They Rely On Hope. What Do I Rely On? - Tommyinnit Adoption AU

Chapter 45

Tommy slowly woke up, beginning to take in the noise around him, but he wasn't fully awake, his eyes still unable to open, not able to move, but able to hear.

"-not right," One voice said, and Tommy only managed to catch the end of the sentence, the voice was lowered, not to a whisper, but quiet enough to not be fully audible.

"Yeah..." Another voice replied sadly, and silence stretched for a moment before the same voice continued, even quieter, so quiet that Tommy was somewhat surprised he could make out the words at all, "He's not telling us anything."

Were they talking about him? If so they knew he wasn't being honest and that meant Tommy was in even more danger then he had thought. He tried to force himself to move, force his eyes to open, or his body to shoot up but nothing happened.

"He's hurting, really hurting," Another replied. Tommy wasn't sure how many were here, nor how many had spoken. He didn't know if this voice was the same or different to the other two.

"What do we do?" Someone asked and Tommy held his breath. They didn't know he could hear them, which meant this was much more likely to be true. Well, unless they did know somehow and this was fake, Tommy couldn't know what they knew.

"We protect him, make him feel safe and then wait for him to talk to us. We can't force him to say anything," Someone else replied quietly and Tommy silently released the breath he had been holding. He doubted they knew he could hear them, which meant he doubted it was a trick. Of course he couldn't be sure, and this didn't remove his fears, but it did ease them somewhat.

"Like you did with me," Another voice murmured, agreeing. Huh? What did that mean?

Finally, Tommy managed to force his eyes open.

"Tommy!" A voice exclaimed, this one closer, and louder. Tommy blinked up at the face now hovering in his line of view. The face beamed before speaking again, "You're awake!"

Tommy blinker hard, trying to work out who the face belonged to. After a moment it came into focus and he recognised Ranboo.

"Are you hurt?" A different voice asked, and Tommy recognised it as Wilbur.

"I'm ok," Tommy murmured, slowly propping himself up, only to get pushed down gently by Ranboo.

"No sitting up yet, Kristin said not to until she had seen you in case you're hurt badly," Ranboo explained, his voice insistent but gentle.

Tommy sighed and lay there, not sure who else was in the room, nor how much danger he was in other then that it was far too much for his liking. He was stuck, vulnerable and terrified. He focused on controlling his breathing, knowing the danger of showing any fear, and then he looked up, tilting his head but not moving his shoulders or attempting to sit up. He scanned the room quickly, three people. There was Ranboo who he had seen before, Wilbur who he had heard speak and Techno, sitting further away then the other two. Fuck.

Tommy wanted to jump to his feet, wanted to run, wanted to be anywhere other then here, but knew he couldn't. He knew if he moved they'd hold him back. He had been told to stay put. They were here to enforce that.

"I'm getting Kristin," Techno said, his voice breaking, anguish covering his face. Tommy didn't know what that meant. He didn't know if it was real. He didn't understand. Not at all. He wanted to ask, wanted to find out, but he knew he couldn't. He couldn't ask. It was not Tommy's job to ask questions, his job was to already know any answers he might need.

Usually when he needed an answer he just followed his instincts, sensing the immediate danger, but, while his muscles were telling him he was in danger, something else was wondering if maybe, just maybe, he was wrong.

"You've been unconscious for almost all of recess. Normally Kristin would call your parents but you insisted not to. She was going to call if you didn't wake up before the end of recess. They haven't been called but if you want them to be called they can be," Ranboo explained quietly, offering what he seemed to think was safety, but Tommy just feared the dangers of the words.

"I don't need anyone called," Tommy replied, his voice somewhat hoarse, but overall not too bad. He'd had far worse.

"Do you know what happened?" Ranboo asked gently and Tommy froze, or well, if he had been moving at all before that he would've. What had happened? He had been fine, then Techno had come, and he'd remembered the danger he was in thanks to his stupid choices yesterday and- oh shit. Wilbur had been there too. Wilbur would be angry too.

Tommy whipped his head around, quickly moving Wilbur into his view, scanning the man for any sign he was a danger. Of course there were plenty of signs he was a danger, but right now he didn't look angry. He didn't look like he was going to attack Tommy here. Maybe that was because Kristin was near. Yeah, that made sense. It's much less common for people to hurt him with a nurse or paramedic or doctor around. It wasn't unheard of, in fact some of those people had been the ones to hurt Tommy, but it was less common.

"Are you ok?" Wilbur asked, caught off-guard by the sudden movement of Tommy's head in his direction.

"Yeah," Tommy murmured, letting his head fall back in exhaustion, "Yeah, I'm ok."

"Are you sure?" Ranboo asked and Tommy nodded, letting his eyes close for a moment, giving himself half a second of rest before he opened them again, watching the others in the room, preparing for a sudden movement or attack. Silence stretched as the others tried to work out what to say. Tommy didn't know what to think, so he just lay, watching the two anxiously for any sign of imminent danger.

Words: 1000

A/N: Wrote half of this last night, but then was so tired I had to stop, so finished it during school heheh anyway, hopefully I'll be able to write some more tonight, so maybe 2 updates to make up for missing yesterdays? :]