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tommy knows his hands are shaking, but he pays it no mind. it’s been a long time since they haven’t shook. he wraps his arms around himself in a pitiful attempt at soothing himself as he stands on the obsidian grid that brought the destruction of his home. ruins lay all around him, smoke and ash have settled into his lungs. the feeling shouldn’t be as familiar as it is.
someone places a hand on his shoulder, and he doesn’t need to look to know who it is. “hi dream.” he meant for the words to be bitter but they came out choked up like he’s about to sob.
“you know i had to do this, tommy.” anger coils in his gut at the sentence. he turns and glares at dream.
“did you really? did you need to destroy l’manburg?”
“you wouldn’t have learned otherwise.” he takes his hand off tommy’s shoulder. “toms, listen,” the use of the nickname only upsets tommy further, “i’m doing this because i care about you. you need to learn that there are consequences for your actions.” and then dream wraps his arms around tommy, pulls him into a hug, and presses tommy's face into his chest. tommy hates that he finds some comfort in it.
“i’m going to take you away from here, alright? i’ll take you somewhere safe where it can be just us. you won’t have to worry about hurting everybody any more than you already have.” the anger tommy felt moments before has completely fizzled out, replaced by a pit of self-hatred. “i’m your only friend tommy, you need to remember that. nobody else wants you around. it’ll be better for everyone if you go.”
tommy gives a whine from high in his throat, trying to hide his face further into dream’s chest, the cool feeling of his netherite chestplate providing something to ground him. he hates that dream can still manipulate him so easily, and he hates it even more that he’s letting it happen. dream coos at the motion, running one of his hands through tommy’s hair. “i don’t wanna go, dream. i wanna stay with tubbo,” he says softly, clearly on the verge of tears, but the man only laughs.
“i know you do, but it’d be selfish of you to stay when we both know you’re only going to hurt him.” dream pulls out an ender pearl, set on leaving the scene, but before he can get the chance there’s a shout from beside him.
“get your filthy fucking hands off him!” dream turns and sees quackity, holding a sword he has pointed towards him. a glance to his other side shows tubbo, expression twisted in worry, holding a loaded crossbow which is also aimed at him. the masked man smirks, looking between the two of them and casually tossing the ender pearl up and down in his palm. the air is tense.
tommy raises his head and looks over at tubbo, his eyes red and watery. “t-tubbo? why are you…?” he doesn’t finish his question but they all know what he means. tubbo opens his mouth to speak but dream beats him to it.
“don’t listen to him, tommy. he’s not your friend, you know that. he’s only going to lie to you.” tommy’s face crumples at his words and he promptly turns back into dream’s chest.
“i wanna go home,” he whispers, words muffled and shaky. dream looks between tubbo and quackity, oozing smugness as he does. he gives a quick mock salute before stepping off the edge of the grid, tommy in tow, ignoring the cries of the people around them as he chucks an ender pearl far off in the distance. he doesn’t miss the telltale sound of an arrow shooting past him before they teleport, but there isn’t enough time to reload the crossbow before he and tommy are standing on hard ground again.
the boy’s legs are trembling, partially from nerves and partially because he isn’t used to the nausea that comes with teleporting. dream lets out a sigh, taking a moment to rub tommy’s back. they really need to get going, they aren’t quite out of l’manburg (or, what’s left of l’manburg) yet, and dream would really like to get away without having to fight anybody. but he knows not comforting tommy at all won’t end well, so he can take a few minutes to get him calmed if it means things will go easier.
“it’s okay tommy, you’re okay. i’m gonna keep you safe, alright? just hold onto me, i’ll take you somewhere far away from here.” tommy lets out a sob and dream chooses to ignore it. “you won’t hurt anybody anymore, it’ll just be me, and you.”