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Techno wasn’t quite sure why Bad did what he did. To be fair, he really didn’t know him that well, Bad really only hung out with Skeppy and the Dreamteam, and he hadn’t spoken to any of them for several years while he was focusing on defeating Squid in the Potato War. From what he could tell, it was just because the older man had strong brotherly instincts towards everyone regardless of what they fought for. Oh well, not that it really mattered.
“Bad left us another chest!” he called out into the ravine, “looks like he sent steak tonight! Someone come and help me carry it in!”
“I’ll help, just give me a second!” Wilbur called from the bottom of their ravine home, then came the sound of echoing footsteps.
Techno let himself drift off into thought, knowing it would take WIlbur a couple minutes to make his way up the winding staircases and catwalks. Bad had left at least one chest for them a week since he had entered the DreamSMP. It was always full of something they needed. Potatoes as he started making the potato farm, meat to balance out their diet every once in a while, diamonds, the occasional scraps of netherite, golden apples to fill their medicine chest, potion ingredients when their stock ran low. He didn’t know how Bad always knew when they needed something, but he wasn’t going to argue. They needed the supplies, and Bad had apparently always been neutral, since Dream had first invited him into his SMP land. And Bad had somehow found their base all on his own and hadn’t ratted them out to anyone, which had to count for something.
Wilbur’s steps came to a stop next to him, jolting him out of his thoughts. Together they carried the chest down into their ravine home. Wilbur tripped about halfway down the stairs, nearly dumping their new items down off the stairs. Techno’s upset grumbling about the need for guard-rails died in his throat as he saw the message in the chat.
JSchlatt was slain by BadBoyHalo
“What the fuck?” Techno heard Tommy exclaim further down their ravine and he couldn’t agree more.
“Is the sleep deprivation finally getting to me or did Bad really kill Schlatt?”
Wilbur didn’t even bother to respond, just shook his head, “Let’s get this downstairs, then we can go see what happened.”
Techno scrambled to adjust his hold on the chest and they kept going down, making it to the bottom without any more falls, and set the chest in the corner. They merely made it back upstairs before they heard two sets of footsteps above their head and then a soft knock at the door.
Techno drew his sword as he always did when he opened up the door for someone. Bad stood in front of the door, covered in blood and holding the hand of Tubbo. Tubbo, who’s hair was flattened down in an obvious attempt to cover up his face and the clear red mark on his cheek in the shape of a hand print. Ah, that’s what happened. Honestly, he wasn’t super surprised that something like this is what pushed Bad over the edge.
Strangely, the suit jacket Tubbo normally wore was missing, and in its place was Bad's black and red jacket. Only a little of Tubbo's white shirt peeked out around, but it looked….. a little stained. Like someone had spilled something on it. Weird, he didn't think Schlatt would allow something like that.
“Hi Techno!” Bad chirped, “sorry to visit with gifts twice in a week, especially after I already bothered you, but I couldn't just leave this to next week like I planned."
Wilbur glanced down at Tubbo, "that's probably for the best. Tommy's been even more annoying than usual without his best friend. Come inside, both of you. Bad come help me break some ice for Tubbo's cheek, we don't want that mark to get swollen or bruised."
Wilbur held out his hand to Tubbo, but stopped when Tubbo flinched back, leaning into Bad. Tubbo’s eyes widened as he realized what he had done, fear making his eyes bright and teary, but he did not come out from behind Bad.
“You’re safe now Tubbo, promise. You did so good, and now you’re home for good, alright? Bad brought you here cause he knew you’d be safe with us. Schlatt isn’t going to hurt you again, not if we can help it.” Wilbur promised Tubbo, “You’re our Tubbo, remember? Our Tubbox, our Tubbo-in-a-box. And we won’t let them hurt you anymore.”
Tubbo didn’t smile, but he nodded and relaxed a little, eyes brightening at the memory. Bad stepped forward to go deeper into the ravine and Tubbo hesitantly followed. Techno smiled softly and stepped towards Tubbo, handing him a baked potato.
“Eat up kid, you look like you need it.”
Tubbo looked up at him with wide, star-struck eyes. He took a small, hesitant bite of the potato and his eyes brightened. He moved towards Techno a bit as they walked down the steep stairs and Techno made sure Tubbo stayed far from the edge until he could add guard rails.
“Tommy?” Wilbur called, “Get out here Tommy, Bad brought another gift, and you need to come thank him for it!”
“Fuck off, I’m working on decorating!” Tommy shouted.
“Language Tommy!” Bad shouted back.
“Shit!”
Bad let out an enraged noise, the demon’s dark skin flushing with embarrassed rage. Tubbo giggled softly and Wilbur shot Bad an apologetic but thankful look.
“Tommy you stop that, Bad brought a gift specifically for you!” Wilbur shouted.
“Leave it upstairs on the crafting table, I’ll come get it later!”
Tubbo giggled softly and finally smiled, raising his voice a bit, which the others couldn’t help but notice was rather hoarse, to call back, “Wow Big T, I didn’t know you wanted to do that with me! I have to refuse though, I’m simply not interested in you like that!”
“Tubbs?!?!” Came Tommy’s incredulous voice as he scrambled toward them, practically running into the narrow walls of the ravine as he ran, eyes wide.
“Tommy.” Tubbo said, falling into Tommy’s arms, the two best friends hugging each other tightly, “God you’re so clingy Tommy.”
“Shut up bitch.” Tommy growled, then looked up and shot Bad an apologetic look. Bad did just bring Tubbo back to him, the least he could do was follow the no swearing rule for a little while.
“I reserve my right to hug my best friend when I haven’t seen him in ages.” He said, but eventually backed up and looked Tubbo over, freezing as he saw the poorly hidden handprint on Tubbo’s face.
"What the f-- fudge is this?"
Tubbo turned his head away, hiding the mark and averting his gaze in one movement, "I got Schlatt's coffee order wrong and then spilled it when he told me to take it away. He slapped me. Bad saw and killed Schlatt, then grabbed me and left before anyone could stop him."
Techno shot Bad a questioning look. Bad was hardly around Manburg despite being part of it, how had he seen this go down? Bad shook his head, he'd explain later.
Tommy shook with repressed anger and he pulled Tubbo back into a hug. Wilbur gave them a moment before he decided to step in.
"Alright, alright break it up. C'mon, let Tubbo go, we need to get some ice on that mark before it puffs up or bruises."
Tommy's reaction was immediate. He turned and flipped Wilbur off then pulled Tubbo off to where they kept their medical supplies, gripping his wrist like he would disappear if he loosened his grip. Techno turned to Bad as soon as the two were out of earshot.
“Alright Bad, what really happened to ‘im. No sugar coating this time.”
Bad looked away, “There was a big meeting, nearly everyone from Manburg and the surrounding area attended. It was the middle of the meeting, Schlatt had sent Tubbo off to get him coffee. Tubbo didn’t make it right, it was too sweet, so he shouted at him in the middle of the meeting. Tubbo’s hands started shaking so bad that as he went to take it away, he spilled a little. Schlatt grabbed the coffee, dumped it on Tubbo, then slapped him for interrupting the meeting. I couldn’t stand it, I was so upset with that stupid potato. So I grabbed my crossbow, shot Schlatt, then ran with Tubbo. He’s gonna need new clothes, I didn’t have time to do more than make him take off that stupid suit jacket and put on mine. I'm sure the poor muffin's undershirt is still a little wet."
Techno sighed, "think he's got burns under his shirt?"
Bad could only shrug, a hopeless look on his face, "most of it hit his suit jacket but it's totally possible, Schlatt likes his coffee really hot and the suit jackets he makes everyone wear aren't very thick, so nobody overheats."
"Alright, I'll pull him aside and check once Tommy let's him go." Techno said, then glanced at Wilbur, whose hands were shaking with badly concealed rage, "you good?"
"Schlatt's gone too far." Wilbur growled, "we can't let this continue. If he dares to do that to a child in public, who knows what he'd do in private? When you check for burns, check for bruises too."
Unknown to them, across the ravine, another conversation was taking place.
Tubbo winced as Tommy pulled his stained white shirt from his burned skin and stained bandages, ice bag already pressed to his face, "sorry for getting caught like that, I didn't think Bad would get that upset at him for slapping me and pouring the coffee on me. Normally the others don't get that upset. Quackity barely even flinches anymore when Schlatt uses his belt on me."
"That's cause Quackity's a bitch." Came Tommy's immediate response, "no one should sit around and ignore a child being hurt."
"And yet the stability of this entire situation banked on everyone ignoring the child being hurt." Tubbo said bitterly, "Now that my position is compromised, think we should tell them?"
"I don't think we've got a choice, unless you want to claim you bandaged the welts you got last week by yourself."
Tubbo winced at the reminder, "we could say you did them up today?"
"Not with how well they're healing. We'll have to come clean about it."
"Come clean about what?" Asked Wilbur as he walked in, followed by the others.
Tubbo squeaked and flailed for Bad's jacket to cover up his naked and bruised chest but it was too far for him to grab, giving Wilbur, Techno, and Bad an eyeful of his burned, bandaged, and bruised chest. He wrapped his arms around himself in a desperate attempt to cover the worst of it but failed miserably. For a moment nobody moved and they all stared at each other with wide eyes. Finally Tommy broke out of the trance and moved in front of Tubbo, blocking him from sight.
"Staring at a child's naked chest? Really guys? That's kinda weird champ if you ask me. I think you guys should go since you obviously can't handle the sight of Tubbo chest." He said boldly, challenging the others to fight him on this.
"Tommy.." techno said softly, taking a step forward. Tommy took a small step back in response, still shielding Tubbo from view.
"Go. Away. I'll handle this. I've been handling this. At least let me finish up and get him a shirt before you start questioning us."
"You've got five minutes before I come back and expect answers." Wilbur said.
Tommy didn't budge, "I'll need fifteen to rebandage the old stuff and the new stuff, and another five to check on his bruises."
"You can do that with us there. You've got fifteen minutes."
"Fine, but bring him back a shirt. A loose short sleeve one. Take one from me if he doesn't have any." Tommy finally relented, not moving from his spot until Wilbur had led the others away, ignoring every look shot his way.
As soon as the others were gone Tommy leaped into action, spinning around and beginning to pull the bandages off of Tubbo's chest with careful speed. He winced with every quiet whine Tubbo made.
"I'm sorry Big Man, I'm sorry, I've got to be quick. The others will be back soon and I know you don't want them to see this." Tommy said as he finally pulled away the last of the bandages that had covered Tubbo's back, revealing the cuts and bruises beneath from Schlatt's last "punishment."
He slathered some healing potion he'd brewed himself over the welts on Tubbo's back. The healing kicked up a little, closing some of the smaller cuts and decreasing the bruising a bit, but it was still bad. Not something that could be easily hid.
"How little do you think we can get away with telling them?" Tubbo asked hopefully.
Tommy shook his head, "nothing that's still healing. Maybe you could downplay some of the older stuff, but I don't know if they'd believe us."
Tubbo groaned, "yeah, you're right Big T. Fuck, how much trouble do you think I'll be in?"
"We'll be in. We're in this together Big Man. And hopefully not much until this is all over and we're safe at home." Tommy said, turning to grab a strip of bandages to wrap around the welts.
Tubbo smiled despite himself, "thanks. I couldn't have done this without you."
Tommy only scoffed, "don't thank me yet, I still need to rewrap your chest and that's gonna be hell for you."
Tommy wrapped up Tubbo's remaining wounds in relative silence, the only noise being Tubbo's quiet whimpers. Tommy was just securing the bandage in place when the door burst open and Wilbur stalked in, one of Tommy's shirts in hand, and closely followed by the others. Tommy put on a brave smile and turned around to greet them.
"Great timing guys, I just finished up Tubbo's bandages. Everything's healing and the coffee didn't make it through the bandages which is very Pog." Tommy said.
Nobody said a word in return, letting his cheerful words sit in awkward silence.
“Am I going to be allowed to return?” Tubbo asked finally, “I can spin it as Bad kidnapping me, under the misguided notion that I was being abused and needed rescuing, taking me back to his house to heal me, and me running away to return to the side of our great leader President Schlatt. It would reaffirm my loyalty to him and allow me to keep my position with a bit more guarding to keep anyone else from trying to kidnap me.”
Bad looked at Tubbo with confusion in his pure white eyes, “but…. You are being abused. That’s what this is.”
Tubbo rolled his eyes, “of course it is, I’m dyslexic not dumb. But Schlatt thinks I am and what’s a couple bruises, a couple burns, a couple cuts in comparison to the hundreds of deaths I've suffered at the hands of everyone else on the server, in comparison to the actual canon death i received at Sapnap’s hands. Heck, Tommy’s killed me ten times since Schlatt first joined the server, and he hasn’t even killed me once.”
Tommy chuckled, “to be fair, half of those were your fault big man. I didn’t force you to eat those pufferfish."
Tubbo grinned at him, "Exactly! But Schlatt doesn't know it's like that, which means I'm still safe there."
"But you aren't safe there!” Bad said, sounding a bit frustrated.
Tubbo shot Bad sheepish look, “Sorry sorry, means I’m still safe from capture and imprisonment. And death probably. I think I'm still a bit too important to ‘traumatize’ by being killed by our dear president. I can still get a lot out of my placement and I’m nowhere close to being caught and--”
“No. You cannot go back Tubbo.” Wilbur said, cutting Tubbo off.
“But-!” Tubbo tried to protest only for Wilbur to take a step forward and cut him off.
“No Tubbo. Now let Tommy finish whatever he was doing with you and tell us what happened and why you’re covered in bandages.”
Tubbo sighed but settled back down. Tommy grinned as he triumphantly pulled out another healing potion out of the medical chest and began making his way back towards Tubbo. Tubbo let out a whine but Tommy only shook his head.
“None of that Tubbo, you promised. You said I could fix them all up once you weren’t going back to get more. And you aren’t going back now.” He said, uncorking the potion and slathering some on his hands.
Tubbo groaned but relaxed as Tommy rubbed his hands over Tubbo’s bruised shoulders and arms.
“So are you two going to explain why Tubbo is covered in bruises and why you apparently knew about it?” Techno asked, sliding around Wilbur to sit beside Tubbo, trying his hardest not to make the situation anymore awkward.
Tubbo shot a nervous glance up at Tommy, then answered, “I can still do good work there. I could still spy. And it really wasn’t that bad, he made sure my injuries were never life threatening. But I knew that you guys would make me stop if you thought I was in danger and being hurt. So I didn’t tell you. Didn’t even mean to tell Tommy. Don’t be too angry with him, okay? He only agreed to keep it a secret because I promised I’d always go to him for help when I got hurt and we thought that we’d have fixed the situation sooner.”
“Don’t take all the blame for yourself Big T, we both agreed on this. And we both knew the consequences of getting caught before this war was over.” Tommy said, then patted Tubbo’s shoulder and turned to WIlbur, “Alright, all done with that Tubbs, could I have his shirt big man?”
Wilbur wordlessly handed Tommy the shirt and watched as he helped Tubbo slip it on, “So what exactly did he do to you that you could describe it as “not that bad” when your chest is covered in bandages?”
“It’s really only my back that’s the issue, not my chest or sides for your information. And it really wasn’t that bad, this was one of the worst things he’s done to me.”
Tommy made a noise of disagreement, “And what about what he did to your fingers?”
Tubbo turned to give Tommy a look, “That was an accident AND he apologized, so it doesn’t count.”
“He hit your fingers with a ruler hard enough that two of them broke and the others were swollen.” Tommy said, causing Bad to let out a noise of hurt.
Tubbo only rolled his eyes, “He didn’t mean to hit me that hard! He even apologized and gave me a healing potion for them! Besides it was my own fault, he was just trying to teach me to write properly.”
“A healing potion you couldn’t open without hurting your fingers more, for injuries you got as punishment for a learning disability you couldn’t control." Tommy said, disbelief evident in his voice.
"Fine, what he did to my fingers was the worst. This was the second worst. Most of the time it's just bruises from grabbing me too hard or minor burns from dumping beverages on me. Small stuff like that. Sometimes he hits me, but not too often and nothing too bad."
“And how did Tommy figure it out?” Bad asked.
“Ah.'' Tubbo reached up and scratched his neck, “he came to visit me in Manberg the day before one of our meetings and caught me stealing a healing potion from Schlatt’s stock. I had a black eye and split lip that I had to get fixed before I went to see you guys.”
"Ran away from me like a bitch too.”
“Well yeah, did you expect me to just sit there and let you ruin my mission?”
“Well generally I expect you to ask for help when you get hurt.” Tommy said.
Tubbo grimaced, “it wasn’t--! Let's not have this argument again.”
Tommy rolled his eyes, “fine. We aren’t doing that right now. But we will later. Now put on your shirt.”
Tubbo grabbed the shirt that had been brought for him, slipping it on over the bandages. Then he looked over at the adults.
“Is that everything you need from us? Can we go now?”
Wilbur looked between the two before sighing and waving them off, “yeah sure fine, we’ll talk here for a bit.”
Tommy and Tubbo ran off together, their footsteps echoing through the ravine as they ran off, probably going to Tommy’s room.
“Would this be a bad time to ask about the potential for an alliance with the Badlands?” Techno asked.
Bad shook his head “not at all. I will discuss it with the others when I return home, but know that the Badlands will follow you in battle against Schlatt. And let me know if you ever need something for them ”