Chapter Text
Humanity is a young species, by galactic standards. They have barely begun venturing into space, not yet leaving their galaxy. Only a handful of them have even been off planet before. As such, the Galactic Council has decreed their home planet (known as “earth” in their language) to be protected and isolated until they reach out to us. Flying into the surrounding space, attempting to contact a human, and abducting a human all carry severe penalties (see Appendix B for full list of crimes and punishments). However, most who harm a human never reach justice for a simple reason: the human will kill them first.
Humans are dangerous. They do not speak Common, and communicating with individuals has proven nearly impossible. This is not to say they are uncivilized or animalistic; the language barrier is just too strong. Many poachers have attempted to steal humans before, and they are often left with a smoldering wreck of a ship and a bloodbath.
Humans themselves are protective of each other, especially of their young. While adult humans are dangerous, children should not be underestimated either. They can fight well, and adults will readily protect them. If you see a human of any age, leave them alone and report it to the Galactic Council’s task force on dangerous species.
Do not, I repeat, do not, under any circumstances, approach a human. To do so is a death wish.
-”The mystery of humanity: how a dangerous new race is taking the galaxy by storm”
Philza was just finishing up purchasing the last of their supplies when the merchant asked, “So did you hear about the crash?”
Philza stopped for a second, his wings ruffling involuntarily. “We saw a ship wreck on our descent, just a little ways from town. Looked pretty recent, but I haven’t heard anything.”
The sight had made him uneasy, fearing for not only his safety, the rest of his crew’s as well. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Techno and Wilbur were like family to him. They were practically his flock.
“That’s the one,” the merchant responded, “Came down a couple days ago. No one knows why, and rumor has it that it’s a poacher ship, so you can imagine the wariness.” Phil’s feathers puffed up slightly. Poachers were bad news on a good day, but a crashed poacher ship usually meant one thing: humans.
He asked, “Do you know what they were carrying?”
“Like I said, no one’s dared to venture on board. Nothing’s come out of the ship, so whatever it was is still there, dead or soon to be,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “Between you and me? It was probably humans on board. And they might’ve brought the ship down.”
Phil stepped back in shock, wings pressing flat to his back. Humans were bad news. He needed to get off this planet as soon as possible.
He hurriedly thanked the merchant, grabbed his items, and went off to look for Wilbur and Techno.
Unsurprisingly, he found the two of them browsing the stalls of a nearby vendor. The walls of the stall were cluttered with all sorts of knick-knacks, but he quickly saw what drew their attention: the instruments. Wilbur was admiring some sort of stringed instrument while Techno watched from the side. Techno looked bored, but Phil could see the way his eyes were drawn to the golden jewelry in the case.
“Phil!” Wilbur greeted when he saw him. Techno nodded at him, remaining stoic. Phil tried to smile back, but only muttered a short, “We need to get going boys.”
Normally they’d argue, but something in his expression must have told them it was serious. Wilbur returned the instrument to its place, smiling apologetically at the shopkeeper. Both quickly fell into step with Phil as they walked towards their ship.
“Phil, you want to tell me what’s got you all flustered?” Techno asked.
Phil sighed, not wanting to think about it but owing them an explanation. “You know that crash we saw on the way in?” Both nodded. “It was a fucking poacher ship. No one’s been on to investigate, but they think it was carrying humans. I’ve had a bad feeling about this place from the beginning, but I’m just ready to get away from this planet. We’ve got all we needed, so let’s just take an early night and plan to leave in the morning.”
“So you’re telling me that there’s a crashed ship that no one wants to investigate because there might be a dead human on board?” Techno questioned, “Buncha cowards if you ask me.”
Wilbur added, “But that means we could go look at it! Find out what really happened and all.”
Phil cut them off with a harsh glare. “Absolutely not.” He continued walking towards their ship, hoping to get off the planet without any further excitement.
Wilbur closed the book he was reading. Truth be told, he was bored. He should be sleeping, but he just couldn’t. It wasn’t exactly his fault, he species was nocturnal after all.
In space, this didn’t matter as much, but when they were on a planet he found it hard to sleep during the night when the rest of the crew were sleeping. He’d be exhausted tomorrow, but for now he was awake.
He thought back over his day. The news of the crash, and the mystery of it, echoed in his brain. The scientist in him wanted to go investigate and find out the truth.
Phil had said not to do it, but since when was Phil the boss of him? Okay, technically he was Wilbur’s boss, but Phil liked him too much to fire him for it. And Phil didn’t need to find out, either. With newfound confidence, Wilbur set his book down and got to work.
After sneaking off the ship surprisingly easily by walking out the main hatch, Wilbur headed towards the crash. His eyes adjusted easily to the darkness that covered the area beyond the city.
The ship itself lay on its side, holes gaping in the hull and wreckage still smouldering slightly. The easiest way to get in looked to be through the windows to the cockpit, shattered from the crash.
Avoiding the sharp edges, Wilbur ducked into the cockpit. Right away, he could guess why the ship had crashed: sabotage. There were almost 10 bodies littered on the floor, many too destroyed to tell the species.
But these bodies were far too mangled to be just from the crash. They were mutilated. Claw marks littered skins, arms and legs lay at unnatural angles, and there were even a few bite marks. This had been a massacre.
Wilbur stepped towards the center of the room, floor sticky with blood and littered with debris… and body parts. It was disgusting. In the center of it all, he spotted what he assumed to be a human. Truthfully, he’d never seen one in person before. This one had pale skin and long, dark hair, but most of them was covered in brownish flakes of dried blood.
The human was also covered in injuries, but they looked to have died from blunt force trauma to the head. Most likely, they’d survived until the ship crashed. What a terrifying thought: this human successfully fought off 10 heavily armed poachers and brought down a ship. The only thing that took them out was the ship itself.
The smell of blood and carnage was starting to get to him, so Wilbur moved onto the rest of the ship. Maybe there would be more humans, or other unusual species.
The cargo part of the ship had fared much better than the cockpit, but it was still messy. It seemed to be completely deserted of any beings, alive or dead, although debris made it hard to navigate. Cages lined the walls, but they were empty. The sheer volume was sobering. That human must have been the only one left… Wilbur tried not to pity the human who had literally killed 10 men unarmed, but his heart ached for them.
The darkness in this part of the ship felt differently. Wilbur had excellent night vision, yet he could barely pick his way through the wreckage without stumbling. The smell of blood permeated the whole ship, and the air hung heavy with whispers of the horrors that had occurred. It became too much.
Wilbur was about to turn around and leave, when he heard a small whimper from the back of the ship. Something was still alive.
He rushed to the source of the noise. In the very back of the ship lay an occupied cage. Inside was a small figure, wearing what seemed to be a red and white shirt but it was hard to tell under the dust and blood.
Wilbur quickly broke the lock off the cage, wrenching the door off the hinges in his haste to get to the poor thing. He could barely see anything, but the creature was definitely breathing. He could hear the whistling of air through their lungs, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Wilbur wasn’t too late, he could still save them.
Careful of any injuries, Wilbur gathered them into his arms. They were much smaller than he was expecting, and even lighter than they should be for their size. Based on size, Wilbur would have to guess that this was a child, though he couldn’t see enough to determine anything, not even species.
Fearing that the child would stop breathing any moment, Wilbur rushed out of the crashed ship and back to his ship. He only paused at the cockpit, silently wishing peace for the human in their eternal sleep. No one deserved this fate.
Wilbur knew he had fucked up when he saw the main lights of his ship, Sleepy Bois Inc., illuminating the worried silhouettes of Phil and Techno. He probably should not have run off in the middle of the night without telling anyone, only to return with an injured child. This conversation wouldn’t end well…
As soon as Wilbur stepped foot onto the ship, Phil shot up from where he was sitting and Techno turned to face him. Phil looked worried, feathers puffing up and ruffling. Techno looked pissed more than anything, but there was an undercurrent of worry.
Phil yelled, “Where the fuck were you? We woke up to you just gone! No note, absolutely nothing. Fuck, I thought you were kidnapped or dead.”
“Phil…” Wilbur trailed off. How did he explain this? Not to mention he was still carrying the child, though neither of them had mentioned it yet. Maybe he could just sneak them into the medbay and deal with it later?
“What do you have there, Wilbur?” Techno interrupted, “Please tell me you didn’t leave in the middle of the night to go foraging in the woods.” Nevermind.
“Uh, kinda?”
“Kinda? What the fuck do you mean by ‘kinda’?” Phil looked like he was about to explode.
“So this is gonna sound bad, but I went to explore the crashed ship.” Phil pinched his nose and Techno banged his head against the wall. Yeah that was about the expected response. “I was just curious, okay! I couldn’t sleep and then I was bored and I didn’t want to bother you, so I just left.”
“You could have woken either of us up, dumbass!”
“Yes, yes I know that, Techno, but this seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Well it wasn’t.” Techno was not making this conversation easier.
“Anyways I was just looking around and long story short I found an injured child.” Wilbur finished, praying they’d leave it at that.
Of course he wasn’t that lucky. Techno stared at him in shock. Phil asked, “So your next course of action was to bring an injured child of unknown origin onto our ship? Mate, what the fuck.”
Wilbur pouted, “I couldn’t just leave them there to die! Look at them, they’re so small…”
Wilbur finally got a good look at the child in his arms. They were still unconscious, and he could see a bump on their head that luckily seemed to have stopped bleeding. Their short hair was matted with blood, and various cuts littered their body.
Wilbur kept staring, realization slowly dawning on him. This wasn’t just any child. No this was…
“Wilbur,” Techno drawled, “that is a human.”
Chapter 2
Summary:
Previously: Wilbur accidentally rescues a human child from a crashed ship.
Now: SBI figures out what to do with the human and Tommy wakes up.
Notes:
Welcome back! Have some fluff! This chapter is lowkey more filler/backstory, but honestly its cute. No specific trigger warnings apply.
Also, my headcanon for how potions work in this universe is they're just super advanced medicine, in a class of their own. They all have specific medical names (fun fact: the name I used here is one of 3 active ingredients in Nyquil). They're easy to overdose on, so Wilbur is super careful about not giving too much to Tommy, considering no one knows how human anatomy works. Also Wilbur is one of the foremost potions brewers in the galaxy, so he does actually know what he's doing.
Finally, holy shit I was not expecting the response to this story??? Thank you guys so much! This is literally my most kudosed, subscribed, and bookmarked fic and I only posted the first chapter! You're all amazing and the reason I had the motivation to get this out so quickly.
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Wilbur,” Techno drawled, “that is a human.”
Phil was utterly done with this crew. Not only had Wilbur snuck out in the middle of the night like a teenager, he’d come back with a human. Leave it to him to find a child of one of the galaxy’s most dangerous species and then bring it back to their ship.
Against his better judgement, Phil crept towards the child in Wilbur’s arms. The child was small, a fledgling really. From his limited understanding of humans, Phil guessed that the child was male, and old enough that he wasn’t a baby, but certainly not old enough to be on his own.
The proper course of action was to report the human to the Galactic Council, hand him over and be done with it. But even as he considered it, Phil’s heart clenched. The human was just a child, injured and undoubtedly terrified. And the council would dispose of him. Phil didn’t know what that entailed, but he guessed the child wouldn’t be living out a happy life on earth.
“What do we do, Phil?” Wilbur asked, desperation lacing his voice. He was clearly in over his head too. As captain, Phil needed to be strong and make the right choice for his crew, which the child was not part of yet.
“Well,” Phil began, considering his words, “protocol states that we report him to the council.”
Techno huffed at him, reading Phil like a book. Techno would want to do that, always so concerned about stupid things like “security” and “protocol”. Probably came with being the ship’s protector, but he still needed to lighten up sometimes.
Predictably, Techno said, “So that’s what we do. Unless you’ve already grown fond of him, Phil?” The question was half teasing, half accusatory. So what if Phil’s instincts made him want to protect children? That was just called being a good person.
“Don’t I get a say?” Wilbur asked, “I mean, I did find him, after all.”
“Sure Wilbur, you can be in charge of the dangerous child. By all means, go for it.” Techno’s sarcasm was threatening.
“That wasn’t what I meant and you know it you bitch. I’m just saying… He’s hurt and he’s young and just think of everything we could learn! We could publish books, become the foremost human researchers. Doesn’t that sound nice? Or would you rather get dumped back on that hellhole we pulled you from?”
Techno’s eyes glowed dangerously at that statement. Phil had enough, he couldn’t take a physical fight on top of everything else this evening. He stepped between them, wings flaring wide.
“Boys, enough! You both need to stop it. We’re a crew and you better act like it.” Wilbur mumbled an apology, looking at the door. Techno’s glare lessened, but he remained still. At least they didn’t seem like they were about to start throwing punches anymore.
“Here’s what we’re going to do. Wil, you’re going to try to heal the child as much as you can. We don’t need him dying on us, now that we have him. Techno, mate, you go and set up holding cell A. He’s injured and a child, but we don’t know what he’s capable of so we’ll remain cautious. I’ll get ready for takeoff, and then begin researching humans once we’re in flight. We need to find out everything there is to know. Understand?”
Techno nodded, walking off in the direction of their holding cells. Most larger ships came equipped with them, but Phil had never had a reason to use them before. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to use them for long, just until the child joined his flock just until they figured out what to do with the human.
Wilbur spoke to himself, “Dextromethorphan should work, humans aren’t undead or anything… Phil?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think it would be safe to give him a healing potion? They wouldn’t have had stuff like that on earth, but it’s been proven effective in most species and I can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work. Of course I’d only give him a tiny bit, we don’t know human tolerances so I’d hate to kill him with kindness, so to speak.” Wilbur seemed nervous, looking at the fragile human in his arms. While Wilbur’s job was brewing advanced medicine, known as ‘potions’, he wasn’t usually in charge of taking care of patients.
They were all a little out of their comfort zone with this human.
Phil really didn’t know enough about medicine to advise Wilbur, but he needed reassurance. “Mate, whatever you think is best. You’re one of the galaxy’s top potions brewers, have some confidence. Alright?”
Wilbur nodded. He could do this.
He didn’t know how long he’d been lying there. He kept losing focus, time slipping by in waves. He knew he was on a spaceship with the mean aliens. He knew that something had happened and then they’d crashed. Everything since then has been fuzzy.
He needed to get up, try and leave like he promised. But his arms were too weak to push himself up and his legs refused to move. He wanted to cry, to scream and shout and beg for help, but he couldn’t do any of it. The most he could do was let out a pathetic whimper.
A face appeared above him. The face was weird, blue and stretched funny. But the stranger picked him up gently, pulling him from the wreckage like his body couldn’t. Tucked against the stranger’s chest, Tommy felt safe for the first time in weeks. He drifted back to sleep, comforted by his rescuer.
The first thing Tommy noticed was that his whole body ached. His limbs felt heavy and his head pounded. He tried to focus on his surroundings, but his head felt like it was full of clouds and his eyes wouldn’t open.
Finally cracking his eyes open, he tried to look around but the lights were too bright. On the other ship, the lights had never been bright. What had happened to him? This didn’t feel like before.
He remembered being on the ship with the weird aliens who locked him in a cage and experimented on him. He remembered the orphanage before that. He couldn’t remember how he got from one to the other, but that wasn’t new.
On the ship, he remembered a woman. She’d been so nice, always giving him extra food and telling him fun stories to pass the time. She promised that a knight in shining armor would show up and rescue him.
He remembered someone coming, but they didn’t look like any knight he’d seen before. Everything hurt and the ship was darker than usual, but he remembered seeing a blue man with a weird face. He remembered being held, just like the woman promised he would be. But he’d never heard of a blue knight before.
Finally, Tommy tried to open his eyes again. Slowly, he took in the room he was in. It was bigger than the cage, but that wasn’t hard. Even his room in the orphanage had been bigger than the cage, and that room was tiny.
Actually, this room seemed about the same size as his one in the orphanage. He was lying on some sort of bed that looked like it folded out from the wall. There was no pillow, but it was still comfortable. He was tucked into a blanket that was much softer than he was used to. It looked like whoever had put him there had also gotten him new clothes. Instead of his usual red and white shirt, he was wearing a soft, red button down. His shorts were replaced by something that felt a lot like pajama pants. It was pretty comfortable, even though everything hurt.
His head was pounding less, so he tried to sit up. The bed was in one corner of the room, across from some shelves holding a bunch of weird things. He couldn’t see a door at all. All the walls blended together seamlessly. Was this just another cage?
Tears welled up, but he tried to push them down. He was a big man, just like he always said. He’d get through this. Big men didn’t cry about little things like getting rescued and then locked in another cage. And Tommy Innit was the biggest man ever. Fuck you.
He wanted to get up, but his head just hurt so much and the lights were too bright and his legs ached and it was all too much. If no one was there, did it matter if he cried just a little? He could still be a big man if no one knew…
The dam broke and tears poured out. Sobs wracked his small frame. Tommy was a big man, but he was still a 7 year old kid. He cried because he wanted a mom and dad who he’d never see again (if he ever had them at all). He wanted the woman from the ship who promised him a bright future. He even wished for the other boys from the orphanage just so he had someone like him. He didn’t want to be in a weird room he couldn’t leave. He wanted to go home. Wherever that was…
He cried until he was all out of tears and then he cried a little more, just because he could. He hadn’t cried the whole time on the other ship. But at least on the other ship he had people. Here, he didn’t know what to expect or if there were even any other humans he would see.
He hated to admit it, but he felt a little better after crying. Big men shouldn’t need to cry, but he guessed it helped a little. Not like Tommy was planning on doing anymore crying, no not at all! He just supposed that it was okay this once if he felt better and no one saw.
Tommy’s head hurt a little bit less, the lights not seeming as bright and his limbs feeling lighter. Which was weird, usually he wouldn’t feel better so quickly. He was on an alien spaceship, so maybe healing quickly shouldn’t be that surprising. He decided to ignore it for now.
He slowly got off of the bed-like thing he was sitting on. The bed was in one corner, taking up half of that side of the room. Across from the bed were some shelves, containing a bunch of weird alien shit. Tommy hesitantly approached them, wondering if this was a trap. A weird, sick trap designed by some fucked up aliens.
It didn’t seem like a trap. On the shelf was a variety of toys and puzzles. There were a couple of lockboxes, some boxes that seemed like they might hold puzzles like he had on earth, and some more simple looking toys. There were even two stuffed animals, but Tommy didn’t recognize the animals.
One of the stuffed animals looked kinda like a cow, if cows were bright red and had something like mushrooms growing out of their backs. The other stuffed animal was green and squarish, tall with four feet. It looked scary and Tommy hoped that it wasn't based on a real animal. If it was, he didn’t want to meet it.
Tommy picked up the cow-like animal instead. The things on its back were kinda pointy, but the material was soft enough it was fine. Its eyes were so big and innocent Tommy fell in love. It reminded him of the cows his school visited on a trip once. He loved the cows. They’d become his favorite animal since that trip.
Staring into the eyes of the stuffed space cow, it felt like he had a friend. The woman on the ship had been kind, but she wasn’t here and the cow was.
“I’m going to name you Henry!” Tommy declared to no one in particular (except the cow). The cow didn’t react, but Tommy felt a smile tugging at his cheeks. Holding Henry to his chest, he thought to himself that maybe this new place wouldn’t be quite so bad…
Notes:
Thanks for reading! I just had to include Henry as a stuffed animal for Tommy (the stuffed animals were Phil's idea btw). And if you didn't quite catch it, Henry is based off of a mooshroom and the other stuffed animal is based off a creeper. This doesn't affect the story, i just thought it was a fun easter egg.
If you enjoyed, leave a comment/kudos! I try to respond to everyone that I can, but sometimes I get distracted. If you have any other questions (or just want to yell at me) feel free to check out my tumblr @mmajora. Thank you for reading and next chapter will hopefully be out within the next few days!
Chapter 3
Summary:
Previously: Tommy is put in a holding cell and wakes up.
Now: First contact is made between Tommy and SBI!
Notes:
Welcome back! Have a little bit longer of a chapter.
No major trigger warnings for this chapter, but there is the mention of missing teeth a couple times (nothing descriptive beyond the fact that they are not there).
We finally have contact (not much actual communication though, language barriers are a bitch). I also spent way too much of this chapter describing Wilbur's scientific research because I am in fact a nerd at heart. This will be an ongoing theme, both in the story and in the writing.
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tommy had been sitting there, cuddling Henry and staring at the wall, for what felt like ages, but was probably actually only an hour. He hadn’t explored any of the other things in his little room, content with just his stuffed cow-thing. He’d tried to come up with a backstory for why Henry looked like that. Maybe he was a normal cow that got infected by radiation. Or maybe, he got abducted by aliens and experimented on, like Tommy!
He and Tommy weren't so different after all. Henry was just an earth cow who was unlucky. Hopefully Tommy wouldn’t end up like Henry, with weird things growing out of him…
Speaking of which, he didn’t know where he was or who had him. He thought he was still on a spaceship, but it seemed like a different one. This one was definitely nicer, but he hadn’t seen anyone yet, human or alien.
Finally, Tommy heard a weird whooshing noise. He shrunk back from the area it seemed to come from. Part of the wall slid away, leaving an opening a bit bigger than a normal doorway.
Did they just let him out? Was whoever had him so stupid that they would really just let him free from the cell he was staying in because they underestimated him? This must be his lucky day!
Cautiously, Tommy got off of the bed, still clutching Henry. The doorway seemed a bit odd, almost like the air was shimmering where it should be normal. Before Tommy could get halfway to the exit, one of the weirdest aliens he’d seen in all his experiences popped into view. Tommy let out a very un-big-manly shriek.
This alien had massive, white wings. Seriously, these wings were easily 10 feet long each. They reminded Tommy a bit of hawk’s wings, just bigger and whiter. Aside from the wings, this alien had a weirdly angular face, stringy blonde hair the same color as Tommy’s, pale skin that seemed kinda similar to human skin except stretched tighter, and overall weirdly thin and gangly limbs. It seemed like someone had thrown a bird and a human into a blender and pulled that thing out.
Not to mention, the alien was wearing stupid looking clothes, in Tommy’s humble opinon. He had this stupid green striped hat on like the kind old men wore, and this weird green robe thing which must have had holes for the wings in the back (because Tommy really hoped the robe covered the back too, he did not need to see that).
Instead of freaking out, the alien only opened his mouth in what Tommy really hoped was a friendly smile, not an I’m-gonna-eat-your-face expression. Tommy bared his teeth at it and growled.
The alien wasn’t scared. The alien fucking chirped at him.
“What the fuck do you want, bitch?” Tommy yelled. This alien was kinda scary and he didn’t know what to expect. The other ship was awful, but at least he knew what it meant when the aliens came to him. Here, he had no idea.
The alien didn’t seem scared. He made a weird clucking sound, almost like a laugh. He said something all weird and chirping, but it sounded like the other aliens. This must be their language, which Tommy couldn’t understand.
Tommy didn’t know how to get it through this dumb aliens head that he didn’t know what he was saying and he didn’t want to do anything except go back to earth. “I can’t understand you!” didn’t seem like it would get the point across, but Tommy tried anyway.
The alien responded again, still in that alien language. Tommy huffed and crossed his arms, frustrated. The alien wasn’t doing anything except standing there and trying to talk to him. He hadn’t even tried to walk through the doorway. Which was actually probably a good choice because as small as Tommy was, he could still take him. He looked fragile and Tommy would bet he could rip out a few feathers if needed.
It dawned on Tommy that maybe the alien wasn’t coming into the room because he couldn’t come into the room. What if that weird shimmering thing in the doorway from earlier was also a barrier? Tommy decided to test his theory…
Tommy ran full speed at the doorway, still clutching stuffed Henry for luck. Just before he was going to get to it, he slowed down slightly. As expected, his outstretched hands touched an invisible barrier, bouncing him back. At least he wasn’t stupid enough to get knocked over thinking there wasn’t anything there.
The alien didn’t seem to expect this at least. He let out a shriek, reaching his hands out towards Tommy like he wanted to grab him. Probably to restrain him and shove him back into this stupid cell. It was definitely a cell, Tommy had decided. It may be nice, but he was stuck in here.
Unfortunately, it seemed this alien wasn’t alone. Because of the commotion, a new alien had appeared in the doorway. This alien was even weirder looking than the bird guy. This alien was all blue and-
Tommy froze. This was the person who had rescued him. His knight in shining armor had been another alien. That wasn’t what Tommy had expected.
It made sense. He had crashed on an alien planet, of course he wouldn’t magically get rescued by a human who happened to have blue skin. It was an alien who saved him.
No, no that was all wrong. This bitch didn’t save him! Clara saved him when she protected him and when she crashed the ship. She was the one who stopped them from experimenting on him and she was the one who killed them in the end. The only thing this stupid blue alien did was steal Tommy away from the ship that had her on it!
Tommy snarled at the alien. Words didn’t work, so maybe a threat would. Maybe he’d get the message to leave Tommy the fuck alone.
Phil had decided he wanted to approach the human first. They didn’t know if the human spoke any Common, so they’d try and just talk to him. From what they’d seen on the camera feeds, the human had a particular affinity to the mooshroom stuffed animal. Wilbur didn’t think they had anything like it on the human’s home planet, but maybe he was wrong. Once they figured out how to communicate, he’d be sure to ask.
Pretty quickly they realized the human did not speak any Common. From the way he growled at Phil and yelled back in Human, he seemed scared and confused. Wilbur stayed out of view, but worried about him. This sort of stress wasn’t good for any species, and humans weren’t an exception.
It all came to a head when the human charged the invisible barrier. Weirdly, it was like he was expecting something to be there and barely stumbled when he hit it. That would be something to write down later, in his journal he’d begun keeping on humans.
Still, Wilbur felt the need to step in. He walked up to Phil, getting a good look at the human and letting him see Wilbur. Upon seeing him, the human froze completely. That was… odd. Did the human recognize him, somehow? He was so injured when he arrived at the ship that Wilbur didn’t think he would even last an hour, but here he was running full force at them. And apparently he was lucid enough to recognize Wilbur. The scientist in him wondered if maybe humans had a higher pain tolerance or were even more durable than previously thought. To not only be conscious but also creating memories in such a state of injury was unheard of.
Unfreezing, the human snarled at Wilbur. He did his best not to flinch, but it was pretty threatening. Humans had been documented to rip out throats with their sharp teeth, not to mention the bite marks Wilbur had seen on the corpses on ship.
Most interesting was the fact that the human appeared to be missing some teeth. One of his canines and front teeth were gone, empty holes where they usually sat. Had these been lost in the crash or stolen by the poachers? Once the human was calmer, he would have to make implants for him.
Wilbur pulled out his journal, making a small note of the missing teeth. The human recoiled at the sight of the notebook, shrinking even further back into the cell.
Wilbur quickly put it away, trying to reassure him, “Don’t worry! I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want to help.” He tried to make his voice sound as calm and comforting as possible.
Phil added, “All we want is to help you. Can you let us do that, mate?”
The human was not getting the message. He responded with more loud yelling, but he didn’t approach them at all. The teeth and snarling were back too.
Wilbur turned to Phil, “I don’t think this is working. He doesn’t understand us and we’re just scaring him more.”
“I know, but I just want to help him, Wil.”
“I want to help him too, but if we stay here we just might make it worse. We can try again later, alright?”
Phil nodded, disheartened. Wilbur's heart ached too. As dangerous as humans were, this one was more of a terrified child than a murderous predator. Wilbur wanted to study him and learn everything about humans, but even more so he wanted to comfort the child.
Phil made the door opaque again, leaving the human in peace. Wilbur walked back to his lab, thoughts churning. The human didn’t speak Common and seemed to know they didn’t speak Human, yet still chose to vocalize in Human. He had been scared, obviously, but something about Wilbur had thrown him off more than Phil.
The most logical conclusion was that he remembered Wilbur from before. Which would mean a lot for human’s abilities to tolerate pain and form memories. It was unclear if he had a positive or negative association with Wilbur, which Wilbur would have to look into further.
The human seemed to have adopted one of the stuffed animals left in the cell as his own, a positive sign that he was forming connections. The human held onto it the entire time, as if to seek comfort from it. Mooshrooms were a gentle species, and the stuffed version looked much kinder than the creeper stuffed animal that had also been present. Wilbur would have thought that a species as dangerous and tough as humans would instinctively gravitate towards more death-world-like animals. It seemed that he was wrong.
Additionally, the human was missing teeth. Humans were thought to be primarily carnivorous, so the loss of teeth would be devastating. Wilbur would need to figure out a suitable diet, and fast. The human would likely need food tonight.
Sitting down in his lab, Wilbur pulled out the notebook from earlier and began writing.
The alien fuckers had finally left Tommy alone. They were scary, not to mention that he was still reeling from the realization that it had been the blue one who pulled him off the last ship. They were finally gone. It seemed that they realized Tommy couldn’t understand them and their stupid language.
These guys seemed different from the ones on the other ship. Those aliens would have never left when he didn’t cooperate. These aliens left after only a few minutes of snarling.
Tommy didn’t trust them. He saw the way the blue one pulled out a journal to take notes. Big Man Tommy Innit would not let anyone experiment on him again, no way. Not happening. He would bite the blue bitch first.
Actually, he might bite the blue bitch anyways. He probably deserved it.
Tommy’s stomach rumbled. Belatedly, he realized that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. They barely fed him on the last ship and he hadn’t eaten anything here.
Nothing in the room looked edible, so Tommy guessed he’d have to wait until the aliens realized he needed food. He didn’t think they were stupid enough to forget about it. Hopefully not…
Just as doubt began settling in, a slot opened in the bottom of the wall where the door was and a tray of stuff was slid into the room. Just as quickly, the slot closed again leaving behind a tray with alien shit on it.
Tommy creeped towards the tray, cautious of what dangers it may contain. It smelled… really good actually. It seemed to be some sort of meat, probably from an alien animal. Tommy looked at Henry in his arms. Was he about to eat a real Henry?
Worse, what if the food was drugged? They did it once on the previous ship, when he bit someone. He wasn’t cooperating earlier, so what if this was how they’d get him? He didn’t trust them, not even the blue one. Especially not the blue one.
He sniffed the meat again, mouth watering more. He decided to just go for it. There was no silverware on the tray, but the meat was conveniently cut into small pieces already. Tommy shoved a few into his mouth, savoring the taste. Maybe it was the hunger, but he’d never eaten anything quite as good.
The food was quickly finished, as well as the glass of water. He left the tray by the door, going back to sit on the bed. His headache had lessened from earlier, but he was getting tired. It didn’t seem like drugs, but Tommy was hesitant to lie down just in case.
Eyes dropping but resolutely staying awake, Tommy sat on the bed, cuddling Henry.
A noise came from outside, like someone shuffling by. There was a moment of silence before whoever it was sat down. Tommy heard the rustling of pages before a soft, birdlike voice spoke.
It must be the bird one from earlier. Tommy expected more questions, but instead the alien continued speaking. The language sounded different too. Even more bird-y, like how the songbirds would sing to each other.
Against his will, Tommy felt himself calming down. The voice was soothing to listen to, and it was nice to not be alone. Belly full and loneliness fading, Tommy drifted off to sleep.
Notes:
Thank you for reading! And yes, that was Phil reading Tommy a bedtime story from his home-world. Tommy is basically flock at this point (not that he'd admit it).
I wanted to clarify this here because I was talking about this in the comments on the last chapter. Basically, Tommy is incredibly conflicted about Wilbur. He was waiting for a "knight in shining armor" to rescue him (this will also come up later), and his memories were so muddled he viewed Wilbur as that. However, he expected his rescuer to be human, so he feels betrayed when he realizes Wilbur is an alien. When he notices Wilbur taking notes, it reminds him of the scientists on the other ship, which only makes it worse. Basically, Tommy is incredibly conflicted about Wilbur and it's made worse because they can't talk it out at the moment.
I've decided I'm going to try and update every 3 days! That seems to be about the speed I can write at with ~2k word chapters, so I think that's what I'll stick to! Not sure how long this story is gonna be, but I do have some plans for where I'm going.
Comments/kudos are greatly appreciated! This is literally the most feedback I've ever gotten on any fic, which is honestly why I'm motivated enough to update so quickly. I read every comment and I try to respond to as many as I can! So even if I don't respond, just know that I am sending you so much love for it.
Chapter 4
Summary:
Previously: Tommy meets Phil and Wilbur. He's scared of them, but Phil manages to get through with a bedtime story.
Now: They interact again, and realize this isn't working.
Notes:
Welcome back! Have another chapter!
Fun fact: I wrote this so quickly I am now pre-writing chapters and not just finishing them and immediately posting. So I should be able to keep this schedule. Yay!
Trigger warnings: Tommy has a panic attack, and it is described in detail. There is also a bit of discussion of this afterwards, but it's much more minor. If you want to skip the panic attack itself, stop reading from "Who could definitely beat Tommy up for misbehaving. Fuck." until "The door suddenly turned opaque again." If you want a summary of what happened, let me know in the comments!
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“Really, Phil?”
Phil blinked his eyes open. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall of the holding cell containing the human, a book in his lap. He must have fallen asleep reading to him last night.
Standing above him was Techno. The piglin loomed over him, frown evident on his face.
“Seriously, were you here all night? You know that’s not good for your bones.” Concern laced Techno’s voice, but Phil waved it off. He stood up, joints creaking and proving Techno’s point. Fine, it wasn’t necessarily the best idea.
“I didn’t fall asleep here on purpose,” Phil argued, “I was just sitting here and then next thing I know your big face is waking me up too fucking early.” He continued to let out complaining chirps as he shook out his wings. Techno offered him a hand, but Phil batted it away out of pride. He may be older than every member of this ship combined, but he wasn’t old enough to need help walking.
“So if you didn’t fall asleep on the floor on purpose, why exactly were you sleeping there? Wouldn’t have anything to do with the human in the cell and the book of Elytrian bedtime stories, would it?”
Fuck Techno and his ability to read Phil like a book. Phil didn’t have a response without further incriminating himself. “Tech, it’s not what it looks like…”
“Well what it looks like, Captain Philza, is that you found an injured child and adopted him, ignoring the fact that he is incredibly dangerous. Am I wrong?” Techno stared at him, red eyes full of judgement.
Phil tried to defend himself, “I have not adopted him! I just wanted to calm him down. He seemed so worried earlier, and it was a nice thing to do.” Techno was not buying it. Fuck, even Phil wasn’t buying it.
The human had just looked so sad and scared, even when he was trying to be threatening. He knew that Wilbur saw it too. Phil wasn’t trying to adopt another child, but his heart ached. And if he comforted the child in the only way he knew how, it didn’t mean that he was adopting him or anything. He was just…
Fuck, Phil really was smitten with the human. What does he do now? They still can’t communicate, and the human doesn’t seem to like him. Just because the human didn’t threaten him again last night doesn’t mean he’s ready to be part of Phil’s flock.
His realization must have shown on his face because Techno said “Phil, we’ll figure this out. Trust me. Technoblade always has a way.”
“I’m guessing your way is going to be a bit different than what I had in mind.” Techno’s way would most likely involve turning him over to the council and then distracting Phil with a different, much more harmless, cute child or a big mission. It wouldn’t exactly fix the current problem.
“Well, uh-” Techno at least had the decency to look ashamed. Phil sighed.
“I know you don’t like him being here Techno, but I think you should come meet him later. He’s not actually as bad as you’d expect. Will you do it for me, at least?” Phil tried to use his best pleading face, hoping to wear Techno down.
“Fine. But we are not opening the cell.”
“Deal.”
Tommy woke up from a dreamless sleep. The last thing he remembered was… someone talking to him in a weird voice? Or a bird chirping or something?
He opened his eyes, seeing the same gray ceiling and reality came back to him. Right. He was on a spaceship, abducted by aliens, and then abducted by a second set of aliens who seemed nicer.
Last night… the bird one read him a bedtime story? Tommy was a big man, he didn’t need things like bedtime stories or parents! He was self-sufficient, thank you very much. It definitely didn’t make him feel all nice and warm inside or help him fall asleep or anything. That would be absurd for someone as big a man as Tommy is.
Okay, so maybe the bird one wasn’t that bad. He still didn’t trust the blue bitch, not to mention whatever other weird aliens may be lurking on this ship. They hadn’t done anything to him yet, but that didn’t mean anything. The other aliens hadn’t done anything to him on the first day either.
He wouldn’t trust these aliens until he knew what they wanted. No matter how friendly or loving they pretended to be, they weren’t trustworthy. It was him (and Henry) against the aliens.
Tommy heard a whooshing noise again and more food on a tray was delivered into his cell. Like last night, it was small chunks of mystery meat and a glass of water. He wasn’t very hungry after eating dinner, but he didn’t want to waste food either. He’d grown used to scarce meals even before he’d been abducted. Two meals so close together was a luxury. Plus, this way he could grow big strong muscles to fight all the aliens!
He ate the food slower, trying to savor it. The meat tasted… odd. He’d heard people say that weird meat tasted like chicken, but this didn’t. It was like a cross between turkey and something vegetable-like. Odd, but not that bad.
The water was also nice, but it tasted kinda stale. Maybe because he was in space, all the water was just filtered old water. That would be gross.
Tommy finished the water and meat, pushing the tray back towards the opening. He expected someone to grab it and then leave him alone. Instead, the wall shimmered and the doorway turned transparent. On the other side, he couldn’t immediately spot any aliens. He wasn’t going to get closer to see though.
He watched the doorway warily, not saying anything yet. He wanted them to make the first move. That was how they did it in all the action movies, right? Tommy Innit was gonna be the best space action movie man ever, no matter what. He’d make Clara proud!
Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long, or his plan may have fallen through. The blue one stepped up, this time holding a glass of something pink-ish instead of his notebook. Tommy liked this even less. The bitch was trying to drug him!
Tommy bared his teeth and gave his best snarl. To Tommy’s credit, the alien seemed a little surprised and scared by the reaction. He took a step back and his expression changed. Tommy couldn’t exactly read alien expressions, but he was hoping this one was fear, not anger.
The alien stepped up again, still holding the glass of liquid. He pointed to Tommy, then mimed drinking the glass, before pointing at Tommy again. So he wanted Tommy to drink that? Not fucking happening.
Tommy shook his head and snarled again. He was not that stupid. He knew what aliens were like. They’d try to befriend him, then they’d drug him and experiment on him. Luckily for him, the blue bitch had already shown his true colors. He may have rescued Tommy from the last ship, but Tommy knew that he was just like them. He’d seen his notebook yesterday, he obviously wanted to experiment on him.
Not. Happening.
The alien tried to do the same pantomimes again, like Tommy hadn’t understood him the first time. Tommy got it the first time, thanks. He wasn’t stupid. But if the alien really thought so, he’d play along.
Tommy nodded, repeating the aliens motions. He mimed drinking, and the alien seemed happy at that. The alien let out a couple cooing noises in response. What that meant, Tommy had no idea.
The alien leaned down, pushing the glass through the slot at the bottom of the doorway and grabbing the tray from earlier. After the alien had moved back, Tommy walked towards the doorway. Up close, the drink was weird. It was pink and kinda fizzy. It smelled really sweet, like too sugary soda.
Tommy wrinkled his nose, but picked it up anyway. This was definitely drugs of some kind. He started to move it to his mouth-
And threw the glass full force at the doorway. It hit the invisible forcefield, shattering on impact. Glass shards and pink liquid exploded all over. Tommy flipped off the aliens, trying to get his point across.
They may punish him for this, but he would savor the way the blue alien jumped back and screeched in fear. He couldn’t help himself, Tommy laughed.
Aliens: 0. Tommy: 1.
Except… There were now three aliens standing in the doorway. The blue bitch, the bird guy, and a very large, very scary, pinkish pig looking one. Who could definitely beat Tommy up for misbehaving. Fuck.
Tommy scrambled back into the corner, trying to get away from the hulking form of the one that looked kinda like a pig. He was easily over 6 feet tall, very bulky, with large tusks and teeth and something that was definitely a gun on his hip. Tommy did not want to get on his bad side. And he was pretty sure he already did.
Tommy wanted to yell, wanted to scream or snarl or snap or something to show that he was dangerous but he was frozen in fear. Tears welled up in his eyes against his will, and a couple sniffles came out. Was he really about to die? Was this the end of Big Man Tommy Innit? He’d survived one ship of evil aliens and its crash, but two days into this new one and he was already about to die!
It was getting harder and harder to breathe and the tears kept coming against his will. He expected the scary alien to burst through the door at any moment and grab him or kill him or worse…
The door suddenly turned opaque again. What? The aliens were leaving him alone, it seemed. That didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense! Tommy grabbed the blankets and screamed into them. He just wanted this to make sense. He just wanted to go home.
Wilbur couldn’t keep watching the human break down. He must have been having some sort of anxiety-related attack. Wilbur may not know much about humans, but he could tell this one was in severe distress and they were making it worse.
A muffled scream could be heard through the walls, causing all of them to jump. Wilbur, Phil, and Techno looked at each other guiltily. No matter the species, that was painful to listen to.
“Well,” Techno began, “I don’t think he likes me.” In Wilbur’s humble opinion, that was an understatement. The sight of Techno was most likely what caused the human’s distress. It was the only unknown variable.
“Oh Tech, that’s not-”
“Phil, don’t try that. You saw what happened as well as I did. He is scared of me. He’s scared of all of us! I don’t know what you expected to happen.” Techno’s voice increased in volume, a rarity for him. He was upset about this too.
It was affecting all of them. Phil looked disheartened, wings drooping. Wilbur’s heart ached, both for his crewmates and the human in the cell.
Wilbur mused, “If only we could just talk to him, explain what was happening. It’d help a lot.”
“You’re just upset he didn’t want to drink you potion, mate,” Phil interjected. Okay, Wilbur may have been a little annoyed that the human threw his potion at him. Healing potions were powerful and Wilbur had hand-brewed that one for the human! Of course, children were not known for taking medicine easily, especially not unknown liquids from strange aliens. It made sense he threw it, but it still hurt to see it explode like that. Not to mention, the glass everywhere was a safety hazard.
Techno helpfully concluded, “This isn’t working.”
Phil sighed, “I know. I wish there was an answer, but…” He trailed off. There wasn’t an answer, besides turning the human over to the Council. Which was bound to be a death sentence, but they’d tried their best. Evidently, their best wasn’t very good.
They were stuck in an awful situation. Wilbur felt sick. He was a scientist, he was supposed to help people! And here he was, failing and sentencing someone to death.
“All hope might not be lost yet.” Techno mumbled, “I know a guy who might be able to help us with our communication problem.”
Notes:
Thank you for reading! When I was outlining this fic, I realized it divided nicely into three sections or acts. Each act is a fairly distinct portion of the story and starts with the introduction of a new character. This chapter marks the end of arc 1!
Tune back in next time (in 3 days!) to see who Techno knows and what'll happen next. And yes, the fact that there hasn't been a Techno POV yet is deliberate. All will be explained... eventually.
Comments/kudos give me life and motivation, so thank you so much to everyone leaving such nice notes! If you have any speculation, I would love to hear it! If you want a more direct way to talk to me, feel free to drop me an ask on tumblr @mmajora (please I love to ramble about this AU).
EDIT: There's now fanart of this fic!!! It's made by the amazing wolfik_1234 so please go check it out! It's so awesome and I'm so excited!!!
Chapter 5
Summary:
Previously: Techno decides to bring someone onboard to help their communication issues.
Now: Ranboo joins, meets the crew, and talks to Tommy.
Notes:
Welcome back! Have a new character + some actual communication (finally)! This one got away from me a bit, so enjoy a longer chapter. Also, I touch on some backstory stuff here that may or may not become a longer prequel fic, depending on time/motivation.
Some worldbuilding notes: Ranboo is roughly 10 years old in this fic. He still has memory problems, and a lot of his backstory is unknown because of this. He's a member of one of the Ender Species, which is the term for the intelligent species that inhabit the planets at the edges of the galaxy. These species have limited contact with the rest of the galaxy due to their distance, and members that venture off-planet are rarely accepted back into their home societies. For this reason, Ranboo cannot go back home.
If things in this chapter seem a bit weird or like things aren't adding up, it's all intentional (I hope).The whole story is planned out, but I can't reveal everything just yet. In the meantime, enjoy trying to figure out what's up ;)
No specific trigger warnings for this chapter. Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Ranboo approached the space ship, tail swirling around his legs in anxiety. Yesterday, Technoblade had requested that Ranboo join him on his ship. The teachers hadn’t exactly been happy about that, but considering Techno was legally responsible for him, they didn’t exactly have a choice. 12 hours later, Ranboo stood in front of a very nice spaceship, waiting for the ramp to lower so that he could board.
Finally, the ramp touched the ground and the door opened. Out stepped Technoblade. He nodded at Ranboo, before turning around and walking back into the ship. That must be his cue to go inside.
He walked up the ramp carefully, entering the chrome and steel body of the ship. He hadn’t been on such a fancy and high tech ship since… probably the last time he saw Technoblade. His memory wasn’t all that good, but he was pretty sure he’d remember something like this. The spaceship was amazing! Everything was so sleek and gorgeous. Not to mention, the ceilings were tall enough for him to move around comfortably.
He stepped into what he guessed was the common room of the ship. There were couches and chairs scattered throughout the area, plus a few holo screens hanging on the walls. It reminded him of the lounge areas back at the school, except more obviously lived in. He likes it.
Sitting in the lounge area wasTechnoblade and two other aliens. There’s one with wings, who he guess must be Captain Philza, the elytrian and ‘father figure’ of the crew. The other is a phantom, blue skin his most notable feature. This must be Wilbur Soot, the scientist. Technoblade had described them to Ranboo in his letters.
All the aliens rise when they see him. Technoblade begins, “Well, this is my- uh… Ranboo. This is Ranboo.” Their relationship is a bit complicated, to be fair. Ranboo doesn’t really have a better way to describe it than that.
Captain Philza raises an eyebrow at that, amused by the obvious blunder. Wilbur Soot seems less amused. “Your Ranboo?” He asks, “What, is he your child or something?”
“Legally, yes.”
Wilbur splutters. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting that to be the real answer. He knew how it looked! The infamous Technoblade, renowned piglin warrior, having an adopted child no one knew about. Not to mention, said child was Ender. Ender species rarely ventured far into the galaxy. Ranboo was unusual, to say the least.
Philza looked surprised as well. His wings were doing something weird, moving around like they had a mind of their own. Maybe they did? Ranboo had never met an Elytrian before. He’d have to ask Techno about it later or review his species guide.
“Mate, since when did you legally have a kid? What does that even mean, Techno? And why is he here now?” Philza asked. Did they not know why he was here? That was a slight problem… He didn’t know how much he could share, but Techno had specifically wanted him here because they had a human onboard. Did the others not know there was a human?
“First of all, don’t get all judgemental about children. I’ve seen how you look at that human. Second of all, ‘legally’ means that I legally adopted him, and therefore he legally is my child. Do I need to explain myself further?” Techno grunted. Ranboo could tell he definitely liked these people if he hadn’t punched anyone yet.
“Why haven’t you mentioned him before? You adopted a child and then left him at an outpost in the middle of the hell planets! What kind of father does that make you?” Phil kept arguing.
“I did not just abandon a child at a random council outpost! I left him at a specialized school, which we both agreed was the best choice. I didn't mention him because I knew you would freak out like this!”
So it seems like Techno hadn’t told his crew about Ranboo before. The thought didn’t actually hurt. They hadn’t had much of a relationship before Ranboo went to the school, and Ranboo didn’t exactly talk about Technoblade to his friends either. Not that he had many friends to tell, but the point still stood.
“So you somehow legally adopted a child and then, with his approval, left him at a school in the middle of the nether planets? Why do they even have a school here? What does he learn? Did you think about this at all, Techno? C’mon mate.” Phil was yelling now. He kinda scared Ranboo like this. He was worried Techno might blow up at him, but Techno kept his cool.
“Phil, please,” Techno pleaded, “I can’t explain everything because some of it is classified, but please trust me on this. Ranboo is my son, yes, but it’s not like that. I didn’t abandon my child, I wouldn’t do that. We’ve kept in contact, and the school is good. I couldn’t just send him to any old school, he’s an abandoned Ender child. You know what that means.” What that meant was that Ranboo was an ‘uncommon’ species. He was an anomaly. And his species wouldn’t accept him if he went back to his home planet, so he was stuck with whoever would take him. Which was The School.
Crap! Ranboo realized that he needed to be careful about what he told these people. The School wasn’t exactly public knowledge, created specifically to raise children of species which might otherwise be targets. ‘Uncommon’ species like Ranboo thrived at the school.
Techno had mentioned that details about The School were classified, so he probably shouldn’t be talking about it either.
Ranboo pulled out his memory book to write that down. Phil and Techno were still arguing, but he focused on his book.
“What you got there?” asked a voice right next to his ear. Ranboo jumped in surprise. He looked up to see the phantom, Wilbur, staring at him.
“My memory isn’t great, so I like to write important stuff down to remember later,” Ranboo replied. Wilbur nodded in thought, accepting that answer.
“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” Wilbur held out a clawed hand, “My name’s Wilbur. I’m the scientist of the ship, specializing in potions.”
Ranboo took one of Wilbur’s hands in his own. “I’m Ranboo. Techno told me about you guys. I think the potions are very impressive! We had a couple back at the school, but they were always reserved for emergencies, like when…” he trailed off. He was pretty sure he wasn’t allowed to talk about that.
Wilbur cooed in sympathy. “Memory problems?” he asked. Ranboo nodded, taking the easy way out. He avoided Wilbur’s gaze, afraid he’d see the truth in his eyes.
Wilbur continued, “So, why exactly are you here? Not that I’m not excited to meet Techno’s son! I was just wondering why he brought you here now.”
“I can speak Human.”
“You can what?” Wilbur screeched. The other two had stopped talking, both staring at him. Phil looked just as surprised. Techno looked almost… proud, if that was even an emotion Techno was capable of.
Ranboo sheepishly nodded, rubbing his head. “Yeah…”
Phil turned to Technoblade. “You’re telling me you have a child we’ve never heard about, who also is one of the few aliens in the entire galaxy to speak Human? What the fuck mate?”
“Gotta advance the plot somehow, yeah?”
Tommy had been alone in his cell since his little outburst yesterday. Dinner had been delivered, more of the same meat and another glass of water. None of that pink shit, thankfully. He would’ve thrown it at the wall again, but it wouldn’t be as fun with no one to see it.
There’d been no breakfast this morning, and no aliens had to come visit yet either. Tommy clutched Henry to his chest, seeking comfort. He could look more around the cell, but he didn’t want to play any of the alien’s games. He just wanted to go home!
Finally, after what felt like hours of waiting, the doorway appeared again and he could see out. This time, there was a really weird looking alien standing on the other side.
This one was half black and half white, with a red eye and a green eye. He had big, pointed ears, little horns poking out of his two-toned hair, and a tail. The weirdest thing was that he was absurdly tall. He was even taller than the pig alien from yesterday! But he was hunched over, like he didn’t want to be tall. If Tommy was that tall, he would never slouch. He’d use all of his Big Man height to his advantage.
Like before, Tommy waited for this alien to do something. Would he also try to give Tommy drugs? The alien didn’t pull anything out, but he did something similar to a smile and waved at Tommy. Hesitantly, Tommy waved back.
“Hello! My name is Ranboo. It’s nice to meet you!” The alien said in perfect English.
“What the fuck” Tommy blurted out. This alien spoke English? Where did he even learn English? Just… what?
The alien was just standing there, wringing his hands awkwardly. Tommy could barely read alien body language but even he could tell this guy, Ranboo, was awkward.
“You speak English?” Tommy asked instead.
Ranboo nodded, “Yes! I am mostly fluent.”
“Whoa, that’s pretty fucking cool…” Tommy muttered. Yeah, sue him, it was nice to talk to someone in English again. The last person he’d talked to had been Clara, and well…
It was nice to be able to actually communicate, even if he still didn’t trust this guy.
“What’s your name?” Ranboo asked.
“Why do you care, bitch?” Tommy snarled, showing his teeth. They didn’t deserve to know anything about him. Stranger danger and all that. Not to mention, aliens were fucking weird.
“I’m sorry if I upset you! But please don’t call me that.” Oh so this bitch was a pushover? That would make everything so much easier.
Let’s start easy with this. “What do you want from me?” That was a simple enough question. Time to see how much the alien would reveal.
“Well, uh-” Ranboo stammered, “I don’t want anything from you! I’m actually not really part of this crew. Well, I kinda am because Techno is sorta my dad but like I’m not usually here, I go to this school normally. But Techno asked me to come here because I speak Human, and none of the normal crew do, and they just wanted to communicate with you. They won’t say it, but I think they’re worried about you.”
That was a lot to process. So this Ranboo guy wasn’t normally part of the crew. If that was true, that might mean he has different motivations. If the crew were evil, maybe he wouldn’t be so evil… Tommy still didn’t trust him. Also who was this Techno guy? None of the aliens looked like they could be Ranboo’s dad. Did alien reproduction work differently? Actually, that was just gross to think about.
Tommy chose his next words carefully. “What does the crew want you to tell me?”
“They didn’t give me anything to tell you, I don’t think. Let me check.” Ranboo pulled out a little notebook from his pocket. Tommy flinched back at the sight. He didn’t trust anyone who wrote notes down. That meant they were a scientist, and scientists were bad. They meant experiments and testing and unpleasant things.
Ranboo must have seen his reaction because he quickly reassured Tommy, “Don’t worry! This is my memory book. My memory is bad, so I write down everything important. If they wanted me to tell you something, I would have written it down.”
That made sense, surprisingly. And it wasn’t like Tommy could actually check if the memory book was what this guy said it was; he couldn’t read alien writing.
“Oh!” Ranboo exclaimed, “They did want me to tell you that they aren’t going to hurt you. They don’t know what happened on the last ship, but they aren’t going to do anything to you. That’s why they brought me here, so they could talk to you and make sure you knew what was happening around you!” Ranboo smiled at him, nodding slightly. Fuck, this Ranboo guy was just so weirdly genuine and cheerful. It was strange, but not necessarily in a bad way.
“Do you want me to tell you about them?” Ranboo asked. Tommy nodded. It was always good to know your enemy. He was pretty sure he read that in some old war book or something, but it made sense.
Ranboo began, “So there’s three members of the crew. Philza is the captain, meaning he’s in charge of the ship and everyone. He’s the one with wings, that’s because he’s an Elytrian. All Elytrians live for a really long time, so he’s actually way older than you’d think. I haven’t met him before today, but from what I’ve heard he’s really nice. He cares a lot about his crew, and I think that includes you now.” Tommy scowled. Yeah right, like anyone would actually prioritize him over their real friends. Even if he was nice to him that one time.
Against his better wishes, Tommy blurted out, “Can he really fly with those wings?” Fuck, why did he ask that? It wasn’t that cool if he could fly.
Ranboo seemed to have different ideas. He lit up at Tommy’s question. “Yeah he can! I haven’t seen him yet because I literally just got here, but supposedly Elytrians can fly really fast. Rumor has it they can even go into the upper atmosphere on their wings alone, and they’re able to breathe thinner air too. Some of that may be tall tales, but you should ask Phil about it sometime! I bet he’d tell you.”
That actually sounded pretty cool, Tommy had to admit. He smiled a little at the thought of seeing Philza fly, or even flying himself. That would be incredibly poggers.
Ranboo continued, “Wilbur is the blue-ish one. He’s a phantom, which is why he looks like that. He’s a scientist or something, I think. He told me he brews potions, which are kinda like medicine. They’re super useful! I don’t think they have anything like that on earth.”
“I saw that bitch taking notes on me the other day.” Tommy muttered. He did not like Wilbur, even if he did pull him off that crashed ship.
“Really? That’s kinda rude of him.” Ranboo was right, that was rude of Wilbur! Finally, someone who understood Tommy.
Tommy nodded, “Yeah! You get it. Nobody wants to be sat here and watched like a fucking zoo animal.”
“I’m sure they don’t mean it, but I can talk to them about it?” Ranboo offered. That was… surprisingly nice of him. But did Tommy really want to start asking things? Ranboo seemed decent, but he didn’t exactly trust the other aliens.
Ranboo seemed to understand Tommy’s conflict. He offered instead, “I’ll hold off for now, but if it comes up I can mention it, okay?” Tommy nodded. Seriously, why was this alien so good at understanding him? And why did he speak such good English? He may not be evil, but he sure was weird.
They sat in silence for a second before Ranboo continued talking. “The last member of the crew is Technoblade. He’s a piglin, which looks a little similar to the pigs on earth? Or so I’ve heard. Anyways, he’s the really big, pink one. He’s also kinda my dad?”
“How the fuck did that happen?” Tommy grumbled. Ranboo shot a glance at him that probably wasn’t very friendly.
“He’s not my biological dad. He adopted me a couple years ago. I don’t remember my biological parents, or how I got to Technoblade, but uh- he adopted me so I wouldn’t have to like, go into Council custody or something. I don’t really think of him like a father, that would be kinda weird, more like a hero or mentor, I guess? He taught me how to fight and likes to make sure I’m doing okay. Plus, he brought me here to talk to you!”
Tommy felt a bit overwhelmed by all that information. Ranboo seemed to really like Technoblade, who Tommy realized was the really scary one from yesterday. Based on Ranboo’s story, Technoblade was a nice guy in general, if he would adopt a random alien child. Maybe he wouldn’t punish Tommy for his outburst yesterday?
Tommy said, “He seems kinda scary and shit. Don’t want to mess with him.”
“Mhmm. He does seem like that, doesn’t he?” Ranboo smiled, “He’s secretly a big softie. Not that he isn’t scary! He has this whole persona and reputation for fighting, but he wouldn’t actually hurt you unless you hurt someone he loves.”
Good to know. Don’t mess with the crew orTechnoblade would literally kill him. Thanks for the advice, Ranboob. Oh Tommy should totally call him that sometime! Ranboo would hate it, if he even knew what ‘boob’ meant.
Someone else walked into the room suddenly. It was the big pig alien, Technoblade, who was also Ranboo’s dad. Technoblade was holding a tray of food. It was the same meat and water Tommy had been eating, so he assumed it was for him. He hadn’t eaten anything yet that day and his stomach rumbled at the thought. He’d like a little diversity in his diet, but that was something he could maybe ask Ranboo about another day.
Ranboo and Technoblade had a short conversation in their stupid alien language. Tommy didn’t understand a word, but Technoblade really didn’t seem that bad when he wasn’t angry. He looked happy to be around Ranboo, like how a father should act. Ranboo also seemed excited to be near him. That was cute. Ew.
Finally, Ranboo turned back towards him. “Technoblade has dinner for you. Is it okay if he puts it in your room?” He asked. Tommy nodded. It’d been so long since someone had asked his permission to do something, it was a little surprising. He appreciated the thought, even if he would have let him no matter what. He hadn’t eaten anything today, he wasn’t stupid enough to refuse food.
Techno approached slowly, looking at Tommy the whole time. Tommy maintained eye contact, not about to back down. It was a little awkward until Techno looked away to set the tray down and push it through the slot. Techno backed away after it was through. Tommy waited until he was far enough from the door, before walking over to the tray and grabbing it. He brought it back to his bed, setting it on the edge. Mission accomplished, no panicking involved.
“I’m really sorry, but I have to go to dinner now with the crew,” Ranboo apologized, “It was really nice talking to you! I’ll be back tomorrow, so if you have more questions I can answer them then. I can also bring one of the crew members and translate for them, if you’d like. Just think about it, and I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Ranboo waved at him, turning to leave with Technoblade. Just before he was out of sight, Tommy called out, “You can call me Tommy. Just thought you’d want to know.” He crossed his arms, sighing. That was so stupid.
Ranboo seemed to disagree. He lit up, smile widening and tail wagging slightly. “Ok then, Tommy. Thank you for telling me!” With that, he was gone, leaving Tommy alone. The wall became opaque again.
Tommy grabbed Henry, setting him down on the bed next to his dinner. He smiled to himself. “Henry, I think I might’ve made a friend.”
Notes:
Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed the Allium Duo content. Next chapter will be out in 3 days, like usual.
In very exciting news, this fic now has fanart!!! The first piece is by the amazing wolfik_1234 showing Tommy in his cell. The other two pieces are both by crustycrackhead on tumblr. One shows Tommy and Henry (how adorable!!!) and the other is a little comic of some scenes from chapter 3. Please give both of these artists all of the love for their amazing work! I am so honored to have fanart, and it is absolutely wonderful work!
That's all for today, folks! Leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed, feel free to come yell at me on tumblr @mmajora, and I'll see you for the next chapter!
Chapter 6
Summary:
Previously: Ranboo meets Tommy and they actually talk!
Now: Ranboo and Tommy talk some more, and Ranboo translates a conversation between Tommy and one of SBI!
Notes:
Welcome back! Oh would you look at that, this fic has a chapter count now! Yes, I did finally get around to outlining the entire thing (fun fact, I actually had the last 4 chapters fully outlined since chapter 2 but couldn't figure out the middle part). I know where I'm going and I'll hopefully be able to stick to this plan
I will not go over 15 chapters even if it kills me. In the meantime, enjoy being almost halfway done!Also it seems like my chapters are getting longer over time, which is good news for you guys and bad news for my sanity.
Mild trigger warning for discussion of drugs and drugging people (although no one is actually drugged). If you need to skip it, stop reading after Ranboo's POV ends. Let me know if you want a summary of it and otherwise enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
As promised, Ranboo returned the next morning. He greeted Tommy with a cheerful chirp and a “Hello!” after turning the wall transparent. Tommy had just woken up, his hair still messy and arms clutching Henry like a lifeline.
Tommy wasn’t necessarily excited, per say, to see Ranboo, but his heart did jump a little when I realized that Ranboo had kept his promise and came back. It was nice to have someone be honest, for once.
Ranboo paused in front of the doorway, “I have your breakfast. Is it okay if I push it through?”
“Sure thing, Ranboob.” Tommy smirked at the nickname. He’d thought of it yesterday but hadn’t gotten the chance to use it.
“Hey! That’s mean,” Ranboo whined. Oh so he did know what ‘boob’ meant. Interesting… That was knowledge that definitely wouldn’t be used for evil later.
Still, Ranboo pushed the food tray through the door, backing up again. He brought a chair in front of the door, like he was planning on staying for a while. Tommy guessed it made sense. The aliens probably wanted to get information from him, and Ranboo was the only way to get that.
Tommy also realized that Ranboo had still handed the food over, even though he had insulted him. Either Ranboo was especially nice, or these aliens didn’t have a policy of withholding food. He’d have to figure out which it was if he wanted to survive.
Tommy grabbed the food tray, sitting opposite of Ranboo. He looked at it, grumbling, “Why is it always the same thing with these aliens? Do they not have other food in space? Sometimes a guy might appreciate some bread or something sweet, you know.”
Ranboo perked up at that. “What’s wrong with the food? Can you not eat it? I can tell them if it's an issue. I know Wilbur in particular was trying to figure out what humans eat, so if you have requests I’m sure he’d be happy to accommodate.”
Of course it was Wilbur who was worried about him, that blue bitch. Still, Tommy would appreciate some variety. “I don’t mind it, but do they know I can eat more than meat? I’m not a fucking- uh what’s the word… carnival?”
“Do you mean carnivore?”
“Whatever, bitch boy. I eat stuff other than meat cut into small cubes. A Big Man like me might appreciate something like fruit or bread, once in a while. If they still want to feed me, that is.” Tommy trailed off. Was he being too demanding? What if they just stopped feeding him? That’d be awful, he couldn’t go anywhere else for food if he was stuck in this stupid cell.
Ranboo quickly reassured him, “They definitely want you to have food! I’ll be sure to let them know about that, and maybe you can get something different for dinner. Just gonna write that down in my memory book, so I’ll be sure to remember.”
True to his word, Ranboo pulled out his little book, wrote a couple things down, and then put it away. That was disgustingly thoughtful, like he remembered how Tommy acted yesterday around the book. This Ranboo guy was seeming nicer by the minute.
Tommy ate his alien meat cut into small cubes and the two sat in silence. He was just finishing up when Ranboo broached the silence, asking, “Would it be okay if I ask you some questions? I was thinking we could play a game, where we go back and forth asking each other questions. You’d be able to ask me stuff too. It’s a game I used to play a lot with- back at The School.”
Tommy thought it over for a second. He didn’t really want to give the aliens more information than necessary, but he did want to learn about them. It was kinda nice to talk to Ranboo. Finally, he nodded.
“Great! I can start, if that’s alright. So, uh, how old are you?”
What a weird question. He was pretty sure they knew he was a kid, and it’s not like aliens were familiar with human ages. It would probably be harmless to answer. “I’m seven years old.”
Ranboo smiled, “Oh cool! Now you can ask me a question.”
What did he want to ask Ranboo? Truthfully, Tommy had a million questions, but he didn’t know where to start. He could ask about Ranboo, or he could ask about the other aliens, or he could ask about space in general. There were a million possibilities. He settled on “You cut yourself off earlier, when talking about this game. Who did you used to play it with?”
Time to see how much Ranboo was willing to tell him.
“I used to play it a lot with a friend from The School I mentioned. I just- I realized you wouldn’t know who he was from his name, so I didn’t mention it. We haven’t played it recently because we haven’t needed to as much. I guess you could say we got better at having conversations,” Ranboo chuckled, “Next question! What’s your favorite color?”
Huh, that answer actually seemed pretty genuine. Fuck Ranboo and his completely logical answers and general un-weirdness.
Tommy responded, “I like red! Where did you meet Technoblade?”
Ranboo looked away sharply. Shit, was that a touchy subject? Tommy thought he could ask anything, but he didn’t want to be rude. Not to the only person who was talking to him. He quickly backtracked, “You don’t have to answer that, if you don’t want. Sorry…”
“No no it’s fine! Just surprised me,” Ranboo reassured him. Tommy didn’t quite relax, but he let Ranboo continue. “I was abandoned on this planet called Hypixel. I don’t actually remember how I got there, but Technoblade found me and made sure I didn’t die.”
Tommy nodded sagely. “Very generous of him. So poggers.”
Ranboo laughed. “What does ‘poggers’ mean?”
“It means awesome, unlike you, boob-boy!”
“Hey! Okay wait, I need to think of a question now.”
“Nope, you just asked your question.”
“What? That doesn’t count!”
“Does too, unpoggers boob-boy!”
“Don’t call me that!”
Tommy stuck out his tongue at Ranboo. Ranboo made a weird face back at him. This was nice.
After their questions game (and ensuing argument), Ranboo had decided to start teaching Tommy Common so he’d actually be able to communicate with other aliens. He knew the crew especially wanted to be able to talk to Tommy.
It had been several hours, and although Tommy was definitely making progress, they both needed a break. Ranboo should probably go check in with everyone, and maybe see about getting Tommy some different food for lunch.
“I should probably go update the crew about how things are going here,” he told Tommy. Tommy frowned at the news, like he’d forgotten about them. It touched Ranboo that Tommy liked him enough that he viewed this as hanging out, not just information gathering. Truthfully, Ranboo thought of it like that too. It reminded him of the early days back at The School.
“What- what are you gonna tell them?” Tommy asked. Ranboo hadn’t quite figured that part out yet either. He was mostly winging it, even if he had some experience and was maybe in charge of Tommy at this point.
“Well, I want to mention changing up your diet. Hopefully I’ll be back this afternoon with some lunch that won’t just be meat. I might tell them some of the stuff you mentioned earlier, but if you don’t want me to say something I won’t.” Ranboo wasn’t doing a great job at this whole reassuring thing, but he was trying.
Tommy mumbled, “It’s fine big man. You can tell them whatever.” Ranboo was pretty sure it wasn’t fine, but he didn’t really want to push it with Tommy. He didn’t think Tommy would hurt him and he was pretty sure he could take him in a fight, but he really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Ranboo realized he should probably check in with Tommy before he brought a crew member in later. He’d mentioned it to Tommy yesterday, but he thought it’d be good to check with Tommy again. “Would it be alright if I brought one of the crew members to talk to you later? I’d be here to translate, and you wouldn’t need to say anything if you don’t want, of course, I just think they really want to and- well you can say no if you don’t want to do it today, or ever!”
Tommy thought for a second. Ranboo guessed he hadn’t had a lot of options lately, and seeing the crew again would probably be scary. Consent was important, and all that, and Tommy really needed some autonomy.
Finally, Tommy nodded, giving silent permission. Ranboo smiled. This was progress! “Whelp, I should probably go, but I’ll be back soon, okay? Bye!”
Tommy waved at him as he got up. Ranboo left the cell transparent and headed towards the kitchen area where he guessed the crew would be.
Ranboo found the rest of the crew of SBI sitting in the kitchen, mostly empty plates on the table showing the remnants of lunch. There was a spot with a full plate next to Techno, and Ranboo hoped it was for him. He sat down to a plate of meat similar to what they’d been giving Tommy.
“So,” Phil began, awkwardly, “how is he? Have you learned anything?”
Ranboo swallowed, trying to figure out where to start. “Um, well, his name is Tommy, first of all. He said he’s seven years old, and I’m assuming that’s earth years.”
Wilbur chimed in, “Earth years are pretty close standard galactic years. From what I can tell from the limited information about humans, that would put him as an early adolescent.”
Ranboo couldn’t help himself. Technically he should have no way of knowing this, but he corrected, “Actually, humans age slightly differently. Seven years old would put him mid-childhood, about halfway between toddler and adolescent. Uh… sorry.” He looked around sheepishly, seeing the way everyone stared at him. Wilbur seemed surprised, but quickly began noting it down in his journal. Phil looked deep in thought, like he was considering the implications of that tidbit.
Techno clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re doing a good job, kid.” Ranboo flushed under the praise.
Ranboo continued, “He also said he’d be willing to talk to one of you today, with me translating. I know it's not ideal, and I’m working on teaching him Common, but in the meantime it might be good!”
“Only one of us should go, so as not to overwhelm him.” Wilbur spoke, “Phil, is it alright if I go talk to him? I know you’re the captain, but I’d like to ask him some questions so we can make him more comfortable.”
Phil nodded, ‘That’s fine, Wil. I know how you get.”
“And I know how you get. Thank you, though.”
“Just one thing,” Ranboo added, “Don’t take notes while you’re there. I think he had bad experiences with scientists on the other ship, so don’t mention it or do anything particularly science-y, okay?”
“Yeah yeah sure. Can do.”
Ranboo checked his memory book one more time to see if he was missing anything from earlier. “One more thing. Have you guys been feeding him only meat?”
“Yeah? Humans have canines suggesting they eat primarily meat, but he’s missing a couple teeth so I’ve been cutting it into pieces for him. Is there an issue?” Wilbur asked. Ever the scientist, apparently. Ranboo would’ve rolled his eyes if he could. Wilbur hadn’t even thought to check if Tommy had other teeth!
“Humans are omnivores and he’s eating fine. I think he’d appreciate some fruit or something.”
Wilbur blinked in shock. Phil barked out a laugh and even Techno huffed. Yeah, this was going pretty well. Hopefully he could bring Tommy something a little more appetizing.
Ranboo left him alone, but the doorway remained clear. Tommy crept towards it, observing the empty room outside. There wasn’t much out there, just some chairs and a door leading into another hallway. That wasn’t very helpful, if he could ever get out of this cell. Maybe he could make a run for the vents? Not very practical but it might work.
Soon enough, Ranboo returned. With him was the blue bitch. Ugh, of all the aliens to come talk, it had to be that one. He was holding a tray in his creepy, clawed hands. The tray had food on it other than just meat, so that was nice. Ranboo had actually talked to them about that! Tommy tried not to be surprised. Ranboo was alright, he supposed.
Both of the aliens sat down in front of the doorway. Ranboo greeted him, and the blue bitch waved slightly. Ranboo said, “This is Wilbur. He wanted to come talk to you. But first, is it okay to slide you the tray?”
Tommy nodded. Ranboo said something to Wilbur, who slowly moved towards Tommy with the tray. It was like the morning, except Tommy trusted Wilbur considerably less.
Finally, Tommy had his food and Wilbur was safely back in his chair. Tommy asked Ranboo, “Is this safe to eat?”
“What- what do you mean? Of course it's safe to eat! It’s all food.”
“It’s not, like, poisoned or anything, right?” Tommy didn’t trust Wilbur one bit. He’d already tried something with that pink shit. Ranboo (hopefully) wouldn’t poison him.
“Oh no absolutely not! It’s all completely poison or drug free! They wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Tommy shrugged, but decided to eat anyway. The food looked really appetizing. There was something that he was pretty sure was space bread and a shiny golden fruit. It looked almost like an apple, so he decided to call them ‘gapples’ in his head. He bit into the gapple, the sweetness refreshing.
As he was eating, Ranboo spoke again. “Wilbur wants you to know he’d never drug you, and he’s really sorry if you thought he would. You can always ask what something is and not eat it if you don’t want to.”
Tommy didn’t believe him for a second, but decided to ignore it. Wilbur said something to Ranboo, who translated, “Um, Wilbur wants to know how you’re feeling.”
“How I’m feeling? Why, so he can dissect me or some shit?”
Ranboo looked shocked. Clearly, Ranboo hadn’t had much experience with scientists and experiments then. Still, he relayed the message to Wilbur. “He says he would never do that! He’s worried about you because you were very injured from the crash and malnourished.”
Tommy scrunched up his nose. No fucking way was he buying this shit. Doctors were just as bad as scientists, if not worse. If Wilbur was both, he’d be happier dumped on the nearest planet than on this spaceship.
“I’m not telling him shit. You tell him that, bitch boy.”
“Tommy!”
“What? I’ve been around enough doctors and scientists. Nothing but pain and death and more pain with those lot. I don’t want to talk to him anymore.”
Ranboo reluctantly relayed the message. Wilbur seemed… displeased? Disheartened? Tommy couldn’t tell but he didn’t look happy, that’s for sure. If it got him to leave Tommy alone, then it was good enough. Wilbur said something else to Ranboo in response.
Ranboo explained, “Wilbur wants you to know he would never do that to you. He just wants to help you. If you’re injured, he can give you medicine to make you feel better, like the other day.” Tommy scoffed. Like the other day, when he was trying to drug him? And Tommy threw it in his face (literally) so now he’s trying it again? No.
Tommy proclaimed, “I don’t care what he says he will or won’t do. He tried to drug me once already. I’m done with him, Ranboo.”
Ranboo stuttered. Clearly, he hadn’t been informed of that situation. “He what?”
“You heard me. Just relay that message to the blue bitch.” Dutifully, Ranboo relayed it.
Wilbur exploded. Tommy couldn’t understand him, but he knew anger when he saw it. It seemed like Ranboo was trying to talk him down, but it wasn’t very effective.
“Uh, okay so Wilbur said that,” Ranboo paused, like he didn’t know how to handle this, “Wilbur wants me to tell you, um… I’m really sorry there’s no good way to say this but he said ‘That was a potion, you ungrateful brat, and it’s one of the most advanced medicines in the galaxy, so if you don’t want it he can you throw you back to those poachers he so kindly rescued you from. He saved you from the crashed ship, and there’s nothing stopping him from throwing you out of the airlock.’”
How dare he
Tommy was seething with rage. This fucker, this absolute bitch, not only tries to poison him, threatens him, but disrespects Clara? She rescued him from the poachers, not some pretentious, self-righteous alien scientist who just wants to experiment on him more.
“Leave.” Tommy orders.
“Tommy…”
“Get. Out.”
Ranboo got the message, quickly pushing Wilbur out of the room. Before he leaves, he turns back around to Tommy. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“Whatever…” Tommy huffs. He’s alone again, and more pissed off than ever. Fuck all of the aliens and their fucking mindgames.
Notes:
Thank you so much for reading! Blame tumblr for the ending of this chapter. I asked if people wanted pure fluff or fluff and angst and everyone assumed I meant hurt/comfort but no, this is what you get.
On a much sappier note, I just want to thank everyone who has supported this fic in anyway. Since the last chapter was posted, this fic has surpassed 10k hits, 1k kudos, and 100 comment threads, which is absolutely insane. I am so excited for where this is heading, and every single one of you reading this is who I'm dedicating it to. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading, for kudos-ing, for commenting, for everything.
Chapter 7
Summary:
Previously: Tommy and Wilbur get into a big fight, awkwardly translated by Ranboo.
Now: Ranboo makes decisions that are going to give the rest of the crew a heart attack and Tommy gets a hug.
Notes:
Welcome back! Have an incredibly fluffy chapter after the last one!
Some notes about Common: I've slightly sped up the time it should take Tommy to learn the language out of plot convenience. Realistically, it would take him two months at minimum to become fluent. I'm shortening that to about a month in this story, but if it makes you feel better he's not fully fluent by the end of the month. Additionally, I'm picturing Common as a language sort of similar to Esperanto but actually successful (for those who don't know, Esperanto was a language that was supposed to be really easy for everyone to learn but never took off). This is part of the reason why Tommy can learn it quicker, because it's intentionally easy to learn. Also, Common has glottal stops (which are mentioned in this chapter) entirely because I think they're a really cool sound that I wish English had. If you have other questions, please let me know! I love linguistics so this is very fun for me.
No trigger warnings in this chapter. Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been one week since the “incident” with Wilbur. Ranboo had come back the next day, sincerely apologizing, and Tommy had felt bad enough that he forgave him. He wasn’t really ever angry with Ranboo in the first place, he just got stuck in the middle of their argument. He wouldn’t throw away his first real friendship over some blue alien bitch.
Wilbur, on the other hand, he was fucking furious at. He didn’t trust the bitch to begin with, but after his threats and insults, he didn’t ever want to see him again. He actually would really like to be off of this stupid spaceship, even if he hated Wilbur for threatening it. Unfortunately, he didn’t think the aliens would be letting him go any time soon.
He hadn’t seen anyone other than Ranboo since that fight. Ranboo had visited him every day, and Tommy really felt like he made a friend! It was nice. They’d played more of the questions game, although they hadn’t really told each other anything substantial. It had mostly been silly questions like “If you could have a superpower, what would it be?” (Tommy said flight while Ranboo couldn’t decide) and “What’s your favorite food?” (Tommy liked the space gapples a bunch and Ranboo’s favorite was this weird dish that Technoblade made that sounded kinda like baked potatoes).
Ranboo had also been teaching Tommy Common. Common was a really weird language and Tommy struggled with some of the sounds of it. Like seriously, what the fuck with this weird noise he had to make in the back of his throat? It sounded like someone getting punched, but apparently it was one of the sounds in this language.
Still, he was getting a lot better at Common. Ranboo told him that it was intentionally designed to be easy to learn so all species could pick it up quickly, but Tommy knew he was just such a Big Man that learning a language was no problem.
They’d been practicing every day, and Tommy could hold a simple conversation in Common, so long as Ranboo was talking slowly and clearly. It wasn’t perfect, but it was progress and goddamnit Tommy was proud of himself.
On this particular day, they’d been practicing chatting in Common. Tommy had been cuddling Henry, feeling like it was his only lifeline. Henry was so soft, and holding him in his arms just felt right. Ranboo was sitting on the other side of the cell wall, watching Tommy.
Ranboo suddenly switched back to English, asking, “Do you want a hug?”
Huh? That was such a weird question. Was Ranboo secretly clingy? Ugh, why did Tommy have to get stuck with the clingy bitch. Not to mention, even if Ranboo wanted to give him a hug, there was a bit of an issue with that plan…
“Big R, did you forget about the wall in between us?”
Ranboo looked away. Tommy had noticed he didn’t usually do eye contact, but most of the time he still looked in Tommy’s direction. “Um, I might be able to get around that? But only if you wanted a hug!”
Ranboo could break him out? Now that was something good to know. He figured Ranboo wouldn’t just break him out for no reason or just let him escape, which begged the question: did he want a hug? He hadn’t been hugged in who knows how long, but it wasn’t like he needed it to survive or anything.
“Why are you asking, Ranboob?”
“Well, you know, humans are a very tactile species, and touch is generally required for sufficient nurturing and mental health. And I realized you’ve been alone in there for almost two weeks, not to mention however long you were on the previous ship. Basically, it seems like no one’s hugged you in awhile so I thought I’d offer? No pressure, of course.”
Tommy thought about it for a second. He had been holdingHenry more, like Henry could give him comfort and whatnot. And he did, but only to a certain extent. It would be nice to touch someone, and it might be a chance for escape. And he really did like Ranboo! He would bet that Ranboo gives great hugs, with how tall and lanky the bitch is.
Finally, Tommy nodded. “That might be nice, if you want.” Ranboo smiled and jumped to his feet. He walked to the control panel for the cell, pressing a bunch of buttons and doing stuff Tommy couldn’t see. It was taking a lot longer than he was expecting. He asked, “Do you know what you’re doing there?”
“I’ll have you know I am very good at breaking into cells, thank you.”
Tommy spluttered. “You’re fucking breaking into it? Does that mean the rest of the crew doesn’t know you’re doing this? What if you get into trouble!”
Ranboo gave him a blank look. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. They won’t even notice once I leave! It’s fine, promise.” Tommy was unconvinced, but decided to leave it be. He would actually like the hug, now that the option was there, so he wouldn’t try to talk Ranboo out of it. If he got in trouble it was on him. Even if some part of Tommy wanted to protect his new friend from the scary aliens, Ranboo could make his own decisions.
“How do you even know how to break into a cell? I didn’t think they’d teach you that at your fancy School.”
“One of my friends, he got into trouble a lot, you could say, so he taught me how to do this so I could break him out. I guess the memory stuck.” Okay, Ranboo had weird friends. Seriously, the guy was associating with people who regularly had him break them out of a cell? Fucking bizarre. Tommy wanted to stay far away from whoever that was. Also what kind of school locked up their students? The whole thing was not very poggers.
Finally, Ranboo backed away from the control panel. The cell wall was just gone. Before, Tommy could see a faint shimmer where the invisible barrier was, but now there was nothing there. It really was empty air.
Before he could make a break for it, Ranboo stepped through the doorway. Up close, Ranboo seemed even taller. He absolutely towered over Tommy. If Ranboo didn’t want him leaving, he wouldn’t get anywhere.
Panic began to creep in. He was in an enclosed room with a very intimidating alien, who he thought was his friend but that didn’t really mean anything, did it?
Ranboo’s face broke into a smile, and Tommy snapped out of it. Ranboo was his friend. This was fine.
“Can I hug you?” he hesitantly asked. Tommy nodded.
Ranboo approached slowly, arms wide and movements careful, like Tommy was some wild animal who would run at any sudden movements. Which, okay, maybe that was a fair assessment. But he didn’t exactly have anywhere to run.
Ranboo was right in front of Tommy, looking down at him. Tommy made the first, wrapping his arms around Ranboo. He barely reached past his waist, but Ranboo leaned down to envelope him in his weirdly long arms.
This was… nice. It was really nice. Tommy leaned into the touch, warmth surrounding him. He felt safe, the world being held at bay by Ranboo. Ranboo was humming into his hair, the sounds unfamiliar but full of love. Tommy relaxed. Fuck it, he melted into Ranboo.
He didn’t know how long they stayed there, but eventually Ranboo maneuvered them to the bed. They sat next to each other, arms around each other and Ranboo resting his head on Tommy’s. Ranboo’s tail had even curled itself around Tommy’s waist, like a really clingy dog. Tommy was happier than he’d been in ages, warm and comforted and completely at ease. He never wanted it to end.
Reluctantly, Ranboo pulled his arms away but stayed pressed to Tommy’s side. Tommy was basically leaning fully onto him, not wanting to let go of the touch after going so long without it. He hadn’t realized how much he needed it. Ranboo really was a life saver, that fucker.
Ranboo kept humming, and Tommy remained relaxed, even though some small part of his brain screamed at him to run. He savored the moment.
Of course, good things couldn’t last.
Tommy was still leaning against Ranboo, eyes closed and ignoring the world outside of their little bubble. He didn’t hear the footsteps outside until they were too close to move away. The bird alien, he was pretty sure that was Philza, the captain, burst into view. He looked distressed, and immediately began yelling.
Tommy couldn’t understand most of it, but got the gist. “What- thinking- bad idea- Ranboo- no- scary- technoblade think- why!” Yeah, Ranboo definitely wasn’t supposed to be in here, and Philza was not happy about it.
Ranboo sat up straighter but let Tommy keep leaning against him. Tommy was grateful for the small kindness, not wanting to let go of the warmth just yet. He responded to Phil, clearly trying to defend himself. “Not dangerous- it’s fine- can fight- Technoblade- taught-”
Philza and Ranboo kept arguing, but Tommy honestly didn’t care about it anymore. Ranboo wasn’t leaving yet and Tommy was going to take advantage of that, not try to translate some stupid alien language he could barely understand. He curled further into Ranboo’s side, humming in contentment when Ranboo wrapped an arm around him.
Ranboo turned back to him, telling him in English, “Phil was just worried about me being alone in here with you, but it's all fine.”
“You’re not in trouble?” The last thing Tommy wanted was to cause Ranboo to get in trouble for his benefit. This was just what he was afraid of earlier.
“No, no,” Ranboo reassured, “Besides, I’ve trained under Technolade. I’m pretty sure even if you wanted to hurt me, you couldn’t.”
“Yeah right, Ranboob. I’d beat you any fucking day.”
“Okay, Tommy. Whatever you say.” Ranboo chuckled. Tommy smiled alongside him.
Tommy looked up, seeing Phil still standing in the doorway. He hadn’t stepped foot into the cell yet. He probably was worried after what happened with the blue bitch last time. Tommy wasn’t sure he even wanted to be this close to one of the crew members. The only thing keeping him grounded was Ranboo at his side. At least he would be there if Philza tried anything.
Making eye contact with Tommy, Phil cleared his throat, feathers ruffling weirdly. His wings were tucked behind him, but they still gave him an alien looking silhouette. Which made sense, he was an alien. It was just a different thing to be faced with it staring him down.
“How are you, Tommy?” Phil asked, slowly and clearly in Common. He pronounced Tommy’s name kinda weirdly, like he was saying it with some sort of stupid accent. Luckily, Tommy could understand his Common clear enough. This was one of the sentences he’d practiced with Ranboo.
Tommy thought for a second. “I am alright. How are you?” His Common was clunky, but Phil lit up at the question. Wow, it was weird how friendly this alien seemed. Compared to Wilbur, it was like night and day.
“I am doing alright, thank you for asking.” Tommy nodded, hoping he understood it correctly. Ranboo and him hadn’t progressed much past this part of a conversation, so unless Phil was about to start asking incredibly basic questions, this was about as far as he could take the conversation.
Luckily, Phil seemed to have other plans. “May I come in?” he asked. Huh? Tommy was pretty sure he was locked in a cell, and usually the person in charge of the cell didn’t ask permission to enter.
Tommy turned to Ranboo, trying to understand what was happening in this situation. Ranboo smiled at him, telling him in English, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Tommy thought about it. Philza was the captain, and was therefore probably in charge of what happened to him. If he was compliant, it might get him farther. On the other hand, the last time he’d thrown a fit, Ranboo had come in, which was a good thing. But, Phil could enter the cell even if he told him no, and if Ranboo decided to help Phil instead of Tommy, he’d be helpless.
Finally, Tommy made a decision. “Okay,” he nodded. Phil had been kind and respectful, even reading him a bedtime story once.
Phil seemed surprised, if Tommy was reading him correctly. He didn’t move for a second, like he didn’t realize Tommy had actually let him in. He stepped in the room, quickly moving to one side so that he was still far enough away from Tommy but not blocking the doorway. It was so… thoughtful. Fuck, why did he have to actually be nice? Except for Wilbur, these aliens didn’t seem too bad, and Tommy couldn’t tell if he loved it or hated it.
Phil let out a happy chirp at Tommy. Tommy wasn’t sure if he was supposed to respond to it or something. Does he need to chirp back?
Luckily, Phil quickly followed it up with a quiet “Thank you,” in Common. Tommy at least knew how to answer that, responding with “You’re welcome.”
Phil kept making the bird-like noises, soft chirps and gentle coos. It sounded a lot like the song birds that always sang in the mornings back on Earth. In a way, it set Tommy at ease.
Phil had just been standing there for a couple minutes when he asked, “May I sit next to you?”
Tommy did not know if he was ready to be near one of the alien fuckers yet. He realized he was still leaning on Ranboo, but Ranboo was different! Kinda?
Maybe he could take a chance with Phil. He hadn’t done anything yet, he was keeping his distance, and those noises he was making were actually pretty nice to listen to. Was it worth it?
Yes.
“Yes,” Tommy responded. Phil slowly made his way to the bed, sitting on the side of Tommy that wasn’t leaning against Ranboo. Tommy tensed, feeling closed in. He didn’t exactly have anywhere he could run except towards the door. He didn’t think they’d let him get that far, though.
Phil quickly began cooing and chirping again, but this time it took on a more song-like tone. Ranboo rubbed his arm and his tail wrapped tighter, the touch grounding him. He relaxed slightly.
The singing continued from Phil, and Tommy couldn’t help it, he slumped down and melted against Ranboo. He barely felt it, but Phil began to move closer to him.
Slowly, carefully, a clawed hand reached into his hair. Tommy flinched when it made contact. The hand retreated quickly. Phil said something, but he was mumbling and all Tommy could pick up was “sorry” a bunch of times.
Steeling his nerves, Tommy said, “It’s alright. You- you can touch.” He looked at Phil, trying to put on his most confident face to show he was okay.
He wasn’t exactly okay with it, but Phil wanted to and Ranboo’s touch had felt so nice earlier. Not to mention, Phil’s voice was so soothing. He wanted to try for him. Maybe he was being too trusting, but Tommy was tired and he just wanted to be held and loved.
The hand returned to his hair, even slower than before. When it made contact, Tommy suppressed a flinch. This was fine.
As Phil began to gently scratch his head, he realized it actually was fine. It felt so good, the chirping and the cooing and the scratching and the contact. His eyes slipped shut, warmth soaking into his bones. Tommy drifted off to sleep.
Phil looked at Tommy and Ranboo, curled up next to each, asleep. He smiled to himself. ’Flock’ the instinct part of him whispered. He was inclined to agree.
Notes:
Thanks for reading! No Wilbur reconciliation yet, but have a dadza instead?
This officially marks the halfway point of this fic! We have 6 more chapters of plot + an epilogue remaining. And oh boy are these some good chapters! I think you'll like them a lot, and I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve.
As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, I love you all, and I'll see you in 3 days for the next chapter!
Chapter 8
Summary:
Previously: Hugs and Dadza!
Now: Tommy makes progress and Technoblade is here!
Notes:
Welcome back! Have a Techno focused chapter, featuring actual backstory??? Crazy, I know.
Trigger warning for mentions of torture, experimentation, violence/fighting, and implied violence to children. (its Technoblade, guys. That's kinda his brand)
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
The next day, Ranboo returned, bringing along Technoblade. Apparently, the crew had decided that Ranboo would be allowed in the cell with Tommy only if Technoblade was also there to supervise. Something about Tommy being dangerous.
Tommy just thought Technoblade was overprotective. When he told Ranboo that, Ranboo just laughed before quietly agreeing. “Don’t tell him I said this, but I think he worries about me a lot.”
After seeing the fond look Technoblade gave Ranboo (and only Ranboo), he was inclined to agree. Technoblade mostly watched them or read a book, but when Ranboo laughed or smiled or just did anything, his face stretched into something like a small smile.
Tommy tried to pretend that he wasn’t jealous. Ranboo deserved it, he really did! He’d been nothing but kind to Tommy, even teaching him Common. And Ranboo didn’t get to see Techno often, so this was probably why Techno seemed so happy around him. It didn’t sting at all that no one had ever looked at him like. It didn’t.
Unless you counted Clara, but that was different. They’d been forced together, she couldn’t leave him even if she tried. Not when their cages were right next to each other. She hadn’t smiled at him. No one smiled on that ship. There was no room for happiness, only survival.
And Clara couldn’t even manage that. Tommy wasn’t stupid, he knew that she was the reason the ship crashed. She’d escaped, she’d had a plan, and she’d warned Tommy. She’d told him how to protect his head, what to do if they came for him, every possible scenario. She’d promised she’d be back for him, but he was here now. He knew she wouldn’t abandon him, not like this.
He was still haunted by her screams. His memories were clearer now, and he could recall it in painstaking detail. The ship crashing, her screams mingled with the other aliens’. It was horrifying. He’d never forget it.
At night, he lay in the alien bed, screams ringing through his head. He tried to cover his ears and muffle them as best as he could, but nothing kept them out. They echoed around him in the night, with no other voices to distract him.
In the day, it was easier. Ranboo came and visited, continuing to teach him Common. With Techno there, things were different.
On the first day, he’d just brought a chair in and read while Tommy and Ranboo talked. Tommy was hesitant, retreating into himself.
Like Phil, Techno carefully did not block the doorway, but Tommy had no doubt that he would grab Tommy before he got anywhere near it.
“He’s not going to hurt you,” Ranboo tried to reassure him in English.
“Well, I’m not convinced the bitch won’t do something.” Tommy crossed his arms. He knew this was Ranboo’s kinda-dad, but he still didn’t trust him.
Ranboo sighed. “If he does something, I’ll protect you, okay? Do you trust me?”
That was a loaded question, but the answer was easier than it should’ve been. “Sure.”
After the first day, Tommy slowly got used to Techno’s presence. The first two days he’d just been sitting there silently, not reacting even when Tommy knew he could hear his name. It was comforting, in a weird way. Plus, Ranboo seemed so stupidly happy to be around his dad. Tommy could deal with it for Ranboo. He’d still grumble about it a little, but he wasn’t heartless.
On the third day, Techno finally spoke to him. Ranboo had stepped out to go grab food for all of them. Tommy wasn’t excited about staying alone with Techno, but Techno didn’t seem to want to leave for such a short period of time and Tommy didn’t want to ask him. Tommy was content to stay curled in his corner until Ranboo returned.
“You’re pronouncing it wrong, kid.” Techno grumbled. Tommy’s head shot up, unsure if Techno was actually talking to him or if there was someone else. There was no one else around, so did this guy just talk to himself?
“What?”
“The words. You’re pronouncing them wrong.”
Huh? That was not what he’d been expecting, assuming he understood Techno correctly. How pedantic was this bitch to correct him on his pronunciation? Tommy had literally been learning the language for a week and a half, the guy could cut him a little slack.
“Well I-” Tommy trailed off, unsure how to explain himself in Common. Fuck these stupid language barriers. Why couldn’t they just learn English like Ranboo did? Ugh Tommy ended up doing all the work around here. Well, Ranboo helped too but Tommy did most of the work.
Techno luckily seemed to understand the issue. He demonstrated, “You say” and then made that weird throat sound. “It’s actually” and then made some slightly different weird throat sound. Tommy could barely tell the two apart, but he guessed it was a big deal if Techno would correct him on it.
Tommy tried to make the second sound, the “correct” one, but it sounded the same to him. Techno shook his head, repeating the correct one.
Tommy tried to make it again, and this time it seemed closer to Techno’s noise. Techno nodded at him. He must have gotten it right! Pride bubbled in him at the thought.
“Try again?” Techno asked. Tommy did it again, and then tried it in a word. Both times, Techno nodded at him. It wasn’t much, but happiness swelled in his chest at each small movement.
Almost too quietly to catch, Tommy heard Techno say something that sounded like “Good job”. He was probably mistaken, but he hoped he was right. He’d just tell himself that Techno was actually proud of him for it, and count it as a win.
Ranboo returned a couple minutes later, unaware of what he’d missed. If he noticed that Tommy pronounced the words slightly better now, he didn’t mention it.
The next day, Philza stopped in again. Tommy hadn’t seen him since he’d embarrassingly fallen asleep to his chirps and hand in his hair. Techno and Ranboo had been with him for a couple hours that day when Phil stopped by with lunch for everyone.
Ever since Ranboo had mentioned the food thing, Tommy had been getting a much bigger variety of food. He really appreciated it, and tried to tell Ranboo that, but he waved it off like it was nothing. It had been so long since someone had cared what he ate, it was sweet.
Today, Tommy was getting some meat, space bread, and a slice of a gapple, all with a glass of water. He thanked Phil for the food, expecting him to leave again.
Instead, Phil hovered at the doorway like he did last time. Before he could even ask, Tommy told him, “You can come in.” He hastily added, “If you want,” not wanting to seem demanding.
Phil smiled, feathers puffing up and a small chirp being let out. The feathers and chirps definitely happened based on his emotions. Tommy needed to figure out what each one meant so he could read him better. It was always important to know people’s tells, especially if they were in charge of you.
Phil settled into a chair next to Techno, not quite blocking the doorway. The two began chatting, too soft for Tommy to follow. He and Ranboo ate in amiable silence. Ranboo had decided they’d try talking only in Common today, but Tommy’s head hurt too much to try to hold a conversation. Ranboo claimed that it would help him learn faster. Tommy thought it was just annoying when he wanted to have an actual conversation.
Tommy was almost done eating when Phil turned towards him. He had started eating slower, trusting that no one would steal the food from. He hunched over his food instinctively. Phil’s wings did something weird again. Slowly, he relaxed back into a normal position and Phil’s wings settled back down.
“Tommy,” Phil addressed him, “How are you doing?”
“I’m alright, thank you. How are you?” He could do this. The food had helped his headache slightly, and Phil talked slow enough that he was easy to understand.
“I’m doing well, [???]. Techno told me you’re making progress in learning Common. Good job!” Techno told him that? Maybe their conversation yesterday had made a good impression on him. Tommy tried to hide how touched he was at that.
“Thank you.” Tommy did feel like he was improving, but he was nowhere near perfect yet. He had a long way to go. He added, “Uh, that word you used, what does it mean?”
“[???]” It sounded like the same one as earlier, so Tommy nodded.
Ranboo piped up, “It’s a term for a friend. Similar to ‘mate’ in Human, I think.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Thank you.”
Look at Tommy, having a whole conversation in Common! If only he could sound less formal, but he probably needed more practice. He’d need to ask Ranboo about swear words in Common too! Gotta expand his vocabulary.
Techno remained silent the whole time, but he seemed as happy as Tommy had ever seen him. This felt like progress, no matter how small.
When Phil had first told him about Ranboo being alone with the human, Techno had been terrified. No matter how much time had passed, Techno still felt like it was his duty to protect Ranboo the world. But he had to remember, Ranboo was 10 now, he wasn’t the scared five year old anymore.
5 years ago, when he was still stuck in the fighting pits on Hypixel, Techno had found a small Ender child and taken him under his wing. He’d taught Ranboo to fight, as well as any five year old could. It pained him to force such a young kid to do it, but he feared what would happen if he couldn’t defend himself more.
Techno had seen what happened to children in the fighting pits. He’d been what happened to children in the fighting pits, and he still had nightmares about it. From the moment he’d seen Ranboo, he’d felt responsible for him.
So hearing that Ranboo had broken into the cell and was alone with a very dangerous human child was not good news. He was slightly proud of Ranboo for breaking into the cell without tripping any alarms, but that was quickly pushed aside in favor of panic.
Despite the fact that Ranboo was fine and argued that the human wouldn’t hurt him, Technoblade couldn’t be too careful. Ranboo thought he could defend himself, but he’d never seen a truly feral human before. Techno had heard of the destruction, worse than an army of the strongest warriors if the human was desperate enough. If Ranboo insisted on being in there, Techno would be there too. Just in case.
Despite what Phil insisted, Techno would not warm up to the human. He may be curious, but he wasn’t about to go and adopt another child. One was more than enough, he didn’t want gray hairs anytime soon.
So he sat and read and watched. It wasn’t too bad honestly, not like he had much else to do. He enjoyed being around Ranboo. It had been far too long since they’d been together in person, and he’d never seen Ranboo this happy.
Maybe time had made him sappy, but he allowed himself the small pleasure of watching someone he’d helped escape from the pits thrive. Ranboo deserved it, and with his memory he hopefully didn’t remember the worst of it.
Tommy, which he knew was the human’s name, wasn’t actually that bad. If he was being honest, he might even say the kid was growing on him. Shame he was a human, but Techno would love to see the kid fight. Not until he was older of course, he didn’t want any more children fighting on his watch.
Techno noticed the way the kid was initially wary of him, but the tension slowly drained out of him. He wasn’t surprised by the fear, but he wished there wasn’t a reason Tommy was scared of him. Hurt children had always been a weakness of his. A weakness that had been exploited before, but one he refused to let go of. He may be a killer, but he held onto his morals even when he lost all else.
Seeing the fear drop away from the kid made him smile. Maybe this was progress. Ranboo would be so happy.
On the third day, Techno had been paying more attention to the Common lessons than to his book. He’d noticed Tommy kept mispronouncing the glottal stops, saying it in the wrong part of his throat. The sound seemed to appear a few times when he spoke Human, but he kept pronouncing it in Common the same way he did in Human, which affected how his Common sounded. It wasn’t a big deal, but if the kid was learning Common he may as well learn it correctly.
He gathered the courage to mention it when Ranboo wasn’t in the room. Communication was challenging, what with the kid’s loose grasp on Common and Techno’s non-existent knowledge of Human, but he was able to get it across. And when the kid pronounced it correctly the rest of the afternoon? Techno smiled.
This human really wasn’t that bad. No, Phil, he wasn’t getting attached. Ranboo liked him and that was enough for Techno.
Ranboo had been allowed in his cell, supervised by Technoblade of course, for two weeks now. Tommy was seriously improving his Common, and he’d been getting closer to Phil and Techno too.
Techno had remained mostly silent. He would greet Tommy with a “good morning” and leave him with a “goodnight” or “goodbye”. He never interrupted, but would occasionally comment on Tommy’s grasp of the language whenever they paused.
One memorable time, a few days before, Ranboo had roped Techno into conversation practice, saying it would be good for Tommy to practice with more people. The ensuing conversation had been incredibly awkward, filled with icebreaker questions and meaningless small talk.
It was only broken by Ranboo exclaiming, “Have either of you ever talked to a real person before! What is wrong with you?”
Tommy and Techno both burst into laughter. Techno scolded, “I’ve talked to you before, unless you don’t count?”
“Hey!” Ranboo pouted and crossed his arms, his tail curling around himself. Tommy only laughed harder. Techno reached out and patted Ranboo on the shoulder. After a moment of hesitation, Techno reached toward Tommy slowly. Tommy nodded at him, and Techno rested his hand on Tommy’s shoulder, squeezing gently. Tommy leaned into the touch.
Unlike Phil or Ranboo, Techno’s touch was strong and sure, protective but not overbearing. It was nice. It felt sorta like what Tommy thought a father or uncle or older brother would feel like. Not that he’d know…
Tommy shook the thought out of his head. No use wishing for the impossible. Instead, he focused on the way Techno smiled at him, the way he’d engage in a short conversation to help Tommy get better at Common, the way he no longer scared Tommy.
Tommy would say he almost looked forward to seeing Technoblade everyday. It was weird, but it wasn’t bad. Against his better judgement, he might even say he liked Techno.
Notes:
Thanks for reading! The next couple chapters have got even more plot, so strap in! We're almost at the part of the story I'm most excited for!
Also shoutout to Alexthetrashbag who pointed out that English does have glottal stops! Certain British accents (and a few words in American accents) use a glottal T sound, which is actually super interesting and I recommend looking it up. For the sake of this story, we're gonna pretend that Common uses a slightly different form of a glottal stop and also Tommy was never formally taught to recognize the English version as a glottal stop, like me. If you have any other fun linguistic facts, feel free to drop them in the comments! I love stuff like this.
Ok, linguistics ramble over. If you enjoyed, feel free to leave a kudos or comment, I really appreciate them! Next chapter is up in 3 days and y'all are either going to love it or hate it :)
Chapter 9
Summary:
Previously: Techno and Tommy bonding!
Now: Sometimes adding water isn't the best idea.
Notes:
Welcome back! I’m currently posting this from my phone on the way to the dentist (which I am not excited about, for the record). The things I do to get these chapters to y’all…
Trigger warnings for mild injury, but it isn't super graphic. Also slight allusions to past child abuse.
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
It had been over a month since Ranboo first visited him, and Tommy would like to think that things had improved a lot. His Common had definitely improved, he was nearly fluent now! It wasn’t perfect, but Tommy was such a Big Man that he had no problem talking to Techno or Phil anymore.
Not that Techno actually talked to him that much, but Phil liked to ask him about his day, how he was doing, what he thought of the food, little things like that. Phil was weirdly fatherly sometimes, hugging Tommy and checking up on him constantly. He’d been stopping by daily, and it should’ve felt smothering. For some reason, it didn’t.
Tommy began to feel comfortable around Phil and Techno, and they seemed more comfortable around him too. Techno had even started leaving Ranboo alone with Tommy for short periods of time! Clearly, Tommy had proved his trustworthiness to them. He’d passed some invisible test that Techno had set. Whatever it was, Tommy was just glad he no longer needed that sort of supervision. As comfortable as he was around them, it was still grating to have constant supervision.
Ranboo, of course, was there every day. Whether he was helping Tommy with Common or just hanging out, they’d spend hours together. The past couple days, Techno had left them alone for a few hours, claiming he “had better things to do than babysit toddlers”.
Tommy hated being called a toddler, but he wasn’t gonna argue with Techno leaving. He appreciated the freedom from the pig looking fucker.
The only member of the crew that Tommy hadn’t seen lately was the blue bitch, Wilbur. He was completely fine with that.
Phil and Techno had both mentioned him in passing once or twice, which Tommy tried to ignore. They hadn’t talked about him to Tommy, but it felt like they were trying to show he wasn’t evil with their little comments about what he was doing or something he’d said. Tommy didn’t trust it.
Ranboo had asked once if he wanted to try and talk to Wilbur again, but Tommy had adamantly refused. Last time was bad enough. Ranboo had thankfully dropped it.
Tommy wasn’t scared of Wilbur, per say, he just didn’t trust him. Even if the rest of the crew didn’t seem like they were going to drug him and start dissecting him or some shit, scientists were different. They were eviler.
As long as Tommy had his way, he would never see Wilbur again. He didn’t exactly know what he’d be doing in the future, considering he didn’t really have a home to get back to on Earth and he doubted the aliens would just let him hang out on the ship forever. That was a problem for future Tommy. For now, he would just hang out with Ranboo, get doted on by Phil, and prove to Technoblade he wasn’t a threat. And, of course, avoid Wilbur at all costs.
Techno had stopped by in the morning, but Tommy and Ranboo had been alone for most of the day. Ranboo had just come back with lunch for both of them, and they were sitting on the bed eating.
Apparently, Techno had cooked the food today. It was kinda like baked potatoes, except space potatoes instead of normal potatoes and also better than any sort of baked potato Tommy had had on Earth. Which wasn’t hard, because no one cooked for Big Man Tommy Innit. He was too Big of a Man for that.
Ranboo had told him this was one of his favorite foods, and Tommy could see the appeal of it. It was the perfect comfort food. Plus, Technoblade cooked it, and Tommy always thought a meal made by a parent would taste better. It just made sense.
Tommy had a glass of water with his meal, and Ranboo had something that looked like milk? Maybe it came from an animal like Henry!
Tommy was just about to reach over to Ranboo’s glass, asking, “What’re you drinki-” when he knocked over his glass of water onto Ranboo’s leg.
Ranboo screamed.
The water had fallen onto his leg, dripping down and onto the floor. A few drops had splashed onto one of Ranboo’s hands. Where they landed, Tommy could see red blisters forming. That looked painful.
Fuck, was Ranboo allergic to water? Was this some weird Ender thing? Did Tommy just kill his only friend?
Ranboo had stopped screaming but was quietly whimpering. Tommy needed to fix this. He grabbed the blanket off the bed, trying to pat down Ranboo and dry him off, but it only seemed to irritate the skin. Shit, this was worse than he thought.
Technoblade was going to kill him for this.
Luckily, or maybe unluckily, Tommy heard footsteps thundering his way. He didn’t know who it was, but he called out, “Help! Please! Ranboo is injured and I don’t know how to help!”
Looking up, Tommy saw Wilbur standing outside the door. Of course it had to be him.
“I heard the scream. What’s going on?” He asked cooly. He was glaring at Tommy suspiciously, like this was somehow his fault. Well, to be fair, it was his fault, but it was an accident!
Tommy backed away from Ranboo. “I don’t know what happened but one second we were fine and then I accidentally bumped my water and it fell on him and he screamed and I think it burned him and it was an accident! I promise I didn’t do anything to hurt him on purpose! Please don’t kill me!”
Wilbur entered the cell warily. Tommy continued backing away until his back hit the corner of the cell. Wilbur was by Ranboo now, and Tommy had to hope that he could help Ranboo. He didn’t trust Wilbur, but Tommy knew that Ranboo did. It’s not like Tommy could do anything in this situation to help Ranboo, and Wilbur was supposedly a doctor or scientist or someone who might know something.
Carefully, Wilbur examined Ranboo’s hand and leg. Ranboo whimpered at the light touches. Ranboo seemed barely awake at this point, but it hurt Tommy’s heart to see him like this. It reminded him of how Clara would get after they took her…
No, he couldn’t think of that. He needed to focus on Ranboo and Wilbur. He needed to make sure Wilbur wouldn’t do anything to Ranboo.
Wilbur looked up at him. “It’s just a water burn. Painful, but not deadly. I’ll get him some potions and he’ll be good as new in a couple days.”
“Water burn?”
“Ender species are highly allergic to water. Contact with water can cause rashes, and in bad cases painful, burn-like reactions. This is an especially bad case.”
Tommy nodded, rubbing his side where a burn scar lay. The aliens on the last ship had wanted to know how humans reacted to extreme heat, and Tommy had been the test subject. The mark hadn’t faded. It had hurt so bad, so Tommy felt awful for subjecting Ranboo to something like that. None of these aliens knew about it, but Wilbur was watching his movement. Tommy stilled his hands and bared his teeth slightly at Wilbur. Wilbur quickly turned back to Ranboo.
He scooped Ranboo into his arms, careful of his burns. Ranboo barely made a noise, which was almost more worrying. Tommy stayed where he was, watching from the corner.
Wilbur hurried out of the door of the cell, whisking Ranboo away, hopefully to be treated and not to be experimented on.
Once again, Tommy was alone. He waited for the invisible barrier to reappear, cutting him off from the rest of the world, but no tell-tale shimmer appeared. Was the cell really left open?
Hesitantly, Tommy crept towards the doorway. He reached a hand out, expecting to touch the barrier. Instead, his hand went straight through. Tommy was… free?
He stepped into the hall. He looked around, but the hall was empty. The crew was probably focused on Ranboo, which meant Tommy could do whatever he wanted.
What did he want to do now?
He could explore the ship or try to figure out how to land it so he could escape, or just hide somewhere until they landed again and escape then. The vents looked awfully appealing for that, but was that what he really wanted to do?
Against his better judgement, Tommy headed down the hall. He knew it was stupid and almost certainly dooming himself, but Tommy was a Big Man who could handle it. He just wanted to make sure Ranboo was alright.
He walked along the hallway, trying to figure out where Wilbur may have taken Ranboo. Surely Wilbur wouldn’t hurt Ranboo or take him to some secret lab to be experimented on? Technoblade would kill him for that. Fuck, Technoblade would kill Tommy for this, which was all the more reason to hide while he still could.
Tommy kept moving down the hallway anyway. He heard voices in the distance. It sounded like Wilbur and Technoblade, but he wasn’t sure. He followed the sound, turning at an intersection once before finally finding them.
He was still hidden in the hallway, but the door was partially open so he could see in. It looked like Ranboo was laying on a hospital bed sort of thing and Techno and Wilbur stood around him. Wilbur was making him drink something while Techno carefully put bandages on his leg.
Tommy wanted to jump out and smack the weird drink out of Wilbur’s hand. Ranboo didn’t deserve to be poisoned! But Tommy stayed where he was, trying to trust that Technoblade wouldn’t let anything bad happen. Ranboo trusted Techno with his life. He’d even told Tommy about how Techno had saved his life, saying that Techno was the reason Ranboo was even alive right now.
After everything Tommy’s done to Ranboo, the least he could do is stay out of the way and trust Techno.
It felt like he was standing there for ages, watching them, but finally Wilbur and Techno finished doing whatever they were doing to Ranboo. Ranboo’s leg and hand were bandaged and he’d drank all of whatever Wilbur gave him.
Seeing Ranboo lying on the bed, looking so small despite his head and all bandaged up was terrifying. It just felt wrong! Ranboo was supposed to be awake and moving and talking to Tommy, not lying motionless. Even his tail was still. If Tommy didn’t know better, he might think he killed Ranboo…
“I see you found your way to the medbay,” chuckled a voice from behind him.
Tommy absolutely didn’t yelp or jump, he was too much of a Big Man to be scared like that. Once he settled from the not-yelp and not-jump, Tommy turned around to see Philza staring at him. He cowered away, fearing the wrath of the captain for hurting one of his crew.
Instead, Phil smiled and held up his hands. His wings were hanging behind him, like he was trying to look as un-intimidating as possible. Tommy didn’t trust it.
“I’m really sorry, fuck, I didn’t mean to hurt him, it was a total accident and I didn’t even know-”
Phil cooed at him. Tommy cut himself off, realizing he was rambling and Phil probably wanted him to stop.
“I’m not mad, mate.” Phil smiled at him and cooed again. Like Tommy would believe that. He wasn’t stupid, thank you very much. Even if Phil wasn’t mad, Techno would be.
Tommy muttered, “Yeah right.” Phil laughed. Why was the fucker laughing at him? Was he so sadistic that he wanted to play with his food? Was this fun for him?
Before Tommy could start yelling, a hand clasped his shoulder. He whirled around again, this time seeing Technoblade facing him.
His blood turned cold at the sight. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Technoblade was incredibly protective of Ranboo. Tommy had just seriously injured Ranboo, so Techno must be furious at him. Tommy expected Techno’s hand on his shoulder to start squeezing, for his grip to become bruising only to throw him back into his cell or worse.
Instead, Techno remained still and the hand didn’t tighten. “Phil’s right, you know. I’m not mad.”
Tommy spluttered in shock. They couldn’t all be lying to him, right? “But- but-”
“Look,” Techno kneeled down, now at Tommy’s eye level, “I’m upset that Ranboo is hurt, but I’m not mad at you. There was no way you could have known, and it seems like an honest mistake. So I’m not mad at you kid.”
“You’re not gonna punish me or anything?”
Techno blanched at the question. He quickly reassured, “No, of course not! What did they do to you?” The question seemed rhetorical and Tommy didn’t really know how to explain, so he remained quiet. He didn’t know who “they” was supposed to be either.
Phil broke the silence. “Tommy, we’re not gonna punish you. Wilbur should be finishing up working on Ranboo, so how about you go sit with him, alright?” He ushered Tommy into the room with Ranboo, Techno close behind.
Wilbur looked up at them from where he was fiddling with something attached to Ranboo. Now that he was closer, Tommy could see how many bandages were covering Ranboo. He felt awful.
Tommy wanted to be near Ranboo, but he also wanted to stay as far away from Wilbur as possible. Wilbur seemed to share the sentiment, not getting any closer to Tommy.
Finally, Tommy broke the silence. “Will he be okay?”
Wilbur answered, “He should be. Water burns are bad, but with potions so soon after the injury he’ll be completely fine within a couple days. Won’t even leave a scar. For now, he just needs to sleep while his body heals. He should be awake by tomorrow.”
Tommy nodded. Ranboo would be okay, as long as Wilbur was telling the truth. He’d just wait here until Ranboo woke up so he could see for himself that he was okay and apologize for all of this.
Notes:
Thanks for reading! Look at that, we’ve got Wilbur and Tommy interacting without yelling. Progress!
The next chapter is possibly my favorite chapter in the whole fic, so stay tuned for that! As always, it’ll be posted in 3 days.
Finally, thank you for everyone who leaves kudos or comments! I love them all so much and it really gives me so much motivation to keep churning these out. Love you guys and have a great next few days!
Chapter 10
Summary:
Previously: Tommy accidentally hurts Ranboo, but no one is mad.
Now: A night in the medbay, waiting for Ranboo to wake up.
Notes:
Welcome back! You've all been waiting for it, so (finally) have some crime boys fluff! I know, I know, it's been too long, but it's here. I hope it is sufficiently fluffy enough for you.
On a much more ominous note, remember when I talked about how this fic split into 3 distinct "acts"? This is the end of act 2. It also contains the scene I've been most excited to write in the entire fic. Read it and find out :)
No big trigger warnings except for some more discussion of medical stuff and injuries that carries over from the events of the last chapter.
Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tommy hadn’t moved from Ranboo’s side since he’d gotten there. Techno had shoved him into a chair at some point, so at least the kid wasn’t standing for hours. Wilbur scoffed at the idea of Techno, overprotective and paranoid Techno, taking care of the human who hurt his son.
It was ridiculous, honestly.
Wilbur wasn’t jealous by nature, but he didn’t quite understand why everyone insisted on spending so much time with the child. Techno at least made a little sense, what with his protective streak over Ranboo. And wow was it weird how quickly they’d all adjusted to having Ranboo in their life. He fit in a way Wilbur never could have predicted.
Phil was utterly smitten with the human, dad instincts on full display. He’d done it to Wilbur when they first met, and later to Techno, to an extent. Now, it was back in full force, even stronger than with Wilbur.
Wilbur had wanted to like the human, he really did! After the child threw the potion in his face, he’d tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was scared, of course he was. Clearly something had gone wrong on the previous ship to cause him to be so… feral.
The final straw was when he tried to talk to Tommy through Ranboo. Being accused of drugging him was too far for Wilbur. Admittedly, he overreacted at the time. He’d gotten that drilled through his head by Phil. And if he thought that was bad, the scolding from Techno for forcing Ranboo to be in the middle would’ve killed a lesser being.
So Wilbur said some things he shouldn’t have. He regretted it, he really did. He just didn’t exactly know how to fix it. From what he’d heard, Tommy was doing perfectly fine without him. Supposedly he was nearly fluent in Common now, and Techno and Phil trusted him enough to begin talks of letting him out of the cell.
The problem was that he hated Wilbur, clamming up at any mention of him. Ranboo had told him that he thought it was because Wilbur was a scientist, that Tommy had some sort of fear relating to that. Wilbur brushed it off at first, but the more he thought about it, it all made sense.
Wilbur had been on the previous ship. It was clearly a poacher ship, but there was a good chance they were experimenting on the beings they captured. If Tommy had been experimented on by “scientists” before, his reactions suddenly were a lot more reasonable.
Wilbur certainly didn’t do anything to help this fear. And he hated himself for it.
Now, Wilbur just had to prove to Tommy that he was trustworthy. The first step in that plan was healing Ranboo.
Ranboo’s water burns could have been a lot worse. The injuries were painful and ugly, but superficial. With a health potion and a little regen on the bandages, he would be good as new soon enough. Wilbur had set up an IV so he could get fluids and a little extra regen into his system.
It had been hours since Ranboo was brought in, past dinnertime. Wilbur hadn’t left the room yet, partially out of his duty to care for Ranboo and partially to watch the human and make sure he didn’t try anything.
Phil had brought both of them dinner. Tommy only picked at his food, but Wilbur discreetly tried to watch him eat. He was curious about how humans ate, since Tommy clearly had no issues eating with his missing teeth. Unfortunately, Tommy had noticed immediately and told Wilbur to “mind his own fucking business”.
Wilbur ate his own food quickly, settling back into the corner where he’d been observing from. He was bored, so he grabbed an instrument from where it was leaning against the wall. It was a wooden, stringed instrument. He was pretty sure they had similar ones on Earth. Maybe the sound would be familiar to Tommy.
He began strumming, softly humming a tune. Wilbur kept his head down, hoping to put Tommy at ease. From the corner of his eye, he could see Tommy watching him. He pretended not to notice.
Finally Tommy broke. “What is that?”
“This?” Wilbur asked, gesturing to the instrument he’d been playing. Tommy nodded.
“It’s called a cla’bay. I use it to make music.”
Tommy moved his eyes in a circle and crossed his arms. Was the eyes thing a human gesture or some sign of injury? Wilbur would have to figure that out later, but for now Tommy seemed physically fine. “I can tell it’s used for music, dickhead. We had instruments on Earth too, you know.”
Wilbur laughed. Tommy clearly had some sass in him, which Wilbur could appreciate. Even if it would probably come back to haunt him later.
“Do you want me to play you a song?” Wilbur asked. Music was always a good way to bond with people, including semi-feral human children. Not that he had much experience, but considering he’d once charmed a creeper, this should work on Tommy.
Tommy hesitated, like he couldn’t make up his mind if he actually wanted a song. With how interested he’d seemed earlier, it seemed obvious he wanted to listen, but there was something holding him back. Wilbur didn’t rush him, not wanting a repeat of any of their previous interactions.
Finally, Tommy nodded. “Sure, I guess. That’d be alright.” Wilbur smiled. The enthusiasm was hidden, but Wilbur had a feeling it was there somewhere.
“This is a song I wrote, but I think you’ll like it.” Wilbur began playing, singing along to the soft melody.
Tommy was entranced. He was swaying slightly, hopefully to the music and not because he was about to pass out. There was even a small smile on his face. Wilbur was ecstatic, unable to keep a matching smile off his face. Okay, he may have been a bit jealous of Phil and Techno’s relationship with Tommy. But now they were bonding!
When the song finished, Tommy seemed to come back to himself. He told Wilbur, “That song was actually pretty cool, I suppose. You wrote that?”
“Yeah! I have another one, if you’d like?” Tommy eagerly nodded, and Wilbur played on.
Wilbur had played five songs for Tommy, each one met with increasing enthusiasm. He wasn’t sure how much Tommy understood of the lyrics, but he seemed to enjoy the music anyways. Wilbur paused his playing, feeling like he should say something to Tommy.
The kid was much smarter than he’d expected. He knew that humans were an incredibly intelligent species, but it was a different thing to meet one and see it firsthand.
Wilbur cleared his throat. Tommy glanced up at him, confusion evident. “I just wanted to, um, apologize for my actions. I wasn’t thinking, and it wasn’t right of me to blow up at you. So, I’m sorry.”
Wilbur looked away in embarrassment. God this was awkward. Tommy deserved the apology and Wilbur knew he had fucked up, but it was still painful.
Finally, fucking finally, Tommy said something. “Thanks big man. I guess it wasn’t that cool of me to accuse you either, huh?”
“It wasn’t exactly nice, but I understand why you did. I’m not mad, not anymore. I don’t know what they did to you and I can’t even begin to imagine, but I won’t do that. I’ll never do anything you don’t want me to. I promise.”
Tommy took a second to respond. He was clearly thinking over Wilbur’s words. Wilbur just had to hope his sincerity shone through. He really did mean what he said. After everything, he knew he had to be the bigger person here, compared to the literal child in front of him.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Wilbur nodded. That was the best he could hope for, and for now it would have to be enough. He’d just prove to Tommy that it was true.
“Want to hear another song?” Tommy nodded eagerly. They settled back into an easy peace, Wilbur singing and Tommy smiling along.
Tommy must have fallen asleep at some point. The last thing he’d remembered was the blue bitch, Wilbur, playing him some songs on his not-guitar. The music was surprisingly nice, even if it did sound a bit weird. And Wilbur’s voice wasn’t too bad to listen to, shockingly.
Tommy hated to admit it, but maybe Wilbur wasn’t so awful. He’d taken care of Ranboo after Tommy fucked up, and then he played him music when he’d asked! He’d even claimed he wouldn’t do anything to Tommy, which he didn’t quite believe but it was a nice promise.
To his (very minimal) credit, Wilbur hadn’t done any creepy science-y shit, even though they’d been alone in a medical room for hours together. It wasn’t a high bar, but it was more than he could say about the fuckers on the last ship. He may not trust Wilbur completely yet, but he was slightly less terrified of him. It was progress.
Tommy’s neck ached. He was still sitting in the chair Techno had shoved him into, but his head was buried in his arms, leaning against something soft. Probably the bed Ranboo was lying on. No wonder he had a cramp in his neck, humans weren’t exactly built for lying all bent over like a shrimp like he was.
Tommy was about to straighten up when he realized what had woken him: voices speaking quietly. He strained to listen to them. He could make out Ranboo and Techno’s voices. They both had such deep voices. He’d recently realized that they had the same sort of accent, which probably was because they were both from Hypixel. Wilbur and Phil sounded different from them, a little more similar to Tommy’s way of speaking Common but not quite.
They were almost too quiet to hear, like they weren’t trying to wake him, but Tommy could catch snippets of their conversation.
“-fine, I promise- blame-”
“-gotta tell him-”
“-not ready-”
“-told school-”
“-crew knows-”
Tommy couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. Were they trying to hide something from him? Tommy knew there was stuff nobody was telling him..
There were a lot of things the crew hadn‘t told him but he’d figured out anyway. Tommy knew they wouldn’t let him go back to Earth, not after everything. The fact that no one had even brought up the idea of going back proved that. He didn’t know why, he just knew it was true.
Honestly, he wasn’t even that upset about it! Not like he really had anything waiting for him on Earth. Sometimes he wished he could see the blue sky and the white clouds and the green grass again, but he bet that the alien versions of all of those were ten times cooler. He’d just have to get off the ship to see them.
He also realized that Phil and Techno cared about him a lot. He’d suspected it for a while, but what happened with Ranboo just proved that. Techno hadn’t killed him, which was about the biggest olive branch he could extend, and Phil had comforted him even when Ranboo needed more attention.
It was nice and kind and so disgustingly familial. Tommy had never had a family, not on Earth and not in space. He was a Big Man, and Big Men like Tommy Innit didn’t need silly little things like family. Except…
If he had the choice, Tommy didn’t know if he’d take it. It was nice, nicer than whatever other options were out there. But family came with risks. They would tire of him and kick him out, like everyone else except Clara had. If he had the choice, would Tommy keep this family only to have it thrown away later?
He didn’t know.
Tommy had been so lost in his thoughts he missed the rest of Techno and Ranboo’s conversation. They were probably almost done, so it was safe for him to “wake up”.
Tommy began moving, picking his head up and stretching. He yawned, blinking blearily. Techno was standing on the other side of Ranboo, who was also awake and sitting up.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” Techno grumbled. Tommy lazily flipped him off. Ranboo giggled and Techno pointedly ignored him.
He shook his head, trying to clear the grogginess away. “Ranboo, big man, how are you feeling? I just want to say, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to and I’d never hurt you and I hope you’re feeling better.”
Ranboo smiled. “I’m alright, thank you. It’s not too bad. Honestly, I don’t remember much of what happened and Wilbur is good enough at potions that it’s already pretty healed up.”
“That’s poggers! Well not exactly that you don’t remember it, but that you’re not hurting.”
Ranboo laughed. “It’s probably better I don’t remember. Don’t exactly need to write that down in my memory book.”
Tommy smiled at that. Ranboo wasn’t mad at him, and he breathed a sigh of relief at that. Ranboo was kinda his only friend at this point, so it would really suck if he lost him over a stupid accident.
Techno clapped Ranboo on the shoulder and gave him a look. “I think you two have something to talk about, heh?” He nodded once, then dramatically turned around and left the room. Seriously, how was his cape so swoosh-y and shit? It really helped with the dramatic exits, but it also made him look a pretentious prick in Tommy’s humble opinion.
Ranboo stared at the sheets on the bed, picking at them idly. Reluctantly, he looked up at Tommy, avoiding eye contact. “Look, there’s something I have to tell you. I haven’t been entirely… truthful, you could say.”
What the fuck did that mean? Tommy knew they were keeping secrets from him, but what could have Ranboo this nervous?
Tommy chuckled awkwardly. “I don’t think whatever you have to tell me could be worse than me dumping water all over your lap.”
Ranboo shrugged. “I guess not.” He continued picking at the blanket, stalling.
Finally, he gathered up the courage to glance back at Tommy. “You’re not the only human out there.”
Tommy couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “I know that, bitch. There’s a whole planet of them out there. You know, Earth, the place that I came from?”
Ranboo sighed, staring him dead in the eyes.
“No, Tommy, you’re not the only human in space.”
Notes:
huh
Chapter 11
Summary:
Previously: Wilbur and Tommy have mild bonding time and Ranboo drops the bomb that Tommy isn't the only human in space.
Now: Tommy gets some answers and meets some people.
Notes:
Welcome back! Yeah yeah you all called it, it's Tubbo. I mean, how could it not be??? But shoutout to Brightness_Random who somehow figured out this entire plot twist in chapter 6?!?! Serious props to them for that!
Anyways, have a lot more worldbuilding and characters. If you have questions, let me know in the comments!
No trigger warnings for this chapter. Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“No, Tommy, you’re not the only human in space.”
Apparently, there was another human at The School with Ranboo.
“He’s around your age, I think, maybe a little older? We’re friends because I was the only one who spoke any Human when they first found him. So I was in charge of communicating with him and teaching him Common, just like with you. You guys are actually pretty similar and I’d bet you’ll get along great. He’s still not really allowed to interact with most people at The School, but there’s a couple others he can talk to now that he speaks Common.”
Tommy nodded along. Ranboo was rambling at this point, but Tommy couldn’t gather his thoughts enough to interrupt him and voice any of the questions running through his head. His mind was racing, thoughts scrambled. All of this was just so crazy. He felt like everything he knew had been shattered. Tommy wasn’t alone. That was... new.
Honestly, a lot of Ranboo’s behavior made sense now. Why he spoke English so well, why he was so cagey about The School, how he knew so much about humans.
Ranboo continued, “Techno’s wanted to tell you the whole time, but the existence of the other human is pretty secret. The only reason he even knows is because The Council had to get his permission to let me interact with the human. But now, Techno’s told the rest of the crew and The School, so we’re heading there so you guys can meet. I guess the teachers think it’ll be good for you to have interaction with your own species? I really do think you’ll like him.”
Tommy was still stuck on the fact that there was another human out there, like him. Ranboo was a great friend, probably even his best (and only) friend, but even he didn’t get it. Tommy had spent the last month on this ship isolated. Even once he could speak Common, the other aliens didn’t get it. They didn’t know what a thumbs up meant or what Earth looked like. They were nice and they were good and they may even have felt like family at times, but they weren’t human.
And Tommy missed other humans.
That was one of the only good things of the first ship: Tommy wasn’t alone. Sure, he was literally getting experimented on by aliens, but he had Clara and all the other humans on the ship. There was always the company of his own species. That ship fucking sucked, but he was never alone.
“So what’s this bitch’s name?”
“Tubbo.”
It took them only a few hours to reach The School. Nerves bubbled up, butterflies churning in his stomach and palms sweaty. He tried to wipe them off on his clothes, but it did nothing.
Tommy was terrified. What if Tubbo didn’t like him? What if Tubbo was like the humans on the ship who were too broken to speak, on the verge of death but clinging onto life? What if… There were too many possibilities and worrying was driving him crazy.
They had just landed, all gathering at what Tommy assumed was the exit to the ship. He realized this was his first time stepping off the ship in over a month. Longer since he last stepped foot on a planet. It was weird that being on the ship felt so natural to him already.
Phil joined them last, coming from wherever he had been captaining the spaceship. He explained, “We landed behind the main part of The School. They don’t exactly want to broadcast that there's another human arriving, so we’re going through the back entrance. Protocol and all that shit.”
Tommy nodded. Next to him, Ranboo stood tall and proud. He was thankfully feeling better, just a little sore. His tail gently wrapped around Tommy’s wrist, offering comfort. He didn’t have Henry with him, having left him back in the cell, but the feeling grounded him enough. He took a deep breath, prepared to face whatever was about to happen.
The door opened, and he looked out onto a planet that looked… almost earthlike. There was green vegetation on the ground, even if it didn’t look like any plants native to Earth. The dirt was much redder, like the pictures of Mars he’d seen. The sky was blue, but not the right blue. It was slightly more purple than the sky should be. All in all, it was a fucking weird looking place.
He could see The School up ahead. It was a large, fancy building. Fittingly, it looked straight out of some sci-fi novel with its shiny metal walls and large glass windows. Pretty poggers, actually.
Techno stepped off the ship first. Tommy wasn’t sure whether to follow him or wait on the ship, but Ranboo followed, pulling Tommy along gently. Phil stepped off after them. To Tommy’s surprise, Wilbur brought up the rear of their little party. Tommy didn’t expect Wilbur to want to do anything with him, even if he was annoyingly fascinated by humans. Maybe that was what had him joining them?
A smaller voice in the back of Tommy’s mind whispered that Wilbur actually cared about him. Tommy chose to ignore that.
Instead, Tommy revelled in the feeling of being on an actual alien planet! Each step felt a little easier, like the weight holding him down wasn’t as much. Did that mean this planet had less or more gravity? It honestly didn’t matter, it just made walking a lot more fun. Every step felt like skipping, and he tried to jump as high as he could with each.
Ranboo silently laughed at him, but even he was bouncing more than necessary. It was fun, okay?
“Don’t get too used to it,” Ranboo warned, “Inside the school, there’s artificial gravity to not mess up your growth or anything.”
Tommy pouted. “That’s no fun!” Seriously, what was the fucking point of being on an alien planet if they’re gonna do stupid shit like put in artificial gravity to reduce the bounciness? Bunch of spoilsports.
They reached the doors to the building that housed The School. An alien, sporting horns and dark purplish scales on most of his body, stood at the door waiting for them. At the sight of Techno and Ranboo, he perked up.
“Techno! Ranboo! It’s great to see you guys again.” Techno nodded in greeting, and Ranboo waved at him. He turned to Tommy. “And you must be the human Techno contacted me about! I’m Captain Jordan Sparklez, but most people here just call me Captain. Welcome to The School for Misplaced Peoples! I’m a representative of The Galactic Council, and I’m also in charge of running this operation. ”
Tommy tried to remember his manners, but this all felt so overwhelming. “Nice to meet you, Captain.” His Common still wasn’t perfect, but based on the Captain’s smile, it was good enough.
“Well, I’m guessing you’re going to want to meet Tubbo?” Tommy nodded. “Follow me.”
Captain Sparkelz opened the door he was standing in front of, ushering their small group through. The thing that struck Tommy the most was how normal the inside felt. He was expecting something that was all metallic and shiny, or even the concrete and linoleum of a normal school. Instead, the walls were wood-like, probably from alien trees, and the floors were carpeted. Gentle lights adorned the ceiling, calmer than the bright fluorescents of the spaceship.
It felt so… comfortable. Tommy didn’t hate it.
They all walked in relative silence. From somewhere else in the building, Tommy could hear the sounds of laughter and playing. He knew that he probably shouldn’t be this trusting of a weird alien facility for children, but Ranboo had grown up here and everything just seemed so nice so far.
Midway down the hallway, the Captain stopped them in front of a door. The door was wooden with a handle on it, and no sign of a keypad or lock or anything. There was a label on it, but Tommy couldn’t read the alien language. The Captain knocked on the door, calling, “Tubbo? He’s here.” Oh, this must be the other human, then.
A series of thumps came from the other side of the door, before the door finally opened. Standing in front of him was another human, around Tommy’s age with shaggy brown hair that partially covered his eyes. He was wearing a green shirt and blue pants, and honestly looked like he’d literally just woken up.
Tommy couldn’t be happier to see him.
The Captain broke the silence. “Tubbo, this is Tommy, the human from the ship Ranboo was sent to. Tommy, this is Tubbo.” Neither of them reacted, just staring at each other. “I’ll get out of your hair, and you guys can talk without any adults.” He turned around, waving at Tubbo and shooing Ranboo towards Tommy and Tubbo. Wilbur, Phil, and Techno followed the Captain.
Tubbo still hadn’t moved from the doorway. Ranboo cleared his throat. “Do you, uh, wanna let us in?”
Tubbo burst into action, dramatically waving them inside. “Anything for you, Ranboo my beloved.”
“Please don’t call me that.” Ranboo looked utterly miserable, and Tommy laughed at him.
“Oh I am stealing that one. Ranboob my beloved!”
“Why did I never think of calling him Ranboob before? That’s genius!”
“I never should’ve introduced you two.” Ranboo walked over to the couch on one side of the room and dramatically flopped down. Tommy looked around, noticing a desk and chair next to the couch. On the other side of the room sat a bed and a night stand. There was plush carpet on the floor, and the walls were painted a gentle yellow. Various knick-knacks and clutter were scattered around the room. It was nicer than any room Tommy had had back on Earth. This was a home.
Tubbo was still standing, staring at Tommy. It was kinda weird, except Tommy was doing the same thing. Tommy knew he should probably be self conscious, but it was just so nice to be around another human that he ignored it. Besides, a Big Man like him never felt self conscious!
“So, Tubbo, how’s it going?.” Tommy said, switching to English. He could speak Common well enough, but it was tiring. It was just easier to speak English, especially if both Tubbo and Ranboo spoke it too.
“Not much, boss man. I’ve just been living here, deprived of my Beloved.” Tubbo chuckled when Ranboo threw a pillow in his direction. Ranboo missed, hitting Tommy instead.
“Hey!”
“Sorry, sorry, that was meant for the jerk next to you.” Ranboo’s voice was fond, betraying his true feelings. Tubbo and Ranboo were close, and Tommy almost felt like he was intruding here.
“You know that I love you! I’m just upset that I had to a whole month without any Ranboo time. Niki had to break me out when I got in trouble.”
“Are you the reason Ranboo knows how to break into cells?” Tommy asked incredulously. Seriously, who was this Tubbo guy?
Tubbo shrugged. “I get in trouble a lot, so it was just easier to ask him to break me out when it happens. Better than doing it myself.”
“But why do they even lock you up? That’s gotta be inhumane or some shit!”
Ranboo jumped in, “Tubbo’s over exaggerating. When he first got here they were worried he was gonna attack someone, like you, and now when he messes up, like that time he blew up one of the wings of the school, he gets restricted to just a couple rooms. It’s not that bad, he’s just dramatic.” Tubbo stuck out his tongue at Ranboo but didn’t argue.
That actually didn’t sound that bad. It sounded more like Tubbo got grounded, not even like he was locked in his room. Tommy trusted Ranboo enough. But…
“You blew something up?!”
Tubbo laughed, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Fuck yeah I did! It wasn’t on purpose, it was only supposed to be a small explosion. I misread a couple numbers and then suddenly there’s this giant explosion. Destroyed a couple rooms. They thought I should be dead, but you know how we are.”
Tommy nodded. This Tubbo guy was pretty poggers, unlike Ranboo. Well, maybe Ranboo wasn’t that bad, but Tubbo was definitely cooler.
There was just something about talking to Tubbo that felt right. Maybe it was because he was human too and they were talking in English, but something clicked. This must be what having friends feels like.
“So, Tommy,” Tubbo began, “How did you end up here? What’s your story? Did you blow anything up along the way?”
“Well…”
The three of them had talked for hours. Tubbo and Tommy had done most of the talking, Ranboo just hanging out. They’d all settled on the couch, which Tommy dubbed “The Bench” because of how hard it was. Tubbo agreed, saying that he’d been asking for them to replace it for ages, but no one else wanted it so he was stuck with it.
Tommy also learned a lot about Tubbo. He learned that he’d been captured by poachers, like Tommy, except they hadn’t experimented on him. Instead, they’d tried to auction him off, but he’d escaped. He was wandering around on an alien planet, when the Council was called in to capture him. Ranboo had joined them because he spoke a little English, mainly learned from listening to intercepted radio transmissions, and they were hoping he could try and calm Tubbo down enough that he wouldn’t attack them. Apparently, it worked.
That had been 2 years ago, and now Tubbo was 8 years old. Unfortunately, he was older than Tommy. He was also barely taller than Tommy, a fact which he’d gloated about for 5 minutes. Tommy had pouted until Ranboo stood up and towered over Tubbo, pointing out he was significantly taller than both of them. Seeing Tubbo’s indignation had brought a smile back to his face.
They’d talked past dinner time, someone having dropped off food for them. Ranboo had decided to head off to his room a little while after, claiming he was tired from all the travel and excitement. Now, Tommy was alone with Tubbo.
“Do you know where I’m supposed to sleep tonight?” Tommy asked. He didn’t really know what was expected of him here, and he hadn’t seen anyone else since he’d got here, not even whoever dropped off their dinner. It was kinda eerie, but he’d had such a good time with Tubbo he chose to ignore it.
“Not sure. Maybe you’re supposed to be here tonight? I’d assume someone would come get you if they wanted you to go anywhere else. They don’t usually let humans wander around that much, too dangerous supposedly.” Tubbo’s voice was dripping with disdain, but Tommy figured it wasn’t directed at him.
The more he learned about it, the more he didn’t like this school. It wasn’t awful, it wasn’t even as bad as the orphanage he stayed at back on Earth. It just could be a lot better.
Tommy avoided the subject. “So I guess I’m stuck on The Bench tonight…” He was not looking forward to it, but he didn’t exactly have other options.
Tubbo shrugged. “I mean, we can share the bed, if you’re cool with that. I don’t mind.”
Tommy thought about it. It would be nice to sleep in an actual bed, and the bed was pretty big. Tubbo was nice and he didn’t think he’d do anything weird in the night. Not like it would matter if Tommy was on the couch or the bed. Yeah, sleeping in the bed would be nice.
“Alright. That works, big man.”
Tubbo beamed. “Oh we can have so much fun! It’ll be like a sleepover but in space!”
“Clingy bitch,” Tommy muttered. Even to his own ears, it sounded disgustingly affectionate.
Notes:
Thanks for reading! Look at that, it's clingy duo! Doing their clingy duo thing! Aka insulting each other and bullying Ranboo.
Comments and kudos are always appreciated! We're getting close to the end, but I haven't completely run out of tricks yet (aka there will still be angst coming up soon). See you guys in 3 days for the next update!
Chapter 12
Summary:
Previously: Tommy meets Tubbo, another human.
Now: A day at the school.
Notes:
Welcome back! Have another chapter, with even more time at the school. I love how a lot of people in the last chapter immediately jumped on the fact that the school is awful, which is only kinda true? It's not great, but the only other option for Tommy and Tubbo is death, so like it could be worse. It's also objectively not that bad, Tubbo just likes to get in trouble and what 7/8 year old actually loves school? It's not supposed to be this absolutely awful place, even if its nowhere near perfect. It's a legitimate alternative, not some horrific torture school. This explanation will make more sense at the end of this chapter.
No trigger warnings for this chapter, just enjoy the fluff
while it lasts.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tommy woke up the next morning to Tubbo crushing him. At some point in the night, Tubbo had ended up practically on top of him, arms and legs splayed out. Tommy knew he should be annoyed, but after so long alone in that cell, even with hugs from Ranboo, this was nice. Sometimes even Big Men could use some cuddles.
Tubbo woke up soon after Tommy, complaining that he was moving too much. Tommy called Tubbo clingy again, but let him stay on top of him. They stayed like that for a while, just enjoying being around another human.
They were interrupted by a knock on the door. A female voice came from the other side, speaking Common. “Tubbo? Are you up yet?”
Tubbo groaned but sat up. Tommy followed suit. Both were wearing a t-shirt and shorts that they’d slept in, Tommy borrowing his from Tubbo. The material was soft and comfortable, but not exactly something he wanted to be wearing in front of women.
“Yeah come in, Niki.” Tubbo called back. So this must be the Niki that Tubbo had mentioned yesterday. She was one of the other students at the school who regularly interacted with Tubbo. She was older than both Tubbo and Ranboo, sorta like a big sister to them. She helped out with a lot of the cooking for the school, and would sneak them treats when she could. Tommy was excited to meet her, even if he wished he was wearing nicer clothes.
The door opened and Niki appeared. She was normal height, taller than Tubbo but shorter than Ranboo, not like that really narrowed it down. Her skin was pale, almost as pale as Ranboo’s white side. Her fingers looked slightly webbed, and there were textured parts of her skin that looked odd. The most striking thing about her was her hair. It was bright pink, flowing around her unnaturally in the air. Her hair looked like she was underwater. It was weird, but pretty cool looking.
“Oh, you must be Tommy! Ranboo told me about you! It’s so nice to meet you.” Her voice was so genuine, Tommy couldn’t find the heart to be upset about it. Niki seemed really nice, and not in the annoying pitying way. Plus, Tubbo and Ranboo liked her.
“It’s nice to meet you too.” Tommy answered. Ugh this was so fucking awkward.
Tubbo broke the silence. “Is breakfast ready?”
“That’s why I was coming to get you. It’ll be in the west cafeteria today. See you two there!” Niki waved goodbye, closing the door gently behind her. Tommy decided that he liked her.
Tubbo got out of bed, explaining, “So that’s Niki. She’s really great, you’ll love her. She’s an Ender species, like Ranboo, but I think they’re not actually the same species? You’d have to ask Ranboo about it. Anyways, her dad is some diplomat or something, so she’s here instead of on her home planet.”
Tommy nodded along. It made sense, even if all the geopolitical shit was confusing. It didn’t really matter.
The two quickly got dressed, Tubbo offering Tommy more clothes to wear. Tubbo led the way to the “west cafeteria” through the maze of hallways. Seriously, this place was so fucking obnoxious. Why did they have multiple cafeterias, and who named them by directions? Only pretentious motherfuckers would.
After Tommy got totally lost and turned around, they arrived at a wide open room, filled with tables and chairs. Inside, Tommy could see a buffet lining one side, filled with the promised breakfast. Sitting and eating, he spotted The Captain and the rest of the crew from the ship he was on at one. At another, he saw Niki and Ranboo together. Otherwise, the room was empty. It could hold a lot more people, but they were nowhere to be found.
Tommy and Tubbo went to the buffet, grabbing plates. Tommy didn’t recognize any of the food, so he grabbed a little of everything. Most of it smelled really good, much better than he’d expect from a cafeteria.
Tubbo headed towards Niki and Ranboo, and Tommy followed. Tubbo sat down next to Niki, and Tommy sat across from him, next to Ranboo. He dug into his food after offering a nod in greeting.
“How’d you sleep, Tommy?” Ranboo asked, distracting him from his food. It tasted really good too, even better than it smelled.
“Slept alright, would have been better if this clingy bitch didn’t try to lie on top of me all night!”
“Hey!” Tubbo exclaimed. They all laughed, Tubbo’s pouting causing them to laugh even harder. This was nice. It had been so long since Tommy had been around people his own age, human or not. Even though Niki and Ranboo were both actual aliens, it felt completely natural.
“So, what’s the plan for today, boss man?” Tubbo asked. Tommy was wondering that too. Was he just living here now? Did he actually have to go to classes and stuff? That would suck.
“Well, I don’t think you have any classes today, and I don’t think Tommy has anything he needs to do either. I’m still on leave too. You can do whatever you want, I guess.” Tubbo’s face lit up. “Whatever you want within reason.” Tubbo’s face fell, and he started dramatically fake sobbing.
This was more freedom than Tommy had had in… possibly forever. He doubted he could leave the school, but having full control of his day was a novelty. Even on the ship he hadn’t had this much freedom. It was overwhelming, honestly. He wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Niki suggested, “I think the lounge has a couple new games if you guys want to play. Or, I was thinking of baking this afternoon, so if you wanted, you could help me.”
“Oh Niki, that sounds amazing!” Ranboo said. Tubbo nodded along. Tommy was a little more hesitant, not really knowing Niki that well. He trusted Tubbo and Ranboo, of course, he was just wary around new aliens.
Niki turned to him. “Tommy, do you want to come? I don’t mind either way.”
Tommy thought about it. Did he? He wanted to hang out with Tubbo and Ranboo, but it sounded like he could spend the morning with them either way. Although, what else would he be doing if he wasn’t with them? He decided to be brave and trust Niki on this. She seemed nice enough so far. All of the aliens had seemed nice, actually. It was weird, but not a bad weird.
“Yeah I’ll join you guys. Can’t let Tubbo and Ranboob get all the women.”
“Tommy!” Ranboo smacked him on the arm.
“Not in front of the ladies, Ranboob!”
Tubbo laughed at them, Niki quietly joining in. Yeah, he’d made the right choice.
The day was a lot of fun. They’d spent the morning in the lounge area, which was empty otherwise. Tubbo explained that only people in this wing of the school were allowed to enter it, and that most of the people who had access to this wing were teachers or administrators who didn’t use it often. Most students weren’t allowed in this wing because they wanted to keep the whole “we have a human” thing top secret. Niki and Ranboo were exceptions.
It was all pretty fucking stupid, but Tommy wasn’t about to complain about the fact they had the lounge all to themselves.
Tubbo introduced him to a video game, kinda like the ones on Earth. It was a racing game where they each controlled a spaceship, but there was no controller, just sensors that could tell when they moved, and they could put on headsets that made it seem like they were in the game. It was very poggers, way more advanced than the VR stuff on Earth. Tommy loved it.
After losing the first two rounds while trying to get used to the controls and not throw up from motion sickness, Tommy proceeded to absolutely destroy Tubbo and Ranboo in their races. Tubbo at some point figured out how to cheat, which he used to his advantage to win. Tommy quickly figured out the most effective strategy to win: slapping Tubbo to stop him from cheating. Unsurprisingly, this rapidly devolved into a wrestling match that Ranboo did not want to get in the middle of. Apparently he still believed all that “humans are dangerous” bullshit.
Once they’d declared a truce, they headed back to the cafeteria for lunch. They met up with Niki there. She’d spent the morning in lessons. Apparently being the daughter of a diplomat meant extra work. Tommy was happy he didn’t have to take any stupid classes. Sounded awful.
After lunch, Niki led them to the kitchens to bake. She was making some sort of cake-like thing which Tommy immediately forgot the name of. They hadn’t actually accomplished much baking, instead sampling all of the goods and starting a food fight, but it was the most fun Tommy had had in a long time.
In short, the day was amazing. Tommy couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this happy.
Phil had barely seen Tommy since they’d arrived. After dropping him off with Tubbo, Captain Sparkelz had taken them on a tour of the whole school. In Phil’s opinion, it was a great place. It had been such a long time since he’d been in school, and his was nowhere near as good as this one. Elytrian schools were… different, relics of the past.
Seeing the accommodations they’d already made for Tubbo, Phil knew Tommy would fit in wonderfully. He’d get one of the best educations in the galaxy, surrounded by friends and people who didn’t fear him.
Captain Sparkelz—who had told Phil that he could call him Jordan and that he was only Captain to the students, but Phil still called him that out of respect—had offered Tommy a position at the school, officially sanctioned by the Council. It was the best possible outcome.
The only problem was that it meant that he wouldn’t be with Phil, Techno, and Wilbur. It’s not like they actually had any claim to keeping Tommy with them, he’d just grown attached. Phil would admit it, alright? His ‘dad-instincts’, as Wilbur liked to call them, were in full force. But this time, he’d just have to force them down.
Tommy wasn’t his. End of story.
He didn’t get to keep Tommy, he barely even got a say in what happened to him. He was Tommy’s de facto legal guardian at the moment, but if when he joined the school full time, he would be turned over to the custody of the council.
Jordan had kindly offered to allow visitation, especially considering Ranboo and Techno’s situation, but it wasn’t the same. Phil wouldn’t have his flock whole and together.
Phil’s dumb brain had started seeing Tommy as flock at some point. And it was true, wasn’t it? That was the worst part of it all. He couldn’t even deny it.
Phil had seen Tommy briefly at breakfast, eating with Ranboo, the other human, and an Ender girl. He’d spent the day working out logistics with Jordan, as well as sharing stories of their adventures. It was nice to chat with someone like him, something he couldn’t usually find. But his heart wished to see Tommy.
At dinner, Phil saw Tommy again. He was with the same friends, and he looked happy. He looked happier than Phil had ever seen him on the ship, reinforcing that it was the best choice to leave him at the school.
As they were wrapping up, Phil approached him. “Hey Tommy. Could I talk to you for a second?”
Tommy looked nervous but nodded anyway. He got up, following Phil towards a secluded corner of the cafeteria.
“Did you have a good day?”
“Yeah! It was so poggers. I was even talking to a woman, Phil!” Phil laughed at the comment, pretending he had any idea what “poggers” meant. Tommy used it a lot, but he was pretty sure it was positive, so that was good.
“Well, I just wanted to let you know what’s going to happen.” Phil paused, looking for the words, “I was talking to Captain Sparkelz, and he wants to offer you a place here, permanently. You’ll be able to hang out with Ranboo and Tubbo all the time, and the school will give you the best education possible. You don’t have to accept and I’ll respect whatever decision you make, but think about it, alright?”
Tommy nodded. Phil couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking. Some part of him selfishly hoped Tommy would reject the offer right there.
“I- I’ll think about it.” Tommy finally said.
“Take your time, mate.”
Tommy nodded in understanding. Suddenly, he rushed forward, pulling Phil into a quick hug. Phil was surprised by it, and before he could even react Tommy was gone, heading back towards his friends.
Phil sighed, savoring the feeling of a hug from Tommy. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to enjoy this.
Notes:
Thanks for reading! Look at that, it's the final conflict in the story. I may like fluff, but I couldn't let it all be sunshine and rainbows. This also means we are very close to the end! Next chapter will wrap up most of the plot and the final chapter will be mostly fluff/epilogue shit. It's all good and cute, I promise!
I've mentioned this once or twice, but I think I'm going to turn this into a series and write some oneshots of stuff I wanted to include in this fic but there just wasn't room. There might also be some backstory fics too. The upload schedule won't be anywhere near as fast as it is right now because sadly I do have real life stuff starting soon, but I don't want to abandon this completely! Basically, whenever I actually add it, subscribe to the series if you want to keep reading stuff.
I'll see you all in 3 days (in August???) with the next update. If you leave a comment or kudos just know I love you with my entire heart and soul! Mwah <3
Chapter 13
Summary:
Previously: Phil tells Tommy that there's a place for him at the school, permanently, if he wants.
Now: Tommy has to make a decision.
Notes:
Welcome back! We've got the penultimate chapter right here, and oh boy it sure is a chapter! This chapter's got everything in it, you'll love it (I hope).
No but in all seriousness, we're really close to the end and I feel like my quality has been going down, so I really hope that you enjoy this. As much as I love this fic, I am happy to be nearing the end and I'll definitely be taking a break once this is done (or just not writing at as insane of a pace).
No trigger warnings for this chapter. Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Tommy lay awake, tossing and turning, thinking over Phil’s words. Tubbo was sleeping soundly next to him, exhausted from their day. Tommy had had a great day, not even Phil’s news had ruined it.
That wasn’t quite right, though. Phil hadn’t anything to ruin it, Tommy’s stupid mind had ruined it. The answer should be obvious. He didn’t know why it wasn’t.
Of course he wanted to stay at the school. The school had Tubbo and Ranboo, it had opportunities for him to meet other people his own age. He didn’t even like school that much back on Earth, but an alien school is a lot cooler than a human school.
So why didn’t he immediately say yes?
Ok, Tommy just needed to logic this out. He was a Big Man, he could do this.
The school had Tubbo and Ranboo, and Tommy really liked both of them! If he left the school, he probably wouldn’t see another human. Not to mention, Tubbo was pretty cool as a friend. He had actual real friends here, something he couldn’t say before. He wouldn’t have to worry about doctors or scientists experimenting on him here. Tommy was safe and had friends at the school.
But, if he stayed at the school he probably wouldn’t see Phil, Techno, and even Wilbur very often, if ever again. They’d been all he’d known for the past month, and as much as he hated to admit it, he’d gotten attached. He’d started seeing them as some sort of group, maybe even a family. It was stupid and he knew it, but he didn’t want to say goodbye.
So it came down to who did he care about more: Tubbo and Ranboo or Phil, Techno, and Wilbur?
He was broken out of his thoughts by movement next to him. “Tommy?” Tubbo asked, voice groggy with sleep from the other side of the bed.
“Yeah, big man?”
“Why are you awake?” That was a good question. Tommy didn’t really have an answer, not wanting to explain his dilemma because he knew Tubbo wanted him to stay. It wasn’t fair of him to force his new friend to listen to his problems.
Scrambling for an answer, Tommy replied, “Too big of a man for sleep, Tubso!”
“Sure, Tommy.” Tommy could sense the eye roll.
Tubbo rolled over towards Tommy, reaching an arm out blindly. He grabbed Tommy, tugging him towards him. “Time for sleep,” he muttered.
Soon, Tubbo’s soft snores filled the room. Surrounded by the warmth and comfort of a friend, Tommy finally let himself drift off to sleep.
Tommy was still stressed in the morning, and he knew Tubbo and Ranboo noticed. At breakfast, he’d barely spoken, lost in his thoughts. Niki had been nowhere in sight, just Tubbo and Ranboo with him in the big, empty cafeteria. Did he want a life of being isolated like this?
“What’s on the docket today, my Beloved?” Tubbo asked, fluttering his eyelashes. Tommy tuned back into the conversation, curious as well. Also, he could never get enough of Ranboo’s reaction to that nickname. He didn’t know where it came from, but Ranboo pretended to hate it, causing Tubbo to use it more.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that!” Tommy giggled at the outburst, bad mood momentarily forgotten.
“Just answer the question, dickhead.”
“Fine, fine. Well, you have classes this morning, so that’s your plan for today. You’ve missed enough already.” Tubbo pouted. Tubbo didn’t usually like the classes, except for science, he’d told Tommy. The only reason he liked science was because he could blow stuff up.
If Tubbo was busy, Tommy wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. He didn’t really know his way around the school, and he didn’t want to just sit in their shared room all day. “What am I gonna do all day then, boob boy?” Tommy asked.
Ranboo’s glare turned to Tommy at the new nickname. “You haven’t been officially enrolled yet and I don’t have any classes today, so I guess we’re just hanging out. We can go back to the lounge or play around outside?”
Tommy thought for a second. “Outside sounds fun.”
“Great!”
They finished up breakfast quickly, Tubbo heading off to his classes (after a lot of pushing from Ranboo), and Tommy and Ranboo heading outside. Tubbo said he’d join them after lunch.
Stepping outside left Tommy with the same sense of wonder as it had when he’d first arrived. It was cool to see an actual alien planet. The extra spring in his step added to his good mood. He jumped around, turning back to Ranboo. Ranboo didn’t seem as excited as Tommy, like this wasn’t anything special to him.
And Tommy realized, this wasn’t special to Ranboo. If Tommy stayed at the school, he could do this every day. He’d be living on an actual alien planet, which was pretty fucking cool. But was it cooler than the brief glimpse of life on a spaceship he’d seen?
Tommy's mood fell as he fell back to the ground. He had a decision looming over his head, and either way he’d lose something irreplaceable. If Ranboo noticed the sudden change, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he took Tommy on a tour of the gardens, showing him all of the plants.
Tubbo had noticed there was something off with Tommy all day. He’d only known Tommy for a day and a half, but even he could tell there was something going on with Tommy. It didn’t take a genius, Tommy was never like this. Tubbo would get to the bottom of this.
His biggest clue had been at dinner when Tommy kept glancing over at the table that held the crew who’d brought him here. Tubbo didn’t know their names, just that one of them was Ranboo’s dad. Techro-bade, maybe? They hadn’t bothered to introduce themselves to Tubbo. He was surprised they hadn’t left yet, but maybe they felt some sort of responsibility for Tommy.
Tommy clearly felt some sort of attachment to them. That was probably what this was about. Tubbo didn’t understand why he’d like them so much, considering they’d literally kept him locked in a cell. Ranboo was nice to Tommy, but it sounds like the rest of them were kinda scary.
Back in their room for the night, Tubbo had enough. He burst out, “Seriously, Tommy, what’s wrong? You’ve been off all day, so what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing, Tubbo.” Tommy kept his back to Tubbo, ignoring him. But Tubbo was not going to drop it that easily.
“No it’s not! Tommy, just fucking talk to me!”
“Talk to you?” Tommy explored, whirling around to face Tubbo, “You wouldn’t get it. Besides, it’s stupid.” Tommy visibly drooped, looking sadder than Tubbo had seen him. Tubbo wanted to give him a hug but he didn’t think Tommy would appreciate that.
“Can you try?” Tubbo pleaded.
“It’s just… I was talking to Phil yesterday, and he said that I could stay at the school if I wanted to and I don’t know what to do.” That didn’t make sense to Tubbo. Did Tommy not want to be here? The school wasn’t great, but it wasn’t that bad. What even was Tommy’s other option here?
“What do you mean you don’t know what to do?”
Tommy sighed. “Like I said, its stupid. I don’t know why, because I really do want to stay here with you and Ranboo, but I also don’t want to leave Phil and Techno and Wilbur. I don’t want to say goodbye to anyone, but I have to choose and I don’t know how to.” Tommy was sniffling now, tears brimming in his eyes. Tubbo crept forward, arms open.
Tommy fell into his arms, Tubbo enveloping him into a hug. Tubbo could feel his shirt growing damp from Tommy’s tears, but he didn’t mind. His new friend needed a hug, so he would give him a hug.
They sat like that for a while, sobs slowing as Tommy cried himself out. He’d definitely needed this. Tommy didn’t seem like the type to cry often, but everyone had to at some point. It was only human.
Tubbo finally spoke up, “Tommy, that’s not stupid. You’re entitled to your feelings. That’s one of the things they told me when I first got here, and it’s true! I don’t really understand why you like them, but that’s okay.”
Tommy pulled back from the hug, smiling. “Thanks, big man.” Tubbo returned the smile. He may not understand his thought process, but he understood his friend’s pain. For now, that was enough.
It took some coaxing, but Tubbo convinced Tommy to go to sleep, claiming the day had been taxing for both. Tubbo didn’t mention that he wasn’t tired. His mind was racing with possibilities.
Once he was sure that Tommy was fast asleep next to him, Tubbo crept out of the room on soft feet. He closed the door behind him, making sure Tommy didn’t wake. Confident in his sneaking abilities, Tubbo headed down the hallway.
It had taken him months, but he could navigate this wing of the school like the back of his hands. It was late and the lights were dimmed, but he knew exactly where he was going. The door he arrived at looked the same as all the others, save for the fancy plaque on the front that Tubbo didn’t bother to read.
He knocked, gently pushing the door open before he could get an answer. At his desk sat Captain Sparkelz, finishing up his work for the evening.
The Captain looked up in surprise, emotions flitting across his face. “Tubbo? What’re you doing here? Is everything alright?”
Tubbo nodded, making his way to the chair across from the Captain. “Everything’s fine, I just had a proposition for you.”
The Captain set down the papers he was looking through. He sighed, but gave Tubbo his full attention. He questioned, “A proposition?”
“Yes, a proposition. Regarding Tommy, specifically.” Tubbo tried to seem as professional as possible, even if he was bluffing his way through this conversation.
“Well, let’s hear it.”
“I was talking to Tommy earlier, and he was trying to decide whether to stay here or not. He was torn over this.” Tubbo laid out the facts, like his teachers told him to do in his writing. Speech wasn’t his favorite class, but the lessons had been drilled into his head.
The Captain asked, “Really? What’s the problem?” Tubbo smirked to himself. He’d just fallen into Tubbo’s trap.
“You see, boss man, humans are a pack oriented species, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. We thrive when we’re surrounded by ones we love. We can pack-bond quickly, not only to members of our own species. Back on Earth, we often adopt other species of animals into our homes as pets and they become part of our pack too. It seems that Tommy has pack-bonded with the crew, as well as with Ranboo and I. I’m sure you can see his dilemma.”
Tubbo sat back, hoping the Captain could see what he had laid out. Honestly, the pack bonding thing was mostly bullshit, but it sounded fancy enough that he thought the Captain would buy it. He didn’t even know if that was an actual thing.
The Captain looked to be deep in thought from this revelation, so maybe Tubbo had spun his lies well enough to convince him.
“So,” the Captain began, “what do you suggest as the solution?”
“I’m so glad you asked! There’s a very simple answer here: we’re all together in one place. Of course, we can’t ask the crew to stay at the school, so why not have Tommy, Ranboo, and I fly with the crew? Ranboo’s father is on the crew, Tommy already has a relationship with them, and I’m friends with Tommy and Ranboo. It’s really a win-win situation.” Tubbo topped it off with his best puppy dog eyes to try and convince the Captain. He really needed this to work.
Tubbo had quickly realized the only way for Tommy to be happy was for him to be with everyone. Tommy wanted to be with his crew, but he wanted to be with Tubbo and Ranboo too. This was the easiest answer, and the only one that would leave Tommy happy. It would even make Ranboo happy, because he could spend more time with his dad. Tubbo knew Ranboo missed him, even if he’d never admit it.
The Captain asked, “But would you be happy on the ship with Tommy, Ranboo, and a crew you’ve never met before?”
And that was the million dollar question, wasn’t it? There wasn’t much left for him at the school if Tommy and Ranboo weren’t here. He loved Niki, he even loved his classes sometimes, but it was never truly home. It was a home, sure, but he could make a better home somewhere else. Home was about the people, and if Tommy and Ranboo thought of this crew as home, so could Tubbo.
With certainty, Tubbo replied, “I would be.”
The Captain broke into a smile. “I’ll have to talk to Captain Philza about it in the morning, but I think you may have found a solution.” Tubbo beamed from the praise. He would miss the Captain, the closest thing he’d had to a dad in years. But for his friends, this was worth it.
“Now, you really should go to bed.”
“Fine, fine,” Tubbo grumbled, heading towards the door. He waved at the Captain before heading back to his room. He traversed the dim hallways again, heart lighter with the thought he was helping his new friend.
He snuck back into their room, quietly slipping into their bed. Half asleep, Tommy grumbled, “Where’d you go?”
“Just to the bathroom. Go back to sleep.”
“Okay,” Tommy mumbled, pulling Tubbo close to him as he drifted back to sleep. And Tommy called him clingy.
Tubbo couldn’t help the smile on his face as he lay down too. He was looking forward to a future with his friend. Sleep dragged him down, hope permeating his dreams.
Notes:
Tubbo to the rescue, am I right? We love Tubbo in this household.
Thanks for reading! We have one more chapter left, and then this monster will be finished. The final chapter will hopefully tie up all the loose ends, as well as give you all a much needed dose of fluff and 4/4 sbi. It is currently a work in progress because I have been procrastinating, but it will be out in 3 days. I will make sure of it.
Anyways, I'd love feedback if you want to give? Comments and kudos give me life, and thank you to every single one of you who does! Have a great week and see you on friday!
Chapter 14
Summary:
Previously: Tubbo finds a solution.
Now: Everyone gets their happy ending! It's found family time!
Notes:
Welcome back to the final chapter of this fic! I may have gone a bit overboard, so enjoy a chapter that is twice the length of a normal one and is almost entirely fluff. I tried to wrap everything up, so hopefully this is a satisfying ending!
No trigger warnings for this chapter (it’s really cute guys). Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Phil woke up to a knock on his door from Jordan. He wasn’t expecting it, and a small part of him dreaded that he was coming with news that Tommy had agreed to stay at the school. Phil worried that this would be the end of his time with Tommy.
When he let him in, Jordan’s face was uncharacteristically happy. Was he just here to gloat?
“I had an interesting visit from Tubbo, the other human, last night.” He began ominously, “Say, Phil, how would you feel about having Tommy, Ranboo, and Tubbo on your ship full time?”
At the idea, Phil smiled. That could work...
Tommy woke up the next morning, still feeling dread hanging over him. He’d told Tubbo about everything last night, but he didn’t feel much better. It didn’t magically get better when you talked to someone apparently. He remembered that Clara had once told him talking about his problems helped lighten the load, but now he just felt guilty about sharing it with his friend.
Tubbo didn’t need to listen to him whine, especially when it was Tommy saying he didn’t want to be around him that much.
He remembered Tubbo getting up at some point in the night, but Tommy didn’t know why. Hopefully he wasn’t crying in the bathroom or something. That would be really sad. Not at all Big Man behavior.
Tommy sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He looked around the room, but there was no Tubbo in sight. That was weird, and kinda concerning. Tommy didn’t know what he was supposed to do without Tubbo around to guide him.
Before his anxiety could overwhelm him, Tommy heard a light knocking at the door. He didn’t know who it was, considering the only person he was expecting to see was Tubbo, who definitely wouldn’t knock.
“Hello?” Tommy asked, getting out of bed to approach the door.
The door opened, Philza appearing behind it. He smiled at Tommy. “Hi mate! I didn’t know if you’d be up or not.”
“Yeah I’m awake. Why are you here?” Tommy’s heart sank, thinking this was Phil saying goodbye. Why else would he be here, talking to Tommy alone?
“Let’s sit down and I’ll tell you. It’s nothing bad, I promise.” Tommy sat on the chair, while Phil sat on the couch, wincing as he sat on the hard thing. He didn’t say anything, but Tommy could tell he was uncomfortable. It was kinda funny, honestly.
“Well,” Phil began, “Captain Sparkelz came to me with an idea earlier. It was actually Tubbo’s idea, so you’ll have to give him credit for it.” Phil trailed off, distracted. Tommy’s thoughts were swirling, mind racing trying to figure out what the fuck Phil was talking about.
“What’s the idea?” He demanded.
“He suggested, you, Tubbo, and Ranboo live on my ship, full time. Obviously you’d still need some schooling, but you three would be with us all the time. What do you think?”
What did Tommy think? That was… amazing! Tubbo was a fucking genouis! This way, he would have everyone he could want, all in one place. It was the best of both worlds.
“That would be so poggers! Phil, thank you.” Before he could think better of it, Tommy quickly pulled into a hug. But this time, he didn’t let go immediately. He sank into it, savoring the feeling. This time, he knew he wouldn’t have to worry about not getting any more hugs anytime soon. This would be a permanent thing.
Tubbo wasn’t quite sure how he was feeling about leaving the school. He was definitely excited, especially after hearing Tommy yell in excitement because of all of them being on the ship together. But, the school was all he’d known for the past two years. Tubbo could barely remember Earth, and his time in between Earth and the school was all a blur.
Now, he was embarking on a brand new adventure. At least this time he had friends with him.
He was glad that Tommy and Ranboo would be there. The idea of being in an enclosed space, like a spaceship, freaked him out a little bit if he was being honest. He hadn’t been awake for the ship ride to the school, so his only experiences on ships before had been on the poacher ship that captured him from Earth. He remembered the anxiety that came with the close quarters he was kept in. If you asked his therapist, she’d say that’s where his claustrophobia came from.
Maybe the thing Tubbo was most nervous about was meeting the crew. He’d met plenty of aliens before, that wasn’t the weird part. He’d just never met someone his friends cared about so much. He wanted to make a good impression, especially if he was going to be living with them.
Reluctantly, Tubbo approached the lounge room, where everyone had decided to gather before leaving. Tubbo had already packed his bags, most of it was just clothes and a few sentimental items. He didn’t have much, even after living here for over two years. It was a bit depressing, honestly. He’d left the one bag his stuff filled outside the door to his room, where someone would take it to the ship for him.
Steeling himself, Tubbo pushed the door open. Gathered in the room was the crew of SBI, Tommy, Ranboo, the Captain, and Niki. Everyone he was close to at the school and everyone he was going to live with.
All eyes turned to him. Instinctively, Tubbo shrank back. Before anyone could comment on it, Tommy bounded towards him. “Tubbo! Big Man! You’re finally here. Took you fucking long enough. We’ve been waiting for ages.” Tommy dragged him over to the group.
“Sorry, sorry,” Tubbo mumbled. This wasn’t the best first impression…
“Don’t worry about it, mate. Tommy’s exaggerating.” The alien with wings, Tubbo thought he might be an Elytrian, said to him. “My name’s Philza. I’m the captain of the ship, but there’s no need for formalities. Just call me Phil.” Tubbo nodded, trying to remember that. Phil reminded him of Captain Sparkelz a little bit. Maybe it was just a vibe all Captains had.
Next to Phil, the other two members of the crew looked at him. The blue one smiled, while the pink one just gazed at him impassively. He was really scary, actually. Tubbo did not want to mess with him.
Unfortunately, the pink one spoke first. “I’m Technoblade, Ranboo’s dad. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Tubbo chuckled nervously. “Good things, I hope?”
Technoblade grunted at him, but didn’t say anything else. What the fuck did that mean?
Before the panic could fully set in, the final alien spoke. “Don’t mind him, he’s just being a grouch. I’m Wilbur. It is very nice to meet you, Tubbo.”
“It’s nice to meet you guys too. Thank you for letting me onto your ship.”
“Oh don’t worry about it. Tommy and Ranboo speak highly of you. You’ll always have a place with us.” Phil finished by laying a wing around his shoulders. The wing was giant, but it was surprisingly soft where it touched Tubbo. He would have to ask Phil about that later because he was really curious how flying worked, if he even could.
The gesture succeeded in calming Tubbo down. Any lingering panic was completely gone. Tubbo wouldn’t say he trusted these aliens yet, but he felt comfortable enough to live on their ship. Over time, things would probably get easier, but it was a start. It was a hell of a better start than Tommy had, if his stories were true.
The moment was broken when the Captain cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt, but you all should probably be going soon if you want to keep your launch window.”
Phil nodded, removing his wing from Tubbo. He missed the comforting feeling. Tubbo understood why Tommy had gotten so attached now. Phil just had some weird aura that made it really easy to like him.
Phil, Techno, and Wilbur all grouped together, probably planning the launch or something. Niki rushed towards Tubbo. She pulled him into a hug, whispering into his hair, “Have fun out there, will you?”
Tubbo whispered back, “I will. Don’t miss me too much, okay?” He tried to savor the feeling of her hug, knowing it will be awhile before he could get one again. He would miss her too.
Niki nodded, pulling away. Tubbo saw tears shining in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. Tubbo felt similar tears gathering in his eyes, but he tried to hide them. He didn’t need her to worry about him like that. He would be okay, he knew he would be.
Niki moved onto Ranboo, pulling him into a hug as well. Tubbo was distracted from his eavesdropping by Captain Sparkelz coming up to him. “Tubbo, I know you’ll have a good time there. It’s the best solution, and I cannot thank you enough for your idea. But, I just want you to know that you will always have a place here, in whatever capacity you might need it.”
Tubbo smiled and nodded, not trusting his voice. More tears gathered at his eyes, the goodbyes felt bittersweet. He was leaving on an adventure, but this was his home, once.
Like Niki, the Captain pulled him into a hug. Tubbo hugged back tightly, trying to memorize the moment. This wasn’t goodbye forever, just goodbye for now. He would be back, one day.
Niki and the Captain eventually pulled away, leading them to the looming spaceship that was their new home. Staring out at the school as the door shut behind them, getting one last glimpse of the place that had housed him for the last two years, Tubbo held onto that thought.
This wasn’t goodbye forever. This was a home, and he’d be back.
Ranboo couldn’t believe it when Techno told him that he, Tommy, and Tubbo could live on the ship. It seemed too good to be true.
Before he’d joined to help Tommy, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed Technoblade. They were never that close, barely ever living together. But after a month of being on the same ship, something felt like it was missing from the school. Techno wasn’t his dad in the usual sense of the word, but he was important to Ranboo. He wanted to be around Techno. And now he could!
After they’d taken off, they’d needed to sort out the room situation. Phil, Techno, and Wilbur all had bedrooms, and there were two empty bedrooms on the ship. One was next to Techno’s, the other across the hall and next to Phil’s. Wilbur’s bedroom was on the other side of Phil’s, opposite the medbay.
Without prompting, Tommy declared, “Tubbo and I will share! Ranboob can be on his own.” Ranboo stuck out his tongue at Tommy, annoyed at the nickname. The voice inside of his head that screamed in delight over having a nickname could shut up, thank you very much.
“Are you sure?” Phil asked. “Is Tubbo okay with that?”
Tubbo shrugged. “Fine by me. It’s what we were doing at the school, anyway.”
Ranboo hesitated for a second. He felt awkward, especially because he was the one who would be getting his own room. He didn’t want to make demands, but Techno had been trying to get him to work on advocating for himself. “Can I- can I have the room next to Techno?”
Phil’s smile softened. “Of course, mate.” Ranboo smiled back. Techno reached over and ruffled his hair, bumping his horns slightly. Ranboo’s tail wrapped around Techno’s wrist in return. This was something they did, small touches to show their love, way back on Hypixel. Back then, it had been a rare luxury. Now, it was something they could do everyday.
As Ranboo settled into bed for the night, waiting for sleep to take him, he knew that he would wake up in the morning, surrounded by friends and family.
It was the second day back on the ship, and Tommy was settling in nicely. He and Tubbo technically had separate beds in their shared room, but they’d ended up in the same one last night. He’d woken up to Phil watching creepily from the doorway, but he hadn’t been able to tell him to fuck off before he left on his own.
Tubbo and him had sleepily stumbled out of their room, hoping for breakfast. They found the rest of the crew already gathered in the kitchen area, a table full of food set up. Even Ranboo was there, looking annoyingly chipper for so early in the morning. Tommy stared at him, trying to figure out what the fuck was wrong with him.
Tubbo collapsed into a chair at the table, Ranboo on his left and an empty chair for Tommy on his right. It was the only empty seat left, so Tommy sat down in it. Only once he was sitting did he realize that Wilbur was on his other side. Tommy expected to feel scared or anxious or something, but for whatever reason, he didn’t mind it.
Maybe it was because Wilbur hadn’t done anything the last time they’d talked, maybe it was because there were enough people around that he knew Wilbur wouldn’t try any science-y shit, or maybe it was because he had spent so long away from him and around other aliens. Tommy was feeling nice (and not awake enough to start a fight), so he let it happen. If he was living here full time, he needed to not hate Wilbur. Breakfast would be a start.
Wilbur glanced at him, smiling slightly. Tommy smiled back. He didn’t even bare his teeth as a threat! Progress.
Somehow, breakfast passed without a hitch. Sure, Tommy and Tubbo barely said anything, but no one argued and it was actually a pretty pleasant affair.
After all the food was finished, Phil enlisted Tommy and Tubbo’s help in cleaning up. They were just washing dishes, and it was boring but it was nice to be helpful. They worked mostly in silence, Phil occasionally making his weird bird noises.
“Tommy,” Phil said once they were finished, “I have something for you!” Phil rushed out of the room, probably to get whatever it was. Tommy waited, wondering what Phil could possibly have. Tubbo lingered behind him, curious as well.
Phil returned, holding something that Tommy couldn’t see in his hands. He walked up to Tommy, and Tommy realized that it was Henry! He’d missed Henry so much, he grabbed Henry from Phil without thinking. He hugged him, happy to have Henry back after so long. He hadn’t meant to leave him here, he’d just left his cell so quickly, it had completely slipped his mind until it was too late to get him.
With a shock, Tommy realized how far he’d come. When he first got on this ship, he never would have just taken something from Phil’s hands. At the very least, he would have thought that getting Henry back would cost him something, if it wasn’t a trap. Now, he trusted Phil enough not to do that. He was proud of himself.
“Thank you, Phil!” Phil smiled back at Tommy, not expecting anything, just happy to see Tommy with his beloved stuffed animal.
Tubbo walked up to him. “What’s that?”
Tommy held out Henry, showing him off to Tubbo and Phil. “This is Henry, the most poggers animal ever.” Phil laughed at the declaration, while Tubbo nodded solemnly.
Phil greeted, “It’s nice to officially meet you, Henry.” Tommy made Henry wave one of his legs in response. Both him and Phil were fully laughing at their antics.
“What kind of animal is Henry? He looks like some sort of mushroom cow- Oh My God he’s a mooshroom!” Tubbo exclaimed. It took Tommy a second, but he figured out the pun quickly. Unfortunately for Phil, he didn’t seem to get it, probably because he didn’t know what a cow. One of the problems of being an old man alien.
“Mooshroom! I like it. You hear that, Henry? By the declaration of Big Men Tommy and Tubbo, you are a mooshroom.” Everyone devolved into laughter at the way too official sounding proclamation.
The mood in the room was joyous, and Tommy wouldn’t trade it for the world. Tubbo seemed to be settling in, and Tommy couldn’t be happier. He was home, and he knew it.
Wilbur knew he had no reason to be worried. Tommy wasn’t mad at him anymore, now tolerating his presence. Still, he knew the kid had issues with anything that could be seen as medical or scientific, so Wilbur had to be careful.
Tommy was with Tubbo in the lounge of the ship, playing some sort of game that Wilbur didn’t even know they had. Hopefully having Tubbo around would make this easier.
“Hey guys! Do you mind if I join you?” They paused their game, both looking towards him.
Tubbo shrugged, and Tommy told him, “Up to you, big man. This game is only for two players though.”
“That’s fine, I just wanted to chat. It’s not bad, I promise!” Wilbur sat down on the armchair next to them. Neither of them restarted their game, instead looking at him expectantly.
“Soooo,” Tubbo drawled, “what’d you wanna talk about?”
Wilbur fiddled with his sleeves. He was wearing his favorite yellow sweater, hoping to come off as unthreatening as possible. He’d been told the yellow complimented his blue skin nicely, and hopefully the primary color scheme would be calming to children. It was stupid, even as Wilbur thought it.
“Um, this is mainly about Tommy but Tubbo you are totally welcome to stay. As you may know, I’m in charge of all medical stuff for the crew.” Tommy stiffened at the mention of that, but Wilbur continued, “I just wanted to make sure neither of you were injured, and I wanted to help Tommy with his teeth.”
“The fuck is wrong with my teeth?” Tommy exclaimed. What? Did he seriously forget he had lost two teeth? Was this some weird human thing Wilbur didn’t understand or was this just a Tommy thing? Honestly, either could be possible. Hopefully having Tubbo around would help clarify which it was.
“You’re missing two of them?”
“And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’? Missing teeth impacts your ability to eat and function! I know humans are omnivores, but you still need to chew your food! I can really easily make you implants, there’s very advanced technology for it. I just want to help.”
Wilbur wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t Tubbo laughing at him. He felt embarrassment creeping in, but he didn’t know what he was missing. Tommy had joined in laughing too, and now Wilbur just felt frustrated.
“What is it, you gremlins?” He demanded. He tried to keep his voice even, but apparently whatever they were laughing at was funny enough that Tommy wasn’t scared at all.
Finally, fucking finally, Tubbo explained. “Wilbur, humans have two sets of teeth. We naturally lose our baby teeth. Tommy’s missing teeth will grow back.”
“Yeah, bitch, one of them is already coming in! See?” Tommy opened his mouth, pulling back his lips and pointing to the empty spot. Sure enough, Wilbur could see a white point just barely poking through, indicating a new tooth growing in that hadn’t been there before.
What. The. Fuck.
In all his studies, Wilbur had never heard of a species with multiple sets of teeth. Sure, some had the ability to repair broken teeth, but that was incredibly rare and a huge advantage. Wilbur couldn’t imagine how much this would help them. No wonder humans were so willing to use their teeth in battle: they wouldn’t be incapacitated if they lost some.
His mind was reeling from this, and it was definitely showing on his face if Tommy and Tubbo’s cackles were anything to go by. It made his job easier because he didn’t need to worry about getting Tommy fake teeth, but still, what the fuck.
“So, how does this work?” Wilbur asked, hoping he wasn’t overstepping but his curiosity was too powerful.
Tubbo cleared his throat, like he was about to give some long lecture. “Well, most kids start losing them when they’re five years old or so, and they keep falling out for a few years as the adult ones grow in. It’s pretty normal though, not really a big deal. It can bleed a bunch and is kinda painful when they’re loose. Is this… do you not lose your teeth?”
“No, we don’t lose our teeth as children! That’s absurd!” Seriously, what was Earth like?
“Really?” Tommy asked, “Maybe it’s just cause you’re a bitch.”
“Tommy!” Tubbo smacked him.
Wilbur would have been worried about Tommy being hit by a human, but he was pretty sure he could take it. Any species that lost every single one of their teeth had to be pretty hardy, he could take a slap from another human.
“Is this just a human thing?” They talked about it so nonchalantly, like it was a common occurrence on Earth. Maybe it was for humans, but Earth was a deathworld, so it might not be isolated.
“Nah, all sorts of animals do it. Sharks have like 5 sets of teeth!” Wilbur shuddered at the thought. He didn’t know what a ‘shark’ was, but he didn’t want to find out. Any species that needed that many sets of teeth was bad news. He was thankful that no idiot poacher had decided to try and kidnap one yet.
“Wilbur?” Tommy said, breaking his thoughts. Wilbur turned towards him, humming in acknowledgement.
“I’m fine, really. But, uh, thank you for checking.” Tommy smiled, just a small one with no teeth showing. Wilbur took it as the peace offering it was.
“Of course. If you need anything, I’m here. No judgement and nothing you don’t want to happen. I promise.”
“Alright, bitch.”
“Oh you little child-”
Phil had told them to get ready because he had a treat for them. Tommy didn’t know what to expect. All he knew was that apparently they were landing somewhere. He was really hoping he could get off the ship, but if it was somewhere populated he wouldn’t be allowed to. Stupid Council rules.
Tommy was practically bursting with anticipation by the time they finally landed. He was sitting in the lounge area with Tubbo and Ranboo. The rest of the crew were helping actually land the ship, but the kids weren’t allowed in the cockpit during takeoff or landing for safety reasons or some shit. It was stupid. Tommy was a big enough man to be able to help! When he was older, he wanted to captain his own ship, and what better way to learn than to start now?
The engine shut off, and Tommy bolted out of his seat. Tubbo and Ranboo were on his heels, all heading to look out one of the windows. Before they could, Phil entered the room. He clapped his hands together. “Are you boys ready?”
Tommy and Tubbo both nodded, but Ranboo asked, “For what?”
Techno walked into the room, followed by Wilbur. Techno ruffled Ranboo’s hair, “Don’t worry about it, kid.”
Ranboo did not seem to accept this, but he didn’t argue either. At this point, Tommy didn’t really care. He just wanted to see whatever it was!
“Follow me.” Phil walked out of the lounge, heading towards the main doors of the ship. They were going outside! This was so poggers.
Tommy and Tubbo walked behind Phil eagerly, while Techno had to urge Ranboo forward and Wilbur brought up the rear of their little party. The doors opened in front of them and Tommy gasped.
They were on another planet, in an empty field. The ground was purplish, and it looked almost like moss. In the distance, Tommy could see something dotting the gentle hills that looked kinda like trees, except they were the wrong color and shape.
They walked off the ship, following Phil onto the ground. It was kinda squishy, but not in a weird way. A little bit like a marsh, while still easy to walk on. Tommy liked it. Next to him, Tubbo was also gawking at the planet. Tubbo seemed so much better adjusted to alien life, but Tommy forgot that he’d spent almost all of it at the school, not out adventuring.
“Tommy!” Wilbur poked him. Tommy reached out to slap him in return, but Wilbur ducked out of the way. Probably better for him.
“Stop being a dick and just look over there!” Tommy followed the line of Wilbur’s clawed finger, pointing out something in the distance. There, in the distance, Tommy could make out a cluster of something red.
It was a herd of Mooshrooms! Tommy gasped, jumping with glee. They were real! A whole crowd of Henrys, all there for him to see.
“Oh my fucking god, it’s Henry! Tubbo, look!”
“That’s so cool! Phil, can we go pet them?” Phil laughed at the two of them, practically vibrating with excitement. Tommy bet that this was his idea, he was weird like that. It was nice though. Phil’s kindness was so genuine and infectious, it was impossible to hate.
“You can pet them, just be gentle. They’re harmless, but they can startle easily.”
Tommy and Tubbo nodded before darting off towards the herd. Once closer, they approached cautiously. In the distance, he heard Techno say, “You forget they’re apex predators until they do something like this.” Tommy didn’t have time to unpack all of that, too focused on trying to get the mooshrooms to accept him.
One particularly brave one walked towards him, nose twitching as it assessed him. It deemed him not a threat, and gently butted it’s head up against his hand. Tommy suppressed a yell of delight, not wanting to scare it off. He ran his hand along it’s head, petting it. The mooshroom seemed to like that, allowing him to continue.
“I think I’ll name you Mushroom Henry,” Tommy whispered to it. Mushroom Henry didn’t react, blinking lazily at him.
Tommy smiled to himself. Here he was, standing on an alien planet, petting a mooshroom, because the crew wanted to bring him to see them.
He looked back at them. Phil waved at him and Ranboo gave him a thumbs back. Glancing over at Tubbo, who was having significantly less luck with the mooshrooms but was still happy, Tommy knew.
He had found his family. Tommy was finally home.
Notes:
Well, there you go folks! That’s the fic. Thank you so much for reading and I really hope you enjoyed! To everyone who read, kudosed, or commented, this fic is dedicated to you. Your feedback gave me the motivation to get this fic out as quickly as I did. So for that, I am incredibly grateful for. You are all amazing.
About the fic itself, I’m really happy with where we ended up! Believe it or not, this is the first multi-chapter fic I’ve ever completed. I wrote over 36,000 words in 42 days, and I could not be more proud of myself for that. This was a great experience, so thank you for coming along for the ride of it.
But, I’m not done in this world yet! As you may have noticed, this fic is now part of a series! There won’t be a direct sequel, but I do have some ideas for one shots set in this world. These include prequels with Ranboo, Techno, and Tubbo’s backstories, as well as some fluff about the crew all together. The one that will most likely be posted first is about Tubbo settling into the crew. If you’re interested in reading more, subscribe to the series! New fics will be posted whenever I feel like it, so that’s the best way to see them. If you have any suggestions for stuff you'd like to see in this series, leave a comment here or message me on tumblr (@mmajora)!
Alright folks, that’s all for now. Thank you again for reading and have a great day!
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mmmajora on Chapter 1 Tue 29 Jun 2021 04:51AM UTC
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MoonScribe3 on Chapter 1 Tue 29 Jun 2021 03:49AM UTC
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mmmajora on Chapter 1 Tue 29 Jun 2021 04:51AM UTC
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RemmyWasHere on Chapter 1 Tue 29 Jun 2021 05:42AM UTC
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Kgene (Guest) on Chapter 1 Tue 29 Jun 2021 09:28PM UTC
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bleshy on Chapter 1 Wed 30 Jun 2021 12:13PM UTC
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mmmajora on Chapter 1 Thu 01 Jul 2021 06:08AM UTC
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Lemna_Minor on Chapter 1 Wed 30 Jun 2021 01:56PM UTC
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ItsYaBoiGhostie on Chapter 1 Wed 30 Jun 2021 05:10PM UTC
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mmmajora on Chapter 1 Thu 01 Jul 2021 06:09AM UTC
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hefuckingleftdaband on Chapter 1 Wed 30 Jun 2021 11:45PM UTC
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Peridot_the_kitten on Chapter 1 Mon 05 Jul 2021 08:47AM UTC
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Jessicainnit_69 on Chapter 1 Mon 05 Jul 2021 10:14PM UTC
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Mythology_Researcher on Chapter 1 Thu 08 Jul 2021 03:06AM UTC
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Brightness_Random on Chapter 1 Mon 12 Jul 2021 04:33PM UTC
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rabbit_with_a_sword on Chapter 1 Mon 12 Jul 2021 08:13PM UTC
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