Work Text:
"Did you—No. It can't be. No, no, no, no, no. You can't —he's..." Techno stammers as he lets go of Tommy's collar and bites his nails.
"That's right." Tommy smiles softly. "I killed him."
Techno stands stiff in place by the announcement as he finally drops his hand to the side, too distracted by the reveal to bite his nails further.
"I expected for Wil to be the one to notice, though." Tommy averts his gaze everywhere but Techno's direction as he pushes back the tears that threaten to break the dam. "Do you mind telling him where he is?" He crosses his arms and tightens his hold, trying to keep his calm facade intact.
"That guy is a graduating student and he's busy with college at the moment, so I'm the only one here to entertain you since I dropped out long ago." Techno sighs deeply as he explains. "Don't worry about him and our parents barging in here at any moment. I didn't tell them anything."
"Why—"
"But in exchange, you might want to tell me what's going on." Techno intercepts as he scratches the back of his head.
"You're —O-Okay." Tommy sighs in defeat. "It's gonna be long and boring, so you might want to sit down." He adds as he points to the chairs that are still cluttered with the struggle earlier.
━━━━ ❰ · ❉ · ❱ ━━━━
"It all started when I appeared out of nowhere in this unfamiliar town a few months ago..." Tommy clasps his hands on top of the table as he begins.
Tommy had been wandering around the streets to find something for an explanation why he was being brought here in the middle of nowhere. His eyes darted from one place to another, capturing every moment in awe as everything looked so lively and peaceful compared to what he expected. Before he realized, he bumped into someone and lost his balance, falling to the ground with his back.
He groaned in pain and shortly after redirected his gaze to the person in front of him. His eyes widened in shock to see himself but with a different clothing.
"Watch where you're going, prick!" Another Tommy scowled and stood before finally facing him, only to mirror Tommy's reaction. "What the fuck?"
Before Another Tommy could process the situation, he bolted as far away from him as possible, diving through the crowd and blended in whilst hoping to never see him again.
Well, he was completely wrong.
No matter how much he tried to change locations and investigate, somehow Another Tommy was always there when he least expected it. They always ran into each other, which was the last thing he wanted to happen but still did, anyway.
Since then, the two of them decided to hang out without letting Another Tommy's acquaintances know. Apparently, Tommy was teleported to Another Tommy's direction. Well, at least, that's what they speculated after a few days of research and a few vague interrogation with Another Tommy's brothers. It was getting confusing to call each other with their names being the same, so Another Tommy decided to call him Theo.
Tommy— Theo didn't know why, but the name sang to his ears like it's a perfect fit for him. After a while, Tommy suggested they hang out within his town instead of travelling to the next just to enjoy themselves, but still keeping an eye out on his acquaintances. Whenever strangers asked about them, they would easily reply that they were twins.
To be fair, Theo thought they kind of were.
His chest lightened proudly at the idea since he could finally have a brother he never had.
(Brown curls and pink hair repeatedly kicked and punched him, without giving him time to breathe or fight back over and over and over—)
One day, one of Tommy's friends came to greet him, and it took him and Theo everything to hide him. Theo dived to the trash in the alleyway whilst Tommy kept on entertaining his friend to distract them. Luckily, the secret wasn't out of the bag, so they were still able to buy themselves ice cream after that.
The idea of Tommy constantly flinching whenever they were together didn't register in Theo's mind.
The next time they'd hang out, Tommy told him that they should probably lay low for a while and go back to hanging out in the next town. Theo hid his slight disappointment with a grin since travelling meant there's less time for them to hang out. With the distance, they could barely enjoy up to thirty minutes, give or take.
Well, Theo was about to regret his decision of going along with Tommy's suggestion that day when he drank too much milkshake and had to take a long piss.
He went out of the public comfort room and greeted his friend, expecting a greet back but all he could see was open air. That's not the surprising part since they're basically in the middle of nowhere, so they won't be able to see anyone for a few kilometers. All the nearer comfort rooms just had to be full that day.
Theo looked around to try to find the same blonde hair and...
There!
He sighed in relief when he saw Tommy standing a few distance away from him, but his blood ran cold when he saw another man with them, grinning ear to ear as he grabbed Tommy's head in one swift motion. Theo ran towards them and tried to save his friend but it was too late.
The second Tommy's head was slammed onto the hard ground, the second the liquid colored his blonde curls red turned everything into a blur and before Theo realized it, the blonde man with brown eyes was beneath him, with the man's face rendered unrecognizable from all the swelling and blood along with his own fists covered with the same liquid was all it took for his welling emotions to explode in tears.
It's all Theo's fault that Tommy died. If only he wasn't brought into this world, the real Tommy wouldn't have died. If only he stayed away from him, none of this had ever happened. All his existence ever brought to anyone is misery. Why was he, the doppelganger, the one that gets to live when the original gets to die instead?
Everything was blurry with tears but his numb body moved on autopilot when his hand dug through his pockets to get his phone and called a number he recently received. When he wasn't hanging out with Tommy, he was staying with that guy, especially after knowing that he was in the exact situation as he. Just like Theo, his original died long ago but secretly took his place since he couldn't find a way to go back to his real home.
"What do you want, To—Theo? I'm busy dealing with my own shit, you know." The voice answered from the other side of the line.
"Purpled? I fucked up... real bad." Theo gritted his teeth when tears never stopped flowing as he whimpered.
The line was silent for a moment apart from the subtle shuffling until...
"Could you tell me where you are? I'll be there in a few minutes."
He didn't know how much time had passed, but Theo could register, albeit barely, that he was dragging the man's corpse through the forest, leaving it there when he deemed it far enough for people to notice and for predators to eat him until nothing was left.
The day passed by in a blur and Theo was standing in front of a grave with a label of 'Tommy Craft', with his hands grabbing a bouquet of colorful flowers. He reminisced about what he could remember of his conversation with Purpled yesterday about him having to live with the Craft family until the end.
Could he really do it? Could he really replace his best friend when he left him to die?
Of course not.
He's just a bomb waiting to explode on anyone, bringing one misfortune to another until nothing was left. He dropped the flowers and ran away, locking himself up in one of Purpled's room that was temporarily his and cried himself until his voice was raspy, feeling the numb overtaking his body when the past memories begun to slip away from his mind until he felt happy again for some reason.
Tommy opened the door and met Purpled's gaze and scowled. Why the fuck was he here?
"Dude, this is my fucking house. Of course, I would be here. You're the one who barged in." Purpled frowned.
Oh, did he say that out loud?
"Why the fuck would I be willing to stay here?" Tommy crossed his arms and raised a brow.
"I don't know. You tell me." Purpled shrugged and left Tommy alone.
Something from the back of Tommy's mind was telling him that the bastard was hiding something, but he shoved it off and left through the front door, forgetting this weird experience ever happened.
━━━━ ❰ · ❉ · ❱ ━━━━
Tears suddenly flow out of Tommy's eyes when he reminisces the memories that recently came back after that call with Purpled. How could he forget such a thing? It was so pathetic that it only took him that to repress everything from his stupid head. He vigorously wipes the tears away with the back of his hand.
"Would Wil kill me when he knew that I killed the real Tommy and shamelessly replaced him? If he won't, would you?" Tommy sniffs.
Techno launches himself towards his direction, making Tommy jump violently but closes his eyes as he accepts his fate.
It's okay.
This is how it should be.
I'll see you on the other side, Toms, he thinks.
After a few moments, he can feel arms wrapping around him gently instead of suffocating him. He slowly opens his eyes to see none other than Techno hugging him of all people.
"Wh-Wa— Why?" Tommy musters a whisper as he choked on his own sobs.
"No matter the circumstances, you're still the troublemaker I know and love . I'm sure that everyone we know feels the same as well." Techno solemnly says as he rubs soothing circles on Tommy's back. "I just want to apologize that you had to experience all that and had to keep it a secret. Well, apart from Purpled, apparently."
The dam has finally broken with all the pressure and all the tears flowing out of Tommy's already puffy eyes like a waterfall, embracing Techno and holding onto him for dear life whilst wheezing to try to breathe.
Minutes that feel like hours, the tears finally dry up along with all the weight being lifted off of his shoulders, finally breathing easily once again but he doesn't move out of the comforting embrace and luckily, neither did Techno.
"So, do we tell everyone about this?" Tommy asks.
"Eventually." Techno replies with a smile.
Tommy is a bit apprehensive to say the least about what's going to happen in the future but with Techno by his side, he will surely be okay.