Mark My Words || DNF Soulmate AU

Chapter 20

George wakes up and forgets where he is. The room doesn't look familiar, the ceiling is too high, and his bed is definitely not this big. It's only when the faint smell of something vaguely reminiscent of Dream hits his senses that he sits up in a rush, suddenly aware of his surroundings.

He's at Dream's house.

The thought sends a thread of thrill straight to his head, and he observes the room now that it's not pitch dark and he isn't falling over from exhaustion. His new bedroom is spacious and clean, with a large window to the left of his bed and a desk on the opposite side of the room against the wall where he'll likely be streaming from. He sees his luggage thrown haphazardly on the floor, the cover open and a t-shirt spilling out from the side. Faintly, George remembers ruffling through his suitcase for pajamas last night, eyes barely open and making a mess of what he had so neatly prepared before. Shaking his head, George remembers to reorganize his stuff later.

He's the most clear-headed since landing in Florida, and he spends time to recall the events of last night. An echo of his joy when he and Dream hugged at the airport passes over him momentarily, and George just knows he's smiling like an idiot. The car ride back, too, sends him smiling at the memory, albeit this time with a bit of embarrassment mixed in.

That was definitely flirting, George thinks with a hint of guilt at the memory of booping Dream's nose, I shouldn't do that again.

Still, Dream's surprised face makes him laugh at the memory of it, and secretly, George doesn't regret the boop.

Quickly, his mind moves to other matters, like the band-aid on Dream's face. George nearly forgot about it from yesterday, so absorbed in simply having Dream as a tangible, living being next to him instead of a voice through his headphones. Now, he takes the time to think about it. 

He looks at his own band-aid. It's peeling a little.

George doesn't remember the last person he saw with a soulmark on their face, and he imagines it's a rarity. Out of all the people, however, it makes the most sense for Dream to have one on his face. Somehow, George's brain already accepts that as a probably possibility. It'd also explain his delayed face reveal, as Dream would have to not only show millions of people on the internet his face but also his soulmark, which he seems to be very reserved about.

The strange thing, however, was that Dream had (supposedly) found his soulmate already. Reserved or cautious as he might have been about soulmarks and soulmates and the like, he would have no reason to keep it hidden if he's already gotten someone who matched up with him. The gears in George's brain are turning rapidly to churn out new analysis for his theory, and he feels he is nearing the truth every second.

It could just be that he bumped his face and has a scar, the skeptic in George points out, trying to prevent him from jumping to conclusions too quickly, And that's probably the case here.

George concedes that, yes, it could just be some sort of wound he's trying to cover up, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be the soulmark. He reaches a stalemate with himself.

Kicking his feet off the side of the bed and throwing the covers to the side, George ends his morning thought exercises and waddles to his luggage to grab some presentable clothing and get started on his morning. He and Dream will inevitably need to talk about the soulmark stuff, and George will leave his speculations until then. He doesn't want to be the only person getting a headache over all this stuff while Dream walks around untroubled and at ease.

After putting on new clothes and folding his bed, because George is a guest and he has manners, he opens his bedroom door and sticks his head out the frame. Upstairs contains a set of bedrooms and a laundry room, from what he can tell, then to the corner of the space is the path to downstairs. George steps out onto the carpeted floor and looks at the rooms adjacent to his own. A bathroom is to his right, bingo.