Archive of Our Own

As long as you have worked at least a little in any kind of retail job, you would know that Mondays are slow as all fuck.

Dream, the literal owner of the store, knew this more than anybody. The most entertainment he and his workers get on the first workday of the week is if he planned for a shipment to come in and they needed to unload it. But the fact that he plans for Mondays on purpose because he knew his friends wouldn’t be too busy with their normal jobs says… a lot.

Sighing and dumping the dust he just brushed up into a trash bin, he twirled the broom like a knock-off lightsaber before going to put it back in the register stall he found it in. He clicked it into the built-in holder and made it all of five feet away before a voice called out to him.

“Dream!” a very British voice yelled. “Those kids in the denim section were back again!”

Dream simply tilted his head back and groaned, not even needing to turn to look at his long-time best friend. He grinned at what he was about to say next, “At this point, I just say wack ‘em with a stick. If they won’t listen to your super-scary threats about calling 999 then more disciplinary actions will need to be taken.”

Dream suddenly felt a light bonk on the back of his head due to a clipboard. He flinched away while rubbing it to look George in the eyes, who was mildly annoyed but now also smiling, “Hey, that’s not fair! I had just gotten back from my family reunion that week, I needed a second to adjust to your dumb American ways.”

Dream scoffed before playfully smacking his shoulder, “Sure thing, dirty foreigner.”

George gasped and dramatically placed a hand against his own chest, “Well, if having a ‘dirty foreigner’ in your presence is such a bad thing, then maybe I just won’t tell you how I’ve finally gotten them to stop being annoying.”

Before George could walk away, he felt a pair of desperate arms wrap around his waist and a face shove itself into his back, semi-pathetic whining being emitted from said face, “Noooooooo, Georgie I’m soooorryyyyy.”

Rolling his eyes and shoving the arms off of him as if they were the waistline of a pair of pants, George turned around to playfully glare at his friend’s pleading eyes, “I’ll only accept your apologies if you finally promise to take me to that fancy restaurant that opened recently, Dre.” George then mischievously gasped, “Wait, you took Sap there first. Consider this your punishment.”

Dream pouted and crossed his arms like a small child as he watched George walk away, cackling like a madman. Shaking his head, Dream heard the ding of the automatic sliding door opening and turned around while blinking so his eyes were closed. His Store Owner Grin was displayed visibly on his face, “Hello! Welcome to-”

The sound of a gun cocking made Dream pale considerably. He rapidly opened his eyes to be met with the sight of a man clad in black. A customer screamed, alerting those around them to see the commotion and to start panicking as well. Dream felt an odd sense of pride watching his workers at the registers move to help direct them away from the danger out of the corner of his eye while the robber’s attention was solely on him.

So much for today being slow.

The man’s glare was noticeable behind his ski mask, “I think you know the drill.”

Dream shot his hands up, holding them next to his head, and swallowed his spit to clear his throat. He was subconsciously inching closer to the man as he spoke, making sure to keep up the general idea of the robber’s attention not being on the fleeing customers and workers, “Hey, listen, I don’t want any trouble here-”

“Good, neither do I,” the man grunted out. The pistol in his hand flicked a little bit to prove a point, “So hurry up with the dough before I make some myself.”

Dream flinched, freezing in his spot. He knew logically there was a small chance for this to happen, being a store owner and all, but no amount of training or preparation could make you ready for the real thing, “Um-”

A crash sounded out next to them, making the two men turn their heads. They both noticed an old woman on the ground, her walking cane skewed weirdly because of the angle she fell. She must have been rushing faster than she could handle and tripped because of it. The robber scoffed and moved his gun to aim at her, “If you need some incentive to know I’m not playing around.”

Dream felt his head split in two from the panic alone.

“Wait!” a voice suddenly called out, and Dream didn’t need to wonder too hard who it belonged to when he saw George jump in front of the old lady.

Motherfucking idiot- Before he could stop himself, Dream was inching closer and closer to the robber even faster as he watched George help the elderly woman stand and gently push her in a direction to get away. The British man turned around to glare at the robber with an expression that could only be described as zero fear, “What is wrong with you?”

Dream was going to have a stroke. The robber simply raised an eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

George looked like he was five seconds from losing it, “First you try and rob a store, and then you decide an elderly woman is good fodder in completing that action! People like you are a special kind of sick.”

The man’s glare only got more unamused, “I mean, she’s not the only one I could use here.”

He flicked the gun back up to aim directly at George’s face, and the flinch he made while his eyes got slightly more fearful made something in Dream break.

“NO!” Dream shouted before leaping forward. A loud bang reverberated throughout the building right as Dream collided with the man. The two went tumbling with Dream on top, the gun skittering far out of the robber’s grasp. Dream’s mind was filled with anger, rage, fear, panic, confusion, and just about every other negative emotion under the sun, so no one could blame him for getting a nice punch in on the robber’s face.

Or another one. Or a few more. He maybe did it like ten to fifteen times, who was counting anyway?

His knuckles were sore when he was done, and his breathing was labored. He wasn’t fully aware of everything the past event entailed until a panicked George screamed.

“Dream!”

The blond man rapidly turned around to look at his panicked friend and- oh, oh God.

That was a lot of blood that coated his friend’s arms and shirt and the now red and pink tiled floor around him. Shit shit shit, Dream knew the gun went off but he hoped it would miss-

Dream blinked, the white haze from his vision slowly dissipating to let him realize that George was relatively fine. Pale as a sheet and looked like he was about to pass out, but physically, he didn’t seem to have any problems.

The 16-year-old blond still as a rock he was cradling in his arms, red hoodie even redder because of the brand new injury in his abdomen, wasn’t faring quite as well.

If there was any equivalent to experiencing literal cardiac arrest, Dream would think the thump that ran through his chest at that moment would be pretty similar. The fuck did Tommy come from? He was working on the very opposite of the store today!

Jumping off the incapacitated robber, Dream ran over to the two brits, sliding on his knees (ignoring the way they got stained in the kid’s blood as well) and stripping off his hoodie. Dream and George were in sync because when the store owner brought the hoodie down to press it against Tommy’s wound, George reached out to grab it and push it as well.

Dream let George focus on that (ignoring the way the kid whined in pain when George started applying the slightest amount of pressure) and got up, running back to the register bay to pick up the phone. The damn thing kept trying to slip out of his pink stained fingers, but once he got a decent grip on the object, Dream dialed 911, electing to listen to the ringing noise filling his ear and not the way George pleaded Tommy to stay awake, help is on the way, just keep your eyes open kid-

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Dream was one and a half seconds away from sobbing, “My store! It- it was an attempted robbery. The perpetrator has been taken down but- but I have a kid here, he’s hurt- he was shot and I don’t- I just-”

“Okay, sir, can you talk a deep breath for me?” the lady asked gently. Dream wasn’t sure how he was able to listen but he did, continuing to do so as the dispatcher questioned him again, “Can you describe the injury?”

Dream was vaguely aware he was smearing some blood on his forehead as he placed his hand on it in an attempt at grounding himself, “A-Abdomen, bleeding badly. My friend has- I gave him my hoodie and he’s applying pressure but there’s still so much blood-”

“Don’t worry, sir, just hand me an address and we’ll send our men over as fast as possible,” God how was Dream so lucky to get one of the unflappable receivers he’s ever had? Not even the one that he called and drunkenly cried to after he watched George even-more-drunkenly crack his head open at a party was this nice to him, and that one was really fucking nice. He shakily rattled off the store’s address to her, and she asked him to stay on the line until they reached him.

It was less than ten minutes, but it felt like ten years before sirens sounded from outside. Dream could no longer lie, tears were streaming down his face as he watched police come in to pick up the still-unconscious robber, others went to go comfort shoppers hiding away in spots or just stuck in their spots due to fear. Dream only picked up on how much he was white-knuckling the phone still in his hand when a paramedic came up to him and plainly stated, “You mentioned there was an injured?”

Dream blinked. Feeling bad as he hung up the phone, he pointed at George still kneeling on the ground, not looking out of fear of what he would see, “T-There. The kid in his arms is the one who was shot.”

The paramedic nodded, turning around to inform his coworkers what to grab and what to do. Dream felt as if the world was starting to become undone from under him. He swayed on his feet, missing that same paramedic saying “Liam get him a shock blanket” and almost proceeded to fall over, but before he could also end up on a stretcher, something warm and comforting was thrown around his shoulders and a voice spoke to him.

“Let’s get you down to the floor, sir, there we go, head between your knees for me, that’s it,” the voice continued to drone on as if it were a siren. Dream felt like the voice wouldn’t need to do much to get him to do anything. It took about a minute, but eventually, Dream felt the world feel solid beneath him again and his breathing go back down to a normal level. He brought his head up to look into Liam’s eyes and-

They were blue.

Liam had bright, blue eyes with a thick mop of curly blond hair adorning his head. He looked just like Tommy, albeit a little older. Dream wasn’t panicking again, but if there was anything that could make him cry harder than he was before he wasn’t expecting it to be that.

Liam just stayed kneeling to Dream as the store-owner let his emotions out, rubbing his shoulder and back in a professional manner, “It’s okay, let it out. It’s going to be alright, sir, you did everything just right.”

Dream got slightly choked up at that, though from anger at himself or laughter because of the irony he wasn’t sure. ‘Did everything right’ his ass, if Dream did everything right his youngest worker wouldn’t be bleeding out in George’s arms! The fact that the person God forced to console Dream after his fuck-up was a guy that looked like Tommy was the cherry on top of the shit pie.

“Dream!” George yelled once Dream felt strong enough to stand. Dream looked up at his friend, who looked determined, “They need someone to go with Tommy in the ambulance, I’m-”

“Yeah, yeah, you go, I need to finish up here and- and get everyone home,” Dream sighed, using the shock blanket to wipe some of his tears away. “I’ll come later with some clothes for you. I’ll see if I can contact Tommy’s parents as well.”

With nothing else needing to be said, George nodded and followed the paramedics outside. Dream looked over at Liam to give the guy you can go back to your more important job look and went to find some police to give a statement. He made sure it was brief, and the cops listening must have seen his urgency to want to check up on the store and let it be so.

It’s not like anyone with two working eyes could see what happened anyway.

Dream went back into the breakroom to see his gaggle of workers and a handful of customers as well. His workers were spread around the room, all holding different sized objects and staring at the door, the customers crouching behind the tables and chairs in a protective circle. Dream grinned at the sight. At least he could count on the people he hired to be on top of things.

Dream stepped out of the way of the door and plainly said, “The robber has been apprehended. You all can head home.”

The customers took no hesitation at getting out of the room and leaving the store. Dream turned back to his workers all expectedly looking at him, holding their breaths as to what he would say. Dream let out another sigh, “I hate to ask more of you all, but can you help the professionals with everything and- and closing up? I have to… there are other things I need to go take care of.”

Purpled walked forward and stopped in front of Dream, seemingly unsure if he should act tough like he usually does or drop it for once because of the seriousness. Sam and Niki, the other two, were a little bit behind Purpled with expressions that radiated nothing but concern.

Dream realized he not only was wearing a shock blanket but also had blood all over him. He owed it to them to give at least a little context, “Tommy got shot-” he stopped momentarily over their gasps. “... Tommy was shot and George went with him to the hospital. I told him I would come after I finished up here so-”

He was again cut off, but this time it was solely because of Purpled jumping forward and wrapping him in a quick embrace. Dream looked down at the teen with a forlorn smile, careful to position himself so the teen wasn’t getting any blood on him. Just like that, the hug was done and Purpled walked out of the room, most likely to help close everything. Niki placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a sad smile while Sam gave his hair a ruffle before the two of them left the room just like Purpled, probably on their way to help out however they can.

Dream felt pressure build up behind his eyes again and decided to push his wrists into them in response. This was such a mess.

Dream made a few calls, let those who weren’t working know not to come in tomorrow, and called families of workers to also tell them that the worker related to them was okay and unscathed. That is until he reached Tommy’s parents. He was dreading the call, worried he would be strung up against the wall multiple times (which could be considered to be deserved, he knew), but the first time he dialed the number, it rang through.

Pulling the phone away from his ear, Dream blinked at the device before bringing it back and trying again. Just like last time, Tommy’s Mother’s voice came through, this is the household of Mrs. and Mr. Baker and so on and so forth. Dream didn’t have all day to be sitting in his office and waiting for one person to pick up, so on his way home he tried a few more times.

And each time it rang. All. The. Way. Through.

Once he reached his flat he elected to leave a voicemail, I’m terribly sorry to inform you and other mindless drabbles that Dream’s exhausted brain could spit out. He almost ended up showering in the dark, not wanting to see how some of the water would become visibly pink, but last time when he was dared to something like that he slipped and broke his tailbone (yes, Sap, he broke his ass), and the voice in the back of his head reminded him they didn’t need another person in a hospital gown.

His eyes were suspiciously closed throughout most of the experience, but only he and his reflection in the mirror needed to know that.

Remembering to grab a spare set of George’s clothes (George, Quackity, Karl, and Sap tended to stay over enough that having a stockpile wasn’t a bad idea for each of them) before he went back out into his car, Dream prepared himself for whatever he would witness at the hospital. George texted him where the ambulance was heading as soon as he knew, so all Dream had to do was pull up their DMs and put in the address for the place in Maps.

For some reason, Dream felt that he wouldn’t be prepared enough no matter what.

---

Dream waddled into the hospital lobby only to be surprised immediately.

Sitting in a chair in the corner was George, still stained slightly red with his head in his hands. Standing above him was a disheveled Sapnap in his neon pink sleep pants, clearly not showered or any kind of prepared to be in public. The American was rubbing comforting circles into his British friend’s back, and Dream could only hear mumbles of what he was saying, not able to read his lips purely because he wasn’t facing the entrance.

Dream took one more step forward, which was enough to catch Sap’s attention. The younger man turned rapidly around to reveal slight eye bags adorning his cheeks, “Dream! Holy shit, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

George was looking up from his seat with an expression between guilt and bewilderment. Dream simply walked over to him to hand the clothing over, “Here, see if the place will let you clean up.”

George visibly swallowed the spit in his mouth before nodding and taking the clothes to do just that. The two Americans watched as he asked the front desk where to go before walking off in the direction the desk lady pointed. Dream sighed and rubbed his neck, his mind about to go off on another tangent before Sapnap cleared his throat to catch Dream’s attention. He looked over at his friend to see his arms open in invitation.

Dream hesitated for all of one second. He soon collapsed in Sap’s arms and white-knuckled the back of his shirt, desperately keeping what tears that wanted to fall out at bay. The two friends stood there for a solid minute in silence for the sole reason of not needing to say anything. They did need to talk a little eventually, so Dream did let go to stand up at his full height and use one of his hands to wipe at his (totally not) tears, “It’s your day off, how did you know to come here?”

Sapnap grimaced, “I woke up from my third nap to turn on the TV for a little bit only to see the breaking news. Kind of a wake-up call when your best buddy’s store is being robbed. Called George since he usually answers phone calls on his shift no matter what only to hear him sobbing his eyes out in the back of an ambulance. Jesus, it was already bad enough but to hear Tommy got the short end of the stick…”

Dream flinched the utmost tiny amount at Sapnap’s proclamation. George must have told him what happened and why he was on the way to the hospital; told him of Dream’s spectacular failure-

“Stop it,” Sapnap demanded.

Dream blinked, “Wha-”

Sap rolled his eyes, “People in Canada can probably hear your loud as fuck thoughts. Do you seriously think this is in any way your fault? Did you tell Tommy to jump in the way of a freaking gun? And, not to diminish the kid’s heroics, but even he had to understand that in the long run, it was going to be pretty dumb.”

Dream crossed his arms like a petulant toddler, words quiet in weak argument, “It’s my store, Sappitus, what happens under its roof is indirectly my responsibility.”

Sapnap glared at Dream like an overbearing mother.

Dream looked away and blushed indignantly.

Immovable Object meets Unstoppable Force.

Awesome.

Footsteps squeaked against the tiles behind them, causing them to both turn around. George was back in his new set of clothes, stretching his arms over his head in an attempt to get the knots in his back out. Sitting in a scrunched ambulance only to be dumped into a plastic hospital chair probably did wonders for his spine, now that Dream thought about it.

Cool. Another thing to apologize for.

Sapnap suddenly pinched Dream’s ear and yanked, and before Dream could get out a ‘what the hell’, Sapnap sighed and smiled at a very confused George, “I need to go piss. Do you mind telling me where you went before my bladder explodes?”

George blinked before pointing, “Um, it’s down that hall and to the left?”

Sapnap nodded and let go of Dream, “Great, you two fuckers talk it out before I get back. If either of you is being self-flagellating when I’m done I’m stealing your hoodies again.”

Dream and George watched in slightly fearful awe as Sapnap saluted with two fingers and began walking toward the place George told him to go.

The Brit was still staring in the direction of the wall Sapnap disappeared behind when he spoke, “I didn’t realize he knew what that word meant.”

Dream nodded. No kidding.

The two stood there awkwardly before sighing simultaneously and going back to the chairs to sit down, subconsciously refusing to look at one another. Dream idly scratched the uncomfy plastic armrests while George twiddled his thumbs, not looking up from the floor. The two men were at a standstill, their swirling emotions a mixture of guilt over something they think they did as well as guilt over the fact the other felt guilt for it too.

Like a mirror, they both took a deep inhale and spoke at the same, “I’m sorry!”

They leaned back away from one another in shock, clearly confused as to why the other apologized to them. Dream was the first to blink, “Um, what are-”

“I thought I could play hero, you know?” George was already on top of it. The Brit leaned forward to rub his eyes in exhaustion, “I saw you and other customers and panicked. I wanted to make sure you didn’t get obliterated or anything, but in doing so I just got a much more younger person in trouble. Dammit-”

Oh, so that explained why George was acting rather uncharacteristic during the robbery. He was getting the man’s attention, not fully aware of how serious it was. That was fair. How often is it implied that robbers don’t actually go through with shooting someone in the middle of the action? George probably thought Dream would (reasonably) cave in two seconds and instead not only tried preventing them from losing money but also saving his best friend from getting shot.

Dream can’t let him feel guilt for that of all things, “Hey, I don’t think anyone there was exactly thinking with the most rational minds. The dude had a gun and was threatening to use it very quickly. I don’t blame you for wanting to keep innocents and your friends safe.”

George wasn’t done talking. He completely steamrolled Dream’s advice, “You were handling it much better. If I just let you let him take the money no one would now be in the hospital and you wouldn’t feel guilty about it-”

“George,” Dream spoke, shutting his friend up. He took a deep breath once the Brit was looking at him, “I think Sapnap might be right for once. We need to take a chill pill and look at the whole picture. That man had a hair-trigger of a temper and didn’t hesitate to see my panic as refusal to comply. As dark as it is, I gotta feeling somebody was going to get shot throughout that entire ordeal. Whether it would be me or that old lady or you, there was a very large chance of the gun going off and it nailing someone.”

Leave it to Dream’s friends’ drowning sense of guilt to snap him out of his own, at least temporarily. George visibly struggled to comprehend his friend’s words of reassurance, “But why Tommy of all people, Dream? Where did he come from?”

Dream tensed in metaphorical pain, “I don’t know. I told him to work on counting inventory for today in a section far away from the front of the store. He must have seen people panicking and running away and came up to check on the situation. I don’t know what in his training made him think playing the hero was the right thing to do, but-”

“Then why are you blaming yourself instead?” George calmly asked. Dream felt a record scratch sound in his brain. Leave it to George to see right through him, continuing to do so as the older man started up again, “You just said I shouldn’t feel bad because it was inevitable, so why doesn’t that apply to you? ‘His training’? I know you, that’s swinging back around to say ‘I didn’t prepare him enough’ so why Dream?”

Dream blinked before looking at the floor in contemplation, thinking over his response carefully, “I know in my head it’s not my fault, but...”

“Your heart tends to think too loudly for you, doesn’t it?” George finished for him.

Dream nodded, not ready to hear how his voice would sound. He saw George move in his peripheral, and when he fully looked at his friend he saw him with his arms open for a hug. Wasting only half a second, Dream eventually leaned forward into George’s embrace, reveling in its much more soft approach.

Sapnap’s felt like he would burn down the world for Dream. George’s felt like he would shield him from that destruction for as long as it took. They sat there for a good minute before breaking apart, George leaving his hands on Dream’s shoulders in a comforting way. It took a second, but eventually Dream looked up into George’s eyes, which were filled with nothing but fondness.

“I’ll try to rid my guilt if you try to rid yours?” George suggested, taking his hands away when he finished asking.

Dream sat in silence for a second, “Sure, why not.”

Sapnap suddenly appeared clapping, making Dream and George jolt their heads to look at him as he walked over and plopped down in a chair next to Dream, “Wonderful! Now you remember how nice it is to not have your heads up your asses!”

Fucking Sappitus. His pillow is being filled with whip cream at some point in the near future, Dream could feel it. He only hoped he could beat George to completing the action first.

It was about an hour of lounging around before someone came out and yelled “Thomas Baker?”

The Dream Team responded immediately by standing up and running to her as quickly but politely as they could in a public setting. They stood next to her patiently, twiddling their thumbs as they waited for her to say another thing for them to go off of.

The nurse was scribbling something very rapidly, not looking up at the men in front of her, “Alrighty then. Unfortunately, only family are allowed to see the patient, so if you don’t mind telling me how you all are related to him?”

“Cousins,” George rushed out.

“Brothers!” Sap spoke at the same time with a slightly louder volume.

“Uncles?” Dream squeaked beneath them both.

The nurse cocked an eyebrow at them, and their simultaneous pained expressions probably didn’t help in the slightest.

Dream sighed, understanding where she was coming from but was still too tired to not be annoyed about it, “Listen, I know no matter what we say you won’t believe us, but I tried contacting the kid’s parents and they never picked up. They haven’t even returned a voicemail. If you really can’t sneak us in, then we can wait, but we know Tommy. He hates hospitals, like, has-nightmares-about-them hates them. It’ll make things a lot easier for everyone if a familiar face is there with him when he wakes up.”

That, combined with how George and Sapnap gave their biggest puppy dog eyes the entire time Dream spoke, made the nurse concede. She let out an elongated breath before scribbling a few last things on her board, “Brothers it is. Come on, I’ll take you to his room.”

The men let out a collective sigh and followed the nurse. They eventually reached room 213 and went inside, and, man, they knew getting shot made you not look the greatest but the way Tommy was as pale as the bedsheets swaddling him still hurt.

The conscious men all rubbed their necks nervously, not sure if they had fully taken in what just happened. They all eventually laid themselves around the room, simply waiting for the kid to show more signs of life outside the heart monitor and lethargic breathing. It was… unnerving, and Dream had to heavily focus on his Flappy Bird knockoff before he had another panic attack about it.

Eventually, George and Sapnap left as a break of sorts. George went to Dream’s place to feed Patches while Sap went back to his place to feed his own pets. They all somberly waved goodbye, making Dream promise to not let anything get to his head too much. The store owner only promised as much as he could, and he was briefly saved from his thoughts momentarily when his phone started vibrating.

When he noticed the caller ID, he had to sit for a moment and wonder why this person was calling him. Surely news like this doesn’t reach France, right? Especially not people on vacation? Dream answered the call, “Techno, is everything okay?”

The twin-aged man hummed, Dream immediately feeling like he was being scorned by the Gods above, “Well, I’m not sure, does it seem like Tommy is okay?

Dream felt the floor beneath him fall apart. His words were mere whispers, “You- You know about that?”

It sounded like Techno was about to say something else, but that was before a much more accented voice sounded out from somewhere in the room Techno was in. The voice was saying stuff like Jesus Christ and don’t give the man a hernia as well as give the damn phone to me followed by scuffling noises, finished off by Techno grunting in annoyance and that other voice being much louder, “Dream? You there mate?”

Dream felt something warm flood his chest, “Philza, holy shit, it’s nice to hear your voice.”

Philza let out a few short laughs, “I’m glad to be of help. We heard what happened. Ignore Techno, he’s as frazzled as Wilbur but can’t let it show because of course, he can’t.”

Dream felt a few tears form in his eyes as he wetly chuckled to Techno’s muffled objections, “Yeah, sounds like him. But how does he know, or you know, or fuck, Wilbur for that matter?”

Phil tsked, recalling the memories of when he first woke up, “Well, you know Wil at this point. He’s been checking at least every other day on what’s been happening over there. When the local news mentions a store robbery it was bad enough, but scrolling down into the comments to see multiple people talking about a teenage boy getting ‘ripped to shreds’ the last thing he would do is take it well.”

Dream sucked in air through his teeth. That would have been a wonderful sight to see, “Well, there’s more than one teenager that works at my store, why did he jump to Tommy immediately?

Techno spoke up, cutting off Phil’s explanation, “Wilbur told me his thought process in great detail. More than one comment mentioned the kid being blond, so Tubbo was out. Ranboo is visiting family in Kentucky, so unless he teleported like an Enderman he couldn’t have been at the store at all, and Purpled-”

“Would more likely be the one with the gun?” Dream croaked out in an attempt at humor.

Philza abruptly laughed, putting Dream at ease. The older man cleared his throat before getting serious again, “Yeah, exactly, so we finally got him to calm down and take a nap after working himself up to the point of not being able to go back to sleep. I figured Techno and I should be the ones to call and receive the news directly before relaying it softer to him. We figured after something like that you’d not have the mental capacity to… do it yourself.”

Something inside Dream broke. Before he could help it, he choked out a sob and used his free hand to wipe at his eyes, “There was so much blood, Phil. I looked away to two seconds and when I looked back Tommy was basically dying and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

The line was silent for a few seconds, leaving Dream to sniffle out the rest of his untapped emotions from the day. Philza eventually cleared his throat again to grab the younger man’s attention, “I’m sorry, it’s probably not been very easy for you either.”

Dream laughed, leaning back in his chair, “Sure, cause I’m the one that got shot.”

“Just because you weren’t hurt physically doesn’t mean you weren’t hurt,” Techno pointed out. It was at this point Dream realized Phil probably put it on speaker.

Speaking of Phil, “Techno’s right, mate. I have to assume Tommy is in stable condition, since you haven’t mentioned him being dead or in danger, and I’ve heard an occasional beep or two coming from behind you. You’re in a hospital right next to the kid, right?”

Goddamn detective Philza Minecraft, what the hell. Dream glanced over at an unconscious Tommy and stared at him while talking, “Yeah, I called 911 as soon as I could. George rode in the ambulance while I closed everything up and called everyone who needed to be called. The surgery went smoothly, from what I can tell. Now I just gotta… wait, I guess.”

Philza hmmed, pride in his tone of voice, “You did everything just right, from what it sounds like. Give yourself a break, there’s only so much a person can do when a jackass decides it’s okay to point a gun at another fellow human being. It’s not like you’re throwing a party about the kid getting hurt, right? Take a deep breath and go slowly from there. Things are going to be okay.”

Dream opened his mouth as if he were going to keep the conversation going, but the way Tommy started moving in his bed, much like a person waking up would, Dream felt the words catch in his throat. He spoke as he continued staring at the squirming figure, quickly changing the tone of the conversation, “Phil, I gotta call you back later. Something came up.”

The younger man could somehow feel Philza slowly nod his head in response, “It’s alright, mate. We’re planning to get the quickest tickets out of here we can manage. We’ll easily be back in a few days. Tops.”

Dream felt himself clutching his armrest with his free hand, “Are you sure? It’s your vacation, I mean-”

“It’s also Tommy,” Techno gracefully interrupted. “We want to be there for him.”

Dream felt something uncontrollably turn cold in his chest at that, “R-Right, of course.”

“You’re doing a fantastic job watching over him, you and your buddies,” Philza said, reading Dream’s mind before it got further down that path of self-recrimination. “It’s just that Tommy is our family as much as yours. A few extra hands never hurt when getting help.”

That was Tommy’s cue to groan, showcasing he was fully waking up. Dream stood up, not really registering the word family just yet, “Yeah! Sounds good! I can pay you back for the ticket later, I-”

“You don’t need to do that either, Dream,” Philza soothed the blond. “Make sure Tommy is okay for us, then we can talk details in person. See you soon, Dream.”

Dream was going to say something similar, but when he heard the familiar blip of a phone being hung up, he simply shoved the device in his pocket and speed-walked to Tommy’s side, “Toms? How you feeling?”

It was a few tense seconds watching Tommy writhe in bed before he opened his eyes. Dream held his breath, waiting to see how Tommy would react. Dream was expecting just about anything, but not everything, so he had to jump a little when the kid shot up and yelled in panic, “George! Gun! He-”

“Woah, he’s okay, Tommy, he’s okay!” Dream calmed the startled kid. He placed his hands on Tommy’s shoulders like George did to him earlier to get him to sit back down, “Be careful, we don’t want anything to rip open again. George is fine, he’s at my place feeding Patches, and the robber is under arrest. Everyone is okay,” except for you went unsaid.

Tommy was still breathing a little heavily, so Dream let the boy take in the fact he was safe at his own pace. It was a few seconds of watching Tommy flick his eyes around the room, absorbing the fact that everything was over and that he could be at ease. He took a rather large deep breath, but then whined in pain when he realized he still had a hole in his stomach.

Dream was quick to press the ‘Call Nurse’ button before he focused back on Tommy, “Okay, more pain reliever, got it.”

Tommy nodded, “Yeah, sounds like a good idea to me t-too.”

Then the blonds were silent once again, unsure of what to say to each other. Even if they could figure something out, the nurse was already in their room and asking questions for the patient. Dream waited and watched, letting the kid answer what he could. Yes, he remembered his name and the date, yes, he remembered he was shot during a store robbery, no, he doesn’t remember what happened afterward, gee, he wondered why.

Dream knew he shouldn’t have, but he ended up snorting at the sarcastic retort anyway. The nurse, bless her heart, took it in stride, realizing that this was a high-stress situation, and let the kid have a moment or two. She pushed some buttons that upped his morphine before walking out of the room, “You should feel better pretty quickly with that. Feel free to let us know if you and your brother need anything else.”

Dream flinched, worried that Tommy would mention how they weren’t really brothers, but the kid simply nodded despite the nurse no longer looking at him. Dream looked back and forth between Tommy and the doorway before eventually landing on the boy, “Tommy, I have to ask before you fall back under, why did you… do that?”

Tommy raised an eyebrow like Dream was out of his mind, “Hmm? Do what?”

Dream felt very uncomfortable at the prospect of telling the 16-year-old what just happened to him. Again, “Well, you were shot because you got between a gun and George. Unless George yanked you to him and used you as a shield you had to have done that intentionally, so…?”

Tommy wiggled his shoulders to move further down the bed, laying more on his back than sitting up on his butt, “Well, Goggy’s fucking cool. He’s like a cool older cousin or even a brother of sorts. It would suck if he got shot or some other bullshit like that. Not very poggers if you ask me.”

Dream felt he was getting it, but, “So you did take the bullet because you wanted to protect him.”

Tommy nodded his head extremely slightly, much smaller compared to his previous nods, “Well, basically, it’s not rocket science like what Tubbo’s studying. I see my family in danger and want to save them, not all that surprising.” Tommy snuggled further into his thin sheets as much as he could, “At least, I would hope it’s not.”

Dream suddenly realized the impression he was giving Tommy. He didn’t want the kid to think that people thought of him as some selfish brat or anything, “That’s not what I meant! Sorry, I just… your main gang tends to consist of Wilbur, Tubbo, Techno, Philza, and sometimes Ranboo. Not to say you wouldn’t want to protect George despite it! Just a little odd you consider him…” Family, the word from Dream’s conversation with Phil came back swinging full force.

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Was it not obvious? This goes for you too, dipshit. And maybe Sapnap occasionally. He buys me McDonald’s a lot so I guess he’s okay.”

Dream blinked. He couldn’t believe the words coming out of the kid’s mouth, “Wait, what?

Tommy shrugged like it was obvious, “I mean, you guys might not be as cool as Wilbur, or Techno, but still pretty cool.”

Half of Dream twitched at that (those two beat you at one game of poker and darts respectively and your reputation is ruined, left in tatters, sheesh), the other half felt something warm spread throughout his chest. Before he could find a way to articulate exactly what he was feeling, Tom yawned the biggest yawn a kid could manage before shaking his head as a wet dog would, like he didn’t expect his body could yawn like that. Dream suddenly rolled his eyes and grinned, picking up the bedsheets to bring them up further over Toms, “Go back to sleep. I bet you’re tired.”

Tommy’s eyes closed, and his face was relaxed compared to his words, “Fuck you… I’m perfectly awake…”

As Dream watched him teeter off back into sleepy land, he felt his grin’s fondness increase tenfold.

“WE COME BEARING GIFTS!” a loud voice yelled from the doorway, nearly making Dream shit his pants as he turned around to assess the danger. The voice belonged to none other than Sapnap, who was confidently carrying two Taco Bell takeout bags in each hand over his head. Behind him stood George with one hand in his pocket and the other clutching a drink carrier containing three drinks.

Dream was gripping the back on the chair like his life depended on it, “Jesus, Sapnap, warn a guy next time with a text or something. Tommy just got back to sleep.”

Sapnap pursed his lips sarcastically, “Jeez, and here I was thinking you’d be overjoyed at seeing the best food in the whole wide wor-”

“Tommy woke up?” George interjected, focusing on the important part. Sap was lucky he reached the table at that point because if he didn’t he certainly would have dropped the food on the floor. He quickly turned back to look at Dream to hear the man confirm George’s question.

Dream thought for a second to formulate what he wanted to say, “Yeah, the kid woke up for a second. He was sore and tired and still kinda worried, but we talked it out, and I think he’s going to be okay.”

Dream’s friends glanced at each other as if they could speak telepathically. Dream genuinely thought they could from time to time. With how George looked back at him with his most serious look yet, Dream could say this was one of those times. George cleared his throat, “And what about you?”

Dream blinked, feeling the last little bit of tension in his shoulders drop away, “I think I am too.”

That was Sapnap’s cue to walk over to Dream and throw an arm around his shoulders, “Well that just means it’s a perfect time to dig in, eh?”

Dream felt a grin spread across his face, “You bet it is. I’m hecking starving.”

Sapnap burst out laughing at the way George almost threw Dream’s drink into the man’s face, “I hate that Tubbo bribed you into using that word. You haven’t let it go since.”

Dream plucked the Baja Blast away from George before the Brit could use it as ammunition, “Never let a convenient excuse run past you, Georgie.”

The three friends proceeded to eat and converse, all of them at one point or two looking over at Toms to make sure he hadn’t vanished on them. Eventually, the food ran out, leaving them to lounge around the room and find measly forms of entertainment to keep themselves occupied. George was watching the TV when Sapnap suddenly came up next to him and tugged on his shirt sleeve like a three-year-old. George was going to verbally ask what, but then he saw what Sapnap wanted him to see.

Dream wasn’t fully lying on the bed, but he had his head and some of his upper body curled up on the pillows next to Tommy, to which the younger blond simply turned over to sort of wrap around the store owner as much as he could without jostling his injury. George almost cooed at the sight.

And if Dream only needed to learn about the pictures when George and Sap wanted prime blackmail? That was his problem, not theirs.

---

It was the next day, and everything was relatively peaceful.

Which is why Dream should have expected the worst.

Sap snuck in his Switch for him and the kid to play Smash together. Goggy simply lounged off to the side reading some magazines. Dream, meanwhile, kept a constant eye on his phone, waiting to see what the news was saying about the whole event and if any others wanted to text him to make sure everyone was okay.

Drista: brother of mine i mean this with the utmost love and care

Drista: WHAT

Drista: THE

Drista: FUCK

Dream grimaced. His mother probably wasn’t faring much better.

Dream: listen its a long ass story

Dream: ill be home this weekend so ill tell you both there

Dream: that okay?

Drista: fsniufdgnsdngsd

Drista: fiiiiinnneeeee

Drista: but you better fucking get me more chocolate chip cookies from the bakery

Dream: scouts honor sis <3

Drista: ew

Dream: :) love u 2

Dream pocketed his phone away in time to hear Sapnap groaning dramatically at losing another match, “Dude, this isn’t fair! You’re cheating!”

Tommy’s laugh was almost contagious, “Bro, you were the one that fucking gave me the janky joycon! The fact that I’m still winning despite it says a lot more about you than me!”

Sapnap playfully smacked Tommy upside the head, making the teenager giggle more and Dream and George roll their eyes. It was relatively okay, minus the gunshot wound situation.

“Thomas, what is this?”

All the men in the room froze, Tommy exponentially so. Each of them slowly turned toward the doorway to see a middle-aged woman, handbag clutched closely to her chest and an oxymoronic look of apathetic fury adorning her face. Dream noticed out of the corner of his eye how Tommy went straight from worry to panic.

Tommy visibly swallowed, “Mother, I-”

“Do you know how hard it was to get a plane ticket back?” she snapped out. “In such short notice too?”

Dream felt the blood drain from his face.

Oh god. He knew the kid had a rather tough home life with how he talked about it, but this was-

Tommy was getting more upset, “H-Hey, that’s not fair. Nothing made you have to leave Dad and your business trip.”

Tommy’s mom huffed air out through her nose, “Really? Then what’s this pile of missed phone calls and a voicemail from your manager doing everything but outright begging me to come back to check up on you?”

Dream felt a spike of guilt stab him in the stomach. Maybe he shouldn’t have left the hospital name in the voicemail.

Tommy saw how Dream tensed out of the corner of his eye and was able to bring back the familiar emotion of anger, “Hey! He was just doing his fucking job, unlike a certain other person in this room.”

One part of Dream felt vindication at those words. The other, much louder part winced in horror.

You could feel Tommy’s mother get colder in an instant, “Excuse you? After everything we’ve done all this for you and this is how you decide to act? I just told you what I gave up to come back here!”

Dream knew he should step in, or do something. Right now he was just sitting here on his ass letting a child get verbally abused and doing jack shit to stop it.

Tommy somehow still had a little bit of fire, thank god, even if it made him a broken record, “Well, I didn’t ask you to visit me-”

“Well we never asked you for you either!” she screamed.

The world stopped on its axis. Dream felt his lungs collapse in on themselves.

Tears started streaming down Tommy’s face, “I- I’m sor-”

“No, absolutely fucking not,” George spit out, standing up rapidly with his fists clenched.

Tommy flinched, getting more overwhelmed by the second, “George, its okay-”

Sapnap came over to Tommy to wrap him in a protective hug, “No it isn’t, Toms, but it will be if you just let us handle it.”

George was undeniably angry, and the only reason Dream had yet to reach his level was pure shock both due to Tommy’s mom and seeing George being able to get this upset, “How dare you?! That is your child in that hospital bed, with a gunshot wound in his abdomen because he saved my life! And the first thing you decide to do when you see him isn’t being relieved he’s alive, but it’s fucking getting mad because we pulled you away from whatever dumb business thing you were at! Holy shit lady!”

Dream finally found it in himself to stand up- making it so George was on the left of the bed in front of Sapnap still hugging Tommy while Dream was on the right- while Tommy’s mother sputtered indignantly, “Pardon me? Who do you think you are to come in and- and judge my skills as a-”

“If you say ‘parent’ I might literally smack you,” Dream, wow, where was he getting this from? “Your child comes into half his shifts beyond exhausted, barely eating because he doesn’t have time to pack real lunches, and spends his breaks working on goddamn homework instead of, oh gee, I don’t know, taking an actual break!”

The lady was getting flustered, good, “It’s not our fault he can’t handle when life gets a little tough. It’s how it’s going to be when he becomes an adult anyway-”

“HE’S NOT AN ADULT!” Both Dream and George screeched at the same time, Dream electing to finish the obvious statement, “He’s a fucking kid! Who deserves to be one! Not your overblown labor slave of a human being!”

Tommy’s mom was visibly red, “Kids back in my day didn’t behave like my brat currently lying in that hospital bed! They knew their place, and it’s such a shame mine won’t simply learn that!”
Dream thought George was going to leap forward and land a punch square on her face with the way he grit his teeth.

“Tommy?” a brand new voice spoke from the doorway.

Everyone in the room turned their heads to see a flabbergasted Tubbo standing there, hands holding tightly onto the shoulder straps of his backpack. He seemed genuinely heartbroken at the sight before him, a vast difference in comparison to the angry Wilbur standing behind him recording everything on his phone.

Tommy’s mother paled, “You- you-”

“I suppose I technically need to thank you,” Wilbur stated matter-of-factly. “I’ve been meaning to try and catch you in the action ever since Tommy came to my house at two in the goddamn morning, but you just did my job for me! Congrats!” The brunette pocketed the phone before turning back to the woman with a dark grin.

“Holy shit, Wil,” Sapnap breathed out from where he was in the room. “Where did you come from?”

Wilbur’s smile was slightly sad, “We had just landed at the airport. We realized it was right around the time Tubbo got let out of school so we figured we could pick him up on the way. Techno and Phil are down in the car still, waiting for me to give them the okay to come up. We weren’t sure how many people would overwhelm Toms but considering the scene Tubbo and I walked in on we’re well past that.” Wilbur’s words and eyes were filled with nothing but venom.

The mother clearly knew she was in a losing battle, “I- you- how-”

“Here’s how this is going to work,” Dream spoke with a low tone. “You are going to get out before you upset Tommy further, otherwise we can very easily go to the police with the recording. I have a feeling on which option you’ll pick, correct?”

The woman looked around rapidly to see if she could find a way out of the predicament she dug herself into, but alas, there was nothing. Before any of the guys in the room could say something else, she charged out of there, bumping into Wilbur and almost doing the same to Tubbo on her way out. Dream watched the older brunette visibly take a deep breath, “Toms?”

Oh shit, the kid just watched all of that-

Dream turned around to see Tommy still crying a little, but for the most part, he seemed pretty calm compared to before. He managed to snuggle even further into Sap’s arms, which would be so aww if not for everything that transpired before it, “What- Tubbo, Wil, how-”

Tubbo sped to the right side of the bed, Dream happily complying with moving out of the way so Tubbo could get closer, “Wilbur told me everything that happened on the drive here. Tommy, oh my god, why didn’t you say your parents were so much worse than what you implied?”

The blond proceeded to fiddle with the edge of the bedsheets, unsure of what to exactly say, “‘Cuz I didn’t think it was that bad?”

The older men collectively flinched while Tubbo spoke what was on their minds, “Jesus Toms, Wilbur just said you went to his house at Two A.M. How is that not ‘that bad’?”

Tommy was uncomfortable, but Dream supposed it was in a good way. The kid needed to realize at least a little bit that his parents were nowhere in the right, “I don’t know. I know I’m a lot to deal with honestly, so-”

“Ah, I’m gonna stop you there Tomathy!” Sapnap interrupted gleefully.

George nodded in response, “Yeah, I bet your parents said that to you too, didn’t they?”

Dream felt heated in a way he hadn’t before, “Well they’re wrong, you have never been too much and never will be.”

Wilbur came into the room further, catching all of their attention, “These guys are all correct, Toms. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get you to fully realize it, but you’re our little gremlin. We love you, and even if you are ‘too much’, we want you that way anyway.”

Tommy was choked up, unsure how to process the info in front of him, “I- I don’t know what to say, fellas.”

Tubbo leaned forward and gave his best friend a big hug, careful to avoid his stomach, “Then don’t say anything. Let us do the talking for you. For once.”

Tommy snorted and wrapped his arms around the shorter boy in return, “Yeah, sure. Have you met me, it’s practically a statistical anomaly at this point.”

The room delved into laughter, and all was okay again. Techno and Phil eventually came up after Wilbur texted them they could, also warning them of what went down with Toms’ mother, but letting them also know to worry about it later since it was taken care of for the most part. Techno came with a deck of cards he bought in Paris, which easily got everyone’s mind off of anything too bleak or depressing.

“I have a flush!” Sapnap pointed out.

“No you don’t,” Techno stated for the last time, sounding hundreds of years old at the moment. “How did you even get four jokers? There weren’t that many to start with.”

Sapnap giggled and held the cards in front of his mouth in a playful stance, “Wouldn’t you like to know, Weatherboy?

“Enough.” Philza stepped in, shaking his head at their antics. “Tubbo, stop licking the cards.”

“But I wanna smack one on George’s head so it’ll stick! Tubbo pouted. “He won’t even suspect a thing!”

“Just because I’m watching Youtube with Toms doesn’t mean I’m blind,” George said without even looking up from his phone. “I only have one earbud in, did you think I was half-deaf as well or something?”

Tubbo gasped dramatically while standing up, “He knows of our secret plot! Tommy, quickly!”

Before anyone could guess what the fuck that meant, Tommy pulled a King of Spades from his sleeve and slapped George’s face with it. The older Brit could only sit there in shock and try to blink himself back to reality to understand what just happened.

Wilbur, meanwhile, had a more lighthearted but offended look to his face in contrast to the room’s giggles, “You fuckers, that’s where my last card was this whole time?!”

Everyone started laughing even harder, Dream on the verge of throwing up from how hard his lungs were working.

For the first time in a hot minute, he felt completely alright.

---

Tommy’s house was void of parents, unsurprisingly.

No skin off their backs.

Dream, Sapnap, and George all offered to come with Wilbur to pack his car of Tommy’s things to get them over to Philza’s house. The older man, Techno, and Tubbo were on babysitting duty, keeping the kid distracted as to what was really happening. It was not hard for Techno to swipe the house key from Tommy and give it to Wilbur so they could pull this off. Hopefully, the guest room in Phil’s place would be to the kid’s liking, and if not right away, eventually.

Dream was leaning against the cold garage door with a box full of shelf knick-knacks when Wilbur came out and said, “Hey, Dream?”

The man in question startled so bad he almost dropped the box. He did manage to save it, however, before recollecting his cool stance and looking at the brunette, “Uh, yes, Wilbur?”

The two of them promptly ignored how Sap started beating George with a rolled-up poster as Wil got into the nitty-gritty of it, “I haven’t gotten around to saying this personally to you, so, thank you, for, you know.”

Dream blinked, unsure of where Wilbur was coming from, “You’re… welcome?”

Wilbur grinned and snorted, “Seriously, not everyone is as upstanding as you and your friends. Feel good about this, you deserve it.”

“DREAM HELP SAPNAP’S-” George shrieked before getting cut off. Wilbur and Dream had no choice but to look at how Sapnap had George pinned on the ground, their boxes of stuff set off to the side to avoid being damaged in the crossfire. George continued screaming as Sap brought up his weapon of choice (the poster) like he was going to swing it down.

Wilbur groaned with a hint of panic, “Guys, wait! That’s Tommy’s favorite! If you ruin it I swear to god-” the brunette warned, his voice getting quieter and quieter as he ran to break up Dream’s friends from killing one another. That left Dream to ponder Wil’s words and just what they meant.

“I mean, you guys might not be as cool as Wilbur, or Techno, but still pretty cool.”

Dream felt his fingers tighten around the edge of the box he was holding in giddy joy.

He couldn’t wait to tell Drista about this, her face will be priceless.