A Guide To Medicine and War

Nine

When Tommy gets back, it's overwhelming. Purpled is warm, and it feels like he's gone so long without warmth that it'll hurt him. He is careful, barely touching Tommy, but every touch burns.

They can only hold hands now. And only Tommy's right hand, the one he held over Friend.

(Tommy thinks it's mildly ironic that dried blood was the only warmth he could ever achieve there, but he doesn't say it to Purpled. Purpled has been clingy, lately.)

It was weird for Tommy, the experience of coming back. According to Purpled, your spawn point is just the last place you slept, though he hasn't died since early childhood—before pogtopia, with his biological family, managing to lose two of his canonical lives—so he isn't completely sure about that. When Tommy suggests that Purpled is the last place he slept, since he typically sleeps with his head curled onto Purpled's chest, he gets an annoyed huff.

"Tommy, I'm just saying! It doesn't work like that!"

"It does!"

"You don't just spawn on someone, I was probably just in the same spot!"

"I spawned on your mother, bitch."

"What mother?"

"...point."

"Tommy, I don't know what happened, I'm just happy you're here."

"I wanna know what's gonna happen! Like, what if it happens again?"

"Tommy, no."

"But science?!"

"You failed science!"

"I literally got a perfect score on the finals in uni."

"Because of a dare?! You took nuclear chemistry on a dare, and somehow managed to ace it. Wait—how'd you even get into uni?"

"A little bit of fraud never hurt anyone, Purpled. You know that."

"Tommy, please don't discuss illegal activities around your superiors," Sapnap chimes, suddenly appearing behind the two boys.

"You can't be my superior if you're short, Sapnap. Cat boy." Tommy chirps, Purpled flicking his nose.

"You're literally a child."

"You're a fossil," Purpled deadpans, cleaning his nails with a knife. Sapnap sputters, unable to come up with any good insult against it. Clearly, he has left his brain, along with his youth, with the dinosaurs.

"Sapnap, what do you need?" Tommy asks, interrupting Purpled before he can offend Sapnap again. Sapnap smiles, but it's tighter than normal, a sure sign of pity. Tommy doesn't need, nor want, pity.

It's never helped him before, it's not going to now.

"Dream wants to speak with everyone. Because of...how badly the river went. We're going again, I believe," Sapnap replies, awkwardly pausing when he talks about the river.

"Dude, I'm not dead, don't be awkward."

Purpled smacks Tommy, frowning when Tommy nudges into the hit. He starts tapping Tommy's arm rhythmically, and it takes a minute for him to realize what's going on. Morse code.

Well, not exactly. It's their own screwed up version, a weird series of taps varying in length, similar to normal Morse code. But it's different, in a way they can't quite explain. It started in Pogtopia, where many things start, at least for Tommy and Purpled.

(When they were locked in closets, they had to talk. It was talk or go insane, and those that were insane could never escape.)

"Don't say that!" Sapnap shouts, cheeks turning red as he realizes he shouted. But that doesn't stop him, it barely even makes him pause. "Do not say that!"