Tummi yawned.
He had just woken up, but already he felt like going back to sleep. He should be getting up and ready to help around the Glen today, though he couldn't help feeling too tired for that. The Gummi bear felt too tired for anything. Tummi had to force himself up, though, and hopefully food would help him. It usually did for him.
Tummi got up and went to the door. He pressed his ear up against it. From what he could tell, no one was close by his room. Good, he could change without any possibility of anyone walking in on him. He went to his closet, grabbing his usual attire out of it. He took off his pajamas and tossed them. His fur was exposed along with all of his marks on his arms. Tummi didn't bother to look at them; it wasn't the time to be looking at them and think about stuff. That was something he could do later when he didn't have anything to do.
He put his clothes on and fixed them, making sure they were on right. His sleeves were pulled down to cover his arms as much as possible. Tummi adjusted his hat to make sure it was on correctly and that it wouldn't fall off easily. Before he could forget, he took his little knife and put it in his pocket. One could never know when they're gonna need it. After making sure he got everything and he was ready, he opened the door then headed out.
Immediately after walking out of his room, the smell of food caught his attention. A big smile crawled upon his face as he followed the scent to the source. If it was possible, he would float in the air instead of walking to the food. As he got closer to the food, he was stopped dead in his tracks by Grammi holding him back.
"Keep your eyes open, Tummi, you're going to bump into stuff that way." She set his plate onto the table. "Glad to see the smell of my food woke you up."
"If anything it made me feel more awake!" Tummi licked his lips as he sat down and started eating.
Grammi chuckled. "Well after breakfast, you're going to help Gruffi with what needs to be fixed."
"Got it!" Tummi replied with his mouth full.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, dear."
Tummi swallowed. "Sorry Grammi."
Grammi then sat down with her own plate. They all ate their food with Tummi and Gruffi finishing their food first. They got out of their chairs then started walking. Tummi followed behind Gruffi, not knowing where they were going nor what they were doing to be fixing. In a few minutes, they arrived at the Gummi library. At first glance, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the room. Tummi glanced at the room once again, seeing if he missed anything. He turned to Gruffi.
"What are we doing here?" Tummi asked.
Gruffi picked up the ladder. "We're fixing up the ceiling. Zummi said there were holes up there and water keeps dripping through them, so we're getting to that first."
All Tummi did in response was nod. Gruffi looked at the ceiling to find where the holes exactly were. After a minute of looking, he found the area they were at. He laid the ladder down near the middle of the room. He climbed up while Tummi stayed close as he held his work tools. The bigger Gummi stared at the toolbox while the other did all of the work.
Tummi had wondered if this was all he was going to do. The thought of being someone to just hold, carry, or give stuff to the others in situations like this made him wanna sigh, wanting to do more help than that, but he kept it in. It wasn't something he wanted Gruffi to hear, much less question what the reason was. There wasn't much he thought he should do so he stood there and stayed quiet. Besides, with something like this, what could he really do anyways?
After a bit, which felt like a long while, Gruffi held his hand out but he didn't look at Tummi. "Give me the hammer and a nail."
Tummi did as he said; he grabbed the hammer and one of the nails then gave them both to the shorter brown bear. Gruffi went to hammer the nail in, but it went in a different direction. It headed towards Tummi. Thinking quickly, he moved as far as he could. It got the patch on his clothes with how fast it flew. It landed on the floor with the patch part way into the nail. Before anything else, Tummi put the toolbox down and immediately put his hand on his elbow where the patch used to be. He lifted his hand slightly at the top to look at his elbow.
A couple of his scars were visible, though almost faded away entirely, so he kept his hand on there just to hide them. He could hear Gruffi mumble about something, guessing he was cursing under his breath. Tummi looked up, seeing Gruffi climb down the ladder. He walked near the bigger blueish bear and picked the nail up. He pulled the piece of cloth out. Then he gave Tummi his clothing piece back, who accepted after removing his hand from his elbow and quickly moving his arm in a way where the sleeve was shifted by his body.
"Thanks," he muttered.
"It didn't graze you, did it, kid?" Gruffi asked.
He wanted to argue how he wasn't a kid anymore, but he shut it. Now wasn't the time for that. "No, I-I'm fine. No injuries whatsoever." Tummi faked a sincere smile.
Gruffi didn't seem to buy that. "I have to check just in case."
Tummi's heart started to beat fast and he gulped silently. "No really Gruffi, I'm not hurt at all!"
"You can never be too sure," Gruffi argued. "Plus you might be saying that so we wouldn't worry."
"I wouldn't do that!"
"Then let me check your arm."
Almost hesitantly he gave Gruffi his arm, showing his elbow. Sweat began to form on his face. Tummi was desperately hoping he wouldn't notice his scars. He watched him taking a look at his elbow. Gruffi put his finger and thumb around where the patch was. The touch made him flinch and a shiver went down his spine. He knew why he was doing so, but he couldn't help it. His pupils shot down to the area. A scar was halfway out from under the clothing. Knowing it was out in the open made his stomach drop. It wasn't fresh nor brand new, but it made his mind race to the worst possible scenarios he could think of. Part of him hoped that he didn't notice it and it was just him overthinking.
It felt like he'd been sitting there for a century. Before Tummi knew it, Gruffi looked at him with no change of facial expression. That snapped him out of his trainwreck of a mind.
"Where did you get this?" Gruffi showed exactly what he meant, the scar Tummi was hoping he didn't notice.
"Oh that was an accident!" Tummi casually replied. "Didn't notice it until later when we were done getting Gummi berries one time."
Gruffi raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell us about this why?"
"I forgot, and I was hungry." Tummi lied.
The brown Gummi sighed. "Were there other 'accidents' we don't know about?"
Tummi took a second, making it look like he was thinking. "Hmm, nope!"
Gruffi seemed like he wanted to push even further, but dropped it for the moment as he sighed then climbed back up the ladder. On the other hand, Tummi exhaled, not realizing he was holding his breath as long as he was. He picked up the toolbox again.
He only hoped that Gruffi would forget about it soon and not bring it up again later.
Almost the entire day went by helping Gruffi with the things that needed to be fixed.
Tummi opened the door to his bedroom. His body landed onto the bed. He wanted a little bit of time to himself before anything else. He also felt a little hungry, too, though he was always hungry. There was never a time that he wasn't hungry. He raised his arms up. Looking at them made him think about earlier. A sigh came out of his mouth. He had to be more careful. It was something he couldn't let anybody find out about. While it wasn't something he could know that would happen, it felt like he could've avoided that somehow.
Tummi then sat up. He had to change his clothes so nobody else would notice the scars. He got off the bed and opened the wardrobe. After looking at what he had, he took out clothes that's near-identical to what he was currently wearing. He put it on the wardrobe door and then started removing his current clothing. Afterwards he dropped it into the floor. Just as he started changing into the other one, he heard the doorknob turn. It made him jump, feeling too frozen to speak right away.
When the door opened, he immediately grabbed the dirty pair of clothes and threw it at the door and whoever was trying to enter.
"G-Give me a minute! I'm changing!" Tummi yelled out, trying to hide himself.
"Okay, okay, I just came for the clothes and give 'em to Grammi!" The other person replied. It sounded like it was Gruffi.
"Sorry, Gruffi." Tummi quietly said.
Gruffi picked up the clothes that Tummi threw. "Why are you hiding behind the wardrobe door anyways?" He raised his eyebrow.
"You- You know I don't like being naked in- in front of you guys."
"What, because of that scar from earlier?"
Gruffi chuckled, but Tummi said nothing nor did he laugh with him. He just put his left hand up onto his cheek, most of his palm being on his mouth. His grip on the clothes he was about to change into got tighter. He knew he was joking, but he couldn't bring himself to fake a laugh. Gruffi started walking towards the wardrobe.
"Kiddo, I'm just kidding, you know that… rig-" Gruffi dropped the clothes.
Tummi was trying to get his clothes on as fast as he could, but he stopped once he realized that he saw everything on his arms. The blue bear just removed the clothes that he was trying to get on. Gruffi seemed speechless, frozen in place.
"...Those weren't accidents, were they?"
Tummi shook his head in response. He plopped down onto the floor, not even looking at Gruffi anymore. He felt his face burn up, becoming a rose color. Great Gummi, he couldn't imagine what the brown bear was thinking through his head or even what he might say to him. Tummi could be given a lecture about being more careful and not getting hurt, whatever else. Gruffi was the last person he wanted to know about this. Thinking about all of that made him want to cry. Tummi tried to swallow everything back.
Instead of anything he was thinking, he heard something hit the floor. He turned around and saw Gruffi was on his knees. The brown one took his scarred arm. He was looking at each and every scar he could find. Gruffi looked at Tummi in the face. He could see worry and regret in his eyes, though he didn't know why. There wasn't a reason for him to have that look. It felt odd to see him like this.
"How long?"
"Huh?" Tummi let out.
"How long have you been doing this?" Gruffi repeated.
Tummi looked away. "I… Don't know. A while I guess."
"I'm sorry." Tummi looked at Gruffi, who looked down. "I should've noticed this sooner, yet I didn't."
"It's not your fault. It's mine, really…"
Gruffi looked up. "It's not, we didn't notice you were in pain, much less help you. I mean yeah you did hurt yourself a lot from the looks of it, but that's besides the point." He put his hands onto Tummi's shoulders. "I might not be the best person to talk to on shit like this, but I damn will be here for you, got it?"
Tummi nodded as he smiled. He pulled him right in for a hug. Gruffi hesitated for a moment but he eventually hugged back. Then after a minute or two, he pulled away from the hug, patting his shoulders.
"Okay, kiddo, get your clothes on." Gruffi said. "I'll get this to Grammi."
He nodded slightly. His smile faded away as he looked in a different direction. Tummi held one of Gruffi's hand.
"...Mind if you don't tell them?"
"Tummi, they have to know sooner or later. If you don't tell them, then I…" He cut himself off before he said any more.
"No, I get it." Tummi got up and sighed. "I'll tell them. I don't know when, but I will."
"Okay… Good," Gruffi quietly said. "Oh, and you're gonna have to give me that pocket knife you have, too. I can't have you possibly hurting yourself again at any point."
"Got it."
Tummi did exactly that, giving him the pocket knife from the pocket he put it in earlier. Gruffi took it from his hand then picked his clothes up. Tummi gave him a kiss on the forehead before Gruffi left. Once he was no longer in the room, Tummi dressed himself and closed the wardrobe doors. He looked towards the door. Who knew who else was going to find out about the scars on his arms? He looked downwards. Gruffi was right, though, he did have to tell them soon even if he didn't like the thought of it.
For now, though, he should go get some food.