It was getting really late. The sun had long stretched under the horizon and the moon had taken its place. The moon was always something that comforted George, it did have some sort of celestial connection to him, after all.

It was something truly magnificent, so much bigger than anything he knew. So close to his heart, and yet so far away.

George gazed up at the moon that hung heavy in the sky and let out a little sigh. He felt Dream squeeze his hand, so he looked over to the man sitting next to him.

"Are you tired?" Dream asked, voice mixing with the wind.

Despite the exhaustion seeping through his body, George shook his head. It was so peaceful right now. So perfect. He didn't want to sleep.

Too bad his body betrayed him, as right after he shook his head he yawned loudly.

He clamped his hand over his mouth, eyes blinking to stay awake, and Dream laughed.

"Not tired, my ass."

Dream stood up, pulling George to his feet and handing him the cane. George probably didn't need it, considering he was leaning on Dream so much (he's tired, so it's fine), but he took it anyway.

They walked across the length of the ship, Dream waving goodnight at some of the people still awake before they stopped at the two entryways. One that led down the hallway to George's room, and the other a staircase leading down to the crew's rooms and main area.

George thought of his room. The blankets thrown haphazardly on the floor, Dream not being able to sleep comfortably while George had the 'bed'. He bit the inside of his cheek, looking up at Dream, who was obviously lost in thought, probably on the same problem.

They stood there in silence for a moment before Dream sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Let's just go to my room." he said, moving towards the stairs.

George paused for a second, before moving alongside Dream.

They carefully made their way down the stairs, and then walked through the corridor that George had not seen yet.

At the end was a door and another one on the wall next to it. Dream opened the one at the direct end, and George followed him.

It wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. It was an average-sized room, at least from what George could tell, he didn't know a lot about human stuff. He was taking his knowledge from the shipwrecks he'd explored when he was younger.

There was actually a real bed in this room, in comparison to the blankets that they'd pretended were a bed in George's room.

George was too tired to protest when Dream told him he could sleep in here. Maybe if he wasn't actually dead on his feet, he'd have insisted he just go back to his room, but as he sat on the bed, and realised just how comfortable it was, he decided he wouldn't have the energy to argue anyway.

It was absolutely the softest thing he'd ever felt. He wasn't sure if he'd been this comfortable in his whole life.

He wondered why, when Dream had this, he'd been sleeping in George's room. He glanced over to Dream, who was climbing onto the other side of the bed, kicking off shoes. George also wondered why he didn't have shoes like everyone else. Whatever. He'd figure that out later.

Dream flashed him a smile, and George blinked tiredly back at him, before looking up at the roof.

He tried to stay awake, not to be rude to Dream, who was obviously still very awake, and reading a book, at that. Dream noticed this and laughed, flicking the side of George's head.

"Go to bed, George." he said.

George wanted to argue with him, say he wasn't tired, thank you very much, and that he could stay up if he wanted to, but the softness of the pillow and warmth of the blanket was pulling him under. He let out a content sigh, and fell asleep.

- - - - - - - - -

When George woke up, Dream was reading. He must have gotten up a while before him because he was wearing fresh clothes.

George blinked up at him, before sitting up. He pushed the pillow up and leaned against it. Dream looked over at him, shutting the book and placing it on the blanket.

"Morning." Dream greeted him, and George croaked out a good morning to him.

He coughed slightly to clear his throat, embarrassed at the voice crack.

Dream wheezed and George went red, "Stop..." he grumbled, and Dream tried to catch his laughter. He coughed slightly, biting his lip.

"Sorry," Dream chuckled.

George rolled his eyes, yawning slightly.

They sat there for a moment before Dream let out a big sigh.

George looked at the man with the mask in confusion.

"What's wrong?" he asked, knowing full well from Dream's body language that he wanted to say something.

Dream bit his lip, looking over to the corner of the room where a stool stood, clothes piled on it.

"George, how would you feel if I showed you my face?"

George's breath caught in his throat.

"Par- pardon?" he asked, and Dream scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, I just- I trust you enough now. I'm not so worried...about what you'll think," Dream admitted, "I mean, of course, I'm scared- but- well you might think me ugly- and I'll put the mask straight back on if you think that-"

George cut his rambling off by shushing him.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, looking at Dream, who finally moved his head to look back at him.

"Dream, if you're comfortable, and you do actually want to show me, then yes, I'd like that." he breathed out, and Dream nodded slightly.

They sat there, sitting in front of each other for a moment. George assumed Dream was trying to find the courage to actually take the mask off. George was patient. He'd wait.

He was surprised that Dream was deciding to do this. He knew that Dream had promised one day that he'd show him, but he didn't expect it to be this soon.

George wondered what he looked like. Dream went on and on about not liking what was underneath the mask. He knew of the scar, he knew of the insecurities. Was he really ugly? George wouldn't care. He wouldn't mind if he was a fucking goblin under the mask, because he was Dream. His Dream.

The blonde pulled the mask off, holding it in his hands and staring down at it, refusing to make eye contact with George.

The brunette could barely breathe.

He was beautiful.

He sat there for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. Slowly, George's hands crept out, holding Dream's face gently, moving it from looking down to look up at him, so he could see more of the man's face.

His hands cupped Dream's cheeks, and he gazed at his face. His eyes racked over the scar that ran from above his eyes to below his lips, diagonally across his face. His thumb ran over is slightly, and he smiled. Dream was so brave. Freckles dotted his cheeks.

George could practically feel the panic radiating off of Dream, and he moved his eyes up to make eye-contact with the man.

His eyes. They were- well, he wasn't sure how to explain it. Amazing. Wide, and curious, and beautiful. George wished right now, more than anything else, that he could see their true colour. He was sure they'd be even more beautiful.

"What colour are your eyes?" he whispered, and Dream blinked in surprise, still holding eye-contact, face still being held by George's hands.

"Green." he whispered back, and George smiled.

Green. He wanted to know what that looked like.

They stared at each other for a moment, and Dream's hands came up, holding onto George's and pulling them down. They sat there, holding each other's hands, just looking at each other. Nothing else.

After a minute, Dream blinked slightly.

"Say something, George. I can put the mask back on if you want. Just say anything."

George smiled, not stopping from looking at Dream. It was addictive.

"You're beautiful." he stated, and Dream coughed in surprise.

"...what?"

"You're beautiful." George repeated again, and Dream's mouth parted in surprise.

"Me?" he whispered, voice cracking slightly.

George nodded, gripping Dream's hands tighter.

"Yes, you. Do you see anyone else here that I could be talking to?" Dream shook his head slowly before a smile lit up his face.

His face.

The face that George could see.

George smiled back.

"I can see you." he murmured, and Dream laughed, nodding.

"You can see me!" George laughed.

They sat there, laughing for what felt like an eternity.

George's cheeks ached from all the smiling, but he wouldn't have it any other way. Just seeing the smile on Dream's face made it worth it. Made everything worth it.

George's heart thrummed in his chest.

Dream was worth it.

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!!! The day finally arrived!! I know a lot of you were excited for this chapter, so I hope I did you justice! I was going to mention yesterday that you should be excited about this chapter because something big would happen but I decided I wanted to surprise you instead. Call me evil, if you wish.

Okay- so I did get some questions for the Q&A, so I'll answer them right now! If there are any more asked after this I'll just put them in another author's note in the future

Note: some of these questions are from wattpad users, others are from ao3, I'm answering both on this

= honestly, it's always been Minecraft. I started writing fanfiction like...five or so years ago, and it was Aphmau stuff. I just searched up Aphmau one day to try and watch a new video of hers and found fanfiction on her, and after that, I started writing! Over the years I kind of grew out of that phase and moved onto other fandoms, like gravity falls, harry potter, marvel, bnha etc and wrote some little things about them, but after getting back into Minecraft again I decided to write! It took me a little bit to get back into the swing of things, but I'm so glad I did it!

= yellow! It makes me happy :)

from sapling = blood, sweat and tears go into it, my friend :")

= I do plan on writing much more after I finish this book! I may take a little break after this book is done from writing big books and just work on some one-shots for a bit, but I do already have something planned! I'm thinking it will be in this universe, the same one that our merman George and pirate Dream are living in, but it will follow the story of someone else! Keep an eye open for that in the future :)

= Although I do have a very bad sleep schedule, it's more likely than not that we have different timezones! I'm Australian, and most days after school I update around 5:30-6:30 pm! Despite the fact that I'm writing this at 1:00 pm today, that's usually the timeframe in which I post. :)

I'll answer more questions (if I get any more lmao) in the future.

Until then, happy reading!!!

-Bee

(7/2/21)

Co-posted on ao3