little by little

tell me how you feel

𝓉𝓇𝒾𝑔𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒

♡

dream's heart dips in his chest, his eyes shooting open in response to the knocking on his door. he doesn't know when he fell asleep, but the book he had planned to start reading is still sitting shut on his bedside cabinet, so he clearly got into bed and immediately slumped.

he rolls over, stretching out the prickles of pain left over from his body being inactive for so long, and hums at whoever it is to come in as he wrestles his tired body into a sitting position.

his curtains are still open, and the sky outside is dark. a glance at his clock tells him it's just minutes past midnight and he wonders why he fell asleep so early.

then he turns to the open door, his gaze catching george's, and the memories come flooding back to him, kickstarting his heart into the anxious mess that it was when he fell asleep hours ago whilst failing to calm himself down.

intrusive thoughts are a dark part of ocd that not a lot of people talk about. not just in the sense of random ideas popping up, but also the inability to distract yourself from whatever it is that's bothering you.

dream knows that he did nothing wrong, and he understands that it was probably just the high emotions that made george act like he did but, somehow, his brain manages to convince him that maybe he is in the wrong. dream knows he didn't hurt sapnap, but what if he did?

"hey."

"hi," dream replies before clearing his throat when he realises how rough it sounds. "you alright?"

it's a shallow question to ask after the events of today (or, technically, yesterday) but dream doesn't know how else to navigate this. one minute he thought he was trying to comfort sapnap out of a state of panic, and then next thing he knows george is ordering him to leave.

the worst part, without a doubt, was the silence that followed when dream had asked why george was acting as though the blond caused this. it wasn't only the silence, but also the way that george had looked away, like he couldn't bear to look him in the eyes.

it hurt.

"can we-" george cuts himself off, and dream pulls himself out of his own head and realises how hard this must be for the brunette. clearly, something happened earlier that they need to talk about, but george has always been so viscerally pained by conversations like this. yet, he is still trying.

"talk?" dream finishes for him, pleased when george nods. "yeah, i think we need to."

george hums in agreement before stepping into the room. the lights aren't on, so the brit leaves the hallway door open presumably to give them a little brightness. dream wonders if the lack of visibility makes this easier for george, and that's why he doesn't turn on the light as he crosses the room and takes a reluctant seat at dream's desk.

silence falls upon them, and dream recognises that he will have to lead this conversation. even though he doesn't know what exactly they're talking about, or what george is thinking, he doubts that the brunette will-