Chapter Text
Before moving to Florida it was easy to hide the scars. Back in London he rarely saw people in real life and when he did, he made sure not to do anything where he needed to be without a hoodie or jacket. It was easy to say no to some of the vlogs Tommy wanted him to be in and nobody really questioned it because they all knew he wasn’t the most comfortable with his body being on display for everyone to see. At least judging by his choice in fashion.
Before moving he could freely move around his apartment in only a t-shirt and nobody would look at him, or rather his arms, weird. And when he had the camera on while streaming or just talking to his friends he could have his arms covered without anyone thinking anything about it. Because wearing hoodies wasn’t something out standing, not when living in a place like England where the weather never seemed to be anything else than grey.
But now in Florida, it was becoming harder and harder to pretend like nothing was wrong. The heat was obviously getting to him and neither Dream nor Sapnap could understand why he insisted on always having a hoodie on, despite seemingly always being overheated and sweating. Then there was the fact that he refused to go to the beach with them.
Everytime they asked he had to come up with an excuse and the problem was that he was beginning to run out of them. At first he used the classic ones like having a tummy or head ache, but they only worked for a time before his friends would start to become worried about him. Which was definitely the last thing he wanted. But he had also used excuses like having to finish a video or having to take a call. So instead of deciding a time between each other they now demanded that George would come up with a time that fitted him.
After having lived with his two best friends for almost two months now he had learned the art of being discreet. He made sure to never wear only a t-shirt and at night he locked his door so that no one could walk in and see something they shouldn’t. On top of that he also made sure to never do it when the others were awake. After he always scrubbed the bathroom clean and went over every surface to make sure that there was no trace of what he had done.
Because the consequences of his friends finding out were unthinkable. They would surely be disgusted with him and would want him to move out, right?
It was a miracle really, that he had managed to hide it for nearly three years now, he had
actually no idea how he did that. Sometimes he thought that he had bad friends since they never noticed how bad he really felt but then again it was all his fault for never telling them anything.
He had quickly noticed that both of his friends were really touchy and expressed all of their emotions through physical touch, something that made it even harder to hide. He often found himself in either Sapnap’s or Dream’s bed just cuddling, though admittedly Sapnap’s more than Dream’s. Not because he preferred it that way, but because he sometimes just couldn't handle being in Dream’s bed. Not with the way he felt about his best friend, he just got way too overwhelmed. But it did bring him immense comfort to be there, even if it wasn’t in the way he wanted it to be.
That might be why he found himself knocking on Dream’s door, just an hour before he was supposed to go on the Dream smp to do the end, seeking comfort. He hadn’t been awake for long but in the short time he had, he had in some way managed to spiral. Without Sapnap’s usual comfort, he wasn’t home at the moment but away at Karl’s, he was forced to go to Dream.
“Yeah?” He heard from inside the room and opened the door. Dream sat in his chair in front of his computer that displayed Minecraft.
"I'm tired." George muttered and fell onto the other’s bed. Dream spun around to look at him and shaked his head with a small smile playing on his lips.
“What a shocker.” He said and went back to the game. George made himself comfortable on the bed, glad that Dream didn’t seem to mind the intrusion. “You ready for the smp to end?”
“I don’t know. I should be asking you that shouldn’t I? I mean it’s your smp.”
“Perhaps.” Dream answered but left it at that. George closed his eyes and relaxed on his side facing the wall while listening to the sounds of keyboard buttons being pressed.
“What are you doing anyway, it’s like an hour left?” He asked.
“I know, I'm just preparing food and armour so I don’t need to worry about that later.” The sounds from the keyboard abruptly stopped and the chair sounded as Dream presumably stood up. A couple of seconds later there was a weight beside him on the bed and an arm locked around him. It was silent for a few minutes before Dream interrupted it.
“Are you okay?” He asked and George frowned, discreetly checking so that the hoodie he had on hadn’t rode up on any of his arms.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know, you just don’t usually do this.” George turned around and pressed his face into Dream’s chest, his eyes still shut tight. He couldn’t cry, not now, not with Dream right here. This was the perfect opportunity to let his friend in on that everything wasn’t okay. But there was no way he was doing that so instead he just hummed. “You can tell me anything you know.” Dream said and George just hummed again. Maybe this had been a mistake.
“I know.” He finally answered because he knew Dream wouldn’t let it go before he made sure he was okay.
“Okay.” Dream said with a sigh and wrapped both his arms around him. Even if they had cuddled before they had never gone this far. It almost felt like there was an invisible line where there on one side was friendship and on the other side was something else. Crossing this line was something George wanted to stay far away from, because if something happened he could never live with himself for forcing Dream into it.
They stayed silent for a few more minutes and George listened to Dream’s heartbeat. At first they were quick and unsteady but as the time went on and Dream relaxed more they slowed down and became balanced.
The silence was once again interrupted, but this time it wasn’t by Dream but rather his phone. The signal was sharp and Dream groaned and loosened his grip around George.
“Forgot to put ‘do not disturb’ on.” He muttered and reached for his phone. “Hello.” He answered when he got a hold on it, his voice sounded more tired and sleepy than it had earlier. The person on the other side said something but George didn’t bother to listen to who it was.
“What’s up?” Dream asked into the phone. “Hey. Yeah.” He mumbled and then continued. “Probably yeah, I guess- I don't know.” He said and listened to what the other person was saying. “I don’t know, I've been trying to get George awake, but he's just been sleeping.” He then said and George looked up at him with a sour look. That wasn’t true at all, why would he lie? Dream just smiled at him and used the hand he wasn’t holding the phone in to beep him on the nose. “Um, callahan.” He continued, answering something and then finally: “Alright bye.” He put the phone away and his arms came back to enclose George in a tight hug.
“Who was it?” George asked, his heartbeat raising noticeably. The only time Dream had hugged him this hard was the first time they met. Since then he had been careful to not be too affectionate. At least that was the way it seemed to George.
“Tommy, he wanted op or something before starting his stream. I'm not sure, I wasn’t listening that closely.”
“Why did you say you were trying to wake me up? I'm not sleeping.”
“What, did you want me to tell him that we were cuddling in my bed?” Dream asked, his voice teasing. He definitely didn’t want that. If other people knew of it, the teasing against him would never stop. It also didn’t help that Dream was insinuating weird stuff.
“Shut up, don’t make this weird.”
“Fine, I won’t.”
A few minutes later the phone once again rang and Dream seemed to consider not picking it up. But after a few seconds he did and George heard the unmistakable voice of Tommy through the speaker. This time however it was a facetime call. He turned around even more and buried his head even deeper into Dream’s chest, his cheeks burning. By the way he was holding the phone there was no way that Tommy didn’t see the position they were in. But apparently he just ignored it and continued saying whatever he was saying. When he was done Dream let out a confused ‘what’ and George felt a hand on his back.
“Do you need me to get up?” Dream asked Tommy and this time George could actually hear his answer.
“Yeah, if you could log on and unban me.” He said and George groaned. Why did everyone have to interrupt the moments he wanted to stay in forever? Dream chuckled at him before mumbling an ‘okay’ to Tommy and sighing. “Thanks Dream.” Tommy said and then hung up.
“I hate him.” George muttered and Dream chuckled again.
“Don’t be so mean Georgie, it isn't his fault. And we probably should begin logging on, you know.” Dream said, responsible as he was.
“I refuse.” He said and Dream sighed beside him. He was probably tired of him, like everyone else.
“Fine, you can stay here for a couple of more minutes, but then you really need to go and join.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes, George.” He said and began taking his arm away but George grabbed on to it, refusing to let him go. He wasn’t sure why but he had a bad feeling that if he let the man beside him get up, he would begin to cry. That was something he definitely didn’t want to do in front of Dream. Because then it would be impossible to convince him that he was okay. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re never this clingy.”
“Yes.”
“Fine, if you say so. But just so you know, we’re talking about this when all of this is done.” Dream said and gestured to his computer.
“No we’re not.” George said because they weren't. He would make sure of it.
“Yes, we are.” Dream insisted.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You’re hopeless.” Dream said affectionately and gave up in trying to free his arm. “We’ll do this later alright? I promise.” George finally let his arm go and instead buried his head into the mattress. He didn’t think they would be doing this later because there was no way he had the energy to be this vulnerable with him any more today.
When he didn’t get an answer, Dream got up and walked back to his computer where he let out a surprised huff. “What the fuck? Why am I banned?” He asked and George smiled. He had known it wasn’t a good idea to trust Tommy with op. Honestly, what had Dream expected?
“My screen said I'm banned from the server. I join and im in the fucking prison.” Dream angrily said, probably having joined the vc with someone. “With nothing.” He then added in an even angrier voice.
Deciding that it was time to go back to his own room he stood up from the bed and lightly slapped Dream’s head before heading out the door.