Chapter Text
---George - Friday Night
“Goodnight guys!!” George was frantically waving his hands and making shocked faces at the camera as he bid farewell to his hundreds of thousands of stream viewers, knowing that this clip of him was likely going into some sort of compilation video or fan edit of his face. Still, he pushed on, determined to provide the best experience for his many viewers despite the strange things he knows many of them do with footage of his face. He knows it’s loving, but still finds it unnerving more often than not.
“Bye!” Shouted his best friend and fellow, albeit faceless, streamer Dream. George promptly ended the stream and closed out of an extra tab of Twitch. He sighed, relaxing back into his chair after two intense hours of playing various games with Dream.
“Well, goodnight Dream ! I have to go to sleep early tonight,” George broke the comfortable silence in the call after a moment, using a tone of voice meant to imitate their friend Quackity’s attempts at a British accident. Both men laughed, Dream’s chuckle just slightly quieter than George’s higher pitched giggle. It was just the two of them and though they often would spend many hours basking in one another’s presence at this time of night, George had things to do that following morning.
“Aww but George , we haven’t even gotten any fun time away from the stream! I had to wait two long hours and suffer through your horrible Bedwars plays for nothing?” The 24-year-old could practically hear his friend’s pout through Discord.
George playfully groaned, “But Dweam we already had our daily dose of DNF!”
Dream was quick to respond. “What!?” he cried indignantly. The two would often toe the line between platonic and romantic on stream, but sometimes the jokes would cross the line to their offline talks as well.
“Whatever,” Dream quickly caught himself. He playfully responded, “George, go brush your teeth and tuck yourself into bed or whatever. Just know that I will be upstairs, doing that with your mom.”
“How very mature of you,” George grumbled, before visibly brightening. “Goodnight!” The Brit announced before disconnecting from the call. He yawned as he got up from his desk and walked towards his bathroom, planning to brush his teeth and crawl under the covers, just as Dream had annoyingly predicted. After returning to his room, a text sent from Dream caused George to smile. It read sweet Dweams from ur bestie & 1 tru love in life ;)
George sent back a simple nope :) and shut off his phone before going to bed.
---Dream - Friday Night
After reading George’s response, the 21-year-old man sighed and left the kitchen, where he had been giving his cat Patches some fresh water and a handful of treats. She always behaved so sweetly, but it was especially noticeable lately as she would practically never bother him or his other friend, Sapnap, while they streamed and recorded videos. With Patches at his heels, Dream placed a hand on his door, about to push it open and chill in his room for the night, when he heard Sapnap’s voice greet him: “Hey, Clay!”
Dream turned around with a tired smile, sleepily responding, “What’s up, Nick? I doubt you’re here to say goodnight since you never seem to want to tuck me in!” he teased, wearing a fake pout for the second time that night.
Sapnap gasped and held a hand to his face, “I never knew you wanted me to! I’ll get right on that Dweamie , but first I wanted to tell you that Alex, Karl, and I finalized our plans for the meetup. It’s in about a week. I thought I should probably tell you.”
Dream froze for a minute. He hadn’t realized the trip would be so soon, leaving him alone in their house while his own family would coincidentally be too busy to visit, what with his younger sister–Drista’s–school orientation and his mom’s recent work schedule. Sense returned to him upon acknowledging the fact that he’d been living alone before, and plus, it wasn’t like his friend was leaving forever. Dream was happy that his friend got to meet up with some of their online friends they were especially close with. Nevertheless, Dream preferred not being left alone, even when he had Patches to keep him company. Speaking of which, he looked down at his sweet cat as she used her own two paws to break into his room and hop up onto his freshly made bed. She laid down, curling a tail around her body as she patiently waited for Dream to come join her.
After collecting himself, Dream nodded and responded, “How long will you be gone for?”
Judging by his best friend’s face, Dream guessed Sapnap had anticipated disappointment from Dream and he felt slightly ashamed, hoping that his negative thoughts hadn’t been too apparent. He hated making his friends feel bad. “Just about a week. Maybe longer, depending on how things go. But, I would feel kinda bad about leaving you here alone with Patchy, and I was wondering if maybe we could um…” he trailed off, as though nervous to continue. Dream furrowed his eyebrows, indicating confusion.
“Well, I know you haven’t face revealed to him or anything, but I was wondering if we could invite George to stay here for a little while.” Mistaking Dream’s pondering look for one of anxiety, Sapnap quickly continued, “We can set it up so that he arrives a day or two before I leave so that we can all spend some time together and make sure everyone’s comfortable.” He paused to search Dream’s expression.
After detecting something like acceptance--possibly even excitement--in his friend’s features, he decided to continue, “I leave, you two keep each other company doing whatever makes you happy. I return, we move on from there.” The man paused to breathe before continuing with a roll of his eyes, “I just better not come home to matching wedding rings and toddles gnawing on the stairs!” Dream chuckled in amusement, much to Sapnap’s apparent relief.
“Actually I had been hoping that you would be comfortable with me inviting him to stay soon anyways, since travel restrictions seem to be lifting recently. I think it’s a great idea! We just have to ask George now…” it was Dream’s turn to trail off uncertainly. He felt a warm and calming hand on his arm.
“Hey man, I’m sure he’d love to come. He always sounds so excited whenever people’s Donos ask about it! Plus, we’ve all been friends for years, definitely longer than Karl, Alex, and I. If anything, I should be the nervous one!” Dream felt as though a weight lifted from his shoulders, despite not realizing he had been unsteady momentarily before. Nick always knew what to say to calm him down when he was like this.
“But Clay?” Sapnap began. When Dream’s inquisitive green eyes flickered down to meet his friendly brown after a short pause, he was prompted to continue: “I, um, was wondering if you would be honest with me for a second…”
“Of course!” Dream’s face seemed to soften as curiosity twinkled in his eyes and confusion lowered his eyebrows.
“Um...Do you think of George as more than a friend? Like for real?” The singular question Dream hadn’t even begun to prepare to anticipate practically knocked the wind out of the man’s chest. How did he know? Then he thought: Of course he knows that it’s not just joking, he’s my literal best friend. Well, other than George. But with luck George would be something…different than a best friend. Not that that would ever happen. Just shut up, Dream! Wow, when did I start referring to myself by my IGN?
Unable to respond verbally due to the bombardment of thoughts, Dream looked away before simply nodding.
“I mean, more than even a best friend? Or joke Minecraft husband or whatever?” Sapnap questioned further. His only response was a return of Dream’s eyes, only now piercing into his own with a look of fierce sincerity. Sapnap let out a breath he had been holding. Two seconds later, a small smile emerged on the younger man’s face.