roses

chapter seven

Dream POV:

Clay was woken up by the sound of rain pattering against his window. He shifted in his bed, now having a direct view of his window. He could see the rain pouring outside, noisily tapping on the glass. He sighed. To be honest, he wasn't upset that he had to stay inside. What he was worried about was that he and George had to stay inside together, which meant they were going to be a lot more isolated than they were in the past few days. His stomach churned with nerves. As much as he wanted to deny it, he was excited to spend the day with him. He just hoped he wouldn't end up doing something he would regret.
He pushed the covers off of himself, putting on a pair of sweats and a white tee shirt. He examined himself in the mirror as he pulled the shirt over his head. His hair was messy from bed, a couple of strands falling over his eyebrows. His cheeks were rosy, and his collarbone was defined. He had to admit, he did look good in the morning. He took a deep breath, finally forcing his feet to walk him out the door of his room. George was already up, sitting at the island in the kitchen. Clay smiled. His hair was messy and he looked a little sleepy. Most importantly, he was still wearing his hoodie.
"Morning," Clay said. He grinned when George lifted his eyes off his phone to look at him, a wide smile on his face.
"Good morning. I think we're spending today inside," He said, gesturing to the window. Clay shrugged.
"It's okay, it'll still be fun if we make it fun," he said. George raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"What are you suggesting?"
Clay felt heat rise to his cheeks. How do I get flustered at the tiniest things he says?
"Well for starters, we could make breakfast," He responded quickly. George smiled.
"Okay, you make the food, I'll make the coffee,"
Clay pulled out a frying pan, deciding on making pancakes while George made the coffee. By the time George had finished making the coffee, Clay was making his last pancake. Suddenly, Clay felt arms wrap around his torso from behind. He tensed, and he felt George do the same.
"I'm sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?" He asked nervously.
"No, no of course not, I like it," He felt his face burn furiously at those words, but calmed down when he heard George laugh.
"I'm glad," Clay's heart fluttered.
He scooped the last pancake out of the pan and onto his plate, setting it aside. He turned around so that he was facing George, his arms still around him. He put his arms around George's neck, pulling him into a hug. He smiled into his hair as George buried his face in his shirt.
"Why are you so cuddly today?" Clay asked. He felt George's smile on his chest.
"I don't know, maybe it's the weather,"
𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁
After they had eaten their pancakes, Clay decided to call Sapnap. He needed someone to talk to about the George situation, his feelings were getting too out of hand.
"Hey George, I gotta go make a phone call, I'll be right back okay?"
"Sure, I'll be here."
Clay walked to his room, shutting the door and locking it. He ran his hands through his hair harshly, letting out a frustrated sigh. Sitting in his chair and picking up his phone, he dialed Sapnap's number. Clay's heart pounded as he heard the phone ring a couple of times until a familiar voice spoke out.
"Hello?"
Clay hesitated.
"Hello? Clay are you there?"
"Yes I'm here," Clay responded slowly.
"Dude, what's wrong?" Sapnap knew him too well.
"Um, I've got something to tell you. I can't keep it to myself anymore, and I didn't know who else to talk to." Clay said.
"Okay, well you know you can talk to me about anything right?"
"Yeah, I know."
"I'm listening,"
Clay took a deep breath, trying to steady his breathing.
"Uh, so I think I might...um..." his breathing accelerated.
"You're fine dude, just take a deep breath,"
"I-I think I might...like George," He let go of a breath he did not know he was holding.
"And um, not just as a friend." Clay waited for Sapnap's response, the seconds in between feeling like minutes.
"I'm really happy that you told me, you know I support you,"
Clay relaxed in his chair, taking deep breaths and listening to the rain patter on his window.
"So how long have you had feelings for him?" Sapnap asked hesitantly.
"I'm not sure, I think there's always been something there but meeting up with him in real life changed something I think," he responded.
"Okay, that makes sense. Where is he right now?"
"He's in the living room."
"Why do you think meeting up with him triggered your feelings?" Sapnap asked.
"Probably because everything felt more real. Like before he was just my best friend on a screen, a voice in my headphones, you know? But now that he's physically here, it just feels different, even though he's still the same person. Plus, it doesn't help that he's cuddly and hugs me every five seconds."
"No way, does he actually?" Sapnap chuckled, making Clay laugh a little. He already felt better.
"He does! It's kind of adorable actually," Clay blushed at the words that had come out of his mouth.
"You're such a simp." Sapnap laughed even more. Once the two of them had calmed down, they continued talking.
"So have you figured out your sexuality yet?" Sapnap asked. Clay frowned.
"Not yet,"
"You should take a quiz online to see if it helps you figure it out, but you don't need to label yourself if you don't want to,"
Clay thought about the idea for a minute. He decided there was no harm in doing one, even if it didn't help him much.
"Okay, I'll do one right now,"
Clay found a website, clicking and answering all the questions as accurately as possible. He waited patiently as his results loaded.
"It says I'm pansexual,"
"Read the description,"
"It says that 'Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity.'"
"What do you think?"
"It makes a lot of sense actually," Clay stared at the word. Pansexual. He liked it, it fit him.
"Great. You don't have to decide right away obviously, just to give you an idea," Sapnap said.
"Are you going to tell him how you feel?" he asked after a long pause.
"Do you think I should?"
"Honestly? Yeah. I've always kind of had a vibe that he had feelings for you. I genuinely expected him to be the one to come out, not you," he said with a light chuckle.
"You think so?" Clay asked hopefully. It was all he wanted, for George to like him back.
"Yeah, but don't take my word for it, I might end up being wrong. Just tell him if you want to, don't do it for anyone else."
"I guess you're right."
𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁
Clay left his room feeling like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He and Sapnap had talked for a while, and Clay felt a million times better when he walked out of that door than when he had walked in. He found George sitting on the couch in the living room, scrolling through Twitter.
"I'm back," he said. George smiled at him.
"I was thinking of streaming, what do you think?" He asked.
"Sure, why not? You've got your setup?" George nodded, getting up off the couch. As he passed Clay, he grabbed his forearm and pulled him along.
"You're coming with me, I am not streaming alone,"
Clay chuckled. "You're so clingy,"
About thirty minutes later, everything was set up and George was ready to start the stream.
"Make sure to not get too close, my camera is going to be on and I don't want you getting your face in the frame." George sat down on the chair, putting on his headphones. Clay rolled his eyes.
"Yes mom," He said with a chuckle. George started the stream, putting on his bright smile, and looking at the camera.
"Hi everyone, today we're going to be playing Minecraft in the Dream SMP for a little while, I had some materials to collect from the last time I played."
The chat eventually started asking about Dream, since he had posted a picture of George on Twitter a couple of days ago.
"Dream is right here, say hi," George turned his head towards Clay, smiling at him.
"Hi chat," he said from his seat. He was across the room from where George was, just to be safe. George read out a donation.
"Hey George, I will donate one thousand dollars if you let Dream write 'loser' on your forehead with a marker," George chuckled.
"You don't need to donate one thousand dollars, that's a lot of money," George said. Clay scoffed.
"It's their money, they can do what they want with it," he got up off his seat, grabbing a marker from his desk. George held his hands up.
"What do you think you're doing?" Clay chuckled.
"Relax. It's one thousand dollars, you're doing it." Clay carefully made sure only his forearms and hands were in view of the camera before uncapping the marker.
"Okay, but I'm keeping all the money, if you think we're sharing you're wrong," George said with a smile, making Clay laugh. Clay pushed back Georges's hair from his forehead and was about to start writing when George looked away to read a donation.
"George, stay still, I'm going to mess up."
"Okay, sorry,"
Clay was about to start writing again when George got distracted by a donation again, turning his head away from Clay.
"George, stop moving," Clay gently put his hand under George's chin, turning his face towards him. George's eyes went wide at the contact, a blush forming on his cheeks as Clay finished writing "loser" on his forehead. Soon enough, the one thousand dollar donation came through, with a message saying, "that was hot". Clay laughed nervously, George smiling with a flustered look still on his face.
"Thank you so much for the donation,"
They ended the stream together a little while later, saying goodbye to their fans before leaving.
Clay looked at George and chuckled. He still had the word "loser" on his forehead.
"You should probably take that off, by the way,"
George laughed. "To be honest I kind of forgot I had it on,"
"It suits you. Completely sums you up as a person."
"Shut the hell up," George smirked, playfully punching Clay's arm.
"Come on, let's go eat something. I'm starving."
They walked to the kitchen, heating some leftovers they had found in the fridge. It was still pouring outside, the rain not showing any signs of stopping. As they were chatting and eating their food, the lights flickered.
"Oh no," Clay said. This had happened before during storms, after all, he did live in Florida. The last thing Clay saw was George's confused face before the power went out completely.
"What's going on? Did the power go out?" George asked. Clay jumped out of his seat, feeling around for George's body in the dark.
"Yup. We really should have left the blinds open, it's pitch black in here. Come with me, we need to grab some candles."
Clay found George's body, gripping his shoulders. George took his hand, and together they made their way to the hallway closet to look for the candles. Clay was glad it was pitch black because if not, then George would have seen him blush when he had laced their fingers together. They eventually found the candles, lighting them and distributing them around the house, somewhat making enough light for them to see the outline of the furniture.
"This is romantic," George said, placing down a couple of candles on the kitchen island. Clay blushed, hoping it was still too dark for George to notice.
"You're such an idiot," he chuckled, smiling even wider when George laughed along.
George eventually paused, looking at Clay with a curious look on his face.
"What?" Clay asked.
"What's stopping us from going outside in the rain right now?"
"Um, common sense?"
George giggled, rolling his eyes.
"Come on. I've always told you how much I like the rain, why not?"
Clay thought for a minute.
"I guess there's no harm in doing it, except getting struck by lightning," Clay said.
George held out his and smiled.
"I'll take my chances."
𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁
Clay watched as George stepped in the pouring rain. After only about a few seconds he was already drenched. His hair was matted down and dripping, but he had a huge smile on his face.
He's so pretty, I just wanna kiss him.
"Come on Clay! It's fun!"
George ran up to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the rain. Within a matter of seconds, they were both fully soaked and wheezing.
"Why are we doing this?" Clay shouted over the loud sound of the rain hitting the concrete.
"Don't ask why, it ruins the fun!"
Clay put his arms around George's legs, scooping him up and dangling him over his shoulder, listening to his adorable little giggles.
"Put me down, you idiot!" instead, Clay spun around a few times, smiling at the uncontrollable snickers George made. He dropped him back to the ground with a little splash as he set him down in a puddle. George didn't seem to notice. As the laughter faded, George moved closer to Clay. He wrapped his arms around Clay's neck, pulling him closer to him. He looked at him with a strange look on his face, almost like he wanted to do something, but didn't know if he should. Clay wrapped his arms around George's waist, their bodies now impossibly close. Clay could feel George's hot breath on his cheeks. His pupils were wide, and his lips slightly parted. The rain was still hammering down on the two of them, but they didn't seem to care.
I want to kiss him. Should I kiss him? I don't want to ruin our friendship. Fuck, he's so pretty.
Clay's thoughts swam as he scanned George's features. George's face suddenly changed expression, as if he had made up his mind about something.
"We should go inside, we might get sick if we stay out too long,"
Clay's heart dropped to his stomach.
Fuck.
"Okay,"
Clay removed his arms from George reluctantly, and George did the same. They walked in silence up to the apartment. Without talking, they both retreated to their rooms, soaking wet. Clay locked the door of his room, ripping off his soaking shirt and pants, collapsing onto his chair.
I almost kissed him. Almost. He almost kissed me. Why did he pull away?
Clay refused to cry, forcing away the frustrated tears from behind his closed eyelids. Taking a few deep breaths, he got up and deposited all his wet clothes in his bathroom sink. He then picked out a fresh new pair of clothes, putting them on before going to dry his hair with a towel. He flung himself onto his bed. Despite being with George all day, he felt really lonely. He sighed. If he wasn't going to spend time with him now, he would regret it when George left for the UK. He pushed himself off his bed, walking to George's room. He knocked on the door.
"George?"
"Yeah?"
"Come here."
Clay heard shuffling in George's room before he opened the door. George peeked out, changed in dry clothes, just like Clay had.
"Uh, I was wondering if you wanted to watch a movie with me? I have a few downloaded on my computer," He could have sworn he saw George grin a tiny bit before nodding.
"Sure, that sounds great,"
They walked to Clay's room, George getting comfy on his bed while Clay grabbed his laptop. Clay sat beside him, pressing play on his computer. While they did watch the movie in total silence, it was a comfortable kind. There never seemed to be lasting tension between the two of them, Clay noticed. Eventually, George sleepily wrapped his arms around Clay's torso, resting his head on his chest. Clay played with his hair and traced circles with his thumb on his lower back, as George fell asleep to the soft touch of his best friend. Clay sighed, closing the laptop with his foot. They were both tired from the long day, and without any other troubling thoughts, Clay dozed off in George's arms.