Chapter Text
“Fuck it, dude, you should move in with me,” Dream suggests, though Sapnap thinks it sounds more like a request. A request he wants to take up so incredibly badly.
In fact it’s all he wants, all he’s been wanting for some years now; to live with his best friend.
“What?” he mutters.
There’s a really good reason why he can’t though.
“I mean, it makes sense. Like career wise,” Dream starts, sounding increasingly excited as he continues talking; playing up the idea in his head and to Sapnap. “Plus, wouldn’t it be great to live with your best friend? Oh, and maybe we can somehow get George here too!”
It’s taking absolutely everything inside of Sapnap to stop himself from shouting in excitement about how much he wants exactly that. He’s dreamed of it, living with Dream and George. They’ve been quite close for some time now and until they started creating content it didn’t seem like much of a possibility for them to all live together. Now they have the means to do so, which makes the idea seem all the more exciting.
“But, like… Um.” He really can’t seem to come up with a reason as to why not. At least not one that Dream wouldn’t dismiss. Or one that reveals his secret to Dream.
And that Secret is exactly why he can’t.
“Come on, Sap,” Dream pushes. “You could like, I don’t know, drive here tomorrow and we could just figure it out once you’re here.”
Said secret is currently snuggled up on his lap, sleeping. Sapnap knows he should put her down in her bed so that she gets proper rest but he can’t help but appreciate the quiet moment with her.
“I don’t know, man. It seems really… Impulsive.”
Looking down at his daughter, Sapnap sighs. He has to think about her, not what he so desperately wants. It wouldn’t be fair of him to up and move her across the country without warning. Especially because Dream has no idea about her, and he isn’t sure how he’ll take the news at this point.
He would completely understand if Dream hated him for keeping such a big secret for as long as he has. Dream tells him everything, the least he could do is let him in on the most important part of his life. And yet, Sapnap still hasn’t.
He’s run out of valid excuses at this point, if he ever had any to begin with.
“Well, it doesn’t have to be tomorrow,” Dream offers in compromise. “But- I don’t know. Just maybe sometimes impulsive decisions are the best ones. We’ve always wanted to meet up. And I guess I just kind of get, like, lonely here always being stuck inside by myself. Kind of just got carried away by the thought, sorry.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
If things don’t work out he can just drive straight back home, right? He can take her to Disney, make the trip worth it, then drive home if Dream really does hate him for keeping this, his daughter, a secret.
Yeah, it’ll be fine… Maybe.
“I’ll pack my things and leave in the morning,” he replies after taking a deep breath, accepting his possibly horrible decision. He really couldn’t help but give into the blonde’s pleas and he’s confident he’ll pay for it.
Whatever, he’s sure it’ll be worth it.
“Really?” Dream asks, sounding like an excited puppy. “I’ll leave you to it then. Call me when you leave, please.”
“Will do, Dreamie.”
And with that the call ends and Sapnap is left to stew in his decisions. He feels like he’s on the verge of panicking. But he can’t do that right now. He has to get his daughter into bed first.
Leaning down, he leaves a soft kiss to the top of her head before he picks her up, thinking to himself that she’s gotten so big. He remembers the first time he saw her and thought she was so tiny; surprised life could fit in someone so small.
Now she’s three, nearly four, and he kind of wishes he could rewind time, slow it down. Not liking just how fast she’s growing up, how fast time is slipping past him.
Walking to her room that’s decorated kind of poorly even though he tried his best, he puts her down on her bed. At least she seems to like the way he decorated, even if his mom teases him for it constantly.
Maybe at Dream’s place she can have a nicer room.
Knowing he needs to tell his mom he’s leaving, he makes his way downstairs to where he can hear her putting away dishes in the kitchen. As he walks in, he is quick to help with the dishes.
“What’s up, darling?” His mom asks, knowing somethings up immediately.
“I’m moving out,” he mumbles quietly, feeling kind of guilty about it.
She’s been an incredible help with his daughter and he knows just how much she has grown to love having her around. So he feels bad that he’s not really giving a chance at a proper goodbye before he moves away for who knows how long.
And not only that, but he supposes he’s leaving too. It’s hard on him, but he knows it’s going to be hard on her too. Currently he’s regretting his decision. Will he even get to say goodbye to his dad before he leaves? Probably not.
It’s fine, he can come home to visit, he tells himself in an attempt to assure himself that this is a good decision.
“How come?”
“Dream invited me to live with him,” he answers. “In Florida.”
His mom gives him a kind smile. “Okay. If that’s what you want to do, then I’ll respect it.” He’s talked to her about wanting to live with him someday, so she isn’t all that surprised by it. “I’ll miss you a lot though.” She closes the now empty dishwasher. “I thought you hadn’t told him about Quinn yet?”
He shyly looks away as he says, “I haven’t.”
“Darling, you-” She takes a deep breath. “You are a grown adult and I’m going to let you make your own decisions regarding your daughter,” she states, more to herself than to Sapnap. “But, I don’t think it’s very fair of you to agree to move in with him without telling him first.”
Sapnap nods, still not looking at her, knowing full well that’s exactly what he’s doing.
“So when are you planning to do this? Do you need help packing?” She questions.
“Um, tomorrow. I know it’s very last minute but he’s really good at persuading.” His mom gives him a knowing look. “And I can- Yes if you could.” After thinking about it for a moment, there’s no way he’ll get it all done in time for him to get enough sleep before leaving. “But you don’t have to.”
After that, the two of them gather up all of Sapnap’s belongings that he can take with him. He sticks to essentials for him, or more so the more expensive things that would be more difficult to replace. For his daughter he’s bringing as much as he can, knowing she’ll fuss about it if she doesn’t have her favorite stuff. And she likes to claim all of her things are her favorite.
When his car is stuffed as full as it gets with enough room for the two of them, he settles in bed, setting an alarm for a little later that he wants to, but his mom insists he gets enough rest. Told him she’ll get Quinn ready and fed as if it’s any other day, leaving him to be the one to explain what’s happening.
He really hopes she’s okay with it. She’s young, not in school yet; not really leaving anything behind other than some family. It should be fine.
Waking up to his blaring alarm, Sapnap is glad his mom made him sleep the extra little bit, still feeling exhausted. Though sometimes he thinks he’s felt like this since Quinn was born.
Looking around his room feels weird, things are missing, not in their spots that they’ve been settled in for years; belongings about to have a new home, along with him. Or at least he hopes. Maybe he should have a back up plan?
He rubs his hand along his face before trudging his way to his bathroom to wash up and brush his teeth. Then he makes his way towards his bed again to unplug his phone that’s resting on top of his mattress before pulling up the search bar and typing in hotels in Orlando. He selects a decent one that still has available occupancy and books the hotel room for a few nights.
Just in case, he tells himself as he unplugs the charger and shoves both it and his phone into his pocket before making his way downstairs.
“Daddy!” He hears as he makes his way down the steps.
His daughter, Quinn, runs up to him and gives him a hug. Sapnap chuckles lightly to himself at the thought of how she’s too short to hug him properly. And so, he picks her up, to which she wraps her arms around his neck and gives him a kiss on his cheek with an exaggerated ‘mwah’ sound. “Mornin’!”
“Good morning, sweet pea. How’d you sleep?”
She just nods her head to answer his question and he takes it to mean good.
He then puts her back down and crouches to her level. “There’s something I need to tell you, okay?” She nods again, giving him a curious look. “How do you feel about moving in with your Uncle Dream?”
Dream might not know about her but she knows all about him. He tells her stories about Dream and George all the time. She always listens intently to them, even requests Uncle Dream and Uncle George stories sometimes. And who is he to deny her cute little face?
Quinn gets a sad, almost angry look on her face. “Wanna live wit you, daddy!” She pouts.
Confusion laces his thoughts for a moment before he realizes where she’s coming from. “No, darling,” he chuckles. She puts on an even poutier face. “I’ll be going with you, silly. Both of us would be moving in with Uncle Dream.”
“Oh. Otay. Gammy too?”
“No, little one, I’ll be staying here. But you’ll always be welcome to come visit,” Sapnap’s mom chimes in from the couch where she’s been sitting, watching them.
“Why?”
“She can’t come, Quinnie. But I promise we’ll come back and see her for Christmas. How does that sound? And you know where Dream lives? Right by Disney World. Which means we can go to Disney for your fourth birthday!” Sapnap persuades, hoping she’ll accept it as good enough.
Looking like she’s thinking about it, Sapnap gives her a moment. Then she huffs out, “Fine.”
“Okay. Awesome.” That he says mostly to himself. “Say goodbye to Grandma then and I’ll get the last few things together ‘cause it’s kind of a long trip to get there. We can make a few stops if you need it.”
Immediately, Quinn clambers onto the couch and gives Sapnap’s mom a big hug, whispering a sweet goodbye.
Sapnap takes the moment she’s distracted to sneak away to make sure everything they need is in his car. And when he deems it is, he makes his way back inside and moves to pick up Quinn. Though, she insisted she wanted to walk to the car so he held out his hand instead and she grabbed on, letting him guide her
The two say their goodbyes to his mom and make their way into his car. Sapnap is relieved that it went by smoother than he expected, while Quinn is just amused by how full the car is.
“It’s got all our important stuff, Quinnie. We gotta bring it to our new home,” he explains as he buckles her in.
“Home wit Uncle Deamie!”
“Mhm,” he mumbles before getting settled in the driver's seat, then pulling out of the driveway after inputting Dream’s address into the map display.
At first Quinn was quite excited about the drive, staring out the window and pointing out many things she saw. Asking several questions about things they were driving past. Sapnap didn’t know most of the answers, so half the time he just made things up, figuring she’ll just forget it afterwards anyways.
However, it didn’t take long for her to grow bored.
“Daddy, how longer?”
Sapnap sighs, knowing that this trip is going to feel much longer if she keeps asking that. “About twelve and a half hours of driving but we have to stop so I can charge my car, so it will be a fair bit longer.”
“I’m bored,” she pouts.
Thinking for a moment, Sapnap pulls over. Then he reaches into a bag on the floor of the passenger side, pulling out an ipad. He doesn’t really like letting her have too much technology time but he figures this is an okay exception. It’s a very long trip for her. He already knows he’ll have to split it up somehow, at some point.
Putting on a downloaded movie, Sapnap passes it back to her, which causes excitement to light up in her eyes.
“Watch a couple movies then we can stop to eat. Sounds good?”
She hums as a response, already invested in the screen in front of her. Sapnap then pulls back onto the road and keeps driving.
This is when he realized he forgot to call Dream as he left. “Quinnie? Can you pause the movie for a couple minutes so I can call Uncle Dream to tell him we’re on our way?”
“Mhm.” The sound of the movie stops.
“Okay. Can you- If you stay as quiet as a mouse throughout the call I’ll get you some ice cream. How does that sound?” He feels kind of very guilty about his request but he doesn’t want Dream to find out about her through a call while they’re on the way there. For some reason to him it seems less daunting to wait until they actually get there.
He’s sure that’ll change once they actually arrive though.
When he looks in his rearview mirror he sees her nod her head and pretend to zip her lips shut. Then the sound of the call ringing echoes throughout the car for a few moments before Dream’s excited voice comes through the speakers. “Hey! You leaving now?”
“Hi. I, uh- I actually left a little bit ago, just under two hours. Got caught up and forgot to call,” he replies.
“Okay, excited to see you!” Sapnap finds Dream’s excitement to be incredibly endearing. “How long ‘til you get here, do you think?”
“Not sure. With having to recharge, might not be until tomorrow night, honestly,” he answers and can hear the sad sigh that leaves Dream’s mouth.
“Okay. See you then. Do you want to stay on call for a bit? You’re probably bored already.” Dream lets out a chuckle.
As quick as he can. Sapnap scrounges his mind for a way to say no without raising any flags. He doesn’t have to though because Dream chimes in with, “Wait, George is calling me. Maybe we can add him to the call?”
“No, don’t worry about it, man. Talk to him. I’ve been enjoying my music anyways. Talk to you later, maybe?”
“Okay. Drive safe, Sap.”
“Promise.”
The call ends and Sapnap pulls off the highway at the next exit. “Now let’s get you your ice cream.”
They find a convenience store not too far out that sells ice cream cones. They sit outside as they eat it because Sapnap is afraid that she’ll get ice cream all over his car. And once they’re done, they get back in and continue making their way to Florida.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“Why we movin’ so far?” Quinn asks, that classic, genuine childlike curiosity lacing her voice.
“‘Cause that’s where Dream lives,” he answers, looking at the time remaining again and regretting it when he sees the amount of hours left.
“I tink it’s otay dat we movin’,” Quinn mumbles out.
“Yeah?”
“Mhm. I break Lucy’s doll on mistake an’ not wanna tell her,” Quinn confesses. Lucy is a girl around Quinn’s age that they often ran into at the playground.
With furrowed brows, Sapnap explains, “Quinnie, you can’t run away from your problems like that. You need to apologize to her.”
“I feel ‘ike you running from your prob’ems,” she tries to deflect.
Letting out a huffed laugh, Sapnap says, “I’m actually running head first into my problems.”
“Don’ do dat. Dat hurt your head.” When Sapnap looks at her in the mirror he sees her patting her head with confusion.
Shaking his head with a fond smile, Sapnap explains, “It’s a metaphor. Doesn’t mean I’m actually doing that. Just that I’m, like- I don’t know, facing the consequences of my actions directly, I guess.”
“Too many big words,” Quinn complains with a shake of her head.
Sapnap lets out a chuckle.
Not too long after that, Quinn fell asleep, making it so that Sapnap was able to drive a fair bit further than he would have if she was awake. She would have needed at least a couple extra breaks by now.
Now though, he’s running a little low on his car battery. Not wanting to risk it, he drives to the closest charging station. As he pulls up and moves to get out, he can see Quinn’s eyes blink open.
“We der?” She mumbles sleepily, rubbing at her eyes.
“No, sweetie. We’ve got a while to go, but I have to charge my car so that we don’t get stranded in the middle of nowhere,” he explains.
“We do’s somethin’ ‘til it ready? ‘Omething fun!”
Looking at his daughters pleading eyes, he wants so badly to give in. However, he’s terrified about leaving all of his belongings in his car unattended. Then he looks at her again, deciding seeing her happy means more to him than any of his possessions, so he agrees.
“Okay. There’s a restaurant just over there. How about we eat, then find something to kill the time after?”
Pretending to be wielding a sword, Quinn stabs it forward, as if literally killing time.
Smiling softly at her, Sapnap holds his hand out for her to grab again and leads her to the restaurant. They’re then greeted by the friendly staff member at the front, who has a strong southern accent, and are guided towards an available table.
“Ooo, can I get dis?” Quinn asks, pointing to the menu in front of her.
Giving her a disagreeing look, Sapnap says, “Quinnie, that’s for dessert. Plus you’ve already had ice cream. Pick something else.” He points to a different part of the kids menu in front of her. “One of these.”
“No. I wan’ dis!” She pouts.
“Quinnie, that’s cake. You need proper food, or else your tummy will start feeling ouchy. You don’t want that, do you?”
“I can han’le a ouchy tummy,” she argues, crossing her arms.
Sighing, Sapnap searches his brain for a solution to his current problem. Definitely not wanting to deal with his daughter feeling sick from eating poorly when they are so far from any home. “How about this? You order and eat proper food, then we can stop at a store to buy you a new toy to play with for the rest of the drive?”
At that she perks up and nods her head excitedly before turning her attention back to the pictures of the food on the menu.
After they’ve finished eating Sapnap pulls out his phone to search nearby stores that they could possibly get a toy at. Luckily there’s something nearby. Looks like a small family owned toy shop, if Sapnap had to guess by what he sees online.
It’s about a five minute walk away and Sapnap is confident that his daughter is going to make him carry her back. But it’s totally worth it, he knows, when he sees the smile on her face as they walk inside.
Immediately, she tries scurrying away to excitedly check out all of the toys, but Sapnap grips her hand a little tighter for a brief moment so that she doesn’t slip away. “We’ll make it through it all, but you have to stay next to me,” he informs.
She pouts but agrees.
The two of them spend far longer in there than Sapnap wants to; him wanting to get back on the road as soon as possible. But eventually Quinn picks out a toy and they’re on their way back to the car, which Sapnap is sure is charged by now.
About half way through walking back to the vehicle, Quinn complains about having to walk, so Sapnap picks her up, and carries her the rest of the way; just as he predicted would happen.
The next time they stop is when Sapnap needs to charge his car again, if you don’t count when he went through a drive-through to get some dinner for the two of them, that is. By the time he’s plugged it in and sat back down he realizes just how tired he is. After checking that Quinn is still sleeping, having fallen asleep about twenty minutes ago, he decides to take a small nap before they get going again.
However, when he wakes up again, several hours have passed, now early hours of the morning, and he looks over to check up on his daughter, he sees her still fast asleep. Though, she’s laying in a position that he’s sure will bring a few complaints about being sore.
Shaking her shoulder lightly, she wakes up, looking confused when she sees her surroundings; having not expected to wake up in a car.
“Sorry, kiddo, didn’t mean for us to sleep in the car,” he apologizes before he’s startled by the sound of someone knocking on his window. He turns around to look, then rolls down his window just enough to be heard. “Hello?”
“Man, you can’t be parked here for this long. Other people need the charger,” he states, though it sounds more like a complaint. “You need to leave right now.”
“Ooo, daddy’s in trouble,” Quinn giggles from the back seat and Sapnap shrinks in on himself a little bit, feeling embarrassed.
“Sorry, sir. I’m leaving. Was just on a road trip and accidentally slept too long,” Sapnap explains.
The man gives him an annoyed look but walks away. Sapnap uses this as his que to unplug the vehicle and drive off.
As Sapnap starts making his way back onto the highway, he continues, “Sorry about your sleep. How ‘bout I make it up to you by taking you somewhere fun along the way? Maybe when we’re about half way? We’re not too far away anymore, just about three- three and a half hours.”
Quinn cheers from the back seat and it puts a smile on his face as he pulls into a McDonalds Drive through to get them something to eat.
An arcade is what they end up going to as their fun thing to give Quinn a break from the car, knowing that multiple hours sitting still isn’t easy for her.
She’s still too young to know how to play most of the games properly, but that doesn’t stop her from having a great time. She likes the colorful lights and sounds coming off of each of the games; hopping around excitedly for the most part while they are there.
Sapnap plays enough games himself, just so that he can gather enough tickets for Quinn to go up to the counter to trade in for a toy. And as she does so, she has the biggest smile on her face. Sapnap pulls out his phone and takes a couple pictures of her to send to his mom later.
She then wanders up to him with a new plastic slinky in hand, balancing it back and forth between her hands with an amused stare. She didn’t have enough tickets for that one, but he figures she got extra points for being adorable.
“Okay, kiddo, time to finish up the last hour of the drive,” Sapnap says, guiding her out of the arcade, making sure she doesn’t walk into anything while she’s distracted by the toy.
He thinks that if she wasn’t so distracted by the slinky she’d pout about having to get back into the car again. But instead she wordlessly agrees, letting him pick her up and get her into her car seat. As Sapnap buckles her in, he thinks about how she’s growing almost too big for it. Almost time to upgrade to a booster seat. He really hates how fast she’s growing.
This entire Drive, Sapnap managed to push away his fearful thoughts about what Dream is going to say, think, react, to the news about him having a nearly four year old daughter. Instead letting music hit his ears and lyrics consume his thoughts. That, or Quinn’s rambling about random nonsense. Nonsense that he loved hearing about, as long as it was coming from her.
Now, only thirty minutes away, he can’t stop his mind from racing.
What is he supposed to do if Dream hates him because of this? He isn’t sure he could handle it. He’d have to put a smile on his face though and pretend things are okay for his daughter's sake.
Fuck, what is he supposed to tell Quinn if Dream kicks them out?
He’s getting increasingly anxious. Palms are sweating and fingers are tapping anxiously on top of the steering wheel. He was right earlier when he figured that when he actually got closer to Dream, closer to telling him about Quinn, it does in fact feel more daunting now than it did when they were on call.
It takes him a few moments to notice that he was receiving a call. It wasn’t even the sound of the ringing that brought him away from his thoughts, rather Quinn sassily asking if he was going to answer.
“Hello?” He hopes the person on the other end doesn’t hear the shake in his voice. He probably should have looked at the caller id before answering, he realizes.
“Hey, Sap! How long ‘til you get here? You said by the end of the day right?” It’s Dream.
And in a weird way hearing Dream’s voice both, soothes his racing mind, but makes it run faster at the same time. He doesn’t understand, nor does he have it in him right now to figure it out.
“Uh, we’re actually ahead of schedule. I’ll be there in maybe… twenty minutes,” he replies after looking at the display screen to check the time remaining.
“Wait really!?” Dream asks excitedly. “Wait? We?”
That’s when Sapnap realized his mistake. He looks in his rearview mirror and sees a confused head tilt coming from his daughter, and despite not being asked to, she keeps quiet.
“Uh? What?” Playing it dumb.
“You said we?” Dream recalls, though he sounds unsure. “Whatever. Nevermind. Excited to see you man.”
Sapnap is beyond relieved that Dream’s excitement overshadows his curiosity at the word slip-up that came from him.
“Yeah, see you really soon!” He tries to sound as excited as he would be if he wasn’t on the verge of a panic attack right now.
The call ended shortly after a few more brief words were shared. And as it does, Sapnap feels his heart racing and breaths growing shaky as he continues in the direction that his map is telling him to go in.
“Daddy, why uncle Deam not know I comin’?”
“It’s a surprise Darling,” he answers. “When we get there he’ll be so surprised and- and you can give him a big hug and he- he’ll be so happy to see you.” The lie doesn’t slip off of his tongue as well as he hoped, but he knows with how young she is, she probably won’t pick up on it.
He needs to pull over. He needs a second to breathe. He feels like he’s going to be sick.
Before he knows it, his car is parked on the side of the road and he’s quickly stepping out, moving off to the passenger side of the car. He got there just moments before his anxiety got too bad, causing him to throw up onto the grass below him.
He stands there with his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths for a few moments before he gathers enough courage to get back into his car.
“You otay?” Quinn asks, sounding worried.
Turning around, Sapnap faces his daughter with the most genuine smile he can muster up, and replies, “Yeah, darling, I’m okay. Think I had too many snacks while driving, is all. Made my tummy hurt.”
“Will my tummy hur’?” She asks with a concerned look.
Reaching a hand back, Sapnap places it on her knee assuringly. “No, your tummy will feel just fine. Promise.”
She nods her head, looking relieved before Sapnap turns back to face the front and pull back onto the road.
Turning onto the road that Dream lives on is not doing anything to stop him from feeling like he’s going to be sick again. He almost considered missing the turn to give himself more time. But that would just extend the time period of not knowing, of living in this super anxious state that he’s in.
His car says he’s one minute away and he’s pretty sure he sees which one it is and he doesn’t feel ready for this.
This is a secret he’s kept hidden since he was sixteen. He didn’t call Dream in a panic when he found out he got a girl pregnant, like he wanted to. He didn’t call him with excited but worried tears in his eyes as he held her for the first time, like he wanted to. Didn’t tell him the reason he couldn’t hang out with him on minecraft on her first birthday because he was celebrating with his family, like he wanted to.
He always wanted to, he just- He was scared.
Now he’s feeling that fear amplified tenfold as he pulls into the driveway. At least he knows he doesn’t have to worry about Dream peeking out the window because he’s so paranoid about being seen.
It gives him a chance to take a few deep breaths before he gets out and helps his daughter out of her seat. They can bring their stuff in later, if Dream lets them stay, that is. And so, leaving a full car, the two of them make their way to the front of the house.
Dream told him the front door will be unlocked and he can just walk in when he gets there, so he does. Not before holding onto the door handle for too long, for Quinn to notice and roll her eyes and make a snarky comment about opening the door.
“Dream,” he tries to shout after stepping inside, his name comes out shaky and kind of weak instead.
Dream hears it though, standing not too far away, and walks into the room with what Sapnap would describe as an excited puppy-dog look.
Being as excited and eager as she was, Quinn didn’t give the two of them a chance to say their hellos, or for Dream to even notice she was there, before she ran and attempted to hug Dream the best she could. She’s quite small compared to him so Sapnap thinks she looks a little silly. She doesn’t care though. Just happy to finally meet her Uncle Dream that she’s heard so much about.
Dream looks incredibly taken aback, surprised. He glances down at her, seeing her infectious smile, temporarily putting one on his face too.
“Hi, Uncle Deam!” Quinn excitedly greets.
“Hi, little one,” Dream says softly, but he turns his head to give Sapnap a confused look that’s laced with what Sapnap thinks is anger. Rightfully so, he supposes.
“Kitty!” Quinn shouts, startling Patches slightly, making her scurry further away. Quinn isn’t bothered by that though and walks closer to the cat, a wide smile on her face as she does so.
“Gentle, Quinnie,” Sapnap reminds.
With slow, gentle movements, Quinn reaches over and pets along Patches’ fur; letting out sweet giggles as she does so. Sapnap watches the interaction fondly before moving to sit next to his daughter to meet Patches himself.
The whole interaction made him momentarily forget about what he was worried about moments prior. It seems it made Dream forget why he was mad too, because when Sapnap turned around he had a warm smile on his face.
A smile that only lasted long enough for him to notice Sapnap looking at him. Under Dream’s gaze, Sapnap shrinks in on himself a bit. He knows he’s going to have to explain everything to him; hope that Dream understands his POV, where he’s coming from, and doesn’t decide that he’s done with him.
Turning his focus back onto his daughter, Sapnap sees her struggling to keep her eyes open as she lays down on the floor next to Patches.
“Darling, you sleepy?” She shakes her head as a yawn escapes her. “I’m going to take that as a yes. How about you get your nap in and I’ll bring your stuff inside from the car. How does that sound?”
“Otay, daddy,” she mutters sleepily.
Unsure of where anything is inside the house, Sapnap glances at Dream, hoping he understands his wordless question.
He does. “I’ll, uh- I’ll show you where she can sleep,” he offers.
Carefully, Sapnap picks up his daughter, and follows behind Dream as he guides them upstairs, towards a bedroom. The room itself is pretty bland and the bed is far bigger than what Quinn is used to, but Sapnap supposes it’ll work perfectly for now.
Placing Quinn down onto the bed, Sapnap tucks her in and leaves a kiss to the top of her head.
“Ni-Ni, daddy. Ni-Ni Deamie,” she whispers.
“Sleep well, sweet one,” Sapnap whispers back.
Turning around, Sapnap watches as Dream walks away from the doorway where he was watching them. He’s not looking forward to this conversation, almost wanting to just take a nap himself, leave his problems for later. Though, he supposes that is what put him into this scenario in the first place.
Instead of procrastinating any longer, he follows behind Dream, ready for this conversation. Or at least as ready as he could ever be.