Monachopsis

Chapter 18

CW: fight scenes, nightmares, guilt, and sadness :(

'Ok...half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon...half a teaspoon of salt." Tommy whispered to himself as he grabbed the ingredients from a shelf in the cupboard. The people Ranboo selected to live in the walls have been living in their new apartments for 2 weeks now, making it January 13th. Turns out, all of these kids have separation anxiety, so Shroud has been sleeping in Tommy's bed the whole time. Tommy acts like it inconveniences him, but he's secretly perturbed to sleep without the company. He felt a tug on his shirt.

"What are you making?" The boy signed.

"Well, I'm making cola cake. Tubbo gave me his recipe."

"You're gonna mess it up."

Tommy gasped dramatically. "What?! No I won't bi-" he stopped. "You jerk." He concluded. Shroud laughed silently. "Go sit on the couch, kid." Still smiling, they walked to the couch and grabbed the remote.

Just as Tommy slid the cake into the oven, knocks hit the door. "Come in." He closed the oven door as the front door opened.

"Shro! Shro!" Micheal shouted, running to Shroud and launching into a hug. Benson, Micheal's chicken this Aimsey gave him, and Ranboo stood behind him.

"Hey Toms."

"Hey Ran." Tommy started to put the ingredients away. Ranboo walked over to help.

"I'm making an announcement at dinner, so you need to show up. All the kids are gonna chill in the playroom." Ranboo patted Tommy's shoulder before stopping in the doorway. "Oh, by the way; Wilbur needs you in the medical wing." They smiled. "Come on you two rascals." Micheal giggled as they dragged Shroud behind them. "Hey hey hey, he's not a rag doll-" Ranboo shut the door.

Tommy smiled as he texted Techno a picture of the cake timer with a message: "take this out for me? thx." Then he walked out of his front door to the hidden door and into his bathroom.

— — —

Schlatt sipped his mug of tea as Lani hummed, filling out some paper work. "What are you doing?" He tilted his head slightly.

"Homework. Working toward a doctorate, you know?" She smiled.

"A doctorate? Wow. I'm...I'm proud of you Skyline."

Her face flushed due to hearing such an old nickname, a distant memory, so abruptly. "Oh, um, thanks dad." She laughed nervously. Wilbur opened the door suddenly, Tommy at his side, completely ignoring her red face.

"So Jon," he paused, "wait, do you prefer your last name?"

"Eh, most people call me Schlatt, so I guess it's more comfortable. Jon or Jonathan's ok though."

"Gotcha." Wilbur nodded. "Anyways, I need you to answer some questions if you want assistance in your recovery. Is that ok?"

"Why are you the person doing this?" He spoke bluntly, but after a side look from Lani, added a 'no offense' at the end.

"Well, for one? I'm one of the few here in the psychology field, and I'm one of Niki's best friends. Wether she acts interested in your recovery or not, she cares. So I care. Tom's role here is pretty similar. He's been Tubbo's bestie since...you two were 11?" Tommy nodded. "So." Wilbur shrugged, grabbing a pen offered by Tommy.

"So, here we go. What drugs do you do/have you done?"

"Well-"

— — —

Tubbo took his seat next to Ranboo and smiled. "What're you smiling about?"

"You'll see." Ranboo looked at his friend curiously, with a furrow of his brow. Ranboo was sitting at the end of the giant dining table, sharing the middle of this end with Tubbo. Papa J sat next to Tubbo with his partner's seat empty. Next to Ranboo sat Eret's empty chair, which was gone. Next to the empty space sat Aimsey. The others filled out the other chairs, but no one sat at the opposing far end.