ORPHANED

:: twelve ::

the wind picked up and it got colder the longer into the night the duo had been outside. they had decided to stick to walking down the main street. unlike the dingy alleys, this street was illuminated by the yellow street lamps. some stores had closed long before. only a handful of people were out.

dream's eyes flickered past some of the people walking around. neither dream nor george had said anything since they left the field. they walked side by side in silence, most likely scared if they spoke too loud the cops would find them again. dream couldn't believe their luck, he was certain it was over for them. he nudged george's shoulder.

"none of these people know that we just ran from cops." he offered a smile, hoping george wasn't too shook up from the circumstances of the night.

"maybe because all of their brain cells froze already, were surrounded by a bunch of zombies." george didn't turn to face dream, his gaze staying focused in front of himself. dream was glad he was in the right mindset to make jokes with him.

"are you cold?" dream didn't seem to be phased by the temperature anymore, all the cardio had seemed to raise his body heat.

george turned to glance at dream. "you aren't?"

dream shook his head, "i'll give you my hoodie, but it might smell like sweat." he grimaced, he hated sweating, probably much more than the next guy. the smell sending him back to all the after school sports he did in high school.

"wait, are you seriously not cold?" george finally turned to face dream, his hands pressed firmly into the pocket of his very own sweatshirt.

"hey, if i get cold again you can just hop on my back again and all the running will warm me up."

george slightly rolled his eyes and smiled, "fine."

dream began pulling his arms out of the sleeves and then shrugged it off from around his shoulders. he handed it to george, who gladly pulled it over himself. dream grinned as he could see a calm smile find its way to george's face. "better?"

george nodded, "much better."

"how much do you want to bet sapnap already fell asleep waiting for us." dream checked his phone to see sapnap still hadn't texted him back, let alone opened his picture.

"if i bet on that i will lose, i know for a fact he is already sleeping." george shook his head and began folding the sleeves of dream's sweatshirt over onto itself. dream watched as he neatly flipped the fabric a number of times, before his hand peaked out from underneath the hem.

"why not just push up the sleeves?" dream asked, no reason in particular, just for something to say. george glanced at him again and pushed the other sleeve up his arm, almost immediately it fell back over his wrist. he lifted his hand and stared at it. he said so much without having said a word. "fair enough."

they continued walking the rest of the main road. george now also immersed in the others sweatshirt. dream striding beside the older in a t-shirt. after a while of walking in the cold dream started to loose feeling in his hands. he would ask for his sweatshirt back, however george looked so comfortable and he didn't want to take that away from george, especially after all of the discomfort he had been through today. he devised a plan to keep them both comfortable.

"george you should get on my back again."

"...why?" george looked at him suspicious of his prompt.

he shrugged "we can share body heat?"

"do you just want your sweatshirt back?" george started to remove the sweater and dream made a motion to stop him.

"it's fine, plus this way we both will be warm."

george eyed the other, then he rolled his eyes. dream stopped walking to let george wrap his arms around his shoulders yet again. george jumped to let his legs rest on dream's hips. dream brought his hands under george's thighs to help hold him up. a perfect system they had down to the T.

"better?" he mimicked the previous phrase.

dream smiled and nodded his head, george's warmth brought feeling back into his fingertips.

**

for the second time that day both dream and george stood on the other side of sapnap's front door. he knocked and only had to wait a second before karl again opened the door. despite george wearing his sweatshirt and his new knowledge of who karl was he couldn't suppress the deja vu he felt settle in his soul.

"i don't know about you but this feels a little familiar." karl smiled at the boys on the other side of the door. when sapnap's head poked out from behind the door again, dream started laughing.

"you didn't get arrested?" karl said, surprised as he stepped aside to let them in the house.

dream rolled his eyes. "yeah, you'd know that if sapnap would've opened my texts." they all found their way back into the kitchen sitting in the same positions as before.

sapnap turned from them and distracted himself by looking into the oven. "at least you're okay. i'm making pizza rolls."

"well technically you're not making them, you're just heating them." george spoke.

"well technically george, no one cares, i'm making pizza rolls." sapnap's voice echoed in the kitchen. "so are you guys staying over, or..."

both karl and dream agreed to stay. dream nudged george when he didn't respond.

"i don't know how your parents would feel about me staying here. i think i'll actually head home now." george stood from the stool and walked to the door.

"you're walking alone?" dream asked, standing from his own stool.

"don't look at me, i'm not going out there, it's freezing." sapnap rose his hands.

dream frowned, he didn't want george walking alone, it was considerably late, anything could happen. "then i'll go with."

"more pizza rolls for us." karl laughed sitting on the counter swinging his feet.