Phil woke up around 5 am, his mind processing only 2 things.
The rain had stopped, leaving the area eerily quiet, and he couldn't hear the young boy's breathing.
Even after steadying his breath and blocking it out to listen to the boy's he couldn't hear it.

He shot up to look for the boy, expecting, hoping even, for him not to be in the cave anymore. Instead, he found him lying motionless on the cave floor, his face slowly turning shades of red and blue and his chest unmoving with his lungs.

Sh*t! Phil shot up and rushed to the boy.
He checked his pulse. His heart, if not slow, was beating but he wasn't breathing.
Phil situated himself just barely over the boy and began CPR.

Ah
Ah
Ah
Ah
Staying alive
Stayin alive

Sorry...

"Oh come on kid, wake up!" Phil pleaded, trying not to get frustrated. He was just glad that he was there when his teachers taught CPR back in the Nest's version of high school. Even if it was quite a while ago.

Phil only stopped when Tommy let out a wheezing cough before he rolled onto his side. He clutched his surely bruised ribs in slight agony but was more grateful for the air washing into his lungs with mercy. It felt like when you haven't drank anything in a while and your throat is sore and you pour nice cool water down it. It filled his body and he greedily allowed it to.

Tommy glanced over his shoulder and it became evidently clear if it hadn't been before; if Tommy had attempted that alone he would be dead.
This b*tch saved his life.

That's probably the only reason why Tommy allowed himself to break under his soft caring gaze. If it had been anyone else he wouldn't have. But he couldn't help himself.
He burst into tears and crawled into his lap, startling the adult. He wasn't as good as W̶e̶l̶s̶ was but he'll take what he can get. 

Still, Phil took kindly to the scared teenager and carefully rubbed his back, pressing his chin into the top of his head as he sobbed.
"Shhh, it's ok," Phil assured, trying not to seem too awkward with a child who almost died as he curled up in his arms.

Tommy was still gasping desperately for air as he clung like a koala to the man.
"Does this happen a lot?" Phil asked.
Tommy paused, "kinda.. I mean, I was warned it could."

"Do you need anything to make sure it doesn't?" Phil asked slightly protectively.
"Be up high," Tommy said sarcastically with an airy chuckle.

Phil blinked and raked his hand through Tommy's hair.
Tommy hummed, a sound from the back of his throat came out sounding somewhat like a chicken.
What was he?

"Hey Tommy, what are you?" Phil asked cautiously.
"Why the f*ck does it matter?" Tommy retorted.

Phil hummed softly, "it's just a question mate."
Tommy grumbled before finally replying, "I'm an Avian."
Phil jolted looking at the kid to see if he was kidding or not.
This startled the boy and he raised an eyebrow at the shocked adult.

"What?" Tommy asked.
"An Avian? Aren't those extinct?!" Phil asked stiffly.
"Almost."
"Uh- ok, where are you going?" Phil asked, stammering over his tongue.
"Dunno," Tommy replied.

"Why are you alone?" Phil asked.
Tommy shrugged and climbed up out of Phil's lap, his knees still shaking.
Phil's hands moved frantically, as if unsure quite what to do with them. They ended at his sides, bunching up the material of his kimono.

"What does it f*cking matter?" Tommy asked with a grumble.
"You almost died.." Phil commented quietly.
"Maybe that'd be better than whatever the f*ck I'm supposed to do," Tommy scoffed.

Phil shot up from his spot and grabbed the kid's shoulders, fear in his eyes.

Phil sort of zoned out. He hadn't realized he was talking or even moving until they exited the cave, bags, and materials in hand.
"So, where should we go first?" Tommy asked, fidgeting anxiously.

Phil let out a soft grumbling sigh and wrestled a map out of his bag.
Tommy impatiently chewed at his inner cheek as he watched Phil unfurl the large piece of parchment.
There were a couple moments of irritating silence that Tommy desperately wanted to fill with some kind of string of curses.

He was about to test how far he could go in his cursing when Phil let out a happy chirp and his wings stretched and fluttered a bit. His muscles flexing and each individual feather moved like a crowd doing the wave.
They quickly closed though, as his eyes drifted to Tommy.

"There's a Merling City just north of here, it's actually connected to a human boardwalk town!" Phil explained pointing towards the body of water and the supposed city on his map.
Tommy's brow furrowed but he nodded to the plan anyways.
Not like he had any better ideas.

"Sure," Tommy agreed, messing with the strap of his belt bag.
"Are we going to have enough food for the trip?" Tommy asked.
"We should? I usually pack for a group even when alone, force of habit really," Phil admitted, his eyes glazing over like he was remembering something but he blinked it away quickly.

Tommy nodded.
Phil gave a soft smile and began walking away from the cave, the umbrella on his hip occasionally making a clinking sound against his sword and ax.

Tommy rushed to follow behind him.
Soon they were back in the trees.
Or rather, Tommy was jumping gracefully from tree to tree while Phil followed close overhead, the beat of his wings surprisingly not having any effect on Tommy's slow falling.

It took less than a minute for Tommy to get bored of the silence and began filling the void.
He filled it with complaints, whines, laughter, curses, jokes that made Phil feel old which he'd respond with jokes that made Tommy feel young, sometimes they would hum a song together just to pass the time.

●●●●

Tommy collapsed on the ground of the field. His skir- big man waist parachute splayed out around him.
"You ok?" Phil asked, landing with a grace that Tommy has never had.
"Peachy, totally not completely tired out, nope!" Tommy replied, his sarcasm making Phil wince.

"Want to take a break?" Phil asked, plopping down beside the teenager.
Tommy yawned and fear spiked through the older.
"Let's just enjoy the weather for now," Tommy replied, laying back.
The grass tickled the back of his neck, arms, legs, and his back as he let it slightly dampen his clothes.

He let his ankles cross and he hooked his hands behind his head, entangling his fingers with his mop of dirty blond hair.
He took in a deep breath of slightly moist air, filling his lungs with the much needed air.
He didn't mind, in fact the wetness of it was nice. Familiar even, like that one time-

He could faintly feel the feathers of the adult's wings brush against his elbow as he too spread out and relaxed.

They spent a good 30 minutes of uncharacteristically silent peace before Tommy hopped up.

"I bet I'm faster than you!" Tommy declared excitedly.
Phil blinked his eyes open, glad for his angled hat because the sun was right in his eyes.

"Yeah?" Phil hummed, not bothering to get back up, his eyes closing.
"Yeah!" Tommy agreed.
His tone was cocky, arrogant, proud even.
Phil could easily whisk that confidence away, not that he wanted to.

"Race me!" Tommy offered, or rather, demanded.
"I'm good, I'm sure you'd win," Phil replied, keeping his eyes closed.
Tommy grumbled and grabbed his arms.
"Come on! Race me!" Tommy insisted, pulling Phil upwards from the grass.

Phil groaned but sat up with Tommy's pulling anyways.
"Fine, fine," Phil hummed.
He brushed the grass from the back of his body and fixed his hat.
Tommy's smile grew and he bounced on his toes, pulling Phil slightly away from their resting place.

"Ok ok, from..... Here..... To," Tommy pointed at a singled-out regular old oak tree, "that tree!"
"Sure."

They readied themselves. Phil's shoes were definitely not for races...
Or flying for that matter.
Say.... How the f*ck does he keep them on his feet?!

Tommy blinked away the thought. Focus!

"Ready?" Phil asked.
Tommy nodded enthusiastically.
"Set..."
"Go!"

They both set off across the grassy field.

Phil will give it to the boy, he certainly was fast. The only difference was, he had wings that could propel him forward.

Phil won the race easily. He grinned and chuckled.
But before he could turn to offer the boy some reassurance that it wasn't the end of the world he was met with 2 palms to his back, shoving him angrily with such force there was no way it came from Tommy.

Phil spun around, probably giving himself whiplash. But really the only thing in his mind was; "that was far too strong to be a 14-year-old kid! What just attacked me?"
However, he was surprised to find only Tommy pouting behind him complaining about how he was a "f*cking cheater!" And how that "wasn't poggers at all!"

Tommy rambled for a minute longer before stopping in his tracks and making eye contact with Phil once more.
"What?" Tommy asked.
Phil blinked rapidly, taking a step back.
"Nothing, nothing," Phil assured.

"If it was nothing you wouldn't be staring at me like I was some kind of ghost," Tommy pointed out rather spitefully.
Tommy had been eyed like that one to many times back home, he wasn't sure what it meant but he knew it wasn't a nice look.

Phil rushed back to their bags, gathering their stuff and looking back over the map.

"It should only be another day or so's journey, we should head out again," Phil quickly changed the subject, handing Tommy his bag before bursting up into the air.

"Uh... Ok?" Tommy staggered, caught off guard by the sudden change of personality. Still, Tommy walked below Phil on the ground as he flew overhead.

His shadow looming over every step Tommy took.
But he would soon find out that it wasn't just Phil looming over him in those woods.

No, the being who had been following him since it saw them leave his cave was too. Having gladly gotten up to continue after the duo. Completely unnoticedmight I add, even with the little glowing purple sparkles that followed their every step.

This was going to be interesting, that they could tell.

--------

Notes:
I imagine Tommy's outfit to be his usual red and white baseball tee, tan shorts, and then the equivalent to a white long-sleeved dress, under the Tee, over the shorts. The "dress" is nylon that when not deployed sits like a normal dress (if not a bit ballgown). It is tight around the waist and taking the skirt part off is next to impossible without help. 
My immediate thought was "Princess Peach" so I kinda subconsciously designed it after that kind of idea.

(Update: changed the white dress idea to red,
You can not take it off it is part of his/their skin)