Baby Birb

Mistakes Many Mistakes

//TW: Mentions of Child neglect, Child dehumanization and Child Abuse, Self-hatred, vomiting, and maybe other stuff I'm unaware of just let me know if you find something. //

 Tommy slowly drags his eyes open; His vision is fuzzy. He can't fully make out his surroundings. One thing he knows for sure, He doesn't know where he is. He can feel something soft under and around his body. Some sort of blanket but much, much, much softer. His eyes trail across the room trying to make sense of where he is, he can't even think straight, it's like there is a cotton ball separating his mind and thoughts.

He feels warm. Too warm. It's not a pleasant warmth that you get from a fireplace instead, it's a sickening and skin boiling warmth. It makes him feel groggy and disgusting, Sweat covering him and his stomach turning doesn't make the feeling any better. He puts his arms around his stomach in an attempt to lessen the pain. It's confusing. Why is his stomach paining him so much? He feels sick.

The door to the room swings open. There is the figure of a tall man wearing some sort of green clothes. He can't make out his face, but he really couldn't care any less right now. Tommy lets out a gag and vomits all over to his side. Unable to contain the sickness in his Tummy. He really didn't mean to dirty the covers.

"So-wry." He slurs, his caretaker always hated when he slurred his words, it makes him sound childish and unrefined. "Aw mate, It's okay you didn't mean to. Come on let's clean you up." Says the man. Who he really doesn't recognise but his voice is quite soothing and there is no disgust nor anger in his tone, just kindness as well as something he can't quite place? The man moves towards him and grabs him by the shoulders. Gently, and then moves his torso into an upright position facing away from the puddle of vomit.

Tommy is quite confused by the situation; he expected the man to shout at him for ruining the covers and force him to clean it up himself. The caretakers always did this, and they said that it was pointless to clean a sick child as they would ruin it again later. They didn't bother to take care nor feed him when he was sick because he could barely move, and it was too much effort to help him eat. But this person and his funny way of speaking, seems to care. Or maybe he is just taking him out for punishment. He really wasn't sure, but he honestly couldn't care right now, he felt too drowsy to try to protest.

"Mate, I'm going to need you to try and stand up for me. We need to get you washed." Tommy complies as best as he can, trying to stand up on his own before leaning on the strange tall figure and clinging onto him as they slowly move out of the room. He focuses his eyes on the floor to make sure he doesn't trip or step on the man's long coat or cloak. It looked a lot like some sort of pyjama coat but green with white stripes. The only pyjamas that he had ever seen that had some colour on them were the red stained t-shirts that were sometimes put in the washing. That was probably around the time he stopped talking to any of the other children.

The man then left him for a moment allowing him to lean on the counter in what looked to be a very large bathroom that had both a shower and A BATH. He had read so many books about children who take baths before bed, he himself never actually got to go in a bath. The caretakers only ever hosed down the dirty children outside. That was usually how most children and he himself got sick. The water was usually very cold, and they didn't even give them a towel like in the books, just told them to get dressed and go back to their room.

"Mate, I'm going to take your clothes off, okay?" The man asked once again in that weird and fuzzy feeling tone. Tommy half expected him to just force the clothes off him, but he waited and waited and waited until Tommy realised that it was a question and that the man won't do anything until he answers. He really doesn't like the idea of someone taking his clothes off, but he nods anyway. It's not really like he has a choice.