warmth [dreamnotfound] | ✓

chapter fourteen. vanilla twilight.

10:40 PM.

Dream woke to find that he was laid in the backseat amongst all of the boxes. George was still driving with a tired look on his worn face and he had slept way longer than he planned to.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

A quick look at the clock made Dream laugh. "It's 10:40 at night, you idiot." That made the other boy crack a smile too.

"Yeah, and we're going to have to stop and get gas soon."

"Oh great, we'll be even later than we already are."

"We both know you don't really care," George said as he pulled the car over and found a gas station.

Getting out and being greeted with the hot and humid air of some little town was a shock to both boys as they climbed out to swap seats before they would eventually return to driving. Dream rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and smiled. "We're almost there anyway, aren't we?"

"Crossed into Georgia about an hour ago." George leaned against the car and watched the gas numbers skyrocket. Dream slid beside him. He watched the older boy yawn.

"What if we take a break from driving? Get a hotel room or something for the night."

George looked at him with curious dark eyes. "You're not serious, right?"

Dream pulled out his phone to look up nearby hotels before remembering his location services were all turned off. He frowned. "It would be a nice break. And we wouldn't be tired anymore." He didn't mention that it meant they'd get to spend a bit more time together.

"Dream, I don't know if we have enough money for that."

"I'm sure we do. I'll pull some from my bank account if I need to."

"You're not going to pay for the whole thing. I won't allow it."

"Watch me."

The gas tank filled and George groaned when Dream lunged forward to pay for it. His wallet had to be empty by now and the British boy knew it. There was no way they could get a hotel room either. Wishful thinking at its finest. Sleep deprivation-fueled fantasies.

When he sat in the passenger seat, Dream was already typing something into his phone. "Turned location back on. They wouldn't be looking for me right now anyway."

"You- what?!?" George leaned over and watched Dream type in a hotel search, wanting to reach out and stop him but doing nothing.

"Look at that! There's a little motel two miles from here! And it says it's open 24/7 so we should be able to walk right in. Looks like we're getting good sleep tonight, Georgie!" He whooped and plugged his phone into the aux cord, setting the GPS location to the motel and pulling out of the gas station before George could say a word.

Once they were back on the highway, he finally said "Georgie? Where did that come from?"

"You have to admit, it's cute," Dream snickered as he reached his hand across the console and grabbed the other boy's much smaller one. "Plus it made you blush."

"No it didn't! How can you even tell? It's dark in here."

Dream laughed. "I can hear it in your voice."

"Oh fuck you Dream." He didn't mean it. He was blushing again.

"You can do that when we get to the motel."

"I-" George didn't have a response to that one and it made the blond dissolve into wheezing laughter in the driver's seat, keeling over in a fit of giggles.