Chapter Text
“Are we done walking yet?” Tommy groans, barely pulling himself through the streets.
Technoblade snorts. “It’s only been an hour.”
“An hour of pure misery and agony.”
He furrows his brow. “I thought you were tougher than that.”
“I am tough!” He scoffs. “It’s just, y’know, this is boring.”
“I did warn you that we were going to be doing work.”
He rolls his eyes. “But why can’t we just like not?”
“Because my father wants me to do things.”
“Fuck your fath—“ he coughs dramatically to stop himself. “I, uh, mean, okay.”
Technoblade chuckles before making a left turn. Tommy follows closely behind, scanning for any familiar tents.
He’s still kind of hung up on the fact that it happened, and he desperately wants to know why.
Luck isn’t on his side however, because he sees nothing even remotely close to the tent he was in.
He turns back to complain to Technoblade again, but he doesn’t see his familiar back of the coat.
“Oh come on!” He drags his hands down his face, rapidly turning for any sign of the prince. He finds none.
What he does find is a particularly interesting stand.
Tommy walks over to it, eyes tracing over the crossbows
“You looking for anything specific?” Someone asks, and he looks up to see a man standing in front of him.
“Oh—uh, no, I’m just looking.”
He tilts his head towards a building. “Wanna test one out?”
“No, it’s okay, I’m good—“
The next thing he knows, he’s being pushed into a room filled with multiple men with crossbows.
“Uh…”
“Try to hit one.” He says, grinning smugly.
Tommy raises his eyebrows. “Those are people.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, and?”
“I’m not killing someone.”
“Well,” his expression darkens. “It’s them, or it’s you.”
In an instant, the men all load their crossbows, shouting various threats. Tommy flinches back, eyes widening.
“The fuck—“
“So, kid, what’s it gonna be?” He interrupts, leaning on the wall.
“You’re a fucking psychopath, why would I—“
An arrow lands an inch away from his head.
He freezes, not daring to move again. Then when the man yawns, he turns around, aiming the bow.
He loads the crossbow.
It’s me or them.
He pulls it back.
It’s me or them.
He lets it fly.
It’s me or—
The arrow is collided with a familiar axe, and Technoblade steps into view. Many of the men gasp, stepping away from him.
He looks furious, and Tommy can’t help but grimace back.
“Prince Technoblade!” The man yells from behind him. “Always a pleasure to—“
His axe is picked up and thrown at the man, and it lands with a defending thud next to his neck.
“Shut it down.” He orders, and Tommy sees his fist twitch.
“I don’t think that’s nessecary—“
“Shut it down,” he repeats. “Or would you rather the guards deal with this?”
The man sighs, doing a hand symbol Tommy doesn’t recognize. All of the men scatter out, and the man gives Tommy one last look.
“See you soon.” He smiles, walking past Technoblade.
The prince shoves him slightly. “No you won’t.”
Then Technoblade turns to him, and his expression softens just a little.
“Let’s go.” He orders, pushing Tommy gently out of the building.
Tommy resists. “Wait—what was that? Who are those guys?”
“You don’t want to know.” Technoblade stiffens, and Tommy pushes his arm off.
“Uh, yeah I do. That’s why I asked.”
“You don’t need to know,” he argued. “What you need to do is stay right next to me from now on.”
“But—“
“No. You could’ve gotten hurt or—“ he cuts himself off, sighing.
“Listen, those men you saw? They’re trying to recruit people.”
Tommy raises his eyebrow. “For?”
Technoblade doesn’t answer, and instead turns away.
“Technoblade—?” He exclaims, turning back to the building.
“It doesn’t matter.” Technoblade interjects, turning his head back to the boy.
“Yes it does! What—“
He nudges Tommy forward. “We have things to do, come on.”
He groans, knowing he’s not going to win this battle.
“Are we getting food now?”
Technoblade nods his head, fiddling with his fingers. If Tommy saw him doing that for the last hour, he didn’t comment on it.
He makes a turn into a building, looking back to make sure Tommy’s still following.
He is, so he walks into the restaurant. Smells of food flood his nostrils, and he scrunches up his face.
“Prince Technoblade,” a woman exclaims. “So nice to see you again, shall I show you to Prince Wilbur?”
“That would be nice.” He replies in his usual monotone voice.
She smiles, and gestures for them to follow. Technoblade looks back at Tommy, and tilts his head. The boy sighs, following the woman to a table in the back.
Technoblade follows them after a second, sitting down on the bench next to Tommy.
“Oh—hey, guys, what’s up?” Wilbur asks, grinning largely.
“What’s up, is that Dream’s goons are here recruiting again.”
“So it’s Dream then?” Tommy asks, staring coldly at the prince.
“Wait, what— you saw them, and called the guards?” Quackity pipes up, sitting up fully now.
“No. I was more worried about Tommy.”
“I can take care of myself!”
“Really? What about that morning we spared?” He comments. “I beat you about twelve times.”
Tommy’s about to argue back, before Wilbur speaks up.
“When was this?” He asks, tilting his head in curiosity.
“When you were drunk off your ass.” Technoblade replies, flicking his head back.
“Which is everyday.” Quackity adds, earning a snicker from Tommy.
“Shut your mouth, Quackity,” Wilbur scowls. “But are you okay, Tommy?”
“I’m fine, man, I would’ve totally beat the shit outta them anyways.”
“That’s the point,” Technoblade responds. “They want to recruit you if you’re good with a bow.”
“They need more archers or whatever the fuck they’re called?” Technoblade nods, making the boy frown. “Then why don’t you just declare war on them while they’re low on soldiers?”
“Because,” Technoblade starts, leaning onto the table. “We’re low on soldiers too.”
Tommy frowns even harder, looking away from the prince. Technoblade can tell he’s worried.
“We’ll be fine.” Wilbur quickly adds, as if he could see the concern etched onto the teens face as well.
“Yeah, cause I’m here.” Quackity smirks, making Tommy laugh.
The voices don’t seem to like happiness that much, because they start yelling in his head about death.
He pushes those thoughts away best he can.
Technoblade opens the door for Tommy and Wilbur, and the boy rushes into the house.
He’s still shivering from the cold, and the chattering of his teeth fill the room.
Technoblade chuckles. “Cold?”
“Dude, it’s fuckin’ freezing!” He shudders violently. “I’m gonna—can I change before we go?”
“You don’t need to ask.” Technoblade replies, tugging his gloves off and putting them onto the table.
Tommy nods, walking into the room and shutting the door. Wilbur sighs, facing his brother now.
“Whatever you’re about to say, I know.”
“That was dangerous, Techno.”
He shuts his eyes. “I know.”
“I can’t—I can’t lose someone else.” He whispers, putting his head in his hands.
“I know.” Technoblade repeats, leaning on the counter.
“I’m going to—I’m going to sleep, we can uh,” he pauses. “Talk about this later.”
Technoblade doesn’t reply, and the door shuts with a soft thud. He sighs, looking over at Tommy’s room.
He still hasn’t come out, so the prince moves to the door and knocks.
“Tommy?”
No reply.
He creaks open the door, eyes landing on Tommy bandaging up his arms.
There’s golden scars on his arms, making Technoblade retract from his place at the door.
His breath hitches as he skims over the scars, looking back to his own arm.
Technoblade freezes, unsure of what he’s supposed to do.
He shuts the door as softly as he can, tugging up his sleeve as he sits down at the table.
The golden scars on his arm shimmer in the sun, and the prince traces his finger over them.
If Tommy has it—
“Technoblade? I’m ready to go now.” Tommy exclaims, making him pull his sleeve down immediately.
He doesn’t reply, but instead gets up and nods. Tommy doesn’t seem to notice his change of behavior, and he continues to the door.
Tommy skips down the street, the cold air barely bothering him anymore due to the layers of coats he’s got on.
Technoblade is not that far behind, but he looks kind of distracted. The boy just brushes it off as tiredness, and continues to walk down the path.
He stops when he hears his name called, and he turns around to see Technoblade at a building. He furrows his brow, because the prince said that he would be going far into town.
Nonetheless, he runs over to him, tilting his head.
“I thought we were going farther into town?”
“I am. You’re staying here.”
“What? That’s not fair,” he groans. “Why didn’t you just leave me at the house?”
The prince chuckles. “Because I don’t trust you to stay by yourself, and Wilbur went to bed.”
“But I’m literally by myself right now.”
“No you aren’t, now go inside.”
Tommy sticks out his tongue, walking inside the building. Technoblade follows him inside, and they see a man sitting on a chair with his legs on the table. He’s reading a magazine.
“Foolish.” Technoblade says, and Tommy furrows his brow. Is he calling the man foolish or—
“Oh, hey Technoblade,” he puts his magazine down. “Who’s this?”
“This is Tommy,” He looks at him. “Tommy, this is foolish.”
He gives an awkward wave. Foolish smiles.
He yawns. “So, you need something?”
“Can you watch him for a few hours?” Technoblade asks, gesturing to him.
Foolish chuckles. “He looks a little old to have a babysitter.”
“See? Even he gets it!”
“I’m sorry, are you disobeying direct orders from the prince?”
“Well, technically, this isn’t your kingdom—”
Tommy sees Technoblade’s gaze harden, and Foolish puts his hands up in surrender.
“Alright, alright, I’ll do it.”
Technoblade nods, giving one last look to Tommy.
“Don’t cause trouble.”
Tommy scoffs. “What? When have I ever caused trouble?”
The prince raises his eyebrows, then chuckles before giving him a gentle pat on the shoulder. He opens the door, letting out all the cold air onto his face, then lets it close shut.
Tommy looks over to Foolish, who goes back to reading his magazine.
“So,” he starts walking around. “Got anything fun to do around here?”
“None that your brother would agree to.” He replies, licking his finger and turning the page.
Tommy furrows his brow. “He’s not my brother!”
“Sure seems like it, the way you two argue,” Foolish shrugs. “Wilbur and him argue the same way.”
“Okay well,” he pauses. “We’re not.”
The man shrugs again.“Since he’s not my brother, what kinda things you’ve got to do?”
“I don’t think—”
Tommy sits on the table. “Forget about him, he’s a fuckin’ dick who doesn’t know how to have fun,” Foolish raises a brow. “I, on the other hand, am loads of fun.”
The man laughs, finally setting down his paper.
“Alright, fine,” he grins. “Can you play poker?”
Tommy grins back. “Hell yeah I can.”
Technoblade ducks into an alley, walking past multiple people sitting on the ground. They give him terrified stares, but he ignores them, as usual.
He looks for a familiar blue coat, until he spots it tucked in a corner. The prince walks over to him.
There’s two men by his side, whom he waves off as soon as he sees Technoblade.
“Prince Technoblade!” Connor exclaims. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
Technoblade skips the greeting, immediately pulling down his sleeve to reveal the scars. Connor’s eyebrows twitch, and he leans over to look at them.
“This again? I told you—”
“I saw someone else with it.” Technoblade interjects abruptly.
Connor pauses. “Who?”
“A boy.”
“Hmm…”
“What does that mean?” He asks, twitching his fingers.
“Well,” he sighs. “It could mean numerous things.”
“Is he related to me?”
“He could be, could not be.”
Technoblade laughs dryly. “Don’t beat around the bush, Connor—what do you think?”
“Magic has been around before you even existed, Technoblade,” Connor says. “It’s not uncommon for someone to have scars like that.”
“They appeared at the same time as me.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” he shrugs. “Believe what you want.”
Technoblade sighs, pinching his nose. “Alright then.”
He turns around, beginning to walk away.
“Technoblade?”
The prince turns back to Connor.
Connor smiles. “I would keep that boy of yours secret.”
Technoblade nods slightly, continuing down the alleyway.
“Bad!” Skeppy exclaims upon seeing the man sharpening blades in the courtyard.
“Hi, Skeppy.” The man looks up.
He sits down next to him. “Whatcha doing?”
“Sharpening blades for the trainees.”
“That’s boring as fuck.” He replies, flicking a piece of grass off the bench.
“Language.” Bad hisses, glaring at Skeppy.
He sighs. “Oh, right, I forgot you’re boring.”
“I’m not boring,” Bad responds. “I’m polite.”
“Same thing.” Skeppy yawns, throwing his head back.
“It’s really not.”
“I don’t care.”
They’re both silent for a while, until another voice gets their attention.
“Bad—Oh, hello Skeppy.” Niki smiles, walking over to the two.
Bad puts down the blade. “What’s up, Niki?”
“Sup’, dude.”
“Just wanted to tell you I’m directing training today, since Technoblade is away.”
“Oh, right—when does training start?” Bad asks, getting up from the bench.
She laughs. “Right now.”
On cue, a dozen people walk into the courtyard, getting into lines.
“Oh, shit!” Skeppy yells, jaw dropping.
“Langauge!”
“Sorry—sorry!” He instantly gets up, running to take his position in line.
He sees Niki and Bad talk for another minute, before she walks over.
“Alright guys, are we ready for today?”
“Yes Ma’am!” They all reply simultaneously.
“Uh—Yes Ma’am!” Skeppy responds after the bunch, making Niki laugh.
She unsheaths her sword. “Who’s first?”
A confident guy steps forward, being patted on the back by multiple of his friends.
Niki grins, pointing her blade at him. The guy does the same, and they circle each other before he pounces first.
She easily dodges, kicking his legs. He goes down with a grunt, trying to scramble away. She puts her sword next to him, stopping him from moving.
A barrel of ‘ooo’s’ is heard from the crowd, and then they start cheering. Skeppy sees Bad smile from the bench, as he seems to go back to sharpening swords.
Niki swipes her hair to her ear, looking back at the crowd.
“Who’s next?”
Tubbo sits down at the table that the waiter showed them to, and Ranboo takes a seat across from him.
Ranboo picks up the menu, squinting at all the words.
Tubbo laughs, making Ranboo put down the menu and glare at him.
“What? It’s not my fault I can’t read.”
Tubbo’s laugh dies down to a giggle. “I said I’ll teach you!”
“When? We have, like, no free time.”
“Uh—right now!” He picks up his own menu, pointing at the words.
“This says,” he pauses, looking at it. “Egg sandwich.”
“Wow, I can totally read everything now,” he exclaims sarcastically. “Thanks a lot, Tubbo.”
He closes his eyes proudly. “You are very welcome.”
Ranboo snorts, putting his head back.
“So what are you feeling? Sweet or Savory?”
“They have pancakes?” Ranboo asks, yawning.
Tubbo grins. “Hell yeah.”
He smiles back, and the waiter comes up to them.
“Hello, I’m Sally, and I’ll be with you today.” She exclaims, smiling greatly.
“Hi, Sally.” Tubbo greets, smiling back.
Sally nods. “Would you guys like any drinks?”
“I’ll take a water, please.” He asks, gathering up his and Ranboo’s menus.
“Just milk for me.” Ranboo replies, twitching his eyebrows a little. Tubbo frowns internally, but he doesn’t comment on it.
“And you guys are ready to order?” She asks, putting her pen to the paper.
Tubbo nods. “Yes, just two chocolate chip pancakes please.”
“Alright, it’ll be out soon.” She stops writing in her notebook, and picks up the menu’s Tubbo hands to her.
Sally walks away, leaving the two alone.
Ranboo looks a little nervous, as he keeps glancing out the window.
“You good, bitch boy?”
He smiles. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”
“You’ve been acting weird lately,” he frowns. “You’re always tired and have a headache.”
“I’m okay, Tubbo.”
“Are you sure? I just don’t—”
“I said I’m fine.” Ranboo interrupts, looking away from Tubbo. He sighs, not saying another word.
Now he’s even more worried.
“Where’d you get this kid?” One of the men asks as he wins again.
“Man,” he corrects. “I’m not a kid.”
“Prince Technoblade told me to watch him.”
On cue, the door opens and Technoblade steps in. Tommy almost groans.
“Speak of the devil.” Foolish comments, making the other men snickers.
“So we’re just not listening to a thing I’m saying now, are we Foolish?”
The man shrugs in surrender. “He’s really convincing…?”
Technoblade hums disapproving. “Let's go.”
Tommy rolls his eyes, going to collect the money. The prince pulls him back.
“You leave the money here.”
Tommy groans. “What? But I won it!”
“You don’t need it.”
“You are so not cool, Tech-no-blade.” He scoffs, pushing away from him. He hears foolish say goodbye, and then he’s out the door.
The walk back is silent, and it's even more silent once they get inside. Technoblade instantly goes to Wilbur’s room, and Tommy frowns curiously.
He thinks for a moment before tip-toeing over to eavesdrop.
“He has the scars, Wilbur.”
“So what? You think he’s our brother?” Wilbur murmurs.
“That’s not what I said,” Technoblade replies. “But come on, you have to look at the similarities.”
“I am, but I don’t think he is.”
Tommy grimaces back, furrowing his brow. They want to replace their brother for him?
He steps away from the door.
Is that why Technoblade recruited him? Is that why Wilbur made him his personal servant? Is that why they’re being so nice to him?
So they can replace their dead brother?
Fuck that.
Tommy storms to his room, shutting the door. He practically jumps into his bed, curling up into a ball.
The covers are over him, and only then does he let the tears fall. He’s stupid to think someone would actually like him for who he is.
They were just using him to get over a loss.
He wouldn’t stand for that any longer.