an institution for troubled children

months later (epilogue)

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖗 𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖆𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗'𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖊

༄ؘ ˑ

"it will take a long time, and it's in no way going to be easy, but the option is there now and i just-"

he can't help himself from hugging the blonde, and he distantly realises that it's only the second hug he's initiated since he was a child.

"when do we tell wilbur?"

dream walks up to the same automatic doors he's grown very used to in the past ten or so months, feeling immediately cooler as he steps in out of the blaring sun and into the air-conditioned building. he looks back at the parking lot where students are all passing around, navigating to where they should be.

he looks back, letting his gaze traverse the almost empty office before falling on the front desk, more specifically the woman there, and feels warm as she grins across the room at him. he quickly makes his way over.

puffy nods in greeting as he stops in front of her, "good morning dream, or, probably afternoon now."

he looks down at his watch just briefly, nodding. "yeah, afternoon," he confirms.

"well, hello either way," she smiles, raising a questioning eyebrow as she asks, "is there anything i can help you with, or are you just saying hello?"

"uhm, i need a form for swapping rooms," he tells her, "if that's possible?"

"yes, of course," she hums, letting the conversation come to an end as she rolls back on her chair, moving to look through one of the filing cabinets.

waiting, dream looks back around the room. it's weird to see the front office so empty, considering people always sit around here, but it makes sense considering they're all out in the sun or in one of the halls.

the door leading from the humanities and human sciences block opens, and dream looks over to see wilbur, george, and bad coming in from the long hallway.

they're laughing away at something as they cross the room, wilbur and bad still in their gowns and george in his plain polo shirt. as they approach the desk, bad looks over, greeting them both with a cheery, "hey cap, hey dream!"

the receptionist looks up from the paperwork, flashing them all a smile. "morning bad," she chirps, "wow, you all look so smart!"

"thanks cap!"

they continue to walk past, but george breaks off from the other two, moving to stand beside dream and flashing his boyfriend a sweet smile. one which the blond has grown to love so fondly.

as the other two pass them fully, dream hears bad ask, "sorry wil, what were you saying?"

in response, wilbur sighs, "i was just saying that i'm going to make a fool of myself because i didn't know..." his voice trailed off as he and bad left the office and disappeared into the main block.