Blue Christmas

Chapter 4

"You do?!" Dream didn't want to influence his friend's decision but he would be lying if he said that he wasn't hoping he would choose. 

"I- I think so? I just want to have a good time over the holidays you know?" 

"Then a good time you shall have!" Dream chuckled at the way George's face lit up at the prospect of celebrating. He had a sneaking suspicion that he was hoping to find a way to celebrate somehow, even if he couldn't with his family and Dream was more than happy to oblige.

"I'll hold you to that. Let me pay-" 

"No, it's my treat George!" 

"I took you here for lunch, I've got it." George gently moved his protesting hand out the way as he took the card machine in the other to pay. Dream didn't notice the warmth that the smaller hand brought him until it had been withdrawn and he felt some sort of loss. He was quick to dismiss it to be the touch-starvation that came with a job of his kind, where more of his friends were online than nearby but deep down he knew it was something more, something he had been neglecting, or rather, suppressing, for quite a while now.

"Fine. But I'm paying for the Christmas tree." Dream huffed in mock-annoyance as they got up to leave.

"Christmas tree?" 

"That's what we're doing next!" Dream said, buzzing with excitement as they left the tea room.

"You're like golden retriever or something I swear." George told him as they walk down the road.

"Not when I'm playing Minecraft though!"

"You're such an idiot."

Dream drove them in the rental car to a Christmas tree farm, belting out the festive songs playing on the radio slightly out of tune but with the biggest grin on his face and George couldn't help but join in a couple times, not without his signature eye-roll though. Pulling into the farm car park was like entering another little world, the bushes strewn with fairy lights blinking back at them, inflatable Father Christmas and Snowmen waved gleefully at giggling children, poinsettia-red Santa hats littered throughout the crowd; the atmosphere was nothing short of electric. 

"You ready?" Dream asked as he unbuckled his seat belt, hesitating before he reached for the door. "We can go back to your house if you like... forget this ever happened and just pretend it's January or something."

"No. I think- I know this is what I want to do." George's tone was unsteady but he forced a smile. He was rubbing his knuckles roughly, Dream taking his hands and running the pads of his thumbs over the angry broken skin on them the moment he noticed, shooting him a sympathetic look before embracing the sharp breeze biting at his cheeks as it took place of the stuffy air heated from the car. The wind carried pine, freshly cooked food and jovial chatter, and Dream met George on the other side of the vehicle, sticking out his arm as an offering without really thinking and his heart felt like it was skipping a beat as for a moment as it looked like maybe George would just ignore it but that was but a fleeting thought once George interlocked their hands. They swung their arms like little kids in the playground, suppressing giggles as the walked through the entrance.

After a heated discussion, they settled on getting a tree for the living room, critiquing what must have been hundreds of trees before finally choosing one which they both deemed the right height, width and branch dispersion, because Christmas tree choosing is a serious business of course! 

"I'm so hungry!" Dream whined whilst they were waiting around for the tree to be netted so they could attempt to fit it in the car somehow.

"We literally just ate?"