Heavenstruck (Guardian Angel AU)

Your Death

cw: discussion of a past vehicular accident

"You already know this, but I died three years ago, almost four years ago now. My best friend was visiting me in London at the time. He was in the country for a couple days for some sort of event. I don't even remember it anymore. It seems so long ago.

"Everything happened on the last day, I think. It was a rainy day, and I'm already not very well known for going outside. But my friend—he's the type of person who doesn't like to sit still, the type of person who always needs to be working on something to feel satisfied with himself. He was very kind to the world and to everyone around him. I guess that's why he bugged me to go outside with him in the rain so much.

"It was fun, though, for those first few hours in the rain. I remember we walked all over the city, me yelling after him when he ran out from underneath the umbrella. I was the one holding it, and I didn't wanna be standing next to some wet, stinky person, you know?"

Dream had to chuckle at that. George's smile brightened as he continued talking, hundreds of memories flashing by in his eyes.

"It was really fun. I think my life only got better as I grew up. That was when I had the freedom to just go out and do whatever I wanted, and I wasn't rich or anything, but I had the funds to do most of the things I wanted to do. My friend was the same way, too, though he was a tad older than me and was more settled in life."

Huh. Nobody Dream had spoken to mentioned going to the UK to visit George. The only meet-up he had been told of was the large hangout in the US.

"How'd you two become friends then?" Dream asked. Maybe that might clear something up.

"Oh, he was looking for developers for his Minecraft server. I applied, and I guess I stood out to him or something, because we talked a lot one-on-one after he accepted me as a developer and played a ton of Hunger Games together. Like, a ton of Hunger Games." George laughed, looking up at the ceiling as if he were peering back into the sky, trying to see through all its secrets. Thousands of memories flashed by in his eyes. "But what really brought us together was computers. He didn't really code while my job was coding. I didn't really get involved in hardware, but he loved that kind of stuff. He straight up offered to build me a computer when mine was dying. It was kind of meant to be, you know?"

Dream cycled through the names in his head. Punz, Alyssa, Ponk, Callahan. None of them matched the description. Who was this? He felt like he should know.

"I miss him a lot," George said, his voice quiet. He shifted his gaze back down to the floor, and the brightness that had been present on his face darkened to dull. "I, um... I guess I don't really get to miss him, though."

Again with the cryptic wording. What did that mean?

"So, on the day I died," George said. The words seemed heavy, like they were weights too heavy for him to lift. "Well, it was on the last day of that London trip. We somehow hadn't boarded a double decker—you're familiar with what that is, surely—the entire time, and he said he didn't want to go back without having boarded one. It was raining, so of course I agreed. Though looking back, maybe I shouldn't have.

"We waited at the bus stop for a couple minutes. Or an hour. I never really had the best grasp on time, and when you're with your best friend, time goes by way faster than you think it does.

"When the bus finally came, he was so ridiculously excited," George said with a grin. "I know you Floridians don't really have double deckers, but I didn't think he'd get so excited about it. He was smiling and laughing and everything. We went on the top floor and just... looked at the world."