Tommyinnit clinic for supervillains

Chapter 8: tommy needs a day off

Although his headache was gone by the time morning arrived like he had predicted, Tommy was still exhausted for the entirety of the day after his run-in with Arson and Iceman.

After waking up, he ended up explaining to Tubbo and Ranboo about how he'd gotten sick the night before while he was at the cafe. Before either of them could press him about that though, he brought up how Nuke had walked him home, expecting to get some sort of big reaction out of the two of them that would distract them from asking any more questions.

Suffice to say, the plan didn't exactly work. In fact, neither of them seemed all that surprised about Nuke walking him home. Both of them said it made sense since he'd been seen patrolling their area before, and that it was nice of him to help Tommy get home.

In all honesty, Tommy was a little offended on Nuke's behalf. If he had learned that Tubbo had been walked home by a vigilante none of them had met before he would have certainly had a bit more of a reaction. But no, all his roommates wanted to talk about was if he knew what caused him to be sick, how he was feeling now, and if he still planned on going to work that evening.

Which, of course he was. Just because he was tired that didn't mean he could afford to take a shift off.

Besides, while he was tired, he wasn't on the verge of passing out like he had been the night before. It was more like a lingering heaviness in his limbs that wouldn't go away. There was a bit of extra effort he needed to put into lifting his legs, a slight delay in reaction time between his brain and his hands, making it feel as though he was moving underwater. However, while he'd never exhausted himself this badly from healing someone before, he somehow knew that the lingering side effects were going to be gone the next day.

Again, he could deal with a little fatigue. He wasn't going to be a pussy about it.

Unfortunately for him, Puffy didn't exactly feel the same.

As soon as he walked into the cafe for his shift, he spotted Puffy sitting in the far back corner of the shop with Foolish working behind the counter. Before Tommy could walk over to the counter to put his apron on though, Puffy waved him over.

Late afternoon sunlight was spilling into the cafe, turning every inch of the shop into gold. The air was heavy with the rich scent of coffee beans while the taste of sugar was heavy on his tongue, making Tommy wonder if Foolish had been baking pastries. Puffy was sitting with her back to the window, the sun illuminating the edges of her wild brown and white curls like a halo.

"Hi Tommy," she said as he walked over to the table, gesturing for him to sit.

"Hi Puff," Tommy replied, settling down awkwardly into the chair. "Is everything alright?"

"Oh yeah, everything's fine," Puffy told him, her smile almost as bright as the sunlight wrapped around her. "I just wanted to check in with you since we haven't gotten a chance to talk much this week. You still alright with doing this many shifts a week? I can cut you down if you-"

"No!" Tommy cut her off, wincing when the sudden interruption made her flinch. "Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that. But please don't cut down my hours, Puffy. I really need the money."

"It's okay, no need to freak out," Puffy reassured, reaching a hand out to rest it over his own. "I can keep you on your current schedule. It's just... you look really tired, Tommy."

"I'm fine," Tommy said, using the hand Puffy wasn't holding to rub at his eyes. "I just got shit sleep last night, but I'm totally fine, I swear."

"Are you sure? Because if you ever need someone to talk to, you know I'm here for you. Not just as a boss, but as your friend." Her tone was gentle, but firm. Comforting yet solid in the way only Puffy could balance.