Chapter Text
“Here is the packets for the Tranc Tranc we have, I saw one with a swollen eye so I put a cup of medicine in the water room for you to put a few drops into their water to treat that.”
Wilbur nods as he speaks, head bobbing and hands tapping Absentmindedly on everything in the room, marking a list or a thought in his head with each small gesture.
“Anything else for that section?” Techno drawls.
He shakes his head, “And then while you do that I was going to give water to the larger ones we have close by,” Wilbur turns, as if that was that, but Technoblade knows better.
“Are you just going to be obsessed with the Human this entire trip?”
“I am not-”
“You hate the big ones, you’ve remarked that so many times before,”
Wilbur stands tall, “And I’ve changed my mind, branched out!”
“Just because even you could probably damage it doesn’t mean it’s safe,” Techno says, he hefts the bags of food higher into his arms as he follows Wilbur around the room, “You know Philza wants to find everything he can before we get in the same reach as it.”
“But it looks so still and quiet,” Wilbur mutters.
“You looked at the tapes already?” Technoblade rubs the side of his head and his shoulders lump a little. Wilbur looks away.
“No- I just,”
Techno sighs, “Don’t meddle too much, it’s exciting, but if it ends up dying by your hands because it has bad eyesight or something you know Phil is going to have your head.”
Wilbur shuffles around a bit more before finally agreeing, tucking his chin into his chest just a little. Techno flicks an ear, shaking his head, “Phil did say it was an omnivore, some basic leaves won’t hurt it as long as we make sure it chews before swallowing.”
Immediately Wilbur perks up. Technoblade bends down to one cabinet to retrieve a filtered package of leaves and hands it to him. In the next second, Wilbur is out the door, in one hand is the nearly empty bag and in the other is a strap connecting to a pack of safely treated water.
His footsteps echo down their metal hallways. Wilbur quickly hops from toe to heel as he navigates the main hallway until he reaches a close circular room with separating rooms.
It’s testament to his excitement that he already has the door number memorized.
He walks right up to it and opens the assigned screen, showing a birds eye view of the inside.
The human seems to have moved from it’s spot again, no longer tucked into its bedding, instead attempting to climb the sink and then jump to touch the water facet, fashioned on up high on the other wall.
It is nowhere close to reaching distance but as Wilbur watches the human attempt it, he flinches at its boldness. For an apparently fragile species, with no added tail or extra limbs for balance, nor padded feet for it’s landing, it stumbles to the floor over and over again, no closer to touching the outcropping but each time it walks back up to the basin to curl its feet around the edge before leaping.
Wilbur only watches it attempt the jump twice, flinching each time as it hits the flooring with an obvious hard impact, even if he can’t hear it through the sealed door.
He turns off the screen and hesitantly opens the door, allowing the seal to fall away and making his entrance obvious enough for it to prepare. Before he opens the door fully Wilbur takes an anxious breath, a reminder by his side; his water sloshes around, cool against his skin.
A slow hello bubbles from his throat, gentle and coaxing as he pushes the door open. Cooled air escaping the room and brushing against his exposed wrists and throat.
Then he gets his first real, open look at the human.
It’s pale and clumsy, using its arms to balance itself on the basin and the walls, wide open eyes that flicker around the room, barely focusing on him before looking to something else, if Wilbur had to describe humans in one word, this human looked like a jigsaw puzzle of different parts messily put together.
It leans away from him but crouches forward, balancing on its limbs and staying very, very still when Wilbur enters.
Upon locking eyes, Wilbur lets himself lower his head, keeping himself ready and tense just in case the human decides to spring at him.
It’s awfully similar to Eradacas and immediately Wilbur can imagine it sitting by a rich folk’s chair and leaning into their space to be by their side, never used for any more than basic retrieval tasks. Wilbur clicks a few times to it, it doesn’t flinch so much as retreat into itself.
It’s arms curl upwards so its hands, curled up, are closer to its face. It’s firm shoulders, set in a straight line, are warped around it’s ears and immediately Wilbur can tell it’s protecting its neck, which must be sensitive.
That’s unusual for a species of human’s size to have weak spots on it’s most movable areas, especially when connecting to the places where they may be needing to reach or adjust to take in food. Even Wilbur’s species, agile and flightless as it is, has no weak spots by his spine or neck, instead in hollows by their pelvis which he can curl and overlap with extra flaps of tissue when the situation calls for it.
The human opens its mouth slightly, either to inhale air more steadily, or it smells the water and food, which Wilbur doubts with its less than optimal snout. The human is unresponsive besides that so Wilbur lightly sighs and turns to keep the human in the corner of his eye while he takes the spout of the water pouch and dips it to fill the basil.
He can hear the human take deep breaths on the other side of the room, air whistling past it’s teeth.
When the basin is filled wilbur drops his empty water pouch back to his side and then he turns fully to the human and opens the package of edible foliage.
Wilbur tilts his head and picks up a small leaf, tears it in half and reaches out towards the human, coaxing them forward. Phil was always better at mimicking to their creatures, making himself more inviting.
The human’s face twists uncomfortably, skin overlapping on the edges of its eyes, eyebrows, and the bottom of its mouth. It walks away to the furthest wall then walks along it slowly, stopping and starting when Wilbur doesn’t move, testing him or familiarizing itself with him Wilbur isn’t sure. Wilbur can’t take his eyes off the strange behaviour, it is coming towards him but seemingly taking the longest route.
Edging around him as if to get behind him, even when Wilbur is very close to the basin and unable to be approached from behind without him noticing, the human still gives a wide berth, gaze largely flicking around his figure.
Wilbur wonders if humans were ambush predators on their planet, meant to have the element of surprise, or feeling more at ease when someone isn’t making eye contact with them like the Enderians.
Wilbur experimentally clicks a note to the human, when it doesn’t react much besides scrunching its face, he takes a step forward, food still extended.
The human doesn’t cower, it doesn’t do what any intelligent species would do, instead in fact, it does the opposite. It closes its mouth fully into a snarl, snaps at him with an ear piercing bark of sound that causes Wilbur to fault.
It’s split second of screeching stops and then starts again, growing louder and louder with each pause to catch it’s breath until Wilbur has dropped the bag in order to clutch at his ears, if he had known their vocal cords could produce such high sounds he would have taken some ear mufflers as precaution like he would for other species, but he is unprepared for the assault.
Wilbur is wincing and distracted, the human snarls and jumps forward, its clawed fingers tucked close to the sides of its chest and fingers spread.
The human barks, backing Wilbur into the corner and draws a hand backwards to partially lunge at Wilbur.
The human feints a grab, snarls. It’s shaking and spitting like a full flipped has switched in its mind, completely different to the fumbling barely conscious mess in the shipping container.
When Wilbur is standing back his ground, reaching towards his belt to grab a clasp, a rope, something to keep restrain it. It kicks him down onto the ground,
It swiped at his ankles, hooked around them and pulling sharply. Wilbur hits the ground and then the human’s foot violently throws itself into the soft part of Wilbur’s belly, he wheezes.
Wilbur is sure it’s going to come back for a third blow when it reaches towards him and pushes down on Wilbur’s wrists, chafing the skin, and leans so close that Wilbur can smell it’s breath.
The human demands something, then draws back his fist and smarts the wall next to Wilbur’s head, he can feel the vibrations.
Wilbur’s species is designed to see at far distances, the closer the human gets to him intensifies the blurred territory he has just encroached upon. Wilbur braces himself and rolls against the human’s grip.
He is released and for a frightening moment the human is all breath, gearing up for something. Wilbur, mid roll, takes his arm and hooks it around the human's vulnerable neck and squeezes, forcing the human to lean into the hold to relieve the grip and pushing its own face into the floor.
The human gnashing their jaw against his forearm, he can feel the clicking bone rub against his limb. The human curls in their legs to brace against the floor and tries to pull out while their arms push against Wilbur’s top heaviness.
Wilbur’s mind is racing, trying to remember what Phil or Techno do when they have a creature pinned but they obviously aren’t usually half entangled with it like some childhood wrestling and aren’t usually struggling so hard, he can already feel the muscles in his stomach clenching where he was hit.
He debates calling for help but there is no way he can reach the comm on his back or the emergency button on the outside hallway without being potentially mauled. Even when pressed this close to the human he can’t really feel the muscle strength that would indicate such aggressiveness as a common practice.
Then it must be stress, must be some form of self defense, and the best way to counteract that is to leave the animal alone. That is what Philza always says, his annoying voice in his ear even in the most dangerous situations. Unfortunately, he cannot leave the animal alone right now, he’s busy keeping it from snapping his head off.
So Wilbur pushes firmly against the weak spot of the human until they make some awful half formed squawks and strangled barks, even if it makes him cringe.
He grabs one boney wrist, the human shakes it as much as it can, trying to disengage Wilbur’s hold. They are rubbing and twisting their wrist in Wilbur’s hold, making him hiss in pain but he manages to pull enough to gain control. Even when fighting against the human’s defensive strength, he manages to pull it full to their back, he can vaguely see their shoulder bones flex with the movement.
Then Wilbur bends uncomfortably to press his leg against their back and pinned wrist to free a hand, momentarily letting the human’s arm go free, where it immediately pushes fruitlessly against the floor for leverage.
Wilbur brings the other arm to connect to the back and then in the same movement pushes against the back of the human’s neck into the floor with most of his strength until he hears the human wheeze.
The human falls silent, trying to roll their head against his hand but he doesn’t give them any wiggle room. Their braced legs are now pinned beneath their stomach and unable to move.
Wilbur takes a few quick deep breaths and whispers to them, half panicked, “Ok human, ok, ok, here is what we are going to do,” The human squirms but doesn’t otherwise react to his words.
“I am going to let you go, and you will not attack me,” He says, glancing behind himself to look at the partially opened door, “I’m letting you go, no attacking, I’m going.”
Wilbur gives one more push through his hands onto the human’s body and then throws himself away, leaving behind the food bag and rushing to the door, he would have torn it off the automatic chain if he had the raw strength to do so with how fast he pulls it open, pushing past the machine’s motions.
He slips through, pushes the door closed with a massive slam and then it is silent.
The seam reattaches to the door with a pleasant hiss and Wilbur’s knees give out.
He sits and he regains his breath, mind still in survival mode, he barely can bring himself to his knees to touch the keypad and show the feed inside the room.
The human, who had not even chased after him, was leaning against the far corner and clutching the front of it’s throat, it’s mouth is open in a warped open mouth grimace, its shaking and occasionally half jumping or flinching while it sits. It looks the right amount of scared and submissive Wilbur had anticipated before entering the room.
Now Wilbur knows better, he collapses once more against the wall.
----
“How’d it go?” Techno asks, back turned to the open door.
Wilbur, who he knew immediately based on their gait, sat heavily into one of their rolling chairs and didn’t answer.
Technoblade spares him a quick glance, his shirt is half stretch and rumbled, his hair and bracelets is pushed, smarted to one side as if he had hugged someone with no restraint of politeness, his ears are pushed against his head tightly and his hands are smarting with friction burns.
Techno’s eyes widened, “What happened?”
Wilbur rests his head on the back of the chair and looks up at Techno, looking very miserable, “I meddled too much”
Techno buries his face in his hands, groaning deeply into them before visibly collecting himself and sitting on another chair, “Explain.”
“I don't even know,” Techno motions for Wilbur’s hands and he relents, putting his aching palm in the other’s broad grip, “I must have set them off or something,”
“It attacked you?”
He shrugs.
“Where else are you hurt?”
“Nowhere,” Wilbur tugs away and stands from his chair, detaching the empty water pouch from his side with a barely concealed wince.
Techno pinches the bridge of his nose, coming up behind Wilbur and poking at him.
Wilbur lowly hisses at him, annoyed, before Techno accidentally pokes him in the side and the hiss is retracted with a shape inhale, completely falling silent so Wilbur can clutch at his stomach.
“The human didn’t like, try to get the food or water or anything, they were just-” He falls silent when Techno lifts up his shirt, he ghosts his fingers over the rough skin and Wilbur closes his eyes, “They were just upset at me being in their space,”
“Territorial?” Techno mumbles, “This is a bit much for crossed boundaries.”
“Did you find Phil?”
“He’s busy with the duo companions, didn’t get to tell him you were risking your neck.”
He raises an eyebrow as he looks down at Wilbur, turning to grab a separate pouch of water that Wilbur can drink from, “I wasn’t planning on getting hurt.”
“And yet…”
“Screw off,” Wilbur hisses. He sticks his tongue into the pouch and sucks up some of the cool liquid, “Won’t happen next time.”
“Well next time I doubt you will be in there alone.” He crosses his arms. Techno wrenches his arm back into his tending hold.
“What? This is my project.”
“I don’t know when that was decided but as of now it’s officially been un-decided,”
Wilbur opens his mouth to defend himself, his pointed ears flaring slightly, but Techno raises his burly hand to cut him off, “Philza won’t like that you were in there, much less that both you and the human ended up worse because of it,”
He turns away, “It’s still my duty,”
“Wilbur-”
“I accepted this creature transport so I’m taking primary care,”
“Primary care so be it, but don’t go alone again,” He pauses. Wilbur’s hand, which is red and abbrassed, has some friction burns unlike he had anticipated, separate from a nasty case of rug burn or tissue sensitivity, it’s like Wilbur had rubbed his sensitive palms over stone for an hour, Technoblade doubted that the human’s skin was that rough, it look squishy.
Techno rubs some oil into Wilbur’s skin, softly pushing it into the crevices of his hand, hopefully, to prevent it from cracking on the edges, “You know that’s a lot of damage for such a fragile creature,” Technoblade muses.
Wilbur scoffs, “It’s got a wicked set of defensive claws. I don’t think humans were built to fight like that all the time, too unbalanced,”
Techno tilts his head as he considers this, remembering the limp hands and arms of the human pressed into a too small container, it seemed tall, even when crouched, he wondered if it could make itself wider- stretch out like a predator, or if tries to stand tall, even with it’s stick figure nature.
Humming absentmindedly, he asks,“So… are you going to tell Philza that you’ve interfered or will I have to?”
He bristles, whipping his face to stare at Technoblade, “Don’t you dare.”
“He needs to know.”
“He really doesn’t”
“You’re just going to let him walk into the human’s room with no warning?” Techno accuses.
“Well, well-”
“You were really expecting to be the only one this whole trip to interact with the human-”
“I was not!” Wilbur interrupted, defensive, “I know Phil is going to need to do his own notes I just thought…” He trails off. Technoblade’s gaze locked on something behind him.
Wilbur closes his eyes, already submitting to his fate, he slowly turns around with a ducked head and looks at Philza, standing tall, in the open doorway.