Heavenstruck (Guardian Angel AU)

Our Friends

When the leaves of the trees outside wilted into a shade of orange and fell to the dirt, autumn had announced its presence. The wind was colder, louder, picking up strength as it continued on its journey across the world. But apparently Dream had missed the memo despite going outside to walk to work every weekday, because the arrival of autumn smacked him in the face halfway through October.

"Dude, it's been October?" Dream said, running a hand through his hair as he leaned back in his seat. "When the hell did that happen?"

George shrugged and passed him a glass of apple juice. "It has been for a while. Where've you been?"

"Not reality."

"I suppose that's true."

Dream's gaze settled back on the computer in front of him.

Twenty-three videos uploaded to his channel. He had turned monetization on after six videos, and since then had his videos perform well. And while it hadn't come as too much of a surprise considering how long he had spent studying the YouTube algorithm...

Having that much support from people was amazing, exhilarating even. Behind that number of subscribers he had accumulated was a real, living person who had decided they liked his content enough to click the subscribe button.

That was special to him. Really, really special.

Though of course, a special thanks to George with a smiley face was written under his socials in the description of each video. If there were comments asking who George was, Dream hadn't seen them.

George took a seat in the chair beside him with his own cup of apple juice. "Your channel's doing really well. Do you reckon you could quit your job and do this full time in a couple months?"

"Quit my job?"

"Yeah. You did say you hated it."

Right. Going to work was still a chore.

Dream leaned back in his seat.

George and Punz had done it, right? Quit their jobs when their channels had grown enough? They had been happy enough to celebrate with each other over a Discord call, which was probably as scuffed as it could be.

They were happy. Dream could be happy following their route, too, and he'd be lying if he said that hadn't been his ultimate plan all along.

"I'll have to give it another month or so, yeah," Dream said. He turned to George with a smile. "Thanks for helping me with everything. I still have a lot to learn from you, you know."

Something shifted in George's gaze at that. "You do?"

"Yeah. It's like I'm learning something every day from you. It's, um..." Dream chuckled, a habit he had when he was nervous. "Very epic."

George burst into laughter.

Dream smiled despite it all. "Shut up. I couldn't think of a better word."

"Very epic indeed," George eventually said when his laughter died away. "I'm happy you're learning things, though. I just wish... I just wish we could've met in more optimal circumstances."

More optimal circumstances. That could've looked like a lot of things.

Dream pursed his lips as he wondered about the possibilities that outnumbered the stars in the night sky in front of him. "Yeah. Me too."

At the end of the night when Dream cleaned up their glasses, he saw George had only barely touched his apple juice at all.