BLIND | DreamSMP

VIII - Father and Son

"Can you please look at me Tommy?" Phil asked, keeping his tone as gentle as he could.

Tommy shook his head, refusing to meet Phil's eyes. New tears spilled onto his cheeks, the response to the simple request confusing Phil even more.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"No."

Tommy's voice was weak and strained, the denial half-hearted.

"What happened? Why aren't you in exile?"

This time there was no response.

"How did you find this place?"

Again, Tommy remained silent.

"Will you at least look at me?"

And Tommy finally did look, lifting his head to gaze in a defeated manner at Phil.

But he wasn't looking exactly at Phil.

Instead, Tommy was staring at Phil's right ear, his pale blue eyes unfocused and empty of expression.

The sight unnerved Phil; it didn't seem real. Following some unknown instinct, he moved his hand towards Tommy, waving it slowly back and forth in front of the boy, who didn't react to the motion, continuing to stare blankly. Sharply inhaling, Phil drew his hand back and gaped at Tommy.

"What-- how-- can you not see me?" Phil spluttered, astonished and confused.

Another tear trailed down his face, and Tommy roughly wiped it away, sniffling as he did so.

"N-no," Tommy half-whispered, ducking his head back down.

Techno, who had retreated to a corner of his room to avoid the emotional moment, jumped back into the conversation.

"What do you mean, no?! You're not blind!"

The second comment had been meant sarcastically, but when Tommy didn't counter the jab as he usually would have, Techno's face fell, eyebrows knitting together, perplexed by the situation.

"Tommy, can you see anything?" Phil asked, a sense of urgency lowering his tone. 

"No," Tommy said, shaking his head. "Not since a few hours ago."

"What the hell does that mean?! What happened to you?!" Techno demanded, raising his voice. Phil was too shocked to reprimand him for yelling. 

"There was a potion-- Dream told me to drink it, even though I didn't want to, and i-it-- it--" Tommy rushed through his words, stuttering before trailing off.

"Why would Dream make you drink a blindness potion?!" Techno shouted, bewildered.

"I don't know; he wanted me to, so I did."

"How long-- is it permanent?!"

"Dream said he had an antidote."

"Then let's go find Dream and ask him to give you the antidote!"

"What makes you think he'll want to give it to Tommy?" Phil interjected, rising from the bed and beginning to pace back and forth, ruffling his wings in a thoughtful manner.

Techno opened his mouth to dispute the question, but promptly closed it when Phil continued talking.

"You don't blind someone with good intentions in mind. And you also don't do it for no reason. If Dream blinded Tommy, he obviously did something to anger him. Dream isn't going to hand this antidote over just because we asked."

Phil turned to face Tommy, about to continue, but his next words died on his parted lips.

The boy looked absolutely miserable, wrapped in an old ragged blanket that frayed at the edges, unwashed and stringy hair hiding his eyes but not concealing the bruises and cuts that peppered his calloused skin.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on Tommy's slumped shoulders, and while Phil would have liked to continue discussing how and why he had been blinded, the sky was steadily becoming more and more gray, stars fading into the lighter hue, and Tommy seemed to be only half-awake, leaning further into the comforting embrace of sleep by the second.

"We'll talk more tomorrow," Phil finally said, compassion overpowering his curiosity.

"But--" Techno protested.

"Tomorrow," Phil repeated, a sense of finality seeping into his tone. "It's late, and I want to get some sleep."

Techno huffed and marched over to his desk, gathering the ruined books and papers into his arms before storming downstairs.

Phil sighed. Techno was worried about Tommy as much as Phil, but he wouldn't show it; Techno rarely displayed emotions other than boredom, disinterest, or anger.

Phil swung open the lid of a plain wooden chest laid at the foot of the bed and grabbed two extra blankets, one tan and fleecy, the other a knitted quilt.

"You can sleep here, alright?" Phil said, stacking the blankets next to Tommy.

"Okay," Tommy mumbled, shrugging off the blanket he had been wearing.

"I'll find you another pillow and some water. Me and Techno will be downstairs if you need anything else."

Tommy simply nodded, flashing Phil a tired but grateful smile.

Shifting onto his side, Tommy wiggled under the bed sheet and pulled two of the blankets up to his chest, eyes already closing. The sight made Phil chuckle quietly, reminded of when Tommy was little and had to be tucked into bed with a glass of milk and a story.

As he turned to leave the room, Tommy called out softly, stretching his hand in Phil's general direction.

"Phil?"

"Yea?"

"Thank you."

Phil smiled and picked up the lantern that had been left flickering by the bookshelf, turning back to look fondly on his son before beginning to climb back downstairs.

"Goodnight Tommy."