Chapter Text
It takes much longer than Tomate would’ve liked to reach land again. While it’s nice not having to worry about dropping anything in the water now, it doesn’t make the boat ride feel any easier. He’s never had motion sickness before, but all the sudden stress paired with Katie’s inhuman speed while rowing is making him nauseous.
Speaking of Katie, she’s been uncharacteristically silent for the majority of the boat ride. If he’s to be honest, it unsettles him.
Tomate expected her to be mad at him and she had stated that she was, but this isn’t normally how she acts when she’s upset. He’s used to her being loud and making her feelings incredibly clear. Her being so open is what makes her special to him, for as confusing as she can be he can still usually tell how she feels by the end of a conversation.
That’s why this scares him. If he can’t tell what she’s thinking he has no idea how to respond properly and if he has no idea how to respond he’ll just end up, well, not responding. Katie needs responses, though, and while she’s sweet enough to not expect or try to force them verbally, she does get frustrated when she feels ignored.
He lifts his head off of her shoulder to look at her. She’s staring straight ahead, chewing on the inside of her cheek and paying no attention to him. He wonders if the silence is killing her too.
Hey, that’s odd, actually. He’s never really cared for if it was loud or quiet before. He could appreciate both for what they brought, loud and the laughter that came with it, then quiet and the calm that followed.
This isn’t exactly calm, though. Maybe that’s the problem? It makes sense, nobody enjoys tension, Tomate included. Now he’s wondering if Katie knows how tense it is on this small boat.
He doesn’t get far in his thoughts before the boat lurches forward, sending Tomate back into Katie’s back. The woman looks back at him as she takes her hands off the oars, unshaken by the sudden movement as she gets out of the boat, this time being extra careful to not fall on her face.
“Alrighty, we’re here.” She announces, turning back to lift him out of the boat. Despite not really needing it since he doesn’t have a camera to balance anymore, he’s still grateful. Hopefully her willingness to help means she’s not actually that mad at him. “Well, almost, but we don’t have to use the boat anymore, so…”
She gently pushes him off to the side to pull the boat further up on land, not willing to lose her trusty mode of transportation.
He waits patiently off to the side for her to finish, twiddling his thumbs awkwardly. A very loud part of him wants her to keep talking, knowing it’d keep him from spiraling down another hole of paranoia if he had a voice to focus on, but that’d be pushing her, wouldn’t it? Pushing her while she’s upset with him will only lead to consequences.
“Okay, my office isn’t too far from here,” She says, backing away from the boat. She seems set on being as quiet as possible to show her frustration with him keeping secrets.
Katie begins walking, not caring to see if Tomate follows, which he does.
They enter a small forest, trees clumped together with their leaves and branches preventing sunlight from reaching some areas. It’s rather eerie when you pair it with the dark gray clouds that suddenly loom over them, casting dark shadows in the area surrounding them.
Silence falls over the duo once more, the only audible noises being their footsteps and the sounds made by small woodland creatures and bugs.
Crickets chirp incessantly, unable to care about his growing paranoia. Branches snap under the paws of rabbits, leaves crunch under his feet, yet Katie seems unbothered. Does being in such an isolated place not scare her? Does she simply not care?
He can’t blame her, he supposed, he isn’t used to being so scared of the forest anyways. There’s just… So many eyes. The eyes of animals follow them from the shadows, he’s sure of it. How many of those eyes are cameras, though? How many of those beady eyes are his coworkers looking to turn him in for punishment?
He hadn’t even registered that he was digging into his arms until he nicked his skin with his claws, the sharp and sudden pain forcing him out of his daze. Looking down, he sees blood beading around the small cut. It hurts. Why would he do that?
He needs to pull himself together, he can’t just hurt himself like this. What else is he meant to do with his hands, though? Letting them rest at his sides felt unnatural after holding his camera up for so long. He needs something to do with them, something to hold.
“Oh, wait.” Katie says suddenly, holding her arm out in front of him to prevent him from walking any further. A small family of squirrels quickly passes by, hopping across their path. Katie waits until they’ve all gone to begin walking once more.
“I didn’t wanna separate them, I saw somewhere that it’s bad to do that.” She explains her actions, letting her hand drop back down to her side. Tomate could not have cared less about her reasoning though, more focused on her hands than anything else.
It was a good idea, one that’d give him somewhere to put his hands. They’ve held hands before, haven’t they? She was the one who suggested it back when they did, so she wouldn’t mind if he reached out again, right?
He doesn’t give himself a chance to overthink it, reaching out to take her hand in his own. It seems to startle her, causing her to look back at him to see what he was doing. He looked right back at her, though it may not have been obvious. Her tail begins swaying back and forth as she lets out a sigh, squeezing his hand.
He feels relieved at that, taking it to mean she isn’t furious. It’s nice of her to let him do this after what she’s learned about him.
The act of holding hands still isn’t as nice as others would describe it. He feels stiff, as if he isn’t doing it right. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with any positives, though! It’s a great way to keep his mind busy, stressing over not gripping her too hard or scratching her with his claws was much better and easier on the mind than worrying that someone was watching him.
Katie continues on with her walking, taking Tomate along with her through the dense woods. It doesn’t take much longer before they emerge from the trees, sun falling on them once more.
Ahead of them is a small wooden building that Katie tugs him towards. It’s a very… Humble thing. He can tell Katie made it.
They approach the doors and Tomate reaches out to open it, but Katie covers the door knob before he can get to it. She lets go of his hand and steps in front of him, entering the doorway and blocking his way.
“You wait out here for a second, okay?” She says, not waiting for his response before slamming the door shut.
Looks like he’s alone now. Outside, locked out from the one person offering him help with only his thoughts to accompany him.
His hands find their way to his biceps once more, gripping lightly in an attempt to self soothe. He honestly doesn’t even register the sensation until he feels something warm against the pads of his fingers.
Looking down, he is reminded of the cut he made on his arm. It’s not a very deep or serious cut, it doesn’t even really hurt, but his claws are sharp enough to make anything bleed. It’s just another reason why he needs to stop grabbing at himself when he’s stressed, he supposed.
Well, it doesn’t matter much. Give it a day or two and it will be healed. It’s the least of his worries anyways.
He swipes the blood off of his arm with his thumb only to cringe as it smears against his fur. Even tiny bits of blood like this can be a pain to remove when dried, sticking to his skin and making him uncomfortable.
He probably needs a shower. That’ll help him feel less… Icky.
The door opens once more, reminding him of where he is and who he was waiting on. If he had a tail like Katie, it’d likely be wagging like hers does.
And speaking of tails… Where did hers go?
It could just be the angle he’s seeing her at, but her tail is missing. He’d be more inclined to believe it was just behind her if the puppy ears that sat atop her head not even 30 minutes ago weren’t also missing. It seems like she’s back to the “normal” Katie, something he finds odd.
Katie isn’t keen on allowing him to sit in silence with his thoughts, snapping in his face to get his attention. She’s gotten really fond of doing that, huh? “Pay attention, boyfriend! I’m talking to you!” She says.
Oh, has she been talking the whole time? Has he been ignoring her? He can’t exactly help it considering the sudden change, but he feels bad for it regardless. He’s curious though, so he lifts his hand to point at where her ears once were.
“Woah, hey—“ Katie says, taking his hand and then stretching his arm out, “Why are you bleeding? Are you okay?”
He’s surprised by the sudden concern she’s showing him as well as how she pulls him inside, ushering him over to a couch. He doesn’t even have time to show her how tiny the scratch is before she’s rushing around the small space.
“I- You just hold tight! I know I have some bandages somewhere!” She says, moving with such speed it makes him feel lightheaded. With how she’s acting, you’d think he was suffering some fatal injury. He would’ve been panicked too if he didn’t know what was going on.
It doesn’t take long for Katie to find the bandages she was talking about as she perks up after opening a drawer. He misses her tail already, it would’ve been very expressive. Tomate doesn’t dwell on it though, Katie approaches him with…
That’s… Not the type of bandages he was expecting.
In her hands is a small pink box with sparkly princesses displayed on the packaging. When she had said she had bandages, he was imagining something less, well, childish. These bandaids fit the small cut more than actual bandage wraps though.
“Can’t believe I just let you get hurt like that!” She says, snatching a bandaid out of the box before throwing it behind her shoulder, “I’m sorry for being so mean to you, sweetheart!”
Tomate finds that odd. Why would she need to apologize when he’s the one who made her mad? Katie does so many things that he just can’t make sense of.
“Don’t you worry though, your wonderful girlfriend is here to take care of you!” She tears off the small pieces of paper stuck to the bandage before gently applying it to his arm. At least she doesn’t need him to tell her how amazing she is, fussing over him for something small like this.
Tomate actually can’t remember the last time someone acted like this towards him. He’s seen the other islanders act this way, like when he kicked Schlatt and Quackity reacted with concern, but he never thought it would be directed at him.
He looks down at his new sparkly bandaid then back at Katie. It makes sense that she’d have these kind of bandaids. They match her. Thinking about her using these little princess themed stickers made him want to giggle.
Katie is completely focused on making sure the adhesive on the bandaid doesn’t cause it to stick together for a moment before leaning back once more, looking at him with concern.
“What happened? Did someone do something to you?” Katie takes his hands in hers and brings them close to her. “You can tell me if someone hurt you, you know.”
Tomate is quick to shake his head, pulling his hands out of her grasp. It feels a little odd as he escapes the warmth provided by her hands, but that isn’t a priority for him. He gestures to his claws, hoping that she’ll understand what he means to say.
For a moment she just stares at him and he’s afraid he didn’t get the point across. Then, she backs away from Tomate and goes back to looking through her drawers.
“You can’t talk, yeah?” He’s not sure why she asked considering he cannot answer. “I’ve got a solution, don’t worry!”
That piques his interest. There are many methods Tomate could use to communicate with others but he’s never been given the time or resources to use them. What could Katie have to fix this barrier?
Her rummaging through her belongings doesn’t last very long, about ten seconds pass before she turns around with a grin on her face, proudly displaying a book and quill.
“Ta-dah!” She giggles, coming back over and pushing the book and quill into his now clammy hands. He knows what her solution is.
“You just write your responses to me, okay? Sound good? Awesome!” She says with a grin, sitting down next to him on the couch. He’s pretty sure she’s meant to sit in the small chair opposite to him, but he could be wrong.
Turning his attention to the book, he suddenly feels rather nervous.
He’s not nervous about sharing his— okay, wait, now that he’s thinking about it, telling her why he reacted the way he did to the camera breaking was intimidating. That’s not the main issue, though.
With shaky hands, he grips the quill hard and scratches words onto one of the pages before holding it out in front of his chest for Katie to read.
’no good spelling English’
His face feels like it’s burning as she reads the his messy handwriting, her eyes squinted as she tries to decipher it.
“No good… Oh!” She perks up once she gets it, “You can’t write in English?”
He pauses for a moment before shaking his head, writing another sentence. ‘write a little’
Katie reads it and nods, placing a hand on his shoulder. “That’s totally fine! Just write in whatever language you want and I’ll probably figure it out!” She says with her bright smile, “And if I can’t I’ll get someone else to read it for me later!”
The moment she says that he makes a big X symbol with his arms, shaking his head frantically. If he’s going to write down vulnerable information he’d prefer it stay between the two of them.
She sighs. “Yeah, you’re probably right… I think that breaks some sort of confidentiality thing anyways.” Oh. Yeah, that too, he supposed. “It’d be a lot easier if those chip things could translate writing too, right?”
Tomate nods at that. It would be beneficial if they had gotten the translators to work on text, for both the Federation and the islanders. Now he’s wondering why they didn’t.
Seems Katie is wondering the same thing, in fact, she even says it, “I wonder why they don’t! I mean, wouldn’t it be a lot easier to make it work for books? Why stop at just hearing?”
He shrugs, though Katie doesn’t see it as she continues rambling on about the chips.
Everyone on the island had one, including the Federation workers like Tomate. It was one of the things that had been advertised for the cruise that got everyone stuck here, an opportunity to connect with those from around the world. Tomate thought it was a nice invention, but it came with many, many flaws. Flaws that could easily be fixed if a bit more work was put in.
He’s pulled back in by Katie asking, “Why do you think that is, boyfriend?”
Ah, right.
’Tomate’
“Uh… You mean tomato?” She asks.
He shakes his head (he seems to be doing that a lot recently). ’my name’
“Your- Oh shit, my bad! You don’t want me to call you boyfriend anymore?” She sounds genuine.
He takes a moment to think before shrugging. The title of boyfriend hasn’t meant much to him since she began calling him it, he doesn’t really mind it.
Katie doesn’t say anything else, only letting out a relieved sigh before leaning back on the couch, extending her arms across the back of it. “Awesome, you just tell me if that changes, okay?”
Tomate nods, mirroring Katie and leaning back into the couch cushions as the conversation turns into silence.
It stays like that for a moment and in that moment, Tomate finds himself asking why they were here again. Katie seems to have this wonderful ability that makes him forget what he was meant to be doing, something he attributes to her being distracting.
Let’s see… Was it his camera? Maybe she was going to pull out a new one, one that was much better than the little Polaroid he was gifted. Maybe it’s… No, no, it’s not that. It’s actually quite frustrating trying to remember what he had forgotten.
Tomate flinches as Katie jolts up, letting out an “ohhhh!”
“I almost forgot about therapy!” She says. Oh, that’s right. “You should’ve reminded me!” She chuckled, pushing his shoulder playfully.
He’s pretty sure it’s more important for the therapist to remember than the patient, but he could be wrong.
She clears her throat, crossing her legs and sitting in a more ‘professional’ manner. “Okay honey, I’m gonna ask you a few questions and you’re gonna give me your best answers, got it?”
He nods, positioning the quill to be ready for her barrage of questions.
“Great, so, have you ever had a meltdown similar to last night?” She kicks off the session with a great question, and like all great questions directed his way, he hesitates to answer.
’no it was new’
Katie lets out a thoughtful hum at that. “You’ve never had a meltdown before? Ever? Your camera breaking was the only time you ever felt like that?”
’la cámara era importante’
She mutters poorly spoken Spanish beneath her breath before speaking to him again. “And why’s it so important?”
The question makes him squirm in his seat, finding his position uncomfortable. He doesn’t like when she leans in like this, not while she’s questioning him at least.
’la federación lo dice’
“The Feds?” She asks, taking a deep breath in as he nods. “Are they… Are the Feds why you had a meltdown? Not the camera?”
He attempts to do the same as her, taking a breath in, but he finds that he can’t do it with the same ease that she can. Shakily, he scrawls into the book;
’ellos me matarán’
’i broke la camará. me van a matar’
“Eh…” Katie lets out a confused noise as he turns the book back over to her. He faces it back to him to write down something that she can understand better.
’yes’
“Oh.” She mumbled, letting it sink in for a moment before she gave him a concerned look. “Are they, uh, after you?”
There was no doubt that they were. He’s sure they were. He doesn’t know how they plan on finding him, but they would succeed no matter what he did. The only thing he isn’t certain on is why they were taking so long to do it.
’probably’
She’s quiet now, simply looking at him. He wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to kick him out and tell him to fend for himself now. He knows everyone else would at this point.
He waits for her to tell him those cruel words as she places her hands on his shoulder. All it takes is two words and he’ll leave her be. Honestly, he should’ve left long ago. How selfish is he for roping her into this, even knowing how it will end? All he’s doing is delaying the inevitable. Maybe he should just leave with his dignity instead of waiting on her to give him orders to do so.
All of these thoughts and more are silenced as she pulls him into a hug, her cheek pressed against his and her arms wrapped around his neck. He finds himself too confused to even consider returning the gesture.
“We’ll figure it out then,” She says, her voice the softest he’s heard it. “We’ll find a way to keep you safe, okay? Don’t even worry about it. We can handle it.”
We? Who is we? Surely she doesn’t mean that.
She squeezes him once before letting go, looking at him with that confident smile she always has ready. “I needed to get some allies anyway, so you’ll just come with me to get them.”
Oh. She does.
His chest tightens as the realization that she’s still so willing to help him hits, feeling as though someone’s squeezing his ribcage. Out of reflex, he rubs where his eyes would be like he was wiping away tears, earning a coo from Katie.
“Come on, honey… I know you’re scared but I’m gonna help!” She says, assuming the display of emotion was the start of another breakdown. Katie pushes herself off the couch and offers her hand to him, which he takes.
“Just let me do all the talking.” She says, walking him to the door before catching herself and giggling, “I mean, you kinda have to, right?”
His shoulders moved the same way they would have if he had chuckled. Katie was good at making people happy.
Katie smiled at him before opening the door, rays of bright sun filtering in through the crack. For the first time since he had broken his camera, Tomate was almost excited to go outside.
That was until a figure stepped in the way of the door, blocking the yellow light with his body as he greeted the two with a bright grin, one not nearly as charming as Katie’s.
“Bestie!”