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There was something magical about the year passing by in such a blur, that Dream was surprised when the days became shorter and he, Karl and Niki would sit down after team meetings and discuss which kind of Christmas decoration they wanted to make for their classroom.
Christmas was always busy.
They settled on crafting snowflakes and snowmen. They baked cookies at one point for the kids to decorate and bring home. And of course they wouldn't forget to craft a christmas card for the parents, from each child. It was the last day before Christmas break, and Dream felt lost, as to where the past months had gone. It all went by so fast.
Dream started a little story time with the kids after lunch, to give them some time to calm down and settle for a bit. It started out chaotic, but he was determined and soon they went through many of the books they had laying around. One day one of the kids asked him to make up his own story.
And that was where Dream actually found himself today, in the middle of their pillow den, a book in his lap, and 15 kids sitting around him in awe, as he talked.
“And the prince had to fight a large dragon, out of his city. Because the dragon wanted to claim the land for himself,” Dream said, making large gestures to show how big the dragon supposedly had been.
“Is dragon mean?” Shroud asked, tilting his head.
Fundy shook his head. “No way! It just wants to live there. It’s not mean, right, Dream?”
Dream looked lost at the sudden outburst of more and more children agreeing with Fundy that the dragon was not mean. “But guys.. It’s a laaarge dragon.”
Quackity tapped his lips. “Dragon not always mean.”
There was loud support for what the children were saying and Dream sighed softly. “You know what? You’re right. This dragon wasn’t mean. He wasn’t bad. He wanted to live in his own city. But the prince said no!”
“Why?” one of the kids asked.
“Because the prince was scared the dragon would destroy the city. The dragon didn’t want to, but the prince didn’t know that. And so they had a big fight! Some people fought with the dragon, others fought with the prince. And the prince won! But one of the people stepped up for the dragon. He went to the prince and said “you won! But we want this city for ourselves. I will give you my treasure.” The prince agreed. And the dragon and his people had their own city and their own leader. And they repaired what was broken. And the prince left them alone.”
“What treasure did the man give the prince?” One of the older kids asked, and Dream thought.
“I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?”
Several kids screamed around each other, and Dream had a hard time understanding what they were saying. “One after another please. I can barely hear anything.”
Shroud lifted his hand and Dream nodded at him. “My daddy loves his music. So maybe the treasure was music.”
“Like CDs?” Dream asked and Shroud shook his head. “No. Big! Bigger than a CD.”
Dream nodded. “Like a vinyl. It’s a large CD that you can listen to music with,” he explained to the children, “I like that. It’s not gold. Because princes always have lots of gold, as you guys told me yesterday.”
The kids nodded. Claire grinned. “They do! My book said so.”
Dream agreed with a smile. “I believe you. But that means the Prince doesn’t need any gold. But if the treasure is vinyls, that’s something special.”
“What happens then?” Fundy asked excitedly from his spot on Dream’s lap. Dream ruffled his hair gently.
“They build the city and live happily ever after, what else.”
“No one breaks the city?”
“No. Of course not. But you know what? I would like to know what all of you are doing for christmas.”
Most kids didn’t notice the sudden topic change and eagerly lifted their arms to talk about their upcoming holidays. He let them talk about it in a circle, most of them knew and those who didn’t Dream helped because he knew a few of their plans.
One of the kids’ whose plan he knew was Quackity, who was struggling with the words to explain his holiday. So Dream helped him and told the class that Alex would fly to England with his dad to meet his grandparents, celebrate Christmas and his birthday in England.
Most of the other children were curious, asking where England was, and what language they spoke there. And why Alex’s grandparents are in England and not in America, because they had picked him up before.
Dream explained as easily as he could,that his grandparents were born in England and were over for a visit in the summer, to help Alex and his dad to go to nursery easier. But they had a house in England and had to go back. So now Alex and his dad would go visit them instead. It left most of them satisfied with the answer and he dismissed the circle of children. He leaned against the wall behind him for a bit and closed his eyes.
He would not be seeing George for Christmas. And it wasn’t a huge deal, not really. They hadn’t been dating for that long and the trip had been planned for a while. Dream was just a bit bummed out, because he had a present and wasn’t sure if he would be able to give it to George. The man had already failed to mention his birthday in November and Dream was determined to at least get him something for Christmas, but George was busy.
It was evident by the time Alex was being picked up, fairly late compared to the usual time and George looked stressed and pale.
Dream called Alex over and George picked him up. “Hey buddy. How was your day?”
“Good! Dragons are nice!”
Dream laughed softly, and George seemed too tired to question it. “We have to go home and pack your suitcase, Q.”
Quackity nodded and struggled to get down to get his shoes and coat.
“You look tired,” Dream said gently, taking his hand for a split second.
George scoffed. “Wow. Thanks. It’s nice to see you, too.”
Dream sighed, he had started to learn not to take his jabs and his sarcasm too seriously. “Can I help you in any way?”
George’s shoulder deflated. “Not really. I have to pack, clean up, finish a code, get Q fed, into a bath and into bed by 7, because our flight is early morning and I can’t have him run around until 8, like he likes to do on important nights.”
“I’m off by 4.”
“Dream I don’t have time to meet you today, I have to do a million things-”
“I know. I’m off by 4. I can help you with Alex. I’ll make dinner. I can read him a story. Pack his bag with him. You take care of your stuff.”
“I can’t ask that from you.”
“Well you’re not asking. I’m offering.”
George bit his lip, looking down. He saw Quackity approach with his coat in his hand, mismatched shoes and someone else’s hat. George picked him up. “What’s that baby? That's not your hat.”
“It is!” Quackity protested and then waved excitedly at Dream. “Bye bye Dream!”
Dream smiled and poked the boy’s nose. “I’ll see you later, Alex.”
The boy lit up and George looked at Dream, at loss for what to say, protest clear on his tongue but Dream just leaned closer and placed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Let me help you, George.”
The fight drained out of him and he sighed. “Okay. See you later.”
The man waved at him and Dream was comfortable in the thought that no one saw them anyway. Boy was he wrong, because as soon as Dream turned around Fundy was there and kicked him, crying loudly.
Dream hissed in pain but he kneeled down quickly.
“What’s up, Fundy.”
“You lie! I thinked I won! But you like Alex’ dad more than me.”
Dream sighed softly and hugged the boy close, stroking his back. “You can’t kick people because you are jealous.”
“I’m not jealous! I’m mad!”
Dream pulled away and wiped the tears off Fundy’s cheeks. “Fundy. You’re my favorite Fundy in the whole world, okay? I promise you that.”
“But..”
“No buts. You’re my favorite Fundy. But you cannot go around kicking people because you’re mad, okay? It hurts a lot, and you don’t want to hurt anyone, do you?”
The boy teared up again and shook his head. “No I don’t!”
“I know, honey. Don’t kick anymore, okay? We’re all friends here. And friends don’t hurt each other.”
“I’m sorry..”
“I know. I forgive you.”
Fundy nodded softly and hugged Dream again, and Dream let him. He rubbed his back until he felt better.
“Now. No more crying. Your daddy is picking you up, soon, okay?”
Fundy nodded softly, but he stayed the whole time glued to Dream’s side until Wilbur came in to pick him up. Dream didn’t mind it, Fundy was a great help when it came to cleaning up around the room. He loved being useful and he clearly still felt bad about being scolded earlier, so he tried extra hard.
When Wilbur did come to pick up his son, Fundy gave Dream an extra tight hug and wave before he ran off. Dream explained the situation to Wilbur in case Fundy would talk about it later and Wilbur wished the group merry christmas, leaving a box of chocolate for all the teachers behind.
Niki, Karl and Dream sat down after the last kid was picked up and admired their classroom, eating some of the chocolates Wilbur brought.
“Can’t believe it’s already christmas,” Karl hummed softly.
“Me neither,” Niki agreed, “what are your plans, by the way?”
Dream started. “I’ll visit my mom on the 24th. And I have been graciously invited for christmas dinner on the 25th by Karl and Sapnap.”
Karl nodded. “Yeah. You should thank us, so you wouldn't be all sad and wallow in self-pity on Christmas because your man is gone.”
“Oh shut up, Karl. I would have just spent it at home with my mom.”
“And not talk about George? Don’t believe Sapnap didn’t tell me that you didn’t tell your mother about George yet.”
Dream blushed and turned to Niki. “What are your plans?”
“I’ll visit my parents and some friends in Germany. I had hoped we could spend New Year's together? Like, the three of us? And Sapnap, of course.”
“Sure. I’m down,” Dream nodded, glad for the change of subject.
“But back to earlier, you didn’t tell your mom yet? You’ve been going out with George since August, Dream.”
Nevermind the subject change apparently… “I know. I just… I have never really brought a boy home. And now a boy with a kid? I don’t know how happy she would be, you know.”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course. She is my mom. I want them to like each other!”
“Because you wanna stay together forever,” Karl mocked, blinking his eyelashes a lot and folding his hands before his chest.
“Oh shut up. I’m done with this conversation. I have to leave. I said I was off at 4 and it’s almost 5 now.”
“Awww got a date? Have to see your lover boy?”
Dream blushed. “No. I offered to help him with his son.”
“Alright. Use protection!” Niki called with a wave and Dream grabbed his coat and hat, flipping them both off.
He grabbed his keys from inside his coat pocket. He walked towards his car, jumped in and started to drive to George’s apartment. He listened to music, singing along to the songs he knew. It was a nice change to all the kid songs he sang all day. There was something about the wheels on the bus that didn’t give him lyrical pleasure, strangely enough.
He arrived at George’s apartment soon enough, it was not too far from the nursery after all, and he parked his car. He got out, ringing the bell to George’s apartment. He was let in without anyone checking who it might be. Dream took two stairs at a time, with his height and the length of his legs it wasn’t too hard to do. He arrived up at the third floor, knocking on the door he believed to be George’s.
Dream had not actually been here before, George had said that he did not want to introduce Alex to any dates, until he felt sure they would last. It had been a bit more than four months of dating now, but Dream did not take offense at all. He had heard the horror stories of George’s previous dating attempts. He was patient.
It took a couple seconds for the door to open and George was holding a crying Alex in his arms, looking even more stressed than before, and he was still wearing his work clothes. Dream came inside, took his shoes off and closed the door behind him.
“Hey. Sorry. I-”
Dream waved him off, taking in the state of the living room. “What happened? Is he hurt?”
George shook his head, “no, just stubborn. He doesn’t want to clean up and I have no time for discussions right now.”
Dream nodded, rubbing Quackity’s back gently. “Hey. Q. It’s me, Dream.”
The boy looked confused with big eyes, but stopped crying instantly. “Dream?”
“Yeah. Hi buddy. I’m here to help your daddy a bit. I heard you’re going on a trip tomorrow?”
Alex nodded slowly, eying his teacher with absolute confusion. His head couldn’t wrap around the idea of his nursery teacher being outside of the nursery.
“Alex, stay home!”
Dream laughed. “I’m not here to take you, Q, don’t worry about that. But how about you and I make dinner for your daddy?”
Quackity nodded eagerly and grabbed for Dream to take him. Dream did, balancing the kid on his hip. “Great! We’ll make veeery good food, deal?”
He nodded quickly, holding onto Dream’s neck. George looked at the two like a wonder was unfolding right in front of his eyes.
Dream ushered George to get changed and he complied. Dream turned to the boy, walking towards what he assumed to be the living room. “Alright. But first we have to clean up.”
Quackity turned his head away. “No.”
“Yes, Alex. We have to clean up before we cook! Or everything will be messy.”
“Don’t wanna.”
Dream got down onto his knees, setting Quackity down in front of him. The boy looked at him with a stubborn frown. He crossed his arms over his chest. His job taught him a high amount of patience for those kinds of situations. He picked up a block from the floor.
“Where is the box for that?” He asked curiously.
“I have never been here. I need your help.”
An easy way to coax stubborn kids out of their defiant moments, was to make it seem like it wasn’t their task, but something you needed help with instead. Putting a child in front of a large task and asking in a demanding tone for them to do it, would result in most of them shutting down. It’s exhausting sometimes, but one gotta talk and cooperate with them. So Dream gathered the first few blocks and waited for Alex to pick up the boxes and bring them over to him.
After that first step, it was easy to get Alex to help him pick up the rest of the blocks and cars. Dream spotted something on the couch and he reached for it. It was a crown.
Quackity beamed at him when he spotted the object.
“Where does this one go?” Dream asked, looking at the crown in his hand. It was bright pink and had a large gem in the middle. He had no time looking at it more because the toddler took it from his hands and put it on his own head. “Mine!”
Dream grinned. “It looks good. Are you a prince?”
“Princess!” Quackity protested, pointing at the crown, “it’s princess cwown.”
Dream nodded solemnly. “Of course I am sorry. You’re right!” He reached out to gently poke into the boy’s side, making him squirm and giggle. “You’re such a pretty princess!”
Quackity made grabby hands at him and Dream picked him up, as he stood. He looked around the living room, which was finally clean from all the toys Alex had thrown around the room.
He looked at the boy. “Okay. Where is the kitchen?”
Quackity looked at Dream like he was stupid. “Down,” he demanded and grabbed his hand instead, dragging him out of the living room to pull him into the kitchen.
Dream spotted a table and a high chair in the kitchen, clearly not designed for several people to eat here. Dream wondered how many people George had over. He sighed to himself, looking through the shelves with the help of a toddler, to look for food. He would have to settle for spaghetti it seemed.
He was fine by that, finding pots to make the pasta in, humming to himself as he let Quackity help with what he deemed appropriate. Namingly putting his own dishes up, grabbing a bottle of water and trying to place it on the table, sitting on the counter right next to him, but away from the stove to watch what was happening.
George entered the room, dressed in more casual clothes, still pale in the face, but his shoulders are not high by his neck anymore.
Quackity reached for him and George picked him up, balancing him on his hips and bouncing him up and down a bit. “You cleaned up?”
“With Dream!”
George smiled. “Really? Did Dream clean up with you?”
He made a sound of affirmation, babbling excitedly. George effortlessly adjusted his crown for him, when it looked like it would fall and Quackity talked and talked.
Dream was stirring some sauce he threw together with whatever he found in the fridge.
“You didn’t have to..”
“I know. But I wanted to,” Dream shrugged and grinned at him.
George looked ready to cry, but he didn’t. He leaned closer but also didn’t kiss him. He leaned away again, putting his hand on his arm instead and squeezed. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
Dream turned back to finishing the food as George put Quackity down on his highchair. He finished setting the table, filled cups and sat down as Dream brought the plates over for them.
“I hope it’s good.”
George started to eat first, as Quackity used his hands to pick apart the food on his plate. Dream was glad he had thought about setting a portion for Quackity aside to cool down before he served the food, because the toddler was elbow deep in his food at this point.
George tried handing him the fork or a spoon but Quackity had made up his mind that his arm was an acceptable piece of cutlery and so he would eat from his fingers. George had the mind to remove the crown to stop it from falling into the sauce and making it dirty.
Once George was finished Dream spoke up. “Okay. What else is on the list. I will do the dishes.”
“No. I will do the dishes. You cooked.”
Dream hummed. “Okay. Then what else.”
“Well, I have to pack Alex’s bag. He has to have a bath. I still have a code to finish..”
“Okay. What can I do? I can give him a bath.”
“Isn’t that weird?”
“I change his diapers on a daily basis. I can give him a bath.”
George chuckled softly. “Fair enough. I will pack his bag then and start my code.”
Dream nodded, turning to the boy.
“You ready for a bath, buddy?”
Quackity laughed excitedly, squirming in his seat. Dream got up and put the dishes in the sink, before grabbing the boy, who waved at his daddy.
George got up and walked to what Dream assumed was Quackity’s bedroom. Dream walked to the bathroom and started the water, while Alex excitedly told him about his bath toys. His favorite one was a big yellow duck. “Quack!”
Dream laughed and he somehow had a feeling he understood now why his nickname was Quackity. And it continued like that, Alex excitedly repeated the word Quack over and over and over.
Dream put the child into the bath, and just sat by as he splashed around happily. He even splashed water at Dream’s face which made him laugh harder than he had before. And so he did it again and again, and Dream endured it, splashing water back at Quackity and Quack. And the baby was laughing during the whole bath.
Once Dream thought it was enough and after Quackity’s hair and body was clean, he picked the toddler up with a towel and wrapped him up tightly in it, holding him against his chest. He buried Quackity in towels, covering his face, so that little hands had to pull it off and he laughed happily. They repeated that a few times, before George came to check on them.
Dream was still holding a laughing towel bundle in his arms, and his hair and shirt were wet from their little bath adventure.
George took him, drying his hair gently. “Did you have fun?”
“Mhmm!”
George smiled. “Well baby. It’s time for sleep. Say goodnight Dream.”
“Night Night Dream.”
Dream waved at him. “Night Night Quackity.”
He giggled and buried his face in his father’s neck, already closing his eyes. Kids were incredible like that. He watched George carry Quackity to his room and then went to clean up the mess he made in the bathroom and kitchen.
He was in the middle of drying the pans when George came out from the room, closed the door quietly and sighed. “I think he is asleep.”
Dream smiled at him. “Good. Then you can shower and finish your code.”
George walked up behind him and rested his head against his back. “No. I will wait for a bit to check if he is really asleep. Don’t wanna miss it if he cries.”
“You know it’s okay when he cries.”
“Yeah. But I don’t like it.”
Dream smiled, putting the towel and the pot down. He turned around and wrapped his arms around his neck. “You do your code. And shower. I’ll keep my ears open if he cries.”
George looked up and quickly shook his head. “No. No. I cannot ask that of you. You already helped so much.”
Dream dipped his head down, instead of arguing with him, he captured his lips in a gentle kiss. The first of the night. He had wanted to do that for a while already. George melted under him, and Dream still thought that was the best feeling in the world, knowing he can make the stressed father calm his thoughts for a bit.
He leaned away again, smiling down at him. “Finish your stuff. I’ll be here.”
George nodded slowly, leaning into him for a second, his arms around his waist. “Okay.”
Dream kissed his head and then ushered him into the direction he had seen his laptop earlier. George laughed softly, but made a turn to his bedroom instead. He grabbed a hoodie of his and handed it to Dream.
“Here. At least change into something dry.”
Dream took it and smiled. George went to sit down on the couch, grabbing his laptop to start his code for work.
Dream went into the bathroom, to change. He pulled the hoodie over his head, feeling the fabric and looking down on himself. He did like the colour, it was baby blue. And it fit him just right. It must be large on George. The thought alone made Dream blush a little. Maybe one day he had an excuse to get George into one of his hoodies.
He walked back out to see the man he has been dating on the couch, with his legs off the floor, curled up against himself, with his laptop balancing on his legs. He looked focused, as he typed away on his keyboard. Dream sat down next to him, but stayed quiet. He answered some text messages he had received, mainly ones from Sapnap calling him a simp and a weak loser for going out of his way to help a man with his kid, before they even got into an official relationship.
Dream ignored most of the silly insults, he was simply answering some of the messages he deemed acceptable. He checked his social media, and before he thought better of it, he turned his phone and took a picture of George. He looked cute when he was concentrating like that.
George looked up. “Did you just take a picture of me?”
Dream was not intimidated at all and nodded. “Yup.”
“Why? Delete it!” George whined.
“Nope! It’s mine.”
“You’re the worst.”
“I know. Do your code.”
“I’m almost done.”
“Sure you are, pretty boy.”
George rolled his eyes and returned to typing away at his laptop. They sat in comfortable silence for half an hour, Dream got them water from the kitchen, and pulled George’s legs into his lap, but other than that they stayed silent. And it was fine by Dream.
George eventually put his laptop down and stretched. “Finally done…”
Dream grinned. “Great. Now you only have to shower.”
“Nah. I’ll do that tomorrow morning. I don’t want to anymore.”
Dream nodded, rubbing his ankles in slow circles. “If you’re sure.”
“I am,” George hummed, shuffling closer and resting his head on Dream’s shoulder.
“Thank you so much for today.”
“No need. I will always help if I can.”
“Not a lot of people do that.”
“I’m not a lot of people. I thought we established that already.”
He put one arm around his neck, playing with George’s hair. The man relaxed into his side.
“Dream?”
He made a noise that he was listening, playing with soft brown messy hair.
“Would you be like… officially my boyfriend?”
Dream’s hand stopped, and he couldn’t help but laugh. It sounded like they were middle schoolers. The way George’s voice got higher, the way he sounded nervous to ask and by the way he refused to look at Dream now, it was like they were both 12, asking out their “crush”.
Dream tilted his head down, to try and catch his eyes. “Are we teenagers now?”
“Oh shut up!” George complained and pushed at his chest.
Dream laughed and held his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Yes. I would like to be your boyfriend, George.”
“Good.”
“Great,” Dream grinned.
He leaned over and stole a kiss from him and leaned away before George could return it.
“I should leave. So you can sleep.”
George sighed but nodded. He got up from the couch, stretching. “You’re probably right.”
Dream got up too, watching his boyfriend stretch.
Dream walked over to the door and grabbed his shoes. George leaned against the wall and watched him get ready. Dream walked over, the door open. He leaned down and kissed George once more, properly this time, not like the stolen kisses in the kitchen or on the couch. He held his cheeks in his hands and George leaned fully into him.
“Don’t miss me too much,” George teased.
“It’s gonna be tough,” Dream answered honestly, and it was worth the burst of embarrassment he felt, because George turned a beautiful red colour all over his face.
“You’re dumb. And I hate you.”
“That’s okay. I like you.”
George pushed him towards the door. “Just go!”
Dream laughed softly, squeezing the hand that was against his chest. “Wait I have a present for you.”
“What?” George frowned.
“It’s nothing big I promise.”
George frowned deeper. He watched as Dream took his phone and removed a piece of paper from his phone case. “Here.”
George grabbed the paper and opened it.
Voucher for Zoo and Aquarium visit plus Dinner for George and Alex.
I’ll set the date. Just be there <3
George smiled down at the paper. “Dream.”
“It’s nothing physical. I’m sorry. But I hope you’ll allow me to take you two out.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I would like that.”
“Great,” Dream beamed, “Merry Christmas George. I’ll see you around.”
“I guess you will,” George hummed, “Merry Christmas, Dream.”
He waited for Dream to walk downstairs before he closed the door.
Dream grinned to himself, apparently he now had to tell his mother about a boyfriend.