"Tommy." Dream's voice curls with a cold kind of smugness, forked tongue behind smiling lips. I push Tommy further behind me, staring down Dream. Tommy clutches my arm, trying to peer around me.
"What the fuck is happening?"
"Nothing Tommy." I grit out. "Go. Now."
"Aw, well, we haven't finished our conversation." Dream tuts, turning back to Wilbur.
"Wilbur? What- what's happening?" Tommy asks again, while I blindly try and shove him away from them, refusing to take my eyes off Dream. He's threatened Tommy's life before and I know he'd probably take pleasure in the opportunity to put him down for good.
"I have a plan Tommy." Wilbur starts off, and I want to slap him, because he knows damn fucking well he's getting Tommy's hopes up for nothing, that what's about to come, pour like filth from his lying mouth, will break his heart. "L'manburg is done, and I'll finish the job."
"He's going to blow it up." I glare at him. "And Dream's giving him the TNT."
"What?" Tommy's voice echoes with shockwaves of horror, hollow and empty and I can picture the shock on his face behind me. "No- no, Wil, you can't- Wil no!"
"It's over Tommy! It's over and I will make sure that they don't use my creation, my L'manburg, for their selfish gain. It needs to be destroyed."
"And you're working with him."
"As I told Rose, we have mutual interests."
"Get the fuck out Dream." I snarl, arms braced across the doorway in an attempt to keep Tommy back. "Don't come here again."
"Or what?" Dream's posture changes, shoulders tensed, pulled back straighter, standing at his fullest height. "You're not in a position to make demands."
"I'll rip out your goddamn spleen, how's that for a fucking demand?"
I swear I can feel him smiling behind the mask. "Don't threaten me with a good time, Princess."
"Ew, Jesus fucking Christ Dream, you're fucked in the head." Tommy gags behind me, stood tensed behind me, having finally stopped fighting me.
Dream tilts his head in the way that is so terrifyingly off putting, it makes my blood chill. "You have no idea."
"Get out." Tommy spits, standing closer so his head looks over my shoulder. Dream turns his attention from him to me.
"You should shut him up." He juts his chin behind me, to an almost rabid Tommy. "You know how I feel about him."
"Don't you dare touch him." I snap. "You've had your conversation with Wilbur, so fuck off and stay away from us."
"I could never stay away from you Rosie." He laughs, like a complete fucking psycho. "You're going to have to offer some... incentives for me to leave them alone."
"The incentive is I won't gouge out your internal organs." I sneer. "You're not funny Dream, don't come near him."
"What about poor little Tubbo?" Dream's voice softens mockingly, and I swear I can hear Tommy's teeth grinding together in my ear. "Honestly it'd probably be putting him out of his misery."
"You think you can win me back by murdering the people I care about the most?" I look over at Wilbur. "This is who you're siding with Wilbur, so don't start crying when you find them all dead. It'll be your fault."
"This is about business, not the past." Wilbur says stiffly, not even meeting my eyes. I scoff.
"Not for him, every single move he makes is fucking calculated, everything you do plays right into his hands. You're a fucking traitor, and you're too blinded to even see it."
"You'll see. You'll see what I'm doing and you'll understand, both of you will." Wilbur sniffs. "Tommy, this is for the best, this is the best thing to do, you will come to learn that. You will."
"Take some words of advice from your great leader." Dream drawls. "Embrace the future Rosie, stop holding onto the past."
I narrow my eyes. "Stay out of it."
He holds up his hands in mock surrender. "God I love it when you boss me around."
"Jesus." I scrunch my face up in disgust. "You are helping a lunatic destroy our home, stop acting like a fucking cunt."
"That's a new one."
"I'm going to kill you." Tommy spits, enraged, scrawny arms flailing next to my head as he attempts to rush at Dream.
"Whoa, whoa Tommy stop! Tommy stop!" Me and Wilbur are screaming, Dream leaning against a wall, too relaxed, too calm. I managed to shove him back, and turn to face the others. Dream nods in our direction.
"Keep him under control or I'm going to fix the problem he's creating."
"Keep threatening him and you're going to have a new problem to deal with."
"Ah I missed this Princess; you, me, and the little death threats you always seem to love, which, have I ever mentioned how hot they are by the way?" He chuckles. "By all means, keep going, because both of us know you could never actually follow through."
"You want to test that theory?" My eye twitches, and my stomach bubbles with a mixture of anger, anger at him and Wilbur and the patronising way he's treating me, and disgust. "And I haven't missed you, get out."
He hums, looking from me to Wilbur and then back again. "As discussed Wilbur, I'll be in touch soon." He turns his attention back to Tommy. "Nice try kiddo, better luck next time. Rosie, I'll definitely be seeing you around. Love you!" He calls out over his shoulder, those awful, spiteful words ricocheting off the stone passageways, hammering again and again and again into my head.
That's when the flood gates burst.
With an infuriated scream, Tommy launches past me, hands outstretched towards Wilbur, a pale blonde blur of bottled up rage descending upon an extremely unprepared Wilbur.
I stumble into the doorway, trying to catch my bearings while Tommy literally jumps on top of Wilbur, skinny arms wrapping around his neck, different limbs flailing off in all different direction s and both of them scream bloody murder.
Tommy's got one arm strangling Wilbur, the other launching a barrage of frenzied punches into wherever he can land one, into his cheek and his shoulder and his chest, legs wrapped around him like a monkey.
"AH STOP TOMMY!" Wilbur yells, a hand shielding his face and the other twisted into Tommy's shirt to try and rip him off.
"I hate you! I hate you! You can't blow it up! You can't!" Tommy screeches furiously, clawing at Wilbur's eyes, while I run towards them.
"Tommy stop! Tommy get off him!" I try and scream, but I doubt either of them can hear me over their own voices. I grip the back of his shirt with both hands and yank as a hard as I can, but he uses his other hand to grip onto Wilbur.
Wilbur screams in pain, and I can hear Niki's footsteps echoing in the background.
"Oh my god!" She says in horror, coming to a stop before us. "What-"
"Help me get him off!" I call out to her, now wrapping my arms around Tommy's waist and attempting to pull him away from a thrashing Wilbur. Niki rushes over, detaching Tommy's arms from Wilburs face and unwinding them from around his neck. We both manage to seperate them, Tommy and I crashing down onto the floor while he writhes on top of me, flailing around in an attempt to break free and attack Wilbur.
"Tommy calm down! Fucking calm down!" I yell in frustration over his unintelligible screams, twisting out of range of his arms and legs, trying to keep him away from Wilbur. He manages to break free of my hold, and we both scramble madly to our feet in a race to see who can get up first.
Tommy does, but I'm barely a second behind him, gripping onto the collar of his shirt as he makes a break for it towards Wilbur, who's back is turned, face in his hands, Niki with her hand on his shoulder. Tommy jerks back with a gag, and I tug him back down onto the ground, standing over him.
"Are you done?" I ask, leaning over to wrestle him onto the floor when he tries to get back up, face contorted in a fury I have not seen in a long time. Not since we watched L'manburg burn, watched Dream torch our lives, watched Wilbur throw it away for his own gain.
"Fuck you." He spits, scowling. "Let me at him Rose, fucking let me go!"
"Are you done?" I repeat, louder, while he thrashes against me.
"No I'm not done, let me go!" Tommy snarls.
"Tommy!" Niki's voice cuts through the commotion, stern and ringing with suppressed anger. "Stop it!"
He stills, looking past me and over to Niki with widened eyes. "He's going to blow up L'manburg Niki." His voice ends in almost a plea.
"We're not going to let that happen, but you can't change it by attacking him." She replies, more gently this time.
"This is what Dream wants, he wants us to fight each other, he wants us to be divided." I tell him. "Don't let him win."
"I hate him." Tommy snaps. "I hate him and I hate Wilbur and I want them both to go to hell."
"I know." I finally let go, dropping onto the ground next to him. "But you can't let Dream win, you can't play into his hands. This is what he wants you to do. Remember what I told you?"
He nods, looking up at the ceiling, anywhere but me and Wilbur and Niki.
"Don't let him manipulate you." I say it anyway. "Hey."
I click my fingers in front of his face but he doesn't shift his gaze. "Hey, look at me Tommy."
He begrudgingly turns his head to the side. "We're going to beat him together, okay? That's the only way we can do it."
"You aren't too busy fucking him?" He says, and it's childish and it's nasty and he only says it to hurt me, so I try not to let the spark of anger ignite.
"I will choose you over him every single day." I grit out between my clenched teeth. "Don't you ever fucking doubt that."
"You can't fight him." Tommy says sullenly. "You say you hate him but you don't, you say you want to fight him but you won't, not really."
"I love him." I admit honestly, placing my hand on his arm. "But I love you guys so much more, and I will kill him if it means saving you, okay? I promise."
"Wilbur promised he wouldn't- he promised and he's going to blow it up anyway." Tommy says, pushing himself upright, leaning his head against one of the smooth walls. "I'm not a fucking kid you can just lie too, I'm not stupid."
"I'm not lying." I lean against him, the two of us sitting against the wall, Niki and Wilbur looking on. I don't look up at them. Everyone is silent. "You over him, every fucking time, no matter what."
His eyes betray the mistrust that clouds them. "You went to him- I don't blame you and I don't think it's your fault, but you went to him. You left."
I cup his cheek, resting my forehead against his and almost light with delirious laughter and the rushing urge to set these things right. "Tommy, I went because he was going to kill you. He didn't just ask me at the village, he threatened to kill you if I didn't do what he wanted. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to scare you. I only went because you were in danger, because you and Tubbo and Niki and Wil are the only people I would go back to that hell for, okay?"
"What?" His voice is so small, and it reminds me why I hid that from him. Wilbur, Niki and Sam know, but none of us could bring ourselves to scare him anymore than he is. The truth is, the psychopathic, all powerful, all knowing ruler of these lands has a special affinity for seeing him dead. No one is going to be able to process that. "Why- why me?"
"I don't know." I answer. I know why it started, because of me and my love and the fact that my existence is a threat to anyone that enters my life, but I don't know why it's him, him and not Tubbo or Niki, why Dream wants him dead so goddamn badly. I think it has something to do with the fact no one has ever been able to crush him.
Dream can't stand that, and now he's made it his mission to make sure he's the one to finally do it. I'm terrified of what he's going to leverage over Tommy's life, because I know that whatever the price will be, I will pay it in full, and Dream's not stupid.
He knows that just as well as I do.
Niki pushes a stunned Wilbur out of the room, his eyes locked on the kid curled up against the wall. I hope this finally shocks him awake, punches him straight in the face and confront him with what he's becoming, the consequences of the actions he seems to hellbent on undertaking.
I don't hold my breath, but it's nice to pretend.
"He's going to- we can't stop this." Tommy buries his face in his hands, whole body trembling. I wrap him up as tightly as I can in my arms.
"We'll find a way, okay? Dream isn't going to touch you and we'll get Wilbur to see some sense."
There's only one of those things I truly believe, but I can't destroy him. I can't. And maybe Dream is right, this is what makes me weak, that I am letting the world in to hurt him, that I cannot protect him like this, but Dream also forgets what love feels like and what family means and I will not crush him like Wilbur and Fundy and Eret did.
Dream's smart, smart in the way he can see into people, like little machines tinkering away in there heads, and he knows what strings to pull, where to grease the gears and what to break to watch them fall apart, slacked jawed robots that follow his command, clueless mice that play right into his hands. But there's a lot of things he still doesn't know.
That's why we could never work, because he will never learn. Never learn that my family is not a weakness, and my love is not holding me back, that these things are what keep me alive and that without them we are empty shells of human beings, puppeted by some basic animal instinct to survive.
I don't regret my love for him. It reminded me that I was still a human, soothing balm on stinging wounds in the dead quiet of night, when the darkness was a suffocating smog of silence, choking me out and crushing my lungs, burning my face red raw from the tears.
It happened and I live with the consequences good and bad, but I also wish it would end. I know who I would choose, but I despise that part of myself that is still torn, a traitor to my brain and the rest of my heart, ripping through my skin and shredding my insides in a churn of indecisiveness and doubt, a turmoil rearing it's ugly head and screaming so loudly I can't hear anything else.
"You can't promise that." The voice is tiny, like this is the first time he's spoken these fears aloud, let himself feel the terror that they bring.
"I'm not letting him touch you." I repeat, for myself as much as him, a mantra that turns over in my head, while I cling onto him in my arms.
The thing about leverage, is that I can make a deal too.
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A/N HELLO!
It's late and I am half asleep so I don't have any coherent thoughts on characters atm, but please, as always, let me know what your thoughts and ideas are, I would love to hear them!!
I hope you enjoyed,
Oopsies x