King of the Cell (DNF)

Chapter 43: Awake

Dream POV.

My eyes opened and I looked around before letting out a disappointed sigh. I was back in my cell. The nice family life that I had set up was only fiction. It hurt to realise that whatever I thought about and loved there wasn’t real.

George and I had been married. We’d moved into a nice cabin outside of the small forest town of Kinoko. The two of us had two adopted children, although by looks alone they could easily pass as biological. One a teenage boy called Richie, the other a baby called Ryan. But neither of them, nor the cabin, nor the life we’d started, was real.

Honestly, I felt like crying, the entire time hating the fact that I had grown attached to creations of my own imagination. Beside me the brunette was still fast asleep, having moved his head off of my chest at some point in the night and now curling up beside me. He wasn’t the type of person to snore as he slept, but you could hear his calm breathing the entire time.

I wondered what he was dreaming about, if he was even dreaming, because there was always the chance that as he slept his mind would be drifting mindlessly through space. Would it be something that was just as sad to wake up to and find not real? Or it might be a nightmare, something he’s all too happy to escape from.

For George’s sake, I hoped it wasn’t the latter so he wouldn’t be terrified as he slept, but I hoped it wasn’t the former either so he didn’t have to face the sadness of it not being real when he woke up. As a way of possibly reassuring him that he’d be alright when he woke up, or maybe just as a grounding and comforting tool for me, I ran my hand through his hair.

He and I were married. My mind couldn’t help but be caught on that fact. The two of us were bound together by law, not that I cared for the law most of the time which was the reason I wound up in this prison. For some reason though, the thought of him always being with me made me feel good.

We had a family. People that relied on the two of us, relying on us in a different way than the prisoners in here did when they wanted something you couldn’t buy at the commissary. They relied on us for love, and support, whereas the prisoners here just relied on us for their weekly pack of cigarettes or their daily bag of heroin.

And the two of us had a house, or more accurately a cabin. Far from anyone else who could possibly hurt or catch us. It sounded perfect. Nobody was there to bother us or our family. That sounded perfect.

From beside me the brunette groaned before sleepily swatting my hand away. “Dream,” he muttered, “what are you doing? I’m trying to sleep.”
“Sorry,” I responded, hearing the brunette’s voice reminding me more of what had happened in the dream. “Did I wake you?”

Guilt was already starting to wash through me at the thought of waking the brunette up, but I was calmed down by a shake of the head. “I’ve been awake for the past few minutes, I didn’t want to move and wake you up but then you started playing with my hair.”

“Sorry about that, I shouldn’t have done that without asking you.” I muttered, moving my hand away from his hair as I spoke.
“Don’t be, I like it when you play with my hair.” He responded, moving over so that he was leaning against me. “But we both woke up early today.”

He was right, it was only now that I noticed how dark it was in the cell, I could see George perfectly, but anything further than five feet was hard to make out. The lights were all off outside the cell which further hinted to the fact it was early. “Do you want to go back to sleep?” I questioned, assuming the answer would be yes based on how much he enjoyed sleeping.

To my surprise though he shook his head. “I’m all good. Can we just cuddle or something?” This was the first time he asked that out loud and it actually caught me off guard, but I nodded a yes. That made the brunette beam as he wrapped his arms around my torso and buried his head into the crook of my neck.

“Somebody is feeling quite touchy this morning.” I noted, although I had to admit that I was feeling just as happy about this happening. George muttered something against my neck and even though I couldn’t make out the exact words it seemed as though he was telling me to shut up.

“What was that?” I questioned, just to tease him. Surprisingly though, he lifted his head and pushed our lips together before muttering shut up again. It seemed as though the brunette didn’t even realise that he had done it, just settling back down and making himself comfortable on top of me.

“George… did you just kiss me?” I asked him. The Brit didn’t respond as he nuzzled further into me. The way he was playing dumb to what just happened made me chuckle before I gently grabbed him by his hair and pulled it back up. “What were you trying to achieve with that?” He shrugged before attempting to move back, but I didn’t think that was a good enough answer.

“Well?” I pressed him to continue, although loosening my hold on his hair so I didn’t hurt him too bad.
“I’ve kissed you before,” George answered plainly, moving his arms to support himself. My eyes narrowed and a grin grew on my face since I realised he was avoiding the actual answer.

“You haven’t kissed me on the lips before though,” I pointed out, my hands tightening slightly on his hips. “It’s always just been on the cheek.”
“Maybe I wanted a change.” He continued. “Am I not allowed to want a change? Now shh, I want to sleep.”

“But you said a few minutes ago that you didn’t want to sleep, and that you wanted to cuddle.” My expression and demeanour grew cocky as I noticed how his face was slowly turning red, something that was hard to notice in the still dark cell.
“Well I changed my mind,” he murmured, clearly embarrassed.

“Aww,” I cooed patronisingly. “It’s alright Georgie. We can sleep. I’ll pretend you don’t want to kiss me on the lips if that's what you want..” Once again he repeated a quiet ‘shut up’, causing me to laugh. I pressed a kiss just above his lips before rolling over.

Our backs were pressed to each other and I refused to acknowledge him, instead smugly smiling as I allowed myself to go back to sleep.
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