Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tubbo took a deep breath. It was gonna be okay.

Tommy's screams were loud. He could hear them from here. Tom's in the nursery room with Phil, Wilbur and Niki, trying to heal him as some zombies tore off half of his throat. Tubbo was surprised Tommy could even make a sound while being in all of this pain.

If only, if only there could have the slightest bit of humanity left in those creatures.

"..Hey." it was Ranboo, one of his closest friends. "He'll be alright. He's Tommy." They try to reassure, but Tubbo was aware. Tubbo was aware that it was Tommy. That no matter how many times the zombies will tear off his skin, he'll still manage to curse at them at the top of his lungs. "I know."

Ranboo means to be nice. He's aware. But he doesn't need people to be nice to him right now. He needs to go outside as the sun shines on this horrible day and chase after the creatures that did this to his best friend. That did this to them. And even then it wouldn't be right. Because it isn't right.

They're people. They're people and it's not their fault if they go after humans because they got turned into monsters. They're not the ones to blame but the virus. They're not the ones to blame because they're Dan, they're Schlatt, and they're also Spreen. It's not their fault if they're like this. They didn't choose to leave. They never even had a choice.

"Ranboo, Tubbo," Cellbit called out, one of the resistances' self proclaimed leaders. "Meeting is in 10 minutes. They're all going to be here while Tommy rests. I just saw Phil, they're done for today. He just needs rest." Well, those are good news. But meetings were boring. "Thanks, Cellbit." Tubbo answers as Ranboo nods in acknowledgement.

Cellbit stops for a bit, looking over at both of them. Sighing, he says; "Tubbo, it's literally not your fault. He keeps on sneaking out and this time he did it at noon, right after lunch. He should've known better than to get out when zombies are the most hungry." "Don't speak about my best friend like that." Tubbo defended, even though he knew Forever wasn't saying any lies. Yes, Tommy was acting stupid, but Toby saw him get out and yet didn't do anything to stop it. (He knew it wouldn't matter. Nothing did anymore.)

Cellbit doesn't say anything back, deeming it useless.

"How are you holding up, boss man?" Tubbo asks, sitting next to Tommy. "It fucking sucks."

"I guessed." The small talk ends there. Something is bothering Tommy and he doesn't know how to word it. It happens often, but Tubbo can't really blame him. They both suck at basic communication. And Tubbo knows better than to bug him about it. "How did you survive being told off by Wilbur and Phil?" "Oh, thanks to our Lord and savior Niki Nihachu. She threatened to kick them out of the nursery if they kept being so loud."

Tubbo laughs at that. It's true, our Lord and savior Niki always managed to keep at least Wil from scolding the teens. Once, Tubbo stole diamonds from the leader, and she blamed Forever for keeping them outside for anyone to take. She truly was a god sent.

"That's hilarious." "What was said in the meeting?" Tommy asks, Tubbo knows he doesn't actually care and is just trying to stall for whatever he wanted to get off his chest. "Etoiles beat his record." "No fucking shot. By how many?" Tubbo smirks. "14." "Bet Badboyhalo cried." Tubbo chuckled at that. It's true that Bad rolled his eyes when he heard the number.

"Slimecicle successfully made a gas mask and he won't take it off. He looks absolutely terrifying." "Oh I so want to see that. When's he free?" "He's currently with Foolish trying to repair one of the shelters a zombie destroyed. He's popping off, basically. I'll tell him to visit you whenever I can." Said shelter was Iron's. She threw a fit when she realised all her collection of zombie heads were splattered everywhere.

"Is that it?" Tubbo thought- meetings were so common that there were barely anything happening in between two. So, "Yeah I think so." 

Tommy takes a deep breath; "Next time we're paired together, we're taking a detour." There it is. But, there is only one problem. "We haven't been paired together in months." "Yeah, that's what I'll be using my favor on for Fundy. He owes me one." Tubbo's a bit taken aback by this. How did Tommy get a favor on Fundy, of all people? "How do you have a favor on him?" Tommy smirks in the way that Toby knows he's done something evil. "I caught him in  a fursuit." Tubbo choked.

"You've got to be joking." Tommy shakes his head, then winces. "God dammit, my neck!" Tubbos eyes widen as he notices the slightest bit of pink on the tissue used as bandage. "Dude, I think you've opened your wound again. I'm calling Niki."

-

"Yeah, so he can't move his neck or the scars open up. So it hurts to talk, but it's worst to answer nonverbally which is such bullshit." Fundy listens patiently to Tubbo's rant, nodding along. "Well, well, Tubbo... It's weird how I'm the person you chose to rant about this to." And fuck, Tubbo thought he was being subtle.

"You owe Tom a favor, no?" Fundy stops at Tubbo's words, clearly blushing from what could only be embarrassment. Toby decided to not bring up the reason, to make him feel more at ease. "So what?" "On the defensive, huh? Chill, I just wanted to say that he's calling it in." Fundy hesitates before nodding, allowing Tubbo to explain further what he means by that. "We need to be paired together."

Fundy groans. They couldn't give him anything easier than that. "It'll make you both look suspicious, you know that right?" Tubbo seems amused, raising an eyebrow. "Since when do you care about us getting in trouble?" He seems to hesitate for a second; "it's my job to do schedules along with Quackity, and we've been told clearly to NOT put two children together with no adult protection unless there's an emergency."

Tubbo knows he's right, but he also feels like it's just Fundy that can't be bothered. "Is that so? Well I guess your little secret will-" "FINE! Fine-! I'll put you two together, but it won't be any time soon as Tommy's deeply injured and all his missions have been canceled or reported. So you be patient, alright? I'll do my best."

Tubbo smiles, that's more like it. "Thanks nephew." "I fucking hate you."

"What're you two planning?" Quackity calls out from his own desk wannabe ass looking bitch, "And coming from my inner badboyhalo, language." "Your inner what?" Both boys choke out, absolutely flabbergasted by that statement. "Listen I know Bad's whole ass schedule for the next 2 months by heart. It feels like he's become me. So, if you'll keep an eye out for your fucking language, that'd be great."

Let's not talk about the irony of that statement, as the joke has been overused by now..
And Tubbo feels infinitely more grateful for NOT being a schedules guy today. He can't imagine being part FitMc or even worse, TommyInnit. Though he would not mind Philza Minecraft as Philza Minecraft is God. And Etoiles is the goat.

Chapter Text

"How's your neck, king?" Tubbo says as the sun shines over the window of their underground bunker. He's the last to wake up or... After looking around, he realises Bagi and Tina are still snuggled up together. Nice. 

"Good enough to go on missions, apparently. Look at this!" Tommy says, running over to Toby to show him a piece of paper. It's a note containing Fundy's handwriting telling them they've got a mission at 9AM to go and look around for more gas masks as the apocalypse has, indeed, worsened the pollution and that air is susceptible to not be as great anymore under the observation that Slimecicle had made. It's signed by Quackity, Fundy, Forever and Cellbit. Tubbo wonders how the fuck Fundy managed to slip that under the rug.. 

"What time is it, then, king?" "Oh, its 8. Phil's the guard today, he'll let us go easy." Tubbo isn't so sure about that. But they've got an official note either way, so... At least, they can hope it works. Toby has no fucking idea where Tommy's taking him either way. 

"Alright, but I'm not going anywhere before I've had my cornflakes."

They head over to the dining room. Well, Tubbo didn't find it a fitting name. It's just yet another empty room where people decided they'd eat. It's also the storage room for food, so it's quite useful. Tubbo gives a quick look around the room to see if a box of cornflakes has already been opened, so that they don't open uselessly another one. 

There's one in the corner. Tubbo recognizes it. It's either empty- if it was it should've been thrown over to Foolish, he stores cardboard boxes for them to be used for fire in winter- or it's someone that forgot to put it back on the storage shelves. Either way, Tubbo needs to check. 

Turns out, it's not empty. Enough for a bowl of cornflakes. 

He eats them dry, as there's no milk because Tina overslept and didn't get to milk the cows. He doesn't mind, Tina's been working hard for so long. On the corner of his eye, he sees Tommy walking around in circles. He's nervous. Probably about their getting out plan failing or about what he's about to show him or, most likely, both. 

He finishes his cereals and takes the box over to Foolish, who salutes him in passing. 

"Alright, let's get going." Tubbo says, walking alongside Tommy towards the exit, both of them being sort off nervous. They see Phil, guarding the exit. Oh well, at least he's better than Pierre. He would've straight up called Badboyhalo and seen that something was up. 

"Oh hey mate," Phil greets seeing the two teenagers, "What are you doing here? Up so early, too? Tom, how's your neck been doing?" "Glad you asked, Phil, my neck's doing so fine I got this." He says, handing over the paper. Phil takes it and examinates it. He looks a bit skeptical, looking suspiciously at the duo. A smile appears on Phil's face, still. "Alright. I'll let you go. Don't get in any trouble. Trust me, I'll know if you do." 

And they both just run out of the bunker, overjoyed of their win. They don't look back, in case Phil comes back on his decision. Though, Tubbo does catch a glimpse of him taking out his talkie walkie. Meh, probably irrelevant.

-

"This is the detour." Tommy points over at all alleyway. Which, was pretty fucking dangerous. Alleyways were dark and you couldn't see if zombies are there or not. They're usually left to be looted over by Etoiles, Fit or Bad. You know, the pvp gods. Not by Tommy fucking Innit. But it makes sense, that of all people, he'd go ahead and adventure them. 

[WILBUR IS MENTIONNED IN THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH]

"Me and Wilbur were late to a meeting with Bagi and Cellbit, so I proposed a short cut. We went through it and I noticed something. I tried to tell Wil but he told me it's dangerous and that we're already late enough, to tell Etoiles if I remembered and that it's probably not that important.. " Tubbo looks over at him, one of these looks that just say 'Goddammit, Tommy.' Yes because there are looks specifically made for TommyInnit. That's how annoying he was. 

"And of course, you didn't tell Etoiles." Tommy stutters hearing those words, frowning over at Tubbo. "Man, shut up. Let's just go." He says, not actually leaving any choice as he grabs Tubbo towards the alleyway. As they enter the alleyway, its surprisingly not that dark. He looks around to see where the light was coming from, and there he sees it- a trap door with small holes to be able to see on the inside. 

"Dude, the fuck, is this?" Tommy shrugs, "Dunno, that's what I've been trying to figure out. I managed to pick lock it a few weeks ago and my throat got torn apart. Toby, it wasn't a zombie who did that." Tubbo's eyes widen at this revelation. "What? Then what- who?" He asks, looking through the small windows of the small trap door.  

"That's what I've been trying to figure out!" Tom says, "Dude, we need to tell Phil." "No! Because then there'll be absolutely no way we're going out like, ever again." Tubbo hesitates, Tommy was right. For once they were trusted to go out, simply for them to go to a forbidden area. "Fine. But if its ever bought up, we mention it." "To get the credit stolen? No thanks." "Youre actually being a prick right now." 

"The trap door's still open. This is just a proposition buuuut-" Tubbo looks at him, absolutely done with his bullcrap. He sighs and takes a deep breath. "You know what? Fuck it." He opens the whole trap door and hops inside of it. "WAIT FOR ME, BITCH BOY!"

The insides were so white and bright it's actually insane that it hurts to look at. Goddammit, for the one time he forgets to bring his goggles. 

"If you see anyone, you run. They're heartless." Tommy warns, staying close to  Tubbo. "How so? What do 'they' look like?" "They're white, like extremely pale, they have white hair, the eyes look like they have no pupils or soul." He describes, and Tubbo thinks he'll be able to recognize them. "They're not wearing torn apart clothes too, they're wearing white suits. Some have orange jackets and some blue."

"That's...Odd. This place doesn't look at all affected by the apocalypse." Tubbo remarks, whispering now to not bring attention to themselves. They wouldn't wanna be getting caught, now, would they? "No matter what happens, we're not splitting up, alright? Worse case scenario we get hurt so much we can't come back to the resistance and we rot away in here." Toby sighs, ever since the end of the earth started, Wilbur seemed to have passed down his anxiety to his little brother.

"Think they'd bring us to the surface. We'd be dust compared to how...Perfect, this is." Tubbo doesn't seem to find a better fitting word for this place. Well, perfect compared to any other structure out there. All of it has been raided, by humans alike zombies, and they quite literally lived in dirt. Their place was named Pogtopia, while the group of people was named the resistance. 

They walked around for a bit. It seemed to be just a long corridor. Toby wondered where this would take them. Maybe it's just a random tunnel. But that would be unlikely. He tries to open his mouth to say something but- "Shh! Don't you hear it?" Tommy cut him off before he even could make a sound. Tubbo stops, trying to hear whatever Tom wanted him to hear and- and he does. There's footsteps. A lot of distant footsteps. He didn't hear it over his own footsteps. 

"Okay this is getting-- We need to get out of here Tom, its dangerous." "Shut up." Tommy straight forwardly interrupted. What the fuck? Tommy started to walk a little faster, arriving at the end of the hallway. "Look!" There were walking about 20 people over a huge room. Some were sitting over by a fountain, some were leaning against the wall reading what seemed to be some sort of document. Some were waiting by door and knocking on them, some were walking and smiling giving each other smal. Notes. 

"What the fuck?!" Tubbo let out, absolutely flabbergasted by this sight. The last time he's seen something so lively was over at a train station! Or on a full moon, but then it'd be zombies, not people. Meanwhile, Tommy was grinning widely. "We need to get in one of these offices, get something, anything." But Toby was concentrated more on the fountain. The water was so clear.. 

"Tubs- We'll never get there without being noticed. Let's go inside, steal something to at least not be standing out as much as we do right now." Tubbo lets out a shaky breath as he nods along. Tommy was right. If he tried to taste that water right now, It'd probably be the last thing he'll ever do. Though, if they get lucky and find something to blend in, they'll be able to drink that water on a more long term situation. 

They both take breaths as they go out in the open, longing on the walls. People seemed to be too distracted to take notice of them being here. 

They managed to get as far as in front of a room named '01'. They try to open it and god fucking dammit it's locked. Tommy doesn't have the time or patience to pick lock it right now. He gives Tubbo a look, 'let's try the second one before giving up.' He mouth, and Tommy nods as they go over to the second office, titled, obviously, '02'. 

They try to open it and- it, does?

As soon as a smile appeared on their face, it disappeared as they heard a familiar scream coming from the hallway.

- 

"Why the fuck where you following us in the first place?!" Tommy yells at Ranboo. He had been caught by one of the white people, which caused them to be seen too, so they ran out, taking Boo with them because they're not pricks, and went over to a primary school, far enough for them not to be caught. "I was ordered to, look!" They give a small paper over to Tom, Toby is able to read it over his shoulder. It's saying that Ran is allowed to go outside to follow Tom and Tubbo because they're suspected of committing suspicious activities. It's signed by Quackity and Philza. "What the fuck?! Philza betrayed us?!" Tubbo lets out in shock. 

"That's actually fucked." Tubbo goes over to check on Ran's wounds again. His cheek's skin got torn off and he's gotten a stab to the side. "You better not tell anyone, or we're gonna have to stop trusting you." Tommy warns the boy who rolled his eyes, "did you even trust me in the first place if you told Tubbo and not me? I wasn't planning on snitching on you either way." He says, which sort of makes both of them feel quite bad. 

"If anyone asks, Tommy pushed you and you got your cheek torn off." "What the hell?! Why do I have to take the blame?!" The other two look over directly at Tommy, which gets him to sigh. "Bscause you were the one to get us into the trap door." "This is the worst betrayal. Why can't we blame it on a zombie?" "Because a zombie leaves marks, Tommy. It makes the wound way more sensitive and corrupts the whole face." 

Tommy felt stupid, but he accepted it. "Sure. I'll be the one to blame. But it's in self defense because I didn't realise it was you and thought it was a zombie." The other two shrug, finding it enough of an excuse for neither of them three to get in trouble. 

"We're definitely going back down there, though, right?" Surprisingly, Ranboo was the one to ask this. Tom grins, "of course, Ranboo." "God dammit."

Chapter Text

[A WILBUR SCENE. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.]

"I'm actually 18, so I can, within the resistances rules, accompany them." Ranboo says, arguing with Wilbur. "You turned 18 2 days ago! That is nowhere near enough! There's no way-- Let's see Cellbit." Ranboo rolled his eyes and grinned evilly. Cellbit was a good guy that knew how to play by the rules. He'll let them accompany Tommy and Tubbo. "Bet."

Tubbo follows as they go look for Cellbit- Raboo purposefully asked at noon so that if anything like that happened, they could get confirmation from whoever as no one got out at lunch time. "Cellbit! Ranboo here, as immature as ever since he's still a teen, wants to know if he can accompany Tubbo and Tommy outside, which i think isn't even a question to bother ASKING, but-" "Yeah, yeah he can."

Wilbur's face at his friend's betrayal was priceless. If he still had a phone, he would have a taken a photo by now.

"He's 18. And by the rules of the resistance, he's legally allowed to look after any kid over the age of 13 to go outside." Tubbo could just see Wilbur biting back his lip, trying not to curse out the man. It's actually quite funny. He can hear Tommy snicker behind him. "But.." Cellbit continues, which makes the trio's smile disappear and Wilbur's eyes shine back with hope. "We're about to go eat lunch, and you have to wait another hour after that to digest and for the zombies to calm down."

Which was fair. It didn't throw them into a rebellious fit or whatever, only a few people were able to go out at lunch, those were the higher ups like Cellbit, Etoiles, Fit, Phil, etc... And even then, it would only be during emergencies.

Problem was, hours after they'd finished eating, Wilbur was glued to his little brother. That god damn prick.

"Will you leave me alone, prick?! You're actually annoying me!" Tom complains, tryingto get out of his brother's so-called hug. Not only was it embarrassing, but they had better things to do, like, spy on a weird ass looking underground building. Not like Wil knows that, but tries to know what they're up to. And the trio won't lie, this is making their want to share their knowledge even thinner than before.

Tommy holds back from actually hitting his brother, because he was so goddamn annoying. There already wasn't enough space for it to be comfortable in the bunker with basically a whole population living in it but walking around with a clingy ass sibling only made the struggle worse."Listen-!! Whether you like it or not, I'm getting the fuck out of here. It's hard to breath, it's stinky and outright ugly. I'm not doing anything illegal under the resistances' rules, i just want to get the fuck outta here, breath some fresh as air- as fresh as it can be, nowadays- and hang out with my friends! Is that too much to ask?"

Tommy sorta feels bad for snapping and yelling at Wilbur all at once. But he needed this, and Wilbur just... Wouldn't understand.

"Leave me alone."

[WILBUR SCENE IS DONE.]

-

"SAM!" Tom yells at today's guard, who was half sleeping. They need to stop giving him 24 hours shift- To think they haven't learnt from their past lessons...

"Yes Tommy?" What the fuck? wasn't he just sleeping? Whatever.

"We just want the permission to pass through and exit." Ranboo spoke up, because it looks better when the adult asks instead of the child. Sam looks at all of them 3. "If one of you end up in the hospital coming back with Niki, you won't get permission from me to get out until all of you are adults. Alright?" The trio nodded agrressively as Sam let them pass by.

"What a prick!" Tommy says after they passed the gates! "I actually think that's pretty fair." "Tubbo!" "Shut up you two, where's the trap door again?" "Oh, Ran, you've became so old you already forget everything.... Say, what's my name?" "Child." "That's what i thought."

"It's here, isn't it?" Tubbo asks, pointing to a familiar dark alleyway. The two arguing toddlers immediatly switch their attention to it. "Yeah, that's..It." Tommy comfirms.

Suddenly, a pain appears in all of the 3's stomachs. Last time they got here, Ranboo's cheeck got torn off, and the first time Tommy found the trap door, he got his throat torn off. Let's say that the possibilities of them getting out without a bruise is down right almost impossible. And, with Sam's threat on their backs, they're not 100% confident.

"C'mon guys," Tommy says, crouchin next to the door, opening it slowly to make sure it doesn't make any noise. "We'll be fine." He says before being shushed. They heard footsteps. Coming. Closer.

They all suddenly backed away into a corner- That was actually quite dumb, but what can they do, they're all a bunch of dumbasses who for some reasons have been granted the accessibility to go outside. Now that they're thinking about this, isn't this tresspassing? Who cares about laws, they're in a zombie apocalypse.

Maybe because they're all 3 ugly and dirty they can be confused as trash.

And surprisingly, it works. A white person gets out of the trap door, looks around for a bit, and then keeps going.

So they do get out. How come they haven't been seen or talked about in reunions? Have the adults been keeping secrets from them? No, they haven't seen them either before the trapdoor.

"Can we go now?" God dammit Tubbo. "Shut up, but fine."

They get out of their corner and re-approach the door. They open it slowly and this time there's no footsteps. They come down and are met once again with the long corridor. They walk through it discreetly and at the end are me with a big, large room that they've only seen once before. The fountain was the same and the floor has been cleaned from their blood and dirt they left not so long ago.

"We need to go and stick close to the wall to not get noticed. The room 01 is closed, we need to get to 02." Tubbo explains to Ranboo quietly. Tommy had already gone for it. "Toby, the water fountain." "Ran.." He lets out a breath before following Tommy.

They go along with the walls. They're next to 01, Tommy didn't seem to try to open it- Tubbo does, but, yeah, it's still locked. Tommy's already at 02 and... Holy shit.

The door opens. Tommy gets in it.

This gets Tubbo to feel extremely excited, and he assumes it does the same for Ran. They start going just a little bit faster and catch up to Tommy.

They come in the room, who is not as perfect as the outside. Not only dirtied by Tom's footsteps, but it was.. Messy, to say the least. More humane. Tubbo's room before the apocalypse is a good way to explain it. Clothes were left here and they, books and files opened and put together messily and dried blood was on the desk.

Pretty normal stuff. It lessens Tubbo's anxiety, to say the least.

Tommy's already in a corner, taking out his dirty clothes to put on some cleaner. Tubbo looks at Ran with a look that basicallly tells them to do the same. They grab a big white trench and a blue pant. That'll do it.

And after changing, they all look stunning. They haven't worn clothes that clean in ages. The clothes they wash have been cleaned in dirty water, if that gives you an idea of things.

"Oh," Ranboo speaks up, "I've noticed people here don't talk, so we shouldn't. Take those papers and pens to communicate." "Wow. Thanks Ranboo. I didn't notice." Tommy says with sarcasm, but he does still take the papers handed to him.

Tubbo's not really focusing on them, but more on the water fountain that awaits them. He quickly takes the paper and goes out into the world. This is their best chance to get it. If they don't manage to walk to get water now, clean as ever, then they won't ever. Why Wait and stall?

He looks back only once in his way, to see Ran and Tommy's panicked face. But they can't scream warning him. That would get him more attention that he already has.

But no one seems that bothered by him. The white people mostly look at him and look... Sad? That's weird. He decides to not pay much attention to it. He manages to get to the fountain, and puts his hands in the water. It feels like a sin. The water gets dirty when he does it, washing away all that he had on his hands. It feels like a relief. The water doesn't stay dirty for long. A second later, it's as clear as it was.

He puts his hands in a cup, and starts drinking.

He looks back once again, Tommy left the 02 room. He's looking at the other rooms and probably looting. Ran's still there though, looking right at him. He's probably too shy to come and drink with him. So what he doesn't is he gets out an empty water bottle and fills it up to give it to him later. He needs to share this blessing.

But in the middle of doing so, he gets a small tap on his should.

Oh it's so over.

But.. No. It looked like a white guy with a blue jacket and hat, who's just giving him a piece of paper. It read as followed; 'Hello, New WA. I am WA02, your superior. I am here to wish you good luck on your surgery, I know this step is hard. Never forget to follow the buddy system. I'm here for all my workers. Good luck on your ranks!'

That seems like a big piece of information. So Tubbo's big brain decides to put the sheet in his pocket, folded in 4. He quickly gets out a paper of his to answer.

"Hello, WA02.-' Shit, what does he say? '-Nice to meet you. As you mentionned, I am very new here. And I don't understand most thing's you've just written to me.' That's a risky play, but jsut like how we like it in here. WA02 looks confused for a second, but doesn't seem to think much more of it.

'The surgery is to make you look more neutral and happy like us. To enjoy the earth more. The buddy system has been created ever since the virus accidentally went out. It says to never be alone, always be on guard and that you always have a shoulder to cry on here.' That's- Actually really sweet. He folds it again and keeps it in the same pocket as the other.

'That's nice to know!' 'I'll see you around, WD019' Did that guy just... Name him?

Oops, Ranboo must be terrified. And, by now, the water bottle's by far filled up.

Chapter Text

"I was so scared." Ranboo admits to Tubbo as they walk through the long corridor. "You going over there, everyone looking at you, then that guy just approaching you..." They continue on ranting. Tubbo just nodded along, it was quite scary- They didn't stay that long in there, too affraid to say something wrong. They're going up to the same school as before to collect their thoughts. 

Tubbo managed to get quite a few water bottles. 4, to be exact. One for each of them, and one for whoever spots it in the storage. Next time, they're bringing 4 bottles each to fill up one by one. They have this source of water, they can't keep it to themselves. 

They climb the ladder and get out by the same trap door. 

Some sort of relief takes over them, seeing the clouds once again. The fresh air of october just gives them some reassuring feeling. They're out of there, with no injury. That's actually a new achievement. 

They head over to the school, take out the clothes to make sure they're keeping them clean for the next time. There's no zombies around, which is odd because it's evening. They'll spend another hour or so out and then they'll come back home. 

"That was crazy- Dude, this water is a gift from heavens. I can't believe I used to take this for granted." Tommy says, taking a very small other sip from his water bottle. "I can't believe i prioritized looting over this.." He says, mostly to himself. "We both did important jobs, Toms. Looting was very important for the next time we'd come here, and, to get info. Those seems like offices. By the way, I'm naming you guys WD020 and WD021."

"Those are such weird names, Tobes." "I know. But WA02 named me WD019, so we can guess they're numerating people in this...Thing. And i'm guessing he named me on the spot, so that means he didn't count you two." 

"That's confusing." Ranboo remarks, but to Tubbo, it was just the natural guessing of his. "I'll take WD021, since i know Tom will want to be before me." "YEAH!" 

"Oh my god, shut up, Tommy!" Tubbo yells, 2 zombies were attracted by Tom's yells. He swears to god if Tommy was the reason Sam won't let them get out anymore and not the weird enterprise thingy, he'll kill that fucker. He gets out a madeshift bow and arrow while the child got out a knife. Ranboo took a nearby stick. 

Tubbo shoots an arrow to one of them while Tommy goes to the other with Ran. Ran blocks the Zombie with his stick while Tommy stabbed his organs repeatedly, Tubbo just kept shooting. It wouldn't be enough to put him down, but it could stall until they're done with the other to get rid of this one. It works, as they immediately move on to help him. 

Ran throws their stick at them to catch it's attention, they turn around to them giving Tubbo the chance to shoot an arrow, on the back while Tommy runs to scoop out his eyes, and slashes his throat. 

"Those were tough ones." Ranboo remarks. "Talk about yourself, stick boy! I got my knife!" Tommy yells- Oh my god, he's gonna be the death of them. The amount of scars he has by the fact he yells so much and he's still not learnt a fucking lesson. Goddamn. 

"Alright, we're going back home before Tommy gets us caught by any more fucking zombies." 

-

Yep, yep. Tubbo is thirsty. He totally isn't secretly putting a secret very clean water bottle in the storage for everyone to enjoy. 

He's so excited to share this water- It's litterally a gift from heavens. The water being so clear and delicious, drinking it was a blessing. 

He leaves it there. 

He gets out of storage, "What were you doing  in there?" Fit catches him off guard. Tubbo's sweating. "I was looking if there was any meat for tonight. I crave it." That seems to get a smile out of Fit. "Ah; That's great, because guess who was distributed that mission? Me and Phil. We got a bull. And it was not infected.  Pac and Mike are on de-infecting the rabbit we got. It's not looking good, to say the least." 

"Dudeeee, That's cool. I'm so excited, you can't understand. What're you doing next to the storage?" "I was getting a Snack. I know, I know it's bad, But I didn't eat much at lunch." Tubbo decides not to judge or snitch, they all did that at least once ever since the apocalypse started. 

"Alright, i'll leave you be. And don't use the rabbit excuse to get close to Pac. If I, Jesus, hear about ANYTHING happening..." "GEE, Tubbo. We're just ROOMMATES, All those rumors are starting to get on my NERVES, MAN."

"...sure. At least, you better be."

-

Okay, time for round 2. 

"Who's at guard today?" Tommy asks them. "I think... Etoiles?" Ranboo answers. OMG Etoiles the GOAT. "Dude, seriously? I love when Etoiles' on guard! it's the only times he isnt out, except for lunch. And even then you're not sure he's gonna be there. Dude, i used to spend the days with him man when he was on guard! I'll miss it!" 

"C'mon, Tubbo!" Tommy yells at the other, "Don't fall for the charm of big star. We got better things to do!" Tubbo checks for the empty bottles in his pockets. And the clean clothes in his backpack. Yeah, they do have better things to do. Sorry Etoiles. 

"Like what?" They hadn't realized they had gotten close enough to Etoiles for them to hear- Probably because they hadn't, and that dude had like potions for hearing 500 or something.

"Breathing fresh air." Tommy answered, with a monotone voice that makes Toby think he's thinking of Techno. "Alright, that's fair." Etoiles wasn't an easy man to fool, he was just a cool dude who won't pressure you if you don't want to tell him the truth. He's just seeking for some dumb excuse you can give him, so that if the fault comes back to him he just can say that he was lied to. Which he was. But the thing is that he knew. Yeah, Etoiles is complicated. 

"We'll see you around, Big star!... I fucking hate that guy." "HEY, DONT SAY THAT ABOUT THE GOAT!" 

-

WD019 was sat by the water fauntain again. It was fun to think of himself as that, at least. Tubbo's imagining how everyone else in here might see him. 

Tommy's still on about looting. Something about documents who might've been swapped or exchanged, and Ranboo still sits in a corner. It was Toby's turn to fill up his bottles, Tommy insisted on doing it first because he knew he'd get too locked on looting afterwards that he'd forget to do it. Which, honestly, is fair. 

Tubbo's halfway done with the water bottles, it actually doesn't take that long. He's jus hoping to see a familiar face. WA02, to be exact. 

Ever since, he's thought back to the name. What did the letters mean, and why did they have different ones?.. But Tubbo would be lying to say that the info he could get from the man was the only thing keeping him up at night. 

The way the man was so pale, and how his brown eyes looked at him. 

Something about it felt different. 

And would you look at that? Toby's done. Which is great because yay, he managed to get clean, saint water. But now it was his turn to socialize. Tommy did the looting, Tubbo did socializing. What was Ranboo doing? Panicking in a corner- their corner. They go over there so much even some workers call it the 'WD021 corner'. They seem pretty chill, for the most part. Some seem more intimidating- The way you stop hearing pages and book flips whenever that literal white, blank man entered the room was terrifying. But most of them were cool. 

Yet Tubbo has't socialized in a year. Maybe 2. He hasn't talked to anyone other than a member of the resistance in so long. 

Some came up to him. They said hi and wished him good luck on the surgery. Some mentionned ranks, and some even told him about WA02. Apparently, he was quite appreciated in this.. Work space, he guesses. Well not like that literal white ass man who everybody seem to fear and tense up in front. 

'I saw you speak with WA02 earlier; You're lucky. I had to speak with :) when i first got here. Wasn't pleasant, to say the least.' Some guard looking dude told him. If he remembers correctly, he's a WC. 'I am still yet to meet :) formally. But i've seen him in passing, he doesn't look welcoming.' but that looked like the wrong thing to say. 'You haven't yet? Odd, Well I guess he's been busy with the outside world to meet his new recruits.' 

Shit. Well, he's learned that not having met :) in the first day or two was weird. Good to know. He'll warn the other two. But, Tubbo seems to think that :) is very busy these past few days, to not have seen that 3 absolutely not workers infiltrated the offices, just a few days after normal Pogtopians infiltrated it. Which is, odd, to say the least.. 

'Well, it was nice speaking with you. But my shift's been over for a bit.' He says, you know, like a liar; He's learnt he can easily lie to WDs and WCs, it's a bit tricky with WBs, and to not even try with WAs. 'I'll see you around, WC012.' The other nods, and proceeds to wave goodbye. Tubbo goes ahead and walks over to Ranboo's corner and taps him on the shoulder. 

'It's your turn. Get the water, king; this is for a great cause.' Ranboo reads it slowly then nods. Tubbo knows he can do this. He's Ranboo.

-

It's been quite their routine. It's easier than it should be, really. 

The more they go, the more they lie, the more they know what to say. 

Tubbo's been seeing WA02 a bit more ever since then. He's a nice guy, to say the least. He ignores the lies and laughs along- They can laugh. That was a crazy discovery to Tubbo. Apparently, it wasn't forbidden to talk, it's just that most didn't so people follow in on that. WA02 said that he personally was selective mute, that all the stress of works been ganging up on him and that talking felt like one more thing to beat him down. 

It's quite sad- To think Tubbo used to think this was some evil organization like in the movies.. Sighs. No, it's not. It's a group of kind people. Working on something. He doesn't quite know what yet, but definitely not the virus or some shit like that. Maybe rebuilding an active society, on ground and not underground? Who knows. :) does. And probably WA02. 

"TUBBO!" Someone called out his name- He immediately recognized who; it was Pac. "Oh my god, i immediately thought about you." He seemed to be coming out of the dinning hall. "Look at what I got." He holds out a water bottle, half drank. 

That's the water bottle he bought from the water fountain. 

"Yea-Yeah? What about it?" "Dude, of all people I thought of you when i first drank it. Look, i saw it and was like, Huh. This water must've been filtered out by Mike, i don't remember filtering bottles recently and I was like i didn't want mud to drink today. Right? But this isn't filtered water, Tubbo, oh no. This is heavens. This is water, Tubbo." 

Tubbo doesn't know how to react. First, it's the water bottle he bought who was actually being drinked by one of his best friends, who reciprocated the same feeling that it was heavens. Second, he was the first person he thought of. Not even Fit. Well, it does make sense- Tubbo always rambled about how he wished to get his old water back. And Pac remembered that. 

Pac remembered that. 

"No shit, really?" Tubbo doesn't want to taste the bottle. He's already done it. He wants to keep it for others. "You've got to be lying." He knows he isn't, and lying to Pac feels awful. But.. 

"I- We need to tell this to Phil." "No, no, no. Please, taste it first." And.. Shit. 

-

Everybody's talking. 

It makes the trio panic. 

Pac and him told Phil, and they went back to check on storage and GASP there's more than one. Which gets Pac all excited, he goes over to tell Fit while Phil tells Bad, and Bad simply can't keep his mouth shut and tells Baghera, who proceeds to tell Slime, who proceeds to tell Mariana who proceeds to tell Roier who proceeds to tell Cellbit who proceeds to tell Jaiden who proceeds to tell Foolish and on and on. 

"This is scary." Ranboo finally spoke up. They were all 3 in the dorms after the chaos- Rumors were running and everyone knew that someone, a godsent is what they call them, was putting fresh, clean water in the storage. 

Except some who find the godsent selfish for not sharing the water source, and only giving bits of it. Some say the godsent probably took years to filter the water and put it in as a surprise after so long. It feels weird to hear from both sides- Bad thinks the person's selfish while Baghera doesn't actually give a shit, Slimecicle's been ranting about his wetness and Jaiden's just glad there's a godsent. 

It's weird. 

"It's so weird." Tommy says, "They're literally worshipping us- But I bet whoever's on shift tomorow will not let us go out without critisizing us again. it's... It's surely weird. I kinda hate it- Of course i don't want to stop this, we will absolutely keep bringing the water bottles, but.." 

Tubbo guesses he understands. It feels really weird hearing everyone talk about something you've done, something that's called being a decent human being, being praised like a god, compared to a god, and being called Godsent by half your friends, without them themselves being aware that they're doing it. 

"We shouldn't be thinking too much about it. I'm pretty sure evrybody's considering anyone could be the godsent, including us. So, really, they in a way do know it's us, and not some rando." 

"Though we agree it can't be Tommy, right? 

Welp, here goes Tubbo's statement from the night before. That was Techno speaking.

They were currently in an emergency morning meeting. Everybody and their mothers knew what it was about; it was about the godsent's water. The question came about who it might be, and Tubbo's heart beat rate peaked. 

"Oh yeah," Quackity says, "I was thinking about who it might be the night before and then crossed to me the idea that it might be Tommy. I genuinely laughed out loud, dude." "i heard!" Fundy adds, 

He looks over at his best friend- Tommy looks actually bothered. He never liked being the butt of the joke, but some jokes were better then others. This one seemed to be the worse out of all of them. They're underestimating his kindness, he's a human being, not a selfish bitch, like everyone seems to think he is! 

"I thought it was Niki, if it wasn't for the fact that she's constently busy healing others. Literally, every single time i try to talk to her, she's either healing Phil or Cellbit. The only times i can really talk with her is during lunch or before sleep. I don't think she even eats breakfast."  Quackity rambles about his best friend- Hell, she couldn't even be present for this reunion because she was healing Mouse who went crazy after tasting the water and went right in a hoard. It's actually crazy, well, like her, how she ended up with only half her chest torn off. Ways to get top surgery, he guesses. 

"I don't know what to think. It could really be anyone." Tubbo says, to add in the conversation, to not look suspicious. "I think Jaiden might be behind it, though." Which gets the blue bird to become a slightly bit red, embarrassed. "GASP! Jaiden, is it you?" Baghera asks absolutely brightened up by the idea it might be her best friend. "No! It's not me, I swear." "Well, you're certainly my godsent, Jaiden!" Baghera continues to compliment her, which got a chuckle out of her. 

-

"People are considering it may be you, my ass, yeah? MY FUCKING ASS! It can't be TommyInnit, what do you fucking know about it? Actually, it is me. Along with Ranboo and Tubbo, but it is me too! Why does everybody fail to see that i'm not a terrible person?" 

Tubbo actually doesn't have the answer to that, Tommy's great. 

"I actually got mad too." Tubbo admits, "You're awesome, Tommy. People were just teasing you." "They know damn well i don't like that. This is shit. I might do a mouse and kill some zombies to loosen up a bit, this has gotten me on edge, man." ...Right, coping mechanism had changed a lot since the apocalypse started. Running into a zombie hoard was one of the unhealthy ones. Killing zombies in general was unhealthy, but a hoard- god dammit. 

"I'm gonna- Oh my god, i need to see Puffy or Roier or Niki as soon as possible or I might actually outrun the guard to run into a hoard with no weapons. Litterally- But knowing the guards, they'd probably run after me and i'd feel so bad if Phil got hurt because of me." Tubbo listens to the rants of his best friends, he gets that. Those feelings do come to him sometimes too. 

Just escape and getting eaten alive by a zombie. 

He wonders how being a zombie feels like. Are you not conscious or are you fully aware but not in control? Sometimes, he should try it out. 

No, he won't. 

Chapter Text

'Do you like it here?' Tubbo reads the words fast- He doesn't want to loose a second to speak to WA02. It's been so long! Well, not really. It's been like, 2 days. But days have been pasisng by so slowly, it felt like more. 

'Yeah, I have. The water is nice.' His writing skills weren't getting any better, trying to write as fast as possible- He doesn't get why Fred's making him all this excited. Maybe because it's the first person he met here, the first person that gave him hope and information, the first person to basically make him realize, fuck. This was possible. 

'Yes. Well, I got recruited before the apocalypse, so i didn't live in the discomfort of survival, but most of my co-workers have.' He explains, 'I've tried to be the most attentionate i can be with everyone. I've seen those creatures, i can't believe people had to fight them everyday before coming here. I can't wait for everyone to be safe here. That's what i want, for every survivor to come here and to live in comfort.' 

..Oh? Well, let's just say WA02 seemed to be a GREAT source of information...

And although it doesn't quite look like it, Tubbo actually doesn't... Want it. It's too dangerous, he says. He's a WA. Those ranks are way too high up and WILL call you out on your bullshit. It's too dangerous, he says, speaking casually to it like they're best friends. 

It's not his fault if the guy is overly friendly, nice, pretty, and mostly just a great person to talk to. Genuinly, it's really not his fault, at the end of the day. 

WA02 will be the death of him. And that's not even him being funny. 

Tubbo doesn't forget though that he's actually not being funny. He's seen those creatures do.. Horrible, horrible things to humans before. Tommy's throat being torn off and Ranboo's cheeck got torn off not to mention he got stabbed. 

This was so dangerous, but as WA02 puts a hand on Tubbo's shoulder, looking at him with a worried expression, giving him a note saying- 'Are you lost in your thoughts, 19?' Tubbo forgets all of it. He- He's never experienced this. Someone being this nice. All he's experienced is his best friend's jokes and shananigans, highschool gossips about him and the disappointed look of adults when they found out they got out again. 

'I'm worried about you. You seem to be so energetic and then zone out... It's fine, i can support it, but please make sure to not show this side of you to :)' I'm worried about you. Everyone was worried about him nowadays- Phil begging him to stop going outside, Sam's looks as they get out with Ran once again, Etoiles always making sure to watch them for as long as he can, Niki's cries. 

He never liked to worry people. But he can't stop them anymore- When Zombies are all over the town and death is a second away. Not when he lost his drunk dad, who was laughing as the zombies ate him alive. Not when he lost Spreen, some random guy who decided he'd rather be one with the Zombies. Not when he lost Dan, going out and never coming back, increasing panic in Pogtopia. 

But WA02 wasn't like this. WA02 didn't see him as Tubbo, they saw him as 19. A young adult with a concerning personality, who probably lived through much more than him, and one he's trying to protect from whoever :) was. WA02 isn't worried that he might die, he's worried about if he's actually okay.

'Of course.' Tubbo answers. 'I'll be carefull, i always am.' 

-

"And what did you do, Tubbo?" Tommy asks as the sun's setting and they're heading back over to Pogtopia. "I tried to get information from WA02. I didn't get much, just more warnings about whoever this smiley guy is." 

"I know what you are." Ranboo chimes in, which is just- "What the fuck do you mean by that, boo?" "Gay and lonely." Oh. 

"I can't afford to be gay in this day and age. When everything gets a bit more peaceful, we'll need a new generation to continue the human species." "One gay person can be accepted, dude. I'm straight enough for the both of us." "What about the 3 of us?" Ranboo interjects as well, 

"Either way, i doubt they'd force you to have babies. That would be cringe. And yes, i'm straight enough for the 3 of us." 3for some reason, i feel like you're the gayest out of us 3." Tubbo says hazily, not actually thinking, which got Ranboo to laugh and Tommy to stutter as he denies that fact. 

"But how is that related to me doing my job, getting information?" "Last time I heard talking to the same person over and over again even though it's obvious you won't get any more information from them." Ranboo acts like he's simply explaining something normal, calmly. But Tubbo can't handle this. "He's the highest worker that we've met. If we're gonna get info, it's from him. Plus, it would be suspicious if i only came up to him for info." 

"Toby, you aren't fooling anyone. That's a shit excuse. You're supposed to be co-workers, it would be absolutely normal for you to only come up to him for info." Tommy says a bit aggressively-- and Tubbo doesn't know what to answer. Because he's just realized- Tommy's right. 

"It would be better to be in a friendly envirement." Tubbo tries once again- But he knows he's lost. "You know what-- Whatever, Did you at least get some water for everyone?" Tommy changes the subject, which is probably better for everyone. "Yes, got 4 bottles. The usual. You did yours, right?" "Of course, and I've checked ran's. So we got 12 to put in the storage room- If we can, because everyone's around it recently, trying to get a hole of this Water Godsent Giver or whatever they call it recently." 

-

'You've been taking lot of bottles with you, every time.' 

That's probably not good. Unless he can play it off. 

'Well, i need hydration for when I'm working. I can't always be near this water fountain, and, unless you're thinking of the toilet water, there's no other uninfected source of water.' Tubbo thinks he's played it off quite well. 'But no one would blame you if you took a quick detour to the fountain to drink water. And, as a WD, you shouldn't be that far from the water fountain, unlike some WBs or WAs who have to get out sometimes.' 

'Well, yeah, but I don't wanna take this for granted, right? I can't afford to take breaks, unless they're in my schedule. This is the most life i've seen in a while and taking even a second to take an unscheduled pause makes me feel awful. This is my only chance, WA02.'

'I guess I could try to understand that. Although, please know you can be honest with me.'

Please know you can be honest with me. Except Tubbo litterally can't. 

'I know. You're my best friend.' Since when has WA02 acquired that title? In a week? 'Best friends? I've never heard of such titles. Are some friends better than others?' 'No, i wouldn't say that. But some are definitely closer.' 

'Are we close, then?' Tubbo doesn't know how to feel about that. Neither does he know how to respond. WA02 seems to comes closer by a step, 'I guess we are now.' He says, his hand painfully next to Tubbo's, left untouched. 

-

"You seem happy today, Tubbo." Pac observes, "And you look gay as fuck. We both have problems." Tubbo answers back. 

"Gee, homophobic much? If that eases your mind, i haven't seen Fit today." "And that's normal? He woke up at 5 for an early zombie chase. No one saw him today! If we're lucky, we'll be seeing him at lunch time. Even then we're not sure if that's gonna happen." 

"OKAY, sure. And so what? Doesn't that make me less gay either way? I can join the homophobic side, Tubbo. If only you'd let me.." Tubbo sighs at this. Had the apocalypse really just drained all sort of humor he had? He swears he used to be funny. Now he just sits in dusty rooms and complain about homosexuals all day.. 

"You've kissed men before." "So have you. I'm pretty sure." This seems to be the end of their gay-homophobic argument- He doesn't even know how it had been bought up in the first place, but he doesn't try and recall. "You do seem very happy today. That doesn't bother me. But I'm genuinely happy about the fact i've seen you smile while serving everybody breakfast, starting small talks and running around the room excitedly." 

Tubbo blushes out of embbarrassment. God, he's made a fool out of himself! He's so embarassing, how could anyone have beared seeing him like that and not scream slurs at him- If he saw himself, he'd just call himself the f-slur-- Especially since WA02-

Oh. Oh. 

Especially since WA02, what, tubbo? What about him? What brings him up? You were talking about being gay and happy, when does WA02 come up in that? Which of the 2 subject brings WA02 in this? Maybe both. 

Maybe both. 

"I don't know what you're talking about." Yes, yes he does. He sees the white man in his thoughts- His brown eyes, oh so pretty brown eyes; just looking at him with worry, everytime he wrote anything about :). Those same brown eyes who laugh and smile along his whole body. Those same brown eyes that keep him late at night- For information, he thinks. 

This was never about information, was it? First it was water, now it was the sun. 

His sun. 

"I guess.. The fact i've been going out more. And that there's clean water. That makes all of us happy, no? Why're you asking me, specifically?" "Because I was the one who told you about the water, and yet you didn't seem all that happy. More, surprised, more fearful, dare I say?" 

Oh shit. 

"At first i thought it was because clean water was new, what if it was a trick? But it's proven not to be- It's been a week since everybody's been drinking it, and nobody turned sick or anything. Me and Mike have been studying it, and nothing seems to be hidden anything." "What are you implying, Pac?" He knows damn well what Pac was implying. 

"You've been going out a lot more, no? Surprisingly, around the same time the Godsent first send us water." "Pac, this is ridiculous." "I haven't said anything yet!" 

Yeah, but Tubbo wasn't dumb. Tubbo could read between the lines- Well, most of the time he couldn't, actually, but this time he can. This time he can't be fooled. 

Pac knew. 

"Don't.. Tell anyone. I can't tell people how I get the water. We haven't fucked it up. They might. I know Phil will want none of us to go where I get it, Etoiles might kill them all, Bad just doesn't care and will fuck it all up.." Tubbo starts ranting about how the others might ruin this-- "Me, Tommy and Ran have prooved that we could do it, us 3. Any other person might just fuck it all up. We can't take that risk, can we?" 

"I don't agree." Because of course he doesn't. Fit's part of the higher ups, and he'll probably say something about how Fit won't fuck it all up, but Tubbo doesn't wanna hear about it. "But I trust you, Tubbo. You've done so well so far, it'd be a jerk move to not acknowledge that. I trust you." 

"Please don't tell anyone. Not even Mike. You knowing is already enough. I'm not a godsent, i swear. I'm just Tubbo. Anyone would do the same." Pac is looking at him with his eyes- the eyes that send him into tears coming up in his eyes, because Pac was so sweet. Pac was his best friend. "I won't tell anyone. Not even Mike, or Fitch." 

"Thank you." 

Chapter Text

...Tubbo's in a bit of a pickle. 

Now, it's not like it's been a secret- Really, the only thing he's keeping secret is the fact that he goes out everyday to go to an underground society type coded evil looking organization. But other than that, Tubbo would say he's a pretty open book. 

..Which is very inconvenient when you come to realize you've developped feelings of one of the highest working ranked person of the underground society type coded evil looking organization. 

It's nothing too bad per say. He spend a good 3 hours out of 5 of his outings speaking to him by the water fountain and drinking water. There's never really been anything between them-- But the act of drinking such a pure water with such a pure person. A person that actually cared about him. A person that didn't just see him as a bother since he was a child, a person who didn't just see him as a survivor. 

Well. He guesses that's the most he could get nowadays. It's fine. 

'I like your face.' WA02 once had written out for him. 'All the faces i've seen have been wiped in a matter of a couple of days. You've been here for weeks. I just wish to know how you've done it.' And Tubbo truly wishes he could answer himself. Because he doesn't even know the answer himself. How, how has he been surviving underground this long? Especially with no bruises? 

'I just listen to you and keep myself away from :).' Tubbo ends up on answering, because it's true; he's done everything this man told him to do so far, except if it went against his schedule with Tommy and Ranboo. 'I find that you're pretty helpful.' 'Well yeah, but you've got to meet it at some point. It's still our boss, you know? And without him we wouldn't be here.' Tubbo finds himself genuinely doubting that-- From what he's heard so far, :) did nothing but found the organization. 

Truly, whoever this WS01 seems to be the true one guiding it all, along with all her co-workers. 

'From what you've told me, WS01 seems to have done more for this organization that :) ever did.' Tubbo writes in a concluding tone- 'Well, it's true that Elena's done a lot.'

Hold on a hot minute. Elena?

'Elena? Isn't that name a bit too humane?' 'Just like your face, but you don't hear me complain about it.' WA02 seems to anwer in a joking manner, but takes a step back to realize that Tubbo's genuinely just shocked. 'WS01 has a lot of privileges. Like talking privileges. I know we're technically all allowed to talk, but it's become frowned upon. Unlike when :), or, well, Elena does it.' 

It still seems to confuse Tubbo. There definetely were a difference between having a smiley as a name, and having Elena as a name. 

'She just liked it better. She always insisted on being called by her civilian name even back when she was a WD, I heard. I wasn't employed back then- But I remember joining when she was a WB, still asking to be called Elena despite her not even being a WA. That girl's got some nerves. I admire her. Like many others.' 

Tubbo doesn't know what to think when he re-reads these written words. Elena, he knows the name would just roll off his tongue in such a way that would make it human. 

'Call me Tubbo.'

-

Looking back, it was insanely stupid for Tubbo to do that. 

But now that he's seen the aftermath- How nothing's changed.. 

Tubbo doesn't regret anything. 

'You have the eye color of the water here, Tubbo.' And that, that was probably the best compliment Tubbo's ever received. Because they weren't talking about muddy, infected water, no. They were talking about the water fountain. 

'You have the eye color of the water outside, brown-eyed freak.' He had answered- Listen, it's not his fault he's not particularly good at, like, anything. Not even giving compliments to other people, even less receiving them! 'I'm joking by the way. I really like your eyes.'

'I think i'm a bit of a freak, no?' WA02 seems to answer, 'I mean come on, look at me. I look like a bitch.' And Tubbo thinks about it- Well, no. WA02 doesn't look like a female dog! 'I dont think so. It's fine if you want to be female, but i think a female bear would fit you more? Because like.. Pookie bear?'

'Pookie bear..? Also, No! I didn't mean it like that- I don't wanna be female- Well, no- It doesn't matter anyway! I'm not a bitch and neither am I a bear-' WA02 kept on rambling, writing endlessly on never-ending paper. Now he knows where all the trees' gone to. 'Well, I wouldn't mind if you were female, my guy-- You're quite pretty, i see you quite femininely.'

'Are you insinuating I'm a Bimbo?'

And Tubbo has never even insinuated that. 'What-? No! Dude, I never even said that word before- Well I guess we can't speak for shit in here, so that doesn't say much, but still! You're not a Bimbo! Unless you want to be, of course.'

'I can be your Bimbo.' Oh my god. This man- Woman? Whatever they were! Would be the death of him. 

-

"You know what, You have my approval." Tommy had once said as they went out of the trap door, helping Ranboo up. 

"Your approval for what, huh?" Tubbo asked, a bit amused at Tommy's totally random statement. "To date WA02, I mean. The guy's really worth it. He's nice." And oh god, has those words made Tubbo go red, red. "Why would I need your approval anyway, dude! And, I dont like him, even if I did it wouldn't matter-"

"But it does matter." Ranboo was the one speaking now, "It does matter because you love him, don't you? You have my approval too. From what i've seen of WA02, even though i'm the most awkward person- He's, they're nice." Tubbo isn't sure why his heart melts at the confession both of his friends had just made him. 

"I just.. I don't know. I don't love him. He's just really cool." And Tubbo tries to mean it, because he really wants to. WA02 was really cool. And Tubbo couldn't allow himself to feel something, anything for that man. Because he can't. Not, not like this at least. Not during this apocalypse. 

"This isn't what you guys think it is." Tubbo says, because he truly does mean it. "WA02 is a great guy! And I love him.. Just not like that. We're friends, and even that you can't be sure, I don't know anything about him. I haven't even seen his face-" And shit. Tubbo knows he's hit a sensitive subject, a part of the WA that made him look down and play with his thumbs- Even though the boy wasn't here right now, it still felt like betrayal. 

He'd promised him that he wouldn't be upset about it, since it was going to happen to him too. He had no reason to judge, when in the end, Tubbo's the monster. "Even though I know his face was pretty, from his and his coworker's descriptions. It doesn't matter. I don't like WA02. It's not like that." 

"He calls you Tubbo." 

The bomb was let loose. 

 "He calls you Tubbo, how come? He's not supposed to know that- No one's supposed to know that." Tommy says, in an accusing tone- Well, it's true. "Yeah, well. It's not like I'm the first, have you ever heard of Elena?" 

"Yeah, and Elena was threading on the edge of being fired for it. Now, it's admired because she's as WS- whatever that is- But could you imagine the stares and the names she's had to go through when she was a WD, like us? It's putting us in a dangerous position, since we're not workers, but spies." Tommy says, letting out bits of frustration as he rants over and over- "And yet, I can't bring myself to be mad at you. Being in love is.. Such a weird thing. That makes us do, such weird things.." 

 Tubbo feels like crying. Was he really that in love?  

"What I'm getting to here, and I've talked to Ranboo about this-" Tommy continues, and Ranboo nods in confirmation- "Is that WA02 is a great guy. And, that you're allowed to tell him." 

-

'..What about you?' Tubbo had once asked, by the water fountain. He'd dipped his hand in it, to wash off some of the blood he'd had on them fightingn zombies earlier today. Phil had requested to go out with him and, Tubbo can't say no to Philza Minecraft! Well.. It sure made him late and dirty to the undergound, but at least he made it without Phil following him. He'd made sure of that. Using the primary school next door as a way to distract him. He'd be in so much trouble when he'll get back. 

'..I don't, remember?' he'd written down on the piece of paper- Oh well. 'I mean! I never cared about it, getting rid of it didn't faze me at all. It would just be in the work space and then it wasn't, because the apocalypse struck and I was on lock down in the facility.' That.. That just sounded sad, if you asked Tubbo. 

'I just never heard it again. I think.. It's definitely not completely lost, I'll figure it out eventually. Surely.' He'd said, and it just.. He guesses it makes sense. After all. A name probably wasn't his biggest priority back then. 

'That sounds horrible.' Tubbo had tried to show some bits of sympathy.. or was it empathy? Apathy? What's the difference? 'I don't care, I'm just a worker.' 

'But you're not! You're so much more.' Tubbo had pleaded, his hand now out of the water and on WA02's face, tracing under his supposed eyes. Sure, they weren't.. They weren't what he'd been used to, simple dots to allow vision. 

THe surgery was created when the apocalypse started. He knew that now. 

It was so that survivors and zombies alike didn't see them as survivors. 

But WA02 was a survivor just like any other. He'd survived being locked down for years at a time, losing his precious identity for the sake of a stupid organization. 

'..Could you just, I don't know. Give yourself a name. You're not a worker to me.' 

WA02 looks in disbelief at the small piece of paper. 

'..And you're not one at all, are you?'

Chapter Text

'..And you're not a worker at all, are you?'

Tubbo had kept the piece of paper in his pocket. Or at least what was supposed to be his pocket in those torn out trousers.

He'd denied it. He thought it would be easier to lie when he's writing, and not saying it out loud. After all, he had been lying for just about months now, hadn't he?

But his hands was shaky, his body was sweating, and his smile was faltering.

'..It's okay, Tubbo. I won't tell anyone. Just like I told nobody about the name.'

'..I love you.' He'd written down, and never shown the man.

-

"Tubbo, what's this?" Oh. Oh no.

Fit had found it. He'd found his white trench coat for the evil type looking- He doesn't have time for long names right now! Fit had found his trench coat for infiltration missions!

...Although.. "Mind explaining this?" He says, holding up a small piece of paper.

Oh. Oh no. Oh gods, this was even worse. He's found the piece of paper he'd never gathered that much guts to show WA02.

"Who's this from? Who's this for? I don't- I don't see anybody suited for you here, unless.." Oh don't you even dare, Fit. He would just combust on the spot. This was it, he'd blown it, all of it- "Unless you'd been meeting someone secretly?" There it was.

Tubbo had completely, utterly, blown it.

"You know we're open to new survivors in the camp! Sure they'd have to go through Techno, Cellbit, Phil, Etoiles, me too now that I think about it, Sam.. And just about any and all higher ups, but if you like them I'm sure they'll fit right in no problem."

Oh. Oh thank god. Tubbo doesn't know how this was any better- Fit had thought that he'd just found a solo survivor or group, and that he didn't know if they'd be willing to let them in.. But, no. No, he'd just found an underground organization.

Surprisingly, Tubbo doesn't even know what possibility was the worse. A new group or a weird looking organization? After all, they'd never gotten.. Any suspicious info on the organization so far. Sure, they had a little bit of an odd fashion style and their own spin off on plastic surgery, but they weren't evil. They just looked evil.

It went unsaid that Pogtopia had to never know about the organization.. But Tubbo couldn't help but wonder why. He'd have to ask, later on.

"It's.. Stop! I'm not telling you anything!" Tubbo says, pouting- But, Fit cuts him right off with just the right words: "I'm the Fofoca teller here, if you don't want ALL OF THE RESISTANCE TO KNOW ABOUT your little crush, then you might want to consider telling me more."

"It doesn't matter either way! You'll tell Pac-" "Of course I'll tell Pac, who do you take me for?" "Then Pac would tell Mike-" "Well, they're brothers, no?" "Then Mike would tell Charlie-" "As I said, brothers--" "And then I'm done for!" He finishes, which gets Fit to stop for a bit.. "Oh yeah, you're done for either way. So, who is it?"

Well, if Tubbo wasn't one to dig his grave deeper, he'd have said I don't know, or if he was really a stupid fucking idiot, he'd have said WA02. But no, since Tubbo is just stupid and not anything else, what he did was the most logical: "..F-fred!" He burst out the first name he thought about.

"..Fred?"

-

"Fred?" Tommy had said in disbelief, almost choking on his water- He doesn't, of course not, that would be a waste of water. Such pure water. Gift from the heavens, really.

"Listen! I was in a panic, and I couldn't say WA02! I thought of a name and.. Fred came up. And I needed to be quick or else it would've been suspicious!" He'd tried over and over again to explain himself to his best friend, who seemed to be having none of it, just bursting out laughing each time he heard the stupid name.

"I don't agree with Tommy," He'd heard his other best friend, Ranboo, say. "I think Fred suits him! He looks like a Fred, doesn't he?" He'd said, looking like he was trying to remember how WA02 even looked like. Well, Tubbo couldn't blame him, all the workers did look like each other- No thanks to the evil surgeries- even though Tubbo would be able to recognize him in a sea of others.

Or maybe that was just the simp in Tubbo speaking.

"Well! See! Either way, WA02 doesn't have a name. I'm sure he doesn't mind a nickname like Fred!" "It could get him fired, Tubbo." Since when was Tommy the responsible one in this scenario? That's bullcrap! "No it wouldn't, I'm not fired even though I said my name-"

"You're a D, Tubbo." And.. Yeah. Yeah he was, and no one paid attention to WD's. Especially post-surgery ones. But.. Then he'd heard somebody by his side snicker. "Don't take that out of context." Ranboo had said.

Which seemed to have angered Tommy. "Oh yeah? Don't take that out of context? I'll take you out of context, Ranboob, and then you'll see, you absolute little bitch-"

Aha: That was more like the Tommy Tubbo knew. It had been a while since his best friend had allowed himself to be carefree like this.

"You want my opinion?" Ranboo had asked, which had gotten Tommy to say "No--" but he'd given it anyway; "I don't think it'd that big of a deal if you only use his name in Pogtopia. He can't get fired from something nobody down there knows about, can he?"

And, not to downgrade Ranboo's amazing idea, it just sort off.. Rubbed Tubbo the wrong way.

He, certainly wouldn't like being called something he didn't know about behind his back. But he's sure WA02 wouldn't mind, would he?

Sigh. It doesn't really matter, it was, after all, their only option. So.

"I.. Guess you're right? Let's do that."

-

Unsurprisingly, there were rumors.

Of course they were. Fit and Pac-- Nobody would manage to keep them off saying rumors. Those dudes have been through middle school and never left it, apparently, fucking gossip girls.

Some just brushed them off. Like Jaiden, god bless Jaiden. Although maybe she has a bit too much trust on them. She claims that if they ever met a group outside of the Resistance, that they'd come rushing to inform them.

Oh, how wrong she was..

Etoiles, surprisingly, also seemed to have quite a bit of trust in them. Not in the way that they'd immediately come out and say they found a group if they even did.. But in the way that he trusts them not to endanger themselves.

Oh, how wrong he was..

The truth was that the three were being complete idiots. They'd seen the workers there, how they'd lost their whole identity joining whatever worked down there. It was dangerous. So dangerous Ranboo got his cheek and Tommy got his throat torn off.

Tubbo had been lucky. Tubbo hated thinking about it that way.

Tubbo had known- Tommy had warned him of the dangers after living them himself. Ranboo hadn't, being ordered to follow them. Tubbo had been so lucky.

When he looks at WA02, he also feels lucky.

WA02 didn't get the chance to live.

'I'm really grateful for what the the Federation has given me,' WA02 had said one day. Maybe if Tubbo had been paying attention, he'd have noticed that this underground society type coded evil looking organization was actually called the 'Federation', and that he could stop calling it.. Well, an underground society type coded evil looking organization.

'How so?' A week ago, he wouldn't have said that. A week ago, he'd have said that he was grateful too. But WA02 now knew, he knew that Tubbo wasn't from here. That Tubbo was some sort of spy.

If anything, Tubbo was grateful for WA02.

'They, well. They basically saved me from the horrors that are going on up there. I know what a zombie looks like, of course I do. I would be uncultured if I wasn't. But I'm not familiar with the horrors they create: I haven't been a witness.' Tubbo guesses that makes sense. He sits down on the bench next to the water fountain and starts thinking back of a time where Zombies weren't common knowledge. He'd been 14 then.

He still doesn't understand how he'd made it this far.

It was all thanks to Schlatt.

But he wasn't here anymore.

'I haven't been much a witness.' Tubbo had admitted, 'I was very much sheltered as a child, thanks to my father.. Sure I saw some horrors, but not as much as Tommy and Ranboo.'

And there it was: 'I was lucky then too, I guess.'

'I guess you could consider me lucky too, then.' WA02 had then written up, but.. WA02 hadn't been lucky. Even if he feels like it. The Federation, while not explicitly evil, had after all stripped them from all their identity.

'How so?' He'd said once again, 'I don't envy your situation much. You're not all that lucky.'

'You would be the first.'

Huh.

Chapter Text

"Fred, huh?" 

God fucking dammit. 

 Even though he knew Fit would tell Pac, he had allowed himself to hope that he didn't. Now he was gonna be in a mess. Because Pac would tell Mike, who would tell Charlie, who will tell Mariana, who will tell Roier, who will tell Cellbit and from that he's a goner. 

"I don't know who you're talking about, Pac." 

"Is he the one giving you water? 

..Right. Pac knew about that. 

"I guess you could say that," Tubbo says, because it would be useless to lie. Because then it would give Pac even more suspicions about his outings-- Where was he getting water and who was Fred? And Tubbo just couldn't deal with that. 

"I won't tell Mike." That.. That makes Tubbo relax. Pac was a good friend. 

"Although, it isn't just me and Fit that know about Fred." and crap. But.. But if Pac wasn't willing to tell anyone, and Fit only really ever tells Pac anything.. Then, who? "I think Niki knows?" 

Ranboo. 

"As well as Techno." 

Tommy. 

"They kinda overheard the name and were like 'oh yeah, that's Tubbo's loverboy, isn't it?' and Fit didn't deny it." 

"Ugh. It's fine, not ideal, I guess, but I know who told them." He'd said, because anyone could just guess. And the problem was that if Techno knew, then Phil definitely did, and he doesn't know what that means, because Phil, creator of MINECRAFT, was always a wildcard. 

"I'm just worried about Techno telling Phil, I guess." Tubbo'd said, feeling like being honest today. After all, Pac was his best friend. "He's always a wild card- Hell, he made Ranboo follow us on our first outing! How is that anything predictable?" 

"Oh yeah no, you're done for." Oh, as if that was any recomforting! "You meeting a person outside of the resistance??? That's gonna be mentioned next meeting, you're absolutely busted, dude." 

"WOW, thank you PAC." He'd said, out of frustration, "I'm gonna be done for, you know that, right? Ohhh Tubbo is the godsent, wowwww." Tubbo tried mimicking everybody, making fun of their silly little beliefs about the water being sent. 

Pac chuckled a little bit at that, "No, I don't think so." Pac had said, "Just because you meet people outside doesn't mean you're obviously the godsent. We've all established that you three are probably not, even though you are." 

"Yeah, all that thanks to the fact no one believes in us." 

Tubbo was being confusing. Was he or was he not glad that people didn't think he was the godsent? In all honesty, he doesn't know himself. He just thinks that the whole concept of a godsent was ridiculous. That probably explained it all. 

"Well, I believe in you." 

That, that actually makes it better, Tubbo thinks. 

"Thank Pac." 

"Oh the next meeting is gonna be awkward." 

No thanks to Pac, this time, it really WILL be awkward... 

-

It wasn't that awkward.

Charlie had gotten on a rant about gas masks, endorsed by Cellbit and Philza, apparently, which had been a huge surprise to Tubbo. He personally wasn't that big of a fan. Sure, he'd tried on the mask before-- But it hadn't been life changing. Tubbo personally wouldn't mind giving someone else the privilege to breath better.

Bolas, as what they call themselves, for some unknown reason, are the ones who wear them full-time. Charlie, Philza, Cellbit, Baghera, Jaiden, Carre and Foolish. More recently, Antoine, Etoiles, Mouse, Maximus, and Roier too. Which, makes quite a group.

Then Mike started talking about some new filtering system they'd found out, thanks to the godsent's water giving them an ideal comparison. That was awkward, but not as awkward as it could've been. It's also very good, because it meant that better water was accessible without them.

Surprisingly, Ranboo had added to their comment, talking about how amazing the new filter was, as before, when they'd filtered water, it made his throat itch. Niki had said it was probably something with his allergies, Ranboo blushed and laughed nervously, and didn't speak up again.

Jack then spoke up about some project with Niki, before Niki shushed him down and told them all to forget about it. They proceeded to glare at each other before laughing it off. Cute.

But hell could only be so far away.

"Don't we have something to say about any possible outsiders?" Phil had asked, seemingly hesitant. Suddenly, the whole room lit up and started whispering and giggling. Tubbo hated this. Cellbit seems to be the one who takes on the matter of answering the question. "Rumor has it, Tubbo's been discussing with an outsider of the name of.. Fred? Am I right?"

Tubbo almost acoffs, but he doesn't, because he's smart- Or so he tells himself to sleep at night. Because no, he hasn't been discussing with anybody named with Fred, he actually didn't have a name and went by WA02. But, obviously, he couldn't say that.

"Yes. That is right." He says, because what else could he possibly say? No? And lie? To the resistance leaders? That would only get him in more trouble! It's not like he had any choice to begin with, really. It wasn't a question, per say, just a check-up.

"Very well." Philza speaks up again, "Well? I'm sure the rest of the committee agrees with me when I say we would like to evaluate them."

And, because Tubbo's so smart; He thinks up of a lie, very quickly.

"They don't like the concept of the resistance very much. They prefer being free." Which, might be taken the wrong way by some people, as he hears a few whispers here and there- But Tubbo doesn't really care anymore.

Cellbit says something to Phil in his ear, and he hums, then he answers; "Do you not think the resistance offers freedom? You might have a biased opinion, Tubbo. We could propose it to them with a different perspective." And, no, Tubbo doesn't think that the resistance keeps his freedom away, actually. The resistance had saved him.

They'd failed to save Schlatt. But they saved him, and they've been keeping him safe for as long as he could remember- They're not keeping his freedom. Really, they're not.

"No, they're pretty closed off. I don't think they'd enjoy that."

More whispers could be heard, but again, Tubbo doesn't care.

"I'm sorry, Tubbo," Cellbit spoke up, "But you seem awfully.. Opposed to the idea of the council meeting that mysterious survivor, Fred. Would any other complicit speak up? I don't know, like.. Tommy or Ranboo?"

And the people let out Oooh's which, are quite annoying, but again, Tubbo doesn't care.

"Fred doesn't wanna come here, at all. Leave him alone, will you?!" Tommy seems to say, a bit frustrated, which gets Cellbit to sigh, "He can set down boundaries.

"I appreciate your care for boundaries, Tommy." Cellbit says, "But he can't really set them when he's not met us."

"I don't... Know why you're so insistent to meet Fred. He's not a threat." Ranboo spoke up shyly, quietly. Having his sister to shush other people from whispering so that the council could hear his words. "Fred is really nice."

"Yes, but see, Ranboo, that is not something we would know without meeting him." Phil speaks up again, in some reassuring tone that makes the trio sick. "Everything outside of the Resistance's registration is considered a threat. If we can't register him, it might cause some of our hunters like Etoiles or Fit to hurt them on accident."

Fit seems to go ahead and hide behind Pac, seemingly as a sign that he stands with the boys. Meanwhile, Etoiles just shrugs, not seeming to care a whole lot.

"If you don't agree to hold a meeting with Fred and us any time soon, we will have to refrain your visits with him up until you've both hit your majority. And I hope you're not foolish enough to go alone, Ranboo."

"NO!"

-

Tubbo didn't care about the new rule.

Really, he didn't. He turned 18 in just short of 3 weeks. Basically 2 weeks. He could just send Ranboo off to tell Fred about this new development, but the guy had seemed just.. So nervous about the idea of going alone. So he didn't really try to bother.

Really, he didn't mind! Not all his friends were at the Federation, anyway, he had Fit, Pac, Charlie, Etoiles and a bunch of other people he could hang out with up until the 2 weeks passed. Really, he didn't care.

Tommy, who's birthday wasn't for another 6 months, certainly was, though.

"Those ASSHOLES! What do you MEAN I can't go over and rummage through PAPERWORK! RAHHHH!!!! These BITCHES! I hate THEM!"

Yeah, that will be a rough few months for the rest of the Resistance. Not for Tubbo though, he only had to live with that nuisance for another 2 weeks. HAH! Fuck you, bitches, he was turning 18 soon enough and will live to live that cottagecore runaway life style with his soon to be husband WA02. 

Chapter Text

"So." 

A man with strawberry blond hair approached him, one that Tubbo knew of for a long time. Not very close, or close at all actually, but known off due to previous... Rumors. 

Scott Smajor was Pogtopia's event manager. Tubbo still didn't quite get why they would need an event manager during the end of the world, and he certainly didn't act like an event manager, but he wasn't about to doubt Phil's choices. Or whoever made the choice of making him an event manager. Did anyone really ever make him an event manager? Tubbo had to stop thinking. 

"It's your 18th birthday in a day, right?" He asked, and Tubbo simply nodded. "Great. Have you talked to Quackity and Phil about it?" Tubbo nodded again. "Awesome. I'm setting up contracts with both of them to arrange what you're allowed and what you aren't." 

Again, Tubbo had to leave himself wonder, what made this man an event manager. He was more not a manager than an event specific one. But Tubbo knew better than to ask. 

"We're assuming you're gonna break a lot of rules when you hit that mark," Scott informed him, and Tubbo wasn't exactly surprised. He and his trio weren't exactly known for being angels. Especially lately, with the whole... Fred stuff. "Yea... I guessed." 

.

Okay, so Tubbo doesn't really know how exactly he managed to make Scott look so pissed at him. He didn't think he did or said anything wrong in their small encounter.  

Okay, maybe Scott simply didn't like overconfident kids who broke rules! That was fine, wasn't it? Every adult- Except one, but that man was long, long gone- would prefer if a kid simply just followed the rules. Tubbo could get that. It was fine. It didn't matter. 

Scott bought out some papers and gave some to Tubbo, one glance at them and he could tell those were rules, the ones he'd grown to know and ignore. "Were going to go over these," he explained, and Tubbo couldn't quite shake off just how annoyed he sounded, "And talk about the rules you can break and how many times, mandatory rules that will end up in punishment if broken, and all that stuff, you hear me?" 

Really, how was Scott an event manager? 

"Yup!" 

Scott growls. It seems like even being positive sets this guy off. Tubbo doesn't know what to do do at that point, abandoning trying to look positive to soothe whatever crap that guy was going through. After a while of staying quiet, he simply clears his throat and snaps his attention back to the papers. 

"You are not to leave Pogtopia without permission of the guards. You know this one. Probably, I mean. The guards always let people out, so if they don't you better rethink your actions." Scott had informed him of something he was well aware of. It hardly happened that guards denied access to the outside world. Maybe when a hoard of zombies were coming through or there seemed to be a weather fluke, or you really fucked up in a way. Tubbo got that.

"You are not to leave Pogtopia during Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. The zombies get especially hungry at those times and therefore is dangerous and forbidden for members to go out. Even well licensed survivors like Étoiles get denied outings, except for emergencies." Tubbo also knew this, it was the most basic rule. Everybody knew this. 

"You get to choose how much missions you want Quackity and Fundy to attribute to you, however it cannot be zero. Missions you are given are mandatory to complete and more important to do than... Whatever else you get up to when you're outside." Tubbo doesn't know why he feels judged at this, obviously pointing fingers at Fred. He blushes slightly and hopes the blond man doesn't notice. "Otherwise, you will be reprimanded and punished. Maybe even revoked your rights to go out for anything other than a mission for a while." 

Made sense. Yup. Tubbo knew the missions he'd be attributed would probably be raiding some houses of their furniture or stitching them back up, or scouting out the outer skirts of the city for any type of population... Or maybe not the latter, since Tubbo was known as the guy who didnt want to let a guy into the resistance, so... 

Scott continues like this for a while, explaining rules and what they meant, and who to go to if you wanted a specific role, like a nurse like Niki, or a farmer like Tina and Bagi, or a planner like Quackity and Fundy, or.. well, and event manager like Scott. 

"How are you an event manager?" Tubbo asks out loud, not meaning for it to be let slip. After all, he had been thinking about it for a while, but he wasn't gonna ask any questions to this pessimistic guy.

"That's what I want to be. An event manager. I do events." ..Sure. Which is why there have been so many events in the past, and why this was totally not the first time Tubbo met the guy at the resistance. Well, not the first time-- he knew the basics of the guy, joined Pogtopia 3 to 4 years ago when found on the outer skirts of the city by Phil. Just barely hitting the one year of the apocalypse's start. He remembers this because the guy had been malnourished and basically a miracle, because how had he been surviving alone? 

...And the fact that he had blue hair. Key word: had. Tubbo hadn't heard of Scott for a while after the first wave shock of having him join, and the doubts of him secretly being infected, but he knew the guy had blue hair: and that clearly wasn't the case anymore. And something tells him that Strawberry Blond was not his original hair color, AKA his eyelashes, so it must be hair dye. Tubbo doesn't know the man and his relationships enough to take a guess at who went out of their way to find dye for him-- because it was clear after finding him that he would not go outside. Something he himself insisted on not doing. Tubbo didn't understand a lot of things about this man. Tubbo would literally die if he sat down in Pogtopia all day. 

"... Okay," Tubbo decides on answering with, because he was not going to go on an argument with that guy. "I guess that makes sense." It doesn't, it really doesn't, but Tubbo couldn't find it in himself to argue on what could be a sensitive subject. 

"It does. Thanks." 

-

"He was so weird!" Tubbo whined to his best friends. 

Tommy just told him to suck it up and to deal with it but Ranboo had nodded, "Yeah, he was like this too when I met him at my eighteenth," he'd assured, and if that didn't make Tubbo feel like crap because Ranboo hadn't come to them about it. 

"I mean, I'm sure he's a lovely guy, Phil and Niki said so.." "Bullshit!" Tubbo interrupted, "he was like, judging me half the time. And he was so weird about Fred too! I just- Ugh!" 

"Well I don't think he could be that bad. Jack Manifold said he was a pretty decent guy once he got rid of the bright blue fuckin hair." Tommy had said confidently, as he always did. "That shit didn't even suit him." 

"Since when do you trust fucking Jack Manifold, Tom?" Tubbo asked with a daring tone, remembering some rivalry of last year including paper bombs and others. Mostly Tommy being jealous of Jack being a year older and getting access to the outside alone with permission before him.

"Jack Manifold is a bad man." Tubbo should've guessed. Tommy didn't make sense.

"Either way, we're talking about your birthday." Ranboo rounded the subject back to it's initial point, "I don't know why the mood's down." 

In sync, with a complete bland expression both looking straight at Ranboo's face, Tommy and Tubbo said; "Scott." 

"Okay, well. Fair." Ranboo had replied resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "But we're not gonna spend this day moping around, are we?" 

Tubbo looks at Tommy. They're both thinking the same thing. "Well I don't know but personally I spend all my birthdays moping, Rambo." Tubbo had said with a flat, monotone voice that sounded nothing but serious. Tommy nods next to him. "Didn't you literally tell me to do drugs and cry during my seventeenth birthday?" He'd reminded. 

Ranboo stood there for a second, deadpan look on his face. 

"First off, there is no drugs in the end of the world," Ranboo said, which got a little laugh out of the other two. Ranboo would not ask why, and they both knew, because he would be too scared of what they had to answer. "Plus, you told yourself to cry. Nerd." 

"WOW!" Tommy yelled out as he heard the last word rolling off his friends tongue. "I am NOT a nerd, thank you very much." 

"Ranboo, out of the three of us you were definitely the nerd in middle school." Tubbo accused, getting Ranboo to stutter and try to defend himself. He smirked seeing the state he'd left his friend in.

"We're getting away from the subject!" Ranboo had shouted out as a last mean to get out of his embarrassment. "Happy birthday Tubbo." He smiles slightly at the reminder, thinking back at happy birthdays he'd gotten years ago. The one last year could have been noted as a good one, but compared to the others...

Tubbo misses Schlatt.

"At least, I get a birthday present this year," Tubbo says with a hint of amusement; "Freedom." He could hear Ranboo chuckle, but Tommy mumbles something he doesn't quite hear, but he could guess it was due to the fact that they didn't have it in the first place. 

And, well. Not in the way that the apocalypse had stripped it from them. Tommy's situation was a bit more complicated than that.

-

"You're going out, man?" Etoiles. Etoiles was at guard today. Thanks god. Tubbo's pretty sure Phil or Cellbit wouldn't let him go out right after his 18th due to all the drama surrounding himself and his friends, and not to mention alone. Yeah, that's right, cuz Tubbo could finally go ahead and meet his friends outside alone. 

But Etoiles, the goat that he was, didn't care about... Just about everything. So he was clear to go, obviously.

"Yup! Going to see Fred and meet with Ranboo later," He doesn't feel bad about saying the truth, he really doesn't. Although, for some reason, that seems to make Etoiles chuckle. He doesn't hide why long, though; "You talk about your outing as if it wasn't the apocalypse."

..And, well, yeah. Yeah he does, actually.

"After 6 years of living in the apocalypse, it's what becomes normal, you know? Can't let the world beat you up." It felt crazy to say these things out loud, when normal wasn't even an option when he'd first seen Schlatt succumb to these things, when he was holding his hand and begging him to stay, telling the resistance that it was impossible, that he was gonna beat the infection, that he couldn't go because it wasn't supposed to be that way---

"Some people are more offended by that fact-- I remember when I turned eighteen, man." And.. Well. Etoiles didn't necessarily sound sad when saying that. But thinking about it, and thinking about Ranboo, and how they said that Scott had acted the same around them for their birthday, and how everybody seemed to say Scott was actually an angel. 

It gets you thinking, is what Tubbo is trying to say.

"Welp, I can't say beating up Zombies for a living isn't fun though." That's Etoiles, Tubbo recognizes him. He smirks hearing that. Adding to the bit, Tubbo says, "And I can't say living in an underground operation trying to save yourself from the world isn't cool either."

"Have fun with your loverboy, Tubbo," He says, and he sounds so caring. Because unlike some people, Etoiles actually cares and trusts him. But..

Well.

"SHUT UP!"

Chapter Text

'I didn't know you were a child,' 

Tubbo almost gasps reading the little paper they've been communicating on, before remembering that ruining the silence in this room would be hella embarrassing, and the fact he didn't want to end up owning the federation like Elena, or, well, fired.

'Excuse you! I'm literally 18.' Before...

Well. Tubbo had never known what age Fred was. And with the lack of facial features due to some sort of crazy ass surgery, well, there wasn't any way to tell.

...Had he been talking to an old man?

'Wait, wait... WA02, how old are you?'

'I'm 21. I got hired here when I was 16, actually. Just a bit younger than you.' He was just about to write something when WA02 seemed to start writing again, 'Actually, you haven't been hired at all. Nervermind.'

Tubbo's actually relieved as he heard how old WA02 was. Because he kinda was hot, even with no facial features, that is. Perhaps he would've looked terrifying 6 years ago-- Back when he didn't know how easily it is to slash through flesh, how hard a bone was to break, how you could just let the fear consume while you ran for your life, as he heard his dad's screams for him to get out, to never trust anyone, to be careful and to live---

He shook away those thoughts. That happened years ago. It didn't matter now.

'16 is a pretty young age to get hired at. Was it for winter break?' He knew WA02 barely joined weeks before the apocalypse started-- So it had to be during winter. Because he remembers the cold feeling of his dad's dead hands on the floor, as he screamed to help him, that he had to wake up, but they didn't listen, they never did, they never would--

'No,' He'd written, 'I got kicked out. Had to find a job to house me, you know? The Federation had that. And since they were new-- Well, they were desperate for workers. So they took in a 16 year old instead of calling CPS.'

Tubbo had come to terms long ago that WA02 was weird. Sometimes-- Most of the time, he'd say that the Federation was saint. That they'd saved him from the apocalypse, from ever having to worry about survival- And sometimes...

And, well, Tubbo was never particularly known for being subtle. 'What are your real thoughts on the Federation?'

'They saved me. Twice. Once from being homeless, once from being killed in the end of the world.' Right. Tubbo should've expected it. 'But... That doesn't mean I agree with all that they do.'

'What do they do?'

'I thought it was WD020's job to find information.'

Then, Tubbo feels something he hasn't felt in a very long time. Tubbo felt out of place.

Tubbo was considered a WD, after all, and they'd never get given information like the higher ups-- and WA02 was still loyal to his job, and made sure to never give any more than surface level information any legally employed WD would get. 

He remembered this, no matter how heavenly, was still a business in the apocalypse. 

...

'Do you want coffee?'

'Yes.'

-

"Say, Tommy," Tubbo had started to ask when he'd met with his friend back at Pogtopia. He'd whispered the next part though, 'cause he doesn't want to risk anybody overhearing their conversation. "What was the info you got back at the Fed? You never really did talk about it."

Tommy takes a second before shrugging and replying with; "They're doing tests on Zombies." He starts to explain, and Tubbo almost flinches at how loud he's being- in retrospect, he wasn't being that loud, simply talking at a normal volume, but... Well. Tubbo's scared. After all the leaders had done so far, he wouldn't put it past them to eavesdrop.

But, at the same time, he really couldn't be more glad for Tommy at the moment. He and Ranboo both really weren't into searching- More admiring, drinking, and just... While Tommy did the real hard stuff. Even this one sentence explained how WA02 even knew what Zombies looked like.

"Taking notes, comparing them with ones made 6 years ago-- Did you know they also used a calendar?- Testing by mixing chemicals, test subjects, noting whether the infection spreads to animals- All that stuff." So.. Nothing particularly alarming at first glance, but...

Well, considering this was an evil looking underground organization during the apocalypse, he felt the need to ask, just in case they were in a... Movie, or something like that.

"Uh-huh. And what did they do before the world ended?"There's a silence for a few seconds, before Tubbo notices the obvious smirk on his best friend's face as he answers; "Well, the Fed was really new back then," Matched with what WA02 said earlier.. "So there weren't many documents about it, mostly boring tests that went nowhere, but--"

Taking a breath to regain his breath and probably stop his cheeks from hurting 'cause of all the smiling he's been doing, he continues, "That's where the real cool stuff begins,"

Tubbo scoffs at that, "So, being in a literal Zombie Apocalypse isn't cool enough for you?" "Nah, that's just traumatizing, not cool, Toby. Learn the difference." "Fuck off." He doesn't, he simply shoves Tubbo to the side and laughs. Ugh.

"Get on with it!" "Okay--- They were snooping in the government's business," Which explains exactly why they hadn't reported WA02 to CPS, "Really illegal stuff, on both sides; Drug dealings, some sort of prostitution, there's records of a shooting somewhere.. And actively endorsing kidnapping. Sponsoring another company who exploits humans, not sure of the name, though. They used the excuse of loopholes and the fact that the government itself endorsed those to partake in it themselves countless times. They had some really strong lawyers, too, to back them up. That was what Elena was supposed to be. Talk about being a role model."

That's disgusting. His mind wanders back to the woman WA02 speaks so fondly off... Did he know? Surely not. The organization wouldn't tell a brand new hire their top secrets, right? Right. "I.." He almost says something, before being cut off- "Oh, and like, right before I got forbidden from leaving the Res, I took a look at her file- Did you know her boyfriend was a victim of the shooting I mentioned earlier? ...Guess not, 'cause you didn't know about it in the first place. Well guess what! Neither does she. They were keeping loads of secrets back then."

Tubbo tried his best not to look too relieved. 'Cause if they kept secrets from WS01, then surely they'd kept secrets from a WD who's joined at age 16, right? Right.

"And after the Apocalypse started, right, the Fed like, turned a new fuckin' leaf. 'Cause it's the end of the world, there's no government to mess with. And I don't know if they did it to survive, or to hopefully restore a government to mess with again, but they're trying their best to contain and find ways to avoid infection. 'Cause they're not delusional and realize that zombies are dead and there's no curing them." And, well, maybe this one hits a little bit too close to home, closer than Tommy probably knew about.

"Did you know that's what the surgeries are for, by the way?" "Oh my god," Tubbo interrupts as Tommy's words repeated in his head, as his brain tried desperately to process the overflowing amount of information being thrown at him, "Slow down, will you? You speak about this like it's Friday night's gossip and not horrors."

"Fofoca," Tommy corrected, "And it kinda is? Friday night's gossip, I mean," he says as he points to the calendar hung up on the wall, but doesn't linger on it for too long. "Sucks for the victims of their crimes, but like, those people are also probably Zombies who've tried to kill me, so I don't feel too bad. Can't hold debts from the dead and all that, you know?" And, well, the lack of morals or empathy during the Apocalypse really doesn't surprise Tubbo. At least, not as much as it should. "Do you wanna hear about the surgeries or not?"

"Fine." He'd accepted despite knowing that he'd come to regret it later on, "Remember how I said they were trying to find ways to avoid further infection?" Of course not, Tubbo thinks, that had gotten lost in the jumble of information. "Well, they're made to make you look robotic of bear-like, depending on your point of view-"

They did look like itty-bitty little teddy bears.

"And they put on this really strong, borderline toxic perfume when interacting with Zombies, it jams their visual and smelling senses, so that the Zombies don't register them as human, as a snack. And that's also why they mostly don't talk, to mess up their hearing senses, too."

..Oh. Well, that's better than then going for the 'weird work uniform' assumption he'd had so far.

"Well.. You still talk about it like it's Friday night's gossip, and not horrible events-" "It's the closest thing I'll get to FNaF lore in this day and age!"

God fucking dammit.

-

Tubbo really shouldn't feel surprised when he feels a tap on his shoulder by the water fountain. You'd think he'd get used to it after literal months of being in the Federation, but, well. No. 'Cause Tubbo didn't work like that. So yeah, he gets surprised when he feels a soft hand tapping his shoulder to get his attention.

It's WA02, because of course it's WA02, and they're right by his side, and they slip a little note to Tubbo, one that says the few simple words; 'I missed you,'

Tubbo's mind wanders back to Elena, and the praise she'd gotten from WA02. He couldn't have known, no, he couldn't.

'Tommy knows a lot.' Tubbo admits, 'Things I wouldn't personally like knowing about. But I do now.'

'I'm sorry,' He writes, but Tubbo doesn't want to read it.

They sit by the water fountain for a while, as they always do, and WA02 draws a few things here and there on the corner of the papers. It's sweet.

'How much?' WA02 had asked after a while, 'How much do you know, now?' Tubbo doesn't know how to answer that.

'I know,' He starts, but doesn't find the words. He knows a lot and too little at the same time, it feels like. 'I know why the surgeries are necessary, and about the notes.' He doesn't want to mention Elena, what she wanted to become, the shooting and he boyfriend. He doesn't.

He's not sure why. Is it because he doesn't want to find out that WA02 is a bad person?

'Yeah,' A pause, WA02 hesitates on what to write next, 'I figured. We don't tell that to WD's... Some WC's. They get scared.' That does make sense. After all, even Tubbo was scared. Tubbo was scared of a lot of things. Some of those being tinted glass bottles and popped out brown eyes. He doesn't want to think about it.

He doesn't even realize the other hadn't finished writing, 'I think you're very brave,' And it suddenly gets very hard to get a hold of himself, to look his way hoping he's not too red. To push back some urges, his most wanted desires, things he'd do to him if given permission. It suddenly gets very hard to get a hold of himself.

But WA02 looks at him... In such a fond way. And he's smiling, and Tubbo simply wishes to abandon everything, pick him up and put him in his pocket-- For him to cherish, and hopefully, for WA02 to feel loved.

After a while, they pick their pen back up to write again. 'I think I wanna be brave too.'

Tubbo's heart stops.

'How brave we talkin', man?' He asks, because of course he does. What else could he do?

'Can I hear your voice?'

Shit.

Chapter Text

Tubbo loved WA02.

This wasn't a secret. He knew this as they escaped and they both had to hold back giggles, not to get caught by any other worker. It was fun. It was so much fun. Tubbo loved WA02.

He was just so pretty, and inhuman, his perfect white skin looking sewed together like a doll, his deep brown eyes looking like they could pop out any seconds, with his white and blue uniform that just fit him so well.

Tubbo felt cold next to WA02. Not in a bad way. He felt cold like he'd feel cold if there was a cold breeze, shivering under every light feathered touch. Tubbo loved WA02.

They've taken a few papers with them. WA02 had already apologized for not being able to do the same. For being selfish and ask for something he couldn't return. Tubbo didn't mind. He knew that their situations were different. That while WA02 had been raised there practically his whole young adult life, Tubbo was simply following their rules to stay under cover.

He'd asked what WA02 wanted to hear him say. He'd said that it didn't matter. That no matter what, this was an act of trust that he'd cherish forever. Little did he know, they were someone Tubbo was willing to cherish forever.

Tubbo had thought about it. Obviously. Of course he'd thought about saying the words he'd never be able to write in front of WA02. I love you. Of course he did. And some stupid, stupid part of his brain tried to convince him to do it, hoped that maybe it would've been so long since he'd heard anybody speak that he wouldn't understand what he was saying.

He's delusional. He'd heard Elena speak. Speak so fondly and express how much she cared. But after what he'd learnt, Tubbo would rather die than to be loved by her.

Then why? Why wouldn't he prefer to die then to be loved by WA02? Why did Tubbo hope for him to one day love him, when he could be just like, or even worse off, than Elena?

Hope and Ignorance. He is staying ignorant willingly. Because who would blame him for loving when he didn't know? Poor, innocent, naive, loving Tubbo, loving a monster. Someone he couldn't have possibly known to be more than they appeared to be.

So maybe Tubbo was the bad guy here. But could you truly blame him? He was in love. People would kill- quite literally- to feel be in love during the apocalypse. To feel something so normal during the apocalypse. Tubbo hadn't had a chance to experience love when the world ended 6 years ago. When Tubbo had barely been 13.

He'd settled on a pun. Everybody loved a good pun from time to time. Now all he had to do was find a good pun to say. Roses are red, Violets are blue, Zombies' well fed, Now we can be... Fools? That was in no way a pun. Tubbo was gonna try it anyway.

And he does, and it's so dumb that WA02 laughs and god does Tubbo was never gonna get over how pretty that rare, rare sound was. Soon enough WA02 picks up their pen to answer.

'Oh my god, for a second I thought you might confess your love or something,' Nope. Totally not. That wasn't something Tubbo even thought about doing. 'That would've been so awkward. You're so silly, Tubbo.' Yeah. It.. Would've been awkward. He's just a little bit silly. He just hopes WA02 hasn't seen his mood change.

"No, that's not my thing," He says, you know, like a liar. "I would've gone for a good pun, but I couldn't find one quick enough. So I had to make do." At least, that was the truth. Kind off. Things WA02 didn't know couldn't hurt them. Like Fred. Or his feeling. Or Elena. Or the shooting.

Tubbo realizes he's hiding a lot of things from WA02. He doesn't like that fact.

-

Tubbo hated the French.

Well, actually, that was kind of a lie. Etoiles, after all, was the Goat! And the Resistance definitely wouldn't be the same without him. He even stood by his side in the whole 'Fred' argument! And, well, Baghera was quite silly. She was part of the whole... 'Bolas Rojas' shkebang, too, whioch immediately made her cool. Antoine was a quite chill guy, too! He patted him on the back despite everyone calling him careless and, well...

Technically, Pierre wasn't that bad. He just took the other's side when it came to the whole 'Fred' situation... But so did Phil, and Tubbo loved Phil. Who couldn't love Philza Minecraft? So it just felt.. Wrong to say that he disliked Pierre just because of that.

But the fact that he did stick by that mindset immediately alerted Tubbo that he was in deep trouble once he came back to Pogtopia and the first thing he saw was good ol' AyPierre, standing there with a dumb grin on his face.

"Fancy seeing you here... Tubbo." With his stupid face, stupid french accent, stupid self, that makes Tubbo want to punch him.

Now, there was little Tubbo could do.

Either he could act innocent to try and brush off whatever rumor Pierre believed about him, but that could end badly in Pierre not trusting him at all and starting rumors about he was deceiving, or he could just brush off Pierre and not bother with him, which will automatically make Pierre assume that he's out of words and  that the rumors are true, or-

Or, well, he could just... Not care.

"Listen, Pierre, I'm not up for this tonight." He says, passing by him. At least, it's the truth. He hasn't told a whole lot of that recently. 

"Oh yeah, got your boyfriend to think about?"

That hits a nerve. He's not exactly sure how, or why, but he tries really hard not to make his face go red from anger, embarrassment, and well. Although it's quite obvious he's failing.

"Fuck off."

-

"He was such a fucking asshole!"

Yelling that out loud at the corner of the sleeping room while being like, the most hated person ever, probably wasn't a smart thing to do? But Tubbo did not care. Pierre was such a bitch and he stood by that. Tommy, too, stood by that. 'Cause Tommy's awesome and agreed with him on anything. Especially if it came to Americans or the French.

"Oh yeah, got your boyfriend to think about? Go to hell!" Maybe, maybe it was the anger building up that made him shit talk Pierre to that extent, but he felt like he had the right to be angry after everything that's happened-- The rumors, the hatred, the side glances and everything he choose to ignore.

"Right? Like that's just being a fuck ass piece of shit, innit? Bitch ass motherfucker." ..Well, at least, it sounded like Tommy agreed. Not that Tubbo could make out anything but cuss words out of that sentence, but that's basically all they've been doing for the past few minutes, so..

"Absolutely, you just get it, don't you, Tomm-" "What are my pretty girls upset at this time?" Ranboo'd said as he approached them, which was fucking rude. But, hey, at least they were pretty. So Tubbo takes that as a win.

"Shut up, you bitch." Tommy'd taken the opportunity to snap back, which just made Ranboo sigh. "We're upset over the French and their rebellious ass,"

"Don't you have a rebellious ass?" He asks which is also fucking rude, "I have a very nice ass, thank you, Ranboo."

"Don't say that or they'll think you're talking about Fred."..Wasn't Tommy supposed to be on his side?!

Either way, the comment got Tubbo to blush out of embarrassment, like most comments did nowadays. Pogtopia really had it out for him lately-- He's gonna start throwing hands soon if it continues.

"Shut up. I hate Fred." Which technically wasn't a lie- He hated the lie that Fred was. Fred wasn't real-- He was a copy of WA02, something he'd had to be ashamed of, something he had to hide, something he had to give a name to- WA02 didn't have a name and he was fine with that. Who was Tubbo to just.. Fucking decide his name?

"Sure. That's why you make kissy kissy faces at him," What does that even mean? "I do not do kissy kissy faces at him. Shut the fuck up."

Either way, it didn't matter, because WA02 had made it pretty fucking clear that he didn't feel the same; It would've been awkward if Tubbo had confessed his love earlier that day. And he's very glad he didn't. But something in him..

The butterflies in his stomach are so stupid. Loving someone who couldn't, shouldn't be loved. By all means, Tubbo should be terrified of WA02. Terrified of the Federation. Terrified by the lack of morals he and Tommy seem to share, but..

Well.

Pros and cons of living in an apocalypse.

Chapter Text

"So, uhm, I've gotten that sorted!" Niki finishes up nervously, "Big thanks to Etoiles, obviously, that mustn't have been easy.. We're all thankful!" Etoiles had gone ahead and raided a few hospitals and nurseries to get more equipment for Niki, giving them resources for the next few months. Tubbo was glad! Really!

It.. Well. It simply wasn't the first thing on his mind. He hadn't been too involved in the nursery for a while, not since Ranboo got his cheek torn off a few months back-- Oh, the bad old times.. Back when they were terrified of the Federation. Did they ever stop feeling that way? Back when they suspected the Federation to be some movie underground organization. They literally are. Back when they didn't whether or not they were good people. They aren't. 

This meeting specifically was particularly boring. He doesn't even know why it was called. There hadn't been any world crashing revelations in a while now, and everything's that's been said is no more than an update on something they already knew was happening. 

But whatever, it wasn't like he showed up to a meeting expecting it to be fun. The only time a meeting was fun was back when 'bolas rojas' first started putting on the gas masks as a permanent feature to their style. They were pretty crazy.

"I want to announce something too," Quackity raised his hand, and as the schedule manager.. Well. Tubbo feels like he has the right to feel a bit scared, considering they'd already compromised him once by using his schedule against him-- Not getting out until he's 18, which poor Tommy is still suffering from.

"Fundy has been promoted to my ranks, meaning some schedules I used to take care of will now be under his supervision. Notably Badboyhalo." ...Oh. Yeah no, Tubbo doesn't know why he didn't see that coming earlier. Fundy, being around his 20s, wasn't that much of a higher up, but now had been promoted. Even though it's a little early-- Everybody knew Quackity would do anything in order not to talk to Bad.

Niki, Tommy, Ranboo and a few other proceed to congratulate him, but it would be a surprise if nobody noticed the "Fuck Badboyhalo" both Quackity and Charlie cheered. Bad doesn't seem to be that affected by it, so nobody comments on it.

Cellbit fake coughs a few times to get the others' attention on him.

"So, is that it for today's meeting?" He asks which is dumb, because meetings are supposed to be prepared. Tubbo doesn't really get why this one was happening. Just a catch up? A get together? To know how things are going? Probably. Communication between groups isn't easy. Especially during the Apocalypse. Tubbo could give them that.

Nobody answered-- It had been quite a long meeting after all. Not that long, but long enough to know the name of Tina's favorite flower. He's pretty sure Bagi took note of it and will raid a flower shop tomorrow. Ah, love.

"No nothing?" Why was Cellbit continuing, insisting? It was clear that this was all there was to it? And then Cellbit turned his attention to him. "Not even news from a certain Blue Boy?"

Oh no.

But then-- "Right then, I think we're done here." Scott said.

Scott Smajor. Had just-- Did Scott just stand up for him? What? Didn't Scott hate WA02? Or at least the rumors around 'Fred'? Tubbo didn't understand. It simply didn't make sense! Hell, who cares about the Fred situation? Scott hated everyone! Except, like, Niki, but nobody hated Niki, so why was he defending him?

It took one look at his face- His quite literally distraught face- Why did he look so pale?- To understand that this had nothing to do with him at all. That was just Scott being Scott.

-

"So what's up? We getting mad over this shit?" Tommy was the first one to speak up as he arrived to the main sleeping room, few apples in hand, kicking over sleeping bags that weren't his with no care in the world. Oh well. Tubbo just nodded, giving confirmation to Tommy. 'Cause yeah, they were absolutely 'getting mad over this shit'.

How the fuck did they know WA02 had a blue uniform?

"I'm more surprised over Scott, honestly," Ranboo took his turn to talk, and Tubbo doubts he realizes the gravity of this situation...  And Tommy wouldn't let it happen. "Who cares about his gay fucking ass? I'm mad over Pierre! That bitchass motherfucker--"

"Scott's gay?" "Why are you so obsessed with everybody's ass-"

"Oh. My. God. Tubbo, he is a walking pride flag. If he isn't gay, who is? And I'm only interested in 17 year old ass, but there's no fucking people our age here. Complete offense, I don't want yours or Ranboo's." ..Which is. Okay. Tubbo doesn't even know why they aren't talking about the elephant in the room--- So he tries to circle back to it;"No offense taken. I don't want your either, but guys--"

"Yeah, 'cause you want Fred's." And getting interrupted, especially like that, makes Tubbo forget what he was gonna say. 

"It's WA02 to you!" He whispers aggressively, enough that it gets the message that he's pissed across, but not so much so that the others hear it. "You know damn well that's not his name. What if he doesn't like being called that?" And maybe he worries too much, about something so little, when they knew the color of WA02's uniform-- But he doesn't want to think of a possibility to hurt WA02. Which is rather funny, because doesn't he do that every day? Which is funny, because now they know what WA02 looks like for some god forsaken reason, and they're not even addressing it.

"If you weren't a fuckin' coward you'd ask him," Tommy snapped back, and his voice was laced with an accusing tone, one that Tubbo heard too many people speak in, recently, one that he just.. Couldn't stand. His hands started to form fists, because of all people Tommy couldn't be the one to say that, when he'd held off on so much information from the Fed during all this time...

"Boys, calm down." Ranboo interrupted their conversation before it started to become a little bit, well.. Too heated, let's say. But Tommy just scoffs, and Tubbo just wants to yell at his stupid face, before he says- "Not even a boy." Which...

Oh.

Well.

Both Tubbo and Ranboo can't really say anything to that, before Tommy just laughs seeing their reactions and walks away.

Put that on the 2024 Bingo.

Alongside the fact they haven't talked about the fact they knew about the uniform, god fucking damn it!

-

Just the next day, Tubbo found himself sitting in the room. Again. Having to look directly at Cellbit and Pierre's stupid face. Again.

What was the point of them, anyway? They clearly saw that there was nothing to say yesterday! So, unless there was an emergency, Tubbo really doesn't see the point of this, and he really didn't think that was the case either, since they're oh so hyperfixated on WA02 and his fucking uniform! As well as the fact that they were all sat there.... In complete silence. 

Except, well, for Pac and Fit. Exchanging gossip. Fofoca. Fucking Gossip Girls. It was really awkward. Especially for Tubbo! Ever since the whole Fred situation, Bagi and Felps were told to sit next to him, as if that was gonna get him to say anything. Meanwhile, Tommy and Ranboo could sit next to each other, just like they were doing now, drawing in a little piece of paper... Ignoring all their problems. 

Tubbo really wants to get mad over them, over the fact that they don't care like he does, over the fact that they don't see the implications and gravity of this like he does.. But seeing them like that, so calm, when he wasn't.. Well. His heart melts, and he can't really afford to get mad. Especially in front of everybody. 

Or just Scott, really. 'Cause even Scott looked like he'd rather do anything than to sit there. Well.. He always kinda looked like that, but this time it was even more so obvious; as if he was trying to tell the world he was done with it's bullshit. Which could be linked back to his intervention last meeting, but.. Well. Scott was weird.

Tubbo really wanted to say that Scott did that out of the kindness of his heart and because he believes WA02 should deserve his privacy or that Tubbo is innocent and is on his side, just to be able to brag, but he doubts that was the case considering how his eyes watered and he stomped out the meeting room last time. Oh well.

They're not even trying to hide it after yesterday. All the leaders, except for Etoiles the GOAT, are looking at him with wide eyes. It was kinda creepy, so he tried not to pay attention to it, preferring to look at Tommy and Ranboo. Having a fun time together.

Huh. He was the only guy in their group. Funny.

At some point, Pierre starts to speak, and Tubbo really wants to punch his stupid face, but he doesn't. Instead, all that Tubbo does is simply not listen. Tubbo should be able to understand it, that wasn't the problem: Pierre was pretty fluent in english, and even when he doesn't know words; he whispers it to Etoiles to find out. He used to find it endearing, but now with all that's going on, he really can't stand his squeaky voice. He can't really stand any voices.

Maybe that's also why he liked WA02 so much. Maybe that's why his presence was so calming, talking without any sound. A contrast, compared to how loud Pogtopia is. And the fact that they were now maybe spying on him. And WA02. Like they did at the start with Ranboo.

Pierre is talking about Soulfire, an energy he and Badboyhalo wanted to mess with a little bit more. If it were in any other circumstances, Tubbo would light up and raise his hand excitedly when he asks if somebody wants to help. But he doesn't. Because he knows damn well where Pierre stands, and he's not exactly sure about Bad.

It hurts, in a way. It feels like middle school all over again-- Rumors, and being cast aside. Snarky comments about 'lover boys'. Not being stalked because you talk to someone that isn't part of a super paranoid survivor club. Middle school, yeah, something he hadn't gotten to finish.

He has a feeling that he knows where this train of thought would lead him: He stops his it before it circles back to Schlatt.

It seems to be doing that a lot more these days.

They hadn't managed to save him.

He would save WA02. Even if nobody would listen.

Chapter Text

'Your thinking is too loud for this room,' WA02 writes in the little bit of paper, in a weirdly poetic way, but Tubbo knows he must look like a mess.

He's angry. Frustrated. Irritated. The past few days of just continuous meetings have been lessening his time to go out, his time with WA02, and he hates it, because that makes him angry all the time, and sometimes even when he's with WA02. And WA02 doesn't deserve that, he really doesn't..

So he tries his best to smile and shake off the thoughts, the thoughts yelling at him that WA02 is in danger. Because he is. The leaders know his Uniform is blue which means they know what WA02 looks like which means they probably know the approximate location of where the Federation is, which means that...

'Stop thinking. Stop.' WA02 writes again, while poking him in the arm to get his attention. Tubbo sighs; WA02 really didn't deserve him being in a bad, boring mood for the little time that they're together. 'If you're gonna think so hard, at least tell me what you're thinking about.' He ends up writing, and, well..

'You know I come from a survival group, right?' He says, which is not completely true, because he comes from a messy home that smells of alcohol, but he doesn't need to specify that. He'd spent the last years in that group, after all, he should be over it. He is over it! Tubbo doesn't even know what you're talking about. What's alcohol? Hah!

WA02 nods, because there would be no use in just writing yes, so Tubbo continues to write, 'Well, they're not exactly a fan of me going out every day, especially since I'm newly 18 and basically an irresponsible teen. So they've started rumors about me and who I go out seeing,' Tubbo writes and he can already see WA02's frown and he's not sure he wants to continue, but the other writes;

'Rumors? What, are they highschoolers or something? Couldn't you just be out having fun with your friends?' Which is true, and is an argument that Tubbo and Tommy always say, but they never take them seriously. Eh. Whatever. 'No. For some reason, we must be doing something wrong outside. Which we aren't. I just like being with you.'

Tubbo hopes he isn't blushing, then continues before seeing WA02's reaction. 'I think... They might've followed me here at some point, or seen me out, beause.. Promise not to be mad?' 'I could never be mad at you,' Which does ridiculous things to Tubbo's heart, okay, but he doesn't pay any mind to it, or else he things he might go mad.

'They know the color of your uniform. They called you blue boy.' Which could only make WA02 mad, right, not because they're doing anything wrong, right, no, not at all, just for invasion of privacy, but.. Well, Then, WA02 writes, 'Aw. I can be your blue boy.'

Is Tubbo paranoid or is he the only one with logical, critical thinking for having a bad feeling about all of this?

-

Tubbo thinks he's gonna die in this exact room.

Or, well, maybe he's being dramatic, you never know, but think about it! The meeting room, considering he now spent just about 70% of his time there because for some reason- And the leaders would deny if asked if it were caused by some rumors- the meetings' frequencies have been increased to an every day occasion.

There's a chance, whether it be a zombie going through the main door, thanks to the lack of guards who would be too busy in useless meetings, and erasing all their progress and murdering them all, or if just by sheer boredom, Tubbo would die in this room. Though, he'd rather that zombie idea, so that he can thank them afterwards, unless the zombie was in heaven, then he wouldn't be able to.

But that has yet to happen, so the boredom side was currently winning. Which Tubbo had plenty to complain about: While a zombie eating him alive would contain some action, being bored contained none. Or the worse pain in existence; Listening Pierre talk with his shit fucking french accent that made Tubbo want to dirty the Federation's white, white walls with his blood.

He's not even really sure what they're saying anymore, it all blurs together as he watches Ranboo and Tommy interact from the other side of the table. Tommy's mad at something, he's huffing and crossing his arms like he always does: Tommy's always a little bit angry, it's to be expected, after you learn what he's been through. Hard life before the apocalypse, hard life during the apocalypse. Tubbo doesn't envy him.

But Tommy's getting more angry: He can see it, everybody can see it: The leaders can see it. Tubbo sometimes wonders if they're being so pissy and petty on purpose, to anger him and Tommy. To make them talk back, to give them a reason to punish them, to hold them back from going outside.

It's wrong, and it feels so wrong, that he's being seen as some sort of.. Scum, for lack of a better word, just because he doesn't act like the picture perfect survivor: All he's done is respect a company's privacy when they're doing nothing wrong. Wanting privacy isn't bad, and doesn't mean they have anything to hide, when Pogtopia wants to hide. When it takes people into interrogations before welcoming them to the survivor camp. When it's..

Well, dehumanizing would be quite ironic, considering the Fed's policies, but again, he'll use it for lack of a better word.

Maybe that's why Scott's on their side, after all. If he even is on their side, at all. Him being one of the few that hadn't joined right at the start, found a year and a half after the apocalypse first started, had been victim of the dehumanization that is joining Pogtopia: But every body lays low, every body stays quiet.

It's fucked up, like Tommy always said, but it's life. Or not, since the Earth Ended.

The meeting's coming to a close, anyway, if the ever so growing silence is something to judge. Speak of the devil, Scott gets up of his seat-- That guy really had a problem, why the fuck was he so fucking mad and negative all of the time-- And leaves the meeting room. Nobody stops him-- Nobody would dare to stop him. Terrifying Scott Smajor.

..Or so the rumors said. Huh. It's weird how many parallels there are between him and Scott, and it's weird how much of a hypocrite he was playing into these rumors on him, when he's the first one to complain as soon as someone even alludes to WA02. When someone insinuates things about him and 'Fred'. It's weird, yeah, how much of an asshole Tubbo is without meaning to.

Other people start to get up, it would be wrong to stop them, since Scott's gone up and left and no one interrupted him. Niki's the 3rd one to leave, surprisingly. She loves these meetings. Says it's a great opportunity to see everybody. Perhaps it's her way of calling the leaders out on their bullshit. Tubbo smiles at her.

Speaking of the leaders, they're whispering, now, among themselves: It's ridiculous. They do genuinely look like high school bullies. Something Tubbo never went to, and only heard and grew to fear just to have to fear death by zombies in the end. Tubbo doesn't know if he's mad or grateful about that fact. Probably mad. He hates the fact that the world ended.

They get up, too, and Tubbo sees Tommy getting up, followed by Ranboo, so he gets up- It's normal. Everybody's leaving. Nobody's gonna make a nasty rumor about him leaving if everybody else is doing it. Although, in retrospect, they're probably too busy making rumors about Scott, right?

That is until the leaders get up and come next to him: That is sure to overshadow Scott's leave. They're really trying hard to imitate High School bullies, huh? Focusing on one person. Bring all the attention to them. Make sure the rumors spread far and loud. Make sure everybody hates them.

Tubbo's not exactly.. Sure, exactly, when he'd started to feel this much of a hate towards the leaders. All that he knows is that he didn't feel it before the whole Federation ordeal; he admired Cellbit, and didn't have a burning hatred for Pierre, and.. Well. He still.. He still loved Phil, obviously.

Maybe not as much, though.

But that was justified, Tubbo felt like. Phil had caused him so much trouble and created so many rumors against him that would probably stick to his reputation for the next 10 years or so. After all, the rumors about Scott were first spawned in 4 years ago, and they're still going strong.

"Tommy, Ranboo," Speak of the devil again and he may come, Phil calls the other two. What did they have to do with this? That's probably what he hates the most, honestly. While he's the target of most rumors, because he's the one that did most of the arguing to defend WA02, Tommy and Ranboo were rolled in too. Just because they openly supported him. Just because they were his friends. Just because they accompanied him to the Fed.

Tommy curses something under his breath, as Ranboo takes his wrist and guides him over to their direction.

There's a moment of silence, before the leaders speak up again, so much so that Tommy has the time to curse something under his breath again and for Phil to sigh, before saying something, "You three have really been reckless, lately, quite the handful."

Which is annoying. Tubbo would say the same thing about them; Really. Creating rumors and having to deal with them when most of them aren't true, is really a handful. But if he were to say that, then he'd still be the one people glare and frown at. Unfair.

"That's why we decided to have private meetings with the three of you,"

Fuck off, Phil, really?!

-

"That is actual bullshit," Tommy says and Tubbo doesn't remember the last time he'd spoken to his best friend when it wasn't for talking about the Fed or complain about the leaders. He sits back and cuddles a pillow- Its dirty and has been resewed at least 3 times- but he doesn't care. He couldn't care about things like that since he was 13 years old.

It's sad, or so he thinks. That he couldn't even have a normal conversation with his best friends anymore. It's always complaints or secret plans to sneak out again. It's all the fault of these damned leaders, always getting into things that aren't their businesses, always assuming and acting before considering they could just be hanging out.

Not like they do, anymore, because of them. Tommy's always so angry, and Tubbo's a hypocrite for being mad at that. After all, he's angry too, all of he time.

Most of the time, Ranboo stays calm. He listens to their complaints and whisper soft words. He wonders if they get to talk more about other subjects than he does-- Knowing Tommy, he'd look for a distraction during the meetings, and Ranboo would stutter and blush trying to get something out to entertain his friend.

But Tubbo's not a part of that. And it's a selfish and hypocrite thing to do, but Tubbo's angry. Tubbo doesn't see a time where he won't be angry. Maybe when he's with WA02, but even then he feels some weird- Guilt? Lying to him all of the time and.. Well. Tubbo doesn't wanna think anymore, so he listens to Tommy curing out the leaders for the millionth time.

"At least, they're done involving everyone else. That's good.. I think." Ranboo says, not quite sure of their words, as they always are. Quite the nervous fella, around other people. Ranboo shouldn't be this nervous around them. But at the same time, Tubbo could understand. They were all so angry all the time: It's only natural they go back to being nervous. Just one more thing to tick off Tubbo, one more things to add to the things that make Tubbo angry.

He doesn't like being angry, no, it just happens, and he can't control it. He hates it. But hey, at least Ranboo has a point: If less people are affected by this, meaning less people are called to the meetings- Just the three, then they'll have less reasons to create rumors about them. Which is good, he thinks.

But then again: They're not even trying to hide it. Blatantly saying they want to have regular meetings with the three of them. Encaging them. Making them forced to come and inform the guards so that they aren't allowed outside. Well, maybe he could convince Etoiles, but it's not often that he's out on guard.

"I wanna leave this shitty camp," Tommy says and Tubbo doesn't say anything, it's only natural. Tommy's impulsive, and he'll probably leave, only to come back if no one's by his side. And Tubbo wouldn't let anything happen to him: Tommy dying would be like the world ending again, and with Ranboo, they'd probably be able to get him to stay.

But they both stay silent, both too exhausted to argue. Does that say anything about them? About this situation? And how fucked up it is? He hopes so.

Ranboo sighs, gets up, and leaves.

They're really into deep shit.

Tommy gets up, goes after them, and leaves Tubbo alone.

That seems to happen a whole lot more, now.

Chapter Text

The meeting's this evening. Sam is at guard, today, and Tubbo can't help but feel like it's intentional.

Tommy can be a scammer, if he wants to be. He can charm people and convince them to let him go. That's how they got into this mess in the first place: Tommy managing to sneak out to check out some lit up trap door he'd seen on a mission.

But Sam wouldn't let that happen: Sam had something personal against him and Ranboo it seemed, and Tommy was included in the lot. Tubbo didn't hate the guy- He was just doing his job. But so were the leaders, and just like them, Sam had a pretty fucking terrible job, and was being terrible too.

"Hey, man, You OK?" Someone asks from behind him, voice slightly high pitched due to the fact they're speaking english, and their french accent only pointed to it being Etoiles. He turns and looks at the man in the face; Covered with a bandana and bandages. Etoiles, the GOAT, zombie slayer. The one who protected everyone, who made it so that this town was barely inhabited by zombies anymore.

Life wouldn't be the same, with Etoiles, and not just because of his job- Which unlike others, he was really good at it- Etoiles was just a great person in general. Older, wiser, but still. Cool enough that he understands to leave them the fuck alone. Cool enough to stand on their side. Cool enough to outwardly call out Pierre on his bullshit.

At least that's what Tubbo thinks he does, when he calls out Phil and Cellbit on their bullshit in english, then turns to Pierre to say things in french, with the same aggressive tone, that give Pierre that annoyed look on his face. Yeah; Etoiles was one of the good ones. Etoiles was cool.

"They're doing private meetings with me and the gang," Tubbo answers, trying his best to look unaffected: He needed to! He couldn't just be not cool in front of the coolest guy in the camp. Even though Etoiles and Tubbo were on great terms and they would be considered friends, Tubbo still held himself up to a high standard when it came to Etoiles.

"That sucks, man, I'm sorry." And he's not really used to seeing Etoiles be this apologetic: Even when the rumors about WA02 first started, or when Tommy got his throat torn off. He apologized out of sympathy, sure, but now he looked... Almost guilty. And Tubbo wasn't really sure he'd like what that entailed.

"What's up, bossman?" He asks, and he tries heavily not to show that he's worried: This was still the GOAT, after all. Even if.. Well. Even if he looked guilty. If he looked like he was sorry.

"..They're sending me to investigate on Fred's place."

For fuck's sake, leaders! Way to ruin his already ruined day!

He doesn't have the time to be upset. He storms out of the main hall and goes to the office: Phil and the other leaders always met up during the mornings, and they must be there as Tubbo hadn't seen them waking up.

He bursts the door open and sees them alongside Quackity and Fundy- It takes him a moment to remember Fundy had been promoted. They'd probably just given out the higher ups schedules for the day, considering Etoiles had just told him and Badboyhalo along other zombie exterminators weren't there. Scott was there, too. And so was Niki. But he didn't have the time to care. He didn't care about a lot, not anymore. Not when he sees Pierre-- He wasn't even a higher up!-- Sitting with them.

"Mind to explain me what the fuck you think you're doing?" Tubbo says, voice loud and probably aggressive- He doesn't care if he's being aggressive, because they're aggressively invading WA02's privacy! They have no right to do that-- Not that they have any rights, they all should be dead; It was the world ended. They had no right to be alive. Tubbo would rather be dead then to have to deal with all of this.

But he does: Because life is unfai, and he has to deal with High school bullies when he didn't even get to go to high school, to get an education, to have friends-- Even though he was considered weird and probably wouldn't have any more friends than he had now-- He didn't get a chance. And they did. And they think they get to dictate the childhood of an 18 year old when they haven't lived the same.

They think they can invade a 20 year old adult working in an underground company because he was forced to: Kicked out by his mother at age 16 and stuck in an illegal now life saving company because of an apocalypse, because life is unfair. And they're being unfair. And Tubbo wasn't gonna let them get away with it.

"Toby--" Phil starts but he doesn't even wanna hear it, he doesn't care. "No, don't Toby me, okay? You're invading Fred's privacy." He hates, oh how he hates saying that name. But he has to, so that they don't invade his privacy more than they already are.

"We just deem it suspicious that Fred doesn't even wanna try to meet us for-" "Deem it suspicious all you want, I'm done with your ass. I'm not coming to that meeting, and I'm not following your asses around anymore." Tubbo says and he knows he'll regret it-- Or maybe not, because he really doesn't care.

Even though it does feel validating when both Scott and Niki seem impressed, with a sly smile on their faces, fist bumping under the desk- Huh, he didn't know they were close- He still storms out of the office just as aggressively, if not more so, than when he stormed in. He didn't care anymore, no. And he only knew one person who didn't care just like he does, who he knows exactly he could push to start something big.

It's easy to find Tommy.

He's with Ranboo, too, which helps a bit with the anger, in a bit of a selfish way. They'd probably heard all of the commotion, and his loud, firm, angry footsteps,, as Tommy was grinning watching him approach them while Ranboo seemed a bit confused and nervous. It doesn't make Tubbo doubt him, though: Neither of them said no, yesterday, anyway.

"Tommy, we're leaving." He says, as the answer he didn't give Tommy yesterday. With an authoritative tone that he didn't know he could take; It almost reminds him of Schlatt. But he pushes those thoughts away before they become a problem. He already has enough, anyway., and he didn't want to kill the adrenaline: He didn't want to suddenly care about something. Even though they clearly never cared, or at least never enough to save Schlatt. Whatever.

"You're on." He says, simple as ever, and they both start walking alongside him. Tubbo's not stupid: He knows damn well that some people will see them as though they were throwing a temper tantrum, as though they were just doing it for attention, as though they were being cringe. But that's not what it is, no. Not it isn't. Not to him, anyway.

They walk past Bagi, who waves at them- If only Cellbit was more like his sister- Tina, too, is there next to her girlfriend, but she simply smiles brightly at them. They walk past Charlie and Baghera, seemingly not aware of everything happening: They were exchanging gas masks, off in their own little world. They walk past Mike, and by consequence.. Pac.

"Tubbo!" He calls out and Tubbo freezes, and he's not exactly sure why he does it. Obviously, someone was gonna call out for him. He'd expected it! But.. Well, he guesses he freezes because it's Pac. Pac, who knew more than he let on, yet hadn't told anyone. Hadn't gossiped it to Mike or Fit. Pac.. Pac who hadn't spoken a word to him since he learnt the truth. Or maybe he was the one who hadn't spoken a word to him? That thought is brushed off when he sees Fit nearby.

He takes a breath, but in only fuels his anger: His selfish, hypocrite anger. He knows damn well that while Pac's spending a suspicious amount of time with Fit, he's spending more time with WA02. And isn't that a telling comparison? Either way, he'd been so busy he'd forgotten others existed outside of Tommy, Ranboo, WA02, The Federation and the leaders.

..But all of that doesn't matter, at least, not anymore, because Pac then takes his hand says; "I'ml with you. Never forget that. I won't leave because of Mike and my lab, But I'm with you." And Fit, Tubbo wants to ask, and this time not out of anger: He wants his friend to be happy. His friends  to be happy. But then he continues, but this time it's said quietly, so that no one but them could hear: "We'll see what they'll do now, without my godsent."

Tubbo couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten it, the godsent rumors. Everything had over-shadowed it and bringing clean water bottles had become so routine now that he did it without even thinking about it. Always, there were more rumors, so much so that Tubbo forgets half of them.

...But, well, that wasn't what Pac said, was it? He'd said his godsent. Not theirs, no. Because even after so much time apart-- and the fact that they were leaving-- Tubbo knows he'd always be able to count on Pac to stay by his side. Even if not physically.

"Thank you," He says, and it feels so soft coming from him, and it hits him like a truck when he feels all of his anger and adrenaline coming back as soon as they hug it out: Now fueled with Pac's encouragement. Pac smiles at him and does a gesture with his head that indicates for him to continue what he was doing.

He takes the nearest hand-- A grounding presence, to remind himself he wasn't alone, even if he was leaving Pogtopia. Leaving Pac. It's Tommy's. He starts dragging him as he walks forward. In some weird attempt to get out of his grasp, Tommy takes Ranboo's wrist, creating some absurd train- Tubbo would bet they look silly, more cringe, all dragging each other like that.

Sam's gone, now, he's not guarding the entrance. He's gone doing god knows what. Which eases their job. Etoiles' still there, though, as he has a smile Tubbo has never seen on him before: A sad smile. Etoiles waves, and while Tubbo knows this isn't goodbye, merely a see you later, Tubbo waves back and hopes he looks sad, too. Etoiles' just doing his job.

But despite it all, despite the anger, when they pass through the door to the fresh, toxic air that fills his lungs as it always did, the adrenaline calms down, Tubbo's knows with certainty:

He's never felt more free.

Chapter Text

They're walking in the Federation's direction.

Tubbo's not sure why they're doing it. Is it by instincts? That might be it. All he knows is that when they get to the alley they should turn in to go to the trap door, they don't turn. So they're not going to the Federation. Which is good. Obviously, they'll visit them again, but they couldn't go there. They'd be too much of a target. And, again, they'll visit sometimes. Not to see WA02...

Well, yes, to see WA02, but mostly since Tommy's the information guy, and he missed the Fed, and they definitely needed more information than ever before. Or, at least, they needed to pass information: If they'd already given the order for Etoiles to investigate them, who's to say they aren't gonna give out more? After all, they sent Ranboo to follow them the first time, and then it was whoever caught him and WA02 out talking.

Tubbo's thinking maybe they could set up in the primary school near the Fed like they did sometime to recollect of heal any passing wounds, but they walk past that, too. Maybe it's because it's too big, or too little. Either way, they keep going. For about 5 minutes, before Ranboo stops in his tracks.

"We could set up in this pharmacy." Ranboo proposes, pointing to a building in a nearby alleyway. The lights in it were flickering, which was... Odd, to say the least, but it at least meant this place probably wasn't raided. Which meant they could get drugs, medicine. Tubbo smiles to himself, thinking back on Niki. He doesn't doubt that's why Ranboo wanted to go there, for his sister.

"A drugstore? Count me in." Tommy butted in, calling it that synonymous for obvious reasons. Tubbo was scared of if there were legal drugs in that pharmacy, because he'd never trust Tommy alone in it. What if he managed to get high on cardboard? He never knew with Tommy.

"That's good, Ranboo, It's a good Hide-Out. Get out your weapons, there might be Zombies inhabiting it." Tubbo explained as he took a nearby sturdy tree branch-- He hadn't actually thought about taking a small knife or anything before going outside. But it was fine, tree branches, as long as he hit the right spot on the Zombie's head, then he'd be good.

Tommy, though, didn't seem to have forgotten. He always had a mini knife on hand, even at the start of the apocalypse when he wasn't allowed to even think about leaving the base, at 13 years old, when it had first started. Which was concerning, like a lot of things about Tommy, but he preferred not thinking about it. If he ignored it, it didn't exist. Out of sight, out of mind. That was how it worked. Right? Right.

Ranboo, too, had a small knife, just the same as Tommy's... Did they get matching knives? No. No, Tubbo couldn't get jealous now, no. The anger was supposed to be gone, now that he'd had his outburst in Pogtopia and left for good.. Left.. For good. Thinking about it bring a smile back on Tubbo's face. No assholes are here to tell them what to do anymore.

"Let's go," Tommy says, stepping up and leading the way to the pharmacy. Brave, Tommy was, but bravery was a synonymous with stupidity. He doesn't dwell on it for too long, as they get closer and closer to the building. Some of the glass was shattered, had someone hidden here before? But was still covered with desks and chairs. Solid enough. Proof of a past human life here.

The door's locked, which either meant there were no Zombies, or there was a hoard. Try your luck. Tommy gets a little pin next to the dust on the floor, and trick to pick lock.. Which, again another big red flag, but who cares? Red flags are very important in Zombie Apocalypses, and Tubbo was glad to have a big Red Flag as a best friend.

The door opens, after a while, and they get in. No sound of Zombie hoards, and they made a lot of noise, which meant it was the first option. Tubbo let out a breath he didn't know he was holding- Hah!- And looks around the little store.

The isles weren't intact, to say the least, but they were still standing, which again indicated at little Zombie habitation. But as he started walking towards the back of the room... The Isles were pushed against the walls, and there was a little soft pink blanket in the middle. Little pots and dirt, little plushies and little bits of plastic splattered through...

...This looked like a child's making. A child's 'secret' hide out... Which was concerning, and absolutely impossible: No child should be able to survive the apocalypse. Thank god they didn't make it to Pogtopia-- If people made rumors about Scott, a grown ass man, surviving the apocalypse on his own, then what would they say about a child---

--Unless it wasn't a child.

"--Phil, I said no!" Sounded like a child, sure, voice high, and bossy and everything-- But no. There stood a person, poking from behind a little isle, before their eyes went wide seeing them, and steps out from behind the isle, with a tree branch like his, was it also a weapon? "You're not Phil." Which is.. Obvious, yeah, and definitely rings the alarm bells in his head that Phil knew somebody who wasn't in Pogtopia! And he dared to criticize him for WA02--

"Duh, we're not Phil. Who're you, woman?" To which she muttered, "Not a woman." which.. Well. Since when did cisgender people become the minority? Never mind that. He sighs, before taking a breath, and taking a better look at the not-woman in front of him:

They had dark, warm brown eyes that sat on her dirty, freckled face. His straight, dark brown hair complimented them well, with the daisy that rested in it. She had a scarf around her neck, which did no good to alarm Tubbo. Good thing she wasn't in Pogtopia, they'd make so many rumors.. His shirt was white, stripped with Cyan Blue.. Which made him feel something akin to anger, but he didn't want to think about it. With black jean shorts, that revealed a bruised leg-- Covered in scrapped tissue as a poor imitation of bandages. That meant the tree branch in her hands probably wasn't a weapon, as they leaned and put their weight onto it. Huh.

"My name's Aimsey. What's yours?" She asks, and Tommy answers, "'M Tommy, They're Ranboo and he's Tubbo. How do you know Phil?" Which is a smart question, good job, Tommy! Even though he never consented to telling a stranger his name... Whatever, at least he asked something smart.

"Phil's been trying to get me to join-- Pogpans or something. I'm guessing you're from there?" Which, well, Tubbo kinda had guessed, but it was good to get the confirmation: Phil was a fucking hypocrite. Good to know. At least, now they have blackmail. And PogPans was a hilarious name. Props to Aimsey.

"Yeah, we're from PogPans," Props to Tommy, for sticking with the name, he'd have done the same. It's hilarious. "Uh, guys, isn't it Pogto-" "Nope, PogPans, Ranboo, keep up." Tommy shushed before the taller one could ruin the fun. Amazing. "How long have you been camping here?"

"Are we playing twenty questions?" They ask again, which.. Well, Tubbo wasn't sure, but judging on their back and forth, they might as well be. "Yes. And that was your question. How'd you fuck up your leg?" Which was a very personal and inappropriate question, but really, he should've guessed Tommy would ask something that invasive. Not like it was the first time.

Aimsey just shrugs, though, not seeming affected by it. "Got it fucked when I jumped out my burning wooden house at the start of the apocalypse, five-ish years ago." She explains, which was a really sad story. He hadn't had to do something that drastic.. Just outrun Zombies with strangers as they left his dying dad- Schlatt- to Zombies.

"How long have you been stuck in the PogPans, then?" They ask again, and her voice hinted at disgust, and Tubbo immediately knew that she was one of them. She immediately saw the hierarchy-- The Dictatorship, if you will, and kept away from it. Which, honestly, props to him. It took them 6 years to act up on their bullshit.

Tommy's the one to answer, "6 years. They found me, like, 5 days after the start of the apocalypse? I was stalking them first, though." Which was a Tommy thing to do, and Tubbo can't believe that he hadn't asked that question to Tommy before. Maybe because thinking about it made him think of Schlatt, of the smell of alcohol and the sound of broken glass--

Then, it was Aimsey's turn, since they supposedly were playing twenty questions. He stood there for a few seconds, arms crossed, looking at his side, almost as if thinking, before their face lights up,

"How's Scott?"

..What?

Chapter Text

They stay longer than expected in the Pharmacy.

Tubbo doesn't know why, but that only means he's also guilty. He hasn't asked to go out, and when he does, it's simply to look out for if Phil was to come. According to Aimsey, he came to check up on her every other week. They'd been there for a week, and, luckily, Phil hadn't come to check up on them yet. He's not sure how he feels about that.

Phil doesn't mean anything bad. Tubbo knows that. Even when the Resistance was being a pain in the ass, they were just trying to protect them- That was an excuse, but an excuse doesn't excuse them. They'd still been controlling, and invading their privacy- And they don't have the excuse that it's because they're teens. Tommy was stuck at home for weeks and he and Ranboo were legal adults that could do what they wanted.

They weren't doing anything to endanger them. They weren't. Why does it slowly feel as though he's more trying to convince himself? No. Just because the Federation wasn't good... Before, didn't mean it wasn't good now. Like Tommy said, they weren't in the movies, the Federation didn't create the zombies. They just.. Endorsed fucked up things. Like kidnappings.

He's sitting outside of the Pharmacy. Aimsey was organizing the shelves and talking with Ranboo. Aimsey was sweet, really, sweet in a way that made Tubbo's chest boil with deep burning hatred. He's not sure why it boils this much, when she was such a lovely person. But Tubbo guesses they were just too similar to a blue boy, to WA02. Sweet, teasing, kind. It made him want to punch him off a bridge.

But that was selfish. That was ego-centric. He shouldn't be upset at Aimsey because he was kind, like somebody that was in danger, like somebody he was procrastinating to visit.

Tommy and Aimsey were the only ones who had actually gone out, during the week. Not together. They were both gathering supplies, and thought it would be more effective if they got separated. It did make Tubbo's heart race in panic, at the idea of Tommy being out alone, but he'd assured him that it wasn't after 6 years of surviving that these damned Zombies would take him out. Tubbo couldn't help but think they did spend these 6 years shut down in a survival camp that didn't give them any freedom.

Speak of it, Tommy was out right now. He'd said he was gonna check over the primary school once again, which was good to do every once in a while. With a fresh mind, they might check places they hadn't before. And the primary school had become symbolic, now, anyway. Tubbo still thinks maybe they should've set up there, then he wouldn't feel boiling anger every time he saw Aimsey smile brightly like the sun. Which happened quite often.

..It was weird, to think he traveled with Scott. When they're both worlds apart, opposites. Scott having taken Phil's promise of safety seriously after the first few times, while Aimsey stood by his opinion that it would strip them from freedom. He was right, of course, but Tubbo selfishly wanted to say that Phil was a good man. Which he was, just.. With bad methods.

He shakes those thoughts, he couldn't think back on Pogtopia as he is now. While Scott was understandable to think about-- Did Aimsey know he'd dyed his hair Strawberry Blond? Was she the one giving him the dye?- Because Aimsey's there, but Phil.. Phil was also understandable to think about, considering he could turn up any second now. But he didn't want to think about Phil anymore.

Dust being kicked in his face is what gets him out of his thoughts, which was.. Unpleasant, to say the least. They really should clean up the front of the Pharmacy. Whatever, he looks up, and there's the only person it could've been. Tommy.

"Hello to you too, asshole." Tubbo greets the Asshole, as he gets up and wipes the dust off his cargo jeans, before running his hands to his face, to wipe off the dust from there too. Tommy's smirking, like a middle school bully. "Hello, Tubso, how you doing on this terrible fucking day?" He asks, grin on his face, bright as ever. Bright, in a way that made Tubbo's heart swell in warmth, not bright like Aimsey, that made him burn with anger.

"Terrible, agonizingly so. How was your day, up in the Primary School?" He answers, in a way that makes Tommy roll his eyes, "You and your stupid fancy words.. How are you even dyslexic, you prick.." He mutters under his breath, quietly, and Tubbo doesn't really feel like calling Tommy out on his bullshit at the moment, so he keeps quiet.

"Not bad, not bad. Didn't die, so there's that." Which was... Obvious, considering the blond was sitting in front of him. Tubbo sighs, it didn't matter. Tommy was an idiot either way. "Didn't see anyone nearby. I don't think they're looking for us." Which.. Well, Tubbo was glad for, really. But as much as he hates Pogtopia's administration, some of the leaders were his friends.

Like Phil. Fundy, Quackity. Hell, Cellbit, too. Etoiles. Not Pierre, never Pierre, that fucking spoiled ass bitch ass brat that Tubbo would kill if given the chance. Heck, Pierre wasn't in the administration! But.. Alas, nobody seemed to care enough. Which was good news. In theory. Unless they'd already assumed they got killed within the first week of being out in the wild. Jerks.

"But...!" Tommy says, and lets the word go in his mouth in a faint, ridiculous immitation and attempt at suspense. He takes his backpack off his back and looks through it, before taking out a big piece of paper. "I have something I think you might like." What did Tommy think he'd do with a big piece of paper? They weren't in the Fed, and--

Wait. Wait. "Tommy, what is this?" "Your loverboy has left something for you at the Primary School Hall."

Dear Tubbo,

This is a letter. This is supposed to be a letter to Tubbo. I haven't ever made letters, Tubbo. I am not that old. I still remember when you asked how old I was. Sure, I write little notes everyday, but I don't think those counts as letters. So, here is my letter to you.

You've told me about the primary school nearby, before, and how you usually stayed in the halls. So, this is where I'm putting the letter. And if you're reading this that means I actually went ahead and put it over there! I'm very scared haha because I haven't ever encountered a zombie unprotected before ^^. So this is scary!

But I miss you.

They-- I feel Watched, all of the time now, which is ironic. Haha. No, you wouldn't know that, would you? Silly WD019. Even I don't know much about it. I probably should, anyway, 'cause it's still on going, and so far :) has proven to be less than a Listener, so... That doesn't matter.

I feel Watched, because I think you were right. I'm sorry, for not having taken you seriously, when you were worried that they knew the color of my uniform. There's.. Well, needless to say that there are new WD's, and me and the other workers have been very wary of them. I don't know why I'm not wary of you, why I never was, even when I knew you didn't work here. It's just you.

He's white, freckled face, short brown hair, pricky eyes, blue hoodie under his white vest. Do you recognize him? Is he friendly? Is he like WD020 and WD021? I miss WD021. Their corner is so lonely, now, without them panicking in it. If you're still with them, tell them I say hi.

It doesn't help that the others are starting not to trust you guys, too. I try to tell them you were good. I don't think they're gonna be convinced any time soon. But do come back! I'm a higher up. I can keep those WBs away. I miss you. I think it's also because coincidentally to WD022's arrival, paperwork has been going missing. Useless ones, too. I know WD020's work was to look through them, but he had the decency not to steal them!

This letter is getting long. I know you have trouble reading. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't ever talk, like you did with me, I'm sorry I couldn't ever make your life easier, like you did with mine.

I hope to see you soon, though. I hope you come back. I miss you.

-Yours, WA02

nevermind that haha I have seen a zombie unprotected now ^^.. The trap door was unshut and one came through

we didn't know what to do

elena did though

it was terrifying

please come back

-wa02

P.S.: I actually made it to the Primary School. It was terrifying! I don't know how you do it! See you soon, Tubbo. I miss you.

"Tommy, we're going. Now."

Chapter Text

Obviously, they don't go right this second. Tubbo has to dig up his backpack full of things and curse himself for forgetting most of what he had back in Pogtopia. All of that takes him some time, so by the time the sun is setting and Ranboo and Aimsey chat in a corner, Tubbo wasn't able to go out to see WA02.

It's fine, he takes a breath, then another. He'll go tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun's up. He's never went in the mornings, that's usually when most people work. Plus, if they lost the track of time and came back at noon, it was sure not to end prettily. He's not sure what to expect-- WA02 worked in the mornings, after all. And Tubbo-

Well, objectively speaking, Tubbo was useless. While Tommy always went in and did the hard work by looking through paperwork, Tubbo just sat by the fountain and talked with WA02. He never felt bad about it, Tommy didn't do this for them, Tommy did this because he liked the thrilling adrenaline that it gave him. Plus, all Ranboo did was panic in a corner, so.

..But Tubbo was terrified. The letter from WA02 that he'd read yesterday was scrapped and dirty, and while that could just be the dirty Primary School leaving it's effects on it, Tubbo doubted it. They had a Zombie in their quarters, which lines up perfectly with the arrival of new WD's, ones that sounded awfully like that god damn Pierre.

..He doesn't want to think the worse of them, obviously. He doesn't. They probably hadn't let a Zombie in intentionally. What probably happened was that they kept the trap door open, due to their negligence and lack of care for that place, so often so that it caught a Zombie's curiosity. Didn't mean it didn't anger him all the same.

The Pharmacy's living conditions were just like Pogtopia, except with less space and less people. They didn't have multiple rooms and roles and hierarchies, they just had one room, few desks and isles, small open place with a carpet and one blanket to share, that served the purpose of a bedroom, meeting room and dinner room. Small, soft, cosy. Tubbo didn't need anything else. Tubbo didn't need anything else. Not when he had freedom.

Tubbo wakes up early in the morning. Pogtopia being underground, they couldn't tell the difference between night and day, always having to check the time. But the Pharmacy had a whole lot of windows, so at the first ray of sunshine, Tubbo was up.

Ranboo and Aimsey were up too. It was a little routine, by now. Tommy was a very heavy sleeper, so he'd continue resting, while they sat quietly on the carpet and looked at the sun rise. The birds didn't chirp, anymore. They learned their lesson. They had their fair share of apocalypse. Tubbo kinda misses it, though. He didn't use wake up early, when he had the choice. Being 13 and careless, all he cared about was staying up. But he remembers going to school while the birds sung. It sounded different than the broken glass bottles from home.

He sighs and gets up, which earns a look from Ranboo and Aimsey. Right. They don't know about the letter, nor about his plans for the day. He'd be all stuck up in his head all day yesterday that he hadn't bothered informing them. Is that why he and Ranboo don't speak anymore? Why Tommy and Ranboo seem closer? Why he feels a burning hatred for Aimsey?

He's.. Not sure. It doesn't matter, either way. "I'm going to the Fed. D'you wanna come with?" He asks offhandedly as he goes to grab the backpack he'd prepared yesterday. They stay quiet, and it makes Tubbo feel angry again. He's not sure why he's so angry, nowadays. He turns away and steps out of the Pharmacy. Alone.

Thankfully, a cold, small breeze passes through the air, which makes Tubbo take a deep breath: Good. He was okay, everything would be okay. He just needed to see WA02. Needed to make sure he was safe. He starts walking towards the Fed's direction, he doesn't stop.

The Pharmacy was little bit further away from the Fed than Pogtopia was, but not unbearably so. If anything, it would've been a nice walk, if Tubbo's heart wasn't beating out of his chest. Alas, that was what it was doing. He takes another breath, and then another one. The thought of WA02 possibly being hurt, mentally just like physically, being unbearable for him.

The alleyways are familiar, one's he'd passed through millions of time before. It only gives more hatred in Tubbo's heart. He doesn't even know how nobody- Except Phil, he guesses- Had ever even tried to raid this Pharmacy before. It wasn't that far. Unless, of course, Phil, as hypocrite as he is, would have asked them not to. He thinks back on Scott, and how he smirked seeing him rebel. It opened up a new view on the boy.

Aimsey was friends with Scott. They didn't seem to be from the same family. Did they go to the same schools? Scott seemed quite a few years older than her, though. He doesn't know why he cares. He doesn't. He turns in a few alleyways. The Fed was near.

Eventually, he arrived at the Federation. The Trap Door was closed, which got Tubbo to let out a sigh or relief. At least, they weren't in any danger from that at the moment. He opens it and goes through it, careful to close it behind him, careful not to make the same mistakes as Pogtopia. He isn't one of them anymore, and he could prove it.

He walked through the hall, his steps echoing more than he remembers it initially. The walls aren't as clean as they used to be. Once he arrives at the end of it, he's met with an empty room. No, that wouldn't be the right way to put it-- There were still benches, chairs, papers thrown around, office doors and the fountain! But..

The lack of people stuck out to him. He could see people in the offices. Writing and typing away. But nobody was in the main room, chatting, exchanging notes, drinking water. It feels awfully strange to see the room lacking so much life. He continues to walk: His steps seem to echo louder and louder each time. The absence of the noise of pen scribbling against paper makes the echo sound like screaming.

It's weird: This room had never been so quiet and loud at the same time.

He sighs, he doesn't know what he expected, coming here so early. He knew that most of the workers worked in the morning-- Why else would they have the whole afternoon to slack off? Now, he stands there, weird and alone, waiting for someone to drink water with. He walks a bit more, goes over to the fountain. Where else would he go? And sits down on the edge. Waiting. Waiting for someone.

The sound of the water running was beautiful. He'd never noticed it before. Sound of pen scribbling and the immense happiness of finally finding clean water seemed to have masked it well. It's music to his ears-- Reminds him of the countless times he left the water running as a child. Careless, clueless. Same thing.

So he sits there.

And waits.

He doesn't know for how long, really. A while, maybe? That's not definite enough, though. It doesn't matter. He looks at the bright white walls shining, mirroring him. He doesn't have the time on him, he doesn't have the time back at the Pharmacy. They just had to tell from the sun. But how could he when he's underground?

So he waits. Couple of minutes. Couple of hours. What's the difference, if he can't tell himself? None.

So he waits.

..And then there's shot.

A shot- A big, loud, terrifying shot. He sees the bullet, pass right next to him. They'd missed. Why would they be shooting either way?

He sits up, turns around, and sees..

Well. He sees Elena. Who else would it be? It's pretty ironic, actually. If his heart wasn't racing out of his chest at seeing that girl with her curly hair in pigtails held up by flowy light purple bows, he'd want to yell out to her about her boyfriend. Could catch her off guard, question her loyalty to the Fed. But that was just a hypothetical.

What was really happening was that the woman was holding up a gun, had shot and had missed, and she looked like she'd do it again.

If the room's silence had been loud before, then it was deafening now.

Chairs had been pulled back, doors snatched open. Rushing footsteps and pens thrown around. Not to mention the still lingering echo of the shot, Tubbo couldn't make it out.

"Get out!" The woman called out, and despite Tubbo knowing that the woman spoke, compared to other workers, it still felt like a shock waving through the room, far louder than any other noise. "Get out! You new WD's, all here to cause mess! What are you really? What do you want from us!"

She sounded terrified.

Tubbo was too. But he needed to think quickly. Clearly, he hasn't taken WA02's warning seriously enough yesterday. They had started to become wary of them, wary of.. Well, any WD's, he'd guess. And he doesn't even wanna know what would happen if they whipped up a gun on Pierre, and how Pogtopia would react to that. But that didn't matter.

So, instead of sitting there and letting himself get killed by that weirdo, he starts running. Running to the hallway, up to the ladder, out of the trap door. WA02 was said he was terrified of getting out of the Fed. He hoped that'd be the case with Elena, too.

He hears another shot.

And another.

And screams.

Screams, in the Fed? What the heck was going on?

He doesn't want to turn around, because there was still a mad woman trying to shoot him, in the end. But...

When he arrive at the ladder,

he sees red.

He's not sure how to feel about that. 

After those three shots, there had been no more. Tubbo got up the ladder as quickly as he could without falling, and nobody had followed him, as far as he could tell.

He doesn't want to think about what happened, what made the workers scream down there. The initial shot wasn't enough to get them to use their vocal cords, why would the second or the third be? He doesn't want to think about it, about the possibilities.. He doesn't.

He's out now, walking on dead grass, probably heading to the Primary School. He wants to sit down, take a breather, drink water he wasn't allowed to go near anymore. He'd been so peaceful, just sitting by the fountain. He hadn't done anything. Why would Elena shoot him? She did have a track record with shootings, to be fair, but even then she had only partly been part of it.

She was terrified.

Or she sounded it, anyway.

He looks down at his feet, as he walks, which probably wasn't good. Could walk into a wall. But he didn't care. He didn't want to risk anybody seeing him, teary eyed, holding back tears. Especially not anyone from the Fed- They'd probably laugh, and tell him that's what he got in the end.

What did he get? Nothing. Chased out of the Fed, left Pogtopia. What did he get? He misses Phil.

He misses.. Schlatt.

"Tubbo!"

And only after being called out does he realize he'd missed Pac, too.

Chapter Text

"I heard that!" Pac yells out again before Tubbo could say anything back. He gulps, takes a step back, and watched as Pac approaches him with a angry look. Tubbo knew better, though. Pac was terrified. Elena was terrified. He was terrified. Could the world stop being scared, just for a second? Nope. It ended.

"Did they shoot you? Pierre has been throwing temper tantrums about their treatment of him, recently. Though I can't blame them. But I can blame them for this! Three shots, what the hell?!" He's closer, now, his hands are trembling as he handles Tubbo, spinning him, checking for any possible injuries. Tubbo doesn't know why, but he really feels like crying. He doesn't.

"It's, well, Pierre has been freaking them out. They don't trust pre-surgery WD's anymore." It was a total guess, but he has WA02's letter to back him up. Tubbo couldn't blame them either, but he could blame Elena, like he'd been doing for so long. Her and her fucking shootings. Her and her fucking boyfriend who died by a gun. Her and her innocent conscience that isn't aware she'd probably helped with his death.

"I told them it was a bad idea! They ignored me. They've been ignoring us." Tubbo's glad, really, that Pac feels this hatred for the leaders too. And.. Well. The wording makes his chest spark with hope. How many people realized this hierarchy dictatorship was no good? "Who's us? Who's on our side?"

"..Mike, Fit, duh. Etoiles, Scott, Niki, Jaiden.. Uh, Techno, Mhm.. Am I missing anybody? Bagi and Tina, but they're less active, considering Bagi and Cellbit.." Wow. That.. Was actually a lot of people. He takes a breath, before processing the names: Mike, Pac's brother, forever on the same side. Fit, Pac's partner and Tubbo's friend, obviously on his side too.

..Etoiles being on his side warms his heart more than he'd like to admit. He was the GOAT, after all, and the one that had kicked off the small rebellion he'd had at Pogtopia. Scott was a weird one. Well, he always was, but Tubbo couldn't exactly pinpoint a reason as to why he'd take their side. Niki was Ranboo's sister, that one was obvious enough. Jaiden had a penchant for chaos, especially clear since she's joined that whole Bolas Rojas cult. Techno, Tommy's brother, was a weird one. But again, brothers, so he doesn't look too much into it. Bagi and Tina were friendly, but not active, which was fair. Bagi was Cellbit's sister, and Tina her partner. So.

"Wait why is--" He's about to ask about every member that he doesn't understand, before Pac lets out a sigh, "We are not staying here at lunch, Tubbo. We'll get to the Primary School!" Pac orders as he takes Tubbo's wrist and forcefully grabs him towards the school. He.. He hadn't really thought about it. That he could be out at lunch. That was.. Dangerous. And, in retrospect, Elena had probably noticed him because she'd gone off to get lunch herself..

The walk isn't long. Just about five minutes, he lets himself get dragged by Pac. The silence between them leaves him time to process, and now he wants to cry again. He's not sure why Pac's presence makes him feel that way. They hadn't seen each other for weeks before Tubbo snapped and left. But.. They'd still lived together. He had the choice to see him. Now, he didn't.

They arrive at the Primary School. It's black floor with small shapes drawn all over it used to amaze him when he was eight years old. Now.. Now he couldn't tell apart the dust from the floor.

Pac sits him down on a chair-- A little one, one that makes him bend his legs awkwardly because of how low it sat. It was supposed to be one of a first grader, after all. The teachers' chairs had long since been taken to Pogtopia, back when they had first raided the place. Pac doesn't bother with a kid's chair: He crouches to get down at his level, and manhandles him to look at his body for bruises.

"You have a few bruises. Did you notice?" Tubbo shakes his head-- He'd probably hit a wall, or something, and the adrenaline had numbed the pain. "Okay. I don't think you have any major bruises." He says, and Tubbo just nods, meanwhile...

Well. He's thinking. What was that about a group of people against the leaders? Why was Pac out, at lunch, if he were to believe him? What had been going on in Pogtopia, ever since they left? He doesn't know how to address it, so he sits there, leaves Pac still looking for any injuries, before he takes a breath, and Tubbo remembers that he's a gossip girl.

"God I hated sneaking out. But thanks the damn gods I managed to catch you." Which opens up the conversation, and makes it so that Tubbo doesn't feel awkward when he asks, "What were you doing out at noon, actually?" He asks and Pac drops his arm, which he'd checked for injuries countless times, now.

"Leaders have been getting busy. Can't join us at lunch. So.." He starts to explain, and Tubbo feels his heart start racing, panicking, because god fuck no- "..I'm scheduled at any other time of the day. Lunch just gives me about thirty minutes to look over stuff they wouldn't let me." Had Pac gone crazy? Absolutely bonkers? Mike was the one to make the discovery of Zombies getting more hungry at lunch- Speaking of Mike, how did he manage to get approval to get out at lunch--

"Are you fucking stupid?" Is the only thing he says, before Pac picks back up, "We've been taking turns! With Techno and Jaiden taking the most 'cause they're skilled fighters. I've not been sneaking out that much!" Pac tries to reassure, but Tubbo just glares at him. He's not sure whether to believe him or not.

"What's this about your little rebellion, anyway?" Tubbo doesn't take the time to process that he's sounding a little bit too much like Phil for his liking right now. "So. Obviously. Your leave shook up a bunch of us. I started it, and Mike and Fit joined, then Etoiles, Jaiden and Techno via Fit, who'd bought Scott and Niki into this, then Bagi and Tina." Pac explains which, and Tubbo hates to say it, does make some sense. Scott was closer to the fighters, and Niki and Jaiden probably brought Bagi and Tina.

"Okay. Okay. Okay. That makes sense." He tries to reason with himself, heart still pounding in his chest.

"We've.. Mostly been trying to find a way to contact you. So we hung out around the Fed and sometimes the Primary School." He explains and it.. Made Tubbo's heart ache. They'd been ready to endanger themselves just to look for them? It.. Tubbo didn't really get it. "Which, by the way, where have you been?"

..Should Tubbo answer to that? No, that's a dumb question. Of course Tubbo'll answer. Pac was one of his dearest, most trusted friends. But would Aimsey-? Since when did they matter, anyway? If he could propose a less dangerous idea for the little rebellion, he didn't care about what a little girl had to say about it. Even if it had been her secret hide out for years, and Tubbo had technically been squatting it.

"Few streets out, there's a Pharmacy. Drugstore. Whatever. A lone survivor's been hosting us, I guess." He explain quickly, words mixing in with others, just like his heart's racing beats. "We've been too much of cowards to go out." I've been too much of a coward, his mind corrects, which he ignores, "Which is why you probably haven't seen us."

"Okay.." Pac says, almost skeptically, "Sure."

"You could. Uhm." He doesn't know what to say. You could join us during lunch, so that you don't spend it looking aimlessly, in rude danger of being eaten alive by zombies. "You can send whoever's out tomorrow our way. You know." He settles on, which isn't very far from what he'd thought, but still. Maybe he should've warned the others, first.

"Okay. Okay. Thank you, Tubbo." Welp, there's any guilt out the window. He's helped his friends. He wouldn't feel bad about some random girl's secret hide out he'd only known about for a few days. But... Well. Curiosity killed the cat. Tubbo wasn't a cat.

"You're welcome. Who's coming out, tomorrow?"

"The next one's Scott, actually."

"WHAT?!"

Chapter Text

They turn a few corners before speaking back up.

"I'll patrol 'round the area while you bring Scotty-boy to the Pharmacy. Good?" Tommy proposes on their way to the Primary School. Yesterday, going back to the Pharmacy after lunch had made Ranboo freak out while Tommy had just high fived him and called him the Goat.

Speaking of the Goat, Tubbo had explained to his friends the situation, and how Scott would be coming over to check up on them tomorrow. Ranboo and Aimsey backed off, sharing a look, one that made Tubbo want to push the girl out a bridge, while Tommy grinned and said he's accompany him. And there they were.

"Yeah. Thank gosh you're here, Tom," He thanks his best friend- How long had it been since he'd called him that?- before the other says, "Don't thank god. Thank me. Also, not our fault if Aims and Ran are a bunch of pussies." Okay, well, that was normal for Tommy. He wasn't gonna take back his compliment just because of that side comment- "Also, I want to leave you alone with Scott. It'll be hilarious." "Fuck you."

"Come on, we've just arrived." Tubbo says as he speeds up his walking speed, "I don't know what time exactly it is-- But it must be 'round noon. So we better speed up. And you better fight those zombies and not get hurt." Tommy nodded half heartedely, and Tubbo knew hiw best friend well enough to say that he wasn't listening. "Don't nod to me like that with the throat that'd gotten torn off less than a year ago you--"

"You know damn well that wasn't by a zombie!" Tommy snaps back, all huffy and puffy. Tubbo smirks-- Even though it wasn't that hard to get Tommy all riled up, Tubbo simply.. Hadn't gotten the chance to, recently. Again, being holed up in his own head and all of that. He likes this, he thinks, spending time with his best friend, like he always used to.

"Whatever. Just don't die." Tubbo says as they arrive in front of the Primary School's main entrance. They enter the dusty building and walk around. He doesn't think Scott's arrived yet, so he sits down at a corner while Tommy does his usual check up of the rooms-- There wasn't anything to raid anymore, so it was just him being paranoid. It didn't matter.

Waiting around, he kicks his legs back and forth. There's nothing for a while.

And then he could swear he saw blue. But it was Strawberry Blond.

"Oh, thank gosh," A scottish voice says as he turns a corner on the opposite side of the entrance. How did Scott get there? "Hiya, Tubbo. Get up, you're gonna get your clothes dirty. With that look, I almost thought you were a zombie. Geez." That.. That was weird.

Of course he knew Scott had a particularly high voice. He'd talked to the guy before. It was just that, when they did talk, it mostly included Scott sounding bitter. Now... With Scott saying hiya to him, which felt like a surreal experience, and Tubbo couldn't bring himself to be convinced he'd misheard the man, and him almost jokingly calling him out for style in a zombie apocalypse... That was weird.

"What, cat got your tongue? C'mon, I wanna see Aimsey." He says, signing for the other to get up. Tubbo tries, clumsily, as he wipes the dust off his pants-- Not because Scott commented on them earlier, with a weird honey-like voice-- And he hears Scott chuckle at his actions which is.. Who is he and what has he done to Scott, at this point, right? That couldn't be Scott. And this wasn't even about rumors! He'd met Scott, and he was cold, what changed?

Was is just.. The Rebellion? Tubbo refused to think that was the case. He looks over at Scott, who's foot was tapping on the ground, recreating the rythm of a song Tubbo doesn't know. Weird. No, maybe this was because he was excited to see Aimsey again? He doesn't know how far back they go. Just a few months, Aimsey had told him, didn't she?

"Gah, is this Primary School really always this dirty? I mean, Pogtopia isn't any better.. Aimsey better have taken good care of the Pharmacy! I'll have his head if he didn't." Tubbo winces at the memory of the Pharmacy-- It wasn't as dirty as the Primary School, but it wasn't at the same level as Pogtopia. If Scott didn't like Pogto- What was Tubbo on about? Scott was grinning, talking about his friend-- He was probably just joking.

He guesses it's hard to think of anybody being friends with Scott. Well-- He doesn't know anymore. Scott flipped a switch, and now his voice sounded like honey, and it's weird.

Either way, Tubbo's up, he walks up next to Scott, the latter smiles but he doesn't want to think about it-- He was being so weird!-- He informs him of Tommy lurking around and watching out for Zombies-- Scott's smile falters slightly, and he slows down a little bit-- Tubbo scores down paranoid in the adjectives to describe Scott, now.

And just as they start heading towards the main entrance to leave--

Something flies by them, Scott flinches, and it's just.. A piece of paper. Yup, paranoid.

He hears Scott sucks in a breath and he beats down with a stick the urge to roll his eyes at it. It wasn't the time to let his burning, boiling anger in his chest shine through. Instead, he just crouches down to pick up the wrinkled piece of paper, and Scott stays quiet, almost lost in thought.

Tubbo undoes the piece of paper.

Heard gunshots the other day :p How ya doing Tubboy?

Saw Scotty comin' this way, too. So you're looking to get all of us killed, huh?

How 'bout Freddy? Or, like, i don't know, WA02? That's so weird lmfao. Gottem! He's so pathetic without paper and ink, ya know? Can't even talk when he's out of the Fed or whatever. Weirdo

Tell Scott that he's being demoted, too. :P honestly expected better from the guy. eh guess the rumors are true

So that's what the blue was. He'd thought-- He'd thought maybe he'd imagined Scott's old hair, back when he first joined Pogtopia. Blue, frizzy, unhealthy, dirty. But no-- He had seen blue. Just not from 'Blue Boy'. He'd seen Pierre's blue hoodie.

And Tubbo was gonna kill Pierre.

Chapter Text

Scott was smiling.

His smile was weird, though. His lips were pointed upwards and his eyes looked tired and he was looking at Aimsey. This was nothing like how he'd talked fondly, playfully about Aimsey before they'd... Well. Before they'd gotten the note. Tubbo was gonna get to that later.

Aimsey had been upset that morning, though, so he couldn't really be surprised by their lack of interactions. He.. Kind of gets it. They'd stuck together, then Scott up and left and joined Pogtopia while Aimsey was clearly against that idea, which ended in him leaving her alone for four years, in a dusted Pharmacy, with his only company being Phil checking up on them every two weeks. Not that he did anymore.

If Tubbo had to take a guess, then he'd guess that Phil had guessed that the trio found Aimsey. That he didn't want to bother further. And maybe it's just the naive part of Tubbo, the part that still looks up to Phil and hopes, maybe it's just that. Maybe Phil had just gotten too busy with the leaders' meetings like Scott said, that he had no time to check on Aimsey anymore.

Well. At least, if Phil didn't know then, he definitely knew now. Pierre had seen Scott get out to meet them, and Phil could put two and two together, considering Scott and Aimsey used to be traveling partners. But then again-- Scott joined the rebellion before knowing they were shacking up with Aimsey. It's still a weird thought, though, so he doesn't dwell on it either way.

"So!" Tommy starts up-- He's really taken up more of a leading role in the group, which is ironic. He isn't a leader, though. He's just more likely to speak up than.. Anybody else here, really. Their decisions were still group ones-- Or, well.. He glances at Scott and remembers how he hadn't really asked before bringing him here. Well, he guesses he can identify this group as selfish. Decisions were taken by everybody to benefit themselves.

"Pierre knows that Scott has something to do with us, as well as other members of the rebellion like Pac, considering he'd heard yesterday's gunshots and that was the day Pac had a shift." He lists off, and.. Well, it gets Tubbo wondering how little he knows about his best friend. After all, this sounded like a text analysis you'd do during literature classes. Did Tommy enjoy literature class? Not like it mattered, considering there were no schools anymore.

"He also said that Tubbo's looking to get 'all of them killed', which means that he's aware multiple people have been sneaking out to find us. He's also apparently kidnapped WA02 or something? Also, he's a dick, but that's a given." The first bit confirms his suspicions about literary analysis, and the latter reminds him more of the Tommy he's used to.

"I'm going to be going to the Fed, checking up on the Fed and what's left of the documents. Anybody wants to come with me?" Tubbo would raise his hand and come with, but he's got other plans, ones that circle Pierre in red marker. Seeing nobody raise their hand or speak up, Tommy turns his head and glances at-- Ranboo? "Ranboo?"

"Okay." What the fuck? He just-- He just says okay, just like that? That same morning, Tubbo had specifically proposed for Ranboo to accompany him getting Scott from the Primary School, and he shook his head and took a step back, while he just.. Says okay like that to Tommy? Okay, he knows the two have gotten considerably closer recently, but that- He'd always been closer to Ranboo than Tommy had, so the two getting closer would make them be at an equal standing point--

He ignores the way he'd gotten more and more distant lately, how he'd been too stuck up in his own head to actually spend time with Tommy that wasn't-- going out and doing something for the Fed, or the rebellion, or..

..He can't even remember the last time he'd had a one on one conversation with Ranboo. Can't remember the last time Ranboo called out for him-- Hell, he can't remember the last time Ranboo spoke.

He shakes his head, and he can't glare at Ranboo, so he glares at the door instead, before speaking up and trying hard for his voice not to break. "I'm going to go infiltrate PogPans or something. If they're going to be so aggressive as kidnapping Federation members, then we can get away with a bit of infiltrating. Plus, we'd be accompanying Scott back there."

"I agree," Aimsey agrees, as if the day couldn't get any worse. "Plus, I'd like to see how PogPans looks like. I'm with you on this, Tubbo." Sure. Sure, heck, sure, why not? He can't remember the last time he hung out with Tommy as friends, and he can't remember the last time he hung out with Ranboo as anything, but sure, he'll hang out with Aimsey. Sure!

"...Okay. Sure, yeah." He says and he doesn't even have the courage to look at anybody in the eyes as he says it. No, he keeps glaring at the door, as if it'd killed his whole family. It didn't, of course. Pogtopia did. Or, well, they might as well have, when they left him for dead to zombies, as they took him and not Schlatt.

He doesn't want to think anymore. Thinking always got him down to dark paths like why he and Ranboo didn't seem to be friends anymore, or how fucked up Tommy and his morals are, or how Schlatt died and he couldn't remember much from him aside the rotting smell of alcohol and the taste of blood..

It didn't matter. It never did. Not at Pogtopia, not here. He takes a breath-- A harsh one and he almost chokes on it, which is embarrassing, considering air was supposed to help you not choke, but the universe was after him so what could he do,

-

Chapter Text

Tubbo and Aimsey go back to the drug store quietly. It is awkwardly, Tubbo wasn't about to lie, but it was mostly filled with a weird amount angering tension that he doesn't see where he's going, blurred by white dots of anger and wanting to punch something... And maybe that wasn't healthy, or careful, now that they didn't have paranoid Scott there to warn them about every little zombie roaming around.

They arrive at the pharmacy before Tommy and Ranboo, which only fuels the burning anger in his chest at the reminder of how Ranboo could so easily go with Tommy and not him. He tries not to pay much attention to it. He tries. It doesn't work.

Either way, he was fine, 'cause Tommy and Ranboo came not too long after them. By that, he did mean thirty minutes after them, but what can he say? Anger killed time. He didn't see it go by while he thought of every single thing he could do, or, rather, say, to make her hurt. Hurt. Hurt.

He doesn't know when he's become so violent, or, sadistic.. He doesn't actually find time in himself to care, though.

They do arrive at some point, and it doesn't feel like too long before he hears his-- Former?-- best friend barging in. "Good news!" Tommy screams practically bursting the Pharmacy's door in the process. Behind him, Ranboo follows quietly, sheepish smile on his face. They look.. Complicit, together. Happy. Best friends.

"What're your good news, prick?" Tubbo simply says as he sits up right, looking up at the duo. "Well, first off, it's that we're here, which means he didn't die from Elena. We didn't even get shot at! That's an upgrade from your situation, hah! No, we haven't seen Elena at all, actually."

Tubbo sighs-- Actually talking to Tommy made him wonder why he missed the guy so much. It's a joke, obviously, Tommy was rather interesting-- Who was he kidding? Tommy was a jerk and that's why they were friends in the first place. Jerks.

"We actually managed to get into a civil conversation-- Or, well, message writing, 'cause they've got this whole thing about speaking--" Aimsey makes a confused noise but doesn't interrupt-- Right. He didn't know loads of details about the Fed. It.. Kinda soothes his anger, even just for a little bit. To think that she was the odd one out of them. Even though they'd been so kind to offer them to stay with her in the drugstore.

"--But some workers actually trust us. Crazy, I know. Mostly thanks to Tubbo- He's the one that did the socializing and all." He can feel Aimsey's gaze on him. It's heavy and suffocating, and all Tubbo can do is smirk at the praise-ish his best friend gave him, that made the other react like that. He wonders, for a second, if Tommy hates Aimsey too.

Then he remembers that Aimsey is nice, and Aimsey plays into Tommy's bits, and that he has no reason to hate them. Tubbo doesn't have a reason to hate Aimsey either, actually, but he still does. So maybe Tommy hates her too. Or Tubbo's delusional. Both are possible.

"I mean, they were pretty fond of Ran, too. I mean, look at him, handsome and all. No one can help it!" And with that sentence alone, Aimsey's gaze is off of him. Which is fair. He looks over at Ranboo, who seems absolutely defeated by Tommy's outrageously flirty comment.

"Are you implying I'm not handsome?" Yeah, maybe he's catfishing for compliments, or maybe he just wants Aimsey's attention on him, to make Aimsey burn with hate like he did many times. Tommy shrugs and says, "Pretty. I'd marry you." Tubbo regrets the answer immediately. "Fuck no. I'd divorce you."

..And they move on, because the conversation had taken a weird turn. "Yeah, so, they didn't want to shoot us dead, and they were actually pretty stunned at Elena's actions. Called her crazy. Which is debatable." Easily, Tubbo could scream back that she literally tried to kill him, but he doesn't. He knows Tommy's morals are more than fucked up, and their relationship was already rocky enough.

"I mean, they're totally skeptical of Elena and-- Their boss? The one they refer to as a smiley? Smiley guy." Right. It had been a while since Tubbo had heard of ':)'. And he'd never seen the boss, which, is concerning, considering there had literally been people infiltrating his enterprise and pretending to be workers. At the time, it was convenient. Now..

"Like, obviously, their loyalties still lie with the Fed, but we haven't ever seen smiley guy and he isn't doing anything about their whole Pierre situation..." ..Tubbo, honestly, doesn't know how anybody could ever be scared of him. the most he feels in regards to that man is a deep, unsettling urge to take out all his organs. But then again, violent thoughts have become more and more of a recurring thing as of late. "So you can guess how they're suspicious. Of WA02 too."

That, is weird, and Tubbo makes sure to vocalize it. "What? Why are they suspicious of WA02?"

"See, this is where the theory comes in. We know your Freddy boy-" Tubbo makes a sound of protest hearing the nickname. Tommy knew this wasn't WA02's name, simply a cover, and now that they weren't in Pogtopia anymore and that even they knew his name was WA02, there was no use in using it... Again, with Tommy's morals. "-Has been taken by Pogpans, so it isn't weird to think Elena and smiley guy has too."

"Except for the fact we have seen Elena, and Elena's been missing too, but Tubbo saw her yesterday." ..Tubbo has... Mixed feelings about Ranboo's interruption. While it does spark some sort of hope--?? He's not sure-- In his chest, to see that he is indeed able to contradict Tommy, he feels as burning rage at the fact Ranboo's looking at the floor, no gut to look at him directly.

He speaks up, because what else could he do? "So there's something up with the higher ups of the Fed, and some workers are willing to trust us. Just a question, by workers, do you mean WD's, not Pierre, WC's, WB's or WA's?"

"WB's and WC's, mostly. Like three of each, maybe four? Not a whole lot." Tommy clarifies and Tubbo feels a slight pang of relief. WA's wouldn't be that trustworthy-- Sorry WA02-- Considering they'd be closer to ':)'. While WD's were too new and.. Honestly dumb to be of any use. "That's still around seven people. Plus the Res over at PogPans', we're kinda set."

"..Set for what, exactly?" Aimsey speaks up, as if she felt the explicit to ruin the moment. Or, well, maybe it's just that Tubbo hates her with a burning passion for no apparent reason whatsoever. And, to be fair.. Her question's quite fair. Tubbo doesn't know what exactly they're set for other than.. Being a nuisance. But that's enough of a reason.

"Well, first off," Tommy speaks up again, seemingly taking on the task of looking up excuses to be nuisances. "We gotta stop that whole invading shit PogPans has with the Fed. It's creepy as hell. Second, we gotta remake PogPans' organization, because, it has not changed a single bit in the last 6 years of the apocalypse. Third, we want to fuck around."

"Alright, I'm up for those reasons. Maybe if we manage to make PogPans a bit more of a democratic place, I'll actually join it and have a social life. Otherwise, I'm staying here. I'm up for a bit of action, though." Was that all that was yesterday to her? Infiltrating Pogtopia, just.. Some action? Get something going in the poor, lonely, boring life of hers?

He guesses he can't blame her. He doesn't know what he's doing this whole fuss for in the first place. His heart aches and flashes of white and blue pass through his mind, and the adrenaline pumping in his veins tells him he's doing this for love. He takes a breath. He misses WA02.

Yeah, well, if they wanted to change PogPans, maybe they should change their work ethic as a group first. He isn't gonna be the one to point it out, obviously. He's part of the problem. What was it Schlatt always said? Work alone, go faster, work together, go further. He didn't care about going further at the moment. Just like his dad. All he needed to do was work fast to get WA02 back.

"Anyway. We can celebrate Elena's disappearances 'cause now we can afford more trips over at the Fed. I'm sure we appreciate that, huh?" Tommy tries to say-- probably trying to get Tubbo's mood back up, soothe the feelings in his chest... It doesn't work. There was one single-- Or, well, two--- reasons for why Tubbo went there.

Fred, and the water. And now that there wasn't Fred to keep him company while collecting the water-- Was there any point? The people he brought water to hated him now anyways. He doubts he could just sneak in Pogtopia and be the god damn godsent and give them water now. He takes a breath, and says,

"Yeah, well, we've basically got spies on the inside from both sides, now. Someone's gonna need to take care of PogPans. I'm volunteering." To which, for some reason, Tommy seemed annoyed at. So, he says,

"We can keep our shifts like this. Me and Ran at Fed, you and Aimsey at Pog's."

What did he do to Tommy, now?! It wasn't like he didn't know! It was a clear, unspoken fact amongst the Pharmacy crew. That--

Tubbo sighs. Okay.

Chapter Text

They stuck by that plan for a few days.

Tubbo tries to be mature and not to anger Aimsey too much-- But he's only human. They throw jabs at each other here and there, and it almost feels like routine, and, really, Tubbo hasn't hit Aimsey yet, so he can be congratulated for his self control!

It's the evening, now, Tubbo's sitting outside of the Pharmacy 'cause he can't stand Aimsey presence, and he's speaking with Ranboo while organizing the isles' medication alphabetically. Most of them have passed their expiration dates by now, so they only serve majorly as toys. Tubbo knows Pac's dream is to be able to recreate their civilization's medicine, and Tubbo doesn't have the heart to tell him that with everything that happened, their immune system has probably blew out so much that they don't have to worry about any other illness than being zombified.

Either way, it didn't matter. God knows the next time Tubbo'll talk to Pac anyways. Whenever his shift to come out at noon came. They'd met a few more people lately-- Jaiden, Etoiles, Niki-- That was a sweet reunion with Ranboo. He smiles at the memory, before his heart starts aching again. He can't remember the last time he'd spoken to Ranboo.

Speak of the devil and he shall come-- Or, well.. Not really. 'Cause Ranboo's the one to come out of the Pharmacy, not Tommy. He pushes the door and it pushes away a bit of dust, staining Tubbo's pants further. He looks up at the guy, who seems frozen in place. Tubbo moves a bit to the right, leaving space for Ranboo to sit next to him... He doesn't think he'd take it, with the way they haven't been talking, but he does. He does. And that's-- a way more pleasant surprise than Tubbo expected.

"..Aimsey told me I should talk to you." And the anger come bubbling back.

What does he mean that Aimsey told him to talk to him? Is the only reason he reached out because Aimsey told him to? "Oh, great! Because Aimsey's so great. Go back to talking with him, instead, I don't see why we should talk!" ..And maybe he didn't mean to snap like that-- But, god dammit..

Tubbo feels his eyes pricking him, he blinks the liquid away, and his shoulders are weighing him down, and his legs are weak... Great. Great!

"I'm sorry." And he better be---! How long-- How long had Tubbo been alone-- "You're not well."

What did Ranboo mean by that? It felt like a punch to the gut.

"I'm sorry I'm not helping. I'm sorry this is so hard for you. I'm here, now, though. I'm here." But Tubbo doesn't cry, hearing those words. His eyes are just playing tricks on him. Maybe he would be, if he was looking at Ranboo's face-- But he stubbornly looks at the horizon, avoiding the other's gaze.

"I'm just fine, thank you." He lies.

"Come on, Tubbo, I'm sorry, okay? I just-- You were fine, and then the other, you weren't, and then the other, the world wasn't--" He continues to ramble and Tubbo hates it, and he can't bear to hear more of it, "The world hasn't been fine for a while, in case you haven't noticed, Ranboo. That's not a new thing."

..There's silence for a while. "..I'm non-binary. I-- Tommy is too. We don't care about pronouns that much." Well. Well, that answered a few questions. First, what the hell Tommy meant by not being a guy a while back, second, how the hell the two had become so close over the years. He wasn't trans, but gay, so he could understand the solidarity between sharing an identity.

..And maybe his answer isn't the one he would've liked to hear when he first came out to Ranboo and Tommy all those years ago, but fuck it-- He doesn't care. His heart aches and he just wants-- He wants to get it all out. Even with words he doesn't mean. "What do you want me to say, congrats on coming out? Unless you haven't noticed, we're in the apocalypse. People don't really care what you have in your pants nowadays."

"You don't mean that." No shit. "You're right. I don't."

..There's something missing. "Sorry." Tubbo adds, and he feels a little bit more light.

"You're good. You need to get it out somehow, right?" Ranboo says with a sad smile, and god does Tubbo want to cry. He doesn't, though. Of course he doesn't.

"..Aimsey does care about you, you know." Ranboo says as he moves closer to Tubbo, leaning against the other's shoulder. While Tubbo wants to laugh at him, tell him he wasn't funny.. The touch was endearing, and he was willing to hear Ranboo out if he kept it up. "I mean, he is still letting you stay over at the Pharmacy. She's-- She's upset at you, yeah, but they can recognize... Illnesses."

Illnesses..? Tubbo doesn't have time to dwell on that. "Tommy's not good with it as well. I mean, I'm sure you've noticed, with his blatant... Immoral morals, I guess." He continues and Tubbo doesn't dwell on it either. It's not as if Ranboo was stating something he didn't know-- If anything, he was just vocalizing everybody's thoughts. "But I'm-- Well. I got a few diagnosis before the world ended. I know what you're going through."

Tubbo didn't understand. What did Ranboo think he was going through? The end of the world? No shit. "I'm sorry for being a crappy friend."

"Eh. I'll live." Maybe not the most sensitive answer. Tubbo doesn't dwell on that either. He doesn't do much of anything recently, anyway... "I lived through a lot. This isn't gonna be the straw that broke the camel's back, you know? Heh, if they didn't already go extinct.."

"I'm so happy you're alive," Ranboo says, "I'm so happy we're alive. You don't know how it feels to know that I couldn't think that was a possibility once. I'm so happy we're all alive, and I'm so happy we're bettering this place."

..Tubbo's not sure how to feel about that statement. First and foremost, his heart breaks, and then, he's confused-- Maybe Ranboo's trying to better Pogtopia and the Federation. Tubbo was just selfish, wanted to see WA02, hide in a corner and have nobody else around. Be cut off society but not WA02. He's selfish. He doesn't mind.

"Do you ever wonder why we of all people survived?" Ranboo asks, and Tubbo doesn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. He'd been silent all this time, and he could just answer that question. For him, it's obvious that it's because Pogtopia used to be a place he was safe in. "It's because we're worthy of life."

...Tubbo doesn't lie to himself. He knows exactly why that question rubs him the wrong way-- He knows why the sadness fades away, replaced by anger, he knows exactly why it's happening.

"So Schlatt wasn't worthy of life?" He spits out, looking at the floor as if it was the one that killed him. It wasn't. It was Pogtopia that did when they took him and left his father behind. He hears Ranboo take a breath before saying-- "Tubbo.. This-- This isn't what you wanna hear-- But he hurt you."

"And yet he was still my dad!" Tubbo snaps back, and he knows-- He knows there's tears in his eyes, and he doesn't try to keep them from spilling anymore. "I expected that from Tommy, you know, he doesn't understand what having parents' like, but you? You should know what it's like to have someone that loves you. It doesn't matter if he so called hurt me."

Ranboo moves his arm to try and hold Tubbo's hand. Tubbo moves his hand out of their reach.

"He loved me. More than anyone else ever did, really." He insists, and he hates the way Ranboo shakes his head, takes a sharp breath, and how if he'd actually looked up and looked at him, that he'd be crying. He hates it. "Tubbo, how could you not understand.."

"Understand what?"

"I love you."

..Oh.

Right.

Of course Ranboo loves him. He's one of his best friends.

Tubbo's throat hurts. He doesn't like how much he needed that reminder.

"I know. I know."

"Do you? Tubbo, I love you. Tubbo, Tommy loves you. Techno loves you. Pac loves you. Fit loves you. You're loved, Tubbo. You don't need to hold onto hurting because it loved you."

He takes a breath.

He couldn't breath.

The tears fall down his cheeks.

It feels like drowning.

His heart is so heavy.

He's drowning---

In love?

He finds that hard to believe.

"It's not gonna get fixed that easily. Your.. Illness. But I'll be by your side, loving you. Because you're my best friend, and I've been a horrible friend. I'm sorry."

He's sorry.

Ranboo's sorry.

"He... He loved me. My dad. I swear he did."

"I believe you, Tubbo. I don't need convincing. I'm just saying-- You can't hold on to the life before. It's not that you were loved, it's that you are. You are loved."

Chapter Text

...Tubbo likes it more than he thought he would.

Having Ranboo around, he means. They... Admittedly, they don't talk a lot. Not like that day, at least. Ranboo just sticks by his side and tells Aimsey to take his shift from time to time, so they go skulking around Pogtopia. Today isn't about that, though, no. Because then Tommy speaks up,

"Hey AimseyDupey, can ya take care of my shift at the Fed? I wanna take a look at Pogtopia." And while that's great news for Tubbo-- Ranboo hadn't proposed it yet, and he certainly didn't want to spend any more time then necessary with the girl, the girl seemed annoyed. "Again? Ugh, I hate the Fed. They all just.. Look at me weird."

That made sense, or at least, Tubbo thought so. She was a new WD, after all, and the Fed hadn't had great luck with those as of late. They definitely know this as well, because then, he says, "Almost like they wanna shoot me." and Tubbo knows it's directed at him. Tubbo rolls his eyes and ignores her. Instead, he just looks at Tommy, and says, "Yeah, sure, let's get going,"

Tommy nods, approaches him, as they hear Aimsey sputter and protests-- "Hey, I never accepted, you know-!" but she's quickly shut up by Ranboo who came next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. He looked at her with.. Tenderness, and shook his head. She looked hurt, but Tubbo would never admit that.

Tommy then takes his hand, and it takes a second for that to set in before he's being dragged around, it takes his heart jumping out of joy from physical contact to realize the moment's gone.

They're out now, onto the familiar streets of... Tubbo cringes at the fact that he doesn't remember the name of the city. It doesn't matter, anyway, it's not like it could be considered a city anymore. Maybe, five years ago, when it was a devil town, when zombies were roaming every street. Maybe six years ago, when people were roaming every street. Now, it all was...

It was empty. A ghost town, if you will. Mostly thanks to Etoiles and other fighters like Techno and Jaiden, they'd gotten rid of any hoard possibilities. Tubbo doesn't remember the last time he'd seen a zombie. And then he does, because it was when he was accompanying Scott, and he was terrified. He smirks at the thought. It's sadistic and he knows, yet he doesn't care.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Tommy crashes his train of thought, as he does. Tubbo doesn't really know how to answer that-- It's.. It wasn't relevant. None of his thoughts were, nowadays. He settles on telling the truth either way. "The city's kind of a devil town, if you think about it."

"That's the name of one of my favorite song. Devil town." ..Tubbo didn't expect that answer. He didn't know what he expected, really, but it was definitely not that. That's why he doesn't have an answer, why he can only question, "Oh?" But not by interest, by confusion. Tommy doesn't make the difference. "Yeah, by Cavetown."

"Oh." He lets out again.

"He's probably dead now. Like the rest of them. Ghost town."

That's sad, is all Tubbo could really think. "Oh.." He vocalizes again.

"I can't really remember how the lyrics went. Something about winter. Or summer. I dunno." Couldn't make the difference anymore, Tubbo could assume. Climate change was brutal, not like he ever understood anything about it. The Universe ending when he was thirteen cut all educational programs, as expected. He wasn't as upset about it as people thought.

Tubbo doesn't talk about that. He tries to remember his favorite song, if he had one at all. He likes to dwell on blue, and think it was about the ocean, but he couldn't tell. He stands there and ponders.

"I loved music, in middle school. The teacher understood me. I can't remember her name." There's mourning, in his voice, something Tubbo didn't know. He'd never heard it in Tommy's voice, and, somehow, it reminds him of himself.

"Would you write a song?"

"Maybe. About stupid shit, like.." They continue to walk together, Tubbo squeezing Tommy's hand once more, feeling comfort in the touch. "The internet getting worse. Stupid stuff, tell the world we're in a simulation, stuff like that, you know? I never got around learning an instrument, though."

"I'd listen to it anyway." He surprises himself when he finds it to be the truth.

"You'd hate my voice." Tommy says as he elbowed him, eyebrow raised and smirking, and all Tubbo could see was his friend, so he teases back, "I would."

They walk, together still, and he can see Pogtopia creeping closer. They aren't melancholic now, though. Tubbo's not thinking about a favorite song he can't remember, he's thinking about Tommy's non-existent song. Maybe, they could make instruments. Form a little band, with Ranboo. Kick Aimsey out of the Pharmacy. Hah, he can still dream.

"I don't think I have a single musical bone in my body," He admits, and he can see Tommy still smirking in his peripheral vision. He squeezes his hand still, and says, "That's fine, you have a body, don't you? You can just stand there and look pretty. I'll bring all the money in."

This time, Tubbo's the one elbowing Tommy. He's smirking, as well. Money doesn't even exist anymore, except for whatever maniac decided to keep some as a collection.

They arrive at Pogtopia's front door without another word. Tubbo barely manages to lean in to try and catch a any sound before the door opens for them to see a very unimpressed Etoiles staring straight at them.

"'Was my turn to turn of at the Pharmacy. For once, guys! That's not fair!" Etoiles says with his thick french accent, leaning against the metal door. Tubbo lets go of Tommy's hand-- His heart aches and he wonders if Tommy's does too-- Before leaning next to Etoiles, head on the older man's shoulder. He missed this.

"It's early, though, isn't it? Not noon yet. Plus, we've been going around for the past few days. Has no one noticed?" Tommy comments, as if he's been the one sneaking around for the past few days, and Etoiles seems like he wants to insult him, so he says, "Oh no, we've noticed, don't worry. You're shit." And Tubbo doesn't take it to heart. Instead, he smirks and laughs, while Tommy seems unimpressed.

It surprises him. How familiar and warm this all felt.

Surprisingly though, Etoiles continues, "I was heading out early 'cause I wanted to get out of this shit hole." ...And it's honest, is all Tubbo could observe.

"Great, what's Phil done again?" Tubbo doesn't know why Tommy's so aggressive on Phil, when he remembers Tommy specifically being close to him months ago. He guesses it has to do with how he used to visit Aimsey, and now he didn't. Something about growing up without parents, too, probably....It's weird, that he finds himself caring, for once. Not like he cares or anything.

"Said something Scott didn't like. About birds, dunno. Seemed more metaphorical than anything." Etoiles says and it's so vague that-- Tubbo can't really make anything of it. While the fact that it was, indeed, Phil that did something did something to him, he also felt a pang of annoyance at the statement. Scott, Scott. It always seemed to circle back to him.

Etoiles must see their confusion, because then he continues, "I mean, he wasn't like, tryna be mean or anything, most likely just trying to pass on an info without alarming curious ears. Scott didn't like it." ...Was it like that one blue-boy comment situation? He doesn't really understand Scott and most of his... Triggers, and he didn't intend to.

"Niki's with him and she wanted Scott to take my shift or something to clear his head. I said we could go together. I was just scouting the horizons." Etoiles continues, and Tubbo.. Doesn't have much to say about it. He still doesn't appreciate Scott-- Despite how much his voice sounded like honey when he wasn't in a mood-- But he has gotten used to his presence. Kind off.

"That doesn't bother me," Tubbo says with honesty-- As must honesty as he could gather. Tommy quirks up an eyebrow, before grinning and saying, "Always up for a bit of shenanigans. And anything that'll upset the group. Scott's good at that!" ..Yeah, here comes Tommy's fucked up-- Not morals, not really, but empathy, he guesses. "You guys are mean. Scott's a great guy."

"You just say that because you like smooching him. Smooch smooch." Tommy teases, and he's clearly unaware of what he's talking about, because he's also clearly not heard about Etoiles and Quackity's weird... Situationship.

"You're weird." Etoiles insults, and Tubbo couldn't agree more.

They wait here, for a few minutes. Tubbo out of the corner of his eyes sees something blue pass by and swears that he feels eyes on him before disappearing. They'd been caught, there's no doubt at that, but Etoiles said that they'd been caught a long time ago, so he doesn't really dwell on it.

After a few moments, he hears footsteps getting closer, and once he turns his head, he sees-- Scott, looking as terrible as he always did. Strawberry blond hair and blue eyes who looked more red than anything, puffy from crying, probably.

Etoiles tilts his head to the side, face full of concern, and he asks, "You good now, Scott? Your eyes are all red."

"Shut up."

Oh yeah, that's the Scott he knows.

Chapter Text

Scott's eyes are red.

That is a fact. He's probably been crying all day long and now his eyes are red and puffy because of it, and whenever somebody even thinks about mentioning it, he glares daggers at them and they don't consider it anymore. Scott's eyes are red and weird, and Scott is weird.

Aimsey doesn't seem to know anything either. She stays back in a corner and looks at him worriedly, while it seems as though Scott is making a point not to look at her. Their relationship is weird-- They're constantly avoiding one another, when they should, in theory, be.. Best friends.

Then he remembers for how long he's ignored Tommy and Ranboo and he couldn't really say anything, could he? But he still does. Like a hypocrite.

He diverts his attention. He sees how hard Etoiles is trying-- He's thinking, thinking of ways to get through Scott, but.. Tubbo knows it's worthless.

It's weird, to see more people here, now. Etoiles, Scott and Niki are all with them-- Niki being mostly with Ranboo. He could see how sad this place makes them-- They're not used to the silence, are they? Tubbo doesn't know how he got used to it. It's more of.. A vacation, really. It's quiet, and it's calming, and there's nothing to worry about but yourself..

Jaiden's joining them today as well. It was her turn to go out at noon and Tubbo doesn't really know how to feel about that. It's not that he doesn't like Jaiden, it's that he never really got to know her well. Again, rumors and reputation, she was a fierce fighter, just like Etoiles. A bit newer, which could be why he didn't know her well.

But then again-- He couldn't help but skeptical. It's not like rumors ever did them any favor. While they could be true, like Scott's, for example, that said he was a heartless asshole and the equivalent of an alive zombie, he.. Couldn't quite get the godsend rumors out of his head.

Her wondered what water they drank, now, without them. He then remembers Pierre, and how he now regularly goes down as a WD in the Fed, and wonders if they figured out they were the godsends. They probably did. Was Pierre the godsent, now? He hates the mere thought.

"Stop thinking so hard, gay boy," A high voice interrupted his thoughts--- Tommy. Because who else would it be? He glares at him, his best friend with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression, and he was just about to jab back when a voice stopped him-- "What's wrong with being gay?"

Scott-- Because of course it was Scott. Now, Tubbo didn't actually know a lot about Scott's preferences, and the defensive tone he'd taken on could definitely come from an ally-- But his eyes, red and puffy from crying, were glaring at Tommy, who looked at him unimpressed, and.. Tubbo couldn't help but wonder.

"I never said it was wrong." Tommy clarified and Tubbo couldn't help but find it funny how Tommy's morals stopped at homophobia of all things. He could see, from the corner of his eye, the way Scott relaxed at Tommy's clarification. Tommy seems to notice it too, because then he adds, "Tubbo's just probably missing his loverboy again."

And Tubbo hates him. Tubbo hates him and he snaps-- "WA02 is not--"

"Why do you deny yourself?" Scott cuts him off, and Tubbo doesn't really know what to make of it. "Why do you deny yourself if he's still here? Why don't you go to him, and make the most of him, while he's still here?" Scott's honeyed voice seems to be bordering on breaking, snapping. His red eyes start shining once more, and all Tubbo could make of it is..

..Maybe he knows what Scott's been crying about.

He hides a smile at the thought of how upset he could make Scott-- Before it what Scott said really hits him. Scott is much like him, really, with his boy trouble and his selfishness, he can't see past his own head. He's very much like Tubbo, in a way. He doesn't like thinking about that, and he doesn't voice much, just, "He's not here, though, is he?"

Scott is glaring daggers at him, now, and he can see the way Tommy's smiling creating such a contrast-- He might've been defensive a few seconds ago, but now, Tommy was enjoying the 'show'.

Had been anybody else, anyone other than his fucked up best friend, he's probably hate them with a burning passion--- Just like he hates Scott, actually. But it's not. It's his best friend. So he sucks it up and listens to what Scott has to say-- "You could easily just go to him. We both know it. What's holding you back?" And he hates that he's right.

He hates that he's right-- Because Pierre has literally said that WA02's in Pogtopia. And Tubbo hates how much more right he is-- Because what is holding him back? He's thrown a tantrum in Pogtopia, before, what's stopping him from going back and just.. Do it all over again? It's not like Phil'll allow anybody to hurt him. At least he thinks so. He hopes.

Either way, he doesn't-- And he still doesn't know why. He thinks back on the letter, and the countless moments he's spent with WA02, and thinks, thinks, thinks and thinks back on that day when he first spoke to WA02 out loud, how WA02 looked at him with admiration, as if speaking was something brave to do-- and joked about him confessing.

Tubbo had considered it. WA02 had played it off as if it would've been a cringe thing to do and-- And Tubbo almost wishes that he did, back then. That he'd gotten rejected, as well. That way, he wouldn't have gone back-- Too ashamed, heartbroken, even. WA02 would have rejected him because there was no other option--

While he could take a guess on why he was kicked out of his house before the apocalypse, he's not-- He's not exactly the most.. Human, anymore. And he doesn't know how dehumanizing thinking that way was-- But it's true, in a way. And Tubbo loves a freak-- But does WA02? Scott doesn't even know half of it, so he asks-- "Have you even seen him?"

"I've talked to him!" Scott snaps and Tubbo's heart skips a beat-- before coming to the assumption they'd just exchanged letters. WA02 wouldn't talk with a voice, much less to Scott of all people. He tries to relax as he listens Scott continue--- "I've talked to him, and he's-- He's very sweet. You don't deserve him, really, but he reminds-- He's--"

Scott stutters and stumbles over every single word and Tubbo would make fun of him for it, but he was taken aback by how genuine all his words felt, coming out with his usually honey flavored voice. He doesn't deserve him, Scott said, tears in his eyes, and Tubbo feels as though he's speaking about him and WA02, but also-- not? He reminds him of what, of who?

Who does Scott not deserve?

"He's just like him. Inhuman." He says, filled with endearment towards someone that didn't hear it, couldn't hear it, and if Tubbo was right in his assumptions-- Could never hear it. Tubbo does hear, though, when Scott mutters, "And me, in a way..."

He gulps, takes a step back, takes a breath and remembers what Etoiles said to him yesterday-- "..something Scott didn't like. About birds, dunno. Seemed more metaphorical than anything.." and Tubbo couldn't help but wonder if it ever was metaphorical at all. He quickly shakes the idea away, though. Scott was very much so not like a bird-- And he said he was inhuman too. He remembers to zombie rumors, and proceeds to assume that that must've been what Scott was referring to.

He took one look at Tommy-- He doesn't seem more affected by the situation than he was two seconds ago. It almost seems as though he wasn't amused anymore, though. But he wasn't concerned, either. He was just.. Bored, it seems.

He looks back on Scott-- He's looking down at his feet, pondering, wondering... Tubbo wonders what the boy he thought of looked like. He rolls his eyes-- If only to try to convince himself that he doesn't care, that he doesn't know how he feels. He speaks up, with venom in his voice, if only to fool himself, and hurt him for the slightest bit-- "Get your head straight, he's not. WA02's not a monster, unlike whoever you're thinking of."

..Scott didn't listen to what he said. He knows this, because the way he looks at him isn't angry, or hurt, in a way. He's in pain, sure, but he's not hurt-- And he's curious. He looks at him, with his blue eyes that didn't look so red anymore---

"He's okay with Fred, you know? Says it makes him feel more like a person."

Fuck's sake.

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-

Tubbo proceeds to ignore him. That's one thing he can control, at least, if not Scott following him. Soon enough, the chatting dies down, and the door opens. And they met with Fit.

"Woah! I wasn't aware of this-- The whole gang? Come on in."

It's crazy to think the Leaders still trust most of their fighters, when all of them were on their side. Weirdly, it warms his heart to see Fit grinning at them. He looks at him, and then, Fit looks back, and there's something in his eyes akin to love, and Tubbo remembers that they're best friends.

He turns and enters, leaving that moment in the past, with Scott trailing behind him.

He sees blue in the corner of his eye, and associates it with Scott once more. Because while he might hate Scott-- There was one person he hated more than anybody else on this whole wide world, and he felt as though he didn't need rage to come into this operation.

"You'd think we'd be a bit more sneaky in an operation like this," Scott commented as Tubbo turned a corner and was met with Baghera.. Who gave him a wave and let them go their own way. Tubbo had to admit that this was weirdly different from all the different movies he'd watched before the world ended.

They hear her giggle through he gas mask. They don't pay any attention to it. They're all crazy, the gas maskers. They are. He kicks dust with every step.

He passes every door with an echo.

Technically, he doesn't know where WA02 would be kept. It sure wasn't gonna be in the meeting room, neither would it be in the sleeping hall, or the dining space.. There were a few offices, and he wanted to check Pierre's, but he doesn't think that would be the case..

"He's in my office," Scott cuts through as he turned a corner Tubbo wasn't gonna turn. "They demoted me. It's not technically my office anymore, I guess."

He doesn't think it's empathy when he starts feeling rage towards the mere thought.

"I hate you."

And it's true.

He's the one following Scott, now, though.

He doesn't say anything.

They arrive in front of Scott's old office door and... Scott stays next to it. "The door's open." Why does he want Tubbo to open it? Was he just.. Trying to be kind? Tubbo doesn't believe it.

He opens it anyway.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

"WA02?" He manages to call out.

The dark dots move from the flames to meet his eyes. Dark, dull, dots. Beautiful.

WA02 doesn't say anything. Of course he doesn't. He could never-- And Tubbo doesn't hold it against him. After six years of the apocalypse not speaking-- he wouldn't put it past any of the workers to have forgotten how to even use their vocal cords.

(he tries not to remember how they screamed when Elena shot him)

And either way-- WA02 was breathing. He couldn't hear it over the wind and the fire flicking, but he could see it in the way his mouth and chest moved.

And that's all that ever mattered.

With Scott standing by the doorway watching it all happen, Tubbo runs in the room.

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