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Tommy grinned at Tubbo as he slid into the window seat. Tubbo huffed a bit before claiming the middle seat, leaving the outside seat for Ranboo. They were headed on a class field trip to the local museum. To be honest, Tommy and Ranboo were only there for Tubbo. And to mess around a bit. Otherwise, they might have just skipped the day.
The bus ride was calm since it was such an early drive, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. Tommy and Tubbo spent the morning sharing a pair of earbuds while Ranboo slept.
It didn’t take long for the bus to pull up to the museum. Tommy looked up at the impressive building. He might not be the biggest fan of museums, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t appreciate them while he was there.
The orientation tour took far longer than it should have and it nearly put the three friends to sleep.
Finally though, they got to the exhibitions. They were first herded into an art room, the old paintings and black walls of the room giving it a hushed sort of vibe. The colours were muted, but the scenes were lively and rounded. Tommy spent his time latching onto Tubbo, Ranboo, and drifting on his own. He made dumb remarks at a few of them and listened whenever Tubbo rattled off some fact about one painting or another.
It didn’t take long for the trio to find the small digital art station in the corner. Tubbo stood, leaning against the one Tommy had claimed while Ranboo took the one next to him.
“Don’t you want to colour something terribly,” Tommy asked as he tried to find himself the brightest, most abhorrent colour he could.
“The other one’s broken,” Tubbo said, shrugging,
Tommy stood up and motioned for Tubbo to take his place.
Tubbo shook his head.
“Seriously, I know you like this kind of stuff and I’m not very artistic. Just take it,” Tommy insisted.
Tubbo looked down at the drawing pad, longing and loyalty warring in his eyes. Tommy got tired of waiting so he shoved Tubbo into the chair.
Tubbo didn’t even hesitate as he wiped all of Tommy’s progress. Tommy just smiled and shook his head.
He watched as Tubbo and Ranboo coloured in their respective drawings. He laughed and made some jokes along with them. Since he was standing where Tubbo had previously been he had a better view of the shorter boys.
It was a snake. It was looking great!
For a minute, Tommy enjoyed the moment, loving the way he was far from home and free. The way he was with his friends, who were willing to goof off with him.
‘What if something happens today? What if I end up in the hospital?’ he asked himself. He shook his head, ‘Yeah right.’
They were called to the next part of the museum, which passed in a blur. All he knew was that he was by his friends and that was all that mattered.
They spent the day together never more than a few feet from each other.
Finally, they left the museum at around lunch to get some food from the nearby plaza. They picked some seating as their teacher warned them to not go too far. They had a fairly quiet table though. They ended up getting a few plates that were easily shared between the three of them.
They returned to the museum after stopping Tubbo from buying too many popsicles as he and Ranboo ran across the street on a red light.
It was time for the next part of the museum.
They headed up to the modern art section. It was all pretty wack, in Tommy’s humble opinion. He could’ve done made something better and he had nearly failed art. Modern art didn’t have life or meaning. This section got picked apart ruthlessly by the infamous trio. Mercilessly ratting on it for essentially being glorified abstract art in real life.
Then they got to the social commentary part of the modern art section. They started in a movie theatre, playing the weirdest thing Tommy had ever seen. For some reason, there was a random Minecraft sheep in it. He didn’t know. The three of them left pretty quickly cause Tubbo complained it was giving him a headache.
“Those lights are trippy,” Tommy said, pointing to red and blue spotted LED lights that were above some plants.
The other boys agreed and promptly returned to their own conversation.
They walked around, each boy drifting off to do their own thing.
It didn’t take long for a familiar weight to settle in Tommy’s throat. He had felt it a few times in the cafeteria before, he usually just ditched and sat by himself until the end of the period and that seemed to solve it.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t for the life of him find a quiet corner to call his own.
That’s when he remembered the weird room. Neither Tubbo nor Ranboo would be returning there. And hopefully, neither would anyone else.
He took a seat in the front bench in an effort to hide. It worked. His friends didn’t come back and no one else bothered him.
He heard the rest of the class gather around the entrance to the door. He wanted to get up, but at the same time? He didn’t want to. That side of him ended up winning out.
Only when his teacher came to get him did the feeling of apathy leave him. Just barely.
He got up obligingly and gave the teacher a smile and a nod, the weight not gone from his throat.
He forced himself to say a few words to Ranboo and showed him a meme on his phone before they started their descent to the basement of the museum. The entire way down, Tommy felt the weight in his chest grow.
He had an ear out as Tubbo rambled about something or another as he tried to ignore the weight that had settled in his chest.
When they hit the bottom floor, he quietly moved himself away from Tubbo and Ranboo, turning the other way whenever he caught them out of the corner of his eye.
There were boats in this part of the museum. His eyes slid over the display cases of model boats, not really taking anything in.
It didn’t take long for them to be called to the other end of the room to the next part of the museum. As he walked down the long hallway, a loud ringing noise filled his ears. It was unbearably high. He quickly found the culprit, some old-time projector, but felt the apathy return at full force, so rather than cover his ears like he normally would, he just tried to drown it out with his thoughts.
It didn’t work. The noise grated against his ears, making him want to leave the room as quickly as possible. But his mind told him to wallow in the sound. So he walked as if everything were okay.
It wasn’t.
The next part of the tour was more just getting them around rather than an actual exhibit. Tommy felt the weight in his chest grow heavier with each passing moment. He dreaded when any of his friends tried to talk to him. If they did, they would immediately realize something was wrong.
He avoided them, wanting to stay far away from them lest they realize there was a problem, but also craving their presence. Even as he hid from them while keeping them in sight, he couldn’t help but let a tiny part of him hope they would notice.
They didn’t. Not yet at least.
It was a little later and they were looping back to the starting room to visit the other side of the museum when it happened.
“Hey Tubbo, what time is it?” Ranboo asked.
“No idea. My phone’s dead,” Tubbo said.
“Mine too. Hey Tommy,” Ranboo said, turning around.
Tommy felt his blood freeze. In his mind he was yelling at his hand to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone but his body refused to cooperate.
He felt stiff, like any movements were too much energy, too much effort.
“Tommy?” Ranboo said, prompting him.
Tommy screamed at his body to move, to take the flipping phone out, to do something. But it didn’t.
“Tommy, can you hear me?” Ranboo asked.
Tommy just stared at him.
“Okay, let’s get you sitting, yeah?” Ranboo said, taking charge of the situation.
Tubbo and Ranboo each took a side and slowly shuffled Tommy over, internally he scoffed. He could walk fine.
They sat him down on a bench and Tubbo immediately took control. He took Tommy’s hand in his and checked his pulse.
He frowned.
“It’s way too high,” Tubbo announced worriedly.
He then laid Tommy’s hand palm down on his own. He took the tip of his index finger and squeezed the nail.
Tommy watched as the nail slowly faded from the yellow-y green back to pink.
“His capillary refill is too slow, it should be about .2 seconds, but his blood is taking about three seconds to refill,” Tubbo said, looking up at Ranboo.
“Tommy, can you hear me?” Ranboo asked, kneeling in front of the blond. Tommy looked at Ranboo, but quickly lost interest when the older boy didn’t say anything else.
“Hey. No, no, keep your eyes on me,” he said gently.
Tommy made eye contact that he probably would have cringed from if he were in a normal state.
Tubbo sat next to him, holding his hand, gently murmuring reassurances that everything would be okay.
Tommy, meanwhile, was mentally telling Tubbo that he was fine. Because he was. His body just refused to listen. Even if he felt like if he just tried harder to make it move, that if he just pushed himself a little harder to talk, then he would be able to. But he didn’t.
Secretly, as Tubbo stood next to him, he wished his friend would just hug him. His hand holding felt nice and all, but it wasn't enough.
It had to be enough though.
Their teacher came by, freaking out about what was going on while also staying calm. Tommy didn’t know how she had mastered that particular skill.
She asked if any of his friends had Phil’s contact information. They both shook their heads while Tommy was mentally yelling at Tubbo about the fact that he had his thumbprint in his phone.
He internally rolled his eyes. Was he the only one thinking straight here?
They eventually called the medics at the museum, who quickly called an ambulance. The paramedics asked a bunch of questions about what he had been doing that day and his food and water intake.
He watched, unable to do anything as one of them took a bit of blood from his finger.
He was wheeled to the hospital while his teacher called Phil.
He stayed sat there as they rushed around him, collecting different samples from him. A doctor put her hand in his and asked him to squeeze it as hard as he could. To his surprise, he barely pressed her fingers together.
They left him alone for a while. While they were gone, he slowly felt his control coming back. He blinked slowly, moving his muscles millimeters at a time.
When the doctor returned, she asked him a few questions but eventually admitted that she didn’t know what had happened.
Phil burst through the door in a worried flurry of parental love. Tommy wasn’t keen on telling him what had happened so he let the doctor explain and answered as plainly as possible when either of them asked a question.
They stopped for food on the way back, Tommy feeling weird the entire time. He felt fine. Really, he did. He didn’t understand why everyone was freaking out. Well, he did, but he also didn’t.
While they ate, Tommy admitted to the few instances when he had been unable to speak before. When Phil asked why he didn’t tell him, Tommy lied by saying he didn’t want to worry him. But really? He was ashamed.
He should be able to talk. It wasn’t that hard. It wasn’t that hard to move either. So why couldn’t he?
Over the next few weeks, it happened a few more times, but only ever at school. Eventually, he stopped freezing up completely and only lost his voice for a few hours.
Tubbo and Ranboo kept pushing him gently about it, but they soon gave up.
It was fine. He was fine.
He really wasn’t.