Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The treehouse was dying faster than the oak supporting it. The ashtray sat on a pink wooden stool. Wilbur cracked open a lukewarm Calypso lemonade. Schlatt took a deep breath, took off his sweatshirt, and lit another menthol. They sat in silence except for the scratched Metallica disc.

For the past two years this had been the norm. Wilbur didn’t even get off at his bus stop anymore. It’s not like he wanted to go home anyway; nobody would care if he came home late. Wilbur sighed, running his fingers through his unbrushed hair. It was a hot afternoon, and he refused to take off his usual jumper and sweatpants. He was still used to the chilly spring weather of London rather than the scorching heat of California. Will and Techno’s father claimed they needed a ‘change of scenery’ to distract from his mother’s death. He and Schlatt met in drama class, they both initially hated it, but had a love for the subject.

“Is your dad gonna be mad if I don’t get you home soon?” Schlatt asked as he leaned forward and blew smoke in Wilbur’s face.
Gagging, he replied, “No. He’ll be fine,”
“Cool, cool,” He paused for a second, then reached over Wilbur to put out his cigarette, “Do you wanna go to 7/11?”
Wilbur shrugged, “You’re paying,”
“Yeah, yeah, come on buddy,”

Chapter Text

Phil’s house was a little cluttered, but he preferred the word cozy.
The cream wallpaper in the kitchen was peeling, and the green oven was scratched in some areas. Herbs hung from the curtain bar.
Techno snuck past his father and filled the fading, elephant watering can. It was his turn to water the yards and Wilbur’s to water the indoor plants.
Phil turned on the stove and moved the pot handle backward, “We’re having someone over for dinner tonight, please call Will,”
“Okay,”
“It’s important, please don’t forget,”
“Mhm,”
Phil sighed as Techno walked out the front door.

----

As Techno watered the flowers he called Will. It took four tries to get ahold of him.
“What?” Wilbur asked, exasperated.
“You need to get home,”
“Why?”
“Don’t you remember? The social worker and that kid are coming over,”
“Oh…right,” He groaned.
Techno sighed, “Yeah, I know you don’t care but get over here before Phil kills you,”
“Right.”

----

Schlatt’s car was rusty and smelt like cheap tobacco. Empty liquor bottles littered the floor of the passenger's seat and a pack of Camels sat in the cup holder.
Wilbur leaned back and shut his eyes, the AC was cranked and he was tired.
“So, why’s the big man mad?” Schlatt asked, turning into the cul de sac.
“He’s not, just needs me home for dinner,”
Wilbur sat up and opened his eyes, fucking with the radio.
Schlatt scoffs and swats at his hand, “Cut it out,” he laughed.

He pulled into the driveway and they both got out.
“Alright your highness, let’s go,” Schlatt said smugly, reaching his hand out.
Will took it and rolled his eyes.

-----

“Dad! I’m home!” Wilbur screamed, opening the front door and kicking off his shoes.
Schlatt stood awkwardly behind him, scratching the back of his head.
Phil came around the corner, “Thank god you’re here, Mr. Manifold and Thomas are here and we’re about to have dinner,”
Wilbur nodded, “Mhm, I’m gonna go use the restroom,” he mumbled. He ran up the stairs, leaving Schlatt in the doorway.
“So…how are you, James?” Phil asked with a forced smile.
“I’m fine, sir,” Schlatt muttered. He shoved his hands in his pockets and darted his eyes away. He felt incredibly off here.
“Have you been working on something?”
Phil gestured to Schlatt’s grimey wife beater.
“Oh, yeah, my sisters truck needed an oil change,”
“Lovely, how is Pennylin by the way?”
“She’s fine,”

Wilbur ran back down the stairs, now in new clothes.
“I’m ready dad,” He called, walking back over to Schlatt.
“I’ll be going then, I guess” Schlatt said, carding his fingers through his greasy hair.
“Ok,” Will hugged him and kissed his cheek, “See you tomorrow,”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow,”

----

Tommy stared at the Hawaiian Punch in Phil’s old Garfield cup. He couldn’t help but be miserable. This place looked like two old women lived here, not a single father and his two poorly dressed children.
One of them had absurdly long pink hair and impossibly pale skin. They had big, wire frame glasses and braces. The other had curly brown hair and circle glasses. He was almost as pale as his brother.
“So, kids, how about you introduce yourselves?” Phil suggested, sitting down with a plate of oatmeal cookies.
Wilbur groaned and Techno punched him in the shoulder. He winced, doubling over, “Jesus,”
“I’m Techno, this is Wilbur,”
“I’m Thomas, I have a real name,” Tommy snarked, drinking the rest of his punch.
“Wonderful, he’s so personable,” Wilbur muttered and rolled his eyes. He slumped over.
“Thomas is in ninth grade,” Mr. Manifold, his social worker, said. He was dressed like a history teacher and wore shiny leather shoes.
“Techno and Wilbur are both juniors.”
“Tommy, why don’t you tell them a bit about your hobbies?”
Instead of doing that, he looked up at Mr. Manifold and glared, “I don’t have any,”

After a while of palpable silence, the oven timer dinged.

“I’ll go get that,” Phil exclaimed, standing up.

----

The food was good.
Tommy hated to admit it, but it was good.
He really liked whatever he was eating. It was garlicky and the fried peppers were a nice side. He was just glad it wasn’t mashed potatoes.

Wilbur picked at the food he was so grossed out. He felt sick. How many calories were in this? It was too greasy. The breading on the peppers was too much, it couldn’t have just been peppers no, no, of course not.
Will decided to sip on his water instead.

Phil was droning on about something meaningless, about his garden, anything at all. He stopped suddenly, looking from Wilbur’s plate up to his face, “you don’t like it, Will?”

He frowned, “are there any regular peppers?”

The older man stood up, “oh, of course! I’ll get those for you,” he hummed, walking to the fridge.

Techno reached over with his fork, taking the breaded ones. Wilbur rolled his eyes
“So, Thomas, where are you from?” Will asked.
Glaring, he leaned back, rolled his eyes, and replied, “I’m from Yorkshire,”
Wilbur and Techno looked at each other and laughed subtly.
“How did you end up in California?” Techno pried, tilting his head to the side.
“I moved?”
Wilbur scoffed, “No duh-” he was interrupted by Phil’s death stare.

Do NOT repeat the incident it said loud and clear.

“What do you do for fun?” Their father inquired. His voice was soft as ever. Sweet like St. Dympna, the patron saint littering their home.
“I used ‘ta play soccer and do MMA,” Tommy answered with a mouth full of sweet potato.
Phil hummed and pushed the bowl of sweet potatoes towards Tommy and Techno.

----

After the kid and his nanny left Wilbur skittered to his room. He was playing his guitar. His lights were dimmed and the setting was blue. It was boring compared to the rest of the house. Cream walls, gray carpet, white desk, white shelves, and records hung up. There were papers scattered on the floor and half written songs on the desk. His keyboard was dusty and had a nail polish stain on one of the keys.
But it was his.

He was halfway through playing a song when a series of plunks interrupted him. He groaned, knowing it was Schlatt.
He stormed over to the window and shoved it open. It caught on the chain, which he undid quickly so he could scream at his best friend.
“Oh Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Schlatt slurred, shouting.
He giggled and tugged off his sweater. Fresh, ugly bruises were decorating his chest and arms.
“Is your dad home?” Wilbur sighed. He was tired, he didn’t want to play games right now.
Schlatt grumbled, “Can I just stay the-” He hiccuped and covered his mouth, “can I stay the night?”
Wilbur groaned and ran downstairs, he opened the porch door and ushered Schlatt inside.

He practically had to carry him up the stairs. By the time they got into Will’s room, Schlatt was half asleep.
“We need to be quiet, okay?” Wilbur whispered while guiding him to bed.
“Ok,” He mutters.
He’s clearly drunk and in pain, but neither of them want to talk about that.
So they’ll just go to bed.

Chapter Text

Six AM.
That’s what time it was when Techno rudely switched on the light and tore off Thomas’ blankets.
“Rise and shine, I made breakfast,” He gruffed,
Thomas rubbed his eyes, squinting them dramatically.
“What time is it?” He asked, groggily
“Six.”
And so with this, Techno made his way downstairs, leaving Tom in his bed. He grumbled and eventually dragged himself out, stomped down the stairs, and muttered his good morning’s to the others. Tech placed some toast with something…yellow on it. It was similar to jelly.
“What’s this?” He asked
“Oh, that? That’s lemon curd,”
Tom nodded hesitantly and took a bite. His eyes widened when he realized how sweet it was.
“Jesus Christ that’s-” He coughed, smiled- then cleared his throat, swallowed. “This is lovely, thank you,” He finished, looking down.
Techno chuckled, “glad you like it,”
He began to tie his long pink hair into a ratty bun,
“Aren’t you gonna comb it?” Thomas snarked
Tech just shrugged, “maybe later,”
It was quiet for a while, almost serene. A warm peach glow filled the kitchen from the window, birds chirped tediously, and Techno had old jazz records playing.
Eventually, Wilbur joined them, yawning and scuffling over to the pantry.
“I made toast, Wil,” Techno mentioned
“Oh thank Mary, I did not want to cook,” Will mumbled, taking a plate from his brother.
He joined Thomas at the table, sitting right across from him.
“Just so you know, bus comes at seven fifty,”
Tom nodded, continuing to eat his food.
At seven-forty-five the brothers (and Thomas) made their way to the bus stop. There were three other people there already. A girl with long brown hair and a pink sweater, a kid in a blue and white striped rugby shirt, and an obnoxiously tall boy wearing a mask and sunglasses. Nobody spoke to each other during the entire twelve minutes of waiting, it was an awkward and dreadful silence. Thomas wished for nothing more than to be somewhere else than this.

Once the bus finally arrived, Tom made his way to a middle seat. The tall kid sat in the one across from him.
“Hey, are you new?” He asked
Thomas looked over to him, scowling, “I guess? What’s it to you?” he scoffed
“Oh um, just- well I’m kinda new too- and-”
“I won’t be here long so no, we can’t be friends if you’re asking that,”
The kid tensed up and turned away, Thomas almost felt a little guilty, almost.
After a few bus stops someone (a short brown-haired kid with an ugly green sweater and brown overalls) sat down right next to Thomas.
“Uh, excuse me?”
“What? It’s the bus, mate,” the brunette paused, “who are you anyway?”
“I’m Thomas, you?” He replied snarkily
“Tuberose,”
“What kind of name is that?” Thomas let out a hyena-esque shriek resembling the concept of laughter, making Tuberose laugh.
“What kind of laugh is that?”
This made both boys laugh even harder,
“You’re kind of cool, you know, for someone who wears overalls,” Thomas snarked, smiling ear to ear.
“I see, I see, well you look like Jake from StateFarm so-”
Thomas snickered and playfully punched Tuberose’s shoulder,
“How could you,” the brunette sniveled, feigning heartbreak
For a second Thomas genuinely worried he had offended or worse- hurt- Tuberose, but the idea was quickly dismissed when the boy started laughing.
“I’m just joshing you, don’t worry Tommy,”
“Tommy?” The blonde’s nose crinkled and he made a face,
“Yeah, since we’re friends now you deserve a nickname from me,” Tuberose explained
“Hmm, then I guess you’re…oh this is hard, you’ve got such a weird name!” Tom thought about it, pausing and staring into space as he considered this.
“Tubbo.”
“That hardly makes sense!” the boy cackled, baffled by the blonde's mental gymnastics.
“Therefore, perfect, you are now named Tubbo.”
The bus screeched to a halt, stopping right outside of the school. After getting off Tuberose (or now, Tubbo) bee-lined for the library, hoping to get to his corner before someone could take it. Now, Tommy wasn’t following Tubbo, he just happened to be going to the exact same place at a slightly slower pace. Speaking of, Tubbo walked stupid-slow; it took everything in Tommy to not yell at him to hurry up.
“Are you following me, Tommy?” Tubbo asked,
“No, why would I do that?” Tommy fibbed
Tubbo snickered, “It’s okay, here I’ll show you my hiding spot,”

“Here it is,” the brunette announced
“The encyclopedia section?”
“Nobody comes here,”
Tommy nodded, satisfied with his answer. The two sat down in the nook,
“What’s your schedule?” Tubbo asked,
“I dunno, I think I have math first?”
Tubbo shook his head and tsked, “That’s trash, my guy,”
“Yep.”
Eight-twenty-five AM.
That’s what time it was when Tubbo walked Tommy to class, despite many protests.

Chapter Text

Bonk.
A paper ball was tossed at Tommy’s head. He frowned, paused his talk with Tubbo, and picked it up. An older-looking boy, who he recalled seeing at the Watson household a day or so ago, was looking straight at him. He was mouthing ‘open it’ rather obnoxiously. Tommy rolled his eyes and obliged.
It was blank.
“Thomas, are you passing notes?” the teacher asked, booming.
“What? No, I- He-” Tommy’s mouth hung open like a fish out of water.
The teacher shook his head, “honestly, you should be paying more attention and quit throwing the blame on other students,”
“Sir, he threw it,” Tubbo gestured at the older boy, “I saw it!”
The teacher (whose name Tommy still hadn’t quite caught) sighed, rubbed his temples, and nodded.
“James, I don’t want to see anymore behavior like this during my lectures or any other hour of the day, do you hear me?”
“Yessir,” The older boy- James? - huffed lazily. It was as if he didn’t even care he just got scolded by some old guy with wire glasses and a disgustingly red sweater. (even for Tommy’s tastes).

Tommy and Tubbo didn’t have the same lunch shift on B days, so Thomas wandered aimlessly around looking for somewhere to sit. He eventually found a little corner by the orchestra doors and sat down. It was quieter there, nobody ever passed by. Except for one boy, he was tall and Tommy vaguely recalled seeing him on the bus… but he wasn’t sure.
“Can I sit here?” The boy asked, fidgeting with a leather bracelet on his left hand.
“Sure, I guess, I’m bored anyways,” Tommy huffed, pushing the small paper bag Phil gave him toward the doors.
The boy nodded and sat down, “I’m Ranboo,” he mumbled.
Thomas nodded, not giving out his own name.
“Um… do you know my sister? Her name is Niki,”
“No, I’m new, idiot.”
Ranboo nodded,
“What kind of name is Ranboo anyways?”
“I dunno, my brother picked it,”
“Your brother is a jerk, that’s for sure.”
Ranboo laughed, running his fingers through his hair, “hey, um…” he began.
“What class do you have next?”
Oh no. No. Tommy could tell what this was. This boy was lonelier than a rock in a kiddy pool, and he wanted to be Tommy’s buddy. The blonde sputtered, making odd noises.
“I just told you your name was stupid and you’re trying to befriend me?”
“How do you know that? Maybe I’m plotting my revenge.”
Ranboo crossed his arms and glared over his sunglasses.
“Ah, I see, I see, well too bad. ‘Cause I’m big man Thomas Danger Kraken Shades Cool-Middle-Name-Here Innocenti, and I will you kick your teeth in,”
“Aren’t you like 5’2?” Ranboo asked, laughing a hare too loud.
Tommy winced at the volume, but continued, actually enjoying this conversation.
“I’m 5’2 and a half, I should say. You’re like what… 5’5?”
“6’6.”
“Oh I’m gonna cut your legs off, young man.”
They were both laughing now, enjoying each other’s company (though Tommy would refuse to admit it).
“Hey, you never answered my question,”
“Oh, huh, guess I didn’t.”
There was a brief pause before Tommy spat out, “I’m going to art fundamentals, room 282,”
“Oh, cool, I have that class on C days,”
Tommy nodded and hugged his knees to his chest. He tried not to feel so attached to Ranboo and Tubbo already. It was only a matter of time before he was moving on to the next house, anyways. He pushed the fuzzy feeling down his throat, deep in his stomach; a pit where butterflies go to die. Held-back sentences were lodged between his lungs and his throat. Apathy and guilt were iron-quicksilver holding down his tongue.
“Hey, uh”
“The bell rang,”
Tommy’s attention was snapped back to Ranboo, he just realized how poorly the boy dressed. He wore; a large black T-shirt with small holes and a crown on it, baggy gray cargo pants, and his shoes were different colors (red and green specifically). Tommy made a face, then stood up and trailed behind Ranboo until he reached the staircase.
“Bye- uh…” Ranboo held his hand up to wave, haltering.
“Tommy,” he replied, smirking, then walking off.

Taking a few steps back to the start of the second lunch, Techno was sitting in his usual spot on the steps by the vending machines when his old pal turned the corner. Dream hung on the railing, staring right at the pink-haired boy.
“Hey, long time no see, huh?” He asked, smirking.
“Guess not, do you need something Dr-”
“Clay. It’s Clay. I’m not going by that stupid nickname anymore (unlike one of us).” He muttered the last part under his breath.
Techno nodded, “sorry about that, do you need something though?” he asked. Something Drea- Clay hated about Techno was how spaced out and calm he was. It always ticked the green-clad highlighter boy off a bit.
“No, not really, just checking in on you,” Clay ran his fingers through his dirty blonde hair.
“Alright then, I’m doing very well. I started a DnD campaign with my little brother and some of his friends, I’m the DM. It’s pretty rad not gonna lie, oh-”
Clay scoffed, “not what I meant.”
“Oh, did you want me to ask first? Clay, how are you doing lately? We haven’t spoken since the incident at the winter formal so it would be pleasant to-”
“My god! Have you always been this obnoxious?” Clay seethed,
Techno shrugged, “I guess so, I think your buddy Saph is pretty obnoxious but that’s like, a subjective opinion my guy.”
Clay pushed himself off of the railing, laughing, and running his fingers through his hair.
“Damn, ‘my guy’? Do you not remember what you did?”
“Clay, that was you.” Techno replied, “Remember? You put that stuff in his drink, you thought it would be funny, it’s not my fault Greg doesn’t talk to you anymore-” “His name isn’t Greg, and we’re still friends, no thanks to you.” With that, Clay stormed off. Techno shrugged again, he was a junior in high school and didn’t have time to care about something from Sophomore year. If Clay wanted that night to be Techno’s fault then he wasn’t gonna preach otherwise even if it was factually incorrect.

Chapter Text

After lunch, Techno and Tommy were awkwardly walking by each other in the halls, Techno paused by the cast and crew sheet for this year's ‘one acts’. He grimaced, recalling what happened last year. Tommy tapped his shoulder.

“Whatcha starin’ at, big guy?” he asked, spitting a bit.
“Hm? Oh, hey Thomas,” He turned a bit to face the short blonde, “I was just thinking about last year’s fiasco.”
“Oh? Do tell. I’m so bored and do not want to go to biology right now.”
Techno chuckled and started walking slowly, tucking his hands in his pockets.
“Well, it’s a really long story.”
“I like long stories.”

“Okay, well, here it goes then I guess, but I’m dropping you off at Bio.”
Tommy grumbled and crossed his arms, “fine.” he huffed.

“Well, see, the CHTC was- and still is- a wreck. Wilbur ( beloved brother, you know him) is the student director. In his Sophomore year, he and his buddy J. were like… really invested in the one act’s production. Like it was crazy, it’s all Will talked about. I’m getting off track, uh-” he wiped his glasses on his sweater sleeve, then continued, “J- or well, I guess Will and Puffy call him Schlatt for some reason. I dunno, um, but yeah…so Schlatt was the main guy on the sound crew, Will’s student director, yadda yadda-”

“Big man, is this story going somewhere?” Tommy asked, rolling his eyes,
“I said it was long, Tommy- wait can I call you that?”
“Yeah, it’s fine, I like it better. Now hurry up man, we’re almost there!” Tommy laughed out, playfully pushing Techno. Tech smiled and nodded, picking the story back up.

“One night of rehearsals Schlatt was upset with Will, I don’t know why so don’t ask. But uh, yeah so Schlatt kept playing sound effects before Wilbur was at the cue. At some point Wilbur got furious and walked down to sound crew in his little ugly boots, seriously those were ugly boots- off topic again, sorry. So he walks down and he goes up to Schlatt and he’s all like, ‘Schlatt I declare war on you’ and Schlatt laughs and he’s like ‘yeah, sure, okay, war’s cool,’ and then I dunno what happened but somehow that lead to Wilbur being tackled by Eret during the winter formal and breaking his left wrist.”

“What?”
“Yeah, that’s it pretty much, anyways you’re here.”
“No, what?? That was so horribly explained! What am I supposed to do, live with this? Do I have to ask Wilbur Idiot-head whatever-your-last-names-are what happened?!” Tommy shrieked, grabbing Techno’s sweater.
Techno laughed and pried the boy off, “yeah, he’ll explain it better if you’re that interested.”
Tommy sighed and entered the classroom.

-------------

After school, Wilbur and Schlatt were chatting by the benches at the school entrance. Not really about anything, in particular, just jabbering nonsense. Because of this, neither boy realized Tommy and Tubbo were running up to them.
“Wilbur!” Tommy screamed, shoving Will while trying to steady himself.
“What in the?!- Thomas?” Wilbur pushed Tommy off,
“Techno just told me the most ludicrous story ever and I must have it deciphered.”

Tubbo snorted, covering his mouth with his hand to suppress his giggles.
“What? Thomas, you’re not making any proper sense,”
“What happened at the winter formal last year?” Tubbo asked, still giggling.

Wilbur and Schlatt tensed up. The yellow-clad boy frowned and replied, “which part are you asking about?”
“Your wrist! Techno said it had been broken,” Tommy introjected, quickly.
Wilbur shrugged, “I fell. I’m getting on the bus now, bye Schlatt,”
Schlatt nodded in the other boy’s direction, then turned back to the kids.

“Are you asking about the schism?” The brunette asked, smirking.
“I guess so?” Tommy answered, shrugging.
“That’s a good story, I’m sure you’ll hear it in time, bye kid.”
He grabbed Tubbo roughly by the shirt sleeve, then muttered something to him.
Tommy shrugged again, walking over to his bus.

Chapter Text

“A’ight twerp, Puffy’s at club and pop’s is at work, will you be alright if I go to a friends?” Tubbo’s older brother, James, asked.
Tubbo shrugged, he didn’t mind being alone. Especially if it meant time without his siblings.
James nodded, “that’s a yeah right? I don’t wanna leave you here if you’ll be a whiney-bench about it,”
Tubbo snickered, “yeah, that’s a yeah,” he tried to bury the little worry that his brother didn’t actually like him deep down. He swallowed the lump of unasked questions in his throat and forced a toothy grin. “Go have fun, dude,”
James nodded and turned for the door, “don’t burn the house down,”

When the door clicked shut Tubbo let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He felt guilty about it, why was he always so anxious around James? James loved him, right? He tried to rationalize it every which way, people were mean as a joke all the time, he told himself. This is just one moment, James has been nice plenty before. Not as nice as Pennylin but still nice. He began thinking out loud, muttering himself out of this anxiety spike.
“It’s so stupid when you do this,” he told himself,
“James said not to be such a baby anymore,” he whispered,
Hushed, soothing words of self-deprecation, flooded the soundless white living room. It traced the echoes of the deep-slate shadows that whispered on the chipped white walls. The bubbling molasses that formed from deep panic filled his head and left the sweet ick for moths to devour. A quick breath in, breath out, again, again, repeat, continue, why isn’t this working? Why can’t he see? Why’s static in his eardrums, pounding hard, making words reverberate? Past wounds opened up, gurgled, and morphed with old phrases. Nonsensical patterns ate up his thoughts.
Think.
Consume.
Attorney.
Conform.
Amalgamate.
Ah-mal-guh-may-t
Annunciate.
Fortune.
Forget.
Obscure.
Ding.

Wait, that one wasn’t from his mind.

Ding.

That was the doorbell.
Tubbo crept over to the door, peeking through the hole. It was some old blonde guy, who kinda looked like Tommy. Maybe it was just because they were both blonde with blue eyes.
Tubbo shrugged it off and opened the door, it caught on the chain latch.
“Sir, um, w-we don’t want to buy anything.”
The man laughed, “no, I’m William’s father, I just wanted to check in since he said he’d be here. Last time he came back a little late.”
“Oh, is that Wilbur?” Tubbo asked,
The man replied with a nod.
Tubbo felt…awkward, he knew better than to blow Will’s cover (especially if that was who Schlatt was hanging out with) but he wanted to know more about this guy. He undid the chain latch and opened the door wider.
“Um, he and my brother are out getting some snacks for us right now, but you can come in if you’d like.” He muttered,
“Oh that’s quite alright, you shouldn’t invite adults inside, kiddo.” The blonde man hummed, smiling softly.
“Oh, okay, I’m Tuberose. I’m Jame’s brother.”
“I see, he’s never mentioned a brother before, though I don’t talk to him much,” he chuckled.
“Um, would you like a beer, sir? Or maybe coffee?” Tubbo asked, gripping the door handle ‘till his knuckles blanched.
He shook his head, “no thank you, just tell Wilbur to call me when he’s home, okay? Have a nice afternoon.”
Tubbo nodded, “I will,”
He shoved the door shut and sighed, that guy was weird. Also old…and kinda nice. Tubbo smiled and fished for his phone. He punched in his brother's number.
“Hey, James,” He mumbled into the speaker.
There was some distant crunching of leaves and a string of curses…maybe? He wasn’t quite sure, they were in Spanish.
“Hey Tubbs, what’s up?” James asked, doing something with some kind of plant, probably moving a bush branch.
“Are you hiking? If Wilbur’s there his dad just stopped by and asked for me to tell him to call when he’s coming home,”

James made a noise, “That’s weird. Yeah, I’m out with my buddies George and Alexis, we’re hiking some trail, I didn’t know Will wasn’t home, I’ll give him a call. See you, rat.”
With this, Tubbo was hung up on. He grumbled and walked over to his bedroom. He shared it with James. Since Penny was the only girl, she got her own room. He didn’t mind it much, other than James smoked sometimes, he always cracked a window though so it wasn’t too annoying. Still though, very annoying.
Tubbo wondered what Tommy was up to, he hadn’t gotten his number yet so he couldn’t just call to chat. Plus, he’d look like a loser calling some guy just because he was alone (and a little scared). He faceplanted into his pillow and grumbled, tugging on his curly brown hair.

“Schlatt! Where are we going?” Alexis, or better known in the theatre company as Quackity, asked, grumbling. He pulled a rock out of his tennis shoe, not aware of the fact they’d be going on a last-minute hiking trip.
“I dunno, I’m following Fae,” Schlatt replied, shrugging.
Quackity groaned and leaned against a tree, “Faeeeeeeeeeee, where are we going?”
“It’s this abandoned place my buddy showed me a while ago,” George hummed, he was picking up random plants and making flower crowns as they went along. Schlatt sighed and pulled Quackity up by his arm.
“Come on, dude, it’ll all be worth it,” He paused, “probably,”
Alexis grumbled, he hated nature. Hated it. Despised, LOATHED it, even. But now here he was, wandering through the woods with his best friends.
“Can we go home? Estoy enferma, ¡vamos!”
“Nobody else speaks Spanish, idiot,” Schlatt teased, ruffling Quackity’s hair,
“Come on, let’s go, it’s getting dark! Besides, don’t you have to call Wilbur?”
“I already did, don’t be such a baby, dude.”
Abruptly, Fae stopped.

“We’re here.”

Chapter Text

“So where’d you find this place?” Asked Schlatt.
“Some guy I dated showed it to me, it’s cool right?”
Schlatt nodded, but Alexis gulped.
A creepy, moss-ridden house that was decaying by the second was not his idea of cool. In fact, what was a cool hang-out idea for Alexis was sitting and watching movies while cuddling up with the two. But no, of course, they were gonna go explore instead of watching Disney movies in his basement. Fine, whatever. He didn’t take it personally, his opinions were never really accounted for anyways. That was of course, unless he suggested something stupid.
“I keep my plants in here,” Fae admitted, walking into the disgusting building.
“I just need to grab something, hang on,” he hummed. He fished around for a bit before pulling out three torches.
“Okay, cool, here you guys go, let’s head back now.”
“Wait so we were just getting some stupid flashlights?” Alexis asked, grumbling.
“No, that wasn’t all originally, but it’s getting dark and I’m sleepy now.” Fae mumbled, stumbling out of the house. He yawned and continued forward, not even bothering to turn the flashlight on. Schlatt and Quackity hurried behind him, slightly concerned for how well the boy would do before passing out…or slipping. Fae tended to not look where he was going.
“Hey, buddy, do you know how to get home or do you need me to walk you?” Quackity asked, resting his hand on Fae’s shoulder.
“I think I got it…I wouldn’t mind the company though,” he hummed. The boy always had a slow melodic voice, it was unnerving to Alexis, to be honest.
“Okay, Schlatt, are you coming with us?”
“Can’t, I’m not sure if my sister’s home yet, and I didn’t wanna leave Tubbs alone for as long as I did, kid probably like…I don’t know stabbed something.”
“Dude, your brother is like the nicest teenager I’ve ever met, if he stabbed anything it was like…an apple-” Alexis replied, smacking the flashlight to get it to work. Stupid George and his stupid flashlights.
“No, nope, no. Lex, you have no clue, that boy is a demon spawn.” Schlatt growled.
“You’re saying that ‘cause he’s Puffy’s favorite, aren’t you?” Quackity teased. He finally got the flashlight to turn on.
“No? I hate my sister, idiot,” Schlatt sighed and rolled his eyes, walking ahead of the other two.
Fae made some kind of grumbling noise and tugged on the back of Schlatt’s jacket. He stumbled backward,
“What the hell, George?” He seethed,
Fae sulked, puffing air into his cheeks. He lurched behind Quackity, who sighed and rubbed his temple.
“Let’s just get home,”
“Mhm,” Fae mumbled.

---------

Wilbur had been out. He was livid. Definitely not because Schlatt was blowing him off to hang out with people from crew. Not at all. He wasn’t petty and he understood that just because he only has one friend that doesn’t mean other people do. It wasn’t a big deal, really. Wilbur just sulked at a playground until it started getting dark. Schlatt had called him earlier to tell him his dad said to call when he was coming home, and the lie Tuberose gave.
So he rang his dad,
“Hey, Will!” Phil’s voice erupted from the speaker,
“Too close to the phone, dad,” Wilbur sighed, smiling, “I’m on my way back home, I think I’ll be there by like…6:45?”
“Okay, see you then, love you kiddo,”
“Love you too, dad,”
Wilbur frowned and hung up the phone. He was so bored. He needed friends. Niki and Eret stopped talking to him after the…incident. But that wasn’t even his fault! Wilbur didn’t do anything wrong, he was just more invested in everything than they were, obviously. He got off of the swingset and wiped his eyes on his sweater sleeve. He wasn’t crying though, it was just allergies. That’s what he told himself at least.
The walk home was chilly and a little eerie, see, the park was right next to those creepy woods. While walking out he bumped into someone- something, maybe?
“My apologies-” He muttered, pushing up his glasses,
“Hm? Oh hey, Will,”
It was someone from Sophomore year.
It was that kid whose name Wilbur could never remember.
“Hi…uh”
“Sapnap, remember? We were buddies way back when!” He said enthusiastically,
“No, I really don’t remember you…sorry.” Will replied, awkwardly pushing passed Sapnap.
“Your brother was friends with my friends and I?”
“Uh, yeah, no. I don’t think he was. Tech was friends with some weird people but not you, I’d remember, anyways I need to get home.”
“Oh! Right, I was a girl back then, Sapphire?”
“Ok, cool, yeah, still don’t remember you. Goodbye, strange guy.” Wilbur grumbled, sarcastically waving goodbye.
“Okay, see you in school tomorrow!” Sapnap shouted, smiling and waving back.
Wilbur grimaced and picked up the pace, he needed to get out less.

Chapter Text

Song lyrics poured into the air, flowing into the ever-filling bathtub. The music originated from an old iPod on full blast. Though, Wilbur could barely hear it under the water.
It rushed into his ears and nose, choking him.
He coughed and sputtered, fighting the urge to get out of the water.
He didn’t remember how he got to this moment, just that he needed to finish the task.
He gave in, sat up, and gasped for air.

He was just in his room.
He began laughing, wheezing.
Of course, it was just a nightmare.
He thanked St. Paul.
Thanked Dymphna.
Thanked Sun Tzu.
Hell, he thanked whoever Tommy worshipped.
He felt the stale echo of bile on his tongue.
He was a little worried, considering he hadn’t had nightmares like this since he tried to quit smoking.
He looked over at his alarm clock, 3 AM.
God damn it.
He climbed out of bed, knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep unless he went for a walk. Wilbur tossed his blankets carelessly and slipped on his sandals (Techno called them Dandles, like dad + sandals? Not creative but…).
He crept down the stairs, it felt longer than normal.
The air felt dense.
The silence was nauseating, he wanted to run.
He wanted his mother.
No, shut up, can’t think like that.
Thoughts raced through his mind, zigzagging through his ears and collapsing the silence until all he could feel was his ragged breathing.
He ran full speed, sprinting to god knows where. Maybe he was going to the playground? Or maybe the forest?
No, no, scrap the forest.
Will decided to forget a destination and keep running, ignoring the fact his sandals had fallen off and his jacket was slipping. He was exhausted. It didn’t matter.

“Wilbur? What are you doing here?”
A voice asked, but he couldn’t recognize it,
“Will!” She grumbled
More phrases, maybe his name again?
She smacked him.
“Willliam Gold Soot Watson!”
“Oh my god! WHat…” He gasped, heaving. He sat up, wait, when did he lie down?
“Will, why are you in my yard?” Penny asked, pushing her white hair behind her ear.
It glowed like the moon in the crisp street light.
“I…I don’t know. I was running and-”
“Why were you running?” She asked, pulling him up to his feet.
“Oh, I um…” his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, how was he supposed to explain he had a bad dream and was so scared he ran away?
“Do you want me to call your father?”
“Oh- no, no, that’s quite fine. Uhm…thank you, Puff- Pennilyn.” He muttered awkwardly. He was so dizzy and confused, but he didn’t need her help. That would be so stupid. SO incredibly idiotic, that he decided to just walk home in the dark barefoot without his glasses.
Yes.
This was a good plan.
She sighed and shook her head, grabbing his arm.
“I’ll drive you,” She grumbled, unlocking her truck and getting in.
“Oh, okay,” Wilbur muttered to himself, hesitantly getting into her red pickup.

The drive was calm. It was pleasant and quiet. Puffy had Girl in Red playing over the radio from her phone. She had large fake gold hoop earrings and her hair was in a ponytail. Unlike Schlatt, she actually took care of her curls rather well. He could hear the crunching of the gravel road under the tires in the backtrack of his thoughts. He thought about how much he missed London. He missed his mom especially. ..he needed to stop thinking about her so much. It was stupid. She was gone and he needed to get over it.
Unclick, a whirr, a beep, and then Puffy’s voice,
“Get out of my truck, squirt,” She said playfully, ruffling his curly brown hair and getting out of the car.
She opened Will’s door and helped him down.
“If your pops asks where you were you better not tell him I was involved, kid.”
Wilbur nodded, “Got that Penny, see you at school…so like in two hours,”
Penny laughed, “See you too, kiddo,”

---------------------

“Where were you?” Phil asked the second Wilbur entered the house.
“Oh- I uhm…” Wilbur flushed red again, he did NOT want to admit he had a nightmare where he killed himself, got so scared he nearly cried and then ran away.
“Where were you?” Phil echoed.
Will froze, he shrugged. Then he remembered he didn't have to speak (with his voice at least).

I got scared.
“What happened, kiddo?” Phil asked, taking a step toward his son.
Bad dream.
Phil nodded and hugged Wilbur, “Next time just come to me instead of running off, okay?”
Wilbur nodded, then attempted to choke back tears.
“It’s gonna be alright,”

Chapter Text

While Schlatt and Wilbur were walking to school (which was totally not because Wilbur missed the bus) they chatted. Mostly it was Schlatt talking, he told Wilbur about his grades, how he hated his siblings, how Tuberose was getting on his nerves lately, how he found out how to make fireworks from his buddy, and lastly how he swiped two dollars from his sister.
“That’s not cool mate, stealing from family is low,” he looked at Schlatt and frowned, replying; “even for you,”
Schlatt scoffed and rubbed the back of his head. He totally definitely was NOT super embarrassed now.
Luckily (or perhaps unfortunately) the rest of the walk to school was quiet. Aside from the birds and frogs singing their sweet serenades, of course, that was always present.

“Hey, before school I’ve gotta convince Niki to sign up for auditions again, okay? I’ll see you at lunch,” Wilbur explained, patting Schlatt’s shoulder and walking off before he could give a response.
Schlatt grumbled and sat on one of the benches outside, waiting to see if Quackity or Fae would show up. Eventually, with no sign of either, the bell rang.
He grumbled and tugged on a strand of hair absentmindedly. He then decided to go inside and actually attend school instead of skipping as any other Disney Channel protag would. He grabbed his bag and went inside the hideous building.

Wilbur felt like garbage.
He hated how he looked more than usual. He was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, scrutinizing everything about himself. He hated how pale he was, hated how deep the bags under his eyes were. He could’ve sworn he was gaining weight too.
He felt sick. God, why was he so pathetic?
He absent-mindedly started picking at scabs on his face.
Will frowned and started scratching, why was he always so cold? It was hot, so he should’ve been overheating in his jumper like last month. Why was he so cold?
The bell rang.
maybe…
Will could barely hear because of the ringing in his ears.

Next thing Wilbur knew he was sitting in ISS with Schlatt and Quackity.
“Yo, Wilbur,” Schlatt whispered, leaning back in his chair.
“What?” Wilbur hissed back.
“You doing okay? You look exhausted, man.”
Wilbur made a face and turned back to his unfinished work.
Schlatt huffed and turned to say something to Quackity.
Now, Wilbur wasn’t trying to ignore his friends, he barely even realized it was happening, it was just that Schlatt was so insistent that there was something wrong. Which there wasn’t.
Wilbur didn’t make himself throw up, so obviously he wasn’t sick.
He just…avoided food
And hated eating
And was always cold
And threw up after eating a real meal
Not on purpose of course but- there wasn’t a problem!
Because there was no problem!

But at lunch there Schlatt was again, to bug Will.
“Do you not have lunch?” He asked, looking down at his own food for a moment.
Wilbur shook his head, “I’m not hungry,”
Schlatt huffed and tore off half of his sandwich,
“Here man, look um…I’m not an emotions guy but, like, if your dad is struggling with money-”
“No, oh my god, Jameston Middle Name Schlatt, I am not in poverty and do not need your pity sandwich half.”
“My name isn’t short for anything, it’s just James- but regardless,”
“No, absolutely not, I am not struggling, I am a god above you,”
“Okay, fuck you too then,”
Will huffed and stood up, a wave of vertigo hit him like a truck.
So maybe Wilbur passed out. But he still didn’t have a problem.
He didn’t.
He was fine.
Barely conscious and puking on the floor but fine.
He was fine.
He was fine.
Fine.
He
Was
Fine.
There was nothing wrong.
He got back up, slowly and nearly collapsing again but he was back on his feet.
“Jesus Christ, Will, are you okay?”
Will batted Schlatt’s hand away, he was so embarrassed, he needed to hide.
He’d never show his face again.
Obviously.

Unfortunately for him, there was someone else in the boy’s restroom.
It was that dammed freak from Wednesday night! God damn it! How dare!
“Oh hey, Wil- oh my glob, are you okay? You look like a corpse!” Sapnap exclaimed, attempting to rest a hand on his shoulder.
“M’ fine, don’t touch me creep,” Wilbur growled, grabbing Sap’s hand.
“That’s um, a little tight you’re squeezing there-” Subpoena squeaked, trying to pull his hand away.
Wilbur rolled his eyes and let go, “just quit talking to me,”
Sapnap squeaked and nodded, shuffling out of the bathroom.

God, Wilbur hated that guy. He was such a little creep, just like Dream.
No, no, he wouldn’t let himself think about…that. Not again. He would NOT have an anxiety attack right now, not at all. No. No. Nope. No.
He was breathing normally.
He wasn’t sick.
His ears weren’t ringing.
Blood sugar was NOT low.
He was still completely conscious and NOT passing out on the floor.

Chapter Text

“What the hell was that?” Schlatt yelled, and punched a locker near him.
Wilbur looked away shamefully. He wasn’t expecting Schlatt to find him, or to drag him out to the hallway.
“I’m fine-”
“Don’t give me that shit, WIlliam!” Schlatt hissed, grabbing Wilbur by the shirt collar and pulling him up.
“Do I have to beat some sense into you or can you figure out how to function?”
Wilbur squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. Schlatt wouldn’t actually hit him, right?
Right?
He was just trying to help, right?
Right?
“Why aren’t you eating, man? Why are you passing out? What’s up with you?” Schlatt asked, quieter.
Wilbur just looked at his shoes. He was trying not to cry. That would be more embarrassing than Schlatt finding him out cold.
“What’s up with you? Tell me,”
“Nothing, I’m fine,”
Schlatt smacked him, “God damn it! Will,”
Wilbur found his breathing quickening, he felt nauseous and weak. Why was he so weak? Why was he always like this?
“I’m fine, really,” He swallowed bile, and weakly added “I’m not sick, James,”
“You’re not? Then explain why you’re not eating? Wilbur, do you have that eating disorder thing? “ Schlatt released his death grip.
Wilbur frowned, “No, no. I’m not sick like that I just-”
Schlatt punched a locker again.
“So what kind of sick are you, huh?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it!” Wilbur yelled,
They were both silent, staring at each other.
“It’s none of your business, if you were really my friend you’d just quit prying!’
Schlatt kept quiet for a minute, keeping his eyes off of Wilbur.
“Yeah, okay, I guess we’re not friends then,”
“No wait- that’s that's not what-”
“No, I get it William, I’m not good enough for you anyways, I get it,” he grabbed Wilbur by the shirt collar again, leaning in his face, “you’re too good for me, right? That’s what it is? Do you think I’m not a good enough person to talk to? I get that, go talk to Niki or whatever her name is, you just looovvvveee her, don’t you?” he spat, letting go and walking off.
This was NOT how Wilbur was picturing how his Thursday would go. It certainly didn’t help that Wilbur was still feeling dizzy as hell and rather nauseous. He sat on the floor in front of a locker until the lunch bell rang, and he had to get back up.
Will teetered into Drawing 2, stumbled into his seat, and fell asleep. Maybe he should ask Phil to pick him up…no. No. That wouldn’t work.
He’d just tough it out.
It’s fine.

Chapter Text

Niki was watching her good friend Will take a nap in their art class. She took in his messy hair, his wet cheeks, dull pale skin, and deep eye bags. She shook her head, he really needed someone to remind him to take care of himself. She stood up and walked over to the teacher,
“Hey um, ms. Symmetry, could William and I go to the library? It’s too loud in here for me,” Niki asked, and while she wasn’t lying about it being loud; it certainly wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle without her sensory headphones.
“Yes, of course, let me write you a pass, why does he need to come with you?”
Niki paused, she should’ve come up with his sooner, “um, uh, I need him to help me get my uh…um…I need him to help me get my crutches and uh…put my cane away, yes. That. That is why William has to join me,” she replied,
“Okay then,” Ms. Symmetry scribbled two passes and handed them to Niki.
With this, Niki triumphantly went back to her seat, poking Wilbur in the cheeks.
“Will, time to go,”
“Huh? What? Mawake-”
Niki laughed and stood up, giving him a pass, “get up, love joy, you’re coming with me to get my crutches,”
Wilbur nodded and stood up groggily.

Upon arrival, Niki greeted the librarians and tugged on Wilbur’s sweater sleeve. Today he was wearing a blue sweater…odd though, he didn’t remember Wilbur owning blue.
“Is that sweater new?” she asked, walking over to a seat.
Wilbur’s face scrunched up and he ripped the sweater off, staring at it like it was blooming into a scathefire. Wilbur felt like such a moonraker, he couldn’t believe he was still wearing Schlatt’s sweater. He felt dirty for it.
If Niki noticed something was wrong, she didn’t say anything, instead choosing to guide him over the dictionary section so no one would bother the two.
They sat behind a shelf and Will rested his head on Niki’s shoulder. She finger-combed his hair, lacing the strands together in a weak braid.
“Will, buddy, how are you doing?”
Will waved his hand awkwardly, moving his head from her shoulder to her lap.
Niki laughed and sketched the echoes of shapes on his back. She whispered sweet sentences and hummed little songs.

---------------------

Fae and Schlatt were sitting next to each other during Fae’s lunch shift, Schlatt was attempting to explain the fight in a short amount of time, considering he was technically on a nurse’s pass.
“Okay, okay, so Will passed out and hasn’t been eating?”
Schlatt nodded.
Fae muttered something and took a swig of his lemonade, “alright…well I think you should apologize to him, he’s probably really scared right now,”
Another nod.
The two conversed a little more, discussing intervention plans and other goofy things until a certain blonde football player walked up.
“Hey, George, um-” Clay paused, his smile vanishing, “Who’s this?” he asked roughly.
Fae immediately tensed up, forcing a small smile and squaring his shoulders, “Oh, he’s a friend,” he mumbled,
Clay glared at Schlatt,
“My name’s Schlatt, you’re Clay right?”
Clay nodded, clenching his jaw.
“So, when’s he leaving?” Clay asked quietly to Fae, brushing his hand against the other boy’s.
Fae gulped and clenched his hands into tight fists.
“Is there a problem, hodad?” Schlatt asked, wrapping an arm around Fae’s shoulder and leaning forward a little.
“Hodad?” Clay echoed, sneering.
Schlatt nodded, “Read a dictionary, beach bunny,” with this he smiled and walked off to the staircase, he’d made up a lie to his teacher about being nauseous.

-------------------
Tubbo was bored out of his mind waiting for his lab partner to quit throwing up. She was a petite girl named Hannah maybe? She had long brown hair and wore a pink sweater and a red jumper skirt, she also had red platform mary janes. She was nice, but her weak stomach was starting to piss Tubbo off. He always had to do dissections himself because of it.
“I’m so sorry Tuberose,” Hannah whimpered, wiping vomit off her rosy lips (which smeared her heavy lipgloss).
Tubbo rolled his eyes, “Don’t sweat it,” he mumbled.
Hannah grabbed the scissors from him, “I can do the rest-”
“You’ll hurl, won’t you?” Tubbo replied without thinking, “Sorry, sorry, that was mean,”
“Oh, no it’s okay, I should be fine now that my tummy’s empty!” She giggled, giving him an awkward toothy grin.
She poked at the piglet, watching the guts shake. This made her laugh again, uncomfortably.
“You’re turning green, Rose!” A boy at the table across from them yelled, laughing with his mates, “Sure are looking like your plant babies now, huh?” another chimed in.
Hannah flushed red,
“Look now she’s as red as one too!” A girl whispered.
“Shut up and do your project,” Tubbo grumbled loudly,
The teacher reentered the room, “No students were dissected while I was in the restroom right?” he asked, grinning. He had a fabulous mustache paired with a not so fabulous outfit; consisting of a pink Hawaiian shirt and khaki cargo shorts. It was terrible.
“No, sir,” The boy who teased Hannah first said, grinning back,
“Yeah, no trouble here,” the second boy chimed in
“That’s good, considering you two are already in weekend detention, which I’ll see you in.” The teacher teased, sitting down at his desk.
“Do you know those two? ” Tubbo asked Hannah, whispering,
“Oh…um one of them is named Alexis, he's my brother but... I don’t know the other ones name…” she whispered back.
“Not quite what I meant,” he replied.
“Oh, haha,” She flushed red again,
“They’re losers though, and I should know,” he elbowed her playfully, “The tall brunette with the piss ugly baby beard is my brother, James Schlatt, he's in the theatre company,”
“Ohhh, yeah! I remember him! he worked on ‘L’manburg; Our Great Country with me!”
“Yeah,”
Hannah nodded, continuing to pick at the body before her and pushing down her revolting nausea.
Yep, she was gonna hurl.
She darted over to the trash can, dry heaving and whimpering. Tubbo rushed over to her and held her hair back, he mentally berated himself for not doing this the last time they covered stuff like this.
She was nice, he shouldn’t have been such a garbage lab partner.
She gurgled a weak ‘Thank you,’ and gripped the sides of the trash can until her knuckles blanched.

Eventually she was all done and their teacher made them take a trip to the bathroom, he stood outside of it, waiting for her to come back. She came out with tears dribbling down her cheeks and her makeup half gone.
“I’m so sorry Tuberose-” She whimpered, wiping her eyes with her sweater sleeve.
“Don’t sweat it,”
。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

Chapter Text

“So, who was that guy at lunch, huh?” Clay asked, squeezing George’s forearm uncomfortably tight.
George stifled a whimper and forced out a weak, “He’s just my friend from theatre-”
“Why was he getting all lippy with me? Do you talk shit behind my back?” Clay growled quietly, tightening his grip. He pressed George against a locker, grabbing his other wrist.
“Clay, please, I have to get to class I-”
“Shut up and answer the question,”
“No! I don’t talk behind your back, let me go,”
Clay was silent, tightening his grip and staring into George’s averted gaze.
“Please..?” He trembled,
He couldn’t help but think about the first time Clay kissed him; it was the winter formal.
Clay handed George a red solo cup filled to the brim with some fizzy pink liquid. George hesitantly took it,
“Go on, drink up,” Clay said, playfully,
George nodded and took a gulp, immediately pulling the cup away when he realized the contents of the cup were a) strawberry lemonade and b) warm. He grimaced, much to Clay’s amusement.
Clay leaned into George and whispered something, but he couldn’t hear, he was lost in his hazy memory.
He remembered feeling dizzy, seeing spots, and feeling like he was gonna hurl any second; but after that; the only memory was Clay driving him home- George fell asleep-
He blinked, reality. Clay was gone, his left cheek hurt and so did his ribs.
Clay walked him up to his doorstep.
since when was George wearing Clay’s varsity jacket?
“Hey, I had a really great time tonight,” Clay said softly, grinning ear to ear,
George nodded, he still felt like his legs were toothpicks.
Then the next thing he knew he was being kissed, he did not remember saying yes to this, hell he didn’t remember being asked.
Reality sucked.
So did his memories.
He could tell that he was panicking. He could feel his heart boom, he could hear his ragged breaths but he couldn’t feel a damn thing.
He felt so pathetic, like a spectator in his own life.
Maybe his dad was right, he was a damn embarrassment.
Then he was thrown back into his body when someone kneeled down next to him.
“Hey, bud, are you okay?”
George nodded, he honestly couldn’t tell if that was honest or not, his whole body ached and he was slipping.
“Who did this?” the cop, who he recognized as Clay’s dad, asked.
George shrugged, he didn’t have the heart to tell him his son just beat him up.
“Bud, you gotta tell me,”
The brunette mumbled something,
“Can you speak up, kiddo?”
Jesus, he felt fuzzy. He couldn’t tell how small he was but he knew it was too small.
“My boyfriend,” He mumbled, a little louder.
The cop (Officer Duede) made a sour face, “And your name is, little lady?
“M not a girl, I’m a seventeen-year-old boy obviously, and my name is George Fae,” he grumbled
Officer Duede made an even more sour face, George thought it was funny, honestly.
“Okay then…what’s your boyfriend’s name, Fae?”
George quit smiling, he went all statue on the poor cop before him.
Shaking his head he said, “Nope, not tellin’ you’d be mad, I wann’ go class now,”
Officer Duede was honestly starting to think this guy either had a concussion or was a spED kid. He sighed and pinched his nose bridge.
“Let’s get you to the nurse’s office, kid, do you have a case manager?”
“Case manager? Mr. Cop man, I’m not a spED kid, I’m in need of attending art class right now,” George hissed, his words very slurred considering how far he was slipping. He couldn’t handle all the pain, the talking was becoming too much, and worst of all; his favorite baby blue blouse had blood on the peter-pan collar The blood under his nose and on his lips was drying and he was extremely uncomfortable. He began to snivel.
“Mr. Cop man, I wann’ go home,” He whimpered,
Officer Duede sighed and helped George up, leading him to the nurse’s office,
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Mmhm, my boyfriend and I got into a tiny fight ‘nd he got mad ‘nd he ‘it me ‘nd it ‘urts now, I wann’ go home now,” the brunette caterwauled, hiccuping,
“Alright, alright, let’s get you home,”

“Dream, why’s your-”
“My name isn’t Dream, Techno,” Clay seethed, taking his seat across from the pink-haired emo kid.
“Okay, well, My name isn’t Dream, Techno; why is your hand covered in blood?”
Clay glared at him, “A minor fight,”
“Who with? Did you win? Did they fight back? Was it Niki?” A girl at their table (by the name of Addison, a real peach if you asked no one) asked, grinning.
The blonde rolled his eyes, “My bo-” he stopped himself, “Just a friend,”
“Well if you’re making them bleed, they’re probably not the best of friends,”
“Like you would know anything about that,” Clay hissed,
Techno frowned further, “You know it wasn’t on purpose, Clay,”
“Maybe, but you still punched him. Your own brother, Techno, you made him bleed like a fountain,”
Techno stood up, slamming his hands on the desk. He was getting overwhelmed. He didn’t like thinking about the week of the winter formal. That entire week- hell, the whole month- was a disaster.
It wasn’t his fault- he was triggered, he was having a panic attack- it wasn’t his fault. The voices were driving him crazy. They kept asking for blood, for sacrifice, to feel pain. He was barely in his own body at that point-
“What, are you gonna cry or punch me?” Clay asked, smiling.
Techno hated that smile.
It haunted his nightmares.
He decided not to think about it. He sat back down, slowly, shutting his eyes and doing Phil’s breathing technique.
“You’ve gone soft, man,” Clay laughed softly, looking almost pitiful at Techno.
“And you’ve gone rotten,” Techno hummed, putting on his headphones and beginning to work. He hated that a damn study hall had assigned seats.
…………
George was sitting on his bed when his phone rang; his school had let out a while ago and he’d been home for maybe 7-8 hours by now. He wasn’t sure.
He didn’t check before answering, and before he could even get a ‘hey’ in a voice blared through:
“Hey, baby, look-”
Oh god,
Oh god, no
it was fucking Clay
“I um, I don’t wanna talk right now- my body is aching, I wanna sleep-”
“No, doll, you don’t get it, I’m calling to apologize,” Clay hummed into the phone, low and rasping,
George’s breathing stopped, he could’ve sworn time did too.
“Clay, can we please talk about this in the morning?” He begged in a hushed tone,
“Doll, please, I’m so sorry for hurting you again, I’ll be better baby, I promise,”
“Can we talk about this later? I’m tired-” George wasn't whispering anymore, but neither was Clay considering the next thing he did was punch his wall.
“Honey- please-” George whimpered,
“Why won’t you just listen to me?” Clay hissed into the phone,
“It’s not like you ever listen to me!” George growled, trying to stay at least a little quiet.
“You always thought you were better than me. I should’ve known you were just sick of me,”
“Clay! I am not sick of you I’m sick of this!” George hissed, standing up and tugging on his hair; a nervous habit he developed in fourth grade.
“Sick of what?”
“Nothing, forget it, I’m going to bed,”
“No, no, what is it, George?”
“It’s nothing, I’m sorry,”
“You’re such a bitch, George,”
“Thanks, honey, really feeling the love here,”
“Fuck you, man,”
“Goodnight, Clay,”
“It’s 5:30, dumbass,”
And with this, George hung up.
He didn’t even realize he was crying until now.
He called Sapnap, he was just so upset, hyperventilating and gasping for any chance of air. His lungs and throat burned like hell.
He was so tired.
“Hey, George, I’m kinda busy right now I’m sorry,” Sap muttered, George could hear another voice.
Fuck, of course, Clay went to Sap first, they were best friends since kindergarten after all.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s okay,” George hiccuped, forcing a smile despite the fact Sap couldn’t see him.
“Hey wait-”
Too late.
He thought about who else he could talk to.
Niki? No, she’d be way too worried about him. She’d probably rip Clay’s heart out with a kitchen fork if she found out…
Maybe Eret? He was nice…yeah, yeah, he’ll try Eret.
He shot him a text message,
SleepyPrince: hey, cna e tlak
TheStrawBerryKeeng: Id luv to but me and the nikster are @ the mall bbg :(((
SleepyPrince: mkay! Hva ffun
TheStrawBerryKeeng: ofc ty! Ill cal u when im home bb
SleepyPrince: no it mkay
TheStrawBerryKeeng: u sure?
SleepyPrince: mhm, go hva fun!!!

He sighed, weighing his last two options.
Alexis or Schlatt.
Both are probably homophobic honestly.
Maybe he could lie and say his girlfriend hit him? Or maybe he’d just say his friend hit him. Oh well. He’d just message them both and face any flack he got.
SleepyPrince: hey so i need tlak
Quackity: u small or lonely or what? Nm
JA-BizzTown: whats up
SleepyPrince: bleh frbeidnd troubles
Quackity: what happened?
SleepyPrince: he hti me n then clladd me and ow
JA-BizzTown: tf? who hit you, bud
SleepyPrince: guy
JA-BizzTown: no shit, whats his name
SleepyPrince: Cla
Quackity: bruh the ootball boy??????
SleepyPrince: mhm
JA-BizzTown: OH THAT GUY bro, isn't he like what who is he isn't he your boyfriend
Quackity: yea it is his bf

George frowned, he did not remember telling them that.

SleepyPrince: claa?????
Quackity: yeah, I’ll call the gc, hang on

George nearly dropped his phone when the buzz came, he accepted the call and waved.
“Hey kid,” Schlatt muttered, his audio (and video) quality was terrible, he was in a 7-11.
“Bro, my guy, my dude, do you want us to jump this guy?” Quackity asked, his voice blaring.
George shook his head,
“Lexi, he’d beat you in a fight within the first five seconds,” Schlatt wheezed,
“Lexi?” Alexis echoed softly,
“Both of you shut up, this is my moment, will you just make sure he doesn’t hit me tommorow too?” George asked,
“Yeah of course, I’ll drive you to school,” Alexis hummed
“Thank you, guys,”

Chapter Text

The following day of Schlatt and Wilbur’s fight they were both too embarrassed to talk to each other. See, while they’d both fought dirty with each other before; this was nothing like the schism. They could both tell;
And so Schlatt was going to do everything in his power to repair this. One fatal problem though, the idiot refused to apologize.
According to him; it wasn’t his fault Wilbur was a cry baby.
It wasn’t his fault Will was going to kill himself by refusing to act like a normal 17 year old boy. It wasn’t his fault Wilbur was such a sissy.
It wasn’t.
So he -plain and simple- refused to apologize. (Even though Fae AND Alexis told him he should).
It didn’t matter.
----
Wilbur was fixing his hair in the bathroom after purging, he picked at his skin. Why wasn’t he good enough yet?
He had been fasting for a week up until this embarrassing stunt.
He really needed to get a gym pass or something.
He looked closer at his face, was he always this… sick looking?
Cause god, he looked like a damned corpse!
He was starting to worry, considering his hair was starting to fall out in small chunks (thank St. Paul for beanies).
He felt so gross, dirty, even. The taste of vomit was permanently engraved in his molars, his knuckles had calluses and red lines dashing up, but it was fine. This would be worth it- he thought. But the more he got lost in his reflection the more damage he noticed. He had cracked lips, his mouth hurt like hell.
Maybe he should stop this-

“You’re not gonna pass out again, right?” Schlatt spat, grabbing the back of Wilbur’s sweater.
“No, you wanker, back off! Get your bloody hands off of me,” Wilbur seethed quietly, attempting to push Schlatt away.
“What? Are you afraid of me now? Man, I thought we were tight,” Schlatt teased, smirking and letting Wilbur squirm free.
“You said we weren’t friends anymore, you jealous bastard,”
And with this Schlatt stopped smiling.
“Hey, I’m not the jealous one here, your the one who’s only friend is a damned mirror, you only ever cared about yourself and your stupid fucking plays,”
“James, it is not my fault that you’re obsessed with me!” Wilbur spat, earning a right hook to the jaw.
“You’re such a drag, man, you used to be cool,”
“You’ve only known me for a damn year, asswipe,”
“Yeah and a year ago you were a better friend,”
“I’m a better friend than you!”
James slammed Wilbur’s head into the countertop, he hissed in pain.
“Just go have a puke party with your new friends,”
Wilbur gurgled, choking on blood and spit, he wanted to say; ‘I don’t exactly have anyone but you and Niki’ but that would’ve been crazy gay and stupid so he headbutted James instead.
Who spun around and grabbed Wilbur by the hair.
“Cut it out,”
Then he left.
Just walked out.
Left his friend there, bleeding, crying, and contemplating his entire god damn life.
They had never fought like this before. Hell Will had never fought anyone like this before.
He was tired.

----------
Tubbo and Tommy were sitting on the stairs with Techno, the younger two were playing pokemón on Tubbo’s garbage DS. Techno was reading a book, it was a fairly peaceful morning away from the loud roars of the commons. Only problem…where was Wilbur? He had left to go to the bathroom after buying (and eating) breakfast. It had been roughly fifteen minutes and Tech was beginning to worry.
“I’m gonna go check on Will, Tomms, you and your friend stay put unless the bell rings, hear me?”
“Yessir,” The blonde said, smiling and mock-saluting Tech.
While Tommy wouldn’t admit it, Techno was his favorite so far. It was his fourth day of actually living with the Watson’s and he had to admit it wasn’t terrible yet he just knew it would go downhill.
It always did.
He knew that.
It was fine.
“Hey, man, you good?” Tubbo asked, nudging Tommy gently.
Tommy quickly bounced back, smiling and nodding, “hell yeah, my dude,”
“Yo, I met this weird kid named Ranboo the other day, what a bloody weird name, right?”
“Well, yeah, I guess, but mine is fucking Tuberose Miriam Schlatt, so I can’t exactly mock anyone elses names.” Tubbo laughed,
Tommy loved hanging out with Tubbo, a little too much for his own comfort. He was worried about how lonely he’d be once he had to leave. He’d never had a friend this easy to get on with before. He hated it.
He hated it.
It was gonna burn him so bad soon.
so bad.
“Tommy, are you sure you’re alright?” Tubbo asked, softly. His face became serious and worried. He tried to rest his hand on Tommy’s like his elder sister always did for him; but was quickly shoved away. Tommy scooted left.
“Man, I’m fine,” Tommy growled, a little weaker than he meant. But Tubbo knew what this was; this was some bullshit toxic masculinity lying.
“Are you sure?” Tubbo set his ds in it's case, “cause you’re acting like my brother,”
Tommy looked at him, attempting to maintain a pissed off look, but ultimately failing.
He laughed, “imagining James all pissy with you is really funny, mate,”
Tubbo laughed too now, “It is, honestly,” his face fell slightly, “For real though, you’re…” he sighed and looked at his boots.
“Thomas Last-name, you are…” he took a sharp breath, “You are the first friend I’ve ever made,” he looked back at Tommy.
The blonde’s mouth hung slightly ajar, he curled up his fists and put a knee up to his chest.
“That’s…” his voice wavered, “That’s really fucking cheesy, man,” he grumbled weakly, tearing up.
Tubbo laughed, sniffling, “yeah, yeah, I know,”
“Man I guess…I guess I’m just scared that…”
Tommy paused , what if Tubbo left him after finding out he was a broken kid. That he was a big problem for everyone, that even his own mother left him-
“I’mScaredThatIfIGetKickedOutAgainI’llNeverMakeAnotherFriend-” He spat all at once, quickly covering his mouth.
“Kicked out? Again?”
How in the marketable cereal gods did Tubbo understand that?
“I’m uh…yeah I’m a foster kid…” Tommy mumbled, sheepishly.
“Oh, cool, well then let’s not get you kicked out!” Tubbo said cheerfully, “You’ll be a top ten student, perfect in every way, because we’ll just never get caught”
Tommy laughed, smiling wide.
He had almost forgotten about his worries.

Chapter Text

“Wilbur?” Techno called out, opening the door.
Will was sitting on the floor, hiccuping and sniveling. His skin was welmish and bloomed bright crimson chrysanthemums.
“What happened?”
Tech rushed over to his brother, kneeling before him.
“Nothin’,” Wilbur whimpered, attempting to adjust his position.
Techno shook his head and pulled out his flip phone,
“Don’t you dare call dad,” Wilbur hissed through bloody lips.
“Fine,” Tech shut the phone, “Who did this to you?”
“I slipped and fell,”
“Bad lie, try again,” Techno gruffed,
“Fine. my best friend in the whole damn world beat me up, are you happy? I officially am so lonely and pathetic my only friends are a senior who will be leaving next year and my brother,”
Techno sighed, he opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted,
“I am such a damn loser! God, we should’ve never moved-”
“Hey, hey, watch your mouth, if you hadn’t moved you never would have met me, right?”
Wilbur paused, he looked away ashamed, then softly nodded.
“You’re a pretty great brother, I guess,” Will teased, smiling.
Techno nodded and playfully punched Will’s shoulder.
“Come on, let’s go, the bell just rang. I’ll drag you to the nurse’s and say Eret did it-” he tugged Will up, “Unless of course- you wanna tell me who rocked your shit?”
Will grumbled, “James,” he said sheepishly.
Techno gruffed, “I should’ve known. That guy was always a drag; I never liked how much he drank at parties,”
Will shrugged.
“Want me and Tommy to get him back?” Techno offered,
“Thomas would get knocked over by a strong breeze!” Will replied, giggling.
“Yeah, yeah, true. But I have high hopes for training him to fight,”
“You know that Dad would be furious about that, right?
“Yeah,”

…………
Tommy and Tubbo were walking to the library since Tubbo had three late books to return. Unfortunately, on the way there James ran into them.
“You skippin’ class, boy?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No stupid, I’m returning the books you hid from me,”
“Alright, nerd,” James huffed, ruffling Tubbo’s curly hair.
“Cut it out!” Tubbo squeaked, squirming,
“Awe come on, oh hey-” He stopped ruffling Tubbo’s hair, instead clutching a fistful of bramble-curls and turning to Tommy, “What’s yer name kid? You’re Will’s brother, right?”
Tommy shrugged, “Names’ Thomas I guess…”
“You guess?” He laughed, “Rosy, look this guy doesn’t even know his own name,”
“Leave him alone-” Tubbo whined, batting away his brother’s unrelenting grip that had moved from his hair to his green sweater sleeve.
“Why? Is he your little boyfriend?” James teased, much to Tubbo and Tommy’s disgust.
“Don’t be gross, James,”
“Awe, are you gonna cry to Puffy?”
Tommy headbutted him in the side, James was confused, and hella pissed.
“Yo! Rosy, make your guard doggy back off,” He gruffed, shoving Tommy backward.
Tubbo was dead quiet, glaring at his older brother. He fucking hated being the youngest.
The older boy rolled his neck, popping it.
“I’ll see you at home,” he growled.
Tubbo nodded, “Yep, see you,” he said weakly.

“Why do you let him rag on you like that?” Tommy asked, angrily.
Tubbo shrugged, “Nah, he was just teasing, it’s just embarrassing when he knocks my friends,”
Tommy replied with a hum.

---------------
“At least it’s Friday, right?” Techno asked, attempting to be funny while he disinfected Wilbur’s wounds.
“Yeah,” The brunette replied weakly,
“I’m gonna kill him, I promise,” Techno whispered,
“No, don’t, he’s just looking out for me-”
“Hey, watch it, you’re starting to sound like Niki. Remember when her ex was beating her and she wouldn’t tell us?”
“Yeah, but this is different!”
“How?”
“Well first off, he’s just a friend, second off; he really is just worried about me,”
“Do I give you a bloody nose and a gash on your forehead when I’m worried about you?”
“No but-”
“Would you beat James if you were worried about him?”
“No! But-”
“Friends don’t hit friends. Whether they’re boyfriends, girlfriends, or just regular friends,” Techno lectured, frowning.
“It’s not like he went straight to hitting me after finding out-” Wilbur reasoned before quickly realizing his mistake.
Luckily for him, Techno didn’t bother to ask. Tech already knew Will was anorexic anyways, so it didn’t matter.
“Doesn’t matter, William, you’re bleeding because of him. Nobody has the right to put their hands on you, okay? Get that into your head,”
Wilbur nodded, he was so embarrassed, obviously, Techno was referring to when Dream-

nope. He wasn’t gonna think about that.

No.
No.
Not-
“Hey, man! What’s your deal?” Wilbur shrieked, dropping his cigarette.
Dream laughed awkwardly, “Man, I’m sorry, I just,”
“You just what? Were you seriously trying to-”

Wilbur squeezed his eyes tight.
No, no, no.
This wasn’t that bad. He shouldn’t have still been so upset by this,
It was mild unintentional sexual assault.
It’s not like Dream meant to grab his leg and lean in and laugh-
It’s not like what happened next was so terrifying and embarrassing that Wilbur refused to admit he actually cried when the blonde didn’t let go immediately.
They were just sneaking some nic in the woods
Why’d it have to go so wrong

Wilbur was shaking, trying not to think about anything adjacent to the last time this happened while Dream took a hit of his vape. He looked over to the brunette, and when he laughed a puff of sick-sweet smell overtook Will’s senses.
“Why are you shaking, bunny?” Dream asked, smiling and reaching for Will’s box of cigarettes. Will fucking hated that nickname, it made him feel inhuman, made him feel like he was just a pet. If he could have, he would've broken things off with the blonde earlier; but unfortunately, Dream was Techno’s best (and only) friend.
“Here, bunny, take a drag and chill out. I didn’t mean to scare you so badly, I just thought it would be funny,” He muttered an insult or two under his breath and took another hit.
Wilbur frowned and snatched the box of menthol cigarettes, “I’m not in the mood,”
Dream scoffed and took one out, shoving it in Will’s mouth. “Come on, bunny, it’s not fun without you,”

“Will, you okay?”
Thank St. Paul, he was back in reality,
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good, sorry…”
“Fuck, I just realised we missed 4th hour-”
“That’s fine, we’ll just walk into 6th like nothing happened, “ Wilbur rebutted, quietly.
He was very tired. He leaned onto Techno’s shoulder. The pinkette picked up his brother, “Or we could skip,” He suggested.
“But your mythology class,” Wilbur mumbled.
“I already know what they’re teaching, we can ditch out the side doors during passing period,”
Will nodded.

------------
And so, upon passing period, the two snuck out the side doors of the g-wing hallway. Once out, Techno dragged Will to his buddy Penny’s car.
Much to Will’s surprise; Puffy was sitting in it with the engine on.
“Hey, Pinkie Pie, heard you and your brother needed a pickup?”
“Sup, Sheep lady. You’re right, actually. Could we get in?”
Puffy nodded and unlocked the doors.
“Where are we going?” Will asked, tired as hell.
Puffy turned back, tensing up at his gargantuan wound (okay, it wasn’t that big)
“Culver’s?” She offered, “They’re pricey, but your daddy’s got money and I work minimum wage so,” she shrugged, tapping the steering wheel.
“Sounds good,” Will mumbled, leaning on Tech and trying to fall asleep.
The drive was nice and quiet, aside from Puffy’s emo-hoe music, of course.

Chapter Text

Ranboo wasn’t a stalker.
He just had an insanely big crush on some random guy in his history class. Okay, maybe he was a little bit of a stalker…
He did change his routes around just to match up with Tuberose’s more. He just needed to find the courage to actually talk to him now, he’d done plenty of staring and imagining and plenty of what-if scenarios.
His anxiety always got the better of him.
But he wasn’t going to let that stop him within this class period. He awkwardly shuffled over to Tuberose’s desk (which was two rows in front of Ranboo).
“Hi,” He said, voice cracking, he immediately recoiled.
Tuberose looked up, making one of those ‘I’m-a-popular-west-county-white-girl-why-are-you-talking-to-me?’ faces.
“Um, hi, I- uh,” Ranboo tugged at the neckline of his sweater, “Boy, is it warm in here?”
“Uh, are you okay?” Tuberose asked, making a funny face.
Ranboo began panicking, he realized this was going south; fast.
“I’m uh, my name- I’m named- I- uh-”
Tuberose laughed, loudly.
“Dude, who are you? Did you lose a bet or something? Because people don’t just talk to me or my family,”
Ranboo worried that this guy was gonna turn out to be some Chad with 100 girlfriends and 42 lamborghinis.
“You’ve got balls, man, after the stunt my brother pulled at the winter formal people have thought I was a way bipolar asswipe too,”
Ranboo laughed awkwardly, tugging at the hem of his sweater.
His heart was pounding and he was sweating. His hands were shaking like crazy, lord, he hoped Tuberose didn’t notice. That would be so embarrassing.
“I’m Tuberose, who are you?” The brunette asked bluntly,
“I- um- name? Yes, yes, I have a name, um, hi! My name is you it's so good to meet Ranboo-” Ranboo stopped dead in his tracks, Tuberose was laughing, “So your name is Ranboo?”
Ranboo nodded, looking at his converse instead of Tuberose’s eyes.
“I’m Tuberose, you can call me Tubbs or Tubbo,”
“You- yeah, thank you,” Ranboo mumbled, stumbling back to his desk.

What in Christ was wrong with him?

Tubbo actually found the oddball quite charming. He recognized him as the guy Tommy was friends with, his name was pretty hard to forget afterall.
Once the dreaded god awful class was over, Tubbo walked over to Ranboo.
“Hey, what lunch shift do you have today? I have fourth,”
“Oh, uhm, me too,” Ranboo sputtered, flushed and anxious.
Tubbo nodded, “Wanna sit with me and my buddy Tommy?”
Ranboo nodded vigorously, “Yeah, Tommy’s my friend too, we have something in common!”
Tubbo laughed, “Man, you’re weird, that’s good, you’ll fit right in.”

-------
At lunch Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo were eating on a wooden bench by a window. They were giggling in hushed tones and playfully shoving one another. Even though Ranboo wasn’t very fond of violent forms of affection he still let the two bonk him.
“Dude we should have kidnapped you earlier,” Tommy stage-whispered.
Ranboo laughed, “I’m just that cool, I get it,”
“True, true, the only problem is that clearly I am the coolest member of our trio,” Tubbo added, taking a bite of his salad.
“You’re eating spinach unironically, you are not cool, Tubbo,” Tommy teased, smiling.
“Your fault, you always give me the salads,” Tubbo retorted, also smiling.
“Clearly I’m the coolest, Tubbo,”
“No, no, you just said Ranboo was the coolest you can’t go back on that Tommy,”
“Maybe we’re all so cool that it balances out,” Ranboo interjected, doing jazz hands.
“Sure, sure, I’ll settle with that,” Tubbo mumbled,
“I’ll only accept this to keep temporary peace,” Tommy replied, loudly.

Chapter Text

The weekend was fairly calm. Phil made rhubarb jam-filled donuts, which Tommy enjoyed thoroughly. He reached his hand over to snatch one off of Techno’s plate, the older boy noticed (obviously) but instead of stopping the kid he just laughed and handed it to him.
“I’m not big on sweets,” He muttered,
Tommy nodded, and although his mouth was completely full he gargled out “I do,”
Techno and Will laughed, and while Will would NOT admit this;
Tommy was starting to grow on him.
The kid was scrappy and loud, sure, but Wilbur admired the determination he had. Once he saw Tommy stack some books on a chair just to reach something, and while Wilbur realized now, reminiscing this; that he should’ve stopped the blonde and explained it's okay to ask him for help, he still found the action ridiculous.
He smiled wide, ruffling Tommy’s hair,
“Hey! Idiot, your hands are sticky,” Tommy grumbled, making Wilbur laugh. He let go.
“Woah there, Mr. Thomathy, don’t go calling me (William Gold Soot Watson The Great The III) an idiot,” Will remarked, feigning offense and placing the back of his hand dramatically across his forehead.
“There’s no way that’s your real full legal name, no way, nope. I will call you (Wilbur Idiot Head The Stupid The Shut Up) an idiot all I want,” Tommy snarked, trying to swallow a smile.
“That is disastrous,” Will sighed, “Oh father dearest your poor raccoon son is calling your favorite child an idiot, how darest he,”
Tommy felt a small spike of panic, obviously, he could tell this was all jokey good banter but- but what if Phil didn’t understand that? Will didn’t seem to like him at first, what if-
“Well, have you tried not being an idiot?” Phil replied, smiling and setting a tray of tea down.
“Father, you are so cruel, your words are like a blade into your son's stomach,” Wilbur scoffed, still grinning.
Phill shook his head and laughed, “I’m glad you’re all getting on,”
He gave Wilbur a look.
It was somehow stern yet warm. It was dangerous, something Tommy couldn’t decipher.
”After all, we don’t want a repeat of last time, do we?” He muttered quietly, nearly silent. It was some bullshit magic that let Tommy understand it.
All the warmth left for a second in Will’s face before quickly springing back.
“Hey, Thomathy, have you thought about what stuff you want for your room?” He asked cheerfully.
Tommy shrugged, “Bed,” he said.
“That is so stupid, you have a bed, I meant decoration. Your personality Tommy,” Wilbur replied dramatically, doing jazz hands at the end.
“Maybe my personality is bed, huh, did you ever think of that?”
“Oh my god, I hate you both, your banter is so Disney Channel sitcom it hurts,” Techno gruffed, a small smile peeking from behind his pink mug.
“What’s your favorite color?” Will asked,
Tommy shrugged, “red? I like red,”
“Piss baby shit, I like yellow,”
The blonde scoffed, “No that’s piss baby shit, yellow is literally disgusting,”
“You’re both wrong about this idiotic argument because blue is the best color,” Techno added,
“Nope, no, wrong”
Phil laughed, he loved his kids, he was so proud of them.
He was so happy Tommy was adjusting well, at least with his kids. The blonde was still warry of him though, unfortunately. But Phil didn’t mind.
This wasn’t about him.
This was about ensuring his childrens’ safety, making sure they were happy.
So it didn’t matter if Tommy was still skittish and cold, as long as he was on his way; it didn’t matter.

--------------------------------

After a long and succesful market trip (that the author did not at all avoid writing), Tommy was beat. He laid in his bed, about to drift to sleep when he got a text,
That was weird, Tommy only ever got messages from his foster family of the day or his case worker, But it wasn’t Heather or any of the Watson’s.

Unknown Number: is this Tommy?
Tommy: yeah? Who’s asking
Unknown Number: oh it's tubbp,
Tommy: cool but how tf did you get my number yu stalking me??
Tubbo: mm no you wish yu were that cool, man. But actually i got yer number from my big sister who got it from your big brother
Tommy: i dont h ave siblings
Tubbo: wait hwat????? I thought techni and wilbur were your brothers
Tommy: foster
Tubbo: oh, cool, well she got it from your not brother ig
Tommy: cool??? Kinda freaky
Tubbo: in her defense i asked her to ofr me cuz technos scary as shit
Tommy: nah man, hes rad
Tubbo: slayign yes yes
Tommy: you are the driest motherfucking texter i have ever emt and im half asleep right now sho jesus crhrsit the fact i am so fmuch cooler than you is cbh
Tubbo: y deeperest apologies, i will try having more spleleing errors will that appease yoU?
Tommy: no mofo thats not how having a good convo works im just type way too fast cause i have 322 convos to switch between
Tubbo: what youve got a gf?
Tommy: one from each state ive been in baby
Tubbo: how many lmao?
Tommy: all 50 plus london, yorkshire and this random really small asss palace

Tubbo laughed, there was no way Tommy really had been to all those places or had a girlfriend, the guy smelt like axe body spray and tears.
He smiled at his phone, watching Tommy’s rant continue, he was very endearing.
After a while more of talking Tommy fell asleep, the brunette was upset for a while, bored. Until Ranboo messaged him, they had exchanged numbers at the end of Friday.
Ranboo: hyd
Tubbo: good, you?’
Ranboo: doing really swag
Um
Did you know homecoming is coming up?
Tubbo:; yeaj, why?
Ranboo: well i was kinda sorta wondering
Tubbo: ?
Ranboo: Um are you planning on going??
Tubbo: if someone asks me, but thats not gonna happen lmao
Tubbo snorted, Ranboo was really awkward, very sweet, but really stupid.
Tubbo: y, you got a beautiful radiant girlfriend you wanna show off?
Ranboo: no, no gilrbfriend

Ranboo let out a nervous laugh, tugging at his hair while he sat in his closet. Shit this was nervewracking, he couldn't just ask Tubbo to go to hoco with him. That would be insane. Right? They had like just met after all (though Ranboo had been lowkey stalking him for like 5 months now). He continued to overthink it, hovering over the keys, ghosting the message-
Tubbo: gtg
Dads home
Shit.
He’d have to ask Sunday… or never honesty, never was a better idea.

Tubbo shoved his phone in his pocket, scrambling out of his bed and peering out the door.
Oh, it wasn’t Dad, it was just James.
James wasn’t that bad. Granted, he was a bitch, and terrible…and he always either came home drunk, high, or livid.
Tubbo liked nights when he didn’t come home more, honestly.
But that kind of thinking was rude, it was cruel. This was one of the many, many reasons he’d never get into heaven.
He hit himself in the head to communicate with his brain that he needed to stop thinking so much.
James threw his bag down on the couch and headed into his and Tubbo’s room.
“Squirt, how’re you?” James asked, smiling for once.
Tubbo felt gross almost like he knew something terrible just happened.
He felt like a fucking lamb to the damned slaughter.
“Oh I’m good,” He replied sheepishly, avoiding eye contact,
“Nice, nice,” James muttered, grabbing his work clothes. He was a cashier at Starbuck’s.
Tubbo nodded, “Did you see Will today?” he asked,
“No, but Alexis and I hung out,” James replied, very happy.
“Are you dating him?” Tubbo found himself asking, despite knowing he’d probably get a black eye for it.
James laughed and paused, “No, no, we’re not uh,”
“You have a crush on him though?” Tubbo replied, still not watching his mouth.
James shrugged, “I don’t know honestly, I’m not too good with the whole…romance thing, you know?”
What the fuck?
Jesus mothergod damn holy what on who??????????
Was Tubbo having a normal conversation with his brother that didn’t include violence or relentless teasing??
“Woah, actually talking to me without punching me? Crazy, dude, did Alexis like, exercise you?” Tubbo asked with a shit-eating grin.
James laughed and pulled Tubbo by his sweater over to him.
“You dumbass,” He laughed, ruffling his little brother’s hair.

Wilbur and Techno looked at Tommy passed out on his bed, both snickering.
Wilbur was taking photos of the kid and Techno was picking up miscellaneous crap from his floor.
“He’s so stupid-looking,” Wilbur whispered, smiling.
“Quit calling things you like stupid, it gives the wrong idea,” Techno whispered back in his best social worker impression. His was a woman named Cathy, who quit sometime after Techno tried to kill her one too many times.
What could he say, he was a weird kid.
Wilbur rushed over to his brother’s side, showing him the photos.
“He’s like a little rat, I love him,” Wilbur mumbled,
“Nah, he’s an opossum,” Techno argued,
Tommy stirred and sat up,
“What the fuck are you two doing in here?” He grumbled,
“Hm? Oh we were picking stuff up,” Techno answered, he wasn’t exactly lying.
“Oh and also Dad told us to wake you so we can go to some diner,” Will added.
Tommy grumbled and got out of bed, shoving on his boots and trying to leave,
“Hey, woah dude, it’s cold as balls at night,” Wilbur said, grabbing Tommy’s shoulder for a moment. Tommy glared, “okay, and?”
Will sighed, “And you need a coat, my guy,” he took off his brown army jacket and handed it to Tommy.
He stared at it, wanting to cry- He thought Will hated him, honest.
But here he was offering up his damn coat to him.
He took it with shaking hands, “Thanks I guess,”
The three (not) brothers rushed down the stairs, Tommy nearly tripping once or twice. Once they got to the door Wilbur fumbled with it, but Techno was quicker.
“Shotgun!” He screamed. Wilbur grumbled but was smiling. Tommy felt himself laughing and giggling, running along with them.
He didn’t wanna admit it but…
He was lowkey ecstatic. They piled into Phil’s car, Techno in the passenger seat, Will in the back left, and Tommy in the back right.
“Alright boys, it is time, we are going to the legendary-” Phili began before getting interrupted;
“Dad, it’s a shitty diner akin to Deny’s ran by some guy who everyone calls ‘Bad’ and his husband, it's not legendary,” Techno said, dryly.
“Way to ruin the magic, Tech,” Wilbur teased,
Techno shrugged and Phil sighed a lazy grin on his face.

Wilbur fucking adored Tommy.
He’d never say it.
But oh my god, it was clear as day.
He wanted to just pick the boy up and put him in his coat pocket.
So during the car ride and during the walk up to the doors all Will did was figure out the guy. He talked about musicals, got made fun of, then landed on it.
Animal crossing.
Yes,
Now Wilbur just had to become an Animal Crossing expert so that Tommy will like him more than he likes Techno.
Cause what did Techno have that he didn’t huh?

A lot, actually.
Techno was a nerd, sure, but Techno liked to listen and Tommy loved to talk. Once the blonde realized Techno was actually listening to him and remembering details from the convos, he never shut up.
Tommy adored Techno and thought he was the coolest. It kinda pissed Wilbur off, but he understood. After all he was the one who fucked this up for himself. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault and he was aware of that. It didn’t make the hurt go away though, of course.
“So, Tommy, who’s your favorite Animal Crossing character?”
“Isabel, what is boy-san-bear-ee?” Tommy replied, attempting to drink the syrup from the fucking spouts,
“Don’t do that, please,” Phil said softly,
Tommy glared at him, a ‘watch me, oldie,’ kinda glare.
But then Techno looked at him, he had this weird ‘hey buddy, let’s not be stupid here,’ kinda look. It pissed him off that it worked so well.
Tommy did NOT like doing what he was told.
But it wasn’t like he was scared of the Watsons yet, he was still waiting for what would set them off, maybe he just needed to act out worse.
But he didn’t really want to act out right now… he kind of liked how Wilbur absentmindedly went to scruff his hair before backing out just in case. He wanted to tell Will it was fine, but that was pussy shit so he didn’t.
But his thinking, and his trail of buts or what ifs was halted by a short guy with a fluffy pixie cut and amber eyes,
“Hi, I’m Saph, I’ll be your-” they looked over to Wilbur, flushed with embarrassment, then back to Phil.
“What can I get you?” They asked, “drink wise?”
“A sweet tea please, low ice,” Phil said softly. Techno whispered what he wanted to Phil who replied, “Make that two please, dear,”
“What for you Will? And the other lil’ guy, of course,”
“I’m not-” he paused, he didn’t want to swear… he kind of wanted the Watson’s to like him for a little while, “Um, please don’t call me that, I’m Tommy…um…can…” Think back, when was the last time he had to be polite? Oh yeah, “May I please have a coke?”
“Yeah of course!” They jotted it down
“Unsweetened t-” Will began, before reconsidering. Too many calories, he didn’t wanna- shit don’t think like that, he reminded himself,
“Diet Coke, please, Sapnap”
Sap’s face lit up at the use of his chosen name. His parents always used it but called him nicknames far more often than his actual name, they did that for everyone though, even his friend Niki (whom they called Rosa or Niha).
Sap rushed over to his parents to tell them the order. He handed his papi the sheet,
“¡Gracias cariño!,” Skeppy said, smiling, setting the note down, “¿Harás hablas con tu amigo?”
“Si, papá, te amo, pero tengo que trabajas más,”
“Mmm, okay, cariño, te amo tambíen,”
Sap loved working here honestly, his dads were great and so were his other co-workers, Alexis was his favorite but the guy was late for his shift tonight.
Speaking of, the guy called him right in the middle of taking the Watsons’ order,
“My apologies,” He said sheepishly. Phil chuckled and waved his hand,
“Take your time kiddo,” He said sweetly.
Sap nodded and quietly rushed over to take the call.
Wilbur was curious, to say the least.
“Pops, I gotta go use the restroom,” He lied, getting up before Phil could reply.
Okay he wasn’t EAVESDROPPING, he was just, awkwardly listening to a conversation in the bathroom.
“No problemas aquí…” he paused for a bit, “ ¿estás bien, Alexis?”
Hmmmm, Alexis, Spanish…
“Oh my fucking god,” Wilbur whispered, continuing to not at all listen in on purpose.
“Alexis, estoy feliz, no tienes que preocuparse,” He said, laughing a little, “Just get down here once you’re able to, okay? mhm, adíos amigo,”
Wilbur rushed off once he heard the beep and a sigh.
This was insane, he was trying to remember all he heard but he failed Spanish in middle school and never tried again. He knew “no problemas” was no problems and estoy/estás was I’m/you’re feeling… ugh his head hurt from thinking.
Or maybe it hurt because he knew he’d have to eat, purge, then come back as if nothing happened.
It would be fine, he was a good actor after all.

----------------------

Techno was having a good time too, he got pancakes with some kind of raspberry stuff on them and it was really good. Wilbur got plain pancakes because they burned the least to throw up out of everything. Now he was maybe realizing he had gone farther into this pit than he realized.
Considering he made himself puke now.
So by his own standards, he’s sick now, right?
He did NOT want to dwell on that, instead eating quickly but chewing thoroughly.
Tommy got Mexican chocolate pancakes that he drowned in strawberry syrup, he was a sticky mess by the time he finished since he wouldn’t stop talking. Wilbur was too busy listening to remember to eat quick or any of the what-ifs about it, he forgot to drink huge gulps of his drink, forgot to chew till it was tiresome. He was just- eating- he didn’t know how to feel about that.
But then, of course, he remembered once he looked back at his plate.
He quickly finished,
“Man that soda ran right through me, I’m off again,” he fibbed, walking off to the bathroom.
He almost didn’t want to.
Like he was scared all over again.
How funny is that?

Chapter Text

Alexis was running late for his shift. Why, one might ask?

Well because his friend, James, is an idiot.

Alexis’ car broke down so he had to get a ride from James unfortunately for him, his friend was tipsy.

<em>It was just a glass of whisky, he’d be fine,</em> Alexis tried telling himself.

It’ll be fine!

-------------

It wasn’t fine. It wasn’t fucking fine.

Lex was freaking out.

“Schlatt, pull over, you’re too drunk. Fucking let me drive,” Quackity reasoned, 

Schlatt ignored him, speeding up.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Lexi,”

“Hey! I told you only my Papi can call me that, mano,”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry man,” Schlatt replied.

They were at a red light, Schlatt lit a cigarette and handed one to Alexis.

“Can’t, if  my boss smells it on me he’ll be furious,” Alexis mumbled, chuckling, in all reality he was just too scared to get addicted again.

“Sure?”

“Yeah,”

So Schlatt didn’t light his.

That kind of made Quackity happy.

He was listening to him. He always did- okay often did…

Sometimes did.

But he was so fucking smitten. He couldn’t help it. 

Schlatt was so handsome, (literally only to Alexis but shh) he had pretty amber eyes, they reminded him of crystallized caramel.

“Eres muy bonito, mano,” Quackity muttered, breathy and quiet. He didn’t actually want to be heard but-

“Hm? Don’t speak Spanish, remember?” Schlatt replied laughing, driving smoothly again. Alexis could still smell the whiskey from him.

“Hey, after work do you wanna hang out?” He asked, smiling.

“Yeah, I’d love to!” shit, Quackity regretted replying so enthusiastically. 

Schlatt chuckled and Alexis flushed. He’d had a crush on Schatt for two or three years now, he was just waiting for the right moment to ask him out. 

Maybe he’d ask Schlatt out for hoco?

Yeah…yeah that was a good plan.

Unfortunately Schlatt was speeding a littttttle too much, and they were pulled over. Long story short he was now dialing Sapnap; his boss's kid, to explain everything.

Two rings, two rings, he picked up. Thank god.

“Hola amigo, dios migo..” he sighed, trembling.

Schlatt was talking to the cops right now, Quackity was fucking panicking.

“Hola, my apologies, Lexis, I was working,”

Schlatt yelled in the background.

“Mhm, sí, mano, uh…miras, um…se me estropeó el coche y uh… como… ugh… miras, estoy en problemas. Necesito algo de tiempo, lo siento,” His breathing was ragged, he could barely remember how to talk in any language at this point,

“Por supuesto, ¿ pero cuánto?” Sap asked, adjusting the phone.

“No mucho, lo siento- ¿estás bien allí?”

“No hay problemas aquí, ¿estás bien Alexis?”

Quackity took a deep breath, of course, he was fine- but he didn’t reply with that.

“¿no estás ocupada o estressada?”

“Slow night, mano, promise,” a pause, “Estoy buena, no tienes que preocuparse,” another pause, “just get here when you can,”

Alexis mumbled something and hung up.

He was such a shitty co-worker.

Eventually, the cops finished lecturing Schlatt, they somehow didn’t notice (or care, maybe) that he was a bit drunk.

The brunette walked over to Quackity.

“Hey man, I am so sorry about that,” he lamented, giving a half smile and a politician laugh. 

Alexis just nodded weekly, “Yeah, don’t worry about it, I guess” he mumbled. The words barely escaped.

He let his friend lead him to the car and drive him to work (admittedly a tad more carefully than before)

“See you after?” He asked with a sly smile.

“Of course, compa,”

He walked in, adjusting his uniform and going over to where his bosses were.

“I’m so so sor-”

Bad interrupted him, “Oh, don’t worry, Sap said you’d be late because of car trouble. Just get out there,” he said softly, smiling wide. He had red and white beads in his hair but only in the front, the back was left in dreads.

“Ah! Alexis, ¿Arriba?” his other boss, Skeppy, asked, ruffling his hair.

“Oh, sabas,” Alexis replied laughing.

He nodded and headed out to begin his shift.

He was so lucky to work here.

After a long and fairly mild night (aside from seeing his biology teacher on a date with one of the 10th-grade English teachers, now THAT was scary) Quackity was waiting outside for Schlatt to pick him up, it was maybe 12AM when his shift ended.

He wasn’t too sure.

But by 12:25 AM there Schlatt’s car was; the lights beamed on Quackity’s face. He hurried over to the car, exhausted and bored. His body ached as he got into the trashy car.

“Hey, man,” He mumbled, shutting the car door and then his eyes.

“Hey,” Schlatt whispered, running his fingers through Alexis’ hair. For once there wasn’t loud music playing. Just the two of them in peaceful silence. 

So Quackity took in a deep breath, not wanting to break the spell.

He wanted this to last.

For this moment to stay nice, he hoped it wouldn’t be shattered.

But then Schlatt pulled away and started the car.

Alexis found himself disappointed at that, frowning and resting his head against the window.

“Where’m I taking you?” Schlatt asked. He still smelt like whisky, just a little bit.  But he also smelt like air freshener and menthol and cigarettes, he smelt like what Quackity pictured autumn as.

“Let’s just drive for a bit,”

Chapter Text

On Sunday, Ranboo and Tubbo were going to a park, then a diner. Tubbo was very excited, he’d never hung out with friends outside of school before.
He was fussing over his outfit when James grabbed his hair and tugged him over,
“Where are you going?” He asked, sneering. Tubbo spotted the liquor on his tongue and careened his head away.
“Going out,” Tubbo mumbled. He had to be more assertive, he wished he could-
“Who with? Your boyfriend Tommy?” James teased, letting go of his brother’s hair and pushing him forward.
“No, and he’s not my boyfriend, I’m gonna hang out with my friend Ranboo,” Tubbo replied, adjusting his loose shirt. None of his clothes actually fit him anymore, his dad quit buying them all clothes after Mom-
He didn’t wanna talk about that.
“Ooo, you cheating, buddy?” His older brother wheezed, pushing his hair back and lazily grinning.
“No, asswipe, just leave me alone,” his voice wavered,
“Tuberose, I’m just playin! Don’t be such a puss, man,” James laughed, roughly pulling his brother in for a hug.
“Hey!” Tubbo shoved his face with the palm of his hand, only for it to be grabbed with crushing strength.
“Calm down, buddy,” He said nice and low, a gravely threat to shut up before Penny hears.
Tubbo forgot fight or flight, he went limp.
“See? I’m not gonna hurt you,” James chuckled, softly stroking Tubbo’s curls.
“I’d never hurt you,” he said sweetly, it made Tubbo wanna puke.
He hated when James got like this. It was fairly often, he’d smack Tubbo around and then give him tons of physical affection.
He fucking hated it.
HATED it.

“So what time are you leaving?” James asked, chipper as ever.
“I kind of need to go now,” Tubbo lied,
“I can drive you,” James offered, smiling. But something was so…off in his eyes. Same politician smile as ever, fake as flat earthers but something in his eyes was so…how could Tubbo put this.
He looked like he wanted to kill something.
“No it’s okay, Ranboo’s gonna drive me,” He replied quickly, forcing his way out of his brother’s grip.
“Okay, have fun,” James said, all gravel again.
It scared the shit out of Tubbo, he raced outside and dialed Ranboo’s number.
“Yolo, it-”
“Fuck, I need you to pick me up at the enterence of my neighborhood,” Tubbo spat out, breathing heavily as he speed walked away from his house.
“What’s wrong? I mean, I’m on my way, of course, but…”
“um, look I don’t wanna talk about it, just- I need to get out,”
“Okay, of course, yeah,” Ranboo said sweetly. Maybe the tall guy just pitied Tubbo.
Regardless of what Ranboo felt for the brunette, he was waiting there for Tubbo, outside of his car.
“Hey,” He said enthusiastically, smiling wide like a dumbass.
“Hey,” Tubbo mumbled, smiling back lazily.
Ranboo opened the passenger door,
“Ladies first,” He joked in a faux British accent.
“Tommy would be very offended,” Tubbo replied in his own faux British accent.
“Oh god, the southern to British was insane-” Ranboo wheezed, getting into the car as well.
“Thank you so much,” Tubbo said somberly, looking at his muddy Converse which were duct-taped together.
“No worries,” Ranboo hummed.
He played Lemon Demon and Younger Hunger the entire ride to the park.
Ranboo looked at Tubbo’s skin, it was pale but littered with freckles and purple splotches. Pink cat-scratch scars littered his thin arms and his cheeks were permanently the same rose.
“I like your shirt,” Tubbo mumbled, causing Ranboo to flush.
“Oh, um, thank you!” He replied, tugging on his ghost shirt a little.
“What if we just…sat in the car and took a nap?” Tubbo suggested quietly (Ranboo couldn’t help but fawn over the ghost of a smile).
“Yeah, if that’s what you wanna do we can,”
Tubbo snorted, “you’re such a push over,” he playfully shoved Ranboo; who laughed nervously.
“What do you wanna do, boss man? It’s your gas money,” Tubbo asked.
Ranboo shrugs, “um, whatever you do..?”
Tubbo made a face, “Fine, let’s go parasailing across the Atlantic ocean,” he joked.
Ranboo did NOT realize Tubbo was joking, however. He cocked his head to the side, “You parasail?”
“No, idiot!” Tubbo snorted, cackling and smacking the dashboard lightly.
“Oh,” Ranboo hung his head, “I’m sorry,”
“No, no, that’s called lovingly teasing…like…I… really like you as my friend so I’m saying I hate you because-”
“Because saying you like me is hard?”
“Yeah, yeah, I guess so,” Tubbo mumbled (too quiet for Ranboo to hear)
“Hm?”
“Oh, nothing, let’s go kidnap birds,”
“What?”

So they did.
Tubbo ran around looking for birds and trying to scoop them up, eventually exhausting himself and stumbling over to where Ranboo was sitting.
“M tired,” he muttered, resting his head in Ranboo’s lap.
“You’re touchy for someone who’s so snippy,” he teased.
Tubbo growled and poked Ranboo in the side, making him laugh.
“It’s getting dark, should we go eat?” He asked quietly, there was something so…sleepy about Ranboo. For Tubbo, being around Ranboo in general felt sleepy, like a warm glass of fairy milk or peaches and a story before a summer nap.
He loved it.

It was the only peace he found himself getting lately; so he soaked in it, tried to be so close to Ranboo it was suffocating.
He almost felt bad for it, considering he’d only known Ranboo for maybe three days at this point.

He decided to table those thoughts.

He was worried that he really did start to have feelings for Ranboo, he did tend to fall fast and hard… but he couldn’t. Not for a boy. Not for someone James could-

He’d table those too.

For now, he’d just let himself be pet, let Ranboo play with his curls, he’d let Ranboo mutter incorrect song lyrics until his breathing gave out.
Unfortunately, after a good 15 minutes, Ranboo gently shook Tubbo’s shoulder and leaned down a bit.

“Buddy, we should go eat,”
“Yeah, of course,” Tubbo replied lazily, getting off of Ranboo.

They sat awkwardly for a bit before Tubbo blurted out,
“That…That was totally platonic right?” His voice was so shaky.
“Of course, yeah” Ranboo replied, anxiety racking his words.

They awkwardly went to the car, Tubbo pretended like he wasn’t staring right at Ranboo and was just looking out the window.
So Ranboo started driving, it got darker quickly, it was maybe 9 PM.

Tubbo jumped at his phone ringing violently, shit it was James.

“Can I answer my brother real quick?” Tubbo asked, voice wavering more than he’d like to admit.
“Of course,” Ranboo answered cheerfully, but still soft.

“Hey, James,” Tubbo mumbled,
“Where are you? Puffy’s all worried,” his brother gruffed, moving something roughly.
“Me and Ranboo are going to some restaurant, then we’ll eat and he’ll drive me home, now piss off,” Tubbo grumbled,
“Fine, snippy,” James growled, hanging up.

“He sounds peachy,” Ranboo joked, laughing lightly.
“Oh he’s perfect,” Tubbo gruffed sarcastically.

After a peaceful drive, they ended up getting Burger King. They sat in the trunk with the door open. Tubbo had his legs sprawled over Ranboo’s. After eating they sat for a bit, chatting about everything.

“So who do you live with?” Tubbo asked, readjusting himself to be laying in Ranboo’s lap again. It was comforting, he didn’t really know why though.

“My older brother, Eret, has custody of me and my sister, Niki,” He says, tracing circles on Tubbo’s back with his fingertips.

Ranboo had vitiligo, but he always wore stupid shades and usually a flu mask. He also always wore turtlenecks, so Tubbo had to look a little hard to find it out. He was examining Ranboo’s hand at the moment, every freckle and scratch. He took in the perfume Ranboo wore, how he painted each of his nails a different color, and how he had a septum piercing that he didn’t know about until that night.
Ranboo moved his hand to cup Tubbo’s cheek.

“Um,”
“Sorry,” His voice was shrill, he removed his hand and looked away.

Tubbo grumbled and grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together like Puffy does, he mumbled something about being tired and wanting to stay here and sleep. Ranboo laughed.

“Want me to carry you to your seat, princess?” He asked, mostly as a joke. [Also in a faux French accent that parts important to me ()_()...X]
Tubbo scoffed at the pet name but said yes (once more, mostly as a joke).

They paused for a moment, brief silence. Then Tubbo moved to sit up and Ranboo grabbed him.
He bonked his head on the trunk door, “ow” he murmured, setting the brunette down.

“Dude, are you okay?” Tubbo asked, cackling, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t laugh-” he said in between wheezes. Ranboo began to laugh too, “Yeah, I’m all good!”
He shut the trunk,
“C’mon sleepyhead,” Ranboo teased, ruffling Tubbo’s hair.
“Oh shut up!” Tubbo giggled, getting into the car.

As always, the ride was peaceful up until they stopped at Tubbo’s house.

“Bye,” he whimpered,
“Bye, we should do this again sometime,”
“Yeah…whatever this,” Tubbo made hand motions between the two, “is…”

Ranboo laughed and the two lingered for a moment.

“I feel like I’ve known you forever,” Tubbo blurted out.
“Me too, well technically I’ve known you since 5th grade-” Ranboo replied,
“What?”
“Yeah, we used to hang out a lot but then we stopped in middle school,”
“I wasn’t friends with a guy in 5th-”

Too late, James tapped on the glass window. Tubbo looked back with murder in his eyes.
He slammed open the door, shoving James back.

“What, what is it?” Tubbo yelled, slamming the door shut (much to Ranboo’s dismay, it WAS his sister’s car after all…).
“Oh shut up,” James gruffed, grabbing Tubbo by his hair and pulling him forward,
“Ow! Jesus Christ!”

Ranboo was freaking out.
Should he call someone?

James was screaming at Tubbo, who was screaming right back.
“You leave unannounced all the time!” Tubbo screams,
“I’m not a baby!”
“Neither am I asswipe!”
They go back and forth for a bit- Ranboo ultimately decided to message Niki.

Ranboo: help tubbo and his brother are fighting so bad like physically and words
Niki: you okay tho?
Ranboo: yeah but i dont think tubbo is
Niki: hang on, lemme drive there
Ranboo: i have your car.
Niki: oh yeah, huh, get out there and deck James, you’re 7 inches taller than him
Ranboo: but i also play minecraft for money
Niki: and he’s probably drunk, go get him
Ranboo: ookay

So Ranboo got out of the car.

Chapter Text

Ranboo was about to say something, but James kept screaming at Tubbo, it was so overwhelming-
He did not have this.
He played Minecraft!
He couldn’t fight anyone in any way to be honest.

“James!” a taller girl with big fluffy white hair hollered, her voice was like magic. The older boy immediately let go of his younger brother and faced the girl (maybe his mom..? No, she looked too young. Ranboo couldn’t tell… maybe an older sister?).

“Look, puffs,”
“Shut up. Drop and give me twenty,” ‘Puffs’ barked,
“Oh come on! I thought you said you’d quit treating-”
“I did not do five years of ROTC just for you to be obnoxious while I try to schedule a date, drop and give me twenty.”
“Puffy,”
“James?”
“Puffy, I am not doing twenty push-ups,”
“Why? Tuberose can do twenty push ups,”
“No I c-”
“Silence, boy, nobody told you to speak,” She spat.
Ranboo was fucking terrified. Who the hell is this person???
“Sorry ma’am,” Tubbo replied, looking at the floor.
"Both of you, twenty, now. I’m going back in to finish making my tea, tall child- you,” She pointed at Ranboo.

“Me?” he asked weakly,

“Would you like a ride home, dear?” She asked softly, smiling.
“Oh, um, no I’m okay, thank you though,” he answered, shaking.
Tubbo and James were gone by now and it was just Ranboo and this scary lady.
“My name is Penny. I’m so glad you’re friends with my little brother,” She hummed, smiling so wide.
She went to shake Ranboo’s hand and pulled him in for a violent hug.

“Mess with him and I’ll literally kill you, kid,” She growled.
“Yes ma’am,” Ranboo whimpered, trying to back away,
“Oh and next time tell me when you’re bringing him back, but don’t worry about James, he’s stupid,”
Ranboo nodded and shakily went to his car.

Maybe he should’ve dropped Tubbo off at the end of the street…

---------

Fae and Alexis were laying on the floor of Fae’s obnoxiously large basement hang-out room thing. Alexis couldn’t describe it, rich people just had too many rooms, especially for a woman and her son (and occasionally George’s father but that was rare).
Fae was flipping through a teen Vogue magazine and Quackity was trying to get ahold of Schlatt.
George’s phone went off for the 14th time in the past hour.

“Dude just block him,” Quackity huffed,
“I did, genius, he keeps calling me with random numbers now,” Fae grumbled, rolling his eyes (which weren’t visible under his rather obnoxious bug-eyed coco chanel sunglasses).
“Why do you even wear those all the time?” Alexis asked, trying to drown out the ringtone.
“They’re cute,” Fae hummed, rolling onto his back and abandoning the magazine.
“I’m so bored, it’s so…lonely here sometimes, you know?”
“No, I don’t know, because I’m not Cher Horowitz,” Quackity replied, lazily smiling.

Fae sighed angrily and sat up.

“Wanna prank call somebody?” He asked, smiling wide.
“What are we? Twelve? Of course, I want to, let’s start with a teacher and work our way to felony territory,”
“Or we could hop straight into felony territory,”

Fae grinned and held up his baby blue flip-phone, it had a gazillion rhinestones in various shades of blue and white.

“I can’t believe you’re rich and have a flip-phone,” Alexis scoffed,
“It’s ‘cause I’m hot, babes,” Fae joked, dialing someone’s number.

Wilbur was tuning his guitar while Techno was doing some embroidery. They were both sitting on Will’s floor. He had just about finished when somebody rudely interrupted by calling him.
He grumbled and answered,

“Yolo?” He huffed, putting the phone on speaker. Some British guy(?) with TRAGIC cell service and or sound quality replied;
“Hello sir! I just wanted to inform you of Sally Saemonne’s test results per her request,”
“Hm? Oh, Sally and I broke up months ago, I don’t think that’s right,” Wilbur said, very confused at this point. Sally had dumped him because she thought he was cheating on her with his best friend (practically his sister) Niki.

Somebody giggled and then the original caller sharply hushed them.

“Oh, oh my god. Are you a prank caller? Fuck, is this Dream? I told you to never contact me again asshole, I told you I’m not forgiving you on Thursday, take a fucking hint,” He growled, hanging up.

George shot Quackity a look.
An ‘I think I just fucked up’ look.
“What happened?” He asked, snickering.
“Clay did something,” George replied, mouth going dry.
“Woah, what?” Alexis asked, bewildered.
“Yeah, do we call Clay and ask him what, lol?” George replied, weakly. He was faking a smile.
“Ew, did you just say ‘lol’ out loud?” Quackity teased, nudging Fae and trying to change the subject.
“Bitch, I’m rich and hot, I can say what I want,”
“Fuck you,” Alexis laughed, nudging his friend again.

Fae frowned and shut his phone. He stood and brushed the dust off his flared baby-blue yoga pants, walking to a door, then opening it with a flourish.
Inside was a small safe marked “DO NOT TOUCH!!!” He opened it, revealing a small pair of shoes littered with small colored grids. Were there numbers on the side? He walked back over to Alexis,
“I’m sorry, fuck who, now?”

Quackity was dumbfounded, “are those glass heels covered in calendar print? And is the heel part a 4?”
“These are my leap year heels, obvi!” Fae huffed, rolling his eyes and clicking his tongue.
“You have leap year heels?”
“Obvi???” He rolled his eyes again (and failed to hold back a giggle).
“Why? Just… why?” Quackity asked, laughing and trying to move his teased side fringe out of the way.
“Uh, I have different shoes for every day of the year, obvi,”
“You say ‘obvi’ too much,” Quackity hummed, smiling.

“Duh dur, anyways I have ice pops, want some?” He looked at his baby blue watch, “It’s about midnight, we should head upstairs eventually.”
Quackity agreed, swiftly making a move for the stairs where Fae opened his comically large freezer to reveal fourteen boxes of gourmet ice pops.
“What flavor do you want?”
“Uh, green apple? If not, banana.”
“Ugh, you have terrible taste, I’m quite partial to blue raspberry and strawberry lemonade.”

He grabbed four ice pops. Two for him and two for Alexis. When they got to his room, he set down the popsicles and span about,
“And this is my room!” He beamed, stopping at the window (a soft plink could be repetitively heard from it).
“Just a moment,” He opened the window angrily, “Clay!”

The blonde looked up at George, stopping himself from throwing the rock.

“Hey baby!” He yelled, hoarsely.
George felt sick,
“I thought I told you to ask before coming over!”
“You weren’t answering my calls, doll!” Clay lamented, staring wide-eyed and grinning.
“Duh, idiot! I blocked you! You punched me, remember?” George was halfway out the window, screaming.
To this, Clay was silent.
“I’ll talk to you when I feel like it, now piss off!” George shrieked, shutting his window and locking it.

He turned around, poised as ever. He had a graceful ‘I’m fine’ smile that he had perfected at seven.

“I thought you dumped him? Why’s he still bugging you?” Quackity asked, brushing his side fringe away.
“He’s not bugging me, per se. Just likes to throw things at my window, leave weird messages, and break in on occasion!” he exclaimed, still smiling and bouncy. (Years of photoshoots and child acting will do that, Alexis presumes).
“So…bugging you?”
“No, obviously,”

Fae flopped on the bed, cutting open his strawberry lemonade ice pop, “y’know, I had these custom-made for my fave flavors,”
Alexis was stunned, “I’m sorry, what?”
“Look, when one has such a huge house, custom ice pops are a necessity.”
“Are they though?”
“Look, Gucci model, some people have different necessities.”
“Look, Coco Chanel, my necessities are food and a bed and I’m barely getting those,”
“Okay, tax evader.”
“Okay, non-tax evader. Tax doer,”
“My mom does taxes, I’m too hot for that,”

The two were giggling and laying on Fae’s bed.

“Fuck, we have school in the morning-” Alexis sputtered, sitting up.
“I’m not going, doctors appointment,” Fae hummed, “You should stay home with me,”
“C’mon, Fae, I’m failing biology,”
“I thought you had that on C days?”
“I do,”
“Monday’s are B-days, I’m not seeing the problem,” Fae snickered, sitting up too.
Quackity sighed, “How are you gonna explain this to my father?”
“Money, duh,”
“Oh my god,” Quackity laughed.

Fae cackled and wrapped an arm around Quackity’s shoulder.
They fell silent and Fae frowned, leaning into his friend.
“You okay?”
George hummed, then shrugged. He took off his glasses and grumbled.
“Woahhh, Fae with no brim?” Quackity said, faux gasping.
Fae huffed and headbutted his arm.
“Ow, man, why does your little skull hurt so bad, you’re like 2’ tall-”
“I’m 5’6,”
“Baby sized,”
“Shhhhhhh, silence,”

Alexis pulled George in for a hug, “You doing okay? Should I beat him up,”
“He’s fine, I’m fine,”
“What’s the doctor’s appointment for?”
“Shrink,” George grumbles, “Not a big deal though,”
“Cool, man, glad you’re getting help-”
“I don’t need it though,” George hissed, shoving Alexis away.
“Sure, sure,”
Fae grumbled and tugged off his white sheer jacket.
“I’m so tired,”
“Then let’s go to bed,”
“Yeah, yeah,”

-----------------

Puffy made mac n cheese and a peaches and cream cobbler for dinner. She brewed raspberry rhubarb tea and set the table just so.

“So, how are you two?” She asked softly before taking a sip of the aforementioned tea.
“Good,” Tubbo replied sheepishly, looking down at his plate.
James just rolled his eyes.
“How was your day with your buddy, Tubbs?” She asked, looking right at him.

Tubbo flushed bright red, he felt nauseous kind of? Like he felt…confused- it was like bugs were squirming around his insides. He poked at his food and averted his gaze.

“It…um…it was like, really cool,” Tubbo murmured.
James snickered, “Dude are you crushing on that loser?”
“Ew! No!” Tubbo shrieked.

“James,” Puffy hissed,
“What? Not my fault he went on a five hour dinner date,”
“It wasn’t a date! We’re just friends!” Tubbo hissed, standing and slamming his hands on the table.

“You seem a little close to me,” James muttered, smirking.
“What, are you dating Alexis or Wilbur then?”
“No, obviously, I’m not a fag, asswipe,”
“James!” Puffy growled
“What?”

The three all started screaming over each other, Puffy was telling James not to say slurs, Tubbo was screaming about how much he hated James, and James was telling them both to shut up.
James eventually stood up and walked right out.
Puffy and Tubbo fell silent.

“I’m going to bed,” Tubbo growled, voice wavering as he stormed off.
Puffy sighed and tugged on her white curls.
This was a long week.

Chapter Text

Ranboo unlocked the door of his older sibling’s shitty apartment.
“I’m home!” he called out, voice hoarse. He was tired as hell. His body ached.
He heard a loud thump, some rustling then his eldest sibling stumbled into the living room. His older brother, Eret, was blind (an accident Ranboo was too young to remember) but he seemed to have forgotten his cane somewhere.

“Ranny!” He shouted, launching himself in the general direction of Ranboo.
“Hey Eret,”
Eret let go and stumbled back, he twitched his neck back and forth.
“Is Niki at work?”
“Yeah,”
“Bummer, I’m gonna take a nap, do you need anything?”
“Nah, I know where my cane and shit is, don’t worry,”
“I didn’t necessarily mean that!” Ranboo grumbled, flushing.
Eret cackled, “I’m gonna go call Fae, he seemed really rattled the other day,” She hummed, messing with her hair.
She had thick unruly dark curls, a rich chestnut/auburn. Her eyes were white and hazy, she hid them with black sunglasses. She was always seen in elaborate clothing, today she was wearing an ankle length pink and white plaid sundress with white flats and a pink choker.
Ranboo always admired Eret, he looked up to them. Eret never took flack from anyone, after graduating he took custody of Ranboo and Niki; something he’d been trying to do for five years up to this point. Previously a live-in social worker was always inspecting them, the courts were hesitant to give Eret custody considering his history of rioting and being a punk. Of course, Eret hadn’t done anything recently, after the accident (involving rubber bullets and tear gas).
Eret was just something so special. An incredibly smart person, he was a ballerina (won championships and was the lead in many ballets), he was a mathlete, hell he was on the wrestling team (good, too), and that’s not even mentioning the plays he was in.
Ranboo wanted nothing more than to be like his siblings.

It was roughly 10:00 PM when Ranboo got home, he was exhausted, but something compelled him to text Tubbo.
Something.
He didn’t know what exactly just-
He felt inclined to protect Tubbo, to check in on him.
Ranboo shook his head, embarrassed. He took off his shades and his flu mask, setting them on his dresser.

Ranboo: hey
Tubbo: sup mofo
Ranboo: u doing okay??
Tubbo: yeah mofo, fine asf im doing so fucking good so fucking awesome you have no idea, im fucking living it up here, i have so many bitches, so many chics, so much swag you have no idea
Ranboo: oookkkaaaayy?
Tubbo: exactly. Hang on my bro’s here.

Ranboo’s stomach flipped.

--------------------

“James! Fuck off!” Tubbo shrieked,
“It’s my room too!” James growled, banging at the door.
“I don’t care! Sleep on the fold out couch,” Tubbo shouted, opening the door and sticking his tongue out before slamming it harshly.
“I’m gonna kick your ass twerp!” James swung the door back open.

James grabbed Tubbo’s thick honey-brown curls, slamming his head into the wall.
Tubbo made a weak, sour sound. Something akin to curdled milk.

“You’re a fuckin’ fagg just like Puffy ain’t cha?” James hissed into Tubbo’s ear, grip moving down to Tubbo’s shirt collar.
“You’re so pathetic,”
He smashed Tubbo into the wall again, ripped him back, and threw him against his desk.

Tubbo came careening into the shitty ikea furniture, smacking his lower back against it. He whined and held back tears, his body stung. It felt like wasps were eating him alive.

“James-” he sniveled, he felt weak and small.
“Awe, what? You gonna beg me to help you? Gonna cry for your big sissy?”
Tubbo growled, “Shut up,”
He stood awkwardly.
He headbutted James as hard as he could, pain shot through his head.
James let out a huff and gripped the boy's curls again.
“I’m gonna bury you, fuckwad,” James hissed, low and silent.
Tubbo tensed, James had threatened to kill him before, sure. But it was always when play wrestling. Not… not this.
Tubbo was forced to the ground, flat on his stomach with his older brother’s foot on his back.
“Are you gonna quit being such a sissy?”
Tubbo gurgled a weak reply. His mouth was quickly filling with blood and the sharp taste of copper was unpleasant.
James scoffed and kicked Tubbo before walking out.

He sighed and lit a smoke, ignoring the drying blood on his calloused hands.
He sent Alexis a quick text.

JA-BizzTown: wanna meet up?
Quackity: where?
JA-BizzTown: anywhere
Quackity: i’ll pick you up from ur house,then ill take you to some shitty diner i guess
JA-BizzTown: sounds good

He pocketed his Nokia and took a drag.

The back of Quackity’s car was hot and cramped, Schlatt had a death grip on the shorter boys’ hair, he bit hard on Quackity’s lip.
“Hey,” Quackity hissed, low and tired. He tried shoving Schlatt away, he turned his head left.
Schlatt laughed quietly, it was like gravel.
He whispered something in Quackity’s ear, making the boy shut down.
He was NOT having a good time anymore.

It started off so innocent.

Quackity picked him up, they went to a Deny’s, they talked for hours. hours
It was 1:00 AM when they left and Quackity was giddy, he was slap happy and dumbstruck with love. He never felt so cliché before.

It was his fault things went so wrong.

Obviously.

He kissed Schlatt first.
It was meant to be quick and sweet, just a small “thank you,” an “I love you,”
It wasn’t meant to be this-

So dirty,
It wasn’t meant to end with tears and begging to stop, with a hand under his shirt and a bloody nose.

Quackity was shaking when he dropped Schlatt off, he sped to his house, ignoring the way he trembled and the traffic laws.
Once he got home he stumbled into his house, hiccuping and sobbing. He needed a shower. This was all his fault. He was so stupid. He shouldn’t have-

“Cariño, ¿cómo estás?” His older sister, Hannah, asked.
Quackity sobbed, rushing to hug her, “Sucio,”
“¿Qué?” She asked, cocking her head to the side, she acknowledged his beanie was gone, rather odd.
It was 2 AM as well, not exactly insane but certainly strange for him to return past curfew.
“Patito, patito, ¿por qué?” She whispered, stroking his hair.
“No puedo,”
“¿Por qué?”
“Todo es culpa mía,”
“What, patito??”
Quackity hiccuped and buried himself in his sister’s embrace, sobbing and caterwauling, thank god his father wasn’t home.
“Hannah, estoy sucio,”
“What happened?” she asked softly, begging for an explanation.
Alexis shuddered, “No puedo, me odirás,”
“Alexis, you’re mi hermano, why would I hate you?” She whispered,
“Because, Hannah, I’m disgusting,”
“What do you mean?”
“I need to sleep,” Alexis groaned, shoving himself off of her and dragging himself to his bedroom.
“Okay, buenas noches,”

He awoke screaming, shrieking and sweating. He didn’t even recall what he was screaming about. He felt so dirty, he hobbled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom.
He cranked the shower on filling the bathtub, and not bothering to take off his clothes.
He sat down and began sobbing, his body shook with trepidation.
He felt nauseous, he was so disgusting.

His phone went off, he hiccuped and checked the message from Fae, leaning over the side of the tub.
SleepyPrince: hey hyd
Quackity: im so fucking disgusting fae you have no idea
SleepyPrince: what? Did u throw up gummy worms and 7 up again?
Quackity: no i just
Quackity: george it hurts
SleepyPrince: what?
Quackity: icnat stop fuckinsing crying man i feel so nasty he kissed me and it was nice and thne it got more instne i just i didnt want tha
SleepyPrince: wtf???? Lexis are you okay???
Quackity: geori think i just got raped

He felt so embarrassed admitting it. Admitting that he let someone take his body

SleepyPrince: dude thats not your fucking fault, who did that shit I’ll kill them
Quackity: no, it's ok, i love him
SleepyPrince: woul du lemme just tell u clays a good bf even though he stalks me
Quackity: you do, often, actually
SleepyPrince: fine, you win this one, but it's not your fault

Chapter Text

Wilbur was trying to catch some sleep on the bus, he was nearly gone when he felt someone sit next to him.

“Hm?” he mumbled, looking over. His eyes widened, it was Schlatt.
“Miss me?” He cackled, smiling wide like a salesman.

Wilbur tensed up, he felt off.
Schlatt ruffled Will’s curls, humming low then moving his hand down to the nape of his neck. He snaked his arm around Will’s shoulder and pulled him in.

“I missed you, y’know, missed being your friend,” He sighed, the salesman-smile™ evaporating.
“Yeah, I um- look I’m still a little hurt-” Wilbur whispered, weakly attempting to shove Schlatt away.

“Oh?” Schlatt replied, scoffing.
He gruffed, snatching wild curls again in his claws.
“Yeah, I mean, you did say we weren’t friends anymore, you made fun of my eating habits, you punched me-”
“It’s just ‘cause I was worried, buddy,”Schlatt said sweetly, twisting the hair in his grip.
Wilbur winced.

He was trying to stay in this moment, not because he liked it but because he would not satisfy Schlatt by having a panic attack right now.
He wouldn’t let his eyes widen.
Wouldn’t let his breathing die out, would NOT, not, NOT start hallucinating and beg to be let go. He would NOT beg to be saved-
He dug his nails deep into Schlatt’s hand.

“What do you think, man, could we be friends again? I miss you a lot,” Schlatt asked softly, getting closer to Will. He slowly revived the fox grin.
He shifted in his seat to be effectively hovering over the yellow-clad boy.
“Oh, and, do you know where my sweater is? My blue turtleneck? I let you borrow it and-”

“Yeah,” Will growled, voice hoarse and shaking. He pushed Schlatt off of him, it didn’t take much effort since Schlatt gave in.

“Cool,” Schlatt hummed, inching further away from Will.

Wilbur took out his phone with shaking hands and considered asking Niki for help. But then he thought more about this, Schlatt had been his best friend after all. Maybe he should reconsider.
He put those thoughts to rest. James hurt him. James hurt him badly, how could he forgive someone like that? Techno would be disappointed in him, he’d be putting himself in danger but-
There was something so comforting in this.
Something familiar crept in with the way they sat.
A lazy attempt at holding Will from Schlatt (arm snaked around his shoulder, head rested in the other), the echoes of it resonated, reverberated, in Will’s chest.
He felt sick.
His stomach hurt.
His head was spinning.

Once at school, James slowly slunk out of his seat, pulling Wilbur up.

“C’mon, slowpoke,” He grinned as he forced a small laugh.

Wilbur scrunched up his face but allowed himself to be dragged off the bus. Once off he was freed,

“So, how was your weekend?” James asked.

Will wanted to punch his permanent smile off his face, he wanted James to go away. He didn’t enjoy how guilt crept up his stomach and made him feel nauseous, to be honest, he felt like his blood was boiling at the question.

“Fine.” Wilbur scoffed, attempting to walk away.

Schlatt grabbed the back of his yellow sweater and pulled him back. He rubbed some of the fabric between his fingers, it was soft. He bet that Niki or Hannah would know what fabric it was on sight. He let go and Wilbur took the chance to make a distance (a good 3ft).

“Did you do anything fun?” He asked, lighting a cigarette and taking a drag.
“Just the usual,”
“Sitting around smoking while you wallow in self-loathing?”
“No, look I don’t wanna do this-”
“Do what?” Schlatt asked, laughing (coughing and wheezing a bit).
“I just- look I need to go find Aimsey she’s struggling with the signup sheets-”
Another wheezy laugh, “Aimsey? She’s that bitch with a cane right? How’s she gonna do theater if she can’t walk?”
“Ok, fuck you, first of all. Second of all she’s signing up for cast, and third of all, fuck you.” Wilbur gruffs, turning to the heavy glass doors and swinging them open violently.

He didn’t feel so guilty about leaving anymore, (even though HE’S not the one who left).
He grumbled and walked over to where Aimsey, some ugly kid with split dye and sunglasses, some brunette kid that follows around Tommy, and Tommy were sitting.
“Hello rat child and company,”
“Hello evil step-brother and no possé,”

Wilbur laughed and ruffled Tommy’s hair, “So, Aimsey, you still need help?”

“Oh, um, yeah, I don’t know where the board is so-”
“Want me to take you there or?-”
“Oh I know where it is,” Fucking sunglasses Naruto character looking hoe interrupted, holding up a hand like he’s asking a question in grade school.

Wilbur shot the kid a death glare,

“Oh, thanks Ranboo, I didn’t know you were into theater-”
“Oh, god no, no, no, no, no. I hate theater kids. Like with a passion, you are not allowed to be in theater, Aimsey gets a pass because I hate her-” Brunette started,
“You hate me?”
“Both of you shut the fuck up, Aimsey follow me,” Wilbur grumbled, motioning dramatically for Aimsey to get off of the table she was sitting on.
She nodded and tailed Wilbur.

-------------------

In Chem, Wilbur was having some conflicted feelings. On one hand, his best friend was offering to pretend nothing happened, but on the other; Wilbur was still hurt.
How could he not be?
What was he supposed to do? Just pretend his heart hadn’t been ripped out and was now being lazily shoved back in?

The lead of his pencil snapped, and he huffed.
He lay his head in his arms, his head was throbbing. He tugged on his hair.

“Willaim,” someone whispered, poking the yellow-clad boy in the shoulder.
Wilbur shot his head back, glaring at the boy.
It was a young (yet brilliant) obnoxious boy named Floyd.
“You need to be awake,” he said softly, smiling uncomfortably.
Will rolls his eyes, “Shove off,” he hisses.

Floyd tenses up and nods, he pushes up his bright blue framed glasses (they were strangely shaped children’s glasses with those straps to keep them from falling off which were bright orange).
The blonde chewed on his brightly colored pencil and fidgeted with his equally neon bracelets.

Will gruffed and laid back again.

Chapter Text

“Hey Will, uh, can we like… can we talk?” Quackity asked, wringing his fingers around his sweater sleeve.
“Huh? Sure,” Wilbur replied, standing up from his empty lunch table.
They walked over to the staircases, Quackity shoved some money into a vending machine, “Diet Coke, yeah?” He asked, chewing his lip.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Will replied, laughing uncomfortably. Quackity nodded and pressed a button, a sprite rolled out and coins clunked down.
He ran his fingers through his hair and looked away from Will.

“Has James ever… has he-” he paused, eyes watering, “God, lo siento, this is hard- um, has he ever maybe… sexually abused you?” he asked quietly. He sounded like a wounded animal.
Wilbur swallowed bile, he felt sick.
“I mean… I wouldn’t call it that” he laughed,

Will recalled a hand tracing up his shirt, he giggled and tugged on dark mocha curls.
He remembered a rough kiss, a bite that drew blood, bruised lips, and a ring around his throat.

“It was fine,” Wilbur said weakly, reassuring himself more than Alexis.
“Oh, okay, I’m sorry-”
“Did he do something to you?”
Alexis paused and put an arm over his eyes, taking a shrill breath in.
“Yeah,” he whimpered.

Will felt his hands shaking, he laughed, “I’m sorry, I’m just very…uncomfortable, I’m not laughing at you,”
“I get it,”

fizzzzzzzz. Hisss. Sick sweet cherry vanilla cola right down his throat.
Quackity wipes the residue off on the back of his hand, smearing lipgloss the the edge of his right cheek. It was opening night of One Acts, it had gone great (aside from Wilbur having a manic episode) and now Quackity and Schlatt were sitting on the bleachers in the football field.
Schlatt sighed and ruffled his curls, pushing them back and shutting his eyes for a second before readjusting. He looked at Alexis, smiling wide. His amber eyes tiwnkled, reflecting street light.

”Hey Lexi?”
”Don’t call me that, it’s weird,”
”yeah, yeah whatever, baby-” Alexis interrupted him with a shrill giggle and a playful punch to the shoulder, “hey, man!” Schlatt laughed,”

His heart wrenched, he felt rugged and tired.

He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, smearing lipgloss, “Did he like… like you?” he squeaked, looking away. He was so embarrassed to ask that- he felt like an idiot.
Wilbur laughed, “No, it wasn’t anything like that, just…” he paused and shifted uncomfortably, he forced a smile and carried on; “We just messed around I guess,”

Will let out a choking sob, pushing James away, “C’mon, man-” he laughed uncomfortably.
He was met with silence, a rough kiss, one hand up his shirt and one around his throat.
“We’re just joshin’ man, this was your idea,”
“yeah but-”

Will stared wide eyed, hovering, floating, he watched;
Alexis nodded, but didn’t seem satisfied, “What do I do…if maybe…” his voice wavered, threatening tears, “What do I do if I can’t look at myself…” he broke.

He made an odd choked up noise, like a small animal that’s been bitten.

“Quackity, dude, I am not a councilour,” Wilbur laughed, he stepped back and ran his fingers through his hair, “I can barely get a grip on my own fucking shit, I can’t help you,”

Alexis nodded, “Yeah, yeah, I didn’t- you know I didn’t mean to say that, yeah?” he hiccuped, hands trembling.

“Of course,” Wilbur said shakily.

He woke up in someone else's room, someone else’s bed.

He let out a breath, backed away.

”Mornin’” Schlatt whispered, petting Wilbur’s hair. He was wearing a Star War’s t-shirt and grey cargo shorts, his hair was a mess and his lips were swollen,
”Morning,” Wilbur groaned uncomfortably, he shifted but everything hurt. He was still foggy.
”what the fuck even happened last night?” Will asked, pushing his matted curls out of his eyes,
”I don’t know, last I remember is that we were drinking and then…”
Wilbur flushed bright red, he hid his face in his hands (at least that explained why his shirt was off) Schlatt laughed, “Want a smoke?” he asked,
“I need something heavier if I’m gonna forget this,” Will growled, making Schlatt laugh.

That was the only nice one, at least he didn’t remember most of that one.
Next thing he knew he was sitting in Geometry, plucking hair and tossing it to the ground.
He felt so upset, so disgusting, he was confused.

He didn’t like thinking about the things Schlatt did to him-

Bathroom stalls, basement at a party, playground, abandoned house, back alley, you name it; if they were drunk they’d start making out there. Then the next morning they’d pretend they were just two regular straight guys who were friends.

Highschool fucking sucked, Will was sure of it.

He wiped tears on his sweater and plucked out more hair. Tugging and pulling, he worked the curls between his fingers.

“Are you okay?” Sap whispered.
“Go kill yourself,” he snapped back, hiding in his arms.

Chapter Text

2 AM.
Highway.
Alone with a cheap bottle of booze.
Will had to do something.

So he called Schlatt,

“Hey Will,” Schlatt groaned, he was clearly tired but eager.
“Where are you?” Wilbur asked, taking another swig of shitty vodka
“My room?” Schlatt laughed weakly, “Ok, well, I’m on the fold out couch of our living room,” he sat up, and the springs squeaked.
“I’m coming over,”
“What? Will-”
Wilbur hung up and got on his skateboard, ready to cry.

Maybe he’d throw up, maybe he’d rekindle his already terrible friendship with James.
Who knew,

He slammed Jame’s front door open, setting his skateboard down and shutting it.

Schlatt stared wide-eyed at Will’s disheveled appearance, his button-up was crooked, his jeans found a new tear and he was clearly drunk.

“Hey sunshine,” Schlatt laughed, low and quiet. He stood up and walked over to meet him.
“Hey raincloud,” Wilbur replied, breathy and tired.

He grabbed Schlatt’s curls, tugged him down, and lazily kissed him.
“Woah-” Schlatt murmured, snaking his hands around Will’s waist.

Will broke away and wrapped his arms around Schlatt’s neck, “I’m tired,” he hummed.
“Do you want me to drive you home?”
“Nah, this is fine, I… I think I missed this,”
“Are you sure that's all you missed?”
“This and making you listen to Avril Lavigne,”

Schlatt grumbled something under his breath and sighed.

“I thought you were all up and mad at me, man,”
“I was, I still am, I just…” Will couldn’t finish his sentence, how could he explain this?
‘I was drunk and mad at you and hating myself so I wanted to hang out since you make me feel special’ No, that would be stupid.
Absolutely ridonk.
No way was that happening.

“You just…?” Schlatt echoed, guiding Will to sit on the makeshift bed.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Will half-truthed.

He could definitely attempt to explain it. He could try. But Will never tried anything. He didn’t try at acting, he didn’t try to be a good brother, he didn’t try to make friends, or be nice to people, hell he didn’t actually try to quit drinking and now here he was.
But the taste of Schlatt’s voice was addictive, like scotch and caramel. It was like melting milk chocolate and lukewarm off-brand soda. Above all, it was yellow (his favorite color).

So maybe he didn’t miss Schlatt, maybe he missed the concept of him.
He missed the idea of summer and shitty record players. He missed the idea of arguing over music. He missed the feeling of being special, of being the reason someone’s face lit up, he missed sugary music coating the bitterness of James’ voice.

But there was always shame at the end.

Like there was right now.

The two sitting there; James praying his father won’t come home, Wilbur praying his own won’t realize he was never actually going to spend the night with ‘a friend’.
They tried to push guilt down with cheap liquor and awkward laughter.
But that’s hard, okay?

It’s hard to pretend you don’t wanna kill the guy you’re actively hanging out with, it’s hard to pretend the fighting isn’t playing on repeat psychotically.

So Wilbur just tries to go quiet.

Schlatt played with Wilbur’s hair and sang the jumbled lyrics of a Brittany Spears song that Will always liked.

This was peaceful,
It was pleasant
It was sleepy and light blue, it was cotton and childish.
Innocent for once.
They both know one of them will ruin it.
It’s a matter of who will strike first.

For once it’s Wilbur, tugging hard on tangled black curls and giggling.
Their teeth clanked and Wilbur laughed hard,
Schlatt hissed in pain but quickly recovered, smiling.
Wilbur laughed harder then grabbed Schlatt by the front of his shirt with one hand, smiling wickedly, then pulled out a pocket blade in the other.
。
。
。

。

。

。

。

Eret screamed, lurching upright.
Niki opened the door, “Another vision?”
He looked down, unsure of where she was looking.
Niki shook her head with pity and walked over to her sibling.

“Paralysis demon?”
“No,”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, it was just a nightmare, a regular one-”
“No visions?”
“No… no visions,”

Eret bit her lip, she always felt bad lying to Niki but she couldn’t tell her what she just saw.
Mostly because she couldn’t tell what it was.
It was busy, flashing, bright.
It was heavy and heady, suffocating like smoke.
She bet Wilbur could pinpoint its taste and colors better than Eret ever could.
The terror had red, plenty of it.

She was wearing a floor-length red dress with a slit, a fluffy white jacket, and red flats, but she wasn’t in her body. She was in Puffy’s, gazing at the scene with horror and confusion; ready to drop her punch and scream at him.
Eret had no clue who she was so mad at, she didn’t recognize the face. But she knew he was in theatre… perhaps someone from sound crew? There were two younger boys-
a big BAM

Then it started… Flashing

So terribly,

She screamed, and now Niki was leaving.

Chapter Text

Tommy and Tubbo were laughing while trying to convince Ranboo to hurry up across the creek.
Tommy was wearing a huge yellow T shirt with sunflowers that belonged to Wilbur and grey cargo shorts. His shoes and socks had been discarded in the hollow of a tree long before this. (Along with Tubbo’s)
Tubbo was muddy and wearing a black MCR shirt and khaki shorts, he also had a green and brown flannel tied around his waist.
But Ranboo was NOT aware ‘picnic party’ meant ‘get in the creek and splash each other with mud’ so they were wearing a purple knee-length sundress and white flats.

They sighed and took off their shoes, shoving them in the tree with Tommy and Tubbo’s.

Tommy cackled his gremlin laugh and tugged hard on Ranboo’s dress with his clean hand, “c’mon, boo!”

Ranboo sighed again and gave in to the boys’ demand, allowing themself to be tugged into the murky water.
They sat on a rock that was for the most part dry while Tommy and Tubbo wrestled.
They smiled watching the two.

Tubbo slipped on some mud, crashing into Tommy and splashing Ranboo.

“Awe shucks,” They huffed, standing up and sighing.
Tubbo freaked out, standing up, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,”
“Huh? Oh don’t worry-”

Tubbo tugged on his hair, clearly distraught.

“Tubbs,” Tommy said softly, putting an arm around his shoulder.

His breathing quickened and Ranboo ran a hand through the boys brown curls.

“Dude it’s okay,” He laughed, “I’ll just have to get you back now,”
“Huh?” Tubbo whimpered,

Ranboo kicked up some water at Tommy and Tubbo.

“What did I do!” Tommy shouted, splashing water back and cackling.

.
.
.
.

The three were on a picnic blanket, giggling and sleepy.
Tubbo and Ranboo were all cuddled up, Tommy gruffed, inching closer to the two.
“Oh come in here,” Ranboo laughed, tugging on Tommy’s shirt sleeve.

“Stupid bitch boy,” Tommy hissed, allowing himself to be kissed on the forehead and pet.
Tubbo was sitting in Ranboo’s lap and playing cradle the cat by himself.
This was so nice, so pleasant.

And things were pleasant for Schlatt and Wilbur too of course.
With Will chainsmoking on the front porch, Schlatt screaming at him and disinfecting his cat scratches.

“It’s not like we’re dating, Will,” Schlatt hissed, throwing the washcloth in frustration.
“Well, I just think it’s fucked how we always do this then pretend like we’re just friends,”
“But we are just friends, bug,”
“Don’t,”
“Don’t what, doll?”
“Fucking quit it with the pet names,”
“Awe, is Bunny mad?” Schlatt asked, walking over to where Will is sitting.

”That’s not my name,”

Tommy sat impatiently, allowing Tubbo to weave intricacies into his hair.
The sour smell of bending stems invaded his senses.
Dandelions and brugmansia were enveloped in his curls, flared weeds (unidentified) made up the base of the crown.

“You’re beautiful now,” Tubbo said proudly, grinning and patting Tommy’s back.
“Oh shut up, you whore,” Tommy scoffed, feigning anger.
Rnaboo laughed and stood up.
They stretched and rolled their neck.
“Do you two wanna come over for dinner?” They ask.
Tubbo and Tommy exchanged glances.

“We’ll ask,” Tubbo fibbed.

“Bunny don’t be like this,”
“Oh my god,”
Wilbur ran a hand through his curls, fingers getting stuck midway.
He wrenched them out and hissed, shoving the still lit cigarette into Schlatt’s arm.

“Ow, fuck,”

“Hey Niki, can you give me Tommy and Tubbo a ride? I’m gonna make us dinner,”
Niki laughed over the phone, “You’re getting bold, stinker, yeah I’ll be there in twenty,”

Schlatt regained his composure, “Alright, I deserved that,” he muttered, laughing hoarsely.

Karl lunged forward, gasping for air and retching. He dry heaved over his white sheets. What the hell was that? That was the weirdest dream ever.
Who were those people
Why were they familiar?

He shook his head and looked at the clock, six o’clock, he might as well get out of bed.

At lunch Karl rushed over to his friend-group’s table.
Clay was tugging Fae uncomfortably close, gripping hard on the whispering fabric of Fae’s dress.
Karl’s lovely boyfriend, Spanap, was sitting across from the two.
Charlie and Alexis were also hovering by the table, with Alexis sitting down next to Sap.

“Hey!” Karl greeted, sitting down.
“Hey honey,” Sap said, smiling and wrapping an arm around their shoulder.
Alexis glared.
Karl shifted uncomfortably and opened his mouth to speak,

“So, are you guys gonna watch my game tonight?” Clay asked, loudly.

“Oh, sure, I guess?” Karl muttered.
“Of course!” Sap shouted.
“Yeah, whatever,” Fae hissed, smacking his gum loudly and reaching into his purse for something.

Clay leaned into him, whispering something that made Fae freeze.

“You guys should stop by my family’s diner after the game!” Sap suggested excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah that sounds great um, I’ve gotta go to the powderoom. See you in bio,” Fae muttered, quiet and weak.
They shoved Clay off of them and left.

“Weird,”

"Sure is," A pink-haired guy gruffed, smiling wide and smacking Clay on the back.

Chapter Text

“Who’s th…” Karl began, only to realize nobody was there.
Clay looked at him funny, grimacing as if he was finally going to snap.
And fine, yeah, Karl KNEW his hallucinations and bulimic bullshit could only be dealt with for so long but he needed this.
He clamped his mouth shut and grabbed a fistfull of butterscotch from the bag in his pocket.

He felt sick while chewing, Sap had left to get lunch.
Alexis stared at Karl, likely in disgust honestly, who wouldn’t be disgusted by a freak who sees and hears people he’s never even fucking met.
Who has vivid nightmares where he’s a spectator in a vicious sick game.

Fuck him.

He shoved another handful of candy into his mouth, choking for a second on it.

“Dude, slow down,” Alexis hissed.

Karl’s cheeks heated up, he felt sick. He needed to eat something.

No, no, no.

He needed some fucking self control, obviously. He stood up, vertigo bathing him in black spots and dizzy cold.

He wandered to the bathroom.

A boy was wiping tears, splashing his face and fumbling for the toothbrush on the sink.

He was so familiar.

Yellow jumper
Brown curls
Brown eyes
His skin was sickly pale
His clothes hang awkwardly
his beanie devoured his curls in an ugly way

He was from Karl’s nightmare.

“Take a picture, bitch, it’ll last longer,” The guy hissed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I- you just… you look really familiar,”

The guy scoffed, “Well I am in every school production so,”

He spoke softly. His breath smelt like puke.

Karl felt icy, empty, nervous.

“Yeah maybe that’s it,” he glanced to the toothbrush, “You shouldn’t brush your teeth after throwing up,”

The boy froze,

“Hey, what’s this from?” Alexis asked Schlatt, poking at the oozey burn scar (one of several).
“Go fuck yourself,” Schlatt spat, low and hoarse.
“Damn, I was just asking,”
“No, no, it’s okay, I’m sorry..” Schlatt gruffed.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked at Alexis. He looked like he was mourning something.

“Do you maybe know where Fae is?”
“Uhhh…uh…” a pause “He’s in the purple 2nd floor bathroom.” Alexis grumbled.

He wanted to add ‘don’t fucking touch him,’
To add ‘you poser bitch’
To add ‘you raped me’
To add ‘I love you’
‘Im sorry,’
‘Do you forgive me?’
.
.
.
‘Or do you still love Will?’
‘Cause that’s okay, I know you just like me cause I look like him,’
‘I’m fine with pretending.’

‘But I still wanna kill you,’

‘I still want a life with you after high school,’

‘I still pretend our first “date” was romantic’

‘Pretend I haven’t had a crush on you since fifth grade,’

.
.
.

“Thanks!”

“Yeah, yeah, no problem,”

----------------------

Clay and Techno were tasked to get supplies for their ELA teacher when Clay said something stupid.

“Do you remember when we were friends?”

He clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Yep,” Techno replied, nonchalantly.

Clay regained his composure and put back on his ‘tough guy’ sona.

“You had such a big crush on me, it was so gross,”

Techno sighed and shook his head, “Clay, I’m aromantic, I’ve never had a crush before,”
“Awe, are you tryna cover up how much of a little faggot you are? Or are you normal in that sense and really you’re just a tranny?” He snatched Techno’s braid and pulled.

“Fuck, why are you such a child?!” Techno rasped, low and angry. He grasped the fabric of Clay’s shirt and pinned him against the wall.
“I don’t have time for this, not for you, not for your bullshit. If you still wanna cry about ninth grade go for it, but leave me and my family alone.” He hissed.

Techno let go and continued his way to the supply room.

“Hey, bitch, it’s not my fault you went psycho animal-”

Techno shoved Clay, hard.

He fell to the floor and Clay squawked.

“You fucking slut!”
“Oh, really now?”

Techno stomped hard on Clay’s chest when he tried to get up.

“Really? I’m the slut?”

“I’m the faggot, the tranny, the fucked up little girl you screw over? I’m the bad guy you get to beat? I’m the villain?” Techno rasped, laughing horsley.

Clay opened his mouth only to have a hand over his mouth, a hand around his neck, and a psycho bitch losing his fucking mind.

The next thing Techno knew was that he was bloody.

He was in the principal’s office with Clay, Clay’s father, and his own.

Phil looked so wounded.
Betrayed probably.

Techno was humiliated, he had been doing so good, and now he was going to be thrown back in the system.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered, forcing tears back inside.

Their principal sighed and rubbed his temple.

“What happened?” Dr. Void asked, sighing.

Clay opened his mouth to speak but Techno interrupted.

“It was my fault, sir. Drea-....Clay didn’t do anything. I forgot my medicine, it was my fault,”

Clay stared wide eyed at Techno, what the heckity? He almost felt bad. Almost. But he was more jealous than remorseful.
How fucking dare Techno act all high and mighty again.

Clay was sobbing, gasping for breath on the ground. He clutched his arm close to his chest and choked on his spit.
a little kid (maybe a little older than him actually) stared at him.

They had kinky white hair packed into two tight French braids; big dorky glasses; and a pink and red plaid dress over a polo and khakis.

”Are you hurt?” The kid asked, voice hoarse and rough.
Clay choked out another sob, nodding violently.
”Here, let me see,” he said, crouching beside Clay, “My social workers sister is a doctor,”
”What’s that?”
”A doctor?”
”No, the social lady,”
”Oh, a social worker is this person that stays with me to make sure I stay out of trouble and can stay with a family,” the boy explained, prodding at Clay’s swollen arm.

”Let’s go tell the teacher you broke your arm now,” the boy gruffed, picking up Clay with ease.

“Clayton, what do you have to say on the matter?” The principal, Dr. Void, asked.

He pondered it.

‘I’m sorry,’
‘I hate you,’
‘Why aren’t you mad at me?’
‘You should hate me by now,’
‘I know you always said the opposite of love is indifference…’
‘...but you’re driving me crazy,’

.
.
.

.
.
.

“No, sir.”

Clay looked over to Techno. He sat straight and tall, chin up, hands in his lap, ankles crossed. He looked like a statue. Clay envied it.
He envied how Techno took everything with a matter of grace.

He envied the way Techno never looked down on anyone, just looked annoyed that they were talking to him. Hell, he was still mad about an incident ini fourth grade involving some glitter and his dads carpet.

Fine, maybe Clay wanted to be Techno’s friend again.

Maybe he was the only one keeping this grudge alive.

Maybe he still liked being called Dream.

Maybe he still liked being somebody’s best friend.

Maybe he missed him.

He gripped the seat of the chair and stared at his feet. The dried blood caked on his lips and teeth was uncomfortable. The throbbing in his jaw and neck was far too overwhelming, but he deserved it.

He deserved it for everything he did.

From the winter formal to letting Techno bleed out in an alleyway- God,

Jesus Christ.

Chapter Text

“What the hell were you thinking?” Phil shouted, pressing hard on the gas.
Techno looked at his feet.
He felt disgusting, like a piece of gum under gym bleachers.
“I mean really, beating up a kid? I thought we were past this!” He swerves, taking a sharp left.
“You were doing so good, Techno,”
This stung.
It fucking hurt.
Techno couldn’t take the hurt in Phil’s voice.

So he opened the door.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

He unbuckled and just fucking got out.
He banged his head on the pavement, scraping his cheek and forearms.

Phil stopped the car and got out

“Are you alright?” He shouted, running toward Techno. “Why would you even do that?”

Techno felt numb.
He sat up silently, clutching his shirt collar. Phil kept frantically yelling, but Techno tuned it out.
Cars drove past, some honking at the scene, some looking at him with pity.
He eventually stood up and walked with long, even strides to the car. He sat in the back.

Phil sat in the driver's seat slowly, sighing as he buckled his seatbelt.

”What was that?”

-------------------

At home, Techno sat upright in his bed, staring at the blue walls.
He felt disgusting.
He was disgusting.
His whole body ached and his arm bent odd. He wiped his face of mud and tears and dialed Wilbur’s number.

“Hey Tech,” Wilbur answered (though he should’ve been at school).
“Are you at lunch or skipping?” Techno rasped,
“I’m playing hooky with Schlatt, I heard about your scuffle too… you okay?”
“I’m fine, Will.”

Techno heard Wilbur and Schlatt talk about something in whispers, he rolled his eyes.
“Tech, how ‘bout you come with us tonight? To my place?” Schlatt asked, ignoring Wilbur’s scoff.
Without thinking Techno agreed.

What did he just get himself into.

---------------

“A fight?” Clay’s dad screamed.
“A fight. Really? What are you, twelve?” He shouted, grabbing Clay by the shirt collar.
“I mean what were you thinking. I can’t even tell if you’re just plain stupid or if you think you’re incredible but either way you have your second strike now.”

Clay looks down at his shoes.

“I don’t even know what to say!”
“He hit me first,” Clay rasped, desperate, “He called me a faggot and was talking trash on me, you always said I need to defend myself, right?” He felt bad for lying, really.
Just… not bad enough to stop.

“The Watson’s are disgusting, dad.”

“You cut that out, young man, or else you’re going without dinner.”

So Clay bit his tongue.

“I’ll drive you to the game in twenty, so get your ass ready.”

“Yes sir.”

-------

After about 10 minutes of begging, Phil finally let Wilbur and Techno go to the football game with James and Puffy BUT they had to promise to drive Tommy and his friends too.

Puffy was driving her van; her girlfriend Niki in the passenger seat; Schlatt, Wilbur, and Techno in the middle row; and lastly, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Tommy were in the very back.

“Guys we should go to Bad’s diner after the game,” Tubbo suggested, slightly shouting so he could be heard over the blaring Bikini Kill CD.
“Of course, sugar, is everyone else cool with that?” Puffy asked.

Schlatt huffed and rolled his eyes but ultimately agreed. Everyone else agreed as well (with Wilbur and Techno not voting).

--------

Fae was getting ready when they got a call from Clay.

“What’s up, shitbag?” He asked angrily, taking out his earrings and putting his phone between his shoulder and chin.
Clay scoffed, “Just wanted to ask if ‘yer comin’ to my game tonight, is that okay?”
“Of course. I’ll be there”

Fae hung up without another word. He walked over to his window and pulled it up, “I’m ready ‘Lexis!” He shouted.
Alexis sighed and got out of his car, knocking on the door.

Fae ran down the stairs, “Bye mom!” he yelled, skittering to a halt.
“Are we picking anyone up?” He asked, following Alexis to his car.
“Yeah, just Karl though,”
“OOoooh, don’t you like… like that guy?”
“Ew, of course not,” Alexis hissed (cheeks bright red).

---------

“Ok, so when we get there you guys don’t know me,” Puffy explained, turning down her music so everyone could hear.
“That’s easy, mostly ‘cause I don’t know you,” Tommy shouted.
This earned a hearty laugh from Puffy.
“Exactly, dearest. Tuberose, you should be more like your friends,” She teased.
Tubbo scoffed, “How could you!”
Wilbur laughed hard, “Oh trust me, Tommy’s a spawn of Satan himself,”
“Rude, I’ll have you know Satan is my spawn not the other way around,”

Everyone but Schlatt laughed, even Techno.

Things were really going good for him.
He could almost gaslight himself into thinking he’d been living with the Watson family for his whole life.
He could almost pretend this would last forever.
It was fantastic.

But not everyone can have a fairytale.
….
…
..
.

“We’re here, get out and play good. You hear?” Sium barked.
Clay nodded and got out of the car, “Yes sir.”

“Good boy,”

The car roared off, leaving Clay a greasy, crying wreck.
His life was falling apart and it was all his fault.

.
..
…
….

Alexis parked his minivan haphazardly in the lot.
“We’re here! Wake up, groggy,”
“Die,” Fae whined, sitting upright.
Karl laughed softly and unbuckled his seatbelt.

Alexis’ heart skipped a beat, that fairy laugh, his painted nails, the watercolor swirls his teal eyes did in the light-

He felt sick, Sap is such a good friend, he can’t crush on him and his boyfriend.
That’s SO cringe.

But lord, he can’t help it.

--------

“God I fucking hate Rosie, he’s such a little attention whore,” Schlatt whispered angrily.
Wilbur laughed awkwardly, “He’s a cute kid though,”
“No, you don’t get it. Rose is always driving me crazy, he leaves out his dishes, he doesn’t clean, he can’t be bothered to clean his half of the room AND he kicked me out of our SHARED BEDROOM the other day!”
“Man, that sucks. Sometimes I’m mad at Tommy like that,” Wilbur slipped.

Why was he lying like that?

“God I wish we could get rid of them,” Schlatt sighed. Then his face lit up, “Hey wait, we could.”

“Techno you know how to make fireworks, right? Can you refresh me?”

Techno found himself answering the first question before processing the second, just glad to be interacted with.

“Yeah,”

Chapter Text

Techno found himself really clicking with Wilbur and Schlatt’s friends.
He felt this… this weird disappointment when he was alone now.

He was feeling like that while braiding his hair in the locker room. Fencing ran late as hell today and he’d rather have his hair out of the way.
While tying off the second braid the door swung open.

“So, who’re you going to homecoming with?” Clay asked, standing at the counter space next to him.
“Hm? Oh, I’m probably not going” Techno replied, pinning his hair up.
He was fussing with the fly aways escaping when Clay elbowed him.

“You’re- they’re- they’re... nice. Keep ‘em,”

Techno nodded.

“You did good out there, on Friday, I mean.”

“Thanks,”

---

By third period Ranboo found himself attempting to ask Tubbo out again, he felt like an idiot for it. He had just met this guy, after all.
But he has had a crush on him since forever.
He pulled out his phone.

Ranboo 11:00AM

hey man

He swallowed

Ranboo 11:00AM
will you go to hoco w/ me?

He shut off his phone and shoved into his pocket, gripping it tightly.

ping

Tubbo 11:02 AM
sure

---

By the end of the day Ranboo’s heart is going 20MPH, he sits next to tubbo on the bus since Tommy was staying after for club. Embroidery or something?

“Whatcha gonna wear to hoco?” He asked, voice cracking.
Tubbo shrugged, “Probably one of James’ old suits,”

He watched intently as Tubbo played Pokemon Ranger 3 on his DS.
He wrapped an arm around the brunette’s shoulders, attempting to block the sunlight.
Ranboo tried to stay perfectly still so Tubbo wouldn’t stop resting against him.

“Wanna hang out tomorrow?” He blurted out.
“Sure,” Tubbo replied, shrugging.
“Coolness,”

The taller of the two giggled awkwardly.
“I’ll pick you up at six? Dinner and a movie?” He squeaked,
“Yeah, sure thing.”
“Awesome, then uh, it’s a date!”
“I mean- not like… a date date obviously, just like, a normal platonic hang out between two platonic best friends,”
Tubbo laughed and put a hand on his.
“Yeah, it’s a date,”

------

Tommy lay in his bed, bored as hell.
He was so tired.
The football game on Friday was crazy, it was the first one he’d ever been to.

He was sitting next to Ranboo, who was sitting next to Tubbo.
He could’ve sworn Ranboo was acting weird.
The tall boy™ was giggling a lot and staring at Tubbo.
It pissed Tommy off, he was feeling so out of place lately.

So… awkward.
And Wilbur was being so distant.
Which ok- wasn’t new, this always happened, he just.

he hadn’t prepared himself for this yet.

He wasn’t ready-
He felt nauseous all of a sudden but urged himself not to puke.

Phil called from downstairs, “Dinner’s ready!”

Tommy shakily got out of bed and wobbled down the stairs.

“Wilbur’s out with James right now, and I’m not sure what Techno’s doing,”

Tommy huffed but didn’t bother reminding Phil Techno was meant to be grounded.

“Since it’s just us tonight,” Phil placed a plate of chocolate pie and a glass of milk in front of the boy, “You can have the first slice.” He chuckled and smiled at Tommy.
It made him squirm.
He didn’t want to move again.

He had a mostly decorated room for once, three whole drawers filled with clothes, a bed to genuinely call his own, he got along with everyone, and most importantly-
He had friends at this school.

He liked it here.

Tommy began crying, furiously he wiped at the tears.

Phil handed him a handkerchief.

“What, are you not a fan of chocolate?” He joked, taking a sip of tea.

Tommy laughed but ended up crying more.

“I hope you know you’re not getting rid of me kiddo,” he said softly.

Tommy nodded.

Good… he wanted to believe that.

----

Techno and Schlatt were geeking out about their passion project while Wilbur worked on a new song. The notes were incoordinate and every time he messed up Schlatt laughed at him.

“So, for the pyrotechnic stars-”
“The what?”
Techno sighed and pulled a baggie out of his pocket, “These,”
“Woah,”
“It’s compressed charcoal with powdered metals and such. Once lit it burns the desired color.”

Schlatt nodded.

Wilbur set his guitar in the case, “What’s this even for, huh?”

Schlatt smiled so wide it churned Wilbur’s stomach,

“Oh, baby, I’ve got plans,”

Techno shifted uncomfortably, “We’re not gonna like…” he paused.
Wilbur picked up the sentence, “We’re not gonna hurt anyone, right?”
“Of course not,”

”Why would we?” He laughed, crossing his fingers behind his back. He always did fear God's wrath.

He was more scared of hell than he was of Puffy.
Than he was of his father,
Or Phil
Or Puffy.

He shuddered thinking about what his sister would do if she found out he was making fireworks (for no suspicious reason).

He noticed Techno dressed up real pretty all the time. He also noticed Techno's eyes were bright red.
His skin was so light you could see through it and ghost blonde ran through the roots of his hair; creeping in on the soft pink.
In the most not gay way possible; Techno was fairly pretty, bro.

“So uh,” his eyes darted around, “Want anything to eat or drink?”
“I’m good,” Techno replied.
“I’d like some tea please,”
“Coming right up, sugar,”
When Schlatt gets up he’s interrupted by Tuberose coming into the room.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Chapter Text

Tuberose’s face contorted, he threw his bag down and turned around.
He bumped into his brother.

Tubbo’s eyes widened and he ducked under James’s arms.
He sprinted for the front door. James slammed the glasses on the table and walked over to his brother.

“Where are you goin’ Rosie?” James asked, smiling and grabbing Tubbo by the sweater.

Tuberose squirmed, “I was just getting out of your way,”
“Then why’d you interrupt us at all?”
“I didn’t know-”

James slammed Tubbo into the dresser, knocking down the old family photo and a jar of seashells.

The older boy shook his head, “Dad’s gonna kill you.”

With a shaking breath, Tubbo stood up and began to pick up the glass shards.
Pennylin wasn’t home. There was nobody to call out for.
So he bit his tongue and tried to regain what little thoughts he had.

Once Schlatt left Tubbo shakily grabbed his phone. Blood dribbled out of his busted nose and onto his cracked screen. He wiped it off, smearing the rancid crimson.

He texted Ranboo and Tommy.

Tubbo 7:00 PM
can one of you picks mmmea u pp?

One minute.
No response.
He began feeling dizzy.

Two minutes.
No response.
He crawled to the bathroom to pick the glass out of his palms.

Four minutes.
No response.
He bandaged his wounds while vertigo swallowed him whole.

Eight minutes.

Tommy 7:08 PM
hey bro sorry me and my dad are on the way rn
i mean like
phil lol sorry hahahaha that was so weird
ignore that just focus on the fact well be here

Tubbo smiled softly, glad Tommy was coming.

Ranboo 7:08 PM
I’m coming too im in their car rn
< 3

Tubbo 7:09 PM
thnakks

------

Techno was starting to realize he did not like this.
But he had to.
He had to get along with Wilbur’s friends.
It wasn’t gonna end up like last time, he was gonna be a good older brother for once.

But he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to run away.

Wilbur sat still like ice, only allowing himself to breathe.
Techno traced the embroidery on his collar.

Eventually, Schlatt reentered, and as if time unfroze Wilbur spoke.
“Um, Techno and I should probably go soon. It’s getting late-”
“Who cares?”
“Our dad? I’m technically grounded.” Techno said, fussing with his hair.

Schlatt rolled his eyes and slung Techno’s fencing bag over his shoulder.
“Well then, princess, I can drive you both home,”

Techno bit his tongue.
“Sure, that sounds good,” Wilbur replied, gritting his teeth.

-----

Phil showed up long after the three juniors had left.
Much to his protest, Tommy and Ranboo got out and rushed to the door.

“Kids, slow down,” He lectured, getting out of the car as well.

Tommy rapped hard on the door. “Tubbo! Tuberose! Tubbboooooooooo!”
“Hang on!” Tubbo yelled from the other side of the door.
Tubbo opened the door, “It’s never looo…. Hello Mr. Watson.”
Ranboo and Tommy exchanged a look Don’t talk about it it said.

“Do you need medical attention?” Phil asked, holding up Tubbo’s hand.
“No, that’s alright. My moms a nurse so she knows how to do that stuff.” He lied.
His back ached with searing pain, there was a large gash that certainly had wood and glass in it, but it didn’t matter. Nobody could see it through his army jacket anyway.

“Can he stay the night?” Tommy asked, tugging on Phil’s sleeve like a young child. (Which he was, 15 isn’t old).
Phil sighed, smiled, then answered, “If his parents are fine with it,”
“Oh they are! I asked before leaving. The work late tonight so they don’t mind.” He lied (again).

“Oh, alright then. Ranboo, would you like to stay tonight also?” Phil asked.
Ranboo nodded.
“One second, Ineed to grab my stuff,” Tubbo exclaimed.
-----

Tubbo ran inside and flung a pair of pajamas, some jeans, a ratty sweater, an old t-shirt, his furbies, and his toothbrush into a duffle bag.
He ran out.

“Ranny, call Eret and make sure you can stay over on a school night.” Tommy shouted, playfully punching his friend.
Ranboo sighed dramatically, calling his older sibling.

“Eret, Eret, Eret can I stay the night and Tommy’s?”
“It's a school night,”
“But we all ride the same bus, plus Tubbo has his backpack and I can just swing by our house and pick up my stuff.”

Eret paused for a moment mulling it over.

“Okay then, just this once though. Don’t ask about this again okay, every other sleepover has to be on a weekend or break.”

“I hear you, thanks Erri!”

Ranboo hung up and Tommy cheered, hugging his friend tight.
“Yippie!” Tubbo shouted in an annoying high-pitched voice.

They piled into the car again, the trio talked loudly about a bunch of random crap. They drove to Ranboo’s house, picked up his stuff, and left.

“Have you two had dinner?” Phil asked.

Tubbo didn’t answer.

“We have but we wouldn’t mind more food,” Ranboo answered.
“Great, I’ll make you something when we get home,”

Tommy felt like he was Phil’s son.
Like he was a kid with a loving family.
He would never say it but he loved whenever people were shocked when he told them he wasn’t related to Phil or his brothers.

He even felt fine calling them his brothers now.

he was so scared of leaving.

-----

When they arrived home Wilbur and Schlatt were fighting in the driveway. They were screaming and Wilbur’s shirt was sprinkled with blood; like confetti or glitter.
Will also wore a busted lip and a hateful sneer when he smacked James.

“Get out!”
“I thought we were good man, thought you said we were tight again,”

Wilbur’s mouth stammered like a fish.

Phil got out of the car, “Stay here.” he commanded.

“What’s going on?” Phil yelled.

“Nothing sir,” Schlatt glared at Tubbo “I was just leaving,”
He got into his car and sped off.

“William, what happened,”
“We were fighting,”
“I can see that.”
“It’s not a big deal, he just forgot his mood stabilizers and he’s been manic. I wanted him to let you or his sister drive him home.”

Phil shook his head.

“How did this happen?”
“Oh, I fell while we were exploring by the creek,” He lied.
“Well, lets get that cleaned up. Techno, please show Tommy’s friends where they can set their things.”
“Of course,”

Chapter Text

Phil and Wilbur stood in the driveway.

“What’s going on? I feel like you and Techno have… I feel like..” He waved his hands, stammering.
”I feel like I’m losing you two,”

Wilbur couldn’t speak, his throat closed up.
Dad, can we talk later? he signed, I just want to get cleaned up and go to bed.
“William, please, tell me what’s going on.”
I’m just tired. Schlatt’s just been going through some stuff. Everything is fine.

“Wilbur, come on,” Techno yelled from the living room opening the window.
“We’re gonna play mario party!” Tommy added.
Wilbur rushed inside, ignoring Phil’s attempts to ‘talk it out’.

Can I be Daisy?
“Yeah man,” Techno replied
Tubbo looked at him weirdly, Tommy nudged him.
“He has a hard time tal-- mes” he said. Tubbo only caught some of it while trying to ignore his hearing aids’ low battery warning.
he forgot his charger, didn’t he.

------

After their game Phil began dinner, “Any allergies I should know about?”
“Oh, uh, yeah I’m allergic to like… shellfish, peaches, pumpkin, yams, sweet potatoes, and raspberries,” Ranboo said sheepishly.
Tubbo laughed, smacking his knee.
Phil shot him a look and he locked up. He didn’t want to push his luck. Even though so far Phil had been nice he didn’t want to risk having to go home at nine or worse, have his brother pick him up.

“How about some mac and cheese? I’ll make some cookies also,” He offered.
Everyone nodded, “Sounds good.” Techno added.

-------

After about thirty minutes the food was done and the cookies were in the oven.
The boys were talking about everything under the sun; breakcore, riot grrrl music, some comic called Homestuck, and a movie called Manos: The Hands of Fate.
“I’m telling you, it’s a fantastic movie-” Ranboo tried to reason but Tubbo cut him off.
“No, no, no. It’s called Hands: The Hands of Fate.”
“We should watch it tonight!” Tommy shouted, smiling wide.
“Sounds good, who wants cookies?” Phil humed, setting the tray on a rack.

Tubbo reached right for them, only to have his hand swatted away by Wilbur.
Mine He signed.
Tubbo gave him a weird look again, “Is that BSL? It doesn’t look like ASL,” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s BSL. Wi--ur has --d SM ever si--- -- --- six,” Phil said, “We used to live in the UK,”
“Oh,” Tubbo hummed, attempting to lip read. His aids were starting to fritz and he really didn’t want anyone to know he was deaf.
He tried to discreetly turn up the volume, resting his chin in his palm and ruffling under his curls to reach them.
“Some---- in --ur ear?” Ranboo asked softly.
“Huh? No,” Tubbo replied a little louder than intended.
He grabbed a cookie, much to Wilbur’s dismay.

“Man, these are spicy,” He said, coughing.
“They’re peanut butter and chocolate chip though?” Techno said, flabbergasted.
“Ohhh, that explains it,” Tubbo laughed, staring straight at the window behind the pink haired junior.
“Yeah. Uhm. Do you guys have benadryl?”
Tommy panicked, “--y didn’t --- tell us you --d allergies?” he shrieked, too high to be picked up.
“Oh it’s not a big deal. I just get itchy.” Tubbo replied, shrugging.
“Oh my god.”

----

After that entire fiasco where Phil tried to talk Tubbo into going to the ER, the three sophomores laid on Tommy’s bed, watching Tubbo play a rhythm game on his PSP.
“Oh my --d! ---bo, listen to i-, it's Par-ppa!” Tommy laughed shrilly, Tubbo flushed bright red.
“I’m trying!”
Low Battery
His breathing picked up, he felt so helpless.

He could tell that Tommy and Ranboo were talking but he couldn’t hear them.
The boy screamed and took out his hearing aids, he felt way too overwhelmed.

Ranboo’s staticky voice murmured before realizing he wasn’t able to be heard.
Tommy got up and grabbed a pen and paper.
Are you ok? Tommy wrote.
Tubbo nodded then anxiously said, “I just- I forgot my charger. I don’t want to go back though.”

“Please don’t tell anyone.” He whimpered.

Tell them what? Ranboo wrote.

”That I’m deaf,” He replied with disgust, ashamed to admit it.

We won’t
Should I tell Phil? Tommy wrote.
No. He’ll be worried, he’ll want to go get my charger and I can’t go back to that house. James will kill me.
what if we go back without you? Ranboo asked.

I guess so. Maybe I can stay in the car.

ok, I’ll tell Phil you forgot something you need for school.

wait, lets ask to go to the creek and then we can call Penny to grab the charger for you and she can hand it to us while we hide in ur backyard

ok!

-----

“Da- Phil, sir, man. Mister. Uh, can we go to the creek? I wanna show them how to skip stones.” Tommy asked, bouncing up and down while Phil cleaned the counters.
“Sure, just be careful. I don’t want you busting your nose like Wilbur,” He placed a kiss on his sons’ forehead.

“We’ll be back by eight,” Tommy shouted as he ran outside.

----

The boys didn’t realize how quickly it would get dark, or how hard it would be to navigate with Tubbo unable to hear. Ranboo felt guilt gnawing away at his insides, he couldn’t stand the thinking about how Tubbo didn’t trust them.

He was going to try and talk more with Tubbo.

He was going to tell him that he was the creepy girl in his class, Birdie.
And then he was going to have to tell him that he wasn’t just interested in Tubbo platonically.

He felt sick.

Meanwhile, Tommy was on the phone with Penny explaining the situation, she was whispering so he felt the need to as well.
“Yeah, we just need you to give us the charger, we’ll be in the backyard.”
“He… actually told you guys?” Penny mumbled, likely to herself.
“Oh about being deaf? Yeah, we found out ‘cause dudes’ hearing aids died s’all.”
“Ok, well I’ll be waiting for you guys outside, I’m mowing the lawn so you’re in real luck.”

“Yo, Tubbo, Ranboo. While I’m getting it you two wait here.” Tommy said, typing it on his phone so Tubbo could see it.

“Cool,” Tubbo replied, nodding softly.

----

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“Huh? Oh-” Ranboo typed something out Idrc
“No. Stop- I… I don’t deserve that. I shouldn’t have kept this from you,” Tubbo mumbled, holding back tears and digging his nails into the wood of the bench.
It’s ok, really. I never told you guys about my vitiligo
“That’s different-”
It’s an autoimmune disease. My skin attacks itself, Ranboo held the phone in Tubbo’s face.
The brunette sighed and wiped his eyes.
“I’m such a bad friend, I understand if you-”

Ranboo pulled down his mask and kissed him on the cheek.

Tubbo flushed bright red and Ranboo immediately regretted his entire existence. After 30 seconds of awkward staring Ranboo began to type.

rememember how I said I knew you a lot longer than you knew me?
“Yeah,”
Do you remember a girl named birdie?
“Yeah…? She was cute but she ate dirt.”
Ranboo rolled his eyes and continued (he did NOT eat dirt when he was younger), dude, that was me

Tubbo stared wide eyed.

Ranboo turned to face forward again.

“I know you can’t hear me right now, but like… man you’re the coolest. I’ve liked you for so long and- it felt wrong that I never told you. I’ve had the biggest, most embarrassing, pathetic crush on you since I can remember,”

“I can still lip read a bit, Ranny,”

Tubbo grabbed Ranboo’s hand and squeezed it tight before letting go.

I know you don’t know ASL, but I think you’re really cool too. I love the way you can’t do eyeliner even after seven years. And also you spelt remember wrong. He giggled and leaned onto Ranboo’s shoulder.

“I got the charger!” Tommy shouted, waving the case around.

“Be careful! That's two hundred dollars!” Tubbo whisper-screamed.
The three laughed sharply as they ran off, noticing Penny and James were arguing.

----

Once home, the boys raced past Phil and plugged in the case.

“Thanks guys,” Tubbo said softly, putting the hearing aids in their case.
“Yeah! No uh..” Tommy furrowed his eyebrows and shakily signed an incorrect NP
Tubbo laughed, “You did it wrong. Here…” Tubbo moved Tommy’s right hand to form an open 5 handshape. He grabbed the boys’ wrist, wincing because of the grip, then had him sign fine.
“Ok, now do this,” Tubbo instructded. He nodded and signed so-so.
Tommy did as he was told.

“Cool,” Tommy said loudly.

Tubbo smiled. “Let’s take a nap while my ears recharge,”

-----

Schlatt kept calling Wilbur that night.
Just
Would
Not
Stop

Wilbur finally relinquished and answered.

“What?” He hissed into the damned phone.
“I wanted-” James hiccuped, “Wanted to say sorry s’all,”
Wilbur gnawed on his lip, “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah baby, I didn’t mean to hurt you. You’re my best friend-”
“That’s the problem. I like you more than that James, I’m so sick of you acting like our relationship is just platonic. Friends don’t kiss.”
“Well… I like you too. Do you wanna da-”
“Yes! I’ve literally been telling you to man up and ask me out for months!”

“Well then it’s official I guess,”

-----

James closed eyes for the remainder of his and Wilbur’s conversation, after four minutes he hung up, claiming Penny was yelling at him.
It’s not that he didn’t like Wilbur, he really did just.

what the hell would his dad say?

----

Techno was having some of his own issues, for the first time in years Clay messaged him.

Traitor. At 9:58 PM
Hey, it’s been a while. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.
I know nothing can be done and that I’ve hurt a lot of people but I want you to know that I’m trying to be a better person.
It’s not an excuse but for a really long time I had a crush on you and my dad is really homophobic. He also really really really did not like when we were friends.
I know that still doesnt explain half of the other things i’ve done but i hope that explains why i always act so dumb around you.
I’m sorry.

You at 10:25 PM
It's fine.
I mean, I don’t forgive you for what you did to George and Wilbur and everyone else.
But I forgive you for what you did to me.
I hope you find peace, Dreamer.

He set down his phone, laying down and shutting his eyes.
In his slumber he didn’t even hear the reply.

Traitor. At 10:27 PM
Thank you
You too Starcatcher.

Chapter Text

James held Rose’s flailing body, he thrashed and kicked. James needed the boy to stop so Penny could patch him up.
”Stop! Stop it!”
“Can it, Rosie.” James hissed, covering his little brothers’ mouth, “---k, I’- sor-- I scar-- yo-,”
Rose couldn’t hear him, he felt like he was drowning.
“Rosie! St-- st---”
Tuberose cried and finally got away from his brother, the firecrackers left his hands red and puffy. Blisters bloomed on his palms and forearms, they crept up his legs and they hurt like hell.

“Jam--! Wha- d-- y-- d-!” Penny yelled, racing over to her brothers and screaming.

She shook Tuberose and smacked his face a few times, “H--! -- --lking -- you!”
James pulled on his ear.

Why couldn’t he hear them?

-----

Next thing he knew he was sitting on a bed in the ER doctors tried talking to him but eventually gave up.
After thirty minutes his parents and siblings walked in.
His mother was wailing while his father yelled at James.
Penny sat down next to him.

She pulled out her blackberry and typed something out.

The fireworks killed your ears. Your hands and legs will heal in a few weeks.

”What?” Tuberose asked, he couldn’t hear his own voice so he said it again.
“What?”
He shouted it this time.
Why couldn’t he hear anything?

A doctor kneeled in front of him and his sister.
He held up a clipboard.

‘You’re deaf’

deaf? What does that mean? What did Penny mean by the fireworks killed his ears?

He was so confused. He was only four-

He kept talking but he couldn’t hear the noise

He and James were just playing in the backyard, he didn’t understand. They were lighting up fireworks.
They were having fun.

----

A week later Tuberose's burns healed, he began learning ASL with his sister. It was actually pretty helpful.
While Penny was showing him the sign for ‘how’, his mother walked in.
She said a few things, too quickly for Penny to interpret.
Penny began bickering with her mother but was ignored.

“Can you hear me?” His mother cried, grabbing his face.
He frowned.

“I can’t understand you without Penny’s hands” he muttered, “I’m sorry mom,”

She held him so tightly he thought his bones would shatter, she cried so much his shirt was soaked.

“M--, s--p it!” Pennylin hissed, pulling their mother off of him.

She whispered something into her ear. Mom smacked her, but she didn’t cry.
Rose ran off into his and James’ room, leaping onto James’ bed.

He didn’t say anything, just hugged his brother.

“Ge- --- of me,” James huffed, pushing away Rose. He hit his head on the hardwood and felt dizzy sitting up.
“But- but we’re rose jam against the world. The whole universes best hero team ever!” Rose shouted, climbing back onto the bed.
“No- any-----.”
“What? I can’t- I can’t hear you,”
“That's t-- pro----, idiot!” James screamed, grabbing Tuberose by his shirt collar.
He screamed more into the boys face, well aware he couldn’t hear him

“James? You’re scaring me,” Rose whimpered.

------

Tubbo was seven when he got his hearing aids, it was a year after his mom had left and his dad began drinking. They were his birthday gift from Penny.
When she put them in for him he felt… overwhelmed to say the least.
He could hear James again.
Hear his sister.

But he still felt broken.

He hadn’t gone to school before, Penny homeschooled him after he lost his hearing. But now Penny said he was going to a real school.

He was sitting at the bus stop when he met her.

“Hi, my name is Birdie, where’s your parents?” A little girl with black hair asked, she had patchy skin and weird eyes.
He frowned, “Weird name.”
“Oh, well what’s your name?”
Tuberose rolls his eyes and sticks his tongue out.
“It's alright if you don’t wanna say! Uhhh, what’s your favorite color?”
“Don’t you have something better to do?”
“Well, you’re new! And that’s really exciting ‘cause before it was just me and my siblings at this bus stop.”
“Oh, well I’m in second grade,”
“Me too! My big sister is in 4th grade and my big brother is in sixth,” She said excitedly, pointing to a blonde girl with earbuds in, she was holding an iPod and looking at his sister.
“That’s my brother and sister. James is ten and Penny’s eleven.” Rose said, pointing to his own siblings.
“Oooh, cool. Your sister and my brother are gonna be in the same school next year.”
Tuberose frowned at that. He didn’t like thinking about what he’d do without Penny.

“Hey what’s that thing in your ear?”

------

When he walked into class the teacher crouched down in front of him.
She talked INCREDIBLY slowly.
“Heeellllooooooooooooo IIIIIImmmmmmmmm Miiiiiisisssssssseeeeeeeessssss Loooooorrrrrreeeeeellllllaaaaaiiiiiiiiii,”
“Ma’am, I’m deaf, not an alien.”

The woman flushed bright red, “Oh, yes of course.”
Rose repeated the rehearsed sentence, “It actually makes it harder for me to hear you if you say things slowly. I have hearing aids which help me but I also rely on lip reading so please talk slower but not super slow and make sure you’re facing me.”

He wished his dad hadn’t told the school he was deaf.

-----

When Rose was ten he made sure nobody knew he was deaf.
He hid his hearing aids behind his longish now curly hair and learned to control his volume.
He didn’t dare use sign outside of the house and he made sure he was the one who filled out all his registration forms.
He had skipped a grade due to his overwhelming hatred for sped classes. He was deaf, not dumb, and he’d fucking prove it.

------

Things were going really well during middle school aside from one or two things. See, James had made plenty of friends in school this time around. At first he cared when they picked on his brother but now… well now he didn’t mind so much.
At the beginning it just meant he looked away when his brother cried out for his help.
Then he’d stop walking Tuberose to the nurse.
Then he’d stop patching him up at home.
Then he’d join in.

It wasn’t his fault! It was it
It was
It well it w
Ok fine it was his fault.

He wasn't being peer pressured. He just hated him.

------

Tuberose left middle school with straight As and enough fervor to get through highschool with a scholarship.
His brother was now in his Sophomore year and his sister in Junior.
Grades didn’t make ANY sense to tubbo. He was 13 now (Skipped fifth grade) but he was ready for sophomore classes, biology (even at honors) was humiliatingly easy. Kids still picked on him but now that he was in the same school as Penny again they didn’t leave bruises.
It also turned out that Penny had a girlfriend. He was vaugley hurt she never told him but he understood.

It was that blonde girl from second grade.

Apparently her name was Niki and the two had been smitten with each other ever since that day.

Tuberose ached for love like that.

Chapter Text

Dinner was peaceful for once. Everyone was quiet (aside from the gramophone playing old Jazz music, Phil’s favorite). Speaking of the old man dressed in green; he had made dinner. A delicacy truthfully…
“Wow dad, mac and cheese?” Will asked sarcastically.
“No, Pastaroni.” Phil replied.
Techno snorted and held up the CPHS messenger, skimming some of the articles.
“Tech, are you reading the school’s newspaper?” Will chided,
The pinkette shrugged, turning the page.
“Well, whatever it is, put it down. It’s dinnertime,” Phil hummed, setting bowls in front of his children. They were all their favorite colors (well…a guess for Tommy).
Yellow for Wilbur
Blue for Techno
And Red for Tommy.
Phil of course, had green.
To Wilbur, it was always important to have their colors coordinated. He just had a thing. He assigned people colors and got mad when they didn’t see how it fit them. He also assigned tastes, sounds, animals, that sort of thing. He even swore that brown tasted like toffee, and that yellow tasted like lemon-meringues. It was important to him.
Phil didn’t mind.
Thank god for Dymphna.
Sweet, St. Dymphna.
St. Dymphna’s statue sat on an altar beneath the window in the kitchen. She was everywhere else in Phil’s home too. While he wasn’t Catholic, he always had an interest in the Catholic Saints. They were just ordinary people after all. Just people who made other people’s lives better.
So in return, Wilbur didn’t mind that.
Thank god for St. Paul,
Understanding, St. Paul.
He wasn’t around the house as much as Dymphna or Mother Mary but he did have a small figure in the recess shelves containing Phil’s records.
“Thanks for dinner, dad,” Will said, poking at his food.
“No problem, it’s my job, kiddo,” Phil replied, humming.
---------------------
After a pleasant dinner Techno was sitting down on the deck steps to wind down, he was feeling stressed out over his English project and college applications nearing closer every second.
Tommy stepped out, standing behind the pinkette like a creepy little stalker boy.
Tech turned his head slightly, “need somethin’ ?” he asked.
“Nuh-huh, I just-”
“Take a seat,” Techno stated, and although his voice was rough and jagged like harsh gravel stuck in a shoe, it seemed inviting. Warm like fairy milk. Techno tapped his index finger on the space next to him. Tommy scuttled over, sitting down. He hugged his knees close and sat a good foot away from Tech, pressed up against the deck railing.
It was quiet, just how Techno liked it, and just how Tommy hated it.
It cleared Tech’s thoughts,
Amplified Tommy’s.
The silence made Techno aware of his breathing, which made Tommy want to hold his breath.
“Hey, big T?” Tommy muttered, trying to speak up.
“Yeah?”
“You have second lunch tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well…if my fri- acquaintance, is sick…would it be okay..for me… to uh-”
“Sit with me? Yeah, that’s fine, who’s your acquaintance?”
“His name is Tuberose,”
Techno nodded, “that kid, got it.”
Tommy raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask further. He knew better than to ask for any follow-ups.
Unfortunately, the next day at lunch, Tubbo was ill.
Tommy scurried over to Techno’s seat on the steps. Techno was reading a book titled “The Art of War” by Sun Zu.
“What nerd class are you reading that nerd book for?” Tommy asked, sneering.
Techno looked up and replied, “Oh, I’m reading this as a way to occupy my thoughts. However, I’m also in AP history.”
Tommy snickered, he thought it was funny how blind to sarcasm Techno was despite how often he used it himself.
Tommy spotted a guy in a green varsity jacket leaning over Will. He had his hand resting on the table.
“Who’s that guy?” Tommy asked, nudging Tech’s arm with his elbow.
“Hm?” Techno looked up, then over to where Tomms was pointing.
“Oh, an old friend,” He hummed, looking blankly at the boy; who was now walking away from Wilbur with the brunette he was just sitting with. The short brunette was talking but Tommy couldn’t hear them. He wore a big blue sweater with a white rectangle.
Tommy just nodded and watched the tall blonde kid drag off the blue-clad boy.
-----------
To be honest, Techno wasn’t bothered by the fact Clay and his friends picked on him. Sap and Fae were honestly pretty nice so he didn’t mind the company they provided. Even when Clay would try to insult him it was entertaining. Now maybe Tech was just weird, but it didn’t bother him. This is why on a particular day when Techno was eating lunch with Tommy and Clay decided to interrupt them; Techno didn’t mind much.
“Hey Techno, who’s this?” Clay sneered, smirking.
“Oh, this is Tommy,” Techno mumbled, gesturing to the blonde boy next to him.
“Tommy? How old are you?” He asked, walking up the steps to get closer to him.
“I’m 16.” Tommy barked, backing away from Clay; who decided to invade Tommy’s personal space further.
This is where Techno started to mind.
“Okay, dude, back off him. He’s a kid and your drama’s with me,” He said, loudly, but calmly. He put an arm between Clay and Tommy to keep the older one from inching closer.
“Whatever, he’s cute for a street rat, is he another one of Phil’s fix-up kids?” Clay asked, smiling wide.
“Not a street rat. Leave him alone now. If you wanna pick on someone I’m right here.”
“Such a hero, Techno, you always are. Honestly, how do you not have more friends?” Clay sneered, turning his attention back to Techno.
“I don’t want friends,” He replied, shrugging. “Are you and that Greg guy still dating?”
“I’m not a faggot,”
“I didn’t say you were? I’m just asking, man. I saw him the other day at DaisyMart and-”
Clay shoved him, (okay attempted to shove him).
“Let’s calm down, buddy,” Techno mumbled, resting his left hand on the step above him.
“Big man, can we go? I left Mr. Green in math…” Tommy muttered, tugging on Techno’s blouse sleeve.
“Yeah, okay, let’s go,” He mumbled, standing.
“Who’s Mr. Green?” Clay asked, cocking his head to the side.
Tommy ignored him, trudging away from Clay and attempting to drag Techno up the steps.
“See you, Drea-”
“It’s Clay.”
“Yeah, sorry,” Techno muttered, not bothering to even look back

“Starting to understand why he’s an old pal,” Tommy snickered,
Techno nodded, “yeah uhm, it was a little messy I guess,” he replied, shrugging.
And so, after retrieving Mr. Green, Techno walked Tommy to his next class.

Chapter Text

Sapnap slid into his bedroom,
“You will not believe who I just saw!” He yelled, nearly slipping on his socks.
“Who?” Clay asked, hiding his hands behind his back and gently nudging a small bottle of something under his bed.
“I just saw William! Remember?”
Clay grimaced. Of course, he remembered. Will was Techno’s brother after all.
“Yeah, did you find George though?”
“Mmmm…no,” Sap replied, shrugging. He scurried over to Clay’s side. He wrapped his arms around him and squeezed tight.
“Sap! Ask, remember?” Clay grumbled, pushing Sap lightly.
“Right, Clay, may I please hug you?”
Clay sighed and nodded. He knew it was pointless to say no since Sap would just get sad. The brunette’s face lit up, he squeezed Clay again and buried his face in the blonde’s hoodie.
“I ‘ove you, bud-by,” Sap mumbled,
Clay shifted uncomfortably, “that’s enough now,” he grumbled.
“Okay!” Sap said, elated. He got off of Clay and jumped to his feet,
“Now that Will is my best-pal again, I’m gonna ask him to play checkers with me! Then me and Fae are going to have a tea party and-”
“Too loud, Saph,” Clay huffed,
“Hey, I smell nail polish, is your sister hanging out with that Lani kid again?”
Clay’s face scrunched up, he was screwed. He knew Sap would judge him. Knew that Sapnap would be mad, he’d be grossed out.
He’d have secondhand embarrassment for the next week if he found out that Clay -quarterback, other football terms, the manliest guy in the friend group- painted his nails, used ‘sweet pea’ perfume from Bath ‘n’ Body Works, and had a coin purse; he’d never hear the end of it.
Now, obviously, this was a valid thought process that definitely made sense and Clay was not completely stupid for painting his nails while his friend was out, even if it was just French tips.
“Oh well, hey! Wanna come over to my house again tomorrow? We can have a sleepover,”
“No, not really, honestly, I think I wanna go home,”
“Oh, okay, it’s late though, you sure?” Sap asked, laying down.
“Yeah, I’m sure, I can walk home, don’t sweat it,”

So Clay walked out of his friend's house, onto the porch. He dialed Sium’s number, his legal guardian, and waited for him to pick up.
“Yolo, what’s up Lil Dreamer?”
“I told you not to call me that anymore!” Clay hissed into the phone, tripping down the steps (not falling though).
“Right, sorry kiddo, are you staying the night at Sapphires?”
“Dude, his name is Sapnap now, remember? But no, I’m not,”
“Right, sorry kiddo, do you need a ride?”
“No, I’m walking home, just wanted to let you know,”
Sium was about to say something but Clay hung up, walking down the gravel road back to his house. It was an average suburban house, aside from the decaying porch and rusting mailbox. Honestly, the house was falling apart. He dreaded this decision. Why was he so stupid? He didn’t think this through.
He started breathing funny and smacked his arm. He had to quit being such a baby, he’d never make it to eighteen if he didn’t. Never. This is why everyone left him.
It didn’t matter.
He wasn’t salty about it.
She had nothing to do with this.
He never even met her.
It was fine.
He was fine.
Not hyperventilating.
Not at all.
Grabbed his phone, pressed on a random contact, called it, and hid behind Sium’s pickup truck.
“Why are you calling me? I thought I told you to delete my number,”
Crap.
He called Wilbur.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,”
“Dream, are you crying?”
“No,” He put a hand over his mouth, muffling hiccups.
“Did you call me on purpose?”
Silence. Deep breath. Shaky wheeze, this wasn’t time for an asthma attack.
“Yeah, I’m hanging up now. Don’t ever touch me again by the way, I never wanna see you again after what you did.”
Buzz.
Silence on both ends.
Clay dropped his phone, covering his face in his hands, hoping to hide away. Maybe he could blend in with the ugly truck.
Maybe he could go back to Sap’s house? No, no, he could tell he was aggravating Sap. He couldn’t always rely on him when he was having an anxiety attack. Not that he had anxiety attacks- he was strong after all.
He was snatched from his thoughts when he heard Sium opening the door of their house. Clay took a deep breath and stood up.
“Oh hey, kiddo! What were you doing behind my car?” his dad asked, chuckling.
“Dropped my phone…haha, you know me…”
Sium laughed and gave Clay a noogie, “It’s a miracle you can play football with your coordination!” he paused to laugh, “You’re so much like your mother,” the last part was sad and quiet. It punched Clay in the stomach.
“Mhm…yeah I think I’m gonna go to sleep,”
“Okay, have you had dinner?” Sium asked, grabbing his son’s shoulder
“Yeah, Sap’s dadsssssss…… “Clay replied, before realizing his slip up, “Cooking is really good nowadays,”
He rushed inside and into his room.

---------

Wilbur was confused as hell, he had thrown his phone against the wall.
Why would Dream contact him of all people?
He couldn’t stop shaking, logically he knew the incident at lunch didn’t mean he’d….you know…again. But Wilbur couldn’t think straight right now, he stumbled out of bed, tripping on his blankets and falling chin-first into the floor.
He needed to hide.
To run.
He wanted to find Tech and tell him about this.
But what if Tech got mad?
That’s so stupid,
He shook his head and stood up, a wave of vertigo washing over him as he teetered to his door. He crashed into it, jiggling the handle. He swung it open and stumbled to Tchno’s door, pounding on it.
“Hey, hey, um, I’m alright I just-”
He fell on his stomach once techno opened the door,
“Woah, you okay buddy?”
Will nodded and pushed himself upright. Techno closed the door.
“What happened?”
“He…he called…um…” Wilbur couldn’t breathe, the world was spinning,
“Who? Who called, Will?” Tech asked, sitting in front of him.
“Him! Stupid!” Will whisper-screamed, grabbing the collar of Techno’s button-up blouse.
“Not helping, bud, you’ve got a lot of enemies after the schism.”
“I know…I know…sorry..” his voice cracked, “no, it’s so stupid-”
“It’s not stupid, why’re you so frazzled?”
“You…remember that guy you were buddies with? He…he called me- like a minute ago, and at lunch-” He paused, shuddered, “I swear, he wants to hurt me again, I can tell-”
“Will, it’s okay, are you talking about Dream?”
Wilbur nodded,
“I’ll tell him not to mess with you again, don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Techno muttered, squeezing Wilbur’s hand.