Chapter Text
All Tommy could feel was an overwhelming nausea, making him stumble the moment he could see again. The world was spinning around him and it felt a lot like when Tommy had gotten the flu when he was a kid. The main feeling around him wasn't really pain but more of a tingling, as if his entire body had fallen asleep.
Wilbur's arms were holding him up, pressing Tommy into his soft yellow sweater. The two were standing in the faerie ring, the one in the human world that Tommy recognized, his home, his real home.
“W- Wil?” Tommy questions softly, tears brimming at his eyes.
Wilbur looked down at him, moving Tommy in his hold slightly, making him feel even more nauseated, “It's ok, Toms” The fae reaching a hand up to brush hair out of Tommy’s face “Once the nausea has worn off I’ll set you down.”
They sit there for a while; the only time Wilbur moves is to sit down and to lay Tommy across his lap, at some point disappearing for a moment to return with a soft blanket. Wilbur is a warm, comforting presence, something that made the deepest parts of Tommy's mind scream family. And well, he couldn't help but agree.
Once Tommy gave Wilbur the go to, he did set Tommy down; though, Tommy had to stay holding on to Wilbur. The faerie apparently, “didn't trust him to stand on his own” which.. Was probably true but still a little demeaning.
Wilbur began to walk forwards, Tommy only a few paces behind him. The forest looked just as beautiful as ever, if not more because of Wilbur's presence. Flowers open as they walked, wind blowing softly making for a calming environment.
Multiple animals; deers, squirrels, birds, and even what looked like a wolf, approached them. Wilbur dismisses each and every one.
“Tommy” Wilbur said, catching his attention, he instantly glanced up, almost tripping over a rock over a rock in his distraction before Wilbur caught him with a snort. What a total bitch. “I’m sorry it was so hard for you to get here early today, dear, I didnt— I had been busy despite our deal and I forgot. I'm really sorry, I know you got lost and I know how stressful that must have been for you.” The fae ruffles Tommy's hair quickly in a short attempt at comfort.
Tommy swings his leg at Wilbur's, hitting his mark of the faerie’s shin perfectly, Wilbur stumbling back with a hiss and a few curses. “It's fine, I got to meet Tech-no and his unicorn!!”
Wilbur glares at him and he assumes it's because Tommy brought up Techno, he thinks this might end up being a new favorite pastime of his, annoying Wilbur. The man got so intensely jealous and pouty over Techno and Tommy, or anything that involved taking Tommy’s attention away from Wilbur in general; it was the funniest thing ever.
The two sat in a comfortable silence as they walked, the forest was opening up a path around them, a path for them. It was a lot nicer than earlier that day.
Any time he got too tired they would either take a break or Wilbur would carry Tommy on his shoulder cause he was strong and tall and cool. Right now though, Tommy was walking because Wilbur was also a total loser.
The fae handed him a slice of bread, leaning over and looking down at Tommy, flashing a sharp-toothed grin at the boy. “So, Tommy. Who’s your main guardian— or the orphanage owner?”
Tommy took a bite of the bread, it tasted amazing like all fae food did. It was sweet and fluffy and soft and brought a fucking tear to his eyes.
. “Sam” Tommy mumbled through the food in his mouth, bread crumbs spilling to the floor as he shoved the whole thing in his mouth. “He's fun and really kind!! I love him— he's like my uh— my dad!”
The fae beside him claps Tommy on the back sharply; annoyance instantly radiating off of him, his hand tugged Tommy closer.
When Tommy glanced up at him again, he looked eerily human, the way he had looked a few days before when he met Tommy in the village, it's a glamour, obviously, but tommy hadn't expected wilbur to put it on so…sudenly.
It was odd to see Wilbur like this and he didn’t like it.
“Wil–-” Tommy whines in as high of a pitch as he could muster, “When are we gonna be home.” He slumped against Wilbur's side, attempting to goad the man into carrying him.
“Soon Toms,” Wilbur muttered, carding his hands through Tommy's hair, working through the tangles in it, “soon.”
~
Tommy ran into the house, dropping the bag of food Wilbur had gifted him in favor of running up into green haired man’s arms.` “Sam!!!”
Wilbur stood behind him, leaning on the doorframe with a nasty glare. Both Sam and Tommy were too distracted to notice him yet.
“Tommy! Where have you been it's so late—”
He huffs, thinking of some sort of an excuse to tell Sam, obviously he couldn’t say that he had been out in the forest with a fae-.
“He was out with me” WIlbur interrupts, drawing Sam’s eyes to him. “Ive been thinking of adopting him.”
Tommy can feel Sam's chest begin to rise faster, just barely; his hold around Tommy tightening as he speaks, “And who exactly are you?”
“My name is Wil, im from up near the capitol– just visiting.’” The faerie offers his hand up for Sam to shake which he brazenly ignores.
“Well then” Sam basically snarls, hatred in his eyes that Tommy cannot see nor understand. “You can be going now.”
The two have a staring contest. Their eyes meet, both filled with anger, malice, jealousy. Sam with a bit of fear. When Tommy looks back at Wilbur, he thinks for a moment that the fae is going to ignore Sam, but instead he turns and walks out of the home; slamming the door behind him.
Sam grabs at him desperately, tugging Tommy closer with an air of fear around him. The hug goes on for far longer than normal, despite Tommy's struggles to get away from him. Its nice enough, not as nice as Wilbur's hugs but…nice.
After what was at least 5 minutes or so, Sam lets go, still keeping a hold of Tommy's hand as he grabs a bag from the counter. “Im taking you back to the orphanage today, Tommy.” He says as they walk towards the door.
Tommy whimpers. Contrary to popular belief, he actually doesn't want to go back. Was- was Sam going to abandon him t––
“It's just until I can solidify the papers ok” Sam squeezes his hand tightly, practically reading Tommy's mind. “A month- at most.”
He presses his face into Tommy's shoulder, shuddering out a breath. It was weird seeing him seem so…fragile.
~
Sam was standing a few feet in front of him, talking to one of the orphanage attendants, Tommy was hiding behind him, he had been since he saw Scott's awful glare, a look in his eyes that filled Tommy with fear.
Scott was another kid at the orphanage, The boy was ages older than Tommy and very mean. He was also popular among the other kids and the caretakers. Every one of them turning a blind eye every time Scott would beat him up. There wasn't even a rhyme or reason behind it, he just hated Tommy, for no reason.
Sam looked down at him , momentarily pausing in his words to pet Tommy's hair in a comforting way, before he looked back up to finish up the conversation.
His words to the women are harsh as he occasionally gestures down to Tommy, there’s anger in his eyes and though Tommy isn't exactly listening he hears Sam bring up bruises and scars multiple times.
The women, while looking properly cowed, glances off at Tommy every now and then to give him a death glare, one that promises pain in the near future.
It takes 30 minutes for Sam to finish yelling at the Women, finally turning to leave. He gives Tommy a big goodbye hug, whispering promises and assurances into his ears, the man resting his chin in Tommy's golden blonde hair for a moment before he pulls away.
The woman who was speaking to Sam grabs his hand the moment Sam has stepped away from Tommy, leading him towards the doors to the orphanage, Tommy twists and turns to see Sam before he is out of view, begging the man with his eyes to take Tommy back. Sam, of course, just waved him off to his literal grave.
The moment the doors shut behind the two, her grip turns sharp, and painful, bruises blooming under her grip. “You little brat,” she sneers. “You told him didn't you!”
“T–told him wha—”
She grabs his face in her hands, squeezing it together in a painful way that's probably going to become yet another bruise. “You know what, you idiot fucking child!”
Her hand connects hard with his face, leaving a stinging pain there. Blood slowly drips down from his nose, leaving a stain on his white, tattered shirt. Tommy stares up at the woman with a dazed expression; she’s already begun dragging him painfully towards his section, his feet dragging across the ground.
They both know that when he gets there, he is to face a much more painful beating. The woman, in fact, is counting on it.
Her fingernails have left sharp indents in his skin, and her palm has left a horrid stinging sensation on Tommy's face and a smear of blood from his nose.
A crow is watching from the window.
Peering in at the scene, something about its presence is far too grand to be a crow, to be anything mortal.
~
“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” Scott remarks with a sadistic look in his eyes, approaching Tommy after the orphanage attendant had shoved him inside the room.
A group of boys are watching from their place in the room, a few standing just behind Scott, eager to help and avoid angering the violent boy.
Tommy flinches away as someone tosses something at him, missing by an inch. He knows that he won't be able to beg his way out of this, he knows that nothing he can do will get him out of his predicament.
Scott steps closer, a knife is in his hands. Tommy is not curious about where he got it, Tommy wishes not to know.
He hopes that he can check out of this whole thing, crawl far enough back into the recess of his mind that he won't feel the pain from it all.
That hope is quickly squashed as Scott drags the knife down his cheek, a thin line of blood forming as it moves; Scott stopping the knife just before his chin. He pushes down harder there, a much larger gash forming.
One of Scott’s hands is in his hair, tugging his head up and leaving Tommy's eyes watering. “Now Tommy, what do we say?”
“I- I'm sorry” Tommy's breath is quickening, and he can feel his calm slipping away despite his desperate attempts to grasp onto it.
“I'm sorry”, He gasps as the knife moves to his throat.
Scott looks him up and down before dropping the knife from Tommy's throat and tucking it into his pocket. “You know, Tommy.”
As Tommy looks into Scott's eyes, he can almost see a hint of sorrow and regret. Humanity, he thinks. There's something about Scott's look that almost makes Tommy think that he’ll let him go. It's not quite a look of guilt, per se, something much more complex swirling in Scott’s eyes.
“You really are so naive." The elder's fist slams into his face, forcing Tommy's head to smack backwards against the wall. His nose picks up bleeding yet again, and a headache instantly begins to form behind his eyes.
Another boy's hands wrap around his throat, holding him up against the wall. Scott grabs one of his arms, twisting it until there's a sickening crack. Scott lets go and takes a step back, preparing to continue with his onslaught.
He brings his foot into Tommy's stomach hard, making Tommy retch slightly, leaving him gasping for air even more as the hands around his neck grow tighter.
The knife is brought back up to his neck; Tommy hadn't even seen Scott pull it out. He drags the blade down Tommy's neck, leaving another long, dripping line of blood. Scott next brings it to Tommy's hands, cutting down hard and rubbing the blade against his skin.
Blood wells out of those too.
Scott then moves on to taking chunks of his hair out and leaving them to fan over the ground, taking his blade to the braid at his nape that Techno had made for him. Remarking something about how it was stupid and childish.
This continues on, Scott pressing his blade against Tommy's skin and waiting to see his reaction, the cuts only getting deeper as time passes, his white t-shirt is stained with splotches of blood now, and there are multiple new rips and tears in it.
Once Scott tucks the blade away, the hands holding him up by his throat pull away, dropping him painfully against the floor.
Scott grabs Tommy by his shirt, dragging him across the floor to the middle of the room.
All the boys who weren't standing yet, are now. All coming to gawk and stare at Tommy's suffering.
There's a kick delivered to his side, Tommy thinks that it came from Scott but can't quite tell as he curls inward on himself and sobs. The pain is too much. It's hard to breathe, it's hard to think, it's hard to do anything with the overwhelming pain that washes over him.
Another kick comes.
Then another.
Then another.
And another, and another, and another.
Eventually, laughs fill the room as Tommy twitches, mocking his pain.
People start stomping on him, hitting him, scratching him, tugging his hair.
At some point, he can feel the knife come back and draw more lines against his skin.
After a while, Scott speaks directly to him again rather than addressing the boys in the room or just making fun of him. It's something or another about how he should just give up, but Tommy is far too gone to understand, having slipped into unconsciousness ages ago.
~
He wakes up in a cold sweat. The room around him is dark, and every single part of his body hurts, an aching pain that won't leave, in some places, it stings.
He's alone in the room.
There's a pool of blood around him despite most of his bleeding having ceased. There are black and blue bruises littering his body along with far too many cuts and scratch marks.
A trickle of blood comes from his neck.
Tommy tries to stand and finds himself too dizzy and weak to move.
But,
Then again, he has to get out; he has to move. Or he will die here.
Tommy tries it again and manages to push himself up off the floor; it's the hardest thing he's ever done, fighting against the want to lay down and sleep.
He thinks of Tubbo, who is still living for him. He thinks about Sam, about the life he’ll have with the man if he makes it that far. He thinks of Wilbur and Techno. He thinks of Purpled and Dream and all the bitches who he has to live longer than. Tommy thinks about his life and makes a decision, fighting off death herself.
Tommy won't die.
He cannot die.
There is one person in the world who can fix this mess, one person who can potentially save him.
He needs to see Wilbur.