teacher's pet

1

𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳

≛

sapnap takes a long sip of his lemonade, his eyes snagging on the door that karl walked out of, maybe twenty minutes ago now.

he can't stop thinking about his friend and the thoughts running through his mind are making him feel queasy with nerves. a little voice tells him he never should've let karl leave on his own, because the brunette could be going absolutely anywhere and that thought is terrifying.

karl has been going through something and, no matter how hard he tries, sapnap can't for the life of him work out what it might be. he is rightly inclined to believe that all of this has something to do with karl losing his virginity, and he can't help but wonder if karl is going to meet up with whoever he lost it to.

what if it isn't safe? sapnap has no idea who this mystery lover is, but the secrecy of it all makes him think it can't be anything good.

his attention shifts suddenly to a hand clasping over his forearm and he looks away from the door to focus his attention on the man beside him. dream offers him a sympathetic smile, nothing but love and care in the shine of his eyes. "what are you thinking about?" he asks.

sapnap swallows, his gaze dragging back to the front door. "do you think we should've gone with him or something?"

dream also looks at the door, and sapnap can see the cogs turning in his boyfriend's mind. he can imagine dream asking himself the same sort of questions, just without the knowledge of karl ever losing his virginity, since the ravenette is pretty sure that his best friend never actually spoke to dream like he said he would.

after a moment, dream replies, "maybe."

something about him agreeing makes the dread in sapnap's chest amplify. he sort of hoped that his boyfriend would disagree, saying everything is fine and he shouldn't worry.

"can i suggest something?" dream asks, pulling sapnap's focus back on him. "and if it's fucked up, you can tell me that, but at least hear me out first."

sapnap nods. he likes that dream is asking for his input on his ideas and, even more than that, he loves that the blond knows that sapnap will willingly call him out if he suggests something stupid. dream has had some frankly idiotic ideas when it comes to trying to be there for karl, and sapnap has had to shoot quite a few of them down, even though it always hurts a little because he knows that dream is just trying to look out for his brother.

"i just-" sapnap can see dream's throat bob as he swallows. "i keep thinking, what if we just look through his room?"

sapnap's brows pull together and his immediate response is to refute the idea and remind his boyfriend about boundaries and respect, but he agreed to hear dream out first so he stays quiet for the time being.

"like, other than possibly getting some sort of clue about what's been going on with him, we could at least take his blade, no? i know you said not to get involved but i feel sick to my stomach knowing i'm sitting here, allowing my baby brother to slit his skin open because he feels so alone."

something about how dream refers to karl as his 'baby brother' always makes sapnap's stomach swirl. he's reminded, time after time, that these two boys are connected by blood. they've experienced their entire lives together, and dream has never cared about anything more than he does the brunette.