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Chapter Text

The Antarctic Empire is most likely one of the Overworld’s greatest wonders. Right above how the Nether spawned seemingly out of nowhere from void and directly below the author growing her own pair of nonexistent balls to finally post this.

It was truly mystifying. 

No one quite knows how the Empire is able to withstand the below freezing temperatures of the Arctic. Although it’s rumored that the Emperor is such a highly advanced builder and wielder of redstone that he built a heating system directly underneath the Empire that still lasts till this day. Others say tha-

“That first rumor is garbage, the only place that has heating is the inner quarters!”

“Yeah that’s why it’s called a rumor dumbass.”

He felt ruffling and let out an annoyed cough; giving the kid a stink eye he slowly re-opened the book to continue reading.

Others say that the souls of his fallen enemies are buried deep underneath the Arctic snow and that their anger and rage fuels our furnaces keeping us warm with their hatred. He paused for greater emphasis. But one thing is for sure this Empire is n-

“I hope you know no one is buying this cripted bullshit. And what’s up with this music?”

He felt the ruffling again and shifted to get more comfortable in the lounge chair. If this kid didn’t stop interrupting he swore to Ender he was going to start stabbing shit.

“It’s called setting the mood pipsqueak, and this music,” he said calmly gesturing to the beat up jukebox in the corner, “I would happily trade you for in the black market.” he deadpanned.

“It’s garbage and sounds like shit!”

“Yeah well you are shit so you’d think you’d enjoy it huh?” he sneered back.

A cough was let out and both boys paused their bickering. The older boy shivered, feeling the librarian’s glare on his figure.

With a scrunched nose Tommy let out a strained sigh and slammed the book closed. He inhaled slowly and forced a smile on his face. “So what would your wonderfully moldable young minds like to hear from me today?” he asked, voice dripping with poisoned honey.

Almost instantly he was bombarded by an army of tiny voices shouting out a variety of different tales and stories. Slightly exasperated he forced himself out of the chair to go change out the disk in the jukebox. “Isn’t it like Empire Day or something, shouldn’t you want to hear something Empire-y?” He questioned while absentmindedly fingering through the disk case on the floor.

“The princes the princes!” 

“The princes the princes.” Tommy mocked back underneath his breath fluffing up slightly before finding a disk he was satisfied with.

“I’d reckon I’d be a prince too if I was vain enough to use all my gold to make a crown.”

“What do you have against our royalty, against our great nation, you good for nothing f-” the kid broke off with a fit of coughs.

“Did you just blow dust in my face?!?”

Tommy wordlessly continued blowing dust off his disk and then proceeded to place it inside the jukebox.

Ever so slowly the sound of a violin began its elegant waltz around the room.

He then suddenly clapped his hands together, gaining the attention of the startled children on the floor. “How about the appearance story?” He questioned plopping down on the floor and digging through his bag haphazardly.

“What’s that?” another boy questioned, eyes wide and full curiosity.

“You wouldn’t know about it, it’s a story for only the biggest of men” he grinned mischievously and pointed at himself, “like me.”

“Unless you’re ready to hit puberty I don’t think you’re ready to hear this story.” he said with a shrug feigning disinterest despite pulling out the found book from his sack.

Shouts of disagreement rang through his tiny crowd as they tried to convince him that they were in fact men. As he was about to attempt to calm them down again he noticed that his audience had expanded to other curious and amused onlookers interested in his storytelling. He couldn’t help the dopey grin that adorned his face.

Of course they would want to watch. He is after all the great Tommyinnit.

“Ok ok I’ll tell ya, but I want zero interruptions this time ok?” He stated pausing with a raised eyebrow as he watched the kids nod eagerly. The sound of a violin coming down from its crescendo lured them into his final tale.

A kingdom needs a king to prosper. Proper rulership and stability make a government, but it's loyalty that makes a nation. As it’s the people that make it home and fill it with emotion and trust, not the King. For a ruler is but one person and one person cannot make a nation.

An empire cares not for such rules.

The sound of a violin’s slowly rising crescendo started to dance over their heads.

An empire is a statement created by a ruler who finds joy in stringing it along by a leash like a dog. The people are not the empire but rather a byproduct of a long term goal that eventually turns to a means to an end once their use has been lost. For when you hear of an empire in your history books it is not the people that are remembered, but rather the deeds of the ruler.

The rulers of the Antarctic Empire have no doubt already appeared in your history books. This is not about the making of the Empire but rather the making of the Royal Family. King Philza, Prince Wilbur, and Prince Technoblade.

The music goes low again, appearing to have temporarily stopped altogether. The larger than before audience leans in closer at Tommy’s pause, eager for the teen to continue.

King Phil-

“EVERYONE OUT RIGHT NOW! This is an order from the Antarctic Empire Royal Guard!!”

“Son of a-”

Confused chaos rang through the library as everyone rushed to get out. No one wanted to be made an example out of, especially this far out of the inner circle.

Tommy let out an exhausted groan as he sunk lower onto the floor in annoyance. This could’ve been the most money he’s made since he arrived at this stupid country, but nooooo someone just had to come and ruin it. He looked at the guards outside through the window and decided that him getting skewered today would admittedly not be very poggers. Shoving his book into his bag he slowly crawled his way to the back entrance and made his way up the roof.

“Here in the Antarctic Empire we don’t accept liars and we don’t stand for false propaganda .”

The guard made a sharp turn in Tommy’s direction forcing him to duck down and cover a gasp. For a second Tommy swore that there was no way he wasn’t noticed. He tried to calm down long enough to soothe the feeling of the ruffling on his back.

“And we sure as hell don’t accept intruders!” the guard continued.

Tommy let out a sigh of relief as the guard continued walking.

So it seemed he was the cause of all this attention. Truly they were too kind.

“Of course this is not only for his majesty’s safety but for yours as citizens of this great empire as well.” The guard paused, eyeing the crowd again seeming to expect some kind of agreeance, but was only met with silence.

Tommy had to quiet his snort at their patriotism.

“It has been brought to my attention by a reliable source that you have been letting an outsider live in our midst.” The small chatter suddenly stopped and Tommy tensed. The man continued walking until he was looking directly down at the boy Tommy was arguing with from before. “Do you happen to know who this lad is?” the guard asked a dangerous tilt added to his voice that made the boy squirm.

“Or rather who this belongs to?” He questioned throwing an enderchest on the floor that Tommy immediately recognized. A pained groan was let out at the sound of his chest hitting the cobblestone floor. Why were these people so nosy? It’s not like it was bothering anyone being hidden in the snow. 

Tommy peaked his head over the roof ledge to see if any of his other items had gotten stolen. Upon noticing the only thing they managed to find was his chest he relaxed a bit.

At least Clementine was safe, he thought in relief. His loyal donkey did not need to be harassed by these idiotic assholes. She deserved only the best. Like golden apples.

Clementine loved golden apples.

She was truly the best girl just like her father.

Except her father was a best boi.

Was there a difference?

His thoughts were kind of a downward spiral after that and he found himself zoning out of the confrontation that was happening below him. After all, Clementine was way more important than some silly guard.

He spiraled back in after getting knocked in the head by a pebble.

“Ooow.” Tommy whined, lazily rolling over onto his back to view his assailant.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve you little pest.”

“Niki! Were you there?! Did you hear my story? I’m getting better at telling them aren’t I?!” 

He missed the look of disdain that crossed her features.

Niki was the owner of a really good bakery, often adding extra cookies and cream puffs in your orders when you weren’t paying attention. She was basically the town's older sister and she got along really well with the kids. Tommy was well aware that she wasn’t the hugest fan of him being here since he was an outsider, but the kids got along with him well enough and he’d never ‘purposefully’ caused any trouble. So she tolerated him well enough.

At least he thought so.

She let out a sigh. “No Tommy I didn’t hear you read today, but what I did hear were palace guards making an absolute mess of everything looking for you.”

“Woah woah woah!! Niki my friend! What makes you think I’m this intruder?” He questioned with air quotes.

He received a blank stare and a pointed stare towards his attire. Apparently a lack of jacket or insulated clothing was a clear sign you weren’t from the arctic.

He leaned back and made a nervous chuckle.

“So….what ever happened to my chest?”

Before Niki could attempt to shove Tommy off the ledge, a little girl poked her head from around her leg and responded excitedly.

“It’s become a festival grand prize!”

“Whaaaaaaat?” Tommy groaned.

“There’s going to be a fighting tournament tonight during the festival and the chest is gonna be one of the prizes.” Niki further clarified exasperatedly. 

Like she was the one who was worried about their donkey named Clementine.

“Pog!! All I gotta do is kick some ass, grab my chest, finish packing, and then I can leave tomorrow!”

“You realize you’ll be fighting warriors from all over the Empire right?”

“Yeah! Isn’t that poggers!?”

“You’ll be fighting grown men from all over the Empire.”

“Yeah! Isn’t that poggers?!”

“Tommy. You are literally a child. ” 

“Yeah! Isn’t that pog-HEY! THE GREAT TOMMYINNIT IS NOT A CHILD!!!”

Tommy didn’t miss the slight look of fondness that crossed her features. He grinned triumphantly.

Niki let out a resigned sigh.

“You’re missing the point,” she said tiredly walking over to go sit next to him, “Tommy, why don’t you just apply for citizenship? We’d be happy to get you a more permanent job, and a place to stay. Then we wouldn’t have to hide you….you’d….” she sighed again. “You’d live in a more stable environment.” she reasoned softly.

Tommy flinched as if the idea itself had momentarily scorched him.

“Nononononon I’m good. I-I..I umm quite like staying on the move and uh uuumm. Clementine! Yeyeyeye umm my daughter needs to keep exercising to stay healthy and stuff.”

“Besides staying in one place is a little ironic innit? Me being a nomad in all.” he quickly added; nervously pulling at his poncho.

Tommy rushed to stand and aggressively brushed off the imaginary dust off his pants.

“Thank you for the concern Niki but I really must be heading to the capital, I’ve got a umm match to win and all that.”

As he briskly started walking to the roof exit Niki called out to him again.

“Oh one more thing I forgot to tell you.”

Tommy glanced back around at her.

“If you get all the way down to the final match you’ll have to compete in a one on one duel with the Empire's head war general, Prince Technoblade.”

Chapter Text

Niki had to admit she wasn’t 100 sure how she felt about Tommy yet. 

One second she’d been bundled up getting ready to go to bed, and the next she was rushing down stairs back to the bakery, afraid a wild animal had somehow gotten into her kitchen. What she found in its stead was Tommy.

And honestly there wasn’t really a difference between the two.

Tommy was against every set of rules Niki was ever taught. And rest assured the Empire had quite a lot of them (so even she couldn’t completely blame Tommy for her wariness). 

At the time he wore the same red and white striped poncho that he usually dawned with pride. Though now it was properly washed, insulated, and longer due to the assistance of some of the town's local grandmas. At the time however, it’d been ripped, dirtied, and looked as though it’d been made from an old tee-shirt. 

The chipped pendant connecting it at the front was the only remnant from his old attire.

Another thing that Niki’d noticed was how malnourished this kid was. He couldn’t have been older than 15 at the time, surely he must’ve been in pain. But all Tommy did was nonchalantly bite on an apple while ruffling through the contents of one of the chests in her storage closet.

She was surprised the thin boy wasn’t scarfing anything down at this point. Shouldn’t he be hungry? Did that mean he was used to it? Niki was genuinely concerned at the time.

At that moment she’d already broken two rules.

1. The royal guard must be notified by all intruders the moment they're found

2. Don't feed strays

Of course in this case the stray would be Tommy, but again Niki couldn’t really see the difference.

He’d always been a big ball of energy. 

Even when held at swordpoint he just couldn’t seem to get that stupid grin off his face.

That’s when Niki realised that despite the fact that this child looked weak, he wasn’t born within the walls of the Antarctic Empire.

He wasn’t raised with rules and limitations like she was.

Wherever this boy came from he’d acquired the survival skills to cross the snowy tundra long enough to reach her village.

Even more startling was he was confident enough in his skills to put his bare hand to the blade of Niki’s sword and push it away as he made up terrible excuses of all kinds defending his break in.

These were the things Niki had noticed and it made her even more worried.

This was around the time she filed a report form and sent it to the royal guard in the inner circle. Surely this boy would prove to be a threat. She consoled her guilt of reporting a child by telling herself she was doing her duty as a citizen of the Antarctic Empire.

By the time the royal guard had actually showed up to their little village she’d forgotten all about the report.

Despite Niki kicking Tommy out (after letting him sneak two more biscuits into his satchel) and warning him to stay away from her village, the stra-..um Tommy kept coming back. And no matter what she did she couldn’t get the rest of her village to agree with her on keeping him away.

To start off, Tommy was like a beacon. He had an unnatural way of drawing people to him, and you usually started growing fond of him somehow one way or another. The children loved him immediately.

The prospect of being close to something so different and wild was very exciting for a bunch of ten year olds who’d never ventured out beyond the border. They practically adored the force of nature, and Niki had to admit Tommy was pretty good with the children.

Adults found him endearing and elders loved him. He reminded them of a time when they could leave as they pleased and when the only rules they had to live by were ‘help thine neighbor’. 

Most of them were around the age of young adults when King Philza created the borders of the Empire. A few had families that’d been left out in the tundra when the walls were built. 

The results of this were unspoken of, but not unknown.

Niki once overheard that he’d given them hope that their families were still alive, because if this boy could survive his trip through the snowy wasteland why couldn’t they. She doesn’t have the heart to tear the newfound hope away.

Tommy was also quite different in other ways as well. He had two dark lines that stretched out underneath both of his eyes (he’d quickly reassured her that it was probably just dirt and she didn’t think back on it) and was also strangely light on his feet. Sometimes whenever he would jump off trees or slide off roofs he would look like he was floating. Though that was probably just her eyes playing tricks on her. Still, the kid was weird.

He also seemed to be ever so slowly gaining Niki’s attention. Not that she’d ever admit it, especially since she tried her best to ignore the little pest.

“Niki! I got the eggs for you so you don’t have to this morning!”

“Hey Niki since I’m such a BIG MAN I’ll carry that for you!”

“Niki look at this new book I got, can I practise reading it too you?”

“What do you take me for a PUSSY?! I could totally eat this spoonful of cinnamon!”

After about a year of Tommy stopping by their village around every other month, she slowly found herself waiting with the children for the skinny boy to hop over the border and greet them. She reassured herself that it was only to make sure that he wasn’t injured.  

She often found herself wondering if it was ok for a kid to travel through such dangerous conditions all on his own. Tommy had briefly explained to her that it was a nomad’s way of life; that he grew up being taught how to survive in difficult situations.

Tommy hadn’t truly ever stayed in one place for longer than a month-..two at the absolute most. Niki couldn’t imagine not having a permanent place to live or not being able to come back to the safety of her bakery for such a long time. Especially without a companion. Humans needed interaction to survive and she was concerned about how this was affecting Tommy’s health.

When she brought her concerns up with Tommy he cackled like she just told him the most hilarious thing in the world.

When she questioned him he flinched like he’d realised he made a mistake and his face turned beet red.

He stuttered out incoherent apologies and laughed nervously as he yanked his poncho down lower and sped walked out the door.

Niki blanked in confusion. Maybe this was a touchy subject.

She then let out a horrified gasp.

Great Ender she hoped this wasn’t some kind of coping mechanism.

She planned on asking for clarification the next day. But well-

“Niki! Niki! Niki! There’s a mean man looking for Tommy in the square!”

God damnit.

Niki could hardly contain the small bit of self loathing she felt throughout the whole confrontation. She was the reason this was happening after all.

Of all the times for the government to finally do their fucking job.

She was relieved that Tommy was ok. She was absolutely horrified by the idea of Tommy going anywhere near the inner circle. The fact that he planned to actually try and fight ‘The Technoblade’ worried her right down to her core.

Not Tommy though.

“POGGERS!!”

Tommy was fucking pumped!

He was very excited. He knew he was a big man, but this was his opportunity to be a fucking MASSIVE MAN. Now of course he could’ve just stolen his chest back. 

But man this was incentive.

When was he ever going to get an opportunity as big as defeating Technoblade ever again. He bet women loved a man who could take down an undefeated war general!

And wouldn’t it be the right thing to do to win his chest back fair and square.

Clearly he was making the right choice.

Wait. Why did Niki look so pale?

Niki was going to be sick. Tommy was seriously considering this? “Is that chest really that important Tommy? Isn’t there a way I could just help you get another one?” 

“Not unless you fancy getting blaze burns in the Nether.” he snickered

Niki shivered.

“Besides you don’t just abandon a fucking ender chest Niki. I’m a traveler. A lifetime's worth of my traveler things are in there I can’t just forget about them.”

Niki took a deep breath. Ok. This was fine. Tommy was fine. Tommy would probably be fine.

“Tommy, If you go I’m going with you.”

“Sounds good to me! I need all the ladies I can get cheering me on to keep my morale up!!” he cackled with a grin.

Niki let out a resigned sigh. “Ok Tommy meet me by the bordergate tomorrow at 9 o’clock sharp. Any later and you have to figure it out on your own.”

With an excited salute Tommy ran off.

With an exhausted huff Niki walked home.

After Niki got home the first thing she did was look for those old citizenship passes she received when she finally earned her Empire business license. Tommy being an outsider here was fine because no one really cared about the rules this far out, but in the inner circle, so close to the castle, they most definitely  would.

Although the border is usually down on Empire Day so there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. But better safe than sorry.

And boy was Niki sorry that Tommy was in this situation. Even though he’s excited she really just wants to just straight up tell him no. But she can’t, because they’re hardly even family and she has no right to tell him to forget about something he worked so hard to get. So she’ll have to have faith in him for now.

Besides Tommy usually has luck on his side.

He might be a bit roughed up at worst but he would live.

She just hoped those survival skills of his would pay off.

-

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It was finally the next morning and just like he said he would be Tommy was waiting at the gate. After a lot of hugs goodbye and good luck wishes they were off.

Niki and Tommy left the village at around nine thirty, arrived at the inner circle at about 10, and were finally able to get Tommy signed up for the tournament at exactly 3 o’ clock. It was fortunate that they were able to make it in without any issues. Had they been recognized as outer city the process might’ve taken longer and she might've had to waste one of her passes.

Keeping your head down did wonders.

By the time they finished, all of the festival stalls had been set up, and the delicious smell of overpriced food greeted them everywhere they went.

Tommy was excitedly bouncing from foot to foot, anxious to get in the sights before the tournament started. By the time all the fights were over it would likely be too late to try and find good food stalls that hadn’t been sold out. 

And he wanted to try everything.

Even Niki had to admit that the food smelled heavenly.

“Hell Yeah!! I’m gonna stuff my face, get my strength up, then me and Cat are gonna kick ass! I’ve never seen so many different types of food in one place! I think I’m gonna have some of the c-”

“Uumm Tommy, who’s Cat?”

“My glorious weapon!” he responded with a grin.

Now that she thinks about it, Niki’s never seen Tommy with a sword. Or any weapon for that matter.

Though it makes sense, you don’t just travel the world and not have a weapon.

Niki doesn’t know how she feels about the 16 year old wielding a blade.

“Do you want to see her?” he asked with bright eyes, clearly wanting to show off.

Niki found it adorable in a puppy sort of way and decided to indulge him.

“Sure.”

His face instantly lit up. Niki had to squint her eyes to see him properly.

“Prepare to be AMAZED by the Great Tommyinnit aaaand CAT!” he said, dramatically pulling out the weapon from his waistband.

Niki paled. 

“Tommy, I think you forgot your sword.” she croaked worriedly.

Tommy gave her a confused tilt of his head, making some of his blond curls shift from behind his ear.

“Mellohi? No why would I have him, he’s with Tubbo.”

Niki now knows how she feels.

She definitely wishes he had a blade.

Niki took a deep breath. “Tommy. You plan on taking on Technoblade with nothing but a sword hilt?” she questioned with narrowed eyes.

“Well yeah and the complimentary armor."

"Tommy.”

“Yeah?”

“I am going to go get something to eat.”

“I’ll go w-”

“No. You will go fix this situation and find something to go increase your chances of getting out of this alive.” she stressed.

“But-”

She leveled him with a look.

Tommy closed his mouth.

“Yes ma’am”

Tommy walked away dejectedly.

Stupid Niki. Only caring when he was about to do something fun.

“Don’t listen to her Cat. You’re better than some silly old sword (no offence to Mellohi), I’m not going to replace you.” 

Cat reflected light brightly in response.

Cat was a part of set that he and his friend Tubbo had spent months forging. It was the longest amount of time Tommy had ever spent in one place, but it really did pay off. Cat (named courtesy of Tommy) was grey with bold black lining. A scratchy carving of a disk with a green center rested at the end of it. It’s counterpart, Mellohi (courtesy of Tubbo), having the same carving but in red on the hilt.

When Tommy had told his friend it was finally time for him to start traveling again, neither wanted to part with their creation. After a solid hour of back and forth arguing Tubbo’s dad had drunkenly yelled at them to ‘Just share the stupid thing and shut up!’. 

Looking back he probably didn’t mean it quite so literally.

But that was just what he and Tubbo did. Now after 3 years of defending himself with it he was quite confident in his fighting ability. He could be any opponent with or without a sword.

Niki just didn’t understand. 

So instead of buying a weapon, which is what she strongly implied he go do, he was going to go look for something to eat.

Besides, food does help increase his chances of living so technically he is listening.

“Empty your pockets and give me everything in them!”

“Sir if you just give me a second I-”

“I said empty your pockets before I skewer you with my blade.”

-Tommy paused his walking to better observe his surroundings.

It appears in his efforts to try and console Cat he’d wondered into a mugging.

Which was not pog.

Nor was it on his time schedule for the day.

Tommy almost ignored them. It looked like if they just gave the thief what he wanted they would be fine. The guy wielding the knife was probably bluffing anyway.

He tried to get a closer look at the victims.

There were two figures that were currently being robbed. Both of which wore navy blue cloaks that had emerald green accents.

One of which was a beanie wearing beanstalk and was negotiating (or attempting to) with the attacker.

The other had broader shoulders, more muscles, and looked as though he was in some kind of physical pain. He had wild eyes and was harshly gripping at his hair.

The second guy definitely looked as though he was gonna snap and kill someone. 

Or was struggling not to anyway.

Was that why he was in pain?

Tommy let out a reluctant sigh, muttering a quick apology to Cat, before finally deciding to approach the trio. 

He quietly stalked behind the thief, putting a finger to his lips in a silencing motion when Beanstalk’s eyes drifted over to him, and swiftly bonked him on the head.

The thief’s eyes flew wide open as he haphazardly swung his knife around to stab the assailant behind him.

Tommy dropped low avoiding the onslaught of attacks and gave his knees two sharp jabs, resulting in the man dropping to the floor in a cry of shock.

He was quickly finished off with one last skillful blow to the back causing him to drop onto the floor out cold.

Psh he knew he didn’t need a sword.

Dusting his poncho off he slowly turned around to get a better look at the people he just saved.

And decidedly thought that his next best course of action would be to bonk the (what looked to be a) piglin hybrid on the head.

“Dude what the hell you can’t just plan to murder someone in broad fucking daylight!” Tommy yelled at the crouched man in accusation.

Had it been night time he definitely would have just let Pinky go haywire and left them alone.

Because clearly that was the only problem with this situation.

Now admittedly, Tommy hadn’t actually seen the man draw a weapon to cause the thief any harm, but for some odd reason he felt as though the situation could’ve escalated way more than what it actually was. 

Despite the pained look the hybrid dawned on his face during the encounter, Tommy felt most of his wariness come from him instead of the actual assailant. He didn’t know what was going through the pig hybrids mind at the time but he looked like he was going to loose it.

And he needed to get his chest without the tournament being post-poned just because a body was reported.

“I believe you owe me some compensation because a man as big as me just saved your lives.” Tommy stated, a mischievous grin on his face.

But right as he was about to elaborate a loud siren went off followed by an announcement.

“All contestants in the festival tournament today need to report to the coliseum in the next 10 minutes. The festival is starting.”

Oh shit. He was gonna have to run if he wanted to make it in time.

He narrowed his eyes at the two in front of him. "You assholes have a debt to pay now."

He quickly took off, sprinting past them and out the other end of the alley. Making sure to snatch some snacks out of Beanstalk’s pocket he saw as he passed them.

They at the very least owed him that much.

With a loud shout at the cloaked duo to avoid getting robbed he made his way back to the main road.

And with no further interruptions made a mad dash to make it to the Coliseum on time.

Completely oblivious to the crimson red and honey brown eyes that followed his retreating figure.

Chapter Text

It was the most poggest thing Tommy’d ever seen in his entire fucking life.

A magnificent fortress built sky high with blocks and blocks of gorgeous cobblestone. This coliseum was an architectural marvel. Something that Tommy was quite sure of because never had he ever felt the need to use such big words.

Oh he could definitely see himself kicking ass here.

With only a few seconds to spare Tommy sheepishly showed his registration card to the irritated examiner before hurriedly throwing his satchel into an open cubby. After following the directions he quickly found the arena and rushed to get in line with the other competitors. Once he got into place, the door to the arena groaned loudly as the entrance guards forcefully pulled it to a close. The sound of a block of wood falling into place and people shuffling followed soon after.

Were they supposed to be locked in?

Shivering at the feeling of eyes on the back of his neck, Tommy glanced back behind him to see that a guard had moved to block the door. The two made brief eye contact before Tommy hurriedly turned around. That dude was definitely looking at him weird.

Though maybe it was just his nerves.
Because in all honesty, everyone was looking at him weird.

Now Tommy was definitely an above average kid. But it didn’t change the fact that he was still a chi—younger than most of the other people competing. While he was taller than most teens his age, he was still scrawny and lacked a lot of muscle that hadn’t developed yet; reason being his young age and a few weeks of malnutrition he hadn’t yet recovered from. Compared to everyone else he looked like an easy kill. 

And boy were they looking.

Tommy held back a groan.

He tried to stay focused on the instructor who was breaking down the fight stages—apparently the first round would be a free for all—and not the predatory gazes he was receiving from the other competitors. What a bunch of assholes. It’d barely been 5 minutes and people were already trying to size him up. Well fuck them! He’s going to show them all what a BIG MAN he is. Humans were just being plain stupid if they didn’t recognize from just pure aura alone that Tommy Danger Kracken Innit was at the top of the food chain. Because Tommy Innit is the GRE-

“Will all contestants and audience members rise and direct their attention to the balcony above me as His Royal Highness, King Philza offers his words of wisdom?”

Attention drifted away from the instructor and up to the shadow hovering over the balcony on the upper level. There was a stretch of silence as everyone waited in anticipation for the royal to step forward.

Then there he was.

Tommy was an idiot. A bloody buffoon. And most importantly..Tommy was oh-so-very wrong. There was one man who was above him on the food chain and he was no mere mortal. No, that man was Philza Motherfucking Minecraft.

Standing there experiencing his full glory, Tommy now knew that he was a fool to have thought anything different.

Rumors about this man ran rampant like the harsh winters of the Tundra. And standing there looking at him now he found himself believing all of it.

Standing tall at a height of six feet two inches, with the addition of 2 large black feathered wings protruding from his back. He-well....he was actually a little shorter than that; the horns might’ve added a good 4 inches but that’s besides the point. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, Philza Minecraft would still be able to tower over you. He’s one the last surviving flying avians in the world. Survivor of what? No one really knows. But it had to be one hell of something to be nicknamed ‘The Angel of Death’.

Philza Minecraft. What a man.
Tommy was elated to be bestowed his wisdom.

Philza’s stormy blue eyes pierced into the audience; drawing the crowd in under the false promise of calm waters. He cleared his throat; a deep rumbling noise, and Tommy felt as though he’d been struck by lightning.

“I’ve been told that an intruder has invaded my Empire.”

And as soon as the lightning struck it faded back into the gray cobblestone walls of the coliseum. God damnit.

“It has also been made aware to me that they are here tonight in an effort to reclaim an item of theirs that my guards have found. Well let me make something clear to them,” his eyes narrowed into a sharp glare, “you won’t be leaving until you have had a private meeting with me or have met your end by the sword of one of your fellow competitors. I don’t take disrespect lightly and I assure you that after this act of treason my sons will enjoy having a word with you as well.”

Ok nevermind. Tommy Innit is still at the top of the food chain. Philza Minecraft was just a bitch with horns.

He heard a snicker from the man beside him.

Ender he hopes he didn’t say that out loud. Filter Tommy Filter.

“To the rest of you competing today I wish you the best of luck. Me and my sons will be watching and observing how you fight tonight, and though you may not win, any one a few could get an offer to join the royal guard.”

Suddenly a bright warm grin broke out onto his face and instantly the stormy waters calmed. Tommy could practically feel the relief radiating off of everyone as the tense atmosphere finally faded away. He took a deep breath and readjusted his poncho. It had grown a little tight from all his earlier shuffling.

“And with that may the odds be forever in your favor!”

A whistle blew, the other two entrances shut, and without any prior warning the games had begun.

~x~

Screams of protest broke out among the contestants. Tommy had already broken out into a sprint to a less populated area to avoid the oncoming commotion.

This was an unexpected development of a complete shit show and the entire arena was starting to look more and more like a toilet the longer he stood there. Those bastards put 100 fucking people into a room and basically told them to kill each other with nothing but the fucking clothes on there backs! Maybe he should’ve taken Niki up on that offer to get an upgrade on gear.

Now Tommy had no idea where she was in the audience but he could practically feel the anger directed at him...from somewhere. That combined with his gittered nerves from being threatened by a literal fucking king was screwing with his senses.
All in all this situation was neither ideal or poggers.

“You expect us to fight without weapons or armor?!”
“Yeah what the hell! What are we animals?!”
“AND WHY ARE THE DOORS LOCKE-”
Tommy lifted forward from an unexpected sharp gust of wind and froze. Where did wind come from in a closed space?

10 bodies dropped lifelessly onto the floor.
The arena fell silent as spectators tried to figure out what hell had happened.

“HAHAHA wow Techno that was three more than before yeah?”
“It could’ve been 11 had you not been shoving me.”

Shocked eyes quickly flew back up to the balcony and were met with the sight of a piglin hybrid aiming a crossbow into the arena with one leg posed on the railing. A brown haired man idly twirling a golden crown sat on the railing directly beside him nonchalantly kicking his legs back and forth. He wore a gleeful grin on face as he leaned against the leg of the piglin.

“What kind of idiots come to a competition without weapons anyway? Surely you didn’t think we’d have enough weapons for all of you?” Sneered the piglin.

“Mate you’re not supposed to interfere until the final match.”
“Aww don’t be like that dad they deserved it.”
“Will don’t encourage him.”

Ah. So those must be the princes.

The noise starts to pick up in the arena again as people actually start fighting each other. A big man with an ax twice Tommy’s size let out a war cry as another 10 people were knocked down.

Yeah he was going to have to find a way to avoid that.

Another drift of wind lifted him backwards. Someone must have brought a crossbow in then.

Long range weapons weren’t going to be a problem. Wind currents in a closed space weren’t too difficult to feel but—he pulled out Cat and blocked an attack from behind—but he was going to have to be a bit more mindful about the close rangers.

What he really needed—he tumbled away from another sword—what he really fucking needed was a shield. Though according to pig boy in the balcony he wasn’t going to get one anytime soon, so a person was going to have to do.

A human shield really, but they didn’t have to know that.

Seeing another opening he made a sprint to the other side of the arena and attempted to try and keep count of everyone he saw. Best case scenario he could be evasive enough to last until he made it to the final 20.

48...49..50..51..5-was something burning?

Tommy skidded to a stop; just barely avoided an oncoming fireball. 52 he muttered distractedly. And oh. Oh man. This was exactly what he needed. Tommy’s eyes followed the trail of smoke until he landed on the flaming hand of a blaze hybrid. The hand of the very same man who stood next to him in the lineup.

Convenient.

The man had shaggy black hair wet with sweat that was being kept in place by a white strip of fabric. He had on a matching white t-shirt and a black pair of shorts that sort of pulled the look together. Adorned with a manic grin and some pointy ass ears, he was quite literally raining hell on the arena. He was likely not from here then, Tommy observed. He, like Tommy were one of the few people who weren’t wearing clothes that were best suited for the freezing cold of the arctic. And even though his poncho was insulated, Tommy’s poncho didn’t even fully cover his arms.

He wasn’t immune to the cold persay, but the only time he’d ever gotten sick was when he wasn’t wearing something that covered his upper half. He usually ran warm and tended to forget that visiting the arctic meant below freezing temperatures; often running around barefoot or forgoing gloves in honor of using his hands to hold snow. But while Tommy ran warm, this man was born from warmth. Heat ran through his veins and flowed through his blood making him a terrifying enemy, or hopefully an even stronger ally.

Tommy tried to stay near the area the man was fighting in so that he could find a chance to close distance and talk, or at the very least he needed the guy to notice him. He kept himself busy counting down how many people he could strike down as he waited for an opening. The numbers were thinning out, and the stragglers had stopped coming for Tommy the second he’d showed that he was more than just some scrawny kid. However, they were still a ways away from the 20 people mark so he was still a little cautious. He stood on guard as he waited for an opening.

Then it happened.

The air shifted, and instead of being pushed back Tommy let it pull him along. Just in the nick of time Tommy extended Cat and successfully blocked the arrow aimed at the blaze’s back. The man briefly glanced behind him and upon recognizing him gave him a nod and a grin. Tommy couldn’t help the manic grin that’d begun to breakout on his face in response and returned it tenfold. Almost instantly they’d adjusted and were fighting synchronized on the same rhythm. The duo standing back to back and covering for each other.

He could feel the audience’s attention gradually drifting over to them as more and more competitors started trying to take them out, eager to also be the center of attention. Tommy let out a loud cackle. But they couldn’t get close without the threat of being burned to a crisp. He was sure as hell doing more than waiting it out now, but he was in no position to complain.

“Sooo....nice fire.” Tommy started, risking a quick glance over to his partner behind him.
“Nice face.” the man retorted with a snicker, making Tommy instinctively reach to his face markings.
This time Tommy turned all the way around to retort, but instead of responding he grabbed Cat and jabbed it in the direction of the man’s head. Almost as if he sensed it the man ducked and shot a fireball at where Tommy’s feet previously were.

Two more bodies fell to the ground.

The man let out a loud laugh and turned around to get a good look at Tommy. “You got a name kid?” He asked, grin never leaving his face. “Tommy.” He responded breathlessly, the adrenaline in his veins flowing so fast he swore he could hear it. “Sapnap.” the man responded back in recognition.

And with that the whistle blew. Tommy dropped to his knees in exhaustion.

He’d made it to the final 20.

Chapter Text

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The doors to the arena groaned as they were slowly pushed back open. The small bit of orange left from the setting sun slowly poured inside, as if to congratulate the remaining 20 left standing. Tommy let out a long drawn out sigh of exhaustion. There was a deafening silence as spectators and competitors alike looked around the arena to see who was left and who was down. 

Then suddenly a loud scream pierced through the thick quiet. Tommy jolted, the adrenaline in his system still running high. He took a second to compose himself and realized that the shout had actually come from somewhere inside the arena, and more and more people were slowly joining in. Tommy turned around in confusion as the blaze, newly dubbed SnapPap, let out a fierce roar of his own as well. A dumbfounded look settled on his face as he wondered if everyone had collectively lost their shit.

He received a shoulder nudge from PapScrap and instinctively let out a small shriek at the contact. SnaWap looked at him in confusion before bringing his fist and pounding it twice against his chest. Tommy yanked on the hem of his poncho and looked at the man in front of him in scrutiny. What was he— Oh.

Tommy took in a big breath before screaming at the top of his lungs.

“HELL YEEAAAAAH!!”

The audience cheered back with just as much enthusiasm. He almost thought he’d heard Niki’s soft voice scream along with the audience, but he wasn’t sure. All in all, Tommy was on fucking cloud nine. The sound of a throat clearing echoed around the room and the shouts and applause ceased immediately.

It was becoming rather obvious that the audience was still somewhat cautious of their king. The actions of the royals at the entrance ceremony hadn’t yet left their minds. Although they were very excited, this being the one time a year they got to see outsiders, no one wanted to be the one to make the king upset….well more upset. If his last speech was anything to go by he was quite pissed. It was apparent in King Philza’s tone that this competition was a bigger deal than usual. The option to forfeit hadn’t been available to the competitors and as a result there were quite a few injured fighters scattered around the coliseum. 

It was no surprise that most of the remaining 20 were people that had brought weapons of their own. Most of the others, by Ender’s miracle alone, had survived but were going to have to sustain a few lifelong injuries. The other few were not so lucky.

“Congratulations to the lot of you that survived the first round. Despite the fact that there will only be one winner, every single one of you has no doubt proven yourselves. I see a few familiar faces from earlier this evening that I expected,” dark blue eyes made brief contact with sky blue ones,”and a few of you I had not.”

Tommy fixed his posture.

“Nevertheless I congratulate you. There will be a brief interlude where you will be interviewed and sized for any weaponry you deem necessary for your final matches. Dismissed.”

As soon as the balcony doors slammed shut, medics and nurses alike swarmed into the arena. Tommy watched as family members jumped over the railing to set up tents; the battlefield looked more like the aftermath of a war than a friendly competition. 

Tommy follows the instructor out of the arena along with the rest of the contestants in a single file line. He doesn’t know for sure where they’re going, the twist and turns different from the ones he originally took to get there. But it does get him a good overhead view of the coliseum. The makeshift hospitals and all their patients turning into a bunch of oddly shaped colorful ants at the higher angle. He mentally applauded himself for recognizing some of the colors; the familiar colors representing some of the kingdoms and villages he’d visited when in the area. Tommy’d never met any of their higher ups, but from what he saw they cared a lot about their people.

“I wonder if they knew this was gonna be so serious when they sent them here?” he questions aloud.

NapSwap snorts behind him.

“Oh no, they’re gonna be livid. Dream especially” he trails off. 

Now Tommy knows he recognizes that name. “PapSnap, you know who Dream is!?” he asked excitedly. “ Snapnap” the blaze emphasizes, irritated in a way that makes Tommy assume this happens a lot. 

“My name is Snapnap. And yes I know who Dream is, it’s quite hard to forget the jerk.” he mutters the last part, but Tommy suspects traces of fondness in his voice.

A curse is let out as he trips over a step. “Yeah but how do you knoooow him? SMP border control is no joke, how’d you even get close enough to meet the guy?” 

A grin breaks out on SnapNap’s face as he leans in closer to Tommy. “You really wanna know?”

Tommy nodded eagerly.

“Not only do I know Dream, I’m his personal guard.” Tommy’s eyes flew as wide as saucers. “You’re from the sm-mpff” A warm hand covered his mouth. “Dude what the hell? You can’t just say that aloud! This is top sec-DID YOU JUST LICK MY HAND?!” The man whisper yelled. Tommy narrowed his eyes at the blaze furiously wiping his hand on his pants. “That’s what you get! You can’t silence me!” “WHAT ARE YOU FIVE?! YOU’RE SUP-”

Ahem .

Tommy and Snapnap both give the instructor sheepish looks as they hurried to fill in the growing gap of the line. With an annoyed huff both stayed quiet for the rest of the trip—well as quiet as they could be while ‘accidentally’ shoving each other, and Tommy pretending to stumble on the back of Sapnap’s shoes. Both boys deciding to simply disregard the annoyed looks sent in their direction. Thankfully the trip isn’t too long, because the further away they get from the anxious chattering of the arena, the more the silence of the coliseum feels eerie and choking.

That being said he would not want to be walking around here by himself; for a load of royals their interior decorating skills are kind of shit.

The walls were lined with cracked bricks and random blocks of coral; an impressive feat in itself considering coral is not usually found in the Arctic. Though he had to admit he did quite like the shade of red. The paintings however were a different story. He absolutely loathed the artwork hanging from the walls. Tommy cringed as he passed by a rather gruesome depiction of a three headed skulled beast that Tommy's only read about in stories, and heard in his dreams. The words ‘ The Wither’ were engraved in gold at the bottom and gleamed a little too brightly for such a gruesome scene. Tommy was suddenly glad he’d eaten nothing more than a few snacks earlier.

At the very least he could find comfort in the fact that the coliseum wasn’t made of dirt.

When they finally arrived at the break room Tommy let out a small sigh of relief. A few of the group’s families were already there talking amongst themselves and the lighting was significantly brighter. The atmosphere was a stark contrast to the grim twisting hallways they traveled to get there, and Tommy felt the newfound tension leave his shoulders. The poncho draped around him becoming less constricting as a result.

He’d been told that he had a solid hour to kill and that all he had to do was wait for the instructor to call his name so that he could be examined for armor. He let his fingers graze the disk on the upper part of his hilt as he took a deep breath. Maybe he should look for Niki.

Tommy jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Dude what the fuck?!” 

“Sorry, sorry you weren’t responding.” the blaze responded, startled by the blonde’s sudden outburst. Sapnap’s eyes narrowed at the boy as he rubbed his arm. “Why are you so jumpy? We were practically strangling each other on the way down here.” Tommy fiddled with the hem of his poncho. “BITCH YOU STARTLED ME WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?!” he shouted back defensively. The hybrid looked like he was about to retort but Tommy cut him off.

“Just give a man a bit of a warning before you touch me yeah?” Tommy finished. His poncho had become constricting again and he mentally urged his body to relax. Sapnap stared down the blonde and took a deep breath, “Ok, so how do people usually get your attention without you trying to bite their hand off like some sort of wild animal?” Tommy scowled at the comparison and directed his gaze towards the ground. “I usually just tell them to toss something at me, but only if calling my name doesn’t work.”

Tommy briefly recalls reassuring Nicky that being hit by a pebble was the least of his worries if the alternative was getting a head concussion from startling into a wall. He unconsciously rubs the shoulder that was still nursing the bruise.

“How is me tossing something at you startling you less?” the blazed asked clearly distressed. Tommy shrugged in response. He was sure that there was some logic in that assessment, but the method hadn’t caused too many problems so he planned on ignoring it for now.

Exasperated, Sapnap dropped the subject in favor of directing his attention to something behind Tommy. His eyes lit up instantly.

“George!!”

Well more like someone.

Tommy followed his gaze and his eyes landed on a man with messy brown hair sleeping in one of the waiting chairs. How was he sleeping through all this noise? At the sound of his name the brunette groggily sat up and readjusted his sunglasses (which looked comically large on his face). Like seriously how was he asleep the arena was right below them? He made brief eye contact with Tommy before tilting his head in a questioning motion. Tommy stared back in confusion. However, before the man could voice any thoughts he was tackled further into his seat.

“Gogyyyyyyy. Did you miss me~” The blazed whined a huge grin on his face. Gogs? Tommy let out a snort. That’s a dumb name.

Almost as if he heard his thoughts the brunette narrowed his eyes in Tommy’s direction. This only encouraged Tommy to delve into a small fit of giggles, covering his mouth in a poor attempt to muffle the noise. The man didn’t look too threatening with the excited blaze sitting in his lap. He failed to notice the brief silence that overcame the duo as he wheezed and tried to compose himself.

“Get off me!” The brunette, newly dubbed Gogs, growled as he shoved the stunned blaze onto the floor. Specks of pink began to dust his features as he attempted to straighten out the new wrinkles in his shirt. Sapnap however wasn’t deterred by the act of aggression and instead excitedly waved Tommy closer to the duo. Mentally stopping himself from fidgeting, Tommy shoved his hands in his pockets and strolled over.

“Sooo,” Tommy cracked and let out a snicker, “Gogs?” he questioned with an extended hand. The brunette turned to study him for a brief second before he narrowed his eyes and smacked his hand away. “My name is George.” The man said with a huff and crossed arms.

“Aaww Gogy, don't be mean to my new friend.”

“Shut up!”

Tommy let the bickering duo fade into background as he looked around the waiting room. Unlike the hallway the walls were gold themed and had intricate designs carved into them. Tommy’s hands flexed in his pockets as he resisted the urge to go and touch them. There were cases of worn down armor hanging from the walls, and Tommy had to wonder what exactly could have bitten off such a huge chunk of iron. The true masterpieces of the waiting area (or at least in Tommy’s humble opinion) were the windows.

They stretched from the halfway point of the wall all the way up to the ceiling. That combined with the fact that they were in one of the highest areas of the coliseum made the view amazing. There looked to be something akin to a runway outside the upper part of one of the windows. At the moment a crow was resting there looking down on them and Tommy couldn’t but wonder if that’s where Philza flies from. He let himself imagine what it would be like to take off from such a height. It would definitely be a big jump. You could see the entire empire if you were at the very top and Tommy was almost tempted to see if there was a way he could get outside. Almost.

Figuring out that this was probably going to be how he was going to spend the rest of his break, Tommy plopped down into the pillowed chair right next to George and got comfortable. He let out a content sigh as he melted against the cool pillows. 

Oh yeah this was a chair truly worthy of Tommyinnit.

It was duly noted that the two adults bickering back and forth before had quieted down into regular conversation. Sapnap talking openly about the ongoings of the SMP after informing George that Tommy was already aware of their loyalties. The brunette looked at Tommy in scrutiny. Feeling his weighted gaze Tommy offered him a half shrug. He was way too tired to be offended.

This was how the first hour passed. Sapnap and George conversing back and forth over random topics while Tommy would drowsily offer his input whenever he was lucid enough to pay attention. It was very peaceful actually. It was almost hard to forget that they’d been involved in what was fundamentally a blood bath not too long before. Tommy was well aware that he'd have to leave his new friends—well maybe acquaintance was the better term, that’s what you call people you’ve just met right? That sounds about right.—Tommy was aware that he’d have to leave his new found aquaintances once this whole thing was over. As much as he knew that Niki and the rest of the village would be sad (and a little pissed in Niki’s case) that he was going to have to leave without saying goodbye, he knew he was making the right choice.

This entire event had been way too close for comfort, and quite frankly Tommy was ready to hurry up and ditch the shitty excuse of a nation. Tommy had been careful. He really had been. But he felt way too exposed as Philza glared down at him and basically told him to ‘get himself fucked or he would do it for him.’

So maybe there was a better way  to phrase that last sentence.

The point is he was missing something. Everything felt way too purposeful to be coincidental. He’s visited Niki’s village so many times over the years and not once had a guard stopped by to investigate anything. Hadn’t everyone said that the government didn’t give two shits about the outer circle? The guard that stole his chest had said that he’d had an informant give him the information, so did that mean someone within the village? He tried to think of anyone that might’ve possibly had it out for him.

Ugh his head hurt.

He sleepily readjusted his position. His ruffling had made him a tiny bit more lucid and he was kind of sick and tired of thinking. It probably didn’t matter now anyway. He just had to win his last two matches, grab his chest, and dip. It would be in his best interest to stay away from the Empire for a few months- years, it might’ve been a bit of overkill, but this entire visit had taught him a lesson about being careful. He also missed Clementine.

Maybe he really should just steal back his ender chest.

Technically all he had to do was get close enough to shove the damn thing into his inventory. He didn’t have to worry about anyone else opening it because literally no one else could. As fun as it would be to finally beat The Technoblade it would definitely be a quicker (and arguably safer) alternative. He wondered if Clem still had enough apples left for her. He didn’t plan to stay for an extra day so she hoped that she would be able to wait it out. But he really wanted to fight Technoblaaade. Maybe if he-

A clicking noise interrupted his train of thought.

Tommy looked up and stared blankly at the gloved hand resting in front of him. Oh so it was a snap.

A few seconds later Tommy felt a head lay on his shoulder. Dumbfounded, he looked down and saw a brown mob of hair on his side. George, he recognized. In an almost birdlike motion he tilted his head curiously in Sapnap’s direction.

“Umm what the fuck?” Tommy questioned, confused as all hell. Did he just fucking glitch? 

“You didn’t bite me!” Sapnap responded victoriously.

Tommy blinked owlishly at the blaze’s hand in front of him. And without warning he lunged forward and snapped at it. The blaze let out a shriek and quickly brought his hand to his chest and cradled it. “Yo what the hell!?” Sapnap cried (rather dramatically) as he ran his other hand over his fingers to reassure himself that they were still there.

‘“That’s what you get. I’m not a fucking dog.” Tommy snarled.

“You literally just bit me!!”

“Yeah because you were being an ass, anyone would have done it!”

“No they wouldn’t have. That’s not a thing people fucking do?!” Sapnap sputtered.

“He’s almost as warm as you.”

Both Sapnap and Tommy pause in there arguing to study George whose head was still resting on Tommy’s shoulder. 

Tommy feels the blood rush to his ears at the assessment and tries to to move away from the sleeping brunette to no avail. “What is wrong with you get off me!”

Sapnap studies Tommy’s features for a bit before his eyes rest on the markings on his face. Feeling violated Tommy turns his head in the opposite direction. 

“You so much as even think about touching my face your new nickname will be fucking Stubby!” Tommy snarled out as Sapnap retreated his hand. George just leaned closer into Tommy’s arm.

“You're getting warmer.” he mumbled sleepily.

Tommy let out a growl as he tried to use his hand to shove the resting brunette’s head away from him. The opposing man was nothing but dead weight and was actually beginning to crush Tommy more than Tommy was trying to crush him. Which was actually ridiculous because Tommy was a big man.

He saw movement in his peripheral vision and turned his head to glare at a slowly approaching Snapnap. “Stop it! No! Stay awaaaay!” Tommy screamed but he couldn’t help the small bits of laughter that followed after. 

With George leaning all his weight on him like some deadbeat cat and Sapnap rapidly approaching they were likely going to topple onto the floor. He took a deep breath-right before they all crashed on the floor. George letting out a startled yelp as he made impact with the floor.

Taking advantage of the older man’s shock he rolled out from underneath George’s sprawled form. He quickly stood up making sure his back was against the wall so he could see all that was in front of him. 

He heard the snapping noise again and blinked dumbly; momentarily paused.

Right after, Sapnap body slammed him into the ground. The blaze towering over him as he was trying to get the air back into his lungs.  “Tommy~ I got you~.” He cooed a large grin on his face. Dramatically Sapnap raised his hand up and slowly lowered it closer to Tommy’s face. Tommy struggled frantically to get out of the male’s hold and when that didn’t work he settled on inhaling as much oxygen as he could. Tommy squeezed his eyes shut as he felt Sapnap’s finger touch the center of his forehead.

Again. And again. And again.

“Oi cut it out!” the blond shouted annoyedly swatting the hand away from his face.

“Geoooooorge. Did you lie to meee? The child feels fine.” Sapnap drawled rolling off him after a particularly strong shove.

Readjusting his sunglasses, George crawled over to Tommy and Sapnap’s position on the floor. Tommy was still brushing himself off from Sapnap’s previous assault and had just gotten into the sitting position when George decided to plop down right in front of him. 

Tommy let out a groan as two cold hands made contact with his face. “Stooooop.” he whines as his cheeks are squished and pulled. George’s neutral face starts to show hints of confusion and frustration. 

“But he was as warm as a heat blanket like five minutes ago.” Tommy scrunched his nose but doesn’t respond, he’d take being called a blanket over being called a dog anyday. So he just bares with the assault for now. It’s oddly soothing.

“You,” he growls as he pulls Tommy’s cheeks again, “child do it again. Don’t think I didn’t see you taking all those deep breaths when Sapnap was-”

“Mr. NotFound and company please refrain from attacking anyone outside the arena.” the instructor turns to look at Tommy, “Mr. Innit please come this way so that I may get you sized for armor.”

George squints his eyes at him. Tommy blew a raspberry at his face causing the brunette to let go of him and furiously scrub to wipe off the spit.

Tommy scrambled to get behind the instructor and flipped off the duo still on the floor as he walked into a sideroom. He thinks he might’ve seen George smile as the door shut, but he assumes his mind is messing with him  and ignores it. Tommy straightens out his poncho and trails after the instructor.

~x~

Tommy gets led into a weaponry that’s stocked with weapons he’s only ever imagined getting his hands on. He’s definitely excited, but it’s another big reminder that this fight is way more than a friendly competition. His fellow competitors were out for fame and fortune and Tommy just really wanted his shit back.

He’s directed to a stool that’s by a desk in the back of the room and takes a seat. His eyes follow the instructor's almost mechanical movements as he moves from shelf to shelf looking for materials. He briefly glances over at a paper file with his name on it that’s been sat down on the desk beside him. It has a few things written down like his chest width and arm width. And a few other things that Tommy doesn’t remember telling registration, like him being foreign or his blood type. 

Well at least Tommy doesn’t remember doing so.

He quickly glances away when he hears the instructor turn to come in his direction. The man carries with him a box of all the supplies he deemed necessary and carefully sets it on the floor behind the table. 

“Mr. Innit, would you be so kind as to read over this information to confirm that my observations are correct?” The instructor asks ruffling through a drawer of tools.

Silently Tommy grabs the paper to read over it fully. For the most part everything is filled out accurately, which is weird because there was no way the man could’ve known that Tommy would be one of the finalists. Did that mean there was one of these made for all of the competitors? He could hardly remember what the other 19 remaining people still looked like, not even mentioning the whole 100 that started out. Grabbing a nearby pen he made a few corrections and adjustments just so they better fit his preferences. The more personal information he changed completely, he was still trying to be a little cautious after all.

Setting the pen back down he hands the paper back over to the instructor. The man had prepared a number of tools that were laid out at the top of the table. Tommy thinks he hears the sound of wind blowing as the man reads over his input. After a few minutes of silence Tommy starts to wonder if the man will notice how he lied about some of the changes. But after one more minute of silence the man gives Tommy a nod and files the sheet away in a drawer. Tommy’s shoulders sag.

“Mr. Innit, is there a reason you requested lighter armor?” The man asked, grabbing a chest plate off the wall and setting it to the side. “I don’t usually wear armor so that I can take of—I mean stay light on my feet,” he twirled the pendant on his poncho around idly, “I just need something that’s strong but I don’t really wanna know that’s it’s there ya know?”

“It’s no problem at all Mr. Innit!”

“Umm, just Tommy is fine.”

“It’s no problem at all Tommy” the man responded almost robotically, “We have all types of armor here at the coliseum! The kind that you are looking for might be stored with all of our hybrid specialized equipment. If you’ll just give me a second to go check.” Tommy winced at the loud voice. “Yeah yeah take your time big man.” 

Tommy observed the instructor as he grabbed some keys out of his pocket and went to go unlock the door that somehow Tommy didn’t notice until just a few seconds ago. He swings his legs back and forth as he waits for the man to reemerge. 

He really hopes that he can get a crossbow. It was one of the things he put on the list of preferences and he would really really like a crossbow. He might have gotten away with nothing but Cat for the first round, but on his last two one on one matches it would likely be in his best interest to have a sharp object. And obviously he can’t get a sword because he doesn’t want to offend his loyal hilt. Tommy swings around on the stool in excitement. 

The instructor finally walks out of the closet holding a pair of boots, another chestplate, a helmet, and…..A FUCKING CROSSBOW HELL YEAH!! He eagerly reaches to take the weapon out of the man's hands but grabs a handful of air instead. The instructor having lifted the weapon out of his reach and replacing it with a helmet. 

Tommy mumbles out a few curse words as he reluctantly puts the wretched thing on his head.

“Turns out we had exactly what you were looking for under our avian sector,” Tommy chokes on his spit, “and since his majesty is also an avian he has personally checked over and made sure all of the armor is up to his standards.” 

“Holy Ender. I get Philza Minecraft approved armor?!”

“Yes sir. Some of it has even been donated whenever he received an upgrade.”

The instructor let out an amused chuckle at the stars in the boys eyes as he eagerly rubbed his hands along the material. “I hope it is to your liking Tommy. Now if you’ll stay seated for a little longer so that I can make sure these boots fit you’ll be free to go see the matchups.” Tommy paused in his worshipping of the armor to look back up at the instructor. “Oh they’ve been posted?” “Indeed! They will be out for you to see when you are finished!” Tommy gave the man a weird look. 

Didn’t he essentially just repeat himself?

“Right foot please” Tommy lifted up his leg as the man bent down to wrap and click in place all the straps for the metal. And to Tommy’s delight he could hardly feel it was on his foot. Experimentally he kicked it against the metal desk to see if it was truly protective; cackling when it gave him the respected result.

He might try taking the armor with him when he finally leaves this hellhole.

“Other foot please.”

Tommy repeated the action with his left leg and admired the shiny metal as it wrapped around his foot. He looks down at the instructor as his bent down form works on adjusting the shoe to better fit his size. Black writing catches his attention and he instinctively reaches to touch the marks. 

The instructor freezes once his finger makes contact. 

Tommy hardly even noticed he moved until he watched the man pause in his administrations. Immediately Tommy pulls his hand back with flushed cheeks. He panicked and attempted to try and give an explanation but the man merely waves his hand and cuts him off with a chuckle.

“Pay no mind Tommyinnit it’s quite alright. I could bend down so that you can read it better if that is what you would like.”

Cheeks still flushed red Tommy nodded mutely.  Smiling slightly the man turned around so that his back was facing Tommy and bent down again.

Leaning closer, Tommy got a clearer view of the writing. 

“Awesamdude Enterprises?”

“You are correct Tommy!”

The silent noises of whirring wind sounded as the man stood up from his position on the floor to finish helping Tommy put on his armor.

“Ok,” Tommy began uncertainly, “what does that mean?”

“Have you not heard of that brand before?” Tommy shook his head dumbfounded.

“It is a manufacturing business run by Master Sam. He supplies his creations to those he deems worthy enough or that have resources that they can trade in return.”

Tommy stands so that the man can put his chest plate on him easier. The gears in his head were turning a mile a minute as he processed the information.

“Does that mean that you’re one of his creations,” he searched for a better word, “a machine?”

“Indeed! I am Nook12405. I am one of a 3 made set, the other two are not being lent out at the moment.”

Silence engulfs them as Nook finishes up the final adjustments of Tommy’s armor. It makes a bit of sense Tommy realizes as he mules over the information a bit more. It explains how the information was so accurate on Tommy’s form; it couldn’t have been too hard to do that for 100 other people if it was in his software. Or at least that’s what Tommy assumed, he’s never had the patience to try and understand machines. He just remembers bits and pieces of Tubbo’s redstone rambles whenever he paid attention.

Tommy zones back in whenever Nook places the crossbow into his hands.

“Alright Tommy, I believe that we are done here. Make your way out these doors and I wish you the best of luck!”

“Thanks big man!” the blonde responded readjusting his helmet in the mirror before finally exiting the room. Nook waves at Tommy’s leaving form.

When the door finally closes Nook makes his back over to behind the desk and pulls out Tommy’s file again. Grabbing the pen the blonde had used previously he adds another sentence under the ‘notes’ column.

Tommyinnit: Enderspeak fluent, odd heat patterns.

He lets out a few more whirring noises as he updates his computer systems. He moves Tommy’s file to a different filing cabinet, closes it, then gets prepared to help the next competitor.

Chapter Text

“No George we cannot keep him”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Of course you don't, you're the one that wants him.”

“You still haven’t given me a valid reason as to why not .”

Sapnap lets out a tired sigh. The argument had been going on for a solid 5 minutes and Sapnap was getting closer and closer to strangling the brunette.

“You haven’t even known the kid for a full day.” The blaze stresses, utterly confused as to where the sudden attachment had even come from. He was the one that had actually fought alongside the blonde. George had met the kid barely an hour ago and somehow he was already fond of him.

“George, what would we even do with him?”

“ We?”

Sapnap sputtered.

George stares thoughtfully at the door Tommy exited through.

“I think he’d make a decent heat blanket,” Sapnap let out a groan because of course he would.

“Absolutely not. You’re not kidnapping a kid just so you can have a cuddle buddy.”

“A personal servant then,” George concluded. 

“Absolutely not.”

George let out an annoyed huff before standing up to go stomp back to his chair. He still had that thoughtful look on his face that told Sapnap that this was a conversation they were going to have to have again. Sapnap rolled over onto his back and let out an exasperated sigh; a puff of black smoke leaving his mouth as a result.

“What if we knew him for longer than a day?”

Sapnap tilted his head backwards to make eye contact with George, the brunette was still staring at the door. He considers repeating himself, pauses, then decides to take a different approach. “What are you gonna do with him whenever you aren’t sleeping, George?”

“I’m sure you and Dream can figure something out.” he responds casually, “Dream’s always wanted a protige and you’ve been whining about getting a better sparring partner for ages.”

That is true.

Dream’s been on a bit of a tangent about his legacy and his place in the world recently. And honestly, his complaining has been almost as bad as George’s is at the moment. It was really no surprise, the two royals practically fed off each other. Dream was just annoyed that everyone was ignoring his bullshit and wasn’t eating it up as easily. He just needs a new and impressionable throat to shove his ideas down and he’ll shut up. Sapnap’s grievances he feels are a bit more justified. He was truly the best guard at the SMP. Everyone was below him not only in status, but in skill as well. And quite frankly he’d grown quite bored.

Sapnap will admit that trying Tommy out as a sparring partner is tempting. But just outright stealing him was a bit of a stretch.

“But wouldn’t you like to have another hybrid around?” George asked, a knowing smirk on his face. Sapnap rolled his eyes then flipped over until he was in a sitting position. “I told you already, Tommy is completely normal. You’re not high off the mushrooms you’ve been sleeping on are you highness?” 

Sapnap let out a cackle as a mushroom hit his arm.

“That was one time!” George growled out. 

It was an old memory, but it was still fresh in everyone’s minds. George had wandered off during one of Dream’s meetings, and had gotten everyone worried sick looking for the tired brunette. After 2 hours of looking for the idiot, Dream immediately assumed that it was a planned kidnapping and was about to declare war on the tiny village. Right before Dream was about to decapitate the poor chief, George walks into the room looking more awake than Sapnap had ever seen him in his entire life talking with a backpack twice his size.

Sapnap had to handle the whole declaration of war situation because Dream was too busy making sure George wasn’t braindead.

When they finally got home George had excitedly told them that he had bought some mushroom seeds that would increase sleeping comfort. Both Dream and Sapnap stared in disbelief at the towering backpack on his shoulders. Dream had sighed and rubbed his temple in an effort to prevent what was no doubt a headache forming. Sapnap didn’t even want to imagine how much money ‘exotic sleeping mushrooms’ cost. He hid his snicker with a coughing fit.

Dream had hit him.

The king had tried his best to gently coax George into letting him go return the seeds to wherever they came from in exchange for something else, but George wouldn’t budge. And no one could truly ever deny the man when he was like that. He switched between drowsy and asleep on a 50/50 basis and seeing him so excited was an emotion Sapnap had personally never thought was possible. Dream, who’d known the man for longer, was likely more aware of his rare mood changes. But by his slowly backing away reluctance it was likely such a rare occurrence that even he didn’t want to get rid of it so soon.

So with a heavy sigh Dream called an off day in order to plant all of George’s mushroom seeds in the garden. It was the first time in a while that Dream had ever truly taken the day off to do something (somewhat) relaxing.The man had been cooped up in his office preparing for that meeting the past month, so despite Sapnap wanting to do literally anything else he decided to stay with the two and help out. With all of them and the servants working together they were able to plant all of the mushroom seeds before the end of the day. According to the instructions the vendor gave George it should’ve taken a full month before they saw the fruits of their labor.

It’d had taken 3 days before the damn things were like 4 times his size. And if Sapnap tried to tell you George was bouncing off the fucking walls you’d laugh in his face and tell him to take a nap.

Good thing they had sleep mushrooms.

Sapnap had to stop Dream from burning down all the new fungus sprouts that were towering over them in a fit of rage. 

You could hardly see outside the windows on some of the lower stories of the castle, and Sapnap was woken up at 3 in the morning to ambassadors and servants running around thinking that they’d been ambushed in their sleep. So when he’d finally stormed out to see who he was going to have to burn down, he walked out and saw George molesting- hugging the very tall mushrooms. With an annoyed growl of frustration and a huff of smoke Sapnap hauled the brunette away from the overgrown fungus and back to bed.

George hadn’t gotten out of bed for a month after that unless it was to talk about how great the mushrooms were, which led to another ordeal of Dream thinking the mushrooms were killing his best friend, which then led to another other ordeal of Sapnap having to stop the furious king from obliterating the village they’d just made peace with. When confronted with the accusations the chief had frantically tried to reassure the royal that they had no control over their street market.

He let out a mental groan as he watched his king make a mental note of the admittance. They would likely be back to fix that little ‘kink’ in their terms of agreement later.

After a very stressful doctor's visit, it was confirmed George really was just high. The mushrooms had given him some very interesting hallucinations which made him tired. Something about too much serotonin. Running high off of fury from Sapnap making some very inappropriate sleeping beauty jokes and the whole situation in general, Dream had personally grabbed his ax to cut down all the fungus. 

Sleeping spores had gone everywhere resulting in the enraged king knocking out cold in the courtyard. No one could go out and drag the idiot back inside until all of the spores had settled. So Sapnap had taken shifts along with the other servants to make sure that Dream wasn’t assassinated while he was sleeping. 

Though it didn’t really matter when he kept having to rush to look outside whenever Dream was lucid enough to start seeing things and started shouting.

In the end it really did take Sapnap burning the wretched things to finally get rid of them. Though they did still pop up occasionally, but they’re small and easily manageable. He knows George keeps of few of them on him. When asked why, he defended himself saying they were for emergencies. Whatever those may be.

The point of the story was it was still a sore spot for both the royals as Sapnap had quite literally taken care of both them and the kingdom for a full month and a half. The blaze still found the whole thing utterly hilarious.

“Don’t mock me! I know what I felt. That kid is weird.” George said, reaching an arm out.

“No shit. The kid went into an arena with people 3 times his size armed with nothing but a hilt.” Sapnap retorted, grabbing the hand and allowing himself to be pulled up. 

“You know what I mean.”

Sapnap eyed the excited blonde that just walked out of the weaponry with a crossbow.

“Sorry highness, I really don’t. I touched the kid, he felt fine. I fought the kid, he fought fine. I-”

“What about his face? Those markings under his eyes are odd aren’t they? Surely they mean something.”

Sapnap raised his hands in an overly dramatic shrugging motion. “Or maybe not. Don’t forget Gogy, Dream wears a mask on his face-”

“No, but-”

“And he’s no hybrid, he’s just a bitch.”

George gave him an unimpressed look.

“Dude, we were in a filthy arena fighting for our lives barely an hour ago. How do we know it’s not just dirt?,” he thought again, “or tattoos for that matter?” George let out a huff and opened his mouth, but Sapnap cut him off. “No buts George. And even if he was a hybrid-which he’s not-we would not be taking him with us.” 

The blow horn went off signalling the matchups had been posted. Sapnap gave George a wide eyed look and waved his hands in a welp motion that George glared at in annoyance. “See that. That was a sign from Prime that this conversation should be over by now.” “Ugh!”

George stormed off with a cackling Sapnap following after him.

“NIKI NIKI LOOK AT MY CROSSBOW!!”

“I bet you wouldn’t have needed it as bad if you’d just bought a sword.”

Hearing the familiar voice of the blonde, Sapnap picked up his pace to curiously peer around the corner. George raised an eyebrow at the blaze’s sudden enthusiasm as he passed.

When he turned the corner he was met with Tommy excitedly jumping up and down,crossbow in his hands and a slot of arrows around his back, and a girl with pink hair frantically trying to get him to calm down. “Kid’s gonna die before he even gets back into the arena.” George mutters behind him.

Sapnap accidentally steps on his foot.

Hearing George’s shriek, Tommy turned around and lit up at the sight of the duo—well Sapnap he was still wary of the brunette. He turned around to say something to the pink haired girl while pointing at them. Sapnap does his best to analyze the girl, but he can’t find any resemblances between the two. So maybe a family friend or side guardian he rationalizes. Sapnap gives a friendly wave as she glances up at him. He receives narrowed eyes in response.

Tough crowd he mused.

He pulls a disgruntled George along with him as he walks towards them. “Yo Tommy, you got the matchups sheet?” he questions once he gets close enough. “Yup!” He responds, handing the sheet of paper over to Sapnap.

George leans over his shoulder and they both scan over the duel listings. Which is smaller than he thought it was going to be.

“Weren’t 20 people supposed to go to the end match?” George questioned. “Uuuh A few people were pulled for questioning,” Tommy ignored Niki’s narrowed gaze, “it appears Phil- erm His Majesty was very serious about his threat earlier.”

“They’re short three whole matches,” Sapnap mentally subtracts the numbers, “They disqualified 6 people!?” Tommy absentmindedly fiddles with the hem of his poncho. “I wonder what made them suddenly want to crack down, you’d think that whole performance at the entrance ceremony would’ve been enough?” Sapnap gives a snort at George’s pondering.

“If this were Dream, would it have been enough?” Sapnap questions.

George opens his mouth, then promptly shuts it. Point taken.

“I honestly thought he’d calmed down a bit. Do you think something set him off?” Tommy questions.

“Maybe it was the satchel they’d found with the only book they’d ever outlawed from the entire empire.” Niki responds conversationally. Tommy scrunches his nose in confusion. “What book was so bad they felt the need to ban?”

George’s eyes light up, “Oh I remember that!” Sapnap nods his head in agreeance. “That was the meeting where Dre-” George elbows him and glances over to the pinkette who was still eyeing them, “-err His Majesty decided to mass produce them out of spite.” 

Tommy cringed at the thought of mass producing anything paperbound. He’d remembered learning how to make the expensive material as one of his ‘nomad essentials’. It was definitely a very time consuming activity. Tommy was still a little confused on the concept of currency since it tended to change depending on where you were. He knew the SMP lands were up on the list of most expensive. He couldn’t imagine ever having that much money in any currency, and even if he did he doesn’t think that he’d spend it on books. Well not all of it anyway, it was still a half decent side hustle.

“What was the name of the book?” Tommy repeated, tilting his head.

“I think it was called The Awakening or something similar?” George mumbled out loud scratching the back of his head in thought.

The Appearance Story.

Yeah. Tommy definitely hated this place.

He fiddled with the hem of his poncho. How was he supposed to know that the book was banned? AND WHY WERE THEY GOING THROUGH HIS STUFF?! Isn’t that like a breach of privacy or something. Ignoring the pointed look Niki was sending him, he tried to change the subject to something else. “So Sapnap, how do you feel about your matches big man?”

George watched curiously as the blonde started rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet. 

To Tommy’s relief the blaze took the bait and responded. “Pretty confident. I didn’t break too much of a sweat in the free for all so I doubt my one-on-ones will be much different.” he responded with a shrug. “You should be feeling the most confident Toms,” Niki raises an eyebrow at the sudden nickname, Tommy beams. “Yeah man you only have two matches now because you were the uneven number.” George adds in.

Tommy knows. That’s what he and Niki had been discussing before the other started walking towards them. His break for the first match gave him the ability to do some recon. If there was a chance he could get out of here earlier than he was going to have to take it. It was a very low chance that they’d leave their ‘grand prize’ unattended, but he figured it was worth a shot.

“I know, isn’t it poggers!?” he exclaimed excitedly. “More like way too lucky,” Sapnap muttered, “you sure you didn’t win the tournament already by bribing the royals?” he asked with a teasing smile.

Tommy let out a dramatic gasp. “The great TOMMYINNIT never cheats! He has to play fair and square if he wants to get all the ladies. ” His grin widened even more when he noticed Niki quietly chuckling into her sleeve.

“Besides I just got here, when would I have had the chance to meet them anyway?” Tommy questioned.

“Teleportation,” George retorted, “or some other kind of weird Nether magic that lets you do things undetected.” he responded annoyedly, as though he already had a person in mind. 

Tommy shoved his hands further down his pockets. 

“Contestants please make your way to the assigned arenas on the match up sheet as we will be beginning shortly.”

“Oh yeeeaaah! C’mon Gogs you ready to go cheer me on!” Sapnap exclaimed, a wide grin on his face as he grabbed the brunette's hand to drag him off.

Not even looking at the blaze George raised his arm, avoiding the potential burns the excited fire hybrid had been trying to give him with his steaming hand. He let out a tired yawn from the exertion of energy.

“C’mon child we have to go find seats.” George said, making a clicking noise when grabbing for his arm.

Niki let out a confused noise when the blonde didn’t startle at the contact.

“Yeah yeah yeah I’m moving.” Tommy responded, letting the brunette drag him away.

“Tommy!” Tommy glanced back at Niki, “You can’t go! We have to go to—” Niki cut herself off and started frustratedly moving her hands in a circular motion and pointing towards the exit.

Oh right. He forgot about that.

Confused at the lack of people behind him, Sapnap popped his head back around the corner. “What are you guys doing? You’re gonna make me late.”

“Sorry big man,” Tommy responded, retching his arm out of George’s grip, “I’ve got to go with Niki to go check up on something for a bit.” With a raised eyebrow George put his hand in his pocket.

“Whaaaat?” the blaze whined, “You’re gonna miss my maaaatch. After everything we’ve been through you’re just going to abandon me. Gogyyyy tell him he can’t.”

“You guys literally just met.” Niki huffed. George watched smugly as Sapnap had his words thrown back at him.

The blaze flushed.

“Well you know what they say, one battle is worth a lifetime.”

“Except it’s not, and he doesn’t owe you anything.” Niki retorted, stepping in front of Tommy.

“I didn’t say he did! I just thought it’d be nice if he came and watched.” Sapnap defended.

“Well he’s not because we have to go.” Niki growled through gritted teeth.

Tommy scratched the back of his neck in confusion at what was happening in front of him. Fortunately, George stepped in to interfere before anything escalated. “Sapnap, I’m sure we’ll be able Tommy again once they’ve finished their business,” he glances back at Tommy before making his way down the hall, “C’mon Sapnap, you don’t want to miss your match.”

Tommy inches over closer to Niki’s side as he watches the blaze huff out a puff of smoke and stomp off. George eyes Tommy’s face one more time before giving one last lazy wave and striding after his fuming companion.

He and Niki both watched as the pair descended down the staircase and back to the lower areas of the coliseum.

When Tommy had pressed his face as comically close to the glass as he could and could no longer find their specks in the crowd he finally redirected his attention to the task at hand. Niki waited impatiently behind him with an unamused look on her face. “Are you done saying goodbye to your new buddies ?” she asked with a roll of her eyes.

“Yup!” Tommy shouted a wide grin on his face. And despite how badly this trip was turning out, meeting the duo had definitely been one of the best parts. Things like this were why he enjoyed being a nomad. It wasn’t often he got into fights (which most people find hard to believe because he tries to initiate them so much) so he’d never truly gotten into any friendly competitions. The person either wanted him dead or assumed that a screaming kid without a sword wasn’t worth the hassle.

It was a nice change of pace.

And don’t get him wrong, Tommy loved Tubbo, but combat wise he wished he could find a more capable companion. Tommy faced a lot more dangers compared to his best friend, so naturally he was a bit better than the ram hybrid. Not to mention Tubbo’s father was very protective of the boy. 

Everytime he and Tubbo would spar, Tommy could feel the concealed gazes of servants on their backs. He never said anything about it though. He was glad they were there to make sure Tubbo was safe in case he went overboard. 

Though sometimes he’d still feel their eyes on him whenever he’d go out and train on his own. He just summed it up to them being worried about him lowering the property value. A valid concern really, especially for the business man.

“So where should we try first?” Tommy asked as they stepped out into the hallway. He made sure to still stay somewhat behind Niki as they walked down the corridors, the darkness still giving him the creeps. Niki glanced down at him but didn’t mention it.

“We’re on the upper levels now,” her nose wrinkled at the sight of the wither painting as they passed, “so there’s a chance we could be on the same level as the balcony the king was on.” Tommy’s poncho fluffed as he let out an irritated huff. “But we can’t go there even if we find it because Philza will still be there.” 

They made a left turn going in the opposite direction they took to get there. “Yeah, but there’s still a chance that it’s not there.” Niki reasoned, “if we can find it somewhere else we can grab it and hurry home without your next match.” She left out the ‘against Technoblade’ part.

“Home?” Tommy repeated, blinking owlishly at the back of Niki’s head.

“Yeah. Back to the outer circle, I’m sure everyone’s been worried sick. The broadcast has been on for a while now and you were very much the center of attention towards the end.” She clarified, taking a cautious peak around the corner.

Tommy didn’t know this was being broadcasted. He hoped it was just a local thing. Tubbo wouldn’t be too happy if he saw him fight a war general on live tv.

He technically wasn’t even supposed to be this far out; he’d made a promise to stay somewhat in the area and keep Tubbo and his father updated. Neither of which he’d done in the past 6 months. 

Ender he really hopes it’s local.

He subconsciously rubbed the disk on his hilt as he trailed after Niki. “Hey Niki I don’t think I’ll be able to st-HOLY SHIT!” Tommy held on to the nearby wall as the floor began to tremble. He looked over and saw Niki doing the same not too far ahead of him.

“Ladies and Gentlemen please stay in your seats as the competition is about to begin!”

The instructor, now recognized as Nook, announces. Tommy gives Niki a nod when the shaking of the coliseum goes to a slow and they both pick up the pace.

They can only hope that the royals will be distracted long enough for them to find his chest.

~x~

“Gogy~ I’m so saaaaad. Give me words of encouragement so that I might persevere.”

George raised an eyebrow at the theatrics of the blaze who’d moped the entire way back to the arena.

“You’re making quite the fuss for some kid you just met.” George mused glancing back down at the hand he’d placed in his pocket.

“Oh would everyone stop with that! I just would like the extra support.” Sapnap defended with a scowl. “Besides we fought together and I helped him, you’d think tha-“

“I wanna make a bet with you.”

Sapnap narrowed his eyes at the brunette for cutting him off. With an irritated huff of smoke he turned and faced the opposite direction on the bench.

“No, fuck off.”

“Oh c’mon, scared you’ll lose?”

Sapnap let out a snort. 

“Absolutely terrified.” he responded with a roll of his eyes as he got up to leave.

“I bet-“

“George I really don’t want t-“

“ I BET,” George continued louder narrowing his eyes at the hybrid as he groaned.

“-that that kid is a nether hybrid of some sort” he finished. Sapnap let out an even louder groan but didn’t attempt to interrupt again. George was using his King voice and he wasn’t in the mood to get yelled at by Dream for being disrespectful later. “When I win, we get to take him back to the SMP.”

Sapnap let out a tired sigh. “ If you win Highness. And what do I get if you’re wrong and he’s just some poor kid you plan on harassing?”

Sapnap raised his eyebrows as George pondered the question as if the possibility of him being wrong was nonexistent. He mentally willed himself to refrain from banging his head on the nearest wall.

“I’ll convince Dream to chill out his assaults on L’manburg long enough for you to visit your boyfriend.” 

Sapnap’s eyes lit up. “Really, you think you can get him to let me visit Quackity?!” George gave him a nonchalant shrug and extended his hand. “We won’t know until we try. So? Do we have a deal?”

Sapnap winced as the crowds cheering picked up outside the locker room door and glared at the royals hand. 

He hadn’t had a chance to see the duck hybrid ever since that drunk bastard decided to make a faction and control the western border of the SMP. They’d sent letters to each other to try to find time to slip away. But sharp eyes monitored them on both ends and tensions between the SMP and the so-called nation were high. Neither wanted to be labeled a traitor so they had to stick to hand written letters to communicate. It was a tempting offer because Dream will at the very least consider anything that George says.

But at the same time, there had to be something stronger in his morals that wouldn’t allow himself to be put in the position where he could potentially be kidnapping a child.

But surely it’d be fine. Right.

He touched Tommy and didn’t feel any strange connection or whatever George thought he felt. He’s the Nether hybrid, not George. Surely he would know better right? George rarely ever made bets, (the lazy bastard has Dream to do it all for him) and only ever made them when he was hyper fixated on something. 

Sapnap would never tell George this but the man was dangerous when determined. He was definitely not Dream level scary, because Dream handles his issues on his own. But George was very observant and had the resources to do just as much damage. To see that he was going this far Tomm—a child, was concerning to say the least.

But he really wanted to see Quackity and know for sure that he was ok. He could do this. He just had to trust in his judgment he reassured himself. 

George shook his extended hand a silent saying of time is running out as the instructor came back on the broadcaster.

He reassured himself one last time before looking George dead in the eyes and shaking his hand. George grinned.

“See that wasn’t too hard! Now gogogogo you’re gonna miss your match.” George rushed as he started pushing the blaze out of the room. “George I-“

“Nope! I’ll be cheering you on in the stands. Bye!” He cheered as he pushed the stunned blaze out the door and shut it behind him.

When the royal was finally alone he couldn’t help the elated laugh that left his mouth as he spun and walked in the other direction. He pulled out his communicator to start typing out the preparations he’d need made for when his new addition comes to the SMP. He was going to have to figure out how to explain this to Dream, but he was sure the king would be thrilled by the outcome.

Happily he left the Locker room to make his way to the cheering stands. The hand in his pocket absorbing the softness and warmth still emitting from the golden feather he’d nabbed from the blonde earlier.

Chapter Text

"The winner of this match is...Sapnap!!"

George watched in boredom as the rest of the audience stood up and cheered for the blaze hybrid. Sapnap had really gone overboard with his performance, extending what should have been a 5 minute fight to over half an hour. His opponent hadn’t even been that impressive; all bark no bite (and prime did he bark). Sapnap had quite clearly indulged the man, though that likely wasn’t obvious to anyone in the audience. Going back and forth with banter and quite frankly way too much unnecessary screaming-Sapnap wasn’t even getting hurt like what was the point?

Dream wouldn’t have tolerated such a lackluster performance in his court.

He could tell Sapnap thought so too when dark eyes would quickly shift to the stands as if his king would be there looking down on him with narrowed eyes. Flames that should’ve guaranteed 1st degree burns would quickly calm and lower in intensity once attention was refocused, and sharp remarks that should’ve stunned were swallowed down in favor of ones with duller blades; giving the opponent time to retort and it drew on and on.

This was a fight, something that you finished quickly so that you can move on, not a circus. Granted his only reference was Dream, but surely all fights were supposed to be short and sweet. Well for the winner anyway. George always enjoyed the banquets the palace would have after Dream won a duel.

Sapnap had absolutely no reason to play showman. Especially to the Antarctic Empire of all places (to The Angel of Death of all people).

He’d heard that the empire was full of recluses, lowly commoners that were left without the resources to leave, but surely all this applause was ridiculous. Especially if they were in the supposed ‘inner circle’. For a bunch of upper class they sure don’t act like it. George was starting to see Dream’s irritation with commoners. Their lack of dignity was jarring (and downright annoying).

He at the very least wished that they had higher priority seating or something. All this applause made a terrible environment to take a nap in, and manipulating people was exhausting. Getting Sapnap to get more worked up about his boyfriend than usual proved to be easier than he thought, but still tiring. He has no clue how Dream does it.

Besides, there were more interesting things happening than watching Sapnap dance in the rose petals being thrown at him like some estranged flower girl. For example, watching the annoying pink haired girl from before angrily stomp onto an empty seat 3 rows behind him.

George pursed his lips and eyed her from the corner of his eyes, making sure to look away whenever her gaze would shift. She was clearly upset, muttering to herself about something she deemed important enough to cry over. Her face was flushed at the cheeks in a color practically comparable to her hair. Which was quite hilarious really. He inhaled sharply through his nose to muffle a snort.

Niki’s head snapped up.
George’s eyes snapped back to the stage.

He counted to 10 in his head before he allowed himself to glance back behind him.

The girl’s attention shifted back to her lap where her nails were currently digging into her palms. George eyed her carefully. He didn’t really have much to infer about the lady other than how she seemed to be overly cautious of him and Sapnap earlier. She seemed pretty protective of the kid which could be a potential problem later depending on their relationship. The two didn’t really look alike though, so he assumed she was some kind of stand-in guardian of sorts. That would make taking the blonde away even more difficult though; the girl didn’t look too wealthy though, maybe he could bribe her?

Following that train of thought.
Where was Tommy? Wasn’t he supposed to be with her or something?

His match was next if George remembered correctly, but he should’ve still had some free time. George slouched down lower in his seat. He knew something weird was up whenever the duo suddenly had to leave before this round. He wished he could’ve moved closer to better understand what she was muttering to herself. Unless--was the reason why she was upset because something happened to Tommy?

That would be irritating.

Prime he hoped not. He didn’t need Dream thinking the kid was that easy to take advantage of. (They already had one disabled hybrid being strung along by the SMP ruler, they really didn’t need another)

Brown eyes once again moved to the stage--the instructor from before was up there now--likely discussing the results of the other first rounders.

George drummed his fingers lazily on the armrest as he waited for the pinkette’s gaze to get off his neck.

His eyes trailed across the arena, hoping to catch sight of the missing blonde. He couldn’t help the scowl that was starting to appear due to his lack of information. He was hoping he’d have more time with the eccentric blonde prior to them leaving. Despite Sapnap’s opinions about his plans he would like to actually get to know Tommy a bit more before they kidn-.....took him aw-...…

-before they whisked him away to a better way of life. 

The point was he had attempted to at the very least try to do a proper commoner introduction, but it seems as though XD himself was against him today. He straightened up in his seat in an effort to do a better sweep through of who all was in the lower levels.

He let out a strained groan. He wishes Dream were here to do this for him, the older male no doubt would’ve had a plan B for this situation that might’ve soothed the irritated brunette. Though there probably would’ve been the whole rest of the alphabet to follow.

“If your timeslot is scheduled second, please make your way to your breakrooms. Your matches will be beginning shortly.”

George watched as the girl behind him’s whimpering started to turn into a full on sobs. He grimaced in disgust at the action. Prime he really wished the rows were divided. Tommy’s match was about to start and George was considering just walking straight up to the pinkette and strangling her.

He stood up abruptly.
Then promptly sat back down when he saw a dash of blonde hair slide into the breakrooms.

He slouched back back into his seat unaware the pinkette’s gaze had shifted towards him in recognition.

~x~

Tommy rushed into his break room with only a few minutes to spare. His satchel held tightly in his hands as he rushed in trying to conceal it from view as much as possible. When he got inside he quickly shook everything out of it and onto the floor.

Ender bless, his mission with Niki hadn’t been a complete failure.

The thought of the pinkette made his hands shake, but he shook himself out of it to focus on his task. He wasn’t going to just leave his bag in the locker room (because that’s what got it taken away last time). And he didn’t have anyone he could trust with it. So the only viable solution was to fight with it on. Problem is his satchel would be recognized, with the royals keeping an eye out he wouldn’t be surprised if the guard’s new orders were to shoot on sight.

So, final solution? Flip the bag.

Tommy carefully moved the scattered contents of his inventory into a neater pile before he began to flip and refold the fabric of his satchel. The shaggy brown color becoming the new interior of the bag while the denim blue color became the new exterior. It was fortunate that he’d sewn this bag with pockets on both sides, he’d still be able to keep his inventory in a somewhat organized state. It looked pretty damned convincing. Most would assume the satchel was made originally with the newly shown denim unless they were very detail oriented--or a seamstress he supposes. The only clear signs of the switch being how his stitches seem to be sewn on the opposite side, a small minor detail that can easily be overlooked. He takes a moment to study his work.

This could work.

He carefully grabs his inventory and places it back into his satchel. It’s fuller than when he first arrived in the Empire he notices. Two years ago it was nothing but a piece of cloth hung around a stick, only holding two extra shirts and some food rations. Now he actually has too much room, he muses as Clementine’s whistle is placed in an empty pocket.

It was Niki who actually suggested the inventory expansion.
It was also Niki who taught him how to sew, telling him stories of how the people in the inner circles have machines to do it for them and how commoners were smart enough to make do with their own skill.

It’s funny how quickly things change.

Taking a shaky breath, Tommy makes his way over to the mirror at the end of the locker room. He studies his appearance. There’s a visible bruise on his cheek that wasn’t there before. He cautiously prods at it, wincing when his finger makes contact with the skin. It should be ok right? No one other than Nook (George, Sapnap, Niki) had gotten a close look at him after the first match. They’ll probably assume that he was roughed up earlier.

Not to mention he didn’t even think Sapnap or George would have any reason to tell the officials if they thought something was off. The SMP and the Antarctic Empire had been at each other's necks for years and he doubted that they would want to start being helpful now. The only people that were left were Nook and..and--and he decidedly pulled a light colored plaster out of his bag and placed it over the bruise. It blended into his skin tone somewhat nicely so it wouldn’t be too noticeable unless someone was in his face.

He tightened his bag straps so it wouldn’t drag him down too much. It was still going to be a little inconvenient seeing as the whole point of Tommy getting this fancy armor was so that he could feel as though he wasn’t wearing anything. But he’d manage, not like he had much of a choice at this point. He tucks a few more strands of hair back into his ponytail. He didn’t know if he could face himself if he lost a match just because he couldn’t see through his poofy ass bangs. He straightened up as he eyed himself in the mirror one last time.

He’d debated on actually carrying the arrows on his back like before but ended up just placing them in his satchel inventory instead. He didn’t want to be carrying too much when he went out-he didn’t want to worry Ni-

He paused and watched his reflection get blurrier as he took a deep breath. He could do this. He was going to win, leave this shitty empire behind, and never come back.

He furiously scrubbed at his eyes when the blow horn went off and gave his reflection a face splitting grin. It was time for him to be the big man he already was. To show those assholes that they could get off their high horse.

To show those royals that they were about to get their asses handed to them by a peasant.

He traced a finger around the disk carving on Cat for reassurance before he exited and entered the arena. He winced as his eyes tried to adjust to the new change in lighting. It’s well into night time now (he could’ve come to that conclusion without looking at the window, but it felt worth noting).

Actually if the sun is going down, what the hell is trying to burn his retinas. Are those lights? Like real fucking electricity? --HOLY FUCKING SHIT are those spotlights?

Tommy’s grin slowly became more genuine as he made his way to the other second time slot contestants. In the midst of all his eagerness to get out of the empire he kind of forgot that he’s always wanted to come to the inner circle. Well any inner circle really. He never thought that he’d actually ever get there. A small fantasy that most people had that never left despite one's age. Tommy was a lot of things, but interested in getting arrested for thinking he could change the status quo was not one of them. Niki always told him it wasn’t worth it-why he doesn’t understand if she never cared--but their technology was really cool. Most of the villages he stayed in didn’t have electricity so seeing so much of it was mind blowing. He hadn’t gotten to see the full extent of the arena due to him looking around.

He glanced around the audience and quickly redirects his attention back to his fellow competitors at the sight of pink hair. Only two had a body type resembling his, the others were on the more muscular side. He was confident he could use his size as an advantage and outmaneuver them, not to mention that their weapon choices weren’t too outstanding either. One had an actual bow and arrow (he wasn’t too concerned he was a great shot with a crossbow) and another was double wielding swords.

Which was pretty pog Tommy had to admit. Maybe he could double wield a hilt?
He’s still going down that rabbit hole when he looks up and sees Nook walk up on the stage to let them know where they would be going. The arena floor of the coliseum was huge, made up of different types of rocky terrains with some kind of flow of water that ran down the sides of half of it. Which is cool because it means someone spent money to have a water system built underneath the ground and Ender it’s still sinking in that Tommy is so close to all these wealthy people.

The arena was divided into four areas each one intending to host one matchup to speed up the elimination process. Each one a different terrain.

He hoped he wouldn’t be near the river. He was not in the mood to get wet.
On a completely different train of thought wasn’t Sapnap’s match right before his. He should probably apologize for missing his match once this is over.
“Contestants please stand at attention while I give you your final instructions. On the back of the weapon that you received there is a number for each of you. That represents your designated court, please make your way over there so that you may meet your opponent.”

“Halt!”

Tommy watches as everything collectively freezes all at once. And it’s such a dramatic change of fucking everything that Tommy thinks he’s had a fucking stroke. He takes an instinctual step back in what would be known as one of Tommy Innit’s few acts of self preservation as he wonders if his heart has exploded and if he’s fucking dieing.

He grips his satchel closer to his side as a gust of wind threatens to blow him away. His poncho closes in and tightens around him in an instinctual attempt to give him more weight, to physically ground him. When the harsh wind stops Tommy is finally able to look up.

His fight or flight response is barely kept in check when his eyes for the second time that night make eye contact with stormy blue eyes. The urge to dart out an open window is an ever present ich he has to mentally restrain himself not to scratch as he quickly lowers his gaze. He can’t draw attention to himself, he can’t, he can’t, he can’t, he can’t. Philza jumps off the balcony and lands in a crouch on top of the instructor's stage, wings raised and spread to their full length as he analyzes the competitors, eyes searching for something only he knows. Something that Tommy might know. He knows. Ender’s fuck he knows. He’s gonna be torn to shreds and die on this stage and and—He smiles—that is not a fucking smile that is a predator luring a dumbass rabbit.

A stray black feather floats and lands on Tommy’s satchel. He discreetly places it into his inventory before he resumes panicking.

“Subjects of my Empire,” his smile grows even wider when he looks back down at the fighters, “newcomers, and special guests. It has suddenly been brought to my attention that we might not have had the best introduction earlier today.” Yeah no shit. His feathers flared along with his raised wings as he talked. His casual tone not matching his body language; a vulture wondering how exactly he was going to tear apart his meal.

A quiet warble left Tommy’s throat.

Tommy watched as Philza’s wings towered over him. “I am the king of this empire. I discovered it and built it sky high brick by brick. I made these walls and I will not be disrespected by some low life who thinks that they can sneak into my Empire and make a mess of everything.” Breathe breathe breathe breathe.

“For those of you who are confused, it appears that one of our contestants this year has decided to steal something of great importance from our empire. One of our own received quite the beating from this intruder” The king’s eyes narrowed.

Tommy paled as he felt various gasps ring from the audience. Nononononono. First of all, Tommy threw one good punch on the son of a bitch, he was pretty sure he had more to show for it than they did. Secondly. He didn’t take anything important, it was his bag. His. He was taking back what they took from him. His fingers nervously fiddled with the keychain on his bag; the rough texture of the bee stripes doing little to soothe his raging nerves. He feels himself getting warmer the longer he listens to the king lie about him and egg the dedicated audience on.

Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe-

“Dad, wouldn't it be easier if we just killed all the contestants this year? This is beginning to feel a little time consuming.”

His chest tightened, a spark—nonono breathe out, breathe out.

He watches as the King’s wings droop slightly, a slight shift in the upper feathers, and hopes he’s not considering it. Prince Wilbur leers down at them from the balcony. He looks bored, his crown dangling off his wrist like a bracelet instead of being twirled in his hand like earlier. Had he not remembered his voice from earlier he would’ve looked to see who else said it. He’d said it so casually; like he was discussing the weather of all things. Gasps echo around the arena, but not as many as he imagined.

Quite a few people were cheering for it actually.
He wonders if Niki is among them.

The exasperated sigh that leaves the king’s mouth is fond, “Mate you know we can’t do that, we have too many personal invites here for that to work.” “That and only half of the competitors are here right now.” a new voice drones. Technoblade.

Tommy looks up at the piglin above him and furrows his brows in confusion. Was there a bruise on his face? Ender, that looked like one hell of a punch.

He watches as the two brothers make eye contact above him. Wilbur’s grip tightens on the railing and he narrows his eyes for a second before rolling them and turning away. He hears more gasps ring from the audience at the sight of the dark spot forming at the bottom of the man's jaw as he walks further out of the shadow of the balcony doorway. The light gives a clear view of the war general’s injury, highlighting other cuts that seemed to decorate the man’s face and bare arms and—and holy shit did he fight a cat or something like fuck.

A quiet snicker leaves his mouth at the mental image.
This entire day is putting too much stress on his mind, he feels honestly feels borderline hysterical at this point.

Tommy keeps his gaze downwards for the rest of the interaction. Humoring himself with the different reactions he imagines Tubbo giving him whenever he plans on retelling this. Philza is on stage eyeing them as he mutters out orders to Nook that don’t travel to where Tommy’s standing. His hand slowly runs over the sticks of his arrows as he wills himself not to fidget.

He flinches slightly when the blow horn goes off again.

“Alright contestants, please continue as before to your designated areas. Don’t forget to check your numbers.”

Glancing down, Tommy unhooks the crossbow from his satchel and flips it over to look at the bottom of the handle.

2.

Curiously he glances around the rest of the arena in search of who has his number and sees most people already making their way over to their areas. His eyes search the walls as he looks for his number, blue eyes lighting up at the sight of the area. The forest terrain. Oh man these bitches fucked up. Places to duck for cover and stay above ground. Who said Tommy innit wasn’t lucky? A small noise of triumph leaves his lips as he makes his way over to meet his opponent. The king’s wings twitch at the noise and Tommy has to force himself not to flinch as picks up his walking speed.

You’ve done nothing wrong. They have no reason to hurt you right now.

The tension leaves his body as he stands in the grassed area. He has half the mind to take his boots off; the urge to feel the soft plants beneath his toes comes and goes at random moments, but he prevails. The familiar terrain easing his mind and tricking him into thinking that he was protected by the trees. Like Philza fucking Minecraft couldn’t dive in and slit his throat. Like the audience hadn’t just encouraged it.

Arena number two was the farthest away from the instructor’s stage. The farthest away from the royal’s. His stomach does a fucked up flip as he watches the horned man use his wings to propel himself back onto the balcony. The air from the massive limbs reaching him from his position and forcing him to momentarily close his eyes. He watches as Nook gives the king an affirmative nod, probably responding to something that had been said before, and re-adjusts his helmet. He huffed annoyedly at the stray strand of blonde hair that had escaped his rubber band.

A sharp ray of light from the stands catches his attention. He turns and makes eye contact with George, the brunette waving his glasses around to catch his attention. A pink bob of hair stands a few rows behind the tired looking man, Tommy grimaces slightly and moves his gaze back to the light blinding asshole. He rolls his eyes and waves his hand in a circular motion; a quiet signal to ‘hurry up and get on with it’ before his match starts. He watches as George perks up slightly after noticing Tommy noticed him and places his glasses back on his face. He grins, looking over his shoulder before bringing a hand up to the side of his face and mouths something to him.
Now it was way too loud for Tommy to hear what was being said to him due to the amount of noise that was in the arena, but George had made sure the sentence had registered with how slowly he’d mouthed the words.

“Best of Luck to you child.”

A grin reluctantly broke its way out onto his face as he straightened up and looked back towards the stage.

That bitch.

Oh he’d show him alright.

He glanced up toward the balcony and watched as all three of the royals made their way to the railing. The king’s arms wrapped around both his sons as they watch with judging eyes as the event proceeded. Red eyes, must sense his staring because they turn and look at him. This time Tommy straightens up and stares back, he would never admit it but George’s encouragement had been helpful in boosting the blonde’s confidence. He wasn’t used to not always having someone in his corner, it was reassuring (and a bit demeaning) to know that someone was rooting for him.

What was likely five seconds felt like forever as Tommy restrained himself from being the first one to look away. Finally--to Tommy’s relief--the general broke away first. Something that looked like mild surprise passing over his features before it was schooled into a more neutral expression. Technoblade seemed to do a visual sweep over his form--was he being sized up??--Crimson eyes looking him up and down before making eye contact again. Tommy’s breath caught in his throat when the piglin’s gaze met his for the second time. And again for the second time that night Tommy thought that he was dying.

Because Technoblade’s eyes softened before he closed his eyes and gave Tommy the softest closed lipped smile.

Chapter Text

Burning is a mentality. A state of mind. It’s a bit of a nudge at first—a split fraction of distortion in your brain's peripherals—the bud slowly pushes at your awareness and blossoms into an afterthought that slowly becomes more prominent. More noticeable. But you ignore it; it’s just in your mind after all. So instead of turning around to get a proper view of the fire, the parts of yourself that’s turning to ash, you keep looking forward. Because if burning is a mentality, surely a strong mind could prevent it. Surely if you’ve smelt the smoke for this long you’d know what to do, you’d know the procedures.

“Five second count off until the second round begins!”

It’s not. Just a mentality to clarify, or maybe it is and he’s just really bad at it. Nomads weren’t meant to be in these types of situations, they were meant to be free and unyielding, like a p—

“Four.”

He needs to stay calm and focus on one task at a time. He thinks motherfucking Technoblade smiling at him should be his main task right about now but he doubts he has the years needed to actually process that.

“Three.”

His breath pacing is kinda fucked right now. He feels it in the way his chest tightens when he exhales when he should be breathing in-when he should be burning. Why is he in the Arctic again? He’d need to be more defensive this round. His stamina wouldn’t allow him to be offensive if he wanted to, the trained part of his brain a mental alarm that the more he doesn’t calm down the more he’s pushing it.

“Two”

He finally takes a moment to look at his opponent. He’s kinda fat. 

Wait, that was rude. 

He’s umm… big boned? 

“One”

Maybe if Tommy breaks his legs that’ll even the field more. He studies the man glaring at him from across the field and gives him a wave. It’s not returned.

Which is also rude, so maybe he was fat.

“ Pop off!”

Tommy straightens up, crossbow loaded in his hands and makes a quick lunge to his left rolling sideways over his shoulder and fires his first shot. The arrow lands right in front of the man’s foot causing him to stumble over his footing to avoid the shot. 

He kinda looked like a tumbling marshmallow.

It takes a lot of willpower for Tommy to not bask in the audience's gasps at his skill but he manages, keeping a close eye on the man as he snaps the wooden arrow and furiously charges at him.

Quickly he reaches into his satchel for another arrow and docs into the hollister, his opponent more weary in his approach as Tommy dashes to stay in his corners. He pulls the trigger as the man attempts to turn and follow the blonde as he circles him. 

Somehow he’s positive he could hear every ‘ thwap’ of the arrow planting itself into the ground; the excess noise of the audience becoming background noise as he focuses solely on his opponent.

He watches as the man’s face slowly burns red from his frustration (and probably exhaustion; he doesn't look very athletic) as he’s now surrounded on all sides by the arrows surrounding him. He’s having trouble moving around them so he furiously trying to pull them out the ground. A smug grin dances it’s way across Tommy’s face as he flips the man off and turns to make a sprint to the tree lines.

“YOU STUPID FUCKING BRAT COME OVER HERE SO I CAN KICK YOUR SCRAWNY ASS!”

“Why? ARE YOU TOO TIRED TO COME AND CATCH ME YOURSELF YOOUU PRRICK!” Tommy cackled as he hooked the bow of his crossbow on his satchel strap and hoisted himself onto the closest tree branch.

Oh he was so badass when it came to stealth. Look at him, Tommy Innit the stealthiest.

The stealth monkey swinging from the trees.

One badass stealth monkey.

He climbs up onto another branch before unhooking the bow and steadying his aim. But his arm can’t stay still cause chubs keeps hitting the fucking tree.

“Oi bitch! Cut that out!” he shouted, holding onto the base for balance.

The man grinned crookedly up at him “I’m gonna hack you into little pieces boy , and when I join the royal guard I’ll have a chair made out of your bones.”

Another spark- Tommy’s chest tightens, but he relishes in the man’s shriek as his arrow lands into his shoulder. 

And even if he did chop Tommy into pieces there wouldn’t be any bones for him to build with anyway; unless he fancied a sandcastle.

Ashhole.

Rehooking the weapon, Tommy crouches down and makes a silent leap onto the branch of another tree; the rustling of the leaves a soothing bit of white noise for his nerves as he circles around the man from above. He’s done this before, he’s played and swung and glided through trees his whole life, and there’s no way this guy was going to be able to tell he’d moved unless he wanted them to. The audience on his side of the coliseum are quiet, hunched over in their seats in anticipation. He’s probably not even visible from their perspective. 

Chubs is though.

He covers his mouth to stifle the laugh that threatens to bubble out at the sight of the burly man yelling at the empty tree. They’re on a bit more even ground now. The ax that the man had been swinging around is more predictable now that he’s worn out and only using one arm to wield it. Tommy’s shot hit its target spot on and the man likely wouldn’t be able to recover until he got it treated.

He reaches into his inventory for another arrow and scowls, there were only a few arrows left in his inventory. He hopes they would let him restock for his last match. Fatty on the floor broke all the ones he aimed at the ground so there wouldn’t be many left to reuse.

Tommy winces at the sound of the tree hitting the floor and the enraged shriek that follows after. Damn it. He wasn’t fast enough.

He supposes that if worst comes to worst he can just throw the crossbow at him, if he chucks it hard enough surely one of the pointy bits will find a way to pierce him. He just hopes he’ll be out of here before he’s forced to pay damage charges.

Lowering himself down into a sitting position on the branch he’s perched on, Tommy loosens his poncho and stretches his legs. Hand reaching into his bag to grab one last arrow. 

He’s positive this’ll be the last one he’ll need. It is his after all. But for this shot he’s going to have to concentrate; the man is swinging his ax still, likely trying to find the tree that he’s currently sitting in. Maybe he could use the airways from that?

Tommy adjusts his stachel on the side and slowly loads the hollister.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

He needs to confuse the guy on his location again so that when he plans to finish the guy he won’t be expected. If it hits him on the right then that would mean Tommy would have an opening to knock him down from the left right?

The man’s ax is being swung around pretty consistently for a guy with an injured shoulder, but the air currents might just be strong enough to give his arrow the momentum it needs.

Blue eyes study the directions of the oversized weapon for an opening.

Up. 

Left.

Right.

Down.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Tommy pulls the trigger.

The arrow flies from the branches towards the ground, but at the very last second, as if caught and thrown, it zips up and around the man’s left shoulder and pierces him in the stomach. Instead of right however the man sharply turns to his left, because oh of course he would, and Tommy pulls out Cat and jumps back down onto the grass floor. His poncho tightens around him as he lunges towards the right side of the man and stabs sharply at the backside of his knees; he takes a quick step to the side as the man crumbles (as expected because he is half the man Tommy is) and flexes his hands.

Taking another deep breath Tommy jumps upwards and onto the man’s shoulder, brings his hilt to the front of the man’s neck, grabs it with his other hand and pulls.

“Bedtime motherfucker.” he gritts out, legs wrapped around the thrashing man’s torso as he struggled to stay on him. He thinks that the audience is cheering now. He doesn’t know who it’s for and his arms are burning, and holy shit his arms are burning. And fuckers shit he’s burning the guy and he’s thrashing harder and he needs to let go but he can’t-

He takes a deep breath and pulls harder. Gotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgoto-

A whistle blows and Tommy’s grip loosens and he lets himself drop to the floor.  His arms are still shaky from all the tension but he slowly backs up as Nook walks over to his arena to go check the guy’s pulse. There’s a 5 second countoff to see if there will be a last second comeback, but Tommy lets himself drop into a squat position on the ground as he tries to catch his breath. He doubted the guy would be waking up anytime soon.

Chair out of his bones his ass.

The fuzzy warm sensation of the grass in his palm is nice. Something soothing that covers up the fact that he might’ve just fucked up. Fun fact: no grass usually grows in the Arctic. They have this weird substitute called cotton grass that feels like a fluffy oddly itchy wool. The grass in the arena is definitely artificial; the thin blades too grainy for this texture of soil. But it’s a decent enough replica he supposes. Just the thing he needed to keep his spirits up honestly, he is way too stressed for a growing boy.

There are small burns on the man. Not as bad as they could be, and sure as hell not as visible, but he would definitely feel it. He hopes no one noticed.

A gloved hand shoots up into the air, and Tommy gives a tired grin as he hears the audience burst into applause. He pushes himself off the ground and gives the audience a bow. The whistles and cheering increase in volume as he gives one last wave and turns to leave the coliseum. 

There are two more matches that are still happening right now. Neither of which Tommy will have to walk by because they were on his side of the floor so he doesn’t have to worry about getting injured. He takes his helmet off and runs a hand through his sweaty hair, tousling it so it’s not as matted as he walks by the instructors stage.

His arms ache from the man’s struggling, he’ll definitely have a few bruises tomorrow. He tries rolling them to release some of the tension. When he arrives at the entrance door there are guards waiting there to open them for him; they give him a nod and prepare to move the block locking it into place. He rolls his shoulders one last time leaning his neck until he hears a satisfying pop. 

When the guards finally pulled the door open a piercing whistle stops him from leaving. He turned and tilted his head at the noise; his heart pounding at the familiarity of it. He furrows his brows as his eyes look over the coliseum trying to find the source. He looks up when he hears it a second time, recognizing the shrills direction as above him. He raises his hand to block out the spotlight and see who it is.

To his surprise it’s…it’s uuh—— oh Ender have mercy it’s Philza. 

Philza fucking Minecraft was cheering for him and Ender’s fuck Tommy was so tired. What were the commoner protocols for this again? 

It doesn’t matter. They probably don’t apply.

It’s Philza Minecraft.

Tommy musters up the last bit of false bravado he can with so little energy and gives the king a bow. He can’t see the man’s reaction through his bangs, but he assumes it’s positive by the way the shadow of his massive wings droop down in amusement. The audience cheers louder at the display of courtesy when Tommy straightens up, gives the king a wide eyed grin and leaves the coliseum. He tiredly pulls a rag out of his inventory to scrub his face and breathes a sigh of relief.

Pricks. Truly, the whole lot of em.

But at least he knows for sure that Philza doesn’t suspect him. He doubts the man would’ve drawn so much attention to him if he thought he was the one about to ruin everything. On the flip side however, he now had the attention of the king which was something he was trying to avoid. Not to mention the whole Technoblade thing, which he didn’t even understand, but according to the way the audience lost their minds he didn’t usually smile much so that was also something to worry about.

He made a small clicking noise in thought as he slammed the break room door open and a startled yelp as he was tackled to the floor.

“Tommy! Why didn’t you tell us you were such a badass!”

Tommy let out a tired groan as the excited blaze cooed at him. “Bitch get off me m’tired” “But you did so well out there! All strategic and stuff, sneaking around like some sort of assassin.” The blaze continued draped on Tommy’s shoulders.

“It was pretty impressive, I didn’t know there were fighting styles that-“

“ Wild !”

“-yeah it’s definitely different from the other styles you see people using this far out.” George continued from his seat on the bench near the lockers.

Tommy looks at his hand and slowly flexes it in front of him. It’s a little fuzzy; Tommy is very tired. “I’m..,” Tommy pauses. What was he trying to say? exhausted maybe, “light. Easier to do maneuvers than storm through it.” he finished with a yawn, he needed to go lay down.

“That was not just maneuvers. That’s was like North western principles mixed with-“ Tommy‘s eyes are drooping but he can kind of feel how George’s eyes are narrowed in concentration. He has trouble focusing on the rest of the sentence.

“Dude are you ok? You’re burning up!” Sapnap gets off him to feel his neck, “Did you overheat while you were out there?!” George makes a weird coughing noise and Sapnap elbows his foot in response.

“I probably just need some water or something,” he yawns, “just need a break.” “Are you sure? We can walk you to the nurse if you want.” George offers after narrowed eyes from Sapnap.

That would probably make everything worse actually.
“Nah, it could’ve been the spotlights. They were so bright, it was getting a little warm in there.”

“George please go get Tommy some water.”

“Why do I have to—ugh Fine.”

He doses off a bit after that, he thinks he hears their voices mixed along with the announcer every once in a while.

“-mmy?” “Tommy!”

“Whaat?” he whines irritated.

Silence follows and he’s about to ask again until he feels himself being hoisted off the ground. His eyes shoot open as he tightly gripped Sapnap’s shoulders. “Heyheyheyheyhey nonononon put me down!” 

“Nope! Bedtime for the child. C’mon George where are the rooms?”

What?

“Wait, what do you mean rooms? I thought this was a one day thing?!”

George gets off the bench to give Tommy a water bottle and hold up the sheet of paper he’d been reading. Tommy squints his eyes at the writing.

“Due to complications and an increased interest in this year's competition we have decided to prolong the tournament. In order for the king to see you at your best we’ve been made aware that the rest is needed and henceforth will be given to you. We understand that some of you hadn’t planned on the extended stay and to that our response is sucks to suck; any attempt to leave will be seen as an offense to King Philza Minecraft himself. Enjoy a complimentary room and a hearty breakfast.

                                             -Prince Wilbur”

Tommy could bang his head against the wall. He hates it here so much. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” He says dumbfounded. “A bit unexpected I’ll admit, but we were here on vacation so it should be ok.” George says as he crumbles up the flyer and tosses it into a nearby bin.

“C’mon dude you haven’t even fought me yet! I expected you to have more energy.” Sapnap teased as he kicked open the door. Tommy groans and slouches further into the blazes shoulder. “I’m kinda on a time crunch at the moment.” he mumbles.

“Should’ve thought of that before the king decided to whistle his praise for your match in front of the whole coliseum.” Tommy’s head shoots up and stares wide eyed at the brunette. “Wait. I’m not the sole reason this is happening, am I?” he asks, gears spinning.

Sapnap tilts his head back to grin at him, “We’re not saying you are but-“

“we’re also very much not saying you’re not.” George finishes pulling out his communicator.

“What was that anyway?” Tommy turns to look at George, “What was what?” he questions. George’s face scrunches up like he ate something sour, “You bowing at Philza like some sort of peasant. You’re not even from the Empire, that was completely unnecessary.” “King Philza,” Tommy habitually corrects, “and I am a commoner, also do you know how many people are killed for minor aggressions to the king? I didn’t want to be rude.” 

“You’re a what?”

Tommy mentally backtracks and wonders if he’d said something wrong.

“A commoner?”

His closing eyes miss the sly grin the brunette gives the blaze hybrid, the later rolling his eyes as he readjust Tommy on his back.

Eventually the trio make it to a different area of the coliseum. There’s a ticket window that looks to have been remodeled into a check in counter. Sapnap sets him down and watches in concern as he momentarily struggles to steady himself. After reassuring the blaze he’s fine they make their way to the counter.

The lady smiles at them, “3 rooms?” 

“Um-“

“Just two” George interrupts, not looking up from his communicator.

The brunette glances at him and rolls his eyes at his wide eyed expression.

“Pft—as if. I’ll have you know I’m already in a wonderful relationship.” he says haughtily. “Wonderful my ass, you both are a duo menaces.” Sapnap retorts, taking the keys from the lady and giving a pair to Tommy. 

“Eww who would want to date you ?” Tommy questions as he places the keys in his satchel. His hand brushes over Clem’s whistle and he allows himself to take a deep breath. When the silence stretches a little too long he wonders if that comment was a misstep.

He flinches when Sapnap leans on him and starts heaving. “Hey I’m sor—“ 

“BAHAHAHAHAHA OH MAN! GEORGE HE he-AHAHAHA”

Tommy’s shoulders sag as the blaze leans further into him in hysterics. He raises his eyebrows in George’s direction; the brunette in question glaring at them with tinted cheeks. “Oh piss off. You know I could have your head for that comment.” Tommy lets out a snort as he buckles his satchel, “Why, you got someone I should be worried about?” he teased, a tired grin on his face.

George smirks and opens his mouth to speak, but seems to think better of it because he promptly shuts it and pouts. 

“Mr. Innit?”

He looks up. “The lady that came with you went ahead to your room already,” oh for fucks sake , “I forgot to mention it sorry sweetie.” 

He must grimace or something because George furrows his brows and looks at him. “Oi child, who did you come here with again?” He runs a hand through his hair, accidentally loosening his ponytail. He lets out a huff at the puffy bangs as they fall into his vision. “Oh umm, I came with Niki, remember.” he responds with a yawn. 

The fact that she’s still here in itself is surprising. Though maybe he should stop assuming things because he obviously didn’t know her as well as he thought he did. 

“Who?” George questions putting his communicator in his pocket. He’d been typing on that thing practically the whole way here, Tommy wondered what he was doing.

“That pink haired girl from when we had our break, right?” Sapnap responded, cheeks still red from his laughter. Tommy idly twirled the poncho pendant around his neck, “Yup.”

“Oh, the crying girl.” George deadpanned with a raised eyebrow. Crying? Wait, Niki had been crying? It’s hard to picture such an expression on the soft-spoken pinkette.

“She was bawling quite a bit actually.” George clarified boredly. Tommy feels his eye twitch as he lets out an irritated sigh. “Thank you George.” “It was really gross.” Tommy shot him an incredulous look. The brunette vigorously typing on his communicator and no longer even looking in Tommy’s direction.

“Alright, I’m done, I'm going to bed.” 

“You need us to tuck you in?” 

Tommy wordlessly flips the cackling blaze the bird as he walks down the hallway towards his room.

Chapter Text

Tommy was very hot. Uncomfortably so as he forced his legs to carry him to his room. His tired limbs begging him to take a break despite the fact that he’d been carried the whole way here. 

Suit 4D. 

That’s the room number he’d been assigned, he has two flights of stairs left to climb and he’s already tempted to just curl up on the floor. His body feels tingly; it’s throbbing in that weird simultaneous hot and cold way, and it makes him feel like he’s vibrating.

Screw ‘a little overheated’. He’s overheated as fuck.

And the worst part about this whole shit show was that he wouldn’t even be able to properly cool off with Niki there. The hallway starts to get fuzzy aloong the sides and he allows himself to lean against the wall with a shaky exhale. Tommy has no clue what Niki’s intentions are, not anymore. Their fight from before was still fresh in his mind; he was positive that that would be the last he’d seen of the pinkette. He’d assumed the avoidance would be mutual, giving Tommy enough time to focus on his key task and allowing him to file away the festering anger and sadness at the betrayal for a later date.

Now logically that probably wasn’t healthy, and was probably just the borderline heatstroke speaking (and what was starting to feel like borderline hysteria). Nomads travel for long periods at a time, following the wind, the stars, the birds, the changing current, or anything that they found enchanting enough to want to be beside. Something akin to a survival instinct engraved deep inside their bones letting them know when it was time to leave; letting him know when he needed to be amongst the fresh air and the clouds.

He knew that if something ever happened to the self-assured baker after their bitter last interaction, he’d have a hard time living with himself. But he damn sure had the right to be upset, especially when the flustered pinkette couldn’t even properly explain herself. He exhales instinctually at the spark that forced his chest to tighten and falls into a small coughing fit.

Which is embarrassing really. How can a person die of heatstroke in the Artic?

He clenches his eyes shut and counts to five. Eyes opening and finding his surroundings a bit steadier. He groans and slowly massages his aching temple and uses his foot to push himself off the wall. As his tired legs walk up the stairs all his mind is preoccupied with doing is telling him how much he didn’t want to do this, that he wasn’t ready—and it really needs to shut up because he already fucking knows. 

What if he went back to Sapnap? Surely the hybrid wouldn’t mind if he-- no. Nope. Absolutely not. He was not going to go hide out with people he's barely evn known for a full day. That was a stretch even by his standards. He purses his lips in irritation as he finally makes it up his first flight of stairs.

C’mon he was better than this. He was a big man; he could handle a little confrontation. He frustratedly reaches to the clasp around his neck as he feels another heat wave hit, but hesitates and eventually puts the hand down. He takes another 5 second inhale and shakily releases it and grimaces at the brief taste of smoke on his tongue. An annoyed hiss leaves his mouth as he adjusts his satchel across his shoulder and trudges up another flight of stairs.

~x~

Ender, he really hopes it’s local.

He subconsciously rubbed the disk on his hilt as he trailed after Niki. “Hey Niki, there might be an issue with the whole going home thing considering-- Oh Holy Shit !” Tommy held on to the nearby wall as the floor began to tremble. He looked over and saw Niki doing the same not too far ahead of him.

“Ladies and Gentlemen please stay in your seats as the competition is about to begin!”

The instructor, now recognized as Nook, announces. Tommy gives Niki a nod when the shaking of the coliseum comes to a halt and they both pick up the pace.

They can only hope that the royals will be distracted long enough for them to find his chest.

Though not as strongly as before, the floor continued to rumble. Dust falls from the low ceiling and into Tommy’s hair and the blonde furiously scrubs the particles out of his locks in disgust. He scowls and pulls his poncho hood over his head. “This can’t be fucking sanitary,” he sniffs, “or up to code.”

Niki chuckles and brushes some fallen dust off her dress. “Architecture for higher level buildings in the inner circle is very,” she tilts her head as she looks for the right word, “strategized. The pillars for this floor are probably not aligned with the pillars on the floor above us.”

He yanks his hood further down with a huff. “And this is safe?” Niki blinks at him and offers a shrug in response. “The goal is to mostly ward off thieves, it’s supposed to spook them into leaving on their own.” Tommy scrunches his nose at the newly noticed cracks in the wall.

“So, we’re getting close to something important.” he deduces. 

“Most likely.” Niki agreed.

He lets out another huff and pulls his hood down lower when Niki lets out a giggle at his theatrics.

Leave to the weirdos living in the Artic to make life harder. “I can’t wait to get back on the road.” He groans as he stops to take a cautionary glance around the corner.

Niki makes a questioning noise, but Tommy puts a finger to his mouth signaling her to stay quiet. They stay pressed against the wall until they can no longer hear the metal clanking of footsteps in the distance. He peeks his head around the corner and motions for Niki to continue.

“You’re leaving? Like,” she purses her lips, “ leaving leaving?” Tommy glances back at her and bites the inside of his cheek. “Yup. I’ve got this inkling of a feeling I might have overstayed my welcome.”

Niki doesn’t look amused at the irony.

“Where do you plan on going?” She questions quietly. He stops to squint at some of the writing on the wall. The vowels looked familiar; the curvings and swivels similar to those of port towns up north. How did the alphabet work over here again? Up two back one or—

“There’s a new country that formed a few miles east of SMP. Have you heard of it?” he questions after figuring it out.  Balcony seating. With a quick glance to check for clearance he takes a left. Niki’s face scrunches up like she’s tasted something sour. “Isn’t that the port city that expanded a few years ago?”

Tommy’s lips quirked. “Yup that’s the one.” 

“The same exact one SMP has been trying to eradicate because it was illegally created by a drunken tyrant?” Niki questions with a raised voice.

Tommy scrunches his nose at the term. Schlatt was a lot of things, but tyrant was a stretch. Probably. He wasn't really around when it was created.

“I wouldn’t call him a tyrant.” Tommy trails off, attention still focused on the stretching hallways around them. The cheering was clearer, louder now. He sees movement out of the corner of his eyes and turns swiftly before Niki can grab his shoulder. Her brows furrow in frustration for brief second as her hand rests in the air, but the look passes in favor of a worried one.

“ Tommy.”

He lifts his hands up in surrender as he turns to face her. “Listen I know you have concerns and what not, but I assure you it’s fine.” 

Nomads are rare most days, but they aren’t unheard of. People born in nature meant to experience its wonders in full without the constraints of something as silly as the law keeping them down. Something straight out of a fairy tale for most folks. And while Tommy couldn’t give a flying fuck about the government, he understands the purpose of it for people that have such a strong sense of order ingrained in their DNA. People like the chumps in the empire or like the sticklers Tubbo tells him are in SMP.

People like Niki who were currently concerned that Tommy was going to get himself killed for crossing borders that were technically labeled as uncharted. Which yeah that makes sense, but it’s not like anybody in Manburg actually cared. The nation itself wasn’t even supposed to be there. He mentally racks his brain for a better form of reassurance; there’d been a book he’d been forced to read about this at some point.

“Nomad laws tend to be pretty universal.” his eyes drift to a newly found crack in the wall with disgust, “There are procedures set in place for this sort of thing.”  Niki tilts her head, expression still pinched, but silent so he takes it as a sign to continue. “So, you know how lands are divided right? In maps and stuff there are official borders put in place, this is what decides your citizenship and shit,” his hand twirls as he continues, “A Nomad map is different though. It’s just one big chunk of land floating on a whole lot of water.” 

The pinkette’s brows furrow further in confusion. “What? That doesn’t make any sense, the borders are there.”

“Well yeah, but if they’re not acknowledged are they really?” he questions, a sly grin on his face.

Niki’s eyes widen, “And the rulers are just….ok with this?”

“Probably not.” Tommy answers with a shrug choosing to ignore Niki’s groan. “But it’s not like they could do anything about it. So a bunch of the royal dickheads and rich people decided to make a separate set of laws that everyone can use to avoid problems.”

There’s actually a shit load more that went into finally coming to that end result; a result that was actually pretty recent considering they didn’t even exist until a few years before he was born. The knowledge of the new policies only recently familiar to him due to an odd librarian's sudden interest in him. He’s sure eighty percent of the nomad population had no clue, something that too was part of the problem.

Due to so many higher ups being concerned that half their kingdoms were just going to up and decide to quit their ordinary lives to become lawless hippies, the creation of these policies were kept quiet. Only being passed along by nomads that the kingdoms already knew of and decided to alert. Which wasn’t very many.

It served mostly as a guideline for cocky guards and idiot loyalists who would be more likely to pick a fight. Most places don't even care, nomads pride themselves in helping the areas they've been guided to, so many are actually really welcoming. It wasn’t even like the kingdoms could do shit against any of them if they wanted to.

Well...at least not any of the nomads Tommy thought of.

Because really what dumbass was going to fight a bunch of non-law abiding loonies that talked about how the weather and mother nature spoke to them. Most people either thought they were tripping major balls or a witch. Sometimes both in the few times he’d decided to test his luck and discuss it.

The latter of the two assumptions leading to a few burned at the stake incidents that had left his people harder to find than they were already. He wasn’t too worried about the chances of that ever happening to him though.

“Hilariously enough,” the blonde started as he turned to continue his trek down the hall, “I don’t believe the Arctic Empire ever signed on to be a part of that agreement.”
“I could guess by how you scamper over the gate like some kind of wild animal every year.” Niki retorts with a snort.

“Fuck you! I’ll have you know that I jump over the wall with the strength and dexterity of a very big, strong, and handsome man.” the blonde responded, confidence not the least bit deterred by the jab.

Niki let out a soft chuckle and a shaky sigh followed, but other than that the duo remained quiet until they reached the end of the corridor; a stone archway with wooden double doors greeted them.

“This looks...sus.” 

Tommy comments blankly, staring owlishly at the pinkette as she turns to look at him with a disgusted somewhat pained expression on her face.

Niki lets out a sigh and goes to push open the door. The hinges a rusty looking thing that sound just as bad; Tommy winces at the screech of the jerking movement and Niki freezes.

Both hold their breath as they wait in stretching silence. Eyes frantically searching for any form of movement in the dark hallway. Inhaling through his nose, he glances over to Niki and wonders if the loud thumping noise he was hearing was his heart or hers.

After a solid minute of nothing happening they both let out a sigh of relief. Niki’s lips press into a thin line when she gives him a nod and slides through the newly made crack in the doorway. Tommy scrunches his nose at the dark corridor one last time before lowering his hood and trailing after her. He’s—

~x~

going to faint.

He’s going to fall in this dumb as fuck hallway and completely knock out. There is mutherfucking snow outside the window that he is standing beside and instead of just rolling out onto the roof he's going to collapse right onto the carpet. 

Which wouldn’t be the worst thing ever, he thinks tiredly as he looks down at the floor. It looks really soft actually. He’s collapsed on worse surfaces before (in worst situations too he might add). But if someone hears him and tries to come help, he’ll have a hard time explaining why he didn’t just go to the nurse—and an even harder one explaining how he was even standing.

He was grateful for Sapnap carrying him all the way to the dormitory entrance, but he would have put up more of a fight had the man explicitly told him he was a Nether hybrid. With the blaze’s temperature being a solid 9 degrees higher than the average person, he doubted Sapnap would’ve noticed the difference between a normal fever and the hell he was experiencing.

Most Nether hybrids couldn’t tell the difference in temperature very well for anything other than their species. The nether itself being too hot for a normal human to survive in in normal circumstances, resulting in its inhabitants naturally producing more body heat. The fact that Sapnap noticed the rise in his was a skill in itself that probably took a lot of practice; he’d heard that SMP only allowed the most overworld integrated hybrids into their borders. Something that Sapnap likely was, with him being head knight of the king and all.

Sky blue eyes narrowed into a frustrated glare as he looked at the nailed sign on the entrance hall.

Suit 4Z.

Motherfucker. It starts at the end?

He runs a hand through his hair, grimacing at the feeling of sweat as it made contact with his skin. Somewhat disgusted he shakes it off; too engrossed with cooling off he fails to notice the way the substance steams at contact with the window.

Ender, George handed him a water bottle earlier right? Given a quick burst of energy he straightens up to dig his arm through his satchel, his weakened body tilting too far over at the motion causing his shoulder to crash against the wall. A tired grin breaks out across his face as he finds that—

~x~

the room looks like a ginormous storage closet that someone had hastily transformed into an office. There was a shabby looking wooden desk sitting in the middle and a bunch of crumbled paperwork littered the floor. A small smile danced its way on the blonde’s face at the messy work area; a horned man drunkenly whining and the smell of gym sweat was the only thing missing from the familiar scene.

“Someone either lost their shit in here, or just really needs a new janitor.” he comments, nudging a crumpled sheet of paper with his foot.

Random drawers are pulled haphazardly out of their compartments and folders of all kinds of colors are strewn messily all over the storage chests. He swings open one of the many ajar cabinets and furrows his eyebrows at the broken shelving. Someone was really looking for something. He turns around to look over the room one more time. Niki’s behind the desk flipping through the crumbled papers and ruffling through the broken drawers. There are about 10 more cabinets that looked to be unlocked that he can check, and they probably have about 15 more minutes to look. He adjusts his poncho to lay smoothly on his back as he re-positions the cabinet door to the way it was before touched it.

He repeats his actions a total of 5 more times before he finds results. He almost misses it; whoever was moving things around broke the hinges of the cabinet along with whatever was inside. There are burn marks all along the interior and cracked beakers on the floor. He scrunches his nose at the smell and almost closes it again, but the light catches on the surface of something and he stops to get a better look. 

And there it is. Sitting there like it’d been waiting for him this entire time is Clementine's whistle. He muffles the happy shriek that threatens to leave his lips as he carefully picks up the small trinket.

He sneaks a glance over to Niki, finding her still engrossed in a file that she was reading. She’s pulled a stool over to sit on and he ultimately decides not to bother her. 

This was good. This was so very good. They were getting somewhere! It wasn’t his chest, but his satchel was just as important! It looked as though it could be in this room somewhere. Placing the whistle in his pocket he closes the cabinet and frantically resumes his search.

He swings open another

And another. And another.

Fuck . Only 3 more left, Ender please let it be here .

He grabs the hold of another an–

“Tommy!”

He flinches and turns to look over at Niki who was hurriedly shoving papers and files into a bag. 

“We have to go! Like now!” 

He furrowed his brows in confusion and searches the room for any kind of danger that would have alerted the pinkette. He places a hand in his pocket and feels the coolness of the metal against his skin and frowns.

His temperature was normal.

“Why? What’s going on?” he questions, watching as Niki pulls the string tight to close the bag and swiftly slings the crossbody over her shoulder. She stumbles over her words, “Y-your chest isn’t in here is it? We should go. Like Right now. ” She rushes as she turns to head towards the door. 

Abruptly she freezes.

They both do actually. 

There were voices outside. Someone was coming.

Niki’s eyes widen as she slowly backs away from the door. They look at each other and start gesturing their hands around. Niki repeatedly pointing to the door then gesturing sharply at her bag before aggressively pointing at him and making a slicing motion over her throat. Tommy sticks his tongue out before pointing at her then moving his hands in a circular motion that leads to him widely waving his arms around the room. Niki's face scrunches up and she looks like she’s about to strangle him before she slides a palm down her face and decides to just mouth it.

“We need to leave, they are going to kill you.”

“Where the fuck do you want to go? Out the door? Say hi to them as you pass!”

“Then how do you suppose we–”

Both stop moving when they hear heavy footsteps approach the door.

Tommy turns sharply and winces as his face gracefully greets the open cabinet door. He holds in a groan as the steps stop at the noise. He whirls to look at Niki, then the desk she’s standing beside and gets an idea.

“The desk!” 

Niki’s eyes narrow then widen in realization as she looks at the nook behind the desk. It’s small, only wide enough for a stool half her height to rest, but they’re desperate and he can tell by the furrow in her brow that she’ll make it work.

The knob shakes.

“What about you?”

He scrunches his nose as his eyes look over the layout of the room one more time. Niki begins cleaning out the hideaway in the desk; the stool she was sitting on is silently moved to the front of the door, a stack of books from on top of a cabinet following to be placed on top. 

The cabinets are an option, but with most of them being broken it would probably be suspicious out of all the broken hinges one was neatly shut. Was there one that wasn’t broken? He rubs his aching forehead as he thinks it over.

There’s a knock on the door and the sounds of a gruff voice having a conversation. He rolls his shoulders to lessen the soft weight on his back

He still hasn’t opened the one behind him yet. Turning sharply he proceeds to swing it open. A happy coo almost leaves his mouth at the sight of his satchel when it falls on the floor.

He barely has time to pick up his inventory and squeeze into the tight space when the entrance to the area busts open. He lets out a wince as the heavy door makes hard contact with the wall behind it, but it successfully covers the sound of the cabinet door clicking shut and he doesn’t have time to complain. The stool Niki placed as a blockade underneath the knob clatters to the floor.

“You guys don’t look very prepared.”

“I-I’m so s-s-s-sorry sir. I don’t know what could’ve happened.”

“Well, if you used your deductive reasoning skill you surely you could figure out it was a break in.”
An audible gulp.

“S-s-sorry sir.”

Tommy lowers himself as far below the cracks of light as he can. Neither of the voices sound familiar, so he can only assume that they are guards of some kind.

“Bruh. Just find the stuff.”

One of them was clearly a superior; he has a broader physique and his voice although a little drab clearly held some kind of authority. The vibrations from the man's steps reverate through the ground all the way up to his fingertips as he makes his way across the room. What are they looking for? He grips his satchel closer to his chest as he presses his ear to the door.

“Th-they’re not here sir.” A small voice murmurs. Loud footprints vary in sound as they begin to roam around the perimeter of the room; Tommy scrunches his nose silently perplexed. 

What the hell was happening right now? Surely they weren't followed.

“Sir?” Two more steps follow and he has to bite down on the inside of his cheek to stop any noises that might leave his mouth. Fucking Shit. Someone was right in front of him. If he gets caught now he’ll have no choice but to fight his way out, but if he does that there’s no way they’re not going to recognize him. He’ll need a disguise, some way to hide his face so he can cause a distraction that can help Niki and him get out of here. But what?  He mentally brainstorms-didn't Niki give him some cloth a few days ago.

“I promise we’ll find them it-it-it’s just we weren’t expecting this to happen an-and we just found the reports a few weeks ago so we weren’t able to properly document them.”

A snort. Tommy breathes a sigh when the man stalks away. 

“And do remind me again why this wasn’t properly documented? I do believe that our guard has procedures set in place for whenever you receive noteworthy information.”

“W-well sir we thought-”
“You thought?”

“We c-came to the conclusion that since it was just outer city..umm, well.. you know ” the guy speaking pauses like he expects the superior to but in with some huge revelation, but he doesn’t, and a long pause of awkward silence ensues. Letting out a poor attempt of clearing his throat he continues, “that it wasn’t relevant. I mean we can’t go running every time we get word of a thief sir.”

So they were looking for the reports Niki just bagged. When were those sent in? Surely it couldn’t have been from this past year, he’s quite sure that he would’ve heard about it at some point. How did Niki know that those were the files they needed anyway?

Killer intuition he supposes.

“You’re fired.”

Tommy has to choke down the giggles that almost bumble their way up his throat.

“Pardon?”

Someone's fist slams into a wooden surface. Tommy hugs his bag closer to his chest; the floor shook with that one. One hell of a downward swing. The only thing available that looked sturdy enough to take a hit like that was the desk, the same desk Niki was likely trembling under. If she makes too much noise they''l be discovered, he doesn’t know if she can last with one more sporadic display of violence.

“I’m not known for repeating myself and I neither intend to nor will Istart now.”

Tommy hears a sharp inhale quickly followed by a dud.

His heart skips a beat, did someone just die?

The silence that follows feels damning.

Fuck fuck fuck shit . Couldn’t stop at trespassing huh? Had to go all out and be a fucking murder witness. 

"Sir did you hear that?"

Wait, if that's the guy who died then that means-

The dark chuckle that follows gives him chills. It's a raspy thing, probably used as an intimidation tactic more than anything else. He hates how well it's working as he struggles to grab the cloth out of his satchel with how hard his fingers are trembling. 

"I was kinda hoping I could settle this quietly without causing a fuss, but I guess it can't be avoided now." 

With shaking hands he wraps the fabric around the bottom half of his face and tightly ties it. He pulls down roughly on his hood.

There's a tired sigh. "C'mon it's Empire Day," the voice drawls, "is this really the day you want to start something? I mean you're going to have to die anyway considering it's the law and all, but if you come out now I promise I'll make it quick. Surely you want your family to recognize your corpse."

He hears a whimper that he knows for sure is Niki's and clenches his teeth. The man's back is facing him and he can't see who it is through the crack in the door. So he waits, he doesn’t need to risk any chances of being recognized face covered or not. All it takes is one recognizable feature to bite him in the ass later, and he only has this one chance of getting his chest back.

Leather boots click against the floor as they get farther away from Tommy and closer to Niki, slowly Tommy rises. He'll give the man five seconds before he strikes.

"I wonder what made you take such a risk to come in here," F ive. "fancy yourself a martyr perhaps?" F our. " A dare?" three. "Or maybe," T wo. " An outer circle peasant with something to hide." O ne. 

He hears the crashing sound of the desk making contact with the wall and Niki's scream. 

Zero.

Tommy swings open the cabinet door, stalks over and strikes. 

~x~

Tommy swings open the door and narrows his eyes at the startled pinkette sitting by the window right before he b-lines it straight to the bathroom, locking the door behind him and practically collapsing into the bathtub. 

Tiredly he tries to get his foot to turn the knob but the limb it's connected to wants to act as delirious as he feels, and it takes four tries before the action is successfully completed. He lets out a relieved groan as the cool water makes contact with his skin. Momentarily he wonders what he'll wear tomorrow as the clothes he's wearing now are soaked and probably reek, but the thought doesn’t register completely before he's sighing contently at the coolness he's feeling.

Distantly he hears Niki knocking on the door and the hesitant calling of his name; he increases the taps pressure. There are a few complimentary towels strewn across the floor that he must’ve knocked over in his haste to get into the tub. The knowledge is stored in his mind for when he musters up enough courage to get out. Clearly he can’t stay in here all night-though he thinks he should be able to this being his room and all-but it is a temporary solution. Niki must get the hint that he still doesn’t want to be bothered as the incessant knocking has stopped and he hears the sound of the springs dipping on one of the cots.

The tub is almost full now. 

Reluctantly he turns the tap off.

For a second he closes his eyes and allows himself to breathe- like really breathe- because the last 2 hours have been spent in hardcore mode and he is so over it. Leftover droplets escape from the leaky faucet and join the rest with an echoing “plop” that allows Tommy to count how many blue ripples can form around his body before they fade-he loses count whenever he sits up and more drops fall from his hair. Bringing a hand to his face to move away his bangs he shakes his hair off, the sound of all the droplets hitting the water at the same time is mildly amusing and he finds a small smile growing on his lips. Feeling better he reopens his eyes, he winces slightly at the onslaught of light.

The decorating for this place is kinda shit. He knows these are just dorm rooms but come on. It’s not that it’s ugly it’s just plain, you’d think that with all the harboring wealth this place is supposedly doing you’d think he’d see a bit more than the bare essentials. There’s a small vanity where the sink is, a toilet against the wall, and the tub which is directly across from the sink. He catches the dark bruise that’s beginning to form on his cheek in his reflection and scowls, of all the places it had to be his money maker. Retching slightly at the squelching, he unpeels his poncho off his soaked skin and sits it on the floor along with the rest of his clothes. His temperature is settling back down to normal, he waits a few more minutes before he allows it to rise again so the water can start steaming. Hi

“Tommy?”

He takes a long inhale of the warm mist before he slouches over the side of the tub. His hair has long since fallen out of it’s ponytail, but it’s lighter now lying wet against his shoulders than it was matted up and sweaty earlier. Maybe he could look for a few shampoo bottles while he’s in here.

“Tommy, c-can I talk to you.”

“If you can tell the truth maybe.” he retorts bitterly. The water being swished around in the tub by his limbs contradict his tone. Niki takes a deep breath.

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah?” he responds bemused. He hears a thump on the ground and assumes it’s Niki sitting down on the other side.

“I should have told you why this had happened when I was first told the guards had arrived. I thought everything was going work out, but then the King came out to threaten everyone, and now you have to stay here another night with those dangerous people and-” she let’s a sob, “I didn’t expect it to get this out of hand.”

A little bit of tension leaves his shoulders at the admission. “That still doesn’t explain why they thought the reports were relevant all of a sudden.” he swallows, “Niki, when did you send in that report?”

He liked Niki, he liked everyone from that outer city village. He always tried not to be too annoying, he understands that he could be a bit overwhelming at times, but he thought he’d toned it down enough. Maybe he was wrong if all Niki thought of him was a loud kid with sticky fingers.

It hurts how some of the things he thought were jokes were likely insults.

Niki rushes to her feet. “That’s the thing! Tommy I sent those in months ago! I have no idea why this is suddenly happening now.”

The blonde unfurls slightly. “But I showed up months ago.” he realizes quietly.

“Exactly. That report was sent in the day you got here I swear,” she ruffles through her bag, “I still have the files! You can even check the date if you need to.”

He bites the inside of his cheek as he stares down the door. “You swear you’re not lying?”

“I swear it! An-and we can shake on it when you get out!” she stammers hopeful.

Tommy’s gaze moves to the towel on the floor then back to his reflection. He rolls his shoulders a few times then runs his fingers through the soaking wet appendeges.

“Ok, but I’m gonna need a new change of clothes.”