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i.
Cold wood floors, Tommy learns very quickly, are not fun to be dragged across, especially when you are in a t-shirt. Splinters of wood dig at the bare skin of his arms, and he’s half-choked by his shirt collar as it’s tugged downwards by the movement. Tubbo looks down at him with some amusement.
“You could just let go,” he suggests, trying to shake his leg from Tommy’s grip, but he is not having it, tightening his hold.
“Letting go is for pussies,” Tommy responds defiantly, and Tubbo starts walking again, which leads to Tommy being dragged along the floor again. From just off the hall, in the living room, Wilbur leans over the back of the couch to watch the chaos with a mildly concerned expression.
“Seriously, I gotta go home. My bees-”
“You’re so clingy, Tubbo,” Tommy says, spitting out a small wood chip that had somehow managed to get into his mouth. Tubbo raises an eyebrow.
“Says the one bear-hugging my leg.”
Tommy shifts his grip a little. “You’re the clingy one,” he insists. Wilbur’s laugh can be heard echoing down the hall, but Tommy elects to ignore it. Tubbo doesn’t.
“See, even Wil knows you’re full of shit.”
“ Even? ” comes Wilbur’s indignant response. Tubbo backpedals fast and takes a step closer to the door.
“No, I meant-”
Tommy audibly chokes as his shirt presses against his throat, and when Tubbo looks down at him in concern, he just gives him a painful smile. “Don’t worry about me, keep arguing with that prick.”
“I heard that!” Wilbur yells. Tubbo manages to free his leg from Tommy’s grasp and bolts for the door.
“Clingyinnit!” is the last thing Tommy hears from his friend before the door shuts between them.
“Am not,” Tommy yells, knowing Tubbo probably can’t hear him.
“Yeah, and I’m Sapnap,” Wilbur says unhelpfully.
“Fuck you,” Tommy yells back to his brother, then picks himself up off the floor.
ii.
Tommy won’t ever say it out loud, but it’s painfully clear to anyone who pays attention to him for more than a few seconds that he looks up to his hybrid brother. There’s a certain reverence to his gaze anytime he’s around him, despite how often Techno tends to ignore him.
It was only about a week since what had become known in their house as the “Floor Incident”, where Tommy was dragged across the hallway, when Tommy burst into Techno’s room, barreling towards him for a hug. The hybrid simply put out an arm, his hand landing in the center of Tommy’s chest, effectively stopping his advance with little to no effort.
“Tommy,” the older of the two greets in a monotone voice.
“Techno!” Tommy responds with far more enthusiasm. “How are you?”
Techno fixes him with a glare. “Better before you burst in here.”
Tommy doesn’t seem to notice the slight venom in his tone. “That’s good to hear! I wanted to come say hi-”
Techno gives Tommy a small shove towards the door. “I’m busy.”
Tommy, this time, seems to get the message, his face falling a little. “Oh.”
There’s a moment of awkward, tension-filled silence between them. Tommy finds the optimism to speak again.
“Work never ends for the Blade, does it?”
Techno looks ready to kill a child. “Go be clingy elsewhere.”
“I’m not clingy,” Tommy says stubbornly. “It’s not clingy to want a hug from your brother.”
Techno says nothing, only raising an eyebrow. Tommy tries his best not to look guilty.
“One hug,” he says finally, holding up a finger. Techno doesn’t move.
“ Please one hug,” Tommy tries. All he gets is a punch to the chest that knocks the wind out of him. Tommy resolves not to cry as Techno unceremoniously shoves him out of the room.
His hybrid brother wasn’t always known to be the kindest anyway.
iii.
Tommy stumbles into Wilbur’s room still a little dazed from the punch to his sternum. Wilbur looks up, quickly assesses the look on Tommy’s face, and looks ready to throw hands.
“What happened?”
Tommy sits down heavily on Wilbur’s bed. “Techno tried to kill me.”
At that, Wilbur simply turned back to what he’d previously been doing. “Again?”
“Don’t I get any sympathy?”
“No,” Wilbur says without turning around. “You probably deserved it.”
Tommy mumbles something unintelligible. Wilbur turns, then.
“What’d you say?”
“... I said I just wanted a hug,” Tommy says, only slightly louder than before and looking wildly embarrassed. Wilbur sighs, getting up and standing in front of Tommy, opening his arms.
“ One hug,” he says, and Tommy all but throws himself into his brother’s arms. “Clingy bitch.”
Tommy stiffens. “Am not.”
Wilbur doesn’t say anything, merely rolling his eyes, knowing Tommy can’t see. The gesture speaks for itself; a small, simple yeah, right to a room empty save for him and his younger brother.
iv.
Most people have stopped being surprised whenever Tommy turns up with some kind of injury. He’s reckless and stupid most of the time, so a cut or scrape is not uncommon for him. Usually, it’s Phil or one of his older brothers who has to deal with him once he’s been hurt; today, it’s the former, not the latter.
“I need a bandaid,” Tommy states from where he’s pressed into Phil’s side.
“I know. Can you just-” Phil tries to extract himself from the teen’s grip to no avail.
“Get me a fucking bandaid, dad,” Tommy repeats.
“I’m trying, but-”
“You’re not trying hard enough.”
Phil sighs loudly. “Could you stop clinging to me for three seconds?”
“No,” Tommy says. “And I am not ‘clinging’.”
It’s a battle Phil’s too tired to fight today. He’d been woken up too many times the night before by the three of them getting up to all kinds of antics, and he just needed another cup of coffee before he died.
Phil stretches up as best he can to reach the first aid box. Miraculously, he manages to get it down without dropping it. He rifles through it with one hand, the other resting on Tommy’s shoulder.
“Got it,” Phil says kind of triumphantly, pulling out a singular bandaid. He shifts a little so he can properly see what he’s doing, making sure his wings are folded in so they don’t get in the way as he puts the bandaid over a small cut on Tommy’s arm, much in the way a parent would do for a very young child.
Tommy steps back, looking at the bandaid for a moment. “Fucking finally.”
Phil shakes his head fondly as the teen leaves, then turns to make himself some coffee; god knows he needs it.
v.
It’s past two in the morning when Tommy stumbles into Phil’s room. The winged man doesn’t look surprised by this, instead just sitting up in his bed with a yawn.
“What’s up?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” Tommy mumbles. “Felt lonely.”
Phil shifts to the side, making space for Tommy in his bed. “Come here.”
Tommy makes his way over, curling into Phil’s side. The older decides not to make any comment about the younger being clingy at that moment.
The two of them have almost fallen asleep when another person enters Phil’s room; Wilbur. He doesn’t say anything, just walks over and squishes himself in on the other side of Tommy. Phil stretches out his wings to wrap around the two of them.
Only minutes later Techno wanders in, looking sheepish and embarrassed. Phil wordlessly moves over, making space for him, but Techno pauses.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he mumbles, as a way of explanation. Phil gestures to Tommy and Wilbur, who are both practically asleep.
“Neither could they.”
That’s the only encouragement Techno needs to join the other three. Phil smiles softly at his boys as they all settle in for the rest of the night; he and the other two might give Tommy shit for being clingy, but in reality, they’re all about as bad as each other.
“If you mention this ever, I’ll stab you,” Techno mumbles, but the threat is lost in the sleepiness of his voice.
Phil resists the urge to laugh and he brings his wings to wrap around the three of them, then settles back, closing his eyes and letting sleep pull him under.
+i.
God, it fucking hurt.
You see, Tommy may have gotten in a squabble with a few mobs- okay, maybe it wasn’t a few; it was more in the double digits- ten? Twenty?
He couldn’t count them all, he was too busy fending for himself.
Normally when he was in this sort of situation, he would call on Techno, or anyone near him. He could easily get help, heal up, and not go through the painful process of respawning.
This time, however, he couldn’t. He was far from home, grabbing resources and trying to find anything he could. He went alone, insisting that he could do it by himself and that he was quote; “a mature big man that can handle things by himself,” though everyone had doubts.
It was a slow and painful death. Skeleton shot; ate to regenerate health, zombie bite, more eating because his hunger bar wasn’t full again, and soon enough he reached half a heart since he was losing energy, food, and heath faster than he was regening.
And because of that, he had a slow and painful respawn, all the previous shots, bites, explosions, attacks- everything crashing down at once, even though it wasn’t visible. (For the most part at least. He had a few burns from the explosion.)
He’d say it’s in the top three most painful respawns he’s had.
He respawns back home since he destroyed his bed. He knows he's safe.
To say he was crying was an understatement.
He was crying out of pain.
He was crying out of relief.
He was crying out of loneliness.
He was crying out for help.
And help came.
~~~
Tubbo was the only one in the house since the others were working on building something. It was his turn to just take care of the place in general.
So when he heard sobbing and a cry for help where the rooms were, he was confused, scared, and very concerned, and rightfully so.
He ventured towards the cries and sees Tommy curled in on himself, a few visible burns from where respawning didn’t heal him fully.
“Tommy?”
Tommy looks up from hearing his name being called- and nearly chokes on a cry from seeing Tubbo.
“Come here- please, I need- I need something- someone to hold on to-” He started to ramble. Tubbo went to the younger and held onto him, making sure not to hurt him more than he already is.
“Tubbo, Tubbo- please it hurts- I didn’t think it would hurt this badly- Tubbo- please don’t fucking leave me I need you- I need you by my side- I haven’t had a hug in so long- please-”
“Tommy, Tommy, I need to go get Phil or Techno or Wil or-or at least something to patch your burns-”
“Please don’t fucking leave my side- who cares about the injuries Tubbo? I just want to hug you- It’s been days Tubbo, I’ve needed a hug f-for so long- please just don’t fucking leave me it hurts so fucking much-”
“Breathe Tommy, I’ll only be gone for a bit.”
“A bit is too long Tubbo-” Tommy tries to move, but ends up hurting himself in the process.
“To-” He went unheard
“God- it fucking hurts- not even the burns- just respawning in general- there were so fucking many mobs Tubbo- and it lasted so long-”
“Tommy-”
“And I fucking lost everything- the trip was worth nothing- it’s all probably gone- I lost our fucking most valuable items- I’m just a worthless piece of sh-”
“TOMMY!”
Tubbo needed him to snap out of his rambling, and he sure as hell doesn’t want him to start saying intrusive thoughts. So, he raised his voice. It worked, of course, it did.
“If you don't want me to leave just tell me what happened.”
Tommy clings to Tubbo closer. “I was mining, but then I fell in a ravine. I didn't take much damage since there was water, but it also trapped me. But- there was a large group mobs- god there were so fucking many Tubbo- there were ten to twenty of them- I couldn't leave or regen fast enough- I was fucking stuck- and it was so slow and painful- Tubbo- respawning was even fucking worse- Tubbo-”
They heard a door open. One of the ones outside must've come inside either to get more wood, take a break, or check on Tubbo.
Tommy and Tubbo heard some shuffling and chests being opened. From the muffled mumbles, Tubbo could make it out to be Techno.
“Techno! Can you come here for a sec, I’m in Tommy’s room!”
They could hear footsteps coming closer to the door. Techno throws open the door with an air of someone who’s greatly annoyed, but then his eyes land on Tommy.
“Jesus, fuck,” are the eloquent words to come from Techno’s mouth. “Who did this to you?”
“Mobs,” Tubbo answers for the sobbing teen. Techno studies Tommy for a moment longer, then turns and punches the wall. When he turns back, there’s a noticeable hole in the wall, and bruises blooming over Techno’s fingers, but none of them acknowledge it.
“Let me get the first aid,” is all Techno says before turning and leaving the room. There’s silence aside from the few soft sobs Tommy lets out, but they’re subsiding. Techno returns within the minute, setting up immediately to clean Tommy’s burns as best he can.
He deems some worthy of bandages, and others not. The room is mostly silent.
It’s silent until it isn’t. Techno starts speaking, his voice raising the more he talks until he’s yelling.
“Mobs,” is what he begins with, spitting out the word. “Fuckin’ mobs. I’m going to kill every one of them.”
Tubbo looks between them with concern as Techno’s voice grows louder still.
“I’m going to rip them apart. I’m going to rip them all fucking apart!”
That’s enough to bring Phil into the room. “Wha-”
The words die in his throat before he can even speak, assessing the situation. Tommy, bandaged and shaking and clinging to Tubbo for dear life with one arm, his free hand pressed hard against his ear. Techno looking downright murderous, bruising across one hand, a hole in the wall behind him.
“You’ve scared him,” Phil says, gesturing to Tommy, and Techno switches from looking murderous to apologetic in three seconds flat. He’s quick to move over and pull Tommy into a hug.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” he says quietly, rare words to hear from him. “I didn’t mean to… To freak you out.”
It’s then that he remembers that Tommy was fighting off mobs, and the burn marks were most definitely caused by creepers, which are loud when they explode, and he feels even worse for yelling. Tommy clings to him tightly, still shaking, and sobs quietly.
This brings Phil and Tubbo over into the hug. Techno silently vows to stab every creeper he ever sees.
~~~
What in the everloving fuck is taking them so long?
He sent Techno out half an hour ago, and Phil went to check on him ten minutes ago.
Might as well investigate.
Wilbur goes inside and sees where Techno was going to bring the wood back to them, but got sidetracked; of course, he did. He searches around the more open rooms first. Living room, kitchen, dining, and storage.
They weren’t in any of them. He also realized Tubbo isn’t here either. Huh.
He checks their rooms, finally finding all of them- and Tommy was there too.
“TECHNO I SENT YOU IN FOR WOOD HALF AN HOUR AGO- ”
He was sent a harsh glare from both Techno and Phil- a very scary experience to say the least.
He looked over to Tommy and everything clicked. “Oh, ᵒʰ”
He smiles at the youngest, and joins the group hug, “Sorry Toms, welcome back, you clingy kid”
Tommy lets out a genuine chuckle. “I’m not a kid!”
Phil joins in. “You are clingy though.”
“Okay, maybe- ”
“And so, the gremlin child admits it”
“Shut up Techno!”
They all laugh, feeling better about themselves quite a bit. And most of all, Tommy was getting the attention he wanted.