dreamer | karlnap

seven

the following night, karl had woken up first once again. he sat up from where he was laying next to sapnap, listening to the silence. hoping that he would hear a branch snap. nothing. all he heard was the light breeze rustling the tree top canopy.

he glanced over at the peacefully sleeping male, who was using his arms as a pillow to keep his head from laying on the ground beneath him. his breathing was even and steady as he slept. seemed like he slept like the dead after the last encounter.

karl began to wonder what determines who wakes up first. he can't complain though as he gets to see sapnap sleep so peacefully. his thoughts shifted to the conversation that karl had with chris and chandler earlier. chandler seemed to be onto something, but karl couldn't fully believe his friend. the doubt seemed to be engraved into his mind. he wanted it to leave so he could live carefree with whatever situation came up as a result of these meetings.

karl's thinking was interrupted by movement beside him. he was snapped back to reality as he glanced over to sapnap, who seemed to be slowly waking up. the boy in question had propped himself up to a half-sitting position as he leaned back on one of his arms. he rubbed his eyes with his free hand before looking over next to him. that same grin returned to his face.

"seems like you beat me once again," he yawned, his voice raspy as he pushed himself up the rest of the way.

"you passed out last time," karl simply commented, bringing his knees closer to his chest as he wrapped his arms around them.

"really?" sapnap questioned, confused. it seemed like he didn't remember collapsing on karl, "just like that? kind of what you did after the first night?"

"yeah, i guess," karl shrugged, "you passed out on the shoreline of the lake when i was showing you the shells."

"and you?"

"i passed out a few minutes after you did," karl provided the man with the answer he was looking for, "did you wake up? like in the real world?"

"yeah, for some reason it felt like i was falling for a second, then i woke up in my bed," sapnap recalled as he ran a hand through his hair.

"seems like there are limitations on what we can say," karl began to say as he thought more about the last times they met each other. he was still unsure, but that was the best explanation he could come up with.

"what do you mean?" sapnap asked as he quirked a questioning eyebrow. he gazed at karl expectantly.

"i don't know. there seems to be rules or something. when i tried to tell you my name, i collapsed and woke up in my bedroom. when you were about to say where you lived, you woke up," karl further explained as he shook his head to get his hair out of his face.

"sounds understandable i guess," sapnap shrugged, letting out a soft hum, "guess someone got mad and wanted to make it a lot harder for us to get to know each other," sapnap joked with a breathy laugh.

"i guess so," karl sighed before stretching his legs back out in front of him. he leaned back on his arms, looking up at the sky before he spoke once more.

"i told my friends about you," he began as he saw sapnap's eyebrows raise in surprise. karl could feel the teasing that was inching upon him by the minute. it's bad enough that he gets teased in the real world; it would only be worse if he got teased here as well. before sap could interject, karl continued, "they called you mystery man for a good portion of talking until they found out your name. my nickname for them now is dreamer boy."

"my name was mystery man at some point?! you guys have no creativity whatsoever," sapnap laughed as he looked at karl. a huge infectious smile was plastered on his face. the happiness practically pouring from him.