Hello, Dragon again! See, i told you there'd be fluff!
So I had this idea for a little while and I hope y'all like it. I like this one better than the last one because I feel the last one was extremely rushed. But I still had fun writing it.

Again, characters belong to Thomas, but the idea is purely mine so yay??

Also, for this story I refer to Tylan and Joan as He and Her, as they probably didn't know at this age they would grow out of these pronouns in the future. I am aware that both go by 'they/them'. If this bothers you, you don't have to read the story!

~•~

Two kids sat off to the side. The two little kids were giggling with each other. One was male, the other female. They were close friends, and were on the same class. The girl's name was Talyn, and the boy's name was Joan.

Talyn glanced away from Joan for a few seconds, her eyes landing on a kid sitting of to the side by himself. The kid had light colored hair and brown eyes. He currently sat 'crisscross applesauce' as the teachers called it, and his back was relatively straight, leaning against the trunk of a tree. Even from the distance, Talyn could see his jaw moving.

"Hey, is that the Thomas kid?" She asked her friend, turning back to Joan, but pointing to who she presumed was Thomas.

Joan swiveled his head to look in the direction that Talyn was pointing.
"Oh, yeah that's him. The kid that talks to himself." Joan shuddered.
"He's a bit creepy if you ask me. You know the rumors you hear about him? Like, I actually have heard he's ran out of a class before and was found talking, even yelling to himself in the bathrooms."

Talyn frowned.
"He doesn't look creepy though. Maybe he's just lonely."

"If he's lonely he should just make some friends. It's not that hard-"

"Joan! You know how you were before we were friends!" Talyn scolded.

Jain sighed.
"Alright fine. I take that back."

Talyn grinned.
"Wonderful. Now I'm going to go say hi. You coming or not?"

"But Tal~!" Joan groaned.

"No buts!"

There was a momentary silence before they both burst out laughing.

"Haha, you said 'butts'" Joan laughed.

"Shut up!" Talyn giggled.

"Alright fine. Let's go say hello." Joan finally caved.

"Now that's the lovable and friendly Joan we know!"

—~~—

Thomas sat underneath a tree, his head back as he looked up. Anxiety, Anx as Thomas and the others nicknamed him, sat on one of the lower branches of the tree. He had climbed up there when Creativity, Prince or Princy as he was referred to, had tried to take his hoodie from him when Logan had mentioned how wearing a hoodie in the warm weather may not be healthy. Prince, wanting nothing more than to protect his friend, had attempted to take the jacket away.

Thomas giggled as Anxiety hissed at the young royal who had still not given up on trying to talk the younger male down from the tree.

"Come on Anx, don't you think your overreacting?" Morality questioned.

"But Mo, he tried to take my hoodie!"

"It's just a jacket. How is it possibly that big of a deal?" Logic asked, arms crossed over his chest, though his brow was raised in amusement.

"I-I really like my jacket okay! It makes me feel safe..." Anxiety trailed off.

Prince sighed.
"I'm sorry Anx. Just come down so that we c-"

"Gah!" Anxiety lost his balance and toppled. He tried to grab for the brach, but he only ended up scratching his hands. He screamed as he fell, both in pain and in fear.

Patton and Thomas screamed as well, Patton closing his eyes and turing away. Logan uncrossed his arms and took a half step forward before a flash of white dashed in front of him and Thomas.

"Off" Prince groaned as Anx fell on top of him. Had misjudged the landing as well as his strength by some amount, he ended up with Anxiety landing on him and knocking him onto his back rather than having the younger land in his arms as he had planned.

"Oh my goodness, are you two okay!?" Morality exclaimed as he ran over.

Anx rolled off of Prince, who sighed at his ruined outfit, but nodded after quickly dusting off his clothes. They both turned to Anx.

Anx had his legs bent nearly to his chest, his hands facing palms up on his knees. His brown eyes were wide.

"Anx? Anx?! Anxiety?!"

At his full name, Anxiety snapped out of his trance. His eyes scanned over the others who all had worry etched in their features.
"Are you alright?" Thomas asked.

Anx opened his mouth to answer when his eyes suddenly flickered over to by Logic. He yelled before darting to Prince.

"Huh what is i- oh."
Logic looked behind him to see two kids almost right behind him.
Morality and Prince stood up. Anx held on tightly to Prince's shoulders, his nails digging in.

"Oww. Hey Anx, that hurts, can you stop?"
Prince asked.

"Sorry, Sorry. I just really don't like knew people. I saw them heading over here and I lost balance and fell I-"

"Your Thomas, right?"
The girl asked.

"Eep!" Anx yelped again, feeing instantly the social pressure put on Thomas with meeting new people. Thomas looked to his 'friends' for assistance. Anx was terrified, but the rest shrugged.

"Go for it." Mo encouraged.

Anx immediately felt more restless.
"Hey, calm down. It's simply some harmless interaction. Nothing bad will happen."
Logic tried.

"Yeah. I bet they're really nice!" Morality reassured him, grabbing his hand.

"Yeah, that's me." Thomas answered with a gentle smile.

"Ouch!" Anx yelled, wrenching his hand away.

The sudden outburst caused Thomas to look over.
"Hey, you alright there Anx?"

Anx nodded vigorously.
"Thomas, pretend like we're not here! They can't see us remember! They probably think you're crazy!"
Anx ranted.

Thomas turned back to the other two to find them both confused.
"Oh umm. Sorry about that." Thomas laughed nervously.
"Sit down!" He offered.
Both the boy and the girl sat, the boy more hesitant.

Mo reaches for Anx's hands. Anxiety flinched.
"Hey, I'm not going to hurt you, okay?"
Anx hesitantly nodded. When Morality lifted Anx's hands, all three of the others gasped.

Thomas couldn't help but look over. He was worried, but he couldn't decided wether to go check or stay with the new kids. What if they wanted to be friends!? His first friends that could be seen by everyone else. Maybe he wouldn't feel so alone then!

"So, I'm Thomas. What are your names?"
He asked.

"Anx, we need to get that cleaned and healing."
Logic said, eyes stuck on Anx's hands.
When Anxiety had fallen, he had grabbed for a branch. He had scraped his hands on the bark, which caused the skin on his palms to split, leaving several scratches.
Anx drew his hands back to his sides and nodded.

"I'm Talyn, and this is my friend Joan."

"Mhmm." Thomas hummed as he looked back over the his friends. He saw Anx and Logic fade away. He remembered the first time he saw them do that. He thought they had disappeared or died. But he learned later that they were just entering the mindscape. He didn't know where the 'mindscape' was, though he at least know a few things. He knew they were someone where he couldn't see them, he couldn't go to, but were safe. And of course, that they could easily access the place from anywhere. Thomas compared it to teleporting.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Joan asked out of curiosity, staring right where Thomas was.

Thomas met eyes with Morality and Prince quickly before shaking his head and looking back over to Joan.
"No, it's nothing. I just, saw a bird!" He said, saying the first thing that came to mind.

The three kids talked for a while. Prince and Mo sat on either side of Thomas. The other two kids couldn't see them, but they wanted to be there to support their host, though they refrained to being quiet.

The conversations that Thomas, Tylan and Joan ranged widely, all three being rather large scatterbrains. Somehow the topic had shifted from birds to favorite games to play.

A whistle was blown, a signal to the kids to line up in their class lines to go back to class. Thomas frowned, now wanting leave his new acquaintances.

"Time to go, I guess." Joan said quietly.

"Aww, I was having fun!" Talyn pouted.

Joan giggled and patted her hair. In reaction, Talyn swatted at his hands, hissing as she stepped back.

"Aww. That's adorable." Thomas cooed.

"I know right? She's like a little kitten." Joan laughed.
"She so small."

"Hey! I may be small, but I'm intimidating!"
Talyn yelled back at the boys as they started to walk to head back to their classes.

Thomas looked over at Joan. They both burst out laughing before catching up to Tylan, who was ahead of them.

"So. Talk tomorrow?" Thomas asked hopefully.

"I'd love too! Today was so fun!" Talyn exclaimed. She and Thomas turned to face Joan.

"I don't see why not." Joan shrugged.

Morality squealed, causing Thomas to jump. He had forgotten Morality and Creativity we're still there. Thomas smiled a bit at his two friends. Talyn and Joan looked at each other, questioning Thomas's strange behavior. They eventually both shrugged and said goodbye to Thomas before walking to their class's line.

Thomas spent most of the afternoon class spacing out, thinking about anything and everything. Thomas had a few conversation with the others. Logic insisted that he pay attention, while Prince told him that it was good for him to imagine, saying that all the things he was being taught wouldn't matter in the future anyways. Anx now had white bandages around his hands. Maybe it was overdoing it for small scratches, but Logan wasn't taking chances, insisting Anx leave the bandages on for at least a day.
Anxiety was a little on edge, worried about being called upon or missing something truely important.

"Hey guys, calm down." Morality said from his seat to Thomas's right. Of course, none of the student nor teachers could see hims, but Thomas had the back table to himself after classmates would complain that he talks to himself, talks to them too much or won't sit still.

Thomas didn't mind it though. He still had his friends! Even if others couldn't see them.
After the dismissal bell rang, the students stacked the chair and those who rode busses, followed their teacher to the busses. As the student got on, the teacher would check them off the list.

Thomas walked only a little behind his teacher. He never spoke to the other kids in his class anyways. Logic, Anx, Mo and Prince had already headed headed back to the mindscape and said they would meet Thomas later when he was back home safely.

Thomas got on the bus, waving and saying goodbye to his teacher as he got on the bus. He said afternoon to the bus driver he smiled at him gently as he got on. Thomas proceeded to head further on the bus to about seat 6 or 7.

The back of the bus often had the older kids, 4th and 5th graders. They were often more rowdy and that worried Thomas. One time he sat back there and had accidentally summoned Anx, who then proceeded to have a panic attack which led to....well let's just say Thomas had his reasons for not wanting to sit in the back.

So most of the time he sat in the middle of the bus so he wasn't with the rowdy older kids but wasn't with the younger kids like pre-k or kindergarten. Thomas was suddenly pulled out his thoughts by a wight in the seat next to him.

He turned, and was surprised to see Joan.
"I-it was T-Thomas, right?" Joan asked, choking out the first bit.

"Yeah. And your Joan, if I remember correctly."

"Yup." Joan nodded, popping the p.

"Sooo. I've never seen you on the bus before." Thomas said plainly, genuinely curious.

Joan laughed awkwardly and a hand moved to the back of his neck.
"Y-yeah. I normally sit in the back, actually. But someone was sitting in the seat I normally sit in today and I wasn't going to fight them over it."

"Oh, cool."

A stiff silence settled. Thomas searched for something to say.

"So, does Talyn ride the bus?"

"Hmm? Oh no, she walks home actually. She lives in a nearby neighborhood."
Joan answered.

"Oh really? Which one."

Joan fiddled with his hands.
"Uhhh. I don't know which one it is. Sorry, heh."

"Hey, it's not a big deal, okay?" Thomas said as the bus doors finally closed and the bus started to pull away from the school. The two made some small talk for a while till Joan asked a question.

"Hey, Thomas, question for you."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"When Talyn And I found you you were... talking to yourself? Why is that?"

Thomas had been asked this question before. He quickly thought of how to arrange his words, but before he could say anything, the bus pulled to a stop.

"Oh, this is where I get off. I'll see you tomorrow, 'kay?"

Thomas didn't wait for an response before getting off the bus, saying 'have a good evening' to the driver. As Thomas got off, he spotted his mother's car. Thomas skipped over and opened the door, threw his backpack in, then sat down and closed the door behind him.

"Get your seatbelt on." His Mom instructed.
Thomas nodded and buckled his seatbelt as his mom started driving the short distance to home.

"How was school honey?" His mom asked, glancing in the mirror at him.

"It was great!" Thomas chirped. "We learned about bird types in science. Math was hard though. I just don't understand multiplying decimals! Oh- and I met these two kids today. Talyn and Joan, I think that's their names. They're really nice. I hope we can be friends!"

His mom chuckled.
"I'm sure you will be great friends, honey"
She reassured him, grinning at her son.