The sky is pale enough that it bleeds blue into the streetlamps.
George watches it melt across the planes of Dream's face, forcing the shadows on his cheeks to draw deeper into his skin. He leans back against the leather seat and relishes in the silence, in the dark pressure the evening forces over them, the blanket quiet it inspires.
The clouds rise like fog off the roads, icy and grey and cold. George doesn't look at them. He could almost get lost in it.
"You okay?" Dream asks. His silence is louder than words. George is dragged out of his skin by Dream's question.
"Fine," George says. There's a gas station board displaying orange numbers: he doesn't read them except to see how they bounce around in Dream's eyes. "You're here. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You're quiet," is all Dream says. His hands twist around the steering wheel. George watches the tendons in his forearms flex.
"Am I?"
Dream nods. "Yeah. Everything's quiet today."
It's nice. Even the sun herself seems smaller. "It is. I like it."
"It's lonely, though."
"Not with you here."
"But for everything else," Dream says. "They don't even get to hear anything breathe. They're just alone."
"What else even is there?" George asks. Everything has been empty for so long. For too long.
Dream shrugs. Even he doesn't have an answer anymore. His heart beats so loudly these days.
"Hope," Dream says, finally. It doesn't feel like enough, not when the sky is so greedy and the sun is so lonely. But for them, maybe.
Maybe.
-----
[notes,] this was inspired by some pics @Sammie_innit sent on discord. ty for reading :)
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sailing to byzantium (and other stories)
Fanfictiona oneshot collection. if you have any requests for relationships/prompts/concepts, feel free to comment them on this book or on my conversations board and ill do my best to get to them.
