Chapter Text
Tommy had dreamt of magical worlds for as long as he could remember. Well, one magical world anyways. The details were always missing, blurry faces staring out at him from the many bodies that scattered the battlefields in his mind. He always understood the words being spoken despite the distorted tones that would come out whenever someone spoke. There was a familiarity to this half world, a familiarity he always struggled to find within his own skin.
These dreams, despite their bloody and cruel nature, were still more comforting than the real world. In his dreams he had a family, older brothers who sometimes protected him and sometimes attacked. But at least they cared for him, sometimes, unlike his acquaintances in the real world. None of the children in the group home cared for him, neither did the social worker, and certainly not any of the foster parents who attempted to take him in before giving up entirely on his hopeless cause.
Sarah, the social worker, was speaking to him right now, as he allowed his mind to sink halfway into his magical world. He couldn’t live there while awake but he could certainly find comfort in the smell of the forest flooding his senses as he sat in the wooden chair of Sarah’s office.
“-mmy? Tommy!” Sarah raised her voice above the usual calm tone, frustration leaking in despite her usual reservations. She rarely yelled at the other kids, but she was more often than not angry at Tommy for something. “Your new foster parent will be here in a few minutes, can you pay even a little bit of attention?”
Tommy smirked up at the woman, and both of them knew the next words out of his mouth would be a simple ‘No’ followed by a series of colourful swears. Thankfully for Sarah, a knock at the door stopped him in his tracks. Sarah sighed in relief, standing up and smoothing out her long skirt before crossing the office to the door. She opened it up and the two adults made introductions, as Tommy once again zoned out.
He didn’t want to be fostered by some random asshole. He was fine in the group home, ignored for the most part and barely tolerated. At least here no one really cared when he zoned out, didn’t mind his barely muffled screams at night, all of the children accustomed to at least one person crying out in their sleep every night. In the new home, he would be under the microscope, any minor screw up amplified and treated far more seriously than it had any right to be.
Staring at the man in front of him, he felt nothing but apathy. The man was blonde, a few stray grey hairs peppered around. His blue eyes sparkled with kindness, as he smiled down at Tommy, but the young child knew it wouldn’t last forever. Soon he’d be as enraged as everyone else was when faced long enough with Tommy’s antics.
He almost felt bad for the poor man.
Almost.
“Hi Tommy, I’m Phil.” Phil reached out his arm for a handshake, but Tommy stayed motionless. Sarah looked ready to start yelling again, and opened her mouth, clearly going to demand Tommy shook the man’s hand but Phil withdrew his arm first. He didn’t look upset, in fact he looked completely understanding, something in his face feeling familiar in a way that didn’t make sense. It was like there was something in his expression that Tommy had seen a million times before, despite never having seen the man before today. Tommy had to fight back the confusion he could feel rising up in him from crossing his face.
A few tense moments passed, Phil seeming unaware of the silence, smiling down at Tommy. Sarah cleared her throat, “Right, well Phil and I need to discuss a few things and sign some paperwork. Why don’t you wait outside in the hall Tommy? Close the door on your way out please.”
Tommy hated the hallway, every time he was forced to stand out there it meant he was simply waiting for whatever punishment he would receive for his bad behaviour. But he fought down his frustration, stepping towards the door.
“My sons are waiting in the hallway; you could introduce yourself to them.” Phil called after him and Tommy lightly nodded before stepping out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He turned around, seeing his new foster siblings for the first time.
They definitely weren’t what he was expecting.
The more normal looking of the two was tall. Like, really tall. His lanky limbs looked like they were barely hung on by a thread, as if a light wind would dismember the older boy into a million pieces. His brown hair curled lightly on top of his hair, fluffy in a way you only saw on television. Tommy didn’t know someone’s hair could be so soft looking in real life. He had a dark grey beanie shoved on top of the locks, but they still peeked out over his brown eyes. A yellow sweater hung limply over his thin frame, stark against his pale skin. He looked like a walking corpse.
The other boy was somehow even more unusual. He was shorter than the tall boy, which wasn’t really shocking. But where the taller boy was lanky, this one was muscular. He looked like he could probably kill Tommy with just his right hand. He wore a bright red jacket, with white fur trim around the collar, and a surprising amount of gold jewellery for a teenage boy. But the most bizarre part about him was the pink hair pulled back into a ponytail. He seriously had bright pink hair, despite looking like some kind of pro-wrestler.
Neither of these boys were what Tommy had been expecting and he resisted the urge to run back into the office. He felt small next to the two teenagers, especially as that feeling from before crawled up into his chest. The sense that there was something familiar about them, like they were more real than anything or anyone he had met. Most people felt only half present, his dream world floating around them, making them appear out of place. But these two boys fit both in the real world and his dream world. A simple blink and suddenly the tall boy was dressed in some form of military costume, a bloody wound in the middle of his chest, and the pink boy had grown ears like a pig and clutched an axe of all things in his hand. Another blink and suddenly the changes were gone, and they looked normal again.
Tommy frowned at the two boys, the pink haired one looking more awkward than anything else and the taller one looking as if he really did not care about anything going on. He had earphones in and was staring at his phone, barely glancing up at Tommy before shifting his attention back down once again. The pink haired one looked increasingly more uncomfortable as time went on and the three teenagers stood in silence for a few moments before the tall one sighed heavily and tapped on his phone once, ripping out his earphones and making eye contact with Tommy.
The eye-contact only made the unusual feeling mount in his chest more and more, but suddenly the taller boy spoke up. “I’m Wilbur, this is Techno.” He motioned towards the pink haired boy. Tommy scrunched up his nose slightly at the odd names. Who names their kids Wilbur and Techno?
“I’m Tommy.”
“We know.” Wilbur looked him up and down a few times, before rolling his eyes and looking back at his phone, slowly stepping back without looking until he hit a chair. He then sat down in it heavily, lifting one foot up immediately to clutch his bent leg close to his chest as he leant his phone on his knee. With that the conversation was clearly over and Tommy could feel anger rising up inside of him. He was being forced to move in with these assholes and they couldn’t even bother looking at him. Well, Wilbur couldn’t be bothered, Techno was staring a little too intently. Tommy made eye-contact with the pink haired boy who suddenly looked far scarier now that he made been introduced. It was as if Wilbur making the first step reminded the muscular teenager that he was meant to be intimidating.
And he certainly was intimidating.
Tommy resisted the urge to shrink back at the intensity of his gaze. What was with these two and being way too intense with simple eye contact?
“Oi, would you two idiots just fucking sit down already?” Wilbur spat out, still staring at his phone. There was something odd about his voice, a slight, almost inaudible echo that Tommy must have imagined, because it wasn’t possible for someone’s voice to echo like that in this hallway. Tommy decided to sit down though, it didn’t make sense for him to keep standing. He sat down in one of the chairs lining the opposite wall from Wilbur.
Techno looked like he was about to argue, but Wilbur sharply flicked his eyes up and Techno grumbled, sitting down beside his brother. Wilbur seemed satisfied and looked back down at his phone.
More silence filled the hallway for a few minutes before the office door opened back up. Phil stepped out, smiling good-naturedly at Sarah and then at the three gathered boys. “Are you ready to go Tommy?”
Tommy nodded before picking up his backpack filled with his few belongings. Phil looked a bit sad by the small bag, but smiled once again, and lead the way out of the group home. They reached the gravel outside and all that could be heard was the crunching of the rocks under the boots both older teenagers wore. Tommy’s sneakers barely made any noise on the ground.
Phil spoke to Tommy as they walked, “So you can take the front seat in the car ride home, it’s a bit more comfortable than the back, especially when sharing the back with Wilbur or Techno.” Tommy nodded his head at the man’s attempts to be kind but he knew it wouldn’t last forever. Might as well make the most of it while he could.
They reached the car, and Wilbur walked up the front passenger side door, reaching out a thin hand to grasp at the handle. Another hand shot out, tan skin meeting pale and faster than Tommy could blink, Techno was there, leaning into the taller boy’s personal space. “Phil said Tommy could get the front seat you asshole.”
Wilbur’s mouth quirked up into a cruel smirk, sharp canine teeth visible, looking as if he was going to argue, but as he alternated looking into Techno’s eyes and the hand on his wrist, he suddenly huffed before pulling away from the front door and walking to the back. He pulled open the back door with a strength that didn’t seem possible for his corpse-like body before basically throwing himself onto the seat, throwing his middle finger up at his brother before slamming the door closed.
Techno and Phil both sighed, making eye contact briefly before making their own way to the car doors. Tommy awkwardly shuffled up to the front passenger door and pulled it open. He sat down, buckling his seatbelt at the insistence of Phil. He stared out at the group home as they pulled away, not pleased with leaving it behind even if it sucked. At least it was consistent.
Sparing one final glance at the tall building, he glanced into the rear-view mirror, shocked to see both of the older teenagers staring at him. Wilbur was smirking and Techno looked completely apathetic. And once again, Tommy felt like there was something familiar about them, something he couldn’t quite place.