They Rely On Hope. What Do I Rely On? - Tommyinnit Adoption AU

Chapter 165

Tommy POV:

The next time Tommy woke he stayed awake for a while, letting Conner talk excitedly to him, seeming exeedingly enthused, while Quackity sat back, watching both of them slightly warily- his reason for that becoming clear when he had to stop Conner from hurting his broken leg and ribs.

Conner didn't seem to have any form of self preservation as he bounced around, overly enthused and not very careful about his injuries, nor obeying Quackity. He was lucky, Quackity didn't seem to mind the ignoring, just worrying about Conner. There was something so perfect about that, and Tommy couldn't help but enjoy the feeling.

After about an hour of Conner talking about anything and everything- although he didn't bring up any recent events- someone else appeared.

"Conner, Quackity, is it our turn yet?" Ranboo asked, a hint of playful teasing in his voice.

"I suppose," Conner whined, before turning back to Tommy, "Ranboo's out here stealing all my time with you, I mean it's not fairrrrrrr, I wanna hang out with you but then he's over there like memememememeh and I get kicked out to wait outside, stupid rules."

Tommy stared at Conner in stunned surprise, trying to work out the hidden meaning behind the words. What wasn't fair? Was Conner stuck here and they were taking it in shifts? Did he wish he had less time? But he had said something about wanting to spend time with Tommy, and that was just wierd, and then he said he got kicked out, which sounded like leaving was a negative, but why would anyone want to fight over him? Tommy knew for a fact he wasn't that interesting, and he was far too annoying to be someone worth spending time with.

"Tommy! Your awake!" Ranboo beamed, playfully shooing Quackity and Conner out as he moved to stand beside the bed, "Hi! We got you some Christmas lights, the nurse said we could hang them up as long as it was out of the way and didn't touch your bed or any medical equipment!"

Tommy stared at Ranboo in confusion, wishing people would stop saying weird shit that made no fucking sense. Why was Ranboo hanging up Christmas lights? Tommy wouldn't complain, of course he wouldn't, he loved the idea, but he was exceedingly confused. What was going on?

"Oh and I doubt Conner told you much about these," Ranboo added, waving his hand towards what must be some other patient's straying bedside table. Those things were on wheels, so Tommy supposed it must have been moved towards him accidentally, but it was quite odd that no one had moved it back.

"These flowers are from Niki, she picked them from her garden, oh and there's an IOU for any food anyone could ever want once you can eat again," Ranboo explained before rambling on about Conner's balloons and Fundy's plushie, and Karl's art and Sally's 1st place medal that she had- wait what had Ranboo just said?

"Sorry, could you-" Tommy starter to ask before shutting his mouth quickly, realising his mistake, not only had he interrupted Ranboo, but he had been about to ask a question! What was he thinking!?

"Are you ok Tommy? What's happened?" Ranboo asked, instantly dropping the conversation about the medal in favour of checking Tommy for issues with any machinery.

"No, no I'm fine, I just..." Tommy hesitated, before spitting the words out, "What did you just say? About Sally?"

"Oh! Oh, so Sally wanted to give you this gold medal, she said it was the medal she had to work the hardest to get, and that it was this super big race and she had trained for years to do it and she wanted you to have it because she thought you deserved a medal for surviving all of what you had to go through."

"This... all this stuff is for- for me?" Tommy chocked out, confused and touched and worried and uncertain and yeah, maybe a little bit happy.

"Yeah, yeah of course- wait Tommy, who did you think it was for? It's yours. It's all yours. It's things people have left for you in hopes that you'll appreciate them when you woke more properly."

Tommy didn't believe it. He couldn't. There was no way in hell this was all for him. Why would anyone give him anything? Let alone something valuable? He was just Tommy. Nothing special, just an annoying little brat with a big mouth who could never do anything right. None of this made sense.

Tommy hadn't done anything for them. This wasn't a reward for chores well done or for being a good punching bag. In fact, he'd only been in the Watson house for what? A day? And then he'd vanished for weeks on end, maybe months, Tommy had no clue how long it had been, but it had been a massively long time. He had given them nothing. Why were they rewarding him? Most houses would have either kicked him out or decided to teach him a lesson. Not... not this... not this kindness.

"Do you... do you not like it?" Ranboo asked, his voice breaking slightly, seeming certain he had done something wrong.

"No, no I love it, I love it so much I just... why? Why did you get this for me?"

"Because we were worried about you and we had to do something. We couldn't heal you, but we wanted... we wanted to make you smile when you woke. We wanted you to know how much we care."

"Why do you care for me?" Tommy asked, cringing inwardly at the question. They didn't care, of course they didn't care, this was just a weird test. Some bizarre puzzle Tommy hadn't worked out yet. They didn't care, it was a cruel trick they played on whoever got too close.

"Because you deserve to be cared for, Tommy, because you are a person and you've been through hell and we just want you to be safe."

Words: 1000

A/N: this chapter is a birthday present for HellooImADSMPFANLOL  so make sure to wish them a happy birthday and thank them for the hurt comfort instead of just hurt lol