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Phil paced the room.
He’d had the news on for a while earlier, but after a certain point it just made him more anxious.
He hated it when his sons went out to cause chaos.
He was always so worried they were going to get hurt.
Or caught.
He didn’t know what he’d do if they caught.
Phil sat down on the couch with a sigh.
He didn’t think he could stand it if they were caught.
He’d break them out, of course.
But it was still not something he ever wanted to happen.
It would be hard to break them out.
Well, that and the rest of the world still thought Phil was dead.
That too.
After his sons had ‘kidnapped’ him, seven months ago, the rest of the world had assumed he was dead.
Which, while helpful, was sort of hurtful.
They hadn’t even waited a day to declare him dead, from what Wil had told him a week or so after they’d taken Phil.
Which, at the time, had hurt to hear, but not for the reasons it did now.
He’d been devastated to realize they weren’t looking for him.
Phil couldn’t help but chuckle, thinking of just how angry and uncooperative he’d been, for the first few months.
It had been stupid.
Of course the boys had taken him, how else were they supposed to get him away from the heroes?
And of course he was their dad, for all that he’d denied it at the beginning.
Phil glanced at the clock, his thoughts straying back to the boys.
He really hoped they were okay.
He knew they were, but his instincts absolutely hated them being out of his sight, when he knew they would be in danger.
(He’d been playing around with the idea of going out with them, maybe being a villain, but he wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to do it.)
(Yet.)
He stood, turning to go upstairs.
He might as well get the nest ready for when they got home.
He hummed as he walked, mind already wandering to just what blankets he’d put in today.
He pushed open the door to his room.
It was more personal now, books he’d bought and the boys had gotten him filling the bookshelf, the desk covered in drawing supplies, something he’d started doing out of boredom, but had quickly discovered he loved.
The room was still painted the same dark green as his hero costume had been, something that Phil couldn’t help but smile at every time he entered his room.
Apparently, there had been a two day argument between Wil and Tommy over what color they should paint the room, Wil arguing for the green and Tommy arguing for a deep purple.
Phil would’ve liked either color, but he thought that it was sweet, how much the boys had cared about making everything perfect.
Well, how much Tommy and Wil had cared. Techno had avoided all of it, not expecting it to work out.
Phil didn’t blame him, of course.
And Techno knew that Phil wouldn’t leave now, anyway.
It had worked out perfectly, their little family.
Phil smiled to himself, before turning to the nest.
A bit after he’d started to realize that yes, they were his sons, his instincts had started yelling at him about a nest.
He’d never had one before.
There was no reason, without a flock to share it with.
But with the boys, his instincts had decided he just had to have one.
Which he agreed with.
It made it so much easier to keep an eye on them if they were all in the nest.
And it also soothed him, after they went out on missions.
Having them all close by, safe.
The nest itself was tucked into a corner of his room, away from the window so that he could keep it pleasantly dim.
Tech had bought him some matrasses, which Phil had laid against the wall, before piling pillows and blankets on them, making sure that the entire thing was extremely soft and cozy. He’d also shoved foam pillows around the edge of it, giving it a barrier along the boundaries of it.
The boys, especially Wil, had thought it was a bit funny, before Phil had dragged them all into it.
Tommy had been annoyed, Wilbur amused, and Technoblade resigned.
(After a while, they all agreed that it was nice, actually, being in the nest, Phil fussing over them, being their Dad like they wanted.)
(Not that he’d admitted it aloud for two more weeks after that.)
Phil grabbed a few of the blankets, his brain itching at him that they needed to be replaced.
He took them out of his room, throwing them in the laundry.
He stood there for a moment.
And then went into each of his sons’ rooms, taking one of their blankets.
He hummed as he put them into the nest, settling them just where he wanted.
The boys knew that he did this, knew that it was nice for his instincts, having something of theirs in the nest.
Phil heard the door open.
They were back!
He jumped up, quickly heading downstairs, where his sons were-
Techno stood in the doorway, turned away from Phil, Tommy beside him, and-
Wilbur leaned against the wall, clutching his side.
He was hurt.
He was hurt-!
Phil rushed forward, his wings fluttering in agitation.
“Wil! Are you okay, what happened-“
Wil waved him off, with the hand not held to his side.
“I’m fine Dad, you don’t need to worry-“
Tommy scowled at his brother, the look mirrored on Techno’s face with a frown.
“You’re not fine! Sapnip, or whatever the fuck his name is, threw you off a bridge!” Tommy said, worry and anger twining through his voice.
Phil’s wings puffed out, and he was extremely tempted to go out and kill whoever had dared hurt his son-
But Wil was hurt, and he needed him.
“Mate, we need to treat that.” He said, gesturing to Wil’s side.
Wilbur sighed.
“Fine.”
Phil took his son’s hand, and led him over to the room they kept ready for situations like this.
Ostensibly, it was a guest bedroom.
In reality, there was quite a lot of medical gear hidden around the room, an informal infirmary for the boys.
Wil sat down on the bed, as Phil busied himself with grabbing some pain meds and bandages.
Wilbur wasn’t bleeding, so Phil was assuming he had bruising, probably some broken ribs.
It was times like this where Phil was so, so glad that having superpowers made people more resilient than nonpowered people.
He couldn’t bear to think of how hurt Wil would be if he didn’t have powers.
When he turned back, Tommy was sitting on the bed next to his brother, leaning lightly against him, enough to provide comfort but careful not to hurt him.
Techno was leaning against the doorframe, a blank look on his face.
He hated it when one of his brothers was hurt.
He tended to shut down, until he knew they had gotten treatment.
Phil looked back to Wilbur.
“Okay mate, got you some bandages.”
Wil nodded, before pulling off his shirt, shoving Tommy away to do it.
Phil quickly wrapped Wilbur’s ribs, setting the pain meds down on the nightstand.
It was easy to see the multicolored bruising staining his son’s side as he wrapped the bandages around his torso.
Phil really, really wanted to go hunt down the hero who hurt his son.
He was pretty sure he could get away with killing the guy without anyone even knowing Phil was alive.
He taped the bandages in place, and Wilbur smiled at him before tugging his shirt back on, careful not to jostle his ribs.
Phil shook his head slightly.
He didn’t have time to hunt down some hero right now.
Techno walked forward, a frown on his face.
“Be more careful.”
Wil rolled his eyes.
“You know that there wasn’t really anything I could do.”
“Still.” Techno said stubbornly.
Wil smiled at his brother.
“I’ll be more careful, Tech.”
Techno nodded.
Phil smiled.
Techno had almost the exact same conversation with Wil and Tommy every time one of them was injured, a ‘be more careful’ and a promise to do it.
It was sweet, even if it wasn’t exactly a promise any of them could keep, what with being supervillains.
Nothing about their missions were careful.
“That’s good, cause like, you know that you really shouldn’t be trying to do stuff like that without us-“ Tommy chimed in, rambling.
Wilbur laughed, ruffling Tommy’s hair.
“I know, Toms. I won’t.”
That was a promise Phil was pretty sure he was actually going to keep.
He wondered what exactly it was Wilbur had tried to do, but he didn’t ask.
Better for his heart if he didn’t know.
(Not until he’d joined them.)
(If he ended up doing that.)
Techno grabbed the pain meds that Phil had set down, holding them out to Wilbur.
Wil took them, opening the bottle and swallowing two of the pills.
“Thanks, Tech.”
Phil crooned, drawing the boys’ attention to him.
Wil rolled his eyes at Phil.
“You really don’t need to-“ He started to say, fondness in his voice.
“That’s where you’re wrong! We defintely all need to go to the nest, especially since you’re hurt, Wil.” Phil said, pouring all of his worry into the last few words.
Wil slumped, knowing that he had worried Phil enough that he wasn’t getting out of it.
Not that he’d been trying all that hard to in the first place.
Tommy stood up, turning back to offer Wil a hand up.
Wilbur took it, sighing.
“Fine, it’s nice anyway.”
Tommy beamed.
“Also, you love it when Dad fusses over you.”
Wil glared at his brother, almost no heat behind it.
Techno reached out, taking Wil’s other hand.
He pulled his brothers out of the room, Phil a moment behind.
It only took a few minutes for them all to be settled in the nest.
Wil was lying with his head in Phil’s lap, Phil running his hand over his son’s hair, leaning against the wall.
Wil was already half asleep, the pain meds kicking in.
Tommy was curled against Phil’s side, his legs tangled in one of the blankets, humming lightly under his breath as he snuggled into Phil.
Techno was sitting on Phil’s other side, his legs pressed trapped under Wilbur’s body.
He didn’t seem to mind, looking at his brother fondly.
Phil shifted his wings, draping them over his sons.
He would fuss over them tomorrow, ranting about how they needed to be more careful, about how he was worried, about he hated when they left the house, left him-
But for now, he just smiled, relishing in being with his sons.