Chapter Text
Every detail could be important.
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A knock on his bedroom door has Tommy groaning and blinking his eyes open.
Phil’s voice filters from outside the room, “Time for school!”
With another groan, Tommy sits up and fumbles around for his alarm, slamming the cancel button with probably more force than necessary. The blonde fumbles around the room, shrugging off his pajamas and slipping on one of his black T-shirts.
On the front in big bold letters it says, ‘Eat. Sleep. Game.’ and Tommy grins at himself in the mirror while quickly threading his hands through his bird nest hair in an attempt to tame it.
He grabs his ratty red backpack and throws open the door, silently observing the chaos that is his family.
Techno’s currently banging at the bathroom door, “Wilbur, it doesn’t take a whole hour to do your hair! Get out or we’ll be late!”
On cue, Tommy hears Phil call from the kitchen “You guys are gonna be late!”
The blonde good-naturedly chuckles and shuffles down the hallway and into the living room. Setting his bag down by the front door, Tommy strides into the kitchen and sits down at the table, watching as Phil attempts to make breakfast.
“Need help big man?” Tommy knows he’s just as unqualified as Phil is.
The older man laughs and offers a smile over his shoulder, completely avoiding the question. “Last month of school, are you excited?”
Tommy shrugs but notices Phil has already turned back to his very very burned eggs and instead voices his thoughts out loud. “Not really, we have exams coming up.”
“You’ll do great-”
Wilbur cuts him off, huffing into the kitchen and plopping down into a chair. “Phil, tell Techno I need at least an hour and a half to do my hair!”
Phil sighs and turns around with two plates of burnt eggs. “We already had this talk, Wil.”
“It’s not fair!”
Phil sets one plate in front of Wilbur and the other in front of an empty chair, where Tommy assumes Techno will sit.
“Don’t put me in the middle of this,” Phil looks up and across the table, meeting Tommy’s eyes.
His bright green eyes shine at Tommy and a shiver works its way down the teen’s spine. Tommy clenches his hands, closes his eyes, and forces himself to take a deep breath.
The kitchen goes silent and Wilbur asks uncharacteristically quiet, “Tommy, are you okay?”
When the blonde blinks open his eyes, it’s to see Wilbur and Phil staring at him in concern. He flushes a deep red at the attention.
“Mate, do you feel okay? You don’t have to go to school.”
Dull blue meets warm sapphire and for a moment no words are passed before Tommy quickly shakes his head and mumbles out, “I’m okay, just tired.”
Another pause, “Okay…”
Techno breaks the spell, clattering down into his chair and instantly grabbing a fork full of eggs. Phil and Wilbur laugh as Tommy looks on in quiet amusement.
He watches as his brothers and father banter back and forth, loudly talking about the upcoming day. Sorrow fills Tommy’s gut and momentarily paralyzes him. He used to be exactly like that, to a point where most people found him annoying-
That’s not right, he’s always been quiet. He’s the shy and quiet kid of the family, everyone knows that.
Phil clears his throat and yells over the conversation Wilbur and Techno are invested in as they shovel eggs into their mouths.
“You guys better get going or you're gonna be late!”
There’s a flurry of movement and Tommy pounces towards his backpack, shrugging it on and following his brothers out the door. He looks back and waves to Phil, who’s leaned against the door frame with a grin.
The trio practically sprint down the sidewalk, it seems they were later than originally thought.
The air is warm, almost to an alarming degree if you asked Tommy. The humidity tangles around him and sticks to his skin.
He feels light-headed from trying to run so fast and his ears start ringing as he stutters to a halt, looking around in confusion. It’s high pitched and so unbearably loud that it has Tommy doubling over and lifting his hands to cover his ears.
Small flecks of blood coat them and Tommy feels like he’s gonna be sick.
Techno’s voice cuts through, “Are you coming?”
As quick as it came, it’s gone and Tommy looks up to see Wilbur and Techno looking at him expectantly.
The pink haired boy has his arms crossed while Wilbur is busy fussing with his hair.
His fingers aren’t coated in anything and he feels perfectly healthy, even the air seems to have thinned out enough to allow him to catch a proper breath. Tommy grimaces and tries to shake off the nerves he had been hit with.
The trio continue on their path towards the school while Techno gives him a quick glance every so often but ultimately doesn’t say anything.
The school comes into full view and the trio pick up their pace, well aware of the fact that they’re technically five minutes late. When they reach the entrance, the twins head towards the senior classes while Tommy runs towards the freshman hallways.
The blonde fumbles with his locker, grabs his materials, and tries to silently shuffle into his English class.
The hinges screech and he ends up red-faced as he’s chewed out by the teacher and laughed at by his classmates.
The humiliation from it all is enough for him to zone out in the back of class and let the morning pass by in a hazy blur while the blonde looks blankly outside. It’s a warm and bright spring day; the birds chirp jubilantly and there’s not a single cloud in the sky.
Tommy tries to soak it in; he loves the spring and the warmth it brings. He’ll never admit it out loud but he also loves to admire all the different flowers that grow.
The blonde slides his eyes away from the window and watches as the bell cuts their teacher off mid-sentence. Mr. what’s-his-name huffs and rolls his eyes before offering a polite goodbye.
Tommy doesn’t wait around, he stops at his locker to shove his things in and nearly sprints to the cafeteria.
Most kids stick to their own table and the socially-awkward boy sighs in relief when he notices his table is still empty.
He sits down and slowly scans the crowd for a familiar face who will come bounding up with a smiling face and packed lunch and worry over the fact that he hasn’t eaten.
He’s not hungry, hasn’t been in days; his body tries to occasionally growl but Tommy promptly ignores it. If he could survive weeks with a few scraps of stale bread and rotten meat, he could go a few days without food.
Teens continue to stream in, all talking and laughing with their friends as they grab their lunch. Tommy waits patiently, eyes darting around in hopes to see a familiar head of chocolate brown hair and bright eyes.
He waits all year. No, he only waits forty-five minutes, a full period, before he feels his hope diminish as the bell rings.
Betrayal stings at the backs of his eyes. Tommy ducks his head in an attempt to protect himself from the outer world.
He shouldn't feel so betrayed; he knows that Tubbo's not the kind of kid to just miss school so something big must’ve happened. It’s just one lunch period.
It’s not like Tubbo will never see him again, or abandon and turn his back on him. Right?
He’ll see Tubbo tomorrow. This is ridiculous.
Tommy manages to stand up and drag his feet towards his locker, taking out a random notebook in preparation for his next class.
He blinks, class ends.
Time has been molasses, days blurring in together until it’s nothing but a clusterfuck of a thousand events. He hadn’t been able to keep track of time, it seemed so unimportant. The only thing he needed to acknowledge was when the sun rose and set.
That’s wrong. He does care, he remembers dates and weeks because it’s just one month until school ends and he has so many plans for the summer. Tommy keeps track of the days religiously; he writes in calendars and journals so he can know when exams are and when school ends and when he can hangout with Tubbo.
It’s how he has always been and every other normal kid does the same thing.
The last bell finally rings and Tommy quickly shoves his assignments for the day into his backpack and races out of the school.
He finds a spot in front of school on the cement stairs and sits, watching as all the other kids run to their buses or get in their parent’s cars. Tommy has to wait for Techno and Wilbur, so they can all walk home together. Phil said it’s not safe to walk around the city alone.
The blonde rolls his neck, relishing in the relief he gets when it cracks. He tilts his head up, eyes searching around for his siblings before he’s motionless.
Across the road, between the crowds of kids and buses, an enderman looks him directly in the eye.
Endermen don’t exist, he’s just having another one of his weird day-dream things.
The boy, because obviously, it’s just a boy, continues to silently stand and stare at him across the road.
Tommy wonders where the boy got his eye contacts from because whichever doctor told him the mismatching colors went well together, was lying to him. However, Tommy supposed it went okay with the whole split colored hair thing.
It’s a standoff that no one around him seems to notice. Tommy refuses to back down, never letting his eyes stray away from the boy.
A girl accidentally jostles him and he turns, smiling awkwardly as she says sorry. What really matters is that when Tommy looks back, the boy is gone.
Tommy unconsciously fiddles with and straightens out his classic red and white t-shirt, a nervous habit he could never drop.
The kids and parents and buses clear out fast, leaving Tommy to sit alone and wonder where the hell his brothers were.
Tommy’s not sure how long he waits but the sun starts to make its descent towards the edge of the earth, making the teen shiver. It’s getting colder and he wishes his brothers would just hurry up as annoyance courses through his veins and makes him clench his teeth.
Where are his brothers?
Heavy clouds converge over each other to cover the sky while the wind fractionally picks up. It’s so sudden that he feels like he’s getting whiplash from the shift in the weather. He hugs his arms around himself, trying to preserve any warmth he has left.
Of course Tommy was an idiot and forgot to pack a coat. He doesn't even know how he managed to get out of the house without Phil shoving one into his hands.
As time presses on, small flurries start to steadily fall, coating him in a thin white layer. This is when the blonde starts to realize just how stupid it is to walk from and to school with no coat in the middle of winter.
He’s shivering, curled up in a ball and trying to calm himself down as panic flows through his veins like ice, adding to his dropping temperature. He tries to calm himself and opts to watch his backpack get covered in its own blanket of snow.
Where are his brothers? Why aren’t they here?
A hand settles on his shaking shoulder and Tommy feels the fear leave him while he quickly looks up, a smile on his face.
It drops as he meets the eyes of the kid that was staring at him from across the road earlier.
Tommy should run but he’s so so cold; his body is shutting down and running seems like so much trouble.
The wind blows and Tommy wonders if his lips have started to turn blue. Isn’t that what happens when you start getting hypothermia?
The kid drops down on the steps to sit next to him, not a single freezing snowflake landing on him while Tommy is slowly getting overtaken by them.
He doesn’t meet his eyes, “You can’t keep this up.” His voice is soft and for a moment, Tommy thinks it’s almost familiar.
That doesn’t make sense though because, “I’m not doing anything.” Tommy barely gets the words out with how badly his teeth are chattering, the snow continues to coat the world in white.
“It’s only getting even more out of control.”
Tommy has no idea what the kid is talking about but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it because he lets out a startled cry, holding his face as blood pours from his nose and a cut on his cheek that makes no sense because it came out of nowhere.
His ears distantly ring but the kid’s voice is as clear as day.
“You can’t take much more.”
Sky blue meets emerald green and blood red before the wind and snow pick up and Tommy can’t see anything but white.
The ground disappears and he’s falling and falling and falling, until there’s a small thud and something soft is under him.
He turns to his door where Phil is looking at him with a frown. “I shouldn’t have made you go to school.” He murmurs, defeated.
“What happened?” He throat is like sandpaper, he's parched.
“Wilbur and Techno found you huddled on the steps in front of the school with a fever, you were pretty out of it.” Phil sighs.
The piercing cold of snow is the only thing he remembers. “Oh.”
“I'm so thankful Techno and Wil found you in time, just try to get some sleep and I’ll be back to check up on you.”
The blonde nods, afraid that his words will fail him. Phil quietly shuts the door, leaving Tommy by himself to dejectedly look at his ceiling.
He hasn’t had a peaceful rest in weeks, possibly months, he deserves a break. Tommy closes his eyes and lets himself drift.