Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy sighed as he trudged through the deep snow, Business Bay had needed ice blocks for the bridge they were making, so him, Bitzel, Deo, and Luke had finally gone out to the arctic to get some.

They were a good distance away from the Antarctic Empires lands, so as to not cause any trouble. Business Bay and the Antarctic Empire had just recently finished a skirmish, something about Techno thinking that Tommy had stolen some supplies from them, things that they had left out to come get later.
Tommy hadn't known about it, but of course seeing as it seemed like “something he would do”, Business Bay immediately got blamed with no questions asked.

The Antarctic Empire had come swiftly in a blind rage, and had set a large bomb on the lands of Business Bay. The crops, and even worse, part of Business Bridge, were mercilessly destroyed, before Tommy and the rest of Business Bay were able to convince them that they had nothing to do with it.

It really just ended there, Deo had told them to get out before something worse happened, as Tommy fell on his knees in front of the ruins of the bridge that he had been so damn proud of building. They were declared neutral, many more on the server had heard about the incident, but seeing as the wound was still fresh they all unanimously decided to leave them alone for a while.

Back in the present day, Tommy watched as Luke took out his map and looked around cautiously, they all knew that seeing anyone from AE would be really… tense, and none of them were ready for another fight, so they all knew decided to stay cautious.

Luke to stared intensely at the map, before announcing; “We're close, there should be an Ice mine nearby.”

“YOOOOOO!" They all jumped at Deo's loud yell. “It's fookin cold out here bruh!"

They all burst out laughing as Deo got smacked right in the face by a snowball from Bitzel.

“Don't scare me like that dude!” Bitzel exclaimed, letting out a puff of air. They all froze when they heard an echoing crack.They all froze.

“Everyone backed away from each other slowly, there's too much weight in one spot.” Luke stated quietly.

Tommy stepped back along with the others. They all listened quietly for any more cracks. They started to relax after a few moments where nothing happened, when suddenly they heard another. This time, right underneath Tommy.

There was a sickening silence as they all looked up at their leader. Tommy didn't breathe, he didn't move an inch. He could feel the harsh wind on his cheeks, and his friend's heavy breathing seemed to echo in his mind.

Tommy stayed there, still and silent for what felt like hours, but was in reality, only minutes, before he let out a shaky breath of air. The rest of Business Bay did as well, but it was like they had unwittingly jinxed it, as the next moment Tommy was being plunged into the freezing depths of the lake.

Cold…. It was so DAMN COLD. he could feel himself sinking so he quickly pushed away the feeling of arctic water nipping at his skin and kicked himself upwards.

His hands met solid ice. He felt around, trying to find where he fell through, he opened his eyes in the freezing water with a wince. He could see where he fell through and it had been… frozen over?

He banged on the ice a couple of times, before it suddenly got thicker. Tommy jerked back in surprise. It was a glitch then, he had literally just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The world must have found the glitch and tried to fix it.

He realized he was slowly running out of air, when he heard the sound of what he presumed to be people running, were they leaving him?

Tommy looked up again to see Deos face, quickly replaced with Technoblades. ‘Really?! Of all the times Techno could've shown up, he did it now?’ Tommy thought to himself. Not that he was complaining though, chances are Techno would save him, and Tommy didn't want to die. Respawning sucked, and you almost always ended up feeling the pain you experienced when you died afterwards.

His vision started getting darker as he watched Techno hammer away at the ice with a pic. Tommy could see the slight outline of game code, that must be why it's not breaking.

His body started feeling numb as the cold was bone deep, and he could faintly see the last of his air go up in bubbles to the surface. The steady beat of Technos pickaxe becoming irregular was the last thing he heard, before the darkness finally consumed him.

Tommyinnit Drowned w̵̤h̴̞̋i̸̻̍l̶̞͝s̵̬̃t̶̖̉ ̷͍̅t̸̞͗r̸̯̒à̵̝p̷͔͛p̶̣̔e̷̩͂ď̸̞ ̷̪̾u̵̡̇n̴̥̔d̵̯͊e̵͔̎r̶̝̚ ̷̾͜i̴̼̎c̴̘͘e̵̡͗

----------------

Nothing, that's all Tommy felt. Then he saw a light, it had voices calling to him, his parents' voices. He almost went to them when he remembered what had happened. He shied away from the voices, he needed to respawn, he had shit to do! He couldn't give up now!

Tommy felt a tug in his gut, then he was suddenly pulled backwards. He started going faster and faster, unable to slow down or stop whatever force was dragging him. Tomny felt cold, unbearably so. He closed his eyes as he let what he'd decided was the “void” take him. He was going so fast now, different shades of purple and black blurring together and into one. The harsh whistling in his ears got louder and louder until-

Tommy sat up gasping in his bed, he wrapped his arms around himself to try and stop his shaking. He felt like he couldn't breathe. It was normal after respawning to feel the phantom pains of how you died, Techno had made that very apparent after he had killed Tommy a couple times during their skirmishes. He had apologized later but Tommy still had to go through the after effects whilst rebuilding Business Bay. It was unpleasant to say the least.

He felt his communicator start going off with a rattling noise. He looked at it to see the server chat going crazy, he saw that it was mostly about him.

Usually respawning took a couple days, he looked at the clock to see it had been just past an hour. Huh, weird.
Tommy looked back at his communicator, his shaking hands once more. The messages mostly consisted of the Business Bois yelling at the admins about a glitch, and Techno demanding that they come to the AE immediately.

Oh yeah… the glitch… Tommy groaned and set his comm unit down. He remembered falling through the ice, Technoblade showing up, and then... nothing. His icy death explained why he felt so cold. He pulled the blanket up to his shoulders and curled up into his bed. He watched his communicator with mild interest as the server tried to figure out what had happened.

Tommy thought about sending a message in chat just to mess with them, but decided against it. If he did, then they would send someone to check on him (while the others tried to figure out the glitch thing), which would lead to him being questioned about what had happened to him -and Tommy really didn't want to talk about right now. The memories of clawing at the ice and gasping for air filled his mind and Tommy roughly shoved them back down. Besides, he was perfectly happy staying in his semi warm bed, content not to move.

Whilst watching the chat fly by (everyone was asking many questions and discussing what had happened to him), Tommy saw a whisper appear in his inbox. It was from Wilbur.

Now here's the thing; He and Wilbur were close, but seeing as the AE and Wilbur were closer (because of Sleepy Bois Inc), Wilbur always took Technos side, no matter what. Which to be honest, hurt. It hurt that he was never anyone's first choice -except, it seemed, when he fucking died.

The whisper was a simple “Tom?”

He decided to break his silence, but only to Wil. “sup.” Was all he said.

“TOMMY!! HOLY SHIT” was only the begging of the typed onslaught from the worried man. He let out a small sigh. One message caught his eye.

“Can I T.P you? So much is happening and you shouldn't be alone, are you okay?"

Tommy let out a sigh, sitting up and shaking off the dizziness he replied to Wilbur, albeit reluctantly.

“ill be okay, im just tired. you can TP if you want, it'd be nice to have some company I guess.”

Tommy stood up still shivering from the cold waiting for the feeling of teleporting. The ground swayed under his feet and the flooring changed as he fell forward, only to be caught by a pair of arms. He coughed slightly before opening his eyes again.

"Holy shit Tommy you're freezing!” He felt the soft bed beneath him as he was gently set down on it.

“Mmm, wonder why.” He replied sarcastically, looking at the man in front of him. Wilbur was wearing a red beanie and his classic yellow sweater, he seemed to be incredibly warm (probably geared up to fight the cold in the AE), and Tommy was unabashedly jealous. Wilbur observed him too, watching him shake uncontrollably for a bit, before coming to a decision.

Wilbur left, disappearing out the door, and Tommy took the chance to look around the room he was in. It was a living room of sorts, and Tommy suddenly remembered seeing it from outside once, through a window. It had been whilst he was visiting, and he had never actually been inside. Tommy looked down to see he was actually sitting on a couch, not a bed like he'd originally thought.

Wilbur walked back into the room, this time armed with a pile of blankets, before throwing them all ontop of Tommy. He wrapped himself up in them without being asked to, enjoying the warmth that they provided. Wil sat beside him and started speaking again.

“So uhhh… how ya feeling?”

“Cold, I guess,” Tommy said, looking at the floor, “And I'm also fucken tired, but that's normal for… ya know, respawning”

Wilbur hummed in agreement.

“We'll need to set up a guest room for you later, but for now you can just share with me if you want,” Tommy looked up from the floor as the older man continued talking. “I'm not going to pry, I know that respawning is an exhausting process, and seeing as you did it pretty fast this time, I'm sure you need some well deserved sleep. You'll need it too, since it won't be long before people come lookin for ya.” The man offered him a small smile. Tommy chuckled.

“Yeah, that’d be nice. Don't need those nosy pricks accidentally messing up my respawn.”

Wilbur stood up, gesturing for Tommy to do so as well. He stood up, all of the blankets still on him, making him sway a bit before Wilbur steady's him. He leads Tommy to a spare room, murmuring something that sounded suspiciously like;

“Walking beanbag child." To which Tommy elegantly replied with;

“i'll f'ing stab you bish..!” Whilst collapsing onto the bed. He suddenly felt drained of all energy, and even the thought of lifting his arm made him tired. He amended his statement “After I get some fuckin sleep tho”.

He heard Wilbur chuckle at the comment as Tommy struggled to shuffle under the covers. He was still shivering, but it was nowhere near as bad as before. “Thanks… by the way.”

“No problem kiddo, respawning sucks, especially if people bother you afterwards. Besides, I care for you Tom, your like a weird little gremlin' brother to me.” Tommy snorted tiredly.

“guess Techno is the mean older brother then.” it was Wills turn to laugh.

“Don't let him hear you say that. Get some sleep, I'll be here when you wake up."

The lights turned off and Tommy curled in on himself, closing his eyes as he let out a deep breath. The cold was starting to fade, now replaced with bone aching exhaustion.

Wilbur left, but Tommy could hear faint pieces of him talking, on what presumably was his comm. Tommy strained to listen, but it was very hard to understand a one sided conversation.

“Sorry Seth, I can't make it to the server meeting-"
"Yes I know that everyone's going to be there, that's why I'm not."
"..Mm, I found him."
"I'm not going to leave him alone dude!"
"No, you can't... he just respawned from a glitch, he doesn't need stress-"
".. fine i'll tell him."
"... yes I-... look im gonna go, but call me if you need me…"

He heard Wilbur sigh before his door opened again. Tommy blearily looked up at him, brain still trying to understand the conversation and failing.

“Scooch over you oaf, it's my bed too.”

Tommy was too tired to complain so he just moved over. He felt Wilbur lie down next to him, laying stiffly before slowly relaxing. Soon his soft snores filled the air and Tommy smiled to himself. He fell asleep feeling safer than he had for a very long time.

Chapter Text

Techno looked at his map then back to Phil who was at his side. They had seen that Business Bay was in the Antarctic, he didn't want to start a fight, they were neutral after all.

He continued following the trail of footprints they found, the group was close but they wanted to avoid a confrontation. The two factions weren't exactly on the best of terms, after Techno had idiotically charged into a fight without any hard evidence, to make it worse.
he had brought the whole A.E.

To say that he was guilty would be an understatement, the last that he had seen of Tommy was the kid collapsing in front of a destroyed Business Bridge. A bridge that he had destroyed, even though Phil had warned him not to go too far, he hadn't listened. The image was burned into his mind at this point.

Don't even get him started on the fact that he made the kids only other faction member at the time, betray him about a month ago. What a role model he is.

Tommy was a good kid, and he had wormed his way into everyone's hearts within the first few weeks of being on the server. It got deeper when he had found out that Tommy was an orphan, after overhearing it whilst spying on Business bay.

He continued walking, still in deep thought. Guilt flooded Techno as he remembered how cruel he had been to Tommy and his friends in the past.

-----

Techno had discovered that some of his more important loot had been stolen, and he'd immediately put the blame on Tommy. The kid always took any chance to 'collect' loot he found, especially if it was A.E loot, as it was generally very high quality. Techno had gathered his forces, and led an airstrike -ignoring Wisps words of reluctance, and the side glances that Phil had given him.

Maybe he had gone too far. The nuke had done a lot of damage. Most of the crops were gone, and most notably Business bridge had been decimated. Business Bay had quickly come running, and a skirmish had quickly broken out. It wasn't much of a fair fight though, it was a 6 v 4 and the Antarctic Empire was way more prepared than the Business Bay.

Techno had his sword to Tommy's chest, while the boy lay on the ground weapon-less, fear evident in his eyes -hidden by a layer of anger. The rest of the B.B had been subdued, either forced to lay down their weapon, or forcefully disarmed.

Techno had demanded the location of his loot, and Tommy had sworn that he didn't know, he hadn't taken it. The arguing continued until Techno was frustrated enough to just stab Tommy and search for it himself. He was almost about to, the sword had been lifted above his shoulder in a way to arc down. The voices grew louder and louder, demanding blood. His eyes began to glow a deep, crimson red. Even if Techno wanted to stop, he couldn't now. The decision was no longer in his hands.

His sword had started to arc down, he didn't hear the screaming voices of the rest of Business Bay, or see the way that the other members of the Antarctic Empire had essentially let go of their captives as they scrambled to grab their swords and shields. What he did see, however, was Phil leap in front of Tommy as the kid tried to scramble away.

Technos mind came to a halt. The voices demanding blood were drowned out by Phil calling out Techno’s name.

Techno's arm froze. His blade stopped at the man's shoulder. The red faded from his eyes. Phil put a hand on his shoulder, gazing into his clear, now confused, eyes.

“He didn't do it mate!”

Techno took a deep breath and looked past Phil, assessing the damage. The B.B had formed a protective circle around Tommy, weapons drawn, but the kids face was still filled with fear. God, this’ll most likely keep him awake at night. Why does Techno keep screwing things up? He only meant to mess with Tommy a little and get his shit back, but of course the voices chose right now of all times to return!

“LEAVE!” Deo yelled. “We haven't done anything wrong! You lot attacked us unprovoked yet again! You nearly killed Tommy! I don't want to see any of your stupid faces around here again. Take a look at all the damage you've caused to us and our land -all of it for nothing!”

Techno stared, face carefully sculpted in a blank expression. He didn't reply to Deo, he just turned around and uttered a simple, “Lets go.” to his group, and that was the end of it.

-----

Techno was jolted out of the silent retelling of the event (for the voices in his head), by an echoing crack.

The ice shouldn't just crack like that. He looked at Phil, about to question him over the noise, when suddenly there was a second, sickening crack, followed by what sounded like water sloshing.

The duo sprinted to where they knew the boys were. When they arrived they found only three of the four Business Bay members standing on the ice around a quickly freezing hole, a dark shape sinking further and further beneath it
.
The members of B.B quickly drew their swords and pointed them at the new arrivals, wary after previous encounters, but Phil stepped in before Techno could.

“We heard what sounded like ice cracking and we decided to check it out. We’re not here to fight you, we’re here to help,” Phil said placatingly. “What's going on?”

They hesitantly sheathed their weapons. It was TimeDeo who replied.

“We were just hanging out, when all of a sudden the ice underneath Tommy’s feet began to crack and he fell through! And then, before we could help him, the ice just started.. mending itself. Look!”

He pointed at where the hole used to be, before turning his attention to trying to break the ice. Techno leaned over and looked at the previous hole.

And there he was, Tommy, banging on the ice he was trapped under. The kid looked scared out of his mind.

Techno quickly took out his best pickaxe -just because the Antarctic Empire was stepping on eggshells around Business Bay, it didn’t mean that he wouldn’t help them. And besides, this was Tommy. No matter how stone-cold Techno tried to make himself, or how far he tried to distance himself, there was no denying that the kid had made his way into Techno’s heart, burrowing in like a little parasite, until Techno found himself worrying for the blonde more and more every time they fought. Tommy had made Techno care about him, and whether the boy realised it was a mystery.

Techno started hammering away at the ice that held Tommy captive, as the others backed up a bit. There was no way that ice would freeze this fast, it had to be a glitch.

He focused on Tommys eyes for a brief second, the kid looked scared shitless, but relieved to see Techno was there. After the incident where Techno had nearly killed Tommy, he had made it his mission to earn the boys forgiveness. He achieved this, but he also earned something much more precious; his trust.

Tommy trusted Techno to get him out from under the ice, to free him, to save him. But with every hack at the ice, the pool of dread in Techno’s chest grew bigger and bigger. No matter how much he chipped away at the ice, it just kept fixing itself, over and over and over again. Techno watched Tommys eyes flick to the side, staring at something that wasn’t there, and realised there was very little chance that he was going to be able to free him. It seemed as if Tommy knew this too, and it hurt Techno to see the hope draining from the boy.

Tommy stopped banging on the ice above him, and Techno started hitting the ice harder. He watched as Tommy slowly started sinking out of view in the murky water.
He paused, the sudden silence felt deafening.
Techno’s communicator pinged. He pulled it out, wordlessly glancing at the newest server message.
Techno dropped his pickaxe, it clanged loudly on the ground. The sound made Techno’s ears ring, but it didn’t matter, not now, not when he’d failed.

There, displayed on every communicator server wide, were five, haunting words;

Tommyinnit Drowned w̵̤h̴̞̋i̸̻̍l̶̞͝s̵̬̃t̶̖̉ ̷͍̅t̸̞͗r̸̯̒à̵̝p̷͔͛p̶̣̔e̷̩͂ď̸̞ ̷̪̾u̵̡̇n̴̥̔d̵̯͊e̵͔̎r̶̝̚ ̷̾͜i̴̼̎c̴̘͘e̵̡͗

“Fuck!” Deo shouted.

Techno slowly turned, looking Phil in the eyes. The man had his hands over his mouth, and what almost seemed to be tears in his eyes.

“I- I’m sorry.” Techno began, looking at the other members of Business Bay.

“What was that?” Bitzel interrupted. “Why the hell didn't the ice break?!”

Techno looked at the distressed teens, then back at Phil.
"It must have been a glitch," He stated. "I’ve never seen ice just... not break, not even on 2b2t!"

Techno took a deep breath and glanced back down at his communicator, trying and failing to avoid looking at the death message.

It seemed everyone on the server was talking about what had happened. How did Tommy die? Was there no one around to help him? Why did his death message look like that?

Before he could type a message to Seth or Wilbur, Deo beat him to it.

ADMINS WHAT THE HELL
WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?!? TOMMY DIED TO A GLITCH!?!?!

Techno took a deep breath, he couldn't lose it like Deo did, even though the voices demanded him too.

If the admins don't meet me at the A.E in half an hour, I'll come find you all myself. And it won't be pretty.

Phil and the B.B all turned towards him after reading his latest message, staring.

"Tommy was a kid, it's not like I'm just going to let this slide." He faced away from the group and felt Phil place a hand on his shoulder

"Look, I know that our factions are on shaky grounds right now, but we can’t just split up again because you don’t trust them. We all need to stay in a group if we're going to figure this out. For Tommy. Besides, what if the glitch comes back? You know that they’re much less prepared than we are." Phil whispered, looking at the trio behind them.

Techno watched out of the corner of his eye as the trio of Business Bay members seemed to think over their options.

"Phil and I are going to head to the A.E to meet with the admins, I suggest you come, it'll at least give you something to do while you wait for Tommy to respawn."

"It's really not that far come on." Phil said, much more kindly. The boys followed reluctantly. Techno led the group through the deep snow, towards the Antarctic Empire base. No one else was going to die on his watch, he’d make sure of it. For Tommy.

-----

When they finally made it to the base, Techno instructed the teens to wipe their boots off, not wanting them to track snow all through the building. They obeyed, before being quickly ushered to a spare living room by Phil.

Techno takes out his comm and scans over the messages. It's mostly the non-admins on the server asking what happened and if Tommy is ok. He skips over all of them and clicks on a certain man's contact. He types out a message and sends it.

Wilbur, what the hell was that.

Players can't just get trapped under ice! That’s just not a thing that happens! Is Tommy alright? Is his respawn going okay?

idk, when I saw the frames start to drop I immediately tried to fix it, but then my entire communicator froze, and I couldn’t do anything! When it started working again, it was too late.

Techno sighed in frustration, he took off his fur coat and sat on his bedside, pressing the call button on his comm. He heard the answer sound as Wil picked up. A sigh, then the man began talking.

“Look Techno, I'm not even the one that's supposed to handle the frame drops, okay? I have no idea what's going on! I'm at the second base right now, and I was about to come over to the main one, when I decided to check on Tommy’s profile. You know what the weird thing is? What’s almost as weird as all our communicators stopping and Tommy’s death?"

Wilbur paused taking a deep breath "it says- it says that he's about to respawn.”

Techno curiosity peaked. “What!? That usually takes days!”

“Yes, at least it should. Respawning allows your body to heal up and fix itself, repairing any damage caused during the player's death. The worse the damage is, the longer it takes to come back. You can’t rush repawning, otherwise you risk messing up your body and its recovery. However, people have respawned early before, but that’s mostly due to the fact that they had minor injuries. Tommy’s injury, however, isn't minor.”

“How so?”

“He died from drowning, Techno, which is when you inhale water into your lungs. He basically suffocated to death. No oxygen was able to enter his body, which starved every cell in his body of nutrients, killing them off and in turn, Tommy. This also means that he has to heal every single one of those cells that died. So, if Tommy is respawning this early, it is definitely not natural, and must have something to do with the glitch.”

Techno could almost see Wilbur running a hand through his hair.

Wilbur continues. “Anyways, I was thinking of just skipping the meeting for now, and going to find Tommy once he respawns. I'll probably bring him to the second base if he's okay with it.”

“That's probably our safest bet right now anyways,” Techno replied. “Probably best if he doesn't get swarmed by a bunch of protective admins, if you know what I mean.”

Wilbur chuckled on the other end of the line. The two were aware that the admins were fond of Tommy. They visited him on their hours off duty as often as they could, and could usually be seen helping him build things (mostly just placing blocks in random places to annoy the boy).

Techno heard a quiet “oh shit” from the other end of the line, then “i've got to go Techno, but i'll keep you updated” before the sound of the end call rang in his ear.

Techno sat up and started to make his way down to the meeting room where the admins had begun to gather. He prepared himself mentally for the flurry of worried mother hens who were sure to greet him once he arrived, worrying over their favourite gremlin chick. Techno took in a large, deep breath. This was going to suck.

-----

Phil and Techno had answered most of their questions, and it felt like the meeting was finally drawing to a close. At least that's what he thought, before they were bombarded with another round of ‘what happened’ and ‘was it a glitch’. It seemed like no matter how many times Phil and Techno told them what had happened, the admins never seemed to take it in fully or believe them. Techno understood that they were stressed and worried, but so was he and Phil! It was getting exhausting having to repeat what had happened, with no answers for why.

Why hadn’t Techno been able to break the ice?

Why hadn’t he been able to save Tommy?

Why had he failed?

The two of them hadn’t wanted to make the three teenagers describe their friend's death, so it was up to them to answer any questions they could. The Business Bay teens would add their own input every now and again with solemn faces.

The admins had seemed surprised when Phil mentioned that Techno was the one who tried to get Tommy out, they knew what had happened a week prior. It stung, but he supposed that was to be expected, after all, his and Tommy’s newly forming friendship was a closely guarded secret of theirs. Neither wanted their respective teams to feel like they were betraying them, so both decided it was best to keep it a secret. So, in typical Technoblade style, he had just shrugged, keeping up his blank face.

Halfway through the meeting, he had gotten a whisper from Wilbur saying that Tommy was with him in the second base, and was currently resting. Techno replied that he and Phil would be there soon, and promptly excused him and Phil from the meeting.

Before he left he told the B.B that they could stay the night, and to take any spare rooms upstairs. They seemed apprehensive, but Techno didn't have time to ask Phil to reassure them. He hurriedly told the admins to update him on any information they got received, before leaving the meeting room with Phil hot on his tail.

Techno told Phil what Wilbur had messaged him, and they hastily made their way onto a plane, determined to reach their second secret base as quickly as they could.

-----

Techno burst into the base with Phil, as the older man started calling Wilbur’s name. They rushed up to the living quarters, and saw Wilbur leaving the room.

“Where-”

“Shhhhhhhhhhhh! Shut up!”

Wilbur whispered harshly, interrupting the both of them.

“He's sleeping in there, lets not wake him up, okay?” The duo nodded. “Good.”

“Can we… can we see him?”

Phil whispered back. Wilbur let out a quiet chuckle, god they were all so protective when no one else was watching. “Yea just be quick, he's in a rough shape.”

Wilbur moved out of the way, and Techno and Phil quietly opened the door to Wilbur’s room. They saw an unreasonable amount of blankets on the bed, and a tuft of blonde hair sticking out at the top, along with some soft snoring.

Phil was about to close the door, when Techno quickly slipped inside. Ignoring the stares of the other two, he walked up to the sleeping bundle in the blankets, noticing that they were shaking slightly. Techno looked at Tommy’s face, and saw that his eyebrows were scrunched up and his teeth were chattering, which confirmed that the boy was shivering, not having a nightmare.

Techno unclipped his red, fur lined cape, before resting it on top of the sleeping boy. He lay his hand on Tommys shoulder briefly, before quickly leaving the room (adamantly ignoring the ‘awww’ sounds that both Wilbur and Phil were making).

Techno walked downstairs and added a few logs to the fireplace for good measure, intent on making the place warmer. God, this kid really had a way of creeping into everyone's hearts, didn't he?