As soon as the man started laughing, the grin on Tommy's face was immediately wiped away, replaced with what Tommy tried to put on as a cool, unscathed facial expression. It ended up with his eyes going wide and a watery smile on his face. He was so scared that he made a bad impression that he wanted to hide. He sunk down into his seat, trying to become as invisible as possible. Wilbur immediately noticed Tommy's composure, and he attempted to comfort him. Techno shifted his concerned face at Tommy to glare at the man before who had upset Tommy. He suddenly became startled.

On seeing the boys' expressions, the man apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you, I'm just laughing that you're so eager to greet a stranger." He smiled sincerely at Tommy, who slowly calmed down. "I'm Philza - or Phil. Would you guys mind if I stayed in this compartment?" Before they could answer, the doors slid closed, and a voice from the train asked them to sit or hold onto a straphanger (???) from the ceiling. He looked at them all, hoping they wouldn't be too irritated with him.

To his relief, they weren't. "We don't mind," Tommy said, apparently over his embarrassment. Phil smiled at the boy, taking a seat across from them all. His eyes landed on the pink-haired one, and he felt like he was missing something. Philza tilted his head at the boy, thinking the pink-haired one seemed familiar. His name was at the tip of his tongue, but before he said anything, the boy let out almost a strangled query.

"Phil?" His face seemed almost... pained?

Suddenly, everything clicked, and Phil gasped, "Techno?"

Wilbur and Tommy looked at each other in confusion, not understanding the two's interaction.

"Have you been okay- are you still into pottery?" Phil's question did nothing to help the confusion between Wilbur and Tommy.

Techno was almost speechless, and no one could tell whether he was sad or angry. "I'm- I'm okay," his eyes looked sadly into Phil's, "And my parents didn't want me to do pottery anymore, so I haven't since... that last time."

Philza's face was sympathetic towards Techno, "Those parents of yours... whatever happened to them?" Phil had an obvious hatred for Techno's parents from the way he spat out their mention.

~~~~~

It had been a clear, sunny afternoon. Phil had been working at the pottery shop all morning, the clouds barely hinting at the sun, and now the afternoon brought the sun with it, burning through the clouds. Philza's students had finished their lessons and were leaving, saying goodbye with smiles on their faces, and Phil smiled back.

The pottery shop was silent when no one but Phil was in, and Phil longed for a sound other than silence. A quiet jingle from the bell at the door made Philza look up to see a young boy, probably just ten years old, standing ostentatiously with his pink-hair fixed neatly standing at the door. He wore a stiff suit and looked quite unhappy. The people he stood with were who Phil guessed were his parents pushed him forward towards Phil, and the boy looked even more forlorn the more they drew closer to Phil.

"Can I help you?" Philza asked kindly, glancing at the boy then his parents. He watched as the mother's long nails dug into the back of the boy's neck, trying to mask it as just rubbing his neck to comfort him, but Phil saw past that. The father harshly muttered to the boy to speak up, and with watery eyes, the boy looked up, no doubt scared out of his mind.

"Yes, sir. I would like some pottery lessons," he said. The boy's voice wavered, and his father glared down at him. "Uh- please," he added, shrinking back. Phil wanted to glare daggers at the parents, but he hoped that he was just reading the situation wrong.

"Of course! It's free, so you don't have to-"

"Ah, good. Well, we'll be back at eight. See you later, Techno," the mother said, clutching the father's arm and quickly leaving the shop before Phil could object.

Philza looked at Techno, and the boy looked like he was about to cry.

"Hey," Phil said soothingly, getting up and walking over to Techno. He kneeled down in front of him, his kind eyes searching the boy's. "You can take a seat here if you'd like."

Techno looked up at him, "I know I can. I'm not as dense as you think." Phil was surprised to hear a ten-year-old talk that way about themself.

"I wasn't trying to suggest that-"

"But you did, so I won't presume you to be any more genuine than anyone else my parents left me to for the remainder of the day." Techno stared Philza dead in the eyes, not changing his grave expression.

"Ah. Um... Okay, then!" Philza said, not wanting to let the boy's vocabulary intimidate him. "I have some clay here if you wanted to play with it." Phil plopped a chunk of clay down in front of Techno and lay down some tools to shape it.

"I- I suppose I could try to sculpt it," Techno said hesitantly, picking up the clay.

-

Hours passed by, and Techno seemed to enjoy his time at the shop as more time progressed. He seemed to trust Phil more, and for once in his life, Techno felt like how a child should. His eyes sparkled as he sculpted the numerous mounds of clay, making them all into pigs, crowns, and swords. Philza just watched contentedly as the boy played with the clay, and he smiled.

"I hope you're able to come back again, Techno," Philza said, watching as the boy grabbed another mound of clay, rolling it in a thin strip to add detail to his other works.

Techno's silvery eyes glittered as he stared at Phil, no longer as formal as he was confined to be, "I wanna come back! I hope they let me!" Phil chuckled, patting his head.

To Techno's pleasure, his parents dropped him off at the pottery shop every weekend for the next two years, and he grew more and more attached to Phil.

But one day, he stopped coming.

Phil had waited all-day for the boy to come, but he never did. After a month or two of him not coming back, Philza gave up on the hope of ever seeing him again.

~~~~~

Sitting on the train across from the first friend he had ever made, Techno could barely speak. "They- They're gone now," he finally said, sounding a bit relieved. "Oh! But not- not dead or anything. They just moved to a different place." Philza nodded, seemingly saying, "as they should have."

"Did you start any new hobbies?" Phil asked. It would have been an innocent question, but there was a hidden intent to it- a hopeful one.

Techno's heart ached, "Yeah. I've been doing fencing. It's nice to see you again, though, Phil."

Wilbur and Tommy exchanged glances before looking back at Phil. "Well, any friend of Techno's is a friend of ours, Phil!" Wil exclaimed, sharing a grin with Tommy.

Philza chuckled, "I hope we'll meet again after this."

And they told him the plan.

~~~~~

Sorry about that ending. It was kind of abrupt, so I might edit it later on. I'm not sure.

Thank you all for reading because I really appreciate it and love every single one of you <33333 :))))))))))