Chapter Text
Tommy, if he wasn't so numb, he might have been fascinated by the flames that was slowly burning the 3 foot purple puff ball that he somewhat remembers are called Allium. A flower that Ranboo seems to always carry with him, the first thing that the enderian gifted him, the first nice gift anybody has gifted him in long time. The young boar briefly wonder if the flower was still hidden away alongside the stolen nit knacks that he tends to hoard away his secret hoard room. Probably not, he thinks.
Due to his piglin heritage, Tommy was a bit naturally resistant to fire, though lava does still hurt super badly without proper preparations. The flames were warm, he can feel the warmth with each flick of the flames. He was cold. Cold. Numb. Empty. That's all he feel, the coldness in his skin, numbness of his muscles, the emptiness in his heart.
The silence in his head.
*buzz*
Tommy trembled as a full body shiver wrecked his body, coming from his wrist. Looking down, he notice a clawed black hand stopping his hand from directly touching the fire. Tommy blinked, following the out stretched arm, he came face to face with a worried enderian. Ranboo.
"Please."
What?
"Please don't touch it."
Tommy observed the older teen, Ranboo looked ragged, badly healed scars marring his cheeks. They looked like tear tracks. Tommy reached up and passed his thumb over, as if to wipe them away like tears. he's been crying.
"Tommy..." the enderian whispered, gaining the piglin's attention once more. "You're shivering, are you cold?"
Cold. Yes, now that that's its been pointed out, he's cold, he notice it before but he thought it was more surface level. He'd been trapped in an obsidian box, surrounded by all sides by flowing lava. He figured that coldness was due to him not being by the lava anymore, trapped by all sides by an overwhelming and overbearing heat. It was the same way when he was a child (isn't he still a child), when Wilbur first took him out of the nether. He had to get used to the cooler with again, that's all.
But that didn't explain why it was so hard to breathe, how he kept shivering, and his teeth clanked together. His finger tips were blue. (If he had a mirror, he would've notice that his lips were blue too.) It's as of if he was in sub zero tundra biome with no clothes on.
maybe that's why I want to touch the fire
Tommy couldn't vocalize his thoughts anymore, Dream threaten to cut his vocal cords too many times for Tommy to feel safe to speak.
So he nodded.
Ranboo took off his snowchester jacket and draped over Tommy's small shoulders. All that work that Techno (and later Tubbo and Sam Nook) did to bring him back a healthy piglin weight, wasted. Warden should've been programed to add more food incase someone was locked in with the prisoner during a lock down.Dream's weekly meal was not enough for the both of them those two weeks he was trapped with him.
Despite being physically weak and quite sickly due to malnourishment, Tommy did not head to his dirt hut to rest. No, he headed straight down the Prime Path, pass the Holy Land, through the Community House, stopping right in front of the nether portal.
There was a silence in his head, usually his mind would be screaming to stay away from the nether. But there was no screaming, no warning, not even an annoying static buzz. It was just him and his thoughts, now.
how terrifying
Tommy paid no mine to the footsteps and it's echo following him through the needlessly large purple and black structure. The white streaked blond netherling spent no time turning away from the main portal hub and walked down the crumbling obsidian line path that he knows leads to both to Techno's base and logstedshire. He paid no mind to the welcome sign of his exile hub but he did pause at the sign he made that pointed to Techno's base.
why is it still here?
He would have figured that either his brother or adopted father would've taken it down by now. It's been months since he betrayed them. No matter, he did not come here for them.
He continued on. All the way to his exile's portal. Usually, whenever he goes near it, there are hissing, cursing, and pathetic whimpers that threaten to overwhelm him at the back of his mind.
Nothing, only his scattered thoughts.
He turned away and headed down a different path, one he's very familiar with. One he knows the endermen hybrid is also familiar with. Tommy lost count how many times Ranboo found him there. How many times Ranboo had coax Tommy away from it.
How many times Tommy cried in his arms yet wishing he was in another teen's arms instead.
How many times he felt guilty, wishing to be with Tubbo when Ranboo was right there. He wanted Tubbo then and he wants Tubbo now too. Yet, Ranboo is here again instead.
The screaming station.
Tommy tried not to acknowledge the thin, whip-like black and white tail wrapping around his waist as he approached the deteriorating wooden pier.
That is until the tail tightened as soon as he tried to step foot on the pier. His own tail flicked in annoyance, flicking just high enough to smack the older teen's tail. Ranboo's hold on him loosened, but the enderian still didn't let him go, preventing Tommy from going further.
strange
His body still reacts to emotions that Tommy should be be feeling, yet he felt nothing but the tickling sensation from the tuff of fur at the end of Ranboo's tail.
Tommy stared at his hands for moment before finally moving from his position, the tail stiffened but didn't tightened as Tommy slowly sat at the edge of the cliff beside the pier. Ranboo sat to his right, tail still wrapped loosely around his waist, strangely keeping him anchored as he stared out to the lava filled abyss.
It was strange, Tommy didn't have that overwhelming urge to scream, yell, or vent at the top of his lungs like he usually does when he comes here. He always lock that feeling deep inside for moments like these. Get it of his system in fell swoop.
But he felt nothing, nothing except the biting chill breeze of the nether...
what? That...that doesn't seem right
Tommy was still cold. The hot air blowing in his face felt cold. His feet weren't warming up despite swinging directly above a lava lake. The netherrack didn't feel like scorching hot bricks under his finger tips.
why am I so cold?
What's going on?
"Tommy?"
Tommy started to feel sluggish, it was getting harder to breath. Tommy wanted to sleep, sleep for a long time.
"Tommy? Can you hear me?"
Tommy hasn't slept in weeks. He didn't get a lick of sleep since he got trapped with Dream. Oh, Dream slept just find those two weeks, but Tommy couldn't. So he didn't.
And now, he was cold, numb, empty, and very, very tired.
He couldn't fight anymore. It was too much, his body can't stay awake any longer.
"Tommy?"
The teenage piglin hybrid didn't fight it when his eyes slowly closed, the bodily command to sleep finally taking over, leaning against the half enderman teen. It was all black after that.