Learn how to love (Dream Team fanfic)

Chapter 18~ Recovery

   

Too tired to deal, they all slept, but bright the next morning, they rationed, checked what was missing, and got to work fixing their home. Not much was burnt, but enough to know someone was pissed. Bad went to work figuring out just how many valuables they'd lost, Dream and Sapnap working on the roof, replacing what had been burned, and George, out getting more materials.
    By the end of their long day of work, the roof had been fixed and looked relatively normal, but popcorn's stable was still a mess, and they'd lost nearly all of their iron and diamonds. They reconvened inside.
"Who do you think did this?" George said softly while picking up a chair that had been thrown across the room. At this question, Bad broke down. All of them looked over to him, startled at the sudden outburst. The three shared a look between each other and chose to have Sapnap comfort him, being closest. He sighed, and put a light hand on Bad's shoulder, despite looking like he couldn't be comforting.
"Bad? Are you okay?" He said carefully.
"It's.. my fault!"
"How?"
"I should've stayed back yesterday... If I hadn't insisted-"
"Bad, stop it. You're being ridiculous" Dream said. He looked up.
"What Dream's trying to say is, it was probably better that you came with us yesterday, you might've been killed if you were up against that group on your own," George said. He had come up to Bad now too and was rubbing his back as he said this. Bad sniffled and nodded along.
"It was that damn group. What did they call themselves?" Dream stated. They all knew who he was talking about.
"Well, I guess it's settled then. They've started it. Now we're going to finish it." Sapnap replied after the long silence besides Bad's sniffles.
"How could we be so stupid, they knew where our portal was."
"Time to take something from them. Something valuable" Dream said as if he hadn't heard what George said. "Tomorrow morning, we're spending the day in the nether, we're going to find their portal if it kills us," he said, looking over to Sapnap and George. "Bad, tomorrow you're going mining." he finished, before walking up to his room. The rest stayed silent until they heard the soft close of his door.
"This sucks," Sapnap said, walking up to his room as well. George took one last look at Bad, to ensure he was okay now, before following Sapnap up to his room. Bad however looked much better, having a purpose that gave him a jump in his step as he followed the others upstairs, to get a goodnight's rest before the day that would follow.
    Once George closed his own door and turned around, he realized he wasn't alone. Laying spread out on his bed was none other than Dream. He was looking up at George's ceiling spider, which was the only bit of clutter he would allow in his room because Dream liked it so much.
"I thought you were going to sulk in your room, not mine," George said sarcastically, before walking over to his desk and plopping into his chair. Dream chuckled and shifted to look over at George.
"I hope it's okay that I sulk in here?" he said, looking at George with puppy eyes. For some reason George found himself getting hotter. That was new.
"Whatever. It's not like this is your fault." George followed, looking away from Dream completely until his temperature went down.
"I should've broken our portal. I was stupid to assume they wouldn't come through to our side. Just stupid" he said, still looking in George's direction. For some reason, he felt he would feel better if George agreed with him if George said Dream was right. Maybe if George agreed then he wouldn't be able to sulk, he would get angrier, and he'd be ruthless against Techno and those other noobs that robbed them. But George didn't agree. In fact, still blushing profusely, George decided to turn to Dream and face him as he spoke, face firm with stern energy.
"Dream that wasn't your fault. Do not take all the blame. Two other people also didn't think to break our portal. We're a team." Dream stayed silent, admiring his perfectly tinted face. They shared a moment, gazing at each other, loving one another before reality came and hit them like a bus, no, they couldn't. George turned away, but not before muttering "I hate it when you're so hard on yourself". Dream found himself smiling. Gosh, he liked George so much. He wanted George. He never wanted to leave his room. So he didn't. After a couple more hours of mindless chatter, George was ready for bed.
"Can you leave now? We've got a long day in hell tomorrow and I want to get some sleep" George said.
"Mmmmm, no. I don't want to " Dream said. He was in a goofy mood.
"You know what, I don't care so long as you don't bother me," He said roughly pushing Dream over and getting under his covers.
    George faced Dream on his side for a bit. The silence between them was intimidating, and he didn't really know what to do next. Getting angry seemed the best. He pushed him again which Dream responded with a laugh,
"Still bothering you?" he said in a chuckled whisper.
"Yes." George hoarsely whispered back.
"What did I do?"
"You're looking at me funny" Dream laughed again. He continued to laugh until George turned around. He could still feel Dream's soft laughter shaking the bed. Why did he blush? He did his best to lay perfectly still and after a bit Dream stopped laughing. Did he feel nervous? Why was that? Deciding to ignore the swirling feeling he had in his stomach, he strained his ears now to make sure Dream was still there. He could hear his breathing, he could hear Dream tapping his fingers on the bed. He could even faintly feel his breath blow through his hair. Dream was still facing him. It was actually kind of nice not to be sleeping all alone, at least he wasn't thinking about all those embarrassing thoughts that usually kept him awake at night. Yes, it was quite nice to have Dream here. He felt Dream shift. George went stiff. How come he couldn't relax? He felt Dream's breath again on his neck now. It was much closer. The soft patterned blowing made the hairs on his arms stick up. But he felt more relaxed now as he exhaled out of his mouth and blushed profusely. Why was Dream doing this to him?
He must've been cold. Just cold.

        Dream in his own mind was wondering if it would count as 'bothering George' if he rested his arm on him. He was dancing around this thought. would he go too far? Risk it all? The late hours of the night lulled him ponder reaching that far.

          Dream could pretend he was already asleep. Then when his hand flew on top of George, he wouldn't question it. He would either leave it there, or lightly push him off right? Or, if George was already sleeping, then he wouldn't have to worry about it either. He decided to breathe louder so it seemed as though he were sleeping. George hadn't moved. He might've been asleep. He lifted his own arm, moving at a terribly slow speed as if George had been a spooked cat, and if he moved too fast he'd scare him away. His fingers lightly grazed against George's left cheek. He had aimed wrong. Blushing profusely, he quickly retracted. Reality was terribly real again. What if George would ask what he was doing? Force him to confess, then not feel the same way? Had he really just messed everything up?? After a long moment of holding his breath and not seeing George so much as flinch, his heart rate calmed.
         George's face had been so soft. After a couple more moments of stillness and regained confidence, he tried again. Lowering his hand ever so slowly, his yearning unable to be stopped. His cheek was still there. It was warm. Dream blushed. He was in too deep now. He lightly ran his fingers down his face, caressing it. So soft. He cared so deeply for George. He let his hand rest on his face for a long time and let his eyes close. It was so comforting. His hand lifted, and he could've sworn that George shivered. He ignored it. Besides, even if the slim chance that he was awake at this point, George would have pushed him away. He must've just been cold.
        He let his arm rest on George in a sort of half-hug. He still made sure they weren't touching besides that, but oh how he wanted to firmly press himself up against George's back. His caring love for George was evolving into something much more hot the longer he got away with being able to touch him. His hand clutched onto George's arm, he was breathing in George's ear now. Just the feeling of being able to touch George excited him. Still trying to remind himself of control, he squeezed the other's arm—just a bit— in a far off yearning of having George in his arms forever, every night of the rest of his damned life. He exhaled out all these thoughts heavily into George'a skin, burying his face into George's neck. His lips were touching his skin. Could he go so far? He held back every bit of yearning he had to hold back biting down on the smaller boy's skin, before remembering it was supposed to stay a yearning, nothing more. He painfully leveled his breath, and closed his eyes accepting drifting off into a peaceful sleep, when he felt George shift. His whole body went numb.
Please don't be awake.
George turned around to face him. Dream shut his eyes as fast as he could, pulling all the acting skills he could've ever possibly had to pose as if he did it all in his sleep. For all he knew, George was sleeping too. George didn't move for a long time, then finally, shifted closer to Dream. His hands landed on Dream's chest. He flinched. Shit. George's hands retracted for a moment, before coming back after a bit, after sure that Dream hadn't moved.

He had to know, he literally had to know that Dream was awake now. Were they just going to pretend that the other was asleep? To make everything easier? Yes. they were. George, kind of too quickly, cuddled up to Dream, his head buried in his chest, and hands resting against him. Dream didn't move, holding his breath. Though Dream couldn't see, there was an aggressive red tint on George's face. After he'd practically moaned in George's ear he was bound to be flustered. George moved again, his right hand venturing to Dream's side, and touching the skin that was slightly exposed there. Dream was blushed profusely until George had stopped moving. He was sure George could hear his heart beating, he was sure that this wasn't actually happening. He let his mind relax, and after a very very long struggle, he was able to calm down, only to stiffen back up again as George's fingers moved up his side a bit under his shirt.
    It was not until another hour had passed that Dream dared to cuddle back into George and let his mind drift off.

Both had decided two things in their minds the next morning when they woke up. It was the best sleep either had had in a very long time, and that they were never going to talk about it again. Dream woke up early and went to his room so the others wouldn't be suspicious. Thankfully, the very busy day they had ahead of them today was going to help take their minds off of their gruesome battle of want the night before.