icing those hurt

Part 31

Techno can hear them yelling from all the way down the hall, so he rushes to the commons, and when he gets there and sees Wilbur with his fists balled into Schlatt's jacket, yanking and tugging and growling, he's not even surprised. It was bound to happen eventually with them all getting more and more anxious and testy. It was building up and up and up. Every time they saw Tommy and the way he just grows more and more distant and more and more pale- there was bound to be a breaking point.

"What the fuck did you do? What the fuck did you do-" Wilbur growls.

Schlatt glares. He's lax, letting Wilbur throw his fit for now, but Techno knows his anger lies right below the surface, easy to reach whenever he needs it. If he has to deal with much more of this, he will strike back. "Let go of me, Soot, or else you'll be on the floor before you can blink."

"Hey." Techno barks, startling them both. "What the fuck is happening?"

George, sitting slouched in the armchair, grins sharply, his eyes flat. "The girls are fighting ." Standing behind him, shifting nervously, is Quackity, who looks one minute away from calling Phil.

"George, shut up." Techno says. George shrugs. Techno turns back to the two idiots who are picking a fight with each other. "Wil." There's a pause. Wilbur keeps glaring at Schlatt. " Wil. "

Finally, Wilbur lets him go, and Schlatt rolls his eyes, brushing his hands down his jacket. "Drama fuck."

Immediately, Wilbur turns, ready to strike again, but Techno catches him. " Relax , Wilbur. You both wanna get on the ice? Cause if you want I can let you fight this out on the ice."

"Let's go," Schlatt bites, "I'll run you over."

"Don't fucking test me, mate," Wilbur promises darkly.

Gently, but firmly, he pushes Wilbur into the chair next to George and glares over at Schlatt. Without a word, he lifts his hands and sits down next to Sapnap, opposite them. Techno sighs loudly, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Children. He's the team captain of children.

He opens his eyes again, collected now, and crosses his arms over his chest. "Alright. Now tell me. What the fuck happened?" Schlatt and Wilbur both open their mouths, but Techno quickly adds, "George. What happened?"

"Wilbur blames Schlatt for whatever he did to make Tommy ignore us," George reports swiftly.

"As if I would ever hurt that kid." Schlatt snaps.

Wilbur scoffs loudly, "oh, you and Sapnap didn't like him from the beginning ."

Sapnap speaks up then. He's been uncharacteristically quiet since that one interaction they had with Tommy. Techno keeps meaning to check in with him, but-

"We didn't even know him. Neither did you. And I think that it's pretty fucking clear at this point that I'd rather get tossed out of here than to ever hurt that kid."

"He looks awful, Tech." Quackity speaks up, voice quiet and shaky. George tenses. "Have you seen him? He's like a walking zombie."

Techno closes his eyes. Takes a breath. His team pauses with him, breathing alongside him. He has seen Tommy- his image flickers behind Techno's eyelids when he sleeps. Tommy, following behind his coach with his head down and his eyes dull. Tommy, looking dead on his feet, walking to the rink and not coming back out. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. Always tired, always quiet, always sad.

After a moment, he speaks. "I have seen him. I have. But he doesn't want to talk to us and we promised him that we would never do something that he wasn't comfortable with. If we go back on that promise, we're just as bad as his coach." He lets that sit for a moment, then adds, "I just wish I knew why he was so upset with us. Things were good."

Schlatt winces. "Uh- boss, we might. Know, that is." And now he looks sheepish and a bit guilty. Techno resists the urge to sigh.

"What happened?"

"Tubbo came by the other day. Said the kid wasn't sleeping. Said he was hardly eating. Said- said he would lay in bed with my-" Schlatt exhales roughly, "-my sweatshirt."

God. Techno's chest hurts. "Yeah?"

"When he came by, he said he wasn't trying to snoop, but he found this in Tommy's things." Schlatt digs into his pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper.

Technoblade doesn't need to see it to know what it is. He sighs heavily. That damn bet. Fucking stupid . He knew it was stupid when they did it, but he didn't stop them, because he thought nothing would come of it. How was he supposed to know they'd meet Tommy and love the kid as if he was their own?

"Throw that shit out. Now." He orders. Schlatt crumples it instantly. Techno looks around the room at the lot of them. "I'm going to go get our kid. Sapnap, Q, I need you to go get your room ready- I wouldn't be surprised if he passes out the minute he lays down."

"What do we do?" Wilbur asks anxiously.

"You need to clear out," He says. He knows Wilbur won't like it but-

Wilbur's eyes widen. "What? Techno, but-"

"Especially you two. If I can convince Tommy to come back to us, I don't want you two scaring him off."

And to that, Wilbur can't say anything in response. The last thing any of them want is to hurt him.

Schlatt stands, taking an audible breath. "Come on Soot." He offers. "Let me buy you a drink."

"I hate your guts."

"Yeah, well," Schlatt rolls his eyes. "Who doesn't. Come on George."

Wilbur gives in and goes and George stands, patting Quackity's shoulder before he follows Wilbur out. Schlatt stops, though, before he leaves the room.

"Call me," he says lowly. "When he's safe. Please."

Techno knows that Schlatt rarely makes requests, and rarely says please. He's begging, basically. Techno can tell.

"First thing," Techno reassures. "As soon as I know, you'll know."

(word count - 711)