"Purp, I know you Americans are pretty extreme but I'm not exactly sure this is a great idea." Tommy said, looking at his friend who was holding out a knife towards him.
"Tommy, you jumped out of a third story window at the academy but a fucking knife scares you?" Purple's face held an unamused look
"I actually jumped out of a second story window a month ago."
"That hurts your case even more."
The two stared at each other for a moment, waiting for one of them to bend. It came as no surprise to either of them that Tommy folded first, "Okay...give me the damn knife."
Purpled smirked at his friend as he softly placed the knife in his hand. Tommy could only look at the sharp weapon for a moment. Sure, he was always one for dumb and reckless plans but Purpled had always taken it to levels the blonde could never dream of reaching.
On the boys first mission together, Purpled had decided it would be a really clever idea to jump on The Mercenary, Punz, when he had Tommy pinned.
By some miracle, Purpled had not only saved Tommy's life but was able to place a fairly sized scar on the vampire's arm. It was a strange start to a friendship, and slight rivalry, but it only caused Tommy to trust Purpled's wild ideas more and more. He guesses now shouldn't be much different.
With a quick breath in, Tommy began to place cuts all over his body: legs, arms, even his neck. For another time, the torturous hours of pain endurance training had come in handy.
Once Tommy was done, he noticed that Purpled had also been putting small injuries all over his body. Unlike his friend however, Purpled was grimacing more and seemed to be holding in small tears. He was never good at handling pain and Tommy had to imagine his time with Punz wasn't helping with that.
"Okay..." purpled said letting out a sigh, "let's get out of this place."
By the time the two of them had made it down stairs and were in the view of their sires, blood practically covered their entire body. It slowly trickled down their skin and some droplets hit the floor.
Their sires eyes had darkened upon the sight but there was still that slight look of concern. "Purpled, my little alien," Punz was the first to speak up, "what happened, darling?"
Tommy watched as his friends face forcefully hardened, "we cut ourselves with pure silver daggers and if you guys get any closer or try to stop us from walking out the door then we will stab ourselves."
The certain tone in Purpled's voice made Tommy shudder, he didn't want to stab himself, but he followed the others lead nonetheless.
Puns made no move to grab Purpled and Tommy noticed his sires only did the same, maybe this wasn't a terrible idea after all.
"Now, Tommy and I will be leaving this household. You guys have to give us at least an hour before you can leave and if we realize that you left before the time went up then we will stab ourselves."
"Okay." Tommy was taken aback by the answer. He had expected at least some sort of resistance from the older vampires but they all just sat down on their couch.
"I'm sure you can imagine the consequences won't be pretty thought when we find you." Of course Punz just wasn't done talking yet.
"If. I believe you mean if." Venom dripped from Purpled's voice.
"No starlight;I meant when," Punz only matched the tone, "and I assume you know the consequences won't be pretty once you get home."
"Yeah, yeah I know." For a small moment, Tommy heard the fear in Purpled's voice. It was in that moment that Tommy realized Purpled really didn't have a plan.
Tommy couldn't say he wasn't expecting that but for something as detrimental as escaping their kidnappers? He expected something a bit more thought out.
With a final glance towards their sounders, both boys ran out of the room. For what seemed like the millionth time, Tommy was playing cat and mouse with opponents he stood no chance against.
He could only hope that Purpled had gotten his grades up and would be able to protect them both or at least make a strong enough team if they combined.
The duo on lasted two days.
The first day was only constant running with a surprising lack of being chased. Maybe the vampires couldn't find them? Maybe they gave up? For some reason, those possibilities seemed unlikely to Tommy and they only talked about when they stopped running.
In the endless forest, the two somehow found a small cave entrance covered by moss, vines, and an array of different tree branches. It was a miracle they had saw it.
Once they had squeezed themselves through they couldn't help but gawk at the scenic view in front of them.
A pond was located at the back of the cave and vines hung off the roof and wall, only illuminated by the dim light that came from the entrance and thin cracks.
If Tommy and Purpled weren't terror-struck, they probably would have taken a longer time to talk and look at the view but they had more important things to discuss.
"We need to figure out how we're gonna get food." Tommy mentioned, "They're defiantly looking for us but I think we could set traps far enough away as to not give up our location just in case they stumble upon one."
Tommy went over different things they could do, he didn't notice the sudden paleness in Purpled's face or the small twitches in his fingers. He only noticed his friends sudden anxiety when he heard small sniffles.
The blonde looked over quickly to see tears running down his friends face. What the hell? Purpled practically never cried, no matter how stressful a situation was. Tommy had no clue how to respond to this, he just opted for patting his friends shoulder, "Hey Purp...it's okay buddy, we can just leave tomorrow if you don't like this place."
Purpled looked at Tommy as if he was stupid, "Tommy we don't have any fucking food!" The blonde in question only backed up slightly before responding, "Well yeah but we can just catch some, most living things contain blood and we've literally been trained to survive in the wild."
Tommy watched as Purpled's face was suddenly one of realization, "Oh crap...you don't know do you?" Purpled mumbled through his tears. Tommy could only shake his head in confusion.
"Tommy, we aren't old enough to digest human or animal blood. We have to drink our sire's blood." For a moment, Tommy paused. That couldn't be right, "Wait wait, Techno and Dream literally gave me blood yesterday."
Purpled shook his head, "They gave you their blood Tommy. We still have to nurse off of our sounders." Purpled mumbled mindlessly to himself about fears of starvation and even the disappointment Punz would have him, he would always promptly correct himself afterwards however. To Tommy, it seemed like Purpled was arguing with himself.
What in the actual fuck happened to him?
It gave Tommy a strange feeling to see his normally most put together friend unravel as if he was no more then yarn. He wished that Ranboo or Tubbo were here, both of his friends had always been expeditiously better at comforting others.
"Look Purpled, I know you're scared but all we have to do is get back to the hunter academy and they can help-"
"THE HUNTER ACADEMY WON'T HELP US DUMBASS!" Tommy stepped back again, Purpled had never gotten that mad before.
Purpled hid his face in his hands and tugged his hair as he spoke, "The academy didn't even tell people when we went missing and Eret's there, he'll just alert the others." Tommy's eyes widened; Eret had betrayed the others too? He guesses he shouldn't be surprised, Eret did always make a point to give their group special treatment.
"We can just tell the academy about Eret before he knows we're there! And I'm sure Sam had a logical reason as to why they couldn't make a fuss about our disappearance. They're probably tearing up a forest to find us as we speak!" Tommy was rarely the positive voice in seemingly hopeless situations but something about Purpled's face forced him to try.
"How are they going to feed us? How do we know they won't just kill us?" Purpled was whispering now. Tommy walked over to his friend and grabbed his hand, getting the other to sit down. Eventually Purpled said damning words, "What if they don't find us?"
Tommy was taken aback, "Isn't that what we want?" Purpled shook his head, seemingly conflicted.
"I know this sounds insane but let be real Tommy! None of us have ever had a good or loving home, not even Ranboo, and now we're being given this endless love even if we screw up and get punished. It sounds insane but what if the vampires aren't so bad?" These words sounded foreign to Tommy and the person saying them was practically a stranger.
"This was your idea, Purpled..." Tommy was whispering now too. He really didn't want to think about what would happen if they walked back to the mansion, tails between their legs.
"Yeah- yeah I know. I'm just hungry and the voices are so fucking loud, I want Punz." Tommy could only sigh, he really wishes these vampire words made sense to him. He desperately wished he knew how to help.
Now thinking about it, Tommy leaving the cave while holding the hand of a sobbing Purpled was probably the best decision he could've made.
Purpled had not stopped crying since they had started walking, although the loud sobs turned into mainly silent tears with the occasional sniffle. The walk was going to be long, Tommy had a feeling the other vampires had an idea something like this would happen and just didn't bother chasing them. Dragging back your friend, who's in a constant breakdown, back to his house that is about a day away is a pretty sucky punishment for both parties.
Tommy was almost positive though that his punishments would not just end at that, he could only hope the same couldn't be said for Purpled. Tommy was prepared to take the blame but he didn't know if Purpled would allow that.
The poor teen wasn't doing too hot and if Tommy tried to make up lies then the guilt could possibly eat him alive. Tommy was starting to believe that he was brainwashed. He only felt his theory was being proven when their "parents" showed up.
"You know sunshine," a annoyingly familiar voice said, "You're heading towards the mansion." Tommy and Purpled had been walking for a few hours now but they were no where near back. He was wrong about them not looking.
"Believe me papa, I'm painfully aware." Tommy's tone was one of pure annoyance, something that contrasted the childlike look of his friend.
"Aw, my poor starlight." Purpled quickly looked over to the sound of his sire, he quickly let go of Tommy's hand and tackled the other into a hug.
The vampire shushed his fledgling and stroked his hair as he cut straight line into his own forearm. Tommy cringed slightly at the sight, watching as the blood was brought up to Purpled's mouth. His friend wasted no time latching on and sucking up any blood he could get. The second the arm was taken away, a small whine left Purpled's lips before he practically passed out.
If Tommy wasn't being held so closely to Dream's chest (when did this happen?) he would've ran over to his friend.
But Tommy was not free and neither was Purpled. The only difference? One of them forgot that Stockholm Syndrome was a thing apparently.
As the duo left, Tommy felt Dream lean down to whisper in his ear.
"You realize that you are in so much fucking trouble right?"
Tommy sighed, he knew.