Chapter Text
By the time Tommy finally realized his hybrid traits were coming in, it was too late. Tubbo and Ranboo had already left for the night, and would probably be gone all of the next day as well. He was entirely alone, except for the small zombie piglin child tugging gently on his pants sleeve.
“Just a second,” Tommy told the child gently, pulling back his own mouth in the bathroom mirror to reveal slightly swollen gums where sharp teeth would soon emerge. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Of all the fucking days, of all the fucking times, his hybrid traits had to emerge when he was babysitting.
His life was truly miserable. Tommy scooped the child up from the tiled floor with one hand and marched him into the kitchen. Michael squealed happily, kicking his legs in the air as he hung over Tommy’s shoulder.
Tommy deposited Michael into his highchair, locking the tray in to keep the piglin from escaping. He reached haphazardly into the fridge, grabbing the first pouch of applesauce that his eyes landed on. They’d had dinner earlier with Tubbo and Ranboo, but Tommy thought it’d be best that the little guy definitely wouldn’t be going to sleep hungry. Michael waved his arms around, reaching for his food, and Tommy popped the applesauce cap open. He chucked it on the highchair table without care, and Michael immediately started gnawing on the open cap.
Tommy ventured into the other parts of the house aimlessly, beginning to gather blankets, pillows, Michael’s toys, and anything else he could get his hands on. His head was pounding violently against his skull with every step he took, and the pile of belongings in his arms was getting increasingly harder to see over. He stopped back in the kitchen, where Michael was silently enjoying his applesauce, and finally looked down at his arms and took notice of the array of stolen items.
That must have something to do with his hybrid traits coming in. He tried not to consider what that might mean too much. Tommy had heard the stories from both Tubbo and Ranboo about when their hybrid traits came in. Hell, he had even been there for the latter part of Tubbo’s transition. Tommy remembers his friend shaking violently, screaming in pain, and later passing out. Needless to say Tommy was not enthusiastic to go through that.
Logically, a transition didn’t last more than 24 hours or so. Tommy could ride it out overnight while Michael slept. It would be fine. It would all work out.
Michael tossed the empty applesauce container to the ground as Tommy paced back and forth. Michael stared at his uncle, head tilted to the side and his singular working eye following every move.
Tommy grumbled, running a hand through his hair. He immediately retracted it, realizing that touching his head only increased his headache tenfold.
Michael said something Tommy couldn’t understand in whatever the fuck nether language the small piglin spoke. Tommy raised an eyebrow at the child. “I can’t understand that.”
Michael lifted his arms up in the air to be let out of the high chair. Tommy dropped the items from his arms onto the ground and picked up Michael, holding him close to his chest.
Tommy still needed to get Michael ready for bed. He climbed up the ladder into Michael’s room, keeping Michael tucked close into his side. Tommy, with his last remaining bit of sanity, helped Michael change into the pajamas his parents had laid out for him. Tommy was supposed to read Michael a bedtime story, but he wasn’t sure if he’d physically be able to. Michael peered up at him from his spot tucked away under the covers, grunting again in the piglin language.
“I’ll be right back, big man,” Tommy whispered, patting the top of the child’s head. He hurriedly climbed back down the ladder, close to full on panic. Tommy had fucked up so bad. The first time that Tubbo and Ranboo had trusted him to watch Michael alone, and his fucking body decided to prohibit him from being a good babysitter in any sense of the word.
Tommy opened the fridge, the urge to stash food so strong he couldn’t resist it anymore. He grabbed some water bottles, an entire bag of grapes, and a random cheese stick.
Peering back up over the top of the trapdoor and seeing Michael was still safely situated in his bed, Tommy threw the items onto the wooden floor, leaving the trapdoor open and disappearing down the bottom of the ladder again. He poked his head above the floor a second time, throwing a variety of blankets, pillows, and toys to the ground. Michael, now sitting up at the edge of his bed, looked on in wonder. Tommy went back down once more, grabbing some gaps from one of Tubbos hidden spots in the kitchen.
His headache grew so strong he wasn’t sure he could hear the outside world even if he tried. His mouth hurt where some sort of teeth were growing in, and the top sides of his head ached. That wasn’t even including his lower back- which shot spikes of pain up his spine whenever he made a wrong move. Tubbo was right when he said that a hybrid transition was brutal.
Tommy made his final trip back up the ladder, and closed the trapdoor back behind him. He hauled the items he had gathered all onto a heap on Michael’s bed. Michael immediately spotted one of the golden apples, and he turned it over again and again in his small hands, grunting happily at the sight of the gold. Tommy climbed into the bed next to Michael. Luckily, Tubbo and Ranboo had Michael’s bed made quite big. Tommy assumed it was because of Ranboo’s abnormally tall height. The bed allowed Tommy to safely situate himself on the other side of Michael.
Tommy rolled over on his side, his back hurting too much to lay on it. Michael, silent as ever, stared on at Tommy. After a moment, the child held out the gapple to him. Tommy stiffened at the outstretched hand. He knew that Michael was a piglin, he knew how much gold meant to him. He had even heard stories from Tubbo about Michael running off with Ranboo’s crown and refusing to give it back.
Tired, in obscene amounts of pain, and now overwhelmed with emotion- Tommy’s eyes watered as he accepted the apple. Remembering he had brought multiple, he reached an arm behind him until he felt the shape of another apple and traded the new one with the one Michael had given him. Michael snorted softly, and did what Tommy could only describe as the imitation of a smile.
Tommy slowly bit down on the golden apple, but after one bite immediately set it back behind him. The hard fruit only hurt his teeth even more, and he was sure that the pain of eating the gapple itself would be worse than the pain that would have been relieved had he eaten it all.
Michael curled up around his own golden apple, staring down at it as his eye grew heavy with sleep. Tommy whined softly, everything becoming too much, so much, all at once. He grabbed Michael and pulled the child closer to him, his instincts screaming at him.
Protect.
Michael didn’t seem to mind, he just babbled more. Eventually- Michael’s soft noises died down entirely and Tommy was left alone in the dark shivering and shaking. He managed to reach an arm to find another blanket, pulling it tighter towards himself. His head suddenly throbbed, a new immense wave of pain washing over his senses, and he threw a hand up to his mouth and bit down so his screams couldn’t be heard. The action only made his teeth hurt worse. Perhaps it'd be useful to stop biting on things. He felt something dripping down his forehead, and reached a hand up to discover that it was blood. Oh. Great.
Another wave of pain hit him, and he curled closer into Michael, sniffling softly and wiping the tears from his waterline. Tommy had never felt this much pain in his life. Not during any of the L’manburg wars, not during exile, not even stuck in the prison with Dream. This type of pain traveled throughout his entire body, reverberating through his head at every given moment. His body was quite literally growing new body parts, and it hurt like hell.
Tommy only knew one thing to do. The same thing he did every time he was down, every time he didn’t think he could go on anymore. With trembling hands, he reached for his communicator and compiled a hastily worded message to Tubbo.