Chapter Text
Tommy’s mouth fell open when he saw Phil’s horse. It was huge! It was like two or three Tommys tall! A horse as big and as awesome as this one must have a big and awesome name to match. After a moment’s consideration, Tommy decided that it must be named Henry.
Shroud wiggled around a bit causing Tommy to glance down. Do dragons eat horses? Do horses eat baby dragons? Tommy’s brow knitted in worry as he clutched his bag closer to his chest and took a small step away from Henry’s mouth. Better safe than sorry.
“How long have you had Henry?” Tommy asked, eyeing the horse warily.
“Henry?” The man sounded surprised.
Tommy’s brows creased. Surely the man knew the name of his own horse, right? “Yeah,” he said slowly, like how the adults would talk to him sometimes. “Your horse?” Sometimes grown ups needed things explained to them very slowly. That’s okay. Tommy could be patient. He was great like that.
The man gave him a weird look before turning to his horse and rubbing his back. “I didn’t know that my horse was named Henry, but thank you for introducing us.”
Tommy glanced at the man. Maybe he shouldn’t trust any information this man had. If he didn’t even know the name of his own horse, what good could he be? Tommy was glad that he was the one to find Shroud, not this weirdo. Tommy would be a much better parent.
However, Tommy decided that he would still go with the man. After all, it wouldn’t hurt right?
After a moment of the man bustling around the horse doing grown up things that Tommy didn’t care to pay attention to, he turns to Tommy. “Have you ever ridden a horse, mate?”
Tommy shook his head while glancing up at Henry. He wondered how he was even going to get on top of him. Maybe he could climb a tree and then jump onto Henry? Tommy turned his head to try to find the nearest tree, but the man interrupted him before he could find the best one to climb on while carrying Shroud.
“Mate, if you come over here, I can help you up.” The man gestured to the saddle and bags that were all ready to go.
Tommy glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. “Aren’t you too old to lift anything,” he asked, eying the man’s arms skeptically.
“Trust me mate; I am not that old yet. I have two sons at home who I have been hoisting into the saddle since they were little.”
Tommy gave him one last doubtful look before wandering over and letting the man help him into the saddle. Once he was on, the man hoisted himself into the saddle, and they were off.
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Tommy looked around from the top of Henry at the field they were passing through at the moment. They had been traveling for so long already. Tommy stifled a yawn as he curled an arm a little bit tighter around Shroud. He was pretty sure Shroud was asleep. Lucky dragon.
“Are you getting tired?”
Tommy turned around to glare at the man behind him. “I am not ,” he pouted, giving the man his best glare. “Big men don’t get tired.”
The man wisely nodded behind him. “Of course,” he agreed. “But let me know when I need to stop. I’m sure that Henry will be getting tired soon, and sense you and he seem to be getting along, I think that he will tell you when he is getting sleepy.”
Tommy nodded. He could do that. He didn’t want Henry to be walking when he was tired. That just wasn’t nice. He stifled another yawn.
Tommy watched the trees for a while. Some of them probably would make great bases for his treemansion.
It was quiet for a few more minutes before Tommy thought of another question. “What is your name by the way?”
The man let out a choking garbled noise. Was he dying? “You got on my horse without knowing my name?”
“Yeah why not?”
“I- Hasn’t anyone- Nevermind,” he choked out. Tommy could feel him tensing behind him. “My name is Phil. What is your name?”
“Mine it Tommy,” Tommy exclaimed proudly, turning back to grin at Phil. It was a weird name, but Tommy wasn’t going to judge. “You should memorize it because one of these days, you will be able to tell all of your friends that you know the Great Tommy Innit!” Tommy threw his arm out like he had seen some of the traveling acrobats that sometimes came to the village did when they finished a particularly hard performance. A look of hesitation passed over his face after a moment. “That is if you have friends. It is okay if you don’t,” Tommy reassured hurriedly. He didn’t want to make Phil feel bad if he didn’t. “Not everyone can have friends.”
“I have friends,” the man- Phil- let out a wheezing laugh. Maybe he was dying after all. “I’ll introduce you to all of them once we get home.”
Tommy nodded. “Sometimes I have to make up friends too. It’s okay.” He twisted around so that he could pat Phil on the shoulder.
Phil looked like he was trying to swallow a rock or something and he sputtered out a few more half-words.
Oh no! He was choking! Tommy whacked him a few times on the chest to get whatever was in his throat out.
“Thanks Tommy,” the man eventually wheezed. Tommy nodded and stifled another yawn. Henry was probably getting tired too, but Tommy would wait a little bit longer before he told Phil that. He yawned again and let his head rest on something behind him. Just a little bit more.
Phil was very concerned for this child. At first he wanted to just snag the dragon away from the kid who barely came up to Phil’s hip, but now he had legitimate concerns about the survival of this child if he just left. No child should be left alone for any period of time, let alone required to fight for their own survival. Phil’s heart ached at the thought of the kid sleeping out in the woods by himself. No wonder he snatched up the dragon as quick as he could. Everyone needs a friend, even if it isn’t human.
Wilbur and Techno wouldn’t mind another sibling, right? Techno loved kids, right? He was always saying how he wanted more kids running around. Wilbur would also love a new little brother to play with. And torture.
Maybe Tommy was lucky not to have siblings after all.
Phil let out a long sigh.
He peered over at the boy in question, and saw that he had completely conked out. Phil bit back a coo as he could feel all of his insides melting at such a precious sight. They had been riding for a few hours by now, and it appeared to be too much for Tommy’s tiny body.
Slowly, he pulled Henry to a stop, and smoothly dismounted, careful not to disturb the child. Once his feet hit the ground, he slipped the boy off the horse as well. Tommy instantly curled into Phil’s chest, hands fisted around his cloak.
“Shh,” Phil cooed, as Tommy made a noise of protest. “It’s okay. We just made a quick stop. It’s alright. You can go back to sleep.” He rocked him back into a sound sleep before he attempted to pick up the bag that Tommy was still clutching.
“Hello little guy,” Phil whispered as the baby dragon poked his head out of the bag and yawned. He had clearly just woken up from his own nap. “Your mother has been very concerned about you.” He raised his eyebrow and tried to give the dragon a stern look, or as much as he was able to while he was clutching a small human child to his chest and whispering so as not to wake him. It must have worked at least a little because the dragon ducked his head back into the bag, giving a pitiful mew. “What was it that the boy called you? Shroud?” Phil tilted his head to the side, kneeling down beside the bag. “It’s a very fitting name for such a troublemaker like you.”
Shroud peeked out his head once more, giving Phil a little pout.
“Oh none of that,” Phil said, giving Shroud a stern look. “You have caused us all a lot of stress back home. Now come on, we need to get you back to your mother’s.”
Shroud gave an unhappy grunt, scrambling out of the bag to climb up Phil and curl himself around the boy in his arms. Phil’s heart almost died at the sight. He was too old for this. None of his other sons gave him this much heart trouble. That was a lie. They gave him so much heart trouble, just of a very different kind.
“Don’t worry,” Phil hummed, reaching over to stroke Shroud’s back. “He is coming with us too. You found yourself a very nice friend, haven’t you? Well you can be the one to explain all of this to your mother. Maybe you can distract Will and Techno too.”
Shroud gave him an indignant snort, smoke huffing from his nose.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Phil admonished. “You’re the one that got us into this mess. You can be the one to get us out. Now run along. I know you’ve been wanting to stretch your legs for some time. We still have a while left before we get back, and this might be your last chance.”
Shroud gave another huff, but did scamper off into the woods. Phil hoped that he wouldn’t get lost again. One new kid his sons might not mind, but Phil doubted he could get away with bringing anymore surprise guests home. But he was most definitely bringing home one. Now he just had to convince Tommy.
They had another few hours until they would need to stop for lunch, so hopefully that would give Phil enough time to figure out what he was going to say to this poor troublesome child.
Phil strongly believes that children shouldn’t be astonished when they are given food. He thought that it was a common consensus that children should have enough food so that it never comes as a surprise when some is given to them. However, as soon as they came to a rest for the evening and Phil took out food, the wide eyed, awe-filled look on Tommy’s face when Phil handed him some bread and dried meat made Phil want to destroy every adult that Tommy had ever talked to.
Taking a deep breath, he offered up another piece of bread and one of his last remaining golden apples. He was going to feed this child so much food when they got home. Techno and Wilbur would probably try cooking for him too once they laid eyes on him. Phil sighed at the eventual catastrophe that it would inevitably lead to, but it was for a good cause.
“Have you ever tried a golden apple before,” he asked in his calmest voice.
Tommy gave a tiny shake of his head, eyes glued to the apple cupped in his hands.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Everything will be fine.
“I’m pretty sure you will like it. Both of my sons do.” Phil gave an encouraging nod to the apple, and Tommy glanced once at him before timidly taking a bite. His eyes grew so wide that for a moment Phil was worried that they might fall right out of his head.
“This is amazing!” Phil winced at the volume of the cry, but quickly started to grin at the beaming smile on Tommy’s face.
Tommy took another large chunk out of the apple, not even bothering to close his mouth. “Thish ish the bes’est ap’le ev’r!” He exclaimed with his mouth still full of apple.
This child would be the death of him. So. Cute.
“I’m glad,” he grinned softly. “Have as much as you want. There will be even more at home.” Tommy’s eyes grew even larger at the thought of more food. Phil wondered where all of his other meals had come from. Surely the townspeople weren’t so heartless as to leave a child to scavenge for themselves? How would the child even know what plants wouldn’t kill him?
Phil deliberately took a calming breath. Don’t think about this right now. Murder is not the answer. Especially murder in front of impressionable children. He closed his eyes for a moment, deliberately relaxing his clenched fists.
When he opened his eyes again, he almost cooed at the sight of Tommy not so sneakily slipping a piece of bread and meat into his satchel for Shroud. Phil had to stare at a spot in between the trees in order to keep himself from leaping across to Tommy and wrapping him in a never ending hug. They both were coming home, and he was never going to let anyone hurt them ever again.
“Hey Tommy,” Phil said as casually as possible. He wasn’t sure he succeeded by the startled and slightly guilty look on Tommy’s face. Deep breath. “Did I ever tell you why I know so much about dragons?”
Tommy shook his head slightly while tightening his arm around his bag protectively.
“Well, you see,” Phil started, making sure to keep his voice level. “Several years ago I made a friend that was hurt really badly. I took care of her and healed her until she was healthy again, but we still remained very close. In fact I moved next door to her so that I could always help her and protect her from other people who wanted to hurt her.” Phil glanced at Tommy who had his head cocked to one side, listening curiously. “Several years later, she ended up having a child. However a few days ago, he got lost, so of course I went looking for him.”
“But what does that have to do with the dragons,” Tommy asked cautiously.
Phil smiled. “Tommy, have you recently found a small someone in the woods and started to take care of them?”
Tommy froze.
His eyes grew as large as saucers as he put the pieces together. His arm gripped the bag tight enough for Phil to hear a tiny yip from inside. “You can’t have him,” Tommy whispered, lip quivering slightly. “I found him. He’s mine now.”
Phil held up his hand in surrender. “I don’t want to take him away from you, Tommy,” he said calmly, deliberately relaxing his shoulders. “You have been doing an excellent job at taking care of him, and I am so proud.” Tommy ducked his head, and buried it into his satchel. “However he does need to go back to his mother. She is very worried about him.”
“No,” Tommy pleaded, lifting his head up slightly so that Phil could see the tears starting to pool in his eyes.
“But,” Phil emphasized, words tumbling over themselves in his rush to assuage Tommy. “I want to offer a compromise. How about both you and Shroud come to live with us?”
Tommy paused, eyeing darting all over Phil’s face, clearly trying to sort out this new olive branch. “Shroud and I were going to live in an awesome treemansion,” he said doubtfully, shrinking back a little.
Phil bit back a grin. “What if you come home with me and I can help you find the perfect spot next to us to build your treemansion. We have so many trees near us. I’m sure that you will be able to find one that will be absolutely perfect for your mansion.”
Tommy glanced down at his bag. Shroud took that moment to peek back up at him. They stared at each other for a moment before Shroud darted up and licked Tommy’s nose. “Ew,” Tommy said, scrunching up his face. He glared back down at an unrepentant Shroud.
After a moment of thought, Tommy whispered, “Do you promise?”
Phil melted. This child was about to get so many hugs. Just wait until Wilbur saw him. There would be no escape after that. “Of course, Little Dragon.”
Tommy gave him a funny look as if he thought that Phil had lost it. “I’m not a dragon,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“You're my little dragon,” Phil replied with a smug grin on his face. “I went out looking only for one, but I am coming home with two.”
Tommy rolled his eyes again, but ducked down to hide his own grin.
So. Many. Hugs.
Phil couldn’t wait to bring his new little dragons home.