Chapter Text
Tommy woke up and he couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t breathe and it was dark and he was back in the void and he was dead again, he had been dead the whole time because Wilbur had killed him, that look in Wilbur’s eyes when he pressed that button, the hatred in his voice as he spoke to Tommy, it was dark and Tommy was cold and-
Tommy hit the floor, letting out a squawk of surprise (if he had been in his right mind at the moment, he would’ve fervently denied ever making such a sound. No one was around to hear it anyways, but he would’ve denied it until he died. Again).
Footsteps pounded down the hallway and the door swung open. Lights burned Tommy’s eyes but that was fine, that was fine because the lights were there and Tommy could breathe again and he wasn’t in the void and he wasn’t cold and he was alive.
“-ou okay?” Puffy’s voice was saying. Tommy blinked a few times, his room in Pogtopia slowly coming into focus.
“I’m fine,” Tommy said automatically. Puffy didn’t look as though she believed him.
“Did you have a nightmare?” Puffy asked.
“Kind of,” Tommy said, grabbing his bedside table to help himself to his feet. His blankets were crumpled in a heap in the ground. There was one still tangled around his wings.
“You sure you’re okay?” Puffy asked, frowning.
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “I’m- I’ll be fine.”
“You should head back to bed, then,” Puffy said. “It’s late.”
Tommy nodded, not bothering to ask what time it was. He was actually tired for once. Not that he’d ever admit it out loud. He was just grateful that she didn’t press this time, even if that would’ve probably been for the best.
He threw his blankets back on the bed. He laid down, practically half asleep by the time Puffy turned off the lights.
Tommy sat upright in a panic, clamping his hands over his mouth to stifle a scream. He was back in the void he was back in that cold awful place he was back he was dead-
Lights flooded his vision, burning less than before. He didn’t know when he’d gotten to the lightswitch.
Tommy shoved a blanket under the door to block the light from coming out. He was a big man, he didn’t need to sleep with the lights on.
He slept better that night than he had in days.
***
Purpled jolted awake as he heard someone walk down the hallway. After a couple steps, Purpled identified them as Tommy exiting his room.
"Hey," Purpled called as Tommy stepped into the doorway to the living room.
"Hey," Tommy replied, glancing at the room, otherwise empty of people. "What're you doing?"
"Nothing," Purpled lies, getting to his feet.
"Were you sleeping?" Tommy asked. Purpled shrugged vaguely. "Why out here?"
"Just fell asleep while I was on the couch," Purpled said.
"What were you doing?" Tommy asked suspiciously.
"Reading a book," Purpled lied easily.
"There aren't any books in the room," Tommy said, glancing around. Purpled internally cursed himself and the others at the same time. How had no one moved a book into the room? Why had Purpled given back the books he was reading already? Why hadn’t Foolish gotten him more books yet?
"Do you always sleep out here?" Tommy asked. "I thought you were with Punz."
"We have some… history," Purpled said, hoping Tommy wouldn’t press it. Tommy would probably just assume it was mercenary stuff, like the rest of them did. "I don't trust him."
"Oh, really? Why didn't you say something before?" Tommy asked. Purpled relaxed, just a bit. It thankfully wasn’t a question about Punz, which either spoke to Tommy’s empathy or his own trust issues. Probably both.
"I'm fine." Purpled repeated the familiar mantra. Maybe one day he'd actually mean it when he said it.
Today was not that day.
"Just move into my room," Tommy suggested.
"What?" Purpled asked, actually taken aback by the offer. Surely Tommy would prefer to have Tubbo or Ranboo, or even be alone, rather than Purpled’s company.
"I've got an extra bed in my room. You can move in with me," Tommy said.
"You don't have to-"
"Please?" Tommy asked, grinning. "I know you aren't sleeping great out here, and you have nowhere to put your stuff. You wouldn't be a bother to me, if that's what you're worried about. I want you to."
Purpled's eyes weren't watering whatsoever, thank you very much. It was the lighting.
He didn’t cry. He didn’t feel stuff, he didn’t cry, he didn’t care that Tommy knew exactly how to get to him. He didn’t.
Purpled knew that Tommy had trust issues, probably stemming both from his childhood and working in a place that would turn on him the second they found out his identity as TChaos. Purpled himself had been a part of that problem, and Tommy was still inviting him to share a room.
"I- You don't have to do that," Purpled said.
"Too bad, you don't get a choice," Tommy said, walking further into the room. "Someone has to make sure you're taking care of yourself."
"You don't have to worry about me," Purpled said. "You have enough on your plate."
“What, arguing with you all to let me fly and watching movies?” Tommy asked. “I think I’m doing just fine,” Tommy hesitated for a moment, “and if I’m being honest, I don’t love being alone all night.”
Purpled didn’t say anything. Of course, why hadn’t one of them asked if Tommy was okay being alone? He hadn’t spoken about his time being dead at all, but Purpled had to imagine it was lonely. Tommy couldn’t have liked that, and he couldn’t have liked a reminder for it. Purpled frowned, guilt worming its way through him.
“Now, never tell Puffy I said this, but I think both of us need some sleep. So?” Tommy held his hand out to Purpled.
Purpled sighed, just for show. “If you insist.”
“I do!” Tommy said brightly, grabbing Purpled’s wrist. He yanked Purpled to his feet, nearly smacking him in the face with his wings.
Tommy was rambling about something- how good he was at manipulating people, apparently. Purpled only rolled his eyes, allowing himself a ghost of a smile as Tommy threw open the door to his room.
“We can get your stuff in here in the morning,” Tommy said, stifling a yawn with his hand. Purpled didn’t point out that almost everything he owned was on him at the moment. He had a few weapons stashed throughout Pogtopia, most of which used to belong to Punz that Purpled had… rightfully liberated.
Tommy dropped into his bed without turning off the lights. Purpled didn’t move to turn them off. He pushed the covers aside on the other bed, setting a few of his sharper weapons on the bedside table so he wouldn’t stab himself by accident in the night.
Purpled glanced over. Tommy was already asleep. He could feel his own eyelids growing heavy.
He fell asleep faster than he had in a long time, and for once, it was uninterrupted by nightmares or paranoid gasps as he forced himself to consciousness.
***
Tommy looked over the huge cavern. He hadn’t realized this was right under Pogtopia. It was so big, it probably went under L’Manburg as well.
Tommy spread his wings, the (nearly golden) yellow, orange and red feathers letting off a soft glow in the dim cave. His wings were long, extending far past his fingertips. They didn’t come close to scraping the edge of the cave and they weren’t as big as Phil’s wings, but they still felt a little overkill, even if Tommy was pretty tall.
“Jump,” Tubbo said. Tommy didn’t move. “Just jump.” Tommy ignored him.
“Do you think he knows how to jump?” Tubbo whispered to Ranboo. Tommy glared at him, snapping his wings back to his sides.
“Shh,” Ranboo said, elbowing Tubbo. Tommy turned back to the cavern, raising his wings again. He looked down. He had never been afraid of heights, so why was he hesitating? Ranboo was right there, he could catch him, even if Tommy couldn’t use his own powers.
Tommy breathed out, squeezing his eyes closed. He bent his knees. His feet left the edge.
He opened his eyes as wind rushed past his face, which was a mistake. He was falling much too fast. Tommy tried to flap his wings, but he didn’t rise at all. He could see the water at the bottom reflect the light of his wings.
“Ranboo!” Tommy screamed. A flash of particles crossed his vision, but they weren’t the familiar purple. They were bright red.
“What was that!?” Tubbo shouted. Tommy turned around, noticing that he was back on the ledge. Tubbo and Ranboo were standing there, staring at him, seemingly in shock.
“What?” Tommy asked blankly. Ranboo had just teleported down to save him, hadn’t he?
“Did you just- What just- Huh?” Tubbo stammered. “Have you been hiding a power from us?” Though Tommy could tell it was a joke, there was honest confusion in Tubbo’s voice.
“No…?” Tommy said, a voice tilt making it sound like a question. “We’ve known each other forever, Tubbo. I haven’t even been able to use my normal powers since I got revived. You think I could randomly use a secret power now?”
Tubbo gave him a look. “Dying gave you wings.”
“Good point… but still, if I had another power, I would tell you guys. Besides, I couldn’t hide it even if I wanted to. I don’t even know what just happened, I was falling and then there were red particles and then I was up here…” Tommy trailed off. “Did I teleport?”
Ranboo nodded. “You did.”
“But… how?” Tommy asked.
“A side effect of the revival?” Tubbo suggested.
“If Karl could hurry up and find some more information, maybe he could tell us,” Tommy grumbled. He knew that wasn’t fair, but Karl was their best bet of finding any information about any of this and Tommy was tired of being confused.
“You realize he’s researching something literally no one’s ever heard of before, right?” Tubbo asked, crossing his arms.
“Details,” Tommy said, waving him off. “We can deal with that later.” Tommy turned back to the cave, flapping his wings experimentally a few times.
“You sure you don’t-” Tubbo started.
“No, I’m fine,” Tommy interrupted. “Your wings are just mechanical. I have to learn on my own. Like a baby bird, when their parents push them out of the nest.”
“That’s not how hybrid traits work…”
“Shush,” Tommy demanded. Now that he’d jumped once, he could do it again. So he did.
He failed. So he jumped again. And failed again. And again. And again. Since the first time, he hadn’t teleported again. Each time, Ranboo caught him before he hit the water.
“Come on!” Tommy shouted, kicking a rock off the edge. “It shouldn’t be this hard! It’s just flapping my wings, why won’t it work!?”
“I think you have to learn how to glide first,” Tubbo said.
“Why would I have to do that?” Tommy asked, spinning around. He unbalanced himself, nearly pitching over the edge, but he recovered before Ranboo had to save him again. Tubbo had sat down by the stairs a while ago, scrolling on his phone.
“It’s what all these articles say,” Tubbo said, holding his phone up to Tommy, who walked over to take it. A website about people with hybrid traits was pulled up, scrolled down to an area with tips for parents who didn’t have wings themselves, but their kids did.
“It says that you have to glide before you can fly,” Tubbo explained as Tommy skimmed the screen, barely taking in any of the words.
“Fine, then. How do I glide, Mr. Expert?” Tommy mocked.
“If you want to jump off that cliff again, be my guest,” Tubbo said, pointing at the ledge. When Tommy didn’t move, Tubbo handed Tommy his phone, a video queued up. Tommy glared, but watched the video anyways. If it helped anything, he would never tell Tubbo.
Tommy tossed Tubbo’s phone back to him, walking back to the ledge. He positioned his wings at a slight angle, falling forward slowly. His wings caught the still air of the cavern and he floated forward slowly.
“Hey, look! I’m doing it!” Tommy shouted. Tubbo and Ranboo cheered. Tommy glided to a rock outcrop a ways away, Ranboo appearing beside him after a moment and taking him back to the cliff. Tommy jumped off again almost immediately, but went too far to the left, scraping his arm against the stone.
Tommy swore, grabbing his arm. His wings shifted and he started falling, but Ranboo teleported and caught him, returning to the cliff.
"You alright?" Ranboo asked.
"Fine," Tommy said. "Just hit my arm."
Tommy tried jumping again before Tubbo could stop him. He managed to glide for a little while, but Ranboo had to catch him again before he smacked into the side of the wall.
He did it a few more times, but he didn’t manage to get far. Tommy complained a bit more every time he returned to the cliff, which eventually seemed to make Tubbo annoyed.
"Maybe we should try something else," Tubbo suggested, getting to his feet.
"Like what?" Tommy asked sourly.
"Like this," Tubbo said, pushing Tommy. He stumbled back, slipping off the edge of the cavern. Tommy let out a shout, flapping his wings wildly with his eyes closed.
After a minute, he realized he hadn't hit the ground, and Ranboo hadn't shown up.
Tommy peeked his eyes open. The ground wasn’t getting any closer. His wings were flapping at his back, making his hair crazy. He was probably due for a haircut, but that wasn’t important at the moment.
"Look!" Tommy shouted, throwing his hands up victoriously. "I'm flying!"
"You did it!" Ranboo yelled.
"You're welcome!" Tubbo called. Tommy couldn’t see him but could tell he had to be grinning smugly. Tommy glared at him, angling his wings differently to get back to the ledge. However, in doing that, he lost whatever rhythm he was in, and started to fall. Tommy barely had time to yelp before Ranboo teleported him back to safety.
"Thanks," Tommy muttered. "I thought I had it."
"You did have it," Tubbo said. "You just haven't perfected it yet. Come on, try again. I can push you off if you need me to."
“I’m good,” Tommy said. “I can fly on my own.”
“You’re just gliding,” Tubbo said, which was entirely unfair because Tommy had been able to fly on his own for a whole almost minute that was very much not gliding.
“I’m learning,” Tommy said.
“Learn faster,” Tubbo said. “If Purpled was down here, he’d have pushed you off hours ago.”
“Where is Purpled?” Tommy asked, blinking. He hadn’t gone looking for Purpled because he knew the mercenary would either throw him off the cliff or refuse to let him try to fly at all.
“Patrol,” Tubbo said shortly.
“What?” Tommy asked. He knew that Purpled had gone on patrols while Tommy was dead, but hadn’t thought he was still doing it.
“We couldn’t just leave Section 12 unguarded, right?” Tubbo asked. “He volunteered for it. I think he just wanted to get out of here. I don’t think he takes being cooped up well.”
“I don’t take being cooped up well,” Tommy muttered.
“You were dead less than a week ago,” Tubbo deadpanned. “Deal with it.”
Tommy glared at him, but turned around, raising his wings and jumping again. He extended his wings, holding them steady for a moment, before trying to flap them once. It sent him off balance and tumbling into a wall.
“Are you okay?” Tubbo asked once Ranboo grabbed Tommy, bringing him back to the ledge.
“I’m fine,” Tommy said. He angled his wings again, trying to remember how they had it in the video Tubbo had showed him. He jumped again, keeping them steady as he glided all the way to the bottom of the cavern. Ranboo appeared a moment later, bringing Tommy back to the top.
“Did you see that!?” Tommy asked excitedly. “I got the whole way down this time!”
“You’re getting there,” Tubbo said, smiling proudly.
Tommy continued gliding down the cavern for the rest of the afternoon, each time going just a little bit further. By the time Tubbo said it was time for them to go back, he could reach the other end of the cavern, which had to be at least a couple hundred feet away.
“How goes the flying?” Puffy asked as the three teenagers arrived in the kitchen in a flurry of purple particles.
“Great!” Tommy said. “I can glide down the entire cave!”
“Wow,” Puffy said. “After just an afternoon?”
“I guess it’s just instincts,” Tommy said.
“And Google,” Tubbo butted in. Tommy glared at him while Puffy laughed.
"Anyways," Tommy said pointedly. "Tomorrow I'll actually learn how to fly."
"You can try," Tubbo said. Tommy punched him in the arm. "What?"
"I will learn how to fly! I will be the best at flying!"
"Uh huh. After just a day?”
“Yeah! I’ll be the best!”
“Sure, Tommy. Sure.”
Tommy scowled at him. He’d make Tubbo eat those words.
***
The next day was filled with much of the same, to Tommy’s annoyance. He was able to keep himself in the air a little better than the day before, but it wasn’t as much of an improvement as he was hoping.
Tubbo didn’t rub it in his face, which was for his own safety, really. Tommy probably would’ve punched him. Nicely. Mostly.
Purpled had been out that day again- Tommy was pretty sure he said something about patrol again, but Tommy hadn’t really paid attention.
He was paying attention now, since he could hear talking from the door to the rest of Pogtopia that they’d left open. He didn’t really think as he ran up the stairs, eager to show off his progress.
“Purpled, come with me,” Tommy shouted as he burst into the living room, grabbing an only slightly shocked Purpled.
“I thought we weren’t telling Purpled yet-” Tommy ignored Tubbo as he ran past, too excited to think about any repercussions he was going to face. He ran through the door to the rest of the wide, open cavern, stopping at the ledge.
“I didn’t know this was here,” Purpled said, looking around suspiciously.
“We just found it the other day, now watch,” Tommy commanded. He opened his wings, watching as Purpled’s expression grew panicked at the realization of what Tommy was going to do.
“Tommy wait-”
Tommy jumped, keeping his wings angled just right. He glided for a little while, only realizing he had no way to get back up when he reached the bottom. Ranboo had followed him into the main room and Tommy hadn’t given them any time to return before jumping up.
He landed on the rocky ground, glancing around as he tucked his wings in. He wasn’t lucky enough for a set of stairs to have magically appeared since the last time he was down here.
“Purpled’s going to kill you.”
Tommy spun around, grinning at Ranboo.
“Oh, totally.”
Ranboo rolled his eyes, grabbing Tommy’s sleeve. The two of them teleported back to the ledge, where Purpled immediately latched onto Tommy’s arm.
“Do you know how stupid that was!?” Purpled demanded.
“Relax. I’ve been doing it all afternoon,” Tommy said dismissively. “Yesterday, too.”
“Ranboo’s been there to catch him the entire time,” Tubbo added. Purpled wheeled around, glaring at Tubbo.
“You let him do that? He’s barely had his wings for a few days, how did you know if he was ready or not!?”
“Because I did research,” Tubbo said, crossing his arms. He didn’t back down under Purpled’s chilling scowl like most would. “I knew what I was doing. You think I could’ve stopped Tommy either way?”
“You could’ve tried,” Purpled said tersely.
“Well then, if you’re so smart, next time why don’t you watch over Tommy while we run around doing who knows what,” Tubbo shot. Tommy took a slight step back, eyes jumping between his friends. He wanted to stop them before the argument got heated, but didn’t know what he could say to diffuse the situation he’d gotten them all in.
“What are you implying?” Purpled asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I’m implying that you’re doing whatever mercenary crap you do instead of helping Tommy,” Tubbo said bluntly.
“I haven’t taken a job in months!” Purpled said. “I'm going out to watch Section 12 so he doesn’t try to before he’s ready!”
“How do we know that’s what you’re really doing?” Tubbo asked brazenly.
“Watch the security cameras if you want,” Purpled said. “I haven’t even killed anyone since before I started working at the HQ.”
“Oh wow, you haven’t murdered anyone in a few months, everyone give him a round of applause,” Tubbo said sarcastically.
“Tubbo, back off,” Tommy said. Tubbo blinked.
“Don’t tell me you’re taking his side.” Tubbo’s sounded both hurt and shocked.
“You’re the one who started it,” Tommy said, stepping in between them.
“Technically, I think Purpled started it,” Ranboo volunteered quietly.
“Thank you,” Tubbo said pointedly.
“It was rude for Purpled to get on your case,” he glanced back at Purpled, who looked wholly too smug, “and it was rude for Purpled to insinuate that I can’t take care of myself or that you two can’t protect me.” Purpled’s expression fell into some sort of neutral angry look.
“But it was also rude of you to say that stuff,” Tommy continued. “I get that you don’t trust him, but that doesn’t mean he’s being a mercenary behind our backs. Even if he was, why would that be an issue? You worked with Punz fine on Doomsday. What’s the difference with Purpled?”
Tubbo shuffled his feet. “Nothing, I guess.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Tommy asked. “It’s the exact same.” Tubbo didn’t say anything.
“I can’t believe I’m the youngest here,” Tommy muttered. “I’m supposed to be the immature one. Okay, Purpled, I get that you’re worried, but you can’t stop me from doing stuff like flying. Whatever happens, I’m going to have to learn eventually. Tubbo, I get you were just defending yourself, but you went too far.”
No one said anything for a moment.
“Fine,” Tommy said, once he realized neither of them were going to apologize to each other. “Ranboo, can you take Tubbo somewhere else?”
“Seriously?” Tubbo demanded. “You’re picking him?”
“I’m not picking anyone!” Tommy yelled, louder than he meant to. He took a deep breath, ruffling his wings.
“I’m not picking anyone,” Tommy repeated, quieter this time. “You have Ranboo. Purpled doesn’t. I care about you all. This isn’t some sort of competition, and you don’t have to argue because I’m doing something unsafe. Believe it or not, I am capable of critical thinking.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Purpled muttered.
“You implied it when you were getting angry at Tubbo for letting me learn how to fly,” Tommy said sharply. “I was the one who wanted to learn how to fly, and instead of trying to stop me, he helped me. Purpled, come with me.”
Tommy marched out of the cavern with Purpled trailing after him. He stepped into the living room, where Puffy thankfully still was.
“Puffy,” Tommy said. She glanced up, frowning at the expression on Tommy’s face.
“Did something happen?” Puffy asked.
“Therapize him,” Tommy said, pushing Purpled forward roughly.
Puffy blinked. “What?”
“He can tell you what happened,” Tommy said, waving a hand. He walked out of the living room, pushing open his door and shutting it behind himself. He would like to go outside, but he didn’t want to freak out everyone by making them think he was leaving.
That had been so much more of a mess than it had to be.
***
“What happened?” Puffy asked. Purpled debated not answering her, but that’d just make Tommy angry.
“Tubbo and I got into an argument,” Purpled said eventually.
“Over Tommy?” Puffy asked.
“Mostly,” Purpled said.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Puffy asked.
“No, but I’m sure Tommy wants me to,” Purpled said, rolling his eyes. The things he did for his best only friend.
“You don’t have to do everything just because Tommy wants you to,” Puffy said. “You can be your own person.”
Purpled decided he wasn’t going to address that at the moment. He was only mentally stable for one crisis at a time. (Others would argue he wasn’t mentally stable at all, actually, but he had some level of stability now that Tommy was back.)
“Tubbo accused me of taking jobs instead of being out on patrol,” Purpled said.
“Jobs?” Puffy asked, seeming confused. “Why would-”
“Mercenary jobs,” Purpled said stiffly.
“Oh, Purpled,” Puffy said sadly. Purpled hated the pity in her eyes.
“I’m not.” Purpled’s voice was sharp, clipped. He had no reason to be mad at Puffy, but she had no reason to be pitying him.
“I didn’t think you were,” Puffy said carefully. “That wasn’t fair of Tubbo to say.”
“Yeah, well, the world’s unfair, so who cares,” Purpled said sourly.
“Just because the whole world’s unfair doesn’t mean you can’t be upset when someone is mean to you,” Puffy said.
“I’m not a child,” Purpled said. “It doesn’t matter. I know Tubbo doesn’t like me anyways.”
“Why?” Puffy prompted.
“Because I hurt Tommy, why else?” Purpled asked. “He doesn’t trust me, for a good reason. It’s fine.”
“Purpled, just because you don’t think you’re a child doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid,” Puffy said.
Purpled scoffed. “It doesn’t matter anyways. I don’t feel things.”
He turned on his heel, stomping away before Puffy could question it. He had spoken to Puffy. That was what Tommy wanted, and now he was going to walk away because he didn’t want to couldn’t deal with any of it.
Purpled ended up outside, lying in the tall grass next to the garage above Pogtopia.
Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten mad at Tubbo there, but he couldn’t get the image of Tommy jumping off the ledge out of his head the image of TChaos falling off a building, he didn’t have wings to save him, just the red wisps of powers to stop him from dying, he was falling and Purpled didn’t know it was Tommy but it was still his fault.
Tubbo, of all people, was the one who eventually found him. It was dark by now, the stars shining from the black sky. They didn’t hurt to look at as much now.
“Hey,” Tubbo said, wringing his hands awkwardly.
“Did Tommy put you up to this?” Purpled asked. “I’ll tell him we’re fine.” He could pretend everything was fine between them for Tommy’s sake.
“No, actually, it was Ranboo. Mostly,” Tubbo said. He sat down in the grass a respectable distance from Purpled. Purpled waited for him to start. Purpled didn’t have anything to say to him.
“It wasn’t okay for me to say that stuff to you,” Tubbo finally said.
“I’d rather you say it to my face than secretly resent me,” Purpled said.
“I don’t resent you,” Tubbo said. Purpled raised an eyebrow, propping himself up on his elbows.
“No? So all that down in that cavern was spur of the moment?”
“No,” Tubbo admitted after a moment. Purpled laid back down, turning his eyes to the sky.
“You don’t like me. I don’t care,” Purpled said.
“I do!” Tubbo said quickly. “I just…”
“You’re worried about Tommy,” Purpled said. “Us arguing will make him upset. I’m not going to start anything if you don’t.”
“That’s the thing,” Tubbo said, frowning. “You are the one who started it.”
Purpled didn’t say anything.
“I’ve done plenty of research, Ranboo was there to help him every time he fell- and he did fall, a lot, but he’s not hurt. He’s perfectly fine, and now he knows how to glide, and he’s well on his way to flying. What’s wrong with that? Just because you weren’t there? You can’t control him, you know.”
Purpled sighed, sitting up. He picked a few pieces of grass, twisting them in his fingers.
“I know. I just… I don’t want him to get hurt,” Purpled said quietly.
Purpled was afraid of losing Tommy again and he was afraid of admitting that because he wasn’t supposed to be afraid of things. He wasn’t supposed to feel stuff like fear and jealousy and care. He had trained for so long to be able to ignore all those and each carefully built wall was crumbling down like it was nothing.
“That’s understandable,” Tubbo said. “But that isn’t the problem here. The problem here is that you assumed Ranboo and I couldn’t keep him safe. You assumed he couldn’t keep himself safe.”
“He doesn’t have a very good track record of that,” Purpled said. “He got himself killed.”
“Are you saying it’s his fault?” Tubbo’s voice had turned sharp.
“No, of course not,” Purpled said. “But I am saying he didn’t have to run off on his own to fight Wilbur. I’m saying that he could’ve avoided Doomsday altogether.”
“We tried to convince him,” Tubbo’s voice had turned distant. He was staring at L’manburg. The lights from the skyline were small from this far away.
Purpled bit his tongue before he could say ‘You didn’t try hard enough.’ That wouldn’t help when their conversation hadn’t fallen into an argument yet.
“He’s stubborn,” Purpled said instead, which seemed to be the right choice.
Tubbo snorted. “He’s so stubborn. He’s such an idiot, but he’s our idiot.”
Purpled sighed, pulling his knees up to his chest. “I shouldn’t have said you don’t know how to protect him. You’ve known him for a lot longer than I have. I won’t take back the fact that he can’t protect himself, though.”
“We can agree that much,” Tubbo said, shrugging. “You would not believe the amount of times I’ve had to save him on patrol.”
“I can guess,” Purpled said, grimacing inwardly. How many of those times had been saving Tommy from Purpled?
A part of him wished that Tubbo had failed. That he had given Tommy a wrong direction and Purpled had caught him because things wouldn’t have been this hard.
Purpled never would’ve turned Tommy in, of course, but maybe they could’ve talked things out and maybe Tommy never would’ve died. Purpled could’ve stopped hurting Tommy sooner.
“I shouldn’t have said you were doing mercenary stuff,” Tubbo said. “Even if you were, that’s not any of my business. Unless you’re putting Tommy or the rest of the vigilantes in danger; then it becomes my business.”
“I’m not putting anyone in danger,” Purpled said. “If I was, I’d get rid of the threat.”
“Even if it was the heroes?” Tubbo asked.
Purpled snorted. “The only reason the HQ is still standing is because Puffy convinced me to not destroy it and everyone inside. If you think I care about any of them, you’re wrong.”
Tubbo nodded, seemingly placated.
“So… we okay?” Tubbo asked.
“We’re not friends,” Purpled said. “But obviously, us being angry with each other will only upset Tommy.”
“So we’re okay?” Tubbo repeated.
“For Tommy’s sake,” Purpled said.
“Good, good,” Tubbo said, standing up. “For the record, I still don’t trust you outside of things related to Tommy.”
‘He shouldn’t trust me with things related to Tommy either,’ a traitorous voice whispered in Purpled’s head. He ignored it.
“Fair enough,” Purpled said. Tubbo walked towards the garage over Pogtopia. Purpled turned his eyes back to the stars.
***
Foolish was back in Pogtopia again since Karl had gotten hurt on patrol. Tommy was bored, so he was bothering them while Foolish healed Karl. They’d been done for a while, Karl having long run off, but Tommy kept following Foolish as he walked around, doing boring tasks.
Eventually, he seemed to have run out of things to do, leaving the two of them sitting in Tommy and Purpled’s room.
Foolish shifted his feet uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at Tommy.
“What’s wrong with you?” Tommy asked. He’d been acting odd for most of the time Tommy had been there.
“I just… It’s nothing,” Foolish said.
“You’re lying,” Tommy said. It was plain as day, with how weird Foolish had been acting. Tommy couldn’t figure out what it was about, but it was probably something big, if he was this bent out of shape over it. Tommy had known Foolish for a long time and he only got like this over big issues.
“It… it’s complicated,” Foolish said slowly.
“I’m the king of complicated,” Tommy said, pasting on a mostly real smile. “Tell me.”
“How are you the king of complicated?” Foolish asked.
“I was murdered by my pseudo-brother and brought back to life magically by the Goddess of Death herself and grew wings from it. And that’s just the most recent thing,” Tommy said plainly. Foolish already knew that, of course, as did Tommy, but it was a bit of a shock to both of them, it seemed, when he put it like that.
“That is complicated,” Foolish agreed.
“So you’ll tell me what’s going on with you?” Tommy prompted, raising his eyebrows.
“Maybe later?” Foolish asked sheepishly.
“Good enough for me,” Tommy said, flopping back on his bed, splaying his wings out on the covers. “You might want to tell Puffy, though, if she doesn’t know.”
“She doesn’t,” Foolish muttered.
“Oh!” Tommy sat straight up. “It’s bad then. Is it about a girl?” Tommy was the best at romance things, he could totally help out Foolish if that was the problem he was having.
“What- why would- I mean-” Foolish blinked. “Yeah. How could you tell?”
He was obviously lying. Tommy was nowhere near as good as Purpled was at telling that, but Foolish was really awful at hiding it.
“It’s bothering you,” Tommy said, narrowing his eyes. “And it’s not about a girl. You can tell me.”
“… If you promise not to hate me,” Foolish said quietly. Tommy’s eyes widened a fraction. What could Foolish have done for Tommy to hate him?
“Why would I hate you?” Tommy asked.
“Just… please,” Foolish said.
“Foolish, I practically lived with you when I was fourteen. You’re like a brother to me. I could never hate you,” Tommy said, and he meant it. He didn’t hate easily, and there was nothing Foolish could do to change that.
“I’m Totem.”
There might be one thing Foolish could do to change that.
“You’re what!?” Tommy demanded, jumping to his feet, feathers fluffed indignantly behind him. “Totem Totem? As in Totem from Las Nevadas?”
Foolish nodded silently.
“What is wrong with you!?” Tommy shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “You’re a supervillain?”
“I… was,” Foolish said quietly.
“You- you let me be kidnapped! You didn’t do anything!” Tommy yelled. He didn’t care that this was probably a secret Foolish had been trying to keep. He shouldn’t have told Tommy if he didn’t want it getting out. “You were there at Doomsday, you- what- why!?”
“I just wanted to do something, and Mom would never let me be a vigilante-”
“So you became a supervillain!?” Tommy demanded. “Did she ‘let you’ do that?”
“No-”
“Wait a second,” Tommy said, voice dropping to normal levels. “Was that why Totem kept sitting in the warehouse when I was kidnapped? Because it was you?”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Foolish said. “I knew no one else was going to be looking out for you, so I did my best. I know I screwed up, I know I should’ve just gotten you out, but-”
“They would’ve come after you,” Tommy said quietly, tone empty. “If they knew your powers, it wouldn’t be that hard to track you down.”
“I didn’t want Mom to get hurt,” Foolish said. “They weren’t… probably weren't going to do anything if I left on my own, but if I broke you out, they would’ve tracked me down.”
“You said was,” Tommy said, raising an eyebrow. “You said you were a supervillain. Did you quit?”
“Not officially,” Foolish said. “I just kind of… stopped showing up and made it impossible for them to contact me.”
“And you don’t think that’s going to make them want to track you down too?” Tommy asked.
“It’s not as bad as it would’ve been if I got you out,” Foolish said. “I know I’m a coward and you must hate me but I’m sorry, Tommy.”
“Did you tell Las Nevadas about us?” Tommy asked. “About our identities?
“No, of course not!” Foolish said quickly, eyes wide. “I’d never do that! Besides, that’d reveal my identity. I don’t know how they found out your identities. I didn’t even know about the kidnapping until I showed up to work one day and they told me to go to the warehouse.”
“Do you know anyone in Las Nevadas’ identity?” Tommy asked.
“Slime’s real name is Charlie, but other than that, no,” Foolish said. Tommy frowned. They already knew that.
“We’re going to go tell Puffy,” Tommy decided, turning towards the door.
“No!” Foolish said, grabbing Tommy’s arm. “I don’t want her to know.”
“Number one, why did you tell me then, and number two, you have to tell your mom that you’re a supervillain,” Tommy said, holding up a finger for each point.
“I told you because I wanted to say sorry about the kidnapping thing,” Foolish said. “I shouldn’t have gone along with it. I- I don’t have an excuse.”
“We’re still telling Puffy,” Tommy said.
"I- okay," Foolish relented. He had given up very easily, but there was no way he was winning either way. It was smart of him to stop trying to fight.
They left Tommy’s room, quickly finding Puffy in the living room.
“Puffy, we have something to tell you,” Tommy said.
“What’s up?” Puffy asked, putting down her phone. Tommy elbowed Foolish.
“I- uh- have you heard that-”
“The real reason,” Tommy hissed. Foolish sighed.
“I was in Las Nevadas,” Foolish said, voice nearly a whisper.
“What?” Puffy asked, voice carefully neutral, but she couldn’t hide her shock. “Las Nevadas, as in the supervillain group, Las Nevadas?”
Foolish nodded silently.
“Why?” Puffy asked. Her voice wasn’t filled with anger, like Tommy’s had been. Tommy could still tell she was unhappy.
“You’d never let me be a vigilante and I didn’t want to be a hero, so a villain was the only other thing,” Foolish said.
“Why did you have to be any of them?” Puffy asked. She wasn’t raising her voice, she didn’t look mad, but Tommy knew she didn’t show her anger through volume or her expression.
“I wanted to do something. I couldn’t just stand by and be a civilian when I could be out there, doing stuff,” Foolish said.
“So you went out and hurt people,” Puffy said.
“I quit,” Foolish said. “I’m not with them anymore. I don’t want to be a villain, vigilante, or hero anymore. I’m sorry.”
Puffy ran a hand through her frizzy hair. “This is- Foolish, this is awful. Do you understand that?”
“Yeah, I do,” Foolish said. He’d dropped his gaze to the floor.
“I was trying to keep you out of all this mess,” Puffy said, shaking her head. “I- Foolish, why?”
Foolish didn’t say anything and it didn’t seem like Puffy really wanted an answer.
“You’re grounded, Foolish,” Puffy said eventually. Foolish didn’t protest, even though he was a full grown adult and Tommy sure as heck would’ve thrown a fit if she tried to ground him.
Foolish probably deserved it a bit more than Tommy did, though. As far as Tommy could tell, he’d never done anything too bad. He hadn’t heard of any big crimes Totem committed, at least.
Tubbo and the heroes had gone digging into Las Nevadas a few months ago, and Tommy hadn’t heard much about Totem in all of that, really. It sounded like Fortune and Slime were the ones actually doing villain things. Maybe Foolish had just been healing them. While that still wasn’t great, it was better than actually hurting people himself.
Foolish left pretty quickly after that. Tommy didn’t know if he or if Puffy told the others, but since everyone seemed to be acting normally, he assumed not.
Tommy kept his mouth shut. It was Foolish’s business to tell the others if he had quit like he said. Tommy believed that he had.
***
Phil sat bolt upright, eyes wide. He’d had a dream about- something. What had it been about? Phil wracked his brain, glancing around as if the dark would have an explanation for him.
He felt like it had been important, but he had no idea what it was. Maybe it had just been something important in the dream. Phil didn’t put much stock in them, so it wasn’t like he was going to run around panicking because of something he dreamt about.
It was weird, though. It hadn’t been a nightmare. Phil wasn’t scared. But he still felt like there was something he should remember.
Phil glanced at his clock. It was almost six. He dragged a hand down his face, groaning as he slumped back into his mattress. He’d only been asleep for a couple of hours. Patrol had gone on long, with a particularly nasty criminal case and some sightings of those people who had shown up at the fight with the vigilantes, the ones who worked with Las Nevadas.
He knew that it would be better to drop that, to let anyone else deal with anything related to Tommy, but… Phil felt like he owed Tommy, somehow. They hadn’t been able to catch Las Nevadas before, so maybe now now that it didn’t even matter they could.
Phil blinked, sitting up again. Had his dream been about Tommy? That felt like it was right, but he couldn’t recall any details other than his youngest’s presence.
Pushing his blankets aside, he slowly got to his feet. He didn’t have to be up for another hour, but he wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep anyways. Not after whatever that dream had been about.
He headed out of his room, surprised to find a light on in the book nook.
“Techno?” Phil asked. His son looked up from the book he was reading. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was tangled and unkempt.
“What are you doing up?” Techno asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Phil said, sitting in the chair across from him.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Techno said, glancing down at his book again. Phil recognized it as one of his Greek mythology books, one that Techno had read a hundred times.
Phil might’ve pestered him about going to bed any other time, but not this morning. He’d be a hypocrite if he tried, with his whole two hours of sleep.
“Me neither,” Phil said, picking up the book he’d discarded the evening before.
They sat in comfortable silence for a long while. To Phil’s surprise, Wilbur joined them as the sun came up. He didn’t say anything, stepping past the two of them to his usual spot on the ground. Phil never knew why he preferred to sit there and he had never given anyone a real explanation. He picked up a book that Phil could tell he wasn’t actually reading.
Phil didn’t say anything, of course. He was just glad that Wilbur had come out of his room, seeking his and Techno’s presence for the first time in a while. Wilbur had never liked being alone much. Phil was glad to see him out of his mostly self imposed solitude.
It was nice, a quiet scene in the morning of a family, but Phil couldn’t help the gnawing feeling that something was missing. The hole Tommy had carved out in all their hearts was empty.
He shuffled his wings and tried to ignore it. He had two of his sons with him, which was all that he could ask for which was more than he deserved.
***
“Tommy?” Foolish asked quietly, walking up behind him. He hadn’t been back in Pogtopia for a couple of days. Tommy was almost alone there now, save for Purpled. Tubbo and Ranboo were getting some stuff from his and Tubbo’s apartment, the adults were all at work, Punz was who knows where. Purpled was up in the garage, organizing something Puffy had asked him to. Tommy assumed Purpled was the one to let Foolish in.
“Yeah?” Tommy asked, keeping his voice carefully even as he glanced back.
“I’m sorry,” Foolish said again. Tommy waved him off, shuffling his wings.
“I forgive you.”
“You do?” Foolish asked incredulously, seemingly taken aback. “I helped kidnap you. I worked with a supervillain. Why would you forgive me?”
“Compared to me getting killed, most of my old issues are pretty minor,” Tommy said, shrugging. “Besides, we’ll just call it even for all the times you healed me.”
“That’s not- those weren’t transactional, Tommy. I did it because I care about you,” Foolish said.
“Do you want to be forgiven or not?” Tommy asked, crossing his arms.
“Of course I do,” Foolish said.
“Then just accept it,” Tommy said. “Maybe help make it up by helping us take down Las Nevadas once we’ve got time for that. We’re even. Don’t worry about it.”
Tommy really meant that. Sure, he’d been annoyed about getting kidnapped when it happened and had been shaken up for a few weeks, especially about the fact that Fortune knew his name, (Tubbo still hadn’t figured out how he found it and he knew Foolish wouldn’t have told him.) but it really was minor compared to what Wilbur had done. Why should Tommy hold a grudge over getting kidnapped when he’d been killed a few months after that?
Not that he wasn’t holding a grudge against Fortune or Slime. He’d just moved all of Totem’s blame onto them. He knew Foolish hadn’t meant to hurt him.
“I don’t know if I can do that, Tommy,” Foolish muttered. “I hurt you.”
Tommy groaned dramatically. “You and Purpled are so dense, I swear- I don’t care!”
“How can you not care?” Foolish asked.
“Because I don’t,” Tommy said, crossing his arms. “You can’t make me care and I’m not going to. I forgive you, I forgive Purpled, that’s the end of the story.”
“But-”
“And I’m not just forgiving you because we were friends before, I’m not just forgiving you because I need something from you- which I don’t- I’m not just forgiving you for any reason other than I want to,” Tommy said.
“That’s… comprehensive,” Foolish said blankly.
“I’ve had this conversation with Purpled several times,” Tommy said. “I don’t think he believes me, but it’s true. Are you going to keep arguing with me?”
“I… guess not?” Foolish said hesitantly.
“Great,” Tommy said, turning around.
“Is- is that it?” Foolish asked.
“Yes,” Tommy said. “I forgive you. The end. Got it?”
“If you say so,” Foolish said slowly.
“I do,” Tommy said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go bully Purpled.”
“Have fun with that,” Foolish said. “I think I’m going to- uh, go.”
“See you,” Tommy said, spinning around. “Purpled! Where are you!?!”
***
Tommy had asked Purpled and Tubbo for a rundown of everything that had happened that they knew of in the few weeks that Tommy had been dead and ignoring the news.
Something that there wasn’t someone to explain when you died was that it was so weird to see people talking about you in the past tense. It was weird to see people theorizing about your secret identity that you’d spent years hiding. It was weird to see past bosses of his give interviews as though they had known him, classmates of Tubbo and Ranboo talk as if Tommy had ever spoken to them.
It had been easier to ignore it all. Block as many people as he could and uninstall any social media from his phone.
That hadn’t lasted for very long, because he was a teenager, but he did make a new account on almost everything and blocked everything related to vigilantes and heroes that he could think of. It would be suspicious to be using his old accounts anyways.
He’d asked Tubbo because he knew Tubbo would be keeping track of most things to happen in the city, and Purpled because Purpled was paranoid to be watching any news he could get his hands on. Luckily, the two acted cordially around each other, even if they both mostly just spoke to Tommy.
“Right,” Tommy said distantly once Tubbo and Purpled had stopped talking. “Cool.”
“Are you okay?” Tubbo asked.
“I’m fine,” Tommy said.
“You’re lying,” Tubbo and Purpled said at the same time.
“Now there’s two of you,” Tommy grumbled.
“Both of us have always been able to tell when you’re lying,” Purpled said.
“Except for me being a vigilante,” Tommy said. “You never caught on to that.” Purpled frowned, but Tubbo wasn’t deterred.
“You don’t sound fine,” Tubbo said. “What’s up?”
“It’s not important,” Tommy said.
“Tell us, Tommy,” Tubbo said. “We don’t care if it sounds ridiculous or not.”
“It’s…” Tommy hesitated, pulling on the bracelet at his wrist. He knew it wouldn’t snap, he’d tried pulling on it before. "It just feels like the world has gone on without me. I know it sounds silly, but-"
"It's not silly," Tubbo said. "It's… well, I can't say normal, since we don't really have anything to go off of, but it's reasonable. Everything changed for you, but it pretty much stayed the same for everyone else."
"It's normal for survivors of traumatic incidents to feel like that," Purpled said. "Like the world has continued spinning, even though it stopped for you."
"How do you know that?" Tubbo asked.
"I know a lot of things," Purpled said. "Not the point. It is normal to feel that way. You died, but pretty much everyone else kept on living like nothing happened. It's weird to hear about things you missed because it's not just things you didn't realize were happening, you weren't there for them."
"Yeah," Tommy said. "I guess so."
Tubbo and Purpled stared at him for a moment.
"You need a therapist so badly," Purpled said.
"I would traumatize a therapist," Tommy said.
"You still need one," Tubbo said. Tommy rolled his eyes. Of course now Tubbo and Purpled got along.
"Maybe once people know I’m alive again,” Tommy said. “I think a therapist would be pretty concerned if a dead person was trying to get therapy.”
“You could go under a fake name and wear a mask,” Purpled suggested.
“But I’d still have to tell the therapist things,” Tommy said. “Besides, I’m pretty sure no therapists know how to deal with someone who got brought back from the dead.”
“Maybe not, but you need it for the rest of your trauma,” Purpled said.
“What trauma?” Tommy asked.
“Don’t say that to me.”
“I don’t know what-”
“Tommy.”
“I’ll go to therapy once everything is over,” Tommy said. “It’s too crazy right now.”
“When is the crazy going to stop?” Tubbo asked. “You came back from the dead and got wings. I don’t think the crazy is ever going to end for you.”
“When we’re not trying to stop a civil war,” Tommy said.
“What if it’ll be easier to stop the civil war if you get therapy?” Tubbo asked.
Tommy rolled his eyes. “Seriously. I’ll be fine for a little while. I never needed therapy before.”
“Because you didn’t die before,” Tubbo said.
“And could I tell a therapist about that? They’d think I was crazy,” Tommy said. “But again, we can figure this all out after everything calms down. Seriously. We’ll all get therapy.”
Tubbo sighed, obviously unhappy, but didn’t argue anymore. Purpled didn’t say anything either, though he seemed less visibly unhappy. He was also better at hiding his emotions, so Tommy didn’t know if that was really a measure of anything or not.
Tommy wasn’t really planning on going to therapy. His usual ‘ignore everything that goes bad’ seemed to work out pretty well for him.
Maybe he’d try at some point. Maybe.
***
It shouldn’t hurt this bad.
Tommy didn’t know exactly what hurt. It all hurt. And it shouldn’t.
He came back from the dead. He was alive again. Why did it have to hurt? Why did his head have to pound, his wings have to ache, his stomach have to turn? Why couldn’t things just be easy?
It was like Tommy had never died. It was like nothing had ever happened. All he had to show for the ordeal was a patch of gray hair and some wings and other than that, things should be the same. Nothing should’ve changed because it didn’t really matter. Tommy was back from the dead so who cared that he died in the first place?
Tommy knew it wasn’t right to think like that, but he didn’t care enough to stop.
He was alive, after all. Why should it matter that he died? Why should the days, weeks, months of sitting in that cold void that Tommy could still feel in his fingertips matter? Why should he hold a grudge against the heroes, why should he hurt if he was alive again? Why did he hurt?
A door slammed shut somewhere else, dragging Tommy out of his thoughts. He shook his head, pushing himself off the ground. He braced his hands against the cold counter, glaring at his reflection.
There was something wrong, he just couldn’t put his finger on it. It wasn’t the new scars covering his arms and chest, those just crossed over the old ones. He was used to seeing scars marring his skin. Those were normal.
Tommy was pretty sure it wasn’t the wings, though they were pretty weird too. They didn’t look off though... Just different. Tommy had already gotten used to their weight on his back. They felt like they belonged.
His eyes settled on the streak of gray hair that nearly fell into his eyes. It had been there as long as Tommy had been revived, no matter how much he scrubbed it. He had no clue where it came from. Maybe it had just been a side effect of being dead.
He grabbed a pair of scissors from the sink next to the drawer, snipping off the gray streak before he could think twice about it.
Looking back at his reflection, Tommy smiled a little. That was what the problem had been. Now he looked just like himself, with a couple new scars and giant wings adorning his back. Pretty poggers wings really, if Tommy did say so himself.
He turned to leave, steps a touch lighter than they had been earlier.
***
Purpled wiped at his eyes roughly. Why was he crying? Tommy was back, Purpled had already cried about that, so he should be fine now. Tommy wasn’t dead and Purpled didn’t have any reason to cry. The person he cared about was fine so Purpled had to be fine and why was he crying?
Purpled pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them.
He didn’t need to cry. He didn’t deserve to cry. Why should Purpled be sad now that Tommy was back? Why did Purpled have to feel anything other than relief?
“Purpled?”
Purpled looked up, finding Puffy standing there. He hadn’t thought anyone was going to find him, up in the garage above Pogtopia.
“Hi,” Purpled said, wiping at his eyes again.
“Are you okay?” Puffy asked, sitting down next to him.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Purpled asked.
“Because you don’t have to be,” Puffy said. Purpled didn’t say anything, so she continued, “you don’t have to be fine just because nothing’s going horribly wrong. You can be upset about small things, about things that don’t really feel like they matter, about anything. You don’t need a reason to be not okay.”
“Tommy’s fine,” Purpled said. “Tommy’s fine so I have to be okay.”
“No, you don’t,” Puffy said. She looked sad, for some reason. Purpled didn’t know why she was still pretending to care. Tommy was back, so Tommy could care about him, and everyone else could give up the act.
“You can leave me alone now,” Purpled said, changing the subject. “I’m not going to do anything to myself. I couldn’t do that to Tommy.”
“You shouldn’t want to do anything to yourself because you matter, Purpled, not just because someone else doesn’t want you to,” Puffy said softly.
“I can’t matter,” Purpled said. “I can’t care about myself, Puffy.”
“Why not?” Puffy asked.
“I don’t know,” Purpled lied.
He lied because he didn’t want to have to explain it to Puffy when she wouldn’t understand. He lied because he couldn’t face the truth himself. He lied because it was easier than anything else. He lied because it was the only thing he could do.
He was a bad person. He was a bad person that only Tommy could care about because he was a good person. Purpled couldn’t care about himself because what kind of bad person could care about a bad person?
“Then find a way to care about yourself,” Puffy pressed.
Purpled didn’t say anything.
“Please,” Puffy said. “If not for yourself, then do it so the rest of us don’t have to worry about you. So Tommy doesn’t have to worry about you.”
“Fine,” Purpled said after a long silence.
Puffy smiled genuinely. “Thank you.”
Purpled turned away. She should really learn how to tell when he was lying.
***
“We’re home!” Tommy yelled, raising his wings dramatically as he walked into the living room. He had finally gotten the hang of flying down in the cavern, so he, Tubbo, and Ranboo had gone out so he could try flying in the open air.
It went better than Tommy had expected. He wished they had invited Purpled as well, but didn’t want to risk another argument with Tubbo, and Tubbo was the one with the mechanical wings from his vigilante suit.
Still, it was freeing to finally fly in the sky. It felt like he’d been waiting for it since the moment he got his wings.
“It’s late,” Puffy said, giving the trio a look.
“I don’t have a curfew,” Tommy said, crossing his arms. He would completely ignore it if he did have one, but it was the principle of the matter. “It’s not like there’s monsters in the dark, and we’re so far away from the city that no one’s just going to be wandering by. It was perfectly safe!”
“Me and Ranboo were there,” Tubbo added. “It was fine, Puffy.”
“Flying for hours can’t be good for you,” Puffy said. “At the very least, you have to eat something and go to bed.”
“We brought sandwiches with us. We just ate,” Ranboo offered quietly.
“Thank you for being responsible, Ranboo,” Puffy said. Ranboo kept their eyes trained on the ground and Tubbo grumbled something about being responsible himself.
“See?” Tommy asked. “We were fine.”
“You still have to go to bed,” Puffy said. “All of you. It’s late.”
“I’m fine!” Tommy insisted.
“You were dead a week ago!” Puffy said. “I’m not accepting any of your excuses, Tommy. Bed in five minutes.”
Tommy groaned dramatically, but turned to the hallway. He wasn’t tired, not at all. Why would someone think that? It was completely unreasonable and also stupid because Tommy wasn’t tired at all and sleep was for the weak.
He yawned as he stepped into his room, finding Purpled sitting at his desk.
“We gotta go to sleep,” Tommy said, rummaging through his drawers for some pajamas.
“You mean you have to go to sleep,” Purpled said, standing up.
“Puffy’s not going to let you stay up,” Tommy said. “She thinks we need things like ‘normal sleep schedules’ and silly stuff like that.”
“Well, Puffy knows that I’m nocturnal, so she isn’t going to say anything to me,” Purpled said, grinning.
“You are not nocturnal,” Tommy said, rolling his eyes. “I think I would’ve been able to tell.”
“You never know with hybrid traits, right?” Purpled asked.
“Your hybrid traits give you antenna and nothing else,” Tommy said, tone accusatory.
“Maybe, but Puffy doesn’t know that, now does she?”
Tommy glared at him.
Purpled rolled his eyes, tossing Tommy’s phone at him.
“When did you-” Tommy could’ve sworn that was just in his pocket.
“I’ll cover for you,” Purpled said, hand already on the doorknob.
“You what?” Tommy asked blankly.
“I’ll tell Puffy you’re asleep so she won’t check on you for a while. Watch Youtube, scroll on Instagram, do whatever.”
“Fine,” Tommy grumbled, pretending to be annoyed without really meaning it. He flopped down on his bed while Purpled shut the door behind him.
***
Purpled stepped into the hallway, almost running into Ranboo.
“What’s with the shouting?” Purpled asked. He could hear the raised voices in the other room now, picking up on Tubbo and Puffy’s specifically.
“They’re arguing,” Ranboo said, frowning. “I- know you don’t really like Tubbo, but do you think you could…?”
“I’ll deal with it,” Purpled said. It wasn’t for Ranboo or Puffy’s sake, and it definitely wasn’t for Tubbo’s, but Purpled didn’t want Tommy to hear the fighting. The voices became clearer as Purpled walked into the living room.
“-perfectly capable of keeping Tommy safe!” Tubbo was saying. He was standing a few feet away from Purpled, while Puffy was standing by the couches. Her eyes flickered to Purpled for just a moment before looking back at Tubbo.
“I know you are, I just-” Puffy tried.
“You don’t trust me!” Tubbo said. “You don’t think I’m responsible. You don’t think I’m good enough at fighting, do you?”
“I never said that,” Puffy said.
“You sure as heck implied it!” Tubbo said.
“She’s right.”
Tubbo jumped, spinning to face Purpled with wide eyes.
“Where did you come from?”
“My room,” Purpled deadpanned. “And Puffy’s right.”
“You don’t even know what we’re talking about,” Tubbo said, crossing his arms.
“You’re arguing about whether or not you would be able to defend Tommy if something happened,” Purpled said. “You’re not going to be able to protect him if the heroes show up.”
“But I-”
“You’re the ground control,” Purpled said. “You never trained to fight people. You’re fine at fighting for someone who doesn’t do it a lot, but you have a lot less training than the rest of us.”
“I have more training than Ranboo,” Tubbo muttered, staring at the ground. His hands were curled into fists, but he wasn’t going to try to punch Purpled.
“And he’s not as good at fighting as you,” Purpled said. “But he can teleport, which gives them an advantage.”
“There’s no way I can compete with that,” Tubbo said.
“No one asked you to,” Purpled said. “You don’t need powers to be a good fighter. I could beat all of the heroes single handedly, and my powers aren’t related to fighting.”
“You couldn’t beat Dream,” Tubbo said. It was a weak argument and Purpled could tell he knew that.
“Physically, I’m sure I could,” Purpled said.
“But physically doesn’t matter if you don’t have powers,” Tubbo said, spreading his arms. “Being able to win a fight through pure ability doesn’t mean you’re going to win when you’re fighting someone with powers like that.”
“Maybe not,” Purpled said. “But we’ve gotten off topic. You might be able to hold your own in a regular fight, but if you tried to fight any of the heroes, you wouldn’t be able to help Tommy.”
“I was fine at Doomsday,” Tubbo said.
“Tommy died at Doomsday,” Purpled pointed out.
“Then by that logic, none of us can properly protect Tommy,” Tubbo said, as if he’d caught a flaw in Purpled’s knowledge.
“We can’t,” Purpled said.
“What?” Tubbo faltered.
“We all failed him,” Purpled said. “Obviously, we didn’t think the heroes would go as far as they did, but we still should’ve been able to prevent it. We’ll know better in the future, but that doesn’t automatically make any of us stronger.”
“I’m still plenty responsible,” Tubbo said stubbornly.
“More responsible than Tommy, sure,” Purpled said, shrugging.
“I’m more responsible than you too!” Tubbo said, voice practically dripping with anger. He should really learn how to control that. His face was an open book to how he was feeling at any moment.
Purpled raised an eyebrow, tilting his head. “Really?”
“At least I wasn’t going to kill myself while Tommy was gone!” Tubbo yelled. Purpled’s eyes widened a fraction but he carefully kept the rest of his face impassive, shoving his emotions in a tighter box far, far down where he would never have to face them.
Tubbo was looking at him. Purpled could see the regret written over his face. An open book.
“Tubbo!” Puffy said indignantly. “You can’t say something like that!”
“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t-”
Purpled didn’t let Tubbo finish, turning on his heel and stalking out of the living room.
He didn’t feel anything. He was numb. He didn’t need to feel anything. He couldn’t feel anything.
And that was fine. It was for the better, it was what he was supposed to feel, he was supposed to feel nothing, he was supposed to shove his emotions down into a box because it didn’t matter and he was fine.
Purpled pushed his door open, hoping that Tommy hadn’t heard anything.
That hope was dashed when he found Tommy halfway to the door.
“You heard,” Purpled said blankly.
“I- Purpled, what-”
“I’m fine,” Purpled said, shutting the door behind him.
“You- Purpled you are not fricking fine,” Tommy said. “What Tubbo said was-”
“Go yell at him if it was so bad,” Purpled said, sitting down on his bed. “I don’t care.”
“I don’t believe that,” Tommy said, crossing his arms.
Purpled raised an eyebrow. “So you can tell when I’m lying now?”
“Someone can’t just be fine after they’re told something like that,” Tommy said.
“I don’t care,” Purpled said. His voice is so flat that he almost fools himself. “Tubbo can say whatever he wants.”
“Purpled-”
“Didn’t Puffy say you’re supposed to go to sleep?” Purpled asked. Tommy scowled at him, ruffling his wings before turning on his heel, marching out of the room.
***
“What were you thinking!?”
Tommy could hear Puffy from down the hallway. He found Ranboo standing outside the living room, looking concerned.
“You heard too?” Tommy guessed.
“Tubbo and Puffy were arguing before and I thought Purpled was going to fix it, but it just got so much worse,” Ranboo all but whispered.
“What were Tubbo and Puffy arguing about?” Tommy asked.
“That she didn’t think he was responsible enough to keep us all safe,” Ranboo said. “Puffy never said that, but that’s what Tubbo thought she meant and then they were all shouting and I don’t know how to fix it.”
“I’ll handle it,” Tommy said. He stepped into the living room, finding Tubbo sitting on one of the couches while Puffy yelled at him. Tommy had only seen her this angry once or twice before.
Puffy paused when she saw Tommy. Tubbo didn’t look up, his eyes trained on his feet.
“Tommy, you-”
“Tubbo, you’re an idiot,” Tommy said blatantly.
“I know. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean it,” Tubbo muttered.
“Why would you even say something like that?” Tommy asked.
“I was- I don’t know, I was just angry,” Tubbo said. “It’s not an excuse, I know that.”
“Tubbo, look at me,” Tommy said. Tubbo tore his eyes from the ground, meeting Tommy’s eyes.
Tommy slapped him in the face.
Tubbo reeled back, more shocked than hurt.
“Tommy-!” Puffy started.
“I deserved that,” Tubbo said.
“I- Just- go to bed. All of you,” Puffy said, rubbing her forehead. Tommy knew it wasn’t the first time that they’d caused Puffy a headache, but couldn’t help but feel a little bad for it, even though he had nothing to do with it. This time.
“Sorry,” Tubbo muttered as he got to his feet.
“You have to say that to Purpled,” Puffy said. “Just… give it until tomorrow. Let everyone cool down.”
Tubbo only nodded. Ranboo had disappeared from the hallway, presumably to their room.
Tommy’s light was on when he pushed the door open, but Purpled was in bed, turned away from the door. Tommy didn’t try to say anything. He knew Purpled had to be bothered, at least a little bit, despite him pretending to not care.
He climbed into his own bed silently, curling his wings around himself while he wished his friends would just get along.
***
“Purpled?” Tubbo quietly approached. Tommy had left the door open and Purpled didn’t know if that had been on purpose. Purpled pointedly put down the gun he was fiddling with before he turned to face him.
“Can I help you?” Purpled asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I wanted to say sorry,” Tubbo said. He was nervously wringing his hands and was looking at the gun at the desk instead of Purpled.
“Okay,” Purpled said after a moment, since it seemed like Tubbo was waiting for a response.
“I didn’t mean what I said,” Tubbo doubled down. “It was mean and uncalled for.”
“It was,” Purpled said. They stared at each other for a long moment.
“Is that all you wanted?” Purpled eventually asked. Tubbo took the hint, walking away without saying anything else. Purpled picked up his gun again.
He wasn’t hurt by Tubbo’s words. They were true. There was no reason for him to feel anything. Tubbo was- well, Tubbo might have not been strictly correct, since Purpled was right about who was more responsible out of the two, but he was right about the rest of it. Purpled had said it more bluntly himself before. It didn’t matter.
Somewhere, a voice that sounded too much like Puffy told him that it wasn’t good that it didn’t matter to him. The voice said that he should care, that it was mean and Tubbo had no right to say it.
Purpled shook his head, shoving that voice down into the dark corner of his mind that he ignored like it was second nature to him.
He was fine.
***
Tommy had heard that Tubbo had apologized to Purpled, and Purpled told Tommy that he forgave Tubbo. Tommy was happy to drop the incident- with Purpled’s permission, of course. Purpled had seemed disinterested as he brushed aside Tommy’s concern.
Maybe Tommy should’ve held on to it a bit longer, pushed for Purpled to say how he was really feeling, but he wasn’t Puffy. He didn’t know how to make Purpled speak his mind.
Instead, Tommy quickly settled back into what felt normal.
Right now, that included bothering Tubbo.
“Tubbo!” Tommy shouted, pushing the door open. “I want to go fly outside.”
“No,” Tubbo said, not even looking up from his phone.
“Tubbo, please!” Tommy whined.
“I’ve told you a dozen times, it’s too dangerous!” Tubbo hadn’t wanted Tommy to go outside ever since his argument with Puffy and Purpled. Tommy didn’t know exactly what had been said for most of it, but he knew that everyone was being too paranoid about it. Tommy could defend himself perfectly fine on the off chance there was a reason for him to need to.
“But it’s so cramped down here,” Tommy complained. “It’ll just be for a few minutes.”
“You know what? If we go out tonight, will you stop asking me?” Tubbo asked, sounding exasperated. Tommy was just proud of himself for finally wearing him down. It had taken a couple hours of talking Tubbo’s ear off, but it was worth it.
“Yes!” Tommy cheered, pumping his fist in the air.
By sunset that evening, Tubbo had long gotten tired of Tommy’s pacing, so he unlocked the hatch without too much convincing. He followed Tommy as he clambered up the ladder. He didn’t know where any of the others were, but that didn’t really matter at the moment. Tommy rushed out of the garage above Pogtopia, looking up at the sunset. Tommy immediately raised his wings.
“Tommy, don’t-” Tubbo’s protests were cut off by Tommy flapping his wings, shooting into the air. Tommy glanced down. Tubbo grinned at him before running to grab his mechanical bee wings he’d left in the garage. They’d gotten beat up during Doomsday, Tommy remembered, but he’d had a lot of free time to fix them recently. Tubbo fluttered up into the air, trailing after Tommy.
“Tubbo, this is great!” Tommy shouted, a wide grin crossing his face. The sunset washed over him and Tommy didn’t know if he’d ever get used to this feeling.
Some part of his brain screamed that this was wrong, that his feet belonged on the ground, that he should listen to the feeling of gravity in his gut and fall to the ground, but that part got quieter each time he flew.
Another part of his brain was laughing at the pure absurdity of this all. Tommy had died, but now he was back and had wings. That part of his head urged him to fly faster, to soar and dive and test his limits in ways that the others would never approve of but that just made him want to do it more.
Tommy glanced over at Tubbo, wearing a similar grin to him. The sunlight was shining off his mechanical wings and he looked carefree for the first time since Tommy had gotten back.
Tubbo laughed. Tommy’s smile grew wider. He’d thought he’d never see his friends happy again, he’d never seen his friends ever again, floating out in that cold void that was now almost gone from his fingertips.
It was nice. For just a few moments, it was peaceful. There was nothing but the sound of the wind rushing through Tommy’s feathers and the motor on Tubbo’s wings whirring.
“Tag, you’re it!” Tommy shouted suddenly, breaking the silence and dipping in the air to smack Tubbo before shooting off higher.
“How dare you!?” Tubbo demanded. “You’re dead!”
“Been there, done that,” Tommy said.
“What-”
“It’s your fault for making a morbid joke!” Tommy called, climbing still. He'd never flown this high before and his wings were getting slightly sore from the effort, but there was no way he was letting Tubbo catch him.
“Tommy, do you want to land?” Tubbo asked, evidently realizing the same thing as him.
“I’m good,” Tommy said quickly. “I’ve got to work on my stamina. I just got into the air!”
“If you don’t land, you’re going to fall out of the sky,” Tubbo said. Sure enough, as soon as he’d said it, Tommy’s wing cramped and he started to fall. He panicked for a moment, wildly flapping his wings. Tubbo dived, catching Tommy’s arm before he managed to fall too far.
“Maybe your vigilante name should’ve been Theseus,” Tubbo joked. Tommy was relieved that Tubbo quickly made light of the situation.
“Come on, I’d never really fall,” Tommy said, laughing. “That was just for show!” If Tubbo could tell he was bluffing, he didn’t say anything.
Tubbo landed them on the ground, his wings not built to carry two people for long.
“If you ever did fall, I’d be there to catch you,” Tubbo said, his smile never leaving his face.
Tommy’s laughter cut off. He was reminded sharply of another conversation with another brother, who had also promised to catch him.
Wilbur had lied.
“Something wrong?” Tubbo asked. He must’ve picked up on Tommy’s sudden change of emotion.
“Just… nothing, really,” Tommy muttered, glancing at the ground.
“You can tell me, Tommy,” Tubbo said quietly.
Tommy didn’t say anything for a moment. “Wilbur told me that.”
“Oh,” Tubbo said.
He did not say ‘I told you so’. He did not say any of the things he could’ve said to Tommy about the heroes. Tubbo had been right in the end, about them. He had been right that it was dangerous, he had been right the entire time.
Still, Tubbo didn’t rub salt in the wound, even though he easily could. Even though he was obviously right.
Tommy was silently thankful for that. He quietly took off into the sky again, Tubbo following after him. He looked away from Tubbo, towards the sunset. He jumped at the sight of a figure approaching, reaching for the knife strapped to his belt before he froze.
“Hey, is that Dream?” Tommy asked.
“What?” Tubbo asked, looking down. His eyes widened. “Took him long enough to get back.”
Dream was walking towards Pogtopia. He hadn’t noticed them yet in the quickly approaching dark.
“Let’s go,” Tommy said, smiling mischievously towards Tubbo. Tubbo nodded, a similar grin spreading across his face. Tommy angled his wings.
“Dream!” Tommy shouted as they dive bombed him. Dream screamed, dropping to the ground. Tommy cackled, landing next to the hero.
“Hi!” Tommy said loudly, waving.
“What was that!?” Dream said, sounding panicked as he got back to his feet.
“Flying. Are your eyes alright?”
“I’ve been barely been gone for a week! How can you already fly?”
“I dunno,” Tommy said, beating his wings, shooting back into the air. Tubbo landed next to Dream.
“When did he learn to do that?” Dream asked. His voice was distant now that Tommy was in the air again, but Tommy could still hear them.
“As soon as we let him walk around,” Tubbo said exasperatedly. It hadn’t been that soon. Tubbo neglected to mention the amount of convincing and manipulating (which Tommy was very good at by the way) it took for them to let him learn.
“How did he even learn how? We don’t have anyone who has wings.”
“He watched Youtube videos,” Tubbo deadpanned.
"What?"
"Yeah. It's probably instincts, too. That’s what my research said, at least. He was able to glide pretty fast after he read an article I gave him."
“I did that on my own!” Tommy yelled down. He didn’t need any of Tubbo’s complicated research to know how to fly. He was just that poggers and amazing to not need it at all.
"Is he glowing?" Dream sounded vaguely concerned to ask.
"His feathers do that."
“I’m just that pog,” Tommy added.
"How much did I miss?" Dream asked.
“A lot,” Tubbo said. “Come on, we can explain to you inside.”
“I don’t want to go back in,” Tommy complained, landing on the ground again.
“We can come back outside tomorrow,” Tubbo said. He seemed to have given up his ban already. It had only lasted a couple days.
“But Purpled isn’t going on patrol tomorrow,” Tommy complained.
“Wait, Purpled’s on patrol?” Dream asked. “What patrol?”
“Long story, he’s basically filling in as a vigilante while we’re gone,” Tubbo said. He glanced at Tommy. “Did you specifically wait until Purpled wasn’t home to force me to let you go outside?”
“In my defense, if Purpled were here, he would never let me go outside,” Tommy said. Purpled would probably also get into another argument with Tubbo, and Tommy was doing his best to avoid that for now. The less arguments the two got in, the less Tommy had to worry about the things they said to each other.
Maybe that was irresponsible of him, but he was the one who died a week ago. He needed a little more time before he could force his friends to do normal things like be mentally stable.
“You’ve gone outside with him before,” Tubbo said.
“But not to fly,” Tommy said, raising his wings for emphasis. “You know what happened the last time I flew around him.”
“Right,” Tubbo said shortly.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” Dream said.
“Unimportant!” Tommy decided, turning back towards the garage. “What is important is how you knew I was brought back before anyone told you. Did you do something?” He had waited long enough for answers about what had happened.
“I- tried?” Dream said uncertainly.
“Well, obviously I’m alive, so it looks like that try worked pretty well,” Tommy said, spreading his arms.
“I spoke to the Goddess of Death,” Dream said. “She-”
“Hey, me too!” Tommy said brightly. “She’s nice.”
“You could say that,” Dream said. “She said that you were already back.”
Tommy paused, blinking. “So you didn’t do anything?”
“Basically,” Dream said. He shifted his backpack, pulling a tattered looking book out. “I was trying to follow this, and… I guess it worked. You were just already back.”
Tommy took the book from Dream’s hands, ignoring the hero’s protests. He opened the first page, finding a title inscribed in strange symbols that Tommy had never seen before. Below was what must have been the translation in English, ‘Revival Book’.
“Are you sure she said I was already back?” Tommy said, squinting at Dream.
“Very sure,” Dream said.
“Maybe there’s another copy of this?” Tommy asked, flicking through a few pages. “Someone else brought me back for some reason? Where’d you get this?”
“The HQ library,” Dream said.
“Oh,” Tommy said. “So it probably wasn’t from the book.”
Not that there wasn’t anyone in the HQ who would try to revive him, Tommy just… would rather not think of that possibility actually. It was better to think that he’d come back all on his own because he was simply that cool and poggers.
“Anyways,” Tommy said, still desperately curious as to what had caused his revival but aware that Dream probably didn’t have the answers. “Come inside, everyone else’s probably going to ask you the same things.” Tommy tossed the book back at Dream, who caught it. Tubbo walked ahead of them to open the hatch, letting Tommy and Dream climb down first before following.
“This is your base, right?” Tommy asked. Dream nodded. “Then you probably don’t need a tour. I’ve been alive here the shortest time anyways, so I wouldn’t be the best person to give one.”
Tommy leaned into the living room, finding Puffy there.
“Hey guys,” Tommy said. “Dream’s back.”
Puffy’s eyes widened. She stood up as Dream rounded the corner. Dream paused when he saw her.
No one said anything.
Tommy cleared his throat. “So Dream was trying to help me get revived-”
“Did you read the letter?” Dream interrupted him, still looking at Puffy.
“I did,” Puffy said.
The silence was loud. Tommy wasn’t going to break it this time. He didn’t know what letter they were talking about or what it could’ve said, but he assumed it probably wasn’t that Dream was betraying them all, which meant it was probably fine.
The hatch opened and shut down the hallway. There were two pairs of footsteps. Purpled arrived at Tommy’s side while Tommy tried to covertly ruffle his feathers as if he hadn’t been flying. Foolish stepped past them, looking vaguely concerned for some reason. Maybe he wasn’t expecting to run into Purpled.
“I’ve got the food-” Foolish froze as he stepped into the living room. The tense silence continued. Foolish had looked on edge when he entered the room and it only got worse as he took in the scene.
Foolish glanced at the others. “Are we not concerned about the hero in the living room?”
“Dream’s on our side,” Tommy said. “He’s Nightmare.”
Foolish blinked. “Oh.” He set the food down on the table. “Not the weirdest thing that’s happened lately.”
“I doubt anything can top me getting revived,” Tommy said.
“I don’t know if there’s anything weirder than getting brought back from the dead,” Tubbo said.
“I’m simply that cool,” Tommy said, grinning.
“Foolish,” Puffy said. Foolish glanced up.
“Yeah?”
“Dream is Clay,” Puffy said. Foolish’s eyes grew wide. Tommy glanced at Tubbo and Purpled to see if they recognized the name, but neither of them reacted.
Tommy was surprised when Dream pulled off his mask. Tommy had never seen him without something covering his face, but he was just... A normal guy. Tommy didn’t know what he was expecting.
Foolish seemed more shocked, though. He and Dream stared at each other for a moment.
“You grew up,” Dream finally broke the silence.
“Seriously? That’s the first thing you say to your brother after not seeing him for years?” Foolish asked, but he was smiling.
Tommy blinked, glancing at Tubbo. “What happened while I was dead?”
Tubbo shrugged. “It’s news to me too.”
Tommy had known that Puffy had another kid; the pictures in their house proved as much. He never knew what had happened to them and didn’t think he should ask about it.
The kid being Dream had not been something Tommy expected. Sure, both he and Foolish had bright green eyes, but that was the only similarity Tommy knew about, considering the fact he’d never seen under Dream’s mask.
“That explains a lot,” Purpled said.
“How does it explain anything?” Tommy asked.
Purpled shrugged. “They act like one another, Punz knew Puffy before and was helping us as a favor to Dream, Fo-” Purpled paused. “Huh.”
“What?” Tommy asked.
“Just realized something,” Purpled said. He shook his head. “Not important. Like I was saying, it explains a lot.”
“If you say so,” Tommy said, shaking his head.
“Come on,” Tubbo said, grabbing Tommy and Purpled’s arms. Purpled pulled his arm away, but stood.
“What?” Tommy asked.
“Let’s give them privacy,” Tubbo said, pulling Tommy away. “Let them have their family moment.”
Tommy let Tubbo pull him out of the room, running off to leave the family to their devices.
