Chapter Text
The day George moved in with Dream and Sapnap, he already had his suspicions. The minute he stepped off the plane and saw those two standing side by side at the airport baggage claim, waving at him excitedly, he could tell.
They were close. Too close.
The energy between them was sweet and affectionate, annoyingly so. But he brushed off the brief flash of irritation that curled in his gut and greeted them enthusiastically, with high-pitched shrieks and tight hugs and loud laughter that surely annoyed everyone in the airport.
After a few weeks of the three of them living together, it became increasingly difficult to ignore that Dream was absolutely infatuated with Sapnap.
He’d give the shorter boy gifts all the time—little things like snacks, clothes, new bits of gaming equipment, and funny little knick-knacks that he always got because “it reminded me of you, Sapnap” (Sometimes those knick-knacks were a cool sword from an anime and other times it was a dirty stick from outside with a splotch of bird poop on it. The stick had them all rolling on the floor and cackling for nearly an hour.)
George had also caught Dream being awfully touchy with Sapnap on multiple occasions, ruffling his hair fondly and adjusting his clothes like a mother hen. Sapnap would often smack Dream’s hands away from his hoodie strings, complaining that he fussed over him too much, while Dream insisted that the strings had to be even, and if Sapnap was too lazy to fix them then he might as well do it himself.
Once, George had even witnessed Sapnap bursting into his bedroom, face burning scarlet, and begging for a hiding spot as Dream ran past the open door, yelling desperately, “Sapnap! I wasn’t trying to grab your dick, I swear!”
Interesting start to the morning, he supposed.
George slowly looked underneath his desk, where Sapnap had quickly dove for safety. “What was that about your dick?”
Sapnap’s face glowed redder, and George had to bite back a smile. Cute.
“He… I…” He coughed awkwardly and looked down at his feet. “My… fly was down and Dream tried to reach down and fix it himself.”
George was torn between bursting out in laughter or running off to smack some sense into Dream. He settled for a quick snort and got up to close the door.
“Hide here as long as you want,” he said as he returned to his desk chair.
“Really?” Sapnap said. He leaned the side of his head against George’s thigh and looked up at him through thick eyelashes. George willed every single atom in his body to not tense up at the action. Relax. It’s just Sapnap.
“Yeah,” George croaked. He cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he repeated, cheeks slightly pink.
Sapnap grinned and settled in comfortably, leaning more of his weight against George and closing his eyes.
He ended up spending the next two hours under George’s desk, napping with his head against his friend's thigh as Dream exhausted himself running around the house in search of the shorter boy.
So that eventually led George to the conclusion that Dream was a little closer to Sapnap than he—George—would’ve liked. And he was going to do something about it.
He wasn’t much of a go-getter, to be honest. He’d never been very competitive or ambitious. It was more in his nature to observe quietly and wait for his chance before striking. But he hadn’t anticipated a rival to appear, especially one in the form of a rich, famous, talented, tall, handsome, green-eyed, childhood best friend. And with those kinds of stats—like what the hell, Dream was goated—if he didn’t pick up the pace a little, there was no chance he’d gain Sapnap’s affections before Dream did.
Plus, there was no way in hell he’d just sit still and watch Sapnap be stolen away right in front of him.
So he decided to act a few days later when Dream was out for some errands and would be gone for a couple of hours.
“Sapnap,” he called out, knocking on the boy’s bedroom door.
“Come in,” a voice grumbled from inside.
George opened the door to see Sapnap leaned over his desk, scribbling something in a messy notebook. A white headband kept greasy, tangled hair out of his tired eyes.
He observed quietly from the door for a moment before asking, “Are you busy? I was going to record a new video.”
Sapnap huffed in frustration. “Ask Dream.”
“He’s not around.”
“Then I dunno. I have like, a shit ton of homework to do, man. I can’t.”
George watched his friend click around his computer for a few more moments. “What do you have to do?”
Sapnap sighed and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes in exhaustion. “I have a final project for Data Management due tomorrow. And my online final for Calculus is tonight. Computer Programming also tomorrow. Logic Design project due in two days. And uhh…” He picked up an academic planner from his desk and squinted at it. “Essay. For Computer Theory. Due in three days.”
George whistled low. “Sounds like a lot.”
Sapnap let out a small, wet laugh. “Yeah, it’s—” he cleared his throat and quickly rubbed his sleeve across his eyes. “It’s a lot,” he sighed.
“... You okay?”
“No,” he answered plainly, his arm sat still over his eyes. “I just gotta do this. But… it’s so much. And I’m so tired, and remote classes are so hard, and I dunno how many all nighters I can pull before I just”—he gestured to the floor—“drop dead.” He took in a shuddering breath and let it go unsteadily.
George observed quietly for a moment before he stepped closer, grabbed the back of Sapnap’s desk chair, and promptly wheeled him away. Out the door, into the hallway.
Sapnap scrambled to grab onto the armrests for security as the chair wobbled dangerously over the bump in the threshold.
“G–George? Wh—”
Suddenly, he stopped the chair in front of the bathroom and tipped the chair forward, dumping Sapnap inside before slamming the door shut and blocking it off with the chair.
“George!” The door shook furiously as Sapnap tried to force it open. “I– are you serious?! Really, dude?! I gotta work! I am not in the mood for this!”
“Go take a shower,” George called through the door. It stopped shaking as the boy inside stopped to listen. “You stink as bad as the bird poop stick Dream gave you.”
From inside, he could hear Sapnap let out an ungraceful snort before muttering, “No, you.”
“I heard that, you know. Shower, brush your teeth, wash your face. You’ll feel better—be more efficient. Trust me.”
A frustrated groan came from behind the door. “If I fail all of my classes, it’s your fault.”
“Sure.”
A long moment of silence. Then he heard the shower turning on and stepped away from the door with a relieved sigh. He turned back towards Sapnap’s room, dragging the desk chair along with him.
In Sapnap’s room, he picked up his friend’s planner off of his desk and carefully scanned through it. Man, Sapnap’s handwriting sucked. But it was decipherable, and it looked like he had a calculus final exam due by tonight. All online, not proctored.
The desk chair let out a squeak as George sat down and clicked around Sapnap’s computer. Looks like Blackboard was among one of his most visited websites. Clicking on it revealed all of Sapnap’s courses, assignments, and exams, including… yes! “Calculus Final Exam” due by 11:59 PM that night.
The original plan for tonight was to hang out with Sapnap while Dream was gone and record a new Youtube Minecraft video, just the two of them. Maybe he’d flirt with him a bit more, be bolder than he usually was. But he didn’t mind putting that aside to do something nice for the younger boy.
George cracked his knuckles and flipped to a fresh page in the notebook in front of him. Calculus was easy. With luck, he’d be done before Sapnap finished his shower. Academic integrity was a hoax, anyway.
After about twenty minutes, George clicked “Submit” and the exam’s results were displayed before him. He hummed thoughtfully. A 97 percent wasn’t too bad, considering how Sapnap’s American college used slightly different mathematical jargon than he was used to back at his British university. A 100% would’ve been preferred, but maybe it was better that he missed some points. It’d be less suspicious that way.
He closed the tab and stood up from the chair to grab some clean clothes for Sapnap to change into once he got out of the shower.
As if on cue, Sapnap appeared in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist, damp hair, and too much warm, steamy skin showing. Or maybe not enough. George fought the urge to ogle, keeping his eyes very determinedly on his friend’s face, which is when he noticed his heavy, droopy eyelids and yawning mouth.
“Come here, Sapnap,” he beckoned, softly smiling at the way he wordlessly obeyed, too drowsy to argue. “Change into something comfortable.”
He helped Sapnap fit his boneless limbs into a pair of boxers and a well-worn T-shirt as the boy grew sleepier and sleepier, practically passing out in his arms by the time they were done getting dressed.
“Hang on, hang on,” George laughed, struggling to hold him up. “Don’t—Sapnap, no—don’t sleep yet! I’m not strong enough to carry you to bed.”
Sapnap blinked blearily up at him and yawned, circling his arms around George’s neck and clinging onto him. George cooed at him quietly, guiding the sleepy boy’s feet towards his bed and tucking him in gently. It only took a few seconds until he was asleep, completely dead to the world.
George watched him from his bedside for a moment before letting out a quiet huff of laughter. “Out like a light,” he snickered to himself under his breath.
After a minute, he turned back towards Sapnap’s messy desk. There was a lot of work to do.
Sapnap woke up the next morning relaxed and well-rested. The sun shone through the curtains, and—oh, fuck.
His heart pounded heavily in his chest as he scrambled for his phone. Crapcrapcrap shitshit, what was the time?
The phone’s backlit screen illuminated his face and he felt his heart stop as he blankly registered the time.
12:09 PM
His calculus exam. Due last night.
He might cry.
For a full minute, he sat completely still in bed, still not fully registering the fact that his average calculus grade was now probably so, so tanked he’d have to retake the class. And the professor was a stickler for punctuality, there was no way he’d be able to ask for an extension.
Well, might as well face the music.
Blankly, he reached under the bed and grabbed his school laptop. Normally, he’d use his desktop computer, but he didn’t know if he had the will to get out of bed right now.
God, George. He’d kill him. He understood the guy’s good intentions, but now he was for sure going to fail calc.
The screen glowed faintly, displaying all of Sapnap’s courses and grades, including a new grade. He clicked on it, expecting to see a big, fat zero for his calc exam. But… what?
A 97 percent? He couldn’t believe it. How…?
At that moment, a knock sounded at his bedroom door.
Sapnap looked up. “Yeah?” he rasped, and winced. Jesus, all this stress on top of just waking up was not doing his already squeaky voice any wonders.
The door opened and in came George, hunched over tiredly and rubbing at his eyes. “G’Morning, Sap,” he grumbled. “You wanna eat breakfast with us?”
“Just a sec,” he replied, eyes back on the laptop screen. “Something weird happened with my exam.”
George became a bit more alert at that. “Something weird?” he repeated warily.
“Yeah, I think it was a glitch or something. Maybe the system accidentally switched my grade with someone else’s? I got a 97 percent, somehow.”
“Oh,” George laughed, relieved. “No, that was just me. God, you had me worried that the professor had noticed somehow. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Sapnap looked up at him with wide eyes. “You—how? You did my exam?” He glanced back at his laptop. “And finished with a 97? What the hell, George?”
George gave him a self-satisfied grin. “It was easy. Check this out, Sapnap.”
He shoved Sapnap to the side and sat next to him on the bed, grabbing the laptop and clicking around for a few moments before turning the screen back towards the boy next to him.
Sapnap’s jaw dropped open. “No way…” He turned to look at his friend sitting next to him, looking much too proud. “You finished my data management project too?”
George’s grin grew even wider. “Not only that!” He grabbed the computer again and tapped the keyboard a few times. “I finished…” He turned the screen back towards him, and the sleep-deprived college student felt his heart skip a beat as he looked at the contents of the screen. “All of your assignments! Computer programming, logic design, and computer theory! All done! It wasn’t too hard, I just finished what you had outlined in your drafts folder.”
Sapnap’s mouth hung open, and George was tempted to close it for him, but refrained. “George… I…”
“The projects and stuff aren’t submitted yet, of course,” his friend—best friend! Bestest friend in the entire world!—said matter-of-factly. “I figured you should look at them beforehand, approve them yourself before they’re turned in, right?”
“Yeah,” Sapnap breathed, eyes still wide as saucers. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly. What could he even say?
“So… you wanna record a video with me later today?” George asked, grinning ear-to-ear. “Or are you just going to sit there in silence?”
Sapnap laughed breathlessly. “Yeah. Yeah!” He reached out and hugged George tightly, laughing brightly, and George found himself laughing along unconsciously. “Thank you, George. You… I don’t even know what to say. That might be one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me, if not the nicest. I just… thank you. I love you so much.”
George felt his breath hitch at those words, body heating up as he blushed. “You’re welcome, Sapnap,” he managed. “I… uh…”
“Yeah?” Sapnap teased.
“... Love you, too.”
Both boys grinned giddily behind the other’s backs, hiding their faces in the crooks of each other’s necks, faces bright red and hot.