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Tommy will admit it's pretty late to be going outside, but he had things to do. His 'family' wouldn't feed themselves if he didn't give them food they'd just die! (they wouldn't but Tommy would never admit they don't need him giving them food every night.) He made his way to his only chest, grabbing dishes and putting the majority of food left in them before quickly heading for the door. Stumbling his way out the door bumping the door frame and almost dropping the many bowls he was carrying. He looked down at the many Raccoons circling his feet and smiled.
He made his way over to him and Tubbo's bench, sitting down and placing the bowls below him. many fruits and some meat occupied the bowls before the raccoons took hold of them. Tommy looked at them fondly and looked to his left, placing a chest and taking out a disc. This wasn't one of the oh-so-important ones he'd started so many fights over though, this one was one he made himself. He placed it into the jukebox and sat back as the guitar began playing. He didn't hum along with it instead just taking a minute to look at the sky and let himself relax
"The cute bomber jacket you've had since sixth form
Adorned with patches of places you've been
Is nothing on my khaki coat that I got a roadside when I was sixteen
My boots are from airports, my backpacks from friends
I'm not a man of substance and so I'll pretend to be a wanderer, wandering, leaving ascetic belongings in hostels and restaurant bins."
In his relaxed state with music drowning out all noises around him, he didn't hear the sound of boots against wood, nor did he see someone walking down the prime path. The raccoons however, did in fact hear the noises and began hissing. They moved closer to Tommy, almost making a protective circle around him. As far as they knew, anyone that wasn't Tommy was going to hurt him as well as themselves. (some knew because they'd witnessed it first-hand, others were just smart enough to know that they couldn't defend him as well as another human could.) Tommy still had yet to notice the sound and just continued listening as his brother played guitar wishing he could hear it for real again. The noise ceased and the raccoons slowly went back to what they were doing before eating the large assortment of food.
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Wilbur was...surprised to say the least. He'd decided that since he couldn't manage sleeping right now he'd decided to go for a walk. He didn't expect to stumble upon Tommy sitting at him and Tubbs bench with what seemed like 50 raccoons surrounding him. At first he was slightly concerned since they seemed to be hissing but they went back to what they were doing when he ceased his walking.
'Oh so they are guarding the food...or Tommy? or both? ' He tried to be as quiet as possible when making his way over to Tommy, pausing when he heard the sound of a guitar from the jukebox. His guitar. One of his old songs.
'I never...recorded..that..How did Tommy get that?' He questioned silently. He walked closer and placed his hand on Tommy's shoulder, taken aback when Tommy jolted away, eyes flashing with what looked like total and utter fear. His breathing seemed to get slightly quicker as well but when he saw Wilburs face he calmed down a bit it seemed. He put his hand on his face and sighed. 'What the fuck man don't fuckin scare me like that!' He spoke sharply. Wilbur huffed and looked at him with what came across as anger but was mostly just confusion.
"Well maybe I wouldn't scare you if you weren't outside at three in the goddamn morning Ever consider that!?" He retaliated. Tommy gazed down at the raccoons who were looking at him expectantly as if at any moment he could give the word and they'd tear Wilbur to shreds. (and honestly, Wilbur was starting to believe they could. Easily.) He looked back, glaring at Wilbur and then locking his eyes onto the ground.
"I do this every night, I gotta feed the fuckin raccoons." He said almost bitterly. Wilbur blinked in slight surprise yet again. Okay, now things were definitely off. The Tommyinnit, the loud, obnoxious, annoying kid Tommyinnit has been staying up till 3 am to feed some stupid raccoons.
...Is this even Tommy?
"Ay bitch if you're just gonna stare leave" Tommy spat, breaking Wilbur out of his train of thought. He sighed and nudged a raccoon off the bench sitting down next to Tommy. The teen looked at him wearily before reaching into the jukebox and taking out the disc. Wilbur grabbed it from him looking at it curiously before Tommy snatched it back glaring at him.
"Don't fucking break it, I cant replace this shit." he seethed. Wilbur narrowed his eyes.
"Where'd you get it from then, cause I know for a fact I didn't record my songs." He replied. Tommy dropped his glare in favor of putting the disc away safely in his enderchest and taking out a different one. He placed it into the jukebox carefully. It began to play the beginning of I'm sorry Boris. He sat back down and after a minute of thinking looked at Wilbur again, smiling wearily.
"I recorded them every chance I got and made them into discs so I can still hear them. Not like I could just ask you to play them whenever like you used to..." He trailed off looking back at the sky. Wilbur had a sad smile on his face too now.
"I could play them if you really wanted. I didn't think you wanted to hear them since you stopped asking me to play them a while back." Tommy looked at him unimpressed.
"Will, there were wars all the time I didn't wanna distract you for even a second out of fear you'd die because we let our guards down." Wilbur sighed and put his arm on the back of the bench.
"True" he began "but I can still try to sing them again. I, um, I don't have my guitar though, I think Phil had it and he uh, probably got rid of it by now." He looked into Tommy's eyes apologetically. Tommy seemed to light up at that, practically jumping off the bench and running into his small hobbit hole shack. Wilburs eyes followed him until he disappeared inside going back to the ground when he felt something on his leg. A raccoon was clawing at his leg and he looked at it confused.
"What do you want from me, prick?" he questioned the animal, who placed its paws on his knees and jumped onto his lap. He blinked a bit before his brain registered what had happened. Huffing out a laugh, he lifted a hand and rubbed the raccoon's ears smiling when it nudged his hand and its tail hit his other arm. "You're like a fuckin cat" he chuckled. He turned around when he heard footsteps and saw Tommy running towards him holding something.
He smiled as he sat back down looking at the raccoon in Wilburs lap.
"Oh, Ash likes you," he stated. Wilbur looked at him weirdly. That name sounds suspiciously normal (and not like you' ) "Ash? Where'd you get that one from?" he asked.
"Based it off something I read in a book back when I was staying with techno. ashling means sleep or some shit but that name sounds dumb. I started coming out here super late because of her anyways so I thought why the fuck not. " He stated as if it was common knowledge.
Wilbur hummed and gestured to the guitar. So where'd you buy that there some village nearby that sells guitars or did you make that like the discs? Tommy looked at him baffled. "You're joking right?" Tommy questioned. Wilbur glanced between him and the guitar, still confused.
"No? Am I supposed to?" This was your fucking guitar and you're telling me you can't even recognize it?!" Tommy startled a few of the raccoons before they went back to eating. Wilbur's eyes widened in realization before he reached for the guitar examining it. It was in...really good condition. Such good condition it was cleaner than he'd ever seen it, not to mention the strings looked new and the previously brown tuning keys were now silver. "I left this with Phil. How did you get-"
"Stole it from him when I decided techno and him were shit," Tommy muttered, cutting him off. He pretended not to notice the way Tommy's eyes flashed with fear when he realized he'd cut him off. "Did he keep it in this condition the whole time I was dead? I thought it was more broken..." Tommy huffed in anger.
"Phil didn't do shit. I found the thing in his attic dusty with all the string broken. I fixed it up and kept it in a safe room under my house so it wouldn't get blown up the next time someone inevitably placed TNT in my house. He explained. Wilbur blinked trying to process the many parts of that explanation. "Wait you fixed- Your house got blown up multiple- multiple times!?" Tommy raised an eyebrow at him, frowning. "You make that sound surprising?"
"You make it sound like it isn't!" Wilbur bit back. Tommy rolled his eyes.
"Whatever." He shoved the guitar into Wilbur's arms "Just play something bitch." Wilbur sighed. He'd just have to talk to Tommy about the overly-concerning amount of gunpowder littering the surrounding area of his house tomorrow. He checked the strings, tuning it a bit before deciding on something to play.
"I thought I couldn't love anymore,
Turns out I can't but not for the same reasons as before.
I use everyone I ever meet, can't find the perfect match.
Abuse those I love, While I ostracize the ones who love me.
back.'
His voice was gravelly and sounded deeper than it used to, but Tommy didn't seem to mind, content to watch Wilbur strum the chords and relax to the sound of the instrumentals.
'On the path of least resistance
I find myself salting the earth
Every time that I miss you I feel the way you hurt'
He looked up to Tommy for the next verse.
"And I don't deserve you, You deserve the world.
Though it feels like we were built from the same dirt.'
The song continued with them both in silent contentment. The song eventually ended but there was another one directly after the last. He continued strumming until a faint glow overtook the sky before them. He glanced to his left and his gaze fell onto the once bright and active kid, who was now staring at the sunrise drowsily, features adorned with dark bags beneath his eyes and layers of dust and dirt coating strands of his once strawberry-blond hair.
It had faded to a dusty brown now, almost unrecognizable in comparison.
He sighed as he turned back to the rising sun, no longer feeling that strange detachment from himself he's been feeling since he got back. He didn't feel like he was revived, he felt almost...normal. Good even.
He moved the guitar out of his hold, leaning it against the side of the bench, a few of the raccoons that had yet to wander off sniffing it in curiosity. He turned to his side again, hesitating. He was gonna wake Tommy up so he could leave, but clearly, the kid had yet to sleep even though he looked exhausted. So, reluctantly, he hooked one of his arms under the younger legs and another behind his back, picking him up. He avoided the few raccoons still wandering the area, placing the teen down on the grass, and made his way to the chipped and faded wooden doors of the grotto. He was slightly startled when he opened the door to what he would expect was a small room that looked like, well, what a teenager's room would normally look like, and instead saw a very empty cavern with little more than a single open chest that looked empty save for some seeds and wood.
"What the hell..." He glanced down and noticed there wasn't a bed in sight, so he moved to the (less broken than the other two but still barely functional) door in the far back corner, pushing it open. ...He was speechless.
The cobblestone walls were crumbling, the oak floor looked like it was in the process of rotting away, and he was honestly terrified the ceiling would cave in if he even touched it. The structure of the room was the least of the problems though because with a quick glance at the floor he was now in full support of Tommy's decision not to sleep more than an hour or two. There was what looked to be half of a sleeping bag (that he was positive he recognized as the one he'd given Tommy back in pogtopia) and a couple of burnt old blankets. That was it. That was all there was. No bed, no dresser or closet for clothing, nothing indicated the room even belonged to anyone, it looked like I'd been abandoned and now was being overtaken by nature. Wilbur only had one thought.
'How is Tommy living in these conditions??'
He turned around and almost ran to the door, looking down slightly and feeling relieved Tommy was still sleeping, and picked him up again, deciding that even though he didn't care about Tommy (he does) there is no way he'd let him sleep in what looked like an imminent death.
-----------------------
Walking up the wooden steps of his dad's house with a furry raccoon trailing behind him and a sleeping child in his arms, he isn't expecting the residents of his temporary housing to be angry. When they open the door and their faces change to scowls, he feels strangely angry. He'd heard minimal details from people about what happened when he was still...gone, and he knew about the more large events like Tommy's exile (just that it happened, not what happened during it. Tommy repeatedly stated that it wasn't important), and techno's failed executing, but he wasn't expecting anyone to be mad still since it seemed almost had settled any grievances they might've had in the past. He was honestly slightly enraged that they were not at all concerned about the state of the boy he was holding, instead looking at him with animosity.
But, here he was, wondering what the shivering bundle in his arms could've done to make the people before him look at him that way. Techno decided to be the one to break the silence.
"Why is he here?" He asked, voice monotone as ever but still filled with nothing but malice. Wilbur didn't answer, instead walking past them both and into the house smelling distinctly of cedar and ashes. He placed Tommy onto the sofa that was warm from being so close to the fire and covered him with a blanket off the back of the sofa that he knew had been his at one point, before sighing and turning around to see the two immortals no longer there, the front door closed. He walked to the kitchen meeting Phil and techno's stares.
"So uh...I brought Tommy to visit?" he tried breaking the silence, not feeling as confident as when he'd arrived barely a few minutes earlier. Techno went to speak but Phil beat him to it.
"Wil, mate, why is Tommy sleeping on our couch?" Phil questioned, sighing.
"I didn't really have anywhere else to take him.." Wil replied, shrugging his shoulders. Phil and techno looked at him for a second before Phil gestured for him to elaborate. He huffed out a bit of air and started explaining.
—---------------------
Tommy woke to a soft glow and crackle of fire beside him, paired with the faint sound of hushed whispers, making him want to return to the warm darkness of sleep's embrace, but as he felt his mind start working again, he was reminded of the constant danger he knew could easily take advantage of him at every second.
He eyed his surroundings and was...immediately confused.
'This looks the same as techno's house. Wait, this is T echno's house. Oh shit oh shit oh shit-'
He needed to leave, now. If he's in techno's house after being asleep that can only mean someone (he's guessing techno or Phil) took him here but wasn't he talking to Wilbur last night? Yesterday? He didn't know what time it was, he could've been asleep for a month for all he knew. But if he was thinking logically then it was either Wilbur, Techno, or Phil that decided to bring him here. Why? He has no clue. Probably to either kill him or 'teach him a lesson' because techno's still mad he betrayed him.
The fire was still going through so they couldn't have been gone for too long. He looked to the door and made his way over to it. Turning the handle slowly so as to not make noise, he pulled it towards him, feeling relief course through his veins when it opened without a sound. He stepped forward and through the door frame before feeling something around his chest pull him back, and he tried running forward to escape the grasp of whatever was behind him, but he couldn't budge. He considered screaming but knew that would only make his situation worse since it would only serve to enrage what or whoever was holding him captive, so he just continued his weak struggling.
"...y..."
'What was that?'
"..mmy.."
Was that a voice?? His struggle slowed a bit, now just wanting to get away from the contact more than anything.
"..Tommy!"
His struggle stopped now and he opened his eyes, not registering that he'd closed them in the first place. His breathing was rapid and he was shaking, but he still forced himself to look towards the voice.
"Wilbur.." He whispered. Wilbur sighed in relief before reaching an arm up and running his hand through the blond hair. Tommy blinked a few times trying to get his bearings.
"You good now?" Wilbur asked him. Tommy stared off into nothingness, processing what was happening. He looked at the older and yawned, understandably tired.
"Yeah, this is pretty normal for me but it probably looked weird, sorry man." He replied. Wilbur grew confused, but also upset.
"Wait, hold on, what..what do you mean you're used to this? Tommy, I just caught you about to walk into below freezing temperature in clothing not at all meant for cold weather and when I stopped you, you had a panic attack!? How is that at all normal?!"
"You mean the loud breathing and shit? Yeah, sorry, I can't really do anything once that happens, believe me, the best I can do to stop those is wait them out and they usually last longer so sorry for the trouble, and also I don't know why the fuck I'm here but I'm just gonna go home now so please don't kill me and ill just be on my way." Wilbur listens to Tommy ramble on in disbelief. He thought Wilbur was gonna kill him?? What?? He ran his fingers through the younger's hair again, and as he stopped rambling.
The brunet began crying now, "Toms, you really think after everything I'd just get rid of you?" he asked. Tommy looked down and his breathing slowed. "I mean, I mean yeah? People do that all the time I just assumed...wait, so you..." he trailed off, now extremely confused. If Wilbur didn't want him to die why'd he bring him to techno's house? He knew he'd at least told Wil the two hated him, and even if he forgot there's no way he'd not heard about what happened doomsday.
Wilbur sighed, "Let's go back inside now, yeah?" He didn't wait for an answer and began standing up taking Tommy with him, entering the still heated wooden cottage, seeing a visibly unnerved techno sitting on the sofa and Phil nowhere in sight. Wilbur mentally punched himself when he realized Tommy had no clue what was going on and now understood why he was panicking, but he'd only heard about minimal details from Tommy about the end of l'manberg, but he remembered something about techno hating him for betraying him? Something even more serious must've happened, because he knew from having Tommy by his side that the once golden-haired boy would only truly betray someone if he knew they were gonna either betray him, or they'd done enough harm that he didn't trust them.
Tommy hid behind Wilbur as they walked toward the couch, and Wilbur tried not to think about the way Tommy was clutching the sleeve of his dusty yellow sweater like a lifeline. His trench coat was abandoned on the chair they were now sitting down on, and the raccoon that had followed them, Ash if he remembered from a few hours ago, jumped onto the couch and walked over him, going to curl up in Tommy's lap. Tommy kept his gaze on the ground already dreading the incoming conversation and the inevitable ending of either him getting told to leave, or him leaving while the others yelled in the background.
"Okay, not sure what happened but you guys need to sort it out so we can move on, there are more important things at the moment and I'm honestly disappointed you've both just ignored each other instead of just talking. So, we have all day. Talk." Wilbur stated, his face giving away that he seemed just as worried as Tommy that this would go terribly. Techno sighed and closed his book, looking Wilbur dead in the eyes.
"Okay, I'll start, Tommy used me and betrayed me and now he's mad because I blew up that disaster you called a country." He said. His voice didn't hold anger as much as it did annoyance. He wasn't necessarily mad that Tommy was here, but he did want him to leave because the kid had shown many times he's willing to turn his back on people.
Tommy huffed out a laugh. "..you would've....of m.....ays" Tommy muttered under his breath. Techno's gaze fell upon him and he raised an eyebrow at the reply he hadn't heard clearly. "What was that?" Tommy glared up at him. "I said you woulda' gotten rid of me anyways bitch." Techno was now confused, as was Wilbur, "What the heck are you-", "When I first came here after living in exile and we came face to face with Dream? I'm not deaf techno. I heard what you both said and I couldn't risk you just handing me over to him, I didn't have a choice." Tommy explained.
"...Theseus, you do realize I was joking when I said that, right?" Techno asked warily, trying to not show how genuinely scary the look Wilbur was giving him was. Tommy hugged his arms around himself pressing his eyebrows together while staring him dead in the eyes.
"The reason I came to you in the first place was to get away from someone who was causing me physical and mental pain, I wasn't in a good mindset to know if you were joking around or not. I just knew what I heard you say. The tone you used when saying you'd just hand me back to my fuckin' abuser didn't matter, just the words." Techno's looked down, now also closing in on himself slightly. He'd never thought about that, Tommy always avoided talking about what all Dream did so he just assumed it was just him yelling at the kid or something, but now that he knew that he felt...guilty a bit. Wilbur was giving him a death glare and Tommy had his eyes locked onto the door. He looked ready to just run at any moment.
"Tommy...I'm sorry."
Tommy's nail's stopped digging into his hands. He blinked in confusion,"Wh..What?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't know what all was going on at the time so I just assumed you were trying to get on his nerves or something. Regardless, I shouldn't have said that, joke or not. You clearly were scared of him and despite knowing that I made you think I was gonna... 'give you back to him', as you said." Techno said. Tommy was stunned, he almost thought this was a sick joke for a second, but here he was, sitting across from the person he thought hated him the most (other than Dream) and Techno was just, apologizing? What?
Wilbur was also a bit surprised, but he wasn't paying attention to the conversation anymore. He tried to make himself appear calm but now he was feeling pretty furious. ' What did dream do to make Tommy classify him as abusive?? Tommy might be a bit much at times but he's not stupid. He knows what that word means, so what happened?'
Techno and Tommy were now on a different topic, seeming to have an unspoken competition about who could apologize and shit-talk themselves the most. They were going back and forth about "Well I shouldn't have left you just because I couldn't take a joke!" and "I probably shouldn't have killed your best friend and then fought you immediately after!" It honestly sounded like they were fighting but they were doing the exact opposite. They were communicating.
"I hate to interrupt this...heartfelt apology session? But we need to address something important." Wilbur cut in. They turned their attention to him and he took a second to try to compose himself.
"Tommy...what happened when you were with Dream?" He asked. Tommy froze and looked down, curly hair now covering his eyes.
"I don't want to talk about it." Techno and Wilbur were both a bit taken aback by his tone (he honestly sounded scarier than Phil on a bad day, and you couldn't get much worse than that) but Wilbur pressed further, determined to find out what the person he thought was his savior had done to Tommy.
"Tommy, if we don't know what he did we can't know how much of a threat he is, or if he is one at all." He spoke calmly, trying his best to make Tommy calmer but also get answers. Wilbur knew he was lying, they would keep Tommy far away from Dream no matter how much he'd hurt the boy in the past, but they needed to know what all they were dealing with.
"Some...sometimes he'd take my tools and shit," Tommy muttered.
"Okay, that's a good start. What else?" Wilbur prompted.
"He gave me orders a lot? They weren't that bad just throwing out my armor or something."
"Did you?"
"I mean yeah he said he'd kill me if I didn't so it wasn't much 'a choice was it? Said It'd help me learn to follow orders better. I just kind of got used to it after a while 'cause it was more trouble for me to not listen. He'd get mad and not visit and I didn't..like being alone." Neither of the other two said anything, just letting him continue on, Wilbur providing a reassuring smile. "If I did something bad enough he'd..." Tommy stopped talking.
"...Tommy did he...did Dream hurt you?" Techno asked. There was no response.
"After he found my stash of items I didn't want him to destroy he blew it up along with the rest of Logstedshire. He left and said I couldn't go to the nether or have visitors anymore." Tommy said after a minute.
"Is this when you came to my house?" Techno asked.
"Yeah, I didn't intend on it but I ended up here after that." He replied
"What do you mean you didn't intend on it? Of course, you didn't intend on having your whole place blown up!" Wilbur cut in.
"Well I mean...I wasn't gonna go anywhere after that." He said. Techno and Wilbur glanced at each other before Wilbur asked again. "You didn't plan on leaving exile?" Tommy shook his head 'no'.
"No, I made a tower and.." He didn't say anything else, sitting there looking down, not daring to move his eyes up. "It happened almost a year ago. I don't need your damn pity." He spat.
"Tommy, it doesn't matter if it happened a year ago or a week ago, that's not okay," Wilbur said.
"I never said it was, I just said I'm over it. Can we just drop the subject?" Tommy huffed. Techno sighed, "Tommy," he said, "When was the last time you ate?" Tommy grew confused. "The fuck's that got to do with anything?" He asked. "When was the last time you ate?" Techno asked again. Tommy fell silent. "Last time you Slept more than...4 hours?" Nothing in reply. "Showered? Drank water?" He asked.
"....I drank water yesterday." He mumbled.
'He can't even remember.' Wilbur thought. 'He can't even recall the last time he ate something! Or slept a decent amount! How can he not recall that?!'
"Tommy, just because you're not jumping off towers on a daily basis doesn't mean you're fine. Especially not if you can't recall when you last met your own basic needs. It doesn't matter what happened with Dream in exile now. It happened, yes, but that shouldn't dictate whether or not you should take care of yourself." Techno said. Tommy nodded and they all sat before Wilbur got up and moved to sit by Tommy. He put his arms around him and gave him a hug, running his hand through the younger's hair as he did earlier.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me, but I'm here now. I promise I won't leave, I'll protect you from now on, so rest."
And so Tommy drifted off into the darkness and felt himself be embraced by the comforting blanket of sleep. If Phil came back from mining later to find the three sleeping on the same couch, a raccoon sleeping on Tommy's lap, and the other two on either side of him, that was for him and his many screenshots of the scene to know.