Chapter Text
Tommy was four when he noticed a red door with golden lacing, it makes a pattern that was found mesmerizing to the young boy. Unfortunately, Tommy didn't have parents. He was in the foster system (which was absolutely shit might I add) and Tommy didn't have any friends. His parents died only a few months prior so Tommy himself was still grieving for them, even if they weren't that great they at least tried. And little Tommy decided to ignore the door. He didn't have any friends or family to make sure he was out from the void during his birthday month, and so the door disappeared before the four year old's eyes.
Years past and Tommy has a couple friends but he didn't really know if they were trustworthy to make sure they got him out, and he was proven correct when they left him to go train as Hero's, they never came back for him. Tommy was alone once again. A few months later two other people around his age were put in the foster system, they became friends almost instantly. Tommy learns his new friends' names were Tubbo and Ranboo. They have been together ever since they met and they decided to live together.
The trio got closer and closer over the years. They were the best at best friends to each other. And soon they finally made it out of the foster system. And after a few weeks Tommy decided to call them to the living room (which was quite small)
"What's up boss man? You said it was important," Tubbo said, he was the shortest of the trio but was very strong.
"Did something happen? Did we forget something? DID WE FORGET TO PAY THE RENT!?" Ranboo questioned, he was the tallest but anxious about everything and quite forgetful.
"No, big man. We payed the rent last week, remember? We did it a week early." Tubbo told the taller boy, who was sitting next to him, before he turned to Tommy who was standing in front of them both. "What was it you wanted to tell us Toms?"
Tommy was slightly nervous but knew he could trust the two sitting in front of him. "W-well.. I uh.. have a door that shows up every year.. and I was waiting to tell you guys to make sure you didn't.. um.. leave if I did go through the door.." and Tubbo stood up immediately.
"You have a door!? Tommy when did the door start appearing!?" Tubbo was surprised and shocked, Tommy didn't know if that was a bad thing or a good one.
"It first appeared when I was four.. a few months after my parents died and was put in the foster system.." he admitted quietly while he was looking the floor when he talked. After a few moments of silence Tommy glanced up at Tubbo to since he was worried, shocked, and surprised at the same time.
"Tommy, your birthday is soon right?"
Tommy nods and Ranboo speaks up.
"You never opened the door?"
"Didn't have anyone to keep track of time for me and get me out when the month was over" was Tommy's reply. And Tubbo look at Ranboo, they had their silent conversation and it was fine, Tommy and Tubbo had those, Tommy and Ranboo had them too. The trio would have a silent conversation with all three at times as well, but this was one that Tommy knew he wasn't supposed to look into too much, so he looked away. Tubbo was first to speak and that's when Tommy looked at them again.
"Tommy, me and Ranboo decided we're staying when you decide to go through that door. And if we both can't stay we'll be taking turns. Is that ok with you?"
"Yeah that's fine, just don't be away on a trip the requires both of you, got it?"
"You got it boss man!" And Ranboo nodded in agreement as well. Tommy was happy.
"Tubbo, we need to get going!" Ranboo pointed to a clock on the wall.
"Tommy, we'll be back in a few hours, I completely forgot we got an interview to go to!" Tubbo rushed to the only bedroom we have and came back out with two duffle bags, giving one to Ranboo.
"That's alright, Big man. Good luck!" Tommy said as the door to their apartment closed and he was left alone. This was fine, Tubbo and Ranboo have been telling him about this for a couple weeks. They said it was to bring more money to the table. Tommy thought for a moment and got up to get ready for his own job. He had been moved to the night shift a couple weeks ago, his friends knew about it too.
Tommy got ready to go and left the apartment. He was walking to the cafe. It was the usual 15 to 20 minute walk, it would depend on how busy the day would be. Tommy was thinking as he walked. Sometimes about what his powers are, other times about possibly getting another job, usually, it was about what would be lurking in the ally way he was passing by- wait a minute.. Tommy stopped walking, he never thought about what would be lurking in alleyways. He slowly walks backwards and stops when he was in front of the alleyway he just passed and looks in. All Tommy saw were just dark shadows, he couldn't see a damn thing in that alleyway. Tommy decided to ignore it and continue walking to the Cafe when he saw a man with a green hoodie and a white mask with two small dots and eyes and a small curve that was supposed to be a smile. This man is a Hero and was a few steps away from Tommy.
While the Hero was silent, Tommy spoke.
"Do you fucking need something? If you don't, I'd like to not be late for my damn shift."
The hero stepped aside, out of Tommy's way. "Sorry, I was just coming by to see if there was any criminals out tonight." He said.
"And..?"
"And I didn't find any, sorry I took up your time, sir" and with that the Hero left. And Tommy was back to walking. A bit quicker too, for a few good reasons. 1, he doesn't want to be late for his shift. 2, Tommy doesn't want to be stopped by another Hero, or a Villain at that. 3, the Hero was giving him bad vibes. 4, he feels like he's being watched now and Tommy doesn't like it.
Tommy got to The Cloudy Cafe a few seconds late. Behind the counter was Foolish, and when he saw Tommy he lit up with joy.
"Tommy!" Foolish rushed to the back and was in front of Tommy before he even knew it. "Talk about good timing! A friend of mine wanted to hang out for a while after my shift, was supposed to meet him right about now." Foolish explains as gave Tommy the apron. "I'll see you tomorrow, bye Tommy"
"Bye foolish, have fun with your friend!" He called out as Foolish left and Tommy got behind the counter after clocking in and clocking out Foolish since he forgot while he was in a rush. Puffy would understand.
It was a usual day for Tommy, a couple new faces every here and there but mostly the usual customers that come in often. Tommy was cleaning up the cafe when he heard a thud outside. Tommy wasn't sure what to expect so he started slowly walking towards the door with the broom in his hands, ready to attack the two shadowy figures who were outside while the Cafe lights were off and there weren't any street lamps near the shop, if they dared to try and fight the 17 year old employee at The Cloudy Cafe.
All the glass in the cafe were bullet proof and Tommy knew that, it was his suggestion to Puffy after some guy tried to rob the small shop. The Robber had a gun and shot it towards Tommy, missing the target since the boy had ducked bellow the counter. He grabbed the closest object he could throw and threw the thing at the robber, hitting smack dab in the face and knocking over the man with the fire arm. Tommy used the hatch to get out from behind the counter and proceed to beat the shit out of the man who tried to shoot him. Puffy came a few minutes later to see the robber tied up in front of the cafe and the customers surrounding Tommy, praising him for protecting everyone in the cafe. After the crowd dispersed Puffy walked up to Tommy and said he could ask for anything that would be in a certain price range, he asked for bullet proof glass in the shop so this wouldn't happen again so Puffy agreed.
Tommy reached the light switch by the doors and turned the lights on to see two vigilantes at the doors of the shop. Tommy was confused but opened the doors for them to come in.
"Uh, what the fuck is going on here?" Tommy questioned.
The taller vigilante spoke first to respond. "Well, we want to check in to make sure everything was ok-" he didn't even get to finish before Tommy interrupted.
"Yeah yeah, just tell me what you saw already. I gotta finish cleaning up this place, lock up, and go home."
"We saw a Villain coming this way and wanted to know if you saw anything." The shorter vigilante stated.
"I didn't see anyone come by here since.." Tommy looks at the time. "Around 11:00 pm and it's 11:38." Tommy knew these two vigilantes, they were Lethe and Aristaeus, but Tommy calls the shorter one Bumble Bee because of the wings on shorter boy's back. Lethe seems anxious from his body movement alone and Aristaeus was mostly calm, he seemed a bit agitated, probably because they can't find the villain they are most likely looking for..
"Anything else you need?"
"No, I don-" Lethe was trying to say but Aristaeus interrupts him.
"Do you mind if we look around just to be sure?"
"You can look around I suppose, though that's more of Puffy's call but I'm the only one here to make the call so.." Tommy started saying but by the end of it he was more talking to himself more than the vigilantes.
Lethe and Aristaeus glanced at each other before looking around the small cafe shop. Tommy kept an eye on them just to be safe, it was after a few minutes the two left satisfied but annoyed that they lost some time in finding the villain they were chasing earlier. After he watched them leave Tommy went back to cleaning, turned off the lights, and locked up the cafe for the night then started walking home. Man was he exhausted from tonight.
When Tommy got home he immediately went to the couch and flopped onto it after taking off his shoes. The boy knew he was alone in the apartment at the moment and before Tommy even realized it, he was fast asleep when he closed his eyes.
——Ranboo pov——
Lethe and Aristaeus continued their patrol after leaving The Cloudy Cafe. They were silent for a while until Aristaeus spoke up.
"You had a door right?"
Lethe was a bit surprised at the question but answered anyway. "Yeah, I had a door. Did you?"
He was silent for a moment before saying, "no, I found out what my powers were pretty early on."
"But you could have more than one power though. The door doesn't just show up to everyone and it's not often to see people that had a door.. but then again no one would know about it unless it's a family or very close friends."
"That's true.. let's finish up our patrol and go home ok, Lethe?"
"Alright"
They continued their patrol for about an our and when Ranboo and Tubbo got home they saw Tommy fast asleep on the couch and decided not to disturb him while they went to the bedroom. They were both silent as the got ready until Tubbo spoke.
"Think we should consider Dream's offer?"
"I think we should tell Tommy about it.." Ranboo stated.
"I do too, but Dream said we can't tell him if he doesn't want to join. and we know how Tommy is about this sort of stuff. He doesn't want to be involved in any of it, the only reason he knows anything about any of this stuff is cause we make him watch the news. Just in case somethin' ever happened while he's at work and all.."
"We can't keep this away from Tommy forever though.. if we join the Heros, we can't help anyone around here, even Tommy. Heroes won't bother helping the people in the outer district, vigilantes will."
"Yeah, your right boss man." Tubbo hummed.
"Plus we won't be able to keep an eye on Tommy when he goes through his door. We both will always be away and his birthday month is next month."
"Yeah.. it will give us a while to think about it. Dream did say to take as long as we needed to think about it."
"Let's get some sleep.. we had a long day today." Ranboo says as he get in bed. After a few moments he feels Tubbo join him on the bed. "Night Tubbo"
"Night Ranboo" Tubbo says yawning and soon they were both asleep.