George looked up at the man, feelings uncertain as Dream did not respond. Yes, he'd just dropped a bomb on the blonde, telling him that he would give him his healing tears, but that's what Dream wanted, so why wasn't he responding?

The man blinked in surprise, shock ridden on his face, obviously trying to find the words to respond.

George glanced down at their entwined hands and squeezed them gently. Dream snapped out of his daze and looked up at George, making eye contact.

The brunette smiled hesitantly at him, confused at what Dream was doing.

The man noticed the weird look on George's face and smiled back, squeezing George's hands just like he had done before.

"George," he started, almost breathless, "that's- well- thank you. So much."

George let his smile widen as they looked at each other.

"So...what's the plan?" George questioned, and Dream raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know about you, but I don't plan on staying with Schlatt. So if you have any ideas to get me out of it, that'd be great." George elaborated, a little sarcasm laced in his tone.

It'd been a while before he'd been sarcastic like that.

He missed acting like a bitch.

Dream smiled, "Right, of course." he cleared his throat.

"Um, well, Schlatt said he needed your tears, so when we give him those, then we can go. He just needs to cure his illness- and after that, well, he has no use for you anymore, so we should be good." George raised an eyebrow at that, clearly skeptical, but shrugged.

"You can give us the tears before we see him, so we just drop them off and then get out of there." Dream added on, and George let out a shaky breath, looking down at Dream's hands, held so perfectly against his own.

"Dream?" he asked, and the blonde hummed, allowing him to continue.

"What are we doing after we see Schlatt?"

Dream frowned, confusion on his face, and George had to suppress an eye roll at his oblivious nature.

"What do you mean?" he questioned, and George sighed, slipping his hands out from Dream's, the man in question looking at him, an unfamiliar expression gracing his face.

"Where am I going? You only need me for the tears. Where do I go after you achieve your mission? Back to the ocean, or....well, what do you think?" his voice broke slightly at the end, and Dream rushed to hold his hands again.

He held them tighter than before, but it wasn't painful. Comforting, more like.

"I hadn't even thought of that," Dream murmured, sighing, "If you want to go to the ocean again, well...I'm not going to stop you. Go back to the sea."

Go back to the sea.

Hurt ran through George's heart, gripping it tightly like a coiling sea snake.

He flinched back slightly, removing his hands from Dream's once more.

Dream didn't want him there.

If he did, he would have asked George to stay. But he wanted George to go back to the ocean. He didn't care what he did after he was done needing him.

Had George been reading into everything too much? Seeing things that weren't really there? He was under the impression that Dream was his friend.

That Dream wanted him to stay.

He bit his lip, and shrugged.

"If you want me to go back to the ocean, I can do that." he muttered, and Dream's throat made a weird squeaky noise.

"George, that's not what I meant-"

George cleared his throat, interrupting him, and stood up.

He brushed nonexistent dirt off of his clothes, before moving towards the door and leaving.

Thoughts raced through his mind as he walked down the corridor into the main area.

What was he supposed to do? He wanted to stay with Dream, with the others too, he reminded himself. He wanted to switch between the ocean and them, and he thought Dream wanted the same thing.

Apparently not.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, and slumped down onto a seat at the table.

Sam was sitting across from him one seat down, and the green haired man raised an eyebrow at the merman.

"Are you ok?" he asked, and George glanced up at him.

Silence hung heavy in the air for a moment, before George's head dropped and he muttered a quiet "no".

Sam frowned, "Do you want to talk about it?"

George shook his head, not trusting what words would come out of his mouth.

Sam sighed, standing up and giving George a pat on the shoulder, and moving to the seat next to him.

George looked over at the man, who started to read again, and sighed, turning back to stare at the wall.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dream watched the merman leave the room quickly, hand held up to his lips as if it was suffocating him.

He frowned to himself as he sat on his bed, all alone.

He had not worded that correctly.

What he mean to say was that if George wanted to go back to the ocean, he wasn't going to fight him, but of course he wanted him to stay.

He ran a hand over his face, sighing tiredly.

From his reaction, George obviously did want to stay on the ship, at least for a bit, and Dream's wording had obviously made it seem like Dream did not like the idea, which was bullshit.

Of course he wanted George to stay. How could he not? George was...well, he was everything.

He made Dream happy.

The way his smile seemed so genuine, the way it reached his eyes and made them sparkle. The way he'd run his hands through his hair when he was unsure of himself, or how he'd shift towards Dream when he wanted comfort.

The way he'd laugh, as if no one was listening, and the snarky comments that made Dream grin. The playfulness between them, but the underlining affection laced through his words. The way he whenever he walked into a room, Dream's heart skipped a beat.

It was all perfect to him.

George was everything. He needed that. He needed George.

Dream rubbed his eyes, standing up and leaving the room, following after the merman.

He walked through the hallway, finding George sitting at the table next to Sam, staring dejectedly at the wall.

Dream cleared his throat, and the brunette's head snapped up, looking over at him, before he scowled.

"What do you want?" the man grumbled, and Sam looked between the both of them a few times, confusion evident on his face.

"George...can we talk?" he asked, and the man sighed, before pulling himself off the seat and walking over to the blonde.

Dream took them over to the blanket and pillow pile, and sat down in a corner alone.

"George, when I said, 'do what you want', it was because I didn't want to keep you where you didn't want to be," he started, "but, I really, really, really do want you to stay...if that's what you also want...so will you?"

George looked up at him, shock evident on his face, as his eyes started to glisten with tears.

He nodded to the blonde.

"I'd like to stay."

Dream smiled, pulling him into a hug, glad that their fight was over.

They held onto each other, cuddling on the blankets, and as Dream blushed, looking down at the man, nestled in his arms, a smile on his face, his heart dropped, realisation running through him.

He was in love with George.

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 - x

Hello friends!! Yes, I dropped a bomb on you. Yes...I'm evil.

I hoped you liked the chapter!!! It was very nice to write. Also I'm watching Sapnap's stream right now, which is pog.

Happy readingggggg!!

-Bee

(10/2/21)

Co-posted on ao3