Chapter Text
The weirdest day of Tommy’s life was a rainy one, the sky was a miserable grey and had let out a single crack of thunder before it began to pour. He stuck close to the wall, keeping under the shop overhangs as he hurried down the packed streets. The rain had matted his hair flat against his skull and he knew that chill settled in his bones was here to stay. The warmth of the bakery was a welcome relief as he ducked inside, trying to dry his worn sneakers on the mat before heading towards the till. He waited a bit to one side until all the paying customers had finished before walking up, Niki was thankfully at the till so he felt less awkward approaching. She glanced up when he got close and gave him a bright smile.
“Hey honey, enjoying the weather?” she asked, eyeing his soaked form in mild amusement, “I’ll go take a look in the back go take a seat”
Tommy gave her a quiet thanks and headed to a table in the corner, awkwardly folding his tawny wings over the chair and grimacing when the wet feathers clumped together. He tried to relax but he was soaked through and the way his clothes stuck to his skin was uncomfortable. The coffee shop smelt like warm bread and roasted coffee and he had come to be a comfort to him.
He had found Rosewood two weeks after he got kicked out, he had been starving and miserable and had huddled in the alley behind the shop, hoping they threw some bread or something out that he could eat. Instead the owner had come out and seen him, she gave him a gentle smile and invited him inside, giving him a cup of tea and some slightly burnt biscuits. He wasn't too proud to admit he had cried right there and then, a crumbled biscuit clutched in his hand. After that she had told him to come back whenever and she would give him what she could, and even if she had nothing she’d let him do a job or two to “earn” a sandwich and a tea. It wasn't a lot but it meant the world to Tommy and it's what had kept him alive over the last couple of months.
Niki came over to his table after a few minutes, she had a steaming cup and a plate of muffins that smelt like heaven but all looked weirdly deformed. He took the cup into his freezing hands, giving her a timid smile and immediately going to shove one of the muffins in his mouth with a groan of happiness.
“When you’re done eating there's a bunch of boxes I need broken down and thrown out back if you're up to it, I can make you a sandwich in exchange or save it as an I owe you” she added before heading back to the till to help the line of customers.
Tommy nodded even though she had already left and dug back into his muffins, he tried to savour them but the warm lemony bread felt like heaven in his mouth and he couldn't resist scarfing the first two down.
He glanced around the shop as he ate, watching a mother fussily wipe icing off of her young son's face as he tried futilely to rip himself out of her grip. His heart ached at the sight but he shoved it down and looked away. There were a few college students typing away on computers and a scruffy man in dark clothes shoved into a corner booth. They made eye contact but the man looked away quickly so Tommy went back to his tea.
Once he finished he headed back to the counter returning the dishes and Niki directed him to the back room where he flattened the stack of boxes down and swept up all the packing peanuts before taking all of them out into the alley. He shoved the stack of boxes into the recycling bin and threw the packing peanuts in the garbage, he shivered from the drizzle of rain that ran down his back and turned back to the door.
Just as he grabbed the handle he felt a hand grip over his mouth shoving him back into a chest, his wings beat out but the movement had them crushed awkwardly against his assailants chest and the height difference made it difficult for him to do anything but kick out and wiggle. He tried to look over his shoulder but he was shoved forward away from the bakery and out of the alley. Screaming proved useless as he was dragged down the sidewalk, which had apparently cleared of people with the increasing harshness of the storm because fuck his life. The man continued another few yards before ducking into another alley and shoving Tommy into the back door of a building.
He felt like his heart was about to beat out of his chest and he couldn’t help the sharp chirps echoing out of his mouth, instinctually calling for his flock to come and help him. The man shook him sharply and shoved h i m forward, they twisted down a series of hallways and up a set of stairs and Tommy could do nothing but let him, he tried once to drop to the ground and was jerked up roughly by his hair and shoved forward again. They finally stopped at an ominous looking door and the man stopped.
“Scream and I’ll rip your little wings off okay birdie?” he warned, Tommy gave him a jerky nod and the hand was removed from his mouth. It dipped into the man's jacket and emerged with a gun and Tommy felt his heart stop in his chest. He was shoved forward again by a hand fisted in the back of his shirt and the gun was held to his temple.
“Open the door” the man demanded, and at a loss for what else to do, Tommy listened.
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The meeting had begun to shift from sort of necessary to uselessly dull and Technoblade was once again glad he was not in charge of talking to people because he would have shot everyone and left by now.
He stood to Phils right idly watching him barter with the snivelling little human sitting behind a behemoth of a desk, the human was sweating quite a bit more than he was at the beginning of the meeting and his forehead shone with sweat under the bright lights. The human (Sholtz? Slat?) had been confident and condescending when they had arrived, obviously over confident that he could out manoeuvre the High Demons of ArcPyre and was quickly learning that was a very critical error.
Techno could see the very subtle twitch in Phil’s wing that meant he was starting to get agitated and was about to make up some excuse of why they had to leave immediately when he felt something shift outside the door.
He jerked his gaze back to the human, checking for any indication he was in charge of the disturbance but he was still stuttering through his ill advised proposal. Turning back to the door he had only a second to branch out with a tendril of magic when the knob turned and the door swung open. The person that came through was a young boy, wide eyed and white as a sheet. Techno was confused enough that he didn’t react for a second but his brain snapped back online when he saw the gun pressed to the boy's temple and the man that came in behind him. The man shoved the boy farther into the room and kicked the door shut before turning his gaze to Phil who was staring over Technos shoulder in confusion.
“Greetings Te Karr Philza, it is a pleasure to see you again” the man spoke, he had a wild look on his face and was almost trembling, the gun jittering softly against the boy's temple. Techno shifted for his weapon but the man's gaze snapped to him before he could grab it.
“Ah ah, no funny business, wouldn’t want your little birdie to get hurt now, I know you demons are protective of your children, I'm surprised you let him run around outside at all, better for me though,” he was grinning like he had somehow won something.
Techno was beyond confused, their children? He was obviously talking about the boy and Techno reluctantly pulled his eyes away from the man to look at his captive and almost immediately saw what he had missed. The kid, fledgling’s, wings were draped towards the floor, trying to tuck into his body but unable to with the body pressed against his back, the rustling of feathers and the kids panicked breathing were all that would be heard for a moment as the High Demons finally caught on to what was happening.
This man thought this fledge was theirs, he had a gun to a baby because he thought that he could use that to threaten the most powerful creatures in this country. Techno felt his blood boil and was about two seconds from ripping the man's throat out when Phil laid a hand on his shoulder and stepped around him to stand at his side.
“I’m sure that won't be necessary,” he said, his eyes noticeably darker than they were before, “We can have a discussion without bringing a child’s life into it.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you left him unattended huh? I'm surprised to let him come out at all” he said again, less confident this time, as though his brain had caught up to the fact that something was wrong with this before he had. The boy hadn’t moved, his eyes were glazed and his hands were twitching in front of his chest, a feeble attempt at protection and it made Technos' chest ache.
“No, we're all gonna have a chat and if any of you even twitch wrong then you're gonna watch your little birdie get his head blown off,” he was shaking harder, the adrenaline and rage obvious in every line of his body.
“Alright then, let’s just settle down,” Phil answered. “What is it that you would like to chat about?”
The man frowned at the condescension in his tone but shook it off and jerked the boy up from the slump he had slid into drawing a single fearful noise out of his throat before he froze again.
“I have been trying to get a formal meeting for months now and have been shut down at every turn, my last four letters have gone unanswered entirely!” the man began and Techno already could tell this was not gonna go well. He focused on the boy instead, Phil could deal with the rambling lunatic.
The fledgling was young, he couldn't tell how old but he was knobbly and the flight feathers on his wings were just starting to peak out so he had to be under 20 at least. He was Earth born, the magic around him smelled of damp soil and rain and his wings were a coppery brown tone unlike the dark jewel tones of a High Demon or the smoky black of a Wick. He was dirty and his clothes were ripped and soaked through but that all could be from being held hostage and the current rain storm.
Techno wasn't sure how nests worked on earth but he was unsettled by the fact that this man was able to just snatch the fledgling off the street without a nestmate noticing, he would have to have a chat with his protector when this was all over.
He tuned back into the conversation when the man started shouting, reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the boy and focusing back on the problem at hand.
“I deserve this!” the man shrieked “I have done everything right and you haven’t even noticed! Maybe I should kill the runt, show you what I felt when I was rejected,” he shoved the boy to the ground and levelled the gun at his head but Techno was faster.
He shot forward stepping over the boy and grabbing the gun, the metal crumbled in his hand. The man jerked back with a startled cry, and began blubbering, begging for a chance. Techno glanced at Phil who gave him a sharp nod before kneeling down beside the fledgling, despite the mans desperate screaming Techno dragged him out of the room and shoved him through a portal, giving a sharp command to the startled guard on the other side before closing it and returning to the room.
Phil was on the floor beside the fledgling who appeared to be in shock and wasn’t really responding to any of his attempts to get him to talk or even move, the other human Shalt or whatever still hadn’t moved from his desk and appeared completely frozen, Techno shot him a glare.
“You should improve your security, that man shouldn’t have made it in here, unless you had something to do with this..” he let the sentence hang, Shaltz shot to his feet shaking his head violently.
“Of course not Te Karro, I am so sorry, so terribly sorry, I will have this dealt with immediately, I… I was unaware you had brought your son?” he glanced towards the boy, obviously trying to avoid incurring any wrath his way.
Techno didn’t correct him, he simply gave the man a dismissive wave and turned to Phil who had successfully gotten the boy to his feet and was leading him out of the room without so much as a glance at Salts. For once he seemed to make the smart decision and let them leave without protest.
They walked out of the building as a group, the fledgling had pulled away from Phil and seemed to curl into himself, his wings pulling up to shelter around his shoulders.
“Hey mate, can you hear me?” Phil asked once they were outside, pulling the boy to a stop. The boy nodded his head curling his arms around his torso protectively. “Are you hurt anywhere? We can take you to a healer before we take you home.” He started shaking his head fervently, stepping away from Phil.
“S’okay'' he croaked, “I’m sorry, m’gonna go” he started to turn away but Phil stopped him again.
“Hey hey it’s okay! You didn’t do anything wrong, I’m sorry this happened to you, let us take you home, did you get separated from your flock?” He reached up to fix the boy's hair but he jerked away again, taking a bigger step back.
“No it’s-I’m fine, I’m sorry I-I need to go” he took another step back before turning and bolting. Phil tried to follow him but Techno pulled him back gently.
“Just leave it, I know you’re worried but he probably lives nearby, if his nest contacts us we will explain what happened and go from there.”
Phil didn’t seem happy but let it go, sliding into the car with a sigh and directing Sam to take them home. Techno didn’t let it show but he was worried, something about the boy seemed wrong. He was just a little too dirty, a little too skinny for having just been separated from his flock. He shook it off though, maybe he would look if there was some sort of nest registry like they had, if they didn’t hear from the boys nest in the next week or so it wouldn't be bad to try and check in on him, you know, just in case.
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Tommy made it about four blocks before he had to veer into an alley to sit down. His mind and instincts were swirling in a horrible mess of fear and want and the need to keep running even though the danger was gone. He hadn’t been followed by the people, Demons, that had brought him out of the building but he was still terrified that they would blame some of whatever happened on him even if the shorter one had said it wasn’t his fault.
Everyone knew who the High Demons were, the race that ruled over Ether, and Mister Psycho Face had called them Te Karr which means they were the rulers of at least one of the clans. Tommy hadn’t really listened to what the man had been screaming about, his brain had mostly checked out when he realised he was being used as some sort of hostage and only came back online when he was shoved to the ground and almost died.
He let out a half laugh that broke off into a sob and curled into a ball, wrapping his wings around his body and letting himself cry for a second.
When he felt less like he was gonna rattle apart he got up and headed away from the market strip, he was hoping to look for work today but he felt shaky and off-centred and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to handle pandering for work in the rain all day.
The trip back to his alley was fairly quick and he was grateful that it had at least stopped raining so he was mostly dry when he crawled into his cardboard lean-to he had built. He thought that the residual adrenaline would keep him awake for the rest of the day but he found the moment he laid down the energy drained out of him and he was asleep within minutes.
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He returns to his normal routine for a few days, he went back to the bakery to apologise to Niki for “running off” and to get his promised sandwich and managed to make a few bucks hauling boxes for an apothecary so overall it wasn’t going too bad.
Honestly he thought he had put the whole hostage fiasco behind him and was ready to forget about it all together. He had just left Niki’s bakery and was heading out to look for work when he bumped into someone, he stumbled back and mumbled an apology but a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. Tommy looked up, preparing himself for whatever bullshit was about to go down when he made eye contact with the most terrifying person he had ever seen. The dude was well over six feet tall and his eyes and wings were a deep blood red, with a start he realised it was one of the High Demon.
He tried to apologise but he only succeeded in releasing a very garbled chirp and stumbling back, pulling his arm out of the man's grip. Running seems like the best course of action so he darts away, running a couple of streets down before ducking into a random alleyway. He leaned over trying to catch his breath before he started hyperventilating, everything was fine, he was fine.
“Kid” a deep voice spoke from the entrance of the alley, Tommy jerked up, his wings flapping to keep his balance as he stumbled deeper into the alley. The demon tucked his phone back into his pocket and held up his hands, “You’re okay, we just wanna talk to you.”
Tommy couldn’t help the pleading chirp that escaped him, nor the way his wings fluffed up around him trying to make him look bigger despite the absolute futility of the action. The man made a quiet sound that brought Tommys panic to a halt, his instincts made him want to run to the man and hide in the shelter of his wings but his logical mind screamed “predator” so he stayed rooted to the spot. They stood in an awkward stand off for a couple of minutes before a figure appeared around the corner, the other demon coming to stand beside the red one, fully blocking the alley.
“Hey mate” he spoke in the same soft tone he had before, Tommy couldn’t help baring his teeth at him in response. “It’s okay, we just wanna talk to you, okay?”
“I-no fuck off! I don’t want to talk to you, you’re being creepy” he should really shut up but he can’t handle them pretending to be nice before they eat him or rip him to shreds or whatever they’re planning to do.
“I'm sorry I know this is scary but it's important, is your flock nearby? We could go find them first.” He continued farther into the alley, ignoring the way Tommy fluffed up again and stepped back.
“My what? No, I'm not scared and I'm not going anywhere with you!” he snarled, ignoring the way they were very slowly cornering him. “I’ll call the cops! You’re cornering a kid in an alley that’s illegal.”
“Okay, let’s just relax, we’re not gonna do anything, you shouldn’t be out here alone it’s dangerous, let us take you back to your flo-family? I was sure avian nests were called flocks” he directed the last part to the other demon looking slightly confused. “Let’s start again, my name is Phil, this is Technoblade, we are sorry about what happened to you and we're sure your family has a lot of questions so if you let us take you home we can explain, I promise we aren’t gonna do anything bad.”
Tommy was very confused. He didn’t know where to begin with anything he just said.
“I know what a flock is” was all he got out, the demon, Phil gave him a funny look but he powered on before he could get interrupted. “I don’t know what the hell is going on but I don’t have a flock and I don’t need your help so just go away!”
Both the demons seemed to freeze for a second and Tommy felt his chest tighten as they made no move to leave.
“You… don’t have a flock?” Phil asked softly, he looked absolutely shattered “were they killed? Have you been with a surrogate then?”
“A surra-what? No they didn’t get killed, I got- I left, but I’m fine! I don’t need help, I’m doing fine okay” The frustration and confusion were starting to boil over and Tommy was fighting to remain in control and not do something insanely rash right now. Both of the demons were now staring at him like he was a puppy with a broken leg and it was both unnerving and incredibly irritating. “What?!” he half shouted “Go! Go away! I told you to leave me alone!” he felt a little hysterical but couldn't stop himself from lashing out, hoping they'd get the message and go away.
They turned away from him for a moment speaking quietly to each other, after a moment the big demon, Techno-something? Weird fucking name, pulled his phone out and left the alley, Phil turned back to face him. He took a very deep breath and smiled at Tommy.
“Okay , that's okay, how about we go get something to eat yeah? Techno is gonna get the car and you and I can just wait here, or do you wanna go back out to the street? It's a little chilly in here” his smile was weirdly strained and he seemed to be holding himself back from grabbing at Tommy judging by the way his hands kept coming up then abruptly dropping.
Tommy knew he needed to get the fuck out of here right now.
“Uhh the street?” he asked awkwardly, trying not to look suspicious as they walked out of the alley back into the sunlight. Technoblade was nowhere to be found so Tommy tried to inch away from Phil but he seemed intent on keeping Tommy close. He looked around desperately for something to help him out. Nothing jumped out at him so he went with a good old fashion distraction. He waited till Phil had turned enough that his back was to the street then whipped his head around pointing at nothing down the street.
“Holy shit what is that!?” he shrieked, sounding as scared as he could.
Phil whipped around with a snarl, his wings mantelling up behind him. Tommy wasted no time in booking it down the street, dodging through traffic and running as fast as he could.
He made it back to Rosewood without being seen and darted inside, heading past Niki into the back and throwing himself down onto the ground to catch his breath.
She came into the back after a minute with a puzzled look on her face.
“Everything okay?” she asked and Tommy did his best to give her a convincing smile.
“Yea , some kid got angry I wouldn't let him touch my wings so he started screaming and his mom thought I’d done something to him so I decided to lay low till they left” he rambled, he probably should have told her that he was being pursued by two highly dangerous demons but Niki was a good person and he didn’t wanna drag her into his mess. She gave him a crooked smile and told him to let himself out the back when he was done hiding before heading back up front.
He gave himself an hour to catch his breath before he left the coffee shop, he kept his eyes peeled when he left but didn't seen either of the demons nearby so he started heading down the street, he made himself stop at the apothecary instead of just heading back to his alley immediately, he couldn’t afford to spend an entire day hiding from the world. He spent a few hours moving and emptying boxes and earned a bit more cash before he finally returned to his alley, stopping in a convenience store to grab a sandwich and to wash some of the grime off his face in the bathroom. It took him a while to sleep that night, too worried that every clank and rustle was the demons but eventually he managed to drop off.
The next day it was, once again, pouring rain and Tommy knew it was gonna be a bad one, he woke up in a puddle of water and he had been splashed by a car on his way across town so he was absolutely filthy by the time he reached Rosewood, it was habit to go there at this point but as he was reaching for the door he realised that he was in no condition to be sitting in a coffee shop.
He stepped away, intent on going to try and shower and wash his clothes first when someone stepped out of the shop and smashed right into him dumping coffee down Tommys front. He hissed as the scalding coffee met his frozen skin and tried to pull his shirt away from his skin, shaking it to cool it down.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry I did not see you, are you okay? That must be hot here let me help you” a voice rambled in front of him and suddenly he was being pulled to the side and his vision was filled by a mop of brown hair. The guy was clutching his half empty coffee cup to his chest and awkwardly trying to both help Tommy and not invade his personal space which was weirdly endearing.
“It’s okay, really I’m already soaked” he tried to joke but it came out kinda stale as he was now soaked and in pain and today really sucked. The guy seemed unconvinced.
“That coffee was really hot. It probably hurts, just let me make it up to you. I’ll buy you a drink. What do you like?” he pushed one, chucking his coffee in the garbage.
“Uhh whatever is fine, I’m pretty dirty though I should probably stay outside” he laughed self consciously, gesturing to his wings and clothes that were currently dripping a steady stream onto the sidewalk. The guy seemed to notice this as well and looked almost worried for a second before he perked back up.
“That's okay! You wait here I'll go grab us drinks and we can sit at one of those tables” he gestured to the cluster of metal tables under the awning. It was kinda cold to sit outside but Tommy wasn’t gonna complain about getting a hot drink for free. Hopefully hot, if this guy brings him an iced coffee he’s gonna stab him.
He came back after about five minutes with two steaming cups and a paper bag clutched in his hand.
“I got you a mocha cause they’re delicious here, I also got some scones!” he grinned as he sat down. He was wearing a bright yellow sweater and a pair of round glasses and honestly looked like the biggest dork but it felt nice to have a pleasant interaction with someone other than Niki for once.
“Thank you, you really didn’t have to do this” he responded, taking a sip of his mocha and he was totally using his next payment for one of these, it tasted like heaven.
“Don’t sweat it, I’m happy to, I’m Wilbur by the way” he sat back with his coffee giving Tommy another bright smile.
“Tommy” he didn’t really know what to say, he hadn’t socialised in so long, not really, even before his mom kicked him out he didn’t have a lot of friends and living in an alley didn’t really lend itself to making new connections.
Wilbur seemed content to sit in silence, he pulled out his phone typing something out before frowning, typing again then putting his phone back in his pocket. They sat in silence for a while and Tommy felt himself drift slightly, he wasn’t exactly tired but he felt hazy, like his conscious mind was taking a back seat for a moment.
“Tommy?” he heard a voice in front of him, oh yea, Wilbur. He let out a chirp in response, vaguely aware that's not an actual answer but was too blurry to stop himself. “Yea I think he’s out, you guys can come out now”
Tommy was confused by what he meant by that but couldn’t figure out his question so he just stared at Wilbur for a second before he heard a warble come from behind him and his brain immediately turned to goo.
“There you are sweetheart, just relax, we’ll take you home and get you all fixed up” a voice crooned from beside him, a hand stroked his hair away from his face and he purred in satisfaction, leaning into the contact. “Awe, I knew you’d be a lamb, just had to let yourself be taken care of huh?”
“Did you have to dump an entire coffee on him?” Another, deeper voice spoke and Tommy’s instincts purred even louder shouting of flock and protectors on a dizzying loop. He tried to shake the haze from his mind but another warble shoved him even deeper and he gave up.
“I didn’t mean to get that much on him but he wasn’t gonna let me just buy him a coffee, at least I got him” that one was Wilbur, he was still somewhere in front of Tommy.
The world tilted strangely and it took Tommy a second to realise he’d been picked up, he made a mrrp? sound in question but was shushed and his head was pressed under their chin. He let himself drift as they moved and didn’t really react as he was lowered into a car and buckled in. Another warble and a hand in his hair was enough to have him slumping down in his seat and within a minute he was asleep.