s t r e a m {SAPNAP}

- 37 -

BEE POV

***

SEPTEMBER 9TH

Nick sat next to me in the aisle seat, letting me stare out the window as we took off. As the Austin airport got smaller, I felt much bigger. Music quietly played in my earbuds as we broke through the clouds. Everything below us was tiny.

I took Nick's hand in mine and examined how small my fingers were compared to his. He was watching something on his phone, but he squeezed my hand affectionately.

Fireflies played on my phone, and I smiled into myself. I did not feel as alone anymore. I had friends all over the world--well, in the UK and Mexico, but close enough.

I connected to the plane's wifi and scrolled through Instagram, where Nick had posted a picture he'd taken of me, Starbucks in hand, at the large window at the airport. I was looking out of it almost longingly, and I wondered how he always managed to take these pictures without me noticing. Thousands of people had liked it already.

I started to wonder what Clay looked like. I knew very little about him--I knew he had sort of short-ish light brown hair, green eyes, and that he was pretty tall. I mean, I didn't know exactly how tall he was, but I was 5'4", and Nick practically towered over me already.

Was Clay meeting us at the airport? Or were we just expected to show up at his house like "surprise, we live here now,".

I felt like it was pretty obvious that I didn't know how to socialize with people. As someone over the speakers announced that we were about an hour from our destination, I scrolled through the fanfiction that swarmed me on the DSMP tag on Twitter.

Sad-ist's was coming out with her new animatic soon and I was more than excited. She posted a few snippets, and I was deeply impressed with my character design. In the server, my character was just another one of Dream's projects, never choosing a side, always trying to get help, falling prey to manipulation and terrorism. It really was an interesting plot, and I'd just lost my last canon life.

I knew Wilbur planned on bringing me back as a ghost, so Ghostbur wouldn't be so alone, and I almost begged him to let me have a redemption arc, since I'd already had a "villain" arc. Either he was going to give me a redemption, or he was going to bring me back as a threat to the server.

I thought it was funny to be 20 and roleplaying on a Minecraft server with literal children and a 33 year old--the absolute legend, Philza Minecraft--it's the little things in life, I guess. Although when I went to college, I didn't expect to have to argue with a 16 year old British kid with absolutely no filter, and then die tragically in front of him.

I really wanted to come back to the server as a ghost, though. I know that somewhere in the Lore there was a necromancy book that Jschlatt had given Dream--but whatever Wilbur decided to do was canon.

The plane rumbled and Nick glanced over to me. I was surprised that I wasn't all that afraid. You'd think that since I'd never been on a place, I'd be screaming for my life, but I think years of depressive desensitization to death blinded me to the possible terrors of a plane crash.

"We are arriving at the Orlando International Airport. Please wait until the seatbelt light has switched off before trying to disembark the aircraft. Thank you for flying with us today, and we hope you all have a wonderful trip!" The stewardess's high pitched voice crackled over the loudspeaker again.

"We're here?" I mumbled, my ears popping as we dropped in altitude. "That was fast,"

"About two and a half hours," Nick replied, already gathering his things and shoving them into his carry on. "Clay is gonna meet us there, he's gonna drive us back to his place."

"So what if he's not actually 22?" I stretched. "Like, what if he's 50 and just going to murder us?"

"Bee, I've facetimed with him. He's not 50,"

"Ok, what if he's 22 and going to murder us anyways?"

"He already took two of your lives on the server, I think that's good enough," He joked. Finally, the plane touched down to the ground and hooked up to the walkway connected to the gate.

When the seatbelt light flickered off, Nick and I--along with the hundred or so other people--stood and started heading towards the exit. Being so close to the front was beneficial to getting off quickly, although the leg room during the light lacked severely.

We emerged off the plane into the Orlando Airport. I'd never been to Florida, and I was desperate to feel the humid air compared to the dry heat that Texas experienced this time of year. Nick led me towards the front of the airport, already on the phone with Clay. As we walked, I searched for palm trees outside the windows. Anticipation built in my stomach.

"There he is!" Nick finally said, starting to jog with me by his side. The man he'd pointed at turned as we ran towards him, and for the first time in my life, I saw what DreamWasTaken looked like. It was not a surprise that he was wearing a lime-green hoodie.

Nick and Clay practically engulfed each other in a hug and I took a picture as quickly as I could. Don't worry, I wasn't going to post it anywhere unless I needed to blackmail Clay. When the two parted, Clay pulled me into a hug, towering over me even more than Nick.

"Wow, oh my God," He said, his voice not sounding a bit different than what it did over the phone. "It is so amazing to finally, actually see you guys. Wow--"

"I can't believe you look like every other skinny frat boy I've ever met," I joked, my nose scrunching up in a sort of fake disgust. "I expected better,"

"Shut up, you're as annoying in real life as you are on the server,"

"Oh yeah!" I punched his shoulder. "That's for killing me."

Nick came between the two of us, taking my hand again.

"It's not my fault," Clay protested as we walked out to the parking garage. "That's just the way it was written."

"It's ok. It's so amazing to be here," I gushed, inhaling the sweet perfume of the Floridian air. "You gonna do a face reveal while Nick and I are here?"

He pretended to think about it, but ultimately shook his head no.

"I'm not ready for that,"

"Please, we've already seen your face, and we're like you're only friends, so just do it," Nick chortled. I grinned and shoved him playfully.

"Okay, well, whatever happens, we're getting pictures together, the three of us, so that if Clay ever fucks around and tries some shit, I can blackmail his ass."

"I will de-whitelist you from the server."

"And the whole world will know what your face looks like, so it's a lose-lose situation."