Ah hello yes it's me again. @wolfythewitch, my liege I bring you more offerings.
Part 2
Philza has been living alone for a very long time now. He’s become accustomed to the solitude, or as much solitude as he could gain with the crows that surround his house. But the crows, as much as they love him, do not love stormy weather. At the first sign of a storm they flee. To where Phil doesn't know, but he does know they’ll be back.
So when Phil hears a commotion downstairs, he doesn’t think much of it. The crows are rowdy, especially first thing in the morning. There are dozens of them and each of them seems to have something different to say, whether they can see Phil or not doesn’t matter.
But then Phil hears the sound of rain hitting his windows.
And then he remembers he has guests.
He jolts up, gets ready, before almost reverently approaching a hand mirror that he oh so painstakingly hung on the wall.
“Good morning,” Phils voice is barely there, low in the light of his new guests and this sacred ritual. “Sorry we didn’t chat last night, a pair of boys, brothers, stopped by the cottage and I couldn’t turn them back to the storm.”
The mirror doesn’t reply.
(The mirror never replies.)
All that can be seen in it is Phil's face distorted by the cracks. Old, tired and full of regrets.
He turns away, goes to where he left his hat last night. As he puts the hat on he takes one last look at the mirror “We’ll talk more later tonight, ‘kay mate?”
And with that he leaves the room.
Behind Phil the mirror’s face ripples slightly.
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The scene Phil comes downstairs to is, to put it bluntly, an absolute shitshow. Well maybe shitshow is a bit too harsh, but it certainly is amusing.
The older boy, Technoblade, is no longer sparking and glowing, but he is holding down the younger one, Tommy, who is yelling incredibly loudly for someone that cannot be older than eight years old.
“LET ME GO TECH-NO-BLADE YOU BITCH,” He’s squirming in Techno’s grasp, limbs flailing as he tries to escape. But Techno doesn’t falter in his grip, he just sits there holding his wiggling little brother.
“No Tommy, I’m not going to let you go so you can ‘go explore the magic man’s house’. We’re guests and I need his help and I can’t have you being rude,” and though no longer sparking, Technoblade looks exhausted. Likely from containing his magic, his brother and whatever journey he made to reach Phil.
“It’s fine mate,” Phil steps out making his presence known as he adjusts his gloves “He’s just curious, and as long as he stays out of my room I’m happy." Both the boys falter, Techno falling over at the weight of his still brother.
Phil promptly moves on to the kitchen, it's early and he'd like to keep his young guests fed, along with keeping an eye out for the crows.
Which, due to the dying storm, there is still no sign of.
He cooks something simple. Simple is easier to make in larger batches, plus there's no knowing which of his crops will be left after the rains. He can only hope. He does that a lot these days.
As Phil turns around to grab something out of the cupboard, he makes eye contact with Tommy… who is just staring at him.
He pauses, unsure what he wants. Children, especially ones as young as Tommy, are mostly unpredictable to Phil.
"Is it true you know how to use magic?" Phil stills at the question. It's an uncomfortable question, but clearly one free of malice.
"Yeah, I suppose I do know how to use magic Tommy," he reaches over, going to ruffle the bright yellow curls on Tommy's head.
(For a brief moment Tommy is replaced by another boy with curly hair, though this one is much older.)
(For a brief moment his boy is in front of him, and he’s happy.)
Phil falters.
These curls aren't brunette, and he most definitely does not know this child enough to do that.
He retracks his hand and continues cooking.
Tommy squints at him, surly in the way only a child can be." Can you show me some?"
Phil plates the food, and passes Tommy a plate. "No mate, I don't think I will," And with that he leaves the room, ignoring Tommy's complaints.
As little as Phil knows about children, he does know they complain. This one just happens to be louder than most. And at least Phil is well practiced in the art of ignoring small squawking creatures, children and crows alike.
He approaches Technoblade slowly. The boy is still sitting by the fire, eyes closed and a blanket wrapped around him. His breathing is slow, but not so slow that is that of sleep. He still looks exhausted, and honestly a little pale. There's a hint of flame in his breath, nothing much, barely a lick. Phil will have to keep an eye on whether he grows sick or not.
(And even though Phil tries so hard, he can’t help but compare the child in front of him to his boy. And he faintly thinks of some comfort recipes he has not made in a long time.)
"Techno," The boy opens his eyes and takes the food gratefully. He begins to eat slowly and methodically, taking his time, and Philza does the same. He swallows, and takes a pause from his food.
“You boys can do what you’d like for the day. There are books around if you get bored or you could just rest. However I don’t recommend you let your brother outside, it’s still raining, and please don’t break anything or go into my room,” Techno pauses mid-chew, nodding at Phil who gets up.
He stokes the fire and passes by Tommy, who is no longer complaining and eating his food albeit messily.
“Sorry there isn’t much to do around here, but I’ll be in my room if either of you need me,” And with that Phil leaves. Perhaps that makes him a bad host, but he’s got a task to do and he only allows himself to do it on rainy days.
In his room he begins to take out books. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, doesn’t know what he’ll find, but somedays it feels like this is the only thing that keeps him going. This and the hand mirror on the wall.
Phil sits down with the first book, briefly glancing back to the mirror.
“Well Wil, let’s see what we can find today”
(He doesn’t find anything.)
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Orignal AU by Wolfy | AO3 | 1 | Part 2 | 3 | 4 |
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