Chapter Text
Tommy was let out of his film studies class early. He took the opportunity to wait for Ranboo outside of the drama room. They usually finished before the bell rang. He watched as students filed out of the doorway in a disorderly manner.
“Finally, felt like I was waiting there forever,” Tommy sighed as Ranboo finally exited.
“You’re so dramatic.” Ranboo rolled his eyes. “Makes me wonder why I’m the one in drama.”
“Whatever, let’s just go wait for Tubbo,” Tommy scoffed, but Ranboo could tell there was no ill will intended. They leaned against the lockers next to the mechanic’s lab, chatting about nothing in particular until they heard the telltale sound of the bell.
“For reference,” Tubbo started as soon as he saw his friends. “We were done about twenty minutes ago.”
The three laughed about it as they walked to the doors. Tubbo and Ranboo were discussing the plans as Tommy typed on his phone. “Is that good with you, Tommy?”
“Sorry, what?” Tommy asked, “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Do you wanna come over to mine and play games or something?” Tubbo repeated.
“Really sorry, Big Men. I wish I could but I have to do some stuff.”
“We can do it together,” Ranboo offered.
“Yeah!” Tubbo agreed.
Tommy looked taken aback at the proposal, he blinked a few times, letting it settle in his brain. “If you’re sure,” he said rather hesitantly. “You guys might not like it.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Boss Man.”
Tommy shrugged and led them to where he needed to go. They stopped when an old warehouse was in view. Tommy dropped his backpack and took out a mask, he quickly put it on. “It’ll be safer if you guys just stayed here.”
Tubbo and Ranboo shared a look of confusion and also a bit of fear as Tommy jogged over to the building.
“Do you have any idea what is happening?” Ranboo asked.
“Well, currently Tommy is scaling the building,” Tubbo said. “Why though? I haven’t the foggiest clue.”
“Awesome,” Ranboo laughed nervously. “That’s great.”
Tommy emerged later, kicking an old man to the ground. Tommy pulled a dagger out of his pocket and put it to the other man’s neck. He held out his hand and the man gave him a flash drive. Tommy knocked him out and walked back over to his friends.
“Why are you all acting so surprised?” Tommy asked, taking off the mask and stuffing it back in his bag with the flash drive.
Ranboo just vaguely gestured to the warehouse, while sputtering unintelligibly. Tubbo, a little more coherent, pointed to the unconscious man, “What the [honk]?”
“What about it?” Tommy slipped his backpack on and started walking away.
“You,” Ranboo breathed, quickly catching up, Tubbo having to run a little bit to catch up. “You,” he tried again. “You!”
“Wait,” Tommy stopped walking. “Did you guys not know?”
“No!” Ranboo ran a hand through his split-dyed hair.
“Oh.”
“Oh,” Tubbo mocked. “Want to explain what just happened?”
“We needed the info,” Tommy phrased it like a question.
Ranboo took a deep breath to calm himself before he started. It did not work. “We?” Ranboo all but screamed.
“You know, me, Wilbur, Techno, Phil,” Tommy trailed off as he started walking again.
“Wilbur?” Tubbo asked. “Like, Techno: yes. Phil: I can see it, but Wilbur?”
“Well, duh,” Tommy replied. “Who do you think actually convinced me to be a part of it?”
“What is ‘it’ exactly?” Ranboo questioned.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Tommy scrunched his nose. “Like a mafia? I guess that’s the best way to describe it.”
“You’re,” Ranboo was barely containing his laughter. “In the mafia?” He and Tubbo burst out laughing.
“There’s no way you are in the mafia,” Tubbo got out between laughs.
“New surprise character in the next Godfather movie,” Ranboo joked.
“Wait Ranboo,” Tubbo was in tears. “He’s the cannoli.”
“He’s the cannoli!”
Tommy turned around to his friends who were hunched over, dying. “I’ll clart you.”
“No, you won’t,” Tubbo laughed.
“Should I get out the knife?” Tommy asked incredulously.
“I just genuinely forgot you currently have a knife within your possession,” Ranboo said. “And that you literally knocked someone unconscious quite easily.”
“Wait, are you actually in a crime group with your Family?” Tubbo asked.
“Yes,” Tommy said. “I swear you guys knew, though.”
“I assure you we did not.”
Tommy hummed. “Well, I guess now you do.” He paused for a moment, “you guys aren’t going to go around telling people, right?”
“Of course not,” Tubbo said immediately. “You're our best friend, we wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Why did you need whatever was on that flash drive?” Ranboo inquired.
“That flash drive has a bunch of information on where a bunch of very bad things are happening,” Tommy explained. “We need that information to stop it.”
“You aren’t, like, getting the profit for yourself?” Tubbo asked. “Isn’t that what criminals do?”
“Criminals that don’t care about people, maybe.” Tommy scoffed, showing obvious disdain. “We would never put innocent people in danger like that.”
“‘We’ being you and your family, of course,” Ranboo clarified.
“Yeah, speaking of which, I should probably give it to them.” They were almost at Tommy’s house, but instead of going through the front door like they usually did, they went around the back, into the shed. Tommy unlocked the keypad on the door.
“Is this your secret base?” Tubbo joked.
“Not the shed itself, but what’s underneath it, yeah,” Tommy said.
“There is so much about you I don’t know,” Ranboo admitted, to which Tommy just chuckled. He pulled a lever down that opened the floor to reveal a staircase.
“You coming or what?”
“Sorry, just taking it all in.”
“There’s definitely more where that came from,” Tommy laughed. He put his backpack on one of the hooks in the concrete wall. He pulled out the flash drive and walked towards a desk with the most amazing computer setup Tubbo had seen in a while. “Phil!”
“Yeah?” Phil called back as he and Techno walked into the room. “Oh! Company?”
“Yes?” Tommy answered. “It’s just Tubbo and Ranboo.”
“You brought other people here?” Techno deadpanned. “Do they know?”
“Yeah, but it’s not like they're a threat, Techno,” Tommy argued. “By the way, here’s the flash drive.”
Techno looked towards Tommy’s friends, sizing them up. “If you two pose any threat to this operation, I will not hesitate to keep my family safe. Got it?”
“Yep, got it so well!” Ranboo swallowed nervously. “Are you going to murder me?”
“Not if you don’t give me a reason.”
“Was the flash drive all you needed?” Tommy asked, a nice interruption from Techno’s glare.
“Yeah,” Phil responded as he sat at his desk and started looking at whatever was on the drive.
“Okay then, Ranboo, Tubbo and I are gonna be in my room and probably playing Mario Kart if you need us!” Tommy called out as they walked back up the stairs. On the way, they passed Wilbur who didn’t bat an eye at the two extra people, giving them a quick greeting before he continued.
As soon as the door to Tommy’s room closed, Ranboo spoke up. “Was Techno being serious when he said he would murder us?”
“Of course not! I hope,” Tommy’s response did nothing to ease Ranboo’s anxiety. “If he is serious, I’ll be there to back you up and defend you,” Tommy promised. “Besides Techie’s a big softie once you get through his incredibly thick skin.”
“Did you just call him ‘Techie’?” Tubbo chuckled.
“If that leaves this room, it won’t be Techno you’ll have to worry about,” Tommy said.
“That feels very much like an empty threat,” Tubbo argued.
“Whatever, let’s just play Mario.”
“What was your first case like?” Tubbo asked as they were selecting their characters.
“My very first case or my first case out on the field?”
“Your very first case.”
“I don’t know why I asked, they're the same case,” Tommy laughed recalling the memory. “I was with Wilbur and he needed someone to be the distraction so I started crying saying I had lost my parents.”
“How old were you?” Ranboo asked.
“Seven, I think,” Tommy said. “Yes, I’ve been doing this for over a decade, but I’ve only started doing dangerous things really recently.”
“I want to hear about all of them!” Tubbo exclaimed.
“Why?” Tommy asked.
“Because you have this whole other life we know nothing about,” Ranboo explained.
“And also it’s really cool that you’re part of the mafia,” Tubbo added.
Tommy told them about his criminal escapades, they were probably exaggerated but neither Ranboo nor Tubbo minded. Tommy was so animated when talking about them, so descriptive. It felt like they were there with him.
They stayed up talking until the early hours of the morning, and in a haze of sleep, Tommy asked if they’d like to come on more cases. In that same haze of sleep, they’d agreed.
It was two weeks later when they accompanied Tommy on his next case. They sat in Phil’s van since it was a little farther into the city than the last. They also had communication devices so they could talk to Tommy as he engaged in hand-to-hand combat with other people.
It was one week after that that Ranboo and Tubbo were seen regularly in the base under Tommy’s shed. They hung out, talked, did their homework. Phil even let Tubbo look at all of the equipment. It was nice to be involved with the other side of Tommy they’d never gotten to experience.
Tubbo officially became part of the group when he fixed one of Techno’s comms that had broken during a fight. Tubbo had easily seen the issue with the device and repaired it without Phil even having to ask. He became the resident mechanic and tech person. It was a weight off of Phil’s shoulders.
Tommy asked if Ranboo could be an official part of the group as well, everyone agreed. Everyone except Ranboo.
“It would be so fun!” Tommy tried.
“We could all do it together!” Tubbo added.
“You're basically already a part of it, you just need to agree!” Tommy continued.
“What if I get caught, or get hurt, or die?”
“You won’t, I won’t let you,” Tommy sounded so sure, it almost made Ranboo cave then and there.
“Can I have some time to think about it?” Ranboo asked.
“You can have all the time in the world, Boss Man!” Tubbo said excitedly. Ranboo rolled his eyes fondly at his friends’ silent cheering.
The next morning he was brought a coffee from Tommy with a note that said ‘please’. “Is this a ploy to get me to join?”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
Ranboo’s suspicions were basically confirmed when Tubbo showed up five minutes later and gave him a bagel with the same note on it. They denied it every single time he brought it up. By the third day, he had already come to terms with the fact he was accepting the offer, but the coffees and bagels were good, so he let them bribe him a little more.
In total it took nine days for Ranboo to agree. He did it by showing up to class with two bagels and two coffees, all with the note ‘fine’ written on them. Tommy and Tubbo were especially excited during that history class.
Ranboo stayed behind the scenes for the most part. Occasionally he helped Wilbur gather intel, but mostly he helped to organize and plan everything with Phil. He also helped bandage wounds and look after injuries.
All of it brought him to one particular Thursday night. Tommy needed a distraction to get what he needed, and Techno was passed out with a concussion on a stretcher. Wilbur was out of town on a call from a friend. Phil was talking Tommy through the vents. Tubbo was monitoring the security system and cameras. The only one that could possibly do it was Ranboo.
So on that fateful night, he donned a two piece pink suit, walked into an obviously abandoned warehouse repurposed for criminal activity and put his acting skills to use. Everyone was entranced by this very tall man with half black and half white hair in an incredibly pink suit, they didn't notice the shifting in the vents or the red lights on the cameras going out.
“Is this not the birthday party?” Ranboo asked as soon as he got word Tommy was safe. “I am so sick and tired of people giving me the wrong address. Sorry to bother you, I have a nine year old’s house to try and find.”
When he got back to the base, everyone congratulated him on a job well done, even the barely conscious Technoblade gave him a clap on the back.
It was terrifying, being surrounded by criminals and weapons, but in some twisted way, it was fun. Especially after he got a little training in martial arts, he even got a tailored pink suit. He fit right in, with his two best friends, and his best friend’s adopted family, who just so happened to be involved in criminal activities. It was nice.