if i could drown in you, would you let me

just us pt. 2

The flowers were blooming again, spreading their sickly sweet scent over the whole field. But this time, Dream inhaled and exhaled, and their scent didn't bite. When George materialized next to him, he wasn't filled with the same impending dread he always had been. He was free.

"Enjoying the view?" Asked George, with a smile when Dream turned to face him. Dream grinned right back.

"You look even better in person." George let out a low chuckle.

"You know it's not forever, right? I'm just going to leave you again." It was Dream's turn to chuckle. He turned away from his friend.

"You always do. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy it while it lasts," he replied. He bent down to smell the flowers, to enjoy George's presence. But when he looked back up again, it wasn't George looking back.
"Are you enjoying me too?" Asked Sapnap. Confusion flared through Dream.

"Of course I am. You're my best friend!"
"So it doesn't sting when I hug him, or laugh with him? It doesn't kill you to know that me and George can just be friends?"
"Well, of course," spluttered Dream. "That doesn't mean I don't care about you!"
"But you'd be happier if I wasn't here?" Asked Sapnap. Dream couldn't find the words to respond. The flowers beneath him were dying one by one. Slowly being poisoned by his presence.

"I even poison your dreams," scoffed Sapnap. "God, you're pathetic. Pining over George, pining over your lost friendship. You know we can't wait to be home, we hate it here with you."

"Stop it," muttered Dream. "Just shut up and let me be happy."
"You'll never be happy, not while I'm here. Not while George isn't yours." When the familiar ax slid into his hands, Dream was relieved. That meant he was waking up soon.
"Don't worry, I'll make it hurt." And then Sapnap was slashing, Dream could feel every blow. He stopped screaming after a while. All he could do was lay there as he was hit over and over again. Eventually, George joined Sapnap in the abuse. But it never ended. Every sickening crunch, every splatter of blood, was replayed over and over and over.

Hands were on him as he awoke. People were calling his name. He couldn't breathe, all he could do was shake.

"Dream! DREAM!" Called George over and over, repeating his name like a mantra. His face came into focus, that beautiful face. His George.

"He's awake," breathed George over his shoulder. Sapnap had been standing over them like a man possessed as he had been in the dream.

"Dude, are you okay?" Asked Sapnap, sitting on the edge of the bed. Dream was still having trouble breathing.

"Yeah sorry," he replied. George's hands were still on him, one on his shoulder one on his thigh. Dream was painfully aware of them lightly stroking over his body. He was already having trouble focusing but this was just overwhelming.

"You were screaming our names in your sleep," explained George, concern painted on his face. Of all the things Dream had worried over before their arrival, his nightmares hadn't been one of them.

"I didn't mean to scare you," he said, shaking his head, trying to shake away the memory of their brutality. "I have nightmares."
"Yeah, no shit," said Sapnap with a humorless laugh. "Why the hell were you calling out for us?" Dream tried to piece it together, what they had done in his dream, what he could tell them about.

"I uh," he started. "You guys. Well. It's hard to explain, but I have this recurring dream where you guys hate me. You're quite sick, with your punishments." Not the whole truth, but it would do. Neither of them spoke for a beat.
"We would never-"

"You know that-" They both started to speak, before offering the other the obligatory go ahead.

"We would never do that Dream," said Sapanap, taking the lead, George nodded along in agreement.

"I know, but I can't control my subconscious," sighed Dream. Sapnap let out a breath.

"Well, that's shit. Are you going to be able to go back to sleep tonight?" Dream glanced at the clock on his bedside, it was only midnight. He had thought it was morning, he had never been woken up from a dream so early.

"Probably not," he replied. "But it's fine, I'll just watch a movie or something."

"Cool, so we're watching a movie," responded George, finally moving his hands off Dream. Dream barely registered words, only that his body ached without George's touch.

"Wait, we?"

"Yeah, you didn't think we were just gonna let you be alone after that, did you?" Asked Sapnap. Dream just smiled in response, he didn't have the words to express how happy that made him. That they would never leave him.

"Let's make a drinking game out of it, maybe that'll put you to sleep," laughed Sapnap, hauling Dream out of bed. George agreed before Dream could protest, and thus they were seated on the floor of his living room passing around a bottle of tequila while watching Legally Blonde.

He couldn't tell you how they landed on Legally Blonde, but he had never laughed so much at one movie. Maybe it was the alcohol but he had never been so happy either. Sapnap passed out halfway through, and Dream couldn't have cared less. He wasn't worried about how George would react to the two of them alone. He wasn't overly aware of George's body pressed against his own, the way George fit right under his arm. All he could think about was how they had both brought him out of the dream.

The movie ended, but George and Dream still just sat there cuddling and talking about marriage of all things.

"I don't know, I think how she proposed was cool," smiled Dream. "Cause like, fuck Warner."

"Yeah, the guy's a douche," agreed George. "And she and Emmett are made for each other. I hope someone loves me as much as Emmett loves her." Dream's heart fluttered. He loved George as much, if not more than Emmett loved Elle.

"Don't worry, someone does." George looked up at him with a lazy grin.

"So, would you want to propose to someone, or would you like someone to propose to you?"

"I dunno. I guess I always thought I'd propose, ya know?" He said, trying not to lean down and kiss George's stupid, perfect mouth. "But if someone loved me enough to just see me, and think 'It's them. That's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.' and told me, I wouldn't mind either." George's stare had grown intense, as had Dream's desire to kiss him. George just sat there pondering his words for a moment, and Dream's mouth went dry. Had he gone too far? He didn't know what would set George off.

"It's you," said George simply. Dream's mouth went slack.

"What?" he spluttered.

"It's you," George repeated before he leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on Dream's lips. Dream was too stunned to move.

"I'm sorry," George said as he pulled back. He was already making more excuses, but Dream just pulled him back in and kissed him like his life depended on it. George's hands twisted into his shirt as he kissed back with heat the sun would pale in comparison to. George moved up into Dream, straddling his waist. His hands pulling at the bottom of Dream's shirt.

Dream took it off gladly, before demanding the same of George. Dream rolled them over pushing their hips together. Dream slowly moved away from George's mouth, down his jaw, down his throat, eager to lay marks down. But Sapnap shifted behind them, just enough to snap them out of their bubble. Dream still hungover George breathing heavily.

"We should put him to bed," he rasped. George nodded, blushing furiously. They both put their shirts back on and awkwardly hauled up their friend and laid him gingerly to bed. They stumbled to George's room lightly grabbing at each other. Dream opened his mouth to speak, but George silenced him with a kiss trying to pull them into the room.

"No," said Dream, finally pulling away. "Not until we're sober." 

George whined but Dream put his foot down. He wouldn't be able to bear it if they woke up in the same bed and George regretted it. They would talk in the morning.

Before he could change his mind, he pressed a final kiss to George's lips and walked away to his own room. And after a few brief moments with himself, he fell asleep dreamlessly, as content as he had ever been before.