————— 20 days remaining —————Thursday, January 11th, 4:36 pm
Status 1: stage 5 - Watermelon
Status 2: stage 5 - Azure
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-Darryl's POV-
I knock on the door one more time, debating if he's even at home to begin with. I could be knocking on the door of an empty apartment at this point.
There's laughing from this direction, so I presume he's at home. Then again, it could just be the noisy couple upstairs.
The door opens with a click, but I'm not met with who I was expecting.
I'm met with a boy slightly shorter and younger than me. He has dark brown hair, with similar coloured-eyes to match. His clothes are completely blue. He holds Patches in his arms, cradling the cat like a child.
The cat doesn't look too impressed.
The cats' owner appears behind the brown-haired boy, his head quite a bit above. There's got to be at least 4 inches height difference between the two. "Oh, Darryl! What brings you here?"
The shorter boy smiles brightly at him. "So you must be Clay's friend right? Nice to meet you!" His voice is laced with a British accent.
Clay stares at the shorter boy, mouth agape for a few seconds. "Hah, funny thing... you two have met before." The brown-haired boy and I have the same reaction.
"WE HAVE?!"
Our shrieking scares Patches, who jumps out of the boy's arms. One of their claws catches on the boy's arm, digging a nasty scrape through it.
"Oh my god George!" Clay yells, stepping around the shorter to look him in the face. He wraps an arm around the now whimpering boy, who's holding his arm in pain. I don't blame him, the cut looks pretty nasty.
Patches comes to my feet, circling around my legs and meowing. "Darryl come in, and can you please bring Patches with you?"
I was going to come back later as Clay has this 'George' person over, but it seems like he needs my help. "Sure" I reply, carefully picking up patches and carrying her inside with me. That's when I realise why Clay said we've met before.
"Oh my goodness I'm so silly" I mutter, sighing at my own stupidity. "You're GeorgeNotFound aren't you?" The brown-haired boy glances back at me, nodding weakly. "I am, but how do you..."
Clay cuts in, grabbing George's wrist and guiding him over to the kitchen. "That's Badboyhalo you dummy."
George glances back at me, eyes lighting up through the glistening tears. "Oh. Hi Bad, didn't know your name was Darryl." He wipes his tears away frantically, seeming to find some new embarrassment in crying now that he knows who I am.
{Incase anyone's confused, Darryl knew Clay was Dream, and Clay knew Darryl was Bad. They don't use their irl names, and of course with Bad not showing his face, George didn't know his name or what he looked like. Clay and Darryl found out who each other were by accident. Therefore Clay also doesn't know Zak is Skeppy. Also yes there's reference to a bit of Dreamnotfound, but what did you expect with me? 😂 it's not much. Ok? Continuing...}
I take a seat on the couch, placing Patches in my lap and stroking her. Her claws are a little muddy, a bit of blood on one of them. I decide to find a cloth to clean them with while the other two sort George's arm.
Clay drags George over to the sink, grabbing the first aid kit out of a cupboard. "So I was originally going to come by yours later today so you could meet George, but I guess now works too."
George yelps as Clay tries to clean the mud from the wound, pulling away to face me. "Nice to meet you at last Bad! Didn't know you lived near Dream. Did you two plan this?" I shake my head, smiling as I remember the time Clay and I first met in person.
"No, actually. Clay moved here a while back, and I asked him what his career was. He told me how he did YouTube, and told me his channel name.
We literally found out like that that we'd just met in person. Strange to be staring your friend for years in the face without even knowing it!"
{yes because the author TOTALLY isn't making you do that again *Non-corona cough*}
George laughs, smile not as bright before from the pain. "That's so weird." A couple tears spill out and roll down his cheeks, despite the fact he's no longer actually crying.
Clay walks over to us, giving me the look. "Darryl would you mind helping Patches? She must have dirty claws considering how much dirt is in George's cut."
Now I understand that look. It's a 'can you stop distracting George I'm trying to help him' sort of look. Oh.
I grab a towel and start cleaning Patches, listening to the two younger boys bicker beside me.
"This is probably what you get for hugging the cat like a child George."
"My cat lets me... HEY did you mean I was holding the cat like it was a child or that I am acting like a child?"
The taller boy lets out a typical Dream wheeze. "Both."
"I'm not a child! I'm older than you!"
"Right... you're just the height of one."
"Oh my god SHUT UP CLAY!"
Another wheeze as George sighs in frustration. I turn to see Clay clutching at his sides and laughter, a pouting George watching him. "You two argue like a married couple."
Clay smirks, giving George a wink. "Maybe we are."
"Oh my god shut up!" George punches Clay in the stomach, only causing him to wheeze more. "You're not that short George. We're similar in height." George pokes Clay in the stomach.
"See! There's an inch! A literal INCH between us!" The brown-haired boy uses his thumb and index finger to roughly show an inch, holding his hand in front of Clay's face. "That's like nothing! You don't call Bad short!"
Clay plants a hand on George's head, ruffling his hair to further aggravate him. "Well you're both short to me. Anyway, let's actually sort your arm out."
George rolls his eyes, reluctantly holding his arm out so Clay can finish cleaning it. There's blood dripping on the floor, so I bring Patches back to the couch.
"So Darryl, why'd you come here? Something bothering you?" I nod, sighing as I contemplate telling the two about it. I decide it's probably my best option. "So you both know Skeppy right?" They both nod in sync.
"Yeah um... he has a crush on me."
George suddenly jumps on the spot, punching a fist in the air. "I KNEW IT!" I stare blankly at him, mouth agape. "How?!"
"I've seen your stream and videos with him Bad. It's so blatantly obvious. Your fans even said!"
I roll my eyes, debating if I've really been that blind to have never noticed before. "Yeah well your fans ship you two... they're calling it." I smirk at the two. "And they're right, Dreamnotfound is clearly canon."
"So is Skephalo" George adds. He tries to do it with a smirk, but he's blushing quite a lot from my last comment and is too flustered to manage one. Clay is also blushing, but staring blankly at me.
"No it's not..."
George looks between the two of us in confusion. "Darryl likes this other boy, Zak. I met him a few days ago." His green eyes watch my own, the dirty blonde giving me a sad glance. "And that's your problem, isn't it?"
I shake my head. "I wish that was it. It's worse. Skeppy has hanahaki disease." George's eyes widen, mouth hanging open as he stares at me. "Oh my god! How do you know? Did he confess?"
"No, A6D told me."
"Oh my god..."
We all stand in silence for a few minutes. Clay resumes cleaning George's wound, causing a gasp from him to break the silence. "Sorry..." the blonde mutters. I'm not sure who he was directing it at, probably both of us.
"That's... I don't even know. That's awful."
I smirk, accompanied by a pitiful sneer. "That's not even half of it. I have hanahaki too, for Zak. Who also has hanahaki, for someone else. Who he knows likes someone else."
Tears start rolling down my face, so I face away from the two. "We're all doomed. Me, my crush, and my best friend."
I close my eyes against the tears, and I'm wrapped in a hug. Slowly, I open my eyes to find George has his uninvited arm wrapped around me. There's tears in his eyes too. "Oh my god... I... I..."
I brush away the tears rolling down my cheeks, seeming them unhelpful. I'm only making everyone else upset. George is sobbing again, tears flooding down his cheeks.
I shouldn't have said anything...
"Oh George..." Clay sits beside George, dropping the bandages to give him a hug. I would've made a joke about Clay's choice of words, but it doesn't seem like the right time.
The crying boy wraps his arms around Clay, sobbing into his hoodie. "It's okay George..." Clay whispers, hugging the smaller boy tighter. "I'm sorry George. I didn't mean to make you cry. I'll figure something out I'm sure."
Clay looks me in the eyes, sympathy draining for making George cry. "Bad, you need to talk to Skeppy about this. I don't know exactly how this whole hanahaki thing works, but he needs to tell you. Himself. Just FaceTime him or something."
I shudder at the thought of Skeppy seeing my face. The blonde sighs, running his hands through George's hair to comfort the boy.
"I know, I know. You don't want to. But you owe it to him. He needs to see your face, to tell it to you. Even if you don't return those feelings, something may work. Or him confess it to you, don't tell him you know. Same goes for Zak. You need to tell him. That should be easier. Deal with Skeppy first."
"Ok. Fine, I will."
Another sigh echoes from Clay, this time a sadder one. "George he'll be ok. I swear." George pulls away a little, frantic eyes darting between Clay and I.
"B-but what if he isn't? What if it doesn't work?" His voice trembles as he speaks. Clay just hugs him tighter, caressing his hair.
That's what I'm wondering too George...