Chapter Text
Tommy was having a rough day to say the least. He’s been at this foster home(if you could call it a home) for two weeks now. Which felt like an eternity if you ask him. Here’s the thing about werewolves, they are very territorial. So taking in a foster kid is a very precarious situation. There’s so many rules and boundaries it’s hard to even breathe around them. Tommy’s a big man though, he doesn’t roll over for anyone, which causes a lot of issues. You could kind of say he’s a problem child but if you ask him it’s the foster families who are the real problem. Always making him bare his neck and submit but he’s no bitch. Which leads us to our current situation. Tommy, sitting in the passenger seat of a car with his social worker Puffy. Driving to his emergency placement foster home with a bruised cheek and a couple other bad bruises here and there.
“I think this one will be the one,” Puffy said, glancing over at Tommy.
“Sure it will,” Tommy said, rolling his eyes.
“I’m serious, he’s a really good friend of mine. His name is Phil Craft and he specializes with problem children. He has two adopted sons who both had a hard time in the foster system like yourself. I think you’ll really like it there.”
“If you say so,” he said leaning his head against the window watching the trees flash by. Man does he wish he could be running through the woods right now. Free of all these stupid foster families with their stupid rules. He closed his eyes listening to the car's engine as they drove down the windy roads.
“Tommy” He woke up to someone shaking his shoulder, “Tommy we’re here.” Puffy said getting out of the car. Tommy slowly followed suit stretching as he stepped out into the fresh air. He looked around all he could see were woods and then a nice looking cabin. He grabbed his backpack off the car floor board. In it he had some of the essentials, a change of clothes, a set of pajamas, etc. But his important stuff lay at the bottom of his bag. An old ipod with a bunch of songs loaded up on it and a worn stuffed cow named Henry. He threw his bag over his shoulder and started following Puffy to the door. She knocked on the door and it was quickly opened by a tall lanky teenager. His height alone was very intimidating but was pretty lanky so maybe Tommy could take him in a fight. He had brown curly hair sporting round rim glasses, a yellow sweater, and black ripped jeans. He was immediately hit with a woody and resinous scent coming from the house.
“Phiiilll! Your kid is here!” He yelled back across the room. As soon as the man appeared the scent of pine and woods was stronger and felt overwhelming, it sent him staggering like a newborn fawn. He’s met alpha’s before but not ones this intimidating or strong. The air felt dense and suffocating. All his alarm bells were ringing that something was off with this man. He really wanted to run away, but couldn’t get himself to move. Phil had shoulder length blonde hair, icy blue eyes, wearing a weird green robe. He appeared to be the same height as Tommy but Tommy’s still growing so it shouldn’t last long. Tommy had the immediate urge to tilt his chin up and bare his neck to him, but he struggled to fight it. His efforts proved fruitless because before he could stop himself he was tilting his chin up slightly, baring his neck. Tommy immediately scowled and huffed at the alpha, annoyed and partially scared. Phil heard Tommy’s huff but instead of getting angry or growling, he just huffed out a chuckle in response.
“So you must be Tommy, I’m Phil. It's nice to meet you mate. And Puffy, it's been a while, how have you been?” Phil said with a disarming smile.
“Good, it’s good to see you. Do you mind if we come in?” She said, smiling back at him.
“Of course! Come on in,” he replied, opening the door wider. Tommy stepped in trying to mask his overwhelming fear of being in a new alpha’s territory. Inside looked very cozy like you’d expect from a cabin. The only thing that stuck out was the large nest in the middle of the living room. It had tons of blankets, pillows, and animal furs on it. It honestly looked pretty inviting if it didn’t reek of woods, pine, hickory-leather, and snow. Tommy preferred his own smell of cinnamon sugar. Sometimes he would refuse to wash his clothes just to keep the smell on them.
“Why don’t we have Wilbur give you a tour of the house while Puffy and I talk over the paperwork?” Phil said looking over at Wilbur who was sitting in the nest.
“Sure!” Wilbur replied, happily climbing out of the nest. “Hi I’m Wilbur, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Tommy,” He replied, scowling at the man. Wilbur noticed but he just laughed. What’s with these people?
“Anyways here’s the living room as you can tell, and that over there is the kitchen.” He said pointing to the back of the room where there were wooden cabinets and an island in the middle. It had a nice dark wooden dining table off to the side with four chairs surrounding it. There were various pictures hung up throughout the house showing two boys in varying stages of life. Never younger than around ten but always some sort of happy, and it sent a pang to Tommy’s heart. He wondered what that must be like, having a pack who loved you enough to record little flashes of your life for the rest of time. The thing about werewolves is they are above all devoted to family. Family and having a pack is the most important thing to a wolf and Tommy’s never had that. There’s always been this hole in his chest that always feels like he something's missing. But Tommy’s a big man, he doesn’t need a pack or anyone for that matter.
“And that’s Phil’s office,” Pointing to the small room to the right of the kitchen where Phil and Puffy were heading to. The air felt less suffocating but still tense. Tommy simply nodded in reply. Wilbur started to walk towards the stairs off to the left side of the kitchen. Tommy followed suit.
“And up here we have the bedrooms.” As soon as he said that someone came out of the farthest right door. He looked to be slightly shorter than Wilbur but was super well built. He could definitely break Tommy in half if he wanted. Tommy took a gulp at that. What was surprising was the long bubblegum pink hair styled in a fluffy braid and wearing a weird poetry looking shirt with black dress pants. This family sure has a fucking weird fashion sense.
“Hullo,” He said, standing there awkwardly.
“And that’s Technoblade but you can just call him Techno”
“Technoblade? That’s a fucking weird name,” Tommy spat before he could stop himself. Immediately regretting it, this man could literally crush Tommy’s head with his bare hands and yet Tommy decided to poke the wolf.
“I don’t know what to tell you, man. I certainly didn’t pick it.” He said, to Tommy’s surprise.
“Anyways,” Wilbur said, breaking the tension, “As you can see, that's Technos room on the far right. Phil’s room is to the far left. Then there’s the bathroom on the left, my room across from it, and this is your room.” Opening the door as Techno went downstairs. It looked bare, but it was nice and open. It was painted a light blue and had a small bed off to the side. There was a window with a bookshelf underneath it with a couple of books. Then there was a small closet off to the right. He quickly set his backpack down looking back to Wilbur.
“It’s not much but Phil said we can go shopping later to get the essentials and to decorate.” He stated and Tommy nodded in return. Then they made their way downstairs to see Puffy about to leave.
“Well take care Puffy and drive safe.” Phil said smiling.
“You take care too. Goodbye Tommy,” She said, ruffling his hair. Tommy really didn’t want her to leave, that’s when all the niceness drops but it’s not like he has much of a choice. Now he’s stuck with these intimidating people, they could probably smell the fear oozing off him. The air still had a tenseness to it but it wasn’t as suffocating as when they first met.
“So how did you like the house?” Phil said, looking at Tommy.
“It’s nice,” He mumbled in response.
“Why don’t you come into the kitchen and we can cover some ground rules.” Great some more fucking suffocating rules, just what he needs to calm down. They made their way into the kitchen sitting down at the dining table.
“Now then, rules. You can shift, you can run through the woods, whenever you want. A pup like you needs to get their energy out. However, let one of us know when you're leaving the house. We like to go hunting as a pack so if that’s something you're interested in you’re more than welcome to join us. We also spend full moons together so I assume you’ll be joining us then.” Like he has a choice in any of this. “Any food in the kitchen is fair game, any time, but let me know if you want anything specific and I can pick it up when I go grocery shopping. We have a strict rule of knocking before entering. So please knock and wait for confirmation before entering someone’s room and we’ll do the same to you. Also you are welcome in the nest anytime. And that’s about all the rules I have for ya” Phil said finishing up. Tommy just nodded in reply. Not the worst set of rules he’s gotten, if they even give the rules. Sometimes it’s just trial and error, and Tommy never liked the error part. Although he’ll probably never go into the nest. That was a family thing and Tommy is definitely not family with these strangers.
“Well why don’t you go upstairs and get settled in. Dinner will be ready at six and you're more than welcome to join us at the table but if you rather eat in your room that’s fine too.” Tommy nodded and quickly went to his room and shut the door. He laid down on his bed with a huff. New homes are always stressful. You never know what to expect and intruding on a werewolf’s territory never feels right. He quickly pulled Henry out of his backpack and snuggled him breathing in the cinnamon sugar smell. So much better than the woodsy smell this house has. I mean it wasn’t bad, just not the same. He laid there for a long time just staring off into space. Wondering how things were gonna go these next couple of weeks. So far it went well but let's see how long that’ll last.
“Dinner time,” Someone said knocking on Tommy’s door. He slowly got up and stretched. He quickly tucked Henry underneath his pillow and made his way downstairs, something smelling really good. He looked towards the kitchen mouth watering. There was tons of meat laid out on the table. He knew wolves ate lots of meat but he’s never seen this much. Phil took notice of the shocked look on his face.
“I know it’s a lot but we tend to eat a lot of meat around here” Phil said and Tommy nodded, taking an empty seat. Then they began eating, and Tommy didn’t know what to do. Usually he just got table scraps, since he was usually on the low totem pole of the pack. Being the youngest and new to the pack, he was never a priority.
“You can eat,” Techno commented, looking at him while putting some meat on Tommy’s plate. He just nodded in reply and slowly began eating. Despite Tommy’s overwhelming fear of everyone, he’d say it went pretty smoothly. They talked about their day and bantered back and forth. Not to mention the food was super good. He’s never had this much meat or food in general before.
“So where’d you get the bruise?” Wilbur said pointing to his cheek.
“None of your fucking business” Tommy growled. Immediately regretting it as Wilbur let out a low and loud warning growl. The air turned intense and he felt like coughing because of how heavy it felt. Before he could stop himself a small high pitched whine came out submissively causing Wilbur to smile. Tommy scowled back but Wilbur’s smile never faltered.
“So we’re thinking about going hunting tomorrow if you wanted to join us Tommy” Phil said, also smiling over at Tommy, the air starting to clear again. What’s with these people?
“I’m okay, thanks.” Tommy replied, staring down at his plate, debating getting more. Before he could do anything Techno was putting another piece of meat on his plate. He looked up at Techno only to get a huff in response. Soon they finished eating and Tommy was super full. Fuller than he’s ever been in a long time.
“We’re gonna watch a movie if you want to join us,” Phil said, cleaning up the leftovers. He just nodded in response and headed to the sink to wash his plate. “You can just set that in there mate, I’ll get to it.” Tommy did and headed to the living room. Carefully avoiding the nest he sat in one of the arm chairs next to it. Soon everyone else got settled into the nest and turned on the TV. They started watching some action movie, which was interesting at first but eventually got super boring. His eyes slowly started to droop but he refused to fall asleep here. But he was really emotionally exhausted from all the stress of being in a new packs territory. Slowly he got more and more sleepy and before he realized it he was out cold.