Lavender Snow

Drive

The next few days were a blur. Phil and Kristin were busy calling people, dealing with legal issues. Tommy gave his story again and again, leaving out the bit with the magic whenever a stranger was around. 

As it turned out, Anna and Luca were friends with Schlatt, and had promised him large sums of money to bring them more foster kids for illegal trafficking. Tommy had escaped just a week before the two of them were scheduled to be sold. The story was a mess and only became more complicated as more was revealed.

Tommy spent most of his time in Techno's room. Techno mostly ignored him, but was mostly willing to answer questions about the voices, his powers, and the End.

"A janitor found me in the basement of an office building," Techno said. "He gave me up to foster care, and eventually after six years of bouncing from house to house, I landed with Phil and Kristin, who adopted me."

"But how did you get here? Did you jump off the cliff? Were you discarded?" Tommy pet Benson's head thoughtfully. "Why don't you have the dragon tattoo?"

Techno sighed and turned away. "I'm not ready to tell you that yet."

Tommy groaned but let the conversation drop. He flopped back on Techno's bed dramatically. "What kind of a name is Techno anyways? Sounds like a brand of computer or something."

"My full name is Technoblade."

Tommy snorted. "Oh my god, that's even worse."

"No, it's—" Techno's ears went pink. "It's cool, okay? At least, eight-year-old me thought it was cool."

"You named yourself?"

"Yeah."

Besides that revelation, Tommy discovered that Techno heard voices in his mind, a community of whispers he called 'chat'. They apparently liked Tommy very much, and he wasn't sure how he felt about bloodthirsty voices talking about him.

He wasn't sure how he felt about the rest of the household, either. Wilbur mostly kept to himself and seemed awkward around Tommy. Kristin fussed over him and apologized for just about anything and everything. Phil pampered Tommy like he was a noble Elytrian, showering him with gifts and extra servings of food at mealtimes.

He felt guilty for intruding in their family, but at the same time, the attention was kind of. . . nice?

Still, his nights were filled with longing for Tubbo and nightmares of Ranboo falling into the void, eyes empty and dead. Tommy shoved his anxiety to the back of his mind and told himself Ranboo was fine.

Finally, Phil announced at breakfast one day that Tommy would be able to see Tubbo.

Tommy froze, a fork of waffle halfway up to his mouth. "Wha— seriously?!"

"Yeah, they've gotten all the legal work figured out and said it would be okay if you guys met up for a bit."

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Tommy yelled, standing up. "Let's go!"

Kristin laughed and tugged him back down by his sleeve. "Hold your horses, we're going this afternoon to meet him at the park."

"I don't have horses. . ."

❀✿❀✿❀✿❀

The car ride to the park was agonizingly slow. Wilbur and Techno shared amused looks as Tommy bounced in his seat, yelling at slow cars and flipping off anyone he decided was doing a poor job of driving, which was most everyone considering he didn't actually know how driving worked.

"THERE'S THE PARK!" He screamed when the first stretch of grass came into view. "I DON'T SEE TUBBO, DOES ANYONE SEE— THERE HE IS!!"

"Tommy," Phil said, laughing, "sit down, we have to find a place to park!"

Tommy wasn't listening. He unclipped his seatbelt and stood up as much as he could in the center seat, leaning over Wilbur to peer out of the window. "There he is, Wilbur, see him? He's the one with the green shirt on and the brown hair, it's so fluffy, like yours, see him, Wilbur? See him?"

"I can't see much right now," Wilbur said. "Seeing as your arm is right in front of my face."

"Oh, fuck off," Tommy said happily, slapping his hand over Wilbur's eyes. Everyone laughed. Tommy certainly had a mouth on him when he wasn't thinking about rules.

As soon as the car was parked, Tommy was off like a shot, sprinting across the grass towards Tubbo. Tubbo didn't notice him until Tommy was upon him, tackling him to the ground like Tubbo had when they first met.

"TOMMY?!"

"TUBBO!!"

Tommy jumped off him, yanking him to his feet and wrapping him in a hug. "Tubbo, you're okay, you're alive, you're okay—"

"You made it out, you're okay—"

"I'm fine, I found Phil and Kristin and Wilbur and Techno and he's magic like me, Tubbo, he's like me—!"

"You found another one?! There's more people with powers—?!"

"Yeah but don't talk about it anymore, there are people around and Phil and Kristin don't know—" Tommy paused to take a breath, then squeezed Tubbo tighter. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

Tommy pulled out of the hug, inspecting Tubbo. He had a black eye and a large bruise covering nearly half of his face, as well as some nasty looking red marks on his arms. Tommy tipped his head towards them. "What's that from?"

"The belt. I was protecting my face from being whipped, but it got me arms instead. I'm fine though, it's not as bad as it could have been. The neighbors called the cops pretty quickly once they heard us screaming." Tubbo leaned to one side, looking past Tommy. "Is that Phil and Kristin?"

Tommy turned and waved at the figures still making their way over. "Yep. The old blond one is Phil, the woman in Kristin, the lanky one is Wilbur, and that's Techno."

Tubbo squinted at them, then said in a softer voice, "Are they good?"

"Good?"

"Yeah, you know, not like Anna and Luca. Good ones."

Tommy looked over at the family, then shrugged. "We'll see."