Chapter Text
Tommy sat in the car. It was blue, rather small looking on the outside and extremely cramp inside. The seats were comfortable enough though, and he found himself focusing on that instead of listening to his social worker drone on. He slowly slid down the seat and looked out the window.
It appeared as if she was taking Tommy to be murdered. Not that she was, of course, but the area he was in seemed like a prime murder spot. You know, in the movies, the bad guy takes them out far away and then murders them, never to be seen again.
That would be nice.
”-ommy. Thomas!” His social worker, Abigail, calling his name pulled him away from his thoughts. He turned to look at her. “Were you even listening to me?”
Truthfully, no, he wasn’t. However, he’d heard this speech hundreds of times before and he knew it by heart. Spending his childhood in and out of foster homes gave Tommy plenty of time to remember and learn all kinds of stuff.
Tommy simply nodded in answer to her question and turned back to the window. The woman sighed heavily, clearly a sign of her starting another pep talk.
”Tommy, this home is going to be really good for you.”
The boy gave her a look.
”Okay, I understand that a lot of homes have been bad and I do apologise for that. This one however, well, Phil is a lovely guy and his sons are great too. Twins, adopted about 5 or so years ago. You’re gonna love it, Tommy.” Abigail reached out to place a hand on his shoulder, an act of comfort, but Tommy shrugged it off.
The social worker left it at that. She knew Tommy well enough to know when he didn’t feel like talking, or listening, really, because Tommy hasn’t spoken a long time.
Nobody really ever found out why and the foster system didn’t care enough to try so it became a staple that Tommy was mute and that was normal. As a child, the boy never stopped talking. High energy, happy, excitable, Tommy had a lot going for him.
Then all of a sudden, he didn’t. He found himself in the system at age 6 and stopped talking after his first ever foster home kicked him out.
Of course, this was all in his file and people used to take him in hope that they could ‘fix’ him. When it didn’t work, Tommy was left just a little bit more broken and traumatised every time. As he grew older, no one wanted him. That was common; no one wants the older kids. Tommy didn’t think he was old, 14 didn’t feel old. He could still fit down the slides at parks and he could ride the younger kids bikes at the care home. He was still a kid.
Fuck being old.
”We’re here, Thomas.”
The house seemed quite pleasant. Two bikes lay scattered on the front garden which Tommy thought was incredibly overgrown. Maybe he’d be told to clean it up. The house walls were brick, with large windows that gave Tommy an escape if he needed it. The fence was low enough to jump and the windows didn’t appear too high that they’d cause major damage.
So far, so good.
Tommy pulled his suitcase up the path, following Abigail as she knocked on the door. ”This is it Tommy, in the nicest way possible, I hope I don’t see you again.”
Tommy just smiled. She said that every time.
The door opened to reveal a man with pink hair. A boy, really, but his physique was so built that he could easily be mistaken for an adult. His hair was longer than most and draped over his shoulders in a simple braid. “Yeah?”
Tommy almost jumped. His voice was deep and rough, the last thing he would've expected from a boy with pink hair.
“Hello, is Phil home? I’m Abigail, Tommy’s social worker.” She held her hand out to shake.
The boy looked at it but didn’t move. “Oh yeah, right. Come in I guess. If you want.” He stepped aside and gestured for the two to enter.
A voice called out from a room or so away, “Techno! Who’s at the door?”
“It’s the fuckin’- the foster kid!” The boy, presumably Techno, called back.
Abigail made her way through the house, which Tommy thought was rude because she wasn’t invited any further but followed her anyway. The Techno kid seemed scary and Tommy didn’t want to be left alone with him. As they entered what Tommy assumed was the kitchen, he was met with a man in a apron covered in food. Tommy almost wanted to laugh, he looked ridiculous.
"Oh my- I am so sorry, I lost track of time. I was hoping to have dinner ready for when you arrived."
The sudden sound of the oven beeping prevented anyone from answering so Phil jumped to stop it and take out the food. Tommy had tensed slightly from the unexpected noise, something Techno had picked up on.
"Aw shit." Phil looked at the mess in his hands. He placed it on the counter and stepped back with his hands on his hips. Tommy peeked over to see what was in the dish. Whatever it was meant to be was incredibly burnt, like an hour overcooked type of burnt. Of course, it didn't bother Tommy. He had eaten worse and to be honest, it looked edible-ish. He'd survive.
Techno reached up to a cabinet and pulled out a bunch of leaflets. "You tried." He grinned as he handed them to Phil who sighed dramatically.
"We can't have take-out on Tommy's first night!"
Abigail laughed at that which Tommy hadn't realised was funny so he just smiled weakly an looked down at his shoes. He'd had these shoes for at least 4 years now and they were falling apart a little. The fabric at the back was wearing away, for example, meaning that every time he walked his shoes would slip off his feet a tiny bit. He'd picked up the habit of taking a step and then wiggling his foot ever so slightly to wedge his foot back into the shoe. No one had noticed yet or offered to buy him new shoes so he had gotten quite good at it.
Plus, any food was better than no food but he would be grateful for whatever. And besides, it would make Phil happier if Tommy ate what he made him and Tommy desperately needed his new foster home to like him.
Abigail and Phil were talking by the time he looked at up again. Techno was scouring through the take-out leaflets despite what Phil had previously said. Tommy hoped that didn't end badly.
”Tommy, why don’t you follow us into the sitting room so we can through some stuff?” Abigail suggested. It was the same line Tommy always heard and so he knew exactly what she really meant.
’Sit next to me in silence while I tell your new foster parents everything that’s wrong with you and make them sign forms.’
However, as they settled down on the sofa, Phil spoke up before Abigail could start pouring out Tommy’s life story.
“I know this is a little different, but I did this with Techno and Will and I find it worked really well.” This was aimed at Abigail but Phil looked at Tommy while he spoke. “This is the part where we go through Tommy’s file, etc, etc, but I’d prefer if we didn’t discuss everything out in the open? It gives Tommy a chance to open up to us whenever he’s ready, with no pressure behind it.”
Abigail tried interrupting but Phil carried on. “Therefore, I know the basics, everything I absolutely need to - that is in his file already - and Tommy can tell me whatever he wants to when he’s ready. The more personal stuff.”
Tommy had never thought about that before but he appreciated it and liked the idea. It gave him the slightest bit of hope for this home in that it might not be awful.
Still, it was safer to stay sceptical and keep his guard up as he always did.
Abigail agreed with Phil’s suggestion, saying something about how she trusted his judgement and experience or whatever. Tommy kinda zoned out, Abigail’s voice annoyed him.
A little while later, Phil finished signing the required forms and Abigail left. That left Tommy standing awkwardly back in the kitchen as he watched the pink haired boy convince Phil to order pizza.
“We had pizza on my first night.”
Phil’s eyebrows raised. “We absolutely did not.”
“No we did. I remember. You asked what I wanted to eat and I said pizza and you were too much of a pussy to say no.” Techno smirked and gently pushed the pizza menu into Phil’s hand, who gave in and turned to Tommy.
“What would you like to eat Tommy?”
Now, this could very easily be a trick question and Tommy felt like he should ask for whatever was in that burnt dish. However, given that he honestly didn’t care if Phil got mad because Tommy knew he’d be leaving within a month, he pointed at the large pepperoni pizza.
“Okay, no problem. Techno, go and get Will please. We should probably do some introductions.”
Proper introductions were always Tommy’s least favourite part. They were awkward and messy and no one knew what to say, especially because Tommy didn’t say anything.
Phil gently guided Tommy to a bar stool, encouraging him to sit down. He did, and then watched as Phil got the boy a glass of water. Tommy didn’t touch it when it was placed in front of him but kept his hands in his lap, fiddling with them nervously and shaking his leg as he always did.
Techno came back a couple minutes later with another boy trailing behind him. He had brown fluffy hair, drastically different to Techno’s and was tall. Like really fucking tall.
”Right, everyone take a seat, let’s get this over with.” Phil waited for Techno and tall guy to sit down before carrying on. “I’m Phil, obviously, and boys, this is Tommy. He’s 14 and mute, so you both need to respect that.”
Tommy was a little surprised that Phil didn’t try to make him talk but wow, he really appreciated the introduction. He smiled at Phil to hopefully convey that to him who nodded in return.
“I’m Technoblade.”
Tommy waited for more information, or just anything but the pink haired boy said nothing else. A man of little words, like Tommy himself.
“I’m Wilbur. Me and Techno are twins and we’re 17. I like guitar.” It sounded rehearsed as if he was so used to repeating himself he didn’t even have to think about it. Tall guy - or Wilbur - ran his hand through his hair to push it out his eyes as he looked Tommy up and down.
“You’re scrawny.”
Tommy scowled as Phil gave a half-hearted telling off to Wilbur before leaving the room to order pizza.
Now Tommy was alone with the two boys. Things tended to go wrong here. If Tommy kept his head down and didn’t look them in the eye, hopefully he’d be okay.
”Hey kid.”
“He has a name, Techno.”
”Whatever, give me your phone.”
Tommy froze for a second but rushed to follow Technoblade’s command. He shoved it towards the two boys and Techno took it cautiously, eyeing him up and down.
He tapped around on the screen for a couple minutes, with Wilbur leaning over shoulder pointing things out. Eventually, he placed it on the worktop and slid it back over to Tommy.
”This,” Techno pointed to a new app on the screen, “is a speech app. You type what you wanna say and then it’ll say it out-loud for you.”
Tommy looked up at him questioningly, breaking his no eye contact rule.
Techno shrugged, “I used it when I got here, thought it would be useful.”
Tommy looked back at the phone and picked it up, tapping on the app. It opened to a white box with the keyboard appearing below it. Tommy typed something simple and pressed play.
”Hi. Thank you.”
He startled a little at the sudden noise and grunted at the fact that it was a female voice, like Cortana on his old school computers. He tried to change it but something went wrong and the stupid voice lady kept repeating herself in an Australian accent. Tommy huffed and gave up.
Wilbur reached out. “Here, let me.” He took the phone and paused the voice. He pressed a few buttons and passed it back.
Tommy nodded and pressed play again, hoping to say thank you.
“Hola, gracias!”
Tommy looked to his right as the fluffy-haired boy started howling with laughter. He caught a small smirk from Technoblade and deemed it okay to laugh as well, so he let out a little chuckle.
Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad here.
Of course, that’s what Tommy always told himself.