Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The hero stood on top of the building smiling proudly, or at least it seemed like he was. The system had been cruel and took all he could’ve ever cared for. He couldn’t escape the system but at least he had found his family in the system. He found Hephaestus first, them ending up in the same room for their first year in the ‘school’. He then found Lethe, he found the tall boy cowering in a corner after a particularly tough ‘class’. From then on the three were as close as inhumanly possible, they stood up and protected each other from the other kids in the ‘school’, they also helped with each other’s hybrid problems. It was safe to say that the three were family, and would kill anyone to protect each other.
“It’s Icarus!” Many chanted and cheered seeing the hero standing on top of the building.
Icarus smiled down at them, he didn’t hate these people. The people standing at the bottom of the building had no part in how his life went. These were the people that needed protecting, they didn't need to be hurt. These people were his people now, whether he wanted them to be or not, he had no choice.
Shaking his head, the hero waved before jumping away. On his way back to his apartment he thought and thought about how different his life would be if he only had weaker powers, or no powers at all. He then decided to pay a visit to the lower districts. After all most heroes, usually they were the heroes who had a choice to be a hero, paid no mind to the lower districts, focusing rather on the higher up districts, the ones who made all the donations. The ones who had everything they could ever ask for. The ones who thought the vigilantes were villains. The ones who hated the poor. And the ones who hated how they begged for the bare necessities.
While he made his way to the lower districts his friend, Hephaestus, randomly joined him jumping from roof to roof.
Hephaestus said with amusement, a smile evident in his voice even when Icarus couldn’t see his face, “Nice night for patrol. Mind if I join you?”
“Do what you want,” Icarus said, trying to keep from grinning.
“Oh good, because I was going to anyway.”
“So, how’d you find me?”
“Well, when you’re in your full hero get up it's really easy to spot you.”
Icarus smiled sheepishly, face flushing, “well I figure that if we had to be heroes might as well make it count.”
“I’m just teasing, I like your outfit,” Hephaestus said smiling.
“I know”
The two carried on small talk as they made their way to the lower districts. They laughed the whole time, never once being a lull in conversation.
“So, how did patrol go today?” Hephaestus asked.
Icarus shrugged, “it went okay, nothing noteworthy.”
“What time do you have to go to work for..” Hephaestus trailed off but quickly remembered what he was trying to say, “Niki’s Cafe.”
“I’ve got the night shift again, you know how I am” he said smiling.
“Yeah you antisocial gremlin,” Hephaestus laughed.
They arrived at the lower districts, they looked around at the crumbling buildings, at the poor families on the street and at the drunk people stumbling around. After looking around they walked around stopping any lefts, and giving the little amount of food they had on themselves to the children that wandered around or were sitting on the ground.
“Hey I have to go, I have work in a couple of hours,” Icarus said.
“Oh okay,” Hephaestus started with a smile, “I’m going to stay for a bit longer.”
“Okay I’ll see you later,” Icarus said.
Icarus then started the tedious process of going back to the slightly upper districts, though not the number one district. He would never live with the rich snobs that took away his life.

————————————————

When Tommy arrived back at his apartment he quickly took off the mask that was covering his eyes to show his dull almost gray eyes.
Sighing, Tommy whispered to himself, “okay I can do this just get ready and if I have time take a nap”.
Dragging his feet he walked to the bathroom, turning on the shower and looking in the mirror.

Later after getting ready and taking a nap (around 7:32)

Tommy walked out of his apartment and locked the door. He then started to make his way to Niki’s cafe.
When he got there

“Hey Tommy!” Niki said distractedly when Tommy walked into the cafe.
Tommy smiled and said happily, “hey Niki, how is the end of your shift going?”
Niki looked up at the end of his question, her smile faltered for a second then she answered in a less cheerful tone, “It’s been alright, though some people said some things.” At the end of her sentence she looked down and her voice went low for a second.
Tommy frowned and walked around the counter to console the girl. In a low comforting voice he whispered, “hey, don’t listen to them you are amazing for who you are.” In a slightly more upbeat tone he said, “here I'll take over the rest of your shift and you can go home early.”
“Oh no Tommy, you really don't have to do that.”
“Really Niki it’s not that big of a deal, I'd be happy to do it.”
“Tommy…”
“No protesting,” he made grabby hands towards the apron she was wearing. “Hand it over and go enjoy your evening.”
Sighing, Niki reluctantly handed over the apron and walked out from behind the counter. She then stood by the edge of the counter while Tommy pulled his hair back and out on his apron.
“Hey, don’t overwork yourself and get burnt out please,” Niki said with a sad smile.
“Hey! I’m a big man, I don’t get burnt out!” Tommy said with a wide smile.
Laughing Niki turned and started walking out the door but paused right before leaving, “seriously Tommy, take care of yourself,” she then walked out.
Tommy then lost his smile and sighed while running his fingers through his hair. He then looked at the clock which showed 7:43,and he groaned loudly.

At around 11 very few people are coming in, and when people do come in they usually look like they are dead on their feet and need a quick pick me up. So there Tommy is, sitting on a stool behind the counter playing Cats & Soup while trying not to fall asleep. A few times he reluctantly put down his phone and got up to make someone their latte or tea.

Finally it’s 1:40! Tommy thought as he started cleaning up. No one ever came in after midnight because no one was that crazy, or at least that’s what he thought until a moment later. At 5.6792401 seconds past 1:41 Tommy looked very surprised to see a blonde haired man walking into the small cafe. Quickly he put down the rag and cleaner he was holding and wiped his hands on his aperon and walked over.
“Hi, how can I help you?” Tommy said in his best customer service voice
The man chuckled and said, “hey mate, one moment I’m going to look at the menu.”
Tommy raised an eyebrow and the laugh, after all what on earth could he be laughing at he was perfect at dealing with customers at 1:42 am… okay so maybe he was exaggerating at how good his customer service voice was, but in his defense it was very late (early he supposed was correct) and he just wanted to go home and sleep the rest of the night (day?) away.
“Okay take your time!” Tommy said in his perfectly cheerful voice.
After a few moments had passed Tommy started wondering who on earth took this long to look at a menu, but he was quickly pulled out of his thoughts by the man speaking.
“Hmm okay I’ve decided,” the man started. “I’ll have a medium chai latte, large black coffee and hmm a large London fog.”
Jesus who on earth orders 3 drinks that have caffeine at this time, especially a black coffee; he thought while mentally making a grossed out face, or at least he thought he merely thought he said and did these things in his mind but he was surprised when he heard the man loudly. Tommy quickly covered his mouth as though that would take back what he had said.
“I know right!” The man said while still laughing rather loudly.
“Sorry,” Tommy quietly stammered out.
“Oh don’t be sorry, it is a rather insane choice of drinks at this time of hour. But work never stops for anyone, even at this time; you must know something about that, yes?” The man said kindly.
Sighing Tommy said very exaggeratedly, “yep, any how can I have your name?”
Glancing around the shop for a second the man turned back to Tommy and raised an eyebrow, Tommy then shrugged.
“Phil..”
“Okay Philza, the drinks will be ready in a bit,” Tommy said while turning around to get the drinks ready.
“Philza?” The ma- Phil muttered confused.
Phil (apparently that was his name, what a lame name) had tried to make small talk for the 5ish minutes it took to make the drink, but it was rather clear after the first 3 attempts that Tommy was done talking at the moment so he went and sat down at a table not far from the counter and pulled out his phone.
When Tommy finished Phil’s drinks he called out his name even though there was no one else in the room and he could very clearly see the man.
Phil looked up, put his phone away and walked quickly over to the counter to pick up his drinks.
Smiling softly, Phil said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome” Tommy grinned.
With that Phil pulled money out of his wallet and quickly put it in the jar that in bold letters said “TIPS” and walked out the door.
“Huh,” Tommy muttered, pulling the money out of the jar.
“What?!” He then yelled when he saw how large the number on the bill was.
Muttering something under his breath about rich people and then he went to get ready to close since it was now 1:50 am.

————————————————

Phil sat quietly in the shadows atop a building next to the small cafe that in bright letters said “Niki’s Bakery!”. He glanced over at the two drinks that sat untouched and was about to leave when he saw the light in the bakery turn off and heard a quiet ring that signaled that the door was opened. The tall blonde haired child walked out and nervously glanced around.
Phil knew in his mind what he was hiding but it didn’t stop the small gasp that escaped his lips when he saw the red and gold wings that the younger blonde had revealed. Spreading out his own wings Phil winced at how ill taken care of the younger’s wings looked, there were feathers horridly bent and in between the broken feathers was mass amounts of dirt and grime.
After shaking himself to get rid of the feeling of hurt wings Phil looked down and frowned sadly when he saw the blonde- he believes his name tag said Thomas but he isn’t sure- trying futility to get off the ground, after a few times he seemed to give up and started walking sadly away.
Phil watched him go till he could no longer see him and then he got up, brushed himself off, grabbed the drinks carefully and took off.

When he walked into the large house he was tied and he set the drinks on the kitchen counter.
“Dad, what took you so long?”
The blonde looked up and was met with the sight of his (currently) youngest son.
“Oh hey wil,” he started with a fond smile.

Chapter Text

“Oh hey Wil,” Phil started with a fond smile. “No reason, it just took a bit longer to get the drinks.” While he was talking his other son came into the room.
“Hey dad,” his pink haired child said while grabbing his coffee.
“Hey mate,” Phil smiled.
“I’ll be in my room if you need me,” Wilbur said while grabbing his drink.
Sighing, Phil picked up his tea and took a sip.
“So,” Tecno dragged out. “What was the real reason you took so long to get the drinks?”
“What do you mean? That was the real reason,” Phil stammered out in surprise.
“I’m not as gullible as Wilbur and you know this,” Techno said before taking a sip of his drink.
“Yeah I know, but I was kinda hoping that you would let it slide this time,” Phil said with a laugh.
Raising an eyebrow, Techno said, “So you gonna spill or what?”
“There's this boy that I ran into-”
“Oh gods here we go again,” Techno said while dragging his free hand down his face. “When is he going to be adopted?”
“Hey! Rather rude to assume that I’m going to adopt another child.” Phil said defensively.
“I’m so sorry for assuming,” Techno said blandly, looking unamused.
“Okay you caught me, it's just I have the feeling that I need to get to know him. You know?”
“So, tell me about him,” Techno said softly.
“He doesn’t have much of a filter, that's for sure,” Phil said while laughing. “But he seems like he’s kind and- I don’t really know how to explain it, you’d just have to see for yourself.”
“Well before you adopt him at least let me and Wil meet him and get to know him.” Techno said with a smile.
“Sounds fair,” Phil said with a chuckle.
“Okay enough conversations of you adopting another child; you ready to go out now?”
“Yep, just got to change then we can leave.”
“Okay I’ll tell Wilbur to get ready.”
“Thanks,” Phil said while getting up and ruffling his hair.
“Mhm,” Techno said distractedly while straightening out his hair.
When Phil went into his office and shut the door he could faintly hear Techno yelling for Wilbur to get ready.

-------------------------------

After locking up the shop Tommy had a feeling that someone or something was watching him. He glanced around nervously, but when he was unable to see anything he pulled up the hood on his jacket and debated about letting his wings out. Standing still for a moment to decide the feeling of being watched became more intense, it almost felt like more than one thing was watching him now. He pulled out his phone to check the time and sent Niki a text saying that he was going to be heading home. After putting his phone away he ultimately decided to let his wings out for a bit, it had been a while since he’d properly stretched them.
Sighing he took off his hoodie- still ignoring the feeling of being watched intently- and let his wings out. He tried a couple times to catch the small breeze going by but after his second attempt he simply stretched his wings out and started walking toward his apartment building.

It wasn’t until he was fully inside the dead lobby of the apartment building that the feeling of being watched fully went away, though he did notice that once he reached the end of the block that Niki’s cafe was located on the feeling became less intense.
After sighing exasperatedly and dragging his hands down his face he pulled his hoodie back on and started to walk up the mountain of steps to his apartment.
Once he reached the top he felt like falling over but ultimately decided that passing out on the floor outside his apartment would not be a good thing and Tubbo might murder him if he saw how over worked he was; so he shuffled over to the door and opened it quietly so he wouldn’t wake his roomates.
When he walked in, the first thing noticed was the sleeping figures on the couch. He laughed quietly when he saw Tubbo and Ranboo passed out in awkward positions and the way that the Ranboo had a protective arm thrown over Tubbo. After checking his phone he quickly put his things on the ground and went to the bathroom to change and get ready for bed.
When he walked back into the living room he was not surprised to see that neither Ranboo or Tubbo had moved. He quickly turned off the lights and went to lay on the floor as the pull out couch didn’t look like it had much room left. When he heard a quiet whisper that sounded like Tubbbo said, “Tommy get your butt on this couch now.”
“Yes sir,” Tommy replied with a quiet laugh.
The moment he sat down on the couch he felt a strong arm pull him close, when Tommy looked over he saw Ranboo smiling happily as his tail flicked back forth. Smiling contently Tommy felt himself slowly drifting off to sleep

Tommy heard screaming but it didn’t register that it was him until he was being shaken awake and the sound died down. When he finally came around enough he took a look around at his surroundings and saw that Tubbo was in the kitchen cooking while Ranboo was sitting directly next to him running his fingers through Tommy’s hair.
“You good big man?” Tubbo asked, worry lacing his voice.
“Yep, just a dream,” Tommy said with a grin.
“Okay, get over here and help me finish up breakfast,” Tubbo said.
Whining Tommy responded with, “You know what? I’ve actually changed my mind, I’m dying and the only way to stop it is to not help make food.”
“Haha,” Tubbo said while rolling his eyes.
“Ugh, why can’t you have Boo Boy help you,” Tommy said while getting up.
“Tubbo said that I’d probably burn the food,” Ranboo provided.
Standing for a second to think about it Tommy thought about it and said, “Yeah you’d probably end up burning to food or you’d set the kitchen on fire.”
Tommy laughed loudly at the offended look on Ranboo’s face and walked over to help Tubbo finish making the food.

After finishing the food the three decided to go out and do things before Tubbo and Ranboo had to leave to patrol around the hero tower, and so they decided to go to the park.
While the boys were walking to their favorite park that had the best spot to watch the town they saw that the bakery was having a sale on some sweet treats; so they decided that they would spend some of the extra money they had on some treats.
After buying the baked goods the trio walked to the nearby park and sat down on their favorite bench.
“So what song should we listen to first?” Tubbo asked while grinning.
“Let’s wait before listening to something,” Ranboo said softly.
The three spent the morning talking and laughing with each other while also listening to songs that played in the background.

“Hey, what time is it?” Tommy asked.
Checking their watch Ranboo answered, “It’s about 11.”
“Ughhh,” Tubbo whined. “We have patrol with Dolos and his gang.”
“Man that sucks, glad I have today off,” Tommy said.
“I know right, he thinks he’s the best,” Tubbo said with an eye roll.
“Hey at least Vulcan and Hypnos will be there,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, he’s not as dramatic and self absorbed when they’re around,” Ranboo chimed in.
“Whatever,” Tubbo mumbled.
“Well we should probably get going if we don’t want them to get angry,” Ranboo said.
“Okay, let’s head back to the apartment,” Tommy said with a sigh.
The trio packed up and started to walk back to their apartment.

“Do you guys ever think about just leaving the city and never having to be heros again?” Tommy asked quietly.
The other two stopped walking and stared at him.
“What? I’m not saying that we should, I’m just asking if you guys ever think about that kinda thing,” Tommy said defensively.
“Tommy, let’s not talk about this,” Ranboo said with a sigh.
“Yeah, we can’t leave so there’s no point in even thinking about it,” Tubbo said irritatedly.
“I know, I just wanted to ask,” Tommy mumbled.
With that he started walking while Tubbo and Ranboo waited for a moment before continuing to walk.
“I’m worried about him,” Tubbo said sadly.
Sighing, Ranboo said, “I know, he’s been acting off recently.”

“Be safe guys,” Tommy said while hugging the other two.
“We will be, and make sure to not spend the entire time inside today,” Tubbo said with a laugh.
“Have fun at work as well,” Ranboo said while letting go of Tommy.
“Sure, big man,” Tommy grinned.
“Bye!” Tubbo yelled while dragging Ranboo out the door.
“Bye,” Tommy said with a laugh.
The door shut loudly and Tommy was alone.

‘Ugh, why does no one tell you that life is so boring,’ Tommy thought while laying on the couch.
He threw his hands over his face and kicked his legs while thinking of what to do.
‘You know what, I’ll just go to the training center,’ Tommy thought while getting up.
With that thought he went to the bathroom and got changed, grabbed his gear for a fight and left.

Tommy pulled his hair up and walked over to the punching bag. While he punched he spaced out and let his body work on auto pilot till he felt his hands start to sting.
He sighed and walked over to where he had put his bag down and took a drink from his water bottle.
“What to do now,” Tommy mumbled to himself.
He glanced into his bag and saw his sword fighting gear and smiled.
One of the things that he had instantly picked up that the academy had taught them was sword fighting. He quickly became the best of his class while they were learning sword fighting, no one knew why he was good at it but some people whispered that he could even go up against Ares himself. Tommy quickly denied this, doubting that he even stood a chance against the villain.
Tommy checks the time and throws his head back dramatically before he picks up his sword and walks over to the arena.
He pulled one of the dummies into a corner where he then began to fight it, it wasn’t as challenging as he would have liked but it would do for now.
This time instead of zoning out and letting go of his body his mind becomes sharp and he focuses on the task at hand.
After he had been fighting the stupid dummie for a while he heard someone walk into the room but he ignores it, figuring that the person simply wanted to practice like he was, that's what he thought until the person cleared their throat.
Sighing he turns around to find a tall man with long bubblegum pink hair, a poet or royal esc outfit, tusks and pink tinted skin pointing a sword at him dramatically.
Raising an eyebrow Tommy asks, “Can I help you?”
“Just wanted to know if you’d like an actual challenge,” the man says while lowering the sword to his side and tilting his head. “ So would you like to fight?”
“Okay then, kinda dramatic but sure we can fight,” Tommy says with a laugh.

----------------------------------

Shit.
Shit was all that was going through Techno’s mind as he fought this kid. When he first decided to challenge the kid to a duel he didn’t expect him to be as good as he was; the kid looked scrawny, so obviously he thought he could take him. Huge mistake on his part, the kid might’ve looked scrawny and weak but he just used that to his advantage. Techno had completely underestimated him, the kid could maneuver his body well, he was obviously very flexible, unlike Techno who, though had very fluid movements, lacked flexibility and being able to maneuver like he was some kind of bendable ruler. So taking this all together, simply Techno was screwed. He had let him get the upper hand, otherwise he was sure he could beat him.
Having been somewhat spaced out after he knew that he was doomed, the kid won the duel rather quickly without having to use too much of his energy.
“Damn kid, could’ve told me that you were better than you looked,” Techno said after he had lost.
“Not my fault you underestimated me,” Tommy grinned while shrugging.
“Heh, you up for another round?” Techno asked.
Glancing at the clock then back at Techno, Tommy smiled and said, “If you don't think I’ll win again”
“Ha, sure kid,” Techno chuckled.

“Ouch, if you didn’t like losing could’ve just told me,” Tommy said while rolling his eyes.
“Oh shiz, sorry, umm let me go get you a band aid,” Tehcno said with a hint of panic.
“Calm down man, it’s nothing,” Tommy said, trying to calm the other down.
“Well you flippin 'got cut and it was my fault,” Techno argued.
“Dude, it's no big deal, seriously,” Tommy argued back.
“Sure, let me just go get a band aid,” Techno said in defeat.
“I literally do not need one,” Tommy deadpanned.
“Kid, that’s kind of a big cut,” Techno said.
“First, I’m not a kid, second just watch,” Tommy said.
With that Tommy lifted his unharmed hand, hovered it over the cut and squeezed his fingers together. The skin around the cut then began stitching itself back together leaving only a tiny scar in its place.
“Okay, what the hell was that!” Techno yelled in surprise.
“My powers, dumbass,” Tommy said, an eye roll evident in his voice.
“No need to be rude about it,” Techno defended.
“uh huh,” Tommy said.
“Ignoring how rude you are,” Techno started. “What’s the score?”
“96 and 69,” Tommy laughed.
“No way, you’re exaggerating,” Techno said in slight shock.
“Nope, sorry big man you just kinda suck,” Tommy said with a large grin.
“Ugh, can’t believe I was beaten by a child,” Techno said while dragging his hands down his face.
“Oi! I'm not a child! You’re just ancient,” Tommy said defensively.
“Okay, I’m only 23; and if you’re not a child then I’m the number one hero,” Techno said.
“Pfft as if you could be as much of a bitch as him,” Tommy said laughing.
Techno smiled softly at the boy’s laughter, ‘yeah Phil’s making a good decision’
Yesss bedrock brosss, Technosoft, we just gonna ignore his powers-, E, imagine if he knew Techno was a villain, surprise adoption?, his hair is shiny :0, softnoblade \o/
“Chat shut up,” Techno mumbled.
“You say somethin’?” Tommy asked.
“Nah, I’m gonna go now though,” Techno said.
“Ah okay,” Tommy said while glancing at the clock in the room, “Aw shit, gotta run, bye.”
“See ya kid,” Techno said smiling.
With that the two parted ways as Tommy ran out of the room as fast as he could.
Techno smiled and began cleaning up the mess that the two had made.

--------------------------------

‘That guy was strange, and here I thought I wouldn't meet any weird people today,’ Tommy thought while running back to his apartment.
Once Tommy got back to his apartment he quickly dropped his gym bag by the door and decided to make some food.
After burning himself on the stove far more times than he would like to admit he finally had the most simple meal ever, ramen. Listen it’s not his fault that cooking is so difficult, Tubbo was usually the one that cooked; he strongly disliked cooking so he simply avoided it when plausible.
‘I am simply the best, look at my ramen,’ Tommy thought while sitting down to eat an early dinner.
After he had finished the food he glanced at the time and decided he had enough time to take a quick shower before having to go to Niki's. He wanted to stop the loneliness even if that meant going to work early.
After taking a quick shower he looked around in a rush for anything clean and ended up grabbing one of Ranboo’s shirts. Since said man was so tall Tommy had to roll up the sleeves a couple of times.
‘Jeez okay Tubbo and I really need to do our laundry,’ Tommy thought while starting the walk over to the cafe.
Once Tommy reached the small cafe he took a deep breath then walked in.
…
Okay so maybe he wasn’t exactly expecting to see the same man the he had ran into at the gym at his work, but it is a small city that doesn’t have very many places to get coffee; still it must’ve been close to impossible to see the man only what an hour and a half after he had first seen him.
“Uh, fancy seeing you here?” The man said awkwardly with a small wave.
“Don’t have to be so awkward man,” Tommy said with a laugh.
“Tommy, what on earth are you doing here?” Niki said with an eye roll.
“Well ya know just thought I’d come in early to help out,” Tommy said.
“Uh huh,” Niki said dryly.
“So man, loser if you will, do you have a name?” Tommy asked, ignoring Niki.
“Okay I did not lose that much,” The man defended.
“You sure?” Tommy asked with a grin.
“Okay fine maybe I did, and yes I have a name, it's Technoblade,” The man, now apparently TeCnoBlAde, said.
“Cool, I’m Tommy,” Tommy beamed.
“Okay since you two are done with introductions, Tommy go sit,” Niki commanded.
“I- W-wha,” Tommy stuttered out in surprise.
“You heard me, go sit,” Niki said.
“I'm just gonna leave…” Techno said while slowly backing away from the other two.
“Niki,” Tommy whined, “Just let me work, I’m here anyways”
“Nope, go sit, I'll bring you tea or something in a moment,” Niki said.
“Ugh fine,” Tommy relented.
“Thanks Tommy,” Niki says with a softer voice.
Tommy nods, sits at a table in the back and pulls out his laptop.

After a while Niki coms over and gives him a passion fruit drink before walking back to the counter to serve more customers.
Sighing Tommy takes a sip of the drink and continues working on paperwork for the Hero Committee.

Tommy had finished what little work he had 15 minutes before his shift, so he sat there for about 5 minutes before Niki noticed that Tommy was spacing out, and she went over to him.
“Hey Tommy!” Niki said somewhat loudly after she had finished serving all the customers.
“Yes?” Tommy called back.
“How would you like to start work now?” Niki said with a small sigh.
“Yes!” Tommy yelled in excitement.
“Okay, get over here then,’ Niki said with a laugh.
With that Tommy quickly put away his computer and bounded over to Niki.
“Also, don’t bother coming in early next time,” Niki started while taking off the apron. “I will force you to leave if you are more than 5 minutes early.”
“Fine,” Tommy said.
“Okay I’m heading out now,” Niki said before ruffling Tommy’s hair.
“Okay, be safe Niki,” Tommy said with a smile.
“Mhm, bye Tommy,” Niki said then closed the cafe door.

Tommy somewhat had hoped that he would see Phil again, the man seemed like a lot of fun; Phil hadn’t shown up and it was 40 minutes till his shift ended. Tommy had seen some rather interesting people though, he had seen one man with a scar that ran across almost his entire face. He seemed like fun to talk to though he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to. He also saw one person who seemed to be wearing royal clothes, they seemed very elegant but she was also very kind and gave Tommy a tip. All in all it hasn’t been-
Tommy is dragged out of his thoughts by the sound of a bell going off, he looks over and sees a person wearing a dress come in.
“Hi, what would you like to order today?” Tommy says with his best fake cheerful voice.
“Hi, I’d like-” the person is cut off by a loud ringing going off from both of their phones. They pull out their phone at the noise and then gasp.
“Are you okay?” Tommy asked.
“Oh um, I’ll just be leaving, I suggest you do too,” The person said before running out of the building.
Tommy, now alone in the building, pulled out his phone to see what scared the person.
“Ugh,” Tommy said when he saw that there was a fight around the building.
‘Should probably lock up, don’t think anyone else is going to be coming in now,’ Tommy thought before sending Niki a quick text about the situation and how he was going to be closing early.
Tommy then started doing his regular closing tasks of wiping down the tables and cleaning the machines.
Once he finished up he took the extra pastries that hadn’t sold out of the display case and put them in a bag for Ranboo and Tubbo. He then walked out and while he was locking the door he took a moment to look at who was fighting.
He saw the signature smiley face that meant that Dolos was there, which meant that Hypnos must be there seeing as how the two never separated; it only took a second of looking around before he saw the white glasses that Hypnos always wore. After looking around some more he determined that Vulcan, Lethe, and Hephaestus were also there, which made sense seeing as how they all had patrolled together.
He then glanced over at the villains to see that Ares with his boar mask and pink hair was there, which meant that either Siren or Charon had to be there with him. After another glance by him he saw that Siren with his long brown trench coat and Charon who was currently using his large black wings were indeed there. He also noticed that Flora with her pink hair was there, along with Jester who had his yellow duck wings puffed up.
Tommy had finished locking the door and started to walk away until he heard Dolos yell “Shit!” at which he turned around to see a large piece of rubble coming at him.
Tommy quickly put his arms in front of his face waiting for the impact that never came. When he looked up he saw that the piece of rubble had stopped only inches from his face by a chunk of feathers holding it back.
Tommy glanced at Charon to see him holding his hand out towards him before dropping it and shooting a quick smile at Tommy.
Tommy, in shock, quickly yelled, “Thank you!” before running toward his apartment.

It didn’t sink in that that had actually happened until Tommy was in the apartment. The moment he shut the door Tommy realized that Charon had saved his life and Tommy had yelled a thank you at the man; in front of Dolos and the group nonetheless.
When Tommy thought about that he had prompley yelled a different array of curse words loudly. Tubbo was going to skin him alive and Ranboo worse of all was going to be so disappointed that he had actually thanked a villain! Though Tommy wasn’t all that sorry for saying sorry, the villain had saved him for having to heal himself a lot; rather Tommy was sorry that he had said in infront of Dolos.
‘Oh my god Dolos is going to kill me,’ Tommy thought.
Man he was going to get the longest lecture about how ‘we don't talk with the enemy’ or ‘you don't thank the villain who has killed people’, it was just common courtesy though. I mean when someone saves you a lot of work, especially painful work, you obviously thank them. Dolos would not care about any of that though, he would simply care that he had said anything to the man at all.
Well, these were all tomorrow Tommy’s problems, at the moment Tommy was beyond tired. So Tommy got ready for bed before pulling out the bed and then promptly falling asleep.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up to a rather loud attempt at whispering. When he cracked open his eyes to see what the commotion was he noticed that his two roommates had returned and that they seemed to be arguing.
‘Oh gods, what stupid fight did they get into this time,’ Tommy thought while mentally rolling his eyes.
Then there was one word that instantly caught Tommy’s attention and instantly started his thoughts into overdrive.
“-simple mistake on Tommy’s part!” Tommy heard Ranboo whisper yell.
“Yeah and it could seriously cost us!” He also heard Tubbo yell clearly with less effort to be quiet.
“Well what was he supposed to do?” Ranboo whisped aggravated’ “He was supposed to act as a civilian!”
“Doesn’t mean he should just completely act like he isn’t a hero,” Tubbo said a little more quietly.
“What if he started acting like a hero? Then he would for sure be found out and there would be trouble,” Ranboo whispered sternly.
“Doesn’t mean he can just go around talking to literal villains,” Tubbo huffed.
Ranboo sighed, “I know, but I’m saying that we shouldn’t really get mad at him for playing the part.”
“Fine,” Tubbo said with an eyeroll.
Tommy saw Tubbo start to turn towards him so he quickly shut his eyes and let his body go limp. Tommy then heard shuffling and Tubbo sigh.
“Lets just go to bed Boo,” Tubbo whispered.
“Okay,” Ranboo whispered.
More shuffling was heard and then he felt two bodies join him on the bed on either of his sides. He then felt himself and the person on his right begging tugged into the side of the person on his left, instinctually his wings that he had let out before getting into the bed wrapped around the other two.
As he slowly felt his mind get heavy with sleep and he felt his roommate's breath begin to even out Tommy had one last thought beginning to form, ‘I love these two, but…’ and at that he fell asleep for the night.

This time when Tommy woke up it wasn’t to his roommates fighting but rather to the sunlight streaming into the living room and the sound of the birds chirping. Tommy sat up and noticed that Tubbo and Ranboo were still fast asleep and looked as though they would not be waking up any time soon.
Sighing Tommy muttered to himself, “guess I’ll go make breakfast.”
Tommy pulls out his phone while walking over to the kitchen and finds multiple text messages from Dream telling him to go to the main conference room when he gets to the hero tower.
“That’s going to be a painful conversation,” Tommy winces.
Tommy puts his phone away and opens the fridge to find something easy to make himself for breakfast. After looking through the freezer and fridge for about thirty seconds Tommy decided that they needed to go grocery shopping as they only had three eggs, half a loaf of bread, an empty gallon of milk, a random array of vegetables that looked as though they were about to go bad, and random frozen sandwiches. Today was just not going well for Tommy and it was only 7 am. Tommy grabbed a piece of bread and an egg, he debated whether to make something with effort or just something simple; he ended up going with something simple and made scrambled eggs and toast.

After finishing his breakfast he quickly cleaned his dishes and left a note for the others in the apartment before he stuffed his wings under a hoodie and headed out for the hero tower.

Once he reaches the looming building that is the hero tower he quickly walks inside and goes to the elevators. He pushes the number 14 button and the elevator quickly shoots up to the level. When he hears the ding that means he has reached the floor he quickly walks down the hall to the conference room.
He opens the door and sees Dream, Sapnap, George, and Schlatt all standing at one of the ends of the long table in the room. The four men are facing away from the door talking to each other in hushed whispers. Tommy cleared his throat and the men’s head’s turned towards him in the blink of an eye.
“Well look who’s here,” Schlatt said with an evil sort of amusement in his voice.
“Hello Schlatt,” Tommy says, voice lacking any emotion.
“When you’re in the hero tower you use the hero names,” Schlatt said, voice turning cold.
“Yes,” Tommy said quietly.
“Yes what?” Schlatt said, annoyance clear in his voice.
“Yes, Dionysus,” Tommy grated out.
“Good,” Schlatt said with a grin, “now Icarus, Dolos will be dealing with your punishment while I work on more important things.”
Tommy simply nodded, at which Schlatt rolled his eyes and stood up.
‘What are you going to do, kidnap more kids?’ Tommy thought while internally rolling his eyes.
Once the door to the room closed Dream started talking, “Now Tommy, you must know what you did wrong; I’m sure Lethe and Hephaestus have not let you hear the end of it.”
“I do know what I did wrong, though the two are yet to talk to me about it,” Tommy said. As an afterthought he added, “Dolos.”
“Strange, though we will not dwell on that,” Dream or Dolos said while he started pacing back and forth the width of the room.
“Okay,” Tommy said, though Dream was surely not paying attention to a word he said.
Dream stopped pacing, looked at Tommy and said, “I am going to forgive you this once because I’m kinder than Schlatt.”
Tommy’s eyes lit up and his frown grew into a small smile.
“Don’t get your hopes up too high though,” Dream said. “You still have to be punished or else I would get in trouble, so you are going to either spend your entire shift- granted that is if it goes uninterrupted- either working through paper work or training with George and Sapnap.”
‘I guess that's fair, I wouldn’t want Dream to get in trouble because of me,’ Tommy thought while trying to make a decision.
“I would rather train with Vulcan and Hypnos, if that is okay,” Tommy ended up saying.
“Okay then go change into your gear and meet them on the power training level,” Dream said before turning away and sitting down in a chair.
Sapnap and George stood up and walked past Tommy to also get ready, while Sapnap passed he gave Tommy a fond hair ruffle.

Once Tommy had pulled on his hero gear he walked down the five flights of stairs to the basement and opened the door to the training level.
“Tommy! We’re over here,” Sapnap yelled from a corner across the room.
Tommy quickly walked over to where the pair stood.
“We’re just gonna start on some simple gliding practices,” Sapnap said once Tommy had come near.
“You really were never taught how to fly right?” George asked from where he was leaning on a wall.
“Nah, the academy never bothered to teached the winged people; though there weren't that many to begin with,” Tommy said with a shrug.
“Huh, seems like a waste of potential,” George muttered.
Tommy shrugged and turned to Sapnap.
“Well get your wings stretched then head up onto the board, you’re going to be trying to dodge the fireballs I send,” Sapnap said while pulling on his fire resistant gear.
“You got it big man,” Tommy said while starting to stretch his wings.
Once Tommy had his wings ready to be used he climbed atop the tall board and pushed off to start gliding. Tommy had never been the best in the air despite the fact he was an avian, the academy had spent one hour on a random day when they had the revelation that the wings could be useful so they taught them simply how to glide. The academy hadn’t taught the avians or elytrians how to fly, they never said their true reasoning though Tommy had a sneaking suspicion that it was because they were afraid they would all fly away and they would lose their weapons. Despite any weird reasoning behind it the academy simply never taught them and so they simply never learnt, the academy had also only spent 2 hours total teaching them how to glide. It was clear that the people who ran it never looked into specific species as half the children at the school died after the first month of being there, but with the avains it was clear they assumed they were all the same when they expected all of them to glide easily. Tommy had ignored how after the first sesion the girl with white fluffy wings which were clearly those of a chicken and the older boy with large black bony wings had disappeared and he never saw them again.
Tommy gracefully gilded side to side while evading the large fireballs that were coming at him quickly. When Tommy touched the ground again he felt a hand come up behind him and it squeezed his shoulder. Tommy turned around and smiled up at Sapnap.
“That was good Tommy, you never once came close to getting hit, you’ve definitely improved in your time being a hero,” Sapnap said with a smile.
Tommy bathed in the praise while it lasted but it quickly turned to things he had to improve.
“You really shouldn’t be getting so cocky out there though, you could end up running into something or getting hit by something,” Sapnap said in a serious tone.
“I’ll work on that,” Tommy said with a nod.
“Okay you better,” Sapnap said before switching back to his upbeat tone. “Anyways let's work on some hand to hand combat now.”
Tommy gulped nervously and asked, “um, who will I be fighting? You or George?”
Sapnap rolled his eyes and his tone became annoyed, “You know who you will be fighting.”
Tommy nodded and resigned himself to his fate. He always dreaded hand to hand combat because he usually would be fighting George. George may seem as though he wouldn’t be a good hand to hand fighter but that's exactly why he was, he used his small stature to his advantage and was able to get inside your brain once he had simply touched you; after he touched you it was all over, he would get inside your head and scramble it and make is seem like your worst nightmare was coming true. He hated fighting George. Once he made you so disoriented that you didn’t know what was happening he would beat you to a bloody pulp.
As he readied himself for the fight he also mentally prayed to whatever god was listening that George wouldn’t kill him. Then the fight started.
Tommy went to kick but George grabbed his leg and flipped him onto his back, then the nightmare began. Tommy saw blood but that was all he saw before he was quickly brought back to reality. That was the good thing about this being simply training, George never left him in the nightmare world for too long.
When Tommy finally came to his senses again he stood up and readed himself for yet another fight. This time George was the first to go for a strike, he tried to grab Tommy’s arm but Tommy ducked to the side and was met with mostly the back of George. Tommy kicked George hard in the back but the older only stumbled a few steps before regaining his balance. Tommy got cocky and went to punch the side of George’s head but George grabbed his fist mid punch and just like that, Tommy was back in the nightmare world.
Just as quickly as Tommy was brought to the nightmare he was returned to the normal world. Tommy had fallen onto his knees and he glanced up at George and Sapnap who were looking at him disappointedly.
George shook his head and pulled Tommy onto his feet.
“You really need to work on that more,” George said disappointedly.
“I know, it’s just that hand to hand combat isn’t my strong suit, I’m much better at sword fighting and you know that,” Tommy huffed.
“Well you need to get better at hand to hand,” George reprimanded. “You can’t only rely on your swords. What would you do if it broke or you happened to lose it?”
“I would have to resort to hand to hand combat,” Tommy mumbled.
‘It’s not like I could take on any villains like Ares when I'm resorted to hand to hand; so what’s the point,’ Tommy thought while being lectured.
“Exactly,” Sapnao said.
George simply sighed and said, “Come on again, I'm not going easy on you from here on out.”
‘Oh great, time to die and be stuck in the nightmare for gods knows how long,’ Tommy thought.
“You ready Tommy?” George asked while getting into a fighting stance.
Tommy simply nodded and got into position.
George once again attacked and Tommy gracefully hopped out of the way while punching him in the side. George quickly spun towards Tommy and kicked his legs out from under him, Tommy not expecting the move fell hard to the ground with a thud. Tommy was about to get up when he felt a foot connect with his ribs, pushing him back while also most likely either fracturing a few ribs or badly bruising him. Shit man, Tommy was going to be expected to deal with these injuries after they finished training; he still had to work at the cafe and he most certainly did not need to be dead on his feet for that. Tommy was kicked in the face before a hand grabbed his arm and he was brought to his nightmare.
Tommy looked to his right and saw Ranboo and Tubbo tied up in chairs. Tommy quickly looked them over and saw that Ranboo was barely breathing while Tubbo looked at Tommy with anger.
“Why would you do this!?” Tubbo shouted angrily at Tommy.
Confused, Tommy asked, “Do what? I haven’t done anything.”
“Liar! Just look at your hands!” Tubbo yelled.
Tommy glanced down at his hands and saw… blood… The blood was the first thing to catch Tommy’s attention since he was looking at his left hand, but upon looking at his right hand he saw a knife.
Tommy’s vision started going black around the edges as he thought, ‘I- was I the one who did this?’
Tommy looked back up at Tubbo and Ranboo. Was Ranboo breathing? Ranboo’s skin had gone pale and his chest was no longer moving. Surely not? Tommy couldn’t have killed one of his best friends. Right? Of course not! Tommy was no monster! Right? Come on just because he hated being a hero doesn’t mean he’s a monster!
“I hate you!” Tubbo yelled at Tommy while crying.
Tommy was truly a monster.
What kind of non moster person kills their best friend and makes his other best friend hate him? Tommy was terrible. How would Tommy ever live with himself? Tommy had been a monster all his life. He had seen those children die horrible deaths and done nothing to stop them. A small part of his mind whispered It’s not your fault, you were a child close to death yourself. He ignored that part of his brain. Tommy had survived but he let the system continue, he had done nothing after getting out. He left all those children there to die horrible painful deaths. Even if they survived their soul would be crushed, most of what would be left would be just shells of the bright happy children they once were. God Tommy was a monster, he was no hero, he killed one of his friends and made the other cry; he left all the children to die, and he felt no sadness at the ones who died in his group.
Faint Tommy can feel his chest being on fire and he can hear a voice yells for someone to let him out. He ignored the pain in his nose and in his wrist.
All that mattered was his dead friend and his crying friend in front of him.
Tommy sat there watching the fight slowly drain out of Tubbo, he saw his light blue eyes slowly fade into a dull gray. Tubbo looked up at Tommy and Tommy saw just how dead his friend was.
“Why?” Tubbo asked quietly after they had stared at each other for over 5 minutes.
“What do you mean?” Tommy responded while looking at the floor.
“ Why did you do this?” Tubbo asked with some anger in his now dull voice.
“To be honest…” Tommy started with a chuckle that lacked any humor. “I have no idea why.”
“What the hell do you mean you have no idea!” Tubbo asked with more anger in his voice.
Tommy looked up and Tubbo saw how sad those ocean blue eyes were now. Tommy said sadly, “I mean I don't know why I did this. My mind wasn’t exactly here for it.”
“And how does that work?” Tubbo asked while raising an eyebrow.
“It just means I wasn’t here for it, Something else was but not me,” Tommy said.
Tubbo rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to say something. What was he going to say? Tommy would never know because at just that moment he was pulled from his nightmare back to reality.
Being brought back to reality meant that all the pain he had been experiencing faintly was now ten times more prominent.
Tommy went to sit up but groaned at the pain he felt in his chest.
“Yeah I wouldn’t do that,” Sapnap said while standing over him. “Little George over there decided to take out all his pent up aggression on you.”
“Glad he has an outlet,” Tommy chuckled but it came out more pained than he would have liked.
“It’s not that bad, just fix yourself up so we can continue training,” George said, clearly annoyed.
“Okay, but I don’t know if I can continue depending on the damage you did to me,” Tommy said while laying his hands on his ribs.
No one responded but Sapnap did send a warning glance at George.
Tommy poked and prodded along his ribs noting where he felt breaks in them, after he finished that he put his hands above the broken ones and one by one healed them. After he finished with his ribs Tommy worked on his face next. There wasn’t much damage done to his face other than a broken nose that would most likely heal crooked. Once he had healed that he looked at his wrist and decided that it was probably only sprained, he was in the middle of debating if he should fix that or just leave it be when some one came over the speaker.
“All available heros please get changed into your gear and head to the main conference room.”
The three in the room looked at each other before all of them got up and headed to the conference room for the second time that day. While they were walking over Tommy healed his wrist after deciding that he shouldn’t be injured while fighting.

Once the three reached the room George and Sapnap left Tommy to go find Dream. Tommy glanced around and saw that there were only about two other heros there, because of this Tommy decided that it must not be that important of a mission.
Boy was Tommy wrong, he knew he was wrong when Schlatt walked in rather quickly unlike the slow tipsy walk he usually had.
“Okay this is going to be quick, but the main Syndicate plus some others like Flora and Jester just robbed a bank on main street and you are to go retrieve the money and capture the villains,” Schlatt said in a serious tone.
Tommy thought about it for a second and decided that must not be all of the Syndicate, otherwise they would have called in more heroes from their missions. So, it must only be Siren, Ares, Charon, Jester, Flora and of course Boreas as Flora and Boreas were never separated.
After they all had been briefed they headed over and worked on a game plan, every person would fight a singular villain who they had a high chance of defeating. This meant that Tommy would be fighting Ares. It was an obvious choice as Tommy was the only one who was any good at sword fighting and Ares specialized in sword fighting, and it was often the reason why he usually escaped. Tommy had a slightly bigger than small problem though, he was absolutely exhausted. Usually after he does a lot of healing it takes a large toll on his stamina and energy so he has to rest before going back into fight or back to healing, this time though Tommy had just healed a lot of things in his body and he had not gotten a single second of rest since. Not to mention that after this fight he was going to have to heal a lot of wounds considering that everyone on this team was the most clutzie people he had ever met besides maybe Dream and George. Man the world hated him today. It was alright though, based on the time it currently was and the fact that he started work at 8, depending on how long the fight lasted Tommy might be able to get around six and a half hours of sleep before work at the cafe. Okay that was being hopeful, this battle definitely would not last less than 30 minutes, and his job was about 40 minutes away so quite frankly he was screwed. Putting all of those numbers together meant that he was closer to having about four hours, and right now he felt like he needed at least three hours so factoring in the injuries he was sure to have to heal he was going to be dead for work at the cafe.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts and the group finally caught up with the group of villains.
“Well look who showed up!” Boreas shouted from across the rooftop they were on.
Boreas wasn’t a prominent member of the Syndicate just like Perses wasn’t. Boreas had his whole lame look themed with red and blue, down to the very goggles he wore, the man had the power to control the elements which meant he was a little over powered. There was also Perses, despite his name the man often avoided hurting any civilians or causing damage to the area around him. The man had a creeper look to him and had the ability to generate small explosives from his body which was the reason he had earned the name.
“We will take you down, villain!” A hero to his left yelled at the man.
‘Oh gods that was lame,’ Tommy thought.
It just so happened that Siren must’ve been thinking the same thing and decided to voice it because a moment later he said, “Oh my gods you guys think you’re so cool but geez that was lame.”
Tommy saw the other heros around him suddenly tense up at the sound of Siren’s voice.
“Well anyways, that's enough chit chat, let's get this show on the road. I do have plans today after all,” Siren said.
The hero's all looked at each other before nodding and going to fight the people they planned to fight.
Tommy found himself in front of Ares with his sword pulled out. The two nodded at each other before quickly beginning their battle.
Over the course of the fights Tommy had with Ares he had learnt many things about the man's fighting style; such as he tended to strike first, he usually went for lower body, and he was not afraid to get close and personal.
As Tommy predicted Ares struck first and for his legs, what Tommy was not expecting though was the hand that came flying at his face as his hands fought off the sword. A very painful sounding crunch could be heard as the hand connected with his nose.
“Ow! Seriously man, I just healed that!” Tommy yelled as he went to strike Ares’ arm.
“Welp, guess you’ll just have to fix it again,” Ares replied as he easily defended against Tommy’s attack.
“Dude, that takes energy,” Tommy whines while avoiding the sword that came at his eye.
Ares just shrugged and continued to fight Tommy.
It went on like that for a while, them both trying to strike and the other evading their attack. That was until Tommy glanced over to where George and Sapnap were fighting Boreas and Flora and Ares stabbed him in the abdomen. Tommy quickly focused back on his fight and turned away from Ares which both got the sword out of the man's reach but also made the wound larger.
Delirious and in pain Tommy yelled, “Oh my gods! I just got the sword out of your hand!”
“Yeah with your stomach,” Ares said with a laugh.
“Still got it,” Tommy argued.
“Sure,” Techno deadpanned. “Can I have my sword back now?”
“Okay I may be exaused and about to pass out, but I’m not that stupid,” Tommy said flatly.
“Eh, I thought it was worth a try,” Ares shrugged.
Tommy rolled his eyes and pulled the sword out of his stomach.
“Heh- I- what?!” Ares sputtered. “Now you are definitely an idiot.”
“Just like stay there for a second then we can fight or whatever,” Tommy said as he put his hands over the wound.
“What makes you think I’m going to do that?” Ares asked.
“Eh, you like fair fights and attacking me right now would not be fair,” Tommy said.
Ares nodded and waited as Tommy healed himself.
‘Hm, that’s awfully similar to that one kid Phil was talking about,’ Ares thought while watching Tommy heal himself, but he shrugged it off as Tommy put his hands up to continue fighting.
“You really think you can beat me hand to hand?” Ares asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nah not really but I don’t feel like giving you a sword to fight me with,” Tommy said.
“Fair,” Ares chuckled.
Ares got into his fighting stance and Tommy went to strike. Ares moved out of the way and struck the back of Tommy’s head. Tommy's world was filled with many colors and shaped for a moment before he steadied himself and he turned around and kicked Ares’ ankle.
‘Okay, no way in hell am I going to win against this man, he’s twice my size so all I can do is stall till they leave or till someone can come help me’ Tommy thought while trying to avoid the other man’s attacks.
Tommy thought that he was holding his own against the man, that was until the man kicked his legs and Tommy fell to the ground. Luckily Ares wasn’t one to beat a person when they were down, but he did end up kicking Tommy so hard in the ribs that he was unable to get up after.
“W-wow just couldn’t handle that fact th-that I was winning?” Tommy stutters out while carefully dragging his hands along his ribs.
“Pf as if, just didn’t really feel like dragging this out any longer for the sake of your pride,” Ares laughed.
Tommy rolled his eyes and went about healing his chest and his nose. While Tommy was doing that Ares walked over to him and picked his sword up from where Tommy had dropped it while getting ready to fight him.
“If you don’t mind I’m just going to grab my crew and we’ll leave now,” Ares said while standing above Tommy.
“Eh, probably for the best,” Tommy said as he sat up.
“Um okay, till next time I guess,” Ares said before turning and running to get his crew gathered up.
“Ugh,” Tommy groaned before getting up to go check the damages on the rest of his team.
Once Tommy had walked over he asked, “Okay who has punctures in their body?”
The heros who had been fighting Jester and Charon both raised their hands, Tommy figured that it would be those two as Jest and Charon both fought with objects that could stab. After fixing them up Tommy asked who had broken bones and George and Sapnap raised their hands, Tommy walked over to them and healed them.
“Okay, Dream, what's your damage?” Tommy asked.
“Eh, nothing bad, just some bruises,” Dream said.
“I can probably handle two small or one large one,” Tommy said.
“Just get the one on my face and we should be good,” Dream said pointing to his eye.
Tommy nodded and brought his hands up to Dreams face, he then twisted his fingers which made the skin twist till it then went back to a normal color.
“Okay, do I have any bruises?” Tommy asked no one in specific.
“You've got one on your jaw but it's rather small so I'd say it's not worth it,” Sapnap answered.
Tommy nodded and decided to just leave it be for now, and the group started heading back for the hero tower. Halfway to the hero tower Tommy collapsed and Dream ended up carrying him the rest of the way back.
Once they were back Tommy checked the time and saw that they had been fighting for just over an hour, way longer than he thought they would so now he had just under four hours instead of just over four hours to sleep. Gods the world was really out for him today huh?
Once they entered the building Tommy walked straight to the break room instead of following the rest to go give a run down of what happened to Schlatt. Once he walks in he instantly collapses on one of the couches in the room and passes out.
When he wakes up he sees that it’s starting to get dark out and that Sapnap was shaking him awake.
“Do you need something big man?” Tommy asked groggily.
“It’s 7:30, you should probably get going now,” Sapnap said.
“Oh you’re right, thanks Sap,” Tommy said quickly getting up.
“Mhm, see you late,” Sapnap said while walking out.
“Mhm see you,” Tommy said while running to the bathroom.
Tommy quickly changed into his street clothes and stuffed his hero clothing in his cubby outside the bathroom.

Once he got to the cafe he realized that he was about ten minutes late.
“Oh my gods Niki, I am so sorry for being late!” Tommy apologized once he was behind the counter.
“About time,” Niki said jokingly while focusing on a drink and not looking up.
“Yeah sorry, I’ll try to be on time tomorrow,” Tommy said while scratching the back of his head.
“you’re almost never late, what made you late this time?” Niki asked, still making the drink.
“I just overslept,” Tommy shrugged.
Now done with making the drink Niki rang up the person at the register before turning to Tommy.
“Wow, I see why. You should probably try to get to bed earlier tomorrow,” Niki said wincing.
“Haha, yeah probably,” Tommy said laughing quietly.
“Hey where’d you get that bruise?” Niki asked worriedly, reaching out to cup his face.
“I just ran into something, I’m fine,” Tommy said while pushing her hand away.
“Mhmh,” Niki said, looking at him with disbelief.
“Really, I’m okay I promise,” Tommy said softly.
“Okay, if you say so,” Niki said while taking off her apron.
Tommy smiled and took the apron from her and put it on.
“But, you are having tomorrow of,” Niki said.
“But-” Tommy started.
“No buts, you are not going to come here whatsoever, and you will take care of yourself,” Niki said.
“Ugh, fine,” Tommy said.
Niki smiled and ruffled his hair, “get some rest after your shift.”
Tommy smiled back and said, “Okay, thanks Niki.”
“Bye, see you later,” Niki said before leaving the shop.
Tommy waves and then turns back to the counter with a sigh, ‘this is going to be a long ass night.’
Tommy pulls the stool from the backroom by the counter and pulls out his phone to pass the time.

It’s about midnight and not a single customer has come in besides one person asking to use the store phone, that person didn’t even buy anything. All in all it's been a pretty uneventful day if you don't count getting stabbed and all of that garbage, it might have even dare he say it a decent day.
‘Oh my gods this is boring,’ Tommy thinks while playing Mario Kart on his phone for the 100th time that day.
Tommy is pulled from his thoughts when he hears the ding that means someone has come into the cafe.
“Hi welcome to- oh it's just you,” Tommy says while getting off the stool and putting his phone away.
“Oh I don’t deserve customer service?” Phil said in a joking manner.
“Nah I don’t think so old man,” Tommy said, rolling his eyes playfully.
Phil slaps a hand over his heart and says in a faux offended voice, “That is so rude mate, I should call your boss.”
“Ha, as if you would,” Tommy said with a laugh.
“No I wouldn’t,” Phil said.
“Anything you need? or we can just talk, I get paid either way,” Tommy said.
“Just completely let go of the customer service huh?” Phil asks.
“Yep,” Tommy says, popping the p.
Phil rolls his eyes fondly before saying, “I’ll have a chai latte.”
“Man you should really have some variety,” Tommy says while putting the drink in the register.”
“Eh, I like what I like,” Phil says.
Phil pays before going to sit at a table nearby and pulling his laptop out while Tommy makes his drink.
After a few minutes Tommy yells, “Philllll your drink is ready.”
Phil gets up and grabs the drink before putting a number of dollars in the tip jar and sitting down.
“Oh my god, rich people,” Tommy says looking at the amount Phil put in the jar.
As the time goes on Tommy decides to make himself a hot chocolate before playing on his phone again.

--------------------------------------

Phil glances at the time on the corner of his laptop before looking back up at Tommy and taking a sip of his drink. The next time that Phil looks up is when a blonde haired person comes into the cafe and orders a green tea. While the person waits for their drink they glance over to Phil and their gaze is dark, Phil does a small wave but they just turn back to the counter to grab their drink.
‘Huh that guy was strange,’ Phil thinks while taking another sip of his drink.
After a few minutes Phil looks up again and asks, “What time do you get off work?”
“Um in about an hour,” Tommy says, glancing up from his phone.
“Wow, that's a long shift,” Phil comments.
“Yeah I know right!” Tommy says with a laugh.
Phil chuckles softly as Tommy turns back his phone. Man no wonder he looks so tired and worn out, he works from 8 to 2, that's a seriously long and late shift.

--------------------------------------

‘Well that wasn’t weird whatsoever,’ Tommy thought while playing on his phone. ‘Eh, whatever he wanted to know.’
At around 1:50 Tommy stands up and starts wiping down the counter and putting things away, he then clears his throat to get Phil’s attention when he goes to start cleaning the tables.
“Oh, sorry,” Phil said while getting up and walking to the door..
Phil then pauses at the door and Tommy asks, “You need something?”
“Oh, um would you like to go get some food with me? You just look a little hungry and it’s fine if you don’t want to. If I'm crossing a line you can tell me that I won't be like mad or anything,” Phil rambles on while Tommy silently laughs.
Tommy debates it for a second but he lets his stomach make the decision which is why he said, “Sure, let me finish cleaning up then I can go. It’s like you’re asking me out.”
“Oh my gods don’t say that and make this weird,” Phil said, dragging his hands down his face.
“Not making it any weirder than it already is, big man,” Tommy says with a laugh. “Also promise you won’t like kidnap me? Trust me I am not a joy to have around from more than a couple of hours.”
“Just get your jobs done mate,” Phil said.
Tommy rolls his eyes and goes back to wiping the tables down and putting the chairs up. Once Tommy finishes he locks the door and the two start walking.
“Got any allergies Tommy?” Phil asks as the two walk.
“Nah not really,” Tommy said.
“Okay, how would you feel about a nearby dinner?” Phil asks.
“Sounds just amazing man,” Tommy says with a smile.
The two walk a couple more blocks before they reach a random dinner that Tommy has never heard of before and they walk in. Tommy looks around and notices about 3 other people there besides the staff so they are seated very quickly.
“Have you been here before?” Phil asks as they look at the menu.
“Nah, I don’t go out to eat very much, can hardly pay for rent and groceries as it is,” Tommy said.
“Oh, it’s good I recommend their chicken stripps if you want something netural,” Phil said.
“I will take that into consideration,” Tommy says with a smile.
Phil laughs as their waiter comes up to them.
“Do you two know what you would like?” The waiter asks.
“I’ll get country fried steak please,” Phil said.
“Okay! And for you?” the waiter asked Tommy.
“Um I’ll have the Chicken strips,” Tommy said quietly.
“Okay, that will be out shortly,” the waiter says before walking away.
Phil and Tommy talk while they wait for their food to come out, it’s actually more like Tommy talking while Phil comments every now and then as Tommy launched straight into a story when the waiter went away. After about tenish minutes their food comes out and it goes to mainly Phil talking as Tommy focuses on devouring his food.
“This is so good!” Tommy said after eating more of his food.
“I’m glad you like it,” Phil said with a laugh.
“Like it? It’s like the best thing to ever exist,” Tommy said excitedly.
“Ha, if you think this is good you’d have to try my food sometime. I've been told it's the best,” Phil said smugly.
“Do you have children?” Tommy asked.
“Yes?” Phil responds confused.
“Was it your children that said it was the best?” Tommy asked with a laugh.
“Among others,” Phil said as his face turned red.
“I’m sure it's amazing, old man,” Tommy grinned.
“It is!” Phil argued.
“Mhm,” Tommy hummed.
Phil rolled his eyes fondly before mutterint, “you little shit.”
Tommy let out a laugh before continuing eating.
After the two had finished eating Tommy said a quick thanks and goodbye before running back to his apartment.

‘That was both the most strange yet fun interaction I have had all my life,’ Tommy thinks as he unlocks his apartment door and heads in.
Tommy glances around when he closes the door and sees Ranboo and Tubbo on the bed and he sighs as he sees Tubbo spread out across almost the entire bed and realizes that he’s going to have to sleep on the floor. So Tommy gets changed, stretches his wings before grabbing the extra blankets and pillows from the bedroom closet and making a makeshift nest on the floor. After he finishes he glances back at his friends and lies down in the nest.

When Tommy wakes up it's still dark so he can only assume that it's been a couple of hours since he first went to bed, he goes to roll over but he feels something to the side of him so he sits up.
“Wha-,” Tommy starts before smiling softly at Ranboo lying beside him with his tail curled around Tommy’s leg.
Tommy glances up at the couch bed and sees Tubbo had taken over the entire bed in a starfish manner. Tommy then sighs before laying down and curling up next to Ranboo and laying his wing across him, he then falls back asleep.

The next time Tommy wakes up it's bright and he senses someone standing over him, so he opens his eyes to find Tubbo standing there with an annoyed expression.
“What?” Tommy asks groggily.
“Why did you two get to cuddle without me?” Tubbo huffs.
“We aren’t cuddling,” Tommy says.
“Uh huh, just take a look,” Tubbo says.
Tommy glances at himself and Ranboo before realizing the two were in fact cuddling.
“Okay, so maybe we are but it was not planned,” Tommy says with a soft smile.
Tubbo rolls his eyes before stepping into the nest and curling up next to Tommy.
“Go back to sleep,” Tubbo says when he glances at Tommys face.
“Mkay,” Tommy says while laying back down.
Ranboo sits up a little bit while still keeping their arms wrapped around Tommy’s torso. Tommy tries to pull away a little bit but Ranboo makes a somewhat of a whine noise and so Tommy lets out a laugh and stops trying to pull away.
Tubbo laughs at the sight before he goes and grabs Ranboo’s hand. He squeezes it gently before pushing them back down and telling them to go back to bed. Tubbo smiles when he sees Tommy’s and Ranboo’s breath even out, he then proceeds to pass out himself.
They need to go do some real stuff and be pretend adults but at the moment they’re all content with letting themselves be comforted by each other and being the kids they are at the moment.

Chapter Text

This again is not an update
I just want to talk about the news with techno, it’s really hard I know. Feel free to chat in the comments if you’d like but I’m here to say that since techno was going to be a big part in this next chapter I’m going to be putting it on brake for a bit. I am working on a one-shot that doesn’t feature techno quite as much but for the most part I’m going to writing on hold for a bit.
Stay safe guys <3 and thanks techno for all you’ve done o7

Edit:
Hey guys, I know I said this will be back pretty soon but unfortunately I’ve just lacked motivation to do even the simplest things so this will be on hold for longer than I’d like but I can hardly do anything than lay down let alone write a at least 2k chapter, I’ll edit again when I’m ready to post once again

Edit:
Ayyy I’m alive!!! The next chapter is 4K words which honestly surprised me, that’s as long as one of my one shots. Well I hope you enjoy the chspter!

Chapter Text

Tommy opens his eyes once again to see the sun fully shining now, but this time he out of the three is the only one awake. He goes to sit up and hopefully start on breakfast for them but is met with an uncanny amount of strength from Ranboo’s part.

“Ughh Ranboo lemme out,” Tommy whines while trying to pry off the other’s arms.

“Nuh uh,” Tommy hears Ranboo mutter, his face still being pushed against the edge of the nest.

“Boo, I have to go start on food,” Tommy says.

At this Ranboo shoots up dragging Tommy with them and it results in Tommy being half way splayed out across their lap, “food?” they inquire.

“Yes food,” Tommy says with a laugh, “you wake Tubbo up and I’ll see what I can scrounge together with what food we have left.”

Ranboo nods before squeezing Tommy tightly and then letting go, suspiciously going to the kitchen and beginning to fill up a cup with water. (Which Tommy would like to comment that he had no particular idea of what the enderman hybrid was planning on doing with that).

Laughing quietly to himself he passes Ranboo on their way back to the living room to do what? He had no idea. He then starts to look through the cupboards and the fridge to see if there is something that he could make that would result in something even slightly edible when he hears a scream that was not high pitched whatsoever followed by a long line of curses and threats.

“RANBOO I SWEAR TO PRIME ABOVE THAT IF YOU DO NOT START RUNNING RIGHT-” Tubbo screamed in a threatening manner before he was cut off by Tommy sighing loudly.

“Guys,” he dragged out, “we have to go to the store, anything I Make with these ingredients will end up radioactive or some shit.”

In unison all three groaned before stopping what they were doing and beginning to get ready to leave.

After leaving their apartment and entering the supermarket Ranboo quickly fell into the usual mother role while the other two fell to their much more usual demonic toddler roles. This meant that Tubbo was constantly grabbing things off shelves or trying to climb into the cart, only to want out again in 30 seconds, while Tommy either kept hold very tightly onto Ranboo (which the older much preferred to his other habit), or he was constantly running off and grabbing anything with shinny packaging. All of this combined ending with all three of their instincts going haywire, Ranbbo was getting very irritable from people constantly glancing at his face; Tommy had his arms full of coins he found on the ground, random shiny items that Ranboo had placed into the cart, and weird gold chocolate coins; Tubbo had made them take much longer as he spent about 20 minutes at the floral section and he had started buzzing nonstop, his wings flapping every now and then. Once they got to the check out Tommy really was the only one suitable to check them out as Tubbo was still buzzing and Ranboo now was letting out a snarl every time someone other than Tubbo or Tommy glanced at them or touched them.

“Ranboo can you hold onto the cart please? Tubbo, will you start putting the items onto the conveyor belt please?” Tommy asked before turning to the checkout person.

“Hello, will you be paying with cash or card today?” The person asked while ringing up the items.

“Hi, I’ll be paying with card,” Tommy responded politely before putting the items, minus the coins from the floor, onto the conveyor belt.

“I hope that you found everything alright,” the person said with a small smile.

“Yes we found everything fine, thank you,” Tommy responded.

“Alright well your total comes to $750.39” they said once they finished ringing the group up.

“Okay, one moment please,” Tommy said before pulling out his wallet and grabbing his card and inserting it into the card reader.

“Okay, well have a lovely day you three,” they said once Tommy had pulled his card from the reader and grabbed the bags.

“Thanks, you too,” Tommy said before walking off with the two’s hands in his.

Once they were out of the store Tommy glanced up at Ranboo and saw how upset he was getting making ask, “do you want your mask bubs?”

Ranboo quickly nodded so Tommy handed a few bags for Tubbo to grab before reaching into his back pocket and grabbing the black and white mask and handing it to them. They quickly put it on, shoulders falling as he relaxed at having a shield from people before quickly grabbing Tommy’s hand again.

“Let’s head back now you two,” Tommy said, a playful lilt to his voice.

“Ughhhhhh I’m starving,” Tubbo complained once they had finished putting the groceries away.

“Cool, why don’t you make us food,” Ranboo said, leaning against the counter.

“I don’t wanna,” Tubbo whined.

“Well I suppose I could make us some food,” Ranboo said, starting to push off of the counter to get started.

“NO!” Tubbo yelled, “I mean, no. I changed my mind, I actually feel like making some food for all of us suddenly.”

“Are you sure? It’s really no problem at all.”

“Yep! Very sure, in fact why don’t you leave the kitchen and go relax.”

“Hmm, okay well then. You seem very sure of your decision, I shall go and relax now.”

“Okay! You rest up, you hard worker.”

“Do I get to relax as well?” Tommy asked with pleading eyes.

Pushing up his sleeves to get started Tubbo responded, “hell no, you’re helping me or you’re not getting food.”

“Aw, but I've been working so hard!” Tommy whined.

“Too bad, you have a day off today so you’re helping whether you like it or not,” Tubbo said.

“Fine,” Tommy sighed, “what are you going to make?”

“Just eggs and toast, I’ll do the hard part with the eggs you toast the bread,” Tubbo said while pulling out the eggs.

“Okay,” Tommy said.

Together the two quickly made breakfast, though at one point Tommy had started messing around which most definitely did not result in the toast being burnt. Thank you very much. And once the two finished they set the items out on their small dining table.

“Ranboo! Come get food before Tommy steals it all,” Tubbo called.

“Coming!” Ranboo replied.

The trio sat down and started eating, throughout the meal the three shot jokes at one another. At one point no one was sure where the topic of dinosaurs came from but nonetheless they kept with it until the debate of which was the best, at which Ranboo steered the conversation to their job.

“So I maybe sort of did something with a promise relating to Dream,” Ranboo muttered while scratching their head.

“Boo what the fuck did you promise him on our day off,” Tubbo asked in a poliet tone.

“I kinda sorta promised the man that I would possibly sorta ‘hang out’ with him,” Ranboo said nervously.

“Okay, what do you mean ‘hang out’?” Tubbo said through gritted teeth.

“I mean I kinda told him I would help out with a mission,” Ranboo said with a wince.

Tubbo took a deep breath, “Okay.”

“Oh shit man you messed up,” Tommy muttered to Ranboo.

“Tubbo, don't kill me!” Ranbbo pleaded.

“Ranboo, go get ready for your mission with Dream,” Tubbo said calmly.

“Yep okay!” Ranboo said before running off to get ready.

“Tommy, help me clean up breakfast,” Tubbo said.

“Yes sir,” Tommy said before gathering most of the items on the dining table and taking them to the kitchen.

A moment after Tommy and Tubbo had finished washing the dishes and putting things away Ranboo came back into the living room ready to leave and the two walked out of the kitchen to meet the other before they left.

“Ranboo it was nice knowing you, but you’re a dead man once you get back,” Tommy said with seriousness before doing the L’manberg salute and stepping back.

“Oh fuck off Tommy,” Tubbo started with an eye roll, “really though he is right, you will be cleaning the bathroom for a week.”

“What?! He’s getting off easy,” Tommy complained.

Tubbo raised an eyebrow.

“Anddddd that alright because you make the rules around here,” he finished with a nervous chuckle.

“Alright ima leave before any murders happen, mine or Tommy’s, see you guys for dinner tonight,” Ranboo said before waving and walking out the door.

“Bye Boo, stay safe,” Tubbo said with a small smile and wave before turning around and walking to his laptop which was sitting dangerously on the edge of the couch.

“What are you doing?” Tommy asked, following around the older like a small puppy.

“Well since we just lost the most fun person in our group besides me-” Tommy gave an offended look “-I figured that I might as well get some work done till they get back.” Tubbo said with a shrug.

“What?! Come on now I’m going to be bored, that’s not fair!” Tommy whined.

“Why don’t you go practice with your swords or something, but I’m not going to entertain you.”

“Tubbo! Pleaseee, it’s no fun practicing sword fighting with dummies that can’t even fight back”

“Not my problem”

“Ughh fine!” Tommy said, punctuating it with a small childish stomp before walking to grab his gear.

“Be back before 8 please,” Tubbo said, not looking up from the computer.

“Whatever,” Tommy said, opening the door.

“Stay safe bubs,” Tubb looked up and said softly.

“I will,” Tommy said quietly.

With that Tommy shut the door, not slamming it like he oh so had wanted to, and he began to take the, what was it like 20 flights of stairs because of course the elevator was down for maintenance. And he did not complain whatsoever, nope he was very understanding and patient as he made his way oh so slowly down the stairs.

He continued down to the bus stop that was a block away, which if he were not a hero was a rather dangerous walk for people similar to Ranboo. It took extra long because he dragged his feet the whole way and his wings were in need of pruning.

Now that he noticed it the itching and pain flaring in his back just wouldn’t go away, even after he readjusted his hoodie and shirt it wouldn’t go away. In fact it just made the pain increase, making him think he had bent a feather or two the wrong way. But he was fine, he would ignore his wings until he got back to the apartment where hopefully Tubbo would be able to fix them just enough so he could go through the two week cycle of; relief, uncomfortable, itchy, pain, relief, all over again. It was a habit at this point and who was he if not a man of habit.

After getting caught up in his thoughts it took him a few minutes to recover and realize that the bus was almost here and he would’ve missed it had he thought about his wing any longer. While getting out his card for the bus he glanced over at the map to see where exactly he would need to get off for the shortest walk to the gym. Once he found the exact stop he needed he glanced over at the bus that was just opening its doors. Taking one last glance at the map, he turned around and walked onto the bus

————————————————————

“Phil,” Techno dragged out.

“Yeah mate?” Phil answered while being preoccupied watching his other son try to talk to the birds outside.

“I’m bored,” he whined.

“Why don’t you go to the gym? Who knows you might even see Tommy there,” Phil said, turning to look at Techno with a smile before going back to watching Wilbur.

“Mmmmm, alright,” Techno sighed. “I’ll text you when I’m going to head home.”

“Okay, be safe, and please don’t cause any trouble,” Phil said with a light chuckle.

“What? Me trouble? Never,” Techno said with a smirk evident in his voice.

“Uh huh,” Phil deadpanned.

“Whatever, I’m heading out now,” Techno said with a wave before closing the front door and leaving.

“Alright mate,” Phil mumbled, having not noticed he left while watching Wilbur be attacked by the bird he was previously trying to befriend.

—————————————————————

Once Tommy arrived at his stop he quickly picked up his items and left the bus.

On his way to enter the building he swore he saw a flash of long pink hair, but no it must be his imagination, no way was that dude here it must be a coincidence. Yeah that’s it, there’s got to be at least one other person that goes to this gym and has long pink hair. It had to be that because he was not in the mood to deal with Techno’s shenanigans today. Not that the dude ever did weird stuff besides talk to himself.

Walking into the building Tommy finally decided, with not much confidence, that there was some other person that had come to the gym that also had long pink hair.

After checking in and walking to the swords area he saw that pink hair again, only this time it had a face to go with it.

“Oh god damn it!” Tommy yelled exasperatedly while dragging a hand down his face.

“Oh? Well if it isn’t Tommy,” Techno said smugly.

“Why are you here?!” Tommy whined.

Shrugging techno picks up his sword, “dunno I was bored so I thought I’d come here.”

“Bruh go somewhere else I want to train right now.”

“You can still train, you know?”

“Yeah but now you’ll like, watch me and be creepy.”

“Watch you and be creepy?”

“Yep.”

“You know I’ll be training as well right?”

“Hmmm, nah you’d still like, watch me or something.”

“Uh huh.”

“So now you have to leave.”

“Tommy I’m not leaving just because you think I’d ‘watch you and be creepy’.”

“Will you if I ask nicely?” Tommy asked while giving a pleading look.

Sighing Techno rubbed his temples, “Tommy nothing you say is honing to change my mind.”

“Ugh, fine,” Tommy said with an eye roll.

Turning away with a laugh Techno pulls on his gloves and turns to the training dummy. He gets in position and is ready to strike when he hears a noise. Turning around he sees Tommy’s face slowly turn beet red.

“What was that?” Techno asks slowly.

“Nothing, you’re hearing things from old age,” Tommy says while turning his head away.

“Tommy I’m only-,” but he cuts himself off realizing that he’s only talking in circles with that conversation. “What really was that noise?”

“Nothing it was just,” Tommy says but the end of the sentence is just an unintelligible mumbled.

“What was that?” Techno asks.

Sighing and looking away Tommy responds, “it was just my stomach.”

“Really? When was the last time you ate then?” Techno says with a raised eyebrow.

“I ate this morning!” Tommy says defensively.

“Okay, have you used your power?”

“Yes?” Tommy says more as a question than an answer.

“Does your power use your energy?” Techno asks as if what he’s talking about is obvious.

“Yeah. Where is this leading?” Tommy asks, still very confused.

“Well then you need to eat more food than normal so you can build back up your energy storage,” Techno says with a facepalm.

“Wait, really?!” Tommy says surprised.

“Have you not been eating extra when you use your powers a lot?” Techno says concerned.

“No,” Tommy gives a nervous laugh and drags the word out.

With a sigh Techno takes off his gloves and starts to pack his gym bag back up.

“What are you doing?” Tommy asks with a confused lift to his voice.

“Grab your stuff, we’re gonna go to an IHOP or something,” Techno says while walking towards the exit.

“Woah! Wait a second there man, I don’t know what you think about my money situation, but I certainly don’t have enough money to go out and eat,” Tommy says while raising an eyebrow.

Turning around, Techno replies, “and? I was inviting you out to eat, of course I’m going to pay for you, nerd.”

Tommy crosses his arms and gives Techno a disbelieving look.

“Bruhh, you can trust me. After all, if I'm going to fight you again I want you at full strength so it’s an even fight,” Techno shrugs.

“No it’s fine, after all last night somebody bought me food. I don’t need another handout,” Tommy says.

“Oh? Who got you food?” Techno asks.

“This random dude who comes to the coffee shop, his name is like Philza,” Tommy scoffed.

“Ah, yeah that sounds like my dad,” Techno laughed.

“Dad? Oh, so it’s just your family that wants to try and kidnap me?” Tommy questioned

“No, we aren’t trying to kidnap you,” Techno said with a laugh. “We just want to make sure you’re fine.”

“Hmm, well I am fine so now could we please start fighting?” Tommy said exasperatedly.

“Fine, but if I win this round you have to agree to a deal I make,” Techno said.

“Hm, fine as long as it doesn’t have any murder in it I’ll agree,” Tommy said with a shrug.

“Alright,” Techno grins, he quickly gets into position. He was going to do everything in his power to win this match.

“You seem confident big man, think you’re gonna win?” Tommy teased while also getting in position.

“I think I just may,” Techno vowed.

“We’ll see about that,” Tommy grinned.

———————————————————

Taking a breath Techno steadied himself, closed his eyes, and blocked out everything but his instincts and the voices. He heard the blonde exhale a breath, at that he opened his eyes and was only slightly shocked to see that Tommy’s eyes weren’t bright anymore but rather cold and calculating as if he could see every possible outcome and how he should counter it.

It scared Techno the first time he saw that look, the boy had seemed so bright and full of energy one moment but the next he lost that look and seemed as though the only thing he could think about was winning, no matter if he got hurt. Though the boy didn’t really get hurt last time (because Tecno had been extra careful when seeing that look) it still was unnerving to see someone that young with that mindset, especially how it didn’t seem to fit the personality of him. Techno had probably been over reacting but it still worried him.

Techno’s face hardened and he went to make the first move but Tommy beat him to it and he went instead to defense while quickly trying to turn the fight around and get back to offense. It wasn’t working very well when he saw his opening.

Tommy was distracted trying to clear Techno’s sword out of the way so he could quickly do his most common move, moving the sword by lifting it up then quickly bringing the end of the sword down onto the others chest, it was a hard move and Techno was pretty convinced it was something only Tommy could do because of his stature. Though just because it was a complex move, didn’t mean that Techno couldn’t counter it.

Focusing on putting his strength into his arms to keep from letting the sword up, while Techno looked at his surroundings. If he could just push Tommy’s sword up with enough force to make him stumble he could get a chance to step forward while he was off balance and sweep his legs from under him.

The voices were saying something different though. It was a little hard to make out what they were saying with them all talking over each other but if he listened closely he could hear a few.

Back

Aw, are we really gonna make him fall :(

It’s so we can help him, duh

Go back

E

Blood for the blood god?

Not from the sunshine

Step back

He’s a ball of sunshine

AWWWW

I love that for him

We should adopt him

No no Philza’s child, our little brother

Ah yes brotherblade

Softnoblade

Technosoft

SHHHHH

Yeah! We can’t have a softnoblade arc if we don’t do this

Facts

Go back for all that is holy

Step back!! Not forward, he predicts you go forward

Yeah! Surprise the child

Yeah but won’t he know something’s up????

Nah

E

This child>>>>Wilbur

Fair

Hey!

>:( don’t be mean to his twin

My gods you guys never shut up

Nopeeee

Okay step back thennnnn push with the point of your sword

Why???

Eep

Because it’ll probably take him by surprise or somethin

Eeeeeee

Eeee-

Attack the child >:D

By gods chat are children. Thinking about what they said though it does make sense, the most logical strategy would be to go forward so that’s likely what Tommy thinks he’ll do. Actually now that Techno thinks about it, Tommy’s never left an opening like this when trying this attack. He knows that Techno would go for it, of course.

Taking a break, Techno then uses his strength to push Tommy’s sword up in the air. Tommy looks almost… surprised? Techno goes to step forward but then everything goes red for a second and the next thing he knows he’s pushing the tip of his sword into Tommy’s chest and he watches as he falls to the ground with his sword under Techno’s feet.

“You alright there big man?” Tommy says with a nervous laugh.

“Oh um yeah, sorry don’t know what came over me,” Techno confessed.

“It’s cool man, what was up with your eyes though?” Tommy asks curiously.

Oh. That’s what happened, chat took over his body for a moment.

“Eh, probably just my powers or something,” Techno shrugs.

“Oh that’s cool,” Tommy says with a smile.

“Thanks, kid,” Techno smiles back.

See what happens when you listen to us?

E

Now we kidnap him

NO-

YES

We can’t kidnap anyone

Aw :(

Tragic

We’re the best

Absolutely

*insert don’t stop me now music*

Yeahhhhh

He should honestly listen to us more

Ikr

Chat we would have been arrested multiple times by now if I always listened to you.

Pffff name one time

Yeah bet

We haven’t done anything that bad

Jeez Chat really thinks threatening to murder someone is normal. Techno thinks

“What about that one time when the gas station didn’t have muddie buddies so you said and I quote “let’s pull and Ares on him and straight up murder him”. Sound familiar?” Techno mumbles

He’s blackmailing us

That’s not what that means?

I uh plead the 5th

Taken out of context

Dude he literally gave the context

E

My gods you guys are insufferable.

“Techno?” Tommy asked.

“Oh, sorry. Yeah what’s up?” Techno responded.

“Umm,” Tommy paused and looked at the ground. “Never mind, what was that deal you were mentioning?”

“Oh right, how would you feel if we met up here every Tuesday, then we would practice, and after we could go get some food?” Techno said.

“Really?” Tommy replied skeptically.

“Yeah, obviously I would be paying for the food, but I just think it would help us both,” Techno shrugged.

“How would it help you?” Tommy asked.

Dramatically placing his hand on his head and letting his head fall back, Techno replied. “I get so tired and lonely, having you there every Tuesday would brighten my life up oh so much.”

“You’re so weird,” Tommy giggled.

“I dunno about me, but you sure are,” Techno said fondly.

“Uh huh,” Tommy laughed.

“So thoughts?” Techno said shifting the conversation back to the main focus.

“That sounds fine with me, big man,” Tommy shrugged.

“Alright then, I’ll see you next Tuesday,” Techno grinned and began to pack his stuff up.

“Okay-” Tommy began but was cut off by his stomach.

Turning around Techno saw the young blonde’s face begin to turn red. “You good there Toms?”

“Um,” Tommy looked away and began to fiddle with his shirt. “Could I actually take you up on that offer for food?”

“Oh course, you’re always welcome to ask for food,” Techno said softly.

“Alright, then we’re going to IHOP!” Tommy grinned.

“Of course,” Techno laughed. “Come on pick up your stuff and we’ll go get some food.”

———————————————-

“What are you going to get Tommy?” Techno asks once they’re sat down.

“Some of those fucking chocolate chip smiley pancakes,” Tommy says with pride.

He’s very mature, I mean look at him he’s not even going to order chocolate milk, instead he’s going to get apple juice. Now some might argue that even less mature, but don’t let them fool you apple juice is very mature.

“Of course you are,” Techno chuckles.

“Is there something wrong with my choice of food?” Tommy questions, his eyes narrowing.

“No! That’s not it at all,” Techno says while raising his hands in a calming manner. Good, he should be scared of Tommy. After all Tommy is in fact the biggest man of them all.

“Alright, how can I help you two today?” A man asks with a cheery voice.

“Alright,” Tommy glanced at the name tag, seeing it says Jimmy, “I’ll have a chocolate chip pancake please.”

“Of course,” Jimmy replies. “And you?”

“Oh I’ll have blueberry pancakes please,” Techno says and gives the man their menus.

“Okay, and anything to drink?” He asks.

“I’ll have apple juice,” Tommy grins.

“Waters fine,” Techno says with a nod.

“Alright, that will be right out,” The man says with a smile before walking away.

Once he walks away Techno turns to Tommy, “apple juice really?”

“Yes, it’s a very good and healthy choice,” Tommy says defensively.

“Uh huh,” Techno deadpans.

“Stop judging me!” Tommy shrieks.

“Alright, whatever,” Techno laughs.

The two joke and talk while waiting for their meals to arrive, this goes on for about 10 minutes till the food arrives.

“Oo!” Tommy says.

“Dig in, bud,” Techno says with a laugh.

Nodding Tommy grabs his fork and starts to shovel the food in his mouth. “Oh my gods this food is so good!”

“Glad you like it, Toms,” Techno replies, the fondness clear in his voice.

“Thanks so much Techno!” The blonde replies happily.

“Anytime Tommy, anytime,” Techno smiles.

Chapter Text

“Tommy get up, you’re going to be late!” Tommy woke abruptly to Tubbo yelling at him from the kitchen.

“I’m up,” Tommy mumbled while dragging his hands down his face.

“I mean up up,” Tubbo said while walking over with a piece of toast. “You have to leave in 10 minutes or you’ll be late for work, and you know how Dream gets when you’re late.”

“Yeah yeah, ugh,” Tommy sighs before sitting up and taking the piece of toast being offered to him.

“Get dressed soon, me and Boo are about to head to our other jobs by the way,” Tubbo said.

“Alright, I’ll be out of here before you leave,” Tommy muttered.

The tower, Tommy had decided, looked like an airport gone wrong. It was mostly made of glass with white pillars in between, and the first floor was mostly chairs along with the reception desk. He wasn’t exactly sure what the desk was for besides interviews because people pretty much just went to lower hero agencies to report crimes, and if they were big enough or dangerous enough then they would handle the cases.

There are many different agencies throughout the country, but most people strive for the biggest one. The hero world agency. There wasn’t just one tower in the country, there was rather one in each region. Tommy’s region had the tower that was considered the most sleek and was the most desired by other regions. He wasn’t exactly sure why though, again it just looked like a tall goddamn airport.

It’s 10 minutes later when Tommy finally gets to the 15th floor where his office is located. Falling onto his chair dramatically he sighs before glancing at the pile of paperwork he has been procrastinating.

“I guess I should get started,” Tommy mumbled before reaching for his pen, “Wait, no I should get changed first, duh.”

With that the boy stood up and marched back over to the elevator to go down to the locker room. He sighs and uses the whole 20 minutes he has because it takes that long to put on his way to extra costume he was assigned.

Once he’s finished he walks back to the elevator and goes to his desk. Once sat down he pulls a pile of paper to him and starts filling to report and forms out. After an hour he’s hardly even made a dent in the pile, not to mention his other 10 piles scattered around his office. He should really stop putting off his reports of it’ll lead to this amount of work for him later.

He started to pick up his pen again after placing it down to check his progress when he hears the blaring siren that signals a villain attack on the tower.

Tommy throws his head back in annoyance and kicks his feet before hanging his head and standing up.

“Why?” Tommy drags out, “couldn’t the villains have like one day off!?”

He slowly shuffles over to the elevator before he starts hearing screams and figures that the elevator may take a bit too long to get down there. With that thought he drags himself to one of the windows and grabs the handle on the side before sliding it open just enough for him to squeeze himself out before jumping off and letting his wings open to catch himself.

He slowly expands his wings to their full length of 6 feet before angling himself downward for his full speed.

He looks around checking where he’s most needed before seeing that Flora is teaming with Charon against Vulcan and he internally sighs and hopes that Flora will take him instead of Charon.

“Hey! Come on man two against one isn’t exactly fair,” Tommy yells once he hits the ground.

Flora and Charon exchange glances before Charon jumps and uses his wings to glide over to where Icarus is.

“Gods I hate today,” Icarus groans before pulling out his sword and preparing for the attacks.

Icarus is actually rather interested in how Charon uses his wings to fight. Charon has large black like obsidian wings that he uses as his main source to fight, of course he has other things in case someone gets too close for comfort but the wings are his main weapon. He’s able to take apart the lower parts of his wings and control them, sending them flying at high speeds wherever he wishes. When the man is focused he can be a real threat, sending the feathers flying 100 mph and not once letting up or giving you break before sending in more or turning them around. So with Icarus having no other weapon besides a sword he’s not really the best at fighting him since the feathers go far too fast for him to slice.

Icarus was ducking, turning, and slicing. He had to constantly keep focus or else the feathers would hit him, now Charon typically just goes for the skin but sometimes he would go for a persons stomach or head and you did not want to get hit by the feathers. With how fast they are and the strength they have, they might as well be arrows. Icarus was about to turn left when he heard someone call his name. The feather stuck right in his arm before quickly pulling itself out.

“Icarus!” He heard a voice yell, “I need healing!”

“I’m in the middle of something!” He yelled back.

“We’ll drop that something I need healing!” The voice yelled again, missing the point entirely.

“Fuck off man you can last a minute,” Icarus said.

He knew the person that was yelling, they typically called for his help when they got a paper cut so Icarus was pretty sure they would survive for a minute.

“Jesus,” Icarus muttered.

“Wow, they always just yell and expect you to go?” Charon asked, still sending the feathers towards him at full speed.

“Yep,” Icarus said while ducking, “they don’t care if I’m busy.”

“Huh. Have you ever thought about just leaving?” Charon asks.

“Kinda can’t I’m sorta stuck here,” Icarus says after slicing a feather going for his face.

“Oh? Why’s that?” He asks.

“We’ll this is my home, you know when people kidnap you and you don’t have anywhere else to go because you don’t even remember what your parents looked like you start to feel like you belong no where else but with the people who took you,” Icarus said with a shrug.

“Icarus?” Charon asked.

“Hm?”

“Fucking run away, the hero commite is terrible. Especially if they did that to you.”

“Can’t, they kinda have like a tracker on us.”

Charon stood still in what Icarus could only assume was horror as the feathers flew at his body at an even faster speed that he could not hope to cut or dodge. Icarus went to duck but that was the wrong move because a sea of feathers came flying at him. He stood up just in time for them to miss his head.

“Ow! Gods dude, chill,” Icarus said, quickly healing himself after the feathers pulled themselves out.

“Charon!” Siren yelled.

Blinking Charon seemed to finally snap out of his trance before glancing at Icarus, calling his feathers back, and flying away.

“Jeez,” Tommy said, finally letting himself relax.

“Icarus!” Someone in the distance yelled.

“Gods, I’ll be right there hold on,” Tommy groaned while running his hand over his face before running over.

“Heal us,” the hero said with folded arms.

“Alright, in order of worst to best get over here.” Tommy said, rubbing his hands together.

————————————————

Gods who knew that the hero committee was that terrible.

The group had already gotten back to their safe house and been there for a while but Phil was still caught up on the fact that the heroes had kidnapped children and wouldn’t let them leave.

“Phil?” Wilbur calls while walking over.

“Yeah, Wil?” Phil answers.

“Are you doing okay?” Wilbur asks, “you seem a little shaken up.”

“I got some new, kinda terrible news about the hero commite,” Phil says, glancing up at Wilbur.

Sitting down at the table Wilbur responds, “Do you think we need a meeting?”

“I do,” Phil sighs.

“I’ll call everyone and get it set up,” Wilbur says with a comforting smile, “whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks Wil,” Phil smiles.

Phil looks around at the four other people sitting around the table. Wilbur sitting at his left with Techno at his right. Jack is sitting next to Wilbur with Connor sitting by Techno, an empty chair in between them.

Niki hadn’t been able to come since she didn’t watch to close the shop, along with the fact that Tommy was supposed to be taking over in just over two hours she had decided to miss the meeting.

“Alright, Wilbur called this meeting because I found out about something from one of the heroes today,” Phil started shakily, “while I was fighting Icarus today he told me that there had been, and still might be, a program sponsored by the hero commite.”

“And? The committee does this sorts thing often, it gets them more money typically,” Jack says in a bored tone.

That had earned a glare from both Techno and Wilbur.

“And, in the program the kidnapped children with-,” Phil was cut off.

“Kidnapped kids?!” Wilbur exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table while standing up.

“Yes, they would supposedly take kids that had promising abilities, such as Icarus’ ability to heal any wound with out much repercussion,” Phil said.

“My gods,they would just take kids,” Wilbur whispered.

“There have to be more from the program, they’re most likely around Icarus’ age,” Phil explained.

“And how old is that?” Connor asked.

“Most likely early 20’s or late teens, such as 19,” Techno answered for him.

“Where’d you get that answer?” Phil asked.

“I’m the one who fights him the most, he’s got s certain body language,” Techno shrugged.

“I think we need to come up with a plan to fucking take these ‘heroes’ down,” Wilbur seethed.

“Hold on!” Jack yelled, everyone turning towards him, “we don’t even know if Icarus is telling the truth! For all we know he could be making up a story to trick us.”

Phil had opened his mouth to answer, but Techno had beat him to it. “He’s not.”

“How can you be so sure? All the heroes are just cunning idiots,” Jack said with follded arms.

“I know he’s not, trust me. He’s more of the idiot part than the cunning part, the kid openly talks about anything. He wouldn’t make this up,” Techno said.

“Techno-” Jack started.

Techno held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks.

“I know him as well as a villain can know a hero, he wouldn’t lie about this,” Techno said seriously.

“I,” Jack started again, but sighed at the look in Techno’s eyes, “I still don’t trust it, but fine.”

“Don’t you think we should tell the other groups about this?” Wilbur asked.

“Yeah probably,” Phil sighed.

“I’ll tell eggpire,” Connor said, raising his hand.

“I’ll tell Las Nevadas,” Jack said.

“Okay, me, Techno, and Wilbur have some stuff to do so we’ll swing by the cafe and tell Niki,” Phil said.

“Alright, sounds good,” Wilbur said.

“Okay you can leave now everyone,” Phil said, standing up.

——————————————-

“Gods,” Tommy whined, “sometimes I forget how much of a pain in the ass it is to walk from the tower to the cafe.”

He was about a block away from the cafe, with 10 minutes till his shift started, when he saw the commotion. He stopped his jogging and slowed to a walk when he saw the explosion from a nearby building. He can assume based on the explosion it’s either Hephaestus, Tubbo, or Vulcan. He assumes it’s Hephaestus because he hadn’t seen much of Vulcan after the fight at the tower.

He continues at a slow pace wondering why they’d be fighting again so soon after their loss earlier.

He quickens his pace wanting to see what was happening. He had just started jogging when another explosion went off, causing him to pause and cover his face from the small bits of debris. Tommy turned his head and started coughing from the dust in the air when he hears a whizzing. Tommy glances up just in time to see a metal pole with concrete still attached come flying at him.

Distantly he thinks he should move.

He closes his eyes and braces for impact but is surprised when besides him feeling a little bruise start to form he doesn’t feel anything else.

Distantly he hears someone yell.

He starts to feel kinda warm and fuzzy, it’s nice feeling really. A nice change from the chill that was cutting through his jacket like a knife a few moments earlier. He thinks that he’s going to be alright, Tommy appreciates the change, frankly he dislikes the cold, but then he goes to walk and he stumbles. It’s nothing really, if it had been anything other time he would’ve chopped it up to him tripping on a rock, but this wasn’t any other time.

He hears the yelling again. Is it getting further away?

Tommy goes to take another step but stumbles again. Gods why weren’t his legs working today? He reaches out and is surprised the be met with an arm. When had someone walked up to him?

Distantly he hears someone talking. He thinks it’s about how he’s going to be fine or something.

He looks up to see who he was currently grabbing and is surprised to be met with a mask that looks like it’s shimmering and is made of scales. It’s Siren.

“What are you doing?” Tommy try’s to say. Keyword tried, he thinks it came out more as ‘wha oo do nn’.

Siren shifts closer with unsure hands and picks him up bridal style. It’s painful and Tommy makes sure to voice his complaints.

Somewhere in his head he registers the fighting had stopped.

The pain only lasted for a moment though and soon the warm, cozy, fuzzy feeling is back, and all he wants to do is sit in the feelings and fall asleep. Gods when did he get so tired. It wouldn’t hurt for him to just have a little nap though, right? Soon he’s laying his head on Siren’s trench coat jacket and closing his eyes.

Distantly he hears someone yelling his name.

Tommy had just closed his eyes when he felt someone tapping his chin. How rude. Why couldn’t they just let him… rest for… a few… moments.

…

“My? Ommy? Tommy!” He hears a familiar voice say.

All they got was a groan in response.

“Tommy cmon, Techno told me about your healing powers all you have to do is heal a bit, then you can go right back to sleep. I promise,” the voice says again.

“Don’ wanna,” Tommy mumbles.

“I know buddy, but I swear you can sleep as much as you want once you heal this,” the voice says softly. Is that Niki?

Tommy opened his eyes just a bit and was surprised slightly to find that the lights had been dimmed, and that he was correct in assuming the voice was Niki. It wasn’t just her though, he looked around and noticed that Phil, Techno, and some other person with brown hair were sitting by him.

“Promise?” Tommy mumbled.

“I swear, just do this one thing and you can sleep for as long as you want,” Niki said as she brushed some hair from his forehead.

“Mm fine,” Tommy said and lifted his hand weakly.

Niki gently held his wrist as he started to twist his wrist around. It took a lot of his energy, of which he had very little from work earlier.

Once he finished Niki held his hand as she and the others whispered praise.

“Can I go to sleep now?” Tommy asked no one in particular.

“Yeah bud, rest as much as you want, we’ll be here when you wake up,” he heard Techno say, but he had already closed his eyes.

“Sweet dreams,” Phil whispered.

Tommy came to again at least two hours later.

“Oh my gods Tommy!” He heard Niki yell once he opened his eyes.

“Woah! Niki, you okay?” Tommy asked.

“Am I? Dude you’re the one who almost died!” Niki said.

“You’re exaggerating, I would’ve been fine,” Tommy said with the best shrug he could manage while lying down.

“Tommy, no you wouldn't have been fine, we thought you died!” Niki said exasperated.

“Is he awake?” He heard Techno ask from far away.

“Yes, and it seems he is perfectly fine,” Niki said.

“Thanks the gods,” Techno sighed and sat down on the floor next to Tommy.

“What time is it?” Tommy asked after a moment.

“It’s about midnight,” Niki said.

“Wow, that’s late,” Tommy said.

“Yeah, well we should get you home, I closed the shop four hours ago,” Niki said, standing up.

“Alright,” Tommy said while sitting up.

“Hey, before you leave Phil wanted to talk with you,” Techno said.

“Sounds good,” Tommy said with a small smile.

“Hey, glad you’re awake,” Phil said softly.

“Yeah yeah yeah, what’s up you old fucker?” Tommy said with a grin.

“Glad to know you’re doing just fine,” Phil chuckled.

“Yep, besides a little fatigue I’m good as new,” Tommy said, “what was it you wanted to talk about?”

Tommy felt a shift in Phil’s mood at this question, “Niki said that when you got hit the heroes were calling your name. Do you know why they knew your name?”

“Oh,” Tommy started sweating, just make something up c’mon, he thought, “they’ve tried to recruit me before.”

“Oh? How so?” Phil’s eyes got darker with what Tommy could only assume was anger.

“Oh you know when I was in elementary school they started talking to some kids and their parents, some kids and their parents agreed to it,” Tommy said with what he hoped was a nonchalant shrug, “they wanted me for my healing powers but my parents didn’t agree, doesn’t mean they gave up trying though.”

“Hm,” Phil hummed, “heroes really are assholes.”

“Uh, yeah for the most part,” Tommy said awkwardly.

“You should go home and rest, hopefully the next time I see you you won’t be bleeding out,” Phil said with a fond smile.

“Yeah, see you old man,” Tommy laughed.

With that Tommy pushed himself into a standing position, waved to Phil who was the only one in the room, and slowly made his way home.

Chapter Text

Tommy walks up to his apartment door, half asleep, and tests the handle before realizing it was indeed locked. Sighing, he pulls out his key from his pocket, puts it in the lock and turns in, before pushing the door open.

Before Tommy could even put one foot through the door he’s tackled to the ground by his roommates.

“Oh my gods Tommy!” Tubbo yells.

“We were so worried!” Ranboo says.

“Woah, hey guys. Can I, uh, get up please?” Tommy says with a laugh.

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry,” Ranboo says.

The two scoot off Tommy before standing up and helping the boy get to the couch.

“Okay, now tell us what the hell happened,” Tubbo demanded.

“I think you get the gist of what happened, you were there after all,” Tommy says.

“Yeah, but we were kinda fighting for our life and had to leave as soon as you passed out. Also why the fuck was Siren grabbing you and bringing you into Niki”s Cafe?” Tubbo says.

“Okay I guess from your point of view everythings kinda confusing. Honestly I was just walking to work and noticed you guys fighting when I randomly got impaled by a piece of concrete,” Tommy explains, “I Have no idea why Siren was grabbing me though, I don’t know why he would care about me at all.”

Tubbo and Ranboo sat there in thought for what seemed like forever and share a few glances that frankly confuses Tommy, before they shift their attention back to Tommy with concerned looks in their eyes.

“Um, before we forget Dream wanted us to tell you that even though you technically don’t work tomorrow you have to go in and see him,” Tubbo says.

Confused, Tommy glances at Ranboo and sees them with their head turned away from and their hands fidgeting.

“Why would Dream want to see me?” Tommy questions.

It’s a valid question as Dream has only brought Tommy in on his days off for a few select things, and those were for things he messed up on while presenting as a hero. Tommy didn’t think he had done anything wrong this time. He was dressed up as a civilian heading into his other job that the Hero Committee knows he has, they had been the ones to run background checks on Niki and approve him to work there. What could he possibly have done to get in trouble? Was it him getting injured? It couldn’t be, sure he should’ve been able to notice the piece of rubble and evade it, but that couldn’t possibly be grounds for calling him in on his day off. Dream and him had better things to do than have him meet with Dream over him getting hurt.

“We don’t really know,” Ranboo says.

“Um, alright. What time does he want to see me?” Tommy asks.

“Noon,” Tubbo says.

Tommy glances at the barley lit up oven clock trying to gauge how much sleep he can get. He cringes at the time, it’s 1 AM.

“We should probably get to bed,” Tommy says.

“Yeah alright, it’s been a long day,” Tubbo says.

Tommy nods his head in agreement before getting ready for bed.

Tommy wakes up suddenly to the sound of crashing glass. Shooting straight up as his wings flare out, posed to take flight, he looks around quickly trying to find the cause of the loud noise when he spots Ranboo in the kitchen. Oh. Tommy takes a deep breath to calm himself before lifting the blankets off of himself and pushing himself out of bed.

“What were you trying to make this time?” Tommy asks, amused.

“I was just trying to get juice,” Ranboo says.

“And you dropped the glass?” Tommy guesses.

“Yeah, ha ha laugh all you want,” Ranboo says before walking over to the closet to grab a broom.

“Hey when did Tubbo leave?” Tommy asks.

“Ah, he left about an hour ago, he won't be back till about 1 am.” Ranboo shrugs.

“Okay,” Tommy says, dragging out the ‘ay’. “Well are you up for some MarioKart?”

Ranboo grins, “always.”

40 minutes later Tommy found himself sitting on the couch and waving goodbye to Ranboo. Then he was by himself for the next hour. Tommy sat there wondering what to do, there wasn’t much he could do. He didn’t have a ton of time between now and when he should start walking over to the building, but it was a big enough gap where Tommy knew he would be bored if he didn’t find something to do.

Tommy yawned while stretching out his arms, his eyes caught on the fiery red of his wings. He supposed he could try to clean them, they weren't in the best of conditions at the moment, fighting with rubble and debris flying everywhere would do that he supposed. There was a lot of dust and dirt between the feathers and some of them, especially lower down, were bent or angled weird.

Tommy stood up and grabbed a towel and bowl of water before sitting down again and starting to clean his wings.

Glancing at the time Tommy realized he had to get ready to leave if he wanted to make it to the tower a little before noon. Tommy stretched and stood and began cleaning up the mess he had made with his feathers, after that he quickly found his bag and jacket and started making his way to the hero tower.

Tommy strolls into the building, when he does the person at the reception desk glances up and waves Tommy over.

“Hey Tommy, Dream wants to meet with you in room 507,” the person says with barely a glance up at Tommy.

“Alright, thanks,” Tommy says with a smile before walking off to the elevators.

Tommy quickly hopped in the elevator and clicked the button for the 5th floor and the doors closed. He’s still confused about this whole meeting, he really didn’t think he’d done anything worth Dream actually calling him into the tower. Sure he’d been a little reckless and had a loose tongue when it came to chatting with the villains, but that’s just who he is and it’s something that’d been going on for a while. Dream wouldn’t call him in now to talk about something that’d been going on since he’d had his debut as a hero. Whatever the reason may be he’s going to find out soon, as the elevator doors are opening.

Tommy walked out of the elevator and wandered down the halls till he found room 507, he opened it slightly and glanced in. There was Dream alright, and he looked pissed. Tommy has a feeling isn’t going to go great for him, but there's no more avoiding this and so Tommy pushes the door open all the way and walks in.

“Hiya Dream, you wanted to talk to me?” Tommy greets.

The look Dream gives him would kill him right then and there if looks could kill.

“So uh, what did you need?” Tommy says with a nervous laugh.

“Icarus,” Dream starts. “Do you know all the trouble you have caused me lately?”

“I-” Tommy starts but is cut off.

“Be quiet. After all of the extra work I put specifically into you because I was the only one that saw your potential I thought you’d actually care about what I thought and how your actions affected me, but I guess I was wrong. I should’ve realized you only care about yourself and you feel,” Dream said while shaking his head disappointedly.

Tommy stood there frozen, wondering what he did recently to bring this on.

“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Dream asked coldly.

“You’re right, Dream, I’ve been careless and haven’t been thinking about anyone other than myself. I should know better and be better but I haven't been living up to the standards I should. I… I’m sorry,” Tommy said quietly.

“Thank you, and remember I’m only telling you this because if Shlatt or anyone else found out about this you’d get in serious trouble. I’m just looking out for you, if you told them anything about this place they would be able to come and get you. I don’t want that, I want you safe. Do you understand?”

“Yes Dream I understand, you only told me this because you want to protect me.”

“You understand that I have to punish you so this lesson sinks in?”

“Yes I understand that, and that any punishment you give me is fair and justified.”

“Good, I’ll let you off easy this time. Go heal everyone in the infirmary and then go on patrol till I message you and tell you can leave.”

“Yes Dream.”

“Good, now leave my sight, I have more important things to attend to.”

Tommy nodded before walking out of the room. Thank the gods Dream was feeling generous today, he’d be a little tired for work later, but that’s nothing compared to past and worse punishments he's gotten. He still isn’t happy about this, but Dream’s right he’s been reckless lately. Tommy does appreciate Dream and all he does for him, he just wishes it didn’t take him getting in trouble for Dream to express that he cares for Tommy. Whatever, he should just make his way down to the infirmary and hurry with patrol so he can hopefully have a few hours rest before work at the cafe.

Tommy sighs, he’s exhausted after healing all those people, but he’s still got patrol to get through before he can leave, and who knows how long his patrol is going to be, Dream sometimes makes it lasts a lot of hours or just few short hours, it’s a toss up of what it’s going to be. Well, the sooner he starts the sooner he can be finished hopefully. And so Tommy makes his way to the locker rooms and changes before quickly heading out to patrol the lower districts.

Icarus had only been patrolling the districts for a few hours at this point, but of course he just had to run into a villain. He swears they don’t take days off and they specifically come out on the days he has to. This all to say he ran into Ares of all villains.

“Hey Icarus,” Ares says with an amused undertone.

Icarus simply groans in response.

“Not having too hot of a day I see,” Ares laughs.

Icarus waves his sword in a false attacking manner in an attempt to hopefully scare Ares off with his amazing sword skills.

“That’s some skill you got there kid,” Ares says with an amused huff.

“Can you like go away?” Icarus asks with a half hearted glare.

“You okay kid?” Ares asks with a more serious tone now. “You look dead on your feet.”

“Yep just dandy, only had to heal 20 people with big injuries and am exhausted because of it,” Icarus says with a false happy tone.

“Jesus kid, do you want to like sit down or something? Why the hell are you on patrol?” Ares asks.

Icarus rolls his eyes, “it’s a punishment for talking with you doofuses.”

“A punishment for talking?” Ares asks, confused.

“Yeah, and I’m lucky. I deserved way worse but I got off easy this time. So can we just get this whole fighting thing over with?” Icarus says annoyed.

“Hey we don’t have to fight, I’m sure as hell not fighting you with the state you’re in. Just sit down and chill out for a second,” Ares says with a stressed tone.

“Ugh fine,” Icarus sits down on the ground with a thud. “Happy?”

“Very,” Ares replies dryly.

Icarus in response flops onto his back and flips Ares off.

“Just chill kid, I’ll make sure no one messes with you today,” Ares says comfortingly before running off.

And if under his mask Icarus smiles, well no one needs to know besides him.

Finally, after 5 hours of patrolling Dream had messaged him and told him that ‘He was free to leave now, just remember this lesson for the future and that I’m doing this all for your sake’. Tommy had finally gotten back to the tower and out of his suit by 5:30. There wasn’t really enough time to go back to his apartment so he supposed the hero break room would just have to do for his nap. And so Tommy went up to the sixth floor and found the closest resting room before promptly passing out, barely remembering to set an alarm for 7.

-----------------

“So Whiro,” Quackity said, folding his arms. “What did you need this time?”

Jack rolled his eyes before responding. “We need your help with just a little plan of ours.”

“And what makes you think I’d help you and your group after what one of your members did to me?” Quackity questioned, leaning forward on his desk.

“Well Tymora, it’s a goal we all share, in fact Eggpire has already agreed to help us with this.” Jack smirked.

That piqued Quackity’s interest. What common interest could all three of the group have?

“We’re going to finally take down the hero committee and we may just have a little inside birdie if we can convince him to switch sides that is.” Jack said nonchalantly.

Quackity thought about it for a moment before letting a smile spread across his face. “Well then, how can I help?”