Of Fins and Feathers

Holy Fiddlesticks!

His eyes lazily started to open, his eyes were barely able to stay open. He sluggishly sat up, and immediately regretted opening his eyes that day, morning? He looked to the clock, it was 2:42 am, damn.

A crisp, stark, cold air filled the room, the air was thin and his lungs were squeezing tightly in pain.

He quickly pulled any blanket within arms reach over him, which sadly didn't amount to a lot of blankets.

It wasn't enough, he was still freezing, he's never felt this cold in his castle. Even if it was still hard to heat with all fifteen of their boilers, due to the size, he's never felt this cold.

Had the boilers stopped working?

No, they had workers that were specifically meant to take care of that, his father would have their heads on a spike if they didn't do their jobs, or worse, stick them in the dungeon, and if the boilers weren't working, he thinks that they'd get hypothermia immediately.

But enough on that, Tommy has a mission, and that is, to get more blankets.

He lifted the covers off of him reluctantly, he really didn't want to leave one of his few sources of heat. He wanted to go back to bed and sleep.

He stepped his toe onto the floor, and recoiled instantly, it was freezing! Holy hell, if he were to step on that, he'd think he was going to freeze his toes off.

He sighed, putting his foot down onto the floor, he needs to find those blankets.

He went to his door, maybe he could snag some from his brothers. If he can't, he doesn't know what he'll have to do.

When he walks into the hallway, he feels a shiver go up his spine. He hates this. He hates this so much.

Tommy can handle cold, cold to horrible freezing temperatures, but this dry cold, it would be the death of him.

His feet were freezing, but he stumbled through the hallways nonetheless.

He made it to Techno's room before deciding he couldn't go any further without freezing his ass off.

Preferably, he would have made it to Wilbur's, sure he would have teased Tommy relentlessly, but he would have given Tommy the blankets without a doubt, Techno on the other hand, is quite possessive, and doesn't like to let others borrow from him.

Unless you want to be in debt.

Tommy couldn't worry about it too much, he needed those blankets.

So, Tommy begrudgingly made his way to Techno's door and knocked, it was neither a strong nor soft knock, it was just a knock.

Techno opened the door, his hair a mess, he looked like he really needed some sleep.

"What d'ya want? 'M tryna get some sleep 'ere." Techno's gruff voice sounded out as he stood leaning on his doorframe.

"It's uh, really cold right now." Tommy supposed he could sugarcoat it, but would that get him far?

"Yeah, that's why 'm sleeping." Techno bluntly pointed out.

"Could I snag some blankets from you, I promise I'll give 'em back, it's just that the ones I have aren't really doing it for me." Tommy spoke quickly with unsure words.

"Why didn't you go to Wil? He would've given you all of his probably."
Techno scratched at his throat.

"I uh, I didn't want to go all the way to Wilbur's for some measly blankets, plus, I'd never hear the end of it in the morning." Tommy said, slowly curling in on himself slightly. Techno had to be one of the worst with the 'hair standing up on the back of his neck' thing.

"Uh," he glanced back to his room and then back to Tommy, "Sure you can have some blankets, I wasn't using all of them anyway, plus I'm plenty warm." Techno said as he glanced back to his room and opened the door enough so Tommy could get in.

Techno's room wasn't too cool, it was large and a darker shade of blue compared to the ice blue in the rest of the palace, but not by too much. His bed was large with posts that reached the ceiling, a dark mahogany wood made the bedframe. There was a lovely hand carved nightstand beside it, with intracate designs of ancient greek heroes and gods. There was a leather sofa to the side, one of a dark burgundy shade. With two bookshelves on one side, and a table with a lamp on the other. There was a coffee table infront of the sofa, and a couple of blankets were folded up on top of it.

There was one thing in the room that drew Tommy's attention. There was a nest on top of the bed.

Tommy looked from the nest to Techno, and from the pink that was imprinted on Techno's ears, he knew what Tommy was looking at.

Techno sighed and grabbed the blankets on the coffee table and shoved them into Tommy's hands.

"Not a soul, not a soul." Techno said before turning away, but not before Tommy could see the red that covered Techno's face.

"Wait, Techno?" Tommy said before Techno turned his head to him, eyebrows quirked up in surprise.
"What's it like?" Techno looked confused, Tommy tried to reiterate. "To have wings and the instincts and all that jazz, I've just.. I don't think I'll get them and I just want to know." Tommy looked to the floor and Techno walked closer to Tommy.

"Oh Tommy.." Techno started, but he didn't know what to do, he wasn't good with this kind of stuff, he was good with fighting, and protecting his family, not.. what ever this is!

Techno walked towards Tommy and embraced him in a big hug, he might not be good with words, but he knows when one of his flock is hurting, his pure white wings engulfed Tommy, and surrounded them both.

Tommy sobbed, and snuggled into Technos embrace, he was so warm. Tommy felt so safe, it was different, because he normally didn't feel this way around Techno, but in the moment, his mind screamed 'protector' to him, and he couldn't help but agree.

Techno realized something, Tommy's body temperature is much much lower than his own, no wonder he was cold. That wouldn't do, the hatchling of his flock was not allowed to be cold, and that was final. He picked Tommy up, who made a noise of complete surprise for a moment before relaxing, this was his brother, he was safe.

Techno moved the hatchling to his nest and rapped his wings around him, he could be safe and warm here.

Tommy was no longer cold.