'Some angler catching fish with a quivering rod, or a shepherd leaning on his crook, or a ploughman resting on the handles of his plough, saw them, perhaps, and stood there amazed, believing them to be gods able to travel the sky.'

Ovid, VIII.183-235

Purpled was in the middle of a meeting. It was a boring meeting. He wasn't even needed for anything, but Punz insisted he be there.

Punz insisted on bringing Purpled to meetings with him despite his insistence that he's not going into the mercenary business. Still, he got dragged off to yet another meeting. Had it been anyone else, Purpled probably would have shot him in the leg and walked away, but he could hardly say no to his brother. They may not share so much as a drop of blood but brothers are brothers, you gotta give in a little with them.

Punz was talking to some shmuck with a green cloak about some bullshit, Purpled wasn't paying attention, they've met with this guy multiple times but now he seemed to have convinced Punz to work with him for something.

Resigning himself to stand by the wall and zone out for the next half hour, Purpled shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket and closed his eyes.

Time dragged by slowly, boredom clawed its way into Purpled's head. His phone buzzed a few times, someone was calling him? At this hour? Probably scam but anything that could get him out of this gods awful meeting would do. Purpled held up his phone and pointed at it vaguely, Punz seemed to get the message and nodded at him.

Purpled walked out of the room, closing the heavy metal door behind him before checking the caller id.

Golden Duo pt 2

Oh it's just Tommy.

Purpled walked a pace away from the door before picking up. "Hey man, what's up?" Purpled asked, still walking away as he talked. He had no intention of going back to the meeting, even if the call is only a few seconds long.

"Hello, Purp. I'm at the spot. You wanna drop by?" Tommy's voice was a welcome change of pace from the bland business talk Punz and that green guy had been going on and on about for the past hour.

"Yeah, sure. Be there in twenty." Purpled then hung up and stuffed his phone in his pocket, better than hanging around here any longer.

The walk to the hideout should've taken him well over an hour, but Purpled wasn't walking. Would Punz give him a lecture about this later? Probably not actually, but he would complain about him taking the car. Your wreck one stolen car and suddenly you're a bad driver.

Either way, Purpled had pickpocketed Punz's keys the instant they had gone into the meeting so he was set, no hotwiring needed.

Several ignored red lights, close swerves, and nearly hit late night pedestrians later, and Purpled parked the car in the alley and waltzed over to the metal door he knew to be the hideout.

There was a knocking code for in someone was inside and there was a numbered keypad for when there wasn't, but Purpled chose to ignore both of those options and instead banged his fist on the door. "OPEN UP, TOM." He called flatly, how Purpled managed to be loud and flat at the same time was beyond Tommy's understanding.

The metal door opened right away, Tommy grinning on the other side of the door. "Purp, my man, mi amigo, friendo, Big P, honorary roommate, pleasure to see you." Purpled was used to Tommy's word vomit of greetings, didn't make them any less weird and lame. He definitely wasn't amused by the weird titles Tommy gave him and his heart definitely wasn't warmed by being called his friend. That would be lies and slander.

"Cut it out, loser." Purpled rolled his eyes and shoved his way into the hideout. Tommy's grin didn't fade, flopping down on the couch and picking up his coke that he had left to open the door.

"So what brings you to this side of the territory?" Purpled drawled, flipping beside Tommy on the couch.

"Some intel here, a chase there, oh and there's a new vigilante trying his hand over on Snowchester's side I gotta talk to you about." Tommy laughed, waving his hand dramatically as usual, talking more with his hands than anything.

"A new vigilante? This new person have a name?" Purpled raised a brow, eyeing Tommy who snickered and adjusted his position on the couch so he was now with his back to the seat and his legs up against the back, his nubby wings sticking out awkwardly from underneath him. "Get this. He goes by Friend." Tommy chuckled out.

Both of the boys started laughing, calming down after a minute or two so Tommy could finish his explanation. "He's tall as shit, for a phantom at least, brown hair, way too yellow sweater, solid blue eyes with blue trails leaking out of his eyes, goes intangible and shit like a ghost." Tommy described, leaving out the fact that he was a hero by day. Respect the secret identity, hero identity included.

Purpled considered it for a minute, trying to visualize this new vigilante. With a simple shrug, permission was granted. Purpled never really cared much about who was in the territory as long as he got his share of ass kicking in. 

"That's one topic out of the way, now chase or intel, start talking." Purpled poked Tommy's cheek with a deadpan expression. Tommy swatted at Purpled's hand. "Efficient as ever." Tommy whined, rolling his eyes.

The chase seemed the most interesting, he definitely wasn't avoiding the last topic, so he started back up with that.

"I was talking to Friend and Blade on top of a building tonight, apparently Blade got roped into showing him around and came by the territory to help him out, when Philza was reported nearby." Tommy began his tale with stars in his eyes. No, totally manly shine, not stars or sparkles or any shit like that, he was a big man. Big men don't fanboy.

"You know how I am with Philza, I can't not take my only chance to get a fly with the man, so I stayed on the roof and waited. Sure enough, he shows up and tries to talk me into getting arrested, then I took off and he followed. IT WAS SO COOL!" Tommy trilled. He was always weak with Philza. So much as just seeing another avian sent him spiraling on a good day, but to fly with one had set off bird brain.

Tommy had calmed down from bird brain but now that he was thinking about it again he was getting chirpy again.

Purpled scoffed sarcastically at Tommy. "You and Birdza had a race?" Purpled teased, nudging Tommy's shoulder in a friendly manner.

Tommy shot up from his spot and squawked indignantly. "IT WASN'T A RACE!" He hissed, glaring at his friend. The way Tommy's pupils were rapidly dilating and contracting said differently. Parrots do this when they're excited about something they like, such as a new toy or good food. Tommy does this when he's fanboying.

"Sure it wasn't, and your name's actually Thomas Innit." Purpled sneered. Tommy's wings flapped a little in defiance and he lunged at the purple boy.

The two tussled for a minute then settled back down, Purpled sitting normally while was Tommy sprawled on his stomach over the entirety of the rest of the couch.

"... So that intel?" Purpled asked calmly. Tommy folded his wings instinctively and sat up. "To be honest I haven't looked at most of it yet..." Tommy sighed. Purpled looked at Tommy, a worried expression flashed across his face before his neutral expression came back.

Tommy reached over to the side table and picked up a wrinkled manilla envelope. He passed it to Purpled without another word, seemingly happy to get it out of his hands.

"I picked it up earlier tonight actually. One of..." Tommy paused to prepare himself to say the name. "Dream's goons had it." Tommy sighed, fidgeting with his wings idly.

Purpled opened the envelope and looked over the contents.

Rage was not the right word for the emotions he felt while looking over the pictures. It was obvious why Tommy didn't want to be alone right now. Purpled put the contents back in the envelope and turned to his friend.

Tommy was pointedly looking at the wall across the room, an inexplicable look on his face.

Purpled reached an arm over Tommy's shoulder and pulled his friend, no, his brother into a side hug. Tommy melted into the touch and they stayed like that for a while. Tommy soaking in the comfort provided by his friend and Purpled more than happy to provide it.

Purpled ended up walking Tommy home not long after that, it was late as hell and there was no way in hell he would leave Tommy alone in the state he's in. Purpled knocked on the door and was met with Tubbo's grumpy expression

"'Ow do?" Tommy greeted, mostly back to normal after clearing his head on the long walk. "You turned off your comm, purposely let yourself get chased by Philza, AND you're late." Tubbo glared. Tommy had the decency to look sheepish. "Yeah... I got a bit caught up." He chuckled out, shuffling from foot to foot absentmindedly.

 Tubbo held his gaze for a bit then deflated, his aggression dissolving and his worry making itself clear. "Just... c'mon man, let's get you inside." Tubbo opened the door wider for the two boys to come in.

Tommy walked in quickly but Purpled paused, not sure if the invitation was for him too.

Clearly, he was taking too long because Tubbo grabbed Purpled by the hood and dragged him inside the apartment.

The next few days came and went without much fuss. Purpled just kinda stayed at the apartment, no one was kicking him out and he wasn't leaving on his own so Tubbo took it upon himself to add Purpled to the chore chart and that was that.

Tommy went to work and came home on time, the feeling of being followed only kicked up once on his way to work and he successfully lost his pursuer in time to catch the train.

Blade hadn't been spotted in Snowchester after that day but Friend showed up again a few days later, not doing much other than memorizing the layout, not crime fighting just yet.

Icarus did patrols as normal, Philza hadn't been seen in Snowchester since that night but he was probably planning something.

If Purpled was seen on the Snowchester side of the territory more often, no one said anything about it.

Dream sightings were reported in other districts, even as close as Las Nevadas territory, but no more in Snowchester.

Purpled and Ranboo were seated on the couch, Tommy was perched on the counter like a menace a few feet away sipping a coffee he brought home from work, and Tubbo was fiddling with some contraption in his hands on the floor. There was a chair available, he just chose to sit on the floor.

"I think we should get a new apartment." Ranboo said out of the blue. All eyes turned to him and he tried not to shrink away from their gazes. "I mean it, we have enough income now that Tommy's working, and we've definitely outgrown this space with all four of us living here."

Purpled opened his mouth as if to say something but Tommy launched a pillow at his face and that shut him right up. He vaguely wondered where Tommy got the pillow, there weren't any on the counter with him before, but then he realized he doesn't actually care and dropped it.

"That sounds like a good idea, Boo. We can start house hunting this week. Maybe they'll have a convenient opening in that one complex-" Tubbo started but Ranboo cut him off. "You are not killing a resident of an apartment complex just to steal their lease." 

Tubbo simply shrugged. "Just saying, it'd be nice."

Ranboo exaggeratedly rubbed his face to show his disappointment, Tommy stifled a snicker at that, and Purpled looked on in amusement.

Yeah, this is nice.

Purpled officially joined the boys, honorary roommate no more. Mans is an official roommate now, and for some reason he can't find it in himself to be upset about that.