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“This is a child.”
The child was small, with a bear’s ears- the same as Dream’s, though his were lighter- and all around looked like he was too young to be at this school. Even for as young as he looked, the bear cub was nearly as tall as Tubbo. He still had to crane his neck to look up at Dream.
Dream would ask why the cub was there, but he was sure Tubbo would give some nonsense answer and Wilbur would make a riddle out of it.
Of all people, and of all things, Dream could confidently say he didn't expect Wilbur and Tubbo to be bringing a child to Dream’s doorstep.
“He’s a teddy bear, actually,” Tubbo said, nodding as if he was the wisest mage in the school and not also a child. Wilbur should have been more mature in the situation, considering he was a few grades above his brother and actually respected as a mage, but instead he nodded alongside Tubbo.
Dream sighed. “He’s a person, Tubbo, how many times do I need to explain bear hybrids?” He asked, and Tubbo shook his head fervently.
“No, no, he was a teddy bear. A real one, I swear.” Tubbo sounded so sure of himself that Dream had to look up to Wilbur, asking without words what the purpose of this was. Wilbur, helpfully, shrugged and nodded back down to his brother and the bear kid, who was looking at Dream’s ears with an emotion he did not want to start placing.
“He was a teddy bear,” Wilbur repeated, and Dream had to try very hard not to slam the door in all three of their faces.
“How was he a teddy bear? I’m looking at a very child-looking-child,” He didn’t try keeping the confusion out of his voice, but he kept his hands at his sides, knowing that the wild gestures he and Wilbur would share when they spoke wouldn't be very understandable by the younger ones.
When neither of the mages in front of him gave an answer, Dream looked down to the kid, who hadn't looked away from him. Dream squatted down, maintaining eye contact with him- and really, the kid couldn’t have been half of Tubbo’s age, how did he even get here- keeping his shoulders loose when he saw the kid’s hunch up, his ears spinning backwards. Not quite pinning themselves, but not far from it. Dream’s own ears mirrored the action, making sure to keep body language the kid could clearly understand.
“Kid,” Dream spoke softly, “What do they mean?”
Kids were usually pretty straight-forward. It was one of the few things Dream used to remind himself he liked going to this school, where half the lowerclassmen were the equivalent of toddlers in his eyes and didn’t know how to do proper spells. Even when they all knew the proper way to call him out on not staying in a class line.
So, he didn't really know what to expect before the kid spoke up, small but confident, “I used to be a teddy bear.”
That was it. Dream was done. Door closed, people gone, study books opened- aside from the snickering Wilbur and the innocent kid and the fidgeting Tubbo. None of Dream’s fantasies were going to happen, because he was too good of a person to shut his door in front of a peer and two children.
The important questions would be first, then. “Right. Used to be a teddy bear.” He accepted their story, and the kid’s ears flopped around his blond hair in some sort of excitement. “And how did that happen?” Dream looked up at Wilbur, who absolutely would not meet his eyes.
Tubbo shot up a finger at his brother, a smile as wide as the hallways spanning his face. “Wilbur used magic!”
Dream was sure his expression was harder than the professor's on grading day. “What kind of magic, Wilbur?” He asked calmly, standing up. The bear-kid tried jumping to go up with him, which was adorable but just a bit startling, and Dream had to focus to make sure he didn’t rock back and unbalance himself.
“It was…” Dream knew he was going to say an accident, and raised an eyebrow at the measly defense. Wilbur sputtered, throwing a hand over his face at the attention all of the others were giving him. “It was supposed to be an animation spell! But that isn’t important!”
“The fact that you made a child is incredibly important.”
His deadpan counter made Tubbo cackle, his body shaking with laughter. The bear cub next to him looked confused as to why it was funny, but smiled with the energy around him. Out of the corner of his eye, Dream could see him mouthing some of the words he had spoken. Dream couldn't stop a bit of a smile, even as Wilbur looked like he regretted ever knocking on his door.
“Wilbur, you’re a daaaadd,” Tubbo sang, bumping against his brother with the most piggy-backing grin in existence. Dream was incredibly grateful to not have a sibling. “You made Tummy a real boy and now you’re a dad," He bounced on his feet, then stopped abruptly with a realization. “Am I an uncle now-”
“What’s important,” Wilbur cut off his brother’s question without any answer, “Is that you need to keep him.”
Dream laughed at the absurd suggestion, a kettle wheeze that faded off pretty quickly when he saw that Wilbur was being just about as serious as he ever was. Or moreso, actually. “What?” He leaned closer to his peer. Were his ears not working? .What had Wilbur just said? Dream put a hand on his ear, making sure nothing was blocking it, and looked Wilbur deep in his magic-tainted soul. “You want me to do what?”
“Keep him.” Wilbur said, leaning down to pat the kid’s shoulders. The blond spooked at the contact, grabbing his hands together. He turned to see who had touched him, and relaxed considerably when he saw that it was Wilbur.
Dream’s hand was still on his head, and he scratched idly behind his bear ears when he spoke. “Why do I need to keep him? You already have a sibling in your dorm, you know how to take care of kids,” Dream wasn’t outwardly against the idea, but it was clearly one of the stranger requests he’d gotten from Wilbur.
Not the most strange, though.
“That’s the problem-” Wilbur said. There was a window somewhere in the hallway, open and letting the sound of midday bird calls float through. It would have been lovely, one of the few days a week everyone got a break, and yet Dream was looking at the potential of a roommate. Which, as much as he would appreciate the company and a fellow hybrid, was not in any of his plans for his break. “My dorm’s already full, and they won’t let another kid stay with me when we aren’t exactly blood-related.”
“Hmm,” Dream hummed, and looked behind him, into his dorm. It was a bit messy, with his bed unmade and the spare one without any sheets. There wasn’t anything on the floor, but there were things on the desk, and certainly more than one piece of paper he wouldn’t want a kid messing with.
But, all things considered… there wasn’t anything that would be bad for the kid. And it would be nice, showing an essentially newborn hybrid the ropes of bearhood.
Dream looked down at the kid. Actually, if he was considering living with him, he should probably know his name.
“What’s your name?” Dream asked, and the kid snapped his head up to face him. His little ears- oh, those were cute, Dream hadn't really seen any cubs since he was one- and met his eyes.
“Tommy,” He said, and Tubbo bit his lip beside him. That must have been close to Tommy’s given name then, the one he had when he was a stuffed animal rather than a kid himself. But it sounded like an intentional mispronunciation, a mistake turned into a decision. It sounded like Tommy’s choice.
“Tommy,” Dream started, and Tommy’s ears flipped back and forth at the name, “Would you be ok with that?” The cub shifted on his feet, opening his mouth with a confused look. He didn't answer, looking up at Dream. “Do you want to live with me?” He repeated.
The cub looked past Dream, into his dorm room. It wasn’t the most kid-friendly at the moment, but Dream was sure it would be fine after a bit of a clean. So he wasn't sure why Tommy’s face scrunched up, and he looked between Wilbur and the room, suddenly sad in a mood change no one was expecting.
“Uh,” Tommy looked up at Wilbur with watery eyes, and Wilbur seemed more surprised by the show than Dream felt. He was still leaning down, so he patted Tommy’s back, reassuring him about something he didn't know was wrong. “It’s alright if you don’t want to, Toms. We can work out something else.” He said, and Tommy sniffled.
Dream could feel his ears pin against his head, the uncertainty of the situation showing itself loudly. No one commented on it or glanced his way, though, so he kneeled down to be at the same level as the cub, “What’s wrong?”
The words sounded flat to his own ears, not as helpful as Wilbur’s, but they still worked. Tommy sniffed again, and he spoke. “I don’t-” He said, and Wilbur patted his back again, telling him to take his time. “I don’t wanna leave the… the dad alone,” He waved at Wilbur, who stiffened at the title and looked up at the ceiling. Tubbo had to cover his mouth to stop from laughing.
Wilbur sighed, a tired sound, and looked back down. “I- I’m not going to be left alone, Tommy,” He said, and that simple reassurance was enough to take the kid back from his sadness. His sniffles turned to a smile, and Wilbur continued. “I’ll have Tubbo, and you can visit whenever. If I don’t have class,” The last part was a hasty retroactive, something thrown in when Tommy’s face seemed to grow just a tad too bright.
“But in the meantime, you’d be living here,” Dream told him, and Tommy looked back at the dorm. He squinted, turned his expression between Dream and the room a few times, squinted back at Wilbur, and stepped out of his hold.
“Yeah,” He said, with about as much confidence any kid would be expected to have. Which was a lot, at least for this particular kid. He started walking to the room, looking around the living space with the calculating eye of a kid in serious need of a pillow fort.
And Dream would never protest such things- pillow forts were a true necessity. But he still leaned in Tommy’s way, stopping him. “Do you need to grab anything from their room?”
“Nope,” Tommy drew out and popped the word, like he enjoyed how it sounded.
“Do you want to say bye?” Dream asked instead, his growing smile echoed by Wilbur and amplified on Tubbo’s face.
“Oh!” Tommy spun on his heels to face Wilbur and Tubbo, lifting his arms as high as he could to wave at them when they were only a few feet away from each other. “Bye Tubbo! Bye the dad!”
Wilbur stood, his smile soured by the odd nickname, and pulled Tubbo closer to him. “Bye to you too, Tommy. We’ll see you soon,” His promise was repeated more enthusiastically by Tubbo, but they both turned and started going back to their own dorm.
Dream stood and stretched, catching Timmy’s eyes when he cracked his back. The sound had Tommy making a face, and the cub half-sympathetically patted at Dream’s leg, maybe thinking he had accidentally gotten hurt. The thought made Dream want to laugh, but instead he moved to let Tommy inside the dorm, gesturing to welcome him.
“So this is your place now. I’ll get some sheets for the second bed, and you can do whatever you want with the spare desk. I don’t know if you’ll need it…” Dream trailed off, thinking for a moment. Tommy had already climbed on the empty mattress, bouncing as much as the bed would allow before climbing onto Dream’s and invading his space. That would be fine. Dream hoped.
“Unless you want me to teach you some spells,” Dream continued, a rogue idea worming itself into his brain. Tommy would enroll at the academy when he was old enough anyway, since he was already living here. And, if he wanted to, Dream was sure there’d be nothing wrong with giving him an edge.
Tommy frantically stood up on the bed, nearly at Dream’s eye level. He was in an odd stance, looking with child-crazed eyes at his new roommate. “Teach me the bad ones,” He demanded, in a voice as hard as a grizzled 8 year old asking for ice cream.
Dream laughed, “Sure.” He lamented, and Tommy grinned. Dream was sure he would eventually be living with a mad man, once the cub in front of him grew up. “But first we can start with fireball.”