“Smart kid.” Papers. “I had better not hear you fucking talking.”

“Yes sir.”

Tommy waits until Schlatt’s distracted with leering at Alex.

“…You shouldn’t let him walk all over you like that.”

“Alex almost has a trade agreement finalized with Tampa again. Nick and… I dunno, someone else, I forget his name. Chris or Carl or something.”

“That doesn’t make how he treats you okay. How he treats any of us. You don’t have to fucking— do his homework, call him sir, I mean, really.”

“I think I picked that up from Alex, actually.”

“You— that’s— anyway, that’s not my point.”

Shrug. “He’s a dick. I’ll live. Or I won’t, I guess.”

“Not fucking funny, man.”

“Sorry.” Shrug. “Just bothers me less, I guess. Want me to work some on the mana storage for Wilbur?”

“Now that’s the Toby I know.” He grabs some of the homework in front of Toby and replaces it with a crystal. “I gave what we had to him, actually, but I figure he’ll probably run out soon, we can sort of rotate. Make sure all the crystals stay usable.”

“Hey, what did I just say about doing my homework and not whining to your friends like a fuckin’ toddler?”

“…Sorry, sir.”

“This sucks.”

He doesn’t stop working on Toby’s homework, though.

It takes three weeks to get the explosives working. Three weeks of Wilbur not showing up to meetings while Tommy shows up more and more tired, of Schlatt and Niki getting into screaming fights, of coordinating with Alex to make sure everyone's homework gets done. It's... a lot.

The explosives work well, though, if he does say so himself. Very flashy. Heavy on the pyrotechnics. Most importantly, he can produce loads of them, can batch them and give the extra away in exchange for good will. He hides a bunch in his room to give to Tommy and Wilbur later and distributes the rest evenly enough among the group, himself and Tommy and Alex and Schlatt and Niki and Jack. It feels good. A bit safer.

And he wakes up early the next morning to deliver the extras to Tommy and Wilbur. Well, mostly to Tommy, but Wilbur might be at his room anyway.

Wilbur isn't there. "Toby, my man! I wasn't expecting you."

"No Wilbur today?"

"Nah. He's been all... mopey and weird recently. What about you, why are you here."

Toby slings his backpack off one shoulder. "Brought you extra supplies, bossman."

Dramatic gasp. "No! Wait, really?"

"Saved 'em for you. Some for Wilbur, too, just let him know to stop by my room sometime. Just-- do try not to brag about it to everyone? Schlatt'll be pissed you got more than him."

Tommy's uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. "...You didn't have to, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know. But I wanted to."

"Well that's alright then. Just another scam, hm? Another grift?"

"Is this a scam? Have I been scammed? Oh God, I've been scammed, haven't I."