Work Text:
Tommy sat with Ranboo in comfortable silence on the bench as the sun dipped below the horizon. He was trying to focus on the music softly playing around them, and not on the way his stomach rolled with anxiety.
Two days.
He had two days until they decided what they were going to do. Exile or imprisonment. Because that's what it was. It wasn't 'quarantine' it wasn't 'isolation'. The walls would come up and anyone who tried to leave would be killed.
All because of some stupid house.
He felt his temper flare up, but it died down just as quickly. So maybe he had gotten a little carried away with the netherack and maybe he shouldn't have broken as much of the house as he did, but it wouldn't even take that long to fix.
He wasn't even that mad at George if he was being completely honest. George hadn't been the one to blow this completely out of proportion, Dream did.
He stared down at his hands, slowly flexing them and feeling the frustration building in his chest. He had been so sure that he finally had something over Dream, that he could finally fight back against the man, only for it to blow up in his face. Tommy inhaled deeply before slowly letting a breath out, trying to let all the frustration out with it.
It didn't work.
He glanced over at Ranboo and noticed a frown tugging at the other teens mouth as he patted the front of his suit with concern.
"What's up?" He asked
The half-ender's frown deepened. "My journal, my personal journal, I think I left it somewhere." Tommy tilted his head and thought back. He was pretty sure Ranboo had placed a book down in the meeting room earlier.
"Didn't you leave it in the meeting room?"
"Um, I don't remember. Did I?"
Tommy felt some of the tension leave him as he laughed. "Yeah I think you did." Ranboo laughed as well, and stood up. "Okay well I'm going to go grab it real quick. I'll be right back."
Tommy watched him walk down the path until he disappeared then turned his attention back to the horizon. The sun had completely set by now leaving him only in the illumination of the glowstone lamps. After a moment the music came to an end leaving him to listen to the birds and crickets chirping.
All alone with only his thoughts, exactly what he had been trying to avoid for the past few days. He rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. He wasn't sleeping well these days, between the nightmares and feeling like Dream was watching his every move. He didn't know what to do.
It couldn't have been more then a few minutes when an uneasy feeling creeped up his spine.
He could feel someone's eyes on him, and not in the usual way. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as they stared him down. He tried to tell himself just to ignore it, but the feeling of being watched crawled along his skin until he snapped his head around to glare back.
He was expecting it the be Dream. The green bastard silently mocking him.
It wasn't Dream.
He blinked, then blinked again, but Techno's outline stayed on the roof. Any other time he would have gone after him, screaming and demanding to know what he was doing here, just earlier he had spotted Techno spying on them and had charged after him, but he was so tired and he knew the man would be gone by the time he got anywhere close to the roof.
Instead Tommy gave a half-hearted glare before focusing on the night sky in front of him, determined to ignore the traitor. He wasn't to concerned about dieing. If Techno had wanted to kill him, he would have.
Unfortunately, he was now all to aware of Techno's presence. He could feel the overwhelming urge to look over again, to see what he wanted, but he did his best to squish that feeling down and keep his gaze locked on the sky. A heavy silence blanketed the area around them. Even the birds and crickets that had been so noisy just a moment ago had all fallen silent, as if they were to afraid to break it.
After what felt like hours, but was probably just a few minutes, Tommy jolted at the sound of a block being placed. He had to clamp down on his kneejerk reaction to whip his head around and see what Techno was doing. After a few tense seconds another place was placed, then another.
Tommy gritted his teeth and dug his fingers into his jean-clad leg at the blocks being placed at a snail's pace. He knew Techno was doing it on purpose, he had seen how fast that man could build, knew he was just trying to annoy Tommy into looking at him again. A few more blocks were placed before everything went silent again.
Tommy's leg started bouncing as the urge to see what Techno had just built started to overwhelmed him. He decided a peak couldn't hurt and snuck a glance over his shoulder. He intended to for it to just be a quick look, but found himself doing a double take at what he saw.
Techno had built himself a small stone chair, but that wasn't what caught his attention. It was the way he was sitting. Tommy had seen him sit that way only a few times before.
The first had been when he dragged Techno out to go fishing with him. At first Techno had complained and looked like he was going to go back to pogtopia, until something rustled the bushes across the river. He had started at them before silently sitting next to Tommy and pulling out his fishing pole.
The second had been after the battle of the lake. He had been bandaging himself up and talking to Techno, who sat there scanning the treeline warily. As if Sapnap and the others would come bursting out and try to challenge them again.
The third and final time had been the night before the battle for l'manberg. Tommy hadn't been sleeping very well and had stepped out of his to get some water only to find Techno sitting by the fire. Sat in the very same pose he was now. He had placed two blocks behind him, his bow resting against his leg, his shield resting against his other leg, and had his axe resting on his lap, a tight grip on the handle incase he needed to use it.
When Tommy had asked about it, he had just shrugged. "I have my weapons within reach, and the blocks are so I don't have to worry about getting attacked from behind."
"And what about the shield?" Tommy asked. "I'm pretty sure you don't even need it because of how good your armor is."
He had gone quiet at that and Tommy saw an uncomfortable look briefly sweep across his face before he cleared his throat. "You and Wilbur have a bad habit of not wearing armor, and it might take to long to get it on if something happens."
Tommy had understood the unspoken, 'it's to protect you two' and normally he would have poked a bit of fun at the man. Maybe said something along the lines of, 'so you do care about us', but with the uncertainty of tomorrow hanging over them he had just said, "Oh. Okay." And sat down on the other side of the fire, waiting for the sunrise.
Tommy shook himself back to the present and stared in disbelief. It was a hard thing to wrap his head around. He didn't understand why he was there. Why now? His mind drifted to earlier that day. Techno had been hiding close enough to the confrontation to overhear everything, but why would he even care if Dream was out to get him? He wondered if this was supposed to be some sort of unspoken apology. A flicker of anger sparked up at the thought of that, but it fizzled out before he could even process it.
Tommy faced forwards again and stared down at his hands, feeling like he was burned out to his very core. He was to tired to be angry tonight. He had been feeling to tired to be angry a lot lately.
He should probably go get someone. Techno was a wanted man after all. There was a lot of things he should probably be doing, but as he sat there with that bone-deep exhaustion, he merely shifted his gaze to back up to the sky and let out a deep breath.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow he could be angry again, maybe complain to Ranboo about everything Techno had done, but for tonight he could pretend that everything was okay between them.
Staring up at the stary expanse he felt himself starting to relax. Months of living with Techno had taught his subconscious that he was safe as long as the man was around. After all, who would dare challenge the blade? And it would seem that not even a wither-filled day had changed that. Tommy's eyes drifted over to the jukebox and he felt his fingers twitch. He went back and forth in his mind before deciding 'fuck it' and replaying the song.
As the soft melody wove through the air, he felt his eyelids drooping. The past few restless nights catching up to him. He was hesitant to fall asleep, but after snapping his head up a few times he rest it on the back of the bench and closed his eyes. Just a few minutes of shut-eye. Ranboo would be back soon anyways.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tommy startled awake to the morning sun shining through his window. He looked around the room disoriented and rubbed at his eyes. He didn't remember crawling into his bed last night. He remembered Dream, and talking to Ranboo, and the bench, and then.....
Techno
Tommy froze for a moment before lowering his hands and looking around the room. It didn't look like anything had been moved, or was missing. He let himself relax a little. Ranboo had probably helped him to bed yesterday and he just didn't remember.
He pushed back the covers with a yawn and started getting ready for the day. He only made it a few steps before stopping and realizing that he hadn't had any nightmares. He had actually slept through the whole night. No wonder he felt so much more rested. With a smile sweeping across his face he got ready for his day.
After washing up and getting dressed he felt his good mood decrease as he remembered what was awaiting him tomorrow. He scrubbed his hands down his face and grew determined to not think about it. Not yet anyways.
Just before heading upstairs he noticed a note on one of his chests. He picked it up with a confused frown and started reading it.
"Heya Tommy,
I'm sorry it took me a while to get back. I kinda got distracted on the way to the meeting room, and also got distracted on the way back, but I made it! I don't blame you for already being in bed, I took a lot longer than I thought I would. I just wanted to let you know that a mean what I said last night. I'll stand by you no matter what, and I'll try to talk to Tubbo.
See ya around, Ranboo."
Tommy read through the note a few times in disbelief. He was already in bed when Ranboo got back? That was impossible. He had fallen asleep on the bench, he knew that he had. Tommy distinctly remember because he had fallen asleep to the mus--
His eyes widen in fear.
His disk.
He immediately started looking around the room for it. He dug through all his chests, and looked on every surface, but he didn't see it anywhere. Feeling panic flood his chest he took a step back and tried to think about where it could be. He brought up his hands to run through his hair only to stop and realize he was still holding the note.
Tommy stared at the now crumpled up piece of paper. Ranboo said he was already in bed, but he fell asleep on the bench. If Techno had been the one to put him there, then that would mean that the disk would be......
His eyes drifted over to his bed.
"Why do you have stuff under your bed? Isn't that the first place people look?" Tommy asked
Techno must have found whatever is was he had been looking for because he closed the chest. He drapped his blanket over the side to hide what was underneath before answering. "You see, it is the stereotypical hiding place, but that's what makes it perfect. No one ever thinks to actually look there."
Tommy wrinkled his nose. "Ya know, I don't think that's true."
"Oh really? When's the last time you looked under someone's bed for something important?"
Tommy opened and closed his mouth a few times before settling into a thoughtful look. His face brighten and he turned to run out the room. "Okay well it was nice talking to you, but I have something very important to do right now immediately."
As he ran out he heard Techno's soft laugh behind him. The grin on Tommy's face widened as he ran to his room. He had some things he needed to hide.
Tommy took a deep breath and slowly walked over to his bed. He crouched next to it and shakily lifted the blanket up to reveal the chest underneath. He popped the lid open and gave himself a few seconds to breath before lifting it up, and felt relief flood his veins at the sight of his disc sitting neatly on top.
He hadn't even realized that he was holding his breath until it all came out in a rush. He grabbed the disc and turned so his back was resting against the bedframe, just letting himself breathe. He hugged the music disk to his chest and tears started to blur his vision.
Tommy had been so, so scared that it would've been gone. He was so use to people taking things from him, was so use to losing things. Losing people. The fact that Techno could have easily taken it from him, but didn't rocked him to his very core.
He tried to tell himself that it didn't change anything. Techno was still the enemy. He chose his side that day and he chose to betray them. He was a traitor, he was the bad guy. That was what Tommy repeated to himself as he clutched his music disk like a lifeline, and tried to pretend that he didn't miss his brother.