Mark My Words || DNF Soulmate AU

Chapter 48

"George, you fucker," Dream sounds like he's had the wind knocked out of his lungs, "You little bitch."

George frowns, though just a tad amused and bewildered at Dream's response, "That is... that is not what I had expected as a response."

"George," Dream whines in an over-the-top fashion that has George questioning all his choices and feelings leading to this moment, "You asked me this without facecam? Over the MCC practice server?"

A disbelieving chuckle huffs out George's mouth, and the comedy of the situation takes a punch off his nerves.

"Well, yes, Dream, you are right," he plays along appropriately, "I did do that."

"Unbelievable," Dream simply replies, jocular indignation underlying his words, "I demand a rerun where we're not on the MCC server and actually properly looking at each other. I'm literally leaving the server right now."

Dream's exit message pops up on the side of George's screen, and he scrunches his face and pushes himself back against his chair.

"No, that was bad enough as it is. I'm not doing it again. Much less with facecam," he rejects, the thrumming in him buzzing louder at the thought of facing Dream on camera, "Also, you're avoiding the question."

"George, look," Dream ignores him completely and clicks something, "I'm literally on facecam. You can't be the faceless one in a call with a literal faceless YouTuber."

George opens their call on his monitor and sees Dream offering him a small smile that shows a cut of teeth, giving a quick wave, and then staring at his camera expectantly.

Instead of going on camera, George takes some time to ogle. 

It's been a week since he last saw the man, and before that, it was a few weeks since he'd been in his presence. He looks the same, band-aid still permanently stuck to his face, hair lightly tousled underneath the headset, and eyes bearing the sort of sunny, cheery glint that says more than words ever could. In short, he looks good, and George rests his cheek on a propped-up hand to make the best of his opportunity to stare, modeling his neck is at a comfortable position as he adjusts the placement of his elbow. A smile slowly colors his face as he finally gets it right, and George tries pursing it away.

"George," Dream calls again, interrupting George's moment, "Stop staring and turn on your facecam."

George doesn't even move, relaxing his posture even further to collapse into a languid mess of reluctance and shyness, "No."

Then, with a moment's thought, he also adds, "And I wasn't staring."

Guess I'm a liar, George thinks, self-satisfied as he gauges Dream's response.

He sees Dream turn his face away to hide a smile, and accidentally lets his elbow slide too far on his desk, almost falling face-first onto whatever material the surface is made up of. It's loud enough that the mic picks it up, and George pulls himself away from the table shamefully. Dream must have heard that too. 

George will collapse if Dream says even a syllable asking what happened.

The commotion shakes him awake from the stupor of seeing Dream's face again, and he clears his throat to fill the awkward silence.

"Wait a minute, you still haven't answered my question," George points out suddenly, once again on edge and dissatisfied with Dream's reaction so far.

"Yeah, and you still haven't joined me on camera!" Dream stares pointedly with the obvious intent of peer pressuring George onto facecam. If he didn't hold George's entire thumping heart in one hand, he'd never get George to even consider the idea, but the fact of the matter is that George hates waiting.