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5 minutes. Tubbo had five minutes before his speech, and he was kinda freaking out. He was no stranger to a little stage fright, and today was no exception. But oddly enough the closer the time came for him to give his speech the more excited he became. Everyone he walked passed would wish him luck and they all seemed to have total faith in him, which did wonders to help ease his nerves.
He wandered around aimlessly, stopping to chat with everyone he ran into, just killing time before his big moment. But it was a festival after all, enjoying yourself was part of the point.
He was midway through a conversation with Niki when he heard his name being called up to the stage. He quickly said his goodbyes and made his way up the stairs to the podium, ignoring the nerves that were bubbling right under the surface.
He made his way onto the stage and waited while they adjusting the microphone to his height. Each second seemed to draw on forever, it seemed like hours passed before they finally gave him the thumbs up to start.
He started the speech he'd work so hard to memorize, the words flowing out as if he had said them a thousand times. The speech wasn't particularly long, or impressive, but he'd wrote every word himself and worked really hard on it, so he was thrilled to finally be able to share it with everyone.
He was nearing the end of speech when he started to get really into it, adding little lines and small tangents that he hadn't practiced before as he saw fit. He was totally immersed in it, so much in fact that he didn't see the messages from Tommy telling him to "RUN" , and he was so lost in his words that for a moment, he didn't feel the ground shaking. Maybe if he'd noticed a few seconds earlier... things could've been different.
The second the ground started shaking people started panicking, there was screaming, running, everyone was just trying to get as far away as possible until they knew what was going on. But Tubbo was still on the stage when it started, which gave him a much farther distance to go if he wanted to get away.
Following everyone else's lead Tubbo started to run in the direction of water, still not sure why the ground was shaking. His only guess was that there was an earthquake or something and everyone was trying to get away from buildings that could fall, such as the stage he was on.
In his haste to get away he tripped on his way down the steps, quickly pushing himself back up ignoring the scrapes he felt burning his hand, everyone else was already out of sight and he was worried about being left behind.
As he was running he finally looked down and saw the messages Tommy had sent mere minutes ago;
/Tommy whispers to you: GET OUT OF THERE NOW
/Tommy whispers to you: TUBBO RUN
/Tommy whispers to you: tubbo please!!!
What? How did Tommy know there would be an earthquake?
Tubbo was halfway through the rows of chairs when the ground stopped shaking. He stopped running, thinking the 'earthquake' must've passed.
That was his fatal mistake.
Suddenly the piercing sound of explosions cut through the area and Tubbo instinctively reached up to cover his ears.
Maybe, if he hadn't covered his ears he would've heard Tommy screaming his name.
And maybe if Tubbo hadn't closed his eyes when the blinding lights of TNT started flashing then he would've been able to see Tommy, as he ran towards him with an arm outstretched, pleading for him to "PLEASE, JUST KEEP RUNNING". But instead the last thing Tubbo saw would forever be the searing white light of the ground exploding.
And then there was quiet.
And then everything stopped hurting.
When Tubbo's vision cleared he saw he was standing a few feet from Tommy, who looked like he had just seen a ghost. There was dust swirling around him from the explosion and there cuts and scrapes all over his face, but what concerned Tubbo the most was that he was crying. His mouth was hung open and he stared right over Tubbo's shoulder as thick tears started falling uncontrollably down his face.
"Tommy? Tommy are you ok?" Tubbo asked, taking a step towards his friend.
But Tommy didn't seem to hear him, and instead started running right past him. Tubbo turned around to see what had Tommy so up-in-arms, but nothing could've prepared him for what he saw.
Tommy was on his knees next to Tubbo's body.
wait... what?
And then it all hit him, the shaking, Tommy messaging him to run, the blinding light... Tommy screaming in the background as he kneeled next to his body....
"No no no... this can't be happening, I'm not dead!! Tommy! I'm right here! Can't you hear me? That's not me Tommy I'm still here!" Tubbo sat on the other side of the body across from Tommy. trying to prove that he was still alive. But nothing worked.
"Tommy...?"
~
Tubbo had moved to be sitting back to back with Tommy by the time the others found them. Well... they found Tommy, and Tubbo's body.
Tubbo closed his eyes when he saw them all coming over, he didn't want to see their reactions, he refused to believe that he was dead, this was all just a bad dream that he would wake up from any second now.
Even with his eyes closed he could tell when the group came within eyesight of the two boys. He flinched when he heard Niki's scream pierce the air that had otherwise been silent save from Tommy's sobs that hadn't stopped since Tommy first found his lifeless corpse.
When Tubbo did convince to open his eyes it felt like everyone was surrounded his body. There had been screams at first, but those had long sense died down to muffled cry's as they all stared at the younger's lifeless body.
"He's gone.. he's really gone..." Tommy was the first one to say anything, the words were almost in-coherent to the rest of the group, his voice was scratchy, presumably from all the screaming and sobbing he'd been partaking in.
"No... I don't believe it" Eret responded, he was standing towards the back of the group supporting Niki's weight as she cried into his jacket. Everyone, regardless of their side, seemed to be in the semi-circle around Tubbo. Tommy was the only one on the floor with his body however, while the rest all stayed back a tad out of respect for the two boys.
Tommy eventually turned around, looking at the group for the first time since they had found him next to the body, "I miss him", his words broke into the sob before he could even finish the last word.
Dream, not knowing what else to do, stepped forward and put a hand on Tommy's shoulder and bent down next to him, "We all do, I'm so sorry Tommy, you did everything you could". With that Tommy flung himself into Dream, pulling the older into a unexpected hug as Tommy started crying hysterically into Dream's chest.
Tubbo watched all of this go down from behind his own body, he sat behind himself and watched all of his friends breakdown because him. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to be able to be there comforting his friends, and not stuck watching all of them cry while there was nothing he could do but sit and watch. He was utterly helpless.
Eventually a few people suggested that they should move Tubbo's body away from the ruins of the stage. Everyone seemed to be in favor of this except for Tommy who was draped over Tubbo's cold body.
"Tommy... you gotta let go so that we can move the body" Sapnap tried to tell him.
Tommy didn't move a muscle.
"Tommy, c'mon man, we gotta do it eventually" Sapnap tried, earning a elbow to the gut from Dream, mumbling something to him about being more sensitive.
"No." Tommy finally spoke up, his head still laying on Tubbo's chest as he clung to his friends unconscious body.
"No?"
"No, I'm not leaving him... not again." Tommy's tone sounded like a stubborn 6 year old who was about to start crying over a broken toy. But everyone watched as he gripped Tubbo's clothes tighter, and suddenly no one had the heart to pull him away.
Tubbo watched, once again, as his best-friend cried into his dead body, and all their other friends stood in the background pitying him and not knowing how to help. To be fair, what is there to say to a 16 year old kid who just had to watch their best friend die? There isn't a lot you can do besides be there for them, and god did Tubbo wish he could be there for Tommy right then.
"Tommy please!" Tubbo begged, "Please just let me go! You can't do this to yourself!" Tubbo's cry fell on deaf ears.
At some point in the night a blanket was draped over Tommy's shoulder before everyone else headed off to bed, having been unable to convince the teen to move despite their best efforts.
Everyone else left, everyone except Tubbo. Even in death he refused to leave his friends side.
Tubbo stayed by Tommy's side late into the night, watching as he cried himself to exhaustion before finally falling asleep. Tubbo laid against him, watching his chest slowly rise and fall with each breath.
As he slowly started to accept what had happened he just had one thing he needed to say.
"Hey Tommy? Promise you won't forget me, ok?"