A Hidden King

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----WANTED-----

Tommy
14
WANTED ALIVE
100000 reward

How had it gotten to this?

Phil easily tore the picture of his youngest son off the bulletin board. There were hundreds of wanted people in just this vicinity alone at one time. No one was going to snitch, he knew that. It didn't help the fear that bubbled over him as he settled his son's poster over his own. The first month the kingdom would go all out in trying to search, the next his son would finally be able to rest easier.
Phil just hoped that taking down the Wanted posters would ease his worries just enough. He was a kid after all.

"Papa!" Ranboo called, Purpled on his hip. 
"Coming!" Phil replied. 
"Where's Sally and Fundy?" Phil asked ruffling his hand through his adopted son's half white half black hair. 
"Just up ahead, come on!" Ranboo encouraged. 

They both carried on until they were met with 20-year-old Sally Salmon. Phil had previously been so against her but she was kind, and she needed him. 
"Sally!" Phil greeted. 
Sally was lightly bouncing her and Phil's son's son on her left hip. 

"Gran'Pappa!" Fundy gasped in glee as if he hadn't seen the man in so long even though it had only been a couple of hours. 
"Oh my! Fundy!" Phil played along. 
Fundy laughed gleefully wrapping his tiny hand around 2 of Phil's fingers. 

"Ope, I've been taken hostage!" Phil declared playfully. 
"Noooooo! Papa!" Ranboo played along too. 
"Noooooo Gwam'papa!" Purpled joined in. 
"I taken 'em!" Fundy declared. 

"You get all the posters?" Sally asked. 
Phil held up the stack for her to see. 
"Who dat Gran'Pappa?" Fundy asked, letting go of Phil's finger in favor of making grabby hands at the posters. 

"No one important Fundy," Phil quickly brushed the 4-year-old off. 
"Should we-" Ranboo began. 
"Of course, yes," Phil replied swiftly and they began walking once more. 


"Papa?" Ranboo stepped into Phil's room, the poster of the boy in hand. 
Phil looked up with a sweet smile, like he always did. That smile quickly dropped when Ranboo held the poster up and closed the door behind him.

"Who is this?" Ranboo asked. 
Phil swallowed the lump in his throat and looked back down at his book, trying to ignore the question and continue reading. 
"Dad, who is this?" Ranboo asked.

"No one important. Just a kid I didn't feel should carry the burden of being Wanted," Phil replied. 
"No, it's more than that. You've never been this thorough with someone's Wanted posters, not since Fundy. You're not even this thorough with yourself Phil," Ranboo replied, crouching in front of Phil. 

"Who is he?"
Phil fought back tears, hiding his face with the book.
"Does he have to do with your biological children?" Ranboo asked, "Like Fundy's dad? Is he Fundy's dad?!" Ranboo asked, Phil couldn't help but chuckle. 

"Far from it, he's only 14," Phil replied finally setting the book down on his lap. 
"Ok....?"
"Ranboo, before there was you- well- I used to have three children before adopting you. Twins and their baby brother. They had- well... heh, the oldest 2 were mentally unstable. Both preferring violence over every other option. The youngest though he was, best to say, a brat. Not spoiled, just loud and annoying," Phil explained. 
"So? Purpled is annoying-" Ranboo tried defending the boy.

"Their problems weren't what drew me away. I loved those boys, with all my heart. They were my world, all I had left after my wife was murdered. But, one day, the oldest twin got Sally pregnant. They were both nieve children. And with his tendencies... I knew. I just knew," Phil's eyes began to tear up, biting instinctively on the groove of his upper lip. 
"Pa-"

"Leaving them was the hardest thing I've ever done. But keeping Fundy safe- Knowing he wasn't going to end up happy with my son in the picture- I had to. I had to go," Phil whipped his tears and took a deep shaky breath. 
"I took my youngest and I got as far as the prison before we got separated. I couldn't find him- I searched, and I searched, but I couldn't find him. So- so I left... I just- gave up. What kind of father am I?!" Phil sobbed curling on himself. 

"No- dad!"
"He was 9! I left my 9-year-old son to those- I found out later he just went home. He went to what was familiar, which was his older brothers and his home," Phil took a shaky deep breath and carefully took the picture from Ranboo. 
"Looking at him- on a Wanted poster- I never wanted that. I wonder what went wrong. Did he run away? Did they do something to him? Did he do something?" Phil shook quietly. 

"So- he is your son?" Ranboo asked. 
"Yeah, my precious baby boy. Where did you go? Where did you go, Thomas?" Phil confirmed, his finger tracing over the boy's features. 

"Do you ever wish you could see them again?" Ranboo asked cautiously as if worried about overstepping boundaries. 
"All the time. But if it meant having to leave you lovelies, I wouldn't take it for the world."

He won't make the same mistakes he did with Wilbur, Technoblade, and Tommy. 




Never again. 



Schlatt will never get to you too. . . 

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