I'm Not Tired (Please Let Me Sleep)

Chapter fourteen

The avian's wings had puffed up greatly, resulting in the feathery appendages looking like large fluffy cushions. Wilbur had also frozen completely, mouth wide agape as he stared at Tommy with slightly expanded pupils. It looked silly but they were nothing compared to his father's eyes, the blue colour almost swallowed completely by the black pit that was his pupils.

Tommy swallowed and tried to shake himself out of whatever was happening but that plan was ruined almost immediately by the blonde avian in front of him. A chirp. A questioning hello-fledgling-hello?

He responded with a weird peep before he even got the chance to think about it and then immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, a little too shocked to process what the fuck had just happened. The voices in his head had completely gone off the rails, fighting a battle with the sane part of his brain and trying to get him to literally hide in the avian's wings for some fucking reason. The logical part of his brain, you know, the part that wasn't currently being bombarded with a bunch of needy voices which demanded fucking cuddles in a weird place they called the nest was panicking. This was not supposed to happen. What kind of fucking mental issues had Dream given him to suddenly imitate avian noises? Oh god, he had fucked it up already, hadn't he? He involuntarily imitated an avian noise and, by the looks of it, it had sent both Wilbur and his father into their instincts. Hybrid pupils expand when they're in their instincts or fighting them, right?

"Oh my god," Wilbur whispered next to him in disbelief, a hand reaching out for him but it seemed the man had stopped himself last second which left his arm awkwardly floating in the air, "You're an avian."

No, he literally wasn't! Tommy was just some random human dude with mental issues who had completely ruined the first impression with the parental figure of perhaps the first and only friend he ever got because of the green bastard. As if to emphasise that he shook his head rapidly, then pressed himself away from the feathers despite what the fucking voices inside his head were screeching and looked at Wilbur with wide eyes.

"Tommy, it's fine," Techno spoke up but that only made him more scared because holy shit what if Techno thinks he was mocking his family? That man could easily break him in half if he wanted to and while he didn't think that the man was violent in any way he didn't know how he'd react.

The teen tried to say something, to apologise for the weird noises or maybe excuse himself and run home but no words came out. Instead, more of these weird fucking chirp-like noises bubbled out of his throat.

Scared-sorry-confused-scared.

They were met with two deep croons immediately, one sounding just a little bit off and somehow he knew that it wasn't an avian croon but rather a phantom one. Safe-safe-protected. It made his chest lighten and the voices in his head quieten down a bit, though the itch in his throat unfortunately grew.

"I-," another chirp cut him off and he immediately clamped his mouth shut, eyes darting around the room trying to locate the nearest exit.

He needed to leave the house and calm whatever the fuck was going on inside his head down. Maybe shut himself in his bedroom for a while and block out everything from the outside world. Not sleep. Never sleep. He's not tired, never is. He can't afford to be. But he needed to leave this house now, apologise to them later and hope that they'd calmed down by then and maybe forgive him.

Why were they still staring at him like that? Had he fucked up so badly? Were they planning to throw him out immediately? Would Wilbur terminate their friendship?

"Tommy," Techno said slowly and in a rather unusual gentle voice, "I need you to calm down."

He was completely calm thank, you very much. Tommy was definitely not freaking the fuck out over whatever was going on. A peep. Oh god, why was he peeping? What kind of psychosis was this? What the hell was going on?