Chapter Text
“I’m not gonna ask again kid, who hired you” the man spat, so close to Tommy’s face that he could probably lean forward and their foreheads would touch. Pretty good intimidation tactic, but pretty dumb if the person you’re interrogating knows how to attack in close range.
Tommy sighed, sitting back in the chair he was in. Well, as much as he could with both his hands and legs tied to the cold metal chair. “No one hired me, I was just curious as to what you guys had here” he lied, glad that he came up with an excuse as to why he was hiding in the office of a business empire ruler. He totally wasn’t trying to kill the man for money… nope.
The man, if possible, looked even more mad, grabbing Tommy by the shoulder in a grip that would probably leave bruises. Tommy didn’t drop the cool mask he was wearing across his face that hid his emotions, letting his cold blue eyes meet the brown ones of the man in front of him. The man was lucky he didn’t take off his black mask yet. He probably would’ve bitten him by now.
“I’ll give you one more chance. Who. Hired. You?” he asked again, as if Tommy didn’t hear him the first fifty times he asked. He smiled, leaning forward slightly to give the man a deathly glare.
“I’ll tell you one more time, no. One.” he said, grinning at the way that the man’s face grew red from anger. Honestly, he didn’t even know this guy's name, you get caught trying to… meet… the owner of this random business he obviously didn’t even care about and suddenly you're being interrogated? Tortured? He doesn’t even remember his target's name, something like Schlatt maybe? All he knows was that he was getting paid three thousand primes to get rid of the dude, he didn’t really care to ask questions. As long as he got payment, he really didn't care who was at the other end of his knife or gun barrel. For the most part. He would never kill children and would do more research on his targets if he sensed something sketchy. He hated it when people thought they could just get rid of all their minor problems by murdering them. He knew from experience that it didn't work.
The man sighed, stepping back slightly and cracking his knuckles. Honestly it would’ve been badass but only half of his knuckles cracked, meaning that he’s cracked his knuckles recently. Maybe this guy might be a little stressed that he was left with interrogation duty. Interesting. “I guess we’ll do this the hard way then” he sighed, taking a step towards Tommy.
It was then that Tommy realized that he’s done playing innocent here and brought his arms up as far as they could from where they were zip tied to the chair, and brought them down, forcing his arms apart, breaking the tie. With a quick shake off to get rid of the pain that the action brought his shoulder, he slipped his switchblade out of the sleeve of the red and white hoodie he was wearing, and cut the ties around his ankle, scowling at the marks the ties left.
He heard a sharp intake of breath, and he remembered the whole reason he had to break out of the chair. He turned to face the man standing in front of him, eyes blown wide as he stared at Tommy, who was now not in fact tied to a chair and was now holding up a knife in front of the guy that probably is only here because he drew the short end of the stick. He was definitely dumb enough to underestimate Tommy.
He was gonna charge extra for having to deal with all of this.
“Listen you’re not who I’m here for, you can either run now or, well, die” he deadpanned, twirling the knife in his hand around his finger, sparing a bored glance at the man. Maybe he was a little too blunt, but he didn’t have time for this right now, he had about two hours before Schlatt left his office, and he wasn’t going to let this little detour stop him from completing his job.
“That was a nice stunt you pulled there, but you’re not leaving” the man replied, regaining the confidence that had left when he saw Tommy break himself out of his ties. Tommy sighed, before giving a shrug and rushing towards the man before he could even react, plunging his knife into the man’s diaphragm, pulling it out with a wet noise that didn’t even phase him anymore. He wanted to give the man a fighting chance, so if he survived the stabbing, he would be a walking example to not mess with Theseus. He had a reputation to uphold.
He really wished that the guy who caught him didn’t take his gun, it would’ve made this whole thing a lot less messy. Nonetheless, he stepped over the man (who was now breathing rapidly on the floor) and stepped towards the table where the rest of his weapons were put when they were all confiscated. Who even hired this guy, he almost wished he had put up more of a fight, he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie like that. Was it healthy? Probably not, but he was long past caring about that.
“I tried to warn you” he called casually out as he slipped his gun into the holster at his hip, slipping his thin twin blades into the flap in his boots. He felt no guilt over the blood that now dripped down his knife, falling against the black gloves that he wore. He didn’t feel bad as he heard the struggling breath behind him.
___
Tommy stepped foot into his apartment with a sigh, closing the door behind him with his elbow and rushing over to the sink, where he washed the blood off his hands, grateful for the black sink he picked out that hid the water that turned red as soon as it hit his hands. None of it was his.
He luckily didn’t get stabbed this time, but he definitely got punched in the face, which he could already feel a bruise forming. Thankfully Schlatt didn’t put up a fight. There was a bonus to killing people that were caught off guard and already drunk. It’s why he loved taking jobs at big events where alcohol would be served.
He stumbled his way into his bathroom, turning his shower on cold and inspecting the bruise that also formed on his shoulder before letting the cool water rush over him, waking him up and getting rid of the cloudiness that always filled his head in the early morning. He hated taking jobs that made him wake up before 4am.
Once he was dressed in clothes that didn’t have splashes of blood on them and weren’t designed for him to… dispose of people in, he opened up his laptop that sat on the desk in his bedroom, emailing the person that sent him on the job in the first place.
Theseus: Job is finished.
Flame: Thanks Theseus, knew I could count on you, any trouble?
Theseus: nothing that I couldn’t handle, just get me the primes
Flame: Will do, see you at the Hub later today?
Theseus: Sure will bossman
Tommy smiled, closing his computer and taking a couple steps to collapse into his soft bed, forever grateful that he made a habit of making his bed when he first woke up. Taking his phone off of his dark wooden bedside table, he groaned at the fact that it was only 7am. He was going to hang out at the Hub later today with Tubbo, Ranboo, Sapnap, and George, since Jack added a new item to his menu, and as the owner of the Hub invited them over to try it out.
Luckily this job was early enough for him to not have to cancel, his friends were already suspicious enough of his “job”, especially with Sapnap randomly making jokes about his occupation, which made his secret keeping all the worse. He regrets making friends with one of the people that would hire him. Well, only kind of regrets it.
It took him a couple years after actually getting out into the real world to be able to trust people enough to make friends. After taking jobs from Sapnap for about a year, he finally met up with the man, and they immediately became friends. He was the only person in his life that knew he was a mercenary, and he fully intended to keep it that way. Sapnap may disagree, but he knows better than to piss Tommy off by exposing his secret to his friends. In fact, there were many people in life that knew better than to piss off Tommy.
He didn’t want to worry them, and especially didn’t want to get them involved in his world. He came to Tubbo a couple times to get him to hack in order to help him gain more information on his targets whenever their schedules were tricky to get down, but he always came up with a random excuse as to why he needed the random information.
There was that one time where he showed up at Tubbo and Ranboo’s shared apartment covered in blood with a knife stuck in his side, but he somehow managed to play it off as a mugging. He’s not totally sure if they bought it, but they didn’t ask any more questions after that, and are always careful to talk about people getting robbed around him. Funny as it was, he was thankful for his friends respecting his privacy. In his line of work, if people found out who Theseus was, it would lead to a lot of trouble. He would never put his friends in trouble.
After scrolling on his phone for a couple of minutes and catching up with the news, he set an alarm to wake him up in a couple of hours and reigned to get some sleep. Maybe only getting two to three hours of sleep a night wasn’t healthy, but he had work to do, jobs to complete. He was Theseus after all, and sometimes that came before being Tommy. He wasn’t trained for nothing, after all.
___
Waking up to an alarm blaring, Tommy groaned and opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh light that filled his room through the lights that he forgot to turn off. His muscles were sore as he sat up, but at this point it was a welcomed pain, one that he was far more used to than most sixteen-year olds probably were.
He got into the bathroom to finish getting ready, grimacing at the reddish-purple bruise that now took over his jaw and lower left cheek. He grabbed his concealer out of his drawer, thankful that bruise covering was something that he was taught in his time at the Academy.
Now satisfied with his now bruise less face, he gave his outfit a final glance over through his dirty mirror, happy with the dark jacket that covered his soft red shirt, paired with a black pair of pants held up by a belt. His black shoes held his signature twin blades that he never left the house without (old habits die hard), but other than that decided that he should be more or less like a general citizen and leave his normal weapons at home. He was going out for lunch with friends for christ sake.
Giving his hands one final washing to make sure that no blood was dried underneath his fingernails, or left where anyone could see it, he wiped his hands off and threw the plush towel onto his white ceramic bathroom counter, clicking the light off and walking out of his apartment and towards the public bus system that would lead him towards Jack’s restaurant, where his friends would meet him.
Even though it took him a couple of months to fully be able to trust public transportation enough to take the bus, he finally was able to use the various trains and busses that made getting around so much easier, even if he instinctively scoped out the people on the bus, as well as who was standing close to the exits. Honestly though that's just a matter of public safety more than anything. No one will be kidnapping the great Tommy [Redacted] today, thank you very much.
He quickly zoned out to the repetitive rumble of the bus, and the constant drone of people talking. Next thing he knew, the bus was stopped, announcing that he arrived at his destination. He hopped out of the bus with near silent feet and walked up to none other than the Hub, the neon green Jack’s Hub sign welcoming him as he stepped inside the familiar glass doors, the smell of food immediately greeting him, reminding him that he hadn’t had breakfast yet.
“Tommy!” a familiar voice called out, causing a smile to rise to Tommy’s face. He turned to see Tubbo running towards him, a smile on his face. He opened his arms as his friend crashed into him, wrapping him into a hug. That was another thing that had taken him a while to get used to, the friendly gestures that he would get from his friends, such as the occasional hug, high five, hair ruffle, you name it. Where he came from, a hug was just a way to stab someone in the back or snap their neck. Now, it was a sign of friendship, of trust.
He pulled away from the hug, ruffling Tubbo’s brown fluffy hair, smiling to the person who followed Tubbo, a smile just as wide on his face.
“Ranboob!” Tommy teased, wrapping his other friend in a hug, silently scowling at the fact that he’s friends with someone that’s taller than him (even after knowing him for over a year now, it’s not something he’ll easily get over). Ranboo sighed at the nickname that Tommy had dubbed him the second they first met, much to Tubbo’s amusement.
“Long time no see bossman” Tubbo laughed out, causing Tommy to roll his eyes playfully.
“Tubbo we literally hung out two days ago and watched a movie over discord yesterday” he deadpanned, causing Ranboo to burst out laughing from next to him.
“You think that's bad, imagine living with him” Ranboo joked, earning a punch from the brunette. Ranboo gave an offended huff, rubbing his shoulder with a playful glare.
“Yeah that’s all you big man” he smiled, remembering the countless times that Tubbo offered him to move in with the two of them. Apparently, they had an extra room in their apartment, and Tubbo was quite clingy. He was quite tempted by the offer, but it would make sneaking out at random times of the day impossible, and he would never be able to explain the countless times that he came home with blood on him, most of the times the blood not even his. The amount of emotion that he had when he had to decline the offer had scared him originally.
Tommy heard footsteps enter the shop, and he tensed up instinctively, before recognizing the heavy, long strides that entered the shop, recognizing the new person before he even opened his mouth.
“Hi Sapnap” he called out, not even turning to look behind him. Sapnap slipped into his line of view, giving Tommy an amused eye roll, Tubbo and Ranboo shaking their heads at him.
“That will never not be creepy” Ranboo jokes, Tubbo nodding with raised eyebrows. There seemed to be at least one plus side to being a trained killer, he was able to impress his friends with his skill of being impossible to sneak up on. Tubbo and Ranboo learned that quickly when they first tried to prank him.
The four of them found their way to a table, deciding that George could find his way over once he got there. The older brunette seemed to somehow always be late. Tommy sat on the edge of the table, another habit that he was never able to break. One time he tried to face his fears and sit on the inner edge of a booth, where he would be trapped in, and immediately panicked. It was rather embarrassing, but his friends always let him have a seat where he could get up quickly.
“So, Tommy, how was your morning?” Sapnap asked, a smug smile on his face. It took every bone in Tommy’s body to not choke on the water that he was drinking from, sending Sapnap a glare that would kill a lesser man.
“Pretty uneventful, why?” he combatted, lifting an eyebrow. One of these days Sapnap was going to leak both his job and Tommy’s to his friends, and Tommy would have to kill the man out of spite. He was pretty sure he was joking about the killing part. Mostly.
He did want to see how Sapnap would explain running an illegal tech business that sent a teenager to kill people who posed a threat to their business to his friends, but that would mean exposing his own job, which he would like to… not do.
Sapnap was saved from finding an answer by a certain colorblind brunette that walked up to the table, plopping down next to Sapnap and giving everyone at the table a ‘hello’.
The table fell into easy conversation that Tommy joined in with ease, smiling at the warmth that filled his chest. He noticed Sapnap giving him a couple of glances as they talked, but he ignored it for both of their sakes. While he was happy that someone in his life knew about how he got his money, when Sapnap found out that he was hiring a sixteen-year-old to murder people, he almost stopped hiring him all together.
Now, whenever Tommy finished a job, Sapnap was a little more protective over him, making sure that he didn’t get hurt during the job and that he arrived home alright. At first, he found it patronizing and thought that it meant that Sapnap didn’t trust him, but now he’s fine with it, and while he will never admit it, he kind of liked having someone care for him. Usually, parents were supposed to do that, but his were long dead, and even if they weren’t he wouldn’t want anything to do with them, especially after they sold him to the bastard that trained him to be a child soldier.
“Weren’t Wilbur and Techno supposed to be here? I thought Jack invited everyone?” Ranboo questioned, gaining Tommy’s attention.
“They were going to, but they got pulled into some boring business meeting with Phil” George supplied, earning a sympathetic groan from the rest of the people at the table. Phil, Wilbur, and Techno all work at some boring company that Tommy didn’t care to learn the name of. They were pretty high up in the company and would occasionally have to cancel plans for meetings.
Tommy already looked up all the information about the company (in maybe some less than legal ways) and the whole thing was solid. He was a little suspicious at first that they would randomly cancel plans for meetings that they didn’t supply information for, but apparently their whole story was true. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his friends, he just knew a thing or two about keeping your real job a secret from your friends.
After they had been hanging out and eating for a while, Tommy’s phone buzzed, alerting him to a notification. He spared his phone a quick glance, and audibly groaned when he saw that the app that he programed to notify him whenever he got a new job.
“What was that for?” Tubbo asked, laughter light in his voice.
“Just found out I’m going to have to work another shift today” he groaned, confident in his backup story that was so complex and strong that he might as well actually be working at a random supply company on the outskirts of the city.
Sapnap shot him a sharp look, knowing exactly what “another shift” meant, but he didn’t comment for obvious reasons. “Aw I’m sorry” Ranboo sympathized. Tommy waved them off, a smile falling back onto his face. He really didn’t care about having multiple hits in a day, but after this one went slightly off course, he just wanted the day to himself. However, he was never one to refuse a job.
After all, he was Theseus first, unwilling sure, but he was long past pitying the life he was given, he’s learned to deal with the cards that he was dealt.