Chapter Text
!TW: Fighting, blood, mentions of Panic Attacks!
Technoblade stumbles back as a fist slams into his nose, the sickening crunch that follows and the taste of blood on his lips has him groaning in annoyance and he shifts quickly, slamming his foot into the guy in front of him, aiming for his chest and hitting his stomach instead. Techno smirks, wiping at his broken nose and then suddenly something slams into the back of his head and for a moment he sees stars dancing in his vision, his ears ring, his knees hit the old worn mats below him. He’s only able to get his sense of hearing back when his hair is suddenly grabbed and yanked harshly pulling him up from the ground, something hits his stomach and before he dissolves into a full-blown panic attack from being pinned the way he is, on the verge of passing out, he hears Phil scream his name.
!TW End!
Summary: Techno is fighting someone one on one when suddenly someone else hits him, he goes down and then he suddenly hears Phil scream his name. End Summary
“-and that one is the little dipper, see Tommy?” A 7-year-old Technoblade points to the collection of stars as he speaks, pointing out constellation after constellation, telling the stories of the more interesting ones as he goes, the stories do nothing to calm the very awake child.
“Daedalus was an inventor, a very very long time ago-”
“Before Sapnap was born?” A 4-year-old Tommy questions, looking up at the pink haired boy, Wilbur, much younger and much more talkative is half asleep against Techno’s shoulder, Tommy’s hand in curled into Wilbur’s black jacket the brown-haired boy had given him earlier on in the night.
“Long before Sapnap was born, before even Miss.Magie was born”
“Whoa” Tommy responds, innocent eyes full of wonder “What happened to Da-De-“
“Daedalus” Tommy nods and Techno continues speaking “Like I was saying Daedalus was an inventor, sculptor and an architect, which means he built all sorts of buildings and statues… Daedalus did all sorts of things, things you’re far to young to hear about really-”
Tommy sticks his tongue out “I’m a big man! I can hear all the stories!”
Techno huffs, simply ignoring the younger “Daedalus once helped a person named Theseus, I’ll tell you all about Theseus someday, anyway Daedalus helped Theseus and in doing so he angered a very powerful God named Minos. Minos locked Daedalus and his son Icarus in the very Labyrinth Daedalus had built-”
“So, it was really easy for him to get out right?” Tommy questions, fully enthralled in his big brother’s story.
“Well, they did get out with the help of Pasiphae, but they couldn’t leave the place where the Labyrinth was built because all of the boats were under the control of Minos, the one who wanted them dead. So, Daedalus came up with a plan, he fashioned wings out of wax and feathers so he and Icarus could fly away from the place and be free of Minos. The wings worked and together they flew away from the place where they were not wanted, but Icarus wanted more, he wanted to fly higher and so he did, higher and higher up into the sky. But the higher he got the closer to the sun he was, and the closer to the sun he was the more the heat warmed his wax wings, eventually Icarus flew too close to the sun and his wax wings melted, then he fell and fell, until he hit the sea and was lost forever.”
There’s a long pause and then Tommy says, in a small and unsure voice “Why… why didn’t Icarus’s dad catch him?”
!TW: Blood, fighting, beer, drinking, underage drinking!
Neon lights flash over groups of drunken men, broken beer bottles and cigarettes long forgotten on the floor, some still burning dully next to worn boots. A nameless man offers a 16-year-old boy a beer and no one bothers to bat an eyelash as the boy takes the cooled glass bottle into his shaky hands, drinking the liquid as though he’s been doing so for years. Somewhere in the back, sitting at a table counting cash, a young man in a green hoodie sits, thinking about the best new hiding spot for his pay when he gets home to his own drunken father. A waitress, a young girl just trying to get herself through college slips on a bit of spilt beer and huffs as the people around her laugh, handing a beer she dares not spill to a man who makes her skin crawl.
The shouting of the men watching the show rings in the ears of every passerby, the demons inside this place play freely. The seats in which these men sit surround a stage covered in old worn mats, once a bright blue now a dull grey where the blood stains have not yet taken over. The lopsided ring is surrounded with worn rope and poorly covered posts. The people surrounding this stage of agony, laugh, cheer, yell and scream as the announcer with the grin of a man with nothing left to lose encourages them. There is no ref here, no one keeping score, there is simply fists and skin.
In the middle of the ring a 16-year-old boy with red dyed hair huffs out a curse and wipes at his lips, glancing for a moment at the blood that covers his dirty and bruised fingers. Fighting for his wage isn’t ideal but when you have nowhere else to go you do what you can with what you have. The boy laughs, an unhappy hollow sound.
“You know, I didn’t expect you to be so hard to fight, I guess there's a reason everyone is cheering for you”
The opponent of the red-haired boy, a mere 14-year-old boy, lets a smirk slowly make its way onto his face “Well Dream did warn you, if you were smart you’d give up now, before I actually have to start hurting you”
The 16-year-old laughs again, balling his hands up into fists raising them with determination shining in his eyes “Not a chance”
“Alright then” the opponent cracks the knuckles on both of his hands, rolling his neck and humming at the satisfying pop that follows “Let's finish this”
In the end it's the 16-year-old who goes down, whose face matches his red hair, it’s him whose dragged out of the ring passed out and it’s Technoblade who walks away with the prize money.
!TW End!
Summary: A brief description of how horrible the Nether is and then Techno, age 14 fights a 16 year old and wins. End Summary
“Wilbur come here, look”
A 4-year-old Wilbur runs over to his mother, smile bright as the woman lifts him into her arms, setting the child down in her lap.
“Watch” Wilbur’s mother, with brown curls to match his own and bright green eyes, so much like Tommy and Phil’s- too much like Phil’s- even in Wilbur’s memory’s she’s blurry, blurry like the night she died.
His mother lays her fingers gently over the keys of the old baby grand piano in their living room, the nicest thing they own, his father would yell, smashing a beer bottle against the leg of the instrument, the guitar is locked away for those nights where he doesn’t come home.
“You are my sunshine” Wilbur’s smile only grows as his mother begins to sing “My only sunshine-”
“you make me happy!” Wilbur joins in giggling as his mother kisses his cheek “When skies are grey”
Suddenly his mother looks a bit sad, a bit more serious, but she continues to sing, and Wilbur ignores it in order to hum along “You’ll never know dear, how much I love you... Please don’t take my sunshine away… I’ll always love you and make you happy if you will only say the same. But if you leave me and love another, you’ll regret it all someday…”
Tommy Soot has never cried, he didn’t cry when he was a baby, according to his brothers he screamed a whole bunch though. Tommy didn’t cry the first time an adult hit him, he hit back and although the bruises might have been a reason to regret it he never did. Tommy didn’t cry when Sapnap left him in the care of Wilbur and Techno, unable to continue looking after him. Tommy didn’t cry the first time Wilbur went silent after months of being taken care of by the brunette. Tommy did not cry the first time he was split up from Techno and Wilbur and he did not cry when he saw them again. He didn’t cry as he watched his brothers be hurt and he did not cry when he was the one hurt, he did not cry when they were at that foster house and did not cry when they ran. He did not cry when he lost fights or when the nights were so cold, he was sure they would die. Tommy Soot did not cry when he was taken from Phil’s home only to be put back in that house and he did not cry when he was saved and taken to Puffy’s.
But the morning of May 12th, when Tommy wakes up from a particularly horrible nightmare, half expecting to be back there and half expecting to be at Puffy’s and instead finds himself in a warm bed with two other people latched onto him, he cries. Tommy does not sob, he doesn’t make a single sound, but red-hot tears fall from his eyes, down his face and then they drop onto the pillow under his head, next to his brother’s head’s. His brothers who are next to him, holding him like he might disappear if they let go, his brothers who are alive and well. They’re at Phil’s… in a way it all seems like a horrible nightmare, like he was stuck in an unreal hell and now he’s been freed. In a way it all doesn’t seem real at all.
!TW Past Child Abuse and self sacrifice, being hungry and cold, brief thoughts of death, crying!
The first time an adult hit him it was only a smack, Tommy had been in shock, he hadn’t understood why, why- why- he cried himself to sleep that night, silent tears rolling down his cheeks, it was easy to hide them from Sapnap the next morning, all it took was the flip of his pillow.
Sapnap leaves, giving Tommy his best red bandana as he goes, Tommy doesn’t remember much about the goodbye, just remembers running as fast as he could after the car that took his big brother in all ways but blood away, remembers Wilbur and Techno dragging him back to the orphanage after, remembers silent tears rolling down his cheeks, remembers not having to hide them in the morning with Wilbur and Techno too caught up in their own upset to notice.
Wilbur goes silent and Tommy is sure it's his fault somehow, Technoblade tells him it’s not, Wilbur signs that it isn’t. Tommy is just starting to learn sign; he didn’t really understand why he had to before but now it’s the only way Wilbur communicates if he communicates at all. Tommy is eager to learn, eager to do whatever it takes to make his older brothers happy; he knows crying in front of them will only make Wilbur feel bad so he doesn’t.
Wilbur is yelling, Techno is holding him, and then suddenly he’s in the backseat of an orange car, looking out the back window as his brothers fade into the distance. The couple that ends up taking him in are a good sort of people, Tommy likes them. They play games and make good food and they dance and sing, and a part of Tommy so desperately wants to stay here forever, under the safety of this roof, but a bigger part of Tommy wants his brothers. He cries the night they ask to adopt him.
Tommy finds it’s easier to focus on what’s best for his brothers, it isn’t fair of him to cry if they’re the ones in pain, no matter how afraid he might be, no matter if he’s hurt too, they’re always hurt worse. That house- the one that Tommy can’t even bring himself to think of now- it was worse for his brothers. They’ve always protected him no matter what that meant, so why shouldn’t Tommy do the same? They run and why should Tommy cry when the nights are cold, his brothers gave him most of the blanket to keep him warm. And why should Tommy cry when he’s hungry when his brothers gave him the most to eat? Why should Tommy cry when he loses a fight when his brothers were forced into the ring with him. He’s not the only one in pain so why should he cry when they deserve to?
Tommy much prefers the cold streets, where his brothers are right next to him, to the overly warm house where he is alone. He counts the cracks in the walls and the stains on the floor, but even the sounds of the TV blaring in the living room or the other children here fighting do not make him feel any less alone, any less afraid. Tears are nothing more than a weakness in a place like this.
He cries in Puffy’s arms the day he’s rescued, he can’t help it and his brothers aren’t here to worry over him, it’s just him and a woman who whispers stories of pirates. Puffy is nice and Tommy thinks if it wasn’t for Phil and his brothers, he might have been able to be safe with her, he’d rather have his brothers and Phil though.
!TW End!
Summary: Tommy flashes back to the times he cried but hid it from his brothers like the first time an adult hit him, a time a family wanted to adopt him but he didn't want to leave his brothers behind, when they were homeless and when he was at his last foster house. End Summary
Tommy sniffles softly, thankful when it doesn’t wake up his brothers and surprised when the scent of pancakes and bacon fills his senses. It’s just like their first night with Phil, waking up to a huge breakfast, except this time Tommy is the first one awake instead of Wilbur, except this time Tommy is hurt worse than Wilbur. Tommy shuffles a bit, hissing softly as he’s reminded of the many bruises all over his body, as he’s reminded of his very broken arm. He almost laughs, this is just like their first night with Phil, all bruised up and broken, in need of food and painkillers and a warm shower, maybe Phil will help him find something to wrap his arm with so he can take a shower.
Tommy glances around the room as he’s finally able to get out from under his brother's arms and sit up on the bed. It’s mostly how he remembers it, if not a bit cleaner. Most of their new clothes and things that they got during Christmas and before seem to be in here, well it actually looks like most of his stuff is in here. But Tommy remembers Phil saying something about having to rearrange things, give them each a bed in order to get them back from CPS, Tommy doubts they’ll be using the other beds anytime soon, his brothers are clingy.
Tommy stumbles his way out of the bedroom, yawning softly as he goes, first to the bathroom, avoiding looking in the mirror other than to splash his face with some water to cover up the tear tracks and red eyes. Then Tommy makes his way downstairs, taking slow steps, eyes trailing over the pictures that line the walls here, of the people he now recognizes. Phil is in a few of them, but most are of other people, Phil's mother Kaitlyn, his father, his stepfather Eric, there are newer pictures too, of Tommy and his brothers. There were only two when Tommy left but now there's 4, Tommy smiles as he traces his good hand over the frame that holds the picture of Wilbur playing his new guitar on Christmas morning.
Once downstairs Tommy ignores the living room and front door, heading left to where the kitchen sits, where he knows Phil is and then he pauses in the doorway, simply watching Phil for a moment. The man, his foster father now (the man he considered his dad before they were taken) is cooking and dancing around the kitchen, humming a melody Tommy doesn’t recognize. Phil is fully dressed for the day which Tommy finds odd considering the fact that Phil isn’t really a morning person, but when Tommy glances up at the clock and finds it to be past noon, he guesses it makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the piles of breakfast foods Phil is making at well past noon, or how it doesn’t seem like any of the food is burned.
Phil turns suddenly, looking at Tommy he motions to a stack of chocolate chip pancakes “hey kiddo, you hungry?”
He questions and Tommy smiles, nodding and for some reason Phil’s smile, real and kind just like that first night they met, serves as a reminder to Tommy that eventually everything will be okay.