They Rely On Hope. What Do I Rely On? - Tommyinnit Adoption AU

Chapter 27

Tommy forced his broken, exhausted, pain filled body to school, holding in the yelps of pain each time his arms brushed to close to his side as he walked. The new cuts covered the insides of his arms, and with every step they brushed against his side ever so slightly and it hurt so fucking bad. Mixed with that was the agonising pain of the bruises, and worse, the agony that Tommy recognised far to well as a broken rib. He knew that the next few weeks would be hell, particularly considering he didn't have access to pain killers.

Tommy did his best to hide the sharp pain that hit him when he breathed too deeply or brushed his arms against his sides. Yeah, this was fucking awful. He wondered how long it would take for him to work up the courage to find a way to contact Puffy. Probably not before this rib healed. He'd have to ask someone for their phone and that usually ended badly. He didn't need more then one broken bone at a time.

Slowly, painfully, he made his way to school and then his class, slumping exhaustedly against the wall to wait, before immediately regretting that as the pain spiked in his rib. He moved slightly to ease it, knowing from experience that the best way to deal with it was to minimise the hurt as best you could and then try to ignore it.

The bell for the start of class rang, and soon Tommy heard Ranboo and Purpled's approaching voices.

"Is he ok?"

"I don't know, he seemed to be doing shit, and Techno let him walk home in the rain for some fucking reason," Ranboo replied, and with a sharp, unintentionally painful, intake of breath, Tommy knew they were talking about him.

"That's weird, why would he do that?"

"I don't know man, Techno didn't even try to argue, he just agreed, it was fucking pouring, I don't know what was going on," Ranboo said and Purpled hummed in reply. Then, the two seemed to quiet, although more as though the conversation had ended then that they had noticed Tommy, considering Ranboo seemed to register Tommy a few seconds after that. He waved, speeding up and was quickly by Tommy's side.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm ok," Tommy replied, hating the added spike of pain speaking caused. Ranboo seemed to take the answer in his stride, although he had a look that entailed he didn't believe Tommy but wasn't going to argue. He let the conversation move to something else, and Tommy faded into the background, not making a sound, just like he's supposed to. Quiet, quiet, Tommy. That was who he needed to be. That was the rules, and even his broken rib agreed.

Eventually Mr. Sapnap arrived, once more complaining about Mr. NotFound's habit to sleep in. As it turned out, the teacher being Mr. Sapnap didn't stop the kids from Tommy's English class, as well as quite a few others who were clearly in on the joke, from yelling language when he swore.

The class was tedious, and Tommy's arms screamed in pain when he leaned them on the table to write, causing him to hiss quietly and lift them up again. Ranboo gave him an odd look and Tommy just shrugged, slowly lowering his arms to let them hover just slightly above the table. This of course ended up making his rib hurt more and it all just hurt and Tommy wanted to cry, but knew he couldn't.

To say he was relieved when class ended was almost true. He was relieved until he realised he had to move, then he fucking hurt. The stupid agony of each movement was driving him insane, however used to it he was. The cuts on his arms he had never had to deal with before and he didn't know how to make them stop hurting so fucking much.

Ranboo clearly noticed Tommy's sharp intake of breath as he stood up, and immediate regretful hiss at the pain from his ribs, because he once again asked if he was ok, and Tommy simply nodded, not trusting his voice, nor liking the idea of speaking at all. Ranboo looked like he wanted to argue or push it, but he didn't, simply nodding back at Tommy and walking with him most the way to his class. He left to walk to his class, and Tommy was once again alone to suffer in silence. At least it was easier, safer, when he was alone. It meant he didn't have to stress about Ranboo talking to Purpled about him, and he didn't have to wonder what Ranboo was thinking or how likely he was to hurt Tommy even more.

At this point Tommy wanted to say he couldn't possibly be hurt worse, but that would be a lie and he knew it. Knew it from fucking experience to. He hated this. Hated this hell. He was ready to go home and cry but he didn't have a fucking home. He didn't know where he wanted to be, just that he wanted to be done with this hellish cycle of houses and pain. He wished Puffy could've said yes when Tommy had worked up the courage to ask her to foster him. He had still been hopeful back then. That wasn't what lost him his hope, but it still reminded him that the only adult who ever cared for him wouldn't be more then a passing grace between houses of hate.

Tommy's... everything hurt. His rib hurt, his arms hurt, his face hurt, his legs hurt, his torso hurt, it all fucking hurt and he had to act like he was fine as he walked into chemistry and found his spot next to Conner, who instantly started talking ecstatically to him. Tommy held in the groan at the energy Conner seemed to have far too much of. He wished the boy could share some of that.

Words: 1000

A/N: as someone with chronic fatigue, those last 2 sentences r exceedingly relatable-

Anyways, an update: I have discovered that bribery and random both work as effective techniques to get my sister to do something, here's an example:
Me: "could you make me a hot chocolate? If you do I'll write a chapter"
My sister: "no you won't, ur lying again"
Me: "if you don't I'm not writing a chapter for a few more days I'll write it but not publish it"
My sister: "fine"
And that ladies and gentlemen and everything in between and beyond, is called pure skills.