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Tommy was standing alone.
He couldn’t go anywhere. Everywhere around him where he looked there was nothing but holes. Holes for almost as far as he could see. If it were a different situation, he would’ve compared it to something that might happen in Animal Crossing. He wished that’s what this was.
He could see something in the distance. It was barely there, the dark color of it blending in with everything behind him. He probably wouldn’t have seen it if it wasn’t for the glowing white smile on its face. He just assumed it was Dream.
It was just staring at him, not moving and not speaking. Tommy wanted to yell at it, scream at it to leave him alone, but he couldn’t. It was like his mouth was glued shut, leaving him unable to even open it no matter how much he wanted to.
He tried to take a step closer, tried to shout at it again, tried to be angry, but he couldn’t. He felt nothing but fear. He didn’t know why he was suddenly so scared. If this was Dream, he had no reason to be scared right? Dream was his friend.
It didn’t take long before it started to duplicate, surrounding him and just staring down at him with that same, wide, glowing smile. It almost seemed like they got even bigger, leaning closer to him. He was finally able to move, but could only bring himself to turn in circles to look at all of these things.
He froze when all of them spoke.
“Put your items in the hole, Tommy.”
He quickly looked down to make sure he wasn’t wearing any armor before checking his inventory, finding no items in it. He looked up at the being again, finding one of them had stretched farther than the rest and was now right next to his face.
“Put your items in the hole, Tommy.”
He tried to speak, tried to say that he didn’t have any items, but his mouth still wouldn’t even open. He couldn’t even make a sound of panic as all of them leaned forward, all of them chanting, “Put your items in the hole Tommy.”
The ground below him started to sink in, creating another hole right under him. He tried to get away, get to a place it wouldn’t get him, but he couldn’t with all the heads around him. The ground below him was disappearing so fast that soon he was just falling. He suddenly had his compass, it flying out of his pocket. He reached out for it, but couldn’t grab it fast enough.
One of the creatures suddenly had an arm that snatched it when he was so close to grabbing it. He could see the arm throw up the compass, only for the compass to explode. He tried to scream, but his mouth still wouldn’t open.
He finally hit the bottom of the hole, the impact knocking the breath out of his lungs, finally having his mouth open, but not hurting him. He moved to sit on his knees as he gazed toward the top of the hole. He could see something that glowed coming down, lighting up the dirt and stone around it as it fell. Soon he could see more falling toward him. He wasn’t sure what he was looking at. Not until one landed next to him.
More and more tnt fell down around him, a few of them hitting the top of his head and shoulders. He tried to move all of it to one side of the hole and keep himself on the other, but he knew it was useless. None of it seemed to be exploding though, which confused him. All of them were lit, so why weren’t any of them blowing up? Of course it caught him off guard. He could feel himself getting burned and blown apart.
He woke up screaming. He quickly put a hand over his mouth, trying to keep quiet enough to not wake up Tubbo, though he knew that he probably already did. He curled up into a ball, hugging his knees and letting his tears stream freely down his face. All he could do was hope Tubbo somehow didn’t hear it and was still asleep.
That hope was gone when he heard a gentle knock at his door.
He stood up, trying to control his breathing and stop crying, rubbing at his cheeks and eyes to try to get rid of the evidence, before cracking the door open and looking out. Tubbo was standing there, obviously still tired, still holding his bee plushie, and staring at the floor, but he looked worried.
When Tubbo noticed the door being opened slightly he looked up at the one blue eye he could see through the slightly opened door. He tried to open the door a bit more, gentle enough that Tommy could keep it where it is if he wanted to, and whispered, “You wanna talk about it?”
Tommy, letting Tubbo open the door, simply shrugged and moved away from it, an invitation for Tubbo to come into the room. Tubbo quickly and quietly moved into the room, shutting the door behind him as quiet as he could. When he looked over at Tommy again, he had moved back onto his bed, hugging his knees and leaning against the wall next to him. The shorter boy sat down next to him, leaving a bit of room just in case it would make things worse.
They sat in silence for a while. Neither were sure how long it was, but they didn’t really care. Tubbo just wanted to make sure Tommy was as okay as he could be, and Tommy just wanted to forget the situation his mind had made.
Tubbo was the first one to speak, turning to look at his friend.
“Is it okay if I touch you?”
Tommy nodded, his eyes not leaving the floor he was staring at. Tubbo moved a bit closer, putting his arms around his younger friend, said friend melting into the touch and leaning onto Tubbo. Tubbo looked over at his bee plush that he had placed on the bed, before picking it up and booping Tommy with it before placing it in his arms. Tommy finally looked and glared at him, trying to look intimidating, but being unable to. He looked more like a kicked puppy trying to threaten someone.
Tubbo just smiled at him and gently ruffled his hair, causing Tommy to smile a bit too. Tubbo was glad he could just do that.
Tubbo whispered, “What caused you to scream?”
Tommy stayed quiet for a few minutes before he responded. “..Nightmare.”
“Dream?”
“Yeah.”
Tubbo nodded in understanding. He had nightmares about Dream too, but he knew they weren’t as bad as Tommy’s. Tommy still couldn’t talk about most of what Dream did in exile, forcing himself to stop talking before he started.
He was caught off guard when Tommy shifted to wrap his arms around Tubbo. He had forgotten the bee, which fell between them and caused them to laugh a bit. Tubbo picked up the bee with one hand and moved it to the side before wrapping it back around Tommy.
“Do you want to try to sleep again, or would staying up be better?”
“Not sure.”
“Would you prefer one over the other?”
“Sleep..?”
Tubbo nodded and moved so that they were laying down, keeping his arms around Tommy. He let go when Tommy did, laying down on his back. Tommy moved to put his head on Tubbo’s chest, curling back into a ball. Tubbo started running his hand through Tommy’s hair. He kept doing this for what felt like hours, until he thought Tommy was asleep again. He stared up at the ceiling, not feeling very tired anymore.
He jumped a bit when Tommy spoke.
“Tubbo?”
“Y-yeah?”
“Can you talk?”
“About what?”
“Anything.”
“Would bees be okay?”
Tommy laughed a bit.
“Yeah, bees are fine, big man.”
Tubbo started to ramble about bees, running his fingers through Tommy’s hair once again. Tommy finally closed his eyes, trying to sleep as he listened to Tubbo.
Tubbo couldn’t help but smile when he heard quiet snores coming from the other boy. He kept talking for a while longer, just in case Tommy woke up again and needed to not wake up to silence.
He only stopped talking when he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore and fell asleep.