Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pain. The first thing that struck my mind. Pain. A headache to be exact. Where it came from? Well I don't know...

"Ouch."

Confused I stopped. There was a voice.

"My head hurts."

There it was again. I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes. Yet the curiosity tingled me. If my head hadn't been hurting so much, I would have tried to guess whose voice it was but right now I just wasn't able to do that. I only knew that it was a familiar voice.

"Hello?"

A new voice had been calling and finally I managed it to open my eyes. Immediately I was met with the sight of bright sunlight and the dark crowns of spruce trees around me. Confused I crawled a bit back, blinking as I tried to get used to the sudden brightness. Soft grass between my fingers helped me calm down a bit. I didn't know where I was. In a spruce forest, I guess. But it was different than what I thought a spruce forest would look like. I didn't know if my eyes just played a trick on me but I seemed like each tree around us looked the same. Well, nearly. A few of them were higher than the rest and they had less leaves. A structure of forest which was just as strange for me as it was oddly familiar.

"George?", I turned around as I heard my name being called and my heart stopped for a second. I knew that young person there with the black hair, a dark blue hoodie and those black pants. A combination of colors I always welcomed since I was able to actually see them. A combo of colors I associated with a certain friend I had.

"Quackity.", I said quietly, finally able to sort even that face to this person I had in mind. My voice sounded a bit raspy as if I haven't used it for a while. It surprised myself as much as it surprised my friend. We haven't seen each other for a while now thanks to the fact that we lived on two different continents. And yet now we met.

Quackity nodded absentmindedly as he let his gaze wander over the scenario. I did so too only to be met with other people who were partly still sitting on the grass, partly standing and partly not even awake yet. My heart raced and I tried to understand why we all were here. I had no idea who those people were. Or did i?

I didn't know. My eyes still refused to let me see clearly and my mind did not feel like giving me any requested information. "What happened?", I asked confused, trying to sort the mass of thoughts in my head. "Where are we?", I then added, letting my eyes wander back to the only one I knew so far.

"I have no idea.", Quackity said and held his hand in my direction, silently offering me help to get up. I thankfully took his hand and soon I stood beside him. "I know as much as you do, my friend. I woke up a few minutes ago.", Quackity, or Alex for that matter, shrugged and walked to the person next to me to help her up, too.

I looked at that person and my heart stopped for a second. She wore black and red clothes and even though their head was hidden under a hood I could see two demon like horns. I would be lying if I said this person did not scare me but when she finally stood up with Quackitys help and looked at me, smiling nicely I recognized her as another friend of mine.

"BadBoyHalo...?", I asked unsure and the person nodded. Now I remembered why this voice at the start felt so familiar. It was his.

It was only now that I began to recognize the other people around me. Alex and Bad were here and the man Alex now went to was definitely Wilbur Soot. Tommys voice rang through the forest and I could swear that the teen next to that sixteen-year-old boy was Tubbo.

I recognized that we were positioned in a circle, so that everyone was able to see each other. Pictures of the glade from the Hunger-Games came into my mind and I did my best to push them aside.

I didn't want to think about this movie nor about the potential reason of why we were here.

My gaze flew over the rest of our big group of people and I was able to sort names to each one of them. Until I stopped at the sight of a young man on my other side of the circle. He caught my attention because I wasn't able to find a name for him. He seemed to be the biggest stranger of all those people around me.

He sat there in the grass, wearing a lime green hoodie and ripped black pants. His face was turned to the ground and dirty blonde hair fell over his forehead. I somehow had the feeling that I knew him and that was finally the reason why I walked towards him. I didn't know which name to call so I just started a conversation with a simple: "Hey, are you alright?"

The person i spoke to froze and then he quickly looked up. I was met with golden eyes observing mine, dark freckles were sprayed on their cheeks, their nose was perfectly shaped and a flustered but warm smile formed on his pink lips as he recognizes me. I felt my heart stop beating for a second.

"D-Dream?", I asked surprised and he nodded slowly. "Hey, George.", he then said and stood up. I froze at the tone of his voice. In real life it sounded so much better, so much more loving, so much warmer than it did through headphones. I just had to stare at him. I have never seen him in real life before and now that I did, I reckoned that he was fucking handsome.

He now had to look down on me since he turned out to be way taller than I was. He had broad shoulders and only now I realized that the lime hoodie had the white dream blob on it. I couldn't help but smirk.

He was so handsome.

"You look good.", he said, causing me to flinch. My eyes darted back into his face and I smiled, cheeks growing red. I just now realized that I was staring at him for too long. I hated my face for their proof of my embarrassment and I just hoped that he wouldn't notice.

"Th-thank you.", I answered flustered, looking down on myself. Confused I reached down to grab my light blue hoodie. I did not realize it till now but I wore the clothes my Minecraft skin wore usually. I looked up, analyzing the group around us. Everyone else did so, too... Even Fundys appearance was like his Minecraft skin. I smiled as I noticed the fox ears on his head and the fox tail behind him. He seemed to be an official furry now. Antfrost, too had animal ears and a cat tail and even Callahan wore his reindeer suit.

Everybody seemed to be fully awake now and just like me and Dream they stood there in little groups, talking and investigating the weird world we were thrown into. I saw Puffy standing in front of a red berry bush, a leaf in her hand. She seemed amazed by something I did not know about yet. In the middle of the old circle was Purpled who tried to dig down, Punz right next to him watching. They too seemed amazed by something.

Confused I looked back to Dream, wanting to ask him what all this was about but he was distracted by something in the depth of the spruce forest.

"Just in case you haven't noticed: This looks a hell of a lot like the Dream smp world, guys.", I narrowed my eyes and finally I saw what caught Dreams attention. The figure who just spoke walked out of the forest.

Again, my heart nearly stopped working. She was tall and walked up to us. She wore the clothes of a king, a dark red robe with white fur around their neck. The person, which probably couldn't even be considered as a person anymore, looked like a pig to be exact. He had big pig ears on his head, a golden earring in the left ear, he even had the snout of a pig with two fangs visible for everyone.

In short: He was intimidating.

I didn't even notice that I unconsciously stepped behind Dream who observed the others appearance just as I did not a second ago. However, he didn't seem to be as intimidated by that person as I was. He stepped forward with a confidence I could never have presented like he did. "Techno.", he then said and only now I realized that it only could have been Technoblade in front of us.

"You are right, the resemblance is alarmingly high. I just thought that too.".

My eyes widened and shocked I looked up at him. Did he really just casually start a conversation with this man?

Techno nodded. Dream was nearly as tall as the pig was. I somehow liked this fact. "If you asked me I'd say that we are, in fact, in our Minecraft world. In the game even.".

Everyone was listening to us by now. I felt so many eyes on me it made me nervous. Even though I knew that they weren't looking at me but at Techno and Dream beside me.

"How can you be so sure?", Dream narrowed his eyes and Technoblade shrugged. "Because while all of you nerds, were still sleeping like little babies I went adventuring. I found our town, my house and everything we built till the last time someone went online. That's where I got this fancy sword.", Techno grabbed the blue sword and swung it through the air, confidently. "Its awesome.", he then added.

"How do you think did we end up here?", Tubbo asked the pig and stepped forward. I admired him for his confidence. The pig blinked. "I don't know man. I just know that it looks like we have to play the game now.".

Techno did not sound as if he was very sad or upset about what he just said. While I found myself being quite worried about the fact that we seemed to be caught in this damn video game. I may have played this game since I was a child but that meant that I knew every bad creature and every deadly place in this game. If we really were caught in this then we wouldn't survive, I was sure.

"Well, if we really are caught in this game and you were adventuring like you said I am sure that you can tell us how the game works now that we are here in real life.", Dream assumed coldly. I admired him for the ability of staying calm even though Techno just revealed to us that we will have to fight and survive in a world like this. He really seemed calm and unfazed.

"Of course, I could.", Techno answered and smiled. "But where would be the fun, then? I think I would enjoy it more to see you struggling, Dream.".

Dream closed his eyes and looked at me, opening them again. I could see that he was not happy with this answer. But I knew too, that Dream was the type of person who tried to prevent fights if he did not have to defend himself. His eyes showed me that he was struggling with holding himself back. I knew that he was upset about the fact that Techno didn't want to tell us everything he knew. Maybe he even saw this whole thing as a challenge from Techno to him. I didn't know and to be honest I was glad that I didn't.

Dream was a caring person. The information about how to play this game in real life was not just important to him but to the whole group. We were in this together. And he knew that. The fact that Techno would keep important information to himself just because of his in-game rivalry with Dream was stupid. Careless. Dangerous even.

"You don't have to tell me, Techno. But please don't withhold the information from the others.".

There it was. The answer I have been waiting for. I smiled.

"You know what? I wish you good look with figuring it out yourselves. Ima go now. Bye, nerdsss!", laughing the pig turned around and vanished in the depth of the forest again.

We stood still. I could practically feel Dreams anger. He hated people that only cared for themselves.

"And here I was, thinking that in real life Techno would be different...". I turned around to look into the disappointed face of Wilbur. He noticed and smiled at me. "Hi!", he laughed. "Anyways, guys! I think we will have to figure this new life out by ourselves! How hard can that be?", Wilbur looked around and was met with silence.

"We can't even break things here.", Purpled said demotivated and Punz nodded approvingly.

So that's why they had looked so amazed before. They have tried to break the floor and figured out they couldn't.

"Of course, you can't.", Dream then said and turned to the group. "If this really is our smp then we now are at our spawn point. We can't break things here, remember?". I nodded, thinking. He was right. The spawn protection thing...

"I think we will have to get to our town then, don't we?", Tubbo sounded excited. "First we have to find a way out of spawn. We built a wall around it, remember?", Skeppy said. "Wouldn't it be safer to stay here? It is going to be night, soon. Here we are safe.", with insecurity in his eyes Bad looked up at Dream, hoping he would say something. But he didn't.

"What? I don't care about these bastards out there! I can beat them with my bare fist, you'll see!", Tommy yelled as he sprung forward, going into a fighting position. "I don't think so, to be honest.", Jack Manifold laughed, "You'll be the first one to die, I bet!".

"What did you just say?", Tommy started fighting with Jack as the rest of the group started debating about either to go out in the forest or to stay here in this safe place. I did not take part in this. I have chosen my side but i did not need to discuss with them.

"Dream! Old friend!", my mood went up straight ahead. "Sapnap!", I said loudly and turned around happily. I did see him earlier when we still were sitting in that circle. But he had seemed to be caught up in a conversation with Karl so I had decided not to interrupt them.

But now I was happy to finally hear from him. I was being honest if I said that I forgot about him for a moment there. The whole Minecraft, smp, Technothing got the best of me. "George!", Sapnap laughed as he hugged me close. We were outcasted from the big discussion of the others fast.

"Hey man, how are you?", Dream smiled as he hugged Sapnap just as happily as I did before. "Well as good as you can be when you're caught in a fucking Minecraft world!", he smiled amused. "Shit really escalated quickly there.", he added as he looked back to the loudly fighting group.

"I am going to go to that town regardless of what they will decide.", I said as I watched my friends fighting. As soon as I felt the others eyes on me I turned around. I was met with surprised expressions. I smiled. My decision was made even before they started discussing.

"I don't want to stay here in the forest. Who knows how cold it'll be once the sun sets? Who knows if we really are save here? If Techno managed it to go out monsters are able to go in. I don't see no point in staying here. We do not have any food or anything for that matter. We need to go to our town in order to survive. I don't want to stay here freezing while being terrified from potential monsters.".

I was met with understandment. "Then lead the way, Gogy!", Sapnap smiled as he stepped aside. I rolled my eyes at the nickname and answered: "Haha, just because I know that I wanna go doesn't mean that I know the way.".

Sapnap stared at me, thinking. Dream on the other hand had decided to leave us be. Instead I watched him examining the glade. "Well, I think ima go help Dream investigating. Don't think too much, we don't want you to have a headache later on, do we?", I smiled as my friend answered with an offended face. "Hey!", he said after he started laughing and I laughed too as I headed over to the good-looking blond man on the other side of the glade.

Chapter Text

"I'm cold...", I said as a breeze of cold wind started playing with my clothes. "We all are, dickhead.", Sapnap answered jokingly. I rolled my eyes. Dimwit.

I was aware that the sun has started to go down and as the forest got darker and darker with every second, the air got colder, too. The cold wind was playing with those spruce trees around us and their whistling was the only sound that could be heard next to the footsteps of our small group.

Tubbo, Tommy, Wilbur, Nicki, Puffy, Fundy, Jschlatt, Purpled, Punz, Ponk, Foolish, Sam, Quackity, Karl, Connor, Eret, Jack, Philza, Ranboo, Slimecicle, Sapnap, Dream and me have decided to walk to our town while the rest of the group had decided to stay at spawn until the night will end. I was glad that so many people decided to come with us.

It meant safety. I did not lie before when I said that I did not want to be terrified because of the monsters which were running freely in this word. The more people we were the more people were able to defend our little group.

I knew that we went to our town rather late but on the other hand walking to safety was better than staying at a place where we were not. Punz had showed us how him and Purpled managed it to get more than just one item in their inventory.

We came to the conclusion that there is an inventory on the inside of our arms. Looking like a tattoo from our inventory bar the bar is painted to our forearms like a moving picture. In order to switch the items we have in our hand we can just tip on their picture on our arm and the item will manifest himself in our right hand.

It was insane. Everybody had been mesmerized by the way the items could manifest themselves out of thin air. I am sure that we spent too much time playing around with it but when we finally started to walk in the direction, we thought our town would be, everybody had understood how to quickly switch between items.

However, we still had no idea how we could open up the big inventory with the crafting part. Therefore some of us only had a few woodblocks. But that was It. We weren't prepared for a fight which was unsettling to me.

"Its not that far, come on.", Dream smiled as he wrapped an arm around me, pulling me back into reality. Immediately I felt warmer. Contently I snuggled up to him. "Thank you...", I said. My heart was warming up as I heard him giggling. "No problem, sweetheart.", I found myself blushing as I heard his petname. "Stop.", my voice sounded quiet. As if I was embarrassed. Which I was... in a way.

I liked it though.

"You both need to stop.", Fundy walked up to us. "We have kids here.", there was no time for us to answer. Someone else had been listening and that person now was raging out loud. "What did you call me?", Tommy shouted as he ran towards us. He, Tubbo, Wilbur, Nicky and Puffy had been walking at the end of our group. "I called you a child just as you are.", Fundy said smirking, knowing that Tommy got angry at his words. Annoyed I looked forward again, trying to ignore the two troublemakers next to us.

"We don't wanna fight, calm down you two.", Dream shook his head disappointed and while Fundy made himself stop smiling, Tommy just crossed his arm in front of his chest. "You don't have to tell me shit, Dream. You are not my mother.", I welcomed his british accent. Even though Tommy still spoke a bit different than I did it was nice to hear someone else having an accent, too. Sometimes, rarely I felt like an outcast for my british accent. I knew that Dream liked it and my other friends had told me that they liked it, too but it felt weird, nevertheless.

However, Dream was visibly annoyed at Tommys behavior. But he got no chance to say something back at the sixteen-year-old boy. "Ou! I see our town!", Tubbo interrupted their little fight as he began sprinting, running towards the only civilization the server had. "Tubbo stop!", confused I looked back to Wilbur who had a frightened look on his face. "Come back, now!", I looked forward again and stopped walking for a second. Shocked at what I saw.

A zombie, fouling, green skin, ripped blue jeans and blue t-shirt came from where Tubbo ran to, growling at the shocked teenager who did as he was told immediately. "Fuck.", I heard Dream say as he stepped in front of us. "We reached the point where the monsters start spawning.", he realized and when I looked up I saw fear in his eyes.

That shocked me. I always had been sure that someone like Dream was not able to feel something like that. Fear was something I had never seen in my best friend before. Never would I come up with the idea that Dream would experience fear in a Minecraft world of all things.

It seemed ridiculous considering that he used to be the worlds number one speedrunner.

But I, too, felt my heart beating faster. I missed Dreams comforting warmth as soon as he stepped away from me and now that the fresh air got me back I started realizing what was happening right now. With wide eyes I observed the slowly walking monster in the distance. He was not near but near enough to be seen and to be afraid of. Shaking I looked around, fearing that there could be more monsters around us.

I didn't dare to even imagine how a skeleton or a creeper would look in real life. It did surprise me just how realistic a simple zombie looked. Like a brown-haired man, with rotting skin. He looked like Steve, to be honest. Like a zombie version of him. Of course, he did. It was his design after all.

But this was different. So very different. Which was the reason why I cursed the sudden darkness around us. She prevented me to see anything. "There are two behind us, too!", Charlie suddenly yelled with a frightened undertone in his voice.

I had no time to react. I got distracted by something rushing by right next to me. The sudden swoosh of air made me flinch, scream out in fear. Immediately I felt Dreams worried look on me. With a fast beating heart, I looked up to him. His caring golden eyes, locked with mine helped me relax a bit.

I was so glad that he was here with me.

"Are you okay, George?", he asked and scrutinized me. I nodded slightly, not even sure if I really was.

My eyes darted to the reason of my sudden shock and they widened as they landed on an arrow stuck in a tree not that far away from me "A skeleton.", I whispered and flinched again as I felt Dreams warm hand on my back. "Don't worry. We will make it to town safely.", he ensured but I could tell that he had problems believing himself.

The sun was now completely gone and even though there was a quadratic moon at the sky, trying his best to spent us some light he failed miserably. I was unsure if I was glad about that or if I was not. On the one hand the darkness prevented me from seeing anything horrible but on the other hand I had no idea how many monsters there were, just waiting for us.

"What should we do?", Tubbo asked as he reached our group again. I knew that we all still had some time left before the zombie in the distance would reach us. But nevertheless, I found myself being clueless. As my eyes grew used to the absence of light, I saw the mobs surrounding us.

I felt shivers running down my spine. There were moving silhouettes in the dark of the wood. Dark enough to be parted from the darkness of the night. I had no idea how fast they were. Had no idea how much time we actually had left. I just knew that the presence and those noises were making me sick.

Our whole group seemed terrified, not one of us wanting to fight with our bare fists or some stupid woodblocks. My heart was racing and the amount of adrenalin in my veins seemed to grow with every second. When I heard another skeleton clattering, I hid behind Dream. I felt secure when he was with me.

Suddenly he grabbed my hand. Surprised I looked up at him. His hand was sweaty and I saw that he was in fear. That he was just as terrified as everybody was. I welcomed this. It showed me that even though I first thought fear was something weird if it was a feeling he felt, he was human. He wasn't as perfect as he always tried to be. I saw his eyes darting around and I recognized that he was biting his lip again.

A good sign. He always bit his lip when he was thinking.

I already forgot about Tubbos question so I jumped as he got a sudden answer from Purpled: "Run, what else?". He, too, was looking around paranoid. I saw him staring at Dream. He was just waiting for him to say anything.

It surprised me how often that happened. How often people expected Dream to say anything. To take the wheel. To rule over a situation they were sure they couldn't.

But Dream stayed quiet. His face didn't change a bit. It stayed in thought. Stayed serious. I began to wonder if he even listened to Greys answer in the first place. Everybody was quiet for a second, debating wether running really was the best thing they could do right now.

The others faces told me that they weren't entirely sure of what to do. I wasn't either, to be honest. I understood why they were as clueless as they were. But the time was running. The monsters were nearing. And we were just staying here. I was sure that no one expected the night to fall as fast as it did.

With my gaze still fixed on the tall blonde I questioned myself if I would run, too if everybody else did. Running seemed wrong on the one hand but on the other hand I did not know what we could do instead. I did not want to fight with my fist against bloodthirsty zombies. I did not want to die.

"I don't know what you will do, but I will fucking run if it means that I will survive!", Fundy yelled, breaking the silence with his words, filled with determination. He looked into our round for a second before he looked back at the town in the distance.

"See ya!", he growled as he started running. Immediately he was followed by the rest of our group. I, too, found myself running as suddenly I felt someone hold me back. Panicking I looked behind me, already imagining how it would be, getting eaten by a zombie.

But I calmed down as soon as I remembered whose hand I was holding. "Dream?", I asked him carefully, ignoring the slight worry in my voice. "Hey, come with me.". My worry just grew as I recognized that he seemed to be caught in his thinking process. Sometimes this happened back at home, too.

Usually I noticed it by a sudden silence in our call. Mostly he would just zone out completely. It happened right in the middle of conversations if he was too caught up in a certain topic or randomly when he found something that seemed way more interesting to him than other things we talked about.

"Dream.", I whispered, carefully not to wake him up too roughly. I learned how to deal with this habit of his. Sometimes I would ignore it and just carry on and sometimes I managed it to actually wake him up again.

This time it was different though. I have never been able to watch him; to touch him in this state. Now that I was, I was unsure how he would react to certain things I could do. I didn't know how he reacted when he got touched, being as deep in thought as he was now.

But on the other hand, we were in a very dangerous situation right now. Restless I scanned our surroundings. I heard a skeleton. A spider. Damn it.

"Dream, wake up!", I said loud enough for all those mobs to hear us. Worried I studied his face. No reaction. His golden eyes which were set on a point far in the distance. His teeth on his bottom lip, his forehead that was furrowed. "Dream", I now yelled and with my two hands on his shoulders he finally snapped out of it.

"Wha-" – "Run!", I yelled and taking his hand again I pulled him towards the direction the others went a few minutes ago.

Chapter Text

I was exhausted as we finally closed the door behind us. My breath was unsteady and my lungs were screaming for oxygen. I felt dizzy and without having to see it I knew that my face must have been extremely red.

I have never been the type of person which was extremely sporty. Instead I just enjoyed my life without running or exercising. A disadvantage here in this world, now I figured. Even though I was surprised at how long it took for me to start struggling, I felt like this Minecraft world gave me some extra energy. Maybe it was because in the videogame we sprinted all the time.

I didn't know. However, I did know, that right now I reached the official limit of this energy. That I absolutely used up all the energy and all the power I had.

While I had to grab the wall for support, trying to catch my breath, I saw Dream smiling. "What?", I breathed out and looked up. He shook his head. "Nothing.", he said and I closed my eyes, knowing exactly why he was so amused.

He didn't have to say it.

I knew that he was laughing because he saw me struggling with my nonexistent stamina. He had always enjoyed seeing me struggling with the little things of life.

If it was me struggling with my colorblindness or me struggling with my height. Every time he noticed me struggling he would have that smile on his lips. Or at least I always imagined him having this smile. If I recalled correctly I have seen him once on camera. And from that time on I started imagining him with that exact smile every time I heard it in his voice.

"Are you as hungry as I am?", Dream changed topics and I smiled, nodding. Now that he mentioned it I felt the nagging feeling of hunger, too. "Oh god yes! I am!", I added and let go from the wall, looking at Clay. It surprised me how hungry I was, actually.

"Well then... What do you have?", he asked and I flinched. Only now I remembered that we were at my house. The mushroom one I built months ago. "Uhm...", absolutely clueless I turned around, noticing how different this house was from what I remembered.

My eyes flew over the white and pink blocks around us. The little table in the middle of the room, the plant hanging from the ceiling, the pink windows... Has it always been like this?

I was sure that it was different. Why would I ever use blocks like these to build a house? Right. Never. I shrugged. Maybe someone just decided to play another joke on me. After Tommy destroyed most of my belongings, I haven't used this house anyway.

My gaze flew to a chest in one corner. I couldn't remember putting something in it but I walked towards it regardless. "I don't know to be honest...", I then admitted, ignoring the house part completely, and opened the chest. Almost immediately the smell of rotten flesh penetrated my nose. With disgust written all over my face I shut the chest again.

"Erm...", my stomach growled as I looked back at my friend. "I am afraid that I got nothing.".

Dream looked at me. Disbelieve in his eyes. But he wasn't mad. Instead he started laughing. "Are you serious?", he asked wheezing. "You don't have anything here?!". I looked to the side. Ashamed. "You- You really have nothing?", Dream started laughing even harder.

I rolled my eyes. It wasn't that funny.

"Oh my gawd, we started this world together! You have been on this server the longest! How can you have nothing?!", I began smiling in defeat. "Well, its not my fault my house got griefed is it? And how am I supposed to keep anything if everybody on this server keeps killing me?!", my desperate try to explain myself got drowned in the noise of Dream dying.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest observing him. My smile got a bit wider. Even though I did not find this situation as funny as he did, I found myself being amused just by the way he laughed.

I've never saw him laughing in real life. I didn't know about those wrinkles on his cheeks. Didn't know that his golden eyes began sparkling of pure amusement. Didn't know that his dirty blonde locks would start dancing by the way he started nodding while laughing. I never imagined him hugging his stomach while he laughed but he did.

I felt myself gaining happiness just by looking at him. I loved it.

My stomach growled. Remembered me that I was hungry. I shook my head as Dream finished laughing. "You feel better now?", I smiled and he smiled back at me, causing me getting goosebumps. "I do.", he answered amused as he walked towards me.

"You can be happy that you got a friend like me, hun.", he said as he got past me, ruffling my hair. I decided to ignore the pet name. "Oh yeah?", I answered instead, following his every move with my eyes. "Yes.", came his answer self-confidently and I furrowed my eyebrows as I saw him digging in the ground of my house. The white block started to crumble and soon enough there was a hole where the block used to be.

"What are you doing?", I asked alarmed as he just continued destroying my house. It wondered me that he didn't hurt himself. Punching a random material like this couldn't be good for our hands. But he didn't seem as if it was hurting him. "I hid a chest here, stupid.", he answered then and I tilted my head. Confused.

"You did what?"

"I hid a chest in your house."

Dream looked back at me and smiled proudly. "You know... I figured that someday I will be fighting the ender dragon and while I still could I got everything to do so. Just because I needed space in my ender chest and I didn't want anyone to find it, I hid it in a chest in your house. I mean who would come here anyways? You haven't visited your house in ages and the rest of the smp literally forgot about it.".

Amazed at his way of thinking ahead I stepped beside him, looking down his hole. He destroyed two more dirt blocks before a chest came into our sight. "This is amazing...", I whispered and he shook his head. "Its not that amazing, you know?", I heard him smiling. "Its just a chest.".

I laughed quietly at his words. "I mean it is but the fact that you hid one in the first place is amazing.". Dream turned around and looked at me. Only now I noticed how close we were. I felt the need to step away from him. Not because I found this uncomfortable but because I didn't want him to be uncomfortable.

But I couldn't move. I stood there frozen as his eyes got locked with mine. His golden eyes had brown freckles just as he did but I never noticed them before. They were beautiful. I licked my lips and saw his gaze wandering to the sudden motion. "Erm...", I said quietly "What is i-in your chest?", I continued and felt a sudden uncertainty.

Dream blinked. "Hm?", he questioned and just as I was about to repeat myself he answered: "Oh. A few beds, I think...", he turned back to the wall and reached down. "A few swords, armor, food...", growling annoyed he noticed that he couldn't reach it and started to punch more blocks in order to get to his precious chest. I watched him until he finally reached it. He opened the chest and I noticed something glowing inside of it.

"Yep, just like I said.", Dream tossed me a violet sword. I catched it, surprised. It was glowing slightly. "Whoa..", I whispered as I swung it around carefully. I have never held a sword in my hand and now that I did I knew why. It wasn't exactly heavy. More like... I don't know... weird? Even though I tried I couldn't imagine myself actually using it.

"I got weapons...", I saw him put a netherite axe in his inventory. "Beds... armor... and...", he showed me a golden apple, "Food!". A sudden happiness found its way towards the surface as he gave it to me.

"This is so cool...", I said as I observed the apple. "It is.", Dream nodded and took a bite of the golden, shimmering fruit. Immediately his eyes widened. "And it is fucking delicious, what the hell?", he took another bite and closed his eyes, savoring the unknown taste of the apple.

I too decided to take a bite as soon as my stomach started growling again. "Oh god!", I looked at Dream just as surprised as he looked at me earlier. "It is!", I took another bite, and another one. The sweet taste of apple flooded my mouth. Sweet sugar seemed to come with it, it was sweet, so sweet, but it was good. So good!

With every bite I took I felt my energy come back. It was just one apple but I felt the feeling of hunger vanishing. Any tiredness in my body started to go away and by the time I finished the apple I was feeling the best way I probably could.

"Want another one?", Dream asked and even though I wanted to say yes, I shook my head. I wasn't hungry anymore. There was no need to eat another one. "Well, I am going to eat another one.", he smiled at me before he took another apple out of the chest. "Why don't you do something useful and place our beds in the meantime?", I smiled as I saw him tipping on his forearm and just a second later I saw two miniature beds laying on the ground in front of me.

"H-how did you..?", I asked surprised and looked up at him. He shrugged chewing. "I dunno..", he said between two bites. "I just tipped on the items a bit longer than before and then I saw a green line coming up that inventory slot.", he smiled as he saw the confusion in my eyes. "Don't look at me like that! I don't know either how this is possible! I just waited and when it was full I dropped the beds.", he sounded proud at the end and I shook my head as I took the two beds of the ground.

It felt weird to know that even though so many things looked real this was a video game. Or at least a world which worked like one. It was insane to even think about a line showing up on your forearm like a fucking moving tattoo.

But I could just accept it. I didn't even want to know how the whole crafting thing would work. Or burning stuff in an oven. Or enchanting anything. Or trading with villagers and piglins.

"Well...", I said as I walked through my house. "Where do you want the beds to be?", I couldn't wait to place them. I definitely wanted to know how it would be, watching them suddenly grow bigger. "Next to each other, please.", my eyes darted to my best friend. "What?", I asked a bit taken by surprise.

"You heard me.", he winked at me and I felt a shiver running down my spine. "Fine then.", I said and walked in a deserted corner, isolated from the rest of my house. "Next to each other it is.", I told myself as I placed the beds next to each other.

I watched the two white beds growing bigger, the moment I placed them on the ground. It was funny to see. A sight I have never gotten before. But I felt a sudden worry come up the moment the two beds got so big they started to touch each other.

Did I place them too near to each other? Did I do something wrong?

I heard wood creak and closed my eyes, fearing opening them again. What if they broke because of me? Were there more beds in Dreams chest? Would he be mad me for breaking them? My sudden worries got replaced as I opened my eyes again. They widened immediately as I realized what just happened. "Erm... Dream?", I called and jumped when I suddenly felt him right next to me.

"Yes?", he asked amused. "What's wrong?", I looked at him. "Are you serious?", I didn't understand how he could not see what was wrong. "Look!", I said pointing at the two beds which merged into one single king-sized bed. The problem was right here in front of us!

"Hm? Everything looks fine to me.", he grinned while he sat down on the white sheets of our bed. "Wha-", I didn't finish my sentence as I saw a hint of sudden concern in his eyes. "Oh, you are such an idiot.", I smiled as I sat down beside him.

Immediately I saw the concern disappear. I felt a bit better. I didn't want him to feel bad because of me. I wanted him to be happy. Even if that meant sleeping in one bed with him. "But that's why you love me so much", he answered smiling and hugged me from the side. I laughed as we both fell into the mattress. "I hate you.", came my answer and I shrugged. He on the other hand started laughing. I felt a shiver running down my spine as I felt his hot breath on my neck.

He was so close. I didn't know if it was a problem for me or not. My heart was beating faster as he said his next words: "I know you love me, George.".

For a few minutes it was dead silent in my house. No one dared to say anything. I didn't because didn't know what to say and Dream didn't because he was afraid that he had gone too far. I could tell because of his unsteady breath.

He was nervous.

He always was when he made jokes like these. He knew that I liked our flirtatious little talks but he knew, too that he tended to cross the line sometimes. In times like these he always got nervous. Uncertain.

"I am sorry Geor-" – "No Dream its okay.", I smiled and turned my head to the side. He looked down. "Its fine.", I assured him and my smile grew wider as I saw relief in his eyes. "Good.", he smiled. "It would have been a shame if you got mad at me, you know?", I furrowed my brows.

"I mean I wouldn't have known how you would have taken the news that I only sleep in my boxers usually..."

Chapter Text

When I woke up the next day the sun has gotten up already. Still a bit tired I blinked to get used to the sudden brightness. It was warm but when I tried to remove the blanket off me, I found my legs tangled up with others. For a short second my heart skipped a beat but when I looked behind me, careful not to wake up the other person, I saw that they were Dreams.

I smiled as I saw his resting face. It was so peaceful. His golden eyes were shut, giving me a perfect view on his black, long eyelashes. His freckles seemed to dance under the warm sunlight and his lips were forming a content smile.

It was calming watching him sleep. His chest moved up and down in unison with mine and I felt myself relax. That was until he suddenly opened his eyes. My heart stopped for a second. I knew that he just caught me staring at him. “G’mornin’”, he said and I flinched as I heard his deep morning voice. His American accent seemed thicker than it did before.

“Good morning…”, came my answer shortly after and he smiled before he moved on his back, stretching himself. As he did that he entangled our legs and I felt myself getting red. But he didn’t notice. “How did you sleep?”, he asked instead, ignoring the leg part completely. “I-I slept well…”, came my answer after a small moment of silence.

“Glad to hear that.”, Dream looked at me, smiling. I smiled back. “Well?”, I rose an eyebrow. “Hm?”.

“How about getting up?”, Dream seemed excited, too excited for someone who just woke up. “I cannot wait to start my first day in this Minecraft world!”.

I smiled. I understood why he was so excited. Being stuck in a Minecraft world was something rare and I bet there were many people wishing to live the life we did momentarily. Even though we did not ask for this. This was a chance and I admired Dream for his optimism. For his ability to see the good parts in being stuck here.

I on the other hand was happy with just staying in this bed. I did not need to get up and out in the world. I was happy here, where I did not have to talk to others. Where I did not have to be afraid of monsters attacking me. Where I did not have to mine and build and do whatever Dream was so excited about.

As he stood up he waited for a second, looking down at me. I saw something flashing in his eyes that I couldn’t read. I furrowed my forehead as he bit his lip. I did notice that his eyes were wandering over my body which was only halfway covered by the blanket. But I couldn’t read what he thought. It didn’t happen often that I wasn’t able to follow a thought of his. This was one of those rare moments.

My eyes fell down to his defined body. His slight muscles, his defined v-line, his… I swallowed and looked up again. Blushing as I saw the knowing look on his face. “Don’t you wanna come with me”, he asked as if nothing ever happened and I had to swallow again before I just nodded in embarrassment.

By the time we stepped out of my house I was a hundred percent sure that somebody changed it. If it wasn’t for the white and rose blocks and the sweet design, it definitely was because of the outside look of it.

Dream started wheezing as I rolled my eyes, blushing slightly. My mushroom house was made to look like the house of a cat lover. There were a few cats sitting on the outside, while the whole house itself looked like the head of a white cat. Including two fluffy cat ears on the top.

“Stop!”, I smiled. “Its not funny!”, Dream only started wheezing harder at that. I looked at him smiling even though I just said that it wasn’t funny. “You’re an idiot.”, I said and he shook his head laughing.

“Well at least I do not live in a cat maid café!!”, he said loudly and took his time to get a normal breath again.

“A cat maid café?”, I looked at him, confused and he started wheezing again, nodding. When he was finally able to speak again he said: “HBomb and Niki built it.” “You knew and you did or said nothing?!”, with disbelieve in my eyes I stared at him.

It was unbelievable.

He smiled. “Of course, I knew. This is my server after all!”.

I shook my head, playing the disappointed one. “When Tommy griefed it you exiled him and when Niki and HBomb make a fucking cat maid café out of it you do nothing?”, he smirked. “Well, when he griefed it, it was something very bad. This, on the other hand, suits you!”.

My mouth opened in disbelief. Did he just..? My cheeks grew red. His smile grew bigger. I decided not to answer. Instead I looked away saying: “Well, at least I got a house on contrary to other people here…”.

After my words he grew serious. “Hey!”, he complained, “I do have a house!”.

“I am sure, I am suuree!”, relief helped my blush to disappear. He accepted my change of topics. I looked back at him and started laughing at his outrageous look on his face. It vanished as he began smiling, watching me. By the time he decided to walk towards the prime path I followed him, still giggling.

“Oh come on, why are you still giggling like that?”, he asked me. I looked up at him. His golden eyes were filled with a loving flare, I could tell. He seemed amused but he didn’t want me to know. My smile grew bigger. “I don’t know.”, I shrugged. “Your reaction was just funny, I guess.”

“Funny hm?”, he grinned mischievously. “I can show you something way funnier..!”, my eyes widened as I saw this look on his face. I may have never seen it before but I could tell that he had a plan in mind. Something, anything that could make me uncomfortable.

“Oh-” – “Dweeeaaaammm!”, my try to save myself from whatever Dream had planned got interrupted by a well-known voice.

Our gazes flew to two smiling boys, coming our direction. “Oh Dweeeaaamm!”, I could see that my friend was slightly annoyed by the way his name got pronounced. But he put a smile on and waited for Tubbo and Tommy to arrive.

“What do you want?”, he asked and got two giggling boys as an answer. I was about to say something when Tommy started saying: “You two have been sleeping quite a while now you know?”, I saw Dream roll his eyes and hid a smile.

I didn’t even know why Dreams annoyance was so funny to me. Maybe it was the look on his face or maybe just the fact that Tommy was able to speak to him in a way that nobody else could.

“And well, while you were sleeping Tubbo and I spent the time investigating the physics and mechanics of this world.”, Tubbo raised an eyebrow, looking at his friend. A sign that Tommy was putting their actual actions in nice fluffy clouds just to let it sound better.

I smiled again.

“And as we jumped off cliffs, nailing one water mlg after another we wondered if, you know” – Tommy made a funny, careful face, one of those you give someone when you are trying to tell them news that might hurt or insult them – “if you could get them, too?”

Now that is interesting.

I looked up at Dream. Interested in what he would answer. I knew that he liked challenges and he just rarely declined them. But I did not want him to accept this one. I didn’t know why but Dream was one of those people who tended to be very ambitious. He once said that his ambitiousness was part of his ADHD but I wasn’t entirely sure if that was true.

“Of course I can!”, I shook my head. Why was it obvious that he would jump on that train?

“Well then, show us what you got, big man!”, Tommy laughed as he tossed a bucket of water to my friend. Dream took it and looked at me happily, just waiting for an approving answer. I stayed quiet. To be honest, I didn’t think that highly of their idea to just jump of a cliff, hoping that they would be able to place water right under them in order to survive.

It was hard to do in the game and now that we were here in real life its danger level just rose. “George?”, I looked at him, unsure. “I don’t think that is a good idea…”, I said finally and felt bad for a second as I saw Dreams happy look turn into a disappointed one. “Oh come on, George. I have done water mlgs since I was a little kid!”, his try to convince me was bad.

So bad.

I shook my head. “But this is different, Dream. This is the real life. You’ve never even placed a water bucket in this Minecraft real life world, did you?”, my argument met a wall as he started to grin, placing the water bucket for a split second just in front of him.

“There you go. I did it.”, he laughed and winked at me as he went with Tubbo and Tommy. I snorted disapprovingly but followed them anyways. I really didn’t like their idea. It was just stupid!

We had no idea how many lifes we had nor how it would be to take damage or to die in the first place. We had no idea how we could regenerate and if that even worked.

Hell, we didn’t even know how to craft anything yet!

My heart stopped for a second as we came to a halt. I looked around, everywhere just to not look down. We stood where Tommys dirthouse was, right next to a bench and a music player. Memories flooded my mind. Tommy and Tubbo had stood here so many times. Nevertheless this was so very different.

“I really don’t think that this is a good Id…” – “Trust me, George.”, I looked at Dream. He smiled reassuringly. I bit my bottom lip as my gaze flew back to the ground.

To the very long distance between it and us.

I’ve never had any issues with height. I never thought that this cliff was as deep as it was when I saw it in-game. I stopped counting how many times I jumped down this cliff, nailing water mlgs. But this was so very different!

“I can do this.”, Dream laid a hand on my shoulder and looked down. “I can do this.”, this time it sounded more like him needing to say it to himself. I grew even more nervous.

This was bad.

“Okay then.”, Tommy cheered. “On three.”

“One”, he started counting. My heart went faster.

“Two”, I felt the urge to stop Dream. Cursed him for being as stupid as he was. What a stupid idea to just-

“Three!”

They jumped. I held my breath. Looked at Dream, falling.

He seemed to fall in slow-motion but at the same time he fell too fast.

“Dream!”, I screamed as he reached a point where I thought he wouldn’t make it anymore. In my mind I already thought about how to get down there as fast as possible. How I could help him. But in that exact moment I saw water on the ground and just a second later I heard him cheering.

I fell on my knees as the relief hit me with the force of a bus. He really made it. “I made it!”, he cheered. I closed my eyes letting go of a breath I didn’t even know I held in.

Yes, he really did.

Chapter Text

"Promise me to never do that again, please.", I looked at the path in front of me. Not wanting to look at Dreams face, knowing that it would just make me angrier than I already was. I knew that he was smiling confidently. That he was proud on himself for nailing that damn water mlg. I knew that this was just another proof for him that carefulness sometimes was an unnecessary thing. That the trust in himself would lead him through his life successfully.

"Aww, don't say you were worried about me, Gogy!", he laughed silently and I just took a deep breath.

He really didn't understand me. He didn't know that I really was afraid to lose him. He was so stupid! It has been so stupid to just jump of that fucking cliff. Why can't he see this?! This wasn't a joke to me.

"You could have died, Dream. This is serious!", I said, finally looking up at him. His smile vanished as soon as he understood that I was seriously worried. He was so oblivious sometimes. "Listen George, I am sorry, I-" – "No Dream. You don't understand!", I felt a bit bad to just interrupt him. But I needed this. I needed him to understand in order to keep him alive. I really didn't want to lose him. He was too important for that. "This isn't the first time you did a stupid thing like this!", I said "You always do things without thinking!"

My voice sounded louder than I wanted it to sound. I really didn't mean to make him sad or hurt him or whatever. I just needed him to understand. I have been his friend for so long now. I knew what he did and why he did things like these. I really did. But nevertheless, this habit of his could be the reason of why he could die in this world. I really didn't lie when I said that he did things without thinking them through.

I knew that it was weird. Dream was so good at things like Minecraft or strategy games like chess. He was so good when I came to things like coding and if you ever needed advise he was the right person to ask. Dream had so many good qualities and he was such a clever person. Maybe even the cleverest person I've ever met in my life.

But sometimes he was just so stupid. So naïve. Reckless even! When he was outside, he would talk to every person that was ready to start a conversation with him, being completely unaware that not everybody had good intentions. When he was cooking, he would forget to turn off the heat. When he wanted to go to some place, he would cross the street without looking.

I knew, because sometimes I was there when things like these happened, on call, but there. I knew, too because Sapnap had told me things like these. Dream was so unaware of danger sometimes it really upsetted me.

I knew that this was just him. A part of his personality and I learned how to deal with situations like these. But nevertheless this habit of his really is a great problem in a world like this with monsters and a nether and I don't know what else.

My heart hurt when I noticed that Dream looked at the floor. I saw in his face that I hurt him. I saw that he was thinking. Lost in thoughts. Negative ones. I recognized that what I said was mean. Maybe I could have said it in a better way. Guilt flooded my heart and I gulped as I tried to apologize: "I am sorry Dream, I didn't mean to hurt you, really.". I laid a hand on his back.

"I know, George.", he looked up and smiled at me sadly. I observed him. His golden eyes seemed to be sad. Tired even. "It's just... I know that you are right.", he continued and looked back on the floor again. My heart hurt when I heard the self-hatred in his voice. "I know that I tend to do reckless things and I know that in this Minecraft world that could be very dangerous. I am sorry for scaring you."

I gulped. It relieved me to know that he understood. That he shared my thoughts. It still was no apologize but it was a start.

"But this is different, you know?", he stopped walking and looked at me. My hand fell to my side. I stopped, too. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he did not understand. "You see, this is Minecraft. The game I have played for so many years now. I know that living here is different than just playing it but I know how to do things here." No, you don't. I wanted to tell him this so badly but he let me no time to answer. "I know how this game works and you do too. We studied this games script to the point of changing it to our content. When I tell you, I can do a water mlg I mean it. I am not afraid of this game"

I felt anger rise up again. Wondered why he would say something as stupid as this. It simply made no sense. He must know that he was lying. Not just to me but to himself. This was more than just him trying to tell himself not to be afraid.

"This isn't the Minecraft you know Dream!", I said loudly. I could see the anger in his eyes. "I saw the fear in your eyes when we met these monsters yesterday.", Dream looked away. "I noticed that you weren't sure if you could do that water mlg. I am not stupid you know?", I could see the inner conflict in his eyes as he bit his lip.

I knew that he always wanted to seem mature and like he knew what he was doing. And even though he really did most of the time, this was one of those moments where that wasn't the case. And I knew that he hated it. I could tell by the fact that he just started walking again without saying anything. The self-hatred said enough and I decided to follow him without saying anything else.

I knew that he would answer when he felt like answering. But that didn't change the fact that I despised this tension between us. I hated it when we fought. But at the same time, I didn't feel like apologizing once more. This was his fault for being contradictory.

We walked for a few minutes without saying anything. A tensed silence hovering between us. Even though I had decided to stay quiet I really wanted him to break this silence. I just waited for him to say anything. But every time I checked he seemed lost in thoughts.

I looked forward, seeing the prison and Bad and Skeppys mansion getting nearer. I didn't know if he was walking anywhere specifically or if we were walking just to do something.

Whatever it was. I wanted this to stop as soon as possible. I hated this silence.

As we arrived at Bad and Skeppys mansion we got greeted by a little devil looking creature. Her arm laid around the body of a taller black haired young man. I put on a friendly smile, not wanting to let them know about Dreams and my little fight. It simply was none of their business.

"Hey there.", I said and observed Bads appearance once more. I think I will never get used to this. Even though this world let us have our real heights and more or less some of our normal characteristics, it gave us much from our smp beings and from how our Minecraft skin looked. It was weird looking at him.

A black demon, hidden under black and red clothing.

"Hello you two.", Bad greeted us happily and grinned. I grinned, too. Happy to see them, doing well. Even though I was too distracted from Dream and everything, I have thought about the group we left behind every now and then.

But when Bad seemed as happy as he always was, Skeppy seemed a bit different from how he was yesterday. He greeted us too, but he was more quiet. His face was filled with worry and thoughts. I couldn't read them. I just saw that something was worrying him.

"How was your travel here? Is everybody doing well?", I asked, ignoring the fact that Dream stood quiet the whole time. It made me sad, knowing that he still thought about our little fight. He wasn't here with his thoughts, I knew that.

"Great! We slept pretty well and there were no monsters. Skeppy, the others and me walked here a few hours ago. It is insane to see what we built here! Everything is so realistic!", Bad seemed so happy talking about this world "Even the egg looks just like I always imagined. It is so beautiful! I love it!".

I smiled. It was true. Even though many things looked still a bit blocky and unrealistic there were things here that were just as realistic as it was in the real world.

"True.", I confirmed, nodding. I then smiled. "I bet the egg is humongous!", as I mentioned the egg once more Bads face lightened up even more. Skeppys on the other hand got a bit darker. But I decided not to confront him about that now.

"Do you want to see it?", Bad got my attention back. "I know it would love to talk to you!", my smile vanished. "Erm...", I looked at Skeppy again. He shook his head nervously. Telling me to say no. A big question mark began to rise inside me. "No thanks?", my answer sounded more like a question.

I couldn't help but to be confused. It was strange. Bad and Skeppy seemed a bit off today. Of course, I didn't think that it was weird of him to ask me if I wanted to visit the egg. The weird thing was what he had said next. He was sure that it would love to talk to me? Why would he say that?

"I-I think we should leave them alone now, Bad.", Skeppy said and looked at the little demon next to him. There was a certain urgency in his words. He must have noticed how strange this conversation went. "What?", Bad seemed confused. Dream didn't though. My mood sank a bit as I noticed him, still staring into the distance.

"No, I think we should stay. I can see that George wants to see the egg. He sounded uncertain.". I rose an eyebrow at Bads words.

Why was this so weird? Skeppy shook his head: "No, if he really wants to see it they can come back later, don't you think?". He looked at Dream, observing him and me, pressing his lips together. I was sure that he noticed the tension between us.

"I think Dream and George have some things to talk about.", yes, he definitely did. "How about we go inside and check on our horses, hm?", Bads face lightened up at the thought of his horse. He nodded. "You are right.", Bad looked at me. "Just say something if you want to visit it."

I felt a shiver running down my spine. I started to feel cold fear in my bones as I felt his piercing look on me. Shivering I nodded. The little demon grinned and winked at me as he started walking towards their house.

I couldn't help but look at him walking away. Skeppy did so too and waited until he was sure that Bad wasn't able to hear us anymore. He then looked back at us with concern on his face. I made myself ready to answer him why Dream was so quiet and that it really was no big deal but Skeppy didn't seem like he wanted to confront us about that.

"Listen, you two. I know that this was awkward but Bad has been like this all day long.", I gulped. So this was about Bad. "He didn't even think about the egg yesterday but since this morning he can't think of anything different.", I could hear how much he cared for his friends wellbeing. How much he was worried about Bad. "It is as if it – I don't know – possesses him or something." – "Skeppy?", Bad interrupted him, turning around. "Do you wanna come or..?".

Skeppy looked behind him. "Yes, I am coming!", he shouted and looked at us one more time.

"Please help. I don't want to get possessed by that egg because of him.", with these words he turned around and left.

Letting me and Dream behind with worry.

Chapter Text

"What do you think that was about?", I asked Dream as we turned around walking towards our house. To be entirely honest I wasn't sure if he would answer me. I didn't even know if he listened to Skeppy and Bad when they were talking or if he has been in his own thoughts. He seemed distracted enough. That's why I was surprised when I actually got an answer.

"I dunno."

My head had turned to him, as I heard his voice. Surprised. But Dream was unaware of that. He was just looking at the ground. His mouth was formed like a line and overall, he seemed very absent. But the anger was gone. I smiled. I knew that whatever he thought about right now wasn't our little fight. I was relieved that he seemed to be over it.

"What.", he suddenly looked at me and I felt my heart beating a bit faster as a sudden warmth came over me. I looked away fastly, hoping that he didn't notice. "Nothing.".

The few word changes were forgotten as the town got my attention for probably the first time today. Fascinated my gaze wandered over the different buildings. All those things we built in the past. I felt Dreams gaze on me but ignored it. Looking at the buildings left me overwhelmed. They seemed so much bigger and much more colorful than I thought.

But even though the town was breathtaking, I wasn't able to ignore those red blood vines. They looked as if they were trying to imprison our buildings, completely covering some of them. They were even more present than before. I felt a shiver running down my spine as I stepped closer. I didn't know why but I felt the urge to. "Hm..", I said, thinking. Wondering if they were dangerous. If the egg was. I reached for the vine, wanting to touch it but I felt a warm hand on mine, stopping me.

I looked up. "Don't", Dream shook his head. "We don't know what they do.". My gaze flew back to them. I knew that. I knew that we didn't know anything about them or the egg. "Do you think they are dangerous? Do you think the egg is?", I made a step back, missing the warm touch as soon as Dream took his hand back.

"Of course, they are.", I looked back at him. His golden gaze laid on the vines just like mine did not a second before. I could see that he was observing them. These vines were so big. Bigger than him and I expected them to be. They were scaring me just as much as they were kind of interesting. I felt the urge to step closer again but I resisted. I could see that they were pulsating. As if there was something inside of them.

And that was fucking creepy.

"Do you think that they are the reason why Bad is acting the way he is?"

"No"

Surprised I looked back at Dreams face. Even though I just asked him that question it surprised me that he would say no. I had expected a yes. But Dream didn't notice. He was still staring at those vines. "I think that he is acting like that because he is on the way of being consumed by his smp personality."

I gulped.

"What?", I didn't understand. What was that supposed to mean, now? "Think, George. This is the Dream smp. This is the world we built with everything we invented. The egg is dangerous. These vines are.", he looked at me with a very serious expression. It scared me how serious he was about this. Could it be that this was what he was thinking about?

"Bad is talking about the egg and if that isn't proof enough of its power you just stepped near these vines, wanting to touch them. I saw that look on your face. These vines have a power. The egg is real in this world. Not just a bunch of random red blocks as they were supposed to be in a normal Minecraft world. It is an egg.", even though his words were frightening me I still had problems understanding what he wanted me to realize.

I knew that the egg was an egg. Yes, it made sense to me that we were in the smp. Yes, I understood that if this was less than that, just a normal Minecraft world, the egg would have been just a random collection of red blocks, since there isn't such an item as a red big egg. But what did that have to do with our personalities?

Dream saw that I was confused. I could tell that it made him upset because of his facial expression. He really looked pissed. "George, come on. Do you remember Techno yesterday? Have you noticed how he behaved? We both know that Techno can be an ass, sometimes. But he would never go as far as to leaving our whole group alone in that forest. He seems to be more selfish than he is usually.

It is the same thing with bad. He is a caring person, we both know that. But he didn't notice that his friend behaved the way he did. Strange, sad and scared. Normally you would say that Bad knows Skeppy well enough to figure out every single change of mood. He is not just talking about the egg but colder and less caring. He is more like his smp personality."

If I haven't heard Bad talking, I would have said that his behavior isn't that weird but now that Dream said that he really seemed different. Not much different. But different enough to think about it.

Dream and I looked into each other's eyes for a while. I tried to follow his thoughts. "This is fucked up...", I said. "But Techno got into this world the moment we did. And Bad did so, too. Why would they change but we are still the same?"

Dream shrugged, happy about the fact that I understood him. "I don't know.", he said, looking away. "Its just a theory...". I nodded as I continued walking again. "A good one.".

Dream and I started walking back home, letting this subject fall. Both in thoughts. The sun stood high in the sky. Her light let everything look brighter and I felt warm. Comfortable. The silent sound of voices filled the town. I sighed. The warmth and those voices remembered me on warm summer days in my hometown. Immediately I felt a sharp pinch in my torso. I wonder how my family was doing. Did they know about us being caught in this Minecraft world? I lived alone but someone must have noticed my absence by now, mustn't them?

I didn't know. I have spent many days in my apartment without any contact to the outside world... It wouldn't be so weird therefore... But I bet the others were not as cut off the outside world as I was. Dream for example. I knew that he met up with his friends very often. An advantage when everybody was living on the same continent. Dream needed social contact. Not just through social media but also physically. I knew that he liked personal meetings more than virtual ones.

His family must know that he was gone. I looked at him. I knew that he often got visited by them. Or that he visited them often. They had a good family bond. I could see that he seemed concerned about something. But something was telling me that he wasn't thinking about his family. My heart jumped a bit. He seemed scared. But I could see that he didn't want to talk about it. I wonder where he was in his mind.

I looked around.

Seeing the others everywhere around us. Some were working, some were farming and some of them were just standing there, talking. I wonder what they were thinking and talking about.

If they were thinking about their real lifes, too. Or if they were too much in this game already. Yesterday I had no time to think about my family. But now in this moment of silence I did. "How do you think the others are doing?", I asked Dream. On the one hand to distract him from whatever he was thinking about and on the other hand because I genuinely wanted to know. "I don't know. Tommy and Tubbo seemed to be doing quite well...", I nodded.

"How are you doing?", surprised his gaze landed on me. I smiled. But he didn't smile back. Instead I saw the conflict in his eyes. It hurt me to know that he was debating on whether telling me how he felt or not to. "Great.", came his answer then and my heart got filled with disappointment as I saw that fake smile on his face. Like a mask.

"You are not."

I said determined. It was pretty clear that I was mad at him for being so secretive. The fact that he tried to lie to me filled me with disappointment. I had assumed that he knew that I knew when he was lying. Appearantly he did not. Or he simply didn't care. Dream blinked surprised and I saw that he wanted to answer me something. But I talked before he got the chance to open his mouth. I knew that he wouldn't have said anything useable. That he would have just tried to put a fundament under his ridiculous answer. "I am not stupid, Dream.", we stopped walking for a second and I observed him.

I tried to read him like the open book he usually was. And he stood quiet for a while. Observing me with the same analyzing look on his face. I could see the hurt in his eyes. I knew that my sentence remembered him on our fight earlier. I said it the second time today and I was guessing that I will have to tell him this more than just two times today. He seemed to be awfully off mind.

"No, seriously George. Don't worry about that...", he shook his head. I felt my stomach twitching. It hurt to know that he didn't want to tell me how he was doing. It was just a simple question. A question which was obviously answered with something negative. Even though he tried not to tell me. "It's nothing, really.", he continued talking as he looked around.

"I was just wondering.", he gulped, and I crossed my arms in front of my torso. "If my theory was true then we will have some problems really soon.", he looked at me. The scared look in his eyes scared me too. I have seen this look so much today; it was beginning to look ridiculous. I couldn't tell if he seemed so different because I usually wasn't able to see his frightened face or if he seemed so different because he actually was.

"Not just because everybody will start having their own goals and not just because everybody might start to forget about their other life outside from this, but because...", he stopped. I saw how watery his eyes were. My heart jumped. Now when did that happen? Even though I was confused because of those sudden mood changes I felt the sudden urge to comfort him.

"It doesn't matter.", he said and looked up. I could see him wiping away a tear, gulping once more. "We have different things to worry about.", I noticed that he was trying to change the topic. I knew that his new smile was a fake one. I could tell that he still had those thoughts stuck in his head. I didn't understand why though.

Of course, it would be a problem if we started to change our personalities. It would be catastrophic if we started to forget who we were once. But was it really as horrible as he thought? Was it horrible enough to start crying? I wasn't sure. I didn't want to forget my family. But on the other hand, I didn't want to live in this Minecraft world, if I had to stay here forever with my family constantly on my brain.

That would just be torture.

"We should take care of ourselves first.", he cleared his throat, obviously gaining new strength in his voice. "We can't waste all of my golden apples, you know? We need some real food.", Dream looked at me from the side. I gulped but decided to go with it.

I was sure that it wouldn't have been a good idea to stay at our old topic. I didn't want to fight with him again. "Why don't we ask the others?", I looked around, reliefed to not have to look at him anymore. "I mean.. Look at Punz. He seems to have enough food for like...ages!"

"No, I wanna know how hunting feels like."

Chapter Text

“No, I wanna know how hunting feels like.”

Surprised I took my gaze off Punz and looked at Dream again. That was an answer I did not expect from him. It confused me. Simply made no sense. Hunting was something I could not imagine him doing. As far as I was aware Dream had always been that kind of person who tried to keep both, animals and people, safe. Not one to try and hunt them.

But Dream did not seem to notice my confusion. Instead he held his gaze stuck on the path in front of us. “You want to know how hunting feels like?”, I asked him and eyed a little sheep farm in the distance. I felt a shiver running down my spine. It was pretty obvious that the farm had stayed untouched since we arrived here. There were sheep, standing next to each other. Struggling with nonexisting space.

“Yes.”, Dream sounded sure. “You really want to kill them?”, I didn’t know why I was so confused over this answer. Why I had to ask him so many times if he was sure. It just looked so weird to me. So unfitting. I couldn’t even picture myself touching one of those animals. The thought of killing them was nearly nonexistent. “That’s what hunting means, George.”, Dream suddenly had an axe in his hand and smiled at me warmly.

I looked at the axe, figuring out that it must have been in his inventory the whole time.

I shivered. Again. This was creepy. The netherite axe had a purple-ish shine around it. Making it look too beautiful to make it a murder weapon. I looked up to see a determined expression on his face. “Why though?”.

His expression changed to an annoyed one. “You don’t have to stay and watch me, you know? If you don’t want to see it just go.”, Dream looked at me. I stood still for a minute. Speechless. “Erm no?”, how dare he! “I will stay and watch over you since you officially lost your mind right now!”.

Dream smiled mildly. He didn’t seem to be annoyed anymore. Instead he seemed to be glad. “Then shut up”, he ruffled my hair as he stepped closer to the fence, separating us from the sheep. The fluffy animals looked at us. Their baas started to fill my ears painfully as I stepped closer too, fixing what Dream had ruined. I made sure not to step too close, though. I didn’t want to be near of what will happen.

When Dream opened the fence, I saw him hesitating. But then he swung his axe and I held my breath, watching him with horror. Disbelieve in my eyes. Just a mere second before the shiny blade of the axe could have touched one of the now panicking sheep he stopped. I didn’t see his face. But I really wanted to. I wanted to know what he thought. I knew that I could not stop him from doing what he was about to do. But I could be there for him when he realizes that he can not do it.

Dream was not the kind to kill others. He was too respectful for that.

I heard a scream.

My eyes went wide as I looked down on the sheep that had just made this horrifying noise. “Dream!”, I screamed and walked up to him as I saw blood rinsing through the grass. “What did you..?”, stopped when I stood next to him. “do…?”

The sheep had fallen to the ground, slowly I saw his eyes grow lifeless. But the thing that was most terrifying was not the dead sheep. It was Dreams face.

He was smiling.

I saw his eyes following the red substance in the grass. I saw that he seemed to be completely fantasized by it. “Look.”, he then said and pointed to the sheep. “It vanished.”, with my eyes still wide I looked to where the sheep was and indeed: It really was gone. Instead there was a miniature version of wool and meat laying on the floor.

“What did you do?”, I asked again. My heart went slow. Slower that it did normally. When I looked into Dreams face, I felt weird. As if he wasn’t the friend I knew anymore. I looked into the eyes of a complete stranger. He looked so different.

His smile grew wider. “I did it!”, he said. “I killed it!”

Suddenly the calm feeling that had surrounded us both like a bubble vanished. Instead I felt messy. Emotion wise. The panicked baas came back into my hear. Dream laughed in disbelieve. ”I really killed it!”, he said and took what he gained. The blood had vanished with the animal and the only proof that it had once existed was in Dreams hands.

He suddenly was another person again. Cheering, loud. The smiling, calm and creepy Dream had vanished. I gulped. The sheep were running, trying to escape. They remembered each one of those terrible seconds just the same as I did. Dream however seemed to have forgotten them. “Do you know what that means?”, he looked at me.

I stood quiet. I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know.

“That means that we can kill all of the other mobs, too!”

If I have had water right now, I would have spilled it. He really grew insane! “We don’t have to be afraid of zombies anymore! Or endermen! Or creeper!”, he looked at the sheep, freaking out in their little cage. “We can just… kill them.”.

He stopped. “Do you have a smoker? Or an oven?”, he then asked and I blinked surprised over the sudden change of topic. “Do i- What?”, I asked, still dumfounded. “Something to cook these in!”, he held up the meat and smiled brightly. I shook my head. “No, I don’t…”. This whole situation was so wrong. I didn’t even know why! It just was.

Dream saying things like these was wrong. Him, doing things like these was wrong!

“I think that he is acting like that because he is on the way of being consumed by his smp personality.”

Dreams words came back into my head. Could it really be possible? Could it be that even Dream changed because of this world? I didn’t know why but the thought filled me with sadness. If he did, that would be horrible. If this action of his had been a part of his smp personality, then I didn’t want to know what else he could do with that axe.

If he really changed…

Then we would be in big trouble.

“I think we need one then, don’t we?”, Dream asked and looked at me expectant. I nodded. “I think we do…”, I then said and closed my eyes, opening them again when I heard his voice. “Why don’t you go get one and I-“- he looked at the sheep, smiling, “You know.”. I nodded again. I did. “Fine.”, I said before I walked away, trying to ignore the panicking noises from the sheep.

I was glad that he didn’t make me watch him again. I just couldn’t bare the thought of him killing these sheep. It was ridiculous, I know. We now were in the minecraft world. We had to kill in order to survive. I knew that. But I couldn’t befriend that thought. I didn’t want to kill. I should be glad that he did. I was depending on him in this case. He was the one to protect me in case I got attacked by a monster.

I smiled mildly. Well…

I had to think about the night when I had to pull him with me in order for us to survive.

Maybe I had to protect him too…

I was glad that he decided to stick with me. He could have chosen anyone. I didn’t know if he had a house on this server. I knew that he once had one. But I didn’t know what happened to it.

My thoughts flew back to my house. Technically seen I had no house either. My mushroom house has been completely ruined. Maybe it deserved it, concerning that it was built by the time of the L’Manburg war. But still. It has been my house. I didn’t know why anyone could think that it was a good idea to turn it into a cat maid café.

That was just ridiculous.

Everything was so ridiculous!

I saw Tubbo and Tommy standing in front of Tommys house. They talked to each other. Well, Tubbo was talking. Tommy just listened to him. Looking annoyed.

I smiled.

Their friendship was just as good as mine and Dreams was. Different but just as good. Not as ridiculous as the rest around me. I felt strange in this world. As i didn’t belong here. I mean I didn’t. I belonged to the real world with my cat, my friends and my family.

“Hey, have you seen Sapnap?”

I looked up to see Quackity coming up to me.

He didn’t belong here either.

“Quackity.”, I said, smiling. It made me feel better seeing him. He was usually the best when it came to distract me. And that’s what I needed right now. Distraction. I knew that Dream wanted me to get us a smoker or whatever but he could wait.

“George.”, he laughed, ignoring that he had just asked me a question. I knew that he had noticed. That he had noticed my need to talk. “Are you alright?”, he let go. I just shook my head. “No, I don’t think so…”, I said.

“What’s up?”, he asked and led me to a bench where we sat down. “I don’t know.”, I was being honest. I really didn’t. I mean I did but at the same time I didn’t…. It was hard to say. “Have you noticed anyone behaving strangely today?”, I looked him in the eyes, and I could see that Quackity was worried.

I admired that. He has always been a caring person. Even though he was pretty loud and rude sometimes. I knew that he had his humor and I loved him for that. He was one of those friends I was able to offend without him getting mad at me. But whenever you needed him, he always was there for you, listening.

“No, I haven’t, I guess…”, came his answer shortly after. “Why?”.

I gulped, debating on whether telling him or not was a good idea. “I-“, I stopped, thinking. “I’ve had some really weird conversations today, you know?”, I stared into the distance. “This morning I fought with Dream. It was a stupid fight. Nothing to worry about. But then when we met Skeppy and Bad…”, I formed a fist with my left hand. I was stressed but didn’t know why I was.

“Bad had talked about the egg.”, I looked back at Quackity whose gaze still laid on me. “But he hasn’t been talking about it in a casual way, you know? Instead he seemed… weird… The whole conversation was, to be honest. He asked me if I wanted to visit it and that he was sure that it would love to talk to me. Skeppy on the other hand, he-“ – “Wait.”, I stopped. “Did he say he was sure that the egg would love to talk to you?”, Quackity asked and I nodded.

“That is literally what I said.”

He nodded. “Strange.”

“However,”, I started again, “Skeppy had been awfully quiet. I mean Dream had been too, but I didn’t think much of that since we had just fought but…”, I stopped again, revisioning the conversation in front of me. “Him and Skeppy both noticed Bads weird behavior and Skeppy had told us that Bad has been asking this way the whole day.

When Dream and I talked about this he said that he thought that Techno, too had been weird yesterday and that this was the reason for him to think that maybe everyone of us is going to change. To get consumed by our smp personality, you know?”, by the time I looked back at my friend, slowly deleting the inner picture I had drawn in my mind, I stopped shortly.

Quackity was looking away, thinking. I could see that he was by the way his face looked. It was nearly expressionless. Would have been frightening if I haven’t gotten used to it.

“That is interesting.”, he said after a short moment of silence. I rose an eyebrow. “What?”, I said and he looked at me.

“Us, changing. That is an interesting theory. Because Dream was right. Techno really had been weird yesterday. I mean, I haven’t talked to Bad but from what you told me that would make sense. Fundy has been a bit weird today too, you know?”

Really? Why haven’t he told me then when I asked him. “I was making a comment on you and Dream sleeping together-“, I felt my face grow warm. “And he shrugged it off, obviously annoyed. He wanted me to stop talking about you. He looked mad; I didn’t know why but now it makes sense.”

Quackity seemed to be proud on his realization. But in the very same moment his face got darker. “But when everybody is changing the longer we are on this server…”, his eyes grew big. “We will not only be forgetting about our families but also be surrounded by literal psychopaths!” I closed my eyes, confused, shaking my head. “What?”, I said, opening them again.

“Dream. Has he done anything weird today?”, Quackity turned his whole body to me, now sitting sideways on this bench. His brown piercing eyes seemed to look right into my soul. I knew that if I were to answer this question with a yes, things would not end well. But I was bad at lying. Dream had been weird.

I fiddled with my fingers, still staying quiet. Looking away. I really shouldn’t tell him.

“George. Your silence is already telling me, you know? What did he do? I need to know it.”, Quackity now was serious. Very serious. But I shook my head. “He did no-“ – “Don’t.”, I looked up surprised at the mad sound in my friends voice. “Don’t you dare lie to me, George.”.

I shivered.

“I- I mean he just- It wasn’t that weird now that I think about it.”, I looked away again. I just couldn’t look him in the eyes. I could feel him getting angrier. I didn’t know why I felt the urge to protect Dream. Technically seen Quackity was no thread to him. What could he do?

“Tell me, George.”

I took a deep breath before I looked at his face yet again. “When we were walking on the prime path earlier, he- he told me that we should get ourselves some food. When I-”, I broke off, gulping. Insecurity growing inside of me. “When I proposed to just ask someone for some bread, he declined saying that he would rather want to- hunt.”

Quackity took his sight from me, now looking towards the direction were I just came from. “H-He wanted to know how that would be like and when we arrived at a sheep farm he really- he killed one.”, While I was talking, I realized how bad that sounded. I knew that I should just shut up. “He was weird when he saw the sheeps blood. He wasn’t shocked or anything. He seemed happy. Proud. He was smiling.”.

When I ended my little monologue a heavy blanket of complete silence fell over us. It was a bad one, though. One of these silences you would get when you were waiting in the waiting room of a doctor. An unsettling one.

“That’s all I need to now, thank you.”, Quackity stood up. Looking at me. “I- I have to go now.”, he looked away again. “Talk to you later, George!”, he made a step towards the direction of his house. “It was nice meeting you. Thank you for telling me!”

And with these words he left me alone. Alone on the bench with that unsettling feeling in my stomach. I felt guilt. Guilty for telling him. I shouldn’t have. I feel like it had been a mistake. A bad one. I was sure that whatever he needed this information for wouldn’t be good. Neither for Dream nor for me.

Chapter Text

The sun has started to make its way towards the horizon. A cool breeze surrounded me and my thoughts as I was still sitting on that bench, staring into nothingness. It felt good to be surrounded by silence. A calming silence. I still heard the whispering voices of the others around me but it had gotten quieter.

I still regretted telling Quackity. Which was weird because I have always seen him as a friend. A good one. We’ve had so many streams that we have spent goofing around. Laughed over the stupidest things. He had always been a person that was good in distracting me whenever I had needed it. But this time it had been different. He did not distract me. Instead he had asked me to go into deeper detail and left me after that.

Could it be that he, too started to get consumed by his smp personality? God, suddenly Dreams stupid theory really made its way into my head. It wasn’t leaving me anymore. Always hovering around in my head. I was afraid that I got paranoid. Maybe I was just stupid. Maybe I was the weird one for questioning everybodys actions. It was absurd.

I should be thinking about other things. I was almost certain that I was interpreting to much into everything. Instead I should start to actually help Dream build a home where we could stay. Now that I had seen my house in the daylight, I had noticed how small it actually was. Too small for two men to live in. I needed a better house. An actual one.

“George? Did you get the smoker?”, confused I turned around. I did not expect him to find me here. I smiled at the dark blond-haired young man, who was coming up to me. He really was handsome. He was grinning contently. Maybe I really did think to much about his stupid theory. He just wanted us to be able to live a great life here. Him, killing those sheep wasn’t that weird, was it?

He had just wanted to get some food by himself. Even though he had done stupid things he has always been that type of guy that wanted to be independent. He just didn’t want to depend on anyone, maybe even be in someones debt for living off their food. “No, I didn’t”, came my reply and I flinched the moment I realized that I really had done nothing else than thinking and talking to Quackity. “Georgeeeee!”, Dream cried amused and the same time reproachfully, hugging me from behind. “I am sorry!”, I laughed, leaning into his warm touch. He stood behind the bench I was sitting on, making it easy for me to lean onto him.

It felt good. I had never been that kind of person who got touchy with friends. I didn’t even know why. I had just never felt like it. I never had the urge to hug them or cuddle with them or something. But I knew from Sapnap that Dream had always been the complete opposite. They cuddled all the time. I had no idea why I decided to lean into that one-sided hug now, but it felt good. Warm.

“I spoke to Quackity and then I forgot about it.”, I then replied. It wasn’t a lie. He let go. “You spoke to Quackity?”, he asked and walked around the bench to sit down next to me. I nodded. “How is he doing?”, Dream genuinely looked like he was worried about him. “He was doing fine, I think. We haven’t been talking for long, though. He left after five minutes or something.”

“Hmmm…”, said Dream and nodded slowly. “But I am glad that he was doing fine.”, he smiled. “I have talked to a few people, too actually. Karl, Foolish and Sapnap are in Kinoko Kingdom. Puffy said that it was beautiful. According to her there are a few people that decided to join them. Niki and Will live under it, apparently. I have only seen a bit of that house when I watched Karls stream once. Tubbo and Ranboo have decided to visit Snowchester tomorrow. I don’t know if Tommy will join them. He didn’t seem to be happy over the fact that Ranboo is now part of their team. Which is weird since their rivalry had always been a joke, as far as I know.”

I bit my lip. “So our group really split up, heh?”, Dream nodded. “Philza started his trip to his and Technos house today so he is gone, too. Sam too had decided to go to wherever his island is and I heard that HBomb has made his way towards his savannah house.”. I nodded. To be honest I didn’t even know that Sam had an island or that HBomb had built himself a house in the savannah. But nevertheless, it surprised me how many people had their base outside from this town.

“You don’t have to stay here, you know?”, Dream sighed and looked away. The sun was nearly gone now. The wind has gotten colder. His question came sudden. “I know that you are a part of Kinoko Kingdom. You can go there, if you want.”, I looked at my best friend with a surprised expression. I did not think that he would make me an offer like this. Even though calling it an offer was kind of stupid.

Of course, I could go wherever I wanted to go but “Where would you want to stay, then?”, Dream smiled. “It’s not like I have no house, you know?”. I scoffed. “I know but your houses are either griefed or too far away. And I would not want to go into the nether, to be honest…”, now that I thought about it, living in a Minecraft world was so very different from living in the real one.

“I’ll be fine.”, Dream said and looked at me confidently. But I could see that he was lying. I knew that he didn’t want me to go, without wanting to sound conceited. To be honest I really would want to know how Kinoko Kingdom looked like. I would love to go there. It had another energy than this town right here. I didn’t even know why I wanted to life rather there than here. But I was sure that if I really wanted to rebuild my house, it would make the most sense to rebuild it there.

“You can come with me, you know?”, Dream blinked. “You’re serious?”, I laughed quietly. “Of course, I am. I would love to live there with you.”, I wasn’t lying. Even though he really freaked me out before, I think that living with this idiot would be a funny idea. “We’ve never lived together. You don’t know how annoying I can get.”, I shook my head, dismissing his objection. “Shut up idiot. I’ve had to deal with you for years now. Trust me-“, I winked at him. “I can handle you.”

Dreams smiling face turned into a laughing one. I felt happy as I heard the sound of his laugh in my ears. Even though it had started to get really cold by now his laugh warmed me up. I felt free now that I heard him laughing. “Thank you, George.”, he said by the time he stopped, looking me in the eyes. “You’re welcome.”, I replied, smiling warmly.

“I guess we can go get a smoker, then?”

We could. So we got up and walked towards the café. Dream led the way and to be honest I didn’t know why exactly he would go there. I had literally nothing in my inventory. Just that netherite sword he had given me last night. Why would he go there, then? We deffo needed more material than just that. “Pay attention to the monsters.”, he whispered and my eyes widened when I remembered that it was nighttime.

Nearly immediately I heard a noise to my right. My heart jumped as I took my sword and held it in the direction the noise came from. Slowly I followed my friend, but I didn’t look at him. Instead I eyed the darkness right next to me. The sun had vanished completely by now and the night had fallen. The cold wind was making me shiver and the sudden silence that was surrounding us was making me uncomfortable. “George!”, I swung around and took a deep breath as I saw Dream fighting with a skeleton. My heart was running, my eyes widened. The skeleton looked frightening. Even though Dream was landing one hit after the other the skeletons eyes were directed at me.

The deep black, empty eyeholes were staring at me, the bow of the skeleton was aimed at me. Dream was doing his best to protect me, swinging his axe, hitting the skeleton. I on the other hand was completely frozen in shock. The sword in my hand felt heavier than it did before and I felt the urge to let it fall. I didn’t know what made me keep it but whatever it was, it probably saved my life.

I was scared. Was scared for Dream to lose his life. He seemed so reckless. Fearless. But I could see that his hits were based on luck. Not on experience. If I could, I would have smiled. He said he knew how to play this game. Yes. He clearly did.

I felt a shiver running down my spine as I felt a rough hand on my mouth, pushing me back. Out of surprise I let my sword fall. I tried to scream but failed. A disgusting smell reached my nose and I tried to escape the tight grasp. Suddenly I felt an agonizing pain as something bit me in the neck. I screamed out of pain and I felt blood running down my back. For a split second I saw Dream rushing around, panic in his eyes but then heard a loud, hungry growl and closed my eyes, crying. A zombie.

I did my best, trying to get out of its tight hug but I felt myself getting weaker with every bite he took. My muscles just didn’t want to do what I told them to. Instead the pain just grew worse. Suddenly I made it, freed myself out of the zombies grasp and stumbled forward, searching for my sword.

I felt the blood on my back but I did not feel the pain anymore. I wasn’t sure if I had to thank the shock for that but I was glad about it. When I finally felt the metallic grip of the sword I swung around, seeing the zombie stumble into my direction.

“No!”, I screamed as I ran towards the greasy green creature, swinging my sword. Somehow, I managed it to stab the sword right through the zombies heart. It growled in pain but reached at me, nevertheless. I jumped back, stabbing the zombie again. I closed my eyes, overwhelmed by fear. And again. And again. And ag-

“George, I think you made it.”, Dreams voice made me flinch. His hand on my shoulders nearly made me faint. I opened my teary eyes and looked up at him. He tried to smile at me. “Come on, we have to hurry.”, I could hear in his voice that he was worried and still in shock I ran after him.

Finally safe I sank to the floor, sobbing. With a loud metallic clink, the sword met the floor. Hot tears reigned my face and I just wanted to cry. I didn’t know where it came from but my heart felt so heavy. My throat was tight and I found myself struggling to breathe. “Heyy, George…”, I felt Dream right next to me. “Shh…. You are safe now…”, he whispered and sat down on the floor with me. “I am here…”, he said as he laid his arms around me, making me fall onto him. I now leaned against him, his arms around me. But I just continued sobbing. The fear was still deep under my skin and I was trembling. Dreams presence calmed me. But the more I won control over myself the more came the pain back.

“The zombie really got you, hm?”, he asked silently as he observed my neck. I sobbed. “Don’t worry. That’ll heal… I still got sum golden apples. I think they can heal ya.”. I looked up, desperately trying to get the control over my body again. I didn’t want to cry. It was stupid!

I wanted to look into Dreams eyes. His calming, warm, golden eyes but my tears were making it impossible. Damn it, Dream had fought a skeleton. And did he cry? When he had seen it, he hadn't hesitated to kill it and what had i done? I had stood there, paralyzed by its stupid empty eyes! Completely unaware of the dangers that had been surrounding me!

Chapter Text

“I- I am such a coward…”, I whispered and felt Dream flinch. “What?”, he asked surprised. “No! You are not!”, he then said. “You killed that zombie all by yourself!”, I sniffed, looking away. Trying to get a clear vision again. “But I got bitten by it because I had gotten paralyzed when the skeleton arrived.”. “No…”, even though I did not see it, I felt Dream shaking his head. “It is normal to be afraid. Everybody is.”. I looked up, flinching as I felt a sharp pinch of pain rushing through my neck. “But I just stood there! You fought it! I could have never” – “George, you fought that zombie.”.

“Yeah and look what it did.”, I pointed to my neck. Dream sighed. “Fighting with you makes no sense.”. I stood quiet. I knew that he was right. I hated fighting with him. How ironic, considering that we have fought so many times since we have gotten into this world. “Is it hurting?”, Dream asked me then, letting go of me to remove the blood-stained shirt from the wound.

“It does.”, I said, sniffing. Damn it. Why was I still fucking crying! I was safe now!

“Wait, ima get you an apple.”, Dream carefully laid a hand against my cheek, looking into my eyes with a warm smile. “Please just stop crying.”, he said and I looked away, leaning out of his touch. He stood quiet. Stood up, walking towards his hole in the ground. I watched him, wiping away my tears, trying to calm down. Please, I just needed to calm down again. I really did not want to cry. It was ridiculous.

“Here we go…”, I heard Dream saying as he gave me an apple. I thanked him silently, taking the apple. “You’re welcome…”, he smiled, watching me biting into the sweet golden fruit. In the same moment I realized how hungry I have been and took another bite. And another one. The apple really was tasting good. I felt its juice running down my chin, but I did not care. I felt as if the apple was even better than the one, I ate yesterday.

“Feeling better now?”, Dream asked me and as I looked up at him, I saw something in his eyes. An emotion I could not name. “Yes”, I smiled, wiping my chin. “Thank you, Dream.”. As I smiled at him, his eyes started shimmering warmly. They were fucking beautiful.

“No problem, Gogy.”, he leant down. “Just… let me check, okay?”, he carefully bent me over slightly to see my neck and I closed my eyes, expecting pain to rush through my body, being surprised as it was completely gone. “It looks good…”, Dream whispered happily. “That is insane…”, he let go of me and smiled at me. “I think the Minecraft world has its advantages, too.”. I just nodded, smiling at my friends happiness.

By the time we finally laid down, Dream had managed it to craft us a smoker. However, we now had an even deeper hole in the floor since Dream had needed some stone for an oven. He had gotten the information on how to open the big inventory with the crafting plots we needed to make an actual crafting table. It looked like we had to hit our chests in order for the inventory to pop up in front of our eyes, looking like an interactive digital screen.

It had been interesting watching him craft.

The first thing we used the new smoker for, had been for smoking Dreams well-earned meat and he had been the one that ate it all since I had been full thanks to the golden apple. Now we both laid in our beds, being pretty worn out. “George?”, he whispered after a short amount of silence. “Hmm?”, I asked sleepy. “Did you…”, he broke off. “Did you tell Quackity about my theory?”.

Suddenly I was fully awake again. Wondering why he would care. But at the same time the guilt came back.

Right. I had forgotten about that.

I felt myself getting uncomfortable again. “I-“, I started, not actually wanting to tell him. I have heard the slightly scared undertone in his voice. I somehow knew that he wouldn’t have wanted me telling Quackity.

“I did.”, I then answered honestly and closed my eyes again. I was afraid of his answer. I knew that my answer had disappointed him. “Oh…”, he said, staying quiet again. I bit my lip. Here we go. “What did he say?”. I shut my eyes tightly. His voice sounded controlled. But I knew that he was disappointed. Both. Disappointed and somehow scared. That confused me. Why would he be scared?

“He said that it was interesting…”, I answered then. “Hmmm…”, came from Dream. I opened my eyes, staring into the darkness. I really felt bad. “I feel like it had been a mistake…”, I admitted silently, still staring at the white ceiling. “Why should it have?”, Dream asked, propping himself on one elbow to look at me. I blinked. So he did not think that me telling Quackity had been a mistake?

I now sat up, too. Looking at his dark silhouette. “I don’t know. He just reacted a bit weird, I guess…”.

Even though the whole room has been completely dark I saw his facial expression change for a split second. But he regained the old one really quickly. “What did he do?”, Dream suddenly seemed pretty interested. “He”, I gulped. “He asked me about you…”, Dream laid back again. Looking defeated. His behavior confused me. My distrust of him grew with every move he made.

“Why?”, I asked, looking down at him. Dream closed his eyes, breathing out audibly. “It’s really nothing, try to sleep now, Geo-“ – “Just tell me, Dream”. I interrupted him; a bit mad at him for trying to withhold the truth from me.

Yet again.

Dream opened his eyes, looking directly at me. I could see that he was upset. But I just let him be. I really wanted to know why he behaved as suspiciously as he did.

“I think that they might try to imprison me, George.”.

Surprised I wrinkled my forehead. “If everybody got overwhelmed by their smp personality, I would become the villain of this story.”, Dream explained then. “They imprisoned me in the actual game. But here in this world I am a free man. If they know about my theory and make the connection then I won’t be free for long”.

I understood, blinking. It made sense. If they really were to connect him and his theory, they really might get afraid of him.

“Whatever will happen, I will be there, fighting for you and your freedom.”, I ensured him and laid back. I was serious. I didn’t want them to imprison Dream. I needed him here. When Dream answered me I heard a smile in his voice, that made me smile, too.

“Thank you, George.”

The next morning started very chill. I got woken up by my dear friend. “Georgeee… Wake uuup..!”, groaning I turned over to the other side of the bed. My mind still was way too tired to process where I was and why I was here. I heard a silent giggle. “Geooorgeee…!”

“What?”, my reply sounded raspy. But it was easy to hear that I wasn’t happy about being woken up. “You know what? It’s nothing, really. I think I can just go to Kinoko Kingdom all by myself. I am sure that after your little chat with Quackity yesterday they will be really happy to see me… “, that was the moment I finally opened my eyes. I remembered again. I knew that Dream had tried to be funny but he had failed miserably. Because I knew that what he had said could be awfully wrong.

Tired I looked up to see a fully clothed Dream, ready for the day. “Wow, you really should go take a bath, you know?”, Dream grinned. “You smellin’!”. Dream laughed at himself and at the fake british accent he had used to mock me. But I just pulled the covers closer to my face. “Shut up, moron… I bet your smelling just as bad.”, I knew that I was lying. I didn’t know when he had showered last but he did not smell at all. Instead he smelled really good.

Like the forest.

Stupid George. How does a fucking forest smell like?

“Why don’t we go take a bath together, then?”, I reopened my eyes at that answer. Surprised. Dream laughed at my facial expression but I could see him blush faintly. “Oh yeah?”, I asked then. “I wanna see you take a bath with me.”, I then said, feeling myself get encouraged by his red cheeks. But Dream did not back out. Instead he got closer to my face.

“Oh, you will, Georgie…”, he laid a hand on my face, caressing it for a second before he leaned even closer. With a fast beating heart, I closed my eyes, looking down, hiding my face under the covers. “Your wound is fully healed by now, by the way”, I heard Dream whisper right into my ear and felt a shiver running down my spine as his warm breath met my skin.

“However,” he then started, grinning widely as he turned away from me. “We have to get ready to leave this place now. I don’t think that it would be a good idea leaving this chest behind with everything that is in it.”, Dream went into the little hole he made and I could hear the sound of an opening chest right after.

Carefully I opened my eyes again, freeing myself from the safe blanket. “You are a dick.”, I whispered as I got up, stretching myself. Desperately trying to calm down my fast beating heart. I didn’t know why it was freaking out like this but it surely annoyed me.

“Oh, am i?”, I flinched. I hadn’t thought that he would hear me from that distance. “Yes.”, I answered, nodding. “Well. I think you can carry all the stuff by yourself then, can’t you? Since I am a dick and all that?”, Dream got out of the hole, grinning widely, throwing netherite armor to the floor, along with some golden apples and weapons.

I just stood there, shocked. Staring at him and at the stuff. Dream laughed. “Just kidding. I kept the other half of it. Now hurry, we don’t have all day!”, Dreams sudden urge to leave this place surprised me. I knew that we had to leave at some point but I did not know that we had to leave as fast as possible.

“Are you okay?”, I asked, picking up the stuff, storing it in my inventory. I thought it was weird of him. Wanting to leave as quickly as he did, I mean. I understood that he didn't want to be here much longer now that it looked like Quackity had this dangerous hunch that Dream could become a potential villain. But I didn't think he had to go now.

Dreams behavior remembered me of the behavior he showed us during his manhunts. I could tell that his mind has been running since last night. I noticed that he tried to hide it from me, maybe because he didn’t want to scare me but I knew him too well for not noticing that.

“Of course, I am!”, Dream answered watching me. But I knew that he was lying. “Why wouldn’t I be?”, he then asked, tilting his head. I stopped for a second, looking up at him. He had noticed that I knew how he felt. But he did not mention it. I decided to just leave this topic be. Not wanting to provoke a fight or anything. Dream looked tensed. Like. Extremely tensed. “I don’t know. You’re just weird.”, I then said, picking up a netherite chestplate. “Weird?”, Dream scoffed. “How am I being weird?”.

I chuckled at the outraged sound of his voice, using his answer to turn my question into a slithly offending joke. Knowing that it would lighten up the mood again. “Oh, never mind. It’s just you.”, I winked at him before I stood straight, looking at him with a smile on my face. Dream laughed silently. “You’re such an idiot.”, he stated before he looked out of the window. I watched him, grinning.

“Oh.”, he then said. I saw his smile vanish and looked out of the window, too. Wanting to know why he tensed up again. I gulped as I saw Quackity, Wilbur, Nicky, Eret and Fundy walking up to the little house of ours. Immediately I looked back at my friend. I knew that this was what he had tried to prevent. Why he had wanted us to leave as fast as possible. Even though we both knew that even if we had made it to leave before their arrival, they would have found us in Kinoko Kingdom anyways.

Chapter Text

“Looks like we got some visitors…”, I said silently. “Don’t worry.”, I added “You will be okay.”.

I nodded at Dream, smiling carefully. “Let’s go, welcome them.”.

By the time we stepped outside of the house our visitors have arrived by the little pond, splitting up our house from the rest of the server. “Good morning, guys.”, I smiled, walking up to them. My smile was fake and I was sure that Quackity had noticed it right away. He knew me and my facial expressions. “May I ask what got you here?”.

I heard Dream open and close the door behind me. He was following me. Suddenly I felt the need to protect him. Like a mother duck, trying to defend her ducklings.

“Good morning George.”, Quackity said, nodding. Even if he had noticed my fake smile he did not show it. Instead he was smiling. An awkward smile. A smile that made me shiver. I have never seen it on him but I knew that this smile meant nothing good. That it was the proof of bad intentions. And I hated that.

It surprised me how fast my opinion of my friend had changed. Quackity had been the first person I have spoken to in this world. And it had helped, seeing him back then. But right now, he was a threat to me. A villain if you wanted to call him that. “We are here to visit Dream, to be honest.”, Quackity then said and looked at the man standing behind me on the pond-crossing bridge. “Why don’t we go inside?”, Quackity nodded in the direction of my house.

But I shook my head. I did not want them to be in a small room with me and Dream. “I think we can talk right here, to be honest.”.

I looked at the small group in front of me, trying to hide my nervousness. My palms were sweating and I cursed them for doing so. I really tried to sound confident and I was concerned that they might tell them just how nervous I was.

I knew that even though they technically were stronger than the both of us were, I had to protect my friend. I wasn’t one to talk to a large group of people. In fact, I was one of the most introverted friends somebody could possibly have in their life.

Having the attention of so many people, even if you have once considered them as friends, was frightening to me. But I knew that in this case I had to try my best to be strong for me and for Dream.

I knew too, that Dream was usually the extroverted one and that he should be here trying to defend himself but somehow that felt wrong to me. Dream had always been one of those guys to act all tough and strong. But I have seen his eyes when he had noticed our visitors. I knew that he was scared. I understood why he was. If I had been in his place and had known that these people were trying to put me in a prison that I had helped building. With a reason like this. Then I would have been just as scared as he was.

Quackity tilted his head after he had heard my answer. If he hadn’t noticed my hostile demeanor by now this would have been the moment where he would have noticed it. I could tell that it confused him. He knew me and he knew that I wasn’t one to start a fight without having a good reason. I saw that he wanted to ask me why I acted the way I did. But he stood quiet. Instead Niki decided to join our little conversation. “Are you alright, George?”, she asked, confused.

I blinked. I did not think that she would notice it, too. “I am, thank you.”, I then said as I tried to smile again. Even though these people here right in front of us had no good intentions I knew that I needed to calm myself. They haven’t done anything bad yet other than asking us to talk.

“You know what?”, Dream joined our conversation and surprised I turned around to look at him. “It’s alright.”, he added, looking at our guests. “They just want to talk.”, he then said and looked at me, smiling. I saw that his smile wasn’t a real one. But I didn’t say anything. If he said that it was alright, then I would believe him.

“Thank you Dream.”, Wilbur now said and nodded, a serious look on his face. Dream stared at him for a while, thinking. But then he nodded too and turned around, opening the door to leave our guests in.

I on the other hand stood where I was, watching Wilbur and Eret stepping into the house first. Niki and Fundy came in right after them and as Quackity stood beside me he stopped. “Are you alright, pal?”, he asked and nodded in Dreams direction, showing him that he was fine with him closing the door.

“Listen, Quackity. If you are here because of what I said yesterday, then…” – “It’s fine, George. We just came to talk to you guys. No bad intentions, I swear.”, I looked at him. Mistrust building up inside me. But I knew that I had to trust him at this point. He on the other hand looked honestly worried about the way I decided to act.

“Fine then.”, I said and he nodded, walking towards the little, white house, holding the door open for me. I stepped inside, without thanking him. Sitting down on a table in one of the corners. The house was way too small for all of us to fit right in but somehow everybody managed it to find a more or less comfortable seat.

“What do you want to talk about?”, I asked after a short amount of time that had been filled with silence. “Well…”, Wilbur then began, looking at Quackity, waiting for his permission to speak. The raven-haired man nodded and Wilbur looked back at us as he began: “Yesterday, Quackity have had a nice talk with George. He had told me that George had talked about the weird behavior of explicit people on this server. He had told him about Dreams theory that the reasoning behind the different personality switches might be that all of us are going to change. That every single one of us will change to the person she or he is in our smp story.”

I gulped. Suddenly I knew just how serious they were.

“I am sure that you can understand the worry that your theory brought over us. You see… if everybody here would change that would be the cause of war and endless fights about power. Our little group of people here are the only ones that know about it and I think it would be the best if it stayed like this. We don’t want anybody to get scared and maybe do something stupid.”, Wilburs voice had changed to that type of voice he always had when he had spoken to a bunch of people back when he has been the president of L’Manburg. I just couldn’t help but notice.

He had started to change, too. I bet all of us already did at some point.

“Furthermore, we would like to propose something. A safety measure if you want to call it that.”, Wilbur inspected everybody in our little round for a second before he started again. This time only focused on Dream who sat next to me. “We would ask of you, Dream, to give us your permission to get you in a safe place. Since a change of personality would mean that you would become evil, I think that it would be the best idea to keep you somewhere safe. Where neither you nor anyone else could harm you. Do you understand that?” – “No.”, everybody looked at me as I gave them the answer.

I stood up. “I don’t think that locking him away is a human way to deal with our situation.”, Dream nodded. “I really appreciate it that you guys are worried about my well-being but I don’t think that imprisoning me is the right way to make sure that I stay safe.”, Dream looked at Wilbur as he spoke. “I will come up with a better plan. Just give me some time.”. Wilbur shook his head. “That is literally the point, Dream. There is no time. And there is no other way.”

I had known that even though Wilbur had phrased it like a question it really had been a threat. “I ask you to leave us be, now.”, I said in a serious voice. Again, I felt the surprise of the others. But I saw no other way to get out of this. The anger inside of me built a nice foundation of my spoken sentences.

“Not before you agree to our plan.”, Quackity said. He now stood up, too. Walking up to me. If I would have had the possibility, I would have taken a step back. But this house was too small for that. “I don’t know where your sudden mood change comes from, George.”, Quackity began, visibly angry about the “sudden mood change” he addressed, “But I need you to understand that Dream is a threat to all of us.”, Quackity observed me. “I saw how scared you were yesterday.”, my eyes widened at his words. Suddenly I felt Dreams surprised gaze on me.

Fuck you, Quackity.

Is what I really wanted to tell him in that moment. But I knew that I could not do that right now. Instead I needed to make sure that Dream did not find out about just how true that statement had been.

I looked at my best friend. I knew that he hadn’t noticed that his behavior yesterday had scared me and I saw the hurt look on his face now that he heard about it. “I wasn’t scared of him, Quackity.”, I then answered, looking back at the raven-haired man in front of me. I was sure that my eyes had started to sparkle with anger.

Quackity had made me angry. I knew why he had mentioned my fear. He had done this with an intention. He was trying to trick Dream into giving in by giving him the expression of me fearing him and that was what made me mad. It was an evil tactic.

I could see a short glimpse of confusion in his eyes when I answered him and I understood why he had been confused. I knew, that I really had been scared of him, yesterday. But the monster attack after that had showed me that there was no reason to be scared of Dream. Even if Dream had started to change by now, he still was my best friend. And he still cared for me.

And that was the only thing that counted in my opinion.

“Yesterday has been the first day of us being stuck in this weird Minecraft world. I don’t know about you but I personally miss my family and my pets at home. I have been missing them the whole time that we’ve been here. And seeing Dream and everybody else starting to accept our fate of being stuck here made me scared. Scared of never being able to leave this world again.”.

Quackity blinked. “That makes no sense.”, he then said. “You have been scared because of-“ – “Shut the fuck up now, Quackity.”, I made a fist. I have tried my best to prevent Dream from believing Quackity. I couldn’t afford Quackity trying to undo that.

“That is not even the point here.”, I said, changing the topic intentionally. “You wanting to lock Dream away as if he was a murderer or a thief or something… That is the point. And that is what I am trying to prevent. Dream is no criminal or a heartless creature that deserves to be locked up. He is a person with a loving heart and good intentions. So please. I ask you to give us the time needed to come up with a plan that will actually help us moving on.”.

I felt the tension between him and me. I felt the tension between Wilbur and Dream and everybody else in this house. I could practically feel the anger about our different ideas of dealing with this situation but we just needed time. “You know what?”, Quackity then asked, making a step towards me. “Fine. We will give you twelve hours to think of something. But then we will meet again. And if you got nothing then we will have it our way, trust me.”.

Quackity looked like he wanted to say something else but he stopped himself. “See you later.”, he said when he signaled the others to leave.

“Thank you, George.”, I turned around to look at my best friend who had decided to speak the moment he was sure that the others weren’t able to hear us anymore. “I don’t think I would have made it without you, honestly.”, he added and I smiled at him. Relieved about the fact that he really seemed to believe my lie about the whole afraid-thingy.

“For you, always.”, I then said and his smile grew a bit.

“I think we can go to Kinoko Kingdom now, right?”, I asked and Dream nodded. “I think we can. But seriously. Please take a shower after that.”, I laughed when I saw him winking at me and shook my head after that. He really was an ass sometimes.

Together we walked out of the house the second time today, preparing ourselves to start a life in a kingdom that I once helped founding. A kingdom where I could feel safe and a kingdom where I hoped Dream would be able to feel safe, too.

Chapter Text

By the time we were able to identify the first house of Kinoko Kingdom in the distance, we already got recognized by our long-lost friend Sapnap. I didn’t know what exactly he had wanted that far away from his house but I was just as happy to see him as he was to see us. “Dream! George!”, he yelled, running up to us. I felt myself walking a bit faster than before too and even Dream sped up a bit. “Hello Sap!”, I said as we finally met and he hugged both of us happily.

“Ey, what took you guys so long?”, he then asked, playing the offended one. I grinned. Amused at his refreshing humor. It felt good meeting him. Relaxing. “What are you talking about!”, I jumped into the little game of his, crossing my arms in front of my chest. “You were the one who left us!”, Sapnap laughed. “Well… yeah!”, he put the hand on his waist to underline the ‘duh’-tone in his voice. “But then you have to follow me, I thought that was obvious!”

Dream laughed now too. “Or you could have just stayed with us and then we would have been together from the start.”, Sapnap shook his head. “Erm, no? Who would have taken care of Kinoko Kingdom then, hm? You didn’t think that I would have left Karl alone, did you?”, Sapnap smiled. “Besides that, there wouldn’t have been enough space for us four.”.

I shook my head. “Thank you Sapnap for being as considerate as you were. We really appreciate that.”, Sapnap nodded. “Thought so. Now come with me, I need to show you around!”, I followed him happily and Dream did the same. It has been a while since I’ve last seen Kinoko Kingdom. It had changed a lot, I noticed when we finally arrived. “Wow!”, I said. “Who built all this?”, I asked, looking around. There we houses that looked like mushrooms all over the place. One house though was different. It was bigger than the other ones. Taller. Looking like a pure mushroom and I wouldn’t have recognized as a house if it hasn’t had windows.

“I did!”, Sapnap then answered and I looked at him, surprised. “Sapnap, I really love you but I don’t think that you can built something as good as this.”. Sapnap scoffed and the moment he wanted to say something he got interrupted by a new person joining our conversation. “I built most of the houses here.”.

A black-haired man caught my attention. My eyes widened in a pleased shock. He looked pretty good, different from all the other people I have met. I didn’t even know why. He was the same size as Dream but he had black hair in comparison to him. The man looked as if his skin was made out of pure gold, green lines drawing a beautiful pattern on his skin. His clothes were a bit weird though. They looked like a shark-onesie, even had a hood, looking like the head of a shark.

“Foolish!”, Dream cheered, welcoming the man whose smile vanished when he saw the blonde coming up to him. I raised an eyebrow, confused. Why would Foolish react like that? The other two were just as surprised as me. “Are you alright?”, Dream asked him then but Foolish just ignored him and turned to me instead.

“Hey, George. Happy to see you here. I built you a house right over there.”

I looked at my best friend right next to me. I saw that he was hurt. Dream was one of these people who cherished friendship. He loved his friends and seeing one of them suddenly ignore him made him sad.

“That is awesome!”, I then said, looking back t Foolish, trying to smile. To lighten up the sudden tensed mood around us. “No problem!”, Foolish smiled friendly. “I hope that you will like it!”. My faked smile grew a bit happy as I laid an arm around Dreams shoulders, knowing that he always loved it when someone he liked gave him physical contact.

“I am sure that we will! All of your houses around us are just insa-“ – “Just you, George.”, I stopped, surprised. “I don’t want him to live in a house I built. He doesn’t deserve it.”, when Foolish looked at Dream he had a hate filled look in his eyes that shocked me.

“If you may excuse me now? I need to finish a little shed over there...”, he smiled at me and winked in Sapnaps direction. “We don’t want to disappoint my boss now, do we?”, Sapnap chuckled silently. “Go on then!”, he said, grinning and Foolish saluted, walking away shortly after.

I looked at him walking away, still confused of why he had behaved the way he did. “What… was that?”, I asked then and saw Dream shaking his head: “He started changing.”. I made a step to the side. “What do you mean?”, I asked and when Dream looked up, he had a sad look of determination in his eyes. A look that he used to look confident. As if it didn’t bothered him. A look that only I saw was forced. Not real. A mask.

“Foolish is my brother in our story, remember?”, I nodded but still didn’t get it: “Yeah but why would he hate you then?”, Dream smiled. “Right…”, he sighed, closing his eyes for a second. “You don’t know it yet… It doesn’t matter, I think. This is a thing Wilbur and I worked on. We had no time to actually act it out yet…”.

His answer made just as much sense as it confused me. I noticed that our arrival in this world meant that we couldn’t continue planning the whole plot we were living in right now. “Is there much we haven’t been able to act out, yet?”, I asked then and Dream looked at me, thinking. He bit his lip as he did so. I smiled.

“Hmm… The last thing that had happened was you getting introduced to the lore and Quackitys stream that ended with him deciding to visit me daily, right?”, I thought and nodded. It felt weird remembering the last lore stream of Quackity. He had told me about it since I haven’t had the time to rewatch it myself.

Him, telling me about it had been quite fun. But now that I knew that it would become reality, it was just scary. Yet, it explained so much… Dream sighed again. “Then yes… Quackity had already started filming little bits of sequences for his next stream. We have planned it through but he had never gotten to the point of actually bring it out to the people.”

I nodded. “Hmmm…”.

“Well…”, Sapnap got back our attention. “That might be interesting and all but I still don’t get what exactly you are talking about!”. I looked at Dream. Right. He knew nothing about Dreams theory and the little fight we have had with Quackity and the others. “Why don’t you introduce us to the others and we tell you about it?”, I then proposed and even though I could see that Dream wasn’t exactly happy about it, I saw him nodding.

“Great idea! They are right over there!”, Sapnap smiled at us, leading us both towards two people in the distance. As we were making our way towards them, I noticed that Dream had walked a bit slower than Sapnap did which confused me. “You alright?”, I asked then and was a bit surprised as Dream shook his head.

“Did you not hear what Wilbur said?”, he asked me quietly, carefully eying Sapnap, obviously not wanting him to notice that we were talking. “He told us not to tell the others and even though I normally wouldn’t care about what he thinks, he was right that our theory would just provoke chaos. I don’t want any other people to get mad at me, too…”

I understood him. I really did. But “Telling the others doesn’t mean that they turn against us, Dream. We aren’t in this alone. I am sure that once we told them, Karl and Sapnap will be on our side. This could be the way of breaking out of Will and Quackitys idea. If they really want to confront us again, we will need every help we can possibly get!”

I could see that Dream understood and decided to walk towards Sapnap again. But even though Dream had silently agreed to my plan of telling them I could feel that he still was debating whether this has been a good idea or not. But I decided to let him alone with his doubts, knowing that if we were to actually discuss this, we would just end up fighting again.

“Hey! George! Dream! Glad to see you guys!”, Karl welcomed us as soon as we arrived at the point where he stood. Next to him was a guy in a reindeer suit. “Glad to see you, too! Hello Callahan!”, I said, grinning as I hugged Karl. Callahan nodded into our direction, making a step back as I stepped towards him, intending to hug him too.

I understood and backed out. Callahan did not want to be hugged. He seemed to be just as shy as he was in game. Even though I couldn’t tell if that was just him being him or him acting like his smp personality already. “How have you been?”, Karl asked us, laying an arm around Sapnaps waist.

I smiled at them. “Great, I think! I mean we both are still alive, so I think that is good news!”, Karl and Sapnap laughed at us. “Even though we got attacked, yesterday.”, Dream stepped forward, obviously seeking attention.

“What do you mean, you got attacked?”, Sapnap asked, suddenly worried. Dream looked at me, asking for my permission to tell them. I rolled my eyes. What did he expect? A no? As if that would have been possible anymore. And even though I was not exactly happy about yesterdays events they have been important for me to realize that Dream still was the same person I have talked to and laughed with for more than three years.

“I mean that we got attacked, idiot.”, Dream chuckled. “We had been on our way home when a skeleton suddenly attacked us. We both have had weapons, fortunately, so we had been able to defend ourselves. George had got bitten by a zombie but he killed it shortly after and his wound got healed up by a golden apple. It is insane that they actually can heal us so fast!”

The three man in front of us were visibly impressed and I was so thankful that Dream had left my breakdown out of this story. “Wow! You really have popped off then!”, Sapnap grinned and Dream nodded, laying an arm around my shoulder. “We did.”

“However, there is something we need to discuss with you guys…”, I felt Dream tensing up. But he put his mask on, hiding his insecurities. I felt bad for ruining the chill, funny atmosphere. But we really needed them to know. We needed them on our side. We had no idea when Quackity, Will and the others would come back for us. And we needed to be prepared for when they did.

“Somewhere private. Where nobody could possibly spy on us. This is serious.”. I could see that the other three men were surprised at the sudden serious tone but Sap nodded, nevertheless. “We got a room for political discussions in our main house. I think that is a good place…”

We went wherever Sapnap lead us and I was impressed when I stepped into their room. It was decorated with so much love and an eye for detail that it was almost not fitting its cause of being the place for serious political discussions.

“This is so pretty!”, I said. “Who designed this?”, I looked at Callahan, Karl and Sapnap. Immediately I knew. I could tell by the faint blush on Karls cheeks. “Thank you, George! I knew that someday someone would come and appreciate my work.”. I grinned.

“It’s awesome!”

Chapter Text

“Well? What do you want to tell us?”, Sapnap asked as soon as every one of us had sat down at the big table.

Dream immediately started talking. It was obvious that he wanted to get this off his chest as quickly as possible. “Well, I don’t know if you have already noticed but some people on this server have started to behave weirdly.”, we were met with question marks sitting right in front of us.

“Okay, you didn’t.”, Dream smiled weirdly. “But that is not important. I think that everybody of us here is going to change into his smp personality sooner or later. Bad, Quackity, Wilbur, Fundy, Tommy and Techno have already started to change and I don’t want to know who is going to be able to be added to that list today and during the next days. I recognized that it is not necessarily a dangerous issue if some of us were to actually change fully. I just think that a personality change like this could mean for you and me that we will loose our memories of the real world outside of this game.”, Dream gulped, observing the surprised and slightly confused people in front of us.

I knew that he had been very careful with his phrasings, not wanting to scare them away. He had learnt from the reactions of the others. “Not everyone is a bad person in this roleplay we came up with. But I am afraid that there are some villains under us. Some, even, that you don’t know about, yet. Unfortunately I have to add myself to that list, too and that exact issue had caused us some problems already-“ – “Wait, stop, Dream…”

Dream stopped. Surprised that he had gotten interrupted. “I need this one more time. You really are saying that everybody of us here is going to forget their families?”, Sapnap looked a bit confused. But the shock was noticeable in his voice.

Everybody’s eyes laid on my best friend who nodded, a sad look on his face.

That got my attention.

This was the first time that I saw sadness darken his face. For the whole time that we had been here already I had never seen that look in his eyes. Even though I had thought that he must miss his family I had started to delete that thought. When I had asked him yesterday how he had been doing he had answered that he was fine. He had refused to be honest.

The hunting thing had deleted the thought fully, wakening up the idea of him being a monster. Not able to love anymore. If he hadn't comforted me like that yesterday, now would have been the moment for me to officially throw away the thought of him being a monster. Because this… now this sad look of him was the proof that he did care for his family and that he missed them, too.

I mean of course, he did.

He was human after all.

I looked into the depressed faces of Sapnap, Karl and Callahan. We all missed our families. It had been stupid to assume that there were people under us that did not.

“You…”, Karl cleared his throat before he continued speaking: “You said that you have already had problems? What happened?”. Dream gulped. Looking at the table. “Yesterday I have spoken to Quackity.”, I began the story and looked at Dream, making sure that he was fine with me telling the story. But he just smiled at me encouraging.

“I told him about Dreams theory and he had started asking me if Dream had changed, too. After that he had just walked away.”, I saw Dream narrowing his eyes at me. He knew that I have left out my answer on purpose. “And this morning he came back with Wilbur, Eret, Niki and Fundy. They have threatened us. They have told us that we had to imprison Dream in order to prevent that anybody or he, himself could harm him. They have said that we had to keep that theory for us in order to prevent panic. We have denied. Told them that imprisoning Dream was not the right way to deal with the whole villain thing. And they have agreed to give us 12 hours’ time to come up with another plan. And now here we are.”

I was met with silence. Dream looked at me, biting his lip. He was thinking. But I didn’t know about what.

“Yep, a war between you two and Quackity, Wilbur, Fundy, Niki and Eret. That really is a serious issue…”, Karl nodded while he was talking. “Whatever will happen though, we will fight on your side.”, Sapnap then said, standing up. He seemed upset at something.

“I can’t believe that they want to put Dream into that damned prison cell! That is cruel. Like honestly.”, Sap shook his head. He really was upset…

“However now we need a plan.”, Dream crossed his arms in front of his chest, blowing a strand of hair to the side that had fallen into his face. “I think you two need some time for yourselves first.”, said Karl, looking at us. “We still have a few hours left to come up with a plan. This was a bit much. I would like some time to think as well, to be honest.”, Karl stood up. He stepped next to Sapnap, hugging him.

“I think Dream needs a house since Foolish doesn’t want him to live in Georges, right? Why don’t you go build one? I think that would be nice to clear your heads a bit.”, Sapnap’s friend looked at us. I looked at Dream, waiting for an answer.

I had nothing against this idea. This was the second day in a Minecraft world and we haven’t built anything, yet. Unbelievable if you thought about it. I thought, too that building might get the anger and the sorrow out of my head for a bit. “Sure, why not?”, Dream then asked. “Do you have any materials?”

Suddenly Sapnap and Karl lost their encouraging faces. Instead they looked worried. “To be honest, Dream…”, Sap started “I think Foolish took them all… But I think I can show you where you can find new materials.”, Sap freed himself out of Karl’s hug and walked up to us.

“Wanna go?”

“Sure. But not now. Little George here needs a bath before his smell makes our noses die a horrible death.”, Dream smirked, watching me. I opened my mouth, blinking offended. “Scuze me?”, I asked. “I am smelling great!”.

“No, darling…”, I rolled my eyes. I had decided to ignore his nickname once again. He had used it pretty often the last days but now I had decided to not let it influence me anymore. I knew that I needed to take a shower and considering that here in the Minecraft world there was none I really had to bath. I just didn’t want to, right now. And definitely not with Dream. “Come on now. Let me bath you!”, Dream walked up to me and my eyes widened as I stood up, walking away from him.

I knew that he wanted to catch me in order to do whatever. I could see it in his smirk.

“No!”, I laughed. “Stop!”. “Go get him, Dream!”, Karl giggled while encouraging my friend. For a split second I eyed Karl and muttered a quiet “Traitor” before my eyes darted back to my best friend who was coming up to me. He kept the eye contact. I saw his eyes shimmering with amusement as he got near me. I could see that he enjoyed this.

My heart jumped slightly as I giggled. This was the first time that we were actually able to fool around in person. Normally we would do this online. This look in his eyes was new to me. His whole expression was. But I liked it. Although we had discussed a serious topic just seconds ago, he was now able to put his worries aside and fool around. I could see that it was good for him.

I felt a bit better, too. Even though this was just fooling around I could see that Dream was thinking. He observed me and let his eyes wander over our surroundings a second later. I knew that he was trying to think of the best strategy to catch me. Adrenalin found its way through my veins. This was so much like a manhunt.

I needed to focus. To somehow escape. Even though this would be a hard challenge, considering how awfully good he had always been whenever I had started a Minecraft manhunt where he has had to hunt me down.

I saw him observing me. Knew that he wanted to catch me. Noticed him analyzing our surroundings.

“Oh, I know a lake near us! It’s perfect for bathing our little baby George.”, Sapnap said and smiled. He was watching us amused. I knew that he could help Dream but I knew too that he knew that Dream was completely capable of catching me all by himself. Now, this could be seen as something negative. But I saw this as a challenge. I needed to show him, that Dream was not able to catch me alone. If they really wanted to catch me, they would have to try it together.

“Well, Sapnap lead the way. I got him!”, Dream laughed and sprinted forward. My heart stopped for a second but then I reacted and threw myself on the floor in order to escape his arms. Within seconds I was on my feet again, now on the side of the door. Dream had turned around. “I see, George. You want to challenge me, don’t you?”, he raised an eyebrow and by the sound of his voice I felt myself shiver.

“Think what you want, Dream. But you are not going to catch me unless I want it to happen.”, I said and Dream chuckled, knowing that he would be able to show me just how wrong I was. “A bit cocky today, aren’t we?”, he asked, once again stepping closer to me. I let him and said: “We’ll see about that!”, before I turned around and sprinted through the door, up the stairs in the direction of sunlight.

As soon as I had begun to sprint the adrenalin got faster and I felt my heart running a marathon. I heard Dream running up the stairs too and my anxiety grew. The moment I reached the end of the stairs I looked around the mushroom house. Searched for a place to hide but when I spotted nothing I decided to sprint outside.

“Oh Geoooorgeee!”, I heard him yell but just continued running. I slammed the door shut behind me and took a deep breath of the fresh air before I ran towards a random direction. The sun was chilling right above us and I felt myself sweating. I haven’t run for that long when I heard Dreams voice once again. “You can’t outrun me, George.”, I felt as if I just got a heart attack when I noticed just how near he was.

“C’mere now..!”, before I was able to say anything or to turn around I felt Dreams hand around my waist. He gripped me tightly. I gasped surprised when I felt myself being pressed to the chest of someone taller than me. Breathing heavily, I looked up and saw him grinning. He hugged me from behind, laying his head on mine.

“Got you.”, he said and I laughed quietly. “You did…”. I looked at his hands which were clasped in front of my chest. The both of us needed a second to catch our breath but when he had regained it, I felt myself losing their contact to the ground.

“Oh god, Dream!”, I shrieked as my feet lost their contact to the ground. “Don’t worry, I got you.”, I found myself being thrown over Dreams shoulder and, in that moment, I hated myself for being so light.

Chapter Text

Sapnap had only led us to the forest where the lake should be in and he had left us alone with the words: “Just walk straight forward, you should walk right into it.”.

The midday sun was burning right on top of us and we welcomed the sudden cold of the tree’s shadows as soon as we stepped into the woods. As we were walking a calming silence surrounded us. Until Dream decided to break it. “It’s only us now, George…”, he whispered, grinning at me.

I grinned too, shaking my head. “That is true, Dream. Just like the past few hours.”. Dream chuckled. And for a second it was quiet again.

“That was fun.”, he then said and I nodded. I knew that he had meant the tiny hunt from before. “True.”, I said.

“We should repeat that some time.”

“We should.”, I looked up at him and saw him observing our surroundings. “Minecraft forests are creepy.”, he then said. I looked around, too. “Why are they creepy?”, to be honest they looked just like the forests I knew. As far as I knew we were in a birch, oak forest right now. Nothing new.

“I don’t know. It’s too quiet. There are no birds here. The only birds living inside of this world are living in the jungle. The trees all look the same and the variety of animals living here is strange.”. He was right. It really was quiet. I don’t think that I would have noticed that if he wouldn’t have had brought it up just now.

“Yeah, it really is quiet here…”, I mumbled, watching two pigs running away. “But that’s perfect, you know?”, surprised I looked up. “Why?”, I asked. “Because now we have the lake all for ourselves…”, he said, wiping away some leaves from a tree right in front of us.

I did not comment on his sentence. I stood there, breathless for a second. The lake looked beautiful. I have seen lakes before, of course I have. But this was better than everything I have seen before. The blue shimmering water was clear. Not a single drop of dirt made it change its color. The edges of the lake were even and even the lake itself went down evenly.

The sun made the water sparkle. It looked beautiful.

“This is awesome…”, Dream whispered and stepped near the water. “Look, there are fish in it!”, he then said and pointed towards something in the water. I smiled. “George, we need to go swimming!”, he said enthusiastically, the charming, calm person from before was completely gone. Instead Dream looked happy and he was filled with enthusiasm.

“Come!”, he said as he threw his pants, shoes, socks and t-shirt onto the grass, running towards the lake. I smiled uncomfortably. I tried to look away from him and his nearly naked body. I have seen him twice like this since he wouldn’t sleep wearing more than his boxers. But every time it had been hard to not stare at him.

He had such a beautiful body. His figure was so well formed, his slight muscles breathtaking, his tanned skin beautiful…

I heard water splash right beside me and jumped to the side. “Come on in, George! The water is warm! Don’t worry!”, Dream smiled at me, letting himself fall into the slight waves of the blue lake. He was so comfortable with his body whereas I wasn’t. I knew that I had no right to be ashamed of my body. I didn’t want to go train in order to make it prettier. I knew that I had a normal body. A bit thin maybe. But still normal.

But I was ashamed of it, nevertheless.

But then I decided to step over my own line. When Dream could be as secure as he was then I could be too, couldn’t I? We’ve known each other for years now. It was normal to know how the other one looked in his underwear, wasn’t it?

“Geeoooorgeeee!”, Dream yelled and when I looked up again, I saw him swimming on his back, on the other side of the lake. I was not able to see him in detail in the distance, but I knew that he had his eyes closed, enjoying the warm sun on his face.

Hesitant I grabbed my shirt and pulled it over my head. I laid it on the ground and then I nervously opened my pants in order to put them on top of the shirt. Then came my shoes and my socks and shortly after that I stood there, nearly naked on the edge of the water, stepping inside of it, slowly.

When the water began tingling my feet, I found myself smiling. It had been a while since I have gone to a lake. Since I have had an own house, I haven’t gone out swimming or on vacation, even though I would have had the money. This was a new feeling, yet so very known and connected to a time where I had been swimming with my family.

Smiling I stepped deeper into the water, forgetting about Dream who was still floating on the water back in the distance. Then I held my breath and dived right into the warm water of the lake. The moment I felt the warm water hugging my body I felt free, smiling brightly. I felt my body relax and opened my eyes.

The view I was greeted with was breathtaking. Even more beautiful than the lake was from the outside. Fish were swimming near me, curious of what that unknown being was, swimming away as soon as I reached out my hand. Their bodies were shimmering in the colors of a rainbow with the light of the sun hitting them. Golden water plants were hiding the sandy ground but that wasn’t bad at all. As if they were slowed down in time, they waved at me and only two seconds later I had to swim towards the shimmering surface.

Breaking through it I filled my lungs with air again, still having my eyes closed. It felt good, being able to breathe again, even though the calming silence under water had been just as great. “Hey…”, I turned around, looking at Dream who swam right next to me. “Hey”, I smiled and saw him looking up and down my body.

I felt myself becoming insecure again. I could feel his eyes on my body. When his eyes met mine again, he smiled, licking his lips. “What?”, I asked quietly, and he shook his head. “Nothing. Your body is just more feminine than I have thought.”, I could see that he had debated saying something else, but he then had decided not to.

Nevertheless, I stood there, confused. My arms and legs were doing their best on keeping me over the surface of the lake since I wasn’t able to touch the ground. We were in the middle of that big hole of water. It had surprised me how long I must have been under its surface. “What does that mean?”, I asked then, raising an eyebrow. I knew that my body wasn’t perfect, and I could see too, that it was very feminine.

“Nothing.”, Dream shook his head, smiling. “It’s great, isn’t it?”, confused I looked up at him. “Wh-What do you mean?”, I asked. His smile grew bigger as he laid himself on the back again, staring at the sky. “Swimming I mean…”, he then said and I stood still for a while, just staring at my friend. I could see that he was enjoying this. He had his eyes closed again. His whole face was so relaxed. It made me happy.

There was no sorrow on his face. His mind was free and it had stopped circling around the whole smp personality thing.

I smiled. “Yes…”, I said then, doing the same thing he did. Laying down on the water under me. Holding my breath in order to not go under the water again. As soon as I found myself in a star like position, I had the urge to close my eyes, too. In that moment I felt all of my body cells relax. The water was gently brushing over my legs, arms and torso and it felt great just laying there, enjoying the warm sun on my face and the warm water under my body.

Every now and then I had to breathe again. But from the moment I closed my eyes again, I was back in this quiet, calming bubble that completely blocked out any doubts and worries. It really was calming…

Suddenly I felt something warm brushing against my skin and I flinched, losing balance for a short second. But when I heard Dream chuckle, I knew that I had felt him right next to me. “I love this so much…”, Dream then said. I stood quiet. “Back when I had been a child my parents and my brothers and sisters had been going to the beach every weekend. Every time when I had had enough of my family, I had done this… I’ve always enjoyed this.”, he sighed. I tried to imagine him with his family, having fun at the beach.

“This complete silence had always been there as soon as I have done this. I have had time to think or just not to think. It had always been calming.”, I smiled, knowing that he did, too. “Sometimes when I need time for myself, I still go to the beach just to let myself float in the water. Just to calm down.”, I could imagine him, doing that.

“I had been going swimming with my family too, back when I had been a kid…”, I then started, thinking with my eyes closed. I began to smile when I remembered all those moments we have spent together. “It had always been nice. We’ve had no ocean near us so we had been going to different lakes. My mother had told me how to fish and my father and I had been racing through the lake, making competitions of who was able to dive longer.”, I lost myself in my memories.

Remembered the fun I have had with my father and my mother. I chuckled. “One time…”, I started, “I had been under the water for so long that my parents had grown worried. But diving had always been the thing that had calmed me, you know?”, I made a short break before I continued my story.

“When you feel the water all around you, the time seems to stop for a second. It is a special feeling, almost as if you’re not on the earth anymore but in the universe floating. Feeling the warm and cold spots in the see or just nothing at all. Diving is awesome…”. Dream stood quiet for a second. Or a minute, I didn’t know.

“Funny, isn’t it?”, he then asked. “You love diving, being under the water to lose yourself in the cold depts of the lake. And I love just floating around on the warm surface, losing myself in the entirety of nothingness…”.

I smiled.

“Complete opposites and yet we have still found each other and now we are the bestest of friends.”

Chapter Text

I smiled when we both walked out of the water. The sun had started to go down and I was surprised about how long we have been here at the lake, swimming and talking. It had been nice. Better than I have expected.

“Look at you…”, I looked up from the sandy floor I had been staring at. Dream smiled at me, sitting down in the sand. I raised an eyebrow, not knowing what he was talking about. “C’mere…”, he said opening his arms. I blinked. Did he want me to hug him? I found myself staring at him. At his bright golden eyes that were even brighter now that they reflected the orange light of the sun. His freckles were even more visible in this new lighting and his white smile so genuine.

He was still soaking wet, though. His now nearly brown hair, darkened by the lighting and the water, hung low in his face. His chest had drops of water on it and his boxers were powdered in the sand he was sitting in.

“Geooorgeee…”, he chuckled. “I won’t say it another time.”.

Even though I somehow didn’t want to come down in the sand with him, I did so. He wrapped his arms around my naked chest and pulled me on his lap. I smiled, blushing. “What are you doing?”, I asked then and he chuckled, hugging me tighter, hiding his head in my neck.

I felt a shiver running down my spine.

“I am checking if you’re still stinking…”, he then mumbled. “But you’re not, don’t worry.”, he let go of me and looked me in the eyes. “You’re smelling good.”

I blinked again. Surprised.

“Thank you.”, I didn’t know why it felt weird hearing him say that. It just did. But at the same time it felt good. Kind of. It made me happy.

For a second, we were just sitting there, he on the sand, I on his lap. But then I noticed something in his behavior. Something that bothered me. “Are you okay?”, I asked and tilted my head.

Dream looked at me, surprised. “Of course, I-“ – “Dream.”, he stopped when I interrupted him. Looked at the ground. Gulped. I knew that he had noticed the warning undertone in my voice. I had enough of him, lying. It wasn’t that hard to just be honest with me. Especially not if I was your best friend.

By the time he looked up I saw a sad shimmer in his eyes. “The twelve hours will be over in 2 hours or so…”, I could see that he was worried. “Are you sure?”, I then asked and he nodded. “The shadows are telling me.”, confused I looked around. But I saw nothing that could have helped me understand.

“What do you mean?”, Dream shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”, he laid his hands on my waist, looking me deep in the eyes. I felt a bit uncomfortable. Our positioning was strange. Was this how friends should act? Should I be sitting here, in his lap when the both of us had only our boxers on?

Probably not.

“They will come and get me…”, he then said. I was surprised at his sudden negativity. Dream looked away. “I don’t want to go there, George…”, he blinked. “I can’t go back into the prison.”

Technically seen he would not have gone ‘back’ into prison. This would be the first time. But I knew that he had spent hours in that prison cell. Of course, it had been different since he had been at his home, in his room and he still had been able to just walk away, eat and do whatever he wanted. But I knew that he had spent enough time in front of his computer, waiting for people or for other things, to know every single pixel of that room.

“You won’t.”, I said, shaking my head. “I will make sure of it.”

Dream looked back at me, smiling sadly. “I am afraid, George, that you cannot change a thing. We have no chance against them.”

“What?”

“We have no chance against them.”

For a short second I just looked at him. I couldn’t understand what he meant. I just didn’t want to. His eyes were filled with everything but hope. Everything but optimism. Which was weird for him since he normally was one of the most optimistic people I have met in my life.

“We do.”, I then said. “We have Sapnap, Foolish, Callahan and Karl on our side.”

“I don’t want to fight them.”

I smiled warmly. Of course, he didn’t. He hated fights. But then my smile vanished. “But you will.”. I knew that we will have to fight them. This situation won’t be solved unless there is blood spilled. And I was ready for that.

Dream looked at me surprised. “What?”, he asked and I blinked. “You will have to fight them, Dream. We will. Unless you have got a plan that is able to solve that little dilemma of ours.”

My friend shook his head. “I am afraid I do not.”.

“Knew that.”, I smiled, laying a hand on his cheek. Immediately I regretted it. I didn’t know why I had just done that. But somehow, I managed it to hide that. I saw that he enjoyed the sudden touch. He closed his eyes for a second before he started smiling, too.

“Thank you.”, he then said. For a short second I shook my head confused, pushing away my confusion with a quiet laugh. I took away my hand when his eyes met mine again. “For what?”, I then asked and Dream smiled warmly.

“For encouraging me. I know that you do not do that very often.”

My smile grew bigger. “Don’t worry.”, I said. “I needed that, too.”.

To be honest I wasn’t even sure if that conversation could even be titled as me encouraging him. But I was happy that whatever I said seemed to have helped him.

His hands were resting on my waist so naturally as if this was a completely normal situation. I didn’t know why it even bothered me. I shouldn’t. But nevertheless, it kind of did. The places he was touching were warm. His hands were warm.

I looked away.

I was warm.

“We should head back now, shouldn’t we?”

“I think we should…”, Dream nodded slowly which I took as the sign to stand up again. I brushed the sand off me, silently cursing over the fact that my body was still wet. Dream did the same.

I looked up at the sun which had begun to set and I felt a cold breeze touching my bare chest. I shivered. “Here George, take this.”, I looked around and saw Dream handing me my shirt. I thanked him when I took it and put it on. Immediately I felt a bit warmer, even though the sand was still tingling me.

“What should we do about the sand?”, I asked and Dream shook his head. “I don’t know… We should look if there is a water place in the house Foolish has built for you. We could use that.”. I blinked, watching him clothing himself.

“You’re telling me we could have taken a nearly normal bath, are you serious?”, Dream laughed. “Well you have to admit that swimming in the lake had been fun, too.”

I shook my head disappointedly. “I can’t believe you lied to me!”, I then said and took my pants off the ground. Dream started laughing louder. “What are you talking about? I didn’t even lie to you!”, he looked at me amused. When I was finished dressing myself, I looked at him for a second, blinking. As if I still couldn’t believe it.

“I can’t believe you actually lied to me!”, I repeated myself, completely ignoring what Dream had said. He knew that he had been right. I really have enjoyed today. Spending time with him at the lake just swimming and talking and enjoying the sun and the water had been really great.

But I would never admit that.

So, I just walked into the direction I thought we came from. “George!”, Dream shouted with a giggle in his voice. “I know that you liked it!”, he then said when he reached me. I smiled but stood quiet.

“Oh, so now you’re ignoring me?”, he laughed and laid an arm around me. I flinched for a second when I felt his warmth on my back. “You know that you can’t do that for long, don’t you?”, he giggled and I knew that he had something in mind. Some evil plan to destroy my silence.

But whatever he had planned, I will not give in. I mean I still was mad at him for lying to me. It really was unbelievable! How dare him.

I really had to fight with myself to not start laughing at my own thoughts. That wouldn’t be good.

“Well… since you have decided to stay quiet, I can do the talking now.”, Dream smiled, looking forward. I knew that he didn’t like the silence when he had nothing to think about. Of course, he would take the chance to speak up then. He always did.

“Tomorrow we definitely will have to search for materials to build me a house. I don’t want to live in your house when it means that Foolish is mad at me and you. I wonder how the whole building thing works here.”

I felt a slight pain in my chest when I heard him saying that he didn’t want to live in my house. But I understood that. I still didn’t understand why Foolish was so mad at him, though. It did not make any sense to be honest.

I mean I knew that it had to have something to do with his smp personality since I can’t remember them fighting in real life. But I didn’t know what Dream could have done to make him as angry as he was. I mean, I didn’t know that much about the lore but as far as I was aware, Foolish did not have been mad at Dream by the time he got into prison. Even after the whole thing with Tommy had happened, he hadn’t been mad at him.

So, what could the smp Dream possibly have done to make him mad like that? I looked at Dream who was still talking about the building thing. Even though I really tried, I wasn’t able to think of something bad he could have done.

Dreams smp character was a mystery to me. I didn’t even know why. In my opinion he had never done anything that bad. I was there when he first attacked L’Manburg and it really had been fun. I didn’t know about the other L’Manburg fights. But I knew that Dream wouldn’t do something just because he was a bad person.

He always had a reason to do whatever he did.

So, I think that him and Technoblade destroying L’Manburg once and for all have had a reason, too. A good one if Dream would go as far as he did.

But still…

The smp Dream was different than my Dream was. Suddenly Dream laughed at something he had said. I smiled, too. He looked good whenever he smiled. His whole face lit up when he did.

Did the smp Dream do that, too?

I didn’t know…

“What do you think about that?”, Dream suddenly looked at me, smiling as he waited for an answer. “About what?”, I asked confused and shook my head the moment he started laughing.

“You actually fell for it! Glad that you decided not to ignore me anymore.”, Dream winked at me and I realized, facepalming myself, while groaning.

“Uuuuh! Why are you like that?”, Dream laughed loudly. “Come on, I know that you love me.”, I shook my head. “You’re unbelievable.”

When we arrived at Kinoko Kingdom we searched for the house that Foolish had built for me. A light birch sign, hanging above the door of a cute mushroom house, told us in the end. “Aww, look at that! He put your smile next to your name!”, Dream admired the :] next to the in caps written GEORGE.

I laughed before I stepped in. “Yeah he did.”

“Wow..!”, Dream stepped in right behind me, closing the door again. “This looks awesome!”, he said and I nodded while I investigated the house.

The house was simple built but it was beautiful. The floor was made of birch planks and sectioned into two rooms. One with a bed, a closet and a small table and one with a big table, crafting benches, smokers, ovens and so on. Leaves and other plants were decorating the walls and the floor and lanterns filled the house with a warm lighting.

“Pretty cozy!”, Dream smiled and I nodded. “True, Foolish really made the best out of this house.”, I walked through the rooms, inspecting each and every corner. “I didn’t know that he had such an eye for detail…”, I then said and Dream huffed. “Well he is the best builder of this smp for a reason, isn’t he?”.

I laughed. “Yes, I think he is.”

“Look, George! There is a little bathroom over here!”, Dream said and opened a door which I had not notice so far. “Really?”, I asked and he nodded. “So, we can finally get rid of the sand, I am so glad!”, I laughed and inspected the bathroom.

I didn’t know what Foolish had built in the original Minecraft world but in this world the bathroom had actually became one. There was a little bathtub, a sink and a toilet. Everything you need. “I wonder if we have to brush our teeth.”, Dream then said and only then I noticed that there wasn’t a toothbrush or toothpaste or anything.

“In the real world we do. Do you think the human body works differently in the Minecraft world?”, I asked and Dream raised an eyebrow. “George, I healed you with an apple yesterday. I think it is.”.

I shrugged. He was right. Maybe we really did not have to brush our teeth. Weird. But I can’t complain.

“Well then.”, Dream started and looked at the bathtub. “Do you want to take a bath first or should I?”, he grinned when he looked at me.

“If you want to, we can even bath together.”

Chapter Text

The next day had begun pretty early. Sapnap and Karl had invited us to eat breakfast with them and we have done that. After the breakfast which had been pretty nice since neither Dream nor I have eaten anything yesterday, we had decided to start walking towards a certain forest where Foolish said we could find mushrooms to finally start building Dreams house. Him, Sapnap, Karl and Callahan had decided to join us since they needed some materials too and they “Need an adventure!”.

“I swear if it begins raining while we walk, I am going to jump off that cliff over there!”, Sapnap said and pointed towards the edge of the mountain we were surpassing at the moment. “Don’t do that, please.”, surprised Sapnap and I looked into Dreams direction.

I did not expect him to care for Sapnap’s wellbeing. I mean, of course he did but not in this ironic moment. He smiled widely. “It’s just… too much we would have to clean up after that!”, we all laughed after Dream’s pun and Sapnap just rolled his eyes. “Thank you Dream. For a short moment there I have really thought that you cared for me.”

Dream giggled. “Don’t worry, I care for you, honey.”, Karl said and I grinned when Sapnap started smiling. “Thank you, Karl. These guys are so horrible to me all the time.”.

“Gosh you two are just as bad as Dream and George are.”, Foolish joined our little conversation and surprised I looked at him. “What?”, I asked and Foolish winked at me. “You know what I mean, Georgie.”

I blushed, looking down. I hated myself for blushing. Why the fuck would I blush? That made no sense. I had no reason to. Because Dream and I were best friends. And we were not planning on changing that. “We are not as bad as they are.”, Dream then said and got the attention of the others.

I smiled relieved. Thank god, he had decided to say something against that. He smiled as he looked at me.

“I mean… I have never called him honey before.”, Dream winked at me and I took a deep breath, staring at him. “What?”, I then asked dumbfounded. I really did not expect that. But Dream just laughed and continued walking.

I shook my head. Unbelievable. Why does he always have to say things like that? I knew that we had been flirting with each other online but I don’t remember it having been as often as now. I don’t have anything against it, per se. But he has never been able to see my reactions as much as he can now. And that bothered me. Now I did not have the possibility to blame the camera for lighting issues, explaining the blush on my face. Now everybody was able to see and interpret my reactions on his flirtatious comments.

“You know what?”, Karl brought me back into reality. “What?”, Foolish asked. Karl smiled. “We all need building materials. And since only three of us have got silk touch axes I think we should build three teams and make a competition out of this!”, our group stopped, the forest Foolish has been talking about was barely visible in the horizon. “A competition?”, I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes!”, Karl laughed. “And each team has to get a certain amount of materials and whoever has them together first wins.”.

“Wins what?”, Sapnap crossed his arms on his chest. Karl shrugged. “I don’t know. Something.”

“I think it’s a good idea.”, I said, smiling at our little group. “But I want to be in Dream’s team!”, Sapnap said and walked towards our friend. Dream smiled at him. “Alright, sounds like a plan!”, he said and looked at me. To see him so happy after he had been so hopeless yesterday made me even happier. He knew that our given time had run out hours ago. But right now, he was able to think on something else. He finally had time to just enjoy himself.

“Fine.”, I said: “But my team is going to win.”, I smiled. Dream shook his head. “George you don’t even have a partner, yet.”. I was about to throw a sassy answer at him when Callahan suddenly stepped next to me as if to prove him wrong.

I smiled at him. “Well, as you can see, Dream, I do! Callahan and I are totally going to win this competition.” Dream laughed at that. “Yes, George, feel free to think that!”

“Foolish?”, Karl looked at the golden man standing next to us. Foolish looked up and smiled. “Yes.”, he walked to Karl. “Alright. So, what do we need?”, Sapnap looked into our little round.

“I don’t know… Mushrooms?”, Dream giggled at himself, knowing that his answer wasn’t really helpful. I giggled, too. Dream’s jokes had always been as stupid as this one. But somehow, I always had to laugh because of them.

“I’d say each team has to bring back three stacks of red mushroom blocks, four stacks of mushroom stem and two stacks of brown mushroom blocks.”, Foolish then said and searched for validation among us. “Four stacks of mushroom stem? So many?”, Karl then whined and Foolish laughed. “Well what did you expect? Four stacks is hardly even enough if you even want to build a nice house.”.

And with that, our groups split up: Everyone wanted to start in a different spot of the forest. We had decided to meet up at this starting point again as soon as we had our stuff together so that we can see who is already there and who was not.

Callahan ran away, having a strict path in mind. I ran after him, looking back a few times to see Dream and Sapnap walking into the opposite direction.

“Callahan, wait!”, I yelled while I tried to catch up. Callahan did so, stopping at a big rock. “Why would you run away?”, I asked amused and he smiled at me, shrugging. “Unbelievable.”. He laughed and smirked before he turned around and walked to a certain part of the forest. “Do you have a place in mind, you wanna go?”, I asked and Callahan nodded, pointing towards the forest.

“But Callahan, look, Foolish and Karl are walking in that direction, too.”, I noticed and saw Callahan observing the two people running way down under us. He then shook his head. I could see that he was amused. As if he knew more than I did. “What do you have in mind?”, I asked him and he smiled.

Callahan shrugged then and I huffed. “You know that we are working in a team, don’t you? You have to tell me.”, Callahan stopped for a second, looking at me while he was thinking. He then looked around, grabbing a stick from the floor.

Confused I watched him writing something in the sand. I stepped near him.

“Just trust me.”, I read his words out loud. He nodded and smiled at me one more time before he continued running towards whatever he was running to.

--^-^---

“Woah, Callahan! This is actually insane!”

My words echoed over the landscape in front of us. Immediately I felt bad for having been mad at him before. We have been walking for an hour or so and I had grown tired of this. Especially since we have passed a few mushrooms on our way. I knew that the other two teams had started collecting their materials at least half an hour ago. We really had been lagging behind.

But this changed everything. Fascinated I watched a mooshroom walk by. It looked like a normal cow but it was red and had mushrooms all over her back and head. The whole biome in front of us was filled with mushrooms in all sizes. I was sure that now we would definitely be the first to gather all the materials.

We may have a longer way back now but we did not have to search in that stupid forest for mushrooms. This was way better. “How did you find this?”, I asked my friend and Callahan just smirked at me, raising an eyebrow. “You’re right, stupid question. You have been literally everywhere on this server."

Callahan nodded and swung his axe around. I laughed.

“You got it. Letzzz gooo!”

---^-^---

Two hours later, I was sure that it was noon by now, we had everything together and were on our way back. “That had actually been fun.”, I said and Callahan nodded. “It’s insane that we can carry all those materials without it being too heavy for us.”, Callahan nodded again, looking at me. “You know it really bothers me that you don’t speak. I have to say so much.”

Callahan laughed breathily and brushed over his mouth with his index finger and I laughed loudly. “What do you mean, simply shut up? For someone who doesn’t talk you are really offensive today, god!”

We laughed, arriving at our starting point only half an hour later. Luckily, we really had been the first to arrive.

I felt happiness inside of me. “We are the first team!”, I said and Callahan nodded, making a fist and throwing in the air. “Yeeessss! We wonnn!”, I said, giggling as I sat down on the warm rock under me. Callahan grinned widely, sitting down next to me.

We had waited a whole other hour when finally, the others arrived. Foolish and Karl were the first. “Darn!”, I heard Foolish say. “I knew that you and George were going to visit the mushroom biome!”, he laughed when they arrived. “I had forgotten the way, so we had to stay here in the forest.”.

Callahan smiled at Foolish and I laughed. “Well, that sounds like a you problem!”

“Hey!”, Foolish laughed. “Don’t be so mean to me!”, he then added and sat down next to us. “Where are the others?”, Karl then asked and I just shrugged. “I don’t know. We had been waiting for you for an hour, so…”

“An hour? You were that much faster?”, Karl looked at us surprised and I laughed again. “Yes, because we are not as slow as you are.”. “Now that’s rude.”, Karl smiled and turned away from me. “I feel hurt now.”.

“Don’t!”, all four of us turned around seeing Sapnap and Dream arrive. But they weren’t alone. They had two people right next to them. “Hi!”, Dream yelled, running up to us. “We have met Tubbo and Ranboo along the way!”, he then said and I smiled at him.

Even though they have lost he looked so happy. “Yes, actually they helped us finding more mushr-“ – “We absolutely did not help them.”, Tubbo interrupted Sapnap, smiling at us. “They did everything by themselves. “

I laughed, knowing that he was absolutely lying. “I’m sureee!”, Karl laughed and the others started laughing, too. “Tommy had been with us too, but he had walked home sooner since he didn’t want to search mushrooms with us.”, Ranboo laughed and we did, too.

“Soooo… how long have you been waiting?”, Dream then asked as he let himself fall next to me. “Oh, just an hour or so.”, I winked at him and Dream blinked surprised. “An hour?!”, he then asked and I giggled. “Yes.”

“How?”

“Well-“, Callahan laid a finger on my lips and shook his head. I understood. He didn’t want them to know. “We are just more talented in finding mushrooms then you are.”, I then finished my sentence quickly improvising. Dream observed me, knowing that I was lying. But he let it be.

“Alright then. Show us what you have collected.”

Chapter Text

We had been on our way back home when we suddenly heard a familiar voice behind us.

“You’ve had your time.”

I flinched when I recognized whose voice just had surprised us the way it did. Slowly I turned around just to be welcomed with the view of eight people standing across from our little group. My heart jumped as my gaze flew over each one of them. The snow from the snow biome we had to pass in order to get back to our hometown, made their facial expressions even colder than they had been anyways.

With a tail, nervously waving from one side to the other Fundy stood there, his gaze fixed on Dream. Niki stood right next to him. The cold wind surrounding us was playing with her blond hair that had been tied up in a ponytail. Eret had a netherite sword in his hands, ready to use it. Golden ornaments made it special from the weapons his friends were carrying. Philza and Technoblade were standing next to each other. I gulped.

Techno looked just as intimidating as he did the last time, I have seen him. White clouds came out of his nose as he took one breath after the other, his intimidating eyes piercing right through mine. He was armed from head to toe, visibly ready for a fight. Two swords were on his back, netherite knives were tucked into leather strips which were attached to his pants. His weapons were glowing in the dimming light of the sun.

Philza on the other hand looked just as friendly as he always did. Even though he had a serious face. I could see disappointment in his eyes but I didn’t know why he could be disappointed in anyone.

In front of them was Wilbur, wearing a dark brown coat. I knew that inside of it he had hidden weapons. I didn’t know why. Something was just telling me. Next to him was Quackity, wearing his usual clothes, a dark beanie on his head. He had a netherite sword on his back and where Wilbur’s eyes were fixed on Dream, Quackity’s eyes were looking directly at me. I could see that something was bothering him. That he didn’t like the fact that I was with Dream. But I didn’t care. Because I knew that I was on the right side.

Wearing a netherite chest plate, that was shining beautifully and a diamond sword in his hand a third person stood there next to them both.

“Tommy?”, I looked at Tubbo who stood beside me. He looked at his best friend with a surprised expression. I could tell that he hadn’t expected to meet his friend here standing side by side with Wilbur and Quackity. The betrayal was very audible in his voice.

I knew that the knowledge of Tommy having lied to him, was hurting him.

“We thought you wanted to go home?”.

Even if Tommy had heard the accusatory undertone in Tubbo’s words, he didn't show it. Instead he just shook his head. “I couldn’t deal staying with you and your husband.”, he then said looking at Ranboo with a look of disgust.

I could see that Ranboo got uncomfortable under Tommy’s gaze. But then Tommy looked back at his friend. “Besides that.”, he then started, pointing to us with the blade of the diamond sword in his hand “Those people standing next to you are dangerous. They withheld important knowledge from you two.”

Surprised I raised an eyebrow. Tubbo looked at us. He was just as surprised as I was. And I felt myself growing mad. Even though I have been unsure about how to feel about Tommy’s betrayal he now had crossed a line that gave me a clear opinion. This stupid child had been used. I looked at the guy that I had called my friend for a very long time.

He knew what I was thinking. Of course, he did. But he didn’t care. He just raised both his eyebrows at me. I shook my head; I just couldn’t understand how they could even dare to manipulate a child like that. Tommy deserved to know everything. Not just the weird point of view of them but from our perspective, too. I was about to say something when I got interrupted.

“That’s true.”, Dream said. Suddenly becoming the center of attention. I closed my already open mouth and watched my friend walking forward. I could see that he just tried to look confident. His eyes and his fingers which were moving continuously were telling me just how nervous he was really. I wanted to be there for him. To help him gain confidence. But I knew that we were walking on a thin line.

A line that, if it got crossed by anyone, would lead us into a fight that couldn’t be won by us.

Dream looked at Foolish, Callahan, Ranboo and Tubbo. The only people that had no idea of what had been bothering me and him and everyone around us the whole time.

I admired him for his courage to step forward with the intention of actually telling them. My thoughts went back to yesterday when he had still wanted to keep his theory to himself. Yesterday, when he had been unsure if telling Karl and Sapnap would be a good idea.

It looked like he had thrown away his worry that Wilbur and the others could get mad at him. Or he had decided that now that Tommy knew it and now that Tommy had mentioned it anyways, he might as well just tell them the whole story.

I didn’t know.

But it wasn't important either. As he informed them about his theory everybody could see their confused faces turning into shocked ones. It amazed me to see how quickly emotions and facial expressions could change just by gaining information.

“But that is horrible!”, Tubbo exclaimed after Dream had finished and stared at his best friend. Everybody here was able to see just how flabbergasted he was. Dream nodded at that comment. “I know.”

“But that is still no excuse to imprison Dream in that cell. That is not only humiliation but torture too.”, I said and eyed Wilbur and Quackity cautiously. Quackity huffed, smiling slightly. I made a fist. It was unbelievable just how ignorant he had gotten. I did not see much of my old best friend inside of his dark eyes anymore. Instead he was replaced with an evil version of himself. Selfish, violent and manipulative.

Wilbur’s facial expression on the other hand stood stone cold. His eyes were fixed on me. He was thinking. I just didn’t know about what. But I was dying to find out. Wilbur was a dangerous person. Having him on someone’s side was a big advantage. He was clever and he knew exactly how society worked. He was able to achieve something without being the one who is actively doing something.

He was a lot like Dream. But at the same time, he was completely different. It was truly absurd. If their smp personalities were about to battle each other that battle would become very interesting. Interesting but dangerous. And many innocent people would have to suffer under them.

Dream was a very active person. He was clever enough to come up with a plan which would be hard to realize and very time consuming but will turn out to be genius. He was able to read people and he knew exactly what he had to do in order to get them do what he wanted. He knew what people were attached to and how he could use that for his advantage.

Dream’s character in the smp was like a puppeteer. This battle would be like a game of chess. Wilbur was someone who could be just as manipulative as Dream could be.

“Of course, it isn’t.”, Tubbo’s voice brought me back into reality. “Nobody should be locked away in that prison cell. Not in real life at least.”. The blonde nodded, underlining his words as he looked at Wilbur and Quackity. “There has to be a better way of dealing with this.”, he then added and Wilbur shook his head.

It was obvious that he had grown tired of this discussion that was leading him nowhere. “Why can’t you guys just understand?! There is no other way.”

“Unless….”, Quackity then said, still smiling. “You guys…”, he looked at Dream and me with a knowing expression on his face “Have used the time we had given you to come up with an alternative.”, he giggled. “In which case I would love to just leave you be.”

I shook my head. Quackity sounded like a psychopath. How could he have changed so much?

“Well…”, Dream started slowly. “We did not.”, I interrupted him, feeling the urge to finally join this conversation. It has been enough. I’ve had enough of this sick game of Quackity and Wilbur. I could see that all of this was like a game for Quackity. He found it funny to see us struggling with this conversation. He knew that he had nearly won with Techno and Wilbur on his side.

We could do what we wanted, each way he will get what he wanted. Either a fight that was almost impossible to win for us or Dream surrender and being locked up. “I don’t know why you had to change as fast as you did, Quackity, but the friend I once had would have never wanted to lock away Dream.”, I knew that it was risky to play out the “The friend I once had”-card. “Because they have had a heart.”, I said and saw something change in the eyes of me.

But then Quackity shook his head. “Oh, George. Come on.”, he stepped forward. “Don’t talk as if you haven’t changed either.”, he observed me, having a nearly disgusted expression. “Look what you have become.”, he then said. “A total simp.”, he nearly spat out the last word and I gulped when I saw his facial expression change within a second.

The smiling face was gone, replaced with a serious one. Dark piercing eyes looked up at me. I grew a bit concerned. I knew that I had crossed a line. I wasn’t that much taller than him but the fact that I still was really helped me gaining confidence.

“A simp?”, I asked, raising an eyebrow and he nodded. “It disgusts me how deep you are crawling into this bastard’s ass.”, once again he looked up and down at me. “It really does.

My George would have thought rationally. He would have understood that he-“ – Quackity swung his sword in Dream’s direction.

I reacted instantly. Knew him and his thoughts, knew what he was up to and also drew my sword to block his and protect Dream. With a loud metallic clink, both blades met in the air.

For a second the air seemed to stand still.

“That he… is a fucking threat.”.

Quackity ended his sentence whispering and only for me to understand. He stared at me, standing right in front of me. He pressed his lips together. Anger rose inside of me. “He is not a threat.”, I said and, in that moment, Quackity tried to attack me with his sword. Adrenalin pumped through my body as I tried to block his attack.

I hissed when his blade cut my arm and a burning sensation of pain rushed through my entire body.

I knew that the line had been crossed. Him, attacking and hurting me was the sign for everyone to draw their weapons. In the corner of my eye I saw Fundy rushing forward and everyone else did so, too. Within seconds the once so peaceful snowy glade was filled with the noise of metal meeting metal.

Worries filled my mind.

I knew that Quackity’s group had been armed and completely ready for a fight whereas mine was not. We’ve had plenty of mushrooms with us but we did not expect a battle like that.

“You disgust me.”, Quackity said and my ears were filled with a metallic clink the moment our swords met again. Immediately my attention got drawn back to my once best friend. My eyes widened when I saw a violet blade rushing into the direction of my face and only in the last second, I had been able to block it off.

Right. I should make sure to be safe myself.

“George!”, the voice of my best friend once again let me lose my attention to Quackity. Alarmed I looked into the direction I have just heard that shout from and saw Dream, who had made intense eye contact with Techno who was bending over him, slightly, trying his best to push his sword against the netherite axe of Dream.

But even though Dream seemed to be distracted he held his right hand into my direction, handing me a shield. “Take this!”, he then said calmly and for a split second his eyes darted into my direction. He winked at me. “We are going to screw these guys.”

I smiled at his words, taking the shield. I know that his words were filled with the impulses I have given him yesterday. By the time Dream had finished his sentence it was very visible how mad he had made Technoblade. The pig like looking man huffed, letting go of my friend but jumped at him in the same moment Dream had thought to take a breath.

“Oh, how sweet.”

My eyes darted back to Quackity who had watched me getting my shield from Dream. It surprised me that he had allowed it.

“He gave you a shield.”.

By the end of his sentence Quackity’s voice had turned from over exaggeratedly happy to almost completely disgusted. I almost screamed when I saw him attacking me again. His punch had been filled with a confidence that surprised me and once again I had been able to block it off with my new shield in the very last moment.

I really didn’t know what had just made me move it. But I was glad that it happened. It felt weird, knowing that I had reflexes that helped me surviving. When I had been frightened because of that skeleton I did not drop my sword and later on when I had been struggling with that zombie something inside of me had helped me defeating it.

My eyes widened when a sudden thought struck my mind.

Could it be that this had been the part of the version of me that was a good Minecraft pvp player?

I knew that I was good in Minecraft pvp. But I didn’t know anything about fighting in real life. Could it really be that this pvp part of me had a control over me and my actions?

I looked up at Quackity, who took his sword back.

I knew that I was way better in Minecraft pvp than him.

With a sudden motion I came out of the shadow of my shield and made a step towards my opponent. I could see that Quackity did not expected that because of the noise of surprise he let out the moment my sword had nearly met his skin.

New motivation kicked in the moment I realized that I may actually have a chance against him. And I saw that Quackity had noticed that too. His eyes were darting from his left to his right, quickly checking who was near him and who wasn’t.

For a second, I did so, too and I gulped when I realized just how messed up this whole battle was. On my left I saw Callahan, calmly fighting Fundy. The deer knew exactly where he had to step in order to strike from a new angle as soon as Fundy had lost his orientation. It was very clear that Callahan had the upper hand in this fight.

Whereas Ranboo on his left really seemed to be struggling, blocking off one hit after the other as Eret used every opportunity to try and struck him with his sword.

On my right I saw Tubbo fighting Tommy. A fight that looked as if it was equally balanced. Tubbo looked hurt. Mentally. I could see that he did not like it to fight his best friend. But I saw that Tommy too, didn’t look like he wanted this fight.

It was the complete opposite on their right though, where Sapnap and Philza were fighting each other. I admired their way of interacting with each other. It was visible that the both of them were pretty good in pvp. I knew, myself, how good Sapnap was. He had an axe just like Dream and even though this weapon was the weapon he could handle the best, Philza seemed to match him really good.

Just a few feet beside me was Dream. He still fought Technoblade. I got goosebumps when I saw them fighting. Their fight was completely different from everyone else. Whereas everybody else was fighting in a way, that reminded me of a dance, so coordinated and their next strikes clearly thought through, Dream and Techno’s fight was filled with pure brutality.

Shocked I flinched when I saw Dream swinging his axe, directing it to hit Techno’s head. With the result of his shield bursting Techno blocked off his strike and answered with a strike of an enchanted diamond sword. Dream ducked, successfully dodging the attack.

I looked away. I couldn’t bring myself to continue watching them fight. Not only because it filled me with the worry of Dream being okay but because I knew that Quackity and I still had unfinished business.

Suddenly I screamed in pain when felt another burning sensation rushing through my side. Immediately I was brought back into my fight. “How fucking dare you drifting off while fighting against me, George.”, I looked at Quackity, tears of pain stinging in my eyes.

I breathed heavily, tried to comprehend the pain, feeling warm blood soak my shirt where his sword had met me. My anger had risen to a level of fire that could not be put out easily anymore. And it wanted revenge.

“What the fuck, Quackity?!”, I yelled and he just huffed. “You heard me, Gogy.”. I shook my head. “You are unbelievable!”, I then said, making a step into his direction, holding my netherite sword tightly. The wound really hurt but I tried my best to not show him that weakness he was the cause of. Instead I tried to keep our conversation going.

“A real...”, I stopped midsentence. My mind was blank. There were no words to describe what he was.

“A what, George, tell me.”, Quackity smiled, trying to attack me again. But I blocked it off, determination in my eyes. “I don’t know.”, I then said, stepping into his direction. “What do you call someone that wants to lock away innocent people?”, I asked as I attacked him with my sword.

“Traitors like you.”, I added as he blocked off my sword. I attacked him again, trying my best to aim for his leg. But he stepped aside. “Traitors like me?”, he huffed, laughing sarcastic. “You’re one to talk.”, his voice went serious within seconds. When I tried to come at him again, he blocked off my sword with his, right in front of his chest, now pushing it into my direction.

I hissed, trying to stop our swords from getting near me. My side stung painfully, preventing me from using my whole strength and while he was able to use both of his hands, I only had one. Quackity intensified our eye contact, smiling.

“You lost, George.”, his words confused me. Last time I checked the battle had still been going on. Why would he- “George! Behind you-“, I flinched when I heard Dream’s voice yelling at me and groaned in pain when suddenly I felt some metal thing stinging me in my chest. In the same moment something around me tightened, throwing my sword to the floor.

Confused and with a fast beating heart I looked down to see the hook of a fishing rod inside of my chest. Red blood painted my blue shirt in a darkish brown tone and surprised I looked up at Quackity again. Then to Dream, who stood in the middle of the glade where he had been fighting Techno just a second before.

But now Techno seemed to be gone. “You really made it too easy for me, Dream…”, I flinched when I heard the lost one’s voice right behind me. “Defending yourself like a king but forgetting what’s most precious to you…”, Techno put a hand on my shoulder, pressuring me to kneel down. I had no choice but to do exactly that.

The thin string of that rod bit itself into the wound on my side and on my arm and the pain was too bad to just ignore it. The strings all around the other parts of my body made me kneel down the moment he had put even the slightest pressure on my shoulder. I hadn’t been able to move since my legs and arms were tied together.

I looked at Dream who came up to us, looking directly at me. A look of sorry in his eyes. I shook my head. It wasn’t his fault. It had been mine. “I really am glad that the sweet battle of ours had finally found an end…”, Wilbur smiled at us. “Now we can finally get back to what we’ve been talking about.”

Wilbur made a short break, before he nodded into Techno’s direction. Nearly immediately I felt the cold sharp material of diamond on my neck. I swallowed as the knife just barely hit my skin.

“But we leave you a choice there, Dream.”, Wilbur’s smile got wider.

“It’s either you being put into prison or your best friend’s life”.

Chapter Text

“Well, Dream?”

The day which had started with laughter and fun had taken a turn to be filled with worries and hard decisions.

I sighed as I closed my eyes in defeat. The snowy glade we stood on, was blood stained and the once so white snow was painted in an orange tone as the sun was setting. The coloring light was calming and radiating a mood which was not suiting the situation at all. My breath was unsteady. My emotions now filled with fear. Not the fear of losing my life but the fear of Dream giving up. Even though there was a short moment of silence, everyone was still able to feel the tension hovering between them. It rose with every second passing.

“Dream?”, Wilbur shook his brown curly hair as he asked again. His beanie laid somewhere in the snow, long forgotten. He laid a certain tone of seriousness in his voice as he pointed the tip of his diamond sword into my direction.

I flinched, trying to get myself out of the tight grip of the person holding me. Techno was smiling as he put a certain pressure on the knife that he was still holding against my neck. I whimpered as the cold material touched my skin. Closed my eyes in fear. Techno’s long red robe fell around us, giving me the feeling of being even more prisoned. But he didn’t seem to care. He was too caught up in the overwhelming feeling of power. I knew that.

I knew just how much he enjoyed it. The power to decide if a person’s life would end or not. He held the sword. The power to not just end my life but to change the life of others drastically, too. I despised that.

“Have you decided yet? It is either your little friends’ life or yours.”, Quackity smiled at his uncalled-for comment. I shivered once again. It was cruel to make Dream decide which life would be taken. It was wrong. Just so wrong.

“We all know how strong you are. How strong you will be, Dream. You are a threat to each one of us. We need to make sure that you won’t snap and do what you were planning in the real game. You fought bravely but now the fight is over.

Make a decision. Now.”

As if to underline Wilbur’s words the man behind me tightened his grip. I groaned in pain as I felt the blade cutting my skin. But with my closed eyes I did not see what it did to Dream.

He flinched when he had heard my noise of pain. If I would have looked up and would have seen it, I would have known that it hurt him more than anyone could have guessed. I knew that Dream hated it to see me hurt. In pain. In that situation I was in right now.

And I did too, obviously. Despised myself for having been too blind to have noticed Techno’s sneak attack. If I would have been more aware of my surroundings, I would have never gotten in the fangs of these monsters. I wouldn’t be here in this situation.

But I had been too blind. I was weak. Too weak to protect myself and now Dream had to do that. The pain that had been torturing me for a while now got better with the seconds passing by and as I opened my eyes again, I saw that everybody had noticed that Dream had tensed up.

I saw tears in his eyes as he bit his lip, thinking. I knew that he was trying to find a way out of this without anyone getting hurt. But I was afraid that there was none.

Everybody here had taken their wounds out of the battle that had been ruling the glade just a few minutes ago.

My arms began to hurt under Techno’s tight grip and my hands started to get tingly as the blood was no longer able to rush through them. He had cut the strings of the fishing rod and instead he had decided to make sure that I stayed in this position all by himself.

I wasn’t the only one struggling.

I saw that Dream was struggling too. He fought with his emotions. The determination in his golden eyes showed me that he didn’t want any other emotions to show. I knew that he thought that the others had no right to know what he felt. That they had no right to make him make this decision. And I thought so, too.

Sometimes I didn’t know if it was a blessing to know Dream so well that I could read him like an open book or if it was a curse. I knew what was going on in his head.

What Wilbur, Quackity and Techno, fuck what everybody here was doing! Was wrong! I knew that Dream will get to the point where he would become the Dream, that he was in the smp. But right now, he wasn’t that Dream. Right now, he was the Dream we had as a friend. The Dream that had feelings of love and care. This Dream was the one I loved.

Everyone here was affected by this dimension’s curse. I knew that everyone had to suffer with making decisions they would have never done in the real world. That everybody was suffering under random thoughts and impulses. But this had went too far.

I held back a scream as Techno’s blade cut deeper into my sensitive skin. As I felt blood running down my neck. Tears built up in my eyes. For the first time this evening I was actually worried about my own wellbeing. But I held my vision fixed on Dream. Seeing him calmed me. Reading what he was thinking helped me distracting myself from the pain.

Dream looked at me and I saw his face getting warmer. I could tell that he swam in feelings of guilt. His eyes told me. My heart got heavy. I knew that he asked himself what I did wrong to be in this situation. That he knew that I did nothing wrong and that I was here because of him. Because of the things we decided him to do in the Dream smp. And I knew that he hated himself for this.

Oh, how badly I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was unfair to put him in a situation like this. It was the fault of Wilbur, Quackity, Techno and all the other people on their side. This war was stupid. Built up upon the fear of Dream’s smp personality. They wanted to lock him away before he got the chance to end whatever he had started on the server.

I saw Dream’s eyes darting from Wilbur to Quackity to Techno to me. I noticed that his fingers tightened their grip around his sword. For a second my eyes fell on the red stains on it. The blood on its blade proved that he himself had done some terrible things today. But he wasn’t the biggest monster on this glade. Not yet at least. The things he did were not even close to what they were putting him through right now.

I felt sorry for him. He looked so unconfident. Dream, unconfident. Two words I never thought to ever say in a sentence. Dream always knew what to do. He always had a plan.

But for once he didn’t.

I saw his eyes getting teary again. I knew that his hope was sinking.

That he began questioning himself. He always had been a person that was afraid of losing. That had a hard time with dealing with mistakes. With failures. He wanted to life a perfect life. To always be in control of what was happening.

As he made a step in my direction everybody thought that he was going to try to free me. I felt Techno readjusting his knife and for a second, I closed my eyes as I felt a pinching pain. I knew that this step did not mean that he was trying to free me.

It was a sign that he wanted to sacrifice himself if it meant that I was going to be fine. I understood why he came to this conclusion. The guilt in his eyes told me. He saw himself as a monster now. As the one who was responsible for this.

“No…”, I whispered quietly. I knew about the doubts that were fighting in his head. I knew just how afraid he was. The little discussions we have had during the last days had given me a pretty clear picture of what was going on inside of his head. I didn’t want him to drown in those feelings of guilt.

But Dream didn’t hear me. The thoughts in his head being too loud.

“Dream don’t.”, my eyes flew to the person who had spoken. I thanked Sapnap for doing so. Dream looked to his side. I saw him studying Sapnap’s appearance. I wanted him to stop doing so. Looking at Sapnap would just make everything worse.

Sapnap, too had gotten hurt during his fight with Philza. He stood there with blood stains all over his white and black shirt. I saw that his power was leaving him. I could tell that Sapnap was in pain without having to look into his painfilled eyes. I saw him clutching his shirt. Noticed that even though Sapnap was trying to seem tough his limbs where shaking. I saw the red, dark blood seeping out between his fingers. He was hurt.

And Dream saw that, too.

And it affected him badly. Him looking at Sapnap was the same thing as telling a suicidal person everything she had done wrong. Showing her every mistake she had made and every person she had hurt. It was the same thing as telling that suicidal person to go kill herself. Had the same impact of emotion. I saw the regret in Dream’s eyes. It hurt me to see so much self-doubt in them.

I knew that Dream was doubting himself more than anyone else. He seemed so confident all the time but he had reached his breaking point. He had reached a point where he doubted himself and everything that he did and that he will do in the future. He didn’t want anyone to fight on his side, knowing they will get hurt because of it.

Dream bit his lip.

“It’s not worth it.”, Sapnap continued, desperately trying to convince Dream to not do anything stupid. “I can’t let them kill him.”, Dream answered in a hushed but broken voice. My heart got warm. “I- I can’t lose him.”.

He looked back at me. My heart got cold again. I looked away. I couldn’t bear to look at them anymore. It made me insane. To know how badly he hated himself. To know which thoughts were ruining his mind.

Instead I looked at Sapnap. Saw that he was thinking. Everyone was. Except they were thinking about what Dream would answer. Quackity’s group was wondering if they would finally get what they had fought for: Freedom and safety. I hated them so much. They didn’t see what I saw. They had no idea what they did to him. They had no fucking idea what they put him through.

As Dream took his eyes off me, I was finally able to look at him again. His eyes flew over our little group. I saw that it bothered him. Dream hated it that our once so peaceful group had split. He knew that everybody wanted the best for themselves and Dream understood that he was a threat to that. He wanted the same as they did.

I saw that his mind was racing.

“I ask you to let him think about it.” Confused Dream looked at his friend, whose eyes were direct at him. I too was surprised. I did not expect Sapnap to say anything else. “It is better like this”, Sapnap mouthed and Dream stayed silent.

I was fine with what he said. Maybe he could help Dream to calm down. Maybe he was able to delete those awful thoughts in my best friend’s mind. I hoped it.

It surprised me that Dream looked at Quackity after that, waiting for a response. I could tell that he really wanted Quackity to decline. I could tell that the only reason why he didn’t say anything was that he knew that Sapnap was right. He understood that there were too many emotions in his head. He knew that it may be better to recover before going with them.

“Fine.”

Quackity nodded grinning. My heart got light. Thank god.

“We will meet again tomorrow. Same place same time. This is the second and last time that we give you a second chance. Use it wisely, Dream.”

With these words Quackity, Techno and the others decided to leave. I took a deep breath as Techno took his blade away from my neck. He forced me to get up from my knees and as we finally stood, he pushed me forward into the direction that led us deeper into the snowy land.

He did not give me the opportunity to look back at Dream one last time. In that moment that affected me badly. I really wanted to see his face one last time before leaving. But after all it was better like this.

Dream did not dare to look at us go. He stood there like a cat that's fallen in the gutter, drowning in self-doubts. He wasn’t sure if what he had done had been right. If it had been a good idea to let Sapnap decide to wait 24 hours. He hated himself right now. He hated how much of a narcissist he was for pulling me into a situation like this. For pulling me through 24 hours of terror and pain.

Just because he himself, Dream, was too afraid to choose between life and death.

“Great decision…”, Sapnap laid a hand on Dream’s shoulder and Dream felt himself loosen up a bit. He looked up into his friend’s eyes.

He stood silent. Doubting it. He didn’t know what he would do if he found out what exactly they were putting his best friend through.

“I am sure that Tommy will take care of him.”, Tubbo joined their conversation and tried to lighten up the mood with a small grin. But it showed no effect.

“If I am being honest, I don’t think that Tommy has anything to say in that matter…”, Ranboo stepped forward.

“Techno seemed to be the one who is responsible for him…”, Karl said, only causing Dream to feel even worse.

He didn’t want to hear that again. He knew. He knew that it had probably been a bad decision. Techno was a ruthless person. That kind of monster to kill other people on his behalf. Techno was a horrible person.

“It doesn’t matter now.”, Sapnap said. “George will be fine. We all know him. He is a strong person.”. Dream felt himself feeling a little better. His friend’s words were filled with promises built up upon hopes and wishes; he knew that. But he felt better with them. “We should rather take care of ourselves now. I know that many of us took damage tonight.”

No one protested at that. Surprisingly quiet went the group on their way back home with mixed emotions. Each and every one of them was thinking the same question:

Will George be okay?

I, in this moment, was sure that I won’t be.

I didn’t know about what had happened after I have left them. Instead, I found myself in the tight grip of Technoblade. Groaned in pain when I felt the cold iron of a sword against my wrist. With tears stinging in my eyes I looked down at the snow which was the only bright thing that night.

I felt my limbs grow numb from the coldness. The same coldness that had decided to steal even the tiniest bit of hope in my heart.

This was bad. Really bad. My thoughts went back to Dream. I wanted to know how he was doing. I knew that he had been struggling with self-doubts and I saw that Sapnap had tried to help him. But I knew too, that as soon as Dream would be alone again his thoughts will spin back to me and to what will happen to me.

Thoughts and things that I should have on my mind, too. But I just couldn’t think about anything other than Dream. Seeing him as hurt as he was and so unconfident as he had been made my heart heavier than it had ever been before. I didn’t even know why it affected me so much.

We were friends, it was normal to worry for each other, right?

I wished things were different. I wanted to be with him instead of these people. I felt alone now that I was with them. I have never spent much time with Wilbur, Philza, Tommy and the others. I only knew Quackity very well. But his new self was just as new to me as the other people here. I felt lost. Hated being alone.

Technoblade on the other hand had always been a loner. Only a few days before when we had been thrown into this new world everyone had tried to find someone to stick to in order to not be alone. But Techno had preferred it to be all by himself. And we had respected that. Even though at least I have had a certain mistrust against him that had risen with every time I have thought about him.

He was a different person in real life than he was in the smp but his real self had been washed away by his smp self very quickly. I would have never guessed that Quackity could have been the real threat to our and my safety.

And yet, here I was… On my way through the snowy land. On my way to their home base.

I would have never guessed that I would once be in the position of being held hostage.

And yet… here I was…

As we wandered over snowy mountains, the others talked about everything and nothing. I despised the fact that they seemed to have forgotten what had just happened. Stayed quiet. I had to fight myself through this walk because Techno made it difficult for me to walk properly.

He made bigger steps as I did and as I was freezing to death, he seemed to be completely fine. It was a miracle how fast the temperature in this world could rise and fall. Everything was so fucking weird. Many things looked like they did in the real world but things like the low variety in plants, animals and trees, things like the weird temperatures, the clear skies, symmetrical clouds and the way gravity worked remembered me that this was all a game.

I was glad that Dream had decided not to give his life in order to save mine. I felt a tear walking down my cold cheek but I couldn’t wipe it away.

I was sure that Dream will be doing the right thing when it came up to it. I just didn’t know if it was the best for me, too…

I didn’t know what to think anymore.

Even though I have said so, I really didn’t want Dream to fight these people again. I knew that Dream was a very good fighter; he had proved it a million times- But the next battle would be a battle for life and death.

And I didn’t want him to die.

I didn’t want to die either though…

If Dream decided to give his life there would be just one life that was taken.

If he decided to try and help me on the other hand, there would be a lot of blood shared.

I was sure of it.

And that was what scared me. Even more then the next 24 hours.

Chapter Text

“Well well well then…”, I opened my teary eyes even though every inch of my body screamed at me saying that I do not have the energy for that.

I hated myself for crying. It was a sign of weakness. Something that was dangerous to reveal. I was sure that Dream wouldn’t want me to cry either. He would want me to stay strong. Just as he always was. But even though I wanted to make Dream happy, I just couldn’t do anything else. I tried to stay strong. I really did.

But the overwhelming pain prevented me from doing so.

I felt it every time I tried to move. Every time I actually did move, there were clinging chains that stopped me from doing so. I’ve grown to hate this sound more than anything. It had gotten a physical pain to my ears by now. I didn’t know when but I’ve reached the point where I’ve mentally connected this awful noise to the pain coming with it. The chains on my feet and wrists had little needle like spikes on their insides which did their best to make me bleed. Slowly but painfully.

I hated them. There was a fire deep in my heart that tried to break through the surface. Burn this damned material. But I just couldn’t do anything to free myself. I had noticed right away that my feet were chained to the floor and my arms chained to the ceiling.

I have tried to escape. For the last five hours I have.

But all the energy had been for nothing.

As I looked up to see who had just spoken to me, I was met with dark brown eyes, nearly black, filled with something I couldn’t name. I was scared. I didn’t like the netherite knifes in the hands of the other. Didn’t like that smile on the other’s face.

“So….”, he started. “Dream really had decided to let you stay with us.”, the black-haired male said holding a knife up at my cheek. With a fast beating heart, I squinted, trying to look at it. My breath became shallow.

“Very carelessly considering that he knew what we were about to do with you…”, I felt Quackity’s eyes burning on my skin as he observed me. Felt the growing urge to tell him how stupid they were to think that Dream have had a choice.

“Oh, how stupid they are…”, the raven-haired male whispered as he laid the tip of the knife against my skin. I flinched, holding back a cry as the painful chains bit into my skin. I was surprised at how self-reflective he was. They really were stupid. But the fear inside of my bones weighted more than the surprise in my head.

I have reached the point where I wasn’t able to read the black-haired man anymore.

“How… stupid they are that they do not see who the real danger is.”, Quackity smiled brightly as he put a certain pressure on the knife that gave me the need to cry out loud. My vision got dizzy the moment the knife actually cut into my skin, leaving a red trail behind.

I remembered that I had to breathe in order to stay alive but as I did so I stopped trying to follow his words. He decided to continue speaking, nevertheless.

“I am not stupid, George.”, he shook his head. “I know that you are the one who has Dream under his control.”, he laughed bitterly and increased the pressure on his knife. This time he had made it to crash whatever had given me the opportunity to stay quiet, the first time he had cut me. The moment I let out an agonizing scream of pain, his eyes started sparkling.

But I wasn’t able to see that. It just hurt too much. Was like a fire burning. I felt hot blood running down my neck as Quackity finally took the knife away from me.

Silent tears found their way over my face as I looked up at the insane person right in front of me. My pond of feelings was almost spilling with confusion and disappointment.

This was a new side of my friend.

A side I was sure had been overtaken by his smp personality.

A side I never thought I would ever see. I knew that in real life we had made his in-game personality cruel. Cold. We had made him to a killer who would do anything to achieve his goals.

And now it was time to pay for that.

“Quackity, please.”, I cried, devastated staring into the black eyes in front of me. I really tried. I tried to find the friend I once had in those black devilish eyes. We had been in this world for only four days and everything was escalating already. I wasn’t able to find the old Quackity anymore. Not even any other emotion than pure evil.

“I am not stupid, Gogy.”, Quackity said as he let the knife carefully caress my neck. His eyes had been following the red stained knife. “I won’t fall for your stupid ‘Quackity, please’s. You know… I might have gotten insane…”, His eyes were still following that knife. My body was trembling. Out of fear, pain and hate.

I hated this.

He played with me; I knew that.

“Maybe I have lost myself to my Minecraft character.”, his eyes suddenly darted up right into mine. Yes, he really did. Oh, how badly I wanted to spit this answer right into his face.

“But now I know.”, he put more pressure on the knife that was still held against my neck. Once again, I had to hold my breath. My eyes stayed open this time, though. “I know who the real villain is in this story.”, the knife once again cut into my skin. Hot blood came out of the wound Quackity was drawing. I felt it.

It came with the pain. This excruciating pain. The fire. Burning.

But I stayed strong. I had to. Did my best to try to stay quiet. I didn’t want to let Quackity see my pain once more. I had no idea what he was talking about. He had gotten insane. He was babbling things that had no reasoning behind them.

“Techno and Wilbur have agreed to let Dream pay for his decision to not do the right thing. You can’t believe me how glad I am. How happy I am to be the one that will be able to write our little message on that beautiful white canvas right in front of me.”.

As he said these things, he ripped my blue shirt into pieces with that knife and I screamed as I felt the knife’s blade cut into my chest in the process. Quackity noticed that. But he didn’t look like he was sorry. “Oh, did I hurt you?”, he cooed instead and threw the shirt to the floor.

I did not give him an answer. It just wasn’t necessary to do so. I still had to understand what he had said before his question. The canvas. My body. Never would I have thought that this ugly body of mine would be called beautiful. But I wasn’t able to think about that any further. The pain was worse than the shame for my own pale body that was now exposed to these attentive eyes of his.

Nevertheless, I felt disgust rising up inside of me as he let his eyes wander of the big scratch on my chest that he had caused in the first place. I flinched as he raised a hand and laid it onto my skin carefully. Hissed as his cold fingers touched the burning wound he had caused.

“Oh no…”, he whispered and looked up into my teary eyes again. I could tell once again, he really wasn’t as shocked as he sounded. “Look, George…”, he said and I decided not to. “I ruined my canvas…”, he then added and I felt a shiver running down my spine.

The moment he had ended his sentence I felt his fingers becoming a bit more brave and I had to bite down on my lip in order to swallow yet another scream of pain. I wasn’t able to hold back any tears though, as his fingers investigated the insides of the wound, causing an excruciating pain. The dizziness came back and this time I just wasn’t able to breathe in order to make it go away.

When he took away his fingers, I was finally able to do so, sighing in a way that sounded like a sob. “Look…”, Quackity then said as he raised his bloody hand up to my face. “Too much blood…”.

I closed my eyes, trying to make the dizziness go away. “I think I need to restart now, what do you say?”, Quackity smiled in a way that made him look insane and I found myself fully sobbing now. “Oh, don’t worry…”, he cooed as he wiped away a stray tear. “You will respawn, hun... We are not talking about canon lives here…”.

I flinched at his words. There was a deep fear inside of me, now finally breaking out. I didn’t want to die. How would he know that we would respawn? How would he know when there was a canon death and when there wasn’t? I was shaking.

I was afraid of dying. Afraid of the pain that would come with it. Afraid of what would happen after that.

A sudden pain broke me out of my little building of thoughts and I screamed loudly as I felt Quackity’s knife in my chest again. The chains were protesting loudly as I tried to free myself one more time. I just wanted to push him away from me. I wanted this fucking pain to stop!

“Hush, George. Let me practice…”, Quackity murmured annoyed as he cut into my stomach. I cried out loud with the pain that came with that action and the man I have called a friend some time ago got visibly annoyed with every move I made.

But I just wasn’t able to stay quiet anymore. My heart was beating fast with fear and pain. My head was spinning out of dizziness and way too many thoughts and questions. “No!”, I screamed with a raspy voice as he led the knife deeper into my skin, summoning a new wave of blood.

“Hush I said!”, Quackity dug the knife even further into my skin and I was crying, screaming in pain. I was squirming, my body did what he wanted, led by these wounds, these cuts and this overwhelming pain. My brain has grown numb.

There was nothing that could describe just how much it hurt.

“Damn it!”, Quackity was yelling now. But I haven’t been able to hear his annoyed cry. I felt the urge to throw up as he ripped the knife down with it still being as deep inside of my skin as it had been before. My vision got blurry, my head got warm and soon enough I felt myself fall into the darkness of unconsciousness…

When I woke up again, I was alone. All by myself in this room. I still had tears on my face, blood on my chest and an overwhelming pain in my entire body. But I forbit myself to cry. To scream. Hated myself for still being alive. I didn’t know how many hearts I had left.

But I wanted them to go away. I wanted death. I had thrown away any sorrows that I have had before. Suddenly the thought of death had become very inviting. Like a voice that was able to promise me freedom.

A voice that promised me to wake up to full hearts. Respawned. Healthy. Fixed. Regenerated. Healed up.

But here I was. Hurting, crying and fearing. I felt hunger, too… The last time I have eaten something had been this morning. Or the last one? I felt myself missing the feeling of time

“I see you woke finally up.”, I closed my eyes. Weak. The moment I felt a warm hand on my bare cold shoulder, I gave in to the clingy chains. Felt their spikes jump into my skin. Felt hot blood rushing down my arms. But I didn’t care.

The pain from the chains was nothing in comparison to the burning pain in my chest. I didn’t dare to look at the wound. What if seeing it actually made it worse?

I didn’t want it to get worse.

I just wanted it to stop.

“I completely messed up my canvas…”, Quackity said smiling and I closed my eyes as I breathed out silently.

“Why…”, I whispered, feeling myself shiver from the disdain in my veins. “Why?”, Quackity laughed loudly. As if my question had been the stupidest thing he has ever heard. “You really want to know why?!”, he was screaming now, voice serious. Mad.

I flinched as I felt him dig his nails in my shoulder. Tensed up as I felt his head next to mine. “Oh, I am doing this because you fucking deserve this. I am doing this because this will make sure that you won’t be putting us into any danger. Because, in reality, you are the monster, George. “.

I clenched my fist with the last strength of my body. “I am not.”, I said. “Stop.”. He laughed, turning away from me. “Oh Georgie. You can keep trying to tell yourself that you are innocent. But I know that you may be the most powerful person on this smp. I know that you are the one that could tell Dream to do anything and that he would obey.”, the raven-haired male walked back into my eyesight.

“I know that he loves you.”, he put two fingers in the air, forming quotes when he said ‘loves’. I shook my head at his words. They were stupid. Senseless.

“Oh, I know that is true. You can’t change that.”, Quackity smiled. “And that is the reason why I will not let you go. It is too dangerous.”, my eyes widened.

“You won’t..?”, I couldn’t bring myself to say my sentence out loud. But he understood and shook his head. “No.”.

“But I am going to make your stay a fucking hell.”

Quackity took out a netherite axe and looked at it amazed before he looked back at me, smiling.

“You. Will. Suffer.”.

Chapter Text

“Where is George?”, Dream’s voice was loud. Loud enough for everyone to hear. His eyes were fixed on the man standing right in front of him, black hair falling onto his forehead. Quackity looked serious and yet there was a slight hint of amusement inside of his eyes.

Dream felt himself getting nervous. He had feared that their decision yesterday would have consequences. And now these worries seemed to be proven true. Standing there in front of him was Quackity’s whole group except for the friend, the blonde had wanted to see the most.

The last 24 hours had been the worst he has ever experienced. By far. His mind had been clouded with worries, imaginations of his best friend crying and hurting, screaming and bleeding. He had drawn the worst pictures in his head until his heart had reached the point of complete shattering. Dream was sure that he never would be able to forgive himself if something had happened to his best friend just because he had been too weak to save his life.

Dream hated himself for his decision. It had been stupid to even think that time would help him make a decision he already made.

“He was too week to walk to this place.”, Quackity’s voice sounded honest but so very teasing. It was obvious that the black-haired male wasn’t sad about that fact. He seemed to be rather happy about it.

Something that made Dream shiver. He hated this answer. He hated each syllable of it. Suddenly the blonde felt the urge to start crying but he stood strong, knowing that crying was the stupidest thing he could do right now. “What did you do to him?”, his voice sounded much more desperate than he wanted it to sound. But Dream was kind of desperate right now. He made a fist, feeling his fingernails digging into his skin. He should have gone with them the first time they have given him the chance.

He had made a mistake.

He knew that.

“Why don’t you come and see, Dream?”, Quackity smiled. “Why don’t you come and read the message little George has prepared for you?”.

Dream gulped. Suddenly he was afraid that George might hate him now that he had done something so narcisstic. Dream knew that if he really went with these people, then he would see something he really didn’t want to see. Eather George, who was doing fine but hated him or George, who had been tortured throughout the entire time, the blonde had been in Kinoko Kingdom, sitting in their bed, overthinking everything.

He knew that this was a trap. He knew that it would be stupid to give in. It would be stupid to walk with them.

Another mistake.

But he really didn’t care.

“Just please. Promise me to not hurt him anymore.”, Dream begged and saw the other grin. Immediately he felt his hate rise. There was a time where he had considered Quackity his friend. But that time now officially ended. He knew that his friend was no longer there. “I promise, I won’t lay a finger on him.”, Quackity smiled. “As long as you get what you deserve.”.

Dream didn’t do anything as he felt Technoblade behind him. He obeyed to the orders of the pig. Knew that this would be the best for George. Even if Dream would fall into this trap, ending up heartbroken or anything else, he still knew that George would be free. And that was the only thing that counted.

Dream didn’t do anything as he felt tight ropes around his wrists. He accepted them, knowing that he had no right to say anything anymore. “Come with us Dream.”, Techno said smiling. He enjoyed this. Techno enjoyed the little rebellion he was part of.

And Dream wanted to kick him so badly for that. It made him insane. He hated him. He hated Technoblade so bad. Since the first time he had seen him on this smp he hated him. He was different from his real-life self. So very different. He was just like his smp self, had been like this from the start on. Cold, narcissistic and he fought for the side that profited him the most.

When Techno and Quackity walked in the direction he had come from Dream was confused for a second but as soon as he saw the humongous black building in front of him, he understood. He was going to prison.

He felt himself growing nervous. He had spent so much time in there already back when they had still been in the real-life word. He remembered counting the drops of violet fluid each they had dropped from the ceiling.

It had been boring. It had been boring when it had just been him, waiting in his discord call until the others would finally join him. So very boring. But in the real world he had been able to do something else while his Minecraft character was waitin. Now, on the other hand, he had to find something else to do.

This would be the real world.

Now he really was in this prison that he had helped constructing. He knew that there was no possibility of breaking out. Not without having anyone on the outside.

Dream shook his head. He was thinking about breaking out before he had even stepped in.

“You promised me to see George.”, Dream said as they entered the little front building of the prison, he found himself growing more and more suspicios with every step they made towards his final cell. Anxiously he watched the waving violet fluid from the screaming netherportal.

To be honest, he was scared of going in there. He really was but he refused to show his fear to the others. There were only Techno, Sam and Quackity now. Everybody else had left as they had started walking to the prison.

Nevertheless, he just couldn’t let them know about his fear. His trembling limbs.

His suspicion grew even more. It was strange to him that they decided to lead him here when he had seen George walk in a whole other direction yesterday. He feared that they were going to break their promise. That he would not get to see George again.

“Oh Dream, you will! Don’t worry! He’s here.”, Quackity smiled as he waited for Sam to give them his allowance to go through the portal. Dream was not sure about Quackity’s promise.”. The black-haired man had said that George was too weak to walk. How would he have gotten here then? When they heard a “Now.” coming out of the portal Techno pushed Dream forward.

They went through.

Dream felt his skin tickling the moment it touched the portalfluid. But it didn’t hurt.

Instead he suddenly got overwhelmed by a sudden heat he had not expected. Stupid, considering that they now were in the nether. A place the society had connected to hell. He should have known that it was hot in here.

But this was his first time that he was caught inside of a Minecraft world. How could he have known about this world’s dynamics?  

“Come back.”.

It needed just one command from the other side to bring the frozen in place pig behind him back to life. Techno pushed Dream through the portal again and the blonde nearly fell by the unexpected pressure but got his balance back really quickly.

Even though Dream was aware of the fact that he really should behave now, that he was in the control of their enemys, he glared at the pig behind him. Techno answered with a wide mocking smile. And Dream rolled his eyes, inhaling deeply. Oh, he really hated Techno.

To be fair: It had surprised him that Techno was fine with Quackity having the right to decide what happened and what didn’t. Usually he would have thought that Techno was the one needing to be in control.

He didn’t want to know what they gave him to be as quiet and trusty as he was.

He felt himself getting a bit dizzy as he stepped into the prison. Somehow, he just knew that the effects of the guardian had just applied themselves onto him. But he had no time to think about that even further. Instead he got distracted by Sam, who welcomed them. Saying that he needed to bring Dream into his cell alone, leaving Techno and Quackity to wait inside of the entrance hall.

Dream really was glad about that. He liked Sam more than the other two. Sam was calmer and nicer. The more surprised he was when Sam grabbed his tied-up wrists rather roughly. “Ouch.”, he said quietly and got a “Shush!” back.

Pushing a lever, Sam opened the safety door to the first room. They stepped into it, Dream immediately looking at the lonely bed inside of it. He knew exactly what he would have to do here.

And then - “Set your spawn, Dream.” – his thought got proven true. Dream complied, wordlessly walking up to the bed, laying a hand on the sheet. One, two, three – he counted quietly – four, five.

He took his hand back as he saw a yellowish message in front of him.

Your new respawn point has been set.

Immediately he felt a pain on his back. Surprising. Sudden. Dream’s eyes widened the moment he realized where that pain had come from. He took a loud and raspy breath, before he looked right into Sam’s emotionless face, shocked.

He hasn’t been prepared for this. He hadn’t been prepared for an attack like this. A burning pain bit itsself into each cell of Dream’s chest and his back. Blood seeped through his green shirt and as he looked down, he saw the tip of Sam’s netherite sword coming out of it.

He rolled his eyes as the pain reached a higher level. He knew that he was losing his hearts fast, by the amount of blood that left his body. Soon enough he finally felt his knees getting weak and then he fell to the ground, not being able to breathe anymore, his body felt numb, the burning pain vanished, and his eyesight got black.

When he awoke, he took a deep breath again, groaning as he felt the oxygen massaging his burning lungs. He coughed and Sam shook his head impatiently. Dream remained silent as he saw Sam picking up the items that belonged to him a few seconds ago. “Come on now, Dream. I needed to make sure that you really did set your spawn point. Come, we have to go further.”, Sam said as soon as he got everything.

When they finally stepped through a thick iron door, twenty minutes and thousands of doors, secret ways and tests later Dream again had to reset his spawn point again. Now they were inside a room, filled with levers Dream did not know the purpose of. But he wasn’t allowed to ask so he just did what Sam told him and put his hands through the hole, touching the soft sheets of a bed.  

As the five seconds were over Dream held his breath. He knew that Sam would kill him now. He had to kill him just in case that Dream had lied about his new spawnpoint.

And the death came.  

He choked as he found himself not being able to breathe anymore. With his eyes widened, he looked at Sam and found a half empty bottle in the other’s hand. A bottle with a green fluid in it. A poisonous bottle.

He felt himself getting weak and losing his eyesight as he fell to the floor the second time today…

The second time he woke up though he was on the other side of the wall, falling into a little water spot. He felt himself shiver as the water met his skin but as soon as he stepped out of it he got warm again. His eyes darted to the thick wall of lava right at the end of his cell.

Great. Here he was now. In his little prison cell…

“Dr…”, he heard someone coughing, rushing around: “Dream?”. Confused looked he up. His heart jumped. Fuck, he knew this voice. “George!”, he yelled as he ran towards the small figure on the ground. He was so glad that George was still alive. So fucking glad.

But when he looked at the brunette in front of him his happiness turned into big worries…

Chapter Text

Dream’s emerald green eyes were mirroring his emotions perfectly. They were filled with worry and with guilt. It broke my heart to see him like this. I had no idea what had happened to him while I have been here, I didn’t know what he had to undergo.

But the weak touch of his hand caressing my cheek, somehow warm and calming, gave me an idea of how much energy he had left. I shivered as his hand wandered down the little scar on my cheek. Quackity had tortured me during the last night, causing me to die various times. But with each time I that have respawned I have lost energy. So much, that my body had not been able to heal up fully, leaving me with a scar like this.

I felt my chest getting tight. Quackity had called it a gift. He had said that this scar would remind me of how dangerous I was over and over again. He said that monsters should be labelled as such and he had been standing there laughing when I had started to cry.

It really was funny how someone like him had to tell me that.

Monsters…

He was a monster himself. Not me, not that blonde boy there in front of me. 

“I am so so sorry…”, Dream’s whispering voice brought me back into reality and my heart stopped the moment I noticed his voice cracking. His eyes tearing up. I haven’t noticed them running up and down my scarred body but I knew that he had read the message Quackity had left for him.

I could tell by the self-despair inside of his eyes. I could tell by that shivering hand on my cheek and by these trembling lips. Dream had been brought back to that poisonous state of mind, filled with voices that told him just how much damage he had caused by doing nothing.

“It is not your fault, Dream.”, my voice was silent. Quiet. Raspy from having been used for screaming the whole night. It was exhausting to speak but it was so important that I did. He had to know that. He had to know that nothing that had happened had been his fault. These red letters on my chest said the opposite and I knew that they were burning in his eyes. That he was able to see the ‘LOOK WHAT U DID!’ behind his closed eyelids, smudged letters, accusing and dangerous.

“They did this…”, I had to take a breath before I finished this sentence, “Because they got eaten up by their in-game personality.”

I really tried to smile, somehow encouragingly. But it was almost impossible. Dream’s sad eyes were telling me that that expression on my face couldn’t be called a smile. Immediately I stopped, knowing that my petty smile would just encourage that wildfire inside of him, causing it to eat him up from inside.

Being here with Dream made me feel better, even though I knew that this was selfish. It was selfish to wish that he would stay here with me. I wanted him to be here because he made me feel better. His hand was warm, causing my heart to beat faster, causing my whole body to get warm. I felt much safer with Dream by my side. His presence made the memories of last night vanish a bit.

He gave me back some of that long-lost energy and I really hoped that somehow, I could do the same for him. I didn’t even have to look at him in order to see how uncomfortable he was. I knew, that even though having him here made me feel better, it made him feel even worse. Understandable. I knew how miserable I felt.

And yet he seemed to be focused on me and me alone. The cell we were in seemed to have been pushed to the back of his mind, even though the lava to our right was bubbling loudly, almost greedily, like a hungry animal.

“What did they do to you?”, I flinched when he spoke up again, voice raspy, broken by his inner despair. I gulped but then I tried to smile again. “I am fine, Dream. Don’t worry.”, the blonde had gone through so much, I couldn’t forgive myself for putting him through even more internal stress. If I were to tell him everything Quackity had tried yesterday, every reason for my puffy red eyes and these tear stains on my face, which I couldn’t see myself but knew they were there, then he would break right here and there.

“George.”, I blinked. I knew this tone. It was the same that I had used when I had asked him how he was, knowing that his answer had been a lie. He wanted me to be honest with him. I made a fist. Fuck, I wanted to be honest with him and yet I knew that I just couldn’t.

So, I just shook my head, knowing exactly how he felt.

The way I was withholding the truth from him was the same he had withheld the truth from me. Or at least how he had tried to. I knew that not receiving an honest answer made you feel sad, disappointed. It gave you the feeling that the other did not trust you enough to tell you how they really felt.

I didn’t want to be the reason for these things but I knew that if I told him the truth, the consequences would be even worse. The worse thing being him snapping, loosing himself to his smp personality.

“Please.”, my heart broke the moment I looked up, only now realizing that my eyes had wandered to the ground in front of me. Dream looked at me, analyzing my face and I found myself getting nervous. “I-“, I started a sentence trying to somehow prevent him from wanting to hear the answer. “I… am fine, Dream.”

The blonde closed his eyes, sighing. I knew that I have officially made it to make him feel bad. I looked to the ground again, not being able to see this disappointed face again. “George listen.”, Dream looked up, forcing me to do the same, lying a hand on my chin leading it upwards. “I know that you don’t want to tell me because you don’t want me to feel bad.”, I gulped.

I haven’t known that he had noticed. “I really appreciate your worry, George, but right now you have to stop worrying about me. You need to tell me what they have done to you.”, even though he really tried to explain his demand I still didn’t understand.

I understood that he wanted to know what they have done, well… What Quackity had done. But behind this disappointment, which was still there in his eyes right next to that sadness, I saw a glint of determination. I knew that he seemed to have something in mind. Something like a plan.

And I wanted to know that plan. For only a second my eyes darted downwards again, noticing his nervous fingers that were scratching the insides of his palms. I gulped. He really had a plan and according to his nervousness that plan did not seem to be very safe.

“Dream, I-“ – “Just fucking tell me, George!”, I flinched, heart sinking into my stomach. I didn’t know why my eyes teared up as soon as these shortly aggressive spoken out words reached my ears but they did and somehow I felt the urge to cry again.

“I- Sorry George, I didn’t mean to-“, I shook my head swallowing down that sudden knot in my throat. “It’s okay, Dream.”, I whispered smiling again. “I get it.”, my voice was still quiet but he sat near enough to be able to hear it.

Now Dream was the one shaking his head. “No…”, he whispered. “It is not okay. I don’t know where that had come from.”, he looked into my eyes again. “I just needed to know. I know that you try to protect me but please tell me what Quackity had done to you.”, Dream laid a finger on my cheek again, following that scar once more.

“I need to know everything. I want to know what he has told you and I want to know what he has used. I want to know how he had hurt you and how many wounds he had erased by killing you.”, Dream, who had unconsciously watched his finger, looked up again. “Don’t worry about me. I will be fine.”

And still I hesitated. I knew that he had some kind of plan now. But still I didn’t want to risk anything that would shake up his mind so much that he would lose the control. I needed to keep that Dream right here. I needed to keep that loving and caring friend. I needed to keep Clay.

I did not want to lose him just because I would tell him things that had already happened. If he were to change into that manipulating, cold, heartless guy that he is in our story, then I would not know how to react.

“Please.”, and yet his almost begging voice left me there sighing in defeat. Slowly I raised a hand, only to point to other scars on my chest and my back and my legs. “Quackity wanted to make his message for you perfect. He saw me as his canvas, I-“, I stopped as my mind wandered back to last night, bringing back memories I have tried to forget.

“I have gotten these from him, while he had tried out how-“, again I stopped, biting my lip painfully. “-how deep he had to cut in order to draw out enough blood to shock you.”, Dream eyed the scars on my body attentively and I felt horribly vulnerable under his observing eyes. But I tried to continue anyways: “I’ve stopped counting how many times he had killed me. I just know that he killed me often enough for the wounds to stop regenerating anymore. My body had grown tired of regeneration.”

I didn’t know what kind of reaction I have expected. Maybe him getting mad at Quackity or maybe him, growing more and more quiet while he got eaten up by this hating wildfire there right inside of him.

“These bastards… Oh, I am so sick of letting them play with lifes as if they were theirs.”

The reaction he gave me was something very different. There was a cold calmness in his voice even though the sentence that had just entered this room had aggressive words inside of it. This calm way of speaking scared me a bit. It was unusual.

“First Techno, then Quackity and then everybody else.”, there was that fire of hate inside of his voice but whereas I have thought that this fire would be directed at himself, destroying him from inside, it was more than obvious that this fire was directed at everyone else.

“Dream, they had no chance other than to-“ – “There always is a chance, George. They might have been controlled by the characteristics we have given them in-game but they still can think logically. They are still people with conscious minds.”, Dream had stood up, looking down at me.

“Oh, they are going to pay for what they have done to you and me.”, Dream shook his head smiling. I blinked, desperately trying to understand why he was saying things like these. Why he acted like he did.

“Dream calm down.”, There was this quiet voice inside of my head that told me why he acted like he did. But where I’ve spent the last minute ignoring it, I now started to listen to it. Panic rushed through my body now that I observed him again.

His whole demeanor had changed. His expression scared me. He looked serious. Scary. “You’re different, George.”, surprised I raised an eyebrow. Why would I be different?

“You have always been a person that I thought understood me. Please don’t tell me to calm down. I won’t allow injustice just like that. You and I do not belong in here. We should be free.”

Fuck, he needed to get himself under control again.

Chapter Text

"Dream.", there was fear in my voice. A fear that came from deep inside of me. It was the fear of losing him. Losing my best friend to that cold self that he was in the smp. Losing him just because his real self wasn't able to keep up his control, hearing what Quackity had done to me.

I had known that I shouldn't have told him the story of my wounds. That I should have just stayed quiet. There was regret forming itself deep inside of my chest. Regret that his pleading voice had been able to make me talk. I had known that if i were to tell him, that would have a certain kind of effect on him.

I had thought that he would get mad or extremely depressed. Both things that were more than just bad and yet I had told him everything, having been beating by just one word. It was stupid and I couldn't explain myself why I have acted the way I had.

I mean, I've kept my explanations vague but nevertheless they had been precise enough for him to get mad enough and filled with enough hate to lose his control. These cold eyes that were observing me now were the same ones that had been observing me back when we've been inside of that sheep stall. Back when he had been standing there in front of me with that bloody axe in his right hand.

For a short second, the picture was there again, right in front of my opened eyes. The blood rinsing the grass, the remains of the sheep and Dream's face, smiling.

"I did it!", he said. "I killed it!"

He had been so happy about that kill.

It had been the first time that he had started to behave untypical. I blinked. And this was the second time, it seemed.

The Dream right in front of me wasn't the one that had entered this prison. This one behaved different than the friend that had entered this world together with me and everyone else. He was different, not completely lost though.

I knew that there still was a chance of my Dream returning. He knew that these people got controlled by their in-game personality. The smp Dream wouldn't have known that. But at the same time his whole demeanor had started to resemble the demeanor that fitted the smp Dream, telling me that he had lost his control at least partially.

"No, George.", to hear that disappointed voice hurt me. It gave me the feeling that I had done something wrong, even though I knew that I haven't. His disappointment rooted inside of his opinion that I have changed. Something that must be part of the other Dream taking over.

The other Dream thought of me as the friend that followed him, as the friend that was loyal and understanding. I understood that the other Dream would think that I have changed, even though in reality he had been the one changing.

"Dream, please don't let the other Dream take control.", I tried to stand up, too, just because I felt the need to. I thought that standing up would give me new ways of making sure that my Dream stayed. But the moment I tried to use the tired and worn out muscles of my body they started screaming in pain, causing me fall back to the ground.

I hissed, despised myself for being this weak.

"I am sorry, George. I have to.", Dream watched me with an expression that confused me. There was a sad look inside of his eyes but as soon as I noticed, it vanished, leaving back eyes that were literally spelling the word 'madness'.

The confusion inside of me grew only bigger the moment I tried to understand his sentence. He was sorry? Why would he be sorry?

And then I realized.

He had done this on purpose.

My eyes widened.

He had given up his control on purpose!

I looked up, observing the blonde there right in front of me. He stood there proud and confident. Gone was that broken, self-despaired persona of my best friend. Dream stood there with a smile on his face and with sparkling golden eyes, which I knew were emerald green in reality. He stood there filled with new gained strength, encouraged by rage, by anger directed at people that had once been his friends.

Oh, he had known that he would snap if he heard what Quackity had done to me. He had wanted me to tell him everything because he had known that the anger and rage that would enflame inside of him would help him change. Would help him gain new strength. Strength that he would need. Need in order to break out.

In order to take revenge.

There were tears in my eyes, now that I finally understood the whole caliber of his choices. He had thought that only his smp self would be able to free us out of this situation.

But at what cost?

What would happen now that my best friend had changed?

"Don't cry, Georgie.", I flinched when I felt a warm hand against my cheek. "We won't be here for much longer.", Dream observed my face with a look that was caring. Something that surprised me. I wouldn't have thought that he would still be as affectionate as he was in the real world.

"You will get your revenge...", there was pain inside of my chest the moment Dream's finger wandered south, touching the dark blood on my chest, spelling out words that have led to Dream making a severe decision.

His eyes followed his finger that went through my wound, painful but a joke next to how Quackity had treated me. "We will kill them.", Dream looked up again, smiling. "Together."

And then he did something that shocked me. Something that erased each and every rational thought inside of my head.

He kissed me.

The world stopped spinning for a second, my whole body froze and my heart stopped beating. There was shock in-between my veins and yet, I felt myself enjoying the sudden touch of our lips. My hands found their way into the neck of the taller one that was now leaning over me, caging me between the prison wall I sat against and his strong body.

And then I answered the kiss that he had initiated in his enthusiastic state of mind. His lips were moving against mine in a rough passionate way and the moment that I accepted them he moaned silently, surprising me again.

"Oh, I am so  excited...", he then whispered as if our kiss hasn't been out of the normal and I held my breath the moment our lips parted only for him to continue kissing my neck, licking away the blood that had been there for hours. "I feel like its been years that we've done something like that together...", I panted when I felt teeth on a wound that had healed up only halfway.

Then there was pain and without wanting to I let my fingernails claw inside his hair, trying to tear him away from me. "Dream, please...", I tried to stop whatever he had started and quickly I realized that it really didn't matter to him.

"Do you remember, George, when we've destroyed L'Manburg together?", his voice was quiet, deep and growling. He sounded completely different from how I knew him and I felt my heart beat quicken.

This wasn't my best friend anymore, I realized.

This was the Dream from our roleplay story.

"It had been so great to see justice rise upon a land that had been built on a foundation of crime...", my Dream would have never said that. He had totally lost himself. "Dream, stop.", my voice was weak and yet he had heard it and even though I haven't expected it, he moved away from me, leaving my neck without blood but with two dark violet marks.

He seemed to be confused by my sudden want to stop. It broke my heart to see him like this. Again, I felt tears inside of my eyes.

This wasn't my best friend anymore, I realized.

This was the Dream from our roleplay story.

This Dream did not know that we had a life outside of this world. He didn't know that there was a family waiting for him. This Dream didn't know that we were best friends.

Now I understood.

This Dream thought that we were partners. That I had been the one that had crashed his and Fundy's marriage. This Dream thought that we were in a relationship the roleplay hasn't really been able to define, yet.

"I am sorry.", he said and I gulped, looking up again without knowing that I have looked down in the first place. This was the second time that he has said this sentence. And yet it were two different personas that have talked to me.

"I should have been more careful...", Dream observed my chest again. "You didn't deserve this.", he then said and I just nodded with silent tears running down my face. I looked away from him. I just wasn't able to see him hating himself once again.

And then I felt his hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. "We will get our revenge, George, don't worry.", his words hurt me instead of making me feel better. I wanted to tell him that we would not have to get revenge on anyone. These people out there were our friends. They did not deserve to get hurt by anyone.

Not even by Dream.

The moment that my Dream had decided to wake the other Dream up again, he had tried to help me out of this. He had known that he would be able to actually help me like this. But in reality, right now, I was in danger. My Dream did not deserve to get locked away. But this one did.

This one had done terrible things. Things, he had enjoyed doing. Things, that he had told me had to have been done in order to let the justice rule again. Like he was some kind of god that had to make that sure.

This Dream was dangerous. And he thought that I was just like him.

But I still was myself. Or at least I still thought I was. Maybe I wasn't anymore. Maybe that kiss had been the sign that I am acting like the wrong George. But maybe that had just been something that I had wanted to do for such a long time.

I didn't know. But it didn't matter right now.

The only thing that mattered momentarily was the blonde man there in front of me.

Smiling encouragingly.

"You okay?", he tilted his head and I silently decided that now I had to play this little game, just to protect myself. "Yes. Thank you.", I smiled. It was a fake smile, but this time I have managed it to smile well enough for it to not be noticed as a fake smile. "Alright.", Dream smiled again and I just sighed, nodding.

His attention that had been directed at me and me alone was gone now. He had stood up, in order to finally observe the cell we were in. His eyes were attentively scanning our surroundings. The dark violet ceiling with neon violet fluid dropping to the ground every now and then. Some kind of fluid that felt weird but had a relaxing effect on wounds as I have learned.

They were like a drug, making the wounds grow numb.

He watched them fall to the ground and then he seemed to grow tired of them, turning away his eyes to look at the walls around us. Dark walls, hard. Harder than anything else that we've touched in this world before. Of course.

They were made out of obsidian after all...

But he didn't seem to be fazed by them.

The lava was what picked his interest. He walked forward, just to stand still right in front of it. "Have you ever died burning?", it was a weird question that broke the silence between us. A question I really did not want to think about. A question I didn't want to answer just because I was afraid of what would happen right after that.

Chapter Text

“Why- Why would you ask me that?”, my voice sounded silent, my fear much more audible than I intended it to be. But my question stayed unanswered just like his question before. With a look in his eyes that I wasn’t able to define, was he standing there, watching me doing nothing but stare at him. “I don’t know.”, he then said, shrugging. “Picked my interest I think.”, he stepped away from the lava and I felt a certain tension fall from my shoulders.

I don’t know why but something inside of me has thought that he would want to find out how it felt like to die burning.

Dream now was hard to read. I didn’t know him that well. I only knew my best friend, the Dream that went swimming with me, the Dream that had spent the last few nights with me and the Dream that had given up everything just to make sure that I would be fine.

“What are you thinking about?”, I flinched, not having expected him to raise his voice again. “I don’t know…”, I lied, looking away from him. “Me, I bet.”, surprised my head swung around just to watch him smiling. He still was standing just a few meters away from me.

How did he know?

There was a sudden fear inside of my bones. He didn’t know about the whole personality thing, did he? Did he know that I wasn’t the George he thought I was? Would he do something about it if he did?

“So, you really thought about me, didn’t you?”, Dream smiled, having read my facial expression, interpreting it correctly. I flinched again the moment he sat down right beside me. “Knew it.”, there was an undertone in his voice that was oddly familiar. He had always used it when he had been joking.

“You’re so conceited.”, I answered, with the same undertone, desperately trying to push that weird tension away that was hovering between us. A tension that only I seemed to have noticed but a tension that I pretty much disliked.

Dream reacted like he always did after I would try to insult him; he just laughed. Something that made me feel a bit better. He wasn’t that different from my Dream, it seemed… And then he laid an arm around me, as if we were the best of buddies, pushing me towards him. Immediately my body tensed up again. Something that he did not notice thankfully.

Normally I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did but right now I started to feel unsafe again. I was unsure about this side of him. I knew what this Dream was able to do and I knew that he was driven by bloodlust and by the need to play god. Him, behaving the way he did right now, friendly, almost innocent and yet so familiar was weird to me.

“But I know that you love me either way.”, I closed my eyes for a second the moment he kissed me on my forehead and I held my breath just for a second.

I knew that he would get suspicious if I keep on being as tensed up as I was, if I wasn’t able to push that damned tension off me. I really had to get used to that sudden intimacy that we now shared since he thought about us as a couple.

“I do…”, I tried to smile the way he did, happy and loving. But I knew that I wasn’t able to. Not right now. And he knew that, too. Seeing me smile the way I did made his facial expression change. “Did I hurt you earlier?”, Dream slowly reached forward to tilt my head, watching the wound he had bitten earlier.

“You’re in pain aren’t you?”

His worry as admirable. I really was in pain. But the inner wounds were worse than my outer ones. In fact, the wounds on my body almost didn’t hurt at all. My body had grown used to them and their pain. Most of them had started to heal up, even though I already knew that they would not be able to heal up without leaving scars since my body leaked energy.

I didn’t know why, in the Minecraft world, my body was able to heal wounds as fast as it could. But I knew that with every wound that healed, my energy got torn away from me. I knew that I needed to eat something in order to get my energy back. It has been the same thing back in our first night here.

“Did they give you anything to eat?”, Dream seemed to have the same thoughts I had.

I shook my head.

“These assholes.”, again that aggressive undertone was back. An undertone that I have never heard before. Dream normally would think about what he would say and how he would say it.

It was horrible how fast the smp Dream had overpowered him.

_________________________

The day hasn’t been that eventful after that. We have talked a bit but about things that weren’t that interesting or important.

The night had fallen over us sooner than I have expected. Or at least that was what the clock was telling us. And Dream had fallen asleep even faster, even though I would not have thought that he would even sleep at all. In Minecraft it was only possible to sleep inside of a bed but now that Dream was laying there in the floor, I did not think that the same thing was applying for our weird Minecraft-reallife world we were in right now.

I haven’t been able to find any sleep nevertheless, though. The wounds on my body did not hurt that much, especially now that most of them had already healed. But my head just wouldn’t allow me to turn it off. I still sat there leaning against that wall, thinking about everything and nothing at the same time.

And then suddenly that was interrupted by something bright. A light that I wasn’t able to justify. “George?”, I wasn’t able to look away from that sudden source of light, even though I was sure that Dream had tried to get my attention. “Is that you?”

What a stupid question to ask. Of course I was. But I had no time to get angry about that. Because the moment, I finally managed it to look away from that light, I found Dream in the same position he has been in before. “Don’t worry about him. He is sleeping and he will for another five or six hours.”, with disbelieve rising up inside of me I looked back to that light source.

“Who are you?”, I then asked, cautious as to what would happen to me if I was careless. I had realized that the light sounded like Dream. Something that was uncomprehendable for me. Spooky.

“You don’t know me?”, the voice sounded hurt and only now I was able to hear a tiny difference to Dream’s real voice. This one sounded a bit as if the person using it was in a tunnel. Hollow somehow.

“You must still be the George from the real world then.”, suddenly the light disappeared and I gasped as soon as my eyes were able to detect what had been causing it in the first place.

There was a man in front of me. Someone that hid his face behind a white mask. A mask that looked oddly familiar. It was Dream’s mask. The whole man looked a lot like Dream, blonde hair, broad shoulders, long legs, even the clothes he was wearing were the same ones that the Dream right next to me was wearing. He was taller, though.

And something that just couldn’t be mortal.

There were two halos over his head, crossing each other, building an x somehow. He was slightly hovering over the ground, looking like touching it, but really didn’t.

“You can close your mouth again, Georgie. Even though I must admit that I love it when you let your eyes wander over my body.”, I flinched, closing my mouth even though I couldn’t remember opening it. I knew that the blood had risen up to my face and looked down, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“The people have given me the name DreamXD. A stupid name, if you asked me. Totally not thought through. But who am I to complain, right?”

I blinked. This creature still was a mystery to me. He seemed to like to talk much, even if it was totally unnecessary. Still, I wasn’t able to understand who that man was, even though he has said so much, trying to introduce himself. “I can see that you still are confused. I don’t even have to read your mind to know that.”

My mind stopped for a second. He can… what?

“Doesn’t matter. I know that all this must be a bit much. Take your time, my precious.”

I decided to ignore the nickname, instead trying to finally let my memory build a picture around that creature.

DreamXD… I remembered that we’ve had someone like that in our story. But I would have never thought to actually be able to meet him. I knew that him and I would get in touch in our story, now I remembered what Dream and Wilbur had explained to me.

We haven’t been able to stream the actual storyline, yet. DreamXD had been Dream’s way of playing with us on the smp even though his canon character was locked away. He had used that account to stop Techno from entering the end and the last time he has used it; we have built a McDonalds on the server.

DreamXD was a part that had been split off Dream during a ceremony, I think. But I wasn’t sure. All I know is that seeing that character in front of me now, was weird. Unfitting. His storyline hasn’t been written fully; I just knew that he would become somewhat a replacement for the real Dream for me.

“It is interesting watching you remember.”, I flinched when his voice brought me back into reality. “Even though I must admit that I have hoped that you wouldn’t have to do that.”, the creature tilted his head. He looked creepy with that mask on. Emotionless.

“You don’t have to fear me, George.”, DreamXD laughed. “We are friends remember?”, there was a certain undertone in his voice that made me uncomfortable. Technically we weren’t. Not, yet. This was a part that had been written but not acted out yet.

“Why are you here?”, my question had the intention of changing the topic. I knew that my undertone could be offending but nevertheless I just had to ask him this.

DreamXD shrugged and then he looked over to Dream. “I am here to fix what your arrival had ruined. I had hoped that you would have changed too meanwhile. Most of your friends have.”, I looked to the ground.

Most of my friends, huh? That was bad news. I felt the hope sink further. If they were to change fully then we would be forever caught inside of this world. “I am the god in this world. I am the one that has to make sure that everything is going according to plan. The moment that you and your friends have entered this world you have destroyed everything. And the worst thing was that I haven’t been able to do anything about that since I have been caught inside of this idiot’s mind.”

DreamXD looked down to the blonde man sleeping on the floor. Totally unaware of this god’s presence. “The moment he had decided to give up his control though, he allowed me to reenter this world. And now I have to fix everything. Dream is already back in prison, which is good. But he still needs his mask and he needs the uniform that will bind him to the effects of this cell.”

My eyes widened. It was true, that this Dream deserved to be locked up but at the same time was he still my best friend. My Dream was somewhere inside of this person. “I must say that the fact that you still are the old George makes everything a bit more complicated. I have expected to meet my George again. He would have done what I wanted him to do. What would be right. You’re different.”

“Different?”

“Yes. I can feel that you like him more than me. My George would have known me. He would have chosen me over him because he would have known how much I love him. You’re different. You’ve got a whole other energy than him.”, DreamXD stopped for a second. He looked at me with eyes that seemed to reach my soul. Something that made my heart beat faster.

“I can feel him already, though.”, he sounded heavily delighted. I, on the other hand, was confronted with the feeling of helplessly. The creature came near me. I looked up with widened eyes, not able to back away since the wall was right behind me. Fuck, he was so much taller than me.

“Wh-What are you doing?”

DreamXD laughed quietly. I got goosebumps. “Nothing, honey.”, he kneeled in front of me and then he went to touch the mask over his face. “Just taking care of your wounds.”, he took the mask away and again my heart stopped.

He really looked just like Dream. His eyes were emerald green, piercing and warm, his lips were just like his, rose and fucking perfect. His nose was perfect too, and his freckles were dusted over his cheeks and neck.

In his eyes there was the look of mischief. Something that made the goosebumps even worse. He was observing me attentively. Scanning me with curious eyes in the same way that I have scanned him just a second ago. Suddenly he raised a hand. I flinched.

And then his hand caressed my cheek, leaving a warm, prickling touch. Filled with energy that had to come from him. I felt the scar tingling and yet I didn’t dare to move a muscle. I still was afraid that he might hurt me. “Your soul might be a different one but you still look as gorgeous as before…”

He had whispered his sentence and yet it has been loud enough to echo in my head, repeating itself again and again and again.

Chapter Text

“Your soul might be a different one but you still look as gorgeous as before…”

He had whispered his sentence and yet it has been loud enough to echo in my head, repeating itself again and again and again.

“These beautiful eyes…”, he said, “These kissable lips…”, I flinched the moment his hand wandered towards my neck. Towards the wound Dream had opened before. “This pale skin, right next to your pretty blood…”, his words started to scare me.

“And yet you have already been touched.”, the grip on my neck tightened and I widened my eyes the moment he pushed my head against the wall, observing the hickeys Dream had given me. His fingernails were pushing against my skin in a way that was painful. A pain that I knew. Knew from my cats. Every time they would scratch me, I would feel the same kind of pain I felt right now.

And that made my heart beat stronger.  

“He has given you these, hasn’t he?”, DreamXD no longer sounded human. He sounded like an animal. Angry. Aggressive almost. The air was leaving me, causing me to start breathing shallowly.

There was disgust in his voice and his expression that had been happy and loving before now was angry and filled with a madness that I knew too well. A madness that the sleeping Dream was able to portrait just as good.

“I- He-“, my mind wasn’t able to form a sentence. The fear and the sudden pain made it impossible.  “Oh, it was him, I can smell that.”, I pressed my eyes shut, afraid of what he would do now. “If I wouldn’t have known what his destiny is then I would have killed him right now, you know?”, my heart was pounding against my chest in panic.

“He doesn’t deserve you, beautiful. His destiny isn’t yours. It has never been. The moment he had given up his control he has made it impossible for you two to share a future.”, DreamXD applied pressure to my throat, causing me to gag. I wasn’t watching but I knew that if I opened my eyes, I would find him watching me shiver. Watching me suffering under his aggressive touch.

“This Dream is not your friend anymore. This is the Dream that has dethroned you, bombed an entire country multiple times and slaughtered people as if they were animals. This Dream has threatened to kill a child. And he doesn’t regret anything. This Dream is cold, heartless and hopeless. Right now, he is where he has to be. Locked away-”

“Stop.”

My voice was silent. Breathy. Filled with pain.

I wasn’t able to speak correctly now that his hand still was resting on my throat. It was painful to hear him talk about Dream like that. I didn’t know why I needed to defend him. I just knew that somewhere he still was my best friend.

“You want me to stop confronting you with the reality? You really are different from my George. He wouldn’t be as stupid as you are.” DreamXD finally took his hand off my neck, leaving me panting, trying to catch my breath again. I watched him as he took his mask and laid it on the face of my sleeping friend.

Almost immediately the mask covered his whole face, making it impossible to make out his real features anymore. I felt the need to help him, to tear off that mask. I was scared that it might suffocate him, considering that it had no holes. But I wasn’t able to do anything about it.

“He isn’t your best friend anymore, George.”, DreamXD looked at me while he changed Dream’s clothing by touching the inventory bar on his arm. With widened eyes I watched as he almost magically changed Dream’s normal clothes to an orange uniform. A uniform that made it visible for everyone that he was a prisoner now.

And he, himself, had no idea that this was happening. His arm laid in DreamXD’s hand as if it was dead. Almost numb. It was a sight that was shocking to me, even though his personality was the smp one.

“Look at him, George. He is the villain of this world. You know him and his story. You know what he has to go through in prison and I am afraid that you being here isn’t planned. It is his destiny to be in here, being tortured by Quackity, keeping the information of the revive book to himself, suffering under the pain and under the fact that he has lost his two best friends. You, being one of them.”

I got goosebumps the moment I realized what he meant. “You can’t stay here, darling. You have to come with me. Your future is on a whole different path than his.”.

“No.”, my voice sounded surprisingly strong considering that I still was trying to calm that pain in my throat. “I can’t leave him here.”, I looked up from my best friend, right into shimmering emerald eyes that resembled the ones a dragon had, now that he started to get mad at me.

Almost immediately my eyes flew back to his hands, remembering the pain that I’ve felt earlier. And indeed, there were claws where his fingernails have been. My eyes widened and I looked up again. Right between the two halos around his head, there were two horns growing out of his dirty blonde hair.

“You don’t have a choice, George.”, I flinched when his voice reached my ears. Hollow, and yet slightly growling. “I will take you with me. It has to be this way. We belong together.”, I shook my head. We didn’t! Maybe there would have been anything planned between him and me in the smp but right now I was here with my mortal conscience.

“And now sleep, Georgie or I seriously don’t know if I can control my anger anymore.”

I had no chance to say anything after that. I didn’t know what he had done to me but at the end of his sentence my eyes started to feel tired. My eyelids too heavy to be held open.

And then I fell asleep…

________________________

I got woken up by sunlight. Warm sunbeams, touching my pale skin. Skin that hasn’t felt this warm sensation for two days now. It was a calming feeling. Something that made me smile.

But then when the fuzzy feeling of sleep left my tired brain, I started to remember last night. Almost immediately I sat up, looking around and then I flinched, slowly letting myself sink back into the soft grass under me. I had been too fast. My head had started to punish me for having wanted to get up that quickly.

I groaned.

I felt as if I was jetlagged. As I have drunken too much, now suffering under the aftereffects of alcohol. And yet I knew that I was stone cold sober.

“You’re awake.”, I flinched and then I sat up again, slowly this time, careful not to allow my head to explode one more time. “I am.”, I then answered and smiled the moment I noticed Dream standing there only a few feet away from me.

He looked absolutely beautiful.

His dirty blonde hair seemed gold now that the sun was shining directly on it. His freckles seemed even darker than I remembered and his emerald eyes were filled with warmth and a friendliness that I have never seen before.

“I’m glad.”, he smiled and then he walked into my direction. I followed his movements attentively. “You have slept for a while now.”, surprised I looked up. “Have I?”, I asked and he nodded. “Yes. A month, to be exact.”

His message shocked me. “A month?!”, I asked and he nodded. “Many things have happened but it’s fine. You will figure it out yourself.”, I blinked. Doubted it, honestly. “There are more important things right now.”, I looked up, observing the hand he was offering me. “Like?”, he smiled at my question.

“I will show it to you.”, he shook his hand that was still stretched out into my direction to help me get up again. Without responding I took his hand and got up. The moment I finally was standing I felt that my legs seemed to be wiggly. As if I haven’t been standing for a while now.

It confused me.

Did I really sleep that long? That was unusual for me. I mean, I really enjoyed sleeping, of course I did. But on the other hand, I have never been one to sleep during a whole day. Sleeping for a month was even more unusual.

“I am glad that your body has been able to heal up fully during your sleep. Really am.”, surprised I looked at my friend. And then I remembered that I have been injured, looking down at my body. My body that was flawless. Without any wounds or scars or blood or anything else that could still be a proof for what I have endured during the first night I have been in prison.

In prison.

My eyes widened and then I looked over to Dream who was standing next to me, observing me. Dream was in prison. “You still like him, don’t you?”, this person wasn’t Dream. He looked like him. But he wasn’t him.

DreamXD shook his head and I gulped, looking away. Blinking. How could I have been so blind? Of course it wasn’t him. Of course. “I can see it.”, I flinched the moment DreamXD ripped me out of my thoughts. And then I felt a warm hand on mine. A tight grip.

Immediately I turned around and blinked surprised the moment I realized just how near the god had gotten. “How about I show you just how much happier I can make you, George?”, I stepped back, shaking my head. What? “Stop.”, I said, unsure about how I should react.

“I noticed the way you have observed me earlier.”, DreamXD smiled. “I know that you have checked me out.”, he made a step into my direction. “You did the same thing back when we have been in prison. You can’t deny that you like what you see.”.

My eyes widened and my heartbeat quickened. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it, darling. It is completely normal. You are in a different world now. This is my world.”, DreamXD’s smile grew bigger. “This is the Dream smp.”, he reminded me of a carnivore. The way he was looking at me. Like I was his prey.

I got goosebumps.

“There are different rules here, George. Different destinies. And yours is to fall for Dream. To fall for me.” I gulped. “It’s not your fault, George. It’s not Dream’s either. But your fans have decided to let your characters fall in love.”

It was weird to me to get reminded that I had fans. Something that somehow didn’t belong here. Something that belonged into the real world. And yet he was right. The fans did play a big role in what would happen. The storyline was ours to define, of course it was. But I knew too that the most of us, the ones that were okay with it, listened to the fans when it came to relationships.

It was something that kept up the viewers interest. Something that many film companies did. Something that we did too, and yes, Dream and I have always been okay with being shipped. We have always been kind of flirty around each other. Something that was just part of our friendship. It was an ongoing joke between us. Something that has become part of the smp, too.

But this was different.

Our flirting has been an ongoing joke.

Being in a world where it wasn’t, was different.

“Even though I really hate it: Dream and I are somehow the same since we have been one and the same person. You falling for us, for me, is written in your destiny.”, I shook my head, even though I kind of understood that it was true. True, if I were the smp George. But I wasn’t. I still was the real one.

“You can keep on telling this to yourself, if it makes you feel better. But I know for a fact that there is an interest inside of you. I can tell that you have already started to change. And during the next days you will be a completely different person.”

And during the next days you will be a completely different person.

It was this sentence that echoed inside of my head the moment I suddenly woke up once again.

Chapter Text

Pain. The first thing that struck my mind. Pain. A headache to be exact.

There was more than just the pain inside of my head, though. There was pain inside of every limb of my body. It was a burning one, kind of. Partly it felt like parts of my body had been strangled, a dull sensation.

And then, when I opened my eyes, I needed some time to get used to the light. I tried to reach out. To push my thumbs into my closed eyes in order to finally be able to see again. But my motion got interrupted. Interrupted by something that felt like a rope and was yet a bit more flexible. I blinked and then I noticed that the rope really was a vine.

I gasped, my lungs welcoming the air. My stomach hurt, there were vines around it, stranging it. Making it hard to breathe. It hurt. Everything hurt.

This wasn't right.

I looked down,closing my eyes as I took another desperate breath. There was a fucking vine around my wrist, pinning it to a wall behind me. When I opened my eyes again, the vine still just sat there. "What the...", my sentence stayed unfinished. Surprised I looked down a bit further. 

I was standing.

Only now I realized that.

My heart started beating fast. What was that? Another dream? A nightmare, for sure.

I struggled trying to free myself. There were even more vines around my body, making sure that it stayed upon that wall. Even though my body had been just as drugged by the sleep as I had been.

This was weird.

Being pinned against a wall by vines was weird. I had no idea why I would be in a situation like this. I had been sleeping, hadn't I? Was this DreamXD's doing? I shifted around, hoping to somehow loosen up the vines. But it was unsuccessful. Instead I suddenly felt something on my head. Something that felt like a big straw hat. But I wasn't able to move my head in order to see it. I wasn't able to investigate it with my hands either. All I could do was to stand here and wait. Wait for anything. Anything that would free me.

"Hello?", I tried to call out for someone. Anyone. Anyone that would free me. But there was no answer. I sighed as I closed my eyes again.

"You did well, George. However you fucking managed it to get yourself into this situation."

I knew that it wouldn't help me. Talking to myself, I mean. And yet it helped me keeping up my sanity. I was afraid that I would lose myself.

DreamXD's words came back into my head.

And during the next days you will be a completely different person.

He has lied, hasn't he? I wouldn't become a different person. I knew who I was. I knew where I came from. I was the master of my own actions and of my own head. There was no other voice. There was no other being that could even try to overcome me.

And yet I remembered my sudden fighting skills. I remembered my sudden stamina. I remembered my sudden knowledge of how to orientate in this world. I remembered my thoughts towards Dream.

Was that really me? I mean... I knew that these things were not my habits. Not my qualities. They must be the qualities of someone else. Of the smp version of me.

And yet I still felt like myself.

Did the others feel like that, too?

Well, I wouldn't know. Not if I really were to rest pinned against this fucking wall. This wall that I reckoned as one of the walls inside of my house. I blinked. The house in Kinoko Kingdom...

How did I get here?

Why where there these vines? Was this really DreamXD's doing? 

Once again, I tried to break through these plants. Maybe because the thought of the god gave me new strength. Strength that rooted inside of anger directed towards him.

My arms pushed against the vines and it hurt. Really did. It felt as if these vines were trying to strangle them. To make them fall apart. And yet somehow, I managed it to break them free.

It was exhausting. Exhausting to use that much strength. I felt as if I haven't used that much strength for a while now. My breath was already quick and yet I have only managed it to free both my arms.

I reached up, trying to rip that vine around my neck. It hurt. As if that vine was trying to fight back. The energy that I had to use made my fingers sting and then I finally I felt them giving up. Giving me freedom.

The moment I had managed it to free the other parts of my body too, I was totally exhausted. I stumbled into freedom with a fast beating heart. With a shallow breath. But the new gained freedom honestly didn't feel like that. I still felt that thing on my head. There was something on my shoulders, too.

Confused I reached up. There was a soft and somehow smooth sensation. I tried to lift that thing up that was just barely in my eyesight. But I stopped quickly the moment it felt as if it was about to rip off my whole skin on top of my head. The thing seemed to have grown on me.

I bit my lip. Suddenly my whole body started to tingle and my eyesight got fizzy. What the heck? Was it from the pain?

I waited until my vision had cleared again. And then I tried to investigate these thingies on my shoulders. They felt weird, too. They had the same weird surface as the thing on my head. Something that confused me. I turned my head, tried to see what the hell was there sitting upon my shoulder blades.

My eyes widened the moment they fell upon different sizes mushrooms. I gasped the moment I tried to rip them off me. It was the same sensation that thing on my head had given me. As if these mushrooms had grown inside of my skin.

I needed to see myself.

I needed to know what these things were. Maybe I was hallucinating? Maybe these vines had been poisonous like the blood vines had been. Now messing with my head.

So, I stumbled inside of the bathroom, knowing that somehow there had been a mirror. Slowly. Carefully. My legs were still kind of numb. They felt as if I haven't used them for a while now, either. I didn't know how long though. I honestly doubted that DreamXD had said the truth when he had told me that I had been sleeping for a month. That just wasn't possible.

By the time I had finally reached the little white room, my heart stopped for a second as my eyes fell upon my reflection.

There was a red and white mushroom cap on my head.

There was a red and white mushroom cap on my head!

What the fuck?

I felt the blood inside of my veins getting quicker the moment my heart started to pound against my chest. Without knowing my hands found their way back to that thing on my head.

Almost frantically I tried to rip that thing off me. My breathing quickened. I was hyperventilating. I knew. It hurt. So much. And yet I wasn't able to calm down. To stop this.

Until I broke down again, darkness lulling me into unconsciousness.

__________________

"George?"

"Hey, wake up!"

"George!"

Voices that I knew too well have been the reason for me, waking up again. "Good morning sleepy head!", I blinked before my mind was clear enough to identify one of the voices. "Sapnap?", I asked silently, voice raspy. "And Karl!", another voice added, giggling.

"What the fuck happened?", I then asked, more than confused. And then, the moment I recognized the bathroom I remembered. "Don't ask me how you've gotten into your bathroom. All I know is that you have slept for a month, man.", Sapnap tilted his head, observing me cautiously.

"You okay?", I flinched when he reached out to touch the mushrooms on my shoulder carefully. I expected him to answer his stupid question by himself. "I see...", he started, observing the mushrooms. "Kinoko Kingdom has left its marks on you.", my eyes widened. "What?". Sapnap rolled his eyes. "Well since you've slept for an entire month, someone had to make sure that you wouldn't die because of either hunger or thirst. The land has taken care of you while you have been sleeping.", he sounded as if that was entirely normal. As if this wasn't totally fucked up.

I was about to say something when Karl suddenly joined our conversation: "So jealous. You look awesome man.", he nodded as if to underline his statement. "These mushrooms really suit you! Maybe I should go sleeping for a month, too!", he giggled quietly and I just decided to swallowed my anger. There was no point in arguing. What could i change anyway?

"I have slept for a month you said?", I tried to change the subject again. My heartbeat had gotten quicker again, the moment I finally realized what I have just said. A month. DreamXD had said the same thing.

"He is right.", Karl nodded. "A lot has happened.", I shivered. DreamXD had used the same words, "Dream and Tommy have fought and then everyone except for you has helped imprisoning him. We won, can you believe that?!", confused I raised an eyebrow. He really sounded as if he was believing himself. Did he change fully? And why would Sapnap just listen to him? Why wouldn't he correct him? 

Dream was in prison. Yes. But because of another reason.

"He has been locked away for so long!", it hurt hearing that. If I have really slept that long then Dream must have been in prison for a while now. This was horrible. DreamXD had told me that it was Dream's destiny to stay there while getting tortured by Quackity. Was that true?

I made a fist. If it was, then I had to free him. 

"And- And the egg has been beaten!", Karl just continued speaking. Oblivious to my anger. Th egg. I remembered the blood vines. The things Dream had told me about it, back when everything had been normal. "There is a new land, too, built by Quackity! It is called Las Nevadas and-" – "Shush, Karl.", finally Sapnap interrupted him. He must have noticed my confusion.

"He has just woken up. Why don't we give him a bit time to get used to being awake again? We have enough time to explain everything to him.". 

Chapter Text

It was hard trying to play along.

Hard trying to play as if everything was normal.

Hard trying to mimic emotions that I didn’t honestly feel.

It was hard trying to be a part of a friendship that was so different from how I knew it.

Sapnap and Karl still were the people that I have learned to love in the real world. And yet they were so very different. It was irritating. It showed me just how alone I was right now. Now, that everybody has changed, I was the only one that still knew everything.

Listening to Karl and Sapnap was hard. It was hard listening to them explaining to me what has happened in their world. Their world because it looked like it has officially stopped to be mine.

It was their world now.

This is my world.

This is the Dream smp.

DreamXD’s words came back into my mind.

Right.

This was DreamXD’s world. And he really has made sure that everything fitted in. In into something that we have stopped creating. I really had no idea what had led us into this freaked out world. I didn’t know what we have done to get placed in that Minecraft world that we have created.

But now, that I have listened to Karl and Sapnap, I was almost certain that too much time has passed for us to find a way out. I really had no idea what or who has started to continue writing the script of the storyline of this smp.

I knew that Dream and Wilbur have planned ahead but to be completely honest: All that has happened so far (at least according to Sapnap and Karl) was way too detailed for it to only be ‘planned ahead’.

This was a whole new storyline. Something that Dream and Wilbur, or at least the Dream and the Wilbur that have joined this world with me, couldn’t have planned. It was almost as if there still were other people in the real world.

In my world.

It truly was bizarre and it was even harder to just accept that this reality was supposed to be mine now. That this reality will become mine once and for all, reaching its goal with every second that was passing.

It was hard to constantly get confronted with that big aspect of forgetting that has fallen over my friends like the plague. Not only letting them forget what has happened in our real life but also everything that has happened before DreamXD made me fall asleep for a month.

Now, that my fate has decided to let Quackity and me meet again, I realized what the hardest part of this new world was. It was to have to act as if Quackity has never tortured me that night.

Now, Quackity stood there in front of me. There still was this smile on his face. This dark sadistic smile, that was haunting me in my sleep. A part of my newfound life I really have tried not to mention. It was painful to remember what those pale hands have done to me during my one and only night in prison. It was painful to remember the things that have left this cursed mouth and it was hard to get reminded of the fact that nobody else, except for me, knew that.

Unconsciously I hid behind the two friends that have dragged me into this situation. ‘It would be a quick visit’, they have said, ‘Just to get to know Las Nevadas’. It has been a stupid idea to agree to that trip. A ridiculous one.

“Karl! Sapnap! So glad that after all this time you have decided to visit my country!”, I got goosebumps the moment his voice hit me like a hard stone, making my hands grow numb and the sounds of this world grow dull. There was slime in his voice. False happiness, slimy and disgusting.

You have to stay calm, George.

I knew that my heart was beating fast. My breath has grown shallow.

Calm the fuck down.

“We just had to!”, Sapnap smiled innocently, hugging the man that I have sworn to kill at some point in this fucked up life. Sapnap had no idea what this man was able to do. Not even in the slightest.

“Oh, and you brought George with you!”, I completely froze the moment my name left his lips, voice filled with that same false happiness, that same mischievous undertone that left me shivering. “So glad, it’s been so long!”, I knew that I needed to get my breathing and my heart under control again. But the moment he let go of Sapnap, just to approach me with that mischievous welcoming smile, my eyes widened and the adrenalin got pumped through my veins again.

“Hello Quackity.”, my voice was shaking. I made a fist. “How are you?”, I haven’t noticed that cold and emotionless undertone that made it too obvious that I honestly couldn’t care less. It was a dark contrast to that false light mood he has tried to spray into the thick air between us.

“I am doing amazing, George!”, I knew that he has noticed that undertone of mine. I could tell by that exaggerated happiness inside of his voice. His eyes showed no surprise though. Something that made me shiver. When he hugged me, my breathing stopped. My whole body tensed up the moment his arms found their way around my waist. Just like snakes. Suffocating. Toxic.

All my senses were on alarm, ears ringing, heart beating aggressively. “Thank you for caring!”, I wasn’t able to see his face now that his head was on my shoulder but I knew that he was still smiling. This knowledge made me aggressive. Made me want to kill him.  

“Oh, fuck you.”, my answer had been whispered, with the knowledge that it was risky to say something like that out loud. If any of my friends were to hear that, they wouldn’t get it. But right now, I was almost certain that Quackity did.

He has been one of the first to change and yet I somehow just knew that his mind hasn’t been changed completely. Not yet at least. Sapnap and Karl’s mind have. But I was certain that Quackity still knew what has happened in that one night and before.

His reaction to my hate filled answer confirmed my theory. His arms stiffened and slowly he released me out of his suffocating grasp. “You remember, don’t you?”, his dark eyes observed me attentively, he was whispering now, too. My eyes darkened with anger. “Oh, you do…”, he smiled. “You still know everything, don’t you?”.

I had no time to answer him.

“Why are you guys whispering?”, Karl smiled innocently, curiously analyzing our expressions. “Oh, its nothing.”, Quackity looked at Karl. “We’re just happy to see each other again, aren’t we, George?”, his eyes locked with mine and inside of his undertone was something that made my aggression grow louder.

He didn’t want them to know. He expected me to lie for him. And for the sake of not being looked at as if I was stupid, I did.

“We are.”, my voice still wasn’t as joyful as Quackity’s, Karl’s or Sapnap’s. But I wasn’t like them. Not at all.

“See? Told you it would be a great idea visiting Las Nevadas!”, Sapnap smiled at me and I tried to smile, too, shrugging slightly.

It really was debatable. Still.

But I couldn’t answer that. I wouldn’t want to mess up their good mood.

“Let me show you everything!”, Quackity was filled with a newfound euphory, roaming around with sparking eyes. We followed him, allowing him to show us around.

I was unsure if it was a good thing to see so many faces, I have last seen with a different personality behind it. It was surprising to see just who has decided to join him. To see Sam here, someone I have always thought of as intelligent and considerate, was something I haven’t expected.

The sight of Fundy though, wasn’t as surprising. After his loss of L’Manburg it has only been a matter of time until he would join a new country. I haven’t expected those hate filled eyes though, piercing through my skin, looking right into my soul. That was, until I realized that, in his eyes, I have been the one that has ruined his damned marriage with Dream.

That realization made me shiver.

Right. Their marriage.

I remembered Dream’s loving smile, warm eyes observing me. The memory made me feel better. Warm. And then I got struck by a sudden emptiness. Fuck, I missed him. It’s been three days since I have woken up from that sleep. Nothing has happened throughout them, other than Sapnap and Karl explaining to me what I have missed.

For me, it has only been three days since I have last seen him. But for him its been over a month.

I wonder how he was doing. So much has changed. Even Kinoko Kingdom has. Foolish has taken a job in Las Nevadas, now helping Quackity with building up his country. Even Tubbo has left us, now being the manager of a restaurant here. Slimecicle and Purpled have joined Las Nevadas, too… So many good people have changed the sides, now working for a sadistic prick.

Throughout his tour, named prick has given me more than just one suspicious look. His eyes have searched mine more than I was fine with it, causing that inner anger to grow and grow until I was sure my eyes were sparking.

It has been relieving, the moment Quackity was finally done and honestly, I wanted nothing more than just leave. But Karl and Sapnap had other plans. Well, how couldn’t they? They had this weird relationship going on. A relationship I have thought has been broken apart the moment Kinoko Kingdom has been born. Maybe the fact that it still was somehow working, was a leftover of their old personalities.

I didn’t know.

But I couldn’t care less, honestly.

I didn’t care about their relationships.

Until my very dear best friends had the amazing idea of staying for a night… An idea that Quackity was welcoming, of course he fucking would. And with that, it was decided. We would stay in Las Nevadas for a night. And I knew my friends. Probably they would want to stay even longer than that.

“That new mushroom look really suits you, you know?”, it still was hard listening to him talk.

“You think? They’re annoying though.”, his laugh filled my ears, causing them to ring uncomfortably.

“I do! You look gorgeous. As if that night never happened…”, I froze, turning around, facing him with my body now.

We were alone inside of the dining room. A situation that has built itself up thanks to both our disabilities to find sleep tonight. For different reasons, I was sure, but with the same outcome. Sapnap, Karl and the others, that have been here with us just a few minutes ago, have decided to get some sleep and even though I knew, I shouldn’t have stayed in this hall alone with that psychopath, I really didn’t feel any more comfortable with leaving this lighted up place for a dark bedroom right inside of the wolf’s den.

I should have known that this awkward conversation would end with a sentence like that but really, I haven’t. “Shut up.”, my voice was hard and it made me aggressive that he had the nerves to laugh again. “But I won’t. You’re in my country now.”, his eyes scanned me, causing me to shiver. His look was daring again. I hated it.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it? Everybody has changed and I have built an entire country. I don’t know why we are here now but it certainly is amazing…”, he looked away from me, observing the dining hall. A pretty room, really. Just a little too classy for my liking. A bit… too much.

“That night you vanished out of that prison cell I have been devastated. I don’t know how you got free but Dream hasn’t had the same luck as you.”, my heart got heavy. “But after that night everything has changed. Everyone has changed. At first it has been pure chaos. I have seen so many devastated people, complaining that their friends were behaving differently. And then their voices have stopped from one day to another and they have been just as different as the others.”, Quackity looked back at me.

“We are the only two people that are still the old ones.”, I wanted to disagree on that. He wasn’t the old Quackity. He has changed, too. Drastically. And yet I had to admit that he really was the only one that still knew about our other life. “I have learned to play my role, George. It’s a great one. I am the king of my own country. I have power.”, his eyes were glowing with excitement.

“I have the control over Sam and therefore over the prison and Dream. I have the good will of so many people and I have two boyfriends. My life couldn’t be better.”, he smiled, absentmindedly playing with a fork that was still resting on his long-forgotten plate. A plate that was still resting between 9 others, still waiting to get picked up and cleaned.

“Even if it means that I have to play my part as the villain, torturing Dream just to get information about that stupid revive book.”, I flinched the moment he let that fork jump aggressively through the wooden countertop. “Oh, you should see him!”, he sounded euphoric again. Back was that dark spark inside of his eyes.

“He is devastated! Flinching whenever I move towards him, begging with a voice that is sweeter than anything and his eyes! Oh, they look like the ones of a scared deer.”, his eyes searched mine that were widened with horror. “He is beautiful.", and then something inside of that dark sadistic face lightened up.

"You have to see him!”, his smile grew wider. I got goosebumps. That numb feeling was back, that fast beating heart, that uncontrolled breathing. “I bet Sam would allow it. Just wait, tomorrow we will visit him”, he giggled excitedly.

Whereas I just froze again.

He wanted me to see him. I started trembling. “No, please, I don’t-” – “Oh, but you will, George.”, within a second his face broke down, loosing its excited expression. “You will see that I have won and you’ve lost, Gogy.”

“I am not stupid, Gogy.”…

Tears found their way into my eyes the moment I remembered the last time he has used that nickname.

…Quackity said as he let the knife carefully caress my neck. His eyes had been following the red stained knife.

“I, please Quackity…”, my voice was raspy, followed by a sob.

“I won’t fall for your stupid ‘Quackity, please’s. You know… I might have gotten insane…”…

I didn’t hear his answer, just saw that his mouth was moving. I knew, that I was starting to hyperventilate, the moment the memories started flooding in.

…“Maybe I have lost myself to my Minecraft character”…

…“But now I know.”…

“George?”, my head snapped to the side, where that new voice has come from, eyes teary.

…“I know who the real villain is in this story.”…

Its me.

Chapter Text

It has been Sapnap who has led me to bed that night. After having heard Quackity’s explanation for my condition, which I haven’t understood (And that probably was better since it has been something along the lines of “We have talked about Dream. I don’t know, I might have triggered something…”), has he brought me into the room Quackity has assigned me to before.

I didn’t know when he has left me but I knew that I fell asleep while he has still been inside of my room.

I have thought that, maybe, some sleep would help me to calm me down a bit. Distract me from that night Quackity has tortured me. Distract me from the memories. Distract me from the knowledge that, even though he has been the first person that has changed, he was one of the last ones to remember what has happened before I have fallen asleep for a month.

Oh, but what a naïve thought that has been.

Every time I would fall asleep, I would wake up on that field of grass, where the sun would laugh at me, the grass would tingle my feet and DreamXD would try to entertain me until I would wake up again. After his fateful sentence that still was reigning my head like a stubborn dictator, he has stopped trying to make me do things, which I wasn’t ready for.

This night, though, something has changed.

“Wake up, Georgie…”, I haven’t been able to erase this nickname out of his inner dictionary. He used it even though he knew that I hated it and I just kind of had to accept that. “The night’s short…”, there was this melodic undertone in that golden voice that he used more often than I would want him to. I knew that the god used it on purpose. I didn’t know why though.

“Which is why you should just let me sleep…”, my voice sounded raspy, my eyes were still burning and overall, I wasn’t in the mood for DreamXD’s little games, today. It wasn’t helping that his answer was a light chuckle. “Oh, you’ve had enough time to rest.”

I made a fist, finally opening my eyes. “Enough time, you say?”. I felt the adrenalin and anger built itself up right inside of me. “Oh, you have no idea.”, my addition came bitter. Like a lemon, biting and sour.

“You never had an idea of what I am going through. I feel like all you ever think of is just you and your problems.”, I looked inside of surprised golden eyes, narrowing sharply as I continued: “Oh no, there are strangers in my world, I have to make everything normal again, fuck that! You have no idea what I have had to undergo nor what you did to me, I” – “Its fine, George.”

I stopped. Surprised at his calming voice, filled with something soft. Almost purring. “I get it.”, I closed my mouth as he stepped near me. “Your life really must be hard at the moment.”, my brain was a question mark, my heart just as confused as my head was. Where did that sudden mood change come from?

“I am sorry.”, he pulled me into a hug. My brain was too confused to understand what was happening and I hugged him back, hiding my face inside of his shoulder, warm and calming. Smelling like Dream. Like the forest. Like rain. Smelling like home.

There was a tear on my face the moment I realized just how much I have missed that feeling. “It’s okay...”, he whispered and I felt the anger dying. Instead the feeling of being home overcame me. Like a pack of hungry wolves, eating away the boiling blood, replacing reddened cheeks with tears. With a shivering breath, I closed my eyes. “I am here for you.”

He was here with me.

He cared for me.

“You don’t have to hold back your tears, George. I understand.”

My knees got weak as the sadness once again struck me like an aggressive lightning, forcing itself into my every vain. I sobbed.

He understood me.

His hand wandered over my back, comforting me warmly as I started to cry. With trembling limbs, I fell to the ground and he followed me, not letting me go. “I-“, I don’t know what I have wanted to say so I stopped. Brain empty, the only thing filling it was the dull sensation of sadness and self-pity.

It was a good feeling to be held by strong arms. Comforting. For the first time in my life, I started to see DreamXD in a different light. I have never seen him as comforting and sweet as he was right now. “Its okay…”, his voice was silent but loud enough to reach my ears, invading my brain and pushing away that dull sensation.

Its okay.

I sobbed once more.

Okay.

Slowly I freed my myself, opening my teary eyes, slowly trying to push away that weakness that has overcome me faster than I wanted. Golden eyes smiled at me. Welcoming and loving. There was a smile on that freckled face, the mask somewhere I couldn’t see it. “You good?”, I needed a minute to get his question. To find an answer.

I don’t know… Was I?

“Quackity wants to visit Dream with me tomorrow.”

It has been the first thing that has gotten into my mind. The first thing that was a reason for why I wasn’t okay. “He wants to show me that I am the villain of this world and that I have lost.”, my voice has been weak at the start but with every word it started to get louder. Stronger.

I looked down again, observing my pale fingers that somehow have gotten entangled with gloved ones. And then I said what has first gone through my mind the moment I first heard that I was the villain of this story: “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means nothing.”, DreamXD shook his head as if to underline his answer. And yet, his facial expression told me that he didn’t mean it. He knew what Quackity has meant by that. “Don’t worry about that. Quackity is just con-“ – “Please.”, I interrupted him, mentally slapping myself the moment I said what I have wanted to tell Dream so very often: “Please don’t lie to me.”.

As I said this sentence my voice lost all its strength again, sounding weak and vulnerable, ridden by emotions that I have tried to push away from me for way to long. And then I repeated that sentence, a bit slower and a bit more silent.

“Please… don’t- don’t lie to me.”, I looked up and flinched when my eyes met his again. His, that were teary now, visibly remembering all the other times Dream and I have talked about withholding the truth from one another, not because we were rude but because we knew that the real answer would have consequences we wouldn’t want anyone to ever go through.

It hurt to know that DreamXD and Dream were so similar. Their voice was the same, their smell was the same, their clothes were the same, their habit of withholding the truth from me was the same and yet their souls were so very different.

Yes, DreamXD remembered these words and there was an expression on his face that I wasn’t able to read. I just knew that it did something to him.

“I am not.”

My heart sank into my pants. Oh, but he was.

“And if am, then I do it because I have a reason, Georgie.”

Again, that nickname. I knew… I knew that he had a reason.

“Please...”, he then started, slowly getting up again. “Lets… uhm…”, I wasn’t in the mood for it and yet somehow, there was a smile forming on my face as I saw that he started to get flustered at something I wasn’t able to point out at the moment. “Talk about… something else.”

My heart got a bit lighter again. I didn’t know what he has done but somehow, I felt a bit better.  There still were a lot of questions on my mind but I knew that right now, I shouldn’t ask them. Therefore I started with a pack of different questions that I needed him to answer me.

“Do you know still remember everything Dream and I have done before he has given up his control?”

DreamXD nodded. “I have been there with you.”, he smiled. “I have loved it to talk to you that much.”, I shivered.

‘I have loved it…’,

“What do you remember?”, it was test. I wanted to know if he said the truth. If he was for once, saying the goddamn truth but his answer came unexpected: “Probably more than you do.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You think?”. It was ridiculous of him to think that he remembered more than I did. I mean-

“Do you remember the night you ran away from the monsters?”, DreamXD’s eyes were piercing. Curious. I gulped the moment my mind got put on rewind. I ran from monsters? Just me? My eyes widened. Why didn’t I know?

“How has it been when you first entered this world?”

My eyes searched his, breath quickening as I asked myself the same question.  

Did we enter this world together? Were we in our houses or somewhere else?

My heartbeat got faster.

“I- I can’t-“ – “Where did you live before you entered Kinoko Kingdom?”, DreamXD interrupted me, not losing that smiling facial expression. I felt tears in my eyes. Blinked them away.

“I-“, again I tried to think about his questions.

Did I run from monsters?

How has the first day been?

Where did I live?

My body started to shiver, the moment I said: “I… I can’t remember.”

Chapter Text

I woke up, with a fast beating heart. With sweat covering my forehead and with shaking limbs, reminding me of that awful realization I have had before I have gotten woken up by something that I wasn’t able to name. Maybe it has been the shock, maybe it has been the weird mechanism of day and night that this world just had.

I didn’t know. But it wasn’t important, either. The only thing that was important right now, was the fact that this was the first time that I realized that my own change has started. Like… really started. Noticeably started.

And that scared me. Really did.

Yet, I knew that I couldn’t do anything about it, other than try to escape this place. This place that looked unescapable right now, considering that it wasn’t just an entirely different universe but also filled with people that have already lost themselves to that universe and everything it stands for.

I knew that the more I thought about it, I got used to that thought and that was another thing that scared me. It was scary to get to know the feeling of not minding anymore. Not minding that I was caught in a world where there was no escape, no matter how badly I wanted it.

The thought of having to live here forever has filled me with sadness and worry before whereas now my blood pressure started to calm itself again. The shock of not remembering turned into a feeling of not minding.

A weird thing to address the feeling that was reigning my soul at the moment but it was yet, so satisfyingly fitting.

“George? Breakfast’s ready!”

Yes, I started not minding the fact that I seemed to be trapped here. But I still minded that choking presence of that horrible man that has ruined each and every positivity that has been in this world.

“Comin’!”, my voice sounded a bit colder than it used to sound but I blamed it on the person that my answer has been directed to. Quackity didn’t deserve anything else.

And then I stood up, made myself ready and somehow found my way towards that dining hall, which I entered with a shiver running down my spine. I remembered last night and I remembered the feelings going crazy. I remembered the memories that this sadistic person has brought up and I remembered the warm and loving hug that has calmed me down by giving me the feeling of being home.

I wondered what DreamXD might be doing right now. Only now I realized that I knew almost nothing about him. Was he able to make himself invisible? Was there a possibility that he was here with me right now? Or did I sleep when I first met him and he only existed in my dream world?

“How are you today, George?”, I flinched when Sapnap’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Better I think.”, I then answered and sat down on the only free place that was still there at the table. “Why, has something happened?”, Sam looked at me, a look of worry on his face.

“No, its fine.”, I shook my head to underline my sentence. I didn’t need anyone to know what has happened yesterday. It has been wrong to cry over something that has already happened. That is what I tried to tell me, at least.

All in all, the breakfast has been fine.

I haven’t been very talkative but next to Sapnap and Karl I didn’t have to be.

The end of breakfast has been the start of a day that I would want to skip, though, because as we cleaned the table, Quackity reminded me of that visit he has talked about last night. He has done so with an unbelievably innocent voice and I knew that he did that just because other people have been there listening to him.

I bet that if we would have been alone, he would have said it in a different one. In that same sadistic und amused tone that he has used yesterday.

I hated Quackity.

I hated his manipulative side. The way he just knew how to behave in order to get what he wanted while keeping everyone in his control. It was a habit that, I knew, rooted inside of his smp personality but it was a habit that was so dangerous and awful that I have learned to fucking hate it.

It really was not a surprise that Sam has agreed to letting us both visit Dream. Quackity just had to pull his strings and the moment we have gone through multiple safety controls and stood in front of a big lava wall, I finally realized just how fast he has achieved it to lure me into that net of his.

He was a spider, bloodsucking and sadistic. Playing with his food just to ruin it and then finally giving it the last push, throwing it over the edge of existence, letting it fall into the pit of nothingness.

“Why are you shaking, George?”, Quackity looked to his side, observing me attentively. I chose to stay quiet, pressing my lips together. Sam has pulled the lever that would make the lava disappear and now that I was still able to do it, I tried to calm myself down with the warm sensation the lava was giving me, protecting me from the sight of my best friend that has been changed so dramatically.

“Something on your mind?”, I shivered. He knew exactly what was bothering me. He knew that the cell that we were about to enter has been mine before Dream has decided to take my place. He knew how much pain I have endured in that dark hole.

“I really would wan-“ – Quackity stopped in his tracks as the lava started to sink down, giving us the possibility to look over it. My eyes have widened and my heart has stopped beating, the moment the ceiling of the cell came in sight and my hands found a tight grip on my pants as it flowed lower and lower, revealing a blonde man, leaning on a wall, eyes closed, almost looking dead.

“No worries, he’s alive.”, Quackity smiled as he took my hand, leading me on a bridge that would bring us over the lava sea that was still separating us from Dream’s cell. “He is always sleeping when I enter his cell. Probably because his body needs the energy to heal him.”

Quackity’s last sentence finally brought back the life in my body.

“To heal him.”, I echoed silently. I have known that he has tortured Dream. DreamXD has told me about Dream’s “fate”. But right now, that I was about to get confronted with it, it started to effect me. “Yes.”, Quackity giggled, pointing towards the person that has been my best friend for many many years now.

“He is a tough one. But you should know that, shouldn’t you?”

I withheld an answer from him. Now that we slowly got a better view of Dream, Quackity’s amusing voice got shoved into the background of my head. Dream on the hand, just won more and more of my attention.

Right now, he looked peaceful, eyes closed, lips forming a small smile, face calm and body motionless. But I knew that as soon as we would enter his cell that was about to change.

“Dream, wake up, darling”

And he did.

As soon as we stepped into the cell and Quackity’s voice rang through the cell, the blonde opened his eyes and almost panicking, he crouched backwards, nearer to that wall. It was a sight that was so contradicting to that inner picture I have drawn of him.

I knew that this Dream wasn’t the one that I have spent hours of my life with. But nevertheless, this was a behavior that was unfitting. Seeing the strong, blood lusting and cold Dream back away from that man next to me, just showed me again what for a monster he was.

Quackity, I mean.

“What do you want, Quackity?”. I flinched. My stomach made a flip. Dream’s voice. Filled with soft anxiety, raspy enough to make my skin shiver and my heart jump.

Has it always been like this?

“I have brought someone that was craving to see you.”, I felt exposed the moment Dream’s eyes wandered towards me. It felt like the first time ever that our eyes met. “George.”, Dream’s voice cracked, his eyes filled up with tears and he reached up to cover his mouth, hiding that scar that cut through it, making his lips look even darker in contrast to its lighter skin tone.

“What… what are you doing here?”, again I shivered, not knowing what to answer him. “I thought, it would be a good idea to show him how bad you are at following commands and just how much fun it is to punish you for that.”, Quackity walked towards him.

I felt the need to stop him but at the same time, I knew that I couldn’t bring myself to stand up against him. Not after all these things he has done to me. Therefore, I just watched as he grabbed Dream by his collar, forcing him to stand up. Which he did, slowly.

“Look how beautiful he is, George.”, my breath hitched when Quackity said my name, watching Dream attentively. “Look at his jade eyes, flickering with fear.”, Quackity reached forward pinching his cheeks brutally. “His freckled cheeks… and these pretty scars on his face…”, he was right. Dream looked beautiful. His entire appearance was pretty. These scars telling a story of pain, filled with brutality and blood.

These eyes were pretty, although they were golden for me. Like the eyes of an angel. A being that got sent here from the heavens, pure and innocent. There was fear in his eyes, Quackity was right. “Come here, George.”, Quackity now has directed his eyes at me and he let go of Dream.

Now, that the lava has rebuild itself, he knew that Dream couldn’t escape anymore. “Say hello to your boyfriend.”, I blinked. He knew that we weren’t together and yet, his words affected me. They made my heart beat a bit quicker. But not because of the fear that was rushing through my veins. It was because of something else that I knew could be called happiness.

Dream thought that we were boyfriends.

I remembered the first time he showed me, more than just vividly.

I remembered how it felt like to have his lips on mine.

I remembered the sound that he has let out the moment it got a bit more passionate.

"We will kill them.", Dream looked up again, smiling. "Together."

And I remembered what he has said before he has decided to kiss me.

I observed the man in front of me. His eyes were focused on mine. Reading me like a book. I was sure that he knew what was going through my mind. But I didn’t mind it. In fact, that thought made my heart a bit warmer. We have always known each other well enough to read each other’s thoughts and to interpret them.

It was good to feel that again. That connection between us. For a second, I was able to blend out Quackity’s appearance.

Dream was here. And he and I still were friends.

“Dream, I-“, the first words that left my mouth in this cell got interrupted the moment he reached forward, pulling me into a hug that pushed the air out of my lungs. Almost immediately my body warmed up, welcoming Dream’s arms around me, showing me by making the skin tingle wherever it met his.

“George.”, he whispered and I answered his hug, hiding my face in his neck, closing my eyes. I inhaled deeply before I responded with a silent “Dream.”. This hug was filled with love and affection that wasn’t new to me. His warmth has been missed for days, maybe even a month and his smell was well-known.

He smelled like… like the forest. Like rain.

I shivered.

He… smelled like… like home.

Chapter Text

The atmosphere of the prison cell was warmer than I last remembered. The orange color of the lava and the dark violet of the walls harmonized in a way that gave me the chills and now that Dream and I were hugging the picture of warmth got completed just perfectly.

It truly was ridiculous how much had changed between today and the last time we have seen each other. The Dream that has been scary, filled with bloodlust and seeking for revenge suddenly was filled with fear and scarred by torture.

I knew that this was Quackity’s doing and even though everything I have thought of before by the thought of Dream has been the fact that he has changed and that he was dangerous now, this hug and Dream’s new appearance now showed me that this still was the Dream that I have known for years.

This was a realization that struck me the moment I closed my eyes, relishing the feeling of being complete now. Now that I have found Dream again. Now that we were finally reunited.

The Dream that was living on the smp has started this world together with me. We have been friends since the start. He has started as a normal person. As my best friend. We have started this world as companions, we have built the first nether portal and we have invaded this new world together with moments filled with laughter and fun.

This Dream wasn’t the new Dream. He was the Dream that I have always known.

The Dream that I have admired, the Dream that I have followed since the beginning. This was the Dream that has been there for me when Tommy first grieved my house, the Dream that has made me his king and the Dream that has betrayed me.

This was the Dream that has wanted to protect me with his entire soul and the Dream that has decided to marry another man, nevertheless.

This was the Dream that I fought for and the Dream that ended up in my arms.

This was the Dream that I have kissed and the Dream that I… loved…  

“I missed you…”, Dream suddenly whispered and I shivered by the sound of his voice filled with honesty and pain. It hurt me to know that he has been inside of this prison for a time so long. It hurt me to know what Quackity has done to him and my anger towards him just grew with each second that passed.

“I missed you too, Dream.”, I then answered and I really meant it. I meant it with all of my heart. The time in Kinoko Kingdom has been lonely without him. The nights where DreamXD has haunted me have been filled with the pain of having lost my best friend and the person that has stolen my heart.

“Aww, it really is cute to see you two reunite.”, it was Quackity’s voice that tore us out of our little warm bubble of satisfied longing and as soon as we parted my eyes fell towards the man that has tortured the blonde right next to me for more than a month now.

Dark eyes were observing me in a way that made me feel exposed and I hated that knowing spark inside of them because I wasn’t able to recognize what this monster knew that I didn’t. “Looks like you finally became one of them, George.”, he said shaking his head in a way that was somehow approving.

“One of who?”, I asked, not understanding and he just smiled. “That doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t understand it.”. His answer was everything but satisfying. It was secretive more like, causing my inner need to know what he meant to grow.

Quackity made a step towards us and I stepped back without actively noticing. Dream hid behind me, a warm shaking hand on my shoulder and suddenly I felt the urge to protect him from that monster there in front of me.

“I am afraid though, that we are not longer able to continue that little game between us. The moment we have met again, I have known that reuniting you with your loverboy was the only way to win this. You lost, George.”

There was confidence behind his every word and suddenly I felt as if I was the one that needed protection right now. Because right now, it wasn’t Dream that got attacked. It was me. And I knew this even though I didn’t understand which game the other was talking about.

 “Stop Quackity.”, my voice was much more silent that I intended it to be. “I really don’t know what you are talking about but please stop trying to manipulate me.”, somehow, I have managed it to make my voice sound louder and more serious.

“I know what you have done. Las Nevadas is no place to be happy in.”, I remembered what I have seen inside of that big city. I remembered who was working there and I knew that lots of those people have been lost souls after the loss of L’Manburg.

Many people have been affected by the Dooms Day and Quackity was one of them.

But I knew him enough to know that Quackity wasn’t one to get intimidated.

He was one of those people that tried to regain their social position back. One of those people that were seeking after power and the worship of others.

Las Nevadas was just another one of his stupid mind games. His try to get people together again. To give them not just a place they could call home but someone they could worship, not as their god but as their leader. Las Nevadas was Quackity’s way of regaining the power he has lost with L’Manburg.

“Quackity you are not that kind of a person that wants to help others. You are the one that tries to manipulate them just like Wilbur does-” and just like Dream does, is how this sentence should have been finished but I couldn’t now that I had the blonde right behind me, using me as a human shield.

“We, Dream and I, are going to destroy it just like we have destroyed L’Manburg and-“ – “Don’t you dare compare Las Nevadas to L’Manburg!”, suddenly I felt myself getting pushed against one of the dark obsidian walls, a netherite axe in front of my throat.

My heart was beating fast as I searched his eyes. Quackity must have lost his mind. His face was ugly now that the anger was reigning over it and I felt his hand trembling on that axe. “L’Manburg is nothing compared to Las Nevadas.”, he then added, dangerously quiet and I knew that I should be afraid right now.

I was, I felt the fear in each one of my bones as if something has happened between us that was still somewhere inside of me, manipulating my fear and causing a sudden panic to roar up inside of me. But I pushed that down, knowing that if I let it come to the surface, I would lose this.

So, I smiled.

“Looks like I hit a nerve there.”

It was an observation, spoken out to provoke and tease.

And somehow it was exactly that, which I achieved.

Quackity snapped.

“Oh, fuck you, George!”, he said and then I felt the blade cut into the skin of my neck. A sharp pain ran through my entire body the moment there was blood spilling out. “Your visit is over now. Say goodbye to your boyfriend.”

But there was no time to say goodbye.

My vision has already started to blacken out and I knew that I have already lost more than half of my hearts. “George- no!”, two words that followed me into the short death that wouldn’t last any longer than a few seconds.

But this time, I didn’t respawn the way I did multiple times before.

This time I woke up on a field.

A field of grass.

And immediately I knew where I was, having seen this place more times than I would have wanted.

“George!”, a voice that I knew.

“George, finally you are back!”, I smiled as I turned around and saw a creature standing just a few meters away from me.

Her feet weren’t touching the soft grass and two bright halos were framing a face that was missing a mask that usually would have covered it. “DreamXD!”, I welcomed him and smiled without really meaning it.

I knew that me and this creature were friends and I knew too, that it has gotten more and more important to me as the days were passing by and so did the memory of the man that I have given my heart to. I knew that DreamXD has somehow become my replacement for Dream but now that the memories of the blonde man have gotten refreshed, I somehow noticed just how many differences there were between them.

“Why am I here?”, I then asked and the god just shook his head slowly before brushing through my hair. A gentle touch that caused me to shiver even though it should have caused me to feel better instead. I watched uncomfortably as golden eyes were searching for something inside of my face, rushing around and then, he seemed to find whatever he has searched for, eyes finally coming to a halt, interlocked with mine.  

“I just needed to see you.”, he answered with a soft voice and smiled. “It’s been so long…”

Technically it hasn’t been that long but I just accepted his reasoning and allowed him to pull me into another hug. His arms felt familiar around me and deep down inside of me I wondered why. Yes, I have hugged Dream just a few minutes ago but that has been different.

Hugging DreamXD felt familiar in a different way. It felt as if I have hugged this god before but I just couldn’t remember why.

“Finally, we are reunited. Now, we can be together until eternity-“ – “Eternity?”, We parted and he nodded happily. “Yes, just imagine what we could do! We could get ourselves a nice little house, we could adopt some-“ – “Stop DreamXD.”

He did.

“I don’t- We can’t be together until eternity! I still have a life out there- Dream, he is-“, as Dream’s name fell I watched him change. I watched his happy face fall. I watched his halos vanishing and suddenly that mask was back.

“Dream?”, the god asked angrily and I didn’t dare to nod. “I thought we were the best of friends until forever! Why would that be Dream’s business?!”

Oh god.

“DreamXD, please listen-“ – “No, George. You told me that if I gave you whatever you wanted, if I let you use me, then we would be the best of friends forever. We said that, didn’t we?”, I nodded but then held up my hands: “We did, but-“ – “No.”

I flinched, backing away.

His tone has changed. His voice has gotten darker and suddenly that brightness around him vanished and a sudden cold darkness found its way around his now more demonic figure. “No George. I gave you your armor, remember? I gave you diamonds and I would have given you everything if you and I could have been something that would have lasted for eternity.”

Everything?

“Yes George. Everything.”, for a second I have forgotten that he was able to read my mind. “But now I feel like you don’t want that anymore and that makes me angry. You have showed me-“ – “Wait, please!”, suddenly there was a new energy inside of me, and I really had no idea what made me say it but somehow there was a deal leaving my mouth before my brain was able to understand its consequences.

“That- That wasn’t what I have wanted to say by… by that. I- I said that right now, I can’t just leave my life behind to go with you. Dream is still in prison and gets tortured, even if we were to- to start a new life together, I wouldn’t be able to rest if I knew that Dream is suffering. I- I was about to ask you if you- if you could free him and take care of him just so that I can be with you with my soul at peace. Please…”, my eyes searched his again that were still hidden behind that damned mask.

He was quiet now. Thinking, maybe.

“So, you’re saying that if I freed him you would become mine? Leave your life and everything behind just so that we could be together?”

I thought back to Karl and Sapnap. Two people that have grown really important to me during the past days. I thought back to that house that Foolish built for me. Back to Callahan and Alyssa that have always been good friends of mine.

It hurt to think about leaving them behind.

But if it meant that Dream was going to be safe and freed from Quackity then it was worth it.

So, I nodded and suddenly DreamXD’s appearance changed back to how he has looked before. The resemblance to Dream was so very strong and I had to bite back a sob and some tears as he nodded.

“Alright then. I will have to change a bit of his fate then but its worth it.”, he leaned towards me, hands finding their ways to my waist, grabbing it harshly. “Promise me, George, that you will be mine if I freed him.”, emerald eyes were staring down at me, looking into my soul. His hands have pushed me against his body and I was trembling as I nodded, saying: “I promise that if you free Dream and make sure that he is safe, I will be yours.”

He closed the deal with a soft kiss to my lips. A kiss that was so very different to when I kissed Dream back when I got him out of his marriage. Dream’s lips had been harsh and filled with emotions of confusion and relief.

And even though their lips were the same, this time I relaxed in DreamXD’s arms, giving myself to him, relishing saccharine love and honey like warmth. This kiss was filled with emotions of happiness, love and I knew that even though I have been lost before, now I finally was found.