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A few more seconds, Tommy tells himself, his fingers tapping an impatient beat on his thigh. A few more.
He’s crouched in the shadows of a large room, the pedestals of individual placers lining the other side. Leftover adrenaline from the championship fizzes down his spine; it makes him ansty and urges him to just run to Tubbo and scare the crap out of him already.
Which he will(and by doing so, will finally put this stupid ghost costume into use). But he has to wait, wait for the Captain to finish speaking with Tubbo. God, they both like talking too much.
Finally, the Captain pats Tubbo’s shoulder and exits the area, leaving Tubbo standing near the middle of the room, his back to Tommy.
Tommy smirks and moves, keeping his steps light. Just a little more, and . . .
“Boo!”
Tubbo turns his head right as Tommy’s hands lightly push at his back. All in one second, Tubbo shrieks and pitches forward, his bee slippers scrambling to keep him barely upright.
Tommy doubles over, cackling, so he misses the death-glare Tubbo beams his way after righting himself. “Your face,” Tommy gasps out, “that was priceless.”
“Shut up man.” Tubbo screws his lips together and punches Tommy’s shoulder, who straightens up and catches his breath from his laughter.
“What was that?” Tommy asks and smirks, peering around with a hand held at his eyebrows like he’s shading the sun. “Did a little bee sting me? I thought I felt something.”
Tommy waits to see Tubbo roll his eyes before he begins to lift the sheet off of himself. His hair gets caught up in the static of the fabric’s movement, blond strands rising only to flop down unnoticed once he holds the bunched up sheet in a fist.
Tubbo’s annoyance drops as he slings an arm around Tommy’s middle, tugging him close so he’s lightly pressed against Tubbo's side and they’re both facing the pedestals of individual placers. “Fifth place! Congratulations, Tommy. You deserve it.”
As Tommy looks back and forth from his placing and Tubbo’s ultra-happy grin, his chest puffs out on its own accord. “You think?” he asks, loud enough so it echoes off the walls.
“Of course!” Tubbo says. “Today was fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Tommy snakes his hand up to wildly ruffle Tubbo’s hair. He ducks away with a yelp of protest as Tommy says, “I guess it went well with those single dads of yours, huh?”
Tubbo nods happily, half-heartedly smoothing his hair down. “Yep. Now come on-” he extends a hand to Tommy, wiggling his fingers encouragingly- “we can talk about all of it on the way to the exit—I heard they’re giving out free caramel apples to everyone!”
Tommy takes Tubbo’s hand and immediately begins to swing it back and forth between them as they walk. “And since I did so good today, I’ll get yours too, right?”
The shoulder check Tommy receives in response is well-deserved, but does nothing to erase the content smile from his face.