Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The rain poured down on him, drenching his thin cloak,  he was crying yet it wasn’t visible in the heavy rain. He looked down to his hands, covered in blood. Someone else's blood. They had a family in the bunkers, he saw her waving goodbye in a bitter manner as she was dragged out forcefully. His hands were covered in her blood— his hands were covered in someone else's blood—

He woke up from the nightmare, startled and tears streaming down his face. His eyes were puffy and he shifted uncomfortably on the cot. 

He realized he woke up due to the alarm going off beside his small cot, he huffed, turning it off and sitting up from the bed. Tommy rubbed aggressively at his eyes, trying to remove the tears cascading down his face. 

He looked around the room —if he could even call it that, it was just a cloth covering his room from the rest of the tent— sighing once he realized it was just another nightmare, another nightmare of that . He took a hair tie off his wrist, bunching the overgrown shoulder length hair into a small ponytail.

He got up from the bed, walking over to the bag to the side of the door —i mean it wasn’t really a door— grabbing a pair of cargo pants, a plain white tee, a black undershirt, and a riding hood-like cloak to protect him from the large amounts of rain and the light snow that covered the city. Grabbing a pair of boots —to protect him from the snow, he much rather would wear normal shoes— due to the light snow and puddles that would cover the ground this time of year.

Tommy broke through the curtain carefully, slipping outside as to wake no one else up, then starting his track to the medical tent. He walked carefully through the hall-like ways of the tent looking at both the open and closed curtains, most open ones being the nurses and doctors. The closed ones consisted of most of the soldiers —if you could call them that— and others were empty. 

He huffed, thinking about how lucky the people who got to stay in the bunkers were, not having to participate in the on-going war. (He knew his anger was misguided.) 

He thought of the poor soldiers that weren’t ready to fight the battle, also mourning the underskilled vigilantes that were forced into battle by both the villains and heroes, depending on where their morals were. He mourned all the lost soldiers, rather it be on the villain side or hero side, they all had someone most likely waiting for them.

Or some people were like him.

No one waiting home, no one waiting off the battlefield, no one waiting on the battlefield, forced on to it like some sort of pawn.  

Ah, how he longed to be normal. 

He remembered from a young age being forced into hiding by his parents, taking online classes and never making many friends, the feeling of loneliness never leaving him throughout his life. All because of a stupid overpowered power, he couldn't be a child throughout his childhood. His mind whispered to him how he still is a child. He remembered his parents always shoving some sort of gloves on him when people would come over, making sure he didn't do anything.

He often compared himself to Elsa from frozen for that reason—

He snapped his attention back to current time, hearing snow crunch under his boots. He sighed, opening the makeshift curtain and shoving his hands into his pant pockets and shivering a little due to the harsh cold that hit him like a truck. Tommy began his track back to the medical tent, walking on the path —deciding to ignore the faint yelling going on in other tents— that led towards the medical tent, or at least the tent he was assigned to.

He stopped, taking a moment to take in the beautifully bitter environment. Small shop walls stained red, office buildings crumpled down in small parts, tents crowding just outside the city that was halfy surrounded by a nearby forest.

There was a lot of blood he noted as he took in the scenery, a lot of beauty too, the way the snow dusted over things so carefully as if it were a parent calming down a child from a tantrum. The puddles of water that were slightly tinted red and the leaves on the trees having splatters of different liquids on it.

Beauty is pain after all. 

Tommy looked up from the path, eyes locking onto someone else that crouched behind a tent. The other person glared, eyes filling with fury with a hidden tint of nervousness behind them.

“Hello?” Tommy spoke cautiously, putting his hands up in a show of vulnerability. 

The person didn’t say anything, putting one of his hands behind his back to, he’s guessing, pull a weapon out.

“Listen man, I don’t care what you're doing here, just get away from the medical tents.” He explained, massaging his forehead– he’s far too tired for this. 

The person just glared even harder, pulling out a small dagger from behind him. God he had to stop calling them the person. The person got up from his crouching state, morphing into a lousy fighting stance. Tommy sighed, pulling a small throwing knife from his belt. 

“I’m not trying to fight you, jeez.” Tommy explained, putting his knife down on the ground in front of him.

The person seemed more at ease with this, yet still suspicious. (probably guessing he has more weapons, which he does.) Tommy sighed, realizing he’d had to go approach the person, he thinks. He assumes they’re probably a teenager, due to looking more like him. 

Tommy slowly stalked towards him, putting his hands up in a way of vulnerability while still being careful.

The person glared at him even more, now that he was closer he could tell they had barely any features visible besides they’re purple eyes glaring at him. 

“What’s your name?” Tommy asked, now just 2 feet away from them. 

The person didn’t respond. 

“C’mon man, work with me so I don't have to turn you in!” He begged, internally crying at the struggle he was experiencing. 

The person suddenly darted forward, pinning one of Tommy’s arms to the ground with one hand and holding the dagger to his throat, it reeked of poison.

“Where is Dream.” The purpled eyed person hissed, voice distorted due to the mask that hung upon their face. Now seeing them up close he saw a small puff of blonde hair peeking out of the black hood that had pretty purple embroidery sketched into it.

“I mean, I think he’s in like tent three or something but I'm not sure, he could be in a medical tent? I haven’t seen him in a while.” Tommy answered, looking off into space as he tried to come up with a response.

“W-what?” The purpled–eyed person asked, looking at Tommy if he had grown three heads. 

“You asked where he was?” Tommy questioned, looking down at the dagger that was still inching closer to his neck.

“Give me where he is.” They spat, glaring even harder.

Now Tommy was just confused, he answered their question but he was still held at knife-point. Did they want an exact location? Because he couldn't give one!

The knife inching closer by the second, he huffed realizing they weren’t going to believe him. He used his free arm to pull out a small knife from a pocket, stabbing the person in the stomach, digging it deeper to cut through clothes and slash across their stomach.

They grunted, their hands losing strength after a minute or two or struggling, they tried to stab his throat but he rolled over quickly, pushing them off of him. They aimed their dagger towards his upper arm, attempting to slash him but he rolled over once again —the opposite way this time— and inhaling sharply as he springed up from the floor. Heavy breathing filling the area as the other person got up, barely affected by the blood loss. 

And now this was where he panicked, he looked around for anything he could use to, like, knock them out or something. 

Yeah.

That might work.

He spotted a spare metal rod on the ground just four or five feet away, rushing towards the thing and quickly grabbing it from the ground, holding it in front of him with both hands. He shakes as he holds it out in front of him, unsure on how to even swing this thing.

They darted forward, running towards Tommy. Tommy put the bat up, swinging it against their head when they thought they got close enough. He blindly swung, closing his eyes scaredly— and then her heard a thud, and another bigger thud. 

He opened his eyes, looking at the body laying limply in front of him, something clicking in his mind.

Tommy stared wide eyed, realizing he might have just, maybe, possibly, murdered a man.

He was a healer! Not a murder!!

He quickly ran forward, crouching down to the person and flipping them onto their back. Fuckity fuck. He reached towards the end of their hoodie, snatching it up to reveal a black long sleeve looking shirt. Which was in fact, not helpful considering he needed to heal them.

“Oh fuckity fuck, Wait are you fucking dead? Hey! I'm talking to you!” Tommy yelled, shaking them a little bit.

They did not respond.

“Oh shit. Fuckity fuck. I killed a man, holy fucking hell. What the fuck.” He muttered to himself, a look of horror dawning his face.

He used his small knife to gently tear a strip away from the black undershirt, hope this person doesn’t have an emotional attachment to this shirt. He thought bitterly as he ripped the piece of fabric that sat over the wound. The shirt making a wet gushing sound as it clung to the wound, he held back a gag as he cautiously removed the bloody fabric from the wound, blood strings clinging to the inside of it. 

Disgusting.

He put his hands on the wound, closing his eyes and trying hard to ignore the squelching sounds coming from the wound restitching itself together. He opened his eyes after a minute or two of squelching sounds, grimacing when he saw the scar that was left and the sticky blood that covered the person's stomach. 

He rubbed his forehead with his hand— and now there was sticky blood covering his forehead. Yeesh, that would be hard to explain if anyone was up. He then snatched the hood off the person, wrapping his hands around the side he think he hit. He closed his eyes, waiting for that tingly little sense to happen as he healed whatever might be there.

Listen, he is not in the mood to go full surgeon on this random person.

He got up from the ground, attempting to pick up the person before realizing how fucking weak he is to this person, do they fight constantly or something?

Okay they probably do but that's besides the point.

He opted for dragging the person instead, dragging them to the nearby alleyway in the city just outside camp. Tommy put them behind a dumpster, praying to the gods (Literally just ender and prime) that some random hero (or villain) didn't murder them in their sleep.

After Tommy made sure they were safe, at least as safe as they could be mid-war , he darted out of the alleyway.

He completely forgot about what he was meant to do before that bitch came and tried to fight him! Actually he was trying to find Dream —that prick— but he obviously didn’t believe him. I mean, it makes sense considering who would give away one of the most valuable hero’s location away. 

He sighed, that was the most interesting thing that happened to him since 3 weeks ago when one of the top heroes came in drugged. That was funny as fuck, they were telling nurses that they rode a horse that day. 

Heh.

Oh right he has blood on his face he has to wash off—

——— 

“Tommy! We have 3 nameless heroes coming in from the battlefield, its an estimated 5 minutes before they get here.” A sharp inhale “Can you get the cots and medical supplies ready?” Ponk finishes, breathing heavily as he puts his hands on his knees.

“Yeah, injuries?” Tommy asked, jogging over to the cots.

“Unknown but they say serious injuries, one person is unconscious.” She answered, digging through the cabinets on the right side of the tent. 

He groaned, pulling out medical supplies from the nightstand that sat idly beside a cot. Going to each cot's nightstand and doing the same.

A few minutes later 3 nurses who he hadn’t bothered to learn the names of came rushing in with soldiers on stretchers, yelling out injuries and asking where they put them.

“Over here!” Tommy yelled out over the chaos, motioning towards the cots at the back of the tent. They all rush over, rushing to put the nameless heroes on the cots.  He picked up the one that looked the lightest, rolling them over onto the bed, realizing two things.

One, this person was not light.

Two, this was the unconscious person.

Three, this ‘nameless hero’ was Niki.

He panicked, rushing to check all over the body laying stiffly. Only finding a massive stab wound with tiny pieces of glass in the injury, some deep in it and some almost falling out. Oh god— this is very bad, how is he even gonna get all the glass shards out quickly and safely—

His thoughts were cut off with a thump against his head, not quite hurting but still there.

And another very light one that seemed like 2 things.

Tommy looked to the side to see ponk looking at him with a disappointed stare, which he doesn’t know why. He’s not doing anything particularly wrong? Ponk looked at the ground, then back up at him. He looked to the floor to see—

Oh.

…A box of masks and a pair of gloves.

Yeah, he might need that now that he thinks about it.

He bent down to get the box and gloves, picking them up and setting them on the nightstand, quickly rushing to shove on the gloves, then placing the basic medical mask on his face. 

He took a PURPLE from a tray sitting on the nightstand type desk, poking around the deep wound in search of glass shards. He found one at the top layer, slowly pulling it out as more blood bubbled up to the surface, bleh , and placing it on a tray that someone had gotten him in the last ten minutes. He went to poking around the injury again, looking for the biggest shards. 

After about fifteen or twenty minutes he got all the glass shards out, sighing in relief as he put his hands over the injury, blood staining his hands red. Tommy closed his eyes, waiting for that tingly feeling for when he heals, he feels the skin molding back together under his hands, having to move his hands so they don't get stuck in the skin.

He bandaged the wound up, taking a towel from the side of the bed and dabbing up the blood that sank onto the cot. 

——— 

Tommy walked the lone streets of the city, looking around with every crunch so he doesn’t get kidnapped somehow. He’s not allowed to be here considering he’s one of the only healers in the city that the hero’s know of, making him ten times more valuable to the ‘villains’ side of the war. 

Snow fell down onto him, covering his hood but still getting light snow falling onto a lock of hair peeking out from the cloak. He took his arm out from the cloak, watching as the snow fell onto his hands. He always liked the snow.

It reminded him of his childhood, when he would play in the snow with the other kids in the home. He takes it back, it's a bittersweet memory. 

A crunch sounds from an alleyway.

Someone’s here.

He turns around, he should head to the tents.

But he is bored.

He slowly stalks towards the alleyway the sound came from, making sure to walk in paths where snow is light as to make minimum sounds.

He peeked into the alleyway, looking for any signs of life. He moves into the alleway quietly.

He should head back.

Suddenly he feels something brush against his leg, what the fuck--

He turns around quickly, eyes darting around the alleyway just to look down and see-

A cat. 

It's a cat. Thats what he was scared of, a simple fucking cat. 

He cooed, crouching down to the ground to scoop up the cat. The cat leaned into the touch, purring slightly.

The cat had a lightish brown coat, being very fluffy. 

He scooped the very fluffy cat up, sitting it in his arms and heading out the alleyway to go to the base.

——— 

Chapter Text

 “You're not some villain who’s gonna kidnap me and or murder me, right?” Tommy asked, looking at the cat that sat on his bed awkwardly. Quite suspicious for a cat to not know how to fucking sit, but what does he know he’s not a cat, he thinks.

The cat just looked up at him, staring directly into his face for around ten seconds before going back to snooping around the room. He stalked towards the bed, plopping down on it gently so the cat doesn’t get startled. If it is a cat, kinda weird for a cat to be out in a random alleyway mid-war. 

He just went back to staring at the cat intensely, not quite a glare since it wasn’t in a rude manner but in a ‘please don’t kill me in my sleep’ way. The cat would stare at him intently sometimes, but would usually put all its focus on the doorway of the room.

 “You wanna go outside, aye?” Tommy questioned, looking at the cat and raising an eyebrow. God he really needs another name besides ‘the cat’. 

The cat looked at him, looked at the door, then back at him again, then suddenly jumped off the bed and started walking towards the door. Tommy quickly springed up from the bed, landing on his feet and wobbling a little before falling onto his knees and letting out an ‘oof’ sound as he hit the ground. He looked up to see the cat staring at him, very judgmentally .  Tommy tried to stand up again, tripping on his own feet and falling on his knees again. 

After a few tries of standing up he finally just lays down on the ground, accepting defeat to whatever god must hate him out there. He looks back up again to see the cat now staring at him with both worry, judgment, and confusion. Don't ask him how a cat is staring at him with all these emotions —and how he can tell— but it just is. 

“What are you looking at, pussy.” He spat out, glaring at the cat that sat both in front and above him. The cat just sharply turns the other way towards the door and starts trotting towards it.

Tommy yelps a little bit, quickly scrambling to get up so a cat doesn’t fucking leave him. He finally gets on his feet after a few seconds, running towards the cat that is now in the hallways which it is not allowed to be in. The cat keeps walking in the halls, and Tommy keeps scrambling to keep up with the cat. It trotted its way to the front or back or whatever you call an opening to the tent. 

The cat kept running, even when they got outside of the tents, seeming to be running around for no other reason but exploring. Tommy doubled over after a few minutes, panting heavily as he shivered from the harsh cold. The cat just sat in front of him, looking up at him in a worried way.

“You,” Tommy panted heavily, “bitch.” He finished, glaring at the cat that was sitting innocently on the ground. The cat just turned around sharply, stumbling a bit before trotting —slower this time— off to other tents, looking back at him after a few seconds of walking to see if he was following. Tommy just glared at the cat more harshly than before, standing up from his hunched over form and reluctantly following the cat.

They walked for a little while before the cat suddenly stopped in its tracks, Tommy stopping shortly after due to not wanting to step on the cat. The cat looked both ways, Tommy quickly realizing that this was where the storage-like tents were at. The cat slowly walked into one of the tents —on the left he noted— and quickly crept into the doorway. Tommy was about to follow the cat before a voice shouted at him from behind. 

He looked behind him to see a man, probably somewhere in his twenties with black hair tied back into a short ponytail, walking towards him with a wary facial expression. He was yelling something but Tommy couldn’t hear him that well due to the distance that sat between them.

“Don’t go in there kid, got some explosives and shit in there.” He finally heard the man say as he got into talking distance with Tommy. Tommy glanced at the tent, then back at the man confused but getting the memo.

“What are you even doing here, shouldn’t you be in the bunkers or something?” He asked, looking Tommy’s smaller frame up and down in a worried way. 

Tommy looked at him confused, wondering how this random dude didn’t know who he was— not to brag but he’s pretty popular, mainly just because of his powers but still. The dude just stared back at him with a normal but slightly worried expression. Tommy shortly realized that he could use this to his advantage.

“I…work here?” He spoke cautiously, not giving away too much information. The man just looked him up and down for the second time, shrugging it off after about thirty seconds.

“My name's Sapnap, what’s yours?” He, or, Sapnap asked him, holding a hand out. 

“Uh, uhm,” Tommy stuttered, looking nervously at the hand because no one has ever asked for his name besides Ponk, always just calling him by his birth name or ‘kid’.

“Tommy.” He decided on answering after a few seconds, going in for the handshake just to be pulled into a hug by the man — letting out a small ‘oof’ sound. 

After a moment of the hug, Sapnap let go and started walking away. Tommy just stood there awkwardly, not knowing whether to follow or just continue what he was going to do before that. Sapnap quickly realized that there were no footsteps following him, or movement at all. 

“Well? Are you just gonna stand there?” He questioned, motioning for Tommy to follow him. The younger quickly followed after the older, walking behind him but not too close to him. 

——— 

A granola bar hit Tommy’s head, falling down into his hands that were cupped together in front of him to try to catch it. 

“Eat up.” Sapnap responded easily, looking in the pantry for another granola bar for himself. Tommy just stared at the granola bar for a second, wondering if he was actually allowed to eat it or not.

“Are you sure? I mean you shouldn’t have to just give me food—” He got cut off by another granola bar being thrown at his head, Sapnap staring at him with a feral grin.

“The more you deny, the more I give you.” He answered with a smirk, turning back to his mission to scavenge through the pantry. Tommy just stared at the granola bars with his mouth agape, mind not quite processing a simple act of kindness yet. Okay maybe this isn’t a trap.

After a few seconds Tommy cautiously unwrapped one of the granola bars, glancing up at Sapnap (even though he wasn’t facing Tommy’s way) nervously as he took a bite. He grimaced a little bit, it wasn’t bad, he would just prefer not to eat it. Tommy ate it quickly to get it over with, cringing as he ate it. 

He finally finished it, standing up to throw the trash away so he wasn’t messy and rude.

“So, what's your job?” Sapnap asked, tilting his head to look at the shorter boy behind him, Tommy meeting his gaze after a moment or two.

“Oh— uh, I work in the medical tents.” He answered, avoiding eye contact. 

“Ah, you a nurse?” He questioned, unwrapping his own granola bar and shoving it in his mouth carelessly. 

“...Yeah.” Tommy answered questioningly, looking off to one of the walls of the tent. 

Sapnap raised a brow at his questioning tone (not like Tommy would see that) clearly not convinced, but choosing not to say anything about it. Tommy just silently walked back over to his seat, sitting down as quietly as he could.

“You good kid?” The older questioned, looking skeptically at the younger boy. 

“‘m not a kid.” Tommy muttered, head hanging low as he spoke. Sapnap just sighed fondly, walking over to him and putting an arm over his shoulders.

“How do you feel about committing crimes?” Sapnap asked, an evil smirk donned upon his face. 

Tommy’s eyes widened, but he quickly smirked back mischievously at the man. 

——— 

A match fell into a pile of trash that sat stinking away in a garbage bin, quickly spreading through the relatively large dumpster. 

Tommy’s eyes lit up as golden and orange light reflected on his eyes, mouth opening in awe. Sapnap grinned, putting an arm around him and talking about how ‘this is how living life is’ or something, Tommy wasn't quite listening.

Sapnap stopped in his talking, looking at the slightly shorter boy in a fond way, the boy in question not noticing the silence coming from Sapnap. 

“Were you even listening?” He asked, tilting his head in an amused manner at Tommy.

“Maybe not! but look how cool this is!” Tommy exclaimed loudly, swooping his arms from under his cloak and widely gesturing to the dumpster fire. Sapnap chuckled, looking at the boy in a fond way. He knew he would kill for this kid even within a few hours of meeting him.

After a while of enjoying the oddly beautiful dumpster fire, Sapnap put it out. 

Tommy hummed confusingly, wondering why it was so abrupt. Sapnap just shushed him with a finger, pushing the both of them to the side of the dumpster not visible from the outside of the alleyway. 

Tommy was about to ask about it before he heard footsteps getting heavier, and closer.

——— 

Niki sighed as she went through another paper, filling it out. She would much rather be doing her ‘side job’ as she’d like to put it, the heroes wouldn’t quite agree with that… term though. She groaned into her hands after she signed another paper again, filling out numerous reports. God her other job was easier. She couldn’t even listen to music since they didn’t provide anything to play music on, She was just doomed to the endless amounts of paperwork. Also the faint yelling from other tents, music to her ears she would say.   

Okay now that she thinks about it it’s only a few papers, but they have a lot of contents to fill out. She continued to fill out the paperwork, as she did that she heard a small whoosh sound, that sounded much like a curtain opening. Niki was confused, as there were no tents near her that she would be able to hear a curtain opening, not to mention just a small portion of the curtain opening.

She pondered for a moment.

Shit that’s her curtain—

She spun around in her chair, almost falling in the process because of how sharply she turned. She looked around to see a light brown cat, striding into the tent sassily. She pondered for a moment, trying to think of where she saw the cat in question. 

A light flickered in her head, she smirked as she realized where she'd seen this cat.

“Having fun?” Niki asked sarcastically, smirking as she raised an eyebrow. The cat just glared at her, trotting over to the desk that sat in the corner of the room —Which she currently was sitting at— and jumped on top of it. The cat pawed at her blanket that hung off the desk for a moment, finally laying on it after they deemed fit. She huffed, smiling fondly as she went back to work on the boring paperwork that was put to the side. 

She made one sided small talk with the cat while doing her paperwork half-assed. The cat would sometimes meow back, or purr when she pet them —which was very amusing— or just sit on her paperwork. The cat would literally just sit on her paperwork sometimes. 

“Niki?” She heard a voice whisper from outside her tent, a familiar one she just couldn't quite put her finger on due to the volume. 

She got up from her chair, pushing it aside and walking to the front of the tent. She opened the curtain to reveal Jack standing there, looking around cautiously. 

Niki smirked after realizing that he didn't know she opened the curtain. 

“Boo.” Jack screamed, covering his mouth and looking over to the girl who had opened the tent. 

“You can't just scare me, someone could hear ! And if you can't tell, they wouldn't be quite happy !” He whisper-shouted, niki just giggling mischievously. He went off on her for a minute or two before hearing someone else come out of their tent. Niki motioned for him to come inside quickly, frantic hand motions as Jack slid into the tent. 

Jack looked around for a moment, eyeing the cat for a second before recognition flashed in his eyes and he groaned. Niki shushing him from the outside of the tent as someone came up to the front of the tent. 

“ Are you alright? I heard someone scream over here. ” A voice said, muffled slightly from being outside of the tent. 

“Ah, I'm fine, just got a bit scared.” She answered, waving her hand dismissively and shooing the person away. Jack covered his mouth as he saw a flash of brown hair peek into the room, which quickly got shooed away by Niki. 

“Are you sure no one is in there?” They asked, trying to get into the tent. Niki just sighed, glancing at Jack then eyes brightening as an idea popped into her head.

“There's a cat in here, but that's it.” She answered after a moment of glancing around the tent, glaring slightly at the person that stood outside the tent. The person outside just sighed and muttered something barely audible to Jack that Niki just rolled her eyes at.

“Goodnight George .” Niki sighed, closing the tent door and leaving no room for argument. A ‘goodnight Niki’ being heard faintly outside the tent. 

“This is why you shouldn’t have scared me.” Jack stated angrily after a minute or two, making gestures with his hand. Niki just giggled a little bit, a mischievous glint in her eyes still. 

“You do realize I just saved your ass?” She responded, pushing Jack out of the way and sitting back down in her chair. 

“What are they doing here?” Jack asked, glancing at the cat that sat on a small blanket that hung off the desk. Niki just glanced at the cat, then shrugged. 

“You know.” Niki answered, gesturing towards the place in general. Jack just sighed, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

“Why am I always left out of this stuff?” He muttered angrily, looking at the room since he had barely any time to look around. 

“Shouldn’t you go soon?” Niki asked, raising an eyebrow at Jack who was currently making himself comfortable on her bed. 

“Probably, I just wanted to visit y'know.” Jack answered, smiling a bit at the visiting part. Niki rolled her eyes fondly, going back to working on paperwork. 

They chatted idly for half an hour or so before Jack stated that he needed to get back to headquarters, running off into the distance while Niki just continued to do her paperwork that was forgotten. 

Chapter Text

Tommy covered his mouth, staring intensely at the mouth of the alleyway, Sapnap doing the same. 

After a minute or two of sitting in silence, three people in all black stopped in front of the alleyway, White masks covering their faces and guns loaded on their backs. 

Tommy made a little peep, covering his mouth even more intensely as one of the peoples heads snapped towards the alleyway. Sapnap glared at the people in black, grinding his teeth to keep him from doing anything he shouldn't. The person in black slowly stepped into the alleyway, looking around as the walked further into the alleyway. 

And closer to where they were hiding. 

“ Get back here, they sent us on a journey to a place not a stupid alleyway.” One of the people shouted, motioning for the person who came into the alleyway to come back. 

The person walked agonizingly slow out of the alleyway, still looking back in the small space as they walked out of it. The group walked further on as the person came back, only the one who came in the alleyway sparing it a glance. 

Sapnap gritted his teeth harder, slowly getting up from his crouching position and stalking towards the front of the alley. Tommy watched as he peeked his head out a bit, looking around for any sign of the group before deflating from relief. 

“Who was that?” Tommy asked in a whispered voice, still crouching near the dumpster. 

“That,” Sapnap took a sharp inhale in, “Was a syndicate group.” Tommy’s eyes widened in alarm, head turning sharply up to look at the older man. 

“The syndicate?” The younger asked in alarm, eyes darting all around the alley.

“No, not the syndicate, a syndicate group .” He answered dismissively, still looking outside the alleyway for any unwanted visitors.  

“What were they doing so close to the hero camp?” Tommy questioned, eyes locked onto the entrance to the alley like he was waiting for someone to pop up randomly. 

“I'm guessing they’re planning something.” He answered, popping back into the alley and walking over to the dumpster. Tommy hummed, eyes fixed on outside of the alley as he fiddled with his cloak. Sapnap sighed, pinching in between his eyebrows in distaste.

“I have to go report this to the heroes.” Sapnap spoke angrily, looking at Tommy in a sort of sadness.

“Oh.” The boy responded simply, getting the memo of what he meant. 

“Are you alright on your own, or do you wanna come back with me?” He asked, gesturing in the general direction of camp. Tommy pondered for a moment, before shaking his head no and getting up from his crouching position. 

“I'm good!” He replied, speedrunning out of the alleyway, and making his way down the street. Sapnap muttered something along the lines of ‘i shouldn’t be doing this’ before walking in the direction of the hero camp.

——— 

Tommy drug his hands along the cracked wall, feeling in between the cracks. He sighed as he looked out onto the street, broken buildings and dried up blood making up his vision. Some buildings were still intact but the ones that were still held together were most likely taken over by either the heroes or the villains, leaving nothing for the poor civilians that didn’t make it to the bunkers.

It was like a ghost town, no animals or humans roaming around but small sprouts of weeds or mold flourishing in destroyed buildings. There was never anyone in sight, not even the vigilantes who used to patrol early on in the war before the deemed it too dangerous to explore. Most people who did explore didn’t know their way around and would easily get lost, either dying from dehydration or getting taken by them. 

If he was lucky sometimes he would get a small animal roaming around, but most of them left only after minutes of scavenging the city due to nothing being around. 

He looked around the street once again, some random rabbit hopping, a puddle of dried up blood, a figure on a roof, some stone on the grou—

Wait a what on the roof.

Tommy’s head turned harshly to look at the room, seeing nothing there. He sighed, turning his attention back to the street in front of him, he saw a sprout of flowers growing in a random small puddle of grass. 

The rabbit was still hopping around, munching on some of the flowers (are rabbits supposed to eat flowers?).

He walked along the street, looking at alleyways and into doorways of empty buildings. 

He harshly got pulled into an alleyway, a hand coming to cover his mouth before he could scream (not like anyone would hear anyways). He got pulled further back into the alley, getting pushed against a wall and a knife pinning his cloak to the wall. 

He looked at the person backing up from him, confused on who this was. Blonde hair, purpled eyes, black outfit—

Wait a damn minute. 

He laughed at surprise, realizing that this mystery person had come back to try and do something to him.

“What’s so funny?” They asked, glaring at the wheezing boy. Tommy just looked at him, then started devolving into a fit of laughter again. 

They looked at each other for a moment, the person glaring and Tommy being silent with a repressed smile on his face before Tommy burst out laughing again. 

“What is so funny?” The person asked again, sighing in displeasure. Tommy just laughed, everytime he tried to talk he would devolve into laughter again. 

“Am I that charming that you came back? ” Tommy asked, still recovering from his fits of laughter. The purple-eyed person just glared at him, pulling a dagger from their belt.

Tommy looked at the dagger in alarm, putting his hands up in surrender. 

“What’s your name? Mine is Tommy, he slash him.” Tommy asked, looking at the other in amusement. 

“...I’m not giving you my name.” They stated, looking weirdly at Tommy. 

“Why?”

“Because I'm trying to kill you?” They responded, losing control of their calm attitude. 

“We should bond over trying to kill me then, I want to kill myself, you want to kill me, perfect friendship!” Tommy answered, on the verge of tears from keeping his laughter in. 

The purple-eyed person just stared at him, before deflating as he lost an internal battle.

“Purpled...he him?” He said, pinching his forehead in despair. 

Tommy visibly brightened, whooping with his arms as best as he could when he was pinned to a wall with a knife. Tommy then looked down at the knife awkwardly, poking it a bit with the arm not basically pinned down. 

“Can you get this off me king?” He questioned, looking up at Purpled from his spot of staring at the knife. Purpled just sighed —he seemed to be doing that a lot— before snatching the knife off from his coat, Tommy stumbling a bit with the sudden pull. 

“Wanna go walk around the city with me?” Tommy asked, looking hopefully at the other boy. 

“Can i say no?”

“Nope!”

Tommy pulled Purpled near the edge of a rooftop.

“Look, look how pretty this is!” Tommy exclaimed excitedly, pointing towards the sky. 

“What do you want? We’ve already been out here for like— an hour.” Purpled sighed, looking at the other boy exasperatedly.

Tommy just pointed at the sky that was an array of colors; pink, orange, purplish, red all mixed together to make a beautiful sunset. 

Purpled just sighed fondly, looking at the sunset in awe while Tommy happily rambled about something unrelated.

———

“Why did you not get them?” George hissed, glaring at the man in front of him. Sapnap just sighed, looking off to the side sadly. 

“They were armed, I wouldn’t of been able to do much.” He responded, looking at George in a sense of longing, a longing of their old relationship. 

“You have powers and you are a trained superhero, you can destroy some weak armed group of people!” He spat, pushing his glasses up onto his head and glaring at Sapnap, Sapnap looking sadly at him. 

“What if they had powers too? What would I do then?” Sapnap asked, finally getting a boost of confidence into his system. George sputtered for a moment, no thinking of an excuse. 

“I didn’t even have any gear, I have simple fire powers, not anything more or less.” Sapnap continued, now full on glaring at George. George stopped for a moment, walking over to a table and picking up some papers. 

“Fill these out.” He demanded, flinging them slightly at the man. Sapnap caught the papers, storming out of the make-shift office. 

Sapnap sighed as he got out of the tent, crossing his arms due to the harsh coldness of the place. 

George had changed over the years, that was a fact. 

Chapter Text

“All you ever do is cry and sob like you're the bad guy, I have feelings to y’know? Not everything revolves around you Anastasia, stop acting like you're the victim.” He shouted, swinging his arms around for dramatic effect. 

She hiccuped as she wiped up the puddle of spilt milk, tears cascading down her face as she got another paper towel. 

“I love you Anastasia, but it really seems like you don't love me sometimes.” He spoke in a quieter voice compared to the one he had used moments before, voice fading out as he walked out of the kitchen.

Her mother rushed in a few minutes later, dark splotches of purpled painting her face, “Are you okay?” She asked in a whisper, frantically checking the doorway of the kitchen. She nodded slowly, tears now sliding slower down her face and only a hiccup every now and then. 

“Shhh, it's okay baby, it's okay, it won’t always be like this I promise, I promise.” She whispered, hugging her and rubbing circles into her back. 

Nothing ever changed.

She would round the corner occasionally and see her mother getting yelled at by father, much like she would be yelled at like. That was what always scared her, when father would treat her mother much like he treated her, it was scary knowing one day that she might not have someone loving her if father went too far. Maybe one day mother would pack her bags and leave, she didn’t see why she couldn’t. 

“I’m doing this because I love you, Anastasia. I love you so much and sometimes it just feels like you don’t love me back, like I’m not a person with feelings—” 

Tommy awoke with a start, tears cascading down his face as he panted heavily. He shivered as he ripped the stupid excuse of a blanket off of him. He sobbed harder as he thought about the nightmare, this was one of the nightmares he always remembered all of. Every single detail, every single time. His father yelling at him, him cleaning up the spilt milk, his mother coming in later on and sobbing as she hugged him.

He used to not understand why his mother would be so upset when these events happened, he laughed bitterly as he thought about it. He understood now, he understood how he slowly showed less and less emotions the older he got, the loss of a childhood innocence, how his mother wished for him to stay happy and bright and loud and not end up like her. How she would always tell him to keep that bright goofy smile that he did when something was funny to him, how she would smile when he genuinely laughed at something, loud and uncaring of whoever didn’t like it. 

He remembered when it all changed, when he developed a power that was so dangerous and valuable, he remembered his father being disgusted when he accidentally did it to an animal. (He also remembered his father being amazed when he healed the animal.)

His father would often threaten to give him up to the agency, saying how many people would buy someone with two powers, but that he ‘loves her’ —he cringes at the ‘her’— and how he ‘loves him and wouldn’t do that’. Guilt tripping him into things and manipulating him to believe everything. 

He realized later on that you don’t say that to an eight year old. 

He got up from the cot, walking over to his make-shift desk that sat in the corner of his room and snatching the cloak from his chair. He walked to the door, putting on his boots and storming out of the tent.

The snow was heavier today, he noted.

 His feet carried him as he trudged through the snow, breathing harshly when the cold wind hit his face. He couldn’t quite tell where he was going, just that he was walking away from the camp. 

His feet eventually hit pavement, the grass stopping suddenly. Tommy shuffled to the side of the road with the more stable part of his mind, remembering when the heroes notified everyone of the syndicate groups being found all over the city recently, and he did not want to be their target. 

He runs his fingers through his hair, his breath calming down more now that he’s out of a stupid, stuffy , tent. Tommy walks the streets of the destroyed city, occasionally stopping when he thinks he hears something— nothing is really ever there, he’s just been paranoid ever since the, encounter, he had.

He jumped when he felt a buzzing in the inside pocket of his cloak, cursing himself when he realized he still had his communicator —could they not find a more interesting name?-- in his pocket. He pulled it out and connected it to the medical line.

“Hello?” He asked, waiting for a voice through all the static. 

“ We need you stat! 4 heroes are badly injured, and 2 are slightly injured .” He heard ponks voice cut through the static, other voices yelling in the background. His breath hitched, he turned around sharply and started looking at his surroundings to see where he was. 

“How fast do I need to be there?” He asked, noting that he was in district thirteen, meaning he could get there in under ten minutes if he ran fast enough. 

He heard shuffling and more yelling from the other line, “ Under ten minutes, these people are badly injured .” They answered. 

And this is why he doesn’t go outside unless he knows heroes are at base, “Who is it?” He questioned idly, just to fill the silence. 

“ Puffy, george, clay —” More yelling, “— Sapnap ,” His breathing stopped for a moment, “ and Bad and Skeppy .” Ponk finished, more yelling —that sounded more like him this time— coming from the background. 

He was now in district fifteen, roughly three minutes away from base he would guess. 

—

Tommy rushed into the tent, pushing past nurses running wild to get to the person who had called him. 

“Ponk?” He called out, looking around the tent. Did he even go into the right tent?

“ Back here !” Someone —presumably Ponk— shouted, waving a gloved hand through the crowd of nurses. Tommy rushed over to where he saw the hand, glancing around before his eyes landed on a black haired man. Sapnap. 

Ponk threw a pair of gloves and mask at him and told him the injuries before rushing off to deal with another patient. He sniffed and rubbed furiously at his eyes before putting one glove on and placing the medical mask on his face. He leaned in farther to get a better look at what he had to do before healing anything, wincing when he saw the large patch of blood staining the left side of the mans face. 

He looked over to the table and saw a tray full of glass shards, cringing at the mass amounts of blood. He reached his gloved hand to feel around for any remaining shards, which he found none of. He raised his hand to wipe his eyes of tears before remembering that all of his gloved hand was covered in blood, he then wiped his eyes with his non-gloved hand. 

He raised his non-gloved hand to the head wound, concentrating on using his powers to heal the wound, grimacing as his hands brushed over some of the deeper cut wounds. After a moment he pulled his hand away squinting his eyes as his vision got a tad blurry. 

Tommy huffed at all the blood and small cuts still littering the sides of Sapnap’s face, “Can I get bandages and wipes?” called out to one of the nurses, the nurse nodding and heading off to fetch him the materials. 

He slowly worked the shirt off of whatever wound was under the man’s shirt, grimacing as he saw tons of cuts and bruises. He felt around his chest area for broken ribs— not so surprisingly there was definitely something wrong. He sighed and put his non-gloved hand on the left side of his chest, closing his eyes and concentrating on fixing the broken ribs. 

He stumbled a bit and pulled his hand back, vision blurring a bit due to the non stop healing so far. 

The nurse popped right up next to the bed, putting the materials on the side of the bed and running away as they heard more orders shouted out.

Tommy stood in place for a bit before sighing and picking up the wipes and wiping up the majority of blood he could from the side of Sapnap’s face, grimacing when some would try to stick to the wounds. 

After he got mostly all of the blood off of the man, he grabs the bandages and carefully lifts up Sapnap’s head to wrap them around it. He pushed some of the black hair —that was a little crispy on the ends, presumably from the villain with fire powers— to wrap the bandage securely around his head. 

He took a moment to take in the figure that laid in front of him, sniffling a bit when he actually processed what had just happened, his eyes welled up with tears the more he looked at the body.

“Tommy?” Ponk shouted, rushing through the crowd of nurses. Tommy’s head snapped up as he furiously rubbed at his eyes, getting blood all over his face. 

“We need help with Bad, we just managed to get the pole that was,” Ponk paused, thinking how to phrase the sentence, “ Intruding his stomach, and we need your powers to get the hole sealed.” Ponk finished, not waiting before rushing over to the bed Bad was laid upon. Tommy quickly followed, pursing his lips when he actually started to feel the blood that was smeared across his face. 

“Shouldn’t I clean my hands—?” 

“Yes, just do it quickly .” Ponk stressed, throwing a pair of gloves at him. He nodded and went off to the small sink that sat near the front of the tent, quickly washing his hands off and discarding the gloves to the side, for he wouldn’t need them. 

After he finished washing his hands he quickly rushes back to the bed, looking nervously at the amount of doctors and nurses crowded around the bed. He took a deep breath in and placed both of his hands on the hole quickly realizing how fucking deep this thing is. 

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the wound, brain starting to feel more fuzzy as he continued to heal more and more with no breaks. The skin around his hands slowly starting to stitch itself back together. 

After a few minutes he took his hands off and fell onto his knees, sweat beading on his forehead. A nurse passes him a glass of water, which he graciously accepts and chugs the whole thing down in two goes. 

Ponk couches down next to him and pats him on the back, “You can go, I think we're all good here.” She whispered. 

“Hey doc? we need some help over here.” A doctor spoke up, gesturing towards another bed. 

“That's my call, see you later Tommy.” Ponk muttered, getting up from his crouching position and walking towards where the other doctor gestured. 

He sighed and got up from his nealed over position, stumbling a bit and walking towards the front of the tent. He paused in his walk as he got to the opening, turning to his right and walking towards the sink that sat near the entrance. He turned on the faucet and put his under, shivering a bit from the ice cold water that came through. He squirted the soap on his hands, scrubbing furiously at his hands and forearms to get the everlasting blood that stained his hands. 

After he was done scrubbing the blood —it would never fully scrub off in his mind— he walked out of the tent and headed for his tent once again. 

——— 

“Tommy?” A familiar voice asked from outside the tent. 

Tommy perked up at the noise, immediately brightening, “Niki?” He asked. The woman in question stuck her head into the tent, smiling once she saw the boy that sat at the desk. 

“Tommy! I was looking for you at the medical tents but Ponk said you had wandered off a few hours ago,” Niki’s face softened towards the end, “Are you okay?” She asked, her face painting a sad smile. 

Tommy paled, remembering the events that took place a few hours ago that he had tried to scrub from his memories. 

“I’m fine.” He lied, looking back at the papers that were scattered across his desk. Niki’s face contorted into a bitter face but she quickly covered it with a sad smile. 

“I brought some pastries, if you would like some?” She questioned, walking farther into the tent. The bag of pastries that sat in her hand more obvious now that her full body was inside. 

Tommy brightened, smiling now that his mind was distracted from the events. “You always have the best baking, Niki Nihachu.” He beamed, pushing the papers that sat in front of him to the edge of the desk— some almost falling off in the process. 

Niki sighed fondly and walked over to the desk, placing the small bag of pastries onto it. “What are you working on?” She questioned, eyeing the papers that were hanging off of the desk. 

“Doctor shit, homework or something.” He grumbled, crossing his arms and glaring at the papers. Niki laughed fondly and sat on the bed that sat in the corner of the room. 

“Eat up.” She spoke, glancing at the bag then back at the boy. He sighed and opened the bag, pulling out a small muffin from it and shoving it in his mouth.

“Hungry there?” Niki laughed, Tommy glaring at her in response and chewing more aggressively— not with his mouth open, that's just disrespectful. Niki perked up, “I almost forgot why I came, I was wondering if you would want to walk around the city tonight?” Niki asked, a mischievous look taking place in her eyes. 

“Didn’t they say we can’t be out in the city? I Know I don’t follow rules but you're a hero. ” He expressed, looking at her with a raised brow. 

Niki chuckled a bit and got up from the bed, a darker glint in her eyes as she headed towards the door. “That’s what you’d think.” She responded, walking out of the room and closing the door behind her. 

“Wha— what is that supposed to mean?!” He shouted alarmingly, standing up from his seat quickly. 

“See you tonight Tommy!” She yelled as she walked away from the tent, leaving a sputtering Tommy to ponder on what she meant.

Chapter Text

He slowly opened his tent, poking his head out of the room to see if anyone was there. 

No one was there. 

He sighed in relief and walked out of the room. Tiptoeing down the hallway— he wasn’t sure where he was meeting Niki up at but he was just gonna guess her tent. She’s lucky she gets her own tent, he has to have a room in the dorm-like tents— which is just plain unfair . He does lots for all the heroes and they couldn’t even give him a bigger tent or a tent alone ?

His foot hit the snow, which was much heavier than earlier today. Why did she have to choose night to go run around a crumpled down city? Not to mention all the syndicate group sightings that has gone on for the past week, picking night is just stupid and idiotic . 

Niki isn’t idiotic though, he was just projecting his anger. 

That’s what Puffy told him he’s doing, that's one of the only flaws of his that he actually understands and knows how to control unlike some others. Puffy says flaws are what makes you good though so he doesn’t hate himself (that’s a lie), well— most of himself. His body can go on and fuck off, go die in a ditch or something. That would also mean he would have to die, and hey, he wouldn’t be that against dying. The only reason he hasn’t killed himself so far is because of his friends that would need his healing— god he can’t imagine if Niki died just because he was selfish and decided to fuck off a building. 

He took a look at his surroundings, noting that he was around the storage tents that he met Sapnap at— and the cat. 

How the fuck did he forget about a whole animal .

Moving on — he was almost at Niki’s tent, and he just sorta prayed that Niki would be here, as it would be quite awkward if she wasn’t and he looked like he was invading a hero's tent. He walked up to the heroes tent section— scanning around for Niki’s tent. He spotted it near the side of all the tents, walking towards it. 

He poked his head into the tent, “Niki?” He asked. Looking around the room he saw an empty tent— this is awkward. Not only would he be caught outside after hours, he would be caught invading a heroes tent. God he would be in so much fucking trouble— 

“Boo.”

“ FUC— ” 

———

“I just thought it would be funny, you looked so scared.” Niki responded, playing around with the lighter that sat in her hands as they walked. Tommy shrinking in on himself. 

“It was not funny.” He grumbled, shivering and tightening his hold around himself even more. Niki laughed fondly, patting his head. 

“It was, but you can tell yourself that.” Niki giggled, pulling his hood over his head. “The snow is so thick tonight, do you think it will last ‘till tomorrow morning?” She asked, stopping in her tracks and crouching down to poke a finger in the snow. 

“I hope it does so you guys can’t get into another epic battle thing” He grumbled, “Why are you guys getting into fights so much recently anyways?” He asked, looking at the older woman. 

Niki hummed, thinking of an answer, “They’ve been more active lately.” She answered after a moment, getting up from her position on the ground and continuing their walk, Tommy following after her quickly. 

“But that means more work for me, why would you ever wish for more work for me, I don't even get paid!” He exclaimed, shaking his head in false disappointment. Niki chuckled, going back to flicking her lighter off and on like she was before. 

“I wouldn’t say I wish it upon you.” She responded, tilting her head playfully. Tommy huffed, crossing his arms even more than he was before and shaking his head in disappointment.

“Lies I say, Lies .” He accused, walking faster and farther ahead than her. She sighed fondly, shaking her head much like he did just a moment ago and walking faster to catch up with him. 

“Sure Tommy.” She responded, pulling down his hood and ruffling his unkempt hair that currently wasn’t in a ponytail.

He shoes her attack away from his hair, “Don’t mess up my beautiful hair.” He joked, flipping his hair sassily.

“It’s getting pretty long don’t you think?” She questioned, playing with the ends of his slightly more than shoulder length hair. He rolled his eyes and shoed her attack away once again.

“Well last time I tried to cut it I failed miserably , so unless someone else cuts it I'm not getting much better than this.” He responded, rolling his eyes in annoyance. 

Niki hummed, “I can cut some of it for you, not a proper haircut but just to get it out of your way.” She explains, pointing towards her own a-little-less-than-shoulder length-hair.

“That would be cool, though this length isn’t quite bad because I can tie my hair back easier, so probably not, thanks for the offer though!” He answered, twirling the ends of his hair. 

“Ah, fair enough.” She concluded. 

They walked in silence for a bit, occasionally pointing out random wildlife or nature in the city or tossing jokes. 

Tommy stopped, hearing a few footsteps and eyeing one of the buildings suspiciously. Niki stopped too, stopping her rant about one of the flowers she saw and looking to where his line of sight was. 

She stepped in front of him protectively, “Stay behind me.” She ordered, fully covering him except for the part of him that’s taller than her. 

“Who’s there?” She asked, eying the spot where the building cut off— where someone could come out of. 

“Ah, nice to see you, Nihachu—” Someone answers, stepping out from behind the building. 

Jester, he realizes. 

“What do you want?” She demanded, cutting him off in whatever speech he was about to go into.

“What? Don’t want to hear what I say?” He taunted, tilting his head. 

“Keep making these speeches and you might just turn into Schlatt.” She responds, smirking and putting her hands on her hips. Jester’s eyes — well, they can only see one of his eyes, the other is covered — widened a bit, though he quickly covered it with a false smug smirk.

“Keep talking and nobody will find your body.” He adds, a dark glint forming in his eyes. 

Tommy raises a hand from behind her, “I think I would find it…considering I'm right here.” He mumbles, slowly putting his hand back down.

“... What?” Jester asks, looking at him like he’s grown five heads— is that even the saying? 

“Well, you said ‘nobody will find your body’ but I'm, like, right here, behind her, y’know, so I would…find her body.” He answers, looking to the side and avoiding eye contact as Niki stifles a laugh in front of him.

Jester continues to look at him like he’s crazy, “ No— No that’s not what I was saying— It's a phrase…” He mumbles, looking down at his shoes in a way of defeat. “Okay— whatever, Nihachu, my good old pal—”

“We are not friends—”

“I was clearly just taking a stroll around town! A simple stroll admiring the beauty of this…hell hole! Hey, random kid behind her, do you like taking strolls around the town?” He asked, looking Tommy directly in the eyes at the last part of his sentence. 

“...yes? Also it’s a city not a town —” He answered unsurely, very confused with whatever the fuck is going on right now and why they arent currently at eachothers throats. 

“See! It’s a nice city to take a stroll around, why don’t you believe me?” Jester cut him off, now staring down at Niki with a smirk. 

She glared at him, “You have a reputation,” She spoke carefully, eyeing him in suspicion, “For selling information.” She finished, flipping him off for special effects. 

“Ah…well can’t one take a stroll?” He questioned, spreading his arms out wide and gesturing to the city that towered over them. 

Tommy eyed him up and down, “You are literally wearing some villain suit shit—” He mumbled, “and you’re in a crumpled down building.” He added, rolling his eyes and gesturing towards the absolutely destroyed building he was hiding in. 

Jester stopped and glared at him, “... yes one could say that’s suspicious . Would you believe me if I said these were the only clothes I had?” He asked hopefully, looking less confident now. 

“No.” Niki and Tommy answered at the same time, Niki glaring at the man in a protective way and Tommy just looking annoyed. Jester sighed, crossing his arms and muttering something to himself.

“Aren’t we supposed to like…fight now, or something?” He muttered, eyeing her for any hidden weapons besides the daggers and pistol that hung from her belt. 

“If you want too.“ Niki responded cheerfully, whipping out her pistol and aiming it at the man. Jester put his hands up quickly, looking side to side for some escape route from this situation. 

“Hey man, that— that’s not necessary now, is it?” He stutters, eyes widening when she didn’t put her gun down. Tommy put his hands over his mouth, suppressing a laugh that was bubbling in his throat. 

“ Scram .” She hissed, her finger hovering over the trigger. Jester bolted the moment she spoke, running in a random direction— well, it probably wasn’t random to him but it was to them. 

Niki turned back to him, shoving her gun back into its holster. “Well, do you want to head back or keep walking?” She asked him, tilting her head in the direction of camp. 

“Uh— I mean, do you need to go back?” He asked, trying to shove any emotion off of his face. Niki hummed, furrowing her brows in thought.

“I probably need to go do some paperwork due to the whole— run in with Jester, since he hasn’t been spotted in a few weeks.” She answered honestly, grimacing at the thought of paperwork. 

He hummed, face scrunching up in an attempt to hide his emotions, “I’ll probably stay out here, the weather's pretty good tonight.” He explained, gesturing towards the clear night sky. Niki perked up, grabbing her gun from its holster and shoving it in his hands. 

“For protection.” She confirmed, nodding her head firmly and turning the other way, “Bye Tommy, stay safe!” She added on, slightly tilting her body back to wave. A small smile creeped onto his face, it quickly disappeared though as he firmly nodded and put up a salute. 

“I’m always safe.” He lied, grinning when he saw Niki shake her head in fond annoyance. 

———

Now— he doesn’t consider himself a liar but he also wouldn’t consider himself a truther . Is that a word? Okay maybe it isn’t— but currently he has a vigilante lying on the ground, unconscious, and looking like he is on death's bed!

Tommy really hopes Death is nice if he is on death’s bed.

He touches around the head area, grimacing when his whole palm is stained red when he pulls away. 

He needed to do something, and fast. 

He grabbed the vigilante’s head aggressively, putting his hands on both sides of their head and focusing on healing. He closes his eyes and breathes in and out, in and out — In and out is not a calming gesture whatsoever— counting it is then. One, Two, Three, Four, he sighs , Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten.

He opens his eyes, pulling his hands away and cringing when blood strings from the head to his hands. He reaches for the vigilantes hoodie, snatching it up and— oh of fucking course there’s a second layer. 

He huffs and pulls his dagger out of its cover, digging it into the shirt and slashing through it. He shoves the thing back into the cover like thing and rips the shirt open, his hands touching around the stomach until he got to a gaping hole. 

Jesus fuck who did this guy annoy?

He shoves both of his hands over the wound, closing his eyes and focusing on healing the gaping hole in the stomach. He quickly pulls his hands away just a bit —still touching skin— as to not get his hands stuck in the skin. 

He learned not to do that the hard way, it was very uncomfortable if he did say so himself. 

Suddenly the vigilante shoots up, Tommy quickly pulling his hands away and putting them up in the air. The vigilante automatically looks at his wrist— and holy fuck that’s a lot of watches. He can barely make out anything due to the sheer amount of blood all over the dude, there's blood dripping down from his forehead, nose, stomach, almost everywhere. 

“Where am I? What time is it?” He asks, looking at Tommy which was very creepy considering he has blood running down his face and covering up most of his facial features. 

“Uh— well currently you’re in district 10 of marburg, I’d say it's around, uh, probably one or two am?” He answered, looking at the mouth of the alleyway so he didn’t have to look at the person's creepy appearance. 

“ No, no, no— this isn’t— no— ” He quickly spat out, head frantically looking all over the alleyway as his eyes did the same. The vigilante quickly rubbed the blood off of his watch and closed his eyes. 

They quickly disappeared, multiple colorful sparks leaving as they disappeared. He looked down at his hands in disbelief, blood dripping off of them and onto the concrete below. 

What the fuck just happened. 

Chapter Text

He layed in bed idly, looking up at the blank ceiling. He huffs and rolls over onto his side, he hasn’t been able to sleep tonight due to the… run in he had earlier. He still felt like there was blood staining his hands no matter how hard he scrubbed it off. He thought those experiences only came when you murdered someone, not that he’s ever done that, haha. 

Haha. 

He grumbles and sits up from the bed, done with his messy thoughts that plague his mind. He walks over to the desk that sits just a few feet away, shuffling through the paper that was strewn across the desk. Shuffling through he found a majority of homework — he was hoping to find something semi-interesting that he had perhaps forgotten about. 

He stopped, hand placed on a piece of paper he had genuinely forgotten about. The supposed double agent that the syndicate has— he wasn’t actually allowed to have this document, but when has that ever stopped him? The supposed double agent was — according to the syndicate— was either working as a hero or for the hero agency. The document was like— five years old, but he got a copy of it that they had online when he first got taken— brung in.

He’s pretty sure if he looked hard enough he could find those weird theories people make online, like the people who act like all the hero villain things are just a game and its their job to make theories for it. 

Which is stupid, considering he’s always had to deal with the consequences of healing the heroes after a ‘big epic battle’ as the news would say. He’s seen these heroes in pain , on death's lovely bed, and has seen some of them die in fact. It wasn’t just a game, it was real life. 

It’s not like he has the internet or computer to actually find these theories though. 

According to all the info that the heroes had, it was a ‘she’ because that's how they referred to her as, and she had a big role and strong connections with the syndicate. They never looked into if she actually was in the main syndicate group or if she worked for them. He could look through it more— but he doesn’t have that effort to do that. 

On any normal night he would go take a stroll through the lovely city as it was quite beautiful at night— but it’s; One, currently not night it's like eight am. Two, he was scared that it would happen again. He huffs and throws the paper back to the edge of the desk, walking out of his tent and down the hall. 

———

Yes , he said he was too scared to go on a walk into the city.

Yes , he’s going on a walk into the city.

Like he’s said many times before, he’s usually a reasonable person. But, when you just had to half-ass heal a vigilante who looked like they were on death’s bed, you are not the most reasonable person.   He sighs and sticks his hands out from his cloak, feeling the snow and snowflakes that fell from the sky just sitting on his hand— usually, if he was a normal person, they would be melting. 

But they are not. Because he is not a normal person. His hands are ice cold and these snowflakes —and snow— have little to no effect on his temperature. He’s sure it's due to his powers that are always just under the surface, even if he’s not using them. 

His healing is often described as a cold burst of wind washing through the person's body— if he’s going to be honest he is surprised it's not the opposite . He can guess his other power is the one that feels hot though— well, not guess , he knows it's scorching torture. He’s heard the people who have had to experience it, he knows it's burning hot. 

Enough of the power talk though.

He looks down at the thick snow that blankets the ground and kicks it, watching the snow burst into the air and fall back down onto the ground. 

“Fuck!” He hears someone faintly scream and a crash comes seconds after. He stops, head snapping to where the commotion is taking place. 

An alleway is where it happened. 

And if that’s not sketchy — he doesn’t know what is . 

. . .

He walks towards the alleyway anyways, why wouldn't he? He's bored and needs something to do. He peeks his head into the alleway, another crash sound— from beside the dumpster. He swears at himself under his breath and slowly steps into the alleway. 

“You…good?” He asks to— whoever sits behind the dumpster, he hears a multitude of colorful words in response. A head pokes out from behind the dump— and now he gets why they would let out a string of swears, of fucking course itd be the one annoying ass vigilante whos technically a villain at this point. 

Who names themselves microwave?! Wait, nevermind, the public named him that. 

Before he can even register it he’s kicked in the fucking crotch — jesus christ —  and on the floor, he lets out an ‘oof’ sound in response. 

“ Huh , I thought that would hurt more.” He mumbles, then he crouches down and  shoves a gun into his neck. “You move and I’ll burst your fucking throat.” He warns. 

“What are you doing in a dumpster at like— nine o'clock in the morning? Are you fucking stupid or something?” He questions — much too rudely for someone who has a gun pointed at their throat — looking up to the villain in question. The vigilante gaped for a moment before forcing the gun deeper into his neck, he coughed and glared up at the man. “Fucking dickhead .” He spat, glaring at them. They glared back down at him before recognition flashed in his eyes dangerously.

“You’d just heal yourself if I shot you, wouldn’t you?” He questions tauntingly, sending a mischievous stare his way. And— Tommy freezes at that, like— whole body and mind freeze he means. 

How the fuck did he know that? Nobody but the medical and hero rank in the agency know of his power. 

“What if I just kidnaped you huh? The syndicate could use a healer.” He taunted, pressing the gun farther into his throat which sends him into another fucking coughing fit. 

Suddenly the pressure on his neck stops and a thud rings out throughout the alley, he goes into a much needed coughing fit and flips over onto his stomach— well— more like on his knees . 

“ Fucking — no — stay down, jesus .” A voice says, a repeated thud before some footsteps walk over to where he’s crouched on the floor. “You good?” They ask, crouching down next to him on the ground. He recognizes it as one of the only genuine vigilantes, Aim, or something? He thinks that's their name at least.

“Probab—” He coughs, “probably.” He coughs out, putting a hand to his mouth and falling flat on his face. “Ow.” He muttered, getting up from his hunched over position and sitting up right. 

“I knew I shouldn’t of gave him a gun…” star muttered, placing their hands over her face and sighing into them. “Is your nose bleeding?” They asked suddenly, eyes locking onto his now bleeding nose. 

“Uh yeah— probably due to the cold and the fact I just fell over on my face a few seconds ago due to someone—” He responded, getting cut off by xey stuffing a tissue into his nose and pointing his head down. 

“Yeah— I should probably talk to him about that…sorry for that!” They spoke quickly, patting his head sympathetically and glaring at the unconscious villain. “He’s just kinda stupid sometimes, I don't know why he’s still grouped as a vigilante..” She criticized, muttering the last part to herself.

“You should probably get going, I can't keep him down forever .” She sighed, gesturing over to the probably-unconscious villain. 

Tommy nodded, glancing over to the villain, “Uh, yeah, I should probably get going even if he was down forever.” He muttered, standing up and holding his head down. He may be a stupid teen but he is a doctor and he does know that you shouldn't hold your head up. “Bye!” He attempted to sound nice. 

They waved brightly, picking up the villain effortlessly —how fucking strong are they what the fuck— and walking over to where he came down from. Tommy nodded back, unable to wave due to the tissue he had to hold that was stuffed in his nose.

He should probably start heading back to base. 

———

Bad sighed, “Tommy you have seven missing assignments, three of them were due last week and the other four of them are due this or next week.” Bad spoke calmly, trying hard to keep his cool. 

He doesn't understand why he's so pissy about this— wait. 

No, he understands. Unfortunately. 

Bad was originally studying to be a doctor, but the government saw more potential in him being a hero. He wasn’t that upset over it though because his boyfriend— i mean ‘best friend’ — was in hero training already. 

So sadly , he cares about Tommy making it through medical school. It’s not like he would get a choice anyways , he would just be stupid and mess up when he was forced to heal some dumb fuck. He did that often when he was younger and would also often get in trouble. Nothing more than a scolding but sometimes he would get a light slap. He’s just glad he’s too valuable for them to lose, and he's also not glad because that also means he cannot run away safely . 

Trust him.

He’s tried. 

“What even is missing?” He asks, more in a rhetorical sense rather than an actual question. 

Bad sighs, “Probably the seven assignments sitting on your desk .” He teased, smiling a bit. Tommy gaped for a second, blushing from embarrassment and going back to sorting through the cabinets. “ Look , I know Ponk asked you to organize these. But your work is more important right now.” He spoke firmly but softly, placing his hand on Tommy’s and steering it away from the cabinet. 

“Not if he accidentally picks up the wrong thing and then suddenly someone is dead !” Tommy shouted exaggeratingly, gesturing widely at the cabinets. Bad sighed and stared at him with a blank expression. 

He always hates when he can't read someone's expression. 

“Ponk has been a doctor for years , she knows what is dangerous or not.” He started, patting Tommy's shoulder and lifting him up a bit. “Go do your work, or I'll get Puffy on you.” He finished, pointing a finger behind him. Tommy shivered at the thought of Puffy scolding him, walking out of the medical tent and running off to his tent. 

He huffed, scribbling something down and then erasing it again. He had been trying to get this question right but everytime he did it, it just ended up sounding wrong. So, to be fair, he is very stressed right now. 

This is supposed to be easy— no it's not, it’s literally med school.  

Hr grumbled and slammed his head down against the desk, whisper-yelling incoherent grumbles. A swoosh sound comes from the front of his tent. Groggily, he lifts his head up from his desk and looks around the room. 

Nothing there. 

Huh. 

Suddenly something jumps up onto his desk and no he does not scream one bit he is very manly and would never scream like that—  

Oh, it’s that weird cat that disappeared. 

He’s glad it showed up because he would have forgotten about it— he did forget about it.

“I’m gonna name you cat.” Tommy slurred, laying his head back down into his arms and groaning. The cat threw him an unimpressed stare, which he could barely see because his head was down on his desk and Cat is an absolute bitch boy. 

He needs to stop projecting his anger, he really does, Puffy says that's unhealthy. She says he needs to find new coping mechanisms for his anger. (and sadness, but let’s ignore that one.) 

Hm , “Cat, would you be scared if I started beating up a pillow?” He wondered, glaring harshly at the innocent pillow that laid peacefully on the bed. The cat shook its head when Tommy looked back at it, so he took that as a go ahead. 

He walked over to the bed and started punching the pillow with all his might, which made him get tired really quickly. 

Eventually after a few minutes of torture for the poor pillow, he passes out onto the bed. 

———

Sending a shapeshifter to go into the heroes camp is much easier than sending a whole person to hero training so they eventually become a hero. The syndicate has realized this. 

They can’t quite do anything about it except accept it, and move on. They get amazing reports from both of them after all. 

The shapeshifter going in is still much easier though, ten out of ten would recommend. 

Chapter Text

A lullaby sounded from a figure holding him, a soft but tired voice. The sound of shouting coming from somewhere else in the place. Idle TV chatter came from somewhere in the room. He was surrounded by dark velvety walls and a lush comforter. 

That wasn’t right, 

The walls were a lovely pale yellow shade, pinstriped and everything. The comforter is scratchy but warm, and feels so much like home. The sound above him was deep but loving and caring. 

Not right.

Someone hummed a soft tune above him, a feminine and soothing voice. There was idle chatter coming from the TV discussing the murder and suicide of—

That’s not right.

There was idle chatter from the TV about the new hero debut from yesterday. Everyone was excited for the new impressive hero.  If you strained your ears you could hear the shaking of a pill bottle— 

No, that’s wrong. 

If you strained your ears you could hear idle chatter coming from a separate room, the chatter getting louder and more aggressive but still playful and fun. Someone was playing a game with someone in another room. The soft tune above him stopped suddenly, a sigh leaving their lips and a thud on the floor—

No.

A door opened in the room, footsteps coming in and yanking him out of his peaceful sleep. He felt a metal handle in his hand and his finger hovering over something as he pointed it at someone with a fearful expression—

No, no. That’s not right none of this is right—

He blinks his eyes bleary, putting a hand out in front of him and stretching his fingers. Nothing in his grip, especially nothing metal. Ok. Yeah, okay, that’s good. He yawns and flops over onto his back.

A weight lands on his chest as a furry paw starts swatting at his face, he coughs into his hand and quickly sits up. “What the fuck.” He glares at the cat in front of them, the cat looking back up at him with a mischievous glint in its eyes. They stare at each other, Tommy with a furrowed brow and the cat with an innocent gaze. 

“What d’ya want.” He mumbles out, wiping his eyes and glaring at the cat that blinked up at him innocently . The cat stalks towards him and starts smacking his face again, mainly near his cheeks—

Oh.

It was trying to wipe the tears from his eyes.

How sweet.

“Die.” He pushes the cat away and swiftly stands up from the bed. He walks over towards his desk and snatches the hoodie that laid peacefully on the desk. He shoves the hoodie over his head and snatches the gloves that were scattered on the back of his chair. 

——— 

“Kill your self.” Tommy snapped, glaring at the boy perched on the ledge of the building. 

“You can’t even kill a fly.” Purpled adds on, choosing to ignore the insult. He rolls his eyes and fixes his gun position once again. 

“That’s weak coming from someone who I knocked out the first time I met him” He adds, glaring at the other. 

“That’s weak coming from a suicidal person.” He mumbles, keeping an eye on the entrance of a tent. 

He stops for a minute, gaping and staring wide eyed at the boy in front of him. “What the heck! I’m not suicidal, I just want to kill my self. Plus, we’re in the middle of a very violent war! Who wouldn’t want to die?” He snapped, fists balling at his sides. 

Purpled rolls his eyes, “That’s, like, the definition of suicide.” He huffs, checking his watch and choosing to ignore the last part of the boys sentence— for his own well-being. He kinda looked like an old man with the watch. 

“ No, it isn’t.”

“ Yes , it is.”

“Nope, you can’t prove it.” 

“Yeah we’re like, in the middle of a war, what do you want me to do? Spawn a dictionary.” He argues, repositioning his gun again. Tommy crosses his arms and plops down onto the ground. 

“Well maybe you can , who knows? Certainly not me for I am so amazing and respectful that I haven’t asked for your powers.” He spat, rolling his eyes and falling onto his back. 

Purpled shushes him with his pointer finger, “Shut up for a few minutes.” 

“Hey what the—” A gunshot shuts him up, ringing throughout the chatter of the camp. He almost thinks he was the one shot for a second before he hears frantic yelling and screaming coming from below. 

Purpled quickly shoves the gun into its holster onto his back and walks over to Tommy, gripping his wrist, “We need to get moving, now.” He whisper-yells, giving up trying to talk to the shell-shocked boy and just throws Tommy over his shoulders. Tommy staring at the camp as the two make a run for it. 

“Who the fuck did you kill?!” Tommy worriedly asks once they’re a good distance away from the base. And he’s not thrown over the others shoulders anymore. Purpled rolls his eyes and keeps walking. “You twat! Answer me.” He demanded, shoving the other boy. 

“Dream.” Purpled responds, crossing his arms and dragging Tommy by the wrist as he speeds up the pace. 

“Good choice,” Tommy hums and nods his head. "He's rude.” He adds, quickening up his pace too when Purpleds grip starts to weaken and he gets farther ahead. The other boy rolls his eyes and walks up to a door on a rooftop. He enters a passcode on a keypad that Tommy can’t catch before shoving the door open with his shoulder and dragging the other inside. 

They walk down a staircase for a few seconds before coming to a blank wall. An empty useless wall. If you ignore the tiny black device thing that’s plastered on the wall.

“We’re here.” Purpled announces, not looking at Tommy but the wall. 

Nothing happens. 

He sighs, “I’m not saying that.” He adds, the other staring at him like he’s grown three heads. 

“You have to say it.” A grainy voice cuts through the speaker, Tommy jumping and scooching farther behind Purpled.

He huffs, “Charlie is not a weird goopy monster , he’s a perfectly normal person .” Purped mutters, crossing his arms and glaring at the ground. 

A clapping sound comes from the grainy speaker, laughing following along with it. “Great job, great job.” The voice says in between laughs, Purpled glaring at the screen. 

“Open the door now.” He demanded, scowling at the screen. The other person sighs and a wall to their left starts to slide open. Purpled grabs his wrists and drags him through the wall. 

When they get inside Tommy spots a stupidly long hallway, and stairs all over the place. Purpled simply starts walking down the hallway, him following quickly after.

“Why are there so many fucking hallways and stairs?” Tommy mumbles, crossing his arms and staring suspiciously at all the different hallways and staircases. 

“To confuse people.” Purpled responds in a hushed whisper, slapping a hand over the other's mouth as they cross past more dark hallways.

He wasn’t actually expecting a response, and it wasn't a good one either. Confuse who? Who were they going to see? Its not like he can ask Purpled either, considering the hand that covered his mouth.

And his fear. That too. 

He could just lick it. Nothings stopping him. But— at the same time the other was wearing gloves, so he probably wouldn't feel it. But if he did feel it—

Purpled snatches his hand away and frantically wipes it on Tommy’s hoodie, “What the fuck.” He hisses in a whisper tone, swatting at the side of Tommy’s head. Tommy smiles innocently and keeps walking behind him at a steady pace, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I’m bored.” He whispers after a minute or two of walking, Purpled rolling his eyes and tugging on his wrist— signaling to go faster. Tommy huffs and reluctantly speeds up, making sure to glare at the boy in front of him. 

Purpled quickly takes a sharp turn into a dark hallway, a rock sitting innocently at the front of the hallway. If he had to guess— there at the place that they should be. 

Unless Purpled is just a dumbass. 

The other stops, “Stay here.” He demands, letting go of the harsh grip that was on Tommy’s wrist. He knocks on the door and peaks his head in, nodding to presumably the person in the room. Purpled peaks his head back out and glares at him —probably daring him to move— and then walks in and closes the door behind himself. 

He probably shouldn’t move. 

——— 

There were very loud— and very prominent footsteps coming towards the hallway— and he would be lying if he said he wasn't just a tad terrified of whoever —or whatever— is walking towards the hallway. He knows that Purpled told him to stay still but he is very tempted to book it, probably into whatever is behind the door. 

The footsteps were still getting closer, and his place on the floor did not seem so comfy as before. He was not curling into his hoodie and forming a ball, he would never do that because he was a very big man that is not absolutely fucking terrified of whatever could make that heavy of steps. 

They stopped finally. But they seemed to be more of an abrupt stop rather than a “bye im leaving” If you get what he means. Now, that could mean two things; They either disappeared, or they’re checking hallways for the right one. 

The latter did not seem so friendly, it actually seemed quite, uh, the opposite of friendly, but he knew that it was probably the right answer. Considering the fact that the footsteps are now getting closer! How lovely. 

He was now all the way backed into the furthest corner of the hallway, squinting his eyes so they’re just almost shut but not all the way closed. Suddenly the footsteps stopped. 

He could make out a blurry figure at the mouth of the hallway, peeking their head in and looking down —probably that stupid rock— before creeping into the hallway. The figure walked down the hallway slowly— he could hear some metal clanking n shit— before they stopped in front of the door. The opened the door and a sliver of light peeked through the crack of the door, much like purpled they stuck their head into the door and then slipped in. 

He finally opened his eyes all the way once the door was closed, he couldn’t make out much of the figure besides of how massively tall they were, they amount of fucking armour they were wearing, and the green he could see. 

He has come to the conclusion he does not like this person, he had to be at least a foot taller than him— and that scared him. He wasn’t a very super tall person, but he was still average in the height zone. Technically he was taller than a normal afab person— but still! This person must be an abnormal height, because he's around six feet or just a bit shorter. So that person must be above seven feet. 

He does not like that. That is terrifying. 

He is lucky that the person —are they even a person?— didn’t see him in the corner, it makes sense because he’s obviously not in the line of sight or light when you like— open the door or walk into the hallway. But its still mildly terrifying. 

When is that purple fucker gonna come back? He’s no Time God or some shit but he knows it's been more than fifteen— maybe even twenty minutes since Purpled went through the door. He wonders if the door is some sort of portal that teleports you. That’d be cool.

When is that basic white boy coming back? 

——— 

It takes another ten minutes til the door opens again and Purpled comes back, the huge sniper or some sort of gun —he studies medical things not weapons— is now nowhere to be seen. If he had to guess he probably put it back or a previous owner took it. 

“Where did you go?” He asks for the third time in the past minute, shooting a questioning look at the boy currently dragging him back through the endless hallways. This would be a good level in some sort of video game or horror movie.

Sadly, it is eye are el and not a video game and he can't just quit the game and have a mental breakdown. Not that he would have a mental breakdown or anything because he is in fact a very big man that does not need a quick crying session after something stressful happens.

No he did not shed light tears when that terrifying thing was coming down the hallway, he would never do that. Only scaredy cats would do that.

Not that he has anything wrong with people who are afraid but he is personally not a scaredy cat and he is very brave and strong and amazing. Definitely.

“I’m a mercenary. I was collecting my pay from the person who hired me to assassinate Dream.” Purpled responded, turning into another hallway. 

“Still, it shouldn’t take that lon—” a loud bang sounds off in the distance, the smell of smoke quickly filling their noses. The other boys eyes widened before he took a strong grip on Tommy’s hand.

And fucking booked it. 

They quickly twisted and turned through different hallways, some blindingly light and others eerily dark, some with windows that showed nothing but concrete and others that were completely different designs than the average hallways. 

He can't tell the difference between most of them, but the other fills that absence by knowing exactly where they’re going. 

“Purpled?” Tommy questions, the other just scanning the wall for something, “This is a dead end—” His complaining gets cut off with the wall sliding to the left and Purpled gripping his wrist once again and dragging him out. 

God what is it with him getting cut off and dragged today?!

Purpled didn’t spare him a glance as they walked through the door-wall-whatever thing that opened up, the door closing behind the two. He scanned their surroundings, finding…

Nothing. 

The darkness covered the two, even if he squinted his eyes he could barely make out any of his surroundings. 

“Here,” Purpled tosses him a flashlight and takes out one of his own, “You’ll need it.” His voice echoes around the walls, walking ahead of the two. Tommy hesitantly turns on the flashlight, flicking it around him to see where he was. 

A tunnel, he recognizes. He flashes it at the floor to see rusted and almost broken train tracks. He doesn’t think they're called train tracks but the point still stands. He starts jogging forwards, looking up to see the other ways ahead of him already. 

He pushes his hoodie sleeves up, turns out, an underground subway is pretty hot. At least, compared to the weather outside, it's hot. He flicks his flashlight —which only reaches a few feet ahead of him before it slowly dims out, could he get any better flashlights? Isn’t Purpled rich or something?— around the tunnel once again, shivering when he sees the vulgar graffiti on the walls. He does not want to see that crap. He shoves the flashlight away from the walls, pointing it infront of him to see Purpled stopped in his tracks. 

The hell? 

Purpled glances back at him and makes a silent motion. He clicks his flashlight off and shuffles closer to the other quietly. He glances around the cave before he sees a faint light coming from around the corner. Purpled grips his wrist —can he stop being dragged today?! Prime— and pushes the two of them towards the right wall of the tunnel silently. The light becomes brighter and brighter as they hear faint footsteps getting closer.

A figure turns the corner, a bulky large figure. Not as tall as the thing in the endless hallways —as he likes to call it— but still pretty tall. He glances at Purpled to see his eyes widened in alarm, which they shouldn’t be because he hasn’t been at all frightened throughout the day. Or like, at all. Since they met. 

So this must be pretty fucking serious for him to be scared. 

The figure was hooded but the hood didn’t do much to conceal the obvious, long, pink hair that they have.  Long pink hair. He can think of Niki but Niki has short hair not long hair— oh shit it’s the blade. No sane person would be tall, bulky, have long pink hair, and be exploring an abandoned subway tunnel.

Purpled pushes the two of them closer to the wall and each other as the figure gets closer. Luckily, he’s only pointing his flashlight forwards and not around the subway. It’s all the more terrifying that the Blade must know these tunnels well enough to not point the flashlight everywhere, or maybe Tommy’s just quirky like that. He finally makes a far enough distance away and a sigh leaves Tommy. 

Purpled lets out a breath, “We need to go. Now.” 

Chapter Text

Hiya guys, this is a really fucking raw chapter (writing this in ao3). I will not be continuing the fanfiction unless Tommyinnit gets his fucking act together. I'm sorry. I've watched him for so long and seeing the crap he's doing disgusts me. If he gets his act together and drops that green bastard I might pick up this account and this fic in total.

Once again, I'm sorry. Feel free to contact me if tommy eventually gets his shit together. But for now? This fanfiction will not be continuing.

Love all you guys, goodbye.

Update: HI IF YOU SEE THIS I NOW KNOW THAT TOMMY IS SLAYING AND HES SUCH A MESSY BITCH, LOVE THAT GUY FR. UNFORTANNTLY THO MY HYPERFIXATION OF HIM DISSAPEARED AND WENT FROM HYPERFIXATION TO WATCH ONCE IN A BLUE MOON.
i now watch stuff like midmysticx, kab, lifesteal and kaboodle smp, etc etc.
So even if i WAS gonna finish this fic, not anymore 3

Also the plot for this fic wasnt GREAT, it was my first long fic. I feel like i could make such better and epicer plots now that ive grown as a writer but I dont think i can fix this plot lmao.
I didnt even have a forsure ending, my notes (which got lost since it was on paper) literally just said "and they live happily ever after etc, etc." AND THOSE PLOTS SUCK, I NEED CONSEQUENCES!!!

so yeah bye bye ^-^