Chapter Text
“Hey Tommy.”
Dream leaned casually against the empty obsidian frame that once housed a nether portal. In front of him, a familiar boy had frozen midstep and was staring at him with horror dawning in his expression.
Dream pushed away from the cold obsidian and sauntered forward. “You lookin’ for something?” Almost carelessly, he held out one gloved hand and let a gleaming netherite axe materialize in it.
Tommy scrambled backward, his feet slipping on the coarse dirt beneath him. “I-I came to g-get the axe.” He stuttered bravely, but his eyes betrayed his fear. “G-Get away!” The boy added, his breath hitching as Dream took another step toward him.
“I’m not gonna hurt you, Tommy.” Dream chuckled, shaking his head like Tommy was a naughty child. “Aw, are you gonna cry? What a baby.”
“N-No…’m not a baby…” Tommy mumbled, still continuing to back away.
But Dream saw it in his eyes. He saw…
…exasperation as Tommy gave him an unimpressed look. He could almost hear the younger boy saying, Is this really the best you can do? in his signature TommyInnit voice.
Dream smirked again, but this time he was internally grinning too. Gotcha.
“You could die right now, Tommy!” He said lightly, taking another deliberate step forward.
Tommy once again scrambled backward, then let out a shriek as his body suddenly flashed red. Dream almost felt bad for a second as he watched the younger boy flail his sword desperately at the zombie that was attacking him, and somehow manage to kill it.
“I’m not going to die right now!” Tommy shouted, though his entire body was trembling in fear. “G-Give me the axe! Now!”
Dream just smiled, ignoring Tommy’s pleas. “No one would even know. No one would even care.” He taunted, twirling the axe casually in his hand. “I could kill you right now with the Axe of Peace.” Dream fought to keep his smile calm and calculated as he pronounced the word ‘Peace’ suspiciously similarly to the word ‘Piss’.
Tommy’s scared expression wavered for half a second, and Dream cheered silently at his victory. His mind flashed back momentarily to the conversation that the two of them had earlier, before the string of lore streams.
“—and don’t forget to keep smiling the whole time. That’s literally your whole brand, so it’s super important.” Tommy stopped to dramatically heave in a breath as he tossed the book & quill to the side. “Whew!”
“…That’s a lot.” Dream said dryly, picking up the book from the ground and scanning its pages once again. “Remind me why you copy-and-pasted the entire script into Minecraft?”
Tommy rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. “For the au-then-ti-ci-ty, Dream.” He said exaggeratedly.
They were sitting in a secret little building on the server that no fan knew about; a building solely for all the members to relax, away from the scrutinizing eyes of their streams. Tommy was lounging in one of the comfortable armchairs, while Dream paced around the room, trying to hide his anxiety.
The younger boy raised an eyebrow at Dream as he too threw down the book and resumed pacing. Dream caught Tommy’s expression as he turned around, and sighed. “Okay, okay.” He grumbled, as if Tommy had said something reprimanding. “I’m still just nervous, I guess.”
Tommy nodded understandingly, sitting up straighter in his chair. “Yeah, it sucks to be playing the part of a child-tormenting scumbag.”
Dream winced slightly, but didn’t argue as he plopped down with a sigh next to Tommy. They sat in silence for a few moments.
“Why don’t we play a game?” Tommy said suddenly, looking up at Dream. The older man glanced down at Tommy, and was disconcerted to see his eyes shining excitedly. Tommy only looked this enthusiastic when he had a really good—or a really bad—idea.
“…A game?” Dream echoed hesitantly.
Tommy grinned up at Dream. “Yeah! Whoever can stay in character the longest is the winner!”
Dream’s intrigued expression immediately crumbled. “You want us to risk the lore on a game.” He deadpanned.
“Oh, come on!” The younger boy whined, crossing his arms huffily. “You know we’re both awesome actors! It’ll just be a little extra motivation.” Tommy said smugly.
Dream stared at Tommy’s cheeky expression. Half of him wanted to snort at the absurdity of the idea. But the other half could see the sincerity in Tommy’s eyes, and the kindness behind his gesture. And there was a bit of genuine concern in Tommy’s voice too…
“Fine, you gremlin.” Dream grumbled, caving in. “We’ll play a game if you want.”
An even wider grin spread across Tommy’s face. “You’re on.”
Right now, even if Tommy looked stricken and broken and completely terrified, Dream could sense the younger boy’s internal grin.
“You know?” Dream raised his voice, stalking closer to Tommy. “You ruined me. I spent an entire year in the prison, getting tortured and starved!” He let his face twist into a wry smile. “Come on. Why don’t you experience—I dunno—a few thousand years of the afterlife?”
Right on cue, Tommy let out a shriek full of what sounded like genuine fear and took off running. Dream immediately followed him, brandishing his axe menacingly.
“C’mere, Tommy!” Dream shouted, exhilaration filling him as they wove between Logstedshire’s crumbled ruins and jumped over potholes in the ground.
He took a chance and swung his axe at Tommy, wincing slightly as the blade connected with the younger boy’s arm and made his body flash red again. Dream squashed down his guilt by reminding himself that they had completely turned off the VR pain function, after his own insistence.
“NononoNONO—” Tommy was screaming as he continued running away from Dream. “No—Dream don’t—NO!”
Dream let out a cackle of laughter as he swung at Tommy again, this time squarely hitting him in the back. Tommy was propelled forward by the force of the hit, and he took the opportunity to put more ground between himself and Dream.
He grumbled internally as he sped up, jumping over blocks and weaving between more ruins to catch up. Tommy chanced a glance back at Dream, and he could see the well-disguised cheekiness in the younger boy’s eyes.
“COME HERE, TOMMY!” Dream yelled again, vaulting over a discarded log and gaining on Tommy. “SAY HI TO SCHLATT FOR ME!” He struck again, once again landing a solid hit on Tommy’s torso.
Tommy let out another blood-curdlingly realistic shriek as he was propelled forward again. He stumbled for a moment, as he switched the sword in his hand for a loaf of bread.
Dream grinned widely as he surged forward, switching his own axe for an ender pearl. He hurled the ender pearl straight at Tommy’s feet. A familiar gut-dropping feeling engulfed Dream as he felt himself being tugged sharply toward where Tommy stood.
Instinct took over Dream as he raised his axe, aiming it straight at Tommy’s head. The younger boy twisted around at the last second, his eyes widening almost comically.
Oof!
Dream froze as Tommy’s body suddenly vanished from sight. It was replaced by a very translucent version of the younger boy, who was wearing an equally shocked look. All of Tommy’s items scattered across the ground, a spinning stack of bread landing near Dream. A screen popped up between them both, bearing an all-too familiar message.
TommyInnit was slain by Dream using the Axe of Peace.
Dream slowly looked up at Tommy’s face, his shocked expression slowly melting into sheepishness.
Tommy just stared at him, and the exasperated look on his face said only one thing.
That wasn’t in the script.
Dream couldn’t help it. He let out a loud snort of laughter, trying to cover his grin with his hand.
Tommy’s ghostly form burst out laughing too, doubling over and clutching his stomach as he cackled. “Callahannnn…” The younger boy wheezed pitifully, glancing off to the side. Dream knew he was looking at his invisible air screen.
Almost immediately, Tommy’s ghostly form disappeared. But it was only for a split second, as Callahan used his behind-the-scenes powers to teleport Tommy right back. Dream grinned, imagining Callahan’s disappointed amusement.
The younger boy let out a mock groan of annoyance as he stumbled slightly, regaining his balance. “Now, in the business, we call this a blooper.”
Dream stopped laughing as he suddenly remembered the little game they’d been playing. “…That doesn’t count as breaking character, does it?” He asked hopefully, and Tommy immediately keeled over cackling.
“What do you think? Of course it does!” Tommy snickered, shaking his head. “You even laughed before me! You’re just salty you lost, Dream.”
Dream rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as Tommy bent down to start gathering his items. “You’re just salty I actually managed to kill you.” He retorted smugly.
Tommy paused in the middle of picking up a diamond chestplate, and gave Dream an unamused look. “Prick.” The boy muttered, shaking his head and returning to his task.
The older man just grinned and pulled up his air screen. Tommy’s stream chat, which he’d been keeping a careful eye on, was full of ‘KEKW’s, ‘CANON’s, and a few stray ‘AWWW’s. “Calm down, chat. That was, in fact, not a canon death.” He clarified, rolling his eyes as chat continued to spam for a few more moments.
Tommy straightened up again, his arms still full of items. He grumbled exaggeratedly under his breath as he started packing each one back into his inventory. When he finally finished returning everything to his inventory, he turned around to face Dream again.
Outwardly, Tommy looked completely neutral, albeit a tiny bit amused. But Dream could see that familiar shine in his eyes again, brimming with happiness and exhilaration. And Dream smiled whole-heartedly at the boy who he now considered to be a younger brother.
Honestly, Tommy had helped him so much through everything; from the birth of L’manburg to this debut prison escape arc, he’d always been there. Whether it was through some lighthearted banter or a silly game like right now, Tommy always found a way to worm into his life and somehow, make it better.
Dream really was grateful for Tommy.
…Then an absolutely diabolical grin overtook his small smile. “TOMMY! I’M GONNA GET YOU!” Dream hollered, his axe materializing in his hand again.
Tommy nearly jumped out of his socks in surprise, and immediately scrambled to run away as Dream chased after him. But Dream could hear the younger boy’s cackling laughter, even as the wind whipped past them and their footsteps thumped against the grassy dirt. His anxiety seemed to evaporate completely, carried away by the sound of Tommy’s laughter and his own wheezes.
And Dream smiled a secret smile, knowing that whatever happened, it would all be okay.