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“I can’t believe you would do this, Thomas! How dare you abandon us! We hadn’t done anything wrong. We’d tried to give you everything. And you left us alone to go with your new family.”
Tommy watched his mother hold her head in her hands and heave a shaky sigh. He felt awful.
He quietly stepped closer, reaching a hand to rest on her shoulder. “Mom, I’m- I’m sorry.”
She jerked out of the way before he could reach her shoulder. “Don’t. Don’t lie to me Thomas. If you were sorry, you’d come home. You’re not sorry, you’re just afraid of the consequences.”
As if on cue, the front door slammed open, then slammed shut, and loud footsteps could be heard coming closer and closer to the room Tommy and his mother were in. The door to the room opened aggressively.
Father Innit was standing there, arms crossed. It took only a few strides before he was much too close to Tommy. The boy was practically vibrating with anxiety, afraid that his father could hear his heart beating wildly.
Tommy cleared his throat hesitantly, giving a small nod. “Sir.”
“Don’t act polite on me now, boy.” His father snarled, “clearly respect doesn’t actually mean a thing to you.”
“I- I don’t mean-”
“I’m sure you don’t.” He mocked, grabbing Tommy’s forearm and dragging the boy out of the room and down the hall.
Tommy started thrashing, trying to get away from his captor, trying to break free from the painful grip that would surely leave bruises, trying to flee, trying, trying, trying-
Tommy sprung up, kicking his legs and flinging the confining blankets off. He nearly tripped in his haste, throwing his pillow onto the floor and getting tangled in the blankets now on the floor as well. He scurried to his closet and was quick to sit on the floor in the back corner of the closet.
Tommy’s breathing was loud and rough, he was lightheaded as he curled himself as tight as he could, wishing he wasn’t so very alone. He just needed to get home, he needed to say sorry and have his parents forgive him. This was all his fault. If he had never left home, then his parents wouldn’t be upset. If he hadn’t left home-
Home.
He needed to go home.
He scrambled to pull shirts off their hangers, and pants out of their drawers, throwing them into a pile on the floor while he searched for his backpack. He needed to go home.
He didn’t want to go home! It hurt there and it was nice with Phil, Phil didn’t hit. But.. But Tommy needed to go home.
Tommy had barely shoved one shirt into the bag before his bedroom door opened. He looked over quickly, startled by the sound and sudden light entering the room from the hall.
He scrambled back into the corner he had previously sitting in, letting out a broken sob, throwing his head back and accidentally hitting it against the wall, causing him to flinch and pause his sobbing for a brief second before letting out one more wail and muffling the rest of the cries by shoving his face into his knees.
He choked on his words, quietly repeating “home”, and “I need to go home” and “don’t wanna go home” as he sobbed, rocking back and forth.
As he cried, hands were gently set on his shoulders. Tommy whipped his head up to see who was there, only to see that it was Phil sitting on the floor, not his parents. He collapsed into Phil’s chest and sobbed again. The man clearly took it as Tommy panicking over his dream, he was quick to wrap his arms around the shaking boy and whisper calm reassurances.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay,” he murmured, “just listen to my heartbeat, listen to my voice. I’m right here and I’m not leaving, just breathe"
Eventually, Phil’s quiet voice calmed Tommy down. Once the boy could think clearly, he pulled away from Phil’s grasp, looking at the man with swollen eyes.
“I wanna go home.” He whispered, voice cracking a little after sobbing.
Phil’s eyebrows crinkled in confusion for a second before he muttered a quiet “oh”
“Tommy,” he began, “you know you can’t go back right now. Right here is your home for the next little while. I know that’s hard for you and probably so scary, but you’re safe here. Alright?”
“I want to go home! I don’t- I need to.. Phil, I need to go home. If I go home then maybe they won’t be angry.”
“You can’t go, kiddo. I’m sorry.”
“But if I stay here I might, I might start to think we can be family.” Tommy whispered, sounding heartbroken. “And I don’t want mom and dad to be, I dunno, to be sad. I already have a family! How would they feel if they saw me with you guys?”
“I think it’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to think of us as family right now, Tommy. That’s okay. I understand that you miss your parents right now, but I need you to know that it’s safer here. Your parents will be okay, I promise. And the boys and I are gonna be right here if you decide to be family, but if you don’t want to think of us as that, then we’ll love you anyway. I’m not trying to replace your dad, I swear.”
Tommy’s face crumpled, and he dropped into Phil’s grasp again, resting his head in the crook of Phil’s neck.
“I don’t wanna go home, it hurts there.” He said, barely audible.
Phil gave Tommy a gentle squeeze. “You don’t have to go back anytime soon. You’re safe here.”
“Please don’t send me back.”
“I won’t. I got you kiddo, I’ve got you” He whispered, playing with Tommy’s blond curls. “I’ll protect you.”
They sat there on the floor for who knows how long before there was a gentle knock on the doorframe to Tommy’s room. Both Phil and Tommy looked up to see Wilbur standing there, a tired and somewhat worried smile on his face.
“Techno sent me up here to see if you two wanted to join us for a cup of three am hot chocolate.”
“Three am hot chocolate?” Tommy asked quietly.
“Yup!” Wilbur popped the “p” and walked closer, offering Tommy a hand to get up. “Do you want some?”
“Mhm.” Tommy mumbled, nodding and allowing Wilbur to help him to his feet, Phil standing up behind him.
“Okay then, let’s go get you some. Do you wanna stop off and wash your face first? You’re looking pretty rough, bud.”
Tommy shook his head, “want hot chocolate.” He said, wiping his face with his sleeves.
Wilbur and Phil both chuckled.
“Alrighty, Tommy. Let’s go downstairs.” Phil said, leading the way to the kitchen.
As Tommy and Wilbur followed behind Phil, Wilbur pulled Tommy a little closer to his side.
"I love you Toms, you know that right?" He whispered.
Tommy gave him a disbelieving look. "I just had a nightmare and then panicked loud enough to wake you up at three in the morning. Loving me sounds like a bit of a mistake not gonna lie."
"It's absolutely one hundred percent not a mistake. You are loved. I promise. As for the whole waking me up thing, I used to wake up Phil all the time. At least now we have Techno to make us hot chocolate." He smiled softly and leaned over to press a kiss to Tommy's head, ruffling his hair afterward.
"You have a terrible case of bedhead by the way."
"You suck."
"You love me."
Tommy sighed heavily, leaning his head onto Wilbur's shoulder as he did so. "You're right."
By the time they entered the kitchen, Techno was just pouring the hot chocolate into four mugs. He glanced up and scanned all three of them, eyes pausing on Tommy’s tearstained face.
“Here you guys go,” he said, gesturing to the mugs. “You wanna go drink in the living room? We can turn on a movie or something.”
“Sounds good, Tech.” Phil agreed, knowing full well that they would fall asleep soon after they sat down.
Phil and Wilbur both grabbed their mugs and went to the living room, but when Tommy walked up to grab his, Techno cleared his throat and quietly pulled a bag of marshmallows from the cabinet.
“You want some of these?” He asked quietly, a small smile playing on his lips.
Tommy nodded happily, holding out his mug for Techno to drop a few marshmallows into the chocolate.
“There you go. Let’s go join Phil and Wilbur, eh? I’m sure they’ve got a movie ready by now.”
As if on cue, the theme to Disney’s “Onward” drifted into the kitchen. Tommy’s face brightened and he walked to the living room with Techno at his side, settling down on the couch with Wilbur on one side, and Techno taking a seat on Tommy’s other side.
They fell into a comfortable silence as they all nursed their hot chocolate and watched the movie play out.
Eventually, as the movie played quietly in the background, and the members of the family fell asleep one by one, Techno noticed Tommy’s eyes drooping. He watched the boy’s head nod down only to jerk back up again. He was clearly trying to fight the sleep his body so desperately needed.
He took the now empty mug from Tommy’s hand and set it on the coffee table, trying not to move too much and jostle the boy. He grabbed a blanket from beside him on the arm of the couch, and draped it across the two of them.
Tommy let his head rest on Techno’s shoulder ever so gently and Techno pretended not to make a big deal out of it, but he couldn’t help the way his heart swelled.
“Just go to sleep, Toms. I’ll protect you.” Techno murmured, moving a hand to run through Tommy’s blond locks.
“But what if this is the real dream, and I’ll wake up there? What if you can’t protect me?” Tommy responded quickly, anxiously meeting Techno’s eyes before looking away again.
“This is real. I’m real and I’m here. Trust me Tommy, I’m gonna be right here when you wake up. And I’ll always be here to protect you.”
He hesitated for a second. “Promise?”
Techno nodded, giving Tommy a gentle smile. “I promise. Now go to sleep.”
And he did.