Home is not a house

Chapter 31

Tw for this chapter: Talk of injuries, past abuse, trauma, breakdown

It was a week later when everyone returned home from the hospital.

Phil and Wilbur were mostly fine at that point, though Wilbur did have to get a cast over his stitches so he would stop picking at them until it was healed fully.

Tommy was now dealing with scabs of cuts, and his had to have a shoulder brace on to keep him from moving his shoulder until his stitches fully healed. He was in high spirits however, making jokes about how he was now part robot.

Techno on the other side wasn't too happy. While his scabs and cuts on his sides were actually doing better than Tommy's, he wasn't doing okay with his chest and hair.

His chest was one issue, the huge insertion went down it near his sternum so now there was a row of stitches there. Meaning he truly couldn't take a full shower, or even bend over or do anything that would use a lot of up ward movement. He was growing restless with that.

His hair was a whole other issue. It had been important for Techno to grow out his hair for years.

It all came from an old religious foster home that shaved his head as a punishment, Techno hating them for years for it. That and it made him feel safe, like he had control over something.

Now it was a choppy mess, dead and burnt, so bad that you couldn't even run a brush through it. Techno at first didn't even want to look in the mirror at it, but now he just threw it in a ponytail, pretending it was okay.

He knew the truth, he knew what was really going to have to happen. But all of him didn't want to face it. He didn't want to even think of it. Pushed away thoughts of what was coming and didn't want to even talk about it.

That was until one night he finally broke down about it. It had been another week since they had gotten home, making it two weeks since the accident.

It was around 2am. Tommy and Wilbur both couldn't sleep, so Wilbur had made them tea in the kitchen. They sat at the breakfast bar until they heard Techno's door open. They stopped their talking to listen for a moment and when they heard sobbing they ran to the bathroom.

Techno was on the floor, sobbing.

He was half curled into a ball, as much as his body would allow him without ruining the stitches on his chest. He kept bringing his hands to his head like he was going to grip his hair, but stopped himself before he did.

"Tech! Are you okay? Are you hurting? Do you need meds?" Wilbur was quick to jump in, trying his best to help his brother who was obviously hurting. Techno was shaking his head and sobbing, gasping to try and catch his breath.

"Techno you need to breathe." Tommy said softly, crouching down onto the ground near Techno. "Can I grab your hands?" Tommy asked and Techno nodded through his sobs. Tommy carefully grabbed his hands. "When I squeeze breathe in, when I let go breathe out." Tommy instructed and Techno nodded again.

As they sat there Wilbur got flash backs to when Tommy first arrived. When Techno was the one helping Tommy calm down, but now the roles were reversed. It felt weird to Wilbur, but he tried not to think about it for too long. Wilbur just sat down across from them, his back to the cabinets as Techno's back was to the tub.

After Techno seemed mostly calmed down Tommy seemed it would be okay to ask questions.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tommy asked and Techno nodded. "Okay, take your time." Techno inhaled as much as his lungs would let him.