Receeding Tides (mcyt)

Chapter 25

For barely a millisecond, Tommy's brain didn't know who he was looking at. He didn't know what he expected Tubbo to look like after three years, but it certainly wasn't this. Veiny and mangled. His shirt was torn at the hems, and the underlying black sleeves just barely covered his marred arms. Just like Sapnap, Tubbo wore three-striped pants. Tommy knew this was Tubbo, but damn, three years made a difference. he wondered if Tubbo was jet lagged at all. In his glee, he ignored the burn jutting out from the collar of Tubbo's shirt and the eyepatch covering the eye.

"Tubbo!

"Tommy!"

A new glint appeared in Tubbo's patch-less eye, and Sapnap watched as he pulled his boat to shore.

Since he'd arrived on American soil, Sapnap listened to Tubbo worriedly ramble for Tommy's condition almost nonstop, and for countless nights, worry had overridden both of their needs to sleep. With Dream gone for so long, Sapnap began relying more than he wanted on Tubbo. A smile spread across his face hearing Tubbo's voice reanimated with gleeful disbelief. Tommy was here. Good for Tubbo. One more person who turned out to be alive and relatively unharmed. What about him? Where was Dream? Obviously, Sapnap cared about George too, and he was glad no one was dead. But Sapnap didn't see a tall, masked idiot. His worry began bubbling.

"Tubbo!"

"Tommy!"

Tommy collided into Tubbo falling onto the compacted sand. Ignoring the pain of landing on each other, Tommy and Tubbo cackled. The acidic tide soaked their hair startling them both. The boys scrambled away from the acid water.

"Holy shit, man I thought you were dead!" Tommy gushed.

"Me? I thought you were dead! You were stuck in Europe for years!" Tubbo replied, "You ready for America, Big Man?"

Tommy's eyes widened. This was really happening. He was going trans-Alantic. Fucking finally. He was gonna find Ranboo and whoever else America had in store for him. Tubbo noticed his friend's face had fallen ever so slightly. Was the prospect of America saddening to him?

In this moment, reality hit Tommy harder than it had in the last few days, and its impact stunned him into silence. Tommy's ticket to America stood in front of him like an angel waiting for him to take their hand. He would be somewhere he'd never be alone. Asylum. Yet somehow, the prospect loomed loneliness. Dream spoke so highly of this place he called home knowing he wouldn't get to see it again. Tommy recalled the feeling of a gun in his hand.

He never had to use a gun unless the time was right. That's what Dream told him. Everything else would come naturally when that time came, but it never seemed to happen. Tommy couldn't tell when that right time was. Maybe this was it? Guilt clawed at Tommy's stomach. Was it right for him to live when the person that made sure he survived... hadn't? Intrusive thoughts clustered in Tommy's mind. Dream would never see America.

Why should he?

"Is this everyone coming with us?" Tubbo's voice ushered Reality away from Tommy's mind.

The thoughts vanished, and Tommy chastised himself for entertaining the thought. Who cared when the right time was? He could decide that whenever he deemed it pertinent. He had Tubbo and Wilbur, and soon, he'd have Ranboo and Technoblade too. If Dream couldn't experience America again, Tommy would for him.

"What do you mean?" he asked, finally taking Tubbo's hand.

"Is this everyone going to America? Dream said it would be you, Wilbur, George, and him."

Reality returned looming over Tommy. He smiled.

"Well, Wil and George were with Niki and Phil so Dream was going to take them along with everyone else."