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“Your stories are always shit.” Tommy whined, flopping his head back on the pillows. He kicked one leg upwards, eyebrows scrunched in concentration. “Go get a comic book or something, the stories in those are good at least!”
Techno rolled his eyes, crossing one leg over the other as he set down the book that he had been reading from before Tommy so rudely interrupted him. “Fine, fine. How about instead I tell you a story you haven’t heard before? It’s one I’ve been working on for you, actually.”
Tommy paused in his kicking, head tilted slightly in curiosity as to what his older brother’s proposal could mean. “Go on…” he said slowly, waiting for an explanation.
“Well listen and you’ll find out.” He said with a hum, cracking a smirk at the almost catlike way Tommy watched him with interest now, blue eyes sparkling in the way that only meant he was up to something or Techno had his attention. This was one of the few cases where he knew for certain which it was.
And then Techno began.
Thomas Careful Danger Kraken Innit was known by many people for many things. For being a genius, hilarious, cunning, and the haver of many wives- just to name a few of them.
But that last one was more of a bittersweet joke then he’d like to admit.
—
“Do you have any idea who it is this time?” Tubbo said with an irritated sigh. He slid down the length of the door, stretching his legs out as he sat down.
“Nope. No clue this time.” Tommy groaned, head pressed to his knees as he squeezed his eyes shut to not have to stare at the dirt caking his hands. He could still taste the gentle sweetness of the petals on his tongue.
“Surely someone was staring, right? People always stare when they get a crush on someone.” Ranboo said almost hopefully.
“Look, I didn’t see anyone staring at me and one moment I was fine and the next I was in the school garden snackin’ on fuckin’ daisies!” He complained, lifting his head to throw his hands up in the air.
The trio let out a collective sigh.
“What is this, the third one this year?” Tubbo asked, turning his head to glare at Tommy. “For someone so damn annoying you sure are irresistible to the girls.”
“Oye fuck you! I am Tommy Innit, the haver of many wives so of course the ladies all love me you bitch!” He retorted, head swinging around to glare at his friend.
“Well maybe if all the ladies didn’t love you so much then maybe we wouldn’t be huddled in a bathroom stall because you tried eating an entire fucking handful of daisies in the school garden!” Tubbo shot back.
Ranboo merely sighed in defeat, getting to his feet to unlock the stall door and check the bathroom for any other students.
“Well it isn’t my fault that people only find me annoying at first! I didn’t ask for so many girls to like me that I eat fuckin’ flowers !” Tommy threw his hands up in the air, irritation rising to a boil.
“I don’t even know how they like you, you’re always annoying, not even just at first!” Tubbo yelled, getting to his feet and grabbing his backpack from the floor.
“What’s that supposed to mean you ass?” Tommy shouted back, getting to his feet as well.
“For the love of prime will you two knock it off !” Ranboo interrupted, yanking the stall door open once more to glare at the two bickering boys.
Tubbo mumbled something under his breath, glancing between Tommy and the floor. Tommy stood silently, glower on his face but indignantly silent.
“All three of us are sick of this, Tommy especially.” Ranboo began, arms folded across his chest and eyes narrowed. “But that doesn’t mean you need to bite each other’s heads off every time this happens!”
Out of the trio, Ranboo was always the one with the quietest presence. He was chaotic like the other two, but he preferred to stay in the background and out of sight mostly. He was the stealthy one, the one that let them get away with things because of his status as a general teacher’s pet.
He was the one least likely to yell and chew Tubbo and Tommy out. But it just made him more intimidating on the occasions when he did.
Occasions which usually happened when Tommy’s flower problem was being argued about.
Such as now.
Tubbo and Tommy remained silent, both glaring down at the tiled floor. Ranboo waited, glaring at both of them as the trio played the waiting game of who would crack first.
Finally, the silence broke. Tubbo let out a sigh and looked up at Tommy before glancing back at the floor. “It’s not your fault you have the weird as hell reverse-hanahaki thing. Shouldn’t’ve yelled. Sorry.”
Tommy looked up, eyes narrowed as he glared at his friend and processed the apology. “Your apology is shit.”
Tubbo let out a snort, a slight grin breaking out across his face. “Dickhead. Maybe be less of an obnoxious ass and it won’t be an issue.”
Tommy gasped, looking over to Ranboo incredulously. “Ranboob are you hearing this? I’m being insulted by my own best friend!” He swung his head around to glare at Tubbo once more. “The betrayal . The nerve .”
“As much as I’d love to continue this argument, we have bigger issues.” Tubbo looked between Ranboo and Tommy, to which Ranboo sighed and stepped back into the bathroom stall. “Do you have any idea who it is this time?”
“Like I said before, no idea.”
“Okay, well, then that just means that the first step is we need to figure out who it is that likes you.” Ranboo frowned.
“So keep an eye on everyone in all of my classes to see who seems suspicious. Got it.” Tommy nodded seriously.
“Yep and after that we can narrow it down to who makes you really want to eat flowers when they enter the room.” Tubbo agreed. “And try not to choke on a rosethorn.”
“Fuck you that only happened once!”
—
Tommy followed just behind Ranboo into the classroom. He didn’t say anything, instead simply waiting for his friend to answer the teacher’s usual questions of “why were you late?” and “do you have a hall pass?”. From there he calmly and silently walked to the middle of the room where his desk sat.
So far so good.
The next stage of his objective was more challenging. Making sure to pay attention to the lecture because he was already almost failing the class, while also ignoring the steady urge to dive into a rose bush for a snack, while also keeping an eye on his classmates to see if he could notice anything strange about them.
Well, not counting the fact that at least one of them had a crush on Tommy, that is.
He scanned the room, occasionally catching Ranboo’s eye as the other did the same. Notes weren’t important, he could always copy Ranboo’s if he didn’t catch them. But he needed to balance watching his classmates and hearing enough of the lesson to answer if-
“Thomas, summarize the passage we just went over.” Tommy jerked out of his thoughts, blinking and glancing up at the board. His teacher was glaring at him, her eyes narrowed behind her glasses.
He glanced between the board and Ranboo, trying to catch his friend’s eye for any clue about what it was he just missed.
She sighed, rolling her eyes at the blond’s cluelessness. “If you aren’t going to pay attention to what we’re doing then perhaps you shouldn’t-”
“Romeo went to Friar Laurence with Juliet so he would marry them. The issue with this is that Juliet’s parents want her to marry Paris and if they proceed in trying to force that marriage upon her, it would be lead to further conflict?” Tommy’s voice trailed off into a question at the end, his head tilted to the side uncertainly.
Brown eyes narrowed further as they met Tommy’s blue ones as his teacher assessed his answer. A grin spread across Tommy’s face, eyebrows raising slightly as he waited for the response.
“Correct. But pay more attention to what’s happening. I can see you looking around. The lesson is up here not plastered on the wall.” She turned away, and Tommy let out a quiet exhale of relief.
He looked over to Ranboo, mouthing a quiet “thank you”. Ranboo merely rolled his eyes, shifting his textbook and the notebook paper covered in large black words away.
Good ole Ranboo. Always saving my ass. Not that I couldn’t do it myself, but he is helpful. Tommy hummed a quiet song under his breath, glancing around once more- although this time paying a bit more attention to the lesson then he was before.
“Well what happens next? You can’t just leave it off at that!” Tommy whined, falling back against his pillows dramatically.
“You need to rest, actually. I can see you’re falling asleep. We can continue the story tomorrow, when you aren’t about to pass out.” Techno stood up, picking his book up off of the table.
“But I’m not tireddd.” He complained, wrinkling his nose as he glared up at his brother.
Techno rolled his eyes, sitting down on the side of the bed and ruffling Tommy’s hair. The child yelped, doing his best to pull away even as he laughed at the gesture.
“I’ll be back tomorrow. I’ll be here right around when you wake up, so just take a nice nap.” He hummed, voice deep and gentle in the way he knew made Tommy struggle to stay awake.
Tommy yawned, reaching his arms above his head in a last stretch before flopping down sleepily against the pillows once more. “Promise?” He demanded.
“Promise.” Techno agreed. Tommy hesitated for a moment before nodding. Then Techno stood again and walked out of the room.
He did his best to ignore the humming and beeps of machines as he turned off the light and gently closed the door.
—
Tommy was already awake when Techno came back the next morning.
The moment the sound of the door opening reached his ears, Tommy had turned to look at Techno, tired blue eyes full of excitement at the prospect of continuing the story.
“What’s got you so excited, Theseus?” Techno said with a small smile, taking his seat in the chair beside the bed.
“Continue the story! The one about the kid who ate flowers whenever people had a crush on him!” The boy responded immediately, practically vibrating with energy.
“You have to settle down first, though.” He hummed, crossing one leg over the other. He hasn’t had this much energy in days .
“Alright alright! Just continue the story!”
“Any luck in biology?”
“Nope. What about in english?”
“Nearly got busted for not paying attention in that one, but nope.”
“Did you get the notes for history, Boo?”
“Yes, yes I got the notes. One of these days you’re going to take your own notes, Bo.”
“Alright alright, notes come later. What other classes do we need to check?”
Tubbo leaned back slightly, arms folded on the lunch table in front of him. He frowned, looking around the cafeteria with narrowed eyes.
“Something wrong Tubs?” Tommy questioned, leaning back to look around the cafeteria as well.
Everything seemed to be normal. Students minding their own business or talking to their friends, chatter arising from almost every table with some students sitting alone reading a book, on their phones, or wearing headphones. No one was looking at-
There it was.
The urge ran through Tommy before he had time to think about it, washing over his mind with a blurred tangle of petals and warmth.
Tommy was on his feet and walking before he even realized what was happening.
“Tommy- Tommy hey! God damnit not again!” Tubbo yelled, leaping up from his seat and swinging his backpack onto his shoulder as Tommy sped out of the cafeteria.
Petals petals gold and white pink and blue purple and shining soft on tongue thorns down throat warm and sweet honey on tongue -
“Not happening twice in one- oof !” A weight crashed into Tommy and he fell over, the fog clearing from his mind as the voice speaking cut off and they both tumbled to the ground.
“Get the fuck off! Who do you think you are bitch-” Tommy screeched, struggling against the gangly arms holding him in place.
“Tommy be quiet! It’s me!” Ranboo said frantically, leaning down and speaking quickly but quietly.
Instantly Tommy let himself go limp, the realization of what must have happened washing over him as he let his forehead bump the asphalt with an annoyed sigh.
“Flowers again?” He questioned, already knowing the answer.
“Flowers again.” Ranboo sighed, sliding off of Tommy’s back and getting to his feet.
Tommy pushed himself to his feet, looking around at where he’d ended up before being stopped again.
Great. Just outside the garden.
At least they didn’t let him choke on flowers again. That was the least pleasant of all times Tommy had gone ‘flower-brained’.
Ranboo picked up his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder as Tommy slouched up alongside him. Tommy took a small inhale, face red in embarrassment. “Hey Ran-”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it.” Tommy glanced up at Ranboo, red and green eyes amused as they met his own. “Just try to get a better hold on yourself. Tubbo had to distract the administrator in the hallway so I could run past and tackle you.”
“‘Oye don’t say it like I’m trying to eat flowers on a daily basis!” He complained, elbowing Ranboo as he walked.
“You sure? The amount of times you’ve ran towards bushes sure begs to differ.” The taller boy let out a yelp as he dodged Tommy’s elbow, grinning behind his face mask as Tommy let out a string of curses.
“Okay then Boob boy, we’ll settle this after we get Tubbo out of potential detention!” Tommy grinned, pace quickening into a run back towards the hallway he could already hear Tubbo’s voice coming from. Ranboo snorted but followed, quickly passing Tommy with relative ease- a fact that Tommy pointedly ignored.
The duo rounded the corner, spotting Tubbo standing before the assistant principal with an almost eerily relaxed expression on his face. Tommy slowed to a halt, Ranboo doing the same as the two boys stood to watch Tubbo and the administrator argue.
Surprisingly- well, actually un surprisingly- Tubbo appeared to be winning the argument. With logic as flawed as it could be coming from a student, Tubbo appeared to be backing the assistant principal’s logic into a corner.
Tommy almost let out a groan at the fact that he’d missed most of the argument.
“Tommy wouldn’t have been running through the hallway towards the gardens if the gardens were simply not barred off.” Tubbo justified calmly, expression bored as it always was in an argument he knew he could win.
“The gardens are off limits because students are known to be irresponsible with-” The man began, sounding uncertain of himself.
“Students wouldn’t be irresponsible with the garden if it wasn’t treated as some gated up privilege. With all due respect sir, I’d think you’d know that teenagers love to spite people. By making the garden off limits you are literally encouraging people to break into it to be irresponsible.”
Wow. That was kind of an impressive response. Impressive in the fact that it was true and that it seemed to make the administrator wilt even further. Success, then.
Either way, time to cut this short. Tommy needed his best friends together so they could spent the remaining lunch period plotting-
The end of lunch period came with the bell ringing. And with that came the rush of students from the cafeteria into the hallway. Hundreds of voices and bodies crowding together into one moving mass that swept away anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the halls.
Caught in the halls. Just like Tommy, Ranboo, and Tubbo happened to be.
Tommy let out a shriek, pushed along and away from his friends as the crowd surged around him and past him. His yells were drowned out by the sea of chatter of other students, washing him through the halls as he struggled to wedge himself out from the thickest patch of students and towards a wall to grab at the lockers.
Unsurprisingly to anyone, Tommy ended up being late to his class. A fact that only pissed him off even more so by the fact that Tubbo somehow ended up perfectly on time when he was easier to be swept away then Tommy was.
He didn’t say a word to his friend as he sat down beside him, the blond settling for simply glaring at him rather than risking being called out for interrupting class. Tubbo only smiled smugly at him.
—
“Okay so under normal circumstances I’d say we need to discuss the fact that Tubbo is a fuckin’ wizard, but we have more pressing concerns right now.” Tommy looked between his two friends seated at his kitchen table; the trio having agreed to gather at Tommy’s house the moment school let out for the day.
“Concerns such as the fact that I think I found our candidate.” Tubbo grinned, leaning back in his chair as Tommy turned to stare at him incredulously.
“Wait how the hell did you do that?” Tommy demanded, leaning forward in his chair.
“Same way we do every time. People watching during class.” He replied, waving a hand.
“Wha- but- me and Ranboo did that exact same thing!” The blond spluttered, looking to Ranboo for backup in the statement.
Ranboo shrugged, eyebrows raised in surprise at Tubbo’s statement. “Yeah, we looked as much as we could. Guess that means that-”
“That you two are shit at finding the people who like Tommy.” Tubbo said with a nod, shit-eating grin never leaving his face.
Tommy leaned back against his chair again dramatically, turning his head to glare up at the ceiling as if it had caused all of his problems by merely existing. “Got lucky, that’s all. I’d never be shit at something as simple as finding my wives.”
“Okay well now that we know who it is, what’s the game plan?” Ranboo cut in, stopping the bickering before it could really begin for the sake of time.
Tubbo shrugged. “I think the same thing we always do. Make sure Tommy is as unbearable and bitchy as possible, especially when the person is around. That way they lose interest.”
Ranboo leaned back, face scrunching up in the way that only ever meant he was frowning beneath his mask. “Yeah, but I feel like at this point that’s a bit suspicious to even attempt.”
“We don’t have much else of a choice. We’ve tried pretending Tommy has a girlfriend before, and it backfired immensely.”
Tubbo frowned for a moment, fingers tapping on the kitchen table as he thought. “Our best option is to do the usual plan, I think. You guys alright with that?” He lifted his head to glance between his friends.
“Yeah, fine by me.” Tommy agreed with a nod.
“It’s not like I’m really doing much for this plan anyway, so sure.” Ranboo hesitated, glancing back at Tubbo.“We’re missing one crucial detail here, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Tubbo, you haven’t actually told us the girl’s name.”
“Oh. Well it’s the girl in our psychology class, Samantha.”
Tommy jerked forward, staring wide eyed at Tubbo in confusion. “ Samantha ? Tubs she hates me! No way it’s her.”
“Maybe she’s just been faking it or something?” Ranboo asked.
“Dunno. I just know that based on the recent times you’ve wanted to eat flowers and how worse it gets depending on the class period, she’s the one.”
Tommy sighed, running a hand through his hair in disbelief. “Well, at least we know who it is. Now we can get onto eliminating her crush on me.”
“Operation ‘No More Crushes’. Part seven. Let’s get this over with.”
“Why’d you cut it off there?” Tommy demanded, arms crossed as he glared at Techno.
“Because the doctors need a few minutes to take care of you.” Techno said calmly, getting to his feet as the doctor and two nurses stepped into the room.
He moved backward out of the way to let them work, watching as Tommy begrudgingly held still as they did their jobs.
“Mister Blade?” Techno nearly flinched at the formality before turning around to face the doctor standing in the doorway.
“Yeah?” He said, walking to the doorway and pausing. He looked back at Tommy before stepping out of the dimly lit room and into the hallway. “Have there been any improvements on Tommy’s condition?”
The doctor hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. “No, there have not. In fact, it’s gotten worse.”
Techno felt his stomach drop. “What do you mean? You see him in there, he’s had more energy today then he has in days! Surely there was a mista-”
“He isn’t getting better. Whatever it is that’s killing him, we can’t stop it. We can’t reverse it. We can’t fix it. It’s gone untreated for too long, and there’s nothing we can do to help him now. The most we can do is stall for time. But the more we do that, the more it’s going to start hurting him.”
Techno didn’t speak. Instead he merely turned his head to look at the boy in the hospital bed. The boy with golden hair and bright eyes, who looked so much like his father did.
“This wasn’t your fault. You got him out of the system as fast as you could, but we think that it may have been an issue back when-”
“Don’t.” Techno interrupted quietly, letting out a slow breath and looking back at the doctor. “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say that Phil didn’t take care of the problem then so now it’s terminal. I don’t need to hear it, and Tommy sure as hell doesn’t need to either.”
The doctor sighed, looking away from Techno for a few moments before looking back at him. “Phil was your father and he did the best he could. But he wasn’t perfect. Things go under the radar, and maybe he just thought that this was Tommy getting sick from the cold. That doesn’t change that this isn’t a problem that can be fixed, Techno.”
“I know.” He let out a slow exhale, guilt crawling through his nerves with a hushed chorus of your fault your fault too late weren’t there . “Let me talk to Tommy.”
“Of course.”
And Techno stepped back into the hospital room, taking his seat at Tommy’s bedside once more as the nurses filed out of the room. He took a slow breath, looking Tommy dead in the eye to which the child only frowned at him.
“We need to talk about something, Tommy.” He began.
“That sounds depressing and I want to hear the story instead.” Tommy said easily, readjusting slightly in the bed.
As much as Techno needed to explain to Tommy what was happening, he wasn’t in a hurry to tell Tommy he was dying. Part of him suspected that Tommy already knew, and another part of him wanted to try to preserve the light in his eyes for as long as possible. And if that meant that for just a little while longer Tommy didn’t know, then Techno was alright with that. For now, he could continue on with the story.
“Alright. But later we need to talk about something important.”
“I know, I know. Just get on with the story!”
Techno couldn’t help but chuckle at the child’s impatience. “Fine, fine.”
Formulating a plan was the easy part. But actually carrying out said plan, well that was the difficult part.
Luckily for them, however, Tommy had enough of a bad track record that it wasn’t too out of the ordinary anyways for them to play up his behavior.
“Step one: late to class with a bad attitude. Disrupt classroom and knock things off of desks as you go. Establish a bad day, establish rude behavior.” Tubbo folded his arms behind his head with a grin, already confident in the plan from where he sat in a bean bag in Ranboo’s room the morning of the start of their plan.
“Tommy with a bad attitude? This’ll be easy.” Ranboo hummed, a grin clear on his face with his mask off.
“For the sake of this plan I will ignore that.” Tommy grinned, cracking his knuckles in excitement.
And so the plan actually began.
—
Ranboo and Tubbo went ahead early to school, getting there perfectly on time without Tommy- a move that already displayed something as being not right considering Tommy’s obvious absence.
Tubbo sat down at his desk with a carefully neutral expression, pulling out his chromebook before dropping his bag onto the floor to slide beneath his desk.
“Where’s Tommy? Isn’t he always with you and that other guy?” Bingo . Tubbo hid his smile as he looked up at Samantha where she stood at his desk.
“Oh. Well he’s being a bitch today so me and Boo left without him.” He said easily, shrugging slightly.
Samantha hesitated, eyes flicking between something behind her and Tubbo again. “Oh. Well that sucks. Not surprising though, he seems to be acting more like a weirdo lately than usual.” She stood there for another few moments before turning away and walking back through the rows of desks to her seat.
First stage of step one completed. Rest is up to you, Tommy .
The class began a few minutes later, and still Tommy did not show up.
Ms. Rose called attendance. Still Tommy did not show up.
Tubbo waited, glancing at the clock every few seconds. Almost time. Almost there.
There was a knock on the classroom door. Tubbo glanced up from his notebook which sat void of any actual notes. Ms. Rose halted in her lecture and walked to the door, glaring at the boy behind it as soon as it opened.
“You’re late. Very late.” She stated.
Tommy scowled at her. “Are you going to let me into the classroom or am I gonna wait outside?”
Tubbo winced. If it was any other teacher then Tommy would’ve been sent to the office immediately for being an asshole to a teacher. Lucky for him, Ms. Rose didn’t care enough to send him to the office.
Even so, she didn’t move for a few moments. Then she stepped back, holding the door open for just long enough that Tommy could step into the classroom. She returned to the board and Tommy made his way through the rows of students, discreetly knocking objects off the edges of desks as he made his way to his seat beside Tubbo’s.
Tubbo leaned back enough to look past Tommy and at Samantha. She was glaring at Tommy, expression largely unimpressed with a hint of concern edging it. He shifted to the side slightly, elbowing Tommy to get his attention. “You don’t look so good, boss man.” He said quietly.
Tommy glared at him from the corner of his eye, jaw squared in concentration to not burst out of the classroom to devour a patch of dandelions. “You try sitting in the same classroom as someone who makes you want to eat flowers you dick.” He whispered back angrily.
“You two in the back, shut up!”
—
“Second stage of the plan. After first period, be sure to be passive aggressive at any point throughout the day where Samantha tries to speak to you. Just be generally passive aggressive actually. And keep up the bad mood.”
“Should be easy enough for you.”
“Fuck you!”
Tommy strode through the hallways with a hunch to his shoulders and a glower on his face as he bumped past people and shoved his way through. In every class period he was moody and sarcastic- enough to be clear he was in a shit mood but not enough to get himself into actual trouble.
And on a normal day, Samantha would stride past him with a casual insult or backhanded remark tossed his way, but today she did not.
Tommy hid his grin when she didn’t stop to bicker with him.
So far, the plan was going perfectly.
During sixth period came lunch, which meant Tommy was sneaking out of the cafeteria and to the library to conspire with Tubbo and Ranboo once more. Part of him was relieved at not having to ignore them for a little while, even if it was necessary for the act he was putting on.
Tommy wasn’t enough of a sap to say it to his friends’ faces, but it wasn’t mildly upsetting to be unable to hang out with them for a chunk of the day. He was called clingy but Tubbo often enough without the added help, anyway.
He walked down the hallway to the cafeteria with the swarm of other students, dodging past students pausing to chat with their friends and those running through the halls with shrieks of laughter. He eased his way through the slow walkers and those a bit too enthusiastic about eating cafeteria food, before turning a corner into another hallway.
Now out of the main hallway Tommy broke into a jog, making his way through the school to the library. He glanced across the hall before running through; checking for administrators and teachers before moving.
Down another hallway and turning another corner and he stood outside the library door. Slowly Tommy pushed open the door and slipped inside silently. The door closed behind with with a quiet thud as he stepped through the clusters of tables and chairs and in between the bookshelves, making his way to the specific table towards the back. The one that he, Tubbo, and Ranboo had periodically camped out at during lunch for the entire year.
And as expected, Tubbo and Ranboo were already sitting down at the table when Tommy made his way to it. The two’s chatter came to a halt as they saw him, Ranboo tugging the third seat out with his foot. Tommy slid into the chair easily, glancing between his friends for a few moments.
“How’s it working so far?” Ranboo questioned.
Tommy waited, a solemn expression on his face. Then a grin broke out, eyes sparkling excitedly. “Wonderfullly. I’m fuckin’ amazing at this shit.”
“Thank god. Would be a new record for you if you screwed up this quick.” Tubbo grinned.
“I have never screwed up once. I am simply the best at this that there is. Ever.” Tommy said confidently, a grin matching his friend’s on his face.
“Boo what was Samantha’s reaction throughout the day?” Tubbo asked, turning his attention towards the third member of the trio.
Ranboo frowned slightly. “She seemed to believe that he was having a crappy day, but she just looked kind of conflicted. Like she thought something else was wrong with Tommy or something.”
“Strange to notice it… I don’t think she’s onto us though so we should be fine.” Tubbo’s grin faded to a frown as he glanced around the library, as if waiting for the girl to suddenly appear.
“We’ve never been caught with this before so it should be fine.” Tommy said easily. “I haven’t seen her much today so it’s not even as if I’ve been eating flowers all day.”
“You’re still sure it’s her, right?” Tommy looked over at Ranboo, confused at his friend’s uncertain tone.
“I mean, yeah. Pretty sure of it.”
“Well then instead of doing all of this you could just…” he trailed off, shrugging his shoulders.
“What does that mean?” Tommy frowned, squinting slightly to try and figure out what Ranboo was doing.
“I mean just y’know… the easier way of getting this done?”
“Ranboob I still have no idea what you mean.”
“Like, just talk to her?”
“What’s talking to her going to do besides make me want to eat flowers?”
“Tommy he means just reject her! Shut her down! Don’t let her hopes remain high!” Tubbo cut in, exasperated.
Tommy blinked. “Oh.” He paused. “Well I’ve never thought of that.”
Ranboo and Tubbo stilled, both staring at him blankly. Then their expressions changed to ones of exasperation.
“ You never thought to just reject her?! ” They both yelled.
“SHHH! No yelling in the library!” The librarian stepped out from behind a bookshelf, eyes narrowed at the trio. The trio flinched, whipping around momentarily at the sudden fourth voice. Too easy to forget he was there.
They waited until the librarian walked away with a final glare before turning back to one another. Ranboo let out a small sigh of relief before staring at Tommy once more.
“Well in my defense,” Tommy began again, hands raised in front of him placatingly, “I didn’t realize that just rejecting someone would make their crush on me stop!”
Tubbo let out a groan, dragging his hands down his face. “It doesn’t make it just go away instantly, but in most cases it does make the person give up quicker.”
“Why didn’t either of you tell me that, then?” The blond whined, slumping backward in his chair.
“We assumed you knew!” Tubbo defended. “It’s kind of common sense to use rejection before elaborate schemes!”
“Yeah well, apparently common sense ain’t that common.” Ranboo said with a sigh. “At least we know the next stage of our plan then?”
Tommy looked between his two friends, glaring at them both still for not telling him about the easier decision that could've been made. “Fine. I’ll go talk to her, and if this doesn’t work then we go back to the-”
Techno’s sentence cut off, eyes widening as he leaned forward frantically in his chair. “Tommy? Tommy, hey!” He said quickly, shaking the boy now suddenly slumped over in his bed frantically.
If Techno hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought Tommy had simply fallen asleep.
“Tommy? Tommy get up!” Techno whirled around, staring frantically around the room for some sign of what he needed to. He didn’t know what was happening- one moment he’d been reading to Tommy and the next Tommy wasn’t moving .
But that wasn’t right because he was supposed to have more time! He was supposed to be awake and listening to the story and interrupting as he always did because that’s what Tommy did . He was awake and happy and cutting in during Techno’s stories but now suddenly he wasn’t moving.
And Techno wasn’t enough of a naive fool to not realize why the boy he clutched in his arms wasn’t moving. He wasn’t enough of a fool to believe that the sick little brother he’d taken in wouldn’t get worse; it just wasn’t supposed to come so soon. Tommy was supposed to get better. He’d get better and then he and Techno would go back.
They were supposed to go back to an abandoned house and make it home again.
His ears grew deaf to the sounds of the flatline as he yelled for a doctor, for someone to realize what was happening. For someone to notice that his sky was dimming because the sun had just flickered out.
Techno didn’t leave the boy in the hospital bed, held tight in his arms. He held Tommy’s too thin body that bore eyes too tired for his age and held a heart too weak to keep beating.
He didn’t move until the doctors rushed in and made him, their attempts proving futile as he simply stood back and watched hopelessly. He didn’t speak as they explained what must have happened, how Tommy’s body had finally given out. He didn’t speak when they told him how lucky Tommy was to have him. He didn’t speak when they said that Tommy didn’t die in pain. He simply sat down at Tommy’s side, and brushed stray hairs out of his face.
What else could Techno have done?
—
The storybook he had read on all those days in the hospital remained unfinished, pages torn from nights where grief turned to anger. The story within it remained unfinished; a child’s fairytale that would be forever held trapped in time.
The boy it had been written for forever unable to enjoy its words.