Blood & withered roses || Dream x George x Sapnap

|| Five ||

CW || Claustrophobia.

The daybreak of the early noon sun was just rising into the sky as Dream headed back inside of the rotting treehouse and shook the other two awake. There would definitely be no infected out at this time because they would be deep in sleep, making it perfect for exploring, hunting, and other various activities. "Come on, you idiots, it's time to get up...," He groaned, pulling the blanket off of George and nudging Sapnap with the toe of his shoe. "If you don't wake up soon then it'll be too late to go properly exploring, we need plenty of time to reach that air vent and make it back in time to head down to the creek."

"Creek?," Sapnap said, immediately perking up and scrambling to his feet, cocking his head to the side like a curious puppy. "Like, a creek deep enough to go swimming in... Or... A tiny little stream of trickling water?" Dream threw the blanket towards the raveonette and it smacked him in the face, temporarily stunning him, as Dream dragged George to his feet. "You'll see when we get there."

The Brit seethed through his teeth as he stood up, brushing himself off and snorting when he saw Sapnap struggling to get the blanket off, having accidentally gotten an arm stuck in one of the few holes. "You're an idiot, Sapnap." Dream laughed, walking over and tugging on it to get it off. "And YOU'RE just making it WORSE, dumbass!" Sapnap retorted.

"I am NOT! You're just unwilling to cooperate, that's what's making this difficult!"

Sapnap finally managed to extricate himself from the garment and threw it to the floor, huffing in disgust as it stirred up dust and tickled his nose, causing him to sneeze. George grabbed it and quickly folded it, placing it neatly in the corner before slipping his pouches on so that they hung over his chest, giving him quick access to the newly organised materials.

Dream led the both of them down the ladder and outside, checking the carvings on the nearby trees to check where the correct set of directions to the air duct was. "Here, we need to head north." Dream said, gesturing towards the general direction as he brushed his fingertips overtop of the markings. George was the one to lead the way, pulling out his bow and arrow just in case they were ambushed, and began to walk down the long and overgrown path towards the vent.

Sapnap didn't lag far behind the brunette, obviously trying to get George to like him by cracking jokes and bringing up potential topics of interest. George only reluctantly responded, having to be urged to speak by Dream's quiet laughs and occasional elbows to the ribs, but Sapnap didn't even seem to notice this forced reaction. "Hey, George, hey... Hey, hey, George, hey!" He said, stumbling over his words in his eagerness. "What is it..." The older grumbled in response, barely acknowledging the jab in the side from the blonde standing next to him.

Having to jog a little bit to catch up with George's long strides, Sapnap grinned lopsidedly. "Wanna hear a joke? I've got more! Trust me, you'll looooooove theeeeeeem!" George took a deep breath and cleared his head, obviously trying to seem even a tiny bit more enthusiastic. "Yes, Sapnap, I... Sure, i'd just love to hear another joke." He replied, taking a bit of light amusement from the boy's excitement.

"Why... Wait, no-. What does an orphan call a selfie?"

"What?"

"A...A family photo." Sapnap snorted out, practically cackling at his own joke while George just sighed and Dream started wheezing. "Not funny." George said, shoving Sapnap with his shoulder just enough to slightly imbalance him. As he stumbled, Sapnap narrowed his eyes. "Oh, you're on." He laughed, launching himself forwards and hitting George square in the back.

Hissing in a bit of pain, but also almost laughing, George pushed him again and they continued the vicious cycle. Dream tried to intervene once or twice but backed out, on the brink of laughing as the two of them just kept trying to shove eachother off of the path and into the nearby bushes.

Finally, they arrived at the air vents, and Sapnap and George both stopped fighting instantly. "Wait... You really think that I can fit in THERE?" Sapnap asked, laughing nervously as he fiddled with his fingers. Dream slowly nodded, walking over and kneeling down to pry the cover off. "Yeah, probably... George could also probably fit but he's claustrophobic and I would hate to do that to him... I would do it but i've tried and I can't even get my shoulders in."

Sapnap took those words to heart and shuddered, his brain instantly starting to tick through all of the possible ways that this could go wrong... From him getting stuck, to there being a hoard of infected waiting inside... From not even being able to get in and being a disappointment, to this being a trap and he's about to get fed to some angry brute... He was starting to have second guesses but he wasn't about to back out now... Was he?

Taking a deep breath as Dream unscrewed the grate with his knife, Sapnap moved closer to the air duct and started inside, sharply gasping at the sudden twist that was sure to mess him up, and maybe even get him stuck. "Are... Are you sure that I can't and won't get stuck? Or lost... What if I get lost in there?" He asked in a panicky tone, Dream shrugged him off again. "It's gotta be a one way tunnel, basically, you won't get lost... And if you test it and think that you're gonna get stuck then you don't have to go in... Just stay calm, you'll be absolutely fine."

"How do we even know if there's food in there?" George piped up suddenly, feeling a bit sick at the prospect of Sapnap trying to wriggle through the air vents, he was somehow feeling claustrophobic FOR the younger male. Dream turned to look at him, sighing, before slipping his knife away since he didn't need to unscrew anything else. "I'm not completely a hundred percent sure that there will be any supplies in there... BUT... I heard that this was supposed to be some sort of storeroom for this crazy old guy obsessed with the world ending... So there's bound to be SOME sort of non-rotten food in here... He was right, funnily enough, but we don't have the passcode to open the door so we're using the air vents."

Sapnap slowly swallowed and shifted his gaze to stare at the air duct once more, trying to will the fear to subside as his mocha eyes pierced the darkness. He slowly inhaled... And exhaled... Before getting down on his knees and crawling inside.