peculiar boy- sleepyboisinc royalty au + dreamteam

chapter sixteen, crystal tears

Tommy's POV

"You're really bad at this," I insult taking Ranboos queen.

"How did you—? Where did that bishop come from?" Ranboo rambles.

"You got too focused on taking my tool that you left an opening for your queen," I explain leaning back in my chair waiting for Ranboos turn.

Ranboo sits in complete and utter shock. "How are you so good? I've won third place in the annual Antarctic Empire chess tournament three times running and I still can't beat you."

I fold my arms behind my head lifting my chair of the ground plopping it back on the ground with a thump. "Well you should see my brother, I've never beat him no matter how hard I tried." It's true. My brother values mental training along with physical training. He especially likes games that involve intense thinking like chess. We play it all the time but I rarely win.

"Woah, really." Ranboos red and green eyes glow. "He must be really smart."

A familiar man with scruffy brown hair and a multicolored hoodie turns the corner my eyes drawing to him. "Yeah, he is smart." My eyes follow the strange brunette wandering down the hall to us.

The strange man holds a small note slipping it on the table next to me. "Hello," he greets brightly. I slide the note of the table into my hands.

"Oh, hi, who are you exactly? I haven't seen you around here before," Ranboo notices.

The man clears his throat. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Karl. I uh just started working here," he smiles scratching the back of his head. He's lying. I can tell. "Anyways, I'm just here to deliver a message."

"Alright, thanks?" I respond with caution.

"No problem," Karl smiles strangely walking away. He's quite strange. It's an odd coincidence that we've run into each other before. The universe just works like that sometimes. I flip the note around looking at its message.

SP TD NZXTYR, RZO ZQ NSLZD. MPHLCP.

"What's it say?" Ranboo asks taking my knight.

My breath stops for a moment. This has to be a joke, it can't be true. It's probably wrong. That Karl fella is playing a prank on me or something. There's no way. "Yeah, it's nothing," I answer crumpling up the piece of paper into a small ball. I turn my attention back to the board sliding my rook across the table. "Checkmate."

"Where did you—? Oh, how did you pull that off?" his eyes widen, dumbfound.

"I play a lot of chess," I shrug resting my hands back on my lap brushing against my pockets, my fingers running over an empty pill-shaped bottle. Shit, that's right. I push my hands against the table lifting myself from my seat. "Sorry, I have to go."

"I'm coming with," Ranboo declares standing up following me.

I shake my head. "No, I'm going by myself." I breeze past Ranboo calmly walking down the hallway.

He reaches out his hand trying to pull me back missing as I move out of the way in time. I keep walking unfazed while Ranboo panics. Why is he so worked up about me leaving? Endermen particles bubble in front of me swirling in the air. Ranboo teleports blocking me from waking in the last-ditch effort to stop me. "You can at least tell me where you're going."

"Since when can you teleport, that's so cool—" my eyes widen in excitement. Life would be so much easier with teleportation. Why doesn't Ranboo teleport more often? I regroup my thoughts returning to reality. "I just need to talk to Fundy about... medical stuff," I murmur.