Eburnean Tommy Au

XIII - Eavesdropping

Tommy looks at his bowl of curry, he remembers liking the dish, but lately, he hasn't been able to muster the appetite for much of anything.

He takes a sip of water and lays down, Phil told him to rest after all, and his body tells him that Phil's right.

He feels uneasy about going to sleep though, he doesn't want to have a nightmare, so he doesn't close his eye.

He rests for a minute until he's startled by a voice from outside, "BUT HE JUST WON'T" he hears, it sounds like Philza, "HE'S NEVER GOING TO FULLY RECOVER"

He doesn't want to walk, but he stumbles over to listen anyway, leaning on the wall both to hear them and to stay standing.

"...sorry. I know well enough that most of it is permanent. I just- wait, he's listening."

"How do you kno-"

"The voices idiot"

Tommy starts to panic but he can't find the strength to move, or even stand, he finds, because he falls flat on the floor.

"Shit!" Techno hisses.

He hears the door open and tries to get up. He can't see much, and the floor feels tacky for some reason.

"No, no, no Tommy, don't move, we're going to help you. Can you hear me? Theseus?"

He tries to nod, but he doesn't know if it's visible. Speaking of visibility, he can't see at all anymore, but he feels calmer anyway.

He finds himself in a field of flowers, it's sunny and there's a nice breeze, it feels too realistic and calm to be a nightmare.

"Hello Tommy" a woman who he can't see greets.

"Where ar- EY? I CAN TALK? WHAT THE FUCK?"

The woman laughs and walks into view, she's wearing an outfit of black and purple, with a large sunhat covering her face "It's nice to see you again,"

"MUM?" he exclaims and runs to hug her "Holy shit! It's so easy to move, Mumza!"

"I'm glad to see you so excited"

He hugs her for a bit, then lowers his arms, "Wait, mum?"

"Yes?"

"Am I-" he takes a shaky breath and chokes back tears, "Am I dead again?"

She gasps and kneels down to look at him, "No, no, and I'm so sorry for making you think that, it's only a dream"

"Don't fucking say that word!" he shouts and backs away.

"I'm so sorry Tom, I meant to give you something pleasant for a change, you've been having so many nightmares. I could let you wake up and forget this if you'd like"

"No! I don't want to forget it, that's not fair, I forget too much, not this!" he insists and hugs her again.

He calms down pretty quickly, it's hard not to when being hugged by her, "Well, can I forget the bad part, like now, so I can enjoy it?"

"Then you'll just think you're dead again, silly"

"Oh."

"You can still enjoy this though, look," she conjures a record box and a player.

"MY DISCS!" he yells in excitement, "THIS IS SO POGGERS!"

Tommy runs over and looks through the box to play cat, then sits in the grass with Mumza.

"Oh man, if being asleep was always like this I would sleep whenever Dadza tells me I need to"

"Does he tell you that a lot?"

"Yeah." he says with a sigh, "Mumza? Do you think I'm going to get better?"

This question catches her off guard, and she doesn't want to answer, "Why do you ask?"

Tommy hesitates for a minute, then hears the song end, so he uses it to avoid the question. "Oh! I'm going to change the disc now"

He picks out mellohi, which well to his chagrin mirrors his anxious mood.

He lays back down in the grass and tries to act calm, but fails and worries his mum. Halfway through the song he stops it,

"DAD SAYS I'M NOT GOING TO GET BETTER!" he shouts abruptly.

"He- when did he say that, Tommy?" she asks while bringing him into a hug.

"A- a few minutes ago, he was talking to Technoblade outside, and he shouted that I'll nev- never fully recover," he starts to sob, "and, and then I went to listen and Techno agreed"

"Oh, my poor little fledgling" she coos, "I'm so sorry but I don't know how bad the physical damage is," she lies to avoid answering, "I can give you insight into other aspects if you'd like.

"Okay," he says, sniffling

"First of all, this hasn't happened before, so XD and I actually have no idea what to do with you, but it's most likely going to be a peaceful afterlife. We already set that up when we realized that he wasn't stopping"

She pauses to think and starts to cry.