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

Chapter 89

Tommy saw the man waiting at the door, and had it been Puffy he would've relaxed instantly, but it was someone he didn't recognise, who brought none of Puffy's safety. Tommy had gotten endlessly lucky with Puffy. In the group homes he'd been put in, he'd heard stories from the other foster kids, and he knew not all social workers were good, and very few were as good as Puffy. Although, Puffy had sent this social worker, so she probably trusted him, which meant he probably wasn't one of the bad ones. Even though Puffy's connection to the man reassured Tommy, he still most certainly didn't trust him. Although, to be fair, Tommy didn't trust most people.

"We'll step outside to talk," The man said, and there was a tone in his voice that demanded no argument be made about it. When Phil simply nodded, Tommy followed the man outside. He stopped on the doorstep, where he presumed he'd be answering whatever questions the social worker asked, but the man didn't stop. Instead he continued down the path to where a car, presumably his, sat. Hesitantly, Tommy followed. It was odd, if the man was just here to talk and check on Tommy, it didn't make sense for him to go to the car, but maybe he was trying to avoid being overheard?

"Get in," The social worker snarled, a clear order. Tommy nodded meekly, anxiety gnawing at his inside. Something felt off, but Tommy didn't know what. It was probably just his imagination again. Puffy sent this man, so he must be safe. The man, XD, Phil had called him, held the door, glaring daggers at him. Tommy didn't know why the social worker was looking at him like that, it didn't make any sense. Tommy hadn't done anything had he?

"They don't want you anymore. They are sending you away after one day, because you can't do anything right. Be fucking thankful if they didn't hurt you first, because they sure sounded like they wanted to kill you," XD hissed, then he slammed the door locking Tommy inside, and headed back up to the house.  As soon as XD had turned away, Tommy curled up on himself, trying not to cry. He had wanted to believe Phil. He had wanted so badly for Phil to be telling the truth. He had desperately wanted it not to be Techno's fault. Wanted Techno not to hate him nor want to hurt him. Wanted them to be different. Wanted them to care. But they hadn't. They were like all the rest. They had gotten sick of Tommy just like everyone did.

It shouldn't hurt as much as it did, none of the other houses had hurt this much, but Tommy had desperately wanted to believe they were different, and he had believed it. He had fucking hoped they were and this was the result. This pain, this agony ripping through his heart far stronger than the ache of the still broken rib, was the result of what happened when you hoped. Suddenly, Tommy understood why Tubbo had broken so bad. Of course he had always understood, but now he felt it. Now he knew how much it hurt. He had been hurt so many times before, but as soon as he let his guard down, let himself hope that it would be different, he was hit with the same thing as always, and it had fucking hurt.

Tommy hid his face in his knees, wanting to hide away and disappear from sight, and more importantly, wanting to hide the tears streaming down his face. It was stupid. He shouldn't feel like this. He had no reason to trust them, and Techno had made that blatantly clear. Plus, it was his fault Techno had gotten the concussion. His fault Quackity had gotten the broken nose. His fault and they knew it  and they hated him for it, and he should've seen that coming. Why hadn't he seen it coming!? It had been so painfully clear what was going to happen and Tommy had been so completely oblivious. He was never like this. Never this clueless. Never this trusting. Why had he trusted them? He had let them buy him a fucking phone and now he knew they were just messing with his head and that fact fucking hurt, just like they had meant it too.

Tommy heard footsteps coming over and quickly he hid his face. No one could see him cry. No one. He blinked away the tears, rubbing his face to hide the stream of them. It was good enough. It had to be good enough. He let his legs fall down to the floor, no longer curled up. He sat perfectly straight, knowing that if he did anything wrong this social worker may very well leave him on the streets and claim he had run away. It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened to a foster kid, although it would be a first for Tommy. In fact, Tommy had only ever had a social worker other than Puffy pick him up once, and that had been when Puffy had been in surgery. She had been back to full health not long after, and had returned to being Tommy's social worker. He wondered what had happened to Puffy to make her not come to get him, and he desperately needed her to be ok. Puffy was the only good thing in Tommy's agonising life, he couldn't lose her.

XD didn't say a word to Tommy as he drove, and Tommy had to admit he felt a little relieved at that. There could be far worse treatment. He didn't know if he could maintain a calm facade if XD decided to berate him again. He would try, of course, but the pain still ripped at his heart. So, Tommy sat in silence until they arrived at their destination, a dull house just outside the city limits, sitting on a large property of empty grasslands.

Words: 1000

A/N: to the person in the comments who reminded me that tommy has a broken rib, thank you, I genuinely completely forgot about it- I keep most important foreshadowing points in a word document but I was like "nah I wouldn't forget that" but nope, I did, cuz I'm just that pathetic XD, so yes, if you see foreshadowing, its definitely a possibility I forgot about it, but most of the points (the ones i wrote down) I will have finished by the end of this fic, (I have stuff that was foreshadowed at the very start that I still haven't gotten too, but I swear it'll happen eventually)