"He lost a bet," Dream says to the eager chat, "And it was either that or pay me 1000 dollars."
More like I lost consciousness, George thinks as he smiles awkwardly and listens to Dream bullshit his way out of the mess he's made of the situation, And you took advantage of me.
"Don't tell them what the bet is," George cuts in to play his part in Dream's little ploy, "Like actually, don't."
"Okay, fine, I won't," Dream pretends to concede, as if there ever was a bet in the first place, "But let me finish telling the story."
George groans as he quiets down to listen to what else Dream can conjure up. He would raise more of a fuss, but he's also curious about just where exactly Dream plans to take this, and for once pipes down to let him talk.
"So of course, knowing George, he'd never choose to pay actual money," Dream continues, "And I got him to write that on his face. He tried to weasel out of that one so hard, it was ridiculous."
If George doesn't know the truth of the matter, even he might be convinced by what Dream is spouting right now. It's a little concerning how good Dream is at coming up with false facts and presenting them as the truth, but George thinks it might just be a smart person thing.
"I literally made him keep that on his face for, like, two hours," Dream sounds like he's extremely proud of himself with the plot he's made up, "I even got a picture. He literally looks so- never mind. Anyways."
Dream cuts himself off before he can say anything else, but both chat and George perk up immediately, though for different reasons.
Chat, on the one hand, starts spamming pride emotes and "CUTE??????" "FINISH THAT SENTENCE I DARE YOU," "YOU'RE LITERALLY IN LOVE," and a huge other assortment of phrases that very directly call Dream out for being in love with George.
George, on the other hand, sits up straighter and frowns, "Wait, when'd you get a picture?"
There's a little bit of a silence from Dream, as if he had forgotten to keep that picture a secret, and is now in dire need of a good excuse.
"Sorry, what?" Dream responds finally, trying to frame his distraction in the most realistic light possible.
George sees right through it but doesn't call him out, instead asking again, "You took a picture?"
"Yeah, just on the webcam. Wait! I didn't even finish my story yet. Anyways, so then about two hours into keeping 'DNF' on his face George said he wanted to stream," Dream narrates as a way to divert the audience's and George's attention away from the most important matter at hand, "And I told him he could wipe it off for that."
George raises a skeptical eyebrow and shakes his head disapprovingly, mentally making a note to confront Dream about the picture later. He cannot give him more blackmail material than he has already collected.
"And George is such an idiot. Like, he just doesn't even think sometimes," Dream laughs as he finally starts getting a little closer to what actually happened, "He takes a completely dry, like, completely dry—like you could start a fire with that thing—he takes this dry towel, and just starts trying to rub the sharpie off."
George hates how the worst part of the story Dream has been telling is the part that's true, and chuckles along despite feeling the increasing need to give Dream a few good whacks on the head.
"Okay, to be fair," George begins, "I've never had to wipe permanent marker off my face, okay? I didn't know, stop laughing at me."
He hopes the excuse works on Dream, even making a little face of dejection as he tries to lessen the embarrassment of his thoughtless action an hour prior.
Chat definitely buys it.
Indignant messages begin filling the chat, comforting George and asking Dream to "stop bullying his boyfriend." George reads those and lets out a laugh, and feels slightly better now that he's got the viewers on his side.
"I'm not laughing at you specifically," Dream clarifies, an effect of George's little demonstration of sadness, "It's just that the fact it happened is pretty funny."
"You just bullied me, that's not okay," George seizes the opportunity to make Dream feel even worse, "You laughed at my inexperience. I hope you feel good about yourself."
"I feel great," Dream cackles unsympathetically, immediately reverting back to his previous position, "Because it was so hilarious. You didn't even try to wet it or anything, you literally just started scrubbing."
George is pretty sure he hears the wheeze not from his headphones but from downstairs, and desperately hopes the mic doesn't pick anything up.
Why does this idiot laugh so loudly? He thinks a little resignedly though his lips tug upwards at how Dream's amusement just happens to be the funniest thing on the planet.
"Yup, that's how this red thing came to be. Woo, yay, he told you the story. Dream, do you wanna play another round of mini-games?" George tries to move on from the topic as quickly as possible, refusing to linger on the horrible experience and to be mocked in front of thousands of people by his terribly unsympathetic best friend.
"Actually, how hard did you wipe? How is it still there? It's been actually an hour," Dream resists George's efforts valiantly, "Does it hurt?"
"It will start hurting if you keep talking. Do you want to play a new round or not, Dream?" George has failed a parkour jump in the lobby for the fifth time in a row and does not want to keep trying it, getting bored as he gives up and flies around. Dream can keep running his mouth if he'd like, but at least let George do his job.
"Um, yeah, sure. Just join one," Dream says half-heartedly as George hears him reposition his wrist on the desk, "No, but actually. Because usually if you scrub with a dry towel you don't even get a mark, much less one that stays for hours."
Satisfied that a new game is starting, George feels a little more prepared to deal with Dream's endless methods of pushing his buttons and embarrassing him on stream, and mentions offhandedly, "I don't know. Maybe I just have sensitive skin. I bruise easily too."
He expects Dream to have some sort of an "Aha! That makes sense. It all fits perfectly logically inside my irrationally rational brain! Thank you for the explanation, George!" moment.
Instead, the silence between them stretches even as the first game is halfway through with its timer.
"How'd I get it off eventually?" George finally decides to break the strange silence by answering a question from chat, "Well Dream finally decided to stop being mean and unhelpful and told me that hand sanitizer should get it off since it has alcohol content. Then I wiped it off. That's it, the end."
"Yup," Dream finally wakes up from whatever trance he had been in, "I saved the day again, as expected."
George rolls his eyes and ignores him, but works harder at escaping the laboratory game. He's going to win this round again.
The rest of the mini-games goes a little too smoothly, with George beating Dream in almost every single round and no annoying comments that keep drawing attention back to the horrible redness on his cheek. George tries keeping the stream afloat, reading donations and actively competing in the game, but at Dream's inactivity thinks it might be time to end.
"I got second! That's pretty good. I beat Dream, actually," George concludes for the stream, "Again. I beat him in mini-games twice today. I'm actually so good."
Dream doesn't say anything in defense, and George thinks he's definitely very distracted, even more reasons to bring it all to an end so they can both get some rest. George finishes reading the donos, closes off the stream, and waves goodbye to the chat.
"Bye chat!" Dream says, just before George ends, "Bye!"
"Bye!" George puts reverb on his voice and lets it ring, then clicks a button and ends it all.
He flexes his fingers and rolls his wrist around, feeling the way the band-aid pulls on his skin, and takes off his headphones.
Now that the stream is over, he believes he has some unfinished business with Dream.
George makes his way downstairs and notes that he seems to spend an awful lot of time traveling to Dream's room from his own. It's a little annoying for George, as someone who wants to move as little as humanly possible, but he knows the separation is necessary to prevent echo if they are on-stream at the same time.
This'll just be my daily exercise, George thinks as a way to make the situation better, Very healthy.
Dream jumps a little when George pushes his door open, and has the good sense to look a little apprehensive at George's arrival. Rightfully so, because George is not about to be bullied on stream and simply let it pass.
"I want to see those pictures you took," George smiles as he walks into the room and takes a seat on the edge of Dream's bed, "You wouldn't deny me that now, would you?"
Dream looks everywhere but at George, and George can practically hear the gears turning in his head as he tries to think of some excuse. To counter that, George lets out a random string of strange noises that are guaranteed to interrupt his thought process.
"What the hell was that?" Dream asks as he finally looks at George judgmentally.
"Don't think about it, Dream," George puts on his most comforting tone, "I just wanna look at some pictures."
"What pictures?" Dream plays dumb as he stares at a corner of his wall like it's the most interesting thing he's ever seen.
George narrows his eyes and stares, which doesn't work as well as it should because Dream's not even looking at him. Clearly, Dream isn't going to give up that easily, and George decides to try another tactic.
"Fine, I'll sit here and bother you until you let me have the picture," George says as he crosses his arms and bounces a little on the mattress, "Don't expect to get any work done while I'm here."
To his surprise, Dream just shrugs and turns back to his computer, "Enjoy your stay, I guess."
George lets out an offended scoff at Dream's supposed apathy, annoyed that he hasn't gotten on Dream's nerves yet. Still, he recovers quickly and immediately begins delivering on his threat.
"Dream, I'm bored," he says as he flops down onto the bed, "Talk to me."
"No," Dream replies curtly, "I am concentrating and I will ignore you."
George sprawls a little on Dream's mattress and scoots up the bed even more, making happy little stretching noises as he closes his eyes, "Why is your bed so comfortable? Like actually, where'd you buy this mattress from?"
"I feel like we've had this conversation before," Dream replies, "I don't know, honestly."
George situates himself until he's snuggled on Dream's pillows and yawns dramatically, "I might actually take a nap here, it's so nice."
"Okay," Dream says, completely ignoring any of George's efforts to disturb him, "Go ahead."
George takes that as his cue to slide under the covers and completely occupy the bed. Everything smells like Dream, and George thinks it might be just a little strange for him to be sleeping in his best friend's bed when he's got a whole room to himself upstairs. Still, he likes the way the scent reminds him of Dream's presence, and the mattress is heavenly, so he stays and closes his eyes.
He doesn't mean to, but the hypnotic sound of keyboard typing and mouse clicking in the background lulls him to sleep.
So much for not letting Dream get any work done.
-
Some amount of time passes, and Dream finally stirs from his spot in front of the desk. He makes his way to the slumbering George on his bed and pauses to stare. The red mark is finally fading into a more subtle pink, and somehow it sort of looks good on George's face.
Dream listens and makes sure that George's breathing is slow and steady, then leans down closer to get a better view of George's face.
He really is pretty, pink lips, fair skin, and long eyelashes on a delicate complexion that's peaceful and quiet as he sleeps. Dream gently grazes a finger over George's cheek and feels a little bad all of a sudden for being mean to such an angelic-looking being.
Even if George has sensitive skin, it probably doesn't feel nice to have gotten the red patch on his face. Plus, the whole thing really is Dream's fault: he did laugh at George's misery, and he did also expose George on stream in front of all his viewers. Every thought just makes him feel even more like a jerk, and Dream spirals down a tunnel of guilt. An idea takes hold of Dream, he decides that he'll try to repair some of the damage he's done.
Making a quick trip to the bathroom, Dream locates a bottle of moisturizer that he never uses, but that his mom always insists on him having for "skincare," and brings it to his room. He kneels down next to the bed and swipes a bit of substance on his index finger, then brings it to George's cheek and smears it lightly on the redness. He goes as slowly as possible to eliminate disturbances that could wake George up, and little by little spreads the coating until it covers the entirety of the part of his cheek that was affected.
Dream hopes that'll do something to help George feel better.
When he's done, he caps the lotion away. Then he stares intensely at George's sleeping face and has to make a very difficult decision.
To squish or not to squish, that is the question.
---
Kang's Note: *in a crazed chant* fluff fluff flUFF FLUFF FLUFF
The amount of trouble this chapter gave me. Something about it. I may or may not have a second upload already ready though, do you guys want it sooner or with the usual 1-2 day waiting period?
But I hope you enjoyed and thank you so much for reading! I actually enjoy you guys's presence so much it's crazy. Have a wonderful day and go put on fancy clothing for no reason at all, maybe. I like doing that sometimes.