"The Case Of The Fire Inside."

This is for the lake that me and my friends swim in 16

Everything was crumbling under Tommy and he wasn't sure how it happened.

Well he did know how it happened but he wasn't expecting it to be this bad. Or well he didn't know what to expect. He probably should have figured it would be something like this.

Dream was more distant than usual, which was odd because Dream was never the most present figure in his life. Their relationship wasn't the strongest with him gone all the time, but this was different.

Dream had raised him, took him in when no one else would and shielded him from the hoards of reporters and researchers that wanted to pick him apart. He had raised Tommy as if he was his own, with access to the sea and anything he could have wanted.

In exchange Dream asked him to follow some simple rules, kept him on a tight leash for his own protection. Tommy had always listened, always followed and did what Dream asked of him. Dream had taught him well, doing whatever he could to make Tommy understand, even if sometimes those lessons hurt.

And Tommy was good for Dream. Tommy did his best to always follow them because Dream was his friend.

But so was Wilbur, Techno, and Phil. And they were friends that never hurt him, who never snapped or yelled at him, who never made him feel scared.

He owed everything he had to Dream, but he doesn't want to give the others up either.

It doesn't really matter anyways, because that choice isn't really Tommy's to make. Dream had found out and now Tommy wouldn't be able to do anything. Dream had always kept a tight leash around him, but Tommy could already feel it tightening slowly around his neck, keeping him paralyzed. Tommy himself had told Wilbur not to bother, to leave him alone. There was no turning back now.

The day after their fight and his last talk with Wilbur he woke up to find his door locked shut. He banged on it and begged to be let out, but Dream didn't budge, not even bothering to say anything. Tommy had momentarily heard him outside the window, but when he looked Dream was gone and a heavy-duty lock was in his place.

The door clicked open around dinner, and Dream hadn't said a word when he tossed Tommy a single can of sardines and then pointed to his office. Tommy had slunk inside, legs shaking from pacing around his room all day. He had sat in the corner silent as Dream worked, quickly eating the sour-tasting fish.

After two hours of sitting as quietly as he could Dream told him to go to back to his room, and Tommy slunk off, curling up on his bed and trying to pretend like he was lying on a couch in front of a warm fire, a record crackling in the background as Wilbur strummed his guitar.

He fell asleep and woke up with tears on his cheeks. He doesn't remember what he dreamed about.

This cycle repeats until Dream leaves. He stays locking inside his room until dinner where Dream provides him with a small can of sardines, then he'll sit silently by Dream's side until he's dismissed and he'll fall asleep with his mind peacefully thinking of a different place. He's miserable. It's hard going from almost two months of constant stimulation to this bleak nothingness. He's ridiculously stir-crazy, and his feet are constantly sore from the amount of pacing he does in his tiny room.

Dream doesn't even bother to say goodbye again. Tommy just wakes up to find his door unlocked and an empty house waiting for him. His chest aches as he feels his pelt get farther away and he curls up on the couch with a blanket, pretending the scratchy material was soft fur.

He misses his friends.

He tries to do some puzzles, but he left his favourite one at the other house and none of the others appeal to him enough for him to actually be able to sit through them.