Work Text:
As most other days, George thought, this day was pretty good.
Ever since he’d moved into the Dream Team household, he’d felt happier about almost everything. Finally being able to live with, to see, his best friends was worth more than anything in the whole world.
And, of course, that went double for Dream. Don’t tell Patches, but he was definitely George’s favourite part of being in Florida. After so many years, he had what he’d wished for.
But, of course, domesticity brought with it some unexpected side effects, ones which remained unspoken in late night Discord calls. Ones which were, presumably, so ingrained in their schedules they hadn’t bothered to mention it.
So George walked into the kitchen, hearing some noise but no speech, and came upon Dream, energetically whisking something, and Sapnap… attempting to do the same, if he really had to guess, because it looked more like he was trying to beat the bowl to death.
Looking closer, Dream was wearing the headphones George knew, from personal experience, he could hear barely anything through. Sap seemed to point to a phone on the counter, looking up to see Dream’s physical responses to whatever it was.
George walked in, knocking on the doorframe, before startling as Dream whipped around, eyes wide, before laughing quietly, waving, and tilting his head to invite George in. He was still holding the bowl, which George now determined held batter.
Sap also turned, smiling at George. He mimed some kind of gesture at him, pointing to Dream, before turning back to watch Dream. George was left to stand in the doorway, confused, but decided to see what was happening even if he didn’t understand it.
He walked to the counter, seeing the recipe website open on Dream’s phone. There was some flour scattered across the countertop.
George leaned his elbows on the counter, supporting his head on his hands and staring at Dream and Sap work in some kind of mute system they had.
“What are you doing?” he asked, facing Sapnap.
He turned to face him, shushing him not unkindly. “We’re baking. Dream got a bit overwhelmed, so be quieter. He can still hear us, kind of, but use some other way to talk to him,” he whispered.
George’s mouth opened in surprise, but he blinked himself out of it, nodding, raising a thumbs up. Sap smiled at him.
Dream tapped on the counter, pulling the attention back to him. He pointed at a step, then nodded to the bowl still in Sap’s hands, in which George could see some eggs, along with other ingredients he didn’t recognise, barely mixed as obvious by his ability to tell them apart.
Sap extended his arms, giving an apologetic smile. Dream looked in the bowl, raising his eyebrows, looking back to Sap and shaking his head affectionately. He took the bowl, which Sap gave without a fight, and handed it to George, gesturing with his hands for George to continue.
George picked up the whisk, one coated in a brightly coloured silicon, and started slowly stirring. Dream took his hand, surrounding it with his own, and started moving it faster than George had been previously, before letting go once it seemed like he’d gotten into the rhythm. He continued, until the mixture was even, at which point Dream once again set a hand on top of his, this time stopping it.
George turned to Sap, who stood by watching, and laughed at the betrayal shown on his face.
Dream was no longer paying attention to them, fixated on combining the two mixtures. His foot tapped the ground every few seconds, seemingly with no certain rhythm.
Sap suddenly grabbed George’s hand, taking him to a cupboard which George hadn’t previously opened. Sap opened it, searching for something, before pulling out two unopened packs of muffin wrappers. Ones were black with silver cats printed on, while the others were light blue with white clouds. Sap held both out to George, raising his hands in a pick one motion.
George thought for a second, eyes flicking to where Dream read the recipe, before grabbing the cloud-covered pack. Sap nodded, placing the other back and returning to Dream’s side. He set the wrappers on the counter, getting Dream’s attention, who widened his eyes, searched for George and, upon finding him, smiled and shook his right hand a little, tapping his foot a bit faster. He jumped when the whisk he was still holding hit the edge of the bowl from his shaking, causing him to let out a startled laugh.
He let go of the whisk, coming to George and hugging him. He tightened his hold a few times, until George got the message and did the same, prompting Dream to somewhat slump into his hold.
Sap looked to him, covering his ears as he walked closer to another cupboard, then pointing to Dream. George pressed the headphones tighter into Dream’s head, understanding why as Sap struggled to pull out a muffin tray. George rested his head on Dream’s shoulder, but was shaken off. The hold tightened briefly as an apology.
Sap set the tray on the countertop, waving a hand in their direction. George let go of the headphones, Dream shaking his head. They let go of each other, all three gathering at the muffin tray. Sap was already setting the wrappers inside the holes, while Dream briefly stirred the batter before going to get a spoon. George stood by, watching as their system worked.
When both were finished, they started the process of filling up each wrapper, Sap pointing for George to check the same cupboard as they’d taken the wrappers out of. When he did, he found various sprinkles. He took the blue sugar snowflakes, along with the normal chocolate shavings.
He returned as they reached the second row, but Sap pulled him aside and, whispering, explained, “Everyone gets one row, decorate it however you want but don’t make it inappropriate or anything. Okay?”
George nodded. They turned back to see Dream finish the second and start on the third, but he spun the tray so the other two could access the finished rows.
While Sap went to get some sprinkles as well, George started on the first row. He dropped a few chocolate pieces onto the muffin, laying the snowflakes in a semi-circular pattern, or however close he could get when the batter was still liquid and he didn’t want to touch it with his hands. He was rather proud of the result.
Sap came back, holding two tubes, one of red stars and another of yellow leaves. Dream left to get his own after finishing the last row, returning with blue flowers and reaching for George’s snowflakes. They both set their decorations in, Sap throwing them in what seemed to be random patterns and Dream setting them in spirals of one of either sprinkle type, before Dream picked the tray up and set it into the oven. He set a timer, before shooting a thumbs up at both of them, smiling. The foot tapping was back, George noted.
As Dream left, Sap leaned back on the counter. “I forgot to mention this, huh?”
“Uh, kind of.” George noted, “I can… piece it together, but you did.”
Sap huffed, “Just listen to what he wants, he’ll do his best to explain. You’ll learn after some time, it’s hard to explain all of it.”
George nodded. Sap sighed, “Thanks for not reacting… weird about it.”
“Why would I? He’s my friend.”
Sap nodded, before shattering the moment by wiggling his eyebrows. “Is he really just a friend though?”
George snorted, batting at him.
And later, as they sat at the kitchen counter, laughing and admiring each other’s work, he thought yeah, I belong here.