Chapter Text
Tommy sighs, scrubbing his face as he stands behind the counter. It's 2am, and he still has 4 hours left of his shift.
Hannah was kind, let him work only 6 hour shifts at her coffee shop (The Rose's Thorn), while paying him $14.49 per shift. He even got to keep any of the tips he received during his shift. He got the night shift though (12am to 6am) so there wasn't that much human interaction, which meant a very tiny amount of tips.
At the very least though, tired people were easier to swindle.
It's a very slow night. Only 1 customer, and that was at the beginning of his shift. He had managed to be decent enough to earn a 2 dollar tip, which was a score in his books.
Tommy and his roommates had to pay around $700 each month for rent. He earned $14.49 every day, 27 days a month (give or take a few days depending on how long the month was). If you did the math, that's $391.23. His roommates helped pay the other half.
Ranboo was the top intern at the Hero Tower, and he earned $8.49 every day, around 20 days a month. Tubbo did commissions for a coding, tech, and art. Plus he did repairs for rich people who broke their top tech. He had a flat fee of $60 which typically only went higher or lower for very special situations. He usually finished at the very least 4 jobs per month.
Combine all of that, you got $801.03. Take away the $695 for rent, they were left with around $106.03. It seems like a lot, but if you combine food costs with clothes cost and then any extra gadgets they might need, it wasn't that much.
It took them 2 years to finally be able to start saving more heavily for emergencies and shit. They also could now actually get some type of treat for special occasions, like their birthdays or something. They could even eat fast food every once in a while.
It had been a long and painful process, but it was worth it for them to be free.
So, yeah, every tip was worth so much to Tommy.
Tommy decides to pass the time by scrolling through his phone. He looks up when he hears the door open, the normal greeting that he's been taught dying on his tongue when he sees who it is.
There stands Selkie, one of the top 5 supervillains. She's bleeding from her front, hand caked in dry and sticky blood from where it holds a wound of some sort.
Tommy gapes as she stumbles inside the coffee shop, his coffee shop.
"You're a healer right?" She asks weakly, before promptly passing out.
Tommy stiffens, surprised. There are only 2 people who knows he can heal, and those are his roommates, Tubbo and Ranboo. Legally with the government he's an avian, and he had even made sure they didn't know what kind. He had been extra careful.
You see, healers were usually snatched up by the government and then trained for years to be healers for those egotistical heroes. It was also a precaution so villains couldn't be healed. Tommy had been owned by the government for 14 years before he escaped, and he and Tubbo had made sure to wipe clean his old record and make him a new one where he was a measly red winged avian.
He hated her .
Tommy would have pondered it more if it wasn't for the fact that Thunder, Selkie's partner in crime, walked in a few seconds later, radiating worry and panic. He snaps his head to look at Tommy.
Thunder wears 3d glasses which aren't good at hiding his eyes, along with a normal black mask, and a grey sweatshirt. You can tell there is some type of padding/armor under his sweatshirt as well as his jeans, and his hood is up so you can only really see his eyes, no hair, no mouth, no nose, and no ears either. He also wears black platform vans.
"You're the healer, right?" He rushes out, panicked.
Tommy nods, vaulting over the counter and rushing forward. He takes a quick second to close the curtains so no one sees him with 2 top 10 villains, and then kneels down beside Selkie. He gently but quickly moves aside Selkie's hand, assessing the damage.
There's a literal hole in her stomach. It's about the same size as a soda can width wise, and it's about half an inch deep. In normal situations, Selkie would be at a hospital, getting patched up by doctors with degrees and experience. Instead, she's here in front of him, Tommyinnit, a healer who hasn't healed wounds this big in 3 years.
He's fucking terrified, but he shoves it down for later. If he doesn't fix Selkie, Thunder will probably kill him. Might just kill him anyway after healing her.
But Tommyinnit isn't a coward and he isn't a dick despite what many others say. He doesn't let people die, not even villains who the world seems to hate. They might be villains and they might cause chaos, but they are humans, and, well, everyone has their reasons for turning to the dark side. A lot of them are good legitimate ones as well.
Tommy really doesn't really have the right to judge. As long as they aren't hurting people in his presence and then ask to be healed, he's actually pretty chill with villains.
Besides, he knows what it's like to be the odd one out. No one liked him before Ranboo and Tubbo did. He was annoying and childish and delusional. He's not shoving away someone who is on death's door just because they are different.
He takes in a deep breath, closing his eyes as he settles both of his palms over Selkie's wound. He feels as his power hums, and knows his hands have started to glow a faint red color. He hums as he waits, feeling as Selkie's stomach starts stitching itself back together.
Tommy can feel as pressure grows in his head, but he continues. He goes until his head bursts, sharp pounding pain radiating throughout his head. He gasps, backing away and clutching his head. Opening his eyes hurts, the fluorescent lights making it 10x worse.
He looks over at Selkie and is relieved to day he finished before backing away. Now there's just slightly lighter pink tinted skin where the hole was. It's the only proof that Selkie had just been bleeding out on the floor of the coffee shop.
He uses the counter to help him stand and is instantly dizzy. He only manages to stay upright due to the counter. He groans, closing his eyes, and not noticing as Thunder looks over at him.
"Hey, you okay?" He asks. His voice isn't panicked like last time, and he realizes it's a bit like static.
Ah, a voice changer, like every other villain (and vigilante).
Tommy nods. "Yeah… healing really big injuries just takes a lot out of me." He murmurs, trying to get his eyes to focus.
Thunder picks up Selkie, setting her down in one of the booths. Then he walks over to Tommy, and helps him to the same booth, sitting down beside Selkie once he's sure Tommy is okay.
"Thank you, by the way." Thunder says, glancing at Selkie.
Tommy nods, "No problem."
They sit there awkwardly, and Tommy takes a moment to study Selkie.
Her hair is a taffy or ballet slipper shade of pink (similar but not the same to Blade's rose pink hair), and it frams her face well. She wears a black masquerade esc type mask with gold accents and there's a gold n pink crown nestled on her head still. She wears a black crop top/bra thing, and a black skirt with a deep brown long flowy coat (this). There's also a band wrapped around the top of her arm, near her shoulder, which is righr above where her long black lace corset fingerless gloves end.
"Why did you help us?" Thunder asks, breaking the awkward silence.
"Well, for one, I thought you were gonna murder me," He's half joking, letting out a tense chuckle. "And, well, why would I let her die? Do I seem that rude?"
Thunder shakes his head. "No, but we're villains. You could've called the police or a hero. You even shut the curtains so no one would see us. Why?" Thunder's tone is curious, but also a bit forceful.
Tommy shrugs, leaning his head back and shutting his eyes to lighten the pain.
"I couldn't just let her fucking die. You guys might be villains but your human. And well…" he trails off, remembering how panicked and upset Thunder sounded, "you sounded so fucking, I don't know, upset and heartbroken that I couldn't just say no. Bloody hell, I have fucking, uh, whatever it's called, human decency? No one deserves to bleed out in a coffee shop." Tommy shrugs, peaking an eye open to see Thunder's reaction.
Thunder is staring at him curiously, eyes not giving away anything. They sit there in silence for a few moments, before Thunder speaks up again.
"Well, thank you. We owe you one now, and a lot of other people will be happy."
Tommy splutters. "Wha- No! I don't want you to fucking- fucking owe me anything! I was doing what anyone else did if they were a healer and found someone dying!" Tommy exclaims, then winces because of his headache.
Thunder shakes his head. "You don't get it. No one else, healer or not, would've saved Selkie if we showed up in their coffe or on their doorstep. We had to run away from 3 civilians who saw us before they could call the cops. You're a nice person Tommy."
Tommy sits there in disbelief. This villain wss not praising him for being a decent fucking human being, was he?
"Where's your crown?" Tommy blurts out, trying to change the subject.
Thunder chuckles. "I dropped it during the fight. Once second it was on my head, the next second the bloody thing was gone. Blade and Angel are going to murder me."
Tommy chuckles. "That's what you get for getting yourselves into that situation in the first place. Wait, what did happen?"
Tommy can see Thunder's grimace in his eyes.
"We ran into Dream and 404. Bastards. We only escaped cause I gave 404 a virus. They can easily fix it when they get back to their pretentious tower, but it got them off our back. Dream had used his powers to wedge a pipe into Selkie and then back out right beforehand." Thunder explains.
Tommy stares wide eyed at him. "I knew heroes were bitches and egotistical vut aren't they not supposed to kill villains!?" Tommy exclaims, mouth agape.
He had never trusted heroes, not after what happened to him, but this? This was way worse.
Thunder nods. Before he can say anything else though, there's a beep from a watch Tommy never noticed he had. Thunder quickly reads over it, before sighing.
"Mind showing us out back? We need to start heading back." Thunder asks.
Tommy nods dumbly, standing up. Thunder follows suit, picking up Selkie easily. He leads them through the kitchen to the back door which leads into the alley.
"Tommy, you won't tell anyone what happened, right?" Thunder glances at Tommy.
The teen nods. "Not a soul." He promises.
"It was nice meeting you Tommy. Again. thank you for saving Selkie." Thunder waves at Tommy before walking off.
Tommy stands there, brain whirring, and that's when it hits him.
"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!?! What did I just do!?"
-
When Jack gets back to base, Niki is awake but he doesn't set her down until they make it to the couch. He's gentle and then he sits on the floor next to the couch.
"Was that the wrong thing to do?" Jack asks Niki quietly, turning towards her.
She shrugs. "I don't know Jack..."
"He shouldn't get involved with us." Jack says.
"Yeah, I agree."
They both know that's not going to happen, and they both silently apologize to the boy who's life they just messed up.