That night was probably the best sleep Tommy had had since he left home.

He wasn't cold, his lungs didn't give out on him, he didn't keep waking up in the middle of the night, it lasted longer than 20 minutes.
It really was what he needed.

On the other hand; it was the most stressful night of sleep Phil has had since the first week after Kristin's disappearance.

He kept waking up carefully listening to the boy's breath. Every time it didn't sound right he'd carefully nudge him till he reentered a half-awake state. Once he did Phil would exaggerate his breathing. He'd do it until Tommy subconsciously matched his breathing before slipping back into unconsciousness.

●●●●

Tommy woke up to soft whispers around him. He couldn't see them though.
Instead, he was met with the bare chest of their father figure and the grayish-purple wings keeping him in place and warm.

"Should we wake them? Won't Tommy, you know, suffocate?" Niki whispered.
"They really need the sleep though," Ranboo argued.
"Shut up b*tches," Tommy grunted burying himself further in the man's chest.

Tommy's fingers unintentionally brushed over an old scar as he moved his arms up from their admittedly awkward and numbing position. Phil's feathers poofed up around him, which was kinda funny.
The warmth was welcome though.

Wanting to see what would happen, Tubbo nudged a hand between the large appendage and Phil's side.
Phil's wing lifted, like how someone lifts a blanket as a silent welcome into their bed.

Tubbo slipped in, the wings closed around him. It still encased all three of them perfectly.
Tubbo let out a happy giggle onto to get a surprising, "Shhhh baby, just go to sleep," from Phil.
He sounded strained, concerned, but otherwise fine.

Tubbo pursed his lips together watching carefully as Phil continued to sleep and Tommy curled back up on top of his chest. Tommy smiled at the shorter.
"Welcome to the haven," Tommy yawned, and once more he was gone, lulled back to sleep by the heavy taps of water on the cave roof.

Tubbo gave a soft hum and joined them in their slumber party.
Ranboo chuckled and glanced between the other 3.
Niki shook her head, probably thinking to herself, before slipping back into the bathtub. Or bath hole?
Whatever.
The water no longer covered her as well as it had previously but it still encompassed her enough for her to breathe.

Ranboo shrugged and decided to try himself. He laid down on the opposite side of Tubbo, not even trying to snuggle up. Phil had other plans tho because his wing raised and nudged him into their cuddle pile.
"If I could, I would join you," Niki joked.
Ranboo chuckled happily curling up at the smaller's side and falling back into a slumber he no longer needed, the speckled burns a bit more noticeable over his skin.

Now, with efficiently the entire group before the twins came along back asleep, the twins didn't know what to do.
Techno huffed fidgeting with a strand of hair that had pulled itself out of his braid.
It was in an awkward place too.

Wilbur hoisted a full bucket of water up and carefully moved it to Niki's hole. He slowly dumped the new water into the hole, refilling it.
Would it be better to call it a well?
Whatever.

He took the now-empty bucket and 2 more empty buckets that they kept and motioned with his head to the younger to go to the mouth of the cave.
Techno grabbed one of his larger blankets and followed close behind.

They ducked under the creepily hanging clothes. Noticeably, Tubbo's cloak and Ranboo's shawl were the least wet out of all of them.

Their bare feet padded against the stone flooring of Techno's cave.
The only audible sounds in the cave were the pads of feet peeling off the stone ground, the growing in intensity and volume as they got closer to the mouth of the cave tapping of rain, and the sound of the 3 buckets clanking together in Wilbur's hands as they walked.

They were enjoying the silence until they made it to the mouth of the cave. The smell of wet cave and rain mixed together as they sat down on the slightly damp stone and dirt just inside the cave.
"You alright Techno?" Wilbur asked placing the buckets at his side.

"I'm fine," Techno assured.
Wilbur grabbed one bucket, rolled up his sleeves as far as he could, and pushed it out into the rain. Close enough to grab when it was filled, far enough out to gather the rainwater.
He did the same with the second one.

Wilbur flicked his arms to get the rain off with a soft giggle.
They sat in relative silence.
Wilbur rubbed anxiously in a straight line over his left palm. The raised tissue, a reminder of his blood brother, even if he is right beside him.

They sat watching the scene before them for a while with Techno's blanket draped over their laps.
Rain dropped nonstop from a dark gray sky. The wind blew loose twigs off their trees and the green leaves all swayed to the west, occasionally Wilbur would lean forward to watch a particularly big twig fly off out of the line of sight the cave allowed them.

"Are you ok?" Techno finally asked after nearly 30 minutes, the first bucket was now back inside but the second bucket had tipped in the wind and they had to wait longer now.

"Do you ever wonder.... No, never mind. I'm fine," Wilbur quickly shut down his question, deciding it wasn't a good idea to bring it up now.
Especially since the man who had taken Techno and Wilbur in, not knowing about the incident, was a mere 15 feet further into the cave.

Though Wilbur didn't even need to finish that statement because Techno knew. He could just tell. Instinctively his hand raised to his abdomen and traced his finger over the large indent in his skin.

"Sometimes," Techno hummed eyes trained on a particular tree as the wind calmed, the green of its leaves reflected onto the cave making things seem green instead of brown and gray.

"It keeps happening more recently," Wilbur admitted.
Techno grunted.
It was the first time they had been with the adventurer who had, when they were merely 13, found them 38 hours after the incident and taken them in with no hesitation.

They had never told him what had happened. All Phil knew was these kids were out in the wilderness all alone with makeshift bandages, one that covered one's left palm, the other that covered the other's right abdomen.
And he had to help.

At the time Phil had barely turned 22 but he was willing.
It was hard to believe it had been 9 years since they first met.

Techno turned when the new addition of soft padding of bare feet entered their silence.
Behind them stood the blonde-haired woman.
Her mermaid style greenish-blue sheer skirt draped from her hips.
The 2 nodded at each other and she stepped out into the rain.

She took a deep breath, the wind blowing her hair and skirt.
She took a seat, her toes delightedly digging into the mud and grass before her.

"Mesmerizing, yeah?" Wilbur asked, eyes glazing over as he watched the scene unfurling in front of him.
Niki nodded.

They sat in silence for a while. They had no real way of knowing how long.
That is, until large gray and black wings wrapped around their shoulders.
Niki startled and looked back at the man.

He had somewhat sad eyes but otherwise calm.
"You alright, mates?" Phil asked.

Did he even remember them from before?
It had been a while and they had only stayed for a couple of months. Granted the best few months the now family-less twins had had but still.

He had initially acted as if he didn't know who they were. Acts as if they were just more teenagers that somehow found him and he could make his newest additions to his nest. But there always seemed to be something different.

Maybe it was because they were the only non-teenagers in the group. Both being 22 respectively.
But it felt more personal than that?

"Technoblade, are you alright?" Phil asked soft hands carded the only brunette's hair.
Wait...
Techno snapped his attention to the Birdman. He hadn't told him his full name again-
"You-" Techno stammered.
"Sorry, have a system reboot?" Phil joked.

OH MY G*D, HE REMEMBERED!
Wilbur leaned further into the touch, at this point it was the only thing keeping him from falling backward. Well, that and Phil's protective wings curled around the 3.

Niki was on a tangent about how fluffy Phil was, and warm, and soft, and how she had never felt anything warm and soft before. Unless dolphins kinda counted but she detests that. They weren't nearly as fluffy nor soft! (Niki hasn't personally met a seal or an otter though she heard that they were pretty soft.)

"I could just fall asleep in them!" Niki declared leaning back into the appendage.
Phil winced at the pressure on his poor feathers but he didn't comment on it.
Wilbur too was halfway to slumber as Phil massaged the oldest child's head.

"Least I'm not falling asleep on you," Techno commented, his tone mostly dead.
Ya know, 'cept for the pinch of glee betraying him.
"It seems to be a trend with my fledglings!" Phil teased, wincing once again when Wilbur slipped out of his grasp and leaned on his wing instead.

"Does that not, you know, hurt?" Techno asked.
"A bit, but it's fine! I'm protecting my nest. I can handle it," Phil assured his eyes filled with threatening sorrows.
Techno was sure if he was all alone he'd be sobbing right about now.

Sometimes, he wished they hadn't left a mere 3 weeks before their momma bird had disappeared. They still felt awful about that after they learned the news.

●●●●

It didn't take long for the 2 others to be in a practically feather-induced coma if that was a thing.
Techno let out a soft snort at it. He had just been freed from the children of the group and then retrapped by the older children of the group.
Poor Dadza.

"You're not very good at hiding things," Techno pointed out, his fingers running through the older man's feathers like he had when he had taken them into his house.

His and Kristin's house.

Phil let out a soft chirp and he reached up to tug at the beads he kept in his hair. Bird thing apparently.

At least he was sure it was because he saw the other bird origin with feathers of white, gray, and red tied up in his hair. G̶r̶i̶a̶n̶ liked to put things in his hair too.

There were new ones this time around.
A deep purple one he had before Techno and Wilbur came into the picture.
A yellow one that Wilbur had jokingly braided into his hair below the other one.
A pink one below that that he vaguely remembered him having the last week of them being there.
A new red one below that one also had 2 very small feathers braided in the center of it, red and white like the ones in Tommy's hair. Though the red feather was way too large to be from Tommy.
The other row of beads held a white and black swirled bead, definitely new. It had small purple speckles in it.
A deep forest green one below that one, if the last one was new this one certainly was.
They weren't sure when those ones showed up, they hadn't been there when the twins arrived.
And below that was a greenish-blue see-through one with pink near the center/hole of the bead. It looked like seawater. This one was new. They hadn't seen it yet. How had he gotten it so fast without them noticing?

They certainly had a meaning, though what it could be flew over their heads.

"Turned messages off?" Phil cut him out of his thoughts.
"Heh?" Techno asked and Phil burst into soft laughter.
"It's alright, you didn't need to hear it anyways!" Phil assured, but by the light tear streaks below his eyes, Techno was sure it had been important. And he, once again, felt awful for not being there for him.

"Sorry," he said simply and Phil just laughed more.
"Oh don't worry about it! Think I like you not judging my rantings better than you listening to them!" Phil laughed.
Techno shrunk and Phil let out a soft chirp.

"Thank you Techno," Phil hummed, leaning on his palm, "even if you weren't listening, I'm glad I could talk about her."
"I want to talk about her more," Techno whispered.
Phil smiled peeling his gaze away from the twin to the dark sky that still pelted rain down hard onto everything outside of the cave, which also included their merling and his wing.
"Me too, Techie. Me too."

-----
Notes:

Phil: *sees a child below the age of 30*
Child: hi hello, I have no home at the moment!
Phil: can I keep them?
Child: ...... (Who the h*ll this b*tch talking to?)
Also child: yes please, keep me.
Phil: yay! This child is mine now!
Phil: *precedes to create an emotional bond with Child and makes beads that he can put in his hair to remember them. *
Also Child: ok I gotta go now.
Phil: 😢
Also, Phil: *never forgets them and when he does see them again tricks them into thinking he doesn't remember so he can relive all the wonderful memories of getting to know them for the second time*
Phil: 😎 now that, is a pro-gamer move!