Corner Store Coffee Shop (sometimes villains stop by)-made by an orphan_account

chapter 28

Tommy remembered this scene well. He was looking at the room where it all happened. He was turning five-years-old back then, Ranboo and Tubbo six. He didn't really have many dreams, and he didn't really remember anything when he woke up, but he knew it wasn't a dream.

Right.

He passed out.

The room was decorated well. Balloons were in the corners in reds and silver, his favorite color, and there was a cake on a long table in the middle with the number five placed on top. It was his birthday. He could only stare at the cake, memories flooding back. But then again, he didn't need those memories to come back. Tommy was in the memory.

Too busy staring at the cake, he didn't notice that they- his mom, Ranboo, Tubbo, and their moms -had arrived, bursting into the door. Tubbo and Tommy were chattering loudly about a cartoon they both liked while Ranboo was following them both closely behind, looking just as happy despite being quieter.

Their moms were talking, too, they were best friends, like parent like child. That wasn't how the quote went, but that's how Tommy saw it.

There were games and stuff in the room that he and his best friends busied themselves with. Their moms went to sit at the table, Ranboo and Tubbo's moms going to set down some presents they had gotten for Tommy.

It was happy.

For such a large room, it felt quiet. Not that it was quiet, but rather it felt like all the noise was small even when it was big. In short, Tommy was lonely. He didn't have many friends, so it wasn't like he could invite anyone else. His mom had asked him, knowing that he only had Ranboo and Tubbo. It was lonely being a hybrid. He was bullied at the playground.

Eventually, they got tired of running around and playing, it took awhile, but it did happen. Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo had their hands on the table, looking up at their moms.

"Can we have cake now?" Tommy begged. His eyes were wide, and he had a pout on his lips. Tommy's mom laughed, and pulled out a chair next to her to let him sit on, Ranboo and Tubbo both pulling out their own chairs.

She looked inside a bag to pull out a lighter, and pushed the cake towards Tommy. He was swinging his legs over the edge of his seat, kicking the leg of the chair. He should have gotten scolded for that, but he didn't. Ranboo and Tubbo were watching silently in anticipation. Tommy's eyes shone when the lighter was turned on.

His mom sat back in his seat, and said to get ready to sing 'Happy Birthday', and counted down for them to start. When he blew out the candles, his mom had asked him what he wanted. Of course, he had said that he wished that he had wings just like his mom's. At the time he didn't notice it, but looking back, he realized that his mom's smile faltered. Her heart broke. The hate Tommy would get for having wings. Being a hybrid. She told him that was a great wish. That he would have wings even better than hers.

She didn't get to cut the cake. There was a boom. Tommy's head whipped to the door, still closed. Their moms froze in their spots, only Tommy's finally reacted after a second. She quickly ushered them towards a closet. It was a closet meant to store party decorations. She gently pushed them inside and shushed them. Her face was stern, no room for argument and little Tommy knew that.

There was another boom, and his mom closed the door. The closet was cramped. He could hear the heavy breaths of Ranboo and Tubbo. He remembered that feeling well. He didn't have claustrophobia up until that moment. His social worker said it was due to trauma. He was too young to understand what that meant at the time.

The three of them flinched, Ranboo had his hands held over his ears. His ears were sensitive. He was an enderman hybrid, afterall.

There were loud voices, he could hear them yelling. There were screams. They were their moms' screams. There were more booms, more yelling, more screaming. At some point he started crying, and he didn't know when.

He wasn't there to see what was outside that closet, so all he saw was black. He felt the world cave in. His breath grew heavy. He felt trapped, and it somehow felt worse than being cramped in a small closet with two other people.

He let out a heavy breath when he could finally see again. His breathing was still quick. His eyes were wide. The room was completely silent. Too silent for the chaos that had happened. There was fire that shown in his eyes, and bodies on the ground and the room was warm. Too warm. The red of the blood and the orange heat of the fire. Everything else was a blur. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was back in the present.

He was looking at Quackity's face that was way too close for comfort. Tommy's eyes shook, looking everywhere and nowhere in particular. "Tommy?" His eyes went back to Quackity.

"Quackity. Hi." He wasn't sure what to say. There was worry in Quackity's eyes. Relief, too.

"Tommy, how are you feeling? Are you okay?" He nodded his head in reply.

The door of the shop opened, and he heard Karl's voice follow shortly after. "Quackity!" Karl put a hand on the counter, "Is Tommy--" He looked down and his eyes made contact with Tommy's. Karl let out a breath of relief and held his other hand up, he was holding a bag. "I got the pain relievers like you asked."

"Pain relievers?" Why would you need to buy pain relievers?" Tommy looked between the two. Quackity's eyes went behind Tommy. Tommy was leaning back onto the wall. He turned his head behind him and he sucked in a bed. His eyes met bright red feathers. "Oh." Just like his mom's.