Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dream had dragged him out that night saying that he needed a corkscrew.

Obviously, neither of them owned one.

So there he was, in the middle of the goddamn night, having walked a decidedly too long distance from his house just to get in the utensils section of Walmart.

"Yo, Pandas?" Dream was way too cheery for the hour.
"What?" He grumbled in response, clearing his throat when he heard how gruff his voice sounded. He hadn't been talking much.
"Go find drinks."
Sapnap raised an eyebrow at Dream. "What do you want me to find that's gonna open with a corkscrew?"
But Dream waved him off, too engrossed in digging through some rather weirdly shaped corkscrews to be bothered to answer.

So Sapnap left him there and walked away from the isle, resolving to find something harmless, maybe juice or soda, at the very best. He couldn't risk Dream getting somehow more awake, for the sake of both of their sanities.

He wandered the drinks section, and when he raised his eyes from the juice cartons and cans of soup - who put soup here? - he saw what his sleep deprived brain could only define as perfect.

A boy stood opposite of him, all of fifteen feet between them, not facing him, wearing what was probably the most obnoxious neon purple sweater Sapnap had ever seen, paired with pajama pants and a wonderful mess of unbrushed curly brown hair that stuck up in every direction.

He could swear time stopped for them both when the boy turned around.

The boy's colours were washed off by the fluorescent white lightning, they paled in comparison to the hundreds of way too brightly tinted products they were surrounded by, but that didn't stop Sapnap from noticing the slightest hint of freckles on his cheeks, and it certainly couldn't hide how annoying that purple sweater was.

They made eye contact, and yeah, time had definitely stopped. It felt like an eternity ago and no time at all since Sapnap had noticed him, and now they were staring at each other, and Sapnap might have been blushing, but he couldn't be too sure, his entire focus was fixed on grey eyes, and he couldn't stop staring. God, stop doing that, you're probably creeping him out.

But the boy raised a hand, which was holding a Monster can, fingers extended in a greeting, and smiled, and Sapnap's heartbeat spiked in his chest, and he choked on his goddamn breath, and there he was coughing for his life on the fucking concrete floor of a Walmart at 2 in the fucking morning, all because a stranger had smiled.
He'd smiled at him.

Oh fuck, he probably looked like even more of a creep now. He waved back, movements feeling jerky and slow at the same time from lack of sleep, and just as it looked like the boy was about to talk to him, oh god he was about to hear his voice, Dream's loud hollering cut through his ears.

"Saaaaap! Where are you? Did you get it?"

The boy halted, seemingly surprised, but then smiled again - god, Sapnap could've died right there and he would've been happy - and waved as he walked towards the self-checkout.
Stop staring, you're still staring.

He dragged his eyes away and tried to gather some composure, but Dream arrived before he could fully steel himself back to his usual stoic demeanor, slapping him on the back.
Whatever, it didn't really matter. It wasn't like Dream would notice.

"You didn't get anything?" He said, eyeing Sapnap's empty hands, "Look" he immediately interjected "I found it!"
Sapnap tried to focus on the object Dream had placed too close to his face. It was a corkscrew, for sure.

It was vaguely phallic.

Of course.

"Cool." He muttered, a bad imitation of attitude.
"Found it?" Dream questioned him again, and he just shrugged.
"Found what?"
"I told you! When we came here, look." Dream grabbed a bottle off the shelf and handed it to him. Sapnap frowned.
"Dream, this is wine."
"No shit."
Sapnap sighed. "Dude, we're not drinking this."
"What?" Dream laughed "Yeah we are!"
"No, Dream, what the fuck"
"Dude, why are you getting so worked up? Whatever, you don't have to drink it."
Sapnap glared. "You're not drinking it either." He put the bottle back on the shelf, "What the hell, Sapnap." and why did he even bother?
He ran a hand down his face, exasperation clawing at him more painfully than pent up tiredness. "Whatever, let's just get, I don't know, fucking beer or something."
Dream snickered. "So beer is fine but wine isn't?"
"We've had beer before."
"Exactly! So we should try something new!"
Sapnap grimaced. He wasn't getting out of this so easily.
"Wine's fancy ass-shit. Just get beer and go see George."
Dream thought it over. Sapnap didn't really want to go see George, he didn't want to make this night longer than it already had been, but if it worked to put Dream off of drinking wine, for fuck's sake, he'd do it.
He just wanted to go back home, go to sleep, and think about a way to meet the boy again, ask around discreetly to see if anyone knew him, if they went to school together. It was a small town, after all.
"Dude, are you listening?"
"What?"
"I said, let's go to George's."
"Sure, ok" Sapnap cleared his throat. His voice sounded the same. "I'll grab beer."
"No, no beer, let's just go."
And Sapnap would worry about what made Dream change his mind, what idea wormed its way into his head, but he couldn't be bothered.

Not when the boy was looking at him from the other end of the store, that stupid perfect little smile on his face, a plastic bag in one hand and a Monster, which he was already sipping from, in the other. He nodded at him in greeting and disappeared out the automatic doors, into the night. Sapnap could only hope he'd see him again.

Chapter Text

Sapnap was tired.
It wasn't anything new, he was always tired, but today was the third day he'd woken up after barely three hours of cumulative sleep, and it was starting to build up.

He had some new class today, arts or something. He was late, because of course he was.

He knocked on the door and entered without waiting for acknowledgment, greeting the teacher under his breath.

"Hello.You can sit wherever you want, there's a few empty spots."

The teacher, who Sapnap thought he knew, he sounded familiar, didn't seem to care much what he did. Good. He couldn't wait to rest his head on a desk, maybe sleep for a bit. Preferably alone.

But when he raised his eyes to scan the room, his plans were annihilated. There, at the back of the room, sat a familiar mop of brown hair and grey eyes and lightly freckled cheeks. Oh, what he'd give to see that boy in the natural daylight, rather than some awfully artificial neon lighting.

By some stroke of luck, the spot next to him was empty.
The boy met his gaze and brightened up. He smiled, subtly waving him over. Sapnap didn't need to be told twice.

The chair was cold, a sharp contrast to how warm the rest of the room felt. The heating in their school was always on ridiculously high, and he wasn't sure how it was legal. It made him even sleepier, and he cursed himself for having to pry his eyes open, support his head with his chin on his hand, because it felt like if he didn't, it'd fall straight through the floor.
"Hi" The boy next to him whispered. This time, Sapnap noticed, his hair was brushed, and even though his curls were still messy, there was some sort of order to them. His eyes were wide open, and Sapnap had never seen a brighter grey.
He was actually wearing nice clothes, colors dimmer than they had been in the shop a few nights ago.

Oh, shit, say something. "Uh, hi."
Sapnap cringed at his voice. He sounded like he'd just woken up.

"My name's Karl."
And the boy, Karl, Karl, he had a name now, didn't miss a beat. It was like he knew. Did he know?
Sapnap just stared, and he really had stop doing that already. He cleared his throat as quietly as he could, but didn't avert his eyes.

"Sapnap."

"Hi, Sapnap."

Sapnap just hummed in response. His gaze was starting to unfocus, eyes falling to the floor.

"I was wondering, is it a habit for you, going to Walmart at 2 am?" Karl asked suddenly.

Sapnap groaned, thinking back to the night he'd just spent with Dream, rushing to the nearest 7/11 to get bandaids when he'd tried to pull off a trick he really didn't know how to do. Why skateboarding, of all things?

"Something like that." He answered. Karl probably meant it as a joke, and he wanted to laugh, to shrug it off like it was hilarious, but it wasn't, really. Not to him.

Karl seemed to pick up on it.
"You should sleep."

Sapnap raised an eyebrow at him.

Karl smiled sheepishly. "I mean like, now. Professor won't care. Had some of my best naps in this class."

Sapnap snorted, "Okay, thanks." He wasn't sure what he was thanking him for, but it sounded appropriate. Karl nodded at him and went back to paying attention to the lecture, twirling his pencil in his hand. Sapnap noticed Karl's nails were painted an especially obnoxious purple. He held in a chuckle. He just couldn't go without that colour, could he?

He wondered what it would feel like, to take Karl's hand, to hold it, to rest his head on his shoulder and just forget about the rest of the class. But that was weird, they'd just met, he didn't even know his name until five minutes ago. Whatever. If he couldn't touch, then at least he could talk to him. Soak up a little bit of his colour.

"Nice nails." He blurted out.

Karl turned to him, seemingly surprised, and Sapnap thought he should feel bad for distracting him, but then Karl smiled "Thanks."

Sapnap hummed again. It was like he'd forgotten how to have a conversation like a normal human being. He blamed it on the sleepiness.

"Go to sleep, dude." Karl said, smiling to lighten the blow, but his eyes held worry. Sapnap wanted to answer with some kind of remark, but his tongue felt heavy. He let his head fall to the desk and didn't fight his eyes slipping shut.

Sapnap woke up, and he wasn't quite sure where he was.
He was resting on a hard surface, his back ached like absolute hell. His eyelids were stuck together, and he didn't want to move. The warmth was nice.
Something poked him in the side.

"Leave me alone." He grumbled, burying his face in his arms. It was probably Dream. He'd fallen asleep on him again, hadn't he?

Another poke. Sapnap frowned, fingers clenching on the fabric of his jacket. Couldn't he just leave him be, for once?

"Sapnap, wa-"
"Leave me alone!" Sapnap slammed a hand on the surface he was resting on, finally opening his eyes to the harsh lighting of the room. He blinked a few times, scrubbing his hand across his face and gathered his surroundings.

That was when he realised.

Shit.

He'd just yelled at Karl.

Karl, who was looking back at him with shock and confusion all over his face.

"Fuck" Sapnap said. "Fuck, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize, I thought you were someone else-" his voice rose as he spoke, trying to meet the urgency he felt growing within his chest. How had he already messed up so bad?

"Hey hey, it's alright, Sapnap, it's okay" Karl raised his hands in front of him, smiling. Sapnap quieted down, squirming in his seat. He couldn't meet Karl's eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Sapnap nodded quickly, hands stuffed in his pockets gripping the fabric, soaking it with cold sweat. "I'm fine. I'm really sorry, Karl, I just-"

"It's all good."

How could he smile like that, when he'd just yelled at him? Was it pity?

Karl barely knew him and he already pitied him. This was going great.

"I-I'm gonna go. Thanks for waiting for me." Sapnap stood up, repeatedly combing a hand through his hair. He was sweating through his shirt.

"No problem. Hey, uh" Karl said as Sapnap reached the door "I'll see you around?"

Sapnap wasn't sure he could see him again and not feel like he wanted to be swallowed up by the earth. Still, he nodded and kept his mouth shut. He left with barely a wave.