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

Chapter 73

TW: mentions of abuse

Phil and Eret's parents spoke quietly for a moment, before agreeing that Eret's parents would take the rest of them home. Then, Phil turned to leave. Wilbur and Techno stood, readying to follow him. Relief flickered across Techno's exhausted face as they did. At the same time, Eret moved over to Tommy, leaning down to whisper to him.

"Are you ok?" She asked, and Tommy nodded, not sure if it was the truth, "If you need anything, tell Phil. If you want to see me, just ask. I'm here for you and I always will be."

"I'm here for you and I always will be." The words echoed around Tommy's mind, as he searched for their meaning. Searched for the truth, searched for the lie. Searched for the reason, searched for the logic. In the end, he found nothing, and was simply left confused and unsure. Why would Eret say that? Did she mean it? Was she making fun of him? What was she thinking about right now? Tommy wished he knew. He wished he understood.

When Phil, Techno and Wilbur left, Tommy followed them, silent as ever, watching them carefully. Techno sat in the front of the car, so Tommy joined Wilbur in the back. The trip was awkward, Wilbur trying to create conversation, while both Techno and Tommy sat silently, one exhausted, and one terrified to speak. Phil attempted to help Wilbur with creating conversation, but it felt forced and Tommy knew it was. He knew if he wasn't here they'd be quiet, relaxing and letting Techno relax. They felt obliged to talk around Tommy and fill in his silences. Tommy knew it would drive them to fury soon enough. They'd begin to hate him for taking up their space. From there, it would only get worse. Tommy knew that well.

Phil pulled to a stop in front of a house, double story, but still fairly small all things considered. Tommy scanned the house, trying to search for danger, but he knew he wouldn't find any. It was never that obvious.

Phil looked over his shoulder, smiling at Tommy, who pulled back, wishing the chair would swallow him whole, then at least he wouldn't have to go inside to where the danger would begin to show.

"Welcome home, Tommy," Phil said, his voice gentle, as though the words were supposed to be a comfort and not an insult, but that was what it was. An insult. Tommy had never gotten to have a home, and he never would. Phil knew that. Phil knew the pain the words would cause. Everyone knew the pain those words meant. Home was not something Tommy had.

Tommy didn't argue, just nodded, pretending not to be drowning in pain. No one liked seeing his pain. No one needed to deal with that. It was Tommy's job to hide it, so hide it he would.

Phil got out of the car, and Tommy followed him numbly, watching the man, preparing for a blow. His eyes only flicked away for a second, looking over to Wilbur as he got out, and then Techno who Wilbur helped up. Quickly, Tommy's eyes were back to being trained on Phil, the current greatest danger.

"Let's go inside, I'll show you around," Phil said, before looking over to Wilbur and Techno, "Wil, take Tech upstairs to his room so he can rest."

With that, the two brothers gave Tommy a smile and disappeared into the house. Phil followed them, so Tommy did too. Phil showed him around, the first floor was for all the shared rooms, and the second floor held 3 bedrooms, and 2 offices.

"You'll use Wilbur's room until I can get you a bed for this room, and it'll become yours. Wilbur will be using the spare mattress in Techno's room to keep an eye on him for the next week or so anyway," Phil explained, gesturing into one of the offices. This one had 2 desks, one covered haphazardly with paper and the other neatly stacked, almost perfectly. Both had what looked to be fairly good quality computers as well. Tommy was pretty sure it was where Techno and Wilbur would normally do their school study, although why they had computers like that Tommy didn't know.

"That's my office, if you ever need me, you'll be able to find me there, in my room, or downstairs somewhere, just please knock first."

Tommy knew that routine. If he ever knocked on that door, the beatings would start. How dare he interrupt important work, that's what Phil would be screaming in between hits. Yeah, Tommy would avoid that like the plague, and he hated being sick.

"Hey, I'm back," Wilbur beamed, stepping out of a room and closing the door behind him, "Techno's asleep and the spare mattress is set up."

"That's Techno's room," Phil explained, before turning to the door across the hallway from the one Wilbur had emerged from.

"And that's where you'll be staying until I can set up your room," Phil finished, and as he spoke Wilbur opened the door, revealing an excessively messy room, with teal and blue walls, coated in music posters multiple of which were on the verge of falling off.

"It's messy, I know, I've been meaning to clean it up, but I haven't yet, I'm really sorry," Wilbur rambled, before pulling himself to a stop, letting Tommy take in the room. Tommy stared inside where paper was thrown haphazardly around, most of it scrunched up, and the bin overflowing with paper that looked to be covered in messy hand writing. The bed itself had multiple sheets of what looked to be music paper covering it, and a guitar lay next to them. The walls were a colour Tommy had to admit he loved, they were bright in a way only a few rooms he had slept in were. Fairy lights draped from the ceiling, and green tinted stars were attached on the roof, why,  Tommy didn't know, but it was nice. The room felt used. It felt like it was someone's home.

"I'm just- I'm gonna clean this up," Wilbur said quickly, stumbling slightly over his words as he moved into the room, pulling the few sheets of paper that weren't crumpled up into a pile, and stuffing the rest into the already overflowing bin. He scrambled around, cleaning up as best as he could in a minute, and Tommy watched, stunned, having expected to be the one told to clean up. That was what usually happened. He cleaned up other people's messes. This was probably just a weird exception.

All of a sudden Wilbur was once again standing in front of them, this time holding king a bin full of paper and a handful of sheets.

"I'm just gonna-" Wilbur muttered, stepping sideways and dashing into Techno's room, before returning a moment later empty handed, grabbing the guitar and leaving it leaning on the wall next to Techno's door. The room was now significantly less messy, although it certainly wasn't perfect.

"Let's go downstairs for a bit," Phil said after a few seconds of awkward silence, and the two kids followed him downstairs, Wilbur giving Tommy an awkward smile as they walked. Clearly Wilbur had not been ready for a guest in his room, but Phil hadn't even seemed upset? Why hadn't Phil been upset? It didn't make sense. Not only had Wilbur's room not been spotless, he hadn't been ready, and it hadn't been spotless after the quick clean either. It was 3 times he had messed up, all at once, why had Phil seemed so nonchalant? Why had he treated it as the most normal thing in the world? Why did Wilbur seem so calm- in fact he seemed as though he was ready to laugh about it. Why? It didn't make any fucking sense.

Phil sat down at the kitchen island, so Wilbur and Tommy joined him, albeit filled with nerves, or at least Tommy was. Wilbur should be. After all, he was probably in trouble.

"So, Tommy, what stuff do you need? You only have your back pack after all. Is there more at Dream's place, if so I can collect it for you, otherwise we can go shopping tomorrow."

"Umm, no, I'm fine, I got some stuff not long ago, I'm all good," Tommy said, trying to reassure Phil he didn't need anything. If Phil got the feeling Tommy wanted things, he'd be in trouble. Tommy could not imply that he wanted anything. He had to be careful. This was definitely a test, one he recognised well.

Phil tilted his head seemingly confused and Tommy sat, terrified and unmoving under his questioning gaze.

"Well, we'll go shopping for stuff for your room tomorrow, you can let me know if you need anything then," Phil suggested, and Tommy just nodded jerkily, terrified of disagreeing, and terrified of failing this test. Somehow, Phil seemed completely appeased by this. Tommy did not understand this family.

Words: 1500

A/N: I'm watching the Dragon Prince series (on Netflix) at the moment, it's rlly awesome, very funny, but still got angst, would recommend (also a solid amount of representation which is always a plus) :]