Infected

37 - The Price to Pay

Tommy walked out of the pavilion with Karl and Quackity, they had finished for the day by then and were talking about what they had been up to.

"Did you hear that Sapnap forfeit the final match," Quackity asked.

"You're kidding me," Tommy said, "They haven't lost the probending tournament in years. Who got the pot?"

"The Fire Nation Dragons," Karl rubbed his temple, trying to remember who was on the team. "Aimsey, Freddy, and Bilzo, I think."

"And to think the announcer himself nearly didn't remember," Quackity elbowed him.

"Hey," Karl protested, "It's only a part-time gig."

Tommy put a hand up to block out the sun as he saw two people coming towards them, "Holy Ravaa is that who I think it is?" He laughed as Ranboo and Tubbo came closer. "Ha! Does this mean I win?"

Ranboo sighed, "Yes."

"Win, win what," Tubbo asked.

"I won a bet with Ranboo, so now he owes me the story of how you two met," Tommy grinned, pumping his fists in the air.

"All you had to do was ask," Tubbo laughed, "I would have told you."

"Yeah but that wasn't any fun," Tommy said. "Thank you again for today."

"Of course, see you tomorrow," Karl said, walking off with Quackity.

"Well since you're free, Tubbo and I were going to go for a walk around the city, you want to join," Ranboo offered.

Tommy glanced at Tubbo to see his reaction to the offer, the airbender gave a smile and slightly shook his head. "I'm good, we've been hanging out all morning, you two have fun. Besides, Jack asked if he could talk to me about something when I was free. The three of us should hang out later, feel free to stop by the apartment."

"Okay, see you later," Ranboo chuckled, "Again."

"I'll help make good on your bet with Ranboo tomorrow," Tubbo promised, adding a mouthed thank you to Tommy. Watching the two wander off into the city Tommy then took an air glider and made his way over Republic City and back home. He saw people wave to him as he landed on the balcony to Jack's apartment. Tommy went inside to find Jack sorting through more boxes that were once in the room that was now Tommy's.

"Need any help," Tommy said.

"No, I think I'll go through this myself," Jack said sarcastically, then laughed, "Yes, get over here."

"What's in this one," Tommy sat down on the couch next to him.

"A bunch of junk I kept from my childhood," He said, pulling out a plastic trophy.

"It doesn't look like junk," Tommy said, he started looking through the pile Jack had set aside. "Are you getting rid of all of this?"

"Probably, it's just taking up space," Jack said, setting aside a small plastic box with something in it.

"You have one too," Tommy exclaimed as he opened the box to find a CD inside.

"Yeah, everyone does," Jack said, "We can play it. The CD player is just over there." Tommy rushed over and pressed play on the device, grinning as music started playing. That's right, he still needed to get his disc back from Asami.

They continued looking through the boxes, Tommy insisting on keeping more than half of it all. Jack agreed when the teen offered to display some of it in his room. It did surprise Tommy how willing Jack was to throw away a ton of it. He carried a box back to what was slowly forming into his room. It was a small room not meant to be a bedroom so it didn't have a closet, but it still was bigger than the tiny space Tommy was forced to call his room a mere month ago.