The title sounds like an Ao3 title ;-;

Tommie hadn't picked up anyone's phone calls or responded to a single text for six hours now, and given she was your average teenager so her phone was basically attached to her, that meant that something was up.  Narwhale was the first to notice.

"Anyone know where Tommie is?" she asked the squad during a round of the friendship-ruining game known as Uno.

"No, but Alister probably knows," Ash responded before dropping a green four card on top of the face-up deck.

Amy, next to make a move, groaned as she began to take cards from the face-down pile, going from two cards left to thirteen in the span of just a few seconds.  As she finally placed down a green seven on the pile, she pointed out, "Alister's working her shift at the coffee shop right now."

"Oh yeah.  I'll try calling Tommie again," Narwhale shrugged, pulling out her phone and opening the contacts app to find Tommie's number.  As soon as she hit the 'call' button, it went straight to voicemail.

"Weird, she normally picks up concerningly fast," Evan commented, scanning his hand of cards before grinning smugly and placing down a plus four for Jax.  Jax instinctively went to pull a very rude hand gesture on him, then remembered Narwhale was there and stopped, instead begrudgingly drawing four cards from the deck.  Upon seeing one of his new cards, he smirked and slammed down another plus four for Ash.

Ash's orange eyes widened slightly, but they rolled their eyes and drew four before placing down yet another plus four.  Amy narrowed her eyes, and Narwhale braced herself for incoming drama.

"That's the fifth plus four this game," Amy announced. "How is that possible?"

Everyone in the Uno game looked at each other warily.  Narwhale retreated to the outside of the warehouse.  The sidewalks were rather empty for a Saturday morning, so it wasn't that bad of a place to try calling Tommie again.  This time, when it went straight to voicemail, Narwhale left a message telling her best friend to call back as soon as possible.

"Waiting for someone?" Narwhale spun around to see a figure much taller than her approaching.  Anyone else probably would've begun freaking out at such an intimidating figure, but Narwhale was used to Stratus's piercing gaze and naturally chilling aura by now.  She simply smiled and responded, "Just needed to get somewhere a little quieter to try calling Tommie."

"A little quieter?" Stratus repeated, raising an eyebrow.  He shrugged, then opened the door to the warehouse.  As soon as he did, the sound of chaos ensuing filled the air.

"DON'T DENY IT, YOU'RE CHEATING!"

"SAYS THE ONE WHO PROBABLY SMUGGLES EXTRA PLUS FOURS INTO THE DECK!"

"WHY ARE THERE FOURTEEN PLUS FOURS IN THE DECK?!"

"F**K YOU!"

Stratus shut the door, stood in silence for a moment, then said, "Yeah, I'm not dealing with this right now" and walked away.  

Narwhale stared after him for a moment before she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket.  She pulled it out and was pleasantly surprised to see Tommie's name displayed on the screen.  She brought her phone to her ear as she accepted the call.

"Hi Narwhale, I'm on my way!" Tommie sounded out of breath, but very excited at the same time. "I'm just turning onto the block now."

Narwhale looked towards the edge of the block and squinted, watching as a blonde-haired figure came into view, a large duffel bag slung over one shoulder.  Tommie saw Narwhale as she got closer and smiled, her icy blue eyes blazing with energy.  She patted her duffel bag, a big grin on her face.

"I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner, I put my phone on silent mode so I could just listen to music and spend the last eight hours working on these," Tommie said, her smile growing even bigger as she spoke.

"What is it?" Narwhale tilted her head.

"You'll see." Tommie winked before throwing open the door to the warehouse.  Cards were scattered across the floor, and all of the former Uno players were doing their own things, the tension so thick it could almost be seen in shades of blood red.  Narwhale liked to think of things in colors.  

"Oh, hi Tommie," Jax said, looking up from where he was petting his beloved service dog, Jackie.

"Hey," Tommie replied. "Is... is everything okay?"

"Yes!  We're great, just had a bit of a civil discourse," Ash answered, glancing up from their laptop.

"I'd hardly call what just happened 'civil' in any manner," Amy interjected. "So, Tommie, where've you been?"

"My room," Tommie shrugged, gently setting her duffel bag on the fold-out table. "Anyways, I wish that everyone was here, but oh well."

"Give me a second." Amy began texting furiously on her phone, then after a minute announced, "Strat'll be here in about five minutes."

"How about Dawn?  Has anyone seen her?" Evan pointed out.

"I'll text Dawn and see if Alister is off her shift by now," Ash said, pulling out their phone. "But Tommie, why haven't you been answering any calls?  I was almost considering heading to the station to see if there was any news on a newly missing blonde teen girl."

"Oh, sorry about that.  I guess I'll keep silent mode off from now on.  I was just so caught up in what I was doing that I didn't want any distractions," Tommie laughed guiltily.

"So what is it that you've been doing?" Jax inquired.

Tommie hesitated, glancing longingly towards her duffel bag before saying, "I've got to wait for everyone else.  It's tempting to tell you, though."

The door slowly opened, and Stratus's gaze warily swept across the room before he sighed and walked in, smacking his head on the doorframe in the process.  Amy snorted.

"Never gets old," she snickered as her best friend approached her.

"So, we should probably do something while we wait," Tommie said.  Her gaze locked on the scattered Uno cards. "Hey, looks like Uno's already out."

"NO!" Evan yelled.

"F**KING TAKE THAT BACK!" Amy shouted.

"No, not again," Jax winced, his chocolate eyes wide with fear as he aggressively ran his fingers through Jackie's fur.

Even Stratus seemed alarmed by Tommie's suggestion.  Tommie, fortunately, seemed to catch on.  Ash stood up from their bean bag chair, holding up their laptop. "I could load up Quiplash or something."

"Alister would be so mad if we played Quiplash without her," Tommie said.  Her expression then shifted to a much more mischievous one. "Count me in."

A while later, everyone was gathered around Ash's laptop, laughing and roasting each other when the door opened again.  First came Dawn, whose ears were swerved forward, trying to understand what was happening at the moment.  Just her presence calmed everyone down quite a bit.  Then Alister entered, her hair tied back in a short, loose ponytail.  She was still wearing her apron, small coffee stains scattered across the fabric.  As soon as she saw everyone gathered around Ash's computer, she tilted her head in confusion.

"Are you... playing Quiplash... without me?" she asked.

"Um..." Ash closed out the tab on their laptop. "...No..."

"Great everyone's here!" Tommie cut in quickly. "Now I can explain why I went missing for eight hours."

"Yeah, please explain why my phone kept going off every few seconds with people asking where you were while I was at work," Alister said. 

"Alright!  So I picked up a new hobby, and as soon as I finished the first one, I was completely hooked.  Yesterday, I went to the store and got enough supplies for me to make everyone one, so I spent the whole morning making them." Tommie then unzipped the bag and handed something to Narwhale.

Narwhale's eyes widened.  Sitting in her hands was a beautifully made flower crown, the faux flowers in beautiful shades of cyan and lavender.  Filling in the cracks were seashells, and all of the leaves were dusted with sand.  Narwhale let out a squeal, looking back at Tommie, who beamed proudly.

"Let's see who's next," Tommie said, carefully removing another flower crown.  The flowers were lilac and violet, and the flower crown's extra decorations were smaller flowers in yellow, white, purple, and black.  Tommie handed this flower crown to Ash, who was shocked to be given such a beautiful thing.

After Ash came a flower crown with various yellow and amber-colored flowers, small black stars decorating the unoccupied areas.  The entire crown had faint gold dustings, and was a clear reference to Hamilton, so it was obviously meant for Evan.  

"Holy s**t," Evan breathed.  He looked down at his Hamilton shirt, then back up at his flower crown. 

The next flower crown had various red flowers and was complete with beautiful, brightly-colored bird feathers that contrasted against the mainly crimson crown.

"I couldn't think of anything dog related, so I decided to go with a bird theme," Tommie shrugged as she handed it to Jax.

"I... thank you," he smiled.

"Alright, be careful with this one, please." Tommie handed the next flower crown to Amy.  Nestled between the vibrant orange and yellow flowers were small plastic spikes, not sharp enough to really hurt but enough to look like they could.

"This is sick!  It's got f**king spikes!" Amy exclaimed.

"I bet we all know who's getting this one," Tommie smirked as she held up a flower crown with rainbow flowers.  Fairy lights were woven between the flowers.

"Oh, looks like that's yours, Strat," Amy said to Stratus, who shot her a glare.  Everyone laughed as Tommie handed the flower crown to Alister.

"Well, it is June," Alister grinned, pulling out her hair tie and letting her fluffy hair fall back into its natural position before putting on the flower crown, which stood out beautifully against her blonde-and-brown strands.

"This one's for Dawn." Tommie gave the she-cat a flower crown with yellow and green flowers.  Filling in the gaps were faux butterflies in shades of cobalt and indigo.

Dawn stared in complete astonishment for a long moment before murmuring, "I've never seen something so beautiful.  Thank you, Tommie."

Tommie fished through the contents of the duffel bag before finally finding what she was looking for among the three remaining flower crowns.

"Last and certainly least, here's yours, Stratus," she said.

Stratus rolled his eyes at her teasing, but was immediately caught off guard by his flower crown.  The flowers were white and light gray, and small sky-blue crystals filled the spaces between them.  While his expression didn't give much away, it wasn't hard to locate the surprise and gratitude in his storm-blue eyes.

"Thanks," he told her after a minute.

"Oh, and here's mine!" Tommie pulled out a rather ordinary cotton-candy pink flower crown, small white flowers decorating the emptier areas.

"Tommie, these are awesome!  Thank you so much!" Narwhale exclaimed.

Tommie's face turned pink as she replied, "No problem, Narwhale."

"Yeah, these are fantastic, just let us know next time before you disappear off the face of the planet for eight hours," Alister laughed. 

"Okay, I'll try to remember next time.  They're just so addicting once you start making them," Tommie giggled. "But I'll make sure to let someone know before I vanish again.  Although... I've still got a ton of extra supplies at home... and my parents don't have flower crowns yet..." She trailed off, and everyone understood what she was thinking about.

"Tommie, you just got here!" Evan pointed out. 

"Yeah, true," she agreed. "I guess I'll stay a little while longer and just pull an all-nighter."

"So," Alister said, "Were you guys actually playing Quiplash without me?"

"Here, I'll fire it up again so you can play too." Ash set their crown gently on their head of dark hair before opening their laptop again. "Oh wait, just remembered.  There's eight spots in the game and nine of us."

"Sounds like there's going to be some chaos," Dawn predicted. "Maybe I'll sit this one out so there's not a fight."

"That reminds me." Stratus stood up, crossed the room, and approached the whiteboard on the wall.  He erased the number one drawn under the words 'DAYS SINCE LAST STUPID FIGHT', uncapped a marker, and replaced it with a zero.

"Alright," he said, "Now we can play Quiplash."

Needless to say, the number zero on the whiteboard somehow became a negative one within the next few minutes.

(2008 words)

A/N: This was... a lot longer than I anticipated.  Well, the first one-shot is now done!  Reminder that requests are still open, so if you have any, please let me know!!

Also, I WILL be drawing everyone's flower crowns at some point, I promise.