Chapter Text
The sun was warm as it shone onto Tommy’s face, his smile was bright when he made a sharp turn down a less noticeable street. He was moving fast, his training paying off as he moved playfully around various objects in his path.
He could hear the guards following him clearly, his sharpened senses picking up on their shouts as he moved further and further away from them.
“Your Highness, come back!”
“Prince Thomas! It’s dangerous to go out alone!”
Idiots, the lot of them. As if anyone could take down the great Prince Tommy, biggest man, second only to one other. He laughed as their shouts died down, a sign that they had lost him in the twists and turns of his kingdom.
It seemed easier this time, to get away from his heavily trained personal guards, as though they were beginning to realise that trying to follow him was a futile endeavour leading only to exhaustion as he ran off ahead of them, amusement floating back on the wind.
He was thankful he wasn’t made to wear his crown when out in the main city, he most likely would have lost it ages ago if he was. Instead, he had a small pin stuck to the front of his shirt, the kingdom’s symbol (a crow with a crown in its beak) proudly displayed as a show of his status.
Tommy was also glad that he didn’t need to dress in the fancy clothes that other royal pricks would wear, the kind of thing that clings and has no stretch to it. He certainly wouldn’t be able to make it as far as he does in these chases if he was wearing that shit.
He glanced back after around a minute more of running, slowing to a more leisurely walk as he noticed that there wasn’t anyone he recognised following him. He could no longer hear the shouts of his ‘protectors’ and he allowed himself to relax a bit in the afternoon sun.
He would eventually have to make his way back to the marketplace, but for now, he could enjoy the relative silence surrounding the back streets that he walked through.
There was the occasional distant shout or shifting footsteps, but nothing he was particularly worried about. He had done this so often he knew for certain that these sounds were normal in the less busy areas in the city, nothing to worry too much about.
Sure, he got a bit startled sometimes at the more sudden sounds, like birds deciding they wanted to just up and leave at random times, wings making loud flapping noises against rubbish bags and tree leaves, but he knew not to fear them properly.
His feet were light against the cobblestones, he smiled as he looked down at them, they always were his favourite. He found that the simplicity of the placement was something he envied greatly, it was beautiful though.
The cracks of the stones, jagged and varied, the way the sunlight would bounce off of droplets of water littering the ground, the colours that would sometimes shine on specific types of stones dotted throughout the mosaic.
He often made a game of avoiding the cracks and now was no different. His body twisted and turned as his attention focused solely on the ground beneath his feet, mind blocking out the rest of the world until only him and his laughter remained.
It was this that got him caught.
He had gotten too caught up in his enjoyment, deafened to the footsteps that came from both ends of the alley he had wound up in, the whispered commands of who was obviously the leader, the man stepping over to him, cloth in hand.
He did, however, feel the cloth being placed over his nose and mouth for around a minute, his struggling ineffective against the group of adults as they crowded around him, ensuring he would not escape.
One of them spoke,”Put him in the back.” He blacked out.
When he woke again, he seemed to be alone. His mind was racing as he looked around frantically at the room he had been put in.
The walls were an ugly cream colour with what looked like mold growing in a couple of the corners, gross. His face reflexively morphed into one of disgust as he took a closer look at the state of the room.
The walls seemed to be peeling? How is that even possible? Can walls do that? God damn. These people really are just rewriting reality with their goop.
Personally, Tommy thinks he could make this place so much nicer given a little time and some basic tools. He’d start with some nicer flooring, the wood he was currently on was almost rotting, he hoped he wasn’t on the second floor.
In his 'slightly' concussed state, he hadn’t realised his mouth was moving, every thought that ran through his unkempt mind was being spewed out into the open like a running commentary.
He was so distracted, he hadn’t realised that he wasn’t alone.
“Would you shut up already!”
He stopped talking, eyes snapping over to where he had heard the voice. That is one angry sounding person, damn.
Tommy voiced this thought voluntarily.
The person let out an annoyed sigh, as though trying to calm themselves down, huh, guess they’ll kidnap a child, but more hesitant to hurt one.
“You should try counting”
“What.”
“Well… y’know, you seem really annoyed, you should try counting, like, numbers, yeah? I’ve heard it helps calm people down, although that’s usually for panic, but I think it could apply here too. I am just a kid though, so it’s not like I have a lot of experience with this type of thing. We do have some pretty good teachers though, when I don’t chase them off… or they chase me off.
Actually, they don’t really do that, I mostly just run away from them, makes a fun game, like tag but I get in a lot more trouble when the game ends and dad usually has to find some other stuck up intellectual. The latest one is pretty good though, she makes the learning part kind of fun, I might try to keep her around a bit longer.
Her name’s Niki, she makes baked goods a lot and often brings them to our sessions. It's nice to have someone around who cares so much for my well being. Not that I don’t have other people that care for me, just Niki is nice I guess, she seems genuinely interested in the things she teaches-“
“Would you just shut up!”
“Guess counting didn’t work” Tommy mumbled this but the person still caught it, standing abruptly, an angry snarl on their face.
That can’t be good.
Luckily, someone else just happened to walk in, the person only having gotten around halfway across the room before they were interrupted.
The new person seemed to radiate confidence, Tommy supposed that they were most likely in charge.
They breezed past the original person, walking with purpose towards where Tommy was tied to a chair near the back wall of the dingy little room.
“Man, you seem like a right twat”
Tommy’s voice rang out loudly in the relative silence, the tension in the air suddenly became suffocating as the rest of the room froze at the comment.
“Has no one ever told you that before? You should work on it, might make you seem more approachable.”
The ringleader’s (that’s a stupid word) eyes hardened into a strong glare, looking back at the guy from before turning to a questioning glance as they spoke.
“I take it this is why you were so tense before?”
Their voice is gravelly and deep, typical villain. Tommy was not impressed in the slightest.
“Yes, boss.”
The guy still sounded annoyed, but seemed to be trying to mask it in front of their leader.
“Y’know it isn’t very good to run anything on fear, right? Trust is much better when it is built with time and patience, you get a lot more loyalty that way, makes it less likely for your followers to abandon you at the first sign of trouble.”
Tommy’s rambling distracted him from the scene in front of him, blocking out most of the world around him until he felt a slap to his face.
He stopped talking.
“What the fuck?!”
“Stop talking.”
Tommy’s eyes began to water, unable to control it as his cheek stung, the reaction made him feel weak, as though he was losing.
He wouldn’t allow that.
“Why the fuck would you hit a child?! That’s abuse y’know. You could go to jail for that, as well as the kidnapping. I forgot to ask about that. Why the fuck am I even here in the first place.
Really. You had the whole royal family to choose from and you decided to go with the most chatty one who just so happens to be the youngest. Bad decision on your part. I’d feel bad for you if you hadn’t slapped me-”
He was interrupted again. This time a fist was brought towards his nose, the impact not quite hard enough to break it, but it still hurt like a bitch.
He stared at the boss, offended.
“Fuck you!”
That earned him another slap, the man’s hand colliding with his face in the same spot as before, intensifying the pain that was already present.
Tommy clenched his jaw to stop himself from earning another hit, resolving to glare viciously at the man in front of him.
The guy had the nerve to smirk at him.
“You talk too much.”
He continued to glare, feeling a drip of blood run over his lip from his nose.
He leaned forward in the chair he was tied to, before spitting at the man.
“Fuck. You.”
The guy just continued to smirk, before angling a punch towards Tommy’s stomach.
He reeled back, coughing violently from the assault, feeling the remnants of some food from the day before threatening to come back up. He forced it back down, who knows when he would next get some food.
“Thought I told you to be quiet.”
Tommy’s jaw clenched once again. He bit his tongue.
Okay, we're doing this.
‘Phil’
‘Tommy! Oh my gods, where are you? You disappeared yesterday, the guards said you ran off and didn’t come back! Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine. Well, mostly. I might have been kidnapped?’
‘What the hell?! And you’re just telling us now?!’
‘Don’t yell at him Phil, you know how the kid is.’
‘Shut up Techno, you were the same when you were my age, we’ve all heard the stories.’
‘Those are made up! Phil didn’t even know me back then!’
‘Mhm. sure, keep telling yourself that.’
‘Bruh. Screw this, I’m leaving.’
‘Good.’
‘Shut up, child’
‘Stop bickering boys, Tommy, where are you?’
‘I don’t actually know, I wasn’t exactly awake when these people brought me here’
‘Okay, are you hurt?’
‘A bit. They didn’t really like my talking, roughed me up a bit, nothing I can’t handle though.’
‘Tommy’
Dad tone.
‘I’m fine, really.’
‘Okay, but you’re getting checked out by the castle doctors when you get back home’
Tommy deflates.
‘Fine.’
‘Good. Anyway, we’ll be able to track your location with a bit of help from Sam as soon as he gets back from his trip, but that might be a while, any information about where you are would be helpful in the meantime, but you might have to sit tight for a few days. Are you going to be okay?’
‘I’ll be fine, promise. Love you.’
‘I love you too, Tommy.’
A few days. That couldn’t be that bad.
It was that bad.
Anytime he uttered a word, one of the ‘guards’ he was assigned would attack him, whether that be a light slap from one of the more hesitant ones or a harsh punch from the more sadistic people.
He was beginning to get a bit sick of it.
‘Why can’t you just get Wilbur to magic me away’
He can practically hear Phil’s sigh.
‘I’ve told you already, that’s not how it works Toms, we’ve tried.’
‘Sunshine, we’d give anything to get you out of there sooner, you know that, but there’s nothing we can do but wait for Sam to finish whatever he’s doing to find you, okay?’
Tommy shrinks in his spot, still stuck in the dingy old room.
‘Okay…’
‘We love you, Tommy, so much’
He smiled a bit at that, the corners of his mouth twitching up slightly.
"Love you too"
His smile dropped as the door in front of him opened abruptly.
“Good news, you get to be untied!”
The sinister grin on their face as the guard that had just walked said this told Tommy that this probably wasn’t such great news.
‘Something’s happening.’
‘Okay, tell us if it gets too bad, we’re here for you Toms. Always.’
‘I will.’
He was led into a different room, the walls were a bit more structurally okay, the wood of the floor a bit more sturdy. He didn’t have long to look around before he was shoved to the ground, his knees hitting the floorboards with a loud bang, the impact harder on his weakened body.
He brought his head up to look at whatever he had been put in front of, pushing against the fatigue in his bones.