Work Text:
His computer screen illuminated a blue tint over his face. George had been working on a video for the past 30 minutes and already he wanted to go cry about how long the video would take to edit. It was dark out. The only light turned on was the bathroom light, emitting a faint yellow light that only spread out two feet. He rocked his chair back and forth, his chair creaking as if it were about to snap in half, until he heard a familiar ringtone. George opened discord to see that Dream was calling him. Reluctantly he pressed the join call button, anything to rip him away from editing. "George! I technically should still be working on the video.. But I can get back to it, it's fine. I'm nearly done with the Grand finale of the 5 hunters vs Minecraft speedrunner George!-" As Dream continued to rant about how great the video was, George couldn't help but admire how he could edit so fast and how he seemed to never get demotivated. I mean, he had only gotten not even a quarter of his video done in 30 minutes. "-And I think it's going to like- blow up!.." George snapped back to reality and realized Dream had gone silent. "Sorry- Yeah that's good, it should do really well," Dream was silent for another few moments before he spoke again, "Have you edited the most recent video we filmed yet?" George hated not being able to keep up with videos, he loved the satisfaction of finally completing the editing and then posting it and seeing all his fans get excited over it. "Uh, the bee video? Yeah, I mean I've edited like- a quarter of it maybe." Dream laughed through his headphones, "A quarter George! That's such an easy video to edit!" George scoffed, "Well it's just annoying to edit, it's boring."
After Dream scolded him to go edit his video and left the call, he felt his eyes were about to fall out he was so tired. He left the call as well and turned off his screen before heading to his bed and flopping down into it. He grabbed his blanket and pulled it up to his chest, gripping on to it like if it were another human, giving all his warmth over to that blanket yet receiving none. He let his eyes close, his brain relaxing into sleep.
--
George looked around confusedly, he had had lucid dreams before but most of them were him in his apartment, or even in some place he knew. He found himself in a living room unknown to him. White walls and pearly tiles, with expensive looking furniture and a surprisingly large flat screen tv. He walked over to one of the three couch's that lay around each other, dragging his hand along the soft linen. A voice echoed above him, "George have you seen my phone? I swear I left it in my room but I can't find it anywhere," George jumped as he heard Sapnap's voice. He spun around to see Sapnap carefully making his way down the spiral staircase. Sapnap was clearly confused when he saw George's face, as he called his name out again. George probably looked like an idiot, wondering where he was and why Sapnap and him were in such a luxurious house. George stuttered before finally getting out a sentence, "No, I haven't. Where are we?" Sapnap laughed, "You fucking idiot. This is the dumbest prank you've ever tried to pull. You've been living here for ages!" He started to search underneath the couch and couch cushions for his phone.
He suddenly felt the dream going blurry and he was now in his own bedroom, being awoken by Dream spamming his phone with calls. George waiting for his phone to ring again and when he did he answered and was met with Dream telling him he's an idiot. "Get on stream George!" Shit. He was meant to be on Sapnap's stream and he'd accidentally slept through and completely forgot about it. He rushed out of bed, nearly tripping over his blanket. Rolling his chair out from under his desk, he sat down and turned on his computer. The time and game they were playing were unknown to him, even though he probably should've known that. As he opened discord and joined vc2 where everyone was, Sapnap was the first to notice his late appearance. "Look what the cat dragged in!" Sapnap snickered, "Too busy sleeping 'ay Georgie?" George scoffed, which was followed by a giggle. "No, I was actually doing very important stuff" Sapnap scoffed an Okay and yelled at George to join the game.
Sapnap, Dream, Sam and Tina were the people on call and playing the game, enough people to make him exhausted from interacting with anyone. Sapnap had said his final goodbyes to the stream and George felt that he didn't need to stay in the call much longer so he left not even 5 minutes after. He sat still in his chair, staring blankly at his screen. Why the hell is it still so cold, It's past winter by now! He rolled down his sleeves on his hoodie, Dream's hoodie. The yellow tinted walls that surround him made him feel sick. The home he was meant to feel good in, he just felt upset and annoyed. But I guess he also felt annoyed at the fact that he had been waiting for his visa for so long, yeah whatever, legal process and stuff but did it really have to take this long?
After what had felt like forever, sitting and just staring, he decided to finally suck up whatever motivation he had and continue to edit his video. He had nothing else to do anyway. But of course, someone had to distract him again. Dream's icon flashed on his computer screen. George sighed and clicked join on the call, good job staying focused. "If the fans were to ever see how many times you call me they'd think you're obsessed." Dream dissolved into laughter and that couldn't help but make George laugh too. "They already think that," Dream replied and George muttered true.
--
Fatigue rolled over him. Why did i have to stream today. i should never make promises to stream. George scolded himself. Running on only four hours of sleep and then acting like he wasn't about to keel over from exhaustion wasn't a good mix. The time on his computer read 2am. He had a horrible sleep schedule that he doesn't try to fix so he can't really blame anyone else but himself.
"Well- I think i'm gonna go." The whole chat started to speed up with no's and dont go's, "Yeah, I don't know if you guys know this but i actually- hate you all!" George laughed as he saw the chat get offended. "Byee guyss!" He pitched his voice higher and waved his hands in goodbye and ended the stream. Silence filled the air, the only thing making the slightest amount of noise was the computers fan and somehow that made it even more lonely. George let out a tired sigh and switched off his computer, grabbing a sandwich that he'd put in the fridge so he didn't have to keep making them, and headed to bed. Pulling his phone off charge, he decided to open titkok and doom scroll for a bit before he finally fell asleep.
Unusual humming filled his ears when he felt himself wake up. He opened his eyes and sat up to see that he was in the same living room he found himself about two days ago. Looking over at the kitchen he noticed a person he hadn't seen before. The person had short, light-brownish hair with soft curls that fell in front of his face. He can't be.. right? No. George stood up and walked around the couch to sit on the stools that surrounded the kitchen island. "Finally, you're awake! I thought you'd miss breakfast, the one time i'm cooking for everyone."
The familiar voice rang out, the man now plating food. He could hear Sapnap running down the stairs and into the kitchen, "Are you cooking bacon? I thought yesterday you said you were thinking about making pancakes!" Dream let out a scoff and laughed, "I said I was thinking about it, not that I certainly was going to." Sapnap whined and limply sat down at the stool next to George. George felt like covering his eyes and hiding under a blanket, was he really going to be spoiled of Dream's face reveal by a dream? That'd look weird though, considering it seems like hes been living here for a good while now. His heart swelled as he looked around and realised that he was with his two best friends at last. He wasn't alone. Sure it wasn't exactly under the circumstances he expected it to be under, but it was better than being in his London apartment.
"Were you watching a movie on the tv last night, George?" Startled out his thoughts he hummed in confusion, "Well you fell asleep on the couch, you hate sleeping there. You're always complaining about how it messes up your back." Dream breathed out a laugh and slid two plates of food in front of the two boys. He fumbled on his words before handing out a short response, "I wasn't meant to fall asleep.." He's glad Sapnap hadn't noticed the tremor in his words as he was too busy eating, Dream gave him a weird look as if he had said something wrong but quickly let it go. I need to pull it together. What am i thinking, this isn't real. And i mean, who wouldn't stumble with their words, Dream's practically Messi in a world of minions, does that even make sense..?
Dream pointed at George's plate of food. "If you're done with that can you feed the cats?" Patches. Excitement lit up his face, "The cat food should be at the top of the cabinet, i bought some yesterday." George nodded and grabbed the cat food. Before he trotted off to find where the cats ate, he heard Sapnap mumble something to Dream. He couldn't catch all of it but it sounded something like, "Is George acting weird is it just me?"
Grateful for when Sapnap gave him a short house tour over face time and showed him Patches "Being gross", he found his way to the room where Patches ate, if he hadn't known the general direction he certainly would've gotten lost. Opening the door, he jumped as he saw two other cats, one a black with light brown blaze-like stripes and another cat, light brown with darker stripes. "Who are you guys, huh?" George asked in a hushed voice, not wanting to scare the cats away. While the two cats swarmed him for pats and screamed for food, Patches sat next to her bowl quietly. "Hi Patchy," He walked over to their food bowls and scraped out the food into them. His nose scrunched up from the gross smell and he wondered how the cats ate such disgusting food. Letting the cats eat, he shut the door behind him and as he turned he was met with Dream, standing in front of him and smiling. His smile was contagious as he started to smile as well.
"Wanna come for a drive?" Dream had his hands behind his back and he was rocking from the front of his feet to the heel. A blush spread on his cheeks, he hadn't seen Dream's face this close. You could see every small freckle, the yellow in his eyes that shone in the reflection of the light, and the soft golden curls that fell softly against his forehead. "George?" How long had he been standing here, silent and looking like an idiot? "Sorry, sure I'll come, where are we going?"
"I don't know, up to you!" He dragged the 'i', but as he was about to ask what they felt like doing, his mind slipped and everything became jumbled and blurred.
No! He nearly threw himself out of bed when he sat up too fast. His heart was beating faster than ever, palms dripping with sweat and were shaking. He tried to remember what happened and when nothing came to mind except for a few flashes of the cats and eating breakfast, Tears swelled in his eyes, starting to make his vision blurry. everything was so good. I wasn't alone anymore. Why did it have to end?..
--
His eyes were heavy and his body felt out of breath, barely being able to take a breath of life. Death usually scared him but at this moment he felt he just wanted to sink into the ground, let the dirt fill his lungs. His screams were muffled in his chest and he couldn't cry any longer as his had been swallowed by his pillow. Checking his phone, the time read 5:57am. Seven hours ago he was ready to sleep. No success.
A familiar ringtone rang from across his bed, he debated whether she should pick it up but ultimately decided to. He felt worse just by hearing his voice, gentle but loud words that used to comfort him. That comfort was now replaced with resentful longing. "Get on vc George! I wanna play Minecraft!" Why now? Why not tommorow or the next day? Why does the world keep forcing him into situations that he doesn't want to be in. Exhaling a long sigh, he paused. "Yeah, I'll be on in a minute, just gotta reboot my computer." Dream was silent for a moment before he spoke up again, "You alright George? We don't have to play if you don't want to." He hated that about Dream, he could be so eager yet as soon as someone showed even the slightest of uncertaintcy he'd switch up. It frustrated him because it just made him want him even more. George wasn't sure if he'd ever have that, moving to Florida or not. He wanted Dream, but he doesn't think he's ever going to get it. "No no, I want to. I'm just tired." He fell into his chair and joined the discord vc.
"You can go back to sleep if you want, we can play when you wake up?"
"Before you called I was trying to go to sleep for about seven hours. I don't think anything's going to change."
Dream nodded, George couldn't see that but he just knew he did. That was something weird he could do, but only with Dream, just know what he's doing even when he can't see him.
They spent a while just talking, hoping around over trees and placing blocks underneath them as they ran through the world. Dream ended up hosting a space on his twitter, and when he did that George stopped focusing for a minute, letting his mind slink into nothing.
It only felt like a few seconds before he heard Dream's voice calling him, unfortunately not in a saviours type way, where Dream is coming out of a raging fire to save him from the burning building, keeping him trapped. But in a way where he yelled at him for being an idiot and not listening to what he was saying. "George? You gonna answer me orrr..?"
"Sorry. I guess the lack of sleep is getting to me.." He laughed awkwardly. "I might go, try get some sleep y'know." Just hearing him say 'y' know' hurt him, he would never normally say that.
"Wait Geor-" He left the vc before he could finish what he wanted to say, not wanting to deal with conversations anymore. Digging his palms into his eyes, he groaned. He staggered his way back into his bed, with the bed sheets he hadn't changed in about a month or two. It probably wasn't that healthy to lie in bed for days on end but it's not like there was anything that wouldn't make him feel ten times worse. The buzz of his phone that indicates someone calling made him scream. He wanted to ignore it so bad but he knew ignoring it would only make them call more.
"What do you want?" Sounding way more hostile than he intended to be he instantly regretted his words. Dreams voice came through the speaker once again, "Well you kinda left abruptly earlier. Wanna know what that's about. And also all the other times you've been quiet and acting weird. Like the last time you were on a stream, you barely talked and when you did it was only because someone asked you a question." He went silent. They both went silent. George didn't expect him to snap like that. He didn't think he was being too obvious something was wrong. "Do you-" George exhaled, he wasn't answering Dream's question and he hoped he wouldn't bring it back up. "Do you think that I'd ever see your face in a dream?" Dream's chair squeaked like he'd just leaned back in his chair to think about it.
"I hope not, that'll ruin the suprise."
George hummed in agreement. Rolling over in bed, he put his phone next to his ear. "I'll be in Florida soon, right?" His bottom lip started to tremble. He was so tired of crying. So so tired.
Dream seemed to pick up on his upset. Like he had heard the smallest squeak in his voice. "Yeah soon, George. Soon, I promise."
"Stay on call?"
"Of course."
---
The days went by faster than they had ever gone before, and George had lost track of what day it was. He found himself in his dreams more than he was in reality. It was now September and rain battered outside, his ceiling leaking. Sighing with frustration he grabbed a pan from his cabinet and placed it under the leak. He had to call someone to fix the ceiling as it had started to grow mold. Who do you even call for that? Shaking his head he went back to his bed, sinking into it. Pulling the blanket over his shoulders he opened his phone to dozens of unread messages he had no energy to answer.
A notification popped up on his phone warning him of low battery so he shuffled over to his charger and plugged it in.
Vibration rang from his side table and his screen lit up the now darkened room. It was Sapnap. Groaning, he picked up his phone to see it was a video call. If Sapnap were to see the state he was in he would take a plane over to London in a heartbeat. I'll just point the camera up at my ceiling. George didn't say a word when he answered and he could feel Sapnap's brain going haywire with anger and confusion. Granted, he had been ignoring them for quite a while. Not on purpose of course.
"George." The younger said with a hint of annoyance laced into his voice. He could feel Sapnap's eyes staring into his skull, even if his phone wasn't pointing at him. "Where the fuck have you been? Me and Dream have been trying to contact you for ages dude." George huffed a shakey breath, and a lump formed in his throat. He had fought with Sapnap before, many times, but this time he couldn't handle it. "I guess I just didn't see your messages." What a great excuse George. "Bullshit! You see them, but you ignore them, how hard is it to respond? Even just one word?"
George’s chest tightened, every breath shallow and sharp, as if his ribs were caving in. Feeling choked up trying to contain his sobs, Sapnap went silent obviously wanting him to respond, to give a better reason, anything. George never thought he'd be nearly crying over Sapnap yelling at him, older him would've laughed at him and called him an idiot. He wouldn't be emotionally distressed if maybe he'd gotten his visa. Or maybe if he stayed in his dreams so long it became normal, then boring, then he wouldn't want to go back.
Sapnap took a breath before continuing, "You weren't fine when I originally left. You're back to your old state. Why didn't you tell us? Tell anyone?" His breathing quickened, hyperventilating at this point, making him light-headed.
"Stop acting like you understand! Maybe if I had the energy I would've responded! Every word I could've typed out would've kicked me in the face. And what if I didn't want you guys to worry. It's probably going to go away soon anyway!" George snapped, choking out a loud sob.
"And has it gotten any better? Or just worse."
The call went silent. Crickets chirped and cars rumbled outside, making a sort of peaceful atmosphere. "Just fuck off Sapnap." He shuddered, hanging up the phone and hurtling it across the room. It fell to the floor and switched off, leaving the room pitch black.
George wracked out sobs, letting his tears stain his blanket. His phone vibrated a few times, he guessed it was Sapnap trying to message him but he was just too tired to get up.
He eventually cried himself to sleep and found himself back in the home he was meant to be in. Everything felt blurry though. Turning around too fast made everything around him spin and fade in and out. His breathing was heavy and echoed. Dream stood in front of the older man, his face was blurry and hard to read but he thinks it was a look of worry. He tried to make sense of the words the younger man was saying but it sounded so muffled and far away. Dream looked like he was slightly panicking, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him, maybe trying to shake away his silence. George couldn't speak. Maybe he'd gotten cursed or banished from speaking forever. He wished he could reach out and hold Dream's face and tell him that everythings okay, that's he's okay. But he might just need to tell himself that. He felt numb and his ears were ringing. Everything was silent except for his own breathing and the muffled voice from the younger. George’s legs felt unsteady beneath him, like the ground might vanish at any moment. His breath came in shallow gasps, sharp and uneven, as the world around him rippled and blurred. Dream’s hands still gripped his shoulders, firm but trembling, and his muffled words faded into static. And then silence. Dream’s arms moved from his shoulders, wrapping around him, pulling him close. George stiffened at first, his mind still caught in the spinning chaos, but Dream’s embrace was warm. Solid. Like an anchor keeping him from slipping away entirely. “It’s okay,” Dream’s voice finally broke through the fog, clear and steady, as if it had always been there waiting for him to hear. “I’ve got you.” George’s arms moved on their own, slowly, hesitantly, as he buried his face into Dream’s chest. The younger man held him tighter, although his grip gentle, like he was afraid George might shatter. For the first time in what felt like years, George let himself relax, sinking into the safety of someone else’s care. But as his breathing steadied, the world around him began to dissolve. The warmth of Dream’s arms faded, the soft murmurs replaced by the faint chirps of cicadas and the hum and cars whizzing past. George had lain in his bed, just staring at the plain darkened wall as hours ticked by. His heart ached and yearned for the one thing he couldn't have and the argument with Sapnap hours earlier didn't help his bleeding heart. Moving the curtain beside him to peek out of it to see what time of day it is, letting some dull light in. Sunrise. His aching lifted slightly. Night always made him feel ten times more lonely. If I'm ever going to talk to Sapnap about last night, it's going to be now. George groaned as he sat up in his bed and practically crawled across the floor to pick up the phone he'd thrown earlier. Not wanting to crawl back into bed he just flopped down on the floor with a grunt. Suprisingly his phone still had an okay amount of battery left. He sighed as he opened his contacts and saw Sapnap's name at most recent calls. What would he even say when he did call, would Sapnap even pick up? Hovering over the call button for a minute, he finally pressed it, holding his breath in an attempt to control his nerves. The phone rung once, twice, and nearly a third time before Sapnap picked up. Sapnap nearly instantly turned his camera on and the expression he had on his face made George's heart sink even further than it already had. Concern, maybe guilt? He'd never been good at reading peoples faces. "George.." The usually bold and seemingly never serious, sounded serious and concerned. The silence was killing him. Sapnap was silent; like he'd run out of words. Georges heartbeat was going 100 miles per hour. He originally didn't want to do most of the speaking but if no one else was going to do it, he might as well slap himself and force words out of his mouth. Sucking in a breath he began to rant. "Sapnap— I'm.. so sorry for ignoring you and Dream's messages. I'm sorry for hanging up on you like that last night and I'm sorry for the way I acted aswell." Sapnap's eyebrows lifted, like he never expected George to say anything, which is a fair thought but as Sapnap didn't say anything in return he kept going, "You're right, I have been struggling and I hate myself for admitting that right now. I wanted to be able to just sleep through everything and hope one day I'd just wake up and everything would be fine but that hasn't happened yet, I don't think it ever will." George took a big breath in, as he'd spat out all that in one breath. Sapnap nodded slowly, his expression steadying. "I know you said that you don't want me coming back to the uk—have you changed your mind? It's fine if you haven't.." His words were hesitant and careful, like he was treading over broken glass, wary not to trip and cut his skin. George thought for a second before responding, making sure he knew what he wanted. "I haven't changed my mind. I don't think I'd be able to handle you leaving again." The silence that fell between the two spoke for eachother. Both acknowledging the others feelings. "I'm sure you'll be here soon, George." And hopefully I arrive there alive. The two boys didn't say much of anything else before they said their goodbyes and hung up. George sighed and rolled on to his side, making random patterns with his finger in the black carpet. After the call with Sapnap, George finds himself lying on the floor, his mind still spinning. The silence of his room felt heavier now, almost unbearable. He stared at his phone, Sapnap’s name still lingering in his recent calls. His thumb hovered over the screen, instinctively scrolling down to another name. Dream. He bit the inside of his cheek, debating whether it was a good idea. The thought of Dream’s warm laugh—or even his teasing remarks—made his chest ache. He wanted to hear his voice. Needed to. Before he could overthink it, his finger tapped the name, the dial tone ringing in his ear. “George?” Dream’s voice came through almost instantly. George let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. "Hey, Dream," His lips curled up slightly after hearing Dream's voice come through his phone raspy but soft. Dream chuckled as they both went silent for a moment, "What's up?" "Mm I don't know, just wanted to talk to you I guess," Dream cooed at George's words, "Wittle gogy wants to talk to me?" George scoffed at his dumb pronunciation and rubbed his eyes, sleep was starting to catch up on him. The soft breathing through the phone nearly lulled the older to sleep. "Hey George...?" Dream said with a hesitant voice, "Yes?" George moved the phone away from his face to sigh, not wanting Dream to hear him. "I know you'd tell me if you—" Dream paused for a second, like he was trying to find a different way to say his sentence, "—Got your visa, but has anything come back about it? Even the smallest update?" George shut him eyes, wanting to disapear. He wished he could just get away from everything. The visa, the ocean, the laws. Why must he go through so much pain? "Nope. The last update I got was last time when it got rejected." Silence. Only their breathing filled the void. He could feel how Dream was feeling, pure shit. They both felt like that. If he could shift an entire ocean so they could see eachother right now he would. "You'll be here soon." Dreams voice cracked making George's eyes swell at the sound of him even being slightly sad. "Yeah. I will." --- A notification flashed on his screen, assuming it was Dream he picked it up nearly instantly. His heart beat, eyes wide and jaw fallen slack. Tears pricked at his eyes once he opened the notification. An email read, "You're visa application has been approved." In that moment it felt like fireworks had been lit off in his chest. He read back on the email a multitude of times before face timing Dream. Luckily he answered straight away. "Bros tryna catch me off guard and see my face," George laughed at him, squealing quietly, "Dream! I- Yes Dream! The visa—" George was cut off by Dream, a wobble in his voice, clearly worried once George mentioned the visa. "Did it get rejected again? Fuck." George shook his head and giggled, "Dream why would I face time you if it had been rejected, it's been approved! I'm coming home!" George yelled excitedly, flapping his hands. "Wait— Really?!" George hummed and nodded. Even if George couldn't see Dream yet, they were both jumping around their room. "Are you sure you don't want to wait until you see me in person?" Dream took a shakey breath in, "I'm all ready, I've got my camera set up, I'm all ready to go!" Georges smile couldn't be wider and his thoughts raced. "Okay- lemme go check what I look like in the mirror, make sure I don't look like trash, hold on." Dream hung up and George laughed. This is the moment he'd been waiting for, for years. He was going home. Tears threatened to fall again but he quickly blinked them away. He could barely contain himself when he saw Dream facetiming him. This is it. Soft, golden brown curls covered most his forehead and was just above his shoulders. The camera quality wasn't the best but he could mark out some faint freckles that dotted his cheeks. His eyes were like a warm sunrise in winter. A blush formed of George's cheeks and covering his mouth with his hand was the best way to try conceal it. George lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, his excitement had not yet calmed down. All his things were already packed and waiting at the door for tomorrow morning when his flight to Florida was departing. Letting his eyes close, he nearly fell asleep straight away, not realising how tired he was. He woke to the now familiar house, the cold lighting brought a sense of comfort even if he didn't exactly like bright lights. The dream was clearer, more vivid. He could smell cookies that had probably just been taken out of the oven. The vision of Dream stood at the end of the hallway, staring right at him with a reassuring look and a smile. George walked over to the taller man, looking up at him with his eyes crinkled from smiling. Suddenly a wave of sadness washed over him. Not expecting it, George took a step back. He weirdly felt like he was abandoning the friends in his mind, leaving them for a better two, Ones that were bound to reality. A sad smile crept back on to his lips. Cupping Dreams cheeks in his hands he pulled his face closer. "I'll see you soon. I promise." For once he wanted to wake up.