Chapter Text
The house had erupted into pure chaos in a scrambled attempt to explain to Phil what had happened. Wilbur explaining how he accidentally… did something to Tommy? No further context was provided, mostly due to the panic that just radiated out of him.
Techno’s side had him entering Will’s room with towels after a ruckus, finding Wilbur intimidating Tommy. On top of all the different accounts, another story was being told. Tommy’s story involved him huddled in one of the kitchen chairs with a paper towel in his hand, glued to the side of his face. He was being silent, Tommy was never silent.
The kid had his fair share of avoiding in the past few days, but when a big fight came to and voices were raised he was always the loudest. The absence of the ringing in his ears told Phil more than he needed to know.
The real question was what had Wilbur actually done? Tommy was injured, anyone could tell you that much but the how becomes estranged. Techno believed that Wilbur had been punching him, his reasoning was the raised hands he had in the younger kid's face, and the clenched fists. Phil made a sound of acknowledgment but one look to Will’s fists confirmed that he couldn't have done that. Not a single scratch on them, not a bruise, or even a speck of dust.
Of course, Techno’s explanation did not include why Tommy was now utterly soaked with a towel as his only protection from the cold. Phil forced the kid to change as soon as he was able to get the older two in order. That kid was his main priority in all of this. While he was concerned more than words could speak about Will, the brunette had not gone through what Tommy had this past week.
Wilbur has always been the fire under Tommy in every fight. It was simply how the two worked. Short fights over reasonable things settled within a day. For what the fights lacked in length they made up for it in decibels. Phil had a small post-it note in his nightstand with a tally mark counter for noise complaints.
These fights recently were not that though, they were long and unnecessary. Sloppy, personal, guttural. It seemed almost like a contest based on who could hurt the other most. Wilbur always won. Phil knew what Wilbur was doing, he had seen it years ago when Tommy first arrived. Wilbur was trying to poke him for some reason.
Judging by the new singed hairs on the kid's head and the dripping water Phil began to piece it together quickly.
As of now, the man found himself at the dining room table. Techno to the right of him and Wilbur to the left. Tommy had placed himself the farthest he could from all of them, the last chair to the right. It was ever so slightly far but not enough to miss the conversation. Phil had reminded him he could just go to bed or stay but the kid had dejectedly passed him off with a hand wave.
Techno was silent and watching his younger brother with fire in his eyes. He too saw the fights that Tommy and the other had been having, and the things Wilbur was doing to push his buttons. That pent-up confusion and anger towards the way he had been treating the blonde happened to bubble to the surface as well. If looks could kill.
Wilbur was mindlessly running through why he was and wasn't at fault in short bursts. Nobody offered him rebuttal or debate. Small silences slipped through to invite anyone to respond to what he was saying. Nothing up to this point was offered. Tommy and Phil were busy figuring out the situation in their own heads and Techno was busy quelling the urge to punch his brother.
“...And Tommy asked me to! Again, I just wanted to point that out. I helped him out in the end and I…”
“Please don't say you ‘ didn't mean to’ again. You are giving me a headache.” Spoke to his brother from across from him. Techno was never one to sugarcoat when the situation wasn't sweet.
It worked, Wilbur shutting his mouth instantly. A few moments passed the four by, Phil was the only one who noticed that Tommy was progressively relaxing a bit. Originally he had come in the room to get the full story, but if it was what he thought it could ruin things. On top of that, when they all first sat down the youngest looked and probably felt so out of place. Phil gave him time.
With the boy not looking (as) mortified, Phil began.
“Will,” The brunette looked over to his father, Techno, doing the same. “I have a few questions. Could you do me the favor of answering them?” His voice was unwavering and lacked the warmth he usually dawned. The sons all collectively got a slight shiver down their spines.
“Yea, I… Of course.”
“Thank you.” Phil looked a bit more at ease, “One, why is Tommy soaked.”
His father knew whatever he was about to concoct would either be a lie or the dead truth, he didn't know what was worse in this situation.
Wilbur fell silent for a moment, evaluating the two options. Phil had just played an elaborate question with no easy answer. What was he going to say? The brunette looked over to the younger from across the table. Tommy was still slightly wet but no longer shivering. He wasn’t sure if this meant the kid was less cold or less afraid. What did Tommy want him to say? Would the kid just look up at him?
The answer to those two questions was answered as the blonde fastened a quick look at Will, nodding. Tommy wanted him to tell the truth. Wilbur decided the kid had a pure talent for making things more difficult.
Both of the older two at the foot of the table noticed this silent exchange. It made Phil especially anxious.
“Well… Tommy might want-”
“Wilbur, I asked you the question. Tommy would have answered it earlier if he wanted, I want this from you. I will repeat myself, How did Tommy get soaked?”
Techno only had the misfortune of dealing with this tone a few times before with Phil. He was always well behaved, but being the eldest meant he saw it used on his brothers as well. Even as he was the most experienced with hearing it, it never lost the sharp demanding edge it usually did.
“...Remember how you were burned at the mall today?”
Complete silence followed, both Wilbur and Tommy were now fixated on Phil’s expression waiting for a change. This was one of the deciding moments. If a pin dropped it would be louder than anyone present. Did Phil actually know what caused it and if he did, what does this mean for his odd behavior?
A room whizzing with questions and concerns but none more poignant than the ones that now faced the father. He tried hard to mask the panic that grew but to no avail, the message was clear when he recoiled momentarily.
“Yes, Will. I remember.” He gripped the inside of his palm, the throbbing pain growing. The burns weren’t even cold yet in his mind.
“Well, that happened again.” Wilbur tried his best to sound confident in his answer. He knew that Phil was well aware of what he and his brother had been dealing with and this was his chance to prove it. His hunches had been completely right about everything thus far, he was confident he could add another to the roster.
Phil sent a remorseful look over to Tommy. There was no getting out of the truth now, he was only sorry that he had to now deal with everything this way. The kid met his father's eyes and all the questions, all the anxieties, all the nagging quotes from Will that insisted that he was hiding something, every single thing was answered.
“...What are you talking about?” Techno interrupted the thick silence, glancing between the two in succession. To him, his father was burned strangely. How in the world could something as unexplainable as that happen again? There was no possible way.
“What Wilbur means to say...” Phil stilled for a moment in an attempt to muster up a response, someone took that liberty for him after a few seconds.
“Is that Tommy lit on fire again?” Wilbur grew bolder once more, steading his tone. The blonde cringed from across the room but offered no counter to the claim. Phil joined him.
“Tommy what? Was he on fire? Did he get burned like Dad?”
Tommy looked over to Techno, both locking eyes. All confidence in his standing within the situation slowly began to chip away with that authentic look. ‘ Why is Tommy acting so serious? Was he really that hurt?’
“Techno he didn't burn, he made the fire.” Will offered as if that helped in the slightest. Tommy and Techno did not lose eye contact, this proved to be worse for the pinkette. Tommy would and should have burst out laughing at this. Why wasn't anyone cracking?
“You can't be serious.” Techno mindlessly snorted, now assuming the look he had with Wilbur before. He saw the same look that was on Tommy’s face. Why did they look so afraid? Nobody thought to respond to him. A lull in the conversation allowed for the truth, and Techno saw nothing to show this was any form of prank or lie.
Technoblade had always been the most knowledgeable of the bunch. Always keen to find the right answer. Having lived in the family he was in for as long as he had, it became a lot easier to get out of his shell. By nature, he was quiet and unmoving. Intelligent to a fault, always plunging himself into whatever information best suited him. This made him incredibly knowledgeable on a wide and strange variety of things.
Wilbur and Tommy would always make passing jabs at him about these things, but Phil did nothing but cultivate them. In Phil’s eyes, Techno was so smart because instead of learning for the sake of school and for the future he always elected to learn things for himself. Throwing himself into ancient literature alongside the newest video game.
These small strange subjects were nothing like what he was seeing. Everything was wrong, Phil wasn't communicating, Tommy wasn't yelling, and Wilbur wasn't cool and collected.
“Wait… You're serious, you're... all serious?” Techno’s face dropped slowly. “So Tommy can… Light himself on fire or something? And not burn?”
“I think this is fuckin’ dumb. We get it, I am weird as shit. Let’s just move on.”
Techno’s face looked even more shocked at his younger brother's answer. Tommy couldn't act for shit so why was he being so convincing. “This gives me absolutely no context, Dad please come on back me up here.” Phil only looked back at Techno with a reluctant face. “You're serious? Don't tell me you're in with whatever this is?”
“He might as well, he has been lying for years now about all of this. Might as well go for a few more.” Wilbur grumbled. Phil shot another look over to Wilbur.
“I never lied. Not once.” The father argued.
“You may not have said it explicitly but I know for a damn face I told you about what I can do and you refused to talk about it. Now you refuse to talk about Tommy’s office visit and your burn. I'm sensing a pattern here but by all means, stop me if I'm wrong.” Techno sat back for a second trying to make sense of what his brother was saying. Tommy only watched intently, ‘Here we go.’
“I… It isn't a comfortable subject... All I wanted was to make sure...”
All words faded out of Tommy’s mind. That's it. He did know. Phil rushed him home instead of the hospital for a reason, he refused to talk about the heat for long periods of time for a reason. It was all Tommy.
It all made sense, Wilbur was always right.
Speaking of Wilbur, he phased out of his father’s explanation as well, focusing on the faint heat of the room. It hadn't been like that before. ‘ Shit.’
He darted up and made his way over to the other side of the table, Phil instantly queuing into the motion and standing up. Techno becoming more confused by the minute.
“Please don't tell me this kid is the reason This house is so hot.”
So nobody told him.
~0~0~0~
Morning arose quicker than anticipated, the house stiller than it ever had been. Between the drama of the week and the revelations of the previous night, everyone was exhausted. Techno was up the earliest, having never slept at all.
What he had been told last night stuck with him, likely if it was a prank or just something to mess with him they would have said that by now. The fact that everyone remained stone-cold made Techno almost believe it all. On one hand, it explains essentially all of the issues Will had been pointing out as if recent while also explaining the office visit that his younger brother ran from. On the other, to accept the reality they were proposing means that people can just bend the laws of everything known and somehow go under the radar.
What Wilbur and Tommy missed before they collectively zoned off was Phil’s reasoning, and it was the hardest pill to swallow out of everything.
“I… It isn't a comfortable subject... All I wanted was to make sure you all had the least stress possible. It's hard for me to talk about all of this you have to understand. If you knew earlier god knows what would have happened…They would have come for you all.”
‘You all’ and 'They' being the main concerns. As far as Techno knew he was completely average, besides the foster system past and the strange name he believed he was functionally no different than anyone else. What would you do if your entire basis in yourself was flipped at a moment's notice?
What Techno has done is shut himself in his room and stay up all night researching and booking into anything and everything that had to do with ‘ enhanced humans.’ He was sure no matter what he was going to try to make sense of everything. (To his disappointment the only thing the internet provided was a waste of hours.) From what he understood of what Wilbur and Tommy gave up last night, Tommy had some sort of ability to manipulate heat/fire to an unreasonable degree. Will claimed the boy’s arms were basically a torch before he had to get water.
While this ability was outlandish it also had a capacity for believability. Techno had always noticed Tommy’s apparent unending radiation of heat that he produced, not to mention the heat issue the house had been dealing with. Tied to his emotions, wherever the kid went nowadays things tended to heat up pretty quick.
It made Techno remember the recent late nights that he was forced to sweat out.
Tommy was impossible, but not improbable in his eyes. Wilbur in comparison just wasn't even a chance.
Wilbur had confessed that he had an ability that when he put enough emphasis on his words, anyone would obey. He claimed that it only worked within someone's limitations, you couldn't ask someone to run to Paris in an hour for example. As for how he got this information, nobody questioned it. Best not to know.
Tommy had clued Techno into what happened in the room with Wilbur, lighting a bright terror in his mind. An ability that powerful was incredibly dangerous and without the proper safeguards could spell disaster. The pinkette almost laughed at the notion of this ability even existing, inches from just playing it off like it was nothing. A miracle that would essentially make him a god among men, such a power in the hands of his brother just wasn't feasible. These doubts were placed on the backburner when Techno looked at his youngest brother. Tommy was always the worst at hiding his emotions.
The eldest now found himself scratching anything he could in a small red journal, scrounging for any logical explanations to the whole situation. It came to him that if this really was a prank after all his time would be wasted, but in that slim chance that everything was as his family said he needed to know anything and everything.
Phil had explained after the boys calmed Tommy down that Kristin had returned to the neighbors and was watching their kids that night. He seemed relieved at the thought, promising he would tell her everything once she came back home. Techno and Wilbur shared a fleeting look, neither believing their father. Techno would tell his mother as soon as he could when Phil was gone to make sure. If he had been hiding that his brothers were enhanced for as long as he did it proved he was damn good at staying silent.
Wilbur had tried to pry Phil’s information about them and how he knew what they were going through as soon as he could. He threw out wild theories one after another but Phil paid none any mind, just letting his son speak for a while. Techno ultimately had to step in and ask him properly to explain his side. Their father promised to tell them everything as soon as he could but stayed silent. He swore that if he could he would have told them years ago, but even knowing about their abilities put Will and Tommy in incredible danger. Wilbur wasn't taking this answer, Tommy agreeing. They only stopped when Techno asked them to.
Phil wasn't going anywhere and taking some breathing space was a good idea. From what Techno gathered, Phil was most likely right. There was no way that Will and Tommy were the only enhanced people out there, so the fact that they were not common or even spoke a word about online proved that (In the event this was not a prank) someone was silencing this subject, to a terrifying degree.
A small knock woke Techno from his trace, moving his attention from his journal to his phone. It was now 10:24 in the morning. Wilbur and Tommy always slept in so it likely it was Phil, working on the assumption that they even got sleep at all. Techno didn't know what to say, this playing true for everyone in the house. How was he supposed to talk to his family normally after this?
“...Tech?” The voice was Phil’s just like he had guessed. This made the situation ultimately worse. How could he speak to the center of the confusion? His choice was made, looking back down to his writings.
“Mate… Just wanted to let you know I made pancakes. You don't have to get up if you don't want to… I just wanted to … Things are tough and I wanted to do something for you boys.” Even after everything he was still Phil, graveyards worth of skeletons in his closet but a tone sweetness more potent than honey.
“You don't have to answer either, just know if they start to get cold on the counter I'll put them in the fridge.”
The small shadow from behind his door receded and just like that Phil was gone.