+to build a home+ // dnf

4

Months of lessons flitted by, until an alarm woke George early Wednesday morning. He looked out the window with a serene smile painted on his lips. Snow had topped the usually bright green grass outside. Parts of the snow caught the light, making it glimmer like beautiful gems buried in the ground. It was the perfect start to his favourite day of the week. He had English today, as much as he disliked language skills and reading literature, there was a special someone by his side. George couldn't quite make sense of why he loved talking to Dream. English was the only class they had together, and their conversations flowed better than with anyone else they both had talked to.

Dream was animated while talking about the things he loved, George noticed the talks moving onto boats a lot. George quite liked boats too, due to the fact he really wanted to be an engineer, but when Dream talked about them there was a certain shine in his eyes and a deep interest in his tone which made him speak faster. Admittedly, George wasn't the best listener, he more found himself watching Dream's quirks instead of listening to the boat talk, but he tried to take it in, nonetheless.

"Hi, George." Dream gave a bright smile as he tossed his bag by his feet.

"Hey, how's your day?" George asked. He asked this every English lesson, but it didn't mean Dream appreciated it any less. His mother never asked that when they talked, most of their talking was brief and was only if they really had to talk. His sister, despite their closeness, normally got straight onto other topics, which he didn't mind. However, it was different when George asked, it sounded so sincere, like he genuinely wanted an answer and cared.

"Pretty good, Wednesday's always put me in a good mood." Dream absently said, pulling out his fountain pen.

"Enough chatter!" Professor Willis called out. In an instant the class was silent and she called out the register.

"Clay?"

"Yes, Professor."

"You still haven't told her you prefer Dream?" George muttered from the corner of his mouth.

"Doubt she'd take it seriously." Dream shrugged, though George could tell it bothered him.

"Today, I would like you to pick someone you care about, a family member, for example. I want you to write about them as if they're a villain."

George was just about to discuss the task with Dream to figure out who he would write about, but Dream was already bent over his paper, writing in his neat handwriting. George was always amazed at this. How Dream could write so fast yet so neat was a mystery, his letters looping perfectly. He thought for a bit, sure he cared about his parents, but he would just be writing about how they already are.

Then it hit him. Dream. He cared about Dream.

After a while, the only noise was pens scratching against paper, the odd breath or cough breaking the thick silence.

"Does anyone need more time?" No one gave any form of affirmation to this statement, so Professor Willis continued on, "Please share your work with the person next to you, it is a good skill to critique your peers work."

"Great." George muttered to himself. It was lucky he didn't include Dream's name, maybe he wouldn't be able to tell.

"George? Hello?" George turned quickly, Dream was waving his paper in front of George. "Hah, come on now, it's usually me who needs snapping back to reality." He grinned.

"Do we have to do this?" George rolled his eyes a little.

"Oh-" Dream remembered back to the first lesson, when George had pulled his paper away frantically- "it's okay if you don't want to share, I know you don't like that." He said, completely misinterpreting George - to his luck.

But of course, George just had to be polite out of habit. "No! It's okay, just don't judge it too harshly."

"Got it." Dream nodded, swapping the paper.

Through his anxiousness, George only picked up a few sentences from Dream's work. He could see Dream intently reading his from his peripheral vision.

She had the worst grin, like she was going to attack anyone who came near.

She tore apart a small bracelet, the smiley face charm rolling across the floor.

George looked at the bracelet down to his left, it was no doubt Dream was referencing that and, by conclusion, his sister.

"This is actually pretty good!" George broke from his trance-like state, looking at the earnest smile on his friends face. "I like the way you describe them, of course there's a few mistake here and..." Dream continued on. In George's relief, he accidentally tuned him out, barely focusing on the few grammatical errors Dream was pointing at with his pen and explaining.

"What about mine?" Dream inquired.

"Uh, it's good. I suppose with that amount of mistakes in mine, I can't really see any mistakes in yours. I like your vocabulary."

"Thank you." Dream said, feeling the awkward tension oozing from George. "Are you okay? You seem uncomfortable."

"Yeah I'm fine." George said, but in his head he was analysing what the hell he just said. "What do you mean - I like your vocabulary?" He thought. He couldn't understand why he cared so much, it was a throwaway, really.

"That's the bell, I'll see you next Wednesday?"

"Of course!"

"Also, by the way you described me, I'd make a great villain." Dream smirked, turning and leaving.

Stunned to silence, George watched open-mouthed as Dream left, bag hanging loosely on his shoulder.

Dream smiled his way down the hall to his next lesson. It was sweet that George wrote about him, it was another thing that made him feel cared for. Much like being asked how he was, it was one of those thoughtful things George did.