Chapter Text
Sapnap has dealt with tons of bullshit in his nineteen years of living on this planet, both the literal and the metaphorical type. But he would give anything to go back to working on a farm for volunteer work in Texas cleaning up animal shit than deal with whatever drama show was going on between his best friends Dream and George.
But if he wasn’t there to help his two oblivious friends out, who would be?
He’s seen all the signs over the past few years. Subtle flirting, late night conversations, giddy jides, the list could go on and on. Other friends of theirs and even the fans have seen it all too. The only two who haven’t noticed are none other than Dream and George themselves.
Please, how dense can two people be? This is like living as the third wheel or wingman of some terribly written fanfiction, and Sapnap isn’t having it at all.
He’s sick and tired of revolving around their bullshit, so whatever happens tonight on his stream and then after, his overall goal is to finally open their eyes wide enough to see that they’re both practically infatuated with each other and it is indeed reciprocated.
Yeah, he has also received the backhand panic attacks via internet conversations from the pair about coming to terms with their feeling realisations and their stubborn beliefs that it was unrequited, no matter how many times Sapnap tried to convince them otherwise.
Communication is key in a blossoming relationship, but they both came to Sapnap simultaneously panicking. It was fairly difficult to keep up with, clicking back and forth relentlessly to George’s text messages and Dream’s discord DMs. How Sapnap managed to do it without losing all of his brain cells or popping a blood vein in irritation, he still doesn’t know.
Sighing, Sapnap glances over at the time dimly illuminating his phone. He is able to glance at the number reading 9:15 before his phone falls asleep and the screen turns pitch black. Getting up from his bed, he makes his way over to boot up his PC. Fifteen more minutes until he plans to stream. Hopping on TeamSpeak and trying to sort out the shit show between his two idiotic friends early is probably a much better idea than teasing them live for thousands of people to see.
Entering the TeamSpeak, Sapnap is alone. A quick glance to the side of his screen notifies that Dream and George are both online.
Maybe they’re working this out themselves, Sapnap foolishly thinks, so I don’t have to deal with this anymore!
Directly afterwards the evil, evil, voice of “buddy joined your call!” rings through Sapnap’s headphones and George enters the TeamSpeak.
“Hey,” he greets, still sounding as emotionless as ever. Sapnap suppresses the urge to roll his eyes.
“George.” Sapnap responded, mimicking George’s tone but utterly failing and just speaking in deadpan.
“Sapnap,” George repeats, obviously missing how Sapnap was trying to grab his attention. He sighs and tries again.
“We need to-” he starts, but is interrupted. The stupid chime letting him know another one of his ‘buddies’ joined the call sounds, and Sapnap just about wants to rip the roots of his hair out in frustration.
“Hey,” Dream greets, and Sapnap is more than ready to throw himself outside his bedroom window.
The tension inside the voice chat is excruciatingly evident, unsaid words hanging by a thread between the three. The silence is so deafeningly quiet that Sapnap can easily make out the gentle whirr of his air conditioner unit and the low buzz emitted from his monitors.
“Guys,” Sapnap started, unsure. He distantly wishes that he could use a knife to physically cut the tension in half and go back to being best friends playing a block game together. But alas, those two idiots had to fall in love with each other and lack important verbal communication.
“I- I’ll just start streaming now,” is what he settles for. He could no longer handle the distant coldness laced up inside the call and deems starting to stream early and talking animatedly with chat will shake some nerves back into place.
When the stream starts up and the viewers steadily roll in, Sapnap easily reverts back to his relaxed facade, and Dream and George promptly follow suit. It’s easy, putting up a persona for thousands of viewers and not having to worry about personal problems such as hopeless romantic best friends. He lets out a relieved breath he didn’t know he was holding and boots up Minecraft, more than ready to play his favorite game in the presence of his two favorite people.
As the stream went on and Sapnap steadily got more irritated at his busted speedrunning attempts, the tension slowly started building back. Dream and George, at first, were completely fine. Staying relatively quiet save for unimportant conversation and friendly chides whenever Sapnap messed up his runs. Something definitely crossed the boundaries, however, because they both went eerily silent just after half an hour of streaming. Sapnap had missed what was said, but the chat surely didn’t. The donations spoke a thousand words.
“ Why are Dream and George so quiet? Is it because of what George said earlier? Also, can you say happy birthday Sammie?” The donation reads. Sapnap treads the waters ever so carefully with responding to this one.
“Happy birthday Sammie, thank you for the 10!” He cheerily responds at first, and decides to avoid the former question they had. However, the effort proves to be fruitless as the viewers catch on and relentlessly ask the same questions over and over.
“Jesus, I don’t know,” Sapnap suddenly breaks, a little over the edge of irritation, “why are you guys being so quiet?” Well, Sapnap knew the half of it. They’re still not over the high of I have a crush on my best friend and he definitely doesn’t like me back even though I never asked him about it! But prodding on and letting them admit it themselves seems to be a much better, and admittedly more fun option.
“We’re not?” Dream rebutes, and has the audacity to sound confused.
“Please,” Sapnap replies, fully annoyed at this point, “the mood has been off, like, the entire stream.”
“I didn’t notice,” Dream says snarkily, starting to sound irritated as well.
“Really?” Lone laced full of sarcasm and pure annoyance, Sapnap drags on at the sensitive topic. “You haven’t noticed what’s been happening the past week either, then?”
“Sapnap,” George suddenly butts in, and Sapnap can easily hear the unsaid part of “ we’re still on stream, let’s do this later, alright?” Sapnap sighs and focuses back on the game. Chat is running rampant at this point, so he pitifully tries to put out a bit of the fire.
“Chat, it’s fine. Let’s just continue trying to break my PB, yeah?”
God, he had lots to say once this stream was over.
¤¸¸.•´¯`•¸¸.•..>>
“What the hell was that?” Sapnap snaps, after ending his stream. He closes out Minecraft and his Twitch moderating tab, leaving one of his monitors illuminating with a rather awkward TeamSpeak conversation. His words ring out and hover in the air as he waits for someone, anyone , to respond.
Belatedly, Dream replies, “I don’t know what you mean,” but after years of friendship, Sapnap can easily see under his calm facade.
“Clay, George, my dudes. My bros, my homies, even.” he starts, leaning against his chair and shifting to get into a more comfortable position, because who knows how long this is gonna last. “This is tearing you two apart.”
“What is?” George asks, as if it isn’t obvious enough. Either both of his friends are the most foolish people on the planet, or poor Georgie over here is avoiding the topic.
“Oh, puh-lease. It’s not like I haven’t noticed. The way you’re practically emotionless now, and how Dream avoids every question related to you like his life depends on it.”
“I’m not-”
“I don’t-”
“Oh, save it!” Sapnap exclaims, slamming his fists on his desk. It’s now or never. “You two literally came to talk to me, what, a few days ago? At the same time! And you didn’t even know!”
“Sap-”
“What-”
Sapnap manages to let out a sly grin, his slight stubble tickling around the edges, making this exchange all the more humorous. Tone growing slightly softer, he says, “Do you guys still not understand?”
He hears shuffling from someone’s end, though he can’t quite tell who. “I- not really,” Dream finally mutters. George doesn’t respond, seeming preoccupied with something.
“George?” Sapnap asks, praying that he at least has some sort of brain left inside his head.
“Huh? Oh, sorry.” More shuffling, and a gentle click! of something snapping shut. “My stupid window keeps opening on its own.”
Huh. “You guys are actually so braindead.” Words cannot fathom the increasing annoyance he is starting to feel about how stupid his friends are acting, so what’s better than straight up insulting them?
“Then, my dear Sappy-nappy, enlighten us. Because you apparently know sooo much more about whatever situation we’re in than we do.” This earns a light chuckle from both the brunets. As serious as this situation is supposed to be, good-natured sarcasm always helps lighten the mood a little when needed.
Sapnap takes a deep breath, preparing himself for what is about to come. He figures the best way to do this is to tell them upfront, because they won’t understand any other way.
“Dreamie. Remember a couple days ago when you came to me with a little... predicament of yours?”
He hears Dream laugh nervously on his end. “Let- let’s not talk about that here.”
“Oh, we are. And George,” he exclaims, before Dream can interrupt him, “when you came to me too, the same day actually. With the same problem, may I add.”
The indirect confession of feelings results in piercing silence. Sapnap considers the lack of confusion from both parties a win, as they’re finally finally understanding what this means between the two of them. He crosses his arms and sinks down into his chair, allowing himself to up the volume of his headphones to hear each and every word that was soon to come.
“Do you mean-” Dream starts, then falters. “Sapnap, you’re not joking, are you?”
“Nope!” Sapnap practically singsongs. Oh, does victory feel sweet.
“Dream-”
“George-”
Then the two erupt in laughter. High pitched wheezes from the blond, followed by stifled giggles from the oldest of the three, sneak their way into the call and inside of Sapnap’s ears like church bells.
“Wait, wait, so you’re saying-” George starts, but gets interrupted too easily by his airy giggles. Dream picks back up for him.
“-that we uh, like each other?”
Well, that was easy.
“Holy shit. It’s not unrequited. Dream-” George starts again, his tone going sickenly fond and laced with such a careful intimacy that Sapnap feels like he’s intruding. And when the pair break into hushed, lovestruck giggles, Sapnap takes that as his cue to leave.
“Fucking finally. Have fun, you two. I need something to eat.”
And when Sapnap leaves the call, feeling utterly accomplished and like the smartest man on Earth, he takes a moment to recollect history between his two best friends, and how it should have been obvious from the beginning.
And later, when he’s relishing in his victory over a cup of iced tea, an open window letting the cool Texas nighttime air in, and a takeout burger, he glances over at his idle monitor to see that the two lovebirds are still in their private TeamSpeak, so he takes a moment to appreciate himself and his uttermost amazing best friends for crossing this bridge of foreign relationships and shared love.
“Tomorrow,” he vows to no one in particular, “will be a good day.”