Second Life (original)

Part #17

Dream woke up, realized that they had overslept by forty-five minutes, and smiled and shook his head at George. He was finding it increasingly difficult to say no to the brunet.

He decided to let George sleep a little longer because with a plan as smart as George's was, he deserved the rest. Very few, possibly no, others could coax Dream into falling back asleep after just waking up.

It was then that Dream realized he hadn't told his family he was engaged. "Oh shit," he thought, "I told Drista and Mom I'd tell them how it went."

Dream's mother and sister had never actually met George, but Dream had told plenty of stories over the years. He figured maybe now was the time.

Apparently, his mother did too.

Dream called her, not telling her the "big news" just yet, and instead casually mentioning George.

"You know, Dream," his mother said, "I think it's about time I met this elusive boyfriend of yours. He sounds so sweet."

"Sure thing, Mom, when would you wanna do that?"

His mother seemed taken aback. "Wow, no hesitation... what's going on..?" she inquired.

"What do you mean?"
"Well, you always seem hesitant to invite George, despite constantly talking about him. Now you just agree! No convincing required."
"I guess I think it's about time."
"Oh, lovely! Would tomorrow afternoon work for you?"
"Yeah."

They talked for a little longer, now with a plan for Dream and George to come to visit that afternoon just for a little chat.

Dream said his goodbyes and hung up the phone before making his way back to the bedroom.

He walked in quietly, expecting George to still be asleep, but he found that George was in fact awake.

He was sitting up in bed and looking out the window blithely.

Dream smiled the grin only a fool in love could manage and walked closer to wrap his arms around George's torso in a tight hug.

George smiled and reached up to mess with Dream's hair playfully.

"My mother wants us over for a little while tomorrow afternoon, she wants to meet you," Dream said, laying down on the foot of the bed near George's knee.

He laid on his side while leaning his head on his hand so he could see George's thoughtful face.

"Sounds nice," he said, clearly distracted.
"What are you looking at?" Dream inquired.
George snapped out of it.
"Nothing, sorry."
"You don't need to apologize so much, babe."
"Oh, sorry... wait. Fuck-"

Dream chuckled at his struggle. He intertwined his hand with George's as the brunet bumbled to form a coherent sentence.

"-in the end, I really don't say it that often, only when polite or-"

Dream cut him off. "If you don't mind my asking, why do you say sorry so often? You don't have to answer, just curious."

George contemplated for a moment. "I don't know... I guess it stemmed from how I was raised."
"Wanna elaborate? You don't have to, but if you want you can."

"I guess I was raised to please other people. My parents were rather strict I guess," George tightened his grip on Dream's hand, "They made me do a lot of things that they claimed were good for me... I think that was just a cover-up though. In reality, they just wanted to feed off my success."

Dream frowned. He kissed George's hand. "Thanks for telling me, babe, I really appreciate it."

Georg nodded, eyes returning to their fixated state.

Dream was still curious as to what George was looking at, but decided that George didn't want to, or wasn't comfortable, talking about it.

He kissed George's cheek one more time before slinking back off into the living room to watch the morning news.

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Sorry for another short chapter, about to get into ✨l o r e✨ so I wanted to have a bit of a placeholder chapter.
Have some family stuff planned, so chapters will probably take a while to come out for a day or two.