Work Text:
Maybe it was the near death experience, and he’s just going insane. Maybe there were chemicals in the water that infected his brain, and Carmelo wasn’t effected because he wasn’t in there as long as him.
Tobias is definitely not acting.. like Tobias. How would someone with competence explain this ? Even before that whole ‘jumping off a bridge’ thing, there were times Tobias wasn’t acting like.. you know, a normal human being. There were times he’d be acting twisted and .. weirdly sensual— the way this is being described makes it sound like he only acts crazy sometimes , when it’s definitely more often than not. But this was a different kind of different.
Instead of his usual madman weird, he was more of a.. childish weird. Exact opposite of how he normally is— more so reminiscent of Rudolph from a month ago. It’s been a while since Rudolph has seemed as chippy as Tobias was right now. Halloween really messed him up.
Carmelo watched as Tobias skipped down the stone paths, trails of water leaking behind them both. They were absolutely soaked. The only light they had was what little the moon was reflecting and a few flickering lampposts next to already dead ones, adding that it was windy.
Being cold and wet wasn’t as fun as you’d think it was, but Tobias didn’t seemed bothered, more unaware if anything. Almost seemed like he barely even knew where they were with the amount of stopping-and-staring he did every few seconds.
Wait.
Frantically looking around, Carmelo immediately configured that they were lost and probably and in deep shit too. There wasn’t even a sign , or a notable landmark— at least not one that he could see, considering it was pitch black outside.
“Tobias, wait,” pulling out his phone, he scrolled through his contacts; trying to think of who’d be able help in this situation. Tobias, who was ahead of Carmelo by a few feet, turned around to see what he wanted. Unable to understand the severity of being lost at night, he made over to where Carmelo had stopped—unaware of the panic that was seeping into the other’s bones.
The teacher— where was Mr Abi’s number? He definitely gave it to him— and Carmelo definitely blocked and deleted it out of spite. Francis? No, he wasn’t going to reply. Probably just leave him on read or delivered.
Emilio! Emilio could totally help. They were smart— right? They’d know where they were. Carmelo tapped the ‘Call’ button and just prayed he was awake this late at night.
The phone rang an uncomfortable amount of time, and Tobias was clearly growing bored of just standing there.
A scratchy sound emitted from the phone before Emilio’s voice came through.
“Carmelo? Why are you..where are you?? the teachers—“
“That’s what I’m calling you for.. uhm, me and Tobias got lost. Do you think—“
“ Lost?? Why were you guys out in the first place?! It’s 2am! ”
“ Shut up, I know! I have genuinely no idea where we are. Can you help?”
A dragged out sigh and a moment of silence. “Okay. Are there any street signs? Any stores you can name?”
Carmelo looked around, seeing Tobias was now sitting on the ground with his knees hugged to his chest. The cold was getting to him. Squinting, he was able to make out a few buildings.
“There’s a Food Lion next to a dress store.”
“Oh, I know where you are. I’ll send you directions back to the manor.”
“Okay, thanks. Bye,” is what Carmelo tried to say, but Emilio hung up before he could realize. A long exhale and he looked down towards Tobias, who had started to appear agitated in the slightest. The look of blooming annoyance dissipated when he noticed Carmelo was off the phone though.
He made some gestures with his left hand, fingerspelling ‘cold’ in sign language. Carmelo was able to understand the ‘col’ part. “ Maybe, we wouldn’t be so cold if you didn’t jump into a river.” He earned a glare with that, but even that had childlike nature to it— like Tobias was pouting more than glaring. Still, Carmelo glared back. Nothing could relinquish his pettiness, not even a guy who probably just went crazy after trying to commit.
Carmelo joined Tobias on the ground, figuring it’d take a while for Emilio to come through with the text; let it be well-known he wasn’t the fastest typer. He could write like the speed of light, but when it came to texting, it could take 5 minutes for him to type out a full sentence.
—
Tobias was practically falling asleep as they walked; slumped and slowed with the tired that befell him in the time it took for Emilio to send the directions.
The good news was that they weren’t that far, maybe a good 10 minute walk if you were in a hurry. But with the pace they were going, a snail could make it before them.
Carmelo was tempted to grab Tobias by the arm and just drag him. It was cold, dark, and dangerous. The echoes of their steps sounded like a third pair of feet tracing behind them at times, which sent a shiver down Carmelo’s spine every time.
-
When they finally arrived back at the manor, Emilio, Mr. Abi, and the counselor were all standing at the enormous doorway. Mr. Abi was very visually distressed, Mrs. Morris seemed annoyed.
“Boys! Where were— why are you wet? That— That doesn’t matter, nevermind. Where were you two this late at night? What if you couldn’t get ahold of Murkemere?! And we wouldn’t even be able to call the police because of that ‘48 hours’ thing and — whatever. Whatever. You two are going to go inside, put on dry clothes, and go to sleep. You’re not exempt from waking up at 7.”
Mrs. Morris lectured, Tobias tensed while Carmela stood annoyed. He was fine as is without being told off, thank you very much. Mrs. Morris walked inside and Mr. Abi stayed off to the side, probably to ensure they don’t run off again.
Emilio stood from his spot on the ground and grabbed Tobias by the shoulders, he flinched but that didn’t stop Emilio from inspecting him, clearly checking for injuries.
“Wow, thanks so much for caring about me, Emilio.” Carmelo remarked, Emilio only responded with a glare while still holding Tobias’s shoulders.
“You two are soaking and were lost at 2am. I’ll ask what happened inside.”
Emilio lead them both inside (mostly leading Tobias, Carmelo just followed and Mr. Abi had lit a cigarette so he wasn’t expected to follow.)
Inside, they went to their dorm and changed as Emilio stood outside waiting for either one of them to open the door so he could interrogate them.
Carmelo was the first to be unfortunately greeted.
Now he was the one with Emilio’s hands on his shoulders. Emilio stared at him with his classic ‘Derange Emilio face’, and spoke a very simple question through gritted teeth.
“ Where were you .” Emilio shook Carmelo a little with every word he spoke, which upped the fear factor. “Why are you blaming me?! He’s the one that wanted to run off! I couldn’t just let him go off on his own!”
Emilio gripped Carmelo’s shoulders with a hardened force before releasing him, sighing and looking away.
“Whatever. Is Tobias okay?” Someone obviously had a favorite.
“Thank you so much for caring Emi. And I don’t think so. He’s been acting weird all night. He also jumped off a bridge so,”
“He what ?”
“It’s 3am, I have to sleep. Ask him about it. since you two are so addicted to staying awake .” The last bit came out in more of a huff, and Emilio was too blank minded to care.
Tobias jumped off a bridge?
-
Carmelo unceremoniously flopped onto his bed, only having a moment of relaxation before there was a heavy knocking on the door. He groaned as he got up, but Tobias was at the door before he was.
“Car— Tobias?” Emilio spared him a worried glance but peeked over Tobias to see where blue-haired boy was, “Carmelo, I have a favor to ask.”
“What do you want? Why can’t I sleep already?”
“We have to switch rooms for the night.”
“What? No— I’m not—“
“Carmelo, it’s just for one night. You’ll be fine.”
“Whatever. What room are you in?”
“207.” Tobias had shifted out the way at this point, not wanting to be in the middle of this. Carmelo took his phone and the charger ,pushing through Emilio, missing the “ Brat. ” they hissed as he continued down the hall.
Tobias sat uncomfortably on his bed. Uncomfortably, because this was a very tense conversation to him, also because the mattress was as firm as his one at home.
Emilio looked to Tobias, who’d lost that energy from earlier, now uncomfortably fidgeting with his hands. “Tobias,” Emilio started, unsure if this was truly something to be discussed.
“Carmelo told me what happened.” Tobias didn’t show a lot of emotion to this, which is something else, considering he was usually emotive. Even if he liked to act like he wasn’t.
He looked more confused than anything else; like he was waiting for Emilio to say something more . It brought more concern to seep through Emilio. He’d already been boiling with stress at how Tobias & Carmelo had been gone before he got Carmelo’s call— the emotional mess they’d been trying to sort through had been thrown askew when Carmelo told them about the bridge.
The two held an uncomfortable minute of eye contact in silence. Emilio wasn’t ready to give up yet. They moved to sit on the foot of Tobias’s bed, hesitating when the other tensed heavily and scooted further ever so slightly to the corner.
He slowly sat, ensuring his actions were predictable so the other wouldnt get caught off-guard by something.
Okay. Cool, they’re next to Tobias and the topic of how he jumped of a bridge has already been brought up, so now all they had to do was continue. Yeah. Okay. Easy. Yeah. Uhm.. how do you continue a conversation like that?
Emilio reached into their pocket for their phone, opening the notes app to quickly jot down their stress since they currently didn’t have their notebook. ( Well, it wasn’t as quick as you’d assume, but he was definitely typing at a pace slightly faster than usual.)
Unbeknownst to Emilio, Tobias had quietly started scootung closer to the other— just enough to look at the screen of the device. Only when the bed creaked dramatically under the slight shift of weight did Emilio look up from his phone.
“Tobias?”
Tobias pointed to what Emilio held, an unreadable expression on his face as he did.
“My phone?”
A nod,
“…Did you want it?”
Another nod, this time more enthusiastic.
Emilio hesitated.
What if this tainted him? His perfection would dull. He’d be ruined.
It’s fine, it’s fine, he decided. Vanessa watched stuff on Emilio’s phone all the time.
“I can put on a cartoon, wait one second.”
Tobias faltered with disappoint to not immediately getting it, but said nothing; keeping his streak of silence.
Barely a moment went by before Emilio handed Tobias the phone, mumbling “Here,” as the screen turned horizontal. Phone in hands, Tobias watched the screen. Loud. Well, not loud— per-say, more noisy. And vibrant. Overwhelming. Questionable too, why were those humanoid turtles in costumes? He grimaced. Tobias decided he didn’t want the phone anymore; handing it back to Emilio.
Emilio let out a soft laugh, “You don’t like the Ninja Turtles, it seems,” They exited out of the show and started scrolling through the alphabetically assorted cartoons Netflix provided.
Maybe a movie would be better, Emilio thought, opening ‘The Sea Beast’, a newer movie compared to the last. They turned back to Tobias, offering the device again when Tobias shook his head, bringing his hand his face with spread fingers then closing them while bringing it to his chin. ‘Sleep . ’
Emilio watched as Tobias then sat back, turning to his side to face the wall.
“O…kay…”, with honesty, Emilio was still recovering from how Tobias had jumped off a bridge, their mind burning with questions as to why. Though, they understood they weren’t going to get an answer tonight, especially when Tobias is asleep and Carmelo as stubborn as ever. With how Tobias was in general, and don’t get them wrong, Emilio still stood high with his adoration for Tobias, they doubted they would ever know with the secretive habits he maintained.
Emilio looked down at Tobias with a saddened sympathetic look.
“Goodnight, then.” Surveying a bit longer, and stalling going to sleep themself, just to avoid the dreams their medication brought them— Tobias was under no blanket, which could grow to be a concern with the coldness that had started seeping in from the outside. “You should get under the blankets, you’re already risking a cold.”
No response.
Not even an inch of movement.
He was definitely asleep.
With a sigh they pulled the blankets out from under him, which did cause a stir that threatened wake, but he calmed down soon enough.
They gently replaced the blanket over Tobias, who was curled in on himself with the tips of his finger nails in his mouth. Emilio had half the mind to pry his hand away— a habit grown from keeping Vanessa from sucking her thumb since she was teething and they didn’t want her to mess up her teeth.
Still, Emilio left Tobias as is, allowing him to continue, even if it did leave them if not a little more worried. Not once has Tobias ever exhibited behaviors that include biting nails.
Emilio looked to the clock, which with red text read 3:46. 4 hours of sleep, and that’d only be if they were able to calm the nagging in their mind.
It’s fine, they’ve managed through days on less sleep than that.
Emilio turned off the lamp Carmelo had turned on when he first entered, carefully making their way back to the unkept that had been inhabited by the aforementioned.