Mark My Words || DNF Soulmate AU

Chapter 21

Breakfast is nothing special, but George enjoys it thoroughly anyway. Dream sits in front of him and they chatter mindlessly about all sorts of things as George eats the reheated fried eggs and bacon Dream made for him in the morning. To his hungry stomach, it tastes as good as reheated fried eggs and bacon go.

Dream doesn't let George eat any cereal, lecturing him on the importance of reducing carbs and sugar intake and other stuff on maintaining health that George only half-listens to because it's Dream. He pretends to comply and nod in understanding, but knows deep inside that he will never part with McDonald's. They're just too good, what can he say?

"Do you have apple juice, then?" George asks hopefully, clearing his plates and putting them into the kitchen sink along with his utensils, "If cereal is a no."

"Did you listen to a word I just said?" Dream complains as he stands up and pushes his chair in, "You're supposed to reduce sugar intake and fruit juice has so much sugar."

"But do you have any?"

Dream scoffs, "No. And orange juice is better."

George just shrugs nonchalantly and doesn't bother fighting about juice preferences for the fiftieth time, "Agree to disagree. Do you want me to do the dishes?"

"It's your first day, you can just leave it. But you will not be free from dish duty forever."

"No way!" George exaggerates his facial expressions and layers his British accent on thicker than normal to convey sarcasm, "And here I was thinking I would get free food, lodging, equipment, and all without helping even a little!"

"Oh come on now," obviously amused by his antics, Dream crosses his arms in front of his chest, "That's basically what's happening already."

"Oh yeah? If it's basically what's happened already, why don't we just go all the way and make that true, hm, Dream?"

Unwilling to engage in petty arguments with George any further, Dream says, "You're such an idiot. And don't you have a stream to get to?"

That shuts George out of his combative mood, and he rinses his hands and follows Dream upstairs to his current bedroom/stream room.

It's a bit strange seeing Dream in his bedroom, even though George is living in Dream's house and knows he probably prepared the whole thing for his arrival. George almost never lets anyone into his sleeping quarters, and it feels unfamiliar having another presence in such a private space for him.

Dream seems to sense no such feelings, and walks over to George's desk to ensure that all his equipment is set up properly, "I tried to put it together the way you told me to, but you might still have to make some adjustments for yourself."

George walks over and sits down in the swivel chair that feels basically the same as his one in the UK, and checks the placement of the stuff he had shipped over from England about a week ago.

George and Dream had decided that they didn't quite want the fans knowing about the meet-up yet, both agreeing that they needed some time to spend just for themselves before their entire fanbase turned a watchful eye on their every movement. They love their fans, of course, but even public figures need a little time for themselves. So they devised a plan to keep things as normal-looking to the outside world as can possibly be arranged. That entails convincing their entire fanbase that George is still at his house in the UK, which isn't an easy task.

Even though Dream, like the millionaire he was, had offered to buy George all new equipment so he could have a set both in the UK and in Florida, George felt that the fans would notice every single detail that changed about anything, and that it'd be safer to just use his original equipment until circumstances change. Dream agreed, and the two arranged for George to ship his equipment across before his arrival so Dream could figure out how to set it all up. The lack of streams the week prior was partly due to George's equipment being shipped across to Florida, though the fans wouldn't know that for now.

The green screen is new, however, the two deciding to play it safe by buying a larger screen than George's old one that ensured no background would slip through if George accidentally hit it or knocked it awry. The new green screen runs almost the entire length from wall to wall in George's bedroom, and he can rest easy; it'd make sure no part of his new bedroom could potentially be leaked and analyzed on Twitter.

George checks through his equipment and admits that Dream did a wonderful job at setting it up. He can barely notice any differences from his original set-up, even the angle of the mic arm is at the right position.

"Woah, you did a super good job with this," George says as he logs onto his computer and sees the familiar galaxy desktop, "It's nearly identical to what I had in the UK."

"It took me some time," Dream says proudly, "But I got it to match pretty closely to the pictures you sent me."

"Thank you," George says sincerely, then looks up at Dream with a smile, "And now aren't you supposed to go downstairs to prepare for our stream?"

"Ah, right," Dream says, like it's the first time he remembers it, "We're still supposed to be an ocean apart."

"I'm so glad we're not," George says with a disbelieving shake of his head, "How'd we make it through for that long?"

He hears Dream chuckle on his way out the door and feels a little warmed, expertly connecting all the necessary cables for his monitors and keyboard as he prepares to stream. He clicks into Minecraft, then Hypixel, and waits for everything to render and load.

When everything works smoothly just as it should, and George opens Twitch and Streamlabs to watch the familiar websites pop up.

Just like in the UK, he thinks to himself, trying to not be nervous about the fact that a slight slip of the tongue or some random detail picked up by some attentive fan could blow his entire cover, Just pretend you're still in the UK.

George

you ready?

Dream

yup

George

k starting now

"ThisIsNotGeorgeNotFound is live!" pops up across the screens of millions of people, thousands clicking into the stream to see George with his overgrown curly hair and iconic black headphones tuning some unknown instrument on the other end.

George waits a few moments before speaking, waving at the camera and shifting his character in-game. He's on his alt and it's a casual stream, so he doesn't bother making it look nice and organized.

"Hello everyone, we'll wait a bit more for the notifs to go out and the people to come in," George says to an overexcited chat, "But today we'll just be doing a casual Bedwars stream with Dream."

"Hi guys!" Dream says in the VC, his mic too soft and a little strange as he speaks.

Chat spams various complaints immediately, and George goes through the routine, "He's already at 200%!"

And so the stream begins.

---

Kang's Note: I'M NOT GONNA SAY ANYTHING BUT YOU'RE GONNA LIKE THE NEXT CHAPTER. I THINK YOU WILL. Anyways this chapter was more exposition but hopefully you still enjoyed! I appreciate all of you reading and hope you have a good day!