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Tommy fucking hated Purpled.
The prick could never leave Tommy alone or let him have a moment without making some dry ass comment to rile him up. There was nothing but endless bickering and arguments between the two. Tommy didn’t know why Purpled hated him so damn much.
Probably because when Tommy introduced himself to him and heard Purpled’s name for the first time, Tommy naturally insulted it. Who names their kid ‘Purpled’ after all? Well, that kind of spiraled into the two hating each other's guts. Really, it wasn’t Tommy’s fault, he was just making a joke. And ‘Purpled’ was truly a shit name anyway.
“Heard you got the lead position in the next school play,” was the first thing Purpled said to him that day. The older teen slipped unfortunately very gracefully into the chair next to Tommy. Their stupid teacher had assigned seats, and he had been placed next to Purpled to ‘calm him down’ as if Purpled didn’t live to rile Tommy up at any given opportunity.
Tommy narrowed his eyes at him. “What’s it to you?”
Purpled and Tommy were both well recognized in the school. Not extremely popular by any means, but recognizable out of a crowd. Well, Purpled would be if he didn’t have the most uncanny ability to dissipate into the background at any given moment.
Tommy simply just had that kind of personality that was very well loved by most people. He had friends and acquaintances in nearly every grade level, had an elective in the counselor’s office where he mostly studied, talked to the staff, and delivered papers, packages, or whatever else to different classes and teachers.
Purpled was in the school’s football team – or soccer if you’re a lame American – and dabbled in plenty of other sports – basically in all the sports clubs but only on the soccer team. Tommy didn’t know all the specifics, but he didn’t care. All he knew was that Purpled had clutched up more games for the school than perhaps any other student in the school’s history. He was some star that not only the school loved but that the other sports teams wanted him to switch over because of course Tommy’s worst enemy was great at every other sport as well. He just preferred soccer from what Tommy understood.
Regardless Tommy wasn’t known for his theater stuff outside of the niche side of the school. Purpled had to have been looking into it specifically to learn about Tommy’s new position.
“Well, I was just shocked they wanted a loud-mouth brat taking up the main stage,” he snickered.
“Fuck you, bitch!”
“Mr. Innit!”
The smug grin Purpled gave him after the teacher yelled at Tommy, made the younger teen want to shove him out the chair.
“At least I have some class, you purple bitch boy,” Tommy harshly whispered. “I’d like to see you try acting. Maybe you could start by acting like a nice person for once, asshole.”
Purpled just quietly laughed, shaking his head. “Sure, only if I get to watch you play through a basketball match.”
At that, Tommy’s brows furrowed in confusion. “I thought you were on the soccer team?”
The older one shrugged. “I’m really into basketball at the moment. Boxing is my favorite, but they don’t offer that here.”
Tommy only hummed. He opened his mouth to ask about boxing before remembering he doesn’t care actually. He focused on pulling out his notebooks and textbooks – intentionally taking up part of Purpled’s desk – while waiting for the bell to ring and class to start. When Purpled pulled his own stuff out, he shoved Tommy’s book back onto his desk. Tommy shoved it back. The two fought over the space, waiting a few moments between shoving the book while they acted like there was nothing wrong.
Tommy had his teeth clenched, trying to yell at or insult Purpled. Purpled had the best composure and discipline out of anyone Tommy knew, and he was not about to get one upped. He wanted Purpled to snap first.
But eventually the bell rang, and Tommy shoved his book even further on Purpled’s desk than it originally was. To his surprise, Purpled didn’t say anything or shove it back. He didn’t even give a sigh of defeat or glare at Tommy. He just ignored it, making Tommy’s victory a lot less satisfying.
Whatever, Tommy rolled his eyes and refocused on the class.
When the lecture was over and the worksheet passed out, Tommy pulled out his sketchbook and began to doodle. He hadn’t followed the lecture at all and couldn’t understand the worksheet either. What was unfinished would become homework anyway, so he had time to do it later anyway. He tried to ignore the sound of Purpled’s pencil writing across the worksheet without pause, effortlessly completing it without issue as always.
One day he’s going to hear about the one thing Purpled can’t do and tease him about it endlessly. But for now all he could do was grumble about how perfect the other teen was.
Purpled was so perfect, in fact, that he got up to turn the worksheet in and then pulled out another assignment to finish. Tommy gritted his teeth when he saw ‘Extra Credit’ at the top. He refocused on his sketch when Purpled looked up at him, clearly wondering why the teen was staring.
Unfortunately for Tommy, he now had Purpled’s attention.
“Couldn’t rub enough brain cells together to do the assignment?” Purpled snickered.
Tommy glared at him from the corner of his eye. “What makes you think that?”
“Well, you normally give up and go to drawing when you can’t figure out basic academics,” the older teen snickered.
“Fuck you! I can figure out “basic academics”!" Tommy shouted, mocking Purpled.
“Mr. Innit! I will not tell you a third time!” their teacher scolded.
Tommy crossed his arms and slumped back in his chair, sinking down as Purpled snickered. Tommy flipped him off.
Purpled leaned over, pushing away Tommy’s sketchbook and grabbing the worksheet. For a moment Tommy got hopeful Purpled would do the assignment for him, but then remembered about his sports activity and his whole thing of academic excellence. Purpled wouldn’t be caught dead cheating.
Tommy groaned, realizing what was happening once Purpled picked up his pencil.
“So, here’s what you’re going to do,” Purpled started, getting way too close to Tommy as he hovered the pencil over the first question.
“I don’t need help,” Tommy grumbled. “I know how to do it.”
“Then do it,” Purpled challenged, dropping the pencil and leaning back into his own chair. But he didn’t go back to his extra credit assignment. He propped his head on his hand and watched with the smuggest grin Tommy has ever seen.
Tommy grumbled and grabbed his pencil, leaning over his assignment and trying to understand what the fuck was happening. But the math equation made no fucking sense to him, and he didn’t know what numbers to plug where into the formula given.
After staring at it and slowly writing down numbers, Tommy sighed and dropped his pencil. He let Purpled lean back over and teach him how to do it.
They didn’t have time to finish it in the class period, but at least Tommy actually understood enough of it now to do the rest on his own. He purposely didn’t thank Purpled as they packed up. When he looked up from his bag to make a snide comment about Purpled being a nerd, Purpled had already left, gone without a sound as usual. Tommy rolled his eyes and finished grabbing his stuff.
Purpled wasn’t in his next class, but they did share English together. Thankfully it wasn’t assigned seating, so Tommy got to sit in the middle of the room with his best friend, Tubbo. Purpled, despite his academic excellence bullshit and being a consistent honor roll student, always sat in the back corner when allowed to. He didn’t raise his hand to answer questions despite knowing the answers, and he didn’t care to talk to anyone.
Thankfully Tommy was much better at English than he was at math. Still not great, he was barely passing most of his classes, but he could knock out the assignment a lot easier. He pulled out his math assignment, deciding that now that he knew how to do it, it would be better to do it now than have more homework.
“I see you’re still on basic algebra,” Tubbo snickered, making Tommy roll his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m not in advanced math like you, nerd.” Tommy looked at the next question, tapping his eraser against the corner of his desk. He glanced at Purpled in the corner, working away at an assignment. Part of him hoped it was still the English assignment, but Purpled was probably on his third extra credit. “I hate that bitch so much,” Tommy grumbled under his breath, returning to his assignment.
Tubbo snickered. “I can help you jump him,” Tubbo said with a cruel grin.
“Tubbo, I appreciate you, but he’s fucking jacked and you know it.”
Tubbo just waved him off. “I see no muscles on him.”
Tommy glanced back at him, seeing the baggy purple sweater that he always wore that hid Purpled’s frame. Tommy technically didn’t know if Purpled was actually jacked or not, but he could assume so based on the older teen being a sports star and what he did hear from people who actually attended the sport games.
Tubbo reached across the space between them to tap Tommy’s shoulder, getting his attention back. “Let’s go to his next game,” Tubbo snickered. “We can corner him after, when he’s tired, and then jump him.”
Tommy shook his head. “You’re definitely going to jail someday.”
Tubbo snickered before gesturing Tommy closer to help him with Tubbo’s assignment, as he was excellent in math but awful in any other subject.
Tubbo didn’t drop the idea even by lunch time. Tommy sat at the edge of their table with Tubbo across from him and Ranboo next to Tubbo. They had other friends that came and went occasionally, but it was always these three in this same spot everyday.
“So, I looked it up,” Tubbo said with a vicious grin, holding out his phone to Tommy. “The next football game is next week-”
“Soccer,” Ranboo quietly corrected as he pulled out his food from his lunch box.
“And Purpled is one of the main guys. Front runners or something like that; I don’t know anything about football. But that means he’s guaranteed to be exhausted by the end of it.” Tubbo flicked to some of the promotional photos on the site, showing one of Purpled in middle of a kick.
Now Tommy had never seen Purpled play as he had no interest in sports whatsoever. But he expected to see Purpled’s smugness on full display. Tommy always imagined Purpled with his stupid smug grin, chin raised, arrogance on full blast as he knew and acted like he was the best damn player on the field.
Instead he only saw Purpled’s focus. His lips slightly parted as he was probably out of breath, his brows raised higher than usual, his purple eyes trained on the ball as he kicked it away from the blurry figure, and over all just a neutral, focused expression. Not exhausted, not panicked, not angry, not smug, just neutral and focused.
It did affirm one thing, though. Purpled was absolutely jacked. His legs especially brimmed with muscles, but his arms were well developed and his chest much broader than Tommy thought. Purpled’s sweater and sweatpants were clearly working overtime to hide all his muscles.
And with the force Purpled was kicking the ball with? Yeah, Tommy was even more against jumping Purpled. Tired or not, that man could probably crack their skulls open.
“Tubbo, we’re not jumping a star athlete. He’ll kill us.”
Tubbo just rolled his eyes. “Not if we have knives on us.”
“Did you want to jump him or kill him?!” Tommy asked, appalled. “I’m not getting arrested for your crazy ass ideas. Once we graduate, we’ll never have to deal with him again.”
“Oh come on! I already got tickets!” And to Tommy’s horror, Tubbo produced 3 tickets. Tommy sighed and buried his face in his hands. “We can at least go and try and figure out his weaknesses.”
Tommy leaned back in his chair, glaring at Tubbo. “He doesn’t fucking have any! That’s the problem! He’s this stupid perfect student who only picks on me because why the fuck not! He's on the honor roll, he’s a star athlete, he’s got scholarships to basically any school lined up already! He’s the biggest pain in my ass and there’s nothing we can do about it!”
Tubbo rolled his eyes. “I’m sure I can think of something. Maybe we can invite him to sit with us one day and poison him!”
Tommy looked over to where Purpled was sitting. It was hard to see him, but Tommy always knew where he liked to sit. He was with his sports buddies. Well, if you could call them buddies considering Tommy never saw Purpled actually talk to them too often. Or anyone really.
Tommy shook his head. “Yeah like that wouldn’t be the most obvious thing ever. ‘Hey! This kid that died of arsenic? Yeah it’s so strange how it happened immediately after he sat and ate with different people for once. Must be a coincidence!’ You seriously expect them to fall for that?”
Tubbo rolled his eyes. “I’m just trying to help you with your problem! Whatever, you’re still coming with me to the game.”
“What? No the fuck I’m not.”
“Yes you are! I bought these for you, you’re coming!”
“I’ll go,” Ranboo said, wiping the crumbs off his fingers. Tommy wasn’t even sure if he had actually been paying attention until now.
“Obviously. And guess what? Tommy’s coming with us as well!”
“Sounds fun!” Ranboo chimed in before Tommy could argue back.
Tommy buried his face in his hands. “I’m. Not. Going.”
-----
The stadium already smelled of sweat. It was unbearably hot out, and Tommy was already regretting letting Tubbo drag him along. And when Tubbo led him and Ranboo down to the first row, nearest to their school’s side of the field, Tommy groaned.
“Front row tickets!” Tubbo exclaimed proudly, taking the middle seat. Tommy barely got to sit down before Tubbo was slapping his arm and pointing into the field where the soccer teams were getting ready.
It took a moment to pick out Purpled. Obviously he didn’t have his purple sweater or dark gray sweatpants, and Tommy had to find his dirty platinum blond hair to pick him out. He was wearing the blue, yellow, and white uniform with his last name “Orion” on the back of his jersey.
He was stretching with some of his teammates, not paying any mind to the people beginning to fill out the stadium.
The game wasn’t packed as there were a lot more popular sports than soccer, but it was certainly busy. Tommy was leaned back in his seat, watching Purpled talk to his coach and teammates, stretch and get prepared for the game. He reluctantly grabbed the coke and nachos Tubbo handed him once the smaller had gotten back from his food run, just in time for the game to finally start.
Tommy really hoped Purpled literally broke a leg.
When Purpled jogged past their seats, he glanced out at the stadium before doing a double take when he recognized Tommy. Tommy expected him to scowl or give a smug grin or something.
But instead Purpled… smiled. At him. Purpled waved, his eyes lit up and the most excited Tommy had ever seen him. Tommy waved back and stared dumbfounded as Purpled continued jogging back to the rest of the team.
He turned to Tubbo and Ranboo to see if they could possibly shine some light on the interaction, but Tubbo was leaning over to Ranboo and pointing out their school’s dog mascot taking a shit on the field. Instead he refocused on their school’s team, not missing the glance Purpled through back at him or the small smile on the older’s face.
-----
Tommy lunged up from his chair screaming Purpled’s name as the older scored the final point for their school, breaking the tie and winning the game. He didn’t have time to be embarrassed, especially when Tubbo had also lunged forward and shaking the chain link fence between them and the field. The stadium was loud, cheering and hollering and “Orion” being chanted over and over as they celebrated the victory.
Tommy was determined to hate the game as much as he hated Purpled, but he was on the edge of his seat early on. It was a close game, and their school had been falling behind. Until they turned Purpled loose. The opposing team scored maybe one point after that as Purpled, with his shockingly excellent teamwork, incredible strategy, and pure athletic prowess trampled the other team. Tommy was so confused why they had Purpled hang back so much at first. He practically played the sidelines and supported the other players in making the plays.
Now he realized they were building the other team up to break them down even more satisfyingly.
“PURPLED!” He yelled out as the teams finished their victory laps and celebrations and were heading back to what Tommy could only assume was the locker rooms. “THAT WAS AWESOME!” He wasn’t entirely sure why he called for Purpled’s attention or decided to compliment his greatest enemy, but Tubbo was doing it to – and Ranboo but he was much too quiet – and Tommy was burning with adrenaline.
The smile on Purpled’s face though was nice to see. He waved at them, panting heavily and – Tommy would reflect on later that night – walking funny. Tommy could almost see the blush on his face as Tommy and Tubbo screamed praises at him.
-----
Tommy had no idea how to go about seeing Purpled the next day at school.
He felt embarrassed over getting excited about Purpled clutching up the game. He had no doubt that Purpled was going to lord it over his head for the rest of their school lives.
The thought kind of flickered out when the older walked into their math class and sat next to him, his backpack thudding against the floor and seeming a lot more out of breath than Tommy would anticipate from a soccer player making what couldn’t be more than a three minute walk across the school. Maybe if the bell was about to ring Tommy could excuse it as Purpled rushing, but the bell had just rang and surely had a few more minutes before it would ring again and start class.
Then he remembered what he saw when Purpled had left the field. “Are you alright?” Tommy asked before he could think of it. Purpled looked over his shoulder at Tommy as he placed his notebook on his desk. Tommy scoffed and looked away. “Not that I care, obviously.”
Purpled chuckled as he continued pulling out his books. “Yeah, I just twisted my ankle before the game on Friday. It’s doing a lot better now, just need to stay off it as much as possible.”
“Oh,” Tommy responded as he looked over Purpled. He had a tiny smile, which was new. “Well… I hope you feel better soon.”
Purpled smiled at him. “Thanks. Also, thanks for showing up to the game. If I had known you’d be there, I wouldn’t have twisted my ankle, so I could show off more,” he snickered.
Tommy groaned and rolled his eyes. “Show off what? Your performance was dog-shit.” Tommy very intentionally avoided the smug smirk and raised brow Purpled was sending him.
-----
Tommy sat still in his seat backstage, letting Niki touch up his make-up. He was shaking a bit from nerves, but he had practiced and rehearsed far too often to be afraid of the stage now.
“Excited?” Niki asked as she began to put away her make-up bag. “You finally have the main role!”
Tommy took a deep breath and nodded. “Yep, just hope there’s no delays this time.”
Niki nodded. “I don’t want to get home at one a.m. again either.”
“Oooooh Macbeth! It’s almost time!” Their theater teacher sang, prancing past them towards the band. “Places everyone! Places!”
Tommy slid off the chair, allowed Niki to fix up his costume and grabbed his prop sword. He sheathed it into his costume’s belt and walked over to the curtains. As he did so, Fundy slammed into him, jumping up and down excitedly.
“Have you seen how many people there are? This is the fullest house I’ve ever seen!”
Tommy perked up at that and followed Fundy to the band’s stage’s curtains, carefully peering out. Immediately his lungs drained of breath. For once Tommy could barely make out any empty seats. And in the front row was Tubbo and Ranboo as usual. Ranboo wearing a yellow vest just barely hidden by his black suit jacket, and Tubbo wearing a red vest with a green button up because of course the two had to switch colors – definitely Tubbo’s idea, knowing Tubbo and seeing how uncomfortable Ranboo looked as he scooted away from the smaller.
And next to them was Purpled.
He was wearing a white button up and purple vest with black dress pants, very fancily dressed like most other people in the auditorium. His eyes were trained on the stage as he slouched in his seat and fidgetted with his sleeve.
Tommy couldn’t remember seeing him at any show before and a determination to show off in front of the perfect prince filled Tommy’s head. Purpled wasn’t the only person with talent.
“Guess people really want to see Macbeth,” Fundy giggled nervously.
“Where is my last witch?” Their teacher called. “We’re about to start!”
The two pulled their heads out of the side curtains, maneuvering around the instruments as Fundy pulled his witch hat on and rushed to the main stage. Tommy got into his own position, reciting his lines as he waited for his turn to be called on stage.
-----
Tommy’s heart was in his throat as he stood side by side with the other performers, holding hands and taking their final bow.
The auditorium was loud with applause and whistles, and Tommy winced from a rose banquet smacking him on the head. The loud laughter from Tubbo made it clear that he had probably done it.
As they rose up, Tommy couldn’t help but look at Purpled. The perfect prince, his greatest enemy, and the man he hated with a passion.
And Purpled was standing with the rest of the auditorium, clapping and smiling and looking… impressed.
Tommy took a deep breath as the curtains began to close and smiled.
-----
Tommy was walking to his math class, typing away to his dad when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced over it, expecting to see Tubbo or Ranboo looking for an early morning chat or any of his other friends.
Instead it was Purpled. Perfect, arrogant, sports star Purpled with his stupid perfect hair that never had a bad day, and flawless acne-free skin.
And for once, Tommy didn’t feel that bubbling hatred in his chest. Well, it was more like extreme dislike, but regardless, he didn’t feel the same disdain for the older.
“Hey,” he said, stepping into stride with Tommy. They began to walk to class together. Tommy didn’t hate it as much as he felt he should. Purpled then held an object in front of Tommy’s chest. “I got this for you.”
Tommy stared at it before carefully taking the horribly wrapped present. The wrapping paper was a holographic red that was painful on the eyes, and the gift was a thin box about the size of his palm. “What’s this?”
“Well, winter break is starting next week, so I figured I’d get you your gift early.”
Tommy couldn’t help but stare at Purpled, who kept walking and made his way into the classroom. Tommy eventually shook himself out of it and followed, sitting next to Purpled. As Purpled busied himself getting all his things, Tommy stared at his gift, turning it around a few times before looking over at Purpled.
“I didn’t get you anything…” he muttered.
Purpled scoffed, shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the point. You’re my friend, so I got you a gift. I didn’t have to get you anything, and you certainly don’t have to get me anything.”
Tommy continued to stare until Purpled finished getting all his stuff ready and looked back at Tommy. “What?”
“We’re friends?”
Purpled blinked then looked away, running his hand through his hair. This was the first sign of nervousness that Tommy had ever seen from him. “I’d consider you a friend, yeah.”
Tommy grinned. He grabbed his gift and opened it, gasping when he saw it was a set of pins with adorable cows on them. “Thank you! These are so cute!”
Purpled smiled, grabbing the wrapping paper into a ball. “Glad you like them.”
Tommy took out one of the pens as Purpled threw the wrapping away. It was a really nice pen as well, gliding smoothly along the corner of Tommy’s sketchbook. When Purpled sat next to him again, Tommy couldn’t help but look and smile at him.
-----
“So that wasn’t planned?” Tommy asked, struggling to unscrew the lid of his soup cup.
They were at lunch, Tubbo and Ranboo across from Tommy and Purpled sitting next to him, the four talking about the play.
“Nope! But when I saw Purpled there, I just knew we had to sit next to him and poison his drink,” Tubbo said, giving Purpled a manic grin.
Purpled was unfazed, merely raising a brow at him. “I didn’t have a drink.”
Tommy just rolled his eyes. “No more scheming to poison Purp.”
“Purp?” Purpled mumbled quietly. Tommy could just barely hear him over the loudness of the cafeteria.
“I was trying to do you a favor! You’re so ungrateful.” Tubbo rolled his eyes before slouching against Ranboo’s arm.
“I still can’t believe you considered me your greatest enemy,” Purpled chuckled, making Tommy look away in embarrassment. “And here I was, thinking you were my only friend outside of my sport clubs.”
“Shut up, if you weren’t such a prick then we’d have been friends sooner.”
“If you weren’t so stupid, you’d have realized we’re only friends because we’re both pricks.”
“Fuck you!”
Purpled snickered, covering his mouth with a sweater paw as he was unfortunately immune to Tommy’s smacks.
“Anyway,” Ranboo interrupted. “It was a really nice performance, Tommy.”
“Thank you!”
“Yeah,” Purpled agreed. “You were pretty great. Had a lot more personality than some of the other actors, barely felt like you were saying rehearsed lines at all.”
“Aww, thank you!” Tommy said, beaming at the praise.
“Yeah, it was almost shocking considering how talentless you normally are.”
Tommy paused for a moment as he listened to Tubbo cry in laughter, slowly processing what Purpled had said. Then he lunged at the older, batting at his shoulders and arms. “Fuck you! How dare you?! I’m going to kill you, you purple bitch!”
Purpled just laughed, only using one hand to keep Tommy away from his face. “You’re so stupid,” he wheezed out, his entire face scrunched with laughter.
Eventually, admitting defeat, Tommy crossed his arms, pouting and glaring at his still unopened soup cup.
“Purpled, I need you to stay forever,” Tubbo wheezed out, wiping at his nose. “You’re too funny.”
Purpled smiled, ducking his head to hide his face as he reached over to effortlessly open Tommy’s soup cup. Tommy was starting to see that Purpled was actually pretty shy. “Here you are, Tommy.” When Tommy kept glaring at the cup, Purpled rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, not sounding very sorry. “Now quit being dramatic.”
Tommy glared at him. “I hate you.”
Though this time, he found he didn’t mean it in the slightest.