The Right Thing
‘The logs here are enough, I think.'
Tommy stared up at tall, stripped logs with the awe of an artist who cherished every step of his work he thought of as larger than life. The development of Logstedshire was in its infancy, but oh, did Tommy adore it so far.
His finger drifted along smoothened birch on a wall and pocketed a few oak plank chips on the other hand. Tommy was sure Logstedshire could get a few more interior renovations. No one built Rome in a day, after all. The stripped wood semi-protecting the barrels inside was enough for now.
Though Ghostbur helped Tommy find the right wood, the boy took it upon himself to finish it up to his tastes, to change the area from being too spacious for its width. Instead, he transformed it into a camp-like structure, well-closed off from any mobs and having plenty of space to walk around and kill time. Even for Logstedshire’s existence as more practical than not, it was a place Tommy would accidentally call a castle for its varying heights of stripped logs. They added character, volume, and fresh air, and Tommy had to give himself props for its design.
Plus, if something ever happens to his tent, like Dream destroying it for some baseless reason, he could find shelter in Logstedshire's walls.
The tent wasn’t exactly “fine.” His tent has seen better days with its moth-eaten wool cloth hung from pole to pole. Even more fuel to the fire, his single blanket threatened to unravel from a single string pull.
'I’d have to shear some sheep while Ghostbur isn't looking.’
A temporary fix, Logstedshire would house Tommy when needed. On the brighter side, it’d ferment any escape routes he plans. He found it hard to believe that Dream would take the time to open every chest and barrel - there were too many to do so patiently - to take his things. Tommy didn’t keep anything suspicious in the barrels besides globs of blue dye and various construction materials.
Before any building material was placed, Tommy and Ghostbur spent much time discussing how to start building Logstedshire; then, chopping trees and mining for resources to share consumed more time than back-and-forth planning.
Luckily, Ghostbur helped plenty to build Logstedshire; gathering wood seemed to be something he enjoyed and did well in. Ghostbur was good at collecting most things, and Tommy wondered how cluttered his bag looked; the ghost's bag was probably smeared blue in their pockets.
He probably would like his bag all blue-stained and oily, anyway.
‘Ghostbur’s into some weird shit, man.’
The containers at the entrance were most convenient: a quick in and out to pick up some torches to go mining if he had the energy, or he could get some stuff to renovate the place. The barrels were as handy as the ghost who crafted them. Even with so many constructed barrels and Ghostbur’s shamelessness, Tommy found there should be no reason for each barrel to have at least a quarter stack of blue dye.
Tommy crafted an oak sign, carefully placed it onto a barrel, and wrote a single, short, and overly-familiar word: “blue.” Of all the blue dye handed by Ghostbur that Tommy encountered inside every barrel, Tommy set them in the newly specified container and sighed.
“I need to tell Ghostbur to put them all there if he wants to keep gathering this ‘blue.’” Tommy mumbled to himself. He reached into several barrels and gathered as many intended building blocks as he found, setting them into a barrel with the sign “not blue.” The boy rummaged through every barrel stacked atop each other one final time in search of cobblestone and found nothing at all, much to Tommy's annoyance. There went his chance to make a well-blocked-off chest room.
‘Great, absolutely fucking nothing. I'll tell Ghostbur to get me cobblestone so I can make it later.’ Cobblestone or not, in Tommy's eyes, to build Logstedshire with anything but stripped logs would lose the point of its being.
“Logstedshire is nothing without my beloved logs. It's in the name. First three letters. It's not ‘Bluestedshire.’” he irritatedly spoke aloud.
Either way, the boy wanted to spruce the place up and go beyond the average model of a standard, wood-enclosed fortress. Logs and barrels weren't enough to make up Logstedshire, nor were its quick-to-rot walls. He decided he'd eventually make a chest room. Or pillars. Or a garden.
Well, anything to make the area less bare.
‘Maybe I can make a cabin nearby if I feel daring.’ Tommy chuckled, ‘But I don’t think Techno or Phil would appreciate me copying them.’
In the middle of Tommy's indecisiveness, a group of crows flew past. One broke off from the murder and perched on the Prime Log. The crow’s head cocked to meet Tommy's, and the boy flinched at the small, beady eyes meeting him.
“Oh,” he gasped in surprise, “Hey, little guy.”
The crow bobbed its head, cawed once, and pecked curiously at the Prime Log.
“O-kay.”
The crow sonorously cawed once more and hopped about the oak log.
“I’m gonna pretend like you’re not here.” Tommy pressed his lips. At that moment, Tommy was bewildered. He didn’t believe in superstitious omens too much, yet maybe a crow jumping around the Prime Log as if it owned it had to mean something or some divine message.
Tommy shut a barrel closed and turned to peer over his shoulder. He expected the crow to have stayed there, but it was gone. The log peacefully sat there without some bird pecking and jumping around.
“Okay, fine. Even these birds leave me to suffer here. Shit, man.” Tommy huffed and approached the Prime Log to run his fingers along its rough bark.
A good luck charm to Ghostbur and Tommy both, the boy couldn't start his day positively without touching the Prime Log. Two ground rules he made when meditating on the large piece of wood: no fixation on stressful thoughts and no self-degradation. Tommy felt that by keeping the two rules in mind, he wouldn't let Dream boss him around this time. Just a boy, his log, a silly ghost, and Dream's bothersome appearances Tommy had to push through with.
‘I won't let that bastard do some weird mind fucking to me today. I have to wait it out until he's gone.’ He pondered and tried to simplify his exile into predictable expectations, but that was until he hacked a cough and vigorously patted his chest with a hand. Although the incident with Dream was several days ago, Tommy felt dirty water continuing to burn his eyes, throat, and chest. If Tommy squinted his eyes hard enough, he swore he could feel muddy dirt particles moving about his eyelids. And if he closed his eyes, he could still sense the weight of Dream’s hand stroking at his dick.
In the previous circumstance, it was with withdrawn disgust and shameful pleasure that Tommy shuddered. Now, Tommy shook in a newfound quiver of rebellion in his bones.
‘Whatever Dream wants to do today, I'll say no to that degenerate. He's not getting into my head today. Not anymore.’
He gripped the Prime Log for some stability, for his coughing distraction and pain knocked him onto the ground. Tommy's arms wrapped around the giant chunk of oak, and he stumbled back to his feet. He had to channel all his fear and anger to fight back against Dream, to reclaim his autonomy and self-sufficiency, and to not let him get his guard down.
A closed-off part of him craved freedom from the individual fact that he was starting to get sick of staring at the man’s mask for endless minutes. Never had Tommy thought a piece of plastic with three black marks was unsettling. He thought the fixed smile was more disturbing; it was the only thing he could focus on as Dream did his dastardly doings. The same went for hearing his voice of indifference switch into various tones to disarm and misguide Tommy’s distrust.
‘If I do speak against him, he'd slap me or hang me off a tree. If I don't and instead obey like a little bitch, he'd take advantage of me.’
Tommy's fingers drummed against the Prime Log in hesitation. A pause of equal time in the wind and his thoughts.
‘It’s better if I just stand my ground. What Dream did to me was…’ Tommy's search for a word to describe Dream's assault did not last long, ‘Cruel… Come on. Don’t think about that, don’t think about it, don’t…'
The pressure in Tommy’s chest and the muffled sounds of Dream’s coos returned to Tommy in short-lived, back-and-forth spurts. To ground himself, he shook his head and breathed deeply, clutching onto the Prime Log to reassure himself of the present peace. And for the better, there the sun was: it peeked out of some clouds, and a blinding flash to his eyes disrupted Tommy’s worsening thoughts. Feeling a slick object in his palm, Tommy immediately jolted his head down.
“Oh, fuck-” he panted, “thank goodness, it’s just blue. Ghostbur probably plopped it on my hand and ran away.”
Ghostbur's endearing innocence and carefreeness were unheard of. Ghostbur was one being, but the person who was once alive and is now dead? The two were vastly unalike. No, Wilbur would scoff if he met Ghostbur. He’d trample on the ghost’s blue dye and shove him into some lake to melt him away.
‘Is it even possible for the two to even meet?’
The ghost of the man whose death brought multitudes of conflict for Tommy had little clue of who he was the ghost of. Wilbur, the previous president, was drunk with selfishness and threw away his people from his lack of power. Wilbur, Tommy’s older brother, betrayed and exploded a nation he and Tommy long worked for. Wilbur, the corpse buried six feet below ground, had no sunrises left for him. Days and days have passed since, but the sight of a destroyed L’Manberg and a sword poking out of Wilbur’s torso haunted Tommy.
And it reminded the boy to keep going and fish a way out of the island.
‘I can't lose my sanity like he did. I didn't fight alongside Wilbur and have everything we worked tirelessly to get destroyed for me to be stuck here, all so his ghost can watch me get worse by the day here.’
Suddenly, Tommy heard his “favorite” agitating and not-entirely grating voice, that of Dream’s mellow notes from behind Tommy’s back.
“Hello, Tommy. I like what you’ve done to the place. The barrels are interesting.”
Tommy diverted his focus on the Prime Log’s wooden rings to glare up at Dream’s mask. “Fuck off.” he spat.
Dream scoffed and ran a finger along the side of one of Tommy’s cheekbones down to his jaw. “Snappy this early? I complimented your build. I think it looks good. It's not a reason for you to be rude. Tommy, be honest with me. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or...?”
Tommy twisted his head away from Dream’s finger and scowled. He muttered, “More like I woke up on the wrong side of the server.”
Dream slowly shook his head, and a finger of his free hand dragged along the side of his netherite axe’s blade. “Mm, no; this is the right side. You're supposed to be here. You’re fully aware of what you did and why it’s enough to justify you being here. If I have to remind you every day, so be it.”
Tommy faux-whined, “‘Mm, no,’ this is the wrong side. I don’t belong here. Maybe you do, since you’re so fucking rabid.”
Dream stepped forward to Tommy, and his hands moved around his axe’s handle. A warning. “Are you mocking me? Don’t sass me, Tommy. I brought food for you, and I can easily revoke it if you keep acting like this.”
“I don't need your food, not anymore. There's nothing much I can do but do just that, to act like that, eh, Dream?” Tommy’s tense straightened back was unfaltering as he kept his gaze on the bottom of Dream’s olive-green cloak, falling above the tops of his boots. He followed behind Dream shortly, his “walk of shame,” and the man walked to an open, grassy spot, one away from Tommy and Ghostbur’s builds.
A chuckle came from Dream, and he switched his axe in place for the shovel in his bag. “Sure, yeah. But there is a lot I can do, like this,” Dream got to briskly digging soil into a wide ditch. Upon completion, he set the shovel into the ground, dusted his hands off, and returned his axe to his hands. “Let's see what goodies you've found so far.”
‘Fuck my life.’
“No, I’m not dropping my armor this time or ever again. I earned it. It took so long to find iron without getting jumped by those stupid skeletons. Y’know what, I’m not dropping anything at all."
“Tommy.” Dream sternly warned yet again.
“What?”
A swing of Dream's axe sliced at Tommy’s right thigh, and the boy stumbled into the grass with a high-pitched yelp. “OHHH, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,” Tommy allowed his panicked mind to speak for himself and slid off his armor. Each armor piece cracked as he dropped them one by one into the hole, and he slapped a hand over the opened yellow flesh of his thigh as he stood up.
‘So much for defending myself from that arsehole.’
Dream gestured his axe blade towards the pit. “Thank you. Throw in your sword and axe. I know you have them on your person."
Tommy applied pressure to the freshly made wound on his leg and stared down at the broken iron armor in the ditch. “I don't have a sword.”
Dream lowered his axe and kept a steady hold with a single hand. “Sure you don’t. Just drop them.”
“But th-they’re my things.”
Dream’s voice held a more playful lilt as he repeated, “Just drop them.”
Tommy turned his head to plead face-to-mask with Dream, his face softening into the weakness of butter, “Dream, please, you don't need to do all of this.” From behind the boy, Dream’s hand moved to rigidly squeeze the boy’s cheeks together and reoriented Tommy’s face to overlook the pit.
"Juuust drop them in, Tommy.”
‘There’s no way around it with this goddamn bastard.’
Reluctantly, Tommy slid off his then-bloody hand from his thigh to reach for his sword from his bag. He slowly let it slip into the pit. It took him even longer to throw his axe in.
“There, happy?” Tommy grumbled between Dream’s thumb and fingers.
“Very, thank you.” Dream sardonically patted Tommy’s cheek and pulled his hand away to grasp his axe’s handle. “Do you have a flint and steel?”
“What, you didn't carry your own shit? Came a little unprepared, didn’t you, Dream?”
Dream took hold of his netherite axe, and the playfulness of his voice switched into something to generate fear from, something as sharp as his axe. “I won't ask again. Just give it to me. Unless you want me to make your undamaged leg match cuts with the one I just wounded? Oh, and by the way, I didn’t bring any bandages. There's nothing for me to cover over the gash with for today. My apologies, it’s all my fault. But I told you not to sass me, and you don’t listen. So stop trying to inflict pain on yourself, Tommy. I've told you time and time again that you're just hurting yourself more by acting this way. Now you’d have to wait until I visit you next time for more bandages.”
“You’re using them all ‘cause you keep getting into fights like a little bitch, aren’t you?”
Dream proclaimed all cocky, “Says the most neediest person on the server.”
Tommy felt heat rise on his cheeks. ‘That’s just simply not true.’ Tommy fibbed to himself.
“I- what- I- L-Look, that doesn’t even matter! You’re wasting time keeping me and hurting me here. It’s not doing anything. It’s not ‘improving’ my behavior - not that I need improvement - so why don’t you tell Tubbo to end it with his ‘powers of governance’ or whatever and return me where I belong? I'm not changing any time soon.”
“Because this is part of his governance, and on this island is where you belong. That's precisely what President Tubbo declared. You will follow his ordinance, Tommy. He said it's the safest and most rational thing to do to prevent war, and by following through with his word, he did prevent war. So what if your ‘best friend’ isolated you here? I mean, I would also be pretty angry, but I didn’t know you were one to question your ‘friend’s’ authority in the first place. I thought you supported your country.”
Dream's snarl at his last uttered word brought Tommy's mouth to open and close in vain attempts to find his words. Tommy rambled, “You know what, Dream? I’m sick of listening to you, y-you, and your dumb, weird, stupid, d-dumb rules and control tactics! It’s all futile and pointless! I’m staying the same whether you like it or not, and you, not Tubbo, are trying to keep me in this- bubble or something. Well, tough news, it’s gonna pop, a-and-”
Dream set down two TNT blocks into the ditch. “Haha, okay. You clearly don't get it, so I’ll make you come to grips with what I told you in the only way you can.” Dream swung his axe once more, and the skin on Tommy’s other thigh gaped into a wider crevice of yellow and pale pink. Tommy winced and threw his bag into the grass in a frantic search for his flint and steel. The second he found it, the boy passed it to Dream and covered his mouth with a hand to stifle a painful groan.
‘Evil son of a bitch.’
From the spark of a steel strike, the ignition of TNT made the bombs shake around the objects in the ditch, and Dream dropped the flint and steel along with the other things. He boarded up the explosion away from Tommy and walled an arm over the boy’s chest, pushing him backward.
The ‘kaboom’ of his disintegrated things had Tommy frozen as he stood with his hands over his thighs to stop the bleeding.
'There went hours of searching for iron and diamonds gone.’
Dream's arm dropped, and he moved his head from its viewing down to rubble towards Tommy. “Huh. Anyway… What are you planning on doing today? There's lots you can do around here.” Dream's unfazed shrug and the carelessness he heard from him despite injuring Tommy and destroying his things frustrated the boy.
Tommy sighed. “Finding more iron to smelt and turn into armor, I suppose.”
Dream stood still with his axe behind his back and cocked his head sideways. His voice switched to that tooth-rotting sweet tone, “All for me to explode the next day and the next, over and over again? Aw. Tommy. You shouldn’t have; it's the best gift I can ever ask from you!”
‘Crazy psycho.’
A relaxed voice grew louder, and the intense stench of cedar cologne drawing nearer permeated Tommy's senses: both sound and smell belonging to Sapnap. “Dream, why don’t you just leave the poor exiled man alone,” he faced Dream, his fists disapprovingly against his hips, “You’re rubbing it in his face.”
Dream breathily laughed. “Yes, exactly.” Sapnap dropped his arms to his sides, and dark brown eyes exaggeratedly rolled away.
Slowly, Sapnap’s downturned frown twitched upward. “I mean, hah, that’s pretty cool.”
‘What the hell is up with this one?’
Dream broke into guffaws and hugged himself amidst Tommy's exasperated gasps. The boy stuttered in shock, “You, bitch, you- fucking- Oh, you- Sapnap, you fucking snake. You're the biggest side switcher I know.”
“Tuh, whatever, Tommy,” Sapnap sat back on his haunches along the grass, and he rested his arms over his knees, “You forget that I'm best friends with Dream.”
“You're forgetting that your ‘best friend’ said he doesn't care about anybody or anything about a couple of days ago!” Tommy exclaimed.
Sapnap’s neck nearly snapped in a glare shot at Tommy. His fingers tapped at his knees as he defensively worked himself up, “Oh, hush, you know nothing about Dream. I’m not gonna argue with a child - I’m not like this one.” Sapnap pointed a thumb in Dream’s direction.
Dream sighed his leftover giggles away and shifted his weight from one leg to the other in anticipation. “I wouldn’t need to argue with him if he just listened to me. Insufferable is as insufferable does. He’s under my control, don’t worry.”
“Yeah, well. It doesn't look like you're doing a good job.” Sapnap drawled.
Dream made a sound of false offense. “Wow, I'm hurt. If you think you can do better at training Tommy, be my guest.”
Tommy waved his hands to Dream's mask and Sapnap's face. “Okay, guys, I'm right here. So don't pretend like I'm not, and stop talking shit about me, it’s rude.”
Sapnap shifted his stare from Tommy's thighs, weeping crimson, upwards to Tommy's hand. He casually slapped his hand onto Tommy's palm to high-five the boy. “We're not talking crap. We're talking about the current political and economic state of the server. Super important things to discuss, actually.”
“Okay, well, I don't care, only you two do. Sapnap, if you're here to talk politics and administration, go take Dream away. Otherwise, what the hell are you doing here, man?”
“Hm, Tommy,” Dream trailed off, and he extended his hand to intertwine fingers with the boy’s, “you're not getting rid of me that easily. I just arrived. And Sapnap's not hurting anybody, don't mind him. I can handle him being background noise.”
Tommy's corners of his mouth pulled tight into a grimace at Dream's hand in his. “What does ‘as I work’ mean?”
Sapnap’s eyebrows stitched together the second his eyes flickered up to meet Dream and Tommy’s touching hands, and his lips tightened in an emotional mess of disgust and confusion. He indignantly retorted, “How am I ‘background noise?’”
Dream slid his hand off Tommy's to withdraw a leather pouch from his bag. Apparently, he paid no mind to Sapnap's question as he singled out and sweetly answered Tommy, “You know what it means, Tommy. I always take care of you when I visit you. Each and every time. And I won't stop doing it just because you want to play around and insult me. Sit down on the grass. You look exhausted.”
Tommy wiped the hand Dream touched onto his shorts. “Nah.”
“Oh, come on. Sit down, you're already hurt. You don't have to keep adding any more injuries to yourself. I'll give you a choice. It's your call if you wanna hurt yourself like that.”
‘There’s something in it for him.’
Tommy surveyed Dream's wide-bladed axe resting loosely on the side of the man's leg, the very thing that grazed his legs and nearly chopped them from the rest of his body.
‘Not that I want to get hurt anymore.’ Tommy mentally weighed his options, exhaled a breath of resignation, and took small steps to sit criss-cross against fluffy grass.
“No, Tommy. On your knees.”
Sapnap jeered, “Okay, Dream, that’s kind of a weird request to make to that child.”
Dream's legs hid the other man from Tommy’s attention by his standing in front of the sitting Sapnap. “Do it, Tommy.”
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck. This is gonna go so fucking wrong.’
Tommy hesitantly slid his legs apart from one another to rest his weight on his knees. “Is this good, or…?”
“Good.” Dream pulled out a small tube of ointment and a magenta-colored vial. “Just this once, Tommy: reach into my bag.”
When he heard Dream giving him permission to touch his pouch, Tommy felt something uncontrollably itch in his mind. “Why?” The question was thrown into the air as Tommy waited for an answer and received none. Desperate for some response, the boy urged, “Sapnap, say something!”
Sapnap’s attentiveness switched from picking at his nails to the brown bundle Tommy held between his hands. “Uh, something. I dunno, I guess listen to him, jeez. You’re torturing yourself by stalling every second and having all that tension build-up. I’m just as curious as you are, so open it.”
Afraid of what would jump from the pouch, Tommy bit his lip and leaned away as his hands unraveled and delved into a bag. What he pulled out was nothing harmful nor evil: he held a single piece of steak. The steak alone was not threatening, but to Tommy, he thought the most harm-motivated person he knew, Dream, could corrupt something as small as a stick.
“It’s not like I had a bomb in there.” Dream joked, staining his fingers with ointment and magenta liquid. “Go ahead, eat.”
It was too good to be true for Dream to let Tommy feed himself. “I already have food in my barrels, thanks.” the boy lied.
Dream swooned, “Oh, Tommy. You shouldn’t have told me that. I'll look through your things when we’re finished for the day. Right now, I want you to eat up. Or do you want me to feed you?”
'Damn him, he’s taunting me with food, of all things.’
“Woah, woah, woah, what?” Sapnap laughed uncomfortably, “Did I hear that right?”
Dream paid no mind to Sapnap’s commentary. He crouched to Tommy’s level and began to smear his fingers along the blood-dried cuts of Tommy’s legs. Tommy closed his eyes and, for comfort, he rubbed a thumb over the grooves of the steak. Every now and then, he winced an “ow” when his wish for what was happening to be over was interrupted by stinging pain.
“Don’t worry, I’m almost there.” Dream gently reassured Tommy as he dabbed the wounds with a few more bright drops staining his pale fingers.
“Huh?” In a few seconds, Tommy’s eyes perked open at the cooling sensation in his thighs, no doubt from the ointment. The feeling wasn’t painful; it almost felt like his skin was sewing itself into simple scarring. So it was: the blood clots fell off Tommy’s thighs, and the wounds’ openings closed up in themselves. What was left was large, covered, and raised pink skin.
“Huh, indeed. That was surprisingly faster than... Anyway, you still haven’t eaten like I told you to.” Dream snatched the cooked meat from Tommy’s hand and ripped it into pieces. “Keep your mouth open.”
Sapnap wretched, “Dream, what the hell… Why are you doing that? He can feed himself.”
“There’s a lot of things you’d be surprised that Tommy can and can’t do.”
“Dude, what does that even mean?”
“You’ll see.” Dream placed his fingers under Tommy’s chin, and he stroked at his bottom lip with a thumb. “Push your jaw down for me.”
Tommy stared up at the two black circles on the white mask. “No, Dream, that’s stu-” Dream’s speedy fingers popped a chunk of steak into Tommy’s mouth, and Tommy rushed to gobble the piece up.
“See what I mean?” Dream turned to Sapnap, “He always falls for it, but he’s even faster at eating. Starving isn’t exactly fun, is it, Tommy?”
‘I know damn well that bastard has the biggest shit eating grin under that pussy mask of his.’
“You bi-” In between Tommy's curse, Dream interrupted Tommy with the rest of the steak bits shoved down his mouth.
“And he keeps doing it! You’d think he learned by now not to, but he can’t stop talking.”
Sapnap tried to hide his concern over the boy with what little he could, wringing his hands and staring down at the grass beneath his boots. “Hey, Dream, isn't this too much for him?”
“‘Too much?’” Dream cackled, “Maybe you're just too little. What happened to you doing things in the name of justice? Nothing is ‘too much’ if the person you’re doing ‘too much’ to threatens everyone's peace, yours included.”
“Yeah, but that’s different. You’re crossing Tommy's boundaries, not to mention he’s just a kid.”
“Hm. Sapnap, why are you hard?” Dream’s words shocked Tommy into choking mid-swallow, and the man buried his fingers into Tommy’s curly, greasy hair to hush him.
Bashful at the observation, Sapnap stood up and covered the tent in his pants with folded hands. “What the hell, Dream, why are you even looking down there, you pervert?!”
“You’re hard, and I wanna know why. Is it because of Tommy here?” Dream purred, “He hasn’t been touched properly in weeks, maybe months, since his big brother died. Don’t you wonder about how tight he’s gotten since?”
‘How did he know me and Wilbur...’
“Don’t talk about me or Wilbur like that, you sick fuck!” Tommy yelled. With the little fight he had left in his system, Tommy pulled Dream’s hand in his hair away, no matter the sting of his hair being pulled.
Dream clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Bad choice, Tommy.” The boy struggled against pushing Dream’s hand away, but the short twist of Tommy's wrist let Dream break free and grip Tommy’s. Dream threw his bag onto the grass, one of his hands fishing for a lead. His grip on Tommy’s wrists never wavered, and he yanked them behind Tommy’s back.
Tommy’s breath quickened in panic at what was coming, eyes blown open. He pleaded, “Dream, o-okay, yeah, you win, we can- fuck- f-figure something out, let’s talk this out! P-please, come on, don’t-”
“This little attitude you keep giving me isn't going to help you in the long run,” Dream snarled, tightly winding the lead against Tommy’s wrists and securing it against them. “It won’t now. It won’t ever. I’ve warned you several times.” The rough leather dug straight into Tommy’s wrist bones, and he felt his hands flash back and forth from stabbing pain into static. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he couldn’t think or speak; he felt a growth of numbness in his wrists and anger in his veins. He forgot that Sapnap was there and watched the entire thing play out.
Until the other man spoke, “Do you… usually do this to him?”
Dream barked a laugh. “Not usually to punish, but he’s been the biggest headache today. So why not treat him like one and destroy his annoying little tantrum away?”
“‘Not to punish?’ Dream-”
“Sapnap, you're over-exaggerating on me here. This is fine. You’d be surprised at how much he can tolerate. I’ll let you take him from behind. You’ve been so on edge recently that I think you deserve a treat. Regardless, he’ll like it, and you’ll most certainly like it. Trust me, it’s a win-win.”
Sapnap turned his head left and right in suspicion. “What if someone finds out?”
“I won’t tell if you won’t tell. This can be our own little secret. No one has to know. And if Tommy went around telling people what we did, well… Who would believe some child who nearly began another war by blowing up a king’s home?”
“This is so wro-”
“Do it for George. You told me yourself you would back him up no matter what happens. Now’s your chance to prove that, unless you're just another unloyal defector working against our king. Going once, going twice.”
Sapnap opened his mouth and swallowed. Tommy’s cheeks were wet with salty tears from pain, rage, and shame, but they meant nothing to Sapnap at the moment. If Dream hadn't toyed with the other man's ideals, Sapnap would have never responded, “You know what, Dream? Let’s fuck around and find out. But you say this to not one soul.”
Dream watched Sapnap walk behind Tommy, and he undid the clasp of his green cloak. With more careful motions at his pants, Dream sprung his stiffened cock free.
Dream dried Tommy's tears with a hand, and he murmured, “Tommy, you made me do this. This'll make you reconsider trying to fight me any longer. Don't make this any harder than it needs to be. Lean towards me.” His hand left Tommy's face to fondle his cock’s base with cold, tear-wetted fingers.
“Dream, stop, please, you don't have to do this if I won't defy you anymore, plea-” Tommy sputtered, yet Dream stuck his thumb in his mouth in time before Tommy could continue begging for mercy. Dream pried his jaw open and tapped the tip of his penis against the boy’s bottom lip. Tommy's oily mouth from having eaten the steak seconds ago allowed Dream’s cock to smoothly slip into the boy's mouth.
‘Ew, ew, ew, ew.’ The weight of the penis on Tommy's tongue nearly brought Tommy to vomit, and Dream hasn't even pushed himself entirely in.
Dream gasped, “Ah, f- Tommy, hold on, j-just, stay still, hah,” his hand flew to the back of Tommy's head and gently brought Tommy closer to his base, “I need to do this mh- more often. Come closer.” Tommy knew Dream wouldn't have even let him do it on his own, and a push of his head made Tommy both take in all of Dream and rest against Dream’s groin. At that exact moment, Sapnap sloppily unbuttoned Tommy's shorts from behind and slid them down, along with the boy’s underwear.
‘Dream can rot in hell, he’s so fucking disgusting for starting all of this.’
Dream’s cock twitched in delight at Tommy's slick mouth. “Tommy, s-stay still, okay? I'm not asking you to suck. All you have to do is stay there and look pretty. And don’t even think about biting me.”
Tommy shivered as a blast of wind blew goosebumps into his skin, and the stress of something prodding and then stretching him out made Tommy’s lips press and squirm against Dream's length.
Dream carded his fingers over Tommy's hair, tossing and turning strands as he groaned, “Mhmmm, yeah… Keep going in, Sapnap. Make him scream on me.” One of Sapnap’s hands held Tommy’s tied wrists high up the boy’s back, and one hand gripped at a hip for stability.
“Shiiit…” Sapnap panted. He angled himself with Tommy’s ass and kicked a leg atop a boulder to eagerly dig deeper down Tommy’s hole. He murmured, “He feels too good, I just got in, and I already wanna come. Why didn’t I agree to do this sooner?”
“Shut up. Don't make me regret giving you the choice to fuck Tommy.” Dream grumbled, his words stuck between clenched teeth audible behind his mask.
“You’re missing out, Dream… No wonder Wilbur was up his pussy when he was alive. Wonder how he fucked Tommy in the caves.”
“Well, he’s gone. You can't really do that when you’re dead. Sure, it's unexpected how Wilbur’s ghost came out, all wimpy, but it’s very much preferred.”
Sapnap paused his movement. “Don’t bring Ghostbur into this. He’s different from Wilbur.”
“Sure... Do you think we’re offending Tommy?”
Tommy was stuffed with Dream in his mouth and full of Sapnap in his rear. Sapnap shoved himself further up Tommy’s clenched anus, and Dream stayed still as he carded gently through the boy's curls, pacifying his loud whines with his dick.
“‘Offending Tommy…’ I'm not the one who fought, ah-” Sapnap pivoted in and out of Tommy as he taunted, “tooth and nail to make a nation.”
Tommy writhed in agony the more Sapnap pushed his wrists against his back to hunch him closer to Dream’s abdomen. Dream’s hips maintained their steady idleness and held back a thrust, even with Tommy’s gagged whimpers and cries on Dream’s cock. To keep his cool, Dream restrainedly addressed Tommy, “Let alone the current president of that nation having you exiled.”
The boy had believed his mind closed off as much as his body did from the two men sandwiching him with their penises. Not that he was able to respond in the first place.
Sapnap caught on to their shared “conversation” with Tommy. “I mean, seriously, it's as if you don't think before you act. No wonder Tubbo doesn't come to this place, it kinda sucks here. He never even mentions you. Are you two even friends anymore?”
A thrust into a bundle of Tommy’s nerves sent him into a state of alarm, and his tongue trembled against the dick in his mouth in muffled squeals.
“Shhhit, Tommy...” Dream whimpered at the vibrations of Tommy's mouth. “You- ah, embarrassed him.”
“And not to mention your humiliation of George. He- shit- he can't even have his little cottage in peace. Are you gonna blow up the community house next?”
“That's why I'm keeping you here. S-So...” Dream cleared his throat, “So close. It's to prevent things like that from happening. You'd hurt everyone else. You interrupt our peace with your troublemaking.”
Sapnap choked as he laughed. “This is kinda fun. I didn’t th-think Tommy would be this tight; you were right. You know what? We should invite George, give him a day off from rule to ruin you, Tom-”
It took a nanosecond for Dream to interrupt with a firm “no.”
And with Dream’s short response, the two fell quiet, besides Sapnap’s groans and skin slapping as he rocked his hips against Tommy’s. The boy’s voice wore out from all the shrieks and whines. All he could focus on was Sapnap’s snap of his hips. In and out. In and out. In and-
Through it all, Tommy thought Dream’s rigid stance, of the thing in his mouth, of Dream’s influence over Sapnap was more concerning than Sapnap being balls deep into his asshole. Tommy has seen people lose themselves to being drunk off power - hell, he lost a brother because of ambition - but he knew Sapnap would snap back into reality, eventually. Tommy figured Sapnap would return to what the man rightfully believed was morally correct, and he’d reflect that this was the complete opposite of what was right. He had to push the man into understanding that Dream coerced him into doing what he was currently doing and what Dream would keep doing if Sapnap didn’t try to stop the man’s assaults on the boy.
Tommy had a hunch that George would never allow this to happen.
‘Why do I have to be the one to knock some sense into Sapnap?’
Dream shattered Tommy’s thoughts when he ordered Sapnap, “Okay, that’s enough.”
“No, I wanna keep going,” Sapnap tiredly thrusted, “I’m almost, ah- almost there!”
“Sapnap.”
“Dream, please, a little while longer.”
“Hold it in like a big boy and get off him.”
“No, wait, Dream, o-one more minute or ah, something- fuck, you two are gonna drive me cra-”
“Sapnap. He’s not yours anymore; it’s time for a one-on-one with him now. Be thankful I let you do this.”
“‘One-on-one.’ Fine, thanks, or whatever.” he grumbled. Sapnap dropped Tommy’s bound wrists and reluctantly unsheathed himself from Tommy. He tucked his dick away in his underwear and secured the belt on his pants.
“Tommy. Lick me if you promise to behave.”
Finally, in what seemed to Tommy to be forever, he generated a coherent thought, ‘Christ, this is so obscene.’ The tip of Tommy’s tongue tapped at a vein on Dream’s cock, and Dream’s pelvis shivered. He withdrew from Tommy’s mouth and scratched at his scalp. Dream's movements were gentle and without rush, just like Tommy liked it.
‘At least he didn’t pull my hair this time.’
Dream’s buttery-smooth voice soothed the jitters in Tommy’s body. “See what I had to do to get you to listen to me? I would have never had to do this, and you could have avoided it if you didn't make a fuss over nothing.”
Tommy made circles with his stiff lower jaw and rasped, “‘m sorry.”
“And?”
“I should’ve listened to you from your first warning.”
“And?”
“I promise I won’t fight you again.” A lie. Tommy hoped he could get away with it this time.
Dream slowed the scratching at Tommy’s scalp, and the motion caused him to flutter his eyes shut. “Good, Tommy. I’ll hold you to it. You did so well for me. You’re a great fit.”
If Tommy said he didn't want Dream’s praise, then Tommy would have lied to himself.
‘Oh, finally, thank fuck.’ Tommy thought as he felt the gradual untightening of the lead off his wrists. The lead slid off, and Dream stashed it away into his cloak.
“Thank you.” Tommy mumbled and trailed his thumb over his red-scraped wrists. He turned to look at Dream, as a puppy would awaiting further instruction, but the man stood still again, facing towards Logstedshire’s entrance.
‘Uh oh. Maybe Dream and Sapnap- Ohhh, right, Sapnap.’
“Sapnap,” Tommy massaged his jaw and shamefully lowered his face, “Can I… Talk to you?”
Sapnap was in the middle of rubbing his face and hid his expression of disgust. “Uh, yeah, shoot.”
“No, I mean…”
A voice in Tommy’s head resonated, ‘Don’t look at Dream.’
With his head still hung low, Tommy cleared his throat. “Sorry… I meant privately.”
Dream never turned around from his fixed view on the wooden building. “Oh, you wanna talk with Sapnap here ‘privately?’ Is that so?"
“I won’t cause trouble, I swear.”
“Sapnap, I trust you enough not to mess any more with my project.”
"‘Project?’” The two asked in unison.
“Don’t make me regret it.”
“Yes, sir!” Sapnap cheered, and Tommy’s tightened frown told Sapnap all he had to know of the boy’s being unimpressed with him.
Once Dream’s stroll led him far within the walls of stripped logs, Tommy grabbed a hold of Sapnap’s shoulders and gently shook him. “Why don’t you ever think for yourself, man?” Tommy’s voice lowered.
“I literally do; you just never notice. You’re always trying to find the smallest thing to get mad at.”
“Shhh! Be quiet, Sapnap,” he lightly smacked the back of his hand on the man’s chest, “You think following Dream’s lead to…” Tommy uncomfortably sucked in a breath, the stinging of his anus reminding him of the act already, “You know… Is thinking for yourself?”
Sapnap whispered loud enough for Tommy to hear, “I thought for myself by making myself do what he said.”
“That’s not-” Tommy rubbed his face with his hands in frustration at the sight of Sapnap holding a dazed stare, “Ugh, that’s not thinking for yourself. You’re letting yourself let him make all your decisions. You’re still obeying him like a dog, like you’re one of his many disposable bitches.”
Sapnap huffed. “Hey, don't call me that.”
“I wouldn't have to if you didn't do what you did moments ago.”
Sapnap grinded his teeth in guilt, and refused to meet Tommy’s gaze. “Oh, that... Uh... Fuck, Tommy, you don’t undestand how fucking horrible I feel now. The second he kept telling me on and on to do it? I'm sorry, Tommy, it's like I don't think, and I start to do stupid things whenever he's around me. My mind blanks out, and I get all, like, dumb? I don’t know how to describe it. What I did was inhumane, now that I have a clear head to think about it. Look, no hard feelings, but when I was doing it, all I thought was George, not purposely hurting you or trying to prove a point. I was mad that you blew up my best friend's house, not because you blew up that of a king that I can control. That's what makes me different from…” Sapnap's eyebrows and chin flashed towards Dream, who sporadically rummaged around some barrels.
‘Sapnap's post-nut clarity be damned.’
“Hey, man, I get you’re- what?” Tommy’s face pulled back in surprise at Sapnap’s news.
“Dream isn’t- Look, Dream isn't really all that into George being our king. He only cares about George for the sake of ‘working along with him,’ or so he says. But Dream doesn't actually do that. He holds George’s hand and essentially babies him in everything. I haven't commented about it at all to them, but it's getting worse by the day. I want to, though.”
Tommy had many questions but had so little time to ask them all. “What? So you're saying that Dream rules over George and tells him what and what not to do? And what do you mean by ‘getting worse by the day?’”
“George throws these, uh, fits whenever Dream leaves the main area of the server. Especially when Dream leaves to visit you. George thinks Dream gets bored with him and he sees no reason for Dream to see you. They’re already under a tough strain, but believe me, behind closed doors? George has never ranted this much to me over Dream, and it’s not pretty. It's like he’s jealous of you.”
‘I hope that’s not the case.’
Tommy tugged at the gauze of an arm. “What exactly do you two talk about?”
Sapnap sighed. “Tommy, I’m not telling you, it’s confidential. What George pours out to me, I’ll lend a listen. What I will say is that he wouldn’t find it pleasant at all if he heard his boyfriend rapes y-”
Tommy shook his head wildly, and his hands trembled as he clutched his arms. “Don’t. Tell. Him. Please. Dream would hang both you and me with the same rope.”
“I wasn’t going to.” Sapnap hesitated to place his hands on Tommy’s arms to reassure the boy but chose not to touch him. “I won’t. I swear on my mother. If I told George it'd only confirm his suspicions. But, Tommy, you’re trapped here for Prime knows how long, and if I told him, he'd want the exile to last until you die. Do you wanna know the best advice I can give you from what I know about your duration? You’ll be here for long, so make the most of it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah, I know, stuck in this torture island. It's why I need your help. I'm trying to get ba-”
Sapnap turned around in time to catch Dream approaching the two and hissed to the boy a “don’t” with the shake of his head. He quickly looked over at Dream with a guarded expression.
“Haven’t even noticed that there…” Dream muttered under his breath, then redirected his attention from the nether portal to Tommy. “So… You’re planning something, aren’t you, Tommy?”
‘Fuck.’ Suddenly, he forgot everything that Sapnap said about Dream and George seconds ago. All he could do was peek behind his hands up at the hooded, masked man.
That, and he felt fear course through his mind in waves. “N-Nooo.”
“Tommy.”
“Just wanted to explore the nether, is all!”
“No. That’s not the entire story. You can’t fool me.” Dream gripped at one of Tommy’s wrists. “How about a field trip to share with us what you’re trying to do?”
A group of crows crowed above in flight, and Tommy's reflexes chose his body to freeze. Sapnap remained silent and walked beside Dream, who dragged Tommy along.
“Alright, c’mon.” Dream gave the boy a light push into the portal. Familiar sights of red netherrack, random land on fire, lava-falls, and sounds of weeping caught his attention from his sudden change of environment.
“Oh, hey, Tommy!” a high-pitched voice croaked.
“Hi. How do I put this... Send help.”
“Oh, you need help? Why would you need help, Tommy? How can I assist-” Ghostbur stepped back at the sound of boots jumping off from obsidian. “A-And, look at that, it’s your best friends, Dream and Sapnap!”
“Yes, hello, Wilbur,” Dream carelessly greeted and pointed at a bridge connecting the portal to another. “You made that?”
“No, I didn’t. All credit to our favorite builder, Tommy!”
‘Damn you, Ghostbur.’
“Well, then, shall we?” Without waiting for a response, Dream marched up the bridge. Sapnap followed him shortly, and Ghostbur accompanied Tommy as they lagged.
“Are we having a party?” The ghost whispered straight into Tommy’s ear, and Tommy flinched at his icy breath.
“It never really is one with Dream around.” The boy saw the server's shared nether portal, and a small smile crept onto his lips.
‘Maybe I can make a run for it.’
Tommy caught up to the others in a slow jog, overhearing Sapnap's conversation with Dream, “I keep forgetting we have a Christmas tree.”
Tommy perked up and felt his cheeks grow hotter in envy. “You guys have a Christmas tree up?”
“Yeah. By the community house.” With gradual movements inside his green cloak, Dream withdrew a dagger. As usual, Tommy would be the only one to have caught Dream's act.
‘The portal is right there, I can just go in and run as fast as fucking possible. But I’d get hunted down and…’
“Are you going to kill me if I go in?”
Dream placed his hands behind his back and earnestly responded, “There may be a chance I do.”
Sapnap pulled Tommy away and mumbled, “Dude, just go in, go, I'll block it ou-”
“Sapnap, you're just trying to get him killed. Step away from him.” Dream's quiet approach of Tommy caught the boy off guard, and so did the arm around his chest that pulled him away from Sapnap.
‘I could leave right now. If I pushed Dream off…’
Sapnap’s eyes squinted and un-squinted at Dream and perplexingly asked, “I want him to see our Christmas tree. What's so bad about that?”
A louder tapping of footsteps had Dream's head turn towards the bridge. Ghostbur waved at the other three excitedly, and once he caught up, he looked at the portal and said, “Oh, Tommy, you have to see the Christmas tree! It's gorgeous ; it lights up nearly the entirety of the server. I think you can get blind, but that's okay; getting blind from it is worth it.”
Tommy deliberately curled a hand over Dream's arm and kept it still. If he were compliant, then Dream could let him in. “Dream, please let me see it.”
Dream indifferently replied, “All of you know the rules. Tommy's not to enter server boundaries.”
“Oh my Prime ,” Sapnap groaned, “In and out, Dream. Looking at the Christmas tree surely won't hurt him.”
‘Christmas tree this. Christmas tree that.’ The repetition of the very thing that made Tommy feel left out brought shocks of insecurity and jealousy. The idea of Tubbo ordering to put up a tree and the thought of the others decorating it with bright smiles and having loads of fun made his blood boil.
Sharing smiles. Of course. Dream wouldn’t accept it any other way.
‘Why wasn't I sent some kind of tree?’
“How about…” Dream paused as he pretended to think, “Wilbur takes a photo and gives it to Tommy?”
Like a teen, Sapnap whined, “Ghostbur snapping a pic is much more different than Tommy looking at it in front of his eyes. Let him in, Dream.”
“Either I let him in and kill him, or you enter the portal and go back home. You wouldn't let me kill a child , would you, Sapnap?”
Cornered into a wall of deceit, Sapnap threw his arms in the air and hastened a few steps towards the portal. Before he entered, he addressed Dream and Ghostbur, “You two coming or what?”
Ghostbur twisted and turned the strap of his instant camera with one hand and questioned in complete ignorance, “Oh, is Tommy not allowed to go in? Am I supposed to be giving him a souvenir?”
“Something like that.” The lilt in Dream's words and the creepy, slow turn of his head to stare at Tommy made the boy want to fly off the bridge into lava. “Go on, Wilbur.”
“Okay!” Ghostbur hopped into the nether portal with Sapnap, and his voice echoed through the purple shine. “Dream, come join us.”
“I want to see it.” Tommy's face was a dejected, downturned thing.
Dream placed a hand on Tommy's cheek, and his murmuring to Tommy made him feel a slight tinge of comfort. “Don't go in. I'll be back with the polaroid.”
“Dream…”
“I'll be back.”
And with that, Dream joined Ghostbur and Sapnap on the opposite side of the portal, leaving Tommy to his own volition.
There he was: in loneliness, abandonment, and-
“Man, Tommy, you’re missing out, the Christmas tree’s awesome! It gets even better the more I look at it each time I walk past it!” Sapnap giggled.
A high-pitched British echo bounced off the obsidian portal’s corners. “Back so soon, Dream?”
‘Tubbo?’
A deep breath in and another breath out. “TU-"
Ghostbur spoke loudly over Tommy’s near-yell, “Oh, hey, Tubbo! We’re taking a photo for Tommy to let him see the tree.”
No other voice came out of the portal, but that was until Tubbo solemnly declared, “Right. Make it quick.”
‘He didn't bother to ask about me?’
“Okay, uh, here’s the button. Dream, why don’t you stand in front of the tree?”
“That’s one of the best ideas you’ve ever had besides blowing up a country.” A compliment to Ghostbur and from Dream, of all people. And it was one that Ghostbur would poke and prod curiously at from the repeated news others have told him of "supposedly" destroying something Tommy worked for.
A small part of Tommy wished Dream would praise him again. The part of him that missed the scritching of his scalp, a soothing voice, and gentle touches. Not dug-up pits. Not threats of sharp netherite. Not having his face shoved into muddy water. Not to be groped and fondled. Not to be offered as a one-time, rapeable stress toy. Not to be taunted for his abandonment, of being a boy with a log and a ghost.
More echoes of giggling and cheers snuck into Tommy’s ears.
‘It’s not like they needed me to have fun in the first place.’
Yet, Tommy was stuck there. Standing at the edge of the bridge. Staring down at lava. Holding a compass that led him nowhere near home, and instead led him to who he thought of as some selfish president.
‘If I burn like a star, will they love me then?’
Tommy’s foot reached over the bridge, and his body shifted forward before he prepared himself for a final leap, but an arm pulled him backward into Dream’s chest, away from the edge.
Dream closely held onto Tommy and whispered lightly into Tommy’s ear, the mask nearly touching the side of his cheek, “It’s not your time to die yet, Tommy. I don’t want you to give out on me like that. I need you alive.” Dream massaged his fingers against Tommy’s shoulder, and the touched area tingled.
‘Is this what it is to be comforted?’
Tommy faintly mumbled, “It’s never my time to die."
That’s true.” Dream uttered. “I got your photo. Would you like to take a look?”
‘Stupid fucking tree.’
Tommy sighed a “sure,” and Dream presented a white-bordered polaroid a couple of inches close to the boy’s face. An enormous green pine had an assortment of multicolor ornaments and warm white lights hugging the tree with the standard golden star at its peak. Up close was Dream standing just below the Christmas tree with his dagger held loosely beside his thigh.
Tommy took the picture from Dream’s hand and hunched over it, analyzing every detail.
‘He looks dif-’
The mask on his face was pulled slightly upwards.
Dream’s mask was…
The mask covered all but his mouth and chin. Dream’s smile was blurred - no, he was barely about to smile for the camera. But the distorted twist of his lips and the flash of white, sharp teeth was enough for Tommy to know Dream had fun. Dream was having fun taunting and hurting Tommy like this.
Tommy couldn’t believe the automatic words that escaped his lips. “You have a nice smile.”
“Hah, thank you. Y’know, Tommy, you should smile more often. I always liked yours, but you’ve known that.” A pause. “It’s funny. I’ve heard faking a smile makes you feel better.”
Tommy wanted nothing more than to try to scratch Dream’s one-third-exposed face in the photograph away. He turned to look up at Dream and asked skeptically, “To ‘fake a smile?’ A smile as wide as yours?”
“Hm, yeah. I guess so.”
Tommy dropped his head and glanced at Dream's face in the polaroid one final time.
‘Hope I don’t see this photo of actually-smiling Dream in my nightmares tonight.’
Tommy recognized Dream's passive contentment in his voice, which served as a clue to the man’s now-hidden grinning, “Smile as wide as I did, Tommy.”