Archive of Our Own

“There he fucking is,” Tommy whispered to himself, no louder than what would be heard from his own ears. He couldn’t help himself with the curse as he laid eyes on his lifelong rival.

“His Royal Majesty Philza Craft,” the announcer let his voice rise to all in the room. The king entered with a smile. “His Royal Highness Techno Blaid Craft.”

Or, the prince of blood, if you were flattering him, though the title had never really been proven, as all of the people who ask him if he’s worthy of the title go mysteriously missing and never return.

And Tommy— lightly— hated him.

But not as much as he fucking hated—

“Her Royal Majesty Kristin Rosales.” Tommy had to cut off his thoughts with the new announcement, but as Queen Kristin was lovely, her son— “His royal highness Wilbur Soot Rosales.”

…was not.

“Easy, Tommy,” said King Sam with a chuckle. Tommy rolled his eyes as a hand was set down on his shoulder. “Can you refrain from murdering our guests tonight?”

“Why’d we have to invite them?” Tommy whined, though kept his voice low so it wouldn’t be heard from beyond the dais. “We could have just invited the reigning rulers instead.”

Sam sighed with another chuckle. “You know it’s impolite to invite the queen or king and not their children. You wouldn’t want to be excluded on one of my trips, would you?”

Tommy gave a harsh, lighthearted stare. “I wouldn’t have to see their dumb faces if I wasn’t invited.”

Sam gave a knowing smile. “But you’d miss me.”

Tommy looked away with a faked frown, only managing to keep it up for a few seconds before Sam’s expression had him smiling, forced to admit to it. “Yeah, I’d miss you.”

“I thought as much.” Sam squeezed his shoulder, prompting him off the dais. “Now, this gala is to celebrate our progress as a nation, alright? No shit-talking the council or our allies.”

Tommy scoffed. “But can I shit-talk the princes?”

“ No ,” Sam scolded, but he was laughing. “Be nice, and then we can spend all day tomorrow doing whatever you’d like.”

Tommy mentally beamed. He’d have him all to himself tomorrow, a well-earned day off, and Tommy had plans that not even his hatred for the rivaling princes would get in the way of.

“Check back with me in an hour,” Sam told him, separating his hand from Tommy’s shoulder. “Go have fun.”

Tommy tugged him into a hug before he could go. “See you then, Dad.”

Sam brushed a hand through his hair as he hugged him back, just briefly, before moving in the other direction to go meet up with a waiting King Philza.

Tommy moved through the crowd, saying brief hellos to anyone who acknowledged him. He didn’t have to be super formal, it was known to all of the kingdom and most of the ones around that Tommy was a bit of a spitfire and had a reserved hatred for any royal customs. He would much rather do his own thing, and Sam didn’t make him do anything otherwise. Tommy still had plenty of time before he really needed to figure out this whole kingdom thing, and he already knew quite a bit about the system of it from watching Sam build it from the ground up.

He was on the hunt for the dessert table when he was approached by one slimy, but at the same time prickly, bastard.

“You’re still alive,” Wilbur sneered at him, though kept his expression hidden from the rest of the crowd around them.

“You’re still a prick,” Tommy sneered back at him, eyeing around to make sure Sam wasn’t anywhere near them. “Look, I’m not in the mood, can we postpone? I’m sure your insults will be more rotten in the morning at the breakfast.”

His mouth twitched up into a smile as if he wanted to show off his fangs. “Oh, did someone get talked to? Are you supposed to behave? What is King Sam going to do, take your chamber pot?”

“Fuck off,” Tommy nudged him as harshly as he could get away with. He really didn’t want to run into Wilbur at all, let alone this early into the night. “I want to enjoy myself, and being in your vicinity is quite the opposite.”

“I’d say likewise,” Wilbur agreed, “But I’m in need of entertainment, and watching you fumble your royal manners is quite the feat.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Just like you fumble with a sword, your highness? ” 

Finally, he got Wilbur to bristle. “Just because violence isn’t my strong suit—”

“That’s an understatement,” someone else butted in, and joining the conversation was no other than Prince Techno. “You looked like a toddler the last time I saw you with a sword.”

Wilbur narrowed his eyes. “And when did you last see me with a sword?”

Techno scoffed. “You were in your own town square preparing to knight someone. Last month.”

Wilbur’s face turned beet red, stammering filling his silence full of half-formed words. As much as Tommy despised Prince Techno, he hated Wilbur just a bit more, meaning he could freely laugh at the statement with no worry about getting it turned back to him.

Unfortunately, the attention was shifted anyway, because the prince of blood never left any of his enemies standing at the end of a battle.

“You’re still short,” Techno observed, much to Tommy’s dismay. It seemingly didn’t matter that he was three years younger and at an above-average height for his age, he was still seen as lesser because his height was the lowest of the three.

“You didn’t get a growth spurt until last year,” Tommy pointed out with a growing frown. “And you’re still shorter than Wilbur.”

“You can’t compare me to him,” Techno turned up his nose. “He’s a freak.”

“Hey!”

“Then why are you comparing me to you both?” Tommy crossed his arms. “At least compare me to you in non-physical ways. I’m far better on horseback than you are, Techno.”

“What happened to proper titles?” Techno tilted his head. “Or do you need a reminder that both of us are far more advanced in knowledge on how to lead our kingdoms?”

“Jokes on you,” Tommy grinned. “I don’t give a shit.”

Wilbur pushed himself back into the conversation. “Then I’ll have a great time invading your kingdom when you take over.”

“Oh please,” Techno rolled his eyes. “You won’t last three minutes as monarch if your borders are still next to mine.”

“I beg to differ—” Wilbur started with a haughty look, and Tommy took both of their moments of distraction to slip away, breathing a sigh of relief as he could no longer hear Wilbur’s shrill voice or Techno’s grumbling avalanche.

Tommy eyed around for Sam among the crowd, thinking maybe he could just stick by him for the night. Sure, he’d have to talk with royals and nobles who had sticks up their asses, but at least he wouldn’t be nauseous from being in the other princes’ vicinities.

He didn’t spot the reigning king, despite him being rather tall, so he just cut his losses and drifted through the crowd, moving to leave the other princes as far behind in the dust as possible. The kingdoms were on fair terms, but there had always been those subtle rivalries, like who would have an heir first, which drove the kingdoms of the Antarctic and the Roselands to have heirs born within the same week; Wilbur was the eldest, of course, because the bastard needed to win something .

“Prince Thomas!” Someone called out, and Tommy’s head swiveled. He must have been standing in the same spot for just long enough that someone had decided to initiate conversation. He looked at the man who called him, a clearly incredibly wealthy businessman, from the tailored suit and the numerous gold accents.

Or, so he would appear on the outside. Tommy had seen enough gold to know that the detailings were only gilded, not solid. And the suit, while it looked like it was silk, had scattered stitches from the tailoring, a cheap finish.

It wasn’t like Tommy had wanted to notice all of that, but constantly trying to catch flaws in the other princes’ ways made him way too observant.

“Apologies for the shout, your highness,” the man offered a head nod, Tommy pursed his lips. “I wasn’t expecting you to be alone at a festivity like this.”

Tommy sighed to himself, resetting his shoulders so he mirrored what a proper prince would look like. “I will not be for long, I am sure I’ll meet plenty of people with my father later. I only wanted the chance to observe the crowd.”

Every second he was scanning the heads of the crowd, just for the paranoia of the princes coming back his way.

“I understand,” the man nodded. He’d yet to offer his name, which was improper, but by the looks of things, he probably shouldn’t have been here at all. “I too like to take note of my surroundings before diving into things. You never know what surprises may lie in a place like this.”

While Tommy knew what he meant in the general sense, a chill rolled down his spine. A sudden uneasy feeling crept over his shoulders, holding him in place as he scanned the crowd more furiously.

Wilbur was standing by himself, blinking confusedly at the crowd around him, as if he had just lost something. Techno, on the other hand, was gone, and it wasn’t like a head of pink hair was hard to find at a regal evening gala.

Tommy watched Wilbur walk to the edge of the room and lean against the wall for a better look at the crowd. Tommy found himself following his gaze, only looking back when Wilbur closed the door to the hallway behind him. A place he wasn’t exactly allowed.

Tommy would have to deal with them.

“Excuse me,” Tommy said to the man with a concealed frown. “It appears I’ve observed one of the many surprises I will encounter tonight.”

“Oh of course,” the man waved to him. “Don’t let me hold you back.”

Tommy walked toward the door Wilbur slipped out of, putting on his best furious expression. If those bastards were out tampering with the decorations just for the hell of it, Tommy would take it straight to Sam.

He swung the door wide with a dramatic flourish, opening his mouth to berate the two of them.

Wilbur’s eyes were blown wide in panic, struggling against a person that held him down, a cloth over the bottom half of his face. Techno was already on the floor, limp and exposed in all of the ways he shouldn’t be.

Tommy found his words leading to a scream that was muffled by the hand placed over his mouth and the pairs of hands that came around him to hold him in place. Wilbur’s eyes rolled back into his head just as a similar cloth was placed over Tommy’s mouth and nose.

He did what he could to struggle, to scream, trying not to take in air, but there was no use to it. The world blurred at the edges, his heart slowing down against his will. His limbs lost their tension and he buckled to the floor.

He was just conscious enough to groan out a breathy “ fuck” from behind the cloth before the world went dark.

---

He didn’t recognize the room. Prying his eyes open was a struggle, but already he could tell he was not in a place he should be, nor wanted to be. All Tommy could see from his position was the concrete wall and the matching concrete floor.

He had a massive crick in his neck from his head hanging down, which he tried to pop, and accidentally knocked his head into two other heads.

“Ow,” Techno’s voice commented in that same monotone rumbling voice. Wilbur groaned and rattled the chains.

“Oh fuck off, they did not.” Tommy craned his neck to see to either side of him, where both of the princes were chained shoulder to shoulder with him. Trying to move his hands ended up with resistance from chains and the pull of two others.

“I was expecting that gala to be hell, but definitely wasn’t expecting to get fucking kidnapped.” Wilbur tilted his head back so it was resting on the support of both Techno’s and Tommy’s, and they moved away at the same moment so Wilbur just fell backward and hurt his neck trying to catch his own head.

“Your security is awful,” Techno pointed out with a gesture to Tommy, not that they could really see each other, being chained to each other’s backs.

“Thank you, Mr. Helpful,” Tommy spat. “I’m fucking here too. It’s not like I staged your kidnapping. Had I known we were going to be kidnapped-”

“Shut up, Tom,” Wilbur hissed. “You’re giving me a headache.”

“That’s Thomas to you bitches.” Tommy shoved his shoulder in Wilbur’s direction, which wasn’t hard considering they were shoulder to shoulder.

“Oh, but we get to be the bitches?”

“Until you prove yourself otherwise,” Tommy agreed. Wilbur huffed out something haughty, like he was an eleven-year-old girl who got the wrong color pony.

“Where are we?” Techno broke up the fight. “I can’t recognize anything. No symbols.”

“Don’t ask me,” Tommy sighed. “I’m facing a wall.”

Wilbur was silent for a few seconds before letting out an “Uh… I’m not exactly sure what I should be looking for?”

“Great, Wilbur’s the most unhelpful person here and he gets the good view.”

Wilbur spluttered. “What do you count as a good view ? All I can see is the fucking door to the dungeons.”

“What’s the make of the door?” Techno asked, still trying to be helpful.

“The what? Like what it’s made out of?”

“No, idiot,” Techno rumbled. “The style. Is it native to our kingdoms?”

“How the fuck am I supposed to know? Do you go around staring at doors?”

This was definitely going to be hell.

“We’re not chained to the floor, yeah?” Tommy really felt like pulling out his hair, but unfortunately, his hands were tied. “Let’s shift so Techno can see the door.”

If Tommy could take back this suggestion, he would do so in a heartbeat. He could be offered a wish for anything in the world, and he’d skip over world peace and the cure for all illnesses and just erase this one memory from his life.

“Clockwise or counter-clockwise?”

“Obviously fucking counter-clockwise because then we don’t have to scoot as much.”

“But it’s always easier to go clockwise because that’s our dominant side.”

“I’m left-handed.”

“That’s not important right now, Techno!”

“No,” Tommy cut off everyone and everything that could have been speaking because the room was so loud they could have been back at the gala. “We’re moving counter-clockwise, final decision.”

Wilbur and Techno shared a silence.

“Should we move clockwise just to spite him?”

“Oh, definitely.”

Then proceeded the next thirty seconds of fingers and ankles scraping across the rough concrete floor, arguing about who sat on whose hand, and that moment when Tommy’s arm was bent at a weird angle and they had to reset just to fix it.

So yes, he would gladly erase that moment from his life over anything else.

“What’s the make of the door, Techno?” Tommy asked after it was all over, ready to be free from this hell already.

“Mm,” Techno considered for a minute. “It’s definitely not Roselands, because none of it is detailed, and those people are obsessed with decoration.” Wilbur made a sound of offense but kept whatever comment he had to himself. “The style isn’t as modern, maybe a hundred or so years old… which is too old for Badlands, so it’s got to be Antarctic.”

“That, or we are in a completely different kingdom,” Tommy remarked, which made an uncomfortable silence fall over all of them.”What was the fucking point of this? Even if we knew where we are, how does that help us get out?”

“It’s just comforting to know,” Techno shrugged. Wilbur and Tommy produced twin sounds of annoyance. Tommy felt like banging his head against the wall but wasn’t about to suggest they move closer to it to spare him the torture.

“There’s someone coming,” Techno suddenly whispered, and Tommy’s head snapped up. Oh, he wanted a good look at whoever thought it was a good idea to hold them in their cellar and tie them together. Tommy should have just not gone to the gala at all, screw all the nobles, he didn’t give a shit about them anyway.

The man that walked in was almost unrecognizable without all of the gilded jewelry and cheaped-out suit, but Tommy could still remember a punchable face and that obnoxious mustache.

“Of course it was you,” Tommy grumbled. “I thought I knew a bastard when I saw one.”

“Shut up ,” Wilbur hissed, though it seemed more out of nerves than actual hatred, It was the only thing that made Tommy comply because he would verbally tear this man to shreds in a heartbeat.

“I can’t say I didn’t expect that,” the man replied with a smirk that Tommy could only partially see from his angle. “It is nice to meet the three of you.”

“Why are we here?” Techno directed, not even bothering with the man or what he stood for. “What do you think you’ll get out of this?”

“Just money,” he waved off. “We thought about kidnapping the rulers and arranging a threat system, but a ransom would work much better, don’t you think? I mean—” the man bent down, smirking at Tommy with those dark reptilian eyes. “—you princes are worth a lot of money to your parents. And from what you saw, Prince Thomas,” he chuckled. “I need money.”

“You need jail time,” Tommy spat back at him, trying to reach him through the distance but was unsuccessful. “And you’re going to get it instead of your ransom. The royal guards of three kingdoms are tracking us right now and they’ll be here to stick their swords up your ass before you know it.”

“God fucking dammit, Tom,” Wilbur hissed again. “This is not how you handle a hostage situation. You’re going to get us killed!”

“He doesn’t have the balls ,” Tommy smiled at the man.

The man smiled back.

“Don’t have the balls, huh?” He crossed his arms, standing back up to full height. “You’re that confident you’re father will come and find you, or even notice you’re missing? He’s a busy man.”

Tommy’s eyes could have been glowing and that still wouldn’t project all of the anger he was feeling. Sam cared about and cared for Tommy far more than the people of the kingdoms could even begin to understand. He was loved thoroughly and unconditionally, and maybe it took him a few minutes in the crowd with all of those distractions, but Sam would search the world for him in an instant as soon as he realized Tommy was gone.

Tommy had the confidence of a tiger.

“He’s probably not even that far behind,” Tommy said smugly. “And you’re going to have hell to pay.”

Because today was supposed to be Tommy’s day, and if he was missing it, there better be a good reason. This? This was not a good reason.

The man just kept smiling, mirroring all of Tommy’s confidence back to him. “You’re so sure, yet you have no idea how long you’ve been down here. But that’s alright,” he said with a smirk. He fished a key out of his pocket. “You’ll learn that the only hope you’re supposed to have is hope that your parents— all of your parents— pay the ransom.”

He knelt down and unlocked Tommy’s hands from Techno’s and Wilbur’s. Not sure what he was doing, Tommy swung a punch as soon as they were free, trying to reach for the key with his other hand.

He was nailed in the jaw right as his own swing missed. He went tumbling back with the force, hand reaching up to protect his face. He was hauled up roughly, and socked again right across his nose, leaving him blinded for a few seconds as his brain tried to catch up with his body.

Pain began to throb. Tommy wiped away red droplets from his nose.

“And if you can’t learn,” the man laughed as he dragged Tommy toward the door, a door he wasn’t so sure he wanted to go through anymore. “I’ll have to teach you a different way.”

---

Techno and Wilbur had expected the worst. Both of them had been briefed on hostage situations and assassination attempts, Techno had even gone as far as to learn what to do as a prisoner of war, so they had stayed as quiet as they needed to be, not knowing what at all to do as the third prince began taunting their captor.

They knew better than to expect that he would come back, but he did sometime later. He was practically dragged in, stumbling when he did get his feet underneath him. Techno barely recognized him, not with his hair a mess of blood and sweat, and his face already bruising.

Thomas didn’t say a word, nor did he protest at all at being chained back to Techno and Wilbur.

“Consider this a warning,” their captor said before he slammed the door behind him. Thomas slumped almost immediately against the two of them, and as much as it made Techno uncomfortable, he could sympathize for the moment.

“Did you learn why we don’t taunt the captors now?” Wilbur asked, obviously not getting the hint that ‘I told you so’ was not a very good way to handle this moment.

“Don’t be a dick,” Techno nudged a shoulder into him. “Let him sleep.”

He felt Wilbur take in a breath to say something else but he guessed Wilbur decided against it because he let out the stream of air and also leaned back against Techno, letting the silence hang.

Techno ground his teeth but didn’t make them move. He’d watch the door and stake out the night. While he’d much prefer to deal with himself, it seemed they were all more or less a package deal.

Hatred couldn’t get between them, not now. Techno just hoped that the two brain cells that Thomas and Wilbur collectively had between them would understand that.

When Thomas woke up a few hours later, Techno took it into his own hands to make sure he was relatively alright.

“Is anything broken?” He asked first, and with his answer of no, he asked this time, “Did they hit your head? Is your vision fuzzy? Do you remember who we are and where we are?”

“I didn’t get hit in the head, Techno,” he grumbled. “I’m fucking fine. Just…”

“Beat up?” Wilbur offered. Techno did his best to kick him.

“And gross,” Thomas agreed with a heavy sigh. “And my nose is definitely bruised.”

“A war trophy,” Techno commented. “For when we get out of here.”

The youngest prince scoffed. “Yeah, because purple and green is just my color.”

“Can’t know until you try,” Wilbur hummed.

Techno found himself chuckling, not at the obvious taunt, but just at the situation they were making light of. Thomas got tortured for heaven’s sake, and they were telling him that the color of his bruises would be his new fashion statement.

“Putting that aside,” Thomas huffed. “Who do you bet is finding us first?”

“Definitely the Antarctic.” Techno smiled at the change in topic. Hearing two other scoffs, he felt the need to defend himself. “What? We’re the closest to them, and the Antarctic has been around the longest, it has the most resources, the most guards, the best travel-”

“Yeah yeah,” Wilbur said sarcastically. “But what about hunters? The one most important thing right now? The Roselands will find us first, everyone is practically born knowing how to track something down.”

They both waited for Thomas’s rebuttal, who scoffed at the silence. “You guys wish you had what the Badlands have, don’t you? Hello? We have Sam. ”

Wilbur laughed, though tried to keep it quiet. “Is that it, gremlin? King Sam is going to singlehandedly track and rescue us all on his own?”

“He’s awesome like that,” the Badland’s prince chuckled with them. “Look, I’m not going to pretend that we have anything more than average, we’re still new. I just know that whoever comes first, I’m leaving with them.”

“ Finally , we can agree on something,” Wilbur threw back his head, though was careful of the others’ this time. “First chance I get, I’m leaving.”

Techno smiled as much as he could, and though no one could see it, it was nice to have just to himself.

---

They weren’t even given food. Wilbur felt his stomach gnawing at him from the inside out, begging for something. It was clear he wasn’t the only one, with Techno’s stomach rumbling just as loud. Thomas seemed to be able to hold out a little longer but was just as relieved as the rest of them when they were brought water.

He didn’t voice it, having obviously learned from his mistake.

They took turns being offered the cup, forced to accept it when it was pressed to their lips and tilted, due to not being able to use their hands. Both Techno and Thomas coughed and gagged at it for some reason, despite the insistence that it was just water.

It was so stale. How did they manage to make stale water? It was heavy and overpoweringly warm, just on the edge of being revolting, but at least they had it.

The cellar they were forced into, because it was more obvious by the day that this was no grand underground dungeon, grew colder the longer they sat there. Techno explained that the Antarctic went through cold bouts at this time of the season, where it could be steady and a bit chilly for weeks but have a snowstorm and below-zero temperatures randomly. It seemed they were just entering one of these times because suddenly they were all kind of glad they were chained together. It was an excuse to leech off each other’s body heat without asking for it. Still, they shivered at times and took turns trying to be the one in the middle.

It might have been three days in when Techno made a sudden gasp, moving his arms around like he was looking for something.

“Would you quit it?” Wilbur complained in annoyance. With nothing more to do, he’d spent time imagining what it would be like to be rescued, and Techno had abruptly ended that fantasy.

“I think-” Techno started with ground teeth, struggling more. “I think they forgot to take my knife.”

Immediately the air shifted.

“You didn’t think about that before?” Thomas’s voice had gone up a few octaves, being much more cooperative with which ways Techno was trying to turn. 

“I thought for sure they would have,” Techno explained. He’d worked half of his arm in front of him, much to Wilbur’s discontentment at the weird angle his hands were in because of it. “But I shifted and felt it. It’s on the inside of my coat.”

“I might be able to reach it,” Thomas said, being on Techno’s right side. “Does it have a decent handle?”

“Yes.” Wilbur could feel Techno nod. “Carved maple wood, about six inches long. The blade should be covered.”

“I’m going to try and grab it with my teeth,” the Badlands’ prince explained. “Prepare yourself to be violated.”

Techno huffed. “Do your best.”

Wilbur couldn’t see anything, and he was pretty sure he didn’t want to. There was a lot of struggling, instructions from Techno, and snarky comments from Thomas. Eventually, there was a sound of celebration from Techno and a muffled cheer from Tommy.

“Did you get it?” Wilbur did his best to crane his neck, but he still couldn’t see anything helpful.

“He got it,” Techno confirmed. “Drop it into my hand.”

A few seconds later, Wilbur could feel the leather-covered blade shifting against his wrists, with Techno using his fingers to try and get the sheath off.

“I’m going to do my best not to knick one of you,” the Antarctic prince explained. “I’ve done one of these before, but not with two other people. I’m going to force the blade under my cuff and use the leverage to stretch the metal until I can hopefully get one of my hands out. If the cuffs are as cheap as the rest of this place, I shouldn’t have a problem.”

“Why not keep the sheath on?” Thomas asked with a bit of a nervous tone.

“It’s too thick, it won’t fit.”

Wilbur took in a breath, which Techno followed. The leather fell with a thump, and the chains clinked as Techno maneuvered the blade behind his back and through his right cuff. Thomas hissed only once, and Techno was quick with an apology, but apparently, it wasn’t too bad.

“I’ve got it under,” Techno said. “Now for the hard part.”

The door swung open with a bang. Techno didn’t even get a chance. He stilled, trying to hide the evidence with his worried hands.

“Conspiring?” The dipshit laughed. Wilbur couldn’t see him from his position facing the wall, but he could hear his footsteps stalk closer.

Thomas stayed blissfully silent this time. Wilbur breathed a mental sigh.

With no one answering, the man cut to the chase. “Which one of you has the knife?”

Fuck.

“No answer?” He hummed. “If one of you speaks up maybe I’ll be nice and give you some food.”

Thomas’s shoulder tensed. Wilbur knew better than to believe that lie. If they were here for money then the bastard wouldn’t feed them unless they were actively dying from hunger. Even if Thomas had good intentions, like sharing the food, there wouldn’t be any use. The knife would be found in Techno’s hand, and the punishment would be worse for him.

So, before Thomas could spill, Wilbur spoke up. “That’s bullshit.”

“Oh?” The man chuckled. “How can you call my bluff without even seeing me?”

“Because you’re a slimy, manipulative bastard that wants us to turn against each other,” Wilbur stated, still basically talking to a wall. “Well, surprise, but you chained us together, so we’re sticking together.”

They literally had each other's backs, at least until they got out of here. That was certain. They were on the same side and had the same goal, so working together was their best option.

Wilbur heard his footsteps stalking around before his boots stopped right in front of Wilbur. Wilbur glared at him with everything he had, eyes sparking with determination.

He crouched down with a smile just like the one Wilbur was picturing on his face.

“We’ll start with you, then.”

His fingers got in every little part of Wilbur’s personal space, checking pockets, ripping seams, tilting Wilbur’s chin up roughly when Wilbur flinched so that he held still. He felt extremely violated, trying to be clear he was hiding nothing while still protective of his own body.

When the man finally decided that Wilbur wasn’t hiding anything, he moved on to Techno. Wilbur gave himself a few seconds to pull himself together before switching his mind like a radio frequency, trying to ask Techno what he wanted them to do.

It was futile in the end. It didn’t take him a minute to catch onto where the knife was hiding, up the sleeve of Techno’s coat where he shimmied it up. He pried the blade out of the fabric with a sneer, admiring the weapon before tucking it in his own pocket.

“I should have known that the prince of blood would have the weapon.” His key came out. He could hear Thomas suck in a gasp. “Resourceful, aren’t you?”

Techno, unlike Thomas, did not attempt to fight back when his chains were unlocked. He was pried away by two others, meaning that despite trying to seem like they had the upper hand, they were scared of what Techno could do if he got loose.

The door slammed shut behind them. Thomas was shaking.

“He’ll be fine,” Wilbur tried to console, though it sounded like a lie on his tongue. Never once had he cared about Techno’s well-being. He’d never had reason to. “Techno will come right back, he’ll be fine. Then we’ll get out of here. One of the kingdoms has to be on their way.”

He wouldn’t let his hope run out. Not in a time like this.

“Techno’s the strongest here,” Wilbur admitted. “He’ll be just fine.”

---

Techno was a mess when he returned. He wasn’t as physically hurt as Thomas had been, and he could walk by himself, but he didn’t seem there . His eyes were glazed and unfocused and he was trying to take in oxygen like he had been deprived of it. They didn’t say a word until the men were gone and the door was shut behind them, but Thomas immediately tried to break out into a flurry of questions, questions Wilbur didn’t feel like remembering.

Techno had answered only one of them, something like ‘ do you need anything? ’

“A distraction,” he stammered out. “Please.”

Thomas fell silent, obviously not sure how to help. His ramblings certainly wouldn’t, and everything else that came to Wilbur’s mind that the third prince could do, like draw and climb and insult, wouldn’t work right now.

Wilbur took in a shaky breath, drawing up the first thing that came to his mind, and began to sing.

“There will come a soldier, who carries a mighty sword.” The notes were quiet, just for them to hear. “He will tear your city down, oh lei, oh lai, oh, Lord.”

To his surprise, Tommy joined him. Wilbur didn’t think he knew the words, but as clear as ever, that accompanying, though slightly shrill, tune filtered in with his notes.

“Oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh, Lord. He will tear your city down, oh lei, oh lai, oh lei, oh, Lord.”

---

Wilbur was jolted awake by a scream, cut off just as quickly as it started. Still, Wilbur pried his eyes open and shoved down his racing heart, trying to bring back his surroundings and find out what happened.

Thomas was shaking, not out of cold but out of fear. His breaths were ragged, cut to pieces, and being pried out of him one at a time.

“Tom?” He asked, trying to move closer. “You alright?”

He let out a strange noise in response, something between a whimper and a croak. Wilbur didn’t know what that meant, but it wasn’t very comforting.

“It’s- it’s alright,” Wilbur started. “You don’t have to talk. I’m here.”

For some reason, it didn’t feel fake. He was just so hesitant because… well, Thomas had always been adamant about hatred for them. Their never ending rivalry from close borders made them rub up against each other. Wilbur didn’t know if he even wanted Wilbur’s comfort.

Surprisingly, Thomas curled into his side, resting his head on Wilbur’s shoulder. It sent a jolt of shock through his system just feeling it. He must not have been totally awake, there was no way Thomas would ever allow himself to do that. He hadn’t put his guard down even when he came back bloodied and bruised.

Still… there he was. And Wilbur wasn’t about to displace him now. He let the prince tuck himself into his side and drift off again. Must have been a nightmare.

He set his head on top of the younger boy’s and let himself sleep.

---

“Techno,” Tommy began once they were all awake. Tommy had not mentioned his humiliation from waking up practically glued to Wilbur’s side. His beet-red face said enough. “You’ve got long hair… you don’t happen to have a pin or anything?”

Techno hummed a consideration. Whatever had happened to his mind after he came back in was gone, he seemed back to normal. “No, I don’t think I have a hairpin. What do you need it for?”

“I was going to try my hand at picking the lock,” Tommy sighed. “I’ve never done it behind my back before… and honestly I thought we’d be out of here by now, so it was just a thought.”

“Where did you learn to pick locks?” Wilbur glanced at him with a skeptical eye. Tommy rolled his eyes exaggeatly so he could see it.

“You guys don’t know a thing about me, do you?” Tommy rolled his shoulders, waiting for the crack. He’d been in one position for way too long. “I didn’t start out as a prince, for your information, unlike you fucks.”

“You’re kidding,” Techno said with a bit more inflection than usual. “How did you end up in the palace?”

Tommy scoffed. “I broke in.”

“ What?” Wilbur made a sound between a laugh and a choke.

“Yep,” Tommy grinned. “Broke in. I was… six? So I don’t expect you two to remember my coronation, but yeah. I was a street kid that broke into the palace for food and got miraculously adopted.”

“I want to hear this whole story.” Wilbur scooted closer to him. “Because things are already starting to make sense.”

Tommy laughed a little. “Yeah, well it looks like I’ll have time to tell it if neither of you have something I can use as a pick.”

Tommy waited as they were thinking, Techno feeling his pockets while Wilbur was squinting up into the air.

“Nope, nothing,” Techno admitted, sitting back in defeat. “Wilbur?”

Wilbur was silent for a few more moments before he shifted his left leg. “Could you do anything with wired glasses?”

Tommy blinked, his heart speeding up. “Yes? You have glasses?”

Wilbur raised his leg up, trying to get something in his left pocket to shimmy down. Gold-rimmed glasses poked out of the fabric.

“They’re fake,” Wilbur admitted with a dropped voice. “I like the look of them.”

Tommy snorted, finally shimmying the specs into his hand. The wires at the end were just thin enough to manipulate with some force.

“Only you would wear glasses because you liked how they looked,” Techno commented gruffly. “That is such a Roselands thing to have.”

“Oh shut up,” Wilbur hissed back. “You have pink hair, you prick.”

Tommy laughed, which prompted both of the others to follow. It seemed that maybe while the picking on each other wasn’t going anywhere, it had lost its bite.

Tommy worked on bending the end into an up-and-down zigzag. One of his nails broke in the process, but he didn’t morn it too much. Once he felt like he had the shape he wanted, he took one of the ends of the glasses into the lock and forced it up, feeling for the gaps.

“Four pins.” Tommy was gnawing on his lip as he concentrated. “Should be easy enough, I think it’s a turning lock so I just need a turning tool…” Tommy glanced over to Wilbur for just a second before reaching to the other end of the glasses and snapping off its arm.

“What the fuck!” Wilbur immediately was craning his neck to see what he had done. “Did you just break them?”

“Your sacrifice was much lesser than ours, Wilbur,” Techno deadpanned, not that they could see his face. “Deal with it.”

Tommy stuck the new end into the bottom of the keyhole, putting pressure on the side so it would turn when prompted. With his other chained hand, he fit the other end into the top of the lock, working from the end to push the pins to the shear line until they clicked.

It was severely difficult to get it to work behind his back, relying on his already fucked sense of direction and the minimal sounds he could hear.

But after several minutes, a few different tries, and a decent amout of curses, the lock clicked and turned, and what was keeping the chains together unlocked.

Wilbur kept his voice soft as he exclaimed his excitement at being able to move his hands more than a few inches, and they could all push away from each other now, standing up on their own and threading the chain under their legs so their hands could be in front of them. All except for Techno, who was a little too bulky to make it work.

Tommy got to work on his own two hands, which were far easier than the center lock. He jabbed his tool around a few times and was free in seconds. He then released both Techno and Wilbur in turn.

“Fucking hell,” Wilbur stretched his arms above his head with a bright smile, one Tommy hadn’t been able to see fully this entire time. “Just one more obstacle to go, right?”

Techno shook his head. “Now we’re at the hard part. We don’t know where the exit is behind that door, nor where we are or how we’re getting to safety.”

“And who knows how many people are out there.” Tommy rubbed at his wrists, hoping to get the soreness to go away.

“And we don’t have anything to fight with, not to mention that were several days starved,” Wilbur added, seeing the flaw in his optimism.

“Don’t remind me,” Techno grumbled.

“So what now?” Tommy moved his eyes to the door. There was no way to see beyond it. Do we just run and see what happens? They won’t kill us, right?”

“If we’re running, they might.” The chains on the floor seemed a little less scary now compared to the door. “They want their money, sure, but they definitely don’t want jail time. We’re witnesses just as much as the victims.”

“I say we run for it.” Wilbur put his foot down. “We’ve got plenty of experience defending ourselves, this is just putting it to good use. If one of us looks for weapons, another looks for a way out, and the third is working on fighting whoever is in our way, we should be golden.”

“And play to our strengths,” Tommy agreed.

Techno considered them, bouncing eyes from one to the other before sighing and giving in. He pulled a chain off the ground and wrapped it around his fist, the other end ready to swing around like a weapon.

“I’ll fight,” Techno said. “Thomas, look for weapons. Wilbur, find us a way out.”

No one put Techno in charge, but no one protested.

“One thing before we go?” Tommy asked the group, getting their full attention. “Please call me Tommy.”

He couldn’t believe he just told them that.

But then again, he was proud of himself that he did.

Wilbur smiled. “That suits you a lot better.”

Tommy laughed. “Yeah, I thought the same thing.”

“Are we done being sappy?” Techno was at the door, holding the handle. “It’s unlocked.”

Tommy and Wilbur exchanged smiles, and the three princes threw themselves into battle.

Well, not immediately . There was no one outside the door, just a long, pretty plain corridor. Wilbur chose to go to the left, as both Techno and Tommy had been dragged to the right previously. Tommy scanned the walls and opened any drawers or cabinets they came across silently. They had yet to find a real weapon, but Wilbur was now wielding a letter opener.

It wasn’t very long until they found their first door at the end of the hall, which Wilbur held his ear against for several seconds. Techno led the charge, and they found themselves in a sitting room.

There was a person on the couch, some no-life reading a book. He was silenced quickly with a chain around his neck and his head thrown against the hard wooden back of the chair.

Techno was kind of a badass, now that Tommy thought about it.

They chose a door and continued forward, emerging into a hallway with two people stopping in their tracks when they saw them.

That’s when the battle started.

Additionally, Tommy had pried a knife off of one of the men. He and Techno stood on either side of Wilbur, fighting off the people that came trickling in to see what all the noise was about. They pushed forward, with Techno taking the brunt of the attacks, but from the smile he held, he could have been enjoying himself.

People were left in a heap, swords skittered around the hall. Tommy had moved his efforts on to scanning all of the windows, which were few but mighty.

Wilbur saw it first. “Look! That window’s open!”

Techno bashed his chain into another fuckers head, who went down without a scream. Tommy dragged him by the hand as he fended off everyone else with his whip-like chain. Wilbur had the window open, all they had to do was jump.

“Uh, can we survive that?” Tommy asked, just with a brief second of hesitation. Wilbur still had time to roll his eyes in their haste, stepping out onto the ledge and pulling Tommy and Techno through. They slammed the window down behind them, Techno’s chain wrapping around the lock to keep it shut.

“We’re climbing. You like climbing, right?” Wilbur threw a look over to Tommy, who did indeed like climbing when he wasn’t running for his life without proper equipment.

Wilbur went down first, shifting through decorations, keeping his feet steady on each bulging swirl of the decor or the lips of other windows. Tommy followed, catching up to Wilbur a little faster, with Techno being just a little slower.

I window shattered above them, startling Wilbur, who lost his grip.

Techno caught his arm before he could fall three stories.

It hit Tommy just then that he hadn’t had a hateful thought about these two in the past few days. He’d hate himself if they didn’t make it.

Using what brain power he had left and the reserve of adrenaline, he spotted a stable not too far from where they would touch down in the frosted glass. He scrambled down quicker than Wilbur and Techno, crouching into the last jump.

Sticking two fingers in his mouth, he whistled a call he knew most horses learned to an ear-piercing volume, and if he had done it correctly—

Bang . Two horses were already sprinting out through the doors, jumping the fence that surrounded the property to get close to them.

Tommy ran to get them just as a few more men came running out of the doors of the building.

“Go, go, go!” Tommy was shouting to Wilbur and Techno, who had just jumped the last few feet. He swung himself on top of a steed and reached a hand down to Wilbur to help him up. With just a quick glance over to see if Techno was settled, he kicked the horse into a gallop and just started in any direction that seemed away enough.

“Travel North!” Techno shouted, “We’ll aim for the Antarctic.”

No one caught up to them.

---

“Can I just say,” Wilbur began with a softer voice now that their trip was a peaceful journey through easy terrain, although a bit cold. “That what we did was fucking insane?”

Tommy laughed with him in agreement, fatigued from just about everything that had happened. The horse was so familiar underneath him that his eyes would probably close on him any second.

“We’re just that good,” Techno shrugged with a smug look. “Who knew that an entire lord’s mansion was going to get owned by three adolescent princes?”

Tommy stretched his arms in the air. “I think I’m still more surprised that we managed to get along.”

Wilbur leaned forward so Tommy and him could lock eyes. “Don’t get too comfortable,” he said, even though a smile was growing. “I still fucking hate you.”

“But that’s the difference!” Tommy laughed. “Now you can’t say it without smiling .” Wilbur’s offended gasp hung in the air, his smile hidden behind his hand. “You love me. ” Tommy sang happily, a little taunt hanging in the air.

To his genuine surprise, Wilbur hugged him around the middle— just suddenly— and the world was flipped on its axis in a moment.

“You’re fun,” Wilbur said, head peaking over Tommy’s shoulder. “And a dumbass.” He squeezed tighter. “But like hell am I going to let you go now. You’ve won the favor of Prince Wilbur Soot Rosales and you’re going to fucking regret it.”

Tommy laughed so hard his sides started to hurt, with his infectious laughter forcing a laugh out of Techno on the other horse too. Wilbur forced his gaze over to him.

“Oh and don’t you think you got out of this either, Techno, the only thing worse than me hating you is me liking hanging out with you.”

And though it might have been a threat, it was one of the better threats Tommy had received in his time.

---

And… frankly, a lot of things happened from there.

For one, they all got back to their respective kingdoms. Tommy couldn’t speak for the other two, but he was just about smothered by a worried Sam when he returned. Sam had gone as far as to meet him halfway between the Antarctic and the Badlands because he would not stand to be apart a second longer than they had already been forced to. And to make up for the special day that Tommy had missed, he’d gotten an entire week.

The alliance between the Badlands, the Roselands, and the Antarctic, though it existed before, was almost doubled in strength by the event. The meeting, to which the three princes were invited, lasted almost two weeks, during which the rulers worked to make their policies close to identical, open movement between their borders legally , and actually work to understand each other beyond the generic titles and reputations.

The princes got bored after the first day and just spent the rest of the two weeks bonding. Tommy showed them around his kingdom and, of course, told them the story about how he actually ended up here in all places. Conversation and sarcastic insults were accompanied with brand new things like hair ruffles and genuine compliments— without forgetting the chaos that thrived between them.

And not even a year after the kidnapping, King Phil and Queen Kristin married, merging their kingdom without becoming at all of an empirical threat to the Badlands, which steadily grew under the help of the two other, older kingdoms.

Techno and Wilbur become brothers, which was… a little unfair in Tommy’s opinion, not that he would ever admit to it. He wouldn’t want to change families or anything, his life with Sam was more than he could have ever asked for, but… in the trio—

“Oh, Tommy …” Wilbur sang tauntingly, breaking through Tommy’s concentration, and in turn, letting his quill hover in the air of the page.

He let out a sigh, smothering a smile as he pushed himself out of the chair. “What do you want bitch?” He called, of which Wilbur rolled his eyes and looked at Techno. “Bitches,” Tommy tacked on, as he didn’t want to be discriminatory or anything like that.

“We have something for you.” Techno was partially shifting on his feet. Tommy glanced questioningly up to Wilbur, who had the most feral grin that Tommy had ever seen.

“Well?” Tommy crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow.

Wilbur held out a scroll, one sealed officially with the joint crest of the Antarctic Empire. Tommy took the paper into his hands, unrolling it to see what was written inside.

By the King and Queen, a proclamation.

Whereas the events of these kingdoms have effectively sealed together the bond of not only the land but people and royals too, the Antarctic Empire proclaims that Prince Tommy Theseus Innet of the Badlands be made an honorary royal of the Antarctic Court and forever will be accepted into the palace as royal blood and nothing lesser.

May the world stand with us.

King Philza Craft and Queen Kristin Rosales Craft.

Tommy blinked and had to read it a second time to actually know what it was saying.

“You… made me an Antarctic royal?” Tommy was sure there was something more to this that he wasn’t catching on to, and from Wilbur’s giggle, he was.

“Toms,” Wilbur laughed. “We made you our little brother.”

And Tommy could have melted had the world allowed it.

Techno offered up the box in his hand, which held an Antarctic-style crown and jacket, which Tommy needed to have help putting on because of his shaking limbs and overwhelmed brain.

He hugged them tight, but he doubted they’d be going anywhere without him for a long while.

And— oh yeah, those fuckers that kidnapped them? They had three full armies on their doorstep the next morning.