The cup reached his lips before pausing furthermore. He looked over at his dad who looked back at him not so subtly. Clearing his throat, and setting the cup back down, he glanced around the table. "Okay, what's with the tea?" he questioned.

Phil held up his hand dismissively. "Nothings with the tea. It's just tea."

Tommy looked over at his brother who held his head in his hands as he stared down at the documents laid out along the table, his glasses just barely holding on by the tip of his nose. "Why doesn't Wilbur have tea?" He asked, immediately knowing something was up.

"I don't particularly enjoy tea, Tommy," Wilbur muttered, going through his notes.

It was the odd mornings like this when Phil usually made everyone in the house sit and eat together at the table, the only awkward part about it was that there only seemed to be three of five of them present. Usually Technoblade and Phil would sit at the heads of the table with Wilbur and Fundy next to each other and Tommy across from them. But with the absence of Techno and Fundy, everything felt a bit more personal.

"I'm literally best friends with a herbalist, you don't think I would pick on these types of things? Now tell me, what is this? Chamomile? Oolong?"

"Just drink the tea, Tommy, it's good for your health."

"No, why doesn't Wilbur drink it, if it's so good for health."

"Because I'm not a child that doesnt know how to take care of myself," Wilbur teased.

"Hey," Phil cut him short, "Wilbur isn't the one who comes home late and ignores us. We're a family and–"

Wilbur laughed mockingly, "C'mon dad, you can hardly call us a family when it's just you and I who are always home!" He exclaimed. "With Technoblade always out, probably being a fugitive in a couple lands. And Tommy often running about, escaping to his fantasies–"

"Huh?"

"It's just you and I at this point." Wilbur continued on. "You, Fundy, and I, once we find my son that Tommy deserted in the middle of the forest..."

"Wilbur, that's enough."

The table grew quiet. Tommy didn't dare to break his stare with his older brother. If one was looking to win in intimidation then he wouldn't dare lose. "I'll go since Wilbur clearly doesn't want me here. Oh also," Tommy stood up and made his way towards the door, "I'm not drinking your tea."

As if one could feel the tense, yet silent, conversation at the table. Phil's natural dad stare wove itself so far deep that Wilbur could feel the disappointment radiating in level beats.
"Wait, Tommy!" Wilbur called. The teen slowed down to see his older brother looking at him. "Have you seen my scabbard? I lost track of it a while ago and I'm not sure if it's anywhere around." He stared at Tommy who stood there silent.

"No, Wilbur, I haven't."

He slammed the door, stomping outside, not even bothering to grab his cloak that was hung against the coat rack. He had his satchel and sword and to be honest that was all he ever needed. He had trudged his way down to the stables by the farm, almost not noticing the scarlet cloaked warrior running towards him.

"Woah, slow down little anarchist!" The familiar deep voice called to him. "Where are you headed?"

"To Manburg," Tommy said as he climbed up his horse, looking down at Technoblade who raised an eyebrow, "you missed a sweet family breakfast by the way. We had tea."

Technoblade rolled his eyes and flicked a piece of hay that had probably flown into his hair only a short while ago. "Which one of you needs the 'take care of your body or you'll die' chat?" He said, skeptically inspecting the younger before him. "And for a kid who's spent a good portion of his life in the wild, I'd hope it won't be you."

Tommy shrugged, "where have you been, though? I thought you'd have gone on another one of your expeditions by now."

"Something told me to come back," he said, crossing his arms. "and I'm pissed."

"Why? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Stupid phantoms are attacking my farm. The whole roof of the barn had collapsed as well so I've just been out here since dawn trying to rebuild everything before it gets too cold out for the animals." The warrior sent another glance to the teen, "are you sure Phil's okay with letting you go to Manburg alone? Even now?"

"Phil doesn't know."

He chuckled. "Teenage rebellion. I can get behind that." Techno nodded understandingly, before he reached out and yelled, "wait up, I want to join you!" he said as he made his way to his saddle and was already bringing his things to his horse.

Tommy groaned to himself. "You're not my babysitter," he whined, wishing that for one second he could feel like an adult.

"Bruh, I just want to get out of here. We can pretend we don't know each other if you're that embarrassed of me." Tommy cracked a smile and decided to wait for his brother to ride beside him. "Okay, now what's going on back at the house?" he asked, his cloak flowing slightly against the wind, which gave him time to notice Tommys lack of.

"I don't want to talk about it, but... has Wilbur always been such a dick?"

"Absolutely, since the day Phil brought him home, he's been... Well, I hated him at first but only for a short while did we actually bond like brothers. The thing about Wilbur is... he'd drop anything for his family, and he assumes that we would as well."

"Well yeah he's our family. It's basically an unspoken rule?"

Technoblade hummed, "yeah, no, not blindly. Depends on the circumstances and if I truly believe that I should help Wilbur, then I will."

"But he's our brother—"

"Yeah, and we're his brothers. Let's take Fundy for example. Wilbur trusted that he could send him with you in order to protect you in case harm came your way. Guess what? He protected you and you're here talking to me now."

"But it didn't end well for Fundy. It's my fault he's gone."

"Stop talking like he's dead. You're putting a weird mood in this conversation."

"No one's found anything and it's been a week. It can only be so long until there's a difference between missing and death."

"What are you talking about? I found his sword the other day."

Tommy slowed down, staring at him quizzically. "What do you mean you found his sword?"

Technoblade met his stare, equally matching his confusion. "Did I not tell you?"

"No, you went exploring again with no warning!"

He nodded. "You're right, I did do that." Techno reached back into his inventory. The iron weapon glinting against the sun and Tommy had felt his tongue retreat to the back of his throat, leaving him with no words. It was the simple carved out "F" that stood out on the hilt. Well shit, that really was Fundy's.

"Where did you find that?" Tommy asked. Suddenly questions were running through his mind at an undetectable speed per second.

"In the forest when I was out with Dream. Hey, do you mind dropping it by his place when you go to visit Tubbo?"

"What?" Questions were now overflowing and he had no idea what was happening anymore. "Why are you giving this to Dream and not Wilbur?" his first question managed to be.

Technoblade shrugged, giving off the impression that he didn't seem to care. "I trust that Dream would know who to give it to when they're ready. And if Wilbur saw this then he might actually lose his mind."

Tommy took the sword from his hands. It looked exactly like it had from a week ago, though there was an odd residue lingering along the blade, as if someone had spilled syrup on it. He decided not to touch it for his own safety and disgust. "If you're going to Manburg with me, why don't you just give it to Dream himself."

The answer that Tommy was expecting was for Technoblade to say that he had somehow been banished for committing several crimes there, being the convict he is, yet still managing to be the most valuable asset in the kingdom's troops.

"I actually just wanted to have an honest conversation with you." He shrugged, catching Tommy by surprise. "I don't know I'm not good with these things, but out of everyone back at home, I may like your company the best."

Tommy almost laughed. "You're kidding me."

Technoblade shook his head. "I'm not going to repeat that ever. Now, you're helping me rebuild the farm later, by the way. You don't get quality time with the ole blade for free."

***

Stood hovering over the bubbling cauldron, the boy dumped in a modest amount of nether wart into the water. He sighed.

"We're still stuck in our problem of needing those two ingredients," Tubbo coughed into his shirt, the steam released from the concoction being more intoxicating than he anticipated. He continued stirring the mixture until all the nether wart had completely dissolved. "You mentioned you had an idea for the ghast–" Tubbo stopped, watching his brother seem more enamored by the fox than actually focusing on any word coming out of his mouth. "Dream!"

"Huh?" Dream looked up from his lap with a guilty face, Fundy matching with beading eyes.

"We're talking about ways to get your little friend home faster?" Tubbo reminded him. He obviously knew about his older brother's awe of small animals, but now was not the time to get distracted.

"Oh right." He set Fundy off his lap and got up. "So how long does it take for the actual potion to brew?"

"After all the ingredients are in? A good fortnight. Spare a few days for Fundy to readjust to being well, human again..."

"Oh, that's weird. Imagining Fundy as a human and all."

"Don't tell me you forgot that he's a human."

"Of course I didn't, it's just... we know little to nothing about him, besides the fact that he's a Soot and all."

"What about Soots?" an outside voice broke them from their conversation. The two looked over to the side window that displayed nothing other but a blond kid crawling through it and into their home.

"Tommy!" Tubbo grinned. "What are you doing here?" He asked, immediately sending Dream a look, making the older aware of the fox that was too staring at the blond boy.

Dream slowly inched his way back towards the couch. He picked up Fundy and made his way to his room.

"Bored." Tommy confessed with a chuckle. "Oh! And Dream!"

The mentioned stopped, and looked back at him. "What?"

"Techno wanted me to give you this," he said as he dug through his inventory. Soon, taking out a sword. He held it out to him which Dream took hesitantly. He didn't quite remember why it looked so familiar until he felt Fundy squirm in his arms.

"And he wanted you to give this to me, why?" Dream questioned.

"He said you'd know who to give to when they were ready or something. I don't care, you can ask him later."

Dream shared a look with the fox. "Uh, thanks," he said before shutting his door.

Tommy nodded and looked back towards his friend. "So, Tubbo, what are you making? Cause whatever it is, it smells only a little bit toxic."

Tubbo slid a lid over the cauldron before looking back at Tommy. "Our dad left us to make dinner again and as you can guess, it's not going very well." Tubbo easily lied. The Pogtopian was still oblivious to Tubbo's odd interest in magic and potions, despite the two being friends for a while. He also assumed that this wouldn't be the best time to talk about witchcraft, considering the teen had recently had a not so pleasant encounter with some.

Tommy laughed, "you're the only person I know who can mess up mushroom stew."

"I can make bread and— oh!" Tubbo jumped up excitedly. "Do you want to see the new hive I built for my bees?" He dragged Tommy out of the house quickly, leading him up the hill where Tubbo saved all his bees.

It was a small wooden structure that was only just barely taller than Tommy. It's walls were lined with beehives and the floors were an old spruce wood.

"Don't you ever get worried that they're going to sting you?" Tommy asked, swatting away at the little bee that dared to get close to him.

"Never," Tubbo said. "I think they trust me to look after them. You wouldn't sting someone who made your own hive a place to stay warm during the winter, would you?"

Tommy smiled, "no, I wouldn't. You're a good person, y'know."

Tubbo tilted his head. "Thanks, I'm not sure what brought that to the conversation, but thanks. You're a pretty good person as well."

"Tubbo, you're my only friend," Tommy said, suddenly. They slowed down. "Everyone back at Pogtopia is my family, but you're really the only one I'd consider as my friend."

Tubbo stopped and looked at his friend. Something was off today. Tommy was sharing a lot more stuff than he usually did and of course Tubbo didn't mind listening but he also noticed the slouched posture of exhaustion reigning over him. Every few moments he'd cover his mouth as he yawned, rubbing his eyes and blinking to keep himself upright.

"Tommy, are you alright?" Tubbo asked the blond.

Tommy looked over at him and tilted his head, "yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, but Tubbo felt that even Tommy was aware of the way he looked, probably reflecting the way he felt. Like shit.

"You look exhausted is all," Tubbo mentioned carefully. "Is everything alright at home?"

"Everything's alright at home," he confirmed but the two boys knew it was a lie.