I glanced at sideways at Tommy, who was hastily sending someone a text on his phone.

"So... wanna tell me what that was about?" I asked quietly.

"What what was about? I don't know what you mean." He said swiftly, sending his text and shoving his phone in his pocket.

"Why did you look like your whole family had just been killed in front of you?" I let out a small laugh. I hadn't intended on using Puffy's metaphor.

"I didn't. Just... concerned. Deactivator has the most useful power of the vigilantes, in my opinion." Tommy said with a shrug.

"I guess... so you think vigilantes are a good thing?"

He grinned. "Hell yeah. Defeating evil, but they're illegal, so they aren't all totally a goody two shoes."

"Ah, I see." I chuckled. "My mistake."

"Adapt seems like a goody two shoes though. Aargh, Tubbo isn't answering my messages." He muttered with an annoyed glance at his phone.

"Let me try." I pulled out my phone.

Me-

Hey bro :D

"I've tried to message him like six times, what makes you think that-"

A notification popped up on my phone.

Bee Boy (very awesome brother)-

Greetings, friend. Why have you summoned the Bee Boy?

"WHAT?!" Tommy yelped.

"He has you muted while he's working, Tommy." I said pointedly. "He says you send him a message every minute of the day."

Me-

Raccoon boy's been trying to text you. I think it's important 🤔 🦝🚶🚶‍♂️

"That's not- okay, while that may be true-" I let out a snort of laughter at Tommy's attempt to defend himself.

"Come on, stop slacking off and get back to work, child."

"I'M NOT A CHILD, I'M EIGHTEEN IN LIKE TWO WEEKS!" He yelled.

"You will still always be a child in my mind, raccoon boy." I said with a small laugh, guiding him out of the back room.

Karl looked up with a small smile. 'All good?' He mouthed.

I nodded.

"Okay, Tommy I need you take this to Table 16." He passed a hot chocolate to Tommy, who nodded, glancing over at the table. His eyes widened in surprise as he spotted a boy sat there.

The boy's hair was two colours, split in the middle. One half was black and one half was blonde. I recognised him as the kid Lucendi had yelled at for eavesdropping.

"OI, RANBOO!" Tommy called, rushing over with the drink. The boy, presumably Ranboo, looked up, a smile appearing on his face as he recognised Tommy.

Oh, that's Ranboo. Tubbo had mentioned a new friend with that name a couple of months back, but I hadn't thought much of it.

Tommy seemed to have brightened, chattering excitedly to his friend, who looked a mix of surprised and pleased to see the blonde at the cafe.

"Good call. Did you know they were friends?" I muttered to Karl, who nodded.

"I've seen them with your brother- Tubbo, right?- a few times."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's his name. And that makes sense. Tubbo mentioned him a while ago..."

"Ah, I see. Ooo, new customer!" Karl said brightly.

It was a man with messy dyed green hair and dark gray hoodie. His eyes were green as well, and he had a small scar on the bridge of his nose.

He stared at me for a moment, frowning.

"Hello! Welcome to Cara's, what can I get you?" Karl asked politely, trying to step in front of me. He was obviously also wondering why I was being stared at.

"Oh! Um, a black coffee please."

"Of course! Take a seat at Table 18-" My friend pointed at the table. "-and I'll bring it right over."

"Do you know that guy?" Karl muttered as the man walked away.

"No... he seems familiar though." The brunette nodded, shooting me a skeptical glance.

"I see. You okay bringing him his drink?" Karl queried as he began making the drink.

"Yeah." He nodded, passing me the black coffee only moments later.

I cautiously walked over to the man's table, handing him his drink.

"Thanks, Y/N." He said with a mischievous smile.

Wait- what?! Hang on- I know that voice-

"Crepitus?!" I whispered with a small gasp.

"Well done. Your brain works." He said with a laugh. Crepitus paused. "Although it'd be better if you called me Sam instead of Crepitus when I'm not doing hero stuff."

"Ah, ok. When did you get out of hospital?" I asked curiously.

"Yesterday. But I still have to wait a week or two before I go back to hero work for 'safety reasons'." Sam rolled his eyes. "I don't see why- Zaeim got to go back to being a hero almost immediately."

"Actually, he had to wait a week or two as well. You severely underestimated the amount of time you've been in hospital, Sam."

He smiled slightly. "I mean, how was I supposed to know how long it had been? I was in hospital. Remember?"

"I remember." I muttered quietly.

I remembered the agonisingly long wait for the other heroes as I tried to wake Sam up.

I remembered panicking for about an hour straight as the doctors checked him over.

I remembered waiting for hours every time I visited, wondering if he was going to ever wake up.

Apparently getting into a fight with a villain while having a knife stuck in his back hadn't really been the best course of action for Crepit- Sam.

"Oh, by the way, guess what?" I asked excitedly, trying to change the subject.

"What?" He asked, looking slightly intrigued.

"I've started training to-"

I was cut off by a yell from Karl. "Y/N! More customers! Are you done gossiping?"

"I'm not gossiping- I'll tell you later. Bye Sam." I shot him a smile, before rushing over to Karl.

"So what happened?" My co worker asked, intrigued.

"Oh, he's an old friend." I lied. "I haven't seen him for a while, so I didn't recognise him at first."

"Ah, that makes sense. Well, we have more customers." He pointed to the two men stood next to the counter.

My eyes widened as I recognised one of them as Will. The other was a man with short blonde hair that reminded me of Tommy's. His blue eyes were reminiscent of the blonde teen as well. He was about the same height as Will, although noticeably older (but not really old), and he had a green hoodie.

"Will! Glad to see you back. And this is?" I asked, turning to the stranger.

"You know this person, Will?" The man asked. I discovered that he had a British accent which was much more noticeable than Will's.

"I've been here before with Techno. Oh, uh, this is Phil. My dad." Will's gaze lingered on me. "I don't think I caught your name last time."

"Y/N. And if you're looking for Tommy, he's over there." I pointed at Tommy, who was in the middle of a loud conversation about a video game with Ranboo. I cleared my throat meaningfully, and Tommy looked over.

"Will!" His eyes brightened as he spotted Phil. "DADZA!" He broke off from his conversation with Ranboo, who looked more amused than anything, to rush over to his brother and father.

"Dadza?" I asked Will, slightly amused.

"It's a nickname." He explained, slightly embarrassed. "Can I get, um... a hot chocolate?" I nodded, unsurprised by the common order.

"Of course- I'll get it to you right away. Take a seat wherever. And you, Phil?"

"Oh, I don't want anything- just wanted to check up on Tommy." He frowned, and then his eyes widened, as if he had realised something. "You're Schlatt's (daughter/son/child) Y/N, right?"

"I am. How do you know that?" I asked slightly suspiciously.

"I'm old friends with your father." He explained hastily, echoing the lie I had told Karl only moments earlier.

"I see. Well, I'll get you your order now, Will."

I glanced over at where the heroes had been sat. They had left without me noticing, clearly finished with their conversation about the vigilante Deactivator.

🤔