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When Dream woke up on a Wednesday morning for school, the last thing he expected was for there to be little flower tattoos littering his wrists. So, when he looked down at his phone and saw them, you could imagine how freaked out he was.
That meant that his soulmate had scars on their wrists- which was… concerning, to say the least. Dream didn’t have any flower tattoos before this from his soulmate, but now his wrists were covered in tiny little flowers- though some were larger than others.
Dream shrugged it off, getting up from his bed as soon as he texted his friends in the group chat a good morning. He woke up a little later than normal- but he still seemed to be up before everyone else.
Well, aside from Bad- who had just texted back with ‘gm’ and a happy face.
Smiling to himself, Dream quickly changed out of his pajamas, slipping into the clothing he almost always wore- blue jeans, a black shirt, and a bright green hoodie. He grabbed the face mask he liked to wear outside- of course, he couldn’t wear it at school, otherwise the teachers would yell at him-, but didn’t put it on quite yet. He put it in his hoodie pocket instead, ready for him to walk to school.
The whole day went by as normal- Dream not paying attention in most of his classes and hanging out with his friends in the classes he had them with, and during lunch.
He had noticed that his best friend- and definitely not crush-, George, was a bit… quieter than usual. It was a little off putting- even Sapnap, Dream’s other best friend, had caught the difference and asked him about it.
But, when Dream asked what was up, George only smiled and told him it was nothing, and that he was okay.
Though he wasn’t quite sure why, Dream didn’t believe him.
“George!” Dream quickly walked up to George’s locker, which he was standing in front of, grabbing everything he needed to go home. The Brit looked up at him, a faint smile on his face.
“Hey, Dream,” George closed his locker and faced Dream completely.
“Wanna come over and work on school stuff?” Dream knew he asked George this a lot- it wasn’t Dream’s fault that George actually kept him on track with his homework and made the whole thing so much more fun-, but George really didn’t seem to mind coming over nearly every day after school. And this time seemed no different, considering George had smiled wider at that.
“Sure, so long as you don’t try to copy me again,” Dream scoffed, starting to walk down the hall, with George by his side.
“That was last year, George! Give me a break.” Dream couldn’t help but smile as George laughed, holding his hand in front of his mouth- something Dream noticed he did quite often, especially as of recently.
“Still.” He shrugged, pulling his blue hoodies sleeve over his hand. “You’ve tried to get me to tell you the answers.”
“I have not !” Dream huffed. “I was simply asking for your help.”
“Simply asking for my help my ass,” Dream wheezed at that, his cheeks starting to hurt already, despite not even being near George for more than five minutes.
The walk back to Dream’s house was uneventful- they just chatted about classes and tests coming up, really-, but he didn’t mind all that much. He knew none of his family- other than his younger sister, who everyone just called Drista- was home, so it would be pretty much just them in the house.
“How much homework you got, Georgie?” Dream opened up his front door, letting George walk in before him.
“Not a lot, actually- I managed to finish pretty much everything,” He answered. Dream smiled as George was already heading up the stairs to Dream’s room- where they always were. “I just need to study for that stupid history test for Monday.”
“Lucky,” Dream huffed. “I’ve got so much homework due tomorrow.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t put it off until the last minute,” Dream rolled his eyes, pulling his folder for homework out. George was right- he had plenty of time to do all of these assignments, but… he really didn’t want to do them, so he didn’t. And now he was stressed.
“Whatever, study for your test.”
“You know I’ll help you if you need it, right?”
“Yeah, because you’re smart and know literally everything.” And that wasn’t at all sarcastic, either- George was genuinely one of, if not the smartest people he had ever met.
“I don’t know everything.”
“...George, what are the first fifteen digits of pi?” Dream knew full well George knew that- and, honestly, probably more. George, for some reason, had recently started to memorize some of the digits to pi.
“3.14159265358979,” George almost immediately answered, hardly stumbling with the last few numbers like the last time Dream asked. Dream smirked, glancing over at George, who was sitting on his bed. “Shut up, don’t look at me like that. I’m not smart for memorizing some of the digits of pi.”
“Whatever you say,”
The next hour and a half went by surprisingly fast, with them mostly sitting in silence while music played from either one of their phones- they’d switch who was playing music every few songs.
Dream had just finished up the majority of his homework- of course, finishing the stuff that was due the next day before the rest-, when a sadder song started to play from George’s phone.
He looked over at his best friend, an eyebrow raised curiously. He hadn’t really expected a sad song to start playing- it never really happened before.
“What?” George huffed, looking away from Dream. “It’s a good song.”
“I’m just surprised,” Dream chuckled. “I didn’t expect you to listen to something like this.” It was a slower, softer sad song- not that Dream hated it. Actually, it was pretty calming. It just really took him by surprise, with George’s crazy and fairly happy personality.
“Whatever.”
“It’s not bad, I actually like it.” He said, hoping George wasn’t taking it the wrong way. He figured he was starting to, because the Brit was curling in on himself a little, clearly embarrassed.
“Uh-huh.”
“I do!” Dream turned in his chair to fully face George, who was looking at him again. He smiled at him. “It really does sound good. Send it to me later, okay?”
“...Okay.”
Dream was just sitting on his bed beside George, the two of them silent while they played Minecraft together. They had been talking just a few minutes ago, but Dream didn’t have anything to say- and it seemed like George didn’t either. So, Dream was building while George was mining, the music from the game just loud enough to make the silence comfortable.
While Dream was building, he would occasionally glance at George’s screen, just to see how his mining was going. And, as Dream looked to see how it was going again, George had dug himself into a cave, dropping inside.
Dream burst out laughing as George basically screamed so high pitched that you’d think he was in a horror film, completely tensing up as he fell.
But then Dream stopped laughing as he heard George hiss quietly, seemingly in pain, lifting his arms just enough to where they weren’t touching anything.
That… was odd.
“You okay, George?”
“Hm?” George looked at him curiously. “Yeah? Why?”
“I just-” He sighed softly. “...Just making sure.” George blinked at him a few times, clearly confused, before looking back at the TV screen. Dream bit his tongue, looking back at the TV as well- but he couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened.
Maybe he was crazy- seeing and hearing things-, but… that was so weird. He wouldn’t have been as skeptical as he was if George hadn’t been acting weird all day.
George had been complaining about the heat- Dream knew he was from England and it was cold there all year round, but it really wasn’t that hot- basically the whole day, but anytime someone suggested that he take off his hoodie, he refused to. Normally he would have by now.
He wanted to ask George again if he was okay, but… George wouldn’t lie to him about how he was feeling, right? Surely Dream was just being anxious over nothing.
…
But then it happened again .
“Fuck-” George cursed under his breath as he jumped, a skeleton shooting him from behind when he wasn’t expecting it. Dream narrowed his eyes as George did the exact same thing as before- lift his arms just barely, just enough for them not to touch anything.
Why was he doing that?
“George, seriously- are you okay?” Dream put his controller down and turned onto his side, facing George, who continued to stare at the TV.
“Yeah, I’m fine, the skeleton just sca-”
“ George ,” In an attempt to get George to look at him, Dream reached his hand forward and wrapped his hand around the Brit’s wrist.
“Ow- fuck-” George ripped his arm away from Dream, and for a split second, he saw something that made his heart sink in his chest.
For a split second, from under George’s sleeve hoodie, he could just barely make out a red line or two.
“What the fuck, Dream?” Without a word, Dream reached out again- this time just grabbing George’s sleeve. “Clay, dude-” He pulled down the sleeve, getting another, quiet hiss from his best friend. He gasped softly at the sight of many, thin red lines that were scattered across George’s wrists.
For a moment, he wondered if maybe George’s cat did this- but these lines were too clean, too… precise, to be from a cat. The cuts looked as if they had been bothered- probably from George brushing his arms roughly against the fabric of the hoodie. Some even seemed to have opened up slightly- though none of them were actually bleeding.
Dream glanced up at George after a moment, finding that George was looking across the room rather than at him, making it impossible to see his face. But he could see that George was tense.
“...George?” He started softly, getting no response from the other. “George, did you… please look at me, George.”
There was quiet for a good few seconds before Dream, again, felt his heart sink and shatter at the sound of George sniffling. George finally looked over at him, tears making his eyes look glossy- but he wasn’t crying. At least, the tears weren’t running down his cheeks.
Dream didn’t say anything else- instead, he pulled George into his chest, wrapping his arms protectively around the shorter male. And just like that, moments later, he felt something wet starting to seep through his hoodie. He couldn’t care less, though- it just gave him more reason to hug George tighter.
He felt George grabbing the back of his hoodie tightly, hearing him let out quiet, broken sobs into his chest. But he didn’t say anything- neither of them did.
Dream rubbed his hand up and down George’s back, trying to comfort him the best way he could- but then he accidentally rolled up his own sleeve, revealing the flower tattoos that were scattered across his wrists, almost like how George’s were.
…
“...George?” Though Dream didn’t want to, he pulled back slightly from the hug, his heart aching at the sight of George’s eyes all red and puffy, tears running down his cheeks. “I-... when did you start doing this? Be honest. Please.”
“..Just… just l-last night.” George muttered, his voice breaking as he spoke. He wasn’t making eye contact, but Dream didn’t mind- he was too focused on trying to keep his heart from beating out of his chest at a realization.
“George, can- can I see your wrist again? Please?” George looked at him for a few moments, a confused look clear on his face, before he pulled further away from Dream, holding his wrist out to him, though the marks were facing down. Dream gently grabbed his hand and turned his arm, a sad frown on his face.
Without another word, Dream let go of George’s hand and rolled up his own sleeve- the same arm George was holding out-, and held his arm next to George’s, revealing the flower tattoos that were placed in all the same places as the cuts.
Dream looked up at George after a moment, finding that he was already looking at him.
“...We’re soulmates, George.”
