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Tommy shivered, burrowing himself further into his pile of blankets. He could never seem to get warm enough lately. Ever since he was revived, it felt like there was a permanent chill in his bones. He was so tired of being cold all the time, but he also was just tired. It made it harder and harder to get out of bed each morning, harder to leave his safe little cocoon.
He thought about his last session with Puffy. She had told him that he needed to go outside more, to get fresh air instead of rotting in his home. He hated that she was right. Reluctantly, he hoisted himself out of his cozy fortress. He looked back at his bed longingly, but he shook his head and prepared himself to go outside.
He never left the house anymore without full armor and a few invisibility potions. It made him feel safe. Well, as safe as he could feel, which was decidedly not safe. He knew Dream was in prison, that he couldn’t hurt him anymore. It did little to quell his fears.
He took a deep, shaky breath before stepping out of his home. He began to amble down the Prime Path– walking, never running. He wasn’t sure where he was walking to, he just knew he needed to walk.
He found himself drawn towards L’Manburg, or what was left of it, anyway. He stopped at the edge of the crater that had once been his home.
It hadn’t been his home in a long time. When had it stopped being his home?
He sat, letting his legs dangle over the edge. He stared down at the ruins. He swore he could still smell the ash from Doomsday. He couldn’t help but think of the Nether, but he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.
He heard rustling behind him and tensed immediately, summoning his sword to his side.
He didn’t turn around. He didn’t want to see who it was.
He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Every instinct was telling him to run.
Abruptly, he spun around, pointing his sword at the person who had been sneaking up behind him.
It was a kid..? It wasn’t just any kid. He knew this kid. Why did he know this kid?
The boy couldn’t have been older than 10. He had golden blond hair and bright blue eyes and an undeniable look of mischief etched across his face. He raised an eyebrow at Tommy.
“Who the fuck are you?” Tommy was immediately offended by the mystery child’s rudeness. He was not above fighting a kid.
“Well fuck you!” Tommy retorted, glaring at the kid who just stuck out his tongue in response. “I’m TommyInnit, thank you very much.” The kid frowned, looking perplexed.
“Well no,” he argued. “I’m TommyInnit.” Tommy paused for just a second. He looked at the kid’s blonde hair and blue eyes. Could he be..?
He shook his head, banishing the thought from his mind.
“Are you fuckin’ dee-lu-sion-al?” He drew out each syllable of the word, narrowing his eyes at his impersonator. “Who put you up to this? Someone just wanted to fuck with me? Dickheads.” He pointed an accusatory finger at the kid, who furrowed his brows in response.
“I’m not delu… delushun… I’m not crazy,” Tommy’s strange doppelgänger grumbled. “I don’t know who you are,” he eyed Tommy up and down judgmentally. “...but I’m Tommy so clearly something’s very wrong with you.”
What was this kid’s problem? Tommy pushed himself to his feet. He easily towered over the rude child, although that wasn't at all impressive. He squinted slightly, analyzing the kid. He didn’t look like he was lying, but Tommy had multiple times proven to be a poor judge of character.
“Well of the many things that might be wrong with me, identity crises are not on that list.” Tommy crossed his arms. “So I don’t know who you are but I’d like to kindly ask that you piss off.”
The young boy just stared up at him, blue eyes glaring defiantly into grey ones. The two stood like that for a good few moments, neither willing to lose the impromptu staring contest as they circled each other.
“Tommy?” Tommy blinked in surprise at the new voice, cursing himself for being the first to break away. He muttered something under his breath, turning to see Puffy stood behind him. She looked between Tommy and his younger counterpart curiously, a confused smile on her face. “Who’s this?” She gestured towards the child. He wrinkled his nose at her.
“I’m Tommy,” he responded, stepping forward slightly and staring up at the woman. He pointed to the older teenager. “This guy’s harassing me.” Tommy sputtered in surprise and offense.
“Wha- NO! You’re the one who came up behind me!” Tommy hissed. Puffy laughed, clearly amused by the duo’s antics even if she had absolutely no clue what was going on.
“So you’re Tommy,” she nodded at the kid. “And he’s also Tommy.” She turned to the teenager, who glared at her. She sighed, touching a hand to her forehead.
“Prime almighty, what have I gotten myself into..” She muttered under her breath. She was inclined to think that there weren’t two Tommys stood in front of her right now, but what other explanation was there? Obviously they were different– one of them was a good foot taller and looked a good bit sadder, but they had the same mannerisms. It wouldn’t be the most outrageous thing to have happened in Puffy’s time on the server.
“Okay,” she exhaled, looking back up at the duo. She pointed at the teenager, who looked less than pleased. “Tommy.” She turned to the kid. “Teeny-Tommy” He looked less than pleased with his apparent new nickname.
“Like teeny-tiny, but Tommy!” She desperately explained, although neither boy looked convinced. “Teeny-Tommy.” She sighed good-naturedly at the two boys’ expressions. “Okay, I’m tryin’ my best here! Give me a break!” She exclaimed, exasperated. She plopped down on the grass, sitting with her legs crossed. She looked up at the Tommy duo expectantly, clearly prompting them to do the same. Tommy was the first to oblige, ever reluctantly, with his younger counterpart following shortly.
“Soooo…” She started, trying to prompt them to speak. “How’d this happen?” She looked at Tommy, like he was supposed to have an answer. He didn’t.
“Fuck if I know. He just snuck up on me like a creep.” Tommy pointed towards his young counterpart, who flipped him off in turn. They did not seem to like each other.
“You were the one acting all depressed by a stupid hole in the ground!” The kid gestured towards the crater that had once been L’Manburg. “Sorry for being concerned, I guess!” He crossed his arms with a huff. Puffy wasn’t sure she could put up with much more of this. She raised her hands passively.
“Okay, I get it. No one knows how you got here…” She took a deep breath, steadying herself. "But you're here. So we've gotta deal with that!" She clapped her hands together. "Teeny-Tommy," she addressed the kid who clearly did not favor the nickname. "What do you remember?" He shrugged.
"I was outside of the house, and then I started feeling all nauseous and dizzy." The young boy furrowed his brows like just thinking about it made his head hurt. "I tried to get up, go an' tell someone-" Tommy knew he meant Phil. "-but then I fell over and woke up here." The kid nodded to himself like his explanation left no further questions. Tommy still had many questions.
A ladybug had crawled out of the grass and onto Tommy’s leg. He held out his finger for it to climb up onto, and he gently set it back in the ground. The younger boy watched with wide eyes, almost as if he was jealous that the ladybug hadn’t chosen him instead. Puffy watched with a fond smile. It seemed like no matter what, Tommy would always have his love for nature.
“Well…” Puffy placed a finger against her chin, the rhythmic tap-tap-tap filling the air as she pondered. “I can’t explain that any better than you can,” she said finally, shoulders rising and falling in a shrug. “Weird shi-” She cut herself off abruptly, casting a look towards the kid before regaining her composure and continuing. “Weird stuff happens here all the time. We’ve just gotta roll with the punches!”
Both Tommy and his younger counterpart cast judgemental looks towards the woman, their noses wrinkling in identical ways. Puffy couldn’t suppress a smirk at the way the two mirrored each other.
“Well we need to come up with something else to call you,” she pointed at the kid. “And I don’t think Teeny-Tommy’s going to cut it… You sorta looked like you wanted to hurt me when I called you that.” She cracked a grin following that sentence despite Teeny-Tommy’s death stare.
Her green eyes bounced between the two boys, but clearly neither of them were quite picking up what she was asking. She sighed before continuing, her voice flat and exasperated. “...Any ideas? Any? ‘Cause if you can’t find something better I’m sticking with Teeny-Tommy and then nobody’s happy.”
It fell quiet, and Puffy swore she could almost hear the cogs turning in the two boys’ heads. If she was being honest, she was surprised Tommy hadn’t blurted out something stupid yet. It was almost concerning. Well, it was definitely concerning, but she had bigger issues right now. Tommy finally broke the silence (and Puffy’s string of thought) with a barely-audible grumble.
“If you want a nickname for good ol’ Tommy here, why not Theseus?” He muttered sarcastically, lip furled in annoyance. Puffy let out a huff of air, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.
“Tommy…” Puffy exhaled, irritation evident in her tone. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “Fine,” she said finally. “We can call it exposure therapy or something. He can be Theseus.” She cast a curious look towards the newly-christened Theseus to gauge his reaction, but he sort of just looked confused.
“That’s a stupid name.” He said bluntly, crossing his arms stubbornly. “All weird and long and- and pretentious.” Tommy snorted, earning a glare from Puffy and an elbow to the side from Theseus.
“How about something shorter, then?” Puffy suggested, eyebrow twitching beneath her thick brown-and-white bangs. “Like, uh…” Her eyes darted around as she thought. “Theo!”
“Theo? Tommy interrupted with a smirk. Like Theodore Roosevelt? Good ol’ Teddy?”
Puffy looked like she wanted to punch Tommy. Theo did punch Tommy, earning a yelp from the teen as a fist connected with his arm.
Puffy rubbed her temples, trying her best to block out the noise as the two bickered. Whoever did this must have been trying to drive her insane. Regardless, maybe this could be an opportunity. Tommy was always so cagey about his childhood. Maybe she could use this to learn more about him… if she could keep the two from strangling each other.