Chapter Text
“Says they’d like to be called Ranboo.” Kristen handed Phil a pile of clothing and some scissors.
“You got them to open up?” Philza took a seat in the chair by the hearth, eyeing up the chalk marks along a pair of pants within the pile before beginning to cut them to size.
“Tubbo did, actually.” Kristen took a seat opposite him, taking the newly hacked up pants from him before pinning the hemline together. “He and Tommy are sticking to the kid like glue.”
“Well that’s good they’re getting along so quickly.” Phil nodded, glancing up at the boys.
Techno was at his usual spot, close to the fire and wrapped in blankets as he read. Occasionally patting the boar’s head of the fur in his lap between turning pages.
Phil took note of the way the boy squinted now and then.
“We’ll need to think about getting Tech some glasses.” he said quietly to Kristen.
His wife nodded in agreement. “I’ll have a talk with the optometrist back at the village.”
Philza’s eyes drifted from Techno, the boy still looking quite comfortable at his seat by the hearth despite his apparent vision issues, and finally landed on Wilbur.
The brunette was sitting by the windowsill, pen and parchment in hand, carefully sketching out the basics of bars in preparation for another song he must be writing.
Phil finally let his eyes wander to the three toddlers, huddled under the dining table, playing some game of make believe.
Tommy was babbling about something, a dragon that ate some sort of purple goo? Whatever that meant. And Tubbo was staring intently at him, nodding emphatically in agreement. While the newest member, the changeling, sat beside the little brunette. Their arms hugging their legs to their chest. Wearing a shirt that was far too big and hung like a nightgown across their boney frame.
They were smiling, though. Their tail wagging back and forth in delight at whatever game the three were playing.
“So.” he heard Kristen ponder. “Five now, huh.”
Philza sighed. “Yeah. Yeah I guess so.”
Five little mouths to feed. Five little pairs of feet to run about in the early mornings. Five little possibilities of injuries and bruises and scrape knees and crying late at night from tummy aches. Five little children, three boys and a changeling, who were going to grow up under their roof.
And they would be growing up under their roof, Philza told himself. At this point, no matter how many jokes, about finding parents looking for their lost children, were made, no matter how many “anyone looking to take on another kid?” was mentioned at the dinner table in jest, it would only be that. In jest.
Philza had resigned himself to that fact long ago.
He wasn’t about trade his life for the world.
“Techno! Techno!”
Phil smiled as he watched the toddlers pull the changeling to the older boy.
“Show them what-what you can do with the boar skin!” Tommy jumped excitedly, pointing at the fur beside the older boy.
The changeling looked utterly confused as Techno nodded, setting his book aside before throwing the skin around himself, tracing out the red lines across his shoulders, and with a slight shimmer of light, had melded with the skin.
Now, sitting puppy dog-like on the floor before the toddlers, was a pink, fluffy boarlette, with little patches of red along the mane of the fluff atop his head and neck.
“See? See!” Tommy clapped his hands.
“He’s so cool!” Tubbo added. “Sometimes he lets us ride on his back like this!”
The changeling, Ranboo, made a faint “Oh!” sound, and then scrunched up their face. Before a swirl of purple particles surrounded them, obscuring them from view for a brief moment, only for them to reappear. Only now as a dark grey boarlette, mirroring Techno, sitting on the floor.
And that was the end of any hope of a quiet morning for the family.
The next three hours was filled with screams of delight and laughter as the toddlers chased the two boarlettes around the house, sometimes riding them, more often than not crashing into one another with a delighted squeal.
Eventually, Philza and Kristen, with the help of Wilbur, had to pry the four away from each other once the crying started.
No one was hurt, Phil ensured that as he inspected each of the children carefully for cuts and scrapes. But they were certainly overwhelmed.
Even Techno was tearing up a bit once he had tumbled out of his boarskin.
“Alright kiddos.” Philza hoisted Tubbo and Tommy up in his arms, hugging the sniffling toddlers. “I think that’s enough roughhousing today.”
“No!” Tommy hiccupped, grabbing Phil’s coat. “No I-I’m fine!”
“I’m not!” Tubbo buried his face in Phil’s shoulder.
“I’m tired…” Ranboo mumbled wearily from Kristen’s arms as the two carried the children to their rooms.
“Don’t blame ya mate, you been playing for three hours with no breaks.” Philza chuckled, patting the changeling’s head as he finally deposited the two boys into their respective beds. Kristen followed suit, tucking Ranboo into the spare bed between the two toddlers as Phil tried to wrangle a still wriggly Tommy into his sheets.
“I’m not tired!” the toddler wailed. “ ‘m not!”
“Alrighty then, you’re not.” Philza crossed his arms. “You’re totally not tired ey?”
Tommy mimicked the motion. “Not at all!”
“Then don’t take a nap!” Phil grinned.
“I won’t!” Tommy huffed.
“Good!” Philza winked at Kristen, who returned the wink as she tucked in the already sound asleep Tubbo.
“I bet you can’t stay in your bed either.” he added.
Tommy scowled. “Yes I can!”
“Alright then I bet you can’t keep your eyes closed for a hundred seconds!” Phil smirked.
“I can too!” Tommy flung the sheet up over his face and began to count.
“One! Two! Three! Five!”
“You missed four.” Kristen smothered a laugh.
“Four!” Tommy added. “Three! Seven! Eight...twelve….onety one...two…”
The toddler’s voice slurred groggily.
“....seven an...an three...thre...two…”
And like that, he was out.