It was just before he was set to meet everyone when Dream offered George his jacket.

George declined.

"Why not?" Dream asked, mild hurt seeping into his voice, and George rolled his eyes.

"I don't need a jacket, I don't get cold the same way you do." George responded, eyebrows raised, and Dream murmured a soft 'ohhhh'.

They were both standing in front of the door, Dream trying to comfort George, while George was trying to will himself to walk out.

He gripped the cane in his hand tighter and readied himself.

"Okay," he murmured, finally, "let's go."

Dream nodded and opened up the door. George peered out, seeing a long corridor that stretched out into an opening.

He followed Dream as they walked, albeit shakily and much slower than normal humans would.

As they moved out of the corridor, George allowed himself to look around.

The ship was big, with wooden flooring much like the inside of the room he'd been residing in.

The wind pushed through his air, and George relished in it. The breeze had always been weaker in the room, and he'd never had the chance to actually enjoy it, but now, as he stood outside, he let himself relax.

His gaze locked onto the vast expanse of water and he felt a pang of longing seep into his heart before looking elsewhere, trying not to think about it.

George breathed in deeply, letting the crisp cold air swirl through his lungs. Then he started to shiver. That wasn't supposed to happen. He shouldn't be this cold.

He glanced over at Dream, who stared back at him.

George wrapped his arms around himself, feeling weird with unfamiliarity.

"Are you cold?" Dream asked, a slightly smug sound in his voice.

George rolled his eyes, "I think that's another merman feature I lost," he murmured, "I seem to have lost my really good heating."

Dream chuckled, before shrugging off his jacket. George went to protest, but Dream shushed him, putting his finger to George's lips.

George glanced down at the finger, then back up to Dream. The man went red, and lowered his finger, coughing.

He handed the long jacket and George carefully slipped it on, flashing Dream a soft smile.

It reached down to his calves, but he didn't button it up. He still had no idea how to do that.

Dream had helped him button his white shirt earlier, but he hadn't paid attention, he'd been more concerned with...other things.

Anyway.

Sapnap was the only one standing up here. He was sitting on a barrel around some ropes and trying to rub something off his shoe.

He glanced up at the sound of the two men, eyes lighting up.

He jumped off the barrel, crossing the length of the boat towards the two of them with a bright smile on his face.

"George! You're walking!" he cheered, and George smiled bashfully.

"With help," he tapped the cane, "but yeah...I'm kind of shit at it though."

Sapnap laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets, "you'll get it."

George smiled at him, before looking to Dream for comfort. The blonde bit his lip, before moving over to the stairs next to the corridor.

"Here, everyone's downstairs." George nodded slightly, following them. Sapnap bounded down, disappearing from sight, but George stood at the top of the staircase, gazing nervously down at it.

Dream rested a gentle hand on his shoulder, being careful not to throw off his balance just as he was learning.

"Just hold onto me and the cane." Dream murmured, and George nodded again, hooking his arm through Dream's.

They carefully and slowly made their way downstairs, George almost falling a few times, but he let out a relieved sigh when his feet reached the bottom.

He glanced over at Dream, who gave him a proud smile, but did not let go of him.

Whether Dream noticed that their arms were still hooked together or not, George did not mention it.

They turned to the side, Dream guiding him slightly, his cane making small noises as he walked, and saw a large table with, as George counted for a second, 11 people sitting on it, Sapnap included. George and Dream were so slow in walking down that Sapnap had had plenty of time to find a seat and get comfy.

George would have let himself get embarrassed at that, but he was busy trying not to squirm at the sight of everyone's eyes on him.

A few of the people there he did not recognise. There was Tommy, Sapnap, Philza, Wilbur and Ranboo that he knew, but everyone else...no clue.

One of the men sitting at the table had brownish hair, but in the light, he could see it was closer to orange than brown. The other man had semi-dark green hair, which was interesting, to say the least. There was another dude there with pale brown hair sitting next to the orange-haired guy.

There was another with dark brown hair, and a dirty blonde with glasses. The two of them sat close together, and the blonde-ish guy flashed him a smile, so George quickly redirected his eyes to the last person. She had pale pink hair and a smile that instantly soothed George, so he hesitantly smiled back at her.

"Um, hello." he nodded at them, waving a little, although it was hard as his arm was still hooked with Dream's, so it was more of him twitching his hand slightly.

The dark brown haired guy noticed this and nudged the guy with glasses, and they shared a soft chuckle, causing George to frown in confusion, before he masked it quickly, not wanting to show any insecurities or weaknesses.

The pink-haired girl waved back at him, "Hi, I'm Niki." she smiled and he returned it.

Dream nudged George, who coughed slightly, "Um, I'm George."

"Hi I'm Bad, or Badboyhalo, and this," the glasses guy gestured to the one next to him with jazz hands, "Is Skeppy!" Skeppy nodded slightly.

Ohhhhh. They're Bad and Skeppy. The ones Dream talked about. Interesting.

"Hey," a light brown-haired guy took the attention to himself, "I'm Antfrost, this is Fundy," he poked the orange-haired guy, Fundy, "and Sam." he poked the green-haired guy just the same as before.

The both of them said 'hello' at the same time, and whipped around to look at each other, before laughing slightly.

George stood there awkwardly, his legs starting to ache a little bit due to standing longer than he was used to in one spot. He had a tight-lipped smile on his face, and was unsure of how to proceed.

He never thought he'd meet everyone. At the start, he just assumed it would be Dream and no one else. But now, he'd met lots of humans. George wondered what past him would think of this. It was unheard of. He'd probably have been smacked.

"Hey, bitch." Tommy said, out of the blue, trying to divert the attention.

A real smile crossed over George's face, and he let out a little breath of relief.

"Tommy." he grinned, pulling Dream forward to go and sit next to the little family sitting at the end of the table.

They sat down, and Dream finally let go of him, going red slightly at noticing, and George rested his cane against the side of the table, clasping his hands in his lap quietly.

They all sat there for a bit, chatting. George mostly kept quiet, just being content with listening to the family-like banter between all the crew.

The new additions to his list of humans that he knew seemed to be nice. Niki was cool. Her voice was a lot more gentle, and George was reminded slightly of his mother.

He was also reminded of his dolphin friend, who also shared the name 'Niki'.

How curious.

He decided to bring this up, finally finding the courage to speak.

"I knew a dolphin called Niki." he stated, rather out of the blue to the others, and Niki looked at him curiously.

"You knew a dolphin with the same name as me?" she questioned, as everyone stared at him.

He squirmed a bit under the looks but nodded.

"Yes. She had a white patch on her nose. She was nice." he said on the spot, unsure of what else to say.

Niki took a second to find the words to speak, before she smiled brightly, "that's so epic!"

George smiled slightly at the praise, and others murmured their agreement at the coincidence.

"Wait," Sapnap said after a moment, "I thought you couldn't speak fish."

George blinked slightly.

"Yeah!" Tommy agreed, "What's up with that?"

"They're dolphins. They have the same connection to the moon that merfolk have. Dolphins and merfolk have always been able to talk to each other," George explained, "they're like our soul friends. Haven't you read any of the books Wilbur has? I assumed it would be in one of them."

Wilbur shook his head, "there's nothing in them about that, but I'm definitely going to scribble that one down."

Whoops. He might have just outed a centuries-old secret of merfolk culture and history.

After George's explanation of the dolphin thing, he started to feel more at one with the others. The awkwardness wasn't there as much anymore, and he felt himself relaxing more and more.

Dream tapped his hand under the table, and George looked up at him in confusion.

The blonde smiled slightly at him, hooking their pinkies together before looking away and starting up a conversation with Fundy.

George blushed faintly, glancing down at their entwined pinkies, and smiled.

He could get used to this.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Hello friends!! Here's another chapter...I know, it's kind of dry today. Had a bad day I guess but I still wanted to upload, so that might be why it lacks my usual vibe. Sorry about that :(

I am so tired. Tired of a lot of things I guess, but I'm doing my best to provide you with chapters because I'll be damned if I let my anxiety and shit get in the way of something I really want to do :D

Anyway.

Thanks so much for your love and for reading, it means the world to me

Happy reading!

-Bee

(5/2/21)

Co-posted on ao3