flying too close to the sun

A shift at the bakery

The next morning Tommy inevitably woke up late, he panicked remembering he had work that morning and barely had time to change, throwing on a red hoodie and running out the apartment without bothering to lock it. There wasn't much point anyway, the lock barely worked and there wasn't anything in his apartment anyone could possibly want.

He sped through the city, his side ached from the events from the previous night and he guessed it was bruised but it didn't slow him down. Soon he burst through the bakery doors, an apology already bursting through his lips.

"Niki- gods- i didn't mean to overslee-"

Tommy stopped mid sentence as he noticed who Niki was talking to, only the two of the top heros, Phantom from the other day and Philza. He locked eyes with Niki, trying to get answers to why the top heros were in the run down district's bakery. Before he could say anything, Phantom turned and saw him and his probably messy appearance.

"Holy shit Tommy- your face- what happened? Are you okay?"

Wilbur had rushed forward, hands outstretched, wanting to check the small boy with the ruffled wings and bruised face over. His eyes only filled with more concern as Tommy flinched away.

"Phantom- I'm fine big man don't touch me"

Tommy said quickly stepping back, seeing both the heros had put him in his fight or flight response. His eyes flickered to Philza, who only stared at him with his soft pale blue eyes which at this point were wide with surprise.

Philza was an avian, part bird, this was the cause behind his large obsidian black wings of course. Avians weren't common as it was, it was an uncommon hybrid and often they didn't survive childhood due to complications. They also never seemed to live in the cities, having wings in a place of narrow alleyways and tall buildings wasn't the preferred habitat for an avian.

As Phil first set eyes on the boy his whole instincts wanted to swoop him up and bring him home. The boy had such messy un-groomed feathers, but they were white and were still beautiful, a few specs of blond seemed to freckle the wings, almost unnoticeably. It was also his face which caught Phil of guard, seeing him burst into the small cafe, eyes seemed so determined as he began his apology, childlike as well. What really caused Phil's heart to wrench was the bruise which had coloured the whole side of his face, only recent, as it hadn't seemed to be fully formed yet. Seeing him flinch back from Wilbur broke his heart in so many ways but he also knew he couldn't jump to conclusions. He was a kid, probably reckless and clumsy, maybe got into fights at school, maybe he just walked into a doorway. He didn't want to make assumptions no matter what his instincts were telling him.

Instead of gathering the boy into his arms like he wanted to, he gently placed a hand  comforting hand on Wilbur's shoulder in a way of showing he was going to take it from here.

"Hey mate, you look a little rough there, wanna tell us what happened?"

Tommy looked at the larger avian gratefully, he was panicking so much about being caught he almost forgot that they probably didn't know his face or even his voice.

"It's nothing, mr- uhh" Tommy narrowed his eyes in confusion on how to address the Angel Of Death "mr Philza" he said in the end with a small cheeky grin.

"I hit it on my doorframe when I woke up in the night, embarrassing I know"

Tommy finished, giving them and embarrassed grin. He felt a little bad lying but there wasn't really much he could tell them without being arrested. He could also tell Wilbur didn't believe him, looking at the sad gaze he was giving him.

Finally Tommy turned back to Niki, an apologetic smile on his face.

"Sorry bout this big N" he began "I overslept and ran all the way here, I swear it won't happen again"