Almost But Not Quite Human

Sick In The Heart

Reaching the tree house, Dream and George were confronted by Phil, who was obviously awake. Much to the father figure's chargin, Tommy was awake too.

"Tommy you should really be in bed, it's too cold for you out here" Phil frowned.

Tommy consulted the colour of his magma skin, and decided that it was warm enough,"'sides, I wanted to know if these guys were alright-"

Dream smiled softly, maybe he would get along with this little gremlin after all.

"-And woah hey, your face looks like bacon!"

Or maybe he wouldn't, only time would tell. Phil, ever the kind soul, wrapped Dream and George in a feathery hug and reassured them both that it didn't matter what they looked like on the outside, only how they were on the inside.

Solid advice, really.

On the way back to bed, the two passed the main room, from which Ranboo poked his head out. "You're back! Everyone okay?"

"Yeah, just a... Misunderstanding"

Nobody asked what the heck Ranboo was doing there this time at night, and continued to bed, feeling content. That was where the good news ended.

"Hey Sapnap, would've thought you'd be up too," Dream teased, but strangely didn't get a reply.

"Nick?"

George saw, with his night-vision-esque mutation, that the boy in question was curled up on his hammock. "Hey Sap you okay?"

"George?" Sapnap's voice sounded scratchy, "Did you find Dream?"

Concerned, George looked to Dream, who shrugged. "Yeah he's right here"

"Oh good-" Sapnap was cut off by a vicious cough.

"Nick are you sick?" Dream came and stood next to George.

"No." He said defensively "Maybe. I don't know"

George placed the back of his hand on Sapnap's forehead. "Fever." he said with a frown.

Sensing what George was worried about, Dream said, "It could just be a normal fever, we don't know."

"Dream, when was the last time people got normal fevers anymore?"

"There's still a chance."

George turned back to Sapnap, "Try get some sleep okay?"

"Mkay"

And to Dream he said, "I think we should probably do the same."
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In the morning, Sapnap was not better, he had in fact, probably gotten worse. If this was the virus as George feared, Sapnap had three days to recover before it was deemed fatal. No one survived more than three days of symptoms.

The whole tree-house was on edge. There was nothing they could do.

Dream, for now, was wearing a sort of blindfold as a temporary replacement of his broken mask. By some intuition or spacial awareness he only bumped into things every so often.

Day one of Sapnap's illness was... Fragile. No one knew what to do.
_______________________________________

The morning of day two came, and still Sapnap was ill. No one else had gotten sick yet - only amplifying the belief that this was the virus: all the mutated would be immune.

George felt himself get sick, but sick with worry not illness. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost Sapnap...

In the main room of the tree house, Niki, Tommy, and Ranboo were hanging out. Niki zoned back in to the current conversation to hear, "Oh yeah oreo man? You're gonna regret that!"