-Rehabilitating a Child Soldier-

Connection

The air around him was warm as Tommy's eyes dragged themselves open, pulling him from the dark void of his dream into another darkened room.

At first, the warmth was comfortable, and didn't strike him as strange. That is, until he realized that he had fallen asleep outside, on a snowy evening.

That fact instantly made him alert, as he pushed himself up, quickly scanning the room.

It didn't take long for him to realize that he was in the living room of the quartz manor. Him and Skeppy were both placed on the couch with a blanket draped over them, where he had been laying on top of Skeppy's chest.

It seemed like Skeppy had originally had his arms around Tommy, which made him think that both of them had fallen asleep in their embrace. But when he had pushed himself up, he had inadvertently knocked Skeppy's arms away. His tail was still curled around him in a protective way though...

However, this didn't seem to bother the diamond being, as he shuffled a little, getting comfortable in his sleep.

It took Tommy a moment to gather the courage to move the diamond tail, followed by him getting off the couch, leaving Skeppy alone, which, in hindsight, is never a good idea.

He did make sure to tuck him in though, considerate of how Skeppy may feel.

It really didn't matter, as the living room felt like it was burning hot. Seriously, for a minute, Tommy considered the fact that the blanket could have been keeping them cool.

As beads of sweat began to roll down his forehead, he began hearing noises from the kitchen. Nothing too big, just the sounds of dishes being moved around, and cabins being open and shut.

Nervousness gripped him almost immediately. Who could be going through the kitchen so early in the morning? Was it even morning..? The living rooms shade matched the haze of the outside's sky.

Dark gray clouds rippling through the air as snow poured down from the heavens.

For a moment, Tommy weighed his options, digging down into some newfound confidence. 

For what it was worth, this is the safest he has felt in months... maybe even a year. If anything happened, if someone broke in, he could just run, hide, or wake someone up. It wasn't like he was alone anymore.

The anxiety that had held him for the longest time began to simmer down, a relaxing feeling of security washing over him.

He was still worried, shuffling with his nervousness, but there was also an air of reassurance. Like, as long as he was here, he would be okay.

He glanced back at Skeppy one last time, before he quickly began to creep through the manor, making his way towards the kitchen.

Upon entering the room, curing around the corner cautiously as to not get spotted, it struck him as odd that there was no lights on. That he was met with the same darkness as he was in the living room...

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't tripped over anything on the messy floor... which meant that the living room was clean.

But him and Skeppy definitely didn't clean the room, nor did they come inside by the looks of things... which means-

"What are you doing up, you little muffin-top?" Bad quietly mumbled in a soft tone. Even though his voice was considerate, Tommy still jumped as his head snapped upwards, making contact with a pair of dimly glowing, milky eyes.

For a moment, he stood tense, unsure of what to say. 

Bad was terrifying in the darkness, he had found that out the hard way while in Pogtopia, that the demon had ways of sneaking up on people. It was enough to make even Techno fear him...