Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He was right. He didn’t sleep a wink between then and when a few days later Tubbo brought him enough myrrh for a handful of spells, exchanging it for a few silver coins as promised. Phil invited Tubbo in, and they hung out for a while, talking and scheming.

Technoblade, Phil, and Wilbur decided to go to the pub at some point, Tubbo and Tommy barely even noticing past their conversation.

“Say big T, I understand the bumblebee part of your store name but what about the buttercups?” He asked. He’d been wondering, since the bumblebee part clearly represented Tubbo, was there a second person or was it just because he sold flowers?

“Oh, I’m just an employee. There's also Hannah and Eret, the buttercup part comes from the manager, Niki, but she’s away right now. They’re all witches too.”

“That makes sense. So are you the second in command or something?” Tommy was pretty sure Tubbo answered, but suddenly he couldn’t hear. His ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton, and an electric beat thrummed through his body. After a few seconds his hearing cleared up, but the rhythm remained, the steady melody of his blood and the pull of the outside stealing all of his focus.

“Tommy? Are you alright?” He tuned back into reality to Tubbo staring at him with a worried expression.

“Hey Tubs?” He felt his vocal cords shudder, aching to shed the human words.

“Yeah bossman?” Tubbo asked.

“You wanted to see what I was right? Come outside. I’m big as fuck and I don't think Phil will be too happy with us if he comes home to his house in bits.” The other boy’s face immediately brightened, still looking mildly concerned as he followed a glassy-eyed Tommy outside into the back field. His speech was fucked at this point, answering in churrs and rolling chirps whenever Tubbo tried to talk to him. 

The dark clouds above thickened, the light rain he was expecting becoming the start of a steady fall. Tommy ran then, everything but the hum in his ears forgotten, and when the raindrops started to pour, there wasn’t any more stopping him. Tubbo called out behind him but he didn’t hear. Who was Tubbo anyway? There was nobody but Tommy and the clouds, Tommy and the wind, Tommy and the rain. 

Pale gray-blue feathers sprouted from his skin as he grew taller, wings growing from his back as his body shifted and the feathers engulfed him to form something new. Tommy was no longer human, his body was three times the size of the house, human hair faded into shocks of golden feathers that rippled across his cheeks, flanking the sharp beak that now replaced his mouth. His feathers fluffed up in spiny ridges down his back and on the top of his head, a long ribbon-y tail fluttering behind him while he spread his massive wings that could blot out the sun and took off with a thunderous beat of his wings. Higher he climbed, all four of the feathery appendages working in tandem to bring Tommy closer to the sun. 

When he broke into the clouds it was all electric excitement, he felt like the sky would part for him if he asked, that the clouds would dance for him and the rain would fall for him. He wasn’t Tommy up here, he was ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᓵ⍑╎ꖎ↸ 𝙹⎓ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᓭ⚍リᓭ⍑𝙹∴ᒷ∷ᓭ.

He was the Thunderbird. 

Tommy twirled and spun, muscles sore from underuse stretching therapeutically as he flew over all of L’manburg. Diving over the lake, skimming the water with the edges of his wings and performing above the village for anyone who saw. He didn't know how long it had been before he caught sight of a brown haired man and an older blonde through the window of a pub below, another pink haired man he hadn’t noticed before meeting his eyes and staring. He focused his vision on it, swooping out of the clouds and as low as he dared, meeting the astonished eyes of the puny hybrid thing with boar tusks and gold crusted ears. It looked wary, like it was admiring him and planning how to kill him at the same time. So he did what he did to potential threats, he gathered his voice and screamed, thunderclap layers of explosive sound rolling over the city in a near tangible wave. The puny pink thing looked properly cowed now, right prick it was. To anyone not listening for it you could mistake it for thunder, but the pink thing knew, it knew and was afraid that it was not. As it should be.

The rain would let up in a few minutes, he could tell, and his little display had caught the eye of the blonde and the brown haired man as well. They stared at him, flapping his wings and hovering in the same place to look right back, golden yellow eyes glinting in the sunbeams that broke through the now retreating clouds. However, unlike the pink haired man, they looked shocked, the brown haired one staring in terrified awe and the blonde wearing a small smile on his lips. He felt a question coming from that one, gently prodding at his mind’s defenses. He let it through. 

“Are you passing through or am I gonna have to fight you?” A British accent spoke in his head. He recognized that voice, why?

“At peace godling. I think I’m going to be here for a while, but you need not worry.” His voice sounded like rolling thunder. He knew the Imperial would be translated over mind-link, but still it felt good to speak it. 

The blond godling nodded below, and returned to his meal. Fuck, he was exhausted , so he flew back towards his flock, towards Tubbo. 

He returned to find the brown haired boy had an umbrella now. It was blown away when Tommy landed, but he didn’t seem to care, as the second Tommy shrank back into his human form he was running towards him, hugging him tightly.

“Fuckin’ hell bossman that was so awesome!” Tubbo yelled when he pulled away. Tommy was too weak to do much more than grin dumbly, almost a week of no sleep on top of magic, that static-y thing he’d been doing, and a long flight would do that to you. On their own none of that would have been a problem, but together? Tommy was ready to drop like a sack of bricks chucked off a cliff. 

“Thanks bigman now imma go’da sleep cuz i’s bin at least a month since I’ve done that and I haven’t slept in like, a week.” He slurred, promptly collapsing into Tubbo’s arms. The bee boy was surprised for a moment, but if Tommy really hadn’t slept in a week (which honestly wouldn’t surprise him) then Tubbo wasn’t about to wake him up, or let anyone else for that matter. He had trusted Tubbo enough to show him what he was, he wasn’t about to ruin it by having to explain to Phil why exactly he was standing with an unconscious Tommy in the middle of his field. Tubbo wasn’t stupid, he had heard legends from the Antarctic Empire, he knew about the Thunderbird. 

It was powerful and it was rare, only one in every couple million phoenixes born as one, and phoenixes rarely had children as it was. He shuddered thinking about how often Tommy must have been hunted, no wonder he could mask his power so well. Just one slip like he made with the static in his shop or Phil’s living room around the wrong person would be catastrophic. On the other hand it made him happy to know that Tommy trusted him enough to tell him something like that. Maybe he had felt that click too when they first met, Tubbo would never know.

In a few minutes they were back at the house, Tommy now fully asleep and forcing Tubbo to cart him inside in bridal style. He kicked open the unlocked door as quietly as he could and sat down on the chaise, laying the blond boy on the couch beside him with his head on his lap. They just sat there, Tubbo gently carding a hand through Tommy’s soft golden curls and thinking about how much it reminded him of sunflowers until a half hour later the door opened and the others came in to find the boys hadn’t moved.

“Is he asleep? ” Wilbur asked when they walked into the living room. If a flash of realization flickered through Technoblades eyes when he saw Tommy's hair was just a bit damp, nobody saw.

“Yeah, I don't think he’s gotten much rest lately.” Tubbo replied and smiled fondly at the peaceful blond.