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Tommy was always curious about the humans.
The way they did things, the way they spoke, the way they acted. It was all so interesting to him. He couldn’t help but perch on fences, windowsills, and roofs, watching them go about their days. He’d always ruffle his red and black wings in thought as he tried to explain his odd fascination with the humans to himself.
Tommy knew he was different from the other birds in the gardens. The others were always much more wary of their humans neighbors. They hardly ever even seemed to have a glint of the curiosity Tommy had always had, not to mention that none of them seemed to like him. They’d always fly away whenever he tried to chirp at them.
Basically, Tommy’s existence was a lonely and unexplainable one.
It didn’t help that his body seemed to be in extreme pain every few months, for no clear reason. Multiple times he found himself stuck on the ground, shivering and grimacing, letting out quiet, distressed chirps.
Nobody ever helped him, even though he knew that the other garden birds knew how much pain he was in.
Tommy remembered one day though where one of the birds had helped him, although it had been an unfamiliar one.
He’d been shivering on the ground, feeling like he was about to die from the pain when he’d seen the shadow of another bird circling overhead. At first, he had thought it was a hawk and his breathing picked up in terror.
In reality, it had only been a large, sleek black crow.
The crow had sat with him, brushing their wings against Tommy’s own until the pain subsided. Chirping quietly, reassuringly, to him. As soon as Tommy stopped shivering, the crow took off and flew out of sight.
Tommy hasn’t seen the crow since, but he hopes they’re doing alright.
He tried to ignore how he’d stayed in the same area for weeks afterward, hoping that the crow would return. He didn’t think about how he’d wanted to cry, like the humans always did, when he realized that they probably weren’t ever coming back.
Life wasn’t all that bad though, even if Tommy was living as a spectator.
He made the best of things, scrounging up soft scraps of fabric and old feathers to make a nest in one of the nicer areas he could find. He ate all the nuts and seeds he could find, ignoring how they never quite satisfied his hunger.
Tommy spent his free time watching the humans, trying not to feel like he was missing out on anything.
It was fine. Sometimes you just don’t get dealt the best cards in life.
———
It was the peak of Autumn, based on the orange, yellow, and red colors of the trees leaves, and the steadily decreasing temperatures.
Tommy knew he should be worried. He knew he should be stalking up on food, doing something to prepare for the upcoming winter.
Instead, he was just excited.
This was when the most entertaining and exciting night of the year happened.
The humans always called it ‘Halloween’. Where the kids would dress up and run around the streets of the neighborhood, running and screaming, collecting candy.
Tommy always wished he could join in but he knew that idea wasn’t realistic. He wasn’t human, even though sometimes he really wanted to be.
He settled into a new nest he had made, in front of a tall, dark grey house with green shutters. He made sure that he’d at least have a good viewing spot, ignoring how much he wished he could actually be part of the festivities.
———
A few days later, when the sun began to set, the first of the humans began to walk down the street.
Tommy watched quietly, listening in on their conversations. It had taken him a long time to learn the human’s language, but it was certainly worth it.
The kids laughed, talking about their favorite candies they’d gotten so far and their least favorite ones. The adults simply complimented the kids costumes.
Admittedly, watching the Halloween festivities got more boring with every year that passed. Tommy was really beginning to see the effects of it now.
After what he estimated to only be an hour, he was already feeling thoroughly bored with spectating an event he’d never get to be a part of.
Until he got an idea. It was an idea that could either be the smartest thing he’d come up with, or the stupidest, but it was definitely better than just watching everyone else have fun for the rest of the night.
Tommy could try to get candy. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that it technically wasn’t impossible for him to join in.
He didn’t technically have a costume, but being a fluffy red bird was a good enough costume in his opinion. All he needed to do was fly up to the front door of the house behind him and ring the doorbell.
His plan did have the potential to go catastrophically wrong, but he tried not to think about that.
Tommy tensed up as he prepared to fly down from his nest. He waited for a few moments and once the street was clear of humans, he flew down, landing silently on the sidewalk.
He waited for a minute to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do, and then flew towards the door to the house behind his nest.
After a few awkward moments of hovering in the air in front of the door, his eyes landed on the doorbell and he flew forward, putting all his strength into pressing it with his beak.
A quiet chiming sound echoed through the house. Tommy had never been more excited than he was in those few moments.
The excitement abruptly ended when the door to the house swung open.
Staring at him with barely concealed shock was a tall, teenage human with bright pink hair and dark brown, almost red eyes.
Tommy froze midair, eyes wide, feathers flaring out as a suffocating silence coated the atmosphere.
The human stared at him for a few more seconds before waving his hand at Tommy, like he was trying to shoo him away, like the human thought Tommy was a fly.
Then suddenly, the hand got too close for comfort and Tommy felt his breathing pick up, making it almost impossible to get any air.
He hardly processed it as he fell to the ground, wings flaring out at the last moment to make the fall mostly painless. Tommy scrambled away into a corner between the door and the wall. His vision blurred and the world seemed to spin in sharp circles around him.
The human was still staring at him, although the human had stopped trying to shoo Tommy away.
Tommy wished he had been born human. This would’ve all been so much simpler if he wasn’t a bird.
If he was human then he would’ve always been involved in holidays like Halloween, wouldn’t live in almost complete isolation, but most of all, Tommy wouldn’t be a spectator.
He wouldn’t have to be stuck watching from afar, hoping uselessly for things he could never have, a life that would never exist, no matter how hard he tried. He would have to feel jealousy rise within him when he watched everyone else go about their lives, seeming happy and satisfied with what they had.
Tommy just wanted to stop spectating, to finally be truly happy.
He felt something deep within him change. It felt like something had snapped, a part of himself had broken free.
Familiar pain and soreness flared up and for a moment Tommy thought he was about to die. He thought that the human had finally gotten upset at his presence.
But just as soon as the pain started, it disappeared, leaving only a slight soreness.
Black spots danced in Tommy’s vision as his breathing continued to get faster and faster, depriving him of more and more oxygen.
The last things Tommy processed before he passed out were the sound of someone yelling, a gentle voice speaking to him, and strong arms catching him as he began to slump over to the side.
———
Tommy woke up slowly, the world coming to him in blurry images and stunted feelings.
As he grew more aware, he realized that something just felt… off. He wasn’t sure what was wrong, only that something was different.
For the time being, he ignored it, electing instead to burrow deeper into the unfamiliar soft surface he was stretched out across.
He layed there for a few moments, conscious, but still almost entirely dead to the world. Everything was peaceful. Everything was simple. All that mattered was savoring the warmth he currently felt, until it was gone.
Those blissful minutes ended abruptly when Tommy heard the sound of a door opening.
The feeling of wrongness crept back in as he slowly opened his eyes. It took a moment for things to come into focus, but once they did, Tommy noticed that not only did everything feel weird… but everything looked weird too.
The world looked much smaller than he remembered it. On top of that, from what he could tell, he was currently inside of one of the houses humans lived in, based off the open door he could see across the room from him and the dark green walls that surrounded him.
“You alright kid?” A deep monotone voice said, seeming slightly awkward.
Tommy’s eyes immediately snapped to the source of the sound. He felt like he was going to throw up at the sight of the same human who had answered the door earlier. The same human who had almost killed him.
He tried to get up, to use his wings and fly away. Tommy needed to get away from the human as soon as possible.
But his body didn’t move like it normally did.
When he tried to get up and get to his feet, all he managed to do was move himself slightly off the bed, before landing back onto it with a quiet thump. When he tried to flap his wings, he found that they bent all weird and couldn’t seem to catch on any air.
“Woah- Calm down, kid.” The human said again, stepping closer towards him.
Tommy ignored him, turning his head down to look at himself.
Instead of seeing familiar red and black feathers, small wings, and sleek black bird-feet, he saw a dark blue shirt, human arms, and human legs.
Tommy screamed, the unfamiliar sound making him even more terrified than he already was. Distantly, he could hear the human- or he supposed the other human, now- speaking gently, as if he was trying to comfort Tommy. The comforting words clearly weren’t working. Tommy only got more and more panicked as the seconds ticked by.
He didn’t know what the fuck happened, only that his body was all wrong and he didn’t know why. It was fucking terrifying, to feel like a stranger in your own body.
Faintly, Tommy heard the door to the room open and a second, unfamiliar, voice join the first. The first voice slowly faded into the distance afterward, as if someone was walking away.
Before he even fully realized what was happening, he felt gentle hands move him into a sitting position. Tommy gasped, trying to get away, even through his blinding panic. But whoever it was, didn’t let him go, picking up one of Tommy’s new hands and pressing it against someone’s chest, which was making exaggerated, yet steady, breaths.
Without him even realizing it, Tommy began to copy the breathing pattern. Slowly, the world shifted back into focus and the blinding panic was pushed into the back of his mind.
Sitting in front of him was another human. This one was very different from the pink-haired human that had been watching over Tommy earlier.
The human had straight, should-length, blonde hair and ice blue eyes. He looked much older than the other human had been. He was looking at Tommy like he mattered, like Tommy was important and not just a simple spectator.
“Are you alright?” The new human asked.
Tommy just stared at him for a few moments, taking a moment to process the words. He wasn’t used to being directly addressed. Tommy nodded slowly. He wasn’t sure if he could talk.
The human smiled, before his expression shifted to concern. “You’re probably pretty confused right now, aren’t you, mate?”
Tommy nodded again, starting to get uncomfortable with all the attention, even if it was only from one person.
“Okay, there’s a lot that needs to explained.” The human sighed. “I guess I should introduce myself first. My name is Phil. The one who answered the door for you earlier was my son, Techno.”
There was another pause, as if Phil was waiting for Tommy to introduce himself too. But Tommy couldn’t talk.
“Fuck- How do I start this?” Phil muttered, breaking the silence. “Alright… first off, you and I are shifters, meaning we can change between two forms at will. Basically, we both have an abundance of magic which gives us enough power to do that. However, I’m assuming that you probably had never shifted before.”
Tommy nodded again, beginning to become annoyed at the fact that he didn’t know how to talk. He had so many questions, but didn’t have the ability to ask them.
“I’m also going to assume that you can’t talk, can you?” Phil asked, and then after Tommy nodded for what seemed like the billionth time, he continued. “I can help with that if you want, mate. There’s a spell that could work.”
When Tommy nodded again- he was getting tired of nodding at this point- Phil gently reached forward and put his hands on Tommy’s forehead. Tommy forced himself not to flinch away from the unfamiliar touch.
Phil murmured something under his breath and all the sudden Tommy felt stabbing pain spread through his skull. He jerked away and Phil let him go.
“What the fuck was that?” Tommy whispered without realizing it, and immediately flinched so hard at the sound that his back slammed into the wall behind him. “I- I can talk.” He forced himself to speak again, this time with slightly more confidence.
“I’m glad the spell worked.” Phil smiled, seeming proud of both himself, and strangely enough, proud of Tommy. “Do you have a name?”
“Uh- yeah.” Tommy replied, still feeling weird about the fact that not only was he apparently human now and was a shifter- which he didn’t really understand- and the fact that he could speak. “My name is Tommy.”
If it was even physically possible, Phil’s smile got even bigger. “Hello, Tommy. I’d like to make you an offer if you’re open to it.”
“Ye-Yeah I’m open to that, I guess.” Tommy shrugged awkwardly.
“If you want to, you can stay with us for a bit. I can teach you everything about being a shifter and controlling your magic. You could also just… learn to be human I guess, and have somewhere to stay, rather than wherever you were living before.”
For a minute, Tommy was shocked into silence. It felt like the world had frozen, left in the same moment for an eternity. Time was stuck, the seconds no longer ticking down, minutes no longer slipping away quicker than anyone could notice.
When he finally worked up the courage to speak, his voice was unsteady and quiet. “Yeah… I think I’d like that.”
———
Tommy wasn’t a spectator anymore.
He didn’t have to sit on windowsills, linger on sidewalks, and hover over houses anymore. The life he’d always longed for was his now. The people he’d always been so curious about were now his family, and he was one of them.
They had estimated Tommy’s age to be roughly somewhere around ten or eleven, meaning once he learned basic math and reading, he’d have to go to school, which he already hated the idea of.
Phil had also taught him to shift as soon as he possibly could, showing Tommy how to seamlessly transition between his two forms. Phil had also started teaching Tommy some basic magic spells, which he thought were fucking awesome.
However, at first, everything had felt so overwhelming. The abrupt change was just so hard to deal with, so difficult to process. There were days where he’d shift back into a bird and hide away. Days where he wouldn’t talk, stuck in a monotone silence.
But, Tommy’s knew family was always there to help. Phil would always shift and sit next to him- his shifted form being a large black crow- carefully preening Tommy’s bright red feathers. Techno would quietly read to him, his steady voice echoing through the crushing silence. Wilbur, the third person in the house, and the last one Tommy had met, would play him songs on his guitar, soothing Tommy into a calm sleep.
Life was good, better than it ever had been, even if sometimes Tommy still struggled.
———
It was Halloween.
Carved pumpkins were set out on people’s doorsteps. Decorations were hung, swinging in the cool breeze. People bought candy left and right, pouring it into cheap plastic bowls for the upcoming visitors. Kids dressed up in costumes, inviting friends to come and run around the neighborhood together.
Normally, around this time of year Tommy would be scoping out a good viewing spot. He’d be making a new nest, getting ready for another year of boredom and disappointment.
But nothing this past year had been quite normal.
Instead, he found himself dressed in a cheap raccoon costume- he’d picked it out himself, raccoons were his favorite animals- and waiting for his new friends from school, Ranboo and Tubbo to get to his house.
The three of them would be going trick-or-treating together.
Once Tommy’s friends did arrive they ran off into the night, with promises to Phil to be home before it got too dark, and collected as much candy as they could, laughing and screaming the whole time.
By the end, they had all been out of breath, handing tightly onto huge bags of candy, with huge smiles on their faces. It was everything Tommy had ever dreamed of, and more.
Tommy wasn’t a spectator anymore. He never would be again, his family and friends promised him that every single day. He didn’t fully trust it at first, but after that first Halloween night, he thought he finally believed it.
He wasn’t a spectator anymore, and never would be again. Tommy was free.