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The police station lights hurt Tommy’s eyes, the bright leds shined down, he wished they sat him near the corner with the broken lights. Thankfully, he wasn’t cuffed, but he did have to sit in front of a cop at his desk. His name was Joshua, or maybe it was James? Tommy honestly couldn’t remember.
He had ran away from his current foster family, and had been caught trespassing on private property. The property was owned by a little old lady, so she didn’t want to press charges, which Tommy was immensely grateful for.
His current foster family were absolute shit, he’d only been with them a month but it’s a fucking miracle he hadn’t ran already. Tommy had tried to run but he was afraid of getting caught sneaking out until three days ago. He had finally had enough after being tormented by the other kids and the parents so he left. The only reason he got caught was because of that nosy fucking lady who wouldn’t leave the property once she saw a glimpse of Tommy and ended up calling the police.
“God, Thomas,” he turned to see his case worker, Maria, “why do you always do this?”
“Put me in a half decent home then,” he muttered, sipping the horrible coffee the cop gave him.
She sighed and looked at the cop, “Am I free to take him?”
James sighed, “Please.”
Tommy got up and faked a gasp, “I am offended, James.”
“It’s John.”
“Close enough,”
Maria grabbed Tommy’s arm and dragged him to her car. She definitely wasn’t very happy with him, but Tommy couldn’t give a single fuck, his current foster family was hell. And at least he didn’t get charged with anything.
“Thomas, I expected you to be on your best behavior since that nice man, Mr. Phil Watson, is taking you in,” she sighed and started the car, “Seems you’ve disappointed me again.”
“At least I’m good at something,” he gave her a shit eating grin, she looked like she wanted to slap it off, “When’s the guy coming?”
“Because of your recent… excursion, we moved the date up. To today. He should be picking you up later today.”
Tommy didn’t reply and looked out the window as they drove. He had had worse families than his current one, but these people were just so good at getting under his skin, it pissed him off. He hoped this Phil guy was at least semi good, no mega-strict rules or anything, though nothing surprised Tommy at this point.
He just couldn’t stay in a home for very long. The Watson household would be his 15th. He’d been in the system since he was 8, now, seven years later, he still hadn’t found that “forever home” everyone was always talking about.
Tommy was loud, and outspoken with absolutely no filter, which didn’t help his situation one bit. He tended to speak his mind quite a bit, usually it ends up in him getting punished because they don’t usually like what he has to say. Tommy can’t help it though, words usually just fall out of his mouth before he gets to think about it. It’s very rare he can catch himself.
When Maria and him got to the foster family, he went to go pack. Tommy shared a room with three other boys, who were insufferable. They constantly stole his things and hid them, and since they were older, only by a few years but still older, they would push him around. Tommy had his fair share of fights, not only with those boys, hell he had bruises and cuts on him right now.
Tommy wasn’t the strongest guy, but when he did get In a physical fight, he fought his hardest. He had managed to scrape by this far, he didn’t need anyone else and he could certainly fight his own battles. Even if he knew he could get by in this foster home, he would certainly be happy not having to see the older boys again.
Maria told him the Phil guy had two sons, who were both a year older than Tommy. She said that Phil had adopted them from the system and that he knew his way around the system. There may be some slight hope that the guy at least won’t be abusive, neglectful at best. Though, Tommy wasn’t looking forward to meeting his sons. Teenage boys are dicks, he should know, he is one.
Only one of the boys he shared a room with was in there, it was the tolerable of the three. He barely looked up from his school textbook when Tommy walked in. Tommy grabbed his backpack and started to threw his clothes in there. It didn’t take long, he had three of everything and it took up barely any space. Inside the bag were already his personal belongings, like his shitty old phone, around 75 dollars in cash, a cheap tourist necklace from an older foster kid he knew when he was 9, and a moth stuffed animal he would never admit he had.
He had two separate backpacks, his red one filled with his small amount of belongings, and his school backpack. Neither of them were very full, because of the system he tended not to have very many things. To finish his packing, he grabbed his toiletries, toothbrush, etc.
Phil wouldn’t be there to pick him up for another two hours. Tommy didn’t particularly like school and since he was switching he didn’t need to do any of that work, so to kill time he pulled out his school notebook, ripped out some paper and folded them into shapes. The only thing he was very good at making was paper crowns, but he had been trying to learn to make the paper cranes.
Tommy lost himself when he did origami, don’t know if he’d call it that, it relaxed him. He didn’t have to think, his hands took over, it was an almost autonomous act. Most of the time the paper figures got destroyed in his backpack or by the other boys, but Tommy could always remake them.
In the middle of attempting to perfect the crane origami, Maria came in and urged him to get his stuff. Tommy threw his red backpack over his shoulder and held his school one. He wouldn’t miss this place.
The other boy who was in the room chuckled, “Good riddance,”
“Go fuck yourself,” Tommy got a quick chastising from Maria for that.
Phil was a blond guy, similar to Tommy, of average height, a bit shorter than Tommy. Thankfully, Maria and him had already worked everything out so Tommy didn’t have to sit there waiting for two hours. The guy smiled when he saw Tommy, he didn’t return the sentiment.
“You must be Thomas,” he said, “I’m Phil.”
“It’s Tommy,” Maria squeezed Tommy’s arm, he rolled his eyes, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Watson.”
“Just Phil is fine,” he opened the car, “You can throw your stuff in the back. Is that all you have?”
He nodded and threw his two measly bags in the back. Phil told him to go ahead and get into the front. Tommy could still hear them from the front seat.
“Mr. Watson-”
“Phil,”
“Right, Phil, you really don’t have to take Thomas. I mean you’ve seen his file, I know of some other kids who would be wonderful additions to your household and would get along fine with your other two boys.”
Phil smiled and opened his car door, “It’s of no concern I promise. We should be going, we have a two hour drive.” He climbed into his car and turned on the ignition.
No one told him that Phil’s house was two hours away. Shit , he thought. If Tommy was to run, he’d have nowhere to go, there’s no cities two hours from their current one. He’d have to manage to get all the way to the city if he was to run away. He’d have to get creative.
“I’m sure your case worker told you I have to older boys,” Tommy nodded, “Great. I fostered and then adopted them both from the system too. Techno first and then Wilbur, ironically they’re twins, not biological though, Wilbur is two minutes older. Both of them are 16, so around a year older than you, right?”
“Yes, sir,” He was only half tuned in, he was watching things out of the window.
Phil chuckled, “Just Phil is fine. I’m sure you’ll get along with Techno and Wilbur fine.”
That’s what they all say , he thought. He’s sure that in secret he’ll be terrorized by them.
“Before we get there, I’ll let you know of the rules,”
Ah, so this must be the catch .
“I’d prefer it if you kept your room clean, but I get things happen sometimes. You can leave your shoes at the door or in your room, I don’t care, but be warned we have a dog and he may chew on them. We alternate who does the dishes each night. Last thing, you don’t have to get perfect grades, as long as you at least attempt in the class and try to get your assignments done.”
This had to be some fucking joke right? Some catch? Like the guy had to be an alcoholic and beats his kids or he makes us sleep outside for punishment or something . It was just too good to be true. Though, he figured, he hadn’t met Phi’s sons yet. The two could be absolute terrors.
Tommy was so lost in thought he didn’t realize Phil was glancing at him, “Does that sound doable, Tommy?”
“Yeah, sounds fine,”
They continued the car ride in relative silence, the radio made faint noise, but he didn’t really care for radio music. Phil left him alone, Tommy could feel him glancing at him every so often, he was glad though, he didn’t feel like making small talk.
The car ride was long and miserable. It was terribly awkward. Phil must’ve sensed Tommy wasn’t comfortable, so he left him alone for most of it, but when they finally got into the small-ass town he now had to live in, Phil commented on everything. Tommy was slightly grateful, he knew what everything and was engaged enough to make a mental note of where some of the places are.
By the time Tommy was grabbing his backpacks out of the backseat he was ready to lay down in an isolated room and not come out for three days. He fiddled with his backpacks as long as humanly possible before begrudgingly walking to where Phil stood on the front porch. Tommy did not want to meet Technoblade and Wilbur, also who names their child fucking Technoblade?
Phil opened the front door, instantly there were voices lightly bickering.
“You lied! You do have fucking 6’s!”
“And you have a card in your sleeve! Your point?”
Phil walked down a small hallway, “Boys,”
Both of his children turned to him and at the same time said, “ Dad , he’s cheating.”
“Quit cheating, both of you,” Phil said, “Boys, this is Tommy.”
No words were exchanged for a good half minute. The two boys stared at Tommy from their spot on the floor, they were sizing him up. Tommy stared right back. One of them was a hybrid, long pink hair, tusks, red eyes, floppy ears and a few facial scars. Pig hybrid. The other was human, like Phil, he was tall, very tall, messy brown hair, brown eyes.
Thankfully, Phil must’ve sensed the tension, “This is Techno,” that one was the pig hybrid, “and this is Wilbur.”
Tommy suppressed the urge to cuss and ask what they were looking at, “Hi,”
Techno just nodded at him and turned back to his card, Wilbur stared for an extra second and said, “Hello,”
“Well,” Phil turned away from his sons, “I’ll give you the tour.”
Phil gave him the full tour very enthusiastically. All Tommy wanted to do was lay down but Phil showed him his room last. Phil’s room was on the first floor along with the kitchen, living room, laundry room and bathroom. Wilbur’s and the guest room, which was now Tommy’s temporary room. Techno’s room was in the attic.
Phil opened the door to Tommy’s room, “It’s pretty bare but we can go shopping tomorrow for clothes and decor. I’ll leave you alone now, we should have dinner soon, feel free to join us.”
He closed the door and Tommy was finally alone. He kicked off his old, torn shoes and tossed them in a corner. He threw his bags onto the floor and collapsed onto the bed. Social interaction sucked.
Slowly and begrudgingly, Tommy sat up and started to go through his bags, the school bag was mostly empty and didn’t need unpacking, so he threw it toward the desk in the room. He unzipped his red bag.
First, he pulled out Clementine, his moth stuffed animal. He put her in the corner of the bed, so hopefully no one saw her if they came in the room. He kept the measly 75 dollars in the bag, as well as the shitty necklace, he never really wore it anyway, he just kept it to remember that old foster kid. The clothes didn’t take too long to put away, it’s not like he had many to begin with. Phil said he was going to take Tommy shopping, to be honest, that was the first time in years. The three outfits he currently possessed barely fit and are worn out.
After unpacking, he laid back down and pulled out his phone. Before he ran a few days ago, he managed to swipe one of his foster brothers earbuds. Music was calming to Tommy, so he put them in, hit the play button on one of his playlists, and tried not to think about his situation.