Dahlia - The Flower Of Betrayal. || SBI Hero AU

-CHAPTER TWENTY SIX-

"What? You're joking, right?"

"Techno, just listen, it's not as bad as it seems."

Tommy should not have been hearing this. This conversation was not for his ears. It was not supposed to have happened at all, but he had poked and prodded and almost started a fight, and now here they stood, dumbfounded at this new confession-Wilbur hadn't lied when he said that he was just like Tommy. He was Tommy.

Techno didn't know if he was relieved or shocked or angry or anything. He didn't know what he was feeling. I mean, how do you react when your not-brother tells you that he used to be on the same side of the person you had risked your life to stop? If the dots connected earlier, they broke apart and cracked in every which way now.

And Wilbur? Wilbur wasn't feeling at all. It was like he flipped a switch in his mind-like he used to back in the day. He was emotionless, not feeling a thing. He knew he couldn't bear it if he did, so he just didn't. It was as simple as that. Oh, the things Dream had taught him.

"It's complicated, okay? I didn't know better, I was a kid, and-"

Techno stops him by putting his hands on Wilbur's shoulder-only one, with the cuffs on his wrists not letting him do more. Seeing the man in distress made everything worse, but he could find one thing in the foggy mess of his brain-Wilbur didn't want to lie. He was just scared. And that was put over everything he knew.

"It's okay. It's okay. Later."

Wilbur bit the inside of his lower lip, his expression softening. He relaxed, leaning in to rest his head on top of the other's head. Techno wasn't much of a hug guy, so between them, this was how they showed affection. Wilbur loved hugs, the warm embrace, the comfort of being in someone's arms, but he'd settle for anything as long as it meant being close to Techno again.

Tommy shifted his weight back and forth on his feet anxiously, waiting for them to stop being all sappy right now. This was not the time. He fiddled with his fingers a little before he couldn't handle it, and interrupted them just to get their attention, "Look, this is cute and amazing and-" he glances over to Wilbur, Dream's old sheep, "-kind of weird, but we are still being hunted and I love that you two are getting along again but we got to go."

His words loomed in Wilbur's head and hung in the air like an odorous vapour, invisible but impossible to ignore. He let the unnatural quiet linger far too long, then abruptly he realised just what he had meant.

Dream's old sheep. That wasn't far off, was it? He was about to herd back to his flock of villains, what he's always known, because that's what a little minion he was.

Gods, he needed to get out of people's heads.

Techno is the first to pull away, but he keeps a hand holding Wilbur's arm as he goes. Tommy nods and follows close behind, staring at the mask in his grasp as he does.

Tommy was having a similar reaction to Wilbur at this moment, not thinking about what he was saying-or thinking, for that matter. He didn't want to feel anything, so he tried not to. But he wasn't trained as well as Wilbur was, and he certainly wasn't in the right mind to be a drone again. He couldn't control his thoughts. It wasn't his fault, he never learned how. He kept them tucked away in the darkest pit of his soul, and so he didn't learn to manage them he just learned not to think about them. But a rush of emotions like this is too hard to hide.

How was he supposed to feel, just now knowing that the man he used to despise and now only kind of despised and momentarily loved was also the man that came before him, that shared his experiences, that was marked just like he was? He didn't want to make assumptions about anything, but if he knew anything-he was claimed now, just like he must have been as a kid. They had mutual pains and they were still fighting. It didn't sit right with him.
And Wilbur, poor, poor Wilbur.