The next day at work was tense. Tommy actually felt uncomfortable hiding his wings for so long, but he worked with who he had to. It was just as weird helping NotFound with his own case as he expected it would be. Tommy didn't see Wilbur at all, not even in his office. He saw The Angel a lot, which kept making him excited for his shift to end. He also kept seeing Themis, who didn't talk to him but seemed to be watching him. It made Tommy nervous.

At the end of his shift, Tommy decided to give Themis his completed assignment sheet instead of Wilbur, since Tommy couldn't find the bloke anywhere. Tommy noticed Themis watching him from the kitchen and went up to him, holding out the assignment sheet.

"I can't find Wilbur so, give this to him, will ya?" Themis stared at Tommy for a second before slowly reaching out to take the paper. Tommy watched him act very suspiciously in confusion and panic. Themis looked at the paper, no, stared at the paper for a solid minute. "Are you alright? You're acting very weird and I don't appreciate it." Themis huffed acknowledgement and walked away from Tommy, leaving him very confused.

Tommy rushed into his apartment and ran over to the couch Ranboo and Tubbo were taking up talking about whatever. Tommy jumped and laid across Ranboo and Tubbo's laps, surprising them both.

"Hello my favorite people in the world! You will never guess what's up with me tonight." Ranboo smiled and ran his fingers through Tommy's hair and Tubbo hummed.

"Does it have anything to do with your training you told us about last night?" Tommy grinned widely and nodded. Tubbo smiled slightly and looked at the ceiling. He was happy for his roommate and best friend, though he wished Tommy would be less close to SBI. Insanity was known to hate vigilantes, if he found out about Tommy- Tubbo didn't want to think about what would happen to him.

"Yes. It. Does. I'm so excited Tubs, you have no idea. In fact, I've never been more excited about anything else." Ranboo started absentmindedly braiding Tommy's hair, nodding along as Tommy rambled about how excited he was.

"Why does he want to train you? Back at the theater he seemed angry about your existence." Tommy looked up at Ranboo and flicked Ranboo's nose.

"Because he caught me with my wings out and he's a protective bird bitch. Plus Themis told him about me, I guess. Themis was acting so weird today, y'know? He's not normally so much of a bitch but he seemed really out of it today." Tubbo hummed and closed his eyes.

"Maybe he's on drugs." Tommy laughed loudly at Tubbo's assumption and Ranboo smiled at the two.

"Oh shit I should clean my wings. I must impress The Angel with my natural beauty." Tommy rolled off of their laps and sat up on the floor. He looked over at the two to see them staring at him grinning widely.

"Oh shut up. Come on, I've got three hours to get ready." Tommy stood up and went into the bedroom, getting into the swim version of his suit. Black swim trunks, red sleeved shirt with two slits in the back, and a waterproof mask. They all got dressed one at a time and left the house with two hours and a half to spare. They all wore the same outfit for swimming, except in their respective colors. They were really into tripleting when they were younger. The trio went to a pond that connected West and North, which was the closest pond to them. It'd been a while since Tommy last washed his wings, it was pretty nerve wracking. He was excited though, and nauseous. Tommy felt like throwing up and screaming at the same time. He did neither thankfully, but he felt like doing both.

Tubbo ran into the pond first, after giving Ranboo his full body water proof enhancement. It was something he made immediately after managing the waterproof suit, but hadn't been used since Tommy's last bath. Ranboo was very thorough with the weather reports and Tubbo's wrist hurt before a storm so they always knew when to keep Ranboo inside.

"Your turn!" Tubbo splashed water at Tommy, who unhid his wings and followed Tubbo into the water. Ranboo followed behind him, helping lead Tommy's wings into the water while they naturally protested. Tubbo was distracting Tommy by pushing the water up with his hands underwater and trying to convince Tommy he had mermaid powers. Tommy didn't buy it at all, but he and Tubbo were equally stubborn, so the distraction worked anyways since they were fighting over it. Ranboo was working on actually cleaning Tommy's wings, actually finding a bit of moss buried in his feathers. How the two missed it the first time was far beyond Ranboo.

"I don't care who you think you are, you do not have merrmayed powers." Tubbo cackled and splashed a bit of water at Tommy. Tommy splashed water back.

"You say mermaid so weird." Tommy looked at Tubbo in offense and Tubbo grinned.

"No I do not." Tommy shook his head as he spoke and Tubbo crossed his arms.

"Say it again." How was Tubbo still crossing his arms they couldn't touch the bottom from there?

"Merrmayed."

"Merrrmayyed."

"SHUT UP YOU ANNOYING-" "Is something wrong here?" All three heads shot up to see The Angel hovering above them watching them fondly. Ranboo was glad he had Tommy's wings submerged in now foggy water.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Ranboo reached his foot out enough to kick Tommy in the leg. It did no damage but hopefully got the point across.

"I was just going to come here to touch up my wings before our training. Preening normally does the trick but Themis said there was some dirt he couldn't reach." The Angel flew in front of them, a bit closer to shore than they were, and began cleaning his wings. The three watched him rest his wings on top of the water, occasionally fluttering them to wiggle the dirt out.

"That's what we're doing. Except mine are a lot worse so I don't think that technique would work for me." Tommy lifted his wings above the water and The Angel stared in wonder.

"You're a red winged blackbird? I couldn't even see the red yesterday, no kidding they're worse. Very beautiful though." Tommy smiled and lowered his wings, giving them back to Ranboo to finish cleaning. "These must be your teammates? Or, just connections?" Tommy looked between the other two. Tubbo was glaring at The Angel and holding a finger gun just above the water. Ranboo looked unconcerned, still cleaning Tommy's wings but sporting a small frown.

"Yeah, we're the dynamic trio. You've already met one of them." The Angel hummed and walked onto the beach, fluttering his wings to dry them faster.

"Right, well meet me at the border of West and North in two hours. You know, at the dick." Tommy's eyes widened in mild embarrassment as Tubbo looked back at him confused and The Angel flew off.

"Ok, I know I promised to judge your actions less but I have to know what he means by 'at the dick'." Tommy sighed and began explaining, leading to a light-hearted hour between them getting Tommy ready.

Tommy left the apartment suited up with an upgraded emergency button that would call both Tubbo and Eret to his location and make his suit secrete an adhesive that would stick his suit to his skin for a minimum of eight hours. It was a very fancy upgrade that Tubbo had been working on all day, according to him. Tommy jumped from rooftop to rooftop, fluttering his wings to get a boost. Each jump landed him further across the next building, and one jump he managed to flap his wings and jump across two buildings at once. It left him buzzing with energy and excitement and by the time he made it to the border he was able to fly slowly for 27 seconds. He landed at the corner and frowned upon seeing the dick was removed, but The Angel was there.

"Hey, do I have to report this to that guy?" Tommy barely saw The Angel frown before it was covered by him shaking his head.

"No, he's aware of this but our supervisors are not. I'd prefer to keep it that way, if you would agree." Tommy furrowed his eyebrows and nodded slowly. It made no sense for The Angel to hide this invitation from the higher ups, unless he knew he wouldn't get away with it.

"How do I know this isn't a trap? It's pretty illegal to hide this." The Angel stood still for a second to think and eventually shrugged.

"Themis hangs out with you illegally. If he thinks you're worth the risk, who am I to disagree?" The Angel started walking into North and Tommy followed, keeping his head tilted down and wings close to his frame subconsciously. "He sees potential in you kid and he sees a lot of the heroes as worthless. That means something good." Tommy smiled slightly and jogged to walk beside The Angel.

"So, not a trap?" The Angel chuckled and shook his head.

"Not a trap."

As they approached HQ Tommy could not help but to feel like it was a trap.

"You can fly, right?" Tommy looked at The Angel quizzically and nodded slightly. The Angel flew up and onto a rooftop with one great flap of his wings, making Tommy stare in awe.

"Well I can't do that." Tommy flapped his wings, flying up just enough to get to the shop sign and jump onto the rooftop from there. His wings were not having a good time.

"You can't fly? Your wings look healthy, I don't understand." The Angel looked over Tommy's wings and he took a deep breath.

"Yeah I fucked them up a while ago and didn't get them healed until recent. Still relearning how to fly and shit." The Angel nodded slowly and looked up at HQ. The Angel pointed at it and Tommy looked where he was pointing.

"Well you see that open window?" Tommy nodded and The Angel sighed. "That leads into my training room. Every room has one wide window so in the case of an emergency I can swoop in and out of the building as necessary. The elevator and bottom floor have cameras but the other floors do not, including the training rooms." Tommy stared at the open window, trying to decide if he could make it up there. He huffed and turned to The Angel.

"So far my record for flying is 27 seconds going straight, not up. I can't make it up there." The Angel hummed and picked Tommy up, shooting into the air with Tommy screaming and latching onto him as hard as he could. The Angel flew through the window and landed in the training room quickly, shutting the window right after with Tommy still latched to him. The Angel chuckled and pried Tommy's hands off of him. Tommy flapped his wings in frustration and tried regaining his breath.

"Fucken warning next time." The Angel laughed and turned on the light to the training room, revealing a padded room with a dummy, weights, a small chest, and a treadmill. It was very empty for a hero's training room.

"For the most part I train with Themis so I don't have a lot of equipment. I assume you train with your partners?" Tommy looked around at everything and shook his head.

"Our training is experience on the field, we've never trained together." The Angel looked confused and walked to the chest, opening it and pulling out some bandage rolls.

"Never?" Tommy shook his head and The Angel wrapped his hands. "That's strange. You're all still alive so I assume you're good." The Angel threw some bandages at Tommy, who caught them instinctively.

"Fuck yeah we're good, but not because of physical strength god no. Why do I need this?" Tommy looked at the bandages and then at how The Angel wrapped his hands, trying to assume how to do the same.

"Have you never wrapped your hands?" Tommy shook his head and The Angel walked over, holding one of Tommy's hands and wrapping it slowly so Tommy could see the process. "Wrapping your hands protects them from damage that may occur while punching. Many professional fighters actually encourage wrapping them any time you think you may get into trouble, in case things go south." Tommy huffed comically, the bitter thought 'so all the time' floating around his head. The Angel finished wrapping his hand and encouraged him to wrap the other himself. While Tommy was struggling with wrapping his hand, he thought about how different the training was going compared to his expectation. The Angel was surprisingly patient and kind with Tommy, and best part was he didn't belittle him for not knowing these basics.

"That's pretty good for your first time. Let's see your stance now." Tommy smiled nervously and moved his feet so he was steady. The Angel watched him and then put his finger to Tommy's shoulder, pushing him gently and much to Tommy's surprise, knocking him off his balance. Tommy stumbled to regain his balance and stared at The Angel in confusion.

"What the fuck?" The Angel smiled and went into a stance similar to Tommy's but wider.

"Try and knock me over." Tommy raised an eyebrow and pushed The Angel's arm as hard as he could, only managing to make him lean slightly.

"Well son of a bitch, that's not fair you're bigger than me." The Angel laughed and relaxed his stance, cooing under his breath.

"It has nothing to do with size, try it now." Tommy pushed The Angel, managing to knock him off his feet. The Angel grinned at Tommy's confused expression and stood up again. He pushed Tommy's feet onto position with his own, and pressed down on Tommy's shoulder gently to make Tommy bend his knees.

"Keep your stance wide for balance, body lowered for agility. Don't lock your knees, plant your feet." Tommy followed The Angel's instructions hurriedly, trying his best to keep up with the fast pace. It was startling how easily The Angel would be able to take him down in a real fight, Tommy didn't even want to think about fighting Themis. He oughta praise Ranboo again. It was hard training, but Tommy felt like he was really getting it. It was almost early morning by the time they finished, and The Angel snuck Tommy out the same way they got in, promising that next time they'd focus on using his wings in combat.

"Wait- next time?" The Angel looked at Tommy confused and nodded curtly.

"Yes of course, we can't get through everything in one night. Are you good to meet again tomorrow, same time and place?" Tommy nodded and The Angel flew off, leaving Tommy to sit with his thoughts.

(A/N I had a chapter finished and unpublished for idk how long. If I ever get better with fighting I'll make the training scene longer or show it more. Anyways, Please Don't Go is published now, far from done but hopefully it's better so far. Hope you are enjoying this though :)