Hate you - DNF/Karlnap

10

Art by DeepFriedFury
TW - mentions of death
CW - swearing

GEORGE -

Dream and I sat in awkward silence at the small cafe table. After my stabbing session, once I'd calmed down, I'd gone back to Dream's house and apologised for my behaviour. He'd quickly accepted and suggested we go out to dinner as a sort of icebreaker. That lead us to now, sitting at a small table next to the window in a pizza place.

"So, how long have you been a chef?" Dream asked, resting his elbows on the table. I chuckled lightly, if only he knew what I really did.
"Since I was twenty," I lied, "How long have you been a Private Detective?"
"Since I was eighteen," He smiled, fiddling absentmindedly with the tablecloth. I nodded slowly.

"How old are you?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer,
"Twenty two. You?" He responded. He tilted his head to the side slightly.
"Twenty two," I gave him a small smile as he said,
"Cool,"

He opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by a waiter wearing a black, yellow and red bandana around his neck. He grinned when he saw Dream.
"Ay! Dream, nice to see you, man. Whatever you want from the menu, on the house for you and for your date!" The man quickly hugged Dream who smiled awkwardly. Dream turned to me but I wasn't paying attention, I was lost in thoughts about what the waiter had said.

"What do you wanna eat?" Dream asked me, placing a hand on my arm to pull me back to the conversation.
"I'm not his date," I said, a little too loudly, towards the waiter who just chuckled.
"This man right here helped me find my missing chicken, Kanye!" The waiter patted Dream's back. Dream's face flushed with embarrassment,

"Yeah, Ponk showed up at my doorstep one morning yelling about his missing chicken. It didn't take me long to find it, some kid named Tommy was visiting from New York and thought it was funny to steal the chicken," Dream explained. My eyes widened. I'd heard this story before. Tommy had come back from a trip a few months ago and told us all about how he pranked someone by stealing their chicken. I frowned, silently cursing Tommy.

We fell into silence and Ponk grinned before saying,
"I'll get a candle for the table, nice and romantic," He hurried away,
"I'm not his date!" I called after the retreating waiter. I let out a frustrated sigh and Dream chuckled,
"What do you want to eat?" He asked, shoving the menu at me. I took it, scanning the options.

Dream and I settled on what we were going to order and we fell into an easy conversation about our favourite foods. I looked up as a small wax candle was placed inbetween Dream and I, Ponk stood there, smiling proudly.
"Thanks," I muttered bitterly. Ponk smiled brightly and took our orders before walking away. Dream and I sat in silence for a while.

"What's the locked room in your house?" I asked. Dream looked up quickly, alarm on his face.
"Evidence and stuff," He mumbled in reply. I chuckled.
"Evidence of who? NotFound? The killer?" I knew it was risky bringing up myself but I couldn't help it, I was curious as to how successful I'd been in my mission of making his life hell.

Dream's face clouded and he nodded,
"Yeah. Him. He's somewhat of an arch enemy," Dream told me. I wanted to laugh, I restrained myself though.
"I don't think people are supposed to have arch enemies in real life," I replied, keeping my tone light.
"What?"
"Arch enemies are only supposed to be in movies, not real life. It's not supposed to happen," I know I'm treading in dangerous waters with this conversation but I can't help myself, I'm curious.

"Sounds boring," Dream said, taking a sip of water.
"So what did NotFound do to you?" I asked, wanting to know his perspective on me as an assassin. Dream frowned.
"So, what do people have then, if not arch enemies?" I smiled sourly at the avoidance of my question but indulged him anyway, not wanting to seem suspicious.
"Friends, family, people they like, people they don't like. Colleagues, bosses, employees, girlfriends, boyfriends," I looked up as I listed the last two.

Dream was staring at the table, his brow furrowed,
"Yes, well, as I said. Boring," He smiled and I couldn't help but do the same.
"Do you not have a girlfriend then?" I wanted to slap myself. No. I wanted to beat the absolute shit out of myself. Why on earth did I just ask him that?! Dream chuckled,
"Girlfriend? No, not really my area," He made eye contact with me and I tried not to look like I was incredibly guilty.

"Oh really? Do you have a boyfriend?" Shut up George. Shut the fuck up. Dream had a strange look on his face, maybe he thought I was homophobic. I hurriedly kept talking, "Which is fine by the way, liking boys I mean. I'm gay myself so..." I trailed off.
"I know it's fine," Dream mused after a moment. I sighed in relief.
"So you've got a boyfriend?" It was like my mouth had a mind of its own. Why couldn't I just shut up?

"No," Dream said. I couldn't decided what I felt at that. Should I be happy?
"Right, okay. Me neither," I replied awkwardly, wishing I hadn't spoken in the first place. Dream and I fell into very awkward silence for a while before Dream spoke up.

"George, I think you should know that I'm very devoted to my work. I'm very flattered by your interest but I'm not really looking for a relationship or-"
"No!" I cut him off, "No, I'm not- I'm not asking- no. I'm just saying, you know, sexualities and genders and stuff, they're all valid," I wanted to sink into the floor and die. Dream turned red from embarrassment.
"Right. Er, good. Thank you," He looked down. I did the same.

We sat in awkward silence until the food arrived. Then we slowly managed to string together a conversation. By the end of the meal we were comfortable with each other again, the incident from before mostly forgotten. After we'd said goodbye to Ponk, we decided to head home. Dream chattered nonstop in the car about how I hadn't properly met Patches, his cat and how I'd have to when we got home.

I smiled and played along with the conversation. But the whole time, my mind was elsewhere. It was with my seventeen year old self, standing on the doorstep of Dream's childhood home, shivering with the cold, crying my eyes out as my one last light of hope went out.

Word count - 1134

A/N -
Hello!
Thoughts?

Have an amazing day/night!
You are all awesome and valid <3!

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