Work Text:
Tommy has always been a clingy kind of person, ever since he was very little. He would grasp onto people's sleeves, the hems of their shirt, scarves, wings, basically anything he could reach that he could hold onto. This was usually not a way to get the persons' attention, since Tommy would always just try to stay out of the way and relatively unnoticed, but rather a way to stay close to people.
He would follow Phil around, doing work, holding on to one of his long sleeves. He'd watch Wil play guitar and work on his songs with a fist full of fabric in hand, usually falling asleep and trapping Wil where he worked. Tommy would even hold on to Techno's cape when braiding the piglin's hair, he'd also hold onto the cape when Techno would read to him.
Later in life this habit was no longer restricted to just his family. At first the only other person he would cling to was Tubbo, holding onto a shirt sleeve or (after a lot of asking to make sure it was okay) his wrist. Tubbo would smile and let Tommy hold onto him. Pretty soon Tommy was like this to everyone he cared about, following them around, keeping them close, and enjoying their company.
It was just a Tommy kind of thing. It was endearing to a lot of people at first, but as things got more tense in the DSMP some got really annoyed really quickly. Quite a few people on the SMP thought that he was just being way too childish and that he needed to grow up, especially with all his other childish behaviors like always stealing from people and yelling all the time.
Pretty soon people started to just pull away when Tommy tried to cling to them. At first it wasn't a huge deal, it was just a few people. They could have been having a bad day and plus Tommy technically wasn't as close to them as others, so it was 'fine'. It hurt a bit, but it could have been way worse.
The first person to pull away that truly hurt Tommy was Wilbur.
When they were in Pogtopia, Tommy walked into Wil's room, talking away to him getting no response back as was the norm by now, he went over and gently grabbed Wil's sleeve. Apparently, that pulled Wilbur out of whatever thoughts he was stuck in. Wilbur harshly pulled his arm away from Tommy and looked over at Tommy extremely pissed off.
Wilbur, "What in the world do you want Tommy? Can't you see that I'm busy", still very pissed off.
Tommy just looked at Wil silently with a hurt expression. Wilbur getting more pissed off, "well, are you going to give me an answer, or just sit there?"
With a quiet voice Tommy finally responded, "I just wanted to hang out with you."
Wilbur, "maybe I don't want to hang out with you." Tommy looked away from Wil and just sat there silently for a moment, before getting up and leaving without a sound or even a glance toward Wil.
After that Tommy stopped clinging to people, he barely even talked to most in Pogtopia usually just waiting for Tubbo to come back from Manberg to have conversation with anyone. He still wanted to grab onto people's sleeves. He longed for the comfort that it had given him as a child, but it clearly bothers everyone else so he'll give that up. Tommy would give up everything to make people happy.