Chapter Text
Tommy's eyes blinked open slowly. Huh. He hadn't expected that to happen again.
He tried to sit up, but it felt like he had gotten thrown out a second story window by a pyscopath for some reason.
Oh wait.
He laughed.
And passed out.
Tommy, eyes closed, heard yelling and... Singing? Everyone yelled, that was normal, but singing was new. He tried to open his eyes, but a wave of dizziness swept over him, sending him back into darkness.
He awoke a third time.
His head felt funny, and the room spun. The way his ribs and arm felt, however, wasn't funny in the least. He giggled as the room spun again.
He shook himself out of it, and observed his surroundings from the cot he seemed to be laying on. He seemed to be underground, it was dark and a sort of goo seemed to be dripping from the walls.
Oh my gosh was he in the sewers???
Suddenly the puddle of water his hand was hanging down into was a lot more gross, and he whipped his hand out and shook it franticly.
He sighed. His head was all fuzzy. And worse, the river kids where right, the massive rats really did drag kids to the sewers.
"Eat me, just make it fast, please" Tommy begged the hoards of rats he was sure were just out of sight. He screwed his eyes shut, sure the foot-long rats were waiting for their next meal to awaken.
"New kid's awake!"
The rats could talk. He thought, eyes cracking open, sight blurring the person leaning over him.
Another few people walked in the room, all looking very blob-like, and fuzzy around the edges.
"Are you okay? You hit... Well, everywhere pretty hard."
Tommy giggled, clumsily raising a hand and trying to reach the pink blob person. No one ever asked if he was okay before!
His head was all foggy, but something in his chest felt a bit warmer then before.
He felt himself drift off again, vaguely hearing new footsteps, and soft humming.
The singing one from before.
...
It was kinda nice.
Tommy was horrified. He had acted mushy to a whole room of people! He had giggled. The pink blob, who's name was Niki, had said he was,
"Adorable "
It was mortifying.
But she brought him little cakes sometimes, with real sugar. So maybe he let her give him hugs. And let her brush his hair. And knit him a sweater that he never took off. Just because of the sweets. That was it. Yup. Definitely.
He had been rescued by some underground rebellion, that just went on and on about something called "child labor laws"
What a stupid idea.
They were all bruised, just like him. Some had broken arms of legs, one had burns all across his face. He looked like fun, after Tommy watched him trip a guy and frame the fall freak next to him.
And they all had a spark in their eyes Tommy had only ever seen in a mirror.
To make it worse, every single one of them had seen him being...loopy. That was all it was. The warm feeling too.
He hadn't found the singer, but he had asked Niki, and she had said his name was Wil, and getting to hear him sing was very special.
Tommy liked feeling special.
He met some jealous looking orange haired fellow, an older kid who had snuck in alcohol, another kid that had a betting pool of rations going, (that seemed to be an immense success) and a guy named Techno.
"You have a terrible name"
"Thanks"
...I hate you"
Then Techno had dragged him down even deeper into their camp cave, and had showed him an actual, real, sword (super cool) and a potato farm.
Not cool.
Then Tommy booked it, because a freaky mushroom guy in the corner was staring at him, super creepily. (Techno had told him later that he was actually asleep)
Tommy listened to the sound of gentle breathing and quiet conversations, starring at the dark roof before letting his eyes slip closed.
They had apparently decided he was an infant and had to go to bed early, which he had been filled with justified anger over, and only submitted when Techno had pointed out he was throwing a tantrum, (no he wasn't) and proving their point.
As he drifted off that night, on a oh so soft bed, after Niki had tucked him in, he heard the pretty humming again.
Wilbur, Niki had said.
He could meet him tomorrow. Thank him for saving him.
But for now, he wanted to sleep.
Who knew getting thrown out a window was all he needed for this?
He smiled.