Requested by: AnimeToonz19

Title: Fragile Soul

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Friendship

Main Characters: Thomas, Skips, Muscle Man

Rating: K plus

Summary: Thomas is tired of being treated unfairly and reaches a breaking point. Luckily, a wise yeti is there to help him out. (Father/son type of relationship, not a yaoi)

Author's Note: This takes place before one of the newer episodes, "Thomas Fights Back". Also, I know this sounds similar to a part in chapter 3 of my other story, "Frayed Ends of Sanity", but this is really the only situation I could think of that:

1. Fits Thomas getting upset at being bullied.

2. Fits into a oneshot.

Anyways, I hope you all like it. :)

It was another humid, hot day in Maellard Park. Actually, it was scorching hot. In fact, it was so hot that you couldn't step one foot outside without getting smacked in the face by the heat. Now, most employees were inside the air-conditioned house, doing paperwork or slacking off, but Thomas, being Thomas, was out by the snack bar, wiping down all the tables, refilling the napkin containers, and other snack bar duties.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued scrubbing the tables. It was 11:00, and he'd been working since 5:00 A.M as he'd, regrettably, asked Benson to come in earlier than usual for extra hours. On the plus side, maybe this would get him some respect from the gumball machine, but he wasn't betting on it.

Needing a five-minute break, he took a seat in one of the chairs underneath some shade. Resting his eyes, he started to doze off...

With perfect timing on Thomas' part, Benson saw him from the window of his office and stormed downstairs. He went up to the goat and got right in his ear.

"THOMAS!"

The intern shot up. He tried to stand and lean on the tables to look like he was working, but since the tables were slick from the cleaning spray, his hands slipped and he nearly fell to the ground. He started to apologize, but Benson cut him off.

"No excuses! Why were you sleeping on the job?! Do you want me to take away your extra pay?!"

"No, Benson, wait! I'm almost done and-"

"Oh, really?! I'll be the judge of that!" He inspected the table at eye-level, squinting to spot any mistakes, "Hmm..."

Thomas stood up, hesitantly waiting.

"I guess you did an okay job. And because I'm a nice guy, I'll let you off with a warning. One warning only though, since you're an intern. Just don't let me catch you slacking off again, or I will fire you! Besides," he glanced into the living room window, seeing everyone's favorite duo knocked out on the couch with snacks and soda cans everywhere, "we've got enough of that already..."

Thomas sighed in relief, "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, you've still got a ton to do," Benson began walking away, "Better get going!"

The goat was confused, "Wait, what else do I have to do?"

His boss turned back around, "Oh, no one told you? Fives called in sick this morning, said he couldn't even leave their trailer. Something about 'ghost flu' or whatever. Anyways, you'll have to work with Muscle Man when he gets back from his lunch break."

Thomas groaned inside at the thought of that, but asked, "Um, about that, could I take a-"

"No. No breaks if you want extra pay."

"But, that doesn't seem-"

"'Fair'? Sorry, but those are the rules..." he went back to the house, "See ya later, Thomas."

Thomas waved, "See ya, Benson."

As if on cue, Muscle Man drove up in the cart, doing some donuts. After kicking up some grass and dirt in front of the house, he jumped out yelling, "Whoo! Just had the best lunch ever!" He looked around, "Hey, where is everybody?! You all missed out on some primo wings and-"

Rigby rubbed his eyes and poked his head out the front door, "Dude, shut up! We're trying to get some sleep!"

"Whatever, bro! Just for that, you won't get these wings I saved!"

The raccoon just grumbled insults and slammed the door, going back to the couch.

Mitch muttered, "What a baby..."

Hearing all the commotion, Thomas had walked up, "Hey, Muscle Man. What've you got there?"

The green man sighed, 'Speaking of babies...' He smugly replied, "What's it to you, Thomas?"

"Well, I just heard yelling and-"

Mitch opened the box, "They're buffalo wings plus those tiny sides they have, alright? I went to Wing Kingdom and I was saving these for later if anyone wanted some."

"Oh. Um, well...I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast. So...I was wondering..."

He shut the lid, "No way, man."

"Ugh. Fine, whatever. Did Benson call you at Wing Kingdom?"

"No, why? Do I gotta fix something you messed up?"

Thomas rubbed his forehead in annoyance, "Dude, no. He told me we need to work together today."

Muscle Man grinned, "Aw, yeah! I'm gonna have a blast!"

"Huh?"

"I get to boss you around, bro! I mean, you are the intern after all. Just let me go give some sides to Fives, first; he's majorly starving."

Thomas mentally face-palmed. This was going to be a long day.

A few hours later...

Thomas was exhausted. The only thing he'd had was some water and a snack or two at the bar, so on top of sweating like crazy, he was hungry as heck. The jobs he had to do weren't easy either: picking up all the garbage around the park, mowing the entire front lawn, and helping Pops fix his piano and radio, just to name a few. Now, he was busy lifting bags of mulch into the park's garden.

He panted, setting down the last bag, "Dude, what-what time is it?"

Muscle Man set his, much smaller, bag down and looked at his phone, "About 2:00."

The goat took a drink of his water bottle, "So, we still have another 3 hours?"

"No, you have another 3 hours. I only have 30 more minutes 'cause I took a half day to help out Fives."

"What?! I mean, I get you wanna help him, but how am I gonna do the rest of this by myself?"

"Not my problem."

Thomas sighed, "Whatever, it doesn't matter. You're no help anyways."

"What'd you say?! I helped you all day, bro!"

Thomas threw his arms up, "No, you didn't! You've done less than half our work, eating wings and saying stupid 'My Mom' jokes constantly!"

Muscle Man got in the goat's face, "Hey, take that back! And you need the work; you're just the rookie, remember?"

"Get out of my face, man..."

The green man smiled, "Oh, yeah? What're you gonna do about it...momma's boy?"

A few seconds later, a loud squealing was heard throughout the park.

In the house, Rigby sat up, "What the heck was that?" He walked up to the window and his jaw dropped, "No. Way."

Mordecai rubbed his eyes, "Huh? What's going on, dude?"

"I think Muscle Man and Thomas are fighting, man!"

Mordecai got up and ran out to the front porch, "Come on, Rigby!"

"Why?"

"We've gotta stop them from getting hurt!"

Rigby whined, "Aw, but I wanna see the fight!"

"Dude, just come on! We've gotta stop it before-"

Benson charged down the steps, "OUT OF MY WAY!"

Mordecai stood in front of the door, "Oh no, Benson, you don't-"

"I SAID MOVE, MORDECAI! AND STAY OUT OF THIS, BOTH OF YOU!"

The bird did as he was told. He went back over to Rigby, "Dude, this is bad. They could get fired over this!"

The raccoon stared out the window, "Gah! And the worst part is, I can't see any of it go down from here! This sucks, doesn't it?"

Mordecai replied with a punch.

"Ow!"

Outside, Benson ran up to his employees. He was shocked to see Thomas on top of Muscle Man, laying into him, "THOMAS, STOP!"

He didn't listen.

"STOP IT OR YOU'RE FIRED!"

Still no response.

Seeing everything, Skips exited his house, "Oh, no. Not now..." He quickly skipped over to the scene, "Thomas, what're you doing?!"

The yeti didn't get a reply either. He went up to them, "Thomas! Get off him!" Skips had enough. He pulled the goat off of the green man and ordered, "Benson! Take Muscle Man inside and get him an ice pack or two; I'll handle the boy."

The manager nodded, helping Mitch up the steps.

Skips sternly pulled Thomas by the arm into his house. He sat him on his bed. Pacing back and forth, the yeti scolded him. Or at least, he tried to scold him, "You- I can't even- Why- Thomas, what were you thinking?!"

Thomas was still in shock at what he just did. He just muttered, "I don't know..."

"What do you mean you don't know?! Don't you realize what you did?! You can get fired for that, and no place would want to hire someone who gets in fights at work! Don't you understand?!"

Thomas didn't say a word. He continued to look down in shame.

Skips went over to look out the window to calm down. After taking a deep breath, he muttered, "I knew this day was coming..."

That made the goat look up, "Wh-what?"

"I've been watching you, Thomas."

Thomas was completely caught off-guard, "You...what?"

Skips sat down beside him and chuckled a bit, "Well, that came out weird. I mean, I've been monitoring you. I've seen how you've been treated since joining the park, and I knew being underappreciated or yelled at enough would push you over the edge. While some might not agree, you're a great employee in my eyes, Thomas, and I'd hate to see you get fired over a dumb choice you made."

Thomas sighed, "Yeah, that was pretty dumb, huh?"

"Yes, but I think you're better than what happened, right?"

Thomas replied, "Yeah. But Muscle Man just got to me today, ya know? I mean...he-"

"He what?"

Thomas became frustrated, "He's such a bully sometimes! I mean, normally he's just messing around, but when he calls me a 'momma's boy', that hurts, Skips! I feel like he's trying to insult my mom with that too, and I don't tolerate it! I mean, when my dad passed, she was the only one there for me!"

"Thomas, calm down, please. It's okay."

He started to tear up, "It's not okay! My mom means the world to me, and I don't want people insulting her!" Overwhelmed emotionally, he suddenly hugged Skips, crying into his chest.

Skips was surprised, but returned the hug. He rubbed the goat's back to soothe him, "Thomas, it'll be alright. Just let it out."

After a few minutes, Thomas pulled out of the hug. Skips handed him a box of tissues, "Feel better?"

He blew his nose, "Yeah. I'm sorry, Skips. I just needed to get all that out in the open."

"It's fine. I've had my share of employees literally needing a shoulder to cry on over the years."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. Once there was this woman who cried for 2 hours straight over a break-up! Thankfully, we worked things out after that."

The intern smiled, "That's good. But, Skips?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm kinda glad you chose to spy on me," he laughed.

The yeti chuckled, "You're welcome, Thomas," he stood up, putting a hand on Thomas' shoulder, "Well, we'd better go talk to Benson and Muscle Man."

"What? Already?"

"Yep. Don't worry, though. I'll be there if anything goes wrong."

Inside the house, Mordecai and Benson were helping Muscle Man, who had bruises on his cheeks and a black eye.

Skips skipped in with Thomas in tow, "Hey, fellas," he looked over to Benson, "How is he?"

Benson sighed, "Well, it's not as bad as it looked. I think he'll be okay; he'll just need to be taken care of for a few days."

Thomas walked up, "Um, I'll help him out..."

Muscle Man shook his head, "Oh no, bro! Get away!"

"Dude, take it easy. I just wanted to apologize. I'm sorry I got so worked up and...did that, but you have said some messed up stuff in the past, and I couldn't take it anymore. So...I think helping you is the least I could do."

The green man smiled, "Thanks, bro."

Skips grunted, "Ahem. Mitch, don't you have something to say? In fact, don't you all have something to say to Thomas?"

Everyone coughed and mumbled apologies.

Skips sighed, "Come on, guys."

Muscle Man sat up, "Okay, I'll go first: Sorry I said all those jokes about you and your mom, bro. I didn't think you were taking it seriously, but now that I know it bothered you, I'll tone it down."

Benson spoke, "Well, in light of everything, I'll say that maybe I should go a little easier on you, too. I felt bad for yelling at you earlier to wake you up when you were just resting for a second. Still, I don't want what happened today to ever happen again. If you can promise me that, Thomas, I'll let you keep your job, and I'll allow longer breaks for employees during summer hours. I think that might've been a factor too, with how hot it was while working for 8 hours straight."

Skips agreed, "Good point, Benson. Intense heat can make people go crazy sometimes."

Finally, it was Mordecai's turn. Everyone looked at him, "What? Rigby and I have never been mean to Thomas! Well...wait, no. There was a couple times when we yelled at- and then the pranks..." He sighed, "Sorry, Thomas."

The goat grinned, "Thanks, guys. And thanks for understanding. I really like working here, honestly. Again, sorry about today," he started to look around, "Wait a sec, where's Rigby?"

Mordecai groaned, "Well, he's taking forever making some soup for Fives. Muscle Man was gonna take it, but...you know..."

Benson laughed, "That doesn't surprise me. Only Rigby could take almost 45 minutes to make soup."

Mordecai yelled into the kitchen, "Dude, hurry up!"

"I'M COMING, GEEZ!" The raccoon slowly came out, barely balancing the huge bowl of chicken noodle soup and crackers in his hands, with a big glass of ginger ale on his head. He grunted, "Tell me why I'm taking it, again? This is really heavy, plus I don't wanna catch the flu!"

Benson stood up, "You're taking it because we're helping Muscle Man. Now get over to his trailer, or you're fired!"

Rigby started to walk past everyone, "Okay, okay! But if I get sick, you're all taking care of-"

He slipped on an empty soda can that he'd forgot to pick up, covering everyone in hot soup and sticky soda.

Rigby froze. After a few seconds, he started to slowly back up into the kitchen, a cheesy grin on his face, "Uh...my bad..."

"RIGBY!"

UP NEXT: I think the next oneshot I'll do is either guitarguy12345's, RegularShowMemorabilia's, or regularshow565's. If I have questions about a oneshot idea, I'll send the person a PM. If you're a guest, well, I'm sorry, but unless it's a detailed idea, I probably won't be able to write it. :\

Still, please keep reviewing and sending ideas, everyone!

Thanks! :D