Panic

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Tommy was genuinely so f*****g confused- the people around him tried to speak to him, but the words they said- well, they spoke a Terran language. Tommy hadn't spoken Terran in prime knows how many years. He'd been naturally worried (he totally didn't have a panic attack earlier.) but when they'd come near him to try and f*****g touch him, that's when he got angry. Clearly these people were nonces, as they'd changed his clothes as he slept, and they wouldn't stop trying to approach him with bits of candy. Eventually when one of them got to handsy and actually tried to pick him up- (Steve he'd named the buggar- him and his stupid blue shirt. He'd only let the man near for the tiny cow he had, not to try and touch him.) he bit the guy. The man had yelped and pulled away, leaving Tommy and his tiny cow alone. Tommy had shouted every horrible word he knew, even the ones he didn't like, and they didn't even look miffed! They just. kept. pitying him. He hated it. More than anything in the world, almost even more than he hated dream.

Eventually, some tall man with long white hair came by and shouted at the people bothering Tommy- he'd given the man a thumbs up in thanks -and Tommy had finally gotten some peace. For about 3 minutes that is. Well, it felt like only three minutes, what was actually 15 minutes later, Tommy was playing with his tiny cow when he heard talking outside the door. He wouldn't have paid attention, but there weren't many men who worked here so it struck him as strange to find himself hearing the voices of two outside the door. While Tommy hated talking to people, despised it really- the silence was incredibly boring, so when he realized the doors were thin and he could hear everyone outside he began listening in and entertaining himself by coming up with what he thought they were saying. Tommy was just about to creep on closer to the door when he heard a loud booming laugh and jumped back slightly in fright. In the end the voices kept getting louder and louder, and eventually Tommy hid in the chest they'd left in the weird room.

Normally Tommy would find somewhere safer to hide, like in the walls, but he'd seen a tiny pig hanging out the side of the chest. He'd thought of his- ...of techno. Tommy wasn't one for sentimentality, but he felt funny, and Techno- well, for a time, Techno had been safe. Maybe not at first, and certainly not after the pit- but later on, when he'd hidden him in that chest and taught him how to take care of the farm animals and let him get away with stealing little trinkets, he'd been safe. He'd toddled over quickly- stumbling over his own feet as he and the tiny cow in his arms made their way to the large chest. Quickly pushing the lid up with all the strength he could muster, he climbed over the front edge of the chest, the tiny pig falling in with him. Apparently, Tommy had been just on time as right after the chest top had fallen closed, he heard the creak of a door opening quickly. 

A gasp of surprise rang out through the room and Tommy giggled quietly, they hadn't seen him- 'what idiots!' he thought, childish amusement curling in his chest as he listened to his captor's search for him. It had been what felt like hours since Tommy had hidden in the chest, and he'd honestly been getting bored. It was in that moment that he'd sighed in annoyance at his captor's incompetent perseverance, and all of a sudden, he heard a quiet gasp. The voice that'd stumbled and gone high pitched so loud earlier stopped it's grumbling and grew closer to the other, it had a questioning tone, and Tommy just knew he'd messed up again. 

He held his breath and ceased all motion, quickly going still as he felt a surge of panic- 'This is bad, this is so so f*****g bad ohnoohnoohnoohno-' He thought, the only noise louder to him being his racing heartbeat ringing through his ears as he tried his hardest to hold his breath. Pat, pat, pat, went the steps echoing towards him, but Tommy couldn't hear the noise past his own anxiety, so when the lid of the chest lifted up and he was picked up from under his armpits by some baby-faced old man he genuinely didn't intend to kick him. Really! It'd been purely on instinct that he'd had let his feet shoot out and kick the weird gray-haired boy in the diaphragm, falling to the ground and running off to the opposite corner of the room while the man bent in half and struggled to breath for a moment before reviving far sooner than he should've been able to. 

In his panic, Tommy subconsciously began scanning the room for anyone he knew as his breathing picked up and his eyes stung with the tears in their corners. It was then, in that moment of pure panic that Tommy saw him. Wilbur. He didn't even think twice of letting the tear's stream down his face as soon as he saw the man, because that was Wilbur! If Wilbur was here, he was safe, and while that thought process might seem childish to anyone else it made absolute perfect sense to him at the time. Tommy quickly tugged the tiny cow he still held onto and rushed over to his big brother, quickly jumping behind the man and hiding from the weird strangers. Wilbur was wearing weird clothes- not his usual black turtleneck but rather a soft blue button down and a black-button down suit vest thingy- a fancy thing that he'd never seen him wear before, but he still had his tan trench coat on, the one Tommy had spent week's working on after he'd first learned to sew clothes.  

Looking up to see what Wilbur would say to Tommys captors, he was startled to see Wilbur looking at him in shock- maybe he couldn't recognize him since he looked so weird? "Wilbur?" Tommy quietly mumbled out, trying desperately to get his brother to look at him right, without that odd undertone- to look at him with recognition like he used to. Where was the fondness? Where was the care? Where was his brother? Lost in his thought's, Tommy didn't notice the moment his breathing picked up and he'd let go of where he'd latched onto Wilbur(?)'s coat and began backing up to the corner of the room. The grey-haired boy-man thing slowly stalked forward, hands raised nonthreateningly, but Tommy knew better. Why wasn't Wilbur stopping him from getting closer? 

Tommy snapped out angry violent threats at the silver-haired threat, and quickly moved in smaller on himself, legs scrambling to pull closer to his chest. It was then that Wilbur seemed to snap out of it, snapping something unintelligible out that stopped the threat in its track's, and slowly crouching down as he faced Tommy, holding out his hand's. Tommy let out a choked sob, not seeing the instant flash of sympathy and regret on the face of the man he'd dubbed a threat and ran over to Wilbur and gave him a hug as tight as he could. It'd been month's since he'd seen his brother after he'd left out to sea, and this whole time with everything that'd happened since, Tommy had just really wanted a hug from his brother.

He'd tried to hold out a bit longer, but truth be told- Tommy was Exhausted. He'd been kicking and screaming and hiding for hours, and now he didn't think he could stay awake any longer- Tommy fought against it, tears still streaming down his face as he held on as tight as he could to his big brother, but eventually he couldn't fight against the drowsy-ness anymore, and he fell asleep in the man's arms, arms going lax as tear's slowly dripped down his face.