Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As a child, Tommy grew up in a constantly adventure seeking family, always bustling with noise and laughter, he couldn't remember how his life used to be under the age of five. Techno and Wilbur never seemed to be out of his memories since that age, Phil even changed after he adopted the two piglin hybrids. The older blond had always took the two to train in combat and fighting, he would always listening when the pinket needed him or just wanted to hold a friendly conversation while Wilbur, he always had the spotlight and wormed his way into getting Phil’s attention the most. Tommy, well, he only was able to get Phil’s attention when the poor man was tired from the first two, which mean't he would never really get much time, but that was okay for him. He took into consideration of being loud and boisterous, just to gain attention as he was starved from people’s praises and eyes but that just caused him to get yelled at and into trouble. 

Tommy sat on the steps as he watched his biological father and two adopted brothers stand at the front door, packed adventuring bags strapped onto their backs as well as other essential needs in the small rolled up rucksack hanging from the bottom of the bag, Wilbur was struggling on trying to get his rucksack to stay tied but ended up having Phil help a bit when he let out a small frustrated groan. “Now Tommy”, Phil starts as he zips up his forest green adventure pack with white stripes and his rucksack, "We won’t be back for at least a week or two, if you need anything or someone broke in, press the emergency tab on your communicator, alright?” Phil looks up to stare at Tommy, who never moved from the steps. He nods right away, not wanting his biological father to be upset with him twice in one day. “Alright, I will check in every other day, don’t burn anything down, and please”, royal blue orbs looks into Tommy’s coral blue ones, “Don’t mess with anything inside of the storage room.” 

Tommy just sat there and nodded without ever interrupting Phil, it was strange for the nine, about to be ten, year old to actually sit still and be silent, taking in every word into account. Phil just sighs and looks to the two thirteen year old piglin twins and nodded, “Let’s go boys”, he tells them before heads out the door with Techno right behind him, Wilbur turns to Tommy and gives him a sad smile.

“We will be back as soon as we can, alright?”, Wilbur say’s to the boy, who just nods and waved goodbye to him, not wanting to have the brunet anymore guilty for accepting to go on this trip instead of staying with the ever growing boy. Wilbur waved goodbye back with a sadden expression, wanting to at least get a few words from his now silent brother, who grows more silent each day. It's not like Wilbur cared much for the younger, he was annoying at times but that doesn't mean he doesn't love him any less, he was his brother after all. Tommy just needs to learn at times to not be so annoying and to keep to himself, but Wilbur does miss how expressed himself in any way possible or always filled the room with warmth from his smile.

Tommy watched the pair of hybrids begin to walk northwest of their cottage in the woods, Techno and Phil in a conversation just for Wilbur to catch up and join in, their laughter wasn’t heard but for some reason, Tommy could still make out their laughs as if they were still next to him. Phil was concerned about leaving Tommy behind on his trips, not wanting to look forward to a destroyed and wrecked house when he comes back, but always ended up as a surprise as the house stayed the same. Tommy was a very outgoing and chaotic child growing up but now, he’s been more reserved. He has also been coming out of his room less and eating less, the three hybrids were concerned for the nine year old’s health and if he would be fine staying home on his own. But the more Phil had thought about it, the less concerned he got since he was always away to begin with. So Tommy could be eating when he wasn't around, and that is fine as long as the boy eats and stays healthy. It makes him proud knowing that the youngest is starting to be independent, not needing anyone to help him with anything. Which was great for Phil since he is a really busy half of the time and is now a single parent after his late wife passed in her sleep one night. It did hurt him when she was becoming more sick when time went on, just to have ended up dying one night beside him.

Voices began to grow in Tommy’s head, not the good kind either, always reminding Tommy on how much of a burden he was on Phil and the other two boy’s, how he was just taking everything from them and leaving chaos in their wake. How he was just slowing the family down and that he doesn't deserve to be in their presence.

He walks back to his room, the house now silent for him, the soft chirping of the crickets in the humid air of summer nights. Tommy sobbed to himself on those quiet nights, the silence becoming too much, the ever growing ringing in his ears as the void calls for him due to staying up each night and growing more and more restless. The void calling out to the boy as the silence screams at him to stay, to keep the silence company in his growing whirl winds of emotions that he wished he could get rid of. It continued like this every time Phil and the two piglin hybrids left for their month or week long adventures. How the voices will replace the silence at times, teasing the ever growing mute boy. His mind darkening each time he would wake up in the cold and quiet house, how his chest feels tight whenever he thinks about how they could have just left him.

But soon,

all his pain would be worth it.

Right?

Chapter Text

Tommy stood on the bottom step that led to his open living room that is connected to the kitchen, a small island cutting off where the kitchen, dining room, and living room meets. The island was a marbled quarts blend with wooden stools slid underneath the islands.

Tommy watched as Phil strapped on his now bigger adventure bag, with Techno standing by the door and Wilbur, like always, struggling to put his bags together. “We will be at least gone for a week or two minimum”, Phil tells Tommy as the winged man helped the struggling brunet with his adventure bag and rucksack. Tommy just stood there, eerily quiet as always, he is now selectively mute and only communicates when needed, he even took up the liberty to go to the small library they had and learn sign-language. He didn't know why his family had sign-language books but they just had them, it came in handy seeing how he uses that as the means to 'talk' with his family.

“Well, we are off, there should be enough food that isn’t too hard to make in the fridge and cupboards. I expect the house to not be a mess when we get back”, Phil was at the open door, Wilbur walking out to meet Techno at the bottom of the porch, Phil walked out the door and shut it which had hurt the smaller blond. No wave goodbye, no I-love-you ’s exchanged. Nothing. Just Tommy and the forever silent house that he knows more than the voices of his own family. Could he even really call them that? Family was something that would feel comforting and warm, that would never leave you behind or disregard ones feelings for their own, to help even when help wasn't asked for. Why does he feel cold and alone? As if he was a sore thumb sticking out in the colorful and adventurous family, the black sheep of the pristine, fluffy wool of the others. A pit formed in Tommy’s stomach with the dull throb of his shoulders tensing from him just standing there for the past hour. 

‘See? They don’t care about you, they never did. They are just making up excuses so they won’t see you’, the disembodied voice rang through the eleven year old’s mind.

Birds chirping softly can be heard outside, the leaves and grass ruffling in the ever chilling autumn air, making the fragile colorful leaves flutter to the ground. Trees ranging from raging reds, to pumpkin orange that goes to a not too bright pastel orange, and lastly to a nice crisp yellow. All the colors contrasting to bright blue sky as the winds pull the puffy white clouds along, drifting from one side to the other. Tommy sluggishly dragged his feet, which felt like lead weighing him down, to his room. Hoping to not fall down the flight of stairs as the tense pain between his shoulder blades became more of a pain with each ragged step he took. Tommy tried to sooth out the tensed up muscles in the middle of his shoulder blades - which he had been for a week almost - thinking that he’s either growing more or he slept wrong. His shoulder blades had been sore for five days while the pain had settled in yesterday but never got bad throughout the rest of the evening.

Tommy made it to his room and collapsed onto his bed, his communicator sitting on his bedside table. With a groan, Tommy rolled onto his left side to face his wall, wishing that the growing pain in his back would just leave. His growing pains had never been this bad before, so why are they now? What had caused the normal human function to start causing him pain? Fatigue now struck Tommy the more he laid on his bed due to not sleeping for two night and not eating for the past three days. Tommy had gotten into a small argument with Wilbur - more of Wilbur yelling at him and Tommy angrily signing back to said lanky brunette - five days ago. He had shut himself out on the first day and ate the plate that was left outside his door, Tommy never went out of his room till today, just to find out that his family - ex family? Whatever they were to him now - leaving to another adventure after just getting back from one two weeks before. All of the late night’s silently crying, no sleep, and not eating finally caught up to Tommy who began to slide his eyes close. Wishing to be swept away by the currents of drowsiness he felt. As if his prayers were answered, Tommy began to drift from consciousness into the welcome presence of sleep, the invisible hands of the dark void dragging his unconscious space to the lands that it owns.

--

Tommy’s eyes sprang open as he jolted from his sleep, the jolt not working in his favor as he cried out due to the eminence pain that flared throughout his back, Tommy sat still for a bit in confusion and pain. ‘When did my back get so bad? I don’t remember hitting something or falling to cause such pain’, he thought to himself just to go through another pain wave that coursed throughout his whole body, starting from his shoulder blades and ended in his head, fingers, and toes. Nausea began to rise from the pit’s of his stomach, as if he could throw up at any given moment, Tommy couldn’t hold down the feeling any longer and sprang off his bed. The sudden jostled movements stirred up pain in his back as well as the sudden feeling of bail resting at the back of his throat, the taste of acid began to make its presence. Tommy stumbled out of his room, his right shoulder hitting harshly against his door frame, the rough slam will most likely leave a bruise. Tommy didn’t care for it right now, seeing as his back pain is worse than a small bruise. He sped off to the direction of his bathroom as fast as he could without coughing out the vile, hot liquid that is pushing more and more against the entrance of his mouth, wanting to make an exit to the cool outside world. The bail that was in his mouth lurched from the hot cave that was Tommy’s mouth. Once he finally got to the bathroom, he stayed crouched in front of the toilet bowl as all the contents from his stomach - which was only stomach fluid - came springing out as his body began to flare up due to his muscles flaring up making pain shoot up his back. Sweat trickled down from his forehead, his messy blond curls now sticking to him and causing more heat to form, small beads of sweat sliding down his face which caused an unsettling feeling of some type of bug crawling on his face. 

Knowing how unsanitary it would be, Tommy laid his face down on the cool ceramic bowl of the toilet after lifting up the seat. He has never been more grateful for Phil wanting to keep the toilet as clean as possible, said man cleans it every weekend when he’s around. He sat on the tiled bathroom floor, left cheek pressing against the chilled toilet bowl as he let his back send waves of pain throughout his body. When the pain was at least bearable, Tommy went to sit up but ended up tensed due to getting scared by his communicator. The pain between Tommy’s shoulder blades started to shoot back in protest to the sudden movements and increased ten fold. Tommy’s communicator rang throughout the silent house, the crickets could be heard after said communicator finished ringing. Tommy grabbed some toilet paper and wiped his mouth then threw it into the toilet, the eleven year old then flushed the toilet and put the seat down before closing the lid. He washed his hands just to be startled from his communicator again, the blond almost cried out in pain due to the immense pain that had coursed through his back due to another unwanted movement. He staggered out of the bathroom, his tears glistening from the moon light that shone through the hallways window. Tommy re-entered his bedroom just to see his communicator had stopped ringing, with a groan, Tommy laid back down on his bed but on his stomach, as to not cause pain any further. When he settled with the peaceful noises of the night time creatures - as well as the calming silence - he started to drift off to sleep. That was short lived as his communicator rang again, through gritted teeth, Tommy grabbed his communicator and sat up unwillingly, not looking at the name that appeared in bold white letters, Tommy answered while trying to suppress another cry.

“Finally!”, Wilbur’s voice was heard through the scratchy speaker of the communicator, “Took you long enough! We tried to get a hold of you all day, I was starting to get worried and was ready to turn back around”, Wilbur’s rushed voice could be heard but only fell on deaf ears. “Tommy?”, he called out but was just met with silence, the brunet huffed in slight annoyance. Tommy snapped out of his haze and looked back at his communicator that he had facing the ceiling, he saw that it saw that he accepted a face call and not just a regular call. “Tommy? Are you alright?”, Wilbur asked now concerned as the blond didn’t appear on the screen or make any movements.

“Mhm”, Tommy croaked out from his dried throat, “I was sleeping”, Tommy typed to Wilbur. He didn’t like lying to the brunet but if it meant not worrying him then it was worth it.

“That’s a relief, you had me worried there!”,Wilbur beamed after hearing his younger brother talk - well hum- after so long of not hearing his voice. It confused Tommy, he thought that he was still mad at him, after their small argument because Tommy supposedly made one of his jumpers a tad smaller after leaving it in the dryer for too long. The blond just hums and looks back outside, his back was now a tolerable throb but it still hurt, since he wasn’t moving around much. “Dad said that we might get back a few days early, so it would be around a week and three days before we get back, do you think you could manage?”, Wilbur asked Tommy who only hummed a response. “Good, well, I need to go to sleep now! Dad, Tech, and I are heading out when day breaks”, Wilbur tells Tommy, not thinking anything of he previous responses and doesn’t wait for the younger to reply before he signs off. Tommy frowns before he shoves his communicator onto his bedside table and lays back down just to curl into his blankets. 

Tears began to slip from his eyes slowly from the pain and the fact that Wilbur hadn’t asked how his day was or if he was truly doing okay, but that was fine. Tommy didn’t need to worry them and ruin their adventure. He wants them to live their own lives without much bother while he lives his, being less annoying and not asking for things. Only talking when it’s truly covenant. Tommy cried out as the pain in his back increased and started to feel a burning sensation, as if his spine was shattered into a million pieces that tore his muscles on the inside. As if they were rearranging themselves for an appendage or an extra vertebrae that would probably make him more agile, the pain was excruciating. He began to see black spots in his vision, the tears weren’t helping as his sight grew more blurry, Tommy’s head pounding from the upcoming headache that was yet to form. The blond slowly passes out due to the overwhelming pain he felt, not being able to bear it for much longer before he blacks out while his dream self wanders around a peaceful oasis. The place leaving behind warmth and kindness in its wake to the hurting boy.

Chapter Text

After that night, Tommy was unconscious for two days as his body took the liberty to rearrange and prepare for the upcoming limbs that will soon add to his growing body. His unconscious screams start to get smothered as his throat rearranged itself to add animal-like noises to his list of things that he would needed to suppress when he discovers it at some point, his back in constant pain as any small movements the small blond had made in his sleep caused it to get worse. The sweat from the heat he could feel from the muscles in his back as they shred themselves to make way for newer ones as well as newer bones, causing a small lumps to form under his skin.

Tommy had tossed and turned during the two days he was asleep for, making sure he was never on his back, painful gasps and whimpers escaping every now and then. The pain could be felt even in his most peaceful dreams, nightmares or hellish landscapes began to form from the occurring torture he endured from his brothers and from the newly formed pain. Coating his one escape in nothing but agony, versions of how he hurt his back now had its own stored library in his brain.

-

The three other members of the family had now made it to a smaller and not frequently visited village on the outskirts of a land that they needed to head to. The three hybrids only had a week and a few hours left till they could go home and take a break from adventuring as they had been going on adventures a lot recently. Phil wouldn’t mind another adventure soon but a nice break could be useful once and a while, he wasn’t as young as he used to be.

As the three were making their way through the village, something had caught Wilbur’s eye which made him run over to a small antique shop inside the small village. Everything inside the antique shop seemed to be all handmade. “Hey dadza! I found something Tommy might like!”, Wilbur shouted as he waved the older blond over, Phil looked at what the brunet had called him over for and smiled fondly.

“Good eye WIll”, Phil tells him and ruffles his hair, the brunet was pleased from the praise and rushed inside while Techno and Phil walked in after him.

The antique shop had a homely look on the inside, rows and rows of tables covered with little trinkets to statues ranging from wood to stone. There were jukeboxes of all sizes and the thing that had walked into the store for, the shop owner watched them, making sure that they wouldn't take anything and run off. Phil inspected the range that he could choose from, till one had caught his eye, Wilbur and Techno walked over to the winged man to get a look at what he had chosen, both silently agreeing on the item the older had picked out.

The lady watched the three hybrids approach her with the small item in Phil’s hand and gently placed said item onto the front counter, smiling up at her warmly. “Would this be all?”, she asked Phil who nodded in reply, the two twins decided to let the older hybrid pay for the item and walked off to look at the other items the shop had before he called them so they could continue for what they were out to do. 

-

The sun broke over the horizon making the golden ray from the rising ball shine on the morning dew that laid gently against the blades of grass, the gentle chirps of birds that awake early, getting ready to make a long journey to a much warmer climate before fall becomes winter. The soft rays from the sun began to filter its way into Tommy’s room, illuminating his walls in a nice hue of oranges. The growing light attacking the closed eyes on the smaller blond’s face, which scrunched up from said light and turned away from it, back facing the open space of his room.

This caused Tommy to groan in pain as his back was still rearranging itself for the new appendages that were yet to bloom. he knew that he had to get up, the sharp pain in his stomach a reminder that it has almost been a week since he last ate, which he would have done sooner if it weren’t for him being passed out for the past two days.

Tommy then remembered a small thing that Phil had taught him that dealt with muscle pain, but the problem was that all the heating pads are in the closet hallway downstairs and his room was further down the hallway upstairs.

‘ I just had to get the furthest room, hadn’t I ’, Tommy groaned before he heaved himself up, body protesting as he pushed himself off his bed. His head began to pound from the gravity pulling down on him, making the poor boy want to slink to the ground and stay there forever. The cold wood feeling great against his burning flesh.

Tommy staggered over to his bedroom door and stopped himself from crashing into it again in the same spot as he had done before, not wanting to have a even more sore arm along with his growing hybrid traits. 

He makes it to the stairs and questioned how he was going to get down without having the feeling of him about to fall. An idea popped into his throbbing head, he went into a crouch and leaning his body away from the decline of the steps. Tommy sat down on the top stair and began to slowly slid down, step by step. It did help keep from moving his shoulders too much but the halts of each stop did cause him to lurch forward causing a small tremor of pain.

‘ Might as well try to eat something while I’m down here ’, he thought as he finally got to the final step and stood up, leaning against the wall as he grew dizzy, the inanimate object supporting most of his weight.

Tommy decided that he should eat before getting the heating pads, prolonging the trip back up, he makes his way to the kitchen and grabbed a loaf of bread, thanking whatever god/gods were out there since he didn’t need to move much for what he was planning to make.

A simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he didn’t want to force too much onto his stomach after going so long without eating. Bread also lines his stomach to help settle the constant nauseous feeling he always had, Tommy just sat crossed legged on the cold wooden floor, making his flushed skin cool at the touch. He doesn’t remember when he had changed into a short sleeved shirt and shorts but he was thankful nonetheless. The soon-to-be hybrid put the butter knife into the sink and dusted off his hands on his shorts. He felt a bit better knowing he had something in his stomach to fuel him for the day but still felt a bit sick, the small blond dragged his hand along the bubbled like texture of the wall, making his journey to the hallway closet.

It was short lived seeing as the closest was close to the kitchen and the steps back up, Tommy took some of the heating pads from the closet for when Wilbur and Techno had their piglin traits grow in, as well as some bad growing pains all three shared while Phil could only tell them ‘it would be better soon’. Tommy used the railing to support himself as he climbed up the stairs, he was in his room faster then when he needed to eat and grab the heating pads. He lifted up the comforter that rested on top of his bed and laid out the two heating pads out to where his shoulder would most likely be and set it at the medium setting. Tommy laid his comforter back down and laid on the heating pads as they started to warm up, he knew that he shouldn’t lay directly on the heating pads because the heated pack could cause him to get burned, which he didn’t want since he is already in pain as it is.

The heating pads were working a bit, some of the tension being unwinded from the heat spreading through the pained area. With having something to eat and pain more tolerable, Tommy decided he should get more rest seeing as he could have before. He knows that laying in his back isn’t a good idea either, but its either have pain or less pain and he would like less pain.

-

Phil, Techno, and Wilbur had set up camp outside the village, seeing how this village wasn’t welcoming to hybrids. They had finished up their business in said village, apparently, someone went around and started to make a mess of the village, even though they didn’t want to reach out to Phil and his family, they needed the three hybrid’s help and help they did. But alas, the family got nothing in return but harsh treatment, Phil didn’t want a prize anyways but he didn’t need the harsh comments about their hybrid traits, and neither did his two sons.

“Should we call Tommy to tell him that we would be back much sooner than planned?”, Wilbur spoke up and Techno just stared at Phil, the avian humed before he stood up.

“Maybe we should, but why not make it a surprise for him?”

Wilbur lit up at the idea and Techno huffed, his snout flaring, Phil enjoyed the time he got to spend with his two twins, but he wished he could try and connect with Tommy more. Each time he has tried the younger blond would give small answers verbally or through sign language. He really wants to try to reconnect with Tommy, he can feel the gap between them but Phil didn’t know how and didn’t know what to do to try and feel said gap. 

-

The moon was half way above the sky the next day when Tommy awoke to his back in excruciating pain, his first reflex was to grab at whatever he felt. Tommy began to try and scratch whatever that was trying to get in or out of his back, hot tears pouring from his eyes. The pain was worse than how he felt the first time before he had passed out, and he didn’t have the option to pass out during this one.

That was when he actually felt something move, prodding at his back, which caused Tommy to scream out in fear at what was happening. He was never told about two large lumps pushing against his skin, causing pain on a different level then what he was used to. In his panic, Tommy fell off his bed and onto his side, causing more pain to stir up which made him let a wet cry like scream, as if he was being murdered on the spot.

This went on for hours, Tommy squirming from the amount of pain he was in as well as the horror present on his face for not knowing what was going on while screaming whenever it was pushing against his skin.

On the fourth hour of letting out pained cries and scratching at raw flesh on his back which caused blood to steadily flow, the two lumps on his back finally bursted, the sound of something fluttering could be heard  as well as flesh tearing from his now more aware ears. Warm yet sticky liquid could be felt as whatever that was pushing from his back was free, laying limp beside him, breath labored and eyes heavy.

He didn’t know if he should feel comforted by the warming liquid or terrified for not knowing where it was coming from but the black splotches in his eyesight felt comforting from the hours of pain he had gone through. Tommy just wanted to sleep it off, which to him, didn’t sound like a bad idea to him. Not aware of the concerning amount of blood gushing from his back near the base of his new limbs.

Chapter Text

Phil, Techno, Wilbur were at least four days away from getting back to their home, Wilbur was finally going to lay down in his bed for a while, Techno get’s to have the confined spaces of his room and Phil will be able to actually get decent rest without having to worry about anything.

All in all, the trio was happy to get home as quickly as they can and get some good rest, hopefully Tommy doesn’t mind that they need at least a break, right? “Why did we have to walk so far out”, Wilbur groaned, wanting nothing more than to collapse on his bed and sleep his life away.

“Well, we didn’t live close to the village, which is rude to hybrids”, Phil responds to the complaining brunet with disdain as Techno just huffs. The avian feels as though something doesn’t feel right, he’s been on edge ever since yesterday and now he just wants to find out why.

It was around mid-day and had a lot of ground to cover if they want to get back to the cottage early, they also want to surprise Tommy with their four day early return as well as the hand picked and well thought of gift. 

-

Tommy groggily woke up, his head feeling like he had been put under water, ears muffled and vision blurred. The pain in his back is still there but more tolerable, the thing that got his attention was the fluffy added weight.

He turns around and stares directly at the fluffy appendages attached to his back as well as the two wounds with protruding flesh. Panic sets in that causes a scream to be ripped from his through, flailing around trying to get as much distance from the newly developed wings that followed everywhere he goes. Tommy puts a hand to his head as his room starts to spin around him, gravity harshly tugging his body back down to the cold floor he had just got up from. 

He begins to settle down, staring at the wing - his wings - on his back. He’s seen these type of wings before when reading a book about birds, being bored in the house alone one day. His wings are those of a barn owl, specialized as a bird of prey, and good to find small mammals in low light conditions. On his lesser coverts held more grey feathers with small dots of lighter gray and white while the median and greater coverts have more of the orange feathers that have patches of lighter orange and white specks and feathers. The primaries of Tommy’s wings are white as his secondaries were a cream color with hints of gray, and the under part of the wings was just plain creamy white.

The wings are dull seeing how he had just grew in his wings and wouldn't get their more pigmented colors till a week or two later, depending on the wing span.

They would almost be beautiful if it weren’t for the blood and molting feathers covering them, Tommy stood up shakingly with his bed frame as his support, not trusting to stand on his own with an already growing headache. The avian stood there for a minute as his vision swam, swaying as though he was on a boat with small tides pushing against the boat. Nausea started to bloom in his stomach, making the small blond hold his mouth and run towards his bathroom with great speed, not wanting to make a bigger mess in his or somewhere else in the house.

Thought began to run through his head, most about his new formed wings and how the other three males think of them. Would he even tell them? Would they care? 

‘ Of course they won’t, since when have they ever cared? Instead, don’t tell Phil, Wilbur, and Techno, don’t take the attention away from the two favorites. Be grateful that they still let you live here, they are giving you a roof, food, clothes. You don’t deserve their attention ’, the disembodied voice hissed, loud and clear in the young blond’s head.

The steady flow of tears rolling down his face as the now young winged avian spilled his contents from his stomach into the toilet, the seat and lid up as to not  get his bodily fluids anywhere. Tommy’s wings tensed in pain as his body spasming from the force of his coughs he was letting out, back letting off small pains from said coughs, he hated this. Tommy hated all of this, every last drop but he oh so loved his wings. To him, all of this pain was worth it, all the pain he had gone through was worth it and now, he wants to work on the newly developed skills so for when he tells Phil, he would be proud. 

The blond was finally done hacking up the little thing he had eaten, now washing his hands from doing so, thinking of how to hide his wings. He knew from how Phil wings look and how his look, that his wings are in very poor shape, he would need to clean them by laying down and placing his feathers in the right spot which wasn't something he wasn’t taught. But just because he wasn’t taught doesn’t mean he can’t learn on his own, now onto the harder task, hiding them. How would he hide his wings and a good way as well? He could always cut small slits between the two fabrics his clothes have and stuff his wings on the inside, but that would hurt since barn owls have a wider wingspan then the other owls. He could always just leave his wings under his clothes and tuck the remains into his pants but that has a risk of the wings outline pressing against his clothes. Tommy walked back to his room in thought, racking up ways on how he should hide his wings.

Tommy peered outside the window, getting a good glimpse of a small shack they had for cutting up farm animals when they’ve grown weak or too old. That’s when a thought came to mind when he saw a rope, ‘ Why not a harness? Phil has plenty laying around in the storage unit and some are small enough for me to fit' , he thought to himself, he quickly ran down the steps and into the storage unit, making sure not to jostle the sore and aching back.

Phil has always told Tommy to not go into the storage unit, that the older blond would always know if he went into said room but Tommy went into the storage unit many times and hasn’t been caught. Tommy gripped the cold handle of the door, pushing against the dark oak door and took a glance around the room. Many chest’s and shelves were seen, a brewing stand laying in one corner while a smithing table and anvil on the other side, a few weapons hung on the walls, a few shining in enchantments, armors hung on armor stands. 

The avian quickly snuck to one of the closer chests, taking a peek inside and beamed when he had found what he had needed in the first chest he chose, a wide selection of harnesses at his disposal as well as a big color range. Tommy grabbed one of the smaller harnesses, a red one at that, and took off to his room to grab his clothes to take a shower he desperately needed, making Tommy more uncomfortable than he was.

Making upon the bathroom, he closed the door, the younger blond sat his clean clothes onto the counter-top that held the built in sink, he also placed the red harness onto the counter-top next to his clean clothes. The younger avian squatted down to the cupboard underneath the quartz counter-top to grab the blinding box, more known as a med-kit, out from under the sink and placed it with his other belongings.

Tommy turned his attention  to the bathtub and reached over to the knobs above the faucet connected to the bathtub, the eleven year old twisted both the warm and cold knobs of the bathtub till water ran. Keeping his hand under the running water, Tommy adjusted the temperature of the water till it was the right temperature and reached for the shower diverter on the tub faucet till water started pouring from the shower head. Tommy stood up from the side of the tub and began to discard his shredded shirt, small pinkish and  scars covering a small portion of his shoulders from many mental breakdowns he’s had from many of the one-sided arguments the smaller blond had gotten into with the two piglin hybrid’s over trivial matters.

The eleven year old never really gone out of his way to self-harm unless his feelings get way to overwhelming as the voice that continued to grow in the back of his mind taunted him of his many flaws, always calling him degrading thoughts about his being, how he always tried to take the spotlight from the others in the cottage, that no longer felt warm to him ever since Phil had started paying more attention to the two twins. 

Setting aside his bloodied clothes, taking a mental note to throw them away once he was done, he stepped into the shower with his head down. Welcoming the warmth of the gentle water drops covering his body, watching the water falling onto the rough flooring of the bathtub, tented pink due to the blood mixing into the water that grows darker the longer he stood there. Tommy grabbed a hold of his red rag, glad that red is his favorite color, and poured a small amount of soap onto said rag and began to scrub over his body.

He began to dive deeper into his thoughts with more questions popping over every now and then, mind on autopilot. Going over every possibility that could go wrong and well at the same time, how if he messed up for even one second then it would all be over.

Tommy came out of his thoughts when his hands touched the fluffy yet slick texture of his feathers. Not knowing how to wash them, Tommy turned around to have the water hit his wings more, bloodied feathers flapping around from the water pelting them from the shower head. Reaching back a hesitant hand to his wings, he ran his hand over his wings, the touch being felt through his wings was somewhat calming but the itch in them became more present. Tommy then started on moving feathers around while combing through them as well, blood being washed off of them and smaller dull feathers falling as he does so. Pushing, pulling, and rearranging feathers in a certain spot that just felt right, the itches that bothered him now being resolved making him let out a soft sigh.

With his wings and body now cleaned, Tommy turned the shower off and pushed the shower diverter back down to not let the shower head spray the other’s who would want to take a shower next. Tommy stayed in the bathtub, not wanting to get blood everywhere when he worked on his back, stretching over to the med-kit laying on the quartz counter-top he brought it over to him. Tommy sat the med-kit down on the edge of the bathtub and opened it, many ranges of med items at his disposal, the blond would have just grabbed a healing and regeneration pot and said screw it but Phil would know one of both potions missing and question Tommy as to why they went missing. That, and Tommy felt that it would be improper to use potions to heal the wounds from his wings, wanting the whole process to be as natural as it can get.

So, with that being said, Tommy sprayed disinfectant onto the two wounds as best as he could and placed gauze on them. Making sure on securing the gauzes in place, Tommy grabbed one of the many bandage rolls and wrapped it from the base of his shoulder to the bottom base of his wing, going from the pattern till he had to switch the angle of the bandage to get the whole wound till it was fully wrapped. He took another bandage roll and did the same thing on the other side. His whole upper torso and mid-section now covered in bandages, Tommy took the harness and put it on, applying the straps to adjust to his size to not make him uncomfortable and in pain. 

When the harness was in place and tight, but not tight enough to cause pain, he put on his other article of clothing and cleaned the bathroom, making sure to put everything away and taking any feathers that just so happened to fall off him from him cleaning his wings.

The avian knew there was a term he’d seen in the bird book he read about the proper name for cleaning wings but forgot the term and shrugged it off. When he exited the bathroom and turned off the light, he picked up any stray feathers that fell onto the ground as he walked to his room with the feathers he has from the bathroom in his hands still.

Tommy had reached his room he almost threw up, his room looked that of a murder scene. He was never so glad that his flooring is wood and not carpet or cleaning would have became much harder. The smaller blond placed the pile of feathers onto his desk and began cleaning his room, taking any feathers spewed all over the ground and put those with his growing pile, running out of his room for a bucket and rag for the huge puddle of blood on his bedroom floor.

The avian scrubbed at the bloodied spot for over an hour and a half, now all that is left for him to clean his bed and the growing pile of feathers. He had dumped the bucket of blood into the toilet and flushed that instead of using the tub that he would most likely need to be cleaned after as well. The eleven year old took the pile of feathers and shoved those into a plastic bag he forgot to throw away when he snuck up a bit of dried honey candies into his room at three in the morning. He just ended up being scolded for doing so in the first place since those candies were Wilbur after his tosk began to grow a bit more.

He placed the bag of his feathers into a box in his closet and put that box into the furthest corner of the closet, with a huff, the younger avian grabbed the two heating pads and made his way to the steps. There were exactly five days left till Phil, Wilbur, and Techno came back, unbeknownst to Tommy, the three older hybrids only had three days left before they came back to the cottage. 

On his way to the downstairs's closet, Tommy noticed the small trail of feathers leading to the storage area. After placing the heating pads back in their respective spots he ran over to the door, running the idea that if he picks up the feathers in the room then leading out then he won’t have to clean up much, even though his wings are fastened against his body, Tommy didn’t want to run the risk of his feathers being caught.

He had picked up all of the feathers he could see and ran, well jogged, back to his room and shoved the recently picked up feathers with the others. Tommy took a peek outside and noted the sun was tad in center of the sky heading west, which means it is an hour past noon, Tommy wasn’t in the mood to eat so he resulted in grabbing a thick hoodie and slipped a pair of sneakers on.

The younger avian hasn’t gone outside since last month, so getting to enjoy it would be a nice experience, Phil never wanted him outside much during the fall and winter, afraid that Tommy would get sick since he has the tendency to get sick from small winds, but he was a ‘ big man ’ now and big men don’t get sick easily. That, and his immune system had gotten stronger from all the times he’s gotten sick, so Tommy wasn’t necessarily worried about getting sick.

The eleven year old jumped down the steps, feeling way much better and less in pain since the sprouting of his wings, each hop made him feel his wings shuffle under his shirt, Bringing up shirts, Tommy should really throw away or burn the ones that got bloodied and torn. Shrugging it off he decided to do so when he got back from his walk.

When Tommy slipped outside and shut the cottage’s door, he felt excitement run through his bones and he didn't know why, everything outside just seemed more vibrant. The leaves left off a nice soft glow color, the grass more green than what he’s seen, the feeling of the soft winds blowing through his freshly cleaned hair, the soft curl like locks bouncing in the wind. The way his ears can pick up softer sounds more clearly, the way his eyes scanned dark areas and was able to see more clearer, everything about the new way everything looks made him feel brand new.

His wings under his clothing and harness fluffing up, wanting to stretch and take off and feel the remaining sun kiss the outstretched limbs. Wanting to feel such excitement with his wings out made him double over into a sprint, running down a fading path to his peaceful place, the place he always goes to when he needs to settle his thoughts from the one-sided fights he gets into, whenever something becomes too much and he needs a reset.

As Tommy was sprinting through the trees, he peered up into the leaves, eyes catching sight of birds preparing for flight or squirrels running back into their dens to prepare for hibernation, the blond castes his sight back down to the tree line, seeing wolves sitting and lazing about in their packs, some grooming the other. Wild cows, sheeps, and pigs all grazing or sleeping, young near some pairs of animals that belonged in their grouping, the way the flowers seem to flow gently with the wind, all this at Tommy’s disposal.

His eyes greedily taking all that was given to him, eating up every sight his constantly begging eyes had land on, he’s never felt so alive before and he is able to do so after his wings have sprouted, his wings. ‘ Did Phil ever feel like this when he sprouted his? Phil… he has wings, I’m his biological child, so technically.. These wings are his, to show I’m tied to him ’, Tommy thought to himself, slowing his pace till he was now at a stop, breath wheezing each time he’d breath in, his wings drooping from his now sour mood.

Tommy decided to walk the rest of the way to his getaway spot, needing to get there quickly but not too quickly, wanting to enjoy the fresh air before he heads back to the stale air of the cottage. He could never see the cottage as a home anymore, not after the favoritism that was shown to the two twins, Phil clearly loved them more, and it shows. Any outsider could see it and when they ask Phil if he favored the two piglin children over the biological one, he would just say he loved them all equally. But if you asked Tommy, he would say of course. The favoritism could clearly be seen from a mile away, no one could just say there wasn’t any, if they said so then they clearly must be blind. 

Upon making to a the bottom of a small cliff ridge, Tommy turned to the left and began running his hand along the side of the ridge, feeling every bump and sharp edge of the wall; since when did Tommy have sharp nails now and why are they gray? That wasn’t important though, as Tommy neared a tree with vines ensnaring part of the cliff ridge, he moved a few of the bushes and vines away before it gave way to a gap in the ridge.

The blond entered the gap then turned around and pulled everything back the way it was as to make it seem like it was never touched. He crawled through the small space and entered a hidden plain full of flowers. A hole above a pond and a small stream flowing into the pond below from the higher surface, the small clearing with trees circling all around the walls in the hidden forest that Tommy called his safe place.

It wasn’t a big forest, just as big as what's surrounding him, which was average size. About three hundred feet high and four hundred feet wide on all sides, again, average size.

He walked over to the pond and sat against a stump he’s found and claimed it as the ‘ thinking and sad stump ’ which he was the supposed best name he’s come up with. As Tommy was sitting there, his wings itched for action or at least wanting to be stretched, and Tommy did as the itch asked. The blond took off his hoodie and shirt, showing the harness and bandages, he unfastened the harness and let his slightly ruffled feathers spread out, some of the recently preened - that was the word - feathers jetting out in some places.

Tommy took some time to re-preen the feathers till all were sticking down, smoothed, and covered with the oils that are made for the feathers, he took time to look at the wings before trying to spread them out, which was harder to do. The avian used his hands to help spread out his wings, he kept folding and unfolding his wings till he got familiar with the patter and was able to do it on his own. Tommy started to stretch and flap his multicolored wings with the wing gently flowing through his feathers, the cool wind gliding along the fragile limbs, dancing on his stretching skin that his wings had underneath all of the feathers. The young avian spread his wings above his head, in front of him, downward, and back behind him with a wingspan of what seems to be a four or five foot wingspan, granted that it is still growing, and smiled at them.

A rustle behind Tommy caught his attention before he whipped his head over to the bushes across the pond, the bushes moving before a boy with brunet hair and small horns popped out from the bush, the small boy also had floppy ears that could probably belong to a ram or a goat. The boy walked out of the bush and brushed off all of the leaves from his attire, which was a yellow and brown striped sweater and blue short overalls, brown boots and a flower crown ranging from red poppy’s to blue orchids. Sea foam green eyes met coral blue, both stood still, caught like deer who saw the light glinting from an arrow of a hunter, scared and shocked of the other boy at both sides of the lake.

Chapter Text

Tommy didn’t know what to do, he had never prepared himself enough for when he got caught with his wings out, much less with his shirt off and his bandages showing. The young avian didn’t know what to do, the other boy seemed to be shocked into place as well.

Tommy was the first to break from his trance and waved to the stunned brunette.

“H-Hello?”, the smaller boy called out after recovering from shock, watching the taller blond for any signs that may deem that he is uncomfortable in any way,“I didn’t know someone else knew where this spot was, hang on! Let me come to you.”

The small brunette came bounding over, excitement written all over his face as he edged closer and closer to Tommy, not seeing how freaked out the poor lad was from another person seeing his newly grown appendages.

The small goat or ram boy came over to Tommy and held his hand out while grinning brightly, “I’m Tubbo, I am a goat hybrid! Nice to meet you”, he beam which made the tall blond smile hesitantly and rubbed his exposed arm before lifting it up.

“Uh, I’m Tommy and I’m an avian hybrid”, Tommy signs to the smaller but stood there staring for a bit. He doesn't even know if this, Tubbo, person knows sign language but the reaction he gets thinks that the brunette could understand Tommy just fine. Tubbo bounced up and down in his spot while looking up at Tommy.

“May I see your wings? I’ve never seen an avian hybrid before, well, besides my dad’s friend who has two piglin sons”, the goat hybrid rambles out which caught Tommy off guard.

“A-Another avian with two piglin sons? You mean Phil?”, he signs hesitantly before he walks over to the stump where his clothes were discarded, Tubbo following close behind him while staring at his wings from time to time.

“Mhm! Do you know him?”, Tubbo questioned and Tommy sadly sighed. He nods his head towards the small brunette before picking up his harness, turning all the straps around so they weren't all twisted and bundled together.

“Yeah uh.. He’s my biological father”, Tommy signs after he slid the harness on his shoulders, now fastening the straps together, making sure to not fasten it too tight to the point it makes his wings ache but enough to secure his wings in a comfortable weight that feels almost comforting .

Tubbo tilted his head, confused from what the young avian had just told him, “Phil never mentioned another son, he never brought up that he had a third.”

Tommy felt a pang of hurt in his chest from the words the smaller had told him. The pit in his stomach from the earlier part of the conversation grew more and more, twisting as if a vile snake wrapped itself around his lungs from the inside. Squeezing tighter and tighter while words rang through his head, inky black voices spewing false lies and semi truths.

‘ Had Phil never talked about me while visiting other people? Did he not want people to know that I exist? ’, Tommy questioned to himself, his lips drooping into a frown, "Is he really that disappointed in me that others don't even know I exist?", Tommy mentally shook his head and fixed his frown into a wobbling smile. 

“Well.. guess he wants to keep that private, can’t really blame him..”, Tommy signs sadly before he slipped his shirt and hoodie back on, his shirt being a gray color and his hoodie being his icon red and white color, but with some intricate designs. Tubbo stared at him questionably as to why Tommy had a harness on around his wings, feeling uncomfortable himself for just watching it.

“Uh question?”, the smaller spoke up before he sat next to the winged blond on the grass near the stump, Tommy hums in reply while staring into the pond’s crystal blue water, ripples popping up here and there as fish swam to the top to feast on the unlucky bugs that just so happy to fly close enough to the water. “How come you wear a harness? Won’t it feel better to have them out and about?”, Tubbo asked, staring at the pond water too, the taller boy glanced down at his hands, taking note of the gray talons; he should really cut those.

“It's.. personal”, he signs after making sure Tubbo was staring at him, the smaller just hums and goes back to watching the pond in front of them. Listening to the wind rustling the leaves, the sound the fish make when they reach the surface of the water to eat the unfortunate pond skaters the drift along the breeze blowing against the light water.

A comfortable silence in place as both boys sat there, one fighting a mental war as the other wanted to ask more questions about the younger but not wanting to make him uncomfortable, but a thought came to the brunettes mind and looked over to Tommy with a smile etched onto his face. “Wanna be friends?”, the brunette asked the blond, watching for his reaction to his question.

Tommy whipped his head up in shock, not expecting the brunette to even take in such a consideration. “Y-You..wanna be friends, with someone like me?”, Tommy signs with hesitation and doubt, a frown settling on his features before it was replaced with a small smile as the goat hybrid beamed, the smile reaching his droopy ears.

“Yeah! Of course, why wouldn’t I?”, Tubbo asked, now his smile being replaced to a frown after realizing what the younger meant, worry obviously present. Tommy just waved him off before looking back at the pond, the bright blue now slowly being replaced by a golden orange, indicating that it’s dusk and night will be settling soon.

“Tubbo!”, a more scruffy and deeper pitched voice rang out from the direction the older had came from, an older looking version of Tubbo emerged from the bushes that brunette had just came from. The older ram or goat looking hybrid scanned the outing before taking sight of the two boys sitting by the stump. He began making the trip over to where Tubbo and Tommy sat before sitting down along with them, “Who you got ‘ere Tubs?”, the older male asks and the boy in question smiled brightly.

“My new friend Tommy! He’s Phil’s biological son!”, Tubbo pulled the taller blond into a sideways hug and brought him closer to his side, the older ram or goat hybrid seems surprised by this claim.

“Well I’m Schlatt, Tubbo’s dad. Phil never told me about a third son, you sure you don’t have your dad confused with someone else?”, Schlatt asked Tommy who just seemed to deflated at the response, how could Tommy justify his claim? No one knew about him or even the existence of him. Of course Phil will only talk about Wilbur and Techno, why wouldn't he? They have more accomplishments and skills than Tommy will ever have. He could never compare to them, he is just a scratch compare to how bright and glamorous his brothers (could he even call them that anymore?) were.

A thought came to mind, one he should have thought about more since it included calling his second oldest brother Wilbur. Tommy looks up to Schlatt and brought his hands up in front on the man, “ Well, I could always go back to the cottage and grab my communicator to call Wil or Tech, not sure if they will reply since they went out ‘venturing about a week and a few days ago. They should be back in about five to four days ”, Tommy signs to Schlatt, Tubbo grew worried. Tommy hated the pitied looks they gave him, growing anxious about making Tubbo (his friend now) worry over something so trivial about his family, well ex-family, leaving.

Schlatt knew Phil loved talking about his two piglin son’s but he never expected Phil to never bring up his third son, biological at that, and just leave him alone for weeks on end. Even if Tommy could be lying, no kid should be left on their own in the woods with no way of communicating, heat, proper food or clothing and just pretend everything is okay. But if the younger is telling the truth and he is the biological son of Phil than Schlatt has some talking to do with his dear ol' friend of his and as to why his youngest is alone without any proper watch over him.

“Why don’t Tubbo and I walk you back, it is growing dark and I don’t feel too keen on letting you walk back on ‘yer own”, Schlatt stood up and offered both boys a hand, Tubbo took it gladly and Tommy just stood on his own while galring at the hand as if he would hurt him, shying away from the older goat. Schlatt couldn’t blame him, meeting two strange hybrids in a cave-like hole surrounded by trees, just for the older to ask to help the young blond walk to his house while his family was away isn't really a good setting to be found in.

The younger just nodded quietly and began to walk the opposite direction of where both goat hybrids (Tommy later found out that Schlatt is a ram hybrid) came from, and showed them the small tunnel he’d come from to enter. The elder hybrid only wonders, how did he ever find this hole in the first place? What would drive the blond into running into the woods in the first place? Let alone running in the woods that would need to have him hide from whatever was chasing him in the first place. Schlatt and Tubbo just followed Tommy back to the cottage, keeping a few more paces ahead of them for safety reasons but Tommy could tell they had no ill will. Well he couldn’t but his gut told him so. The younger saw the cottage ahead and began to jog up to the door to unlock it, Schlatt and Tubbo still keeping the same place as to not startle him or make him panic.

When both brunettes made it to the front door, the blond let them enter first before he followed in behind them after closing the door. The three took their shoes off and made their way to the couches in the open area in front of the door. The elder took a glance around the living area, seeing photos of Tommy with Wilbur, Techno, and Phil. A lot of the photos didn’t have Tommy in them, a selective few had Tommy when he was younger, most likely around six or five. It made his stomach churn knowing that there are no photos of the four of them now, only the two piglin hybrids and the older blond smiling in front of what seems to be the cabin, Tommy nowhere in sight. He couldn't stand seeing poor Tommy neglected second hand, Schlatt didn't know how it was when actually staying here or watching it when they go out.

The ram hybrid turned back to the two boys just in time to see the youngest lift his hands up.  “ Imma go grab my communicator, you can sit in the living room if you’d like ”, was all he signs before he sped off to his room, Schlatt walked into the living room with Tubbo on his heels, both sitting on one of the two sofas in the room. A nice oak  table with a glass center laid itself in the middle of the seating area, a nice gray carpet pinned underneath the table with splotches of white and black thrown into it. Footsteps could be heard nearing the living room which made brunettes in the living area to look up at the approaching noise just to see the taller boy enter the room, before any of the three hybrids could speak, Tommy’s communicator began to ring. 

Tommy picked up and held it back as the frantic voice of Wilbur came through the communicator, “WHY HAVEN’T YOU PICKED UP MY LAST FIVE CALLS!? DADZA IS FREAKING OUT BECAUSE YOU DIDN’ ANSWER!”, Wilbur yelled at the poor, slightly shaking boy, who just placed the communicator on the table to keep his ears from hurting any longer than they need too after his brothers outburst.

“I was taking a walk..”, came Tommy’s weak reply, needing to talk seeing how it was a voice call and not a video call.

Wilbur's sigh was picked up over the communicator whihc has Tommy fiddling with the hem of his hoodie, “At least you are alright, have you eaten today?”, Wilbur questioned and Tommy rubbed his hand.

“Mhm..” Schlatt knew that he was lying but he didn’t want to say anything to out the boy or to show that Tommy had anyone but him over. He had a feeling Wilbur could tell but he wasn’t too sure if he did. If Wilbur was anything like Phil or Techno then he knows he won't pick up the soft and shy reply that came from he small boy.

“Mmm alright, well make sure you stay out of trouble till we get back and make sure you layer up before you go outside, We know how easy you can get sick”, Wilbur fussed and Tommy just sighs, not replying to Wilbur. “But still, just lookin’ out for ya gremlin child”, was all Wilbur responded with before he signed off. The pang of hurt showed on his features, both Schlatt and Tubbo took notice. The hurt was gone just as fast as it appeared on the emotionless face of the younger.

Wilbur hasn’t said goodbye or I love you to him for ages, same goes with Techno and Phil. That was fine to him though, he’s used to it, same with no hugs or conversations, Tommy got nothing of what Phil, Wilbur, and Techno expresses to themselves. Even though he is used to having no touch from the others, it still hurt him knowing that he can't have the same treatment that his adoptive brothers have. It hurts, hurts him to the point that he can't even bare staying in the cottage anymore. Maybe it would be best that he had left.

A cough startles him out of his thoughts and makes him look over to where the noise had came from. With a balled fist to his mouth, Schlatt cleared his throat which made both Tommy and Tubbo look up at him. “Since ‘yer old man is going to be out for a few days, why not come back with Tubbo and I to our house? That way you won’t be alone?”, Schlatt’s tone became a question in the end, not really sure of it himself but Tommy understood, he always understood. He just shakes his head, declining their offer which made Tubbo pout.

“Then we will just visit each day”, was Tubbo’s response to Tommy. It made the younger look at the small brunette made with a shocked look, he immediately started to wave his hands around in dismissal, not wanting the two to feel pressured into staying, let alone have them take him back to their place. Just having them visit once is enough for Tommy. Tubbo somehow knew what he was going for, as though something between them had clicked and now knew what the other could say without moving their mouth, or hands in Tommy's case. “Don’t worry big man, we won’t feel pressured at all!”, Tubbo exclaimed, which had Schlatt looking at Tubbo weirdly, wondering what his son meant. 

Tommy just sighs in defeat, already knowing that he won’t win this argument, he looks over at Tubbo then at Schlatt, not knowing what to do or how to engage in a conversation. The older got the hint and stood up, the smaller goat following along with his father, “Well, we will come back tomorrow around an hour past dawn and check in on you. Is that okay with you?”, he looks at the blond who is now standing to lead them out.

Tommy was surprised for another time that day, ‘ Why would Schlatt ask if I was fine with it? Wouldn’t he just do what he wants? ’, Tommy thought with confusion slowly showing on his face but mentally shook his head. The small avian looks up to the older and nods his head, agreeing that he was fine with it. Schlatt nods back and slips his shoes back on, Tubbo already waiting by the door for his dad. The older brunette took Tubbo’s hand and waved goodbye to Tommy, who in return, waved goodbye to them too.

This whole day was strange to him from the two other hybrids that had showed him kindness and concern, no matter how hard Tommy tries to push it away, it always seems to come back to haunt him. With a small smile present on his face, the snow owl hybrid walked into the kitchen to clean the small amount of dishes he’s used, which is only a plate and a butter knife.

After he was done with that, Tommy made sure there were no traces of any of his feathers or lingering hints that he had guest and headed upstairs. He makes a bee-line to the bathroom, needing to get rid of his bloodied clothes that had now left blood spots on the quartz counter-top. He decides that he would burn the clothes in the campfire in the backyard, not wanting any evidence of what happened to him while his ex-family was away.

With that in mind, Tommy put his bloodied clothes into a plastic bag he brought up and shoved them into said plastic bag. The small avian took his red rag and wiped down the quartz counter-top, making the dried blood flake on the surface. Huffing a breath of relief as the quartz wasn’t stained or slightly tinted. He put his red rag back and picked up the plastic bag that held his bloodied clothes, Tommy made sure to tie the bag and put it into another bag just in case.

Tommy slipped the plastic bag of his bloodied clothing over his wrist so it won't get caught on anything when he went to open or close anything. He begins to make his way downstairs to the fire-pit in his back yard. Tommy knew that Phil keeps a spare flint and steel outside so they won’t take forever to find a piece of flint and steel inside the storage area. Tommy placed the bag down inside the center of the fire pit and grabbed a bit of flammable oil to spread on top of the bag, he always had a liking to fire, be it arson or just flames from torches, small sparks, or campfires.

Tommy scraped the flint against the steel till he got a small spark from clicking them together, said spark making the plastic bag spark alight and catch aflame, burning the clothes and bag. The eleven year old sat on the bench near the campfire so he could watch the orange, red, and yellow flames dance around on the slowly burning bag, dancing towards the skin like it had came to life, wishing to float higher and higher to whatever there was above. W atching the gray and black smoke float even higher than the flames and into the sky, mixing in with the slowly darkening sky. The sizzling and crackling of the open fire with the occasional popping of the bag filled Tommy’s ears as well as the smell of burning plastic, blood, and cloth filled his nose, the calming sensation of the whole thing made Tommy feel at ease.

He stayed there till the fire smothered itself, the stars now overhead with the moon slowly making itself across the sky to its peak. The blond stood up and grabbed a stick from beside him, stirring the ashes, to make sure everything had burned, fortunately everything was. Tommy set the stick back down and dusted his hands off, the avian began to make his trek back to the door, so he could go to his room to try to sleep. He knew he was tired, he could feel the weight of fatigue weighing him down on his eyelids, but whenever he actually laid down to try and get some rest, he could never do it. 

He just excuses whatever he was just thinking about and opened the back door to the cottage, it was dark inside since he hadn't turned on any of the lamps but he was still able to see the inside of the cottage clear as day, as if it was still dawn but without the flashy pale colors to sweep across the flooring and walls. Painting all the furniture and objects in its delightful colors that is easy on the eyes.

He thought that he just had a slight effect from staring at the fire all night but no, he starts to rub at his eyes and look around, seeing that he was still getting the same results no matter how hard he tried. He started to get scared, not knowing how he could suddenly see in the dark better but he wouldn’t let that stop him. The blond makes his way back to his room, still being slightly freaked out due to seeing in the dark, and went back into his room. Tommy closed the door to his room and walked over to his bed, flopping onto his stomach and curled his arms under his pillow.

Something felt slightly off to Tommy, as though something was missing. He didn't know what he was missing exactly but that didn't stop him from sitting up and letting his body and instincts guide him. Tommy opened the door to his room and walked down to Wilbur’s door, seeing as Wilbur’s room was closer to his and stared at the door in confusion.

He still opened said door, taking in the way on how the door creaks on the weight that was added onto it. Not caring about the creaks this time seeing how no one is in the cottage, he walks over to Wilbur’s bed and grabbed one of his many pillows then walked over to the brunette's closet. Opening the closet, he looked around in the closet, seeing many sweaters and jumpers ranging in all colors, but one that caught Tommy’s eye was Wilbur’s signature yellow sweater. The bright thing in all its glory, the soft stitching of the wool and the way it stretches each time it was wore. The color never seeming to fade each time it was wore and yet it still fits the growing stature of the adopted piglin.

Tommy took that as well as some other sweaters and a few jumpers, Tommy slinked his way back to his room and threw the jumpers and sweaters onto the floor then left the room again. This time he slid his way into Techno’s room, the room had mythical and history books spewed all over the room, papers scattered across his desk as well as armor stands of swords and armor strung on them.

The blond grabbed one of the few blankets on Techno’s bed and went to his closet also. Hoodies and shirts organized in groups and colors, ranging from size and rarity. Tommy took more hoodies than shirts as well as one of the gold chunks Techno had in his stash in his closet, always threatening any of them that he would know if one would be touched.

Tommy dropped those off as well, then made his way to the room across from Techno’s, Phil’s room. He opens the door to Phil’s room and saw his gray feather spread across his bed and floor, not as clean as Tommy was expecting but this was an average adventurer he was talking about.

He walks to Phil’s dresser and opened the top one, cloaks of many dark shades of green and shades of gray were separated evenly, folded gently in each section of gradients they were put in. Folded in the special way that Phil had taught younger Tommy all those years ago.

Tommy took three green cloaks and two gray ones and scampered out of Phil’s room into his own before shutting his door. He let his instinct take over, making his walk over to the pile of things he had snatched from the others he roomed with and began to rearrange the pile.

The recently developed hybrid began placing the articles of clothes in an oval shape on his floor, rolling up his comforter up as a roll and shaping it as the base structure of whatever he was making. He lays another blanket over top of the rolled up one and curled the access blanket up under the rolled up blankets. Tommy grabbed all the pillows, hoodies, shirts, jumpers, and cloaks he had grabbed and placed them closer to the oval looking structure he is making. Tommy throws the pillows in the center, rearranging them so they all could fit in the center of the oval. Next he grabbed all the clothing he snatched and started to enforce the walls of the oval and gaps of the pillows he could fix till he got a sturdy pallet of sorts.

Tommy was satisfied with the oval shaped pallet he had made, making his way over to it while he brings the last blanket with him so he wouldn't be cold while he slept. Tommy stood back to inspect the thing he'd made, a small chirp like voice from the back of his head rings out the word nest.

‘ A nest? ’, Tommy thought to himself, ‘ Why a nest? ’, as he begins to crawl into the nest and sat in the center. It was comfortable, he will give it that much, but why a nest? Of all things he could make he would make a nest?

The heavy feeling of sleep began to over take Tommy’s being, his eyelids began to droop as well as his body started to fall forward but kept jolting upright. Tommy laid in the nest and started to shuffle around, spreading the blanket over himself, trying to make himself somewhat comfortable before the warmth of sleep began to sweep him away in an endless void, making up small scenarios in the young teen’s mind.

Chapter Text

Tubbo woke up with vast amounts of energy in him, excited for today. He gets to go over Tommy's today and his over joyed about it. Growing up Tubbo never had many friends beside two other people. A half and half hybrid named Ranboo and a another light haired brunette who you would never wear anything unless it had purple in it, ironically named Purpled.  

Tubbo didn't know what he and Tommy could do, thinking about a few things that the both of them could do. His wings then came to Tubbo's mind, maybe he could help Tommy in flying. The brunette threw his green blanket off of him, wanting to get ready for the day as fast as he could. Tubbo gently moved his bee plush out of the way, not wanting to have any scratches or specks of dirt on it.

Tubbo bounded over to his dresser to get ready for the day. Schlatt also told Tubbo that he would help him in sensory training seeing as Tubbo had recently developed his ram hybrid traits. The twelve year old changed into a green and white striped shirt with brown shorts, Tubbo grabbed a different flower crown from his collection, this one containing cornflowers, oxeye daisies, and azure bluets as well as lilacs. He hooked his bee charm on the bracelet he wore and grabbed a green bandana, his favorite from his others, before he tied it around his neck and stumbled out of his room.

Tubbo runs over to Schlatt’s room and knocked on the door before throwing it open with a bit too much force, almost making a small dent in the wall. “Dad come on, we promised to visit Tommy!”, Tubbo bounced on Schlatt’s bed, the man groaning from being forced awake.

“Tubbo, we promised to visit a bit after dawn”, came Schlatt’s weak reply, sleep evident in his gruff voice. He turned over to sleep in a bit longer but that wasn't happening with his son around. Tubbo kept bouncing on the bed, jumping over the desperately trying to sleep man who was now starting to sit up with a bit of anger on his face. Schlatt's expression changed when he looked at his excited son, who ended up smiling from the pure joy on Tubbo’s face.

“Yeah! But I don’t wanna waste time gettin’ there!”, was all Tubbo said before he sped off downstairs, the thumps of Tubbo’s feet waking up the other resident in the house. The smaller brunette sped down the steps in haste to get into the kitchen, just to see that no one else was around. Tubbo heard footsteps could be heard from the stairs which made him whip his head to the source. Pearly white and fluffy hair can be seen, not yet brushed from the good night’s sleep to the person the hair belonged to, sheep like ears and small pointed horns could be seen as well. “Heya Puffy!”, Tubbo exclaimed before running into Puffy for a hug. She laughs at Tubbo and hugged him back.

“Hi there Tubs, what’s got you all excited today?”, sheep hybrid asks before making her way into the kitchen to make breakfast for the three, still dressed in the clothes she had woke up with. 

Tubbo sat at the dining room table that is connected to the kitchen, no wall separating the dining room and the kitchen. Swinging his legs back a forth while listening to the occasional clatter of dishes that his aunt was moving.

“Oh! I didn’t tell you! I made a friend yesterday, who is an avian hybrid, named Tommy! He is apparently Phil’s bio son!”, Tubbo spews out to Puffy which got her attention.

“Really? Never knew Phil had a third son... and biological at that?”, Puffy mostly told herself while she got the waffle mix ready. It kinda shocked her hearing that Phil had another son who has his same genes, but what was more surprising to her was that the blond never mentioned him at all. He was always on and on about his two pigling adopted sons, beaming with joy of all of their achievements. Proud father practically oozing off of him, but the other? He was never mentioned, even when the death of his wife was brought up, he always stirred to talking about his two sons. It was odd really.

Tubbo nods with Puffy’s statement, “None of us did, we thought he was lying until Wilbur called Tommy and when we walked him to his house. I guess Phil, Wilbur, and Techno had gone adventuring or whatever and left Tommy there”, Tubbo told Puffy, playing around with his bee charm. Interested in the clicking noises that said charm was making, awed at the shine of the polished charm when it hits any form of light from the lanterns.

Puffy didn’t expect to hear that and turned to Tubbo, “Is he there alone still?”, she asks the young boy who nods his head.

“Wil said they will be gone for four more days or so, dad and I are going to visit him while they are away, that’s why I’m excited!” he jumps in his seat with pure excitment and looked over to the sheep hybrid who smiled back at him.

“Mind if I join along? I would like to see this Tommy as well", she states before turning around and going back to making breakfast, not seeing how happy that made the still smiling boy.

“Of course, why wouldn’t you!’ With that, Puffy and Tubbo went into a nice conversation about how the other is and being told that Schlatt would be joining in a bit later. 

-

Phil packed his things up, they were just two and a half days away from making it back to the cottage, ready to get this whole trip done and over with. They were making a good pace and would be back at the house ahead of time, which means that they would be able to surprise Tommy.

Wilbur was up and packed while Techno was semi packed, Phil had slept in a bit more which made their time stamp a tad longer but that was fine. The three would be home earlier than expected, Phil was looking forward to getting to the cottage around evening so he could catch Tommy awake but they would need to wait till morning of the next day to make it.

“I just wanna get back home already”, Wilbur dragged out the ‘y’ for a bit longer before dragging his feet in the direction they needed to head, this made the older chuckled while Techno snorted at his twin's complaining, Phil ruffled Wilbur’s hair with a fond smile.

“We will get there soon enough, Will, just be patient”, was all he says before the three continued their trek back to the cottage. 

-

Tommy finished changing his bandages and putting everything back to the way it was, or how he remembered, before he walked downstairs. He had to sneak the ointment from Phil's room, he would always have seeing how his two ex-brother's grew in their traits.

Tommy is wearing a white with off red plaid shirt and black short sleeved shirt over that. He is also wearing black cargo pants that have a silver chain connected to it from the side, with red high tops. Tommy didn’t have any head, neck, or wrist accessories but he still had the harness strapped to his chest. He forgot to take it off last night but he didn’t care, it felt comfortable to him. The heavy added weight on his chest made him feel secure, making him feel less vulnerable .

Stretching, he winced feeling the tightness of his muscles in his wings pulled sorely, might as well get to his spot early so he can stretch out his wings. Having this pain for the remainder of the morning would be a bad idea on his part.

With that in mind, Tommy left the cottage earlier than planned, not wanting to stop to eat. Only taking the time to clean his wounds, wrap them back up, and get dressed.

The crisp morning air hit him directly, the slow dropping weather showing that the soon ending fall is approaching and will soon become winter. Winter seasons is when his ex-family would take longer breaks in between their adventures. Not wanting to spend a few days in the cold weather just to have to sometimes walk in the nether in the thick clothing.

Tommy wouldn't blame them, he would die of a heat stroke if he even went near that portal in their get-up. Just watching makes him sweat.

He decided to take the time to enjoy the view of the rays of sunlight shining through the warm colored leaves, the small heat slightly warming up the boy from the few rays hitting him through the leaves and clearings where the tree's don't hit. The breeze making his curls glowing from the light and flowing gently on his head, the way the outside always smelt different but the same altogether, everything about nature made Tommy feel at peace. He always enjoyed going outdoors whenever he could, Tommy could never find a way to not be outside. 

Tommy made it to his get-a-way spot faster than he had hoped, wishing to have enjoyed the walk a little more but that means more time to stretch and having the tense muscles finally be soothed, seeing how his wings are starting to ache more for freedom. He slipped through the small entrance and looked at the vastly colored place he grew to love, no matter how many times he came here, it always seemed to sweep him away.

All of the colors clash in a vibrant color pallet, ranging from orange like reds to washed out yellow. The slightly paled grass from the chilled air becoming more muted, the slowly growing barren trees and the growing pile of leaves gathering on the earth's floor. Just everything about it makes him want to live here for all eternity, wanting to fly through the trees and explore the new areal view that he has yet seen from. 

The young avian made his way to the stump he’d always sit by and took off his two shirts as well as the harness, his wings now on display as well as his bandages. The feathers are now messier than last time, seeing how he didn’t take his harness off and slept with it on. He also didn't preen them at all either since he was just going to mess them up during getting dressed and cleaning his wounds. 

Tommy sat down on the slightly damp grass from the morning dew and began sorting out his feathers. Plucking and smoothing out some feathers that were bent or jetting out, pushing his primaries and secondaries back into their right places making the lesser, median, and greater coverts flat, or as flat as they could go, and spread around the oils that made the wings shine. It was harder to clean the base of his wings since it was more close to his back, which he couldn't see. So he never knew if he got them all or not, but he could always find a way to fix that problem.

He was now done preening his feathers and stood up, stretching his wings as he did so. The sun hit his wings, making them mesmerizing. The way the morning rays hit the feathers in an angle which made the white under his wings a slight golden yellow, the orange feather becoming more defined and the grays have a slight hue or orange like yellow. The oil creating a rainbow shine when staring at them from an angle.

He then began to flap his wings to get the basic feeling of the flaps, feeling the wing swirl and glide under his feathers. He doesn't want to feel like he was a fresh hatchling, wanting to actually get a feeling to his wings, wanting to get used to them so when he does learn to fly then he won't panic at the new sensation.

A shriek ripped itself across the caved in forest which startled the poor blond, making him whip his head around just in time to see Tubbo running at him with an excited expression. He runs up to Tommy and crashes him into a hug, making him flinched at the contact but was able to hide it in time.

Behind Tubbo were the two adults, Tommy remembers Schlatt but the white haired female he didn't know. He pulled away from the hug and shied behind the smaller goat hybrid, who had his arm slung around Tommy’s neck.

Puffy took notice of the bandages but didn’t say anything seeing how it could be from his recent hybrid development. She bends down and stuck her hand out, “Hello there Tommy, I’m Puffy, Schlatt’s sister. May I ask how old you are?”

Tommy looked at Puffy’s hand before he hesitantly stuck his hand out and shook it before signing the word eleven to the sheep hybrid, Tubbo took some time to understand but beamed at how close in age he was to the blond.

“Oh! That’s one age under me!”, the brunette screamed and smiled at Tommy who just gave a sheepish smile back and rubbed his arm, wings ruffling behind him. Tubbo looked over at Tommy with an energetic smile, “Were you preparing to fly?”, Tubbo asked Tommy who went to sign to him but got cut off, "I wanted to see when we got here, ohhh wait wait wait! Can you lift me up? OHH, even better, can I fly with you! Please", Tubbo bounced in place while whining at the end. 

The adults chuckled at Tubbo's antics while Tommy stood there overwhelmed from all the questions and tried not to show it, rubbing the back of his neck. He should really try to stop doing that, picking up habits from Wilbur would make planning to leave harder for him. He was getting more and more tired of being alone whenever they left. he was okay with Wilbur but now he is leaving with them. It absolutely sucked, being mistreated aside.

“I-I haven’t flown yet.. So I can’t at the moment”, Tommy voiced out hoarsely, worse since the last time the two brunettes had heard it. Puffy looked at him with concern, wincing from hearing. Making her want to bring her hands up to her throat and feel it to see if hers felt raw.

“Why don’t we practice on working your wing muscles first, like simple flapping exercises?”, Tommy looked up at her before nodding, he was going to do that already before he was scared out of it. "Even though you a;ready have your primaries, we still need your wings to stretch as to not pull anything and to let them get used to supporting your weight." 

Tommy stepped away from them before he stretched his wings out, the three sheep family hybrids sat down to watch the avian stretch, which made him anxious. Who wouldn't? Having complete strangers who've you just met watch you while you stretch your recently developed wings is kind of nerve wracking. He also didn't like the fact that all the attention is on him, he's never had so much attention even if you add up all the years he has been with the Minecraft family.

He starts to flap them, no force behind them, just getting the basic warm-ups so he won't hurt his wings before trying to support his weight. He should try gliding first since gliding in going to help him feel for the wind and get him used to being suspended in the air. Most likely he should try from a high point, but he would still need to get his wings used to that before trying to glide.

Something inside him wanted him to put small amounts of force into each flap, wanting him to adding more and more to it before he was stopped. Tommy didn't know he was even doing it if he was being honest, he thought he was still doing the small exercises.

“We don’t want you taking off just yet, remember, we just want you to get a feel for them”, Puffy voiced out before she stood up, dusting any dirt or leaves that would have flown on her. Schlatt trailing behind her, both walking over to the younger who now has his wings folded close to his back, not sure if he should stay there or walk a few steps back.

“We are going to lift you, okay? So you can flap them as well as being in the air”, Schlatt tells Tommy who just stared at them. ‘ They need to lift me up? Can’t I just hang from a branch? Or Jump from something? ’, he thought to himself but nodded anyways. Schlatt slid his hands in between Tommy’s arms and lifted him by the pits, the ram nodded his head to Tommy with a small smile.

He doesn't return the nod back but starts to lightly flap his wings lightly. He progressively adds a bit more force into each flap, not going to hard since he doesn't want to waste his energy. He already has little of that, heck, he didn't even want to come out here today but look where he is.

It did feel like he was floating, minus the hands; Tommy wanted to feel the wind ruffling through his feather, the way the wind sounded as he soared by. The slight whistling that is makes when the wind rushes past his ears as he swoops and dodges all of the onslaught of branches and trees. Riding the wind currents, other birds flying with or by him.

Schlatt chuckled which brought Tommy out his haze, “Seems like he’s eager to fly, I can barely feel his weight anymore”, he says and turns to Puffy, taking his hands with him as he turned. Tommy was shocked, he was still in the air near Schlatt, whose hands where now crossed across his chest after he spoke.

“Brooo! I want wings now! He makes it look so cool”, Tubbo whines as he came bounding over and hopping near Tommy. A smile wormed its way onto Tommy’s face as Puffy laughed at Tubbo’s words. Schlatt ruffled his son's hair, careful of his horns that are still sensitive after growing them. Tommy wondered if he could fly off, if he could maneuver himself without falling. That if he put a little more power into it then he can do what he wished for so long.

Puffy seemed to catch on, “If you want to try and fly off you can, but please be careful”, Puffy looks at him, still hovering near them. He thought about it but he still wanted to practice stretching his wing muscles and let them support is weight a little longer. That doesn't stop him from trying though, he's a younger than a man (he still is a man) but that doesn't stop him from getting giddy.

Tommy landed, albeit a bit rough, and walked to a bigger part of the clearing that met the forest near Tommy’s exit. He squats while spreading his wings slightly in an angle at his sides. Tommy stretched his wings out before flapping down and pressing off the ground with the balls of his feet. He knew that both his wings needed an equal amount of weight and to flap at the same time, but that was harder than expected. Tommy fell but caught himself before he fell face first, small frown present on his face.

He crouches back down but bent his knees a bit more and keeping his arms leveled to his side. He pushed off his feet again and Tommy was now in the air, smiling widely. He started to fall and panicked but remembered he needed to flap, so he did. Tommy wobbles in the air a bit but he is flying!

“Look out big man!”, Tubbo shouted which caused Tommy to open his eyes startled and looked back to him. 'Wait.. Back? Wasn't he beside me?', Tommy questions before he looks in front of him, almost screaming.

He was now flying to the forest in front of him, a tree upcoming towards him. Tommy on full panic mode didn't know what to do till he felt something pull at his wings, making him pull back before he could go any further and was now floating in front of the tree that he almost collided with. Tommy twisted his body a bit which caused him to turn back to the three hybrids, pure joy present on his face because he can fly now. It was a bit messy but he will get the hang of it at some point.

‘ I did it, I can fly! I did it without Phil! Well.. I still had help, but I still did it without Phil, without Wilbur or Techno! ’, Tommy thought to himself before he flew over to the three.

He lands and was immediately hugged by Tubbo who then grabbed Tommy’s shoulders and bounced in place, “Now try with me! Please please please please!”, Tubbo dragged out the ‘e’ in please while Tommy chuckled softly before nodding. He was happy that he was able to fly, he may still be a beginner but he saw and analyzed Phil long enough to know the basics of what he needs to do.

“Please don't kill my son”, Schlatt could be heard which made them all laugh, or in Tommy’s case, giggle. Tommy flapped his wings so he could hover in the air near Tubbo before Tommy lifted Tubbo up by the armpits. He wobbled in the air due to the unfamiliar weight from the goat boy but was still able to stay up in the air. He wasn't strong per say, but he is still able to hold is own. Growing up he saw how interested Phil was when Wilbur and Techno took up fighting and taking self defense. So Tommy did so too, he watched them and analyzed them then went of on his own and copied the movements to the best of his ability. He did try to show Phil that he learned self defense too but he was waved off. 

"Dad! Dad dad, guess what! I learned how to defend myself just like Wilby and Techie!", the six year old jumped in front of the older blond, said man was watching Wilbur and Techno training in hand-to-hand combat. He doesn't even look down to Tommy before waving him off.

"Sure you did Thomas, go play or do whatever you do in your room, okay?", he walked forward to the two piglin son's. "Techno! Wilbur! Be careful", he shouts before running off to the two who are now wrestling each other to the ground.

He never watched them again that day, always taking off to the woods and practice swinging his stone sword that Techno threw out, making up battle situations and building up speed and stamina. He would need to build up his strength, he knows that, but he doesn't have any weight and most of the rocks are too big for him to lift.

Tommy struggled a bit but was still able to pick up Tubbo and maneuver around without dropping him or falling. He flew off with Tubbo in his arms, the small ram hybrid had both fear and joy on his face while gripping the blonds hands tight. Both boys are filled with adrenaline as Tommy flew off towards the trees, Tubbo yelling below him while watching the trees shoot past him. Tommy with a huge smile etched on his face as he flew off while keeping balance for his wings. 

Flying was everything that Tommy had hopped for, the wind rushing against his face, the blur mushed colors of the tree's leaves buzzing by, the way he felt both heavy yet light when flying by. All of what he thought, wishing for it to come true is way better than he thought and more. 

He weaved through the trees with Tubbo in his arms, who is shouting with pure happiness which made Tommy smile. He starts to fly upwards, going over the trees, flying over them in the buzzing speed. He circles back around to now looked at the two adults down below. Tommy flys back towards the two and pulls up to halt in front of them, letting Tubbo down before landing himself.

The blond actually felt happy for once, he was able to do something without his family (they aren't really family, are they?) being there. He learned it all by himself, with the help of Tubbo and his family. He was able to accomplish something without them, but he can't tell them. He shouldn't tell them. It would take the attention away from Wilbur and Techno. Tommy doesn't want to be an attention seeker, he never wants to be. All he is doing is trying, he's just trying his best for his family to be happy.

He really liked Tubbo's family, they were so caring and nice to him without him ever proving himself. They accepted him with open arms even if they have just met, it made Tommy happy, genuinely. 

Another thing was that his brain was telling him to call them a flock, he doesn’t know why but he does what to call them a flock. He would have to find out that later, he knows Phil has a book about avians somewhere. Most likely his room, so that means he needs to spend the rest of his day trying to look for that book again. He really wants to call them a flock but it doesn't really sit well with him, he knows that the Craft family isn't a flock to him. No way. But Tubbo's family wasn't either.

Tommy was brought out of his haze to Tubbo, who was ranting on about how awesome it was when Tommy flew him around, how he was able to see the grass blades but couldn't at the same time. Schlatt listened to Tubbo with a fond smile, Puffy giggling at a few explanations, and Tommy sitting there listening to his friend talk about the experience. 

“Alright Tubbo”, Schlatt began as he stood up, “Time for your sensory training, you need to get a good grasp on your sense of hearing. If not then you may get a sensory overload a few times and those aren't fun”, Schlatt explains to his son of what he needs to do before he looks over to Tommy. “Do you think you can fly a bit into the forest and make a few flapping sounds? If you can chirp that would be great too, just something for Tubbo to look for while training”, the ram asks Tommy who looked at him confused.

“ Chirp? ”, Tommy signs and Puffy smiles at him.

“Oh right, Phil never knew you were a hybrid, but he should have told you still since he does it as well”, Puffy’s smile falters slightly at the mention of Phil.

“Well, a chirp is a sound birds make, even hybrids. Could be for communication or to display their emotions”, Schlatt explained to Tommy who just nods. He had heard Phil chirp a few times but never asked the older why he does that, not wanting to be rude or take the attention away from the two piglin hybrids. He knows that Phil never chirped around him but he has hard him chirp to Techno and Wilbur whenever he smiles at them or anything that has to deal with Phil being happy.

Tommy flew off into the forest as Schlatt counted, Tommy is still able to hear Schlatt’s voice even if he’s far from them. It was muffled but he was able to pick up on the faint voice of the elder. He could even hear Puffy speak to Tubbo about safety while the goat groaned. It was funny really, how well he had fit into this small family. As much as it was funny, it was also sad. Sad how he couldn't have this much fun in his family, how much laughter he had with this one and not his own, how much he loved each second with Tubbo but dreaded it when it came to Techno and Wilbur.

His old hearing wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it but with his new hearing he can. It was nice, he could hear his ex-families footsteps better, heat their judging tones, if they were angry. He could pick up more on their body language than he could when he was human.

Tommy flew to a small crowded pile of leaves, one tree being knocked over into another, and sat there. His wings also gave him a bit of a good camouflage with the orange leaves, he doesn’t want to be found just yet. He wants to have at least a bit of fun while his friend searches for him. He did carry him and flew him around after all.

Tommy heard Schlatt yell go and began to flap his wings a bit, letting Tubbo run to his direction so he won't be so far. Having a short time interval between each few flaps so as to not give him away but still lead the boy to him.

Tommy could hear a few rustles in the distance and stopped his fourth set of flaps to listen more closely, the splashing sound of the stream could be heard, the small talk of Puffy and Schlatt could be heard as well. Soon Tubbo emerged from a few bushes before he searched around a bit, looking for Tommy.

Something in Tommy made him lower himself into perch, his hand talons digging into the wooden branch below him as his wings opened into a waiting launch. Eye silted as he watched his horned friend look around the area for him. Body tensed and trained on his friend who walks further into the direction of Tommy, more of his tree.

Tommy shook his head and continued to watch Tubbo look around, sniffing the air a few times as well. Trying to get a hold of Tommy’s scent. The wind wasn't helping in the slightest, making scents from the never explored forest flood his senses 

Tommy begins to feel something rumble up from his chest and start to make its way up to his throat before a small chirp like warp left his throat. Tubbo snapped his head up just to meet coral blue eyes looking back down at his brown ones. “Found ya!”, Tubbo shouted in triumph, Tommy just huffs before he swoops down and picks up Tubbo up, flying back to where Puffy and Schlatt are.

It wasn't far that Tubbo found him, it was that stupid noise's fault. Yeah. That's it. It was never him, it was just his bird brain being weird again was all. Tubbo was just lucky to hear it.

Schlatt and Puff looked up when they heard a flapping noise get closer to them, both adults looked up just in time to see Tommy fly down and set Tubbo down softly. A big smile plastered itself on the soon to be twelve year old's face. “So, my son found you?”, Schlatt spoke up and Tommy grumbled but nodded.

Tubbo bounced, "Yeah! I did! Searching was so cool, all the sounds and noises! I heard Tommy's wings a few times but he stopped whenever I went close." He spoke on and on of his experience in the forest, searching for his blond friend just to end up hearing him chirp.

“Wait, Tommy chirped? Aw Tommy, do you feel that safe around us?, Puffy cooed at him, wishing she heard the chirp as well. Her excitement suddenly died out, seeing the uncomfortable face that Tommy was presenting. “Sorry 'bout that kid. You father never really chirped around anyone but his son's I guess. So I was just happy that you felt safe around us, well more Tubbo, to chirp”, Puffy reassured Tommy who only nods.

-

The baby blue sky now turned to a nice honey orange hue, pinks and yellows adorning the sky with the orange as the sun made its way across the sky. The sun now settling at the horizon in the distance. The golden rays shining gently against the fall colored leaves of the trees, the streams water now reflecting the sky's gaze.

The four hybrids were now cluttered into the cottage, all enjoying a meal Puffy decided to make. She was concerned for the blond in his thin appearance. Noting that his size with that weight isn't healthy at all, but she couldn't say anything. She didn't want to put any pressure on the poor lad as well as making him feel obligated to say anything. She couldn't do that knowing how much trust he has in them, even if that trust is a little sliver.

They all gathered at the dining room table, the sheep family hybrids in a nice conversation while Tommy sat there enjoying their presence. He really enjoyed this, it was domestic and was peaceful. They only added him in a light conversation without adding any heat behind the words. He's enjoying this really well.

Puffy turned her attention to Tommy, “Hey, Tommy?”, Puffy spoke up, which made said boy look at her, humming in response. “Who taught you sign language?” Puffy’s question now lingered in the air as Tommy now had three sets of eyes on him. He shrinks back from the attentive eyes now boring holes in him and rubbed his hands before bringing them up into view.

“ I did, there was a book on sign language in the library with all the words I needed to know as well as the alphabet ”, Tommy signed. They all felt upset knowing Tommy has to learn things on his own, who knew how young he was when he started learning. Schlatt started to grow a bit angry from all of the information he was getting out of the young boy. Not only was he never told about Tommy, the kid goes running into the forest for some reason and has to learn sign language on his own. What else did this kid have to learn on his own because his own father, biological at that, was such a favoritism piece of shit to notice how neglected his biological son was.

“Well you did a great job, you are able to do it well”, Schlatt praised Tommy, feeling proud as a small smile starts to form the blond's face.

The table then shifted back to comfortable chatter amongst the other three, Tommy signing a few times when he thought it was convenient. Tommy heard a few leaves rustle from right outside the window in the dinning room. His eyes wandered over to a window behind Puffy to see an owl perched on a branch. The owl was either a greater sooty owl or a short eared owl, either way, said owl was just peering in through the window  and looking at the place before the eyes landed on Tommy.

A small rumble bubbled up through his throat before it ripped itself out, a small chirp letting itself known to the other hybrids in the room. The owl outside the window made a small twit in reply before it fluffed up a bit and flew off.

Tommy watched the owl fly off into the forest before he turned his head back and noticed the sudden attention he was given. He shies under the gaze of his peers, Puffy was practically awing over the noise, Schlatt half between surprised and awe stuck, as Tubbo just looked at Tommy knowingly. 

“ What? ”, Tommy signed and Puffy became all giddy as she gushed over the small noise that Tommy unknowingly made.

“You chirped! Well not quiet, but you made a cute noise!”, she squeaks, making the blond blush from embarrassment. Puffy stands up with plates in hand, Schlatt collecting Tubbo’s plate and stacked it with his before handing it over to his sister, “Anyways, are you done with yours?”, she asks him.

Tommy looked down at his half eaten portion that he had, yeah it was smaller than the other’s plates but Tommy wasn’t hungry when Puffy set the table. Tommy looked back up at her and nodded. He knew it wasn't healthy to be eating such little portions of food, or to not eat for so long. He knew that but yet, every time he goes to eat it always hurts. He's gone as long as a week and four days without eating and eating right after such long periods hurt him. So he tries not to eat much, or at all.

Puffy didn’t want to say anything to him, she doesn't want to startle him or make him guilty over his poor eating diet. She doesn't want to make him more ashamed of himself, she seen kids grow up neglected by their original parents, being starved from food and physical touch. Not having a family to lean towards and make their own. That's why she adopted two boys of her own. One fascinated with keeping his mask unless around her and his adopted brother, while the other had emerald green eyes that loves anything and everything to do with the ocean or sharks. 

Her friend Sam has a kid of his own too, poor kid was abandoned because he couldn't see colors normally like others around him, always tired too. Stays up in the night but asleep during the day. The only time she sees the kid awake was if he was playing with her son and Bad's son. The black haired pyro always loved causing mischief when together with the two. Maybe she should set Tubbo and Tommy up a day with the three, hopefully that would make him come out of his shell more.

”Why don’t you boys get ready for bed, seeing how I don’t feel right for leaving you here alone”, Puffy said as she walked into the kitchen to wash and put away the used dishes. The three males stood up from the dining room table, Tommy pushed his chair in and the other two followed his example and pushed their chairs in as well.

Tommy waits for the sheeo hybrid to finish what she was doing before Tommy showed the other occupants where the two bathroom’s where and where Schlatt and Puffy will sleep, which is just the living room couch and an air mattress. Tubbo decided to sleep in Tommy’s room, the second air mattress being spread out for Tubbo earlier with his bag thrown against it carelessly.

The avian made no effort to deny Tubbo’s request seeing as they are guests but Puffy shot that down earlier saying, ' Don’t see us as guests, see us as family-friends but don’t accept what we ask all the time. Your opinions matter too ." It was strange to Tommy, being given an option which he never had when it came to his brothers. Neither was personal space, unless you were Techno. Wilbur would usually burst into his room when the brunette had something ‘ exciting ’ to show Tommy or to show off his new song or tune when Phil was too busy training Techno.

Techno would usually knock on his door, having more sense then the eldest twin, before barging in without an answer to rant to him about a few greek gods and or goddesses then leave. Or explain to him about some historical event about governments and why 'governments always lead to corrupted dictators' as if Tommy was someone who was there to just listen to their banters and then to just be left.

Nothing but negative thoughts swirling around in the oh so young mind of the blond, voices talking about the small mistakes he would make or say, making snide comments on how he eats, dresses, looks, speaks, sounds, anything bad about him which was everything. It was never good for him to be left alone. He never had anyone to listen to him and he will never get such luxury. That was okay to him, as long as he is helpful to somebody than what he feels doesn't matter.

“Don’t stay up too late, alright boys?”, Schlatt says by the doors, Tommy already in his bed somehow while Tubbo yawned and nodded. Schlatt bid them both a goodnight before he turned the light off and retreated to his ‘ bed ’ called the couch. Tubbo shuffled around on the air mattress, intending to get sleep, as Tommy laid down and turned his back to the open side of his bed.

Too much thinking never did Tommy any good seeing how he didn’t realize he had gotten dressed and ready for bed. He didn’t feel the harness on and looked around the darkened room to see the harness laying on his nightstand next to his bed. The small blond turned his head back to the wall he was facing and closed his eyes, the heavy weight in his limbs now present as he let his body drift off into a meaningless void besides a small grass plain that encircled a willow tree. 

Chapter Text

It was early in the morning when a small brunette woke up to the smell of something sweet wafting through his nose, he rubbed his eyes as he slowly began to wake up. 

The small blue eyed boy scanned the unfamiliar room he woke up in and started to panic, as he sat up quickly and looked around the room.

Sounds of soft breathing made Tubbo snap his head to the source which ended up being a certain young avian. The memories of yesterday came rushing back to the small ram hybrid and remembered that he was, in fact, not kidnapped and brought to a deranged person’s house but was at Tommy's so as to not make the smaller blond upset or lonely.

Tubbo stood up, weary of the sleeping avian next to him, and made up his air mattress so it wouldn’t be a mess and so Tommy wouldn’t wake up just to get tangled in a pile of blankets.

The small brunette grabbed his bag that he packed before they had set off to Tommy’s house and made his way to the upstairs bathroom, knowing that Schlatt would be in the downstairs one for a while.

He placed his bag down on the counter and began changing into the outfit he picked out with the help of Puff. Tubbo changed into an off lime green button-up with brown khaki shorts that were scrunchy at the bottom, with a bee charm hanging from one of the belt loops. 

Tubbo took his brush from his bag and brushed through the matted knots that formed in his hair while he slept wildly, being careful of his growing stubs of horns that would become bigger over time. 

He did have his horn polish that his dad got him a week after his hybrid traits were done growing in. Schlatt hadn’t taught him how to properly polish and take care of his horns yet, but he was going to soon.

After getting dressed and brushing out his hair, Tubbo threw his things back in his bag haphazardly and quickly but quietly ran back to Tommy’s room and slid his bag back to the air mattress before bolting down the stairs. 

The aroma that had woke him up got stronger as he neared the kitchen, there stood Puffy by the stove already dressed nicely for the day. 

Said sheep looked up and smiled when she saw it was Tubbo, “Heya there Tubbo! How was your sleep?”, Puffy asked the small brunette who walked to the marbled island that connected both the kitchen to the living room on one side while the other side connected the kitchen to the dining room, which Tubbo sat on the latter.

“I slept well, thanks for asking! Tommy is still asleep though, is dad awake?”, the child asked Puffy who nodded at Tubbo.

“My lazy brother actually woke me up, I’m surprised that he woke up before me but I think he’s still in the bathroom”, she tells Tubbo who nods with a slight giggle. Schlatt does have the tendency to wake up early if it’s important, he’s shown that many times. 

They don't know what the importance is, like the one time he woke up early before a storm, feeling like their basement will flood. Schlatt was able patch up a hole before the flood, weird how he was correct.

Just as Puffy finished the third plate of pancakes and eggs with a side of bacon, Schlatt came walking in from the hallway, angrily raking his fingers through his hair, trying to smooth down his bed head. 

“Looks like you slept well on the couch”, Puffy chuckled which earned her a glare before the older ram hybrid sat down next to Tubbo.

“Yeah yeah, where's the squirt?”, Schlatt asked but before anyone could answer, Tommy came into the kitchen already dressed for the day, his wings hidden once again.

“Oh, hello Tommy!”, Puffy exclaimed with a warm smile, Tommy looked up at her and nods before he crouched down and grabbed a bag of seeds. The avian closed the cupboard and stood up, a bag of seeds in hand before walking to the back door. He used his foot to open the back door before using the other to close the door.

Puffy finished the fourth plate and turned the stove off and set the spatula aside before she walked to the door Tommy had just exited from. The sheep hybrid opened the door and walked out, the backyard wasn’t something Puffy was expecting. 

To the left after she just stepped out was a large field of various plants and fruits, ranging in many varieties. To the right of Puffy led to a farm and a chicken coop which was where Tommy was heading. 

There is a shed near the chicken coop, to which Tommy placed the bag of seeds down before he grabbed a metal scoop and opened the bag of seeds, sticking the metal scoop inside and took out a metal scoop full of seeds. 

The blond walked to a small fence that held the chickens to the coop, the small avian tossed about the seeds inside of the pen before going back for another scoop of seeds and spread that too.

Tommy put the metal scoop on the seed bag and walked to the gate that held the chickens, he walked inside and closed the gate before he opened the door to the chicken coop.

 A huge flock of chickens came waltzing out, some had chicks behind them, all scattering to eat the seeds that he had scattered across the pen before he walked into the coop.

Puffy was going to go ask what Tommy was doing before he came back out the coop two minutes after with a basket that held a few eggs. 

“Need any help?", Puffy spoke up which earned Tommy snapping his head up to her before shaking said head no. Tommy fed the rest of the animals and the new stallion, which is Techno’s, named Carl. 

Once he made sure the animals were fed well, Tommy returned back to the back door of the cottage and nodded to Puffy once more before entering with her.

Tommy immediately walked to the sink and washed his hands after touching the farm animals' food and even helping some of the young ones find food to eat.

Tommy turned just to have Puffy holding a plate out in front of him, he looked up at Puffy with a confused face before shaking his head no, as if declining the offer before making his way to the stairs. 

“Tommy, you should really try to eat more bud”, Puffy spoke up when Tommy’s foot was on the first stair, he turned back around, contemplating, before hesitantly walking back over to where she stood.

Tommy reached up for the plate as Puffy lowered the plate into his hands, a soft smile adorning her face, “You don’t need to eat all of it but at least eat some”, she tells him and ruffled Tommy’s hair. 

Said boy gave Puffy an unamused face before walking over to the island that separated the kitchen and dining room. Puffy turned on her heels and walked into the living room, Schlatt and Tubbo talking to each other calmly as Schlatt raked through Tubbo’s hair.

 The sheep hybrid sat on the opposite couch and rubbed one of her hands along her face, Schlatt looked over to her with an eyebrow raised.

“Ya good there?”, Schlatt asks and Puffy just huffs.

“Tommy tried to refuse breakfast, it’s concerning”, she tells the older, Schlatt could practically feel the stress radiating from her.

 He knew that the other wanted to make sure that Tommy was doing alright but didn't want to scare him off. As if he were some wild animal that was injured and needed help but was too scared of doing so, which he was. Tommy was scared of reaching out to others because the poor child didn’t want to be of any problem to other people, that others already had too much going on in their life so he didn’t want to add onto the on-going stress others had. So he silently took on all his problems alone.

“Let’s go back to the covered up forest and train the kids a bit more, how does that sound Tub’s?”, Schlatt looks down at Tubbo who smiles brightly and bounces in his spot on the couch.

“Heck yeah! Why don’t we train Tommy though? He seems to be good at spotting things”, Tubbo looked between the two adult’s, it wasn’t a bad idea seeing as how Tommy had better time seeing things than the three. 

Small footsteps, hesitant and small, came walking into the living room which had the three ram family hybrids turn their heads to the noise and saw Tommy standing there and fiddling with the hem of his shirt, not meeting their eyes.

Tubbo bounded over to Tommy and dragged him to the door, missing the way that he had flinched, “Come on! We are training again today, but this time it’s your turn!”, Tubbo exclaimed, which had Tommy wanting to cover his ears. 

The slight wince didn’t go unnoticed by the two adult’s but they didn’t bring it up, not wanting to make the small blond more uncomfortable than he already was. 

The four slid their shoes and jackets on and made sure Tommy had a scarf and gloves seeing how he was practically freezing the other day, since he had to take his shirt off to have his wings out.

Schlatt thought ahead for Tommy and brought some of his outgrown jackets and one of Tubbo’s discarded bigger shirts with wing holes cut for him. Schlatt had them in his inventory, holding his hand out in front of him to grab the clothes from the square gray boxes. Well Schlatt held one while Puffy held the other. 

It was getting colder each day as fall carried on, all the bird’s that were chirping and fluttering a week before were now halfway to their migration point, if not already there, as well as most of the other animals that hibernate are on their way to sleep. 

It was calm, peaceful, and quiet, making the four stay in said peaceful silence with the occasional thumps of Tubbo’s feet as he ran ahead in excitement.

-

“I’m so happy that we’re almost back”, Wilbur groaned as he drew out the ‘a’ vowel in his last word, Techno scoffed while Phil just smiled at the two. It was colder than yesterday but that just made the three want to get back to the cottage faster, smoke ahead signified that they made it to the closest village to their cottage which was about a mile and a half away from said cottage. 

“I can’t wait to see the look on the child’s face when we get back and show him his gift”, Wilbur added more pep in his step as he cruzed along, Phil looked into the air, watching the puffy clouds stroll along. 

“Bet he will just stare at us”, Techno huffed out, not enjoying the constant chatter of his older twin, already irritated from the long journey, just wanting to get back right away.

Phil knew the feeling of just wanting to relax, just wanting to have quiet time and sleep in his cozy bed but Phil just has to wait longer. 

-

 “Tommy, who taught you to wrap bandages? I didn’t want to bring it up yesterday seeing how your wings just grew in”, Puffy asked when Tommy slipped his jacket and shirt off, hands now on the straps to his harness with his bandages underneath. “I also don’t want you to strain yourself too much since you just grew them and they are still growing, so how about this.”

 Tommy watched Puffy pull out a shirt while Schlatt caught on, stumbling a bit, and grabbed the jacket, both handing them to Tommy.

 “Let’s practice on your sight skills first, let your wings get some fresh air and to relax from the building pressure that is being put on it from the harness and taking flight”, Puffy offered and Tommy just stared at her questionably before pushing their items away. 

“I don’t need your pity, I’m doing just fine ”, Tommy signs angrily to Puffy and Schlatt, wincing as he does so before adding a small ‘sorry’ at the end. 

Puffy shook her head before she crouched down, “It’s not pity Tommy, and you have nothing to be sorry for. We care for you and we are looking out for your health”, Puffy smiled at him and Tommy scanned her face, seeing if she was lying to him. 

To his surprise, he found nothing, just the genuine look that the female sheep hybrid was giving him. Tommy huffs before grabbing the shirt that was handed to him again, a simple red shirt with a thick white stripe in the center and on the back were two holes. Wing holes to be specific.

Tommy looked up at her incredulously before he gently slipped it on. It was soft on the inside and a bit rough on the outside, but the shirt is a good fit for both his body size and wings. Tommy began to spread and un-spread his wing, watching how the fabric coiled and stretched gently on his command, liking the feeling he got when the shirt rubbed at the base of his wings. 

He did feel exposed when he needed to take his shirt and jacket off in order to have his wings out, but now, he finally had something that made him both comfortable and non-exposed. He never liked that any time his wings could be seen, that his ex-family members would freak out on him for not telling him sooner. But now, he doesn’t have to worry about that fact.

Schlatt handed him the jacket, just a simple black and dark gray design, before he slipped that on as well, Tommy looked over to the two adults before thanking them silently before he turned to Tubbo and showed how his wings moved freely in the clothing he received. 

The three ram hybrids laughed at how ecstatic Tommy was at the free feeling that his wings got when they were confined and bound by his normal clothing, along with a harness. Puffy lived for that pure joy on the younger’s face whenever he watched his wings flex from behind him with his jacket and shirt still on him.

“Alright boys”, Schlatt spoke up and caught their attention, “We need to find a small cave or dark area for Tommy to start his sight practice, any of yall know where a dark area is located?” Schlatt looked at the other three that were standing there, each not saying a word seeing as they didn't know where any dark and hidden places were. Schlatt huffs before waving them to follow him when he begins to step off into the forest in the carved out small cave clearing, and they did just that. 

The four began exploring the place, searching for anything that could be used as a good ground for Tommy to begin his sight training. That was when Tubbo found a cave, it was decently big - from what he could see - and didn’t seem to have anything bad in it. 

“Guy’s I found one!”, Tubbo exclaimed and the three other hybrids came walking over and congratulated Tubbo on finding a good cave to start his training. Schlatt turned to the other three and smiled at them.

“So, Tommy”, Schlatt began, “Puffy, Tubbo and I will be spread throughout this here cave and it is your job to use your sight to find us, alright?” Tommy nods before he sat down to wait for the others to go off into hiding, Puffy on her own while Schlatt takes Tubbo. 

All searching for a spot since this cave doesn’t really have that much of any good hiding spots, they made with what they had before hiding. Schlatt told Tubbo he could call Tommy in, which his son does happily.

Tommy stood up and started to run into the cave, he could just about make out every detail of the cave as his eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness he just ran into. The way the stained stone and materials clashed together on the walls, ceiling, and ground. The way that the cave gave a slightly colder temperature and the faint smell of iron, everything.

Tommy heard some noises coming from a cave split going to the left, Tommy ran in the direction and began searching around. The noise had stopped when Tommy had entered the section he heard it coming from, he looked around and found nothing. 

As he turned to leave he saw a bit of stone that seemed to be messed with and looked off, the blond walked over to it before he tapped on said off stone which made a hollow noise behind it. Tommy then knocked on the other stone seeing if it made the hollow noise as well, which it didn’t 

Tommy then pushed on the stone a bit and heard scrapping from the pushing he was doing to the off stone. A small hide-away room is now present and he saw Schlatt and Tubb. Both male hybrids groaned before Tommy led them back to the cave entrance, not wanting a torch to mess up his adjusted eyesight. 

The blond had already explored the left part of the split and it didn’t go any further, so Tommy ran to the right side and was met with a small narrow cave. The beginning starting off tall and wide enough for him to maneuver through before it started to shrink further and further down.

Tommy felt panic start to rise seeing the small space for such a long amount of time, he didn’t like the idea of small spaces or feeling trapped for too long or he’ll start to panic badly. Tommy took a deep breath before he walked down the narrow cave part and made his way down, footsteps becoming more shaky as he went on. 

There were small gaps in the wall as well as jagged rocks poking out each way, making the blond slightly whimper slightly.

‘ Puffy could be hiding in any of these, I should maybe call it quits. I really don’t like how tight this space is ’, Tommy looked around searching for Puffy while trying to settle his upcoming panic. He was never one for small spaces growing up as a kid, Wilbur would sometimes lock Tommy in his small, dark, cramped closet whenever he did something that Wilbur didn’t like; that was when Phil wasn’t going on adventures much since he was training Techno. 

Wilbur always used the ‘ it’s for your own good, bad kids shouldn’t go unpunished ’ excuse and Tommy couldn’t even remember half of the stuff he did that day when he started to plead to the eldest to let him out which resulted in him being stuck in the closet for hours upon hours. 

It had gotten to the point where Tommy started to pass out due to the lack of oxygen his lungs were getting from the panic attacks he’s gotten from the experience. Wilbur would always apologize but still locked him in his closet if he did anything remotely bad. Tommy brought this up to Phil at one point but the older had simply brushed it off, “Wil is just trying to spook ya into not doing bad things, that’s all, he just doesn’t want you to get into trouble one day.” 

That was all Phil had told him, not stopping the on-slot of times where Wilbur would sometimes tease him when he begged to be let out, not being able to last five minutes alone in the dark space. Techno had decided to step in and told WIlbur to just “let Tommy be a bad kid, not like he will listen seeing how many times you put him in there” and walked away without a care. 

Tommy hated how they didn’t care about what he did or what they did to him, as long it was justified. If it went against what they are used to, then he was put in the closet, if he accidentally knocked something over, he was put into the closet. Sometimes he wouldn’t hear them call him and they’d just throw him into the closet. Nothing was justified in the house-hold, unless it was on their terms. 

The feeling of the dark, cluttering space of the closet, the feeling of the inky invisible hands reaching out to him, wanting to pull him under. Tommy shuddered and took a breath, trying to get rid of the memories that started to flood back, Tommy took a look around the dark space and saw a puff of white hair, or fur?

Tommy ran over and poked the white puff which caused it to move and saw what was hidden under it, Puffy looked up at him sheepishly before she stood up and smiled at him, “Good job bud, ya found me! Did you find the others?”, she asked in which he nodded.

Puffy and Tommy walked out of the cave and saw Schlatt sitting against a tree as Tubbo sat on Schlatt’s criss-crossed legs. Schlatt and Tubbo looked up at the upcoming sounds and saw that Tommy was holding hands with Puffy, 

“The kid found us faster than I thought”, Schlatt spoke up before he stood with Tubbo being placed to the side, said boy stuck his tongue out at Schlatt before standing up and running over to Tommy’s side. 

“Yeah he did, he’s really good at spotting things!”, Tubbo complemented the blond who lookde away shyly. 

Puffy smiled down at Tommy who felt a weight tug at his chest from the praise before listening to what Tubbo was babbling on about. The sheep hybrid walked over to Schlatt and made sure that the two boys weren’t listening, 

“I am worried about Tommy.” Schlatt looks back at the winged blond who had an emotionless face while staring at an overly expressive burnette, the ram hybrid looked back to his sister and sighed while rubbing his face. 

“I get what you mean, the kid’s obviously touch starved, overly anxious and afraid of making mistakes. Not to mention he is afraid to ask or to call out things. Phil has been leaving him a lot seeing how the kid is so nonchalant about the whole thing, I really wanna punch the fucker”, Schlatt spoke, a bit of anger present in his tone. 

Puffy could understand where her brother is coming from, she really can, but having anger speak for her wouldn’t turn out for the better. Anger can lead to irrational thinking, which again, won’t be good for either of them. 

She looked back over when they heard a small yelp just to see Tubbo running a hand through Tommy’s wings, the blond having both fear and ease present on his face. The sheep couldn’t help but let a smile adorn her face at the sight. “Well, how about we do one more round of Tommy finding us before we start with Tubbo’s hearing training”, Puffy clasped her hands together. 

Tubbo was ecstatic while Tommy had the sense of dread flowing off of him, she decided to take the smaller brunette this time while Schlatt booked it before any of them could even start a proper start. 

Tommy felt like he actually belonged somewhere, he actually felt something other than fear, anxiety, numbness, nervousness, dread, anger, sadness, sorrow, hurt, and many other negative feelings. He felt contempt, a genuine smile adorned his face before he heard ‘ready’s shouted against the cave wall. 

- 

Phil, WIlbur, and Techno saw their home in the distance, small puffs of smoke gently flowing from the chimney they had on the left side. Wilbur couldn’t help but feel pumped when he thought about getting back to his bed, adrenaline running through his veins. 

The trio stepped onto the porch, Techno reaching for the handle just to find it locked. They were glad that Tommy locked the door, small worries now disappearing when they thought about the smaller blond forgetting one night and ended up getting hurt. 

“Phil hurry and unlock the door, I just wanna sleep”, Techno’s slurred, monotone voice could be heard by the now soft chuckling crow hybrid. Phil slipped his set of keys into the deadbolt of the front door before a click was heard and opened the door. 

The piglin twins ran through the door that wasn’t fully open and Phil sighs. He wouldn’t blame them, they woke up earlier than usual just to make it back before dawn, which was coming in close seeing as the blue was blurring into orange. 

Phil placed his bags down on the couch before grabbing the wrapped gift he had gotten Tommy, Wilbur came bounding down the steps, Techno not far behind but less rushed in his steps. 

“Tommy’s not in his room!”, Wilbur shouted frantically which caught Phil off guard but the older avian took a shuddering breath. 

“Don’t worry Wil, he could be taking his daily walk, remember?”, Phil placed a comforting hand on the older’s shoulder which ended up calming the worried curly haired brunette to some degree. 

Phil, Wilbur, and Techno began to put things away and make sure there was no mess when they had left Tommy alone, which they were surprised when they hadn’t found any. The crow avian walked into the kitchen to prepare lunch for him and his three sons when he found that some of the pans and pots had been moved as well as washed. 

This had Phil searching the kitchen just to see that there was a plate of eggs, diced potatoes, turkey bacon, and toast - all slightly eaten - in the fridge. Making Phil wonder who made it, because he knew that Tommy was incapable of cooking since he never really bothered in caring on how to teach Tommy. 

Hoping one of his brother’s would do the task seeing how he had taught them, but he will just have to ask Tommy when he comes back. 

- 

Tommy was able to find Schlatt, Puffy, and Tubbo - although Tubbo ran when spotted - and now they are finishing up on Tubbo’s sensory training. 

Puffy told Tommy to sit this one out seeing as they don’t want to push him further with his still healing wings, Tommy was thankful that she had his physical health in check but he didn’t really care if flying brought him pain. He doesn’t care if he gets hurt to help others, he will alway get hurt when it comes down to other people. That’s why he always cries to himself when his family leave for months on end on their adventure, missing his birthday a few times or forgetting when they are staying at the cottage. 

He cries when he gets shouted at by Wilbur or Techno for ‘causing an inconvenience’ when they were busy or tired from coming back from adventures, or just plain tired. Tommy never meant to annoy them but how could he? He rarely ever speaks, always apologises when he bothers them, is polite, does what he is told, hell, he even gets guilt tripped into doing their chores. 

He loves them but sometimes love hurts, sometimes he should just let that love go, but their family, he could never abandon or hurt them even though they do that to him already. 

Tommy huffs as he slipped his original shirt that he left the cottage with back on and threw on his non-wing holed jacket. He heard Puffy, Schlatt, and Tubbo coming back to where he was, telling Tubbo praises on the ‘good work’ he’s done on his sensory training and ‘how far’ he’d come. 

The blond internally smiles at the mention of Tubbo, he’s a good friend which he is glad he was able to meet the brunette when he did. Tommy didn’t know how much more he could take of the silent house and the cold and heated microwaved food. 

He huffs again before standing up, his wings whining in protest now that they can no longer feel the nice and soothing breeze of the cold air on the sensitive flesh. Puffy, Tubbo and Schlatt emerged from the bushes in the forest lining before looking up at Tommy who was ready to go, the clothing that was given to the winged boy now stored in his jacket’s pockets. 

“Ready to go?”, Puffy asks when Tommy strolled over to the three ram’s, nodding his head along the way, “Alright, let’s go!” 

The four were enveloped in a small chat, well more of the three ram hybrids were while Tommy stood there listening, with small smiles presented on the three bovidae’s faces. 

A small pit started to form in Tommy’s stomach, the avian began to listen to his surroundings more, eyes sharp, ears toned, and his small talons read to rip any attacker apart, or the best he could do. 

But that pit never went away, instead, it continued to grow, to become heavier and heavier. Each step he took was an extra four pounds to the ever growing stomach. Schlatt, Tubbo, and Puffy didn’t seem to change in any way, so maybe it was just him. 

Tommy hated this feeling, as if something would go wrong, something could go wrong, at any moment something bad could happen. He knew something bad would happen but just couldn’t figure out what. 

The cottage appeared in front of Tommy, the golden rays of the sun setting making the house seem like something from a fairytale with how it looks, lights were on in the cottage as well as two distinct voices Tommy was able to pick up on. 

The youngest was first to be in front of the door, not remembering how he got into this position but still afraid nonetheless. Tommy put his hand on the doorknob, body shaking, the cold exterior of the doorknob making him wince right on contact, everything feeling too much. 

The way he could feel his body shake from his own heartbeat, the uncomfortable way that his feathers and clothes rubbed against his skin, the breeze that felt nice now harsh against his exposed skin which is making him feel cold on the outside while he already felt cold inside. The way he could hear almost everything, making his ears ring from the intensity from the sounds that assaulted his hearing, the way that the nice setting sun rays now became more harsh from the way warm glows grew brighter wherever he looked on the door and front part of his house. 

Tommy twisted the doorknob and entered the now unlocked door, his heart rate could be felt as it sped up, the sound of his blood rushing rapidly within him, his chest rising and falling faster with the sound of his quick breaths. 

Upon entering, he could already see the older blond sitting on one of the couches in the living room, writing in one of the leather backed books that he possesses which Tommy isn’t allowed to touch. 

Humming could be heard from the kitchen as well as rushing water from what could be from the sink, but all that went on deaf ears as Tommy could only freeze and stare at the crow avian in front of him. 

Phil heard the front door open and looked up, wondering who would just enter his home without permission just to see Tommy standing at the front door, frozen on sight. Phil would have thought he was a really made statue if it weren’t for the way his chest was, concerningly fast, rising and falling. 

“Ah, welcome back Tommy, did you go on one of your walks?”, Phil asked as he closed his green leather backed book that has two white strips instead of his other green leather backed book which held one white stripe. 

“Tommy?”, Phil called out and walked over to the still frozen teen, when the older drew in closer to Tommy, he didn’t see the way his body aggressively flinched at the footsteps moving in close. 

The crow avian was able to see three people standing behind Tommy and was surprised at seeing who was behind the frozen boy who was having a mental war right then and there. 

“Oh, Schlatt, Puffy, Tubbo! What a pleasant surprise, I didn’t know you were stopping by?”, Phil questioned which caught Tommy’s attention and turned to meet the three bovidae hybrid’s gazes, which were all concerned. 

Could you blame them? Tommy was standing there, frozen on the spot after not even entering his house for three minutes and now he just stands there with a small bit of fear present. 

“O-Oh we uh, we saw Tommy walking alone while we were on our walk and decided to have him join us”, Schlatt spoke up before the other two, which they were thankful for. 

“Y-Yeah, we decided to drop him back off, how are you and the two other boys?”, Puffy asked and Phil just smiled kindly before stepping aside and dragging one arm away from him, inviting the trio inside. 

It made her angry that he can so easily accept the topic of the two piglin hybrid’s when his eleven year old son was outside, alone , with no older figure to walk with him. Just being able to not care about it, and stir away from the topic.

“They are doing just fine, why don’t you come inside?” Puffy looked at Schlatt who was staring back at her before shrugging and stepped inside, after Tommy scampered away to who knows where, and sat on one of the two couches in the living room. 

The older avian closed the front door of the cottage and went to his spot he was just sitting in earlier, before either side could say anything, Wilbur walked out of the kitchen humming one of his songs he was currently writing. 

Wilbur took notice of the three other people present before smiling at them, “Hello there”, he waved at them which got an excited, yet anxious, wave back from Tubbo. Wilbur walked into the living room and sat down on the only chair seated in the corner of the living room. 

“So, how are you three doing?”, Phil asked and Puffy just put up a pseudo smile. 

“Just fine actually, we were just training Tubbo earlier before we went on a walk. Tub’s gotten better in his sensory training within the last day and a half.”

Phil nods and looks at Tubbo, “I see that you’ve finally gain your traits, congrats Tubbo”, he praised the smaller ram which he didn’t take to kindly of, it felt weird hearing it from the older avian when said man didn’t talk about Tommy at all, not even mentioning he had a third son. 

Footsteps could be heard rushing down the steps at a quick pass, Tubbo looked over at the stairway, having full view, just to see Tommy rushing into the kitchen with a panicked expression. 

Tubbo slid off the couch, Puffy, Schlatt, Wilbur, and Phil now watching as Tubbo sped off into the kitchen where he last saw the younger avian. When Tubbo entered the kitchen he couldn’t see and tufts of blond in sight, Tubbo’s eyes landed on the slightly ajared door to the back yard. 

Tubbo jogged over to it before he slid it open. The brunette saw Tommy sitting on the steps to the back yard, arms over his knees and face in said arms, the smaller ram moved on instinct and sat next to the clearly upset boy. 

“Wanna talk about it?”, Tubbo asked who only got a shake of Tomy’s head, a clear indication that he did not want to talk, Tubbo understood that and sat down next to the silently weeping boy. The goat hybrid sat next to the younger blond, trying to give a comforting presence seeing how much the other needed it. 

They stayed like that for a while, Tommy’s face now out from his arms which is now aimed at the sky, a knock came from behind the two boys which ended up startling both of them. 

Tubbo turned to see who it was before looking back at Tommy, “It’s Puffy, I think it’s time for me to go”, he spoke, a bit saddened knowing he wouldn’t be spending another night like he had hoped. 

Both boys stood up, Tubbo walking to the door before Tommy who had his face aimed towards the ground, his hair now covering his face causing a shadow to fall underneath the hair. 

Puffy wanted to ask Tommy if he was alright, seeing his expression and body language, but she knew that she wouldn’t get an answer from him any time soon so she led both boys back to the living room where Schlatt, Phil, Wilbur and now the addition of Techno stood. 

“It was nice having you both stop by”, Phil stuck out his hand right when Tubbo and Puffy joined Schlatt at the door, Tommy now standing in the back of the three other members of the house. 

“Thanks for having us”, Puffy smiled at the man before her hand met his own, shaking the hand before letting go and turned to the two horned male’s behind her, “Ready to go?”, she asked and Schlatt nodded. 

Tubbo walked over to Tommy, making his presence known as to not spook the still silent and reserved boy, the older lifted his arms up and made contact with Tommy’s shoulders, which startled the younger avian out of his thoughts and made him look up. 

Tubbo grinned at Tommy and pulled him into a hug, “We can always meet up tomorrow, yeah? When we do I have something for ya!”, Tubbo exclaimed excitedly before he pulled away from the blond, who had hesitantly hugged back, giving a small to the older. 

Tubbo then sped back to where Puffy and Schlatt stood, waiting for him, then set out to go back to their home on the other side of the forest. Phil closed the door before turning over to look at Tommy, who shrunk under the gaze of his supposed father. 

“It’s nice knowing you made a friend and want to spend time with him, but you can’t just invite people over to the house without checkin’ that it was okay by me first”, the older blond began and Tommy just stared at the ground. 

Wilbur and Techno, mostly Wilbur since it’s rare to see Techno socialize with someone, would bring friends over, not even telling Phil half of the time and the other half of when they do ask is when the twins and their friends are already half-way up the stairs. 

Tommy never had to worry about asking Phil to invite someone over because one, he will get ignored and two, he never had someone to call a friend to begin with. Tommy was never socially output and there are a few people around his age that he could go and hang out with, but he always feared of what they will think of him when he tried, how will they think of him, if he would say something rude or offending, if just by being there would annoy them. 

He didn’t want to worry over those facts so he never tried to befriend someone, it was an utter surprise when Tubbo wanted to befriend Tommy when they’ve just met and the two just seemed to connect, in a way that is unnatural when you first meet someone. 

Tommy still does believe that Tubbo is just being his friend out of pity, when Tubbo first met Tommy he had bandages covering his upper and mid torso, some blood presentable, so what would you do if you stumble upon someone like that, would you pity them or leave them? 

In Tubbo’s case, he pitied Tommy, that’s the only reason that he is hanging around. “I expected better of you, Tommy, but clearly I set my standards too high”, Phil mumbled but Tommy was able to pick it up, with shaky hands, Tommy put them out in front of him which caught the three other’s attention. 

“I am sorry to disappoint you, I will try my hardest next time but they only came inside so I wouldn’t feel alone. I did not let them in ”, that was a half lie, Tommy did step aside for them to enter and didn’t do anything to make them leave but Phil seemed to think the same. 

“That still didn’t stop you from asking them to leave or calling me to see if it was okay”, he raised his voice slightly, a bit of frustration present and Tommy began to become smaller and he curled in on himself, but it went unnoticed by the older man. 

“It also seems you picked up a bit of Schlatt’s behavior, you’ve never lied before and never spoke back, if this is the result then it's best if you don’t see him till you learn on how to behave,” exhaustion and anger present in his tone, eyes holding disappointment. 

Tommy’s face dropped at that, the three not used to seeing his raw emotion like this since when he was younger, “ You let Wilbur and Techno get away with letting their friends in without asking before, this was one slip up and now I’m in trouble? ”, Tommy didn’t dare meet Phil’s eyes, fear present of what he would see in them.

“Yes, because I can trust your brothers to not do something bad or cause a wreck of the house,” he replied, seeming confident in his answer, arms being crossed across his chest. 

This caused Tommy to shake more, not from fear, but from anger which caused him enough courage to look up into Phil’s eyes, “A-And I’m not l-like them, I w-as never lik-e them! For m-months on en-d when I wa-s le-left here on my own, a-lone, and n-never did anything bad. T-The one time I fin-ally found som-eone, you w-want to take th-at chance a-way!”, Tommy spoke hoarsely with a gravelly tone to it, voice scratching and breaking from the years of it never being used after he went selectively mute. 

Angry and pained tears pricked his eyes as his hands immediately went to his throat from the pain coursing through it from speaking, speaking a bit above a slight whisper. Coughs began to rack Tommy from the slight itch in his throat after talking but Tommy didn’t let that get to him, he’s been through worse. 

He glared up angrily at the now shocked form of Phil who stared wide-eyed at Tommy, the first time in a long time that he’s heard Tommy, anger wavering in his eyes as he heard the terrible shape of his son’s voice. 

Phil never decided to call Tommy through speaker means from his communicator, more of video, but even that was a rare occasion seeing how Phil never needed to call Tommy on his own since he’d always have WIlbur or Techno call him. Wilbur uses the speaker part of the communicator unlike Techno who just messages or uses the video part of the communicator. 

“I kn-ow I’m noth-ing like them, I know I-I can’t be wha-t you wa-nt me to b-be but th-at doesn’t ch-change the fact th-at you pr-orit-tize them mo-”, Tommy was interrupted by a coughing fit before waving Phil off who tried to step out and help his son, not wanting to continue this any further. 

WIlbur and Techno just stood there, not knowing what to do or how to help the clearly struggling boy. Tommy raised his hands and glared at Phil once more, the tears more present now to the others, “ It doesn’t matter, not like what I say would change anything, right? ”, that was all Tommy signed before he stormed off to his room, not wanting to see the frozen sight of his wide-eyed family, no, not family. 

House mates. 

He doesn’t want to see the frozen wide-eyed sight of his house mates, Tommy slammed his door shut and slid down the door after locking it, tears slipping down his face now that he can no longer contain them and is out of sight of his house mates. 

Tommy wrapped his arms around his waist, breath labored from the whole ordeal that is setting in, the events of what just happened and what he had experienced alone now dawning on him. 

Tommy read in a book about avains, knowing how bad it can affect and effects it had on them if gone through getting their traits alone. Growing in traits put’s avians in a vulnerable and disadvantage to any mob, enemy, or a person you don’t trust, but if gone through it with the ones you do trust or family, then it makes the bond tighter between them and makes their connection unbreakable. 

Avains, and any hybrid in general, that goes through growing their traits alone cause one of two things, or both. One being that it could go feral, while the second is that the hybrid will begin to grow paranoid and anxious of people around them, feeling very unsafe then start to grow lonely knowing that they don’t have anyone to lean on. 

This goes with both options, the hybrid could grow depressed and end up living a shorter life span, but this is mainly with the latter, but if the hybrid has both of these then their depressive state will start to decline much quicker and result in a less short lived life span. Having so much stress and having no one by the avian can cause their feathers to molt, since the body is being put through a shock. It will cause the avian more distress which can end in either dying from losing such an important trait, insanity, or dying from predators seeing how they aren’t able to fly away.

Tommy doesn’t know which one he is suffering from just yet, the book states that it does take time for the negative effects to settle in but Tommy knows that he will be affected by the second option more than the first. 

He grew his traits with no one around, but he does feel quiet safe with the family of ew’s on the other side of the forest, mainly because they’ve been more kind and caring then his ex-family, and felt more comfort since recently developed hybrids are still vulnerable during their first and second week after growing their traits. 

Tommy is on his first week and almost on his second, he feels that the three ew’s are more a family then he’s ever had than the one he was born in. He ignored the knocks on the door, not caring who it was or why they were there, he couldn't afford to listen to their mockery from showing weakness. 

His ex-brothers were strong and willed an iron face, he didn’t. His ex-brother has physical and mental talent, he didn’t. His ex-brothers are good in fighting (Techno more skilled in hand-to-hand while Wilbur was more skilled in archery) and he’s not even good with a verbal fight. 

He’s weak in all ways and he knows it, he was never cut out in getting praised from his ex-father while his ex-brothers could always get what they want. Tommy barely got anything from their trips and adventures as well, if he does get anything then it’s something that Wilbur found that Tommy would like, not something that Techno or Phil thought Tommy would like. 

“Tommy..” 

It was Phil. Why was it Phil? Phil would normally be too angry to speak to Tommy after their one way fights, Wilbur or Techno, mainly Wilbur, would normally come and coax him out of his room after four days of not coming out, not even to eat or daily health care. 

That didn’t matter to him if he ate or not, he would always feel guilty after he ate anyways, seeing as he is just a free-loader in this household. Phil, Techno, and a bit of Wilbur, always did their best to take care of him by getting food and materials for all of them and what does Tommy do? Absolutely nothing. 

What could he possibly do? He had no talent or skills, nothing to give or offer. Tommy doesn’t answer Phil while Phil still knocks patently at his door.

“Please, Toms.” 

The nickname stung at Tommy’s heart, the nickname he used to love when his ex-family always spent time together, enjoying the other’s presence. Now that warmth had turned cold, stone cold, no longer the gentle flame it had once been when he grew up, no longer the enjoyable warmth and comfort it had given. 

The flame gave and gave all it had till the gentle flame had dwindled till it burned out after the constant needings from the youngest kept begging for. Now all that’s left in its wake is a deafening void to where the heat was once held, the walls no longer an orangey glow from the flames, now blackened from the soot and grime that the fire had given off. 

“Toms, I’m sorry for not giving you a chance. You have proven yourself capable enough to watch over the cottage, you can still see your friend but I’m just worried about you”, Phil pleaded through the closed door that Tommy was still barricading. 

‘ Then don’t ’, was what Tommy had thought and what he wanted to say but those words died on his tongue, the guilt shooting through him from how his ex-father had sounded when he spoke those recent words, the ever growing pit going higher and higher till it collapsed on the dark and infinite void. 

Tommy stood up wobbly and put his hand on the door, the knob as cold as the one from his front porch, the way he could feel the vibrations more from Phil’s frantic knocks as he tried to get answer’s or at least a noise from Tommy. The smaller took in a deep breath, wiping his face while trying to keep his labored breaths in check, the younger blond opened the door and stared emotionless at Phil who had his hand up to where his knuckles were just knocking at. 

“Thank gods, Toms, I was worried”, Phil fast words flying out of his mouth, his arms reaching over to pull Tommy into a hug which Tommy winced away from, gaining a frown from Phil. 

“ What is it Philza? ”, Tommy signs to the older avain whose frown fell more at the mention of his name and not ‘ dad ’ or ‘dadza’ . His full name, not ‘Phil’ that his sons normally call him. 

“Toms, wha- What do you need Philza? ”, Tommy repeated, trying his best to keep his emotions and breath in check, tears pricking his eyes once more, just wanting to get this whole interaction done so he can just lock himself away. 

“Well, I did want to show you something but I can always wait for a better time to show you, yeah?’.

Phil clutched the box that was hidden in the pocket of his haori, as he watched Tommy close the door on him, albeit harshly. Phil’s sadden smile deflated into a full blown frown and made his way to the stairs. He knew he shouldn’t have yelled at Tommy but the long journey had really gotten to him as well as the villagers that he helped. He hadn’t meant to take his anger out on the poor boy and he felt guilty for doing so. 

Techno peaked up from the book he was reading at the sound of approaching footsteps and saw a sadden avain in its wake. 

“I didn’t tell him about the gift, it just wouldn’t feel right seeing how he was”, Phil says as he sat down on the couch next to Wilbur who had placed his guitar to the side, giving his full attention to Phil. 

“I’m sure he will come around eventually, we just need to give him space is all.” the older nods slowly to what Wilbur says but sighs and rubs his face. 

“Yeah but you didn’t see the way he looked at me, gods he called me Philza. Philza! No Phil, dad, any of that and he looked so..”, Phil trailed off from the sentence, trying to find the right word for how he should describe Tommy’s appearance. His glossy eyes, dried tear tracks, the droopy look, everything that screamed how sad he was, screamed on how. 

“Done, he looked so done. I never knew that an eleven year old could even make such a look”, Phil whispered which now has Techno’s full attention. He knew Tommy would be upset but he never knew just how much Tommy would be upset. “I did tell him that I would have something for him once he feels better, but who knows how long that’ll be”, the crow hybrid hunches over, elbows on his knees and face in hands. 

Wilbur rubbed Phil’s back comfortingly, not knowing what to say or do in a situation like this or what the older hybrid would want to be said to make him feel better. All Wilbur can do is look over to his younger twin with a frown on his face, Techno just shrugged himself at the situation at hand. 

“Well, all we can do is wait till Tommy feels ready enough to come out on his own. He’s held himself up in his room before, what makes this any different from last time?”, Techno asked bluntly, not really knowing how to help in a situation like this. 

Wilbur looks at Techno, unamused present on his face, forgetting that his twin isn’t good at anything emotional besides showing anger. 

“What my idiot of a twin is trying to say is that Tommy may need time to think things through and come down and out of his room when he feels the time is right. Tommy may not look like it but he is smart, he’s told me on several occasions that he holds himself in the room most of the time as to give, the one he’d fought with, time to cool off and give them space”, Wilbur gave a soft chuckle. 

“The kid cares a lot for other people, cares about others more than himself”, Techno sighs as he sat back in the chair, placing the book down beside him in the process, eyes baring holes at the ceiling. 

Phil couldn’t help but give a weak smile in reply to Wilbur and Techno’s words, trusting in them and wanting to wait for Tommy to be comfortable enough to come down when ready, not wanting to have the boy feel overwhelmed by them wanting him to come out so they could see his expression for the item that was well wrapped in a box still hidden in his haori. 

- 

Tommy was well wrapped up in his red and white comforter, watching the leaves outside his window get blown against the side of the house from the wind, the sound of the leaves and sticks scraping against the house, the taps that could be heard ever so slightly if someone is trying to pick up on it. 

He couldn’t sleep. That much was obvious, Tommy normally couldn’t sleep most days just because, but whenever he got into a fight or got messed with too much, he couldn’t sleep. He was never one for sleeping at night anyways, he enjoyed staying up a bit till the night slightly brightens but Tommy stayed up till he met the burning gaze of the sun, the sun ever so slightly peaking over the horizon. 

The avian felt grimmy. It could be from the blood on his back from him hitting the wall too hard while rocking and gripping his hair tightly. The growing voice in his head now multiplying, telling him that he caused them pain so he deserves pain as well. The onslaught of voices ringing through his head as he tried so desperately to ignore them and drown them out.

Tommy hated feeling the grime on his skin and on his wings. The feathers not having been preened in a short yet long time, the itch of the wings that needed attention caused him to huff in anger. 

‘ A quick shower wouldn’t hurt anyone ’, Tommy thought to himself before he stood up from his bed, legs wobbingling from the hours he had himself curled up on his bed, not liking confined spaces all too much. 

If Tommy would have been more aware of his surroundings, then he would notice a certain crow avian getting up for the day and a pinkette that always wakes up to get an early start on his training. 

Tommy had grabbed his change of clothes and dragged his feet across the floor to his room’s door, with shaky hands, red tenting his gray nails, he slid open the door and bumped into something which caused him to fall back. 

“Oh, my bad”, the gruff voice of Techno spoke which caused Tommy’s eyes to fly open just to be met with the red piercing gaze of his ex-brother, who was holding a hand out for Tommy, 

The younger one just huffs and stands up on his own. 

“You uh, okay?”, Techno asked but was just met with Tommy pushing past him. He felt bad for not responding to Techno or at least giving him a bit of a glace to Techno but he just acted as if Techno wasn’t there. 

This confused Techno, normally Tommy would greet him in the morning and if he didn’t then he would at least acknowledge him, but Tommy just ignored him completely. Techno would understand if it was Phil, but he and Wilbur did nothing. 

Techno’s ears then flinched when he thought about it more, ‘ Wil and I didn’t do anything, maybe that’s why he wouldn’t acknowledge him since he didn’t help him ’, Techno thought, and oh, if that didn’t get chat riled up. 

‘ Technolame ’ 

‘ Bad brother Tech ’ 

‘ L ’ 

‘ Got ignored by lil bro ’

‘ Aw he seemed sad ’

‘ Techno help small gremlin ’ 

‘ E ’ 

‘ Blood? ’ 

‘ Smell blood from small one ’ 

‘ Small one got hurt? ’ 

‘ Technomean ’ 

‘ Rudeblade ’ 

‘ HELP ‘EM ’ 

Technoblade doesn’t know why chat chanted blood a few more times, they only get this way if they were mad, Techno was mad, or they smell blood. Techno wasn’t mad, chat didn’t seem mad either. So that left only one other option, that they smell blood. 

But if they did smell blood then it could be anywhere and could be from anything. Some of the chat expressed their concern when Techno was trying to find out where the blood smell is coming from, some of the chat chanting that it was coming from Tommy but Techno ignored it, thinking that it is highly unlikely he would be hurt knowing that he doesn’t leave his room, more of leaving the house. 

Techno honestly couldn’t describe how he felt at the moment while he watched his younger brother speed off to the bathroom and closed the door, the sound of a lock could be heard from said door. 

He decided to just ignore it and head off to his daily training spot, on his way out he spotted Phil preparing to cook. It’s not odd for him to do so, only making the three of them food after Tommy started to sleep in more after a few months he went quiet. 

Phil had more ingredients than usual and not the breakfast he’d normally make for the two piglin hybrids.

“Phil?”, Techno called out as he watched Phil began to prepare breakfast, said avian turned his head around to the voice of Techno and ended up smiling. 

“Oh, hello Techno! Do you mind sticking around for breakfast this time?”, the crow hybrid looks back to the task at hand, going back to making the meal. 

“Sure I guess, but what for?”, the pinkette sat at the island that connected the kitchen and living room while watching the winged man move around the kitchen. It wasn’t a dish that Techno had seen recently but he knew he’d seen it back then when he was younger. 

Phil was making Tommy’s favorite breakfast dish, back to when the smaller hyperactive blond complained about how bland the breakfast was when Phil had cooked, even when the twins cooked as well. 

Tommy would still eat the food made but Phil made something different that made Tommy look forward to whenever the older cooked in the mornings, it wasn’t anything big or fancy but it always seemed to make Tommy happy and make the rooms he’d walk in warm on those days. 

“Well, to make up for yelling at Tommy the other day, I’d thought I would make his favorite dish for him and have his family to be there too”, Phil tells Techno who just grunts in response, Wilbur wouldn’t be up till a few minutes and Tommy is most likely taking a shower. 

Techno was bored so he decided to tune into what chat was talking about, knowing chat, it would be something about blood or a topic related to blood. 

‘But chickens ’ 

‘ They are vicious ’ 

‘Chickens are out for blood most of the time ’ 

‘Chickens are pog ’ 

‘ But blood in general ’ 

‘ E ’ 

‘ What about the blood we smelled earlier? ’ 

‘ Is someone here hurt? ’ 

‘ Not us ’ 

‘ Yeah, Tech didn’t kill someone or something yet ’ 

‘Did crow father get hurt? ’ 

‘ Birdza noo :( ‘ 

‘ Screw birdaza rn ’ 

‘Wilbs? ’ 

‘No Wilbs can screw off too ’ 

‘Bruuuh ’ 

‘ Last is Toms ’ 

‘ Child? ’ 

‘ Gremlin needs comfort ’ 

‘ E ’ 

‘ Child is loud’ 

‘No he isn’t :( ‘

Techno decided to ignore chat, a sign that they will start a whole argument war between the two, if Techno were to listen to them, then he would have a whole headache. Techno decided to help Phil with breakfast, seeing how the man had to cook for four people if you add him, so Techno thought he could lend a helping hand. 

- 

Tommy slowly closed the door to the bathroom, not knowing that Techno would be just outside his door. ‘ Maybe I should start using my hearing after training my sensory system for so longI. ’ 

Tommy grumbled to himself while turning the shower water on, it’s not like he had been expecting to know that his ex-brother would be just outside his door, especially so early this morning. 

He placed his clothes down on the marbled countertop and placed his towel to the side so it would easier to grab and won’t soak his clothes, he’s forgotten to separate his towel before which resulted in him with slightly wet clothes for the day. 

Tommy slid his shirt off and looked at his back in the mirror, the encased wings and bandages on display, the way the oranges, whites, light oranges with gray specs became more prominent after the sun that was soaked up through them. 

The pale colors now more vibrant, the aching could be felt as his wings itched to be freed of the binding and calling for attention as the feathers wanted to be fixed and mended. Tommy unclasped the clip to the harness and slipped it off with ease, placing it next to his clean set of clothes. 

The smaller blond started to scratch at the bandage tap the keeps it held together and started to unravel the slightly bloodied bandages, keeping his eyes trained on the skin under and above his wings. 

Once the bandages were off, Tommy could see the scabbed wounds on his back. A tear under both and slightly above his wings can be seen, the pain was slightly there but not bad.

The barn owl hybrid could easily keep the bandages off and not worry about the wounds bleeding, so that’s what he plans unless the universe says otherwise, Tommy deserved it anyways. Tommy deserves the pain, the punishment, the loneliness, the self-hate thoughts, the mean voices that shout in his head near and during his spirling times. 

Tommy always tried to ground himself by tugging on the hair above his forehead, making sure not to pull too hard but that always ended up failing, using a rubber band or a flexible ruler whenever pulling hair didn’t do much. 

Anything that could get these thoughts out of the way, but it never seemed to work. The other option when he was left with no choice is the slightly rusting blade that he’s kept in his room between the mattress and bed frame. Tommy moves the rusting blade to other spots around his room to make sure no one would find it and confiscate it, not like his ex-family would come into his room and search much less enter to see if he was awake. 

Tommy stepped under the running warm water, it would have been nice if it weren’t for the burning sensation that rose through his shoulders. Plural since this was one of Tommy’s bad days to where he was sent over a normal breakdown, needing to do more harm to ground himself enough to try and pull himself out. 

Tommy ignored the feeling of the water hitting his fresh cuts and began to wash himself off from the grime that was on him, making sure to leave the shampoo in his hair lover to give it it’s puffy look after it was being clumped together with the two days he hadn’t washed it. 

‘Something is going to happen ’ 

‘ It might be soon ’ 

‘ oHhH nOoO ’ 

‘ Be quiet you fools ’ 

‘ L ’ 

‘ Can’t we all just actually let him have peace? ’ 

‘ Nope ’ 

‘ Can the old birdman see glass? ’ 

‘ Oldza ’ 

Tommy ignored the voices, seeing as they were calm and not bubbling over in a boil, he couldn’t help but be concerned sometimes whenever his voices were calm. They were never quiet per say but they were never loud either. Kind of in the chill middle, but today, they seem more on the quiet side.

He stepped out of the shower and began to dry himself off while making sure he washed out all the studs in his hair. Normally Tommy would forget to rinse it out and would be left with a greasy feeling in his hair which would end up with him taking another shower just to rinse out the rest.

The blond rubbed a salv on the wounds on his back, hissing at the action when he rubbed the salv on, the stinging sensation bringing up the less needed pain. Tommy grabbed the red harness - that so desperately needs a wash - back over his wings and fastened it tightly to where it laid snug and not painful, the smaller blond then grabbed his pastel blue shirt with a bold white stripe in the center then his white cargo pants that were slightly baggy and slim going down. 

The barn owl hybrid then walked in front of the mirror and took a look at himself in the mirror, grimacing at the reflection that stared back at him. Tommy doesn’t look all that bad to other people, a bit ashen skin that the others will see, turning a blind eye to what his almost ghostly skin truly means. 

His coral blue eyes that were once a brilliant ocean blue now darkened from all the horror’s its seen and experienced in its short life span, still becoming darker as well as the burnt soot covered walls of where the raging fire of warmth once was. 

His cheerful personality that is a facade, a mask that he wears so others won’t be able to see the demons that lurk in the shadows, grimy clawed hands reeling in till it can’t reel any further just for said claws to snap forward and grab at the slowly giving up blond. 

Trying to drag him down into the deep dark waters that had blackened from what he’s experienced. Tommy sees all the negatives about him while others see all the positives, it makes his stomach churn knowing that people could understand what is truly behind his sunken eyes and make out his struggles but still turn away from his outstretched hand, that is calling, begging, for help. 

His family doesn’t see that of course, they point out all his flaws, all his mistakes, negatives. They are the ones that showed him all of this and now his mind is taking it further and further than their influences. Showing him everything he does that causes others pain, that makes them irritated and annoyed.

One last look at the darkening bags under his eyes, the tired gaze that is still scanning over his features. With a sigh, Tommy walked out of the bathroom with his dirty clothes discarded in the hamper in the bathroom. While he was still drying out his hair with the towel he didn’t see what was in front of him and bumped into something, well, more of someone, falling to the ground from the force of the bump.

“Oh, heya there Toms”, came an all too sweet and airy voice. 

‘ Wilbur ’, Tommy thought as he looked up and saw none other than the curly brunette himself.

He didn’t reply and looked back down, finding the floor very interesting, Wilbur’s small smile became a frown seeing how his younger brother hadn't kept his gaze longer than a mere second but Wilbur wouldn’t let that get to him. 

“Here, let me help you up bub”, Wilbur says as he stretched his hand out to Tommy but said boy didn’t even move an inch at the outstretched hand and what his ex-brother had said. 

The blond jolted before he stood up and sped off towards his room, before the winged boy could go any further a hand grabbed his forearm. 

“W-Wait, Toms, dad made your favorite for breakfast. I was up here to find you to get you to come down”, Wilbur sputtered out to Tommy’s back that was still facing him. He didn’t move, it didn’t even look like he was even breathing, Tommy then turned around slowly before nodding to what Wilbur had spoke out quickly. 

Wilbur’s lips broke out into a grin seeing how Tommy would join them for breakfast, the three other hybrids finally having him join them for once in a long time.

“Great! Once you put your towel away then we can go down together, alright?”, Wilbur looked down to the younger with his head cocked to the side, the question hanging in the stiff air that surrounded the two. 

Tommy is trying his best to not rip his hand away from the burning hand, the feeling of being touched made it feel as though the area around where he is being touched ablaze, the burning touch spreading through the rest of his body wanting to shiver under the feeling. 

All he could do was nod at what his ex-brother said to him and walked off to his room after Wilbur’s hand had removed itself from his forearm and opened it. It was a good thing that Tommy had always kept his room clean, even of his feathers, and threw the damp towel onto his bed. 

Tommy turned and was met by Wilbur’s shocked filled face, making the younger cork an eyebrow towards the stunned brunette who met the darkening coral blue gaze, “Never knew that you could keep your room clean, let alone this clean.” 

Tommy scoffed at Wilbur’s words before he pushed past the intruder standing in his doorway, making sure to not touch him in the process of leaving the slowly growing cramped room, needing to get away from him and as far as he could. 

Wilbur closed Tommy’s door, which he was glad about, and walked over to the blond who was standing by the steps. Tommy started making his way down when the brunette was halfway down the hallway. 

A generous smell began to waft through the room when Tommy was halfway down the steps, his mouth watering at the delectable smell. Even though he was hungry, the growing hunger pains evident to the small blond, he just wants to run back to his room and stay in there till he eventually dies from starvation. Not like he could do that seeing how Techno spotted him and Wilbur was behind him. 

Tommy internally groaned knowing he couldn’t escape his ex-family’s attempt to redeem themselves from the argument from last night. 

“Henlo”, Techno called out with his ever monotone voice, waving to both Tommy and Wilbur, or maybe just Wilbur. Techno never gave Tommy the light of day, let alone speak and wave to him. So maybe it wasn't so wrong of him to think that the younger win would be waving to the older sibling behind him.

The youngest sat the furthest away from Techno as Wilbur looked hesitant on where to sit, the brunette opted to sit next to Tommy and gave the coral eyed boy a gentle smile. Phil came in with two plates and sat them in front of Techno and an empty seat. Phil turned to where Wilbur and Tommy stood and was surprised to see that his youngest had actually joined for breakfasr, seeing how it was rare to get Tommy to sit with them. 

Phil saw that Tommy was looking everywhere but him, Techno, and Wilbur which led to Phil having a small frown work its way onto his face. That quickly switched to a sad smile before he went into the kitchen to grab the two remaining plates that were left, one has more than the other. 

The plate that had more was given to Tommy which made him stare at the plate with a mixture of unease, sick, and puzzled. 

‘ From the only time I am here, do they not see how little I eat? Especially when I eat with them on certain days ’, was all Tommy could think before picking up his fork and moving the food around his plate, not really in the mood to eat seeing how there would be one, two, or three sets of eyes on him. 

The air around them felt suffocating as no one spoke, the uneasy quiet getting to Tommy first. He put the fork down and brought his hands up, “ Why are you three being so weird and less talkative? ”, Tommy signed, putting up a fake confused face that had easily fooled them. 

“We just wanted to apologise”, Wilbur started as he gestured to him and Techno, “Because we didn’t intervene during the small argument you and dadza had. We should have stepped in when we clearly saw how uncomfortable you were.” 

Techno just nods in agreement to Wilbur’s words. He began to feel sick as the guilt started to pile up to how he’s treating them so far from last night till now. 

“And it was not correct of me to yell at you when you've clearly done nothin’ wrong”, Phil jumps in, displaying a downcasted expression from remembering how he treated the youngest the other night. “I shouldn’t have yelled and accused you of things that I know you wouldn’t do.” 

All Tommy could do was look back down at his food, not knowing what to reply with, not knowing what emotions to present on his slowly blanking face. The three other hybrids watched the youngest family member just sit there, not moving an inch. 

Wilbur’s patience was slowly dwindling from the lack of movement or response that he was waiting to get out of Tommy, not wanting to ruin the chance that Phil was getting fromTommy so Wilbur began to eat again. Albeit slowly. 

Techno was uncomfortable from how Tommy stopped all movements, rubbing his hoof-like fingers on the coarse strands loosely hanging out of his messy ponytail. Phil grew anxious, not knowing if he’d said something wrong or messed up more than he’d already had but a small sliver of hope had sparked back up as Tommy raised his hands and head slowly, still averting his gaze. 

“ It was wrong of me to argue back, so it was a valid response on your part ”, was all Tommy could manage before scooping up a bit of the food on his plate and shoveling it into his mouth. It was made how he could remember it from way back, an egg like biscuits with turkey bacon, sausage, and celery piled in the center of the lightly golden bread. Toast with raspberry jam to the side, it wasn’t much, but it was something Tommy had always looked forward to each morning. 

He’d normally eat four, the biscuits being the same size as a muffin, and always tried to snatch one of Phil’s, Wilbur’s or Techno’s biscuits in the long run. Wilbur would always let him get away with it, enjoying the happiness Tommy would get when he would ‘ successfully ’ take one of Wilbur’s and mock how slow and foolish used-to-be older brother was. 

Wondering where the good times went, Tommy ate one of the three biscuits he had on his plate, his stomach hurting from either the pain from not eating or the pain from eating. Either way, he didn’t feel all too well to continue but he needed to as to not make his ex-family less suspicious of him. 

“Do you...”, Wilbur began, not sure if he’d want to voice what he was trying to ask or just let it die in the air while his beginning words were still hanging about, deciding to get it over with, Wilbur turned his head to Tommy. “Do.. you think you can start speaking again, like, using your voice?”, Wilbur saw the way that Tommy tried to suppress a flinch upon the request of him to try and speak again. 

Tommy shook his head before going onto his second biscuit, Wilbur’s eyebrows furrowed inwards as he was denied to hear his younger brother’s voice again after years, well more a few days since he had called Tommy instead of signing or messaging. 

“But why not? You clearly had done it last night, how is it any different from toda- Wilbur, let him speak when he wants to”, Phil had cut Wilbur off, sensing Wilbur’s growing irritation as to why Tommy wouldn’t speak. 

Wilbur just huffs and goes back to eating what's left on his plate, Tommy felt his uneasiness grow more, knowing that he was the cause of Wilbur’s irritation and having Phil come to his rescue. 

Tommy stood up abruptly and took his plate with him, putting his fork into the sink and placing what was left of his breakfast - which was just two and a half biscuits and the two jam covered toasts - into the fridge. The blond sped past his ex-family, wanting to go back to his room but was interrupted by a knock at the door. 

He slowly makes his way to the front door while feeling eyes drill holes in his back. Tommy opened the door and was immediately enveloped in a hug, he was confused as to who would hug him but when he looked down, he was met with tiny stubs on a head and fluffy brown hair.

‘ Tubbo ’, Tommy thought and was correct on his guess when cyan blue eyes met his coral blue ones. 

“Hello! I knew you would be the one to open the door”, Tubbo detached himself from Tommy and began bouncing on the balls of his feet. The taller lets a genuine smile adorn his features and ruffled Tubbo’s hair in the process, the goat hybrid went to smack Tommy’s hand away but was slow in doing so, resulting in him smacking air. 

“Yeah, we also got here earlier than expected seeing how Tubbo wouldn’t stop rushing us into seeing you early”, Schlatt stood by the door with Puffy, the female sheep hybrid smiling down at Tubbo’s antics. 

Tubbo turned back to Tommy and had a huge grin on his face, “You ready for today?”, Tubbo tried to conceal his excitement and Tommy's smile grew a bit more wide at how egear the shorter was for today. 

The blond nodded a response which got a slight frown and head tilt from Tubbo. “You are usually more talkative, even when we are going to the spot. Did somethin’ happen when we left?”, Tubbo asked and he groaned at his newly found friend. 

‘ Persistent bastard ’, Tommy kept that thought to himself and gave a pseudo smile towards the smaller goat hybrid, which he wasn’t buying but decided to leave Tommy be. 

Tommy was internally grateful knowing his friend wouldn't push him for answers or get mad at him for trying to hide something from him, the three bovidae hybrids always cared for Tommy, never pushing him into things he didn’t like. Never made him talk when he was uncomfortable talking, never forced him into physical contact, if he was hurt then they will check over him like a worried hen, getting his opinion on things before doing it without his concern. He liked the Underscore’s more than his rag-tag ex-family, these three always cared while Phil and the twins didn’t. 

Tommy felt a hand on his shoulder and flinched at the contact that had startled him from his thoughts and looked up to see Phil smile at the three bovidae hybrids in front of him with a sickly sweet smile. 

“Oh? What will you three do today with the addition of my son?”, the crow hybrid asks, a hint of irritation behind the smile he plastered up to keep his true colors at bay.

Tommy felt sick at the word son coming from Phil’s mouth and tried to scoot away from the older’s grasp. Tubbo noticed his friend’s discomfort and grabbed his hand and dragged him over to him and let his hand go, bouncing in place at wanting to describe what the four would be doing. 

“Oh Big-T, you would like what we are doing today! We are goi- Tubbo I thought you wanted to surprise him?”, Puffy cut off her nephew from going into detail of the idea they came up with to give Tommy more space for his avian features. 

Puffy, Tubbo, and Schlatt went to the nearby village to grab books about birds and avian hybrids. The three found things that Tommy might like to try, seeing how they read about owl avians and his avian trait and species. 

Barn owls have very good eyesight in the dark, especially at night and are one of the best for hunting their prey, better at finding their prey by sound if their eyes are being obscured. Barn owl avian’s weren’t common among the owl avains, basically being considered rare among the small group of avians. 

Schlatt and Puffy wanted to try to do aerial training for Tommy since he’s a bird of prey and known to stand their ground when came head-to-head with a challenge. Who knew such a meek little boy who seems to still have it rough was such a rare avian and one of the fiercest of the owl avians. 

“Well I’m sure that I could be told?”, Phil asks and Puffy looks over to Schlatt who just grunts and stood up from leaning against the doorway. 

“We want to try and see if Tubbo can find Tommy blindfolded seeing how we are still training him in sensory”, Schlatt’s lie flowed easily from his mouth, known for getting out of slippery situations when needed be. 

Phil hums then looks down to Tommy who was snatched from his grasp who looked up at him then quickly looked away from his eyes meeting with his. 

“I.. Suppose that is alright, may we join tomorrow?”, Phil asks while gesturing to his two other sons behind him which had Schlatt looking down at Puffy who then looked down at the two boy’s with a questioning gaze. 

“Well it’s really these two’s spot, it's up to them if you could come”, Puffy was mainly looking at Tommy seeing how he was more connected to the spot instead of Tubbo, her nephew telling Puffy one day that he had recently found the place before they met up with Tommy. 

Tommy looks at Tubbo who smiles at Tommy, “I don’t mind the Crafts comin’ and seein’ the place, up to you since you’ve known it longer than I have”, Tubbo tells Tommy, shrinking under the peer pressure that he was now put under. 

All eyes fixated on him, Puffy understood Tommy’s body language and slapped Schlatt’s head, whispering to him to look away. Tubbo looks over at the sound of his dad being smacked and giggled at the fact the older man had as he grumbled and looked away with his back now facing away from the inside of the cottage. 

Tommy still had the eyes of his ex-family fixated on him as his shoulders drew into him, trying to make him as small as he could while they were completely oblivious on how to read Tommy unlike Puffy. 

‘ How was Techno able to handle this ’, Tommy thought before looking down at the floor while keeping his head up and bringing his hands out. “ I don’t care, but I don’t want you guys to go to the spot on your own. It’s something I hold specia l”, Tommy signs but it seems Phil didn’t look at the second half of what Tommy had signed and smiled down at his son. 

“Then that settles it, we all will come tomorrow to see Tubbo’s sensory training, maybe we could help too?”, Phil looks back at Wilbur and Techno who walked over to where they all stood. 

Tommy grumbled seeing how Phil hadn’t even considered finish watching what Tommy was signing to him and turned back to Tubbo and smiled at the brunette who instantly smiled back, 

Techno just shrugs at Phil’s response while Wilbur didn’t care either way but couldn’t hide his eagerness to help. Wilbur was also curious about this spot that Tommy had found, and apparently for a long time as well but it probably wasn’t something that great seeing how Tommy was the one to find it. 

Tommy when he was younger always had the attention span of a kindergartener, always doing one thing then immediately wanting to do something else not even five minutes after. It had always ticked Wilbur off when Tommy couldn’t sit still, the small blond always had to have some part of his body moving and couldn’t focus on one thing for five seconds without getting distracted. 

The blond always tried to be talented at something growing up as well, Wilbur had music, Techno good in fighting - not so much in archery - while Tommy went into craftsmanship. The things he would make never turned out for the better, always collapsing or ‘ hadn’t had much potential ’ as Techno would say whenever the young blond would try to give it to the pinkette as a gift. 

Tommy would spend most of those days crying at night whenever his gifts were disregarded or tossed out, being told that his items ‘took too much space’ and not giving his feelings a second thought. 

So Tommy finding a spot, probably a hide-away spot most likely, would be shocking to the three of them seeing how Tommy wasn’t able to do pretty much anything growing up. Only being a problem and a nuisance to the three, although the brunette did have some fond memories with the youngest while growing up but his annoying ones out-ranked the good memories the most. 

Tubbo waved goodbye to the two piglin twins and the older winged avian before grabbing Tommy’s hand and sprinting off, excited for the fun day that was waiting in store for the four.

Chapter Text

Tommy and Tubbo ran through the hole that was the entrance, Schlatt and Puffy watching the two boys with a smile etched on their faces. Times like this make it all worth it, watching the two boys go on as if nothing wrong could happen. Enjoying time as if it would be their last, as if Tommy didn’t have to worry about the harsh demeanor that his ex-family shows him.

When they all made it to the stump that the blond had found the Underscores originally, he placed his bag down to start taking out the clothing the Underscores had gave him. The clothes modified enough for him to slip his wings through instead of having his whole torso open to the cold air that would occasionally nip at his face. 

“Let us tell you the real training we are doing today Tommy”, Schlatt takes a step forward to Tommy who looks at the older questionably, trying to suppress the flinch that sprung up. 

‘ Weren’t we helping Tubbo with his sensory training? ’, he looked at Tubbo who held up an emerald, that made the blond’s eyes go wide in shock, ‘ And why does he have that!? ’ 

The short brunette noticed Tommy’s shocked filled gaze and chuckled at him, “We will all run into the forest, carrying an emerald on us. We want you to find the emerald on us and take it from us. How you want to do it is up to you”, Schlatt tells the winged boy as he holds up his own emerald. 

All four started talking to the blond, making sure everyone had stretched and had done warmups. They took a small time to eat a snack, Tubbo whining on how he was getting hungry. Tommy didn’t eat his snack, wanting to save it for later.

 Soon, the Underscores grabbed their emeralds and placed them in their pockets, the white haired sheep gasped before turning around towards the blond.

“Also, if you grab our emerald and don’t want us to know, since you would most likely want to do it secretly”, Puffy starts up while walking over to the stump he was standing near, “You could blow into these three whistles, I’ve labeled them and memorized which one’s are whose. So have both Tubbo and Schlatt”, the sheep hybrid tells the smaller who ends up nodding along to the ram hybrid while looking between the labeled whistles then back up at her. 

“Wooo! Let’s get this show on the road”, Tubbo calls out while jogging his way over to the forest but gets stopped as Schlatt places his hand on Tubbo’s shoulder. The goat hybrid's immediate reaction to the stop was to pout at the person who stopped him but when he got around to actually doing what he intended to do, Tubbo looked at Schlatt with a sheepish grin. 

The ram hybrid looked over to Tommy with said boy looking up at the sudden feeling of having another set of eyes trained on him. He looked over to Schlatt and tilted his head with a questioning gaze. “Are you ready to start training?”, the ram asked.

Tommy nods before stepping away from the stump, wanting to stretch out his wings a bit more before starting the chase. “We will run off while you stretch, okay?”

The Underscores then darting off into the forest, Tubbo and Puffy close behind him as well as their emeralds clipped to a string. Tommy was glad that they cared about his wing’s health and his want to stay air-born longer, it really did make him feel more appreciated. 

Tommy unfurled his wings and stretched them as far as they could go above his head, a few hollow bones letting off satisfied pops. The blond then stretched his wings as far as they could behind him. He was proud of his still growing wing span, almost passing Phil in his wing span but still slightly behind the sheer size of the crow’s wings. 

His feathers were slightly messy seeing how Tommy didn’t preen his wings while taking his shower, he could always see if Tubbo could do it once his new training regime is done but Tommy doesn’t want to make Tubbo do something he doesn’t want to, so asking is out of the question. 

Once Tommy felt like he was done stretching, he bent down into a crouch position, wings folded outwards a bit and raised slightly higher in a pre-flight position. He then pushed upwards and took off with two flaps before taking off in the direction he’d seen the three take off in, eye darting around the fast moving terrain of oranges, reds, and yellows. 

The few bugs present in the short grass and withering leaves that covered the hard ground, small animals running the opposite direction of him once they caught sight of him. 

A small jingle could be heard fifty meters to the left of him ahead, Tommy tilted his body slightly left while ducking under a branch and followed the faint jingles that are now becoming more present. A small scent of vanilla began to be picked up, a scent he knows that belongs to Puffy. 

Lightening his flaps but still keeping a fast pace, Tommy flew after the sound and scent before seeing a blur of white and brown. The brown was a dark shade, so it meant that Tubbo went with Puffy. 

“You think he found one of us yet?”, Tubbo panted out as he tried to keep pace with Puffy’s slightly longer strides forward, the female looking down at the younger. 

“Well, we haven’t heard Schlatt’s whistle and we still have both of our emeralds, so it's highly unlikely that he did find us.” 

Tubbo slimed at Puffy, a determined and prideful smile on his face, “That’s because I’m the best at picking my partner and direction”, Tubbo states with a matter-of-factly tone causing the older to smile at him before looking back up at the trees coming in fast, seeing how they are running. 

Tommy took this opportunity to swoop down while being silent, the shine of their emeralds making it to where Tommy is able to grab them easily. He snapped his wings open and started to retreat back to the stump and grabbed both Puffy’s and Tubbo’s whistle, blowing Puffy’s then blowing Tubbo’s. 

This caused the two of them to stop and look at where their emeralds were strung, noticing that they were in fact, gone and being replaced with a broken string. 

“What!”, Tubbo screeched, “How did he find us?!”, was all Tubbo could say before he groaned and began making the trek back to the clearing, Tommy faintly heard Tubbo’s shouts and flew off in the direction he’d last seen Schlatt run to. 

Schlatt isn’t one to take lightly since he is known for setting up traps and tricks, keeping low to the shrubs to keep an eye out for who the ram is looking for. Tommy knows that Schlatt would be looking up at the canopy of leaves, the barn owl avian could easily hide amongst the leaves but he could still be easily seen. 

The best that Tommy could do is keep low in the center of the ground and leave and get lucky, keep his wing beats soft and silent while keeping his eyes and ears sharp as to catch on to the sight of the sly man. 

A scent soon filled his nose, he knew it was Schlatt since the man never had a pleasant smell to him, his smell consisting of what smells like alcohol and wheat. The earthy scent of wheat not clashing well with the powerful stench of the booz that seeped its way into the generous smell of wheat, both trying to overpower the other. 

Tommy started to drop lower but kept quick to his pace, following the smell (this man didn’t really try to hide his footprints did he?) that was beginning to spread everywhere, which meant that Schlatt had set up traps. What kind? Tommy didn’t know and doesn’t wish to find out. 

The younger avian came to a halt when the air smelled a lot like the man, his surroundings as well, which meant that if Tommy went any higher then he would set off a trap. So, to counter the heavy smell coming from above, Tommy stuck to the ground and sped his way to the stronger source of the smell, sticking close to the trees so as to not be spotted right away. 

Schlatt knew that scenting small items above would make Tommy walk instead, Schlatt hadn’t set traps because he doesn’t know if the boy would panic or not and Schlatt would clearly stray away from making him go into panic any time soon, not have him do it at all would be better. 

So he just stuck to leaving a mark on everything but he knew that Tommy is smart, so Schlatt took most of his time hiding and looking up at the sky, not noticing said boy coming close to him from behind. So when Schlatt heard his whistle go off he was quite surprised that he didn’t hear Tommy take his emerald, let alone see him. 

The older ram then walked back to the clearned and saw Tubbo clinging onto him as if he were some life-line. “How’d cha dooo iiiiit”, Tubbo whined out and proceeded to tug on Tommy, said boy just giving a small smile to Tubbo then shrugs to the older of the two. 

Puffy walks over to Schlatt and offers him a water bottle, groaning knowing he can’t just drink beer out in the open, but he’s trying his best for them and now he’s trying his best for Tommy as well. 

“He’s doin’ well in the exercises we created, ya think he’d like the fightin’ one?”, Schlatt took a swig of his bottle before resealing the lid and putting the water bottle next to his bag, Puffy sat next to hers and huffs. 

“Maybe, I’m not sure how he’d handle being next to a sword, let alone holding, swinging, and being swung at”, Puffy tells the older man honestly. 

Before the two adults could say anything two noises filled the air, one being a chirp and the other a bleat. Puffy looked up two see Tommy with his wings flared out and face slightly red from embarrassment, Tubbo with a darker red of embarrassment but hands over his mouth. 

“ Pff W-What happened?”, the sheep hybrid asked while looking between the two, Tommy turned away sheepishly while Tubbo looked at the two and pointed at Tommy accusedly. 

“He scared me! He scared me by making a chirpin’ noise at me!”, was all that came to Tubbo’s defence. Tommy just stays quiet with his wings slowly defluffing themselves before looking down at the brunette, tongue stuck out, Tubbo then jumped at Tommy whose response was to fly up out of reach. 

Puffy took note of the uncomfortable expression Tommy was trying to hide, most likely his wings, which made her put her drink down. “Hey Tommy, come’er a sec will ya”, the female shouts over to the winged boy who turned his head towards her in a tilt before flying over, Tubbo on his trail but getting out of the way when Tommy lands in front of Puffy. 

Tubbo grabs onto Tommy’s sleeve and clings to his side, making him glances down at Tubbo and gives him the ‘ clingy bitch ’ look. The goat hybrid just smiles up at the latter, to which he just sighs and looks back over to the female sheep. 

Tommy nods to Puffy who motions for him to sit down, to which he does (Tubbo just gets dragged down with him) and crosses his legs over each other. 

“Would you like one of us to preen your wings? I saw that you were slightly uncomfortable, but only if you allow one of us”, Puffy asks Tommy who looks down at the grass, noting the small ant climbing up the blade of grass and sticking its antennae out towards the winged boy. 

 Looking down to Tubbo, who decided to sit so close that his knee is practically on top of Tommy’s, 

“Would you like Tubbo to preen your wings?”, Puffy looks between the two boys and watched Tommy slowly nod, then look at Puffy and points to her, which makes her tilt her head, “And.. me too?” Tommy nods to her and Puffy smirks at Schlatt, the oldest just groans at his sisters gloating and just sits down on the opposite side of his bag that is not sandwiched between him and Puffy. 

The female ram patted the space in front of her to which Tommy gladly shuffled around to have his back facing her, Tubbo going behind his friend next to his aunt. Both behind the blond holding one of his wings. 

Tubbo wasted no time in getting to work on his friend’s (you could say best friend’s) wing, starting with the down feathers first. Plucking, fixing, smoothening, and unfolding feathers on the side the brunette was working on while Puffy hesitated. 

She never had to sort out feathers like Tommy’s before, she only had some experience when her friend’s son asked her one time, guiding her through the steps. The little boy is a duck hybrid, so there is a slight difference in the wings, one being smaller and fluffier than the other. Her friend’s son is three years older than Tommy so Puffy is sure that they would kind of become friends, if not best friends.

Puffy, not wanting to stall any further, followed Tubbo’s lead and went to the down feathers first and she must have done it right. Tommy slumps forward more while fighting a few purrs that are trying to escape his chest but ends up failing. Small hoot-like purrs began to fall from his throat which caused Tubbo to pause for a small bit before going back to preening Tommy’s feathers, now on his scapulars. 

As time went on with Tubbo on his middle primary covet and Puffy on his greater covet, he flinched away his wing that Puffy was on when she touched a certain feather. Tommy knows what feather she had tried to fix, of course he knows. While he was changing into his pajamas from the other day, his feather got snagged on a loose thread in his shirt and tugged his feather in a bad angle which made it bend and tug on the sensitive skin underneath. Tommy knows that his skin is torn slightly where that feather is located but he had forgotten it until now. 

“Sorry, did I pull too hard?”, Puffy looks around Tommy’s wing to get a better grasp on the younger’s emotions through his eyes. Tommy shakes his head and turns to meet her with his hands up, 

“ A feather got caught on a string, might have broken the skin a bit underneath ”, Tommy tells the sheep hybrid honestly to which the latter smiles gently towards him. 

“Well I’ll do my best to work around it, I’m not good with preening like Tubbo, so I’m not sure if I’m supposed to leave it or not.”

The blond just turns back around and lets the two continue, not wanting to go further into detail about the hurt feather. Tubbo knew that the skin near the feather will become infected if left untreated, so when he felt hands going back to the feather and quickly plucked it, that made him yelp.

“Sorry big man, it had to come out or it will get infected”, the goat hybrid apologized but just got the shake of his friend's head, reassuring him that it was fine.

-

Tommy was walking back to the cottage, Tubbo, Schlatt, and Puffy had to leave early to get ready to get ready for visitors that they were having. They made sure to have changed his clothes back to the ones he had worn before leaving to the cottage, with that in mind, the younger avian opened the door slightly just to meet crimson and brown eyes staring back at him. 

“Oh, welcome back Toms”, Wilbur says before looking back down to his guitar, notes being played while he looks over to a sheet beside him. Techno just grunts in acknowledgement before going back to reading a book, either about war, history, or greek mythology, Tommy couldn’t say. 

The younger blond just took this as an opportunity to go to his room, not wanting to be bothered by his ex-family, but all attempts were futile when Phil walks into the room and looks over at Tommy who was one foot on the stairs. 

“Ah Tommy, I would like to speak with you in the living room with your brothers”, Phil walks off, not leaving the younger time to even get a word in. Mentally cursing out the crow avian, Tommy walks into the living room and sits in a chair that was far from them and gave a half hearted stare at the eldest in the room. 

“I was assigned another expedition made by a sand village not too long ago”, Phil starts up, Tommy slightly beams at that. No, he wasn’t excited about seeing if he could go. Quite the opposite, he was excited because that meant more time to himself which could turn into another sleepover with Tubbo. 

He was already making out scenarios and plans in his head as to what he and the brunette could do over the days his ex-family would leave, usually his ex-family leaving would cause him to feel a sense of dread. Having to be stuck in the cottage by himself, alone. No one would be there if he’d gotten hurt or if some weirdos that came along tried to rob the cottage and kidnap him. But all of that was short lived to Tommy from the words that came flying out from the older blond. 

“I was thinking, why not bring you along this time. You have kept the house in check, as well as being a teenager.” 

What? Now that threw Tommy off. 

Doesn’t Phil know that he was close to being one, not being one? Wow, the man who practically helped in the creation of him doesn’t even know his own age. Tells you a lot about the guy. 

Doesn’t come back to stay for not even a week but will leave for months or a year on end with his two ex-older brothers (who were adopted but cared for more) just to have the man who is your biological father to not know a single thing about you. 

Says a lot. 

Tommy didn’t know if he should feel upset or glad that his ex-father knew nothing about him, which meant that once he leaves that he would just be some distant memory to the three. Techno looked over to Tommy before looking back to Phil, clearing his throat during the interaction, “He’s eleven, so he is almost a teenager.” 

So what if Techno knows his age, that doesn’t make up for the fact that all three of them missed his past three birthdays. Maybe they won’t be there for his twelfth birthday, maybe he would finally be gone by then. Who knows.. 

“Oh? Well you are close to being a teenager, so in three days all four of us will be going on the expedition that was sent to me but I’m going to need you to behave and stay close as we are using nether travel.” 

Tommy internally groans again as he was told to behave on the trip, it may be his first trip but that doesn’t mean he won’t behave. The smaller blond just nods his head before standing up, Phil stretches his hand out towards the retreating boy.

“W-Wait, Toms”, Phil starts which causes a halt in Tommy’s movements, staring at the older blond questionably. “I’m glad you have found a friend and all but don’t you think going to help them train everyday is a good idea? I mean, you haven’t even considered helping Techno or Wilbur train before and you are spending an awful amount of time with them.” 

Oh. Oh . 

If that didn’t give him anything to go off of. He finally gets to train and not be babied or forgotten, and this is what he gets?

The winged boy just stared dead at him. Memories of the time Tommy did try to help his older brothers which recited in him getting hurt and yelled at for trying. Knowing that Phil knows why he no longer helps the two piglin hybrids in training, he knows. 

Yet, does he care? 

That’s the question Tommy had been asking himself a lot lately, do they care, would they care. Spirling down in the descending staircase, running from whatever his subconscious mind is trying to run from. 

Without holding back, Tommy let out a little scoff which Wilbur took note of and seemed to get frustrated with the smaller blond more. 

“Look, Dadza is giving you a chance to go on this trip and that’s the response he gets? I was down on not letting you go, we don’t need you, hope you know. You will just slow us down”, and Tommy could only look away from Wilbur. 

It's not like Tommy could respond to Wilbur. Any response that is taken as a negative way would either cause Phil to lash out or cause Wilbur to get to the point of yelling. The brunette yelling will not do well for him, yelling leads to him physically lashing out, and physically lashing out leads to Tommy getting locked away or used for Wilbur to ‘ let out his frustration ’ and it's not like he could tell Philza about it. 

When Tommy tried at one point it led to Wilbur mocking him and pushing him around like some string. So to avoid things going south any further.

With a bow, bringing his hands close to him, “ I didn’t refer that noise to Philza, I grunted because of me running around and making noise for Tub’s to try and find me which resulted in some sore spots ”, Tommy’s lie went smoothly seeing as Wilbur’s face straightens out and Phil just smiles. 

He knew it would take Techno some convincing but Tommy was sore. Not his legs of course, his wings. After the preening session the tense muscles started to release pressure that it was building up, leaving nothing but sore wings in its wake. 

Tommy went to walk back up the stairs, resulting in another grunt while hoping it didn’t come off as a scoff again. 

“Well get some rest because you do have to show us this spot tomorrow”, came Wilbur’s taunting voice, causing Tommy to irk at the tone just wishing he could wipe that smugness out of his voice. 

Not wanting to stick around any longer and sped off to his room, the room held a good amount of heat beside the rest of the house. 

The others in the house like their rooms a certain way, Wilbur likes his more on the coldish side while Techno (being a piglin hybrid) likes it to be more warm. Tommy now likes to have his room have a cool draft while Phil keeps his room warm. 

From all the different temperatures, the hallways have to meet at the middle combining all the temperatures making  it more like Techno’s room than anything. The house itself is just one big mess or two seasons in one, but Tommy likes his room more than anything for various reasons. 

The room itself isn’t anything special but it’s something that Tommy wouldn’t change for the world but soon, he would have to leave his childhood behind. He couldn’t live in a house surrounded by those he once thought were family. 

But now. Now he has to live with complete strangers, people foreign to him. He felt nauseous just thinking about it, how his ex-family members are living happily while he was suffering in silence, alone. 

‘ You will always be alone, trapped in this place you once called home ’, the voice taunts, words that held a hint of giddiness out of making him suffer, making Tommy feel trapped. 

Trapped . 

That word spiked panic in Tommy, his chest starting to feel tight as his breath starts to pick up. The way the room began to shrink in on him and as the voices start to mess with him on his growing panic and lack of air from the closing in room. Desperate, he stumbled to the corner of his room, pushing against the wall in hopes that his efforts would help keep the room a good size, which just ended up causing the panicked boy to fall into the corner.

Sliding down the wall, knees were pulled to his chest and tucked his face into them, arms on the back side of his head now facing down as he gasped for air. Throat feeling like it was constricting as the air he was trying to get could not be felt. Causing the winged boy to try to gulp in more air as much as he greedily can, pressing his head further into his knees and causing the upcoming headache to be more known.

The silence is deafening in the hyperventilating boy’s room, nothing but quickened breaths and choked sobs could be heard. The laughing family below was oblivious to the troubled boy as his vision began to have black spots prick his vision, lungs stinging from the rapid intake of air but still felt as if he had no air to began with.

Tommy stood on shaky legs like a new born baby deer, trying to get to his bed that felt so close in the still shrinking room but yet so far as his legs felt like dead weight. With his vision fully enveloped with nothing but pitch black darkness, Tommy collapses five feet away from his destination that he was trying to get to, slipping into unconsciousness with only dark and negative thoughts to accompany him to the falling darkness of his dreamscape.

The rest of the small family decided that it was time for bed, awaiting the next day for when their youngest will lead them to this supposed ‘spot’ he’d had found and kept secret for a long time. Still ignorant to the passed out blond on the cold floor of his room with his window that said blond would normally close at night as to not catch a cold. 

-

The late migrating bird's chirps is what Tommy is woken up too as well as clattering in the kitchen below him, with a groan, he pushed himself off the cold hardwood floor and looked around. The blond shivered as to why his room was so cold, he looked around his room and found the culprit. A window he forgot to close last night wide open, he couldn’t remember how he had fallen asleep, the night is a hazy blur.

Shrugging off his lost memory that he couldn’t piece together, Tommy stood up and walked over to his window to close it so he could gain as much warmth in his room before he begrudgingly met his ex-family again. Now fully awake knowing that he will not only have to be with his ex-family all day, but will need to prepare for what could be weeks upon weeks of the exposition with them but the panic turned into excitement.

Tommy is getting the chance to nether travel, getting to experience the harsh climate of the hellscape, the many mobs there. Not only that but the sandy desert that makes the air around them seem like waves coming from the hot surface from the blazing sun.

All his thoughts came to a screeching stop, literally.

An owl (barn owl mind you) practically screeched at Tommy when he reached the window which caused him to flinch back from the noise after being startled. He had read about this species of owl, of course, so he knows that they can be quite used to the cold climates and since Tommy is practically one himself, he needs to wait till his body is done growing in his much needed traits.

Physical traits take much more energy and longer to grow which causes the much more useful traits to pause in its growth till the physical traits are done growing in (or out depending on the hybrid). So Tommy doesn’t have the liberties to withstanding the cold just yet. 

‘ What is an owl doing outside my window? ’, Tommy thought to himself as he looked at the owl in question, head tilting as he observed it.

The barn owl tilts his head, mocking the blond's movements which makes the boy believe that this isn’t just any owl that just lives in the wild, it could be a domesticated animal that was trained alongside people. A higher chance that it could be a human, seeing how hybrids are rare and are becoming more rare as some are hunted just because of their traits, and Tommy knows that owl hybrids (barn owls specifically) are rare to stumble upon much less avians.

It's really rare stumbling across a hybrid that could shape-shift into another form, their hybrid animal or creature. He wasn't sure if he could shape-shift into his animal counter part, but he would rather not find out anytime soon.

Avians originated by elytrians, seeing how both are just winged beings with heightened senses, and with elytrians being end-born, they were hunted down to use as messengers, experiments, potions, and used to lift heavy objects for building. A few elytrians had crossed over to the bred with the overworld hybrids which resulted in avians. Avians were less hostile and more open and friendly to non-hybrid beings which caused avians to either get slaughtered, owned, or casted out.

They were too trusting back in the day but could still get hostile as avians shared blood with elytrians and were feared for their raw strength, agility, smarts, and overall ability to get out when needed by flying away. Over centuries avians lived in hiding and grew their younger generations to be much more strong than the first generation of avians. Some avians were even given the ability to shape-shift into their hybrid as well as many other hybrids, but it seems as if that trait was outgrown since the tale of shape-shifters grew less and less till it was now gone from this centuries people. 

The barn owl clucked its beak, making clicking noises erupting in the room, wings fluffing and fluttering up before the barn owl flew up and over to Tommy’s shoulder.

‘ Owl Father ’, the barn owl squeaks out which made Tommy take another look at the barn owl in shock and wonder.

‘ Owl Father? ’, Tommy thinks to himself but it seems he answered the owl as it happily squawked at Tommy’s answer and nods.

This was all too weird to Tommy so the best thing he could do was pick up the owl from his shoulder and put it outside his window on a low hanging branch.

’ Nope. Not today thank you ’, as the blond closed the window and walked to his closet to get ready for the day, not wanting to take a shower at the moment but will take one before he goes to bed after helping Tubbo.

Taps filtered through Tommy’s room from the barn owl that’s tapping its beak on the window then switching to its talons before going back to its beak. Groaning, the winged boy opened the window which let the owl fly in and sit on his bed. Tommy closed the window and began to get dressed for the day.

When the young blond had took off his shirt the barn owl screeched at the sight of his wings being bound by the harness, he saw how the owl looked upset at his wings before shrugging, ‘ Can you hear my thoughts ’, Tommy looks at the owl again who nods, ‘ Then I keep my wings bounded so they won’t be easily seen by my ex-flo-family, ex-family members .’

Confused as to why he was about to say flock, it could be because of this ‘bird-brain’ he’s read about. This is still all so new to Tommy but he’s coming around to his hybrid traits, even if he has to do it alone or keep training with Tubbo’s family. 

‘ Speaking of which, I should start getting ready ’, he slipped his other shirt on, throwing the dirty one into the basket in the corner of his closet, the shirt is black on top with the bottom half white and a small line of gold between where the white and black meets. Tommy puts on a pair of black jeans , he felt ready to go so why does he feel like something is missing.

The barn owl hoots as it flaps over with the green scarf that Tubbo had given him when he stayed for the night. With a small smile, Tommy accepts the scarf and puts it on around his neck as the barn owl sits on his shoulder. The scarf may not have gone with his color scheme, standing out from his monochrome outfit, it brought the winged boy a type of warmth that made his still slightly cold room not able to touch him. Then it hit Tommy, his warmth trait from his owl hybrid trait had finally came in, which gave Tommy a little more energy to get ready to meet Tubbo, wanting to tell the boy about his new trait.

Tommy walked over to his door and opened it, breakfast could be smelled and from his enhanced smelling, breakfast consisted of sausages, hash browns, and waffles. Some home-made jam could be smelled as well and it was of his favorite fruit. Black raspberries. Don’t judge him, he likes the slightly bitter and sour taste and the ones he likes the most is when the black raspberries are juicy.

Walking down the steps, he immediately saw Techno and Wilbur at the island, Wilbur trying to hold Techno back who was trying to put black raspberry jam onto his waffles. Not knowing how to act or respond, the younger blond decided that it was too early for any of this, his attempts were futile. Wilbur noticed the golden tuff of blond from the corner of his eye which gained his full attention and made his head turn just to find out that the golden tuff is Tommy. 

“Oh! Tommy!”, Wilbur was too distracted on Tommy now which gave Techno the opportunity to put the black raspberry jam on his waffles, in which had the blond point to Wilbur’s plate which got his attention and cried out in distaste. “Techno why!”, was all Tommy could hear from the brunette which almost made him laugh but sure did make the barn owl on Tommy’s shoulder laugh and that caught the other three’s attention.

“Where the owl come from?”, Techno asked as he stared at said bird on his shoulder and making the blond shrink back a bit, the snow owl caught sight of his discomfort and gave a low screech to the piglin hybrid.

‘ Don’t make Owl Father uncomfortable! ’

Tommy had to hold the owl so it wouldn’t fly at his ex-family members, although he did want to see them battered from said owl. Phil being an avian, he was somewhat able to understand the snow owl, but since he was a crow and the snow owl was, well, an owl . It was foreign to Phil to fully grasp the language.

“Owl Father? Tommy I thought I said no wild pets, you will need to release him”, as Phil turned to finish the last two plates, leaving no room for Tommy to sign to his ex-father. He just scowls and lets the owl go, having the owl hoover beside him and gave the bird a pointed look.

All the barn owl could do was hoot and land back on his shoulder, shaking its head in disapproval. Wilbur laughs and turns back to Phil, “I don’t think he could get rid of it if he wants to, looks like the cridder latched onto Toms”, the brunette ate a piece of the waffle that wasn’t contaminated by the jam that his twin had put on it.

Phil sighs and places the two plates down, “We will figure it out after breakfast then, now, come eat”, Phil looks to Tommy, the younger avian wanted to just say he isn’t hungry now but his slowly growing empty stomach is proving otherwise. 

With a grumble and the approving chirps of the barn owl, Tommy walked over to the empty stool beside Phil and sat down, looking at the food before him in uncomfort. It wasn’t like Tommy went out of his way to avoid eating, it wasn’t that at all. On some occasions when the young blond would eat, the food would feel as if it was a chore and would feel gross sliding down his throat, as if he were eating sand or something on that consistency. That’s what he used to think until he felt bad that Phil would waste his time getting food just for it to go to waste from Tommy eating, he felt like the others were more worthy than he was. 

Tommy’s thought process halted by the peck on his head, he turned to the barn owl who flew onto the island and tapped his arm, gesturing to the boy to eat. With a pout and a tongue pointed at the owl, Tommy began eating while silently grumbling to himself. ‘ Stupid bird in tryin’ to boss me around ’, he thought to himself while the owl just sits there making sure he’s eating. Listening to the other three talking and decided to tune in, curious of what they were talking about. 

“I am quite curious on this ‘spot’ Tommy had found, it's not like it would be that good seeing how Tommy found it”, Wilbur spoke before he ate some of the rounded mashed and crispy potato. Techno nods along with Wilbur, of course he would. Techno may be more mature but he is the youngest of the two twins and would follow the eldest.

Techno cares a lot about Wilbur even though he doesn’t show it, the pinkette cares more about the brunette more then he would let on. But that was fine. Tommy had no talent. He had nothing to give to Techno, so why should he care? It may hurt knowing that Techno could never care for him like he does Wilbur, but that’s fine. It was always fine, Tommy always told himself that. He’d gone on believing it too. For so long, Tommy had never felt like he’d belong in this cozy cottage, that he’s the odd one out, that he’s the sore thumb. Tommy always had felt out of place for a few years now and that feeling still hasn’t changed, if anything, it grew.

Not wanting to think about it any longer, Tommy snuck one of his hash browns to the barn owl before walking into the kitchen while being oblivious to the concern the other three show Tommy. They haven’t seen Tommy eat so he could either be done or he ate half, Phil looked over to the barn owl in question but before he could get a good look at the owl, someone at the front door knocked.

Jogging over to the door and opening it just in time to catch a glimpse of the hair that belongs to, “Tommy!”, shouts an excited Tubbo. Tommy hopped in place, no longer trying to contain his excitement but then, an idea pops into his head. He’s been wanting to do this for a while, and only to the people he is comfortable with.

‘ Do it Owl Father ’, cooed the owl that flies over to Tommy and lands on his head. Tubbo looks quizzically at the owl then down to Tommy, questioning as to why he has an owl on his head.

‘ It’s now or never ’, Tommy thinks which makes the owl hoot excitedly.

Puffy and Schlatt were invited in after Tommy moved Tubbo over to let them in, the younger of the four that lives in the cottage could feel the stares boring into him from his ex-family. Puffy, being the polite one she is, closed the door and stood next to Tommy while making sure not to touch him while also looking confused of the owl on said boy’s head.

Tommy took a deep breath and looked at the three hybrids while they look at Tommy, Puffy with more concern while Tubbo just was impassive. “I-It’s… a lo-ng stor-y”, Tommy choked out while giving a smile to the three.

His smile may have been small and strained, but the three could tell that it was genuine. Puffy tried to look away when she felt small tears form in her eyes. Tommy wasn’t being forced to talk in front of them like he had when Wilbur called him, he was speaking to them through built up trust which she knows that it must have been hard. Tubbo actually showed his tears and hugged Tommy while Schlatt smiles affectionately down at the blond, Schlatt also knew that it must not have been easy for Tommy to speak but he damn well appreciated the blond taking the time to prepare himself just to say a few words.

It may not have been meaningful or inspiring words, but the older ram took pride into Tommy being comfortable enough to speak to them.

“AHH! You didn’t need to say anything, really big man!”, Tubbo spoke and started to babble on after keeping Tommy at arm's length, this made said boy laugh with an affectionate smile plastered on his face. This whole moment made Tommy feel fuzzy on the inside, like he could be himself around these three without needing to make the air awkward or have tension arise.

He almost completely forgot about his ex-family.

Almost.

That was until Phil came over with his two sons behind him, a smile on his face as well. 

“Nice of you to have the courage to start speaking again, Toms”, Phil says in a sickly sweet tone, making the boy shudder under the presence of the elder blond. Making him shimmie over to Tubbo and try to hide behind him, the barn owl on his head squawked out at Phil but settled down when Tommy poked its side. Puffy noticed Tommy’s discomfort and tried to bring the attention on her by coughing a bit to gain their attention. 

“Don’t we have somewhere to be? As a whole?”, Puffy notes before looking down to Tommy, “You ready?” That same caring tone is always able to put Tommy off-guard, not being used to such a tone of voice by others he’d met. And those people were a select few.

Tommy just nods to her and swipes at the owl on his head and stares at it. ‘ Shoo, I’ll try to make a code word for when I need you but right now you are free to go ’, Tommy tells the barn owl who just nods and flies out the front door Tommy had opened.

The six other people didn’t question on what had just happened even though Wilbur really wants to but opts to keep his mouth shut. 

-

“And then, dad hit his head on the door frame while chasing the chicken”, Tubbo and Tommy laughed while Schlatt looked away from embarrassment, it wasn’t his fault that he’d left the window open that laid to his backyard when letting their food cool off from the crisp autumn air.

Tubbo and Tommy were in the front of their little group with Schlatt and Puffy following close behind while Techno, Phil, and Wilbur were a few feet away from the four, watching Tommy from afar. It was weird seeing the normally closed off blond being open and more expressive, well, more expressive to people he’d just met. It's unreal.

How could he feel so close and comfortable with complete strangers than his own family. This made Techno have a pit of unease with Phil comforted by the sight. It seems like he just fits in , more than he’s had with them.

“So, where is this ‘spot’ I’ve heard so much about?”, Wilbur spoke up, a hint of a joking tone evident in his voice that flew past the four ahead. Tommy whispers to Tubbo, not wanting to stop to sign or speak up with his already hushed voice.

Tubbo looks back with a small sheepish smile, “Big-T says not far, we are comin’ up to the openin’ now.”

It angered Wilbur a bit seeing how Tommy was talking to the small goat hybrid while not having met for more than a week, why couldn’t he talk to them? Why isn’t he trying to be more present in their family conversations, family outings, the times they eat together. It was like Tommy was a stranger to the family he’d been raised up in.

Everyone came to a halt when Tommy stopped in front of a stone wall, Techno scoffs at the sight then stared down at Tommy.

”Nice spot, really like the scenery”, came the muffled monotone voice of Techno.

Tommy just huffs before he walks to the left of him, dragging his hand along the mossy wall before ducking into a bush. Tubbo knew this was the entrance and followed him, Puffy and Schlatt going in after but Schlatt stopped to stare at the other three hybrids. 

“This is Tommy’s safe place, a place he goes to so he could relax and calm down. He’s invited us to share this spot but so far”, Schlatt glares at the three, “ You haven’t proved yourselves if you are allowed.” 

That was all Schlatt said to Phil and his two sons before he ducking into the bush. Phil looks at the piglin twins and shrugs, unsettled by his friend's tone, and goes into the bush. The older avian was met with a cramped crawl space, not sure if he was alright with having his wings scrap the jag- the rocks in the crawl space seemed to have been grinded down to a smooth surface. A clear coat of something smeared along the grind down stone seemed to prove as a lubricant to help larger things to crawl through. Phil crawled through the smooth crawl space and was met with a sight.

It had been basically two week for the small enclosed cave, the vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges now dulling due to the colder weather, that is growing more close the closer the season is to the end. Dead, crunchy leaves littered the ground and the chilling draft coming from the stream that falls into a pond. The swaying of the leaves that belonged to the multitude of trees could be heard over the deafening silence, Phil snapped his head over to the sound of leaves crunching and saw the four other hybrids by a stump. 

“Alright Tommy, I heard that you wanna work on your hearing more, yea?”, Puffy crouches down in front of Tommy. They couldn’t figure out how to train Tubbo more seeing how he already learned fast with his other training sessions.

Tommy nods rapidly and bounced on the balls of his feet. Puffy pulled out a red bandanna knowing full well that red was the young blond’s favorite. Tommy pauses in his movements and looks up at the female sheep, unsure if he was okay with the exercise. Puffy gave him a reassuring smile.

“It's alright, we are in a wide open space.”

Tommy has little trust in her, with how heavy his trust issues are and don't get him wrong, he fully trusts the Underscores, its just hard with his ex-family watching. The younger avian took the bandanna hesitantly before tying it around his eyes, obscuring his vision and reaching his hands out for a better grasp on his surroundings. He heard the two sets of feet along with hooves approaching him from behind and whirled his head around knowing exactly who they are.

“And how is this helping Tubbo train?”, Phil asks in a questioning voice, not amused to being lied to by his friend. Puffy just rolls her eyes and looks back at Tommy and clicked her fingers, making him put his attention on her and not them.

“Tubbo is a fast learner and picks up on things quickly, so he is done with his training until he asks to do something quickly. Tommy on the other hand wants to be able to hear better, so we are helping him. He already seems to have good hearing already, so we are enhancing it”, Puffy replies plainly to the older blond before holding up a whistle. “You remember the whistles from yesterday, right Tommy?”, Puffy asks and Tommy nods and lifts up his hand.

“ I remembered each sound of which whistle belongs to who when I blew into them when I snatched the emeralds from yesterday's session ”, and Puffy smiles. She is proud of how he is growing, how he is adapting and all while he is keeping his hybrid traits a secret from his family. It really warms her oh-so big heart.

“Right”, Schlatt pitches in while he slid his whistle over his neck, Tubbo doing the same beside him, “We will run off into the forest, when we find a good spot we will blow our whistles and give a three minute interval between each blow.” Tommy nods, eager to already get this session a go, by the way his surroundings smell, his ex-family is sitting by the stump to his right with his back facing the forest, the Underscores moved around in front of him while setting down their bags that normally held snacks, drinks, and a few items they share with Tommy.

“Alright, give us five minutes before startin’ arlight?”, Tubbo asks and Tommy nods for the up-tenth time. 

With that, the three hybrids nod to each other and dashed off into the forest in three different directions which makes him grin and hold up three fingers, as to give him a physical and mental note of how many directions they’ve gone. ‘ It seems like they finally let Tubbo run on his own, they have before but not for a long time before they sent me after him ’, Tommy mentally noted before turning his way to the forest. He was excited to get this ready, he was hopping in place with a giddy face.

“This is just a waste of time, he’s just going to bump into something before even stepping foot into the forest”, he heard Wilbur mumble, wanting to give them an idea that he could hear good he stood up straight and kept the grin on his face. 

“I-I can he-ar you.. je-erk”, Tommy rasps out which caught their attention, he could hear the confused mumbles of Wilbur and the small huff from Techno which made his smile grow but before any of them could say anything Tommy ran off, a small whistle signaling for him to start. The ex-family members watch as the youngest run off into the direction to the right of the forest, which was in Schlatt’s direction. 

-

It could be said that Puffy didn’t like Tommy’s supposed family, how they acted and sounded towards the young child. How could they just act so coldly to the poor child who goes out of his way from making others mad? It just didn’t make sense to her, none of it did. 

Her thought process was cut off when she heard Schlatt’s whistle go off signaling that Tommy has the go-ahead to start, that pushed her to run faster into the forest so as to not be spotted. She was near Schlatt at the beginning so she hoped he moved more on the right side of the forest than the middle, but her hopes soon died when she felt someone bump into her.

She shook her head and looked up to see the man she wished she didn’t see. “ Schlatt, go away! ”, Puffy hissed before she stood back up and ran forward.

“ Well thanks for the help! ”, Schlatt yelled back, being tangled in a few vines on the ground near a tree he almost ran into before bumping into Puffy. All she did was stick her tongue out at the older before dashing off. It wouldn’t be long till Tommy showed up, he’s good at tracking down noises even if they were soft amongst other noises. Tommy will pinpoint a specific noise if he needs too, it was scary of how he can do it so well. What the two adults didn’t know was that he had a decent sense of smell and is tracking down Schlatt’s smell while listening to any non-natural noises. 

There was one more minute left before all three needed to blow their whistles, Tubbo was hiding up high in a nook of a tree, near the cave they did the enhanced sight training for Tommy with. Tommy might have trouble climbing up the tree seeing how he can’t use his wings to help shift his weight better or just fly up. But Tubbo will climb down if asked so it won’t be hard on the young avian, he is always thinking of others.

That’s just who Tubbo is. Too kind and caring for his own good, little to no self-preservation. He can’t even begin to think about himself unless he’s meeting someone new or something exciting happened. 

In the distance he heard Schlatt and Puffy blow their whistles so Tubbo stumbled to grab his and blew it as well. He hoped that if he blows his whistle a lot that Tommy would have a good idea of where he is, that would be bad on Tubbo. He knows that Puffy and Schlatt are on the move so it would be harder to get them but he would only know how many of them are left once they blow on their whistles again after the three minutes are up. 

Tommy bounded through the forest, running past the decaying bark like smell of the trees and following the wheat-like alcohol smell that belonged to Schlatt, another smell began to mix into Schlatt’s and knew that the combining smell belonged to Puffy. Her sweet smell mixing with the horrid mix that is Schlatt’s. The older ram’s smell was heavier meaning he was closer, the puffy's scent was further into the forest but he knows that she will run into the stone wall that encloses this place. Tommy begins to tune out other sounds and tries to pick up on any sounds that hints to where Schlatt is, he could always follow the scent but he’s here to up his hearing and get used to it more. 

Heavy breathing could be heard from above him but a few feet away, Tommy walks forward while being careful as to not run into any trees and keeping other smells distant. He stops in front of a certain tree before looking up and smiling, “F-ound yo-”, his voice cuts off with a rough scratchy cough. Pulling a hand over his mouth as he hunched over a bit.

He should really stop talking from now on, he just hopes the others aren’t high up, it's not really ideal for Tommy to try and climb now with his still newly formed wings that are growing in while his body tries to adjust.

Schlatt groans and jumps down, he still has one minute to spare but he ruffles Tommy’s hair. “Good job kid, you did really well with your vision obscured”, he praised Tommy who felt weird from said praise, it wasn’t a bad feeling. More of a fuzzy one seeing how the blond never really had gotten a praise before with any work he does, so this was new to him. “Now go find Puffy, she didn’t help when my foot got caught in a vine.”

Tommy nods and heads off to the smell he had last picked up from said hybrid's. Schlatt sighs and starts to make his way back to the stump and grab a sandwich that Puffy made in the snack bag, it may have still been early in the morning and they already ate but Schlatt is a growing goat-man-hybrid guy. Tommy is actually doing pretty well with his training they had assigned for him today, found him right away and only five minutes in - without his wings mind you - and has set a good pace when he left to go find Puffy. The third set of whistles went off and only two could be heard, he smirks at that because he knows that Puffy had been caught.

Schlatt made it back to the clearing and saw Phil looking around at the place, wonder and awe in his eyes. It almost made him laugh, a snort was more like it. He also saw how Techno and Wilbur were eyeing the place with a bit more perception than Phil, seeing the wonders that belong to this enclosed forest that gets its natural lighting from a hole that opens from the top. Whistles sound off for the fourth time, Puffy still kicking it but Tommy close on her trail.

“See! There are two”, Wilbur shouts confidently while poking Techno who just snorts from his twin's action. Schlatt made his presence known by sighing and slugging his way to the three. “Oh, it was Schlatt that got caught”, the brunette says and crosses his arms, “ What a let down .” The last part was a whisper but the ram hybrid was able to hear what he had said and turned to face him. 

“Sorry but what was that?”, Schlatt asks as he sat down near them and reaching for the snack bag, “He found me fair and square, I did hide in a tree after fallin’ anyways.” Feeling the soft yeast like substance, he pulls out a sandwich and places the bag back from where he had got it. Schlatt didn’t like how blunt or honest the family can be at times, especially when it comes down to the youngest. They don’t hold back snide comments from whatever he does - even if he did a good thing - they would always try to find something to make a negative comment on. It made him sick at how they can treat him so badly. 

Schlatt took a bite from the sandwich, he wasn’t one for cooking and Puffy would always take over whenever he tried too, so he just left the cooking to her and helped whenever she asked for help. His thought process was cut off from only one whistle, which meant, “No! I was doing so well.” Puffy came out after whining, taking in small breaths with sweat trickling down her forehead, she looks up and gasps. “Schlatt! I told you to not eat one until we’re all here”, she reprimands him and smacks him upside his head.

He groans and keeps eating the sandwich out of spite to which she huffs in response. “Anyways”, she sits next to Schlatt and grabs her water bottle, “Tommy is doin’ better than I’d thought.” She gulps down some water from her metal bottle that keeps the water cool longer and not melt the ice faster inside. The older ram nods his head at her statement, he was doing really well with this new exercise, maybe they could start their combat training today then do the winged combat training tomorrow. 

A small blah could be heard from the forest then laughter, Puffy couldn’t hold back her laughs before she doubled over and laughed, Schlatt laughing beside him. Tommy comes running back out of the forest with the bandanna still over his face, a flushed Tubbo following close behind, “Come back ‘ere! I’m getting you back!”, Tubbo screeches as he launches himself towards Tommy, who easily dodges his assault and runs off.

Phil, Techno, and Wilbur watched Tubbo playfully swatted at Tommy who was just invading his swings with a genuine smile present on his face, it may be small but it was a big change to how he normally acts back at the cottage with the three of them. Tubbo stops his pursuit and pants, hands on his knees while watching his blond friend jog a safe distance between them.

“Come on man, at least let me have one hit”, Tubbo whines before he plops onto the ground with a sigh. Tommy walks over to the bags near the stump and grabs the smaller goat’s water bottle and walk back over near him and hands him his water bottle with a tired smile on his face. “Thanks big man”, Tommy nods and lays down near him, wanting to enjoy the leaves falling but realizes the problem and it seems Puffy new that problem as well.

“You still”, she giggles,”Have the bandanna on your face”, as she starts laughing again and Tommy tries to hide his embarrassment under the scarf Tubbo had given him, taking off the red bandanna in the process just to show furrowed eyebrows looking to the side before he laid down. “Awww I think he’s grumpy~”, she coos as she slowly approaches Tommy who looks at her and pouts more.

“ Am not ”, he signs but that didn’t stop the older’s approach which caused the blond to stand up from his spot and step back. If his wings were out at the time, he would most likely have them raised, ready to fly off when she grew closer with a sprint. But sadly, his wings needed to be hidden since his ex-family decided to drop in on his spot and assault his sacred land with their filthy lies and bodies. Before Puffy even thought about sprinting off, Schlatt stops her and smiles down at the two young hybrids, another bandanna in hand but this one is green. 

“How about we do a little sparring exercise, I wanted to voice this earlier but feared it would be hard for the two of you”, Schlatt paused before looking over at Tommy, “But our pal Toms here, you proved that it should be somewhat a lil difficult than it should be.” Tommy felt a swell of pride flow through his chest as he looked down at Tubbo with a giddy smile just to have said boy to smile back up at him but both boys' excitement was cut off.

“No way, you are not letting my son spar. If he wants to then we can train him ourselves before he leaves on one of our trips in two days”, Phil interrupts which causes Tommy to frown at the older. That was a lie. Phil won’t train him and neither would his two ex-brothers, he tried one time but that ended up with Techno beating him to the point of knocking him unconscious. When he awoke the next day he was chewed out by Phil, going on about how ‘Techno has a problem going on at the moment, so he didn’t mean to’ or ‘you should know better than to ask your more well experienced brothers to help train you’.

It was always his fault, never their fault. Just him.

Always him . 

Tommy doesn’t want to cause problems but he will not take this one chance to train with people he actually cares for and who probably cares as much back, or more. The younger avian takes a step forward which gains the others attention, keeping his eyes trained on the royal blue ones in front of him.

“ That’s a lie and you know it, you never want to train me and when I do ask, I always get in trouble when things go south! ”, Tommy signs angrily, “ At least with them, they would actually want to train me and keep a pace to where I can keep up .” he hated the fact that they could just come in and control things like they always do, “ The one thing you could at least let me do is train with them for a while, if you still don’t like it then fine, I will stop the combat training and only training. ”

Tommy left no room for the older blond before he walks over to Tubbo and grabs his hand before dragging him to the other two adults that watch from the side. Schlatt was happy that Tommy was sticking up for himself but he couldn’t help but be concerned at what he signed earlier while going off on the older avian. Deep down in his determined eyes, Tommy held a bit of fear which could only cause a bit of dread to form. 

“Well.. Alright, let's get started shall we?”, Puffy clasped her hands together, growing anxious about how silent the two piglin twins were being, but that could be sorted out for another time.

-

Tommy jumped back just in time when Tubbo swung his wooden sword at his blond friend, Tommy taking the chance to swing back at the young brunette after he had swung, striking him softly on his upper arm then sweeping his feet away from underneath Tubbo. This action caused Tubbo to fall flat on his back with a small yelp and hold his hands up in surrender when he felt the sword tip at his neck.

“Tommy wins the third round, making him have two out of three wins”, Schlatt calls out, Tommy pulls Tubbo up after he reaches his hand out and takes off his bandanna with a smile. 

“Good job big man!”, Tubbo praises and Tommy smiles.

“ You too ”, Tommy signs back before handing the sword back to Puffy, she smiles down at the two who were handing the swords back to her. She is proud that the two had come such a long way and Tommy was doing really well with the training both she and Schlatt created on the fly, looking back at it now, this would most likely be really useful in the future. She really was proud of the two young hybrids and she couldn’t wait to keep up this progression, more with Tommy seeing how he was a closed off and reserved boy.

She wants him to feel more comfortable around them, so if something ever happens then he could come to them. She would always open up her home or her time to him if he was struggling or just needed a place for a night, she felt bad if she had to think that way but it was always a possibility seeing how Phil has been acting. 

“Maybe we can try more tomorrow, yeah? Then we can try another exercise I’ve been thinking of”, Puffy places the sword back on the side of her bag, feeling the more chilled air seeing how it’s slowly become dusk, the pinks and oranges coming into view. “Maybe archery training?”, she looks back towards the two boys and Tommy bounced into place, liking the idea.

A hand was placed on Tommy's Shoulder and looked up to see who placed the hand, his excitement died when he came face to face with Phil. 

“That won't be necessary, we will be training him seeing how he doesn’t have a good form and stance. I will be training him underneath his two brothers”, Phil looks down at Tommy with that pseudo smile he always uses on him and not his ex-brothers, it makes him sick looking at it so he just turns away.

Puffy noticed how dejected the boy looked and made her gaze back to the older blond with a flattened smile. 

“Or we both could train ‘em?”, Puffy offered out to Phil, watching him intently on how he reacts, “If you’d like, we won’t train him in combat and can continue trainin’ him on his senses?” She was hopeful, that's all she can be at the moment with the tensed atmosphere around her, but all that hope had gotten her nowhere.

“No, this ‘ training ’ doesn’t ‘eem to do him any good. He will train with his brothers startin’ tomorrow morn, now as you excuse us, us four will be leaving.” Phil turns and nods to his twins behind him before looking down to Tommy and pushing him gently by the shoulder. Tubbo grew more sad as he watched his friend get pushed to the enclosed forest entrance but gave a small gasp as something popped up in his brain.

“He’s allowed to come back, right?”, Tubbo looks at the older avian, who in turn looks back down at him. 

With a small smile Phil turns to the smaller brunette, “I’ll think ‘bout it mate.”

With that, Phil pushes Tommy through the gap and crawls his way through, Techno close behind him. Wilbur didn’t budge, standing at the small gap that his family had just crawled through. Wilbur turns, for the first time through the whole interaction, and smiles sadly at the Underscores. 

“Not sure as of why he trusts you lot the most but”, Wilbur looked away to the gap in front of him, “I’m glad he could open up to someone.” He crawls into the gap and jogs to catch up with the rest of his family. 

Puffy didn’t know how to feel on what Wilbur had told the three of them and is not sure if she’d like to know, she turns to the two others and clapped her hands together,

“Alright, lets pack up and go home. I need tea after what happened today.” Puffy, with the help of Tubbo and Schlatt, packed up all of their belongings that they had brought and started to make their trip back to their own place. It was quiet along the way back to their home, Tubbo worried about his friend, Puffy going over sentences in her head to see if she can get Phil to let Tommy continue training with them, while Schlatt was fuming because not only does his friend not let his youngest son train with them, he most likely won’t let the poor boy back to his spot and hang out with them while his two other sons can do what they please.

It absolutely pissed him off to the point he wanted to run his horns straight into his chest and knock him clean on his back, but he wouldn’t do that with Tommy around, he doesn’t want to scare the kid and seem like he couldn’t come to him for problems.

When the trio made it back they were stopped from the person, or people, standing on their porch.

It was Badboyhalo, Skeppy, and their son Sapnap. Sapnap’s hair grew longer than before since the last time they had seen him, Skeppy’s naturally dark brown hair turning more blue than it had been, while Bad had his same old appearance like before.

“Hello guys!”, Skeppy was the first to call out to the trio, waving lazily while Bad beside him waved with a gleeful smile on his face.

Puffy waved back to them and opened the door for all of them, the five others flooding inside.

“Why do you all look miserable?”, Skeppy flopped himself down onto one of the chairs in the living room, Bad and Sapnap on the couch to his left while the three other hybrids sat on the couch opposite of the diamond golem. The three didn’t seem to answer, Schlatt ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh while the other two sat still. 

“Well to start it off”, he starts while leaning against the back of the couch, “Phil has a third son which is his youngest and his biological son.”

Now that had Bad a bit upset. Was he so unapproachable to have told him about another son, and biological at that? But then a thought crossed his mind, he knew that Phil loves to travel or anything to do with long periods of time and would leave his sons if he wanted to travel on his own. Bad had told Phil about that and the problems it would cause if he continues, he started to slowly bring his children out more and more till his two twins started to go with him every time, but the whole time he has been leaving his biological son behind. And for how long?

“He has a biological son? How come he’s never brought him up?”, Sapnap was the first to speak up about it, this whole thing didn’t seem right. He knew Wilbur and Techno personally seeing how his dad’s and their dad were close friends with each other and the twins will always hang out with him and his two other friends, Dream and George. They never brought up a younger brother or if Phil had another son to begin with, but Phil not saying anything either, it just didn’t feel right to him at all. 

“Yeah, his name is Tommy and we are really good friends!”, Tubbo bounced in his seat, “He looks a lot like Phil, but his hair and eyes are a lighter color.”

Sapnap smiled at the small brunette who was rambling on and on about this Tommy kid. He seemed to be very fond of Phil’s biological son already which just had him wanting to meet this kid. “Oh oh oh! We might see him tomorrow at this small cave thingy but he might not like it when others come into his space”, Tubbo looks over at Puffy who smiles sadly. 

“Who knows Tubs, Phil doesn’t want him goin’ back, remember?”, she held some form of anger in her voice, remembering the conversation they had a few minutes prior before coming back. She will need to go back to her own place in two more days, seeing as she had been gone for almost two weeks.

“Awww but I wanna do more combat trainin’! He’s really good at it”, Tubbo whines which makes Schlatt laugh. 

“Well I can try’n do somethin’ ‘bout it Tubs, but for now, lets just hope he is allowed to go back. We can try to bring him here if you lot would like to stay the night?’, he looks back at the Halo family for confirmation who just nods to the older male ram.

“We won’t mind, it is upsetting knowing that Phil hadn’t listened to me when I told him to not leave any child alone by themselves. Lets hope the damage isn’t too bad, depending on how long he’d left him.”

The two families began to talk about other topics before starting up dinner, laughs and jokes thrown around after the serious topic of Phil’s other child.

-

Tommy and the rest of his ex-family finally made it back to the cottage, Techno and Wilbur sitting on the couch while Tommy is making a bee-line to the steps.

“And where do you think you are going?”, the older blond calls out, making him stop in his tracks. He turns around slowly, shoulders held close to his ears and curling in on himself. “So you can talk and train with this other family but try not to with ours?”, Phil stares down at Tommy accusedly, arms crossed in front of his broad chest. Tommy curls in further under the gaze that his ex-father had set on him, wincing at how harsh his tone was.

“ Maybe I wouldn’t have to entrust another family to train me if you had kept your promise and done it yourself like you said you would! Not my fault that they wanted to include me and actually be nice to me about it unlike the likes of yo- ”, Tommy was cut off by a harsh slap from Phil, he drags his hand up slowly to his face and holds the stinging cheek. Not meeting his heat filled gaze as tears stung his eyes, he had just been slapped by someone who he used to look up to, someone who is supposed to care and look out for him. Someone who would leave endlessly but still come back with a gift or two, that same person who now looks shocked from the action that had just occurred.

“W-Wait.. Tommy I-”, Phil didn’t get to finish as Tommy quickly turned around and sped off to his room, hearing a small snort from Wilbur and an ‘oof’ from Techno.

‘ To hell with them ’, Tommy thought to himself after he got into his room, he paced around in anger before soon deflating into an anxious ball. It was early but Tommy felt the weight of training and the extra healing that his wings and body is being put through, not only physical fatigue but as well as mental fatigue.

Weighing his options, Tommy decided to just take a shower way earlier in the morning and try to sneak out to his spot. He needs it more than ever now seeing how it was normally his spot to where he goes to calm down and look back over his thoughts. He will just need to get there way before the others would get there, and try to get as much alone time that he could before one of the two sides will come and disrupt his peace, not sure of which side it would be.

He lays down on his bed and covered himself with his blanket till he covered his shoulder, he curled in on himself in a fetal position. The added heat wasn’t helping how cold he felt on the inside but the warmth outside was very much comforting, the rising heat combating against the cold winds of his slightly opened window. It didn’t matter to him that it was around seven at night, it didn’t matter to him that his ex-family below is chatting away and preparing food for themselves while he wasted away.

None of anything mattered to him anymore, so for as long as he is staying in this wretched place, he shall comply to their wishes and not utter a single sound. 

With that in mind, Tommy softly closes his eyes and focuses on the dark corners in his eyes while waiting for his body to be whisked away to the in-between space. Where the brilliant blue void with the pure white clouds floating through the vast space, the small circle of grass with a willow tree in the center along with many flowers he’d read about. Just the peaceful serenity of the whole place making him feel like he belonged.

For once in his life, having a space that doesn’t make him feel outcasted. 

A knock could be heard from his door before it gets thrown open by Wilbur, his cheery tone evident in his voice, “C’mon child, foods ready!”, the brunette practically shouts but doesn’t get a reply.

He opens his eyes to see the sight of a sleeping Tommy, or so he thinks, not knowing said boy is laying there pretending. Wanting to know what he would do if the blond was sleeping.

“Tommy wake up, gotta come ‘n eat”, Wilbur shook Tommy with his foot, not gaining a sound from the supposedly sleeping boy. The hazeled eye boy shook at his shoulder harder, earning a soft groan coming from him and a half heated glare that soon slipped away before he turned back into his cocoon.

Wilbur seemingly didn’t like that he was being ignored but decided to not do anything, it wasn’t his fault if Tommy doesn’t want to come down and eat. 

With that in mind, the brunet turned and walked out of the blond’s room. He wasn’t in charge of taking care of some bratty kid, so if he doesn’t want to eat then he doesn’t want to eat.

He had finally descended down the stairs and headed straight for the kitchen instead of the islands they normally sat on, passing Techno along the way. The pinkette decided to watch what happens from where he sat, his usual spot he sits at whenever they were called to eat. 

“Gremlin child didn’t respond, so I guess he won’t join us”, the musician tells his winged father, who in turn sighs.

He figured that this would most likely be the outcome but his youngest had been coming from his room a lot from the past few days. He couldn’t help but wonder what changed, what stopped him from coming down to eat, from coming down whenever he was planning on asking something, from spending time with them. Where did that all go? What had changed his overly energetic toddler to an enclosed and quiet individual? Where did he go wrong?

With a slightly flattened smile, he looks over to Wilbur and ruffles his hair, “Thanks for the info, guess’ll just eat without ‘em.” Phil can dwell on the fact of what went wrong with the youngest some other time, if his two twins are doing alright then that must mean Tommy was too. That means he didn’t fail as a parent, means he isn’t doing anything wrong.

So it means that Tommy did something bad along the way to get him to this point, the point of hurting his family. Phil couldn’t help but be displeased in that, in how Tommy thinks he could just hurt them but not get any sort of punishment. So if being grounded from ever seeing those three for a while is a sort of punishment he will get, then that is what he will get.

But for right now, all Phil should do at the moment is take care of his twins. Like he always had been from the beginning.

Chapter Text

It was now two days later and Tommy was finally able to join the three on one of their adventures, he is a bit terrified of what’s to come seeing as he never went anywhere from the cottage or his little enclosed spot. It was nerve wracking but exciting, not only will he get to get some newly open landscapes, but he will get a taste of that fresh air.

When the young blond woke up to feet pacing around, he didn’t think much of it until Techno opened his door and yelled at him to get ready for the expedition, that they will soon head out on. Tommy had rushed to grab clothes and a pair extra as well as a few essentials he would need. He wasn’t sure if he had to make his own rucksack and kit but that was answered when Phil gave him a red adventure bag with a white clip on top. There was a red sleeping bag on the side that appears to have a white strip, an iron pickaxe hanging next to it with a bow and sword strapped to the other side. There was a quiver for arrows strapped on the inside of the bag while the inside of the bag held two canestars of water and a few bags of perishable food items.

He just stuffs his clothes and essentials into the adventure bag and a few pieces of gold in the rucksack, as well as an extra harness just in case the one he hadn’t taken off got wet, bloodied, or just dirty in general. It wasn't likely, and hopefully if he got hurt then it wouldn't be where he should take his shirt off. Having to show his harness underneath and explain what the harness was strapped for. So hopefully he could tend to his own wounds, reading up on some medical books of first aid already. Which came in handy growing up, seeing how his ez-family had always left him alone in the cottage.

Tommy was prepared for the adventure and was now standing by the door waiting for the other three to hurry up, he never knew why they took so long but they did. He remembered to charge his communicator and extra battery before leaving and had also traded one of his emeralds he’d been saving to buy an ender pearl as a last resort. Not knowing if something bad would happen or not, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of something bad happening. 

“You ready?”, the gruff monotone voice of Techno called out to the small blond standing by the doorway of the cottage entrance.

Tommy just gave him a nod then went back to focusing on the dark swirled wood below him, the glossy shine from the constant cleaning showed his reflection clearly. He hadn’t called or message Tubbo - after the boy had profusely asked him over and over - about him leaving or the forced expedition. Tommy didn’t know how to tell the small goat hybrid or how he could likely react to the news, but Tubbo would understand, right? It was Tubbo. The caring, sweet, kind friend who could understand him even without words. 

“Alright let's go, the people who asked us want us to be a bit early than expected”, Phil rushed in with his cap thrown haphazardly and hair a mess under his bucket hat with his green haori loosely hanging from his shoulders. He looks over all of his children, the two twins giving a thumbs up while Tommy just stood there confused from the two’s actions but mentally shrugs and looks back towards Phil, “Guess you lot are ready then”, he looks them over one last time before heading out.

Tommy was behind the three older hybrids while he took in the path they were following, the ground underneath them was a brown like tan with a hint of yellow mixed into it that kicked up a small amount of power with each step. A grovally-type feeling to it each step he took, further away from the house had less rocks lining the path until it was just grass, leaves spewn across each time he looked past the oak, maple, american pine, redwood, and hackberry trees. Each have fewer leaves than the other as each tree withered from the brittle cold of the seasons changing, the grass that does peak out having a frost-like blue resting on the tips while having a stiff nature.

Birds that like the cooler seasons resting in their nests that began to show from the lack of leaves hiding them from predators' line of sight, no coverage to protect them from the higher-ups on the food chain. 

His sight seeing was interrupted as he jumped from the booming laugh coming from Wilbur and Phil who were further up ahead, Techno smirking at them as he lowered his hand. The older blond went on about something but Tommy didn’t feel like listening to the man and continued on looking at the scenery around him, enjoying the view while it lasted. But again, was interrupted as Phil turned his head around and beckoned the younger towards him which he scowled but crept closer to his ex-father. 

Tommy raised a brow to the man who just sighs and looks ahead, “The portal would be a day away from the pace we are making now, we might either walk faster to make it closer to the portal or spend a few more hours walking.” Tommy knew he was speaking up about the speed at which they were walking at because he was walking at least ten to fifteen feet behind them, the only reason he could think of for them to not scurry off is because ‘ they were family ’ or whatever bull they would pull. 

Just nodding to the man and began to walk further ahead of them, not wanting to even try and stick close to them. The three didn’t seem to mind, in fact, the older avian seemed pleased at the speed they were walking and began to speed up as well. Techno and Wilbur enjoying the faster set pace they now have with the younger blond leading ahead.

He hated every second of this, every second he had to spend with them, every second he couldn't have with the other family that wormed their way to his heart. Passing every wall he could ever muster, passing the barbed wire of trust and other issues he has. Why couldn’t he have stayed back at the cottage? Why did the three change their mind now? Why did they insist on torturing him? Did they find pleasure for his torment, pleasure in the way he silently begs for them to just disappear?

He couldn’t understand them one bit, just like they couldn’t understand him.

-

It was slowly becoming dusk as the four made it to a gap like cave in a stone wall of an incline, a stone wall that was once dirt, a barrier for people who bulldozed their way up the very steep hill. 

“We made steady progress, so it would be an hour or two till we make it to the portal by dawn tomorrow”, Phil looks at his two twins proudly, ignoring how Tommy looked around the gap with a tired gaze. He didn’t care about how his ex-family viewed him anymore, as long as he behaves on the trip, the longer he doesn’t have to wait till they get back and can hide away.

It was always a wonder how Tommy stayed for so long, if you aren’t shown attention and promise in this messed up family then you aren’t wanted. He learned that the hard way. His ex-brothers has promise, while he wasn't gifted to begin with. Techno had strength, Wilbur had a talent for his voice, while Tommy? He didn't have anything. And that's what he gives them.

Techno, Phil, and Wilbur all made their pallets near the campfire that resides in the center of the gap, the smoke trailing out to the exit of the enclosed area that slanted upwards so the smoke won’t suffocate them, which Tommy wasn’t opposed to. He found a small hole in the clearing that he could fit in along with his stuff, and had set up his sleeping bag in the hole and placed his adventure bag and rucksack down as a pillow. He’s not one for tight spaces seeing how he practically couldn't breath in this cramped space as is, he could always sleep outside seeing how the light from the fire scared off the mobs. The mobs could be heard and seen from the view of his small cramped space, he’s not sure of the others but he could care less. 

“Toms, come out and eat with us”, Wilbur calls over to the blond who is fixing up his sleeping bag, trying not to scowl at the annoying voice of the musician. 

Tommy turns to the brunet and shook his head before grabbing his second canteen from his bag, needing to fill it up after Wilbur took his just to end up drinking it all. They weren’t even in the hot desert or the nether but he drank all his along with the canteen the blond owns, it was a wonder he didn’t ask Techno or Phil for there’s. Or maybe Wilbur just didn’t want to take theirs but his, which was a jerk move.

Wilbur just shrugs to him before looking back to the other two near the fire and joined in their conversation, Tommy just flips off the three before crawling from the cave and walking towards the sound he hears the water coming from. The gentle breeze raked its non-existent fingers through the pale golden locks of the young hybrid, the dulling coral blue that used to shimmer like that of an ocean at a well cared for beach. The pallid skin now glowing in the brightened light from the moon, making him seem as if he were a ghost tiredly roaming the earth.

There were mobs around but it seemed they had paid no mind to the wandering hybrid. It was odd to see the mobs ignore people, let alone Tommy, seeing as he was practically standing out in the dark forest. That didn’t matter to him though, he continued on his way to the upcoming lake that was now in sight.

He didn’t know if it was good for him to take lake water or clean it but he will just put it over the fire back at the cave and use a small strainer he had accidentally took with him, Tommy had no reason why he even had one to begin with but he just decided to go along with it. 

He drags his canteen in the lake , filling it up till the water was arching over the hole of where the lid goes. Tommy wasn’t sure if he should boil the water in the canteen or use a small sauce pot that his ex-family had, the options were weighed and decided to go with the first one. He didn’t feel like signing to the other three hybrids, let alone being in their presence. So of course he wouldn’t just go up to them and be all like ‘ Hey, you have a sauce pot by any chance? ’ 

Yeah, no. That wasn’t his cup of tea.

Tommy screwed the lid to the canteen back, making sure to have the lid tightly screwed shut so none of the lake water would slowly drip from a small opening. Checking from how the moon was positioned, he would say it's eleven - twelve at best - at night. The stars glaring down brightly from where they sat, like they were silently judging all the actions made by every person or animal that they can see. Like they were praying for the mistreated and unfortunate people while wishing for the greedy and selfish people to be struck down by the mighty hammer of the law. 

It didn’t matter to him anymore, he’s stuck until he feels unwell enough to up and leave the horrible people he once called family, the place he once called home. 

He stands up and makes his way back to the clearing, creepers staring at him before they turn away to just stalk off somewhere else. The fuzzy, four legged green creature that has a permanent frowning face that he had always found scary and aggressive, now just seems like a childish fear, that he had just misunderstood the poor creature.

Maybe all of the mobs were just misunderstood, taken aggressively from people who were, and still are, afraid of them. It wouldn’t surprise him at all seeing how if things cannot be explained then they are dubbed dangerous, which is really unfair. So if the mobs won’t attack or acknowledge him then he will do the same, they are just living their lives peacefully so he will do the same as well.

When he stumbled back into the cave his ex-family was still sitting near the fire but in their bags and not with hot bowls in their hands, Tommy didn’t care though. He slips back into the cramped space, trying not to freak out so badly to the point he gets thrown into a panic attack for thinking about all the bad things, leading down to him getting locked up in the small space in the first place. 

Tommy gets startled by their laughter when Wilbur had said something funny apparently, but wasn’t found funny to him as the brunette's face was a light red from embarrassment. Now debating on taking the wilderness over the small cramped area, not wanting to risk waking up from a nightmare just for his panic to grow worse from the really small enclosed space. But he would just comply for now, not wanting to get on their bad side and having to deal with Wilbur’s ‘ secret punishment ’. 

What a load of bullshit.

Everything about them is a load of bullshit, they just see him as some liability, as if he was just some normal human in a family of hybrids. That he won’t understand how they feel because he doesn’t have any hybrid feature, hybrid blood.

Only small areas allow hybrids freedom and welcome them, while there are far more who either kill a hybrid if discovered as one while a good percent tolerates them. 

Tommy hated everything about it, how they had stupid and unnecessary rules for hybrids, as well as going as far to killing them if they were told and found as a hybrid. It didn’t matter if they were young hybrids or elderly, infants or orphans, a hybrid is a hybrid. Aggressive, blood thirsty, and savage creatures to the humans. Not even taking the time to try to get to know how they truly are, how caring and sweet they can be. The innocent kids in those anti-hybrid areas that just kill them and hunt them down for no reason.

It makes him sick just to think about it, shivering with goosebumps forming from learning that knowledge from an old history book Phil had in his library. Why couldn’t hybrids and humans live in peace? Why must they be hunted down due to their unique appearance and traits? How some were forced to be locked in labs and tested on. 

Tommy lays down on his back and winces from the way his wings get pinned under his back, pushing roughly against the cold, damp stone floor. The harness pinching a few feathers and a bit of skin as it rubs against the non-preened feathers, trying his best to block out the laughter of his ex-family as they talk into the night. Twisting and turning as he tried to find the right angle to sleep.

His elbow had hit something wet and cool, just to remember his canister that he had filled with lake water. Shrugging it off, he will just clean it out in the morning when he wakes up. Not really wanting to meet the gaze of his 'traveling partners'. Scoffing, he did his best to try to sleep (which hadn't been easy) while trying to tune out the soft but noticeable chatter.

The voices weren’t quiet either, pointing out what Tommy could be doing, what he had done wrong in his life, how he could have done better so his ex-family wouldn’t have to show him discipline. 

Maybe it was his fault? If he hadn’t became so distant, became so quiet and self reserved then maybe he wouldn’t be like this. Feel like this. Maybe he should open up to his ex-family again, try to get more close. 

Tommy looks back at the three other hybrids, smiling genuinely at each other as they told stories of adventures or small things they did. It made Tommy upset thinking about it, not being there enjoying it with them, of not telling tales of his own.

‘Rip’ ‘Poor kid’

'Kill them?’

‘ARSON POG’

‘Nooooo’

‘Thought’s on American’s?’

‘If Phil dies does that mean the world dies?’

‘Let's test it’

‘F’

Chat was very lively, they haven’t been so aggressive since he found Tubbo, Puffy, and Schlatt. That doesn’t mean they have their moments, they still demand murder by fire or poison. Wanting all the victims in the same place so they could all burn alive together, that burning them alive isn’t illegal since they got stuck in the fire. They just so happen to be in there when it started while the rooms, windows, and any escape was sealed.

Tommy was used to the craziness already, used to their shenanigans by now, which would be concerning to any outsider. He has had them for years, so of course he should be used to it, but that didn’t make him feel any better. If the others found out, what would they call him? Would he be seen as some lunatic? Would he be sent away for testing?

He turns his back to the continuous laughter from his ex-family, willing the noise to flood away from his ears as he listens more closely to the wilderness of the outside world. The crickets more defined, the sounds of rushing water the lake nearby, the sounds of mobs walking near the campsite but not heading towards it. The way the wind blew into the leaves of the trees surrounding them, it was a wild yet peaceful kind of domestic and he wouldn’t want it any other way. 

Tommy felt his brain go mush, eyes growing heavy from the peacefulness he’s found from focusing more on the wild life all around him.

Chapter Text

Things would have started off better if it wasn’t for him being shook awake by an annoying, song-felt brunette. “Come on Tommy, it shouldn’t be this hard to wake you up!”, Wilbur shouted with a bit of irritation.

‘There I go messing up again.. ', as Tommy sat up as best as he could without hitting his head, now noticing that Wilbur shook him with his foot instead of his hands. ‘Rude much? ’, Tommy thinks to himself and crawls from his hole.

He makes a soft grunt of pain, his wings aching from leaving them in the harness for so long while also not being able to preen them. Not only that but sleeping on them twice in a row, at least his bed was much more soft than the rough ground. The dull, yet steadily growing, pain in his wings and back making him wish he had told his old man about his wings.

Tommy knows more than anyone that he can’t, he couldn’t tell them about his wings. Scared of how they would take it, how they would complain about another thing that he hid or does. He already felt way too insecure about himself, he doesn’t want another thing to add on that list. He had hid his wings out of fear, fear of being outcasted again, being thrown to the side. Hating the heated and angered glares.

“Since you took too long, you missed out on breakfast, we had to search for you after since we didn’t know you were still in the cave”, Wilbur spat out before he sped walked over to his stuff, most already packed. 

Tommy felt the pain in his chest grow more tight, not the fact that he made his ex-brother angry. it was the fact that they hadn’t be bothered to thoroughly check the cave to see if he had truly slept in here last night. Or that they weren’t bothered to check for him before breakfast. Eating didn’t matter to him but it still hurt, his ex-family is finally forgetting and moving on without him. Sooner or later he would be thrown out, like rubbish. It would just be the three of them.

He was fine with that, if he gets kicked out then he wouldn’t feel more guilty for leaving soon, he didn’t want to make the three hybrids feel like it was their fault that he was running away, so being kicked out should be less guilt on them and more on him. 

Tommy slipped from the small ragged hole he slept in and began putting the small things he took out away, which was only his sleeping bag and canteen (which he still needed to purify). His clothes were still good to use for another day so he didn’t change, he can’t change. They would see his wings and ask him how long he’s had them. 

He doesn’t want to risk it, he wants this bit of privacy for himself. Slipping his bag over his shoulder, wincing from the added weight to his wings, he stood up. The blond walks over to the entrance of the cave where Techno and Phil were standing and were waiting for Wilbur. The two just glanced at the blond before smiling at Wilbur who was right behind him.

“You ready, Wil?”, Techno asks as the pinkette walks over to him, completely forgetting that Tommy was ever there. 

“Yeah, just a bit irritated since Tommy ”, Wilbur spat his name like it was venom, glaring down at the eleven year old, “Took so long.”

His last bit of hope was suddenly snatched away, his last remain of sanity that belonged to the Craft household finally snapped. Tommy is so done with how they have treated him, Wilbur finally got enough of him, so it's settled. Tommy is running away from this hell-hole. He doesn’t care anymore if they kick him out or not, they can live with the guilt. They deserved it.

Phil sighs and turns to Tommy, surprised to see his youngest son with such a stony glare, eyes pinned to the earthly floor. “Okay mates”, Phil forces himself to look away, small bit of worry evident on his face, “Let's get a move on, shall we.”

-

The portal was now in sight, Wilbur lighting up when he saw it because it would be his first time actually getting to use a nether highway. Before Wilbur could do anything, Phil stepped in front of the portal and raised his hand. 

“I know you are excited Wil, Tommy not sure, BUT there are some ground rules that Techno already knows”, the older begins, having both Wilbur and Tommy stand right in front of him. “No going near any piglins, they are extremely hostile if they see no gold on you, that's why you need to put on gold before we enter to lower the attack rate.”

Tommy already knew a lot about the nether, he snuck a few books from Phil’s (he should really stop calling him that) room and read all about the nether and the mobs there. There were also a few books that Phil wrote down himself about more defined areas where piglin tribes live. 

“If a piglin or another nether mob attacks, you, Wilbur, are to take Tommy and run away from the fight to a safer location and send the coords. If there is nowhere to run too then Tommy is to make an escape for himself and find a safe location, and send the coords to all three of us.”

It kind of felt nice to finally be included, but at what cost? He just sounded like a two year old that doesn’t know how to take care of himself. He had been training, and they seen it, but he was still helpless and weak in their eyes. It wasn’t fair to him, he trains just as hard (if not more) as Techno. While his hybrid traits are healing and growing in. His wounds are still not being healed due to the blond stretching the wound and breaking open the scabs.

But he was fine, he can deal with it for a bit longer.

All four of them started to put on a gold chestplate as well as golden jewelry; the three older hybrids had a golden earring with one of the family’s emeralds. Tommy didn’t have one seeing how his ears weren’t pierced, but he had overheard Philza talking to Schlatt about making Tubbo a bracelet with one of their emeralds in it. 

Tommy doesn’t care though, when he gets back he is going to all of their rooms and taking the items he gave them back. The blond doesn’t want to leave any trace of him around, he doesn’t want them to even have a small speck of hair of him. Tommy is going to strip the sheets off the bed and replace them with a color he doesn’t like, take all of the clothes he can fit and burn the rest with the sheets. Any and all valuables he can fit, burn the rest. 

He is done with this family, he just hopes that if he has his own family, that his would never end up like the one Philza had created. At least Tommy would actually show all of his kids (if he has more than one) love that he was never shown growing up as a child. 

“Okay boys, lets go”, Phil says as he ushered the three in along with him, not wanting just one of them to go first. He hasn’t gotten around to building a safe and stable hub for their portal, it's technically just a bridge leading to the main crossways. 

When they stepped through Tommy felt immense heat, sweating almost instantly he wanted to take off his jacket, but he couldn’t. His jacket is an extra protective layer for his wings, Tommy isn’t sure how well the outline is prominent for his wings but he isn’t taking chances. 

The eleven year old noticed that Wilbur, Techno, and Phil are shedding their extra layers, leaving them in perfect weathered clothing. They don’t seem to care that Tommy has his jacket on so he should be in the clear. 

He takes a look around the area, watching the way the ghostly white figures float around, small cry like whimpers coming out and surrounding them. Not many piglins were around but zombie piglins were most likely the reason, The piglins afraid of their fallen comrades. The red becoming more bright from the never ending lava lakes, oceans, and ponds. Pillars of lava flowing from small gaps above the rock like ceiling.

“Alright, this way!”, Philza announces before swinging across a gap with Wilbur and Techno trailing not far behind, Tommy grumbled at them leaving him before grabbing on one of the vines that came swinging back, launching himself over to where the others were. The three starting to walk away from the ledge that Tommy was having problems of getting on. 

‘ I hope they get attacked.. ’, Tommy thinks to himself, which was a bad idea. He made the voices rial up in his head, some saying that they would get attacked by a piglin, some saying a ghast. Wither skeletons were out of the option since they weren’t near any fortresses. Blazes can spawn anywhere but mainly spawn at the fortress, there were a few blaze hybrid tribes as well as just blaze tribes. It wasn’t uncommon but were rare depending on where you spawn. Soul sand blaze and soul sand blaze hybrids were out of the question, one hit or near miss from them and you would be bed ridden for a month. If you were lucky that is. 

Not many people have seen any soul sand blaze hybrids, or blazes for that matter. They were all chased and hunted down for experiments and just to kill seeing how dangerous their flames are. Tommy doesn’t see how they are classified as dangerous but it's just normal people being scared and wanting to feel in control of their own lands.

After he caught up with the three, he noticed that they were getting closer and closer to a piglin’s ground. Tommy knows this after he had read up on the nether before, being bored in his ex-families cottage after being left. Again . Wilbur with Sally and Philza with Technoblade adventuring. The reason Wilbur was out most of the time was something about Sally and being pregnant. It came up as a shocker to Tommy when Wilbur was discussing this with Sally when she came over with tears rolling down her face and a letter saying she is moving to her aunt's place after the baby was born.

Where was the baby? No one knows, that was over a year and two months ago, Wilbur crying over his missing daughter that he supposedly named Floris. A uni-sex name he has been thinking about for ages with Sally, heart broken while crying over a picture of the ginger baby in the mother’s arms. It was sad honestly, Philza tried his best to cox Wilbur into getting out and about for ages after he cried over his child and girlfriend, missing them both dearly even if he hadn’t seen the child. Wilbur is still in shambles over his own start of a family but is trying to get better.

Tommy’s head snapped up to distant grunts, the netherrack under them becoming more squishy than it was before. The red vines trees becoming more spars throughout the land, lava lakes become less and less, holes of what they once were. 

All signs of getting closer to a bastion, if Tommy let them continue then they would be attacked by a piglin hoard, if he doesn’t do anything then he would get blamed for it, but if he tries to tell them then they would just push him aside and continue. They would still be attacked and he would be blamed for it like always.

Tommy ran in front of the trio and held up his hands for them to stop, this got Techno and Wilbur to get a little angry.

“Why’d ya stop us? Can’t you see we are on a time stamp? No time to stop in the middle of nowhere”, Wilbur grunts out while glaring down at the blond who still hadn’t got his growth spurt.

“ We are getting closer to a bastion, we need to avoid going straight into it ”, Tommy signs to the three, Phil should have seen the signs. He’s been adventuring longer than he has been a father, and he wasn’t doing a pretty good job at being a father. 

“Thomas, we aren’t anywhere near a bastion. The signs changed a few years ago, and I can tell the new signs”, Philza turned to the two twins behind him, “Let’s go boys.”

Of course he wasn’t going to believe him, they debunked the new ways of knowing there is a bastion nearby and of course Philza fucking Minecraft wasn’t going to believe those debunks. He should know since he’s been alive long enough like the world itself, he’s even seen how netherrack looked before the new coded update.

Tommy pinches his nose bridge before trailing behind them again, keeping a look out for any brutes that would become frenzied for them entering their territory. They won’t attack them if they don’t go anywhere near their bastion but that was a low possibility with how much gold someone has on. Tommy threw on his extra golden armor when they grew further into the lands, Techno rolling his eyes at Tommy. Techno would be the first one to know if a pilgin, let alone a bastion, would be nearby, so the blond has no reason to be layering up in this hellscape with his jacket still on.

Why did he have his jacket still on? Techno could see him sweating like crazy, so why hasn’t he took off his jacket yet?

‘ Maybe he is hiding something? ’

‘ Force him to tell us ’

‘ Beat it out of the brat ’

‘ No don’t do that, maybe he is scared ’

‘ Scared of what? Riders? ’

‘ PiGgY bOyYy ’

‘ Fight incoming! ’

‘ Yall are something else ’

The panicked voices of an upcoming bastion was drowned out by the other screaming voices confused by Tommy's weird behavior, the blond even wore a jacket when he was training with Schlatt’s son. How isn’t he doubling over by now? He is a normal human and human’s bodies aren’t capable of withstanding heat such as this for long with a jacket.

It confused the pinkette to an extent, not sure if he would suffer the consequences now or later. Hopefully later, he doesn’t want the kid to slow them down as much as he has already. Bringing him was a bad idea from the start but Phil thought it was a good idea. To stop Tommy from attracting attention to them and getting mad at his dad for no reason. 

Tommy was just a mess to begin with when he joined the Craft’s, he was way too loud, always making a mess with food, bothering him and his twin. The brat even goes to such lengths as to close himself off whenever they make a small comment towards the kid. He was just way too sensitive.

‘ Or were we too harsh on the kid? He is just a kid, eleven at that. I don’t even remember his birthday, when was the last time it was celebrated ’, Techno thinks to himself, looking at a loss of what was happening with him and his twin. He knows that he could get out of hand, but it was justified. Right? Of course it was, it’s on Tommy if he gets his feelings hurt. 

“Hey, you brat!”, Techno heard his twin shout and turns to see a baby pilgin run away from the brunette with his satchel of gold nuggets, coins, and ingots. Techno laughed at his twins stupidity, telling him earlier that he should have double bagged his satchel and keep it in his adventure bag, but no . Wilbur thought it was a good idea to keep it out.

“Tech, go help your brother will ya?”, Phil said with a few hints of a laugh evident, Techno groans but goes and chases the small piglin that his twin wasn’t able to catch up to. He picks up the small pig like child with ease and taking the satchel back, grunting in response and plopping the kid back on the ground.

Tears were welling up in the small child's eyes, its pitched whines echoing off the walls of the nether. It hurts all four of their ears when Techno returned with Wilbur’s gold bag, “Next time listen to me, will ya?”, Techno gruffs before smacking his twin upside his head lightly. Wilbur grumbles angrily and rubs the back of his head where Techno had hit before putting his gold bag back. 

The pinkette looks over at Tommy who was watching the small piglin child with wide eyes, hands creeping over to the stone sword that Techno had to lend him. It was Techno’s first ever sword he got to adventure with, so he was kind of antsy letting Tommy use it. Even if he does know how to use it, doesn’t make him any less scared for his first sword to get broken in the hands of the destructive child.

“Let’s just go-”, Wilbur didn’t get to finish before an arrow was embedded into his shoulder, confusion, fear, and pain flashed through his eyes. Techno and Phil whipped their heads around to where the arrow was shot from, there, on top of a cliff sat a piglin with a few brutes behind it. One of the piglin’s was holding the crying child who was pointing at the pinkette and brunette. 

Techno grunts before he pulls out his sword and shield, Phil grabbing his bow and sword. “Wil get Tommy out of here and hide with him!”, before the older blond charges at a few brutes coming his way, blocking the golden swords with his own netherite one.

“I can’t if he is gone!”, Wilbur shouts back at Phil clutching the arrow in his shoulder, Phil whips around for a brief second which the piglin brute took the time to strike, stabbing Phil in his arm and slashing at his side that wasn't protected by the golden chestplate, before the piglin brute was killed off. 

Phil spins around to the painful cry of Techno, seeing his middle child be pinned and stabbed in the thigh, he isn’t able to escape as three brutes were holding down his son. Phil was at a loss, his sons were hurt because of his carelessness, if only he was able to notice the signs of an upcoming bastion and the oinking sounds of the baby piglin, then his children wouldn’t have been hurt.

“Hey!”, came a scratchy and very underused voice, the fighting and struggling stopped to see Tommy standing on a different ledge that is across from their attackers. “I will give you my gold bag if you let those three go!”, the blond yelled as best he could as he held up his bag of gold, the piglins weren’t sure as they all looked at each other than back at Tommy.

One grunts before motioning Tommy to get closer to them, hesitant, the young avian does what the piglin asks of him, being cautious the whole way down and watching for any attack openings. When both stopped in front of each other, both sides tense, waiting for the other to attack. Tommy holds up his bag of gold towards the piglin as an offer. 

“Hope this suits you to your liking, you did attack my fellow travelers so I had to keep some, but this was for making your younger kin upset and as well as some damage from us”, the scratchy tone not going unnoticed by the piglin who he was bargaining with, surprised that he spoke in their tongue. They took the bag and opened it, surprised and happy from the hefty bag.

The piglin snorts happily before closing the bag and tying it around their belt before taking out the healing potion and handing it to Tommy. The piglin nods their head towards the three other hybrids as a form of apology, Tommy simply refuses.

“I’m sure your own men or women need it more than we do, we are supplied with out own health potions, but thank you!”, he tries to sound as happy as he could. The piglin refuses the boy’s words before uncorking the bottle and putting it up to Tommy’s lips, making the blond startled but keep his mouth closed tight.

“Don’t think I can’t hear the strain in your voice, you are either hurt yourself or have a really underused voice there”, the piglin talks to him softly as they could feel the tension between Tommy and the other three hybrids.

Tommy grabbed the piglin by the hand, trying to not pose a threat to the others that surrounded him and gently moved his hand away, “No thank you, I want any injuries that I sustain to be healed naturally”, he tells the piglin before he walks away. 

All the piglin did was watch the young child walk off to the three injured hybrids he is traveling with, walking through the crowd of piglin’s and brutes before disappearing out of sight, wondering why such a young kid as himself is doing an unthinkable thing like that. Even their toughest kids at that age need some form of healing.

-

The group of four was finally able to make it to the portal just as the sun was going down when they exited the nether, Tommy supporting Techno as Phil and Wilbur held their wounds. “That was the worst nether travel ever”, Wilbur groans as he sits down in the grass, trying to fix his frizzed up hair, which ended up making it worse with his blood covered hand.

“You could say that again, we had to take a different route to this portal thanks to Tommy joining along”, Techno sighs before resting his leg straight out in front of him, starting to assess the damage of his leg. Philza doesn’t say anything to the two twins as he unpacked the camping equipment, as well as the healing potions and wraps.

“What’s done is done, there is nothing we can do now, a bit strange that Thomas ”, Philza glares at the small child, “Wasn’t hurt but was offered a health potion, but let's get patched up and take care of this request.”

Tommy suffered a week and two days on that trip with them, he had to fend off the mobs at night while not getting any sleep, well, more of steer them away. Couldn’t preen his wings or take a bath whenever he went to go alone because of the thought that they could find out any time that he has wings. The blond even began to grow sharp talons on his feet, filling down the ones on his hands, good thing he wasn’t questioned about his gray nails yet.

He had to suppress any chirps or peeps as he was caught by surprise due to the lack of sleep, and even had to carry the heavier load on their way back to the cabin. Tommy knew he was being watched when they walked back to their portal in the nether, the piglin’s glaring at the older hybrids while feeling pity for the small blond. It was kind of comforting to actually be cared for, even if it wasn't by his own family.

It was hard to watch for them, the kids even wincing at the rough tone the two twins would use on the smaller if he’d done something that they didn’t like or dropped a bag. Even going the lengths of saying ‘ It’s not that heavy ’ or ‘ If you can’t handle that then you wouldn’t handle life at all ’. Making the piglins wanting to attack the trio again and rescue the youngest, to take him under their wing.

It was hard for him, Philza didn’t even seem to care as he was further ahead of them, wanting to get home as soon as possible after dealing with Tommy for more than five days. Complaining how this was the worst adventure yet and how Tommy isn’t going on any more of these. How the younger blond was insufferable to handle on the whole trip. The words weren't said out loud, but were able to be heard due to Tommy's enhanced hearing.

When they were back at the cottage, Tommy instantly put the bags down and sprinted off to the room with his. He’s made up his mind, in a weeks time he is leaving this god forsaken household, letter already written and given misinformation to throw them off his trail if they do want to come and try to find him. Which is unlikely, they complained about him after the whole incident from what happened in the nether and they still are. 

He knows that they are all going to wash up and head to bed early, like they always do after they come back, Wilbur not so much. He takes time to write out in his journal about what happened on his adventures, wanting to delve deeper into his point of view of the time he spent away from the cottage. 

The smaller avian placed his bag down and stretched his very sore wings from keeping them strapped the whole time away from the cottage. He knows that he should have let them out and stretched them at some point, but he really didn’t feel like risking his wings on getting exposed. He would just have to wait when they were done cleaning themselves up before he could go and do it.

And wait he did.

It took nearly three-ish hours before the three went to sleep, three-ish hours as he listened to their constant whining about how terrible he was during the whole exploration, how he hadn’t gotten a single scratch. Blamed for 'taking a health potion if he did get hurt' then told about how he would be grounded for any health potions that went missing.

He some-what did get grounded anyways, Technoblade’s and Wilbur’s health potions gone. While he was being yelled at by Philza, he saw grins on their faces as they high-fived each other. Tommy knew they planted their health potions on him, he knew it because he was awake the whole time and when he did try to tell Philza, he was yelled at for lying. He has a hand-mark to prove it.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

Tommy stands up and stretches his arms above his head, feeling the heavy tension in his muscles. He grabbed the spare set of clothes inside his bag and took off to the bathroom, making sure to not step on any of the creeks in the floorboards. Dancing around the spots he memorized like the back of his hand, making it to the bathroom without making a sound. 

He knows that both Wilbur and Technoblade are still awake, he can hear them shuffling around their room and setting up their new items they had just got. Tommy still remembers that they got him something when they got back before this adventure, but supposedly, he isn’t allowed to have it anymore and is now hidden. Like he would want to search for it. 

-

That shower helped with all of his tensed muscles, the pain in his wings subsided a bit but is still there from not using them for so long. He didn’t put his harness back on since it was safe to say that everyone is asleep now, even if they weren’t then he could just lock his door. 

The smaller quickly sprinted to his room, more of fast walked, and locked his door after he entered. It made him feel safe but not as much as he felt with Tubbo and them. Tubbo. If he leaves then he would have to say goodbye to him then, even though he had just met the goat boy, he knows he is going to miss him. 

Maybe he could give Tubbo his coords? Yeah, that could work, once he finds a safe area then he could send his location to Schlatt and then they could maybe come over. That would be nice. He could find a village or build his own home before letting the others know where he was.

Tommy stretched out his wings, feeling the way that the extra added weight of the water and not preened feathers cling to them, making the weight uncomfortable. He sits on his bed-like-nest and starts with his left wing, carding his fingers through the damped feathers, some already falling out from the gentle weight. Sighing under the lessened weight of wet heavy feathers, the feathers falling onto the bed underneath.

He has to be careful with preening his wings, since he isn’t fully sure if Technoblade and Wilbur are still awake or not. He knows Technoblade might, Wilbur not so much, Philza definitely . That old man couldn’t stay awake for his life, Technoblade might just stay awake for him anyways. He wasn't sure if the pinkette slept much. 

While lost in thought, he was already half-way done with his left wing. A pile of feathers already forming from the week prolonged cleaning that desperately needed on the horrible excuse of an expedition. Wings stinging from the loss of feathers that were covering the flesh under the good feathers, bending and flattening ones that he needs to be careful around especially the primaries.  

Once he is done with his left, he stuffs all the feathers into a large plastic zip-like bag, being filled with just those feathers after he pushes it down. Not wanting to wait any further, he starts to preen his other wing with his left one tingling from the less weight on them and the breeze flowing through the spaced out feathers. He loved the way the wind flowed on the flesh of his wing, making it feel like he was gliding through the wind currents even though he was sitting down. He enjoyed it, happy in the way they felt. 

Tommy needs to fly, needs to feel the gracious wind blowing against his face as he graced his way through the trees. Loving the way the silver bands of the moon’s light painted the grass and trees in a beautifully pale palette that only belongs at night. The nocturnal animals being so lively at night as they do their business like anyone else.

It was settled, he was going to sneak out and fly around, as to not lose the muscles in his wings from the many days of practice with Puffy and them. Tommy snuck over to his cracked window, liking the way his room is in between cool and warm and opened the window. Gliding from this height is easy for him, but Wilbur’s window is on his side which is always open seeing how he likes colder climates. Weird for a piglin hybrid, but it's Wilbur. 

The smaller blond runs back into his room and grabs his only shawl, it had a red gradient that goes into a black, pink and white specks danced across where the red and black mix making it look like a red galaxy almost. Sadly he was the one to buy it, he wanted one and asked Philza for it, but the older one just gave him money to get one instead and sent him to town. He was going on ten seeing how his birthday was in four days. But that was fine, he was able to get two sizes bigger and not be questioned for it, he would always get weird glances from his ex-family members whenever he asked for bigger clothes.

If he likes it enough then he wants it to be bigger, so when he grows (he knows he will) then he would still have that favorite clothing item instead of wasting more gold on a bigger size and have two of the same object. So bigger is better, he also liked the way bigger clothes flood on him, makes him feel more comfortable and safe.

Tommy threw the shawl over his shoulders, making sure it covered his wings, and ran back to the window before jumping out. He spread his wings along the inside of the shawl, making sure it still covered his wings, and drifted along the wind. Making him glide for a longer duration seeing how the nights are getting colder, so that means stronger winds. 

He was a quarter of the way from the house when he flew towards the ground and slid along the ground before using his wings to boost himself up, gliding along the wind again. The sound of extra flaps from his shawl makes him feel like he is flying with someone with wings. A thought suddenly came to mind, Philza is the only avian he knows. What if he runs into another one? Would he trust them or would he need to hide his wings as well?

He isn’t going to worry about that right now, right now he is going to fly and glide his troubles away. Flying always makes him gain his senses back, makes him calm down. Is that why Philza takes care of his wings all the time? Takes priority in his wings over any other health care, then does that.  

Doesn’t matter, its him and just him only. 

-

“And where were you?”, Tommy shot his head towards the voice, which belonged to Philza. Wilbur and Technoblade was behind him, both trying to hide a laugh from Tommy’s face. “You were bad the whole trip and now you are sneaking out!”, Philza shot his arms up to put emphasis on his words. The older not taking not of the messy hair blown back with leaves and twigs jutting out of places, how he pulls tightly on the shawl to make sure it covers his wings underneath. 

 Even if Tommy were to tell where he was, he would just get yelled at anyways. How was he going to tell Philza that 'Yeah, I was just flying around because I haven't preened my wings in over a week or used the muscles.'

Yeah, no. That is a death sentence.

All Tommy could do is stare at the older, whose face was red and burning with rage. Philza just sighs before rubbing the bridge of his nose, “Techno, Will, you two are in charge, I need to go grab something.”

Philza walks over to the front door to the cottage and flies off to what presumably is the mines, Tommy just sighs and makes his way upstairs seeing how he needs to bind his wings. Or maybe he could just leave them out? Yeah, no. Not chancing the risk.

The blond shuts his door and make sure he locks it, throwing the shawl onto his bed and slip the harness on after he took his shirt off. It was a nice gentle breeze today, the farm animals still need to be fed, he would do Technoblade's task which was the armory while Wilbur had always done the household chores like the dishes or laundry. He had already done their chores for the day so that left his which was tend to the farm animals. 

Most of the time Tommy would do one of their chores as a punishment, but he doesn’t really care. Whatever he can do to not talk to the three of them then better. That's the second reason he took up the farm side of the job, because it was longer and further away from them. 

Stepping off the last step before maneuvering to the kitchen, the small blond took the seeds from the bottom cupboard near the kitchen door and lifted it, wobbling his way to the chicken coop in the back. The wheat and whatever the pigs eat would come from the farm before bringing in the leftovers, he was told specifically to not touch the potatoes seeing how that was Technoblade’s job. So he wouldn't.

It didn’t matter to him any other way, he never really touched the potatoes besides one time, which he was heavily punished for. Tommy wasn’t told about the potato rule until after he farmed them. It really was much so of Technoblade punishing him, it was more of Phil and Wilbur. The crow hybrid grounding him for the month and made him do every chore that wasn't against the rules while Wilbur, the brunette had gotten more physical than Tommy would have hoped. Which resulted in him getting locked away in the closet for almost two week after his chores were done.

The smaller avian scattered the seeds about the pin of the coop, making small piles scattered about for some group of chickens, chicks, roosters, and hens to eat about. He also made a small mental note to not touch this day’s eggs and move them to the mother coop, named by Wilbur. Which was a terrible name. 

-

Tommy was finally done feeding all of the farm animals and started to head back to the cottage, bag in his arms. Shouts were heard from the outside of the door which startled the blond, he rushes inside and places the bag inside the cupboard messily before running to the living room where the shouts are getting louder.

 “OH FUCK OFF YOU OVER COOKED PIG!”

Tommy slid by the door frame in time to see both twins shouting at each other, fists locked in each other’s shirts. The blond wasn’t used to their constant bickering, if so it was never physical, so he didn’t know how to stop it. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t try. 

 “G-Guys.. Lets calm d-down”, Tommy forces out, wincing from the growing burn in his throat. Wilbur snaps his head over to the younger with a hardened glare.

 “Oh shut up! You have been nothing but trouble ever since we were brought here, try not be such a pain in the ass for once!”, Wilbur lets go of Technoblade’s shirt before grabbing Tommy by the locks on top of his head, “You are such a fuckin’ hassle with Phil ever since we arrived, you are nothin’ but an attention seeking whore who needs to be put into place!”

Tears welled up in Tommy’s eyes, the hand in his hair making his skin crawl and itch, the uncomfortable way when he can feel every single wrinkle in his shirt and pants. The way his chest tightened, breath being caught in his throat. It all hurts, he needs to run, hide, hide, hide . Bird-brain going into overdrive, needing a care-taker. To go to a nest and run, hide, be safe.

“Fuck off Wil, he didn’t do anything!”, Technoblade grips Wilbur’s arm and pulls it away from his head, causing a few strands being ripped out which he didn’t really care about. “Now where did you put it!”

“I didn’t touch your shit! Now. Buzz. OFF!”, Wilbur shoves Technoblade backwards which makes him hit the living room wall next to the fireplace behind him. Tommy froze in place, as did Wilbur when they both saw a vase tip over and fall. Technoblade turns around in time to see the vase shatter across the floor, big and small shards decorating the floor in decorative shimmers.

It’s gone, his mother’s vase that she made right after she and Philza had gotten married. Before he was even born, and after he was born. Their hand prints surrounding his when he was just barely a year old. Before Wilbur and Technoblade was adopted. 

Technoblade stepped away while Tommy stood there with tears streaming down his face faster, “Its.. Gone..”, the blond whispers, staring at the once beauty that his mother once made beside his plush cow that the women made. Both twins wincing hearing how dull and pained his voice sounded, staring at each other with slight guilt.

The front door opens and in comes Philza, “I heard some shouts from my shed, what hap-”, the older stops and stares at the vase that now litters the floor. “Who..”, Philza makes his way through the living room towards the shattered glass. Picking up one of the larger glass shards with a chunk of his hand print, holding like if he were to put it back down then it would disappear. 

“It was Tommy”, Wilbur instantly muttered without stopping. Tommy snapped his head over to Wilbur with disgust and betrayal in his eyes.

“That’s a lie! Yo-u and T-T-Technoblade were f-ighting wit-h each other, I-I ran over to see what was happe-ning! Y-You pushed Tech-noblade which made him bump int-ENOUGH!”, Philza yelled before looking over at Tommy, standing up with pure rage in his eyes. 

“Thomas, you are to go to your room, you are grounded from ever seeing Tubbo and his family for two months, no three! You are to do all of Tech’s and Wil’s chores for the whole three months!”, Philza stormed up to the smaller blond who is shrinking into himself every moment. “Now go to your room. Now !”

This was the final straw for Tommy, he couldn’t believe that this terrible excuse of a father ever decided to adopt and help with a child, more than one.

“Know what.. F-Fine. Belie-ve some kid y-you picked up from t-the streets than your ow-n child! I d-d-do not care anymore! This f-amily was shit, is s-shit! I tried so hard t-o please all of y-you but you all treat me l-like garbage!”, tears started to fall down his face, red tinting his cheeks, voice scratchy and burning. “You a-re such a-a terri-ble fat-ther, I’m s-surprised I even c-called you my d-ad, I ne-ver want to be re-lated to y-you at al-”, Tommy was cut off by Philza slapping him, face painted with anger.

The force of the slap had the boy stumbling back, having Tommy just standing there with his face pointed to the ground from by the man he once looked up to, soon regret filtered across the man's face. Wilbur and Technoblade both shocked behind the older. Straightening his postures and the other winged man stutters for words.

“T-Thomas I-”, Philza was cut off by Tommy spitting out blood then looking back up at him with a blank face.

“You don’t even say my pref-erred n-name an-ymore.. You s-say theirs though… Philza”, was all Tommy said before he walked off to his room, locking it behind him and dragging his dresser to be in front of it. He’s done. Done with their bullshit, done with their manipulation, lies, abuse. All of it.

Tommy grabbed his cow plush that he named Henry and his bag he had packed and picked up his shawl, pulling it onto his shoulders. Walking over to the window the blond turns around to his room, guest room, one last time. No tears left to cry, no emotions, just empty. He turns back to the wilderness below and jumps out his window, rolling as to not take more damage. 

This was his last day in the Craft’s household, no longer being a part of their twisted family.

That was the day that the Craft’s family would soon regret their discussion for not letting the boy tell the true story, of not believing in him when he was at his tipping point.

Chapter Text

It’s been about a month since he left the Craft’s household, making up his own last name, being known as TommyInnit. Yes the last name could have had some work since he is using his middle name but he was eleven, he wasn’t really worried in the last name department.

He was sad about leaving his best friend without ever going to him and saying goodbye, just leaving a note at their front door explaining that he had left the Craft’s family and to not send them any hate. Tommy knows that they would anyways, so he won’t hold that to them. If his friend was being neglected in his family and he ran, asking to not give hate to them, he still would. So it was only fair.

The blond was able to get a nice good distance away from the land that he knew, now a few thousand blocks away from running non-stop. The district he lived in was a heavy forested biome that held many wild farm and non-farm animals. While he was now in a taiga biome, which was still dark even if you light it up properly. The hostile mobs here wouldn't mess with you though unless you give them a reason to. Rocks and vines scattered across the ground floor.

He would fly but he feared of coming across a person who hated hybrid, get shot down, or being seen by his ex-family. It was still unlikely that they would follow him, but the possibility is never zero. Only sleeping when he was about to collapse, he also took off the harness but left the bandages on. He was close to hitting the double digit mark on the x and y coord.

Tommy hasn't slept for a week, feet feeling heavy like weighted lead being attached to his ankles, dragging him back. He knew he wouldn’t last long if he prolonged on not sleeping. He knew that, yet, he kept pushing through, kept running till he hit double digits for both coords. Jumping from any noise of ghastly screeching from above, turning his head whenever he saw neon green eyes watching him from the shadows of the trees. Making him push further.

A branch was covered by leaves that caught Tommy’s foot, making the small child fall hard. He wasn’t able to react properly and landed on his arm weirdly, wincing from immense pain that shot throughout his arm.

‘Most likely broken, sprained at best. Should probably check for swelling or bruises later ’, he thought sourly, trying to stand up but collapsed from fatigue hitting his body. ‘ This is where I die I guess .’

A twig snapped to the side of him which made the blond freeze up, he quickly closed his eyes and shortened his breathing to make it seemed he had passed out after falling. Tommy listened closely to the thudding of..

‘ Paws? Really, I got scared of an animal? Then again, the animal could be dangerous ’, while listening, the set of paws started to inch closer and closer to him, waiting for the attack. What had shocked him was that It never came though, what had confused the blond was a soft gasp from whatever the creature was. 

“Poor kid, uhm.”

Tommy heard shuffling and paws drawing closer before hands were placed under his armpits. That caused his heart rate to spike, making the small avian to pray that they wouldn’t feel it. He soon felt what would most likely be the chest of the creature as it maneuvered him to be held bridal style. 

“Let’s get you somewhere safe kid, this forest is no place to be sleeping on the ground,” the mysterious voice began to lift Tommy close to his chest and began to speed walk, almost in a full sprint, back to their base, home, whatever you call it. The thumping of the paws was almost therapeutic, trying to lull him to sleep. 

It wasn’t long till the mysterious creature stopped walking, the sound of planks met paws (claws?). One of the creature's arms move from around him and grabs at something, causing it to jingle, so it must be keys. The arm comes back and the creature begins to move again, the paws going silent the further we go in after they had shut the door. 

He was put down on something soft while listening to the paws retract, heading somewhere in the building. The smaller took this chance to open his eyes, what he wasn’t expecting was being sat on a dark green sofa in front of a fireplace, a lime green carpet with gray, black, and darker green specks scattered around on it.

The wall behind the fireplace was a nice brick wall with animal heads mounted on it, a lamp in the corner near a dark green reclinable chair with a small wooden table next to the chair and sofa. A dark colored wooden table sat in front of the sofa that held what seems to be coasters. The flooring was a nice shade of wood while the walls were an off green shade that wasn’t too blinding and wasn’t too horrifying to look at.There was a picture on top of the fireplace but before he could look at it any further, the paws came padding back.

“Glad to see you are awake!”, came the same voice that had brought Tommy to their home. No anger, no irritation, just a genuine tone.

The blond whipped his head around to see a quad-legged man who held medical supplies, as well as a spare set of clothes in his hands.

‘ He seems to be a creeper hybrid from the way his bottom half is green with specks ’, Tommy thought to himself while staring 

“I was beginning to get worried when I found you, I didn’t know how long you had been out for but glad to see you are up!”, the creeper hybrid walked over and sat down, more of laying down, in front of Tommy. “Well I’m Sam!”, the greenette, known as Sam, exclaimed brightly while setting down the medical box and clothes, “Can you show me where you got hurt? There are a few blood stains but I’m not sure where from.”

Tommy didn’t know if he should trust this man or not, but he will just go with what the creeper hybrid asks of him for now. He wasn’t sure how creeper hybrids react to avian hybrids, he doesn’t even know if the man felt his wings or not. 

Hesitantly, Tommy began to take off his shirt so the man was able to assess any damage he might have undergone. Tommy wasn’t going to lie, he did get attacked by a few mobs on his journey, he didn’t want to risk flying if the Craft's family was trying to find him or not. So that meant that his wings haven’t been preened for a month, which is unhealthy and dangerous for avian hybrids. 

Avian’s wings show what they are and who they are, depending if they are cut out for speed, strength, stealth, any of those sorts. So if their wings are in poor shape then it reflects they would not only be unreliable but also mentally ill. Wings being in rough shape could also hinder the avian flightless, depending on how badly un-preened their wings were.

Sam took note of the wounds on his torso and his shoulders, scratches and puncture wounds, there were some bruises as well on his arms and sides. The four-legged man didn’t want to ask about the neat scratches on around his shoulder, just needed to focus on cleaning any wounds he under-took.

“I’m going to be cleaning ya up now, alright?”, the creeper hybrid spoke up and made his hand movements known to the younger. Sam picked up small hints about the kid already, not liking certain hand gestures and the speed of them, maybe not liking physical touches, and how perceptive he is when it comes to his environment. He isn’t sure if the blond has a home nearby or if he is just born from the wild like he was, never knowing who his true parents were, just, there. 

Sam was careful about the scratches on his shoulder, isn’t sure if that was intentional or not but there were so many of them to not be. The creeper hybrid noticed the younger shifting under his gaze whenever he looked at his shoulder, so it could have been something personal. Sam didn’t push him, not wanting to make him too uncomfortable with him than he already was.

So, Sam cleaned off any scrapes and wounds on the child, patching them up and working on the other. “May you turn around for me to see if you have any wounds on your back?” The taller noticed that the blond didn’t make any movement, sitting still in his spot and Sam doesn’t know why, there was nothing that could be bad, right?

“Whatever you are hiding I won’t judge, alright? I just need to make sure you aren’t hurt”, Same told the child genuinely, not missing the way that he tenses under his soft tone. The greenette didn’t want his smile to waver from that, so he kept it for however long that child took. With much hesitation, Tommy turned around while keeping his wings close to his back. The blond definitely didn’t miss the noise that escaped the four-legged man, making him shutter in small bits of fear. 

“Your wings are in bad shape, if you want you can stay the night here and get cleaned up tomorrow?”, Sam offered to the younger under him, steadily growing more concerned of his silence. ‘ Maybe he just doesn’t want to speak yet? ’, the creeper hybrid thought as he started to inspect the almost done healing wounds on the avian’s back.

“To-mmy”, a hoarse voice broke the silence which had Sam pause, confusion written on his face.

“Pardon?”, the creeper hybrid asked again, putting on an ointment that will help with the scarring on the still healing wounds, being careful of the feathers but apologizing whenever he touched them. Sam didn’t wrap the wings back up.

“Nam-es Tom-my”, the younger replied while staring ahead, not wanting to turn around after Sam had moved away, letting him know that he was done.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Tommy, have you agreed to spend the night?”, Sam replied while putting everything away, “You don’t have to, of course, just don’t know if ya have a home or not”, the man speaks honestly as he picks up his med-kit before standing up. 

Tommy clears his throat which gains the taller’s attention, the blond lifts his hand up which earns him a confused stare at the smaller. “ I don’t mind staying the night, only if you are okay with it ”, the avian signs, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. Realization settled in, not knowing if the older know sign-language.

“That doesn’t seem like a problem to me”, the creeper hybrid walks around the sofa before turning back to Tommy, “Follow me, I’ll show you the guest bedroom.”

Tommy nods and goes to stand up, he whines and sits back down. He lifts his foot up and inspects his ankle, noting the reddening of his ankle as well as it looking a bit more swollen than before. A small bruise forming in the middle of the more red area. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t walk on that for a while”, Sam comments while looking down at the younger, “I can wrap that up in the room.” Tommy slowly nods, watching the creeper hybrid closely as he makes his movements known and lift him up before placing the blond on his back. 

Tommy grabbed at the shirt in front of him so as to not fall off, he had rode on Technoblade’s horse before but being on the back of a creeper hybrid was different. It had caught him off guard when he was placed on the older’s back, thinking that he was just going to be carried like before. 

“Thought carrin’ you on my back would be more fun”, the older spoke up as he worked his way down the hall, passing two rooms before making it to a guest room to the left in the hall. “I had a very loving dog as well, her name is Fran”, he told Tommy who was staring around the guest room in awe.

His old room was the smallest out of the cottage seeing how he never grew in hybrid traits, so having a bigger room from his old one made him feel weird. It was spacious as well as nice to look at, a cyan tone to the room while the accent wall being a dull cyan while the other three was a soft gray. 

The flooring was a type of dark wood with a medium carpet adorning the floor with a desk pushed up against the accent wall with a window above the desk, a small desk lamp sitting on it with a swivel chair pushed into the desk. A dresser sat to the left of the room with a walk-in closet was to the right. There was a bunch of empty space but the room just felt right, even though it has a lot of space, it didn’t at the same time. It was simple yet not too overbearing.

Sam walked over to the bed and sat Tommy down on it, the creeper hybrid sat in front of the young blond and motioned to lift his foot up. The avian did so, Sam used his front paw to hold up Tommy’s leg while he opened the med-kit. He made sure to not hold the leg too tight as to not hurt the blond while he grabbed the things to clean it.

He took out a cream that is used for sore or aching muscles and rubbed a bit around the smaller ankle before wrapping it up. He doesn’t know why he was doing all of this for some random kid he found sprawled out all over the dirty floor of the forest, but he just doesn’t want to leave the kid out there. Yes, it is a bit risky bringing an unknown child into your home, battered up and bruised, not talking much and being very observant of what is going on around him. It had Sam a little worried, he is even super skinny for crying out loud. 

“There, that should be it”, the four legged man spoke up through the darkened space, packing up the ointment he used for the blond. “If you need anything else for the night, my room is across from yours.”

Tommy watched the elder man leave the room, remembering the way certain floorboards crack under the weight of his claws as he left. He wasn’t sure how to feel about him, the man was nice, sure. But how long till the facade ends? When will that friendly demeanor towards him drop? With the shake of his head, Tommy hops off the bed and wobbles around the room, taking a mental note of everything in the room. The way it was shaped, the creeks of the floorboard, seeing if the window was locked, or if anything was hidden in his room. 

Nothing.

Everything seemed completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary looks to be off about the room, it was strange to say the least. From the almost cheery and sympathetic look that was given his way to the nicely put together room he was offered. Even how he was treated delicately while his wounds were being dressed. Tommy didn’t know if he should be afraid of the hybrid or thanking him. 

The last month wasn't easy for him, always running away from hostile mobs and being chased around silly by a baby mountain goat, to almost drowning after a huge salmon startled him. Like come on, that thing wasn’t an average size for an adult salmon. He could even mistake it as a hybrid if he wanted to. It has been hell ever since he left, maybe he should have stayed and read the survival guides that Philza wrote but that would mean more harm and hiding on his part. He would rather not do that. 

The blond flopped back down on the cushioned mattress of the bed, blanket soft to the touch. Taking note of the clean clothes placed on the nightstand next to the bed, ‘ Maybe this won’t be so bad ’, he thought as he considered his options. He is far enough away from the Craft's household, the trees are so tall, not taller than jungle trees because those are humongous, and the trees helped block some of the bright glare from the early autumn sun. 

Tommy could even help around the house if needed as to repay the man for being way too nice to him, like, who brings in a stray kid from the outdoors that is covered in muck and grim, way too skinny for his own good while looking like he would pass out if he was just blown on. It was just so strange to him. With a sigh, Tommy threw his head back onto the soft material behind him, enjoying the way it fits snuggly behind him. The bed felt like it was sucking him into it, welcoming the boy with open arms, wanting him too, to become a part of the bed.

Darkness started to peek at the corner of his vision, eyelids growing heavy. It was the first time in a long time that he had felt anything close to comfort in ages, yeah he didn’t trust the random man, but he will take this as an opportunity before continuing on his journey before winter hits. Tommy doesn’t want to be stuck in the snow while still trudging through, he did have his wings but those were last resort. Even if his heat trait came in, his immune system is still a little weak.

That being said, Tommy went under the covers and laid his head back down onto the soft pillow, ignoring his bird-brain that demands he makes a nest. Soon he was enveloped in darkness.

-

The morning sun began to rise, fresh dew drops waiting at the tips of the soft blades of grass that had accompanied the cottage hidden in trees. Lines of light flowed through a gape in some curtains that belonged to the eldest Craft member. Phil sat up and stretched his back, hearing a few pops that came from his shoulder blades with huge black wings jutting out behind him. He would need to do proper stretching if he wanted to keep his wings in shape, so flying around after cooking for his sons would be best. 

The crow hybrid stood up from his bed like nest and walked over to his closet to prepare for the day, he was beginning to feel concerned and guilty for his fledgling. Tommy had been in his room for a month that is about to go on two, he knew he should give the young kid a break from them but this break is going on long enough.

Yes, it was unacceptable for his blood-related son to not want to be related to him, he should have told the truth from the beginning before blaming his other sons. He did do things that weren’t acceptable either, but his actions should be justified. The man wasn’t completely in to wrong. Things could have gone down differently but he shouldn’t feel the need to be guilty over his youngest, surly he was in the wrong for trying to blame his talented son on something so low as to breaking his late-wife’s vase. 

Though maybe he could have toned down his anger and try to listen to the boy that has trouble speaking.

Phil sighs, running a hand down his face as he makes his way out of his room. There were many things he could have done but yet didn’t act upon it. Many things he should have done but clearly didn’t. He knows that he can’t blame just one person, he knows that all three were at fault since Wilbur didn’t deny the fight. 

The blond walked past his youngest room, silence was all that was behind the door. That was all he had heard for the month and a half from the door, that and a cold chill that ran under the door. It was unsettling to say the least. The silence was the last thing he should hear behind the door, shuffling should be heard at least so he knows his son is still alive behind the door. 

There is nothing he could really do about it at the moment, Phil will come back and talk to his son after breakfast and when he’s had time to stretch his wings. The eldest Craft walked over to Wilbur’s door first, knocking on it before opening the door.

He was greeted by the brown eyes of one of his piglin sons, “Mornin’ Wil, I’m going to make breakfast soon, please go and check to see if your brother is awake.” 

Wilbur nods at his father’s request before hopping out of his bed and walking right past the man. A soft smile made its way onto his lips, forgetting about his previous worries and worked his way down the stairs. The brunette knocks on his twins door before he pushed it open, staring at the pinkette’s bed where he still laid. Wilbur wormed his way into the room before ripping the blankets off his younger twin.

“Wake up sleepy head!”, the older of the two exclaimed before he was met with a pillow thrown in his face.

“Told 'ou once before, stop takin’ my blanket off before your feet come off”, grumbled the tired red eyed teen before he rolled over and lifted the blankets over his head. 

Wilbur frowned at his twin, Techno had been like this ever since the fight they had. The brunette did give his brother time to cool down and accept what had happened but apparently it still messed with him. He has been more secluded and less talkative, he doesn’t get out of bed right away and ties his hair up loosely instead of braiding it like he normally does. 

A thought came to the tallers mind before a smug smirk made its way onto his face, “Fine, guess I’ll tell Tommy you don’t wanna see ‘em”, Wilbur said in a faux sad tone, a hand flying towards his left arm. The brunette knew it was the easiest way to get Techno up and out of bed, it felt wrong but this was the only thing he could think of at the time.

It did make Wilbur upset knowing that his twin younger brother shot out of bed when he heard the younger’s name, making his feel a tad jealous knowing that Techno didn’t spring up like that for him.

Wilbur left the room slowly as he watched his twin run around trying to get ready for the day, running around grabbing clothes as well as a book before throwing it on his bed. A sigh left the brunette’s lips before he closed the door before made his way down the stairs, following the sounds of clanking noises of his father working away in the kitchen. 

“Got my dumb brother up”, he grumbled before sitting down where he always sat, said seat now becoming his.

Phil looked back too Wilbur just in time to see his middle child rush down the steps, “Morning Tech, how’d ya sleep?”, the older asked before turning back around to stir the eggs and diced potatoes. 

Techno deflated seeing how Tommy wasn’t there before glaring at his older twin, of course Wilbur would lie to get him out of bed. Techno just shakes his head and sat down next to the brunette, he can’t dwell on the fact that he hasn’t seen his younger brother in over a month going on two. It was worrying to say the least.

He doesn’t know if the smaller was hurt, got kidnapped, or was just plain gone. Techno was not one of feelings but even he could admit that he was worried for the smaller blond, he did have times to where he picked on the poor child but that’s what all siblings do. Siblings pick on one another, yeah Wilbur over stepped a few times, and he admits, he has too. But the last fight really had done him over, it made Techno think everything over.

He thought back to when Tommy first went silent, when the younger started to hold himself back from touches and adventures. How whenever they asked him what he liked or wanted from a store he just said nothing or declined anything handed to him. Techno tried to remember when the smaller had even started to hide his emotions. Everything being thought over, trying to figure out what had exactly happened to even get to such a point now. It troubled him and the voices weren’t helping either. Whenever the pinkette got close to something they would start causing a fuss, which resulted in him getting a headache and retiring for the night.

Maybe he should check up on Tommy after eating, maybe try and coax him out of the room. It must be really stuffy for being shut away for so long. He should also apologize for not helping him out when he got into that argument with Phil. 

A plate being placed in front of Techno snapped him out of his thoughts, causing him to flinch and look up just to see the soft eyes of his father. 

“Seems like you were lost in thought there a bit mate”, the older sat down across from him with a plate of his own, tea in a cup beside him. 

“Yeah, uh, I’m just thinking if I should go ‘nd talk to Tommy after breakfast”, he mumbled out before scooping up some eggs before eating it, glaring at the yellow, tan, pink, and green mush on his plate. Eggs mixed in with bits of ham and with a few green onions, few diced potatoes mixed in.

“I was thinkin’ about it too, we could both go up if you’d like”, Phil responds before taking a sip from the liquid in his cup. 

Wilbur huffs and crossed his arms, “The little punk should be fine, I swore I heard him walk downstairs the other night.” It was a lie. The brunette knew that the younger didn’t leave his room at all, he was just tired of both worrying about him all the time. It was to the point where Phil had even missed his solo last week because of Tommy. ‘ It’s always ‘bout that brat, I get he is lonely but geez, locking himself away won’t fix anything ’, the brunette hissed before picking up another bite of his food. 

“It’s still better to check”, the angered tone of his twin made Wilbur glare over to him, before he could say anything Phil put both of his hands up facing the two.

“No fighting now, I don’t want to ground my other two sons, now do I?”, the crown avian voiced before going back to eating.

Neither said anything but kept eating, maybe Techno was overreacting, maybe Tommy really was fine. He would need to come out of the room some time, right?

-

“Thomas?”, Phil knocked on his youngest son’s door. He’s been at it for five minutes. The crow hybrid began to get worried. Techno pushed him out of the way and knocked on the door himself.

“Tommy? Open the door, please”, the pinkette knocked again. He was beginning to come impatient, he knew Tommy could hear them, so why? Why isn’t he opening the door? “I’m opening the do-”, he stopped when he felt the hand not twist. 

“Toms, open the door, this isn’t funny”, Phil called out, a bit of irritation evident in his voice with anger forming. This was getting ridiculous, why must his blood child have to be so difficult, he gets that even he as a child was rebellious, but this. This was getting out of hand and he didn’t like this one bit. 

“Sorry Phil”, Techno mumbled, before Phil could even ask why he jumped startled when he watched the pinkette kick off the door handle. The piglin hybrid pushed the door with whatever was blocking it and made his way into the room.

“Tommy?”, Techno called out as he searched the room. No peak of blond popped out from any crevasse or behind any object. It was empty, and cold. As if no one had lived here the whole month and half that he was locked away.  Phil and Wilbur both walked in the room, scanning the area as well. The brunette caught sight of the slightly cracked window and smirked.

“It looks like our dearest little brother decided to sneak out again”, a sly tone evident as he walked towards the window. Phil should have guessed, that's why the air coming from under his door was letting off cold air, because his youngest decided to run off again. 

“I don’t think that’s the case”, Techno cut in as he left the closet, “His adventure bag is missing as well as a few bits of his clothes.” The red eyed man rubbed the back of his neck and scanned the room for anything else, taking note how everything was cleaned and tidied before he left. The sheets undone and replaced with just white blankets folded neatly, any gifts they gave him now put in boxes with labeled to the person.

“Why would he though? Thomas has no reason to run off”, Phil crossed his arms before he leaned against a wall, “Even if he did then he should still be nearby.”

It was probably likely that he was still in the general area, but it had been a month, almost two, since he could have ran but he could have ran any time instead of a month.

“Let’s just search the dang room instead of speculating”, the annoyed grumble of Wilbur spoke up before he started to search a part of the room. Techno and Phil nodded to each other before Techno went back to the closet as Phil decided to check the area near the bed and the bed. 

While techno was searching the closet, he noted a few of his favorite clothing was gone as well as a few miscellaneous items he owned missing as well. He took a mental note and moved a shoe box but paused as he felt something move inside the box. Techno pulled the box towards him and opened the lid to find three bags of feathers, two bags full while the third one half way. 

‘ Since when did he get a pet bird? ’, Techno commented, this got the voices at it.

' Not a birb ’

‘ Technodumb ’

‘ BirbInnit ’

‘ He Is ThE bIrD ’

‘ CAW CAW ’

‘ Does he attacc? ’

‘ No but he jumps in the ca- ’

‘ NOOOOOO ’

‘ NoT tOdAy PlEaSe ’

‘ But blood tho B) ’

‘ Tommy is da birb ’

Most of the time the voices were right, but he wasn’t sure if they were corrected about this type of topic. If he was a hybrid, then his hybrid features would take a week or before his body was ready to change for those. Unless.

Horror dawned on Techno before he rushed out of the closet, making both Phil and Wilbur look up at him. The pinkette was confused when he saw the sad faces of both his father and brother, his twin holding the shorter man. 

“We found a note from Tommy”, Wilbur sighed out, tears streaming down the brunette's face as he held up a broken tip of an iron sword, dried blood on the sides.

“We also found this in between the mattresses”, before another sobbed ripped from the man. The metal tip of the sword fell from his hands as he sat down on Tommy’s bed, tears streaming faster down his face.

‘ Karma pog ’

‘ WoNdEr WhY ’

‘ Aww sad birb man :( ‘

‘ Was that the blood smell? ’

‘ He be gone ’

‘ NYOOOOM ’

‘ Yeet the child ayyyy ’

‘ Child gone pog ’

‘ E ’

Techno couldn’t get a read on what Wilbur was feeling at the moment, his face blank and void of any emotion. It startled him if he was being honest, his twin was always expressive with his emotions. So not being able to read them currently made him feel weird, silently apologizing for what he was about to do.

“That wasn’t all.. I suppose”, the pinkette spoke up which gained both of their attention. The red eyed hybrid held up the bag full of snow owl feathers, “These three bags were hidden in Tommy’s closet. The third bag is probably the most recent.”

“That’s ridiculous”, Wilbur spoke up, making his way over towards his younger twin, “Tommy isn’t a hybrid and wasn’t showing any traits.” This got Phil thinking a bit, the man wiping his tears, a few sniffles being heard.

“Do you remember how he was acting before we went on the trip together?”, the middle child walked over to the desk and placed the two bags down, watching the brunette inspect one of the feathers.

“Yeah, kinda.. He was always hunching over and claiming his back hu-”, Wilbur cut himself off and looked over at his twin with wide eyes.

“So if that is being said, then he must had grown his traits in while we were away”, Techno looked over at Phil after he had made a gasp-like-warble sound. It made sense, the feathers are way bigger than a normal bird, how Tommy seemed conflicted all the time when he stared at Phil and his wings.

“T-That is highly dangerous for hybrids, especially for avian hybrids. Avian hybrids need at least someone there while growing in their traits, growing in traits leaves the hybrid incredibly vulnerable”, the older man’s voice was creaking as he too inspected the oil slicked feathers. 

He was able to tell that they were avian feathers instead of normal owl feathers seeing how they were molted feathers. The molted feathers were bigger than normal hatchlings when they molt their first layer of feather, a gray color tenting them.  Phil should have saw the signs, he should have rescheduled the mission at hand. Wilbur could always have had his first adventure any time, if he could have caught on to the signs of his blood-related child growing in his hybrid features then he would have stayed. 

Another thought flooded his mind, ' Would I have really stayed if I saw the signs? ’

It was a fifty-fifty chance that he would have, he knew he was playing favorites when he went on that adventure, but that shouldn’t really matter, could it? Yes he could have done better for his youngest, but it wasn’t like Tommy needed him all that much, did he?

Techno sighs before he stands up, “I’m taking Carl on patrol to see if he is still nearby, it’s unlikely that he made it far but if he truly did leave when he went to his room then we would probably need to post fliers in close villages and towns”, he side-stepped his twin before turning back around to stare at them, a slightly heated gaze on the towering brunette. “I suggest you tell dadza everything of what happened on that day or I will.”

Neither of the other two hybrids could say anything before Techno completely left the room, leaving a deafening silence behind in his wake. The blond turned his head slowly to his eldest, a questioning gaze fixated upon him, curious as to what his middle child was talking about.

“What is he talkin’ 'bout Wil?”, the crow avian asked, voice hoarse and scratchy which made Wilbur flinch at the unfamiliar tone. 

He rubs his neck and sat down where his twin had sat momentarily, not sure on how to go about this. If he was being completely honest, he was completely nervous. Wilbur didn't know how his father would react or how he would respond.

“It’s uh.. It’s about what happened the day when momza’s vase broke”, he voiced, feeling small in that moment now that Phil’s attention was now fully on him. “Tommy wans’t… Gods , he wasn’t the one that broke the vase, it was me. Techno and I were fighting because my guitar wasn’ where I left it, so I thought Techno moved it. Turns out it was in my room, and I apologized!”, Wilbur panicked at the end while trying to explain.

“Tommy came runnin’ into the living room and tried to stop the fight but.. I yelled at him”, he didn’t want to say the part where he had grabbed at the younger’s hair, feeling too guilty to explain that. “Techno tried to help him but I lashed out at him and.. Well.. I pushed..him. He tried to catch the vase but he didn’t notice it until it was too late.”

The moment of truth, Wilbur closed his eyes and awaited his judgment. He knew that he would be grounded, of course he knew, but the one thing you don’t want to hear when the older speaks to you is in his deadly calm voice.

“Wilbur.”, there it was, that voice. “You had a lot of time, to fess up, a lot of time ”, the older stood up, “Yet you chose to blame your little brother and continued to watch and stand there while he got punished for something he didn’t even do!”  The brunette shrunk in on himself from the tone, he could have told the truth, he should have told the truth. Yet he didn’t, he rather had kept the lie then confessed to his father. 

“B-But I wouldn’t have pushed Techno if Tommy hadn’ ran in and tried to help! This wouldn’t have happened if- IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED REGARDLESS!”

Phil sighed and ran a hand down his face, “We will continue this when we get back, when we find your brother”, the winged man started to walk out of the room, “You better make it up to him.”

Wilbur grumbled as he stood up, things like this wouldn’t have happened if his younger brother had just stuck to himself.

Chapter Text

A week, he was now on his second month after running from the Craft’s household. Tommy had been staying with Sam for a week and if he was being honest, he actually enjoyed the man’s company. His ankle was only sprained while his wrist that he fell on was just bruised.

There were times that he missed Tubbo and the three others but he could always try to go back to visit when he knew he was safe ways away. He really shouldn’t be getting attached to the creeper hybrid, it was weird to Tommy when he found out that Sam could shift his form, now having one set of legs instead of two, but the one set of legs still looked like his quad-legged form. 

The hind-leg appendage making him almost seven foot, but they suit the man. The fluff of the legs matched with his happy side but when he was upset or angry (which Sam had always reassured that it wasn't at the blond) his claws would extend and hiss. 

“Redstone isn’t that hard once you learn the basics, if you wanna learn redstone then I will be happy to help!”, the greenette happily exclaimed while fixing up a honey collecting redstone contraption. 

It was boring to say the least but redstone is very useful once the basics are learned, Tommy knew little about redstone basics but Sam is set on teaching him some of what he knew. The way the creeper hybrid tried to include him into everything, it totally didn’t warm the smaller’s heart at all. 

Footsteps made Tommy shoot up, wings fluffing up behind him. They couldn’t have found him, they shouldn’t have found him . Panic started setting in as he listened to the footsteps get closer and closer.  ‘ They shouldn’t have found me, they shouldn’t have found me, they shouldn’t have found me, they should’t hav- ’, the train of thoughts stopped when he saw a puff of white and a man with red, orange, and black camo type head mask. 

“Tubbo did such a great time learning how to fight, it seems he was better with more short ranged type weapons than long range, but it’s expected seeing how he head-butts everything.”

The dark-toned man laughed at the sheep hybrid, “Well it seems like he is havin’ a fun time.”

Tommy couldn’t believe his eyes, he knew Puffy was visiting Schlatt and she had two roommates but she didn’t know that Sam and whoever that man was were her roommates. The white haired female looked over to the house and stopped in her tracks, eyes widening when she locked eyes with a dull cerulean blue.

“T-Tommy?”, she stepped closer hesitantly. 

The blond felt tears prick the corner of his eyes, he hated how he was being emotional to the lady. He did enjoy how kind she was but that shouldn’t be enough to make him cry, but that didn’t stop him from running over to the women and embracing her, tears flowing down his face as he silently sobbed. 

“Hello Puffy, Ponk!”, the greenette called from behind, the creeper hybrid hugged the masked covered man before hugging the sheep hybrid. 

“Heya Sam, didn’ know you were taking care of a child”, the man known as Ponk spoke up and looked down at him before crouching, shooting his hand out towards the blond, “Nice to meet you, you must be this Tommy I’ve heard about!”

He didn’t know if he could trust the masked man but if he is Sam’s and Puffy’s roommate then he should trust him. So with that being decided, Tommy shook his hand hesitantly and nodded. This of course confused Ponk and made the man look up at the other two adults, not calling out the fresh tear tracks.

“He is mute, well, selectively”, Puffy spoke up and moved over to the blond, “But it's great to know that you are safe, when we heard that you ran away we were heartbroken. Tubbo was even more sad but he was determined to keep training for your sake.”

That made him feel guilty, he hadn’t meant to make Tubbo upset after he ran off, if anything, he thought that the goat boy would be happy he was gone. That he wouldn’t have to show pity in his general direction anymore and carry on with his day, but guess that wasn’t the case. Tommy knew better then to think that way about his best friend, doesn't know why he was so negative about it.

“ Sorry for making you all worry, I just didn’t want anyone to know which way I was heading so they would stop me ”, Tommy signed to the older, not making eye contact for being ashamed for making her nephew upset. 

“Hey, it’s alright, but now Tubbo won’t be sad anymore seeing how you are safe and doing alright”, she beamed at him and stood up. “Why don’t we go inside? I can start making lunch.”

“Lunch by Puffy? Don’t mind if I do”, Ponk sprinted towards the door before throwing it open.

“Take off your shoes!”, Sam yelled to the masked man and ran after him, not wanting mud stains dried on his floor like before. 

Puffy giggled at their antics while Tommy silently smiled at how carefree they were. He really enjoyed times like this, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad staying here for a little while longer.

-

“Fly more to the left!”, the greenette shouted from below, what was going on? Well they were putting up decorations for Halloween, seeing how it was the third of the month, they wanted to have things done before they throw a Halloween party. Tommy looked down at the quad-legged man, moving more to the left and placing a fake spider on the chimney. He didn’t know what he was doing seeing how he had never really celebrated Halloween with anyone before, so these customs were strange. 

Each year the blond would always see the Craft’s leaving to some event dressed up, Techno as a zombie piglin, Wilbur as a werewolf, and Phil dressed as a vampire or whatever he said it was. They would change it up each year but Tommy never knew why they dress up in such silly outfits and leave for hours on end. Confused when they stumbled back with laughs the next day after putting up the horses. The blond doesn't have a horse, they were never bothered to get him one or train him better.

He was told about the event when he asked Sam the other day, the quad-legged man told him with a sullen voice. He explained how it was a spooky time of year where people would gather and hand off treats to people but one person would be nominated to be the trickster.  Sam rambled on how someone named Bad had an adopted blaze hybrid for a son who was the trickster one year and gave everyone a normal blood red apple. Apparently he doused an apple with the hottest known pepper in the netherlands, the creeper hybrid couldn't feel his tongue for a week while Ponk was bedridden with milk constantly at his side.

That thought scared Tommy, but the older one had reassured the blond about it. How if he didn’t want to participate in the annual trick or treat party then he didn’t have too. Tommy felt bad that he made the greenette feel like he didn’t want to attend the year-round event, so he agreed to not participating. 

“Thanks again, Toms!”, the creeper hybrid shouted once Tommy got the spider the way he wanted it to be, seeing how Sam couldn’t find his ladder. The avian didn’t want the man to get injured in any way if he could reach the area so easily. 

“So what are you dressing up as?”, the quad-legged man asked as he was grabbing a string of fairy lights, the bulbs tented purple, black, and orange and handed the other side to the blond once unraveled. 

He hadn’t thought about it much, he’s read Greek mythology before and some older books with gods with certain appearances and something called a windigo came up a few times. There weren’t many who knew about Greek gods and goddesses, not only that but there weren’t many winged beasts who could dress up as. There were vampires and dragons, or maybe he could dress up as a phantom. Again, he wasn’t really sure, but then another mythical beast came up. The blond cleared his throat which caught the greenette's attention. 

“ I can dress up as a griffin? My wings kind of have the same colors as it ”, he signs and Sam lights up.

“That’s great! I’m sure we can help make an outfit for you!”, the greenette replies cheerfully. It was odd none-the-less. Having such a happy and kind personality, as well as environment, was weird to him. No yelling unless the person is far away or is just happy, nothing rude unless the person got hurt and started cursing at the object. No anger shown towards anyone. It’s all just weird to him.

Tommy feels selfish to have such attention and peaceful atmosphere around him, he’s never had such kind people for the majority of his life besides his mother, when the times were more simple. When things were enjoyable. When had the times changed to where everything was so bitter to him. 

“Why don’t we go inside?”, Sam spoke up when he took note of his soured expression, a hand open for the blond to take it, a gentle smile aimed in his direction. What did he do to deserve such kindness? He was always told after his mother’s death how he was too troublesome, how he was so loud and rowdy, how he needed to mature. 

He did what they asked, so why did they keep taking more? Why did they keep demanding more from him? It wasn’t fair, but guess he did something right if they weren’t looking for him. That was a plus.

Tommy took the greenette’s hand with a small smile and listened to the taller ramble on to any and everything he could think of, he couldn’t think of anything better. He enjoyed the joyful and cheerful presence, maybe he could finally be happy and stop his journey. 

-

“Dad, we searched the nearest and furthest villages that were accessible by foot! The portal also hasn’t been used since we set up a device that can sense any heat detection, he is probably out of our region by now”, came the gruff tone of Techno.

“Even if that were true, where could he have gone, he has to be hiding somewhere!”, the crow avian stressed, wings puffed behind him tensed.  It has been like this for the last week and a half, searching non-stop for the younger, taking turns in patrolling the entrance of his spot in case he ever crawled out of the hole. Wilbur was supposed to patrol today but slowly gave up and came back to the cottage, tears swelling in the musician’s eyes.

“Even if he was then where did he go? We had checked everywhere”, Wilbur ran a hand through his curls. They don’t have any sources on who had Tommy’s whereabouts, even if there were, who would he even trust them enough to give his location on where he was going and not tell someone. “Wait, doesn’t he hang out with Schlatt’s kid?”, Wilbur asked and stood up, already dead set on heading over to the Underscores. It is a bit weird if he shows up unexpectedly but if it’s for the small child that he kind of did look forward to each morning, then he will go over and ask the ram hybrid. 

“Wil, you can’t just barge in on them, at least send a message their way before going”, the pinkette pinched his nose, slight irritation evident in his voice. 

“I can, and I will”, was all the musician said before he walked out the door. Techno couldn’t blame his twin, but even he can stand his brother’s dumb decisions when it came down to him not thinking it through. Even if Schlatt or Tubbo knew something, they less-likely had something from Tommy. He did seem to be more attached to the ram’s son but even so, Schlatt is a very good friend of Phil. Surely he would let them know where the youngest of their family went, right?

-

“No, I don’t know where the kid ran off to. Sure he’s just hidin’ in his room still?”, the older brunette asked, unsure if the piglin hybrid in front of him was telling the truth.

Although, the expression he was wearing was fake. He knew that the one they are looking for ran off a little over two months ago, and he also knew which direction he ran seeing how the three of their letters were different. If he really wanted to, he could have caught up to Tommy, begged him to at least stay at his household till he was old enough to leave on his own. 

Schlatt knew that Tommy needed this, of course he knew. Phil, his long time friend, had told him nothing about his third son. Biological or not. It made him sick knowing that the crow avian didn’t bother to mention the kid once , so of course Schlatt wasn’t going to rat him out. He wanted the barn owl avian to have just as much freedom as he could.

Phil back then told everyone about Kristin's pregnancy, how excited they were for the bundle of joy. They never got any updates, both of them hadn't told them anything after she had gave birth. Nothing. 

So blame him for letting the kid his friend hid from everyone. 

“Are you one hundred percent sure? He trusted you guys more than he did us”, Wilbur hated to admit it, but he did. Tommy did trust the Underscores more than their household. It kind of hurt when he enjoyed each time that the bovidae came over.

“Look, I am upset that he had ran off but maybe it’s for the best? If what you are saying is true ‘bout him bein’ a avian hybrid, then shouldn’t you let him free or whatnot?”, faux confusion evident. 

“But he is eleven Schlatt!”, anger spewing from the brunette, “He should have told us when his traits were growing in, we are a family!”

That made him mad, “If you were a family then you should have seen the signs,” the ram growled, “If you were a family then he shouldn't have to feel like a stranger in his own home instead of feeling like he could be himself around strangers! If you truly treated him like family then you would have brought him up when talking to others rather than forgetting his whole existence!”

Wilbur was shocked, he didn’t feel the need to bring up the blond because it never dawned on him when he was talking to others. He had always thought that his father would bring him up eventually, so he was never bothered. But could he really blame Phil? What did he had to be proud of in a snot filled child?

“Well look, maybe if he had done something to gain approval then we wouldn’t be in this me-”, the brunette was cut off from the older punching him.

“You better leave before I drag your ass to Phil”, in a mincing tone that was all that was said before the door was roughly slammed in the piglin’s face. 

Everything was Tommy’s fault, if he wanted to run away then fine, he can run off and be lonely somewhere else. He was tired of trying if he got nothing out of it, all he was trying to do was bring back their youngest member instead of having a dull house.  Wilbur pushed himself off the ground and brushed himself off, grumbling all the way back while trying not to wince from the discomfort that was spreading from his jaw. He should really ice it before it becomes a bruise, Phil should really reconsider those he hung around. 

Tubbo didn’t know what to expect after hearing his father’s angry shouts and the slam of the front door, and he surely didn’t expect the man to come in red and fuming. Ear flapping harshly at the sides of his head while he paced around, shaking one of his hands as if he had hurt it as his tail swished around unhappily.

The goat hybrid let off a little bleat, making Schlatt stop pacing and stare at him. The older brunette closed his eyes and took a few breaths before walking over to Tubbo and crouched in front of him.

“If any of the Craft’s come over to visit or talk ‘bout Tommy, then tell ‘em you don’t know where he is at. Okay? They don’t deserve to know where he’s at.”

Tubbo didn’t know how to take that, he knew that Phil and his two sons were treating his friend poorly, but if it was enough to make his father upset and tell him that they shouldn’t know where he went, then it must have been bad. 

“Okay! Also, while you were talkin’ with Wilbur, Puffy messaged me saying that Tommy is with Sam and Ponk!”, he shouts happily, tail swaying back and forth so fast that it just became a brown line behind him.

“Well isn’t that great, and Sam is the one hosting the party this time!”, it was really great news that Tommy wasn’t traveling anymore, he knew that the blond trusted the sheep hybrid. So if he trusted her then it wouldn’t be long till he trusted the other two.

“When was the party again?”, Tubbo asked, head tilting slightly.

“It should be sometime next week, I think Friday?”, Schlatt turned around to look at the calendar behind him, nodding, seeing how he got the date correctly. They always held the parties early, wanting to not miss actual Halloween when they head into villages and pass out treats to the kids they pass by. “We really should start workin’ on your costume, huh?”

-

It may have took four days total, but the griffin outfit was completely done for Tommy. There was a headdress that was decorated in some of the feathers that the barn owl avian lost during his daily preening sessions, it wasn’t much but was enough to cover what they needed. A pseudo beak resting in between two solid eyes on each side of the headdress, boots that had velcro on the ends attached to the boots. 

They did have problems trying to figure out what clothing he should wear for the party coming up. There was still five days left till the party, Puffy was worried about Sam having already sent the invitation out to the Craft household. The sheep hybrid didn’t want the winged crow to know where Tommy was and she is sure the younger blond didn't wanted them to know where he was too.

She decided not to dwell on it as much, just wanting to focus on him for now and help him get better. Puffy wants to see if Tommy can help her in making some desserts when she came back to the house. It was sad that the avian never knew how to bake but cooking was in his alley, albeit not the best.

“Do you wanna be my little helper before the party starts?”, Puffy asked the kid, surprise evident on his face before staring up at her with a slight smile. ‘ Progress! ’, she cheered.

“ Sure, I can also help gather ingredients to get it ready ”, Tommy signs while looking to the side, his smile now becoming sheepish. He doesn’t know if he is allowed to touch the garden, let alone go near it.

“Sure, we can prepare the yeast, flour, and sugar together!”, the older woman replied cheerfully, a gentle smile resting on her face.

The barn owl avian smiled back before sprinting to the backdoor to grab the materials, he was so excited for the party. Tubbo was going to be visiting, Schlatt as well. He couldn’t wait to see them, he felt his lips tug itself further on his face, his uncovered wings fluttering wildly. 

There were some people that Sam, Ponk, and Puffy knew so he is a bit nervous when the adults visit. Some were closer to his age so it won’t be so bad.  Tommy stepped up to the sugar cane garden first, grabbing the cane knife next to the fencing to where you enter it. The smaller version of the machete felt heavy in his hands but the handle finally felt normal in his hands. 

He started to hack at the base of the canes, putting them in the water for them to float down the stream and being collected in a small hopper like net at the end. That's how the process went, Tommy chopped down the sugar cane then letting it get collected into the water.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Tommy put the cane knife back and headed towards the shed connected to the house. He wasn’t sure if he was still allowed to use the enchanted hoe that hung in a case by the back wall, so he always grabbed the iron one next to it.  The way the enchants on the tool felt weird to touch, Sam told him that it was okay for him to use it, but Tommy never wanted to. It just felt way too weird and uncomfortable to use. So he had always opted for the more safe option. 

Using his foot, he closed the door to the shed and made his way back to the wheat farm, it was next to the sugar cane farm so it was easier to filter the water over to it. There were a few patches of water but a small fence kept it in place, so the avian didn’t need to worry about his foot falling in.

A rustling sound could be heard in front of him, it wasn’t close but it was still nearby. It could always be Sam or Ponk, but the two said they had gone mining for more redstone and other ores. Puffy was back at the house since she wanted to finish up the outfit the four thought up together. 

So excuse him for being put on edge. Tommy didn’t know who it was but the idea of it being an animal was always an option, but there were some lights warding off any wandering creature so the builds Sam made wouldn’t hurt any wildlife. 

A small whine was picked up, more human like then animal, it was confusing.

Tommy placed the hoe down and lifted his wings up in a readied flying position. He would never hurt an animal or person, so he always opted to fly. If the person had an arrow or weapon that could be thrown, than he was prepared to fly through the pain till he fell.

Stepping closer to where the small whines were coming from, more fear began to swell up in Tommy, scared of what was waiting in the forest. He knows the general location of where the whines were coming from but that still gives him the right to be scared. He doesn’t turn back around because what if it was someone dangerous that was hurt, then he would feel guilty for leaving the creature. But if it was something dangerous then he would need to quickly fly back to the adults and tell them about the mysterious creature. 

Shaking his head, Tommy crept closer and closer over to the bush the person or creature was hiding behind before putting two of his hands in the bush and parted it. What he saw was very confusing. There was a boy, no doubt the same age as him or Tubbo, a line parting down his face and hair. Left was black while the right was white, the eye on the left is green and the white part is red. The young mixed hybrid had blown open eyes, shivering and pushing himself further from Tommy, shaking his head wildly.

The blond went to bring his hands up to sign but the mixed hybrid in front of him flinched back and held his hands up, whimpering slightly. This made Tommy frown and bringing his hands down. 

“I w-w-won’t”, he coughed roughly, tears pricking at his eyes as a hand shot to his throat, “I-I won’t hurt.. You”, Tommy managed to voice out before coughing roughly, making the boy in front of him start to worry with small bits of fear evident in his eyes.

“S-Sorry! I didn’t know y-you.. That your.. voice hurts you when you speak”, came the meek tone of the boy now sitting next to him.

That gave Tommy a good guess of his height, he was by far taller than him, maybe slightly taller than Wilbur but he shouldn’t think of that now. He waved him off before giving the other kid some space. 

The blond held his hands up but hesitated before putting them back down. “N-names Tom-my”, a few coughs following after, a hand massaging the outside of his throat.

“Ranboo”, the kid now known as Ranboo replied, shying away a bit whenever Tommy went to look closer at his face. He didn’t understand why the taller didn’t like eye contact but he knew the answer right after he heard a warble out of him. 

‘ An enderman hybrid I assume ’, he thought before flattening the hair in front of his eyes, getting a confused look from Ranboo before said look became a knowing one. 

“You didn’t have to.. Wait! Here”, the dual haired boy reached into a bag that he must have had behind him, shoving a book and quill into the blonds hands. “This might be easier for you to uhn.. Write with since, y’know”, and there came back the meek demeanor. 

“ Thank you, if you want I can ask Puffy if you could stay for lunch ”, Tommy handed back the book to the taller hybrid, getting a wide-eyed response before his head shot up.

“Really? This.. isn’t a joke?”, heterochromic eyes staring at the hair in front of the blond’s eyes, not sure if he is just doing this to let his guard down and humiliate him or is just genuine kindness. 

Tommy nods with a small forced smile placed on his face, not wanting to spook the taller any further, “ Sure, I can message her, or do you wanna go to the house itself? Also before I forget, there are two other adults, but they are nice ”, the blond handed the book back to the dual haired kid in front of him, smile wide and nodding his head.

“Walking is fine, but you don’t have to feel the need to bring me anywhere. Just talking was good enough!”, he smiled.

Tommy noted the shy and hesitant language of the heterochromic kid, he is trying his best to seem carefree but the blond knew that he was still wary of what was going on.

Could he really blame him?

Some winged, short ( not short! Others are just freakishly tall ), blond haired kid finding you upset and hidden in a bush with possible injuries, inviting you into their house to eat.

Yeah, he would be wary too, and he was too the week and three days he had stayed here. And he still is but he knew he could trust Puffy.

Pulling out his communicator he stopped, he wasn’t sure if Ranboo had a communicator. If he didn’t then there was a village a bit ways from the house. If he needed too, then he could fly as quickly as he could to the village and get him one, maybe paint a black one half white to match.

He mentally shook his head, he didn’t know the taller but yet, he felt himself starting to grow attached. Maybe he could introduce Tubbo to him at the party. The party!

Tommy quickly opened a text to speech app on his communicator and began typing, “ Do you wanna come to the party here in a few days? You could maybe stay the night leading up? ”, came the choppy voice of the communicator.

“Uhm.. I.. don’t know. I don’t want to intrude as much as I am”, twiddling his fingers, not wanting to try and make ‘eye contact’ with the smaller. He shouldn’t have agreed to eat with him in the first place, he was told by his orphanage that he shouldn’t be so demanding towards others.

But was it considered demanding if they were asking? Was he even demanding it? He was given an option, was agreeing to it demanding?

Ranboo scratched his head, confused in his own thoughts while Tommy watched him, confused as of what was happening. The manner of the taller was quite similar to himself at the beginning of his own descent, he didn’t want that happening to the other, so what could he do?

“ Do you have a communicator? ”, that was able to snap the other out of his thoughts, he took that as a win he guessed.

“Uhhh.. I think I lost it?”, not really sure himself, not exactly remembering if he had one or if he lost it, but he didn’t really care. He doesn’t have anyone to really message or send his location to.

“ I could try and get you one, they aren’t really that much ”, not really sure if Ranboo would appreciate the thought of getting a new one if he was able to find it.

“No no”, he waved his hands frantically, “Really! It’s alright.” 

Tommy frowned a bit, huffing slightly in small frustration, “ Well I insist ”, he persisted.

“But I’m saying you don’t need too”, the dual haired boy crossed his arms.

“ But I- Tommy!”, he heard a familiar tone of voice, he turns his head from where the garden was located and was able to see a dash of white running to the left of the garden in a sprint. “ We should probably head back ”, Tommy turns to Ranboo with a smile and reached his hand out.

The taller one took his hand slowly and winced when the blond was helping to pull him up, noting how light he felt just by lifting him slightly. “You sure this is okay? I don’t want to bother..”, heterochromic eyes looking everywhere but him, the barn owl avian tugged his hand slightly and nodded, telling him that it was okay.

Dragging him along, the smaller brought Ranboo over to the back door and let go of his hand. The blond pulled a hand to his mouth and whistled, silence taking over the silence. Footsteps began making its way to the back of the house, white hair whizzing by in a blur.

“Tommy! Thank goodness you are alright”, the sheep hybrid knelt in front of the younger and began checking over him for any injuries, “You don’t seem to be hurt.”

She smiles and stands up before taking note of the dual toned boy behind him, trying to shrink in on himself. Puffy frowns at his odd behavior, she looks down at Tommy who grinned.

“ He’s a new friend, his name is Ranboo, can he stay till the party? ”, the blond signed happily which made the older smile down at him.

“Well, welcome Ranboo!”, watching his confused face shift into one of unease, “Any friend of Tommy’s is welcomed here, maybe I could ask my brother to bring his kid over.”

The blond beamed up at her, excited to see Tubbo coming over before the party. Puffy adored that Tommy was showing more expressions now, loved how he looked at everything in wonder. She knew the eleven year old loved the outdoors, always wanting to do tasks that involved the slowly crisping weather. 

Remembering how he was before then looking at him now, she couldn’t be happier. He turned out to be more than she thought he would turn out. Always taking others into consideration, wanting to help as best as he could, very smart considering his age. Tommy excelled higher in maths that kids around his age ever could begin to understand. 

But it wasn’t shocking. He only had himself and no one else till over little than three months ago. Now he has a steady support of people, and hopefully Ranboo could be another to their rag tag group. 

“Tub..bo? You mean t-that one kid you were telling me a-bout earlier?”, heterochromic eyes casting down to the paling grass.

Tommy nods before hesitantly holding his hand out for the taller to take, which he did, before being dragged off inside. The dual toned boy reminded Puffy of an enderian hybrid that lived in the village near them not too long ago, the father was never around so she wasn’t sure of what other hybrid that could even be the other half of Ranboo. 

Endermen hybrids aren’t uncommon, there were a few hidden all over this region, but people always outcast them for the magic the species have. Endermen in general are only hostile when stared at in the eyes, but hybrids are like zombie pigmen, attack them then they will attack back. Even if you talk about their young. 

The sheep hybrid sighs and rubs her hair back, she could tell that Ranboo doesn’t have any parents judging on his reactions, personality, as well on his overall appearance. Puffy walks back into the house to see Tommy flying above the tall ender hybrid child who was trying to jump at him.

“G⟒⏁ ⏚⏃☊☍ ⎅⍜⍙⋏ ⊑⟒⍀⟒!”, the ender speech making the winged blond paused a bit, confusion written on his face before he landed and handed a black cat plush to the dual haired boy in front of him.

“ Sorry.. ”, the shorter signed but realizing that Ranboo didn’t know sign language. Exhaling, he prepared himself, “So-rry.”

The sheep hybrid jogged over to the kitchen and came rushing back out with a cup of water, “Carefully, Tommy. You can only talk so much before it starts to strain on you.”

All he could do was nod, sipping on the water as he went to the couch to sit down. There he goes again, ruining stuff for others, he just wanted to have fun with the taller but it seemed like he had upsetted him in a way. Tommy didn’t know what he had said, only catching ‘get’ and ‘here’. 

‘ Dumb kid pog ’

‘ Leave him be >B( ‘

‘ L ’

‘ But didn’t he learn ender before? ’

‘ That’s an L ’

‘ Tell Techno pog? ’

‘ NO! ’

‘ But pigman sad :( ‘

‘ Let pigman be sad then ’

‘ oOoOOOo BiRb BoY bOuT tO cRy ’

‘ Crybaby ’

‘ hUsShHhh ’

‘ But eggs doe ’

‘ FEATHER POWERRR ’

‘ Geez this kid likes to cry ’

He tried.

He really did try to not let a tear slip, but he was feeling the burning sensation of trying to hold the tears back. Taking a deep breath, Tommy stood up and started to walk out as normally as he could. 

“Be ba-ck”, was all he could mutter before quickening his pace to get up the stairs faster. He didn’t want to see their slowly frustrated gazes. That wasn’t the look they were making at all, Puffy was concerned for Tommy. She really was.

Ranboo. He didn’t know how to feel, he wasn’t sure what to do. The blond was just fine a second ago, did he make him upset?

“Did.. I do something?”, soft tone that almost went unnoticed to Puffy, she smiled gently at the taller before shaking her head.

“No, you didn’t. Why don’t you help me bake a cake, yeah?”, she softly ushered the heterochromic hybrid into the kitchen, not entering after she looked up the stairs sadly. Maybe she should go and check up on him after Sam and Ponk get back, at least there would be people here to watch over Ranboo.

- 

He couldn’t breath, air was going out too quickly while it was also difficult to get in. The voices were nice at first but soon the nice ones were over-ran by the much more harsher ones that sounded a lot like his ex-family.

‘ You are really crying? ’

‘ Over what? ’

‘ Crybaby ’

‘ Get a hold of yourself ’

‘ So selfish ’

‘ Attention seeker ’

‘ Brat ’

‘ Ungrateful loser ’

‘ Leave him alone :( ‘

‘ SHUT UP ALREADY YOU CRYBABY ’

‘ AHAHAH LOSER ’

' Loser pog ’

There were many non-harmful ways of dealing with the voices, but today, it seems like they wouldn’t be stopped with any of the more kind methods. 

Tommy shook his head, he couldn’t do that, wouldn’t do that. But, it seemed kind of inviting. Like he was being drawn to it, he really doesn’t want to but the major way to get his ‘ chat ’ to stop was blood from something. And there was no way that he was killing an animal, so he is the more willing thing here.

Standing up was trouble, his legs weren’t that stable, wobbling each step he took. He hated the voices, hated how he was neglected, forced to teach and learn things on his own just to toss his progress aside just to learn something new so his ex-father would be proud.

It all hurts.

Everything about him hurts.

W ishing and wanting to will his emotions away, but he couldn’t get very far, only able to go four hours a day without his emotions. 

Picking up the busted up chunk of an iron sword, Tommy sped over to his closet and sat in the center of it. He deserves this pain, this physical, emotional, and mental pain. No one else would give it to him, so he needs to inflict it himself. 

The blond slid his shirt off and set it aside, not wanting to get it dirtied for what’s about to come. He held up the glinted chuck of the blade, that gleamed in the afternoon light that flowed from his window, forgetting everything about his new friend.

He lifted it up to his shoulder and pressed down hard, he knew that if he pressed down hard and dragged it slowly then it would bleed more. But if it had less pressure and quicker slash speed then more pain would be caused. Yet, he wanted both. Pain and blood. Pain for him and blood for the voices. 

The eleven year old dragged the blade hard and quick against his shoulder, wincing hard the more he continued, hands starting to shake uncontrollably. He knew he shouldn’t do this, he has people who finally cared about him yet, here he is being selfish, again.

Face wet and sobs stuck in his throat, he only made two more till the voices were satisfied but what was left of the voices were the reassuring ones that got sad each time he did this. He knows he should stop and get help, but whenever he tries, a lump would form in his throat and cause him to back out.

With a sigh, Tommy stood up and grabbed the gauze from the med-kit hanging from the hook in his closet. Sam gave it to him after he used the main kit to help out a hurt rabbit before releasing it back into the wild. 

He wrapped up his shoulder and slid his shirt back on, wincing from the wounds dragging against the gauze, placing the wet wipes stained red back into the package. ‘ It should be fine in five days ’, hoping that the four wounds would be healed at that time.

Sighing for what feels like the eighteenth time today, and stepped out of the closet. Not bothering to clean the mess on the floor, the blond walked out of his room after closing his closet door and walked to the bathroom, brain on auto-pilot. He washed his hands and wiped his face with a damped rag, mentally preparing himself for any questions that would be asked.

Exhaling, the blond walks down the steps and into the kitchen to see Puffy placing out pans and Ranboo confused while holding an egg. The taller seemed to be over-inspecting the egg, cupping it gently in his hands.

Tommy tapped his foot on the ground softly, as to not make them both panic and drop the things they are carrying. Puffy was the first to notice the eleven year old and smiled, not commenting about his red rimmed eyes.

“Heya there Toms”, the avian winced at the nickname while walking into the kitchen, “You doin’ alright? I was getting worried about how long you were taking up there. Didn’t want to start this without you”, she ruffled his hair gently while making her movements known as to not spook him.

He just nodded at the older and took one of the three glass bowls, grabbing the yeast and flower as well as the shifter. It seemed that Ranboo had got his dry mix done already, starting on the wet mix. You can tell he is inexperienced seeing how the sheep hybrid had to redirect him to the correct empty bowl.

“How do you feel about Tubbo spending the night tonight, Tommy?”, the older asked, grabbing non-stick paper wraps and placing it on the inside of the pans.

“ That sounds great, when is he getting here? ”, blue eyes staying focused on the powdered mix as he sifted the powder, not wanting any clumps.

“Hmmm maybe after the cakes are done baking”, humming contently after, smiling down at Tommy then to Ranboo. “Looks like your mix is done, is there anything else you would like to add to it?”

The dual haired boy looked confused, staring down at a few placed bowls with small candies in them. The barn owl avian watched the taller look between options, unsure look on his face.

“ Those are extra things to add to the cake if you want to, you don’t have to put them in ”, the choppy sound of the communicator toned out, startling Ranboo in the process. 

He just nods before reaching out to the bowl of m&ms as well as taking one gummy worm, stuffing the small candied creature into his mouth before adding a few pinches of m&ms in his bowl.

“Tommy, my friend”, the heterochromic boy looked over at his friend, smiling widely, “This cake we are making together, is one that shall kill god.”

Silence enveloped the kitchen, both boys staring at each other for a few good minutes before they both erupted into laughter. It was nice seeing them both get along, this moment is one that Puffy will cherish to this day. Not knowing the meaning behind to why the blond had ran off earlier.

Sure, she has seen Tommy laugh a bit, he smiles more now, but he actually haves friends to hang around. Friends close in age and just let loose, be himself without worrying about any repercussions when done so.

Fast rapid knocking can be heard from the front door, making the laughter of the two boys stop and having Puffy’s dazed look from reminiscing stop. The blond was the first to make the move and opened the front door, just to be shoved into a hug. 

“Tommy!”, was the all too familiar voice of Tubbo.

The winged boy smiled widely before hugging back, Ranboo and Puffy watching from the kitchen. 

“Where is your dad, Tubs?”, the white haired lady asked, arms crossed when knowing what her nephew already did.

“Umm, he will catch up soon? I saw Sam and Ponk on their way back from their netherite mine, so they kinda watched me?”, the brunette pulled away with a sheepish smile.

She huffs but smiles it off, “I’m assuming that your father is bringing your items?”, she questions and the goat hybrid nods.

Tommy looked up, pulling himself away from his thoughts before grabbing Tubbo’s hand, dragging him over to Ranboo. The taller standing and watched the whole thing anxiously.

“ Tubbo, this is my new friend Ranboo ”, the choppy box of his communicator hurts his ears a bit but not much, he was happy when he saw his smaller friend smile with joy.

“Hello there, Ranboo!”, the brunette stuck his hand out immediately, bouncing on his feet in excitement. 

“Uh.. hello there”, came the shy response, slowly sticking his hand out too, shaking it slightly with the goat’s outstretched hand.

That would be something that he would need to talk about with his short friend, the timidness of the taller is clear but Tubbo can be kind of oblivious when it comes down to it.

Yes, his friend can tell with him, but others? That isn’t something he can automatically do when it's other people.

“ Why don’t we go back to baking? Tubbo, you can help with my cake since I didn’t finish my batter ”, smiling when he saw the brown eyes meet his dark ones, his eyes still clouded from the events that had happened earlier. 

“Are you alright? You seem kinda out of it”, tilting his head slightly while trying to get another read on his blond friend.

It wasn’t normal for Tubbo to see Tommy like this, with the short time they were together, his friend was always open with him and masked how he felt with his old family. So when he saw the mask he had put up around the Craft’s, it hurt.  Tommy had never put up the mask around him, had never even considered it. So for the blond to do it to him was concerning.

It probably showed on his face because soon the blond forced a smile on his face.

“ Yeah I’m good, but I will be sad when we don’t finish these cakes ”, speeding off into the kitchen past the dual haired boy.

“Did something happen to Tommy before I got here?”, the shorter boy looked up at his aunt, the white haired lady ruffling his hair.

“Don’t know bud, but let's go make these cakes? Yeah?”, Puffy smiled down sadly, heading to the kitchen with the other two boys.

-

“Dad, I'm telling you! The Underscores know something! I wouldn’ ‘ave been hit if they didn’t!”, came the angry shouts of Wilbur.

“Look, I will talk to Schlatt tomorrow but right now we need to prepare for the party in four days”, the older sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ever since Wilbur was punched by Tubbo’s father, he’s been a little on edge since then. Thinking that the Underscores were hiding ‘his little brother’ from him. He never told the two why he was so angry at Schlatt or why the ram had punched his eldest, but there isn’t much he could do about it. 

“Fine, I’ll start harvesting some wool from the sheep and get the loom ready”, he grumbled under his breath before leaving the house.

“Techno mate?”, Phil looked over to his middle child, “You have your things ready?”

The winged man knew the pinkette was going as another Greek god, had been doing so after reading about a few Greek gods in some ancient piglin language that they discovered when both he and Techno went exploring their very first temple. 

“Yeah, just gotta wait till one of the chest pieces gets dry.”

He was going as Aeneas, a man who had fought in the Trojan War and came from a royal family. A war driven man driven man, leader of the army. Phil kind of saw it funny seeing how the brute is really drawn to fighting and wants to end up teaching kids when they hit of age. He doesn’t know if it’s from his piglin blood or not.

“Well that’s good, when you have time try to help Wil, yeah?”, was all he said before he left to make his own. 

The blond wasn’t quite sure what he should go as, Techno wants him to go as the Greek god Thanatos, or better known as the god of death. Since he already has the wings down and likes to wear flowy type clothing, all he would need to make is a scythe. A mask preferably, maybe he should dress up as Thanatos for the party to make his middle child happy but he doesn’t want Wilbur to be left out. 

Poor kid doesn’t even have his outfit ready, so coming up with an idea would help him lots. There would be a lot of Greek books that he would need to read just in order to find a musical Greek god, but maybe Techno might have an answer to that since he would re-read them so many times.

-

It was now becoming night, sun resting on the horizon, the nocturnal animals waking up while those that aren’t prepared for sleep. The crisped leaves now dulling more as it goes further into fall, most trees already shedding their leaves, the brightened grass now paling from the temperature dropping.

Three boys are huddled in front of the open flame with their cakes in hand, Tubbo talking on and on about how Schlatt got a brown sheep mixed with a bear and trying to pull Tubbo away from the poor sheep.  Ranboo had also told stories about his parents as well as the town he grew up in, a kid named Purpled who seems to be a moth hybrid, explaining his thin antennas with the small lines coming off of them. The dirty blond haired boy wearing fluffed up hoodies colored light purple with moth wings draping like a cape behind him.

The only thing that the dual haired boy could remember about Purpled wings is that they are purple with black dots showing up. Tommy knew the only moth with those types of wings seeing how he liked insects and wanted to learn more about them.

“ Muslin moth ”, came the robotic tone, “ The only moth that can be described like that is a muslin moth .”

“Woooah! You really know bugs huh?”, Tubbo grinned while looking at the holographic image of the fluffy moth. Some of them were white while some were darker of the two colors, black ones had shown up too.

“It’s not that surprising of his knowledge on bugs, he seems like someone who takes interest in bugs”, Ranboo said while rubbing his hands together gently before hitting them together a few times, just to rub them again.

“ Bugs are nice, and it’s good to learn about different species in case you go off exploring so you can tell which is dangerous and which are safe .”

“That is true”, the goat hybrid leaned back, trying to keep the blanket around his shoulders, “Wonder what dad and Puffy are doin’.”

That was the other thing, the four adults went upstairs to talk about some arrangements for the party, not discussing it anywhere near them since they still wanted it to be a surprise to them. Tommy couldn’t help but feel a bit of anxiety bubble up, he hadn’t had time to clean his room. He also didn’t want to go upstairs while the adults were speaking, but he had to clean it up at some point since Tubbo and Ranboo would be sleeping in his room. 

It was only the closet though, and he doesn’t really go in the closet himself. But what if they go in it? What if they randomly want a search of his room, could he handle that? 

So many questions rack his brain, ignoring the chatter going on around him. Not noting the footsteps of the four adults heading over their way, or when they called his name. Tommy only snapped out of it when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

Flinching, he back away from the hand and stood up, shooting his hands off to the sides when he felt his head spin.

“Tommy? You alright?”, the worried and panicked tone of Ponk didn’t go unnoticed.

Nodding his head, the blond forced himself to stand up straight and look at the ground, not wanting to make eye contact at the moment.

“Heya, Toms? Can we go chat for a bit?”, he scanned his blue eyes up to meet the white ones of Sam.

He didn’t really want to go with the older, but there was a calming aurora around Sam and nodded. Couldn’t be anything bad, right?

The two made their way upstairs, not wanting anyone to eavesdrop on their conversation. It only made Tommy more fidgety and not settling his nerves at all.

“You aren’t in trouble, Tommy. Just want a small chat, okay? After that, and you want me to leave that is, I can leave you be.”

Why was he talking so gently with him, why was everyone being so nice to him? It’s unsettling. He hated it, yet he still tried to reach out for their small comforting tones. Ever since he met the Underscores, people treated him so differently. Does he even deserve such a thing?

Tommy snapped out of his trance and took a look around the area they were in, realizing it was his room. Fear laced his face and looked over to the greenette, hands starting to tremble and body sending shivers all over. He curled his wings in on himself, trying to hide his wings from his line of sight.

‘ I am not back at the house, I am not back at the house, I am not back at the house, I am no- Tommy?”,  he peaked open one of his eyes (when were they closed?) and stared at the man.

“You aren’t in trouble buddy, I just wanna talk, okay?”, he patted the blonds bed next to him, not trying to hide his concern for the boy, “It’s something that Puffy brought to my attention.”

‘ What did Puffy see that I tried to hide? Did I not do a good job at it, or was she able to slip through? ’, Tommy was having trouble trying to grasp what could have made Puffy bring this up to Sam, and why not confront it herself.

“How are you feelin’ bud?”, the creeper hybrid asked, eyelids slanted in sadden concerned.

This was all wrong .

People shouldn’t care about him, shouldn’t want to worry for anything about him. So why?

“ Why.. ”, he croaked out softly, hoping that his question would not be heard. Hoping that this man hadn’t heard his silent plea. 

“Why what, Toms?”, he questioned, not quite sure on what he was getting at. 

“Why do you care about a mistake like me!”, he yelled, uncaring of the way the shout had hurt his already throat.

“W-Woah.. Tommy, careful, your throat- Who cares! ”, the blond continued to shout. “Who c-cares! I su-re don’t! I never had s-someone who had car-ed for me! I was i-i-ncapable of ever being lo-ved or having someone care for me!”, he sobbed, clutching on the sheets beneath him.

He was already having a terrible day, well besides befriending Ranboo, having Tubbo and Schlatt visit, and baking a cake. Besides the point, he shouldn’t have left. He should have stayed with his father, his two brothers, the closed in an area where he couldn’t stretch his wings.

The wings.

If he wasn’t a hybrid then none of this would have happened, he wouldn’t have met Tubbo, Schlatt, or Puffy. That wouldn’t have inspired him into leaving his childhood home behind, meeting Sam and Ponk. Finding Ranboo, none of this.

Tommy started to pick up on his breathing, bringing his knees closer to his chest and scooting till he touched the wall beside his bed. He could hear Wilbur’s sickening laugh as he stood above him, taunting him. Every little breath he took, another snide comment on how useless he was came through the ringing of his ears. The blond could hear the blond rushing all around in his body, the trembling of it all going unnoticed to the quivering child. His breathing became erratic and harsh to any onlooker, fingers locking around anything he could grab, which would be his poor golden locks.

He was beginning to feel light headed while tugging at his hair with one hand, the other clenched around his ankle. Blood trickled down from the puncture wounds his talons were making against the smooth surface.

‘ Where are the walls? Why does everything feel so small? Shit.. Am I in there again? I can be there again.. I don’t want to be ’, rocking himself made him bump into the wall which caused him to let out a startled yelp, crawling away from the source which ended up with him falling off of his bed.

‘I want out, I want out, I want out, I want out’, the words chanting in his head, causing a migraine to form. Words bubbled up in his throat, he knew words were spewing from his lips but he couldn’t hear them. He couldn’t hear his words, couldn’t see his surroundings, everything he touched felt too much, he felt bile rising but it got stuck before it could even rise into his throat.

‘ Where am I, please, I can’t go back.. I don’t want to go back .”

Tommy’s throat burned, his body ached, his wings tinged in pain. Everything was too much. It was too much, too much, too much, to-

‘ Why does my neck feel cold? ’, the cool dripping sensation flowing down his neck, the way whatever that was on his neck felt squishy. A wet, rough, and furred thing bumped the side of his ribs before something clawed touch his hand on his ankle.

He let out a whine and tried to prop himself up on his elbows, confused as to what was wet on his neck and prodding at him. Whatever it was that was scratching at his hand, it’s furred head against his head before laying down on his legs that the blond had outstretched.

“Tommy?”, came a fuzzed voice that had cut through the ringing noise in his ears, “If you can hear me then tap once, okay? I wanna ask a few things to help you out, so one tap is yes while two taps is no, okay?”

The blond tapped his his hand on the ground, still trembling from the panic attack he had just gone through.

“Good, can you see anything?”, the older man asked gently, trying his best to not freak the younger out any more than he already had done, holding the cold and wet washcloth against his neck.

Tommy whined and tried to squirm his way from whatever was on his lap, breath picking up when he found out that he couldn’t move his legs and wings being trapped between whatever he was leaning against.

“Hey hey, it’s alright. Can you try to feel around and tap on five different textures?”, the greenette asked, hope coming back to his eyes when Tommy had moved his hands around slightly.

Sam watched the winged boy touch Fran, his dog that he had rushed from the animal pen, relaxing slightly when he felt the furred samoyed in his lap. It was funny to say the least when he tapped her back a bit, which earned a small huff from the white fluff of the dog. This went on till Tommy had at least patted five different textures, to which got an approved hum from the white eyed man.

Everything seemed to be going well, Sam instructing Tommy to now try and list four different sounds and count on his fingers, then list three things he saw, before reaching to two smells he chose out.

“Doin’ alright there buddy?”, the older knew that he wasn’t doing alright, and when went to grab a different pair of clothes for the blond, he saw something concerning in the closet that he would rather not talk about with him at the moment.

Dull blue eyes met white pupils before smiling gently, mouth opened to say something until frowning when he felt something block whatever he wanted to say.

“It’s alright, you don’t need to say anything”, the greenette motioned for his dog to stand up, “Why don’t we get you cleaned up, am I allowed to touch you?”

Thinking it over in his head, Tommy nodded and helped maneuver himself so it was easier for him to be picked up. The silence was tense between them, it hurt Sam though when he had to rush from the winged hybrid’s room to have the three other adults take Ranboo and Tubbo outside for a bit, leaving no room to ask why.

He knew he would need to fill in at least someone when he invites them back in, but now isn’t the time to worry about that part at the moment. So with that being said, he cleans up the boy while ignoring the fresh wounds on his shoulder and ignoring any other scares that the boy had. Those would be saved for another time.

Sighing, Sam placed Tommy down on his new sheets that he changed after he had placed the blond in the bathtub. He made sure to put the blond under the covers, putting him on his side so he wouldn’t lay on his wings.

Sam sat on his bed, the smaller’s eyes drooping from the two panic attacks he had back to back without that much of a break. The greenette messaged Puffy to let them all back into the house and that Tommy is heading to bed early.

It will be hard to try and simply explain what had happened to Tommy and why everyone had to leave. The greenette knew that the five heard at least one or two of his screams before he had them go outside for a distraction, especially the kids. But now. Now he will have so many questions.

With a groan, hee rubbed his face and stood up, not looking forward to the thousand of questions. Left foot raised, Sam stopped in his tracks from a tug of his jacket and looked down. There, puffy red eyes and sniffling nose with his eyes looking everywhere but him, was Tommy.

“C-Can you st-ay?”, the boy timidly asked, a soft red hue casting itself on his face, embarrassed for asking the man to stay when he had already done so much for him already. Maybe he was just selfish? Sam had stayed with him for so long while he stayed here, taking care of him when needed, playing, teaching, just overall fulfilling the father role.

But then there was him. What did he do in return? Nothing. He whined, begged, always caused a ruckus or problems. Why are they even still around?

“T-t-that is.. If, you want to. Y-ou don-n’t have t-t-o stay be-ca-u-s’ of me”, voice droopy and creaked, throat flaring in pain from way too much usage.

“Of course I will stay, if you will have me anyways”, the soft smile that the older had used on him so, so many times. That smile that had always made the blond feel weak and vulnerable, that made him feel safe around the man.

Tears bubbled up from his eyes again and pressed his face into the man’s chest after he laid down, the creeper hybrid wrapped his arm around his shoulder and started to gently rub it. He really did feel bad for the younger, a child this young shouldn’t of had the responsibilities an adult should do. And to top it all off, the trauma that was inflicted on him at such a young age as well.

“I kind of wanted to keep this as a surprise, but if you are up to it”, Sam begun which had Tommy pull from his chest to look up at him, “How would you feel if you’d let me adopt you? I know we haven’t met each other for a long period of time bu-”, he was cut off by Tommy headbutting Sam in the chest again, his shoulders hiking up.

The older smiled softly and rubbed his back affectionately, “You don’t need to decide soon, take all the time you need bud.”

And that’s how Puffy and Ponk found the two, Tommy wrapped in Sam’s arms while they both slept with smiles on their faces.

Chapter Text

“Come on! We don’t have long before it starts!”, an energetic goat hybrid ran through the halls of the house, the older ram groaning in response.

“Tubs, it’s like”, Schlatt turns over to his communicator to check the time, “Ten in the morning, the party starts at four.”

The older brunette rubbed his temples while his son jumped back onto his father’s bed, bouncing in place, “Still! I wanna get ready for it! Come on, come on, come on!” The smaller pulls at the hand Schlatt reached out, sitting up with a sigh. He did this for twelve years, what’s six more years going do?

The man smiles fondly before getting up, “Alright, I’m up, but it’s too early to get ready now with your outfit”, being dragged out of the room and down the stairs, meeting everyone's tired eyes. 

Schlatt chuckled in response, glad that he wasn’t the only one that was forced awake by his energetic son. Everyone seemed a bit tired, especially Tommy. When they returned inside they had expected Sam to be there to give them an answer, but he wasn’t there. Ponk suggested going to the blond’s room, so when they did, they found the two fast asleep with the other.

Hopefully the greenette could give a response when the boys are busy for a bit, but other than that, they will leave the man alone. It’s been a few days and yet, Sam hasn’t told them anything yet, yes, they don’t want to pressure him, but he did accept that he would give an answer.

“Tommy, Ranboo! You excited!”, Tubbo’s giddy response came out quickly, his eagerness unrequited when both stared at him in a tired gazes.

“Why couldn’t we have slept in a little longer”, the dual haired boy whined before placing his forehead onto the counter below him. Tommy didn’t really have a problem with waking up this early, he’s done it before but much earlier. Suddenly he snapped his head up and ran up to his room, gaining a groan from the older ram.

“Why are these kids so goddamned hyper”, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Must be envious aye, Schlatt?”, the white haired male chuckled a bit before placing a cup of coffee down in front of the creeper hybrid.

Sam nods a thanks to the masked man, head still on the counter. He had spent last night helping Tommy get fabric for something. What it was? The boy wouldn’t say, but that was fine, his son didn’t need to tell him. After that night of offering to adopt the blond, he asked to at least wait before his old family would be around to see if they would agree upon the arrangement. If they agreed and sign the documents then the greenette would go to a nearby village, then they would go and make it official.

TommyInnit Dude didn’t sound bad. But he didn't want to force anything onto the poor kid, so, all he could do was wait till he came around on his own. No matter what, Sam would always see the winged boy as his son ever since he had helped him when he found him.

Pitter patter of footsteps came back, Tommy with his wings flown open as he jumped down the flight of stairs, gaining a shriek from the creeper hybrid. Ignoring the terrified worry of the adults, he slides near Ranboo and Tubbo and gave them both a bandanna. Tubbo was handed a red and purple bandanna with an ender pearl and two discs on it, a bee charm handing on a chain from the front. Ranboo’s was a red and green bandanna with a bee charm and the two discs, an ender pearl hanging from a chain.

Tommy had his own around his neck already, a proud smile on his face after handing the two their gifts. It may have took him a while to get it done, but at least he finally gave the goat something back after he gave him one of his bandannas. 

“Broooooo!”, the brunette first to break, “This is so cool big man!”, excitement bubbling over before he started to bounce in place. He turns his head over to the taller who also had a smile plastered on his face, bandanna being tied around his neck.

“Why don’t you boys get your things ready for later? That way you won’t be rushin’ to get anything”, Ponk offered which had the boys halfway up the stairs, Tommy using his wings while the other two saying he cheated.

“Lets get set up, shall we?”, Puffy stood up clapping her hands.

-

“I don’t think we should nether travel after what happened last time, dad”, Techno said, bored written all over his face. 

He had been the last one to continue searching for his little brother, not wanting to give up like his father and older brother. The pinkette knew he wasn’t the best to the younger, but he wasn’t bad either. But he wants to be there for him now, he wants to try better now. Hoping that he will be able to find him and make it up to him.

“Well we don’t have Tommy, do we? We’ll be fine Tech”, Wilbur waved him off before stepping in after Phil, unseen of his brother’s rage that had set in his crimson eyes.

The three made their way to the nether highway, the cobblestone streets cool to the touch surrounded by the blistering heat of netherrack surrounding them. Techno far ahead, not wanting to talk much with the two at the moment, still heated from the older’s words.

‘ Why didn’t they care? Tommy was Phil’s first born, his blood. So why? ”, the gears turning his head was loud, able to block out the voices that were disagreeing with one another.

‘ Maybe he had similarities to his wife?’

‘ Like what? ’

‘E'

‘ Phil is old and Tommy is young, maybe that’s why? ’

‘ Hel-eck no! ’

The dispute over why the two were mad at the younger made no sense to him, the pinkette understood that the blond was a bit annoying at times but, when was the last time that Tommy had yelled? When was the last time he talked someone’s ear off? Then it dawned on Techno, looking back at everything. No one taught the younger sign language, no one taught him any of the vocabulary or insight he shared in the nether that day. No one even knew of the new nether update as well as the approaching bastion he seemed to know about.

That, and the way he understood the piglin tribe.

‘ Did he teach that all himself? Is that why some books were either dusted off or misplaced? ’, Techno thought to himself, face now scrunched up from the thought. Confused as to how he was able to teach himself so much, unless they were away for that long. Defeated, he put more speed into his steps, heading towards Sam’s portal with his costume half on.

-

“The guests are arriving! Look! There's Bad!” Tubbo pointed at a black sink toned man with white blowing eyes, next to a very short man with blue specks across his skin and hair. A mask with a thin-lined mouth with a tongue sticking out in the shape of a p.

“ Bad? ” the questioning tone could be sensed with the terrible toned indicator.

“It’s short for Badboyhalo, I don’t know why though”, the horned brunette looked at white eyed man, never learning the mystery behind his name.

“ Maybe it’s because of his hybrid species? My ex-brother Techno has the same thing, Technoblade is his birth given name from his nether tribe I believe. Certain species have certain names picked out, so maybe his name is from his hybrid species ”, the choppy communicator is placed in the pocket of his costume, belt getting strapped on.

Tubbo was already in his costume, Ranboo in his (which is an enderdragon) while Tommy was getting into his. The blond was the last one to get into his outfit while the rest of the bunch was already in theirs.

Puffy decided to dress as a full sheep, Schlatt went as a ghost of some sorts, Sam dressed like some prison warden, while Ponk was dressed like a ninja.

Very weird outfits to Tommy but he will let them be since he was a griffin so his wings could be out. It is very nerve wracking to him seeing how his wings were never out around others unless with the Underscores, but he feels confident enough cause his new family is there with him. Which got his scared again, that means that they will see his wings. 

Small bouts of panic arose through him, not wanting to go to this party anymore.

“Ready kiddos? Everyone had arrived”, the greenette stepped in the room, a small smile on his face as he tried to reassure the blond.

The goat hybrid nodded eagerly and grabbed the dual haired boy’s hand before sprinting outside, grin spread wide while bounding down the stairs. That left both Sam and the blond alone, the chatter of people could be heard outside the window he was just staring from.

“The Crafts are here too, Toms. Do you wanna be by me the whole time?”, white eyes meeting blue ones, slightly brighter blue ones. It was progress that Sam could always enjoy, he was glad that the younger was getting better, glad that he could smile without restraint or having it being strained.

With a timid nod, reaching his hand out for the older to take, which he does. The creeper hybrid walks slowly with his son, his son? He doesn’t want to mistakenly call Tommy that by accident in case the boy doesn’t actually see him as a father figure. That or having the Craft's blow up on him for trying to claim the poor boy that 'is clearly confused'.

Putting that thought aside, he rubs the back of the blond's hand whenever his breathing starts to pick up slightly, calming him down within a few seconds. He didn’t know if he was doing it right until he got a small smile from the smaller, eyes soft with appreciation.

“Tommy!”, came the loud yell of his friend, the brunette running over just to lean his head down and headbutt the blonds chest, “Come onnnn! I wanna show you my friend’s! Ranboo wouldn’t go till you came with me.”

Tommy looks up to Sam, silently asking for approval in which he gave with a small smile, “Go have fun, this is a party after all!”, the older cheered which got the winged boy excited, wings puffing out slightly. Running away with his friend, he caught up to the dual haired boy before all three ran towards what seems to be a fox hybrid and, “Pur-p?”

A purple winged boy with dirty blond hair and purple eyes looked up to a familiar nickname, “T?”, he shakily replies back, seeing the taller blond in front of him before both ran and hugged each other. “Hey man! Long time no see!”, the moth hybrid fluttering his wings behind him, eyes growing wide when he saw what was behind Tommy. “Seems like you got wings as well?”, smile growing bigger on his face before launching off into the air, “Let’s see how good you got at this, big man.”

Tommy launched himself after the muslin moth hybrid, both speeding in the air with laughs echoing off of the trees. All the guests below watched their little game (which resulted in a game of tag) Tubbo on Purpled’s shoulder and Ranboo being carried in Tommy’s arms.

“Who is that blond kid carrying the kid with the two toned hair, Sam?”, a fox hybrid walked up, tail slight puffed up with irritation when his friend left him to fly around.

“That is, sorry, was Philza Minecraft’s biological son. Apparently that bastard neglected his son I believe after his wife died, doesn’ give em the right to do so”, the creeper hybrid hissed a bit, breathing so he could keep himself down. Fundy never knew who is real father was, all he had was his mother before a group of hybrid hunters chased them down and killed her.

The ginger was eventually adopted by Eret, the white eyed man taking in the father role that he was missing.

“Damn, really?”, a brunette walked up, one eye blue while the other brown, goggles hanging around his neck with a color block trench coat, “That’s not cool at all.”

“Really isn’t”, Fundy replied, tail now sagging with irritation replaced with a small sadness.

“Sam!”

The greenette turned just in time to see Tommy bounding over, an angered crow hybrid behind him.

“Thomas”, the older man warned, “Get back here this second, I won’t begin to describe how disappointed I am after you ran off for two months!”

This caught the attention of every guest, Tubbo and Schlatt especially who stormed over. The smaller brunette enveloped his shaking friend in a hug, trying to pull the taller behind the creeper hybrid and his father.

“You don’ get to use that against him, Philza”, Schlatt crossing his arms over his chest, “Why don't you tell everyone here why he ran away exactly?”

“And what did he tell you, Schlatt?” Phil glaring right back at him, wings puffed in defense with his two sons walking up behind him.

“Toms?”, the pinkette saw the tuft of blond hiding in the stomach of a white haired man, arms protectively around the smaller.

Watery blue eyes moved from the confines of the man in front of him to stare at the red eyes that were staring back at him, Tommy looked over to Sam in front of him before hesitantly moving to stand beside the man, tugging on his sleeve.

He turns the greenette around, bringing his hands up, “ Can Tech come over? He wasn’t bad, but he isn’t that good either .” 

The older was unsure but gave in anyways, turning around and glaring at the much more built teen behind the man he despises, “Tommy wants you to come over, I think he wants to speak to you. If you two want to go inside to talk then that’s fine, but Ponk is going with him.”

With his name called, the white haired man stepped forward with his hand outstretched, eyes closed in a smile. Techno nods rapidly before walking over with the two, heading inside. Once out of sight, Sam turned back to the other two Craft’s.

“I didn’t want to do this with him standing right there, but you have some nerve showing up and trying to mess with my son, Philza”, his two legs now shifting into four, form growing bigger while his muscled form gaining more mass.

“ Your son? You mean my son?”, the winged man retorted, wings flaring out and almost hit his eldest behind him.

“That’s rich coming from you, then why did he run away in the first place?”, anger rising more, small hisses steadily growing, his sheep friend beside him trying to calm him down.

“How are we supposed to know? He never tells us anything!”, Wilbur behind him nodding his head piglin traits starting to show a little from his own anger.

“Maybe it’s because you ignore him each time he tries, you care more about the two piglin sons you are raising than to notice your own biological son!”, one of his paws stomping underneath him, trying not to hiss, smoke slowly building up in his throat.

“That is not true, is that what he’s goin’ around saying? He was grounding for sneaking out!”

“Now that”, Tubbo spoke up beside his father, “Is not true at all, from what I heard before he left was that”, his left ear flapped in anger, “You got angry at him for a vase breaking from Wilbur and Techno fighting while he was trying to break it up, then getting slapped when he tried to explain.”

Collective gasps around the group could be heard, small whispers started to form which was making Phil retract on himself slightly.

“Not only that, you guys weren’t there when his hybrid traits were growing in. I thought you were able to pick up on that, Philza”, Schlatt stepped in, “Not only that, but we ”, he pointed to his son and sister, “Were the ones that helped him through the process when we found him wrapped up in bandages and a harness tied around his torso.”

Phil was saddened by that, unable to understand what he heard, “What do you mean? He never showed any hybrid traits, nor any hints to it.”

“Maybe because he was trying to hide it from you”, now was Puffy’s turn to step up with small tears streaming down her face, “He was probably so uncomfortable in that household if complete strangers made him safe enough to show them.”

“He wouldn’t feel uncomfortable if he had just talked to us in the first place instead of hiding all the time”, Wilbur huffed and crossed his arms, “We try to get along with him but he just runs and hides.”

“And who was the one to lock him in a closet when he wanted to learn to play the guitar and just laugh while he cried to get out?”, Sam snapped back, the smoke gone with the hisses stopped.

“W-Well.. I-”, the greenette smirked.

“Phil”, said man turned to the man who called him, a tall demon now standing in front of him, “All this time, you hid a child from us, talking about your two other kids that you adopted while ignoring you youngest, biological at that?”, anger now present from the all so sweet man.

“No one asked!”, he threw his arms up, mouth open to shout out his faux excuse until the trio stepped out of the house.

“D-Dad”, Tommy calls which had both Sam’s and Phil’s heads snap towards the source, the blond stumbling over before hugging the greenette, making Phil’s whole presence falter

“Yes, Toms?”, he shifted back to his two legs to kneel down in front of him.

“Can.. Can we do the games now? ”, giving up on speaking, signing instead which got a sad smile from the older.

“Sure, alright everyone!”, he stood up while lifting his son, his son , onto his shoulders, “Let’s start the games per Tommy’s request!”

The herd of people cheered at the blond, wanting to get away from the sad discovery that they all discovered recently. Wanting to ignore it for now till the time came to interrogate the man when all the kids were distracted.

-

“Hey, Sam!”, Skeppy came over, a black haired kid walking behind him with two others.

“Yes, Skeppy?”, leaning back in one of the chairs he was sitting in, keeping an eye on the kids while they played, Fundy joining in on them. He may look older but apparently fox hybrids age faster than normal people. A lot of hybrids are like that.

“My son and his friends wanna met your kid, that alright?”, the diamond golem hybrid asked in which he nodded too.

“Sure, lemme call em”, he stood up before cupping his hands over his mouth, “Heya Toms, someone I know wants to talk to you!”

Blond locks whipped around with the speed of the head, wings snapping to halt his movements before flying over to his new father, landing beside him.

“ Yes? ”, he signs, looking at the people around him.

“Hello there!”, the blue haired my beside him waved, making the blond look down at the golem, “My son here and his friends would like to talk to you! The kid in the mask is Dream, Puffy’s son with his friend George who is technically Sam’s son as well”, the brunette waved sluggishly.

“And I’m Sapnap!”, the blaze hybrid beamed, sharp teeth glinting in the over decorated area for the party.

“ Snapmap? ”, he signs which got a few laughs, the inferno blushing from embarrassment.

“Wh-No! Sapnap, Sap. Nap !”, he tried explaining which just devolved in him chasing around the winged boy. Who in turn started flying off, “That’s cheating!”

It went like this until the moon was in the middle of the sky, everyone enjoying their time besides the Craft’s family. Any time they got close to anyone to talk they would get sneers or little snide comments, Tommy noticed and started to get a little upset over it.

He finally had enough when Sam kept glaring at them whenever the blond ‘wasn’t looking’. The winged boy flew up, his pinkie and index finger in his mouth as he blew down hard on them. This caused everyone to stop what they were doing and looked up to the airborne teen.

Tommy landed in front of the crowd and brought his hands up, the greenette immediately went over to stand next to him to translate since not everyone understood sign language.

“ I get that Philza ”, said man flinched from the use of his name from his kid, “ Didn’t treat me right, yes I didn’t say anything, but that doesn’t give you all the right to ignore him. What right are you doing by doing so? ”

A lot of people took that thought into consideration, and of course, Bad and Karl chose to forgive the man and apologize to him for how he was treated. Not everyone was okay on these terms but they decided to deal with it for the smaller blond.

“You got all the guests room made?”, a tall brunette with white filled eyes walked over to the two after Tommy’s confrontation. 

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I did! Why? DId you need somethin’?”, the greenette asked to which he got a chuckle from.

“No no, was just asking since Niki here”, a brighter shade of pink popped up in his view, “Wants to share the room with me.”

“Do not! I wanted to see if Puffy would! Minx also wanted to know”, the shorter girl folding her arms and grumbling.

“Puffy has her own room but I think she was going to share with either her adopted son or her brother and nephew”, Sam scratched at his chin, trying to think back on what she said.

Tommy grabbed at Sam’s sleeve and tugged it, gaining the older’s attention, eyebrow raised in question.

“ Tub’s said he was gonna sleep in my room with Ranboo tonight ”, rocking back and forth on his feet, unsure of his plans tonight.

“Huh, that might be right. Thanks for the reminder Toms”, he rubs the blonds head which he smiled and ran off with his wings flapping slightly behind him in excitement.

“Soooo?”, the pink haired girl raised her eyebrows.

“I.. Think so? You’ll need to ask her yourself”, the white eyed adult just wanted to get out of this conversation as best as he could.

Tommy ran off from Sam, trying to find where his friends were. Poor kid was adopted at the age of three, but thinking back on the name, he remembered Wilbur saying something about a kid named Floris?

Both names sound close together, then it hit him as to why the ginger male was so similar to his ex-brother. Fundy was probably Wilbur’s son, which would also explain why he would always stare him down with tears flooding his eyes. 

“Thomas, we need to talk”, the oh too familiar voice of his ex-father came from behind him.

Tensed, he turned around and stared up at the man, both his ex-brothers behind the older blond. Everytime he talks to Phil it ends up with a one sided argument that either has him grounded or yelled at. 

“ What? ”, the younger blond signs, clearly upset about the whole ordeal. He would rather not be anywhere near either of them, well, maybe Techno.

“Why did you run?”, Wilbur asked, arms crossed with an unimpressed face present.

“ Because I felt foreign in that house, no matter what I did or how I tried to explain myself, I would either get interrupted or told I was making it up. I was treated poorly, not only by Wilbur, but by everyone else too ”, he began to explain, the brunette shying away with a sheepish smile when Phil seen his youngest was also being mistreated by his oldest.

“That still doesn’t explain why you ran, Thomas”, the older crossed his arms, anger starting to show.

“ We are not starting this hear Philza fucking Minecraft ”, he swiftly signed, “ You cannot just come here, expect me to forgive you after you hit me from a thing my mother made! Why on earth would I break something that was so dear to me as well! ”

Wings spreading up and held above him, trembling from holding tears back, a few onlookers watching and those who can’t understand the blond having a friend translating next to them.

“ From age five when they got here, you put all the attention on them and it was okay in the beginning since they were new and needed to adapt to new surroundings. But then once we started getting older, you ignored me more and more, praising them, taking them out to places while you left me there, then calling me a child for crying about being alone .”

Tommy always hated being alone, never one for silence and just plain emptiness.

Phil could hear the harsh tone of the younger avian as he signed, feeling guilt creep up on him more but anger over weighed that.

“ I grew up bearing the burden of a mother dying, a father who ignored me in favor of two complete strangers. Never praising my work when I was so proud of it, learning new and old ways of the world and seeing where they could adapt better. ”

Hot tears started flowing down the blonds face, remembering all the times whenever his ex-father was away that his brothers would tease him, locking him in small cramped areas or just ignoring him.

“ Of how many times I told you that Wilbur would lock me in a closet, how he would either laugh or leave me, how Techno would either watch or let me out when I got too annoying. He did help me in the end when Wilbur got too much, but he still watched ”, breath slowly becoming uneven, Sam now catching where Tommy was and ran over. “ So you tell me ”, the younger blond glares up at the older, “ If I should have ran or not, if I should have told you about my traits growing in or not ”, with that being said, he flies off, ignoring his father’s (father? Does he see Sam that way?) plea to come back.

‘ Why.. Why did they always ruin my happiness, why couldn’t they have left me alone!? ’, angry shouts blaring in his head, pushing his wings to go faster with each flap, pushing himself further and further. Going and going, pushing to his limits until he had to actually stop. Panting from straining his wings too much.

Looking around while trying to catch his breath, he realizes that he doesn’t know where he is, nor the general direction he came from. He was so caught up in trying to get away that he never caught the area he was going towards nor the direction he went. The tears he tried to hold back now came back full force, wings tired and hurt, head all fuzzy.

Panic started to set in, realizing that he was lost, no sounds of the portal could be heard for miles, no feeling of any running streams he could follow back since the house Sam lives in has a downwards stream. Nothing

Looking around frantically, there was no one, Purpled and the others were playing inside, Sam was back at the group, Puffy was watching the others. He was alone, he had no one. Had he ruined this new chance of a life for himself?

Sinking down to the ground near one of the many trees, Tommy dragged his knees up close to his chest and placed his head on them. He doesn’t know what to do at this point, the communicator left back at the party, no way of contacting others.

Gripping his hair hard, he let out a frustrated scream.

‘ Everytime I’m happy, they always come and ruin it! I thought I was fine.. That they won’t bother me anymore ”, wiping his nose on his sleeve, the blond sat there and weeped, hysterical sobs being ripped from his throat. Tears flowing like rivers down his face, eyes starting to sting each time he tried to whip them away.

Wings could be heard from above but that just caused Tommy to move his wings around him and place a hand over his mouth, trying to muffle his cries. He doesn’t want the idea of Philza finding him and taking him back to the cottage, he doesn’t want to go back to solitude.

An involuntary whimper ripped itself out of his throat before a whole bunch of peeps went off. Tommy knew what the peeps were for, of course he knew. But that still doesn’t stop him from trying to hold them in, which led to the peeps sounding strangled.

“Tommy?”, came a soft gentle voice, one that his ex-father had as if he was talking to the twins.

Peaking over from the cover of his wings, purple eyes met his darkened blue ones. Worry present on the muslin moth’s face, a smile making its way on his face after seeing his friend responsive. “There ya are Toms”, a hand stretching out for the blond to take it any time, “Don’t worry, you aren’t that from from the house.”

More tears fell down his face as the peeps increased, throwing himself onto his friend as he cried. The dirty blond sighed before leaning against the tree he had just found his friend under and took out his communicator. 

“I’m going to send Sam our location, okay?”, no response could be heard besides the constant chattering of peeps that came from the younger. He sent their location to the worried adult, having shifted into his four-legged form.

It had been ten minutes before the pitter patter of clawed feet could be heard. A flash of green could be seen as it came halting to the side of the two, ignoring the peeps and having the teens climb on his back.

“Are the two of you secured?”, the greenette asked which got a nod from Purpled, “Alright, we are going off now.”

The ride was quiet besides the occasional peeps coming from the sniveling blond wrapped in Purpled’s arms. Shivering from the un-welcomed sobs that choked up most of his peeps. It concerns the two, not wanting to have Tommy to hack up on himself.

“We are almost there Toms, we are going through the front so people can’t see ya”, came the soft words that his friend was whispering to him, shushing him to try and calm him down enough for his peeps to stop.

“Why is he peeping?”, Sam asked, mildly concerned if it has to deal with something far more serious than he would hope for.

“I think I learned something on it, I believed the book said that when put in a stressful situation, a still growing avian will peep for the affection and safety of their parental guardian.”

The greenette was hurt a bit, does he have to be in a safe environment too, or is just the parental figure alone good enough to help? That, he doesn’t know, but all that he can do at the moment is make sure that his son is alright and safe.

The house came into view which made Sam speed up further, the door being opened by Ponk after seeing the three emerge from the bushes. Puffy making sure everyone in the back is doing well after the small outburst. Many of the guests wanted the Craft’s gone from the party after that, but even if they did want them to leave it would upset Tommy. He wouldn’t have wanted them to leave over the small dispute, then he would go on and blame himself for it.

Everyone decided to suck it up for the night and just focus on the young winged blond getting better with the Dude household. Soon he would become one with Sam and Ponk, the new name becoming TommyInnit Dude.

“I hope he is alright”, worried voice of Karl was heard by his two boyfriends. Sapnap grabbed hold of one of the time travelers hands while Quackity held the other.

“I’m sure he will be fine, a lil’ time is all he needs and will be bouncing back in no time”, the blaze hybrid announced which got a smile to form on the brunette’s lips.

“If not then I will teach him how to curse in spanish”, came the duck hybrid’s reply, earning a small smack against his head, “Hey!”

After those comments, everyone began to mellow out. Enjoying others' presences and just having an overall good time. If anyone heard the peeping from the blond’s window, then that was for them to know.

Phil desperately wanted to go and comfort whatever the peeping was coming from, knowing who it was. Avian parents have a deep instinct to go out and help protect their children when peeps start to occur, their young wanting to hide in the safe embrace of their guardian. 

But that guardian was no longer him, if his son felt more safe with Sam and his friends than he would allow his child to stay under his care. Hopefully this is the right decision on his part, if he failed that much that his own blood related son needed to run then, he will allow that freedom.

“What’s got you ready to murder anyone on sight?”, Bad came walking over, his son and Skeppy walking over behind him.

“My instincts are going haywire due to Thom- Tommy’s , due to Tommy’s peeping”, correcting himself seeing how that wasn’t his assigned name anymore.

“Well I’m sure they will stop once Toms stops, right? Besides, I can tell that that’s not all”, the demon hybrid sat beside his friend.

With a sigh, the blond rubbed a hand down his face, “I finally looked back and accepted what I did wrong. If he needed to run away to somewhere safe then I would allow him, and if he feels safe here then I will let him have that freedom.”

Nodding with approval, Bad  pats his friend on the shoulder, “At least you admitted to yourself what you did was wrong, not many parents do that, nor give their children the freedom that they seek. It’s a very nice thing you did for Tommy”, smiling at the crow avian, Bad stood up and walked away with Skeppy.

“Just because dad and pops forgave you doesn’t mean I have too”, the blaze hybrid bore down at the winged man, coal black eyes now a hazy orange.

“And I won’t beg for your forgiveness, I agree what I did was shitty of me”, a sad chuckle escaping from his lips, “But I do hope that he will learn to trust Sam and his family better, way better, than he did mine.”

Sam cradled the softly peeping blond that weeped in his arms, frustrated how he couldn’t stop the incessant peeps. Wiping furiously at the tears that dared to fall down his face, ignoring the fact that his father figure was in the room.

“It’s alright Toms, it’s okay I’m here”, the greenette shushed him gently while rubbing his back, “There is nothing to be scared of, its alright I’m here”, Sam comforted him, the loud peeps starting to die down.

He tried his best to muffle his sobs, but even that was beginning to get hard for him, a small dizziness starting to become present. Panic showing through as he sobs harder, making the older notice. Grabbing the smaller’s hand, Sam lifted it up to his own chest over heart, instantly clutching the other’s shirt.

“It’s okay Toms, follow my breathing, okay?”, he called out softly, a small smile present on his face while guiding the blond while taking deep breaths with him.

It did take a few tries seeing how Tommy was nearly choking over his own breaths but was able to do it after the fourth set, calming down ever so slightly. His whole body trembled with small sobs wracking his body, hand still clenched tightly on the other’s shirt. Eyes red rimmed and puffy, while a few sniffles could be heard.

Exhaustion was the first thing that had hit him, making him collapse in Sam’s arms, having the greenette hold him gently. Rubbing his arm as he shifted them around, Tommy now laying beside Sam who propped himself against the headboard. 

“Why don’t you go to sleep, today had was a bit of an adventure”, the creeper hybrid reassured, trying to make the younger as comfortable as he could, which succeed. 

With his eyes drooping, his head fell to the side which had hit Sam. The smaller long passed out, a smile wormed its way up on his face. Sam lifted the blanket around the two and laid there for who knows how long, falling asleep right after the blond. Puffy walked upstairs to find the two after an hour when the peeps had stopped just to find the two passed out, she snapped a picture of the two with her communicator before leaving to help wrap up the party.

-

That was four days ago, a few people had left after talking to Tommy and just being kind. It was strange to him, the difference in the last few months really threw him off. Going from being ignored to having everyone talk to him, making a new friend group with Fundy, Purpled, Ranboo, and Tubbo.  The enderman was skittish around everyone, only staying near Tubbo or Tommy when anyone had gotten close. He even ran when Phil or the twins had tried to get close to Tommy, but had just dragged him away from the three.

It did hurt the Craft family when they weren’t even trusted to be in the vicinity  of the younger blond, so they just watched from afar with guilt present. Tommy knew he wanted them to feel guilty for their actions, but he started to have the gut twisted feeling again.

So, mustering up and courage he has left, he walks over to the three and stopped a nice distance away.

“Thomas, I- Save it ”, he interrupted Phil who bristled. “ I just didn’t want to leave you guys on bad terms, I still can’t forgive for what you all did and nor could I forget the fact you all had treated me so poorly ”, he sighs.

He could speak, of course he could. Over the time he had spend with Sam and the others, he was able to speak longer durations without his voice failing on him or leaving a sore throat. But he doesn’t feel like they deserve to hear him for the last time, knowing Phil had signed away his guardianship over him to Sam.

“We know”, Wilbur was the first to break as he sucked in a breath, remembering all the countless times he had berated as well as beat his little brother (could he even call him that? When was the last time he did), taunted and tortured him over every little thing. If the blond hadn’t ran, would there be any change to how they treated him?

Tears pricked his eyes when he recalled the time he had sung a song to the winged boy, calling him an absolutely useless child, how he wouldn’t have been nothing if it weren’t for him. Swearing at himself for singing such a terrible song to such a young and kind kid.

“We had also went back to collect the rest of your things, seeing how you probably would have disagreed to go back”, Phil looked away from Tommy, not wanting to make eye contact.

“ That is fine ”, he signed which got translated by Techno seeing how the older blond stopped looking at him.

“One last thing though, I uh.. wanted to give this to you myself”, the pinkette mumbled before handing him a neatly wrapped box. ”It was a gift for you when we came back from the expedition, the day that uh.. Wil was supposed to fish with you on..”

Staring at the three who failed to meet his eyes, he looked down at the box and began to slowly unwrap it which gave way to a music box sitting on the inside. Two roll sheets with puncture holes all over it laid under the music box when he picked it up, taking note of the names at the top.

“We found a Mellohi and Cat music sheet seeing how those two were your favorite songs you had me play”, Wilbur smiles fondly before it faltered, now sad from the time they had actually gotten along.

The music box was in the shape of a crow, two small piglets under the bird and a yellow rose wrapping around the top that connects to the bottom of the music box. A small compartment to place the music sheet that isn’t being used as well as any small items he wished to store away. They had remembered his favorite music that he remembered his mother had set aside for him, animals that resemble the three in front of him with the flower he loved so much.

No words were present as tears sprang up in his eyes, hands shaking from the emotions he was drowning in. Without thinking, Tommy brought the three into a hug while crying softly.

“Y-You are making t-his harder fo-r me to say goodbye”, he weeped silently, not seeing the hurt expressions they had on their face, small bits of proud showing from being spoken too.

“Figured”, Techno called out which got a few collected laughs from the others. 

Pulling away, the eleven year old wiped his tears away before turning to the hand that was placed on his shoulder, Ranboo standing behind him with a nervous smile, “Uhm.. Sam wants to see us.”

Nodding, Tommy follows the taller teen before stopping in his tracks. Turning back to the Crafts behind him, he smiled softly, “Gue-ss t-this is go-odbye?”

And with that he walked away from them, missing the way Wilbur had hugged his father while Techno looked away with a frown present. When he entered the living room, he sat next to Tubbo, Ranboo joining on Tommy’s other side. Sam, Puffy, Schlatt, and Ponk sat on the other side of the coffee table.

“You may be wondering why I had called you in here, yes?”, the greenette spoke first, smiling softly at the small gift in his son’s hand.

The three teens all nodded together in unison, curious as to what was going on. Ranboo had at some point, reached out and grabbed Tommy’s hand, not that the blond had mind. With the short time that Ranboo had stayed with them, he noticed how he had a strong sign of being touch starved. So Tommy will give Ranboo what he wants, if he wants a hug then he will hug him and let the taller one cling to him. If he wants to hold Tommy’s hand then he will let him, even when he just plays with the blond’s finger.

Whatever type of touch the heterochromic boy wanted he will give, which is why he is always clung to him, Tubbo kind of didn’t like it that much but will still let him a few times.

“What I want to talk about is hopefully adopting Ranboo as well”, he smiled at the duel haired boy, who stared in shock from what he was hearing. “There weren’t any clues in if you have a family, nor do you have a last name.. So I kind have thought, if you want, to be adopted as well?”

Silence was all that was present making Sam quiet nervous, maybe he had sprung this on to the kid too quickly. Tommy took note of it and tried to reassure his friend.

“I-I-It’s okay! You don’t need to decide, n-nor do you ha-ve to a-a-ccept. We just kinda thoug- No no.. I-It’s alright, it just shocked me.” Ranboo whispered softly, running his thumb over Tommy’s hand, nervous.

“We would need you to sign, or if you have a family present then have them sign”, Ponk spoke up next, unsure if he said the right thing.

“I.. don’t have any that I know of..”, Ranboo trailed off, not liking the attention on him, the blond beside him noticing. 

With a small smile, the winged boy handed the enderman his music box that has the music rolls in the box, letting him play with it. Turning back to Sam he gave an apologetic smile, which he nodded to.

“How about we talk about this later? Yeah? For now, let’s set up your new room!”, Puffy stood up, a cheerful tone present which had the teens smiling wide.

Their family isn't perfect, but it was perfect for them. The three teens ran up the steps with the adults chuckling behind them, enjoying the time they spent painting the room a soft purple, the bed with black sheets but white blanket that accompanied the bed with a half black and white rug. They had also re-painted Tommy's room, the accent wall being a soft creamy white while the rest of the walls were a soft tone of red.

The day spent with play fights, and spars. Tommy needing to fly away a few times from Tubbo trying to hop on him, Dream and Sapnap hanging on George while dramatically dying. Bad enjoying the time while Skeppy ran to join in the mischief with the kids.

Foolish stopped by later and hung out with them, playing board games and drinking cocoa.

Soon night fell and everyone who had stayed over began to leave, besides Tubbo of course. Begging Schlatt to stay so he did. Sam had just put Ranboo to bed and was going over the adoption papers that he would need to send to town first thing in the morning. 

Ranboo had agreed, now becoming the blond’s brother which he absolutely adored. They had such a great friendship when they first met, now they could stay together longer. 

Sam put the music box on, playing Mellohi for his son, giving a smile before leaving the room. 

Tommy couldn’t have had a better family, so smiling to himself, he turned over in his bed and fell asleep to the soft lullabies of his mother’s favorite song. The letter that was hidden under the music box memorized. 

Chapter Text

Hello everyone!

I would like to say thank you to all the kudo's and comments on my story when I had started posting! It truly kept me going when it came to writing this story which led to me finishing it!

As of a few days ago, I decided to revisit and re-write the story! This fic was actually supposed to have two parts only before I made 'How Bad Could It Be', which will now be a three series story.

The reason behind the re-write is because it's really mischaracterized, doesn't have much depth, and overall bad writing. So I will be adding more to each chapter, hopefully adding more spunk into the characters, and hopefully write them to where they will be in the third part of the series.

Hopefully with the re-write those who stayed and will join a long the journey for the third fic that's in the works.

Until then, please be patient as I put this story under a re-write!