Mark My Words || DNF Soulmate AU

Chapter 22

It's just an ordinary Bedwars stream, but something doesn't feel right to George.

He's been streaming for maybe two hours by this point, having lost a multitude of Bedwars and then a series of mini-games, and doesn't see them stopping any time soon.

Dream, who had been so reluctant about letting George interact with the fans for the first time in a week, has suddenly begun a competitive streak and is invested enough in the mini-games that he feels energetic enough to keep going for a bit.

"Ooh," Dream says, narrowly dodging a wither skull from the pirate boat, "That was super close."

George doesn't respond, too focused on moving his avatar around only to be smacked into oblivion a moment later.

"Urghh, this game sucks," he whines as he spectates Dream, who is still expertly weaving through the increased barrage of skulls, "I wanna play something else."

"Another round," Dream bargains, "I'll win another one and then we can do something else."

His voice goes through George's headphones like it always has.

George almost recoils from the screen if not for his facecam.

Too similar. Their conversation right now feels too similar to when George was in Britain and perpetually only talked to an often-scuffed voice that came from his headphones. For a moment, George doesn't even know if he was in Florida or if he had dreamt it all up and was about to wake up to the most disappointing reality imaginable.

He tries looking concentrated, disguising his concern and the slight anxiety rising in the back of his throat so the too-sharp viewers won't detect a sudden souring of his mood.

"George?" a voice on the other end says, and George pretends to have been listening all along.

"One more round, and that's it," he says, hoping his response fits in with what Dream had been saying earlier.

"Okay okay, just wait for me to win this one and then we can go straight into a new one."

"Cool."

He knows he should talk to chat, keep up their engagement, maybe respond to donations. But right now his mind is too stuck on trying to distinguish his whereabouts and why this stream reduced him to feeling like he's stuck in past interactions with Dream.

George tries to picture what Dream looks like through the call, his expression as he danced around the skulls and took victory into his hands once again. His memory is murky, and the picture he makes can't even begin to emulate the real thing. For a chilling moment, George thinks he's forgotten Dream's face.

He shuts off his camera and mutes his mic, then lets out a shaky breath. He needs to see Dream right now.

George doesn't care that he's in the middle of his own stream in front of 64.5K viewers right now. He needs to see Dream.

He unmutes, "Chat, hold on, I gotta go do something. I'll be back in a sec. Dream, entertain the stream."

Immediately after, he texts Dream.

George

i'm coming to see you

you can mute you don't have to entertain the stream

sorry i'm springing this on you

By the time he sends the last text, he's halfway down the stairs and on his way to Dream's room. With every step he's feeling more assured in his surroundings, in the fact that he is living with Dream and not by himself in the UK, in his groundings to reality. He almost wants to turn back and pretend nothing happened and that he didn't freak out in a moment of derealization.