Ch. 18 Solo Route pt 1

I don't have time to think

He decided to follow his gut. Telling others might upset Tommy, and he'd done enough damage already. Going into the multicolor store was underwhelming, to say the least; no one was there. Dream opened one of the many chests to find it empty.

Don't tell me it's abandoned... Dream fretted as he opened more chests, trying to find any sign of life. Further into the store, he'd found bones, which almost gave him a heart attack (if he had a heart), but other than that it was empty.

In the last attempt, Dream looked behind the customer service counter in hopes of a first aid box. A surge of happiness erupted when he saw the red and white box in the corner, collecting webs.

He quickly snatched the box and was off to go back to Tommy. When he got back, he was relieved to find the young man still alive. He'd seen and repaired some pretty bad wounds at his young age, but he'd never fixed a self-inflicted wound.

Do I stitch it up or something? How do I get the rock out of his hand? Dream wondered briefly if he even knew how to amputate the hand in case things had gotten worse. No time to panic.Like all of Gen Z, he pulled out his communicator and went to MineCube, a platform where people from all over the universe could upload.

He couldn't find any video's on separating a hand from a rock, but he found one of a person getting a pole out of their hand, so he chose to go off of that. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't great either, but it was the best the young ghost could do.

After a few hours, Dream didn't know what to do. The black stone was now removed from his hand, but there was still a crater of muscle, blood, and flesh that resided where the stone was. The video did not cover this. Is it too late to call for help?

Tommy, who was somehow still asleep, started to shuffle around, making Dream scared as he tried he best to cling to his hand. Unsurprisingly, Tommy ended up waking up. He opened his dull cerulean eyes to see his hand being strapped to a stick and a spirit clinging to it.

"What the-"

Thirty minutes later and they still didn't know what to do. Tommy was surprisingly calm in Dream's opinion. Although Dream didn't know that he tortured Tommy, or that Tommy has seen his closest friends get stabbed and wounded to near, or actual, death.

Tommy scratched his head with his lefts hand, trying to think about how he was gonna fix this. It hurt like heck but he didn't have the potions to heal it even if he wanted to. He honestly didn't care what happened to his hand.

It was hard for Tommy to stay still, his hand twitching every now and then, causing blood and infection to bubble over. Dream tried to keep a rag underneath it to catch the ✨ forbidden drink ✨ before it stained the floor.

"Why don't you call Mr. Philza? He's your dad right?" Dream asked as he carefully wrapped a cloth over his wound, hoping for it to at least help. Tommy huffed in frustration."Don't even bother. He's been wrapped up in Technoblade ten times over before he ever realized I was hurt. Even Will got to be the favorite before he died, im just the demon spawn that everyone wants to get rid of." He bit his lip after he spoke, trying to hold back tears.

"Tommy, that's not true! He does care, he has to! And even if he doesn't, which he does, I care about you. And Ghost cared about you! And so does Tubbo, he talks about you a lot! You're not evil Tommy, you're a hero!" Dream yelled to motivate Tommy. He realized his poor attempt when he saw Tommy's breath start to quicken.

He tried he pull his hand away from Dream, his body shook as his breath became labored.

"You want to be a hero Tommy?! Then DIE LIKE ONE!"

"No no no no no no no," Tommy mumbled, tears collecting in his eyes before dripping down his face. A poof sounded through the room, fluffy dark blonde ears and a fluffy striped tail popped into existence, or rather rapidly grew from Tommy's body. Dream, who'd seen all of this happen in a matter of seconds, was confused and scared. He wanted to run and hide, but stopped himself from doing so. Why should I run and hide now if I didn't when I hurt him? I need to be brave!

With new found determination, Dream tried to hold the panicking male's wrist down, not wanting to touch the hand that was injured."Tommy? Tommy, are you okay? Please talk to me, I'm sorry! I wanted to help, I swear," Dream cried out, his inner empath made him want to cry too. No, I gotta be strong. He thought, continuing to try and calm the traumatized teen.

He looked around, trying to find anything to calm the thrashing child down, but the only thing he could find was Shroud, which he was sure would be squished. He'd never seen anyone flip out like this other than himself, so he thought: what did I want when I got like this?

Despite the fact that they'd have a lot to clean up, he let go of his hand, which was immediately retracted to its owner. Tommy was visibly calmer, but was still in his own head, breathing intensely and crying.

Dream watched him for a moment, trying to understand what was going on. He carefully floated towards the balled up boy. Tommy was curled into a ball, his ears pinned to his head while his tail wrapped around his frail and damaged body.

Small, cold arms wrapped around the shaking hybrid. Dream, who was trying his best to comfort him, awkwardly started to pat the older one's head. Despite the other being taller, Dream found it easy to hug the teen, who now clinged to Dream rather than fought against him like moments before.

Dream held the upper half of the lengthy boy as Tommy continued to sob; all of the trauma, all of the built up stress, anger, grief, sadness, and anxiety, every pent up emotion he'd been managing for years, all of it broke free.

Although he'd spent weeks grieving for the loss of his brother, he never thought about how horrible the rest of his life actually was. Why did he have to experience this?

These were some of the things Tommy told Dream after he'd calmed down an hour or two later. "I know, I know I'm supposed to be all big and shoot but it's hard! All of my life, I-I feel like I'm expected to be something I'm not! I'm just a person... I have feelings," he explained, now sitting on the floor against the wall as Dream cleaned the blood from the messy bed. His hand was bandages until they could figure out what to do.

"Speaking of humans, what's up with your ears? I thought you were a human?" Dream commented off handed. Tommy realized what he was referring to and slightly shrunk back. Whether it's from being uncomfortable or shy, Dream didn't know and he didn't ask.

"Well... this," he pointed to his tail and ears, "Is actually a big secret that no one really knows about..." his ears dropped back down, the stripes on his ears were more noticeable now that he wasn't shaking or thrashing about. His tail, while similar to his dirty blonde hair, ombré-ed from a dark blonde to an off-white, darker striped ringed around his tail as well.

Dream simply hummed in response, trying not to scare the teen. "When I was young, around 8 or so, they randomly appeared. I was in school. We lived out in the middle of nowhere, but I still walked two miles every day and rode a wagon to get to the village school. It was basic, but shoot. The kids there bullied me because I was the only one that didn't live nearby, whatever the flip that matters, and it got even worse when my hybrid side showed up. Back at that village, hybrids were uncommon and frowned upon. Because of that, I chose to hide my animal side from everyone. It wasn't easy, but it's possible to hide my ears and tail for a short while. Eventually, I grew so used to hiding them it, the only time they ever showed up was when I broke down, which was never in front of people. Dad never found out." Tommy finished as he stroked his fluffy tail, not used to the extra limb yet.

"So, does that mean you're adopted?" Dream asked curiously. "Surprisingly, no. I asked dad about it after I learned to hide it but he denied it. I guess it makes sense considering Wilbur was a human, he was a bird hybrid, Techno was a piglen hybrid, and I turned out to be a raccoon hybrid. He always insisted we were family. Although he also insisted that family wasn't blood, but heart, so who knows..." Tommy replied, trying to think about his past.

"How come hybrids are so accepted now? It hasn't been that long since you were my age." Dream spoke, invested in the blonde's past. "Well, I assume they still are in most places. A lot of hybrids came to the Dream SMP when you created it because it was one of the only safe places for them. That's where Wilbur came, then eventually the rest of our family came, Tubbo followed me, and the rest is history!" Tommy got louder by the ending, but no enthusiasm could be found in his voice, just a dry attempt at being funny.

"Woah, so I was a good guy? Why did everyone not like me then?" Dream inquired. Now he was finished cleaning the bed, and sat Tommy on it. "That's a long story... we can talk about it later I guess, but for now let's figure out what to do about my hand," he replied awkwardly, still not used to the ghost being so kind, or anyone for that matter.

"Ah, right, right," Dream said apologetically while scratching the back of his head. "Let's go to BadBoyHalo's house, he probably has some stuff," he suggested. Tommy grunted shortly, the pain in his hand started to get to him.

"Do we have to?" He replied, stretching the last word out for effect. "Do we have any other choices? We could go to mama I guess, but I'm not sure if she can heal people." Tommy hummed in frustration. He didn't want to tell anyone he is struggling. What would they think of him?

"What about the supplies you used to get Ghostbur's blue out of my hand? Where did you get it from?" He questioned. "Oh, I got that from the store nearby, L'Targay." Dream stated, picking up the first aid.

"Perfect! Will and me stocked all the first aids full of healing pots. That can heal my hand!" Tommy replied grabbing the box from Dream.

"Healing pots? What are those? How do they heal you? Is it like my clock power?" The young ghost asked as Tommy dug through the small case like the trash panda he was. "Darn it! No potions in the box," he sighed as he put the first aid down, making sure not to bother his hand. "Well, potions weren't used much before the SMP started, most forbidden because of stupid addicts and crap. Me and Will made them, among other things, and now everyone on the server uses them," his tail swished agitatedly as he sat back down.

"Ooo cool! How many potions are there?" The spirit questioned back. There was a moment of silence as Tommy contemplated. "Let's ask Bad," he replied, standing up and walking to Shroud. "Good idea!" Dream yelled, zooming to the door.

"Bye shroud," he pet the black spider on his back and walked to the door, his ears and tail disappeared once he got to Dream, who didn't question it.

Dream opened the door and Tommy walked out, closing it behind his since Dream decided to float through the wall instead of use the door. They were on their way to Bad's house when they heard the tell tale scream from the main character's mother.

"Dream! There you are!" Puffy yelled, getting the attention of the duo.

"Ah shoot."

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