Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

my love (Sapnap): goodmorning :)) - 9:03am

pretty boy <3 (Karl): !! goodmorning - 9:04am

pretty boy <3: youre in a good mood - 9:04am

my love: yeah! I wanna do smth - 9:04am

pretty boy <3: something like? - 9:05am

my love: take you on a date - 9:05am

pretty boy <3: :D - 9:05am

my love: is today okay, do you have time? - 9:05am

pretty boy <3: i do! I'd love to go! - 9:06am

my love: okay! - 9:06am

my love: uhm - 9:07am

my love: is it okay if I come pick you up? well not really cause its not far but yknwo - 9:07am

pretty boy <3: not far huh - 9:07am

my love: stop spoiling the surprise for yourswlf smartqss - 9:08am

pretty boy <3: okayokay - 9:08am

pretty boy <3: what time? - 9:09am

my love: around 2 okay? - 9:09am

pretty boy <3: pm right - 9:09am

my love: ??? Yes - 9:09am

pretty boy <3: just making sure! - 9:09am

my love: youre silly - 9:09am

pretty boy <3: xP - 9:10am

Sapnap wanted to take Karl to the city park for a picnic, and though he didn't have any of the food they'd need, he'd been planning this date for days.

For some reason, he and Karl usually hold movie and dinner dates at home. Not that Sapnap is one of those people who doesn't like going outside, or doesn't like displaying public affection, quite the opposite. It's just how it usually happens, and Sapnap enjoys their time together regardless of where they go or what they do.

Today, however, they're going outside. The weather is amazing; sunny with warm breezes ever so often. It hasn't rained in days, so the grass won't be wet.

Sapnap catches himself smiling at the ceiling of his bedroom, at the thought of Karl laughing at him, his hair golden under the sun. He grabs one of the pillows at the head of his bed and squeezes it in a hug.

He breathes in heavily and lets his eyes fall shut again, for just a moment. He frowns at the smell of sweat. Yuck. A look at the time on his phone tells him he still has time enough for both a shower and a trip to the store for food.

bloodsucker bestie (Karl): i need ur help - 9:06am

boring L + ratio (Dream): is it the weather thing - 9:08am

bloodsucker bestie: yeah, sap asked me on a date - 9:08am

boring L + ratio: again?? - 9:11am

bloodsucker bestie: yeah its like today 2pm ish - 9:11am

bloodsucker bestie: please? - 9:11am

boring L + ratio: it think yo should tell him - 9:12am

bloodsucker bestie: ?? what why - 9:12am

boring L + ratio: cause it makes him sad - 9:12am

boring L + ratio: like he just wants to take you on good waether dates - 9:13am

bloodsucker bestie: wtf is up w humans and their good weather - 9:13am

boring L + ratio: idk they like it - 9:15am

boring L + ratio: sapnap really likes the sun so he probs thinks you do too - 9:15am

bloodsucker bestie: yeha i know - 9:15am

bloodsucker bestie: do you see how this is a problem - 9:15am

boring L + ratio: i do - 9:16am

bloodsucker bestie: so can you please do the thing again - 9:16am

boring L + ratio: idk karl i dont wanna keep doing it, it feels wrong - 9:16am

boring L + ratio: also it makes me tired - 9:16am

bloodsucker bestie: please? Idk what to do otherwiee - 9:16am

boring L + ratio: you could jsut ,,, tell him - 9:19am

bloodsucker bestie: what if he hates me then - 9:19am

boring L + ratio: realistically, he would find it cool - 9:19am

bloodsucker bestie: aaaaaa - 9:20am

boring L + ratio: like fr, hed be like “omg thats so cool” and then ask like 2k invasive questions - 9:20am

bloodsucker bestie: yeah okay i can see him do tht definitly - 9:20am

boring L + ratio: soooooo will you - 9:20am

bloodsucker bestie: next tme - 9:21am

boring L + ratio: kaaarl - 9:21am

bloodsucker bestie: i promise i promise, next time - 9:22am

boring L + ratio: just do it after your date - 9:22am

bloodsucker bestie: maybe - 9:24am

boring L + ratio: bro if you dont i will when he gets home - 9:24am

bloodsucker bestie: ??? dont - 9:24am

boring L + ratio: then you do it - 9:24am

bloodsucker bestie: fine - 9:25am

bloodsucker bestie: btw will you do the weather thing then - 9:25am

boring L + ratio: yes, last time - 9:25am

bloodsucker bestie: THANK YOU - 9:25am

The shower does Sapnap well, it's like a motivating start of the day, though the thought of seeing Karl probably helps as well. He puts on a shirt, one of his favourites. Actually, one of Karl's favourites, which is how it became his.

Sapnap leaves his place at 1:30, giving him the time to walk to Karl's apartment and go to the store near his place. That way, the strawberries will be cool, and so will Sapnap's self-made violet lemonade (thanks to his freezer and honey-flavoured ice cubes).

He even has a little blanket, just for aesthetic reasons and impulsive cuteness. Most important, sunscreen. Sapnap doesn't get burned easily, but from the rare occasions they've been outside on sunny days, he knows Karl does.

Now he thinks of it, they do go outside. It’s usually when the sun has gone down, though. Their town has a few cool places that open in the evening, and Karl always seems to find exactly the right ones.

When the store comes into view, so does Karl’s apartment building. Sapnap decides to text Karl an “on my way!” while entering the store.

The strawberries are barely in season, so the prices are still high. It’s fine, because Sapnap has taken some extra hours on his weekend job for this exact reason. He also gets some seasoned toast and cream cheese. Not too much, it’s not an actual lunch picnic.

By the time he gets to the check-out, the light from outside seems to have darkened. It’s confirmed when he leaves the store and feels raindrops land on his face and hands. The air has turned cold and Sapnap frowns, so much for wearing this shirt and not taking a jacket with me.

On the way to Karl’s place, a 2-minute walk from the store, the rain gets harder. The wind also picks up, and Sapnap starts to doubt the whole picnic idea. His hair is dripping with water when he reaches Karl’s doorstep, and he patiently waits in the little hallway with mailboxes for Karl to open the second door. Luckily, he lives on the main floor, so it shouldn’t take too long.

Karl closes his door and locks it before turning around. His face immediately falls when he sees Sapnap, hair wet and his neat red shirt scattered with rainy spots. The filled tote bag in his hands also has signs of rain.

Sapnap speaks up before Karl can ask, “should we just do something else?”

Karl frowns, “what? No, baby, you prepared so much for this.”

“I mean, it’s just food, like, for a picnic,” Sapnap interrupts him.

“In the park?”

“Yeah.”

“We can still do it like this, I’m sure the rain isn’t too bad,” Karl says while looking outside. The rain seems to have gotten softer again, only slightly drizzling now. “I’ll grab my jacket to make sure,” he adds, and turns around to unlock his door. He grabs his brown corduroy jacket from the couch.

“It’s very cold too, the wind really picked up,” Sapnap yelps.

Karl smiles at him, “I’ll warm you up.”

“You’re cold too,” Sapnap snickers.

Karl’s door is unlocked now, and Sapnap enters the apartment after Karl. He’s met by the soft smell of chamomile that usually hangs around his place. Karl’s curtains are closed tightly, barely letting light through at the sides. Sapnap assumes it’s because of the heat outside. Well, not anymore.

He stands in the doorway, waiting for Karl to take what he needs. “You can take one of my sweaters, then, if you want,” Karl offers.

Sapnap hums. “You don’t happen to have two raincoats?”

“Don’t think so,” Karl sounds muffled as he’s going through a box of different coats in one of his closets. Sapnap sighs.

“Hey,” Karl turns around. “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to, I just know you really wanted to do this today.”

“I did, in the sun, not while it’s raining and the wind is freezing.”

Karl smiles, “it’s probably not freezing, but I get that.”

Sapnap hums again while taking one of Karl’s hoodies from his fresh laundry basket.

“So d’you wanna stay here? Or we can go to your place?” Karl asks.

“We’ll go to the park,” Sapnap gives in, dragging out the ‘a’ in ‘park’.

They cross the road to the park and even though the rain and wind have calmed down, their hands feel clammy. Karl squeezes his hand once, and Sapnap raises their intertwined hands to his face to plant a kiss.

The grass they walk through wets the tips of their shoes. Sapnap is wearing boots, though, so he just snickers at Karl when he notices the other is wearing some pair of fabric sneakers.

The two have a nice date; Karl seems happy and that's all Sapnap needs to forget about the whole rainy problem. They planned to sit at the pavilion in the centre of the park, but all the rain inside had gathered in the middle of the small building, making it impossible to sit there and not get wet. A tree near the pavilion will have to do.

Minutes after they sit under the tree, the rain stops. It has left the grass with small puddles and it still drips from the trees. Their tree as well, every half a minute. It drips right onto Karl’s head, and after a few minutes, he makes it a game to catch them.

Sapnap’s strawberries are sweeter than he expected them to be, especially at this time of the year. The violet lemonade stays cool, as he had planned. Karl compliments it and kisses his cheek for it. He likes sweetness.

By the time the two agree on leaving, Karl's hair is wet. Not quite soaked, but enough for it to cling together. Never in his whole life did Sapnap think that seeing Karl in the rain would make him fall in love more. Yet here he is, lighting up all of the clouds with his smile alone.

The walk back home is short, as they haven’t walked too far into the park. And even though Sapnap didn’t like the idea of their date in the rain at first, it turned out okay. He squeezes Karl’s hand and smiles at him.

“I had fun today,” Karl smiles back.

“Me too, just sucks that the weather was so bad.” Sapnap sighs and looks at Karl again, smiling, “I’m glad you convinced me though.” Karl’s expression falls into a soft smile and he gives Sapnap’s hand another squeeze back.

“We’ll go on a good weather date, I promise.”

Chapter Text

The next time Sapnap sees Karl is when they plan a date at his place. Sapnap lives with his best friend, Dream; they moved in together after graduating from university. It’s nice to have him so close, it’s like Dream’s a brother, just not the one he wishes was there. What would Punz think of him if he knew he’s replaced him with some dude whose blood he doesn’t even share.

Sapnap tries not to think about it too much, it makes him feel guilty. He tries not to think about it when his phone lights up with a text from Karl, saying he’s here. Dream runs to open the door when the bell rings.

Karl walks into their living room, followed by Dream. He walks over to Sapnap to kiss him the best he can while the other is sitting down on the couch, and he’s standing up.

The couch downstairs is barely used, and a few pillows are sitting neatly in the corners. Dream and Sapnap usually use the couch in the hallway upstairs when they watch something together.

“Hey pretty,” Sapnap mumbled while hugging Karl’s waist.

“Hey love,” Karl says, smiling at the gesture. “We need to talk,” he adds after a moment, when Sapnap won’t let go. He doesn’t mind, but would rather have this conversation over sooner than later. Sapnap frowns while he lets go of his waist and leans back on the couch a bit. “Oh, everything okay? Do you wanna go to my room?” he offers. He can’t think of anything they’d have to talk about.

“Rather not, if that’s okay?” Karl asks. Sapnap cringes at the way he says it.

“Uhm, okay, yeah. That’s fine,” he’s hesitant, and still frowning.

The room goes quiet as he waits for Karl to continue. He feels awkward when he realises Dream is still standing in the doorway. Karl sits down on the couch next to the one Sapnap’s sitting on.

“Uhm, Dream?” Sapnap says, hoping it’s a subtle enough hint for him to leave the room. Instead, Dream just hums in question.

“Can you maybe, like, go to your room or something?” he asks softly, like he’s scared that he'll say no.

Karl perks up at his question, though, and interrupts before Dream can respond at all.

“I kinda need Dream to be here, he’s kind of.. Included? In the talk, I mean,” he explains.

“Oh,” Sapnap says again, and he’s starting to get more uncomfortable than he did before. “What’s the talk about?” he wonders, and swallows a little too loud. He can feel himself getting hot with anxiety.

Karl’s eyes go wide, “oh! It’s nothing bad! I think?” he looks at Dream, which confuses Sapnap again.

Dream just shrugs, looking almost unbothered, “I don’t think so.”

Karl looks back at Sapnap, and the look on his face immediately tells Sapnap that it’s not “nothing bad”.

Sapnap feels like he’s about to panic, like he’s going to cry. What is happening? What is there to talk about, what happened? Why does he need Dream to be here? Oh

He looks at Karl’s hands, they’re nervously fidgeting in his lap, and Dream’s toes are quietly tapping the inside of his shoes. Not quietly enough, obviously, because everyone can hear. Sapnap doesn’t know why, but the fact that they’re both nervous makes his anxiety skyrocket.

“Okay, Karl,” he starts, facing him. “I know you like to take your time for things you’re telling, and I trust your opinion on this being bad or not,” he takes a deep breath, and no one dares to interrupt him.

He squeezes his eyes shut for his next part, as if not seeing them will protect him from their possibly mean words. “But I’m panicking and my brain has this dumb idea,” he pauses, looking for the right words.

“What I'm trying to say is that if you’re having an affair, I need to know right now.”

When he opens his eyes again, he’s looking Karl right in the eyes, his blue ones look back in shock. For a good few seconds, no one says a thing.

“If you’re not having one, please also tell me?” Sapnap begs, it sounds like nothing more than a whisper.

“We’re not having an affair,” Karl immediately responds, still looking shocked. “Where did that thought come from?”

“I don’t know?” Sapnap admits. He feels slightly embarrassed now. “You were just taking so long to get to your point and I started thinking too far,” he breathes out air he didn’t know he was holding captive and looks at his shoes.

Karl moves from the couch he’s on and sits down next to Sapnap. He takes his hand as soon as his knees touch Sapnap’s, and lightly rubs his thumb over the back of Sapnap’s hand.

“Sorry, I didn’t think of that, I didn’t mean to make you panic,” Karl apologises.

Sapnap dismisses it, squeezing his hand back just as lightly as Karl's thumb did. “Can you please just say what you wanna say?”

“Right, sorry!” Karl chuckles dryly.

“So uhm,” he starts and looks up at Dream expectantly. He just raises his eyebrows and nods at Karl, you start.

Karl huffs at the action and looks at the remaining hand in his lap, “I’m sorry, this is kinda awkward to say..”

Dream moves from the doorway, finally. “Karl, if you’re not saying it in the next, like, 2 minutes, I will. And I don’t know how good I’ll be at explaining it.” He leans on the back of the couch that’s empty now that Karl has moved.

Karl looks at him in panic, “you wouldn’t.”

“I’m so close to just leaving this room,” Sapnap mumbled, fed up with nerves and waiting.

“I’ll explain! Dream, let me explain,” Karl looks at the other. Dream nods, go ahead, and then looks completely unbothered again.

Karl turns closer to Sapnap. “Right, so.. There's a reason why we never go out on dates when it’s like..-”

“When it’s good weather,’ Dream' finishes his sentence for him. It earns him a glare from Karl.

Sapnap frowns, “yeah? Because you don’t like the sun, right? I wouldn’t like the sun either when I’d get burned as easily as you do.” He smiles at Karl in compassion.

Dream sighs and looks away from the two, clearly trying to find something else to focus on.

“Yeah..” Karl sounds hesitant.

“Is that not the reason?” Sapnap frowns again in confusion.

“Uhm, kind of? Not like.. directly..” Karl tries.

Sapnap nods, pulling in his lips, “Yeah, that makes no sense.”

“I don’t like the sun, because I get burned a lot,” Karl explains, and Sapnap waits expectantly. “But there’s a reason I get burned a lot.”

“Your hair is too light for it?” Sapnap offers.

“Sap, stop guessing, you’re giving him more of an excuse to procrastinate telling you,” Dream suddenly says, an amused look on his face. Karl looks the complete opposite, like he’s about to sweat out every drop of water in his body and then pass out.

It’s like mentally, he’s thinking back to the conversation between him and Dream, earlier that day on text. A whole conversation Sapnap doesn’t know about, a whole important thing Sapnap doesn’t know about.

Sapnap isn’t the type of person to back away from an unpleasant surprise, or to get scared of something he doesn’t know. But what if, though.

“I’m a vampire,” Karl drops, he stares at Sapnap.

He tried to mumble it, but that definitely didn’t work. He tried to make it a mumble at first, but it definitely wasn’t. Everyone definitely heard and the room was now deadly silent. Karl almost forgets to breathe, and he swears there’s a heart beating in his throat.

Sapnap stares back at him, his mouth feels dry, “huh?”

He doesn’t see the quick look Karl and Dream exchange before Karl repeats, “I’m uhm, I’m a vampire.”

“Karl?” Sapnap's stomach starts feeling upset. Karl looks like a single bad word will make him break into tears.

So Sapnap tries to think his words over while Karl doesn’t know what more to say.

“I think- I think I need time to process this,” Sapnap whispers. He gets up from the couch and takes a step back towards the doorway.

“I’m sorry, can we please talk about this?” Karl attempts, and Sapnap can hear him cover up a sniffle.

“Karl, I don’t think I can, I’m sorry,” he presses his lips together and his throat hurts. He wants to cry.

“I get it, that- that’s okay,” Karl stammers, his hands ruining the ends of his sleeves.

Sapnap nods at him and walks to the doorway. “I’m sorry, I promise I’ll text you, or call you, I just.. Need a moment for this.”

Karl nods understandingly, “take all the time you need.” His voice sounds rough and Sapnap wants to hold his hand and tell him it’s okay. It’s not okay, though, obviously.

Instead of doing that, he turns around and into the hallway. Once in his room, he falls onto his bed. The soft curtains don’t keep the stars outside, and on a normal day, he’d listen to Karl telling him all about them. Tonight, he pulls them shut roughly. He pulls one of his pillows to his chest and cries, eventually dozing off to sleep.

bloodsucker bestie (Karl): dont forget to tell him pls - 11:46pm

boring L + ratio (Dream): idk bro, he didnt really react well - 11:49pm

bloodsucker bestie: maybe not like righ away - 11:49pm

bloodsucker bestie: but like if he asks about it - 11:49pm

boring L + ratio: idk karl - 11:49pm

bloodsucker bestie: dream pls i need you rn - 11:49pm

boring L + ratio: yeah but so does sap and he wont feel like that if i tell him - 11:50pm

bloodsucker bestie: he thinks of you as a brother, youll be fine - 11:50pm

boring L + ratio: easy for you to say - 11:50pm

bloodsucker bestie: i mean not really, hes my bf and he hates me now - 11:50pm

boring L + ratio: he doesnt hate you - 11:51pm

bloodsucker bestie: easy for you to say - 11:51pm

boring L + ratio: karl im serious - 11:52pm

bloodsucker bestie: yeah so am i - 11:52pm

bloodsucker bestie: i dont think you could do anything wrong to sap - 11:52pm

bloodsucker bestie: pls, you have nothing to lose - 11:52pm

boring L + ratio: nah only my brother lol - 11:53pm

bloodsucker bestie: you promised - 11:53pm

boring L + ratio: i know and i will - 11:54pm

boring L + ratio: i just want you to see this from my pov - 11:54pm

bloodsucker bestie: i know and i do - 11:54pm

bloodsucker bestie: tbh i just think its better now than later - 11:54pm

bloodsucker bestie: i dont want his entire world to break down twice - 11:55pm

boring L + ratio: yeah fair - 11:55pm

bloodsucker bestie: so youll tell him right - 11:55pm

boring L + ratio: yeah at breakfast - 11:55pm

boring L + ratio: if he comes down at all - 11:55pm

boring L + ratio: he cried til late, mustve passed out like half an hour ago - 11:56pm

bloodsucker bestie: :(( let me know pls - 11:56

boring L + ratio: will do karl - 11:57pm

bloodsucker bestie: thanks :)) - 11:58pm

Chapter Text

The day afterwards, Sapnap walks down the stairs to the kitchen with a headache. Dehydrated from the crying, without a doubt. Dream is already sitting at the table, chewing on some yoghurt and granola. Sapnap is pretty sure he left its pack open yesterday, they must be kinda mushy now.

“Goodmorning,” Dream greets him when he hears Sapnnap’s socks catch onto the messy cut border of the kitchen floor. He couldn’t tell you how many pairs it had cost him already. It’s worth it because he wears them as thick, comfy, stay-at-home socks. Especially now, they’re part of his mental support.

Sapnap mumbles back a ‘goodmorning’ while he grabs a bowl from the counter and the milk from the fridge.

“How you feelin’?” Dream asks him. He takes one of the last clean spoons from the drawer.

“Uhm, I haven’t really thought about it since I woke up.”

“Oh, sorry,” Dream chuckles.

“Meh, ‘s fine,” Sapnap pulls a chair from the table and sits down. Dream looks at him and then offers him the pack of granola. He nods at it, d’you want some?

“Thanks.” Sapnap pours some of it in the bowl, then adds the milk. He’s mainly forcing himself to eat, he’ll regret it later if he doesn’t now.

After a few minutes, Sapnap perks up. “Hhm, Dream,” he says.

Dream looks up and hums at him, “yeah?”

“I was wondering why you were there yesterday?”

Dream looks back at his bowl to take another spoonful of milk-soaked granola. “What do you mean?”

“When Karl wanted to talk to me about the.. Thing,” Sapnap explains. “He said you had something to do with it?”

Dream nods at his bowl, “right.”

“Do you wanna maybe explain that?” Sapnap bites at his lip in distress.

“Not really?” Dream laughs awkwardly.

Sapnap frowns, “why not?”

“‘Cause you didn’t react very well when Karl told you he’s a vampire?” Dream said it so obviously.

“Yeah?” Sapnap sounds hesitant.

“So I wouldn’t wanna tell you?” Dream continues.

Sapnap frowns again, “why?”

Dream just looks up at him from his bowl. It’s scary to give away secrets like this, but he trusts Sapnap. Besides, he’s had a full night to process Karl’s thing.

“Oh,” is all Sapnap says when he realises. “You’re.. You’re one as well.”

“Yeah,” Dream says, eyes on his bowl again.

Sapnap eyes Dream for a moment before getting back to his own bowl, the cornflakes must be getting mushy by now, “okay.”

“You’re okay with that?” Dream wonders.

Sapnap hums, Dream thinks he sounds unsure. “Getting there,” he then says.

He chuckles, “I’m taking my time to think about Karl, still. But you being..” he lifts his head to look back at Dream. “You know, it helps place the whole thing. Like, mentally, I mean.”

“Oh, that’s good, I’m glad,” Dream nods awkwardly.

Sapnap takes another bite of his soaked cornflakes.

“So is that actually how you met Karl?” he wonders out loud.

“Uhm.”

“‘Cause you always said you met through friends in college,” Sapnap elaborates.

“No, that’s still how we met, just the vampire thing kinda made us friends,” Dream explains.

“How’d you know though?” Sapnap asks him.

“Takes one to know one, right?” Dream sighs, it doesn’t sound like a bad sigh, though.

“Right, I guess,” Sapnap says, shrugging. It makes Dream snort.

“What? It’s not like I know,” Sapnap mumbles.

Dream smiles, “true.”

Sapnap shakes his head, continues eating from his bowl. His spoon reaches the bottom now, there’s just pieces floating in way too much milk.

“You know, I think you’re taking this pretty well,” Dream states after another minute of them eating in silence.

“I mean, I’m just thinking about it and most of it makes sense.”

Dream nods, then frowns. “Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?”

Sapnap snorts, “nothin’.”

A few days later, Sapnap decides it’s time to see Karl again.

my love (Sapnap): hey is it okay if i come over? - 3:42pm

pretty boy <3 (Karl): yeah ofc!! - 3:43pm

pretty boy <3: like rn or? - 3:43pm

my love: yeah now if thats okay, i was planning to leave my place in a few minutes - 3:43pm

pretty boy <3: yeah thats fine! - 3:34pm

my love: leaving rn, ill see you in 10 - 3:41pm

pretty boy <3: okay! - 3:41pm

Sapnap is less nervous than he expected when he gets to Karl’s place. Talking about the whole situation with Dream really helped on that part, he guesses.

He enters the mailbox-hallway and rings Karl’s bell. The glass door preventing him from entering the actual building buzzes and clicks open, and moments later he’s standing in front of Karl’s front door. The door opens almost immediately, revealing a clearly distressed Karl.

Sapnap smiles softly, then gives him a very enthusiastic “hey!”. Karl looks at him hesitantly.

“Hey, uhm, do you wanna come in?” he asks while stepping aside and holding the door open. Sapnap nods and enters his living room.

Karl sits down on his couch and looks at the small table in front of him. “Uhm, I feel like we should talk about what happened,” he proposes.

“Yeah, definitely, that’s kinda why I came,” Sapnap says, and he sits down as well, just on the other side of Karl’s couch.

“Right,” Karl presses his lips together and nods. “So, did Dream tell you about…” he starts, clearly suggesting something.

“Yeah,” Sapnap cuts him off.

Karl looks at him and slowly continues, “and how are you- you know, dealing with all that?”

Sapnap sighs. “Well, it’s not the average adjustment, and I guess I have a lot of questions, but I’m good?”

Karl nods at him and smiles, “I’m glad, I was really worried.”

“I figured. I’m sorry for not… asking to meet up earlier, I really needed a few days to process that.”

“No that’s completely fair, I’m not sure how I would react if my boyfriend told me he’s a vampire,” Karl snorts. “I’m just really glad you’re here, and that you don’t hate me.”

“I couldn't hate you, Karl,” Sapnap looks at him with soft eyes and grabs his hand. “I love you, and you being a vampire isn’t a dealbreaker for me,” he says, and kisses Karl’s hand.

Karl smiles widely and snickers. He moves closer to Sapnap and wraps his arms around him, “I need your hugs again, I missed them.”

“I’m not letting go until you are, love,” Sapnap says, it sounds muffled because of Karl’s shoulder.

“So what have you been doing the past few days?” Karl wonders after a moment.

“Well,” Sapnap starts, “I was kinda planning to take you on another date.”

“Oh?” Karl’s head perks up from his shoulder.

“Yeah, if that’s okay with you?”

“Of course,” Karl says. Sapnap smiles at the fondness in his voice. “Right now?” he then asks.

“Yeah! Again, if that’s okay,” Sapnap chuckles. “I bought everything we need with me.”

“Okay, where we going?” Karl’s smile makes his chest warm.

“The park?” Sapnap suggests, and Karl looks at him awkwardly. “I’ll get very sunburned…”

Sapnap’s eyes widen at that, “right! I have something for that.”

He grabs his bag and starts digging for something. “I thought about this yesterday and I got this,” he says, then pulls a spray-bottle of some sort from his backpack. He smiles at Karl as he shows him the 50+ SPF sunscreen.

Karl giggles, “Sapnap, love, I need a little more than that.”

“Huh? How much?”

“More like, a hundred? Maybe?” Karl offers.

“What? Those exist?” Sapnap says, and it makes Karl giggle again.

“So what do we do then? If you can’t go in the sun, you pick a place.”

Karl thinks about it before he asks, “don’t you and Dream have a little garden?” Sapnap hums, “yeah?”

“You have a parasol there, right? We can use that and just have a garden date!” Karl decides.

“Sure, good idea!”

Karl and Sapnap walk over to Dream and Sapnap’s place. Sapnap is smiling and squeezing Karl’s hand while he tries to hold his hood pulled over his face to protect him from the sun. It’s a sight to see, Karl completely swallowed by the hoodie and Sapnap walking around like it’s a warm August day.

“I’m sorry, I know you like the sun,” Karl suddenly apologises.

“It’s fine, love,” Sapnap squeezes his hands. “Besides, it’s not like I like the sun that much.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, I do, but not as much as to be sad about it. I was just sad that our dates never worked out,” he explains himself.

“Oh wow, Dream is a lying little shit, then,” Karl mumbles in offence.

“Huh, why?”

Karl looks at his for a moment, through the small gap between his hair and hood, "he just told me I had to tell you the… you know, because you were sad about the sun thing.”

Sapnap looked at him in confusion, “I never told him that, though.”

“Okay actually he told me to tell you because of something else, but it’s not really my thing to tell,” Karl confesses.

“Karl?” Sapnap stands still, forcing Karl to stop walking as well.

“Fine, but like… don’t tell him that you know, okay?” Karl insists.

“Yeah, okay, I promise.”

Karl lowers his voice and leans in closer, “Dream can like- he can like, kinda manipulate the weather.”

“Oh, what? That’s fucking cool,” Sapnap exclaims.

“Yeah, kinda!”

“Wait, that means he’s been doing that for all of our past dates?”

“Yeah,” Karl laughs awkwardly. “That’s why he wanted me to tell you, he didn’t wanna have to do it again every time. Because he thought you were sad and all that,” he explains.

“Right,” Sapnap smirks, dragging out the ‘i’. “So what I’m hearing is… Dream wanted you to tell me you’re… yeah, because he got lazy?”

Karl laughs, “that’s one way to look at it. I wouldn’t have waited much longer to tell you regardless.”