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Fundy sat in the mesa biome, toying with a rusted silver ring in his hands, staring down with a forlorn expression.
He remembered a time, a time where he was young, naive and quick to fall in love
A time spent making floating holograms and movie theatres, kneeling down in a parking lot while it rained, holding out a shining diamond ring, pulling small pranks on a blonde man who feared iron doors.
He remembered being a Dreamon Hunter and saving someone he'd love by simply reminding him of their time together, he remembers the other being impressed by his builds, complimenting his outfit despite being on opposite sides in war.
He remembers hidden flowers being gifted to another man, hearing the rumors from locals about cheating, standing heart broken at the altar.
Fundy wishes he could forget Dream, move on as easily as Dream had.
But part of him remembers that Dream did love him, at some point.
They'd had wonderful memories, shared stolen kisses behind the Camaravan, snuggled while the others had meetings.
They'd promised themselves to each other, Fundy had kissed every single one of Dream's freckles, Dream has helped cut Fundy's hair when it's been getting too long.
Fundy had loved Dream with everything he had, and Dream did too.
But Dream fell for another, he fell for someone else harder than he ever had for Fundy.
And Fundy couldn't blame him.
George was amazing. He was, Fundy wasn't mad at George for being perfect or mad at Dream for finding true love.
He was mad at himself for not moving on.
A hand on his shoulder brought him back to the present and he turned to find a pale white face, half hidden behind a scarf, looking at him.
"Hey Five." Fundy greeted and looked back at his ring, sighing as Five sat next to him.
"What's that from?" He asked and Fundy blinked back tears.
"It uh," he cleared his throat. "it was Dream's."
"Oh." Five looked at him for a moment and then shuffled, pulling something out if his pocket and clutching it in his hands
"Wanna see something cool?" Five asked, smiled softly and pulling his scarf down as he looked at Fundy.
Fundy brought his hand up and wiped away the tears from his face and nodded, happy for a distraction.
Five smiled and held up a small communicator box.
Fundy raised an eyebrow at it and Five shifted closer so they were hip to hip.
"Listen," Five said and then hit the red call button. "Hafu, what's the status?"
The communicator crackled a bit before a voice spoke over the line.
"It was Ellum this time! DK and I have run a few tests and we're slowly figuring out the source." The voice was static and panicked. "We've almost figured it out, once we do we can save anyone infected by the Imposter parasite."
Fundy's eyes widened and he looked at Five. "Wait, imposters? Like, like the space aliens?" He asked and Five nodded, grinning.
"That's my sister. She and a few of mine and Crumb's friends have a space base and they're trying to find ways to cure imposter syndrome and make space safe to explore again." Five said proudly and Fundy sputtered.
"That's so cool! Wait, so like, your sisters with a famous scientist?" Fundy asked, tucking his ring away, Dream forgotten for once.
Five pulled out a small license card and handed it to Fundy.
"I am a famous scientist. Was temporary CEO of NASA for a bit and everything. Even got to go to Polus." Five bragged and Fundy looked at the picture on the license.
"Heh, younger Five is cute." Fundy commented and Five scoffed. "Old Five is cute too!" He argued and the two broke into laughter
Five started to tell Fundy all kinds of stories from his tops in space, about this one time where he'd been infected by the Imposter syndrome but luckily Hafu had found him and was able to force him into medbay, finding out a few things before Five killed her. Though once the Imposters had taken over the ship, they'd all respawned anew.
Five also told Fundy about how the respawn was weird because they all remembered what had happened but couldn't remember how dying or being imposter felt.
They spent the rest of the night just sitting there, five telling stories while Fundy listened.
Later on that week, Fundy realized that Five had been distracting him, distracting him from his own thoughts and his face turned red.
~~~
Ranboo stared, wide eyes at the smoking machine.
"Uhhhhh," he mumbled and Fundy stared at it. "What the fuck did you do." He scowled.
"Uhhhhh," Ranboo refused to actually answer and Fundy pushed him aside to get to fixing it.
He found the wires in the center of the machine and found what need to be fixed, a choked laugh escaping him as he shook his head.
"What is it?" Ranboo asked and Fundy chuckled again. "Just stupid irony." Fundy said and turned to Ranboo.
"The orange wire needs to be replaced with the blue wire so it can be compatible with the green wire." Fundy informed and Ranboo's face lit up with recognition before falling.
"Oh, rip." Ranboo responded and Fundy just nodded. "Yyyyep." A moment of silence passed as Fundy set about changing the wires around, the machine humming and the smoke clearing once he finished.
"Dream was a jerk." Ranboo said and Fundy bit his lip, staring blankly at the ground.
"But I loved him." Fundy responded and Ranboo put a hand in his shoulder.
"And that's completely fine. You don't decide who you fall in love with, and I'm sure there were many things to fall in love with, but in the end, Dream just was lame because he couldn't see how awesome you are." Ranboo said and Fundy smiled at him.
"He unfortunately just saw the loser furry we all see sometimes." Ranboo then joked and Fundy laughed before grabbing his goggles and throwing them at his "uncle's" face
"Shut up you loser enderman." Fundy said and the two just started tackling each other and throwing half hearted insults.
Fundy realized that Ranboo had a different way of cheering people up, reassuring them they were valid in their feelings, but still not being afraid to tease them, not treating Fundy like he was a glass doll that would break.
And Fundy appreciated that.
~~~
"You hid it again?" Fundy cried out and Sam laughed.
"It's my bell! I rule the bell!" Sam said through laughter, leaning against the bottom of the windmill to catch his breath.
"The bell is for all of us! You're not the warden of the bell!" Fundy running around and trying to find where it was hidden.
"I declare myself, Warden of the Bell, I shall watch over it harder than I did Dream." Sam announced and Fundy bit his lip as he silently continued looking for the bell
Sam noticed immediately the silence and stopped. "Fundy, I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine, Sam. It's been months, I'm just stupid." Fundy said. "Like, my brain is stupid about it all, I mean."
"Hey, don't say that. Man was horrible to you in the end." Sam said and Fundy shook his head, playing with his fingers as he sat down, leaning against the base of the windmill.
"Maybe I deserved it." Fundy said and Sam sat next to him.
"You didn't deserve anything that happened back there." Sam said and leaned against Fundy, the fox wrapping his tail around the creeper's waist in response.
"Then why did it all happen?" Fundy asked and tried to hold back tears.
"I don't know. The Dream SMP, it was... The people there weren't the best. We weren't the best either, neither were Ranboo and Tubbo. And towards the end, I feel partially to blame." Sam said.
"Dream wouldn't have revived Wilbur had I not let Tommy in there, letting him find out he can bring people back in the first place." Sam continued and Fundy shook his head.
"Don't blame yourself for that. Everything was just fucked up." Fundy said and sniffled.
"I was fucked up..... Sometimes I wished I was George, y'know?" Fundy said and Sam chuckled.
"I think at times we all wished we were George. He was untouchable, had not only Dream but XD wrapped around his finger, he could disappear and come back and no one would be mad at him." Sam said wistfully.
"Did I do anything that made Dream stop loving me?" Fundy asked and Sam shook his head.
"No, no you didn't. He just fell for someone else along the way." Sam said.
Sam didn't give Fundy false hope, Sam told Fundy things the way they were, but he gave him comfort, took blame, and tried to remind Fundy of the good things. Fundy wouldn't say it was his favorite way of being comforted, but it was horrible, and Sam let him vent.
~~~
Fundy sat in the corner of his room, crying.
It was stupid, it was so stupid, he'd just been making popcorn but he heard those small pops and started crying.
It sounded like a thousand TNT going off at once. He remembered his home being blown up by Dream, by Wilbur, by Technoblade. He remembers dying in the final control room.
He remembered how hot the fire felt.
He rocked back and forth, sobbing to himself and he passed when he heard the door open.
"I thought I heard you in here Big Man." Tubbo said and Fundy could pin point the exact moment the teen realized what was happening.
"Uhhh, I got your popcorn for you." Tubbo set the bowl on the ground next to Fundy and Fundy just nodded.
"Thank you," his voice was small and Tubbo rocked back on his feet.
"What's happened?" Tubbo asked and Fundy shook his head.
"Just bad memories." He replied and Tubbo squatted
"Well if you wanna talk, I'm here." Tubbo said and rubbed the side of his face. "We've all got our fair share of bad memories."
Fundy didn't say anything, just lifted his head and started to munch on some popcorn.
"You know," Tubbo spoke, his voice suddenly an extra exaggerated British accent and Fundy looked up in surprise. "Back in Luciferville, we all had nukes. Duh duh duh."
Fundy almost choked on his popcorn at the sudden mood change and that only egged Tubbo on.
"It wasn't uncommon to use them either. Had a neighbor you hated? Nuke 'em. Duh duh duh." Tubbo said and Fundy grinned.
"Well back in London," Fundy spoke in a high pitched voice and Tubbo smiled at it. "we all had guns and shot our bankers."
The two laughed as they went on, making up nonsense stories with random voices.
Tubbo also liked to use distraction, Fundy noticed. But differently in a way, he asked if Fundy wanted to talk first, related to him, and then started to joke easy with him. It was comforting.
~~~
Fundy looked at the blood spilling out of his thumb with wide eyes.
He had been cutting up potatoes for dinner and accidentally nicked himself.
Crumb saw and immediately ran over, a wash cloth in her small hand and she grabbed Fundy's wrist, putting it under the sink and running cool water over his cut.
Fundy stared at his hand though, unmoving as Crumb quickly bandaged it up.
The small cat headbox stared at him as he refused to move.
"Fun?" Crumb said, voice high pitched as she spoke the nickname. "Funny?" She tried for another nickname but he still didn't respond.
Small hands grabbed Fundy's cut one and he blinked, looking at Crumb.
"Fundy, what happened there? You zoned out." Crumb asked and Fundy sniffed.
"Sorry it just..." Fundy closed his eyes and remembered George's blade sliding through his stomach, Blackstone full in his vision and he was killed. Waking up in bed right after being in the control room, shaking in fear.
"It just reminded me of something." Fundy said and Crumb nodded.
After a moment, she lifted her headbox a bit and pressed a kiss to his thumb. "Magic powers shall make you stronger now!" She declared, dropping her headbox back down and Fundy smiled.
"Thanks."
"No seriously though, I'm all powerful, in every kiss I have I transfer power. You will be the next Jesus." Crumb declared and Fundy giggled a bit.
"What can I do?" He asked and she rocked back and forth on her heels.
"You can go, wawawawawawawawawa." Crumb said and Fundy smiled.
"Wawawawawawa," Fundy repeated.
"No, like, wawawawawawa,"
"Wawawawawawa,"
"Wawawawawawa,"
Fundy loved how Crumb cared, similar to a mother despite still being a kid, he loved how she made him feel strong and comforted just by being next to him.
~~~
There's still some days Fundy missed the DSMP, days he wishes he could speak to Ghostza, he wishes he could confront Wilbur, could tell Dream he doesn't love him anymore and mean it.
Sometimes he wishes he was surrounded by his old friends, laughing, baking with Niki, begging for HBomb to put his maid outfit away, covering Eret's castle in flamingos.
But at the same time, he wouldn't want anything to change.
He'd never want to leave Cogchamp, not when he has so many people here who would help him in an instant, not when he has people who care for him
"Fundy!" Five called outside, Fundy turning from where he'd been staring out. "Dinner is ready!"
Fundy smiled and waved back. "I'll be in a minute!" And Five nodded, closing the door.
Fundy looked down at his silver ring.
It was from his wedding, but in a way, it resembled so much more.
It symbolized his relationship with Dream, how he had been betrayed by his friends, left by his father, it held his past, his memories, his trauma all in one little silver band.
Fundy gripped it tightly and took a step back, one foot moving forward and he pulled his arm back.
He stared right at the bright white moon, glaring and grinning all the same as his arm launched forward, releasing the silver band into the night.
He didn't need it anymore, he didn't need to be reminded of people who didn't care about him.
Fundy entered the house and Five rushed to his side, pressing a kiss to his cheek and handing him a plate of food.
"Ranboo wants to sit next to you today." Five said and Ranboo growled.
"I said not to tell him!" Ranboo yelled and Tubbo laughed at him through a mouth full of potatoes.
"Hah hah, Five ignored you!" He yelled and Crumb giggled when Ranboo kicked Tubbo under the table.
"Boys, boys, no fighting." Sam said and then a spoonful of mashed potatoes was flung at him.
"Okay, who did that?" He asked and Crumb, Ranboo and Tubbo all pointed at each other.
"Okay, that settles it." Sam said and food was being launched across the table, everyone laughig and ducking to save themselves.
Fundy rolled his eyes at their typical antics but his under the table as well.
Fundy didn't need to be reminded of people who didn't care about him, who didn't love him, who wouldn't give him the time of day.
Not when he was surrounded by people who felt more like family to him than Phil or Wilbur ever had. Not when he was surrounded by people he loved more than life itself.