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Bo was sick.
To Michael, it wasn’t even the fun kind of sick. Like that one time he had a runny nose and a hot forehead. His dads had stayed home the entire day! Boo made them all tomato soup and he got to stay in bed the whole day! Bo had given him lots and lots of hugs and let him eat dinner in bed!
It hadn’t been like that with Bo. They had to stay inside for some reason except when Bo went out to hunt. Bo said it was scary out there but Michael thought scary might be better than boring.
One day, Bo came back with a bite on his arm. He’d been really sad even though Michael thought he was being a bit silly. It was just a bite after all.
After that, Bo couldn’t move very well and he was coughing a lot.
Then, Bo tried to get out of bed and he fell down.
After that, Bo couldn’t get out of bed but he said Michael was doing a great job feeding him and reading the books with pretty pictures in them to him.
They went on like that and Michael was sure Bo would get better!
Then, a bunch of white foamy stuff came out of Bo’s mouth. Michael tried to clean it off but he got yelled at.
Bo had never yelled at him before.
After that, Bo said he was feeling better and he told Michael that Boo was finally coming home!
They were gonna play a trick on Boo. Michael had to hide in his room and when Boo came upstairs, he could jump out at him!
So, Bo told Michael to get plenty of food, water and books. Bo told Michael not to leave or else he would ruin the surprise.
Bo also said he loved him so much but he said that all the time anyways. It still made Michael feel good though.
At first, that had been kinda fun if lonely. Michael got to eat all the cookies he wanted and color in every page in his coloring books.
Then, Michael heard people yelling outside. He heard lots of yelling and when he looked out the window, they were biting each other!
Michael kept the curtains closed after that.
Michael wanted his dads.
+
One day, Michael was asleep when he heard a crashing downstairs. He heard glass breaking and shelves getting knocked over.
It was scary, really scary. Michael hid under his blankets, clutching his chicken plushie.
He was a brave boy though. That’s what his dads said.
Then, someone banged at the door.
“Go-go away!” Michael yelled at the door. “No one’s home!”
There was one big kick and then the door fell right down.
Michael peeked out from under the blankets and Uncle T was there!
Uncle T looked even more beat up than usual. His clothes were all torn and he had a bunch of blood on him.
Oh no, that was bad! One time, Michael had a little blood come out of his scraped knee and it hurt!
He scrambled out of the blankets and over to his dresser, pulling out some bandaids with smiling bees on them.
He walked over to Uncle T, sticking the band-aids on his legs.
Uncle T looked down from him to the band-aids.
“You-you alright Michael?” Uncle T said, looking him over and pulling him close into a hug.
“I’m alright but Bo is sick,”
He heard Uncle T suck in a sharp breath and squeezed him tighter.
“Yeah, I-I know Michael,” Uncle T said, his voice sounding more watery and Michael swore he felt drops of water on his back. “I-I saw him on the way up,”
“Oh, is he feeling better?”
Uncle T went silent at that which Michael didn’t really understand. Uncle T was being quieter than normal, most of the time he liked to tell him jokes or complain to Bo about how his ceiling was leaking again.
Now, though he had a look in his eyes like he did when he came over one night. Micheal had snuck downstairs and peeked his head around the corner to see Uncle T getting hugged by his dads.
“Tommy, I’ve moved him,”
Oh, that was Boss! Michael was sure he had another name but when him and Boo went to eat burgers, Boo had called this man his boss.
So, Michael called him Boss. He thought it was a cool name even if Boss has a scary stitch over his face.
Micheal shyly peeked at him, giving Boss a small wave. Boss looked at him with wide eyes but he still waved back at Michael.
“Tommy, Foolish and Puffy could still be on our tails. We’ve got to go now,”
“Stop fucking rushing me! You’re not the one who had to-who had to,”
“Tommy, I cannot afford for you to have a breakdown right now,”
“Oh, like you know anything about not having a breakdown. If anything, your breakdowns are way worse than mine!”
“You’re being more of a child than the one you’re holding!”
“Hey!”
They both stopped when Michael shouted.
“Boo doesn’t like it when people yell so stop it!”
They both went silent for a moment. Michael refused to talk because they were being rude to each other!
Then, there was a buzz and Boss pulled out a com thingie.
Boss laughed at what he read, almost a little too loud to sound truly happy.
“Will, stop being a creepy fucker. What’s it say?”
“Ranboo says he’s in my burger van!”
Uncle T gasped and Micheal huffed with a cross of his arms.
Bo had said Boo was supposed to be here by now. Now the surprise would be ruined!
“That fucker, Niki and Phil and fucking Techno got infected but he didn’t?”
“I told you man, Ranboo’s the luckiest motherfucker alive!”
They were going to see Boo and Michael couldn’t stay grumpy forever at that.
They were going to see Boo! Boo, who could pick anything up and was so tall that when Michael got on his shoulders he could almost touch the clouds!
If anyone could make Bo better, it was Boo! He could use the power of love, like in the stories!
Michael almost darted right out the door before getting stopped by Uncle T grabbing the back of his overalls.
“Hey, Michael! You gotta be quiet!”
“Why?”
“Because we’re uh playing hide and seek!”
“And we’re the hiders?”
“Right, we’re the hiders,” Uncle T said, placing a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “And-and you want to win, right?”
Michael nodded and put a finger to his lips.
Uncle T gave him a small smile and ruffled his fur.
“As sweet at this moment is,” Boss said as he looked out the window. “We’ve really gotta go,”
“You’re positive he’s moved?”
“Hundred percent,”
“Alright Michael, remember be quiet,”
+
Uncle T carried him downstairs. He said Michael had to close his eyes because Boss had thrown up on the carpet. Boss seemed offended by it but he shut his mouth as Uncle T’s glare.
When they got downstairs, Michael smelled the overwhelming scent of rust and iron. However, he could also smell Bo.
Why was Bo’s scent all over the place? Normally, it was mostly in one spot with traces of it everywhere else. Now, it was all mixed up.
Michael tried to look up but Uncle T shook his head.
“You can’t look yet Big Man,”
Normally, Michael might have stuck his tongue at him and looked anyway but this felt different. It felt more serious, more scary than normal.
So, he buried his head into the scarf Bo had given him and clutched his plushie even harder.
+
When they got outside, Michael was even more surprised.
The houses around him had their windows broken and blood splattered on the doors. Gardens had been trampled with their crops stolen. The apple tree his Dads had planted had been chopped down and it’s apples gone. The air smelled of smoke and that same rust that had been inside.
It made Michael tremble and he clutched Uncle T even tighter.
“It’s alright we’re almost there,”
Boss was walking ahead of them, anxiously fidgeting with a white stick in his mouth.
Then, he stopped and held an arm out in front of them.
“Foolish and Puffy, up ahead,”
Michael looked ahead.
There was a sheep lady with messy white hair stained brown and red. She had a cool pirate jacket on but the golden buckles didn’t shine anymore. The other was completely made of gold but his shark hat was torn and one of his emerald eyes had fallen out.
They were both shuffling along, the sheep clutching an axe and the golden one clutching a trident.
“Are they sick too Uncle T?” Michael whispered.
“Yeah, Big Man,” Uncle T said. “It’s really contagious Y’know?”
“What’s that mean?”
“Means it’s like a cold. If one person has it, it’s real easy for it to spread,”
“Oh. Can we leave some bowls of soup of for them?”
“Maybe later Big Man,”
The three snuck past the seekers, ducking behind rocks and trees. They stepped over tree branches and puddles of water.
They really wanted to win hide and seek, Michael supposed.
Uncle T glanced back one more time at the Sheep Lady, looking sadly at her shuffling.
“Sorry, Puffy,” he said and Michael reached up to wipe the tears from his eyes.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a game,”
Uncle T just sighed and silently followed Boss.
He could see a van on the horizon, it’s front window boarded up and the table outside put up against the door.
Michael beamed, trying to wiggle out of Uncle T’s arms so that he could rush inside.
Boss moved the table and walked up to the door, giving it three quick taps and two slow knocks.
He heard someone running to the door and then it was flung open.
It was Boo! Boo looked dirtier and sadder than normal but it was Boo!
Boo’s eyes went from Boss to Uncle T right down to him.
“Oh my God, Michael,” he said, falling down to his knees. “Thank you both so much, I thought he was-”
Uncle T finally put Michael down and he ran to Boo’s open arms. Boo immediately wrapped him up into a tight hug, squeezing him so hard that Michael was worried his plushie would get squished.
“Michael, are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m alright but Bo’s sick. When Hide and Seek is over, can you make him some soup?”
He felt Boo let out a choked gasp.
“Tommy is he-is Tubbo?”
“Yeah he’s-I had to” Uncle T took a shaky breath. “He’s not alright,”
Then, Boo started to cry.
“Sweetheart I’m sorry,” Boo said, crying even though last time he did that his cheeks had gotten red lines on them that Bo had said Michael couldn’t touch. “Your-Bo isn’t coming home,”
Boo and Uncle T were both crying but why?
Bo had to come home because Bo had said they would always be together!
He had to! Michael needed both of them!
Then, Michael started to cry too as the two clutched each other even tighter.
Now he knew. He knew in his heart.
Bo was sick.
He wasn’t ever gonna get better.