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George had been awake longer than the average person would deem healthy. It was a common fact in his online community, by fault of his friends' big mouths, that he slept a lot. A lot, having an odd definition if you were to ask George.
See, two days ago, he had slept almost the entire day away. He woke up to a call from the Sex Havers discord. Upon picking his phone up, he had learned that he’d slept through dozens of calls and various notifications throughout the day, many of which were begging him to wake up for a stream he had promised to attend.
Guilt racked, George had joined the stream extremely late with an apologetic smile.
That was the last proper sleep he’d had. After the stream, he stayed up the rest of the early morning hours talking to his friends. Eventually, all of them fell asleep. All but George. He found his mind too active and his body too desperate for a proper meal to join them.
He’d tried to go to sleep the next night as well, but he was past the point of return. He listened to his fan whirring as he stared up at the ceiling, desperate for his body to give in to sleep.
The rising sun bored into his eyes even as he shut them. He sighed as he forced himself to stand up. If his body was going to be difficult, he would just move on with his life. He hadn’t streamed in nearly two weeks and now was as good a time as any.
Plopping down in his chair in front of his setup, he flicked his computer to life. It powered up slowly, so he pulled out his phone to shoot a discord message to the Sex Havers discord to see if anyone wanted to join, and to his mods to warn them.
As discord finally loaded up on his PC, he turned his phone to silent.
Dream
I might join, what are you streaming?
Shit. Maybe he hadn’t thought this through as well as he thought he had.
George
Good question!
George ran his fingers through his hair and racked his brain for anything interesting he could do. His mind felt muddled and restless, like if he thought about it for one more second while just sitting there he would combust. He quickly typed out a title and put his stream under the “Just Chatting” category before his mouse was clicking on the go-live button.
His smile grew as he saw the chat start streaming in. “Hello, chat! Hello! Yes, it’s me! GeorgeNotFound!” his eyes scanned the chat for interesting messages to respond to. “Why are you live? Well, aren’t you just so eager? We’ll find out in good time. Maybe.”
He wasn’t quite certain if anything he was saying made sense, but chat seemed happy, and his brain seemed less likely to set him on fire now, so he trekked on.
”I know, it’s been so long. You must have been so sad without me, I’m just so amazing. Why are you guys saying Quackity’s name? Is he in chat? What did he say this time?” He scrolled back in chat, quickly succumbing to his fate of having to type in Quackity’s username to find his fabled message.
Quackity
stupid idiot
“Wow, that was so worth going back for, thanks, guys.” His head whipped to the side as heard a chime from discord and he searched for who had joined his voice call.
“Dream!” He exclaimed.
“George!” Dream said back, matching George’s energy to the best of his ability. “What are you doing?”
George slid down his chair as he responded with a sloppy grin. “What are you doing, Dream?” He stretched out Dream’s name as he continued in an almost sing-songy way, “I’m just existing. Or, I guess you are too, aren’t you? We’re existing!”
Dream laughed. “Why are you talking like that?”
George frowned as he stayed slouched down in his chair. “Like what? What if I’m just happy to talk to you? Can’t that be enough of a reason?”
Chat was pouring in with awwww’s from George's comment, and George suddenly got the sense that he was saying more than he meant to.
Dream was silent for a few beats, taking in what George just said. “I’m happy to be talking to you, too, George. But I’m not editing your video.”
“What? I can’t just be nice to my best friend without a reason? Oh, do you think Sapnap’s watching? Suck it, Sapnap, I like Dream more than you. You’re out of the Dream Team. It’s— it’s the Dream, Dream Duo now. Actually, no, why are we the Dream Team? That’s too cliche, we need a new name. Chat, brainstorm with me here.”
“What mood is this George? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you act like this on stream. Or ever really.” Dream said, affection rolling off his tongue alongside his words.
George wrinkled his nose. “What, you get to be all ‘wholesome’ or whatever on stream but I can’t? I’m just being me.” He dragged the last word on again, rocking his chair back and forth. His mind started wandering, his thoughts just beyond tangibility.
“George? George?” Dream’s voice cut through, pulling George out of the haze that had just descended around him.
“Huh? I’m here, what?” George responded voice slurring slightly as he attempted to pull himself upright in his chair.
“You just went silent for like, 30 seconds. While I was talking to you.” Dream said, laughter masking the slight concern in his voice.
“Oh. My bad.” George said, pulling a funny face as he returned his eyes to the camera.
“What are you thinking about, Georgie?” Dream inquired, looking for something to entertain George’s stream, but also out of his curiosity.
“Everything.” Came George's voice, a soft, rounded tone that Dream wasn’t quite expecting. George’s eyes slid shut as he propped his face up on his hand and leaned over his desk.
“What’s everything?” Dream pushed again.
“I miss you,” George murmured, eyes drifting back up the camera.
Dream’s mic picked up the sound of him pushing away from his desk, and then back. “You miss me? You haven’t met me before, George.” Dream’s voice was soft now, too.
“But I miss you.” George was whining now, and he knew that he should really shut up but the filter between his brain and his mouth was very weak right now and he liked hearing Dream talk to him like that.
Dream took another moment recovering from the surprise and warmth that George’s statement had filled him with. “I miss you too, George. Soon.”
George rolled his eyes. “Soon, he says. Am I right, chat? I know I am.” The tidal wave of chat messages yelling awww and DNF!! began to be diluted with messages along the lines of He knows...
“Yes, chat. I know. I see everything.” He attempted to sober himself up momentarily, as he made eye contact directly with the camera with a straight face, “Everything.” Pleased with himself, he slumped back down.
“Are you drunk, George? Why are you acting like this?” Dream said, his voice louder than before, trying to catch George’s attention.
George looked vaguely annoyed. “Noo,” George stretched, “drunk? Mmm, what’s alcohol? I’ve never heard of it. And I would never do it.”
“You’re making yourself sound more guilty like that.” Dream laughed, a true laugh this time.
George smiled, clearly pleased with himself for making Dream laugh. “Okay, maybe I’ve been awake a little too long. Maybe.”
Dream laughs, forcing himself to sound exasperated. “Maybe? When did you last sleep, George?”
He thought for a moment, finally saying “Hm, when I woke up for Quackity’s stream.”
Dream seemed surprised at this. “Quackity’s stream? Chat, when was that?” Dream and George sat in silence, waiting for the responses to roll in.
wasn’t that like two days ago?
That was Thursday!!
3 pm thursday
george wtf
“3 pm Thursday? Hold on, I’m googling how many hours ago that was.” It was quiet for a few moments apart from Dream’s frantic typing. “What the fuck, George? That was 29 hours ago. Go to bed!”
“But I wasn’t tired, Dream.” George was pouting again.
“You’re so tired you sound drunk. Go. To. Bed.”
“But I’m streaming!” George said wildly gesturing to his camera.
“It’s already been, what, 45 minutes? You can end it now, I promise. Chat won’t be mad at you.”
George eyed his chat skeptically. Purple hearts began to roll in.
“See? They’re not mad. C’mon just get ready for bed now.” Dream said, voice filled with worry.
“Will you come with me?” George said.
“With you how?” Dream questioned him.
“Stay on call. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want you to leave.”
“Of course, Georgie. I’ll be right here. After you end stream, call me on your phone.”
George finally nodded, looking back to his camera with heavy-lidded eyes. “Bye, chat! Bye!” He exclaimed, frantically waving goodbye before he reached for the mouse.