King of the Cell (DNF)

Chapter 21: Baby Steps

George POV.

A gasp fell from my lips as I bolted up as I felt arms holding me down. It was dark and I could barely see a thing as sweat ran down my body and I realised that I was somewhere I didn’t recognise. My breathing was laboured as I attempted to have my eyes adjust to the darkness before I heard a quiet groan from beside me.

My eyes widened in slight fear and I was scared to move, worried about who was there because all I had was scrambled memories of what was going on. Tears pricked at my eyes until I heard Dream’s voice and it caught my attention. “George, are you alright?” He questioned, and I made the connection that he was the owner of the arms around my waist.

Slowly I nodded at the blond before rolling over and burying my face back in his chest, seeking his comfort. “I’m sorry for waking you,” I whispered quietly.
“It’s alright.” He responded in the same quiet voice. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Not really, but I don’t want to talk about it.” I answered as his hands brushed through my hair.

“You don’t have to talk.” He reassured me while holding me close. “But if you ever need to I’ll listen, okay?” After a brief nod he smiled warily. “Breakfast is being served in about an hour.” The blond stated after a couple of seconds. “Do you want to get up now or should we just stay here for a little while?”

I liked the feeling of comfort I got from laying with Dream on the bed. It felt much safer than any other place in this prison because I knew that Dream wouldn’t let anybody hurt me, especially in here. So I murmured my answer and he seemed to like it too, pulling me closer to him and adjusting the blanket so it covered us both better.

Feeling the warm arms and the blanket gave me a sense of comfort, and quickly I drifted off to sleep. All that I hoped while I was on the brink of passing out was that I didn’t have any more nightmares of what had happened to me.

Dream POV.
✨An hour later✨

I distracted myself again by playing with George’s hair as he slept. Furrowed eyebrows on his face as he slept. It made me worry that he was having another nightmare, but I didn’t want to wake him up as I held him close. One of my hands brushed over his cheek and I smiled softly as he nuzzled into it subconsciously.

“Are either of you awake?” I heard Sapnap whisper from the bunk above mine, and I focused my attention in his direction.
“Yeah, I am awake.” I responded. “George is still asleep though so keep quiet please.” As I mentioned the brunette my hand traced over his back again.

"How is he?" The ravenette questioned. "I heard you two moving around earlier."
"He had some kind of nightmare, then freaked out when he woke up." I explained. "I'm not surprised honestly, but it still makes me feel bad. After all, I did promise to protect him."
"It's not your fault." He attempted to reassure, but I didn’t listen.

“But it was my fault,” I stated slightly louder. “I had promised to protect him but he didn’t even feel safe in his own cell, which is meant to be the place where he is supposed to feel safe.”
“He could have told you that he needed help.” Sapnap reminded me. “I mean, you and Techno told him that you would look after him. It’s not your fault if he doesn’t take your advice.”

“Clearly he didn’t fucking trust me!” I growled back at him, causing the brunette to grumble in his sleep. Immediately I turned my attention to calming him down, brushing my hand over his back and feeling a flicker of happiness when I got him to relax again. After he’d calmed down I continued in a calmer voice, “if he had trusted me then none of this would have happened.”

Sapnap didn’t respond, but he climbed out of his bunk and I watched as he used some of the roll on deodorant which can be purchased at the prison dormitory to freshen himself up. He then changed and gave me a small wave goodbye before stepping out into the hallway, since lights on had been a couple of minutes ago, meaning that prisoners could leave their cells.

For an hour breakfast would be served, starting from lights on at 7am, and then going on until 8am. I decided that maybe he had a good idea and that we should probably get up and have breakfast. “Georgie,” I hummed, nuzzling my nose into his hair which I found to be amazingly soft. “It’s breakfast time.”

He shifted himself around on top of me. The brunette asked the question of ‘Did you just call me Georgie?’ and I nodded at the question. “I just thought it suited you,” I admitted. “Now, want to get up for something to eat?”
“Sure, I could eat.” The brunette nodded.

The fact that he agreed to eat made me feel good, he had barely eaten anything yesterday, and him saying he’d eat something meant that he was willing to take care of himself. I moved my hands from where they were wrapped around the brunette’s body so he could get up, which he did.

I got out of the bed after George did, and he stood awkwardly in the corner looking away from me as I took a couple of seconds to put on deodorant and stuff. “Would you like to borrow some deodorant?” I offered before we left, since he might want to smell nicer when we went through to the mess hall.

“Oh… that doesn’t seem exactly hygienic.” He allowed himself to laugh lightly at my offer. “But thanks for the offer, Dream, it was nice of you.”
“No it’s fine, I have another unopened one that I was going to offer.” I said, laughing back at him as I went to grab it. “I’d be kind of a jerk if I offered you used deodorant.”

A curious expression appeared on his face as he watched me move to grab the second stick of roll on deodorant that I had hidden in a crevice behind a loose brick in the wall. All of my unused possessions I kept in here, because there were a lot of cheapskates who would go looking through people's rooms for unused soap or deodorant so they didn’t have to buy their own.

For some reason I didn’t mind letting George see me grab my stuff as I rifled past stacks of money from my illegal prison business, and things that needed to be delivered to different inmates, along with some other stuff. Maybe because I knew he wasn’t the type to steal.

Eventually I grabbed my unopened deodorant, since I always liked to keep a spare for when I ran out, or if some desperate asshole decided to steal half used deodorant because his girlfriend was coming to visit him and he didn’t own his own (it’s happened a surprising number of times during my stay). Then I handed the bottle over to George.

“Consider this a gift from me to you,” I said, smiling softly at him. His expression matched mine as he gave a ‘thank you’ before beginning to apply it while I put the brick back in its place. The sound of the lid being secured back on the deodorant was my signal to turn around, and he thanked me again while setting the bottle down.

There was still a grin on his face, but it quickly disappeared after a couple of moments and that made me sad. George had one of those faces that looked better smiling, but it still felt good to see him happy after what had happened. “Anything else you need before we go?”
“I think I’m sorted thanks, now I smell slightly less pathetic.” George answered half-heartedly.

“You never smelled pathetic.” I quickly reassured him as we stepped out of the cell, but as we did it was almost as if it had flipped a switch in George’s mind.
The half-hearted comment and small flicker of happiness quickly disappeared and he went back to holding my side like a scared child on their first day of school.

‘Baby steps’ I told myself as my gaze moved off of the brunette beside me and went to look where we were walking.
Baby steps.
_________________________________________
1442 words