Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy sat on the cushioned seat behind the register, warm light illuminating the counter. He swayed his upper body a little, humming along to the quiet tune of classical and ambient music playing in the background.

However nice it was for his boss to give him such accommodations, it really didn’t help preventing him from dozing off at the moment. Niki’s bakery was pretty much always completely empty this late at night. Despite this, he still had about 30 minutes left for his shift, so he kept tapping his nails on the table in an unknown beat.

The streets of Pogtopia district, as seen through the shop’s large windows, were dark and void of any movement. Like always, the deafening quiet in a big city such as L’manburg might’ve had a certain mystique or uneasiness to it, if Tommy didn’t experience this every day of the week.

As he looked out of the store’s glass front door, all he could see was the same familiar crossroad, just as still and empty as the bakery, with the still-unfixed, continuously flickering lamp post to his right. He sighed, turning to look at the ‘workers only’ rooms in the back.

This part of the city wasn’t the wealthiest around, but Niki had told him she’d never put up shop in a “nicer” neighborhood. Cheering up the ones less fortunate had been what she wanted from the day she had started her small business.

He guessed he could admire her for that. Which was also precisely what had made Tommy question her choice of hiring him when they first came to the city - you’d think someone with people skills as good as hers would recognize him as having the complete opposite effect of comfort on people in general, let alone customers.

He regularly berated their food choices, sarcastically commented on their personal drama if they talked about it too close to his ears and told everyone blocking the line for too long to fuck off. The only thing he’d apologize for was the complaining about their choice of baked goods, because everything Niki made was heavenly. But seriously – what monster bites into a danish pastry right after eating a spicy cheese bun??

But oh well, the customer was king and she was the boss, so their word was ultimately gospel. Not that Tommy minded it coming from Niki too much he supposed. She was one of the kindest people he’d ever gotten to meet, and definitely much better than the assholes he’d had to work with in the past.

And surprisingly, he thinks he actually enjoys coming here. It doesn’t pay a lot unfortunately, but that’s entirely due to Niki wanting to make the goods she sells affordable to this part of town, not unfair or shady company practices. His environment is warm and the music provides for decent entertainment when there’s not many customers around. The soft vibes aren’t necessarily his cup of tea, but they’re definitely Niki’s. And apparently the couple hundred people visiting each day like them too.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he continued staring at the bakery’s front door. Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday he’d sit here and try to waste six hours on this night shift. It fucked up his sleep schedule a bit, but they didn’t have an alternative with Edward being sick at the moment. Either way, at least it was a little bit relaxing and allowed him to wind down after a couple of stressful days.

Both he and Niki knew that usually nobody came in this late, so it was practically pointless being open at this hour in the first place. But she apparently also knew about the way Tommy tensed up whenever it got too crowded in a room, so maybe this was more for his personal sake than for profit. When he’d first realized it had almost made a smile slip onto his face, although he’d never admit it to her.

“Uh, hello?”
Tommy nearly jumped out of his seat at the stranger’s voice.
He had almost managed to fall off his chair, grabbing onto the counter for dear life. It took him way too long to look up at the person and he tried to smoothly move his limbs into a more natural body position: “Shit-, What can I get for you, big man?”
He didn’t exactly have a set phrase for welcoming customers for marketing’s sake, for ‘creative freedom’ Niki had said, but at 11:45pm on a Saturday night he felt calling people ‘big man’ to greet them was a little bit strange.

Apparently it didn’t align with the guy’s expectation for this cozy little bakery and coffee shop either, because he didn’t manage to suppress his snort in time.
“Sorry, sorry – pfft, that’s a new one. I don’t come here very often, so I apologize if I don’t know about the customs.”

Tommy just blinked at him.
The dude was insanely tall, but now that he had hunched over a little Tommy could tell he wasn’t quite as tall as Ranboo. One less problem then. The guy had a large yellow sweater on, which was practically draping over him like a waterfall. It shimmered too, but that could just be Tommy’s sleep deprivation talking.

“Three cinnamon rolls with a double espresso, please.”
“Coming right up!”, Tommy slipped into customer service mode pretty easily and he had to admit he was a little proud of himself. He was a little surprised to hear the energy in his voice, although maybe that was because this week hadn’t been as draining as usual, “Can I get your name?”

He leaned against the wall while the coffee machine did it’s thing, eyeing the guy a little further. His black jeans stuck out from under his sweater like strange, lanky sticks, and his feet were shoved in high-tech terraspark boots that only some rich fuck could afford.

“Wilbur. I’m getting some caffeine in my system so I can keep studying.”, the guy said, leaning an elbow on the counter. His hair was a wild mess of curls and on his nose sat a large pair of round, probably fake, glasses.
He looked like a prick, really, although Tommy had to admit ‘Wilbur’ fit him well. He wondered if it was a code name or his actual identity. From his attitude so far he assumed the former.

The time was fuck-all in the evening and he really didn’t have much personal motivation for social interaction. But this Wilbur guy was clearly trying to start up a conversation and it would be very awkward just standing around saying nothing, so he relented: “Oh cool, what are you studying?”

“Music! I’m in my fifth semester. We’ve actually got a test on musical analysis and composition coming up in a couple weeks”, Tommy listened in with one ear but didn’t put any effort into paying explicit attention to the words he was saying.
“It can seem pretty difficult at first, but once you put your heart into it it’s not hard at all! My dream is to start a band one day, you know? And learning songwriting is really important to make that happen.”

Tommy would’ve been leaning more towards a geography major when classifying the guy. He had enough charisma and that happy-go-lucky personality should do well in interstellar trades and relations. Maybe he worked as a diplomat on the side.
Actually, probably not. His wardrobe practically screamed ‘rich kid’, and nobody with parents who would pay for their kid to go and study music of all things was going to work, like, at all.

Nevertheless he couldn’t deny, hearing what such a privileged person’s life was like was pretty interesting. He pondered a little what Ranboo and Tubbo would’ve studied if they’d gotten the chance. Tubbo would’ve definitely gotten into nuclear physics, no doubt. Ranboo on the other hand might’ve been a creative media or scientific illustrator kind of person. He doesn’t think he would’ve gone to college, though. It would’ve been a waste.

“What brought you over to L’manberg then?”, Tommy asked, his mouth slowly morphing into a smug grin, “There must be plenty of other bakeries ‘round where you live that serve coffee too. Not much to see here around 11pm, unless you want to throw out your plans of studying today and get drunk instead” Let’s see how well the guy can take ‘improper’ things. Riling up customers had always been one of Tommy’s strong suits.

“Oh no no, I wanted to catch up with Niki, see how she’s doing and everything”
Hold on- Tommy moved backwards a little. This guy knew his boss?
“You see, the two of us went to high school together and like to chat sometime-”
“In the middle of the night??”
“Uhhh, not usually this late, no”, Wilbur chuckled again. It seemed like he really liked doing that. Well, Tommy wasn’t complaining, it was better than getting yelled at.

“Oh and I actually live here! It’s about a six minute drive south, but the student library is much closer. I like to study there, it’s really cozy and quiet at this time of day, which is why I decided to visit here”
Tommy blinked, lacking a response for all the strange facts he was just bombarded with. One he could handle, Niki seemed to be around the guy’s age – even though it was hard to compare between different species – so them knowing each other wasn’t that otherworldly.

But the fact that this rich fuck lived in the fucking slums of L’manburg?! Not to mention, of fucking course nobody was in the student library at this hour, because no sane fucking being would be there studying up til midnight not even two weeks before one measly test! Not even an exam, which Tommy would totally understand by the way, but a single fucking test!!

Tommy decided this man was clinically insane and put Wilbur’s cinnamon rolls in a bag before getting up to finish the guy’s drink.
“So, how long have you been working here? Seeing as I haven’t met you before”
“Didn’t you just say you didn’t come here often? Of course you wouldn’t have met me before.”

The guy had the audacity to laugh: “Awh I know, I know. You just looked so young, I was a little worried about you working so late.”
Tommy barely refrained from baring his fangs: “I am a completely mature and independent adult, thank you. And I’m nocturnal anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Awww look at those little chompers, you’re so cute!”, was this guy insane?? Tommy had the sudden overwhelming urge to bite the asshole’s hand off. Not because of instincts, oh no he had those under control, but because he wanted to hear that rich fuck screech at the top of his lungs and make him regret the day he baby-talked to Tommy fucking Innit.

Because you see, Tommy belonged to a species well-known for their ability to fight, not quite on deathworld-level, but not too far off from it either. ‘Wilbur’, on the other hand, looked like the most basic bitch-ass alien out there and all his lithe and lanky figure was probably good for was running. He could clart this fucker with ease!

“Fuck off”, but sue him, this was still customer service so he had to play nice. On the other hand, the guy was being a dick and nobody else was around to tell him off for his language: “If you’re not gonna be respectful and use basic civility I’m gonna have to cut this conversation off and throw you out the door.”
The guy’s tail stopped swishing excitedly behind his back right at the same time Tommy noticed he had a tail in the first place – probably native to a planet with lots of trees then. Tommy had learned that in one of the few years he went to school, something something balancing.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude”, Tommy gave it to him, he did look genuinely apologetic. But that could also be due to his species having unconventional body language, so he didn’t trust it too far.

“Sure. Just don’t do it again”, Tommy turned to the coffee and reheated it for a couple seconds, “Hope you like it. No refunds.”
“That’s totally fine, sorry again, I didn’t really think of the implications-”
Tommy handed Wilbur the cinnamon rolls while the guy swiped his credit card: “Now kindly do whatever you have to do today, I have to close shop in two minutes”

“Ah, you don’t have to! I can just leave by myself!”, the guy was hurriedly packing his order into his bag while simultaneously trying to balance the double espresso in his left hand, “See? No need to worry about me!”
“Oh- no my shift actually ends at midnight.”

All of the air left the man’s lungs in relief – at least Tommy was pretty sure that’s what it was – and his light brown tail flopped bonelessly onto the floor.
“...I still need you to leave though.”
“Sure, sure, I’ll be right out!”
Tommy sighed and started cleaning up for tomorrow. What a mess.

---

The air was oddly fresh tonight, a small breeze flowing through his fabrics as he walked back home. It had gotten a little colder too – the cost or benefit of living on a planet with seasons. More of a cost to him since he preferred it warm, but his roommates and best friends were happier, so he wouldn’t complain. His footsteps echoed slightly off of the empty streets, the pavement acting as a mirror with the day’s rain.

Tommy really hadn’t realized how tousled he looked. His hair was a bird’s nest, and although he knew for a fact it had looked better when he left the house earlier today, he had to admit he hadn’t been very kind brushing it lately. He could barely see his horns sticking out from the top, red little spikes that only came in handy once, by making football practice end early with a head shot.

Maybe it was because Tubbo and Ranboo weren’t back yet. He really didn’t know what to do with himself sitting alone in that tiny apartment. Big man number one had scored a really ‘advantageous job with a high-end client’, as he’d called it, and it would probably take a week before he was back.

And don’t even get him started on Ranboo – they were practically trapped in that hero tower until the agency gave them some vacation leave. Supervised of course, because the boob had access to sensitive information or some shit and the guys running the show couldn’t keep their noses out of anything to save their life.

A large crash from farther away brought him out of his thoughts. Another hero fight. In the central city, luckily, but a fight nonetheless. The place had enough resources to deal with it, in bright contrast to their dirty little corner, so they’d have it handled. He was about to turn around when a flash of bright lime green caught his eye.

It was Dream. The Dream. L’manburg’s central enforcer of law and the media’s poster child. Tommy wasn’t particularly a fan of the ‘universal enforcers of law’ – or heroes as most people called them because UEOL was just as much of a mouthful as the name – but he’d never seen a good one in action before.

Because Dream was good, the best in fact. Practically the entire city agreed he’d easily become the most sought after hero of the entire Essempi galaxy in no time, and how could Tommy disagree on that? The way the Arachnid weaved in between skyscrapers, outmaneuvered and trapped his enemies was nothing short of fascinating.

Tommy watched as the blur of lime green and black launched himself off and onto buildings in a mesmerizing pattern. He hadn’t even noticed the man had set out a trap for his opponent, but one misstep of the low-ranked villain and he was bundled up in a web of black string.

Tommy blinked, collecting himself now that the exhilarating battle was over. He quickly dug his alarm clock out of his pocket and looked at the time. Watches were too expensive for the trio, so he settled with carrying the bane of his existence everywhere he went. At least that made him hate it less.

1am already?! Had he seriously been standing out here for an entire hour? He sighed and started speed-walking towards home, careful not to slip on the wet street. Once he was there he’d immediately pass out, that was for sure. At least he didn’t have work on Sundays, so maybe he could just lay in bed until he got hungry again.

Chapter Text

Tommy groggily blinked his eyes open, furrowing his brows at the bright light flowing in through the window. The red-white curtains were hanging innocently on the sides, as if they weren’t just uselessly existing about when there was a job to be done. Why the hell had he left them open yesterday?

Come to think of it, he didn’t actually remember coming home at all, let alone falling asleep. His brain sluggishly tried to make sense of that fact but came up with nothing. Oh well, he was in his room and very much not kidnapped or dead, so that probably wasn’t something to worry about.

He tried kicking the blankets off of himself but his hooved legs moved like in molasses. Reluctantly, he sat up with his upper body, glaring at the world for having forsaken him again. Why would he constantly have to be reminded of his fucked up legs, huh? He sighed aggressively. Getting stitched back together back then wasn’t enough for the universe, apparently.

After a bit of wiggling his leg muscles they finally got the hint and let themselves be moved over the edge of the bed. Tommy was right about to make his first attempt at getting up when something violently slammed against his scrappy metal door, throwing it wide open in the process.

He nearly jumped out of his skin, for the second time in the last 24 hours or something, but calmed back down at the sight of a messy bunch of brown hair and a pair of curved horns.
“Tubbo! You’re back!”, despite his strongest efforts Tommy couldn’t keep the grin off of his face.
“I am!!”, Tubbo took a step towards his bedside and crushed him into a hug, pulling him up in the process, “And I got the bag!”
Tubbo seemed exceptionally proud of headbutting his door in, but he honestly couldn’t bring himself to be mad at him.

Tommy laughed, a little dazed: “I can’t believe it. Didn’t you say you still had a couple weeks left last we called?”
“That was before I got the greatest idea of my life! I’m telling you, my neural pathways converged and created the spark for the invention that is going to change our lives.”
“And what does that have to do with your job?”, Tommy’s smile faded a bit, “Surely you wouldn’t give them access to that good of an idea. You remember what happened last time-”

“Of course not!”, Tubbo let him go, shaking his head, “I gave them a prototype. Nothing they can make a weapon out of.”
Tommy sighed in relief. “Thank the universe.”, his stomach growled and he looked down at himself, “Let’s eat something, shall we?”

On the way to the kitchen Tubbo’s eyes lit up again: “Oh! And I forgot, I brought a thing with me. It’ll be so fucking useful once I figure out how to stabilize it.”
Tommy physically cringed: “Stabilize?! Tubbo- what the hell have you brought into our house?”
“It’s chill, it’s chill,” Tubbo was doing placating gestures with his hands, but they didn’t calm Tommy the slightest bit, “It won’t hurt or kill anybody. You know I’m careful about stuff like that.”

Tommy opened his mouth, but immediately closed it again. He trusted Tubbo, even if he was very reluctant to trust the “thing” the Caprinae had brought home. With the tech genius it could either be a minor inconvenience or that they were in mortal danger, it was really a coin flip. On the other hand the three would’ve never come this far without a resident 16-year old who can build an entire working space capsule out of scraps on a remote planet.

“I’ll show you once it’s done anyway. Just don’t worry about it for now.”, Tubbo took to rummaging through the kitchen cupboards, “I promise it’ll be reaaally helpful though, like super helpful-”
“I get it, I get it. Don’t get my hopes up too far before I’ve seen it.”, Tommy ruffled his hair. If it was something that could help them if everything went to shit again, Tommy would accept it. Hopefully it wouldn’t come at such a high cost again, though. He wouldn’t want Tubbo to lose something too.

“You’ve heard anything about Ranboo?”, the boy in question asked as he got out a suspicious packet of seasoning, “I checked out our PO box but there was no news about him.”
“Unfortunately no. No clue whether they’ll let him go for their birthday either. Hopefully they should be back for a bit during the new year’s celebration”

“Hmm”, Tubbo looked down again, but unfortunately for this there wasn’t anything Tommy could do to cheer him up. The hero organization did what they wanted, and as long as Ranboo said he was fine and well-cared for there, he wouldn’t risk it.
He opened the fridge and found it empty. Glancing along the cluttered counter-top, he figured eggs would have to do. He took one out of the box and cracked the black shell against the frying pan, right against one of the bright red dots. The jittery substance that flowed out was the same dark mush with a crimson core, mingling with the oil he poured in.

“You got any plans for today, bossman?”, Tubbo asked, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed behind his back.
“Not that I know of, no. Why’re you asking?”
“Cause we’re in a shit mood, maybe something to cheer us up again”, Tubbo looked around their apartment with a raised eyebrow, “I mean we just reunited after about a months-worth apart. Shouldn’t we, I dunno, do something to celebrate it?”

Tommy flipped the first egg onto Tubbo’s empty plate: “Probably. Don’t particularly feel like doing anything specific today.”
At Tubbo’s frown, he continued: “That doesn’t mean that we won’t go anywhere, just that I’m not gonna be the one to come up with it.”

“I’m gonna take you to the night market.”
Tommy quickly turned his head around, looking at Tubbo like he’d grown a second one.
“You, what?”
“I’m going to the night market, and you’re going with me! It’s about time one of you two comes and sees the place for yourselves.”, Tubbo’s grin was ear to ear and Tommy already knew there was no way to convince him otherwise.

“...But isn’t that illegal?”, he tried weakly.
“Not if you know what you’re doing!”, Tubbo said, already tugging Tommy by his sleeve, “And besides, you’ve got me as your guide – what could go wrong?”
“But the eggs??”
“Oh yeah, hold on-”
“Besides, it’s still 12:00pm!”

---

Tommy and Tubbo had collectively decided that they’d spend their spare time until then playing Vario Cart. The only issue to this being, Tommy was getting absolutely rolled.
“I hate you Tubbo. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck yo-”
A red turtle shell hit his shopping cart with full force, flipping his entire character over as Tubbo drove past him and laughed: “Not all of us can be winners, Tommy!”
“I’ll kill you this round, bitch.”, Tommy was holding his controller in a death-grip, legs occasionally twitching in their uncomfortable position scrunched beneath his body.

Tubbo was leaning forward, his nose almost touching the tiny tv monitor: “I’d like to see you try!”
Before Tommy’s cart could recover from being hit by lightning, Tubbo whooped.
Tommy couldn’t find it in himself to do more than sigh: “I hate you.”
“Awh, I’m sure you do!”, Tubbo’s attention was already far from his character’s victory montage, whereas Tommy was still looking at the green little stubble with rage.

“What should we play next? We still have a couple hours to go”, Tubbo crawled towards their game stash, flipping through the cases with his padded fingers. Tommy got up and stretched, the bones in his back crackling loudly.
“You seriously need to fix your posture by the way.”
“I do not”, the blond walked over to Tubbo, “How about that super rare and illegal one you got for us?”

“Tommy. We only play that at night”, Tubbo’s tone was in condescending mode again and Tommy almost wanted to quit right there. But he hadn’t played it in a while and it was tons of fun.
“Pleeeeaaaasee?”, Tommy gave the best puppy eyes he could muster, which actually managed to make Tubbo falter a bit. Excellent – he had a chance.

“It’s a human game!”, Tubbo whisper-yelled. None of the public audio-recorders were anywhere near their home, something they’d made sure of to be absolutely safe, but they preferred to talk quietly when it came to dangerous information anyway: “If it get’s confiscated I’ll have to explain where I snatched it from!”

“You didn’t tell us either and I’m not particularly worried about it”, Tommy had sat himself right in the middle of their living room nest.
Tubbo’s eyebrow twitched: “I am asking you to take the authorities more seriously, Tommy.”
“I know, I know”, he turned a little, flopping down onto the wall of pillows, “But how would they even be able to tell? It’s not like they have some human-video-game expert on call.”

“Better safe than sorry”, now it was Tubbo’s turn to sigh, “I’d have to leak a good buddy’s contacts to protect us and I’d really prefer if I wouldn’t.”
Tommy dramatically gasped: “You’ve got friends outside of the two of us? That’s scandalous!”
Tubbo chuckled: “There has to be someone I can talk about tech with, or else I’ll go insane”
“And you aren’t already?”
“A little bit, maybe”, the Caprinae glanced over to the alarm clock, sitting on a nearby cardboard box, “I think it’s time we have some fun now, too.”

---

The main city’s underground transportation system still hadn’t dried from yesterday’s rain. It made for a rather horrid and humid atmosphere along with the filthy, fume-filled air the cursed place had any other day of the month. Tommy honestly didn’t know how and why people desired to waste a single breath in this shithole, let alone take their stuff and move here.

For a business trip he guessed it was bearable, which is why he was accompanying Tubbo through the busy streets tonight. His best friend had wanted to spend some time with him and also ‘spoil himself’ a little with the money he’d made, which definitely meant buying an expensive device to do science with.

Don’t ask Tommy how he knew all that weirdly specific and sometimes extremely dangerous information. The three had known each other for years, sure, and had some trauma bonding behind them, but that didn’t mean any of them were obligated to share anything from their past before the other two came into the picture. Tommy was very happy and comfortable with that unspoken agreement, and he imagined Ranboo and Tubbo were as well.

Bright green and blue lights illuminated the masses of people below, tinting everything beneath them a sickly turquoise. The streets were full. Very full for such a niche market taking place, which Tommy didn’t forget to point out to Tubbo.
Said person just looked at him incredulously: “Technology isn’t ‘niche’, Tommy. Everyone worth their salt knows at least how to start up a nuclear reactor.”

“Well I don’t, so what does that make me?”, the blond frowned, suspiciously glancing at their surroundings. Once he didn’t see any immediate threats coming their way, he relaxed a little, for now: “You’re being very rude right now, Toby. What if I find your words offensive?”

“You don’t”, Tubbo still had a nonchalant smile on his face, greeting a few of the people they passed in the crowd, “But seriously, your wary attitude is making you and by extension the both of us a target. Try to blend in a bit more”

“And how would I go about doing that? Everybody here knows about tech shit”, Tommy straightened his posture to appear smarter, somehow, but rather ended up looking like a bird about to pick a fight.
Tubbo shortly took a glance back at him: “You wear a smile, stay nice and friendly and barter with everyone you want to buy something from.”

“Like this”, Tubbo subtly dragged the both of them to a stand selling tiny purple containers, about the height of Tommy’s little finger. The salesperson seemed to recognize him and they immediately began chit-chatting. This wasn’t fair, of course a regular would get better treatment than some stranger waltzing right into their space.

But the more Tommy listened, the more he noticed that things weren’t quite lining up in the conversation.
Tubbo could gush about his projects for ages, especially the experimental ones, whispering about them to Tommy and Ranboo until late in the night, even if one or both of them had to wake up early for work the day after. Tommy was sure he’d absolutely love to have another inventor to talk about them with.

But so far he hadn’t mentioned a single one of them to this guy and only talked about ‘advanced ship repair’, which even Tommy knew to be bullshit. Real advanced spaceship features, like the most modern cloaking and weapon technology, were guarded by the celestial bodies with their teeth. That kind of tech was closer to magic than anything else and definitely had nothing to do with shulker-skinned packets in which not even his middle finger could fit.

Before he knew it though, Tubbo had purchased three of the tiny things and exchanged a heavy sum of money. Well, heavy was relative – any well off middle class family would’ve probably spent about this much on non-living expenses every month – but the trio couldn’t call themselves that lucky. Tommy almost wanted to ask Tubbo what the had been going on back there, but shut his mouth once the boy gave him the quiet sign.
Once the Caprinae had led them to a smaller area with no people around, he finally spoke up.
“I’m not a regular. The people down here just treat you like you are, one because there’s no way to remember a single out of the many faces that come by here every day, and two because it’ll lure newcomers into a false sense of security”

“Why the fuck would they do that though?”
Tubbo shot him a disappointed look. “Like, I don’t mean I trust them to be good people, quite the opposite in fact-”, Tommy crossed his arms in front of his chest, “But what the hell do they get out of being nice to people? A donation?”

Tubbo sighed, but he relaxed a bit: “Who would the newbie report when shit got messy? It pretty much always does – either they get scammed, robbed or put in jail themselves.”, he took a breath in, “The person that was nice to them and made them feel welcomed or the person that was rude and just demanded the money?”

Tommy nodded in understanding, but furrowed his brows: “And you just gotta go along with that, so that they won’t get mad at you for exposing their tricks.”
Tubbo sucked in a breath through his teeth, “Helps with the authorities.”
They slowly started making their way back to the main area, following the volume of the voices.

“So just pretend that you’re not on a market selling the most shady shit in the galaxy?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”

Tommy was right about to open his mouth again when a scream sounded off through the alleyways. That might’ve not been so concerning in this city, but it was dangerously close.
“The stuff I wanted to treat myself with can wait. We should get out of here.”, Tubbo quietly tugged on his sleeve, creeping towards the other side of the nearest building.

A lamp post flickered in the corner of Tommy’s vision and oh they were in the main city, this wasn’t normal. Way too many shadows suddenly stretched themselves to be longer and Tommy instinctively pushed Tubbo behind himself.

Chapter Text

Tubbo pulled a taser out of his pocket, keeping it hidden behind his back. They were currently surrounded by somebody else’s manifestation, which laid the cards clearly in their opponent’s favor. The shadows circled closer around them as a silent threat. He grit his teeth in frustration. Assessing the situation would become much easier if the person asking for a fight would actually show themselves.

A flash blinded the two and suddenly there was a body in front of them. Tommy managed to dodge quickly enough, but Tubbo got slammed against the hard concrete street. The attacker tried to grab his bag, but Tubbo slammed the taser against his shoulder and clicked it on.
In the corner of his vision another figure swung at Tommy, but he swiftly moved away from under them. The Caprinae threw the person off of himself, getting back up to his feet as fast as he could.

“Tub-”
His hearing was cut off by a heavy object hitting the back of his head. He stumbled forward as Tommy kicked the guy he was fighting in the nuts. The person behind Tubbo appeared to have underestimated how thick his skull was, so he turned his head, only to see them take a swing for it again.
He threw his body in their backwards, grabbing their arm and shoving his taser into them. He gripped it tighter as they struggled, making sure they were completely out of commission before letting go.

Tommy walked into his field of vision: “Well that was something.”
The Caprinae could only nod. This was the first time they had been attacked by robbers since moving to L’manburg. Back when they were younger they might’ve looked more like easy targets, but Tommy’s height alone was usually enough to deter people from attacking them.
“Do you have anything that special with you?”, Tommy glanced down at his bag.

“Nope. Definitely left it at home”, Tubbo looked at the three unconscious assailants, two of them still twitching from the electric shots, “They’re getting bolder.”
“And thank god you’re wearing those gloves all the time”, Tommy added, “Or else you would’ve grilled yourself back there”

Tommy was about to turn back towards home when he saw the black nothingness curling along the streets. The shadows still hadn’t gone away.

Tubbo grimaced and whispered: “Come to think of it, those guys didn’t use a manifestation once. They probably didn’t even have powers”
Tommy began to tune into desperate sobbing coming from a block away. The carnage back there had probably continued while they were busy with those robbers and they’d been too distracted to hear it.

Then the shadows began writhing and twisting, emerging into one blob in the three-dimensional world. The only reason Tubbo didn’t immediately get his legs under him to start running was that the vague shape of a pitch-black wolf was manifesting itself a solid 30 feet away.
It grew in size as more and more shadows bled into it, the mountains of muscle barely hidden under it’s dark fur turning it into something akin to a war hound.

And not just any war hound, if Tommy had to guess: the glowing, blood red eyes staring into the teenager’s souls clearly marked this one as belonging to the Blood God.
Tommy slowly lifted his arm up in front of Tubbo: “We should leave. This isn’t our business”
The wolf had yet to move from it’s place, holding it’s watchful gaze, but Tommy wasn’t about to wait around for that to change.

“Why-”, Tubbo near-whispered, “What is that thing?”
Tommy held him back before he could step anywhere near the bloodthirsty beast.
“I’ll explain later. What’s important now is that we get out.”
“But I wanna-”
Tommy was trying to keep a cautious eye on the creature for as long as they were in mauling-range, but Tubbo was making that increasingly difficult.

The war hound tilted its head, kicking Tommy’s self- and Tubbo-preservation into high gear: “This thing isn’t some rare phenomena for you to study – remember, it’s someone’s manifestation! Now can we leave before we get ourselves killed-”
Before either of them could react the thing had appeared right in front of them. The slowly opened its mouth, letting the inky shadows drip from its canines.

Tommy was stunned into silence as he realized how big the war hound actually was. Its head was still tilted, observing both teenagers eye-to-eye. Despite the proximity there was no breath leaving the wolf’s mouth, which only made the hairs on Tommy’s back stand up further.
All he could imagine was the user looking through their manifestation’s eyes like a hunter, waiting for the perfect moment of either fear or surrender to strike.

He only allowed himself a quick glance to check on Tubbo, but his heart sank the second he caught a glimpse of the boy’s eyes. They were filled with fascination and wonder, looking at the war hound like a specimen of a rare species of herbivore, rather than the killing machine it was built to become by its owner.
The creature tilted its head up, those red eyes still studying his every move and thought, and Tommy was ready to claw into its fur and fight for his life.

Even though he doubted his fangs could do nothing in comparison to the multiple rows of teeth lining the entire inside of the monster’s mouth. Even though his accelerated healing wouldn’t be able to keep up with the chunks of flesh it would rip out of his body. Even though he probably wouldn’t even be able to grasp the creature anyway, the shadows becoming intangible anytime the thing didn’t seek out to attack.

He’d do it to survive, because there was no honor in death, no life that had been worth living, if you didn’t go down fighting. There was no way he’d let those people win, the ones who had hurt him and his family and assured him that there was no way he would survive this – would’ve survived that.
And most of all, he remembered, while the thing unhinged its jaw to rip his head off while Tubbo’s eyes just dawned on the reality of the situation, he’d do it for the light of his life standing right next to him, and he’d do it for Ranboo too.

Tommy threw his arm up the millisecond the creature leaned the gaping abyss of its mouth forward, all the while Tubbo ripped him out of the creature’s way. Right as the thing’s mouth was about to saw off his right hand, he made the decision that it could’ve been worse.
That was until a sharp whistle moved through the air, the war hound stopping right in its movements. It’s ears twitched, and just as fast as it had appeared in front of them it sank back into the ground.

Tubbo and Tommy watched the shadows retreating. ‘Returning to it’s master, probably’, Tommy thought distantly, and the sinking feeling in his stomach returned. Once he was sure the manifestation wouldn’t come back to strike from behind, he immediately grabbed Tubbo’s arm and began pulling him away.
It could have ended very badly if they had gotten involved in whatever mess that was.

They walked about the distance of a block before they started sprinting. Through alleyways, gardens and across a few fences, any way they could keep track of each other while getting as far as possible from the person handling that war hound. Tommy signed for them to go faster, after all he knew that the one they had interacted with hadn’t been the only one of the creatures the individual had access to and definitely made use of.

Once they reached Pogtopia district, the both of them keeled over leaning against a crumbly brick wall. The air was silent as they caught their breath, aside from the faint bass of party music coming from many streets away. Turning around, Tommy was greeted by a simultaneously frustrated and slightly uneasy looking Tubbo.
This was rare, usually the scientist would either be in his element or completely out of it.

“So are you gonna tell me what the hell was going on back there?”
Tommy cringed a little at his tone, but obeyed: “I don’t know much myself, but I can tell you what kinda stuff Niki’s heard of.”
Tubbo nodded, quickly regaining his balance to stand on two feet again.

“Have you ever heard of the Blood God?”
The Caprinae considered the question for a bit, but shook his head.
“Well-”, Tommy sighed, shoving the hand he was leaning on into his pocket, “He’s one of the most notorious supervillains around this galaxy. That manifestation wasn’t a one time thing by the way, he’s got an entire army of those.”

Tubbo cringed, “So that’s why you signed to keep running?”
“Yep”, Tommy popped the p, “Apparently he’s also got blood and corpse manipulation, but I’m not sure how much I’d trust rumors on that.”
Tubbo gave a healf-hearted chuckle: “Better safe than sorry though, right?”
“Right”, Tommy sighed.

The second they arrived in their humble abode, Tommy collapsed onto the couch. He gave a wary eye as Tubbo approached the kitchen by himself, but turned away once he saw the boy grabbing a leftover egg and bread from the cupboard.
“So if he’s such a big deal, how come I didn’t know about any of this?”, Tubbo took a chomp out of his makeshift sandwich.

“Oh, customers only started talking about him recently. Niki said he’d been the big bad a while ago before we came around and disappeared for a bit.”, Tommy stretched, kicking his hoof out, “So you just missed his entrance, really. People were scared shitless.”
“Damn”, Tubbo found he was still holding the taser, actually, and sneakily slipped it back into his bag. He had installed a fuck ton of security cameras outside, so if this place wasn’t safe enough he didn’t know what was.

“By the way, how did you even get that out of her? Niki doesn’t seem to be the type to start talking about supervillains on her own, let alone give you so much information”, he flopped down onto the couch right beside Tommy, snuggling further into their pile of blankets.
A proud grin immediately stretched across the boy’s face, “I knew she knew something from the way she reacted whenever customers would whisper about him – so I just pestered her until she told me about it.”

“Of course.”, Tubbo sighed, “How she hasn’t fired you already I do not know.”
Tommy pouted: “She also wanted to warn me, said not to engage if I ever came across him. But- Hey, why haven’t you gotten fired from any of your gigs then, huh?”
Despite it being physiologically impossible, Tubbo’s mouth stretched into a predatory grin:
“I’m just better at getting away with shit, bossman”

Chapter Text

Bright sunlight flowed in through the bakery’s windows, occasionally interrupted by people passing by. The shop was filled with the faint smell of coffee and hushed conversation. Tommy hunched over the counter to give a short customer their order before waving the next person in line to the front.

Tiramisu tuesday was always busy since it was the only day in the week Niki would make croissants – and lots of them. She’d explained something about artificial rarity in marketing to him once, but he hadn’t really been paying attention. Customer service theory or whatever the hell was never going to be his thing anyway.

After bidding the last pick-up customer farewell Tommy rolled his shoulders and stretched a little in his seat. He didn’t know how Niki had managed to subconsciously alter the public’s behavior when they were sitting in the bakery, but everybody who was talking kept their voice down and in a pleasant tone.

His job criteria contained ‘being capable of handling stressful situations’ but he hadn’t required his ability to sass every Karen in a five mile radius for the entire year he’d been working here. He honestly thought Niki wasn’t giving herself enough credit here.

A good 80% of people who entered this shop behaved like literal angels and Tommy had never stopped getting caught off-guard by the fact. He was very intimately familiar with the shit poverty and desperation could do to people and good manners definitely wasn’t one of the side effects.

But he digressed, he was just an employer and anything weird or shady going on wasn’t his business. That was how he got through his last jobs alive and he wasn’t about to throw away that habit. Besides, Niki was hella nice and gave him free food, so he heavily doubted she was using mental manifestations on the people she was so kind to.

Today was a quite calm tiramisu tuesday and Tommy so far was liking every second of it. An empty shop meant time to chill and drift away, but customers meant money and something to do – and oh boy had he forgotten how he needed something to do. Sunday’s events had left him restless and fidgeting 24/7 and although he still got some sleep it did make him a little anxious.

By the time it was noon Edward had joined to manage the second counter. This time around customers were a little ruder, but that had to do with the fact that they were hungry and their lunch break would end soon. ‘Skill issue’, Tommy thought, they just shouldn’t come in at a time where everyone wants some croissants.

Speaking of croissants, those were also quickly running out with every customer he serviced. A single glance towards Edward and a brief second of eye contact showed that they weren’t faring much better either. Tommy almost-reluctantly gave the last croissant away and bid the man in question a good day, feeling the social anxiety kicking in.

He tried to pray as the next customer stepped up to order, but couldn’t think of a god in time, which is probably why the words “two chocolate croissants and a strawberry milkshake please” tumbled out of their mouth right after.

“Coming right up”, he said on autopilot as he forced a smile and turned to make their drink first, but oh shit had he just promised a specific time frame for their part of the transaction? And if they couldn’t abide to that would they get in trouble? Was that illegal??

His hands were sweating as he held the mixer. He really should’ve taken some kind of economy class before working here. They wouldn’t have been able to pay for one back then and weren’t close to Niki at all yet, but he knows now that would he just have asked she would’ve gladly taught him. Oh, hindsight, his mortal enemy.

Right as he was in the middle of very slowly putting the plastic cap on the drink and reached one hand out towards the paper straw, the savior of croissant-smell hit his nose. The next round was done, thank whatever gods he didn’t worship!

And Niki came striding to the front with four trays balanced on her arms, don’t ask him how she does that, letting the baked goodies roll onto the assortment in front of him. He quickly pushed the straw in all the way and grabbed his tongs to put two chocolate-filled croissants into their paper bag. The customer was smirking at him when he handed them their order with a relieved smile.

He guessed he hadn’t been as sneaky as he had wanted to. Looking over to his fellow soldier on the battlefield of customer service, Edward had gotten a good refill from Niki as well. Her timing was wholly fantastic.
Right after handing the last client their food, three cinnamon rolls and one slice of pudding cake, the door to the cafe dinged in a specific tune.

Technically it was a security measure for species which could camouflage, but there was only a single Chameleo this side of town anyway.
“Jaaaack, my maaaan!!”, Tommy slipped through onto the other side of the counter, holding his arms open for a hug. Jack accepted it, the colours on his skin copying the red-white pattern of his t-shirt: “Long time no see big man, how’re you all doing?”

“Pretty good! Ranboo’s yet to come back from their boarding school, but Tubbo and I have been hanging out a bunch after he got back”, ‘boarding school’ was a pretty decent cover-up for hero training, since Ranboo was pretty well-versed in many languages and learned a lot about politics and such there anyway.

However much he enjoyed Jack and Niki’s company however, he couldn’t tell them the truth. Revealing the civilian identity of a hero was very much illegal, and he guessed exposing the hero identity from a civilian too. Most importantly however it would be incredibly dangerous for Ranboo.

Even getting close to the hero organization required a spotless track record – which the three of them only had because of Tubbo forging them new identities, nobody had to know – so any known hostage with access to sensitive information was fair-game to villains all over the galaxy. Getting the three of them into such danger again wasn’t on his life’s to do list, thank you very much.

Jack let go and moved away: “Where’s Niki?”
“In the back. Go say hi”, Tommy walked back behind the counter as another customer walked in.
“Nope”, Tommy furrowed his brows as Jack moved exactly zero steps from where he had positioned himself, “I want to check up on you first”

Tommy stared incredulously as the man slowly became transparent and blended into the light pink curtains beside the bakery’s windows: “Huh?”
“I said I wanted to check up on you. How’s the job doing? Everything going smoothly?”
Tommy didn’t break eye contact as he packaged the client’s order, who was also looking very confused in between the two.

“Job’s doing good, as you can probably see”, Tommy shortly glanced around the place to make a point, “Does your vision still work? Have you gone blind, Jack?”
“No I haven’t??”, the atmosphere in the shop became increasingly perplexed as many customers turned around to watch their banter with curiosity.

“Prove it by ordering something”, Tommy said. Although Jack was a good 80% blended into the bakery’s background he could see him blink. Take that economy lessons, Tommy was the greatest at marketing even with zero education!
Jack seemed to shake out of it a little, his form coming back into focus again: “No, why would I? I’m not even hungry-”

“What a horrible person you are, destroying your friend’s business!”, Tommy dramatically waved his arm along the sitting customers, “You’re de-motivating everybody in here from ordering, because you have selfishly decided to show your lack of interest into the baked goods Niki makes with her own hands!”

Before Jack could open his mouth to say something, Tommy continued: “She works so hard to feed all these people and make the best products she can, and you kick it all with your feet!”
There was a snort from the kitchen.
“To say you’re undeserving of her great friendship is an understatement!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”, Jack had finally awoken from his windows-screensaver-looking mode and was firing back, “I just said that I wasn’t hungry at that moment! How would you know I’m not the most well-paying regular at this shop?”
“That’s the pink-haired buff dude”, Tommy countered, “And I’ve got access to the finances!”

“He does not!”, Niki called from the employee-only area, but he was about to carry on anyway.
Jack was looking up at the clock: “Doesn’t your shift end at 1pm?”
“Yeah, what are you-”, Tommy glanced up as well, finding they had been bantering for a solid 20 minutes.
Niki walked to the two of them: “You two wanna come take a break in the back? I’m sure providing this entertaining show for my customers has tired you out”

“Tommy Innit doesn’t get tired, ever!”, unfortunately for him, he somewhat failed at suppressing his yawn into his hand. Jack snickered and immediately got elbowed in the shoulder. The Cameleo was short too, what a loser.

Niki pulled him aside as Jack munched on some free donuts.
As they got to the corner of the kitchen, she whispered: “How was your weekend?”.
“Why are you whispering?”
“Sorry, I’m just a little worried. You’ve hidden scratches and bruises from me before”
Tommy guiltily looked down at the tiles.

“And you don’t have to either”, Niki looked into his eyes, “But please tell me if you ever get in trouble, okay? You’re good kids. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Tommy crossed his arms: “You’re barely an adult too. What are you gonna do to protect us?”
Niki sighed and her gaze saddened. “Just know I’ll be there for you, okay?”
“Okay.”

The three of them jumped as the back door slammed open, revealing a panting Tubbo. Tommy immediately straightened, while Niki’s hand slipped to something strapped around her hip. Jack was nowhere to be seen, but both of them knew he was preparing for a sneak attack in case something went downhill.

Tubbo caught his breath, but didn’t make any move inside the bakery. He looked up at Tommy: “The ferry ship has arrived.”
Tommy practically glowed at the news. Niki and Jack both breathed sighs of relief.
The boy made a quick step towards the door, but whipped his head back around to face Niki.
“Go ahead”, before she was finished, both boys sprinting out the door.

Chapter Text

Don’t get him wrong, Tubbo had been absolutely ecstatic about seeing Ranboo again. They had been apart with zero visits for the better part of two months. The only thing convincing him of the final member of their trio even being alive was the letters they would send, their secret encryption stating that they were safe and very much not in the process of dying, calm down Tommy.

Tubbo had been waiting for this moment for ages, the question if today would be the day was the first thing he thought of every morning. If he had Ranboo’s powers he would teleport to the interstellar harbor immediately – somewhere a little off and out of sight though, he wouldn’t want anybody to see him using a manifestation, be It his own or someone else’s.

Short rant aside, he’d love to be there in as few seconds as possible. And it was clear that Tommy had the same idea in mind. The problem was that Tubbo couldn’t fucking keep up.
“Slow down, fucker! You’re ripping my arm out!!”
Tommy answered by slowing down a little, but nowhere near enough for Tubbo not to trip over his own feet trying to keep up their tempo: “Not my fault you’re about as fast as a slug!”

Tubbo tried moving his legs in the same rhythm as Tommy’s, and even managed to keep up a couple of steps. But even though he had tried his best to land a footstep every time Tommy did he was still slowing down. Tubbo grit his teeth and a strong pull by Tommy made him lose his rhythm.

The pace was also draining him of energy incredibly quickly. Contrary to popular belief, or stereotypes if you wanted to be honest with yourself, Tubbo was a pretty good runner. If he wasn’t he probably wouldn’t have survived most of his very dangerous experiments, not even counting all the terrifying situations his childhood had thrown at him.

He wasn’t even average, if you’d pit a bunch of random people of different species together in a running match, Tubbo could finish in the top 7 with a little effort. One – because he was a prey animal, and two – because he was jacked as shit. Tommy however, was a damn race shuttle! And Tubbo’s legs were tiring out just one minute after having started this sprint.

Tommy turned his head so he could see him: “Come o-”
“Fuck you!”, the Caprinae screetched, “My legs are too short for this!”
“What do you mean?! You’ve run faster than this before”
“I ran all the way from the rebuilt planetarium to your job to fucking tell you in the first place! How much stamina do you expect me to have?!”

Talking while running was definitely making the situation worse, but Tubbo would be very insistent to get his point across: “I’m not a battleship for the star’s sake!”
They had finally, fucking finally, slowed down to a walking pace, and a look of contemplation seemed to cross the other boy’s face.

Tommy sighed: “As much as I hate to admit it-”
“Oh how I wish to shrivel up your ego in a dehydrator.”
“you’re right.”, at least he looked regretful. But the way the gremlin was looking at him was becoming more suspicious by the millisecond.
“There’s a ‘but’, isn’t there?”

Tommy’s smug grin widened: “But I can’t just leave our dearest Ranboob waiting like that.”
Tubbo was thrown onto his back with a yelp, immediately scrambling for purchase with his legs. Thank the stars his goat-like instincts were good at balancing themselves on cliff sides, because otherwise he would’ve fallen right off as Tommy jumped onto the roof of a fucking building.

“What the fuck are you doing??”, Tubbo whisper-yelled into the boy’s ear, who responded by hopping from metal roofs to patches of concrete with an entire person hanging from his back.

Tommy grinned at him: “Now you’re a leech!”
“Urghhh”, Tubbo answered by lightly bonking his horns against the back of Tommy’s head. There really was no winning with this kind of banter. How in the universe did Jack handle talking to his menace for so long?
‘The trick is, I just don’t’, the imaginary Jack in his mind replied and the Caprinae nodded to agree. Tubbo’s brain was always right, after all.

A few more risky landings on tilted rooftops made Tubbo a little too worried to stay silent about it: “Are you seriously using your manifestation for this…”
“Of course I am! No other way for getting someone as heavy as you off the ground”
“Tommy, space ships are a thing.”

“Yeah I know, but we don’t own one”, Tommy took a short break from jumping to glance around the skyline. Right as Tubbo thought he’d let him down and continue towards the interstellar harbor like a normal fucking person, he adjusted and went right back to sprint-jumping again.

Tubbo couldn’t keep himself from letting out a loud and frustrated groan. Right at the same time, Tommy gasped and his eyes lit up with sparkles: “Wait- couldn’t you build us one?”
“None of us are old enough to have a flying license, Tommy.”
“But you have one??”

“That’s fake, stolen and tempered with.”, Tubbo sighed, once again, “I’ll go to jail three times over if anybody bothers to look it up in a database”
“What’s it for then?”, Tommy’s brows skrunkled in the way they did when he was thinking way too hard about something very simple.
Now it was Tubbo’s turn for a maniacal grin: “Breaking into classified fuckers, of course.”

“What?! You can’t do that”, Tommy promptly turned pale at the prospect, “You’ll get in so much trouble for that!”
“Only if you get caught”, Tubbo shoved his leg into the boy’s side as if his friend was a horse. “You’re not one to talk either, showing off your manifestation in the middle of the day. You know how dangerous that shit can be for the three of us!”

Tommy proceeded by stumbling back onto solid ground, letting Tubbo get down from his back.
He grabbed the Caprinae’s arm right after, slowly pulling him toward their goal: “I’ll tell them the truth then”
Tubbo was so incredibly done with this conversation. His social and physical energy reserves had reached an astounding rock bottom, the lowest point since the bubble tea incident. He wouldn’t even react if Tommy poured a gallon of ice cold water over his head. So with the most conversational prowess he could muster, which sounded more like an decaffeinated college student than something alive, he asked the one simple question Tommy would want to hear right now: “Which is?”

“That I’m a big man who is so very strong. An infinite amount of pure muscle, I could lift a jet fighter by myself!”
“And what if they ask you to prove it”
“I’ll tell them the thought of seeing my bestest friend after two months apart gave me strength”
“That’s so sweet of you, actually. But I’m too tired to react to much of anything right now.”

The silence managed to stretch on for ten entire seconds.
“Wait a minute- ‘Bestest friend’?? What about me?!”

Chapter Text

The massive ferry ship had docked into the medium cylindrical port of the harbor. The large circle of hallways stood still around it’s cuboid center and telling from the cold thrusters it had been in this position for a little bit by now. About 10 to 15 minutes if Tubbo had to guess, the rockets on spacecrafts this size usually took a bit to stop glowing.

The ferry was maintained well and looked up to protocol, at least from outside and a good distance away. Tubbo had always admired ships this size, but he’d definitely prefer to pilot a speed flighter or even a simple battleship, as long as it was above VER214.

Now an outsider who knew about Tubbo’s prowess in physics, mechanics and chemistry would probably assume it would have something to do with the specific mechanism of it’s acceleration and inertia, but it had majorly to do with the fact that these ships had guns.

If he ever found a way to permanently get his hands on a ship, it would either be because he stole it or he built it himself with no state supervision, which would just end up with him, Tommy and Ranboo (because they’d definitely be on board) being chased by authorities anyway.

He watched as the maintenance crew arrived in their little rovers.
“So where do we wanna look for them, bossman?”, he asked Tommy. No answer. He whipped his head around, only to find the boy missing from his spot.
“Ugh.”, he groaned, turning back around to scan the area for a blond dumbass in a red-white t-shirt.

And there his friend was, sprinting towards the crowd of passengers waiting to be picked up by their friends and family outside the ferry’s exit. Tubbo sighed, pinched his brow and began jogging after him. And to say that himself and Ranboo were the ones planning to get platonically married once they turned of age. The third wheel was being the clingiest out of all of them.

---

He’d already exhausted most of his speed and strength, even with his accelerated physical abilities switched on, but it had been so unbelievably long since he’d seen the last missing piece to their puzzle that he just couldn’t wait. His hooves easily pushed against the concrete as he ran towards the crowd, trying to make out a familiar face.

This rotation was always full of people coming back home to their families. Tommy frowned. Ranboo would likely be submerged in the crowd, somewhere in between, making themselves look smaller than they actually were. Well, at least the hero agency was good at picking out the optimal times for sending their trainees on holiday. That didn’t mean he’d be happy about them keeping one of his best friends from the two of them for this long.

Finally Tommy was close enough to see the faces of the passengers. He slowed down to a quick walk. The adults didn’t spare him more than a glance that fleeted as soon as they could tell which species he was. They definitely would’ve been less on guard if he’d been a prey species, but a relatively common and lanky predator wasn’t something to worry about either.

The teens and kids made way for him however, one toddler hiding behind the fourth leg of a parent. Wariness of certain species still gets taught in school, at least according to one of their old friends who he prefers to forget, but adults have life figured out so far they know a lone Divul won’t try anything rash, especially not with law enforcement around.

As the people part and he squeezes through a few cracks in the crowd, a head of white and black hair comes into view above all the others. A person shoves their elbow into his ribs but he is too excited to care.
“Ranboo!”, he exclaims, and the hair quickly whooshes around to reveal a pair of mismatched eyes peeking from above a taller arachnid.

“Tommy!”, the couple people still between them move apart, many with a knowing smile on their face. As soon as the way is clear, Tommy launches himself onto the Enderian, who lets out a high-pitched screech in protest. They’re barely able to avoid falling over, but the imbalance is quickly followed by giddy laughter.

“We’ve been waiting for so long! Where have you been, dude?!”, despite wanting to be strict with them, Tommy can’t shake the wide grin off of his face.
“I’m sorry”, Ranboo says, rather predictably, “I had to stay longer for a colleague, they got married so I had to do overtime”

Tommy easily played along with the fake narrative: “Next time tell em to shut up and let you go back home on time”
“Or alternatively, you could be the one getting married”, a very out of breath Tubbo said behind him. “Tubbo!”, Ranboo lit up just as much as when they had seen Tommy again, “It’s been so insanely long. How have you two been?”

“Pretty good”, Tommy answered, “haven’t been fired by Niki yet.”
“I’m great!”, Tubbo agreed. He heaved Ranboo’s suitcase, which was about two thirds of his height, onto one shoulder. The onlookers threw many startled looks their way. “But let’s get you home first, right? You must be hella tired.”

All of them knew it was just an invitation to continue talking in private, but the two of them agreed. “How long will you be able to stay anyway?”, Tommy asked after a few minutes.
Tubbo put his free hand on his hip at that: “If it’s less than three weeks I will physically prevent your ferry from leaving the ground, no excuses.”

“Oh, uh”, Ranboo smiled again, “It’s two months actually”
“Two months?!”, Tommy yelled. Tubbo shushed him as the entire street jumped to look at them. The blond glanced at him but turned back to Ranboo just as quickly: “What the fuck did you do for them to get that? Blow up an illegal substance trading station?”

Ranboo chuckled: “No, I- I didn’t do that. It’s just that I’m not an intern anymore.”
Both Tubbo and Ranboo looked at them in utter bafflement. “As in- as in you’re done?”, Tubbo asked, barely able to close his mouth.
“Yep”, the Enderian popped the p, a few steps too casual considering the implications of the information they had just been told.

“The fuck??”, Tommy was finally able to react by the time they had reached their apartment and Tubbo had opened the door for the three of them, holding his head in his hands as if that would make comprehending it easier.
“So I’m basically free for a bit after my first real mission. Which I think is pretty great”

Tubbo locked the door again, checking the hidden cameras for any suspicious activity: “Now, are you already done with your first mission or do you still have to do that? Because if you gotta leave for that shit in the next few weeks I will follow through with my threat-”

“Oh, uh…”, Ranboo stood a little nervously, drawing Tubbo’s disappointed and Tommy’s confused look onto themselves, “The mission. Is in this city…”
Suddenly it was very silent.
“… What?”, Tommy broke the uncomfortable atmosphere, but it didn’t ease the anxiety in the room by even a little bit.

Tubbo bit his lip in thought: “Are you sure?”
“Yes”, Ranboo took a short breath. Tubbo’s voice got louder: “-Are you absolutely sure?”
“Tubbo,” Tommy started, but was immediately interrupted.
“You know what this can mean, right? Last time we didn’t have one of us on the front lines and still got pulled into the crossfire.”

“I know”, Ranboo said, just as Tommy was about to open his mouth.
“And you’re telling me, that because of the 6th celestial body’s bullshit, another one of you is going to jump in front of a 4000 Kelvin laser?!”
Tommy winced. Ranboo stepped forward to lay a hand on Tubbo’s arm: “It’s alright. Worst case scenario we make a run for it again,”

Leaving all the friends they had made in the past year behind made a sharp pain flare up in Tommy’s chest, but if worst came to worst it would be their only chance to survive.
“None of us have vision-altering manifestations, Ranboo.”, Tubbo argued further, “The hero agency has pretty much every detail of our likenesses memorized in their database. We’re not getting away as easily this time, if at all”

Last time had been far from easy, every one of them knew. But Tubbo had a very strong argument. The hero agency, and therefore the celestial body running it, knew of Ranboo’s useful and promising manifestation and the ‘potential threats’ to classified information Tubbo and Tommy represented.

The only reason they were being allowed to know about a few of the internal workings of the system was because the higher ups were convinced they would never do something to put their best friend at risk. Which was completely correct and an almost eerily accurate assessment of their relationship, but they weren’t about to complain about something that was actively keeping them out of harm’s way.

“Are you even allowed to tell us what you’re getting yourself into?”, Tubbo asks, too emotionally exhausted to be mad anymore.
“Correction”, Tommy said, and two pairs of eyes were on him, “Are you going to tell us what the fuck is going to happen in this city? Because I have a feeling you, and by extension us three, aren’t going to be the only one’s affected.”
Tubbo frowned: “Why do you care what happens to the others? It’s not important as long as the three of us are safe.”

“I don’t, but I would at least like to know about which people we can trust and which are going to have a grudge against Ranboo after this”, it was quite hurtful for Tommy to say he didn’t care about Niki, Jack, Edward and everyone else he was friends with in this new life, and it hurt even more to lie to Tubbo’s face like that, but being selfish had made their last situation go from bad to horrible and he didn’t want to take any chances.

Tubbo, apparently, was not taking any chances either, but the other way around: “No one. The answer is we trust no one. And best if we make a code between ourselves so no sensory manifestations can use the trust we have in between each other.”

“Guys, guys, it’s alright”, Ranboo jumped in again, “I’m just the get-away driver.”
“You mean teleporter?”, Tommy immediately took the chance to lighten the mood. Jeez, how much he didn’t want to be having this conversation. Especially not right now, a few hours after Ranboo had returned home after months of being away.

“That’s still dangerous”, Tubbo butted in, stance calmer but still tense.
“I don’t think so. Dream is making sure I don’t get hurt or seen, he told me not to attend next week’s night market”
Tubbo didn’t look completely convinced, but lowered his voice: “So that’s where and when it’s gonna go down, huh?”

“Speaking of, do you think the thing we ran into last Sunday has something to do with it?”, Tommy asked. They had heard the screams, but there hadn’t been anyone running from the presumable threat. The entire ordeal had been closed-off to one section of the market and it had been very secretive.
“Huh? What happened on Sunday?”, Ranboo questioned with a tilt of their head.

“We had a confrontation with a villain”, Tubbo answered, “or at least a villain’s manifestation”
“Oh!! Are you okay?!”
“We are, the thing didn’t manage to do anything before its owner called it back”
“Yeah”, Tommy began to explain, “It was one of the Blood God’s war hounds, have you ever heard of him?”

Ranboo paled: “Mhmm, surprised you two look as fine as you do”
“Oh, you didn’t have to, you’re quite handsome as well!”
“Tubbo, now’s not the time for hitting on your friends”, Tommy sighed.
Ranboo simply continued on with what they had to say: “I mean, the shadow hounds are scary enough on their own, since they can solidify by command, but then there’s the blood magic-”

“Wait, that’s actually a thing?”, Tommy turned to them with a baffled look on his face, “I thought people had made that shit up to make him scarier!”
Ranboo nodded solemnly.

“Quick question Ranboo”, Tubbo piqued up, changing the topic, “Did you see or hear of any plans surveilling us while you’re here?”
“Hard no. As far as they know you’re just two poor and unimportant teenagers, one with a weak manifestation and the other powerless”
Tubbo snorted at that, while Tommy gave a weak smile: “Well they’re wrong about that”

“Why do you ask?”, the blond sat down on a pillow on the ground.
“Well”, Tubbo was holding his hands behind his back and avoiding eye contact, which was never a sign of innocence, “I told you I had something to show you, didn’t I?”