Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“C’mon Sam! You gotta let me pilot, I’m begging you!”

An alarm was blaring overhead. Engineers and mechanics ran around the hangar, the heavy clanking of their boots beating in time with the screaming alarm. It was so loud in the hangar, it should’ve been impossible to even hear yourself think. But if Tommy was good at one thing, it was being loud.

In front of him, Sam shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed. “You know I can’t do that, Tommy. Even if I thought you were recovered—which I don’t—you’d still have to get cleared by Puffy and I doubt she would clear you for piloting right now.”

The two were standing in the middle of the hangar, three hulking shadows looming over them. Sparks showered down from some last minute repairs being made to one of the jaegers, but Tommy didn’t move out of the way, refusing to let up his ground for even a second. He had heard this answer dozens of times before, but he wasn’t going to let up. Persistence was the key to annoying someone into letting you do what you want.

“I’m telling you, I’m fine! I’ve even told Puffy that I’m fully recovered—she just doesn’t believe me. But I’m totally okay, I promise,” Tommy pleaded, having to shout to be heard above all the clanging and pounding footsteps around them.

“I’m sorry, Tommy, but I’m with Puffy, I also don’t believe you,” Sam said, folding his arms across his chest. “You’re on a mental health break for a reason. I’m not going to even consider reinstating you as a pilot until Puffy gives the okay. We don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.”

At the mention of the last time he had tried to pilot, Tommy froze. Clenching his jaw, he shook his head. “That’s not going to happen again, Sam! I’ll admit, yeah, I definitely tried to get back into piloting way too soon. But it’s been months-”

”Tommy,” Sam cut in, his voice low, “I don’t have time to argue with you. You’re not piloting today and that’s final.”

Before Tommy could even try to think of another way to word his argument, Sam turned on his heel and headed towards the control center. Tommy knew he couldn’t follow Sam in there, considering he needed a key card and all. Accepting this attempt as a bust, Tommy huffed and turned the other way, fists clenching at his sides as he hurried out of the hangar.

Once outside of the hangar, the clanging and shouting faded, and Tommy finally felt like he could think again. Sighing, he leaned against the cold metal wall, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes until he saw bright stars bursting against the backs of his eyelids.

He hated this. He hated not being able to pilot. It made him feel useless. The others would go out and defend the Alaskan coast from kaiju, and all he could do was sit inside and watch on the TV’s. At this point, he was convinced he was going stir crazy from being locked up in the base for so long.

Multiple sets of footsteps echoed down the hallway, heading his direction. Dropping his hands from his eyes, Tommy blinked the black spots out of his vision just in time to see Niki, Jack, Eret, and Foolish making their way towards the hangar.

Tommy looked at both Niki and Jack, but the two didn’t even glance in his direction as they passed by. Not unusual for them, but still frustrating. Meanwhile, Eret and Foolish both stopped to give him matching looks of concern.

“I take it your latest attempt to convince Sam didn’t go so well?” Eret asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Slumping further against the wall, Tommy nodded. “Yeah, he still says I need to get Puffy’s approval before I can get back to active duty.”

“Hey, don’t take it too hard,” Foolish chimed in, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “Think of it like you’re getting paid to take a vacation!”

Tommy half-heartedly slapped Foolish’s hand away from his head. “I could’ve thought of it like that the first month, but now it’s been nearly four months since I’ve even set foot in a jaeger. It’s getting really fucking boring.”

Eret gave him a sympathetic frown. “Just focus on getting better. You’ll be back in a jaeger before you know it.”

Rolling his eyes at the platitude he’d heard before, Tommy straightened up and waved the two towards the hangar. “You two better hurry up and get to your jaeger before Sam gets pissy, you know you don’t wanna deal with a pissed off Sam,” Tommy said, forcing himself to start walking the opposite direction.

“Thanks Tommy,” Eret replied, waving at him before stepping into the hangar.

“See you at dinner!” Foolish called, disappearing into the hangar behind his copilot.

Trying to force his frustration down, Tommy stormed away from the hangar. Sure, he’d definitely be back in a jaeger soon. It wasn’t like everyone was terrified to let him anywhere near a jaeger, scared shitless that he was gonna have a breakdown the second a neural handshake was initiated.

While Tommy understood why everyone was so apprehensive to let him pilot again considering what happened the first time he’d tried to drift since the accident, it had been four months since then! He liked to think he’d made plenty of progress since then. At least, Puffy told him they’d made progress, though he wasn’t sure if he actually felt any different than he did before. More than anything, he was just antsy to do something. To help out. To actually have a purpose again.

But instead, he was stuck hanging around entrenched in his own boredom, waiting for the day Puffy realizes he’s not going to freeze up again. Sometimes he felt as if he was a ghost, haunting the halls of the shatterdome without purpose. Some people definitely looked at him like he was one.

A ding from his pocket jolted Tommy from his thoughts. Glancing down at his com, a reminder popped up on the screen.

puffy @ 3

Checking the current time, Tommy cursed when he realized it was already 2:55. Puffy’s office was halfway across the shatterdome from where he currently was. While she wouldn’t be upset at him if he was late, she was going to ask why he was late and he would have to explain that he was trying to convince Sam to let him pilot again without her permission.

Though, in the end, Sam would probably end up telling her anyway. And then Puffy would mark it in his chart, and he would be set back another several goddamn months before he could pilot again.

Groaning, Tommy broke into a run to try and get to Puffy’s office on time. He weaved between the groups of people that lined the metal halls of the shatterdome, muttering apologies as he pushed and shoved past everyone to try and reach the office before three.

Sometimes, the shatterdome reminded him of an ant colony. There were so many spindly, narrow hallways, all twisting and turning in different directions. While Tommy had long since memorized all the passages, it was annoying as hell to try and get from one end to the other quickly. He supposed in a way, they weren’t all that different from ants. Everyone in the shatterdome had a purpose: whether it was providing services for the others that lived here, working on repairing or upgrading the jaegers, studying kaiju biology, coordinating all the training programs, or doing the most important thing of all: piloting a jaeger.

Everyone had a purpose. Except for him.

By the time he reached the office, he was drenched in sweat and his lungs were burning. He checked his watch, cursing again when he realized he was three minutes late. Not wanting to waste anymore of Puffy’s time, he slammed open the door to her office, still panting from his run.

“Sorry I’m late,” Tommy apologized in an out of breath voice, leaning against the door as it shut behind him.

Puffy, who was sitting on the fluffy white bean bag she always sat on during their sessions, frowned when she looked up at him. “Damn, you look like you just ran a 5k.”

“Certainly fucking feels like I did,” Tommy huffed, collapsing onto the cow-print bean bag across from Puffy. “I swear to god they made this place like a maze on purpose.”

Puffy snorted as she leaned back in her bean bag, reaching for the mini fridge she kept next to her desk. Opening the door, she pulled out a water bottle and chucked it at Tommy’s head, and he yelped as he barely stopped it from smacking him in the face.

“Drink that,” she ordered, shutting the fridge and resettling herself in her seat. “You need to stay hydrated.”

Grumbling, Tommy twisted the lid off the water and took a long sip from the bottle. As soon as the cold water hit his lips though, he realized just how thirsty he was and gulped down nearly half the bottle before pausing to take a breath.

Puffy waited patiently as he took a few more sips, before screwing the lid back on and settling back in his seat.

“Figured you hadn’t had much water today,” Puffy shrugged, smirking at him.

“Soda would’ve been better,” Tommy muttered, though he was grateful for Puffy’s thoughtfulness.

“Trust me, if I knew where to get soda on this base, I would be hoarding it all for myself,” Puffy joked, folding her hands in front of her. “But anyway, besides being all sweaty and out of breath, how are you today?”

Tommy frowned as he remembered what had happened right before his appointment. Puffy was the reason he couldn’t pilot, and while he knew she was just doing what she thought was best for him, he needed to make her understand that what he really needed was to pilot again.

“Honestly Puffy, I’m not having a great day,” Tommy admitted, kicking his legs out in front of him.

“Oh? Why is that?” Puffy asked.

“Well, I’m bored out of my fucking mind not being able to pilot, but according to Sam he can’t let me back in a jaeger until you give the okay,” Tommy explained, folding his arms across his chest.

“So you want me to give the approval to take you off your mental health leave?” Puffy questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yes! Exactly!” Tommy exclaimed. “I know I seem all depressed or whatever, but I’m fine now! If anything, I’m getting more fuckin’ depressed because I’ve been stuck in here for nearly a bloody year!”

In front of him, Puffy sighed and pushed a hand through the wild curls that stuck up all over her head. “Tommy, I get your frustration, but I’m not doing this to be cruel. I want you to pilot again too! But if you get back in there before you’re ready, it could do so much more damage in the long run.”

“Aw c’mon, I’m not made of glass! Just because I had one bad moment a few months ago doesn’t mean that’s gonna happen again!” Tommy argued.

“If I had been consulted before that test run a few months ago, I would never have given the okay to put you back in a jaeger,” Puffy told him, shaking her head. “I know you’re not made of glass. I’m not saying you’re too weak to pilot again. But I’ve known other pilots that have gone through similar things to what you went through, and it took them years to even be able to drift again, let alone actually pilot. It hasn’t even been a full year since the accident. The amount of progress you’ve already made in this short of a time is extremely impressive.”

“But that’s the problem, I don’t even feel like I’m making progress. I feel the same way I have for months now.”

“And what have you been feeling for the past few months?”

“That I’m ready to get back in there!” Tommy told her. “I get it, shit went really bad last time I tried to drift with Tubbo, but that’s just because it was my first time drifting since… you know. I just wasn’t prepared for it, but I am now.”

“You said the same thing last time and you nearly fired a plasma cannon through the wall of the shatterdome because you got trapped in a memory,” Puffy said bluntly.

Tommy’s face fell at the reminder of the testing incident. Of how Tubbo kept screaming his name, trying to get him out of the memory, but he couldn’t hear him over the roar of the kaiju. Of how all he could think of was saving him, not being able to remember that he had failed at saving him a long time ago. Of how he eventually came to when the drift between him and Tubbo was abruptly cut off, and he found himself leaning against the wall of the cockpit, Tubbo shaking his shoulders trying to get him to come to.

It had nearly been a disaster. Of course Tommy understood why they were all scared to let him back in a jaeger after that. But everyone made mistakes. He wouldn’t let himself get trapped in his memories a second time.

Right?

Puffy must’ve noticed the drop in his shoulders, because she sighed and spoke again.

“Look Tommy, no one blames you for that. I know you think this is punishment for what almost happened, but everyone knows that traumatic memories like that are extremely hard to break out of, even for experienced pilots like yourself,” Puffy reassured him. “But in order to make it easier to keep from latching onto traumatic memories like that in the drift, we need to be able to work through them first.”

“Then what the hell have we been doing here for the past four months?” Tommy snapped. “You keep saying I’ve made progress, but what progress is it?!”

“We’ve been taking things one step at a time,” Puffy said slowly, “it might not seem like you’ve made much progress, but you have. You used to be afraid to fall asleep because you had nightmares nearly every night, and now you haven’t had a nightmare in a month. You told me your hands used to shake every time you heard a kaiju sighting get announced, and that doesn’t happen anymore. Those may seem like small steps, but that’s progress, Tommy.”

A part of Tommy understood what she was saying as true. He had made progress. After the accident, the grief had become his existence. He had no longer been Tommy, but instead he’d been a shell. Constantly haunted by the ghost of his grief, and the reminders of his failure. It had taken weeks just to force himself to get out of his room to get water.

And yet, he was still being faced with setback after setback.

“But not enough to let me pilot.” Scowling, Tommy pushed to his feet, not wanting to hear anymore. Sure, that was progress, but those were tiny things. Not major breakthroughs. Nothing that would actually help him get back in a jaeger.

Although he knew his appointment was nowhere near done, Tommy turned to leave the office. “I’m done for the day. Thanks, Puffy,” he said gruffly.

Before she could reply, he yanked the door open and listened to the metal slam behind him. He knew he shouldn’t be mad at her. But it was so frustrating how she wasn’t listening to what he was telling her. He knew himself, and he knew he was well enough to get back in a jaeger. If he wanted to make any more progress in his recovery, what he really needed was the chance to prove to everyone that he could still fight. He needed to prove it to himself.

Tommy didn’t think about where he was going. He kept his head down and let his feet lead him through the twisting labyrinth of metal corridors, ignoring the screens posted on the walls that broadcasted the kaiju fight currently happening a hundred miles down the coast.

When Tommy finally looked up, he realized his feet had led him to the engineering wing, and the weight of his anger lifted off his shoulders as a grin spread across his face. Perfect. Tubbo was exactly the person he needed to talk to.

Twisting open the vault-like door, Tommy made his way into the engineering lab, keeping his head down as he hurried towards Tubbo’s workstation. Since Tubbo was only an assistant, he only had a single desk shoved in a small corner of the lab, where different blueprints and pieces of scrap metal were usually strewn about. Tubbo rarely got to design anything himself, but Tommy knew he didn’t mind. He knew Tubbo would always prefer actually piloting the jaegers to designing them.

Just as he predicted, when Tubbo’s corner came into view, Tommy could see a dark head of hair hunched over a set of blueprints.

“Tubbo!” Tommy yelled in greeting, not giving his friend a chance to react before resting his hands on Tubbo’s shoulders in a sort of half-standing hug.

Tubbo stiffened for a moment in surprise, but quickly relaxed when he realized who it was. “Oh hey, Tommy!” He greeted, twisting around in his chair to face him. “You done with your appointment already?”

“Yeah, Puffy, uh, decided to let me go early,” Tommy shrugged, glancing away as the lie slipped out.

“Really?” Tubbo raised an eyebrow, clearly doubting him. “You stormed out again, didn’t you?”

“Maybe I did, but it was only because Puffy wasn’t listening to me,” Tommy grumbled.

Tubbo continued to give him a doubtful look, but instead of questioning him, he instead reached over to pull a rolling chair away from someone else’s desk and moved it next to his own. “Here, sit down,” Tubbo told him. When Tommy did, he scooted over so they could sit at the desk side by side. “Did you talk to Sam about piloting again?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. He said I can’t pilot again until Puffy gives me the all clear, and Puffy says I’m not ready yet,” Tommy explained. “I keep telling her that I’m fine, and that I’m honestly just getting worse being all cooped up with nothing to do, but she doesn’t believe me.”

“I mean… maybe she’s right?” Tubbo pointed out, glancing at him nervously.

Tommy frowned. “Oh come on, don’t you go treatin’ me like I’m made of glass and all that shit.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Tubbo said, shaking his head. “I just meant… Tommy, I’ve been in your head. I saw what happened that day,” Tubbo continued, his voice dropping. “That’s not the kind of thing you can just get over super easily. If Puffy says you’re not ready, then I’d trust what she’s telling you, even if you think you’re fine.”

Tommy wanted to argue, but Tubbo’s words made him pause. Tubbo was the only other person who understood exactly what Tommy had gone through on the day of the accident.

But still, that was months ago. Things had changed.

“I know, I get it, but trust me, nothing bad is gonna happen if we drift again,” Tommy insisted. “I got caught up in the memory, I know. I did what we always make fun of the newbies for doing and I chased the rabbit. But I’m better now, I can keep a tighter lock on my memories, I know I can.”

Although Tubbo was clearly trying to believe him, doubt clouded his eyes, and it stung. “Just try to be patient. You’re not gonna get Puffy to clear you for duty by hounding her about it,” Tubbo told him.

Huffing, Tommy fell back in his seat. He wanted to be angry at Tubbo, but of all the people around him, Tubbo was the only one he really couldn’t be upset at. With his infectious smile, his ever-present patience for Tommy’s antics, the way he always knew how to one up Tommy’s chaos with some of his own—Tubbo was the only one who both understood Tommy better than anyone else in the shatterdome, while simultaneously being the only one who still treated him like nothing had changed.

Tommy would listen to Tubbo for now. There had only ever been one other person who had been able to temper Tommy’s anger like this, but he wasn’t around anymore. So now it was Tubbo who did it.

Glancing up at the TV screen in the corner of the lab, Tommy raised an eyebrow. “How’s the fight going?” He asked.

On the screen, two behemoths—one organic, one metal—were fighting while helicopters circled around. Icy grey waves crashed around the legs of both the jaeger and the kaiju, and Tommy watched as the jaeger pulled back a hulking fist, before letting loose to sock the alien monster in the jaw.

“Oh, it’s going pretty well! By the looks of it it seems like Jack and Niki have that guy handled, so they should be finishing up pretty soon. I know Eret and Foolish were called out too, but I haven’t seen the Eternity on the screen, so they might just be on backup or something,” Tubbo explained.

The kaiju roared, its sickly blue skin gleaming in the late afternoon light. Although the cameras were blurry, Tommy could see the thing had a mouth full of thousands of razor sharp teeth. If he had to guess, he’d say each tooth was the size of a small fishing boat.

As the kaiju let out its ear-piercing wail, the jaeger stretched out its right hand towards the creature’s open mouth, a neon pink light circling around the palm of the jaeger’s hand. The plasma cannon charged up, and the entire lab fell silent as they all waited for the final blow to land.

A beam of blindingly bright light shot out of the jaeger’s hand and into the mouth of the kaiju. The creature screamed as the plasma beam pierced through to the other side of its head, and the jaeger stepped back as the kaiju crashed into the choppy waters below. Then, the jaeger stared at the corpse of the kaiju for a moment, scanning to make sure it was actually dead.

Tommy gulped at the gesture. Another barbed reminder.

Then, the jaeger looked up to the circling helicopters, giving a big thumbs up, and the lab broke out into cheers.

Tommy didn’t join in on the cheering. They had kaiju attacks at least once every two months, and lately it had been getting closer to once a month. Every time though, one of their jaegers managed to handle the situation without any issue.

They hadn’t had a casualty since the last time Tommy had been in a jaeger. Maybe he was just bitter about the reminder that there hadn’t been any cheering the day the accident happened.

“Even if we’re used to winning, it doesn’t mean we should stop celebrating it,” Tubbo pointed out. Tommy flushed as he realized that he had said the comment about cheering out loud, but Tubbo didn’t seem perturbed by his comment. “Besides, what’s the harm in cheering, even if it’s not necessary?”

“I suppose you’re right,” Tommy mumbled.

As the cheering died down, Tubbo glanced to the work on his desk again, and sighed. Clearly, Tubbo didn’t want to keep working, and Tommy had the perfect idea for a distraction.

“Hey Tubbo, you wanna go to the cafeteria and get some-”

“Tubbo!”

Another voice cut Tommy off, and the two boys whipped around to see George walking out of his private office—the one Tubbo’s desk sat right in front of.

“Hey George,” Tubbo waved.

“Sup Gogy,” Tommy greeted.

George rolled his eyes at the nickname. “Are you distracting my assistants again, Tommy?” He asked, folding his arms over his chest.

“I’m not distracting him! I’m giving him tips,” Tommy explained, giving George his most saccharine smile.

“What tips? You don’t know anything about engineering.”

“Hey! I might not build the jaegers but I’m the one who drives them, so even if I don’t know all the specific fancy words or whatever doesn’t mean I can’t give tips,” Tommy protested, pouting at George.

George raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? What tips were you giving him just now?”

Tommy opened his mouth to explain, but paused when he remembered he hadn’t been giving Tubbo any tips. Frowning, he glanced to the mess of parts on Tubbo’s desk, and picked a scrap of metal up at random.

“I was just saying that this should be, uh, more curved! So that it can be more aerodynamic!” Tommy said, holding up a piece of pipe.

“Aerodynamic curves for something that’s going to be so deeply buried in the center of the jaeger that it’s never going to see the light of day?” George questioned.

“Hey man, you gotta be able to feel a breeze down there,” Tommy shot back with a chuckle, leaning back in his seat. Next to him, Tubbo snorted, while a smirk quirked the corners of George’s lips.

“As much as I appreciate you lending your great advice to Tubbo, he’s gotta go,” George said, placing a hand on Tubbo’s chair. “Tubbo, Dream wants you in his office now.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “Uh, I’m not in trouble, am I?”

“What? No, of course not.” George shook his head. “He just has an assignment for you, nothing bad.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tubbo nodded and pushed to his feet. “Alright then. I’m guessing Tommy can’t come with?”

Tommy immediately looked to George with pleading eyes, but George shook his head. “No, he can’t.”

Deflating, Tommy slumped against Tubbo’s desk. “Can I just wait here till Tubbo gets back?” He asked.

“No Tommy, the last time I left you unattended in here you broke three things,” George said.

“Awww but I’m gonna be so bored!” Tommy whined as he stood up next to Tubbo.

“Not my problem,” George shrugged, pushing the chair Tommy had been sitting in back to its original desk. “Go to the cafeteria or something. I hear they have chocolate today.”

Tommy’s eyes widened, and he leapt out of his seat. “Chocolate? Did we get a new supply shipment?”

“Yup,” George answered, popping the ‘p’. “But I’m sure they’re gonna run out soon, so you better go fast.”

“I’ll try to grab you some if I can, Tubbo,” Tommy told his friend, patting his shoulder as he headed out. “Send me a com whenever you’re done with your meeting!”

And with one final wave, Tommy left the lab, leaving Tubbo to his duties.

As Tubbo made his way down the winding hallways of the shatterdome, he thought about how it felt like he had been called to the headmaster’s office in school. Although George had reassured him that he wasn’t in trouble, nerves still danced through him, making him bounce on his feet as with every step he took.

Tubbo wasn’t the type of person to warrant much attention, let alone the kind of attention that would get him called to the Director’s office. Sure, he was technically a jaeger pilot, but he wasn’t a frontline pilot like Jack and Niki, Foolish and Eret, or Tommy and- well, just Tommy now. And technically speaking, Tommy wasn’t a frontline pilot anymore either, given he wasn’t allowed to pilot for the foreseeable future.

While Tubbo understood his best friend’s frustration with not being allowed to pilot, a small part of Tubbo also didn’t want the two of them to pilot together again—at least not yet. Tubbo didn’t blame Tommy for what had happened during their last drift attempt, he knew how hard it was to break out of memories once you fell down the rabbit hole. But Tubbo had been witness to what was going on in Tommy’s mind during that moment, he was just as captured in the memory as Tommy had been.

It was horrible. Tubbo could still remember Tommy’s fear, his pain, the grim acceptance that he was about to die. Like all memories in the drift, it had been so vibrant, so real. If Tubbo focused, he could still feel snowflakes on his face, and smell the blood in the air. Sometimes he woke up in a cold sweat from the memories, and they weren’t even his own. Until Tommy was able to keep a tighter hold on his memories in the drift, Tubbo was reluctant to drift with him again. It wasn’t pleasant for either of them.

As little as he wanted to repeat that experience though, Tubbo also hated seeing his best friend be so depressed. Tommy hadn’t been the same since that accident, and the drifting failure had just been another blow on top of that. While Tommy pretended he was fine, Tubbo could tell there was more going on inside of him. It was in the brief flashes of darkness in his gaze, the slight tension he always held in his shoulders, the way his eyes always ducked down when a kaiju alarm went off.

Hopefully Tommy would be able to improve his situation with Puffy’s help, and soon he would be able to pilot again. Tommy would be a lot happier once he was back working, and Tubbo had to admit, he had always wanted to be more of a real pilot instead of just a backup one.

Maybe that’s what he was being called to Dream’s office for. Maybe Dream wanted to talk to him about Tommy, see what his opinion on his situation was. That would make sense.

On the upper levels of the shatterdome, the rusted sheet metal that lined the walls smoothed out. The interior looked less like that of a cargo ship and more like that of an office, with sleek tile floors, less crowded hallways, and even a few portholes for windows here and there.

Stepping out from the elevator, Tubbo’s boots echoed against the tile floor, and he kept his head down as he passed men and women in cargo fatigues similar to his own. Thankfully, the upper levels weren’t as maze-like as the lower levels, so all Tubbo had to do was walk in a straight line to get to Dream’s office.

As Director of the Anchorage Shatterdome’s entire jaeger program, Dream was technically the most powerful man in the building. As a result, a lot of people were intimidated by the man, and while sometimes Tubbo could understand the nerves that came with talking to your boss, he also wouldn’t say Dream was that intimidating. He was a pretty nice guy for the most part, if a little bit of a hardass when it came to keeping things moving.

Tubbo knew the main reason Tommy had been allowed to try and test drift with him so soon after the accident was because Dream had wanted to get Tommy back to piloting as soon as possible. However, Tubbo also knew that if Tommy had pushed against it, saying he wasn’t ready to pilot again, Dream wouldn’t have kicked him out. Tommy had been just as eager to get back in the jaeger as Dream had been to put him there. And then it obviously blew up in their faces.

Stopping in front of the sleek wooden door that had a metal plaque with the word ‘Director’ hanging across the front, Tubbo took a moment to brush any oil off his face from the engineering lab. Then, he raised his fist, and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a voice called from the other side.

Twisting the door handle, Tubbo stepped inside the office and found three people waiting for him.

Dream was sitting behind his desk, hunched over a tablet and scrolling through what looked like files. Behind him, Sapnap was leaning against the wall, lifting one hand up to wave at Tubbo as he walked in. Then, leaning against the wall adjacent to the door, Sam was also waiting, and he nodded at Tubbo in greeting.

While it wasn’t unusual to see Sapnap hanging out in Dream’s office for no apparent reason, Tubbo was curious as to why Sam was here.

“Uh, George told me I needed to come up here?” Tubbo asked, letting the door shut quietly behind him.

Looking up from his tablet, Dream nodded and gestured towards one of the chairs. “Oh, Tubbo, awesome, you got here quickly. That’s good. Here, sit down,” he told him.

“Um, I’m not in trouble, am I?” Tubbo asked as he settled himself in the thinly cushioned chair.

“What? No, of course not,” Dream said, shaking his head as he clicked his tablet off. “You’ve done nothing wrong. I just need you for something. A favor, I guess, if you will.”

“What kind of favor would you need me to do?” Tubbo asked, absentmindedly scratching at one of the burn scars on his cheek. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Tommy, does it?”

Dream frowned, confusion flickering across his face. “No, this has nothing to do with Tommy. Did something happen with him?”

“I believe Tubbo might be referring to earlier today,” Sam cut in, saving Tubbo the trouble of explaining. “Tommy asked me about piloting again when Eternity and Rocketblast were being sent out, and he got kind of worked up.”

“Ah, that’s not surprising,” Dream said, laughing a bit. “Puffy still hasn’t cleared him for piloting duty yet, right?”

“No she has not,” Sam confirmed.

“I get why he’s frustrated, he’s such a talented pilot and I’m sure he’s getting a bit stir crazy in here. But obviously we don’t want a repeat of what happened last time, and I’m sure you don’t want that either, Tubbo,” Dream agreed, glancing back up at Tubbo.

Looking down at his hands, Tubbo shrugged, not sure how to respond to that. Thankfully, Dream didn’t wait for a reply and kept talking.

“Anyway, no, this favor doesn’t have anything to do with Tommy. We actually have a new pilot being transferred here and I figured you could show him around,” Dream explained, folding his hands in front of him.

At this, Tubbo’s head whipped back up. “Why me?”

“Well, you two graduated the same year from the academy, though I don’t think you ever met. I just thought it might be nice to have someone his age showing him around, helping him get to know the place and all.”

“But why not Tommy then? He knows this place better than I do, and he’s actually been a full-time pilot,” Tubbo pointed out.

Dream laughed again. “I mean, you know how Tommy is. He has a tendency to come off as more… abrasive.”

That was fair. Tommy was a great guy once you got to know him, but Tubbo knew he didn’t always make the best first impressions on people.

“Alright, I can do that. But can I ask why he’s being transferred?” Tubbo then questioned. “Usually if you’re a pilot, once you find your copilot you stick together, and if you get transferred you get transferred together.”

“Uh, so-”

“Apparently they couldn’t find anyone at the LA shatterdome that he was drift compatible with,” Sapnap said, suddenly cutting Dream off.

Dream frowned. “I don’t think that’s exactly something we should be spreading around,” he pointed out.

Sapnap shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. A lot of people only have one or two people they ever find that they’re drift compatible with. Sure, it’s not super common, but it’s not anything bad. Besides, it’s definitely gonna get around the base one way or another.”

Sighing, Dream pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he muttered.

Hm. It wasn’t impossible to hear of people struggling to find others they were drift compatible with, but it definitely wasn’t that monumental of a task. Tubbo wondered why that could be.

“Okay, then. When is he arriving?”

Dream checked his wristwatch and his eyes widened. “Uh, his helicopter should be landing any minute now, so you should hurry up to the roof. Sam will go with you to introduce himself.”

“Oh shit, we should leave now then,” Tubbo muttered, jumping to his feet.

“Yeah, let’s head out, Tubbo,” Sam agreed, pushing off the wall and walking towards the door.

The two waved goodbye to Dream and Sapnap, Sam holding the door open for Tubbo, and then they were alone in the hallway. Silently, Tubbo followed Sam back to the elevator, shoving his hands in his pockets as he mulled over the new information in his mind.

So they were getting a new pilot. One who apparently hadn’t been able to drift with anyone else so far. While Tubbo knew that wasn’t super uncommon, it definitely was odd that he’d been placed in the pilot program if he had such difficulties with drifting. He probably had really high aptitude test scores, like Tommy did.

Tubbo wondered what he would be like. Would he be like Tommy? Loud, unafraid to say what was on his mind, always striving to make himself known to whatever room he was standing in? Or would he be more like Tubbo? Not afraid of the spotlight, but not minding when it passed over him?

The elevator rumbled as it moved up the higher levels, and as the numbers dinged with each passing floor, Tubbo decided to ask Sam.

“Do you know what the new pilot is like?” Tubbo asked.

“Not sure. I haven’t spoken to him myself, I only have his file from the LA shatterdome,” Sam explained, tapping the tablet he had tucked under his arm. “The file mostly just covered his academy history and things like that. Though I think one personal note mentioned he tries to avoid conflict.”

“That’ll be good if he’s gonna be friends with Tommy,” Tubbo joked, knowing just how bad things could go if Tommy butted heads with a hot-head.

“Definitely is,” Sam agreed, before falling silent once more.

A few more floors, and finally the elevator dinged to the roof. The doors slid open, and biting wind blasted away any sense of fatigue or exhaustion Tubbo had from his day. Although it wasn’t full winter yet, the last days of summer had already faded away, and the days of snow and ice were drawing near once more. Tubbo had found he didn’t mind Anchorage during the spring and summer, as the weather was surprisingly close to how it was back in England. Sure, the extremely long days were a bit weird to get used to, but considering he almost stayed in the shatterdome 24/7, it wasn’t something he had to deal with very often. Winter was another story. But again, Tubbo didn’t have to go outside all that much, so the frigid winters weren’t something he had to face all that much.

Still, even though it wasn’t winter yet, the wind whipping across the roof raised goosebumps along Tubbo’s arms and made him wish he’d brought a jacket. Wrapping his arms around himself, he followed Sam out towards the landing pad, and quickly realized the wind that was chilling him to the bone wasn’t due to the weather.

The whirring of helicopter blades grew louder and louder as the helicopter descended towards the landing pad. Sam reached his arm out and gently pushed Tubbo back a step when he got too close, and Tubbo squinted to try and get a glimpse at who was inside the helicopter as it came to settle against the rooftop.

The blades continued to spin for a few more moments, and a shiver ran down Tubbo’s spine with every gust of wind that rolled over him. Hopefully there wouldn’t be too much chatting out here before they all got inside again, or else he was going to freeze solid.

Finally, the blades started to slow, and the door to the helicopter slid open. Tubbo could see someone in a soldier’s uniform climb out first, gesturing for someone inside to follow them out. Then, Tubbo was finally able to see the new pilot.

He was hunched over as he awkwardly climbed out of the helicopter, struggling to avoid the blades above his head. The soldier led him towards Tubbo and Sam, and as they cleared the blades and the new pilot was able to straighten up, Tubbo’s eyes widened because holy shit, this guy was tall.

Now able to see him up close, Tubbo noticed the guy was wearing a black and white face mask on the lower half of his face, with red and green sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose. His longish hair was ruffled by the dying wind of the helicopter blades, and Tubbo had to crane his neck to fully look at the guy’s face.

“You must be our new pilot,” Sam said in way of introduction, holding a hand out for the guy to shake. “I’m Sam, I’m the training supervisor for the Anchorage Jaeger Program.” The guy reached forward to shake Sam’s hand, and Sam jerked his head to Tubbo. “And this is Tubbo, he’s another one of the pilots here. He’s gonna be giving you the tour of the shatterdome.”

“Uh, it’s nice to meet you both,” the guy said, letting go of Sam’s hand to shake Tubbo’s. “You guys can call me Ranboo.”

“Nice to meetcha, Ranboo,” Tubbo said, grinning as he let go of Ranboo’s hand. “Let’s go inside, I feel like I’m about to turn into a fucking ice lolly out here.”

Laughing, Ranboo nodded, and Sam led the two of them away from the helicopter pad and back towards the elevator. Thankfully the doors had stayed open, and Tubbo rushed inside, eager to be shielded from the wind, while Sam and Ranboo followed close behind.

Sam pressed a button on the elevator and the doors slid shut, finally blanketing them in silence.

“Tubbo, do you want to start him on the main level?” Sam asked him, finger hovering over the button panel.

“Uh, sure, that sounds good,” Tubbo shrugged. In truth, he hadn’t really thought much about what he was going to show Ranboo first. There was so much of the shatterdome to see, and he didn’t want to overwhelm the poor guy on his first day. The main level would be the best place to start.

“Sounds good,” Sam said. The elevator doors dinged again as they stopped on the floor Dream’s office was on, and Sam straightened up. “I have some meetings to finish up, but Ranboo, we’ll meet up tomorrow to talk about setting things up for you. Tubbo, Ranboo’s apartment number has been paged to you, so make sure to show him where it is by the end of the tour.”

“You got it, boss man,” Tubbo nodded.

With one last wave, Sam left the elevator and the metal doors silently slid shut again. There was a jolt as the elevator continued its descent downwards, and Tubbo glanced over to his new companion.

Ranboo was standing in the corner of the elevator, slightly hunched over despite the elevator being tall enough for him to stand straight up. Tubbo assumed that must’ve been a habit of his. While Tubbo couldn’t see his eyes past his glasses, he could tell by the tilt of his head that he was staring at the ground, and Tubbo realized the silence around them had grown awkward.

“So… what was it like back at the LA shatterdome?” Tubbo asked, leaning against the wall of the elevator next to Ranboo.

“Oh, uh, it was fine. A lot warmer than up here, that’s for sure,” Ranboo said.

“Were you bummed when you found out you were being transferred?”

Ranboo shrugged. “Not really. I was only there for a few months, and I didn’t get close to a lot of the people there.” Then, noticing Tubbo’s confused look, Ranboo rushed to correct himself. “Not because they were unfriendly or anything! Everyone was just really busy a lot of the time, and I didn’t have much to do so I didn’t get a lot of chances to work with the others.”

“Oh, that makes sense, yeah,” Tubbo agreed. “I’m sure you’ll have more stuff to do up here though.”

Just then, the elevator dinged again, opening up to the main level and revealing a steady stream of people walking past the elevators. Tubbo stepped out, gesturing for Ranboo to follow, and glanced around at the different hallways branching out around them. He could take Ranboo to the training room first, or he could show him the cafeteria. Maybe it would be best to show him his room first and then go on with the rest of the tour? But the apartments were on the next level up, and Tubbo wasn’t about to make them get back in the elevator.

Training room first. Then he could just walk Ranboo around the rest of the main level, finishing off with the cafeteria so they could get something to eat.

“Follow me, big man,” Tubbo called out. Ranboo rushed to catch up, and Tubbo turned down one of the twisting hallways that he knew was one of the more straightforward paths to the training room.

“So I’m not gonna lie, this place is a bit of a maze,” Tubbo started, gesturing around, “but if you think of those elevators as the center, you can think of everything else as just branches from that center. The real bitch is trying to remember which branch has what. This branch leads to the training room, but if you wanna get to the cafeteria, you gotta travel through these tinier hallways to get to another branch.”

“I’m totally gonna get lost here,” Ranboo then muttered as his eyes followed all the different directions Tubbo was pointing.

“Yeah, you probably will,” Tubbo replied, patting Ranboo’s shoulder, “but everyone gets lost at some point or another. It’s basically part of the initiation.” Then, dropping his hand to grab Ranboo’s elbow, Tubbo led Ranboo further down the hall.

The training room itself was more impressive than one would expect a training room to be. With high, vaulted ceilings, a vast array of training weapons with plenty of dummies to practice on, and a large mat in the center for sparring sessions, it had everything one needed if they wanted to become an expert at combat. Right now the place was empty, so Tubbo took the time to show Ranboo each of the individual pieces of equipment and how to use them.

Apparently the training room was similar to the one at the LA base, but Ranboo also mentioned that the LA shatterdome had a lot more high tech equipment available to the pilots. Tubbo grumbled a bit at this, which made Ranboo laugh and reassure him that this training room was still just as good.

“You’ll probably be back here soon for your drifting trials,” Tubbo told Ranboo at one point, gesturing to the large black mat in the center of the room.

Ranboo whipped his head over to Tubbo at that. “My what?”

Eyes widening, Tubbo realized that Ranboo didn’t know Dream had told him about Ranboo’s struggles to find someone he was drift compatible with.

Shit. Well he couldn’t take it back now.

“Uh, your drifting trials, to find you a copilot,” Tubbo said, glancing at his shoes. “Before you arrived, I was told that you didn’t have a copilot yet because they hadn’t found anyone drift compatible with you.”

“Oh, I didn’t know they told you that,” Ranboo muttered, also looking at the ground.

“It’s not a big deal or anything!” Tubbo reassured him. “It’s hard to find someone you’re really compatible with. Like, sharing your thoughts and stuff with someone else is pretty jarring. You gotta be really careful when searching for someone you can match your mind with.”

“Was it hard for you to find your copilot?” Ranboo asked, raising an eyebrow at Tubbo.

Ah. Now Tubbo had to explain his weird situation when it came to piloting.

“Well, uh, you see, I’m technically a pilot, but I haven’t actually gone out in a jaeger yet, and I’ve only drifted with my copilot, like, twice before,” Tubbo explained, scratching the back of his neck. “When I graduated from the academy they looked at my aptitude scores and labeled me a backup pilot. My best friend, he’s my copilot, at the time he had a different copilot and they were really good at what they did. So I was just kind of around as a substitute pilot in case the other guy didn’t show up.”

“And now…?”

“Now my friend and I are both full time pilots together, but my friend got put on temporary suspension for his health so I’m kinda grounded with him until he’s let back in a jaeger,” Tubbo finished.

Ranboo considered this for a moment, and Tubbo could tell he wanted to ask more.

“So you were a substitute for your friend’s copilot, but now you’re not a substitute, so I take it that means your friend’s copilot doesn’t pilot anymore?” Ranboo asked.

“Yeah, he doesn’t,” Tubbo muttered. This wasn’t something he really wanted to go over right now. He was sure Ranboo was going to hear it from the others soon anyway, so he decided he could put off explaining that situation to him for now. “Let’s keep going with the tour though!” Tubbo then said, turning to leave the training room. Ranboo followed without a word, and thankfully the subject was dropped.

The next hour was spent with Tubbo leading Ranboo down countless corridors, showing him where the general store was, along with Puffy’s office, Sam’s office, the gym, the library, and then finally up to the apartments on the next level. It wasn’t hard to find Ranboo’s apartment, and it happened to be only a few doors down from Tubbo’s own. After Ranboo had written down how to get back to his apartment, Tubbo’s stomach growled, and he decided they deserved to go get some food.

The two chatted about random things as they walked. Where they were from, why they joined the academy, what kind of movies and tv shows they liked, casual stuff like that. Ranboo didn’t bring up Tubbo’s odd piloting situation again though, and for that Tubbo was grateful.

It wasn’t long before they were standing outside the cafeteria, and Tubbo’s mouth was watering at the smell of dinner. Sure, the rations were pretty shit, but food was food and Tubbo would take what he could get. Plus, George had said they had chocolate in stock, and Tubbo didn’t want to risk missing out on that. Of course Tommy had promised to grab him some, but Tubbo wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to get double the chocolate.

The cafeteria was eerily similar to a public school cafeteria. Metal tables with benches lined the room, all the seats filled with rows of people chatting and eating off their dull silver trays. The conversation in the room was excited, the energy still high from the successful kaiju fight earlier that day. Tubbo’s gaze flitted between the different faces, trying to see if Tommy was here or if he’d gone back to his room. But before he could find his friend, he felt a buzz from his com.

Taking out the device, Tubbo sighed when he saw a message from George.

George: Need your help with finishing a prototype, get up here asap

Tubbo: Awww but I was about to get dinner!!

George: I’ll buy you dinner from the gen store later but I need your help rn

Tubbo: Wait seriously??

George: Yes but please hurry up this thing is gonna fall apart in my hands

Tubbo: shit ok

Pocketing the comm, Tubbo looked to Ranboo, cursing under his breath. He wasn’t going to drag Ranboo all the way up to the engineering department just to watch him help George with his prototype. Besides, Ranboo had to be starving, and George only promised to buy Tubbo dinner. So it made the most sense for Ranboo to stay down here. But he couldn’t just abandon the new guy. He didn’t know anyone except for him and Sam!

Glancing around the cafeteria again, Tubbo tried to search for Tommy, but couldn’t see him at any of the tables. But then his gaze fell on a head of bright pink hair, and Tubbo breathed a sigh of relief. He could drop Ranboo off with the other pilots.

“Is everything okay?” Ranboo asked him after he had put his com away.

“Yeah, it’s all fine, bossman. Just follow me,” he said, grabbing Ranboo’s arm and dragging him into the cafeteria. He led him towards the table of the other pilots in the program, Niki’s bright pink hair acting as a beacon in the sea of grey and black. “Unfortunately, I gotta go up to the engineering department and help my supervisor out with something, so I’m gonna have to dip. You need to get dinner though, so you’re gonna stay here,” Tubbo continued, stopping as they got to the edge of the table.

The table had six seats available, but only four of them were filled. Niki and Jack sat on one side, while Eret and Foolish sat on the other. They all glanced up as Tubbo walked over, eyeing Ranboo curiously.

“Guys, this is Ranboo, he’s a new pilot who just got transferred from LA,” Tubbo said as an introduction, “I was giving him the tour but George wants me back up in engineering. So can you guys help him get food and stuff?”

“Oh yeah, that’s no problem, Tubbo,” Niki said, smiling sweetly at Ranboo. “Here, I’ll go get you a tray right now,” she continued, pushing to her feet and walking back towards the line.

“Uh, thank you!” Ranboo called out to Niki as she headed to the line. Then, he looked back to Tubbo. “Thanks for the tour, by the way. It was really helpful.”

“Don’t worry, it’s no problem!” Tubbo replied, grinning at him. “I’ll catch ya later, bossman.”

And with that, Tubbo turned to leave the cafeteria, ignoring the way his stomach ached for the food being served only a few feet away from him.

Ranboo was definitely interesting. He seemed like a nice enough guy but there was something else about him that Tubbo liked. It was something he couldn’t really name, but made him want to hang around Ranboo more. Even though there had been a few awkward moments here and there, the two of them got along well. Really well.

Hopefully he’d get a chance to see Ranboo later. He had a feeling that if he let it happen, the two of them could become really good friends.

Ranboo watched Tubbo disappear around the corner of the cafeteria, trying to ignore the anxiety buzzing in his chest. While the new people Tubbo had left him with seemed nice enough, Tubbo was the only person he really knew on the entire base, and he’d been looking forward to getting to talk more over dinner. But now he had to meet more new people, and he had absolutely no idea how it was going to go.

He hadn’t lied when he told Tubbo that the others at the LA base weren’t unfriendly. But he certainly hadn’t been close friends with any of them. The only people he even had friendly conversation with were Punz, Purpled, and Hannah. The three siblings had been nice enough to him on the few occasions they ran into each other, but the other pilots kept their distance, and Ranboo took that as a cue to do the same.

Tubbo had been really nice though. Nice and fun to talk to. Maybe that was just him, but Ranboo also secretly hoped the rest of the pilots here were like that too. Eyes flitting back to the line, Ranboo spotted the pink-haired girl who offered to grab his food picking up a metal tray. Maybe if none of the others wanted to talk to him, he could talk to her when she came back.

Just then though, a deep voice jolted him out of his thoughts.

“Wanna sit down?”

Looking at the table he was still standing in front of, Ranboo saw a person with a head of wild brown curls gesturing to an open seat on the bench next to them.

“Oh, yeah, thanks,” Ranboo answered, sitting down next to them. On the other side of the person with the curly hair was a guy with much broader shoulders than the first, who was eagerly digging into his food. Across from them, Ranboo then locked eyes with a bald guy wearing a pair of sunglasses, with one lens being red and the other being blue.

“So Tubbo said your name is Ranboo?” Bald guy asked after Ranboo was settled in his seat.

“Yup, that’s me,” Ranboo nodded.

“Nice to meetcha, Ranboo. I’m Jack, and the girl getting your food is Niki, my copilot,” Jack introduced himself, gesturing to Niki across the cafeteria.

“I’m Eret,” the curly-haired person then said.

“And you can call me Foolish,” The broad-shouldered guy chimed in. “We’re the pilots for the Eternity.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you all,” Ranboo replied, trying to make a mental list of all the names he was learning.

Just then, Niki reappeared at the table with a tray full of food in her hand. She placed it in front of Ranboo before sitting down next to Jack, and gave him another kind smile.

“So Ranboo, Tubbo said you’re from the LA base, right?” Niki asked him once she had settled.

“Yeah, I am. Just arrived here a few hours ago,” Ranboo said, picking up a fork and staring at the food in front of him.

It was some kind of fish dinner. The fish was pale, and definitely looked a bit cold. There were also some flattened mashed potatoes next to it, and Ranboo suddenly missed the dinners he had back at the LA base.

“Did your copilot come with you?” Foolish then asked.

“Uh, I don’t have one,” Ranboo answered, staring at his fish intently. “That’s why I got transferred here. So they could find someone for me to pilot with.”

Jack snorted. “Guess that means they’ve given up on Tommy then.”

Frowning, Ranboo looked back up to Jack. “Tommy?”

Jack opened his mouth to answer, but then, as if on cue, loud yelling suddenly pulled everyone’s heads towards the entrance to the cafeteria.

There were two people standing in the entryway to the cafeteria. One was a boy that looked around Ranboo’s age, with a shock of blond hair and a bright red shirt. He was the one yelling, spilling out a rather impressive stream of curses at another man in front of him. The other man didn’t seem phased by the yelling, he simply had his arms folded across his chest, raising an eyebrow at the boy as he listened to the barrage.

“You’re a bastard, that’s what you are, Dream! How many goddamn times do I need to tell you I’m fine?!” The boy shouted.

“Tommy, listen, I get it, you’re frustrated. You think I don’t want to let you go back to piloting? But our arrangement clearly states that Puffy needs to give her approval before you can go back to it, and trying to get around her by coming to me isn’t going to change anything,” Dream replied.

“You’re the goddamn director of this place and you’re telling me you can’t let me go back to piloting?” Tommy then challenged, narrowing his eyes at Dream.

Dream sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “We can’t afford a repeat of what happened last time, and the only way to ensure that it won’t happen again is to wait until Puffy gives the okay,” he explained.

Tommy glared at him, looking like he wanted to say more. But after a moment, he huffed and stormed into the cafeteria, keeping his head down to ignore all the eyes watching him. He walked up to the food line, grabbed what looked like a small container of chocolate milk, and then stomped his way out of the cafeteria once more.

Dream watched him go, shaking his head as Tommy disappeared around the corner. Then, he turned and walked the opposite direction, ending the show for the people eating in the cafeteria.

As light conversation picked back up in the cafeteria, Ranboo turned to look at the rest of the table, hoping one of them could explain what happened.

“What was that?” He asked in a low voice.

“That blond brat with a sailor’s mouth is Tommy,” Jack explained, sneering as he said the name. “He’s a little shit who doesn’t have any respect for anyone, not even the director of the entire fucking shatterdome.”

“Hey, give him a break, he’s going through a tough time,” Eret pointed out.

“That doesn’t give him an excuse to be so rude,” Niki suddenly said, her voice now holding a sharp edge. “We’ve all been having a hard time, not just him.”

Eret sighed. “I know, it doesn’t, but Niki you know he went through something way worse than any of us ever have that night.”

Sighing, Niki shook her head and shared a look with Jack. Ranboo noticed how the two of them seemed to be having a silent conversation, Niki’s brows furrowing as Jack narrowed his eyes.

Deciding to take advantage of the pause in the conversation though, Ranboo spoke up again.

“Um, can someone explain what happened with Tommy? I’m still really confused.”

“Oh yeah, sorry Ranboo, we didn’t mean to leave you out,” Niki suddenly said, looking away from Jack. “Tommy’s been on a mental health leave ever since-”

“Wait, don’t you think this is something Tommy should be able to talk about himself?” Eret cut in, frowning at Niki.

Jack scoffed. “Look, Ranboo’s confused and wants to know, and he’s gonna find out eventually either way. He might as well find out from people who actually knew Wil,” he retorted.

“Fair enough I guess,” Eret muttered.

“Who’s Wil?” Ranboo then asked.

Sighing, Niki pushed her hair back from her face, before folding her hands in front of her. “Wilbur used to be Tommy’s copilot. He wasn’t much of a fighter himself, but he and Tommy had really good drift compatibility. Like, better than me and Jack even.” Clenching her jaw, Niki started fiddling with her nails. “One day, the two of them got called out to take care of a kaiju. A second one appeared while they were out there, and… only Tommy came back.” Niki’s voice got softer near the end, and Jack reached over to wrap an arm around her shoulders.

“Tommy had to pilot the jaeger by himself to get it back to the base,” Eret continued, picking up when it was clear Niki needed a moment. “The mental strain of that alone is enough to kill a person. That combined with the fact that Tommy had still been drifting with Wil when he died…” Eret paused, and Ranboo winced at the idea of feeling someone else die like that.

“Anyway, they tried putting him back in a jaeger with Tubbo about six or so months after it happened, because Tommy insisted he was fine. The two started drifting and Tommy got trapped in the memories. He almost ended up blowing a hole through the wall because he accidentally activated the plasma cannon. Since then he’s been on a mandatory mental health leave,” Eret finished, running a hand through their hair.

Ranboo blinked, still staring at his food. That was what Tubbo had been referring to. He was Tommy’s copilot, but Tommy wasn’t able to pilot at the moment because of his mental health making it hazardous for everyone.

“That’s horrible,” Ranboo said quietly.

“Doesn’t give him an excuse to be a dick though,” Jack muttered, still holding Niki close.

Niki nodded. “We all miss Wil, but all Tommy seems to be focusing on is how much he wants to pilot again, even though he nearly hurt a lot of people last time.”

“Who does he need to get approval from to pilot again? Was it Puffy?” Ranboo questioned.

“Yeah, Puffy is the psychologist for the pilots,” Foolish jumped in. “She’s super awesome and really cool, if you ever need anything, definitely go to her.”

“You’re not wrong, but you’re also pretty biased since she’s your father,” Eret teased, nudging Foolish’s shoulder.

Uh.

“Father?” Ranboo questioned.

“Oh, Puffy’s not actually my father. Or my mother, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Foolish clarified, chuckling a bit. “She’s my cousin, but we spent a lot of time together as kids and in a lot of ways she basically raised me, so we have a running joke where I say she’s my father.”

“Ah, I see,” Ranboo muttered, although he still didn’t exactly understand.

The conversation seemed to lighten up with the topic change. Niki straightened up as Jack dropped his arm from her shoulders, and the two went back to eating as Eret and Foolish did the same, which told Ranboo the heavy part was over.

Staring at the food, Ranboo sighed and pulled his mask down so he could take a bite of the fish. Just as he suspected, it was cold and tasted just like the ocean. Nothing like the fresh salads and tacos they would get for dinner sometimes back on the LA base. That was the benefit of the LA base being stationed close to the port. They regularly got shipments of fresh food. However, it seemed here that wasn’t the case.

Turning to the potatoes, Ranboo was pleasantly surprised to find they weren’t that bad. Then again, it was hard to mess up garlic mashed potatoes. He shoveled a few bites in his mouth, glancing around the rest of the cafeteria as he ate.

The excited hum had returned to the air after Tommy and Dream’s argument had ended. Men and women in dark uniforms chatted with one another wearing relaxed grins, a few sending admiring glances towards their own table. Ranboo started to wonder why, before remembering how his flight had been delayed because of a kaiju attack happening near Anchorage. He suspected either Niki and Jack or Eret and Foolish had been sent out to deal with it, and that’s why people kept flashing smiles at their table.

Neither of the pilot teams seemed to mind. Eret and Foolish were chatting about something with their heads ducked together, voices too low for Ranboo to make out what they were saying. Across from him, Niki and Jack were still eating, but it was then Ranboo noticed the two making odd expressions at one another again. Jack blinked at Niki a few times, and Niki’s eyes went wide. Then, Jack grinned at her through a mouthful of fish, and Niki let out a soft giggle.

Looking closer, Ranboo noticed something else odd about Niki and Jack. The two picked up their forks at the same time, bringing the same bites of food from their trays up to their mouths in perfect unison. Then, they both reached for their water cups at the same time too, taking a drink for the same amount of time, before setting the cups back down.

As they both turned back to their food, suddenly Niki looked up and noticed Ranboo staring.

“Are you wondering how we move in unison like this?” Niki asked, raising her fork with Jack raising his own as well.

“Uh… yeah, kinda,” Ranboo admitted.

“You know what ghost drifting is?” Jack then asked.

“Vaguely? Isn’t that where you can sometimes still kinda sense the other person you drift with a lot even when you’re not actually drifting?”

Niki nodded. “Yeah, that’s basically it. Jack and I drift so much that even when we’re not in a jaeger, we’re still drifting. It’s not as intense as when we pilot, like I can’t hear his complete thoughts and he can’t hear mine. But we can usually sense each other's emotions and have a vague idea of what the other is thinking,” she explained.

“Not to mention, we also move in unison without thinking about it,” Jack added.

“It’s kinda creepy to watch, not gonna lie,” Foolish then chimed in. “Me and Eret ghost drift a lot too, but we don’t really do the puppet mimic thing these two got going on.”

“Oi! It’s not like we do it for fun!” Jack protested.

“Really? You don’t ever do it to show off to newbies like Ranboo?” Eret challenged, raising an eyebrow at Jack.

Niki giggled while Jack sighed, but didn’t deny it. Instead, he narrowed his eyes at Ranboo himself. “I’m just surprised you’d never seen ghost drifting before. Did you talk to any pilots back in LA?”

“Not, um, not a lot,” Ranboo muttered, taking another bite of his food. “They were all pretty busy doing their own thing usually.”

Niki frowned at this and opened her mouth to respond, when suddenly a hush fell over the entire cafeteria. Two pairs of footsteps echoed through the room, and Ranboo looked to the archway, wondering if Tommy had returned.

It wasn’t Tommy coming into the cafeteria though. It wasn’t Dream either, or Tubbo for that matter.

Ranboo recognized the two men in the archway of the cafeteria. Not because he’d met them before, but because he’d seen them on TV countless times over the years.

A tall, broad-shouldered man with long pink hair tied back in a ponytail walked in first. Right behind him, a much more lithe figure followed, his chin-length blonde hair pushed down by the bucket hat that shielded his eyes.

It was Philza and Technoblade. Two of the most famous jaeger pilots of all time.

Both men looked around the cafeteria with furrowed brows, obviously confused by the silence. The chatter returned all at once, everyone trying to cover up the fact that they’d been staring by acting like nothing had happened.

Ranboo, however, couldn’t look away.

“Those are the pilots of the Angel of Death,” Ranboo said quietly, watching the two men make their way to the food line.

“Ha! Look at him, he’s shell-shocked!” Jack teased, his sharp laughter breaking Ranboo out of his trance.

“Oh shush, you were the same way the first time you met them,” Niki scolded, lightly slapping Jack’s arm.

“To be fair, they are pretty cool,” Eret commented, glancing at the two men before looking back to their food.

“You got that right,” Foolish chuckled. “I sparred with Techno once and I still feel like I haven’t recovered.”

The two pilots stood in the food line, picking up their trays before walking to the far corner of the cafeteria where Ranboo spotted an empty table. They seemed to be talking as they walked, and a part of Ranboo was surprised at just how… ordinary they seemed. Which he knew he shouldn’t be surprised about, but after knowing them as two of the greatest pilots of this generation, it was definitely surreal to see the both of them just casually eating shitty cafeteria rations.

“I didn’t know they were stationed here,” Ranboo said, looking back to his own table.

“Well, uh, technically they’re not,” Foolish corrected him. “They’re not really stationed anywhere permanently. They just get moved around to whatever area is dealing with the biggest crisis. But when things are more calm, they tend to stay here.”

“Why here though? Why not one of the, uh, less remote shatterdomes?” Ranboo asked.

“You can say this place is shit, it’s okay,” Jack snorted. “Anyway, we don’t know why exactly they choose to stay here in their downtime, but it’s most likely because this was where Wilbur was stationed before he died.”

“Wilbur was Phil’s son,” Niki added in a soft voice before Ranboo could ask.

Oh. That wasn’t public knowledge. As far as the outside world knew, Phil didn’t have any children.

Ranboo couldn’t imagine how hard that must be. Not only to deal with the death of a child, but to keep it so private that the outside world had no idea. At that moment, Ranboo’s admiration for Phil only grew.

Sparing one last glance at the Angel pilots, Ranboo noticed for the first time how tired Phil looked. It never came across on TV, but the man’s shoulders were hunched over as he ate, and despite the smile on his face while he spoke to Technoblade, even from a distance Ranboo could see the weariness that sat beneath it.

It wasn’t his business though. That was the most important thing Ranboo needed to remember.

Turning back to his food, Ranboo forced himself to focus on the new topic of conversation the others had switched to, and wondered when he would get the chance to see Tubbo again.

“What’s Puffy’s latest report say?”

Night had fallen long ago. Outside the window in Dream’s office, moonlight stretched across the ocean, rippling in time with the waves. Exhaustion was tugging at his eyes, begging him to go get some sleep, but Dream couldn’t do that. Not yet at least. He had way too much work to finish before the day ended.

Stretching back in his chair, Dream lifted his feet onto his desk, settling them right next to where George was sitting. George frowned at Dream putting his feet next to him, and tried to nudge them off with his elbow, but Dream refused to move them. If George was going to sit on his desk instead of in a chair like a normal person, he was going to have to deal with it.

Sapnap, meanwhile, was sitting in one of the plush armchairs like a normal human being. In fact, he was so relaxed in the chair, Dream would’ve thought he’d fallen asleep if he didn’t notice the way Sapnap was thrumming his fingers against his thigh.

“Puffy says that while Tommy has been showing signs of improvement, he still shows intense anxiety responses to piloting again, despite how much he claims that he’s fine,” George said, holding a file from Puffy’s latest report in front of him. “Basically, he’s not gonna be ready anytime soon.”

Groaning, Dream dragged his hands down his face. “Dammit. We really need Symphony back in action. Having only Eternity and Rocketblast in operation is making the higher ups really worried.”

“You can’t rush him, Dream,” Sapnap pointed out. “Kid’s already been fucked up enough. The fact that he’s even still in the jaeger program is kinda shocking to me.”

“I know. I’m not blaming him, I’m just frustrated with the situation,” Dream muttered, dropping his hands in his lap. “It’s all my fault for pushing for him to try again so soon. If he hadn’t had that incident with Tubbo maybe he’d have recovered enough to pilot now.”

“You can blame yourself for that if you want, but no one could’ve predicted that things would go that badly. Anyway, it’s in the past and you can’t fix it now,” George said, setting the file down.

George was right, and Dream knew this. There was no point in crying over spilled milk. But still, he couldn’t ignore the guilt that gnawed inside of him every time he saw Tommy. It was his fault the kid’s recovery had been halted. But also his guilt was constantly at war with his frustration, his need to get all of his jaegers back in working order. As much as he hated the idea that Tommy was fucked up even more than he already had been because of him, it was also extremely difficult for him to ignore the annoyance that flickered inside of him every time he remembered that it had been nearly a year and Tommy still couldn’t pilot.

Puffy would yell at him if she knew he was annoyed at that though, and Dream also knew he would deserve to get lectured for that thought. No one had been through the kind of stuff that kid had been through. Sapnap was right, they were lucky he was still in the program at all.

“If Tommy’s not going to be ready anytime soon, we need to focus on finding alternative pilots for Symphony,” Dream said, straightening up in his seat and dropping his feet from the desk. “Sapnap, what were Ranboo’s aptitude scores again?”

Blinking open his eyes, Sapnap grabbed the paper resting on his lap and skimmed over it. “They weren’t as high as Tommy’s or anything, but they’re still really good. He’d definitely be able to pilot Symphony if we manage to find him a copilot.”

“Then that’s what we’re going to focus on. Sapnap, can you contact Sam and tell him to set up drift compatibility trials for Ranboo tomorrow?” Dream asked.

“Sure thing, dude,” Sapnap replied, grabbing his com out of his pocket.

“Let’s just hope we have more luck finding someone that can drift with him than LA did,” George muttered.

“Yeah… we can only hope,” Dream agreed.