trying // dnf

Chapter 3

George got off the plane and stretched. He went over, got his bag, and whipped out his phone to text Dream. 

ME: dream i landed wru

ME: answer me

ME: do not leave me for a SECOND in this airport dream

Suddenly, someone grabbed him from behind. George screeched and curled up into a little ball, lifting his feet off the air. Whoever grabbed him made a very familiar and loud OOF, and then crashed to the ground, unable to hold him. George ended up on underneath Dream. It took him a moment to think - he'd hit his head on the ground - but then his brain caught up to what was happening and he yelped.

"DREAM!" George threw his arms around his best friend's neck. Dream tried standing multiple times but George kept dragging him down and into the hug.

"George. Can you let go? George let go for a second. George-" Dream kept trying to talk but ended up bursting into giggles. "George please can I stand up?"

George wanted to bury his face in Dream's shoulder, but he was painfully aware of people staring at them. So he let go and they both stood up. 

Then George actually looked at his friend's face. And swallowed.

He'd seen it before, of course. But only in occasional pictures. In person, it was different. 

A good different, George thought.

"Oh. I got your texts by the way," Dream said, whipping out his phone and reading in a dramatic voice. "Dream, please don't leave me alone. Dream, help, I'm scared. Dream, I love you."

"What?! I did not text that," George yelped, grabbing Dream's phone. He paused, and frowned. "That's not how you spell my name."

"What?"

"J- o - r - j?" George said disbelievingly. "Is that how you spell my name?"

"That's not right?" Dream said, confused and taking back his phone. 

"It's literally in my Minecraft username-"

"Okay, well how do you spell it then?" 

George just stared at him for a while, and then Dream shyly put his phone away. "I'll fix it later," he said. "I have snacks in my car, c'mon."

"Didn't your mom drive you? I'm pretty sure you live with your mom."

"I don't. It's just going to be us at my place."

Momentarily, George felt like he'd just jumped off a cliff. "Oh. Ok."

"Yeah."

There was a pause.

Just us? George thought, looking at Dream. What does that mean? 

He definitely knew what he hoped it meant, but it wasn't like he could say it. Or make it come true, in any way. 

"So you say you have snacks?" George asked, turning away.

Dream nodded. "Sure do."

"Great," George said, grinning. He grabbed Dream's hand and started skipping to the door. 

Dream did that funny wheeze laugh thing. 

"Wh- what are you doing?" 

"I'm hungry Dream!" Snapped George.

/

"Hi guys, uh, just wanted to let you know that George is in my house. He is my hostage. I'll accept a ransom of every single dollar in the world, a statue of me replacing the Washington Monument and a cat."

George giggled. Dream turned. 

"What?"

"You think I'm worth every single dollar in the world?"

"And a cat, yes," Dream said. "Why?"

George shrugged. 

He was aware of Dream staring at him. He knew exactly why.

"I'm at a zero, Dream."

"Okay."

/

Dream was one of the only people who George told about it. And, coincidentally, he was one of the only people who did anything about it. Those rare times George told people about his mood swings and how he'd like help, people waved it off. 

"They're just mood swings," his own mother'd said. "You'll get over it. It's not serious enough for me to spend money on it."

Dream was the opposite. Sure, he'd teased him the whole time, but Dream was smart enough to know when George was serious. 

"So, how about we have a system," Dream said on the phone. "If you get super low but we're playing Minecraft, for example, and you want to tell me so I can help and we can get you outta there, but you don't want everyone else to know, give me an /10 rating. Ten will be the lowest, most heartbroken - depressed you've ever been, and one will be the happiest you've ever been."

That was a year ago. And since then, George had been giving him numbers, telling his best friend what he felt. And since then, he'd improved. He had never looked on his mood swings like a disorder, like a bad thing, but before Dream he'd always been between five and nine. Snapnap and Badboyhalo tried their best to help him, but they just didn't know how. 

Now, it was rare that he'd managed to work his way up to six.

He glanced at Dream now. Just a coincidence. 

Dream sniffed a shirt and nearly vomited, and George bit back a smile. 

"So what are we going to do today, mister?" George asked. 

"Well, it's your first day, so I thought just a walk around the city. You know, show you what it's like here."

George froze. He knew Dream too well, and gave him a glare. "How many puddles are coincidentally on this walk you planned?"

Dream snickered, and didn't answer. 

/

The answer, so far, was four. And Dream pushed George into every single one.

"It's so perfect," Dream wheezed. "It rained the night before you came."

George looked down at his jeans, which were soaking wet. The puddles weren't that deep, but Dream insisted on splashing him every chance he got. 

Rolling his eyes, George went back to looking around wide-eyed. It was his first time out of country, first time in America at that. 

Dream snickered. "You look like a tourist."

"I am a tourist, technically," George said. "Wait, what's the definition of tourist?"

"You're not a tourist," Dream said. "You live here, with me, your husband."

George rolled his eyes. "You think you're so funny."

Dream giggled. "Yes."

George looked down, and saw his chance. He let Dream get ahead of him, and then pushed him into the deepest puddle yet. Dream screamed and ended up tripping, landing on his side in the puddle. He looked up to see George bent over, laughing. 

"This isn't funny!" 

George tried responding but couldn't, he was laughing too hard. "He- here," he giggled, and held out his hand. 

Dream grabbed it and yanked himself forcefully to his feet. "I'm soaked!" He glared at George in mock offence. "You'll pay for this, I'll push you into the ocean."

"Oooh, there's an ocean? You didn't tell me there was an ocean."

"We'll go to it after our walk," Dream said. "There're like six more puddles that I'm not missing."

They started walking, and George looked at their hands, still linked together.