Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tigry hadn’t expected much from his weekly errand run.

It was simple enough, really. Just go shopping, pick up whatever they needed, and be home by the time Willow finished her classes. Easy enough.

At least, it would’ve been if his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.

That had to be what was happening, right?

Why else would a teenager who was nearly identical to his best friend have been sprinting out of the store?

Willow had a younger brother. He knew that much. He also knew that her brother was long gone, since the last time Willow had seen him had been when the boy was about 9, and there was practically no way he’d have survived on his own. Especially not after the infection.

But there was just no other explanation for what he’d seen. The resemblance was uncanny. Same fur, same wide eyes, even down to the anxious look the boy had had. There was no way it wasn’t her brother. How had he even survived? It’d been years.

Tigry shook his head to clear it. He could dwell on the technicalities later. In the moment, though, he figured he should try to help the kid out, regardless of if he was Willow’s brother or not. He’d been in the same situation many a time, trying to survive on his own without getting caught. He knew what it was like. The least he could do was give the boy a hand, right? Then he’d go home, tell Willow, and come back with her tomorrow. Yeah. That’d work.

Without thinking, he left the half-full cart of groceries near his (second-hand) car, snatching a random item before running after the kid, doing his best to catch up and hoping he didn’t look like a cop or a security guard. The last thing he wanted to do was scare him off.

The boy had gone behind the store, stopping in the alleyway between it and another building. It was less than ideal, and a bit far from the front of the store and its parking lot, but Tigry managed to make it work, catching up to the kid within a few minutes.

“Wait!” he called out, stopping to catch his breath. The boy had jumped, his head snapping around to see who was behind him. He was still a ways in front of Tigry, but they were close enough that they could somewhat communicate. 

“..Do I… know you..?” The boy’s voice was quiet and shaky, only adding to the general air of anxiety he had. His arms were trembling, the few things he’d snagged from the store looking dangerously close to slipping from his grasp.

“No,” Tigry began. “But I know you.”

The boy took a step back, clearly scared, but Tigry only took another step forward.

“Look, kid, I’m not a cop or anything, I promise. I just.. I’ve been in your shoes before.” Tigry paused, unsure of if he should namedrop Willow just yet. Deciding against it, he continued on. “Just.. here. Take this.” Stepping closer, he handed the boy a bottle of water. “It’s not much, but you look like you could use it.”

“...Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ll be back tomorrow with some better stuff, ‘cause I dunno how long the stuff you got’ll last you. Sound good?”

The boy nodded, looking up at Tigry with wide eyes that felt incredibly familiar. “Thank you. A-again.”

“Again, don’t mention it. Like I said, I’ve been in your shoes before.” Tigry turned to leave, an idea hitting him just as he did. “And it’s William, right?” he asked, casting a glance at the boy over his shoulder, hoping that he was right. It just had to be him.

“I— how did you know that?” The boy’s apprehensiveness had seemingly returned, his ears pinned back to his head, his voice tinged with suspicion and worry.

Tigry let out a small sigh of relief, his shoulders dropping. It was him. He’d been right. “I told you, I know you. I’ll be back tomorrow, ‘kay? Things’ll make more sense then.”

“...Are you sure you’re not a cop?”

“Couldn’t be further from one, kid. Just get some rest, it’s getting late, and you look like you’ve been through a lot. I promise this’ll make so much more sense tomorrow.”

“...Alright..”

With that, Tigry turned around, starting the long-ish walk back to the parking lot, silently hoping nobody had stolen anything out of his cart. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking his notifications and realizing he’d missed a few messages from Willow. He tapped on them, opening their conversation.

wlolwo 🥺💥: you done??

wlolwo 🥺💥: i just got home

wlolwo 🥺💥: what’s taking so longgggg hurry it uppppppppp

wlolwo 🥺💥: hellooooooo you there???

wlolwo 🥺💥: check your goddamn phone you whore

tigry </3: relax bitch jfc

tigry </3: god

wlolwo 🥺💥: finally

tigry </3: im omw home alr

wlolwo 🥺💥: what took you so long

tigry </3: ill tell you once im home

wlolwo 🥺💥: booooooo tomato tomato 🍅🍅

tigry </3: i have a VERY good reason ok 😤

tigry </3: its just best if i tell you in person

wlolwo 🥺💥: fiiiiiiiiine

wlolwo 🥺💥: just hurry up

tigry </3: i willlllll i promise

Tigry shoved his phone back into his pocket, having reached his car, and he hastily packed the groceries into the trunk, wanting to get the menial task over with, before quickly running his cart back to where it belonged. By the time he sat down in the driver’s seat, it was like his mind was so preoccupied with the familiar tasks he’d done that it’d pushed his interaction with William to the back. He took a moment to remember everything, replaying it all in his head and planning out what he’d say to Willow, how he’d explain this. Because he had to tell her. There wasn’t a universe in which he wouldn’t.

He just hoped she’d believe him. Enough to come with him tomorrow and see for herself, at least.

He stuck the car key into the ignition, turning the car on. The clock on the radio’s tiny screen (if it could even be called a screen) read 7:23pm. It was late, later than he’d normally be done with his errands. Putting the car into reverse, he carefully backed out of the parking space, finally actually going home for the day.

She’d believe him. Wouldn’t she?

He knew it was a far-fetched claim to make, that he’d seen and talked to her brother, who’d been assumed dead for years. He knew she’d look at him weird. But she had to know, regardless of if she believed him or not.

He spent the entire ride home practicing what he’d say to her.

Chapter Text

“So uh.. about me coming home late… Can I tell you something?”

Tigry had gotten home about a half hour ago, and he seemed… off. At least, he seemed that way to Willow. Something had happened. He looked nervous, and everything from the way he moved his hands to the way he constantly glanced around the room, avoiding her gaze, all of it made him seem incredibly anxious. That plus the fact that he hadn’t told her what’d happened or even offered to until then gave her good reason to worry a little, at the very least.

“Go on,” she prompted, glancing up at him. 

The two of them were in his room, as they so often ended up. Tigry was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and Willow was on the ground next to the bed, alternating between mindlessly scrolling and texting Benji. Tigry sat up, fixing himself so he was sitting criss-cross on top of his bed, and he finally met Willow’s eyes. She couldn’t read his expression, though. The only thing she was able to glean was that he was incredibly nervous about whatever he had to say.

“This is gonna make me sound kinda insane so uh, just promise me that you’ll believe me on this one?” he asked, fidgeting with the rubber band around his wrist.

“O..kay…? Sure, why the hell not,” she muttered in reply, slightly concerned but all the more curious.

Tigry took a deep breath, seemingly trying to keep his composure before speaking. “I think– I think your brother’s alive.”

Willow just stared back at him, unable to process what he’d said. “What?” she asked, laughing somewhat nervously. “You– you can’t be serious.”

“I’m serious! I saw him earlier, it had to be him.”

“There’s no fucking way, Tigry. He’s dead. You and I both know this.”

“Willow, I’m telling you, I was walking out of the store and I saw this kid, he didn’t even look like he was 18 yet, and I swear to god he looked just like you.”

“Tigry, some random teenager is not my brother. Have you lost your mind?”

“He had your eyes, Willow. He looked at me the same way you’re looking at me now. You two are nearly identical,” he insisted. He wasn’t backing down.

“Are- are you high? Did you try drinking for the first time or something? What the fuck are you on?”

“I’m not on anything. I’m telling you, I saw your brother. He reminded me so much of you, it’s almost uncanny. I talked to him, y'know. Gave him a bottle of water, said I’d be back tomorrow. He even said his name was William.”

“That– that doesn’t mean anything, William’s a common name!”

“Just come with me tomorrow. Please. I promise you it’s worth it. It was him. Swear on my life.”

Willow just looked down at her lap, phone still clutched in her hand, its screen now dark and only lighting up occasionally with a message from Benji. She didn’t know what to say. How could he be alive? How could William, her baby brother who ran away when he was nine years old, have survived eight years on his own? How could he have survived the infection, if he even made it that long? There was just no way.

“Don’t– don’t do that,” she mumbled, her voice thick with emotion. “Don’t give me hope.”

Tigry looked at her with concern, noticing the way her eyes welled up with tears that she was desperately trying to hold back. Taking a shaky breath, she continued on.

“He’s gone. I- I came to terms with that a long time ago now, Tigry. I’ve made peace with that fact. Don’t give me false hope. I can’t– I can’t handle that again.”

“Shit, I– I’m sorry,” Tigry said, keeping his voice quiet and gentle. “Shoulda known this would be a sensitive subject.”

“No, no, it’s okay, y-you’re good,” she replied, brushing off his concerns despite the shakiness in her voice and the tears she was trying to stop from running down her face.

“How about we… watch a movie?” he offered. “It’s a bit early, but we could just watch two or finish a show after if you wanna.”

“Y-yeah, that’d be nice..”

“But you’re still coming with me tomorrow. Just to be sure. You would know better than anyone if it was him or not. Okay?”

Reluctantly, Willow nodded. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, really. But she trusted Tigry, trusted his word, trusted his judgement. And, she noted, she’d never gotten actual, real, solid confirmation that William was dead. She’d just assumed he was because, really, how would a nine year old boy survive on his own like that? But maybe he had survived.

Maybe there was reason to have hope.

~~~

Willow sat in the passenger seat of the run-down, somehow-still-working car Tigry had bought a while back, around the time they’d moved in together. She kept her eyes either on her phone or out the window, trying to avoid another minor breakdown. She was letting Tigry do his thing, since he was the one who knew where to go. Neither of them were speaking, both too anxious to talk to each other. She felt nauseous, her head practically spinning, and the tears constantly threatening to spill over at the slightest inconvenience weren’t helping. She could hardly trust herself to say anything without tearing up. So silence it was.

The car came to an abrupt stop on the side of the road, Tigry having pulled over and quickly parked in the nearest spot he could find. They’d parked right next to an alleyway between two buildings, separating one store from a strip of others. It reminded Willow of somewhere she had tried to find shelter when she was younger, probably not much older than William would be if he was alive. Probably not much older than he was right then, if it was him.

“You ready to go?”

Willow didn’t respond, her mind still going a mile a minute.

“..Willow?”

“What happens if it is him?” she questioned, speaking for the first time in a good twenty or so minutes. “Do we- do we take him back home with us? How are we s’posed to parent a teenager? Are we supposed to parent him? How are we gonna take care of a kid?” The questions weighing on her mind came tumbling out, and she could feel the lump in her throat growing with every sentence she spoke. She was falling apart at the seams, and she could feel it.

“We’ll.. we’ll figure that stuff out. Right now, we just need to make sure it’s him, and if it is, which I’m like 99 percent sure about, we’ll take him home with us. We’ll figure the rest out when we get to it,” Tigry told her, trying his best to reassure her while also assuring himself. “Now, are you ready to go?”

Hesitantly, she nodded, and with that, the two of them got out of the car, Willow slamming the car door shut behind her. She stumbled as she took a step forward, almost tripping and falling on her face, but she kept going anyway, forcing herself to keep moving. Tigry moved closer to her, quickly locking the car before taking her hand and leading her into the alleyway. He knocked on one of the buildings, attempting to get… someone’s attention.

“Hey kid? I, uh, I’m back. And I brought a visitor. Hope that’s okay.”

No response. He tried again.

“It’s uh, it’s the guy from yesterday. Y’know, the tiger who gave you the water bottle? And knew your name?”

At that, a head poked itself out from behind something that looked like a generator, a good twenty or so feet in front of them. The small figure seemed to stand up, as its head moved, and it stepped out from behind the generator, standing directly in front of both Willow and Tigry, staring them down.

And Willow found herself looking into eyes that mirrored her own. Eyes she’d looked into more times than she could count. Eyes she didn’t think she’d ever look into again.

“Willow…?” That voice. The very same voice she’d heard time and time again when she was younger, when they were younger.

It was him.

“Oh my god…”

It was him. Tigry had been right. Holy fucking shit. She didn’t know what to say, didn’t trust herself to move without her legs giving out from under her.

She didn’t have to move though, as before she could even begin to process everything, she found herself being tackle-hugged by her younger brother. He was just about tall enough to bury his face into her shoulder, and she could feel it when sobs started to rack his body.

“I’m so sorry,” he managed through the tears, his voice muffled from the way he’d buried his head into the crook of her neck. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“No no no, don’t be sorry, it’s okay,” she reassured him, wrapping her arms around him and rubbing his back. “You have nothing to be sorry about, okay?”

“But– but I do,” he insisted, his voice still choked up. “I- I left you alone, a-and you probably thought I was dead, and—"

“William. Look at me.” Willow pulled away from the hug, letting her brother stand upright before putting her hands on his shoulders. “There is absolutely nothing you need to apologize for. Okay? You were nine. You were a baby. There is no way in hell I could possibly ever blame you for anything that happened then, even the shi– stuff you pulled. Okay? What matters most to me is that you’re alive.”

He just nodded in response, and she pulled him back in, trying her best to hold back her own tears as she felt his start to soak through the fabric of her hoodie. She held him tight, not wanting to let go, not wanting to risk him slipping through her fingers if she even dared to let go of him for even a second.

After a good few minutes, William pulled away from his sister, wiping the tears from his face and brushing himself off. “So.. is that how you knew my name?” he asked, turning to Tigry. “‘Cause you’re friends with my sister?”

“Mhm, it is, yeah. That’s why I even talked to you in the first place. You look just like her,” Tigry replied.

“I do?”

“I mean, it’s not exact, but you definitely look related to me,” Willow mentioned, ruffling her brother’s hair. “I can see the resemblance.”

He turned to face Tigry again, looking up at him. “So.. are you just friends with her, or are you two like, dating or something?”

The response from both Willow and Tigry was immediate, both of them immediately bursting into laughter.

“Kid, I’m gay. And taken. I would never even consider—”

“Shut up! I’d never date you either, even if I was straight!” Tigry punched Willow on the arm, which she returned, the two of them still laughing to themselves. 

“So you two are, like, best friends?” William questioned.

“Basically yeah.”

“The fuck you mean ‘basically’? Bitch, we share an apartment. We live together. We’re best friends.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, technicalities.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you too.”

William cleared his throat, drawing both of their attention back to him and breaking up their playful bickering.

“Shit, sorry kid.” Tigry was quick to apologize, though he seemed more sorry for half-forgetting William’s presence rather than his ‘fight’ with Willow.

“I’m not sorry. You’ll have to get used to this if you’re gonna be living with us, y’know,” Willow mentioned.

“So I am gonna be living with you guys!” William’s face lit up, his smile matching his sister’s.

“‘Course you are. You’ve been on your own for long enough.”

“Yeah, there’s some stuff in the car for you, plus we’ll take you shopping for new clothes soon, and we’ll probably get you a phone, too,” Tigry added. “Is that okay?”

William nodded eagerly, a grin splitting his face.

“Alright then, I think we should get back to the car. Y’know, take you back home and everything. We don’t have to go shopping today if you don’t want to, you can just take today to get settled in, ‘kay?”

“Mhm, yeah, sure.” William had only half paid attention to Tigry’s words. His focus had instead been shifted to his sister, who he turned to with a mischievous looking grin. He had an idea. “So, Willow, you said something about being ‘taken’?”

Willow, who had been walking alongside her brother and Tigry, immediately froze up, stopping dead in her tracks, feeling her face grow warm. “That’s none of your business, kid,” she shot back, starting to pick up the pace as she walked.

“But come onnnnnnnn, I wanna know more! I’m your family, am I not allowed to know the details of your personal life?” he protested, intentionally playing up the whininess in his tone, doing his best to annoy his sister like he used to once upon a time.

Willow found herself rolling her eyes, but she couldn’t help the small smile that’d crept onto her face. He was catching up on being her annoying little brother, she thought, and she couldn’t have been happier about it. She’d take him being like this over him being gone any day.