Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Small hands run across the paper quickly. SCRIBBLE, SCRIBBLE! The sounds of scribbling doubles in speed. The sound bounces off the otherwise silent room. A sigh escapes with one last scribble.

It’s a note, full of goodbyes and promises.

The note gets placed down on the table. A light gets turned off and someone hastily rummages through the darkroom. A small creak from the door hinge followed by sounds of clumsy, fumbling footsteps makes their way through the eerie dark hallway. The pace in the footsteps stops for a brief moment and a quiet sob escapes but is quickly cut short by muffled quick breathing. The footsteps continue in speed.

For the first time, the house seemed so unfamiliar. The memories created in this place start pulsing painfully. Each creak in the floorboard causing tension and a pause in the footsteps. Gentle snores filled the darkness; comforting yet painful. And with every door that passes by, the incoherent sobs seem to get louder. Finally shown by the moonlight fading through the windows, the front door was spotted. The pace quickened and so did the tears; as the door opened. With a look back at the house and a silent mumble; Tommy stepped out of the house.

All that would be left was a few of his items and the memories he made with them. Not that it mattered. He couldn’t stay there anymore but he would come back. This was for the better for him and his family. He already couldn’t withstand the voices within his head. He wasn’t ready to break the news to his family. He couldn’t bear to see the pained looks from Techno. Or the quiet sobs from Phil that he would cause. Or worst of them all the hidden screams of agony that would be made by Wilbur if he knew.

But this was something he needed to do.

Still, the ache in his heart only increased when he moved to leave. He could do this! He just needed to find the cure for his, Wilbur, and Techno’s disease. Phil’s hands were already full of taking care of his brothers! It was up to him! Then he could come back!

If he made it…hahaha.

Easy!

Tommy could do this! After all, Phil had told him that he was the bravest and strongest boy on the playground! Plus, how hard could it be to find a cure for a disease that hadn’t been found out yet? With one last wipe at his eyes and glance behind, Tommy left for the roads; with his backpack on and Henry in hand. Moonlight shining down on his platinum blonde hair making it look glowing white and a bittersweet smile across his lips. But with large blue ocean eyes that showed with hope as he marched forward. He made a promise that he would return.

And left with a silent prayer for his family’s safety.

Little did he know that someone’s lights had just flickered on in the house behind him.

Chapter Text

There were only dreams filled with screams, colored with red. Wherever he looked there was bloodshed. The headache Techno had got a few weeks prior was now becoming more painful. What was now also driving him more insane was as more and more voices joined in his head every day.

A curse in disguise of a blessing. Forever changing the Crafts’ household.

But right now, he just wanted some peace and quiet. Some rest sounded good. Even if his dreams weren’t that enjoyable. He had already long forgotten the fear he felt at first when there were voices chanting in his head.

But the buzzing in his head only grew louder; loud enough to form words: WAKE UP! CHILD GONE! Or something like that. Anyways he wasn’t going to deal with chat being weird again. Back to his much-needed beauty sleep.

But the pestering in the back of his head only grew louder in complaint.

“OKAY, OKAY, CHAT!” Techno scoffed as he blinked back into reality. The blanket felt really nice—warm and comforting—and Techno could go on but the voices were now screaming at him to get out of bed to do something.

Techno let out a tired huff, “Okay. I'm up, chat. Quiet down now, will you?”

Techno then slowly got up in the dark; carefully, he blindly searched for his glasses and a light switch. With swift hands, Techno placed his glasses on his face with a grunt of pain as the lights flickered on. He then grabbed a spare hair tie from his desk. Techno messily put his pink locks of hair into a messy bun. He glared at the 4 AM evidently shown on his clock.

“Great. This is just great.” Techno grumbled as his eyes adjusted to the lighting.

Techno just wanted a moment of peace. What does a man have to do to earn that? All the voices suddenly started shrieking in his head. All at once, screaming, “OUTSIDE!” They were a wave of voices that swept in Techno’s headspace. Great timing, chat. Always appreciated. Techno felt as if his eardrums had just been hit by a tornado. Techno loved having voices in his head (not).

In defeat, Techno got up, blinking slowly, turning to look out the window at what chat had woken him up for.

“Chat, I swear if this is a prank you pulled, I’m going to–” Techno paused as he saw something moving from the front porch and proceeded to move closer to the window to get a better glimpse.

Wait.

Was that Tommy?

Techno adjusted his glasses.

Blinked again.

And proceeded to clean his glasses to look back through the window.

Wait.

If that’s Tommy… why isn’t he sleeping?

No, wait, why is he outside in the first place?

When Techno looked back he saw Tommy walking further away from the house.

Which shouldn’t be right.

Suddenly alert, Techno swifty walked to Tommy’s room in favor of not waking anyone else. The floorboards squeaked underneath the quick pitter-pattering of Techno’s hurried footsteps.

Techno reached the door and swung it open. Quickly turning the lights on. He let out a trembling breath as he scoured the room and found that not only was Tommy missing, but so was Henry.

This situation was serious.

“Fuck.” he whispered.

If Tommy took Henry that meant he wasn’t just looking outside for a quick second at 4 am. This meant he was going somewhere at 4 am. The thought of Tommy, a seven-year-old, his brother, alone, outside, at 4 am, brought Techno many worries.

Henry was Tommy’s favorite plushie; not only because it was given to him by their mother before she passed, but also because it was Tommy’s favorite animal: a cow.

Tommy took Henry everywhere with him if he was going to be gone longer than 10 minutes. And Techno couldn’t even stand the idea of his youngest brother being away from him for more than 5 minutes. The kid just always loved being around other people and was extremely clingy with his family and friends. And Techno grew used to that. Chat quietly cooed at that only making Techno snort in response.

After pondering for a few seconds about what to do next, Techno calmed down a bit. Thanks to his mind no longer panicking, he spotted a small crumpled paper on Tommy’s tiny table.

Tiny.

Just like Tommy.

AH, focus Technoblade.

Ripping himself away from his thoughts, Techno stumbled his way to the table.

He reached down and gently pried open the crumpled paper and practically collapsed right there in Tommy’s room.

Littered on the paper was a scramble of words that, unfortunately, Techno could not decipher. Accompanied by small marks of tear tracks that were dropped on the paper by Tommy prior.

If Techno wasn’t quite in a state of panic, he definitely was now. Leading to Chat to panic with him. From not only having a note left by Tommy but also the fact that Tommy probably cried writing this note. Plus the fact that he couldn’t even understand what Tommy wrote down.

“Aw, crap,” Techno mumbled.

Techno didn’t have time to waste. He needed to act fast. Starting with finding or waking someone up that could read what Tommy had written.

Techno ran. This time the floorboards shook and the creaking echoed within the house. Practically flying to his father’s room with the speed he ran. With no hesitation, he tore down his father's door.

“PHIL! WAKE UP, OLD MAN!” Techno screamed as he proceeded to run up towards the bed. Slamming the lights on. Then flinging his father’s blanket off in hopes of waking him up faster.

Leaving the bed exposing a very tired dad; alone on a bare mattress curled up, still in his normal clothing, likely from being too tired to change.

Immediately, Phil shot awake. Hitting his head on the bed frame as he sat up. Blonde hair sticking out weirdly. Blinking groggily, with a raspy voice he responded with, “What the fuck, Techno-”

Faster than lighting, Techno shoves the small paper note into his dad’s hands. Techno’s blown-out, glowing red eyes met his father’s tired blue ones.

“I NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHAT IS WRITTEN DOWN!”

Chapter Text

It started with only one voice usually. Then over time, more voices would join. Tommy knew this from hearing from his older brothers and unfortunately from his own personal experience.

If he counted correctly, in total he had about 5 voices in his head. The voices weren’t usually very loud, but one day they started yelling in his mind like they were using a megaphone. The moment he left home they started demanding they could help him, something about being sent by someone who has all the answers. Tommy couldn’t believe his luck! A stranger that had access to his mind, and could help him! In Tommy’s excitement, he forgot the important question of how this mysterious stranger knew of the problems he and his family were dealing with at the moment.

Anyways! Right now the few voices in his head shouted directions at him to guide him to a shelter for the rest of the night. Tommy didn’t understand half the things chat was rumbling about in his head. Stuff about north or something or was it northwest? What’s the difference? Tommy didn’t understand either way. In fact, Tommy was starting to get annoyed with all the loud shouting in his head, trying to teach him whatever north, east, south, and west was.

“CHAT please be quiet.” Tommy hissed. Chat only started screaming louder.

“Can you just tell me if it’s left or right?” Tommy huffed, this time chat quieted down. What the heck chat? I ask you to be quiet and then you scream at me. And when I ask you things you become quiet and ignore my questions. Tommy rubbed his temple. His head was starting to ache.

This did not help the fact that Tommy had not gotten any sleep yet. Even though Tommy was praised as a rather rambunctious child; because he always seemed to be full of energy. He wasn’t that good at staying awake when it was, as the adults called it his “bedtime”.

Soon Tommy’s felt his eyes starting to become increasingly heavier and heavier. His hold on Henry started to loosen. The only thing keeping him awake was the cold wind that swept near his bare arms leaving him with the touch of goosebumps.

Tommy decided it would best be time to go find a place to sleep for the night. He would miss his family’s warm cuddles, and gentle voices but he would see them soon. It wouldn’t take him that long to find the cure. He could just speedrun! Like that one great speedrunner that his older brother always talks about.

A sudden sound behind Tommy broke him out of his thought. Suddenly an arrow whizzes right past Tommy’s face and gets caught in the tree behind him. Tommy lets out a manly scream and drops Henry. The sound of clunking bones moving gets louder. And Tommy feels his heartbeat beat faster but remains still. Along with him, Chat remains silent.

When your father is an adventurer, and your brothers are either an explorer or a warrior; you would learn a few lessons from them. One is how to identify a threat. Two is how to identify the identity of the threat. And three is how to make the right action against this threat. Tommy makes sure to go over the lessons himself.

One - there is a monster that is after him.

Two - by the use of arrows, and weird clunking noises it should be a skeleton.

Three - When the enemy is stronger than you, make sure to escape to a safe place = don’t get hurt/shot + RUN

Tommy snatches Henry and bolts. While making sure to create distance from him and the skeleton. Ducking behind trees and forge to try and create shields. The night seems to quickly become darker and darker as Tommy stalk past trees. Knowing his body's limits - chat suddenly speaks up. UP! UP! UP! They chant in his head. Tommy glances upwards, only to be met with the sight of tall trees and the dark sky splattered with bright stars.

“What do you mean Chat?” Tommy whispers. He grips on Henry tighter.

Then Tommy remembers his father's hilarious stories of sleeping in trees.

Tommy gulps and began climbing. The tree shakes and groans but does not snap apart, as Tommy lets out a sigh of relief from where he sits on a thick tree branch. The night sky above shines down on Tommy as he gently lays down wrapping his arms around Henry. With his blue backpack as his pillow and Henry as his protector, he slowly daydreams of Wilbur's comforting lullabies as he falls into sleep’s warm embrace.

...

Below the tree from the shadows, two different sets of glowing eyes stare up at him.