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Chapter Text

Tommy’s perfectly normal Friday evening went a little like this:

“DRIVE!” Tommy yelled even though he was sitting directly next to the driver. 

“Let me put on some music, chill out Tom.” Bill fiddled with his phone and scrolled quickly through his mega Spotify playlist. Tommy had always thought it was stupid to just have one playlist becuase then it took forever to find the perfect song. 

“Just go!” Freddie yelled from the middle row of the van. 

“Give it to me.” Tubbo reached to the front of the car from his spot in the middle row and snatched the phone from Bill’s hand. “I got the perfect song.”

The song Stick Up by grandson began to play and Bill took it as his chance to drive. 

“What the fuck is this?” Tommy turned around to face Tubbo.

“I don’t know, I just started playing a playlist by some random person called: Robbing a bank.” Tubbo shrugged and shut off the phone to stare out the rain covered window. 

“Fits the vibe I guess.” Ranboo commented from the back of the van. 

The song began the first verse. 

“Bill, could you possibly drive any faster? I don’t know if you remember but we are currently some of the most wanted criminals in the city.” Aimsey brought the group back on track from her spot in the back next to Ranboo. 

“Calm down Aims, I am the best driver out of all of us. No debate.” Bill jerked as he turned the wheel out of the back alleyways and onto the main road. 

“I’m not gonna even start this argument.” Ranboo sighed. 

Then the van began to flash red and blue, followed by the overly annoying sound of sirens blaring behind them.

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

Ranboo was the only one who didn’t swear. He’s weird like that. 

Bill began to weave through cars and put all his force onto the accelerator. The group had learned long ago to not talk to Bill when he was distracted. They all sat in a tense silence, eyes looking out the back window at the cop cars. 

Bill narrowed his eyes and focused only on what was in front of him. He made random sharp turns in a city he knew better than himself. 

The song began the second chorus. 

“Guys I want you not to freak out.” Bill straightened his posture and swerved to the right down a busy and traffic-filled street that led to the bridge connecting the two parts of the city that was divided by a river. 

“Bill… please don’t hit anyone.” Aimsey pleaded.

“Dude the number one rule of having the getaway driver job is-”

“Never fucking cross a bridge.” The group finished Ranboo’s sentence. The group had always alternated their robbery roles based on the mission. They had all been getaway drivers at some point, except Tubbo. He couldn’t drive for the life of him. 

There was always a 25% chance that the bridge would be up to let a big freight boat through. Tommy guessed that Bill was just hoping this wasn’t the case. 

Bill weaved between the heavy traffic and zoomed towards the bridge. His face unchanged when he saw it was blocked up and was beginning to split in half and draw itself up. 

The song almost reached the final beat drop. 

“Bill…” Tommy grasped for the door handle, gripping it so tight that his knuckles turned white. 

The cop cars were still on their tail and Bill zoomed through the cones that blocked off the bridge, letting them scatter behind him. He began to accelerate more and more, reaching the end of the bridge which was already separating from its other half. 

Tommy closed his eyes. “Fuck you Bill.” Tommy was sure this was how he would die.

The song hit the final beat drop.

There was a brief floating sensation and then a thump which made the group all groan in collective pain from the force of a falling car.

Tommy opened his eyes. 

They were on the other side of the bridge. 

Bill had somehow used the bridge as a ramp to fly to the other side. 

“That was…” Tommy settled back in his seat at a loss for words. 

“FUCKING AWESOME!” Bill grinned in exhilaration. 

The van took off down the rising bridge at a record speed, like a rollercoaster. He parked the van in an empty parking lot where the group took the money bags and took the short walk to the small apartment complex they lived in.

The black duffel bags settled on the counter of the cluttered and cozy apartment. Tommy smiled proudly at the group for the debrief and then he continued with his perfectly normal Friday evening.

“Another building belonging to the Dream Banking Company has been robbed. The incident occurred on Friday night around eleven. There is unfortunately no security footage from the night, but the criminals are believed to be a group known as the Cricket Crew. If you have any information regarding the robbery please call the police hotline at…”

“Oh for fucks sake turn it off already.” Tommy reached over for the remote. It had been four days since their last heist yet it was still the only talk of the city. 

“I thought you loved the attention, Tommy.” Bill mocked his friend as he grabbed the remote first and held it just out of Tommy’s reach. “Yesterday you literally almost threw my phone out the window because I wasn’t listening to you talk about your Animal Crossing island.”

“But they aren’t getting it right at all! They’re just talking about the police and the crime but not the head of the fucking bank who is a complete pyschopath.” Tommy climbed over Bill to finally grab the remote and turned off the TV. 

“Why did we call ourselves the Cricket Crew again?” Aimsey asked from the other couch as she scrolled through TikTok aimlessly. 

“Uhhhh…” Bill looked at Tommy. 

“Cricket up the ass innit?” Tommy said casually.

“Right. Ok stop. Now I remember why I hate you all.” Aimsey covered her ears to emphasize her disgust. 

“Not our fault you were in the bathroom when we chose the name.” Tommy shrugged and pulled out his phone. 

Bill took this opportunity to turn back on the TV, purely out of spite.

Tommy looked at Bill and rolled his eyes deciding that this was useless. He watched the news story as the reporter started a new segment discussing the Cricket Crew in a bit more detail.

“ It’s just amazing that the Cricket Crew have become the most successful bank robbers the city has ever seen, yet they appear to be teenagers. ” The news reporter commented. “ I’m just glad that SBI are hunting them down.”   

For once the reporter said something Tommy actually agreed with. He really had no idea how all of them had become such good robbers. It was just the right people at the right time. 

Just a few years ago (the Cricket Crew hadn’t even had a name yet) it was just him and Toby who was fondly nicknamed Tubbo since before Tommy had taken speech lessons. Tommy and Tubbo had known eachother since birth and it just so happened that both of their parents worked at the same banking company. It was when their parents started a union with the workers of the company that both Tommy and Tubbo’s life collectively went to shit. 

Both of Tommy and Tubbo’s parents tragically died in an accident involving a fire in the building where their union met. Both Tommy and Tubbo knew that this was the doing of the banking company’s leader, only ever known to the public as Mr. Dream. 

Tommy could easily replay it all in his mind. He was sitting in the car with his mom and dad. Tommy’s babysitter had canceled at the last minute so his parents were bringing him to the union meeting that day. Young Tommy watched from the car parked across the street as the building's top floor went up in flames. He watched his parents tell him to stay put as they ran in to make sure everyone was ok (at that point only one floor was on fire so it didn’t seem that dangerous). Tommy watched the bank owner Mr. Dream walk out of the building, holding a gas container. He watched Mr. Dream lock the door behind him with all those people inside. He watched as Mr. Dream drove away in a limousine. Tommy watched as the firefighters couldn’t get inside at first because the door was locked. Tommy watched the building collapse. 

No one else came out after Mr. Dream and it was a few hours before anyone found Tommy in the back of his dead parents car. 

As soon as Tommy arrived at the orphanage (luckily the same one as Tubbo) he explained what had happened to anyone that would listen. He would quickly learn that no one listens to five year olds who just lost their parents.

Tommy and Tubbo were always problematic children and so even after a few foster homes and long orphanage stays, the duo never got adopted by anyone. This made it easier for them to move out of the orphanage the second they turned eighteen. Technically CPS was supposed to check on them to make sure they were ok, but Tommy and Tubbo were really good at falling off the grid. For a while they lived on the streets (which was less than ideal), but the duo worked really hard to get a place to stay.

Now a barely eighteen year old Tommy sat in a crappy two bedroom apartment that he shared with his best friends. 

Tommy knew he should probably deal with the grief and trauma created by his parents death, but for the last thirteen years Tommy had one goal in mind: revenge. He figured it wasn’t worth wasting his tears and time over his parents. His parents deserved more than a sobbing son, they deserved justice. Tommy isn’t exactly sure why his parents had started that union. But it certainly was important to them. Important enough for both of them to leave Tommy alone in that car and run into a burning building. 

Whenever Tommy thought too much about his parents, it sent him down a spiral of unanswered questions. The most annoying thing is that Tommy doesn’t remember enough. If only five year old Tommy had stopped focusing on what he could see and instead focused on what he could hear. Then he would have heard what his parents said to him before they ran into the burning building. Then Tommy could know what was more important to his parents than him. Then Tommy would have some closure. Then Tommy could spread his parents final words to everyone he knew. Then Tommy could have maybe convinced his parents to not run into that burning building at all. Then Tommy would maybe know why Mr. Dream killed them. Then maybe someone would believe Tommy and Mr. Dream would be in jail.

But Tommy couldn’t remember a single word either of his parents had said. 

And so grief could wait. 

Tommy looked over at Bill. The asshole wasn’t even watching the TV that he insisted to have on. Tubbo had met Bill randomly on the street one day. Tubbo was just sitting on a bench eating a Domino’s pizza after his work shift at a cafe and Bill sat next to him and started to rant about something stupid his foster parent had done. While it caught Toby off guard, Bill’s situation with his foster parents didn’t sound good so he brought him back to the alley where Tommy and Tubbo had been sleeping.  Tommy and Bill hit it off right away because their personalities were very similar. Bill hadn’t gone back home to his foster family since and after hearing the fucked up shit that happened to his friends parents, he was glad to help. He tried to pitch in some money, but Bill got fired within a month from any place that hired him, so most of his time was spent at home, planning the robberies.   

Tommy peeked over at Aimsey. Considering that Tubbo was an introvert, Tommy was impressed he had found so many friends. Tubbo met Aimsey because she was a regular at the cafe he worked at and after one of Tubbo’s shift the two bonded over some stupid childhood cartoon.  Aimsey started hanging out with the rest of the Cricket Crew once a week. Then she would be there every other day. And eventually Tommy just asked if she wanted to move in. It was a bit harder to convince Aimsey to help them rob banks, but eventually she was involved in the crimes by proxy. Aimsey always insisted that she was the only thing holding the group together. As much as Tommy hated to admit it, this was probably true. Half of them would be dead if Aimsey hadn’t reminded them to eat, sleep and drink. Even in robberies Aimsey was the one who looked at the plans Bill and Tommy made, and found ways to make them so much safer.
Tommy rose from the beat up leather couch to avoid more of the news story and settled in the kitchen to grab himself a Coke. “Get me one!” Bill yelled from the couch, somehow already knowing what Tommy was doing. 

Ranboo, another member of the Cricket Crew, sat at the dirty granite counter eating a bowl of spaghetti. “Hey Tom, when Bill finally falls asleep… you wanna watch Star Wars?” Ranboo looked up from Twitter briefly.

“Yes please. He’s been torturing me with the news for hours.” Tommy closed the stained fridge and smiled at Ranboo. Ranboo was the first friend that Tommy and Tubbo ever had let into their group (besides themselves of course). Ranboo had two mom’s that constantly took him to the same park that was next to the orphanage. When they were little the trio had played in the jungle gym for hours everyday and as they got older they frequently took walks around the park trails. They talked for hours about everything they could think of. Once Tommy and Tubbo left the orphanage, Ranboo let them stay at his house sometimes (as long as he could before his mom’s got suspicious and almost called CPS or something). When Tommy and Tubbo asked Ranboo if he wanted to pitch in and buy an apartment, Ranboo contributed the most money out of all of them to the savings account.

Ranboo wasn’t a big fan of the whole criminal stuff, but he got used to it pretty quickly. He was a people pleaser and usually did whatever he was asked.  

“Any idea where Tubbo is?” Tommy asked as he opened the coke with a nice sizzling sound. 

“Pretty sure his office.” Ranboo continued scrolling on Twitter. Tubbo’s office wasn’t really his , it was a bedroom but whenever he was in there it quickly belonged to him. He used it as a room to code and Tubbo was scary when he coded.

Tommy started walking down the halls to the bedrooms. “Hey where's my Coke?” Bill looked at Tommy from the couch.

“Fuck off.” Tommy threw up his middle finger as he walked by and Bill just huffed in response. 

On his way to Tubbo’s office, Tommy bumped into Freddie (the final member of the Cricket Crew) who was leaving the bathroom. “Hey Freddie, don’t go in there. Bill’s in a mood.” Tommy advised.

“I’ll take my chances. I’m starving.” Freddie laughed and continued walking. Freddie had known Tommy and Tubbo since before the whole parents' dying situation. Freddie’s parents were friends with Tommy and Tubbo’s parents and so Freddie was forced to visit Tommy and Tubbo a lot when they were kids. He came by at least once a week to play Monopoly or practice on the terrible sounding piano the orphanage had. Tommy knew that Freddie was just a message of sympathy from Freddie’s mom. Maybe it helped her sleep at night knowing she helped the two troubled orphans feel better. But as time went on Tommy and Tubbo grew fond of Freddie and as they entered their teenage years, they felt comfortable calling him a friend. Freddie started to visit more than just once a week because he genuinely likes hanging out with Tommy and Tubbo.

Freddie had seen Tommy’s need for revenge grow over the years and had also watched Tubbo deal with the terrible grief that Tommy had yet to face. He was more than willing to help out and moved in with them right after the apartment was rented. 

And so that was the entirety of the Cricket Crew. They were all pretty different people, but they were Tommy’s family all the same.  

They were also Tommy’s only shot at revenge. 

And they happened to all be good at robbing banks. 

Tommy pushed open the door of Tubbo’s office. “Hey Tubs, how's all that hacking going?” Tubbo was the only person good at computers out of all of them. 

“Three words.” Tubbo spun around in his spinny chair smiling. “Let’s fucking rob another bank.”

“That was like five words.” Tommy pointed out. 

“Shut up, you get the idea.” Tubbo frowned. “I’m ready, one click of a button and the security systems are down.” Tubbo’s pride set back into his face.

Tommy smiled.

They were going to rob another fucking bank.

Chapter Text

If Tommy could tell the entire world one thing it would be that he isn’t a bad person. He just wants justice. One important rule that Tommy had to push the Cricket Crew (mainly just Bill) to agree with is that they keep NONE of the money that they steal. It all goes to charity. Everyone also agreed to never actually kill anyone in the banks, that’s why they always rob at night when all the workers are gone. His plan was to weaken Mr. Dream’s business just enough so that eventually the Cricket Crew could rob Mr. Dream’s house directly. 

Tommy also wanted to kill Mr. Dream because it only felt fair. 

Tommy knew most of the Cricket Crew didn’t want to be murderers, so he hadn’t brought up this part of the plan to anyone. Not even Tubbo.

Tubbo was on board with the whole revenge thing, but only because Tommy was so passionate about it. Tommy knew that if you asked Tubbo, he would rather just code a video game rather than hack into a bank's security system. Tubbo had been hit really hard by his parents death. He didn’t talk to anyone (except for a few whispers to Tommy) for an entire year after they died. He would try, but no words would ever come out. He spent most nights crying uncontrollably which made it hard for him or Tommy to fall asleep. Tommy insisted on sleeping in the same bed as Tubbo (even though the orphanage had a bed for each of them) because he didn’t think Tubbo should be alone while grieving. Tubbo eventually found a way to fall asleep while crying and the pair would wake up sharing a soaked pillow. People constantly thought Tubbo was sick because he was so pale, quiet and frail. Tommy had to treat Tubbo really carefully at this time. It was weird for Tommy to basically be Tubbo’s therapist at five years old. But he did it. It was pretty easy too because Tommy was experiencing the same thing at the same time as Tubbo. The only difference is that Tommy refused to grieve.

For now, he would tell himself grieving will come eventually but just not yet. He told that to himself everyday for those thirteen years. Just not yet.  

But he knew that when he did decide to grieve, Tubbo would be there for him just like he had been there for Tubbo.

It wasn’t until the orphanage got a computer that Tubbo began talking regularly again. He had always sucked at reading, especially because he spent most of kindergarten crying. No matter how hard Tommy tried to help him, Tubbo just never got it. But the computer had video games and coding websites and Tubbo thought it was so cool. Tommy never really understood the computer, but he was happy that it meant that Tubbo stopped crying himself to sleep. 

The year after their parents death was obviously the worst for Tubbo, and Tommy never brought it up. But after that terrible year, Tubbo listened to Tommy rant about justice and revenge and what he saw the day their parents died. Tubbo hated it at first. He said he didn’t want to think about his parents' death anymore. But Tommy insisted that they needed revenge.

And so eventually both Tommy and Tubbo let revenge take over their lives.

Tommy didn’t envy that Tubbo had grieved. Because Tommy didn’t want to grieve. But he also knew that Tubbo wouldn’t understand going to the extreme. He wouldn’t understand Tommy’s need to kill Mr. Dream. 

Tubbo wouldn’t understand because he wasn’t there. He didn’t see his parents die.

And Tommy had. 

But it was ok because today the Cricket Crew were just doing another bank heist. So Tommy didn’t have to worry about killing Mr. Dream for at least a few more weeks.

“Then we climb back through the vents, right back here, and drive away. Easy peasy.” Bill finished explaining the plan for tonight's robbery. 

“Aren’t you worried that the vent will break under the weight of all of us?” Aimsey asked as a part of her normal safety check. “We don’t want to break our arms falling out of the ceiling.”

“Nah it’ll be fine. If it does break then we fall like ten feet, maybe just a few bruises.” Bill dismissed Aimsey’s concern right away. Bill was always eager to commit a crime and wouldn’t let Aimsey ruin it. Especially not after Aimsey’s safety check had once resulted in the Cricket Crew retreating home before the heist even began.  

“Plus our outfits let us camouflage in the dark.” Freddie pointed out, because he was the one who had bought the outfits. 

The Cricket Crew all wore mainly black for obvious crime committing reasons. They all wore some variation of a black long sleeve shirt. Bill and Freddie wore turtlenecks, Tommy and Tubbo had zip up hoodies while Aimsey and Ranboo wore sweaters. To match the various shirts were black jeans (Bill had ripped his for “style”). Freddie had also let each member have their own personal flair in their outfit. 

Tommy’s sneakers had a few red stripes on the side. Tubbo had pins of a bee, a compass, a computer, a duck and a ukulele on his chest. Ranboo had a beanie that was split down the middle half white and half black. Freddie had socks with a panda bear theme. Bill had a black bandana (that his parents got for him from Japan when he was very little) which he used to tie back his hair. And finally Aimsey wore a black beanie with a smiling daisy on the front. 

“Let’s fucking do this.” Tommy initiated the plan.

The group pushed open the back door of their van and jumped out into the alleyway next to the bank. Tubbo had already disabled the city security cameras, making it look like the camera  had a malfunctioned battery to any security patrol. A singular street light flickered near the road, meaning the group was basically in complete darkness.  

“K I’ll go first.” Bill volunteered. “Hoist me up there Ranboo.” Bill motioned to under the vent entrance and Ranboo sighed before taking his place. Ranboo crouched a little to let Bill put both his feet on Ranboo’s shoulders. Carefully Ranboo stood up and let Bill up to the vent. “Screwdriver Tobs.” Bill put out his hand expecting the screwdriver immediately. Tubbo was ready, handed it to him and the group watched Bill unscrew the vent from its nails. Bill began clambering into the small vent, using his upper body strength.  

“Ouch! Bill, could you be any worse at climbing up there?” Ranboo flinched in pain as Bill pushed his feet on Ranboo’s shoulders.

“Shut up.” Bill’s voice echoed out of the vent. His chest lay flat on the bottom of the vent and he pulled up his feet as he began to crawl through. 

Aimsey went up on Ranboo’s shoulders next and promptly went into the vent. She was quite short so Ranboo had to stand on his tiptoes to get her in there. Freddie followed and then Tommy and finally Tubbo. 

“Thanks bossman!” Tubbo called from inside the vent. “Remember: don’t touch any buttons on my computers unless I tell you to on the radio.” 

“Got it Bo.” Ranboo sighed. Tommy knew that Ranboo didn’t like to be the getaway driver and patroller. But he was tall (aka the only way they could get everyone into the vent) and Ranboo was good at listening to Tubbo’s detailed instructions about how to turn off security cameras and shit. Once Tommy had been left in the van as the getaway driver and he almost revealed their exact location to every cop in the city. So therefore Ranboo was stuck in the van for most missions. 

“Thanks Boo!” Tubbo called back and crawled after the rest of the Cricket Crew through the bank's vent system. 

Ranboo went back into the van where Tubbo’s computers were set up. He settled down and scrolled on TikTok, waiting for instructions. 

The other five members of the Cricket Crew crawled through the vents, it was unbelievably uncomfortable. Especially for Tommy because he was so tall. The group tried to stay quiet but it was hard because the vents were made out of loud metal that echoed as they crawled. 

“Ranboo. Come in.” Bill spoke into the walkie talkie as he led the group. “Ran?”

“Oh yeah sorry, got carried away with a baby sensory video on TikTok.” Ranboo’s scratchy voice came out of the earpiece in all of their ears. 

“Focus please, for the love of God.” Aimsey cut into the conversation. 

“Where are we in the vents?” Bill asked, he had stopped in a fork in the road so to speak.

“Uh, go left and then the next grate should be it.”  Ranboo answered. Tommy could imagine Ranboo in deep focus, trailing his finger on the screen that Tubbo setup to make sure he gave the correct directions. Ranboo was a nerd like that. 

The group grunted as they followed Bill to the left.

“Wait, dude, no stop! MY left, not your left.” Ranboo yelled into the earpiece and Tommy winced at the sudden loud volume.

“What the fuck Ranboo! How do we know what your left is?” Bill yelled back angrily.

“SHHHHH” Aimsey basically yelled from behind Bill. 

“I don’t know man but just back up and go right. YOUR right.” Ranboo said apologetically. 

The group groaned collectively and Tommy felt his leg cramping from the uncomfortable crawling position. “Hurry the fuck up Bill!” He yelled as pins and needles shot up his leg.  

Once the group backtracked and then went right, Bill began to loudly unscrew the grate underneath him. 

“K Boo, can you look at MONITOR 3 and bring the cursor over the red button in the top right labeled OFF.” Tubbo spoke carefully, not wanting Ranboo to ruin his code. 

“I got it.” Ranboo responded.

“Ok click it. Then click cameras two, four, six and seven.”

“Done.”

“Ok Bill, you’re all good to drop down.” Toby gave the go ahead.

“Finally.” Bill sighed and jumped down into the fluorescent lit hallway of the bank. The group followed him down, a few of them stumbling as they landed.

“Fuck that hurt my ankle.” Tommy winced as he dropped down.

“Shut up you baby.” Bill snickered

“I am not-” 

“Shut up guys. Focus.” Tubbo interrupted the two by landing right in between the conversation. Tubbo got into this weird headspace where he took no bullshit and just wanted to focus while they robbed the banks. Tommy appreciated it because he got distracted easily.

“Baby.” Bill whispered under his breath. 

Tommy flipped him off and then the group followed Tubbo down the hallway to the vault. The vault door at the end of the hall was made of a large, thick, silver metal and it had no door handle. As far as Tommy could tell, it was a slidey door. As soon as Tubbo got to the pinpad, he got to work by inserting a hard drive into the top and watching his homemade devices deduct the code. The group waited.

“How do we know there aren’t any security guards?” Aimsey frantically looked down the hallway and all around her, as if ready to pounce. 

“They have one security guard who is shit. I checked.” Tommy sighed. “We’re fine Aimsey, when have we ever failed at this?”

Aimsey glared at Tommy and kept looking around herself. “There’s a first time for everything.”

“So which charity will the money go to this time?” Freddie asked to bring the conversation to a different place.

“Feeding America?” Ranboo asked from the earpiece.

“Trevor Project?” Bill suggested as he leaned against the wall. 

“I was thinking about the Sarcoma Foundation.” Tommy looked around the group.

“Sounds good to me.” Ranboo spoke into the earpiece and the rest of the group nodded in agreement. 

Finally the code appeared on Tubbo’s little device and it alerted them all with a ding. 

“Shit it’s literally just 1234.” Tubbo giggled a bit.

“Actually?” Tommy looked over Tubbo’s shoulder and laughed with him. “Stupid ass Mr. Dream.”

Tubbo inputted the code and the group watched the door slowly slide open into the outer wall. The money lay neatly stacked in the large room (just as large as one of the bedrooms at the apartment). The light minty green that illuminated off the money onto the pure white walls was Tommy’s least favorite color. 

“OH MY GOD!” Bill basically shouted.

“How much is it all again?” Freddie also stood at the entrance in shock.

“Ten and a half million.” Ranboo answered through the earpiece. 

“This is insane.” Aimsey commented, still in disbelief at how good the Cricket Crew was at robbing the bank. 

To be fair they were cracked at it. The alarms had never even gone off, ever. 

But Tommy didn’t want to jinx it.

Shit.

He already did.  

Just as Tommy was about to pull out the money bags, the room and the hall began flashing red and loud sirens blared from the ceiling . 

“Shit.” 

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit

“Shit I forgot to tell Ranboo to turn off the lasers.” Tubbo yelled and buried his face in his hand, embarrassed and angry with himself. 

“What’s going on?” Ranboo panicked. “What do I do?” But none of the group could hear him behind the sirens wailing from the speakers above them.

“RUN.” Tommy yelled, grabbed a stack of money and took off back to the vent that they came in through. Tommy ran as fast as he could, he pulled out his fake gun, prepared to threaten anyone that came near. The group ran faster than they ever had before, panting once they arrived at the vent. 

“Get on my shoulders!” Tommy yelled and hoisted Aimsey up first, followed by Tubbo, then Freddie and finally Bill. Bill reached his hand down to pull Tommy up into the vent. But not before Tommy heard a voice from behind him. 

“Well if it isn’t the Cricket Crew.”

Tommy knew right then and there that he was fucked. “GO BILL.”

“TOMMY JUST GRAB MY HAND.” Bill’s eyes were wide in desperation

“JUST GO!” Tommy demanded. “You’ve always wanted to do a prison break anyway.” Tommy laughed nervously. Sure they were good at robbing banks, but he knew if he was put in jail that there was a chance he would never get out. But it was better for just Tommy to be gone rather than all of them be caught. 

“I’m sorry Tom.” Bill looked down sadly from the vent before hesitantly crawling away.

Tommy took a deep breath to calm his nerves (although his heart was leaping out of its chest) and then turned behind him to make eye contact with exactly who he feared. 

SBI.

Secretive Beneficial Investigators.

The best private investigators in the whole city who were hired by Mr. Dream to hunt down Cricket Crew. 

Tommy thought their name was stupid, but he was scared of SBI all the same. Once Tommy had found out that SBI was on the case, he had spent hours researching each member carefully. 

When Tommy turned around to face his enemies he first made eye contact with their leader Phil. Phil was the father of the two other investigators and had created the family business. He was wearing a suit with a dark green tie, his blonde hair was tied into a tiny ponytail and one of his ears had a green earring to match the tie. He held a gun with two hands in front of his nose, aimed directly at Tommy. 

Tommy’s research told him that Phil was an expert strategist. He was very dedicated to his work and never gave up on a case. SBI used to just be him until his boys got old enough. Phil made a name for the company quickly after finding valuable leads on the Zodiac Killer and Ted Bundy. 

Tommy wasn’t really sure what had changed in Phil that switched him from solving murder mysteries to hunting down whoever the rich people told him to. But it was fucking annoying that Phil had started listening to the rich people instead of thinking for himself. That was why Tommy was in his current situation.

Tommy’s eyes moved to the tall brunette on the left side of Phil. He immediately recognized him as Wilbur and took note of the matching suit to Phil but with a pretty shade of brown on the tie. He had a burgundy beanie on his head, making his outfit a bit less intimidating. His stance was powerful, but as far as Tommy could tell, he had no gun. 

Tommy knew that Wilbur was the youngest of the SBI. No one really knew much about him but all the girls on social media liked him a lot. Wilbur was the intelligence of the group, he knew almost anything about anyone and if he didn’t know something, he would find it out. 

Tommy thought Wilbur looked a bit lost and disoriented. Like he didn’t know how or why he had ended up behind his father in a bank with a teenage robber. 

Lastly Tommy’s eyes glanced at Technoblade who was on Phil’s right. Tommy thought his name was really cocky. Everyone on the internet just called him Techno and no one knew his real name because he wanted to keep it secret. Techno had long and perfectly dyed pink hair in a messy braid down his back. His suit had a light pink tie to match his hair but he also wore assorted gold and jewels on his neck and wrist. Techno was glaring at Tommy, with his hand on his hip near the gun in his pocket. 

Tommy didn’t know much about Techno except that he was a fighter. That was really all there was to know. 

Tommy had to regain his breath and hold back a few tears before he could address SBI fully. “Hello you fuckers.” Tommy spoke casually and tried to sound confident. 

“Tommy right?” Phil asked, his hand adjusting on the gun. 

“Yup, nice to meet you.” Tommy said loudly and sarcastically over the sirens. He reached out his hand and shook it up and down in an imaginary handshake. 

Wilbur chuckled. 

“So are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?” Techno glared at Wilbur and then at Tommy.

Tommy took off running down the hall.

“Phil please don’t he's just a kid.” Tommy heard Wilbur say as he ran down the hallway back towards the vault. Tommy didn’t have a plan. But he thought he was pretty good at improvising. 

“Y’know what Dream asked mate. Alive by today or no money at all.” Phil seemed to answer sympathetically to his son. 

Then Tommy heard what sounded like a Coke can opening. He felt a sharp stab in the back of his neck. He yelled out at the sudden pain, stopping in his tracks. He quickly reached to the back of his neck to pull out a dart. 

Shit. A dart. 

Tommy’s world began to spin as he fell to the floor in what felt like slow motion. 

Like Tommy said, he thought he was good at improvising.

Tommy's head landed hard against the cold floor and the artificially lit walls of the bank hallway made him squint as the world seemed to get brighter. His world began to go dark and the last thing he saw were three pairs of the same fancy shoes approaching where he laid on the ground. 

Tommy really hoped that the Cricket Crew were just as good at breaking someone out of prison as they were at robbing banks. 

Because usually they didn’t get caught. 

Usually.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up and his neck hurt like hell. It took him a second to realize he was sitting in a cold metal chair, his neck hanging over in an uncomfortable position. It all came back to him pretty quickly once he saw the three faces sitting in front of him. Actually Wilbur was not sitting, he was standing and picking at his nails by the door of the interrogation room.  He remembered it all: The attempted bank robbery. The sirens. SBI. Bill’s face when Tommy told him to go without him. Running. The dart in his neck. All of it. 

“Welcome back.” Phil smiled a bit maniacally. 

Tommy ignored the greeting and looked around the gray room. It was just like the interrogation rooms from those movies that Freddie and Bill always showed him. God, he missed Freddie and Bill already. 

Tommy knew that while SBI were technically not the police, they worked closely with the police and had special permission to interrogate and then arrest people. They even had their own floor in the main police building at the center of the city. 

Yes. They are just that good at their job. 

They also get to follow less rules since they aren't technically under the police officer code of conduct and therefore they are meaner than the police. 

This was not good considering Tommy’s present situation.

“So you gonna torture me or some shit, or can I just go to prison already?” Tommy made direct eye contact with Phil to hide his fear. 

“We aren’t gonna torture you.” Phil looked at Tommy confused. “Just some questions.” 

“Maybe if you're nice, we can let you get out of jail in thirty years instead of forty.” Techno suggested. 

“FORTY?” Tommy exclaimed, although he immediately wished he hadn’t because Techno snorted to mock him. Tommy rolled his eyes to reclaim his composure (which was hard because he didn’t know his crimes were that severe). “All I’m accused of doing is robbing some banks.”

“Mr. Dream is a powerful man.” Wilbur commented from where he stood by the door. 

“So who are you working with Tommy? We need names of everyone in the Cricket Crew, maybe then we can talk about twenty years.” Phil’s voice was soft. 

Tommy considered for a moment.

If he ratted out his friend then at least he’d be with his friends for twenty years in prison. 

He laughed at his own thoughts because he was sure Ranboo would have laughed with him if he was here. But in all seriousness, there was no way in hell SBI was learning the Cricket Crew’s names.

“Nope.” Tommy lifted his chin up defiantly.

“Loyalty.” Techno leaned back in his metal chair. “That’s rare in people your age.” 

“They're my best friends, obviously I’m not going to give them up to you annoying ass losers” Tommy kept his head up, making direct eye contact with Techno. 

“We’ll find them eventually, now that we have you here.” Phil said calmly. Then he opened up his thin brown folder and pulled out a form of some kind. “Let’s get down to the basics…”

“Name?”

…

“Age?”

…

“Occupation?”

…

“Place of residence?” 

…

“Kid just say something, we’ll just find it online anyways. This just makes this whole process easier for all of us, including you.” Phil tapped his pen on the table. 

“Bold for you to assume that I want to make this easier for all of us.” Tommy scoffed and looked away from the trio. He knew that they couldn’t find that information anywhere even if they tried. The only public records of him were from before his parents died. On all his new work and housing documents he had used a fake ID of someone named Thomas with a completely different face than him. 

Tubbo was a master of hiding things on the internet as well. Any records from the orphanage were locked behind a dozen firewalls.

Tommy wasn’t going to give up his identity. 

Phil sighed and shut the brown folder closed.  

“Well for starters we know his name is Tommy…” Wilbur finally spoke up from near the door, he walked over to the table, leaning against it on both of his palms. He towered over Tommy who was sitting down, staring at the boy and waiting for a reaction. He got one too because Tommy’s head snapped up in anger and confusion the moment he heard his name. “That boy who climbed away in the vent screamed it at him.” 

Fuck. Of course Bill had been the one to compromise Tommy’s identity. Such a Billzo move. Luckily it seemed like Wilbur hadn’t heard Tommy call Bill by his name. 

“Tommy.” Techno studied Tommy, like he was testing the name out on the boy.

“Fitting.” Phil commented and looked up at Wilbur proudly. “Good catch Wil.” 

“I’d guess he just turned eighteen too. I saw him fight back the urge to yell at us for calling him a kid.” Wilbur smirked and he clearly wasn’t done. “I’d say he doesn’t have any parents either. Considering his teeth are beyond crooked and he missed a spot when shaving.” Wilbur reached out to tap the side of Tommy’s chin. Tommy pulled his head away in disgust.

Why the fuck was this guy so observant? 

“You’re a fucking weirdo mate.” Tommy grimaced as he looked up at Wilbur.

“He keeps swearing as a defense mechanism because I’m right. Most likely had a tough childhood and now he’s here and he isn’t really sure why or how.” Wilbur continued to pyschoanalyze Tommy like he was a poem. He was picking him apart and Tommy hated it. Tommy looked down at his hands which were handcuffed at his lap. 

“Would make sense.” Phil nodded in agreement.

“Guess those psychology classes you failed did teach you something.” Techno shrugged and crossed his hands over his stomach. 

“I’m right aren’t I?” Wilbur ignored the praise from his father and brother. Still focusing on the cowering Tommy, he moved closer, leaning down farther over the table. 

“Prick.” Tommy mumbled. He considered lifting his head to spit right into Wilbur’s face. But he decided against it because it would  just make things worse. 

“Tell us who the rest of the Cricket Crew are and why you are robbing Mr. Dream and we can move on with our day.” Wilbur stopped leaning on the table to stand up straight but still looked down at Tommy. “We’ll find out anyway.”

“My first name tells you nothing.” Tommy insisted, lifting his chin.

“Facial recognition is a powerful source.” Techno narrowed his eyes on the boy. 

“You’re right Wilbur. I did have a shit childhood which means you won’t find any facial recognition of me anywhere.” Tommy’s eyes locked with Wilbur’s. Wilbur’s eyes were a nice chestnut brown in the poorly lit interrogation room. They reminded Tommy of Bill’s eyes. Last time Tommy had seen Bill’s eyes they were filled with panic from inside the vent. Tommy had never seen Bill that scared before. Bill was supposed to be the fearless one that acted like he didn’t give a fuck. But everyone knew that Bill cared about everyone a lot. Perhaps more than everyone cared about themselves. 

Wilbur’s eyes softened when Tommy mentioned a bad childhood. Like he felt sympathy for the young boy in front of him. Tommy hated it. It was the same look of sympathy that Freddie’s mom and hundreds of adoption consultants had once given him. The poor orphan whose parents abandoned him in a car to run into a burning building. The poor boy who must be so unimportant that his parents chose to risk their own lives over protecting him. 

“Just give up. You aint getting shit out of me.” Tommy turned his nose away from the trio in front of him.

“Loyalty.” Techno commented again. He said it like he was watching and learning about an animal in a zoo. It was an inquisitive and curious way to speak that Tommy hated because he wasn’t a fucking exhibit. 

“Yeah you got a problem with that?” Tommy raised his eyebrows at Techno. “You act like I shouldn’t care about my friends.”

“Oh so they are your friends, not siblings…” Phil began jotting something on a miniature notebook. 

Tommy scoffed. Phil was trying to make Tommy think that he was getting somewhere. Tommy knew that Phil knowing that the Cricket Crew were his friends changed nothing. 

“You know that we are going to turn you over to Mr. Dream himself, right?” Techno brought up. Wilbur went back to lean against the wall next to the door, he still had that awful sympathetic look on his face. 

“Good.” Tommy smiled a little and began to look around the room a bit more. He noticed a clock on the wall to his left, it was 6 AM. That meant he was asleep for three hours. He was already estimating what time his friends would come to save him.

“We’re supposed to give you to the police directly but Mr. Dream paid to be allowed to talk to you first.” Phil added and noticed Tommy watching the clock. “We’re going there at noon.”

“Ok…why are you telling me this?” Tommy watched the red seconds hand tick. Tubbo should take around thirty minutes to hack into the SBI/police buildings security feed and blueprints. Bill would take about another thirty to create a plan and then another five to let Aimsey review it for safety checks. It would take the group an hour to build supplies based on Tubbo’s complicated instructions. He also assumed that the group would nap for about an hour to get enough strength for the prison break. That was a very important rule of the Cricket Crews procedure: they had to be well rested to avoid any errors. That meant that the Cricket Crew were set to save Tommy within the next half an hour. 

“Because I’m not sure what Mr. Dream will do to you. Maybe we can just give you to the police instead, if you help us.” Tommy’s face fell. He knew what Mr. Dream was capable of and as much as he wanted to confront the guy, he wasn't planning on being burnt alive today.

“You fuckers are morally wrong.” Tommy shook his head. “C’mon handing a kid over to a big businessman illegally? That’s gotta mess with your moral compass or some shit.” 

SBI went silent.

“So are you going to tell us what we want to know or not?” Techno leaned forward as he spoke to be closer to Tommy.

“Like I said…I’m not telling you shit.” Tommy insisted with confidence. 

It would appear that Tommy’s calculations were incorrect.

The fire alarm went off. Tommy could hear the sirens blaring and see the flashing red lights from behind the small fogged window on the door of the interrogation room. 

The Cricket Crew was early. 

“Does this mean I get to leave?” Tommy snickered.

“There isn’t a fire.” Techno sat unmoving. “The siren would be yelling FIRE at us if it was actually triggered by smoke.”

“So someone pulled it.” Phil finished Techno’s thought.  

“What the fuck?” Wilbur stood up straight, clearly startled by the alarm. “Hardly anyone’s ever here at 6 AM…who pulled the alarm?” 

Tommy rolled his eyes at the clueless trio. Did they really underestimate the Cricket Crew that much? Or were they just that stupid? Who the fuck knows all the details of how a fire alarm works anyway? 

SBI wasn't just annoying. They were straight up weird.

They were stupid nerds. 

Tommy giggled a little at the thought of that.

“Do you guys hear any crickets chirping…?” Tommy asked slyly, deciding to speak in  code to sound cool. 

“No?” The trio murmured in confusion and thought.

“You guys are stupid, obviously its the rest of the Cricket Crew dumbasses.” Tommy rolled his eyes again and smiled. “You gonna do something about it?”

“Wilbur, stay here with him, we’ll go check it out.” Phil stood up, the metal chair making a terrible screeching noise as it was pushed back. He started walking towards the door, unlocking it with a key and planting his other hand on his hip next to his gun. “We will be right back.” 

“Don’t leave him alone.” Techno added and followed Phil out the door. They closed it behind themselves and Tommy could see them run and disappear down the hall through the tiny window in the door. Tommy couldn’t help but smile. It would be much easier for his friends to rescue him, not that he was only guarded by one tall but weak man. 

Tommy put his hands behind his head to show how relaxed he was about the whole situation. It looked awkward though because his hands were still handcuffed. 

Wilbur had paced the room a few times before sitting down across from Tommy, his posture slouched and his face full of concern.

“You’re really not planning on saying anything to us?” Wilbur questioned.

“Nope.” Tommy shook his head.

“Your friends are stupid.” Wilbur straightened his posture a bit with a noticeable fake confidence. “They’re willing to try to save you and risk being captured.”

“But they won’t.” Tommy pointed out. 

“They will.” Wilbur replied, just as stubbornly. 

The lights were still flashing red from outside the interrogation room and Tommy really hoped that Wilbur was wrong.

“Will you at least tell me why?” Wilbur’s voice sounded desperate. Tommy couldn’t tell if he was acting or not. If he wasn’t, then why did he care?

“Why what?” Tommy entertained the question, mainly to distract himself from the sirens that were starting to make his eardrums ring. Wilbur pulled out a chair to sit down, he folded his hands on the table in front of him. 

“Why do you rob banks?” Wilbur sounded genuine. “I’ve always wondered why people like you think that's the only option of how to live in this world. We normally just find the bad guys, but like Techno said earlier, I love psychology. I want to know why.” 

Tommy was taken aback by the man's sudden genuineness, it was very different from the accusatory and analytical tone that had happened just ten minutes prior. Tommy had always tried to get the Cricket Crew’s message out there, but no one believed him. It was probably not smart for him to tell a master investigator about his life story. But he would be out of there in at most twenty minutes so…Tommy risked it. 

“Mr. Dream killed my parents. They used to work for him and went against something that he did. He burned their office building to the ground.” Tommy’s face fell flat and emotionless. He was careful not to admit to the crimes, just telling the story.

“How old were you?” Wilbur’s face became that horribly sympathetic look again.

“Five.” Tommy bit the inside of his lip. “I saw it happen.”

“What do you mean you saw it?” 

“I saw everything. I saw Mr. Dream set the building on fire. I saw him leave. I saw my parents go in. I saw the building burn down.” 

“Fuck. That sucks man. I-” Wilbur looked genuinely hurt. 

“Shut the fuck up, I know you’re just trying to manipulate me.” Tommy suddenly got embarrassed by his choice to show vulnerability.

Wilburs mouth drew into a thin line. He didn’t say anything and the sirens continued to burn a ringing sound into Tommy’s ear drum. 

BANG!

The first explosion was sudden and made the whole building shake. Wilbur threw his hands out to the side to try and balance. 

Tommy would have done the same thing except his hands were in handcuffs so Tommy watched the world tilt and in less than a second he was pummeling fast to the ground. He landed sideways on the hard, cold and grimey stone floor of the interrogation room, the blaring sirens were replaced with a pop in his ear followed by an intense pain in his right shoulder.

“SHIT!” Tommy yelled out and squeezed his eyes to try and compensate for the pain.

Wilbur quickly stood up and ran to the other side of the table. The building was still shaking, with other explosions distant in the background. Tommy didn’t focus on the explosions because his mind was just filled with pain, pain, pain . Wilbur just stood over Tommy, his face a mix of fear, shock and confusion.

“You gonna fucking help me you asshole?” Tommy yelled at the man in desperation.

“Shit yeah um…” Wilbur kneeled down and pulled Tommy up by his shoulders so he was leaning against the wall. 

“OW STOP!” Tommy pulled away. “That’s the shoulder that I fucking fell on.” Tommy tried to slowly scoot as far away from Wilbur as possible but Wilbur grabbed his left shoulder to stop him.  

“Stop moving.” Wilbur’s grip was tight and Tommy was in too much pain to protest. 

Wilbur moved closer to Tommy and inspected his right shoulder carefully. “I think- I think you dislocated it.” 

“No shit.” Tommy murmured, his eyes still shut tight and his left hand curled into a fist. 

“I know how to pop it back in, do you want me to?” Wilbur’s voice was low and careful, but Tommy could hear the slight tremble in his voice. 

Tommy nodded. He really hated getting help from Wilbur, but he was on the brink of tears and really wanted his shoulder to stop hurting. 

He would need a functioning shoulder to escape prison anyway. 

“Ok…” Wilbur shifted Tommy so that he was facing Tommy's back. Tommy could feel the heat of Wilbur’s shaky breath on his neck which inspired him to focus on his own breathing. Wilbur gripped the top of Tommy’s shoulder and the side of his arm. The whole room was still flashing red and the sirens seemed to get louder. “Ready? It’s going to hurt really bad for a second.”

“It already hurts, just count me down.” Tommy began shaking his foot, anticipating Wilbur’s sudden motion.

“3… 2…” Wilbur skipped one and clicked the shoulder into place with a swift motion.

“FUCK!” Tommy hadn’t felt pain that terrible before, it was sharp and longer than he expected. But those few seconds of pain is all it took for the tears to come flowing out of Tommy’s eyes. 

Tommy hates crying in any situation. It reminds him too much of the day his parents died and the year following when Tubbo had cried every night. He can't even remember the last time he cried. It was even worse that it was in front of Wilbur because it gave Wilbur one more reason to feel sympathy for Tommy. 

The pain startled Tommy so much that he flung himself around and into Wilbur’s side. His face buried into Wilbur’s chest, so much so that he could hear Wilbur’s fast heart beat. The pain slowly dissipated into an intense ache all over his upper arm.

Wilbur grabbed Tommy’s torso to keep him from moving. “Stop! Stay still, you can’t let it heal wrong.” He exclaimed desperately trying to control the young man. 

Tommy struggled to wriggle out of Wilbur’s odd hug. “Let go, you weirdo!” 

“Stay still and I will!” Wilbur’s voice rose in annoyance over the sirens. 

Tommy just wanted to be out of Wilbur’s hold, so he stopped moving. 

“Good.” Wilbur said in a condescending tone but he released Tommy and nudged him to lean still against the wall. He took off his long jacket and then his brown sweater, revealing the white collared shirt underneath. “I’m going to tie this around you like a sling.” Wilbur explained as he wrapped the sweater around Tommy’s elbow and tied it. 

Once Wilbur had finished, he moved away from Tommy and put back on his jacket. He was out of breath from holding Tommy back and ran his hand through his sweaty hair. 

Tommy also took a second to catch his breath as he leaned against the wall and wiped away the drying tears. 

“Why’d you help me?” Tommy asked loudly over the sirens. 

“I catch criminals, but I refuse to hurt them.” Wilbur stated. “That’s why I don’t want to give you to Mr. Dream.” 

“Then don’t.” Tommy pointed out. “He could kill me. Just like he did to my parents.”

“Phil needs the money.” Wilbur looked down at his hand in his lap as he settled criss crossed on the floor across from Tommy. 

“Yeah sure. The richest and best investigators in the city need money.” Tommy said sarcastically and rolled his eyes, his humor returning as the pain in his shoulder subsided. 

“It’s more complicated than that.” 

“I could say the same about me.” Tommy countered. “Can I get the handcuffs off now, obviously they are a danger to my wellbeing.” 

“Fuck no, get back in the chair.” Wilbur seemed to regain his composure as an interrogator and he stood up. He walked over to grab Tommy’s left shoulder to pull him up. 

“No way!” Tommy shook away unsuccessfully and Wilbur hoisted him up. 

“Get your hands off of him!” The door of the interrogation room flew open.

Tommy had never been more happy to hear Bill’s voice

Chapter Text

Tommy had complete faith that the Cricket Crew would try to save him from prison. But he had no idea exactly how they would execute it. His mind had imagined all of them bursting through the door like a superhero team revealed in a movie. But no. Instead there was just Bill standing awkwardly in the doorway. He had a black mask covering his eyes like a raccoon and the eye holes revealed he was also wearing black eyeshadow and heavy eyeliner. His bandana held back his mullet but a few strands flew in front of his face. The door hit the other side of the wall as Bill had slammed it very hard for what Tommy assumed was supposed to be a dramatic effect. 

Bill already achieved that thought because he had a gun. The old pistol was pointed right at Wilbur. Bill held it with both hands and his stance remained wide with his head angled down so he was glaring at Wilbur’s soft brown eyes. 

An explosion went off in the background and the interrogation room shook again, Tommy almost fell over but Wilbur caught him gently and wrapped his hand around Tommy’s sleeve to hold him hostage in front of him. If Bill tried to shoot, he may miss and hit Tommy. That would be less than ideal. Tommy looked frantically between Wilbur and Bill a few times, observing the stand still. 

“Well… you gonna let him go or you gonna die?” Bill tilted his head slowly. 

Tommy held his breath and watched Wilbur swallow nervously. Wilbur’s grip remained tight on Tommy’s sleeve, holding him against his chest like Tommy needed protection from his own friend. Really Wilbur was just putting him in more danger, but Tommy wasn’t sure if Wilbur realized this.  

Wilbur didn’t show any emotion when he hesitantly released his grip off Tommy. 

Tommy stumbled forward before falling into cocky strides. “About time you losers showed up.” Tommy winked as he walked over to Bill. 

Bill didn’t joke back like Tommy had expected him to. He waited until Tommy was next to him and then his shoulders relaxed a bit. 

“I’m going to back up now.” Bill began to slowly take long steps backwards, he put an arm over Tommy’s chest to gently nudge that Tommy should do the same. “Don’t follow us and we won’t have a problem.” 

Wilbur had raised his arms in the air and remained emotionless and somewhat calm. 

As Tommy walked through the hallway, the sirens became louder and so did the distant explosions. Everytime one went off, Tommy prayed that no one was getting hurt. They made it to the end of the hallway where there was a fork in the road, their backs against the wall and the gun still aimed at Wilbur’s chest. 

“We’re going to run to the right. Don’t follow us.” Bill reiterated. 

“Wasn’t planning on it.” Wilbur’s chin remained high as he spoke. “But Tommy, we will be seeing eachother again.” 

“As much as I enjoyed our little chat, I highly doubt that.” Tommy smirked. “But please send Mr. Dream my best regards.” 

Bill lowered the gun and in one swift motion he threw a bomb looking device to the ground. Tommy’s vision became covered in smoke but Bill grabbed Tommy’s hand and pulled him as they ran to the left. 

Tommy followed Bill blindly down the maze of hallways, he heard the bomb explode behind him but decided not to look. Instead just focusing on running.

“Plan Extract the Raccoon. I repeat: enact Plan Extract the Raccoon.” Bill gasped for air as he ran and tapped into his intercom with his empty hand.

“What the fuck! Why’d you call me a raccoon?” Tommy opened his mouth in shock and annoyance. 

“Freddie says that you look like one.” Bill explained with a smile. “He ain't wrong, I have seen you dig through a trash can before.” 

“What the hell are you on about? You’re literally wearing a racoon mask.” Tommy pointed out. 

“It's a robber mask and you know that.” Bill retorted. 

The pair reached the end of a hallway and Bill burst through the ugly vomit colored green door. They entered the dreary stairwell. Bill paused for a moment to catch his breath, appearing to feel safe for the first time since he had rescued Tommy. The lights of the stairwell were flickering like they would in a horror movie. Tommy’s eyes widened when looked over the railing down at least twenty flights of stairs and could see some rubble leftover from the explosions laying at the bottom. 

Suddenly Tommy was embraced into a hug. Bill wrapped his arms around Tommy and rested his chin on Tommy’s shoulder. Tommy immediately hugged him back. 

“I thought we lost you man.” Bill whispered and Tommy knew that Bill was scared to admit his fear. 

“I’m fine Bill, I'm here. Let’s get the fuck out.” 

“Yeah…right. Operation Save Raccoon Innit.” Bill chuckled as he pulled away. “We’re going to the roof.” 

Tommy tilted his head back to look up at least forty flights of stairs. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

“Leg workout!” Bill joked and began to run up the stairs two at a time.

Tommy reluctantly chased after Bill, the two refrained from speaking so as not to waste any precious breaths. About three minutes later Tommy met Bill at the top of the stairs, they burst through the door and onto the roof of the police building. A cold winter wind blew against Tommy’s face and he keeled over to catch his breath.  

It was only once Tommy stood up straight again did he notice the elevator right next to the stairs. 

“What the fuck!” Tommy gestured to the elevator. “THERE WAS AN ELEVATOR?”

“I wasn’t sure if the explosions broke it.” Bill explained with a shrug. 

Tommy rotated around himself to take in the surroundings of the city. The police building was one of the tallest in all of Lmanburg. He could only see the roofs of a few buildings but it was eerily empty from up there. Tommy’s ears had popped from the sudden change in air pressure. The sky was a vibrant orange as the sun rose from behind Tommy and Bill. 

“So how are you planning to get us off of the roof?” Tommy turned to Bill. 

“Helicopter.” Bill stated and started walking to the center of the large roof. 

“Excuse me what?” Tommy’s mouth opened slightly in disbelief. As far as he knew, the Cricket Crew did not have a helicopter. He’d been gone for less than three hours, so there was no way they had found one. 

“Here put this in your ear, new channel so our plan isn’t sabotaged.” Bill refused to answer to Tommy’s confusion and handed him a small plastic earpiece. “I assume SBI took your old one.”

Tommy nodded and slid the new earpiece into his ear. “Testing 1, 2, 3. Anyone out there?” He tapped his ear to activate the walkie talkie and released it to let in any responses. 

“Tommy!” Tubbo’s voice exploded through the speaker first and Tommy flinched at the sheer volume. 

“Glad to have you back, raccoon.” Freddie’s voice had a weird sound in the background, like a fan. 

“Okay Tubbo I'm pulling up at the front now? Ready?” Ranboo’s voice cut in frantically. “Oh hey Tommy, sorry you joined at a chaotic time.”

“Aimsey and I are on the way, you better be here right on time.” Tubbo’s voice fluctuated and it sounded like he was running

“They are literally less than twenty feet behind us.” Aimsey yelled panting 

“We’re faster than them.” Tubbo followed up. “Bill, did you shoot Wilbur?”

“No.” Bill said quietly, like he was embarrassed. 

“Why did Phil and Techno just turn around…” Aimsey butt in. 

“They saw that we’re gonna beat them to the door I guess.” Toby suggested.

“They’re going to the elevator.” Aimsey reported. 

“I’m here Tubbo.” Ranboo said, still frantic. 

“Ok running out now.” Tubbo assured him. “You’re the black van right?”

“Yup.” Ranboo responded and Tommy could faintly hear Aimsey and Tubbo enter the van that Ranboo was driving in the background of Ranboo’s voice. 

“Wait did you say elevator?” Tommy asked and spun around to look at the elevator entrance. The little number on top that read what floor the elevator was at, was increasing. Rapidly. 

“Fred, where's our ride?” Bill asked, noticing the same thing. 

“Look up!” Freddie’s voice still sounded like he had a fan in the background. 

But Tommy realized it wasn’t a fan. There was actually had a fucking helicopter above him. He threw his hand over his eyes to shield himself from the wind as he looked up at the black helicopter which was making a slow descent.

“What the actual fuck!?!” Tommy yelled into the mic. “Where the fuck did you get a helicopter?” 

“My dad’s work.” Freddie answered simply. Freddie’s dad was a rich artist who also owned many businesses around the city. Ranboo always said that Freddie’s dad was exactly like Freddie and this is probably why the two of them got along. This is also why Tommy wasn’t surprised that Freddie’s dad had a helicopter that he let his son borrow. 

“You know what… fair enough.” Tommy sighed. 

 The helicopter was so loud that Tommy almost didn’t hear the dinging sound from the elevator behind him as Techno and Phil walked onto the roof. 

Luckily Bill did see and immediately screamed the sighting into the earpiece. “Slight problem. Techno and Phil just got out of the fucking elevator.”

“What do you mean-” Aimsey began.

“I mean that SBI are twenty feet away from me and Tommy.” Bill interrupted loudly over the rising volume of the helicopter as it got closer. “On the roof. Next to the only exit.”

“Besides the helicopter.” Tommy added optimistically.  

“Ummm…” Freddie sounded like he was a little lost in thought. “I can drop a rope ladder down for you guys, do you want that? There’s no time to land anymore.” 

“Tubbo you’re telling me we made over 25 bombs and not a single one broke the elevator?” Bill yelled angrily into the mic.

“Bill calm down and get out of there!” Aimsey interrupted Bill’s rage.

“Fine. Freddie, let down the ladder.” Bill accepted defeat but Tommy could see his scowl. 

“Tommy stop right there and no one has to get hurt!” Tommy spun around to meet eyes with Phil. His jacket was blowing back from the helicopter's wind but his hand gun was held steadily by both his right and his left in front of his nose and aimed at Tommy. 

“I could say the same to you.” Tommy spun around again and saw Bill in the same ominous and dark stance from earlier with Wilbur, except this time the gun in his hand was shaking a bit. 

“Bill…it’s fine.” Tommy said quietly and held his hand out to try and get Bill to lower the gun. The last thing they needed was this situation to escalate and Tommy knew that Bill was red hot with rage and so he wasn’t thinking straight.

“IT’S NOT FUCKING FINE TOM, THEY’RE TRYING TO MURDER YOU.” Bill’s eyes flew open in a panic Tommy had never seen before. Tommy took a step closer to Bill and was about to grab the gun from Bill’s hand when a black ladder dropped behind Bill from the helicopter above them. 

“Uh guys… you gotta grab it now.” Freddie broke into the conversation through the ear piece. 

“They’re gonna shoot us if we do that. Wait one fucking minute Fred.” Bill’s voice was raspy and broken. 

“We’ll even let your friends go Tommy, just walk over here.” Phil’s voice boomed from the other side of the roof.

“Like we said, no one has to get hurt.” Techno added slyly. 

“Bill, you might just have to go without me.” Tommy’s voice hitched at the realization. 

“No Tom, I’m not leaving you behind again.” Bill’s eyes were still wide with panic and he gripped Tommy’s lower arm, refusing to let go. 

Tommy was opening his mouth to yell something back but he was interrupted by Wilbur bursting through the entrance to the roof from the stairs. He stumbled out, catching his breath because he had obviously just run up the forty flights of stairs. He was so exhausted that he tripped over his own feet and fell face first onto the pavement. Tommy turned away from Bill to watch and couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. The whole ordeal made Phil and Techno look in the direction of Wilbur and Tommy quickly realized that this was their only chance. 

“GO!” Tommy grabbed Bill’s arm and dragged him to the ladder. It was flimsy and swayed rapidly as Tommy pushed his momentum onto it. He could only use one hand because his other was in the makeshift sling so he struggled to get up three rungs. Bill held onto the bottom rung and tried to stabilize the ladder. 

“Stop right there!” Tommy looked over to Phil and Techno who were charging at Bill. 

“Bill, how much upper body strength do you have?” Tommy looked down, his mind racing for a solution to their impending doom. 

“Uh, like basically none.” Bill admitted looking at Tommy with panicked eyes. 

“Well let's hope basically none is enough… hold on tight.” Tommy reached for his earpiece to activate its microphone. “Freddie! Bring the helicopter up.”

“What the fuck Tommy! No way!” Tommy looked up to meet Freddie’s eyes from the helicopter. “Just climb!” 

“I’m hurt, I can't climb fast enough.” Tommy explained. 

“If you fall you are dead.” Freddie pleaded.  

“Then pull us up right after, we won’t fall.” Tommy said even though he was unsure. 

“Do it Fred.” Bill nodded and readjusted his grip on the bottom ladder rung. 

“Pull us up.” Freddie’s voice was serious as he directed whoever was flying the helicopter. 

Tommy almost fell off when the helicopter jerked up and he stared down at Bill, amazed that he was also holding on. Beneath Bill’s flailing legs was Phil and Techno who had reached the ladder just seconds too late. They were out of reach. 

“THIS ISN’T OVER TOMMY.” Techno cupped his hands over his mouth to make sure Tommy heard. 

The helicopter began to fly over the city and Tommy patiently waited with eyes shut tightly until he heard Freddie’s voice above him. Freddie was staring down at Tommy, winded because he had just pulled up both Tommy and Bill’s weight with the ladder. Tommy straightened his posture and used his hurt arm to pull himself up over the helicopter's edge. He collapsed onto the floor of the helicopter, right onto his injured shoulder and he screamed in pain. 

“FUCK!” Tommy rolled over and grabbed his shoulder. He saw Bill’s hand reach over the ledge and Freddie fell back in exhaustion. 

Tommy’s world started spinning. He was sweating. He was tired. He was in pain. He was overwhelmed next to the loud helicopter propeller. He was hot. He had regained the pain that adrenaline had numbed

His vision was suddenly filled by small flashing dots and he felt like he was going to throw up, pass out or both at the same time. 

Tommy chose to pass out first. He felt Freddie wrap around him as he collapsed, almost landing on his hurt shoulder again.

Chapter Text

Tommy remembers waking up at the same time that the helicopter landed with a thump. He leaned against the side of the helicopter and Freddie had been shaking him awake. “Please Tom, I can’t carry you right now.”

“I’m up Freddie.” Tommy mumbled. 

“Ok good.” Freddie stood up and walked over to the pilot. 

Tommy tried to remember everything that had just happened, it sure as hell had been a

a lot. He tried to piece together the plan his friends had used to break him out of the SBI interrogation room..He knew that Aimsey and Tubbo had been setting off bombs in the building to distract SBI and that Ranboo had picked them up in a van. He knew that Bill had gone to save Tommy and had probably used hacked security footage to find him. Freddie was in the helicopter helping with the ladder for the getaway. Wait a second. That was all of them. If all of Cricket Crew had been a part of the plan… then who the fuck was flying the helicopter?

Tommy stood up and his head spun a bit. “Woah there man!” Bill caught Tommy’s side. “Take it slow dude, pretty sure your shoulder was dislocated an hour ago.” 

“Who the fuck is flying this…” Tommy’s voice trailed off as he pushed away from Bill. A rule the Cricket Crew had agreed upon when the group was formed was that they work with NO ONE except themselves, no matter the circumstance. They only ever added anyone to the plans if it was agreed upon by the whole group and if they had more than 10 solid reasons to trust that person. This ensured no one could sabotage them. 

“Ok don’t get mad Tommy.” Freddie caught Tommy as he fell forward and out of Bill’s arms. “This is Eryn.”

“Hey.” A boy wearing black and red hoodie smiled a bit at Tommy and gave a lazy wave as he stood out of the pilot chair. He then pulled off a headset and put it on the chair next to him. 

“What the fuck?” Tommy turned to Freddie in anger, he would have pushed away but he was sure that he would have fallen over, so he didn’t. 

“Tubbo found him on the dark web or something, he doesn’t know anything about us, it’s fine.” Freddie tried to explain.

“Frankly I don’t care.” Eryn shrugged. “Now will you please get off my chopper?” 

“Yeah we are just leaving.” Freddie began to turn Tommy around.

“Wait Fred, isn't this your dad’s heli?” Tommy’s mind was still trying to wrap around everything. He hated not knowing what his friends had done without him. 

“It’s fine Tommy.” Freddie’s voice was low and reassuring. Tommy could tell that Freddie was tired and unwilling to explain, so he decided to stay silent.  

Tommy was led out of the helicopter and into the back of the black van. He collapsed into the nearest seat and was bombarded by Tubbo’s hug. Tommy couldn’t quite remember what anyone said to him next because he passed out onto Tubbo’s shoulder as soon as he was hugged. 

Tommy woke up from the best sleep that he's ever had. All his muscles felt well rested, his body was the perfect temperature and the couch pillow was supporting his neck in the exactly right way. 

But then everything came flooding back to him. 

Looking back on it all, it was probably the worst sleep he’s ever had. But he had felt so terribly tired and hurt in the van when he had fallen asleep, so even feeling just a bit better was a relief.

Tommy’s eyes shot open and he sat up in a panic only to find all of the Cricket Crew sitting around the living room, staring at him. Their eyes filled with concern but also anticipation. 

“Hey guys…” Tommy looked around nervously because it’s weird to wake up to people staring at you. “You good?”

“We’re fine Tom, are you good?” Ranboo asked from the sofa urgently.

“Well I mean obviously I’m a bit shaken up but… I feel fine.” 

“Give it twenty more seconds.” Tubbo commented from the dining room chair that he had moved to the carpet next to the couch. “His brain is still waking up.”

As if on cue, Tommy’s shoulder began to hurt terribly and he curled in on himself. “FUCK!” He yelled.

“And yet again I am right.” Tubbo chuckled, but Tommy did not think it was funny. 

“Take this.” Aimsey handed Tommy a glass and two pills. 

Tommy didn't even ask what they were and took the pills right away with a single swish. He still gripped his arm to try to relieve the pain, but the dull ache remained no matter what he did or how he sat. 

“So you gonna fill us in on SBI or…?” Freddie asked from the other couch. 

“Oh of course I wake up in extreme pain and the first thing you want to know is about the fucking SBI.” Tommy said sarcastically.

“Look, it's been like over 24 hours without hearing your side of the story.” Freddie defended himself. 

“Bill’s a terrible leader.” Tubbo pointed out.

“He made possibly the worst plan in the history of plans.” Aimsey agreed.

“It’s amazing that we actually pulled it off.” Ranboo added.

“Shut the fuck up and let Tom tell his story.” Bill sighed in defeat from a battle he wasn’t going to even try to fight. “I’m a great leader for the record.” 

“Fine.” Tommy grumbled and repositioned himself on the couch. “They knocked me out with a fucking sleep dart.”

“Those are real?” Tubbo’s eyes sparkled with an engineering frenzy.

“Apparently because I was passed out until around twenty minutes before you guys set off the first explosion.” Tommy continued. “They tried to get me to rat you guys out and obviously I didn’t.” 

“What did they offer in return?” Ranboo asked. 

“Less jail time and sparing me from Mr. Dream.” Tommy looked over to the balcony door, it was midday and he could just barely hear the busy street outside. “They were gonna let Mr. Dream have me before they gave me to the police.”

“That’s fucked up.” Freddie reacted.

“I tried to tell them that.” Tommy rolled his eyes when he remembered how SBI had ignored him. “Wilbur knew my name because Bill had screamed it in the bank.”

“Shit sorry man.” Bill’s face fell.

“It’s fine, king.” Tommy nodded to reassure his friend. “But Wilbur started psychoanalyzing me, it was really weird. Not king shit. But then the sirens went off.” 

“Yeah that was me.” Tubbo butt in proudly. “I coded the bombs to vibrate instead of explode. That way they triggered the alarms while also making the building shake so it was like an explosion. We didn’t actually destroy anything or hurt anyone.”

“Well actually after Techno and Phil left, the explosion went off and that's when I fell over and dislocated my shoulder.” Tommy interrupted the explanation. 

“Oh.” Tubbo looked down at his palms in his lap. “I didn’t mean-”

“I know Tubs, I only got hurt because those assholes handcuffed me.” Tommy bit his lip as he approached the hard part of the story. “Wilbur popped my shoulder back in. It hurt like hell but he kind of just held me afterwards which was weird considering the circumstances.”

“What do you mean he held you?” Aimsey asked, confused.

“He basically hugged me to get me to not move my shoulder.” Tommy explained. 

“HAH!” Bill burst out in laughter, clearly in a happier mood. “YOU PUSSY!”

“Do you want me to dislocate your shoulder?” Tommy sat up straighter. Bill shook his head but still chuckled. “I also told Wilbur about my parents, I don’t know why, I just… did.” 

“You shouldn’t have done that Tom, now he can figure out your real identity.” Ranboo pointed out the obvious.

“It’s fine.” Tommy said even though he wasn’t sure. “I’m here now and that’s all that matters.” 

“True.” Ranboo agreed. 

“So what's the new plan?” Aimsey asked eagerly.

“Nothing changes, we just push everything back a few weeks.” Tommy stood up and winced at how his whole body ached. He walked over to the wall next to the front door where their white board calendar was laid out. 

He picked up the red pen, and began planning. 

Because Tommy didn’t know how to do anything else. He’d always put off grieving and so he was just as good at putting off his problems. He couldn’t dwell on the past because it was the past, it was just about moving forward now. 

Just about getting revenge

Just about killing Mr. Dream. 

A few weeks later, it was time for Tommy to go back to work.

Yes. Even the best robbers in the city need jobs. Especially if they give all the money to charity. Shocking. Tommy knows you are shocked that a man like him is humble enough to have a minimum wage job. He was totally, definitely offered so many high paying jobs but he turned them down because he is so humble

 Tubbo was really against the idea of Tommy going back to work because Tommy’s shoulder was still recovering and Tubbo was convinced that SBI knew where Tommy worked. 

But Tommy was going to be fired if he didn’t go back, he also missed his job because being stuck in the apartment with Bill all day was driving him INSANE. Bill could never hold a job. He always got fired for “bad behavior” so most days he just researched and planned for the next robberies. Sometimes Tubbo found him an odd job on the dark web so they could make a little extra for robbery supplies. 

Early on Monday morning, at around 6:15, all of the Cricket Crew (except Bill) piled into a van to head to work. First they dropped off Tubbo at the colorful internet cafe he worked at a few blocks away from their apartment. Tubbo loved his job because he got paid to make coffees (he even got a free one for himself everyday) and he could help people with their computers when they were broken. When the cafe emptied out around 3 PM, he could use the computers for free to anonymously hack and research different banks. Tubbo had worked there ever since he had left the orphanage, he knew his regulars and was friends with his boss Sam, it was his little escape from the craziness that was Cricket Crew. And it made $18 an hour, which was pretty good pay. 

“Have a good day Tubs!” Tommy yelled as Tubbo leapt out of the back of the van. 

“Please don’t get arrested again Tommy.” Tubbo pleaded with an eye roll.

“I’ll try my best bossman.” Tommy grinned and then Tubbo walked away into the colorful cafe. “No promises!”

Ranboo drove the van down the road to Freddie’s dad’s office building. His dad had never been happy that Freddie moved in with his friends instead of going to university, so Freddie helped his dad organize art galleries on the business side to make up for it. He didn’t get paid, but it kept Freddie’s dad happy and meant that Freddie could live with the Cricket Crew.

“Say hi to your dad Fred, oh and also say thanks for letting us use that helicopter.” Tommy joked. 

“Will do.” Freddie winked as he straightened his tie to walk into the tall office building.

“Aimsey wake up, your next.” Tommy yelled from where he sat in the passenger seat, back to Aimsey, who startled awake. 

“Who the fuck decided the work day should start this early?” Aimsey rubbed her eyes.

“People who don’t stay up until 5 AM every night.” Ranboo laughed.

“Hey I just got distracted!” Aimsey defended herself and grabbed her backpack as the van pulled up to the boutique. “Adventure Time is an amazing show.”  

Aimsey worked at a small boutique full of clothes for teenagers. It had a darker tone to it and was the definition of a trendy city store. Aimsey had shopped there a lot and eventually applied for a job. She worked at the cash register, it was an average job with average pay and Tommy didn’t know more than that. 

“Bye guys don’t get murdered or hurt or anything along those lines! Thanks for the ride, Ran!” Aimsey smiled as she finished her daily morning speech. 

Tommy smiled. He had missed that speech, even if it felt a bit overprotective and repetitive. 

The last stop was the large mall in the center of the city. Ranboo worked at a device store there. Mostly he just sold people new phones and computers, occasionally someone came in and asked him to build a computer. That was his favorite part of the job, otherwise he thought it was a bit dreary. Half of the time old ladies came over with phones that were never broken to begin with and Ranboo had to fix them even though Fundy’s Fix-It store was up a floor of the mall. Usually Ranboo just wanted something to do. 

After they parked the van Tommy walked Ranboo to the device store and waved him goodbye. 

“Have fun dude!” Ranboo waved back. “I’m right here if anything goes wrong.”

“I’ll be fine!” Tommy insisted he was tired of being babied by his friends. He sighed with relief when he was finally alone, walking down the empty hallway of the mall. The mall didn’t open for another thirty minutes so Tommy was tasked with opening the gaming store that he worked at.  

Tommy had worked at Captain’s Games since he left the orphanage. He remembers going there with his dad before his parents died and so it was the first place he applied. Mostly the job was just stocking games on the shelves (which he learned was surprisingly hard with one arm in a sling), checking games out to people at the cash register or helping a teenage boy find the newest Call of Duty. 

Sometimes Tommy got to demo games, but only if there was a special promotion and there was none today. Business was slow. A group of teenage girls came in and bought Just Dance 2018, 2019 and 2020. A middle aged man bought the latest Madden for his college reunion guys trip. A girl in her mid twenties bought GTA 5 to play with her boyfriend. A dad bought Minecraft for his son and Animal Crossing for his daughter. And a few stragglers came in to browse while they waited for their drinks to be ready at the boba place next door. 

Tommy ate lunch (a cheap sandwich from the convenience store on the third floor) with Ranboo and then went back to the monotonous work day. He loved it. Being back in the routine was great for his mental health. It was nearing five o’clock and he was getting ready to close, he would have to wait in the mall for an hour before Ranboo closed at six. He was taking the cash out of the register when he heard someone walk into the store. 

Tommy looked up. “Hey man we’re about to close but—” 

Tommy froze. 

Wilbur. 

Wilbur. Fucking. Soot.

He was standing at the end of the aisle, right across from the counter. His brown curls fell over his eyes slightly as he angled his chin down. He was wearing a tan detective jacket, a gray crewneck, a white collared shirt underneath, a maroon beanie was in his hands and his Doc Martins walked slowly towards the counter. Tommy immediately reached for his phone and backed up into the wall behind him. 

“Stay the fuck away from me.” Tommy’s heart pounded as he pulled up Ranboo’s phone number. 

“I’m not here to hurt you Tommy… I just want to chat.” Wilbur put his hands out in front of himself. 

“I have nothing to say. Leave.” Tommy’s finger hovered over the call button on his phone.  

“I have a proposition Tommy…” Wilbur continued.

“How did you even find me?” Tommy’s mind was racing. If Wilbur had found where he worked, that means he could have decoded all of the Cricket Crew’s records. For all he knew, Ranboo and everyone else had already been arrested.

“A five year old boy with blonde hair whose parents died in a tragic fire around thirteen years ago– just a quick Google search really.” Wilbur kept his hands in front of him as if trying to calm Tommy, but his voice remained menacing. “Tom Ines Simons, strange middle name, barely eighteen, orphan. It was pretty easy to find your secret work identity, your credit card number, your license… really everything. But I’m being honest with you, I promise, so I haven't found your address yet and that's the truth.” 

“That's it, I’m calling…” Tommy was about to press the button. 

 “I heard you yell the name Bill when we arrested you at the bank.” Wilbur interrupted and Tommy froze. “Pretty easy to find Bill Zo who frequently makes purchases on the internet with your card. That short brunette guy must be Toby Smith who was at the same orphanage as you with the same circumstances.” 

“Shut up.” Tommy said and pressed the button on his phone. He raised it to his ear but it went straight to voicemail. 

“Oh what a shame… the internet must be out.” Wilbur pouted mockingly. 

Tommy looked down in fear at his phone which showed no bars of wifi at all. He was truly alone with a man who definitely wanted to arrest him.

“Where was I? Oh right.” Wilbur cleared his throat and started walking closer to Tommy. Tommy could do nothing. “I will give you credit, you guys are very good at hiding your information. Still couldn’t find the identities of that tall one and the short one with the beanie.” 

“What do you want?” Tommy tried to remain confident while also sighing in relief at the news that Wilbur had no idea who Aimsey and Ranboo were. 

“Like I said, I’m not here to hurt you.” Wilbur took a deep breath and put his hands down on the counter. “I want to work with you.”

“What?” Tommy tilted his head in confusion. 

“Do you know why SBI started Tommy?” Wilbur began to trail his finger along the counter and walked around so that he was behind it. He leaned against the cash register and was less than two feet away from Tommy.

“No…?” Tommy leaned back in response to Wilbur’s motion. His mind was trying to pick up the strange pieces that Wilbur was putting down. Wilbur was like a puzzle and Tommy hated puzzles.  

“When I was around three or four, my mother went missing. Phil started the business because the police weren’t doing enough to find her. He made great progress on the case but it's our only one left unsolved and so eventually he started taking money to work on other ones.” Wilbur sat on the counter and dangled his legs off the side casually. “So obviously once I was eighteen, I learned how to be a detective too.” 

“I’m not gonna cry at your sob story. Leave.” Tommy pointed to the door. 

“But then Phil started to take payments from the corrupt rich people he had once taught me to hate.” Wilbur ignored Tommy. “He said we needed the money to find my mom, but I don’t think we do. I hate Mr. Dream probably almost as much as you. That man evades taxes, illegally gambles, smuggles drugs into the country and manipulates so many people into doing his bidding, I don’t want to help him torture a couple of kids.”

“So I’m supposed to just trust you?” Tommy looked at Wilbur skeptically. On one hand he knew that Wilbur should not be trusted under any circumstances. But this was also the man who had fixed his shoulder, who had held Tommy in the aftermath and who had let him go with Bill. So maybe…just maybe he could be trusted. 

His mind said no but his heart said yes. Tommy’s heart had an annoying way of doing that, especially around adults. Ever since his parents died, he had trusted so many adults but none of them had ever given him anything. The police. Potential adoptive couples. Social workers. Freddie’s parents. He had never gained a single thing from a relationship with those people, yet whenever he met a so-called “trusted” adult, he still felt drawn to them. 

“What do I get from working with you?” Tommy’s voice was small even though he was trying to be confident.    

“I have resources that you don’t and I know more about Mr. Dream more than you do.” Wilbur spoke confidently, obviously relieved that Tommy was even considering. “Tommy, I want to take him down. I know Mr. Dream is a bad person.” 

“Say it.” Tommy’s eyes got watery for a reason he could never identify. 

“Say what?” Wilbur looked confused and worried. He obviously did care and really wanted to help Tommy. He was acting like he needed to help Tommy in order to survive. 

“Say that my parents were killed by Mr. Dream. No one has ever said it except for me and my friends.” Tommy gulped back the mysterious tears.  

“Oh.” Wilbur looked at Tommy with that stupid empathetic look that Tommy hates. Wilbur took a deep breath. “Tommy, your parents were killed by Mr. Dream when you were five. And I’m so sorry no one has ever listened. But I believe you.” 

Tommy froze. He had never heard an adult say anything along those lines. His heart felt warm, that was a weird feeling for Tommy to encounter. Especially because it came from a man who had interrogated him a few weeks ago 

“How do I know you aren’t working with SBI still?” Tommy sniffled a little. 

“You just have to take my word for it, but… if you want insurance take this.” Wilbur pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Tommy. 

It was a small silver keychain with the letters KW on the back of a tree pendant. It was encrusted in what looked like real diamonds. Tommy took it and rubbed his finger over the initials in awe of its beauty. 

“It was my mothers.” Wilbur explained and sat back on the counter. “I- I trust you enough to have it and after we take down Mr. Dream, you give it back. If I betray you, I won't get it back.”

“How do you know I wont just sell this to a pawn shop?” Tommy threatened, but still rubbed the keychain carefully. “Cause I could.” He added to make himself sound more powerful than he really was.

“I know you could, but you won’t. You're not a selfish kid Tommy.” 

Tommy looked down at the keychain and took a moment to think. “And you believe me.” 

“Tommy.” Wilbur grabbed Tommy’s shoulder and Tommy jumped at the sudden touch. “I do believe you.”

Tommy let a tear fall at that and Wilbur hugged him. Tommy’s not sure how he let that happen. Tommy’s still not completely sure why he trusted Wilbur at all that day. He’s also not sure why Wilbur trusted him. Maybe it was because Wilbur saw himself in Tommy. Maybe it was because Tommy was desperate for revenge. Maybe Tommy was actually desperate for a trustworthy adult. Who knows? But it doesn't really matter because the pair hugged for ten seconds before Tommy pulled away and Wilbur sat back on the counter.

“Ok but I have some terms.” Tommy recomposed himself and decided to forget his moment of vulnerability with Wilbur once again. 

“That makes sense.” Wilbur nodded.  

“You don’t get to know where the Cricket Crew lives. I don’t have to tell you anything about us. This is still my operation, you're just a consultant.” Tommy said seriously. “You aren;t officially a part of my team.” 

“I accept those but only if in the end we do this legally. Mr. Dream is arrested and goes on trial. No death and no kidnapping or torturing. Good old fashioned justice.” Wilbur stated. 

“As long as we can still rob him, that's all good.” Tommy lied. Of course, he was going to kill Mr. Dream. No one had to know that yet, but it had always been the plan. 

“Well I’m definitely down to break the law. Anything from bricking a police windshield to robbing Mrs. Dream’s house directly. Count me in.” Wilbur smiled.  

“I like how you think.” Tommy smiled right back at him.

“When I was a teenager Phil always called me a dirty crime boy.” Wilbur explained with a smirk. 

“I’d consider myself a ‘dirty crime boy.’” Tommy laughed. 

“So I guess we have a deal then.” Wilbur proposed and raised an eyebrow. 

“An alliance.” Tommy reached out his hand and Wilbur met it.

“An alliance.” Wilbur nodded and shook Tommy’s hand firmly. 

“Crime boys!” Tommy exclaimed as he let go of Wilbur’s hand. 

Wilbur laughed at that and stood up from the counter to walk aimlessly around the store, he was clearly more relaxed now. “Well we should discuss some plans and compare information.” 

“I could close up and we could grab something to eat down the road? I’ll just tell my friends that I decided to walk home or something.” Tommy grabbed the closing keys from the drawer. He didn't take his eyes off Wilbur, he was still a little bit skeptical. This all seemed off, but he was sure he was just paranoid.  

“I do want to meet the rest of the Cricket Crew.” Wilbur said from across the room.

“Let me explain to them that I’m working with the enemy first…” Tommy’s voice faded as he realized how difficult it would be to get his friends on board. But that didn't matter right now because Tommy desperately needed to know what information Wilbur had. He was one step closer to getting his revenge. And for now nothing else really mattered.

Chapter Text

“One of the Cricket Crew members works around here, I’m just gonna tell him I’m walking home.” Tommy gestured down the hallway to where he was going. “Stay here.” 

Sure it was probably not a good idea for Tommy to give Wilbur information about where Cricket Crew worked, but Tommy was using this as Wilbur’s final trust test. If Wilbur truly stayed there and didn’t listen in on his and Ranboo’s conversation, then Tommy could trust him enough to get dinner tonight. And work with him in the future.

Wilbur nodded and made his way over to the vending machine next to Captain’s Games. Tommy finished pulling his navy jacket over his sweatshirt and walked over to the device store. Ranboo was mindlessly scrolling through his phone because the store was empty. Most of the other stores in the mall were closed so usually there was no one there at the end of the day. The Cricket Crew needed the money and so Ranboo always finished his shifts until the very end, even if there wasn’t any work for him to do. 

“Hey man.” Tommy rested his hand on the counter.

“Oh hey, how was work?” Ranboo looked up a bit startled. 

“The usual, which was perfect.” Tommy grinned. “ It was great actually.”  

“That's good, so now you’re here to annoy me until closing?” Ranboo laughed a little and scrolled on his phone some more.

“Actually I was thinking I would walk home.” Tommy fiddled with his jacket zipper uncomfortably.

“Walk? It’s freezing dude and you are one of the most wanted criminals in the whole city.” Ranboo looked up confused and concerned. He looked like he half expected Tommy to be joking. 

“I know but I need some fucking independence after being cooped up in the apartment the last few weeks, I’m not a baby Ranboo.” Tommy argued. “I was one of the most wanted criminals, but it’s been weeks and SBI has done nothing.”

“But…” Ranboo still seemed uncertain.

“I’ll be fine.” Tommy insisted. Usually Ranboo was a people pleaser which meant Tommy didn’t need to use much persuasion skills to get his way.

“If you say so. Just please don’t die. I think Aimsey would actually murder me and everyone else in this entire world if I let that happen.” Ranboo gave in easily (as expected).

“Wasn’t planning on it! See you tonight!” Tommy smiled and quickly turned around to walk out of the store before Ranboo could change his mind. He was relieved to find Wilbur right where he had left him by the vending machine but now with a bottled water.

“All set?” Wilbur asked as Tommy approached. Tommy nodded tentatively. He was still wary of trusting Wilbur. Wilbur’s logic had made complete sense. He had a reason to betray his family and he had a reason to want to help Tommy. It was just an added bonus that Wilbur seemed to be a genuinely nice guy who had given Tommy two hugs now. It was weird how they had been put in that situation twice so maybe Tommy should take it as fate. But Wilbur also had reasons to not help Tommy and so there was still a possibility that he would betray Tommy. However SBI were making strides towards catching Cricket Crew. Plus if Cricket Crew couldn’t successfully rob banks, what made them think they could rob Mr. Dream directly. Something had to change for this plan to work. Tommy needed an upper hand and Wilbur had presented himself as one. So Tommy was willing to take this chance. 

“Want McDonalds?” Tommy began walking to the escalator which led to the exit from the mall onto the city street. 

“Sure.” Wilbur shrugged and stood next to Tommy on the escalator. He was slightly taller than Tommy, but not by much. Tommy hadn’t noticed the eyebags under his eyes or the way his brown curly hair was tangled when you looked from up close. He had clearly been distressed about something, Tommy didn’t really care what but he decided to keep it in mind. Maybe after all this criminal stuff Tommy could become a detective of his own, he was good at noticing small details.

“Wanna play 20 questions?” Tommy asked, suddenly interrupting the awkward silence that had accompanied the escalator ride. 

“Uh I guess.” Wilbur shrugged again. 

“Well actually let’s just play where you ask a question and then I ask a question.” Tommy corrected himself a bit nervously. “Just feel like I need to get to know you…before we become associates and all.”

“That makes sense.” Wilbur nodded in agreement as the two stepped off the escalator and made their way to the street. “What’s your favorite color?”

“That's a basic ass question.” Tommy scoffed trying to portray confidence. “Blue.” 

“That’s a basic ass answer.” Wilbur scoffed back. 

“Then what’s yours?” Tommy countered. 

“ Coquelicot .” Wilbur replied, looking at Tommy with a smirk.

“That isn’t a color.” Tommy deadpanned to Wilbur.

“It is. Look it up.” Wilbur’s eyebrows rose.   

Tommy did and was disappointed to see that it was a real color. 

“Wow, way to be unique.” Tommy rolled his eyes and looked straight ahead at the dark empty sidewalk. 

“My turn.” Wilbur continued. “Favorite superhero?”

“Spiderman.” Tommy answered immediately. It was probably obvious. A kid from New York City who lost both his parents was the perfect fit for Tommy. “Let’s make this more interesting: why did you drop out of psychology school?”

“How do you know about that?” Wilbur asked.
“Techno mentioned it when I was being interrogated.”

“Ah, well…I love psychology but I needed to get out of college to help my brother and dad. That’s around when my dad started taking jobs just because people were rich and I wanted to change that.” Wilbur’s answer was monotone but Tommy knew that it held some negative sentiment. Tommy hadn’t really had a family he could remember and so he was having a hard time understanding the familial bonds of SBI. Wilbur seemed to hold so much anger against them, but yet he had dropped out of college to help them. Tommy didn’t think he would ever understand families completely. How can you love and hate someone that much?

“Wow what a hero.” Tommy laughed at his own sarcastic comment. 

“Well it’s not like it worked.” Wilbur muttered 

“What do you mean?” Tommy replied, adjusting to the serious tone, and looked at Wilbur. 

“Well they're still doing Dream’s bidding even when I told them not to.” Wilbur's face twisted into annoyance and he went silent for a moment. “Moving on. You’ve asked too many questions, my turn.”

“Pick something lighthearted. This is getting fucking depressing.” Tommy pointed out and Wilbur scoffed. 

“Fine. What’s your favorite movie?” 

“Empire Strikes Back.” Tommy’s answer was immediate. He had watched that movie with his dad years ago and after his parents died he watched it with Tubbo almost every night. 

“The Force Awakens is better.” Wilbur countered with a grin. This set Tommy off (because who the fuck didn’t like Empire Strikes back?) and the pair entered a heated debate as they walked down the sidewalk. They were still debating when they arrived in front of the artificially lit yellow McDonalds. 

“Let’s just agree to disagree.” Wilbur sighed exhausted and pushed open the door to let Tommy in and Tommy nodded with thanks. He knew he had won the argument. He always wins arguments.

The McDonalds was dirty and smelled of grease and burnt potatoes. There were only two workers, one at the cash register on her phone and the other in the back supposedly cooking. There were one or two other customers sitting at the red booths around the store but they were all minding their business. Tommy ordered a twelve piece McNugget while Wilbur ordered a burger. They agreed to split a vanilla shake and got an extra cup for it. Wilbur insisted on paying which made Tommy feel a bit underestimated by Wilbur, but he let it slide because he would always accept free food

  The question game continued once they sat down. “So tell me about Cricket Crew then. Who are you and how did you all meet?” Wilbur asked through his first bite of the burger. 

Tommy took a sip of  the milkshake and considered the question. Maybe it was not a good idea for Tommy to tell Wilbur about everyone, but he was bound to find out anyway. Tommy trusted Wilbur. He trusted him a lot. Perhaps too much. But Tommy was good at reading people. He had to be because he didn’t know who he could trust after his parents died. He saw that Wilbur was mad at his family. He saw that Wilbur was being genuine. Most importantly he needed Wilbur to trust him back. 

“Fine.” Tommy pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos while simultaneously eating a chicken nugget. He found his favorite picture of him and his friends, it was from before they started robbing banks. Around six months ago they had gone to a donut shop near Tubbo’s parents' old house to celebrate Tommy’s eighteenth birthday. It was the first time they had hung out outside the apartment as a full group.  

Tommy turned his phone to Wilbur and began zooming in on his friends, starting with himself. He was grinning in the photo, one arm around Tubbo and one holding a chocolate donut near his face. “This was on my birthday.” He explained and looked at Wilbur for some reaction. 

“I see.” Wilbur nodded but was clearly examining everyone else in the photo more closely. 

Tommy scrolled the photo over to Tubbo. Tubbo was smiling but was clearly annoyed that Tommy had punched him moments earlier. “This is Tubbo, you know him as Toby from our records, but I’ve always called him Tubbo. Our parents were friends, I’ve known him forever.” 

“Describe him to me.” Wilbur half demanded. “If I’m going to start working with you then I want to know your guys' dynamic and stuff.” 

“He’s a genius with computers and coding, he does all that stuff for us. He’s the most loyal guy I know, I’ve never been away from him since our parents died. He’s just always there doing what I ask of him and helping to keep me sane.” Tommy smiled at the thought of Tubbo. “He’s my best friend.” 

“Techno is my brother but also my best friend. When he isn't being an absolute dick about work at least.” Wilbur explained to Tommy. 

“Cool.” Tommy quickly moved on as he didn’t want to get too sentimental or anything like that. He was still trying to impress Wilbur and crying or getting serious wasn’t exactly screaming confidence. “This is Bill, he’s an absolute dick all the time. Most reckless and weird ass guy I’ve ever met. I literally found him sitting alone in an alleyway and out of my own kindness adopted him into my home.” Tommy pointed to Bill who was making some weird face and standing behind Tubbo. “He kind of gets us to think out of the box I guess.” Tommy shrugged, he had never really thought about what Bill’s role was in the group. He was just kind of there. 

“Sounds annoying.” Wilbur stated and that made Tommy laugh (because it was true). 

“That’s Aimsey, she just showed up with Tubbo one day. She makes sure our plans are safe and shit. I hate her for it but usually we need her.” Tommy explained as he pointed to Aimsey, she was standing next to Bill (who towered over her) and had her normal beanie on. “Be careful though, sometimes she just does crazy stuff out of nowhere.” 

“So they take care of you all?”  Wilbur clarified and Tommy nodded. 

“That’s Freddie. His mom forced him to hang out with Tubbo and I as kids. He’s the athletic and creative one of the group. If anyone needs help with anything, he’s got some weird skill or connection and helps them.” Tommy briefly pointed to Freddie and moved on. “Lastly is Ranboo. We met him in the neighborhood around the orphanage and he’s stuck with us since. He coordinates the group a lot, kind of like what Freddie does but Ranboo’s taller and more worried.” 

“Jesus, that guy is tall.” Wilbur’s eyebrows rose. “So that’s it, that’s the Cricket Crew?” 

“Yeah…” Tommy paused. “Why do you sound so disappointed?” 

“Well I thought you would all be geniuses with insane criminal histories but you’re all just dudes hanging around.” Wilbur chuckled and looked at Tommy knowing that he was annoying him. “I just can’t believe no one has caught you dumbasses yet.”  

Tommy took a bite of his last chicken nugget. “Shut up. We are cool as fuck.” 

“I mean what even is the name Cricket Crew?” Wilbur laughed harder.

“It’s confidential.” Tommy crossed his arms over his chest

“Sure…” Wilbur rolled his eyes. “It’s stupid that's what it is.”

Tommy turned away when his phone buzzed and left Wilbur laughing behind him. He was getting a call from Aimsey. Shit. Ranboo must have gotten home alone. He took a deep breath before answering. 

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK TOM!” Aimsey’s voice pierced Tommy’s ear and he had to briefly pull the phone away in response. 

“Good evening to you too Aimsey.” Tommy greeted and put his finger over his mouth to tell Wilbur to stop laughing. 

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD TOM. DEAD. DECEASED. NO MORE. WHY WOULD YOU-” Aimsey’s voice maintained max volume and Tommy winced.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, just stopped for some McDonalds.” Tommy interrupted calmly. 

“MCDONALDS AINT NO WAY YOU DECIDED TO GET MCDONALDS” Aimsey sighed. “You didn’t answer any of my texts Tommy.” 

“Sorry I was enjoying my McNuggets.” Tommy answered simply.  

“Well get the fuck home.” Aimsey sounded like she was about to hang up but paused. “I’m glad you’re ok.” 

The call ended and Tommy put down his phone releasing a big breath. “I gotta get home. Aimsey is not happy that I walked alone.” 

“You weren’t alone, I was here?” Wilbur cocked his head confused. 

“Well she doesn’t know that…yet.” Tommy suddenly remembered what he had to tell the Cricket Crew. “Well if our arrangement goes over well with my team, which is pretty unlikely but don’t worry I have great persuasion skills, then we will be in touch.” Tommy reached out his hand for a handshake. 

Wilbur met the handshake. “Here’s my card.” 

“Perfect.”  Tommy said as he stood up from his seat and prepared to walk home. First he stopped to order shakes for each of his friends. They would need it after Tommy drops the bombshell news. 

Tommy pushed open the creaky door of his apartment. He could see that the TV was on with South Park which Tubbo and Bill were watching while laying on the couch. Ranboo was sitting on the chair facing away from the TV (towards Tommy) scrolling through TikTok but he looked up when Tommy entered. 

“Oh hey man.” Ranboo put his phone down. “They’re really mad.” He motioned over to the hallway where Tommy could hear Aimsey talking. 

“Just say pissed Ranboo.” Tubbo insisted but kept staring at the TV.

“No.” Ranboo looked at Tubbo defiantly. 

“JUST SAY IT!” Tubbo half yelled annoyed and then sighed. “You're impossible.”

“Look who decided to show up.” Freddie commented as he walked in from the hallway. Aimsey followed him and stared Tommy down from the otherside of the room. 

“I got milkshakes for you all!” Tommy gestured hopefully to the shakes he had placed on their overly cluttered and unusable table. 

“Oreo?” Bill turned around from the couch curiously.

“Yup, I got all your favorites.” Tommy nodded furiously. 

“He’s just trying to guilt me into forgiving him for walking home ALONE just weeks after being in a PRISON.” Aimsey crossed her arms over her chest and lowered her chin. 

“It’s fine innit?” Tommy looked around the room for support but no one really gave an opinion instead just staring blankly because they were scared to get in between the argument. “Well anyways, I have some developments about our plan. I got an upper hand on Mr. Dream.”

“Wait what?” Tubbo paused South Park at this news and the rest of the group also looked to Tommy intrigued. 

Tommy picked up the milkshakes to pass them out. “Please, sit down.” He grinned at Aimsey who just rolled their eyes. Once everyone was satisfied with their milkshakes Tommy went to the whiteboard that they had hung up on the wall next to the door in the living room. He erased the old notes from their last group meeting and began to draw (in a red marker) a building with a money symbol to represent a bank. 

“This is a bank.” Tommy explained and began drawing Mr. Dreams house (a building with a smile logo on it). “And this is Mr. Dream’s house.”

“No shit.” Bill replied sarcastically.

“Get to the point Tom, I’m tired.” Freddie agreed. 

“I’m getting there.” Tommy kept drawing lines as he spoke. “Mr. Dream’s house is ultra protected. Ten times harder to break into than a bank and I’m not sure if you recall, but last time we tried to rob a bank I went to prison.”  

“Oh we all definitely remember that.” Aimsey butt in. 

“Anyways, if we can’t rob a bank then we definitely need an advantage.” Tommy took a deep breath before breaking the hard news. “Luckily I found it. It actually walked right into my work today.” 

“And?” Tubbo asked on the edge of his seat. 

“Wilbur Soot.”

“Excuse me?” Aimsey tilted their head and their eyes went wide.

“WHAT?” Tubbo stood up in confusion.

“Ay?” Bill questioned. 

Ranboo and Freddie shared the same confused look that clearly needed an explanation. 

“I was closing up and Wilbur Soot walked into my work.'' Tommy braced for impact. Maybe Aimsey was actually going to murder him now. She had threatened it many times but this was bad enough to throw her over the edge. 

“Wilbur Soot?” Aimsey’s voice went quiet in the way that a teacher's voice goes quiet when they aren’t angry, just disappointed.   

“As in the Wilbur Soot from SBI?” Ranboo added.

“The one who arrested you?” Freddie stared in disbelief.

“Please tell me you are joking Tom.” Bill pleaded even though he could tell that Tommy was not joking. 

“Ok guys please just hear me out…” Tommy began. 

“FUCK NO!” Aimsey threw herself back into her chair in anger. 

“Let him explain?” Tubbo suggested a bit of uncertain. He always trusted Tommy, that's why they were still friends after all these years.

“One minute. I’m giving you one minute. Explain.” Aimsey allotted time to Tommy and everyone sat ready to listen. 

“He showed up at my work and turned off the WiFi somehow so I couldn’t call anyone. He basically said that he knows who I am and who some of you are, but after that he said he wanted to work with us.” Tommy looked around to read the looks of distaste that were being given to him. “He doesnt support his family helping corrupt people and was trying to change their ways but it wasn’t working so instead he’s going to help us take Mr. Dream down.” 

“And you trusted this stranger, no sorry, this ENEMY?” Aimsey clarified. 

“He popped my shoulder back into place and let Bill take me out of prison in the first place. I don’t know why but I trust him! Plus he has a reason to help us AND we need his help, he knows so much about Mr. Dream. He gave me this meaningful object as insurance. Everything he said and did was because he genuinely wants to help us.” Tommy argued back loudly and quickly while making direct eye contact with Aimsey. He then shifted his eyes around the room. “If this is going to work, we need him. I trust him and you all trust me. Right?” 

“Are you sure this isn’t just you trusting an adult for no reason again Tommy?” Tubbo mentioned from the corner a bit timidly. He was fully aware of how Tommy’s attachment to adults had ended badly in the past. “We trust you but…”

“No Tubbo. This is different I swear on my life.” Tommy insisted.

“Literally. Your life is literally on the line Tom.” Aimsey stood up. “I can’t believe you lied to us about walking home.”

“Yeah that wasn’t cool man, you knew I would give in.” Ranboo frowned. 

“Let’s vote.” Bill jumped into the conversation from out of nowhere. 

“Are you insane Bill?” Aimsey half yelled as she turned to Bill quickly. “You’re on board with this?”

“There’s way more of us then there is of Wilbur. Tommy’s right, we need an upperhand. I’m not losing any of you again.” Bill said in a serious tone. 

“It’s a trap.” Aimsey crossed her arms over her chest. 

“It’s not.” Tommy countered. “Bill’s right, let’s vote.” 

“All in favor?” Bill raised his hand and looked around the room expectantly. Tommy raised his hand immediately. 

“Tommy, if any of us meet Wilbur and change our minds, will we stop working with him?” Tubbo asked. 

“Sure.” Tommy nodded, eager for more votes. “After you meet him, if you still don;t trust him, we’ll stop. Just give him a chance.” 

 “I’m trusting you man.” Tubbo shrugged and put his hand up. Freddie also seemed to like this idea and raised his hand as well. 

“C’mon Ranboo.” Tommy encouraged his friend.

“Sorry dude I’m with Aimsey on this one…letting an outsider in this late in the game…” Ranboo kept his hand in his lap.

“Well we still win.” Bill pointed out.

“This is a bad idea.” Aimsey began to walk out of the room. 

“Just give him a chance, Aimsey!” Tommy called as she walked down the hallway.

“Doesn’t seem like I have a choice.” Aimsey yelled back and Tommy cringed as she slammed the bedroom door shut.

All the boys had to share the two beds in the second bedroom because Aimsey locked the first bedroom’s door and didn’t come out for the rest of the night. 

Getting the team on board with this Wilbur alliance was going to be even harder than Tommy thought. But he texted Wilbur anyway.

Tommy: I got them on board. Barely

Wilbur: Great

Tommy: Meet tomorrow?

Wilbur: My address is on the card. Come at noon.

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up with Tubbo’s foot in his face. Tubbo always found a way of getting into the weirdest positions while he slept. Tommy would know because him and Tubbo had shared a bed at the orphanage for so many years. 

“Ew get the fuck off of me.” Tommy pushed the foot away from his cheek and Tubbo just groaned and rolled over to the right where he promptly fell off the bed.

“OWW” Tubbo yelled out in pain.  

“Shut up.” Bill, who was on Tommy’s left near the wall, turned away and pulled a pillow over his head.

“Your own fault!” Tommy exclaimed and rubbed his eyes to adjust to the morning light. They should really invest in some shades for the windows. 

“You good man?” Ranboo asked from the other bed. He had been scrolling on his phone and watching some TikToks with Freddie who was next to him. 

“No.” Tubbo mumbled from the floor. “Why’d you push me Tom?”

“Your feet were in my face.” Tommy explained and sat up in bed. “Now I told Wilbur that we’d go to his apartment at noon so get up and get dressed.” Tommy hopped out of bed and gave Tubbo a small pat on the back.  

“And we’re sure this isn’t a trap?” Tubbo asked as he sat up groggily.

“Like ninety percent sure.” Tommy explained hopefully and walked to the dresser to find a new shirt. He pulled out a blue sweatshirt and gave it a sniff to make sure it didn’t smell that bad. They had been trying to cut down on doing laundry to save money. 

“So there’s a ten percent chance we end up in jail?” Freddie clarified. 

“Well when you say it like that…” Tommy’s voice faded out. “It’ll be fine. I’m gonna apologize to Aimsey.”  

“Good luck with that.” Bill chuckled from where he lay in bed. 

“Get the fuck up Bill.” Tommy sighed and rolled his eyes as he walked out the door and across the hall to the other bedroom. He took a deep breath before knocking. 

“Who is it?” Aimsey yelled from the other side of the locked door.

“Tommy.” 

“Fuck off.”

“Just hear me out Aimsey.” Tommy pleaded. 

“Fine.” Aimsey mumbled and Tommy heard shuffling from the other side of the door before it opened. “What could you possibly have to say to me?” 

“I’m sorry for lying about where I was last night.” Tommy began. “I know you don’t trust Wilbur, but we are still going to give him a chance.” 

“I’m not mad because you lied, I’m not even mad about Wilbur, I just-” Aimsey took a deep breath. “I’m mad because I’m scared about you Tommy. You’ve been through a lot and I don’t want you to get hurt again.” 

“I can handle myself, Aimsey.” Tommy said a bit annoyed that Aimsey doubted him.

“I know.” Aimsey sighed. “After the whole prison thing, I’ve just been nervous. Like at this point is it worth it to take down Mr. Dream if we are going to possibly end up dead or in jail?” 

“Yes. It is worth it.” Tommy stated confidently. “I mean you don’t have to be a part of this if you don’t want to.” 

“No I do, it’s just scary.” Aimsey looked at Tommy and he could see the concern furrowed in her brows. 

“I’m right here Aimsey, it’s going to be ok.” Tommy put his hand on Aimsey’s shoulder. “We are all going to be ok.”  

Aimsey pulled Tommy into a quick hug. “So when are we going to Wilbur’s apartment or whatever?” 

“Noon.” Tommy hugged her back. 

“Well I’m going to get ready then.” Aimsey said and pulled away. “Sorry about hogging this bedroom, it must have been pretty crowded in there.”

“Nah, we needed the punishment anyway.” Tommy laughed a little. “I’m gonna go make sure Bill’s awake.” 

“Sounds good.” Aimsey smiled. “Thanks for apologizing.” 

“Don’t get used to it.” Tommy turned around to walk into the other bedroom and Aimsey just gasped sarcastically in shock. 

“How’d it go?” Ranboo asked when Tommy walked in. 

“We’re all good now.” Tommy grinned.

“Impressive.” Tubbo added from the dresser where he was pulling on a black and white flannel. 

“Isn’t that mine?” Ranboo asked. 

“What’s mine is yours!” Tubbo shrugged. “I’m gonna go make eggs.”

“That's not how the saying works.” Ranboo called after Tubbo as he left the room. 

“Bill get the fuck up.” Tommy yelled and pulled the blankets off Bill.

“Go away Tom!” Bill kept his eyes clothes and threw his hands around in search for the suddenly missing blanket 

“Has anyone seen my jeans?” Freddie yelled from the bathroom. 

And so the normal morning chaos of the Cricket Crew apartment began and about thirty minutes later they were somehow all piled into the van with Ranboo in the driver's seat. Bill had called shotgun at breakfast and so he played various Car Seat Headrest songs at Ranboo’s request. Tommy didn’t really care what music was playing because his heart was beating rapidly. He trusted Wilbur fully, but deep down he was worried that he was wrong. Maybe Wilbur was just going to betray him, plenty of adults had done it in the past. Adults had promised that Tommy and Tubbo had a new home only to send him back to the orphanage when he lashed out. But Tommy couldn’t turn back now, so he gave Ranboo the address of Wilbur’s apartment and stared out the window of the van as they drove. 

“Is this it?” Ranboo pulled up in front of an apartment building. It was remarkably run down considering that it was in downtown where all the rich people lived. All the buildings next to it were tall, modern and sleek with floor to ceiling windows and fresh paint jobs. But the windows of Wilbur’s building all had a shabby air conditioner hanging out of them and there was trash littered all over the sidewalk outside of it. The paint was peeling and it didn’t look to different from the apartment building that Cricket Crew lived in

“I thought detectives were supposed to be rich.” Bill scoffed. 

“It’s probably nicer than our place, to be fair.” Freddie acknowledged. 

“Yeah but out of all the buildings downtown, why did he pick this one?” Bill pointed out. 

“It’s close to the police station and it’s cheap.” Tubbo suggested. 

“Let’s just go in.” Tommy impatiently waited while Ranboo parked and then flung open the van door. “We’re already late.” 

“Since when did you care about being on time?” Bill smirked and followed Tommy out of the van. 

Tommy ignored Bill and pulled the front door of the apartment building open. The building was nicer on the inside than it was on the outside. Much like Wilbur himself actually. Wilbur doesn’t wear a suit and tie like his brother and dad did, this was something Tommy had taken note of at their impromptu dinner. He didn’t look like he took good care of himself as his hair was greasy and beard unshaved in some place. But Wilbur was nice and wanted to help and that was enough for Tommy. The lobby had clean white tiles on the floor and nice black painted walls. There was an attendant at a check in desk and Tommy purposefully looked at the painting on the walls as the group walked past the desk to avoid eye contact. They were still wanted criminals after all and couldn’t afford to be recognized. They approached the elevator and squeezed inside. Tommy clicked the call button and punched in Wilbur’s apartment number because the elevator wouldn’t move without a key card or permission from an owner of an apartment in the building. 

“Who’s there?” Wilbur’s voice crackled through the small speaker. 

“Tommy… and friends.” 

“Come on up.” Wilbur hung up and the elevator started moving. 

“Buildings with this much security are annoying.” Freddie commented.

“If I have to spend another minute in this small ass elevator then I might just scream.” Bill complained. 

“Agreed.” Tubbo nodded. 

“Please don’t.” Aimsey rolled her eyes.

Thy arrived at the 23rd floor and the group practically fell out of the elevator where they followed the signs to Wilbur’s apartment. Tommy knocked on the door and was relieved when Wilbur opened it to reveal just himself. No Phil. No Techno.

It wasn’t a trap.

“Uh hey. Come on in.” Wilbur’s voice was low and he looked around the hallway nervously before moving to let the Cricket Crew in. “I got some snacks.” 

Tommy led the group into the apartment. They entered into a hallway where Tommy took off his dirty black sneakers to leave by the coat hanger. Tommy didn’t consider himself a polite person, but he wasn’t just going to be rude to his new associate. He then walked down the hall to the kitchen. It was a large but simple room with black wooden floors and off white painted walls. There was clutter all over the counters including books, calendars, receipts and some dead flowers but the modern black table in the center of the room was clean. Wilbur had left bowls of Cheetos and chips with guacamole in the middle of the table and Tommy assumed that’s where Wilbur wanted to hold this meeting. The snacks were a nice gesture, but it felt a bit like Wilbur was trying to entertain a bunch of kids. Tommy didn’t appreciate being underestimated once again. Wilbur had clearly never had people over before (besides maybe his family). 

The rest of the Cricket Crew had fallen into an uncomfortable and unusual silence because none of them were used to meeting strangers. They settled at the table and Bill immediately started snacking on the Cheetos since he hadn’t had time for breakfast. Wilbur finally took it upon himself to say something.

“Well I guess I’ll introduce myself, I’m Wilbur.” He smiled at the group. 

“We know.” Aimsey stated as she stared Wilbur down from across the table. He was scarily taller than her, so she wasn’t actually that intimidating. 

“The names Bill. But in this industry they call me Billzo.” Bill extended his Cheeto dust covered hand to shake Wilbur’s. He had chosen to sit next to Wilbur and decided to start the introductions around the table. 

“No one calls you that Bill Four Underscore.” Tubbo raised an eyebrow at Bill in confusion. Bill had insisted on being called Bill Four Underscore when the group had first met but then Tommy convinced him that the name was too long. 

“Don’t bring that up.” Bill half whispered in Tubbo’s direction.  

“Nice to meet you Bill.” Wilbur interrupted and took Bill’s handshake. He promptly wiped his hands on his jeans because of the Cheeto dust. 

“I’m Freddie.” 

“Tubbo. Well really it’s Toby but they all call me Tubbo.” 

“Aimsey.” 

“My name’s Ranboo, nice to meet you sir or I mean…?”

“Wilbur’s fine.” Wilbur chuckled. 

“And I'm Tommy, but you knew that.”

“Well I’m glad to meet you all.” Wilbur paused. “You probably need an explanation. The basic version is that I can’t deal with my dad and brother working for rich people instead of actually helping solve important crimes. So now I’m a part of your plan or whatever.” 

“You’re an associate.” Tommy reminded Wilbur. “Consultant even, but not ‘a part’ of it.” 

Wilbur sighed. “Well then fill me in kid, what’s the plan?” 

“Do you have a white board?” Tommy asked, looking around. Tommy loved drawing things, he thought it helped the whole group execute everything. 

“No?” Wilbur looked at Tommy confused. 

“What detective doesn’t have a whiteboard?” Tommy rolled his eyes. 

“Sorry, your highness.” Wilbur mocked Tommy with a little bow. Tubbo laughed at the joke. 

Tommy sighed. “Paper?” 

“Yeah, I’ll get it.” Wilbur stood up, satisfied that he had the last word in the banter and walked to the counter where he got a poster board paper and a marker. Tommy took it with a nod. 

“We originally planned to keep stealing from banks to build up the strength to attack Mr. Dream directly. But I propose a new plan: we should attack Mr. Dream next. He won’t expect it since we’ve been in hiding for a few weeks since the arrest.” Tommy began to draw the basic blueprint of Mr. Dream’s house. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Bill looked a bit skeptically. 

“We have the element of surprise and we can’t risk being arrested at the banks again, we have to strike now.” Tommy explained. 

“But it’s always been the plan to hit at least a few more banks…” Tubbo contributed. 

“But this is the end game. Instead of spending the next few weeks robbing banks, we spend them planning everything super detailed so that it doesn’t fail.” Tommy insisted. 

“He might be onto something.” Aimsey nodded her head as Tommy finished speaking. “There’s a better chance of success if we start planning now.” 

“My arrest pushed us back anyways but the best time to attack Mr. Dream’s house is in two weeks because we know he will be here for a conference of all the banks. Any other time we risk him being at some vacation home.” Tommy added. 

“So then what’s the objective?” Freddie asked. 

“Revenge.” The word came out colder than Tommy wanted it to. Wilbur furrowed his brow because he didn’t like that answer. Too bad for him because it was the truth. Tommy continued despite Wilbur’s weird look. “Mr. Dream needs to be taken down, we need to steal from him personally, his money and everything else. Even better, we need to confront him so he knows why we’ve been doing this.” 

“A confession.” Tubbo added.

“A confession would be ideal.” Tommy nodded in mutual understanding. “Then he can be arrested and tried for the murder of our parents.”

“So how do we do that?” Freddie asked. 

“We might need to force the confession out of him, he’s a selfish man. If we threaten everything he owns and cares for, we might be able to bargain with him.” Tommy explained. 

“This all seems a bit violent.” Ranboo pointed out.

“But necessary.” Tommy retorted. The real plan was to get Tommy close enough to Mr. Dream to shoot him, but no one had to know that quite yet. 

“Tommy’s right. Dream doesn’t care about anything but himself.” Wilbur supported Tommy. “I’ve met him, I would know.” 

“So we need a plan to get in, get a hold of Mr. Dream’s assets, corner Mr. Dream, get the confession and get out.” Tommy concluded. 

“That’s a lot to take on.” Aimsey looked skeptically at Tommy. 

“So we’ll divide and conquer.” Tommy studied the group. “Freddie, you're our information guy, get us the blueprints to Mr. Dream’s house and his schedule. Someone at your dad’s company probably has that stuff or just basic research. Ranboo and Aimsey you need to look at the blueprints and the actual house itself so you guys can plan the way in and the way out. Bill, you need to work with them and everyone else to figure out how to get to Mr. Dream’s assets. Tubbo, you are on gadget duty, make anything that anyone needs for their part of the plan and code us a way in and out. Wilbur and I will work out a way to get the confession, Wilbur knows psychology and shit so. I’ll also coordinate everyone so everything works together.” Everyone nodded and seemed to like their assigned jobs.

“Shit Tommy, that was surprisingly mature of you.” Wilbur nodded in surprise. “I would never think that a child could lead a group like that.

“Shut up. I’m a big man.” 

“Trust me, usually it’s a miracle anything gets done, Wilbur” Ranboo sighed. 

“Does the Cricket Crew actually have a well thought out plan?” Aimsey smiled and brought the conversation back on course. “This is unheard of!” 

The group laughed at that.

Then they got to work.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks of Tommy’s life were jam packed. He was still working at the video game store while simultaneously creating a foolproof plan to break into a billionaire's home. The whole group split up their time between Wilbur’s apartment and the Cricket Crew apartment. Aimsey had insisted that Wilbur was not allowed at the Cricket Crew apartment, just in case he was a traitor. Any work Wilbur helped with happened at his place. Tommy was 100% sure Wilbur was not going to betray him. He and Wilbur bickered a lot, but he could tell that Wilbur cared. Wilbur pretended to doubt Tommy’s abilities but in reality he was usually impressed by Tommy’s capabilities. Tommy could tell even though Wilbur tried to hide it. Luckily Tommy was a self proclaimed grounded guy and didn’t let it get to his head too much. 

One day it was just Tommy alone with Wilbur in his apartment. Bill and Tubbo were working on some sort of gadget, Freddie was visiting his parents to try and get some insider information. Ranboo and Aimsey were working because they had bills due at the end of the week and losing their apartment would not be ideal. 

Tommy was trying to figure out Mr. Dream’s history which was something Wilbur had already been researching with SBI before he had met Tommy. There wasn’t much public information about Mr. Dream anywhere, so they really had to search into the depths of the Internet. It was a grueling process (made a bit easier with a program Tubbo had set up) and the pair had been lost in the work for hours.

“This is interesting…” Tommy pointed at his screen and Wilbur looked over. “Mr. Dream is rumored to be the dead son of the previous mayor.” 

“Huh.” Wilbur sounded intrigued as he studied the comparison photo of a young boy at a mayor’s inauguration compared to a photo of Mr. Dream himself. “I see the similarities I guess.”

“Of course he always flaunts himself as self made but really he’s just a nepotism baby.” Tommy rolled his eyes. 

“Ok maybe it’s a stretch Tom, I mean this is a stupid tabloid website anyways. It says their son died in a car accident” Wilbur sighed.

“ Allegedly died in a car accident.” Tommy pointed out.

“ Most likely died in a car accident.” Wilbur countered. 

“Well at least it’s something .” Tommy explained a bit angrily. “We’ve been at this for hours and there is fucking nothing on this guy.” Tommy slammed his laptop closed. “How can someone be this mysterious?” 

“Maybe we just try again tomorrow.” Wilbur suggested and closed his laptop gently. “It’s late and you’re clearly tired.” 

“Shut up.” Tommy stood up and checked his phone. “Shit.”

“What?” Wilbur also stood up to bring his soda can to the trash. 

“Well for one it’s almost eleven and Aimsey told me to be back by ten. But also there’s fucking flood warnings because apparently it’s pouring.” Tommy scrolled on his phone quickly to read the news. “The subways are closed.”

“Can someone come pick you up with the van?” Wilbur peeked through the shades to see the rain. “Oh my god the streets are actually flooding.”

“Yeah no way anyone’s gonna want to drive and get me.” Tommy looked out the window as well. “Welp, guess I’m swimming.” Tommy wasn’t joking. Sure this was less than an ideal situation for Tommy, but to be honest he had been through worse. He had slept on the streets before, been mugged, beaten up and almost killed all before he turned eighteen. Trudging through some water for a couple miles would be nothing. It did make him a little nervous, but he could do it.  

“You can just stay here for the night if you want.” Wilbur offered and interrupted Tommy's mental preparation for his difficult journey home.

“What?” Tommy quickly turned to look at Wilbur. He had to make sure he wasn’t joking. No one had ever offered something of that magnitude to Tommy before. Not for free anyways. There had always been some kind of catch. The promise of adoption except he had to leave Tubbo. The promise of a house except he had to work for the landlord. He had never taken any of those previous deals. After a while he stopped listening to anything anyone offered him at all.

“Well I have a guest room that Techno used to sleep in.” Wilbur motioned down the hall. 

“And I could sleep there?”

“Yeah…” Wilbur looked a bit skeptical at Tommy’s interrogative tone.  

“Actually?” Tommy raised his eyebrow

“Yes, fucking hell Tommy, you're acting like I’m offering you a million dollars.” Wilbur chuckled hesitantly

“I mean, let me… just, um… call Tubbo and let the Cricket Crew know… but sure.” Tommy tried his best to respond normally but his sentence was just full of stutters because this was not normal at all and his brain couldn’t really think straight.“Thanks.” 

“It’s literally nothing king. Calm down.” Wilbur looked at Tommy a bit confused and then hesitantly left him alone to walk down the hall.

“Fuck now Wilbur thinks I’m insane.” Tommy muttered to himself. He turned to get his phone off the kitchen table and couldn’t stop himself from smiling. He had that feeling of warmth in his chest, the feeling they only talk about in children's books. The feeling that Tommy thought was just made up by the adults who wrote those books. He didn’t usually get this sappy about stuff and he wasn’t sure why he was reacting in this way. So, as one does, he decided to ignore his feelings and called Tubbo who picked up almost immediately.

“Dude where the fuck are you! It’s pouring and the subways are broken-” Tubbo’s voice shrieked through Tommy’s eardrum. 

“I’m fine, just at Wilbur’s.” Tommy cut Tubbo off.

“Aimsey is actually going to murder you, three times actually, she’s said she would murder you three times in the past month so you are in serious murdered-by-Aimsey debt sir.” Tubbo rambled.

“I told you ten, Tom!” Aimsey’s voice suddenly appeared on the phone.

“Am I on speaker?”

“Oh yeah, forgot to mention that.” Tubbo confirmed. 

“Well we lost track of time and I can’t exactly get home if it’s flooding so Wilbur offered for me to stay here in his guest room.” Tommy explained.

“He actually offered for you to stay?” Freddie asked in disbelief. 

“For free?” Bill added. 

“Yeah, it’s weird. But he’s a nice guy so it adds up.” Tommy explained. 

“Bad idea.” Aimsey jutted in.

“No other options really.” Tommy responded.

“I guess not.” Aimsey audibly sighed in disappointment. 

“Just be careful I guess.”  Ranboo’s voice of encouragement could be distantly heard in the background of the phone call.   

“You all say that everytime I leave the house and I always am.” Tommy assured his friends but he was still a bit annoyed that they still weren’t trusting his judgment. “We can use this as Wilbur’s ultimate trust test. This is good.”

“But Tommy…” Tubbo didn’t finish his sentence but Tommy knew exactly what he was going to say. Tubbo and Tommy hadn’t spent a night apart since their parents' death. The two often had trouble sleeping or nightmares, but they also had each other. Not sleeping under the same roof at Tubbo would be very different for the both of them. Tommy wasn’t really sure he felt comfortable to sleep without Tubbo there with him. 

“I know Tubs but I’ll see you tomorrow bossman.” Tommy tried to make his voice sound confident so Tubbo couldn’t tell that he was also a bit nervous. 

“Yeah… see you tomorrow.” Tubbo agreed hesitantly. 

“Good night guys.”

“Good night.” The mumbles of all of the tired Cricket Crew came from the other end of the phone before Tommy hung up. 

“Everything good?” Wilbur suddenly appeared in the hallway archway. 

“Yeah.” Tommy responded quickly. He was mentally exhausted from working all day and couldn’t think of anything better to say. Wilbur could probably tell because he moved on quickly.  

“Well the guest room is the first door on the right.” Wilbur explained. “There’s towels and sheets and stuff in the closet. You know where everything else is I think.” 

“Yup.” Tommy nodded awkwardly. Accepting affection was not his strong suit. His parents had left him at such a young age so no one had really taught Tommy the basics of human interaction past age six. 

“You good man?” Wilbur walked a little closer but Tommy backed away.

“Yup.” Tommy nodded awkwardly again. 

“Ok… good night.” Wilbur took the hint that Tommy was confused and turned to walk to his own bedroom. 

“Good night.” Tommy whispered to himself for no reason in particular except that his brain was thinking too slow and Wilbur was gone by the time he remembered to respond. He stood still for a few seconds but then he came to his senses and made himself a glass of water before heading to the guest bedroom. 

Tommy has always had nightmares. Even before his parents death, he would have dreams of being in a dark void with nothing around him except whispering voices. His parents were thinking of taking him to therapy because it happened so often where he would wake up in tears and wouldn’t fall back to sleep until they hummed the tune of Hallelujah. But then they died and Tommy’s nightmares only got worse.

Tommy frequently had dreams about the day his parents died except they had become distorted. So distorted that even when Tommy was awake he couldn’t remember the actual day anymore. He had been to the site of his parents death in real life only to discover it looked completely different then he remembered it in his dreams. In some dreams his parents jumped out of the building and landed face down on the pavement. In others he heard his parents scream his name from inside the burning building. This time the dream was somehow a million times worse. 

It began like all the others had with Tommy sitting in the back of his parents car staring at the burning building. Tommy could feel the warmth of the flames on his face and he flinched immediately. Out of the fiery smoke he saw his parents look out the window at him. They were yelling something that Tommy couldn’t quite hear.

“WHAT?” Tommy yelled up at them in a panic. “I CAN’T HEAR YOU, JUST TELL ME.” 

“Run.” His parents' voices joined together and echoed into his ears. It didn’t make sense that he could hear them from all around if they were one hundred feet above him. But dreams aren’t supposed to make sense. Tommy had learned that long ago. Sometimes Tommy thought that dreams were meant to hurt you. To remind you why you were in this world to begin with. When things get too good in real life, dreams bring him back to the reality of the unknown. 

Tommy curled over and covered his in fear as tears streamed down his cheeks. He couldn’t bring himself to run and stand up as his parents had requested. His legs were stuck and all he could do was disobey orders and cry. 

“Hello there Tommy.” A deep voice beckoned from the car window.

“What?” Tommy looked up to meet the eyes of Mr. Dream staring back at him. His eyes were neon green and glowing in the darkness and his jacket was blowing in the wind but the worst part was his smirk which was so vivid and evil. Mr. Dream had never been in Tommy’s dreams before. 

“You’re next.” Mr. Dream laughed and then disappeared into dust which revealed Tommy’s parents burning and dead on the pavement.

Tommy screamed. He screamed so loud that he was pretty sure his own ear drums burst. He screamed because they were dead. And apparently he was next. 

“Tommy, Tommy, Tommy!” 

Tommy’s eyes flew open and he started panting aggressively. He was sitting up in the dark on the guest bedroom bed but the sheets of the bed had been flung to the floor in his sleep. His throat hurt like hell. He couldn’t breathe. Tommy couldn’t breathe. Then he realized that someone had wrapped their arms around him from behind.

“Tommy, Tommy, I’m here. You’re fine.”  The voice was panicked despites its efforts to appear soothing 

It was Wilbur. 

Tommy’s breath hitched as he let out a sob. “They're dead. They’re dead. They’re dead.” 

“Breathe Tommy please, please Tommy just take a breath.” Wilbur pleaded.

“THEY’RE DEAD!” Tommy yelled as his neck turned to try and stare at Wilbur in a panic. 

“BREATH!” Wilbur yelled back. His eyes were filled with anxiety as he practically begged Tommy to just try. “Calm down Tommy, trust me.”

Tommy couldn’t listen. “GET OFF OF ME!”

“Not until you take a breath, you’re gonna pass out man.” Wilbur’s voice was calmer. “Do it with me… In… Out… Expand… Shrink….”

Tommy closed his eyes in an effort to tune Wilbur out. How could this be happening to him right now? He was in tears and unable to breath in front of his work associate. This was beyond humiliating and on top of it all his parents were dead. He saw them dead. Their dead faces were horrible and he could still see the image when he closed his eyes.  

So instead he opened them. His eyes flew open and immediately focused on the hallway light peeking through the door on the other side of the room. His other senses seemed to turn off as he couldn’t hear or feel Wilbur, but he knew Wilbur was still there. After a few moments fear finally took over instead of adrenaline. Tommy’s body went into a panic when it realized there was no oxygen coming in. He was forced to attempt a breath. This feeling of his body failing is what finally brought him back to reality and out of his dream-like state. First his sense of touch returned and he felt Wilbur’s chest moving against his back and then Tommy began to make his lungs expand and then compress at the same time as Wilburs. Once quickly. Then again slower. And slower. And slower. With each breath he felt more and more present. 

“Thank you.” Wilbur whispered and hugged Tommy a bit tighter.

“They’re dead.” Tommy whispered back but he refused to speak much more because that would risk his breath being out of rhythm with Wilbur’s again. 

“I know, but you’re still here.” Wilbur assured him. “It was a nightmare.” 

“I get them all the time, Will, all the time. I don’t know which one is real. I can’t remember how they actually died. I can’t remember what they actually said.” Tommy explained and his calm voice rose in volume and in panic. “And everytime they die no matter what I do. Everytime I curl up in a ball of fear like a coward. Everytime I can’t breath, I can’t even function” 

“You were a kid Tommy. You are a kid.” Wilbur adjusted himself to be in front of Tommy. Tommy had drooped his head to stare at his knees which were curled up in front of him but Wilbur nudged Tommy’s chin to look up. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Tommy couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with the brunette. Mostly because he didn’t really want to believe him. Blaming himself certainly hadn’t been great for Tommy’s mental health, but it had given him a reason to do what he was doing. It was a motivation for revenge and if he knew anything it was that he needed revenge. Revenge for everything Mr. Dream had done to his parents and everything he had done to Tommy.  

Wilbur nudged Tommy’s chin up further. Tommy tried to look away but his eyes were too watery to see anything anyways. “You know that right?” 

“I’m sorry.” Tommy muttered.

“For what?” Wilbur sounded a bit defeated. 

“For waking you up.” Tommy explained and scooted a bit away from Wilbur so he was sitting up straight against the bed frame.  

“It’s fine, I used to have nightmares too. I get it.” Wilbur adjusted himself a bit.

“Well good night.” Tommy clenched his teeth, hoping Wilbur would leave this awkward encounter behind. He rubbed his eyes of their tears and pretended that he was fine for just a moment. 

“I don’t think you're good Tommy… Do you want me to stay here?” Wilbur stood up. 

“What?” Tommy’s voice was small.

“I can just sit on that chair for a few minutes, I know how scary nightmares are.” Wilbur motioned to the armchair in the corner of the room 

Tommy wants to be clear that he is not a child. He is far from a child and he doesn’t need an adult to sit in his room until he falls asleep. But he also didn’t really want to be alone even if it seemed like the manly thing to do. “Ok.” He answered quietly. 

Wilbur nodded and went to sit in the chair. He looked out the window and Tommy observed him for a second before deciding to try to fall back asleep. When he closed his eyes, his parents' dead faces were still there so he just lay with his eyes open. 

“Do you see them?” Wilbur asked.

“What?”

“When you close your eyes, you see your parents right?” Wilbur spoke softly.

“Yeah.” Tommy didn’t have to look at Wilbur to know he was staring at him. 

“I used to see my mom’s face a lot after she disappeared. I would make up memories with her that had never happened. I don’t even think it’s her real face, but she’s always suspended in the darkness, waiting.” Wilbur continued. 

“Oh.” Tommy didn’t really know how to respond. He hadn’t really considered that maybe other people also got nightmares like his. He was also really tired but sleeping didn’t seem possible just yet. 

“Think of a happy memory with the Cricket Crew instead. Their faces are probably better than your parents faces, for the purposes of falling asleep anyways.'' Wilbur suggested.

“Debatable.” Tommy chuckled. “Bill’s mullet is ugly, one day I'm gonna shave it off.” 

“There’s the Tommy I know.” Wilbur laughed too.

“Thanks Wilbur.” 

“For what?”

“Well firstly for putting my shoulder back in place when I was arrested. And secondly for letting me sleep here. And thirdly for helping me just now. Tubbo usually helps me but he’s not here.” Tommy said quickly. He hated saying thank you. It had always felt a bit performative but it was weird to mean it this time. 

“It’s all good king.” Wilbur responded. “I think you would do the same for me.”

Tommy was really tired after everything that had just happened. His eyes were drifting quickly. He still saw his parents when he closed his eyes but he tried Wilbur’s trick and it helped a bit. He heard Wilbur snoring from the chair long before Tommy could actually fall asleep. 

It wasn’t images of Cricket Crew that put Tommy to sleep, instead he thought about his trip with Wilbur to McDonalds. 

Tommy didn’t have a nightmare for the rest of that night.

Chapter Text

Tommy spent the next few weeks working on the robbing Mr. Dream plans. His mind was kind of like a rollercoaster all of the time. One moment he felt on top of the world as the plan came together and he got to hang out with Wilbur more and more. They found a favorite coffee shop, took walks at the park, went to antique shops as a break from their research and just learned more about each other. Tommy’s nightmare had just broken the ice and brought the two closer together with a deeper connection. But there were also moments when the rollercoaster that was Tommy’s mind hit rock bottom. The plan required a plot of emotional manipulation of Mr. Dream and this reignited a lot of Tommy's memories of his parents. He also felt guilty for not telling anyone about his plan to kill Mr. Dream. It was weighing down on him and his brain felt physically heavy from just thinking about it.

So Tommy decided to tell someone. 

Bill. 

Ok hear Tommy out… he would be the only member of Cricket Crew to support something as reckless as murder. Tommy needed some help with his plot to kill Mr. Dream so one day he took Bill on a midnight walk to pick up Chinese take out for the group. 

“I can’t believe we are actually robbing his house in two days! Like we are fucking badasses! Criminals! Cool criminals!” Bill smiled as he was full of excitement. He was practically skipping down the empty city sidewalk. 

“Actually I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.” Tommy stuttered a little from nerves. “But you can’t tell anyone, not even Tubbo.”   

“Ok but one of the rules of Cricket Crew is no secrets mate.” Bill pointed out.

“I know but when I tell you it will make sense.” Tommy took a deep breath. “It’s the only secret I have.” 

“Spit it out.” Bill waited eagerly. 

“I want to kill him. In two days I want to kill Mr. Dream.” Tommy spoke sternly. 

“Oh.” Bill looked down to consider Tommy’s word more fully. 

“Yeah.” Tommy shrugged and felt his heart beating what felt like a million times a second. What if Bill tattled on him? What if Bill didn’t want to help? Tommy is not psychotic and he is certainly not a murderer or a supporter of death but he NEEDED to kill Mr. Dream. Killing Mr. Dream was different than murder, it was revenge and it was justice. Bill would probably understand that.  

“And you need help?” Bill clarified Tommy’s reasoning for sharing his secrets. 

“Tubbo and the others would never be on board.” Tommy defended his decision. “But I need to get revenge. Justice I guess is the better word for it.”

Bill was silent.

“Bill?” Tommy asked nervously.

“Let’s fucking do it.” Bill smiled. “What do you need from me?”

Tommy doesn't know what went through Bill’s head that day but he always knew that he could trust Bill. Now they were finally ready to perform the biggest robbery in the history of the city. 

The day arrived. Tommy woke up and felt nothing but butterflies, he felt as though he needed to run a few laps around the block to release his stress. Tommy hated running so this was quite out of character for him. He seemed to be the last one awake and so he stumbled into the kitchen disheveled with hopes that he could run through the plans one more time. He expected to find everyone running around chaotically through the apartments as they prepared for the evening.“Ok guys…” Tommy’s sentence was halted by the extreme presence of normalcy in the living room. You would think that the robbers waking up on the day of the potential greatest robbery in history would feel intense excitement, nerves, anticipation and planning but that was not the case. Most of the Cricket Crew were able to get the day off except for Aimsey who still had a shift at the cafe. So while they waited for her, the boys were watching some Breaking Bad and eating some pizza. Tommy still wanted to release his nerves but that was kind of hard when it seemed like no one else was phased by their impending doom or (hopefully) success.  Tommy decided to try to relax so he grabbed a slice of cold pizza and sat down on the couch.  

“So are we just not going to acknowledge what's happening later?” Tommy asked once he couldn’t take it anymore.

“We’ve gone over the plan a million times.” Freddie sighed.

“Shut up, it’s getting good.” Bill kept his eyes glued to the TV.

“You’ve seen this show a dozen times.” Tubbo rolled his eyes and continued tinkering with one of the gadgets they would need later. 

“I thought you said everything was ready Tubs?” Tommy asked. 

“Just adding finishing touches.” Tubbo continued his work. “It’ll be fine Tom. No point in worrying about it now.” 

Tommy clearly wasn’t going to get anyone to relate to his nerves so he happily resorted to texting Wilbur to get some sympathy instead.

Tommy: Morning bitch.

Wilbur: You’re nervous and compensating aren’t you. 

Tommy: Stop using big words.

Wilbur: Someone should send you back to school.

Tommy: LOL. Wilbur is sooooo funny. Hahahaha I am laughing out loud.

Wilbur: Stop trying to be sarcastic. It’s painful to watch.

Tommy: No one here wants to talk through the plan again.

Wilbur: We’ll be fine. It’s a perfect plan. ;)

Tommy: I’m nervous.

Wilbur: Awhhh baby Tommy is nervous his plan will fail.

Tommy: This is why I don’t open up to you.

Wilbur: Whatever you have to tell yourself…

With that Tommy angrily put down his phone and tried his best to focus on Breaking Bad instead of his plan to go behind his friends back and murder the richest man in the city. 

They picked up Aimsey from her job around four and arrived at Wilbur’s apartment thirty minutes later. Bill had insisted on his rap playlist because he was driving but the van was silent besides that. Whatever nerves people had been hiding earlier were in full swing now. The group was used to being funny, not being nervous and so they didn’t know how to act around each other. Bill lowered the volume when they arrived around the corner from Mr. Dream’s house. Tommy knew that the neighborhood was pretty empty because rich people don’t need to go on walks, they have mansions, pools, golf courses and whatever else rich people do with their undeserved money. 

“So I guess this is it.” Bill broke the silence and unbuckled his seatbelt once the van was in park. 

“I have never heard you all this quiet.” Wilbur commented with a chuckle and stood up. “It isn’t like someone died, this should at least be a little exciting.” 

Tommy noted that Wilbur had a gun on his belt. He never kept his gun on him, even when he had arrested Tommy. Tommy moved his hand to his own belt to feel the knife he had placed there. Both things were just a reminder of the dangerous situation they were walking into.

“Last time we did this someone got caught and we had to break him out of prison.” Aimsey stared at Wilbur. “Look I know you’re new Wilbur, but we are a family. This robbery means more than just revenge and proving a point, we all have to get out of here alive and well. We are doing this because our family members need us to. I speak for all of us when I say we aren’t excited, we’re terrified. We are doing this together and losing one of us would be…”

“Catastrophic.” Ranboo finished Aimsey’s sentence. 

Tommy winced a little after Aimsey’s mini speech because it was true. He cared so much about all these people and if anything happened  to them he didn;t know what he would do. He’d already lost his parents, he couldn;t lose this family too. But they were all putting themselves in danger because of him and what he needed. Revenge. Sometimes revenge felt a little bit like a  stupid reason but then Tommy reminded himself that he was in the right. Justice was always right.  

“Noted.” Wilbur took the hint from Aimsey  and shut up. 

“Any last minute questions?” Tommy asked and took a deep breath as he prepared to take charge of the group. When no one answered he decided to continue. “Let’s fucking do this.” 

The statement was powerful but no one made any movements. 

“So uhhh… we just go now?” Freddie asked.

“Yup.” Tommy tried to ignore how weird it was that this was actually happening. This highly anticipated moment would be over soon. “Tubbo, are you ready?” 

Tubbo didn’t even respond before opening the side door of the van and hopping out onto the sidewalk. They had purposefully parked right next to the sewer opening because Tubbo had created some sort of laser cutter to let them in. Tommy’s not 100% sure how any of Tubbo’s gadgets worked, but he was very glad that they did. The rest of the group followed Tubbo and waited for a few seconds while he opened up the metal on the sidewalk. 

“Who wants to go first?” Tubbo asked once he pulled the circular metal door out. 

“Oh my god it smells.” Aimsey plugged her nose with her hand and turned away from the new hole in the sidewalk. 

“It’s a sewer, that was implied.” Tommy added. 

“This was the best way in?” Wilbur questioned and also plugged his own nose.

“Shut up, we have all definitely been through worse.” Tubbo sighed and took one for the team by heading down the ladder into the sewer. 

The rest of the group hesitantly followed him down into the sewers. The sewers were as you would expect, dark and dirty. They were brick tunnels underneath the road with brown murky water that the group had brought boots to trudge through. There was no light except for the flashlights they had all equipped to their black jackets. 

“Follow me.” Tubbo said but his voice was distorted from holding his nose. “And try not to breathe too much.”

“You didn’t make gas masks or some shit?” Bill asked.

“You get what you get.” Tubbo rolled his eyes. 

“Just as a reminder we are entering through the garage, Mr. Dream never goes in there because he usually uses his helicopter. He also is a super private guy so there shouldn't be that much security or even a butler.” Freddie explained as the group turned a corner. “My dad said that no one else in the rich community has been inside the house. His neighbors never see any wait staff leaving or entering except for the occasional private chef on weekends.”

“So this will be easy.” Wilbur commented.

“That’s the idea.” Freddie agreed. “But we need to expect the unexpected.” 

“STOP!” Tubbo yelled suddenly. “We’re here.” He pointed to the ladder next to him. “This goes into the garage.” 

“Why’d you have to yell?” Aimsey asked. 

“Felt like it.” Tubbo shrugged and climbed up the ladder to use his laser gadget again. Tubbo was in his zone where nothing was in mind but the plan and his part in it. 

“Don’t disturb him, he’s in his annoying antisocial robbery mood.” Tommy whispered to Wilbur and Wilbur smirked.

“I heard that.” Tubbo commented as he kept lasering. After a few more seconds he pushed the metal bars out of the grate which made space for Cricket Crew (and Wilbur) to climb into Mr. Dream’s garage. 

“Oh my god we’re inside.” Tommy whispered but it echoed off the walls. The garage was humongous. It held a dozen vintage cars, four of the newest Tesla’s, five motorcycles, two yachts and a moped. All of these vehicles were parked on the sides of the massive room with one road in the middle. The road led one way to the garage door which led outside and the other way was the door to the inside of the house. 

“How can a man…” Bill’s voice trailed as he walked around the room. 

“Be this rich?” Ranboo finished his sentence.

“Yeah.” Bill nodded and let his mouth gape. 

“Stay on task Bill.” Freddie pushed Bill a little to bring him back to focus. 

Tubbo had already power walked down the garage’s personal road to Mr. Dream’s door. It worried Tommy a little bit. He could tell this zone Tubbo was in was because he wanted to get it over with. Tubbo wanted to get revenge because Tommy said he needed revenge. Tommy knew he had taken advantage of all his friends' dedication from the get go. Tubbo didn’t really want this, not like Tommy did. And now he was going behind Tubbo’s back with a plan he4 hadn’t agreed to. Once Tommy was at the door to Mr. Dream's house, he froze. He felt his eyes widen but he couldn’t move besides that. After this, it would all be over. Revenge. Revenge would be his and justice would be served. Tommy had spent every day for the past twelve years focusing on getting revenge. What would he do when it was all over? He wasn’t ready to accept that his parents were dead. Because they were. Revenge had given him a mission. He hadn’t thought about his life past revenge. Was there a purpose once this was all over? Suddenly Tommy didn’t want to open the door at all. 

“Ok according to the security camera Mr. Dream is in his weird opening staircase room near the front door. This door leads to the kitchen and we’ll have to walk through there before we confront him. But this is the last point where anyone can ask any questions I guess.” Tubbo tapped on his tablet a few times.“The front door is unlocked, I think it’s fitting if you do the honors bossman.” Tubbo smiled at Tommy.  

“What if…” Tommy’s breath hitched. “I’m not sure if we’re ready, maybe we should come back another day…” 

“What are you talking about, we’re here.” Bill commented in confusion. 

“This is happening now or not at all.” Aimsey agreed. 

“You good Tom?” Ranboo looked concerned. 

“Tommy, look at me.” Wilbur grabbed Tommy’s shoulder and turned him so that they were facing each other. “This plan is good and Mr. Dream deserves what you are about to do to him.”

“I know, I know.” Tommy refused to make direct eye contact with Wilbur. He couldn’t actually believe Wilbur because Wilbur didn't know exactly what was happening today. Only Tommy (and Bill) did. But Wilbur always had a way of making Tommy admit his true feelings. “But what happens next? We’ve spent so long, almost my entire life, prepping for this. I don’t know what I'm going to do after.” 

“Live, Tommy, you’re going to finally live.” Wilbur explained. “Now open that door.” 

And without taking another second to think Tommy did. He did because Wilbur was right. Even if Tommy wasn’t ready to admit it, he hadn’t lived a day since his parents died. He hadn’t allowed himself to fully feel his grief, anger, happiness, fear or sadness in the last twelve years. He always knew that time would come. He just needed to let it happen. Opening the door was like ripping off a Band-Aid and it definitely stung. But luckily Tommy could delay his emotions  at least another hour while he robbed Mr. Dream’s house. Then Tommy could deal with feelings. The good, the bad and the ugly. Wilbur, Tubbo and everyone would hopefully be there to help him through it (if they didn’t hate him for being a murderer). These were all the things Tommy was thinking about when he opened that door.

And so the potential greatest robbery finally began.

Chapter Text

The kitchen was empty. Honestly it was kind of a let down altogether. You would think a billionaire would have a massive modern kitchen but the one Tommy and his friends stepped into was actually quite small and poorly lit. There was an old moldy stove in the corner, a fridge that may have once been white and cracked granite countertops. It was a bit homely, honestly. Tommy could imagine his kitchen at his parent’s home looking like this. If they were still alive. Tommy realized that Mr. Dream usually hired cooks when he was home (which was almost never) so he figured that a nice kitchen wasn’t necessary. But still. This man had money and clearly he wasn’t using it. 

The group's entrance into the kitchen enacted the plan immediately. Aimsey and Ranboo split off from the group to the right. They were in charge of robbing Mr. Dream’s own personal vault using Tubbo’s gadgets. Freddie split off to the left door to explore the main part of the house for any valuable antiques or objects in Mr. Dream’s personal library, archive and museum. This left Tommy, Tubbo, Bill and Wilbur to confront Mr. Dream in the front room which was straight ahead from the door to the garage. 

Tubbo and Bill were going to block the entrances  to the room while Tommy and Wilbur would try to manipulate Mr. Dream into a confession with their words. That was the main plan anyway. The secret plan was that Bill was then going to hold Tubbo back when Tommy killed Mr. Dream. Tubbo was too soft. Tommy knew that he would try to stop him and Tommy had already made up his mind. This was happening and he wouldn’t let Tubbo stop it. Simple. The plan was simple. That’s what Tommy kept telling himself.  

Tommy turned around to meet Tubbo’s panicked eyes. Tubbo was out of his ultra focused zone. Tommy nodded at him with a pitiful smile and Tubbo returned the gesture. Tommy took a few steps forward and then pushed open the door of the kitchen. 

Compared to the kitchen the opening room was massive. All the walls, floors and stairs were painted pearly white creating a contrast with the traditional dark wooden doors. They were entering from one side of the staircase but across the long room was another door and in front of the staircase was the largest elaborate front door of the home. The two staircases created a semi circle shape together with a diamond chandelier hanging down in the middle. It was like Tommy had walked into one of those movies about royals with palaces and that kind of shit. In the area between the two conjoining staircases on the first floor was an array of white cushions and couches. Mr. Dream sat in the one facing the front door. He was holding a small glass of brown alcohol which he was creating a whirlpool with using his hand movements. He was lost in thought. 

“Hello.” Tommy said on instinct. He hadn’t really thought through how this confrontation would begin. But he felt empowered by the element of surprise. Mr. Dream looked different than he had in Tommy’s recent dreams. His hair was more of a reddish brown than Tommy had remembered and his face was solemn unlike all the pictures he had seen online. He was sort of just a man and not a monster like Tommy had made himself believe he was. Mr. Dream turned his head slowly, his eyes widened at the intruders and he stood up. 

“Interesting.” Mr. Dream’s eyes followed Tubbo as he raced to the door on the other side of the room. Bill stayed stationed at the kitchen door while Wilbur and Tommy settled closer to Mr. Dream while simultaneously blocking the staircases. 

“Do you know who I am?” Tommy waited expectantly. 

“No.” Mr. Dream sighed and looked at his nails.

Mr. Dream was bored. BORED? This didn’t make sense to Tommy as he was actively being robbed. Maybe he was just trying to act cool. Tommy was a bit offended that Mr. Dream didn’t remember the group that had been single handedly robbing all his banks for the past few months, but Tommy had never been stopped by someone else's doubt. Tommy and Wilbur had discussed their manipulation tactics for weeks. If Mr. Dream was the “dead” child of the old mayor that meant that he grew up with natural power and confidence. That’s what Tommy and Wilbur had to strip from him. Wilbur believed (with his half completed psychology degree to back himself up) that Mr. Dream would get angry if Tommy threatened his power which means he would let his guard down. Then BOOM! A confession would slip out. 

The plan was simple. But now that Tommy was actually here it didn’t seem so simple. 

“My name is Tom Ines Simons. You murdered my parents.” Tommy tried his best to make his voice sound sinister. 

“And mine!” Tubbo had much more trouble masking his nerves as his voice cracked. He cleared his throat before clarifying.“I’m Toby Smith and you murdered my parents too.” 

“I recognize you.” Mr. Dream ignored Tommy and Tubbo’s comments and stared directly at Wilbur. “I hired you.” 

“You hired my father, I’m his associate.” Wilbur answered plainly. “I’m supporting this group here instead.” 

“We’re the Cricket Crew.” Bill smirked and waited for Mr. Dream’s reaction. 

“I’m sorry, I’m really not following.” Mr. Dream smiled, almost apologetically. “Wilbur, isn’t it? I would prefer if we kept this conversation between the adults in the room.” Mr. Dream stood up and smiled at Wilbur. 

Now that was too far. “Shut the fuck up!” Tommy yelled and walked closer to Mr. Dream to prove that he meant business and to prevent Mr. Dream from getting closer to Wilbur. Tommy even pulled out his knife in front of him for extra intimidation.

“Tommy-” Wilbur tried to butt in. The escalation of the knife was quite sudden and too early. Tommy was already going off script of the plan,, but he couldn’t help it. 

“Woahhh baby brought his knife to play.” Mr. Dream backed up a bit and put out his hands. However his smirk never shifted, if anything it grew. 

 “I’m just as much of an adult as Wilbur.” Tommy insisted. 

“Then act like it and put away your little toy.” Mr. Dream’s smile grew as he saw how bothered Tommy was by his meaningless insult. 

“We robbed you! Several times, how do you not know us?” Tommy didn’t stop yelling. “It was all over the news!”

“What did you say? Cricket Crew?”  Mr. Dream mockingly tapped his chin a few times. “Maybe I remember it, vaguely. I have banks all around the world. At least one gets robbed everyday. It’s a real societal issue.” 

“You hired SBI to catch us and bring us to you.” Tommy desperately tried to jog Mr. Dream’s memory. He hated to beg, but he needed Mr. Dream to know who he was and what he had done to Tommy. That would make killing him more ok. 

“Ah yes, it’s coming back now…” Mr. Dream nodded but Tommy couldn’t tell if he actually remembered or not. “Must be some pretty shitty investigators if you can’t catch these children.” Mr. Dream shifted to look at Wilbur again. “Remind me to fire your father when we’re all done with this.” 

“Well now we’re robbing you here.” Tommy grimaced and quickly attempted to take the attention away from Wilbur and back to himself. 

“Feel free. I hardly ever live here anyways.” Mr. Dream sat back down on the couch again and put his feet up on the ottoman. 

Tommy really, really hated that Mr. Dream was relaxed. How could this man be so apathetic (that was a word Wilbur had taught him)? Who gave him the right to not care? He didn't even remember or care about Tommy’s parents in the slightest. Maybe somewhere in Tommy’s brain he was hoping Mr. Dream would remember and say how bad he felt about it. Maybe he would even apologize or have an explanation. But no. He was just a coldhearted murderer. 

However, Wilbur had taught Tommy to use his words to manipulate the confession they needed out of Mr. Dream. So Tommy attempted to talk to Mr. Dream normally one more time. 

“You murdered my parents, you coward, you were scared of what they knew.” Tommy spoke with purpose. 

“Not this again.” Mr. Dream sighed and rolled his eyes. He was still fucking bored. “Stop throwing around such absurd accusations.”

That was Tommy’s breaking point.  

“WHY DON’T YOU FUCKING CARE?” Tommy lost control of himself in an instant and began screaming. “WE WERE ORPHANS. ALONE. SCARED. YOU DID THAT BUT YOU DON’T FEEL BAD? HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF?”

Tommy’s not sure how tears ended up on his cheeks, but they were definitely there. 

“Tommy calm down, remember the plan.” Wilbur’s calming voice was the same one he had used during Tommy's nightmare incident. Wilbur was like the angel on Tommy’s shoulder. Tommy has always had trouble not listening to the devil on the other shoulder. 

Tommy took careful and calculated steps towards the couch. 

“I live just fine.” Mr. Dream stated and played with his nails again. 

“Tommy, what are you doing?” Tubbo’s voice chimed in with concern. 

Tommy let his eyes narrow.

“It seems like you have a lot of pent up rage. You should work on that.” Mr. Dream suggested. “What did you say your name was? Todd?”

“Tom.” Tommy gritted out of his teeth and pulled his hand into a fist, digging his nails into his pal . 

“Right. Well I know a good therapist if you need one Tom.” Mr. Dream’s smile seemed to keep getting wider as Tommy approached. Tommy was now about three feet away from where Mr. Dream sat on the couch. 

“Tommy, this isn’t what we discussed.” Wilbur said nervously from behind Tommy. Wilbbur had also walked a bit closer to Mr. Dream as Tommy had. “This isn’t going to get us what we need.” 

Originally Tommy was planning to actually get the confession. For court and stuff. Then he would kill Mr. Dream. But the whole confession process was annoying and clearly wasn’t working so Tommy skipped to step two: Kill. 

“NOW BILL!” Tommy yelled and in one swift motion he jumped onto Mr. Dream. Tommy’s left hand was planted firmly on Mr. Dream’s shoulder, pinning him down to the couch. Tommy’s right knee was stationed on the couch for support and his left was on the floor in case he needed to run. Perhaps most importantly was his right hand which was stationed at Mr. Dream’s neck with the knife prepared to kill. 

Tommy hadn’t been able to find a gun before the robbery, which had been unfortunate, so the knife would have to do. 

“Tommy! What the fuck are you doing?” Tubbo yelled and Tommy could hear the desperation in his voice. Bill had definitely been able to restrain him. “Bill let go! Let me stop him, you can’t let him do this. BILL! Bill please.”    

Tommy barely heard any of Tubbo’s complaints, instead he was focused on Mr. Dream. He could feel Mr. Dream’s breath on his chin and the two had entered a staring contest. Mr. Dream’s eyes were light green with small pupils. They looked a bit like a snake's eyes. They weren;t nervous eyes. 

“Ohhh I’m so scared now.” Mr. Dream said sarcastically and giggled. 

“You should be.” Tommy whispered as he pushed down harder on Mr. Dream’s shoulder to combat the laughs. “Do you have any idea how it feels to watch your parents die?”

“Oh you were… you were there?” Mr. Dream’s voice lost its mockery and his eyes shifted to the right for a second. Tommy had won the staring contest, but they quickly began another one. Tommy being there for his parents death had made Mr. Dream nervous. Mr. Dream didn’t know there was a witness. That meant Mr. Dream knew he himself was guilty, he just didn’t know someone had seen him. Until now. 

“Yeah bitch. Now you’re nervous.” Tommy laughed a little. Even though he had been holding the knife at this man’s neck for at least a minute now, it was the first time since the encounter began that he finally felt like he was actually winning. “Why’d you do it?” That was the question Tommy had always wanted to ask because it had never quite made sense.

“I didn’t do anything, but if I did, it would probably be because someone wronged me and I needed revenge. I need to maintain everything you see here.” Mr. Dream was genuine for a second. It came out of nowhere, almost like he thought if he justified himself it would make it all ok. It didn’t. Tommy still felt like shit because knowing Mr. Dream’s motives had not made it ok. 

“You know that I was so young that I don’t remember my parents' last words to me.” Tommy moved on to guilting Mr. Dream. Maybe Mr. Dream knew why Tommy’s parents abandoned him. Maybe he knew what their union was doing. Maybe he knew their last words. These were all things that had haunted Tommy for years and now that Mr. Dream was being vulnerable, maybe he would tell Tommy the answers.

“So what, you’re going to murder me now?” Mr. Dream asked, once again unenthused. 

Tommy sighed in disappointment as he had lost his chance to take advantage of any vulnerability Mr. Dream was once feeling. The questions still lay unanswered 

“That’s the plan.” Tommy nodded and smiled. “Any last words?” 

Mr. Dream stayed silent. 

Then Tommy felt someone touching his right hand. Someone else's hand was suddenly holding Tommy’s hand, two layers gripping the knife. Tommy flinched as he was broken out of his murderous trance with Mr. Dream’s eyes.  

Fuck. Wilbur. 

Tommy had assumed Wilbur would stand on the side during the killing part of the plan. He had told Wilbur that if things weren;t working he would threaten Mr. Dream. Wilbbur hadn’t loved the idea, but he didn;t completely veto it. Tommy thought he would be able to kill Mr. Dream before Wilbur realized it wasn;t just threatening. 

Tommy assumed very wrong. Wilbur knew Tommy better than Tommy thought he did.

“Don’t.” Wilbur whispered. “You don’t want to be a killer Tommy.” 

“I’ve been thinking of this for years, Wilbur. This was always my plan.” Tommy justified himself while attempting to move the knife closer to Mr. Dream’s neck.

“You don’t want to live with murder on your conscience.” Wilbur pleaded and tried to pull the knife back. “Trust me, I know and it sucks.” 

“I can deal with it.” Tommy insisted.

“Tommy, no you can’t. I’m not letting you do that to yourself.” Wilbur tugged the knife back again but Tommy just pushed it forward in response. 

“Let go Wilbur. This isn’t your battle.” Tommy suddenly realized how much he was crying. He couldn't really see anything and his vision was blurry.  

“It is now.” Wilbur spoke like he was making a promise. “I care about you Tommy. Please just trust me.” 

“You two are cute. You guys brothers?” Mr. Dream asked mockingly. 

“Shut up.” Tommy and Wilbur both said in unison. Tommy pushed the knife even closer.

“It’s not worth it Tommy. Don’t become him.” Wilbur resumed their previous discussion. 

That’s what changed Tommy for a second. Revenge and seeking justice had made murdering Mr. Dream ok. But Mr. Dream had just hinted that revenge is the reason why he killed Tommy’s parents to begin with. Tommy was not a monster. But through his blurry vision he suddenly realized he was holding a knife to a man’s neck. His hand started shaking. 

Tubbo had broken free from Bill’s grasp and had run over to the couch as well.

“Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, please! We’ve always been in this together and we need to talk about this and you shouldn’t do this and…” 

Tubbo’s rambling droned on, but Tommy was lost in thought. 

For once everyone else was right and Tommy was wrong. Killing Mr. Dream wouldn’t give them a confession, answers or anything except a dead body to hide. Sure, maybe it would feel good. But only for a second. And only maybe.  

Tommy had Mr. Dream right there. He could do it, right then and there.

But Tommy also imagined his parents looking over him. Would they be disappointed he didn’t take this opportunity while it was here? Or would they be mad that he had become a killer? Shit. Shit. Shit. 

This would make Tommy an even more wanted criminal. This wouldn't tell the world what Mr. Dream had done. It was fucking hard to admit but the world knowing would be better than vengeful kill. Tommy hated it. He hated that fact so fucking much because killing would have been so much easier. 

Tommy pulled the knife away and quickly took a few steps back. He dropped the knife to the ground and let his hands shake in front of him. What was happening? Why couldn’t Tommy think straight? He had more things to say and bargain for. He needed that confession but he couldn’t speak or move. 

The adrenaline for a vengeful kill was gone. Now Tommy was just scared and sad. So fucking sad. He had been prepared to grieve after he wsaw Mr. Dream. But he hadn’t realized how much grieving would hurt. His parents were dead. He couldn’t bring them back. He almost just killed someone. Justice had not been served. Tommy felt lost and alone. 

Except he wasn’t alone. 

“Tommy, thank you.” Wilbur was suddenly at Tommy's side, catching him as his legs went limp. “I know that was hard.” 

“What’s going on?” Freddie’s voice echoed in Tommy’s ears from the other side of the room. Tommy felt like he was going to faint and the room began to spin.

“Is Tommy ok?” Aimsey added in a panic. 

“What did Mr. Dream do?” Ranboo yelled. 

Tommy heard the rest of Cricket Crew joining the group and as their running footsteps approached. Wilbur was still holding Tommy and lightly tapped Tommy’s side every few seconds. Breaths. Wilbur was tapping out breaths. Tommy began to focus on the taps and waited a few moments while his breath slowed to the same rhythm. 

“I’m fine Wil, thanks.” Tommy stood up on his own and was suddenly aware of the room. Aimsey, Freddie and Ranboo had gathered next to Wilbur and Tommy. Bill and Tubbo were walking over from behind Mr. Dream to join them. Now Cricket Crew + Wilbur were about seven feet away from the couch and standing opposite of Mr. Dream who had also stood up. 

“Awhhhh, the Cricket Crew helps their little baby friend.” Mr. Dream cooed from the couch with the same smirk as earlier. As if he hadn’t just been on the verge of death. As if three new intruders hadn’t just arrived which further outnumbered him. 

“What happened…” Aimsey’s voice trailed as she studied the scene. 

“Did you get the confession?” Ranboo followed up. “We need to get out of here.” 

“I may have set off an alarm.” Freddie admitted. 

“We don’t have a confession.” Tubbo explained, his voice sounding disappointed and angry. This worried Tommy because Tubbo was rarely angry. The group let their posture fall at the news of failure. 

“Run guys.” Wilbur suddenly blurted out. He grabbed Tommy’s shoulders and stared at him with the most panicked eyes Tommy had ever seen. “I’m so sorry Tommy. I’m so sorry. Just know I never lied, please, please I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Tommy raised his lip in confusion.

“You need to go.” Wilbur pleaded and began to push the group to the kitchen door. 

“But we need a confession…” Tommy’s voice trailed. “Wil, what are you doing?” 

“Hello.” A new voice entered the room from the door across from the kitchen door. 

Phil. 

Phil had appeared in the doorway, holding his gun in front of him and in the same stupid suit with a green tie. Technoblade was not far behind him with his similar suit and the gun. How had SBI known they were here? Tubbo had said that the alarm alerted Mr. Dream’s personal security rather than the police. SBI was not included on that call list. Tubbo had hacked and checked. The Cricket Crew could deal with police however they were currently losing 0-1 with SBI.

“Nobody move or I will shoot.” Phil took quick steps towards the Cricket Crew. “Thank you Wil, you can finally come back over here now.” 

Tommy froze. Phil wasn’t surprised that Wilbur was there. That only meant one thing…

Wilbur let go of Tommy’s shoulders with a frown. “I’m so sorry Tommy, I really thought it was for the best.” Wilbur whispered and then straightened his posture to walk over and join his family. He stood behind his brother and father with his head drooped over as if he was trying to hide. He was tall though and so Tommy could still see him. 

“WHAT THE FUCK I TRUSTED YOU!” Tommy yelled and Aimsey had to physically grab his arm to hold him back and help him avoid getting shot.

“That was the goal.” Techno smiled. “Good acting Wilbur, he’s definitely upset.” 

Tommy’s eyes were still watering and he couldn’t quite see. He hated crying. Especially about stupid people. He just couldn’t believe it. Wilbur had betrayed him and probably from the beginning too. Wilbur had been a spy and told SBI everything. Tommy had trusted Wilbur with secrets that only Tubbo had really known about. But all Wilbur’s kindness was just an act. Like every other adult, Wilbur had never cared. He abandoned Tommy just like every adult before him. 

“Fuck you.” Tommy muttered through tears. He hated crying, but he couldn’t stop. As much as he hated himself for it, he had cared a lot about Wilbur. But everything he cared about was fake. 

During this encounter. Mr. Dream had stood up and walked next to Phil. “Shoot him.” Mr. Dream smirked. “He’s a little jerk.” 

“You’re under arrest.” Phil ignored Mr. Dream’s request.

“I’m the one paying you and I said shoot him.” Mr. Dream insisted and he drew his lips into a serious line. 

“I can’t do that and you know that.” Phil responded calmly. “Tommy, please have you and your friends turn around calmly with your hands behind your back.” 

“Fuck. No.” Tommy kept his hands up but didn’t move a muscle. He heard his friends breathing heavily behind him. They had been carefully inching closer to the door as a pack but had made very little progress. 

“Fine then, I'll do it myself.” Mr. Dream quickly lunged for Phil’s gun and grabbed it out of his hands. Phil fell to the ground and knocked into Techno, taking him down with him. Mr. Dream adjusted the gun and stood across from Tommy. 

“I remember your parents' kid, but I can’t afford you remembering them.” Mr. Dream explained. Tommy couldn’t move as he watched Mr. Dream move his finger to the trigger. 

BANG!

Tommy’s world went quiet. Tommy couldn’t think of anything to do but shut his eyes close and pretend none of it was happening. That was always an easy escape. That was it. Tommy was about to die. But he had never really lived. He realized how fucking sad that was. 

Luckily Tommy wasn’t dying. Not yet anyways. 

“NO!” Wilbur screamed and it made Tommy open his eyes just in time to watch Mr. Dream get tackled to the floor by Wilbur himself. The gun fired a bullet but it missed Cricket Crew by a long shot because Mr. Dream had fallen to the floor. 

Tommy hated Wilbur so fucking much. But Wilbur had also told him to run around five minutes ago, so Tommy did. Wilbur and Mr. Dream were on the floor, Phil was just getting up and Techno was helping Phil. It was the perfect opportunity. 

“RUN!” Tommy yelled and pushed his friends quickly towards the door. The group bolted through the door and into the garage. 

“What are we going to do?” Freddie asked as they ran. 

“Go home, SBI doesn’t know where we live.” Tommy explained through his heavy breathing. 

“I told you we should never have Wilbur over and you were so mad at me. Look who’s right!” Aimsey laughed a little as she ran. 

“Not the time to talk about this!” Ranboo yelled from where he was opening the sewer. 

“I knew we should have had someone be a getaway driver.” Tubbo sighed and jumped down into the sewer. “It makes escapes so much easier.” The rest of the group followed him and ran through the disgusting muddy water. 

“Let’s focus on getting out of here.” Ranboo begged

“What if they are up there waiting for us?” Tubbo paused at the ladder that led to the sidewalk next to the van.

“Wilbur did see where we parked.” Bill pointed out. 

“I’ll go check.” Tommy volunteered immediately and climbed up the ladder. He peeked his eyes out the top to look around. The sidewalk and road was dark, but from what Tommy could tell it was also empty. “We’re all good.” Tommy quickly climbed up and reached out his hand to help his friends as they followed him. 

“I’ll drive.” Ranboo ran around to the driver’s seat. 

The rest of the group piled into the van and quickly shut the door. There was silence as Ranboo took off down the street. Tommy couldn’t look up at his friends and instead stared at his hands in his lap. He was fucking embarassed. He had tried (and failed) to get a confession, he had almost become a murderer and the guy he swore they could trust was a fucking traitor. He still couldn’t believe it. Wilbur and made him feel so safe but it was all lies. It hurt because he wished he could hug Wilbur and tell him about the shit day he was having. It wasn’t until they were back in the main part of the city that someone said something.

“What the fuck just happened?” Bill mumbled as he had buried his face into his hands. 

“Remember the rules of Cricket Crew: no group debriefing until you get home and actually have time to process.” Aimsey reminded him. She hadn’t stopped staring out the window, undoubtedly searching for the cops that could be chasing them. 

“Who the fuck came up with that rule?” Freddie asked. His leg hadn’t stopped shaking since they entered the van which made the floor vibrate slightly

“Me. We don’t want to make any rash decisions in the van or anything like that. Never do something without thinking it through as a group first. Never enact a plan in the van” Ranboo explained. “You all promised and agreed to that back when we started this.” 

“Well it seems like promises agreements mean nothing now.” Tubbo looked at Tommy briefly. They made eye contact for a moment before Tubbo turned away in anger. 

“Shut up.” Tommy muttered. “Can we go home and sleep, talk about it in the morning?” 

“Delaying the inevitable LIKE ALWAYS.” Tubbo commented. “First you procrastinate grieving your own parents death, now you procrastinate explaining why the fuck you tried to kill Mr. Dream.” 

“HE WHAT?” Aimsey turned to look at Tommy. 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Ranboo suddenly added to the conversation from the front seat. “Tommy’s right we are exhausted and confused. Let’s sleep when we get back. Talk in the morning” 

The group listened to Ranboo because none of them had heard him swear before so they knew he was serious. No one wanted to mess with that.

It may seem impossible but the group actually didn’t speak for the rest of the evening. It was like the silent treatment but ten times worse. 

Six people stepped out of the van. Six people walked up the stairs to their apartment. Six people didn’t say a word to each other as they ate their respective meals and got into bed. Not even a “good night” or a “sleep well.” Six people slept terribly as they awaited the morning. Tommy didn’t sleep at all; he just laid and stared at the ceiling. Tubbo had refused to sleep in their normal sleeping arrangements where Tubbo and Tommy usually shared a bed. They only had four beds in the house and the crappy couch. Tubbo had chosen the couch that night. 

Tommy was alone. So alone. Actually alone.

Chapter Text

Tommy wasn’t sure if he had slept or not. He had been in that weird state between dreaming and being awake where his eyes were closed and he didn’t feel like he was sleeping but time somehow still passed unusually quickly. Sometime around nine in the morning he opened his eyes and was surprised to see how light it was. 

He could tell that Bill and Freddie were definitely still sleeping based on their snores from the other bed in the room that they were sharing. Tommy groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was still wearing his full black outfit from the robbery so he quickly changed into his favorite red sweatshirt and a pair of gray sweatpants. He walked into the hallway next and briefly peeked into the other bedroom where he found Aimsey and Ranboo both asleep in their respective beds. Then he walked down the hall into the living room. He looked at the couch expecting to find Tubbo asleep like the rest of the group. Instead Tubbo was standing at the kitchen counter with a mug of coffee. His hair was messy and he was still in his green checkered pajama pants with a gray t-shirt. He looked deep in thought about something as he stared off into nothingness really.   

“Oh hey man.” Tommy smiled meekly and walked over to open the fridge. He grabbed a Coke because if he was going to survive today then he would need both sugar and caffeine. 

“Hey.” Tubbo responded quickly and sipped his coffee. He didn’t stop staring into space. 

“Did you sleep? Tommy awkwardly continued the conversation. He was trying to forget Tubbo’s aggressiveness in the van the night prior. 

“No.” Tubbo answered quickly again.

“Me neither.” Tommy sighed and leaned on the counter next to Tubbo. Tubbo got up immediately and moved to sit at the kitchen table. 

“Look Tubs, I’m so-”

“Don’t you ‘Tubs’ me.” Tubbo suddenly flicked his head up in the direction of Tommy. “Don’t try to apologize. Wait for the whole group to be here before you explain what you did.”

“Are you actually that pissed off at me?” 

“What the hell do you mean? Of course I’m pissed off that my best friend has been lying to me for over a decade.” Tubbo raised his voice a little. He quickly looked at his coffee and shook his head.

Tommy didn’t have anything to say to that because it was true. 

That’s when Tommy realized he had made a huge mistake. Actually two huge mistakes and now all his friends probably hated him because of it. 

Tommy sighed and grabbed a bowl of cereal in the uncomfortable silence that Tubbo had so kindly created. Then he went to sit on the couch while he ate and scrolled through the news. There was nothing about their break in, which meant Mr. Dream had kept it a secret from the public.

Eventually Freddie entered the kitchen in his workout clothes and explained he was going for a 30 minute run to clear his mind. Then Ranboo came in to grab some cereal before going to take an unbelievably long shower. Bill came in a few minutes later and found any house chore possible (taking the trash out, doing the dishes etc.) to accomplish before settling on the couch next to Tommy. Aimsey came into the living room without a word a little after eleven on her phone and sat on the couch. She didn’t get off her phone until Freddie came back around noon. 

They had procrastinated long enough. 

“We should start.” Tommy sighed and stood up from the couch. 

The group mumbled in agreement and settled in their normal places on the couches and chairs in the living room. Tommy grabbed the whiteboard and his favorite red marker and set it up in the center of the living room. He hadn’t really planned how this debrief would go and so he took a deep breath before beginning. 

“That was a shit show of a night.” Tommy looked around the room and everyone nodded. “I think we need a full recap. Let’s write down all the topics we need to discuss.”

“What is this? A meeting of Congress?” Bill joked. No one laughed.

“I just know this could get heated, but we gotta make sure we cover everything and stay on task.” Tommy responded then he began to make a list on the white board.

1. What was stolen (Freddie, Aimsey, Ranboo)
2. Mr. Dream
3. Wilbur and SBI
4. Next Steps 

“Anyone have anything else they would like to add?” Tommy asked. 

“Looks good to me.” Ranboo nodded. 

“Ok first, and please give me some good news, what did we actually steal?” Tommy asked.

“Ran and I were able to get two bags of gold coins and one bag with stacks of cash.” Aimsey answered quickly. “He had some weird currencies in his own personal vault, it was weird.” 

“That’s good!” Tommy nodded enthusiastically in a last ditch effort to bring up the mood. “If there’s one thing we learned yesterday, it’s that Mr. Dream is a very weird guy.”

“We left it in the van last night but we can go back down to the garage and get it after the meeting.” Ranboo added. 

“Before I accidentally set off the alarm I got some cool old Egyptian antiques from the library. They are definitely worth millions, I’ll have to look into their worth on my dad’s art history database.” Freddie explained. “But can we please move on to whatever the fuck happened with you lot?”

“Yeah we can talk about all the stolen stuff later, what the fuck happened?” Aimsey said, clearly antsy to hear the story. 

“Well…” Tommy paused for a moment. He had been hoping that maybe they would all forget about his part of the story if they got excited about stealing millions of dollars. But unfortunately the Cricket Crew had not been distracted in the slightest. “Everything was going according to plan except for the fact that Mr. Dream wouldn’t fucking listen to me. He called me a child multiple times, didn't remember who the Cricket Crew were and he was bored by my conversation. It was like we weren’t robbing him at all! Like he was expecting it.” 

“Well maybe Wilbur told him-” Tubbo pointed out. His voice was raspy and angry, he narrowed bis eyes towards Tommy as he spoke

“That’s the third topic of conversation. We aren’t there yet.” Tommy interrupted Tubbo because he wasn’t ready to talk about Wilbur’s betrayal just yet. Honestly, he didn’t know if he would ever be ready. “Anyways, I got really angry at him because he wasn’t giving a confession. But also seeing him was like watching my parents die all over again and, I don’t know, he fucking broke me.”

“Ok fuck no. He’s not telling the whole story.” Tubbo stood up assertively. “Sit down.” 

“They don’t need to-”

“They are hearing the whole thing.” Tubbo demanded and walked over to Tommy to physically push Tommy into an empty spot on the couch. 

“Tommy did get really angry at Mr. Dream. So angry that he tried to kill him. He held a knife to Mr. Dream’s throat while Bill held me back so I couldn’t stop him.” Tubbo's gaze never left Tommy’s eyes. 

“I was just trying to threaten him into a confession-” Tommy attempted to defend himself. 

“Liar. You would have told us about that. This was some secret plan to kill him and Bill was in on it. Even now you’re lying and trying to cover it up! You knew it was wrong but you did it anyway.” Tubbo’s voice was decisive. “Tommy was willing to keep this secret from all of us. But that’s not the only reason why I’m mad. I’m mad because you are a fucking liar AND a murderer Tommy.”  

“I didn’t kill him.” Tommy’s voice went really quiet. He needed to defend himself and now he was actually telling the truth because no one had died. So why did he sound so unsure of himself?

“But you thought about it. Wilbur had to basically tear you away from Mr. Dream. That counts as being a murderer to me.” Tubbo kept berating Tommy. “Anyways, for these reasons I think Tommy should be kicked out of the Cricket Crew.” 

“WHAT?” Bill yelled out in shock. The rest of the group shuffled around in their seats uncomfortably. 

They had all agreed from the beginning that someone in the Cricket Crew could be permanently expelled or alternatively put on probation. Two of the members would have to vote for either option for it to occur. But they had also all agreed that this provision would probably never be necessary. 

“But I didn’t fucking kill him.” Tommy tried to speak confidently and failed.

“You seriously considered it.” Tubbo countered and stared at Tommy. 

“Ok shut up Tubbo, let’s get the facts straight: He lied but he didn’t kill him.” Aimsey’s voice interrupted Tubbo and Tommy’s staring contest. “And because you brought it up, it is protocol for us to vote.” 

“Since when have you been on Tommy’s side about anything ever?” Tubbo flipped his attention to Aimsey. He furrowed his brow angrily and threw his hands up, gesturing at nothing. 

“At the end of the day, Tommy chose not to become a murderer so stop labeling him as one.” Aimsey explained and stood up. “What Tommy did was not fucking cool, but let him explain himself now. Then we’ll vote.” 

“Fine. Let him explain why he wanted to kill someone.” Tubbo sighed and collapsed into the couch to express his anger even further. He looked towards the front door instead of at Tommy while Tommy was speaking. 

Tommy smiled meekly at Aimsey and stood up. He was shaking because he was practically defending his life. Cricket Crew was all Tommy had left and he couldn’t lose them too. If Tubbo, his best friend, wanted to get rid of him then that meant the others probably did too. 

“He’s right. I have been planning to kill Mr. Dream since we started the Cricket Crew. I knew none of you would be on board but I was too clouded by the need for revenge to realize how wrong it was.” Tommy felt his eyes water but he swallowed his tears. It hurt like hell. “If I had talked to you guys I knew I wouldn’t want to kill him. I knew it was wrong. But I really, really didn’t want to admit it. I thought killing him would make it all so much less painful. It would be easy, but we need to get the confession because that’s the right way to do it and I know that now. Wilbur taught me that. He didn’t pull me away, I walked away myself. I made my own decision not to be a murderer.”

“So you’ve both been planning this since the beginning?” Freddie clarified and glanced at Bill hesitantly..

“No, only I’ve known since the beginning. I knew Bill would be on board, he’s reckless like that, so I asked him last week. He had nothing to do with it. Don’t wrap him into this.” Tommy defended Bill because he knew he had taken advantage of him and it was the least he could do now. 

“Can we vote now, he just admitted to lying.” Tubbo sat up straight, excitedly. He was excited to vote for Tommy to go away. That stung.

“I’m not done.” Tommy interrupted. “I’m sorry for trusting Wilbur. I’m sorry for lying. I’m sorry for getting you all into this mess. But I also never got to share what we learned about Mr. Dream. He didn’t know that I’m a witness to my parents death. When I told him I was there, that’s when he let his guard down, we were so close to a confession if I hadn’t freaked out. The mission of Cricket Crew still stands, even if we are currently at rock bottom.”  

“See! All this is Tommy’s fault.” Tubbo added quickly. 

“Why are you so ready to get rid of me, huh?” Tommy raised his voice. “Does almost eighteen years of friendship mean nothing to you? You're too scared to face me and talk to me about your feelings so you’re trying to get rid of me instead. Maybe if you were willing to listen we could at least try to figure this all out.”

“That's not what this is!” Tubbo stood up and got into Tommy’s face. 

“Stop lying to yourself.” Tommy spit out his words.

“Says you!” Tubbo scoffed. 

“Best friends are supposed to support each other.” Tommy yelled. 

“Not when one of them becomes a murderer!” Tubbo reciprocated. 

“I DIDN’T KILL ANYONE.” Tommy yelled even louder. 

“STOP!” Ranboo interrupted the argument and the pair went silent. Ranboo never yelled and when he did, that meant everyone had to listen. “This is a vote about Cricket Crew, not your friendship. Save it for another time.”

Tubbo sat back down on the couch and rolled his eyes. 

“Before we vote can we talk about Wilbur because I for one did not see that coming.” Ranboo stood in between Tommy and Tubbo in an effort to keep the debriefing on schedule. 

“I’m so sorry for trusting him.” Tommy shook his head. “I should have known because every adult has failed me in the past.”

“You couldn’t have known Tom.” Aimsey looked at Tommy sympathetically.

“He must have been working with SBI to arrest us last night. Anything we know, we should assume SBI knows.” Bill added. 

“I just don’t understand why he told us to run right before they arrived.” Freddie wondered out loud.   

“Wilbur did save us at the end.” Ranboo agreed and looked at Tommy. “He almost took a bullet for you.”

“Maybe he regretted his decision to work with SBI after he got to know us.” Bill suggested.

“That means he wasn’t really a traitor since he saved us.” Ranboo smiled. He always looked for the best in people. Even when there was nothing there to be positive about. 

“We don’t know that. He never wanted to kill anyone to begin with, he made that very clear. He attacked Mr. Dream because he didn’t want Tommy to die, but he’s still a fucking traitor. He still wanted us in jail.” Aimsey pointed out sternly.

“She’s right.” Tommy looked down at his feet because he really wished she was wrong. He was standing here because of what Wilbur had done. But he couldn’t bring himself to feel grateful. 

“Ok now that we’ve reached every talking point can we please vote.” Tubbo tapped his foot impatiently. 

“So I think how this works is everyone goes up and explains their vote. The options are: no action, probation or expulsion.” Aimsey explained as she walked to the white board. She drew a table to keep track of the votes. “Two votes for expulsion results in expulsion. Two votes for probation results in probation. Three votes for no action results in nothing. The expulsion votes take precedence in the case of a tie. We all signed onto that, correct?” 

The group nodded. 

Tommy sat down in the empty spot on the couch.

“I’ll go first.” Bill stood up to face the group. “I vote we take no action against Tom because we fucking need him and he’s clearly learned his lesson.” 

Tommy smiled at Bill in an attempt to show his gratitude. His whole body tensed as Aimsey faced the group to speak next. He knew Bill would be on his side because Bill had been ok with the whole killing thing from the start. He wasn’t quite sure about the others. 

“I vote for probation.” Aimsey began. Tommy’s eyes stung as her words left her mouth. “Tommy’s judgment is very clouded right now because his brain is overloaded with all the grief, confusion, attempted murder and Wilbur stuff. He needs a break.” 

“Ok.” Tommy looked at his palms in his lap. He didn't want anyone to see that he was about to cry.

“It’s in your best interests Tommy, I promise.” Aimsey bit the inside of her cheek and refused to look at Tommy directly. 

“I vote for probation as well.” Freddie stood up. Tommy’s eyes stung even more. Freddie had known Tommy since childhood and his face was painful to look at. Freddie was frowning in the way a parent does when they are disappointed instead of angry. “To be honest I almost voted for expulsion but when you defended yourself I saw how much you’ve learnt. I just need time to trust you again mate. Sorry.” 

“I get it. I don’t really trust myself either.” Tommy attempted to chuckle but it more sounded like he was choking. He realized that he probably wasn’t helping his case. 

Ranboo stood up next. Tommy glanced up only for a moment to see Ranboo literally trembling before staring back down at his palms. 

“Probation.” Ranboo was brief and sat back down.

“Explanation?” Aimsey asked as she marked Ranboo’s vote. 

“We failed as your friends Tommy. We should have been people you can trust. You need probation from us more than we need it from you.” Ranboo said quietly. 

Tommy could see through all their bullshit. They all hated him. They were pretending that it was their fault, that he needed this break and that things could be ok again. But at the end of the day he was a filthy liar and he was basically as bad as Mr. Dream. They could all sugarcoat their reasoning, but they all wanted him gone. 

“Expulsion. I refuse to work with someone who I thought would always be my best friend. I refuse to work with a liar and a murderer” Tubbo refused to speak with any emotion.  

“That brings us to one vote for expulsion, three for probation and one for no action. So Tommy you are officially put on probation-” Aimsey began to explain the agreed upon terms of probation but Tommy interrupted her.

“No. I haven’t voted yet.”

“Unless you vote to expel yourself, your vote does nothing… anyways-” Aimsey attempted to continue.

“I vote to expel myself.” Tommy stood up quickly and stared directly at Aimsey.

“WHAT?” Aimsey’s mouth dropped in horror. “Tommy, take that back, Tom-”

“I expel myself because there’s no fucking way I can work with you guys anymore. Tubbo is clearly unbelievably angry with me. I'm the only one who’s ever been passionate about robbing Mr. Dream anyways. The reason we created the two-vote-for-expulsion rule is because we knew if two people were that much against one person then the group could never function correctly. Like I said, I don’t trust myself either. Plus, Mr. Dream is after me because I’m his only witness. I would just get you all into more trouble.” Tommy felt a few tears slip down his cheeks and he wiped them away quickly. “I’m worthless to you all. I’ll just bring you down.” 

“Tommy-” Aimsey looked at Tommy sympathetically and began to open her arms for a hug.

“No.” Tommy stepped away and watched as Aimsey’s arms fell to her sides. But he didn’t care. At the end of the day Tubbo was right. Tommy had messed everything up. He didn’t recognize himself at all. He realized that he hadn’t been able to recognize himself once in the past ten years. He had tried to defend himself when Tubbo had first accused him because he thought he was in the right. He was beginning to realize how fucking self-centered that was. He was in the wrong. He had messed everything up. He didn’t know who he was anymore, but he didn’t fucking like it. He may not have killed anyone, but he was a bad person . 

“Change your answer Tubbo, please.” Aimsey turned to Tubbo in desperation. 

“He made his own decision.” Tubbo answered calmly but Tommy could see that he was a bit flustered. Tubbo cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy. “And I made mine.” Maybe there was a glimpse of regret in Tubbo’s eyes, but Tommy didn’t look too hard for it. 

“Well then. I’ll make my leave.” Tommy wiped the tears from underneath his eyes once more. “It was a pleasure to know you all. Good luck.” Tommy began to walk towards the front door. He needed to get out of there fast because he felt like he might just break down if he had to look at everyone’s faces one more time. 

“But where will you go?” Ranboo stood up and followed Tommy. The rest of the group did the same, except for Tubbo who stayed on the couch. 

“Tommy we can talk about this.” Freddie pleaded. 

“Tom-” Bill began to beg as well.

“Bye. Don’t follow me” Tommy stared straight forward as he opened the door, walked out and slammed it behind him. He half expected them all to open the door again and pull him back into the safety of their small apartment. But they didn’t.

“Give him space.” Tubbo’s muffled voice came through the thin apartment wall. 

“He’s not going to come back.” Ranboo’s voice was soft and disappointed but Tommy could still hear it through the wall as well. 

“It’s protocol.” Tubbo’s voice continued without any emotion. “It’s for the best.”

That was the breaking point. Tommy pushed his eyes closed in an effort to prevent any tears from falling. But tears still fall through closed eyes. He felt all his energy leave his legs and in an instant Tommy was sliding down the door to sit on the ground. His head curled into his knees and he tried his best to sob as silently as possible.

Chapter Text

At some point Tommy decided that he had to stand up. He had stopped crying but he wasn’t sure if it was because he was feeling better or because he didn't have any tears left. Eventually one of the members in the Cricket Crew was going to open the door to run errands or something and he didn’t want to still be sitting on the ground outside when that happened. 

He pushed his legs into the ground carefully and grabbed onto the wall for support as he pushed himself up. His legs were shaking, in fact, his whole body was shaking. Tommy hadn’t eaten anything in almost 24 hours (except for a Coke, which was probably making things worse) but the prospect of finding food was not something he could deal with at the moment. He took a breath and attempted to take small steps forward. After a few steps, the shaking became manageable and Tommy was able to walk to the end of the hall. He pushed the button for the elevator and heard it creaking as it made its way up to him. He was able to let go of the wall and walk into the elevator once it arrived. 

He didn’t look back in the direction of the apartment before the elevator door shut.

Once he had exited the building and was on the street, he was quickly brought back to the reality of the world. The sidewalk was busy as usual; a mother and her son walked by with a bunch of shopping bags, a teenager was smoking weed at the corner and an elderly couple was strolling along towards the park down the road. None of these people knew what had just happened to Tommy and none of them cared. The world had in fact not ended when Tommy expelled himself from his own family. The world was very much continuing on and Tommy was going to have to keep living in this world. Unfortunately time can’t just pause. That all took Tommy a couple seconds to accept.  

The morning had taken a lot out of Tommy and he had no idea what the future looked like. He had enough money saved to get a cheap hotel room for maybe three days, he still had his job at the video game store and he had slept on the streets before. It was stupid of him to not pack a bag before leaving, however the dramatic exit had felt very necessary at the time.  He feared that if he still considered the apartment with Cricket Crew home then he would end up going back. He had spent a lot of brainpower making the decision to leave and he wasn’t planning to go back on his decision. He wasn’t planning to see any of them ever again. That hurt a lot for him to come to terms with. But it was necessary. They were better off without him and that was a fact. 

He looked up at the apartment building for a moment. “Not home, not home, not home.” He tried to tell himself over and over again to make himself believe it. He didn’t believe it yet, but he would have to soon. 

So instead of dwelling on what was next, Tommy went for a walk. Tommy had planned to figure out his next plan of action (he loved planning) but everytime he started to come up with a plan it ended with him back at the door of Cricket Crew’s apartment. Eventually he got tired of fighting the thoughts of going back, so he zoned out. He was zoning out and walking around for an hour and then he became aware of his surroundings. His instincts had walked him to the orphanage. 

“Oh.” Tommy said to no one in particular except himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind, some part of him had wanted to come here. Maybe thinking about the past was easier than thinking about the future. Or maybe this was the only other nearby place Tommy had once considered a“home,” besides the apartment. Tommy decided that home is a weird word. But Tommy was glad his brain was procrastinating the future so he decided to stick with the past. “Good job me.” He laughed at himself. “Good coping mechanism or whatever this is.”

The last time Tommy had felt this broken and lost, he had been brought to this orphanage. To this tall dark brick building which was probably the only thing in the world truly stuck in time. It was still the same scary, run down and dirty exterior he had seen all those years ago. His and Tubbo’s bed had been at the very top floor and they used to watch the sunset over the city skyline. Those had been the happy moments in the orphanage. A break from Tommy comforting Tubbo through his grief and Tommy’s plotting for revenge. The only other happy memory was when they got to leave. Tommy could picture him and Tubbo running out of the front doors excitedly the minute Tommy finally turned old enough to leave governmental care. Exiting those doors had been an accomplishment because they had done it. They had survived, what at the time, seemed like the worst part of their lives. Sure, he had learnt how shitty adults could be in this building but he’d also learned how to love and how to trust. Love and trust Tubbo to be more exact. 

“Look how that turned out.” Tommy chuckled to himself. He continued to walk past the orphanage to the park next door. He entered the rusty old gate and walked past the playground where a dozen kids were running around. He had met Ranboo here years ago. Tommy had been bedridden sick for a week once and when he was finally well enough to play again there was a weird tall child who never stopped following Tubbo around. Tommy introduced himself immediately because he was quite protective over Tubbo and that's when Tommy learned how to make other friends. Freddie had come to the park sometimes too. Those were some other of the few good memories from his childhood. 

Tommy had seen all of them grow up before his eyes. He wondered if his parents and Tubbo’s would still recognize them if they were allowed to come back from the dead. Probably not. A lot had happened and a lot had changed. Especially in the last 24 hours. 

But yet Tommy also felt like nothing had changed at all. His parents were still dead, Mr. Dream was still free, Tommy was still broken and lost with what to do with his future and (until an hour ago) they were still best friends. 

Tommy exited the park and figured that the most logical place to visit next was the place his parents had died. That’s where it had all started. The walk took him another hour and this time he was more aware of what was going on. He was zoning out less and instead decided to watch all the business people who were walking home from their banking jobs. His parents had once been one of those people. The building was actually kind of close to where Wilbur lived, but Tommy decided to pretend this was not the case. It was easier to pretend a lot of things were not happening. Even if they were. Wilbur wasn’t nearby, Cricket Crew wasn’t in their apartment and Tommy wasn’t completely and utterly alone. Tommy thought again how life would be a whole lot easier if the world could just pause for a moment. Maybe even forever actually. Tommy needed a reset. He needed a new place and new people. It would be really convenient to run away actually. Tommy wasn’t sure why he hadn’t followed through with that yet. If he ran far enough away then he would never feel the need to turn back. Things would hurt less. 

The building his parents had died in had been rebuilt after it burnt down. People were still working there now. Tommy stood in the spot where his parents had parked the car. The car he had sat in while he watched everything literally and metaphorically fall apart. In some dreams and versions of Tommy’s memory he remembers the car door being locked. He wonders if it had been unlocked if he would have ran in there and saved them. There were a lot of what if’s and unknowns about what had happened. Tommy was pretty sure he had thought over every possibility in the past decade. 

Maybe Tommy had walked there hoping that something would unlock in his memory and he would remember the truth of his parents death. Or maybe he would suddenly get a vision from beyond the grave of the next steps forward. But like all the other times Tommy had revisited this place, nothing happened. He stood for a few seconds longer but there was no eureka moment like he had expected. No signs from his parents, no sudden flashback and no one to help him. He was still so fucking alone and and so fucking lost. 

It was nearing five o’clock and Tommy was so hungry that he felt nauseous. There were plenty of other reasons for him to feel nauseous (like anxiety, stress etc.) but that was the primary one. If his mother was here, she would have told him to go eat something and that taking it one step at a time was important. When she was teaching Tommy how to read she had given him that exact advice. Sure, he couldn’t read the whole book yet, but he needed to go one word at a time. Tommy had hated this advice because it was so slow and he wanted to read the whole book right away. He remembers moping around and hating their night time reading sessions because it was too hard. Tommy hated himself for not enjoying it more. He would give anything to be in his bed with his mom again learning how to read. Things were simple back then. So fucking simple. 

“One step at a time.” Tommy mumbled and a jogger glanced at him confused. He had forgotten how busy this sidewalk was. There was a quaint cafe nearby, it had been his and Wilbur’s favorite spot to go as a break from their research. Tommy began walking again, this time fully aware of his surroundings and thinking about what he was going to get at the cafe.

He settled on an iced coffee, two BLT’s, a bag of chips and a chocolate chip cookie. He even added on a salad in the spirit of listening to his mother’s probable advice. He took a seat in one of the blue booths in the corner of the cafe where he and Wilbur had always sat. He sat on the side that faced the door and looked out onto the street. It was nearing golden hour and half the street was glowing orange while the other was dark with the shadows of the tall buildings. 

He was about three bites into the second BLT when he heard the little bells above the door of the cafe ring. He looked up quickly as he had been playing a little game with himself of making up stories of who each of the customers were, what they worked as, their name, their family and anything he could think of. It was a nice little distraction from whatever he was going to do when the cafe closed in a few hours. Guessing the customers' futures was much easier than planning his own. Except with this customer Tommy didn’t have to theorize a story of their life. Tommy already knew. Well actually, maybe he didn’t know. He wasn’t completely sure what was true or not anymore.

Standing in front of the cafe door was Wilbur. He stared directly at Tommy, his eyes wide in shock. This guy seemed to really enjoy stalking Tommy and it was starting to get annoying. 

Tommy stood up immediately. There was no way in hell he was about to be arrested. He quickly gathered the rest of his food into his arms and walked towards the side door of the cafe. Wilbur saw this and ran to cut him off, Tommy quickened his pace and stared ahead instead of Wilbur. Maybe if Tommy didn’t look at Wilbur then Wilbur wouldn’t actually be real. 

Wilbur was in fact real. Tommy discovered that when the two collided, knocking Tommy’s food onto the ground. The other customers and employees looked in the direction of Wilbur and Tommy with concern. Tommy froze. He couldn’t exactly make a scene or run away with all these eyes on him. That was at least fifteen witnesses which would not help him in court. Not that Tommy was planning to go to court. 

“I’m so sorry!” Wilbur exclaimed, his voice quite clearly performative because of their little audience. Of course Wilbur was bad at acting, Tommy almost smiled because 24 hours ago he would have laughed at Wilbur’s attempt to act. But he was supposed to hate Wilbur now, so he kept his face neutral. “Let me help you.” Wilbur went down onto his knees to pick the food up off the floor. The rest of the cafe seemed to move on to their own activities again.  

“It’s fine really, I need to go.” Tommy began to walk to the door again.

“No.” Wilbur demanded and grabbed Tommy’s arm by his wrist. “Let me buy you some new food, to make up for it.” Wilbur stared directly into Tommy’s eyes, practically into Tommy’s soul. Wilbur wasn’t performing anymore. He meant what he was saying in a weird metaphorical way. 

Wilbur always had a way of being there when Tommy was at his most vulnerable. This was really starting to become an issue because a vulnerable Tommy was always going to want to trust him. Except not this time. Tommy couldn’t deal with it this time.

“Let go of me.” Tommy gritted through his teeth. 

“I insist.” Wilbur added. “Don’t make me call my dad.” Wilbur mumbled under his breath. He always seemed to resort to threatening Tommy when things were looking like they wouldn’t turn out in his favor. Maybe that was the first red flag that Tommy had missed. Wilbur kept his hand on Tommy’s wrist and lightly shoved him towards the cash register. 

Maybe Ranboo was right. Maybe Wilbur did have a change in heart and maybe he did actually care about Tommy. Tommy was really hoping Ranboo was right because he had no other choice but to let Wilbur buy him food and sit back down at their normal table in the back corner of the cafe.  

Wilbur bought Tommy a second iced coffee, a new salad and another cookie. He also bought himself a hot tea of some sort. 

“I’m sorry Tommy, I really didn't want to use force but I need you to hear me out.” Wilbur put his hands clasped together in front of him on the table. “Then I’ll leave you alone for good, if that’s what you want.” 

Tommy was slouched back into the cushion to express how much he did not want to be in this situation. “Well last time I ‘heard you out’ it turned out to all be a lie.” Tommy reminded Wilbur and crossed his arms over his chest. He refused to eat the food Wilbur had bought for him.  

“Fair.” Wilbur smiled lightly. Tommy hated the smile and looked out the window instead of at Wilbur’s face. “I just need you to know the truth.”

“Ok fine, go ahead, tell me the truth. Justify yourself to the innocent kid so that you can sleep better at night or some shit.” Tommy still stared out the window.  

“That’s not why I’m doing this.” Wilbur insisted. 

“Stop lying to me!” Tommy sat up straight and spoke a bit too loudly as they got a glare from one of the cafe employees who was cleaning a nearby table. He slouched back in his seat once more. 

“I know how hard it is for you to trust people.” Wilbur spoke quietly and calmly. “I want you to know that it is ok to trust people. I don’t want your experience with me make you shut everyone else out.” 

Tommy pressed his jaw together in an effort to not give a reaction to Wilbur. He wasn’t quite sure what Wilbur meant but it sure was fitting to his present situation. “Well it’s not like I have a choice so speak.” Tommy looked at Wilbur momentarily before looking away again. 

“I’m sorry-”

“You’ve said that. Get on with explaining yourself.” Tommy interrupted in an attempt to maintain some power at the table. 

“You’re right. I should start from the beginning.” Wilbur took a deep breath. “After you escaped from our interrogation room, I told Phil and Techno about how I put your shoulder back into place and what Mr. Dream had done to you. They were really happy I’d gotten information from you.” 

“Oh so you just shared my life story with your family to prove how good of an interrogator you are.” Tommy interrupted. 

“Tommy, let me talk.” Wilbur was stern. “I did genuinely feel sympathetic for you Tommy, I genuinely wanted to know why you were robbing banks and the reason genuinely almost broke me. That wasn’t some manipulation tactic. I cared. I thought Phil and Techno would care too.”

“Sure.” Tommy said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. 

“But I was still so attached to my family back then and so I told them about what you said and then Techno had the idea for me to infiltrate you guys.” Wilbur ignored Tommy’s sass. “And I accepted the mission because they both promised me that after we finish this job from Mr. Dream we would go back to helping good people instead of rich people. That’s how much Mr. Dream was going to pay us. We wouldn’t need money, we could focus on the cases that actually meant something to the right people.” 

“So I’m the sacrifice then? For you to get your family back I need to suffer. Sure, that’s morally justified.” Tommy assessed Wilbur’s logic sarcastically once more. He was trying to think it all through very carefully because for all he knew Wilbur could still be lying to him. If Tommy could find a flaw in Wilbur’s story then it would mean Tommy could finally be sure Wilbur didn’t care about him at all. Tommy could finally let Wilbur go.  

“Initially that was my thought process, but then I got to know you Tommy. I saw just how much you love all of your friends and just how much you miss your parents. Your passion for what you were doing was unmatched to anything I’d ever seen before. I began to report less and less of what you were telling me to my family. Techno wanted to arrest you all when we met in my apartment for the first time but I made up excuses that I needed more evidence and so they told me they would wait until we were at Mr. Dream’s house.” Wilbur paused to take a sip of his tea. “Then you broke down in my guest bedroom that one night and that was when I decided that it wasn’t worth it. My family wasn’t just going to change overnight and you didn’t deserve anything that had or would happen to you. That’s the night I switched to your side.” 

“Well why the fuck didn’t you tell me all this the next morning?” Tommy asked. 

Wilbur took a breath and hesitated for a moment. “Honestly Tommy… I was scared. Scared that you wouldn’t trust me or not want to work with me if I told you. It’s really selfish and I see that now, but I didn’t want to lose you. You’ve been an amazing friend these past few weeks and it’s been so refreshing to not work with my family. I didn’t want that to disappear.” 

“I think I would have still trusted you.” Tommy commented a bit solemnly and looked at Wilbur directly. 

“Yeah, but I wasn’t sure.” Wilbur nodded. “By that point it was too late anyways. Phil and Techno had already planned to interrupt our interrogation of Mr. Dream when you least expected it. Then they would arrest you. Mr. Dream was in on it too, that’s why he was so relaxed last night.” 

“I thought he just didn’t care at all.” Tommy said.

“Well that too. He doesn’t give a fuck about you or your parents.” Wilbur added. 

“Except he didn’t know I was a witness, that surprised him.” Tommy smirked. He could still picture Mr. Dream’s fear when he figured out Tommy had been at the scene of the crime. 

“I noticed that, very interesting.” Wilbur smiled. “See, this is what I was scared to lose. This type of banter.”

“You aren’t done explaining.” Tommy quickly drew his face. It had felt good to get back into theorizing comfortably back and forth with Wilbur, but Tommy had to remind himself to not trust easily. Not again. 

“Right.” Wilbur cleared his throat. “I was going to warn you guys but that fear I was talking about kept taking over and then you tried to kill Mr. Dream and I totally forgot about my family's plan altogether. I got so wrapped up in preventing you from killing him and then it was too late. I told you to run, but it was still too late.” Wilbur sat back in his chair. “I should have told you earlier Tommy and I shouldn’t have taken this mission to begin with. But we’re here now and I want you to know that I care and that your trust in me was not without reason. Everything that happened last night is not your fault.” Wilbur took a deep breath. “You don’t have to forgive me, but please don’t blame yourself.” 

“Well you’re too late for that.” Tommy mumbled but he knew that Wilbur heard him. “How’d you find me here?” 

“I was walking home from the police station and saw you in the window.” Wilbur explained. “I promise I’m not a stalker.” 

“I can’t in my right mind trust you right now Wilbur, let alone forgive you.” Tommy watched Wilbur’s hope drain from his face. “But that’s mainly because I can’t trust myself right now. I don’t think I’ve held a coherent thought since last night.”

“What?” Wilbur furrowed his brow in confusion. 

“Long story short is that Tubbo is pissed off that I almost became a murderer and started this vote for me to be expelled from the Cricket Crew. Everyone else voted to just put me on probation but I voted to expel myself.” Tommy spoke quickly to avoid Wilbur interrupting. “We’ve always had a protocol for this and I’d just put them in danger. Tubbo’s right, I’m a shitshow right now. I don’t really know what’s going on anymore.” Tommy felt himself holding back tears. He really didn’t want to cry, he had done enough of that today. 

Wilbur didn’t need to know anything Tommy had just told him. But Tommy needed to rant and Wilbur just happened to be the one to hear it. Tommy also was hoping that if Wilbur was still an SBI spy that he would tell SBI that Tommy had left Cricket Crew and then maybe they wouldn’t find and arrest his friends. Tommy couldn’t trust Wilbur for a lot of reasons but mainly because Tommy had gone through a lot that day and he needed time to process. He thought that it was probably a good sign that he could recognize that about himself. Maybe things were moving in the right direction. 

“Tommy…” Wilbur gave that sympathetic look he always gives whenever Tommy is being vulnerable. Tommy could see that Wilbur was still processing what Tommy had just said. “If I had known I wouldn’t have talked to you about this now.” 

“Can I go now or are you going to threaten to arrest me again?” Tommy moved to the end of the booth to prepare to stand up.

“But where are you going?” Wilbur stood up with Tommy. 

“I’ve slept on the streets before.” Tommy bumped into Wilbur’s shoulder and began to walk past him. 

“With Tubbo.” Wilbur pointed out and Tommy froze. It was true, Tommy hadn’t ever slept anywhere alone. 

“I don’t need Tubbo. I don’t need anyone.” Tommy said hesitantly and then kept walking towards the door of the cafe. 

Wilbur followed Tommy, trailing a few steps behind, as they began to walk down the sidewalk. “I’m not letting you sleep on the streets, just come to my apartment until you figure all this Cricket Crew stuff out.” 

“THERE IS NO FIGURING OUT TO BE DONE.” Tommy turned around suddenly and yelled at Wilbur. “I made the decision to leave and I’m not going back. You said that I don’t have to forgive you and that you just needed to justify yourself. You did what you came here to do. Now leave me alone.” Tommy turned around and kept walking.

Wilbur shut up but he didn’t stop following Tommy. Tommy didn’t have the energy to yell at Wilbur to go away again so he walked half a block into an alley that he, Tubbo and Bill had once hung out in. It was in between a restaurant and a thrift store and in the back there was a dumpster with a nice private space to sleep behind. Not many homeless people or gangs went into the alley, so it was relatively safe. 

“So you’re sleeping here?” Wilbur asked from behind Tommy and his voice was clearly very concerned. 

“Yup.” Tommy sat down and pulled out his phone. “Bye.” He didn’t look up and refuse to entertain Wilbur’s worries any longer. Tommy needed to be alone and let his brain just exist for a second. 

“I’ll be back tomorrow…” Wilbur walked away slowly and hesitantly, clearly processing Tommy’s situation. “I know I said I’d go away after you heard me out, but that was before I knew you were… alone. Think over what I told you Tommy, I’m always here.” Then he turned around and walked out of the alley and turned left down the sidewalk. 

Tommy sighed in relief as Wilbur disappeared behind the corner of a building. He opened up his phone for the first time all day and quickly swiped away the texts from Ranboo and Aimsey so they were no longer visible on the lock screen. He didn;t have the energy to read more apologies, or even worse more anger. Instead he scrolled on TikTok for an hour or two before deciding to visit the convenience store across the street and buy a blanket and pillow. 

It was dark by the time he returned to the alley and he set up the pillow and blanket and laid on the floor, staring straight up at the sky. He could see a few stars and it was amazingly calming to look at them twinkling. Tommy had decided he didn’t have the brian capacity to decide what he was doing in the morning, how he felt about Cricket Crew and how he felt about Wilbur. Just like Tommy had always procrastinated grieving his parents, he now procrastinated figuring out what life was about to become. And for that night, that was ok because it was just Tommy and the stars. 

And Wilbur. 

“Hey.” 

“FUCK!” Tommy sat up quickly and turned to where the greeting had come from. He heard his heart pounding in his chest before it slowly calmed down after Tommy realized it was just Wilbur. Again. “You scared me.”

“Sorry, I just can’t let you sleep alone in this alley.” Wilbur explained. Tommy then realized that Wilbur had brought a sleeping bag and pillow with him. He began to lay it out a little away from where Tommy had set up. 

“I said I wanted to be alone.” Tommy said sternly 

“I don’t care. I know you’re lying.” 

“You don’t know shit. You just want to make yourself feel better by not letting the teenager sleep on the streets.” Tommy countered. 

“Shut up. I’m sleeping here and that’s final.” Wilbur stared at Tommy like he was daring for him to disagree. 

“Fine.” Tommy rolled his eyes. Wilbur had always been stubborn and Tommy was starting to think it was his worst quality. 

“Fine.” Wilbur smiled lightly and continued to set up. 

Tommy settled back into his makeshift bed and stared at the stars again. Wilbur must have been tired because Tommy heard him snoring shortly after. Tommy was scared to fall asleep because he thought he might have a nightmare and it would be very embarrassing if Wilbur had to help Tommy through that again. But eventually Tommy’s eyes grew heavy too because it had been a hell of a day. 

He hated to admit it, but Wilbur’s presence was comforting. It kept Tommy tied down to reality. But only just a little bit comforting. He wants that to be clear because at that moment he hated Wilbur. He hated everyone.

Chapter Text

Tommy felt alarmingly calm when we woke up. He woke up because of the birds chirping lightly from their nest in the rooftops of the buildings near the alley. It vaguely reminded him of camping with his father when he was younger and waking up because of similar bird chirps in a bright orange tent. The two of them would go have some cereal before fishing in the lake or hiking to the top of the mountain. His dad had taken him camping a lot right before he died to give his mother some time off from parenting. Except Tommy was definitely not camping with his father when he woke up. This time he was alone and sleeping on the cold floor of a city alleyway with nothing but a blanket and a pillow. Well he wasn’t actually alone because Wilbur was still sleeping near him, but Tommy didn’t count Wilbur. Tommy’s calmness dissipated quickly, but honestly he was just glad that calmness was at all there to begin with. 

He checked his phone and it was around eight in the morning. He had thought it was earlier because it was still pretty dark due to the massive gray clouds covering the sun above him. Tommy didn’t really know what to do next. 

“Good morning.” 

Tommy quickly turned his head to face Wilbur who had somehow also woken up at the same time. 

“Those fuckers are loud.” Wilbur chuckled and looked up in the direction of the bird chirps. Tommy almost smiled in agreement. Almost. 

“Bye. You made sure I didn’t die or whatever. So go.”  Tommy said quickly. Then he stood up and began to fold his blanket. 

“You aren’t getting rid of me that easily.” Wilbur smiled and also stood up to roll up his sleeping bag.

“Yes I am.” Tommy put the blanket and pillow in an empty cardboard box and hid it behind the dumpster so it would be there when he returned that evening. He would need a bit more time to process and decide where he needed a train ticket to. He also wanted to get some money before he left the city and ranaway. “Do you know if Phil and Techno are planning to stalk my work?” If Wilbur was there Tommy might as well try to get some helpful information out of him. 

“I don’t think so, but I haven’t spoken to them since Mr. Dream’s house. I think they’re mad at me.” Wilbur explained and put his sleeping bag and pillow behind the dumpster as well. “Why are you putting this back here?”

“I’m coming back to it later.” Tommy explained quickly and began to walk out of the alleyway. 

“Then I am too.” Wilbur stated a-matter-of-factly. 

“Stop being a clingy little bitch. That’s Tubbo’s thing.” Tommy smiled a little at his own snarky comment. Tubbo would have hated it, but in the way where he actually loved it. 

“Tubbo’s thing?” Wilbur looked at Tommy.

Tommy’s face drew quickly and he almost flinched. It hurt to remember that Tubbo wasn’t going to be his clingy little bitch anymore. Tommy means that in the nicest way possible of course.

“Sorry.” Wilbur apologized after noticing the pain in Tommy’s face.

“Ok please just go.” Tommy turned to Wilbur and begged as they reached the main sidewalk. 

“No.”

“Go.”

“No.”

“GO.”

“Give up Tommy. If I go there’s a very good chance my family is going to find you and arrest you. There’s also a very good chance, based on your observed mental state, that you’re going to do something destructive to yourself or to others. I’m not letting you down again.” Wilbur spoke passionately. “I know that when your parents died, you basically had to fend for yourself. But you don’t need to anymore. I promise.”

“SHUT UP AND GO. That is the exact reason why I need YOU to go. I KNOW how to do this on my own because I’ve done it before. I’ve felt this shit before and I can do it all on my own. Even if I wanted help, it would not be from you .” Tommy couldn’t make eye contact with Wilbur but he made sure to say his words with a certain disgust. 

“I know you want to break down on this sidewalk right now and I’m giving you full permission. I’m right here.” Wilbur pleaded. 

“I’m fine.” Tommy denied Wilbur’s claims but he was holding back tears. 

Wilbur didn’t need to say anything, he just raised his eyebrow skeptically. 

“I’m not fine.” Tommy admitted very quietly. He looked down at his dirty clothes and suddenly the feeling of dried tears became very apparent on his own cheeks. He could almost feel his eyebags and he was certain his hair was a tangled mess. He sure as hell didn’t look fine, so why lie? “But I am not breaking down on this sidewalk.” Tommy manifested into the air but he was sure that if he had melted into the floor in tears, Wilbur would be there to catch him. He hated how comforting that assurance felt. But Tommy had decided that he was never going to get anywhere in life if he spent any more days in the mental deep dark pit he was in the day before. Today was a new day and this new day didn’t have to include crying. 

“Glad you can recognize that.” Wilbur gave that horrible sympathetic look that Tommy hated. Tommy was not a charity case and Wilbur had a tendency to treat him like one. 

“You can follow me around, clingy bitch, but I have plans for the day and you are not getting in the way of them.” Tommy explained sternly and then turned around to walk down the sidewalk. He wasn’t exactly sure what his plans were, but they were starting to come together in his mind and he didn’t have any time to deal with Wilbur’s stubbornness. 

“Got it.” Wilbur nodded and followed Tommy. 

Tommy and Wilbur walked in silence through the rush hour foot traffic until Tommy made it to the front entrance of the mall where the video game store he worked at was located. 

“You want my trust back?” Tommy turned around quickly to face Wilbur who looked startled by their sudden stop. 

“Yes.” Wilbur answered quickly and hopefully. 

“I have a job for you then. I need money to live. I’m going to work. I want you to sit outside my work and pretend to be watching me. Tell your family that you got eyes on my workplace in case I show up. Then they won’t come check themselves. The Cricket Crew won’t check if I’m there if they see you.” Tommy explained quickly. “Kill two birds with one stone or whatever.” This plan was either really stupid or genius. Only time would tell and Tommy was willing to take a risk. Tommy knew for sure that Wilbur definitely wanted his trust back, he just wasn’t sure if it was for good or bad reasons. 

“You want me to be a lookout?” Wilbur asked. 

“Kind of.” Tommy shrugged. If Wilbur was really this dedicated to the idea of gaining Tommy’s trust back then Tommy could basically use Wilbur as his personal servant. That was the only reason why he was keeping Wilbur around. Then when he got on a train to a new city he would never have to see Wilbur again. He just wasn’t quite sure where he was going and he needed to save up some more money so that maybe he could find a new apartment wherever he decided to go. Maybe one more week and then he would run away. 

“Ok.” Wilbur sighed, perhaps regretting his decision to follow Tommy around all day. 

“If I get arrested you’ll break my little heart and I’ll never be mentally stable.” Tommy said sarcastically and pouted his lips. 

Wilbur smiled at Tommy’s joke. Tommy hated that he had let himself joke around with Wilbur again, so he quickly turned around and then the pair went inside the mall. 

Tommy had missed working. He had taken a lot of days off leading up to the robbery so it felt good to be back stocking the shelves and selling games. It was a decently busy day so Tommy was pretty distracted. He almost forgot about Wilbur, Cricket Crew, Mr. Dream and SBI entirely. At lunch time he and Wilbur went to the food court where they both got some sushi. 

“We aren’t speaking during this meal.” Tommy stated as he opened his chopsticks. 

“Ok…why?” Wilbur asked, confused. 

“Lunch is me time.” Tommy explained and struggled to use the chopsticks. 

“You need help there king?” Wilbur smiled lightly as he saw Tommy didn’t know how to use the chopsticks. 

“I’ll just use my hands.” Tommy sighed. 

“That’s gross you’ve been touching things all day.” Wilbur pointed out. 

So Tommy let Wilbur awkwardly teach him how to use chopsticks. He made sure to get as angry at Wilbur as possible throughout the entire process. He’d always been a terrible student anyways. But after that, as Tommy had requested, they were each silent on their phones for the remainder of the meal. 

As the work day came to an end, Tommy closed up the store. He felt a mixture of relief and disappointment to find Wilbur still standing in the mall hallway. 

“You still feel like following me around?” Tommy asked. He wasn’t quite sure what answer he was hoping for. He needed Wilbur as his lookout/protection from SBI and Cricket Crew. But he also actively hated Wilbur. During his shift Tommy had decided that, for now, Wilbur was effective as protection until Tommy would eventually leave. Tommy was going to run away from everyone and everything in one week when he had enough money to live comfortably for at least two weeks in a new city. He could make new friends, get a new job, live in a new place and it would all be ok. It would have to be ok. 

“I already told you, I’m not letting you get hurt again.” Wilbur explained. 

“Yeah, sure.” Tommy rolled his eyes and walked towards the escalator. 

“I mean it!” Wilbur called after Tommy and followed him down the escalator and out of the mall. 

Tommy had also decided earlier that he would take a trip to a nearby park after work. There was a big hill in the park that he and the rest of the Cricket Crew would go to watch the sunset sometimes. He bought a hotdog from a food stand at the entrance to the park and then took it to the hill to watch the world get dark. Wilbur sat next to him to watch as well but neither of them spoke to each other while they ate.  

“I’ve always loved sunsets.” Wilbur commented as the last sliver of fiery red disappeared into the horizon. 

“Everyone does.” Tommy said snarkily. He was really enjoying the peace and quiet until Wilbur had rudely interrupted it. He had almost felt like he was completely alone with his own thoughts for once. “I’ve never met someone who doesn’t like a good sunset.” 

“I guess that’s true.” Wilbur shrugged and paused for a moment. “So are you just going to keep treating me like I’m the worst person on this planet or…?” 

“Yeah. Yeah I am. I don’t know if you remember but you have betrayed me and my friends, stalked me and then followed me around for the past twenty-four hours. I didn’t ask you to be here. So deal with my hostility or leave.” Tommy reminded Wilbur and then stood up. 

Wilbur was quiet again after that. 

Tommy went back to the alleyway because it was probably best if he went to bed early. He had agreed to open for the early weekend shift the next morning so he needed to be well rested. He also couldn’t deal with Wilbur any longer and knew that sleeping was his best chance of being alone to think. What surprised Tommy was that Wilbur set up his sleeping bag in the same place again. Tommy had thought for sure that by then Wilbur would have realized Tommy wasn’t going to forgive him and abandoned the idea of following Tommy around altogether. 

Tommy was only a little bit glad that Wilbur stayed. Wilbur had been helpful at some points during the day but it was also turning into a game for Tommy. How annoying and hostile could he get before Wilbur abandoned him again?   

The next morning Tommy woke up and went through a pretty similar day. He responded to a few of Wilbur’s concerns with snarky comments, he went to work, he ate lunch, he watched the sunset and he went to bed in the alleyway. The next day looked like that as well. And the next. And the next. Wilbur was there for all of those days and he gradually started saying less and less to Tommy. Tommy knew Wilbur was always thinking through what he could do next to “save” Tommy from himself. But Tommy almost had enough money saved up so he wouldn’t even be there to see Wilbur’s next plan of action unfold. 

Unfortunately Wilbur enacted his new “saving Tommy” plan the night Tommy was planning on buying a train ticket out of the city. Tommy was half-dreading the next day because he knew Wilbur would follow him to the train station and then Tommy would have to get rid of him there. For good. He would have to get rid of Wilbur for good. He knew Wilbur wouldn’t follow him on the train because Wilbur wouldn’t leave this city. Or at least he really hoped Wilbur wasn’t that dedicated to manipulating Tommy back on his side that he would follow Tommy to a new city.

Tommy needed his fresh start and Wilbur wasn’t part of it. 

That’s why as soon as the sun had set fully, Tommy had pulled out his phone to buy the train ticket. It was probably going to be his last time watching the sunset with Wilbur on that hill in the park. He took a breath to process that before preparing to click the last button to confirm the purchase. That button would make it real. It meant Tommy was actually leaving all of this behind. Leaving his shithole of a life behind. 

But Wilbur interrupted him. He’d been doing that a lot. 

“What are you doing?” Wilbur asked as he peered over Tommy’s shoulder. 

“Stop spying on me!” Tommy exclaimed and pulled his phone to his chest to hide it from Wilbur’s view.

“You’re buying a train ticket?” Wilbur asked. “Also I’m literally the son of a detective, I’m a born spy by nature.” 

Tommy smiled faintly at the funny comment but then made his face fall serious again. “Yes, what about it?” 

“You’re just running away from it all?” Wilbur questioned further.

“Yes.” 

“That’s the ultimate method of procrastinating your problems and feelings, I’ll give you that.” Wilbur shrugged and looked out at the purple sky the sun had left behind. 

“It’s not procrastinating if there was no other solution.” Tommy pointed out.

“There were definitely other solutions.” Wilbur laughed a little. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tommy gritted through his teeth. 

“I’ve been with you for the past week Tommy. I’ve seen you cry before sleeping, ignore texts from your friends and pretend that you know what you’re doing.” Wilbur explained. “I think I know what I’m talking about.”

“Congrats! You successfully stalked me for a week! NOW LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE WILL. GIVE UP.” Tommy yelled and stood up suddenly. “I’m leaving tomorrow and that’s final.” He began to walk away down the hill. 

“I’m coming with you.” Wilbur called from behind him. 

“Fuck. No.” Tommy turned around to make eye contact. He needed to be clear. He was drawing the line. Wilbur hadn’t stood up and followed Tommy, so Tommy moved closer to Wilbur to make sure he was heard “I’ll be…I’ll be f… I’ll be-”

“Fine? You’ll be fine?” Wilbur finished Tommy’s sentence for him. 

“Without you.” Tommy took a big gulp to hold back tears. Why did he want to cry? He didn’t feel like he should be crying. He should be happy because he was moving on and moving away. Why wasn’t he happy? Everyone he loved hated him and he hated all of them. Why wasn’t he happy to leave them all behind? 

“We both know that’s not true.” Wilbur said. 

Tommy had nothing to say to that. 

“Sit back down.” Wilbur stated and patted the space in the grass next to him. It wasn’t a demand, it was an offer, because he knew Tommy wanted to. 

Tommy begrudgingly sat next to Wilbur. He pulled his knees towards his chest and dug his fingers into the grass on his sides. He curled his hands into a fist while letting the grass slide through his knuckles. He ripped a few pieces out and it made a terrible ripping sound. He released his hands and the ripped up grass fell back to the ground. He grabbed one small piece of grass and began tying it into a bunch of small knots in his hands. He was half waiting for Wilbur to say something, but Wilbur was just staring at the new evening sky in front of him. He was leaving Tommy with his own thoughts. How cruel. 

“Wilbur, can I ask you something?” Tommy’s breath hitched as he spoke and broke the silence.  

“Anything.” Wilbur nodded. 

“Why do you hate your family?” 

“I don’t hate my family.” 

“Ok whatever, why did you abandon them this week then?” Tommy rolled his eyes. 

Wilbur took a moment to think. “We just don’t believe or value the same things anymore. To be honest, I don’t think we ever did. I was just young and did whatever they did, but now I’m older and I can think for myself.” Wilbur explained calmly. 

“But-” Tommy hesitated, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to say this next part. “You have a family and you’ve given up on them. My family was taken from me and I would have never given up on them. How is that fair?”

“It isn’t.” Wilbur said and looked down. 

“When you guys arrested me, I couldn’t stop thinking about how jealous I was. You were a family and you were all alive. My family is completely and utterly dead.” Tommy explained and then nervously picked a piece of grass to play with. 

“What are you really asking me here Tommy?” Wilbur asked because he could tell Tommy was holding back.

“For so long I thought that I’ve been doing what my parents would want. I’ve been so determined to never give up on them even though they are gone. In my mind they are these amazing people but-” Tommy took a deep breath. “I’m scared that I’m starting to hate my family too.” 

“It’s ok to be angry at them Tommy.” Wilbur put a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “You can be angry at someone without hating them.” 

“They left me in a car and ran into the burning building.” Tommy spoke quickly to reveal the information. He hadn’t ever told anyone that. Not even Tubbo. “They left me. They died. I could have died too. Sometimes I think that they left me to die.” 

“Oh.” Wilbur took his hand off Tommy’s shoulder and took a moment to process that information. “You can never know exactly what happened Tommy, but you can be angry with them. It’s ok to feel those emotions.” 

“They weren’t-” Tommy began. 

“Perfect. They weren’t perfect because no one is.” Wilbur finished the sentence. “They would be proud Tommy. You found your own family with the Cricket Crew, you helped Tubbo, you tried your best always, you have a job, you lived. They’d just be happy that you’re living.” 

“I-I- I don’t know what to do Wilbur.” Tommy finally admitted. “For so long revenge and my parents' legacy has been my only life goals, but maybe I should…move on. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing and I’m not doing ok.” 

“I know Tommy. You’re a bit of shit show right now but at least you’re living. Let’s start there.” Wilbur patted Tommy’s back and stood up. He reached out a hand to help Tommy up as well. “Well actually let’s start with a shower, we both fucking stink.” 

“I-”

“We are going to my apartment and that is final. I know it’s hard, but I need you to trust me Tommy.” Wilbur explained. 

“You’ve said that before.” Tommy pointed out, hesitating. 

“Do you believe me this time?” Wilbur prompted. 

“Yes.” Tommy stated and smiled. For the first time in forever, he felt like he had just made his own life decision. Not one controlled by his parents and what they would want. Not one controlled by some plan he and Cricket Crew had come up with. Just him. Just Tommy. Tommy’s decision. 

“Thank you.” Wilbur smiled softly. “You have no idea how much that means to me.” 

“Stop being so wholesome you fucker.” Tommy rolled his eyes.

“Ok let me celebrate the fact that if I’ve spent this whole week sleeping in an alleyway and taking all your bullshit to try to regain your trust and it worked .” Wilbur’s smile grew. 

“I could have stayed in a hotel but it was more funny watching you sleep in an alleyway.” Tommy chuckled. 

“You really took advantage of me this week didn’t you?” 

“Yup!” Tommy grinned. “I was just a poor little lonely boy who needed your help.” Tommy faked a pouty face. 

“Wait so long have you trusted me?” Wilbur asked. 

“Well for the record I was in denial about trusting you until about two minutes ago, but I don’t think I ever really stopped trusting you to begin with.” Tommy explained.

“Fair enough.” Wilbur shrugged and stood up. He reached out a hand to help Tommy up and Tommy took it. “So should we head to my apartment and figure the rest of this out?” 

“I guess.” Tommy agreed but felt his heart skip a few beats. His anxiety about his life hadn’t gotten that much better. But at least he had someone to help him through it now. 

One step at a time. This was a big step. But still it was a step.