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“WILBUR! NO!” Tommy shrieks, screaming with laughter as his older brother tickle-attacks him in the sitting room of their little home.
“Say it!” Wilbur replies, pinching Tommy’s sides, and drags the child back into his lap every time he comes close to escaping.
Tommy gasps for air and screams some more, giggling uncontrollably. “NO! I WON’T DO IT! Phil! Phil! DAD! SAVE ME!”
“What’s this about saving?” Phil asks, walking into the room with a steaming cup of hot coffee and an easy smile on his face.
Wilbur doesn’t let up. “Say it! Say it and I’ll let you go!”
“FINE! FINE! MERCY! PLEASE!”
Wilbur releases his hold on Tommy and immediately the child rolls off the couch, flopping onto the floor as he tries to catch his breath.
Phil chuckles heartily and places his mug on the coffee table before kneeling down next to his littlest son. “You alright, Toms?” He asks, giving the boy’s golden hair a bit of a ruffle.
Tommy grins, toothy and bright, blue eyes sparkling as he looks up at Phil. “I’m fine! That was so fun,” he breathes.
Then the doorbell rings, and if anyone thought it wasn’t possible before, Tommy brightens further. He rushes to his feet and claps his hands excitedly.
“I’ve got it!” Tommy proclaims, sprinting to front door with Phil and Wilbur hot on his heels.
He flings it open with all the might his five-year-old self can muster (which is a surprising amount, to be fair. The door bounces off the wall when it hits—Phil sighs, hoping it doesn’t leave a dent or scratch in the paint) and squeals at the sight of Technoblade standing awkwardly with an uneasy slight upward-pull to his lips.
Tommy surprises everyone, especially Technoblade, when he runs at the man and jumps into his arms, nearly sending them both tumbling to the ground. Phil gasps, Wilbur shrieks, Tommy giggles, and Techno huffs as he manages to keep them upright, safely propping the gremlin up on his hip.
“Hello to you too, nerd.” Techno says, giving the kid a half-hearted glare. He will deny to the end of his days that the way Tommy clings to him like a monkey is the cutest thing he’s ever seen—this child is sure to be the death of him.
“I’m not a nerd!” Tommy whines, giving Techno the most convincing puppy dog eyes the man has ever seen in his life.
Techno sighs because who gave this absolute fiend the right to look like that? He still firmly believes that look should be illegal.
“Okay, okay, fine. You’re not a nerd. Happy?”
Tommy nods exaggeratedly, looking pleased with himself. “Very.”
Phil blinks once, then twice at the scene, dumbfounded because Techno has never once acted so… so soft before. Sure, he’d heard from Tommy about the two becoming ‘best friends’ at the Daycare he and Techno work at, but he wasn’t expecting whatever the hell this is.
He exchanges a look with Wilbur who looks just as confused, if not a little distraught.
Phil shakes himself from his shock and gestures for Techno to come in, closing the door behind him. “Welcome to our humble abode,” he jokes. “Sorry ‘bout Tommy, he’s a bit crazy sometimes.”
Techno shrugs, still holding the gremlin in his arms and ignoring the way he pinches the ends of his long pink locks between his little kid fingers. “Thanks, and I don’t really mind.”
Tommy starts whining again when Techno goes to put him back on solid ground, making grabby hands at the man from his new spot on the floor. “Just wait a sec, kiddo. I gotta take off my jacket.”
After Tommy is back in Techno’s arms, once more propped up on his hip, Wilbur leads them through the house, showing Techno around. Tommy immediately insists they go check out his room, since all his cool toys and cars are in there.
“Look!” Tommy says, wriggling out of Techno’s hold to grab something off the cute little desk beside his bed.
It’s a piece of paper with a cow crudely drawn in red and green crayon. Techno thinks the word ‘hurry’ is written underneath, but he can’t be too sure.
“His name is Henry,” Tommy explains. Ah. Not ‘hurry’ then. “He and Steve are best friends, see?” The child grabs another paper, the one with Techno’s polar bear drawn in blue from the week prior. “But since you let me keep Steve, you can keep Henry.”
“Thanks, Tommy.” The man responds, not really knowing how to deal with the warm feeling in his chest. He’s slowly getting used to it; the idea that he might actually care for a small child. At least Tommy’s not an orphan.
“But you have to talk with him a lot, he’s a bit of an attention whore.”
Techno chokes.
Lunch is a casual affair, consisting of turkey sandwiches on rye and a veggie tray Phil bought specifically for the occasion. Tommy’s limited attention span doesn’t allow him to sit at the table for very long without going stir-crazy (something they’re working on, according to Wilbur), so he runs back and forth between the living room and Phil’s side when he wants another bite of sandwich.
It’s really adorable. Techno is convinced that his heart has become nothing but a mushy pool of aww in his chest. It’s gross. It’s cringe. But it is what it is.
“You and Tommy are getting close,” Phil comments offhandedly as the three men watch the gremlin run around like a maniac, pretending to make a car fly as he screams and makes exaggerated explosion noises when he drops it on the floor.
Techno hums the affirmative. He knows he can’t deny it at this point.
Phil opens his mouth to speak a few times as he attempts to form a coherent sentence, and ends up settling on, “How?”
“Well, if you’re askin’ how this child managed to coerce me into being his friend, I’m gonna be honest and tell you I don’t have an answer.”
“We’re best friends, actually.” Tommy adds cheerfully, seemingly appearing out of thin air and scaring both his father and brother shitless.
Techno chuckles under his breath, unaffected by the jump-scare.
“You’re a menace.” He says, voice fond and full of affection as he ruffles the kid’s hair.
Tommy wrinkles his nose. “Speak for yourself, bitch. Wanna play cars?”