Maybe I'll heal

Therapy, probably

Tommy bounced his leg, desperate for a way to get his energy out so he wouldn't be weird in front of Ranboo's mother. He already was anxious around adults, but this is his literal partner's mom. He thinks he has a good reason to be nervous. Ranboo held his hand gently under the table to calm him down. Tommy's vibrating slowed but didn't cease. Tubbo was just making jokes and chatting with Puffy like it was nothing. Tommy envied how easily he could talk to adult women. Curse Tubbo and his ability to talk to mothers without freaking out. If only the shorter had a present mother figure he feared as much as his father, or as Tommy called it, his motherfucker. Puffy laughed a little, snapping Tommy out of his thoughts. He looked up. "You need to help me find friends like yours, they're riots." Ranboo chuckled. "Just make friends with traumatized people. Not that hard." Tubbo joked. "Ooooh tell me more? I'm a psychiatrist, this is my thing." Her child looked exasperated. "Mom you can't just ask that-" She cut it off. "Ranboo, traumatized gay people almost always love to overshare. I got this." Tommy wheezed violently. "Wh-What the fuck?" Puffy grinned, this was the first thing she heard out of the kid. "Am I wrong?" "I mean, no," He said, grinning. Tubbo raised his hand and waved it wildly. "Ooh! Me! Let me traumadump first!" The other three turned to look at him.

"Okayyy, So basically father dearest is the alchoholic or whatever, and man beats me! No mother dearest, left!" He said nonchalantly. Ranboo snickered at how casual he said it. Puffy nodded, pulling out a notebook and writing something down. "Yes yes, surely that's left some trauma. And you?" Tommy blinked blankly as the others turned to him. "Uhm. My dad or whatever killed my mum. They were both addicts and they kinda neglected and abused me which was not very pog- So I went to foster system which was shit and abusive as well, and then here and these people are pretty shit too." Puffy wrote something down. "Yikes, definitely some mental illness." Mom, no diagnosing my friends at the dinner table. We've talked about this." Tommy chuckled at the idea of Ranboo lecturing their mom about this.

Puffy rolled her eyes. "Hush, child. Anyways, I'll grab dinner out the oven, it should be ready. Don't burn the house down, with the looks of things I'm already on it!" The three went silent as Ranboo's mom went into the kitchen. "Funky boy." Ranboo looked at him in confusion. "Sorry, I felt like saying that." They shrugged and took a sip of their Pepsi. "Ranboo- should we ask your mom about the thing?" It tilted their head, confused for a second time. "Huh?" Tubbo's eyes darted around. "I mean what we discussed in the arcade." Ranboo thought for a moment. After like 30 seconds it remembered. "Ohhhh- yeah. I think maybe we should." Tommy turned his head to look out the window. A leaf from a tree danced around in the yard before settling into the slowly browning grass. Tommy looked back. "I like skittles." The other two blinked. "Where did that come from?" Tubbo asked.

"I looked outside and saw a leaf fall and it made me think of fall, the season, and I remembered Halloween is coming up, and I remember seeing on TV when I was watching The Office with Wilbur that one time an ad about Trick-or-Treating so I asked Wilbur what it was and he said it was a holiday tradition where kids go door-to-door and get candy so then I thought about candy and I remembered trying skittles with you and I thought about how much I liked them." Tommy ranted, messing with the sleeve of his red sweater. Ranboo and Tubbo sat for a moment, processing his words. "Okay," Ranboo said.

Puffy came back into the dining room with plates balanced in her arms. "Mom, you gotta stop doing that. You're gonna spill stuff." Ranboo lectured. Puffy rolled her eyes, setting plates in front of the three before setting her's down as well. "Kiddo, I used to be a waitress. You won't be catching me of all people dropping plates." Ranboo lightheartedly rolled their eyes before grabbing it's fork. Tommy looked at the plate in front of him. It was just dino chicken nuggets with mac and cheese. Tommy thanked Puffy internally that he didn't get that big of a portion. He began eating his dino nuggets, making light banter with his partners and Puffy unlike the normal silent glares thrown when Wilbur and Phil actually sit at the table.

"So, have you guys gotten therapy?" Puffy asked, biting on a nugget. Tommy shook his head, not daring to talk with food in his mouth out of slight underlying fear of Puffy. Tubbo on the other hand, who was absolutely ravaging everything on his plate, happily said "Nope!" with basically as much food as he could possibly fit in his mouth. Puffy snickered fondly. "Would you guys maybe want to be my patients? Free of charge though." Tommy glared playfully at her, feigning annoyance. "I don't take pity therapy, Pussitha." He snapped jokingly in a stuck-up voice, all fear momentarily melting away. It quickly came back and Tommy cupped a hand over his mouth anxiously. The table went silent. Just as Tommy was about to apoligize, Puffy burst out into hysteric contagious laughs, making the others laugh with her. Tommy's terror was replaced with attachment as he breathily laughed. After the four calmed down Tommy's quiet shell was replaced with his usual loud and joking demeanor.

After a while, Ranboo nervously coughed. "Um- Mom, do you think maybeeee- Tommy and Tubbo and me could possibly stow away from their parents in the cottage we have and get jobs and do online school and live out best cottagecore lives away from society?-" Ranboo rambled anxiously. Puffy blinked before thinking for a moment. "Only if I give you guys therapy regularly and you guys keep up online school. Now that I know roughly what you've been through I don't want you in danger, especially since you're my duckling's platonic partners. I know if I say no you'll either stay in danger or run off somewhere you could be unsafe, so if I have the ability to protect you I will." Tommy felt a bump in his throat that someone cared for him that much. He pinched his arm to try and keep his tears at bay. Ranboo smiled. "Thank you so much mom." Tommy nodded. Tubbo took a sip of his drink before grabbing the straw out of it and holding it like a microphone. "Philza Minecraft lost his son~ Tommy and his partners on the run-" The shorter harmonized, voice mimicking an auto tune. The four burst out in laughter for almost a full minute from the unexpected joke. Tommy's tears ran down his face as he wheezed and laughed. He loved this family.

—————
That's it busters! Sorry for my shit uploads recently, life is super confusing rn and doing homework and having personal time in between school is hard to juggle- Anyways love u