapnap in his half asleep state. unfortunately, dream didn’t understand why daddy was whispering, choosing to speak at full volume and cause sapnap to turn his head tiredly to george. “yes? showing dada m’ toys!” the brunettes smile only got a bit wider whenever the other made grabby hands at him and requested to be picked up, readily doing so while responding. “i think he’s a little too tired to play right now, love.” upon seeing the frown on the blondes face and the whine returning in his voice, george prepared for a tantrum.
“but- but m’ not tired! wan’ play.” quickly he attempted to de-escalate the situation while also simultaneously gently rocking the already half asleep sapnap to sleep. “how about, whenever he falls asleep we’ll play? just the two of us! and you can show me all of your toys and things, yeah?” visibly consideration flashed across the blondes face as he watched george lull the other to sleep. “i guess thats okay. wanted to play with dada.” the disappointment on dreams face hurt him, but george just nodded in understanding before gradually feeling the others breathing even and assuming he was asleep.
even in puppy space sapnap was a rather deep sleeper so the brunette didn’t bother moving him to a different room and just laid the younger on the bed and covered him with the comforter. “there. now, how about you show me your toys, yeah?” despite being disappointed, the blonde enjoyed getting to show off his toys and stuffies so dream happily began showing them off, telling george each of their backstories and furthering the smile on his face.