Fledgeling

feline

[TW: Swearing]

sunday

Tommy gripped his sword tightly. Hissing surrounded him on all sides. The forest wouldn't protect him now. Nothing would.

"Tommy, it's almost noon, wake the fuck up!" Phil yelled up the stairs, tempted to run up to his room and shake the teenager awake.

"AARGH!" he yelled, slamming both hands into his mattress and sitting up. A knock on his door brought him back into where he was.

"Are you okay Tommy?" Will called through the door, tapping the wood.

"Yeah."

Outside, Wilbur raised an eyebrow and shrugged before walking down the stairs.

Phil dropped his pen on his desk and leaned back in his chair. Techno was at work, so he couldn't expect any help making lunch.

Tom shifted one shoulder. It felt rather... odd. As if he had a dog wrapped around his arm. His scalp ached in an equally uncomfortable way. When he stumbled up and shuffled to his mirror, it felt much worse. A pair of blonde ears like a cats' emerged from his head, and his left arm was covered in the same colour of fur. This time, his scream was muffled by his gasp of panic. This wasn't real. Trying to calm himself down, he took a deep breath, but that made it plenty worse. In the mirror, he could see his canines had grown longer and his incisors sharper.

A sharp scream from upstairs made Will look up. Phil hadn't heard, so, with a roll of his eyes, the brunette hurried up and knocked on the door again.

"Tommy? Are you sure you're okay?"

When the only reply was what could be a muffled sob, his brother gave up and slammed his shoulder into the door. It took a few tries, but eventually the door burst open and he saw Tommy curled up in the corner with a pair of cat ears on his head.

"Just don't tell Phil," whimpered his brother, clutching his head.

"I'll tell him you're not feeling well and can't go to school."

Before the older brother left the room, Tommy hugged him tightly and collapsed into bed.

Phil glanced at Wilbur as he walked down looking confused and slightly worried.

"Everything alright mate?"

"Yeah, Tommy's just feeling a bit... unwell. I'll look after him, if you want."

"You have school tomorrow and a lot of homework to do, Will."

"Would you rather look after Tommy while trying to work?"

With a sigh, the raven-winged father turned back to his laptop.

Tommy curled up in a ball and bit his lip. Everything hurt, nothing was right and his arm was bent uncomfortably underneath his body. Will was probably bringing Phil up to see him right now. A gentle knock against the door made his ears prick up outside the blanket.

"Hey Tommy, do you want any lunch?"

Flattening his ears, Tom whined. Rolling brown eyes, the older brother yanked off the covers.

"Fuck off, Will."

"If you don't talk to me, I'll tell Phil."

"Fine. I don't want lunch, I'm not hungry."

Gently ruffling the half-cat half-teenager's hair, Wilbur walked out, glancing behind him at the sound of a screeching bird outside. Unable to resist the temptation any longer, he shoved his head out the front door and glanced around. A fox was skulking towards a young raven and the adult was desperately trying to deter it. Grabbing a stick, he ran across the grass and threatened the scruffy carnivore with it. Almost immediately at the sight of a human, it scampered off. The raven squawked its thanks and waved goodbye.

Phil glanced out the door. Will had just trudged down the stairs, as usual, then sprinted out the front door, out of sight. What was going on with these children? Maybe they weren't like Kristen after all. Techno wasn't, so why should those two be?

"Will, you alright mate?" he yelled out the door before seeing Wilbur petting a raven, waving goodbye and a mix of sauntering and staggering back.

"I just saw a fox outside attacking a raven and spooked it off," his son explained slightly nervously before disappearing upstairs.

What an odd pair of children.

Tommy twisted and turned in bed. The aching had gone away, but now he was anxious. Eventually, he jumped out of bed, stood in front of the mirror and tried everything he could think of to get rid of the ears and fur. Something slamming against the wall made him yelp in alarm. It came from Wilbur's room. Cautiously opening the door, he spied Phil walking up the stairs and quickly shut it again.

a/n: new fic :D it's actually already finished, i have all of it done and just finished it. and tommy's last dsmp stream is tonight ;-; perfect timing. the length of these chapters is gonna change a lot, by the way. TW will be at the beginning of every chapter.