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When Tommy opened his eyes he was met with a blinding light, something that was rare. Phil barely let any light in since younger avian eyes were sensitive to light, meaning Tommy’s eyes were sensitive. He hisses at the light as he pulls the blanket that covered him up over his head.
"What’s wrong?" A voice says above him, something that was too light to be Phil’s. A voice in the back of his head screamed to get away but he ignores it. The sleep was still clinging to him so it must be making him hear Phil’s voice differently. Tommy chirps a soft 'light' before he tried to go back to sleep and hoping that when he woke up again the light would be gone.
"Um," the voice says again from behind him. Before Tommy could fall back asleep the blanket was pulled away and the light reached his closed eyes. He hisses again as he tries to find the darkness again. 'Phil' he chirps to get the older Elytrian to fix the problem.
"Do they always chirp this much?" A deeper voice speaks up, jolting him in surprise. He wines at the thought of someone he didn’t know inside his nest. "That is how they communicate, so yes, they chirp this much Techno," Tommy grumbles as they kept talking. 'Quiet' he chirps out. He repeats the chirp just to make sure the people talking understood.
But they didn’t stop. “You used to be an Avian before becoming a phantom, do you know what he is saying?" Tommy feels a vibration from the person behind him, he felt embarrassed for how long it took to notice his head was in someone’s lap.
"No," the person's voice sounds sad and it makes him feel more awake. "After a while when I became a phantom, I just started to forget everything." Tommy tries to open his eyes but the light hurt too much. He couldn’t try to comfort this person—most likely Phil—if that annoying light was blinding him.
He shuts his eyes and his little sharp talon claws search for his blanket. His hand grazes over another hand that is laid on top of the blanket. He ignores it as he balls the blanket into his fist before yanking it and throwing it over his head. "Do you want to go back to sleep?" The voice behind him asks and Tommy shakes his head. He was already awake and these two would most likely continue to talk even if he was trying to go back to sleep.
"Are you hungry?" They ask again and Tommy grumbles. 'No' he chirps back. "Yes? I’m going to take that as a yes.” Tommy squawks. He did not say yes. The food from the hunt earlier that Phil caught still sat in his stomach, leaving no more room for anything else. He chirps 'no' louder this time but the people still didn’t get it. "Yes, I’ll get you some food. Techno can you pass me some carrots?" The voice from behind him asks and without warning, Tommy was titled. "Thank you!" The lighter voice says as the deep voice only hums as a reply.
"I’m sorry if I jostled you too much, I was just trying to get the carrot from Techno. How about you come out to eat it?" The voice behind him suggests. He could feel the blanket being pulled away but he only pulled harder and hissed. "Ok, I won’t touch the blanket." True to their words the pressure from the blanket was gone and Tommy was kept in the dark. He whistles his thanks.
"I don’t know what I’m doing. We don’t even have Phil to help us! He’s gone off somewhere." Tommy perks up at the mention of Phill. 'Flock!' He chirps happily. "Fucking, that one avian girl isn’t even here. What was her name? Beauty or something?" Tommy ignores them in favor of lifting the side of the blanket towards the person behind him. The light was still there, but just not as bad.
Tommy took in the person, it wasn’t Phil which makes him upset, and it was not anyone he knows. He lets out a fearful chirp when he notices that the person wasn’t even an avian or an Elytrian. The person looks down at the noise, sky blue meets a soft brown or at least he thinks. He couldn’t tell from the glasses they were wearing. "Hello!" The person says softly in a high-pitched voice that makes Tommy make a face. "I’m Wilbur." The person greets but Tommy could care less. The situation he was in was finally settling in and freaking him out. 'Where flock?' He chirps fearfully as he struggles with the blanket around him that started to feel restricting more than comfortable.
"Hey, hey, calm down!" Wilbur frantically says as he places his hands on Tommy to make sure he didn’t fall, but that just made everything worse. Tommy lets out a screech that Phil taught him just Incase he was in danger. He rolls away off the bed with a thump as he hits the floor, he winces as his wing aches just a bit. He tries to pull the blanket away as he stands on shaky legs. Tommy was starting to think the blanket wasn’t going to end, but luckily it did. He closes his eyes at the bright light and flares out his wings to make him look more intimidating as he lets off another screech.
It was quiet for a few seconds, Tommy was almost certain that he scared off Wilbur and the other dude, Techno. "That was my fault, sorry," Wilbur says quietly and Tommy hisses at the man. He wanted these people gone. He wanted to go back to his nest, not whatever this place is.
“Where flock?" Tommy asks, it sounded wrong, mostly because he didn’t practice that much before. Phil had wanted him to learn how to speak English instead of chirping to communicate, but Tommy had said no many times. Words felt weird on his tongue while chirping just felt right to do. Phil had told him that his choice was alright, many other avians and Elytrians have chosen the same thing. But Phil’s only rule was that he had to at least learn the basics.
Phil would be happy if he saw that Tommy was putting good use to talking.
"We don’t know, alright? We just found you outside Phil’s house hurt so we took you here." Tommy falters at the confession. He didn’t think to try and remember what happened, but it all comes back to him. How he was looking for Phil because he remembered something when he woke up from his nap. He remembers running around looking for the older but accidentally tripped and fell out of the house.
Tommy brings a hand to his head when he feels bandages. He didn’t do it, Phil isn’t around so he couldn’t have done it, so it only leaves the people in front of him. 'Thank you!” He whistles. “Oh, um, we don’t understand you. We aren’t avians." Tommy grumbles at the reminder. 'Bitch.' He chirps sharply. Phil always wondered how he even learned to cuss but Tommy will never reveal his secrets.
He learned it from the birds.
"Thank you." Tommy's talking is a reminder of why he chose not to learn how to speak English. It was stupid. What was also stupid was not being able to see. 'Light' he chirps despite him knowing they couldn’t understand him. He was still used to having Phil understand that he didn’t have to worry about anything. He tries to open his eyes to see if they understood but had to quickly shut them.
"Are you alright? It looks like you have to take a shit." Wilbur says with horror in his voice. "Please don’t shit on the floor of the pub." He pleads and Tommy hisses at him. 'Fuck you!' He whistles.
He grumbles as he points to where he thinks the light is coming from and then points to his eyes. "I don’t get it," Wilbur says in almost a whisper. Tommy grumbles, he was stuck with dumb people. He was starting to think that he would be stuck like this until Phil comes. But luckily he didn’t, "It’s the light, Will." Techno, he thinks, speaks up. Tommy forgot about him. He smiles and chirps a small 'yes'.
"Oh," Wilbur says quietly "oh! Here you can have my glasses." Footsteps reach Tommy's ears and after a few seconds, he could feel a presence in front of him. "Don’t freak out, I’m just putting the glasses on you." Before Tommy could even say anything something went on his face. He could immediately tell that there was a difference.
Tommy wearily opened his eyes and was met with it being dark enough that his eyes didn’t hurt. The black-out glasses weren’t as dark as his own that Phil gave him whenever Tommy beg to play outside. But these glasses would do.
Wilbur, he guesses, was the one in front of him. He felt familiar and it took a few minutes to find out why. Wilbur was the person in the pictures back at the house. Phil would sometimes look at the pictures that lined the walls or tables. Sometimes the older would be so focused on the pictures that it would take Tommy to shake Phil to get him to pay attention.
Who were these people?
"Thank you," Tommy says as he takes in the place around him. Certainly wasn’t a place he has been before, but then again Tommy barely left the nest and if he did he was in the yard being watched like a hawk by Phil.
"Phil," Tommy blurts randomly "Phil flock where?" He asks and Wilbur and techno give him a weird look. "Phil? Is that someone from your flock?" Tommy nods happily with a chirp. "I don’t know any Phil besides my dad, but there’s no way that they are the same people." Techno huffs, something that the pink hair might use as a laugh. "Our Phil said he wasn’t going to have any more kids. Said two was enough when Wilbur kept on pushing Phil to adopt us." Wilbur smiles, sharp teeth on display. Tommy’s brain screams there is a predator and he needs to get away. He takes a step back.
Wilbur must have seen it because his smile falls and he frowns. The frown deepens even more after a few seconds. "We don’t know another Phil around here so that must mean that you are far away from home." Tommy frowns at that. He wants to go home and it hurts to even think about being far away from home. Who knows how long it will take to get back?
Tommy frowns even more because something wasn’t making sense to him. Wilbur said that he didn’t know Phil but yet the pictures back at the nest say otherwise. Tommy crooks his head to the side. "You," he trails off not knowing how to pronounce the word. 'Know' he chirps. "Phil."
Wilbur looks dumbfounded, "no," Wilbur says slowly, confusion laced in his voice "I’m Wilbur, not Phil." Wilbur smiles sadly at him and Tommy huffs frustrated. Maybe he should have just sucked it up and continued those speaking lessons. He chirps a small 'bitch.'
Before Tommy could chirp any more insults a small ding fills the quiet air and Wilbur’s attention is fully on what made the noise. The brunette pulls out a small box, a communicator, from where it hung on his belt. Wilbur’s brows furrow and his eyes go back In forth as he read. "I just got a message from Sneeg asking us what we did." Wilbur looks up from his communicator and sends a look to Techno, who looks confused.
"I didn’t think we did anything bad recently." The pink hair bunny’s nose twitches as he thinks. "I didn’t think so either but the message says and I quote ‘what did you do? Philza looks angry’." Wilbur’s voice trails off at the end. "Did we forget we did a prank on Phil?” Techno hums before shaking his head.
But Tommy was barely listening to them as he listens to the faint whistle that reaches his feathery ears. It was something sharp and it was slowly getting louder. His brain screamed to hide and get away but a small part said to go out in the open. "Shit, apparently Scott told Phil we were here and he’s on his way." Wilbur rubs his neck anxiously.
The whistling noise was getting louder and Tommy turns around to face the door of the place as he decides to drown out the two behind him. He licks his lips anxiously.
A predator was coming.
Will he run and hide or stay out in the open?
The gods above choose for him as the Door is Flug off its hinges, Tommy just barely dodging out of the way. The two behind him were screaming hurting Tommy's sensitive ears as he tries to take a good look at the black blob a few inches away where ‘his' bed was. He had no time to hide.
The black blob moves and it takes Tommy a second to realize that they were wings. Midnight black wings fall to reveal a man with blonde hair and a green robe. It takes Tommy an embarrassing amount of time to notice that he knows this man. 'Phil' he chirps and before he knows it he is stepping toward the older. Phil’s angry eyes fall on him but it is quickly washed away once he noticed who it was. "Tommy!” Phil whispers, relieved at seeing Tommy safe. The older quickly gets off the floor and brings him into a hug once Tommy got within arms reach.
Sharp talon claws reach into Tommy’s hair, 'flock!' Tommy chirps. 'Flock here.' Phil replies with a deep chirp. It makes Tommy relax in the older’s hold.
"What’s going on?" Wilbur asks. Tommy opens his eyes and can barely see them from how he is being hugged by Phil, but what he can see is that Techno and Wilbur were side by side sharing a confused look. They look stupid, it nearly makes Tommy laugh but he stops himself when the claw in his hair tightens its hold. It didn’t hurt but it surprised him.
"You took away Tommy." Phil hisses and Wilbur and Techno back away at that. Elytrians were scary species, with their large wings and sharp claws that can cut through skin. They are scary when they are adults but they are even more scarier and dangerous when they are parents.
Not many people have seen their young and maybe there’s a reason why nobody can even get close to their nest.
Wilbur puts his hands up as he backed up "Phil listen, we saw him hurt by your house and we didn’t know he was your kid! We just helped him!" Wilbur’s eyes widen even more than before, "wait I have another brother?" He whispers barely audible if it wasn’t for Tommy’s good hearing.
Phil huffs from above him, it tickles as one of Tommy’s hair moves on his skin from the huff. "He’s not my child's biologically, I found him and kept him. I was going to tell you guys but I thought he wasn’t old enough. Avian chicks get sick easily." Techno frowns at Phil’s confession while Wilbur was still shocked. "He looks like he’s, what, sixteen or seventeen? You somehow hid someone from us for sixteen years?" Techno’s voice was hard to pick any emotions from it but maybe that was just because Tommy hasn’t been around the bunny enough. Phil lets out a sad warble.
"He’s seventeen but that is still young for us avians and Elytrians. And I didn’t hide him. You guys were in the same room once when you stopped at my house. He was asleep and you guys just didn’t think to look in the corner." Phil hums "But I am sorry I didn’t tell you guys, you guys deserve to know you had another brother." The older follow-up. Everyone fell silent.
Tommy was having enough of this sappy shit. 'Fuck you bitch! Not young!' He whistles sharply. "Where did you learn this shit? I didn’t teach you it." Phil laughs as he pulls away from the hug, hands still on Tommy’s shoulders. 'Fucker.' He chirps again Just to annoy the older. Phil sighs.
"Well, I guess I should probably introduce you guys properly." Phil’s hands fall from Tommy’s shoulder. "Tommy, these two are Techno and Wilbur." The older points to each of them when he mentioned their names. Tommy looks uninterested at them because he already knew their names. "Techno, Wilbur, this is Tommy. Your brother.” It was Tommy’s turn to be pointed at whenever his name was told, but it fell after a few seconds. The two stares at Tommy with such a found look and a single word Rings out in Tommy’s head.
Brother.