Overnight, or Tommy assumed it was night, he and Cleo sat in the small house, around a spare lantern and they talked. Cleo asked him about a lot of stuff, such as how he happened upon those two injured hybrids and his life before that. She had no question that being Grian's nephew -and wasn't that something new? No one knew that Grian had a brother- was anything but an eventful life. Tommy didn't think it was very eventful. He had only recently discovered that he had an uncle, and they didn't pass much time together when he did find out.

The Hybrid Purge took him away. Somewhere. Or maybe they didn't, and Grian had managed to escape. There was no real way for him to know for sure of what had happened to him after the flight incident. And as he recounted the events, it became clearer to him that he had to return to Mumbo. The man must've been worried sick! Tommy couldn't even begin to imagine what the man had thought upon seeing his house broken into and a whole neighbourhood distraught. He had to return.

How could he return, though? His face was everywhere.

"I think you could stay here for a while." Cleo suggested, her voice calmer than Tommy's active mind. The sound brought a sense of calm with it, and he focused back on their conversation. He hadn't even noticed that he'd begun to rant. "From what I understand, you've been on the move for a bit. You were told to stick with Mumbo but that obviously isn't the case anymore. If you return to the surface, things might take an ugly turn, plus, your family must be looking for you as well and constantly moving would make it harder for them to find you."

Tommy raised his head and met the zombie woman's emerald eyes, so lifeless, they looked like forest fog. Lanternlight spilt on her dehydrated, rotting face, making old scars shine, ugly yet intriguing, and the stitches grew bolder with cast shadows. People usually stayed away from Undead hybrids. Tommy was a child, easily amused and easily intrigued by the unnatural. As scary as Cleo's appearance was, he found a strange sort of beauty in it. Besides, Cleo had been nothing short of polite to him; she only protested a little when Tommy proclaimed the only bed within the house as his own.

"But I could find them first!" he tried to argue. Yet, Cleo was wiser than him, and as much as he wanted to be stubborn and not listen, her words stuck.

"They're all hybrids, right?"

Tommy blinked.

"Erm, Only dad and Wilbur. They're both avian but Techno doesn't have any wings."

Her chapped, bloody red lips spread into a dimpled smile. "Perfect!" she cheered with graceful enthusiasm and straightened her back. "Then sooner or later, they'll turn up. This is a hybrid shelter after all, and we have people evacuating hybrid residents throughout the city."

Tommy thought about it. He could stay, not cause any problems for the Sewer Cats and wait for Mumbo, Grian or his whole family to show up in the sewers. It would be nice to stay but could he? Just hours prior, there were hybrid refugees giving him the stink eye. Everyone there was suspicious of him and his intentions, just like Impulse and Bdubs were. The thought definitely didn't make him feel comfortable but even if he wanted to leave, he didn't know the way out. He would have to ask someone, Bdubs probably, to lead him to the surface. But...

There were two boys in the shelter's infarmary that were his responsibility. He had to make sure they were alright before he made any move of his own. He liked that Tubbo kid, he'd like to play with him before he left.

"Do you think dad will be alright?"

Cleo tilted her head at his question. Tommy watched as the staples on her neck glinted and the skin stretched around them. Then she sighed, the smile fell from her lips, and she crossed her weathered arms.

"I'll give you one piece of advice, Tommy." she said with severity. Tommy leaned in, eager to hear what she had to say. "If you don't see a body, then the person is alive. Have you seen your dad's corpse?"

That... that was definitely unexpected. Tommy shook his head. "No! I haven't seen my dad's corpse!" he said absolutely confused and stupefied.

"Then your dad is alive and that is all that matters, alright?"

Tommy blinked twice and leaned back. He felt a weight melt off of his shoulders; he felt lighter upon hearing those words. They were meaningful words too, and Cleo seemed honest, too, whilst she spoke.

"...Alright."

(Tommy did not, in fact, sleep on the only mattress within the small house that night. He was promptly kicked off, pushed off and held away in his three separate attempts to reclaim the bed as his own.

"Nope! Go to your corner, shoo." Cleo told him the third time. Tommy huffed and stole the blanket before padding off to the hastily-put-together pillow nest in the corner. He ignored the woman's uncontrollable chuckles.)

The next day, Tommy spent most of his morning -he guessed it was morning- with Cleo and Bdubs. There wasn't much else he could do around in the shelter and exploring didn't seem like a good idea with so much rust and mould and diseases that were waiting for him around the corner. He was still weirded out that he hadn't caught anything within the one day he was there.

Cleo prompted him to give the public school a try to fill in his day. Seeing as he was going to stay for the unforeseeable future, she suggested that he at least try to find hobbies so as to not get bored "hanging around with the old people", as she put it. So, he did. The 'public school' was held in an old airbus, which had mysteriously been taken from the sky and squeesed into the massive space of the Sewer Cats through... somewhere. Somehow. Tommy's mind couldn't comprehend how the whole thing got in there. Supposedly, the founders of the Sewer Cats had taken it apart and transported every bit and bolt under the cover of night -and they were somehow not caught stealing a massive aircraft from the hangar.

He sat in one of the seats in the back after he introduced himself to the children who were already attending. They were nice and their curious yet doubtful eyes followed him as he walked down the isle. Tommy was as wary and nervous as they were -if not more. So, he sat down and quietly observed Cleo teach a simple science lesson with a piece of white chalk that was frequently tapped on the black surface of the black board.

Thirty minutes in, the lesson was interrupted as someone walked inside. Tommy, who had already lost interest in the lesson and had been mindlessly gazing out of the small, oval window, was the last to notice. The other students were half-out of their seats, attempting to look over the heads of those sat in front of them with little success, when he turned to look. Having no one sitting beside him, Tommy moved to the isle seat and popped his head out from behind the dirty blue canvas of the row. His eyes lit up as he caught sight of brown hair and curled horns with a familiar face. It was Tubbo, accompanied by a man with pointy, fluffy ears and a scraffy beard. A pair of sunglasses was hanging from the neckline of his red shirt.

"Hey, Cleo! Sorry for interrupting but Tubbo here wanted to have a taste of what you're teaching." the man said cheerfully. Tubbo was nervously looking around the airbus but from where he stood and with all the curious heads in the way, Tommy doubted he could see him.

"Oh, really? I'd be happy to have another curious mind in my class-"

So he interrupted Cleo mid-sentence.

"Oi, Tubbo!" Tommy yelled, jumping out of his seat and waving at him. The boy sheepishly smiled and waved back, though it was obvious he would've perfered to curle into a ball to garnering everyone's attention.

"Tommy." Cleo regarded him with a raised eyebrow.

However, she did not have the pleasure of scolding him for yelling in class because Tubbo's company spoke.

"Tommy is here? Awesome! That is two birds with one stone. Scar is looking for him." he said. Tommy deflated into his seat. The lesson would have been much more interesting with Tubbo. And what did Scar want? Maybe he had news on Grian or his family and that was why he wanted to talk?

His body inflated right back, at the same time as Cleo dismissed him from class. Some of the kids booed at him for being in trouble. Tommy was both offended and confused but he had enough reason to not spout every curse his father had unknowingly taught him as he exited the plane.

"So, who are you, bigman?" Tommy asked the man walking beside him. The same man who had accompanied Tubbo to the school had taken the initiative to lead him back to the founders' meeting place. It turned out that the ears atop his head were matched with a fluffy tail. He was some kind of canine hybrid.

"Oh, how could I forget! My name is Ren, I'm one of the founders of the Sewer Cats." Ren said, puffing up his chest with pride.

"You know my uncle then?"

"That I do."

"What does Scar want to talk to me about?"

A fluffy, brown ear twitched. His tail swished to fling away a buzzing fly. Ren hummed and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, he just said to bring you to him if any of us bumped into you."

Tommy crossed his arms. And then he remembered: Tubbo wasn't the only hybrid boy who was with him.

"How is Dream doing?"

"Dream?" Ren parrotted, raising an eyebrow in confusion and intrigue.

"Yeah, Tubbo's brother."

At that, something must have clicked, for the confusion dissipated as fast as it had appeared.

"Oh! I don't know, honestly. I haven't been at the clinic in a bit, though I haven't heard of anyone dying -and trust me, bad news travels fast. You can visit him later if you'd like."

That sounded like a good plan.

Scar was waiting inside the old containers with Impulse and Bdubs, when Ren arrived with Tommy at his side. The three men were bent over a table with a bunch of different papers. One of those papers was a wanted poster, and once Tommy was closer, he recognised his face on it. 'The kid on the news', that's what Dream had called him; it was the only reason he hadn't harmed Mumbo. It was also the only reason he had to hide with Mumbo, and later leave with Dream and Tubbo.

His family was the reason, although he didn't know why they were looking for him. He was human, his family was missing. Well, it didn't matter much, when he was safe under the protection of the Sewer Cats -his blood still boiled with rage at the thought, though.

"Oi! What's up, Big Dubs?"

Bdubs raised his head immediately and his neck almost snapped as he turned his head to face him and Ren. Tommy blinked and cringed as he took in the tired yet alert face that was revealed in the light of a lantern. Dry skin, a tout face, black circles rimming bags under two dimly glowing eyes and a messy cloak of withering leaves and petrified ivy.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Tommy asked reflexively.

Impulse didn't look his best but better than Bdubs by a long shot. His hair was messy, his black and yellow shirt had a hole in it, and when he looked up, Tommy noted that his face looked tired. Tommy couldn't see why. Scar, on the other hand, was as he'd met him: lively, baby-skinned with no eye bags or worry wrinkles on his forehead. Jelly was sitting at the edge of the table like a loaf of bread that couldnt be bothered with the triffles of mortal men.

So, Tommy rephrased his question.

"What the fuck happened to all of you?" he asked with a gaping mouth. "It's only been- what, twelve hours since I last saw you? Why do you look like that?"

That was what snapped everyone out of their stupor.

"Ah, I didn't tell you, did I?" Ren answered with an apologetic smile and gently pushed him towards the table. "Impulse led a small group to the surface during the night to see if he could locate Mumbo."

"Yeah, so I took over his duties in the shelter. I need a long, long soak in the water after this." Bdubs commented.

"What?" Tommy's eyes grew wide, completely ignoring Bdubs' complaint. "Did you find him?"

Impulse shook his head. His voice didn't have that lilt of elation that it had when they were first introduced. "Grian told you to find Mumbo, so I thought that maybe he had told Mumbo of some location or shelter he could've gone to but we returned empty-handed." Then, he looked Tommy in the eyes. His lips formed a line, as if deciding on something.

"You have more to say, spit it out!" the boy urged him with furrowed brows.

Scar breathed a sigh. "This is actually one of the two reasons I wanted to talk to you today. Impulse says they found his house ransacked. Do you know anything about that?"

Under the collective expectant stares he was receiving, Tommy calmed himself.

"Yeah," he said. "The bad guys came and raided the whole neighbourhood. If Dream wasn't looking out the window the whole time, then we'd be dead."

"Dream? I don't understand- was Mumbo not with you?" Scar questioned, looking genuinly confused. Bdubs patted the man on the shoulder and looked wearily at Tommy.

"Stop, Scar. We have to take it from the top if we're going to make sense of everything that's happened."

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Time to get everyone attached to each other muaahhahahahahaI have thought of so much plot guys and I have so many plans for all of these people >:3

I loved characterising Cleo in this, I think I'm improving on describing the undead