Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It begins with Tubbo making the sacrificial play. When, the eve before war, Tommy has to watch the coldness in his best-friend’s eye as the boy packs the bag full of items that he might need. The kitchen is silent, the lamp being the only thing illuminating the ram-hybrid. He soaks in the way Tubbo’s hair has grown longer, falls around the horns on his head and the scars from the fireworks. After all this time, he still feels a need to apologise for not stepping in. For the fact that a man he used to consider a brother was the one to kill him.

Tubbo turns to him. ‘You don’t stop. You don’t look back. You stay safe, until I call for you to return.’

He made a promise, and he’ll keep it. Even if Tommy doesn’t want to flee, even if he thinks that the alarms ringing from Pandora’s vault are the end of the world. He should be out there, facing Dream. He should be hunting him down, and using the Axe of Peace to strike the man down. Instead, he’s quietly admitting defeat, allowing his friend to make the decisions.

Maybe, if he’d done that all those many months ago, none of this would have happened. Tommy wouldn’t be scarred and broken, Tubbo wouldn’t have just lost his husband.

‘He has the book. Use… use it to bring back Ranboo,’ Tommy tells him, and Tubbo nods.

There is a moment, when Tubbo is finished packing, that neither of them are willing to be the first to speak. Silence envelops them both, finalised by the way that Tubbo takes both of his hands. Even with the slow, steady movement, Tommy flinches. ‘He can’t hurt you anymore,’ Tubbo whispers, before he leans forward so that their foreheads are pressed together. Tommy has to duck a bit, but he doesn’t mind, because he wants to savour this for as long as possible. ‘By the time you come back, he’ll be defeated. I swear to you, Tommy, I’ll finish this.’

The alliance they made was as old as time, based on nothing more than their friendship. Tommy had stumbled to Snowchester, white streaks in his hair and tone that begged for Tubbo to help. That Dream’s book, his attempts at revival, had gone wrong. That Tommy had been thrown into limbo so many times, stuck in the same goddamned railway as his dead brother, before something had changed.

Tommy no longer was bound to the realm around them. He could move, from here, to limbo. Without dying. He simply called upon it, like Philza called upon his wings, or Dream called upon his stamina.

Tubbo made the plan. He’d always been the brains of the operation, able to sort out the plan that would save them both. ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ Tommy chokes out, feeling tears stain his cheeks.

‘Papa?’

They pull apart. Michael is hovering in the doorway, dressed in his pyjamas. He’s got his bag in hand, just as Tubbo told him, and he’s dressed in a cloak that looks to be a scrap of Ranboo’s clothing. A deep emerald shade, matching the swaddled cloth that is wrapped around Shroud.

There is no room for privacy. Tubbo says goodbye to his son in the kitchen, crouched on the floor as he hugs Michael so tightly that Tommy fears the boy cannot breathe. But the zombified piglin just grunts and chortles at his father, limited to only three words. Papa, and dada, not that he has any need for the second one anymore. Mimi, which is the syllables of Tommy’s name that the boy can say.

‘You’re going to go with Mimi, okay? You’ve got to be a good boy, and listen to everything he tells you. When you come back, me and dada will be here,’ Tubbo promises, littering kisses over the boy’s cheeks.

Tommy’s heart burns as he watches Tubbo rise up, looking far older than his eighteen years when he finally turns back to him. ‘Keep good care of my boy, Tommy.’

This, Tommy can do. Because, as dangerous as Dream and the rest of the server can be, there is one place that Tommy controls better than all of them. One place that he will now use, to protect himself and his son and his nephew. ‘For Ranboo,’ Tommy murmurs, echoing the pledge they made when they found out the Enderman-hybrid had been slain.

Tubbo kisses his cheek. Tommy lingers close to him for a moment, the atmosphere filled with the unspoken words of their friendship. When Tommy knows he’s wasting time, that the sun will soon be rising and bringing with it war, he sighs. ‘You always were my better half, Tubbo.’

The ram-hybrid has tears spilling down his cheeks as he turns away, scooping up Shroud and handing him over. Tommy attaches his son to his chest, careful not to jostle the baby too much, before he puts the bag on his back and finally reaches for Michael. The piglin doesn’t hesitate to offer both arms out, being lifted to rest on Tommy’s hip.

‘Stay in limbo until you know you’ve travelled far enough. If that means wasting realm-time, then so be it,’ Tubbo firmly says, having studied extensively the chronology of both realms. Limbo works faster than their realm, as they found out from Wilbur’s ramblings.

Tommy shuts down thoughts of his brother quickly. The last he saw of him, he was sitting on a bench at the train station, looking out across the platform as Tommy was pulled back onto the train. For every day in limbo, it was approximately a month in limbo.

It technically meant Tommy was also eighteen, fast approaching nineteen, just as Tubbo was. Not that either of them were ever going to mention that.

‘They might grow up—’

‘I would rather you all safe,’ Tubbo argued, uncaring of the consequences of sending Tommy into a realm that he now has power over.

Eventually, the time comes. Tommy says goodbye to his friend, and begins to concentrate on his tether to the otherworld. It forms slowly, a white mist that encases his hand, before spreading up his body. When his eyes shut, he sees the awe on Tubbo’s face as he steps through the border between the dead, and the living.

Opening his eyes, he is greeted with the familiar, endless plains of limbo. Not the train station, Tommy has no intention of taking his children anywhere near Wilbur, or Jschlatt. Instead, he concentrates on twisting his own mind, to shape the world around them. He needs to put as much distance between him and the SMP as possible, at least ten thousand blocks.

With one hand balancing the boy on his hip, and the other thumbing over the golden compass in his pocket, Tommy sets out across Limbo.

**

There is the moment of elation. Tubbo’s heart is pounding, blood sticky on his arm and the taste heavy in his mouth, but they have won. It is a thing he repeats, over and over, without being unable to comprehend what this means.

Around him, others look to be in a similar state of disbelief. Puffy is helping Niki off the floor, dusting her down and turning to check on Foolish, who mostly stayed neutral during the war. Jack is close by, his half-dead form studying the people gathered in the wreckage of the community centre.

Sapnap and Sam are the ones that have Dream pinned.

‘We should kill him right now,’ Sam argues, and Sapnap looks inclined to agree. With Punz already captured, Dream had nobody that could come to his defence. Not even George, who stays silent as he watches from the side-lines.

‘Agreed,’ Technoblade huffs, sheathing his axe at his side and checking to see if Phil is hurt. Then, almost reluctantly, his eyes move to Wilbur.

The revivals came in the third month of the War. Wilbur and Ranboo, both stumbling out of limbo together, brought back by Dream’s hand but ultimately they couldn’t be controlled. For Ranboo, it was the heartbreak of knowing that Dream had killed his son. For Wilbur, it was the loss of Tommy. Over the shared trauma, the members of the SMP banded together to capture Dream.

Dream, who stays on his knees, gagged. But his eyes are on Tubbo, like he’s known all this time that the ram-hybrid was never honest about Tommy’s fate.

Tubbo shakes his head. ‘I think there is only one person that can decide Dream’s fate,’ he argues, unable to stop his racing heartbeat or the way his mind is bubbling over at the thought of being able to see them again.

Ranboo turns to him. ‘Love? I… if you want to decide his fate—’

‘Not me,’ Tubbo cuts in, and when did his voice finally manage to gain respect? They look at him now, all of them. His nineteen years, almost twenty, of living finally means that he can be treated as an equal.

‘Then who?’ Sapnap spits, sword dangerously close to slitting Dream’s throat.

He takes a breath. ‘Tommy.’

The name hasn’t been said in a little over six months. Not since Wilbur and Ranboo were revived, since they all banded together. They had a funeral service, and a grave was built, and then later destroyed by Dream. As it is, the name makes several people flinch. Niki, who sobbed at his memorial because she had turned him away after L’Manburg. Phil, who usually stayed quiet on the topic of someone that had once been considered his flock.

Wilbur’s reaction is the worse. The man that came back was not the Wilbur Soot that blew up L’Manburg, but an older brother that had seen his brother in limbo too many times to count. A brother that broke down on the battlefield, the moment he found out Tommy was gone.

‘Tubbo,’ Puffy says gently, like she’s speaking to a madman, ‘Tommy… he’s gone.’

When they were children, Tommy told Tubbo that he was the worst liar that he’d ever met. Perhaps it was because the two of them knew each other far too well to ever get away with dishonesty. ‘He… he isn’t,’ Tubbo cautiously says, which earns him several sympathetic looks, like he’s unable to comprehend the loss, ‘He isn’t, because I lied about… well, about everything.’

Heads turn to him. They’re all exhausted, but Tubbo’s excitement is only building at the thought of being able to see his best friend, his son and Shroud again. ‘I lied, because it was the only way to win. We made a plan, a promise, me and Tommy,’ he babbles, the words spilling out, ‘He came back after Dream killed him, and I told him to take Michael and run.’

He leaves out Shroud, because not many know that the boy existed. To the server, he was Tommy’s spider. In reality, the spider was a decoy for the anthropomorphic spider-boy that Tommy had found in a cave one day.

Ranboo exhales like the air has been punched out of him. ‘He’s alive?’

Tubbo nods frantically, ‘Him and Michael, they’re both okay. Far away from here, where Dream couldn’t hunt them down, but he… I can message him, I can tell him it’s safe to come home!’

He’s crying again, but they’re happy tears that fall down his cheeks as people begin to speak in a flurry of emotions. Wilbur, demanding that he message right now. Quackity’s breath of relief, and a chuckle under his breath “I knew that kid couldn’t die”. Even Philza and Technoblade look… happy.

Everyone does.

Sam’s the one to soothe the group, before encouraging Tubbo to take his communicator out. People gather around, desperate to see the message.

BeeBoy: The war is over, Tommy. You can come home now.

Seconds tick by. With baited breath, everyone waits for the sound of the communicator pinging.

When it does, Tubbo reads the message and laughs. His communicator is snatched, handed around so that everyone can see proof that their youngest, aside from Michael, is alive.

WifeHaver: Better have baked me a good cake, Tubs.

**

They restrain Dream in a temporary holding cell, preparing for his trial. The aftermath of the war has them all gathered in the remnants of the community house, handing out healing potions and food to those that need it. Tubbo helps bind Ranboo’s damaged arm, without either of them commenting on the lie that he’s told everyone for the past year. In fact, nobody has been angry with him yet.

There’s too much excitement.

‘—going to live with me!’ Wilbur proclaims loudly, from where he’s sitting at Philza’s side and is preening one of his wings.

‘Absolutely not,’ Sam counters, but he’s grinning, ‘Tommy’s going to live with me.’

It’s ridiculous that they’re fighting over him now. Quackity, Karl and Sapnap say that they’re going to be the “cool uncles”, while Eret comes to sit with Tubbo for a bit and asks about his son.

Tubbo thought that peace couldn’t exist on this server, but he’s beginning to see that all it took was the defeat of a common enemy. ‘The new laws of peace will be drafted, and we’ll all agree on them. No wars. If people want to create governments, then they do it away from the anarchists.’

‘A fresh start,’ Niki says hopefully, and the others agree.

The past three years have had too much bloodshed. But when Tommy comes back, and they execute Dream, the world can begin again.

‘I wonder how big Michael has got in the last year,’ Ranboo says excitedly, tail twitching as his eyes flick around the room.

People listen in to the explanation of their son. A platonic marriage, for tax benefits, Tubbo jokingly says as he laces his fingers with Ranboo’s. He doesn’t miss the way that Ranboo looks to Techno and Phil for approval, or the soft smile that the avian sends his way.

Tubbo’s not quite willing to forgive some of these people yet, but he’s on the way to recovery.

That’s how they spend the next three days. Cleaning the rubble, rebuilding a structure for them to stay in. Most of them sleep close to the community centre, before returning during the day.

At midday on the fourth day since Dream’s defeat, a communicator pings. Quackity is the first to call it out, halting the game of cards that had been going on in one corner as everyone checks their own.

Belatedly, Tubbo realises that it is his communicator.

‘Is it…’ Puffy begins hopefully, with everyone waiting for Tubbo’s response.

WifeHaver: Main portal.

He runs. The others are probably following, everyone desperate to see Tommy again, but Tubbo is the one that goes the quickest. He races up the stairs, halting when he sees the portal shimmering.

Someone tries to move forward to join him, but Sam holds a hand out, ‘Let him have this. He’s been keeping this secret for a while.’

Tubbo can’t breathe. His lungs are burning, and he’s so happy.

The portal makes a sound, a humming that fills the air as a person forms, and Tubbo’s eyes lock onto Tommy for the first time in a year.

The gasp that escapes his lips cannot be helped, when the only part of Tommy that Tubbo fully recognises are the bright blue eyes that stare back at him, and the smile that spreads over the boy’s lips.

‘Tubbo.’

Chapter Text

Tommy forgot how the air tasted in the SMP. The way it slightly sours his tongue, ruffles through his hair as he looks at his best friend. Tubbo… hasn’t aged that much. The scars on his face have settled, and his hair has been cut since they last saw each other. His horns have grown slightly, which makes Tommy unwillingly remember Jschlatt. He isn’t wearing armour, which leaves Tommy to feel slightly overdressed in his own.

‘Tubbo,’ he says, letting the word hang in the air between them as his friend – his better half – search him.

He knows he looks different. Older. Because Tommy figures that here, it has only been twelve months since Tommy fled the SMP. For him, it’s been longer. Unlike the normal action of spending time in limbo, him physically travelling there means his body ages just as his mind does. Tommy now stands here, at twenty-five-years old, with a best friend that is only nineteen, turning twenty. Seven years in limbo, and in the plains far away from the SMP’s borders.

Tubbo goes to speak, but is cut off when a figure comes barrelling through the portal. Tommy had instructed his kids to wait, but impatience was something Michael was well-known for. ‘Dad! Papa!’

The piglin hurtles straight into Tubbo, who almost falls back as the eleven-year-old jumps on him.

Tommy watches as Tubbo bursts into tears, clutching at his son like he never intends to let him go. Ranboo is at his side, turning the duo into a trio as they run fingers through Michael’s hair, marvel at his growing tusks and the pointed ears, pierced and decorated with the best gold Tommy could find. The zombification is almost all gone, leaving him as a normal-piglin child, not too unsimilar from Technoblade.

‘I missed you, oh gods, you’ve grown up so much,’ Tubbo murmurs, pressing kisses to Michael’s face. The boy laughs, squirming out of his hold.

‘I missed you too, papa, dad,’ he returns, childish glee at seeing his parents again.

The portal hums behind Tommy, and he doesn’t need to turn to know that the others have come through. ‘What part of wait until I called for you was so difficult to understand?’ Tommy teases, looking between the three children that just stepped out of the portal.

Michael escapes from Tubbo’s hold. ‘Sorry, mum! We wanted to see everyone!’

He’s not going to blame them for the excitement. Instead, as Michael tugs on Tubbo’s hand as he bounces, Tommy just smiles.

‘Look, papa, I’ve got more siblings!’

Tubbo looks back to Tommy.

Tommy looks at Tubbo.

‘Uh…’

Where Tommy falters, Tubbo does not. He comes storming over, gripping Tommy and dragging him in for a hug. It’s slightly strange, now that Tommy’s taller and more filled out and he’s got a set of wings on his back that everyone else has been staring at for a while. Still, he moulds his body to Tubbo’s regardless, letting his wings flutter and spread out slightly from where they’re hidden under his cape. ‘Missed you,’ Tubbo murmurs against his collarbone, and Tommy sighs happily.

‘I missed you too, Tubs. So much,’ he admits, hating the way Tubbo pulls back.

Then, the ram-hybrid yanks at his braided hair. ‘The fuck is this?’

‘My… my hair? And language, there are children present! Michael, don’t you dare—’

‘Henry!’ Michael sing-songs, turning to Tommy’s youngest.

‘You little shit,’ Tommy says fondly, smiling at his piglin son as he grins toothily at him.

‘Are you going to introduce us, mum?’ asks his daughter, hovering nervously as she holds Henry.

Tommy nervously turns back to his best friend. ‘Tubbo, these are my kids. You’ve met Shroud,’ he gestures to the nine-year-old, who waves, ‘And this is my daughter, Clementine, and my youngest, Henry.’

Clementine inclines her head, while Henry buries his head further into his sister’s neck.

It’s cute. Tommy smiles fondly at both of them, then warily looks back to Tubbo.

The ram-hybrid takes the shock well, greeting all of them. ‘You left with two children, and you come back with four?’

Tommy shrugs helplessly, ‘Can’t help being an amazing mum, Tubs.’

Clementine laughs, coming to Tommy’s side and nudging up against him, ‘Don’t listen to him, Uncle Tubbo, he’s an idiot.’

Ranboo mouths the words uncle Tubbo, while Tommy’s best friend just looks delighted. ‘I can already tell we’re going to get along great,’ Tubbo tells her, and that’s a combination Tommy needs to halt before it gets out of hand. Especially considering Clem’s hybrid abilities.

‘Is there somewhere we can go? Henry needs feeding,’ Tommy says, suddenly aware of every other person that’s watching.

‘How about the community house? It’s being rebuilt, but it should have enough space for us all.’

**

Clem’s the chattiest. She tells Ranboo and Tubbo that she’s waited to meet them for a while, ever since Tommy told them that she had two uncles waiting for them in the SMP. She then greets Sam and Puffy, having heard the most about them. When Niki introduces herself, Clem is slightly more reserved, but she is nothing other than polite.

Tommy sits down in the corner, with Shroud at his side and Henry perched in his lap. Michael is with his fathers, watching his sister as she moves elegantly around the room.

Clementine’s the oldest. At fourteen, she’s developing into her abilities well, along with learning how to act around others.

Which is why, when Quackity approaches, she glances back to him for permission.

‘You’re Quackity, right?’

He grins, ‘I am. Pleasure to meet you, I’m sure Big T’s told you all about me.’

She tilts her head to the side, ‘That you own Las Nevadas, have two fiancés, and gamble away your life? Yeah, he’s mentioned you.’

‘Clem,’ Tommy warns, reaching for the knife at his belt to feed Henry.

She huffs. ‘Apologies, mum did say that you were helpful to him.’

Quackity blinks, then chuckles. ‘You’re pretty tough, kid.’

‘Comes with the genes,’ Clementine says, then quickly looks to Tommy in fear.

She almost said something she shouldn’t. He encourages her to come back, and she moves over to him as Tommy raises the knife to his wrist. It cuts easily through the skin, blood beading along the vertical line.

‘Tommy!’ Tubbo shouts, drawing the attention of all the quiet conversations that had been happening.

He ignores his friend’s concern, and pressed the blood to Henry’s lips. The boy hums, before biting down and letting his red eyes flicker shut.

Tubbo pauses. ‘What… what type of hybrid is he?’

Tommy strokes through his son’s hair carefully. ‘Not sure, but he needs feeding every day,’ Tommy explains, humming when the youngest reaches a hand out to his chest. Clementine looks delighted, with her hybrid side adoring the vibrations that Tommy can make from his chest.

‘How did you find them?’ Ranboo asks, wrapping an arm around his son.

‘Oh, let me tell the story mum! Please,’ Michael pleads, and Tommy gestures for him to ahead.

Michael’s the loudest, which is odd, because from Tommy’s experiences with Piglins, they’ve never been loud. Just large and brooding, and dangerous, and used to be his brother…

‘So we were in limbo, and it was really cool and there were loads of dead people, and we ran into this guy called Jschlatt—’

Michael doesn’t notice that everyone in the room, Quackity especially, flinches.

‘—and mum beat the shit—’

‘Language,’ Tommy chides parentally.

‘—out of him, and then we find this cave right, and outside it is Clem. She’s being all broody and just sitting there so Tommy offers for her to come with us. Then we leave limbo like, a year later? And we find Henry, but he couldn’t go in limbo very well so we usually have to travel by nether now.’

Clementine nods along in agreement. ‘Nether travel is more suited to some of us,’ she points out, staring at the piglin-hybrid. Michael sticks his tongue out.

‘Not my fault you don’t like a lava-bath.’

‘Michael, play nicely with your sister,’ Tommy scolds, but he’s being soft and all of them know that he would never discipline them.

Henry suckles harder on his wrist, gripping it tightly.

‘See, I’m the favourite,’ Clem brags, but she’s joking. Michael giggles, abandoning his fathers to go and sit by his sister’s side.

Tommy’s family. Tommy’s children, and Tubbo and Ranboo, are all he need.

‘Hate to bring up the obvious,’ Sapnap says, when the silence stretches for too long, ‘But are we going to talk about Dream?’

Even after seven years, Tommy flinches. He apologises to Henry immediately, who pulls back and has blood dripping down his chin. He wipes it away, licking his thumb clean after he’s done and wrapping his wrist. ‘What about him?’

Tubbo looks sympathetic. ‘We thought… we haven’t served his verdict. We thought you should choose what happens.’

Isn’t that what he wanted? To have a say over what happens to the man who ruined his life? Tommy threads his fingers into Henry’s hair, then nods. ‘Tomorrow? I’d like to get the kids settled, and then we can go to the court and do it properly.’

They all agree easily. People begin to split off for the night, but Tommy notes that his bro… Wilbur, does not.

Wilbur’s waiting for him.

The last time he saw Wilbur, he was being pulled back out of limbo by Dream’s revival. He’d screamed and begged to be freed, but it hadn’t worked.

‘Tommy,’ Wilbur says softly, like the Wilbur before L’Manburg, before Tommy was draped over his coffin and begged to join his brother in the afterlife.

‘Don’t you dare,’ Tommy hisses, putting himself between the madman and his children, ‘You stay away from them, you stay away from me.’

Clementine takes his hand. He glances down at her, then exhales loudly. ‘C’mon, kid, let’s get you somewhere to sleep for the night.’

His daughter understands what he’s doing. She smiles, tucks under his arm and subtly moves him away from his old family.

He doesn’t need them anymore. He has his new family, his children and his… friends? Partners? They share a child, which is odd, but when has anything in their life been ordinary?

Chapter Text

Tommy trusts Ranboo explicitly. It’s why he even considers leaving his kids with the Enderman-hybrid. After sleeping in the spare room in Tubbo and Ranboo’s mansion, curled up with his kids safely under his wing – all save from Michael, who stayed with his parents – Tommy has to face today’s events.

That means standing outside the court building, trying to ignore the growing ache in his chest as he thinks about Dream.

‘I can come with you, mum,’ Clementine offers quietly, while Michael and Shroud chase Henry around the grassy field outside. Tubbo and Ranboo are close by, watching over the gaggle of hybrid-children carefully.

Tommy couldn’t think of anything worse. ‘You stay out here with Ranboo, okay? I’ll be out soon,’ Tommy promises, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Ranboo steps closer, a look of determination on his face at the prospect of babysitting four children.

Tubbo takes Tommy’s hand. It’s a casual thing, a touch that shouldn’t mean anything, but it makes Tommy’s heart clench. It’s hard staring at Tubbo sometimes; it’s been a lot longer for him than his best friend. The compass served as a reminder that Tommy had someone to come back to, a friend to rely on, but it wasn’t easy after seven years without him.

They step into the court room together. It’s packed full of the inhabitants of the realm, all waiting for the verdict that Tommy will deliver. Apparently, they’ve planned a feast this evening, to celebrate his return. Honestly, Tommy would prefer to hide in the mansion and begin to think about the house he’ll need to build for his kids, but that can come later. For now, the new rules of the land are being drawn up. Tommy’s going to add a clause about child soldiers.

His eyes land on Punz, who apparently is currently being scolded by Sam and Puffy. When he enters, Punz glances over, and Tommy relaxes. ‘Punz,’ he greets warmly, stepping away from Tubbo and moving to the hired accomplice.

Punz returns the enthusiastic greeting. His hand is gripped, but instead of shaking, Tommy gets pulled into a hug. He laughs, letting Punz poke at his wings. ‘Look at you, kid! All grown up, never thought I’d see the day.’

Tommy likes Punz. Although he’s associated with Dream, and therefore not usually on Tommy’s side, there was a moment before the prison that was worth noting. When Dream figured out how the revival book worked, and Tommy began to be brought back again and again, he once ran into Punz. The man helped him, clothed and fed him, before offering to help him escape. In his words, Tommy was just a kid.

‘I’d like to bet that I’m older than you, now,’ Tommy teases right back at him, wings ruffling as he glances to the chains around Punz’s wrists, ‘You serving time?’

‘Nah, just some community service and all that,’ Punz replies, relaxing into the conversation.

‘How’s Purpled?’

His eyes light up at the mention of the kid, and Tommy understands the feeling. A shared understanding passed, before Sam releases the bindings that hold his friend and Punz rubs at his wrists. ‘Nice as this has been—’ he says, gesturing around the room, ‘—you’ll excuse me for leaving before Dream’s brought out, I hope.’

Tommy nods, saying goodbye to his friend and then looking to Sam.

‘Ready?’ the Warden asks, and Tommy considers the question.

No. The answer will always be no, but Tommy has no choice, and Tubbo is back by his side.

‘Born ready, big man,’ Tommy lies, knowing it’ll be the first of many that he tells today.

There’s no big fanfare, no moment where the realm stops ticking, but it certainly feels like it to Tommy, who stares right at Dream as he gets led in. The man is dressed in simple orange garb, like he was in the prison, only this time he’s less bruised and battered. His hair’s longer, although Tommy supposes his own beats that.

Green eyes seek out his own, and a million different emotions cross over Dream’s face in a split second. The main one, though, is amusement.

‘Tommy,’ Dream greets coolly, with a smirk that reaches his eyes.

He doesn’t look like a man that’s been beaten. The confidence oozes out of him as he comes to a stop in front of the people of his realm, focus only on Tommy.

‘Dream,’ Tommy responds. Over the years of knowing Dream, his name has always been said with different emotions. Sometimes fear, or annoyance, or even love. They were close, back in the beginning. Even in exile, when his entire emotional capacity had been screwed by being abandoned by everyone. Not by choice, according to Tubbo, but Tommy knows that the nightmares will never leave.

Sam half-steps into the staring contest between the two of them. ‘Your crimes include arson, murder, destruction of property, illegal possession of weaponry and technology, and obviously breaking out of prison,’ Sam lists, and Dream chuckles.

‘Is that all?’

There’s a couple more that Tommy could think of. A couple more that he had to deal with. Sam blinks, then cruelly smiles at the prisoner. ‘By all means, I’ll add them if you want.’

Dream doesn’t reply to him, but focuses on Tommy instead. ‘Should you not be thanking me? All of you,’ he amends, darting a look around the room.

‘For what?’ Sam says, humouring him.

The smile is sadistic. ‘For bringing Tommy back to life.’

Sam tenses. Several people in the room don’t seem happy about that fact, even though Tubbo must have told them what happened. In fact, Tubbo lunges past Tommy to snarl, ‘Only because you killed hm, you dickhead.’

Tommy knows what Dream is going to say, before he speaks. There’s a knowing look on his face, a man that’s aware he can spill all of Tommy’s darkest secrets without anyone to stop him. ‘Not the first time, I didn’t. I was a good older brother, and I brought Tommy back to life even after he killed himself.’

See, Tommy’s got too much to unpack with that sentence. He remembers dying, obviously. He killed himself. It was purposeful, so he could finally go to whatever lay beyond, to be reunited with Wilbur. It had been part of a plan that Dream tore away from him.

Tubbo makes a strangled sound, head snapping to Tommy, who just shrugs. ‘I don’t have any older brothers,’ he says quietly, content with that fact now. Dream’s eyes widen, darting behind Tommy, likely to…

‘What about Wilbur? Don’t I get a thank you, for bringing him back?’

Part of his seven years taught him that he never belonged with that family. That, if they couldn’t love him for what he was, then it wasn’t worth anything at all. ‘You brought him back for your own gain, I don’t need to thank you for that. Besides, Wilbur’s got nothing to do with me,’ Tommy lies, remembering flashes of a childhood with his big brother.

Dream looks shocked. Stunned. Even Tubbo is staring at Tommy like he’s never met him before, and it’s probably accurate. Younger Tommy, pre-parent Tommy, thought that Wilbur hung the stars in the sky. His big brother, the only person he could trust.

‘You…’

‘But thank you for bringing Ranboo back,’ Tommy adds, smiling softly at the mention of the Enderman. He then glances to Sam, and asks if they can bring Dream outside for the verdict.

They think Tommy’s going to kill him.

That’s okay, because as they step out of the courthouse, Tommy actually considers it for a moment. If only because his stupid, reckless daughter who has no self-preservation instincts races over to Dream the moment she sees him, and punches him right in the face.

‘Clem!’

‘You fucking bastard, you dickhead, prick, I’m going to fucking kill you—’ she rambles, hands glowing and her eyes going a milky-white colour as her power bubbles under her skin.

Obviously, Dream recognises what she is as he wipes the blood from his nose.

‘You’re a warden hybrid,’ he whispers, shocked, and now it’s Tommy’s turn to get between them.

‘Clem, take a walk,’ he orders sternly.

‘But mum—’

‘Nuh uh, parent’s talking. Go take a walk and calm down before you accidentally blow my head off or something,’ he teases the last part, soothing her temper as she frowns, but storms away from them. Tommy watches her go, carefully judging the people that are following them out of the courtyard in case they think that they can go after her.

When nobody does, Tommy turns back to Dream. ‘Any last words?’

‘You’re not going to kill me, Tommy. You were always the soft sibling, getting your brothers to do your dirty work,’ Dream rambles, eyeing up the knife on Tommy’s belt, ‘Always begging for them to come and help you, but they didn’t! I was there for you, Tommy!’

Tommy scowls, dragging Dream’s chains away from Sam. ‘This won’t hurt for long,’ Tommy tells him, completely ignoring every word that Dream said as he raises his hands.

Dream looks confused, ‘What are you doing?’

He focuses. It takes less concentration now, bringing both hands together in front of his chest, spreading his wings slightly and allowing the wind to ruffle through them as his eyes flutter shut. The white wisps of power, the tether he has to his realm, form around his hand as he begins to drag them apart. It looks rather like a flurry of snow, swirling angrily around his skin as his eyes glow softly with the power.

‘Have fun in limbo, Dream,’ Tommy says, and the man realises what he’s about to do.

‘No, no wait—’

‘Say hello to my Lady for me,’ he adds, and snaps the gates of limbo open to swallow the masked-man whole.

The portal shudders shut, energy sapping from Tommy’s fingers as he lowers his hands. With Dream gone, he looks back to the others.

‘If any of you have an issue with Clementine’s power, I’ll send you to the same place,’ he threatens, and when nobody says anything, he beams. ‘Great! Are we still doing the feast tonight? I thought I might cook some vegetables for it.’

Tubbo comes to his side first, and Tommy spreads a wing around his best friend. There’s softness in Tubbo’s eyes as he marvels at the white feathers, before smiling up at him. ‘I’ll help you cook?’

**

The feast is everything he hoped it would be. People dancing, drinking for the adults, and music playing softly. Clementine goes and talks to as many people as she can, desperate to soak up information about Tommy’s life. There’s a tense moment when she gets too close to Wilbur, and Tommy’s hand drifts to the knife at his belt, but it’s gone when he sees the way that Wilbur is cautious.

Tubbo stays curled up at his side, with Ranboo on the other. Tommy soaks in the touch, having missed this kind of contact for so long. It gets better when Tubbo threads their fingers together, listening to the tales that Michael tells them of their trips.

‘—and our grandmother, but she hates being called that so we just call her mum number two, taught us how to find the really cool fruits that grow on the trees by our house!’ Michael recounts, curled in Clem’s lap as the night progresses.

The moon lights the group as they settle and share stories. Quackity seems to get along great with Henry, which is nice. The scarred-man chats away even if Henry stays silent. Shroud is content to stay by Sapnap’s side, basking in the heat that the man exudes.

‘Grandmother?’ Sapnap questions, darting a look to Tommy.

Clem perks up. ‘Yeah! Mum introduced us when we were first walking through limbo, she said that they’d never properly met until she died for the first time.’

The use of pronouns interchangeably led to some questions earlier from Tubbo and Ranboo, just to check in.

Tommy pointed out that when he was an inter-realm being with four hybrid children and two men that he was raising his kids with, gender seemed a bit pointless.

Phil, for the first time since Tommy got back, actually speaks to him. ‘It’s Kristen, isn’t it?’

He looks a mixture of shocked, and sad, and hopeful. Tommy nods briefly, but spares Clementine a smile. ‘Yeah. She taught me how to control my realm.’

‘And now we can’t die, which is pretty pog,’ Michael chirps, only for Ranboo to mouth the word pog at Tubbo, who pinches the bridge of his nose.

Phil nods gently. ‘Is… can she visit limbo in her form?’

Tommy can guess where this will end up going. Can Tommy allow Phil to see the lady he loves, that his heart belongs to.

‘You’re the Angel of Death, right?’ Clem speaks up, before Tommy can evaluate it.

‘I… I guess you could call me that.’

‘Makes you the Blood God, and you’re the former president of L’Manburg,’ Clementine glances to Techno and Wilbur in turn, cocking her head to the side on the last one.

Tommy tenses. Tubbo’s hand squeezes his, a silent reassurance that he’s right there, but it hardly helps when Clem is pushing her luck with two people that might hurt her.

‘I am,’ Wilbur says hesitantly, but Clem turns back to Tommy.

‘Can I be a president one day?’

He snorts. ‘Clem, love, you can be whatever you want when you’re an adult. No ruling governments for now.’

She frowns, before relenting on this fact. ‘Fine. But it seems a waste, I could get so many women if I was a president.’

Tubbo snorts, ‘Another wife-haver.’

Clem’s eyes light up. ‘Another?’

‘You take after your mum,’ Ranboo adds, looking to Tommy.

Tommy, who knows that his children will never miss an opportunity to tease him.

Admittedly, he didn’t think it would be Shroud that spoke up first, ‘Less of the wives, and more of the men in the village.’

‘Shroud,’ Tommy hisses, cheeks staining dark red.

‘Oh! I remember, there was that one blacksmith—’

He lunges for Clem and Michael, knocking them both over in a flurry as they roll on the grass, tackling each other. ‘Gremlins. Absolute gremlins, all of you,’ he chides, before stopping when Clem hiccups out her laughter.

He kisses her head for good measure, then does the same to Michael, who chuffs in response. The piglin-sound has Tommy chirping in response, just because he knows how softly it soothes his son. After a moment of silence, Shroud shuffles away from Sapnap to join them. ‘Can we go see the cool crater you told us about?’

L’Manburg.

Tommy doesn’t have the ability to say no to any of his children. Interestingly, when the kids go and drag the others along as well, it appears they’re just as smitten. Clem finds herself weaving in between Puffy and Sam, while Shroud clambers into Ranboo’s arms to be carried.

When they reach the edge of the L’Manburg crater, Tommy looks down to the water below, and the flag that still stands.

‘Can I?’ Clem requests, hovering, and Tommy nods.

She steps off the edge, hands shooting out to balance the vibrations so she can walk over… well, air. Tommy’s always found her power strange, but she certainly doesn’t seem bothered as she holds out a hand to Michael, who rushes to follow. When Tubbo tenses, Tommy is quick to assure the onlookers that she’s fully capable of holding them both up.

Shroud goes next, eyes turning black as a spiders’ as he disappears over the edge, crawling down the sides of the crater with his hybrid abilities.

Henry stays by Tommy’s side for a bit, sucking on his thumb while watching his siblings race each other towards the flag. Shroud makes a leap-jump, soaring over until a web-shoot hits the edge and he can clamber up onto the solid build. Clem’s made it down, landing on top with Michael.

It’s no surprise when Henry vanishes, reappearing at his siblings’ side down in the crater. Their laughter echoes upwards as the four of them mess around, under the watchful gaze of the SMP.

‘They’re good kids,’ Ranboo murmurs, wrapping an arm around Tommy’s shoulders. He hums, leaning closer.

‘They’re special.’

‘They had a good mum to teach them,’ Puffy speaks up, smiling over at Tommy.

He blushes. ‘It’s easy to be a parent,’ he admits, before realising it might be slightly snidey towards Phil, who flinches.

Tommy apologises quietly, before he can catch it on his tongue. Phil looks even more guilty, opening his mouth to say something when a shout catches their attention.

‘Mum!’

Michael’s slipped. Fallen, off of the flag, and towards the water. Water, to a piglin hybrid, is uncomfortable at best. Tommy remembers when he used to annoy Techno with it, much to the man’s distaste.

It’s why he doesn’t actually need to consciously think before he plummets over the edge of the crater. He hears Tubbo call his name, and then Phil shout at him to spread his wings, but Tommy needs to catch his son before he hits the water.

They collide in mid air, and Tommy forces his wings apart so sharply that they are sent hurtling upward. The air’s knocked from his lungs, but he still manages to fly perfectly, swooping upward and back to the flag where his other children are.

He checks over Michael first, fussing with his hair and pressing kisses to his head, before he turns to the others.

Then, when he’s sure they’re all alright, he lets Henry clamber up onto his back and lifts Michael as well. Shroud is left to attach a web to Tommy’s arm to hold on, while Clementine uses her own gifts to get back out.

Carrying three children is slightly hard when flying, but Tommy is nothing if not persistent. He lands on the side, wings messy and ruffled from the strain of flying, and audibly groans as his back muscles protest.

‘You’re an idiot,’ Tubbo scolds, staring at the mess of feathers.

‘Yeah, yeah, I know. But water hurts,’ he mutters, glancing at Michael, who’s already forgotten the incident.

Tubbo hesitates, before he asks the next question loudly enough that everyone can hear. ‘Can… will you let me sort them out? Your wings, I mean.’

Tommy knows his wings flinch, curling inward slightly at the thought, before he finally nods.

‘You can do one, if Clem does the other. She’ll teach you.’

That’s how they spend the rest of the night.

Tommy tries not to think about the times he saw Techno preening Phil’s wings. He tries not to see the man stare longingly in his direction.

The question, however, was whether Phil was envious of Tubbo being allowed to preen them, or Tommy having wings in the first place.

**

For some reason, Tommy ends up sleeping in Tubbo and Ranboo’s bed. It isn’t discussed, but they make room for him in the middle and allow him to snuggle up to them as his wings spread lazily over both of them. Tubbo’s head tucks under his chin, while Ranboo curls up against his other side. It’s a mess of limbs, but he’s not complaining.

He’ll never complain again.

‘I’m glad you came back, Tommy,’ Tubbo whispers, taking his hand as sleep draws closer.

Tommy thinks about his children, safe in the SMP under the new rules. Thinks of the night they just had, and the feast. Of how Puffy thinks he’s a good parent. The way his heart bursts with love for the new family he’s created, while a part of him longs to speak to Wilbur again. To be part of that family too.

In the end, this is enough.

‘I’m glad I trusted you, Tubs,’ Tommy whispers back, referring to the pact they made before Tommy left.

Tubbo smiles, snuggling closer as Tommy takes Ranboo’s hand and tugs him so that Tommy is fully enclosed by the two of them.

‘Love you both,’ Tubbo mumbles, and Ranboo echoes it.

He would never have said it before, but now the words feel light.

‘I love you guys too.’