absolution.

break-in.

cw: attempted robbery, fighting, mentions of tommy's death, exile, and his mental trauma

please tell me if there's any more!!!

===

For the small cafe of Tari's Coffee, this morning was as peaceful as usual. A soft lofi playlist played throughout the cafe as orange lights casted a warm glow on the interior, creating a comfortable, light atmosphere. Hot coffee brews filled the air with delicious smells, mixing in with small baked goods and snacks on display cases and stands. The coldness of February's snow made the pleasantly warm temperature of the shop all the better. Adding the extra greenery in the corners and extra spaces, along with smaller, cottage-like details, and it seemed like a home.

Tommy looked outside the windows of the cafe, watching people walk along. He soon moved on to watering the foliage nearby with a watering can and a sigh.

His mind worked into overdrive as his body hummed with barely-contained energy. Tommy wasn't made for working slowly like this. He was used to fast-paced actions, to war, to constantly thinking about strategies and never stopping. But for now, he'd make do with what he has, especially because he probably can't get into U.A. anyway. The teen doesn't know how to create an identity that would say that he's fifteen when he's on the verge of seventeen -- Tubbo isn't here, and who'd accept a homeless seventeen year old into their school?

When the owner -- Tari, a lady whom Tommy found to be pretty chill -- had offered him the full-time job, Tommy hadn't hesitated to take it with the previous question in mind. This was the same cafe he'd constantly use for free wifi regardless, and having a job there would make things easier. Especially so when the regulars had helped him with his Japanese, so he's able to speak and write the basics, whilst with an accent and with shaky characters respectively. They had also taught him basic Japanese etiquette and more about the world around him. (He's even learning JSL!) In turn, Tommy would help them with English, do bits of work around the cafe, listen to them rant and give them advice until he was where he was now.

Three other things had appeared over the past month*, one being his eyepatch. The hand-made item was a slightly-desaturated navy blue and rimmed with gold near the edges. One of the regulars, a woman with marriage issues, had asked him what his hobbies were after he gave advice to sort her problems out. When he mentioned he knew how to sew, the next day she had came by and gave him several sewing materials, including a container to place it in and some fabric to use. He'd made the eyepatch soon after and declared her the only woman ever. **

Anyway, Tommy had it for a reason.

One day, as he washed his clothes in Takoda, he'd seen his reflection for the first time. Tommy had thought he'd looked the same before Dream had.. before the incident, just with a bit of lingering numbness where his injuries were, so he hadn't bothered truly looking at his face. But looking at himself... his left eye had changed.

What was once another sapphire eye was a texture error: four squares where his iris should've been, two squares, one on the top left and the other on the bottom right, a strikingly hot pink next to the other two that were a dark black. There was no pupil, yet Tommy could see just fine. In addition, there was a thin meandering scar surrounding his eye in a mishapen circle. Unfortunately, it was large enough to be noticable -- Tommy had wondered just how long the changes had been there.

(When the teen had asked the next day, everyone told him they thought it was an accident from his quirk drawback, and that both his weird eye and his scar had been there ever since he came in the cafe. He would've tried to get colored eye contacts instead of an eyepatch, but he didn't know if they'd work and who sells them in the area.)