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George let out a breath and pulled his headphones off his head and put them around his neck as he ended the stream. He had been live for almost 5 hours, mainly he was just screwing off with his friends on the SMP, but even that was extremely mentally draining because of having to keep an eye on chat and read off donations. Not that he didn’t have fun or didn’t appreciate everything, but it was still mentally tolling.
He let himself stay like that, leaning back in his chair with his eyes shut and discord deafened, for a few minutes before standing up and going to his kitchen. The motions came mindlessly, pulling a bag of mixed frozen fruits from the freezer and blender from the cupboard dumping the fruits into it before plugging it in and turning it on. While his fruit blended he pulled a Dr. Pepper from the fridge and took a long sip from the bottle as he leaned back against the counter. George felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out checking the notification. It wasn’t much of a surprise that it was Dream texting him, and George couldn’t help the soft smile that formed on his face as he read the message.
George didn’t respond to Dream’s text; he only pressed the call button when the blender stopped.
“Hi.” George said when Dream picked up the phone.
“Hi.” Dream responded and George could hear the fondness in his voice and sunk further against the counter. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah. Just exhausted, probably shouldn’t have gone for so long.”
George pushed himself away from the counter hearing Dream make a noise of agreement. He pulled a bowl from the cupboard and quickly dumped the smoothie into it taking a bite humming in satisfaction.
“Smoothie good?” Dream asked with a chuckle.
“Yes.” George picked up his smoothie bowl in one hand and tucked his Dr. Pepper under his arm before picking his phone up with the other hand. “Did you get food?”
“Yeah, made a sandwich before texting you.”
“Good.” George said as he returned to his desk remaining deafened on the main call as he continued to eat while sitting in silence with Dream. He always liked these relaxed calls after they streamed where they would sit in silence together. It was better than being left alone where the silence was too much and too different from the hectic streams. Calling with Dream and sitting in silence was different from being alone. With Dream he knew he wasn’t alone and that he had the option to talk if he wanted to, but he liked that there wasn't any pressure, any expectation , for him to do so. It was comforting.
The silence between the two continued for some time as George finished his smoothie bowl, the only noise on the call being the sound of his spoon against the bowl. When George had finished and the scrapping of the spoon ended, the two were now in almost total silence. It took a few moments to pick up on it, but George could tell that Dream wanted to say something. His icon on Discord had lit up a couple times and he had heard him take a breath, but he never continued. Looking up at his computer, George was reminded that he was still in the call from during the stream, just deafened.
“Hey.” George greeted the remaining members in the call as he held his headphones up to his ear, undeafening from the call. “Think I’m gonna head out everyone, I just finished eating and have a couple of things I need to work on before heading to bed. Thanks for being on the stream everyone!”
Choruses of goodnight were heard as he disconnected, and sat back against his chair once more.
“Hey,” George said softly after a few minutes. “What’s up?”
“How do you know something is up?” Dream questioned with a chuckle.
“Because I know you, and you’re acting like you want to say something but aren’t sure how to say it.”
“Yeah…” Dream breathed out. “Not sure how to say it.”
George could hear Dream take a deep breath as the two fell back into a comfortable silence. George knew that when Dream figured out how to say what he wanted to say that he would just talk. There was no reason to try and push Dream into talking, it would only cause him to shut down or get more frustrated with himself which was never helpful.
“It’s 11:11.” Dream said after a few minutes. “Make a wish.”
“I wish you were here.” George said softly.
“I wish I was too.” Dream whispered. “How long has it been?”
“244 days.” George answered on instinct.
“Yeah… 244 days since we’ve seen each other. Too long.”
“Way too long… I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” Dream admitted. “I just really want to hug you again.”
George let out a sad chuckle. “Same.”
They were quiet again. George's mind was running on overdrive now too focused on how much he missed Dream. How much he wanted to hug Dream again. How much he would give to see Dream again soon.
He couldn’t, he knew he couldn't see Dream anytime soon or at least until his visa got approved and so far he hadn’t heard anything about it. It wasn’t fair that he couldn’t go see Dream anytime he wanted or the other way around, it wasn’t fair and he hated it.
“I don’t know how Phil and Kristin ever did this.” George said after a while.
An implication hung in the air with that statement, that they were something more. They both knew it, but neither of them wanted to admit it. Or neither of them wanted to admit it now at least. It wasn’t something they ever talked about, if they should be or if they were something more, and maybe they should talk about it. But it was a conversation that seemed too deep to have over a discord call or even facetime.
Maybe that was why they never talked about it, because they both knew it was a conversation that needed to happen in person, and both of them were too sad to have it the last time they saw each other. Something had changed with their relationship since then though, it wasn’t noticeable to anyone except them, and it wasn’t like they were even acting much different with each other. They talked more now, there were more late night calls that turned into sleep calls, more nights binging Criminal Minds , more deep conversations. These were things the two of them already did, but they did it more now, and there was more meaning behind it all. Maybe there were a few more “I love you ”s said on stream that they both knew went deeper than it sounded. And maybe George said it a little more when Dream would ask him to say it back on stream. And the times it was said off stream it was said slightly differently. It wasn’t a bad difference and it wasn’t different to anyone but them, but sometimes George could hear what sounded like longing in Dream’s voice and he knew it was present in his as well.
“Well, if Phil and Kristin could do it, then so can we.” Dream said, breaking George’s trail of thoughts.
George let out a wet laugh. “Why is that actually encouraging though?”
“I don’t know.” Dream answered. “But you’re right it actually is encouraging.”
The feelings were once again left unspoken, but they both knew the meaning of their words. George knew the implication with what he said and he also knew the implication with Dream's response. He would never bring it up, especially not on call, but it was comforting to know that Dream felt the same.
They both remained quiet for a few more minutes, both reflecting, before George broke the silence with a whisper, “Want to watch more Criminal Minds and sleep call?”
“Always.” Dream said, causing George to smile.
“Alright, just let me move my stuff and then I’ll meet you back on call in a minute?”
“See you then.”
“Bye,” George said as he hit the disconnect button on their call. He quickly stood and stretched before directing his mouse to shut down his PC watching as the lights from the LEDs in his PC made his room go nearly pitch black. As the final LED went dark he grabbed his laptop and its charger from the edge of his desk before moving towards his bed.
Going to the edge of the bed, he plugged the laptop charger into the wall before setting it on his bed- it was always easier to watch stuff from bed under the blankets. After making sure everything was ready, he turned off his lamps and climbed into bed himself.
“Welcome back.” Dream greeted George as he joined their call once more. “Ready to see Morgan return?”
“Of course,” George answered as he finished getting settled in his bed and clicked the watch stream button in their call. “Let's do this.”’
As the two settled in to watch, their attention to the show wavered as they both started to doze off.
“I miss you.” Dream whispered sleepily, barely audible between his quiet tone and the action in the show.
“I miss you too.” George mumbled in reply. “So, so much.”
“Goodnight George.”
“G‘night Dream.” George said as his eyes fluttered shut with thoughts of seeing Dream soon flashing in his head and consuming his dreams.