Shot in Love and Crime (DNF)

Chapter 17: Photo

Karl POV.

“I feel bad for him,” I sighed, verbalising my thoughts as I leaned on the kitchen island and watched as Bad went back and forth between looking at a recipe book and mixing a bowl of something. The two of us had nothing to do this evening, and after Sapnap went to talk to Dream I came down here to see if Bad needed any help.

“So do I.” Bad agreed, not lifting his gaze off of his book. Although the two of us had been talking for hours, every time I mentioned George he seemed to grow slightly quiet. My first thought was that he just didn’t like the idea of us keeping someone as a servant.

“Do you know why Dream would even do that?” I continued on. “He has never offered to take someone alive before, usually it’s just if they can’t pay they get a bullet through their skull.”
“Maybe he just wanted to try something different.” He offered before turning to look at me. “Can you do me a favour and grab out a muffin pan for me to pour this into?”

I nodded as I walked around, although I wasn’t sure where much of the stuff was in here. Bad was the main cook of the group, he was good at it and he enjoyed it, so it was a win-win. After searching through several drawers I found the baking tins and passed some to him, which he thanked me for.

“So what did Dream say about George exactly?” Bad asked me again, raising an eyebrow as he went back to pouring some of the muffin batter into the tin.
“He said that because George ran off he won’t be allowed dinner tonight.” I recounted, and that George had had a panic attack.

I examined Bad’s expression as he opened the oven and slid the tray of uncooked muffins into it. “That’s a bit harsh,” he muttered, shaking his head. “You said that he hadn’t had food since breakfast. That poor muffin is probably starving. Why would he treat George like this?”

Bad was one of the only people who could openly criticise Dream without getting his head shot off, and this was one of those times when he was doing so, however the way he worded it did sound a little weird. I didn’t say anything though as he turned to look at me, a small grin appearing on his face. “Why don’t we take something up for him then?” He offered.

“No way,” I responded. “I do not want Dream to kill me for going against what he said and giving George food.” Bad gave me a look, going ahead and already grabbing some food and I knew that I would somehow end up helping him with this. “What do you plan on giving him?” I eventually asked with a sigh.

A grin grew on his face as he turned to look at me. “Well we have some leftover pizza from yesterday that I could heat up from him.” He explained as he dug through the fridge before lifting out some pizza boxes. “What do you think he would like the most?” Bad questioned. “Do you think he’d prefer barbeque, pepperoni, or extra cheesy?”

The way he was acting made me chuckle as I walked over to help him. “Maybe you could give him a slice or two of each.” I offered. “Whatever he doesn’t like we can bring back and eat ourselves.” Bad just gave a nod as he piled some slices onto a plate and stuck them in the microwave so that they could heat up.

“So how are we going to deal with Dream?” I went on to ask, leaning against the kitchen island again. “He will lock us in the basement if we go against what he said.”
“Then we’ll just have to distract him.” The other decided, a mischievous glint in his eye as he smiled. “I can do that and you can drop the food off and leave.”

“That will work,” I agreed, before going to grab George some other food while we waited for the pizza to finish. “You’ll probably need to keep him busy for about ten minutes.”
“Don’t worry, I know what to talk about that will distract him for hours.” I was reassured, and I simply gave a nod as I finished grabbing some food.

A few minutes later I was standing outside the door to the brunette’s room. The key that had been used to lock it was still sitting in its lock in the door and I grabbed it before turning it in the lock. I opened the door and stepped inside, seeing George standing opposite me and looking out the window.

“I have some food for you,” I told him quietly, to tell him that I was there. At first he seemed surprised that I was there, but then he cautiously started walking over to me as he examined the food.
“What did you get?” The brunette questioned.

“Just some pizza, some fruit, and a nut bar. It was what we had laying around. Are you okay with this? You don’t have an allergy do you?” I immediately jumped to the thought that whatever he ate might kill him and lead to Dream finding out, but I was relieved when George shook his head at me.

“That’s good,” I stated, passing him the plate and watching as he took a slice of pepperoni pizza and tentatively bit into it. For a couple of moments we stood in silence, all the while me listening sharply for any sign of Dream coming, until George spoke up.

“I thought that I wasn’t getting any dinner tonight.”.He stated, giving me a cautious look. “How come you are feeding me.”
“Me and Bad felt that you needed some food.” I responded, “you hadn’t eaten much today after what you did.”

“Who is Bad?” The brunette went on to ask, having wolfed down his first slice of pizza quickly as he grabbed another one, all the while I turned to look at the door, in case Dream bursts through it at any moment to yell at me for going against his rule.
“Oh you haven’t met him.” I suddenly remembered. “He is nice, you’ll like him.”

“Nice by mafia standards or by normal people's standards.” George muttered under his breath, causing me to look over at him, but seeing him turned to look back out the window.
I decided it wasn’t worth saying anything to him, and so I turned to walk over to his bed, seeing that there were photos sitting on the bedside table.

I had seen these the other day when I was going through the brunette’s belongings. That was the exact time that Dream had called and asked me and Sapnap to move his stuff to this room though so I hadn’t had a good look at them. My eyes focused on a picture of George, standing behind an older looking woman who was sitting stoically with her hands in her lap.

“What are these?” I questioned, not taking my eyes off of the pictures as I looked at them. One caught my attention in particular though. Behind a picture of George standing with a woman I assumed was his grandmother, was a photo of George laughing with a familiar ravenette as he sat on a ferris wheel, with someone taking a photo of the pair from the ground.

“Pictures of my friends and family.” I heard him answer quietly, causing me to turn my gaze away from the familiar photo and over at him.
“Your family and friends all look nice.” I smiled at him, listening as he hummed an answer because I’d turned my attention back to the same photo again.

“Thank you.” George responded, and I glanced over my shoulder to see he had turned his attention back to the window. Without him noticing I grabbed the photo and tucked it into my shirt before walking back to the door.

“I’ll leave you to eat in peace for a few minutes.” I informed him as I opened the door. “Leave the plate on your bedside table for when I come back.” Without letting him answer I stepped out the door and shut it, before pulling the photo back out and wondering why the fuck George had a photo of him with Sapnap.
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1410 words