Lionhearts ||Skephalo||

16

MASSIVE FUCKING A/N: GUYS IT CAME TO MY ATTENTION THAT INSTEAD OF GIVING YOU THE RIGHT CHAPTERS I ACCIDENTALLY DOUBLE POSTED LIKE CHAPTER FOURTEEN AND DIDNT GIVE YOU THIS ONE IM SO SO SORRY HERE BE FED LITTLE GREMLINS PLEASE DONT CRUCIFY ME

-

Tubbo gently takes Skeppy's hand, Fundy barking at them from their feet.

"Skeppy," the boy says quietly, "It's gonna be okay. Tommy and I have a plan, see?..."

Skeppy swallows heavily, and tries to cover up how badly this stings- the whole debacle just feels like...

"This is going to leave some wounds," he murmurs, "For both me and him." He tugs on Tubbo.

"Eh?" Tubbo questions, following him off the path, towards the objectively shorter but also more dangerous route to the city.

"We might as well give him time," Skeppy sighs softly, "It's not going to help our case to go chasing after him while he's still all...snappy."
Tubbo nods, and tightens his fist, swallowing,

"Well, he's got Tommy with him- I hope they'll be safe." Skeppy quietly asks,

"Do you know who we need to meet and where they are?" Tubbo nods,

"Eret. He's a good man, even if he's got his fingers in a lot of underworld matters. I remember meetin' 'im when Phil was showing Tommy and me around the city."

Skeppy sighs in relief. At least they aren't completely out of the loop while Sapnap sorts out his anger- and hopefully comes to his senses.
So he leads the way down the hill, to copses of trees, Tubbo by his side.

It's going to be a miserable night, he realizes, once everything starts to set in.
The four (five, with the fox) has dwindled to two (three).

Skeppy closes his eyes and resigns himself to the rest of the journey.

* * *

"I don't understand why he'd keep that secret from me like that!" Sapnap fumes, snapping a branch with his foot aggressively as they build their campfire. Tommy contributes,

"Maybe he thought you'd stop helping 'im? I'm sure there wasn't any harm meant by it, ya know?"

Sapnap hurls the branch into the pile, his eyes now abandoning their calm indigo hued mask in favor of a fervent flickering lilac.

"I just-" he shakes his head, and admits, misery in his tone, "I thought I could trust him. But he's known for a while surely, and he didn't see fit to let me know. What else is he hiding? And is he really going to side with someone who caused so much death?"
His voice cracks, frustration lacing his tone before he turns in search of a new branch to take out his anger on. Tommy snaps a few into kindling, lining it up neatly. He can feel a heat in his pocket, and though he's tempted to check it, he ignores it, continuing to rationalize the situation.

"See, his soulmate is all up and on the line here," he explains, "so surely he's a touch more ansty about things that could reset his progress with rescuing him? An' I mean, he hasn't known you all that long, maybe he thought just not saying anything about his friend's soulmate being your worst enemy, vengeance bound as ya can be and allat."

Sapnap looks down at the branch in his hands, running his palms over the bark, feeling the ridges through his gloves. Despite his anger, as soon as he spent a little while away from Skeppy he felt guilty. He could see the reasoning...but...

"That doesn't change that he bullshitted me about it not being Dream. He saw him that first night, he said so. He could've told me that the same guy who took his friend was also the one nursing him back to health; but he chose to lie to me."
Tommy strikes his flint and steel, sending sparks crashing over the kindling. He watches as the blaze catches, comforted by the flickering light. Fire is familiar to him, and after so long away from the orange hued light he was used to in the Nether, it was nice to see fires again.