Work Text:
Tommy smiled wildly as the wind brushed through his hair, his stomach swooping as he fell only to swing back up.
When everyone at the office found out that Tommy had never played at a park before, they declared that today would be the day to change that. Despite the fact that Tommy argued that he was too old to play at a park now, and it wasn’t that big of a deal, his family around him was having none of it.
Tubbo and Ranboo were the ones to take off to take Tommy to the park, not wanting to wait a second longer to show Tommy what he was missing out on.
The blonde had to admit- it was more fun than he expected. As long as he was a kid, Dream never let him do things like this. He always had to be mature, and never had time for “childish things” that he always saw other kids his age doing. He used to envy them, but it soon grew numb and he no longer cared that he missed out on moments like those.
Now, he can see what he was missing out on. After exploring the park and besting Tubbo and Ranboo on the monkey bars, and getting shocked by Tubbo after he slid down the staticy plastic slide, he finally got on the swings.
It took a couple of tries to get the timing right, but eventually Tommy and Tubbo were trying to see who could get the highest on the swings while Ranboo watched from the side, and Tommy laughed at the top as his stomach dropped.
“Now we jump off at the top!” Tubbo shouted. Tommy turned to him with wide eyes.
“Why? Wouldn’t that hurt?” he asked, as if he hadn’t fallen from taller heights and forced himself to get up afterwards no matter how hard it hurt.
Tubbo shook his head though, his hair a mess and covering almost his entire face.
“Nope! That’s why there’s woodchips at the bottom there. Plus, it’s what all the big kids do at the park” he replied. There was a wide grin on Tubbo’s face as he yelled dramatically and leapt off of the swing seat when it got to its highest point. Tommy watched worridly, but Tubbo got up easily and threw a fist up in the air, motioning for Tommy to now go.
The blonde took a breath, shut his eyes, and jumped off the swing when he hit the top of the swing. Normally, he would be ducking into a roll upon impact, but if Tubbo didn’t do that, he shouldn’t need to either.
Only, when Tommy landed, his ankle rolled underneath him and he fell, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out in pain when his ankle took the brunt of his fall, sending racing pain through the joint.
“Oh shit! You alirhgt, Tommy?” Ranboo asked, running over towards Tommy, sending woodchips up as they went.
Tommy paused for a moment, wondering what he should say. There was Wilbur’s voice in his ear, telling him that it was alright to be hurt and open up to his vulnerability. Then there was Dream’s voice in his ear, telling him that he couldn’t be seen as weak, that he shouldn’t be so fragile.
On a normal day, Tommy would’ve ignored that voice and done what he’s been slowly learning to do. For some reason, when Tommy opened his mouth, what he said was “Yeah I’m fine. Just never landed on the wood chips before.” The lie felt sour in his mouth, but Tommy didn’t take back the words.
“Ah okay. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t break anything” Ranboo chuckled, extending a hand out to Tommy. With a second to brace himself, Tommy allowed Ranboo to pull him up, and grit his teeth against the pain that came with standing on his left ankle.
“That was sick Tommy! You guys ready to head back?” Tubbo asked, clapping a hand onto Tommy’s back.
Tommy gave a smile that he knew wasn’t strained, despite how much it felt like it was. “Yeah! This was really fun, thanks for taking me” he said. He could see the victorious smiles that Ranboo and Tubbo shared with each other, and followed the pair back to the car, making sure that his steps were even and he wasn’t favoring weight onto one leg, so that they wouldn’t notice anything was up. It was almost sad how perfect he was at faking it. A part of him wished that Tubbo or Ranboo would see through his charade.
He knew that he should tell them that he was hurt. He knew deep down that they wouldn’t care. Still though, even after all this time, it was a terrifying thing that made his hands clamp up and his mouth run dry, and Tommy kept his lips shut during the ride back to the office.
“You’re back! How was it?” Wilbur asked when Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo got back to the break floor. Wilbur pulled Tommy into a gentle hug that he sunk into desperately, wanting some relief from the pain that only seemed to get worse the longer the car ride had gone on.
“It was really fun” Tommy admitted with a smile. Soft looks were passed around the room, and Wilbur ruffled Tommy’s hair.
Throughout the rest of the work day, Tommy tried to stay acting normal. He got his assignments for the day, and got to his office so that he could get them done, only leaving for lunch when it was time so that no one would come looking for him.
He was sure he was doing a good job of hiding it, until it was the end of the day and everyone was hanging out in the break room around the couch.
Tommy was laying on the couch in between Techno and Wilbur, with his feet tucked under him so that no one would notice the way his left ankle was swelling up. It hurt against his shoe, and Tommy didn’t take it off.
“How about a halloween movie to fit the season? Have you ever seen Hocus Pocus, Tommy?” Phil asked, shuffling through the movie selection.
Tommy hummed and shook his head no, and Phil’s eyes lingered on him for a panicking moment too long before finding the disc. Tommy let out a breath.
“Do you want to see it? Or something else?” Niki asked, maybe noticing Tommy’s lack of response.
“That sounds good” Tommy said, his voice quieter than he’d like it to be. It was hard to put his normal tone out when his voice wanted to constrict with pain. It was hard to continue to lie to the people he loves.
Niki frowned, and Techno and Wilbur leaned in closer to him. Tommy knew that he was in deep shit.
“You alright, Tommy?” Wilbur asked, giving a concerned look to the teen.
Tommy nodded, his heartrate picking up as he began panicking. “I’m fine.” Doubtful looks were casted his way, and when Techno hummed, Tommy’s breath caught in his throat.
“How was the park today, Tubbo and Ranboo?” Techno asked into the room, though his scrutinizing eyes didn’t leave Tommy. There was nothing scary about the look, not now that Tommy knew that Techno would never hurt him, but he still felt like Techno was tearing him apart and seeing the lie that he was desperately burying beneath the layers.
“It was fun! We went on the monkey bars, I showed Tommy why plastic slides are so much fun, and we went on the swings. I obviously showed him how to jump off the swings” Tubbo supplied. Techno lifted an eyebrow, and Tommy knew that his gig was up.
“How was jumping off of the swings, Tommy?” Techno asked, and Wilbur cursed under his breath.
“It was fun” Tommy said, his voice little more than a squeak.
“Tommy, did you get hurt at the park?” Wilbur’s gentle voice asked, and Tommy went tense, the feeling of eyes all around him making his panic so much worse.
A hand was placed on his back, and there were gentle circles rubbed there. “It’s okay, just breathe. We just want to make sure you’re okay. No one is going to hurt you or be mad at you.”
“Will you guys think I’m weak?” Tommy asked, and he could hear a pained sound come from somewhere in the room.
Wilbur’s answer was immediate. “Never. Even then, there’s nothing wrong with being weak or vulnerable. That’s the point of having people you trust, so that you have people there to help you when you’re weak, or hurt.”
Tommy took a breath. “I. I hurt my ankle jumping off the swings.” He could hear Ranboo swear, and Tubbo walked closer to him, his eyes worried.
“Thank you for telling me, Tommy” Wilbur said, oh so gently. “Is it okay if we take a look at it?” Tommy nodded, uncurling his legs from underneath him. He heard the gasps and muttered curses when everyone saw the swelling of his ankle, and he wanted to hide his face in his shirt.
Wilbur glanced at Techno, and the man carefully pried off Tommy’s shoe. Tommy let out a hiss at the pain it brought, and Wilbur wrapped both of his arms around Tommy, pulling him in close.
Tommy buried his head into Wilbur’s shoulder, wanting to hide from the vulnerability of admitting he was hurt.
“Probably a sprain, mate. Are you okay with going to the doctors so we can get this looked at?” Phil asked, walking closer and crouching down in front of Tommy. Tommy took his head away from Wilbur’s shoulder, and glanced at his brother. Wilbur nodded hopefully, and Tommy nodded and burined his head back into Wilbur’s shoulder.
“Thank you, Tommy.”
The next day, Tommy showed up to work in a hard cast in crutches, sporting a hairline fractured ankle. His cheeks were red with humiliation when he struggled to get around in the crutches, but no one laughed at him when he tripped, and no one made fun of him when he was slow to get around. By the end of the work day, Tommy’s cast was signed with names and little doodles, and there was an ache in his chest that was washed away.