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So… how did that appear in Dream’s sketchbook? What was he doing in there?
That, Dream could never tell you. Not because it was some top secret that could ruin his entire life, but because he simply did not know.
And honesty, if someone found out about it he would want the ground to swallow him whole.
He knew he should just rip the page out and throw it away, let it get buried under all the other trash in the bin, but as he stared at it he realized that he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He just closed the sketchbook and put it back in his backpack, hoping that he would just forget about it and it will somehow disappear. Out of sight out of mind, right?
Wrong.
So so so wrong .
The next day he woke up, going through his usual routine, and just when he was about to start drawing the memory of the drawing popped back in his head. He went through all the pages, hoping that when he reached the last sheet he had drawn on it wouldn’t be there, that it had just been a dumb dream and the last thing he had drawn would be a random plant that was in the hall.
Alas, he didn’t have this luck. It was right there, thick lines of graphite that formed into a beautiful drawing. Grays fading into blacks with some whites on top of them. It was a good drawing. A great drawing Dream would say.
But why him ?
Of all people, why Sapnap ?
The man’s eyes stared at him from the sheet, as Dream did his best to figure out the answer.
It just made no logical sense.
It wasn’t that Dream and Sapnap hated each other. It was far from that actually. They talked a bit usually, and they got along pretty easily.
That was until they entered the art room.
In there, everything was competition. Everything was attempts to be better than the other, to make a piece that was more beautiful.
That alone would have been fine if Sapnap wasn’t an absolute menace about it. He was always so cocky and full of confidence and he constantly played with Dream’s temper. He would always say or do something to try and piss him off, then Dream would do something to get back at him and it usually ended up with one of them either storming off, or they would bicker through the whole drawing process.
Even with their usual talking and the fact that once they weren’t doing art it all ended, those moments made a huge part of Dream not want to have anything to do with the other.
So why the hell did he put him in his sketchbook?
Again, Dream didn’t have an answer to that, so he once again chose to ignore it and he flipped the page over and began sketching.
Three days had gone by from that day and Dream had pretty much forgotten about that moment, although it always came back to him when he accidentally stopped on the page. He had even put a tab on it, so he knew to skip it, not wanting to stare at it any longer than he had already, and he was very mindful of who he let go through his sketches.
His worst nightmare would be if someone found that one, he didn’t even know how he would explain himself to them.
Hell, he couldn’t even explain it to himself!
Despite that he was pretty calm about the situation. He had decided to blame the fact that he had seen Sapnap a few minutes before he drew him and his face was one of the last things he had seen before he started mindlessly scribbling.
Besides, it was a good drawing.
Okay, no, he definitely wasn't calm anymore.
Not when after mindlessly scribbling something in his notebook during his math class, he looked down and was met by, yet again, another Sapnap portrait. It wasn’t as good as the first one, taken that he wasn’t using a pencil and the space he had was considerably smaller, but there was absolutely no doubt that it was him.
He reached down, ready to scratch out the doodle, but just as the tip of the pen was about to hit the paper he stopped.
He couldn’t do it. He didn’t know why, but he just couldn’t, for one it was his art, but there was something else, even stronger than that, and it just wasn’t going to let him do it.
He turned the page and continued pretending nothing happened, but his ignorance didn’t last long, because not even five minutes later he looked down and saw the beginning of, yet another one of the sketches. A gasp left his mouth, as his pen fell out of his hand and onto the ground and he quickly reached down to get it.
Once he got his composure back, Dream felt something poking at his back and he turned around.
“Dream, are you okay?”
His lips parted, a nervous giggle making its way past them. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine, I just uhh…”
George raised. “You what? Dream, I’ve known you for too long to be able to tell when something’s bothering you. You can tell me, I can help you figure out what to do.”
Dream sighed, accepting his defeat “I’ll tell you after school, we can go to mine and talk.”
“Alright.”
The rest of the day went by painfully slowly for Dream, and when it was finally over, George dragged him to his house so they could talk. The two went to his room, and after Dream took some time to get changed from his school clothes to something comfier he sat down next to George on his bed.
“So, what’s bothering you?”
Dream stared at the ground, trying to figure out what to say. “I guess… I honestly don’t know, it’s very dumb.”
“Dream. It doesn’t matter how dumb it is, just tell me, you know I would never make fun of you, right?”
A small smile crept up Dream’s face. “Yeah, I know. It’s just… I can’t really explain why, or how, but I’ve been randomly drawing Sapnap when I space out.”
Silence fell over both of them, before George burst out wheezing. “What?”
“You said you wouldn’t me fun of me!”
“I’m not! I just don’t get it.”
“Okay, so I spaced out in art class and when I looked down at my sketchbook I had drawn him without realizing, and the same happened today in maths twice , that’s when I dropped the pen. I can even show you the drawings, wait.” He got up and quickly got the sketchbook and his math notes out of his backpack, then proceeded to flip through the pages and show both the drawings to George. He watched as the brunet scanned over the pages, before a knowing look appeared on his face.
“Oh my god, you’re in love with him.”
The sentence hit Dream like a ton of bricks and all of his air was knocked out of his lungs. “What? Why did you say that?”
“Dream, look. I know you two got that whole act of ooh, but you suck and you’re stupid and blah blah , but you know it’s more than that. I’ve seen the way you look at him when we’re at lunch.”
“Wh- that’s not true! And it’s not even a valid argument!”
“Okay, but now tell me this: how many times have you drawn me when you zone out?”
“Hmm, I can’t remember doing that actually.”
“So, zero. Your answer is zero Dream. But here you are, randomly drawing Sapnap who you supposedly hate. Just think about it.”
“Okay, I will.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah.”
Dream thought about it. He spent all night thinking about the possibility of him actually being in love with Sapnap. He went through their previous interactions, noticing the way he had stared at him constantly, but he couldn’t really dwell on it before falling asleep.
He woke up a few hours later to the sound of his alarm going off, feeling his whole body protest. He groaned, reaching over to snooze the alarm before he sat up in his bed. He resisted the urge to just throw the blanket over his head and sleep the entire day, instead getting up and getting ready for class and leaving the house soon after.
His first few classes went by in a blur of sleepiness and boredom, Dream yearning to finally get to art class.
When his wish finally came true he sat down in the art room and immediately opened his sketchbook and started drawing. Not long after, more students started taking their seats around the room. Dream didn’t pay any mind to any of them, until the door closed and someone sat down right in front of him, and said person turned around.
“Already drawing? I think you’re trying to impress me Dreamie, but both of us know I’ll always be better than you.”
Dream turned his head up to meet Sapnap’s eyes, just as the other winked at him, and holy shit.
No, that definitely wasn’t what Dream was used to think when he saw him before. He stood there, mouth falling slightly open as he just stared until there was a hand waving in front of his eyes and Sapnap’s voice brought him back to reality.
“Helloo? I know you’re called Dream, but I didn’t know it came from real-life events.”
Dream shifted in his seat, trying to move his eyes away from Sapnap’s face. “It isn’t, you’re so stupid. And get your head out of your ass, me drawing has nothing to do with you.”
“Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that.” With one final wink, Sapnap was turning away, leaving Dream staring at the drawing of a cat he was working on, unable to really think about it at that moment.
His thoughts were very far from the drawing and every single one was about the boy sitting in front of him.
The pretty boy sitting in front of him , his brain could add without Dream’s permission. Why was he thinking this about him? What changed? He had never done that before.
Memories of chatting in the cafeteria came back to Dream. The way Sapnap had smiled while talking about random things he wasn’t paying attention to, in favour of staring at his expression, the way his lips were turned up, reaching the his sunburnt cheeks.
Banter around the art room, random snaps Sapnap had sent him all came back to the blond and he could remember the exact way he had looked at him.
Oh god… George is right, isn’t he?
The thought made Dream quietly groan at the realization. How was he so fucking oblivious? How did it even happen, and why, why Sapnap.
Dream couldn’t let his thoughts spiral, because next thing he knew, the bell was ringing, signalizing the end of the class. Dream hadn’t even felt the time passing and his drawing was in the exact same state as before he had started it.
He made no move to leave, not quite understanding that the class had actually ended, until there was a hand shaking his arm.
“Come on, are you gonna stay here the whole day looking at nothing?”
Sapnap’s voice made Dream jump in his seat, the blond quickly getting up and putting away his pencils and gathering his things. “N- no, I just spaced out-”
He couldn’t finish his sentence, because in the hurry to get out, his hand had slipped, and he was watching, seemingly in stop motion as his sketchbook approached the ground, and fell down with a loud thud and the pages started turning because of the impact with the floor.
Please no, no, nonono.
And just like that, the pages stopped turning, leaving the two boys staring at Sapnap’s face spread all over the sheet. Dream quickly reached down to grab it, ut Sapnap got to it first, snatching it from the ground.
Dream watched in horror as e examined it, his expression not changing even a bit.
“Wow-”
“Can I have that back, please I need to go.”
He reached for it, but Sapnap didn’t make a move to return it.
“Come on, Sapnap, please!”
That finally made the boy look at him, but he still wasn’t giving it. “Dream, what-”
“Please, just give it back, you weren’t supposed to see that, I should have left that sketchbook at home, you weren’t supposed to know.” Dream’s voice went quiet at the end and he felt the back of his eyes starting to burn slightly.
“Hey, what are you talking about? It’s nothing serious, I just wanted to look at the drawing. Why didn’t you want me to see it anyway?”
A sight escaped Dream’s lips before he answered “Because it’s embarrassing! I drew it without even realizing I was doing it, and then it happened again and again, and I didn’t want anyone to know, and then George said something and I think he’s right and-”
Suddenly there were hands on his shoulders, lightly gripping him. “Hey, hey, calm down, take a breath. You’re talking too fast, I can’t understand anything.”
Dream listened to the advice and took a few deep breaths, steadying himself, before he continued. ”So, George said it, and he’s right, but I don’t know what to do now, and now you’ve seen it-”
“Wait, what did George tell you?”
“That I like you.” The words left Dream’s mouth before he even realized it, and once they registered in his brain his hands flew to his mouth. “Oh my god, nonono, this wasn’t supposed to happen-”
“Calm down, Dream, calm down.” Sapnap’s tone had gone softer, his hands moving up and down Dream’s arms, the motion grounding the blond. “It’s okay.”
“It isn’t. Now you know, and you probably think I’m weird-” “Dream-”, “and you’re not gonna want to talk to me anymore” “Dream-”, “and it’s gonna be awkward-”
“Dream! Let me talk, okay?” When the blond didn’t interrupt again Sapnap continued “I promise you’re not making anything weird or awkward. It’s just all very sudden, and honestly, I would have never expected it to happen like this.” Sapnap laughed, and Dream couldn’t help but let a small smile appear on his face.
“Not that I’m not happy about it, I’ve been waiting for so long to tell you now-”
The gears turned in Dream’s head, before something clicked, and he gasped “Wait what?”
“I like you too, you idiot. I have for a while now, I was just looking for a way to tell you, but you beat me to it.”
Dream could feel his heart beating against his ribs. “Are you serious?”
“I’m so serious right now, you can’t even imagine it. I really like you Dream, and I know you already know it probably, but as much as I like making fun of you, I really like this drawing. It looks very good.”
“That’s because you look good.” It was Dream’s time to be smug and to wink at Sapnap, the action being met by the other rolling his eyes.
“You know what, I take that back. It looks horrible and I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“Oh my god, shut up.” Sapnap groaned and leaned down, trying to hide his face in the blond’s shoulder. Dream let a soft smile take over his face as he brought his hand up and stared combing through Sapnap’s hair, the action making Sapnap melt against him.
“I’m being serious, you know. You’re beautiful.”
A soft whine left Sapnap’s lips as he tried to hide further “Stoooop.”
Dream couldn’t help but giggle before he looked down at the boy in his arms.
“Can I kiss you?”
“Please.”
Dream didn't need anything else. He leaned down and captured Sapnap’s lips in a kiss. It was soft, tender, and Dream wouldn’t have had it any other way. He tried his best to pour everything he was feeling, his entire adoration for the boy in the kiss.
When they separated they got back to their previous position, with Sapnap’s face on Dream’s shoulder, and Dream’s hand in his hair.
“Sap?”
“Mhm?”
“Do you wanna be my boyfriend?”
Dream felt Sapnap moving away before he left a peck on Dream’s lips. “Of course I do.”
The two kissed again, the kiss even better than the first one. That would have been, if midway through the kiss the bell handn’t gone off.
The two quickly separated, looking at each other.
“Oh shit.”
“We gotta get to the other side of the building.”
With that, the two sprinted out of the room, their giggles filling the halls.
When they finally reached their destination, they quickly apologized for being late, before making their way to the back of the room and sitting down next to each other.
With Sapnap’s hand in his under the desk, Dream pulled out his phone and opened his and George’s dms, quickly typing in and sending a single message, before turning his phone off and giving the boy next to him his full attention.