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Dream had never been a fan of waiting.
It made his stomach hurt, his mind spin, and his body shake with nerves.
As much as he'd like to say waiting for George to finally come home was the exception, it was actually the worst case of jitters he'd ever had. From the moment Sapnap pulled out of the driveway to pick up George from the airport, to the sound of the home security alarm chiming at Sapnap opening the front door upon his return… Dream had been paralyzed with anticipation.
There was something that had been on his mind far more often than not these days- not that Dream was willing to admit that out loud to anyone, especially not to his best friends.
Auras.
When Dream was eighteen, he had bright ideas of a pretty blonde girl with warm brown eyes being his soulmate. He was so sure that when their eyes met, he'd see a purple aura form around her, and then be able to look down and finally see what color his own aura was. Green was what he'd always assumed- it was his favorite color for just about his entire life.
When Dream was nineteen, his life grew exponentially, while also shrinking to almost complete nothingness. His, George’s, and Sapnap's YouTube careers took off, but becoming a faceless creator came with imposed isolation.
By the time Dream turned twenty, his isolation wasn't self-imposed anymore. The world shut down for COVID, and just about every hope he had about finding his soulmate in a crowd shut down too.
Soulmates and auras and pretty girls with kind eyes became the last thing on Dream's mind. Where his life shrunk, his friendships grew. Dream invested all his time and resources into his friends- Sapnap and George, specifically. The day Sapnap made the move from Texas to Florida was one of the happiest days of Dream's life.
As much as he was a bit embarrassed to admit it to himself, he did wonder if Sapnap would show up at his door and suddenly he'd be thrown into a world of an orange aura that glowed around his friend like flames. That was just a moment of weakness, though- his prolonged stent without human contact getting to him. Dream was able to brush it off and even confidently say he wasn't upset that Sapnap didn't turn out to be his soulmate.
Where Dream did struggle was when George's role in his life grew and grew, until George also decided that he wanted to move in permanently with Dream… and Sapnap. It was hard to remind himself that George wasn't moving continents for only him, but also their mutual best friend.
It was easy to determine that Dream's feelings for George had long gone from platonic admiration to something he wasn't ready to put a name to. What he was willing to acknowledge was that the feelings he carried for George were different from the ones he held for Sapnap- different from even the ones he had for past girlfriends.
Part of Dream tried to justify that the only reason he was having these strong and purposefully unnamed feelings was because he hadn't met George yet. With his prior relationships, he already knew they weren't his soulmate- the lack of visible auras making that clear- and were nothing more than a mutual agreement to pass the time until their real soulmates entered their lives. With George, his feelings had a dangerous amount of time to fester and grow.
Honestly, Dream was pretty confident that even if George got out of Sapnap's car and there was no aura around him, he'd still be in lov-... he'd still have strong, unnamed feelings for him.
When the anticipation bubble finally burst and Sapnap was all but dragging Dream outside with a camera pointed straight ahead, Dream feared he may meet his maker before ever laying his eyes on George.
"Ha! Oh my- oh my god!"
Hearing George's voice in real time, with no electronic buzz and no scuffed sounds being picked up from a microphone made Dream finally open his eyes.
George was taking slow steps towards him, stopping once a second to lean over and laugh, but the smile on his face was wider than Dream had ever seen.
George's aura was yellow.
Bright, vibrant, warm, sunshine yellow.
He could see George's aura.
For the sake of the camera Sapnap was basically shoving down their throats, Dream kept all his feelings bottled inside, following George's lead on not mentioning them being soulmates. Well, he liked to think he was hiding it a little better than George, seeing that George was blatantly staring at him with the happiest expression on his face.
"Fuck, the camera's battery is about to die. Hang on, I'll go grab another!" Sapnap said with a smile, practically skipping to the house. Dream wanted to laugh at how out of character it was for Sapnap to be bouncing with joy over a task as annoying as changing a camera battery, but it was clear that George's presence lifted all their spirits.
Plus, this meant Dream could finally be alone with George…
With his soulmate.
"I can't believe this is real," Dream said under his breath, scooping George into his arms and holding him tightly to his chest. George was initially startled, but leaned right into Dream's embrace.
"I know! The flight was definitely miserable, but I can't believe I'm finally home either," George agreed with a laugh, trailing his fingers through the hair on the back of Dream's head. It felt like there was a bit of hesitance present, like George thought he should hold back, but couldn’t help himself.
There was nothing wrong with what George said… but that didn't change the fact he wasn't agreeing with what Dream expected him to be agreeing with.
"Yeah, that's…" Dream trailed off, leaning back enough to see George's face again. George had his eyes squinted from the direct sunlight, but nothing could wash out the golden halo surrounding him. Dream was mesmerized by it in an instant.
"I'd be lying if I said part of me never wished it would be you, but still- I feel like I'm dreaming," Dream said through a smile with a quivering lip, all the emotions of the moment beginning to creep up on him.
To Dream's dismay, George's smile started to fall.
"Wished what was me?" George asked, leaning away enough for his hands to fall from around Dream's shoulders to rest on his chest. Dream kept his hands held around George's waist, too afraid that he'd wake up if he let go.
"Wished that you'd be… that you're my soulmate, George." Dream tilted his head to the side, wondering if George had already processed and moved on from the shock, or if there was something extremely wrong going on.
"Dream," George sighed his name, looking up at him far more apologetically than before. "You know soulmates can see each other's auras."
"I know that." Dream furrowed his brow, taking in the sight of George's glowing aura. "I can see your aura, George. It's- it's fucking yellow. It's bright, golden, warm, damn near sparkling yellow."
"What?" George asked under his breath, clearly in disbelief.
"Can you- can you not… what color is my aura?" Dream questioned, struggling to comprehend how there could be a glitch so severe in the system that George was his soulmate, but somehow he wasn't George's.
"I don't see anything- there's nothing around you!" George insisted, leaning away fully and inspecting Dream from head to toe, like he could find a glimpse of Dream's aura if he searched hard enough.
"But… but I can see yours," Dream said softly with his chin quivering for a whole new reason.
Slowly, George stopped his frantic searching, and took a step away from Dream. It made no sense to Dream- how could he have fallen in love with George from across an ocean, have him finally come home, be able to see his fucking aura… and yet there was still something preventing them from being together?
"Dream, I'm sorry but I-"
Dream looked up when George paused in the middle of his sentence, finding him staring at the house with a look of complete disbelief on his face.
"What?" Dream asked, turning around to see nothing. He'd been half expecting for Sapnap to have returned. The delusional part of his mind- which Dream was now thinking may be his entire mind- feared that it was Sapnap's aura George was looking at.
"I see it," George whispered, walking closer to the house and up to one of the windows.
"You see my aura?" Dream questioned, following behind him.
"No- no, I see mine," George corrected, reaching out to touch his fingers against the glass. "It's yellow, like, it's impossible to miss fucking yellow."
"I told-"
Now Dream was the one to freeze. He'd been so focused on watching every move George made, he didn't realize his reflection was also visible in the window.
He could see his reflection, which now included his… pink aura.
"My aura is pink- like, it's baby pink?" Dream said like a question, staring at himself harder.
"I still don't understand. I mean, why can you see my aura, and we can see our own auras, but I still can't see yours?" George asked, practically to the point of pleading. He'd turned away from the window, staring up at Dream with misty eyes.
"I don't know- I wish I knew." Dream mumbled, instinctively reaching out to pull George back into his arms. George melted into the embrace, leaning heavily against Dream's chest.
"Now that we know we are soulmates and this is, like, a weird fluke… I guess that means I can admit to how heartbroken I felt when I didn't see an aura surrounding you when you first came out of the house," George chuckled softly, leaning back to look Dream in the eyes.
"You… what?" Dream questioned, a smile growing on his face despite being torn between being endeared and saddened by George's admission, realizing that while he was silently celebrating such a great discovery, George was already mourning the loss of what he assumed would never be.
"Come on- you had to have known about my feelings for you. I mean, I haven't been the most subtle, Dream." George shook his head, but his smile didn't fall. "And before you throw my words back at me, yes, I've known about your feelings for a while too. You're more than just 'not subtle'... you've been blatantly obvious."
Dream didn't bother arguing, opting instead to laugh. There was no point in hashing out the nitty-gritty details of the past, not when they had their entire lives ahead of them.
Sure, it wasn't ideal that George couldn't see his aura, but maybe there would be a thread on Reddit of someone else having a similar experience that could point them in the right direction. Maybe it was just because his mind was too exhausted from all his traveling… or maybe it was just because Dream wasn't George's soulmate.
"I love you," Dream practically whispered, hugging George tighter. Maybe if he held George close enough to his heart, his fears would be cast away by the brightness of George's aura.
"Got the- oh, ew!" Sapnap grimaced, turning the corner to where they were still standing in front of the window, holding each other in a tight embrace.
"You think a hug is bad? Get a load of this," George paused, surging forward to kiss the corner of Dream's mouth, making him flinch back in surprise and Sapnap shriek in horror.
"George!" Dream gasped, stumbling back to the point of bumping into the house.
"Wait, don't tell me you're each other’s- fuck, am I about to be living in a house where DNF is real?" Sapnap asked through a groan, dramatically dropping his chin down to his chest.
Dream, having semi-recovered from George's semi-kiss, already found himself working on some kind of autopilot. He was standing at George's side with his arm draped over his shoulder before he even realized he'd pushed himself away from the house.
"Deal with it," Dream laughed softly, looking down at George, while George stared up at him with a smile as bright as his aura.
"Alright, let me guess, your aura is green and your aura is blue." Sapnap pointed to Dream for green and George for blue, already shaking his head disapprovingly.
"George's aura is yellow," Dream answered, his smile falling a bit.
"Dream's is pink," George rushed to say before Dream could answer for him.
Dream bit his tongue while George and Sapnap bantered about their auras and how they should reach out to whoever is responsible for deciding whose aura is what color and make a request to switch them to green and blue.
He wasn't sure why George didn't tell Sapnap about not being able to see his aura, but Dream didn't know if that would be a touchy subject moving forward, so he figured he'd leave telling Sapnap the truth up to George. For the time being, all he had to do was remind himself this was reality, and that he shouldn't be worrying about George running into his real soulmate- the soulmate who had an aura he could actually see.
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
No matter how much Dream genuinely believed he knew George as well as he knew himself, there were so many things about George that Dream didn't learn until they lived together.
First, George refused to turn off the lights.
It didn't matter if he was the last in bed, if he'd only gone into a room for one minute, or any other reason- whether or not he was the one to turn on the lights, George refused to turn them off.
Second, George was the biggest cuddler Dream had ever met.
It was like he was obsessed with it. Dream knew from watching videos of George with their friends- Karl in particular- that George was more than comfortable laying with another person, but this was well beyond that.
George loved to sleep on Dream's chest, to plop himself into Dream's lap, and essentially use Dream like his own personal jungle gym. One of George's favorite things seemed to be yelling 'trust fall' and proceeding to collapse his full weight onto Dream. It scared the crap out of Dream at first- especially when he'd have to sprint to where George was to catch him- but if it made George happy, Dream couldn't care less.
Third, and it may sound irrelevant, but George never wore matching socks.
Okay, technically not never- like, a lot of his socks were solid black, so obviously those matched.
Dream didn't realize this was a habit of George's until he quickly ran out of his own socks, refused to do his laundry, and thus resorted to stealing all of Dream's. The main difference between their socks was that George had all black socks, while Dream's socks were white with different colored Nike check marks on them. Look- they came as PR for their pride collection a few years ago and they're nice socks.
Regardless, even though all the socks had different color check marks, George never grabbed two of the same color. A green and a yellow, a light blue and a pink, a dark blue and a purple- it was like he didn't even notice they were blatantly different colors.
Despite the fact Dream always matched his socks when he wore them, he couldn't help but smile when George finally did their laundry (after much convincing and a washing machine tutorial given by mama-Dream herself), and matched the socks together in no particular order. George bundled the socks in the same combinations that he wore them, and Dream found it endearing. He wore the mismatched socks one day, waiting to see if George would comment on it, or even give him a giddy little smile for partaking in his silly habit, but George never mentioned it.
Dream shrugged it off, figuring maybe it was just another one of George's quirks, and went back to matching the socks he planned to wear that day.
Sapnap didn't shrug it off though.
"Dude, can you match your fucking socks?" Sapnap asked through a mouthful of half-chewed cereal, making Dream and George grimace. Dream glanced down at George's- well, his- socks, seeing that George was sporting a light pink check and light blue check today.
"Can you wait until you're done chewing to talk?" George snarked back, stepping up onto the couch before squatting to his knees and falling against Dream's side.
That was another funny thing George did- he'd literally stand on the couch for a few seconds before deciding to sit. Dream learned quickly that he wasn't allowed to compare it to a cat circling a spot a few times before deciding whether or not they wanted to sit there, since that resulted in very passive aggressive cuddling (something Dream didn't know existed) from George for the rest of the day. He wasn't allowed to compare anything George did to cats, actually.
"No, like, seriously. Do you need to get your eyes checked or some shit? How can you not care that you've got two different colored socks on?" Sapnap asked, thankfully after having swallowed his bite of cereal.
"I've had my eyes checked and they're perfect. Twenty-twenty vision and absolutely nothing wrong with them. Maybe you need to get your eyes checked if the color of my socks bothers you so much," George scoffed, crossing his arms.
"Are you both really bored enough to be arguing about socks right now?" Dream asked, hoping to divert the conversation to something even mildly interesting. Sapnap and George had definitely been at each other's throats more often these days, but an argument about socks was where Dream had to draw the line.
"He started it," George muttered under his breath, turning on the television to have something else for them all to focus on.
Dream relaxed into his seat, wrapping an arm around George's back. Sure, it was a little weird that he didn't match his socks- even going as far as to sometimes unmatch the socks Dream would put away after it was his turn to do laundry. It was like George thought Dream was the one matching the socks incorrectly. After seeing how defensively George reacted to Sapnap pointing out his mis-matched socks, Dream decided any questions he had on the subject would stay safely tucked away in the back of his mind.
Besides, who really cared if George wore two of the same sock?
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
As hours turned to days, and those days turned into weeks, it was clear that even if George would be spending the majority of his nights in Dream's room, he had way too many belongings to cram them all into Dream's closet and shelves. That realization led Dream and George to what was meant to be George's bedroom in their house, staring at the barren walls.
"This place is straight up depressing," George mused, leaning against Dream's side.
"Don't say that," Dream chuckled, draping his arm over George's shoulder. "Couple coats of paint and, uh, hanging up the curtain rod that Nick knocked down when you first got here… and this place will be great!"
"Promise this isn't you kicking me out of your room?" George asked, looking awfully serious.
"Don't be an idiot, George." Dream's expression softened. "If you try to sleep in here even once, you better bet I'm going to follow right behind you." To Dream's surprise, George didn't seem convinced.
"Hey," he said softly, pulling George in a little closer. "I promise I'm not kicking you out of our room. This is just, like, storage. We can both put our out-of-season clothes in here to free up more space in our closet."
"Fine," George agreed, trying to come off upset, but Dream knew him too well to believe that. The hint of a smile lingering on the corners of George's lips gave away how assured he felt by Dream's statement.
"First step- getting this stupid curtain rod back on the wall. Can you get me the screwdriver with the green handle out of the toolbox over there?" Dream asked, already pulling up the spare desk chair they'd shoved into George's room before he even moved in, using it like a ladder. George made his way across the room just as Dream pushed himself into a standing position on wobbly legs.
"Is it the flat head or the Phillips head?" George asked from somewhere behind Dream, while Dream tried to line up the bracket with the original holes in the wall.
"Uh, the one with the green handle?" Dream questioned. He was never much of a handy-man, so it was a miracle he even got the curtain up in the first place. Dream had no idea what type of screwdriver he'd used- all he remembered was that it had a green handle.
He was also fairly certain that it was the only screwdriver with a green handle in his modest toolbox.
"Okay, but which kind? A straight line or a star?" George answered from his new place at Dream's side.
Dream looked down to see the two types of screwdrivers that George was holding, but just like he thought, only one had a green handle. The other handle was yellow.
"It's this one, idiot." Dream smiled, carefully leaning down to kiss the top of George's head when he accepted the screwdriver from him. George rolled his eyes with a smile, returning the unneeded screwdriver back to the toolbox.
Dream brushed off the interaction, figuring that George probably had little faith in him to remember which screwdriver was correct, so by bringing both over, he wouldn't have to make as many trips back and forth. The logic was a stretch, considering the room wasn't very big, but Dream learned long ago to never underestimate George's laziness.
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
"Why do we have to paint? I thought the room was just for storage," George complained, repeatedly butting his head against Dream's back as they headed towards the paint selection at Home Depot.
"Because those walls look like shit," Dream laughed, reaching behind him in search of George's hand.
"Then sue the people who painted the room in the first place," George grumbled, intertwining his fingers with Dream's and stepping forward to stand at Dream's side.
"Nick and I painted your room," Dream scoffed. "We only did a base coat, since we assumed you'd want to pick your own color after you moved in." Despite attempting to sound offended, Dream brought their hands to his mouth, pressing a few light kisses against George's knuckles.
"Well, you assumed wrong." George went back to headbutting Dream, this time against his bicep.
It had been a little over three months since George moved in, and Dream was still waiting for the day the novelty of it all wore off. He waited for the day George's whining would annoy him, for his laziness to get on his nerves, for his constant complaining to not be so damn endearing. In all that time, Dream had only found himself growing in the opposite direction, learning to love each and every one of George's quirks more as the months flew by.
"I won't make you paint it. Just pick a color you like. Okay, baby?" Dream asked, pairing the question with a brief kiss to George's forehead.
Dream smiled a bit wider when George pulled away, giving him a sour face.
Dream loved pet names, George hated- well, hate is a strong word… George wasn't used to them.
"You're an idiot." George rolled his eyes, suddenly much more willing to look at paint colors than a few seconds prior as a clear means to escape the pet name conversation. "Look- blue. There, I picked a color, let's get a bucket of it and go home." George held up a swatch card that was a deep blue, similar to cobalt.
"Something a little lighter, yeah? The room will feel like a dungeon if it's that dark." Dream smiled softly, returning the swatch to its designated slot. George groaned under his breath and crossed his arms, looking over other colors in the same dark blue section.
Dream shook his head, heading over to the lighter options. Just as a sample, he grabbed a few of their off-white options, ones with a hint of green, blue, yellow, and even pink- just for laughs, since he knew George would never choose for the room to be pink.
"How about something more like this," Dream suggested, holding out the options he had picked for George to choose from. He was a bit confused to see George's hands full of more dark blues, one hot pink, and a bright yellow that closely matched his own aura.
To Dream's surprise, George actually laughed at the cards in his hands.
"Be serious- I want to go home soon. Why would you bring me four of the same card?" George shook his head, like he genuinely thought Dream was trying to play some kind of prank on him. Dream was beginning to doubt his actions as well, double checking the swatches in his hand to make sure they were in fact different colors.
"George, hey- these are different cards. Look- look, this one is blue, this one is green, this one is yellow, and this one is pink. I mean, yeah, they're all pretty similar… but they're also not." Dream held out each card, gesturing to which color was which as he listed them off.
"Okay, I guess? They're still basically the same though, like- why not just slap another coat of white on there if you want to do something that light?" George asked with a laugh, holding out his options to Dream instead.
"We agreed nothing too dark," Dream sighed, a smile forming on his lips when he could tell George didn't really care about the darker colors, and was more excited to show Dream how close of a match to his aura he'd found.
At the same time, it made Dream a little sad, seeing that the light pink he'd picked earlier was also fairly close to his own aura, but George still couldn't see his… not even after three months.
"The blues were just to mess with you, but then I found this! It's so close, right?" George beamed, putting the blues and pink in his right hand, holding the yellow swatch up to his face with his left.
"Spot on," Dream smiled, leaning down to press a soft kiss against George's lips. "What was up with the pink though?" he asked, reaching for the discarded pile in George's other hand.
"What pink?" George laughed, watching with furrowed brows as Dream sifted through the cards until he got to the hot pink one, holding it up.
"Oh, I must've grabbed it by mistake. I thought it was just a lighter blue." George shrugged, narrowing his gaze at the card before brushing off the mix up. George took back his choices and began putting them away.
"Pink and blue are totally-" Dream paused, watching George look intently at each card, then up at the shelf, and then proceed to put almost every swatch in the wrong spot, despite making a clear effort to do it right.
"Pink and blue are totally what, Dream?" George asked, diverting his attention back to Dream once he'd put the last card back in its (incorrect) spot.
"Nothing, I uh, I forgot what I was going to say." Dream tilted his head to the side, looking down at the off-white options he'd held onto. "Let's go with the light blue, sound good?" he asked, tucking away the light pink card that matched his aura into his pocket, putting away the rest of the swatches in their correct places.
"Don't know how many times I've had to tell you I don't care what color the walls are. But yeah, sure, blue sounds good." George ignored Dream's awkward staring, sliding his hand down Dream's forearm as he walked around him, until their hands were clasped together again.
There were about a million things going on in Dream's head while they walked aimlessly down the rest of the aisles, waiting for the paint to be mixed. It was like all at once, so many things started making sense.
The mismatched socks, the screwdriver confusion, the inability to differentiate between the pastel paint colors, mistaking hot pink for blue… the reason George couldn't see his aura.
He's colorblind.
George is colorblind, and Dream was realizing that George had no clue.
≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫
"Dream," George groaned, acting like a limp noodle in Dream's arms.
A few more weeks had passed and Dream had finally set everything up. Now all he had left to do was get George in front of the computer.
"It'll just take a few minutes, sweetheart," Dream reasoned, lifting George completely off the floor when he realized how much faster it would be to carry instead of drag him.
"I don't want to edit, or read an email, or whatever it is you want me to do in your office," George disputed, whining much more dramatically now. Dream adjusted his grip, curling his arms to bring George in close enough to kiss the top of his head.
Dream let out a soft laugh when George went from ragdoll to rock climber, taking the initiative to pull himself up by the back of Dream's neck, hugging himself to Dream's chest like a reverse piggyback ride.
"I'll give you five dollars if you let me go back to watching my show," George bargained, while Dream nudged open his office door using his knee.
"I promise it'll-"
"Please?" George cut in, making Dream pause in his tracks. It wasn't often that George asked for things- especially using the word please- instead of stating his requests like a demand. It almost made Dream reconsider his whole idea.
"It's not work," Dream said instead, adjusting to support George's weight with one hand. He used his free hand to rub George's back for a few seconds before pulling out his computer chair.
"Dreamie," George whined as a last ditch effort to get out of Dream's plan.
Oh, now Dream knew George was just playing mind games.
While he'd slowly started to warm up to Dream's pet names, he still didn't use traditional terms of endearment for Dream. The closest Dream usually got was an affectionate 'idiot', but sometimes- usually first thing in the morning- George would call him 'Dreamie' to lure him into staying in bed for a while longer.
"It's a super quick test. Five minutes tops," Dream chuckled, struggling to maintain his balance when he leaned over to set George down and George fought harder to hold himself to Dream's chest.
"A test?" George gawked back, finally letting himself fall into the chair. "Wait- a colorblind test? Dream, is this some kind of joke?" George deadpanned, trying and failing to find the humor in Dream's odd request.
"Yes, it's a colorblind test. No, it isn’t a joke," Dream confirmed, kneeling down at George's side. "I think… I'm, like, pretty sure you're colorblind, and that's the reason you can't see my aura."
"You know what?" George paused, shaking his head. "If I agree to take this stupid test and prove to you that I'm not colorblind, can you drop it- for good? Look, I love you, and I… I hate that I can't see your aura, too- I know how much it bothers-"
"It doesn't bother me, not anymore," he cut in. "The only reason it ever did was just out of insecurity, like, maybe you're my soulmate… but I'm not yours. Like one day you'll go to the store and be able to see someone else's aura," Dream explained.
"Dream," George said his name empathetically, letting his shoulders fall.
"I know that was dumb of me to think, like, I can see that now. But this- me asking you to take this test- it's not because I'm still hung up on you not seeing my aura and I think this could be a random explanation. There have been… a number of things totally unrelated to my aura that brought me to this conclusion." Dream made a slightly pained face, unsure if his true reasoning was going to make George more or less upset with him.
"I'm not colorblind," George stated with a blank expression.
Dream only smiled at George softly, watching the serious expression on his face shift to annoyance. Thankfully, George redirected his energy from giving Dream an unimpressed glare to actually starting the test.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me…" Dream muttered under his breath, watching George click the 'Nothing' button for the third time in a row. Each picture had been of a gray circle with a red number clearly inside of it.
"Can you stop making snide comments? I'm trying to speedrun this. Plus, this is literally the easiest test I've ever-"
Dream looked up from where he'd buried his face in his hands, finding George staring at the screen with a look of utter shock on his face.
Result: Protan color blindness
Severity: Strong
"That's… it's wrong," George said like a question, surging forward to read every word of his results.
"Baby, I don't think it's wrong," Dream sighed softly, rubbing his hand along George's back. George shrugged him off, which Dream was already expecting.
"No, it's… it's just a mistake- I was rushing! Let me retake it," George insisted, already going back to the homepage.
"George, if it was a mistake, it wouldn't say the severity was str-"
"Shh! I'm focusing this time," George interrupted, pulling the chair in closer to the desk.
The next few minutes consisted of George angrily huffing and cursing under his breath. When another option timed out before he could decipher the number (which was clear as day to anyone who wasn't colorblind), George threw himself against the back of the chair.
"How am I meant to do better when this stupid test is timed? Like, it's setting me up to fail- anyone would fail this," George grumbled, reluctantly pressing 'Nothing', revealing his results.
Result: Protan color blindness
Severity: Strong
"Do you… want me to take it?" Dream offered, testing the waters.
"No," George said shortly, crossing his arms and looking in the opposite direction of Dream.
"Come here," Dream sighed softly, pushing himself up from where he was kneeling beside George. Despite still refusing to look at Dream, George turned the chair towards him, allowing Dream to pull him away from the computer.
"What are you thinking about?" Dream asked, helping George climb into his office bed. To Dream's dismay, George's eyes looked a bit bloodshot.
"I'm not crying," George muttered, rolling away from Dream to face the wall.
Dream followed behind George, climbing into the bed as well. He wrapped his arms around George's middle, pulling him against his chest, even when George groaned to show his displeasure. The last thing Dream wanted to do- or expected to happen- was to make George cry.
"I'm sorry," Dream whispered, placing soft kisses to the back of George's neck, since it was the only area he could reach.
"Don't be sorry that I'm apparently a fucking idiot," George scoffed, his voice muffled into one of the pillows. "Who the hell doesn't know they're colorblind until they're twenty-six?"
"You're not an idiot." Dream tugged on George's shoulder, encouraging him to lay on his back. George complied, only putting in a little resistance.
"Does it help if I say I got you a present?" Dream asked, offering George a hopeful smile.
"What is it?" George asked skeptically, but clearly interested in the idea.
"Well, like I said, I was pretty confident that I was right, so I may have already gone ahead and ordered you colorblind correcting glasses. I went with the one for red-green deficiency, considering those seemed to be the colors I noticed you struggle to differentiate between the most since you moved in." Dream's smile became more hesitant, like he was afraid he might've overstepped.
Thankfully, George's eyes lit up.
"Seriously? You have them, like, here?" he asked, already sitting up and wiping away the residual water that lingered below his lower lash line. Dream let out a heavy exhale and let his smile relax into something more genuine.
"Yeah, seriously." Dream leaned forward, kissing the side of George's head before climbing out of the bed. By the time he got to his desk to open the top drawer, George was already standing behind him.
As silly as it may have been, Dream still got a rush of happiness every time George followed him around, almost like they were magnets that couldn't stand to be separated. It made his heart feel at home whenever he'd leave George's side, only to feel George's hand wrap around his arm or tug on the back of his shirt, showing that he had opted to follow Dream instead of staying behind.
George was clingy, and Dream liked that.
"Let's go outside. I read that natural light helps them work the best." Dream leaned down to retrieve the black glasses case and an envelope from the drawer.
"What's that?" George asked, reaching out for the envelope. Dream handed it over, letting George inspect its contents himself. Inside was a photo and a number of paint swatches. "Is this- wait… is this your eyeball?" George asked with a funny expression, clearly a bit disturbed by the extremely zoomed in version of Dream's iris.
"My eyes are green." Dream shrugged a bit bashfully, grabbing a couple of the paint swatches from George. "Once you have the glasses on, maybe you'll be able to see how different green and yellow are, and then my eyes will also look different."
Just when Dream was about to take everything back and cringe himself into another dimension, George leaned forward and pressed their lips together. After taking a second to recover, Dream rested his hands around George's waist, letting the kiss mellow out into something much more serene.
As soon as their lips parted, George was torn between pressing a few quick pecks against Dream's lips and pulling him out of the room. Dream laughed under his breath at how their positions had changed- George now being the one dragging Dream.
Dream shivered when they stepped outside. Granted, he knew it wasn't that cold- probably in the mid to low sixties- but for a born and raised Floridian, this was damn near as cold as it got. George seemed completely unbothered in his short sleeved T-shirt, eagerly looking around their yard to take in his surroundings before putting on the glasses.
"You ready?" Dream asked, unwrapping one of his arms from around his chest, holding out the glasses case to George.
Dream couldn't hold back his smile if he tried, watching the excitement grow on his love's face. He admired the way George's aura had that sparkling quality to it, like even if the sun was hidden behind the clouds, Dream would always have his own personal ray of light.
"More than you know," George said softly, accepting the glasses.
Dream quickly returned his arm to being wrapped around his chest, bouncing in place for a second to generate some body heat. He wanted to give George a minute to adjust to the glasses, then he'd show him the full rainbow of paint swatches he'd gone back and stolen from Home Depot. He may have also held onto the one light pink swatch that he felt resembled his own aura, hoping that maybe George would be able to see it.
"Dream?" George questioned in a breathy whisper. Dream looked up from where he'd been using his half-numb hands to fumble through to swatches, concerned by George's tone.
George was wearing the glasses and staring at him. Well, not quite at him… more like around him.
"What do you see?" Dream asked just as quietly, dropping the cards onto the patio table, making his way out onto the grass where George was standing.
"Oh my god," George said with a laugh, immediately covering his mouth when his lip started to quiver. "I can see it- your aura. I can see it," George explained, reaching out to rest his hands on Dream's arms, rubbing up and down the expanse of goosebump riddled skin.
"Really?" Dream asked, doing his best to not also let himself be overcome with emotions- both from George seeing his aura for the first time, and George seeing colors in general for the first time.
"It's… pink," George laughed, letting out a shaky breath.
"You don't say," Dream shook his head teasingly, holding George by his cheeks, feeling their warmth against his cold palms.
"Can you cry already?" George groaned, looking up at the sky and blinking quickly. "I can't cry until you cry, so that way I can just say you made me cry instead of me crying over-"
Dream cut him off in their favorite way- with a kiss on the lips.
Plus, George's request was already fulfilled, seeing that Dream had never been good at shoving aside his emotions. The kiss didn't last long, since each of them were a bit too far gone to properly kiss anyway.
Dream held George as tightly to his chest as his shaking arms allowed, kissing the top of his head repeatedly, while George tried to calm down- only to be hit with another wave of tears. After a few minutes, George stayed glued to Dream's chest, but turned his head to the side to look out at the yard.
"This is why I got the paint swatches- not too much color variation out here," Dream said with a soft laugh, looking out at the mostly-green yard.
"I've seen all that I need," George mumbled, sliding his hand down Dream's arm until their palms were flat together. He held up their hands in front of his face, and Dream didn't need to ask to know that George was the one admiring his aura now.
In his own way, Dream supposed George always had been.