A few days had passed since the MCC teams were announced, and a single message from George had come through, the one that made her phone buzz at that very second. It read simply, 'come over', no question mark or time frame, as usual.

Soon she was at his door, shoes off, 'don't trip', clothes on the floor, skin on skin, lips on lips. Hands ran through hair, pulling as he pushed, sharing hot breaths as they stole each others sweet kisses.

Again he trailed down her body, his burning mouth sucking and biting at her skin, places unseen by others, soft whispers that she could hardly hear over her own heartbeat in her ears.

Suddenly it changed, no rapid movements or harsh grips. His hands held her carefully, cradling her like posh china, fingertips running along her ribs, worshipping her body for what it is.

It wasn't until what felt like hours later that they stopped, his arm around her back, pulling her closer and her hand trailing his chest. His skin was clear, no marks or grazes, she'd be surprised to find a single nick or scar on his skin, positive that if anything happened to him he'd crack and fall to pieces. That if she held him too hard he'd fade away, though she knew it wasn't true, but still, any blemish to his skin looked unnatural, surely to be noticed by many.

His fingers tapped her side, a particularly dark bruise, a thin smile on his lips.

"No one can see them" she commented, surprising herself with her words.

Sure, she'd had this internal struggle over George's actual feelings for her for a while now, but she never meant to actually bring it up to him, not wanting to show her true thoughts to him.

"That's the point" he spoke back just as soft, her heart fell, of course, that was the reason.

She'd told herself a thousand times that was why, he didn't want people to notice, to know, but it felt worse coming from the man himself.

"Just for me" he continued, even quieter, seeming to see her misunderstanding, maybe feeling her mood change as he spoke.

"Yeah?" She coaxed, chin lifted.

"Yeah"

Astrid always felt so at peace when streaming, no matter what was happening in the world at that moment, she was having fun: with a smile on her face and surrounded by friends.

Although it didn't carry completely, she was just as happy to be on somebody else's stream. Tommy had set his up a few hours ago with Astrid and Wilbur, the three of them messing about on the MCC practice server to entertain the masses.

After the two-hour mark, a ding rang through the call, her eyes flicked over, noticing Dream's name in the VC, but muted and deafened. He obviously planned to join at some point, just not right now.

That was okay, she was happy with the light conversations so far, mostly keeping quiet, trying to focus on her jumps, it didn't help that she wasn't on her own set-up.

Surprisingly, it had been George to offer up his set-up to her, telling her he had no scheduled calls so she could use it, logging in to her Minecraft account and discord. Her, or rather his, camera wasn't on, no green screen up, just her sat at his desk and him lounging in the bed, phone in hand but it was apparent he was listening.

There were never lulls in their conversation, despite her not talking much, Tommy took care of that. But when it did quieten down another voice finally joined the call.

"Big D!" Tommy called, over-animatedly.

"Tommy," he spoke, calm, "don't call me that" A laugh to his voice.

"Why?"

He didn't reply, tired of this exact same conversation no doubt.

"Astrid, hey" he spoke after noticing her silence, finding her on the map as she sped back and forth for no reason.

"Hello, Dream" she smiled back, eyes flicking behind her to watch George's head shoot up.

Great, there's no way this could go wrong.

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Written: 25th July 2022

Published:27th July 2022