Chapter Text
The first time Tommy noticed something was up with Techno, he had just lost his first tooth.
After running face first into a door and then screaming the shit out of himself at seeing blood, five-year-old Tommy realized his top left front tooth now sat innocently in his palm, with some blood at one end and a tiny chip on the side. It had been wiggling around for weeks, and Tommy would often twist it round entirely so it would be backwards, Tubbo would scream, and Ranboo would squirm. They thought it was excellent, of course, but it was a bit disgusting, Tommy could understand. But it was really cool though.
Delighted at reaching the milestone that his older brothers already had so long ago, Tommy went to look for the closest person to let them know that he was all grown up now. The closest person happened to be Tommy's brother Techno, who was twelve at the time and had just started complaining about how much he loathed algebra.
Tommy ran full force down the hall, never learning from his mistakes, and bumped into Tech, who was putting the dishes away, causing the metal spoons in his hand to fall to the floor with a loud bang. Techno had scowled at Tommy and bent to pick them up, muttering about how much he hated dish duty. As he put those away, Tommy caught his breath and beamed with the force of a million stars and shouted, “Techno! Look!” and held out his palm to Techno.
Rolling his eyes, Techno picked up the next cup and straightened up to look at the tooth in Tommy's hand. Then, something changed. The shift was subtle but definitely noticeable. Techno’s pupils rapidly dilated and his breathing got slightly quicker. He blinked really hard a few times and then looked up at the ceiling, swallowing hard.
“Tech?” Tommy asked quietly, awkwardly shuffling one foot, still holding out the palm with his tooth in it. The cup dropped from Techno’s hand and shattered into a thousand pieces. Tommy yelped and looked down, watching the pieces of ceramic scatter across the floor, making clinking sounds as they knocked into the walls and each other. Techno made a whimpering noise, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head once as if to get a bug off of it, his fluffy pink hair bouncing along.
“Techno? Are you alright?” Tommy made to step forward so he could look closer at his brother and hissed as he stepped on a tiny piece of the ceramic, tears springing to his eyes in time with the blood pooling around his toe. “Um, Tech, would you mind- uh, getting me a bandaid, please?” Tommy said, blinking hard to try to get the tears to dry up. He was not going to cry. Tommy was a big strong man, and big strong men did not cry over things as small as some blood. But it hurt so much.
Techno didn't move. He was shaking, and honestly, it was scaring Tommy. And this was surprising because Thomas Theseus Soot was not scared of much, only of the dentist and haircuts [don’t ask] and definitely not his brothers, not even Wilbur when Tommy drew stick figures on his walls. But it was also surprising because Techno seemed scared, and nothing scared Technoblade. Not even the dentist. Techno thought she was nice. And that’s pretty brave if you asked Tommy.
All of a sudden, Techno stopped breathing so heavily and looked up. His eyes flew open, and Tommy screamed. Because Techno’s eyes were blood-red and two of his bottom teeth were so sharp and long that they stuck out of his mouth and went up to his upper lip and this was not what Tommy was used to seeing his brother look like. There was a low growling noise sounding from Techno’s throat, and Tommy took a step back, his still extended and aching arm falling to his side, the bloody tooth clutched tightly in his fist.
“Dad? Wil? DAD?” Tommy called out nervously. His gaze focused on his brother, and Tommy could feel the tears coming back because Techno looked like he could hurt Tommy. Techno took a slow step forward, and Tommy took another step back. “DAD? DAD!”
“What is it, Tom? Are you hurt?”
Oh, thank god. The voice seemed to snap Techno out of it, and while he blinked really hard a couple of times Tommy could see his eyes going from red back to their warm brown. His pointy teeth were almost fully gone.
Tommy felt something hot on his face and realized he was crying.
Wilbur stepped in through the door opposite the one Tommy came in, Phil right behind him, his eyes scanning across the room and finally landing on Tommy’s tear-stricken face and Techno’s equally disheveled but tearless one.
“Tommy? Techno? What happened?” Phil broke the silence first. Then Wilbur seemed to take in the scene, immediately making to walk over to him and Techno, but Phil got there first. In a second he had his arm wrapped around Techno’s shoulders and the other hand reached out for Tommy’s hand, which was still holding onto the tooth like a lifeline.
Tommy flinched away, and Techno’s eyes widened.
“Oh, shit, Theseus, are you okay?”
Tommy started crying again, the stabbing pain from his foot and the terror he had felt [and still kind of was] making itself known. The tears were hot and salty and his cheeks were puffing up, and he was breathing weird and he couldn’t think straight and his head hurt and the look Techno had given him was frozen in his mind and there was a hand on his shoulder and someone was saying something and Tommy
couldn’t
breathe
“Hey Toms? I’m gonna need you to breathe with me, okay?”
But he couldn’t, so he passed out.
***