Where is Your Rider?

The shadow of Hades is fading

Tommy's bones ached when he woke up, the cold morning seeping into his joints. It was hard to move, but he forced his body to wake up, shoving the fogginess out of his brain. He needed to find food and a way home. Searching through his backpack, he cursed to himself about not taking any food.

He got up and stretched, his clothes damp from sleeping outside. It had rained during the night, large puddles stretching out into the street. He shouldered on his backpack and set out onto the street, looking for someplace to get something to eat.

As he walked, he spotted a laundromat. Normally, he was above stealing clothes, but he needed to hide and his clothes were really wet so...

He slid inside, there wasn't anyone there but there was a basket of clothes set above a washing machine. Tommy glanced around for any people before digging through the clothes, finding a pair of jeans that were a bit to big for him and a long sleeved, green-grey shirt. He ducked into the bathroom and changed out of his wet clothes. They hung loose on him, but he had a belt for the jeans and he didn't mind the too-big shirt. He stuffed his wet clothes into his bag before running out into the street.

He ran down the pavement, looking for a map or some sign of home. He longed for home, for the warm, familiar blankets and for his friends, practically his brothers, laughter.

He could go for a hot drink right now.

***

Tubbo was sending out his BEE-bot that he'd finally finished, looking for Tommy. He needed to find him, the apartment didn't feel right without his loud-mothed friend.

He scanned through the footage the BEE-bot had gathered through the day, he had set it to just go through the street, uploading the footage to the Cloud before he got home from school. So far, nothing interesting.

Ranboo walked over, leaning over Tubbo's shoulder. "Any sign of him?" Tubbo shook his head.

"Naddah, boss man. I thought there were a few people who looked like him but... no. It'd help if we knew where he was sent cause he isn't in the orphanage. I checked." Ranboo sighed, moving to the kitchen.

"I'll make pigs in a blanket for dinner, that good?" Tubbo nodded, still looking through the footage for any sign of Tommy.

Ranboo rolled hot dogs cut in half in crescent roll dough before popping them in the oven. He walked over to Tubbo, watching to footage with him.

"Wait, go back. Okay now play" He said quietly. Tubbo gave him a confused glance but obliged. Ranboo pointed at a tall, brunette figure walking out of a laundromat. A few moments later, a familiar blonde wearing a red and white baseball tee scurried in and came out, wearing different clothes.

"That's Tommy!" Tubbo exclaimed excitedly. "That's Tommy, hold on I'll get the address!"

Ranboo nodded, but he knew the figure was familiar. He sighed and pulled out the pigs in a blanket before Tubbo took off running. Ranboo glanced back at their dinner, grabbed a few, tucked them into a bag that he threw over his back and ran after Tubbo. They hustled down the stairs and towards the nearest bus stop that went by that laundromat. They each ate one of the pigs in a blanket, saving two for Tommy. He was probably hungry.

They hopped out at their stop and ran to the laundromat.

"Okay, that footage was early in the day, and it's 4:30 now, so... let's move Boo!" Tubbo said, running in the direction they saw Tommy run. Ranboo sighed, he wasn't much of a runner, before following after him.

They ran for God knows how long before Tubbo suddenly tuned down into an alleyway, looking around. Ranboo skidded to a halt, panting.

"Why- Why did we come down this way again?" He asked, gasping for breath.