Chapter Text
“Red eyes, huh?” Techno hummed once Phil was done explaining. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in thought. “I thought you said that Theseus was your son.”
Phil gave his friend a cool look, a silent challenge that Techno carefully cowed away from by dropping his gaze – not to seem weak, but enough to ease whatever tension the question might have made between them.
Eye color was the easiest way to tell a demon’s heritage – the seven original demon lords passed their sins down to their children, and their children passed it down to theirs. On and on, until Phil was born with the green eyes of envy, and Techno and Tommy had been born with the red eyes of wrath. It was an easy tell, and someday Tommy would understand that he wasn’t truly Phil’s son.
“He’s my son in every way that matters,” he said easily. He knew that he wasn’t Tommy’s true father, nor did he ever mean to adopt the runt. In fact, he probably should have killed him the moment the squirming thing fell into his arms.
But the moment that he met those precious ruby-red eyes, felt tiny fangs dig into his wrist in an adorably fierce show of useless defense – he knew he couldn’t.
So despite the warnings of his council and the possibility of a nearly self-laid coup attempt that could come later down the line, Phil kept the child of his predecessor as his own. The boy had been too young to be able to remember what had happened, anyways, and when he inevitably got curious and asked who his father was…
Well, Phil had always been weak to the boy. He wouldn’t be able to lie to him, especially not about something like that.
“How did you ever end up adopting the son of the blood god, Phil? I’m sure you realize what he might be able to do when he grows up and learns what you did to his father,” Techno pointed out, easing back in his seat on the couch.
Phil gave an easy grin as he fiddled with the remote in his hands. The last time that he had been in the human realm they had just barely started making the technology to create these films of theirs, and now they seemed to have mastered the marvels. “I was going to kill him-”
“Mhm,” Techno gave, slow and drawling – doubtful.
“I didn’t!” Phil gave a quiet laugh. “I didn’t mean to- one of my men just handed him over, probably expecting me to strangle the little thing, but… he was just so small, and precious. I think I fell in love the moment I set eyes on him.”
Techno sighed, settling back into the couch even further until he was nearly literally sinking into it. “You’ve always been weak for small things, Phil. I’m surprised you’ve kept the runt this long.”
“And I have every intention of keeping him alive for much longer than he has been,” Phil said with a hint of a growl in his voice.
“I got it, Phil. I won’t do anything to your kid, you know I won’t.” Bloody garnet eyes met Phil’s, and the demon lord gave his friend a tight smile.
Silence settled between them and eventually Phil’s leg started to bounce in place. He hated not knowing where his boy was. He hated knowing that Theseus could be anywhere, naive and inexperienced. He could have been coaxed into a pact with some two-bit magic user, trapped somewhere to be used as fodder for potion and spell components.
“Phil,” Techno said eventually. “C’mon. We gotta get you out before you blow something up.”
Not wanting a simple distraction, but knowing that his friend was most likely right, he nodded his head and sighed. “What are you suggesting?”
“I could introduce you to my friend Wilbur. I think that he’ll be able to get your mind working without winding you up in stress.”
Phil just sighed and gave a nod, standing. “Alright. Lead the way then, I suppose.”
~~~
Phil trusted Techno, he really did, but his son was missing. There was only so much that they could do at the time being, unless they wanted to try to figure out Theseus’s summoning phrase, but that could take years.
Phil didn’t want to waste more time than he already had just waiting and hoping that his boy would show back up, but unfortunately there wasn’t a lot he could do. Still, he was moments away from snapping and tearing the human world apart trying to find Theseus and likely starting a war in the process.
Even though he knew that Techno was providing him with a distraction, he didn’t like to think that it was because there was nothing that he could do. He didn’t like thinking that his best friend was distracting him from the fact that his son had been taken at all.
At least Wilbur was a good source of… some kind of entertainment, though Phil found himself growing more and more concerned about the human’s mental well-being.
“It’s just got a nice gritty texture, it’s always a nice surprise-”
“Mate,” he murmured. “I- I can’t tell if you’re fucking with me or not.”
“Of course not, Phil, I think that it’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do.”
The demon sat back, glancing at Techno who was more engrossed in his phone that he was listening to the conversation. Based on Wilbur’s fervor, Phil had the thought that perhaps this was a more common conversation topic than he wanted to believe.
“I… are your teeth okay?” He stared at the human, feeling vaguely horrified. “I’m pretty sure that will ruin your enamel.”
Wilbur just nodded, grinning at the demon in disguise. “It’s fine – they’re growing constantly-”
“They do not, don’t listen to him, Phil,” Techno finally piped up. “God, you’re just as chaotic as your brother, Wilbur.”
Sensing the chance at a change of topic, the elder demon nearly jumped at it. “Oh! You have a brother?”
A pause, and Wilbur gave a nod. “Oh, yeah. Tommy- he uh, actually kinda ran away from our aunt and uncle here in the states, he’s been staying with me and Techno in the dorms.”
Phil raised an eyebrow but nodded. Techno sighed deeply like he was remembering something, glancing at Wilbur.
“And you’re sure that you trust him to be in there alone? He isn’t going to break the coffee machine, is he?”
“No, no, he won’t- probably.” Wilbur paused and shrugged. “Maybe.”
Techno narrowed his eyes at the brunette. “I don’t trust that. You know that thing is the only thing keeping us alive at any given time, right? Like hell am I going to deal with waking you up for your morning classes if we don’t have a coffee machine.”
“I’m not that bad in the morning!”
“You almost broke your guitar over my head when I woke you up-”
“That was once, and we agreed that we’d never talk about it again, you absolute prick.” Wilbur pointed a blaming finger at Techno from across the table, eyes narrowed.
Techno stared back at him with a blank, unimpressed look. “It was twice. And I never agreed to anything.”
“You-!”
“So, how about we go get some ice cream or something?” Phil spoke over the brunette before he could erupt into another argument, and Wilbur glanced at him.
Shifting in his seat, the brunette shrugged. “Uh- honestly I’m not sure if I’ll have the money for that, I’ve already spent a bit more than I probably should here…”
Watching as the boy picked at his sandwich, Phil narrowed his eyes with a frown. Was he really struggling that much for money? The demon knew that human colleges were expensive, especially in the US, but when Techno had said that he could handle the payments for it he assumed that it wouldn’t be much of a problem.
“... I can pay, mate- for both of you, really, it’s no problem.”
Techno looked like he was going to protest, but a quick glare kept him from opening his mouth. Instead the younger demon simply shrugged and moved to stand, picking up his plate. “Alright then, sure.”
Wilbur looked a little less inclined to give in, hesitating. “Are you sure? I can-”
“It’s fine,” Phil was quick to ease his worry. “I can handle paying for a few ice cream cones, especially if it’s for Techno’s friend. You can get some to bring back to your brother as well, if you want.”
Again, the brunette student paused, but eventually nodded. “Alright- yeah, he’d probably like that.”
“Just don’t let him get a sugar rush, or I’m dumping him on you when you get home from class,” Techno warned with a glare that didn’t seem to faze the human in the least.
Wilbur snickered quietly – it sounded like there was a story behind that – and stood as well, grabbing his plate up from where they had been sitting to eat their lunch. “I’ll just lock my door or something, I can’t control him when he’s like that.”
"Absolutely not, the last time you locked him out he knocked at my door until I came to get him."
"I don't see the problem with this."
"It was three in the morning, Wilbur. You're lucky that I didn't have class in the morning."
The brunette snickered. "I mean, at least you wouldn't have woken up late?"
Techno looked absolutely unamused by that, enough so that Phil found himself snickering quietly.
“That sounds like my son,” he said lightly, though his smile came out somewhat strained. “He always comes to my door when he gets lonely at night. Maybe he just wants to spend time with you?”
It seemed to soften Techno up a little, sighing as he followed the two of them – Techno led the way, apparently knowing where a good ice cream shop was already.
Wilbur nodded thoughtfully, tilting his head. “Yeah, that… that sounds like something that he’d do. I think?”
“You seem rather uncertain about that,” Phil said curiously. He didn’t want to pry too much, but hearing about the child that reminded him painfully of Tommy seemed to ease the ache in his chest. “Are you and your brother not close?”
There was just the barest hint of a pause before Wilbur shrugged. “I mean- we are, but… I wasn’t there for a good portion of him growing up, y’know? Didn’t really get to send letters home and all, it’s just… complicated?”
The rising inflection in his voice told Phil that the boy was rather confused – for good reason, any relationship got complicated over long periods of absence. He patted the human’s shoulder and offered what he hoped was a comforting enough smile. “I get that. I hope that you and your brother get the time you need to reconnect.”
“Ah- uhm, yeah.” Wilbur coughed slightly and looked away.
It was an odd reaction but Phil didn’t give it any mind for the moment. Family was complicated, after all.
“Tell me about your brother,” he said softly, nudging Wilbur’s shoulder with his own, despite the height difference between them. Perhaps he should think about changing his human form some, he didn’t like the way the brunet towered over him.
Wilbur hummed and gave a smile as Techno held the door open for them. “Well- he’s a chaotic gremlin, through and through. He’s always moving around, doing stuff, getting into things he shouldn’t- it’s almost impressive how quickly he’s able to just go off and be causing chaos when you look away.”
Phil chuckled. “Ah- yeah. With those kinds of kids you just have to pray that you’re quick enough to keep up with them before they get into something bigger than they should.”
“You can say that again,” Techno said with a huff. “Tommy nearly followed me into my class the other day – I wouldn’t mind usually, but the teacher apparently has a thing against kids and nearly got into a fight with him.”
“Wh- really?!” Wilbur turned to Techno with wide eyes. “You didn’t tell me about that!”
Techno shrugged. “Nothing actually happened to him, and he asked me not to mention it to you. I don’t think that he wants you to worry too much.”
“And you listened to him-?”
“There wasn’t any reason not to,” Techno responded. “He’s fine, isn’t he? There’s no need to get all worked up, Wilbur.”
“I- you- ugh,” Wilbur threw up his hands, and though Phil could tell that the boy was legitimately somewhat upset by this revelation, it remained in good humor. Perhaps Techno would be chewed out more thoroughly later.
Curious, Phil didn’t think that Techno would sit by and let some human scold him like a child.
With a hum, he continued to think. Of Theseus, of the well-meant distraction that Techno and Wilbur provided, of all the different avenues that Phil could go through to attempt to get his son back.
For now, he would have to be content with sitting around with a couple of humans and
thinking.