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Tommy leaped out of bed. Today is Christmas! He squealed in excitement. He loves Christmas so much! He worked super duper hard to make Techie and Wilby and Dadza presents! He hopes they like his presents. He stayed up super late one night, and was really tired after that, but! He got it done! He wrapped them up all pretty like Dadza does and put them under the tree when no one was looking!
Tommy rushes to the bathroom. He starts washing and looks in the mirror to see himself before going to jump on Dadza. Then he stops. Huh. Tommy stared down at the thing in the mirror. What is that poking out of his mouth? Was he turning into a unicorn? That can’t be because he’s a piglin, like Dadza, and Techie, and Wilby. So he decides to summon them the only way he knows how. Screaming and crying.
“DAD!! TECHIE!! WILBY!!” He cries. Techie rushes in and Tommy reaches up toward him. Techie scoops him up and looks around.
“What’s wrong, runt?” Techie asks.
“There’s something wrong with my face!” Tommy screeches, kicking Techie in his hyper movements. He doesn’t want to hurt Techie, but he doesn’t know what’s happening. Techie gently grabs Tommy’s face and looks carefully.
“There’s nothing wrong, Toms, in fact, you should go show Dadza,” Techie says with a smile, “he hasn’t woken up yet, and it’s Christmas!” He says in disgust. Tommy gasps.
“I have to go wake him up!” Tommy wiggles, wanting down. Techie laughs and ruffles Tommy’s hair with his free hand before letting him down.
Tommy runs super fast into Dadza’s room, making a flying leap right into his dad. “Oof,” Dadza says.
“MERRY CHRISTMAS!!” Tommy shrieks, crawling into his dad’s arms.
“Merry Christmas, Tommy, what are you doing up so early?” Dadza asks. Tommy giggles.
“Dadza… It’s Christmas!” Tommy says, “you slept too late!” Dadza laughs and Tommy grins brightly.
“I thought that was tomorrow, are you sure it’s today?” his dad asks.
“Dadddd” Tommy complains, flopping back on the bed. Then he remembers another reason that he came in here, “Dadddd, Techie said I had to show you what was wrong with my face, he said there was nothing wrong but–” Tommy’s cut off as his dad grabs his face gently.
“Oh.” his dad comments, “Oh!”
“What is it? What is it?” Tommy asks.
“It’s your first tusk, mate! Aww, it’s so little, just like my runt,” his dad buries his face into Tommy’s hair.
“DAD!” Tommy shrieks, wiggling away. Dadza just wraps his arms around Tommy’s torso.
Phil smiles as he looks down at his runt. “My little runt got his first tusk today! Isn’t that such a nice present, mate? You didn’t even go through what your brothers did,” Phil says, in the tone that there’s a story to that sentence.
“Tell me, tell me!” Tommy chants. Phil smiles and rolls over, making Tommy shriek with the sudden movement.
“Well, they were about your age, and they were outside playing, then all of a sudden, I couldn’t hear them anymore,” Phil says.
Tommy gasps, “They didn’t make any noises? They always make noises when they play with me!” Tommy says, kicking his feet in his excitement.
“Yes, but they went super quiet, even quieter than when they sleep!” Phil says dramatically. Tommy gasps but stays quiet, waiting to hear the rest of the story. “I go outside to see what they’re doing and you know what?” Phil asks.
“What?” Tommy whispers with anticipation. Phil grins and blows softly on Tommy’s face, making the younger giggle.
“They were on the ground, crying,” Tommy gasps, “They scared me so bad that they had to stay in the nest for a whole month!” Phil says with a flourish of his free arm.
“Whoa, I’ve never had to stay in the nest for that long,” Tommy thinks out loud.
“You might have to if we don’t hurry down to breakfast,” Phil says, Tommy shrieks and rushes out of Phil’s bedroom towards the kitchen. Phil smiles but follows at a slower pace. His old man's bones are a pain sometimes. Not that he’d ever admit that to his children.
He enters the kitchen to see mass chaos unfolding. Technoblade is hugging a squirming Tommy while Wilbur throws flour at them. Usually, Philza would scold them for fighting, but… today’s Christmas, let them have a little fun. Phil walks into the kitchen and sneaks behind Wilbur. He grabs a handful of flour and rubs it into Wilbur’s hair. “Morning, Wil, whatcha up to?” He says. Techno turns and spots Wilbur’s hair, releasing a snort of amusement.
“Dad… it’s… not what it looks like?” Wilbur says, holding both hands up.
“Wil, you should see what Dad put in your hair,” Techno says, Phil chuckles as Wilbur checks his reflection in the stainless steel pot sitting on the stove. He yelps as he spots the white sitting in his locks.
“DAD!” He screeches. “This is war.” Wilbur throws flour at Philza’s head, the older ducks, and gently tackles his son. Technoblade and Tommy join in the fight and soon the kitchen is covered floor to ceiling in flour.
“Aww, we don’t have any more flour, now how are we gonna make cookies?” Tommy pouts.
“I kept some backup flour, don’t worry, but we’re not doing anything until this is cleaned up.” They pout but help Philza clean up the mess in the kitchen. Once it’s clean enough to where Phil doesn’t wince at the sight of his kitchen, they eat a small breakfast and head into the living room where they’ve been keeping their tree.
“Presents?” Tommy asks.
“Not yet, there’s a small tradition that we have to do when a runt gets their first tusk,” Phil says, scooping Tommy up into his arms. Tommy squeals and Techno and Wilbur chuff in response. Phil chuckles as he motions them all into the living room nest. “Let me see it, Toms,” Phil tells his youngest, pulling gently on his lower lip. Tommy opens his mouth and Phil looks inside. “Oh! He says. Tommy looks up at him.
“What is it? What is it?” He asks in excitement.
“I think your brothers want a hug,” Phil says. His twins give him a ‘what are you doing?’ look as Tommy clambers out of Phil’s lap to snuggle in between the two. Phil gets up to go get some food and water, knowing very well that Tommy wouldn’t be letting any of them out of the nest for a while. When he heard a deafening distress squeal, his instincts began to panic. He calms himself down and continues to gather food and drinks. He carries it into the nest and piles it next to the nest. He supposes that they can wait to open presents and make cookies until Tommy is out of his instincts.
It’s not like Technoblade or Wilbur will remember much either, seeing how deep they are in their instincts.
Two weeks later…
Phil never really did tell his boys that they missed Christmas Day, so he told them that they could do it today instead. They make cookies shaped like snowmen and cover them in an unholy amount of frosting. Phil makes a note to stick the cookies in the freezer so the frosting will actually harden and not just melt into the warm cookies.
When Phil returns from the freezer, he sees his boys sitting with four piles of presents in various spots. He smiles, exhaling with a soft smile. “Let’s open presents, then,” Phil sits in the recliner and watches as the boys open presents and thank whoever gave them that gift.
Gold (obviously), some sentimental things, a few videogames, and coupons later, they’ve gotten to Phil’s last gift. Phil gently opens the present and finds a box. He opens the box and finds a big square wrapped in bubble wrap. He sees a picture frame and he wonders what is in it. He pulls it out and carefully unwraps it. He turns it around to get a good look at what’s in the frame.
Phil coos.
There in the picture frame is a photo of the four of them in the nest, covered in the sounder gold and they’re all asleep.
Phil has one question.
“Who took this picture?”