Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Tommy was having a really bad day. No! scratch that he was having a bad week!
First off he got accused (falsely might he add) of killing the dog of the only god on the SMP that tolerates him and now he has to basically rebuild his house due to Captain Puffys “remodeling”.

Tommy groaned as he slammed shut another chest. He had been looking for some oak wood but it seemed he was all out. At the sound of the chest slamming shut a racoon scampered out from behind Tommy's bed. The creature nuzzles his leg, it sensed that Tommy was kinda stressed out. The boy sighed and scratched behind the animal's ear.

“Don't worry Chat, I'm fine.” He assured. “Well, it looks like we're out of wood. We have to go get some more if we want to finish fixing this place up.” Chat nodded and Tommy extended a hand so it could climb up onto his shoulder. Then the blond grabbed his axe and set out.

Tommy knew he would need a lot of wood, some to rebuild and some extra just in case the attacks to his house didn't cease, so he walked a ways before finding a decently sized oak wood forest. Chat didn't mind the long walk, it simply curled around his neck and fell asleep.

A warm breeze hit his face as he casually strolled through the wood, whistling a little tune. Careful not to wake up Chat (it could be surprisingly cranky when woken up). Tommy had to admit the walk was quite relaxing. The sun was shining down on his face, not enough to cause sunburn but enough to leave him feeling warm and fuzzy. Tommy silently wished he could stay in that moment forever, just add Tubbo, Michael and possibly Ranboo, and it would have been perfect.
But he quickly shot that thought down. They all had way too much shit going on to waste time frolicking in fields. They were soldiers! Not children...

He had no time for day dreaming anyway...

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Hours of chopping had gone by before Tommy decided to take a break. Normally he would go on for a bit longer but in his last therapy session with Puffy (before all the whole defacing of his house thing) she had told him to not overwork himself. (Also Chat wouldn’t stop running between his feet until he stopped).
In one of Tommy’s therapy sessions Puffy said something about how when he was in exile he got used to his supplies getting destroyed, so he just got used to collecting way more stuff than needed, and ended up making himself exhausted in the process.

Personally, Tommy thought that was a lode of crap.

“I don't care what she says Chat! I do not go overboard when it comes to gathering supplies! If anything I go under bored!” he grumbled. But despite these words the racoon hybrid put away his axe and went to sit on the grass. His arms were growing tired from the repetitive chopping anyway.

The boy laid down with his hands behind his head, the long grass tickled his arms as he gazed at the clear blue sky. It reminded him of the times he would spend in meadows with Tubbo. The two of them joking around and causing chaos. It was them against the world before L’manburg, before all the wars, before exile.. Before- Tommy abruptly cut off that thought. He didn't want to think about that stuff.

Yet still his thoughts wondered, as he gazed over at Chat his thoughts began to go back to a simpler time, when things weren't all that bad. Tommy ran his hands over the racoon's fluffy fur and sighed. He missed Henry.

“He would have loved this,” Tommy chuckled humorlessly, turning his gazed back to the clear sky above him. He sighed. What Tommy wouldn't give for Henry to be with him now.

The blond groaned and sat up, harshly rubbing at his face in an attempt to clear his head, not to wipe away any tears that had begun to form nope! No way! He was a big man! And big men didn’t cry because of some dumb thoughts.

Tommy stood abruptly. Startling and waking up Chat in the process. “It's fine!” he told himself. “I'm fine! I just need to finish collecting wood and-” Tommy’s rant was cut off by a loud cry.

The boy's tail puffed up as he got into a defensive stance, Chat moved closer to Tommy's side while the blond looked around frantically trying to find where the sudden noise had come from.

“Who’s there!?” he shouted, pulling his sword out from his inventory. “I have a knife! And believe me, I know how to use it! I can't even count the amount of people I've stabbed with this thing!” Chat seemed to hiss in agreement.

Tommy’s yelling (and Chats hissing) was only met with another cry, this time slightly louder.

Now Tommy would love to say that he had just left it at that, that he had taken the wood he had collected that day and finally finished rebuilding his house, but no.
He was curious about what the strange cry was. And it seemed Chat was too, seeing as the racoon began making its way over to where the sound seemed to be coming from. Tommy weighed his options.

“Well... if it is someone from the server, I might be able to earn a favor or two.” he murmured to himself, “Alright that's it! Come on Chat! It's time for an adventure!” Tommy plucked Chat up from the ground and quickly scanned the area before darting in the direction of the noise.

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Tommy was sure he was close to whoever was making the noise, now they sounded like they were just behind some thick brushes.

The raccoon hybrid put Chat back on the ground and took out his axe, then began to make his way though. Chat clawed at the brush as well in an attempt to help.

As he swung down on the dense branches, Tommy realized the sounds, now that he was really listening to them, didn’t sound anything like anyone on the server. In fact they sounded like-

“Is that a fucking baby?” Tommy screeched. He couldn’t believe his eyes, “This has to be some kind of joke.” He said. But low and behold, right in front of him was a little baby nestled into a hollowed-out tree stump

When the child saw Tommy their cries suddenly stopped. Tommy stood stock still as their big red eyes (which the child had four of) stared up at him in curiosity. Almost as if they were searching for something? Whatever it was it seemed the child had found it because they were now happily stretching their four arms out to Tommy.

The boy in question was still trying to understand who the hell left a kid alone in the middle of a forest. When the child realized that Tommy wasn’t coming any closer they decided to take things into their own hands, and began to make attempts to get out of the stump. their charcoal gray cheeks darkened at its efforts.

Tommy (who was still standing there slack jawed) realized that now he was really looking at the kid; they looked more like a toddler, like maybe two years old?
Said two-year-old was still struggling to get out, Tommy continued to watch in a daze as they finally managed to stumble out of the impromptu wooden crib. As soon as they got out the child shakily made its way over to Tommy, it was obvious that it wasn't used to walking.

Once the child was about halfway to Tommy he was shaken out of his shocked state by Chat angrily nudging his shin.
“Ow! Chat! what was that for!?” Tommy grumbled.
Chat gave him a dirty look before gesturing to the child still trying to make their way over to him. That makes Tommy realize that he probably shouldn't let a child that can barely walk stumble around with nothing soft to land on.
Tommy met the child half way, scooping it up, and causing it to giggle.

While this situation was very surreal, and he was still very confused, Tommy couldn't help but be overcome with pride. He made them laugh! “Oh! Hello!” he cooed. “You went from all the way over there to me!” the child gave a little wiggle in response, “Awww, hello! What's your name, little one?”
This time the child looked up at Tommy, its face broke out into a toothy (and surprisingly sharp) grin and it let out a buzzing chirp.
And somehow Tommy’s heart melted even more. The blond let out another loud cooing noise, and squeezed the (toddler?) child closer to his chest. “I’m gonna name you Shroud!” he declared.
Then Chat began rubbing against Tommy’s leg. The racoon gestured with its head to the darkening sky.
Tommy realized that it was getting rather dark out and they should probably start heading back home. “You're absolutely right Chat, we should get going.” Tommy gave chat a little pat before turning his attention back to the child in his arms, “Were gonna go back to my house, okay little buddy?” Shroud nodded sleepily and buried their face in the racoon hybrid's neck.

Tommy made sure Shroud was settled before beginning the long trek home, here he would figure out that he may not have thought this whole thing through. But it’ll be fineeee.

Right?

Chapter Text

Tommy found out very soon that everything was not fine. It had been about a day since he got Shroud and He had no idea what he was doing.

First off when Tommy got home he soon realized that he had nowhere for them to sleep.
But the teen was so tired that he just cleared out a storage room next to his bedroom, and placed a chest for Shroud to sleep in (they were small enough that they could fit without being uncomfortable) lining the inside with some spare bedding and a random shirt he had lying around for a pillow, before gently placing the still sleeping child in, and passing out in his own.

But the universe still hated him so Tommy didn't get any sleep and neither did Shroud. That night Tommy had been woken up by a nightmare. It was about Dream.

Because of course it was.

He woke up in a cold sweat, his ears ringing and chest constricting painfully whenever he tried to take a breath. He sat up quickly, trying to calm his shaky breaths. Having a panic attack in the middle of the night wasn't anything new to Tommy.

So he counted (as best he could considering the state he was in), Breathing in for four seconds and holding it for seven, before letting it out for eight seconds. He continued this process until he was at least somewhat aware of his surroundings, he then began to list the different things he could feel.

His bed, his sleep shirt and his bandana. Tommy made sure to wash it regularly so the fabric was soft under his fingertips. The teen couldn't remember the order he was supposed to do this exercise in and he couldn't be bothered to try and remember so he just moved onto the things he could see, seeing as his ears were still ringing.

Tommy looked around the dark room. He could see the stars outside of his window, after being in the prison Tommy couldn't sleep without being able to see outside. To the right of that he could see the picture that Tubbo had taken of Tommy, Michael and Ranboo. Tommy had been so focused on playing with Michael that he forgot to insult Ranboo as he normally did. Apparently to Tubbo that was a momentous occasion that needed to be documented. More warm memories flooded Tommy’s, pushing back the dark thoughts that had been left over from his dream.

But right as Tommy was beginning to relax again, he heard something that made the panic come flooding back, because of course it did.

You see that was the exact moment that a cry rang out through Tommy's house, a very familiar cry that was coming from the room right next to Tommy. Fear shot through Tommy’s chest, not for himself this time but for the child in the next room.

Thinking that Dream had somehow found a way out of the prison, he leaped from his bed running over to Shroud “room” so fast it's surprising he didn't snap his own neck.

But Tommy didn't care, Dream was probably there to punish Tommy for leaving Exile, he was going to take all of his stuff and blow it up all over again, he was gonna take Shroud and - and Tommy would never see them again because Dream was going to kill him and-

Tommy abruptly cut off that thought. No, he wasn't going to die, not to Dream, Tommy wouldn't give him the damn satisfaction of killing him a second time. And he sure as hell wasn't going to let Dream take Shroud.

Tommy decided that the minute he finished beating Dream's ass, he was going to grab Shroud and Chat, then high tail it to Snowchester.

Soon Tommy was bursting through the door, his axe already in hand fully prepared to chop that green bastard in half if he so much as touched his the kid.

(Wow Tommy finally understood why Tubbo and Ranboo were so protective of Michael, granted Tommy was too seeing as he was the piglens uncle, but still this felt different! You know?)

But instead of finding Dream, Tommy saw Shroud Sitting in the corner of the dark room. They had their face tucked into their knees, their little body shaking with each distressed wail.

The axe clattered to the floor as Tommy rushed to the child's side. Tommy hovered awkwardly as he tried to figure out what to do, sure he knew how to calm himself down but not other people! Let alone a child!

Like did they want to be held or should Tommy just let them cry it out? Did they want to Talk about it? Could Shroud even talk? Michael was probably around the same age and could talk, only short sentences but still.

Tommy realized that he was getting off track. Him sitting there wasn't helping one bit, so he pulled himself together and did the safest thing he could think to do in this situation. Talk to them.

“Hey buddy,” he started sitting down, a few feet away so he wasn't crowding the kid. “What's goin’ on?” he said awkwardly. Tommy was new to this taking care of kids’ stuff, but he was trying okay?

Shroud hesitantly lifted their head from where they were buried in their knees. Hot tears poured Down their cheeks as they looked up at him. Tommy’s heart shattered at the sight.

“Oh bud…”He whispered. “What happened,” Tommy thought back to earlier that night, “Did you have a nightmare? ”

Shroud shook their head.

“No nightmare?” Damn! Tommy had been sure that was it. “So something else then?” he asked, trying to get the child to give him some clue as to what was wrong.

Shroud looked up at Tommy, took a shuddering breath before hurriedly crawling into the blonds lap and burying their face into his chest.

“Wha-! Okay this is happening I guess?” Tommy fumbled with his hands for a moment before hugging them back.

“D-dark.“ Shroud mumbled into his shirt.

Of course! Tommy felt like an idiot for not thinking about that sooner, Tubbo had told him that Michael wasn't fond of the dark when they first took him in! It's a common fear for children.

At least Tommy thinks it is.

“So, you don’t like the Dark huh?” The teen asked, making sure he understood what they were telling him. Shroud nodded, their face still buried in Tommy's night shirt. “Well that's alright! I’ll get Tubbo to make you a night light, he made one for Michael when he was afraid of the dark too.”

Shroud’s face peeked up at him curiously. “Ubbo?” they asked, tilting their head to the side.

Oh.

OH!

Shroud had no idea who Tubbo and Michael were! Tommy had a lot of things he needed to explain.

Well it didn't seem like either of them were going back to bed anytime soon anyway.

“How ‘bout we continue this talk over some hot coco?” He said, standing and heading to the kitchen. “You probably don't know what it is, but trust me big man you’ll love it.”

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“So in short Wilbur’s my kinda, sorta, not really older brother, Phil is his dad, Techno is Phil’s best friend and I guess he’s Wilbur’s godfather? I don't know about that last part. Also apparently Wilbur's mom is Lady Death, or a Samsung refrigerator? It’s really unclear. Then there’s Ranboo the wrong’un who stole my best friend Tubbo, and they have a kid named Michael who's around your age, maybe a bit older. ” Tommy finished in one long breath.

“You got all that?” he asked, finally looking back at the kid to see they could barely keep their eyes open. Tommy was grateful that he had put the coco in a sippy cup from when Michael would come over because the cup was slowly slipping from their grasp.

Tommy gently took the sippy cup and put it on the counter. The blond yawned as he pulled Shroud up from their chair.

“Come on buddy, let's go back to bed yeah?” Tommy said slowly as he walked back to his room, he decided that he was going to have Shroud sleep with him in his bed till he got that nightlight from Tubbo.

Tommy lit a candle that Ranboo said was supposed to be calming or some shit, (Tommy wasn't sure if that was true, but it smelled like lavender and vanilla so he liked it) He flicked off the lights and laid Shroud down before climbing in, pulling the covers over them both.

Tommy knew that this was probably the first of many ruff nights the two of them would have, but when he looked down at Shrouds scrunched up face as they tried to burrow further into his side.

Tommy couldn't help but feel it was worth it.

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Hey guys! Quick update on chapter three, it's almost done! I'm just having trouble writing a scene.

Other than that I think I should probably address what updates in the future are going to look like.

Sooo I don't really have an exact update schedule. I made this fic to help me de-stress, so I'm not going to get worked up about posting at a specific time (Especially because school is about to start back up for me). But I wanted to try to update at least once a month.

Also thank you guys for all the kudos and nice comments! They make me very happy, and encourage me to write more!

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Tommy loved Shroud. Really he did! And it took him a while to admit that to himself. But he was starting to realize that raising a child was much harder than Tubbo and Ranboo made it seem. Despite Shroud's relatively small size they still found ways to get in a lot of interesting places, a lot of very interesting, and very dangerous places.

1

That day was the same as any other in their small household. It was early in the morning and Tommy had just woken up, he needed to feed Chat so he kicked off the covers and started heading to the kitchen. Tommy didn't think much of the empty space in his bed till he walked in the kitchen to find Shroud babbling happily to themself while siting on top of the FUCKING FRIDGE!

Needless to say Tommy had a mini heart attack, quickly got them down and had a long (and semi frantic) conversion about not climbing things, and gravity. Only stopping when Chat began to get impatient and started rummaging through the trash.

2

And then there was one afternoon that Tommy just couldn't find the kid, he had left Shroud under Chats watchful eye while he prepared dinner for them. But when Tommy came back Chat was peacefully sleeping on a chest and Shroud was nowhere to be found.

Now Tommy's house wasn't necessarily toddler friendly so he was reasonably concerned. looked for two hours straight to no avail. And Chat was no help, still dead asleep.
Tommy was on the cusp of a full blown panic attack in the middle of his hallway when he heard a soft giggle. He wiped around trying to find where the sound had come from,

“Shroud? Oh thank Prime! Where are?- HOLY SHIT!!”

The blond looked up to find the child sitting right above him, on the goddamn ceiling. And yeah Shroud was a spider hybrid so Tommy shouldn't have been so surprised but Shroud had shown little to no Hybrid traits other than their hissing, and besides you try looking for a child for hours only to find the hanging off the ceiling! See how you feel!

So yeah turns out that Shroud inherited a lot more than the characteristics of a spider from their hybrid genetics.

At least now Tommy knew how they got on top of the fridge.

3

Okay so this next time wasn't really Shrouds fault, it was just Tommys thoughts. It was a late night and it had taken him longer than normal to put Shroud to bed and Tommy was exhausted. And yet he couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't stop thinking. thinking about whether or not he was really doing the right thing, in regards to taking the spider hybrid in.

Tommy didn't regret taking them in, far from it! It's just… Shroud is a kid and Tommy? Tommy isn't even eighteen!

Not to mention the copious amounts of trauma he’s still working through. There are still some days that he can't even bring himself to get out of bed. For more days than he can count, Chat's hungry whimper was the only reason he got up in the morning.

Shroud soon became the other reason, their small hands giving him gentle nudges until Tommy found the strength to get himself up. but sometimes Tommy wasn't strong enough, days when Tommys mind pinned him down with pain filled memories and venomous whispers. On those days Shroud would just curl back up into his side until Tommy was ready. Tommy always felt terrible for the rest of the day when this happened.

That night Tommys thoughts didn't wait for the morning. His head was filled with voices saying that Shroud would be better off without him. That he was going to mess up somehow. Tommy never had a stable father figure, not with Wilbur, not with Sam, and definitely not with Phil. What if he fucks Shroud up with all his bullshit.

Despite what many people on the sever thought Tommy wasin't stupid he knew that he was the cause for most of the conflict here. In some ways you could say the disc war was the match that turned the server into the dumpster fire that it was, the inciting incident if you will. He didn't want Shroud to get caught in the flames.

Not to mention the amount of enemies that Tommy had gathered over the years.

The thought of Shroud getting hurt because of a dumb decision that Tommy made was enough to make heart pound and his blood burn.

Eventually Tommy did manage to fall asleep but these thoughts followed him into his dreams. And even long after he awoke couldn't stop the quick thumping of his heart whenever he thought of the young hybrid getting hurt.

4
{Shroud POV}

Shroud was a simple kid, they liked to climb and run and play, oh they especially loved to play with Chat! They weren't sure about the creature at first but the longer they stayed with the nice blond man it grew on them. Chat was a great play mate! Its fur was really soft! So sometimes when Shroud was too tired to climb or run they would just sit and run their fingers through its fur!

The blond man always got a strange look on his face whenever he found them curled up together. At first Shroud thought he was mad at them for touching his pet. But Shroud slowly found out that the look meant that the man was actually happy.

Most of the big people Shroud had met would get mad at them for some reason, yelling and even pulling out pointy mettle things while trying to chase them, so the gentle look that the blond man gave them was a welcomed change.

But there was another expression that the blond man seemed to be having more often, his eyes (he only had two which was strange to Shroud) would widen, his sandy blond tail would poof up and his eyebrows would raise so far up Shroud thought they would fly away! And then he would start yelling, not the bad yelling, his yelling sounded more scared than angry.

Shroud knew very well what it was like to be scared and always felt bad when they saw the look on the blonds face. They tried their best to stop him from being scared but it would always happen at the weirdest of times.

Like when Shroud had climbed that weird box thing in the “kitchen” as the blond had called it, they just wanted to see what was up there. but the minute Shroud had reached the top the blond had run in and grabbed them. The blond then spent an eternity telling Shroud about this thing called “gravity” or something Shroud wasn't sure, but it took the blond man forever to finish.

The blond had spent the rest of the day hovering over Shroud as if he expected something to happen. It was kinda annoying but if it made him feel better Shroud would allow it.

The blond was getting lonely, Shroud could tell. Shroud knew what it was like to be lonely, but the feeling had subsided when the man had found them.

The man began to talk more and more about his friends, Tubbo and Ranboo. He tells Shroud a bunch of stories about them, his eyes lighting up the same way they did when he looked at Shroud but a little sadder. Shroud thinks the man missed his friends.

So when a strange man in a torn up trench coat knocked on the door while the man was on an emergency supply run, Shroud was ecstatic! He must be one of the blonds friends! He’ll be so happy to see him!

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i made a new story! its an Original Work, go check it out of you want! https://archiveofourown.org/works/33487075/chapters/83194972

its kinda just me venting onto OC's but hey ya'll might like that?