George was lounging on some blankets in the main eating room. There was a corner of the room filled with pillows and blankets because heaven forbid they have couches. It was comfy though, so he wasn't complaining. 

Dream was sitting next to him, and George was half leaning on the blonde as he read. Dream was reading out a story to George, something about three little pigs or whatever. The man had said that it was one of the countless stories he'd been told as a kid, and that he was set on telling George every single one.

This was somewhat odd, considering these stories were made for, well, children, but he let Dream read them anyway. He found comfort in telling George these stories, so who was he to stop him? 

And besides, George had made Dream promise that he could tell him some of his pods stories, so he would get something out of it too.

Honestly, George wasn't really listening very much. He'd tune back in at points to hear something about a wolf (he had no idea what the hell that was), or houses being torn down. Something about the calming and velvety voice of Dream made him unable to focus. He continuously felt himself drifting off a bit, getting lost in thoughts. 

The thing that really made him lose focus though, was Dream's face.

Ever since their little moment two days prior, along with George declaring Dream's beauty, the man had been more open to wearing the mask off of his face. He had it resting on the side of his face up on the top so he could move it down quickly if it came to it, but he was trying his best not to.

The rest of the crew had seen his face before, of course, but they were also used to him constantly wearing the mask even around them. 

When Dream got uncomfortable, or at a point he was required to show more emotions, he'd slip the mask back on. He was obviously used to being able to hide them behind a cover, and hadn't trained himself so well to control his facial expressions.

George understood. He was just glad his words had resonated with the man. It wasn't as if he was lying either. Dream really was beautiful.

So yeah, maybe he found himself drifting off to stare at Dream's face while he told him stories. It wasn't creepy, he had to remind himself, Dream knew he was looking, so it wasn't weird. Promise.

Just something about the smile on his face, which so clearly reflected in his eyes, made him happy. He felt something flutter in his stomach, and moved his gaze back away from Dream.

Niki walked by, her gaze lingering on Dream's face for a second, even after two days, she was still surprised to see him so open about showing his face. 

Her eyes flicked down to George, who was looking at her, and she flashed him a smug smile. His brows furrowed in confusion, but he didn't have any time to question her as she walked up the stairs to the deck.

He watched her leave, before scratching the back of his head and tuning back into what Dream was saying.

"And then the wolf ran away, leaving the three little piglets to live happily ever after, free from the wolf's harm." 

George nodded his head, pretending he'd been listening, and met Dream's eyes.

They stared at each other for a minute, before Dream cleared his throat and looked back down at the book, snapping it shut and holding it in his hands.

"Did you like it?" he asked, and George hummed.

"Very interesting." 

Dream paused, "were you even listening?" he questioned, and George went red.

"Totally!"

"Oh yeah? What happened in it?"

George paused, "there were some pigs. And a wolf. And the wolf was...mean?" his statement sounded more like a question, and Dream laughed, shoving him slightly.

"You rat! You weren't even listening!" he accused, but the smile on his face and amused tone in his voice betrayed the fact that he wasn't actually annoyed.

George barked out a laugh, and they started snickering in the corner together, earing a rather confused look from Bad who was sitting at the table across from them.

After their laughter died down, Dream asked George a question.

"Why don't you tell me one of your stories then? If my children tales bore you so much." 

George pondered what to tell him.

"Do you want to know a story I've experienced or a story told to the children?" he asked, and Dream paused, "both."

George rolled his eyes, "Okay, we'll start with a kids story."

He sat there for a moment, trying to decide which one to tell the blonde, before an idea popped into his mind, causing him to smile to himself.

"Alright, this is the story of how merfolk came to be." Dream raised his eyebrows in interest, snuggling closer to George to get comfortable.

George snorted at him, before continuing.

"The moon was lonely. You see, the sun, their old companion, didn't like them anymore. They had created these beings called humans, and they spent their time not resting tending to them, bringing them to life, and shining their sun over the beautiful lands. They abandoned our moon. No matter how hard they tried, the sun never had the time of day for them, so they decided to create their own versions of the humans. The moon, you know, was always so connected to the ocean. The tides and swirls of sea were controlled by them, but there was just something missing. So they got some humans, got some fish, and combined them," George said, as people around the room started shuffling closer to listen to him talk, "they gave us speed, conquer over water, and adapted our bodies to become the souls of the sea. The moon had seen the diconnection between the sun and their humans. The humans didn't even know of the sun being their parent, so the moon created what we call a moon heart, the very thing that helped me transform my body. Crystals, to remind us, and to connect us to our parent, our moon." he held onto the crystal, showing it as the others peered forward to look at it.

He laughed, "it's just a kids story, though. I don't know if it's actually real, but it's true that we have a connection to the moon. The ocean is powered by it, therefore making us powered by it."

Dream held onto George's hand, who blushed. 

"That definitely beats my story." Dream joked, causing Sapnap, who had at some point joined the group alongside the others, to laugh.

"You're just shit at storytelling, Dream." Dream narrowed his eyes in mock annoyance, before laughing as well.

"That's really interesting, George." Phil commented, and George smiled, noticing Wilbur scribbling down his previous words into a book.

Cool.

The rest of the crew who wasn't already there came and chatted for a bit, all of them finding spots on the blankets and pillows to relax.

George glanced up at Dream, who smiled fondly down at him.

"Now tell me your own story. Something interesting that happened." Dream suggested, and George sighed. Everyone stopped their chatter at Dream's words, ready for another story from a merman. 

"Like what?"

"Stories about friends? Unless you don't have any, bitch." Tommy interjected, and George reached over to shove him over. The boy grumbled, sitting back up, but fell silent.

"I used to have a friend," George commented, "before he died." Everyone looked at him in shock, and he went red, "I did not mean to say it that blunt!" he explained, holding his hands up and shaking them.

"Tell us about him," Bad stated, before adding an "if you're comfortable, of course."

George blinked at him, looking around for confirmation as other people nodded in agreement.

He let out a breath, before sighing.

"Okay, sure."

Where to start?

"His name was Karl," Dream shifted next to him, obviously remembering George talk about him, "He was like my brother, I guess. We weren't related, but we may as well have been. We were the closest in age in my pod, so we just stuck together," George smiled fondly, "we'd break off from the others to go and explore shipwrecks all the time. I'm pretty sure we gave the elders heart attacks every time we disappeared." he laughed, and a few people, like Fundy, Niki and Ant smiled.

"I remember one time, we were in a shipwreck, and we found a whole chest of jewellery. We spent hours sifting through our finds and trying things on, it was so much fun. And then this big fucking shark showed up, and we had to scramble our way out of there. Most sharks coexist with merfolk rather peacefully, but this particular one was a little bitch."

"It chased us home, and my mother and the others had to fight him off. Since we led him to our pod, we were stuck on hunting duty for weeks! It was such bogus." George laughed, scratching the back of his head as he got lost in his memories.

"George?!" Ranboo fake gasped, "a trouble maker? Impossible!"

George poked his tongue out at him, "I'll have you know I was very cool. Never listened to anyone. Except Karl. And maybe my mum." he shrugged.

"How old were you when that happened?" Wilbur asked, and George frowned.

"13, I think. Something like that."

A few people laughed, and he felt Dream squeeze his hand reassuringly. Dream always knew what was up. George loved to talk about Karl, but it still made him sad. His best friend was brutally murdered by humans, after all. It was a bit of a sore subject.

Speaking of being murdered by humans-

George wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He really enjoyed hanging out with these people, they already meant so much to him, especially Dream, so he wasn't sure how to proceed. 

These humans defied everything he knew about humans before. If they were different, who's to say the rest of the human's weren't also like that?

Yes, they'd technically kidnapped him, but they had their reasons.

And now he was left to his decision. Go along, give his tears, betray merfolk culture of tears being earned, and hopefully be pardoned to leave, or don't give up his tears, possibly get tortured, but keep his ancestors proud. Which to choose?

They both had their pros and cons, but the biggest factor he was taking in was the fact that if he went with the first choice, give them his tears, go with them to deliver to Schlatt, he'd maybe get to go back and stay with Dream. Surely then he'd be able to go back into the ocean, but he could always follow the boat and take time on board in human form. Then he'd be able to stay where he felt safe.

It was the smartest decision, of course, with the most benefits, but he still felt guilt stab at his heart at the thought of giving tears to humans when merfolk's number one rule was to never, under any circumstances, ever do it.

George sighed, watching the others chatting amongst themselves, some of them murmuring about George's stories.

Dream shifted next to George, and the man looked up at him. Dream smiled down at him as their eyes met. He'd never get used to that. Seeing Dream's eyes.

He smiled back up at the blonde, leaning his head against the man's shoulder, and fidgeting with his fingers.

"All well in George land?" Dream joked, whispering to him, and George laughed softly.

"All is well," he murmured, making his decision.

"All is well." he repeated.

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!!! ANOTHER CHAPTER AHHHH!!! Thanks so much for your love and support, it means the world to meeeeeee

Man, I just realised I do cliffhangers a lot...my bad. Not going to stop doing them though. <3 Sorry not sorry

Here's another question I got for the Q&A: 

WATTPAD:

= wow! That's a pretty good question actually, even if I'm not sure about the answer myself lmao. I try to find time in between homework to write my chapters, and sometimes I'll write portions of it in class when I've finished the work. As for the quality thing, I've been writing stuff like this for yeeeeeaaarrrrsssss (5 to be exact), so I guess I've improved over that time.

 When I started it out, I used to post every day, and so coming back to write a dreamnotfound fanfic I just automatically went back into the same schedule.

 I'll be honest though, there's lots of days where I really do not want to write, and I don't have the motivation for it, but I know it makes you guys happy to see my updates, so I do it anyway! Before I started this book I wrote down basically what I wanted to happen in the book, so I've used that as a guide for bits of content, but generally each chapter I'll just wing it and then edit it after to make more sense. I hope that made sense! Thanks for the really good question <3

As always guys, happy reading!!

-Bee

(8/2/21)

Co-posted on ao3