Finding Freedom

Vespa: pt 2

TW Death, animal cruelty, violence, blood. Mentioned shooting, swearing,
Please let me know if I missed any

It was all over the news. Astin had escaped, and a new vigilante was at the scene, or rather, a very old one.

According to Tommy, the heros did some digging, and found a tucked away file detailing the three of them, and his name, Vespa.

Tubbo didn't have time to care about that though. He was busy every moment of his life. Working, worrying, keeping peace between people, keeping his brothers alive.

Even the little moments of silence he had, when the world stopped turning for a minute, that worry was at the bottom of a long list. Things that seeped into him where there were cracks in the walls and chinks in his armor.

A sea of black, seeping through his skin little by little. He had much bigger things to worry over. Like Death.

Tubbo shivered, how many times has he almost lost them? How many more before it was over, before they were free, or they were dead?

Icy arms snaked around Tubbo, and Ranboo muttered something into his hair.

"You okay?" Ranboo asked, his eyes glowing inquisitively.

"Yep, no worse than usual." Tubbo said cheerily.

Ranboo tilted his head, "Mhm, you definitely are shuttering from how cold I am, nothing else."

"Yep, you're just cold today." Tubbo said nonchalantly.

"Mhm" Ranboo retracted his arms and stood up. "Well, since I'm too cold, I'll sit on the couch until Tommy gets home."

He walked out of the room, his tail swishing lazily as he went. Tubbo lied on his back, and stared at the ceiling.

Tubbo sighed and sat up, "It's just, how long can we do this?" And within that question several others were laced. How long can we keep secrets? How can we break the truth to him? How will I keep us all together?

"I don't know." And it seemed to answer all of them.

"We don't know anything anymore, do we?" Tubbo laughs, but it's strangled and bitter.

"We know how to protect ourselves, how to stay alive." Ranboo said softly.

"What do we do? We kill people Ranboo! Our way of protecting ourselves is to kill others. That's no way to live, what would Tommy think when we finally break it to him, what we were, what we still are? We're not in the arena anymore!"

The taller looked taken aback for a moment, almost hurt. But his eyes narrowed, and he snapped his tail like a whip.

Here they were again, standing on the edge, just a breath away from falling, and Tubbo faltered. Ranboo's eyes burned with rage, and pent up fury. But he stood there, like a snake coiled and ready to spring.

But then the door clicked open, and Tommy stepped into the apartment. Ranboo flicked his tail and walked into the bedroom. A silent way to shelf this for later.

Tubbo turned to Tommy, who stood wide eyed in the doorway.

"Are you going to tell me what that was about?"

"It's nothing, nothing important anyway."

Tommy raised an eyebrow. "Sure, it's definitely not important to tell me any of this nothing that is clogging up the apartment like smoke."

"Just, don't worry about it. It's fine."

Tommy looked like he wanted to protest, but then Ranboo walked out of the room, and took out a cereal box. "By the way, we have to get to District 11 by sundown, so I'd suggest you either sleep, or get ready, or both."