Archive of Our Own ^beta

The thing george hates most about school is group projects. 

That, and geography. 

So when he found out they were doing a group project in said class? He wasn’t particularly happy about it, to say the least. 

George was kind of a loner in college, to be blunt. 

It wasn’t all his fault, not at all. 

He had a really close friend group in highschool, only three of them, but it was great, and then college happened. Dream and Sapnap went to the same one with a sports scholarship, and george went to one practically the other side of the country for their computing course. They were still in touch now, still met up and stuff, but he hadn’t had the best time making new friends. 

In fact, it was nearing the end of November and he had only spoken with about four people in total. 

Not that he minded it in all honesty, the quiet and being by yourself was nice sometimes. Plus, he had been diagnosed with SPD, or sensory processing disorder a few years ago. It essentially meant that his brain handles sensory stimuli differently, it affects your senses. Social situations were difficult for him, and people just weren’t his thing. It got too overwhelming a lot of the time, hence why the trio in high school were a trio. They all appreciated it in their own ways. 

You can see why group projects were hard. 

They wouldn’t last for long, but usually it entails at least a couple of sessions together studying, or sitting in the coffee shop or library while they worked, talking. 

He just found it difficult. 

But, it was only for a few weeks. He just had to keep reminding himself of that.

The teacher started calling out pre-made pairs, which everyone else groaned at. George was silently relieved that he wouldn’t be the awkward one raising his hand to say he didn’t have a partner. 

He tuned out most of it, only hearing when his called out. 

And this teacher really must have it out for him. 

“George Davidson, and Wilbur Soot.”

Of course he had to be paired with one of the most sociable, popular kids in college. 

Wilbur had a friendship group of a good seven or eight people, all who then had other friends outside of that, all who sat on the biggest table in the cafeteria, the group that everyone seemed to know. 

Not that george had a problem with him necessarily, no wilbur seemed lovely. It was more that he didn’t know how to interact with someone that seemingly had so much energy, always laughing in the corridors, always doing stupid shit on snapchat stories at three in the morning. 

Compare that to quiet, loner george, and it was going to be a very awkward project. 

Well, either that or wilbur would carry all conversations, giving george an excuse to be quiet. 

Who knows?

He looks over to his table, wilbur sat with three of his friends. 

Wilbur’s already looking at george, and raises to fingers to his forehead with a mock salute and a small smile when they lock eyes. 

George nods back with a half smile before dragging his eyes back to his laptop screen. 

Okay. 

This would be fine. 

Right?

----

The teacher calls the end of class, and george has the intention to just pack up and leave when a tall brunette starts walking across the lecture hall. 

Oh yeah. The project. 

“Hi! Just thought I’d introduce myself before we start. I’m Wilbur” he says, a bright smile on his face, and a hand held out in front of him. 

Of course, george knows that, but if he said that it would just sounds creepy. 

George musters a small smile, taking it lightly. 

“Yeah, uh George”

Wilbur nods, the pair retracting their hands.

George slings his backpack over his shoulder, and the pair don’t talk for a moment. 

“Uh, could I give you my number? Just so we can organise a time and stuff” wilbur says, fishing his phone out of his jacket. 

“Yeah, yeah of course” he says, taking his own out and handing it over. 

Wilbur hands it back after a moment, george fumbling to stuff it back in his pocket and not look weird doing it.

“I’ll text you tonight?” wilbur says, taking a step back. 

George nods, meeting his eyes for a brief second. 

“Sure”

Wilbur smiles, gives him a parting wave and is then bounding out the door to where his friends are most likely waiting. 

He stills himself on the chair, taking a small breath. 

His heart was racing after just that? They had a two minute conversation. 

Still, he walks out as well, turning the opposite direction wilbur went, sliding his noise cancelling headphones over his head, taking his phone out again to start his playlist and take his bus ticket out of the phonecase. 

It was convenient and he didn’t loose it that way, okay?

His accommodation was only a twenty minute walk from campus, but today it was raining buckets, and he didn’t exactly want to get drenched. 

He didn’t think he properly relaxed until he got back into his dorm, falling face first onto his bed with a sigh. 

Why the hell did he take geography?

-------

It’s not until that night in a bedwars game with Dream and Sapnap when Wilbur messages him. 

He stops running on the bridge midway, picking up his phone and scanning the message almost immediately.

“Georgeeeee. Why did you stop running?” sapnap complains, and george looks up just in time to see sapnaps character nudging him into the void, giggling. 

“Sapnap what the hell! I had diamonds” he whines, sitting back in his chair. 

“Sorry. But still, why’d you stop?”

“Just got a message” 

He clicks respawn, running over to the chest to grab some iron. 

“Who from?” dream asks. 

“This guy I’m doing a geography project with. He wants to organise times to meet and stuff.”

They both notice the down tone to his voice, because they’ve known him for far to long not to, pushing a little further.

“Do you not like him or something?” sapnap asks.

“No, no he seems nice. Just hate group projects. And it’s geography, so it’ll just be boring regardless.” 

They both laugh lightly, george leaning back in his chair as he’s knocked into the void once again.

“It will be fine. How long do you have on it?” dream says, george watching as he tnt's someone bed. 

“Just over three weeks I think?”

The both laugh again, victory flashing in yellow text on their screens. 

“That’s not too long then. And if you’re working then you probably wont have to talk loads and loads” 

“Yeah yeah I know.”

The conversation moves on from there, george only looking back at the message when the calls ended. 

It would have been weird to respond immediately anyway. 

Wilbur:

hey, just wanted to check when your free to meet and start? the libraries probably best if that works for you, just let me know

George:

hi, I’m free whenever really. i can do saturday afternoon?

The response comes a few minutes later, george quickly swiping out of the app so it doesn’t show it's read immediately when the dots appear, that implying he's been waiting on the messages, which he doesn't wilbur to figure out, even if thats precisely what he was doing. 

Wilbur:

yeah that works. shall we say two?

George:

sure

Wilbur: 

great, see you then :)

George: 

:)

Okay. Saturday. 

Today was thursday, which gives him a day and a half to prepare, and overthink. 

It’s reasonable enough. 

With a final glance at the conversation to make sure it didn’t look too one-sided, or he didn’t come across as rude, he plugs his phone in and crawls into bed. 

----------

Saturday came so much quicker than he was expecting.

One second he was waking up, the next he was stuffing his laptop and folder into his bag and leaving the dorm.

God he really was not ready for this. 

He walked, because the library was shorter distance than the campus, and gives him some kind of excuse if he’s late, plus the fresh air is always nice every once in a while. If you ignore the cold, that is.

The building appears round the corner, and he tightens his grip on the straps of his backpack, starting to walk towards it. 

Wilbur is already there, seated on a table tucked in the corner which george is silently thankful for, phone in hand. He's wearing what he seems to be wearing every day, some plain coloured hoodie, today was yellow (he thinks), a beanie sat covering his hair, and baggy jeans with his high-top converse. George isn't wearing anything too extravagant either, not that he'd need too. His blue hoodie and vans would be fine.

He looks up as george starts to walk over, smiling and putting it away in his pocket. George manages a smile too, sliding his headphones off his head and pulling the chair out. 

“Hey” wilbur starts with. 

“Hi” he responds, sitting down. 

It’s already awkward. 

“How are you?” he asks, sliding his laptop out of the rucksack by his feet. 

George does the same, shrugging. 

“I’m alright. You?”

Small talk. He can do this. K ind of. 

“I’m good. Don’t want to be doing this project though” 

George laughs lightly, as does wilbur, the pair pulling up the assignment. 

“Me neither.”

Wilbur nods, drumming his fingers on the desk as he reads it over a few times. 

Georges knee is already bouncing under the table. 

“Do you want to do Japan or Haitai?” he asks, looking over the devices. 

The project is a case study between the two, natural disasters and all that. They’re meant to make to files, then compare the two in an essay. 

George shrugs. He doesn’t like making decisions. 

“Can I do Japan then?”

“Yeah sure.”

And with that, they get right into work. George is actually pretty relieved. Wilbur’s nice, yes, but also it’s nice to just work in silence, george not having to worry about the conversation and every word he says. 

That shatters when wilbur speaks for the first time in a while.

“No offence,” wilbur says, george looking up to see a slight smile on his face. 

“But you really don’t look like you’re enjoying this” he finishes with a light chuckle. 

George doesn’t blame the observation. In fact he’s been staring blankly at a page of statistics for the past ten minutes, head resting on his hand. 

“No, I’m not” 

Wilbur sniggers again, pulling his laptop screen down a little bit so george can see his whole face. 

“Not a fan of geography?”

He shakes his head almost immediately. 

“No, I had to do it though as a humanities. This or history. I wish I picked history”

They both laugh, george also pulling his screen down a little. 

“Yeah, this part is pretty boring. I don’t know, I like the sciency side of it, like the earths layers, and volcanoes. That kind of stuff”

George hums, leaning back in his chair. 

“That’s fair, I get that. I just don’t really find a specific interest in it, so I don’t have the energy to do the work or pay attention.”

“What do you have an interest in then?” wilbur asks, also leaning back. 

“Computing. I major in coding specifically. That’s why I came here actually, they have a great IT course.”

Wilbur raises an eyebrow, nodding. 

“I could never do coding in highschool. Too many rules, things to remember, it got really complicated as well. My brain hurt after a forty five minute lesson of it.”

George laughs at that, not even realising his knee had stopped tapping under the table. 

“Yeah, it’s not for everyone. What are you taking here?”

“I’m majoring in music but I also do cinematography. Film production basically.”

It’s georges turn to raise an eyebrow.

“You’re more of a creative person then. That’s cool.”

Wilbur nods, shrugging.

“Don’t know where I want to go with it, even if I want to go down that career path, but I find it fun so it’s something. Do you only take geography and IT?”

“I do information science too, but that's pretty dull, and it’s not a full course I don’t think.”

“Yeah, I have a friend that does that. It’s meant to be pretty good to have as a degree on your resume.”

“Yeah, it covers a lot of fields.”

He nods again, stretching his arms up, looking over george's shoulder to the clock. 

His eyes widen slightly as he sits up. 

“Jesus have we already been here for over three hours?”

George looks over as well, seeing that it was just gone twenty past five. That had gone surprisingly quickly. Clearly they had been working for a lot longer before they got to talking. 

“I’m really sorry, but I have plans at half past.” Wilbur says, bringing george's attention back to him. 

Wilbur looks genuinely apologetic to leave, and it confuses him slightly. 

“No, no that’s all good.” he says, packing his laptop away too as wilbur stands up. 

“We have geography on tuesday anyway, but do you want to do the same time next week?” he asks, slinging his satchel over his shoulder. 

George nods, and wilbur gives him a wide smile before shouting a bye, and leaving through the double doors. 

The frantic end to the afternoon hits him all at once as he steps onto the street, followed by the conversation. 

The fact that george had just held a conversation, even if it was short, and didn’t even worry or get anxious during it. 

Huh. 

Thats… new. 

He brushes it aside to wilbur just being sociable anyway, and starts his walk home just as it starts raining, which wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t mind it.

Maybe this wouldn’t be all bad. 

------

The week passes as normal, Tuesday wilbur gives him a smile when he walks in, but the two don’t really talk other than that. 

Classes are as normal, and computing was spent revising for a test on Friday which put a bit of a damper on his mood, but when Thursday rolled round, he was met with an odd sight. 

His normal table, in the back corner and normally completely empty was occupied with a certain brunette in a beanie. 

He pauses the music, walking over.

Wilbur looks up as he gets closer, sitting up slightly. 

“She said we could work on the projects on Thursdays lessons” he says when noting george's confused look. 

George nods, sitting down. 

“How much did you get done on Saturday?” wilbur asks, pulling out his folder. 

“I got the basic statistics down, started getting references and stuff.” 

He nods, george opening his document, wilbur supposedly doing the same. 

“Alright, how do you want to do the final essay bit?”

“I don’t know, we each write our countries bit, and then just merge them together? One can do similarities, one do differences maybe”

Wilbur nods, typing something out. 

“Yeah that works.”

He flashes george a small smile, and the lesson is then spent working in quiet except for the odd comment or question. 

Surprisingly, george gets a lot done, and doesn’t find himself shutting his laptop instantly when the teacher calls lesson over. 

Before everyone leaves though, she makes an announcement.

“I can see some people are doing this in more depth, so I’m pushing the deadline to four weeks instead of three.”

George stutters for a second. Yeah, it’s not all bad being with wilbur, but it still means an extra week of stressing about it. 

Wilbur seems to have an opposite reaction though, and smiles as they start heading out. 

“Gives us another week to hang out” he says with a small smile, nudging his shoulder gently. 

George manages a tiny smile, huffing an amused breath as they step out of the classroom. 

“See you on Saturday?”

He nods, and wilbur spares him a final smile before departing the opposite direction. 

Okay. This would be fine. This is fine. 

------

“George, george, george, george” he’s bombarded with the second he enters the call. 

“Jeez, yes? What?”

“Guess what?” Dream says, and george can almost hear the smile in his voice. 

“What?” he repeats. 

“We can come down to visit this weekend!” sapnap says, smile evident in his tone too. 

George doesn’t even try to bit his own down. 

“Seriously?”

They haven’t met in quite a while, not since September actually, so it would be really nice to meet in person again. 

“Yeah, we have a break in practice, so thought we’d use it for good.”

“And besides it feels like it’s been ages” sapnap adds.

“It has” george responds, earning a couple laughs from them both. 

“There's one other thing” dream says. George stills slightly in his seat. 

“Would it be okay if we brought some friends? Only two people, but they’re really nice I promise, and it would be cool if you met them” 

He doesn’t respond for a second.

“I mean, sure? But you know how I am with new people.”

“Yeah, but we can spend Saturday just us three, and then meet them on the Sunday? They’re really laid back, seriously you have nothing to worry about.” Dream reassures. 

Part of him just wants to say no, to just be the three of them and that’s that. But, it’s been okay with wilbur this past week, hasn’t it? Maybe he’s making progress in the people department, and if dream and sapnap like them, then they’re probably alright. 

“Yeah, okay.” he finds himself saying, and sapnap does a small cheer that gets them both laughing again. 

“George you’ll love them. They’re names are Karl and Quackity, though we usually just call him Q, he’s so funny. Karl and you would get along really well I think.”

George lets him ramble, and is surprised he’s not too worked up about meeting them. His heart is still definitely quicker, and he is sure when the day comes he’ll be an anxious piece of shit, but he’s not overthinking every possible scenario, so that's... something. 

And like dream said, the Saturday would only be those three, which-

Oh shit. 

He was meeting with wilbur on Saturday. 

“Guys I completely forgot something” he interrupts suddenly, sapnap pausing. 

“What?”

“I’m meeting with Wilbur on Saturday for that project thing. At two, it slipped my mind.”

Dream laughs, and george turns confused. Shouldn’t they be annoyed that he’s disrupting their plans?

The back of his mind tells him that no, they wont because the three have been friends since what feels like forever, so they wont care if a few hours are spent away from each other, but he isn’t really tuned into that part right now. 

“George, that's fine. We can hang out in the morning.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Relax.”

He does, taking a small breath and leaning back again. 

“How's the project going anyway?” sapnap asks, muffled by something. George honestly isn’t surprised as he hears the clinking of cutlery though. Sapnap’s always talking with his mouth full. 

“It’s good. Not as awkward as I thought it would be. Wilbur’s nice, so that's something.”

“That’s good then. See? Nothing to worry about.” dream says. 

He shrugs, even though they can’t see it. 

“We’ll see.”

Sapnap gasps suddenly, fork clattering. 

“Oh my god I need to show you this insane KO I got the other day…”

And just like that, they fall into easy conversation again, george just sitting back and listening, an easy smile on his face. 

------------

Saturday came quickly again, and george awoke to his phone pinging a good twenty times, sapnap spamming his messages with blurry pictures of the car, and one of him and dream, sapnap posing awfully with a peace sign, dream laughing at something. There are two blurry figures behind them in another photo as well, which george deduces to be quackity and karl, but he can’t make out anything about them really from how bad sapnap’s photo taking skills are. 

He can’t help but smile at them regardless, taking a quick screenshot before typing ‘i was sleeping you idiot’ and then lying back down. 

Sapnap sends back a ‘not anymore:D’ which george laughs at, before getting up and following his general morning routine. 

He sits back on his bed just gone nine, and Sapnap and dream are due to arrive at ten, so he just scrolls through tiktok while he waits. 

He comes across one saying how all teachers are the same, and the geography one is scarily similar to his own. 

Without even thinking he sends it to wilbur, and only just registers he had sent it when wilbur responded with a ‘did they go to our school or something? why is that literally her lmao’

He never, ever just sends things to people without thinking first. Well, beside dream and sapnap of course. So he had no idea why he did that.

Still, he got a positive reply, so types his own back, simply saying ‘i know right? weird lol’

Wilbur likes the message, and george leaves it at that. 

For once, he doesn't think too hard about it.

The doorbell rings a few minutes after, and seeing that his phone read 9:57, he grins, a pretty clear idea of who it was. 

And of course, he’s immediately wrapped in a bear hug by a familiar blonde. 

He can’t help but giggle, wrapping his arms round dream as well, sapnap pouting from the doorway. 

Of course, george gives him one after, the three then just standing kind ofawkwardly in the doorway until george ushers them in, closing the door behind them. 

Dream takes up lying on his bed, because he’s dream, sapnap sitting cross legged beside him. George takes the chair.

“God it feels like it’s been forever” sapnap said, leaning his head back against the wall. 

“It’s been just over two months” george points out, and dream hums, propping himself up on his elbows. 

“How’s school?” he asks. 

Even though they talk about it every day, its different in person.

George shrugs, pulling his legs up so he’s sitting cross-legged. 

“School. I started a new plug in the other day though, so more interesting than usual” 

Dreams eyes light up at that, sitting up straighter. 

“Can I see?”

Dream has an interest for coding too, though he didn’t choose to major in it, the pair did it a lot in high school together. 

George nods, pulling it up on his PC as dream walks over. 

Sapnap's already pulling his phone out, and george snickers over his shoulder. 

“I take it you want to test it then?” he asks, and sapnap nods, grinning as he pulls up Minecraft. 

Sapnap knows a little regarding plug-ins, but has more fun fucking around on them than actually coding, which honestly is nice because it gives him a chance to know what to tweak without switching back and forth between the two. 

They spend just over an hour doing that before george suggests a coffee shop just on the corner, and they all file out together, headphones wrapped round his neck, though he doubts he’ll need them.

It’s raining, and george offers them jackets but in reality none of his would fit them, so they have to suck it up with just hoodies. 

Walking there only takes about five minutes anyway, so they weren't going to get drenched.

The coffee shop is nice, kind of hidden but fairly busy during the day, quaint and somewhat aesthetic. 

George has been there a few times, never stayed but just grabbing a drink when he was passing, and its always been great. 

Today it was still busy, but there were a few tables spare still so they go in, sapnap immediately commenting on how colourful all the décor is. 

George pauses, turning round and raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

Dream bursts out laughing, clutching his stomach, and sapnap ruffles his hair with a snicker. 

They never got tired of bullying him, did they?

As they reach the counter, george turns round to grab their orders. 

He already knows what he’s having, a peppermint latte, which sounds kind of weird but is heavenly. He’s gotten it a few times now. 

Dream just gets a black coffee, and sapnap gets a hot chocolate.

He orders those as the pair grab a table, and is about to walk back to them with the order when a voice speaks up beside him. 

“Didn’t peg you for a peppermint kind of guy”

Spinning round on his feet, he sees wilbur standing a few feet behind him, two others he didn’t recognise as his normal friend group just behind him. 

“Oh. Hi” 

He didn’t mean for it to come out so flat, not at all, but he’s just a little surprised.

“Hi” wilbur returns, laughing slightly. George cracks a small smile. 

“I haven’t seen you here before” he says, and george shrugs. 

“I’ve never sat, just gotten drinks I guess.”

Wilbur nods, just as the server calls his name. 

“I’ll leave you to your friends, see you later?”

George nods, muttering a small ‘bye’ before walking back over to the table. 

Well that wasn’t awkward.

Dream and sapnap are smiling like idiots. 

He frowns. 

“What?”

“He’s hot” sapnap blurts, and george almost spits out the sip of his coffee. 

“I’m sorry?”

“He’s hot. I take it that's wilbur?”

George nods, still staring at him wide eyed. 

“You can’t just say that sapnap” he murmurs, handing them their drinks.

“He’s not wrong” dream quips, taking his drink with a smirk. 

“You too?” george groans as the pair snicker. 

“I barely know him. It’s just for a project, okay? Now shut up.”

Thankfully they do leave it at that, going on to talk about their lives at the moment. 

As their leaving, george almost does a double take to wilburs table when he sees the familiar green casing on the coffee cup that symbolises peppermint flavouring. 

Huh. 

------

He’s a little late to the library, only by a few minutes, but still feels bad as he drops into the seat next to wilburs, who looks up with a smile. 

“Hi.”

“Hi, sorry I’m late.”

“George, it’s literally three past two you’re fine” wilbur laughs, and george manages a small smile as he tugs his laptop out of his bag. 

“I haven’t seen your friends around here before” he comments as george loads up the document, wilbur doing the same. 

“No, they’re visiting. They go to college like two hours away, so are staying for the weekend.”

Wilbur frowns, catching george off guard. 

“I don’t want to keep you from them, if you’d prefer to go see them-”

“No, no it’s okay. I don’t mind doing this for a few hours, honestly.”

Wilbur still seems hesitant, but nods anyway. 

“I didn’t recognise the people with you either” george says, and wilbur shakes his head, laughing lightly. 

“No, you probably wouldn’t. They're my brothers, I wouldn’t be caught in public with them often trust me”

George laughs lightly as well. 

“I didn’t know you had brothers.”

“Yeah, two. Tommy and techno. Little shits the both of them.”

He laughs again, wilbur leaning back in his chair. 

“I don’t have siblings, but I can imagine. My two are irritating enough.”

“Yeah, especially tommy. Thinks its fun to constantly tease me any and every chance he gets.”

George snickers. 

“Same with sapnap. Except he’s eighteen, and tommy’s…”

“Fourteen” wilbur fills in. They both laugh. 

“He’s a literal kid I swear to god.”

“I really do just want to punt him off a bridge sometimes.”

“Agreed” george says, leaning back too. 

“It’s somewhat amusing though I guess. Gotta laugh instead of crying I guess”

That earns a proper laugh from george, wilbur reciprocating it. 

“I feel like that just embodies your personality perfectly” he says, and wilbur laughs a little bit harder. 

“I should make it my slogan. Get a sticker and put it on my laptop or something.”

“Please do” george says. 

They fall into comfortable silence after that for a moment before wilbur speaks again. 

“God I hate this project” he says with a groan, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling. 

“Same. Like, I don’t even see the relevance in it. We don’t need it for anything specific, and we could have covered it in class”

“Exactly” 

Wilbur sits back up a little straighter, huffing as he clicks something on his laptop. 

“It’s not as bad with you as a partner though. You’re fun to work with”

George blinks, slightly taken aback by the sudden compliment. 

He’s not great with compliments. 

“Thanks. You too” he ends up murmuring, and wilbur smiles. 

They work in silence for a little bit, george sifting through websites. His coding programme pings from his desktop, and he frowns, opening it. 

It’s just an error message the system picks up, he accidentally left it open from earlier and it running automatically. 

But, soon enough he finds himself sifting through the code line by line, completely forgetting about geography. 

It isn’t until wilbur speaks again that he snaps out of it. 

“That doesn’t look like geography” he says with a small smile, peering over the top of georges laptop. 

He stutters, quickly opening chrome again. 

“Sorry, just got caught up in it.”

“No, no it’s okay. Seriously I don’t blame you we’ve already established this stuff is boring.” he says with a light laugh. 

“You can keep doing that if you want. All good.”

He smiles, opening it again. 

What he doesn’t expect is for wilbur to move to the chair beside him. 

“What’s it for?” he asks. 

George talks as he’s entering commands in, something he’s learnt to do ages ago. 

“A Minecraft plug-in. Kind of lame, I know, but it’s fun to mess around with.”

“I didn’t know you play Minecraft” wilbur says, leaning on his hand. George nods. 

“Do you?” 

Part of him feels like it’s a stupid question, because Minecraft is classed as a kids game and all that. Wilbur answers regardless.

“Yeah, actually. Like every other night. My friends and tommy are lowkey obsessed with it.”

He wasn’t expecting that. 

“We should play together some time” wilbur says, and george looks over to him, seeing a small smile adorned to his features, already looking at george. 

He smiles as well, lingering on brown eyes before turning back to his laptop. Wilburs gaze doesn’t leave his face until a few seconds after, but george pushes that away. 

They work until it’s just gone five, and part of george wants to stay, but wilbur has to edit his for his film class apparently, and he did tell dream and sapnap he would be done by five, so packs up regardless. 

Wilbur gives him a smile as they leave the library, and george gives a genuine, not just a polite one back, before turning onto the street.

He could do two more weeks of this. 

-------

Sunday is... daunting. 

He’s meeting up with Karl and Quackity today, and he is most definitely nervous. Even though sapnap had reassured him for a good hour along with dream that they would be fine. 

Still, walking to the corner they were meeting at, he still had that feeling of anxiety pooling in his stomach. 

And then, he sees them. 

Dream and sapnap, who he recognises easily, a shorter guy with a beanie, which must be quackity, and the other, just taller than sapnap with a pale blue sweater on, which must be Karl.

He takes a small breath to himself, and continues walking over. 

Sapnap is the one to spot him, shouting a loud ‘George!’, sprinting over and wrapping him in a hug. 

He chuckles, pulling away as they walk over to the rest of the group. 

Dream gives him a small smile as well, but doesn’t hug him. George appreciates that at the moment. 

“This is Karl, and Quackity” dream says, pointing to the respective people. 

They both smile, giving small ‘hi’s’, which george returns back, and then dream and sapnap are leading the conversation, as they walk to the park. 

And in all honesty? It’s not completely awful.

Quackity is more of a loud character like sapnap and dream, and Karl is quieter, falling to the back of the group like him. It gives them a chance to talk though, and fall into an easy conversation about bluetooth headphones of all things. 

Theres even one point where they’re talking about the sound it makes, and they both mimic it at the exact same time, erupting into laughs. 

They both miss the smiles sent their way from the group in front. 

Quackity is easy to talk with too, and at one point george steals his beanie, after a few hours of sitting in the park, mocking him as he runs around, quackity chasing him as he does so, sapnap karl and dream dying of laughter on the picnic blanket. 

He does ask quackity if that was okay, and if he was too mean at the end of the night, and he simply smiles, telling george he found it funny too. 

The afternoon is really nice, the sun coming out despite the cold, which wasn’t too bad today actually, and it isn’t until the restaurant that things start to go a little bit south. 

It’s not anything big, but the combination of new people and socialising all day, on top of the loud area and a lot of things happening at once just gets to him a little bit. 

Dream notices his uneasiness at the table, politely excusing them both and leading george to the bench outside, placing his headphones on carefully as georges hands are braced on his knees, keeping a hand on his back until he calms down. 

It doesn’t take long, and like always, george apologises, and dream tells him that he doesn’t need too before they go back in. 

Sapnap mouths a ‘you okay?’ and he nods. The evening continues as normal from there. 

They can’t stay for long, in fact they have to leave at seven to get back home in time, so george gives them all parting hugs, which shocked even himself to be honest, exchanging numbers with Quackity and Karl before waving them goodbye from the curb. 

He falls asleep that night with a smile on his face. 

It had been a good weekend.

---------

The rest of his week is again, pretty uneventful. 

Tuesday, he and wilbur have a small conversation by the door before class starts, and wilbur asked if he wanted to sit with his friends which was completely unexpected. He said no with a small smile, one wilbur returned much bright, shrugging, ensuring it wasn’t a problem. 

Wednesday though, something weird happened. 

Well, it wasn’t weird per say, just very unexpected. 

It had just gone eleven at night when his phone started ringing. 

He leaned over to grab it, expecting it to just be dream or sapnap. Wilbur’s name flashing on the screen did catch him off a little bit though.

Still, he picked it up regardless. 

The first thing he heard was heavy breathing. 

“Wilbur?”

It stopped. 

“Shit, shit george, sorry I meant to call Niki, sorry-”

“Wilbur, hey slow down. Are you okay?”

George can tell the answer already. Wilbur's voice was shaking, and his breathing was still obviously heavy down the phone. 

“Yeah, yeah sorry. I can go-”

“No, I don’t mind. What’s going on?”

Normally, he would completely freeze up in a situation like this with someone he didn’t really know. But clearly he classed wilbur as more than ‘someone he didn’t really know’.

After a second, he speaks again. 

“I don’t know. I don't, can you just talk? I don’t care about what, just, you know.”

George frowns at the crack in his voice, and the fact he was still definitely practically hyperventilating. Part of him wanted to text, niki was it? Or someone, just because he’s not sure if he knows what to do to help. 

But, wilbur asked him to talk. 

So, that’s exactly what he does. 

He rambles about what his test the other day in computing, about Sunday, about how he still has barely any work done for geography which earns a light chuckle from wilbur. He talks about everything that comes to mind, even stupid things like the fact he’s running out of toothpaste and things like that. 

He doesn’t stop until wilbur’s breathing has steadied, and he can’t hear sniffing over the call anymore. 

“How you doing?” he asks. 

Something rustles on wilbur's end, and he clears his throat before he speaks. 

“Better. Thank you, and sorry for just randomly calling you again, I didn’t mean too.”

George smiles to himself. 

“Seriously, it’s no problem. Okay? I honestly don’t mind.”

Wilbur hums, and they fall into silence.

“Do you want to talk about it?” george pushes hesitantly. 

Wilbur doesn’t answer for a moment.

“No, not yet. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. I’m here though, if you want too.”

He can picture wilburs smile as he speaks.

“Thank you george. Same goes for you.”

He smiles too. 

“Get some sleep.”

Wilbur hums, and george chuckles before mumbling a ‘goodnight’ hanging up. 

He holds his phone between his fingers, dropping his head back against the wall. 

Part of him thanks his geography teacher for pairing them together. 

Tonight, unknowingly, pushed them a little bit closer. 

Wilbur’s a good friend. 

----------

The following Thursday, wilbur almost looks sheepish walking into the class. 

The first thing he does when he sits down in apologise again, and george smiles, tells him it’s okay. Again. 

He doesn’t care how many times wilbur needs to hear it, it really it fine. If he can help, he wants too. 

They surprisingly do the geography work that lesson, only two more weekends until they have to hand it in, but they do have a good bit done, so should be finished in plenty of time. 

As they’re packing up from the lesson, wilbur asks him the same question he asked earlier this week.

“Are you sure you don’t want to sit with my friends at lunch? I know you don’t have any classes left today, but they’re really nice, and I don’t want you spending all your time alone.”

“I don’t, I hang out with you for three hours on Saturday” george quips back, holding his folder in his arms. Wilbur rolls his eyes, a small smile on his lips. 

“Yeah, but that's one day a week george. And we're working. You’re cool, I want to spend more time with you.”

He sighs, considering it for a moment. That’s new to him anyway, considering something like this. 

“I’m just not great with people wilbur. I don’t want to make it awkward” he says. Wilbur holds his smile, shrugging. 

“You wont, and you don’t even have to talk if you don’t want too. You can just stick by me. C’mon, it will be fun.”

He does want to say no. 

But, wilbur's eyes are almost pleading, and his smile is something george is slowly getting harder to give into. 

“Can I leave if I want too?”

“Of course” wilbur answers almost in an instant. 

A beat, and then-

“Fine”

“Great!”

Wilbur smile morphs into a grin, and he bounces on his feet slightly, starting to walk out the classroom. 

George follows, and can’t help but crack a small smile at his excitement. George isn’t that fun to be around, surely?

Wilbur goes the same way he always does, george trailing behind him. His instinct is to pull his headphones up, but he restrains. He can handle it. 

Wilbur's friends table is kind of dubbed theirs by the school, and george knows it briefly from the odd time he passes through the cafeteria. 

It isn’t dead centre, but off to the left slightly. 

There aren’t as many people there today, four or five maybe, and wilbur walks over, sparing a small smile to george before he sits down. 

George sits next to him, heart racing as four pairs of eyes land on him. 

Deep breaths. Wilbur was here, it was fine. 

“This is george, george this is Jack, Charlie, Fundy, and Niki.”

They all say some kind of greeting, and george murmurs a small ‘hi’, smiling briefly. 

The group fall into conversation quickly, and george is more than happy to sit and listen. It’s actually kind of nice, putting aside the anxiety still heavily coursing through him. 

They all have the same kind of energy as wilbur, and have some pretty funny conversations between them that george cracks a few laughs too. 

When the cafeteria opens up for food, george feels his heart pick up again. 

Not only does he not have any money with him, but eating in front of new people was daunting.

He had no problem with the food, just the social side of it. Eating in front of people and all that.

Wilbur gets up to grab food, and when he asks george, he just says he wasn’t hungry. Wilbur frowns, but nods regardless, getting up.

Niki doesn’t get up either, pulling a container out of her bag. 

“Hi, we haven’t had a chance to properly meet yet” she says, holding a hand out when the table falls quiet, a kind smile on her face. 

George takes it, smiling as well. 

“George, right?”

He nods, and she hums. 

“It’s nice to meet you. From what wilbur's said you’re a really nice person.”

He frowns slightly at that. 

“What has wilbur said?”

“Just that you were really fun to hang out with, that we would all love you.”

Huh. Wasn’t expecting that. 

He hums though, niki taking a bite of her sandwich. 

“What do you study?” she asks after a moment. 

“I do computing. How about you?”

“Culinary studies”

He raises an eyebrow at that.

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah, I want to open a bakery when I’m out of here”

“I love bakeries. Pastries have got to be one of my favourite types of food” 

She giggles, nodding. 

“Yeah, mine too.”

At that point the others return, wilbur dropping something on the table in front of him. He frowns, picking it up. It’s one of the muffins the cafeteria sells, blueberry. 

When he looks over to wilbur, he simply smiles, starting to eat his own food. 

George bites back a smile as he peels the wrapper away, and misses the smile Niki sends their way. 

He was right. 

This wasn’t so bad. 

---------

“I sat with wilbur's friends yesterday” he says when the three are on call the following day. 

“Yeah?” dream prompts. He hums. 

“Yeah, wilbur kind of pushed me into it, but I’m really glad he did. They’re really nice. I didn’t meet all of them, only four, but it was a better lunch time than eating a pot noodle in my dorm room alone. It was nice.”

“I’m glad george. That’s good.” dream says. George can once again hear the smile in his voice. 

“Are you still meeting up with wilbur on Saturdays?” sapnap asks. 

“It’s not meeting up, it’s studying, but yes.”

Sapnap simply hums, and dream snickers. 

“What?”

“Nothing” he says, the green character knocking him into the void once again. 

God his friends were so annoying.

-----

Saturday rolls around, and like always, wilbur is already there. 

He smiles when he sees george, putting his phone away. 

It’s almost like a routine. 

George smiles too, starting to get his stuff out. He pauses when he sees that wilbur isn’t doing the same. 

“Do you want to do something else today?” he blurts. If george had known any better, he would’ve said wilbur looked nervous. 

“What do you mean?” he asks, putting his bag back down. 

“Like, I don’t know. Walk round town or something? I would rather spend the time with you than do some shitty geography project in all honesty.”

He laughs at the end, but george can hear the genuine question in there. 

He blatantly ignores the way his heart leaps when wilbur says he would rather spend time with him. 

“Uh, sure. What did you have in mind?”

Wilbur grins. 

------

Honestly, this isn’t how he was expecting his Saturday to go, but he isn’t complaining. 

George kind of completely forgot Christmas was coming up, it being the tenth of December already.

The first thing they do is go to the coffee shop on the corner, and wilbur orders two peppermint lattes. Wilbur explains that he tried it that one day, and now he was hooked. 

George hid his smile behind his cup. 

And then, they walked around town, more specifically the winter markets. 

It’s nice, and because its still early in the afternoon, not many people are around. 

Wilbur jokes around, placing random hats on george's head, draping himself in too big coats and scarfs from the clothing stands, making stupid impressions while george laughs his ass off from the side-lines. 

Wilbur sees a whale ornament and buys it, naming it lonesome jr. When george asks, apparently he has a shark plushie at home called lonesome, but the whale looks close enough so they can be brothers. George pretends he doesn’t find it adorable. 

He finds out george is colour blind when they’re talking about the Christmas tree the town puts up, wilbur commenting that the lights were just so colourful, and george couldn’t hide his laugh. 

“I can’t really see them.”

“What? They’re right there, what do you mean?”

“I mean I can’t see them. Well, I can see the blue ones and the yellow ones.”

Wilbur still looks baffled. 

“I’m colour blind” he says between giggles, and wilbur's jaw drops. 

“Seriously? Why did I not know that?”

He only laughs harder.

They finish at the park, sitting a little distance away from the ice skating rink, people watching. 

The fresh peppermint lattes in their hands just makes the moment that much better. 

“I’m really glad we got paired together on this project you know” wilbur says. 

George looks over, raising an eyebrow. Wilbur's face is dimly lit by the fairy lights in the trees surrounding the arena, casting shadows in the perfect places, shining in his eyes. The sun had pretty much set, offering the perfect dusk lighting to suit the area.

He cracks a smile, taking another sip. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You’re nice to be around.”

He looks back forward, feeling heat creep up his neck. 

“Can’t say the same for you” he murmurs, and wilbur scoffs, hitting his shoulder gently. George laughs though, and he knows wilbur doesn’t take it seriously. 

He murmurs something that george doesn’t quite catch, and turns round to face him once again. 

“What?”

Wilbur's eyes go wide for a split second. 

“Oh, nothing.”

George nods, albeit sceptical, turning back round. 

“Are you cold?” wilbur asks, voice softer. 

He hadn’t even registered the slight shiver running through him. 

“A little I guess.”

Then wilbur is shrugging his coat off, and before george can protest it’s wrapped around his shoulders, warmth immediately settling around him. 

He sees wilbur hesitate slightly, but then holds his arms open. 

George is really glad its dim lighting now, and sets his cup down before shuffling over slightly, nestling between them. 

Wilbur’s arms settle around his shoulders, george's hands splayed on his chest. His chin is tucked just under wilbur's head, and he smiles when he feel him rest his chin atop his hair. 

He pretends he doesn’t feel wilbur's pounding hear under him, and ignores his own thundering in his chest. 

It’s so unbelievably cliché, but george can’t get enough of it. 

It just feels right. It’s nice, comforting. 

A perfect end to a perfect day. 

They don’t move for a little while, until the cold is getting to them both a little too much, and they stand up, matching grins on their faces. 

Wilbur walks george back to his dorm, despite george insisting that it was fine, stopping just outside. 

George goes to shrug the coat back off, but wilbur lays a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. 

“Keep it.”

George was going to melt. 

Wilbur unexpectedly pulls him into a hug, but george goes with it, because it feels right. Just like this entire day has felt right. 

They part after a moment, saying goodbye to each other as george presses his key into the door, walking in. 

He catches wilbur's matching grin one last time before closing it, hearing footsteps receding down the corridor. 

Sliding down the door, the smile doesn’t leave his face, phone clutched in his hand. He tugs the jacket a little tighter around him, and can’t stop the giggle that works its way through his throat. 

He was utterly fucked. 

But was he complaining?

---------

The following day he catches wilbur's eye a few times, and they both smile, both sharing a gleam in their eyes that wasn’t there last week. 

On Tuesday, he shocks himself by sitting with him and his friends. Niki and jack are there again, and a new person, eret. Again, eret is lovely, even if george doesn’t really talk much, it’s a nice change from being by himself. 

On Wednesday, that’s when things start to come down a little. Because george is an overthinker. So of course, he’s going to pick apart Saturday like a mad man, until he eventually convinces himself it was all a dream or some shit like that. 

Surprisingly, it’s sapnap that brings it into the conversation. 

They have their cameras on today, just because they aren’t playing a game, and its nice to see each others faces once in a while. 

“George, what jacket is that?” sapnap asks, squinting at his screen. 

He turns, seeing wilbur's black one hanging on the hook.

“A new one I got” he murmurs, turning back to his work. 

Sapnap raises an eyebrow. 

“You don’t buy coats. All I ever hear is you complaining that their too bulky.”

He doesn’t answer that. 

“Wait, isn’t that the one we saw wilbur wearing in the coffee shop?” dream says, looking up now too. 

Sapnap’s face lit up, jaw dropping. George groans, leaning back in his chair and covering his face with his hands. 

Sometimes, he wishes they weren’t as observant as they are. He doesn’t want to think about this right now. 

“Is that wilbur's?” sapnap asks, but from the matching grins george is pretty sure they already know the answer. 

“I don’t want to talk about it” he says, picking up his pen again. The smiles falter slightly. 

“Has something happened?” dream asks.

He shakes his head, dropping the pen. 

Yeah there was no way he was getting work done now. 

“No, it’s just,”

He hesitates, and looks back to the monitor seeing them both looking at him carefully. 

And he tells them everything. 

The conversations they’ve had, the stupid things like wilbur buying him a muffin, the peppermint latte, the Saturday they spent together, by the ice rink, the coat, all the things he's said, everything. 

“And I don’t even know if he likes guys! Like what if this is all platonic, what if this is just his way of showing affection, his way of getting closer to his friends?”

He stops, taking a breath. 

He had migrated to sitting cross legged in his chair, pushing it out a little from the desk. 

“Are you done?” dream asks. He nods. 

“George, you’re overthinking all of this.”

“I know” he groans, burying his face in his hands. 

“I mean, it’s pretty obvious to me” he says. “Sap?”

“Same here.”

“What’s obvious?” george asks, sitting up a little straighter. 

“He likes you. And you like him.”

George shakes his head. 

“Nope. I don’t think he does.”

“George” dream is the one to groan this time, dropping his head back. 

“I know you have bad social skills, but c’mon. It is obvious, I swear.”

Sapnap sniggers at that, george cracking a small smile too. They all know it’s a joke, but it does kind of make sense. 

“You really think so?” he asks.

They both nod almost in unison. 

“I’m not making the first move then.”

Dream sniggers. 

“Of course you aren’t.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” he asks, mock offense on his face. 

“Nothing, nothing.” 

George pouts, but smiles either way. 

He still isn’t convinced, but his mind a little at ease now. 

We’ll see. 

---------

Thursday is great. They work on the project again, george actually brings money this time for lunch, but wilbur buys it again despite george's protests. 

He gets into a very in depth conversation with fundy about coding, even though he doesn’t take it, he does a lot in his spare time, so the pair had a lot to talk about regarding that. He was actually starting to feel relaxed around the group. 

Saturday rolled around, and it was meant to be a good day. 

He was meeting wilbur, like always, his day was meant to go like normal. 

It didn’t.

It started pretty early, when he ran out of toothpaste. That made him uneasy anyway because it added a step to his routine that he normally didn’t have to do. It just felt wrong. 

And then, he kept messing up his code, couldn’t get a single line right which was just frustrating. 

By the time he was leaving to meet wilbur, he was stressed, and frustrated. 

Not a great combination in all honesty. 

The thing that tipped him over the edge was on the walk to the library. 

There was some kind of accident on the road, which he didn’t pay much notice too. It was the sirens. 

His headphones were already on, playing music as loud as they could. 

But he could still hear it, and they were so loud. The lights were flashing, bright too, and it just knocked everything that had been building up over the edge. 

There were so many people too, so many that he couldn’t avoid brushing against them, which just made things worse. The sirens got louder as more cars rounded the corner, and he shook his head to the side, hand coming up to tug at the base of his hair.

His hand flapped by his side as he got to the library, breaths coming in shaky as he pushed the door open with his sleeve. 

He shoulder brushed against the wall, and he flinched back from it, screwing his eyes shut. 

God, why were the light so fucking bright in here?

Normally he would turn around and go back to his dorm. 

Sensory overloads were never fun, they were something he would avoid at all costs to have in public, but he climbed the stairs anyway. 

Why?

Because he knew wilbur was up there. 

And some part of his brain was associating wilbur with being able to deal with this right now, so he kept going. 

He paused his music, barely managing to keep a hold of his phone with how shaky his hands were. 

It wasn’t ideal, because obviously things were slightly louder then, even for a library, but he wanted to be able to hear wilbur if he was speaking. 

The headphones were staying on though. 

He kept his head down as he entered the main room, eyes immediately flicking to their table. 

Wilbur was there, looking up with his usual smile at georges presence. 

It dropped almost immediately when he saw georges red-rimmed eyes, hands white on his backpack, the tense way he was holding himself. 

George fell into his seat, immediately dropping his head into his hands, foot bouncing under the table. 

He didn’t want to be rude, he didn’t want to just ignore wilbur, but he just really needed a second to collect himself. 

And then, a hand landed on his back. He didn’t flinch away, which was slightly unusual.

Similar to what dream did, but this one was more unfamiliar. George found himself not minding all that much. 

He looked to the side, peering between the gap in his arm. 

Wilbur was sat in the chair next to him, concern crossing every feature, eyebrows knitted together. When he saw george looking at him, he managed a shaky smile. 

“Can you hear me?”

It was muffled, but george could read lips well enough, and nodded, barely. 

“I’m going to take you somewhere outside. Is that okay?”

He nodded again, and the hand left his back. 

Wilbur shuffled round the table, grabbing both his and george's bags before sitting down beside him again. 

“Can you walk okay? Do you need me to lead you?”

He held up a shaky two fingers, really hoping that wilbur got it meant second option. 

He nodded, standing up, a hand landing firmly on his elbow and pulling him up also. 

So he did get it. That’s good.

George kept his eyes glued to the floor again as wilbur walked them somewhere, and he only looked up when he noticed the lights were slightly dimmer. 

They seemed to be on some kind of stairwell, one with no windows, which made sense as to why it was darker than the library. 

He sunk backwards against the wall, brain now registering that he was somewhere safer, finally letting up the supposed ‘blocker’ to his panic from earlier.

It was something he didn’t mean to do, but because he was so scared of making a scene around people, his brain essentially put it on hold, until he could deal with it. 

Wilbur crouched down in front of him, a soft frown on his face. 

“Can I touch you?”

He nodded, wilbur's hands curling into his own. 

“Do you want the pressure? Or a hug, or something?”

He didn’t answer specifically, just moved his hands to tug at wilbur's sweater, pulling it closer and praying he got the right message. 

Wilbur shuffle around so he was sat next to george, and immediately pulling him close, arms wrapping tightly round him, george latching onto his shirt as he got as close as possible, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to calm his breathing. 

He knew he was trembling, and felt wilbur's arms tighten a little bit more, him resting his chin on george's hair. 

George curled in tighter, feeling wilbur's chest rumble under him as he spoke.

He had no idea what he was saying, but that didn’t matter. Wilbur’s breathing was apparent under his hands and face, so he matched that. Or, tried too.

One arm loosened slightly, and was about to complain when it returned, accompanied by music flowing through his headphones. 

He relaxed almost instantly, shuddering breaths beginning to slow. 

If you asked, he couldn’t tell you how long they sat there for.

Even when he wasn’t shaking anymore, and his breaths were even, wilbur didn’t loosen his grip. 

George didn’t either. 

Only when he opened his eyes, seeing the light was pretty much manageable, he relaxed slightly, starting to pull away.

Wilbur did as well, george moving so he was sitting cross-legged beside him, wilbur still leant against the wall. 

He kept on hand on george's knee, concern still evident in his eyes. 

George slipped one side of the headphones off, just testing the water, before pulling them off to rest round his neck.

Wilbur smile softly, holding his arm open again. 

He shuffled so his head was against his shoulder, wilburs putting his head on top of his. 

They were nowhere near as close as they had been, but somehow this till felt perfect. 

“You okay?” wilbur spoke after a few moments, voice hushed. George smiled, nodding. 

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Nothing to apologise for.”

It fell silent again after that, and again george didn’t know how much time had passed before he sat back up.

He kind of owed wilbur an explanation. 

“I have a sensory disorder” he blurted. 

Wilbur raised an eyebrow, and he winced internally. Not the best way to start this conversation. 

“There was just a lot going on today, and then there was a siren and-”

Wilbur cut him off by a hand landing again on his knee, thumb rubbing small circles.

“You don’t need to explain yourself” he said. George nodded, not looking up from his hands. 

And then a finger was resting under his chin, lifting his head for him. 

His heart leaped in his chest. 

“Seriously. Thank you for telling me. I’m proud of you for that, but you don’t need to give me a reason. All I care about is that you’re okay.”

He nodded after a second, and wilbur wiped the tear that had dropped down his face away gently with his thumb, a soft smile adorning his features. 

His hand lingered on george's cheek for a second before dropping. George’s skin burned. 

“How’d you know what to do?” he found himself asking after a second. 

“You remember my brother techno?”

George nodded, thinking back to the people behind him in the coffee shop. 

“He had sensory overloads quite a lot. ADHD, so I have to help him sometimes.”

George nods. That makes sense. 

“That is what it was, right?”

“Yeah, yeah it was.”

He pauses, going to speak again.

“Sorr-”

“Stop. Nope. We just established this”

Wilbur’s face morphed into a grin, and george laughed lightly. 

“We didn’t get any geography done” he said after a moment, and wilbur laughed, shaking his head as he looked at his phone. 

“That’s what you’re concerned about right now?”

“I’m just saying. It’s due on Thursday, and we don’t have Tuesday.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.”

George hummed, moving so he was sitting beside wilbur again. 

“Would you want to come round to mine to do it tomorrow night or something?” wilbur asked. 

George could hear the lace of something else under the question, but he can’t pinpoint it. Still he nods, smiling again.

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Great.”

They sit there in quiet until the announcement the libraries closing in ten minutes rings over the speakers. 

-------

George is quite frankly a little nervous to be going round to wilburs. 

Well, this is george we’re talking about, so is anything else really expected?

Still, wilbur lives with his family still, just because the college happened to only be a twenty minute drive or so. 

George had insisted he could walk, but wilbur called him crazy, and was now walking with him to the bus stop instead. Neither could drive yet, and honestly george found it a little bit extra to go on the bus with him, but it was also sweet. 

The first thing he notices about the house is that it just looks domestic. It looks homely, welcoming. If that makes any sense. 

The first thing their met with when wilbur opens the door is screaming, and wilbur sighs, shutting the door with a slam. George snickers from the sideline. 

“Shut up!” he shouts up the stairs. 

A faint “Fuck you!” is shouted back, and wilbur grits his teeth, turning to george. 

“Tommy’s a little shit, ignore him.”

“Ay I heard that bitch!” come the voice again, followed by a blonde kid skidding to the stop of the stairs. 

He holds a nasty frown, crossing his arms as he stares down at wilbur. Just as he’s about to say something else, george watches his eyes flick over to him. 

“Oh.”

Wilbur snickers, stepping back slightly so he was in line with george. 

“Tommy, george. George, tommy.”

Tommy’s eyes light up with something, and he grins, looking back to wilbur. 

“So this is the george you wont stop talking about?”

Wilbur’s face flushes pink, as his jaw drops slightly. George stifles a laugh beside him. 

“I’m going to murder you, you little-”

It’s cut off by a scream as wilbur sprints up the stairs, tommy skidding on the landing before running back to his own room. 

George chuckles to himself. 

And he doesn’t deny the light brush that crosses his own face as well. 

“Sorry about them” a new voice appears. 

He looks over to the doorway on the right, where another person is leaning on the doorway, bowl of cereal in hand. 

Wait, cereal?

He holds out a hand, george taking it briefly. 

“Techno.”

“George.”

Techno nods, picking his spoon up again. 

“Can I ask why you’re eating cereal at six in the evening?”

Techno shrugs, wiping away some milk with his sleeve. 

“Why not?”

George shrugs. That's fair. 

Wilbur comes back down the stairs, panting slightly. 

“Sorry. He’s a dickhead.”

George just laughs, shaking his head. 

Wilbur opens his mouth to speak again, but then sees techno. His gaze darkens. 

“That better not be my fucking crunchy nut” he says. Techno still his spoon his mouth and freezes, slowly pulling his jacket to the sideand the hiding the bowl behind it. 

“No” he mumbles through a mouthful of food. 

“Oh my fucking god this family” wilbur mumbles under his breath, pinching the space between his eyebrows. 

“Should we go upstairs?” he turns to george. 

“Sure.”

And with that he’s waving goodbye, and wilbur is leading him upstairs.

Honestly, wilbur's room is exactly what he expects. 

Foam letters spelling ‘WILL’ on the door, and inside, dim tones covering everything. His walls are all a dark browny colour, with one lighter one. Band posters and just random pictures or signs cover every part of them, all in some kind of organised fashion.

It’s not tidy per say, but it’s clean. His guitar rests in one corner, bed sheets made poorly with one massive shark stuffie resting in the middle. That must be lonesome. His desk is cluttered with all kinds of random items, so are the odd shelves dotter around. There’s a bookshelf in the corner too, nick nacks dotted around on top of those. 

It’s organised clutter, if that makes sense. And it does suit him perfectly. 

George spots lonesome jr. on the bedside table, and can’t help but crack a smile at it. 

Wilbur drops onto the bed, george sitting beside him. 

“Sorry, it’s not entirely tidy” he says, eyes trailing around the few pieces of paper dropped on the floor, the odd hoodie slumped in a pile. 

“It’s fine. I like it” he says. 

Wilbur smiles up at him, opening his laptop. 

Right, geography. 

They do really need to get that done. 

Surprisingly though, they don’t linger on conversation, or get distracted by stupid things. 

Neither of them will admit it, but if they get it done sooner, they have more time to hang out just generally. 

And just as wilbur’s dad calls for dinner, they were closing their laptop lids with a satisfied sigh.

They shared a grin before shuffling downstairs, techno and tommy already there. 

“Oh, hello! I’m phil” 

George looks over to where wilbur’s dad- phil is washing dishes, and smiles lightly, giving him a small wave. 

As lovely as his family were, it was still daunting meeting them all at once. Wilbur squeezes his hand lightly, smiling down at him.

George smiles back. 

Phil had ordered pizza, which was easy and meant george didn’t have to do the awkward thing lying about someone's cooking, even though from what wilbur’s said it would be great anyway. The four talk between themselves, george just sitting back and listening. He doesn’t mind, and wilbur knows that. 

Tommy screeches a few times, and george winces, barely. 

Wilbur still tells him to keep it down, and a warm feeling he’s becoming very familiar with blooms in his chest again. 

Other than that though, dinner was great. They were all really nice, and he couldn’t fault them at all really. 

He and wilbur went back upstairs after thanking phil, settling on his bed again. 

George didn’t have to leave for another hour or so, and they were finished with school, which just kind of left them with nothing. 

George’s eyes trailed over to the guitar. 

“Can you play something?” he asked, before the words registered in his head. Wilbur followed his gaze as well, looking back with a faint smile. 

“You’d want me to?”

“Yeah, of course. You take it as a major, I should think you were good” he teases, nudging his shoulder slightly. 

Wilbur laughs, but george can hear the nervousness behind it. Before he can say anything else though, wilbur is standing up, picking it up, and dropping back on the bed. 

George settles himself opposite, cross-legged. Wilbur catches his expression and chuckles slightly, strumming it once.

“It’s not that exciting.”

George shrugs, resting his hand in his chin. Wilbur presses his fingers against the frets, taking a breath to himself. 

And then, he plays. 

George’s heart was exploding in his chest, because holy shit.

Just as he thought wilbur couldn’t get anymore perfect, here he was, playing a gentle melody, voice soft, but somehow still running through george in the most powerful way it could. 

It was incredible. 

He didn’t even care if he was staring, if he was frozen in place. Because all that mattered in that moment was wilbur, and the music. Well, more importantly wilbur, but george was appreciating the music all the same. 

It’s then when everything comes full head. He’s known for a while most likely, but he’s never outright agreed with himself, with dream and sapnap, never outright fully believed that this was real. 

He liked wilbur. 

Hell, he might love wilbur. 

The strumming coming to a gentle stop, the last lyrics of ‘I'll be gone then, for when you must be alone’ ringing through his head as wilbur looks up. 

George swallows the lump in his throat and smiles.

“Did you like it?” wilbur asks, gently placing the guitar next to him. 

Georges smile got impossibly wider. 

“It was perfect.”

You were perfect. 

---------

They hand in the project on Thursday, the teacher briefly scanning over it, and giving them the barest thumbs up as they settle back into the table, smiling to each other. 

Something is eating up at george though. 

It’s Christmas break starting Monday, they break up from school on Friday.

And george goes back home on Saturday. 

Obviously, wilbur was staying in the area, but that meant they weren’t going to see each other until the end of January. Which is like three, almost four weeks away. 

He pulls wilbur aside at lunch, the pair sitting under the old oak tree in the courtyard. Neither complain about the cold, and george has wilbur's coat on, so he was fine regardless. He pretended not to see wilbur's face flush when he first saw him in it. 

“So, it’s Christmas in a few weeks” george starts. Wilbur looks up from his food, nodding slowly. 

“That’s how time works, yes george.”

He laughs, kicking him gently with his shoe. 

“Shut up. Still, people go home for Christmas, don’t they.”

He saw wilbur look up, still slightly confused, and then the realisation crossed his eyes. 

“I have to go home.”

Wilbur puts his food on the floor, a small frown on his face. 

“When do you leave?”

“Saturday”

Wilbur frowns further.

“George! why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry, I know. I completely forgot about it, genuinely.”

He puts his food down too. He does feel bad. 

He hates that he can see the disappointment in his eyes. 

“Okay, no that's okay. We can text and stuff, can’t we?”

“Yeah of course” george says, shuffling slightly. 

Part of him told him that wilbur would never be this worked up. Part of him feels the exact same way. 

Wilbur smiles. 

“I need to go Christmas shopping then.”

-------

Friday, george doesn’t see wilbur. He takes the day to go out and go Christmas shopping though, a chick-fil-a voucher and bandana for sapnap, a new football and yellow hoodie for dream (he did know it was yellow, that was the joke), a knitted sweater for karl, and a bottle of purple nail polish to match it, and a packet of hot dogs and a hoodie with a ducks face as the hood for quackity. 

For wilbur, though, he was completely stuck. 

Someone he thought he knew so well recently, and he had no clue. 

Everything he thought of just didn’t seem enough, or just didn’t seem right.

After almost an entire afternoon of searching he settled on some new guitar picks, a beanie, a pair of new headphones for when he was editing, because his were crappy, and a leather bound journal accompanied with some nice pens for song writing, rather than having the sheets strewn about his floor everywhere. 

Maybe it was too much, but george felt like he could have done better.

He wrapped it as nice as he could, before carefully placing it in his backpack. 

They were meeting up Saturday morning, at ten. Intentional or not, wilbur said he wanted to go to the library first, and then they were walking from there. 

He had no idea what that mean, but went with anyway, leaving with a nervous pit in his stomach, and suitcase ready by his door so he could just grab it later that afternoon.

Like always, wilbur was in the same chair, leaned over his phone.

The sequence of actions committed to memory by now, he saw george, smiled, and stuffed his phone in his pocket.

Before george could sit though, he stood up. 

“You ready?”

“For what?”

“Today.”

He frowned, confused. 

“What’s today?”

Wilbur simply grinned, lightly gripping george's coat sleeve, dragging them out of the library. Now he was just more confused. 

“Why did you tell me to go to the library if we were going to leave immediately?” he asked when they got outside. Wilbur shrugged, walking backwards. George couldn’t help but laugh, jogging so they were side by side. 

The first place wilbur led them too was the coffee shop. 

Peppermint lattes were promptly ordered, a never-ending grin on george's face as wilbur practically bounced on his feet, leading to the next place. 

The Christmas market. 

George started slowly connecting the dots, laughing when wilbur tripped over his own feet, wilbur smiling fondly as george's eyes travelled around the markets, lingering on every interesting thing they could. 

They walked through the stalls, just like last time making stupid quips here and there, joking around like teenagers. 

And finally, wilbur grabbed george's hand leading them towards the parks. 

George tried to hid his blush with his coat collar, and wilbur simply chuckled, squeezing their intertwined fingers. 

It was getting dark already, barely even gone four, and wilbur led them to the exact same spot as before, the lights dim, and practically magical, again like before. 

The sounds of the ice rink filled his ears.

George grinned as he realised what was happening. Well, he knew a little while ago, but this confirmed. 

A replay of that Saturday. The Saturday george will hold forever in his heart.

Wilbur sighed, sitting cross-legged opposite george. 

“Can I give you my presents now?” he asked, smile seemingly etched into his features like it had been all day. 

“I think today was a present in itself” george joked, and wilbur laughed a little. 

“It was, kind of. But I have other.”

George rolled his eyes, only fondness backing it. 

“You didn’t have too.”

Wilbur eyes the bag clutched in his lap. 

“Neither did you.”

Clearly at a stalemate, george drags his out, wilbur doing the same. 

“You first” he insists, pushing the pile into wilbur's lap.

He smile down at them, reading the label first. George feels like he’s going to implode with how much he’s worried about him liking them or not. 

The first one he opens it the beanie, and immediately swaps it out with a laugh. 

Next, the picks, and launches into a rant about how he really need new ones, how his old ones were too thin, all that. George nods along, focused on his eyes only, the way the lights are glinting in them. 

He really is perfect. 

Thirdly, the headphones. Wilbur complains that they were too expensive, which honestly they were on the pricier side, but george couldn’t care less. He thanks him either way, moving onto the last. 

George watches as he trails the leather binding slowly, smile etching further into his face. 

“I love it. Thank you george.”

He sits up straighter, nodding, pretending he hadn’t been staring like a lovesick idiot the entire time. 

“I know it’s not that much-”

“Are you serious?” wilbur cuts him off. 

“George this is too much. Thank you. Seriously.”

He doesn’t want to fight that, so nods. Wilbur shoves his pile forward. His wrapping is slightly messy, but somehow that just fits the scene even better. 

He opens the smallest first, pulling out what seems to be a voucher. 

A laugh breaks his throat as he realised what it was, wilbur laughing with him.

It is a voucher, for the coffee shop on the corner. Scrawled on the back in a not that says ‘for peppermint lattes only!!’. It’s perfect. 

Next, he pulls out a hoodie. But, not just any hoodie, one he recognises. One he’s seeing wilbur wearing before. It’s a yellow one, clearly well worn, and probably one of the softest things george had ever felt. 

He looks up with light pink dusting his cheeks, wilbur shuffling awkwardly, hand rubbing the back of his neck. 

“I thought, you know if we weren’t going to see each other for a little bit maybe-”

George cuts off his awkward ramble by shrugging his coat off, sliding the hoodie over his shirt, which completely swamps him, pulling the hood up over his ears. It smells of him, and george laughs to himself, looking back to wilbur. 

He was just staring, a familiar flush back, eyes trailing from the sweater paws to the way it hung on his collar bone. He met george's eyes again, clearing his throat. George just laughed, moving onto the next. 

This ones heavier, and he opens it slowly. He almost drops it when a logo appears. 

A familiar conversation flashes in his head. 

“You know, I really do hate my keyboard.”

“Why?” wilbur asked, voice filtering through george's phone beside them. They were on call while studying, just something they had picked up randomly. 

“Half of the keys stick, it doesn’t sound nice, and I’ve had it for like four years now. I need to save up for a new one.”

Wilbur hums. 

“Which new one?”

“I don’t know. Ideally, an Apex one would be pretty cool, but Logitech is more financially accessible” 

Wilbur chuckles, the pair falling into silence again.

George looks between his fingers, wilbur grinning at him. 

“Wilbur that’s so much money.”

“Don’t fret about that. You said you wanted it, right?”

He sits back up, ripping the paper a little more. 

“Well, yeah but- Will this is, I don’t know.”

Wilbur chuckles, shrugging. 

“It’s Christmas, right? Let me treat you.”

He nods after a moment, before immediately tackling wilbur into a hug. He hugged back, burying his face in george's shoulder. 

“Thank you” george whispers. 

Wilbur holds him a little tighter. 

“I’m not done yet” he whispers back. George pulls away, giving him a scolding look. 

“Wilbur I can’t accept anything else. Seriously-”

Wilbur cuts him off by standing up, offering a hand up. 

“You’ll like it. Well, I hope.”

Now confused, george takes the hand, standing up as well. Wilbur steps closer, intertwining their fingers, smiling down at him. 

George’s heart is already racing. 

“I really hope I’ve timed this right” wilbur says, and just before george is about to ask what the hell he’s talking about, music starts filtering through the speakers around the ice rink. 

He recognises it as -'The Night We Met' almost immediately.

George looks over, eyes widening. 

When he turns back, wilbur is smiling softly, one hand settling on his waist. 

“They do a dancing ice skating thing here at half five.”

God this man is going to kill him. 

“So, George Davidson, would you dance with me?”

George doesn’t stop the flush or the grin this time, and he nods, wrapping his arms around wilbur's neck. 

Wilbur grins, second hand settling on his hip, the pair swaying gently. 

George wants to look away from his eyes, really, he does. Eye contact was never his thing, but somehow with wilbur, he can’t. If he looks away, then he’s scared that this will be over. 

He never wants this to be over. 

After a moment though, george lets his eyes slip close, resting his head on wilbur's chest, arms dropping. Wilbur's arms stay round him, resting his chin once again on top of his head like they had done a few times by now, and george thinks its a feeling he’s never going to get bored off. 

They continue swaying as the song picks up, and george has never felt more at peace then he has right now. 

He’s never felt as safe, as loved as he had right now. 

After a minute or so, he picks his head back up, wilbur's eyes meeting his again. 

Nothing is said as george leans forward slightly, wilbur leaning down, foreheads resting against each other. 

Georges hands travel back up to loop round his neck, eyes staring up through his eyelashes to wilbur. He watches brown eyes trail down, and does the same. 

One hand leaves george’s hip, cupping his cheek softly, thumb trailing small traces under his eyes. 

George steps barely an inch closer. 

He can feel wilbur’s shaky breaths mixing with his own. 

“George” wilbur whispers, the name cracking on his tongue. 

“Shut up” he whispers back, and then pushes the final distance. 

He was wrong about the feeling of wilbur’s chin resting on his head. 

This is the feeling he never wants to forget. 

Hair tickling his forehead, lips soft against the others, practically melting into it. 

What they say about fireworks really is true. 

Everything from the month and a half fills his head, the hugs, the laughs, the comments, the moments. Everything that makes this feel so right. 

His hand tightens slightly in wilbur’s hair, wilbur's hand reciprocating the same motion on his hip, pushing further even if there was no further to go. 

George pulls back when his lungs burn, and can’t help the grin splitting on his face, a matching one on wilbur’s. He feels his thumb trail down, lightly tracing his bottom lip, and smiles wider. 

“Merry Christmas George” wilbur whispers. 

George leans forward again, the song trailing out behind them. 

This moment? This day?

It would forever hold a place in his heart. 

It would forever be a part of his heart. 

And hopefully, he’ll forever be a part of wilbur’s too.