A/N: last chapter guys... I'm sad this is ending :( Thank you guys SO much for the support, I really didn't think this was going to go anywhere! It's my first time publishing a fic so it means a lot. I will be posting an epilogue this week though to wrap everything up!! I want to make sure I capture everything I want in the epilogue so it might take longer but we'll see :)
Dream removed his eyes from the car keys that dangled from the hook on the wall. He wasn't sure why he wanted to drive, he didn't have a destination. It had been two days since he'd gotten home from London and he still felt a little lost. Things were definitely getting better, but he still felt a little empty. He and George were texting all the time, and if not then they were on the phone.
Sapnap didn't say anything about it if he noticed, which he definitely did. Sometimes he would give Dream a raised eyebrow, but that was it.
"What are you staring at?" Sapnap's voice cut Dream out of his thoughts.
Dream blinked. He'd been staring at the car keys again. "Nothing, just zoned out," he replied, turning to face Sapnap.
Sapnap sat down on the counter, a snickers in hand. "You've been doing that a lot lately."
"I've been thinking a lot lately," Dream said, leaning against the wall behind him.
Sapnap took a bite of the snickers. "So it seems," he said dramatically, then swallowed. "You having separating anxiety from Gogy?"
Dream wanted to protest, but he didn't even know. "No?" he said weakly. "I don't know. Everything just feels a little weird."
"I know what would cheer you up," Sapnap said. "I'm streaming, come join."
Dream didn't really want to stream, but he knew Sapnap was just trying to help. "Okay," Dream agreed reluctantly, but kept the reluctance out of his tone. "What are we doing?"
"I don't know," Sapnap finished off his snickers. "Probably play on the SMP or bedwars or something."
Dream nodded. They headed to their rooms. Dream sat at his computer chair blankly for a moment, staring at the screen. Patches jumped into his lap, startling him.
"Hey, Patches," Dream said, petting his cat. She made herself comfortable in Dream's lap. He smiled down at her. She was the best cat ever.
Patches was purring lightly. Dream turned on his computer. He logged into Minecraft and joined Sapnap's VC. He had already started the stream and was waiting for more people to log on. The stream lasted a couple hours, and Dream had to admit that he had fun. Sapnap and Karl had managed to successfully distract Dream from his problems.
He was still on call with them after the stream ended.
"That was rad," Karl said. "I carried our team."
"Karl, you can't bridge to save your life," Sapnap argued. "I carried our team. Well, Dream pulled his weight a little, not a lot, but still."
"Oh whatever," Dream rolled his eyes.
"I can bridge," Karl protested.
Sapnap scoffed.
Dream's phone that was tucked in his pocket started to buzz, startling Patches, who was still asleep on his lap. Dream pulled out his phone. George was calling. Without giving his two arguing friends a heads up, he muted himself and put his headset aside, answering the phone.
"Hey," Dream said, putting the phone to his ear.
"Hey," George said. He sounded sleepy.
"You sound tired," Dream said.
He heard George groan. "I just woke up from a nap," he replied. "I fell asleep at my desk somehow."
"You fell asleep at your desk? How is that even possible?"
"I don't know," George replied. "Maybe I passed out again or something."
Dream laughed slightly. "Yeah, maybe," he said.
Their laughter died off slowly and they were both quiet. Dream knew they were both thinking the same things. I want you.
"How are you doing?" Dream asked.
"I'm okay," George replied. "No alcohol this time, I'm not sure why I even did last time. Kind of embarrassing, if you ask me."
Dream laughed again. "Everyone copes in different ways I guess," he said. "Yours is just a terrible way."
"How do you cope?" George asked.
Dream thought for a moment. "I usually cry a lot," he said. "Sometimes I just go for long drives. I turn into a big sulky baby and lounge around for a while until someone comes around and forces me to start functioning again."
"Poor Sapnap," George chuckled.
"At least he didn't have to fly across the world to stop me from destroying my liver," Dream pointed out.
He didn't have to be there to know George's cheeks had turned pink. "It happened one time, okay? It's not going to happen again," he said.
"Good, otherwise next time I fly out there to stop you I'm taking you back with me so you can't do it again," Dream said, though he wanted to do that anyways.
George was on the same train of thought. "Maybe I should do it again then," he noted.
Dream smiled weakly. "There's healthier ways to get here," he said. "Try one of those first."
He could hear George's heavy sigh. "I just want to be with you and Sapnap again," he said quietly.
"I know, I want you to be here, too," Dream replied. "You'll be moving out here with us before you know it. The Dream Team will finally be together."
"I can't wait," George said.
"Well, it's in your hands, George," Dream told him, petting Patches gently. "When you're ready, you can make the move whenever you want, okay?"
"I shouldn't move in yet," George said, though he sounded disappointed. "A little bit of us being a thing will be good for us before we decide to try and live together. I want to make sure this is going to work first."
Dream understood what he was saying, but at the same time he knew nothing could ever change between him and George. Out of all the people on this planet, he'd never felt this way about anyone except for George. George was everything.
"I understand," Dream said. "We can do that."
"In the meantime," George's tone brightened a little bit. "I kinda want to mess with everyone."
"What do you mean?"
He heard George's keyboard clicking. "I mean like, keep everyone questioning," he explained. "We're dating, but no one knows except the me, you, Sapnap, and Wilbur. I think we should just continue to be dating and change nothing on and off stream but just never tell anyone we're dating and avoid the question."
Dream wheezed. "They're going to hate us," he managed. Poor Patches was getting irritated from Dream moving around a lot and decided to try her luck with Sapnap instead, leaving Dream alone in the room.
George laughed. "I know, but I think it would be funny," he said.
"Okay, yeah, sure," Dream agreed, still cooling down. "We're dating on and off stream but no one knows."
"Just wait til they find out DreamNotFound is canon," George said.
"DreamNotFound-" George suddenly burst out laughing, cutting Dream off. "What's so funny?"
"I - I just realized," Dream wasn't sure how long it had been since he'd heard George laugh this hard. "Our real life names put together-" he broke off cracking up again, unable to finish his sentence. Dream could piece it together though.
"Our real names? George and Clay?" Dream repeated, thinking. "Gay-" he wheezed, his hand slapping down on his desk.
It took a while for them to finally cool down. Dream had actual tears in his eyes that he had to wipe away and his stomach ached from laughing so hard and for so long. It had never crossed his mind to put George and Clay together for some reason.
"I need to go let out my dog," George said. "I'll call you later."
"Okay, love you," Dream said.
"Love you, bye," George said, and the call ended.
Dream placed his phone on his desk and leaned back in his chair. He stared at his computer screen for a moment, then turned his chair around to face his bed. He couldn't help but smile like a dork. Even though they weren't together physically in that moment, Dream could finally say George was his.
It was a warm reminder to him that everything would be okay in the end, and if it wasn't okay then it wasn't the end.