Chapter Text
“Frank?”
The teacher looked around the room, waiting to see a raised hand for who the name belonged to.
“Here!” The hand shot up into the air, and the teacher looked down, continuing to the next name on the list.
“Clay?”
“I go by Dream, but I’m right here.” Dream said as he raised his hand. It was held up in a sloppy way, letting itself droop just like Dream’s own body was drooping into his desk.
That was the first time in the entire morning that the blond had looked up from the book he was reading. It was 7:57 AM only three minutes to the bell and he was sinking into his chair, becoming deflated by the early morning and the fact that he was in school. It seems that high school just has that effect on teenagers.
“Of course, Dream,” the teacher smiled at him when he looked up from the attendance, then quickly returned to shooting out names one after the other.
Dream turned back to his book uninterested. He flipped through the pages and immersed himself back into the literary world. Throughout every page, he found himself voicing the dialogue for each character in the same way he had for the last hundred pages or so. And when he got to a particularly funny part, he smiled to himself.
However, as the last bit of students started to file in before the bell rang, he slid in his lime green bookmark into its place, defeated by the increasing noise in the classroom that didn’t allow him to focus. So, he pushed himself back up slightly, though still hunched into himself, and started using his phone, aimlessly scrolling through notifications.
Unluckily for Dream, Sapnap came into class a minute before the bell rang. He scanned the room, gaze turning quickly to the back where he expected Dream to be. And there he was, in the last row and in the corner sinking into his phone. A mischievous grin spread across his face and he carefully made his way toward the back, trying to appear as if he was any other student. Sapnap went behind Dream’s desk and before the blond teen could look up, Sapnap wound up his arm and then sped up his hand, letting the air break through his fingers as it gained momentum.
The sound was wet and thick coming down like heavy rain as the sweat of Sapnap’s hand was sewn into his victim’s skin. The hand slammed hard into the neck, crashing into soft flesh and quickly blooming into a red handprint-shape — a similar heat stretched all the way to the tips of his fingers with a faint buzzing feeling dispelling through his palm.
Dream practically jumped up from his chair, his hold on his phone immediately going slack, as his neck projected forward. His skin reverberated with the impact, eyes shooting open wide as the adrenaline of having been hit so quickly pumped through his body. The surrounding circle of two or three classmates, turned their heads in quick succession to see where the noise came from, but most of them turned away again seeing the harmless antics, with only a few snickering and then turning anyway.
And just as quickly as the impact came and went, Sapnap broke into a violent laugh, letting it seize his whole body in his descent into madness.
“Call that a cracker barrel,” Sapnap managed to speak between breaths of violent laughter.
The teacher having seen Sapnap walk into the classroom without addressing him made his way to the back of the classroom quickly.
“Sapnap, I swear to fucking G-d, I’m gonna beat your ass. Who the fuck does that at 8AM?” Dream picked up his phone from the desk with his left hand and with the other hand he rubbed at the spot Sapnap had marked. It hurt like hell.
Instead of actually addressing Dream’s threat, Sapnap just egged him on, moaning, “Daddy chill.”
Dream looked up at him from his desk with a deadly stare, but then his face turned into a wicked smile and he turned back to use his phone. Sapnap was confused by his reaction, but quickly found an answer.
“Are you Nick?” The teacher asked.
“Oh... yeah, I go by Sapnap, or Sap though,” he replied meekly.
The teen suddenly felt exposed. Not knowing what to do with himself, he raised his hand up to scratch the back of his neck, a small excuse to linger his gaze down at the floor. But it was only for a few seconds before he had to dive his eyes back into the judging pupils of the teacher.
He saw an aged man. Someone who was certainly not new to teaching and for a second Sapnap found himself wondering how long this man had been a teacher. Had he given up his life to an unfulfilling job? Did he have a wife and children? When Sapnap saw teachers that looked like that, he imagined that they went home to empty apartments, woke up to empty beds, and drank black, flavorless coffee on their lonely commute to work. He saw wrinkles starting to form in the man’s face and small pieces of discolored skin that made him seem all the much older. Sapnap swallowed, unsure of what would come next. Often teachers like this repressed their bitterness and solitude and made the nicest teachers or they beat down on kids like him, ironing the same fatigue and worthlessness into teenage souls.
“Interesting name, like… Dream here, too. Why don’t you take a seat near the front since all these seats appear to be taken?” The teacher smiled, but it was still rather neutral for a smile, in the way that it refused to reveal if it was genuinely kind or a bitter mannerism hiding anger.
“Um. Sorry to interrupt, but this is actually my backpack. I was saving a seat for him,” Dream spoke, looking up from his phone for the first time since the teacher arrived.
The bell rang in between their conversation.
“Oh perfect, then we can get started. And Sapnap, let’s not call people ‘Daddy’ in my classroom, I don’t think Dream is anyone’s father.” The teacher turned and made his way to the front of the classroom, acting as if he didn’t know the effect that teengers hearing the word “Daddy” from a forty year-old man would have.
As soon as the teacher was gone, Dream bent into himself wheezing.
“Did he just say Daddy?” Each word in his question being separated by hysterical laughter and attempts at catching his breath.
“I’m going to drop out,” Sapnap said as he moved to sit on the desk Dream had reserved for him.
He moved Dream’s backpack and handed it to him. A pink flush slightly covered his face, but would only be noticeable if you were inches away from him. Despite that, his palms still burned and the flames of embarrassment singed his pride.
“You want me to be your daddy, Sap?” Dream was still laughing into his arms as he leaned into his desk.
“Shut up and take your backpack,” he pushed it into Dream’s side.
Dream grabbed it from him and then flipped him off.
“You owe me Mr. Daddy-chill. I expect to see your fat juicy —” Dream was cut off by the teacher starting the lesson at the front of the classroom.
As Dream was leaning into Sapnap to finish what he was saying, Sapnap spoke with deadpan expression.
“Don’t even finish that.”
“Whatever you say, sugar baby. I hope you enjoy math class with that fat ass busting through the chair,” Dream smirked, relishing at having the last word and Sapnap just looked at him in disgust before turning back at the front.
Despite the fact that it was Friday, this was the first time that their math class had met all week because of a scheduling error. And as the class went on, Dream found himself slightly disinterested. Not that it was a boring class, but rather that first weeks of school were full of fake promises from teachers and students about a good school year and other irrelevant logistical work before settling back into the usual routine of being overworked or slacking off. His mind was wandering with his eyes fixed to the floor and then the bell rang, announcing that the class was over.
Sapnap tapped him on the shoulders bringing him back to his surroundings.
“What’s your next class?” Sapnap asked.
“Uh.. English,” Dream said as he began to stand up.
“Shit, man. Okay, well, I have Spanish. What’s the rest of your schedule then?”
As Dream went on to spit out the careful details of his schedule, Sapnap turned them over on his head, trying to match it to his own.
“Okay, so like, we have last period together again. Not too bad, bro. And we can still walk together to English. I mean that’s kinda sexy on Jah, bro.” Sapnap and the word “bro” went together like Stepbrother porn and washing machines.
“On Jah, bro?,” Dream smiled and teased the shorter man.
“Shut up,” Sapnap replied as both teens picked up their backpacks and started heading towards the door.
As the day passed, Dream and Sapnap met for lunch, where they recounted some of the idiot activities they did together over the summer and spoke about some of the new teachers and classes they would be taking this semester. Then, the day continued. Class after class of the same thing: going through the syllabus and answering questions and giving overviews. Every teenager in that building was ready to go home.
When last period history arrived, Dream was beyond excited to see Sapnap again and then go home shortly after. When the blond stepped into the room, he saw Sapnap in the back waving at him with his other arm leaning into the chair next to him and holding onto the strap of his backpack.
“Saved you a seat, bro. Favor repaid,” Sapnap looked almost too pleased with himself.
“Thanks,” Dream said and then his facial expression quickly changed as a thought came into his head.
“Oh my G-d, bro. I just realized that I never got our math teacher’s name from first period,” Dream spoke with the realization of his own stupidity hitting him, and he made his way to sit next to Sapnap.
The teen handed Sapnap his backpack and then sat slouching into his seat.
“Dude, you know his name is literally on your schedule, right?” Sapnap deadpanned.
“Oh yeah, true…. Anyway, what is it?”
“It’s like some weird name that I can’t pronounce. But like he’s kind of a freaky man, you know? He gives me bad vibes,” Sapnap turned to look at Dream as they spoke.
“Yeah, he looks like he goes home and uses his mirror to shave his balls or something. I think we should call him something like… The Math Teacher. Like The Math Teacher. It sounds cool and mysterious and —”
Sapnap cut him off.
“What! What does that even mean, Dream? Please explain to me how you would even know that?” Sapnap barely finished speaking and Dream was already bursting into laughter.
The bell rang and Dream forced his laughter to become quiet, just as the rest of the class did.
Then again, the blond found his mind daydreaming through the rest of class. This time he found himself staring into the back of someone’s head, becoming entranced by the smooth and deep-brown, almost black looking hair in front of him. It was a short cut, so he assumed that the person was a boy. Fortunately for him, that boy behind him was too focused on the lesson to feel Dream’s eyes burning into him. Even with the spaced out eyes he had, it was a strong and focused look.
His eyes travelled from the fluffy hair atop his head to the slim and pale neck. The skin looked so white, almost creamy. Dream imagined what it must feel like if it was as soft as it looked. He wanted to dip his hands into the neck and disappear into the flesh, like if it was a portal. Imagine if this dude had a netherworld portal in his neck. Then Dream was thinking about Minecraft, thoughts of the pale boy in front of him being lost to the endless chasm of distractions that held together Dream’s mind.
When the bell rang this time, it pulled Dream out of his thoughts quickly. He and Sapnap packed up just as fast and then made their way out of the classroom in conversation. It was mostly Sapnap summarizing the class for Dream because he was too busy fantasizing. Dream was so grateful that Sapnap was in his class. By the time he was finished talking, they were already at the front of the school and began to walk home.
“So, what was that about back in class? You were like staring at that kid’s head.” Sapnap’s voice was more sincere than teasing.
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Dream scratched his head and then began to dig through his recent memories for whatever boy he must have been staring at.
“You know? That dude that was like sitting in front of you? You were staring at the back of his head the entire class,” Sapnap was patient, knowing that Dream had a tendency to daydream.
“Oh. Yeah. I kinda spaced out, and then like the bell rang and class was over,” Dream answered plainly.
“You got a thing for people with dark hair?” A smirk grew over Sapnap’s face and his tone took on a more teasing edge.
As Dream was about to reply with some other type of snarky remark, his phone rang. He took it out from where it was in his pocket and him and Sapnap moved to one side of the sidewalk.
“Give me a second. It’s from work.”
Sapnap just nodded and watched as Dream’s expression changed. The call was over quickly and the blond found himself sighing as he tucked his phone back into his pocket. Sapnap was looking at him expectantly.
“I gotta go in for work today,” he sighed, “I swear they just want to make me as miserable as possible. Like it’s so last minute and we’ve been planning to play Minecraft since Monday,” as Dream spoke, they began walking again.
“Shit man, that totally sucks. You’re gonna get home at like 12, but like at least it’s Friday and we can play when you’re home if you’re not tired.” Sapnap was trying to cheer him up and a small smile spread on his face, trying not to look as disappointed as he felt.
“Yeah, I guess,” Dream stretched out the “s” sound as he whined. At the same time, he protruded his shoulders forward, making himself more hunched back to exaggerate his fatigue.
Sapnap smiled in a sort of fond way and the two teens kept walking as they found themselves lost in another pointless conversation. Random things were said that made Dream wheeze at one point and had Sapnap grinning a little too proud at having gotten that reaction from him. And then just as soon, their joint walk had come to an end. Dream said his goodbyes first, starting to jog home because he needed to get to work and he spent a little too much time walking slowly so he could talk to Sapnap, and then Sapnap waved at him and turned where he needed to go.
Dream was used to running home by now because of his erratic work schedule and to make it home before curfew during this past summer. Yet, the fact that the school year had started and that the summer was ending, hadn’t really settled into him yet because the weather was so warm for early September. A few weeks from now, the leaves would start yellowing and then turning brown in their natural process, leaving everything in a cool chill that would be accompanied by darker and darker days, and earlier and earlier sunsets. If the summer could pass just as quickly as it came, the autumn would too, leaving a cold landscape in its wake.
By the time he got home, he was slightly sweaty and threw his backpack onto the couch. He wasted no time and ran up to his room to change into his work uniform. It was a red polo shirt with a name tag that read Dream, black slacks, and some random black and white sneakers he found in his closet.
Having changed in a record time of five minutes, his eyes briefly looked over his entire room. And when he saw his desk, he conveniently noticed his wallet, keys, headphones, and phone stacked in a neat pile. Dream blessed the person he was five minutes for actually putting his essentials on the desk, rather than tossing it on the floor like he usually did. He left quickly, sighing before he locked his room door.
Jogging back down stairs, the blond made his way to the front of the door, locking it as well. No one was home now and they would probably be asleep or in their rooms by the time he returned. Outside, he quickly took down his bicycle from where it had been hanged inside the garage. Then he walked to open the garage door, strolling his bike along and waiting for the slow door to raise itself high enough.
In the few seconds that it took, Dream slapped on some headphones and quickly pressed a random playlist. It would take him about a 45 minutes bicycle ride to make it to work and he would get there sweaty and gross. Those 45 minutes was him speedrunning the way there, not the actual hour it took the average person. He hadn’t noticed it but, having balanced his Minecraft obsession, a horrible sleep schedule, and job over the summer, he had mastered the art of optimization, allowing him to get to work as quickly as possible.
The garage door opened, he stepped through, closed it again, and then positioned himself on his bike. With his phone now safely in his pocket, he began his trek to work and the familiar ache of leg exercises burned into him.
Dream took out his phone from his pocket, eying the time quickly before he shoved it back in. He had about an hour left of work and the weight and fatigue from an entire school week and random shifts had his body aching for sleep. Yet, it was only 10PM.
“This will be your last order,” his boss said smiling at him.
When the bossman saw the face of confusion on Dream’s face, he reassured him.
“You can go home after this last delivery, sport. I know the work schedule has been horrible to you, so you can run along after this order and enjoy your weekend. Well, until Sunday,” the bossman quickly returned to work.
“Awesome. Thanks, Mr. Bossman” Dream smiled as he pocketed the car keys from the counter.
Then he picked up the two pizza pies and the liter of soda and made his way to the car outside. It was a tacky thing, but it got the job done. Red, dull, and small made up the car that had kept him company for most of the summer, and just as it hadn’t given up on him, he wouldn’t either.
Shoving the pizza in the seat, next to him, he looked at the GPS and saw that it would be a fifteen minute drive. Dream started the car.
This time of night was rowdy. It was a Friday so people made plans to hang out, enjoying the last days of summer before succumbing to the cold loneliness. Teenagers roamed the streets, either having snuck out to have their coming of age movie worthy memories or having gotten permissions from overly lenient parents. Adults in a similar fashion, roamed the streets, but they were not bound to parents, rather a social order that squeezed them into clubs to have drink after drink. Regretful actions that would be dealt with in vomit-filled toilets.
Dream just drove on through the night. He had spaced out through his entire time driving, and only grew attentive now as he looked through the houses for the corresponding address. He read the numbers of each out loud to himself and smiled when he found it. It took him three minutes to park and then he was ringing a doorbell with the food items in hand.
“Hello, are you Gorgeous?” Dream asked as he balanced the two pies and soda.
“I mean… I think I’m at least okay looking,” the teenager that opened the door responded.
“George, is that the pizza?” An unidentified voice yelled from inside the house.
It took his sleepy brain a few seconds to realize, but then Dream understood how stupid he was. The skin of his face turned a light shade of pink as the embarrassment settled on his cheeks. The heat on his face was light, but as the cool summer night air lingered, the heat was accentuated.
“Oh my G-d. I am an actual idiot. Your name is George,” Dream looked down at the pizza box defeated.
And then the dark-haired boy, giggled in front of him. It was soft and light-hearted. Dream felt almost as if his eyes were tugging at him to look up and when he did, he noticed how the dim lighting from behind the door caught George’s face, making the boy look like he was glowing. His face became slightly warmer as he enjoyed the sight. The 10PM fatigue was really doing something to him.
“I’m sorry man. I wasn’t like hitting on you or anything, I just thought that, ugh. Sorry my brain is just shit right now,” Dream sighed, choosing to give up on his words.
“Of course.. Uh…” George glanced down at his name tag, “Dream?” George gave the blond man a funny look.
“Oh yeah, nickname,” Dream answered out of habit.
“Cool, nickname, Mr. Dreamy Pizzaman,” a twinkle of a smile remained on his face from the previous giggle. It made him look friendly and warm.
Dream hated his job sometimes and this was one of those times. He was mixed up in the haze of sleepiness, and yet he felt awakened by adrenaline of embarrassment. Dream tried to think his way through this situation and only found further conflict in his thoughts.
“I mean… I think I’m at least okay looking, but being called dreamy is nice too,” Dream shrugged his shoulders and a sly smirk pressed into his tired face.
“This is the type of people they’re hiring nowadays?” George rolled his eyes, but it was in a light and joking manner.
“Oh, almost forgot what I was here for. Here’s your beans on toast pizza, George. 22.78” Dream responded, his smirk turning into an amused smile.
“I think that’s the longest a stranger has gone without making fun of my English background,” George said as Dream handed him the items.
The dark-haired boy balanced the items on one hand, as if he was used to doing this, and then plunged his hand into his pocket to hand him twenty three dollars. Dream found it a bit impressive: the balancing act, having almost the perfect amount of money, being so suave with his words.
“Stranger? I thought I was the dreamy pizza man,” Dream pushed into the tease.
“Oh, of course,” George smiled, “See you next week, Dream,” and then he closed the door.
Dream just stared at the closed door in front of him in disbelief. Not because of the weird flirting dynamic, not because of the cute boy that had just been standing in front of him, and not because he was tired, but because George had forgotten to tip him.
This is why the American Revolution happened. The blond thought to himself.
He made his way down the porch steps slowly, and he found himself missing the warmth of the pizza as a slightly cool wind sweeped by again.
The door flung open.
“Dream!” George screamed into the darkness of the porch.
He had expected Dream to be on the sidewalk or something, not at the bottom of the steps. George blushed in embarrassment at his own volume and the entire absurdity of the situation. The blond jumped a little, startled by the sudden commotion, but still turned to look up the stairs.
“Oh, hi,” George spoke way lower than before.
“Hi?” Dream asked confused.
“I forgot your tip. Sorry about that,” George smiled a hesitant smile; it asked for forgiveness.
“Oh, no need to worry about that. I heard they don’t tip in Europe or something” he lifted his hand to scratch the back of his neck and he slightly winced, feeling the pain of Sapnap branding him with his scalding hand.
George smiled at his comment and walked down the steps with ten dollars in his hand. The heat in his face was evident, but Dream didn’t say anything. He was taking in the sight of George. He looked like a scrawny kid, but Dream was focused on the creaminess of his skin, the grey sweatpants and pink strawberry milk shirt he was wearing, and the way his hair was slightly tossed. How didn’t he notice all of him before?
Then Dream started looking at his skin again. George had closed the door behind him, so the only lighting on the porch were the moon beams coming down from the night sky. His hair looked like a deep black and his skin looked blue under the light, as if he was a glow squid.
When George walked to him in what felt like five minutes to Dream, but was actually about eight seconds, Dream moved his glance slightly downward, trying to seem like his eyes weren’t burning into the boy. And then George’s hand extended to give him the ten dollars.
“It’s not that. I’m just an idiot, like you,” Dream found that George’s voice felt soft when he said this, especially for a stranger he had just met.
“Thanks,” was all that Dream managed to say.
“Of course. Good night,” George turned jogging back up the steps.
“Good night,” and the door closed.
And Dream was left standing there in the dark. His mind was floating on visions of George, but he dragged himself back towards the car. He was definitely going to text Sapnap about this, if he didn’t fall asleep on his doorstep when he got home.
The drive back was rather taxing. He was juggling sleepy limbs and a rampant mind that swam with thoughts of him — the way the boy was eager to give him the tip once he remembered, the way he came down the stairs, and the flash of the pale neck when he turned around. Dream usually thought about the lives of customers when he delivered to them. The little sliver of their lives that he was allowed to pry into, and he thought that maybe George had given him a little too much because his mind was racing.
Seventeen minutes later, he was back at the pizza store clocking out. An hour later, he found himself home standing under the hot shower. His sweaty uniform pooled on top of the bathroom counter. It was nearing 12AM. Twenty minutes later, he was in bed, all cleaned up and texting Sapnap.
Dream: Honey, I’m home
Sapnap: Glad to see my little pizza man didn’t
get shanked on the way home
Dream: We literally live in the suburbs
Our white asses aren’t getting shanked
Sapnap: What if it was me mugging you?
Would you fall in love with me?
[puppy eyes emoji]
Please Dweamy, I need to know
Dream: Okay, shut up because I actually
have something important to say
Sapnap: You got hit on, again? Mr. Dreamboat
Dream: Discord vc?
Sapnap: [blushing emoji] Ok…
Dream reached his left arm to the top of the night stand that was next to his bed, grabbing his headphones. Once they were situated in his ear, the bluetooth connected and he pressed the Discord app with his index finger. Sapnap’s icon was waiting for him in the voice chat.
“What’s up?” Sapnap said upon hearing the notification of Dream joining.
“Hi” The greeting was warm and friendly.
“So… someone hit on you, big boy?” Dream could hear the smirk. It was practically dripping off his voice.
“Uh… not really. More like banter and a cute boy,” the blond replied.
“Does he got a fatty though? Please don’t say it’s fatter than mine,” Sapnap’s voice was whinny over the call.
“Don’t worry, Sapnap. No one has a fatty bigger than yours. But anyway, he was like British or English, or whatever. He was light weight, and also really pretty. Like he was a pretty boy, one of those people that Roman poets simp over, pretty.”
“You like him?” Sapnap was quick to question him.
“Huh? Of course not, I just met him. I just think he’s pretty. But like there was also banter going on and something embarrassing happened,” then Dream went on to tell the story of the events from 10PM.
Sapnap was muffling his laugh over the Discord call.
“You are such an idiot, Dream. At least you’ll never see him again, so you won’t have to relive that,” Sapnap offered a half-sympathetic, half-mocking response.
“It’s always the cute ones. Heart been broke so many times,” Dream sighed, feigning sadness as a joke.
Sapnap chuckled lightly and then began speaking again.
“So, Ms. Mamas, Are you up for some Minecraft?”
“Of course, Mr. Mamas. Just give me a second,” Dream smiled as he got up from bed to load the familiar game on his computer.
He was glad for the comforting feeling of the game. The calming songs that would play in the background as he laughed about stupid antics with Sapnap. It kept him grounded as thoughts of George became smaller and smaller in his head. George became another cute, yet awkward encounter in his many months of working as a pizza delivery boy, blending into the background.