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Sighing loudly, George dropped onto the soft mattress of his freshly made bed and closed his eyes.
He was now the proud owner of a small house on the outskirts of London and after spending the last few hours lugging countless boxes back and forth he was exhausted.
At least the most of his work was done, the only thing left to do was to unpack the boxes and set up some furniture, but that could wait until tomorrow, he decided.
-----
While the brunette lay on his bed and appeared to be sleeping peacefully, another figure stood across the room, his eyes watching the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest.
The being appeard to be a man no older than the sleeping one, leaning casually against the wall with folded arms and a sour expression.
He wasn't thrilled about having to share the house with a human again, even if said human was extremely cute and definitely his type.
A few hours earlier, he had spotted the brunette talking to a few people outside his home before starting to carry one box after the other out of a truck and into the house, where he distributed and sorted them into the individual rooms.
Admittedly, it had been a lot of fun watching the boy struggle to carry the heavy boxes upstairs.
If he weren't a spiritually transparent being in the form offen a young man, he would've certainly offered his help, since he felt a little bad just watching the whole thing.
From experience, however, he could also say that people didn't take it so well when a human suddenly appeared out of thin air, even if it just wanted to offer help.
At first Dream thought it was a bit sad that everyone reacted to his appearance like that, especially when he didn't mean any harm, but after a while he had come to appreciate this reaction from the living.
After all, it was so much easier for him to get the unwanted people out of his home like this.
After all, not many people liked living in a haunted house.
No wonder the price got so cheap over the years.
It was always the same routine, someone would move in and finally move out again after Dream moved a few things back and forth once or twice, slammed the doors at night and even showed up a few times if necessary.
Although most of the time just spooking around a bit was enough and he rarely had to actually show himself.
It was his last resort.
He had the satisfying feeling the brown haired one wasn't going to last too long.
----
Turns out Dream was wrong.
It was four months ago that the brunette had moved in and the blonde was slowly losing his patience and mind.
George, that, he learned was the name of his unwanted roommate, didn't seem the least bit bothered or frightened no matter what he did.
He'd tried everything from moving furniture to nighttime noises and objects floating or disappearing.
None of this seemed to bother the Brit and it frustrated Dream to no end.
What was wrong with this man that he didn't even react to the things he did?
He started to wonder what was wrong with the man, when the brunette just ignored the floating chair in his kitchen and just carried on with his day.
Dream also recalled George not even batting an eye as he picked up a cup right in front of him and dropped it on the floor where it shattered into tiny little pieces, waiting for George to dispose of.
Once Dream had sat in front of the bedroom door in the middle of the night and just started screaming at the top off his lungs.
The brunette didn't even flinch, he just rolled over and continiued sleeping as if the neighbors hadn't most likely jumped out of their beds at the sudden screaming.
Dream was extremely frustrated and irritated, and admittedly a little desperate at this point.
Somehow George was weird, but at the same time interesting, maybe even a bit crazy,
What sane person would just stay here and ignore the obvious signs of a fucking ghost?
For the next two weeks, Dream kept quiet and observed, spending intense time studying George in hopes of somehow finding out something about him that he could use against him so that he would finally move out.
Somehow that thought of George moving out left a bitter taste on his tongue.
This was by far the most interesting human he had ever meet, did he really want to get rid of him just for the next idiot to move in and bother him?
At times he even started to feel a bit bad for terrorizing the man so much, so he started doing him little favors to make himself feel better, hoping he wouldn't notice or pay attention to it.
Once George had lost his pair of keys and had spent a whole evening looking for them until Dream finally took pity on the poor brit and decided to help.
He nearly died a second time when George loudly thanked him, as Dream found the keys and made them float towards the brunette.
Then he had realized that he liked it when George smiled, he responded much better to positive gestures on Dream's part than to all the mean little pranks he pulled.
Now everytime the brit smiled, he had little butterflys fluttering around in his stomach.
He tried to suppress this as best he could.
George needed to move out like everyone else and no stupid feelings would stop Dream from making it happen.
He just wanted to finally spend eternity here in peace without being constantly disturbed by those who were still alive.
Was he asking for too much?
To his surprise, the sudden silence in the house seemed to irritate the brown haired man a lot.
It was as if he missed cleaning up after Dream's ass.
At the end of the first week, he watched as George began to place cups and plates on the edges of tables and other kitchen surfaces, seemingly on purpose.
He left all the doors in the house open in the evening and stayed up longer than usual, waiting for something to happen.
Dream soon realised that he was trying to lure him into smashing stuff again.
It confused Dream and at the same time made him feel things he definitely shouldn't be feeling.
In the second week George suddenly seemed oddly determined before leaving the house for the whole afternoon.
Dream was confused again.
------
Within the first week of living here, George had came to terms with the fact that his new home was somehow haunted.
The house was cheap and he really liked it here, a ghost was not gonna be the reason he would move out again.
He could live with the nightly hauntings, the shifting or moving objects and the shit that he had to replace every so often because it got somehow broken.
In a weird way, he even found it quite interesting to observe how the ghost's behavior seemed to change the longer his doings were ignored by George.
He was a bit unsure about the situation at first, after all, you always hear so many horror stories about situations like this, but George quickly realized that it wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be.
Sometimes he had to stifle his giggles and hide his smile when he had to search for certain things in his house, or when the chair across from him moved and the presence of another being who seemed to be staring holes in his head appeard.
From time to time the ghost even seemed to do him small favors, although he wasn't sure why it had the sudden chance off heart.
Not that he was complaining.
Sometimes disappeared items that George had misplaced a while ago turned up again, he also kept on finding money on his bedside table.
He was firmly convinced that one morning he had found that all his dirty dishes had been cleaned, dried and been put away overnight after he had a pretty bad day at work.
It always made him smile when he realized his ghost was helping him with something, which made having to clean broken glass from the floor three times a week a lot more bearable.
He had gotten used to this whole routine weirdly quick and if he was honest he was starting to like the ghost he was living with.
That's why he was extremely confused when his roommate begann behaving weird one day.
Things stopped moving, nothing broke and it was quiet at night.
At first George had thought the ghost was gone or something, but he still felt the presence of a it, it was still there, but for some reason it had stopped interacting with him.
He should be glad the haunting stopped, but he just couldn't.
Instead, he found himself in a state of sadness and frustration.
Did he do something wrong?
But then why was the ghost still here when it had stopped terrorizing him?
After a whole week, a thought came to him.
Could it be that it had given up trying to get him out of the house?
George chuckled a little at the thought of the ghost simply resigning himself to his presence.
It didn't do much to improve George's mood though, he didn't want the ghost to stop interacting with him.
So George made a decision and set out to put his idea into action.
And so one afternoon George went out to get a quija board.
If his ghostly companion didn't take the first step toward further interaction, then he would.
Getting the board somewhere turned out to be a little harder than expected, but not by any means impossible.
With a simple quija board now in his possession , George made his way back home.
When he arrived, he put the board, which was stowed in a bag, in front of his bed and sat down on the edge of it.
Should he try now or later?
He remembered that people in movies and storys didn't use the board until nighttime, so should he just wait for it to get dark outside?
Ultimately he decided to wait until nighttime if he was gonna do this then he would do it right, for the feeling.
And so the bag lingered in his bedroom for the rest of the day before he got ready for bed and sat on his bed, pulling out the quija board and placing it on the bed in front of him.
He placed the piece of cardboard that came with the board in the center of the it, but hesitated before placing his fingers on it.
He had been able to feel the presence following him around all day since he had returned home, but now it seemed to have disappeared.
That wasn't too odd though, the presence of the ghost always seemed to disappear whenever George changed in the bedroom and went to bed.
A smile tugged at his lips at the thought of the ghost giving him his privacy.
Unsure when and if the ghost would come back, George sat waiting on his bed, patiently glancing around the room.
He didn't want to start without his ghost here, who knows what else he might end up summoning otherwise.
His eyes kept on glancing to the clock hanging next to the door and after ten minutes with nothing happening, he let out a disappointed sigh.
What did he expect? That the ghost came back to watch him sleep all night?
Maybe it would have been better to get this over with while it was still day and the ghost didn't care about his privacy.
Danm the Ghost for having manners and boundaries.
Several minutes later, defeated, George put the board aside and lay down.
So he would have to do it tomorrow morning, it wasn't like the ghost was running away from him anyways.
-----
In the middle of the night George woke up again.
He tried going back to sleep, but no matter how often he turned and twisted, he couldn't fall back asleep.
Irritated, he rolled onto his back and sighed, he usually never had trouble sleeping.
As he opened his eyes and sat up, contemplating just scrolling through Twitter until he got tired again, his sleepy gaze slid to the door directly opposite to his bed.
For a split second he thought he saw a silhouette in the doorway, but when he blinked it was gone.
George rubbed his eyes wearily, it wouldn't be the first time he saw things in the darkness that were really just jackets or some shadows.
He reached for his bedside table and flicked on the lamp, which instantly lit the room in a dim light.
He glanced at the door again and found it opend.
George froze a bit, he had never in his life been so sure that he had closed a door as he was right now.
His eyes were locked to the darkness of the hallway, the dark shadows seemed to be moving and George wasn't sure if it was just his imagination or if something paranormal was happening right before his eyes.
A soft creaking sound sliced trough the silence, coming from the darkness of the hallway and for the first time in the months George had lived here, he felt something like fear.
Maybe it was more uncertainty than fear, after all he'd experienced far more unsettling things in the last few months than simple noises from the hallway.
Still, maybe it was because the house had been quiet for two weeks, or because the quija board was still lying open on the floor not even half a meter away from him.
Yes, maybe he should have put it away properly.
Could the thing somehow activate itself without him using it?
Was that possible?
No way it just brought in another ghost or something, right?
Ok now he was making himself paranoid, which wasen't too good right now.
It was quiet again as George grabbed his phone and tried to distract himself.
So he opened Twitter and shortly after he mostly forgot about the hallway.
In hindsight it would have been smart to close the door or turn on the hall light.
3:26am Said his phone the next time he checked the time, 15 minutes on Twitter and there still seemed no chance of further sleep.
Slowly George started to think about why he wasen't able to sleep through the night as usual, maybe it really was the stupid Quija board.
defeated, George put the phone aside and swung his legs over the edge of the bed before lifting the board off the floor and getting up to put it back in the bag wich he then put in his closet.
Out of sight, out of mind, maybe he would finally be able to fall back into his dreamlands now, he was definitely worrying too much about the suddenly ending haunting and shit.
The Board had done more damage than it helped him.
What a waste of time and money.
George turned around after closing his closet and his eyes once again lingered on the open door.
Ridiculous how he suddenly acted so hesitantly just because of a bit of darkness and a sound.
He had previously heard noises from the hallway that would make anyone else's blood run cold, and even then nothing had ever stopped him from closing the door after it had been mysteriously opened.
He'd never really been afraid of his ghost, so what was different now?
his ghost?
When did he start adressing it as his?
George shook his head and just flopped back into his bed.
No spirit in the world would stop him from getting his much needed sleep.
A few minutes later, the brown haired boy actually found himself on the verge of falling asleep again, when another sound reached his ears.
For the first time, he'd actually been startled by something other than a plate or cup shattering.
Blinking irritatingly, he sat up a bit and looked over to his door.
Unnatural green eyes shone out of the darkness, accompanied by the light silhouette of a person leaning against the wall in the hallway across from the door to his room.
This time when George blinked and rubbed his eyes without breaking eye contact, the figure was still there, not disappearing like all the times he caught glimes of a shadow or movement before.
So George assumed he didn't imagin the shadow he saw right after waking up after all.
The realization that it has been watching him sleep and that it was still there after he woke up, waiting for him to lie down to sleep again, sent a cold shiver through his body.
Noises and other paranormal occurrences were one thing he could easily handle, seeing the cause of all the daily terror right in front of him was something completly different.
How do you behave when the ghost that was trying to drive you away and then started acting weird around you suddenly showed itself to you?
Should George say something or?
Maybe not, who says the ghost was here to have a nice litte chat with him?
A thought crossed George's mind that drained the color from his face and widened his pupils in fear.
What if the ghost haf been working out a plan for the last few weeks to get rid of him for good?
Oh god, what if George had created the perfect portal for him to enter the world of the living to kill him by acquiring the quija board?
oh God
George had assumed the ghost had somehow started to like him too, not even considering that it might have any other ulterior motives.
George was snapped back to reality as his bedside lamp began to flicker before its light went out, leaving the room in complete darkness once again.
Only the moonlight coming from the window allowed George to see the rough outlines of the room, but that didn't make it any better.
Frozen as he was, he couldn't bring himself to even try turning the lamp back on.
To make matters worse, George couldn't see far enough to know if the figure in the hallway was still there or not.
Only when it slowly approached him could he see it again.
Oh god it was coming his way, George realized, holding his breath and feeling real fear for the first time since he moved here.
After all, who wouldn't be afraid to die in this situation?
When George could capture the dull glow of two green eyes again, he closed his eyes shut and pressed his lips tightly together, waiting.
Although he couldn't hear any footsteps or other noises, he knew that the male figure was moving towards him.
Crackling almost made him open his eyes again, George just managed to keep himself from doing it, afraid what he would come to face if he did.
He jerked slightly as weight suddenly settled on his legs and stayed there.
It was quiet, almost dead quiet, if it weren't for the shaky breaths George let out before slightly opening his eyes a bit.
The light suddenly clicked on again, prompting the Brit to open his eyes fully.
George cautiously looked around his room and straightened up a little, making sure no one was in the room before allowing himself to breathe a sigh of relief and look down at his lap.
The quija board sat there as if it had never been in the closet.
George grabbed his forehead with a shaky hand before running his fingers through his messy hair.
Was that just another attempt to scare him?
Just like it had been for the last few months, only this time he was actually scared.
George looked up, the door was closed.
Although he was visibly alone, he felt the all too familiar presence of another person.
George felt like he was going to faint any moment.
Despite the circumstances, George found himself slowly calming down.
It was okay, just another -this time sucsesfull- try to scare him from the ghost he shared his home with.
It was nothing new, no reason to be scared.
The brunette looked down again as the piece of cardboard started moving on the quija board.
George raised an eyebrow, shouldn't he touch the disc before it started moving?
Was this something that could happen?
He should have invested more time in researching the fucking Board before getting it.
Interested, George followed the disc's movement as it slowly slid from letter to letter, forming a single word.
SCARED?
George had to suppress a smile at that.
Oh yeah his ghostly companion definietly got him this time.
George was scared for his life for a second there.
"Yeah, you got me pretty good I guess."
The Brit laughed quietly, still a bit shocked by the events of the night.
He was so used to the sudden inactivity from the ghost, that this caught him really off guard.
He was still a little shaky from all the adrenaline pumping through his body.
However, his body slowly calmed down again, especially now that the atmosphere in the room wasn't as tense as it was a few minutes before.
"For a moment I thought this was the end for me."
Relieved laughter followed from George.
Expectantly, George returned his attention to the board, but it made no sign to move any further.
But he could clearly feel that the ghost was still in the room, like it was sitting on the bed in front of him.
After a short silence, George just decided to finally ask his questions.
No harm done in trying, right?
So he put a finger on the disc and thought about what to start with.
"Ah! Your name, what's your name?"
A good start, not an overly intrusive or offensive question.
He was also curious who he had been living with for months.
The disc circled briefly over the board, the ghost seemingly hesitaiting, before beginning to move across the letters again.
When the disk was centered again and gave no further indication of anything to add, George began to piece together the individual letters in his head.
"Dream...? is that correct?"
He asked a little uncertainly.
Dream, what an odd name, but he didn't want to unnecessarily upset the being, so he decided against voicing his thoughts on it.
The disc moved to 'yes'.
"Ok" George said softly, glad that he coukd finally assign a name to his roommate.
"Ehm, so that was really you before?"
Again the answer was yes.
So from what he saw before, he assumed the ghost was male.
George hummed as he considered what else to ask.
He hesitated a bit before asking his next question, a little worried about the possible answer, but he wanted to make sure where the two stood before continuing.
"You- Mhm, didn't really want to hurt me tho, did you?"
He would have preferred to close his eyes and ignore the answer, but the disc moved to 'No' so quickly that George couldn't even think of doing anything.
Relieved, he mumbled a soft 'Ok' before he had to laugh a little again.
"What was that for anyway? It's been pretty quiet the last two weeks."
Nothing happened for a moment, as if Dream had to think about the answer himself.
Then the disc moved again, this time forming three words.
QUIJA BOARD - SPEAKING
For a moment George had to think about the meaning of the words before a soft "Oh" escaped him and he had to stiffle a giggle.
Of course, the Ghos-Dream noticed that George had brought home a quija board and apparently he had less patience than George when it came to using it.
"The board changed something, didn't it? I was never able to see you in the past."
George asked the room.
The next answer was a bit surprise to George.
NO
He wasn't sure what Dream could mean with that.
Was he always able to show himself?
He just choose not to?
Again, what a waste of money to get that stupid board.
"You mean you could have shown yourself earlier?"
George asked hesitantly, not sure how to feel about that.
The next answer came slow, Dream taking his time to think about his awnser.
YOU WANNA SEE AGAIN?
Did George want to see again?
Good question.
George was a little unsure, but how much damage could seeing his ghost do again now?
This time without fear pumping though his veins and in proper lighting.
"Yes please" He said after a moment's thought and a deep breath.
EYES CLOSED
And so George closed his eyes again, without fear, this time with expactation and a touch of uncertainty.
Something changed in the air, not sure what it was but something was different
George exhaled in surprise as hands came to cup his face.
Fingers slowly stroked his cheeks until both hands were over his eyes, preventing George from seeing anything should he open his eyes.
"You can open them now"
George didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't for his ghost to speak in a soft, honey dripping voice.
Unexpexted was also the american accent the voice posses.
After a bit hesitation, George finally opened his eyes, at the same time the hands, plus their gentle touch, moved away from his face.
George blinked a few times before looking at the person sitting in front of him on the bed with only the quija board between them.
The same green eyes as before, tainted skin speckled with tiny freckles and golden blond hair smiled back at him.
Dream looked young, a little younger than George maybe and that made the Brit wonder how the man before him ended up as a ghost.
It would be rude to ask, however, especially since ghosts in movies and stories never responded well to being asked about their deaths.
So George decided it would be wise to not ask.
Instead, he looked the fairly handsome male in front of him over.
Dream wore a simple green hoodie and light colored jeans, nothing notable except that he was quite a lot taller than the brunette even when seated.
"You know, if you so badly wanted to talk to me, you could have just asked."
Came from Dream as he cast a somewhat skeptical look at the quija board.
"Yes?"
George was still a bit perplexed.
It wasn't every day that you found out that the spirit you were living with was exceedingly attractive.
Dream grinned slightly as he looked back at George and obviously caught him staring.
"Yeah, the quija board is a bit unnecessary when I can talk to you like that, don't you think?"
George just nodded, a little embarrassed.
"So the quija board didn't cause any of this?"
"nope"
George hummed in understanding and found himself glancing over Dream's face again.
He took his time remembering every little detail to burn it intop his memory, who knows when he would see him up so close the next time.
Additionally, George suddenly noticed how Dream's Form had a tiny bit of transparency, it was barely noticeable, but it was there.
George guessed that made sense, after all the blonde was a ghost and not a normal human.
Loud laughter tore the brunette out of his little world off admiration for the blonde.
Dream was leaning over himself, clutching his stomach while letting out the funniest laugh George had ever heard from anybody.
"What?" George asked confused while stifling his own laughter, Dream's laughter was just too funny.
"You're staring" Was all his Rommate managed before he started dying again and this time George couldn't help but laugh too.
It felt weird, this whole situation, almost as if there was another person sitting across from him and not a slightly transparent Ghost that had been trying to make life difficult for him since the moment he moved in.
"If I had known you would react like that, I would have done this much sooner." Said Dream, the moment he could breath again.
George felt his cheeks grow hotter and the smirk on the blonde's face didn't make it any better.
"Why didn't you?"
Instantly, Dream's grin fell from his face and it got colder in the room, George blinked in confusion, as if he'd just made a big mistake by asking.
He nearly forgot that it wasen't a human sitting with him on his bed.
"How do you think most people react when a ghost suddenly appears before them?"
Dream asked him, his voice a bit lowerd abd something like sadness flashed trough his eyes.
"Oh"
"Ok, but why- Why did you stop?"
"Stop?"
George briefly considered how exactly he should ask his question.
"You suddenly stopped doing things, I haven't had to replace dishes in like two weeks."
Dream chuckled.
"Would you like me to start this again?"
George quickly shook his head.
"No! no I was just wondering."
He clarified quickly.
Serious green eyes met brown ones and again George wondered if he had asked too much.
Maybe it would be better for him to remember that Dream was something supernatural and not something like his friend.
Yet, he kinda wanted to befriend the blonde ghost.
But no matter how much he'd started to like his ghost, especially now that he'd gotten to know him personally, that didn't mean he liked him back.
"Listen George, I'm not a fan of having other people live in my home and I usually do anything to get rid of them, so you better be glad I like you."
George didn't have a good answer to that, so he just nodded along.
"I don't know what's wrong with you but nothing I've tried has had any effect on you and I still wonder why is that?"
As he spoke, he had started leaning forward until he and George were only inches apart.
"I don't know." George said, too fixated on how easy it would be to connect their lips.
"You do not know?"
Dream spoke softly, one of his hands finding its way back to George's face and the brown haired man gasped in anticipation as his thumb brushed his lower lip.
"You have no idea what you're doing to me? You don't know what your behavior and pretty eyes do to me?"
The ghost had lowered his voice, words whispering against the brit's lips, who wanted nothing more than to finally feel the other's soft looking lips.
George felt like everything was going a little too fast right now, but he didn't find it in himself to care or do anything about it.
"Oh George, do you know how conflicted I've been these past few weeks? I don't want to share my home, but I don't want you to leave either."
George swallowed, feeling drunk, his attention glued to every word the other spoke.
Perhaps he had been alone for too long that he let an otherworldly being seduce him like that in the middle of the night.
"I don't want you to leave me George"
Fingers glid from his face up into his hair before the blonde leaned in further and finally placed his lips on George's.
The kiss was slow and gentle, but George could sense a certain possessivnes the taller one brought into the kiss.
George had never felt like this when kissing someone, if he had his way, this moment would never end.
Dream seemed to think the same, instead of breaking away from him he deepened the kiss.
George would've loved to have opened his lips for him and let his tongue in, but unfortunately his lungs reminded him that he was very much a human and unfortunatly had to breathe.
So he had no other choice turn to part from Dream and fill his lungs with much needed air.
The blond, on the other hand, seemed to have little trouble as he rested his forehead against his and again George was reminded that the man in front of him was no human.
George couldn't bring himself to let that fact bother him as he was the one leaning in to continue the kiss this time.
"You can't leave this house again"
Dream murmured as they parted again some time later, with George gasping for air.
"I don't think I want to anyways."
Replied George, arms around the others neck and eyes closed, a satisfied smile on his face.
The ghost smiled while peting the other's soft, messy hair.
"Would you like me to continue answering some off your questions?"
George shook his head.
"Tomorrow, if you're still here?"
Dream chuckled and rolled the two of them over so he was lying on his back with the brunette on his chest.
"You'd be surprised how long I can hold a physical form."
George nodded against the blonde's hoodie, suddenly reminded that it was in the middle of the night and that he was supposed to be sleeping.
"Sleep, i will be here when you wake up."