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The days are loose and aimless.
Structures rise and fall around him but George is indifferent to the ever-shifting skyline. Towers and colors and clouds and smoke, the sweet scent of roses or the acrid stench of gunpowder, blue skies, black skies, red skies- he doesn’t care. None of it reaches him.
Sapnap loops an arm around his shoulders and leads him to a beautiful kingdom full of intricate architecture and natural beauty. George picks a house at random, climbs to the top floor, and settles into bed.
Karl comes by to invite him to dinner with him and Sapnap. George declines and turns his back to the door. Sapnap insists he get some fresh air and drags George outside. He settles against the towering cherry tree and naps until the sun sets, and then he returns to his bed to sleep more.
“Okay, seriously,” Sapnap says one evening. George had been forced by his growling stomach to wander out in search of food, and Sapnap ran across him and now follows a half-step behind him. “All you do is sleep. You only leave your house to get food. You barely talk to us when we come see you. What is going on?”
George shrugs and sweeps his gaze across the landscape in search of wheat. “I’m just really tired.”
“How? I know for a fact that you’ve been sleeping more than half the day-”
“I just am,” George snaps, and Sapnap falls silent.
He spots the swaying tips of mature wheat in the distance and angles toward them. He can hear Sapnap following a step behind, and it almost annoys him, but… The emotion just kind of… Fizzles out. It’s like a reflexive movement of a severed limb; the intent is there, but an eerie absence fills the space where action once would have been.
“Listen, this… This isn’t healthy, dude. I know we don’t really… Talk… About this kind of thing, but- ever since you were dethroned, you’ve been so distant, and it’s only gotten worse. I’m- I’m worried about you, George.”
“Don’t be. I’m fine.”
Sapnap catches George’s hand. He only fully realizes when his arm is pulled taut and he’s stopped in his tracks. He turns to stare at Sapnap with furrowed brows.
“Sapnap- What are you doing? Let go.”
“No.”
“What?”
“Not until you talk to me.”
Again, the irritation makes a hearty attempt at boiling up, and again, it cools near-instantly to familiar apathy. George drops to sit in the grass and rests his chin on his fist.
“...The hell are you doing?”
“Sitting.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not letting go.”
Sapnap sighs. “I will if you just tell me what’s up, dude.”
“I told you already and you didn’t believe me, so I’m sitting down because you’re too stubborn to accept what I’m telling you and I can’t be bothered to stand here until I collapse from hunger.”
Sapnap presses his lips firmly together and slowly sinks down to his knees beside George. With his free hand, he pulls a small loaf of bread from a pouch on his belt and holds it out in offering. George considers rejecting it, but his stomach rolls with another wave of hunger pangs and he’s reminded of his initial goal. So he takes the bread, tears a massive bite from it, and sets to work chewing while sweeping his gaze over the breathtaking meadows sprawling out from where they’re sitting. There are all sorts of flowers- alliums, poppies, sunflowers, tulips- even blue orchids, though George is certain they aren’t native to this biome and must have been transplanted from elsewhere.
He supposes Kinoko Kingdom isn’t the worst place he’s lived. It’s… Peaceful, here. Consistent. The structures are carefully intertwined with the world and the entire nation is rooted in a deep reverence for nature. Sapnap and Karl are the only other citizens, so internal conflicts aren’t a concern, and no one else ever comes by so there are no wars to end with bloodshed and destruction- though he supposes he had fun fighting alongside his friends what seems like a lifetime ago.
...They were a force to be reckoned with, weren’t they? The order of their lives had been disturbed, and they corrected that infraction with swift, grievous retribution. They handily won the war against L’Manberg-
-and then Dream traded that victory away for the discs.
Dream.
George shuts his eyes and tears another chunk off of the loaf. Bitter betrayal, hurt, and resentment try to take root in his mind, but he brushes them off, focusing instead on the hearty notes of flax and rosemary and the warmth of the afternoon sun on his skin. It’s nice. He’s grown used to a bright sky shining heatless light onto him. The sun is never warm in his dreams; that’s not what it’s there for. It provides light to see by and a marking of time’s passage, and it’s good for little else. George has grown used to that empty sunlight.
It feels… Strange, departing from it. Like he’s an unwelcome guest here taking up space that doesn’t rightly belong to him.
Though George knows full well exactly who it does belong to and he’s confident in his belief that he’d be allowed to occupy it regardless.
“...George?”
His eyes snap open. George meets Sapnap’s gaze and realizes he’d forgotten to keep chewing and was staring blankly at the ground.
“Were you seriously falling asleep?”
“No. I was lost in thought.”
Something passes over Sapnap’s face, then. Conflict, maybe- George has never been the best at reading expressions. But whatever it is, it resolves into Sapnap looking like he just ate something spoiled, and his voice is horribly soft when he asks, “Is this about Dream?”
George clenches his jaw and shuts his eyes. “No.”
“Come on,” Sapnap prompts. “I’m not- I know what you think, but I’m not actually a total idiot. It doesn’t take a genius to notice how you’ve been sleeping more and more and interacting less and less since he dethroned you. And- I get it! I… I’m still torn up about all of it too, okay? I’m still… Fucking furious with him for throwing everything away and trying to ruin everyone’s lives-”
George drops the bread to clap his hands over his ears. Sharp, stabbing pain breaches the cool barrier of apathy and an old ache starts up in his chest. He can’t- he can’t do this. He can’t tolerate this pain. Not again.
“I don’t want to talk about this,” George hisses.
“Okay, so it definitely is about Dream-”
“Shut up! Sapnap, I can’t-”
“Dream hurt me, too, okay? But you don’t see me going full narcoleptic-”
“I see someone in my dreams!”
Sapnap falls silent.
“I… I see someone. He’s, uh… God. Kind of. And I sleep a lot because it lets me spend more time with him.”
After a long pause, Sapnap slowly shakes his head. “Okay, so, I don’t even know what kind of fucking doctor to call about this-”
George scoffs. “I’m not crazy. XD is real.”
“XD? What the hell is that?”
“It’s his name. And I’ve seen him while I’m awake, too.”
“And you want me to think you’re not crazy?”
George groans and tips his head back. “Come on. Get up, I’ll show you proof.”
Sapnap still looks about as skeptical as he could possibly be, but he climbs to his feet and allows George to tug him by the hand he’s kept stubbornly wrapped around George’s.
When they reach a section of meadow that isn’t densely packed with flowers, George pulls the small charm hanging around his neck out from under his shirt and cloak. The main body consists of a small circle crossed with an X carved from netherite- and carved is very much the right word, George having bore witness to XD shaping it with his own eyes. From the main body dangles a length of spun gold with five beads. They glimmer yellow-teal in the sun and the glowing cores within them nearly mesmerize George enough to fully derail his train of thought, but he catches himself, shakes off the effect, and carefully crushes the bottom-most bead between his fingers.
Sapnap inhales sharply as he does this. His hand also goes slack, and George takes the opportunity to back up a few paces.
Then the air breaks.
That’s the best way to describe it that George can come up with; in one moment, everything is serene and idyllic, and in the next, there’s a perfect circle of dead grass extending out from the spot where absence was stolen by the figure now standing before them.
The wrongness of it sends a shudder down George’s spine, but he’s more than used to the feeling. It’s almost a comfort.
Sapnap staggers backward with a startled cry. The moment he processes what he’s looking at, his hands fly to draw the sword at his belt and he shouts, “How are you here? You’re supposed to be in prison!”
“Sapnap,” George groans, burying his face in his hands. “That’s not-”
“You can’t be here,” Sapnap warns, shifting into a fighting stance. “Just come quietly, and no one has to get hurt-”
“Sapnap, that’s not him,” George cuts in.
Sapnap’s eyes flick to his for a brief moment, incredulity apparent in his bewildered expression. “Dude, what are you talking about?”
“Look at his eyes! It’s not him!”
He watches the pain and anger on Sapnap’s face melt into confusion.
“It’s not him,” George repeats.
Slowly, Sapnap lowers his blade.
Through all of this, XD stands impassively by. He tracks the motion of Sapnap’s sword with his eyes, then turns his gaze back to George and a soft, familiar voice fills his head.
“Do you want me to kill him?”
“No!” George exclaims. “Don’t- he’s fine, you don’t need to hurt him!”
“But he’s bothering you. He trapped you here.”
“I’m not… Going to,” Sapnap says, brows furrowing. “Not until you tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I wasn’t- XD, talk out loud so he can hear you or this is going to get way too confusing,” George orders.
“Fine.”
The difference between XD’s voice in George’s head and the voice emanating from his physical form is night and day. Gone are the lilting echoes colored with soft affection. In their place is a low, rumbling growl that vibrates all the way down to George’s bones and sets every hackle in his body raising. Worse still, XD’s mouth doesn’t so much as twitch as he speaks, adding to the unnatural and deeply uncomfortable tones of his voice.
Sapnap shudders and raises his sword again. “Dream-”
XD turns his head the slightest degree toward Sapnap. “I’m not Dream.”
“Then… What…?”
“Sapnap. This is XD. He’s… My friend.”
“Your best friend,” XD adds.
At that, Sapnap’s face twists with clear displeasure and he growls, “What the fuck are you talking about? How can this- thing be your best friend? I thought-”
George tastes the ozone on the air and the crackling of static raises the hairs on his arms. Without thought, he throws himself into XD, wrapping his arms tightly around his cloaked form and shouting, “No! Don’t hurt him! You can’t hurt him!”
At once, the ozone retreats, and the air pressure evens back out.
XD tilts his head. “I can hurt him.”
“I know,” George replies, words muffled against the fabric his face is pressed against. “I’m asking you not to.”
“Why?”
“Because- because I care about him.”
“…You’re supposed to be my best friend, George.”
“I am. I haven’t forgotten my promise. But people can have more than one best friend, right?”
XD growls at that. It’s a deep, guttural sound that shakes the earth around them and knocks Sapnap off of his feet; were George not holding onto XD, he surely would have fallen over right with him.
“You don’t even care about me.”
“That’s not true!”
“Stop lying!”
“I’m not! Would I spend every second I can asleep if I didn’t care?! I choose to give up almost all of my waking life so I can spend time with you!”
XD growls again. “You left me to spend time with him.”
“No,” George protests. “I left to eat so I don’t die, and this idiot followed me and won’t leave me alone.”
XD whips his head around to stare down at Sapnap, still sprawled out on his ass on the ground. Sapnap stares back, eyes a mix of fear and fiery determination.
“I don’t like him.”
“I don’t care,” George snaps. “You can’t hurt him. Not without hurting me, too.”
“Mm…”
He sounds far too contemplative in that moment, so George follows his first impulse and grabs XD’s jaw, pressing his fingers into his skin until he turns to look down at him.
“You’re still my best friend,” George says. “Look. I’ll prove it.”
He leans up on his tip-toes and kisses XD.
The contact is brief, but XD’s lips are soft and warm and the mild surprise and confusion on his face serves only to deepen George’s blush.
“There,” George says, running his thumb over XD’s cheekbone. “I don’t do that with Sapnap. That’s- that’s only for my best best friend.”
XD ponders George for another moment, then smiles demurely. His cloak settles around him and he takes George’s hand as it slips from his face, and the heat between their palms thrums with an electric energy that moves through George’s spine like lightning.
“I don’t understand.”
Sapnap climbed to his feet at some point and now stares openly at George, brows slightly furrowed and lips parted.
“You’re… He’s…”
“It’s… Easier for him to visit me in my dreams,” George admits. “That’s how we met. It’s why we’re friends.”
“Best friends,” XD adds. “Forever.”
“But… Why does he- why do you look like Dream?”
XD hums. He tilts his head, and there’s a sickening crack somewhere within his cloaked form- then, with a nauseating jaggedness, pieces of his body shift and squash and melt. He drops several inches, his fair blond hair fades to jet black, and the mask tied around the side of his head elongates and squirms into a bandana. It takes only a few moments for the change to complete itself, and then George is holding hands with a near-perfect copy of Sapnap- the only difference are the eyes, still an unnaturally bright and gemlike pupiless green with a faintly pulsing X and D painted over their surface.
“Mortals care so much about appearances. Why is that?”
“Oh my god,” George mutters, suppressing the urge to retch.
Sapnap does not suppress his urge. He heaves into the grass, then weakly groans, “Please don’t do that again.”
XD laughs, though the sound is more akin to stones grinding together than anything else.
George frowns at him, mildly perturbed to see his constant companion looking so unlike what he’s used to. “This is weird,” he mutters. “Change back.”
“Okay.”
One more stomach-turning transformation later and XD is back in his usual form: a perfect echo of Dream as he was on the very first day he and George came to this server. He’s missing many of the scars the real deal accumulated over the months of fighting, and his face lacks that sharp, sunken look from long days of training and sleepless nights locked away in secret meetings or gathering supplies or scheming. XD’s form hums with an unnatural energy that sets him apart as being oh so slightly wrong, but in his uncanny eyes lies an innocence that Dream could never fake.
Simply put, XD is beautiful.
So it hurts when George turns back to Sapnap and sees the unguarded horror and suspicion written across his face. George squeezes XD’s hand tighter and buries the pain. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t.
“So- let me- explain this to me,” Sapnap says, voice rough from losing his lunch moments ago. “This- thing that looks exactly like Dream is… Your best friend?”
George shrugs. “Yeah, I guess.”
Sapnap inhales sharply and hisses, “How?”
“I already told you. When I sleep, he visits me, and we hang out.”
“And you… Kiss him,” Sapnap says.
George purses his lips. Warmth fills his cheeks, much as he wills his composure to hold, and eventually he’s forced to admit defeat, so he sighs and shrugs. “Yeah. Sometimes.”
“What is ‘kiss?’” XD asks, tilting his head slightly.
George buries his face in his hands and shakes his head. “It’s… Kissing is putting your lips against another person’s lips. You do that when you’re attracted to that person.”
“Attracted?”
“Uh…” George peeks at Sapnap through his fingers, but finds no offer of help in the other’s unimpressed face. “It’s… Like… When you get pleasure from someone, and being around them makes you feel good, and makes you want to be around them more.”
“Okay. So I’m attracted to you.”
George sputters while Sapnap chokes on a startled laugh. “I- I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
“It doesn’t sound complicated,” XD protests. “Besides, you kissed me, and you’ve done it before, so that means you’re attracted to me. Why shouldn’t I be attracted to you?”
“This is the worst conversation,” George laments. “How do I exit this plane of reality. I want out.”
“You’ve done it before?” Sapnap hisses.
“That is the seventh time George has kissed me,” XD dutifully reports. “How many times has he kissed you, Sapnap?”
“None! Because that’s not what best friends do! That’s what boyfriends do, and I already have my hands full in that department!”
“Boyfriends?”
“Oh my god- Sapnap. Stop. Talking.”
“George, am I your boyfriend?”
George buries his face in his hands and focuses on breathing deeply for several seconds. He can feel XD’s waning patience the longer he goes without answering, so he mumbles out through his fingers, “I don’t know.”
“Oh. How do we find out?”
“George already has a boyfriend,” Sapnap says.
George drops his hands and shoots a death glare his way, jaw clenching and hot anger flashing through his chest to raze any remaining goodwill he felt toward Sapnap.
“Who?”
“He’s lying,” George says.
“No, I’m not. The guy whose face you copied is George’s boyfriend.”
“He isn’t.”
Sapnap scoffs. “You do know that him going to jail isn’t a free breakup, right?”
“I left him a long while before that.”
“You- what? When?”
“…When he dethroned me,” George sighs. “I was just so angry. I couldn’t stand to be near him, so I waited until he fell asleep, packed my stuff, and left a letter.”
Sapnap looks stricken. “He… He definitely thinks you two are still together,” he says. “When I visited him he asked after you, and- and it was pretty clear. Are you sure you didn’t just ghost him like you ghosted the rest of us?”
Hurt flares to life in George’s chest. “That isn’t fair,” he says, shooting for indignant but landing far closer to pained. “I had nothing left after what he did. I just- I needed time to process.”
“Nothing-” Sapnap shakes his head. “You’re unbelievable, George. Did you forget about El Rapids? You had a country and a political office and- and four people who cared a whole hell of a lot about you and how you were doing, and you shut all of us out. You didn’t have nothing. You just threw away everything you had left for no fucking reason!”
“Oh, yeah, because my political office in El Rapids was so formal and important,” George growls. “That entire country was just us going along with Quackity’s bullshit, and you know it!”
Sapnap’s nostrils flare and he clenches his jaw. “Karl lost a life to help legitimize El Rapids,” he says, voice low and dangerous. “He only had to do that because you weren’t willing to negotiate with your goddamn boyfriend.”
George barks a cold, unamused laugh. “You seriously think I didn’t try?! He doesn’t listen to me, Sapnap! I tried to bargain for El Rapids to be independent and he stripped me of my crown for it!”
Sapnap falters. “Wait- what? But he said it was to protect you- because you were getting attacked.”
“Right, and I’m sure it’s a coincidence that it happened right after I tried to convince him and he got pissed and told me-” George’s voice catches in his throat. He can’t bring himself to complete the thought.
“…Told you what, George?”
“If you really loved me, you wouldn’t try to manipulate me like this. You’re really too stupid for your own good sometimes, George.”
The voice comes from beside him- from XD’s mouth. But it’s Dream’s voice, in a perfect imitation of the cruel inflections he used that night, and George is so taken aback he drops XD’s hand and takes a full step away from him.
XD tilts his head and frowns. “What?”
“Don’t do that,” George says, voice shaking. “Don’t- don’t.”
“Why not? That’s exactly what he said.”
“It hurts. Hearing it- it hurts me.”
“Oh.” XD glides back to George’s side and reaches into his cloak. His hand emerges from the rich green fabric gripping a shimmering potion, which he holds out to George in offering.
“Uh. What- what is this?”
“Instant healing.”
George sighs and tips his head back. “I meant it hurts my emotions, not my body.”
“I… Just do not understand mortals.”
“How the fuck did you do that?”
XD casts a brief glance toward Sapnap as he tucks the potion back into the oblivion beneath his cloak. “I’m god.”
“What the fuck,” Sapnap mutters under his breath.
XD blinks and cocks his head to the side. “Badboyhalo just went to sleep,” he says. “I have to go.”
“Wait-”
Before Sapnap can finish his protest, XD vanishes, and the tight, gripping tension in the air relaxes. Birdsong picks back up. The breeze rustles through branches. The sun grows warm again.
“What the fuck does he want with my dad?”
George blinks and shrugs. He spins on his heel and starts walking back toward Kinoko.
“Wait- George, hold up! Fucking- I’m trying to talk to you, dude!”
George groans and whirls back around. “What? What else could you possibly want from me?”
Sapnap looks stricken, and George’s anger cools with a soft edge of guilt for just a moment.
“I didn’t- I didn’t know that he dethroned you because of El Rapids. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know how I could possibly be more clear about this, Sapnap, but I do not want to talk about it.”
Sapnap’s fingers curl into tight fists at his sides. He looks sharply away. “Fine.”
“I’m going home,” George says.
“Okay.”
“Okay.” George turns and begins walking once again toward Kinoko. This time, Sapnap makes no move to stop him.
—
A familiar face awaits George when he closes his eyes again.
“Hello,” XD greets, cupping George’s face in his warm hands. He’s using his normal echoing voice rather than the teeth-grinding demonic one. It’s a stark improvement.
“Hey,” George says, resting a hand over one of XD’s. “Did you already finish up with Bad?”
“Yeah, a while ago. He woke up quickly and hasn’t gone back to sleep.”
“Can’t say I blame him. If I had nightmares every time I went to sleep, I would avoid it, too.”
XD smirks and slides a hand up to card through George’s hair. He leans into the touch, eyes fluttering shut and a contented sigh passing from his lips.
And then he hears Sapnap’s voice again, accusing him of ghosting them, and the moment sours. George frowns.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s stupid.”
“If it’s stupid, why are you sad about it?”
“I’m not-” George cuts himself off and withdraws from XD, turning to gaze out over the dreamscape- the same field where they spoke just an hour or so before- with his arms hugging his chest and a tight furrow in his brow. “I’m not sad, I’m… Angry.”
“Angry? Why?” XD drifts over the grass to hover at George’s side once more, though he doesn’t move to touch him.
“It’s… Hard to explain.”
“I want to understand.”
George turns to meet XD’s eyes and finds only earnest curiosity and concern there. He sighs.
“Sapnap… Said some stuff that… Hurt me,” George admits. “Emotionally. And I’m mad at him for saying it.”
“You said that when I imitated Dream, it hurt you,” XD says. “Does that mean you’re mad at me, too?”
“No. No, you… You didn’t know what you were saying was hurtful. Sapnap did.”
“But he’s supposed to be your friend. Why would he say something to hurt you?”
“Because he’s an idiot.” George balls his fingers into tight fists and exhales. “…I think he’s mad at me, too. Sometimes when you’re mad at someone, you want to hurt them.”
“You wouldn’t let me hurt him, though.”
“Because you would have killed him.”
“Oh, come on, I might not have.”
“Really?” George stares XD down.
“…Okay, yeah, I would have.”
“Exactly.”
“So you… Want him to get hurt without actually hurting him?”
George shrugs. “I guess.”
“Like a nightmare.”
George shrugs again. “Sure.”
They’re both quiet for a long moment.
Then XD places a hand on George’s shoulder and the world around them flickers and melts like a reflection on a pool of water. The distorted image shifts and settles back to a familiar sight- Kinoko Kingdom, bathed in moonlit shadow.
“...Why here?” George asks.
XD points wordlessly to a figure standing in the middle of the pond. George squints until he can make out the features as belonging to Sapnap.
“Wait-”
Then everything explodes.
It’s not like the real thing. In the waking world, the shockwave of a blast hits like a truck and the crush of heat comes chasing after to suffocate or burn anything that dared stand too close to the blast origin. It wouldn’t be heard, because it would shatter ear drums before the sound could ever translate into meaning. Here, there’s a sound louder than anything George could ever imagine and a bright flash of light, and then half of the buildings of his home are crumbling and burning and the other half are well on their way to the same fate.
Sapnap sinks to his knees and wails.
George creeps closer. Something within him compels him forward, through the raining embers and ashes and to his best friend, submerged to his chest in black water reflecting the void sky. It’s only when he’s at an angle that lets him see Sapnap in profile that he spots what’s floating in front of him:
Karl.
Dark crimson clouds the water around his body. His eyes are open wide, but they’re glassy and lifeless- only more mirrors to reflect the flicking flames.
And somewhere distant, Dream’s laugh echoes.
“I don’t want to be here,” George whispers. “I don’t- I don’t want to see this- take me away from here- make it stop, get it away-”
He’s shouting by the end of it, and Sapnap whips around to stare at him.
“You did this,” he says, voice raw and quivering.
“No,” George protests. “No, I didn’t- I had nothing to do with this!”
“You helped him! I saw you!”
“No! XD, get me the fuck out of here!”
Sapnap sloshes to his feet and draws his sword, but before he can advance, George is somewhere else.
Or… He’s nowhere. It’s just a black void beneath his feet.
And he’s completely alone.
George breaks into a sweat and his stomach drops.
He opens his mouth to speak, but the air is sucked instantly from his lungs and he’s choking, chest crushing, throat collapsing-
-and then he’s back in the field. Back in the warmthless sunlight, the swaying grass, the silent flowers.
XD sits beside him and begins methodically weaving daisies into a crown.
George curls in on himself and focuses on taking deep, even breaths until his heart stops pounding in his chest and the sobs threatening to break from his throat subside.
“What… The fuck?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Why did you show me that?”
“I thought it was what you wanted- to see Sapnap get hurt without actually hurting him.”
“That’s not what I- no, I mean- the thing after! The, the- the place with no floor. It felt like I was getting crushed to death just being there!”
XD ducks his head and looks sheepish of all things. “Yeah, that was an accident. I wasn’t expecting to have to pull you out of the dream that quickly and I sent you to the wrong place at first.”
“What the hell was that place?”
“The void. It’s a good thing I grabbed you so fast; even I can’t last long there.”
George fists a hand in his hair and stares at the careful movements of XD’s fingers through the weave of daisy stems. That strange, thrumming energy is far more powerful here in the dreamscape, and it pulses along with a rhythm George can’t see or hear so much as feel in the world. As XD inhales, the breeze sways the grass and flowers and trees; as he weaves, the clouds swirl and dance. This world is alive, and XD is its beating heart.
George decides he does not need to know anything more about a place that could kill a god.
“You can give Sapnap nightmares if you want,” George says, “but I don’t want to see them. The things that upset him… They upset me, too.”
“Okay.” XD finishes the crown with a final twist of stems. He turns and places it carefully onto George’s head. In his peripheral vision, more flowers sprout and bloom from the vines.
“Take me somewhere nice.”
XD smirks in a way so reminiscent of Dream it makes George’s chest ache. “Is this not enough for you?”
“I’ve heard people talking about a new world or something,” George says. “I want to see it, but I can’t be bothered to go in person. Show me?”
XD’s smile turns rueful. “I would if I were able, but that place is not within my domain.”
George’s brows furrow. “How?”
“I did not make it.”
“What? Who did, then? I thought you made everything.”
“Everything that was,” XD corrects. “Now, though, another with the power to shape the realms built his own dimension.”
“I didn’t think there was anyone like you.”
“There isn’t. I suppose you could say he is my pet.”
George barks out a startled laugh. “What, like a dog? A dog made a new world?”
“No. A person, like you.”
At once, his mouth falls shut. George scoffs. “What do you mean, like me? I’m not your pet.”
“Is it such a bad thing, to be a pet?”
“Yes! People can’t be-” George cuts himself short and crosses his arms, leaning against his knees. “I… Don’t want to be a pet to you. I want you to see me as a person.”
“I don’t see why those two things are mutually exclusive,” XD says. “But I don’t see you as my pet, George. Callahan is a pet. Foolish is a pet. Karl is a pet. You are my best friend.”
“Good.” George purses his lips. “...Karl?”
“Karl Jacobs. He lives in the mushroom village with you.”
“No, I- I know who he is. I didn’t think you… Knew him?”
“I know everyone.”
“But you don’t talk to everyone.”
“No. I have not spoken to Karl, but I have to keep an eye on him.”
Keep an eye on him? As far as George knows, the extent of Karl’s activities of late has been lying around reading books from his library and sleeping with Sapnap, going off of the hickeys that slip into view when his oversized hoodie slips down his neck.
Not that George is awake often enough to see much of Karl, but the point stands.
“Why?”
XD smiles and shrugs. “Don’t worry about it.”
George shoots him a skeptical look, then sighs and flops backward into the grass. “Whatever. I don’t care.”
XD lays himself gingerly beside George and lifts a hand up toward the sky. He wiggles his fingers, and the clouds swirl and twist into recognizable shapes- a flame, then an axe, then a mushroom.
“...Hey,” George murmurs. “Why am I your best friend when the others are just pets?”
XD hums and drops his hand to his chest, abandoning a cloud halfway into shaping it as a cat. “Because you’re different.”
“Different how?”
“I don’t know exactly. You sleep more than anyone, but it’s not just that; being near you… It’s never boring. Not even when it should be.”
“So I’m just a source of entertainment to you.”
“That’s certainly part of it, but I wouldn’t say that’s your only use.”
George scoffs. “Great.”
“I’m attracted to you. Being near you makes me feel good, George.”
George blushes and buries his face in his hands. “Don’t- you can’t just say that.”
“Why not? It’s true.”
“Because there are implications.”
“Like what?”
“Well-” George purses his lips and turns his head to look at XD. XD turns to meet his gaze, expression full of earnest curiosity and soft expectations. “...Are you going to get bored of me?”
“Never.” XD grins. “You’re my best friend forever, George. I mean it.”
“Good.”
George sits up and flips a leg over XD’s middle to straddle his waist. He cups XD’s jaw and looks between his mismatched eyes for a moment, then leans down and kisses him softly.
He pulls back after a moment.
“Are you sad?”
George’s brows furrow.
“You only kiss me when you’re sad,” XD explains.
“...No, I’m- this time it’s because I’m happy.”
“Oh. Okay.” XD smiles and carefully threads his fingers into the hair at the back of George’s neck. “Can you do it again?”
George huffs a laugh. “Yeah.”
XD kisses him back this time, and the thrumming of the world vibrates down George’s spine and sets every nerve ending alight with jubilant pleasure. XD’s free hand roams over his back and in its wake, George can feel the ghost of flowers that would sprout from his skin like soil were he just a bit less mortal. Fragile as he is, they push free from his crown instead, stems and leaves weaving into his hair, over his neck, and across his sweater. A particularly brave cluster creep down his left arm and tangle between his fingers.
George pulls away to study them. “What kind are these?”
“Forget-me-nots,” XD says. He brings George’s hand to his lips and kisses his knuckles. “I want to be your boyfriend, George.”
“You don’t even know what that means,” George murmurs.
“I asked Foolish. He said it means that I love you, and I want to be the most important to you. Is that true?”
“...I guess.”
“So let me be your boyfriend.”
George shuts his eyes and pushes away the imposing obsidian walls in his mind’s eye. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
XD grins and leans up to kiss George again. Into his lips, he murmurs, “I don’t know exactly how to be a boyfriend. Will you teach me?”
“I will,” George replies. “You have all the time in the world to learn, right?”
“Forever.”
He huffs a laugh. “Yeah. Forever.”