Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Soulmates are strange things, almost everyone has at least one platonic soulmate, their names were written in blue; many have romantic soulmates, some have multiple romantic soulmates, their names are written in red. Others have no romantic soulmates and multiple platonic ones, or they have no platonic ones and multiple romantic ones. 

However, very few people have parent/child soulmates, the parents written in gold and the children written in silver. Parental soulmates were people who were often chosen by fate, or the universe, or whatever, to help a child who was abused, neglected or treated badly by their biological parents.

The soul-parent’s names are usually on someone’s wrist from the moment they’re born; most parent’s in that situation abandon their children. No parent wants to be told that they are going to fail, or do a bad job at raising their child. They don’t like being told that a stranger would do a better job at raising their new-born than they would. 

So, when Tommy was born with three gold names on his left wrist and a blue name on his right wrist, well his parents were ashamed and furious.

From the moment he was born, Tommy was labelled as a disappointment, an embarrassment; his parents didn’t abandon him but they may as well have. His mother’s parents insisted that they should have just left him at the hospital like most others did. His father’s parents spoiled him up until the day they died, they bought him toys and left almost everything to him in their will. The only thing he didn’t inherit was their house. 

From the moment he could walk and talk well enough, he was left to practically fend for himself around the house. He had to learn how to cook, how to entertain himself, how to clean up and leave almost no trace that he existed. 

When he started making money from making videos on YouTube, his parents stopped financially supporting him. He had his own money, so why should they have to buy him anything? The universe had already decided they weren’t good enough. That he wasn’t meant to be their child. 

 He had to buy his own food, his own clothes, his own school supplies, he had to pay bus fare to get to college and buy his own train tickets to meet up with his friends. It was fine though, Tommy could do that, he managed well enough. 

From a young age, Tommy had to learn how the world worked; he kept the four names covered with bracelets, wristbands, long sleeves, anything he could. Anything to keep them out of sight, he already caused his parent’s enough pain, they didn’t need to see the names of their replacements every day 

Everything got worse when Tommy came out to his parents as transgender. Tommy told them that he was actually a she, that they had a daughter rather than a son. 

She was given a few minutes to pack some things into a bag before she was kicked to the streets at the age of fifteen. 

Clementine was homeless at fifteen. There was no way she was calling any of her friends, she didn’t want to worry them. No, she’d find a hotel or something, sleep on a park bench or find a quiet backstreet to sleep in as a last resort. 

It didn’t work out for her though. She had barely been walking for twenty minutes when someone started following her, they cornered her and started demanding money or anything they deemed valuable enough to take. When she didn’t give them anything they started throwing punches, when she was one the ground they started kicking. 

Clementine woke up in a hospital bed, covered in bandages and practically high on painkillers. 

She eventually had to explain to a doctor what happened, she told him about how she came out as transgender and her parents kicked her out, how she was followed and beaten by some random person. 

So, instead of calling her parents, the doctor had her soul-parent’s tracked down and the nearest one was contacted. It baffled him that two of the three lived in America, they definitely wouldn’t be able to collect her, so he didn’t inform them about their soul-child. 

Clementine knew what was coming. She’d known all along that she’d have to meet them but she’d hoped to avoid it for as long as possible. She was left to wait nervously while one of her soul-parents was contacted and called to the hospital. 

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George was twelve when he learned what the silver name on his right wrist meant, his mother sat him down and explained; there was a child he was going to meet and love with everything he could give. 

At first it hurt to know that this child, this innocent child, was treated so badly by their parents that the universe had to give them new ones; but he took it in stride, this was his child. He didn’t care that he hadn’t met them yet, he loved them anyway and nothing was going to change that. 

He always smiled and showed the name off proudly to his friends and anyone who asked. That was his child, his Clementine and he couldn’t wait to meet her and be able to show her off properly. 

When he met his two romantic soulmates, they realised that they all had the same silver name on their right wrists. Oh how loved this child was going to be, smothered with hugs, and showered with praise, spoiled with a near-endless stream of gifts. They had plenty of money to spare, they were all popular youtubers and streamers already, and their channels were still growing. 

George was the first to receive contact from their youngest soulmate, it was around five-thirty pm when he got a phone call from the authorities telling him that his soul-child was in the hospital and needed collecting. They gave the hospital address and some basic information about what happened, not much, just that she’d been kicked out by her parents and was hurt. 

He got on a train and impatiently waited the three hours and twenty minutes for the train to pull into the Nottingham station. 

Once he got to the hospital he walked to the front desk and addressed the young man sitting behind it. 

“Hi, I’m here for my Soul-child, Clementine Simons.” 

The man nodded and started typing. It took a few minutes but then he looked back up, “Floor three, room 305, she’s already been discharged, so you can just take her.”

George nodded, “Thank you.” 

He hurried off as fast as he could without running and then silently cursed the elevator for not going any faster. 

He reached the room as fast as he could and pushed open the door. He froze in the doorway because… there sat Tommy. Small, fifteen year old Tommyinnit, sitting there on the hospital bed, arms wrapped in bandages, his left eye bruised and his right eye covered with a cotton patch. His hair was a mess and his clothes were dirty. 

“Tommy?” George asked, the teenager flinched, “What happened?” 

“I… I came out to my parents.” 

“Your parents did this?” 

Tommy shook his head, “After I told them I was a girl they kicked me out. I was walking around to find somewhere to stay when some guy jumped me.” 

George took a second to process the information. Tommy was his soul-child. Tommy was a girl. That was why the name on his wrist was Clementine. 

“Okay, well let's get you out of here and back to mine. You can shower and I’ll give you a change of clothes.” 

Clementine nodded and slowly slid herself off the bed. She grabbed the backpack that was next to it and followed behind George closely. 

The journey was kind of awkward. There weren’t many people on the train because of how late it was, and George had to message Dream and Sapnap to let them know he wouldn’t be able to make it to their usual call. 

He didn’t tell them why, he couldn't betray Clementine’s trust by telling them when she wasn’t ready, or at least had a proper conversation about telling them. She’d just been kicked out by her parents for being trans, it’d make sense for her to be hesitant to tell other people after that. 

When they got back to George’s flat, Clementine was led to the spare room and left to unpack her bag while George found her some clothes and ordered some food. It was late so neither of them would be cooking. He settled on ordering Pizza, he got a cheese one and a peperone one, along with some fries, garlic bread and a bottle of coke, he also got a tub of cookie dough ice-cream for Clementine to have the next day, he hid it in the freezer while she wasn’t looking. 

Clementine showered and put on the pyjamas that George gave her. The food arrived shortly after she finished in the shower. They watched a movie and ate their food in silence, they could talk about what happened when they were both well rested.

Chapter Text

Clementine woke up warm and comfortable for the first time in a while. She had a blanket over her and a soft pillow under her head. At first she thought she was still asleep but then a sense of dread filled her, she remembered what happened with her parents, and then the hospital. 

She relaxed slightly, realising that she was in the room George gave her. She just lay there for a few more minutes before she decided to check her phone. It had been charging on the bedside table all night. She had a few notifications, a few texts from Wilbur and some mobile game notifications. She ignored the game notifications and mentally debated replying to Wilbur. Clementine decided to leave it and reply later. 

She got out of bed and went to grab some leftover pizza for breakfast. She found George already sitting at the table eating his leftovers. 

“Morning.” George greeted, “Well, afternoon, we slept late.” 

“Morning.” Clementine replied and sat down opposite George with her food. 

“So about what happened yesterday,” George started, “I won’t ask you for any details, but we can go online later and have your name legally changed so me, Dream and Sapnap can apply for legal custody when you decide to tell them.”

“Okay, I guess we can do that later.” 

“Alright, and we can also look into gender reassignment and hormone therapy if you’re comfortable with that.” 

That one caught Clementine off guard. She knew George knew about her being trans, and she knew he’d be okay with it, she just didn’t think he’d offer to help with stuff like that. He was going to help her change her name, he was going to get custody, he was even going to help her medically transition. Was that… was that what parents were supposed to do? Was that why the universe chose him to be one of her soul-parents?

“Yeah, I… I think I’d like that.” 

After that they stopped with the serious talk and just started talking about a bunch of other stuff while they ate, like what colour Clementine wanted to paint her room, what colour she’d want her room in Dream and Sapnap’s house to be, because there was one waiting for her Dream and Sapnap already had a room picked out for her there, they just wanted to meet her before they decided to decorate it. 

They talked about posters and photographs that she could hang on her walls, they talked about what food they both liked so George knew what he needed to buy when he went shopping. 

It was actually peaceful, relaxing. Clementine felt like she didn’t have to worry about anything, she didn’t have to track how much money she was spending or limit what she needed because her parents didn't want to give her space in the cupboards. 

For once in her life, Clementine didn’t feel like a burden or an embarrassment. She was actually wanted here, George was taking time to figure out what she needed and what he needed to do to help her settle in and feel comfortable. It was… it was nice. 

After they finished eating, George went to shower while Clementine picked something to watch on Netflix. Once she settled on ‘Umbrella Academy’, Clementine grabbed her phone to reply to Wilbur’s messages. 

Wilby: Are you free to join my stream tonight?

Wilby: Tommy? 

Wilby: Child are you still sleeping?

Wilby: Wake up and reply gremlin

Clementine: Sorry can’t join tonight

Clementine: And yes I was still sleeping. 

Clementine: I went to bed late last night so I slept in. 

It didn’t take very long for Wilbur to reply. Clementine realised that he was probably waiting for her to reply and kept checking his phone, like he did whenever he was waiting for someone to text him back. 

Wilby: You didn’t stream last night so why did you go to bed late?

Clementine: Was editing lost track of time. 

Yeah… she definitely wasn’t ready to tell him yet. Maybe when everything with her parents was sorted out. 

Wilby: You need to keep track of time better

Wilby: It’s one thing when you’re streaming but you’ll mess up your sleep schedule if you stay up late too often. 

Clementine: I know, you keep telling me. 

Wilby: And I’ll keep telling you til it sticks. 

Wilby: So why can’t you stream tonight?

Wilby: You’re not editing again are you?

Clementine: No, I just have some things to do

Wilby: Another time then?

Clementine: Yeah, another time

With that, Clementine turned her phone off and turned her focus to the tv. She made it through one episode by the time George finished his shower, the show was left playing in the background while George took a seat next to her with his laptop, a tub of ice-cream and a spoon. 

He handed the ice-cream and spoon to Clementine and opened his laptop. He opened google and they worked on getting her name changed legally. 

George did all the typing while Clementine just sat there eating her ice-cream and telling him what needed to be filled in. 

After all the necessary documents were sent off, George and Clementine did some online shopping. They ordered a bunch of clothes for her so she didn’t actually have to go out and do it. Clementine picked out some skirts and dresses, George even picked out a few hoodies and t-shirts for her, then they went and found some shoes and other accessories like earrings, necklaces, bracelets and hair clips.

George had just finished shutting down his laptop when Clementine decided that she wanted Dream and Sapnap to know that she was their Soul-child. 

“Hey George, I think I want to tell the other two that I’m here.” She spoke slowly, hesitantly like she was only just processing the words she was speaking. 

“What part specifically, because if you’re not comfortable we can just tell them that you’re staying here for a while and leave out the part about being trans and our soul-child.” 

Clementine shook her head, “I think they should know. It’s not really fair on them, y’know? You know that I’m your soul-child and I’m lying with you. They’d want to know too, right?” 

“If that’s what you want to do, then it’s fine with me. We can tell them when I’m on call with them tonight if you want.” 

“Yeah, I think that’s alright. You… you can explain what happened though, can’t you? I don’t really think I can explain it again.”

“Course I can.” George told her and ruffled her hair, “Geez, do you even brush your hair? How does it even get this tangled in one day?!” 

Clementine laughed and gently slapped his hand away from her hair, “Fuck you! It’s not that bad!” 

George laughed too and went to put his laptop away.

Chapter Text

It was about 7pm and Dream, Sapnap and George all joined a discord video call. 

“Gogy! Why did you miss the call yesterday?” Sapnap asked, pouting like a little kid.

George glanced at Clementine before he answered, “I was picking up our soul-child.” 

“Wait, you met them?” Dream asked, “How?”

“She, uh, she was in the hospital. Her parents kicked her out and then she was attacked in the street. I got a call to go pick her up.”

“Can we meet her?!” Sapnap asked excitedly, “Is she there? How is she?” 

“I mean, I think she’s as good as she can be right now. She’s sitting just off camera. Clem, do you want to-” 

George didn’t get a chance to finish because Clementine scooted her chair into frame. 

“George, that’s Tommy.” Dream said. 

“Was Tommy. I’m Clementine now.” Clementine corrected, “We applied for my name change this afternoon.” 

Dream nodded, “Is it just your name that changed? Or have your pronouns changed too?”

Clementine smiled, “My pronouns are she/her.” 

“She/her, got it.” Sapnap said, “So you’re our soul-child?” 

“Yeah.” Clementine showed off the three gold names on her wrist. 

“Holy shit! That’s great! Wait, does that mean you’ve known the whole time we’ve known each other?!” Sapnap asked, bouncing excitedly in his seat. 

Clementine answered hesitantly, “Yes… but I wasn’t out as trans yet so I didn’t say anything.” 

Dream nodded, “That’s fine. You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable doing. If you didn’t feel ready to tell us then you had no obligation to.” 

That… that felt like the world had just been lifted from her shoulders. It was a nice thing to hear too, her parents had to know everything, if her behaviour changed even slightly, then they were scolding her, if she kept a secret from them and they found out through someone else, she was punished, usually her computer was taken off her, or her phone, sometimes even both. 

It was a nice change of pace to be told that she wasn’t obligated to tell them anything she wasn’t comfortable with. 

Out of nowhere, Dream let out an excited sound, “We need to hurry up and adopt you so you can come and stay with me and Sapnap!” 

Sapnap gasped, “Yeah! We can’t let George keep her all to himself!” 

“Is that something you want?” Dream asked, “For us to adopt you? We won’t do anything you’re uncomfortable with.” 

Clementine paused. George had mentioned getting legal custody of her, but they didn’t actually discuss adoption, she honestly just assumed she’d be a foster kid or something. She wasn’t against the idea of adoption, yet it felt like she was betraying her parents. That didn’t even make sense, her parents didn’t care about her, from the moment she was born she was nothing but a burden to them, so why did it feel like she was betraying them?

“We don’t have to, if you don’t want that.” Sapnap told her, his voice was gentle and he looked at her with a soft look in his eyes. 

Clementine shook her head, “No, I want you too, I just… feel like it’s wrong for me to just forget about my parents.” 

“You don’t have to forget about them, Clem, they’re your parents. We don’t want to replace them, we want to help you and give you the best life we can. Even if we’re your soul-parents we would never try to replace your birth ones.” Dream told her. 

“It’s not… wrong for me to feel like that? Even though they weren’t good?” 

“Not at all. You’re entitled to your own feelings, however confusing and conflicting they are.” The older blond stated.

“Thanks, Dream. I guess it’ll just take some time to get used to not having them around, and that I have three dads now.” 

“We have to wait for your name change documents anyway, not to mention court dates and the whole citizenship thing, so you have some time to get used to the idea.” George told her.

That was the thing about Parent/child soulmates. It wasn’t unheard of for them to live in different countries, so there was a sort of protective system put in place; Soul-children were given dual citizenship after they met their soul-parents so they could go back and forth, and choose where they wanted to live. It took a few months for them to be issued the passports but everything usually worked out. 

“That’s fine.” Clementine said. 

There was an awkward pause, no one knew what to say and no one wanted to just start talking. 

“ Ooh-kay. ” Clementine said, “I’m going to go back to my room and do something. You three enjoy your call.” 

She stood up and shook her head, smiling when Sapnap and Dream started protesting. She gave a quick goodbye before she left the room and went to bury herself in her blanket, hidden away from the world, shielded from any stressful choices. 

She soon drifted off to sleep, more relaxed after coming out to her other two soul-parents.

That was how George found her a few hours later, curled up under her blanket, sleeping peacefully. He closed the door as quietly as he could and went to grab a drink before he went to bed himself.

Chapter Text

A few weeks later, Clementine’s clothes and name change documents were delivered. George took the documents and put them in a folder with the rest of her legal stuff, some of the few things she’d grabbed when she was shoving things in her bag in her parent’s house. 

Clementine put her large bag of clothes on her bed and started laying out different outfits. One caught her eye in particular, it was a knee-length pale pink pleated skirt that George picked out, a white, long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of white boots. 

It was a cute outfit, so she decided to look through her new accessories to see what would match best. She picked out a few, a gold flower hair clip, a gold necklace with a letter ‘C’ charm and a simple gold bracelet. 

She tried it on and looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t look quite right, but she liked it. It was a start, a really, really good start. The clothes were comfortable, they fit a little odd around her hips, chest and shoulders but she looked good. She looked and felt more like herself than she ever had. 

Clementine headed into the living room to show George, she was excited to show him, it was the first time she’d ever worn a skirt, or anything remotely ‘feminine’. 

George was on his phone when she walked in, he looked up and smiled. 

“Gogy, look!”

“I can see. It looks great.” 

George loved the smile that his soul-child had. She looked so happy, like this was the best moment in her life. 

“Have you tried on the other clothes yet?”

“Not yet. I want to keep these on for a bit.” 

“Okay, just remember to put the rest away if you’re not trying them on yet then. I have to head out to meet the others, can you feed the cat?” 

Clementine nodded, “I can. I think the litter box needs cleaning out too so I’ll do that as well.” 

George turned to look behind him towards the kitchen, as if he’d be able to see the litter box through the closed door, “Shit, I didn’t notice. I can do that when I get back, you don’t have to.” 

“Nah, it’s fine. It’ll give me something to do while you're gone.” 

“If you’re sure.” George said as he got up off the sofa and grabbed a jacket, “I’ll be back in a few hours, text me if you need anything.” 

“I will, but can… can you not mention me being here to the others?” 

“Yeah, I won't say anything. My computer’s unlocked if you want to talk to Dream and Sapnap, make sure Robert doesn’t scratch anything, and remember to eat something. I’ll bring food back.” 

“Alright. By Gogy!” 

“See you later.”

George locked the door behind him, leaving Clementine alone in the flat for the first time. 

The first thing Clementine did was put the rest of her clothes away, then she changed her boots out for a pair of fluffy grey slippers. After that she cleaned out the litter box and replaced the cat litter, then she got out a tin of cat food and fed the cat. 

He rubbed himself on Clementine’s legs on his way to his food and started eating. 

Robert was a two year old orange tabby cat with amber eyes. He was friendly and liked to curl up on a pillow on Clementine’s bed, the only problem was he tended to scratch the furniture if he was left one for too long. 

While Robert was eating, Clementine busied herself with cleaning, she started wiping down the kitchen counters, then she mopped the kitchen floor. When Robert hopped up onto the counter, Clementine picked up his empty food bowl and washed the dishes. 

She zoned out while washing the dishes and was snapped out of it when an orange paw slapped the water and splashed her. 

“Fucking hell, Robert!” She exclaimed and then laughed, “What was that for?”

She put down the plate she was washing and petted the cat’s head, he closed his eyes and pushed his head further into Clementine’s hand. The cat’s fur was wet but he was still purring.

“Go on, now. I need to finish washing up.” She shooed the cat away and finished when she was doing before she was rudely interrupted. 

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful and boring. She spent the rest of her time alone just watching Netflix and scrolling through twitter. She saw pictures of the meet up she’d turned down the invitation of, she saw Wisp’s tweets that were just a bunch of nonsense, as usual. 

Clementine remembered to eat lunch, like George had told her, but she decided not to talk to Dream and Sapnap. Maybe she should have, she found that she didn’t like being alone, it was boring and quiet, Robert was nice company but he slept most of the time. 

She was glad when George got back. Partly because she was happy to have someone to talk to but also because he bought a bag of Chips back.

“Fuck yeah! Chippy for tea!” 

“Yep! Chippy for tea. Why don’t you go and grab some plates so I can put the food out.”

Clementine grabbed two plates from the kitchen and put them down on the table so George could put the food out. 

“How did you like having the flat to yourself?” 

“I was so bored! Gogy don’t leave me alone for that long again. It was torture.” 

George laughed and agreed to never leave Clementine for more than two hours again.

Chapter Text

After two months of living with George, Clementine was set to start medically transitioning. Her soul-parents had looked into adopting her too, all they were waiting for was for their assessments to come back and then they’d get to sign the papers. Clementine would be able to send off for an American passport after the papers were sent off and everything was legalised. 

Everyone was excited, Sapnap and Dream had decorated the room that had been picked out for Clementine, they’d made her a cool set-up with LED strip lights and a nice gaming chair. It had a cute pastel keyboard, a matching mouse and cat ear headphones. 

Sapnap sent her pictures over discord after they finished decorating her room. It looked awesome, she had a double bed with pale blue bed sheets and a floral patterned comforter. Her walls were painted pale blue with empty picture frames hung up around the room. They were waiting for her to get to Florida so they could take pictures to put in them. 

There was a cat bed on the drawers in front of the window, apparently Patches had been using that room to sleep in the sun without being bothered. 

On the same set of drawers there was a mirror with a bunch of make-up, nail polish and three different bottles of perfume. 

The whole time Clementine had been living with George, she’d been avoiding the rest of her friends. Every time Wilbur mentioned meeting up, or Tubbo would suggest streaming together, she either found a way to change the topic or made up some excuse so she could get out of it. 

Every time she lied to her friends, a pit grew in her stomach. She hated lying to them, she hated avoiding them, but she wasn’t ready yet. She wasn’t ready to come out. 

She also wasn’t ready to come out to her viewers. She knew that a lot of them would be supportive, but she’d also get a lot of criticism, there would be backlash and transphobia. 

So, Clementine went on Twitter and made a post letting everyone know that she was taking an indefinite break. She didn’t say how long the break would be so there was no pressure, no date to dread, she got to decide how long she stayed out of the public eye. 

Clementine was sitting in her room, colouring in a children’s colouring book, when George knocked on the door. 

“Yeah?” 

“Sapnap sent through some links to some clothes sites so you can have some clothes delivered to their place. You want to do it now or later?” 

“I can do it now. I’m not really busy or anything.” 

Clementine left her crayons and colouring out on her bed while she followed George to his room so they could use the computer. 

They spent about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, ordering clothes, shoes and other things. They opened the last link and realised that it was just a link to Sapnap’s merch, so Clementine ordered a hoodie and a 2-size-to-big t-shirt, she also ordered a hoodie and t-shirt from Dream and George’s merch shops, because why not? 

After they were done, they joined a call with Dream and Sapnap. 

“Hey! Guess what we got today!” Sapnap said excitedly. 

“What?” Clementine replied. 

Dream grinned, “We got our assessment back, and we’re all clear to sign the papers.” 

“Really? You’re not fucking with me?” 

“They came this morning.” Sapnap told her, bouncing in his seat.

“Holy shit! That’s awesome!” Clementine bounced in her seat and started flapping her hands excitedly, “Wait, does this mean I’ll meet Dream before George does?” 

Sapnap burst out laughing, “You- you’re right! Everyone’s going to meet Dream before George will!” 

“Really? This again?” George asked, mildly amused. 

“I’ll stop when you finally meet up with Dream.” Sapnap told him. 

“Anyway,” Dream interrupted, “Clem, you know that we’ve been telling people that we met our soul-child.” 

“Yeah, what about it?” Clementine stilled in her seat.

“Well people are asking about socials and stuff, they know you’re fifteen so they want to know if you have Instagram and twitter.” Dream explained. 

“Okay, well I’ll just make new accounts and just be faceless.” Clementine replied with a shrug.

Dream nodded, “Okay then, message us your new accounts when you make them and we’ll follow you.” 

“Will do. I’m going to head back to my colouring, I’ll be in my room if you need me.” Clementine said and got up.

“Have fun.” Sapnap said. 

“I will. Bye.”

Clementine left before anyone else could say anything, before she went back to her colouring, she created a new Instagram and twitter account. She followed George, Dream and Sapnap and then messaged them her account names over discord. 

Not even an hour later, others were following her, Punz, Bad, Foolish, Wilbur, Phil, Tubbo, pretty much everyone Dream, George and Sapnap were friends with online. She followed most of them back and then left her phone alone so she could finish her colouring. 

Chapter Text

After George, Dream and Sapnap signed the adoption papers, it took almost a month for Clementine’s American passport to arrive. Once it did, she excitedly sent a picture of it to the discord server she was in with her soul-parents, after that she posted a picture of the front on her ‘ClemWasFound’ Instagram (the name was Dream’s idea, originally it was ‘CuriousClem’). 

Dream bought her a first class plane ticket so she could stay with them for a while. She packed a carry-on bag and grabbed a suitcase, but all that she put in there was a few books and some toiletries. She didn’t really need a suitcase but she’d feel like she was forgetting something if she didn’t take one; besides, there was a high chance she’d buy something in Florida that she wanted to take back to the U.K, so better safe than sorry. 

Clementine had never been abroad without her parents, it would be her first time on an aeroplane without an adult accompanying her. The flight staff would be watching out for her, and they’d help her check her bags in but she was on her own for the rest of it. Not to mention, it was a nine-and-a-half hour flight and she’d end up being in the airport for about two, maybe three hours before she could board. 

Of course, she’d sleep on the plane so she wouldn’t be awake for over twelve hours, she’d also be able to sleep when she got to Dream and Sapnap’s house, despite the fact that it would be about ten-thirty am in Florida (three-thirty pm in the U.K) when the plane was scheduled to land. 

Of course, that wasn’t taking into account any delays, and the time it would take to collect her suitcase. 

“You’re overthinking it.” George said as he watched his soul-child flit about the living room. 

“No I’m fucking not.” Clementine denied the accusation. 

“You are, you’ll be fine. Dream and Sapnap will be waiting for you at the collection point, a member of staff will walk you there so you’ll be able to find them. You’ll be fine.” 

“What if someone recognises me?” 

“You’ll be wearing a mask and you can put on a hat, Now, you need to go and get some rest, you need to be up at three.” 

Clementine stopped moving and stared at him for a moment.

“Clem.” He said in a scolding tone. 

“Fine.” She said reluctantly, “I’m going to shower first, and call Sapnap before I go to bed though, I’m going to be uncomfortable enough as it is, I don’t need to have greasy hair on a nearly ten hour flight as well.” 

Clementine went to her room to grab some of her more comfortable pyjamas, her toothbrush and a hoodie, then George heard the shower turn on. He returned his focus to the tv and left Clementine to her night-time routine. 

About twenty minutes later, Clementine walked out of the bathroom and got on a discord call with Sapnap. She propped her phone up on her desk so she could talk to him while she did one final check of her carry-on bag. 

“You got everything?” Sapnap asked. 

“I think so, I’m just making sure.” Clementine replied, “I have my U.K passport, my American passport, my portable charger, my purse, do I need anything else?”

“Errr, a book? Something to do on the plane. Maybe one of your colouring books? You’re packing your headphones too, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll pack them in the morning, I’ll put a colouring book and my pencil case in now.” Clementine opened her desk drawer and grabbed a colouring book and her pencil case to shove at the top of her white holdall with pale blue straps. 

“I think that’s everything, anything you forgot we can probably get here.” Sapnap told her. 

Clementine zipped up the bag, “Probably.” 

She turned on her lamp and turned the ceiling light off. She grabbed her phone and put it on her bedside table while she pulled back her blanket and climbed into bed. 

George could hear her hushed voice but couldn’t make out anything she was saying, even the quiet whispers went silent soon enough.

He went in to check on her and found her fast asleep, her phone still on and Sapnap still on the call. George carefully took her headphones off and pulled them over his own ears. 

“Hey Sapnap.” He said. 

“George!” Sapnap said excitedly, “Looking forward to having the apartment to yourself for the next few months?” 

“I don’t know, I’m used to Clem’s shouting at this point. It might be a bit too quiet.” 

“Awww, George! Are you gonna miss Emmie?” Sapnap teased. 

“Watch it, I get her back in six months. Let’s see what you’re like when she’s leaving to come back here.” 

“Shhh, let’s not think about that yet.” 

George laughed, “Fine, fine. I’m going to leave the call so Clem’s phone can charge.” 

“Oh, put her headphones in her bag for her!” Sapnap told him.

“Got it. Headphones in her bag. Bye, Sapnap.” 

“Bye, Gogy!” 

George left the call and put Clementine’s phone on charge before he tucked her headphones in her bag. 

She had headphones in her room in Florida, a pair of pastel pink cat ear headphones, but she needed some for on the plane so she could listen to music or watch one of the movies she downloaded on Netflix. 

Once Clementine’s bag was zipped up, George left the room and closed the door quietly behind him before he headed to bed himself, he had to be up too, so he could see his daughter off. 

Chapter Text

Clementine woke at three am to her alarm screaming at her. Three. In. The. Fucking. Morning. Why did she have to be on an early flight? Why not an afternoon one?

Still, she got up and got ready to leave for her flight. She dressed in a pair of leggings and a red short sleeved, oversized t-shirt that nearly reached her knees. She put on a pair of fluffy purple socks and some white trainers. 

A few minutes after she was finished getting dressed, a half-asleep George knocked on her door. 

“Clem, you up?” His voice was deep and groggy, he’d barely woken up and probably wasn’t even dressed. 

“Yeah, I just finished getting changed.” 

“Okay, remember to brush your hair and grab a mask.” 

Clementine groaned, “I know, George. Maybe you should actually wake up before you lecture me on getting ready.” 

“Very funny. I’m going to get dressed and then I’ll make us something for breakfast.” 

“Alright. I’m going to take my bags into the living room.” 

George made a sound of acknowledgment and left Clementine to finish getting ready. 

She brushed her hair and picked up her pastel purple mask. She grabbed a black zip-up hoodie and put the mask in the pocket. She hung the jacket over her arm while she took her bag and suitcase into the living room. 

Then, she realised she forgot her phone so she walked back to her bedroom, grabbed it off charge and made sure all of the plugs and lights were turned off. 

George came out of his room, slightly more awake and fully dressed. His hair wasn’t exactly tidy but Clementine wasn’t going to say anything about it, she was just going to sit on the sofa and keep her mouth shut. 

“Morning.” George said as he put a few slices of bread in the toaster. 

“Good morning.” Clementine replied, “What time are we leaving for the Airport?” 

George checked the time, “I called the taxi a few minutes ago, it should be here in twenty minutes.” 

Clementine stared at him, “Twenty minutes? Really? I think we need to hurry up a bit then.” 

“We’ll be fine, stop worrying.” The man walked to the fridge and took the butter out. 

Clementine took a breath and opened Instagram, she took a picture of her bags and used the caption ‘Leaving for Florida soon!’

Likes and comments flooded in, she liked the ones from Dream and Sapnap, she even liked a few of the funnier ones that Dream, Sapnap and George’s viewers commented. 

George brought over two plates of toast and handed one to Clementine before he sat down next to her. Clementine took a bite before she realised she didn’t pack her headphones. 

“Shit, I don’t have my headphones.” 

“I put them in your bag last night.” George told her, instantly letting her relax slightly. 

“Oh, thanks.” Clementine leaned back and finished her breakfast. 

When she finished, she put her plate in the sink and went to clean her teeth and wash her face. George finished soon after and made sure everything was ready for Clementine to leave. 

The taxi arrived and they put the suitcase in the boot, they both got in the back and had a quiet drive to the airport. 

When they finally arrived at the airport, Clementine’s nerves were at an all-time high. She put her mask on and kept adjusting it every five seconds. 

“Okay, I can come with you to get your bag checked in but after that a member of staff will take you. They’re going to show you to the gate and after you board someone will show you to your seat. You’ll have meals and drinks delivered to you, they’re included with your ticket so you won’t need to buy anything.” 

“Right, got it.” 

“When the plane lands, you’ll follow the other passengers off the plane and a member of staff will be waiting to take you to the collection point where Dream and Sapnap will be waiting for you, they’ll help you get your suitcase. If you can’t see them, the member of staff will stay with you until you either find them, or they find you.” 

“I doubt they’ll be the ones finding me, I’m, like, 5’4 and Dream’s freakishly tall. I’ll probably spot him pretty quick.” Clementine joked. 

George let out a small laugh, “I mean, you’re probably right. Anyway, send a message on the discord server when you board so we know you got there okay, and when you get off so they know to keep an eye out for you and I know you landed safely.” 

“Okay, I can do that.” 

“Good, now let’s get your suitcase weighed and checked in so you don’t miss your flight.” George grabbed the suitcase and led Clementine to the desks where they were getting everything checked. 

The lady at the desk checked the two passports (the U.K one had Clementine’s ticket tucked inside) and smiled. 

“ First class , you’re one lucky young lady, aren’t you?”

Clementine’s eyes widened and she grinned under her mask. A warm feeling exploded through her, as she nodded. 

“Yeah. My soul-parent insisted on getting it for me since it’s a long flight and I’m on my own.” 

“Well that was really nice of them. Now, you need to be in Gate three and your flight is scheduled to take off at six am. Since you still have about two hours before your flight, Lucy, here, will stay with you in the lounge.” The lady leaned in as if she was going to tell a secret, “Lucy loves shopping so she’s more than happy to show you around some of the shops while you wait” 

Clementine giggled and nodded, “Thank you.” 

“Of course. Anyway, you’re all sorted. You should say your goodbyes before this place starts to get really busy.” 

“Oh. Right.” Clementine forgot about that, she turned and pushed herself into George’s chest.

George held her there for a minute, his head on hers for a moment before Clementine had to leave with Lucy to head through security.

Chapter Text

Clementine followed Lucy through security where her bag was checked and she had to walk through a security body scanner. Once she got her bag back Lucy showed her around the shopping area. 

Lucy was a tall, red haired woman with fair skin and freckles, she had kind, hazel eyes and looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties. She was sweet and enthusiastic about showing Clementine around the shops. Clementine noticed a pin on her lanyard, a black, purple, white and yellow flag pin, the non-binary flag. 

“You know,” Lucy said, “There's a bunch of chocolate and stuff you can’t get in America, and anything you buy here you can take on the plane with you.” 

“Really? Like what?” Clementine asked, curious about what she was about to stock up on.

“Jaffa cakes, magic stars, Cadbury’s chocolate doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as it does here, you can’t get wine gums either.” 

Clementine pulled a face, not that Lucy could really see it under Clementine’s mask, “Nah, I’m not going six months without Jaffa cakes, magic stars and Cadbury’s.” 

Lucy laughed and showed Clementine to the sweetshop where she stocked up on five giant slabs of dairy milk, seven family bags of magic stars and about ten boxes of Jaffa cakes. She was glad she didn’t have much in her carry-on bag so she was able to easily fit it all in. 

“Okay, anything else you want to get?” Lucy asked. 

“I don’t think so.” Clementine replied. 

“Okay, why don’t I show you to some of the clothes shops, something might take your fancy.” 

“Um, alright then.” 

And Lucy was right. Clementine spotted a nice, knee-length summer dress with halter-straps. It was white and covered in oranges. Yeah, she couldn’t help but buy it, along with some fruit shaped hair clips from the Claire’s that was just opposite. 

She left it at that and waited patiently for Lucy to take her to the gate. By the time she was called to board, it was already light outside. She remembered to send her soul-parents a message to let them know she was boarding and was then shown to her first-class seat. 

While everyone else was boarding, Clementine took a photo out the window (she made sure her reflection wasn’t in it) and posted it to Instagram. 

She slept through most of the journey, but during the times she got a bit restless and put on her headphones, listened to some music, and either did some colouring in or stretched her legs a bit. 

Her meals and drinks were brought to her throughout the flight, they weren’t bad but she couldn’t wait to have some proper food. 

As soon as they landed and the plane had some to a stop, Clementine pulled out her phone and sent another message to her soul-parents to let them know she landed safely. 

Once everyone was off the plane, Clementine followed another member of staff to where Dream and Sapnap would be waiting for her. It took her a minute to spot them, but Dream was wearing a bright green hoodie so he kind of stood out, not to mention he towered over almost everyone there. 

“I can see my parents.” Clementine told the young man escorting her. 

“Alright, can you just point them out to me so I know I’m not leaving you unsupervised?” 

“Just there, the men in the green and black hoodies.” Clementine pointed in their directions. 

The man nodded and let Clementine leave, he watched her leave just to make sure she actually got to her parents but after that, he left. 

Clementine walked over to her friends, her soul-parents, and smiled under her mask. 

“Hey, Bitches.” 

Both men looked at her and grinned. 

“Clementine!” Dream said happily and hugged her, damn near lifting her off the ground as she wrapped her arms around his neck. 

Clementine was on her tip-toes with Dream’s arms around her waist, her feet nearly left the ground but Dream let her go so Sapnap could have a turn. 

Sapnap gave a mock gasp and wrapped his arms around her, “Emmie!” 

“Pandas!” Clementine called out in response. 

Without moving a muscle, Sapnap said “Did you just call me ‘Pandas’?” 

Clementine’s voice was muffled by Sapnap’s chest but he still understood her anyway, “If you’re going to call me fucking ‘Emmie’ I’m calling you ‘Pandas’, fucking deal with it.” 

“You know what, sure.” Sapnap said and let Clementine go. 

He kept an arm around her as the three went to baggage claim so they could grab Clementine’s suitcase. 

Dream carried the suitcase to the car while Sapnap refused to let Clementine go, she didn’t mind much, he was warm and her birth parents never showed her any affection. It was a welcome change, honestly. 

“Alright, time to let Clementine go, you need to drive.” 

“Damn it.” Sapnap muttered and let Clementine move from under his arm. 

Dream quickly took Sapnap’s place, smirking at him as he gently pushed Clementine to sit in the back. Dream sat in the back with her and wrapped both his arms around her, smiling smugly as Sapnap glared at him jokingly in the rear-view mirror. 

“I have six months of you two clingy assholes.” Clementine said, cuddling further into Dream. 

“You’re one to talk. You’re practically lying on me.” 

“Fuck off, I just spent nine and a half hours on a plane, I’m so fucking jet lagged.” 

“Go to sleep then, we’ll wake you up later.” Sapnap said as he drove out of the parking lot.” 

Clementine groaned, “I don’t want to sleep, I just got here.” 

Dream laughed and put his head on hers, “And you’re here for the next six months, a few hours of sleep isn’t going to magically change that.” 

“I don’t want to go to sleep though.” 

“You’ll only feel worse if you don’t.” Sapnap told her. 

Clementine groaned and closed her eyes, “Fine, but you need to wake me up when we get to the house.” 

“We will.” Dream told her, “Now, sleep.” 

Yeah. Dream lied. Clementine woke up in bed almost four hours later.

Chapter Text

Clementine’s first evening in Florida was spent just relaxing, after she woke up she unpacked her bags and watched tv with Patches lying on her lap. Dream and Sapnap sandwiched her between them, she just sat there soaking up the affection. 

Sapnap got up to grab a drink and something to snack on, he was in the kitchen when he shouted through to the living room. 

“What the hell are Jaffa cakes and why do we have so many boxes of them?”

Clementine burst out laughing. Sapnap walked back into the living room with a box of Jaffa cakes and held them out to her. 

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say these are yours.” 

“Yep! The lady who was taking me to my gate told me there were a bunch of things I couldn’t buy here so I bought a bunch.” 

“Okay, but what are they?” 

“They’re little cakes with orange jam filling and the top is chocolate.” Clementine opened the box and then pulled open the plastic wrapper.

She handed one to Sapnap and then to Dream. She watched the both try them cautiously and then Sapnap asked for another one. 

“Okay, but not too many, these have to last a while.” She handed him the box and he happily returned to his seat. 

“So, I was thinking, after you settled in,” Dream started, “We can get you started on your Hormone treatment. George took you to a doctor about it, didn’t he?” 

“A few weeks ago, yeah. The doctor emailed George all the information to give to a doctor here.” 

“I’ll book an appointment tomorrow, then.” Dream said and pulled his phone out, “What do you two think about ordering McDonalds for dinner?” 

Sapnap shrugged, “Sounds fine to me. You know my order.” 

Dream nodded, “What about you?” 

“McDonalds is good. I’ll have chicken nuggets.” 

“Okay, what drink?” 

“Coke.” 

“I… I really should have guessed.” Dream said. 

Clementine nodded, she drank it all the time, it helped with her low blood sugar. She made sure she always had some on hand when she was streaming, it quickly became iconic to ‘Tommyinnit’ streams. 

Dream ordered the food on Uber Eats, once the food came they all went to their rooms and logged into Minecraft and Discord to play while they ate. 

They started a new survival world together but they didn’t get very far, it just ended in the three of them killing each other over and over again. It had them all laughing until they finally managed to build a house. 

But then Dream sent a whisper, telling Clementine to punch Sapnap off the cliff he was standing on. 

Clementine smirked and did as she was told. 

“Emmie! What the fuck?!” 

Clementine cackled and Dream laughed along. 

“Sorry… sorry, Dream told me to.” She said. 

Sapnap huffed, “Of course he did. No surprise there.” 

“Hey!” Dream exclaimed, still laughing. 

Clementine listened to them fall into a playful argument while she leaned back and finished her food. She hadn’t even been there a day and it was already chaos, it was the light-hearted, enjoyable chaos though, something she could easily enjoy. 

She knew the chaos would calm down a bit, however, they obviously couldn’t be like that constantly, they had their own things. They wouldn’t be there to keep her entertained all the time, things would calm down and when that happened she wouldn’t know what to do with herself. 

She couldn’t stream, she couldn’t bring herself to talk to her other friends, what was she supposed to do when Dream and Sapnap were busy. 

She opened a tab on google and started searching for things she could do in her free time. Learning a language sounded cool, maybe she could learn Spanish, or German, she’d be able to talk to Quackity and Niki in their first languages if she did, well, when she could speak to them, that is. Or she could learn Greek, Sapnap was pretty fluent in Greek so it would be pretty cool to be able to talk to him in Greek. 

Maybe she could take an online course, learn something new. 

She thought back to when she listened to Technoblade talking about his English classes and thought they sounded interesting, even though most of what Technoblade did was complain about them. She did a quick google search of different online English courses while she continued to listen to Dream and Sapnap childishly bicker. 

In the end, she decided to see about getting a college advancement. She’d have to take a few assessments to make sure she qualified but it wouldn't be too difficult, right?

“Emmie? You still there?” Sapnap asked. 

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just googling something.” She replied. 

“Okay. Anything important?” Sapnap questioned. 

“Nah, not really. Just something I was curious about.”

Clementine was going to say something, but she thought that looking into it a bit more first would be better. A five minute google search wouldn’t really give her all the information she needed and she didn’t want to bring it up just yet in case it wasn’t what she really wanted. 

Neither of them asked what she was googling again, if she didn’t tell them then it wasn’t really that important, and if it was, she’d tell them when she was ready. 

The following day, Dream booked a doctor's appointment and printed off the documents that George emailed him from Clementine’s doctor in the U.K. The appointment was about 2 weeks after Dream called to book it. It was over pretty quickly since all the doctor had to do was upload the printed documents into his system. 

During the two weeks, Clementine looked into getting a college Advancement a bit more. It shouldn’t be too hard since she was already an American citizen, she could take her classes over Zoom when she went back to the U.K. 

She had everything worked out except what college to go to and how to bring it up to her parents. She’d be fine, Dream probably knew something about the colleges in Florida.

Chapter Text

She brought it up to Dream first. He was surprised that she was even thinking about college considering she’d only been in America for a few weeks. After a bit of explaining, he understood why she wanted to go though and helped her look into what college was best for her to go to. 

They settled on the University of Central Florida. It wasn’t too far away, Dream and Sapnap could visit her frequently, they could pick her up so she could stay at home on the weekends. 

After a lot of thought and research, Dream agreed that it might be good for Clementine to go to college. Sapnap, however, would probably disagree. If it were up to him, Clementine would never leave the house without either of them close by her side. 

“You want to what?” 

The three of them were sitting in the living room one evening, finally bringing up the topic of college to Sapnap. 

“Go to college.” Clementine stated firmly, “Central Florida, not too far from here.” 

“You’re fifteen.” Sapnap reminded her, “You’re too young.” 

“I know that, Idiot. I’m going to apply for an advancement. If I qualify I’ll go to college, if I don’t then I’ll take an online course.” 

“Why do you want to go to college anyway? You’re fifteen, you should want to stay at home and play games all day.” Sapnap said. 

Clementine shrugged with her head down, “I know you two are going to be busy with YouTube and streaming. I need something to do while you’re both busy. This way I won’t be wasting my time, I’ll get to learn something. And if I get into college, you can have your friends stay here. If you have friends here on the weekend I can stay in the dorms.” 

“You’re doing this so we don’t have to hide you from our friends?” 

“No! Well, partly. If I get accepted for the advancement, I could make new friends, ones that aren’t connected to my YouTube career.” Clementine admitted, “Besides, it’d be good for me to get outside, I think I’m a bit too pale compared to the two of you.” 

That last comment got a laugh out of both Dream and Sapnap. 

“Alright, I suppose you make a good point.” Sapnap said, “The one about making friends, I mean. We can go and check out the college, and start applying for a College advancement.” 

“I mean, I was going whether you agreed or not, this way is just easier.” Clementine admitted only to receive a gentle smack upside the head from Sapnap. 

“You have to promise one thing though.” 

“What is it?” 

“You’ll call and text us every day, if you can. You let us know if you need us to come and get you, you keep us updated on how your classes are going and you visit us every weekend.” 

“Course I will, Pandas. That’s why I picked a college that was this close.” 

Sapnap gave her a look that was a mix of soft, worried and proud before he wrapped her up in a bear hug. 

“Sapnap, I think you’re suffocating her.” Dream said, an amused lilt to his voice.

Clementine just laughed and pressed her face into Sapnap’s chest. 

“Never mind then.” Dream said and threw himself on top of them so he didn't miss out on the hug. 

Clementine let out a grunt as the extra weight was added and laughed louder. 

The three shifted around a bit and ended up falling asleep. Dream was lying on the sofa with Sapnap pressed against him, his head on Dream’s chest. Clementine was lying on top of both of them, their arms wrapped protectively around her to keep her in place. 

All of them woke up the next morning with stiff joints.

After they woke up properly and had breakfast, they went to check out the college and then Clementine sat taking assessments to see if she qualified for the advancement. It took hours but when she finished up she felt like she did okay. 

Not great, just okay. She definitely didn’t get perfect marks, but she did well enough to believe she had a decent chance at passing. 

The results took a week to come back. She opened the envelope hesitantly and then let out a squeal. She did it. She was getting her advancement. She was going to college. 

They called George and celebrated. Of course, they all forgot that George wasn’t informed of Clementine’s decision to go to college but he was happy for her nonetheless.

Chapter Text

About a month later, Dream and Sapnap were helping Clementine move into her new dorm. There wasn’t really much to take, just some bedding, her laptop and digital art tablet (both of which Dream bought for her), her box of books that she needed for class and her stationary. Anything else she wanted or needed could be bought down at a later date. 

Clementine had a roommate too, a girl a few years older than her. She had dark skin and her black hair was in braids. Her eyes were almond shaped and were a dark amber colour. 

Her name was Luna and she was energetic and friendly, she happily helped Clementine get her things unpacked while the two men carried the boxes in (Clementine wanted to help but they refused to let her). 

Luna had moved in a few days before Clementine, so she was already unpacked and mostly settled in. She was so prepared, she had three jars on the kitchen counter, one was labelled ‘Food’ and one was labelled ‘necessities’, and the last one was labelled ‘other’.

After Dream and Sapnap left, Luna explained what the jars were for. 

“Okay, these jars are for us both to put money in so we’re not just buying stuff on our own.” 

“What do you mean?” Clementine asked. 

“So, the food jar is for things that we want for meals, we’ll both put a bit of money in every week and that’ll be our food budget, it’s for stuff like instant ramen, fruit, veg, bread, coffee, stuff like that.” 

“Makes sense.” 

“Yeah, snacks and stuff we can just buy separately. My older sister and her old roommates used to fight over who ate each other's snacks so we should probably keep them in our own rooms.” 

“That’s fair. I would probably murder someone for eating my chocolate.” 

Luna laughed, “Oh, same!” 

Clementine pointed to the second jar, “And that one? What’s that for?” 

“Cleaning supplies, laundry, bathroom stuff. And the last jar’s like a leisure thing. Starbucks, fast food.” Luna explained, “You don’t have to put anything in if you want to keep everything separate but I thought it’d help us save money if we had a way to kind of limit how much we spend.” 

Clementine smiled, “I like it. If we go grocery shopping later, we can work out how much we spend on each category so we know how much we need to put in.” 

“Yeah!” Luna said happily and then her smile dropped, “I have a question.”

“Yeah?”

“It might be a bit weird but… you’re Tommyinnit, right?” 

Clementine froze, her eyes wide, “I.. I uh… y-yeah, I…” 

“You don’t have to explain yourself. And I’m not going to call you ‘Tommy’. You introduce yourself as Clementine, and you’re living in the girls' dorms, I can put two and two together.” Then Luna gave a mischievous grin, “But others probably won't. That was Sapnap, right? And I’m guessing the other Guy was Dream, again, I’m not going to say anything. I’m going out on a limb here and I’m gonna guess that you’re the soul-child they were so excited about.” 

“Yeah… I’m their kid.” 

“That’s awesome! I wanna help with your twitter and Instagram stuff.” 

Clementine gave her a confused look, “Like what?”

“I know you don’t post pics of yourself but I could take pictures of you reading, you could use books and stuff to cover your face.” 

Clementine was hesitant, “I don’t know… I’ll have to think about it.” 

“That’s fine.” Luna shrugged. 

And think about it, she did. 

Luna drove them to the nearest grocery store after they got some money out at the ATM. She actually had a lot of fun grocery shopping with Luna, they joked and laughed together the whole time. They got back to their dorm and unpacked everything. 

Clementine followed Luna back on Twitter and Instagram, they exchanged phone numbers and added each other on discord. Luna was going to help her keep her identity secret, she was going to help her give better pictures to her followers, something other than some pictures of books, bags or things like that. 

She’d be able to post pictures of herself doing her school work, or getting coffee, or reading. Luna could place things strategically to hide Clementine’s face, everything would be so much more dangerous but also so much more fun. She could even get herself a mask to wear in pictures, maybe one that looked like Dream’s mask.

It’d be cool to be able to post pictures like that, wearing her parent’s merch and a mask that matched Dream. She was willing to bet that her followers would like it too. 

Chapter Text

Classes started a few days later. Clementine was an English major, she decided to take digital art as a minor. Luna, on the other hand, was a Music major. 

Clementine made a tweet about starting classes and wished other new college students good luck, she tagged Luna (Chaos_Reigns) in the tweets and she posted a picture on Instagram. The picture was of both Luna and Clementine’s shoes as they walked out of their dorm and headed off to class. 

She made a couple of friends in her classes over the first few days; there was Maria, Stevie and Tea from her English class, and Marcus and Pandora from her art class. Luna introduced her to her girlfriend and Romantic soulmate Alice, and the friends she met in her music class: Lorelei and Mint. 

The ten of them made a discord server together mostly just to send memes to each other, they were a chaotic group, they sort of reminded her of how she was with her friends from the Dream SMP, but she could be more open with this group.

Maria was a nineteen year old young woman with tan skin and wavy brown hair, she was about Sapnap’s height. She had olive green eyes and a gentle, caring personality. 

Stevie was eighteen, he was slightly taller than Maria, it was barely noticeable. He had pale skin and black hair. His eyes were a beautifully odd mix of blue and green. Clementine couldn’t tell if they were blue or green, they looked like they were somewhere in between. He was carefree and didn’t seem to care about if he did well in his class. 

Tea was a twenty year old nonbinary, they were a few inches taller than Clementine and had fluffy blond hair and sea green eyes. Their skin was just a little bit darker than Clementine’s. When they first walked into class, the other students mistook them for siblings. Tea was outgoing and always up for a challenge, it was easy to see that just from Clementine’s first interaction with them. 

Marcus looked about sixteen/seventeen but he was actually nearly twenty. He was taller than Stevie, he had tan skin and shoulder length dyed red hair. His eyes were a light hazel colour. He was sweet and somewhat of a gentle giant. 

Pandora was the oldest, she was twenty-one. She was Mint’s older sister and protective of the people she cared about. Her hair reached her hips and was dyed dark green, the same colour as her eyes. She had tan skin and was a little taller than Clementine. 

Alice, Luna’s girlfriend and romantic soulmate, was eighteen, the same age as Luna. Alice was about the same height as Marcus, maybe slightly taller. She had curly ginger hair and pale skin. Her eyes were pale green and they squinted when she was happy. Alice was a cheerful girl, she had a parental soulmate, so she and Clementine bonded over that. 

Lorelei was the second oldest, just a few months off from turning twenty-one. She had short, bleached blonde hair, she was the same height as Pandora and seemed to know everyone. Maybe that was why she was able to spill so much gossip to Clementine. 

Mint was seventeen, they were trans-nonbinary. He was the same height as Clementine and their hair was dyed pastel purple. Mint tended to keep to themself but they were really friendly when they actually got to know people. 

So, Clementine’s first week of college was both hectic and relieving. She knew it would be hard, she had a difficult time adjusting to how different it was to the U.K school system, but she met a few good people she’d be able to fall back on.

It was especially relieving when she realised that all of them knew who she was before she was Clementine, and they were all willing to help her out. None of them made a big deal out of it, except maybe Tea who was kind of excited to meet her, but all of them respected her privacy and never dead-named her. 

Honestly, though, Clementine couldn’t wait to go home that weekend. She liked college, she liked her friends, but she wanted to see her parents in person again. She’d get used to it over time, but it was going to take some getting used to. 

She video called her parents almost every night, some nights she had to miss it because of some homework assignments, but Dream, Sapnap and George were pretty understanding. They messaged every day without fail, wishing Clementine a good day, or Clementine teasing her dads over something stupid they did. 

Sapnap picked Clementine up on Saturday morning and drove her home where Dream practically suffocated her with hugs. It was nice, being welcomed home with warm hugs and happy parents. It made her wish she’d said something to them sooner, that maybe if she’d told them before then maybe she’d have had this sooner.

Chapter Text

September flew by, before she knew it. She was back home for Fall break, all of her friends had gone home for the two week holiday they got. Of course, they all forgot about Fall break and Dream and Sapnap had arranged a meet up with Karl and Quackity. 

Karl and Quackity were going to be staying for a few days, they were just giddy with excitement to meet their friend’s soul-child who they’d heard so much about. 

Clementine knew this, she almost made herself sick just thinking about how they were going to react to meeting her. She’d stopped talking to them back in June after she’d avoided numerous attempts from Wilbur and Tubbo to make plans to meet up. 

She wanted to see them, she really did. They were her friends too, she didn’t want to have to hide from them. 

Her thoughts spiralled from Karl and Quackity’s visit to Wilbur. He was the last person she’d messaged before ghosting everyone. How would he feel when he found out that Karl and Quackity had an update on ‘Tommy’ before he did? 

How would everyone feel when they found out that Dream, George and Sapnap had known where ‘Tommy’ was the whole time while they were all worried and thinking the worst. 

No. One step at a time. 

Karl and Quackity were visiting their friends. Clementine just happened to be home from college at the same time. She could handle explaining things to the two of them and then she’d work her way around telling the others. 

They’d understand, right? Sure, they’d be hurt, but they’d understand. 

Clementine was in her room writing an essay for her English class (or trying to) when Karl and Quackity arrived. That was when her focus was completely derailed. She kept building her confidence up to face them but the minute her hand touched the door handle she chickened out and sat back down. 

She repeated the same process for almost two hours before there was a knock on her bedroom door. 

“Clem? Are you going to come and say hi” Dream asked through the door. 

“Uhhh, if you drag me out I’d be happy to but I keep chickening out every time I go to open the door.” Clementine replied. 

“You don’t have to if you’re not ready. No one’s forcing you.” 

“Oh, no. I want to. I just can’t get myself to open the door.” 

“So you want me to drag you out?” 

“That would be helpful, yes.” 

The door opened. 

“Fair enough, let’s go.” 

Dream picked Clementine up off the bed and carried her out of the room. He put her down and closed the door. He walked her away from the room before she convinced herself to hide away and mentally lock herself back in there. 

They walked into the living room where the other three were and the attention was turned to Clementine. 

“Tommy?!” Quackity exclaimed, “What are you doing here?” 

Clementine flinched slightly at the use of her deadname. It was fine. Quackity didn’t know. 

“I… I live here.” Clementine told him quietly. 

“Until the end of November, anyway. Then she’s going back to live with George.” Sapnap added. 

“Wait, She?” Karl asked.

Sapnap looked at Clementine, her hands were shaking and she kept looking between Karl and Quackity. 

“Do you want me to explain?” Sapnap asked. 

Clementine looked at him and nodded weakly and sat down next to Sapnap, Dream sat on her other side and wrapped his arms around her in a comforting hug, effectively sandwiching her between the two with no way of moving.

“Right, okay.” Sapnap said, “This is Clementine, her pronouns are she/her.” 

“Shit. Sorry.” Quackity apologised. 

“You didn’t know.” Clementine told him, “You don’t have to apologise.” 

Before Quackity could argue, Sapnap continued explaining. 

“Her parents kicked her out and she moved in with George. She’s our soul-child, she’s going to be living here half of the year and then with George the other half.” 

“Until George finally gets his Visa.” Dream added, “Then she’ll live here full time, she’ll still visit Tubbo, Wilbur and the others.” 

“When I finally manage to talk to them.” Clementine commented. 

There was a brief silence, and then Karl spoke. 

“Why did you stop talking to us? You know we wouldn’t judge you or anything.” 

“I… I don’t know. I was scared. I told my parents and they kicked me out. Not that they were all that good at being parents anyway, but I didn’t expect to be kicked out.” Clementine explained, “And I guess I just didn’t know how to tell anyone.” 

“Everyone’s been worried. Even if you weren’t ready to tell anyone, you should have at least let us know that you were safe.” Karl told her. 

“I know. I’ll send a message to the discord server, let everyone know I’m okay.” 

After The message was sent and Clementine turned her phone off to ignore the spam of call requests and frantic replies (She’d read them later), they settled down to watch something. 

It took a few hours but Quackity and Karl remembered that Clementine was in college. Clementine, who used to be loud, annoying Tommy, was in college. They got a laugh out of the whole ‘Technoblade dropped out and now Clementine’s majoring in the same subject’ realisation. 

That was probably something Clementine was most looking forward to telling her friends. Their reactions were just going to be so hilarious.