WORSHIP ( ❥ ) DREAMNOBLADE [Reupload]

16. | BLAND EGO

If only Tommy knew what led to Clay and Dave joining together in the first place. Dave certainly could be a threat when he wanted to be, but in Clay's opinion he was mostly safe. Although, he supposed Dave was a bit like an abused animal; he'd obviously been hurt time and time again in the past by various means and didn't feel like he could trust many people. It wasn't entirely a fault of his own but you needed to be careful around Dave regardless. If you crossed a certain line, he had no problem hurting you or worse; Clay understood that firsthand.

"Phil is... He's a very precautious parent, and he has his reasons to be. There's things to Dave that you just don't see, which you shouldn't see, that Phil isn't a stranger to. I don't even—I don't even know what Dave has truly done in his past, nobody's told me, but clearly it concerns Phil, and I... I've seen little things that are—that are worrisome. It's better to let them work it out on their own and not try to push back too hard. But if you seriously think Phil isn't treating him fairly then tell me and I'll snoop around for you to make sure everything's okay."

Clay felt so awful talking about Dave like that but this was reality. No matter how much he wanted to see Dave for only the positives, there were still negatives—hefty ones.

"Protective over your boyfriend now?" Tommy grinned smugly.

Clay blushed, remembering when Dave nearly said they were dating.

"Tommy, he's not my boyfriend—don't say things like that around Dave. It's... Things are a lot more complex than that. It's stupid adult stuff that you don't need to be worried about, anyway."

"B-But—he obviously likes you! He's so much happier with you around, I can barely piss him off anymore,

there's no way... Techno's just trying to make you keep it a secret, isn't he? Why-"

"Tommy. This isn't something that you need to concern yourself with," Clay said more sternly.

Tommy sighed, realizing this was much a bigger issue than he initially expected. He really thought they were just trying to keep their relationship a secret, but now it seemed like there were a lot of problems that they'd been trying to sort out.

Like Wilbur and Clay, Tommy just wanted to see the poor pig happy.

"I'll keep my mouth shut around Techno. He won't hear anything about dating," Tommy said, crossing his

arms and leaning back into the couch, much more relaxed now.

Clay breathed out in relief, "Thanks... I'll see if I can nudge some things around between Phil and Dave so he can spend more time with you."

"Y-You're not gonna tell Techno any embarrassing parts of what I said, right?" Tommy spluttered, "I don't want him to think I'm clingy or something."

"Absolutely not."

"...Pinky swear."

Clay obliged with an amused smile before he turned serious again.

"By the way, no matter how much you look up to Dave, you shouldn't try and become him. You're your own person, so don't try and force yourself to be something you're not. Even if you and Dave are really similar at your core, you're very different from each other and you need different things. Your teen and young adult years are for finding yourself—don't waste them."

"...Right," Tommy mumbled, "I know they're not going to change their mind about making me train with you, so can you help me with shooting a bow and arrow? That's your thing, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's my thing," Clay laughed.

~~~

"So why aren't you and Dream official yet, Techy?" Wilbur asked now that the more serious part of the conversation was over.