Lemon and Sugar- DNF

22~strawberries~22

vOtE bC u LoVe mE <3

It's been a total of two days since Dreams sleepless night due to Adelias coughing fits and over the course of those nights he hasn't had much sleep either. Every time he attempts to drift off into a peaceful sleep he's woken by cries from the baby monitor, loud screeches that ache and tug on his heartstrings.

That's where he finds himself now, at seven in the morning having had about three hours sleep total, with a coughing seven month old in his arms that he coos at softly. Her eyes are watery from tears that have streamed down her cheeks, staining them a glistening silver.

"Addy", Dream sighs as he pats her back for what must be the hundredth time over the night and that's excluding when George was up instead of him to look after their restless daughter, "This isn't going away anytime soon is it?", he asks to no one in particular speaking more so to himself.

With another gentle sigh he carries her out of the bedroom and into his own where George lays awake still, clearly not having been able to sleep in between his shifts. Mocha eyes meet viridescent ones, tiredness a shared factor between the two where eye bags sit heavily.

"We should take her to the doctors", Dream comments, voice laced in concern for his sick child.

George simply looks at the blonde and then at Adelia whose pale face has become even paler over the days she's been ill. A gentle sigh slips past his lips as he stands up and walks towards them both, laying the back of his palm softly on Adelias forehead.

"Yeah we should", he speaks quietly as he pulls his hand away, "She's really warm, warmer than normal".

"So she has a temperature?", Dream asks with worry as he rubs a gentle hand across Adelias back to soothe her through the continuous coughs that seem to never end. The brunette nods and Dream lets a frown tug on his lips at the prospect of Adelia feeling unwell, of feeling uncomfortable with a fever with the hot and cold flushes.

"Do you think we can take her today?", Dream asks in concern, not knowing whether or not you have to book doctors the day before.

"I don't see why not", George says in response, "Surely they'll let you in if you just ring them up at eight when they open", he pauses after that, looking down at the floor and scuffing his foot.

"What Georgie?", Dream asks quietly, knowing the brunette too well not to catch on to when something was bothering him. The way he scuffs his feet against the floor and his eyes flit around the room are clear so he speaks again, "What is it?"

"I...", the brunette bites his lip shortly before answering out of embarrassment, "I don't think I'll be able to go", he corrects himself quickly, "to the doctors I mean".

His eyes cast to the floor in refusal to meet Dreams as a cough from Adelia breaks the silence that sits between them as the blonde looks for an answer. They remain in the silence for a moment before Dreams eyes widen and he comes to the realisation, but before he can speak up about it george breaks the quietness himself.

"Just because of everything that happened and... I guess I'm still not ready to go back there s'all, I'd not know it just makes me feel nervous", he looks Dream in the eyes with worry, not knowing whether the blonde understands or not.

"Georgie", Dream sighs as he quickly places Adelia down on the middle of their bed before pulling the brunette into a tight hug and resting his head into his shoulder, "It's okay I can take her, don't worry yourself".

George lets himself relax into the hug, inhaling the vanilla scent that seems to calm him so easily it could be mistaken for a drug. He's never quite evaluated how lucky he is to have someone so understanding of his past, who knows how triggering the places that hold memories he wishes never to revisit can be.

With eyes clamped shut and heart warm, he lets himself drift back into locked emotions, into a past of fear and loneliness. Back to when a scale was all he knew and doctors would tell him he was underweight, or in his mind back then, would lie to make him feel better. When he found himself blacking out daily with no one there to catch him except his worried friend Sapnap who didn't have a clue what was going on.

Then when he let himself slip into bad habits once more from a trip both he and Dream wished never to remember, one filled with repressed emotions and bad upbringings. Tears began to brim in his shut eyes as he thought about the time both he and Dream found themselves in hospital after attempting to battle together and failing so badly that neither of them were there to pick up the broken pieces of the other.

He lets the tears fall, slip down onto Dreams shirt where his head is nestled as he reminisces about how they got to where they are today, from fragments of people who were defined by their pasts to lovers married with a daughter. The thought causes more tears to fall, he doesn't mean to be weak, to be unable to accompany his own daughter to the doctors when she's unwell.

But in a way he supposes this is the moment he realises that he will never escape his past, that it'll always be chasing him, following him like a shadow he wishes to rid of so that he can feel the sun. It casts darkness over certain doors that he cannot enter because if he tries it'll jump out and knock him to the ground before he can twist the key.

So he holds Dream tighter, as an apology of sorts, to tell him he's sorry for not being able to look after Adelia to his full potential that he could do if it weren't for the shadow.

"Don't apologise sweetheart", Dream mumbles into his shoulder as if he can read his mind, "You've got nothing to apologise for, I can take Adelia to the doctors, I don't blame you for what happened George and you shouldn't either. I hope you know that".

The brunette sniffles in return before pulling back and wiping his tear stained mocha eyes.

"I wish I could take her", he says with a sorrowful frown as he lays himself next to Adelia on the bed, wrapping an arm around her warm body and pulling her into a hug.

"But you can't", Dream says softly as he lays down behind George, wrapping his own arms around both the brunettes, "And that's okay".

So they lay still, Adelia in George's arms and George in Dreams, waiting for the clocks to hit eight so that they can make a phone call that's desperately needed.

1198 words

BACKSTORY WTF WHERE DID THAT COME FROM

i went to the Harry Potter place gnf and the gang went to today lol :D