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"Are you bored yet?" , the question sits heavy on George's tongue. His lips stay pursed, keeping his eyes closed as he ignores Wilbur's previous question—
"George, what's wrong?"
The shorter, instead of answering, shifts to face his boyfriend. Even then, he chooses to keep his eyes shut.
"I'm thinking about it."
"You're thinking about what's wrong?"
"Yeah."
"How come?"
George sighs, shuffling to rest his forehead on Wilbur's chest. He feels a light kiss be placed atop his head, and he doesn't know if his heart flutters out of love or anxiety.
"Don't worry about it."
His boyfriend, ever the patient man he was, leaves it at that — not like he had much choice, as Fundy had started crying. Wilbur excused himself with a kiss on the cheek, and George opened his eyes to stare at the window.
It was like the moon was taunting him, as Dream's voice rings back in his head.
"You'll get old and you'll regret it, Georgie. Wilbur just doesn't seem like the right man for you."
The moon casts a shy brightness on his best friend, as the porcelain mask stares at him with a thousand and zero emotions.
"But I'm not old yet, am I?", he teases, flicking a small mushroom growing beside him towards Dream. the dirty blond scoffs and kicks his foot lightly.
"you kinda are, though. gross old man."
George laughs, but the sentiment rings in the back of his head for far longer than he would like.
When Wilbur walks back into their room, it was too late for him to start pretending to be asleep. so he sits up as Wilbur automatically settles on their bed to hug him.
"Got any plans tomorrow?", Wilbur asks, placing butterfly kisses on the nape of his neck. it sends a familiar shiver down George's spine that makes him smile.
"No, I don't think so. why?"
"We should have a date… do you wanna make some cake and just watch the sunset?"
George chuckles, reaching a hand up to his boyfriend's lover and petting his soft hair.
"Isn’t that a little cliché?", he asks. "and a little boring", his mind supplies. He suppresses himself from saying so.
"Maybe, but it's nice, innit?
George hopes — prays — to whatever god out there that Wilbur doesn't genuinely like this idea; that maybe, Wilbur is also getting bored of their time together. So he holds his breath and turns around —
Only to be met by genuinely excited eyes, so lovesick by him. It makes George want to cry, how loved yet lonely he was starting to feel.
"... it is, yeah.", he answers instead, leaning forward to kiss Wilbur.
In the morning, George assures Wilbur that he'll get the ingredients for the cake for them. Wilbur looks at him gratefully, promising that he'll be coming home to something nice.
George (as awful as it sounds) considers not coming home at all.
He meets Dream in the community house, who hugs him as tightly as Wilbur would — not that he's comparing the two. He would never.
"You wanna go mining today? I got lucky with some enchants yesterday and we can go look for diamonds."
"Ah, I can't. Wilbur and I are gonna have a date later in the afternoon."
Even with the mask, George could easily pick up on his best friend's annoyance. He ignores it in favour of looking for buckets.
"Let me guess, your date is just gonna be the two of you in his house?"
George doesn't answer, and Dream lets out a small (yet overwhelmingly sarcastic) laugh.
"Wilbur is way too much of an introvert for you."
"Well, it's not like I'm the biggest people-person ever either.", George retorts, slamming the chest shut. Dream lightly finches, before slamming his hand on the same chest.
"Yeah but you don't like being cooped up in one place, I know that much about you."
"Leave it alone, Dream. don't try to dictate what I like or dislike.", he says, trying to hide the uncertainty in his voice.
His best friend visibly deflates, putting a much more gentle hand on his shoulder.
"I just want you to be happy, okay? I don't want you wasting your time away all bored just for… just because of Wilbur."
George sighs, opening a different chest. He drags iron out of it and drops it on the workbench, manipulating the metal to make a bucket.
"I'll be fine, I know how to handle my relationship."
"Of course. Yeah. You're right… I'm gonna go find Sapnap. Just whisper with the communicator if you need me, okay?"
Dream gives him a pat on the back that lingers a bit, before leaving him alone in the community house. The contact stays heavy with him, as he inhales deeply and does what he does best: ignore his problems.
When he comes home, Wilbur smiles at him as if he'd bought a star back. Fundy matches his father's smile, added to him barreling towards George with arms wide open.
"Gogs!", Fundy squeaks, clinging onto George's leg. His tail wags excitedly, and the half-fae couldn't help but laugh and pick the fox up.
"Did you get the cake ingredients?"
"Yes, I did! Even got you an extra bucket of milk to drink."
Fundy pouts, but his wagging tail betrays his expression. "What?", the child drags out, jumping out of George's arms as if he'd been betrayed, "but I don't like milk!"
"Champ, do you wanna be as tall as me, or Gogs?", Wilbur starts smugly, meeting George halfway and putting an arm around him.
Fundy giggles, "obviously I want to be as tall as you, papa!", which earns Wilbur a pinch to the side.
George leaves their side to wash his hands, and by pure chance, a knock is heard from the door. He hears Tommy greet Fundy sweetly, before yelling at Wilbur. He acknowledges Tommy yelling his name out with a hum, and the door is shut as soon as it was opened.
Silence soon settles in the cottage and for a split second, George had hoped that Wilbur left with his son and brother — the arm that gently wraps around his torso crushes that hope, however.
"Wil", George mutters out, not bothering to move.
"Gogs", Wilbur returns, somehow softer than his own voice. To his surprise, the man continues, "we've known each other for quite a while, yeah?"
This makes George turn around. He attempts to make eye contact with his boyfriend, but the adoration in them makes his heart pump in ways he doesn't like.
"Where are you going with this?", he asks instead, shuffling away.
"Hopefully by your side", Wilbur responds. ever the flirtatious man. George focuses on the ingredients he'd picked up, closing his eyes and taking them out of his inventory. He chooses to ignore the soft kiss Wilbur places on the nape of his neck. He feels Wilbur move away from him, and a couple seconds of silence pass when the man speaks up again.
"You'd tell me if… if you're getting bored of the relationship though, right?"
He eyes Wilbur, and the man attempts to make a show with his faux confidence. The way he's leaned against the counter with the light bouncing off of him makes him look like he'd belong in a painting; and as one does with works of art, he analyzes them.
Hesitant eyes watch for small mannerisms— like how the piglin-hybrid bounced his feet subtly; the subtle eye shifts in hopes of gauging out George's reaction without it being obvious.
Not that George needed to analyze Wilbur in the first place; he was one of the first people to comfort him when Sally had up and left the server to have her own adventure.
Before he could panic for not figuring out an answer yet, Wilbur continues.
"I mean, I just don't want you suddenly pulling away or anything. And I know you sometimes have a hard time with words —", Wilbur pauses, grabbing George's hand. He lets it happen, giving his boyfriend's hand a squeeze. "— I value you, George. you're the man I want to marry- obviously not now but, you know- I… I want to know. If you're gonna suddenly pull away from me."
George feels his throat dry up, so he chops up Wilbur's words and responds to the easiest part first: "Dream wouldn't allow us to get married, you know that.".
Wilbur raises their intertwined hands and places a gentle kiss on George's hand, "I'll start a new land for you if I had to — just say it and I'll do it", George receives. His eyebrows furrow, but Wilbur continues; "before I could do that though, I need you to tell me… are you bored yet?"
And despite Dream's words, despite the thoughts that's been haunting him for weeks, George kisses him. He places his free hand on Wilbur's cheek and shakes his head frantically.
"I do love you, Wilbur. I really do.", he starts— because somehow it was easier to say "I love you" than ''I am a little bored".
And Wilbur must have picked up on George's avoidance of answering the question, because tears start falling from his eyes.
"I don't want us to just be a memory, George."
"And we won't be."
No cake was baked that day, and Fundy had to stay over at Tommy's for the night.
A country was made weeks from that day, but not for the same reasons Wilbur had originally planned.
Two hearts broke a month from that day, with words both would temporarily hold on to angrily as they attempted to take each other's lives on the opposite sides of a war.
bonus-ish:
"And I was the boring one? You've literally been sleeping your life away, Gogy.", Wilbur teases, snuffing his dying cigarette on the mattress in the middle of the forest. George wonders if XD would find the action insulting.
"Shut up, you don't even know what I've been doing. How's life not showering for you, though?", George retorts, slapping the unlit cigarette Wilbur pulls from his coat onto the muddy ground.
Wilbur wordlessly lies down horizontally on the mattress, his head landing on George's lap. George instinctually (and annoyingly enough) starts to run his fingers through the now greasy and extremely tangled hair. He can't fully make fun of Wilbur, however, since his own hands weren't as soft and pristine as they were before.
But for a moment, just a moment, in the quiet of the forest, despite the blood and sweat and mud on the two of them (all completely unrelated from the other) , the two of them pretended that it was just them.
That they had just baked a cake and were now watching the sunset.