This is for my new son Clay. I hope this makes you smile today. anconix_

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     The first thing Tommy noticed was that he was warm, covered in a thick blanket and in a big soft bed. He snuggled into the pillow under his head with a shaky sigh, he can't remember ever feeling so comfortable. All he'd ever managed to make for himself was a thin floor palette, or just slept in the dirt in a ball by a dying fire he was too tired to refuel. Even when he moved back to town, and then in with Tubbo all he'd had was a thin mattress and scratchy blankets. He was grateful of course, it was better than sleeping in the dirt with just Wilbur's old trench coat, but he still didn't get the most sleep.

     Everything else came after. The gentle silence, so much better than the constant growl of zombies and clattering of bones. There was an outside source of warmth shining on his face, he blinked his eyes open, expecting the sun, but he was greeted with a Shroomlight. He forgot those things radiated heat. He usually hated nether blocks, but the warmth was nice.

     Eventually Tommy remembered where he was and the comfort that surrounded him became suffocating. He kicked the blankets away and practically fell out of the bed in his haste. He was panicked, but he still made almost no sound, conditioned to not call attention to himself, especially when he first woke up. Months of seeping under the stars and having to watch for mobs literally 24/7 gave him good instincts if nothing else.

     Tommy immediately took in his surroundings. He was in a bedroom, it wasn't huge, but it wasn't suffocating either. Just big enough to feel open, and just small enough to still feel cozy, and safe. There was a plush grey carpet under his feet, the matching bed he had scrambled from was big, and round? He had expected to wake up in a room that was all green, well he hadn't exactly expected to wake up in a room at all. He thought Dream would have just left him in the library or woken him up. But he was in a dim, red and grey room. There was a mushroom light casting warm light over the bed, and some unlit redstone lamps. The room was nice and dim, perfect for sleeping.

     One wall had a wardrobe, and a big bookcase, filled top to bottom with books. It was crazy how many cows probably had to die for all the books Dream had in his house. There was a sky light, but it was dark so they were either so far underground the sun couldn't reach or it was night time. Being underground usually made Tommy very uncomfortable, but here in this room he felt right at home, and he hated it.

     He marched over to the door, and as soon as his feet left the carpet and hit the cold wooden floor he realized his shoes were gone. He looked down, terrified he was going to be missing all his clothes and armor. His clothes were fine, his leather armor however was gone. First Tommy started looking for his shoes, and he found them pretty quickly by the foot of the bed. After that he started ransacking the room, if Dream was going to take his shit he was doing to take all of Dream's shit.

     He quickly found that there wasn't really much to take. It was just a normal bedroom with normal stuff in it. There were some basic cotton clothes in the wardrobe, and all the chests and drawers were filled with school supplies and other everyday things. There weren't even any weapons, save for the axe Tommy had in his inventory. He was glad he still had that stuff, logically he knew no one but him could get into his inventory, but he wouldn't put it past Dream to find a way.

     Tommy eventually gave up and slowly crept out of the room to go find Dream and demand his armor back. He wasn't going to say a word about their conversation yesterday, or a few hours ago, who knows how long Tommy had been asleep. Maybe Dream had drugged him or something. The only thing he wanted to do was get his armor and go home to Tubbo. Sure it wasn't all that great looking at it from a distance like this, but it was better than being here with Dream.

     Tommy slowly crept down the hallway, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sound. He remembered the hall from Dreams tour, he'd asked about it at the time but Dream had just waved him forward, "Oh there's nothing back that way, it's a new addition for storage."

     Tommy felt an uneasiness pool in his gut, why would Dream tell him it was storage if it was bedrooms? That's a pretty dumb thing to lie about. Tommy was lost in thought as he made his way back towards the main area where he'd entered from. Dream had told him there were a lot of different entrances because he used to travel a lot of different places. He'd been shown so much of the base, but he still felt like there were plenty of secrets left. As he got closer to his destination, he began to hear voices. As he got closer though, he realized it was just the one voice.

     "-foot on the brake, at the light I don't notice, I sit and wait until the next song."

     Tommy carefully peeked out from the corner. Hed5 never heard Dream sing before. He'd heard about it from Karl and Quackity but he didn't think he'd be any good.

     "20 hours in an old van, up the east coast, through the cold wind. Drove 20 hours by the ocean, up the east coast, what a road trip."

     Tommy watched as Dream floated around in his kitchen singing softly. He wasn't alone though, there were two parrots on the counter bobbing their heads to him. A bright green one, and a vibrant red one. Curiously Tommy crept closer, what was Dream even doing?

     "Now that interstate is paved with memories of a past life I lived when I was 18-" Dream whirled around to his parrots, he froze when he saw Tommy, something fell out of his ghostly hands clattering to the ground and the parrots scattered, shrieking in fear. "Oh my GOD! How long have you been standing there?!"

     Tommy bit back his laughter, and instead tried to play it cool. He crossed his arms and glared as Dream floated up to where the parrots had flown to, trying to calm them.

     "Where's my armor, Dream?" The ghost didn't even look away from where he was carefully stroking the green parrot. He waved his hand vaguely off in a direction and Tommy rolled his eyes.

     "Dream. I wanna go home." That got the ghost's attention. If Tommy didn't know any better he'd say Dream looked disappointed.

     "Oh. Already? I mean, I thought you want to stay and talk more ya know?"

     "What's there to talk about? All the shit you dumped on me yesterday, doesn't change or fix anything you did. I'm not gonna be your friend just because you claim to be my Dad in some past life." Tommy spat, stalking off towards where Dream had waved his hand. He didn't get very far before Dream was floating in front of him.

     "Wait! I know that, I didn't tell you all that stuff expecting you to forgive me."

     "Then why tell me at all then? Why bring me here, I have shit to do back home I'm not gonna be at your beck and call anymore."

     "I just thought you had a right to know. And, I was kind of hoping for your help." Dream added slowly. Tommy blinked. Not many people came to him when they needed help. And whenever they did he usually ended up getting the long end of someone's sword.

     "No." Tommy didn't even hesitate. Dream rolled his eye.

     "Oh come on now, you don't even know what I need help with!" Tommy felt a shiver run down his spine at the phrase. He shook his head.

     "I don't care Dream. Knowing you it's gonna hurt Tubbo or me and I'm not gonna let you do that anymore-"

     "It's about Princess." Dream cut in, and Tommy blinked at him again. Before he could ask, Dream sighed and floated back over to the kitchen. From where he was Tommy could now see what Dream had dropped. It was a big bowl full of seeds, which were now all over the floor. The two parrots had come back to investigate the mess. Dream continued as he shooed the parrots off and started scooping up the seeds.

     "It's about Princess, and all my animals here. I have a good number of pets from all my adventures. I have plenty of food for them all right now, but without someone to refill the feeder fish for the dolphins or harvest the wheat for the cows and birds I'm gonna run out pretty quick. Plus I'm not exactly going to be able to take out my horses or dogs for the exercise they need." Tommy came closer, tired of watching half the seeds Dream tried to scoop fall right through his hands. He stepped around the ghost and tilted the bowl, easily swiping up the rest of the seeds and lifting the bowl onto the counter.

     The two parrots watched him with beady eyes. Tommy pushed the bowl towards them but they didn't move. Dream chuckled.

     "That's Lime and Cherry. They're spoiled brats, they'll only eat out of your hand." Dream reached into the bowl and scooped up some seeds, most of them fell through him, but he furrowed his brow and the rest of the seeds stayed put. Cherry hopped forward to peck at Dream's offering. Tommy rolled his eyes and mirrored him to feed Lime. Before Tommy knew it he had both birds eating from his hand.

     "Ah, like you already. I wasn't sure since most of the animals here have only ever known me. I'm glad these two like you though, they would be the biggest problem."

     "Yeah yeah whatever. Why do you need my help for? You've been doing fine these past few months haven't you?" Tommy asked, shaking the extra seeds back into the bowl when Lime and Cherry hopped away. They both started cleaning their feathers, tucking their beaks into their colorful wings.

     "It's been a struggle. You saw those seeds, everything is like that now. I have to focus really hard in order to touch things, and it's just been getting harder. I'm pretty sure one day I won't be able to interact with anything, and then there won't be anyone here to take care of these guys."

     "Lime and Cherry are from the wild." Dream said nodding his head to the two birds, who were now cleaning each other's feathers. "They might be okay if I leave them alone, but I doubt it. They've gotten so used to being here. Plus you saw the dolphins. They need someone. That's the main reason I gave you the compass. I knew you'd come eventually, and I didn't know if I'd come back or not. So I just had to hope. There's plenty of notebooks and diaries in the library too, so I'm sure you could have figured out everything on your own. Like I said, you're smart." Dream tried to knock their shoulders together but it didn't quite connect making Tommy shiver.

     "Okay okay, just don't do that again. Egh." Tommy said, picking up the bowl and turning back to the cabinets. "Alright, where does this go?" Dream smiled before happily explaining the organization system, where to find everyone's food and how much to feed them and how often. He even tried to give Tommy a book that had all the information he'd need, but in his excitement it slipped through his fingers. Dream's smile saddened, but he just picked it up again, with more concentration this time.

     That's how they spent that day, Dream showing him how to actually work the base. Eventually Tommy stopped to make himself food while Dream floated over to the dolphins to pet Princess. In the new silence Tommy had a moment to actually think about where he was. He was in Dream's base, his real one. And Dream was trusting him with the beings he did actually care about. It was weird to see Dream happily playing with all his pets. He'd made it so clear all those years ago that he hadn't cared at all about Spirit that Tommy just assumed he wasn't a pet person.

     Ghost Dream was nothing like Alive Dream. Maybe that's why Tommy felt safe here. Maybe that's why he wanted to help Dream and his animals. The Dream he knew was a monster, he knew that. But this wasn't Tommy's Dream. This was the Dream Sapnap and George had lost. The guy Tommy heard nothing but good things about. This Dream was a great friend, pet person, kind, smart, and loyal to his friends. Tommy couldn't stamp down that dark bitterness in his gut, the one that was happy to see Dream struggle to grab things, to see his face sadden. He was half tempted to pull out a flint and steel and set this place ablaze. Get revenge for all the shitty things Dream did, not just to Tommy but to everyone.

     Tommy pulled out the flint and steel from his inventory, turning the pieces over in his hands thoughtfully. Wilbur had taught him a lot of things, one of them was to always get back at the people who hurt you. Tommy's eyes drifted over where Dream was still petting Princess. He hadn't noticed what Tommy was holding, and he probably wouldn't for awhile. Everything was made of wood, it could go up so easily.

     Tommy jumped when Lime landed in front of him. The two stared at each other for a few seconds. Lime hopped closer and nipped at Tommy's fingers on his free hand. It didn't hurt, and Tommy didn't flinch either. He understood exactly what Lime wanted too. He dropped the flint and steel back into his inventory and brought his hand up to carefully stroke Lime's feathery head. The bird trilled happily at the attention and pressed against him like a cat. Tommy let himself smile. He'd help Dream, for the animals.

     And maybe a little bit for the great friend he never knew.

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I know it's just been Tommy and Dream talking about stuff, but trust me it gets interesting from here on out. We're gonna mess with some code next time :P

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