Archive of Our Own ^beta

He was alone for a long time. 

He remembered his parents, faintly. He remembered his mother's weeps and his father's screams. He remembered walking out of his home, the unruly stench too much to bear. 

He had walked for days. 

He thought maybe he would get his family back if he kept walking. Maybe his father would ruffle his hair and hug him tightly, telling him how sorry he was for acting out all these years. 

Maybe he'd get his mother back. 

Maybe his father would love him for once.

His newly grown feathers ruffled his dirty beige shirt. Rain pelted onto his dark hair; was this technically a shower? He tried to ignore the throbbing pain that his recent talons gave out, instead focusing on something lighter. The sun would be out soon. If it kept raining then maybe there would be a rainbow?

He didn't know what he was thinking when he bumped into the man. 

All he knew was he was showing real fondness in his eyes.

"Oh! Hello! Where are your parents, mate?" 'Bird Man' the name he had given him after glancing at his dark feathers asked.

"My mummy and daddy are in my living room, sir." He had replied.

"In your living room?"

"Yes, sir. They are dead. In my living room."

That had somehow gotten a reaction out of Bird Man. 

He missed his parents.

"I'm Philza, but you can call me Phil." Bir-- Phil had said as the two walked alongside the mud road. The man was holding his hand tightly, not letting go.

He didn't reply.

"What's your name?" the man had said.

He couldn't reply.

"Do you... Do you have a name?"

He shook his head.

The man was silent for most of the trip before he had then spoken up.

"Would you like for me to give you a name?" Phil turned to him as they stopped, smiling slightly. 

The rain had subsided.

Everything was so clear.

He had nodded, keeping his head low.

"What about..." 

"What about Wilbur?"

He-- Wilbur felt clear.

There had been a funny boy at the man's home. He was pink . And his name was Technoblade .

Who names themselves Technoblade ?

It had turned out that the two boys were the same age.

Wilbur had concluded that they were twins.

Techno didn't mind.

They grew up together. Neither of them telling the other what had happened to them beforehand. Neither of them telling Phil, either.

One day, their father left for an adventure.

He almost didn't come back.

When he did, though.

He was holding a bundled up child .

Wilbur and Techno had been huddled up in their room when the door downstairs opened. 

He was the first to step out of the room and run down the long staircase, almost falling over multiple times. Techno followed in suit, eyes practically frantic. 

Who wouldn't be ecstatic when their father came home from a month-long trip?

The two weren't that happy, though, when they saw their father holding a bundle of blankets. 

"Meet your new brother, Tommy."

Wilbur was, confused. To say the least.

Phil was a strong man, so when he went up and left and then just came back with the weakest human on the earth --

Tommy was human, their father had said.

"As human as able," he had said one day.

Didn't human mean vulnerable?

Wilbur cared for his brother.

He was weak, small, and soft. 

Too weak.

He needed to be stronger.

Wilbur didn't want Tommy to get hurt.

One day, he was alone again.

This time he had a brash three-year-old with him.

This time no one would get hurt.

Tommy would cry, sometimes.

Wilbur remembered when he cried too.

He tried to tell himself that he was teaching his brother lessons .

He was making him stronger.

He didn't want to lose his brother.

He thought he'd see him again.

He thought she had gotten his message.

He thought that he was gone.

He thought that it was his fault.

"Tommy called me."

Wilbur thought that he had lost his family again.

But this time he knew it was his own doing.