ORPHANED

:: one hundred twenty-seven ::

"those clothes do not fit you at all." the blonde shook his head as he watched the brunette's repeated attempt to roll up the long sleeves of his shirt.

"at least i'm not cold anymore." he showcased a bashful grin, pulling the blanket farther around his shoulders and nibbling on his bottom lip when he found dream staring at him.

"you washed your hair?" the blonde used the proposal of the question to lean in closer to the other, admiring his lashes to pull his focus away from his lips.

he nodded his head with a teasing smile. "i think it's cute that you use the same shampoo as your mom and your sister."

his face recoiled, and he looked away from george's playful eyes. it took him a moment to recover from the embarrassment of his exposure, but when he did look back the brunette only giggled.

"if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me."

"it smells tasty."

"tasty?" the blonde quirked an inquisitive brow, smiling at the boy who tried to smell his hair. "george, did you eat our shampoo?"

he pressed his back into the sofa, avoiding dream's gaze before lifting his hand to display a pinching motion, "maybe a little."

"george!" he earned a lighthearted shove and the blonde watched as his form convulsed with the laugh he enticed. as a silence fell between them, the continuation of their eye contact only felt mandatory. "did you like the socks?"

his smile perked up at the remembrance of the print. "i loved them!" he sat up again to reveal his feet, unveiling the crew socks with a pattern of scattered mushrooms. "we used to have this giant tree outside my house that always grew mushrooms and me and my mom would get up early in the morning to watch the deer that would come by to eat them."

dream had heard the story nearly a million times by now, it was the reason he had gotten the socks in the first place, but for whatever reason george would never remember telling him. nonetheless, he'd always let him finish, seeing the brunette happy while recalling a memory with his mom was worth too much to the both of them to put an end to it.

"i hope i didn't take too long, but it's my famous recipe so it's got a lot of love in it." into the living room walked his mom carrying two mugs of prepackaged hot chocolate that she always claimed was homemade. behind her his sister struggled with the remaining two mugs, slowly stepping forward with her eyes jumping between each to make sure there was no spillage.

"you didn't take long at all, we could have waited a little longer even." he felt his heart warm at the sight of stars in the brunette's eyes.

"i wasn't talking to you silly." she shook her head, setting down the first mug by where she would normally sit on the couch before approaching the brunette with the other. "george you look very warm."

"i am, i am." he nodded, extending his hands to carefully take hold of the mug she offered him. it was a contrast to the negligent way his sister handed him his own mug.

"george i have to apologize, you don't have your own mug yet so i had to give you a plain one." her hands landed on her hips and she shook her head with disapproval of her own oversight.

the brunette was quick to dismiss her blame, "no, it's perfectly fine."

dream felt his sister sit down beside them with a snicker, and he glared at her almost as a dare to laugh at the other again. defensively her hands were held in the air, but she looked away with a smirk and simply shook her head.

"alright, how about we decorate the tree now? it's looking a little empty over there," she spoke, pointing the focus of the room to the fake tree that stood barren in the window compared to the embellishment of the room around it.

"i say that sounds like a great idea!" his sister was out of her seat as quickly as she sat down, and she wasted no time to open the box of ornaments that laid stationed under the table beside them.

beaming, george turned to dream with a twinkle in his eyes. he had barely even settled down from receiving hot cocoa and already he was being presented the next best thing. normally, dream despised having to decorate the prickly fake branches, but the smile on the brunette's face seemed to make it worth his while this time around.

"c'mon then," he didn't think twice before taking george's hand in his own to pull them off the sofa and onto the floor where his sister sorted through the many plain uniform baubles, as well as their embarrassingly terrible arts and crafts garnishments from years before.

desperately the blonde dug through the box to seek out anything he found was too embarrassing for the brunette to see. there was a squeal originating from his sister and she held up a circle of salt dough, fastened with a disfigured pink ribbon. "look how tiny patches' toe beans used to be!"

she handed it to george first, who seemed to be baffled by the object. "is it a cookie?"

dream felt a fond smile form at his confusion, and carefully picked up the cat beside them, that showed up at the mention of her name, to compare her growth to their very first christmas together. "it's like a clay? we used to make them all the time." the brunette hummed with fragmented understanding and held up the pawprint next to the matured cat.

"i am going to cry, mom, look how big she is now."

there was little difference to be seen but it would be out of place for them to tell her she was overreacting. instead, they all shook their heads with a counterfeit agreement, and it made this christmas all that much more memorable for the whole of them.

—

i'm not sure if ive talked about this yet but my oldest sister wants me to be in her wedding? and she wants me to wear a dress??? now i don't know if you guys know this but i do not pull off dresses i can't even pull off shorts