Chapter Text
If asked how old Prince Theseus was on the day of his disappearance, the majority of the citizens of the Arctic Empire would say that he was six. But that wasn’t entirely true.
In reality, he’d been half an hour past turning seven years old; and the royal family never got the chance to celebrate it.
The eyes were said to be the window to the soul.
In Tommy’s nearly seventeen years of living, he had accumulated an obsession, of sorts, with studying them.
A flicker of a gaze that was just barely cut short; a certain change in atmosphere, when he’d notice someone’s eyes studying him in more ways than simple curiosity. A foster parent that was in a bad mood. The deception behind their apology when it blew over.
Deception, distrust, malice.
There were so many things that people would call awful, call you a horrible person for, when the vast majority did the exact same.
Deception was a basic part of being, well, human. Whether you were fully one, a hybrid—hell, if you weren’t even human at all, it still applied. Even the most honest of people lied. Tommy had learned that lesson as soon as he was old enough to learn.
Some would argue that he hadn’t had enough life experience to make such observations. If he were anywhere near a normal kid, he would probably agree with them, but unfortunately he probably had the most life experience out of any adult he’d ever met.
Tommy twisted through the crowded city center, hands resting in his pockets as his wired earbuds trailed down the front of his aquamarine-colored hoodie.
It was early in the morning in the streets of L’manburg. The sun was beating down on him in a way that threatened his pale skin, but the temperature in the air gave a false sense of security, his sneakered steps crunching in the lingering snow under his feet. It had been falling earlier that morning and throughout the night prior, and even though they’d laid out salt on the ground and scooped most of the snow that had lingered, there were still a lot of places they’d missed.
Tommy liked the crunching. It was kind of satisfying, like stepping on dry leaves in the beginning of fall. A lot of the citizens around here had gotten used to the feel of trudging through it. During winter, it was at a consistent few feet high no matter where you were, which was why their public transport consisted mostly of underground trains. They had wholeass neighborhoods underground, too, and somewhere far beneath the surface was the Underground.
Snow plows drove through the streets multiple times a day and smoothe overhanging roofs covered the sidewalks, providing enough room for the foot traffic, sticking out far enough that the snow could slide right off when it got too heavy, plowed away soon after.
He was surrounded by market stands being set up, all in preparation for the celebrations in remembrance for the late Prince Theseus, which would be held in a week and one day’s time. The young Prince had gone missing almost a full ten years ago, a date approximated by his birthday, and the royal family refused to let a single soul forget about it.
Everyone who worked had the whole week off, fully paid, and a press conference was scheduled for that evening to talk about the plans for the month. Tommy had a feeling, even though his team wasn’t fully invested in the Prince’s return, they’d be tuning in to the news programs out of morbid curiosity nonetheless.
It was uncommon for a royal family to continue for this long. Tommy fully believed that Prince Theseus was dead by now. It was almost just as entertaining as it was sad, to see just how desperate they were for the young boy; they’d be campaigning the entire month of April, begging the public for any sort of information, as if there would be any new info after ten fucking years.
Tommy digressed that he held the occasional annoyance over it. Especially with the fact that he shared a birthday with Prince Theseus.
Well- he wasn’t entirely sure if that was true. It was when his gang had decided his birthday was, when he’d told them he didn’t know it himself. They thought it was hilarious to make it the same day as Prince Theseus’s, to participate in the celebratory events as if they were meant for him, and he somewhat enjoyed the fact that he could pretend, just for a day, that he mattered to literally anyone.
Tommy rolled his eyes to himself, sighing lightly as he shifted his right hand away from his person and slipped his fingers into the pocket of a stranger he passed, emerging with a thick wallet pinched between his middle and forefinger.
He tilted his head with consideration as he tucked it into a hidden inner breast pocket. Gullible idiots; the people around here were really stupid around Prince Theseus’s birthday, none of them paid attention to their personal belongings. It made Tommy’s means to a living almost laughably simple.
It was because they thought they were safe. A few years ago, the royal family had passed a policy that any thieves caught during Prince Theseus’s birth month would get an additional three year penalty to their sentence. Tommy never cared about that policy. He already had more than enough on his back for a life sentence, and the death penalty had been abolished before he was even born, so it wasn’t like it really mattered.
He’d been at this shit for quite a long time. He didn’t care if he got arrested. Honestly, at this point, it would just be the excuse he’d been waiting for to end it all.
Ah, yes. Back to that mindset Tubbo and Ranboo were oh so adamant wasn’t healthy. Fucking whatever. It didn’t matter- Tommy was confident in his ability to evade the police because he’d been doing it for as long as he could remember, even when it wasn’t specifically the police he’d been running from. It was one of his specialties.
Tommy shrugged his way through the front door of an innocuous looking restaurant, a place that he knew for a fucking fact no one expected him to be walking into, but believe it or not, he actually had a reason to be here.
He pulled a solid colored mask out of his pocket, bringing his hood over his head to cover his identifiable golden curls as he made his way towards the back rooms.
Tommy handed a slip of paper with a code on it to a bouncer, gaining a nod and a gesture into the meeting room in return.
A few hours later, Tommy walked down an alleyway with a spring in his step, hands tucked into his pockets as he bobbed his head to the music in his earbuds.
The backroads of L’manburg, where he currently walked, had a rep for being some of the more dangerous parts of the city. You wouldn’t find your average Joe exploring the area unless they were up to some shady business.
This was where you’d find the drug dealing, underage drinking and smoking, muggings; other various illegal activities that were tame as hell compared to some of the other shit Tommy had seen.
All things considered, it made sense that he lived there.
His hair was now stuffed underneath a burgundy colored beanie, one that he’d spotted on a market stand on his way back, and his jaw worked at a stick of gum that came from a pack in his hoodie.
He’d been using packs of gum as an alternative recently. Tubbo had been lecturing him to hell and back about how unhealthy smoking was for people his age, and even if he was alone with the urge right now, he was sure his other teammates would be upset with the smell that would be lingering when he got back. He didn’t know why they cared so much about it.
But hell, he was in a cheerful mood. When there was a swell in his music, he added a spin to his already half-dancing walk, uncaring of any odd glances he’d gain from stoned teenagers he’d pass. He was having a fucking jam.
All good things must come to an end though, unfortunately, and Tommy found himself in front of the large metal door right as the song ended, the free-range shuffle that he’d left his music on landing him on something a lot more melancholy as he reached up to knock.
One, three, five, two.
A few beats passed, Tommy pulling one earbud out and turning the music down through the fabric of his jeans, and almost immediately he heard the telltale scraping sound of the eye window sliding open, a voice with a muffled metallic twang emerging from the other side.
“State your name and purpose,” it ordered, and Tommy couldn’t help himself from rolling his eyes, tilting back onto the heels of his feet as he gazed up.
“You know who I am, dumbass,” he replied.
The eyes narrowed. “Name and purpose.”
He snorted. "You don’t need to put up the fuckin’ act when it’s just me, you idiot, you know who I am-”
“I’m being a good door guard! If you’re not gonna appreciate my work, then you can fuckin’ leave, bitch!” the man interrupted, dropping any attempt at intimidation as the door unlatched, and his voice grew louder and unmuffled as it swung open with a continued, “At least I do my fuckin’ job, dickhead. Don't think I haven't seen the dirty dishes in the goddamned sink. You know how unbearable it is to try and make breakfast around that? It’s been four days, Tom! You’re not the only one who lives here!”
A moment passed in silence as Tommy’s counterpart looked him up and down, and Tommy tilted his head to meet the brown-eyed gaze, partially hidden behind a pair of red and blue tinted glasses.
Without a single word coming out of his mouth, he reached into the inner pocket of his coat.
Something changed in Jack’s expression, sternness transitioning into thinly veiled amusement as Tommy held the leather wallet up to him.
“You’re a right dumbass,” he remarked, and Tommy’s grin widened.
“You know you love me,” he teased, dropping the wallet into the man’s palm as he brushed past him, crossing the threshold. “Who’s ‘round, then?
“Just Purpled. He’s tinkering with the keypad system again while Tubbo and Ranboo are out. How’d the meeting go?”
“Pretty well,” Tommy hummed, knocking the snow off his shoes as he stepped onto the landing, glancing down the staircase as Jack latched the door closed behind him. “Negotiated everything, set up a pickup location and date. I was going to log it in and head out again.”
A few feet away from the door, there was a small indent in the wall with a creaky looking chair sat in the middle of it. Right above the chair was a sign, crafted out of a regular slip of paper and four pieces of craft tape, Tubbo’s messy handwriting sprawled upon it, reading: Door Guard.
Door Guard was, at the moment, a temporary position. Tubbo and Purpled needed someone to keep an eye on things while they fixed the keypad for the front door, which had short circuited a couple of days ago for seemingly no reason at all. Tommy had the feeling that Ranboo had accidentally bumped something with his head or elbow. It was easy for that tallass to get clumsy.
“I thought maybe Purpled would be out on a job or something,” Tommy voiced, beginning to unbutton his coat now that he was in the warmth of inside. “How come he’s sitting in? Is he sick?”
“I heard that they’ve upped the sentencing for thieves caught during Prince Theseus’s birthday month,” Jack replied, rifling through the wallet as they walked down the flight of stairs. “Dunno how the justice system really works around here, so by how much I couldn’t tell ya, but I think he’s trying to lay low to avoid it. You should probably be doing that too.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s something they’ve been doing for a really long time, I didn’t realize that you weren’t aware. It doesn’t really bother me, I have enough on my back for a life sentence, anyway.”
“I don’t like the idea of you getting arrested either way, you know.”
Tommy rolled his eyes. “Whatever, grandpa.”
“I’m barely older than you!” he whined.
Beeping rang out throughout the corridor, Jack’s fingers tapping fluidly upon a numbered keypad attached to the wall next to the door.
“But seriously, keep an eye out, Tommy. Try not to go out anymore today. I know you’re off for the rest of the day and all, but your safety is important.”
Although Tommy rolled his eyes, he found himself giving a nod, shrugging the coat off his shoulders as the door slid open and he stepped foot into the room on the other side.
It wasn’t particularly fancy, their base was. Tommy considered it more efficient than anything.
Upon a wall to the right was a map of the city, slick and sheen in the way the surface was made, so markings could be wiped off with ease. Group jobs always resulted in someone standing in front of it, pointing out places they could be stationed, certain strategies that would work best. Planning was one of their strongsuits. Purpled was probably the best at it.
There was a large circular table in the middle of the room. Whenever they were commissioned for a job that required a meeting, they would base it here.
Currently the room was considerably well-lit, enough to tell that there were other rooms in the base, but whenever they had a guest, they’d change the lighting in a way that made it impossible to tell how much there was to it.
It was very fun sometimes. Tubbo had a programmed system so he had remote control access to any light source in the base, so when it came to the planning portion of any meeting, he’d simply have to tap a button, and the light above the table would switch off in replacement for a backlight on the map.
It was entertaining as hell. Tommy liked seeing villain group leaders, or representatives of them, squirm in their seat. If there was anything Tommy and his team were good at, it was performance art. No one did it like they did.
Tommy’s walking slowed to a halt when he noticed Jack lingering in the door frame, a knitted brow so mild that he almost didn’t notice it.
Jack didn’t say anything when Tommy met his eyes, simply tilting his head in a way that looked like he was considering something. It didn’t look like there was malice behind it, but even still, Tommy found himself tensing at the sight of it, sending a confused look his way.
The exchange didn’t last too long before Jack’s expression shifted to something more content, pushing off the door frame as he said, “You’re a talented fella, Tom. Spend the rest of the day inside so you don’t get fucking arrested. Go play some cards or some shit.”
Tommy opened his mouth to retort, maybe ask where the fuck that came from, but he didn’t have the chance to before the metal door was automatically sliding shut behind Jack.
He sat in silence for a moment longer before shaking his head, sighing, and turning to continue to log how his meeting went.
His teammates were a bunch of fuckin’ weirdos.
“Have you ever played Go-Fish before?” Purpled sighed, taking the messy pile of cards that sat in the middle of the table and pulling them together to shuffle.
“Of course I’ve played Go-Fish! Do you think I’m dumb?” Tommy loudly remarked as he stood, the chair underneath him sliding back at the push of the back of his knees. He lifted his hand of cards and threw them down messily on the table. “Royal flush, bitch!”
Although the teenager in front of him didn’t fully react, there was a slight uptick of the edges of his mouth, a rare emergence in the guy’s expression that disappeared in the blink of an eye. “This is an Uno deck, dumbass.”
“Same difference?”
He gained an eyeroll in return as Purpled took the rest of the cards and split the deck in half, flipping the left side so it faced the right. “Believe what you want.”
He watched as Purpled pointed the cards down at the table with a tilt, pressing down with an even amount of strength from his forefingers in the middle of each half, an action which sent the cards in an interlaced sprawl.
He adjusted the way he held the cards and pushed them up again, creating an arc that kind of looked like a steep bridge as each individual card shot into place.
Tommy huffed and sat back down, crossing his arms as Purpled repeated the action a few times over before he began dealing the cards between them. “Where the fuck did you learn all that shit?” he asked.
Purpled rose an eyebrow. “It’s not that difficult.”
“I’ve seen you do it before, it kinda looks difficult.”
“Have you even tried?”
“...No.”
He snorted, leaving the leftover cards in the middle of the table as he brought his deck close to sort his hand. “We’re just playing Uno now.”
“I’m fucking bored of Uno.” Tommy reached forward and flipped the first card from the pile, placing it face-up next to it. “There’s gotta be other shit we can do today.”
“Card-wise, or just in general?” Purpled placed down a red 4 at the top of the deck. “I’m gonna be real, this is my ideal break day.”
“Of fuckin’ course this would be your ideal break day.”
“Are you trying to make a jab at me? Two can play at that game. I, for one, have plenty of things to say about what you do in your free time.”
Tommy took a card from the stack and immediately played it, forcing Purpled to take two into his hand, grumbling. “There’s gotta be other shit to do today that isn’t just cards and sitting around doing nothing," Tommy continued. “I fucking hate sitting around.”
Purpled hummed in consideration. “It’s not that far into the day- if you want to go out and do something, I’ll come with you. I know a nice bakery near the edge of town we could stop by.”
Tommy perked up. “Really? Jack told me you were laying low because they upped sentencing for thieves again.”
“Eh.” Purpled dropped three skip cards in a row, making Tommy give an annoyed sound of protest, but he wasn’t able to complain about it before the teenager in front of him was continuing his train of thought. “I’ve gotten used to it, but I guess we can never be too careful. I was just going to lay it low the first few days while they’re actually cracking down on it. I doubt anyone would try to turn us in, even if we did have bounties on our back. Because our group is a useful asset to the gangs throughout the Underground with our neutrality; the fact that we’ll take jobs from just about anyone, as long as no killing is involved, is a very respectable thing in their eyes.” He placed a card down and cleared his throat. “Setting boundaries in a place where boundaries are virtually nonexistent takes a lot of guts. But still, we can never be too careful. Also, Uno.”
“What?!” Tommy was out of his seat again. “You fuckin- this game is rigged!”
“Hey man, I haven’t won yet, you might be able to make the comeback of the century.”
Tommy scrunched his nose. “You only talk like that when you know for certain you’re going to win.” He pulled something out of his deck and slammed it down, a ‘change color’ card, and he loudly announced, “Yellow.”
At that, the poker face that Purpled had been sporting up until that point broke out into a grin as he held up the last card from his deck, revealing it to be a yellow 5. “I fucking win.”
Tommy let out a screeching sound of disappointment, using his hands to shove the remaining pile of cards over, scattering them across the table in an uneven mess of an Uno deck that was half face-up and half face-down.
Purpled’s face switched to a deadpan as he looked up at him. Tommy could swear that guy could pretend he was feeling any fucking emotion imaginable. “You’re cleaning that up.”
“Fuck you! You’re going to make me clean this up on my birthday?”
“Wh- it’s not even your fucking birthday yet! You made the mess, you clean it up, dumbass.” Purpled got up from his chair and stretched his arms above his head, face scrunching in strain, which then transitioned into a bored-sounding yawn. “I’m gonna go get dressed before we head out.”
“Wait, we’re actually going?”
“Did I say we weren’t?” Purpled let his hands fall back to his sides as he strode across the room, opening the door to get out of the lounge and into the hallway. “You should get changed, too, since you’ve been out already today. Someone might recognize you.”
“What, do you think I’m dumb enough to not notice when I’ve been seen?”
“Yes.”
The door closed heftily, leaving Tommy alone, and he sighed, leaning down to begin collecting the cards.
Those pastries better be fucking heavenly, he thought.