The whole spilling boiling hot chocolate everywhere was solved with a good few minutes of forcing Tommy to get out of the cauldron and into the lake that was just outside of the base. And by forcing, that meant you asking him to get out of your sink, and him snarking back that he liked it there.
You all but had to lift him out of the sink- and he was surprisingly light for such a lanky kid.
He walked the rest of the way, and from there he settled into the water to sooth the burns. They had to have hurt, but he swam around for a bit, and it seemed to keep the burns from being too serious, so everything was okay in that department. Kind of.
When he finally dragged himself out he didn't bother trying to dry off, drenched to know ends but enjoying it.
Then it was off on an adventure for the two of you.
A sword in the blonde's hand, a compass in yours, and the both of you treading through the woods opposite the direction of L'manberg. Needless to say, you still sucked at navigating, but Tommy didn't care that you had no idea where you were going- the whole point to his, 'adventure' was to look for something to do. No real goal in mind.
You had to smile at his antics- through every new woods, and every random plains you'd walk, he light up the environment.
From chattering to you about things he'd saw and done, to taunting random wildlife, it seemed to be a good use of your day. For nothing else if not bonding to someone you would need to trust if battle did break out.
You both went a lot farther then you thought you would, exploring land, gathering random things you'd find, passing questions between the both of you. Tommy especially persistent about what you were...
Eventually you both decided to climb a random mountain before calling it quits and heading back to the base.
It was quite a large mountain, but the both of you fought your way up it. A few close calls with falling, a few poorly timed snowball fights.
But you both stood at the top, deeply breathing in the colder mountain air, wind rushing harshly past the both of you due to the climate.
Tommy in particular seemed to enjoy how high up the both of you were. He didn't voice it, but you saw it. From the smile, and the way his shoulders relaxed-
He felt free up here.
In a sense both of you did- so far away from all the conflict.
You both spent a good ten to twenty minutes lounging about up there, before you, being incredibly overwhelmed by how cold it was, began to insist to leave.
True to the nature of something from the nether- you couldn't stand the cold, and with the heat from the initial hike being blown off your body, you were shivering.
Tommy didn't seem to mind the cold.
"Another ten minutes." Tommy grumbled, looking at your shivering figure, before off the cliffside again.
It was an incredibly steep drop, almost completely straight down. And Tommy persistently wanted to stare over it.
"No- Tommy- If you think I'm freezing my ass off another second here, your wrong." You side glanced the same cliff he was staring down, "Even if being up here is therapeutic."
"Pssh- you wanna know what I think?" Tommy asked, and as you were in the process of saying 'no' he rambled over you, "I think you are just a pussy who can't handle a little bit of a chill."
"..." You squinted at him, "Tommy."
He briefly paused when your voice got serious- panic flashing against his eyes.
"You guessed I'm from the nether, your right- I'm cold. Let's leave."
He groaned. Finally somewhat conceding to your demands, "Ugh- you're such a downer you know that?? Just like Will and Techno."
"All of which have an age gap from you and your child brain." You shot back.
He shot you a half-hearted glare, "Uncalled for."
"Completely called for." You returned, teeth chattering as you stared at him.
The blonde teen looked at your shivering figure one last time before sighing and saying, "Fine fine. Let's go."
Finally.
You couldn't wait to get back into a warmer climate.
Away from all the snow, and hopefully sitting on a rock to soak up sun.
"I bet I can beat you to the bottom." Tommy jousted, and you turned to look at him.
Without any farther prompt, he just-
Jumped off the edge???
Holy shit-
Fuck- what the fuck does he think he's doing-
You chased after him, feet on the edge of the sheer drop, watching his silhouette grow smaller-
You couldn't waste a second of time- but what were you even going to do to help?!
You were already jumping off the cliff by the time you swallowed the fact that Tommy jumped, the feeling of falling- with absolutely nothing to catch you sent fear tingling down your spine.
You had to reach Tommy- if for anything else to cushion his fall-
But you had no time to react- whizzing right past his form- with a dead drop of speed you weren't anticipating.
He fell slower.
Oh.
..
Oh...
You barely had time to look back to the ground to see how close you were to landing- because the moment you saw the earth, everything was black.
..
....
..
It was hard to focus back into reality. Extremely.
The fact that you weren't breathing was the first thing you noticed.
That's always the first thing you notice.
That's also the first thing always fixed.
Your chest tightened, as did your throat-
You were so close to the surface of the water- except there was no water, and the moment you breached past the surface tension, your lungs heaved out, and your body shuddered as though a defibrillator had been pressed to your chest.
Breath filtered through you.
You were breathing-
You were alive.
Feeling came second. Every breath harshly revitalizing everything that hadn't been moving.
In your skin, in your bones- you felt them shift, felt them re-experience the world and how it worked.
The blood in your body pumped-
You were alive.
The thump of your heart was testimony to that fact.
Lastly, your eyes opened.
Blurry. And unfocused. And barely moving.
But open.
The blur of a sihoulette was above you. A person.
A teenager.
Someone you had met just recently.
You focused in on his face, seeing his blue eyes red with tears that he had been rubbing away.
The world behind him was just as you remembered, the tip of the mountain visible from your place at the bottom.
You were alive.
You were in a real world, with real people.
Sitting up, you looked to Tommy- seeing his shocked eyes scan all over you, and your face, and anything that may give him a clue as to how you're okay. And not dead. And not still laying motionless on the dirty gravel filled mountain base.
"(Y/N)?" Tommy shakily croaked out- refusing to break eye contact, eye brows furrowing.
"Why did you jump like that." Was the first thing you replied with, and your blurry eyesight catching his indignant look of surprise at the retort.
"What do you mean- 'why did I jump like that-' are you insane woman! I- you- my bones are-" Tommy fumbled with all of his words, frustration bubbling up onto his face and forcing more tears to his eyes that he roughly wiped away, "Do you know how traumatizing it is to see someone you more or less started to hang out with- lifelessly lay on the ground?!" His voice was breaking. Not out of sadness, but disbelief.
"What do you think I felt when you just jumped off like you did?" You shot back almost immediately.
He shut his mouth, roughly wiping his eyes again, before flopping his back into the dusty gravel.
No words.
Just his occasional quiver and you trying your best to think of how to console him.
"Are you hurt?" You asked.
"My bones are lightweight- and when I spread my body out enough I can parachute myself- I only have a few scratches."
"Can I see them?"
Tommy lifted his head just enough to shoot you a glare, "Why do you care so much?"
That.
That admittedly hurt.
Hurt because he questioned your integrity, and hurt because someone as young as him seemed so convinced that people had a hard time caring for him.
It shouldn't have hurt you, but emotions were weird like that sometimes.
Instead of withering in your own sadness, you just swallowed and answered back with a hesitant, and soft, unusually parental tone of voice, "Because believe it or not Tommy, you're a lovable kid."
Tension was thick.
And you settled for looking at your hands to try and settle your nerves. Clench them into a fist, release. Clench. release.
Breath in, and out, shallow, and weak, but there.
When Tommy shuffled over you were expecting a snarky retort, but the scuffed up arm was held in your direction instead. In a quiet tone he muttered, "I am pretty lovable. aren't I."
You nodded in agreement, gently grabbing onto his skinny arm to look at the skin. It looked like this arm hit the ground first- gravel scrapped into the wound, small dribbles of blood leaking from the torn skin.
It wasn't bad, like he said, but it had to have stung.
"You still need to be more careful Tommy."
Your scolding had him gasp in disbelief again, "Me? ME???"
This time, the frustration wasn't nearly as tough as before, merely underlining the jab he took in your direction rather then leading it.
"You were the one who DIED."
You slipped the bag off your back, reaching a hand in and digging around while you replied with, ".... Alright- you have me there- but what was I supposed to think? Was I supposed to assume you could just gently fall down?"
"I did tell you I was a hybrid- so yes. Yes you were."
Pulling out a water bottle, all you did was shoot Tommy a squinted look as you dumped water all over the scuffed parts of his arm.
He returned the squint, and you broke the squint off by rustling around in your bag again.
You could tell he was staring at you. Mostly out of disbelief.
While you grabbed the gauze you caught him in the corner of your eye roughly wiping at his eyes, again.
This clearly affected him more then he tried to let on.
Layers with this boy, you had to remind yourself. Layers.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" You asked, setting the beginning of the gauze on his arm and pulling it flat.
When he didn't answer, you opened your mouth to say something else, but were quickly cut off by him.
"You weren't moving." Was the first thing he said. He was incredibly serious right now. The complete opposite of how he usually acts.
"I was still coming down, and I saw you hit the ground and you weren't moving." The half laugh that came from him had no humor.
...
You didn't look him in the face. Giving him space to try to communicate to you as you slowly and carefully wrapped the gauze around his arm.
"When I finally came down, you weren't breathing either- but you were still- I don't know- there- which only happens if..." He trailed off, voice cracking- and you didn't need him to say more to know what he meant. The first two lives you loose, your body goes back to wherever you last slept- or a safe place- but on your last... it stays exactly where it died.
"So of course I checked your lines- I checked your pulse too, but the lines are more important- but when I looked you didn't have any- anyone could assume the worst- you can't blame me for assuming what happened happened, you were a literal corpse-"
"God-" He muttered, "The corpse of someone I had just met who I had bothered enough to force them on a babysitting adventure with-"
The action of tightening the last of the gauze on his arm made him stop rambling, mouth drawn in tight with frustration and embarrassment- he looked as though he hated showing anyone this side of himself.
A kid shouldn't have to be scared of talking about their emotions.
Instead of replying properly, you threw an arm around his shoulder for another awkward half hug- an awkward half hug that only seemed to occur when addressing Tommy.
"I understand."
Those two words were more then enough.
Both of you sat for a good while, covered in gravel and dust, Tommy occasionally quivering.
Eventually, you both seemed to settle though. Settle on the fact that you were clearly buddies, and would clearly have each others backs even though the both of you met literally two days ago. You, probably in a more parental way- it was hard for you to not fill that role when you knew what a good parental figure should be like.
But regardless of roles, you were buddies.
Tommy broke the silence first.
"Are you gonna tell them that I jumped off the cliff?" He asked, "Wilbur doesn't like me doin' fun shit."
"Depends. You gonna rat me out for not having lines?" He considered what you said, glancing to your arm, which true to what you said, was completely blank. You shrugged the sleeve that had been pulled up back down over it, concealing the skin and looking at Tommy's thinking face.
"...Only if you give me more hot chocolate."
Cheeky little bastard.