"okay, everyone. get settled into your respective rooms."
thankfully, dream offered up the community house for the l'manbergians to stay in. as they wander around, with sapnap trying to lead them to the house, dream comes up to camille and nudges her.
"hey."
camille, about to follow the l'manbergians, stops. "hey." she smiles shyly.
"you uh... don't have to stay with the others. you can stay with me. if you want."
"really?" her heart hammers. they'd just gotten together... now he was basically asking her to move in?
he shrugs. "i mean, of course. i don't know how long you're here for and i want to spend as much time as i can with you before things go back to normal."
camille snorts. "it's not like you're going to die anytime soon. even if things did go back to 'normal', we can still see each other!"
"so is that a no?" dream pouts.
camille hesitates, then sighs. "oh what the hell. sure! are you still in the same place?"
"no, i actually have a proper home now. c'mon!"
***
after camille 'moved in' into dream's home, she decides to go with someone to check out the vines. dream was not happy.
"camille, you can't be serious. it's dangerous!"
"it's fine, dream! i can take care of myself, and i'll have people with me."
"just let me go." dream protests.
"no! you can stay here and hold down the fort. i'll be alright, i swear."
"fine." dream finally caves, "but i'm picking the people to go with you." he thinks for a moment, then smiles. "purpled! sapnap! over here."
camille finally relaxes and rolls her shoulders after their long argument.
"i need you two to accompany camille to the camarvan. you guys can check out the vines, and maybe check on george and tubbo at the prison."
"alright, sure." they agree.
"well, be seeing you, dream!" camille turns to leave immediately, but dream grabs her hand and spins her into his chest.
with two fingers under her chin, he angles her face towards his. "if something happens to you, i'm never going to forgive myself, i swear to god. i love you, so be careful." dream kisses camille passionately, causing her legs to go weak.
she wraps her arms around his waist so she wouldn't fall. fuck. this guy. he changed everything. before, she could just go off to look at the vines herself, and she wouldn't have to worry about not coming back.
but now, not only does she have a whole nation of citizens that awaits her return, but she also has a caring boyfriend.
sapnap clears his throat. dream pulls away, leaving camille dazed.
she shakes her head, smiling lightly. "we should go!"
as she strides past purpled, she flips him off as he mimics throwing up.
"stay safe, you three!" dream yells.
sapnap and purpled follow closely behind camille. "y'know, i haven't seen dream in this good of a mood for a long time." sapnap remarks.
"same. after the whole, punz manipulating eret to attack l'manberg thing, he's been a real pissbaby." purpled adds.
"i wonder what the cause of this sudden good mood is." camille can hear sapnap's smirk.
"don't you two have anything better to talk about?" camille hisses, already irritated with her companions.
purpled and sapnap walk next to her, sandwiching her. "is he good in bed?" sapnap asks.
camille yelps, slapping sapnap. "shut the fuck up! there's a minor here, you fucking wall."
sapnap thinks for a moment. "now where have i heard that insult before... oh right! from dream. he's influencing you!" sapnap taunts.
"i fucking hate you."
"hey, kids, we're here." purpled interrupts their childish argument.
"right. c'mon, we need to be responsible around these... vines." camille grips the sleeve of her shirt and rips it off.
purpled widens his eyes. "what-"
she uses it to cover her mouth. "i never really liked this shirt." she climbs over the fence, then turns around. "we don't know how the infection is transferred. you can never be too careful."
understanding her reason, the two boys rip off parts of their shirts and holds them against their noses and mouths. they then climb over and follow camille.
finding a smaller vine, she crouches down to look at it. purpled crouches next to her while sapnap inspects the camarvan, carefully.
"pass me a stick, please." camille asks.
purpled grabs a stick off the ground and hands it to her. gingerly, camille pokes the vine. it pulses, then stops quickly.
"hm..."
purpled touches camille's shoulder. "hey, we just have to see how much it's grown. we should wait for dream's friend to get here before we fiddle with it."
camille stands up, dropping the stick. she dusts her pants off then nods. "yeah, i know." she produces some chalk from her pocket and draws a line where the tip of the vein she'd poked was.
"there. now next time we come, we can check if it grew."
sapnap comes over. "smart. let's go now, i'm getting tired of holding this stupid piece of shirt to my mouth."
they climb back over the fence, and drop their makeshift masks. as the sun sets, the three of them walk back in silence. it seems that seeing those horrifying vines dampened the fun atmosphere.
"hey uh... everything's gonna be alright, right?" purpled asks out of nowhere.
camille glances at him for a second then sighs. "i don't know, purpled. believe me, all i wanna do is tell you everything's gonna be okay. but i don't know. because i can't tell the future. and good thing i can't, otherwise there'd be no surprises. we're gonna protect each other. we might be from different nations, but right now, we're all one." camille puts an arm around both boys, making them both bend down a little.
"thanks, cami. great pep talk." sapnap yawns.
after checking on george and tubbo at the prison, they head back to the dream smp.
"i'll see you guys around!" camille calls as purpled and sapnap walk away.
she yelps as someone picks her up from behind. "D-DREAM, PUT ME DOWN!"
"dream? i'm not dream!" the voice laughs.
they drop camille and she turns around, surprised to see karl.
"oh, hey karl!" she was never too close with karl, so she was shocked.
"dream's with eret right now, discussing some stuff about badboyhalo. i figured we could hang out!" karl's smile lights up the darkening sky.
camille nods. "sure! i'd love that."
karl strings his arm through camille's and drags her over to tubbo's old wooden house. "so. let's talk about dream."
***
a/n: we're getting closer and closer to the ending 🥲
i love you all, make sure to take care of yourself <3