Chapter Text
Ash opens the door to the bedroom slowly, so as not to wake the young man currently sleeping in the bed next to the window.
His wings lay over him, shielding his body should anything decide to attack in the middle of the night while he’s asleep and she approaches warily.
“Dad!” A young child runs by her, startling her out of her stalking and waking the man up.
“Good morning,” he yawns.
“Good morning Phil. I tried not to wake Tommy up, but turns out he’d crawled into bed with me last night and refused to let me get up without him as well.” She says, grabbing Tommy from the bed where he’d started to jump up and down at the end of it.
“Ah, well, probably for the best.” Phil says as he watches Ash set Tommy down onto the ground where he promptly runs off to do god knows what.
“Techno and Wilbur are outside fighting each other again. God knows what it is they’re fighting over this time. I was going to get them myself, but was worried I'd get trapped in the middle of them.” Ash frowns and Phil shakes his head.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got them if you can handle Tommy for a few minutes.” Phil steps out of bed, his dark wings stretching out slightly.
From the moment Phil and Ash first met, she’s been hesitant to join in on any kind of fighting. She’s never explained why and Phil’s never asked, assuming it has something to do with whatever happened before they met, seeing as she’s more than 500 years older than him.
“He’s four years old. I think I’ve got this.” Ash laughs, leaving the room in search of the child.
Phil groans as he wonders about whatever the two older children are fighting about this time. Ever since they got older, the inseparable duo have become engaged in constant verbal and physical battles. Honestly, Phil is getting tired of it but he has no idea how to stop it.
He changes into a long robe for the day, leaving the bedroom and seeing Ash chasing Tommy around the living room, eventually catching him by wrapping her wing around him as he tries to get around her. He smiles softly at the sight, hearing the giggles from Tommy and seeing the joy in Ash’s eyes. He would rather have no here by his side, especially after losing Kristen.
Steeling himself for the inevitable scuffle that’s going to happen when he tries to break up the boys, he opens the front door and his mouth immediately drops to the ground. Techno stands with his back to the house, towering over an unmoving figure on the ground, his long sword dripping blood into the grass. Scratches cover his body and a slowly spreading patch of red stains his shirt.
Phil screams, an unintelligible sound, startling the dragon hybrid into almost dropping Tommy on the ground in shock, just barely managing to land him on the couch where he sits giggling.
She runs out the door and her heart immediately drops at the sight in front of her. Phil kneels next to Wilbur’s body, hands pressed to his abdomen in a futile attempt to stop the flow of blood.
Ash runs to them, falling to her knees as she presses her hands to Wilbur's body, the healing magic flowing through her fingers and repairing the damage done by Techno, who now sits against a tree a little ways away from everyone.
The jagged wound in the boy's chest slowly closes up, leaving only a faded scar as a reminder of what happened. Techno watches on, emotionless on the outside but internally screaming at himself. He hadn’t meant for this to happen. He didn’t mean to fight Wilbur. It was just supposed to be a sparring session, but the voices that had slowly been popping up started to demand he hit harder, stop pulling his punches and aim for the more tender spots of his opponent. One thing led to another and the next thing he knew he was standing over the body of his brother, watching as he bled out into the front lawn.
Wilbur gasps softly, taking a deep breath in as Phil clutches onto him, hugging his son close to him.
Phil looks up to where Techno is sitting, practically burning holes into Techno with his stare. “Get away. Now.”
He doesn’t need to be told twice, standing and walking past his brother and adoptive dad, who sit on the ground hugging each other.
Ash stands, watching Techno leave, seeing the confused look on Tommy’s face as he watches from the doorway. She follows after him into the house, telling Tommy to stay on the couch for a little bit.
Knocking on the door of the bathroom, Ash can hear the water being turned off before it swings open, a confused Techno standing on the other side. The medical kit sits opened up on the counter and she sees the bloodied shirt Techno wore discarded on the floor.
“May I?” She nods towards the medical kit and he moves out her way wordlessly, letting her into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
Stringing the needle silently, she starts work on stitching the long cut. He doesn’t make a noise, as unmoving as a statue while she works. She would use her magic, like usual, but she used up her energy practically bringing Wilbur back from the dead.
“Why?” Techno asks after some time, not questioning why she helps people, but mostly why she’s in here helping him having seen what he did.
“Because I know you didn’t mean it. I know what it’s like being persuaded to do things you don’t want to do, and I know how you feel. I’ve hurt a lot of people in my very long life, and I can tell you that that’s not the worst I’ve seen. And I don’t hate you. Phil doesn’t either. He’s just hurt and worried for Wilbur right now. That’s a very scary thing to have to see as a father.” Ash finishes stitching up the wound and bandaging it, looking up at the piglin hybrid's face to see tears glinting in his eyes.
Before she can say anything, he’s already wrapping his arms around her in a hug, letting her cradle him to her chest on the ground and hold him as he lets the silent tears roll down his cheeks. She doesn’t know how long they stay there in that position, but soon she can hear the almost inaudible snores from Techno and smiles at how adorable the young piglin hybrid is when sleeping.
After a few moments of thinking, she knows what she needs to do. The only hard part will be convincing Phil it’s the right thing.