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No beta readers this time we die like my attention span, so I apologize I am lazy. This is just a fun little Christmas fic I’ve had in the works for a couple of months but of course, put it off until the last possible second to finish. This does take place in the ‘Pink Tulips and Peppermint’ fic I’m writing right now, just a little backstory to the SBI family that’ll appear here and there.
I love adoption au’s and having experienced firsthand what it’s like to welcome home a new sibling through adoption, I love writing them even more. So with that in mind, enjoy Joyous Borealis!
Winter had come with a fervent vengeance in L’Manburg. The cold seeped in through windows and doors, snow piled up higher and higher until citizens could barely get out their doors and jump into the morning commute. Snow days happened more and more as the town slowed to a standstill, and children ran recklessly through parks and across the local pond-turned-ice-rink.
The seemingly neverending storm burned noses and cheeks red, pushing people closer together to find some sort of warmth in the bitter nights. Hot chocolate by fireplaces, families pushing and shoving down the road half attempting to sing carols of the season.
Wilbur always loved winter, in high contrast to Technoblade. Said brother had done nothing but complain from his mountain of blankets for weeks, much preferring the sweltering summer heat to the slowed-down winter.
He understood why, Technoblade was a citizen of the nether, having been born in fire and brimstone. He lived and breathed ash and smoke for the longest time, so Wilbur understood.
But how could he not love this? The long stretching nights where the sky reflected orange street lamps, children racing to see who could build the bigger snowman. Hugs happened more, one part love and the other seeking warmth.
Technoblade himself even softened up around this time, despite the complaints.
Cold days and colder nights managed to slow the Lmanburg itself down. People often stopped to gather and throw snowballs or to pause and take in the scenery.
Like now, Techno was half asleep near the fire while Wilbur stayed next to the window, watching a group of neighbors run rampant through the street with snowballs exploding left and right.
He would have loved to run out and join them, let the flakes melt on his tongue, and build a fort bigger than the house. But he couldn’t do that today, not when his nerves were frayed and his hands could barely stay still.
Because today was Adoption Day.
Phil had sent Puffy, their sitter, a message about an hour before Wilbur perched himself up at the window, saying they had just landed at the airport and that they would be home soon.
Home. All three of the family had known for a while there was a hole. A missing piece of themselves that they couldn’t quite find. It was turning to someone who wasn’t there, an empty bedroom down the hall, the fear you left someone in the car but that someone wasn’t there.
And that was when Phil decided to start looking again. Looking to find the hole in their family, and while Wilbur had jokingly teased that it was time for the old man to finally get married, the brothers knew it wasn’t a mom that was missing.
It took a while, the pain of a missing child growing every day. Wilbur and Techno both watched their father comb endlessly through foster homes, muttering about how he wished he could adopt every child in the system.
Cold nights were spent hunched over websites and papers, some days he forgot to tuck the boys in but that was okay because they were family and they knew why he had forgotten. Those nights, Techno methodically made cups of hot chocolate while Wilbur draped a blanket over their father, smiling up at his exhausted eyes and reminding him he had work in the morning.
“Sorry boys,” Philza apologized for one of these nights, pressing a kiss to Wilbur’s forehead and tucking an extra layer of blankets underneath Techno’s chin. The man’s brows pinched tightly against his forehead, Wilbur had never seen his father look so tired. “The process is a lot harder than before. New laws and regulations.”
“That’s dumb,” Techno muttered, eyes trailing over his father’s sagging wings. Philza had that same look the day he stepped through the nether highway, tired eyes searching, searching for a child he was missing. The Bastion Orphanage wasn’t like the foster system in Lmanburg. There weren’t as many loops to jump through, applications that had to be processed, and social workers involved.
The workers were more than eager to hand Technoblade off. He hadn’t missed their fearful glances and relived smiles as soon as Philza appeared with the legal paperwork tucked under his arm. They tried to warn him about Technoblade, the child prone to violence and talking to the voices in his head. It hurt, a lot, how quickly they wanted him gone, but over that wound, scar tissue soon formed.
It formed in his father's gentle hugs and his brother's excited chatter. It grew over a bloody childhood and filled the holes inside him with the love and warmth he had lacked for years. Bloomed like a flower, broke him like a dam, and all of those corny, cringy metaphors.
That was his dad, his family. And Technoblade so desperately hoped they could provide that same care again to the child that was missing. “It is incredibly dumb.” Philza hummed. “A family wants me to come over tomorrow for dinner. Puffy’s gonna be here, so you two better behave.” His voice lilted with a teasing smile to follow it.
Wilbur sat up in bed straighter, reaching out to tug on Philza’s sleeve. “Dad, can’t we come?” He pulled out all the stops, eyes growing wide and watery with the lip tremble and everything. Phil only entertained him with a laugh and a pillow to the face.
“Sorry kiddos, you know why.”
The dinner that following day didn’t go as well as Philza hopped. The child couldn’t have cared less about it and the foster parents were already side-eyeing the girl with the look only a parent knows. They were going to beat him to the adoption if he tried to file.
They were good people who would take care of that child. So many people failed as these children’s guardians, but these ones would be good. That wasn’t any good news for the Minecraft family, though.
That was about when Puffy came into the picture. Phil had connected with her through a group of people online, all of which had been adopted through the Lmanburg system. She quickly became a family friend, one who knew and understood as she had been through the exact same thing when adopting one of her sons, Foolish.
She was a shoulder for Phil to lean on, a mother to Wilbur and Techno while Phil was going through the courts dealing with social workers and stubborn judges. Wilbur had overheard Phil one night talking with Puffy. He was upset and told her about how the courts didn’t want him to adopt as he was a single father. They refused to let him into the matching system, which would pair him with a child and make the process much easier. It was dumb, in the child’s opinion, Phil took care of them just fine there’s no reason he couldn’t take care of another kid. They were happy and well cared for, but it was hard for the courts to see passed Philza’s ‘single’ status.
Time wore on, Wilbur’s fingers learned how to move across the strings of a guitar, and Techno grew taller with a ‘piglin growth spurt.’ They were growing up without the missing piece to complete them. But Puffy helped, their uncle Bad helped, everyone helped.
And then that afternoon came. Phil had gone out for groceries and coffee, such a simple and mundane thing, and left the boys home for only a few hours. He left with that dejected walk that had plagued him for months and returned a younger man.
Wilbur noticed first, kicking Techno sharply in the calf and waking him up. “Dad?”
“I found him.”
A single grocery trip had suddenly opened the doors that they had been trying to find the key to after nearly four years of looking. Phil had run into an old friend, Sam, and after talking for a couple of minutes the topic surrounding Phil’s search came up.
“That’s funny, I have a friend who unfortunately passed during child birth. She was a single mum, left her poor kiddo alone and in the system for five years now. I was thinking about moving back to the Greater SMP to foster him.”
And that was it. Phil and Sam reconnected, constantly talking on the phone and Sam even managed to pull up a photo of the kid.
Tommy, Sam said the boy’s name was. Wilbur and Techno had immediately stolen Phil’s phone from him and eagerly shoved their faces together to get a good look at the kid, maybe even their brother. “He looks just like Dad!” Wilbur yelled, holding the phone away from Techno who was attempting to steal it.
“There’s no way, you’re lying!”
“Nuh-uh! It’s true, blonde hair and everything. Though he’s got red eyes.”
“What!” Techno lunged at Wilbur, plowing him over and ripping the phone away from his hand. “Woah you’re right. Hang on a sec he’s tiny, Dadza what-”
“RAAAH!” Wilbur pounced back on Techno, grabbing at his hair to pull his head away from the phone. “Give it back, bitch!” Hair was a low blow, Wilbur should have known that. So he shouldn’t have been surprised when Techno dropped the phone and tossed Wilbur over his shoulder and to the ground. “Ow! DAD!”
Philza intervening only made it worse and ended in a pile of feathers and giggles with the phone being held between the three of them. “So uh, are we done shopping for a kid?” Techno hummed from his perch braced against Phil’s shoulder. He merely shrugged at the look his Dad and Brother gave him, then reached over and zoomed in on Tommy’s face. “He’s a Dreamon, just like Uncle Bad?”
Wilbur shifted to get a closer look. “Yup, looks like it. Got the eye symbols and everything.”
“So uh Avian, Human, Piglin, and Dreamon,” A rare smile glimpsed across Techno’s face. “What a bunch of weirdos.” Wilbur and Phil both laughed, foregoing the phone to launch a hug attack against Techno.
So, after talking it over and over, Philza got the paperwork necessary to file. It took months, at least three different CPS visits to determine whether the house was suitable for another child. Wilbur and Techno moved into the same room, bunkbeds instead of single twins in order to give Tommy his own space. They had a short court hearing for a judge to determine Phil’s competency as a parent. Then, a date was set, December 26th, a day after the Winter Aurora celebration.
Philza would leave for the Greater SMP that day, meet up with Tommy and his case worker, and if everything went well, should be back in time for the Year’s Turnover. The hardest part of that was that the Greater SMP was extremely underdeveloped, having only really been explored in the recent decade. This meant as soon as Philza’s plane landed, any contact with him would be near to impossible to get in contact with him for a week.
Wilbur was a worrier, and when Phil had explained to him and Techno that it would be next to impossible to talk with them while he was away, Wilbur nearly lost his mind. “What if you don’t come back!” He cried desperately in Phil’s arms. “We-! We can’t lose you, please don’t go Dad we can figure something else out.”
“Hey,” Phil hushed, picking Wilbur up and settling down on his bed with him. Techno sat silently to their right, Phil’s bucket hat clenched tightly in his hands. “How old am I?”
“A-A thousand three hundred.”
Philza grinned and nodded, smoothing out Wilbur’s hair and using his wing to draw Techno into his side. “Yeah mate, and how’s that possible?” Wilbur hides his face in the man’s chest, muttering something unintelligible. “Come again?”
“M’ya can’t die,” Techno answers instead, worming his way under Philza’s arm and closer to Wilbur. “Old dusty man.”
“Hey!”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t leave.” Wilbur snapped, pulling his face out of Philza’s chest so he could glare his brother down. “Just ‘cause he can’t die doesn’t mean we won’t lose him.”
“Woah, Woah, hang on-”
“You have no faith in him!” Wilbur and Techno butted heads a lot, and most of the time it was best to let them fight it out. Unless they were both perched on Phil’s lap, and their lunging at each other meant Phil getting a foot or two in some unsavory place. That was when it was time to intervene. “He always comes back!”
Philza fought to separate the two as they tumbled off the bed and hit the ground. “Hey! Hey, boys-!” Techno, being a natural-born fighter, easily pinned Wilbur. Wilbur swung at his stomach in defense, but Techno saw it coming and easily caught it. He slammed it against the ground and cocked back his own. Philza dove and grabbed it, holding Techno back with both hands and keeping Wilbur back with a wing. “Technoblade! Wilbur! What the fuck is this?”
Technoblade’s scleras bled black, body shuddering as it started to shift towards his piglin form. “Hey, hey, mate look at me.” Philza soothed, place both hands just under his son’s ears, and kept his gaze. Techno snapped his head back, grunting loudly and clawing at Phil’s hands. “Mate steady, okay? It’s alright, I’m not going anywhere, ‘m right here.”
“Wilbur‘s a liar! He doesn’t-! He doesn’t trust you!”
A small smile glimpsed across Phil’s face as he ran a thumb across Techno’s cheek. “He’s scared, son. And I know you’re scared too, I’m scared, this is a big thing for all of us. But Puffy and Uncle Bad are going to be here, they’re going to make sure you guys are okay, and I’ll be back before you know it.” Techno’s body stopped rippling, eyes returning to normal and limbs easing up.
Wilbur was pulled back close to them with a wing, and then was trapped in a hug. “I will always come back,” He directed at Wilbur. “Always. There is nothing in this world that can stop me from doing that.”
It eased the sting when some, that reassurances. But it didn’t go away completely, and spending the eve of the Aurora outside watching the sky blaze to life, Wilbur quietly wished for everything to go well. The morning after the Aurora, usually spent racing down the stairs and tearing into presents, was a quiet affair. Both boys stayed wound around Philza, barely leaving his side to open a couple of gifts here and there.
A pile of presents sat untouched under the tree, “For Tommy” scrawled in big black letters solidifying the fact that this was really happening . Suitcase at the door, plane tickets in hand.
It had been four days since he left, and despite Puffy’s constant reassurance that it would be okay, Wilbur was still worried. But now they were almost home, their brother was almost home. “Wilbur, you sure you don’t want to lay down?” Puffy asks from the kitchen, squeezing out the rag she’d been using to clean and placing it on the sink to dry.
“M’no,” He mutters, rubbing at his tired eyes but staying close to the window. “They’re almost home. I don’ wanna miss them.” Smiling, Puffy walked over to him and offered him her hand.
“Your dad’s gonna text me when they turn onto 16th street. That way I can get you two up.” Wilbur pouts, lip sticking out dramatically as Puffy swings him up and into her arms. “Techno’s already asleep and-”
“Nuh-uh,” Techno mutters out from his nest near the fire. “M’ not asleep, I’m fakin’ it. Fakin’ it for,” a small yawn, “for Dad, and Tommy.”
“Of course,” Wilbur nearly falls asleep on the walk over to Techno’s nest, perfectly safe and comfortable in Puffy’s arms. “Wilbur’s coming over to ‘fake it’ too, scooch over bubs.” The ‘twins’ as Philza had taken to calling him immediately pile onto each other as soon as she sets Wilbur down.
Wilbur dreams about the snow, about flying through blizzards with Philza at his side. Techno’s somewhere behind them, probably complaining about the cold and wind. They bank around skyscrapers, dive through streets and climb up into the clouds. The three swing around and land on the tallest building in L’Manburg, the Camarica Trade Station, admiring the city stretching out in front of them. Philza’s mouth moves, but Wilbur can’t hear what he’s saying, and only knows to look behind the the group because of Techno’s pointing finger.
On the building stands a child, no older than five, two red horns protruding from his forehead. The wind rushes up around him, blonde hair flying in all directions as a small smile graces his face. Philza steps forwards, steps to grab the child away from the edge, and the dream shifts, the child’s face morphing to fear as he steps backwards and off the ledge. Wilbur watches his dad lunge forwards, wings snapping out as he dives after the child and-
“They’re almost here, boys. You’re both going to want to get up.” Wilbur feel’s Techno scrambling next to him, fighting with the blankets and knocking his knees on Wilbur’s shoulder in the process. “Techno! Wilbur’s right there.”
“He’s slow, tell him to be better.” Wilbur shoots a glare at his brother, rubbing the dream out of his eyes and stretching himself out. Techno had already raced over to the door, face pressed against the glass watching for Philza’s car. “I don’ see em.”
Puffy walks over to stand next to Techno, flipping on the front porch light in anticipation. ”They’re just around the corner, do you boys want to get your shoes and coats on and we can wait on the porch?” That gets them moving, Wilbur shoving Techno out of the way to tear his coat off the hook near the door. Techno pushes him back foregoing the even put his shoes and coat on until he’s already out on the porch.
“That’s them, that has to be them!” Wilbur shouts with his jacket halfway on, eye the car headlights making their way down the icy road. Sure enough, a green subaru forester eases into the driveway, and that shake in Wilbur’s hands returns. Puffy puts her palms on both of their shoulders, while Techno grabs Wilbur’s hand and pulls him into a hug. “This isn’t real. There’s-There’s no way.”
“You said the same thing when he brought me home,” Techno snarks, grinning free and wild at his brother. “Even poked me with a stick saying, and I quote, ‘you’re one of those cardboard cut outs right? Dad’s just faking it.’”
“I did not!”
“Did too!” Before the conversation can turn violent, Puffy hums and knocks their heads together slightly. “Remember,” She say’s through an uncontrollable smile as the car turns off. “Don’t run at them, Tommy’s really overwhelmed right now and it can really scare him if you do.”
It takes all Wilbur has to not run at his dad when he gets out of the car. Techno’s hand grounding him in place, even though he knows his brother is eager to do the same. Philza grins at the three of them, walking around to the other side of the car and opening the door.
With a bag over his shoulder and once in his hand, he hauls Tommy up onto his hip and shuts the car. Wilbur thinks he stops breathing, see the kid, his brother throw his arms around their Dad’s neck and hide his face from the cold. “Hey mates,” Philza smiles as he approaches, letting Puffy take the bags and kneeling down to their height.
Wilbur and Techno stay frozen in place, wide eyes staring at Tommy who hasn’t even acknowledged them. The five year old only buries himself further into Philza’s neck, a small whimper escaping his mouth. It’s nearly enough for tears to start forming in Wilbur’s eyes. “Hey Toms,” Philza whispers, running a hand through his hair. “I have a couple people I want you to meet.”
Wilbur can see Tommy visibly shudder at Philza’s touch, can’t tell if it’s a good or a bad thing, and completely drops that thought when Tommy pulls away from Phil and turns to look at the brother’s with glassy eyes.
He’s perfect, is all Wilbur can think, that’s my brother that’s the one we’ve been missing. “H-Hi,” Wilbur mutters out, stepping closer to Tommy. The kid doesn’t look the same as the photo, he looks so much more exhausted and malnourished. The red patterns under his eyes pulse with the same red his horns do, a shifting maroon to red and back against that’s almost hypnotic. “Um, I’m Wilbur.”
“Techno,” his brother hums, hanging back a little bit. Tommy’s eyes, the same red color, flick back and forth between the two. Pupils slitting to almost invisible as hesitance and possible fear make their way across his face. Philza hums, setting him down but keeping two arms around Tommy, muttering something in his ear.
Tommy nods, and Philza pulls both Wilbur and Techno into an embrace, a kiss pressed to both their foreheads. “Dad!” Techno complains, wiggling around with no real intent to escape. Tommy’s in the hug too, still tucked against Phil’s side but he’s there he’s home with them.
Somehow they end up inside, piled onto the couch with Puffy greeting Tommy warmly then taking her leave. Tommy sit’s on Philza’s lap, he’s crying and it hurts Wilbur to see that but even Techno cried when he first came home. Techno and Wilbur are on either side of Phil, a a wing around each of them, and their heads dropped onto the side of his thighs. Tommy doesn’t say anything, he’s shaking and still so scared, but when Philza has to go take a piss, he lets both Wilbur and Techno wrap their arms around him and hold onto him.
It would only take a day before Tommy’s real personality began to shine through before he was bounding off the walls and causing absolute chaos anywhere he went. His Standard wasn’t the best, another thing that added to his initial fear. To be in a new place with new people none of whom speak your language . But he picked up quick, tugged at Wilbur’s sleeves and muttered his name through a messy accent when he wanted attention.
Even the next morning while Philza and Wilbur were busy making breakfast Tommy had curled up on ‘Betno’s’ chest and passed out, smiling in his sleep when Techno reached up and combed a hand through the blonde’s hair.
Sometimes there were moments, like when Tommy peed the bed or dropped a cup and it shattered, when he’d retreated. When he’d curl up into his former shell as a defense.
Adoption’s anything but smooth sailing, it’s a rough and bumpy road that sometimes ends in someone getting hurt. But after four long years, they knew the search was over, even with the bumps and scraps. Tommy fit right in, clicked with the twins and clicked with Phil. Wilbur didn’t hesitate to refer to Tommy as his brother, the latter of which always froze when one of them said it.
They were family, even if Tommy had spent five years away from them. Family not by birth, but a family Philza had let come together over those gut feelings of this one, this one needs to be protected. So Philza let the three boys in his bed at night, curled up with them to watch the same movie for the umpteenth time, and tucked them each in bed with a story and a kiss. Wilbur watched his father rise to the occasion once again of housing a new son, of helping him adjust and click into place with each of them.
Wilbur admired his father for that, for his patience and willingness to help Tommy whenever he needed it. Techno and Wilbur, being only ten, didn’t have as much patience as their father, but nonetheless did as much as they could to help the adjustment. “I think I’ll adopt one day,” Wilbur mutters to Phil on the eve of the Year’s Turn, watching Techno and Tommy pile onto the trampoline in the backyard with at least five different blankets.
“Yeah mate?” Phil hums, lifting him up to carry him across the backyard. “That’s a long time from now,”
“I’ll do it anyways, adopt a son just like you, and be a good Dad too.” Something flashes across his Dad’s face, it’s a complicated look but he’s smiling so it can’t be all that bad. “Then you’ll be a Grandpa!”
“Okay, I like that idea. One day, bubs.”
“Nad! Bilbrur!” Tommy yells from the tramp. “Frierworks!” Wilbur feels Philza laughs, sees the sheer joy that crosses his face at the sound of Tommy saying ‘Nad’, and grins to himself.
It’s not an easy road, adoption never is. But it’s a road Philza and his boys, all of his boys are ready to go down.