Inception {Dreamnotfound}

38 | Epilogue | 38

Instead, his eyes linger on his wrist, glued to the exact spot where he used to wear Tommy's band. At first I think it's just fondness of a memory, of the fact Tommy is here and the stinging band isn't. But when I look down, follow his gaze to the pale mark on his wrist, I quickly realise I'm wrong.

There is a band there.

"Can't be an 'actual' one," Karl cuts in suddenly, at the look on the teen's faces, rolling up his left sleeve before doing the same with Sapnap's. He grabs Sapnap's hand, extends it and his out so they're both visible to everyone watching. I realise then that I wasn't wrong earlier, that there are indeed two matching russet soulmate bands on their left wrists, just like they were before.

"I've seen Skeppy and Bad since too, they've both got purple ones again," Karl explains, and Sapnap nods. "We all lost our bands in the system reverse, but when we touched our soulmates again, they returned, just as they were before." He turns to Tommy and Tubbo, who look far less concerned than before.

"Your favourite colours aren't white, so those can't be normal soulmate bands. I think the system must've glitched when it was reversed, and accidentally counted the Lost Souls' bands as actual platonic soulmate bands because they look similar to the way the Devotions work."

[A/N: All the 'theoretical' stuff Karl has listed above is true. The system reverse has enabled platonic soulmates to exist, in return for removing the Lost Souls, which it thinks were causing the problem. Just to clarify: Tommy and Tubbo AREN'T romantic soulmates but instead platonic ones, like Bad suggested before!]

Tommy's eyes light up suddenly, looking now at the band on his wrist more with admiration. Tubbo tries to do the same, but he doesn't get long before Tommy pulls him back into a hug. "I still can't believe I'm even alive..." Tommy breathes quietly, his voice hitching near the end.

Tubbo giggles in response, his voice in a near similar state. "You sound like you're about to cry, big man," Tommy teases, and the nickname is enough to cause Tubbo to do as much. The taller tugs him a little closer, cringing at the damp patch forming in the remaining scraps of his shirt.

"I can't believe you still remember how to talk," Tubbo mutters, and the way Tommy's eyes begin to glisten at the comment make me think he won't be able to for much longer. "For fuck's sake I didn't want to cry..." Tommy sighs, shaking his head furiously as if it'll make the steady flow of tears disappear. "Again," Wilbur adds snidely, and Phil mutters a "you were crying too, Wilbur," under his breath, earning a glare from Wilbur.

"So, how are we alive?" I ask, half out of curiosity and half to distract everyone else so that Tommy and Tubbo can have a moment to themselves. "And where is Clay? I thought he was here with you-"

"You mean the tall blonde guy?"

"People who hadn't officially 'died' by the system logic-" Techno interrupts, shooting Wilbur an unimpressed glare. "-And by that I mean twice, generally, seem to have been revived. So both Devotions and people who weren't, but could be revived, have appeared in the last place they were."

"These two sporadically appeared in my office."

Techno elbows Wilbur in the ribs absentmindedly, earning a string of curses he only smirks at as they're yelled at him. Phil is still smiling fondly at the two teens, offering Tubbo a friendly wave before getting Wilbur to do the same.

"Also, 'the tall blonde guy'-" Techno puts dramatic quote marks around the nickname, trying to justify that as his pause instead of the noticeable sniffling he cuts himself off with, "-as you referred to him Wilbur, isn't here currently. He went to that weird old shack again."