another revealed truth

acceptance and denial

trigger warnings listed in opening author's note

✼

dream looks up from the video he was watching, reaching forward blindly to pause it as he looks at his door and calls, "come in!"

the door inches open slowly, with evident reluctance, and dream watches as holly leans into his room. "hi hols," he greets, offering his sister a smile as she steps into the room.

"hey," she smiles, pushing the door shut behind her. the brunette's gaze flicks over to the video up on dream's laptop, and she asks, "what're you up to?"

dream isn't surprised by the normalcy of their first conversation in person since boxing day, since they'd been texting casually over the last few days anyway. "i'm urm, learning asl. that's american sign language."

"i know what it is," she scoffs light-heartedly, moving over to sit on his bed. dream turns slightly in his desk chair to be facing her still. "why are you learning it?"

"for my boyfriend," dream answers. the lie comes so easily to him, slipping off his tongue without a second thought. "he's a selective mute, so i'm trying to make it easier for us to communicate when he isn't talking."

"that's cute," holly smiles, which is a much nicer response than he'd expected. "i actually came in to talk to you about that."

dream shifts to fully face her now, his hands falling to sit idle in his lap while he waits for her to continue.

"i'm sorry about what dad said-"

"you don't have to apologise for him," dream interrupts - he's already heard enough of that from sapnap and his mom.

"well i'm sorry that i didn't stick up for you," she settles on instead. "i don't know why he was such a dick about it," she starts, and dream wants to rightfully point out that it's because he's always a dick, "but i wanted to tell you that i like, accept you, and support you."

dream smiles, genuine, "thanks hols."

the brunette nods, looking down at her hands. dream watches her face as it furrows contemplatively before she looks back up and asks, "does mom know?"

"yeah," he laughs slightly, "she's known for years."

"oh, right." his sister is evidently upset, but she doesn't question the fact she was never told, so dream just hopes that she works out it's because of how close she is to their dad. "and she's cool with it?"

"yeah, one hundred per cent."

"good," she smiles.

"good?"

holly nods, "yeah, i mean- well, it would suck if they were both homophobes." she shrugs, and dream just hums in some sort of weak agreement. "i'm uhm- well, i sort of-" she clears her throat, scratching just behind her ear and taking a long breath, "i sort of have this crush, in my class. she's a girl."

"oh," dream is sure his face lights up at the awkward confession. "that's- wow, thank you for telling me. do you have a label, or just...?" he waves a noncommittal hand.