Chapter Text
Dream
“Why the hell would a coding class use such difficult programs when the class hasn’t even started!”
Dream was furious. All he wanted to do was take some easy coding classes, just for the basics. He just wanted to make better plugins (and maybe ease his parents’ worries a little bit), but he didn’t realize it would be this hard. He felt like he needed to jump through literal hoops just to download these stupid programs.
Groaning in defeat, he looked up the tech support number for the software he needed. He really should have done that in the first place like advised, but no, Dream was far too prideful for that. And look where that got him.
Dialing the number he found on the website, Dream leans back in his chair in anticipation. It takes a few minutes before the ringing abruptly stops and Dream is greeted by an automated voice message. Annoyed, he pushes the corresponding numbers for his issue and who he needs to talk to, and then is once again hearing the ringing of the phone. “Making me jump through all these hoops, might as well drop out,” Dream mutters to himself, throwing his head back in frustration. He stares at his ceiling as the dial-tone of the phone rings in his ear. He is so zoned out that when someone finally speaks on the other end of the line, he quite literally drops his phone onto the ground. “Fuck, shit, fuck!”
He can hear the voice say ‘hello’ a few times, asking if anyone is there, and he fumbles to grab the phone, nearly falling out of his chair in the process. “Oh my god- sorry, hi I’m here. i uh-sorry, hello.” There’s only silence on the other end, to which Dream assumes means they had hung up, but then there is the faintest noise - Dream swears it was a giggle- and then the person is clearing their throat before speaking again, “No worries. So you’re having trouble with installing our software?”
Still embarrassed from his fiasco, Dream clears his throat and mentally thanks whoever is listening that the person couldn’t see his red face. “Uh, yeah, I don’t really know what the problem is, but it just keeps saying it’s not optimized. Whatever that means.”
“Unfortunately you’re not the first that’s run into this problem. Since the company is London based, you’ll need to be using a VPN when accessing it. Easy fix though,” the person explains, and Dream only now notes the British accent.
“Well, that’s kind of stupid,” Dream scoffs. There’s a slight pause where Dream realizes what he said and rushes to correct himself. “I mean, not stupid sorry. Your software is great I’m sure. Just kind of unnecessarily complicated for an online coding class, you know?” he adds nervously. To his relief, the man on the other line laughs.
“It’s a bit ironic, yeah. But back to the fix, I’ll need remote access to your computer so I can install everything for you, since there’s kind of a lot of steps to explain over the phone,” the man says.
“Wait, you have to hack into my computer?” Dream asks nervously. Again, the man laughs, and Dream feels strangely proud from eliciting that reaction from the stranger.
“That’s one way to put it I guess. Don’t worry, I’ll hardly need to look through anything, and you’ll be right there so you don’t have to worry about me seeing anything private,” the man says and Dream’s face could not be any more red at his suggestive tone.
“That’s not-” Dream starts but then decides moving on would be the best. Clearing his throat nervously, he continues, “So how do you get access?”
The tech guy instructs him what application he needs to download for the remote access to work. He follows his steps, telling him the password when prompted, and then just like that he’s in. This stranger, George, based on what the program tells him, now has full reign of his computer. It’s a weird feeling, sitting back and watching your computer magically do things on its own, but Dream doesn’t mind the break.
“Alright, so first things first we need to set you up with the VPN. Have you used a VPN before?” George asks, to which Dream mutters a yes. “Alright good, I don’t have to explain that then. That’s always a boring conversation.”
George laughs slightly on the other end, and Dream musters up a laugh himself. God this is so awkward, he thinks to himself. It’s quiet for a moment while George is trying to download the program he needs, and much to Dream’s dismay, the download bar is not even moving.
“Normally this shouldn’t take so long,” George mutters. “I also somehow keep getting disconnected so uh, that’s not ideal.”
Dream can’t help but smile at his attempt to alleviate the awkwardness. “Yeah that’s not good. Um, could it be my internet maybe?”
His computer notifies him that George is once again connected to his computer, and the download bar has moved a single percent as the man hums thoughtfully. “It could be. Do you know how fast it is?”
“I’m not sure exactly, but it shouldn’t be too slow. Though I guess it has been a little messed up lately. I’ve been meaning to call and see if I can get an upgrade,” Dream explains. He stares expectantly at the download, and sadly isn’t surprised it hardly moves.
“My internet gets a bit wonky sometimes as well so I understand your pain, but yeah that might unfortunately be why it’s so slow,” George says.
“Sorry if this is going to take up too much of your time, then,” Dream sighs. And mine, he silently adds.
“Well I do get paid for this so it’s not like I can complain much,” George quips with a small laugh, Dream joining in with his own chuckle. There’s another small silence, Dream wracking his brain for a way to start a conversation so as to not sit in more awkward silence, but the British man beats him to it. “So, you said you’re taking a coding class. That’s pretty cool.”
“Uh yeah. I know a little bit of coding that I taught myself, but since I want to do some more advanced stuff I figured I should actually take a class since I never did,” Dream explains, hearing a thoughtful hum from George once he finishes.
“That’s really awesome. Any ideas on what you want to do, then?” George asks. And honestly, Dream should have expected that question, it’s a valid question. But how exactly was he going to explain that he actually makes Minecraft plugins for his youtube videos that he puts out for his couple millions of followers? That’s not exactly something you can tell a stranger who has full access to your computer and, if possible, full identity.
“Oh, um, nothing too important. Just...for fun,” Dream settled on saying and my god he is such an idiot. George doesn’t answer right away, and why would he answer someone who sounds so god damn suspicious right now?
Thankfully, George doesn’t even need to say anything, because the application on his computer has finished downloading. About time.
“Oh, well would you look at that, it’s decided to finish,” George says, and Dream can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or if he’s just really bored already. “Alright, so I’m sure they gave you, like, a login for everything, right? ‘Cause you’ll need to type that in right here.”
Dream pulls out the post-it note with the login and temporary password his instructor had given him, typing it in. Error.
“Oh. Hold on, maybe I typed in something wrong,” George mutters, going back a page to double check everything. “I mean, everything looks fine, so I don’t-”
“Maybe it was me, I can try it again,” Dream interrupts. He types everything in again, slower this time to make sure he did it right. Error.
“Well shit.” Dream grumbles. And once again, he manages to make George laugh. “Sorry, this is just what they gave me. I didn’t even get a chance to, like, change the password or anything.”
“The password might’ve had a time limit then. They do that sometimes, it’s kind of stupid,” George explains. Great minds think alike, Dream thinks to himself. “Here, for now I can just use my information to sign in for the VPN, so then we can at least access the other programs and fix it from there.”
Dream just nods to himself, fully aware that the brit can’t see him, but sits back to watch. George types in his own information, and Dream can’t help but notice that he now knows the man’s full name. Of course there is no reason that he needs to know the man’s full name, and he’s fully aware he doesn’t need to write it down to maybe Facebook stalk him later. But also George doesn’t need to know he’s doing it.
“Alright, that’s all signed in. Just have to remember to sign out later, of course,” George jokes. Dream laughs quietly in return, a blush creeping up his neck from his previous slight stalker-ish actions. “Okay so you will only be able to use these programs with the VPN, but you can always disconnect it when not using it. Unless you want your computer to think you’re in London, then that is fine too.”
Dream laughs again, thankful this situation has gotten past the awkward stage from earlier. He watches as George opens up Google Chrome and starts typing in the search bar. As he’s typing, suggestions start popping up underneath, and he naturally goes to click on the correct one. Only, he doesn’t click on the suggestion, but misclicks to click on one of Dream’s bookmarks and fuck there’s Dreams youtube channel.
The silence is deafening; Dream’s panic rises as George’s cursor hovers over the name at the top. It seems that the silence drags on for a long time, Dream can’t tell how long but he’d say too long . But then George is moving again, quickly typing in and searching what he was meant to.
“Uh sorry, did not mean to open YouTube there. Bit of a misclick,” George says, adding a nervous laugh at the end. Dream tries to muster up a laugh, but he is still so panicked that he finds it hard to do so. George clears his throat as he starts yet another download, which means yet another long wait.
“It’s, uh, always awkward just hacking into people’s personal computers like this. Feels like I’m intruding,” George says after too long of a silence. Dream clears his throat and inhales deeply, deciding he shouldn’t let the poor man speak to himself.
“Yeah, yeah I can imagine. Though I will say, it's nice to sit back and let someone else do the work for me,” Dream says. Or, at least, it was nice to sit back and do nothing before his secret was potentially exposed. George laughs though, and it doesn’t sound as nervous as it was before.
“Yeah well like I said, at least I’m getting paid for this. Can’t say the same for you, I’m sure,” George teases and yeah, Dream is smiling again. They share a laugh and that eases them into a conversation about computer hackers, with Dream jokingly questioning if George is actually downloading spyware into Dream’s computer so he could access his identity later, and with George teasing that that is exactly what he’s doing.
They keep the conversation going as George downloads the second software needed and all of Dream’s previous panic has disappeared the more he listens to the british man talk about spyware and data breaches. And the whole time, Dream has a stupid, wide grin on his face that he can’t seem to get rid of as they go back and forth making each other laugh.
The conversation seems to go on for ages, and it isn’t long before George is back in his role as the tech support guy, successfully opening up the software for Dream, while explaining everything he has to do. George helps him log into everything, using his own login this time. Everything is going smoothly until he opens up the last software, which immediately prompts them to connect to the webcam.
“Oh i’ll just-”
“No, no no!”
“-say no to that…”
Dream’s panic is instant, cutting the other man off. And he instantly feels stupid, because of course he wouldn’t turn his camera on for him. There’s an awkward silence as George denies some requests from the program. Dream wants to slam his head on the desk for being so awkward, but his panic is only natural. And surely it could just be seen as normal anxiety, right?
“So that just about does it. Everything’s all installed and there shouldn’t be any issues for your class now,” George finally says, closing out of everything. The remote access application tells Dream that he’s now disconnected, meaning Dream can ease up a little now that his identity is no longer at risk of exposure.
“Yeah, thanks so much. You saved me a lot of trouble,” Dream says, trying to lift the mood again. He’s not sure, but he swears he hears a soft giggle on the other end, but then silence once again follows. Suddenly nervous, Dream wonders if he should say something else to ease any awkwardness, but he is once again saved by the British man speaking up.
“There shouldn’t be any more issues..” George repeats, pausing slightly to clear his throat. “...but if any problems do arise, I’m the only one who deals with this so just, you know, give us a call and ask for me.”
“Yeah of course, I’ll make sure to do that. Um, thanks again I guess...George,” Dream says, deciding at the last minute to tag on the man’s name and instantly regretting it because did he even introduce himself?
“Of course. Hope everything goes well. And it was a pleasure talking to you, Clay,” George tells him. Dream can’t help it, his heart skips a beat at the mention of his name. He’s so focused on it, he doesn’t even hear the quiet goodbye from the other end, doesn’t even get to say goodbye back, and then he’s left with silence.
Dream absolutely hates himself. He is such a hopeless romantic that he’s practically in love with a stranger he talked to for 20 minutes, a stranger who fixed his computer, a stranger in London . For all he knew, the man was in his 60s and had a loving family, and Dream was a lonely fool who needed to be more realistic.
Dream wasn’t even thinking about how he might’ve let his online mystery persona be exposed. He wasn’t even thinking about how this stranger could possibly know his biggest secret, while also knowing his full name. No, Dream was too busy making up a fantasy in his head about talking to the man again.
Remembering he wrote down the man’s name, Dream takes the post-it note and his phone to his bed, laying his head back in the pillows as he pulls up the Facebook app. George Davidson, London , he types into the search bar. And of course, way too many results come up, because that was like the most normal name ever.
This is a sign, Dream thinks to himself. A sign to stop being a creep and go talk to an actual human being. No more mystery British tech guy for Dream.