Fins [Book 2]|An Origin SMP Fanfiction| (Shipping and Language Free)

Chapter 10: Control

Tommy really hated this Too-bbo guy.
He was just so annoying! His wings made buzzing noises all the time, and when he slept he moved around a bunch. Then that Ranboo guy, don't get him started.
Wilbur was okay. He didn't necessarily like him. Okay, maybe a little. But no one could know that.
He was just someone he felt comfortable with for some reason.
Then there was Niki. Niki was interesting. She felt like a sister to him, and she was the first person he had met. She was sweet.
Tommy woke up to that annoying buzzing coming from Tubbo.
"Ay, can you ever just not buzz your butt off?!" He groaned.
"Sure, as soon as you can impress me." He snapped back.
"OH YOU-"
"Guys." Ranboo said. They both shut their mouths and headed out to Phil, Scott, and Wilbur, who had made breakfast.
Phil was chill. He was kind of the dad of the group; Tommy was on neutral terms with him, but he was pretty sure the guy thought of him as an annoying kid. Scott was also pretty chill, and Tommy figured he was also fairly close with him because of the whole saving him thing.
Anyways, they went and got breakfast. Tommy thought that Wilbur did kind of a bad job, but whatever. He ate it anyways.
He hadn't seen Niki all day, it was starting to freak him out. Niki was kind of his comfort person, and he didn't want anything to happen to her.
I'm not clingy though. That's Tubbo.
Everyone finished up eating and went their separate ways, but Tommy caught up to Wilbur and asked him if he'd seen Niki.
"Niki? I don't think so, why?" He said curiously.
"No reason. Thanks anyways." Tommy said to him and left.
Now he was getting a bit nervous. She couldn't have gone far, and why would she leave without telling anyone?
What if something had happened to her?
Charlie and Sneeg wouldn't have done anything. They're too small, and that Charlie guy seemed kind of stupid to him.
Tommy walked over to the water and scanned the blue surface. No fish girl to be seen.
Tubbo and Ranboo came over to him. He was expecting some kind of rude insult from Tubbo, but instead he just stared at him and asked, "What's bothering you?"
That was strange. Tommy had been nothing but annoying and rude to the guy. Why did he care?
Ranboo gave a small nod in agreement, signaling that they weren't kidding.
"I haven't seen Niki all day. I just-" he turned to them, who were staring at him. "Not like I care for any of you annoying lower beings."
They both gave him a small smile. "You know you can admit that you care for people right?" Tubbo said.
Well duh. But for some reason it felt like if he did, something would happen. Like something had happened before.
But that was sooo helpful considering he couldn't remember anything from before he had met Niki.
He turned back to the water.
"Fine, I care, I just want to find her alright?"
They nodded in agreement. "We can help you look for her if you want." Ranboo suggested.
Tommy slowly nodded. "Yes please."

Tubbo honestly kept getting distracted.
He didn't try to! It was just that the flower patches that they walked through were so beautiful and smelled so sweet.
"Ay Tubbo, come on!" Tommy yelled to him.
Tommy was interesting. He acted really rude and annoying, but he also had a different side to him. He would never admit to actually liking or caring about anyone, and yet Tubbo got the feeling that he really liked him and Ranboo.
He also seemed to have an emotional attachment to certain people, specifically Niki, Wilbur, and secretly Ranboo and Tubbo.
Tubbo got up from the yellow dandelion he had been cherishing and ran over to him. They were looking for Niki, but weren't having much luck. But Tommy wasn't giving up, and neither were Tubbo and Ranboo.
They kept walking. They were already pretty far from camp and hadn't found anything. And he meant anything. There were no tracks, no broken branches, nothing. And it wasn't like she could even stay on land; she was a literal fish-mermaid thing.
Tubbo flapped his wings and flew above the trees, scouting for any sign for their friend. Nothing.
He flew back down. "Tommy, there's nothing here. We should go back and get Phil, or Scott-"
"If you two are chicken, then be my guest and go get Phil, or Wilbur, or Scott, or Fundy, but I'm going to keep looking." He said, not turning around. Tubbo turned to Ranboo. They had been searching almost all day and it was starting to get dark. Who knew what was out there, and Tubbo was getting tired.
He didn't understand why Tommy pushed himself so hard on things. It hadn't just been looking for Niki either. On the day that Niki had been sick, all day he had been trying to pick up the bigger logs around the camp. He almost got hurt at some point, but had insisted that he kept working. It was like he always had something to prove.
And it didn't help that the guy never let any emotion show on him unless it was too strong for him to hold back.
Tubbo hoped he could help Tommy with that, at least at some point.
Ranboo looked between him and Tommy, then calmly explained to Tommy that they would have a better chance in the morning.
Tommy stared at him, not breaking eye contact.
"Fine." He said reluctantly, in a kind of sad way.
"She'll be okay. Don't worry Tommy." Ranboo assured him. Tommy gave him a silent, small nod. Tubbo didn't think he'd ever seen the guy so down.
Once they got to the camp, it was dark and Phil was waiting for them, like a dad to their kid when they stayed out past curfew.
"Where were you three! We're already missing Niki, we don't need you guys missing too." He said loudly, kind of mad but with a worried tone.
"Sorry Phil, we were looking for her." Tubbo said quietly.
He frowned and put his fingers to his temples.
"Boys, we'll find her, but you have to stay around camp and not get yourselves hurt. Okay?"
"Yes Phil."
"Yes Phil."
There was silence.
"Tommy?"
"Yes Phil." He said.
Phil ushered them into their tent, and they all laid down in silence.

Ranboo woke up to rustling in the tent.
Good thing he had good hearing, unlike Tubbo, who could sleep through anything.
He opened his eyes slowly, just barely being able to see someone going out of the tent with dirty blonde hair and a red and white shirt.
"Tommy?"
He turned around quickly. He stared at Ranboo, knowing that he'd been caught. He was almost silently begging him to let him off.
"You're going to go look for her, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'm coming too."
Tommy almost looked surprised at this, but he brushed it off quickly. "Whatever. I'm going now, and if you fall behind I won't notice."
He left the tent, so Ranboo quickly hopped up, careful not to wake Tubbo, and followed him outside.
They could see Scott glow (like, literally glow) in the starlight, but luckily he was sound asleep.
They headed into a different direction in the forest. They walked for ages, until Ranboo heard something.
He put his hand in front of Tommy, who took the hint. It sounded like humming; a low, quiet sound coming from ahead. He slowly inched forward, with Tommy on his tail until they reached an opening in the forest.
It was a big area, and in the center was a giant glowing thing. It was outlined in a dark purple material that looked impossible to break, and the inside glowed a lighter purple. It swirled and Ranboo could tell that the structure was the source of the humming.
The structure was surrounded by a red material, mixed with a warm, orange liquid, which he guessed was lava.
Then he spotted Niki.
She looked absolutely terrible, like she had the flu and hadn't been in the water for a month. But she wasn't herself, she was circling the structure, almost searching for something. She looked up quickly at Ranboo and Tommy, but her eyes weren't the dark brown they were before, they were a bright red that almost seemed to glow like the lava and flicker like fire.
"Niki?" Ranboo said slowly. He took a step forward, and she took two steps back. Then she pulled out some kind of sharp object and started to run towards them.
"RUN!" Ranboo yelled to Tommy.
The two of them started running back to the camp, but she was fast for a fish. They got back, but she had followed them all the way there. Phil and Wilbur rushed out of their tents and saw what was happening. Phil flew around her to try to disorientate her, and Wilbur slipped through the ground and popped up somewhere else to distract her. It was working, but she wasn't giving up, until it seemed that she passed out because of the lack of water.
Phil flew down and Wilbur reappeared from the ground.
"What happened to her?!" Phil said loudly. He was more worried about Niki, Tommy and Ranboo at the moment, but Ranboo knew that a rant was waiting for Tommy and him once this was solved.
"We don't know, we just found her by this structure thing and she started chasing us." Ranboo explained.
Phil and Wilbur moved Niki to a different patch of water and told him and Tommy to go to bed. Ranboo tried to sleep but was pretty uneasy.
"Hey Ranboo?" Tommy said quietly from the other side of the tent.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think," he started. "Do you think she'll be okay?"
He honestly wasn't sure, but Tommy kind of needed the support at the moment.
"Yeah Tommy. She'll be fine."