Tommy giggles as Wilbur fusses over his clothes. Techno finishes packing a small bag for his trip to the mountains past town. Tommy didn't like him leaving so much, but he knew it was what Techno wanted to do. He knew Techno left the orphanage to be free to go wherever in life.

He also knew neither of them planned to live in a questionably stable shed with a 10 year old boy to look after but here he was. He always tried to stay positive, but he wasn't oblivious to how his brothers feel.

Wilbur puts a cap over his messy blonde hair and Tommy smiles at how happy Wilbur looks.

"Remember what I said, Techno." Wilbur warns.

Techno pretends to be nonchalant and fake yawns. "Yeah, yeah, Toms passes out. I bring him back. If he seems fine, I let him run around town so you get a break" He teases the younger boy.

Wilbur sighs, and steps back from straightening Tommy's suspenders. "Alright, I'll see you both soon."

Tommy grabs a basket and waits for Techno by the path while the older two talk.

Techno readjusts his travel bag and they start walking towards town. Tommy walks ahead of him slightly, excited to finally be out of the woods.

"Slow down Toms c'mon. I know you miss town but it's not going anywhere."

Tommy slows down. "What? I thought you were excited to leave that forest too?"

"You know I am, and I know you are, but I'm leaving for a few days so we should talk." He swings his arm around Tommy's shoulder, having to lean down very far to reach the ten year old's shoulders. "I always miss you, you know."

"If you miss me so much, why don't you stay intown? I'm sure someone would hire you."

Tommy watches his brother look straight ahead. "Well, you know how Wil likes staying in the forest?"

"Yeah..."

"And you know how you like to be in town?"

Tommy nods, unsure where his brother was going with this. "Yeah?"

"Well I don't like the forest or the town. I'm not happy with anything unless I'm free." He smiles at Tommy. "I like knowing that no matter how far I go, you two will always be there when I'm back."

Tommy scrunchies his nose in distaste. "I wouldn't want to leave either of you ever!"

Techno laughs softly. "Wilbur would love to hear that he won't have you disappearing like me when you're older."

They reach the town and Tommy takes a deep breath at the sight of people other than his brothers. He missed the crowded buildings and stone streets. Before he can go and find the man who will let him sell newspapers, he has to get Technos seal of 'I'm not gonna pass out' approval.

"Well...?" The blonde questions.

"Well... I think you're going to be fine today, just take it easy for Wil's sake. And go tell Phil thanks for saving you." He laughs and starts walking away.

Tommy always wondered how Techno was so sure on where he was headed. He didn't have any kind of map that the boy could see, he just seemed to know.

He hopes one day he could walk into uncertainty with the confidence of his brother. He knows they aren't really related, but he can't help but realize he's adopted traits from both of them over time.

Wilbur taught him about being grateful for all the little things in life, to be happy with who he was becoming and keep pushing to be better. Techno helped him understand that the world was big, bigger than any problem, bigger than him and his brothers. That you'll never be able to face the world till you start within yourself.

One thing he hadn't picked up from them is their general distaste for talking to people outside of their family. Though his older brothers were both very interesting people, Tommy always hoped he'd never get their attitude towards others. He'd find it very boring if he didn't interact with new people everyday.

He turns another corner and shakes hands with the man who owns the newspaper printer. He tries to suppress a sigh when he sees some of the ink from the man's stained hands was now on his.

"Jim, Guess who's back?"

"Your brother finally let you out of home-jail huh? Took ya almost the full week he told me you'd be out for you to convince him." The man teases.

"He was really worried, okay? I didn't want to be home that long either!" He huffs and holds his arms out for Jim to put a stack of newspapers into.

"You know the routine, but in case you forgot; money by tomorrow." He ruffles Tommy's blonde hair until it's a mess.

He cringes thinking about what Wilbur would say if he saw someone mess up his hair. "I know, it's been a week not a year. I'm almost 11 and I can remember everything now." He puts the newspapers in his basket and walks to the door, opening it with his unoccupied hand. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Tommy notices the sky has been slowly getting cloudier as he continues to sell newspapers down each street. Stopping to talk with many familiar faces and answering questions about where he's been.

He's tapped on the shoulder and turns around while taking a deep breath, prepared to talk about the news yet another time this morning.

He's greeted with one of Tubbo's older brothers, Sapnap. With his familiar headband holding back his dark hair like usual. "Sapnap! How are you?"

"I'm better now that I know you're still kicking. Dude, you scared us! Maybe give us a ring next time you get grounded or whatever."

Tommy wasn't sure he was allowed to tell people he didn't have a house phone... or a house. So he just laughed it off. "Yeah, sorry. I fell and hurt my head pretty badly, Wilbur didn't want me to pass out so I stayed home for a bit."

"Never heard of someone's brother grounding them but hey, first time for everything right?" Sapnap laughs and hands him a dime. "For the paper. I'm glad you're better, come visit soon yeah? Eret and Tubbo have been busy with some kind of castle in the backyard. I'm sure they'd like your opinions."

"Tell them soon, I've got something to do this afternoon." Tommy was going to go thank Phil like Techno recommended. He owes the bookstore owner that at least.

"Alright, I'll go tell them you're alive and you know where we'll be. Just make sure to come after school. Or you'll be stuck talking with my mom again."

"I like talking with May, but noted." Sapnap waves and starts to walk away, flipping through the newspaper as he walks.

Tommy starts heading to the other side of town where (hopefully) Phil would be working in the store and not closed for the day. He sells the rest of his newspapers on the way, which wasn't surprising since he was handed so few.

The clouds were growing closer together, Tommy walked a little faster to try and beat the oncoming shower. He hoped it would just be a quick afternoon rain.

"Mr. Phil?" Tommy pokes his head into the book store and calls.

"Tommy? How are you doing? Come in before the rain." He sets down the box of books and sits in a chair behind the desk. Tommy sets his basket on the counter before resting his chin on top of his folded arms.

"I feel better now, I came to say thank you for saving me. Techno wanted me to say thank you for him too!"

They both turn to smile at the new customer when they hear the jingle of the door opening before Phil continues the conversation. "What about Wilbur? How's he?"

"Well I'm sure Wil's thankful too, he's probably just um- embarrassed? I think he's too busy being upset that he wasn't there for me..." Tommy lulls his head to one side and starts fiddling with his sleeve.

"He'll come around I'm sure. He's just worried about you like a brother should. I hope you told him thank you too." Phil tries to cheer him up a bit by being the second person today to mess up his hair.

"I did! Well, sort of." He looks at the box of unsorted books and quickly changes topics. "Can I help you sort those? Please?"

"Well I'm not going to pass up free help. Come over here and I'll teach you how."

The pair walk over to the shelf in the back corner and Tommy picks up a soft paper book. Then looking up at Phil for an explanation.

"They're sorted by title in this section. What's the book name?"

Tommy freezes, he almost regrets being such a devil about school that they stopped making him try. Because right now it'd be really helpful if he could read.

"I- uh- cah? Cah-la?"

Phil steps beside him and takes the book from him gently. "Call is that first word. Do you know the next one?"

It's two letters long and Tommy still doesn't know. "I-I don't know how to."

Phil pauses for a moment, Tommy wonders if he is realizing that maybe a kid who lives in the woods doesn't go to school, and therefore does not thrive well in a bookstore.

"Th-that's okay Toms, it's okay. This book is titled 'Call it Courage'" He reads it slowly, pointing to each word.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry, we can turn this into a teaching experience. We'll read the titles together and then you can sort them." He hands the book back to the boy and they walk over to a shelf labeled 'Kids non-fiction A-E'

Phil makes a space and Tommy reaches up to put it on the shelf.

They continue like that for a while, Phil occasionally going to ring up someone's books or when they both stopped to have lunch.

Tommy is about to pick up another book, when someone with a large dog walks in. He wasn't a big fan of dogs, and has had too many encounters with mean ones on the street to be comfortable with this situation. He hides behind Phil and grabs his arm.

"The dog is on a leash Tommy, it can't get you." Phil tries to step away from his grip so they can put away the final few books.

Tommy looks up ready to try and ignore the dog but he immediately makes eye contact with the animal and buries his face in the adult's arm. He really wishes bookstores had a no pets policy.

Phil detaches himself from Tommy, much to his dismay. "I'll finish up here, do you want to start heading home before the rain?"

It was only 3pm, he didn't want to be back in the woods so soon. "Can I go to your apartment and leave after the rain?"

"Sure, but leave the door open so we can listen for customers. I'll come up there when the store is empty."

Tommy nods, waits for the dog to be in the opposite corner of the stairs and books it to the red apartment door. Leaving the door open behind him felt strange, Wilbur would scold him when he left their door open at the orphanage.

He's not a big fan of Phil's interior design choices, but their house didn't even have furniture. So really who was he to judge?

He sits on the plaid carpet and opens one of the coffee table drawers. Looking for a game. He pushes a pack of cigarettes aside and pulls out a checkerboard and a small bag of pieces.

After he figures out how to turn on the radio, he sets the boardgame up. Checkers was the only one he really knew how to play. Techno would try to teach him chess but he never could get all the rules right.

So they stuck to checkers. Before they left, whenever one of them was hesitant to talk about what was bothering them, they'd go downstairs and pull out an old checker board and talk while they played.

It always helped Tommy figure out what he needed to say if his hands were busy. When Techno started getting upset over school he'd watch Wilbur smuggle a card game up to the older kid's rooms.

So he uses it now, he plays a few games of checkers to distract himself from the dog downstairs. He lays on his side and moves the black and red pieces around, flipping them when they reach the end.

The rain starts to pour in sheets. Tommy gets up off the rug to go look out the window. The bookstore overlooks the street where he can see the roads begin to flood with the heavy rain. He leans on the windowsill and watches it for a while, his nose fogging the window from where he has it boredly pressed against the glass.

He gets really worried when he starts to hear thunder. It was already 5pm. Phil would be closing the store in an hour. He really didn't want to walk home in a thunderstorm.

He especially didn't want to sleep in the woods in a thunderstorm. The roof always leaked, and it's already so cold that he knows all that water would turn to ice very quickly.

Deciding that walking back in this was something he had to do, he thought it was better to go through a storm than have Wilbur assume the worst and never let him in town alone again.

He drags his feet over to the board game left on the floor, and starts to put each of the pieces back in the bag. He pauses when he hears the stairs creak, turning around to greet Phil once again.

"The rain's bad Toms, I don't think you'll be able to get back home yet."

"I have to or Wilbur's gonna be worried about me. I'd rather walk home in the rain than have him out in this looking for me." He continues to put away the pieces and folds the board.

"I can't let you out in this, you're a kid, it's dangerous. If it let's up later we'll walk back together again." HeHe can tell by the tone Phil actually feels bad for not letting him leave. So Tommy pushes the table drawer closed and doesn't argue.

Besides, sleeping in an actual house during a heavy storm sounded very nice. It might be worth the lecture he'd get from Wilbur when he returned in the morning.

Both of them were sitting on the couch, with the first book Tommy had picked up earlier, 'Call it Courage' and they are switching off who reads each paragraph.

At first it was difficult stumbling over almost every word, but when he got to sit back and listen to Phil read his paragraph, he knew that being able to read on his own would be worth it.

The boy in the story was afraid of the sea because he saw his mom fall victim to it. Tommy thinks he'd be scared of the sea too if he saw it, especially since he knows it could swallow him whole. He thinks he'll stick to the river.

They hear more thunder roll by and Phil closes the book as Tommy watches the lightning flash through the curtains. Tommy was nervous about how loud the wind sounded.

"Are you sure you don't want me to light a candle while you cook? What if the power goes out- and you're trying to see the pan in the dark? What then Phil?" He's sitting at the kitchen table now, up on his knees with both hands lifting him up so he was leaning over it precariously.

"There's a candle in that cabinet," Phil stops what he's cooking to point to the drawer closest to Tommy. "If you get me one i'll light it and well keep it in the middle of the table yeah?"

He picks out one after smelling all of them twice, and by that time Phil is already done with the food. Tommy walks it over to the stove carefully since it's glass and the bookstore owner trades him the candle for a bowl of soup.

They eat and talk about the story they were reading and the whole time the rain doesn't let up once. The wind is so aggressive Tommy stops mid rant to worry about Wilbur alone out there.

Phil notices and carries both their bowls to the sink. Leaving them for morning before grabbing the candle and turning to Tommy. "I have a guest room, you can sleep there and leave first thing okay? I can't let you have a candle because that'd be a fire hazard." He pauses to laugh at his own joke. "I'll open the curtains so you won't need a candle. Streetlights are enough."

Tommy nods, the storm really wasn't letting up and it was getting late. Maybe Wilbur will assume he went to Tubbo's house. He pours a glass of water and follows Phil through a door in the living room.

The room is small, much like the rest of the apartment and has a double bed in between two bedside tables. The wood floor is cold beneath him so while Phil fixes the curtains and sets down his water and climbs under the covers.

"See the door to your left? That's the bathroom and through there is my room. The storm should be over soon but if you need me that's where I am."

"Goodnight." He's sitting up in the bed, holding the blanket close to him while he watches Phil turn out the lights.

"Goodnight Toms, I hope Wil's okay out there."

While Tommy sleeps, Wilbur doesn't.