Chapter Text
Tommy watches the sky turn orange as the sun starts to set, and then as the stars shine brighter as the moon gets higher as the sky turns a dark blue, a light breeze brushes against the feathers of his wings as he gets up from his seated position on the invisible platform. Anyone else would have been scared of falling off, but he never was; he knew by heart exactly where each invisible block was, if not from being there when Drista placed each one of the blocks right in front of his eyes with her creative power from being a god, then by the amount of time he spent up on the platform each day in the past years, watching the sky.
He would never admit it aloud, but he missed her and the chaos they used to create together.
Nowadays, the server is too calm for his liking, there is nothing happening anymore, but Tommy guesses that is what happens when a server gets abandoned.
It started with Technoblade and Philza, the two always leaving for their next adventure with no regard for who got left behind; Then it was Tubbo with Michael, ‘I want him to grow up in a place without having to fear for his life’ is what Tubbo told him during their goodbyes; Next it was George being followed by DreamXD, the latter having created a small server so his ‘human’ could explore.
It didn’t take long for more and more of the people to leave, some with plans to move to a new server that word had gotten around, some with excitement for the adventure ahead, and some with the hope to leave their past behind.
The next-to-last to leave was Sapnap, similar to Tommy, he had also lost everyone.
Dream, well, Dream had got what he had coming.
George had tried to take Sapnap with him when he left, but wasn’t successful, as Sapnap decided to stay for Karl.
Quackity had never talked to him again, leaving to search for Charlie with the help of Foolish, giving only Tommy the luxury of a farewell.
Karl had kept going missing for days on end, always returning weeks later looking more and more lost, until he disappeared and never came back.
Sapnap had waited three years for him before eventually getting restless of waiting and going away.
‘When he comes back’ Sapnap had said, eyes fixated on the horizon as the two of them stood near the portal, when not if, despite everything, Sapnap never gave up hope that Karl would return one day, ‘Let me know, I will come back to him, whatever it takes’.
‘I will keep an eye out for him’ Tommy had promised and watched as Sapnap saluted him before falling backwards against the portal.
For a long while Tommy wasn’t alone, Wilbur had stayed with him, even after the whole Dream situation and even after everyone had left, Wilbur stayed. Sure, he was a dick sometimes and even a bit mean unnecessarily, but he was his brother, and no matter how many wrongs he did, Tommy would always forgive him because he stayed by his side.
Until he didn’t.
It was way too early in the morning when Wilbur had shaken him awake, as Tommy had blinked his eyes open the first thing he had noticed was the backpack by Wilbur’s knees, the man kneeled by the side of his bed had laughed at his bed hair, gently patting his hair down.
“Are we going camping?” Tommy had asked, confused.
Wilbur shook his head lightly, his curly white streak hair falling over his eyes with the action “I got an invite from a friend” Wilbur had said, pushing his hair back, and Tommy immediately knew what was happening.
He had hugged Wilbur without even stopping to think about how they haven’t hugged since limbo, in any other circumstance it would have been a terrible idea, both men being averse to touch since resurrection, but as Wilbur’s arms circled his back, pulling him close, neither seemed to care.
“When do you leave?” Tommy had asked, his voice muffled by Wilbur’s coat.
“I was making my way to the portal, but I didn’t want to leave without telling you goodbye”
“I will miss you” Tommy had whispered, he didn't know if the other had heard him, but he felt the soft kiss on the top of his hair before Wilbur pulled away from the hug.
“See you soon, Tommy” Were Wilbur’s last words to him.
And it pained him how similar it was to when Wilbur had said the same words after Tommy had defeated Dream and gotten the disks back.
Sometimes while walking down the Prime path Tommy couldn’t shake the sensation that being alone felt all too familiar to his exile.
Except he wasn’t alone, not really, because on a snowy tundra a ghost with skin half white and half black resided, still taking care of Techno’s cabin and the mansion on Snowchester even though no one was ever coming back to live in either place, and in a nearby hotel a robot remained, never being able to stray too far away from his charger platform as his battery duration decayed over the years.
People still came back to the server to visit Tommy from time to time, which still managed to surprise him every time he saw someone step out of the portal.
Eret was the one that visited the most, Tommy wonders if it is because they still feel bad for their betrayal, he hopes it isn’t, he had forgiven Eret long ago.
Connor’s visits were the most chaotic, making them Tommy’s favorites. They would run around the server, joking around, having fun or chasing each other, mostly the last one, with Tommy threatening Connor with a stone sword over the American flags the man was placing around the server.
Puffy always brought amazing pastries when she came to visit, they would set a tablecloth on the grass by the water stream near Church Prime, and Puffy would tell him about her travels while he worked on making her a crown of the bluebells he had collected through their walk, he hoped that Puffy still remembered the flower’s symbolism speech he had given her during one of his attempts at doing anything but talking about his trauma during his therapy sessions.
Techno had visited once, near Tommy’s 21st birthday and around the same time when white wings sprung out of Tommy's back.
“Y'know Tommy, always late for everything” Wilbur had joked when Techno had talked about how wings normally would always show up between the ages of 13 and 16.
Tommy had tried to swing his fist against Wilbur, only to be stopped by Techno.
“Stop moving Theseus, you need to rest”
Tommy had groaned, but had promptly fallen asleep with the weight of Techno’s cape over him.
He didn’t know how long Techno had planned to stay during his visit, but he stayed long enough to care for Tommy during the three days it took for his wings to fully grow and long enough to push Tommy out the roof of the hotel, Tommy had screamed his heart out during the fall, but his wings had started to flap before he got too close to the ground, and if the smug look in Techno’s face once he flew up was anything to go by, that had been exactly his plan.
Techno had left the morning after that, no goodbyes or any last words being shared, only a gold chain earring that was strangely familiar being left on Tommy’s bedside table that wasn’t there the night before when Tommy went to bed.
The next time Eret visited, Tommy had asked them to pierce his ear, and since then he has proudly worn the earring Techno had gifted him, never taking it off.
When Tommy had gone to the snowy tundra to show off his wings, Ranboo was the one to suggest that Tommy should wear Phil’s clothes, explaining that it would be better since Phil’s shirts and robes were already made with open slits in the back for wings rather than Tommy having to cut the back of all his shirts, which, besides looking ugly, were never the right size and bothered Tommy.
Surprisingly, despite basically everything on the house have been taken on their travels, under that cursed photo of him that Phil kept hanged there was a single chest that seemed to have been left untouched. Inside it was a lot of Phil’s clothing and a pair of preening tools, the same ones that look like a bird’s beak, and that Tommy used to steal all the time to poke Wilbur when they were younger and still lived at Phil’s house.
He and Ranboo had spent the rest of the day on Techno’s cabin, both sitting by the fireplace while Tommy tried to preen his wings while Ranboo gave a fair amount of unhelpful advice, since the ghost had no real memory of seeing Phil doing it, but Tommy didn’t stop him, despite sending death glares at Ranboo every time he would laugh when Tommy squawked as he accidentally pulled a feather that wasn’t ready to come off, he really appreciated the company, and even though he knew they weren’t the same person, the ghost still maintained the same energy of the boy that once gave him an allium.
In spite of all the past, all the wars, all the fights, all the hurt, and all the problems that once upon a time didn’t let him sleep without waking up in screams, Tommy felt content, Tommy felt happy.
He smiled at another unhelpful piece of advice from Ranboo, and for once, he wasn’t scared to hope for it to last.
And that was okay.
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Miles away, at the bottom of the crater of what once had been the heart of L'Manburg, now nothing more than a giant crater turned into a pretty lake by the hands of the man who had helped at its destruction, a portal opened and a man lost in time fell through, one hand gripping at his purple hoodie and another gripping a book that read ‘The Threads of Fate’ on its cover.
Between gasps for breath, only one word manages to find its way out of his mouth.
“Tommy”