Now that we're all caught up with the plot, let's see how this goes, shall we?

-

It was past midnight, and Tommy had been well asleep by the time Wilbur had arrived back at their temporary home. Smiling fondly at his younger sibling's sleeping figure, the brunette ruffled the blonde's golden curls gently before going to put away the supplies he had retrieved.

He had managed to (shoplift) borrow some food, such as a gallon of milk and a couple cans of soup. He'd also managed to steal a pan and had knocked out the store manager with it when they had tried to give chase, and Wilbur would've probably stolen everything in the store if it wasn't for the fact that someone had seen him and had dialed the police.

The brunette huffed, knowing well that any other public sightings of him raiding stores wouldn't help with keeping them undercover. Heaving the jug of milk into the fridge, he closed the door softly as to not wake his sibling as he gently laid the cans of soup out on the table.

Once Wilbur was done with putting away all the supplies, he flopped down on one of the two chairs with a heavy sigh. The urge to leave the room and run around on the rooftops for a bit was starting to become unbearable, and it wasn't long until he eventually relented to the urge.

Slipping into some darker clothes, Wilbur cast one last glance at his little brother's sleeping form before he swiftly stepped outside the door and closed it behind him.

A quickly written note lay on the kitchen table beside the small pile of soup cans, and became clear that the brunette hadn't been quiet enough as the piece of paper was hastily swept into Tommy's fumbling grip.

After a moment of silence, the note was subsequently ripped to shreds.

How dare Wilbur just leave him alone like this!? The older knew what type of situation they were in, and what does he do?!

Go outside and leave Tommy all alone all for some fucking midnight stroll?!

Taking in deep breaths, the blonde quickly calmed himself.

It would be fine.

Wilbur probably had so much bearing on his shoulders that he just needed a bit of fresh air without his little brother breathing down his neck every second, that's all.

Scooping up the shreds of litter on the ground, Tommy deposited the trash into a large trash bag before climbing back into his bed.

His thoughts currently seemed to be surpassing the speed limit for this area, whipping and streaking around his mind like annoying flies that he couldn't get rid of. Malicious, self-deprecating voices overlapped one another as they tried to send hurtful messages to their host, not really managing to get their point across but succeeding at giving the blonde a headache.

Groaning, Tommy allowed himself to flop backwards, his head thudding against the center of his raggedy pillow. Wilbur would be back by the time he woke up anyway, so there was nothing to worry about.

After about 45 minutes of tossing and turning on his bed, Tommy eventually felt his consciousness start to fade into a blissful state of sleep, when suddenly the door was busted right off its hinges.

Tommy shot up from his bed, throwing himself over the railing of the bunk bed and shoving himself underneath the bottom bunk's support frame. A tense silence coated the room, and Tommy internally cursed himself for leaving his phone somewhere else than his pockets.

A pair of light, slinking footsteps resounded throughout the quietness, followed by another pair that upheld the same sense of secrecy and cautiousness.

Then, Tommy heard the intruders start to speak.

"Honeycomb, are you sure that we didn't just break into a random skyscraper room and scare some people so much they disappeared from existence?" One voice questioned, and Tommy quicky realized who this pair was.

It was the famous hero duo of two newly recruited heroes named Honeycomb and Ender. Fighting one of them was a sure force to be reckoned with, but together they absolutely obliterated their opponents in sheer minutes.

Out of all the heroes, Tommy tolerated the "Beeduo" (as they called themselves) the most. While they were directly associated with the hero organization, they really weren't fond of the strict rules the organization tried to set upon them.

The blonde had once heard Wilbur mention how the Syndicate had brought up a report of the Beeduo planting enormous glitter bombs throughout the city as a massive prank, but the situation was quickly detained whenever some people caught them in the act and tweeted photos of them setting the bombs.

Tommy was fine with watching them fight on TV or even sparing a glance at a distant battle that included the two, but when they intruded into his house? Into his own, personal space that Wilbur and him had been forced to call "home" because of their fellow co-workers' greediness?

That was a true hell to the no.

Shifting slightly underneath the oppressing wooden plank that his back was tightly pressed against, Tommy continued to peer at the two, pacing pairs of feet that walked around the small room in what seemed to be the hopes of finding something, or someone.

He held his breath as the pairs of feet started walking towards the bunk bed before stopping right in front of it. A moment passed before the person he assumed was Honeycomb crouched down to look underneath the bed.

They stared at each other for a minute before the shock finally fell in, and Honeycomb jumped back in surprise when a low, feral growl rumbled deep in Tommy's throat.

It was at that moment that Tommy finally realized why Wilbur always compared him to the likes of a raccoon, but the blonde quickly pushed that revelation to the back of his head. He had more important matters on hand to deal with, and he didn't need the reminder that Wilbur had no idea what was going on and that Tommy may potentially get kidnapped by the very force he was working against.

Back to the present moment, Ender had also ended up peering underneath the bed to see what his partner had been so afraid of, just to slowly back away in a crouched position with hands raised as another growl was sent his way. Tommy glared at them both, expression untrusting and wary of what may come next.

Honeycomb and Ender seemed to have a quiet discussion away from the bunk bed that Tommy was hiding underneath, and all the youngest's lip-reading skills could translate were the words, "Healer...don't you...can't we just...maybe...underneath the fucking bed...raccoon...something."

Tommy suddenly stopped trying to lip-read after that sentence, finding it understandably offensive that they dare to compare him to the same animal Wilbur had. Only Wilbur had that privilege, because Wilbur was Wilbur, and there was simply no way to beat that reason.

The sinking feeling in his gut returned at the remembrance of his older brother, and the nagging idea that the brunette was probably miles away from his current location, hopping along the rooftops joyfully as Tommy lay in hiding from two of the Top 10 heroes, only made the situation worse.

Finally, after the duo was done conferring between one another, they approached the bed once more, but not without some obvious wariness about coming within the feral child's vicinity.

They both crouched down to look at the teenager hiding underneath the bunk bed, and Ender was the first to speak to him.

"Hey, um, hi. I'm Ender, and my partner here is Honeycomb. Would you mind telling us your name?" The hero spoke, his smile carefully crafted to look the least bit menacing and the most bit warm and welcoming.

Even though Tommy could easily be knocked out in the next couple minutes, the younger refused to make their mission easy for them.

"I'm not telling you shit, Enderbitch."

"Hey, there's no need to be rude." Ender reproved, frowning slightly before trying again. "It's fine if you don't trust us, but there's no need for the language."

Tommy scoffed at this, but held his tongue and averted his eyes from the two heroes' piercing gazes. He didn't want to risk pushing them too far, but he would never concede to any of their wishes.

After an awkward moment of silence, Honeycomb spoke next.

"Anyways, we were just patrolling this area when we noticed some adult walking out of this room suspiciously. We wanted to check if there was anything...cynical or iffy going on here."

Tommy raised his eyebrows, looking at them with disbelief. "You're a shit liar, you know that?"

"Huh?"

"There were so many holes in that lie you just shitted out. For example, if you wanted to know if something wrong was going on in here, you wouldn't have kicked down the goddamn door like you were the fucking FBI. Care to explain that?"

Honeycomb winced, and a grimace appeared on Ender's face. A triumphant grin spread across Tommy's expression like a wildfire.

Get rekt, bitch.

"Well...," Ender stammered, desperately trying to cover for his fumbling teammate. "We didn't know what type of situation we might come across-"

"Which I know you wouldn't have kicked down the door to find out." Tommy quipped, smiling victoriously. "Instead, you would either have found a more discreet way inside, or you would have tried to lure the person inside this room outside so that if you needed to detain them, you would have more maneuverability to do so."

"And," Tommy continued before Ranboo could cut in, "Couldn't you just have Ender teleport you both inside? Then you wouldn't have to worry about losing the advantage of surprise. Fucking idiots."

The two heroes at least had the right mind to look at least a bit shameful of their rushed, unplanned course of action, but at least they would know better next time.

Wait, next time-

"Ok, ok, you got us. We've actually been spying on you and...Mr. Charmspeak, wherever he's gone off to, for the past couple hours or so. We simply waited until it was the right time to strike, and Voicemail leaving this room only confirmed our suspicions that you guys were staying here." Honeycomb confessed, and Tommy stared at them with an odd look.

"So you were stalking us?!"

"No, no it's not like that-"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that's what you implied there, Enderbitch-"

"No, it's not! We were just-"

"Meh meh meh, all I hear are excuses and lies and more excuses. You're both shit liars, by the way."

"Wh-"

"SHUT. UP." Honeycomb yells, effectively drawing both Tommy's and Ender's mouths to a close. The bee-like hero shot them both harsh glares, which made Tommy oddly feel a bit sheepish.

Sighing heavily, a tense minute passed before any of them spoke again.

"So." Honeycomb says lowly, still a bit infuriated over the unnecessary chain of yelling that had just happened. "Look, I know that we haven't gotten off to the greatest of starts, but we at least need to know your name before we get on with everything. Either you tell us, or I'll just keep referring to you as "Feral Child" until you tell us what you prefer to go by."

Huffing and rolling his eyes, Tommy begrudgingly lets the information slip past his teeth. "Tommy. Just Tommy. Can I leave now?"

Honeycomb narrows his eyes at him. "No. Anyways, Tommy, we're gonna have to take you back to HQ. Not our choice, but it's the law."

A false smirk flashes on the blonde's face. "I thought you guys didn't abide by the law."

"Well, we usually don't," Ender starts, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "But in these cases we have to, 'else we'll get fired and we'll lose our only source of income."

A tinge of solemn understanding plays on Tommy's expression, yet as much as he understood their situation, he refused to play along with the organization's game.

One should not be so naïve to trust in some idols so easily, anyway.

"No."

"What?"

Tommy sends the heroes another defiant glare. "I said no. As much as I understand your situation, I refuse to come along with you."

A moment passes, and the heroes' expressions switch between confusion, revelation, and a cold, unreadable expression.

Honeycomb's gaze hardens. "Alright then. We tried to be easy with you, we gave you your chances, so now we've got to do it the hard way."

Tommy's eyes dart to the right to see Ender reaching for his arm, and the blonde barely manages to pull it back before he runs towards the window and flings himself straight into the busy streets below.

The cool, hazy air of L'manburg whips past the youngest's face as he falls through the air like a rock to the bottom of a canyon, and there is naught but one thought that Tommy can keep present in his head.

'I really should have thought this out more.'

Quick A/N:

If you saw any grammer/spelling mistakes no you didn't 

I'm sorry for taking so long on this chapter, school is absolutely bombing me with projects right now and I barely have any time to work on my fanfics.

I'll probably try and release another chapter tomorrow 'cause I have school off that day, but no promises.

I hope you enjoyed!