(This is waayyy back in chapter 7 but in Dream's POV. Enjoy :D)

"Dream? George?" Sapnap said, eyes widening, and voice quivery. Dream internally facepalmed at himself. He forgot Sapnap visited often.

The black-haired man came into the apartment every other day to clean it up every once in a while. There are rare occasions Dream sees Sapnap through the window, and he always catches the youngest sulking as he looks through George's old things. Dream always feels guilty when he sees Sapnap like this. He wants to go back in and engulf him in a hug, but he simply couldn't.

Before they knew it, Sapnap had pulled them all into a hug. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Dream thought to himself. George would think that something weird was going on, and he might never come ba-

"Geez, it's been so long and you still barge into my apartment like it's your own," George mumbled.

Dream held back the urge to sigh in relief. Calm down, Dream. Think. Think, think, think.

When George began to pull away, Dream used his quick thinking to keep holding onto Sapnap, making it look like he didn't want to separate. Which he didn't, but now wasn't the time to actually consider that.

"Sapnap," Dream whispered, low enough only for the both of them to hear, "please pretend that George is alive and that him and I haven't met before," he explains, speeding through his words, "I promise I'll explain everything when this is over."

Sapnap briefly hugged him tighter in response before pulling away.

"You know Dream?" George asked.

"Yeah," Sapnap responded. "And you two know each other too, huh?"

Dream thanked whatever god was out there that Sapnap was-

"Why are you here?" Sapnap says.

-an absolute idiot. From behind George, Dream shoots Sapnap with a warning look, or as close as menacing as his dull mask can get. This was going to be a long day.

-

The day had ended far too short to Dream's liking. Everything was going so well. Everything felt almost back to the way things used to be.

He knew that this living dream would end soon, as the three sat in front of George's pc playing the very game that had brought them together. He couldn't help but stare out the window as it rained. He had the urge to go out, to go to the bus stop. He had to.

No, I don't. I'm not gonna let this stupid cycle ruin this day, Dream thought, but his gaze stayed locked onto the window. He resisted the instinctive urges, the rain pouring harder made him struggle even more. The pitter-pattering grew louder against the glass panes, mesmerizingly so, to the point where Dream couldn't help but stand up to get a closer look outside the window.

Dream swore he saw Sapnap shoot him an apologetic glance from the corner of his view. He didn't turn his head to actually see it. He didn't want to. He wasn't able to, not with the silently wailing clouds bringing Dream in a trance, like sirens drawing prey into the ocean.

Subconsciously, he babbled out, "Shouldn't you go home Sapnap? It's really late." Wait. Wait, no! Not yet!

The now roaring rain muffled everything else out. All he had heard was Sapnap agreeing and shuffling out the room. Dream couldn't help but stare at beads of rainwater, clumping together and cascading. He had the urge to smash the window, jump out, and run to where he was forced to be.

All of a sudden, his conscience came back to life, breaking out of that hazy trance. He could hear George saying something about letting Sapnap come over sometime again.

He rushed out of the room, down the stairs, and right where the two other males stood. Sapnap was just about to step out, until Dream called out, "Sapnap, wait."

He stopped right next to the youngest. Sapnap looked up at the green man with slightly widened eyes, and then a knowing look. "Give us a sec, George." He said before walking out with Dream, shutting the door behind them.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Dream practically broke, "Sapnap, I'm so sorry about this, I didn't know you were coming, and I should've told you that he came back as some kind of ghost or som-"

Sapnap interrupted him with a small series of confused noises, and said, "Dude. It's fine. I think I kind of understand what's going on. No need to explain." He gave him a sympathetic smile. "What I don't understand is why you haven't said anything."

"What?" Dream said, dumbfounded.

"He clearly doesn't remember you. Why aren't you letting him?"

"I- I-it's just..." Dream started to shuffle with his feet and play with his fingers. "I'm scared."

Sapnap looked mildly confused, like he wanted to ask questions, but kept them inside his head. "Dude, you have to tell him."

"I know, I know..." Dream said, "...I don't know what'll happen if I do,"

"He'll understand-"

"Sapnap, you know this is different," Dream sighed, clenching his fists. "If I tell him, he might run off, either in anger or in fear of me," he gestures to himself, "and when he disappears, he might never come back, because he wouldn't want to see me agai-"

The younger cut him off with a hug. It shocked Dream at first, but then he melted into it, letting out a breath he'd been unknowingly holding in.

"You know George wouldn't just leave you like that," Sapnap caresses his back. "I'm sure he still cares about you, whether or not he remembers you. That's just how kind of a person he is, as much as I hate to admit it."

A large weight was taken off of Dream's shoulders. Sapnap was right. George was just that kind, just that caring. He took another breath and leaned into the hug more.

"Woah, Dream get off me, you're heavy as fuck," the younger chuckled.

"Thank you, Sapnap," Dream whispered before pulling away. "I really needed that."

"I'll always be here for you guys," Sapnap grinned. "I have to get going now. Take care of George, okay?"

"Okay."

Then in the midst of walking away, Sapnap called out behind him, "Oh, and please, please promise me you'll tell him."

Dream nodded even though Sapnap couldn't see him anymore. He opened the door to George's place, without another word.

-

(Present day. I hope these little throwbacks aren't too confusing!)

"I'm... what?" George said as if it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. Which it was.

"...Do you ever wonder where you come from whenever you have your walks?" Dream tests.

George tries to recall, but nothing pops into his head. Simply a white void.

"Do you ever remember waking up in the morning? Or maybe where you end up when you decide to leave after our little meetups?"

Nothing. White void.

And as if Dream was reading his mind, "Do you ever wonder why you're walking down the streets when you wake up from those void dreams?"

George simply blinked. He had never realized this before. It was all so obvious, and yet only now did he wonder why he never thought about them.

"I kind of have a theory that you only... exist... when I'm- or Sapnap too, uh- when either of us are near you." Dream began to fidget with his fingers uncontrollably.

George stared at him with shock. There was no way this was real. For once, he didn't have any questions to ask, all of them were technically answered, but that only confused him even more. "What?" was all that he could muster out.

The brunette expected Dream to answer, to start laughing, to tell him this was all just some sick prank, but all he got was him sinking his head. Oh.

There was complete silence. This had been incredibly common between the three men lately, blatant tension hanging over their heads, mocking the three.

That was until Sapnap began to cry, tears cascading along his cheeks, sobs growing louder and louder.

George and Dream perked up, giving each other concerned glances. They carefully shuffled near the youngest, George hovering a hand over him, unsure if he was meant to rub his back or hug him, while Dream looked like he was in the middle of choosing his words. Neither of them had ever seen Sapnap this distressed before, and they've been friends with him for years. He was always the one who cheered everyone up when things weren't looking too good, the one who would cuddle with you until you felt better. Sapnap was that one proud brother that would scream the loudest in joy at your achievements. A shy guy at first, but loud, loving, and affectionate once known better.

Before the two could finally make a move, Sapnap pulled them into a tight hug, uncontrollably sobbing on their shoulders. They returned the gesture, warmly and gently.

"What's wrong, Sapnap?" Dream asked, voice hushed.

"It's just," Sapnap said in between hiccups, "I've been so tired of pretending that both of you are okay, that everything's completely normal, but nothing is, nothing has for seven years." George could feel more tears streaming out of Sapnap's eyes.

And then he realized just how much Sapnap had gone through. He was the only one technically alive among the three, enduring pain to the highest degree all alone. George had no idea he was dead, while Dream masked the idea of being dead. Sapnap had to play along. And now that everything's out, he was at his breaking point. It must've felt awful losing both of your closest friends, and George couldn't even fathom the feeling.

"I'm scared," Sapnap mumbled. "I've already lost you guys, and I wasn't there for you when it happened. I don't want to lose you." His tone went high at the last part, holding onto them tighter. He sounded desperate.

Neither of the two could answer him, give him an optimistic perspective because there was none. The thought scared George. What if he left all of a sudden? Appearing and disappearing was out of his control, it just happens at random. He thinks so, at least. What if he disappeared one day and never came back? That. Now that worried him. He quite frankly didn't want to leave his friends, not after he had left them already before. He let his arms wrap around Dream and Sapnap a little tighter.

More tears shed, they three stayed like that for a while.

-

The trio was now in front of George's dusty old pc, and as strange as it sounded, they were scrolling through Twitter.

Dream chuckled, "God, we were so stupid back then." He said, looking through their old tweets, fun banter, and silly interactions.

George smiled at the words sadly. Dream and Sapnap had been trying to get him to remember things they've done in the past, and George simply had no recollection, no matter how hard he tried. He knew that they knew it was a lost cause, but they kept on trying, and he let them.

"So we were actually already friends before?" George hovered his gaze over some tweet about Dream getting Sapnap and some other guy named Quackity in a single deez nuts joke, with George cheering in the replies.

"Yeah. Best friends." Sapnap smiled longingly.

The more they scrolled, the more the tweets died down, the darker the fans' tweets about the three had gotten.

The fans. Oh, the poor fans. George had no idea just how it felt to lose not only one, but two, and connected too, content creators that they supported. He assumed everyone didn't take it too well, even though their tweets were just a bunch of words, they all seemed to be written with an incredibly heavy heart.

It was all a cluster of goodbyes and thank you's. The mere sight broke George's heart thousands of times over.

And then they stumbled upon one tweet to an article about what had happened to them. Subconsciously, George stopped scrolling, his eyes subconsciously locked onto that. The article headline read, "Minecraft Youtubers Dream and Georgenotfound Die During Their Meetup".

The smiley on Dream's face now looked sadder, more solemn. He breathed out. "That was the day we were going to meet each other in real life for the first time," he reminisced, "I guess you could say it just ended before it even started." He laughed humorlessly. Nobody else laughed.

Wow. That must've been one interesting way to see each other for the first time.

"How did it feel to meet me?" George asked.

"The first time?" Dream looks at George.

"...Like this." The brunette guiltily gestures at himself.

Dream pondered for a moment. "It was both the worst and the best thing to ever happen to me," he starts, "The worst because, well, you know. And you kind of just passed by me a few times for weeks before you started talking to me. I thought you were a hallucination for a while," he breathes out. "The best because..."

Dream twiddles with his hands for a little bit.

"Oh, goddamnit, just say it!" Sapnap groans exasperatedly. "Look, I'm leaving this room for you guys, just let me know when to come in after you guys smooch or whatever." He says as he walks out of the room.

"Wait, Sapnap don-" Click. The door shuts before Dream could finish his sentence. He muttered curses under his breath

George simply stared at Dream expectantly, his mind running wild at what he was about to say.

"I, uh-" Dream rubbed the back of his head, facing George. "It was the best because, um,"

"I really missed you," Dream shrugged. "I never thought I would see you again, you know."

George softened at the words, he was about to open his mouth until Dream interrupted him.

"And," the green man says louder than he probably anticipated, "...I got to fall in love with you all over again."

Hope the amount of information I'm dumping on you guys isn't too much. Expect another update sometime soon!

Feedback and criticism are highly appreciated, as always! :D