The Apocalypse [Dreamnotfound AU]

Way to Ruin the Mood

Tw: mild cursing, underage drinking

Karl drags out his sleeping bag and lays it next to Sapnap's and Sapnap wonders how the hell they got into this situation.

He'd tried to tell Karl that he liked personal space, but he'd just grinned impishly and moved the sleeping bags closer together. So Sapnap's stuck watching, his heart pounding against his chest, as he curses Dream and George for disappearing at the worst possible moment as always. He'd managed to convince them to all share a room, but he'd still ended up alone with Karl.

"Hey, nimrod."

Sapnap breaks free of his thoughts and finds Karl staring at him from where he's kneeling on one of the sleeping bags. For some reason that Sapnap can't even begin to understand, heat creeps into his cheeks and he has to fight to hold Karl's gaze.

"Watcha doin' over there?" Karl asks and Sapnap fumbles for a response.

"Nothing," he manages. "Are you done setting up those stupid sleeping bags?"

Karl grins. "No shit, Sherlock."

Sapnap frowns as his mind replays that sentence. "Wait..." Something seems off about it, but it takes a moment to click. "Did you just swear?"

Karl claps a hand over his mouth as he giggles. "What did you think I never swore?"

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"Of course I swear, dumbass. I'm a full grown adult." Sapnap gapes at him but Karl just grins and pats the sleeping nag next to him. "Care to join me instead of standing their like a nimrod?"

"Yeah, whatever," Sapnap grumbles, ignoring the butterflies swarming his stomach as he settles halfway into his sleeping bag. His hand is only a few inches away from Karl, and his heart won't stop galloping.

He curses Karl for having such a weird effect on him. With his baseball bat and a shotgun at his side, Sap should be ready for anything, but when Karl locks eyes with him, he suddenly feels ridiculously unprepared.

Karl gives him a lopsided grin and it distracts Sapnap enough that his next words don't make any sense. "How old are you?"

Sapnap's brows draw together. "What?"

Karl rummages through a bag next to him and pulls out a bottle of what is definitely alcohol. Sap doesn't even get the chance to wonder where in hell he found it before Karl uncorks it easily and holds it out to him.

Sap shifts away instinctively, remembering the one time his uncle had offered him a beer and he'd spent half an hour puking after trying too much of it. "I'm underage, idiot. Plus, I'm gonna be the one who has to save your drunk ass when we get attacked."

"You mean if we get attacked. To be clear." Karl takes a swig from the bottle and grins. "Besides, I trust you."

Warmth pushes through Sapnap's annoyance, but he ignores it. "Why? You don't even know me."

Karl raises a brow. But all he says is, "A sip won't hurt."

Karl's words come back to him, the ones he spoke when they were all shaken after the attack. I would kill for a bottle of alcohol right now.

Sapnap studies Karl, his relaxed posture, the bottle dangling from his hands. Only his eyes tell a different story. There's a deep fear behind them, one that even the alcohol can't seem to dull. The same fear that runs through Sapnap's blood whenever he pictures the zombies he's killed.

Before he can stop himself, Sapnap grabs the bottle from Karl's hands and drinks deeply.

The drink is sweet, not like the beer he'd tried with his uncle. When he blinks, everything is fuzzy around the edges and he suddenly can't remember what he was scared of.