ORPHANED

:: one hundred thirty-seven ::

"can i draw something?" dream referred to the dry erase board behind them, which usually had daily specials described in bold letters with an accompanying picture, done by none other than bad himself. now the board adorned playful notes, hyperbolistic reviews of the drinks, and borderline harassment about the two cashiers tagged by the boys who sat in front of him.

"nothing inappropriate." bad forwarned from where he stuck stickers to the front windows.

dream pointed to one note that caught the most of his attention, written in alternating red and green bubble letters. "sapnap is so cute when he blushes." he recited matter of factly as if it was a universal understanding.

not even a single beat of silence was allowed to pass before he butt in. "i do not blush!"

dream decided he didn't want to take part in blatantly lying over who does what, so he turned to the board and began the beginning of a poorly drawn memory.

"you do, you really do." quackity confirmed, as always, more exposed to the truth than any of the rest of them.

"that was karl wasn't it." sapnap turned to the man that hid his face behind the snowflakes he was falsely focused on.

"no chance, i would never do such a thing." he lied, but of course they all knew him well enough to read past his front.

sapnap complained that it was 'inappropriate' and it needed to be erased, but bad refused under the assumption it was an innocent compliment.

"innocent compliment my ass. i'm going to draw a penis on the board"

after that comment dream assumed the presence peering over his shoulder was sapnap, so you can imagine his surprise when instead george spoke up only to criticize his artistic abilities. "forks usually have four prongs."

dream would've crossed his arms if he wasn't so caught up in poorly shading his very jagged-looking fork. "i love him the way he is."

"why are you drawing a fork anyways?" perhaps karl actually was interested or maybe he was still trying to shift the attention.

dream couldn't find an answer to give them so he shrugged. "i just find myself surrounded by forks all the time."

"that sounds like you might just need therapy." and there was quackity to add some cruel lore to his pointless doodle.

george took the marker from dream when the blonde stood back to admire his work, and they all scanned the board to piece together what it was the brunette would draw.

"don't look!" george shielded himself from their attention, and it should've been concerning how quickly they all obeyed and turned from him to pick up a different topic.

"are you gonna dye your hair again?" dream didn't have to directly address which one of them he was referring to because they all seemed to know.

karl stroked his chin for a moment. "no." he deadpanned, his hand dropping from his face as he pretended not to notice the betrayed look on the rest of their faces.

"what, why not?"

dream was sure sapnap would been on his knees to plead for him to keep it if they weren't in public.

"it's a lot of effort to keep up with." he shrugged but he always gave more fulfilling answers than dream. he inspected the faded pink of his ends. "i'm probably going to wait for it to wash out though, i don't want to cut it."

that seemed to be a good compromise for sapnap, who only just then realized how he allowed his face to act outside of his wishes.

quackity spoke between coughs, "i think it's time to exploit dream."

as alarming as anything that could possibly be correlated with that insulation could be, they smiled at him.

"you should look up." sapnap offered the most mischievous grin dream had ever witnessed with his own eyes.

"what, is gullible written on the ceiling or something?" dream wasn't having it, he didn't want to be the butt end of a joke for years counting. he wouldn't go down without a fight.

"no really."

"you should seriously look at the ceiling."

of course sapnap's peanut gallery was there to back him up.

there was an even pause as they all turned up to face the plant positioned directly above where he had been standing. it was planted there for a reason, hard to miss, he was surprised there wasn't a big red 'X' painted on the ground.

it was impossible for him not to recognize it, there was an uncountable amount of times he had watched his parents share a kiss under it, both the plant and the indication of it's situation was practically burned into his memory.

"that's exploitive" he commented with an unamused frown as sapnap presented puckered chapped lips.

"that's not true, we are the only ones who come back here." sapnap broke his kiss act to shoot down dream's argument, only to then resume when he had finished.

dream was debating with himself if he should do it to be funny and leave sapnap stunned, or to fight against it and joke about sapnap having cooties. ultimately he never had to come to a conclusion himself because not a second later sapnap was pushed from in front of him and replaced with the all too familiar smirk of the brunette.

so much for leaving sapnap stunned when suddenly he was the one left uncontrollably blushy.

he couldn't hold eye contact, his skin heated as his focus uncharacteristically jumped between george's eye's. were they really going to do this? dream wasn't sure, but he could feel the anticipation radiating off of the ones that watched them, and it only made him want it more.

he watched george tug him in by the strings to his sweatshirt he always seemed so fascinated in. the brunette was on a mission and there was no bracing for it, it was like a cliche movie slow-mo. it was going to happen.

and just like that, under the joking placement of mistletoe, and the coincidence of george just happening to be behind the counter, they were going to kiss for the first time in front of their friends. the people they fought so hard against over any possible ideas of them ever being together.

how comedic.

it started as it always had, with soft lips, and hot faces, but as the cheering from the stools gained steam it eventually developed into wide smiles and clashing teeth.

"it is about fucking time."

—

this slow burn might be too slow, like legitimately i have plot points ranging from things the guys will do on valentine's day to events like graduation, and i have no idea if writing all those chapters are going to end up being worth it. maybe i could revert to an earlier plot line and just post those chapters as extras when the story is over with? you guys let me know, at this point you're practically full time assistants