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Soulmates in this world were a common thing. It was the perks of having a soulmate that was different between everyone.
Most people didn’t get to meet their soulmates until their late twenties because they got the first thing their soulmate would say to them plastered on their arm or they could draw on themselves and it would show up on their soulmate but any identifying factors would be redacted or anything of that sort.
Some people with the common powers got lucky and grew up next to their soulmate or near enough where they would run into each other or could stage a meet up.
Other people had seeing or hearing related soulmate traits. Only seeing in your soulmate's favorite color until you meet, you and your soulmate having the same song stuck in your head, being able to hear what your soulmate hears at random times, and not seeing color until you meet your soulmate were the most common of that category but there were a variety.
Most people with those types of powers would see or hear something identifying that let them meet up with their soulmate or they would bump into them somewhere and suddenly be able to see color or not hear that song anymore and they would know.
Some people with that type of power would never meet their soulmates but that was very rare since the universe always seemed to have a way of working things out.
The rarest types of traits between soulmates were those superpower related in any way. Having the same power as your soulmate until you both met was the most common in that category. It wasn’t something that needed to be regulated since it was a 1 in 963 million chance for a pair of soulmates to have it.
There was 1 power trait that didn’t go away as you got older. One most people that had it didn’t even know they had until either their soulmate used it or they did by accident.
Teleporting to your soulmate whenever you want. One of the coolest traits that everyone wanted but only every 1 in 2 billion pairs had ever received.
Through research everyone knew that the teleporter could go back to where they originally came from and they could only be with their soulmates for 3 hours at a time before being teleported back.
Most people found this power cool and exciting since it was essentially the easiest way to meet your soulmate but for the families of Tubbo Underscore and Tommy Craft this trait was nothing but a nightmare.
1:
Phil laid in his bed staring at the ceiling and wondering why he chose to have kids. His wife, Kristin, was in the same predicament. They had just gotten Tommy, their 3 month old son, to go to sleep 5 minutes ago and as if he had a ‘mom and dad are starting to fall asleep’ radar, he started crying as soon as they closed their eyes.
“Your turn,” Kristin muttered, turning over to face Phil. The man sighed and made a move to get up when the crying suddenly stopped. Phil and Kristin spared each other a wary glance.
“Boys?” Kristin called. Wilbur and Techno quietly shuffled in the room. Kristin raised her eyes at the two eight year olds. “Did you guys go get Tommy?” She asked.
They both shook their heads. “We were gonna to let you guys sleep,” Wilbur started.
“But Tommy got quiet before we got there,” Techno finished sheepishly.
Kristin and Phil spared a worried glance. “Can one of you go check and make sure he’s okay?” Phil asked softly, trying to look as calm as possible to not freak out the two kids.
They both nodded and started their trek down the hall to their brother's star painted room. “He probably just went back to sleep,” Phil said after a moment.
Kristin smiled warily. She knew he was trying to calm her down and that logically Tommy most likely just spooked himself before calming down and going back to sleep but she was a mom, worrying was her whole thing.
She relaxed a little laying back down on the bed before she shot up hearing two sets of frantic footsteps running down the hall. “He’s gone,” Wilbur wailed.
“What?” Phil muttered. Before he could address anything, Kristin was out of the bed and running down the hall. Phil followed closely after when he heard her cry. He couldn’t tell anyone what he was thinking as he ran down the hallway with his twin sons in tow. His thoughts were everywhere.
They had just seen Tommy not less than 5 minutes ago. The window had a safety lock on it that could only be opened from the inside and they had a house alarm that would have gone off if someone came in the house without putting in the code. Plus their dog Apollo usually slept in Tommy's room and was very protective of him.
There was no way Tommy wasn’t there. It just wasn’t possible.
But surely enough, when he peeked into his room he saw his wife standing by an empty crib crying as Apollo circled it sniffing for the child and whining when he couldn’t find him.
Tommy was gone.
“We should call the police,” Wilbur suggested, trying to wipe his own tears. Phil absentmindedly shook his head at the suggestion.
“He’s not officially missing until 24 hours in,” he mumbled, walking over to Kristin and pulling her into a hug.
“Then what do we do?” Techno wondered.
“Wait, I guess,” Phil shrugged. Wilbur broke out into tears and Techno tried his best to comfort his twin while also crying.
“Where could he be?” Wilbur wailed.
“I don’t know, Wilbur,” Phil sighed looking around one last time before giving Kristin his full attention, “I really don’t.”
Meanwhile, at the underscore household, Puffy was laying down content after finally getting Tubbo, her 6 month old, to sleep.
Her other two kids, Eret and Niki, were sleeping over in the baby's room and had to be kicked out after they argued and woke him up. Now that all of them were asleep she could get a good 3 hours of sleep before Tubbio woke up again.
She was sadly mistaken.
By the time her head hit the pillow, she was once again woken up by crying coming from Tubbos room. She thought maybe Tubbo threw his blanket or stuffed animals again and was throwing a fit because of it but she quickly changed her mind when she started hearing two sets of crying.
She quickly walked to Tubbos room only to find him crying in the crib with a blonde baby beside him.
“Mom?” Puffy jumped hearing a voice next to her and looked down to see Niki staring curiously at the crib. Puffy decided she would address her in a little bit. First she went to the crib and balanced both babies in her arms like she did when the twins were babies and Schlatt couldn’t come by to help take care of his niblings.
“Where did you come from, little one?” She wondered looking at Tommy. He, of course, didn’t answer and Puffy decided she would see what was wrong.
“Now you mister, I know you need a bottle,” She smiled looking down at Tubbo. She passed the boy off to the 8 year old still standing beside her. “Can you go get him a bottle?” She asked. Niki nodded and went to get Eret from their room to help her before going towards the kitchen.
When she was gone she turned to the child that wasn’t hers and tried to figure out why he was crying. All it took was her breathing in deeply to smell what the problem was.
“It seems like you need a diaper change,” She laughed to herself. The baby didn’t see the humor in it and seemed to cry even harder.
“Okay, okay. No jokes, I get it.” She relented bringing him over to the changing station. She hummed a little tune as she changed him. It didn’t take her long seeing as she had three kids of her own.
She couldn’t help but wonder where he came from. There was no way anyone got into Tubbos room just to leave a baby. Someone would have heard. Maggie, their cat, stays in Tubbos room and always comes to get Puffy if she even thinks something is wrong. The window is also locked from the inside and you have to walk past the twins room to get to Tubbos.
She decided she could think about it later. It was about midnight now so she decided she would put the kid to sleep and then take a trip to the police station earlier to see if she could find who this little one belongs to.
She went to the kitchen to see Eret cleaning up spilled milk formula and Niki covered in the powdery substance but rocking Tubbo and giving him a bottle. She was humming something Puffy couldn't quite make out.
She smiled and went over to where Eret was. “You guys didn’t spill too much right?” She asked. It was expected for the two little kids to make some mess but they were good at making bottles so she still let them do it.
“No only a little bit,” Eret assured finishing wiping up the powder.
“Did you make another bottle? I want to put this little guy to sleep.” Puffy wondered. Eret smiled and pointed towards the fridge. Puffy looked in and checked the shelf where they keep bottles and there was a freshly made bottle in there. She took it out and checked to make sure it wasn’t too cold before taking off the cap and rinsing off the teat and giving it to the blonde nestled in her arm.
“Where did he come from mom?” Eret wondered, peering at the new baby.
“I don’t know little star,” She hummed, rocking him to sleep. He started moving his face and fussing a little bit and puffy realized he was trying not to go to sleep probably realizing that puffy wasn’t whoever his mother was.
“I know, I know,” She cooed. He fussed a little more before finally settling. Puffy smiled to herself and went to grab the bottle and when she looked back at the kid, he was gone.
“What?” She said looking around. Her arm was in the same position and there was no way he rolled or fell out of her arms. “Where did he go?” She asked Eret.
He looked around just as confused. “He was there….”
“And then he wasn’t,” Niki finished speaking up from where she was now sitting at the kitchen table with a sleeping Tubbo.
“I’m gonna do some research,” Eret muttered.
“No you’re gonna go to sleep. I’ll keep watch with Maggie in case he comes back,” Puffy asserted. “I have a theory but I don’t know if it's correct. I’ll need to have something made for Tubbo….you guys go to bed.”
Niki and Eret looked at her suspiciously but nodded. Puffy followed them down the hall and Eret went into their room while Niki went into Tubbos and set him down. “Goodnight mom,” Niki said, walking out the room and giving her a hug.
“Goodnight starlight,” Puffy smiled, giving her a hug back and a kiss on the forehead. She turned to the sleeping baby with admiration clear on her face. “I knew you were a special kid. Now let's get making this thing,” she quietly clapped, pulling out her embroidery kit and a pair of pajamas tubbo didn’t wear too often.
If her theory was right, this would save her and the blonde baby's parents a lot of stress.
~~~~~
A few days after Tommy appeared back in his crib, Phil and Kristin put him in their room. They had no clue how it happened either.
They were all in the living room and heard Apollo bark and went into Tommy's room to see him fast asleep in his crib perfectly fine.
After they moved him something even stranger happened.
Phil and Kristin were once again awoken way too early in the morning by the cries of a child. Kristin looked over and saw Phil was asleep and went to go grab Tommy and put him back to sleep before he woke up the whole house but once she really started listening, she recognized that it wasn’t one but two babies crying.
She immediately rushed to the crib and saw Tommy and a brunette both occupying it. “Phil, wake up,” She whispered loudly as to not upset the little ones even more.
Phil stirred and turned a bit. He sat up with a sigh and looked at her drowsily. “Need help?” He assumed.
She shook her head and held up both of the babies. Phil immediately got out of bed and walked over, taking Tommy from her arms and letting her look at the slightly older baby that just appeared.
“There’s something on the back of his pajamas,” Phil noticed, bouncing Tommy slightly to get him to calm down.
Kristin turned the kid over and surely enough there was a message sewed into his pajamas.
“Hi. I’m pretty sure our kids are soulmates. Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”
Both of the parents mentally face palmed. Of course. The kids being soulmates made so much more sense than anything they could have come up with. “Quiet them then call?” Kristin suggested. Phil nodded.
They took both of the babies to the kitchen where they should have some leftover bottles. They didn’t notice Wilbur and Techno come in until they were right beside them.
“Where did he come from?” Wilbur asked, pointing to Tubbo.
Phil jumped and took a deep breath to calm his now fast racing heart when he realized it was just Wilbur. “Tommy's soulmate. We think they can teleport,” He explained.
“Cool,” Both eight year olds chorused.
They sat in silence for a little while after that while they rocked the babies and Wilbur and Kristin hummed a tune to help them sleep.
Once they were out Kristin made both of the boys go to the couch and Phil and Kristin each handed one of them a baby. “Both of you stay on the couch and you can hold them while me and Phil call this little ones parents,” Kristin said.
Both of them nodded eagerly and promised to stay on the couch. Kristin seemed satisfied with their promises and went to the kitchen. She grabbed the house phone since hers and Phils were in their rooms charging and she dialed the number that was on the pajamas.
The answer was almost immediate. “Hello?”
Kristin could hear the panic in her voice and sympathized with her having been in the same position just a few days ago. “Hi. My name is Kristin and I found your number on the pajamas of the baby that just randomly appeared in my house.”
There was a relieved chuckle on the other end of the line. “I’m Puffy and that’s Tubbo. Are you the parent of the blonde kid that appeared in my house a few days ago?”
“Yep. That’s Tommy,” Phil said.
“I would offer to drive him back to you but I think he’ll teleport back eventually and we have no clue where you live,” Kristin chuckled, putting the caps on the abandoned bottles and putting them back in the fridge, making a mental note of which belonged to each child.
“We live in Brighton,” Puffy supplied.
“Ah,” Phil clicked his tongue, “we live in Manchester. That's about a 5 hour drive.”
“That’s quite okay,” Puffy assured. “I have a feeling we’re going to be talking to each other a lot more.”
Kristin and Phil both smiled. “For some reason, I think the same,” Phil smiled.
“Mom! Dad! The baby disappeared!” Wibur cried running into the kitchen with no baby in his arms.
“Mom! He’s back!” A tiny voice on the other end of the line called.
The parents all chuckled a bit. “I’ll let you go explain what's happening and get Tubbo back in his crib,” Puffy said.
“Thank you and good luck,” Phil chuckled looking down at Kristin trying to comfort Wilbur.
“Same to you,” Puffy reciprocated, able to hear the chaos in the background, then hanging up.
Phil turned to Wilbur and kneeled to his level right beside Kristin and tuning into the conversation they were having.
“So he’s okay?” Wilbur sniffled.
Kristin smiled at him and nodded. “He’s perfectly fine. He just went back home, that’s all.”
Wilbur sniffed a little bit more, trying to calm himself down.
“So Tommy has a soulmate?” Techno spoke up from the kitchen door. Kristin rushed to grab Tommy from him, a bit nervous with the boys holding him while they were standing after one of them tripped and almost fell with him in their arms.
“Yes,” She confirmed once the blonde was nestled safely in her arms.
“So he’s gonna teleport a lot more?” Wilbur wondered.
Phil and Kristin sighed just now realizing how much trouble these two could potentially cause in the future. Especially if Tommy takes after Wilbur or Techno at all.
“Yes,” Phil said, accepting his fate, “yes he will.”
“Cool,” the twins smiled.
Phil laughed quietly to himself. He wondered how long it would take them to change their answer.
2.
Today was Tubbos first day of playschool and nothing was going particularly well. She had to have the twins at school by 8:30 and Tubbo to daycare by 9 so she could get to work by 9:30.
Usually schlatt would watch Tubbo while she took the kids to school and went to work since he owned some big company and didn’t really have to do anything or Puffy would take him down to the docks and let him chill with some of the crew while she arranged everyone getting their ships out and in on time.
Today though, Schlatt had some very important board meetings out of town and wouldn’t be back for a month and the docks were going to be too busy for Tubbo to come with. They also decided it would be good for Tubbo to make friends besides Tommy.
Sure their friendship was cute and they were really good for each other but they also lived 5 hours away and could only visit 3 times a day for a few hours at a time which was turning to less since Tommy went to daycare ages ago.
Kristin and Phil, ever the saints, were very helpful to Puffy and she was helpful to them. They had given her advice on how to trick Tubbo into getting out the house on time and it worked until Niki pointed out what was going on.
Now Tubbo was hiding god knows where and they had to be out of the house in 10 minutes. “Niki! Eret! Have you seen Tubbo?” She shouted.
“No Mom! Have you called Phil and Krisitn?” Niki asked.
Puffy sighed. Of course he would have teleported away.
She dug her phone out her purse and called one of the numbers she had become very familiar with over the last 3 years.
“Hello?” Kristin answered.
“Hey Kristin. Is Tubbo over there? The plan was working until one of the kids gave me away and now he’s nowhere to be seen,” Puffy sighed.
Kristin chuckled slightly. The kids did this a lot. Once they figured out that their parents would take too long to get to them, they started teleporting to each other to get out of doing things they didn’t want to.
Tommy was being forced to eat carrots? He would go to Tubbos house and have cake instead.
Tubbo didn’t want to go to bed? He went to Tommy who he knew had an hour later bedtime. (Well he did, until the parents realized what was going on. Now they had the same sleep schedule.)
“Tommy,” Kristin called up the stairs.
“Yes Mama?” He said coming to the railing on the steps and looking down at her.
“Is Tubbo here? And be honest,” she noted.
Tommy sighed and nodded.
“Snitches get stitches,” she heard Tubbo yell.
“Sorry Tubs! I chooses life,” Tommy declared.
Kristin and Puffy laughed at Tommy. “Tubbo baby, you have to go home. You have daycare and you can’t be home alone whenever you appear back,” Kristin told him.
Tubbo came to the railings and shrugged. “Tommy can teleport to me,” He suggested.
“Tommy is going to be at daycare,” Kristin informed him.
Tubbo huffed and frowned. “Fine,” he mumbled before disappearing.
“Found him mom!” Niki called a few seconds later. Puffy let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you Kristin.”
“Any time,” Kristin smiled before hanging up and letting Puffy finish getting ready.
Puffy turned to Tubbo with a disappointed stare. “When you get home from playschool we are having a talk. Now let’s get you ready. We have to leave in a few minutes,” she said.
Tubbo nodded sadly and went to grab his backpack.
Puffy sighed to herself and said a silent prayer to whatever god was out there that she would still have her sanity by the time their teenage years rolled around.
She wasn’t even religious.
This was going to be a long 15 years.
3.
Tommy was trying to convince his year 1 classmates he was magic.
He was a very social child and was friends with pretty much all of the class but he often missed Tubbo and was trying to find a reason to get him to come to school with him. So they met up the night before at Tubbos house after everyone was asleep and came up with a fool proof plan.
Of course it would backfire at some point but they didn’t care as long as they got to hang out.
“Magic doesn’t exist,” one of his classmates disputed.
“Does too,” Tommy frowned.
“Prove it,” Someone else demanded, “make someone appear.”
Tommy smirked to himself and decided to be dramatic about it. He still had 2 minutes before Tubbo knew he would teleport. He had to make this cool.
“Hear ye, hear ye. Come and see the amazing TommyInnit-”
“Your last name is Craft,” someone interrupted. Tommy glared at them and continued.
“-the Amazing TommyInnit make a child appear. I will clap my hands and say the magic world and a child will appear next to me,” He said.
The teachers looked on amused, not stopping him because they thought he would learn his lesson about lying after this. None of the students believed him.
“You are lying,” One of them said.
Tommy shrugged and shot them a smile. Wilbur and Techno watched on wondering how they were going to pull this off. They had heard the kids talking about it a couple nights before but no matter how much they eavesdropped, they couldn’t figure out how they planned to do it.
“Fine, don’t believe me. You’ll see it happen in 5,”
Everyone who wasn’t paying attention decided they would glance over and see what this was all about.
“4,”
The teachers looked over and started preparing to get everyone off Tommys back when he didn’t make anything happen.
“3,”
The twins raised their eyebrows at him.
“2,”
Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.
“1!”
Nothing happened.
The kid from before laughed and put on a mocking face. “I told you magic wasn’t re– ah!”
He was cut off by his own scream and quickly drowned out by the rest of the cafeterias when Tubbo appeared in front of them all. The teachers took a while calming everyone down and then immediately rushed Tommy and Tubbo to the office as soon as the kids weren’t actively screaming.
As Phil and Kristin tried to explain to the hysterical staff that their son was not a demon and that he just had a rare soulmate power, Tubbo and Tommy leaned back in their chairs with satisfied smiles and fist bumped.
They were going to get in trouble but it was so worth it.
4:
Tubbo was sitting in his room playing around with his new phone a few days after his birthday when he looked at Tommy’s snapchat story and saw he was hanging out with his brothers. He couldn’t help but think about when the last time he even looked Wilbur and Technos way was.
Tommy had hung out with him, NIki, and Eret plenty of times. Like the time they went to disney world and Tommy came along and the time Tubbo was sick and Tommy helped them take care of him.
Eret and Niki both loved Tommy and viewed him as another little brother and every time Tubbo was with Tommy, Wilbur and Techno were either busy or Tubbo just didn’t stop whatever he was doing to Tommy to say anything besides “hi”.
He decided he would crash Tommy’s day out with them. Sure he could not do that and just set it for a later date but he’s spending all summer with them since they go to college in the fall. He’s doing basically the same with Niki and Eret.
Tommy won’t mind sharing for one day and if he seriously doesn’t want Tubbo there, then Tubbo will just teleport home. He texted his mom and told her he was going to Tommy so that she didn’t ground him again and then promptly teleported away.
He was immediately met with the outdoors and a surprised yelp. He turned around and saw Wilbur clutching his chest and dramatically breathing heavily. “Tubbo! You nearly gave me a heart attack,” he breathed.
Tommy ran over and gave his soulmate a hug. “Tubbo! What are you doing here?” He wondered.
“Well, Wilbur and Techno are about to go to college and I realized you’ve hung out with my siblings but I’ve never hung out with yours and I wanted to before they left,” Tubbo admitted. “Unless you want me to leave. Then I can go home.”
Wilbur smiled at him. “Of course you can hang out with us Tubbo,” he said softly.
“As long as you and Tommy don’t get us kicked out of the ice cream parlor,” Techno added.
Tubbo sighed in relief and bound up to Tommy grabbing his hand and swinging it back and forth like he always did when they were out and about together.
“So tubbo, settle this debate for us. Which flavor is better, Chocolate chip cookie dough, Neapolitan, or chocolate marshmallow?” Wilbur asked. Techno and Tommy immediately groaned. They had been arguing over ice cream flavors for a while and nobody was getting anywhere.
Wilbur liked Cookie Dough, Techno liked Neapolitan, and Tommy liked Chocolate Marshmallow. None of them could agree on which one was the best which was partially why they were going to get ice cream.
“Well none of them. The best is Rainbow Sherbet,” Tubbo hummed. All three of the brothers turned to him with a grimace on their face. Tubbo didn’t notice until he looked and realized all of them were looking more at him than at where they were walking.
“What?” He wondered. Tommy slowly approached him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder as if Tubbo was a child who just realized they left their teddy bear somewhere they couldn’t go to get it.
“Tubbo, I feel like saying Rainbow Sherbet is the only thing that could ever be worse than saying Vanilla,” Tommy deadpanned. Tubbo frowned.
“Sherbet is good,” he weakly defended.
“Yeah, to make some party punch,” Wilbur scoffed. Tubbo frowned even further.
“You guys just have no taste,” He defended.
It was Technos turn to scoff. “Says the kid who’s favorite ice cream is rainbow sherbet of all things.”
Tommy watched on amused as his brothers got into an argument. He’d have to remember to tell Tubbo to visit more often. He fit in with his brothers just fine.
In the end, it was Techno and Wilbur attacking Tubbo with ice cream to the face that got them kicked out of the parlor. They claimed it was some family tradition. He doesn’t know if Phil and Kristin did it to them but he did remember them doing it to him when he was 5 and he got them back for it a week later.
If there was one thing Tommy knew about Tubbo for sure, it was that all of his payback was elaborate. Techno and Wilbur refused to come near Tommy for a month in fear of Tubbo teleporting to him and getting their revenge.
Tubbo got it anyway. Exploding ice cream containers. Funny to watch, probably not funny to clean up. Tommy wouldn’t know though. After he took a video he just shrugged and teleported to Tubbos house to show him the video and avoided any punishments that were given for that.
5:
This is why Tommy doesn’t like going with his family on hiking trails. It was set for disaster.
Phil and Kristin wanted to go on some hiking trails with the twins before they went off to college and dragged Tommy along for ‘family bonding’ and ‘outdoors time’. The ten year old did not want to leave his room but they were adamant on it. Even worse, they made him leave his phone.
All was going well until Tommy stopped to tie his shoe and nobody noticed and they walked off without him. Now usually he could just run and catch up to them but there was a fork in the road.
Four different paths leading to four different trails and he didn’t know which one they were going on, they didn’t give him a map, and he didn’t have any way to call them and ask which way they went. He decided to do Eney, meeny, miny, moe and landed on the blue trail. After running for a bit, he realized this couldn't have been where his family went.
He went to turn around and didn’t remember which way he had come from. He picked randomly between the left and right path and started running down the left one. He quickly realized this wasn’t the right way so he turned around and started the process all over again.
Eventually Tommy realized he was completely lost. He realized this when he came face to face with a sign to the path up ahead that read ‘Anaconda Trail’. Phil had never mentioned an anaconda trail.
Tommy realized he was lost in the woods with no way to contact anyone and the sun would probably set before he saw anyone again. The idea of spending the night in the woods was not one he liked in the slightest.
He decided to do what any rational 10 year old would do in this situation. He sat down under a tree and cried. He doesn’t know how long he cried, only that he stopped once his head started hurting.
By the time his eyes stopped being blurry from tears, he realized the sun was getting into position to set. He brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them trying to hide himself from the outside world.
He wished anyone was here. His mom, his dad, his brothers, Tubb…oh. Oh .
Tommy stood up excitedly remembering that he was, in fact, capable of teleporting to his soulmate and he was a little surprised he didn’t think of it sooner. He immediately thought of Tubbo and squeezed his eyes shut only opening them when he no longer felt the overbearing summer heat and instead the cool blast of AC.
“Tommy, what-” Tubbo didn’t get to finish his question before his best friend's arms were thrown around him. Tubbo hugged him back and felt his shirt getting wet and realized he was crying.
“What’s wrong Toms?” He wondered. Before he could get an answer, Puffy came in.
“Tommy?” She wondered, confused as to why he was here. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be hiking with your family?”
Tommy immediately panicked. “Please don’t make me go back. It’s lonely and it’s hot and I was scared, please,” he pleaded. Puffy kneeled down to his level and carefully took him out of Tubbos arms.
“Breathe Tommy. I won’t make you go back but I need you to tell me what’s wrong okay?” She had never been more glad to have had 3 children. She’d seen most of the different attacks kids can have and knew how to work through them. Sometimes they just needed someone to listen to them.
“I got lost and I left my phone at home and I was lost and I was scared,” Tommy admitted. Puffy pulled out her phone and dialed Phil and handed the phone to Tommy. She didn’t notice he was still holding onto Tubbos hand like it was his lifeline until he grabbed the phone with his non-dominant hand.
She didn’t pull them apart but walked away herself to keep Eret and Niki out of the room for the time being.
“Hello? Puffy, please tell me Tommy is there,” Phil answered after only a couple of rings.
“Dadza?” Tommy said. He could hear Phil's immediate sigh of relief.
“It’s Tommy,” He heard Phil tell someone. Judging by how fast the phone was taken from him after that, whoever he told was probably as relieved as he was.
“Tommy, where did you go? Did you walk off?” It was Wilbur who took the phone. Tommy smiled at how protective his brother could be sometimes.
“I stopped to tie my shoe and when I looked up you guys were gone so I went where I thought you guys went and I got lost,” Tommy explained sheepishly. Wilbur chuckled bemusedly and then sighed.
“Do you know where you were? We can go there and then you can teleport back and then we can go home,” Wilbur suggested. He could hear his family agree with the plan in the background and tried to remember his exact position.
“I was near the Anaconda trail sign,” Tommy recalled. He imagined Wilbur nodded and walked over to Phil and Kristin. He could hear them lightly discussing something but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“We should be at the Anaconda trail sign in about 5 minutes. It’s not that big of a detour so we can continue all the way back to the parking lot and get home from there,” Wilbur explained once they had finally come to an agreement.
“What if you're not?” Tommy wondered not wanting to go back to the trail and sit by himself.
“Then we’ll call you..er Puffy back and tell her that we aren’t there and then text her when we are. You can even wait a little bit before coming,” Wilbur proposed. Tommy hummed, content with that agreement, and hung up to let his family get to where he would reappear.
Tubbo took the next five minutes to show Tommy some really complicated puzzle he had been working on called the Ravensburger puzzle. It was all black so you couldn’t compare the colors of the puzzle to see where it went, you just had to compare the pieces.
By the time Tubbo finished explaining, the five minutes had been up.
“I don’t wanna go back,” Tommy whined. “What if they're not there and then I'll be alone again.”
Tubbo frowned and thought for a second. “Just because you can’t teleport to me, doesn’t mean I can’t teleport to you,” he realized. “I can go there and then you won’t be lonely until they get there!” He suggested.
Tommy smiled to himself wondering what he did to deserve a platonic soulmate as great as him. “Sounds good,” he agreed.
Tubbo smiled and gave him a hug before pulling away and waving him goodbye. Tommy smiled and squeezed his eyes shut, letting himself go back to where he was. When he opened them he was met with his parents and brothers worriedly checking him over for injuries.
“Are you okay?” Techno wondered. Tommy nodded and threw himself into the arms of the nearest person. He realized a split second later that it was his mom.
“I never want to go hiking again,” He muttered into her neck, where he had nuzzled his face.
Everyone chuckled. “We never have to mate,” Phil agreed.
Tommy sighed contently as his mom shifted so he was on her back and carried him the rest of the way to the car. He couldn’t help but think how lucky he was to have a soulmate.
It was a reminder that he would never truly be alone and he couldn’t be more grateful.
+1:
All of the 18 year olds had officially left for college a week ago and Tommy and Tubbo couldn’t be more lonely.
They had found out on the first day that Techno and Eret had both gone to the University of Cambridge and Wilbur and Niki had both gone to the University of Birmingham and they were quickly becoming good friends.
Both soulmates were glad that their siblings were becoming friends because that meant that when they wanted to get together, they could possibly bring Tommy and Tubbo along so they could finally spend more than 3 hours with each other at a time.
On the other hand though, both of them were the youngest. They were born having siblings and had never experienced a time without them. Tommy hadn’t even processed that he wouldn’t see them everyday again until he went into their rooms and saw them basically empty with their suitcases by the door and very few outfits in the drawer that would last them until it was time to go.
He’d cried and begged them to stay but they had gone away anyway. He ended up teleporting to Tubbo a few hours after they were gone because the house was just too quiet. Wilbur and Techno weren’t bickering or listening to loud music or getting scolded for taking a prank on Tommy just a little too far.
Tommy couldn’t just burst into Wilburs room and demand he play one of his songs or go into the study where Techno was most likely hiding and ask him to read him the art of war for the thousandth time or drag them both to the living room to get the two things he loved from two of the people he loved.
It was unsettling. And his parents, as only children, had no clue how to help him. So he went to Tubbo, his brother in everything except blood, and sought out his comfort.
In a twisted way, he was happy to find out he was going through the same thing.
Niki wasn’t there to bake him cookies and take his sadness away and he couldn’t go ask Eret to paint his nails. He wouldn’t hear the two bickering over whose outfit looked better or who had the better essay. He couldn’t come in and offer to be peacemaker which usually ended up with them bribing him and him getting a month off his chores.
He couldn’t go into their rooms and demand they have a movie night or show off something he’d built with the seemingly endless engineering sets Puffy brought for him.
He was alone now and so was Tommy. But they’d always have each other.
Their parents decided they would surprise them with something after seeing how down they were. So after a bit of planning while the kids were either asleep or otherwise occupied, they finally had a solid plan.
“Come on Tommy, we have to leave the house like now,” Phil called, grabbing his keys and walking to the door.
The youngest blonde dragged himself down the stairs and gave his parents the most unimpressed deadpan he could muster. “I want to go visit Tubbo,” he said.
Phil and Kristin both sighed for seemingly the thousandth time that morning. “Tommy you can visit Tubbo when we come back but we need to go or we won't get there in time,” Kristin explained.
Tommy pouted but stopped arguing and put on his shoes. He followed his parents out the door and into the car with no more complaints and stared out the window as they got situated in the front.
It wasn’t until they pulled off that he noticed they hadn't told him where they were going. So he decided to ask. “Where are we going?” He wondered.
They both shared a knowing look and a smirk. “You’ll see,” Kristin hummed. Tommy huffed and decided he would look out the window until they arrived. He didn’t know where they were going or how long they were driving for, but eventually the lack of sleep from going to see Tubbo or having Tubbo with him every second they could was catching up to him and he dozed off.
He woke up to his dad shaking him. He looked around and saw he was at a park but not one he recognized, which was impossible because Wilbur and Techno had taken him to every park in brighton.
“Where are we?” he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and trying his best to adjust to the sunlight.
“Coventry,” was all the explanation Phil offered. Tommy immediately woke up fully and gave his parents a confused glance.
“What do you mean we’re in coventry? That’s like two hours away from where we live!” Tommy exclaimed. Phil and Kristin just shrugged and Tommy figured there was still something they weren’t telling him but he decided not to ask because he knew he likely wouldn’t get an answer.
He sighed and got out of the car and let himself be led to a bench where he saw two scarily familiar people sitting.
“Mom, we've been here for 10 minutes and you still haven’t told me who we’re waiting for.”
Tommy froze when he heard the youngest person at the table speak. He knew that voice. His soul was binded to that voice.
That was the voice of the one person he knew for a fact he would always be able to rely on.
“Tubbo?” he finally spoke up.
The brunette turned around with shock evident on his face. Judging by their similar reactions, Tommy realized that Tubbo wasn’t in on it but their parents definitely were.
He decided to ignore that for now and ran to give Tubbo a hug as if they were meeting for the first time. They collided with each other and just sat there hugging for as long as they could.
“We get to be together?” Tubbo asked, looking at the parents who were standing behind Tommy and in Tubbos line of sight. They all nodded.
“As long as we want?” Tommy asked, turning to them hopefully.
“Well…until sunset,” Puffy explained.
That was more than enough time for the two of them. They both immediately ran through the park and instead of playing around for hours like their parents expected them to do, they just found a grassy area with no people and laid side by side with their hands interlocked and looked at the clouds telling stories about each one.
It was an oddly peaceful moment for such a chaotic duo and their parents could understand it. They had never had more than 3 hours with each other and now they were simply enjoying each other's presence.
They hadn’t moved to go get lunch or when they were offered ice cream instead. They both just laid there, in the grass, savoring the moment as long as it lasted.
When Phil noticed the sky starting to get an orange tint, he point it out to the moms who were complaining about crappy teachers and they went and told the kids it was time to go.
“Can we go to the flower shop first?” Tubbo asked, shocking all of them.
They had expected them to whine and try to find ways to stay with each other and had even prepared at least 30 reasons why they couldn’t. Simply asking to go get some flowers before they left wasn’t an unreasonable request and it wasn’t one any of them were going to deny.
“Sure,” Kristin finally answered after a moment of silence. “There’s one just up the street.”
They walked since it wasn’t far, and the whole way there Tubbo and Tommy walked, swinging each other's hands enjoying the fact that they had no chance of either looking up and being alone or back in their rooms at any moment.
Once they went into the flower shop they finally let go and parted ways and told their parents what they were doing since they didn’t have the money to pay for flowers.
“Since we both learned about what flowers mean in school, we wanted to get each other two flowers.”
Their parents thought it was sweet and immediately agreed. It didn’t take them long to shop since both of them knew what they had in mind and they decided to hide the flowers until they got to their cars.
Luckily for them, their parents parked right next to each other, so they stood beside their doors and traded off their bouquets at the same time with Tubbo taking a peak first. His flower bag had a flower that was pink and got lighter as it got closer to the center and the second was purple winged stems clad with different color leaflets in pairs.
“A sweetpea and a zinnia,” Tommy explained. “They mean thank you for a lovely time and Everlasting friendship.”
Tubbo smiled and urged Tommy to open his. Tommy peaked inside and saw an unvegetated orange blossom and some mistletoe. He only recognized it immediately because they were some of his favorites to look at in class.
“They mean Eternal love and Surmounting all difficulties. Because I’ll always love you and our friendship will overcome all difficulties,” Tubbo said shyly. Tommy smiled and gave him a hug not knowing any other way to show his appreciation.
“Thank you Tubbo,” he said genuinely. “I’ll plant it when I get home and keep them alive as long as I can.”
Tubbo smiled and held on to him a bit tighter knowing the next time they hugged it would be a race against the clock to try and show as much affection as he could before they would be separated again.
“We could preserve the flowers,” he suggested after a moment. “It’s like freezing them in time and we can keep them forever.”
Tommy smiled at the idea of having something to remember this day forever. “I think I’ll do that instead,” he agreed.
They hugged a while longer before Kristin and Puffy honked their horns. “We have to go boys,” Phil urged, noticing the sun sink lower and lower.
They sighed and went to their separate cars waving at each other sadly as they pulled off. Once he was out of sight Tommy teleported to him. They had tested before (albeit in a more controlled environment) whether teleporting while in a car or while the other was in a car was at all safe and it turned out he would just go back to the car when their time was up.
Tommy buckled his seatbelt in the seat next to Tubbo and nobody in a car said a word as he leaned on Tubbos shoulders. He wasn’t ready to be without Tubbo just yet.
They both fell asleep on the car ride home and when Tommy woke up, he was being tucked into his bed at his own house. Kristin didn’t say anything to him when she noticed he was awake. She just kissed his forehead and walked out of the room letting him sleep.
Sometimes Tommy wishes they could teleport to each other as long as the pleased but soulmate quirks rules were soulmate quirks rules and there was nothing he could do to change it.
He couldn’t do anything but count down the days until he and Tubbo could live together. Then they would never be apart.
6:
Tommy stared at this paper his pre-algebra teacher had given him. He really wishes he would have paid attention in class now.
They had a small packet full of assignments that was worth 30% of their grade and Tommy did not know how to do them at all. It wasn’t his fault their usual math teacher had gone on maternity leave and their new one was only good for being so boring that when Tommy tries to pay attention, he just zones out.
He knew he had to get this done before Wilbur and Techno got home for the start of their winter break next week. He could ask them for help but he promised them he would pay attention and have at least an 80 in the class by the time they got back.
That meant he had to get this done and get at least a 75% on this in order to keep his grade from dropping any lower than the delicate 80.56% he had gotten it to. There was no way he could get 2 pages wrong and still get a 75 on this paper.
He’d need some help.
His parents were out of the question because they both insisted that this was not the way they learned it when they were in his grade. His friend Purpled wasn’t paying attention either so going to him would be the blind leading the blind.
Tubbo…was probably learning the same thing as him and would definitely help since Tommy helped him with his english work ages ago!
Tommy didn’t hesitate to grab his paper and teleport to Tubbo who was laid across his bed reading a book.
“Hi Tommy,” he greeted without looking up.
Tommy jumped on the bed next to him and slid his paper into his vision.
“Help?” He asked.
Tubbo put down his book and examined the paper then chuckled. “Of course boss man,” He agreed. Tommy sighed in relief and got comfortable as he explained what to do and helped him work through the problems on the page, even checking the answers when he was done.
Tommy brought Tubbo a new videogame for his Nintendo 3DS when he got a 94 on his paper.
Having a soulmate was unsurprisingly very good for getting passing grades.
7:
Tommy laid in his room the day before school started as wide awake as he could be. He felt his soulmate teleport next to him but didn’t acknowledge that he was there. He just stayed there so silent and still that Tubbo could have mistaken him for being asleep if it wasn’t for the fact that he was humming a tune.
“Are you excited big man?” Tommy finally spoke up. He felt Tubbo shrug beside him and sigh leaning deeper into the pillows on the other side of the bed. Tommy reached over and turned on his lamp so that he could see Tubbo. He was being oddly silent but just looked to be deep in thought.
“We’re growing up,” Tubbo finally said a minute later.
“We are,” Tommy confirmed, not being too sure where he was going with this.
Tubbo sighed and looked over at him. “What if we make other friends?” he asked.
Tommys face scrunched up in confusion. “I have other friends? You’re just my best friend,” he explained carefully.
Tubbo huffed, a little frustrated that Tommy didn’t seem to be getting whatever he was trying to hint at. “What if you make other friends and stop loving me?” Tubbo reiterated and oh that was a slap to the gut.
Tommy knew a lot of childhood friends grew apart in secondary school but not him and Tubbo. Never him and Tubbo.
“Tubs we’re quite literally stuck with each other until the day we die,” Tommy started with a deadpan. “I have known you since we were literally babies. There is nobody who could replace you. Not Purpled, not eryn, not even if one of the princes or princesses came to ask me to be their best friend. And you know why?”
Tubbo shook his head no. “Why?” He wondered.
“Because you’re more than my best friend,” Tommy emphasized. “You’re my brother.”
Tubbo would have cried from how sweet it was had it not been about 2 in the morning. “I knew that,” he deflected, wiping the tears that did manage to escape. “I was just testing you.”
Tommy chuckled and turned back to look at the plastic stars he had his parents put on his ceiling. “Sure.”
Tubbo reached over and smacked him and Tommy giggled and hit him with a pillow. Tubbo would have retaliated but he knew from experience that it would only lead to an even bigger fight between them and neither of them felt like getting scolded by Kristin today.
So they both laid there looking at the stars on the ceiling and not saying a word. They had gotten pretty good at just enjoying each other's presence since they went to the park last year.
They realized sometimes they didn’t go to the other to talk but simply so they could both enjoy the presence of the one person in this world who would always be able to understand them.
“You can meet my friends,” Tommy randomly spoke while they were both on the verge of sleep.
“Yeah?” Tubbo muttered.
“Yeah,” Tommy whispered.
They went back to their silence and Tommy thought maybe Tubbo had fallen asleep after that.
“You can meet mine too,” Tubbo decided.
“Epic,” Tommy managed to get out before falling asleep.
When he woke up it was a new day and the other side of the bed was cold. He wished him and Tubbo could have a full night sleepover at some point.
Maybe someday.
For now, he had to get to school. Purpled would kill him if he was late and his parents would kill him if they found out he was late after having a late night talk with Tubbo.
He chose life.
8:
“Where are we going again?” Purpled asked. Tommy didn’t answer and took him through a food court and sat down inside at a seat outside an ice cream parlor.
Purpled raised his eyebrow at him as Tommy pulled out his phone and texted someone.
“What are we doing here?” Purpled wondered. “Well actually I know what we’re doing here but where is the person we were supposed to meet?” he backtracked.
Tommy didn't say anything and kept smiling at him. Purpled just sighed and put his head on the table. If Tommy didn’t say anything in the next five minutes, he was going to threaten to stop being his study buddy.
He heard Tommy mutter something and looked up just in time to see someone he didn’t know appear next to Tomy.
“What the fuck,” he screeched.
Tommy and the unknown boy both laughed at him as passersbys who didn’t see what just happened shot him weird glances. Purpled couldn’t bring himself to care about them right now though, all he cared about was the fact that someone had literally just appeared from thin air and Tommy wasn’t even panicking.
“Tubbo this is Purpled. Purpled, meet my soulmate Tubbo,” Tommy introduced.
“Nice to meet you big man,” Tubbo said, holding out his hand. Purpled took it and shook it slowly, just barely processing the fact that one of his best friends had the ability to teleport to his soulmate.
Purpled looked down at the doodles on his own arm that didn’t belong to him and went back to looking at Tommy.
“That's how you got out of the English pop quiz we had,” Purpled realized. Tommy nodded.
Soulmate perks were universally used to help you in school. Purpleds own soulmate had given him answers more times than he can count and had to make sure to thank them whenever they met someday.
“So you keep Tommy sane at school?” Tubbo asked. Purpled nodded.
“And you’re Tommy's other half?” He wondered. Tubbo gave him a firm nod.
They sat in silence for a moment before Tubbo brought out a small picture album that Tommy forgot he brings with him almost everywhere.
“Want to look at baby pictures of us and hear the stories behind them?” Tubbo offered.
Purpled immediately perked up and ran over to him. “Do I?!”
Tommy sighed and sunk in the seat across from them. This is why he didn’t introduce his friends.
In the end, Purpled got the Tubbo seal of approval and they even exchanged numbers.
Tommy was just glad they got along. He couldn’t handle two of his favorite people hating each other.
Now he wasn’t sure he would be able to handle the two chaotic shits as friends.
9:
Tubbo had invited Ranboo over to his house and the older had no clue what he was doing over there. So far they had played some games and Puffy had made them both snacks but made extra, which she never did, and wouldn’t tell them who it was for.
Ranboo initially assumed that one of his siblings was doing a surprise visit but didn’t say anything to Tubbo so that the surprise wouldn’t be ruined.
He was proved to be very wrong when a blonde that he had never seen before appeared next to Tubbo. He screamed so loudly he was surprised someone didn’t call the cops.
“What in the world?!” He said trying to calm down his heart rate.
Tubbo and the blonde both just laughed at his misery.
“You were right,” the blonde managed out through wheezes, “it’s much funnier when you're the one doing the scaring.”
Tubbo seemed to laugh even harder at that. “Told you.” he smiled smugly.
Ranboo cleared his throat and both of the eyes in the room snapped to him.
“Tommy this is Ranboo, Ranboo this is my soulmate Tommy,” Tubbo introduced.
Soulmate? Ranboo didn’t know Tubbo had a soulmate or that they had the rarest soulmate quirk known.
Tommy seemed to scrutinize everything Ranboo was doing, even the breaths he was taking. Ranboo was slightly worried he would tell Tubbo to stop hanging out with him. He knew he couldn’t compete with a soulmate but Tubbo was one of the only friends he had and he would have to fight him on it. This friendship was one he was willing to fight for.
“He looks like a bitch,” Tommy finally said.
Ranboo scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. Of all the things he expected Tommy to say, calling him a bitch was admittedly not one of them.
“Want to see pictures of Tubbos early engineering projects?” Tommy offered bringing out his phone so that Ranboo could see.
Ranboo tentatively agreed and Tubbo sighed as he slowly started being more and more comfortable with Tommy as he laughed at Tubbos past failures.
He knew this was revenge for what he pulled with Purpled at the mall. That didn’t make him any less salty about it.
+2:
Tommy pushed the last of his boxes in the Uhaul truck and went back inside with a sigh. His parents had told him a couple months ago that they would be moving and today was finally the day.
He didn’t know if he was ready to leave his childhood home. This is where he’d grown up after all. This is where he pranked his brothers and would hide Tubbo from punishment and help his parents cook and bake and where he learned who he was.
Now he was moving to some house in Leicester that was supposedly a little bigger. He was a little upset that he was leaving Purpled behind but Purpled would be going to the same college as him so he figured his parents were planning on moving and just hadn’t told him yet.
He hadn’t even seen Tubbo recently to tell him the news. His parents had needed all the help they could get over the last couple of months so free time wasn’t something he could afford. Tubbo hadn’t been around much either.
Tommy didn’t know why but he knew Tubbo and Puffy were thinking of going to stay in Birmingham a couple of days to be able to visit Niki and Wilbur so assumed that's where they were.
“Ready to go toms?” Kristin asked, coming up behind him and leaving her key on the kitchen counter. Tommy sighed but nodded and let him take her out of the house.
He got into the car with her and they were off. Phil was already at the new house overseeing the new furniture coming in. The whole ride there Tommy couldn’t help but stare out the window and mentally say goodbye to everything, as childish as it was.
He didn’t know when he would see it again so he thought it would be better to let it all go now.
He knew they were there when they turned into a neighborhood he didn’t recognize and he saw Phil standing outside waving goodbye to some guy from a furniture company.
Tommy looked out and noticed the people directly across the street from them were either moving in or moving out. He decided he would go see after they unpacked.
The 16 year old hopped out of the car and walked up the pathway to his father.
“Do you like it mate?” Phil asked, draping his arm around his shoulder. Tommy looked at the house and shrugged.
“It has a nice garden,” He pointed out. Phil smiled and nodded.
“I chose that so you could do your flower thing with your mom,” he confessed. Tommy smiled at his dad's thoughtfulness.
Ever since Kristin found out Tommy liked flowers and flower language, they would always plant each other secret messages. It was great for messing with Phil.
“Can we see inside now?” Tommy asked.
Phil thought about it before shaking his head no. “I think you should say hi to the people across the street first,” he insisted.
Tommy looked at his dad confused. What purpose could he possibly have to go greet the people across the road. He sighed but decided the sooner he got this over with, the sooner he would get to see his new room.
He went up to the nearly identical house and knocked on the door. He could hear someone telling another person to see who it was. He heard the lock on the door turning and when it opened he froze.
Standing across from him was the person he didn’t think he would live near for another 2 years when they could move in together.
“Tubbo?”
“Tommy?” They said at the same time.
Neither of them waited another second before hugging and excitedly talking over each other. They both giggled when they realized what they were doing and called their parents over.
“Munza! Dadza! We live next to Tubbo and Puffy!” He exclaimed.
Kristin and Phil chuckled. “We know,” they chorused.
Tommy facepalmed. Of course they would know. It also made sense as to why they kept him and Tubbo so busy. So that they wouldn’t tell each other and ruin the surprise.
“Can I sleep over?” Tommy asked immediately.
“Tommy, neither of us have all the furniture together yet. We still need to help Puffy put together Tubbos bed,” Kristin said amused at his excitement.
“Please mum. I don’t care if we have to sleep outside. I have waited 16 years for a full sleepover, please don’t make me wait any longer,” he pleaded, giving his best puppy dog eyes.
Kristin looked at Phil and Puffy who both just shrugged. Kristin just sighed. “Alright, fine. You guys can use some air mattresses,” she compromised.
Tommy and Tubbo didn’t wait for her to finish her sentence before they were already inside.
And that night when they went to sleep, for the first time they didn’t have to worry about the other being gone when they opened their eyes because they were here and they wouldn’t have to teleport to each other for small things anymore.
They could enjoy each others presence as long as they pleased and they couldn’t be happier.
