Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Hey! Finally found the tissues!" As you took the box and walked back, you could definitely see that you were the only leg keeping him up.

You've been Thomas Flyswatter's loyal sidekick for a while now. He was a joy to be around, if you were completely honest. His personality really drew you in, how he was so hellbent on certain things, one of them trying his absolute to destroy a bug that you haven't even heard of. Bugbo.

When asking Thomas who Bugbo was and why he hated them, he proceeded to go on a rant about it, going off-topic multiple times, not as if you minded though. It sounded like he was secretly excited to almost sort of infodump as to why he detested this insect with a passion of 1000 fires.

It was a very specific day that Thomas was going to put his elaborate plan into action. A plan that he would not stop talking about. Unfortunately, you accidentally locked yourself in your own house for a day and couldn't find the keys. You found them in your washing machine. So you didn't exactly get to see any of it go down.

When you did eventually get out of there and practically bolted it up Mt. Bobo to check on Thomas to see if he actually did it, you were greeted by a sopping wet cat on the floor. Except there was no cat, it was just Thomas. It was clear that he had been crying for a long, long time. The floor was practically soaked with his tears. It took you several minutes to pull him off of the floor and to attempt to calm the saddest flyswatter you had ever seen.

Through broken sobs you had pieced together the story that he HAD captured Bugbo, but his friends came to save him last minute. Classic. For the most part you were just sitting next to him and every so often patting his back (if you could even call it that) and giving him tissues. Alot of tissues.

You were trying to ignore that Thomas's head was 2D and therefore it should've been impossible for him to cry, let alone this much, but then again there were giant anthropomorphic bugs roaming around so this didn't seem too out of pocket.

Also, you had NO idea if you were even doing anything, since Thomas was still sobbing like a baby. You'd heard that it was best to give people their space when they were sad, but it was clear that it definitely wasn't working. You weren't exactly the best at physical affection either and since you and Thomas haven't even done as much as walk besides each other, so you had that as well.

You shifted a bit closer to Thomas, he didn't seem to notice as he was still crying. You decided to try and say something, anything even. "Hey man," You began whilst inching closer. "It's ok, uh- there's always next time." That was enough for him to turn to you, he probably couldn't see you because of the tears swelling up in his eyes.

"Dont worry Thomas, it'll be alright." You said reassuringly. As you finally inched close enough, you managed to take him into your arms, wrapping them around him. For a moment, he remained silent. You were just praying that you hadn't made him more upset. The feeling of his tears soaking into your clothes was a weird feeling, too.

He eventually hugged you back, the tears becoming less. It was an odd feeling considering that he was basically a pole. It didn't matter. At least you had somewhat calmed the guy down. He wasn't inconsolable or anything, just practically drenched in tears. You stopped hugging him for a moment to look at him, to see if you were doing any good.

Thomas had thankfully stopped crying, but his face was still wet. He just stared at you, all poker-faced. It was a bit funny to be honest but you didn't wanna be rude. "Are you good now?" Do you need any more tissues??" You asked. His eyes looked away from you.

"I.." He began whilst looking back at you. "I don't know." Well, it was good that he was actually talking and not babbling. “That’s ok, do you want another hug?” You asked Thomas, stretching your arms out. His sadness had almost disappeared, which was good.

But it almost felt as if it was replaced with nervousness. You lowered your arms a little bit. “Wait.” Thomas blurted out. You lifted them up again. He stammered for a moment. He had no idea what he was doing, dumbass.

“What’s the matter?” You asked. He looked at you, flustered. “Uh- i know this is gonna sound super dumb, but i’m not exactly the best at giving hugs.” He said whilst looking off. You completely lowered your arms and instead took his hands(???) into yours, which caught his attention.

“Don’t worry about it! We’ve already hugged it out! Now let’s get up because im getting pins and needles.”

Chapter Text

Things were certainly silent after the whole 'crying' incident.

Thomas was gladly not a soppy crying mess anymore, but he certainly wasn't back to normal. He was avoiding you. Refusing to talk to you. It felt as if he didn't want you around. Any time you tried to communicate with Thomas, he would visibly back away from you or ignore you. And it hurt. Especially after you two had that somewhat touching moment just a while ago.

It's not as if you could ask anyone else what was up with Thomas, there was no one else about. (Except Thomas's butler, but you barely knew him and you didn't expect Thomas and his butler to be like Batman and Alfred.) So you were just sitting there, wondering who you go talk to. Was there anyone else that knew about Thomas? Anyone that he knew??

A sudden idea pinged in your head.

You knew what you had to do. The difficult part was actually trying to find him. Eventually, after some searching you managed to find a photo that wasn't too vandalised. "Ok, a giant pink bug. That shouldn't be too hard." You said to yourself as you slipped out of the lair.

Walking around and occasionally glancing at the photo you had of who you assumed to be "Bugbo" was certainly a situation that didn't exactly expect, but if Thomas wasn't gonna talk to you, perhaps someone could give you advice. It took you a while to actually find Bugbo, though.

When you did, the conversation you had was certainly... strange.

"Uh- hey guys?" You awkwardly blurted out as you stumbled towards Bugbo and his group of what you assumed to be his friends. As the tall bug turned around to look at you, you stopped to realize how damn tall he was. Taller than Thomas.

"Oh, i didn't see you there!" Bugbo said whilst staring down at you. His friends were also looking at you. One of them was a spider. He looked very silly, but in a good way. The other one was a man with a gradient head. He waved to you. You cleared your throat to talk.

"So, uh- Bugbo. Yknow that guy who um- kidnapped you a while ago?" You stuttered alot since Bugbo was creeping you the fuck out. The spider looked up at them. "Bugbo, what are they talking about?" The spider asked. "I don't know." She immediately responded.

"You know," You began. "The flyswatter guy? Thomas Flyswatter??" Bugbo's head slightly tilted to the side. "Doesn't ring a bell, sorry pal." And with that, he walked off with the spider trailing behind him. The gradient guy was still there though. He was writing something. When he was finished, he handed you the paper.

'I know who you're talking about. What about him?' The paper said. You looked back up at him. "Well, uh.. I don't really know on how to explain this, but I'll try." You began. And with that, you told this random guy that you had never met before about the incident that happened a day ago. He listened to you, which was nice.

"And now, he won't talk to me. It's almost as if he doesn't like me anymore. He won't tell me what i've done." you finished, sighing. He started to write again. 'Talk to him, through whatever means.' You looked back up to see what he meant, but he was gone. Disappeared.

Fuck.

Walking back with the paper in hand, you pondered as to what he meant. "Through whatever means..." you said to yourself. He won't talk to you, how would you get him to? After all, he's been actively avoiding you. It was gonna be hard, but surely you could do it.

Returning to Thomas's lair, it was ominously quiet. Usually the place was filled with sounds, echoing and bouncing off of the walls, but now it was just nothing. It put you off. This couldn't go on anymore. It was time to act.

"Thomas?" You called into the abyss, your voice echoing and reverberating. It appears that your yell had fell on deaf ears, as no one responded. It was chilling, to say the least. "Listen, i- i need to talk to you." You called again. Silence answered back to you again. All you could hear was your breathing, it was almost as if you could hear your own heart beating as it pumped blood around your body.

You could also hear... another sound. Something machine-like. A movement was caught from the corner of your eye. It was a camera, those damned cameras. You then realised what was happening, but pretended not to notice it. You started to walk down the large metal hallway, knowing that you were being watched.

"You can't hide from your problems forever, it'll only make them bigger." You remarked. A scratchy noise made your ears prick up. It was the speaker. "I assure you, Y/N. I am NONE of your concern!” It was Thomas, he sounded really nervous and shaky which only worried you more.

“Yes you are, now come out, wherever you are. I’m here for you.” You pleaded. He responded with a sigh. “Very well.”

Chapter Text

The door opened. Thomas was sitting in one of those little spinning chairs. "Hiiii....." He said nervously. You could tell that he was itching to get this over with as he was all fidgety in his chair. You took another spinning chair and sat in front of him.

"Thomas, have i done anything to upset you?" He immediately shook his head. "No, no! You haven't done anything! It's not you." He stuttered. "It feels as if i have. You've been avoiding me." You began. "Is there anything you need to tell me? I'm not just your sidekick, i'm your friend."

Even though you were certain that Thomas had no blood, you could still tell that he was flustered. He was also inching away from your chair whilst trying not to look at you which was a dead giveaway, too. This caught you way off guard, in the worst way possible.

No, that's ridiculous. You couldn't possibly feel anything for Thomas, right? And he certainly didn't feel that way about you. Definitely. He finally spoke. "I... don't know what to do." He said before fidgeting again. "Tell me how you feel." You blurted out, accidentally speaking before you thought.

He looked up at you, almost surprised. "Huh?" You put one of your hands on his(?) to see if your suspicions were correct, and as you thought, they were. He went weirdly silent. "Well, there is something i feel as if i need to say.." He began. You moved your chair closer and leaned in.

"Its mostly about the- the hug. I've never been hugged before." He was looking down and fidgeting with his hands a lot more now. "It was uh- really nice." He stammered a bit but you didn't mind. The feeling that you were broadly denying kept coming back, stronger and stronger.

"Is that all you needed to tell me?" You asked. He shook his head. "No, there's something else i- i need to say." He managed to look you in the eyes. "You've- made me... feel something." At this point Thomas was practically shaking. It was starting to rub off on you as you felt your face going slightly red.

"Uh- like what?" You blurted out again. The awkwardness of the situation was sinking in like a weight in water. "I have no idea, that's why ive been.. avoiding you. I've never felt this way about anyone." In an instant you stood up from your chair and picked Thomas up by the arms. You sat back down with Thomas gently sitting in your lap.

You did it so quickly that Thomas didn't even have the chance to talk or even react. "What are you doing." He bluntly asked. "I don't know, sorry." You replied. As you started to get him off of you, you felt his hands(?) cling onto you. "No, i like this." You stopped and the both of you just sat there, silent.

"I've gotten used to having you around." Thomas said. "Same." You replied. He turned to look at you. "Promise me that you'll never leave." You held out your pinky, His eyes squinted. "I- I don't have pinkies. At least not anymore." He managed to squeeze your pinky into one of the holes in his "hands" and you guys "pinky promised".

After that you guys just sort of stared at each other. Thomas was still acting a bit weird though, he kept shooting glances at your mouth. It was putting you off a bit and you had no idea why. Why was he doing that? Why did he keep looking at your lips??

Oh.

In an instant you could feel your face flushing up again. Thomas hadn't seemed to notice. It was getting really hard to not say anything. Your mind was starting to race, as well. Like- how would kissing a flyswatter even work? Did he even wanna kiss you?? Does he just miss having lips or something???

“Y/N, are you ok?” You heard Thomas say, in the heat of the moment you accidentally spoke your mind. “Do you wanna kiss?” You blurted out. Thomas was speechless and just stared at you, poker faced. “I-I wish i could, but you know I don’t have lips.”

Chuckling, you placed your hands on his cheeks, his blush intensifying. “I don’t mind.” And with that, you planted a firm kiss on his forehead. It was so cute seeing his face go completely blank. He quietly giggled to himself. “Why are you giggling? Am i that bad at kissing?” You asked, playfully.

He continued giggling louder this time. “No, it’s just that I haven’t felt something like that in a long time.” He said whilst pulling himself in for another hug. You wrapped your arms around him and hugged him back. You were no longer Thomas’s sidekick. You were his partner.