Chapter Text
The day afterwards, Sapnap walks down the stairs to the kitchen with a headache. Dehydrated from the crying, without a doubt. Dream is already sitting at the table, chewing on some yoghurt and granola. Sapnap is pretty sure he left its pack open yesterday, they must be kinda mushy now.
“Goodmorning,” Dream greets him when he hears Sapnnap’s socks catch onto the messy cut border of the kitchen floor. He couldn’t tell you how many pairs it had cost him already. It’s worth it because he wears them as thick, comfy, stay-at-home socks. Especially now, they’re part of his mental support.
Sapnap mumbles back a ‘goodmorning’ while he grabs a bowl from the counter and the milk from the fridge.
“How you feelin’?” Dream asks him. He takes one of the last clean spoons from the drawer.
“Uhm, I haven’t really thought about it since I woke up.”
“Oh, sorry,” Dream chuckles.
“Meh, ‘s fine,” Sapnap pulls a chair from the table and sits down. Dream looks at him and then offers him the pack of granola. He nods at it, d’you want some?
“Thanks.” Sapnap pours some of it in the bowl, then adds the milk. He’s mainly forcing himself to eat, he’ll regret it later if he doesn’t now.
After a few minutes, Sapnap perks up. “Hhm, Dream,” he says.
Dream looks up and hums at him, “yeah?”
“I was wondering why you were there yesterday?”
Dream looks back at his bowl to take another spoonful of milk-soaked granola. “What do you mean?”
“When Karl wanted to talk to me about the.. Thing,” Sapnap explains. “He said you had something to do with it?”
Dream nods at his bowl, “right.”
“Do you wanna maybe explain that?” Sapnap bites at his lip in distress.
“Not really?” Dream laughs awkwardly.
Sapnap frowns, “why not?”
“‘Cause you didn’t react very well when Karl told you he’s a vampire?” Dream said it so obviously.
“Yeah?” Sapnap sounds hesitant.
“So I wouldn’t wanna tell you?” Dream continues.
Sapnap frowns again, “why?”
Dream just looks up at him from his bowl. It’s scary to give away secrets like this, but he trusts Sapnap. Besides, he’s had a full night to process Karl’s thing.
“Oh,” is all Sapnap says when he realises. “You’re.. You’re one as well.”
“Yeah,” Dream says, eyes on his bowl again.
Sapnap eyes Dream for a moment before getting back to his own bowl, the cornflakes must be getting mushy by now, “okay.”
“You’re okay with that?” Dream wonders.
Sapnap hums, Dream thinks he sounds unsure. “Getting there,” he then says.
He chuckles, “I’m taking my time to think about Karl, still. But you being..” he lifts his head to look back at Dream. “You know, it helps place the whole thing. Like, mentally, I mean.”
“Oh, that’s good, I’m glad,” Dream nods awkwardly.
Sapnap takes another bite of his soaked cornflakes.
“So is that actually how you met Karl?” he wonders out loud.
“Uhm.”
“‘Cause you always said you met through friends in college,” Sapnap elaborates.
“No, that’s still how we met, just the vampire thing kinda made us friends,” Dream explains.
“How’d you know though?” Sapnap asks him.
“Takes one to know one, right?” Dream sighs, it doesn’t sound like a bad sigh, though.
“Right, I guess,” Sapnap says, shrugging. It makes Dream snort.
“What? It’s not like I know,” Sapnap mumbles.
Dream smiles, “true.”
Sapnap shakes his head, continues eating from his bowl. His spoon reaches the bottom now, there’s just pieces floating in way too much milk.
“You know, I think you’re taking this pretty well,” Dream states after another minute of them eating in silence.
“I mean, I’m just thinking about it and most of it makes sense.”
Dream nods, then frowns. “Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?”
Sapnap snorts, “nothin’.”
A few days later, Sapnap decides it’s time to see Karl again.
my love (Sapnap): hey is it okay if i come over? - 3:42pm
pretty boy <3 (Karl): yeah ofc!! - 3:43pm
pretty boy <3: like rn or? - 3:43pm
my love: yeah now if thats okay, i was planning to leave my place in a few minutes - 3:43pm
pretty boy <3: yeah thats fine! - 3:34pm
my love: leaving rn, ill see you in 10 - 3:41pm
pretty boy <3: okay! - 3:41pm
Sapnap is less nervous than he expected when he gets to Karl’s place. Talking about the whole situation with Dream really helped on that part, he guesses.
He enters the mailbox-hallway and rings Karl’s bell. The glass door preventing him from entering the actual building buzzes and clicks open, and moments later he’s standing in front of Karl’s front door. The door opens almost immediately, revealing a clearly distressed Karl.
Sapnap smiles softly, then gives him a very enthusiastic “hey!”. Karl looks at him hesitantly.
“Hey, uhm, do you wanna come in?” he asks while stepping aside and holding the door open. Sapnap nods and enters his living room.
Karl sits down on his couch and looks at the small table in front of him. “Uhm, I feel like we should talk about what happened,” he proposes.
“Yeah, definitely, that’s kinda why I came,” Sapnap says, and he sits down as well, just on the other side of Karl’s couch.
“Right,” Karl presses his lips together and nods. “So, did Dream tell you about…” he starts, clearly suggesting something.
“Yeah,” Sapnap cuts him off.
Karl looks at him and slowly continues, “and how are you- you know, dealing with all that?”
Sapnap sighs. “Well, it’s not the average adjustment, and I guess I have a lot of questions, but I’m good?”
Karl nods at him and smiles, “I’m glad, I was really worried.”
“I figured. I’m sorry for not… asking to meet up earlier, I really needed a few days to process that.”
“No that’s completely fair, I’m not sure how I would react if my boyfriend told me he’s a vampire,” Karl snorts. “I’m just really glad you’re here, and that you don’t hate me.”
“I couldn't hate you, Karl,” Sapnap looks at him with soft eyes and grabs his hand. “I love you, and you being a vampire isn’t a dealbreaker for me,” he says, and kisses Karl’s hand.
Karl smiles widely and snickers. He moves closer to Sapnap and wraps his arms around him, “I need your hugs again, I missed them.”
“I’m not letting go until you are, love,” Sapnap says, it sounds muffled because of Karl’s shoulder.
“So what have you been doing the past few days?” Karl wonders after a moment.
“Well,” Sapnap starts, “I was kinda planning to take you on another date.”
“Oh?” Karl’s head perks up from his shoulder.
“Yeah, if that’s okay with you?”
“Of course,” Karl says. Sapnap smiles at the fondness in his voice. “Right now?” he then asks.
“Yeah! Again, if that’s okay,” Sapnap chuckles. “I bought everything we need with me.”
“Okay, where we going?” Karl’s smile makes his chest warm.
“The park?” Sapnap suggests, and Karl looks at him awkwardly. “I’ll get very sunburned…”
Sapnap’s eyes widen at that, “right! I have something for that.”
He grabs his bag and starts digging for something. “I thought about this yesterday and I got this,” he says, then pulls a spray-bottle of some sort from his backpack. He smiles at Karl as he shows him the 50 SPF sunscreen.
Karl giggles, “Sapnap, love, I need a little more than that.”
“Huh? How much?”
“More like, a hundred? Maybe?” Karl offers.
“What? Those exist?” Sapnap says, and it makes Karl giggle again.
“So what do we do then? If you can’t go in the sun, you pick a place.”
Karl thinks about it before he asks, “don’t you and Dream have a little garden?” Sapnap hums, “yeah?”
“You have a parasol there, right? We can use that and just have a garden date!” Karl decides.
“Sure, good idea!”
Karl and Sapnap walk over to Dream and Sapnap’s place. Sapnap is smiling and squeezing Karl’s hand while he tries to hold his hood pulled over his face to protect him from the sun. It’s a sight to see, Karl completely swallowed by the hoodie and Sapnap walking around like it’s a warm August day.
“I’m sorry, I know you like the sun,” Karl suddenly apologises.
“It’s fine, love,” Sapnap squeezes his hands. “Besides, it’s not like I like the sun that much.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, I do, but not as much as to be sad about it. I was just sad that our dates never worked out,” he explains himself.
“Oh wow, Dream is a lying little shit, then,” Karl mumbles in offence.
“Huh, why?”
Karl looks at his for a moment, through the small gap between his hair and hood, "he just told me I had to tell you the… you know, because you were sad about the sun thing.”
Sapnap looked at him in confusion, “I never told him that, though.”
“Okay actually he told me to tell you because of something else, but it’s not really my thing to tell,” Karl confesses.
“Karl?” Sapnap stands still, forcing Karl to stop walking as well.
“Fine, but like… don’t tell him that you know, okay?” Karl insists.
“Yeah, okay, I promise.”
Karl lowers his voice and leans in closer, “Dream can like- he can like, kinda manipulate the weather.”
“Oh, what? That’s fucking cool,” Sapnap exclaims.
“Yeah, kinda!”
“Wait, that means he’s been doing that for all of our past dates?”
“Yeah,” Karl laughs awkwardly. “That’s why he wanted me to tell you, he didn’t wanna have to do it again every time. Because he thought you were sad and all that,” he explains.
“Right,” Sapnap smirks, dragging out the ‘i’. “So what I’m hearing is… Dream wanted you to tell me you’re… yeah, because he got lazy?”
Karl laughs, “that’s one way to look at it. I wouldn’t have waited much longer to tell you regardless.”