The Rain That Falls (DNF Minecraft Manhunt IRL)

Our Tapestry of Stars

Several days after meeting George for the first time in person, Dream still couldn't believe it was all happening. George was in Florida, living with him and Sapnap, and was sleeping in the room just down the hall. It was all so strange.

Not much had happened in the time that George had been there, surprisingly. They all had uploaded a few videos and the internet was eating up the IRL content, but everything outside of social media was basically the same. Except, you know, that George was there and the Dream Team got recognized more often.

Dream had managed to avoid saying anything too weird, which was good. But it didn't help that whenever he was in the same room as him, he wanted to scream at George to wake up and see him. He wanted to push him up against a wall and–

Dream paused. He was about to spontaneously press the "go live" button on his computer, but an error came up on his screen. He wasn't connected to the internet.

"What?" Dream said to himself. "Why...why isn't the wifi working?"

He tried everything. He rebooted the router, he called several companies that put him on hold for a collective three hours. After arguing with them for longer than he intended, he finally got a hold of someone to see what was going on. They said they would call him in the next few days to let him know what the best course of action was.

And then he realized something–months could go by until this problem was fixed. Months without a good wifi source, and months where he couldn't avoid George by editing or streaming. He was stuck.

"Dream?" George's muffled voice came from outside of his door.

His heart skipped a beat. "Hold on," Dream called, pushing himself out of his chair. He frantically shoving scattered clothes and candy wrappers into random drawers.

After the room was somewhat in order, he opened the door.

George was standing there in Dream's oversized smile hoodie merch, hair ruffled from sleep–or the lack thereof. It was nearly one in the morning.

"What's up?" Dream said casually.

"Couldn't sleep," George said, oblivious to Dream's franticness. He gestured to his phone. "Wifi's down."

"Oh, about that...it looks like we're going to be closed off from society for a while. I called some people, but they didn't know what was going on. Someone's going to reach out to me to let me know what to do."

"Okay. Well, that sucks." George ran a hand through his hair. "Is Sapnap asleep?"

"Yeah, he turned in a few hours ago. Something about a headache."

George snorted. He stood there for a few more seconds, staring up at Dream awkwardly. "Um. Do you wanna do something? Like...uh...I don't know. Play cards? Go for a walk? What do normal people even do without the internet?"

Dream laughed. His heart pounded, and he caught himself staring into George's chocolate eyes. In this lighting, he noticed that they weren't completely brown. There was a ring of gold around the iris, and his eyes sparkled like honey. It reminded him of warm summer days, the buzzing of bees, and–

George raised an eyebrow.

He flushed and cleared his throat. "You know, a walk does sound kind of good right now."

"Alright. I'll go put some shoes on."

Moments later, Dream and George were walking side by side underneath the light of the full moon. The night was alive; birds were chirping, the trees waved, the stars sparkled. It was perfect.

"Follow me," Dream said suddenly. He grabbed George's arm on an impulse, pulling him along, and he surprisingly didn't protest.

After tramping through crunchy leaves and darkened ground cover, they came across an old dirt path that seemed to come out of nowhere. You really had to know those parts of the woods in order to spot it.

"Dream, where are we going?" George laughed, trying to pull his arm away.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Dream spat playfully, hand gripping tighter. His skin tingled where George's met his, and sparks of warmth ran up and down his body despite the cool breeze.

"Dream, stop! Let go–"

Dream shoved him into a clearing in the brush.

He had taken them to a rocky ledge, overlooking a distant grassy marsh with rippling water and tall trees. The moon reflected in the water, seeming to dance amongst the fireflies that hovered there. The air smelled of rain and humidity, and the sky was a deep navy blue beneath a carpet of stars. It reminded Dream of a tapestry he had seen once, of a goddess weaving the universe together with pure light.

George stared for a moment, breathless. "Bro said he knew a spot."

"This is one of my favorite places," Dream admitted. "It's where I go to think."

George was quiet for a moment more. "What do you think about?"

Every impulse in Dream's body screamed, It's you, George! I think about you, all the time, and I never want to stop. "The future. The past. Everything in between. Sometimes I like to imagine what my life would have been like if all of this hadn't happened. The internet, and the fame, I mean. Maybe life could be more full and less... imaginary."

George nodded. "I understand what you mean. Everything that's happened in the past few years doesn't feel completely real, with all of the online popularity and such. It just doesn't."

"Exactly. I don't think it ever will."

Dream and George stood in silence, together, taking in the sights and sounds of a normal humid night, all of the past nights of talking into a microphone put behind them.

"Hey, I've been thinking about the IRL Minecraft Manhunt," George said. "What if we film it now? Like while we can't stream or anything?"

Dream tapped his chin. "Now? That's kind of short notice, George."

"Just think about it. We could fly everyone down in the next week and have the video done and over with. Besides, we have the time."

After some consideration, Dream replied. "You know what, why not? It's not like we'll be busy."

George smiled and the butterflies in Dream's stomach multiplied.