Two Sides One System

Chapter 3:

~Dream team~

The door slammed shut.

"Nothing..." George mumbled head hung low as he walked away from the apartment mailbox. "Two months and nothing." After two months of waiting, Sapnap was still gone without a trace. Because of the incident, George and Dream had been given their results early, both being accepted as heroes and awaiting their invitation to Cathair Laoch. A name that had been given to the famous city, built upon a lone island years ago. The name itself is strange and complicated, so to most people, it was just referred to as "City of Heroes".

Letting out a long sigh, George sat on the bottom step of the staircase of their apartment, head in his hands as he waited. The sound of a lone pair of feet approached him, and a hand rested on his shoulder. George made no move to look up to see who it was. He knew it was Dream, they were the only people in the house now.

"So... nothing yet?" Dream asked in a quiet voice. Ever since the disappearance of Sapnap, it had been like walking on eggshells around each other, not wanting to break some unspoken peace. Conversations were stale and stilted. George shook his head. Dream stood there behind his friend awkwardly hovering his hand over George's shoulder before pulling it back. Dream coughed. "Well, I'll be in my room-"

"Really? You haven't said a thing about Sapnap. It's almost like you're glad he's gone." George hissed, still facing away from Dream.

"Woah hey, c'mon George, I never said that!" Dream defended.

George scoffed. "Well, you implied it!"

Dream clenches his fists, pushing down the rising anger. He had to cool things down. "I never said that, okay? I didn't say anything about Sapnap because of this! I was afraid one of us would lash out and then everything would go downhill!"

George stood up suddenly, whirling around, trembling, rage painting his face. "Don't point at me asshole! You're the one that started this!"

Dream scowled. "Oh really? I'm pretty sure you're the one that started shouting."

"I did not! This is all your fault! If we didn't go to that stupid fucking test then this never would have happened!"

"How the hell is Sapnap disappearing my fault?" Dream snarled, his voice rising a notch.

"You're the one who went first! You should have noticed something in the room!"

"Oh yes, I should have just magically seen some hidden door where a bunch of villains were hiding! My bad."

"Yeah! You fucking should have! Sapnap is gone! He's probably lying in some villain's basement dead!" George snapped back, clenching his fists.

"That's ridiculous." Dream scoffed, his eyes burning at the accusation. "Sapnap isn't dead, just missing! And you're implying that the government was stupid enough to allow some D-list criminals in a highly secured building."

"Well, you're implying that the government kidnapped Sapnap!"

"I'm pretty sure those words never left my mouth." He hissed back, gritting his teeth.

"God I fucking- FUCK!" George screamed, choking. He hastily rubbed the palm of his hand against his eyes, sucking in a breath.

Dream let his arms hang limply at his sides as the fight slowly drained of him. "G...George I-"

"Just leave me alone." His friend muttered, shouldering past Dream and running up the stairs into their apartment.

Dream sighed in defeat and half-collapsed on the bottom of the stairs, putting his head in his hands. He looked up to hear footsteps approaching, and noticed the mailman walking toward the apartment mailboxes. They made eye contact for a split second, and Dream felt a chill down his spine.

After they left Dream got up and approached the letterbox and opened their shared mailbox. There was some junk mail, but that wasn't what caught his attention. It was two fancy cream-colored envelopes that sat in the middle of the distracting ads and coupons.

It had no return address, and it was too elegant to be a card from family or a friend. Which meant they were from the System. Dream was acutely aware of the fact that this was it. He tore open the letter labeled to him, beginning to shuffle back to his apartment.

He skimmed through it, feelings of excitement and fear settling in his stomach. He made it. He made it in. Somehow, even after failing the test. Nausea climbed up his throat and he suddenly felt like he was going to throw up. God he got in. What if George didn't? And what about Sapnap?

Dream entered the large apartment and crept up to George who was sitting in one of the two beds in the only bedroom. Dream briefly remembered that when they had been looking for a place to stay, that they had planned on putting in three twin beds, but the bedroom had been too awkward to navigate with three beds so they had rotated taking turns sleeping on the couch instead. Now Dream just slept on the couch since the two had been doing their very best to avoid each other since his disappearance.

Dream shuffled up to George's form who was curled up in the blankets watching a video on his phone. "H-hey George. I, um..."

"Go away, Dream." George hissed hoarsely. His eyes were slightly red, as if he had been crying, which made sense.

"I just- I'm sorry for snapping at you." Dream looked down at his feet, suddenly finding the floor very interesting.

"It's- it's okay. I'm sorry too." George muttered, pausing the video.

"Friends again?" Dream asked, looking up hopefully.

"Yeah," George nodded.

Dream beamed. "Well, maybe bad, maybe good news, which do you want first?"

George laughed raucously. "Um- maybe good news?"

"Okay. I got an acceptance letter. I'm going to the City of Heroes!" Dream smiled weakly.

"Oh- that's uh, that's great," George replied.

"The... the maybe bad news is this." Dream tossed George's letter to him.

He picked it up slowly and tore it open. Dream watched, pulling on his fingers anxiously, awaiting George's reaction. "I'm... I'm in." George muttered.

"That's good! Good." Dream exclaimed, forcing cheer in his voice. Everything felt awkward again.

George suddenly let out a yell and flopped against the pillow. "We were supposed to go together! I can't do this dammit!" He sat up and threw the pillow harshly, barely missing Dream, it hit the wall with a dull thunk.

Dream flinched and tried to get them off the topic of their missing friend. "Who are you training with?"

George glared at him, but there was hardly any heat behind it. Crowfather and The Blood God." He said dully.

"Oh wow! Me too!" Dream exclaimed, desperately trying to cheer George up as much as himself. "Can you believe it? The top two heroes in the country! Pretty amazing, huh?"

"If this was literally any other situation I would be screaming and jumping but I cannot do this right now. Just- leave me alone."

And just like that, the awkwardly forced cheer crumbled, and Dream nodded solemnly, dragging himself out of the room, shutting the double doors behind him.

Dream decided he would pack later. They didn't have to leave quite yet. He sighed in defeat, collapsing on the couch in despair.

They were getting what they always wanted. To become a hero. But the promise of fame was empty and hollow.

Because it was supposed to be the three of them. They were a trio. A team. Two people could barely count as a team.

Dream sighed. If only Sapnap were here. He missed him so much.

(A/N: Tada! Me and Mythity had some freedom from school so we got this uploaded :D though I know not many of you read this, I still want the small portion of you guys who do, to be entertained <3 love you all and hope you had a great christmas... Jeez, new years is so close its scary- I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE ITS 2021, YET SOON TO BE 2022 XD)