Work Text:
Tommy has always hated police stations. They stood as a symbol of safety, but he had never once felt safe in them.
Dare he say, they have the opposite effect. Full of scorning looks from cops and normal folk alike, it suffocates him, quite frankly.
He will, quite frankly, never forgive Niki for forcing him to go there.
"You're a child, they have to do something to help you," she'd said.
Yeah right.
Tommy would rather drown.
Alas, he listens to Niki- because it's Niki, his only source of comfort, and waits. For Sam, a creeper hybrid, specifically, because according to Niki, he's the most likely to help.
Tommy hates waiting, though. So despite promising Niki that he will wait for Sam, he arrives a whole thirty minutes early, and hopes something will turn up for Sam, atleast enough to make him late a few minutes. That way, Tommy doesn't break his promise to Niki.
The scornful looks from old folks make his stomach turn. He knows his hair is dirty, muddied in blood, and the black hoodie and pants certainly don't help. Still, judging is a bit... well.
He sits on one of the chairs, alone, and Tommy can only assume the reason no one else dares to sit near him is because he looks like death himself.
It's tiring. Boring. He wants to go back to his apartment, in the old abandoned building. Even if Niki is convinced it's on the verge of collapsing, no one can ask questions whilst he's there.
He wants Crimson. No- no, wants makes it sound childish. Like a little kid aching to stay up past their bedtime. He needs to go out, to be Crimson, because Crimson is everything and Tommy is nothing.
He taps his foot against the floor, checking the clock every few seconds. Maybe Sam wouldn't make it. Even better, maybe he'd forget. Just one more minute. He could wait ten more minutes, if not for himself then for Niki's sake, and then he could bolt right out.
"Yeah? That's good. How's your dad coping?" A voice echoes as a duo walks through the door.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He turns to look at the door, and, sure enough- it's Sam! Tommy has never personally met Sam, but Niki's told him enough.
And walking next to him is a 6'5 tall guy, with warm brown eyes and curly hair. The white streak in his hair is... an interesting choice, Tommy's sure, just as his clothes.
If he was any less wiser, he'd think that this guy was crazy inspired by Siren. It wasn't unusual for people to look up to Siren, but this was different.
Now, Tommy wasn't the most observant of people. He didn't notice many things, but the fact that the person standing in front of him was Siren, the Siren, was an undeniable truth, as obvious as the threat of rain on this particularly cloudy day.
His first thought is that he needs to run, before if he notices Siren, it was only a matter of time before Siren noticed him , and... and Tommy can't move.
He's never seen Siren in his civilian form, but he looks so... familiar. Not just in the sense of this guy being the very same person who's scolded him, time and time again, about his late night activities, but also in the sense of... something Tommy can't quite figure out.
Just looking at Siren makes him feel overwhelmed with the feeling of longing for his family, which Tommy finds weird because this guy looks nothing like either of his brothers. Maybe it's just been so long since he's last seen them, but... no. It was just Siren's ability. That's what this was. Tommy wasn't yearning for something he'd lost ages ago, people he'd sworn to never meet again.
It doesn't stop the tears, though. It never does, so as Sam looks around the room- undoubtedly to find Tommy, he wipes his eyes, making up a story on the spot.
He could say so many things. Could tell Sam he'd been attacked on the way to the police station, was scared something would happen his non existent dog (that he'd already named, by the way), had found a litter of cats and was thinking about how hard their lives must be.
Sam isn't the one who walks up to him, though. When Sam figures out that the kid Niki had sent was the one sitting alone, crying in the middle of the damn police station, the duo exchanges a look. A knowing look, one of pity, and Tommy suddenly hates Niki so much, because he hates pity.
(His predicament is his, and his fault only, though.)
Siren is the one who walks up to him, which Tommy realizes makes much more sense than Sam. Because Siren's presence was... oddly comforting, and Tommy hates to find himself in the shoes of a kid getting comforted by him.
"Hey bud." He says, his voice as calm as the water in summer. "I'm Wilbur."
Wilbur. Not William, but so fucking close.
What kind of name was Wilbur, anyways? Weirdo. If his parents had called him such a ridiculous name, well, Tommy just might've committed arson. On himself.
There's an expectation, somewhere in there. "Wilbur" expects him to share his name, too. No doubt.
"C- Tommy." He responds, keeping all his cursed inside himself. He doesn't imagine cursing Siren out, in a police station no less, could ever end well for him.
Albeit Sam gives Tommy a few options, the only realistic option is to go with Wilbur. Who has oh so kindly offered to adopt him. Note the sarcasm.
Okay. Not few. His only option was to be adopted by Wilbur, a family member of Wilbur's, or go to an orphanage.
Curse Niki. All the scheming wasn't even worth it.
Tommy would rather die than go to an orphanage. The system was so horrible, Tommy was better off living by himself.
Still, Sam is a cop, and Tommy- although technically 18, according to the new law of L'manberg, technically needs a guardian.
So. He takes up Siren on the offer, because for what it was worth, he could rely on Siren to not murder him. At least Tommy hoped so. The lasy time he'd read a person wrong, he nearly died.
Niki wouldn't do that to him, though. He was sure. And Niki trusted Sam, and Sam trusted Siren, and... and Crimson did, to a certain point, too.
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
Siren is many things, but Tommy would be lying if he'd said he hadn't been half-expecting Siren to change his mind on their way to his apartment.
He doesn't. And he's surprisingly respectful of Tommy's boundaries, too.
Wilbur asks questions, but he's not pushy. He's funny, too. And has a cat, which Tommy would say is a green flag nine times out of ten.
(We don't talk about the one time that wasn't the case.)
More importantly, Niki lives right across the hall! Tommy only knows because he's been at Niki's a few times- something about her not being able to sleep knowing he's wandering the streets, before she started letting him stay at the Cafe.
It makes him feel... safer, Tommy supposed.
Wilbur is quick to show him around the apartment. It's spacious, and absolutely magnificent. A part of Crimson could see why Siren had picked this particular apartment. You could see pretty much everything that went on from the balcony.
Tommy's room is, quite possibly, the best thing ever though. He loves everything about it, from the red walls to the posters of the three top heroes.
Okay, no- Tommy wasn't a fanboy. Shut up. The person who'd resided in the room before clearly had good taste, though. Tommy would get along with them well.
A few minutes pass, and his stomach twists and turns at the thought. Because someone had resided in here, this very room, before he had ever come around, and suddenly he feels sick, like he's going to throw up. Because he was intruding into someone else's room, and it feels wrong, all of a sudden, despite everything.
He leaves the room without thinking twice.
Wilbur is in the kitchen. He's making something- Tommy just can't tell what.
He needs to ask. He needs to know. Who's room was that? Why was Wilbur letting him stay in it? Was the owner coming back anytime soon?
"Hey, bud. You good?" Wilbur asks, turning to look at the younger boy standing by the doorway.
No. Tommy's not good. He's sweating, and he's cold and hot at the same time, and it sucks, everything sucks so much, and Tommy has never felt so trapped before and he needs to leave, needs to go out and forget who he is and let Crimson run wild and free. But he doesn't say it out loud, of course. Not all of it, anyways.
"Who's room was that?" He blurts out, uncaring of the rudeness in his voice. Whatever. Fuck him. Fuck Wilbur, and Siren. Tommy couldn't care less if he got kicked out, but he... Wilbur doesn't do that.
"My brother's." He responds instead. "Sorry about it. I figured you could sleep there until we went out to buy stuff for your actual room. I'm sorry about the dust- my family and I haven't went in it since he went missing, and..."
Wilbur trails off, as if a sudden realization came to his mind.
"I'm sorry. I completely neglected how you'd feel about it, especially since..."
Especially since it's practically a dead kid's room? Tommy was sure Wilbur wouldn't say it, wouldn't admit it out loud, but both of them think it regardless.
"I'm sorry." Wilbur repeats. "That was... that was an asshole move of me to do. Even if you didn't know, rooms like that always have a different feel to them than the others. There's... really nothing I can say to excuse my actions, but- I really, truly am sorry. And I hope you can forgive me."
Tommy has no clue what all the apologizing is for, but at least he'd solved that mystery.
"...why would you give it to me if it was your brother's?" Tommy asks. People usually keep those rooms as far away from the reach of others as possible- probably in the hope that if they leave the room just the way it is, the missing person will come back. That is, of course, not the case- not even in works of fiction.
"...I think he'd want you to have it." Wilbur admits. "I'm not sure why, but... well, Theseus worked in odd ways."
Theseus.
"That's a pretty name."
"My brother gave it to him."
"It must be nice."
"Hm?"
"To have a family."
"...yeah. I guess."
There's not much else to talk about, so they don't. Tommy steers clear of Theseus's room, though.
Tommy gets to watch movies, and play games, and he even manages to befriend the other kids his age living in the building.
And yet, something feels off. It feels as if someone is watching him constantly- all the time.
So exactly two weeks after Wilbur makes the adoption official, Tommy Innit Kraken sneaks out for the first time ever.
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
The wind feels nice. Tommy has never had trouble climbing out of buildings, even from the twentieth floor, but here, on the fourteenth, with the threat of being caught by someone looming so dangerously close, Tommy finds he feels fear for the first time in a long, long time.
Alas, he does manage to climb out without being noticed by anyone. Especially not Wilbur, so. He reckons that calls for bonus points, everyone.
Once he's not only out of the building but on the nearest rooftop, Tommy feels... better. Freer. He should seek out Eryn and Freddie later and act as if he'd been with them the whole time so Siren doesn't get suspicious, but for now, he should do what he always does.
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
Siren's streets aren't quiet, in particular, but they're not necessarily loud in a bad way. It's just... a normal bustling city, minus the crime.
Tommy wonders if the people know Siren leaves around here. If he checks on this place often enough for people to be too afraid to commit crimes, there must be some speculation, at the very least.
But he's not out to check on the streets, no. Since Lizzie, or The Lynx, as Tommy preferred to call her, had took over the government, street crimes went down significantly. It didn't mean they were completely gone, but it did mean they were exclusive to villains.
Siren's streets didn't have any villains though, unfortunately, so the only option Tommy had, truthfully, was to find some himself.
Preferably the fucker who's been stalking him since Wilbur had adopted him.
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
Bad news. Tommy doesn't find the person who'd been stalking him. Good news, he finds Eryn and Ranboo wandering the streets aimlessly and joins them. Bad news, Wilbur knows he's lying when he says he'd been with them the whole night.
He leans against the table, cup of steaming coffee beside him. Wilbur takes a sip of it, but his glare doesn't falter.
Tommy really doesn't know what to do. He doesn't even know how much Wilbur knows, realistically.
"So. You had fun with your friends?" Wilbur asks. It's a rhetorical question, yes, because they'd been through it already; Wilbur knew he was lying.
Tommy doesn't falter, though. Because faltering would mean he has to say goodbye to Crimson, and he just isn't ready for that yet.
"Yes." Tommy insists. "Why do you think I wasn't with them?"
"I met Eryn and Ranboo. When they were with Tubbo and Freddie. Somewhere around... ten, I'd say? You weren't with them."
"I went out later." Tommy explains.
"Okay. Okay, fine. Let's say you did go out later- which I doubt, because Niki said you'd been out from... eight, at least. Where'd you get the wound?" Wilbur presses.
Tommy prefers the Wilbur from day one. The one who didn't ask so many fucking questions.
His hand trails to the cut just beneath his eye. It wasn't bleeding anymore. Hadn't been for a long time.
"I fell down the stairs?"
Wilbur blinks at him.
Okay. Yes. Ridiculous excuse for multiple reasons.
"And you didn't go to the hospital immediately?"
"W- Well, if I did, they'd call you and I... didn't want to annoy you like that." Which was true! For once.
Wilbur closes his eyes, sighing. Tommy waits for his verdict, albeit impatiently. But atleast he waits.
"I know you and Crimson are the same person, Toms." Wilbur offers, rather unhelpfully.
"Who the fuck is Crimson?" Tommy blurts out. If there was anything he knew- it was that denial was always the right answer. Always.
"Your alter ego. The vigilante you play at night." Wilbur explains. As if Tommy hadn't fucking known.
"And you're Siren." Tommy blurts out.
"I sure am. But you've known that since day one, haven't you?"
⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒
Wilbur isn't too sure how to... cope with this child. He reminds him of his little brother so much, and yet- Theseus had to have been long dead by now.
Wilbur doesn't want him to hate him, though. Not just because he resembles his father so much, but also because he's just a child. And Wilbur wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything were to happen to this child.
Tommy seems spooked, to say the least. It was nothing compared to the scare Wilbur had gotten when this child had left, unannounced, for nearly half a fucking day.
But they work it out. Tommy, although reluctantly, admits to being Crimson. Wilbur doesn't fight the accusations that he's Siren, so they're somewhat even, he supposes.
They have dinner, and Tommy apologizes for scaring Wilbur. Wilbur apologizes for not being around enough to notice him sneak out. They talk, and pretty quickly, Wilbur comes to the conclusion that Tommy will not stop being Crimson, whether Wilbur allows it or not.
So they compromise. Wilbur doesn't stop Tommy from going out as Crimson, and Tommy promises that he'll tell Wilbur when he gets injured. (And by who, preferably.)
And every once in a while, they patrol together.
Tommy goes by Niki's cafe in the mornings before class. He drags one of his friends along with him every once in a while, but no one really complains.