Fall Apart (Dream Team)

Chapter 22: Nothing Like a Date to the Walmart Gun Aisle

CWs: there's a lot of mentions of guns here, as seen by the title. there's nothing about them actually going off, only talk of their existence and a brief mention of lockdown drills at schools. 

also, there's a lot more talk about eating disorders here, from dream's pov.  in this there's a mention of intentional throwing up food in an eating disorder context as well

there's a part in this that mentions healthcare, but since it's dream's pov it's actually insurance company propaganda.  it's marked with an asterisk and i explained it in the notes.

since this is a bit much, i'll put a summary in the author's notes of what happens after the third line break! (the ~ thing)

Dream woke up on top of the sheets on George's bed, stated friend in his arms.

How. 

He certainly wasn't complaining about the situation, despite the numbness in his arm against the bed, but it was nonetheless confusing.  George, after refusing to say he loved him for the longest time, George, after acting as straight as he possibly could, falling asleep in his arms?  Dream rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with the arm that was draped across George, trying to prove to himself this was real. 

He surveyed his surroundings— he was still in the sweatpants and hoodie he'd worn the day before, and the lights were still on. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his phone, holding the blue light away from his face. 4:03am.

The only explanation was that George had pulled him down to cuddle before falling asleep in his arms. As in, that actually happened George had actually initiated this. He thought back to the time he'd spent the last two days: George's silence, George telling him he loved him, George's anger at the camping trip, George friend-zoning him, George possibly coming out for a fucking Chick-Fil-A joke, George apologizing, and then seeking out his arms to fall asleep in. It had been an absolute roller coaster. He could barley keep up with what was happening with the man— much less at four in the morning.

Was it a move? Or was it just him being touch-starved like every other single person during a pandemic ravaging the globe? With how obviously mentally unstable George was, Dream could not even begin to hazard a guess.

What he did know, was that it was too early in the morning to be awake, and the lights were too bright to have on. With the heat of George's body he was slightly overheating in his sweatshirt, and he was sure he needed to charge his phone.

Slowly snaking his arm out from underneath George, Dream disentangled himself from his... whoever George was to him.  He staggered to the outlet plug on the ground, waiting for the soft buzz of his phone charging before dropping it on the ground.  He walked over and hit the lights off, leaning heavily on the wall and he did so, before flopping down onto the bed next to George again.

Immediately, George put an arm over him, moving closer against him. Dream hugged him back, running a hand through his hair and falling back asleep, George in his arms.

~

At eleven, Dream couldn't justify laying in bed any longer.  He'd been awake for an hour, holding a sleeping George in his arms.  His head rested above George's, his arms wrapped around him.  It was almost everything he'd ever wanted to do after meeting George— holding his long-time internet friend in his arms felt warmer than anything he'd experienced prior.  He felt safe, George's soft dark brown hair against his skin.

But no matter how safe and precious George was, Dream was bored.

It was one of the many things he hated about his ADHD— he often couldn't stay still and calm enough to enjoy the small moments in life.  During comfortable silences on calls, he would scroll through something on his phone or work on code.  In person, with his family, if they weren't talking he would go off to find patches, or mess with something on the table.  He couldn't sit still, he couldn't relax; and he certainly couldn't stand doing nothing silently, no matter how much he liked the people he was around.