Blood & withered roses || Dream x George x Sapnap

|| Seven ||

CW || Death.

Sapnap woke up with a start, chest heaving, and rapidly looked around to survey his surroundings... It took him a moment but he remembered where he was, in the treehouse, and that no infected could get him here...

He slowly and shakily got to his feet, glancing around the room to see where the other two were and if they were awake yet. The moon was still shining brightly, casting its silvery light across the landscape, and illuminating the figure sitting at the edge of the treehouse platform, holding a bow and arrow that must've been scavenged.

Sapnap smiled slightly as he headed over, settling down beside George and giving him a small wave. The brunette sighed, turning his head away, and seemingly rolled his eyes in exhaustion. "Hey, George," Sapnap muttered, feeling a little disheartened at the response, but didn't want to give up so easily. "Seen anything interesting so far?"

"No."

"Oh... Umm... Okay..." He whispered, looking away as he fiddled with his fingers and let out a sad sigh of his own. The pair sat in silence for a moment before Sapnap piped up again, in a quiet voice. "I like your bow... Where'd you get it?"

This seemed to get more of a positive answer, with George turning himself around so that he was facing the raveonette. "Archery club a few cities back, got it bout' a week before I first stumbled across Dream... I had to toughen him up, y'know, that old mushy idiot would take in just about anyone who batted their pretty little eyes and said 'please' to him... It almost got him killed, around about the start of this whole mess, when he tried to save this couple who had gotten locked in a mall while looking for rings, apparently."

"Wait... Rings? W-what city was this!?" Sapnap asked quickly, eyes widening. "I think it was... Umm... Delta? Somewhere around there, at least, because you could see the quartz river," George replied, giving a strange look for a moment. "Why? Did you know them?" Sapnap slowly nodded, tearing up. "Yeah... I'm from Delta... And I lost my fiances because they had gone out shopping for wedding rings the day the first wave of the apocalypse hit us..."

"Oh my god-, dude, umm... Are you... Alright..?" George said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You said that... That Dream TRIED to save them... Does t-that mean that they're dead?" He asked in a hushed voice, trying not to cry, but he was failing miserably. Slowly, George nodded, and Sapnap broke down into tears. Heavy sobs wracked his body, leaving him struggling for air, as he tried to wipe the stream of tears dripping down his flushed cheeks.

George gently wrapped an arm around his shoulders, letting the boy lean against him, and lowered his head in a moment of silence out of respect.

"I'm sorry... I should have saved them..."

*--*

The mood seemed heavy as the trio walked in silence, having packed up all of their supplies, and set off in the opposite direction of the air vent. Dream didn't know exactly what had happened between George and Sapnap, but he didn't want to be intrusive, so he just let it be... Which might've been a mistake, considering how much George had seemed to despise the raveonette upon their first meeting, but the two had grown visibly closer over the past few days.

"Hey, guys, I think that I can see a city just over there..." Sapnap called back from his place at the head of the group, running off and leaving Dream and George to catch up. The both of them were huffing when they finally reached the place where Sapnap had stopped, the trio all looking up in awe as they saw the towering super structures just up ahead. "Ooo! I wanna go into one of the skyscrapers!" Sapnap cheered, making a move to race off again, but Dream grabbed his shoulder and quickly shook his head. "No way, there's got to be HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS, of zombies in just one of those things..."

George agreed, not wanting to enter one either, and Sapnap just sighed. "Really? Fine... Let's just find some place to stop and rest for the night... Dusk is starting to fall, I can already see the sun starting to set..."

"True, and my legs hurt from walking all day..." George grumbled, speeding up so that they could find a safe spot as quickly as possible. Dream glanced around, looking for a building that would probably be empty, and spotted a set of apartments not too far away. "There, we can probably clear out a room on one of the first floors and then lock the door, it'll be a pretty good spot to spend the night at... AND there's BOUND to be food in there!"

Sapnap grinned, grabbing both of their hands in each of his own, and dragging the pair along as he ran towards the apartments. "Perfect! Let's go! I'm literally STARVING!"

*--*

After settling down for the night in an apartment on the second floor, Dream shared out the last remaining food without caring about rationing, knowing that they would need to keep their strength up in order to go properly exploring tomorrow after walking all day just to get here. The large and highly overgrown city grew dark very quickly, followed by the sudden surge of roars from the undead roaming the streets down below, as the large vines hanging from almost every surface dangled in the evening wind.

Dream urged the pair to go to sleep as early as possible, wanting them all to be well rested for tomorrow, and didn't bother choosing somebody to be the nightwatch as they'd locked and blocked all possible entrances, boarding the windows and barricading the door. "Goodnight, guys, we'll discuss our next plans in the morning... For now, rest up, you're going to need it.."