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George smacked around his bed blindly searching for the loud blaring noise that woke him up. With an annoyed huff, he threw his blankets off himself only to hear a thud. He groaned as he dramatically reached over the side of the bed to see his phone laying on the floor, which happened to be where the noise was coming from.
He picked up the phone and his face immediately softened a smile forming on his face. Incoming Call flashed on the screen along with the unforgettable profile pictures that belonged to both himself and Dream. He quickly swiped up and accepted the call, wondering why Dream was calling him when it was 4 am in Florida.
“Hey,” George sluggishly greeted Dream. “Why are you awake? And why are you calling? Are you okay? Is Sapnap okay?”
“We’re both fine, don’t worry.” Dream assured. I just couldn’t sleep and I missed you.”
With a sigh of relief, George relaxed, unaware of the panic that had begun to set in when he had realized what time it was for Dream. Dream didn’t usually call him at ungodly hours, usually he waited for George to let him know he was awake before they began their morning call. Or if they did call at ungodly hours it was because they were already on call, both of them staying on until they passed out and then some.
“I miss you too.” George promised Dream. “What can I do to help? You need to get some sleep, Dream.”
“Uh, I dunno, maybe just listen? Like I’m tired but I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes I just remember that you aren’t here or I remember what being with you in London was like. Getting to spend that week with you was the happiest I can remember being in months.” Dream rambled.
George nodded before remembering they didn’t have their cameras on at the moment. “It was the happiest I had been in months too.” He whispered as Dream continued.
“Plus, it’s almost Christmas and after London I really thought you were gonna get to be here for Christmas. I thought we would get to wake up and open presents with Sapnap together. I thought we would get to make cheesy Christmas cookies together with Drista while decorating all the gingerbread men shaped ones as members of the server. I had all these ideas of what Christmas was going to be like and now I barely want to celebrate it because you aren’t here.”
“Dream…”
“I know! I know! It’s dumb, I love Christmas so to be so upset of this seems stupid!” Dream complained, his voice full of disappointment.
George opened his mouth to speak before closing it. He didn’t know what to say, he was at a loss, he understood what Dream was saying, he understood it so well, he was having the same thoughts, the same sadness, the same hopelessness. But at the same time, he wanted Dream to enjoy Christmas, it was one of his favorite holidays, it wasn’t right that he was the reason Dream was no longer excited about Christmas.
“It isn’t stupid, I get it. I thought I would be with you and Sapnap too, enjoying the warm Florida weather, not sitting in London with Christmas in three days. I thought we would be going last-minute Christmas shopping for Sapnap right now. And I wanted you to show me all of your favorite ornaments as we decorated the tree while eating Pizza Hut. I wanted all of that with you.” George admitted. “I’m sorry… if I had, maybe if I had applied for the visa earlier-
“No.” Dream interrupted. “This isn’t your fault, this isn’t on you in any way George, please don’t think that.”
“But-”
“No buts, you can’t control how fast visas process, or anything like that. I’m sorry if I somehow made you think it was your fault-”
“You didn’t make me feel like that Dream, it is my fault-”
“It’s not… it’s out of your control. It’s out of both of our controls.” Dream trailed off for a moment. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too.” George responded.
Neither of them had anything to be sorry for, George knew that, but it was a sorry that didn’t really mean sorry. It was one full of longing, and desire for what could’ve been. Not being able to see Dream for Christmas still hadn’t fully hit George. He knew he wasn’t going to, they had talked about it a lot, this call wasn’t far off from others they’d had in the past weeks. But this one was different for some reason. This one made it seem real. It was reality crashing into George at full force, the reality that yeah, he really wasn’t going to see Dream for Christmas, that he wasn’t sure when he was going to see Dream again.
“Hey…” Dream said, pulling George out of his thoughts.
“Hey…” George said with a sniffle, he hadn’t realized he was crying until he wiped his hand across his cheek. “I’m not going to see you for Christmas.”
“I know… and it sucks.”
“It does.” George agreed. “There’s not even a brightside to any of this.”
“Don’t you get to go home to see your family now?” Dream asked.
“That’s not home.” George said abruptly.
“What do you mean?” Dream questioned quietly, as if he already knew the answer.
“London hasn’t been home since you left.” George mumbled. “And my family, yeah they’re my family I guess, but you guys mean more to me than they ever have. Like, I’m close with my siblings, but it's everyone else that’s going to be there that I dread seeing. They all think I’m going to the States, so I’ll probably just stay in my apartment watching films.”
“You shouldn’t spend Christmas alone, it’s just going to make you more sad.”
“I guess I can call Wilbur or something, I don’t think he’s going home either, he mentioned that he wasn’t seeing them till New Years Eve to exchange gifts.”
“That would be good, much better than being alone.” Dream said softly. “And you’re my family too, I love my family, but they’re not you, no one will ever be you.”
George closed his eyes and took a deep breath to keep himself from crying again.
“It’s not fair.” George whispered, squeezing his eyes closed harder as he pulled a blanket tightly around himself. “I just wanted to spend Christmas with you and Sapnap and your family, cause somehow I’m closer with them than I am my own, but it’s because you guys are my family, screw blood relations or whatever, you’re more of my family than they’ve ever been.”
“When you finally get here, we’ll have a big barbeque or something to make up for it, I promise.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you wanna watch Criminal Minds ?” George asked after a few moments, he was getting tired again, and if he had to guess Dream was probably tired as well.
“Let’s do it.” Dream answered.
Smiling, George reached over the side of his bed, as he grabbed his laptop from his nightstand and pulled it up onto his bed. He quickly opened discord and rejoined the call from his laptop as he hit the share screen button ,quickly pulling up Disney+ to get to their current episode.
“You ready?” George asked, laying down on his bed rolling onto his side with the laptop in front of his face.
George could hear rustling from Dream's end and assumed he was getting comfortable as well.
“Yeah.” Dream responded a couple seconds later when the rustling stopped.
They watched the episode mostly in silence, and it was towards the end of the episode that George felt his eyes getting heavy.
“Night Dream.” He mumbled weakly.
When George didn’t get a response, a small smile creeped onto his face- Dream was asleep.
“I miss you.” Was the last thing George remembered saying before falling back asleep.