The Cracks in the Ceiling (DNF)

Chapter 1

George's POV:

The bright artificial light was the only thing keeping me from drifting off again. Well, that and the worn-out voice of Dream. Whenever Dream got particularly tired, his voice would dip and he would speak softly. It was a little detail that I'm sure he probably didn't even notice, but I wouldn't ever dare bring it up to him. It was so comforting, especially after particularly long streams or videos like today. 

I glanced at the time on my computer. 3:34 am. That means it should have been about 10:34 pm where Dream was. (Dream's was 5 hours behind me)

"George! Come back to spawn point!" Dream called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I hazily sprinted my block character back to the beds we had used beside a large ravine earlier in the game. There Dream was, standing beside it waiting for me. 

"Stop dying!" I giggled slightly, passing his armor back to him. 

"Or what?" he cheerfully asked. 

I rolled my eyes (though he couldn't see) and punched him into the ravine, killing him from hitting the ground too hard. 

"GEORGE!" he yelled before he broke into his typical wheezing laughter. 

He appeared back on the bed directly next to me and we both began trying to push the other into the ravine at the same time. 

"I'm gonna get you, George! You have to be punished!" he jokingly said, trying to avoid the blocks behind him.

Immediately I felt my face heat up. In my head, I was so grateful for both of us already being done recording for the day. No one could see me right now.

"George?" Dream asked, wheezing again. 

The realization hit me that I had gone quiet for a second, falling deep into my thoughts. 

"Oh, sorry! I just got distracted," I said, before recognizing my mistake. 

"Distracted? After I told you I was gonna punish you?!" He laughed even harder.

 Embarrassed, I punched him while he was wheezing and sent him once again down the ravine. After he finished laughing he went quiet for a minute. 

"Dream?" I asked, staring at his non-moving character. 

"Have..." he started, his voice going soft and lower like before, but with a hint of seriousness in it.

 "Have you ever thought about coming to Florida?" he asked.

 My brain forgot words for a second.

 "Uhm.. yea! Why do you ask? Are you hoping I would come visit you soon?" I asked back.

 Dream and I had always talked about visiting each other before, but nothing had ever been set in stone. We joked about it sometimes, but more-so recently. 

"Yea..." he replied with sincerity. 

"I just thought it would be fun to meet you IRL," he said. 

"I would definitely be down for something like that," I replied, adjusting my headphones as a nervous habit.

 Before I could add anything to that, I heard someone in the background of Dream's audio, asking him something. 

"Oh! Sure." Dream said, clearly turned in a different direction than his microphone because it was slightly muffled.

 A pause followed before he said, "Oh yeah I'm on a world with George right now, actually." 

After one more pause, he spoke into his microphone again.

"Hey George, Sapnap wants to know if you want to play on his new world. He's testing out something for a video tomorrow." 

Should I? I asked myself. 

"Sorry, I should probably go. It's almost 4 am for me right now." I said while closing tabs on my computer. 

"Woah really? That's good, you should get some sleep. Would you still be up for tomorrow's video?" he asked. 

"Of course. See you tomorrow!" I said. 

"Bye!" he replied.

 "Bye, love you!" I said, before finally finishing my log out on discord.

I paused for a minute, thinking about the words that just left my mouth. I covered my face with my hands. I'll surely never live that one down. I said it very clearly as a sincere thing, rather than as a joking last comment. I tried to picture the conversation and laughter that most likely followed after I left, and found myself smiling at the thought of Dream being flustered or surprised. It would've been so hot to watch.

I lightly slapped my face, reminding myself not to have those thoughts about him. I just couldn't. He was my best friend, after all. There was no way he would ever like me like that in return. I would only hurt myself if I kept daydreaming about him. 

To distract myself, I pulled up my phone and lay in bed while scrolling through different airline websites, looking at all the different options for plane tickets to Orlando, Florida. He would surely let me visit him, even after that stupid last remark I left before getting off discord, right?