Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I’ll see you in a few days,” Tommy promised as he walked backwards through the gateway to another world, a shaky attempt at a smile on his face.

Leo held his breath. Timing was everything.

Too soon and everyone else would run in after him, too late and he’d miss his chance entirely.

His fingers twitched as Mikey’s portal started closing, the crackling gold shrinking further and further in on itself.

He tensed in preparation, shifting his weight back onto his right heel.

Leo waited until the portal was just shy of closing– only a few feet wide– before grabbing the hilt of one of his katanas and quickly slinging it forward through the air and the closing portal.

Ninpō welled up in his core, electricity jumping across his skin. The air around him dropped to below freezing as he warped to the thrown sword and closed his fingers around the hilt a split second before Mikey’s gateway closed for good.

Cold snow bit into Leo’s skin. He ignored it in favor of shooting Tommy a wry smile. “Sorry, Tommy–” he did a quick twirl of his katana before sheathing it behind his back. “–but I’ve already done this whole self-sacrifice thing before– and I gotta say, getting pretty sick of it by now,” he quipped.

And then he did a full body shiver. “Boy is it cold out here. What do you say we take this inside? I have been dying to meet your best friend,” Leo suggested, jabbing his thumb towards the cabin they'd been dropped off in front of.

Tommy was staring at him with an open mouth and something like horror in his expression.

Leo raised his brows at the other teen. “What? Do I have something on my face?” he asked jokingly, patting his cheeks with his fingers already stinging from the cold.

Tommy took a half step back, shaking his head minutely. “You– fuck. Fuck, you weren't supposed to– what the fuck?!” He sounded out of breath, raking a hand through his fur and gasping unevenly.

Which was about the point where Leo realized that Tommy was much more freaked out by Leo following after him than he’d assumed he’d be.

Leo was expecting anger, he was expecting frustration, and shouting– yeah, fair to say, panic attack hadn’t quite been on his list of expectations.

Probably should have been. Especially after the record-breakingly awful morning they’d just had.

Leo forced himself to brave the cold a little longer, for Tommy’s sake. “Okay, so I know this isn't exactly what you were hoping for–”

“Not exact– I wanted to do this alone for a reason, Leo! I told you! I– he–” Tommy exhaled shakily, hands falling from his head as he stared back at Leo with undisguised distress. “Dream is my mess, alright? My fucking issue to deal with. You can't– the last time I tried to put an end to Dream for good, he killed someone very close to me and then everything went to shit. I can't have that shit happen again, Leo. I can't,” he insisted in a voice that shuddered and broke under the pain.

It felt like he’d already given up. Like he was preemptively mourning Leo’s eventual death at the hands of Dream.

Well, that was a cheery thought.

Leo rubbed his arms, trying to work some warmth back into his skin as a shiver started to set in. “L-look, you're feeling scared right now, and that's okay, I g-get it.” Curse his chattering teeth. “But I won't apologize for coming with you. N-not if you're planning to fight the same guy who's literally m-m-murdered you before,” he did his best to assert firmly despite the rampant shivering.

Tommy flinched and Leo couldn’t help his own wince.

Great going, Leon. Way to bring up Tommy’s past deaths right after the guy had spent all morning hallucinating his fears. 

Real classy.

Tommy let out a shaky exhale. “I’m not– I– I don’t want to talk about this right now. I don’t want to–”

“Then d-don’t,” Leo interrupted, not keen on letting Tommy spiral any further. “What’s done is d-done, all we can do n-n-now is focus on what comes next… which hopefully includes going inside.” Seriously, all this cold was making Leo want to hide in his shell and nap until spring.

Alarm flashed across Tommy’s face. “Shit, yeah, sorry–” he started wrestling the hoodie up over his head. “–here, I’ve got– I’ve got me fur keepin’ me all warm an’ shit.” He chucked the hoodie at Leo, who didn’t hesitate to tug it on– though he was careful about pulling it over his katanas.

Already it was a major improvement, the trapped body-heat from Tommy warming Leo’s skin. Even so, icy wind seemed to cut straight through the fabric– and that wasn’t even mentioning his increasingly more numb feet still plunged in the snow. “Th-thanks,” Leo said anyway, still shivering as he tucked his fingers into his armpits.

Tommy frowned as he nodded, hopping up the steps of the cabin they'd been dropped in front of.

He hesitated with his fingers poised to grip the doorknob– he took a deep breath, Leo didn't miss the way Tommy’s hand shook– and then he finally reached the rest of the way forward and opened the door. “Tubbo! Tubbo, you in here, pal?”

Leo followed Tommy into the cabin, shutting the door behind him and reveling in the toasty warmth coming from a fireplace nestled in the far corner of the room.

While Tommy was busy tapping his foot and pulling his comically old looking phone out from thin air, Leo took a minute to look around– appreciate the architecture, or something.

It was nice. A very cozy cabin with a cute little woodstove heating the house and several windows to let the morning light in.

There was even a deck of cards taking up one section of the equally cozy wood and stone table– it looked like a couple of people had been playing Seven Up. Neither one seemed to have made any progress in their hand before abandoning the game despite the unexpectedly sizable discard pile.

Had they been playing with three decks? For two people?

The longer Leo looked around, the more unsettled he began to feel. Not because of the cards, obviously.

No, what really got to him was the dust.

It coated nearly every surface, leaving the cabin a too quiet husk with little sign of use aside from the slowly dying fire and disturbed dust around the playing cards.

It didn’t look like it had been a home to anyone in a while.

So why had Mikey’s portal dropped them off here?

A frustrated huff from Tommy brought Leo’s attention back to the other teen.

Tommy was still typing away on his brick phone– or was it called a communicator? Either way, he was beginning to look progressively more distressed the longer he typed. His ears were angled back, finger tapping an impatient rhythm into the back of the communicator.

Casting one more glance around the dusty cabin, Leo walked over to Tommy. He also happened to be just shameless enough to flick his eyes down to the comm screen.

<Tommyinnit> Where are you?

<Tommyinnit> Hello?

<Tommyinnit> Tubbo?

<Tommyinnit> this isn’t funny tubbo you nkow how i get about htis stuff

<Tommyinnit> tubbo

<Tommyinnit> you better be fucking okay you prick. i’m not doing this shit without you

<Messages Failed To Send>

Huh, well, that wasn’t ominous or foreboding at all.

Leo leaned against Tommy’s shoulder. “Ooh, y’know what? I’m not sure they have service out here,” he remarked in a risky bid to lighten the mood.

He wasn't sure how successful of an attempt it was given the way Tommy's fingers tightened around his comm. “It doesn't work like that,” he bit out, moving away from Leo and tucking his communicator away.

Leo let Tommy have his space, “Right, right, and remind me again how it does work?” Leo asked, redirecting with ease.

Tommy gave him that squinty look he always got whenever someone asked about something that he thought was common knowledge, but was, in fact, unique to whatever odd video game-esque world he came from. “Um, dunno, just how it is, innit? Only reason Tubbo wouldn’t get my messages is if he wasn’t fuckin’ here. Like, not on the server, or– or, y’know… dead,” the last bit came out faint. Choked.

His hands were shaking and his eyes, not meeting Leo’s, were looking more unfocussed by the second.

Spiralling again.

Carefully maintaining the bit of distance Tommy had established for himself– no need to make him feel cornered– Leo waved a hand like a record scratch, the movement catching Tommy’s eye. “Woah, woah, woah, let’s not jump straight to death here. We’re here because Mikey’s mystic portal mojo said this is where Tubbo is–” Leo rotated his wrist a few times, an idling gesture. “–and yeah, I can totally see how the messages not sending could look… bad– but that doesn’t mean he’s dead. Maybe he just… y’know, ran out of batteries. Or broke his phone-communicator-device-thingy and that’s why it’s not sending,” he suggested.

Tommy didn’t look particularly convinced of his totally viable ideas. “I guess,” he mumbled anyway, crossing his arms and frowning.

Leo took the minor win with a grin. “That’s the spirit! Now, come on, let’s get some investigation going.” He slid over to the fireplace with a wide two-armed gesture to the dying fire within. “We know someone had to have been here at some point within the last few hours at least because of the fire– but there’s something about all this that’s been bothering me.” His hand gravitated to his chin as he looked around the cabin again.

Everything about it seemed lived in. From the slightly crumpled papers covered in childish crayon scribbles tacked across the walls like masterpieces, to a framed photo of Tubbo, someone unfamiliar who wouldn't look out of place in the Hidden City with their perfectly split black and white fur, and a little pig-esque boy Leo was fairly certain he'd seen in one or two of Tommy's pictures.

What was his name again? He shared a name with Mikey, right? Michael?

That sounded correct.

Either way, it felt like more than just a cabin. It felt like a home.

And yet…

Tommy was giving Leo a puzzled stare. “...Aye?”

Leo started pacing, finger tapping against his chin. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but your friend Tubbo lived here, right?” He paused in his pacing to snap his fingers into a point at Tommy.

Slowly, still noticeably unsure about where Leo was going with everything, Tommy nodded. “Him and Michael, yeah–” alarm flashed across his face. “–oh, fuck, Michael. Y’don’t think anything happened to him, do you?” he fretted, hands wringing together and tail lashing.

Leo tried not to grimace too noticeably. “Well, I don’t have the answer to that, but my point is that every surface in this cabin is covered in a thick layer of dust– ergo–” he waggled his finger. “–I don’t think anyone’s been living in this place for months,” he deduced with a nod towards the ever dusty table.

Like he was finally seeing the room for the first time again, Tommy scoured the cabin with a scrutinizing eye. There was a frown on his lips and a furrow between his brows. “What? But he– what?”

Leo took that as his cue to keep going, “Mikey’s still pretty new to this side of his powers, but just going off of past experience I'm willing to bet that Tubbo was here, but we just barely managed to miss him. Is there anywhere else you can think of where he might be staying?”

Tommy tilted his head with a scrunched expression, eyes flicking up to the ceiling in thought. “I dunno, I– I mean, he’s kinda kept to himself since– since L’Manberg, but maybe– ugh, I don’t– I don’t know, Las Nevadas, maybe?” he speculated, speech becoming slightly muffled towards the end as he started gnawing on the bend of his index finger.

Las Nevadas. “Sounds fancy. How far is it?” Leo stretched his arms– gotta limber up for the road.

“‘Unno, like…” Tommy took his finger out of his mouth, frowning thoughtfully. “Couple hours walking from here,” he said with a nod.

“A couple hours walking?” Leo couldn’t help it– it was his first reaction.

But could you blame him? He was literally the portal guy, that kind of went hand-in-hand with being the not-wanting-to-go-on-long-walks guy.

Tommy blinked at him, surprised, and then snickered, a grin spreading across his face. “Yeah, sorry, mate, but we haven’t got your fancy cars and fuckin’ motorbikes here. It’s by horseback or foot ‘round these parts– and unluckily for you, I’m pretty sure the only person who’s horses haven’t been killed is fucking Technoblade’s, which, y’know–” he waved his hand flippantly. “–It’s fucking Technoblade. Lucky prick, everyone’s too scared to go after his pets,” he scoffed with an undertone of bitterness

“Is horse homicide a recurring issue here? Because that phrasing makes it sound like a recurring issue,” Leo observed with a sympathetic grimace for the fallen horses– may they rest in peace.

Tommy gave him a lackluster shrug in response. “More like pets in general. Especially my pets.” He turned away from Leo as he spoke, though it did nothing to hide the undeniable pain in his voice.

“Ah…” Leo’s mouth formed a thin line as he watched Tommy shuffle off towards a sizable wooden box by the door, conversation apparently over.

He wondered just how much this world– or, ‘server’– had taken from Tommy. His life, his pets, his sense of security.

He wondered how much of it Dream specifically was responsible for.

Tommy was rooting through the wooden box, lid flipped up against the wall.

Curiosity was a welcome distraction to whatever the heavy feeling in Leo’s chest was called. He meandered closer, hands tucked casually into the pockets of his hoodie. “So… What’cha looking for?”

In place of a response, Tommy held up a nice looking brown winter coat with a cream fur trim around the hood. “Coat,” he declared, proud, succinct, and accurate.

A somewhat bewildered smile found its way onto Leo’s face. “Yeah?”

Tommy burst into a short bout of laughter, tugging similar looking snow pants from the box before he got back to his feet. “Sorry, sorry, I meant– these were my ones, so they'll probably fit ‘round your shell if you want. Think he might have some spare boots downstairs in a chest somewhere if you wanted to give them a go,” he offered, holding out the winter gear.

A lesser man might have been jarred by the seemingly abrupt switch from solemn bitterness to lighthearted laughter. But Leo was no lesser man, and, more importantly, he happened to be intimately familiar with the concept of humour as a coping mechanism.

He didn't have any room to judge, that was for sure.

As such, Leo accepted the winter gear, humming appreciatively at the feel of thick, high quality fabric. “Ooh, class-ay. Very tundra life chic, I like it.” He pulled the coat on over his hoodie, but didn't bother to zip it up just yet. They were still inside, after all. 

The sleeves were a touch long, but it was remarkably comfortable. Between the coat and the fireplace, low burning as it was, Leo was practically overheating already.

And then he remembered the second part of Tommy's offer with a snap of his fingers. “Oh, and if there are spare boots laying around, it wouldn't hurt to try. Better than losing my toes to frostbite,” Leo agreed airily.

Tommy nodded once. “Right. Back in a minute then. Don't break any of Tubbo's shit.” And then he was off, opening up a trapdoor and disappearing down the ladder.

With Tommy off scrounging through the basement, Leo gravitated back toward the abandoned card game.

He really didn’t know why they'd used so many decks for just two players. Seemed pretty counterintuitive if you asked Leo.

He draped the snow pants over the back of a chair and busied himself with making a house of cards out of the impressively large discard pile.

There were six jokers in the discard pile alone. Six.

Seriously, who needed that many decks for two people?

“Found some!” Tommy called from the basement.

Regrettably, the sound startled Leo just enough that his precarious house of cards fell apart.

Oh well.

He turned away from the mess of cards just as Tommy was clambering out of the basement with a pair of boots cradled in one arm.

They were armoured with iron, from the looks of it.

Leo raised a brow. “Well, not exactly what I'd consider standard winter boots– looks more knight of the roundtable if you ask me– but hey, pass ‘em over, let's give it a shot.” He made grabby hands and was summarily rewarded with iron-laden boots chucked right at his face.

They clanked noisily together as Leo caught them. He was moderately surprised to discover that they weren't actually that heavy for being made with iron.

“Alright, lucky boot number one!” Leo chimed as he set them down and slipped a foot in.

It fit… surprisingly well? Sure, the heel was a bit awkward and the rest of the boot was definitely made for someone with a larger shoe size than him– but still, usable.

He tugged the other boot on, nodding to himself. “Hey, not bad, not bad–” he walked around in an experimental circle. “–yeah, I can work with this,” he confirmed, sending a thumbs up Tommy's way.

Tommy started to smile– a familiar sort of thing that often predated a joke of his own– only to apparently remember that he was still mad at Leo for not happily agreeing to send Tommy off to face his tormentor alone, because it was quickly snuffed out and replaced with a far more serious scowl.

“Let's just go and find Tubbo,” Tommy said shortly, staunchly refusing to meet Leo’s eyes.

A near-silent sigh fell from Leo's mouth at the distant attitude.

He glanced out one of the cabin’s windows. The snow was coming down strong. The muffled howling of wind outside wasn't particularly reassuring either.

Leo looked from the dismal weather to the clothes Tommy was wearing. Fur or not, a T-shirt could not be enough protection from the literal blizzard they were going to have to trek through.

Well, now that just wouldn't do.

It wasn't as if Leo really needed a hoodie in addition to the jacket and snow pants.

Shedding the layers he'd donned (carefully, because, again, sharp blades strapped to his shell), Leo dumped the coat with the snow pants for the sake of bunching his hoodie up in a ball and taking aim. “Heads up!” was the only warning he gave before using his wealth of basketball skills to toss the thing at the back of Tommy's head.

Harmless revenge for Tommy throwing iron boots at him.

Seeing as Tommy was too busy sulking to react fast enough, the most he managed to do was turn his head just in time to catch a face full of sweater with a muffled, “Oomph!”

Leo leaned casually against the table with a quiet snicker, watching Tommy fumble to remove the hoodie from his face.

It was totally worth the irritated scowl Tommy shot him once the hoodie was securely held under an arm. “You are not as funny as you think you are,” Tommy informed him seriously, ears out to the sides.

“Agree to disagree, but whatever you say. Just as long as you put on that sweater.” Leo saw Tommy open his mouth– to argue or complain, Leo didn't know because he didn't even let him start. “I don't care if you have fur, that blizzard out there's only gotten worse in the time we've spent here,” Leo tacked on with a pointed stare.

Tommy grumbled indistinctly, immediately followed by a pitched up, mocking imitation of Leo’s words– but he did put the hoodie back on. “There. Happy?” he asked dryly.

Ignoring the flagrant mockery– Leo gave Tommy what he had, on good authority (Raph's, Mikey's, Donnie’s, and April’s), to be his most annoying smile. “Very. Leon’s highly esteemed protection services thanks you for your cooperation,” he quipped with no hesitation and a showy little half-bow to top it all off.

Leo was very satisfied to note the upwards twitch to the corners of Tommy's mouth before it was promptly covered up again with a scowl and a huff.

As if Tommy could get away with being all grumpy and standoffish when Leo was around. He was the face man. Lightening the mood was kind of his whole thing.

That being said, he did still need to take things seriously. He was in an unfamiliar land with unfamiliar rules and who knew if any of the faces they encountered would be friendly or not.

Leo narrowed his eyes at the coat folded over the back of the chair.

He couldn't not wear it (not if he didn't want to get some major frostbite, that was), but at the same time, it was hardly practical to have his swords trapped underneath.

Well, desperate times called for desperate measures.

Leo wrangled his belt/sash/the-thing-his-katanas-were-attached-to up and off with practiced movements, setting it down on the table with about half the recommended care– and then startled at the sound of a sharp gasp.

He glanced to the side, slightly worried something had happened– only to find Tommy staring at him like a scandalized Victorian woman, hand partially covering his open mouth.

Oh. Nevermind, Leo knew what this was about.

He rolled his eyes with a light shake of his head, an amused smile half-formed on his face. “You do know I'm not any more naked than I usually am, right? Besides, I've still got my trusty gloves and socks,” he said with a broad gesture to himself.

Tommy gave him a long stare, brows slightly raised, eyes narrowed, and lips curled with a comical level of disgust. “This is so unprofessional of you. I can’t believe you– this would be like if I took off my shirt just now.”

Leo returned the sentiment with a deadpan stare of his own. “If you took off your shirt, you’d still be covered in fur, modesty fully intact. Just like how I still have my shell.” He turned back to the small collection of garments on the table and chairs.

After a short moment of deliberation, he started getting dressed– snow pants, then boots, coat, and finally his gear over top.

It felt… a little odd, but it gave him unhindered access to his katanas, so it would just have to do.

Popping up his hood and smoothing out his coat, Leo spun back around with a wide ‘ta-da’ gesture. “So? Whaddya think? Great, stunning, or incredible?” he asked with flair. “Personally, I’m going for incredible– but, y’know, everyone’s got different tastes.”

He took great joy in Tommy's scrunched up face. “It’s– yeah, sure, I mean… it's definitely something,” he commented, judgy as can be.

Paying the exaggerated disapproval little mind, Leo clomped over to the door, pulling it open and gesturing to the frigid, snowy beyond. “After you,” he chimed.

Leo leaned to the side on a whim, reaching down into the basket Tommy had ransacked for winter gear earlier.

He was happy to find a nice pair of blue woollen gloves, ripe for the taking.

Sufficiently protected from the cold they were about to brave, Leo followed Tommy outside. “Alright!” He started, pulling the door shut. “Lead the way!” he encouraged, hopping down the steps.

Tommy flicked his hood up over his ears with a small nod and quiet, “Right,” as he guided the way through the tiny ghost town.

Because ‘ghost town’ was definitely accurate. The snow was piled up high, even on what he was pretty sure were supposed to be designated paths. No light spilled from the windows of the few cabins scattered about, and that wasn’t even mentioning the sheer amount of overgrown berry bushes everywhere.

And then he spotted the tunnel. It went straight into a snowy, spruce tree dotted hill, and there was an inexplicable, downright impossible wall of water that wasn't pouring out through the clear opening.

Almost more confusing was the fact that Tommy walked right past it without so much as a second glance.

Leo, however, because he was normal, just about tripped over his own feet. “Hold– hold on a sec, are we seriously not going to mention the gravity defying water right there?” he asked desperately.

Tommy paused, giving Leo a weird look over his shoulder. “What?” His eyes flicked to the water tunnel, only getting more confused (but something told Leo it wasn't for the reason he'd hope). “It's literally not though? It's got signs to block the water from spilling out. Like, mate, Leo, I don't know how to tell you this, but it's not exactly rocket science, yeah?” He said, like any of this made the slightest bit of sense.

But you know what? There was a time and place for everything, and, quite frankly, Leo would rather not stick around any longer than they had to.

He shook his head and resolved not to ask about it anymore. “Man, Donnie would hate this place,” he commented with a snicker before rejoining Tommy.

Well, hate it or get driven mad trying to figure out the logic and science behind everything– but same thing, really.

Tommy didn't respond to Leo's quip, not so much as an amused huff to be heard.

Damn, Leo really thought that one would've gotten through to him. What could be funnier than making fun of Donnie's need to understand everything on a scientific level?

For lack of anything to say that wouldn't just make things worse, Leo was equally quiet as they hiked up and over the hill.

What could only possibly be an ocean stretched out as far as the snowy weather allowed the eye to see, waves tumultuous and grey from the blizzard.

Curiously, a long glass structure was coming out of the hill. It went straight out across the ocean, suspiciously tunnel shaped and definitely filled with water.

Leo narrowed his eyes at the structure. “Okay, seriously though, what's the deal with that water tunnel.” He was itching for literally any kind of explanation here.

Tommy started picking his way down to the tunnel, looking exceedingly familiar with the route, brushing his palm against the trees as he passed them by. “Well, it used to be a high speed dolphin tunnel thing, but then the dolphins got lost or killed, so it's just a box of death now, innit. ‘Specially without soul speed ‘n respiration,” he explained rather curtly.

Leo drew his mouth into a thin line, pausing once again just to stare at the back of Tommy's furry head. “Right, yeah, I'll just pretend any of that made sense,” he decided, resuming his descent.

They ended up on top of the glass tunnel, walking along the strangely clear surface. Maybe the wind from the ocean was enough to keep the snow from settling.

He lasted a frankly impressive thirty-five seconds (yes, he counted) before snapping under the boredom. “So… not that I'm doubting your judgement or anything– but please don't tell me we're going to walk across an entire ocean.” How long would that even take? Weeks? Months? Years?

Tommy didn't look at Leo as he answered, “Pretty sure you doubted my judgement when you went against your word and fucking followed me here,” he snapped with no shortage of scathing irritation. “But this bit’s short. Not too far from the mainland. Think it's about thirty minutes walking, max,” he explained anyway, entirely curt.

“...I get the feeling you're mad at me,” Leo ventured, testing the waters.

And boy were the waters treacherous.

Tommy finally looked at him, but only to shoot Leo an impressively withering look. “Oh, you think? What tipped you off, y’fucking–” Tommy cut himself off, mouth snapping shut as he moved his glare to the thick layer of glass underfoot.

A second later, he muttered a stilted, “Sorry,” turning his head to further hide his face.

Leo gave him a minute to cool off, letting wind and waves fill the silence between them.

Once he was mostly sure Tommy wouldn't push him into the ocean for pushing the topic, Leo cautiously started speaking again. “I know you wanted to handle this on your own, and I am sorry that I lied to you– but I don't regret it. Not if the alternative was you facing off against Dream on your own,” he expressed earnestly.

Seriously, he couldn't think of a worse thing than the fear he'd be feeling for Tommy's life had he actually let things go according to the ‘plan.’

Tommy said nothing, so Leo took a breath and continued to fill the silence. “I know you're scared. This isn't what you wanted to happen and now you feel responsible for keeping me safe and that's scary. I've been in the same place. I get it.” Leo tried to bump shoulders with Tommy, either to provide reassurance or solidarity, only for the other teen to shy away from the contact.

Ah, it looked like Leo hadn't quite gotten through to him yet.

Guess he'd just have to keep hitting Tommy over the head with motivational team leader speeches until it finally clicked. “Back when the Krang showed up, I was responsible for keeping my brothers safe and I totally blew it. I let the Foot Clan get away with the key, Raph got kidnapped and Krangified saving me, and then I almost got Donnie and Mikey killed rushing into things with half a plan.” He had to stop for a second, just to breathe through the rising lump in his throat.

It wasn't fun– talking about the invasion. About how he almost kickstarted the end of the world with his reckless behaviour.

“Before that though, whenever Dad made me the team leader, I– Raph was mad at me, like, all the time. He always had some criticism for how I handled things, and at the time, I just– I just kept telling myself he was being ridiculous. Taking things too seriously, getting upset over every little thing I ‘did wrong.’” Leo tilted his head back to gaze up at the sky.

Pure white-out conditions. It looked more like a blank void than a sky if you asked Leo.

He remembered being so annoyed by it all. He didn't ask to be team leader, the role had just been thrusted on to him out of seemingly nowhere.

It didn't help that he and Raph were getting into fights over the way Leo ran things what felt like every night.

Of course, he could acknowledge now that he really hadn't been handling the new leadership role well. Like, seriously, so many bad decisions.

A wry smile twisted the corners of Leo's mouth at the thought of his past inexperienced recklessness.

Clearing his throat, Leo set his gaze forward again. “But it was never really about him being mad at me– and all it took was the world nearly ending for me to realize that,” he remarked with half a chuckle, strained as it was.

He kept an eye on Tommy out of the corner of his vision– who was still staunchly refusing to look in his direction.

Leo had a feeling he was listening though. “It’s scary– feeling responsible for the lives of the people you love– but you gotta know it's not all on you, Tom,” Leo expressed, emphatic and soft and firm all at the same time.

He couldn't hear Tommy over the wind and waves, but he recognized the uneven shaking of Tommy's shoulders as his breath hitching all the same.

Leo didn't reach out again. Not yet.

Right on schedule, the uncharacteristic silence that had taken over Tommy finally broke. “I am just so sick of fucking shit up,” he confessed, voice jagged and raw.

Leo could tell Tommy's ears were pinned back beneath the hood of his borrowed sweater.

“I left this server because I thought it would protect Tubbo, but all I ended up doing was put him in even more danger– and I know you were trying to be all fucking positive and shit earlier and that's great and all, but realistically speaking, nothing ever goes that well for me,” Tommy spat with a bitter edge.

The self-hatred not so thinly hidden in his words didn't go unnoticed either.

Leo tried not to grimace too openly. He wished the situation were easier. That he could clearly say in full confidence that Tubbo was fine, or at least just alive.

But it wasn't, and he couldn't.

He took a deep breath, the cold air stinging his throat. “Okay, I know this all seems… bad–” Leo stepped ahead of Tommy, stopping the other teen in his tracks and turning on heel so they were face to face. “–but whatever happens, whatever Dream has or hasn't done yet– we're in this together. As a team,” he declared, hand outstretched and eyes locked firmly onto Tommy's own watery ones.

A heartbreaking expression twisted across the features of Tommy's face as he rapidly blinked back tears, if only for a second.

It wasn't long before he was scrubbing it all away, the heels of his palms pressing firm against his eyes.

His hands fell with a heavy sigh and Tommy only looked marginally more put together for it.

Tommy looked tired and weary and suddenly so much older than eighteen. “Please, Leo… I don't want to lose you too.” The defeat in his voice was a double edged sword buried in Leo's gut.

As much as it hurt to know he was the cause of that hopelessness, anything was better than dooming Tommy to face this fight on his own.

Leo persisted through it. “You won't. I promise,” he swore, and then rapidly lightened his disposition, flashing an intentionally cocky smile. “And hey, I fought off an entire alien invasion, I think I can handle one guy,” he quipped playfully.

It succeeded in catching Tommy off guard, a startled huff of laughter slipping out– albeit shakily.

Tommy clasped Leo's outstretched hand in an unexpectedly tight grip, a wobbly smile on his face. “You better not be fuckin’ lying, big man. Swear to fuck if you die I'll bring you back just to kill you myself,” he threatened with audibly forced levity.

Leo flashed an innocent smile, giving Tommy's hand a quick squeeze before letting go. “Does this look like the face of a liar to you?” he asked, framing his face with his hands.

He got the most wonderfully deadpan stare from Tommy in lieu of a response.

Bright laughter slipped out from Leo's throat, hands dropping to tuck comfortably into his coat pockets. He turned around to keep walking, watching Tommy keep pace in his peripheral vision as he did.

“Okay, okay, but seriously though– I'm not leaving you to face Dream on your own, that was kind of the whole point of me coming here,” he pointed out, a careful mix of playful and genuine.

Tommy grumbled indistinctly– probably at the reminder of Leo's slightly underhanded portal trick. “I’m still right pissed about you doing that shit, just so you know– but, um… thanks– I guess– for not leaving me alone.” He scuffed his foot against the glass, head down. 

Leo almost chimed back with something like ‘of course' or, ‘if I had to watch you run away to fight Dream on your own I think I would have lost it–’ but Tommy spoke up again before Leo could decide on an angle.

“Without Tubbo here, I– I don’t know. I’m not sure I’d be able to do it. I’m not– I’m not strong enough to do this shit on my own– and I wish I was, because I feel so horrible every time I wind up dragging him into my messes,” Tommy croaked.

He always came back to that same point, didn’t he? Where everything was his fault and the thought of his friends actually wanting to help was somehow impossible.

Leo thought for a second before throwing in his two cents. “Look, I can't speak for Tubbo, obviously– but me personally, if my best friend was about to face off against some creepy masked guy, I'd probably be more upset at not being dragged into it. You know, it’s almost like that was the exact situation that led to me jumping through the gateway after you. Strange, isn’t it–” he cut himself off when he looked over and realized Tommy wasn't even listening.

Oh, come on. What's the point in busting out the speeches if Tommy was just going to stare down at his own hands like foreign objects the whole time?

Leo bit back a sigh. Nobody appreciated his incredible wisdom these days (or ever, really). “I’m not giving you my gloves,” he said bluntly.

Tommy looked up and over at Leo with a startled blink. “What?”

Leo waved one of his toasty warm and gloved hands around for Tommy to see. “If you didn't want to freeze your fingers off, you should've thought to grab a real pair of gloves before we were already twenty minutes out,” he advised– just another drop of wisdom to make up for Tommy totally ignoring him a second ago.

Tommy had such a gift for staring at Leo like he was the weirdest one between the two of them. “That's– huh? No, that's not– it's just–” He huffed, tilting his head back to look at the sky. “–It’s still snowing.”

Leo looked up too. It didn't look like the snow would be letting up any time soon. Honestly, he wouldn't even be surprised if the snowfall lasted all day and then some.

“Uh… yeah? Should it not be? Got another quirky world gimmick to drop on me?” Leo asked, mostly joking.

Even so, he wished he could be surprised when Tommy answered with complete earnesty.

“It is not a quirky world gimmick, it's just how shit is– and we've been walking straight through an ocean biome. It doesn't fucking snow here, it should've turned to rain the minute we got out of Snowchester,” Tommy insisted, sounding… unexpectedly wigged out by the continued snow.

Well, this was Tommy’s world, so if he thought it was something to be concerned about…

Leo kept a more alert eye on their lacking surroundings. Just to be safe. “And I'm guessing that's a bad thing?” he ventured.

Tommy gave half a shrug. “I dunno, it's– it's just fucking weird is what it is. I don't like it,” he bit out with a shudder that went all the way from head to tail.

Leo hummed sympathetically even though he still wasn't fully sure he understood the specifics.

Yet another reason it was a good thing Leo was here instead of Donnie– who would not take half of the things Tommy said as an acceptable answer to the oddities of this world.

A thought that was only further validated when he had to step around a break in the glass tunnel, water flowing perpetually from the opening. The tunnel itself showed no other signs that it was losing any water.

Yeah, super normal, uninteresting stuff that Donnie totally wouldn't get sidetracked attempting to figure out and quantify and all that other nerd stuff. For sure.

Through the cover of snow, Leo just managed to make out the most glorious thing ever– the ending of the glass tunnel.

“Oh, thank pizza supreme in the sky– is that the end? Please tell me that's the end and we don't have to, I don't know, swim the rest of the way to land.” Because if Leo had to jump in the freezing cold ocean, it didn't matter how insulated his coat and snow pants were, he was going to become a turtle icicle. A verifiable turtle-cicle.

Tommy snorted a short laugh. “Nah, don't worry, mate, it goes straight up to the dirt,” he assured, pace picking up as they got closer to the end.

“Oh, good. I was almost having second thoughts for a second there,” Leo joked, matching Tommy's stride.

Tommy shook his head with a scoff. “Oh, shut up, man,” he snickered, hopping off the end of the tunnel.

Always one for a bit of showing off, Leo did a front flip off, landing neatly on solid, snow blanketed ground.

Tommy rolled his eyes, but, tellingly, said nothing.

Oh yeah, he was totally impressed.

Leo did a quick survey of the land– or, what little he could make out amidst the blizzard.

It was definitely… a landscape, that was for sure.

“Hey, so– and don't take this personally– but what's the deal with all the craters?” Leo asked– because, yeah, there were, like, a weird amount of gnarled holes and craters scarring the beach.

Worryingly, this line of questioning prompted yet another of Tommy's weird looks. What, did this world just come pre-made with weird holes in it?

Tommy edged around one such crater, spinning to walk carelessly backwards along the edge. “Just creeper holes, innit, mate? I mean, who the fuck’s gonna be bothered to fill them in? Especially all the way out here.”

Leo almost missed his next step, stumbling precariously close to one of the many craters. “Creeper holes?” What did that even mean?

Confusion flitted across Tommy's face before it quickly cleared up with some kind of realization. “Oh yeah, I forgot– your guys’ server’s on peaceful mode or some shit, right?” 

…The entirely wrong realization then. Okay.

That did bring up something Leo had been meaning to ask about for a while though.

Leo nodded along as though Tommy had just said something totally normal and understandable. “Right, of course– and just to clarify, when you say ‘my server's on peaceful mode–” he made air quotations around the term. “–that means… what, exactly?”

Tommy actually fully stopped walking at that, eyes narrowing and brows furrowed.

It seemed to take several seconds for Tommy to decide that Leo wasn’t pulling his leg, and was, in fact, entirely genuine in his line of questioning.

“Seriously? How do you not– what? It's– you at least know what a server is though, right?” Tommy asked, utterly confounded.

Leo wiggled a hand side to side. “I mean, I think I've heard Donnie talk about servers in the context of computers and other nerd things– but I don't think that's how you mean the word,” he presumed.

Tommy blinked a few times, processing, before finally, “Oh. Well it's– a server is– how do I even explain–” he dropped his face into his hands with a deeply suffering exhale.

Oh, the woes of having to explain things.

Leo did his best not to laugh.

He tucked his chin into the soft fluff of his hood, waiting patiently while Tommy visibly struggled to find the right words.

After a few seconds of wordlessly opening and closing his mouth, Tommy scrunched his face up and started to fumble his way through an explanation. “It's like– so there are worlds, right? And those are really for one person, but sometimes you can invite a few mates ‘round for a bit. Servers are– they're made to hold more people in ‘em, y’know? So this server's called the DreamSMP– it's a whitelist though, so it's a bit like a regular world where people can only join if they're invited by an admin.” Tommy rolled his wrist idly as he explained, looking up in thought the whole time.

Externally, Leo was humming and nodding along– internally, he was grappling with the realization that Tommy really did come from some kind of video game world.

The whole inventory thing made so much more sense now.

…So did the multiple deaths thing. His entire world was a game (why did Leo feel so horrified by that part?).

Unaware of the weird crisis even Leo didn’t understand going on inside his head, Tommy kept going.

“I reckon your server’s more of a hubworld type server– like Hypixel– ‘cause you’ve just got so many people running about. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the DreamSMP’s on normal mode? Or maybe it was on easy– I don’t remember, I just know that Tubbo and Sam and them were annoyed that it’s not on hard ‘cause they can’t make any busted farms with the shitty spawn rates or whatever the fuck they were on about.” Tommy got back to walking as he rambled, plodding along the shoreline.

Every other word still might as well have been half nonsensical to Leo, but trying to think about the explanation like Tommy was talking about playing a video game was… Okay, well it was kind of messed up– but it also made things slightly easier to comprehend. 

“But yeah, either your server’s on peaceful mode, or you’ve just got mob spawning off. Still a bit weird to think you’ve never seen a creeper though. They’re– they’re these green guys that creep up behind you and blow up,” Tommy described with a helpful little explosion hand gesture, complete with mouth-made sound effects.

Very cool.

Leo glanced at one of the many creeper holes, mouth pressing into a thin line. “Right… and these creepers, they’re– how common would you say they are? Just– y’know, a general ballpark,” he queried keeping his tone light and affable.

Tommy shrugged unhelpfully. “Pretty common, mate. Like– I wouldn’t say it’s anything to worry about though. Just keep an ear out for any hissing behind you and then run like hell before they can blow you up,” he advised, snickering.

Leo could feel the disbelief crawling onto his expression. “Seriously? Tommy, that is a horrible plan for dealing with walking bombs,” he rightly criticized the– again, horrible, horrible plan.

Tommy squawked in offense, tail fluffing up as he whipped his head around to gape at Leo. “What? It’s a great plan! Fuck you! That plan has kept the people alive for centuries, dickhead. You know what? Just for that, I’m not warning you whenever a fucking creeper sneaks up behind you. Die,” he shot back.

Despite it all, Leo laughed. “I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got these bad boys.” He pulled out his katanas, wiggling his brows in an exaggerated fashion that made Tommy break his offended pretense with a snort.

Something caught Leo’s eye in the near distance. Multiple somethings, actually– but the first thing he saw was a lone tower. It looked like it might have been a watch tower, but he wasn’t sure what for until his gaze drifted out towards the sea.

A dark structure loomed in the distance, rising directly out of the sea.

It was hard to make out through all the snowfall, but it looked like a box. Big and out of place and unequivocally foreboding.

He could make out bright orange light coming off the corners. There was something off about the light, though he couldn’t quite place what was so off about it. It almost seemed… too bright. Like looking at a mini sun.

Leo’s pace slowed without thinking as he stared at the ominous structure. “Woah… What is that thing?” he asked, a near whisper.

Several seconds of quiet staring went by before Leo realized that Tommy had never answered.

Leo reflexively tightened his hands around grips of his katanas, snapping his head to the side with a shot of alarm straight to the heart.

Nothing had gone horrifically wrong. Tommy was still there, just out of arm's reach.

His head was down and shoulders tense. Leo knew he wasn't imagining the slight tremble either.

Leo's moment of panic was replaced with concern. “Tommy?” What happened to you here? he thought, but didn’t ask as he resheathed his katanas.

Because there was no mistaking it, something did happen here. It was just a question of what.

He watched Tommy’s head lower further, shaky hands moving to hide in the pockets of his hoodie. “I…” his voice came out rough and raw, cracking under untold pain.

Leo shuffled closer, drowning in the urge to provide comfort, but stuck with no idea how.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, solemn silence hung between them until Tommy cleared his throat. “This is where I– that– that big blackstone and obsidian box you see over there's Pandora's Vault. The prison,” he explained, uncharacteristically toneless.

“A prison, huh? Certainly looks… gloomy enough to be one,” Leo commented for lack of a better response– and then immediately cringed because this was not the time for jokes.

Tommy didn’t spare him so much as a glance, head still down. He continued talking like he hadn’t even heard Leo. “That was– I– we locked Dream in there. It was supposed to– It was supposed to be fucking secure. Sam– Sam fucking promised–” He inhaled sharply and then didn’t speak again for several seconds.

“I went in there. To… to visit Dream. Get closure,” Tommy spat. 

“He killed me,” Tommy whispered and Leo momentarily forgot how to breathe. “I went in there to get closure and he– he– he fucking beat me to death and– and no one– Sam didn’t– I just wanted to be happy again and he fucking killed me for it. And– and everyone made these fucking– these statues of me. Mourned me.” He sounded so angry. He sounded so hurt. He sounded so scared.

Tommy took his hands out of his pockets, but only to bring them up to his face, fingers slightly curled. “Except they didn’t really because none of them fucking cared. They didn’t care when I got exiled, they didn’t care when I was suffering and wanted to– to– to– to kill myself. But as soon as I was gone– as soon as I was gone, they put up all these stupid memorials that I had to tear down myself after Dream fucking dragged me back from the afterlife with his horrible grimy claws. Tearing me apart bit by bit just to piece me together again wrong.” With every passing word, his voice grew more ragged, breaths gasping. And with every passing word, his fingers curled more more more– until Tommy was tugging on fistfuls of his own fur.

Leo’s heart was pounding. Hammering away in his chest.

He wanted to crack a joke. Something that would lighten the mood. Cause Tommy to smile or– or roll his eyes. It didn’t matter which one as long as it got Tommy to stop sounding like that. Looking like that.

What could he say though? What joke could even begin to crack through and ease the pain of being murdered in pursuit of a bit of closure?

Try as he might, Leo knew he wasn't a good enough comedian for that.

He just felt so… lost.

He didn't know how to fix this. He wasn't sure if he even could.

But even so, he wasn't about to let Tommy stew in his spiraling thoughts alone.

Physical contact seemed risky at this point, but what Leo could do was place himself more solidly between Tommy and Pandora's Vault. “Okay, that is… a lot– but that's okay!” he was quick to reassure before Tommy could get the wrong idea.

Tommy’s hands didn't move away from his face, but Leo could just barely see his dulled eyes lifting to watch Leo through the gaps.

He looked so different like this. Face dusted with stark white specks of snow, hood casting a shadow down to the bridge of his snout and whole body shaking with what could have been the cold if Leo didn't know full well that the temperature had nothing to do with it.

“That's okay,” Leo said again, softer. “You’ve got me now. And you've got Raph, Mikey, and Donnie, too. We've got your back, and you will never have to go through any of that garbage ever again so long as any of us have a say. You hear me?” 

Even with Tommy looking right at him, It was hard to tell if he was actually listening to a word Leo said.

Tommy looked away. Leo felt his heart sink.

Tommy cleared his throat before taking a deep breath that failed to remain steady on the exhale. “Sorry, I didn't mean to get all– all trauma dump-y on you,” he said quietly, fingers easing until they were resting flat across his face.

All that progress they made on the glass tunnel– was one bad moment really all it took to send them plummeting back to the beginning again?

A frown pulled on the corners of Leo's mouth. “Woah, hey, don't apologize for that stuff, seriously. You're my friend, I one hundred million percent prefer you talking to me about this stuff instead of bottling it all up.” The latter of which, he'd learned, doesn't typically end well.

Tommy’s hands went back into his pockets as he turned his head the other way, avoiding Leo’s gaze. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he said shortly, already walking away, fresh snow crunching underfoot.

Damn it. “If that’s what you want,” Leo reluctantly agreed, even if it was like chewing on broken glass.

He cast one last glance over his shoulder at the prison, like if he stared at it long enough, a solution would finally come to mind.

But all he got was a bitter taste in his mouth and a heavy feeling sinking deep in his gut.

“Oh boy,” he muttered to himself as he turned to catch up with Tommy.

Tommy didn’t acknowledge Leo when he jogged over, stepping up onto a wooden path inexplicably devoid of snow in most sections.

The silence was suffocating, but Leo got the distinct sense that talking wouldn’t help.

“Just checking, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume Dream isn’t conveniently locked away in the prison anymore, right?” he asked regardless, because there had to be some way to leverage the mood back into something a little less grim.

“Nope. Got broken out,” Tommy said, voice flat.

Wait, got broken out? “By who?” Everything Leo had heard about that guy so far painted him to be a major jerk and all around bad person.

Definitely not the kind of guy you’d intentionally break out of prison.

“Techno. Phil. They– Techno owed ‘im a favour, so…” Tommy shrugged, obviously going for nonchalance, but falling just short into audible bitterness.

“So they broke him out?” Leo reiterated in sheer disbelief.

Not because he doubted Tommy's word on the matter, but moreso– “Phil? Like, the same Phil you refer to as ‘Dadza’ all the time? That guy helped break Dream out of jail?” Leo was just… he was struggling to reconcile this new information with the obviously idealized version of Phil Tommy loved to mention so much.

Tommy's shoulders went back up, tail twitching once or twice. “Only because of Techno, he– Dream hunted me down right after, so I ran to Phil and he– he protected me. He’s not friends with Dream, he– he said he wouldn’t help Dream anymore,” he insisted, weirdly defensive.

It only made the bad taste in Leo’s mouth grow stronger.

He knew it was showing on his face too, mouth twisted into a grimace– it was one of the few times this morning he was grateful for Tommy’s reluctance to look at him. “So, what you’re telling me is that he said he wouldn’t help Dream with anything else only after he’d already broken him out of prison. That would be like if– if– augh–” Leo threw his hands up to either side of his forehead, shaking his head sharply. “–I don’t even have a comparison for how messed up that is!” he shouted.

Tommy came to a sudden stop, turning on him with an unexpectedly heated glare. “Oh my days– would you just fucking lay off it already?” he snapped back.

It would seem Leo had accidentally pushed him to his limit with that one. Which sucked because it wasn't like he was wrong, he just… hadn't realized Tommy wasn't ready to talk about this yet.

Tommy's tail was lashing now, fists clenched and anger burning in his narrowed eyes. “Phil was the only person there for me after Dream got out. He– he let me stay at his place when I was scared, and told me that everything was going to be okay even when I felt like my head was fucking breakin’ in two. So just shut up,” he said harshly.

Frustration flared in Leo's chest. “Seriously? Why do you keep defending him? He did, like, less than the bare minimum to make up for freeing that jerk and you're acting like he did some great thing because of it!” 

Tommy went quiet. Leo knew it wasn't because he was reconsidering his stance.

He was proven very correct when Tommy narrowed his eyes, set his jaw, and turned around to keep walking down the wooden path. “I'm not talking to you anymore,” Tommy decided, leaving Leo to follow in terse silence.

It was then that Leo felt the regret start to set in.

He really hadn't meant to push so hard, he just… it was so frustrating. 

Leo had never been the greatest at letting things go. He still held a grudge against Draxum for the whole dropping him off a building thing (amongst numerous other slights), as well as holding several of Donnie's epic tech fails over his head– as was Leo’s brotherly right.

Part of him had just assumed Tommy was the same way, and now that assumption was costing Leo dearly in the valuable currencies of trust and cooperation.

Some face man he was– maybe he should have brought someone else along with him. Raph would have been able to smooth things over.

Leo banished the thought just as quickly as it had appeared. No. He'd followed Tommy alone for a reason. Bringing his brothers along would only have made things more complicated.

This was for the best. He just had to trust them to react the way he knew they would.

Leo busied himself with inspecting their surroundings as they walked, biting his tongue to stop any further unhelpful remarks from slipping through.

He quickly found that this world, the DreamSMP, was very… empty.

Not in the sense that there was nothing around– there were plenty of structures. Buildings, houses, something that even looked like a hotel, but–

But there weren't any people.

Again, the term ghost town came to mind.

Leo did his best to ignore the unsettled feeling that crawled down his shell.

Before long, they came across a wall of black and yellow concrete blocking the path. Not very effectively though; a hunk of cobble at the base created an easy way up and over.

Tommy went up first– and then froze atop the low wall with a quiet, “Oh.”

Well that didn't sound good.

Leo scrambled up the wall after Tommy and was greeted by the sight of thick red vines twisted over the space within. They crawled up dilapidated structures and mercilessly choked out a dying garden off to the side.

The snow melted as it landed on the vines, evaporating in an instant.

Leo didn't bother to hide his grimace at the sight. “Oh, woah, what is that stuff?”

Tommy hopped down, landing in one of the smaller gaps between the vines and rolling up his sleeves. “The egg– but I thought they got rid of it– why is it here– oh, my home,” his voice pitched into a distressed whine, shoulders raised and ears back under his hood once again.

“The egg?” Leo repeated, trying to figure out what part of blood red vines correlated with eggs.

And wait– “This was your house?” Leo surveyed the ruined land with a critical eye. “Which part?” he asked with no shortage of bafflement.

Tommy’s tail bristled, he turned his head sharply to shoot Leo a narrow-eyed look. “If this place weren’t such a fucking shithole right now, I’d be well and proper pissed at you for asking that,” he informed evenly.

Leo raised his hands placatingly. “Hey, relax. I get it, I get it. No criticisms here. This is a judgment free zone,” he assured as he hopped down after Tommy.

Following Tommy’s lead, Leo avoided walking on any of the bad juju vines.

Tommy scowled distrustfully for a few seconds longer before nodding his head towards a half collapsed wooden hovel that also happened to be most infested with vines. “‘Ome sweet ‘ome… as soon as those bastard vines piss off.”

Okay, so like, a little judgment– but Leo probably should have expected this from the guy who thought living in a hole in their wall that was probably made by Shredder’s fist was a workable option.

Leo utilized incredible restraint by biting his tongue and not saying that removing the vines would only barely improve the structure as a whole.

“Wow, you know, it's very…” What's a nice word to say– “Original, I like it,” Leo lied with a convincing smile and nod.

Tommy's face spasmed, expression landing on something incredulous. “Fuck off? You can’t just– oh, you are such a twat, mate. Oh my days.” Hilariously, his irritation seemed to translate into his accent becoming even more British.

Not that Leo was going to tell him that. The ice was already thin enough without Leo cracking a joke about Tommy’s accent.

Keep it together, Leon. Keep it together.

Tommy plodded over to the remains of his home and didn't even hesitate to start tearing at the vines making such a mess of the place.

He tossed every chunk of dubious plant matter into a pile at his feet with extreme prejudice.

Not one to miss out on the opportunity to gain a few extra brownie points, Leo hopscotched over to lend a hand.

He gripped the nearest vine and nearly had the air knocked from his lungs by a horrible sinking in his gut. Dread, fear, sadness, hopelessness, defeat.

You won't be able to save anyone, a voice whispered through his mind– though it was less of a voice with tangible words and more like a primordial hissing, rattling through his skull and leaving every horrible thought and feeling in its wake.

You aren’t enough. All your friends and family will die walking into the very plans you set up for them–

Leo was bodily yanked away by the sleeve of his jacket.

It was like the connection suddenly cut. The hissing vanished and Leo was left with ringing ears and a pounding heart.

“–you okay? Shit– shit, I didn’t think– oh, fuck me, I’m such an idiot,” Tommy's panicked rambling came through as the ringing subsided.

Leo shook his head, blinking as he worked to regain his bearings.

Tommy's hands were gripped tightly around Leo’s upper arms. They were standing several feet away from the ruined home in a decently sized chunk of untouched grass.

Tommy shook him a bit too roughly by the arms. “Leo? Leo, I need you to fucking talk to me here, pal. What did it say to you? How many slurs? Are you feeling even the littlest bit like you want to stab me right about now?” he demanded urgently.

“Why would I want to stab you– no, wait–” Leo put a hand to his head, still reeling. “–what the hell was that? That– that weird hissing voice. It was like it– it took all of my doubts and insecurities and then amplified them by one hundred.” 

Tommy looked weirdly guilty. “I’m sorry, I thought the gloves would be enough, I'm so sorry. Fuck, I–” he pulled away and, alarmingly, started thumping his palms none-too-gently against the sides of his forehead. “–stupid, stupid, stupid,” he hissed hatefully at himself.

Leo lurched to catch Tommy's wrists and pull them down. “Woah! Hey, hey, hey, look at me. Tommy, I need you to look at me here, brother,” he instructed, keeping his voice gentle, but firm.

And– thank pizza supreme in the sky– it worked.

Tommy's eyes snapped to Leo's, looking wide and a little wild. “Uh– uh-huh,” he whispered shakily in confirmation.

Leo gave Tommy's wrists a reassuring squeeze before speaking again, keeping his voice soft and even-keeled. “Take a deep breath, we’re fine. We're okay. And even if we weren't, I still definitely would not want you to hurt yourself because of it,” he expressed in no uncertain terms.

Because seeing that? Watching Tommy get frustrated and overwhelmed and hit himself because of it? Not a good feeling.

Tommy shut his eyes, inhaling slowly and deeply. “Right. You’re right. Fuck– sorry. I’m sorry– fuck, I can’t believe I didn’t think to–” he cut himself off with a sharp exhale.

A second later, Tommy opened his eyes again, looking marginally more put together and a whole lot more severe. “I'll explain everything on a sec, just– and I’m being fuckin’ serious here, alright? No– no jokes or anything, I need you to tell me the truth.” He twisted his wrists, reversing the situation so that he was the one gripping Leo.

The relatively sudden switch from panic to grim seriousness was jarring, but nothing Leo couldn’t roll with. “Hey, I just had some weird creepy voice in my head, I think I can handle being serious for a second,” he insisted with raised brows.

It was only a little offensive when Tommy’s expression turned doubtful.

Regardless of any totally unfair skepticism, Tommy took the confirmation for what it was and continued. “Alright, just– whatever slimy fuckin’ presence you had in your ‘ead a second ago– is it still there? And I mean, like, even by the smallest tiniest amount. If that thing’s still in your head, I need to know right fucking now.” 

Leo gave it a moment, taking the time to look inwards– figure out if any weird malevolent presences were still lurking around in his head somewhere.

He felt pretty normal.

“I mean, I still feel a little off from having all of my deep dark basically insecurities blasted in my head at max volume– but other than that? Just me in here,” he expressed as much.

Tommy heaved an unsubtle sigh of relief, dropping Leo's wrists and instead moving to fiddle with the drawstrings of his borrowed hoodie. “Good, that's– that's good,” he breathed out.

Leo nodded along in agreement.

He let Tommy have a few more seconds to recuperate and gather himself before deciding to push the conversation along. “So, what's the deal with these vines then? I think you said something about an egg earlier?” he queried, one hand migrating to his chin while the other settled casually on his hip.

Tommy's spine straightened at the question, just by a bit. “Oh, right, yeah, the egg. It's–” his face scrunched up, mostly with thought, but also with irritation. “–honestly, I– I don't really know for sure what it is– I just know that touching the vines is bad news because it fills your head with bad thoughts– like a– like a fuckin' tumor. An egg tumor–”

“Aw, that's the worst kind,” Leo joked out of habit.

It took Tommy off guard enough that he snorted quietly, the beginnings of a smile pulling at his lips before he kept talking, otherwise ignoring the contribution. “And then it starts tellin’ you all this stuff about how it'll give you your greatest desires or something. I don't know, I've never actually heard the fucker ‘cause I'm immune to its bullshit,” he said with a shrug.

Leo hummed curiously as he filed the information away in his brain. “I see, I see. So… what, can it mind control people if it touches them long enough?” he guessed, absently looking around to make sure no vines were creeping towards him.

Tommy made another one of those grumpy thinking faces. “I dunno, I think so? It had this whole creepy ass cult worshipping it– I tried to avoid them though on account of all of them wanting to kill me for bein’ immune,” he recalled dryly.

The question about stabbing earlier was making a lot more sense all of a sudden. “Yeesh. Well, I can confirm with absolute certainty that I still do not want you dead, and if that stinky egg cult shows their faces around here I'll send their butts packing,” Leo assured loftily, shaking his fist in the air.

Tommy managed a wry smile. “Aw, thank you, big man. I feel safer already.”

Leo squinted at his tone. “Okay, well, I don’t really get what the sarcasm was for, but ignoring that– you’re welcome.” He bowed theatrically.

With the mood significantly lighter, Tommy rolled his eyes and went back to his vine infested hovel. “I’m really not too worried about them. Pretty sure they all fucked off and went back to normal whenever the egg got dealt with–” he yanked aggressively on a vine. “–obviously not very dealt with anymore– but I’m hoping they at least learned their lesson by this– oh, for fucks sake,” Tommy cut off with a ticked off growl as he pulled yet another vine away the home’s exterior.

Leo peered curiously over to get a look at what was annoying Tommy now (without having to get close to the vines again). 

The culprit in question was a wooden sign, the words ‘Property of ConnorEatsPants, red blooded American’ in crisp print across the wood.

Not a second after Leo finished reading the sign, Tommy was already tearing the thing down with a vengeance.

Unlike with the vines though, Tommy didn't throw it on the ground, but in fact stuck it… right back to the wall?

What?

Leo watched on in quiet confusion as Tommy waved his hand before the sign (which was now blank?) and a semi-translucent grey screen flickered into existence.

Tommy tapped aggressively away at the screen. Typing maybe?

Leo couldn't help it, he put his gloved fingers to either temple, disbelief coursing through his veins. “Oh, this is not real. I am in a video game. I am in a video game world right now,” he muttered to himself as a fresh set of printed words appeared on the replaced sign.

‘Tommy house. NO AMERICANS!!’

Tommy took a step back to admire his work– and then very clearly remembered that Leo was still there when he suddenly looked over his shoulder with a frozen expression.

“Uhhh…” he dragged out awkwardly for a few seconds before breaking into a refreshingly lighthearted bout of laughter. “I– sorry, I just–” another ring of laughter. “–there’s this one dickhead, Connor, and every fucking time I have to leave this place unattended for a few days, like clockwork that prick moves into my house and Americanizes it. The fucker,” he was complaining, but the grin on Tommy's face was undeniable.

It was contagious after all the doom and gloom of before, Leo grinned freely in return. “I dunno, I kind of liked the old sign,” he teased.

Tommy hummed loudly and angrily back. “Oh, you– this is why Americans are banned from the Tommy house. It is like the great saying always goes; All Americans are bastards. AAAB,” he declared with a fierce scowl.

He said it so sincerely, with so much conviction.

Leo broke down into laughter, arms around his middle and thumping a foot against the ground in his delight.

Tommy wasn't far behind, laughing bright and loud with wheezing coughs that almost made Leo concerned for his lungs interspersed in between.

Leo’s own giggling tapered off soon enough, a warm feeling taking its place in his chest. He gazed at the recovering Tommy with a smile that was probably a little too soft. “I don't remember if I've ever told you this yet, but I'm really glad you're here– or, well, maybe not here specifically– but I am glad you broke into our house and started living in our walls– even if it was a little creepy at the time,” Leo expressed.

Physically shaking off the rest of his laughter, Tommy gave Leo an unexpectedly narrow-eyed look. “You're still not allowed in my Tommy home,” he decided primly, snout slightly upturned.

Leo inhaled sharply, biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from falling into another laughing fit. “Okay, ignoring that– seriously, I know this morning… sucked– but you're a good friend and I honestly find it difficult to imagine a home without you in it.” That was definitely too mushy, but Leo felt like it was something Tommy needed to hear anyway.

Tommy opened his mouth, but only floundered noiselessly, brows pinching together. “I–” he blinked several times, his eyes suspiciously wet. “You can't just say stuff like that, mate,” his voice was thick with emotion.

He splayed a hand across his face and turned his head away, surreptitiously swiping his palm across his eyes in the process.

Being very, very mindful of the vines sprawling over the ground, Leo picked his way over to Tommy's side to bump their shoulders together. “Just making sure you know before we go face off against cults and weird masked men.” Who’d already killed Tommy at least once before, Leo thought, but carefully didn’t let slip past his distasteful grimace.

“Just the one masked man, actually,” Tommy corrected with a healthy dose of snark as he bumped Leo back.

Leo decided not to mention it when Tommy kept their shoulders close enough to brush together at the smallest sway.

He didn’t expect for Tommy to suddenly straighten with an excited gasp, snapping his fingers several times in rapid succession. “Holy shit– oh, I can’t believe I didn’t think to just–” with no further warning, Tommy ran off.

Leo followed without thinking, crossing the enclosed territory and winding up at a wooden bench overlooking a sheer drop unhindered by black and yellow walls.

Much like everything else in the perimeter, red vines twisted up the legs of the bench and draped across the back.

Tommy only spared one oddly dismayed look at the bench before he turned his gaze to the sky and cleared his throat. “Drista! Hey, mate, so I know I said I'd never ask you for anything ever again, but… uh, d’you think maybe you could–” He cut himself off and turned his head over his shoulder half a second before the air itself shimmered with flecks of gold.

In its place, a teenage girl appeared, perfectly human in appearance except for the unnervingly vibrant lime hue of her narrowed eyes.

And also the fact that she was floating several inches off the ground. That part also struck Leo as a pretty abnormal thing to do, no matter how regular her plain jeans and hoodie were.

Tommy turned fully to face her, opening his arms with a horrifically awkward grin that had Leo embarrassed for him. “Drista! My friend!”

The girl (who Leo was going to go ahead and assume to be the fabled Drista) greeted Tommy with far less enthusiasm, and, in fact, looked blatantly annoyed. “Tommy? What are you doing here? You can’t be here, I literally just– what happened to leaving and never coming back, huh?” she demanded– except now Leo was realizing she didn’t actually sound that annoyed, she sounded panicked.

Hm, now that probably didn’t mean anything good. 

Tommy, however, did not seem to clock the mood quite as fast. His arms fell with a petulant scoff. “Wow, and I mean wow. Really feeling the love here, Drista. This is why you're my seventh– no, sixth favourite friend,” he drawled.

Drista made a face at that. “We’re friends?” she questioned dubiously.

Unintentionally the funniest thing Leo had heard all day. He bit the inside of his cheek, breathing in deeply through his nose in a concentrated effort to suppress his amusement.

Tommy squawked, loud and offended, tail puffing up. “Wha– what the fuck?! You– that is so offensive, I can’t believe you just said that to me. Where is Tubbo? I want to talk with my first favourite friend,” he informed Drista, plaintive and demanding and evidently not at all concerned about offending someone he’d frequently referred to as some kind of god or deity.

Drista’s eye twitched. Okay, now she looked annoyed. “Not here, that’s for sure. Seriously, why the heck did you come back? Are you stupid?”

Okay, Leo drew the line at outright insults. He unsubtly took a step between Tommy and Drista. “Hey, no one insults this furball but us– I mean me– sorry, force of habit.” The rest of the ‘us’ in question being Donnie, Raph, and Mikey, of course.

Leo coughed awkwardly into his gloved fist. “So anyway, how about you just tell us what’s been going on, right?” he suggested, bringing his hands together with a charismatic smile.

Drista squinted at him. “Who are you?” she asked bluntly.

Cool, yeah, Leo could work with that. He put a hand to his chest. “I go by many names– Leonardo, Neon Leon, the Leader in Blue, All Time Champion of Forever– but you can just call me Leo,” he introduced himself with all the appropriate flair in his voice and a charming smile. “And you are?” he returned the question despite knowing full well who the rumored deity in front of him was.

Completely immune to Leo’s boyish charm, Drista only looked more disgruntled as she pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. She looked like she had a headache. “Ugh, whatever, I don’t really care what your deal is–” she looked past Leo at Tommy. “–Tubbo’s not here because I already sent your stupid friends over to whatever server you were in– up until you decided to go back on the plan that you made.” She jabbed her finger harshly towards Tommy in emphasis.

There was a plural there. She’d said Friends. Plural

He felt Tommy's arm bump against his as the other boy stepped forward and the observation slipped away before Leo could pursue it. 

“He's gone? Tubbo's– you sent him over there?” Tommy asked, sounding kind of… breathless?

Drista raised a brow, crossing her arms and leaning back against open air. “Yeah, that's what I just said,” she deadpanned.

“But you said you wouldn't be able to find me again after I left. You said that.” Tommy was– he was shaking. His voice too.

There came that helpless feeling again.

Leo reached out for Tommy's hand, knocking their fingers together in a silent offer of comfort.

To his surprise, Tommy actually took it. His grip was near crushing, but Leo was just glad he hadn’t been brushed off.

Tommy took a deep breath, diaphragm expanding and contracting slowly. There was a noticeable shudder around the edges of his exhale.

He kept going. “You told me no one would be able to find me after I left. And now you're saying you sent Tubbo over there. So what part’s the lie?” Tommy questioned, solid and harsh now that he'd regained his footing.

Leo was starting to realize that Drista didn't look all too far off from how Leo felt. Her face frozen with an uneasy sort of concern, boxed shoulders almost invisible with her arms already crossed.

She also looked offended, or maybe hurt. “What? I wasn’t lying, you– literally why would I even lie about that?” Yep, definitely hurt.

Tommy's fingers squeezed tighter around Leo's hand for a moment (Leo mourned his poor, creaking bones). “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because your brother shares a name with Dream, notorious liar and fucking psychopath? Oh yeah, I fuckin’ wonder why I’m maybe a bit freaked the fuck out about the possibility that Dream could’ve fucking shown up at any goddamn time,” he retorted snapishly.

Okay, now Drista looked offended, her hair raising almost like afflicted by static electricity. “Ugh, you–”

Leo was a little worried she was about to smite them, only for an impossible to read expression to flicker across her face right before she suddenly deflated.

Drista ran a hand through her settling hair with a heavy sigh. “I guess doubting my word is something you and Tubbo have in common,” she grumbled, dragging a hand down her face before meeting Tommy's accusations with a weary sort of exhaustion.

“But I wasn’t lying when I said that. Like, seriously, I’ve been trying to find your stupid butt again since you left because Tubbo was pissed you left without talking to him first–”

A look of dread passed over Tommy’s face as he butted in, “Oh, Drista, please don’t say you told him that I–”

“–Went to live at a nice farm upstate? Um, I would like to invoke my right to remain silent. Also, I panicked and this is all your fault for not just telling him yourself anyway,” Drista said defensively.

Tommy pulled his hand away from Leo's just to drop his face into both his hands with a groan, “Drista, I told you not to fucking tell him that.”

Leo couldn’t help but snicker at it all. “I’m sorry, you told him that Tommy went to a nice farm upstate? One of the oldest ways in the book of avoiding telling your kid the family dog died?” It was hilarious in an awful sort of way.

The kind of thing that was funny in hindsight, but only after you knew for certain that Tommy was alright– or, mostly alright, anyway. Something that this Tubbo guy, unfortunately, probably couldn’t know with any real level of surety until Tommy had sent letters through with one of Mikey’s portals.

“I panicked,” Drista repeated, laying ample emphasis on the words.

Tommy massaged his eyelids with a second, deeply annoyed groan before lifting his head from his hands. His lips were twitching with hints of a barely suppressed smile. “You are fucking ridiculous, I can’t believe you actually did that– you–” his attempts at staying serious finally broke off with an abrupt laugh.

He shook his head lightly. “I seriously can’t believe you told Tubbo I went to a nice farm upstate, you– so if you weren’t lying about not being able to find me, how’d you send ol’ Tubso over then?” Tommy questioned, arms crossed.

Leo snapped his fingers right as Drista opened her mouth to answer. “Ooh, ooh, let me guess!” He put a finger to either temple and rubbed them in small circles. “Uhhh, luh-luh-luh-luh… you found him by… I got it, I got it– you… went on an adventure where you learned the true meaning of friendship, thereby inheriting the power to locate your friends anywhere in the universe,” he theorized, mostly joking, of course.

To his surprise though, Drista was tilting her head, a thoughtful look on her face. Like Leo was somehow close to the mark.

“Well…” Drista started, tapping a finger to her mouth.

A slow-growing grin took over Leo’s face. “No. No way– you’re pulling my leg here. Really?” That couldn’t be real. Surely it couldn’t be.

Drista burst out laughing. “Okay, I mean– not really, but, like, it’s kind of close. Like, I think I’m friends with Tubbo now, and that was–” she scrunched up her face into a look of pure revulsion. “–definitely an adventure, that’s for sure. Oh, but also the only reason I was actually able to figure out where I sent Tommy to is because of that portal you guys used to send those letters through,” she finished with no further beating around the bush.

Which, yeah, no, that made a lot more sense, unfortunately.

“Y’know what? Close enough for me,” Leo decided with a shrug.

And then Tommy’s expression shifted into something suspiciously like a revelation, ears perking up and eyes widening. “Oh, wait, this is perfect. Drista, you can send Leo back, he can find Tubbo, and I can–”

Leo didn’t let Tommy finish that sentence, physically ending it with a light shove to the side of Tommy's head. “No. No way, that is absolutely one million and ten percent not happening,” Leo cut in, roughly tousling the hood on Tommy's head.

Tommy didn't shy away from the contact, but he did glare with deep irritation as his head was bobbled around. “Uh, yes it is. Drista, you need to send him back right now, he is breaking my bound-a-ries,” he declared like a tattling child.

“Oh? And what boundary would that be? Caring about you?” Leo sassed right back, giving Tommy's face one last shove before bringing both hands to his hips.

His sass was rewarded with a drawn out groan from Tommy. “I’m fucking serious, mate. You don’t have to do this, I’ll be alright on my own.” Even as he said it though, Tommy’s own uneasy expression gave away just how little he truly believed that garbage.

“Uh-huh, uh, yeah, sure, just remind me of the part where I said anything about wanting to leave,” Leo scoffed in reply, jabbing Tommy square in the forehead with a finger.

Far less tolerant this time around, Tommy batted the hand away with a scowl. “Dickhead.”

“Moron,” Leo readily countered.

A pointed clearing of a throat put an end to their bickering before it could go anywhere.

Drista was looking between them with a pursed expression. “It’s pretty rude talking about getting me to teleport more people around without actually talking to me you know.”

Leo didn't miss a beat. “Well then it's a good thing I'm not going anywhere.”

Oddly, Drista's mouth only pressed into a thinner line. “Look, I really don't think now's a good time for you two to be here. Like, I know I was literally just complaining about having to teleport you idiots around, but I–” she faltered, looking up at the sky with a furrowed brow. “Wait, is it snowing? Here?”

Leo blinked. “Is it really that big of a deal?” And had she seriously only just noticed?

Drista looked at Leo like he was the deranged one. “Uh, yeah? This isn't a cold biome, it's not supposed to snow here.” With a wave of her hand, an almost fully opaque black screen like the one Tommy summoned for the sign blinked into existence.

Frowning deeply, Drista typed a line of weird green symbols into the screen– it kind of looked reminiscent of Donnie's nerdy coding stuff that Leo had always turned out whenever Donnie started going on one of his epic nerd rants about it.

Drista gave the weird text box one last hard tap and the whole thing disappeared. “Fixed it.”

Just as Leo was considering the merits of asking what in the name of Jupiter Jim she meant by ‘fixed it,’ the snowfall came to a miraculous end and the previously endless expanse of dense cloud cover dissipated into a nearly clear blue sky.

“I’m sorry, did you just change the–” Leo held up a hand and stopped himself. “–nope, no, not even going to question the blatant video game beepity beeps this time.” All he’d get in response were blank stares anyway.

Tommy and Drista both gave him weird looks regardless. There was just no winning with these weirdos.

Drista waved a hand as though clearing the air. “Anyway, whatever, moving on– this whole server’s been in, like– a funk, or whatever. Really bad time to decide to come back, which, speaking of– why did you come back?”

Leo bit his tongue. Drista seemed friendly, but there was really no telling how she’d react to the honest answer of ‘we’re here to kill a guy.’

Even if the murder was totally justified in this case, that still wasn't the kind of thing you just told people–

“I need to kill Dream,” Tommy confessed immediately.

Drista visibly startled at the bold statement, brows shooting up. “Woah, seriously? I thought you were, like, terrified of him or whatever. Do you really think you can beat him in a fight? No offense, but didn’t he literally kill you a few times?” The words weren't spoken unkindly, but they were still painfully callous in nature.

Leo found himself cringing just a bit as Tommy flinched.

Not that Leo had any room to judge, he'd pulled a similar stunt bringing up Tommy's past death at Dream’s hand not long after they'd arrived on the… server.

Wait, did Drista say a few times? As in multiple of Tommy’s deaths had been at Dream’s hand?

Leo wasn't given long to process that particular addition before Tommy was speaking again. “Yeah, well plans change and I'm so fucking sick of being scared of him. As long as Dream's alive– as long as he's still fucking out here– I'll never stop being terrified he'll find me again, he’ll kill–” Tommy choked on the word, blinking hard and taking a deep, shuddering breath.

There was a conflicted frown on Drista's face, she opened her mouth, said nothing for several seconds, and then shut her mouth again with a faintly pinched brow.

She took too long to find her words, and in that time, Tommy had already found his. “I’m going to kill Dream. I have to. It's the only way to get him out of my head–” Tommy took a single step forward, chin tilted defiantly upwards as he stared down the deity. “–are you going to try to stop me?” 

Drista wrinkled her nose, and then, for some reason, blurted, “I helped Tubbo almost nuke him this morning.”

“What?” Tommy and Leo squawked simultaneously.

Leo shook his head in pure bafflement. “You guys have nukes?”

“What do you mean almost? Why didn’t you go through with it?” Tommy demanded at the same time.

Right, priorities.

Drista recoiled with great indignance. “Wha– I don’t know, ask Tubbo,” she shot back irritably.

Tommy groaned loudly, tilting his head back and knocking his hood off in the process. “I can’t ask Tubbo, he’s on a different server right now, Drista. Ugh, talking to you is the fifth worst thing to happen to me today. On a regular day, it would be the first or second worst thing, but today has been shit, so you get off easy this time in terms of the badness rankings,” he ranted with a fervent passion.

Drista rolled her eyes. “You’re so annoying. Can you stop being such a child for like, five seconds? This whole stupid server's falling apart right now and I don't have time for your issues.”

Should Leo try to put an end to their fight? He kind of felt like he should try to put an end to their fight. Before one of them escalated.

But then Drista turned around, putting an end to the argument herself– only to immediately startle at the sight of curling red vines. “Oh, ew, ew, ew– what is that thing? Why is it like that?”

Tommy's tail was flicking shortly, but he answered without fanfare, “Egg.” No elaboration either, apparently.

Drista turned back around, looked at Leo for some reason– as if he was going to have a better answer– and then furrowed her brows at Tommy after Leo had only shrugged and shaken his head sympathetically. “Egg?” Drista repeated, at a loss.

In return, Tommy's shoulders sagged and his ears went flat. “Ughhh, I have to explain everything ‘round here. At least Leo has an excuse, the egg’s been around for ages, Drista. You are a literal god, you should know this shit,” he complained.

Again, Drista looked completely and utterly done with Tommy. “Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I know everything that goes on around here. I'm not om– uh, omni… ugh, whatever the word for all knowing is, I'm not that!” She spun sharply towards Tommy's vine-infested property again, walking across air to inspect some of the bigger vines without touching anything.

Leo was slightly jealous. He wished he could walk on air.

Tommy, because he didn't need to worry about the negative effects of touching the creepy red vines, wandered right after her. “That's pretty shit,” he commented without even a modicum of hesitation.

Oh, sweet and savoury pizza, Leo's hair would be going grey if he had any. “Tommy, love you, buddy– but, y’know, maybe we shouldn't actively antagonize the local god lady?” Because while Leo was very confident in his own abilities, there was only so much a guy could do when divine smiting was on the table.

Drista sent a brief, approving glance over her shoulder at Leo– and then immediately pivoted to giving Tommy one of the smuggest looks to ever exist. “Yeah, Tommy, quit antagonizing me. Keep this up and I'll start, uh– throwing pufferfish at you,” she threatened, waggling her finger chidingly.

Pretty weird threat, and also something Leo would be concerned about if not for the fact that Drista didn't look even halfway like she was actually considering it.

As it was, Leo only tucked his hands into his coat pockets with a quiet snort, shifting his weight comfortably on his back heel.

Tommy bristled, squawking in offense. “But Leo, Drista, I speak only the tru-huth! Tommy Truth. My name is Tommy Truth,” he insisted, putting on a weird voice and accent as he spoke.

A smile wormed its way onto Leo's face despite it all. He felt like he was starting to understand Tommy and Drista's dynamic better.

They were definitely friends, even if they were also weirdly antagonistic to each other about it.

Leo let the continued sound of their playfully aggressive bickering wash over him, eyes wandering.

Early morning shadows stretched tall, warping over vines and partially melted snow.

Unease crawled up his spine, a sudden, inexplicable sense of wrongness permeating his lungs.

Looking up, past Tommy and Drista, above the black and yellow walls, Leo found the sun, as low as if it had risen less than an hour ago.

“Uh… hey, quick question–” Tommy and Drista both froze as Leo addressed them. 

Leo made the personal mental health decision to ignore the twin expressions of guilt, he hadn't exactly been listening to whatever they were arguing about. “Maybe there's just some weird time whatever going on, in which case, cool– but, like, the sun, right? Can we talk about the sun for a second?” he requested, a little desperate.

Both of them turned their heads in sync to look at the sun– Leo could tell neither of them really clocked what he was pointing out though. Tommy tilted his head and Drista shot Leo a suspicious look like she thought he was pulling her leg.

Guess he should spell it out for them. “Again, just spitballing here– this could totally just be a thing of the time zones being different– but if we got here early morning, then I'm pretty sure the sun should be a bit higher than that by now, right?” It was probably nothing, Leo was just on edge from all of the video game-y things.

Drista did a double take at the sun– and then recoiled back with a hiss, having presumably made the mistake of looking directly at it.

She blinked hard several times, shaking her head. “Yeah, no, that's… something is… definitely wrong about that. It was, like, super early whenever we did the nuke threat,” she said, pulling up her screen again as she did.

Tommy peered at the screen over her shoulder. “Did the day night cycle get turned to false or something? Can you fix it?”

Leo started navigating his way over to the pair, restless energy already jittering beneath his skin. Having Tommy within arm's reach made the anxiety just a little more manageable.

He took a look at the screen over Drista's other shoulder, it was just as mysterious as before. “The day night cycle got turned off? That's a thing that can happen here?” Leo questioned, not even baffled by the notion by this point, just curious.

Drista made an annoyed huff, typing away with narrowed eyes. “No– I mean, yeah, that can happen, I guess– but no, that isn't what happened here. Also, can both of you back up? Personal space. I can't focus with you breathing on me,” she complained, and then drifted higher up out of reach without waiting for them to listen.

Leo took a couple steps back anyway (diligently minding the red vines as he did), craning his neck to continue watching Drista’s fingers dance across the lower half of the screen.

He passively noted Tommy following suit from the corner of his eye, slinking over to Leo's side.

Tommy leaned his weight so casually against Leo's side it was hard to tell if he was even aware he was doing it. “What’s going on then? Is everything okay? Is– is the server…?” There was no more exaggerated offense or fearless taunts from Tommy, his voice had changed into something quiet, serious, and scared.

Drista's eyes remained glued to the screen. “I don't know. I don't think I can even fix this. I already tried changing the cycle off and on again, changing the time manually– nothing's responding,” she snapped, sounding more frustrated with herself than anything.

Her hands drew back from the screen, fingers curling. 

She shut her eyes, Leo heard her draw in a slow breath. “Okay,” she exhaled. “Okay, this is totally fine, the server’s been acting up for a while now, I’m sure Dei’s already working on fixing it,” she was muttering.

Drista chewed on her lip, eyes blinking open and flicking pensively down towards Tommy’s vine-infested house. “Right, so, like… what exactly’s the deal with this egg vine whatever thing? Because that stuff is not normal.”

Leo looked to Tommy as the only individual present with enough information to explain anything.

Still leaning next to half his weight on Leo, Tommy distractedly pulled his eyes away from the unchanging skyline. “Aye? Oh, um…” he tilted his head, the rest of his body following as he swayed away from Leo with his face scrunched in thought.

The expression broke with a bland little half-shrug. “I dunno, just fuckin’ spreads everywhere, dunnit? Makes a right mess of the place, gunkin’ up the server–” he kicked a nearby vine. “–thought they finally took care of it a while back– before I left– obviously not anymore though, I mean…” Tommy trailed off with a telling gesture to the veritable infestation of blood red vines.

Except there was one detail in particular Tommy had once again forgotten to mention. 

Leo cleared his throat pointedly. “It also messes with the head of anyone touching it– and also probably mind control? I don’t know, that one was a little less clear– either way, wouldn’t recommend touching it unless you’re one hundred and ten percent sure gods get a free pass,” he forewarned.

Drista’s head snapped towards Tommy and Leo, eyes wide with alarm. “What? Hold on, why were you touching it?” She squinted suspiciously at Tommy.

Tommy held up his hands and took a step back, ears flattening. “Woah, woah, hold on, lady, I’m not being mind controlled. I’m immune! I’ve got– I’ve got nat-ur-al immunity. It is simply part of my Tommyinnit charm,” he assured her in the least convincing manner possible on account of just how nervous he sounded.

Drista squinted further. “Oh yeah? Sounds like something someone mind controlled would say.”

Which also probably meant it was time for Leo to step in. “Oh-ho-ho-kay–” he planted a hand solidly on Tommy’s shoulder before he could scurry off and hide away in a hole somewhere. “–Look, Drista, I understand the concern, but I've been with this fur brain all morning, and I can vouch with absolute certainty that this guy is mind control free,” Leo confirmed, taking Tommy’s head between his palms and shaking his noggin around for good measure.

His action was met with a low growl from an otherwise pliant and unbothered Tommy.

Drista gave them a considering look, hand gravitating to her chin with a quiet hum. “Yeah, I guess there’s not much to control in the first place,” she conceded.

“I resent that,” Tommy expressed flatly as Leo laughed and Drista’s serious expression cracked into a cheeky grin.

Conflict successfully diffused, Leo let go of Tommy’s head– though not before getting one last playful fur ruffle in for the road.

Drista crossed one leg over the other as her eyes went back to the open screen in front of her. “I… might be able to get rid of the vines? The ones here, at least– I don’t have time to go hunting down every patch of weird gross egg vines right now.” She was already tapping away at her magic screen thing.

Barely a second later, Drista was recoiling from the screen as it suddenly vanished with a startlingly pained sounding gasp. “Ow, it hurt me. What?” Even at a slight distance, visible tremors ran through her hands, jagged sparks of gold jumping across her skin like electricity.

Leo lurched forward on instinct, stopping short when he realized there was nothing he could do to help, even if Drista weren't floating out of reach.

Tommy was right there with him, hands fluttering about like he thought he might have to catch her. “Drista! Drista, what happened? What do you mean it hurt you? I thought you had invincibility!” he fretted, tail lashing and ears back.

Drista frowned down at her hands as she slowly flexed her fingers open and closed, the sparks and tremors gradually fading. “That was weird. It was like… whenever I tried to clear it, it almost felt like it was attacking my code, I–” she froze abruptly, shoulders tensing.

There wasn't even enough time to ask before the whole world seemed to shudder. It felt like Leo's eyes had malfunctioned, an unnatural flicker, like a moment of TV static– there and gone again so quickly Leo almost thought he'd imagined it.

Well, if the sun itself hadn't also suddenly jumped several hours higher in the sky, changing all the shadows with it.

Leo was not ashamed to admit that he jumped, a horrible sense of wrongness plunging deep in his gut.

Similarly, Tommy didn't seem to have any reservations about attaching himself to Leo with an ear-piercing shriek. “Ah! Holy fucking shit balls! Drista! Drista, what the fuck?!”

Leo leaned his head away from Tommy, for the sake of his eardrums. “Woah, ears,” he reminded, but then tacked on, “But yeah, no– what in the name of pizza supreme in the sky was that? Did the world just glitch? Is that what's going on here?” Because he was feeling pretty freaked out about the whole situation himself.

Drista dropped down to hover at eye level, expression pulled into an awkward look that succinctly communicated the exact essence of ‘I have no idea.’

“Uh… at least the sky is fixed?” Drista ventured in place of an explanation.

Tommy made a cross between a snort and a laugh, politely detaching himself from Leo’s arm and brushing himself off. “Aw, yeah, at least the sky is fixed– just don’t mind the whole rest of the world fallin’ ‘part at the seams,” he joked wryly.

Drista gave a few indulgent notes of laughter, though the underlying stress behind the noise was palpable.

Considering she was probably at least partly responsible for keeping the server intact and stable, Leo sympathized with her. If anything, it was a wonder she was still so composed.

She tugged absently on the ends of her hair. “Ha ha, yeah, um… I… think I need to go now. Like, this is actually really bad, so, like– last call, I can still send you guys back before anything else goes wrong. You should probably say yes to this– actually, please do say yes to this, Tubbo’s literally going to be so pissed off when he realizes you’re not there,” she insisted, already raising a hand sparking with flecks of gold light.

Predictably, Tommy was quick to wave his hands. “No, no, I think I’d rather stay here and kill Dream, if it’s all the same to you,” he expressed dismissively.

Drista looked like she wanted nothing more than to strangle Tommy with her own two hands, but in the end, all she did was heave a quiet sigh. Resigned acceptance settled over her features. “Okay, just… you’re sure this is what you want?” she pressed, the effort halfhearted.

She already knew Tommy’s answer, as did Leo.

And so came Tommy’s dreaded, but entirely expected response. “I have to do this.”

Leo didn’t sigh, that wouldn’t help anything. But, inclining his head in brief acknowledgement of Tommy's decision, Leo couldn't help but wish his resolve would have faltered.

Leave Dream to the obviously decaying world and go back home.

But that would've been too easy, and as long as Tommy thought this would bring him closure, Leo would stick by him every step of the way.

Drista looked tired as she nodded her head and lowered her hand. “Your funeral, I guess. Good luck.” She turned away from Tommy and Leo.

“Wait–!” Tommy called out before Drista could disappear, taking a single, lurching step forwards.

Drista froze. “This’d better be you changing your mind about going back,” she grumbled warningly as she turned back around, hands on her hips.

To no one’s surprise, Tommy shook his head. “I was just thinking– we can’t exactly take down Dream without any gear, right?” 

The cheeky smile growing on his face filled Leo with an inexplicable sense of dread.

Judging by Drista’s hesitant expression, he wasn’t the only one. “Sure…” Drista agreed slowly, eyes narrowing.

“Right, and you know who’s got loads of gear to share? My good good friend, The Blade,” Tommy declared unabashedly.

Leo put a hand over his face. “Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means,” he groaned.

“Whaaat? Me and Techno go way back, we’re like– we’re like brothers, Leo. So what if he hates my guts? I’ll just sneak in, raccoon style. He’ll never know I was there,” Tommy insisted, wiggling his fingers with a devilish grin.

Leo gave Drista a pleading look through the gaps between his fingers. He still didn’t really know what Technoblade’s deal was, all Leo really knew was that Tommy freaked out when he saw the guy on the other side of Mikey’s first portal to the server and that Tommy was apparently scared enough of him that Technoblade had shown up in his nightmarish hallucination pollen session.

Didn’t seem like the kind of guy they should actively seek out to steal from.

To Leo's dismay, Drista appeared to think about the request for one whole second before ultimately shrugging her shoulders. “Yeah, okay, I can do that. But only if you call me the coolest person you know,” she negotiated.

“You know that just asking that makes you less cool by default, right?” Tommy deadpanned.

Drista only rolled her eyes, making a mocking talking gesture with one hand. “Blah, blah, blah, not hearing any compliments there. Are you sure you want this portal?” she asked with raised brows.

Tommy growled, a sound that was far more annoyed than threatening. “Ugh, fine. Only because you are forcing me to– Drista, you are the coolest and nicest person I have ever met. I love love love love having you as my friend! Thank you so much for helping me rob Technoblade, he deserves it,” Tommy chirped with a downright horrendous amount of cheer forcibly injected into his tone as he clasped his hands together and batted his eyelashes repeatedly.

Drista physically recoiled at the excessive display, disgusted. “Ew, nevermind, I take it back. Uh… here–” she sliced her hand upwards, the air rippling and wind picking up as a jagged golden rift tore its way into existence. “–just hurry up and leave before I have to look at your stupid face any longer.”

It was fascinating– the way Drista's portal looked so reminiscent of Mikey's and yet still so distinctly not at the same time. It obviously didn't take even half as much out of Drista to create one either.

Tommy's ears perked right up. “Aw, pog. Come on, Leo, let's go rob shit,” he encouraged, just short of skipping his way up to the rift for all the enthusiasm he was displaying.

Leo shook his head in light befuddlement, though, admittedly, he hardly hesitated to follow. “Yeah, sure, I can't see any way of this going wrong,” he stated with the express expectation that his bold words would soon become incredibly ironic in hindsight.

Right as Tommy was stepping up to the portal though, Drista suddenly snapped her fingers, making a light hum as if she'd just remembered something. “Oh yeah, one last thing before you go.”

Tommy cocked his head with a questioning hum.

A smug, shit-eating grin spread across Drista's face. “Furry,” she said before vanishing into thin air with nothing more than a shimmer of golden light.

Laughter bubbled up in Leo’s throat at both the parting comment and the rigid despair radiating off of Tommy in the aftermath.

Leo thumped Tommy consolingly on the shoulder as he walked past him, turning in front of the portal just to get a look at Tommy’s agonized expression. “Come on, Tommy. Let’s go rob shit,” he echoed.

Tommy buried his face in his hands with a muffled groan. “Oughhh, this is the worst day of my life,” he complained– and then peeked his face up out of his hands with a furrowed expression.

Leo could practically see the loading wheel going behind Tommy’s eyes as he processed. “Wait… did– did you just swear?” 

“I dunno, did I?” Leo asked mysteriously in turn.

Without Donnie around with his must record everything mentality, there was no hard evidence against Leo. 

No one would ever believe him.

He wasn’t sure that Tommy was thinking about potential blackmail though, if the way he looked like he’d been figuratively smacked in the face with a frying pan was anything to go off of. “Say fuck. Leo– Leo, say fuck and shit and piss right now,” Tommy outright demanded.

But Leo only smiled, sly and unhelpful as he reached out to grab Tommy by the front of his borrowed hoodie. “Uh, I literally have no idea what you’re talking about, now le’go!” He stepped backwards into the portal, yanking Tommy along with him.

Leo’s vision was engulfed in swirling gold for no longer than a second before his boots were sinking into deep snow and the air was bitingly cold once again.

Tommy came stumbling out after him and– okay, that shoulder check was absolutely intentional, but hey, who was Leo to judge a guy for being petty?

Leo let go of Tommy and did a quick survey of the area. 

Summarily, he was treated to a sight of snow, snow, and more snow. Aside from that though, his eyes were drawn to a forest of deep green pines, and beside that, a fenced in property.

He noticed two cabins within, smoke coming from their chimneys and connected by a small bridge between the front doors. More curiously though, was the thin pillar of purple light shooting up into the sky from between the cabins.

“Uh… so should we be worried about that random pillar of light, or no?” Leo asked, just in case.

“What, the beacon? All they do is give you buffs, mate. Haste, speed, regen, whatnot. Kinda the opposite of somethin’ to worry about,” Tommy dismissed easily, already trudging through the snow towards the property.

Leo took the usual nonsense explanation in stride. As long as it wasn't dangerous he wasn't going to think too hard about it.

“So,” Leo started as he followed Tommy. “What's the plan here? Ninja in, ninja steal his weapons, ninja out?”

Tommy made an interested trill that Leo was minorly tempted to imitate. “Ooh, good idea, except it’ll just be me nin-hya-ing in and out of there. Actually, do you have a– nope, nevermind, forgot you don’t have an inventory. Of course you don’t have a pickaxe on you. Maybe I can sneak in through the side door?” Tommy pondered.

It sounded like he was mostly just thinking out loud to himself.

Even so, not exactly Leo's favourite plan. “Dude, what? No, you're not going in on your own. I have portals, remember? I'll just teleport us out if we get caught.” Although when they got caught was probably the more likely term unless Technoblade was away from home.

Tommy looked excessively aggrieved by Leo's actually functional plan, sighing loudly. “Alright, fine, jeez. You're such a– a worrier sometimes, you know that? Oh, hey, you’re not afraid of polar bears, are you?” he pivoted, suddenly and worryingly.

Leo looked around– he didn’t see any polar bears yet. There was an additional area built off of the closer cabin though, a simple fenced in pen with a slanted roof over top. A hulking brown horse was munching on hay inside and– were those foxes?

“Mmno, not especially. Why do you ask? Does this Technoblade guy keep an army of polar bears we need to worry about?” Leo eventually responded, voice pitched up with uncertainty.

Tommy snorted, he seemed particularly amused by Leo’s comment. “Nah, you're thinking of the hound army. Yeah, don't worry though, I know a guy,” he assured with a quiet but menacing chuckle.

He ‘knew a guy?’ What did that even mean in this context?

Leo shot Tommy a dubious side eye, raising a brow. “Um, okay?”

Not a second later, Tommy was very rudely slapping a hand over Leo’s mouth. “Shhh! We’re almost there. You have to be quiet– like a little caterpillar,” Tommy whispered. Loudly.

“Okay,” Leo whispered back. Quietly.

Tommy squinted at Leo like he knew Leo was making some kind of point even if he hadn’t quite figured out what yet.

They made it to the pen, several fluffy white foxes scurried to the other side, yipping anxiously.

The horse remained unbothered, only acknowledging their presence with an ear flick.

Tommy walked past the animals with hardly more than a glance, heading straight for the ground level door on the side of the cabin.

He reached out for the handle, and then looked back at Leo. “Only teleport us out if I tell you to, got it?” Tommy instructed.

Leo was pretty sure one of those foxes was carrying a shiny blue sword in its mouth.

Head in the game, Leon, he reminded himself, forcing himself to ignore the animals in favour of giving Tommy a sharp, wordless nod.

And with that, Tommy pushed open the door with a faint creak.

Both of them froze, but no one burst out to attack them, so into the cabin they went.

Leo followed Tommy into a stone brick room that gave off major basement vibes, shutting the door quietly on his way in.

There was one particular splash of colour that caught Leo's eye. Some kind of… propaganda poster? He only vaguely recognized a few of the people on it from pictures Tommy had shown him, but he definitely recognized the likeness of Technoblade and a pre-mutation Tommy on there.

Bold lettering across the top read ‘FIGHT TYRANNY’ while slightly smaller, slanted text advertised ‘JOIN POGTOPIA TODAY, Support the rebellion!’ at the bottom with two music discs detailed on the right.

What in the world had Tommy been a part of back here? What?

Leo didn't let himself stare for long, Tommy was already making a beeline left to a wall lined with big wooden chests.

Tommy opened the first one and started rooting through it without hesitation.

Leo walked as quietly as his totally unstealthy iron boots would allow over to Tommy.

He struck a cool and intimidating pose as he took up watch, listening for any signs of life within the cabin besides them.

There was a ladder leading up to a closed trapdoor beside the propaganda poster. Although Leo had yet to hear anyone else, he kept his eyes trained on the trapdoor, periodically flicking around the rest of the room.

He heard Tommy growl quietly behind him, followed by the closing and subsequent opening of a chest. “Oh, come on, did he seriously move all his good shit upstairs? You rob a guy one time and all of a sudden he starts hiding his valuables,” Tommy groused, probably a little louder than he should have.

But the rest of the cabin remained quiet. They were still in the clear.

Maybe no one was home?

Leo glanced over as Tommy quickly opened and closed the rest of the chests, barely pausing to rummage before writing them off.

“What, all junk drawers?” Leo joked quietly.

Tommy, ears flat to the sides, scowled bitterly at the line of chests as though they'd personally and intentionally wronged him. “It's all just stone and wood and lapis and shit. I want swords, or an axe, and potions and– and fuckin' gapples. Actually useful shit for killing Dream,” he hissed as he abandoned the chests and went straight for the ladder.

Leo cringed, following close behind. “Woah, are you sure it's a good idea to just… go up there?” he whispered, doing his best to be a voice of reason.

Someone had to be worried about the potential consequences to their actions. If Tommy wasn't going to, then Leo might as well give it a shot.

Tommy appeared to think it over for two whole seconds before shrugging. “You can just teleport us out, right?” he reminded.

Which was true– but it still insulted Leo's ninja sensibilities that they were going to be popping up into the main area of the cabin through such obvious means.

Tommy grabbed onto a ladder rung, a cocky smile sliding onto his face. “Besides, Techno and I go way back. This is basically my home too, y’know. That means I legally have ownership over half his things,” he claimed in total confidence.

Considering Tommy was also the guy who claimed to have ‘tenant rights’ after they found him living in their walls uninvited… 

“Good enough for me,” Leo decided.

Between the two of them, Leo was pretty sure their combined natural charm could win over (or, more accurately, con) even the darkest of hearts.

The two of them went up through the trapdoor. Leo closed it behind them, of course. He did have manners.

He very quickly discovered that it was way too warm for the coat and snow pants– courtesy of a fireplace in the back corner of the cabin with a steady-going flame within.

Not that Leo could very well take any of it off when they were going to end up back in the cold in only a few minutes.

Tommy immediately started rummaging in chests and barrels again.

Likewise, Leo was back to standing on guard.

There was a lot more to look at up here. The cabin managed to feel cozy and well lived in without feeling cluttered or claustrophobic.

A small, mostly clean kitchen. An accompanying dinner table with only two chairs, all made of nice, varnished wood.

Looking beyond that, he noticed a bookshelf, filled to the brim with more books than Leo had Jupiter Jim comics. Which was really kind of impressive because he had a lot of Jupiter Jim comic books.

And then there was a cushy red recliner. It looked unfairly comfortable. The kind of chair you could fall asleep in with only minor neck issues when you woke back up.

Maybe he could steal it for the lair somehow. Could Tommy's inventory store recliner chairs…?

It was at that point when Leo noticed the paintings hung up on the walls. All of the pig man himself.

They all made him look super cool too. How egotistical (Leo took a mental note of the captured poses and lighting. Just in case he ever needed to commission cool portraits of himself).

Tommy made a victorious shout. “Awh, a sword– and gapples!”

Leo looked over in time to see Tommy pull a glittering blue sword out of a chest, trilling appreciatively. He also pulled out an apple that looked to be made of gold.

He seemed more interested in the apple. Gapple?

Oh, golden apple. Gapple. Leo got it now… sort of. He still wasn't sure why Tommy seemed so enamored by them.

The sword disappeared– presumably into Tommy's inventory– and then Tommy was cramming a gapple in his mouth and going straight back to ransacking the chest.

Amusingly, Tommy's tail was wagging like Christmas had come early, scooping gleaming gapples into his arms with delighted snickering.

Tommy's joy was infectious and Leo found himself smiling too, even if he didn't know what was apparently so great about gapples yet.

Being caught up in watching Tommy pile gapples into his inventory, Leo totally forgot about the thing he was supposed to be watching. 

The door.

A massive oversight that Leo only realized when he heard the distinct sound of it opening behind him.

“Heh?”

Leo was quick to draw his swords as he whirled around, ready to portal him and Tommy out of dodge at a moment's notice.

Standing in the doorway was an imposing figure, nearly as big as Raph, if a little taller, with wiry pink fur and tusks half the size of Leo's finger. A golden crown glittered with embedded gems atop the man's head, a regal red cape draped over his shoulders, the neckline insulated with thick white fluff. A single emerald earring hung from his left ear.

It was him– the fabled Technoblade, in the flesh.

He was here, and he’d caught them red-handed stealing his things.

Shit.