Chapter Text
It doesn’t take long for the Dream Team, Muffinteers, or whatever the four are calling themselves to pack up their minimal possessions, and it should only a minute for them to tear down what Sapnap had declared was the “Shit-Shack”. Tommy, in the meantime, sits to the side and watches them work. There isn’t much for him to do other than awkwardly stand there and fiddle his thumbs.
It’s a bit of a strange sight- the four of them together.
Tommy had to take a few minutes to realize just how different they were in comparison to the rest of the server, himself included. There’s caution in their stances, making sure they have each other’s back from all angles, but there’s a certain bounce to their step that Tommy vaguely recognizes from the times before the wars.
The way they freely talk to one another, jokes bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball, not to mention the near ridiculous amount of skin contact. It’s like looking into a snow globe from the outside. A little world that revolves around them that no one else could touch without breaking. And maybe, just maybe Tommy could admit to himself that he’s a little bit touch starved. And maybe he could also admit that he’s more than a bit jealous of their dynamic.
“Hey kid, we’re just about done,” Dream calls out to him, and Tommy gives him the finger because Fuck you Dream, he’s not a child. He quickly puts his hand down because shit- this is Dream, but the other just laughs at him and returns the favor. “Just making sure you didn’t fall asleep on us already.”
“Whatever, Big Man.”
That’s probably something that’s going to be talked about Tommy muses with resignation. The way that Tommy reacted to Dream is anything but normal, and the unsubtle glances from all four of them means nothing good despite the good intentions.
He perks up slightly when they all wipe their hands clean and start making their way to him.
Tommy stands up, a hand placed lightly on the sword on his hip. It’s just a comfort, he tells himself. He can’t really excuse the tension that starts building up in his shoulders for anything other than what it is, but it’s infinitely better than he usually is around others. Dream and his group stand a bit away anyways.
Tommy is silently thankful.
“Are we ready then, Big Man?”
“Just about,” Dream answers, opening his inventory with a swipe of his hands. “We don’t exactly have enough materials for a trip. Or enough food to last us longer than a week at most. Right Bad?”
“Yep,” Bad replies with a thoughtful hum. “We have the armor from the villagers, but that’s all we have for protection. And taking into account the number of lives we might be limited to, we can’t afford to be careless anymore.”
Tommy winces slightly at the mention, watching the other two; George and Sapnap, clench their fists a little tighter, faces going carefully blank. In that moment, realization hit’s him like a truck. They others continue talking but suddenly Tommy is drowning in a sea of thoughts and hard truths. Because he realizes that as soon as Dream- Bitch Dream realizes that Tommy is gone, that he’ll be chasing after him in a heartbeat.
Bitch Dream, in all his netherite and overpowering weapons will eventually catch up to him because he always does, and he always finds a way. But that also means putting these four- Dream, George, Bad and Sapnap- in the crossfire. They haven’t had to learn the hard way yet, what dying in a server like this does to you, and he fears the day they might have to.
But they’re genuinely nice, something that so few people are now. More importantly, they’re nice to Tommy, and the only other kindness he’s known in the past months is from a dead man’s wandering soul. They deserve to know, don’t they?
But Tommy is selfish. He desperately, selfishly wants to cling to this kindness that contradicts the servers’ ways. He wants to be a part of their close-knit group.
“There’s- um. There’s something else you should know,” Tommy starts, before he can back out. They deserve to know; they deserve to know. He repeats it in his head, like that’ll calm the storm that his mind has become.
He thinks he might drown sooner in the guilt if he didn’t.
He can feel their stares, however gentle, bore into the back of his lowered head. “Dream- the other Dream. He- once he knows I’m gone, he’ll. He’ll chase after me. And that means he’ll chase after you. He’ll… He’ll kill you, you know?”
It’s silent, and the silence is terrifying. Tommy wonders when he’d gotten so used to the banter. It’s only been a few hours since he’d met them. Still, he wonders if he’ll have to familiarize himself to the silence again.
There’s a hand in his head, ruffling his golden locks as if petting a dog, and Tommy startles himself upright. There’s a gentle smile on the still unfamiliar face, a warmth coming from the calloused hands still stroking Tommy’s hair and his heart settles a bit. He takes a moment to stare at the cropped green hoodie to breathe.
“We thought about that already, and we’re willing to face the consequences.” Tommy glances up into green eyes, then beside him where the other three stand a few feet away. It’s reminiscent of the scene from this morning, but the friends have locked hands, and in Dream’s he holds Tommy. “We’re not gonna leave you behind. You’re a part of the team.”
“Oh,” is all Tommy can manage. He swallows thickly. “Okay.”
The hand lingers for a little longer, before retreating and Tommy nearly asks for more before deciding he should retain whatever dignity he had left. He fixes his hair with an amused huff.
“We do actually need to get going soon though,” George says, releasing his hands from Dream and Bad to swipe a hand over air, materializing his inventory. “We’ll have enough food to last us all a few days at least, and we can always get more on the way.”
“George might be an idiot, but he’s right,” Sapnap agrees, ignoring George’s (very sharp) elbow in his gut. “Let’s go guys- and we have to get you and the gremlin some armor and weapons sooner or later.” He nods towards Dream before focusing on Tommy’s weapon, still strapped to his hip. “That sword isn’t gonna last either.”
“Then let’s head out boys.”
“Wait up child!”
“I’m NOT A CHILD. I’m a BIG MAN!”
Calloused fingers run through his hair once, and Tommy can’t help but grin up at the unfamiliar familiar man, ignoring the mask still strapped to the right of him and starts running ahead. He can hear four pairs of footsteps running behind him, Bad calling out for all of them to “SLOW DOWN YOU GUYS”. But for the first time in ages, Tommy dares to think that he feels a little free.
Tommy chops down a few trees as he reminisces over the past few hours they had spent running and chasing and killing a few cows and pigs. For the short amount of time he’d spent together with these four, Tommy thinks he’s learned more about them than they had about him. At the very least, he think’s he’s got their strange friend dynamic figured out.
Sapnap, despite his fierce personality, strength and personality, is a fun guy to hang out with. He has some helpful tricks and doesn’t hesitate to join Tommy in annoying Bad and George with long running commentary. They have a mutual love of pushing people’s buttons and they acknowledged it properly with a handshake not even ten minutes after the initial chase. It’s great.
Bad is like the father figure among the group- Tommy figured it out within the first hour. Whenever fights would break out, they immediately go complaining to Bad. I mean, can you imagine? Three grown ass adults bickering and whining to another man, not that much older than them while the actual not-adult (he’s still not a fucking child thank you very much) laughs at them.
George, ignoring the initial quietness that followed the sudden understanding of possible death, is loud, sassy, and quite frankly, a child. Like, the man can obviously be serious when he needs to be, but Tommy also saw this man scream near inhumanely after goading Dream into chasing him.
And of course, there’s Dream himself.
He tosses the stone axe into his inventory along with half stack of logs. The man in question is a few trees away, axe disappearing from his hands and, presumably, into his own inventory. The mask is still stuck to his hip, fingers brushing over it, but Tommy focuses on the face that he’s slowly becoming accustomed to seeing.
Dream is still terrifying. The amount of knowledge that he can store in his dirty blonde locks is amazing to see come into play, especially with all these little tricks he’d apparently picked up from other people in a previous world. (Tommy still can’t wrap his mind around servers and worlds where death isn’t-)
Dream’s parkour is also next to none. Tommy doesn’t think even Technoblade could catch him if Dream was trying, watching as he bounces from tree to tree. Tommy even convinces Dream to teach him too, and follows behind him, bouncing on sturdy branches. It’s exhilarating, and he can easily see why Dream loved this so much.
But- and Tommy is a big man so he would never admit this, but Dream is a comfort. The way his fingers would occasionally find themselves in Tommy’s hair, leaving him feeling slightly warmer is comforting. The way he wheezes at all their stupid jokes is comforting. Dream as a person is just… warm.
Tommy doesn’t exactly want to put a solid label to this tentative almost, not quite friendship, but Dream is just a very comforting person. He can’t help but wonder if this is how brothers are supposed to act. He locks that thought away.
“You’re thinking too hard.” Tommy startles, turning around to come face to face with George who quickly flicks him between the brows. He glances behind him and realizes that he must have been in a daze if Dream walked off without him noticing. “We’re about to have a group talk. Stop looking constipated and let’s go.”
Tommy tests his luck by slapping the British man as revenge for the flick and chases after Dream, who’s slowly making his way towards Bad and Sapnap, head still in his inventory.
“Wait up Big Man!” Dream slows down, allowing Tommy to catch up and use him as a shield against George. Dream just laughs and ruffles his hair quickly before Sapnap and Bad join their little group only moments later, coming together in a disfigured circle.
“So, do any of us know where were actually going?” Sapnap starts off with a raised brow. “We don’t have a map and we left after saying ‘yeah, we have enough to survive’.”
“Well, uh. No.”
“Wow, Dream. Really helpful. Splendid, wonderful,” George drawls sarcastically, and earns a punch in the arm for his theatrics. Before things could get out of hand though, Tommy interrupts with a very firm clearing of his throat.
“We’re going the opposite way of… of L’Manberg.”
“L’Manberg?” Bad questions innocently. Tommy flinches.
“It’s my- the um. The place I was exiled from. All your evil twins live around there, including Bitch Dream… probably.” Tommy makes a face before laughing slightly. “Actually, I’m not sure if he even has a house to be honest with you fellas.”
A hand finds it’s way to his hair and Tommy allows the strokes to drain the sudden tension in his shoulders. The laughs are better than the memories of explosions and war and exile. Infinitely better.
“If we go out far enough, there’s a chance that we go far out enough that people won’t know where to look,” Bad suggests, letting the somber mood melt away. “It might not be a permanent solution, but we can settle down after a while and think of something better.”
“How far are we talking about? Actually,” Sapnap nudges Tommy slightly, and Dream releases Tommy from the comforts of his head rubs. He’s tempted to complain, but he does need the focus. “How far do you think we should go?” How far until you feel safe? The unasked question that lingered.
“I would say forever, but” Tommy hesitates. “Maybe like a week’s worth of travel? Or farther until we find decent land. That’s how it works, right?” The four nod at one another. There isn’t anything wrong with the plan. It’s a decent start compared to the flimsy barely though-out plan they’d taken off with.
“Alright you little gremlin,” George hands Tommy an iron axe, and he takes it, a tad bit cautious. “But you’re in charge of killing more cows and pigs. Dream can help you since he doesn’t know anything about collecting resources or building houses.” Tommy thinks he hears something that sounds suspiciously like “once a speedrunner, always a speedrunner” under George’s breath and chuckles to himself.
“The rest of us will take whatever else we need on the way then,” Bad nods along happily. “We should also kill a few sheep and make a few more beds for when we need them.”
“A new shit-shack each night! Wooooo!”
“Wh- Sapnap, you muffin! We’re absolutely not calling it-“
“Why not? I happen to think it’s a wonderful name. Shit-shack.”
“Tommy! Stop that you muffin!”
“You know, what does muffin even mean? C’mon Bad; what does muffin mean?”
“Oh my god, Bad. Are you cursing us out every time you call us… muffin.”
A slap was delivered squarely to the back of Dream’s bun and George’s head. Bad sighed, though he couldn’t stop his lips from twitching upwards.
“Let’s go you muffin heads.” Bad starts dragging the two by their wrists, and neither resists all that much. “The suns going to set soon, and we need to cover as much ground as we can before the mobs start spawning in.”
Sapnap and Tommy trail behind the trio, snickering to themselves at the misfortune Dream and George had gotten themselves into. Sapnap ruffles blonde locks with a snicker.
“You’ll be alright Tommy.”
For a moment, he lets himself bask in the banter between Dream, George and Bad while Sapnap threw in a few quips from Tommy’s side. And he thinks, yeah. Maybe he will be alright.