Reticent

Weaving Flower Crowns

A few days passed before Dream returned. George rested on the bankside, watching the flowers scattered throughout the long grass. Dandelions bloomed and changed in cycles. White flowers towered over them and smaller blue flowers lay close to the ground. Quite the interesting pallet, George noticed.

There weren't any other flowers around the pond. None in the water or in the trees. George couldn't see past the trees, but he imagined there must've been so many other colors just out of sight. He could technically drag himself out of the water and across the grass to go see, but that required so much energy. He hasn't had a lot of that for a few days.

George's coughing was getting worse. It was more violent and frequent. He hadn't found any other leaves, however. The first time must've just been a freak accident.

When Dream did finally come back, George had fallen asleep halfway out of the water.

"George~" Dream called softly while trying to shake him awake. "Wake up, George! I learned something really important and I want to show you!!"

"Mmm?" George groaned as he rolled over a little bit, evading Dream. His eyes stayed closed.

"George! Look at what I made!" Dream moved to face George head on and poked his cheek.

George batted his hand away. "Dream..."

"You have to see it!! Open your eyes!" George reluctantly opened one of his eyes and looked up at Dream. "Look!!" Dream presented a circle of flowers woven into each other.

George, intrigued, slowly sat upright and rubbed his eyes. "What is it? It's really pretty."

"It's called a flower crown. Here!" Dream gently placed the crown atop George's head. George flinched slightly. Once it was on, Dream presented George with his image in his phone camera. The various shades of yellow and orange flowers wonderfully complimented George's soft light blue skin.

"That's me?" George asked. His reflection on the surface of the water was always distorted in some way, broken and altered by the moving medium.

"Yeah, that's you," Dream confirmed. "You've never seen yourself before?"

"Not like this... The crown you made is beautiful."

"It looks good on you~"

George's ears grew warm. "H- how did- How did you make it?"

Dream smiled. "It's super easy. I'll teach you!"

He looked around the pond and examined the materials he had to work with. Carefully, he chose the dandelions and white flowers that surrounded the pond. George watched as Dream picked them excitedly. With a spectacular bouquet, Dream sat back down next to George and handed him some of the flowers.

"Here, like this," Dream started. "You fold the stems over like this, then thread them through each other." George mimicked Dream's craft and managed to make a sloppier version of what Dream had made.

"It doesn't look nearly as good as yours..." George muttered.

"It takes practice, you know," Dream said. "My first one wouldn't even stay together so you're doing better than I did."

George smiled as Dream placed his demonstration flower crown on George's head.

"It compliments the first," Dream observed.

George stifled a cough. "Thank you... Here." He placed his sloppy but intact flower crown atop Dream's head.

"It's perfect. Thank you, George," Dream smiled.

"Can we do the blue ones, too?" George asked. He gestured to the small blue flowers that accompanied the dandelions in the grass. "I like those ones..."

"Their stems are a little small but I'm sure we can make them work~" Dream collected more of the white flowers and a good handful of the blue ones. He used the white ones as a solid foundation, carefully weaving them together. The blue was more of a flourish rather than the base of the crown. As intended, they stayed in place and made a glorious crown.

Dream placed this one atop George's head as well, stacking it on the other two.

"Perfect~" Dream complimented.

"You're really good at this," George muttered.

"I've had a lot of practice, to be fair. Here, let's make more." After gathering more flowers as well as blades of grass and leaves (as Dream wanted to try more complex designs), the two of them started making more flower crowns. George managed to get the hang of it and by the time they were cramping in their hands, both of them had stacks of flower crowns littered around them.

Once the two of them started cleaning up after themselves, George went into another violent coughing fit. Dream sat by his side, visibly concerned and unsure how to help. Pain splintered across George's ribs as the coughing went on and on, more pain arose deep inside his chest and he started coughing blood. Dream caught it with his sleeve and repeated comforting phrases, hoping George would hear.

After minutes of being unable to catch his breath, George started getting light-headed. He felt himself fall forward, then everything went dark.

He awoke in the water, completely submerged and chest in agony. As hazy and incomplete memories flooded back to him, he carefully swam to the surface in search of Dream. George found him frantically pacing and muttering to himself. The grass was worn by his path, showing he had been like that for a while.

"Dream...?" George called in a cracked and broken voice.

"George!!!" Dream rushed towards George and nearly ripped him out of the water in an embrace. "Thank god you're okay. Holy shit, I was so worried."

"I'm okay..." George strained. "What happened?"

Dream carefully set George back in the water. "You kept coughing and coughing and you didn't stop until you passed out. And you... You stopped breathing."

"I what??"

"You stopped breathing and I didn't know what to do or how to help you so I just... I just pushed you back in the water since I know you breathe that too, but then you didn't come back up."

"How long was I under there?" George spoke calmly in hopes that Dream would stop panicking. He was so visibly upset. George had never seen him like this. He didn't want to see it again.

George felt a pang in his chest and quickly took a breath of water to stifle the oncoming cough. Dream didn't notice.

"God, I don't even know," Dream answered. "Maybe fifteen minutes? Twenty? I don't know. George, I was so worried." The two of them locked eyes and George noticed Dream was trying not to cry.

"Hey, calm down," George said in a soothing voice. He had to hide how much it hurt to talk. "I'm okay."

Dream hugged George again, a little more gentle this time.

"Sorry..." He murmured simply. "I just... I don't know. You're my friend and I don't want anything to happen to you. You scared me."