some persuasion required

chapter 4

Without even trying, without really needing to put in the extended effort, the passing time made it less about the visa and more about them.

It had been months since the day of the second rejection, with the aftermath that caused them to change course entirely, to see if their lives could come together in taut binding.

And, to their credit, it was working.

"You can always sleep in my bed, you know," Dream softly murmured, his voice filled with mirth. Upon seeing George's reaction, the light roll of eyes and easy smile, Dream couldn't help his grin, attempting to bite on his tongue between his teeth in order to keep himself from spilling so far over.

He took in a breath, filling his lungs with this time spent that he only ever seeked after when it ended. Again and again, day after day.

George had become something to him. Maybe, if Dream was ever going to be truthful, even for a brief moment, maybe he always was.

That's why it was so easy.

Dream fell, like all he needed was permission, one indication that George could feel a fragment of the same, even the possibility, just the barest potential to reciprocate.

And just when he had that, when Dream had enough to hope, he couldn't stop.

He thought it would dwindle down at some point, surely. That he would eventually get desensitized, being so used to George. They had already been friends for years, and had already exhausted every conversation time and time again. Dream had spent so much of his life just dedicated to watching George on his screen, viewing his expressions, the words and the way they formed on his lips, the way George's eyes filled with laughter, how he focused directly on the screen, facing Dream even if the other couldn't see him on his own computer.

Dream shouldn't be as attentive as he was. Where every text sent a jump in his heart, when George uttered his name, either his real or persona, it made him smile, grin, soften and melt until he was a pool at the other's feet.

I could love him.

This was a thought that had lingered in his head for far too long to pinpoint the origin anymore. All Dream knew was that it was before. Before he put his life in the public eye, before he had come to terms with his own attraction, before an urgency blossomed within both of them to reside together, forever, forever.

George had whispered that, on a night that blistered Dream in the air that could not settle after the sunset, when he expressed his jealousy for the rain George had outside his own window.

That was how it got fully brought up, even if it wasn't the first instance of seeing each other in person. Visiting, a planned trip, a vacation for both of them that would end with George's plane ticket home. That was always the plan. Separate, temporary, passing ships that would dock on the other side of the world.

But, was that enough?

"I don't know how you live without air-conditioning, George," Dream had breathed, his clothes sticking to his skin as he finally felt the unit kick in, relief spreading across his chest and letting his muscles relax into repose.

George had laughed, sweet and tinged with something Dream couldn't quite pick up on, leaving him feeling like he was missing some lost meaning as the other had murmured in reply, "Doesn't seem like it's helping much anyway."

"It is," Dream defended lightly, "How's the storm over there?"

George had spent a moment to respond, like there was something right on the edge of his tongue, ready to speak on something, but it only weighed heavy on his words as he simply said, "It's.. nice, good. I dunno."