You wake up to a small buzzing noise.

Just a quick and short 'brrzt' that was somewhere near your head.

You honestly would have fallen back asleep, but when you hear it a second time you begin the arduous process of wiggling your body around to try and figure out where the noise came from.

It's dim in the attic, a pelt on each of the windows keeping what looks like the afternoon sun from coming in. You feel around the wool blankets and animal furs, before freeing an arm to blindly grab at the edge of the endtable. Your fingers connect with your communicator, grabbing it and pulling it to your face to see who disturbed your sleep.

Techno.

Huh- you glance up and notice that he wasn't in bed anymore. Probably should have noticed that sooner.

You let out a breath of air before looking at what he messaged.

'Hey'

'Be back in 20'

You squint. Odd of him to tell you when he was going to be back. He usually just silently comes back, with no added texting or mentioning before he leaves.

Does he need you to be ready for something?

Your mind immediately goes into fight mode.

Is something dangerous heading this way? Do you need to be prepared to protect Tommy?

'What's up?'

You reply, sitting up out of bed and all but falling over as you blearily set your foot onto the wooden floor.

You relax your clenched jaw when he sends back a, 'Good news'

You slow down from movement, stopped right at the trapdoor to the ladder.

'Is this good news I can know?' You ask.

'No.' Is his immediate reply back.

You huff, typing out, 'I will start a revolution.' Before slipping your communicator in your pocket and deciding that now that you're awake you should just fully wake up and head downstairs.

Which is what you do, idly crawling down the ladder feet touching the warm heated wood of the second floor, and taking in the sight of Tommy sprawled out near the fireplace.

He had a small peice of oak wood in his hands, chipping at it slowly as if to sculpt something. You couldn't tell what he was trying to make.

"Morning." You mumble.

He grunts at you mumbling something unintelligible back as he takes another chip out of his wood block.

You drag your feet over to the chest near the crafting table, digging around in it and pulling out some dried meat.

Instead of starting to eat it, you just hold it in your hand, waddling over to Tommy to stare at him from above.

He... was dressed differently now.

By different, you mean all he did was add a big brown aviator jacket to his borrowed old clothes from Techno.

"New jacket?" You ask, leaning down to pinch the material to see what it felt like.

Rough and tough- with a little bit of cushion underneath. Very durable feeling.

"Meh- not new." Tommy says, still picking at the wood block, "Techno scrounged it up out of his storage... used to be one of Wilburs jackets."

"Oh- He had good taste then."

Tommy hummed, "Yeah- maybe good taste in being a little bitch." Then he cackled a little bit, before evening his facial expression out and focusing back in on the knife and wood.

You pause, glancing from him to the fire before taking a chomp out of your dried meat jerky.

Instead of looming over him, you step over him to take a seat closer to the fireplace, sitting cross legged and staring at the embers.

You side eye him, watching him shift into a more comfortable position as he wiggles at the wood block.

The wince that flashes on his face is telling.

Bruises and scrapes, despite healing, being sensitive.

Your head crawls back to that night in the basement.

The frantic and fear induced panic attack he had.

The implications.

"Your back feeling okay?" You question- gently poking just to try and check in with him. See if there's anything wrong.

You haven't checked in on... that topic... since that time you talked with him in the basement.

He pauses for a moment, then tried his best to give a noncommittal shrug.

"It's so so." He skirts directly around it.

Which means you should decide to leave it alone and not pester him on it.

In fact- you probably don't want to know any details. It'll just make you angrier.

Angrier at how it happened. Angrier at how much it hurt.

Angrier as to what extent Tommy's been damaged.

'Is it alright if i see them...?' You wanted to ask- to question. To stir the fire in your heart even more and make what happened... equal.

A leg for a leg.

An eye for an eye.

But why would you want that.

Gods- why would you wonder that.

You're just gonna be angry, and Tommy is still sensitive about it if that panic attack he had last week was anything to go off of-

You said you wouldn't get.... vengeful anymore.

Ugggh- big dumb- you should just go back to bed and curl up.

Right as you're readying your mind to leave the conversation, Tommy clears his throat from somewhere behind you, shifting around on the floor to sit up, "....Can i- can I get you to look at it...?"

You turn around, wide eyed, and Tommy's bright blue eyes connect with yours before darting away, "I just- I haven't actually been able to see them that well- and.... I want to know if it's as bad.... as I think it is..."

Anger courses in your veins, but your tongue is well tempered in the ways of silence.

You look at Tommy as he awkwardly avoids eyecontact and expresses vulnerability.

"Yeah- I can check for you." You say. No pressure, no intensity.

It's alright to ask for help, and you had to convey that.

He eyeballs you for a second before taking in a breath and setting his oak block down.

He peels off his jacket, before turning his back to you, the action alone giving you all the confirmation you need.

You know what happened. And where it happened.

Even before he shrugged his shirt up enough to show his wings.

You knew.

But when he did pull the baggy white shirt up, and you saw the aftermath of what happened, your rage was all consuming.

Venom wanted to leak off your tongue, wanted to saturate the air with hate, but you bit your lip instead and focused on the mangled tufts of feathers attached to Tommy.

Uneven cuts ran up his wings- feathers snapped, clipped, some look plucked and reveal healing scabs at the base of the feather follicles-

It looked like someone clipped them, and then decided that wasn't enough and randomly grabbed fistfuls of feathers to rip out.

And to top it off, none of it looked like it was cleaned. Stained blood was all up and down what was left of his feathers, so stained and muddled up that it had no liquid form to soak into the shirt Techno lent him.

You cover your mouth with a hand as you have no words.

"Are you in pain right now?" Your hand is shaking- you really, really wouldn't mind caving a head or two in.

"Kinda? It's all been relatively sore.... 's it that bad?" He tilts his head to look at you, and you mold your face back into the most reassuring look you can give.

"Well- It could be worse-" you say and bitterly imagine the wings being completely gone, "....We should definitely clean them though- it is not healthy to have that much gunk sitting on still healing wounds."

Tommy is silent, and doesn't turn to look at you again, just mindlessly humming at you and weakly pulling his wings a bit closer to his back.

"I've been going back in forth in my noggin for a while now on showing you-" he says, "I don't know why I feel like I had to think so hard about it."

Your silent, watching as he continues to not look at you. This is the Tommy your more accustomed to. The one that drops everything he's been feeling into the open because he's sick of dealing with it.

"It really wasn't that bad!" He says loudly, and then sniffles, "You make it feel like it isn't that bad- but for weeks all I've been thinking about is how messed up I am--" He completely presses his wings to his back, wiggling to try and look you in the eye, "I'm just some damaged, good for nothing brat- who people have to put up with- its better off if i just go back to exile-"

"Hey- I do not 'put up' with you." You say, looking directly at him, "I don't care who said what- and what part of your head said someone couldn't care- cause I care dumby- you are family. Alright?" You squint at him, "Your wings being in recovery doesn't make you any less of a person. Your personality doesn't make you any less of a person. You're a person to me."

He rubs harshly at his wet eyes.

"And I don't care if you never believe that, cause I'll always be there for you, alright?" You ease the seriousness you had, looking as softly as you could at him.

"I think you're a dumby for believing that..." Tommy dully says.

"Oh yeah? Am I a dumby for seeing your black eye and hoping it gets better?"

"Yeah."

"Am I a dumby for watching Techno smile at you when you're not looking and feeling content?"

He wasnt making eye contact, but he hesitated with his answer "....Absolutely."

"Am I a dumby for feeling proud of you? My fearless, yet fearful friend who has lived through things that break other people?"

He didn't have a reply that time. Merely avoiding eyecontact and staring at the wall.

You pause, letting the silence sink in before sighing.

His wings needed fixed up. Cleaned, pached, taken care of.

"...come on- let's get you patched up... okay?"

Tommy wordlessly nods- and you eye the back of his shaggy head for just a moment, the little braid you put in his hair still there.

A faint memory passes you, one filled with the feeling of a band between your fingers, sibling fighting over who's hair got braided. You're quick to shake the memory.

Standing, you begin your search of the necessary materials.

Rag, water bucket, soap, gauze. It took a bit of digging, the chest a bit unorganized at the current moment, what with Techno constantly whirlwinding his way through them, but you manage.

The water bucket is the first thing down, dropping the gauze after before sitting crosslegged behind Tommy with a rag and soap.

You're gentle.

So very gentle, taking the first set of feathers and softly sliding the rag down them.

The feathers were quick to soak up the water, crusted blood loosening the more you went over any spot.

You could tell it hurt him, his shoulders kept tensing, but it was necessary pain.

It took awhile to clean one set of partially cut flight feathers- even longer for the base wing. You had to be careful to not tug any scabs off- as to not reopen any wounds, but you also had to make sure it was actually clean. Which took repetitive scrubbing.

By the time you have one wing cleaned and patched, you have a much better assessment of the situation.

The wings are defintly damaged, but the base of his wings aren't too beat up. Unlike Phil's.

There are a few feathers that seem as though they've been cut too close and will have trouble growing back, but... it could be much worse.

"I think your wings will recover." You softly say, running the rag over the remnants of his secondary feathers.

Tattered.

Again, Tommy doesn't say anything, which is so strange for you, cause you're so used to Tommy being a chatterbox about everything and anything.

He's experienced something terrible, so it's expected that he'd have some mental side effects, but it just makes you so angry.

If you weren't unconscious on a bed maybe you could have helped.

Maybe he never would've gotten exiled.

Dunking the rag in the water, you ring it out, water turning a murky brown red color the more you rubbed off.

Your chest feels heavy.

Another fleeting glimpse of memories resurfaces. Of the crying of your siblings, weeping and yelling, pure anguish- thousands of hands outstretched for help to fix what had been done. You were one of them. You've dealt with turmoil of the mind.

You understand how Tommy must be feeling.

You huff.

Squeezing your rag and wishing it was the crack of a fleshy neck.

You force yourself to set the rag down, grabbing an ointment and gently applying it to all the scabs and cuts over his second wing.

He winced when you brushed over a long gash near the bend of his wing, and you apologize under your breath.

Still, Tommy is silent.

You finish by wrapping the guaze on his wounds.

And then you both quietly sit, Tommy in front of you with his head held down, and you, behind him staring at the patched feathers.

The gentle ticking of snow had picked up sometime during the wrapping process, and you hadn't noticed until you just now.

You idly wonder if Techno will make it back without freezing his fingers off. Which, with how hot blooded he is you're sure he'll be fine.

You glance back to Tommy before throwing his shirt at his head, which has him squawking and jumping off the floor, "AAH- Stealth aTtack I've been BETRAYED."

He scurried up off the floor, skittering for a moment before pulling the shirt off his head and looking at it.

"Oh."

You laugh as he huffs and grumpily puts his shirt back on.

"Goofy ass mother fucker." You say, squinting at him.

"A mother fucker? Definitely." He cockily says, picking his jacket off the floor and sliding back into it.

You snort, but don't dignify him a response.

As soon as his arms are through both jacket sleeves you level him a glance.

"I'm serious though Tommy. Your wings, despite being trimmed to all hell, look like they'll heal. There's a few feathers that might not recover, but you'll have enough."

A glimmer of excitement and hope sparks in his eyes, you can see it the moment he glances at you, "...Yeah....?"

"Yeah. Dream gave you a nasty ass feather cut, but he didn't stray too close. Almost intentionally 'just barely close enough.'..... fucking prick..." You scowl.

A little smile is on Tommy's face at that. One that he's trying his best to hide by sucking his lips in, but you see it.

"I'm gonna take you flying one day." Tommy boldly declares.

You snort, "Oh really? You gotta have a lotta muscle to take an extra passenger."

"Bitch, I already have all the muscle I need-" he flexes his non existent muscle at you, "I just have to be let my feathers grow out, you'll see."

"Haha- bet." You smirk, then shuffle around on the floor to pick up all your cleaning and medical supplies, "If you really wanna get some muscle going on those wings of yours, you should ask Phil about some good wing stretches and exercises."

His eyes flicker with another intense bout of excitement, you can all but see him vibrating at his spot..

He doesn't reply though, and just silently giggles to himself, prancing back to his wood block and knife and picking it back up.

You laugh.

Standing and waddling over to him to harshly ruffle his hair-

He complains, shooing you off him, but you see his grin, and you feel the gentleness of the punches he directs at you.

You feel a bit better about the Dream situation.

Just a smidgen.

But even as you pack all the medical supplies back into their rightful chest, a thick and dripping kind of anger is lurking in your chest and head.

White hot burning in your veins as you bite back the aching click of your teeth wanting to tear at something.

Idly, you brush the scales on your hand off. And then the ones on your chin.

You don't like the fact that your at your boiling point so quickly recently.

You don't like not feeling like you're in control of yourself.

..

..

You take a deep breath.

And you turn back to the fireplace to take a seat.

You can hold it together.

You can.

Just think about the warmth of the fire.

And the thought that Tommy is safe beside you, idly hacking at his wood block with his knife.

And that Techno is...

Hm.

Techno is on his way back with a surprise.

Hmmm.

You dig your communicator out of your pocket, checking Techno's chat and biting back a smile when his response to 'I will start a revolution' was:

'Already heard that before, come up with something original.'

You type back a, 'it's overplayed for a reason- just tell me what news you have.' You think for a moment before adding on, 'or at least give me an estimate on when you're gonna be back.'

A minute or two passes of you staring at the chat when Techno's reply pops up, 'In like... 3 hours.'

'Whattt- bro you said 20 minutes last time I checked, how'd your time triple??'

'Because I'm good at collecting time.'

You snerk at that.

And Tommy glances up from his wood block.

"Why you giggling bitch."

Which makes you laugh a bit more.

"Fuck you- I want in on the joke-" Tommy says a bit more disgruntled, fully setting his knife and oak wood down. He crawls over to you, and trys to look at your communicator, to which you snort and roll away, laughing harder.

"Pussy- Coward- show me-"

"Bro- the more you want to know the funnier it gets- its really not that funny-"

Tommy crawls at you a little faster and trys to yank the receiver out of your hand, which makes you roll until you hit a wood chest.

"Come oonnnnn-" Tommy whines and wiggles closer, "Pleassseee-"

You eye him, smiling and holding the communicator at a safe distance from him.

In your moment of contemplation Tommy quickly stretches his arm out and yanks it out of your hands, scrambling to run to the other side of the room and look at what got you smiling.

"TOMMY BAD- NO STEALING-"

"TOMMY SAYS FUCK YOU-"

You let out a loud laugh, clambering around to get up and chase him, "ITS LITERALLY NOT THAT FUNNY."

Just as you reach him Tommy's face drops and he turns to look at you.

You pause, "See? Not that funny."

"Bitch, you got me all curious because your pig boyfriend sent you a text and you had to giggle and kick your feet?"

"NO?" You say, "Give that back you little twerp-"

You stretch for the phone and he dodges you, scrolling farther up in the chat to snort and read aloud, "Oh dearest Techno the blade, do you want me to bring Carl in for tonight, or shall you return to me?" Tommy places a hand to his head and looks in the opposite direction he had been previously facing, "Oh my darling Achilles, fear not, you shan't dirty yourself with labor, I shall return to you this moon."

You grunt, "That is not what was said- I asked if I should bring Carl in, and he said he'd do it when he got back, and then made fun of me for not having Carl's affection."

Tommy grunts, scrolling up farther, "I can't believe you've had all this off camera character development without me."

"Bruh- literally all of it is menial house chore request stuff-"

Tommy keeps scrolling, and you catch him squint at a short message that said, 'We're out of carrots.'

"Not the way I see it." Tommy huffs, "I mean look at this-" He turns back to you and read out word for word what a message you sent said, "'Does Carl know that I give better brushes then you do?'" Tommy spins around and deepens his voice to imitate Techno, "No, this is the classic case of Carl being an intelligent animal, and knowing that only I can give him the brushes he wants."

"What about it??" You huff, snatching your communicator out of Tommy's grubby grabbers and tucking it back into your pocket.

The blonde pouts, harrumping and flicking his head to not look at you.

"Awww- Tommmmyy- don't pout- I didn't forget about my bestest little gremlin buddyyy-" you grin, mischief clear in your tone of voice, "Commme hhereee- get some of this love and affectionnn-" you open your arms wide and waddle at him, to which he yells curses at you and starts skittering away to avoid you.

"FUCK YOU COCKSUCKER I'M A STRONG AND INDEPENDENT MAN-" He runs near the fireplace, pausing to stare at you (who is now picking up speed in approaching him) and then flickering his eyeballs around to look for an escape.

He sets his sights on the door, scrambling past you and swinging it open, running full force into the outside world, and also directly into Techno's chest.

The effect is instantaneous, Tommy falls flat on his ass and Techno stares stock still down at him, the bone mask covers his facial expression but you imagine it's confused.

"Heh?" He grunts before grumbling out the question of, "What the heck is Tommy doin now?"

"More like what the hell is that beast doing-" Tommy jabs a finger at you, before pointing his whiny frown at Techno, "Reel your monster in before I call an authority figure fucker!"

"Bruh- What authority figure you gonna call?" Techno grunts at him.

"I don't know- Philza Minecraft- probably." Tommy spits, tutting his head at Techno like he won an argument.

"This Philza?" Techno says, stepping aside for a familiar blonde haired raven winged figure to pop their head in the door frame.

"Hey mates!" The old man calls, wiggling a hand at you and Tommy.

Previous conversation completely forgotten you state wide eyed at Phil.

"PHHIIILLLLL!!!!!" You yell sprinting to the door way and all but throwing yourself at Phil, "COME HERE YOU OLD MANN-"

Philza cackles wrapping his arms around you to give you a firm hug, patting your back as you wiggle to get a better hug out of him, "Hahahah- careful mate- my wings are super stiff right now- been cooped up for awhile-"

You adjust your arms away from his bad wing, gripping his green cloak and smiling pleasantly with your chin placed on his shoulder.

"Gggggggeeeeeeeee- you criminalll- how'd you break out of jail?? Wait lemme guess-" you pull back and jab a finger at Techno, "This guy's raged in and walked you out of your house.-"

"Haha- yeah something like that-" Phil softly chuckles.

You grin, grabbing Phil's face and twisting his head around, "You don't look beat up- they treat you well?"

Phil rolls his eyes, "They treated me like a life coach."

"So they dumped stuff on you and then left you in your house?"

Phil cackled again, answer enough, and you turn to Techno, grinning at him, vibrating with energy as you took it upon yourself to drag him into a hug as well.

"You cheeky boar- 'gonna take 3 hours' my ass-"

You feel him snort at you, accepting your hug, wrapping his arms around you and using them as a cage to drag you up off the floor and back into the house, before motioning Phil to come in and close the door. Techno deposited you on the floor as soon as the door was shut and was pulling a pelt out of his pouch.

"Pelt." He says, throwing it over your head, and snorting as you let out a sarcastic, 'Thanks.'

Techno lets out an offended grunt when Tommy snatches the pelt off your head tucking it in his jacket pocket and moseying over to Phil, eyeballing him intensly, "There ain't room for both of us-" the young avian says.

"Yeah, you're right. Tommy take a hike, Phil's getting the basement." Techno dryly says in reply, which has Phil cackling and Tommy flicking the middle finger at Techno.

"You guys tired after escaping the government?" You ask, eyeballing Phil and Tech.

"I'm feeling great actually- feeling great, and feeling vengeful." Philza grins, "Fuck the government."

"Yyeahhh- screw the government-" Techno cheers dully, "Philza enters his anarchy arc-"

"Anarchy Philza!" Phil cheers, "I'm gonna break so many laws!"

You laugh at them, mildly concerned, but also amused by Phil being so eager for violence.

Phil's one good wing sweeps out, "I'm so pumped- I'm ready to discuss plans- and house blueprints- I think some extra space around here would be nice-" Phil purses his lips, "And a table. Tommy where's some paper- and a pen-"

"You can't have my paper, its all mine-" Tommy glares at Phil, rushing off to go grab his paper and move it elsewhere, and Phil is hot on his heels talking about infrastructure and aesthetics.

You're about to follow Phil and Tommy, ready to interject and answer Phil's question, but Techno's hand tugs at your sleeve and has you pausing to look at him.

A serious expression is on his face.

Uh oh.

You don't like the looks of that.

"What's up?" You question.

"We need to have a quick chat. Upstairs?" Techno tilts his head to the ladder, and you glance between both eye sockets of his skull mask before nodding.

The two of you slink up the ladder, Techno first, then you. You both enter the attic, and the taller man sheds his skull mask and cape, shaking off some of the lingering snow before turning around to make eye contact.

He looks like he doesn't know how to phrase what he's about to say, so you take it upon yourself to prod an answer out if him.

"What happened? I thought you said there wasn't any bad news?"

He winced.

So there is bad news.

He gruffly cleared his throat, sitting down on the bed and unfastening his boots, "Yeah- I said that before the bad news happened. But then some stuff happened."

You sigh, "Likes to happen like that."

"Yeah." Techno glances out the window for a moment before finishing up getting his boots off.

Looking back at you he continues, "Before I picked up Phil, I had an encounter with Dream."

Your blood boiled at the name.

"Of course he was being all criptic. Said some stuff." Techno awkwardly shuffled, standing off the bed, looking from you, to your hands, then back to you.

For a moment, you can't think straight, watching almost in slow motion as Techno pulls something out of his pouch.

A book.

Cold to the touch, you can tell.

You can tell because you recognize it.

Techno's brows press up in concern, "Dream gave this to me. Said I should have it. Mentioned it involved you..." Techno watches steadily to see if the shock fades off your face, "I haven't read it."

Your skin crawls at what Technos holding.

Like the skittering of bugs under your flesh, you squirm.

You don't want to see that book.

Much less receive it from Techno, cause it looked like he was about to give it to you.

"I- don't want to take it." You're quick to say, holding out your hands as if to push it farther towards him, but you remain a safe distance from actually touching the book, "Can you... can you hold onto it.... for safe keeping?"

Techno watches you squirm for a second more before dropping it back into his pouch.

The relief in you is immediate, despite the thing that gave you the intense squirming feeling still being in the room with you.

"Thank you. Techno." You stare at his neck, eye contact a bit too much, "I appreciate it."

A soft exhale.

A soft inhale.

You're still not making eyecontact.

You hear Techno scratch at his neck, before stepping closer to you, legs almost touching in proximity.

His arms swooping out. And pause just before reaching you.

He huffs again, then fully steps to you and wraps his big arms around you.

You instinctively bury your head in his chest- soaking in the warmth and feeling content.

You feel his chin nuzzle onto the top of your head, and a warm feeling flutters in you. A soft puttering starts in his chest, more subdued then usual, yet still the noise is loud in your ear. You don't care, too busy sinking into the comfort offered to you.

What would you do without your reliable and trusted friend.

Human.

Piglin.

Companion...

Who else would hold something directly linked to you and respect you enough to not read its contents.

Who else would then tell you about it, openly, and wonder what you wanted done with it.

Who else would then calm you down with a simple embrace.

Another fluttering feeling is quick to buzz in your head and gut, and with a wandering glance at the muscle bound arms encircling your body, you try to imagine if Techno gets those weird jittery and mind twisting feelings too.