Chapter Text
“Tommy.” Tubbo closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them and gave Tommy a hard stare. “You? Are a complete fucking dumbass, and a dick.”
Tommy winced, looking away. It stung to hear, but he did deserve it… “I know. I’m-”
“But.” Suddenly he felt arms wrap tightly around him. “You’re my best friend, and I really miss you. Even if you were an asshole.”
“I was an idiot Tubbo I just- I got caught up in everything and I didn’t realize how much it was hurting you and I should’ve .” Tommy hugged Tubbo back, holding on with as firm of a hug as he could give without hurting the other. “Please, please forgive me Tubbo. I wanna go back to being friends.”
“It’s… not okay. But," Tubbo shakes his head as he pulls away. “I get it. You just… were a dick. But if you really wanna make up, well this is a good start.” He gave a half-hearted smile as Tommy’s body relaxed.
“So we’re good?” He asked, biting his lip.
“You still owe me popcorn." He folded his arms tightly, "And if you ever pull this shit again? I'm going to beat the ever living shit out of you."
He chuckled slightly. “Okay okay, I’ll get you popcorn and soda before the movie starts. We have a few minutes before it does.”
“Candy too!” A smirk spread on Tubbo’s face.
Tommy rolled his eyes. “Candy too. M&m’s work for you?”
“Perfect.” He grinned at him. “It’ll be your 'I was a bad friend' fine."
“So uh,” Tommy looked at the masked boy. What was up with his style anyway? A mask and a Hawaiian shirt? With skinny jeans ? “Glad we can finally talk without all the crazy shit going on.”
“Right.” Tubbo jumped, eyes blowing wide in realization. “Oh! I didn’t properly introduce you to each other yet!” He glanced over. “Ranboo, this is my best friend Tommy. We’ve known each other since middle school.” He gestured as Tommy waved at the tall boy. “And this is Ranboo, he’s… we’re… dating I guess?”
“I mean we haven’t exactly made it a clear thing yet but uh- pretty much.” Ranboo nodded, holding out his own hand. “Nice to officially meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too Ranboob.” Tommy snorted as he takes his hand.
“Tommy!” Tubbo scolded as he lightly punched his shoulder.
Ranboo did seem like a genuine guy and had picked up the slack when Tommy hadn’t been a good best friend. He almost felt bad for making fun of him. Almost.
“What it’s funny!”
“I don’t really mind.” Ranboo shook his head. “I kinda expected it based on how you talk about Tommy.”
“Yeah- well you’re my boyfriend. He needs to learn to be nicer."
“Really it’s fine!”
Tommy rolled his eyes, “I need to make sure he’s good enough for you. Can’t have him go breaking your heart.”
“You don’t really have room to talk.” Tubbo deadpanned.
His face flushed red. “Fine lets just, head in and we can get the food. We’ll have to sit through the ads but, that’s fine.”
It felt nice, to have Tubbo back. And with Ranboo around, Tommy had an even stronger feeling that everything seemed right. Perhaps having him around wouldn’t be so bad.
“I actually wanted to talk some more first,” Tubbo admitted.
Tommy blinked. “Uh, sure. Shoot.”
Tubbo glanced at Ranboo and then around the building. “Not, right in the middle of the walkway here.”
“Then where?” He raised an eyebrow. What did Tubbo want to talk about?
They found a somewhat empty spot off to the side, or at the very least they didn’t have people constantly passing by who could listen in. It was confusing for Tommy why they needed the conversation to be private in the first place, Tubbo seemed pretty serious and Tommy had no clue why. It couldn’t be he was going to announce him and Ranboo getting together, they’d already done that. They’d also already made a big scene earlier when Tommy had said he was sorry. So what he wanted to talk about was a complete mystery. Unless…
“Okay first… what happened the last time? If we’re going to be friends again, I think I should know that at least.” Tubbo pointed out.
Tommy glanced at Ranboo, though he already knew about the memory stuff. Memory? He blinked. Huh, Wilbur was right.
Tommy took a drawn-out breath. “Wilbur. He attacked Dream because he thought he was like the masked man in my nightmares because we were splitting apart just like in the dreams. He apologized about it, but yeah…”
“Why didn’t you just say something?” Tubbo frowned, his brow knitted tightly. “I might’ve been upset, but I would’ve understood that you were dealing with your family.”
“My dad grounded me.” He explained. “That’s what I was trying to tell you when I went to your house. He took my phone and he only gave it back the next morning cause he felt bad for taking it.”
“Crap…” Tubbo cursed. “Shit, I’m so sorry. I should’ve tried to hear you out.”
“No no, it’s fine.” Tommy assured. “If I hadn’t been blowing you off before you would’ve. It’s my fault that happened.”
He thought for a moment but conceded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But hey, at least you know now. So Wilbur made it up to Dream?’
“I guess.” He shrugged. He debated for a moment, should he tell Tubbo about what Wilbur had shown him? “Wilbur actually has the nightmares as well.”
Both boys in front of him looked like they’d been struck by lighting at the revelation.
“He what!?” Tubbo asked. “Wait, didn’t you say- what about all the crap he gave you about going to a therapist and medication!? And he wasn’t doing any of that?”
“He-” Tommy rubbed his arm. Over the past few days, he’d thought about it, and while he was still somewhat angry, he could still see where he’d come from with the situation. “He knew the nightmares made me upset and he genuinely thought it would work. I dunno, but we’ll figure it out I guess.”
“Right…”
“Don’t be upset with him Tubbo.” He shook his head, “Please. We talked it out, and hopefully, he’s not going to keep any of that stuff from me again.”
“Yeah. I get it.” Tubbo let out a deep sigh. “Still don’t like it.”
“That’s fine- I’m sorry you got tied up in my family mess.” Tommy’s gaze went soft. “That’s part of the reason I liked hanging out with Dream. I felt bad that I was using you as a personal therapist.”
"I know, but- you didn't even talk to me about it." There was a slight bite to his voice. "I felt left out. You trusted me with talking about it before."
Tommy looked sheepish as he looked away from Tubbo's gaze. "It was stupid. Don't worry, I know. I should've asked you first. I was just so nervous you'd-"
“Look Tommy, you don’t need to keep explaining.” Tubbo’s gaze looked exhausted and Tommy backed away a step. “I just want to move on, okay?
“Yeah.” Tommy muttered. “That's okay, sorry Tubs.”
"It's alright big man, I know you just wanna explain." Tubbo patted his back, "But as long as you're not gonna do it again, and you do seriously wanna start being friends that's all that matters to me."
"It's okay if I'm still friends with Dream right?" Tommy asked, fiddling with the hem of his shirt
Tubbo blinked before nodding, "I mean- yeah of course it's okay."
"I won't prioritize him over you anymore though, I promise."
Tommy knew better now. Even just a few days without Tubbo or Dream had taught him how much they both meant to him. He needed to find a way to include Tubbo even without the memories.
Ranboo sighed, "I'm just glad that's over, you were both acting as if you'd gone through a break-up or something."
"Oi I didn't even talk to you until today!" Tommy retorted.
He blinked and deadpanned at him, "You showed up on Tubbo's doorstep like an ex-boyfriend trying to win his girlfriend back."
"I did not!"
"It was kinda like that big man." Tubbo teased before he grumbled in annoyance.
"Well, maybe I shouldn't have bought us all tickets to mine and Tubbo's favorite movie series." He stuck out his tongue.
"You know, maybe Wilbur has a point." Tubbo tilted his head, "You do act like a child. Man, how have I not seen it before?"
"Keep this up and we won't get popcorn." Tommy huffed.
"No no, I want popcorn!" Tubbo said, eyes suddenly wide with panic.
"Then shut it."
They all gave each other the most serious stares before busting out into laughter.
Ranboo looked at Tommy, "So… Wilbur has the same issue you do?"
Tommy went quiet for just a second before nodding, "Yeah. Sorta." He thought for another second and chuckled, "Hopefully it's not genetic. But uh yeah, me, him, and Dream." Tommy shrugged, "Least as far as we know."
Tubbo was quiet but glanced at Ranboo. The two exchanged glances and it made Tommy’s stomach twist. Of course , they already had some sort of silent way to communicate. No, he shouldn’t get upset, it was his fault he hadn’t been there for Tubbo.
“Actually we have something we’d like to tell you.” Tubbo finally spoke.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Tommy had been so focused on the actual act that he’d barely thought about what they were actually trying to communicate to each other.
“The day you had that bad one and Dream brought you home?” Tubbo reminded him, “I… had something a bit similar happen, I had this vision where I was standing on this wall, and then-” He paused, voice softening. “I sent you away somewhere. I got a really bad headache that first time and… since then they’ve been popping up every once in a while.”
“You-” Tommy’s eyes went wide in shock. “What? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Tubbo had them too, and he didn’t know what else to say. So many questions began to pop up in his head. Were they the same? Did they have Dream? Wilbur? Did Tubbo think they were memories like Wilbur did?
“Because you’d just moved on to Dream because he had them and I didn’t want that Tommy.” Tubbo sighed annoyedly, “I didn’t want you to be my friend again just because I had nightmares like you. If you were going to be my friend again I wanted it to be because you actually wanted to.”
“Tubbo…” Tommy frowned. “I wouldn’t have done that.”
“Well I didn’t know that did I?” Tubbo’s voice came out harsh before he shook his head. “Sorry. Look besides I didn’t want to admit I had them either, I figured maybe it was just stress or something. After the first couple of times… I realized it wasn’t.”
“Right that uh…” He blinked and shook his head. “Do you remember anything else about that first one?”
“There was the masked man, the one you always used to talk about.” Tubbo rubbed his neck.
“That-” Tommy thought for a moment. The sooner it came out the better. Maybe he should talk to Dream first? But if Tubbo was seeing him in the nightmares he did deserve to know, and he’d probably prefer hearing it from Tommy now that they were already talking about it. “That was Dream.”
“Huh?” He stared. “It is…?”
“Yeah, me and Dream put together a while ago that he’s the masked man.” Tommy nodded. “Anyways is, that it? So you go through it too?”
Tubbo glanced to Ranboo who nervously stepped forward. “I do too.”
“Both of you!?”
If Tommy was honest, Tubbo remembering made sense. Ranboo? Not so much. He wasn’t even sure who Ranboo was in the memories. Did that mean they might not be what Wilbur thought?
“Yeah.” Ranboo adjusted his mask. “I don’t have them the same way you guys do, it’s not flashes, it’s like… a flood of a bunch of stuff all at once.”
“Is that it? Anyone else I should know about?”
“Just us big man.” Tubbo assured. “Honestly, Ranboo didn’t even tell me till a few days ago at Sapnap’s party.” He started to laugh. “I guess he didn’t even tell me, I had to sleuth it out myself. Didn’t even realize he was there in some of them at first, since he wasn’t exactly human. He was that black and white creature?”
Well, that explained his previous question. Tommy took a step back. So that made him, Wilbur, Ranboo, Tubbo, and Dream. All of them remembered.
“I-” Tommy tried to think, he did think he remembered something along the lines of what he was describing. “Okay. Okay. That’s just, great. Am I contagious or something!?”
“No, I don’t think weird nightmares are contagious.” Tubbo shook his head,
“Besides I’ve had mine way before I met either of you.” Ranboo muttered apologetically to Tubbo. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it sooner.”
“Hey, it’s alright,” Tubbo assured. “We all know now. I didn’t tell you either.”
Was everyone in his life part of this thing? Before Dream, Tommy had thought he was completely alone, then he made friends with Dream and suddenly everyone seemed to be having the same problem. Had they all just been keeping quiet about it? It annoyed him but, he couldn’t blame them.
“Wait, if you remember stuff.” Tommy asked, looking at Ranboo. “That’s weird, you know Dream but you’ve never met him have you?”
“Oh yeah.” Ranboo took a breath. “I know Dream from the visions.”
“I usually just called that one the masked man,” Tommy explained. “Since the real one’s nothing like that at all.”
“You know, for how often you ditched me for him, you never actually introduced me to Dream.” Tubbo pointed out.
“Huh-” He tried to remember, he’d thought he’d introduced them before. At least more than just the passing hi? “I guess I didn’t.”
“Well, you can make up for that by letting me and Ranboo get a chance to chat with him.” Tubbo grinned, placing a hand on Ranboo’s shoulder with a laugh.
“I mean yeah of course!” Tommy nodded. “That would be great!”
It would be nice, to have all of them to talk to and discuss everything. Maybe with it, he could even try to put together whether Wilbur was right. He didn’t want him to be… and even if Tommy found out he was, he would never mention it to Dream.
“Oh yeah, what time is it by the way?” Ranboo asked.
Tommy glanced at his phone, jumping up when he saw the time. “Shit the movie’s about to start!”
“Let’s hurry, we still need snacks!” Tubbo’s eyes blew wide, Ranboo’s expression one of similar shock.
They ran for the door, Tommy breathing heavily as he showed their tickets and they were let in. He smiled at the bright expression on his friends' faces as they rushed for the snack line, the smell of popcorn filling the air.
Things wouldn’t be normal again, and Tommy knew that. The minute he’d started talking to Dream, he knew that it would cause issues with his family. But just maybe… they could be even better than they used to be.
"Dream, you already know Tubbo." Tommy gestured as they found a bubble tea shop to meet the next morning. They sat inside, the rest of it crowded with other teens. "And this is Ranboo."
Dream was pretty sure he vaguely recognized Ranboo from the nightmares, but he couldn't be entirely confident. There was always the chance he could be wrong.
"Uh, nice to meet you." Dream smiled and waved, "Tommy's said… a lot about you."
"And he's definitely told me a lot about you." Tubbo said in a tone that made Dream feel like backing away. He still remembered his threats at the beginning of the year, and Dream was not eager to find out which ones he'd adhere to.
"It's weird seeing you and Tommy so close." Ranboo rubbed his neck.
"Oh right… you were in one of the dreams about Exile, huh?" Tommy asked curiously.
"You were there?" Dream asked. He didn't remember anything about Ranboo there. Just other moments where Ranboo seemed oddly quiet around him, especially in crowds. He wasn't sure how he felt about someone else knowing about what he'd done in the dreams, especially given how bad exile was.
He shook his head. “Not a lot, and in the visions, I usually went specifically when you weren’t around.”
“Got it.” Dream muttered. “I’m uh, really sorry for whatever I did to you.”
“Dreaaaam.” Tommy leaned back, tipping his drink slightly. “It’d really suck if I didn’t get to have any.”
“Okay uh, I’m not sorry.”
“There we go.”
Even if it was a tad annoying, Dream did appreciate the reminder. He wished it was easier to just trust himself and not feel like he had to apologize all the time, but it wasn’t. There was also that sometimes, it genuinely still did feel like his fault. Sometimes he’d wake up from a nightmare, and he’d just feel guilty all day about it.
“Actually.” Ranboo looked to Dream. “I… appreciate the apology. Even if it wasn’t your fault, the masked man as Tommy’s called him, he uh-” He looked away nervously. “He’s caused a lot of problems.”
“Yeah.” Dream shook his head. “I promise I’m not like that. I would never hurt Tommy- or anyone for that matter, I know I’ve hurt a lot of people in the nightmares.”
Suddenly Dream felt a light punch to his shoulder. “Okay! I’ll stop-”
“Good.” Tommy grinned before beginning to drink. “Oh! This one has the popping boba!”
“Yum!” Tubbo grabbed his drink, taking a long sip from it before looking as if he was chewing for a moment as he passed it back to Tommy. “Eh, fun but could taste better. Why’d you go for watermelon?”
“Oi! You’ve got your own.” Tommy stuck out his tongue and shut his eyes before going back to his drink.
“What flavor did you get Dream?” Tubbo asked curiously.
He raised up his own cup. “Just the matcha one. It’s not bad.”
“Ew grass.” Tommy’s nose clenched in disgust, even as he nabbed a sip of the drink. Afterward, he gave a shit-eating grin with a laugh seeing Dream’s expression.
“Do you think there could be others…?” Ranboo asked.
“What do you mean big man?” Tubbo raised an eyebrow.
He looked at each of them around the table. “I guess just, you know, it’s not like we’re the only ones in the visions. Well us and Wilbur. So, do you think the other people in them could be experiencing the same thing and just not saying anything?”
It wasn’t a thought Dream hadn’t had before. He and Tommy even voiced it more than once. The more people they found, the more of a possibility that everyone had them. Or would potentially get them.
“Dad and Techno don’t.” Tommy muttered. “Unless they’ve been lying to me the whole time too.”
He sighed. “Yeah and Sapnap and George definitely don’t. I also don’t think Foolish does? Though I do remember him coming into my room one night when he was really young because of a scary dream about someone who looked like me.”
“I guess it does seem a bit silly to hope for.” Ranboo admitted.
“Well… it took me a bit to have them.” Tubbo pointed out. “Maybe some of them just need a little push? They might get it eventually anyway.”
“No.” Tommy shook his head. “We’re not going to purposefully spur nightmares in others. That’d be a dick move.”
“Besides.” Dream frowned at him and Ranboo. “If people did remember, this stuff isn’t nice. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Tubbo leaned back with a defeated expression. “You’re right. Yeah, that makes sense.”
There was a moment of silence as the hustle picked up behind them, people wandering around the busy shop. Each of them took a moment to have some of their drink.
“I mean…” Tommy finally spoke up. “It doesn’t mean there aren’t already people who have it, and we just don’t know. We’ve just, got to think of ways to find them.”
“Well, I don’t have any.” Tubbo shrugged, “If the only people we know of are us, then it’s gonna be tough.”
“We can talk about it some other time then.” Tommy shook his head. “And in the meantime, Dream and I can catch you up on what we’ve figured out once we get to his house.”
“Are you volunteering my house?” Dream blinked. He didn’t mind, but he would have to let his mom know before they headed over. They’d probably have to pick up a pizza as well on the way, no way was he going to force her to cook for so many people.
“Hey- it’s the biggest one.” Tommy pointed out. “I don’t think we could all fit in mine or Tubbo’s rooms. Maybe Ranboo’s but it’d be a tight squeeze.”
“You haven’t seen my room!”
“Do you have a big basement like Dream’s?” Tommy asked, raising a single eyebrow.
“...carry on.”
He sighed, pulling out his phone and typing up a quick message. “Fine, I’ll text my mom. Tell her I have to babysit tonight.”
“Oi! We’re the same age as you!”
“You’re closer to my little brother’s age than me.” Dream teased.
Tommy stuck out his tongue again. “I resent that. Maybe you’re just the lame senior who hangs out with freshman.”
“Hey I came here to hang out with you, I could be with my friends at Sapnap’s place right now.” He wouldn’t be, they were both busy that evening with studying. “But I did this for you.”
It really was nice to know he wasn’t alone. And even if they were young, it felt nice to have people to talk to. More than just Tommy. Not to mention his mind kept going back to what Tubbo had suggested, Sapnap and George didn’t have the nightmares. That didn’t necessarily mean they never would.
Dream shook the thought away before looking back up, as Tommy was trying to steal Tubbo’s drink as a ‘trade.’ He laughed. This was good enough for now.