Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tommy was sitting in the general kitchen area of the ship when the alarms went off.

About half of the rest of his crew were in there with him. Phil had his back turned, facing one of the taller counters that housed a bunch of powders that-when combined with a liquid- would turn into a beverage. Wilbur was sitting in the chair next to him, the color of his skin was morphing between- dare Tommy say- inhuman colors, but generally staying at a calm yellow. And Tubbo was leaning against the wall, trying his best not to nod off. Tommy was aware that his species didn’t need a lot of sleep like humans did, but his friend really looked like he needed it more than ever.

It was just like any other domestic morning on the ship. Since everyone woke up and did work at their own pace, the only time every single member was in the kitchen together was during their mandatory communal dinner time.

They still had a couple of space-hours until then, and for once in his life, Tommy didn’t have any work to do. He was taking this time for some well earned relaxation.

Sure , he could be seen lounging around most of the time. But usually in those cases, he was procrastinating on a task he needed to do. But not this time! Big Man Tommyinnit was the most responsible human in all of space.

And, of course, that's when the lights above them decided to flash with a bright red color, and an alarm decided to pierce through the air.

Everyone in the room jumped to action, even Tubbo, who was fully awake within the moment.

“Shit,” Phil swore in common. His big, iridescent feathers puffed up in every direction, “It must be the eastward pipes.”

The captain rushed out of the room and towards what Tommy could only assume was the control room; the room with all of the doohickeys that would tell them what was wrong with the ship.

“Tommy, Tubbo, stay here,” Wilbur directed as he got out of the chair to follow Phil. The color of his skin immediately changed to a blazing orange.

When the phantom was out of the kitchen, both of the younger boys looked at each other. As their eyes met, something clicked, and Tubbo nodded.

This was why Tubbo was his favorite.

Wasting no time, the two of them ran out to follow the others towards the control room. Tommy’s lanky legs burned with how fast he was running, but Tubbo was still faster. He blamed the fact that the other had two more sets of legs than he did.

That was a problem that Tommy would have to figure out later.

Upon entering the control room, the rest of the crew was already there, even Ranboo, who was the last person to run towards danger.

“What’s going on?” Tommy breathed out, stumbling further into the room. Barely anyone looked at or even acknowledged him, “Guys? What’s happening?”

Phil was hunched over the control panel, eyes studying something fervently. Techno’s much larger body was hovered over his shoulder. Everyone else was standing there, looking quite frankly dumb and at a loss for what to do.

Groaning, Tommy pushed through the crowd until he was at the front of the room with the captain and the head guard, “Come on! What’s happening?” He looked directly at Phil. Surely the man will have figured it out by now.

Phil turned around to address the worried crowd.

“The pipes in the east end of the ship are threatening to burst,” He spoke loudly, bravely, and like a badass , Tommy had to speculate, “We need to replace the outer casing before a room combusts.”

That sounded. . . bad. It sounded really bad.

“What do we do?” He asked, but again , he was ignored.

“Niki, Jack, I need you guys to get the melding machine ready with a half a ton of brealanite,” Phil directed, the two of them nodded and were off to get the alien metal-like material that would be strong enough to fix the pipes.

“Wil, Tech,” Phil looked to the two older aliens, “The three of us are going to the source of the threat. The damage is a couple of feet long, so all of us are going to need to be working on it at once.”

The adults all got ready to move into action at the current most dangerous part of the ship, before Tommy stopped them.

“Wait! What about us?” Tommy gestured towards him, Tubbo, and Ranboo. He knew that the others were trying to leave them out of it because they were “young” or whatever. But they were talking about the safety of the ship and everybody on it. Tommy couldn’t just sit there!

Phil huffed as his expression hardened. It was clear he was eager to get to the pipes and just fix them already. Tommy was holding them up,

“You know the set of pipes in the back of Wilbur’s lab?” They nodded, “I need you guys to go there and make sure that the securement valve stays fully twisted to the left. Because the pipes are being put under so much pressure on the opposite side of the ship, there’s a chance something could go wrong with these ones.”

“What! That’s stupid! Let us help with the real stuff!” Tommy argued before Tubbo or Ranboo had a chance too. The two of them clearly wanted to fight it as well.

“Tommy, this is important,” Phil told him sternly. Tommy bristled at the severity of his tone, Phil was never this angry, “Do not leave those pipes.”

Begrudgingly, the three teenage aliens went over to Wilbur’s lab on the complete opposite side of the ship from where all of the action was. The room was- aside from the alarms- completely silent and calm. 

It was the last place Tommy wanted to be. This ship was his home! He should be helping save it!

“I think that’s the lever Phil was talking about,” Ranboo pointed out once they were far into the room. The lever was a yellow color pretty high up along the wall. Already, Tommy could see it struggling under the pressure of the failing pipes.

Ranboo, with his extraordinary height, grabbed onto it first, but struggled almost immediately.

“Oh- geez! I don’t know if I’m strong enough to keep this thing in place!” Ranboo exclaimed.

“Of course you couldn’t Ranboo. Enderians are like, the weakest species out there,” Tubbo huffed, trying to get to the lever himself.

“At least I’m tall enough to reach it,” Ranboo refuted.

“Hey, hey!” Tommy butted in, “Now’s not the time to turn on each other. I know none of us want to be here, but we have to be. Here- let me grab the lever.”

Tommy pushed Ranboo out of the way, grabbing onto the rubber casing of the lever connected to the piping valve. Ranboo was right about it fighting back, but Tommy could take it with his human strength.

He also wasn’t half as tall as Ranboo, so he found himself in a position half kneeled on a workbench.  

“You got that handled?” Tubbo asked from where he was standing off to the side. Ranboo was now next to him, looking a little ashamed that he couldn’t take care of the task himself. 

“ Shit . I’m not having a great time, but I’m much too strong for some pipes to stop me,” Tommy gritted through his teeth.

There was a stretch of silence that passed by Tommy unnoticed, too busy trying not to think about how sore his arm was becoming. 

To his side, Tubbo and Ranboo were looking at each other suspiciously, talking with their eyes. Just as Tommy was about to ask them to find some way to help, Tubbo spoke up again.

“So you’re like, good good?” he emphasized.

“Yeah? What are you getting at, man?” 

The two shuffled closer to the door.

“Then you should be all good here while we go help out in the east wing!”

“What?” Tommy’s stomach dropped, “No! Don’t just leave me here!”

He was this ready to let go of the lever, but even slightly unclenching his fist set it back a couple of inches out of place.

“Stay here, Tommy,” Ranboo said, by that point they were pretty much at the door.

“ Guys ,” Tommy urged, lacing his voice with as much desperation as possible.

“Stay here, Tommy,” Tubbo repeated, “And don’t let go of that lever.”

And with that, they were gone, and Tommy was alone in the lab. At that point, the tendons in his arm were already burning with exertion. 

Normally, he would hate to admit that he wasn’t strong enough to do this alone, but the situation was clearly becoming more dire. He really could not hold onto this for much longer.

How long did it take a person to seal some pipes?

From his memory, it took maybe ten minutes to melt something with the melding machine, and that was if you were really pushing it. He could assume that they were successful when the lever stopped fighting back, but there was no predicting when that would happen.

At some point, the alarm shut off, but the lights were still flashing a threatening red.

He wishes he could be in the room with everyone else, instead of just brushed to the side. Did they not think he could take it?

Clearly he couldn’t, his arm feels like it's about to fall off.

Desperately, he looked around the room for something that could help him. The only things within reach were beakers and maybe a pair of pliers if he stretched, but nothing that could help him keep this lever at the appropriate spot.

After moments, his eyes latched onto something: a bundle of rope.

It was perfect. If he could get his hands on it, he could tie the lever down.

There was a problem though.

The bundle of rope was just outside the door of the lab.

If only Tubbo and Ranboo were here. They could have grabbed it in no time.

In order to get to the rope, he would have to leave the lever for much longer than he was comfortable with. But he doubted he could hold onto it any longer.

For a moment, he debated the gamble set out in front of him.

Then, almost as if it was a sign, the lights stopped flashing.

Was. . .the emergency over with?

He couldn’t be sure. The alarms shut off too, that didn’t mean anything. But, he could take it as a chance to go and get the rope.

He had to be fast, faster than ever. 

Tommy exhaled deeply, letting the filtered spaceship air flow through his lungs, before he shot off of the table and sprinted towards the exit of the room. It was as if a timer had been set the second his hand let go of the lever.

Though it seems that he had made an incredible mistake. When his feet hit the ground, he heard the slamming noise of the lever hitting the other end of its route. And, by the time he was barely through the doorway, it was already too late.

Tommy felt the explosion before he heard or saw it. All he knew was that his body slammed against the wall across from him, a couple of inches away from the rope he was aiming to get.

A loud, horrible noise pierced his ears, making them pop. When he finally came to, he was leaned over on the ground, and the room in front of him was up in flames.

Not a good thing to happen when you’re in a spaceship.

Without even really thinking, he staggered forward and slammed the emergency button right outside the door. It was put there in case any of Wilbur’s experiments went wrong. Tommy doesn’t think any of them thought it would be used for an accident this bad.

With the button pressed, the door immediately slid shut in front of his face, and sprinkler-like devices dropped down from the ceiling, showering the room in some type of substance that would extinguish the fires.

Tommy looked on with dread. The entire room was ruined. He was lucky that it didn’t reach any other room, or break through the wall into open space.

His heart was beating through his chest. He felt like a child again, like he just broke his mother’s vase. That horrible feeling when you’ve done something wrong.

Of course, that’s when he hears multiple sets of footsteps running down the hall.

“Tommy!” He flinched when his name was called. Suddenly, a hand was on his shoulder, roughly pushing him back.

“What have you done?!” Phil yelled, looking helplessly at the ruined room.

Well, at least they fixed those other pipes.

“We told you not to leave the room!” Tubbo joined in. Hypocrite.

“I- I couldn’t hold onto the lever,” He tried weakly, “I thought that if I could get to the rope, I could tie it down.”

He weakly gestured to the rope, which felt like a big joke now.

“Tommy, you had one job,” Phil stressed. He looked down on him with an anger so strong, even the peaceful captain couldn’t keep it all down.

“I tried . I swear!” All the fight was run out of him. He really fucked up.

Wilbur was a bright red color as his webbed hands rested against the glass of the door. He looked upon the inside with a paralyzing shock. A deep blue started creeping up from his core, but Tommy watched as it was pushed away, and Wilbur’s face turned to one of rage.

“Decades of research is gone ,” He started silently, before switching to a shout in Tommy’s direction, “Decades! Tommy! Ruined! I-”

The man leaned against the wall. Niki rushed up to him, whispering something in his ear.

Tommy backed up, the hateful stares from everyone in the ship was becoming too much for him. His back landed against something solid. Looking up, he met Techno’s eyes.

“Techno, please, you have to understand-”

“Go to your room, Tommy,” Techno said with a level tone.

“Please, I’m sorry,” Tommy could feel tears welling up in his eyes.

“Just- stop talkin’ Tommy. Go to your room. We’ll,” Techno paused as he looked around at the wreckage, “-deal with this tomorrow.”

With one final desperate attempt at searching for someone willing to hear him out, Tommy hobbled to his room- tail tucked between his legs. Feeling as though his heart had melted in his ribs.

His room was dark, and felt colder than usual. He tried to fill every inch of the space with decorations, but now, it felt terrible and empty.

His body dropped down onto his bed.

Luckily, it seemed, he came out rather unscathed. Besides maybe some bruises, there was only a sharp pain in the upper side of his right arm. Licking his wounds, he looked at it.

A small piece of glass was stuck in it, probably from a beaker. It was easy to dig out, and didn’t bleed too bad. But it stung horribly. In any other situation, he would have taken it to his crewmates and they would have patched him up immediately. Depending on the person, he probably would have left with a hug as well, even if it was a small scratch and he wasn't dying.

No one would be patching up his injury tonight. Nobody would be visiting him tonight.

Tommy was left alone in his room- temporary holding cell, to wallow in guilt until the automated hour cycle shifted from night to day.

******

Tommy awoke the next morning to the sound of knocking from the other side of his door. The sound was heavy and strong, and he knew almost immediately that it was Technoblade.

As the exhaustion was still seeping off of his mind, he found himself scared to respond. Maybe, if he was as quiet as possible, Techno would think that he was still asleep and leave him alone.

There was another set of knocks.

It seemed that he was pretty determined to wake Tommy up.

For a moment, Tommy shut his eyes again and wrapped his blanket around his shoulders tighter, a huge chunk of it was clenched in his fist. 

“Come in,” He invited, and that was all the piglin needed to open the sliding door and walk in with a plate in his hands. The look on his face held an emotion that Tommy couldn’t place if he tried.

“I brought you some breakfast,” Techno started, “None of us really got to dinner last night, but I know that humans get hungry very easily.”

Tommy sat up in his bed as the older man extended out the plate to him. On it looked to be what Tommy liked to call ‘powdered bread’. It was an alien dish where when you mix a bunch of cooking powders, would form into some fluffy, pastry-like thing that related to Earth bread.

Normally, Tommy would adorn it with toppings until it was basically a dessert. Today, it looked as though it were a rock; unappetizing. 

“I’m not hungry,” He spoke quietly. Techno huffed, and put the plate down on his desk.

Techno looked around the room, looking like he was holding back from saying something. It was unusual. In all the years Tommy had lived on this ship, he had never seen Techno afraid of anything. He was half convinced that piglins just didn’t feel fear.

All of his theories were out the window now.

“I uh- I actually came here to come get you,” Techno brushed a hooved hand through his long, pink hair, “We’re having a meeting and we need you.”

Tommy hated the way his stomach lurched at that. Crew meetings had never been a bad thing before. Now, he knew that he was walking into a room of people deciding his fate.

Would they kick him off of the ship? Leave him on some planet with a cold shoulder and forget that he exists? His mind was already spiraling with possibilities.

He couldn’t leave, this was his home! He belonged here more than anywhere else in the world. Tommy doubts he could even survive if they left him.

“Alright,” Tommy got up and out of his bed, leaving the blanket behind even though he would much rather hide under it. Wordlessly, he followed Techno like he was following an executioner to a block.

The walk to the room in which their crew meetings took place felt like it took ages, like his feet were stuck to the tiled floor like glue.

Predictably, and unfortunately, when the door opened, every single member of the crew was already sitting at the table, and all eyes were on him when he entered.

Everyone looked rough, as if they didn’t get a moment of sleep last night. It made Tommy feel even more guilty for having a full night's rest under his belt.

Wilbur looked the worst out of all of them. His skin was still a simmering red color, and the hatred hadn’t left his face. Usually, when they had meetings, Tommy had a solidified seat next to the phantom, but today, the seats surrounding him were filled.

Tommy sat between Tubbo and Niki, he was lucky that neither of them moved away from him.

Additionally, during their usual meetings, people would be chattering amongst themselves until the actual topic began, but today, everyone was quiet, waiting for Phil to speak up.

The only thing that remained the same was the way Phil cleared his throat as a segway to begin.

“There’s no beating around the bush, here,” Phil started, his hands were held together in front of his mouth, and his elbows were leaned against the table in front of him, “Tommy, because of your actions yesterday, a vital part of our ship was destroyed.”

“I’m sorry, but I-” Tommy tried, but was cut off.

“Let me finish, Tommy. You destroyed the lab, putting all of us at risk. We’re all lucky that the damage didn’t extend elsewhere. This isn’t even the first example of you neglecting to do what you were told.”

“I asked you to water my plants for a week, and when I came back, they were dead,” Niki chimed in sadly. Tommy flinched and looked over to her.

“I asked you to help me with my terrain-explorer bot, and you broke it,” Tubbo added. What was this? An intervention?

“You gave me a concussion while training because you were too distracted to see me walking by you,” Jack piped up as well.

“Okay, so I break things. I’m sorry. But what does this-”

“We’re just telling you this Tommy, so you know why we’ve come to the decision that we have,” Phil cut him off again, almost sadly. From his pocket, he pulled out what looked to be a pamphlet and laid it down on the table. Tommy couldn’t make out the words on it, but he saw the outline of an alien who seemed to be smiling. 

“This is a medical ship in which individuals go for. . .mental help and etiquette training,” Phil pushed the pamphlet forward a little, “Tommy, we have scheduled you a stay there. It’s only three months, but we all talked, and agreed that this could be good for you.”

Tommy’s insides turned ice cold. Panic ricocheted through his veins.

“You’re sending me away?”

“It’s only for three months,” Phil assured, “And then you’ll be right back here where you belong.”

“That’s- that’s not fair!” Tommy exclaimed, “I made a mistake, I don’t need to go to some- some hospital for fucking wayward kids!”

“Tommy, calm down please. The decision has already been made.”

“What happened to hearing each other out? We’re a crew, a family ! You can’t just throw me out!” Tommy tried his best to not get into hysterics, but he could feel his hands shaking.

“It won’t be that bad. You’ll get your own room, clothes, food,” Phil tried to reason. Everyone else just watched on sadly, like Tommy’s life wasn’t actively being ruined, “Their ship is going to dock with ours by the end of the day cycle.”

Tommy sat back in his chair shocked. They really were giving him away. Something that only ever happened in his nightmares. Helplessly, he looked to Tubbo and Ranboo. They were also supposed to stay in the room, surely they would help reason with Phil that he was making a mistake.

But, their faces were blank and averting his eyes. Even if they did neglect their duties, they were staying out of this battle.

He felt like he was going to be sick.

Maybe the crew continued the conversation, maybe they didn’t. Tommy stopped paying attention. All he knew was that at some point, it was over, and Tommy was back alone in his room with a bag in need of packing.

******

The entire crew stood in a group as the large door to the docking bay opened up. The S.M.P ship had docked with minimal issue, and now all that was needed to be done was to send Tommy off.

Some alien was standing on the other side, he was tall, and quite frankly looked gross. Tommy hated the way the mucus-colored thing looked at him. Something about the alien wearing a lab coat irked Tommy.

Even though humans were still a pretty rare sight in space, long before human space travel became legal intergalactically, the only way a human would be brought up here was through a lab ship looking to test on them. Tommy was lucky enough to not be one of those victims, but it’s hard to forget the past. 

Sighing, Tommy looked back to his crew, bidding goodbye to every one of them. Niki and Jack waved him off with a smile. Tubbo and Ranboo caught him in a group hug before he could even get a word out.

Next in the line was Wilbur, his borderline brother. Tommy walked up to him with his arms stretched out, but instead of accepting the hug happily like the phantom might have done before, Wilbur just crossed his arms and looked away.

“Wil?” His words were ignored.

Tommy didn’t have enough time to linger on the interaction.

Techno accepted his next hug, fortunately. His body was much warmer than everyone else’s, and it still brought comfort to Tommy no matter what.

“Wilbur’s just processing his anger,” Techno murmured into his hair, trying to comfort Tommy, “I know for a fact he’ll be missing ya’ in a day.”

Finally, Tommy said goodbye to Phil last. The bird-like creature held Tommy in a warm embrace, and then held Tommy’s face in his hands like it was made of gold.

“Please don’t send me away, Phil,” Tommy pleaded one last time, the words were merely a whisper, “I promise, just give me one more chance and I can do better. Just don’t make me go.”

Phil sighed, but still held him preciously, “You’ll be back before you know it.”

“Please,” Tommy tried, but he knew that the decision was already made.

Tommy was handed off to the ugly looking alien, who tried to place a hand on his back. Tommy flinched away from it.

Looking back, Tommy’s crew watched him board this stupid ship that wasn’t his.

This would be the worst three months of his life, and he was miserable already.

******

Back when Tommy met Niki and Jack for the first time, they did not like him one bit.  

Technically, they had been members of the crew for far longer than he has, but for the first year or so that he was there, they were away on a scavenging trip. Tommy’s sure that neither of them prepared to come back home to a raucous teenage human running around.

Tommy tried to be as welcoming as possible. That’s to say, he was loud, energetic, and. . .possibly offensive.

But it wasn’t his fault that none of his jokes ever landed!

At some point, from around the corner, he overheard the two of them talking about him.

“ It’s just- I’ve never met someone so annoying!” Jack groaned. Niki nodded sympathetically.

“ I don’t know why Phil took him in. It was so quiet before,” Niki said solemnly.

That did nothing to deter Tommy, though. He just bombarded them with his presence more.

It worked out in the end. Now they treat each other like family. All of that prior apprehension was a thing of the past.

Tommy is annoying when you first meet him, after all.

******

In a way, Phil was right. Three months passed by like they were nothing.

At the same time, it felt like years since he stepped foot on Dream’s ship.

He doesn’t know what happened to the bag he entered the place with. One of the nurses took it away on day one and he hasn’t seen it since. As the two ships finish boarding up with one another, Tommy has nothing but the clothes on his back.

And Dream, standing off to his side. It’s like a sick parallel to when he first arrived.

“Are you ready to put your training to the test,” Dream says to him, with his hand resting on his shoulder.

Tommy, of course, doesn’t reply.

“Remember, Tommy, you’re perfect.”

The floor shook a little as the large door opened. As it slowly lifted up higher and higher, Tommy could see the waiting bodies of his crew.

Tommy didn’t know how to feel. He had been dreaming of this moment since his first night on Dream’s ship. But, what if he isn’t good enough yet? What if he fucks something up and his crew regrets ever taking him back? A sick feeling crawled through his stomach.

Nervous or not, it was his time to prove himself, and everything he learned over the last three months.

Finally, both of the doors opened, and with a push from Dream, Tommy walked forward, prepared to confront his captain.

What he did not expect was an explosion of streamers shooting out in front of his face. And. . .cheering?

After blinking the surprise out of his system, he truly saw the scene in front of him.

Ranboo and Tubbo were still holding up the shell of the streamers they just popped. Next to them, Niki and Jack were holding up an earnestly crafted banner with the words ‘Welcome back, Tommy!’ in English letters. It was clear they struggled to put the characters onto paper.

Everyone looked. . .excited for him to be back.

That was odd. Didn’t they all hate him for destroying the ship?

The thought was cut off by a body crashing into his, and strong enough arms wrapping around him.

“Oh Tommy, I’ve missed you so much!” Wilbur cried into his shoulder.

Tommy stood stiffly for much too long, silently hoping that Wilbur would end the hug.

- Stop being so clingy, Tommy-

But the phantom was not letting go. So, slowly, Tommy brought his arms around Wilbur.

“It’s been so quiet with you gone,” Wilbur let go and allowed Phil to go in for a hug next.

“Welcome back, son.”

The moment was filled with embraces and greetings which were mostly one sided.The entire time, Tommy could feel Dream’s eyes on the back of his neck, watching for him to slip up even slightly.

In the end, Tommy was left standing in front of his crew awkwardly. They were all looking at him excitedly; expectantly.

What was he supposed to do?

Phil and Techno were off talking to Dream. No doubt debriefing about Tommy’s improvements over the last three months. And of course, his medical needs.

“So,” Tubbo piped up, “How have you been, man?”

Tommy just looked at them. It wasn’t really like he could regale them with his experience.

“Any. . .fun stories?”

The crew didn’t seem to like it when he again, didn’t respond. It made Tommy feel like he was fucking up already. His entire purpose here was to be perfect for his crew. He’s heard their prior comments about his loud voice and behavior. 

- Be quiet Tommy.

Hush Tommy, I’m working.

I have a headache, Tommy.

Some peace and quiet, please.-

He was perfectly quiet now. What else did they want him to do?

“Alright crew,” Phil introduced himself back into the group, now done talking to Dream. He wrapped a clawed arm around Tommy’s shoulder as Dream’s ship unlatched from theirs and left as if it were nothing, “Let's take this excitement to the communal dining room. We made your favorites, Tommy.”

Everyone walked over to the dining room, still eager to be around Tommy. It was such a stark juxtaposition to the last time he saw them. They were practically bouncing off the walls at the sight of him.

Wilbur immediately stole the chair next to Tommy, linking his arm around Tommy’s. Gods, Tommy forgot how clingy the phantom could get.

They were not lying about making his favorites. The table looked like a grandiose Thanksgiving meal back home. A large platter of space-chicken was battered in the middle. (It wasn’t actually chicken per say. It was some weird animal Tommy had never seen in the flesh. But the taste was reminiscent enough.)

Nuts and berries lined the outside, breads were warmed and buttered on some plates, the space equivalent of vegetables were still steaming.

It was the perfect replica of a human meal. Everything Tommy loved.

“We couldn’t get our hands on chocolate,” Tubbo amended, as if the meal wasn’t over the top already, “Seeing as humans are the only species that can actually survive ingesting them, they finally registered it as a poison. It’s been impossible to get a hold of since.”

A plate piled high with food was placed in front of him. The old Tommy would be stuffing his face full of the food by now. But that wasn’t appropriate at all. Apologies to Techno, but he wasn’t a pig . Not anymore.

And, looking at it, the sight alone caused his stomach to clench. He had no appetite at all. 

Dinner commenced with the full crew for the first time in months. Everyone was talking and conversing happily. Tommy tried desperately to eat forkfuls of his dinner, but it tasted and felt like sand going down his throat. The whole process was painful.

Dream had told him a couple of weeks ago that his throat was healed, but it still felt like a punishment to eat and drink.

Maybe that was the point. At least now he wasn’t greedily eating all of their food.

He couldn’t even eat the berries, which were his favorite part.

Other than that, he was good. His elbows were off the table, his posture was correct, he was using both a fork and a knife. Dream was long gone by now, but Tommy hoped that he would be proud.

“Aren’t you going to eat the Plom’u’nerian fruit? They’re in season right now,” Wilbur pointed out. Tommy grimaced. Well now he had to eat it if they went out and got it just for him.

His fork stabbed into the bright pink fruit and he slowly lifted it to his mouth. Half the reason he liked it was because of the spiky interior. He would always say that it felt like he was eating spiders.

Now, it felt like sandpaper. But he swallowed it unflinchingly. Everyone seemed to be happy, so it was worth it.

In the end, Tommy sat through the whole dinner with a plate barely eaten. As everyone dispersed, his crew members borderline fought over who would get to spend time with him, but he managed to escape to his bedroom. The lights were off when he entered, but other than that it seemed to be untouched. Just the way he left it all those months ago.

The room had adopted a weird smell from the disuse, like dust had layered every inch; like an old book covered in mildew.

On the bed, his precious plush Henry was draped against a pillow expectantly. The space-cow with eight legs was gifted to him many years ago, but he couldn’t bear to part with it.

Tommy held Henry in his hands and sat on his bed- perfect posture- It was much more comfy then the one on the other ship.

Rest was quick to come to him. He had a lot of work to do tomorrow.

******

Tommy was screaming very loudly considering being loud was what got him into this mess.

Tears were rushing down his face so quickly and roughly that his cheeks felt horrible and sticky. He tried to buck every limb that he could but the hoard of multiple aliens had a strong grip on them, and he was stuck suspended in the air as they transported him through white, unsettling halls.

“Let go of me! Let go of me you motherfuckers!” He screamed, shaking his head back and forth. His throat already hurt from how hard he was grating at it screaming, but he feared that the pain would only increase tenfold if Dream went through with his plans.

When they all entered a certain room that Tommy was sure he had never seen before, the temperature dropped to a searing degree.

“Be quiet, Tommy,” Dream spoke coldly. He wasn’t helping the others hold onto Tommy, he was just standing in front of him with his multiple arms behind his back, “ Stop moving and make this easier for everyone else.”

“You can’t do this to me! Fucking bitch! Don’t do this!” Dream had threatened it many times. He had told Tommy that he was too loud all the time. If he didn’t learn to shut up, they would have to take matters into their own hands.

Tommy thought Dream was just bullshitting him. Now, as the aliens strapped him to an uncomfortable table, Tommy was ceasing to believe that.

“So loud, Tommy. We’re doing a service to the universe,” Dream started putting on plastic gloves, snapping them against his wrists, “It’s a small surgery. Quick and easy, really. We’ll be done within the hour and then this’ll be nothing but a memory.”

It didn’t matter how hard Tommy cried or protested, the aliens stuck something sharp in the corner of his neck. A horrible, cramp-like feeling spread throughout his body. His vision looked like a burning piece of film until everything went dark.

Tommy wasn’t even conscious to see the aliens tear into his throat.

******

The earliest riser on the SBI ship was always, without exception, Technoblade. His species didn’t need as much sleep as everyone else, and the guy had this need to watch over everyone even if they weren’t in active need of protection. He would go through every member's rooms and make sure that they were all safe, and then he would assume his duties elsewhere.

This morning, Tommy was the first to wake.

When Techno came out, the human was already hours into cleaning the main hallway. The place was in need of a good dusting, mopping, and disinfecting. Tommy was down on his knees, scrubbing aggressively at a particularly difficult stain when the piglin found him.

“Uh, Tommy,” Tommy turned to look at him obediently, “What are ya’ doing?”

Tommy vaguely gestured to the stain. Wasn’t it pretty obvious what he was doing? He was being good, and making people happy. And people loved it when a space was clean.

“What aren’t you sleeping?” Techno walked around, examining the newly cleaned hallway. It did look much better than it did before, but admitting that would go against the point he was beginning to make.

Tommy shook his head to the question. He had plenty of sleep last night. He didn’t want to be lazy and sleep into the late morning. This conversation was fun and all, but he needed to get back to fighting the stain on the ground.

Techno watched him curiously for a long time, but Tommy ignored him. Eventually he left, and the rest of the crew came and went throughout the day. Sometimes they would ask him if he wanted to take a break, or eat with them, or hang out with them, but if he ignored them long enough, they went away.

By day four of his arrival back at the ship, Tommy had cleaned up every single room. Head to toe, spotless. He could have done it a little faster if the other crew mates didn’t keep distracting him, but he got the job done eventually.

He cleaned the whole ship, even the storage room, which was scary and stacked with boxes so tall that they were ten times Tommy’s height at least.

What was he supposed to do now?

He looked back on the very first hallway that he cleaned. It was still in pretty good shape, but he could see the shoe marks littered on it, and the dust beginning to form.

As Tommy went to go grab more cleaning supplies, a hand grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Mate, we don’t need a maid,” Phil held him so gently, as if he were made of glass. 

Before Tommy was sent away, he didn’t really have much of a job. Everyone on the ship had their place. Techno would guard the ship and make sure that they were never in any danger, Jack made sure that all their tech was fixed when it was broken, even Ranboo used their knowledge of maps to navigate places.

Tommy was always just kind of there, making noise.

So yes, they certainly needed a maid. And Tommy needed something to do .

But it wasn’t like he could tell Phil that.

Said man huffed at the lack of a response. There was an awful frown on his face that hasn’t gone away since Tommy’s first night here. The straw-like, blonde hair that the man took care of almost as well as his wings, was starting to develop tangles.

Grooming and good hygiene was a very important component of elytrian culture. For Phil to not keep up with his hair, he must be very busy or distracted by something.

“Look, we’re still going to be stuck in dead space for a couple of rotations before we reach planet district IV,” Phil’s claws ran up and down Tommy’s arm in an alien attempt at comfort, Tommy let it happen, “Why don’t you and me go bake some cookies ? We found some more sugar from a terran shop a couple of cycles ago.”

Tommy was the one to introduce cookies to the crew. The treat was a purely human food. Everyone was apprehensive at the time when he came barreling in with sugars and eggs, but they ended up loving them.

Ever since, it became sort of a tradition for him and Phil to bake some whenever they had the supplies. Or at least, supplies that mimicked the real thing enough.

But they hadn’t done that in months. Long before they sent Tommy away.

The two walked into the kitchen that just seemed to be waiting for them. Half of the supplies were already sitting on the counters, hinting that Phil was preparing for this. 

“It took a while to get all of the ingredients again. I know you like to add chocolate to yours, but y’know, new laws,” the bird-man picked up a bowl, “And well, I’ve been missing my mixer.”

Tommy did always brag about how strong his arms were, and how no one else could ever mix the dough except for him.

The last time that they made cookies, Tubbo was somehow roped in, and he ended up mixing the dough. Tommy was so mad about it that he gave both of them the silent treatment the whole time.

It freaked the two of them out, they thought they had broken him, not knowing that humans are just assholes sometimes.

His strength was a little out of practice, only a couple of minutes into stirring the dry ingredients together, he could feel his muscles straining. There was no conversation going on between the two of them like there might have been once upon a time.

Moments like these used to be special. Unlike all the other times Tommy would be jumping off of the walls - annoying, annoying, annoying- when he and Phil would bake together, it would be a moment of calm where the two of them could relax together.

It wasn’t so easy to be like that anymore.

A part of him cried to just give up and let Phil find someone else to go mix the batter. If his arms were too weak to even hold a lever down three months ago, then they’ve only gotten worse now. 

This felt like a chore.

Not even!

He felt like he was wasting his time. How many times did he need the reminder drilled into his head? He needed to be productive.

He felt scared. If Dream were here, he would be so disappointed. Baking cookies? Tommy wasn’t a child anymore. Before, he might’ve fought to grasp onto any semblance of youth he had left, but it was time he grew up like the rest of the crew.

He couldn’t help it, a sour frown sat on his face, his eyes drifted down to the bottom part of the counter. The bowl sat on his lap as he continued to stir the ingredients methodically.

He clenched his hand around the spoon.

No, no.

He was acting like a brat.

Phil was the captain of this ship! If he wanted Tommy to be making food for him, then that’s how he could be most productive.

He quickly schooled his face back to an amicable, neutral expression, hoping that Phil had not seen.

Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case. When he looked back to Phil, the elitrian was looking back at him with a funny look on his face.

“Are you okay, mate?” He asked, pausing for a moment.

Tommy looked at him expectantly. 

“You can tell me if you’re not. I always take care of my crew, you know that.”

Tommy’s eyes continued to bore into him. Right. It was Phil’s money that paid for him to go on the S.M.P in the first place. Every time someone hit him, or yelled at him, or even the surgery, that was all personally funded by the captain. 

But. . .

He did all of that to make Tommy better. Maybe now that he is , Phil will care for him like he promised.

The idea made him giddy.

Everything he ever dreamed of, the adoration of his crew, and all he needed to do was be good. 

Tommy could be more than good. He could be perfect .

Phil faltered at the continued lack of response. His head darted to the side as he looked through all of the ingredients still splayed across the counters.

“Well,” he sighed, “I forgot how much flower you put in next. Do you remember the recipe?”

Of course Tommy remembered the recipe.

Instead of telling him outright, Tommy moved the mixing bowl from his lap off to the side and reached over for the big sack of mock-flour.

Taking a big measuring cup, he dumped all of the scoops of flour in until the wet batter was crushed underneath the mountain of grainy powder. He looked back to Phil for approval.

He still had that weird look on his face.

“Thanks Tommy, but you could’ve just told me and I could’ve gotten it. I take my job as an ingredients scooper very seriously,” he tried to joke. Tommy didn’t laugh. 

He’ll give the captain that though, he brushed it off pretty well.

He also must have sensed that Tommy would not be leading the conversation, because he started talking again on his own.

“We’ve all missed you a lot, Tommy, really,” he chuckled, “We had landed on Planet Sh’vaen to buy some supplies, and Niki was so excited to get her hands on those flower cakes you always bring back. Little did she know that the price would be so expensive-”

You’re supposed to haggle, his thoughts cut in.

“She didn’t know that you haggle for the prices, so she was-” the elitrian stopped to giggle for a moment, in the weird way his species does, like birds chortling, “She walks back to ship with this amazed look on her face, and these cakes that costed her 40 units!”

Phil laughed off the story, still visibly uncomfortable that Tommy was not responding.

“And- and then, another day, Jack and Will were trying to use one of our excursion pods to gather some meteorite samples, but they didn’t realize that you needed three people to operate them, and you were the only person on the ship who knew how to trigger the faulty operation key.”

Tommy looked down. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just that his stupid human hands were shaped in such a way where he could insert the key correctly. It was mostly like trying to unlock something with a bobby pin.

Any of the other crew mates could’ve gotten the hang of it if they really tried.

Phil tried to be as cheerful as he could sharing all of these stories, but by the time he was done, he let out a long sigh. 

“Tommy, you’re important to us. You know that, right?” The bird asked.

Even if Tommy wanted to respond, he could not.

“Well. . .I guess it’s time we scoop the cookies and bake them then.”

******

Tommy had just been trying to find his friends to tell them that dinner was ready.

He had warmed up to Tubbo and Ranboo pretty quickly. Once they all figured out that they were the same age, it was like their friendship was set in stone.

There were some things he didn’t understand about the others. Like how sometimes they would exclude him from weird alien shit, or look at each other weirdly.

But Tommy chalked that up to, well, alien shit . Plus, the two of them had been friends long before Tommy joined the crew, so it made sense that they would be at least a little bit closer.

He had checked pretty much every room he would expect the two of them to be in, but didn’t find them until he turned the corner to Ranboo’s nest.

“It’s just- I don’t know- when I say it out loud, it feels rude,” Ranboo’s hushed voice creeped around the cracks in his slightly opened door.

“It’s just, they’re so gross ? They cry all the time, and their tears are all weird and watery. And they show affection in weird ways. Like, he showed me a hug the other day, and enderians don’t do that. We respect each other not to press our vital organs up to each other’s like that.” 

Tommy frowned. Something weird twisting inside.

Tommy had shown him how to hug earlier in the week because he thought it would comfort Ranboo.

It had always been comforting to him. 

“I get how you feel,” Tubbo responded, voice mellow, “It’s weird to be presented with all this new stuff. Humans are so different from any other figure in the galaxy. But I guess you just get used to it. It’s not like you can go up to him and tell him to stop.”

Tommy pushed his back against the cold metal wall.

He had always been so proud of his humanity. Like it was some shiny, fluorescent thing his crewmates loved to learn about. Just like how he loved learning about their cultures.

But now, he didn’t feel so proud.

He stumbled back to the dining area. When the awaiting eyes asked him where the others were, he said that he couldn’t find them.

******

Tommy had gone to bed that night not too long after the cookies had gone out of the oven.

He had taken one to eat out of courtesy, but adamantly declined when Phil tried to pile his plate full of more. Maybe some time ago, Tommy would’ve tackled half the tray in a night.

Now, the idea of that makes him queasy. 

He stares at himself in the mirror.

He stands straight, and levels his face like a perfect statue.

His hands trace the outline of his ribs, down to his hip bones, to his knees. He looked gaunt. And he didn’t like how he felt.

Like discomfort in his own skin.

He wished he didn’t feel this way. 

He was perfect.

The next morning, he got back to business.

Or, he tried to, but none of the cleaning supplies were where he last left them. Nor were they in any of the other rooms cleaning supplies would be.

Tommy fidgeted. They had made quite a mess in the kitchen the night before. Phil would be so mad if he woke up to find it was still dirty-dirty-dirty.  

As he circled back to recheck the storage closets, someone grabbed onto his arm.

“Tommy! Just the human I was looking for!”

Tommy’s head swiveled to see Tubbo and Ranboo standing before him, they reeked of anxious excitement.

Why was everyone treating him like a zoo animal? Out of the four years he had been on the ship, he was gone for three months.

Tommy tried to signal to where the cleaning supplies should be, hoping that the others would help.

“Oh, I know that cleaning is like your thing right now, but Techno put all that away. Besides, me and Ran wanted to show you something!”

Tubbo grabbed onto Tommy’s again and tugged him all the way over to his room. The hive had taller ceilings than Tommy’s room, and there was barely any furniture. Tommy thought it looked barren, Tubbo thought it looked just right. 

But, smack dab in the middle of the floor, was a box. The two other teenagers looked at him eagerly as he looked over the stuff. 

It was a board game, one from back on Earth.

Monopoly .

The game always caused arguments amongst the crew, but to be fair, it also caused arguments amongst humans. But it was the only Earth game he ever found, so he had to like it no matter what.

Almost a year ago, the game went missing. Tommy had looked high and low for it, but it never showed up again.

“We, uh, we had hidden it away because we hated playing it,” Ranboo piped up, “But! We were gonna give it back when we realized how attached to it you were, but then things got busy, and we forgot, and-”

Tubbo cut them off.

“We’re giving it to you now because we wanted to say sorry. It was stupid of us to leave you alone in that room, and then let you take all the blame.”

Ranboo nodded, “We didn’t realize everyone would take it so far and start ganging up on you like that.”

“And we get that you’re mad. I would be too, so just- I dunno. Do you wanna play?”

Tommy walked forward a little and looked down at the game. 

You were supposed to hate playing it, that was half the point of it.

But maybe Tommy was so ignorant as to not consider that other aliens didn’t enjoy feeling angry like humans did.

Well, Dream liked feeling angry, he knew that.

He looks at the game now and feels embarrassed. 

Why is it that suddenly the members of the ship are begging him to do all the things that they hated so much three months ago? Was this some sort of pity thing?

There was a striking heat rising to his eyelids. Something was cramping in his throat.

Maybe Ranboo was right, maybe humans do cry so much.

And for what? Because of some stupid board game?

His eyes began to water.

Tubbo tried to amend, “Ranboo phrased it wrong. We didn’t, well- just because we didn’t like playing the game, doesn’t mean we should’ve taken it away. You never liked playing GroVaal, but you did it anyway because it was from my planet and it made me happy. We should’ve done the same for you.” 

“Especially with how rare Earth paraphernalia is,” Ranboo tacked on.

Tears began to stream down his cheeks now, his chest started to heave. He felt like a wind-up doll that was malfunctioning.

Dream would be- oh- Dream would be so mad at him. 

He felt so out of control.

The door behind them opened up, Tommy was slanted in such a way that he could see the hulking form of Techno enter.

Fuck. He still hadn’t cleaned!

And now he’s standing here, looking like he’s about to goof off with Tubbo and Ranboo.

“What’s going on in here?” The brute asked.

“I don’t know,” Tubbo turned around looking panicked, “We were trying to give him his game back and he just started acting like this!”

“Tommy, are you good, kid?” Techno asked, reaching his hooved hand out for Tommy’s shoulder. 

But as soon as it made contact, like a bolt of electricity, Tommy flinched back, looking at the other like a scared animal. He only started to shake more.

Everyone in the room was stunned, painted like a picture.

Until an anger burst through Tommy.

Stupid, stupid!

He shoved past everyone until he was stomping his way to the kitchen. Whatever the rest of the crew was trying to do- test him into fucking up so they could send him away again. It wasn’t going to work. 

He was going to be everything they wanted from him. Oh so perfectly not human.

He slaved away in the kitchen, making dishes and dishes of foods until they lined the table. At some point, the tears on his cheeks dried.

Steam rose from the plates. He kept cooking and cooking until people flooded into the dining room, shocked by the sight.

And once everyone was sat and eating, he left, without taking even a bite for himself.

If someone protested, he wasn’t listening.

He stormed to Techno’s room, where all of the cleaning supplies were haphazardly placed in one corner. He grabbed them all.

The hallway had become dirty again.

******

A week into his stay at the S.M.P, Tommy was convinced that this fixing him shit wasn’t going to work,

He was sitting in his glorified cell, curled up in the corner. As it turns out, behavioral residents didn’t get beds, they got a blanket and the floor.

Plus, this ship had never taken a human before, so the day/night lighting schedule was all screwed up.

Maybe that’s why Dream, the head doctor, was so interested in him.

His species was notoriously hungry for answers, and it seemed that Dream wanted to know what makes a human crack. 

The stupid smiley mask walked up to him through the single glass wall.

“Good morning, Tommy,” It says.

“The lights have been on for hours already,” Tommy bites back, “I barely get any sleep.”

“Your captain is not paying for you to be staying at a five star hotel, Tommy, he’s paying for you to behave.”

Tommy grimaced.

“Now, I’m curious. We got your x-ray scans back this morning, and the human body is set up like a toy my species plays with when they’re younger. In human terms, like putting a ball into a socket.”

“What are you trying to get at, dude? Because where I’m from, doctors don’t usually play with their patients.”

“Draemon spawn only learn to behave by something we call the pain and response happens. If something hurts you, you don’t do it.”

Dream opened up the door that was embedded into the glass wall, taking a step in, closer and closer to him.

“Let me get to the point. Tommy, my hypothesis is: how would it feel for your shoulder to go in and out of its socket?”

Tommy really hoped that was a rhetorical question.

******

Someone had spilled a drink or something in the kitchen, and the dark liquid was refusing to leave without a noticeable mark. 

Tommy was starting to get frustrated about it.

His whole body was crouched on the ground, his shoulders were sore from holding himself up as he made sure every inch of the meal area was clean. The crew hadn’t eaten all of the dinner that he had made them, but that was alright! He sealed it all up to be turned into a stew for later. He was crafty like that.

He knew that he was running out of things to clean, but the crew had yet to take on a shipment in the few weeks he had been back, so there wasn’t really much else he could do.

He heard the clicking of claws against the floor walking up to him before he heard a voice pipe up.

“Tommy?” Niki, “You’ve been cleaning for sixteen hours straight. You need to rest.”

Tommy sat back on his haunches and looked back at her.

“Come on, please?” She gently held onto his arm and guided him so he was standing up, but Tommy refused to move any further. He wasn’t going to stop until he physically couldn’t be productive any longer.

Niki has always been smart though, and she caught on quickly.

“Could you at least help me with something?”

Tommy perked up.

He followed her as she walked over to the lounge area of the ship. A large couch-like fixture took up half the room, with pillows and blankets lining it like it was one of Phil’s nests.

“I was watching this documentary about Terra. It came out recently and it looked really cool, but I was wondering if you could help me?”

Tommy looked at her.

“We learned the hard way that there’s a lot of misinformation about terrans, so could you tell me when the movie says something that’s incorrect?”

That was true. Phil had known about Tommy joining the crew for a couple of weeks before he actually boarded. He was so nervous that he bought a handbook on humans that the rest of the crew treated like the bible.

Until Tommy told them that half of the information in the book was false, and that human skin does not fall off from physical contact.

Though it was a little funny to see Tubbo freak out when they accidentally touched hands.

Tommy supposed that he could help Niki out with this.

The two of them situated themselves in the center of the couch as the holographic television flashed on. She was a couple of minutes into it already, but it was mostly just some fish alien yammering on about how ocean dense the planet was.

He’ll give them this: they were a lot more accurate than the book. To the point where it was almost boring. He was becoming hyper aware of how comfortable the couch was underneath him. 

The narrator said something about how humans hibernate when it snows. Tommy takes his foot and nudges Niki’s leg with it, when she looks over, he shakes his head. 

Niki nods like she’s taking note of it in her head, but otherwise does not respond.

It goes on like that for a while, the two of them enjoying a mutual silence occasionally broken up by Tommy shaking his head. 

But space movies are much longer than human movies, and at some point Tommy starts to nod off. He tries to do his best to stay awake for his crew mate, but before he knows it, the lights are off, and he’s laying on his side.

Someone had stuffed a pillow under his head, and draped a blanket on top of him.

Instead of getting up and going to his room, Tommy closes his eyes again. 

******

Things were getting back to normal on the ship. They had taken on a new shipment to haul across a couple of solar systems, and people have begun to leave him to his own devices again.

He had helped the rest of the crew haul boxes and boxes of product, something he never would have done before. Usually when it got to this step, he would hide in his room and play on his holopad.

But he was much better now. He was someone worthy of being a part of the crew.

But he knew the peace could not last forever.

Back when he first returned, Wilbur would not leave him alone. He was always at Tommy’s side like a toddler looking for entertainment. No matter how many times he tried to brush him off.

The phantom had gotten busier now that the crew was working again, but-

Wilbur flopped his whole form onto Tommy, who was still laying in bed. 

“How are you doing my sunshine?”

At this point, if anyone was surprised by the lack of response, then that was on them.

“Do you wanna help me out in the lab today?”

Usually ‘helping Wilbur out in the lab’ meant that Wilbur would work on some project while Tommy sat on the counter and yapped the other’s ears off about whatever his mind was running through that day. But up until this point, either Tommy was not allowed in there, or there was no lab to go into.

Their new and improved lab was now on the other side of the ship, and it was barely as lively as the old one was. Kindly, it was a storage closet with some beakers in it.

Wilbur fell into his rolly chair with a spin, and shimmied over to his little desk.

“Phil wants me to test these samples from the last planet we landed on. He thinks it can be made into a more effective fuel than the kind we’re using now,” Wilbur looked back at him, his large black eyes focusing in on him. The alien worked at his lip for a moment.

“Could you hand me some pliers?”

Of course Tommy could. 

It took a couple of moments of rifling through drawers, but he found a small pair of pliers to hand off to the phantom.

“Oh- I wasn’t expecting you to actually do that. Thank Tommy,” Wilbur grabbed the item from his hands and started fidgeting with something on the table in front of him.

“Have you been settling back in well? I’ve heard the rest of the crew has been keeping you busy,” Wilbur looks up at him, expecting an answer.

“We got a couple of new channels on the television, have you gotten a chance to look at them?”

Tommy just looked at him neutrally. He hadn’t known there were new channels on the TV. Besides that one time with Niki, he had not touched it at all. He had more than enough time before to lounge on the couch like a sloth all day.

Wilbur sighed, “Could you hand me that notebook over there?”

Tommy did, but that did the opposite of making Wilbur happy. In fact, the phantom just looked more annoyed.

“I’ll give you this, Tommy, you’re really dedicated to this whole silent treatment thing. But we’re all getting really tired of it.”

That one did make him flinch a little. He got his throat ripped out because he was too loud, and now he’s too quiet? There was no way he could be better if he didn’t know what they wanted from him.

“Look, we’re sorry that you had to get sent away, and we’re sorry that you’re upset. Hell, I don’t know how long terrans can even stay mad, because you wont tell us!

We miss you, Tommy! We miss your jokes, and your laugh, and how you always cheer everyone up when they’re sad. And-and now you’re sad and you won’t let us cheer you up!”

Wilbur was getting worked up now, he stood up from his chair as he gestured with his arms wildly. 

“ Please just talk to us!” A webbed hand grabbed onto the front of Tommy’s shirt, “Please talk to me.”

If the phantom could physically cry, he would probably be doing so by now. But he couldn’t, so instead, he jutted his forehead against Tommy’s collarbone, still holding onto his shirt.

Tommy stood strong like a pillar. But inside something was cracking.

He wanted to feel comfortable again.

But what does that even mean?

******

Niki was making funny chirping noises in the living area.

Everyone else was deep into their own personal work, something related to a big mission they were undertaking, but Tommy- like usual- was doing his full time job of making his presence known.

So when he came across Niki, who looked like she wasn’t doing anything all that important, he jumped at the opportunity to give her his fabulous company.

“Hey Nik, what are you up to?” He asked, flopping down onto the couch.

Niki brustled a little, but didn’t seem too apprehensive about sharing.

“I’m singing. Avians like to do it in their free time.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow, “Really? Humans sing too!”

Niki smiled, “Actually? Avians sing in groups, but no one else on the ship does it with me.”

“Well,” Tommy stretched a leg out, “Maybe we could try a duet?”

That really seemed to make Niki happy, her feathers puffed up and she sat up more.

As she started whistling a melodic tune, Tommy wracked his mind for some of the songs he remembered from Earth. In the end, he picked a smooth tune from something or other that came out in the eighties, trying to make his voice sound as not horrible sounding as possible.

But maybe he didn’t try enough, because Niki stopped abruptly.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

Tommy paused, “I’m singing?”

“You sing with. . .words?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess we do.”

“But you’re just talking funny?”

Tommy chuckled, “Yeah, that’s just what singing is.”

Niki hummed, “Well, I think we could make it work.”

It took a little bit of tweaking, but the two of them eventually worked out a song that blended perfectly with both human words and avian chirps. Tommy swayed side to side to the tune.

As they continued to sing, the rest of the crew managed to find their way to the music. He knew it must have sounded so foreign to them, but also so new.

Niki looked overjoyed, everyone else looked so at peace.

Tommy loved his crew.

****** 

Phil had been hunched over the control hub of the ship for hours by the time they finally got the notification. The twinge in his back would tell him that he had been fretting over this too long, but Techno jumped almost as hard at the sound of the ping from where he was sitting next to the elitrian. 

“Is it him?” The piglin asked.

Phil grabbed onto the control panel and operated the cursor over to the new message.

Something was incredibly wrong with Tommy, and the captain was beginning to believe that it wasn’t just the terran being upset anymore. Everyone on the crew had seen Tommy upset. The empty shell that had been haunting the ship for the last month was not that.

A couple of days ago, Phil had sent out a request for an itemized bill from the S.M.P.

And sitting before them was the list in full detail. 

In some messed up way, this felt like when he first received the letter that would tell him if he would become a captain or not. He was nervous at the words in front of him.

There was a note at the top:

Safe travels to the crew of the C.R.A.F.T,

We here at the S.M.P appreciate you for your patronage and are happy to fulfill your request. 

Patient: Tommy has shown incredible improvement from his time here, that we hope has been to your satisfaction. If this has not been the case, reports have shown that enrolling in our Year Long Program creates even more favorable results.

We thank you again, from our team at the S.M.P 

:]

Phil twitched his beak a little but continued down to the attached bill.

Room: 100 /d 

Nutrients: 20 /d 

His eyes scanned through normal room and board charges, nothing out of sorts until-

Physical training: 30 

Physical training: 30 

Emotional reprogramming: 400 

Physical training: 30 

‘Physical training’? It sat there so innocently on the paper, but it kept being repeated on the list, and something about the way it glared back at him made something churn in his stomach.

He looked down further.

“What the fuck do they mean by surgery to repair shoulder socket?” He spoke before he could fully comprehend what he was seeing. But Techno had always been a faster reader than him, and something lower down on the page had made Techno fully freeze.

“Phil.”

“What?” But that’s when he sees it, sitting there on the screen innocently like every other item on the list.

Devocalization: 16,200

His core chilled.

“Wh- I? Devocalization? That’s a surgery they do on animals. When they- they-”

“They ripped his vocal chords out,” Techno huffed, deadly still, eyes like slits.

Phil’s talons were digging into the portion of the control panel he was holding on to.

No, this couldn’t be possible.

“There- there’s no way. They wouldn’t just do that without telling us. They wouldn’t just do that .”

“That would explain why he hasn’t been making any noise, he can’t. And everything else on here? They were torturing him.”

The piglin abruptly stood up from his chair, “I’m going to kill them.”

“Techno!” Phil grabbed onto his arm, “We need to be smart about this. We- Tommy needs help, serious help, and not from some therapy ship !”

“How do we fix this, Phil? He’ll never talk again. We betrayed him,” Techno looked back at him.

Even though it was quite literally his job, Phil didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t thought to do any research further than the informational brochures he had gotten. He didn’t even consider how volatile it was for humans to be in space.

He had assumed that because Tommy was safe on the ship, he would be safe everywhere else. 

But it seems he isn’t even safe here, if they were willing to ship him off to some place like that.

Tommy couldn’t even tell them what had happened to him. He barely wanted to do anything but cook and clean anymore.

Phil took a deep breath.

“Do we tell the rest of the crew?” Techno asked.

“Nothing right now,” Phil stood up, “This is Tommy’s personal information. And them knowing would only freak him out more.”

Techno huffed, sending little puffs of smoke from his snout.

“This is all our fault, Phil.”

Phil nodded, “And Dream’s .”

“How do you suppose we deal with him?”

Phil held onto the handle of the door to the cockpit. He shrugged.

“You’ve always been more creative than me.”

******

Admittedly, Tommy had been taking a nap when he received a knock at his bedroom door. 

The sound made him jump what felt like feet in the air like a startled cat, scrambling to get to the door before whoever was on the other side opened it and found out that he was being lazy.

It was just that, well, he was tired. 

His socks slipped on the floor as he went over to the door, opening it to see Technoblade on the other side. 

The two of them hadn’t had many chances to interact since he returned, and the last time he actually saw him, he had run away in tears.

Which was incredibly embarrassing on his part. Aliens hated it when humans cry. Dream didn’t need to teach him that. 

Techno had an incredibly sour looking expression on his face.

“Sorry, were you resting?” Techno asked. Tommy looked back to his bed, the blankets were all crumpled off to the side, and there was a clear divot from where he had been laying.

He shook his head.

“It’s okay if you were. You’ve been working very hard lately.”

The piglin moved to walk into his room further. Something he didn’t usually make a habit of doing, but whatever floats his boat. Even further, he sat down on the edge of Tommy’s bed, patting the spot next to him.

Tommy did as he was told, sitting so close that he could feel Techno’s radiating warmth. The both of them faced the door, not really looking at each other, but it was hard to ignore that the other was there.

“Me and Phil read the bill of what happened to you while on the S.M.P,” Techno started plainly. Tommy stiffened up a little bit.

Why was he saying that like it was something alarming? Had they not known the whole time?

“We were foolish to send you there. We were foolish to ever send you away in the first place. A crew doesn’t do that to one another,” Techno kept his eyes trained on something bundled up in his hands below him. Was he apologizing? That wasn’t really something that happened in Piglin culture, but it sounded like it.

“Tommy, if we had known even a fraction of what they were doing to you there, you would’ve been gone and back here the second they laid their hands on you. But we didn’t know until it was far too late, and. . .”

Techno unwrapped the item in front of him, revealing some odd looking tablet thing. When he switched it on, an english keyboard was splayed across the bottom.

“It plays whatever you type out loud. It’ll never be the real thing, but we wanted to give you your voice back somehow.”

Tommy gently grabbed onto it as it was handed to him. The outer case of it was cold, and it was very lightweight.

Tommy didn’t understand. He didn’t understand any of this.

Why was his crew saying all of the right things? Why were they acting like everything that had happened to him wasn’t his fault? Like it was one big, fucked up accident?

Did it take him losing his voice for them to realize how much they missed it?

Was Techno tricking him?

“You don’t have to be perfect, kid. You don’t have to clean up after our messes, or punish yourself for having fun. Everything that we might have been not used to before, was everything that made you human. And that’s beautiful, isn’t it. That we could have you on our ship?”

Techno knocked his shoulders against his, his long, pink hair draping in front of Tommy’s face.

That could explain the way everyone was acting ever since he’s been back. But he couldn’t wrap his head around any of it. He didn’t know how to be anymore.

He looked down at his tablet. He never thought that he would talk again, but now he was about to.

His fingers clacked against the screen, a robotic voice rang out in Common.

What do I do now?

Techno thought on that for a moment, like it was a complicated question. He supposed it was. Nothing was ever going to be the same as it was before, but maybe it could be similar?

Techno looked him in the eyes as he responded: “Whatever you want.”

And Tommy. . .Tommy could do that.

. 

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C.R.A.F.T to S.M.P —> Thank you again for your assistance with our crewmate. You mentioned another program that me and my associates were interested in learning more about. Would there be a day you are available to meet in person? 

We are very excited to speak with you again.