Best Beloveds

"So no, I don't have a good history of birthdays."

"Now we have the invites printed, we'll deliver them!" Tubbo shouted as he held up the envelopes.

"I can do that!" Tommy yelped quickly. Sam Nook looked up.

"Aren't you busy with the dresses?" Ranboo asked.

"I'm big man Tommyinnit! I can do it!" Tommy exclaimed.

"If you're sure..." Tubbo nodded, handing the letters to his fiancé, who ran out of the house when he got ahold of them, Sam Nook dashing after him.

"Was it me or did he seem nervous about that?" Ranboo judged.

"He did. It's fine though, probably. He'll give them all out." Tubbo sighed.

And Tommy did. He dashed around the Prime Path, handing out the invites. When he gave them out, Tommy had a small chat with whomever was receiving an invite. It took him longer to get to Las Nevadas because he took a different route to avoid Niki, who already seemed to be in a bad mood even without Tommy bothering her. After a good three hours or so, Tommy got down to the last three invitations.

"What the fuck? Niki? Phil? Techno?!" Tommy shouted. He was outraged. They dare ask to bring the three who hate and actively want to kill him? He was mad. And not going to deliver them. Tommy stormed back to Snowchester, busting the door open and slamming the three slips of parchment on the table before stomping loudly up the stairs and slamming the guest room door, which used to be his room. Sam Nook followed him up and just sadly waited outside the room.

"Pa? Why mad?" Michael asked in his limited vocabulary of English.

"I dunno." Ranboo sighed as he stood up, going to investigate. He went to the kitchen table, picking up the contents. "Oh. That's why."

"What was Tommy all about?" Tubbo wondered as he too entered the kitchen.

"Invites. He gave 'em all out but the other Syndicate members." Ranboo replied, handing the letters to Tubbo.

"You're doing it. I'm not visiting Technoblade." Tubbo shook his head. "Next Syndicate meeting."

"Okay." Ranboo nodded as he put the invites into a drawer for safekeeping, telling Tubbo what he did with them. Ranboo went back to the living room, where Michael was waiting patiently for him.

"Go away!" Tommy yelled when someone knocked.

"Tommy, it's me." Puffy said, voice muffled by the door. She carefully twisted the knob, slowly coming in.

"What do you want." Tommy grumbled into the pillow.

"To talk. Early therapy, I guess." Puffy shrugged, delicately sitting on the edge of the bed. 

"I never thought the rumours were true." Tommy confessed, turning away from Puffy and to the wall. "I never thought it was Niki who burned down the L'Mantree."

"But when she lured me to the nuke testing sight, and I looked up, saw the missile coming." Tommy added. "I looked into her eyes. And I knew the rumours were true. At that moment. And she ran. Away from me, leaving me there to die. And I didn't."

"I got radiation poisoning. Never told anyone. Snuck away from Tubbo and Ranboo, threw up some blood. Didn't eat anything, cramped, shit diarrhea, lots of vomiting on the food I tried to keep down. My whole body hurt for long periods of time, three days of pure hell." Tommy chuckled. "Recently learnt the type of poisoning I got was called gastrointestinal."

"And the worst thing about the entire thing?" Tommy continued ranting. "Is that shit like that is normal for me. There are days where I don't eat anything. Throw up the food I tried to eat. Other food that did manage to go down came out as diarrhea, or where I lie im bed for hours with an ache in my body. Throwing up blood isn't normal for me, but I did when Dream be-"

"It's okay, Tommy. It's all in the past. You're okay right now. Alive. Breathing." Puffy reassured. She was seriously concerned. How did this kid hide radiation poisoning? And why did a woman try to make it happen?

"I'm sure Niki's fine, though." Tommy added. "She got away. She ran as fast as she could, didn't even look back at me. She got out with a couple scratches from the pine trees."

"Tommy... I don't even know what to say." Puffy sputtered. This was a more than 'Niki and Jack led me to a nuke site to try and blow me up'. This was that he suffered for living through that trap, set by old friends, allies, people Tommy trusted. Tommy Trusty trusted too much.

"Yeah. Do you see the reason why I don't want that woman at my special day?" Tommy hissed. "A day that's the most special since my thirteenth birthday?"

Puffy stopped breathing at that. Thirteenth birthday. From what she could gather from all the server member's stories, Tommy's thirteenth birthday would've hit a month before the elections in L'Manburg that Wilbur Soot used to secure his presidency over the newly independent nation. All the ex-L'Manburgians stated that it was a grace period before the elections, they'd gotten their independence and nothing was happening. And sometimes, nothing is a good thing.

"Yeah. Just before the election, before I got exiled. The first time." Tommy mumbled the last part.

"What about your other birthdays then? Fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth." Puffy counted.

"Fourteenth birthday was spent rebuilding L'Manburg after Wilbur." Tommy replied.

"Fifteenth birthday was spent in the rain, on a deserted island." Tommy remembered.

"Sixteenth birthday was spent hiding from Dream in an anarchist's house." Tommy added.

"Seventeenth birthday was spent recovering from coming back from the dead." Tommy finished.

"So no, I don't have a good history of birthdays." Tommy snapped.

"We'll have one then." Puffy decided.

"What?" Tommy asked.

"Here, I have some bread, if you don't wanna go down." Puffy offered the bread, which Tommy took and tested a small bite. He started devouring the bread, Puffy standing up and closing the door again.

"I'm so tired." Ranboo groaned as he shifted in bed, trying to reach for what he usually cuddled with.

"Tommy's not here, remember? He's in the guest bedroom." Tubbo reminded.

"I forgot." Ranboo muttered, turning onto his back again.

"I did too, for a second." Tubbo whispered back. 

"You think he'll like the surprise?" Ranboo wondered.

"I bloody fucking hope so." Tubbo murmured. "Or else we stayed up this early for nothing."

And if Tommy returned to the bed because he was cold in the guest room, they didn't wake up.