Chapter Text
Two lone figures, carefully perched within a wide, spacious room of fractures and breaks, of shattered photo frames and memories, oh-so reminiscent of a time that had once been - a time that had once thrived off of love, adoration, and a desperate need to be a family forevermore.
There was a pause between them, a lull of whirring silence that only appeared to be filled to the brim with wandering thoughts, of silent inquiries and unheard mumbles.
And then one broke the sunken immersion. "Can you start from the beginning?"
The immediate response was a deadpan stare, a look of thinly veiled disgust and an apparent downturn of the man's pursed lips. He sighed heavily. "Are you serious?"
"What!? C'mon, I get distracted easily, alright? It's not my fault!"
"You forgot everything that I said after a good five seconds max. Do you have the memory of a goldfish or something?"
"That was rude!"
"Good. It was intended to be."
Tommy stuck his tongue out, crossing his arms over his chest in a weak imitation of the pink-haired brute sat opposite him. "I'm going to get up and leave if you're not careful."
"Oh no, whatever would I do then?" A dry tone and an even dryer glare.
"Miss me?" Tommy offered, "Grovel at my feet and beg for me to stay?"
"No point. You wouldn't get far anyway. The forest wouldn't let you out."
Tommy's nose scrunched. “Well that’s ominous.”
"It's the truth."
"You live in one weird fuckin' forest, dude."
The man sighed, leaning his head back for a moment before straightening out. "Bruh. I told you before that I don't live here anymore."
"And? Weren't you literally just insulting my fuckin' memory? How was I supposed to remember that part?"
"I had hope. As minimal as it may be."
Tommy grinned, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess this is on you then, big man, not me."
"No, I still think this is on you. I shouldn't even be here; it's just because-"
"Because your weird, crazy brother put a charm on me when I was a baby, blah, blah, blah." Tommy interrupted, rolling his eyes as he went.
"...I thought that you'd forgotten what I'd said."
"Potato potahto, right?"
The two seemed to be stuck in an almost permanent staring contest then, all glaring, red eyes and 'innocent' blue orbs that shone with something bright. There was no blinking, no moving, no shifting or squirming or-
"Okay, okay," Tommy held his hands up in defeat, a sigh dripping from his lips. "I remembered some of it, alright? I know that you're called Technoblade-"
"Right."
"-And you grew up here with your dad and your brother-"
"Mhm."
"-And your dad is like, death or something-"
"Well…"
"-Whatever, christ, anyways uhm, your brother's a fuckin' Tinkerbell kinnie or something-"
"I have no idea what that means, but I'm inclined to disagree."
"-Don't care. You're a dragon apparently, and I was dumped here, in this forest of magical shit, when I was a few months old. You guys found me, and then oh-so kindly kicked me out again. The end."
Technoblade stared. And stared some more. He looked more disappointed than anything else at that point. Tommy couldn't even blame him. "Bruh. I seriously feel like you've gone and missed out just about everything important."
"At least I got some of it right! Honestly, if you didn't literally have horns sprouting out of your head, I would've thought you were just high on a shit ton of drugs right now."
"I could have just glued them on."
Tommy raised a brow. "Do you want me to believe that I've been kidnapped by a crazy nutjob in the middle of the woods?"
"Maybe. It could be funny."
"Wow. Woah. I didn't realise you actually knew what humour was."
"I'm going to kill you."
"Ha, ha- just purely because of how serious you looked while saying that," Tommy offered up around a choked laugh, pulling his hands together in front of him as if he were about to say a prayer, "I'll take it back. My bad, big man."
Technoblade huffed slightly, a little steam curling from his flared nostrils. "Your apologies need some work."
"No point; a charismatic, charming man like myself doesn't need to apologise often."
"I find that hard to believe."
"You can think what you want," Tommy shrugged as he moved to stand upwards, hands resting on his hips after he'd dusted his pants off. "I'm off now, anyways. Got shit to do."
Technoblade raised a brow. "What."
"I've got homework."
"... You've got homework." He parroted.
"Yep," Tommy nodded, picking up his backpack from the mucky floor he'd unceremoniously dumped it upon earlier. He slung it over his shoulder, letting the free strap dangle behind him. "Lovely chatting to you though, hope you have fun, uh-"
He glanced around at the room they were in. Technoblade had said that it was the living room, though it honestly looked more like a dumpsite than anything else. Maybe once before, it would have been something different, something homely and warm for all of the family to gather within as they shared light conversation, but now…
Now, Tommy felt as if he was about to start choking on asbestos at any moment.
"Have fun cleaning up?" He finally offered, eyes widening, however, at the sound of movement.
Technoblade looked more than just a little intimidating as he, too, rose upwards. He was a creature of great stature, a wide build and muscled limbs, of scars and battle wounds that Tommy almost, almost wanted to gulp at. There was not a single lick of anything inviting or warm crossing his features and actions.
Tommy let his gaze drag over the thick, winding cloak of red scales and pure-white accents around the jagged edges; let his gaze flit along the length of his horns as they curved from his shaped skull, lifting upwards in dangerous arrays; let his gaze take in the sharp cheekbones, the sharp talons, the sharp look within Techno's own eyes.
He looked a bit like if Satan had decided that he suddenly needed a more human-like form to scare the shit out of innocent, passing teenagers. Oh, and look where they were.
"Look, man," Tommy tried, bringing his hands up once more in the most placating gesture that he could manage. "This has been great, right, like 'woo!' I'm all for your magic stuff- hey! Hey, I've seen Merlin, super cool, y'know, keep being you man, but I've seriously gotta get back now, my-"
Techno stared. And seemed to look even more unimpressed, if that was possible. "You can't leave."
"...If this is about your whole spiel of the forest 'not letting me out' then, I hear you, but c'mon, I'm sure it'll be fine."
“No. You’re not leaving.”
Tommy blinked. "Okay, bordering on creepy vibes, here." He said with an awkward laugh, "Ignoring that, I'm really gonna go. You wait here, count to about three hundred thousand and one, and then you can come after me. How about that?"
"We're going to go and find Wilbur together."
Did this guy know how to take a damn hint? Tommy huffed, just about resisting the urge to drag his hand over his face and let out an exasperated groan. "...Wilbur, as in your brother Wilbur?"
"Yup."
"Wilbur as in the fairy, kind of weird, nature guy, Wilbur?"
Another nod, another confirmation. "Yup."
"Right, okay, and why do I need to be there for that again?"
Technoblade sighed a heavy, draining sigh. It didn't look as if he wanted to be there any more than Tommy did, honestly, but he still wasn't budging - almost as if his feet had been dunked in concrete a couple of times over and then left to dry underneath a scorching sun. Permanently fixed within his decisions, it seemed.
"You're going to help me bring him back."
Ah, there it was. Of course. This was some real protagonist shit, wasn't it?
Tommy wrung his hands out in front of himself, looking a little worse for wear the longer he stood there. "Okay, but why me specifically?"
Techno arched a brow. "He put a charm on you. You obviously have to mean something, right? It's just an educated guess, but I'm assuming you'll do well as the key to… whatever it is."
"You're making absolutely no sense."
"Bruh. Maybe you're just slow?"
"You're not making me feel very inclined to help you either." Tommy pointed out, huffing quietly.
"You don't really have a choice either way," Techno shrugged as he took a step back towards the front door. "Come on."
Tommy felt almost frozen as he watched the- the dragon guy hold open the door. He didn't really know what was happening, if he was perfectly honest. All he was relatively, vaguely aware of was that he'd gotten lost within a moving forest, met some creepy hybrid guy with pink hair, had a shitton of information dumped on him and then told that he wasn't going home.
It was a lot to take in, especially for a dazed sixteen-year-old who had just been trying to have a nap. He was still a little uncertain, a little unsure about whatever the fuck was going on. In all honesty, Tommy kind of half-assumed that he'd taken a couple of hits back in his last class, and this was the unfortunate aftermath.
Had Tubbo maybe given him something without him realising? Had Tommy filled his water bottle with vodka that morning? Was he maybe just losing his mind completely either way? It could be anything, really. Although, the whole situation actually being real was starting to feel a little too right for Tommy's liking.
(Oh, if only he could wake up from this, most likely drug-induced, nightmare.)
"You can't be serious," Tommy tried, gripping onto the backpack strap slung over his shoulder. "You can't be serious."
"Deadly," Technoblade replied, the slightest of cunning smiles gracing his features for just a brief moment or so before it disappeared into cool indifference.
Tommy took a slow step forwards and then another, doing his best to ignore the groaning, hissing creak of the floorboards underneath his shoes and the way that dust seemed to uproot and then settle with each timed movement.
He let himself land almost right in front of the hybrid creature with a surprisingly human-like exterior. There was just absolutely no way he was getting out of this, was there?
Okay.
"Okay bu-"
"Come on then."
"I wasn't done, you prick!" Tommy flailed, brows furrowing, although he obediently stepped out of the old, rundown home with Technoblade hot on his heels.
"Speak as we walk."
"Well, that's what I was going to ask about, actually."
"Hm?"
“Where are we going?”
Technoblade shrugged, mighty shoulders lifting and falling with practised ease. The dickhead was probably a king of being all nonchalant and dismissive, Tommy thought with a bitter scowl, seemed like his vibe. "Wherever Wilbur is."
As if that was a fuckin' straight answer, Jesus christ-
"Right, and where- where is this 'Wilbur' guy?"
"Uhh, last time I saw him, he was in the middle of leading a brutal dictatorship over his own kind."
Ah, made sense.
Tommy nodded and continued walking, hands shoving down into his pockets. A dictatorship, huh?
Huh.
His brows furrowed.
Wait. Hold on. No. Not again. He'd been- He'd missed the- Not again-
"What the fuck?"