Brothers? - SBI Orphanage AU

Chapter 9 - Welcome!

Late night post go brr (I'm posting this at 11:00 pm my time zone btw)

-Phil's POV-

I notice Wilbur flinch when I hold out my hand for a handshake, and take note of it but don't remove my hand. He eventually shakes it.

"Y-Yeah, I'm Wilbur. Hi?"

"Hi! Since you're new here, do you need help figuring out your way around?"

Wilbur seemed to hesitate for a moment, before agreeing. "S-sure, if you don't mind."

I show him where his room is, as well as where everything else in this place is. I pointed out the room that Techno and I hang out in when we walked by, but I didn't say that it's anything more than some random room because I wanted Techno's permission before I shared that.

"Hey Wilbur, do you think you've figured out where everything is, or do you want me to show you where something is again? This building is pretty big and confusing."

"No, I think I got it. Thank you."

"No problem. Before you go, as a welcome gift, my friend Techno and I were hoping we could take you shopping to buy some small stuff for your room to make it feel more like yours rather than some hospital room."

"I-I– You really don't have to."

"Well yeah, but we want to welcome you, and I guess get to know you. It's a combination of us remembering how scary it was for us when we showed up and didn't remember anyone, and also the fact that we still don't really know that many people around this orphanage and want to get to know you. If you want to come, we can leave in an hour and a half, so you still have a bit of time to put your stuff away, rest, etc."

-Wilbur's POV-

Is this a trick? It's cool that they're being nice to me, but the only person that's ever been nice to me was Mikey, and even she was paid to be there. What if Phil and Techno are just playing a game between the two of them and don't actually care at all? Or if they just want to get me to a place where the orphanage workers can't interfere?

No, this is not just a result of being traumatized from my family. I'm not overreacting, I'm protecting myself. If I have learned nothing else in my life, it's that most people are terrible. Growing up, my mom was constantly drunk and abusive. My dad divorced her because you can get a divorce from your spouse, but unfortunately you can't get divorced from your parents so I was stuck. The government decided that my mom would have full custody over me, but that my dad would have to pay a certain amount of money to my mom to support me, and the money actually had to be spent on things for me only. My mom decided to hire a babysitter with that money, since even though it was technically spent on me, it also bought her free time. My babysitter's name was Mikey (1.), and she's awesome. She's the only person who was always nice to me. Like, if I was annoying, she wouldn't just rain down ridiculous punishments, but instead would help me with my bad day or would have me play an active game to get my extra energy out, or whatever else I needed. I didn't have any friends at school, no one really bullied me but I was kind of a loner. I'd eat lunch alone, would end up partnered with whoever also didn't have a friend in that class for group projects, and outside of school would just do homework with Mikey and when she left, deal with my mom.

You learn the social cues. If she comes home with slurred words and smelling like alcohol, then if you can get to your room without her noticing you leave, you might be fine. Otherwise, you're screwed so you really should get your bandages and other medical stuff ready before she comes home.

You also want to avoid her in the morning because she's even worse then, with her hangover. You learn all of the different exits to the house in case you need to get to school without running into her: the windows with a roof or tree near enough, various doors, and even where you should hide some rope in case the easier windows aren't available.

The only other adults I've met are teachers who are always annoyed that I wasn't able to finish my homework or study while I was trying to avoid my abusive mom. Mikey helped with my homework, but she, although she's awesome, often forgets stuff that she learned a few years before.

So yeah. People aren't great. And even Mikey, who was kind of my only safe place, the only nice person, was still paid to be my babysitter. I often would have thoughts questioning if she was being nice because it's her job or because she actually likes me.

But in the end, she was the one that got me out of there. She was the one that noticed the abuse and gathered enough evidence to make there be a trial and get me removed from the house. And she probably wouldn't do that if she was only in it for money, because she doesn't get paid if I'm not there to babysit.

(2.)

But anyway, enough backstory, the important thing now is whether Phil and Techno are actually nice or if they're just pretending.

I guess I'll go, and just leave my guard up in case they try anything.

"Alright. See you in an hour and a half."

"Awesome, we'll meet in the library, okay?"

"Got it!"

I left to my room to rest and process everything that's happened.

A/Ns:

1. Mikey is GFrisk, she's awesome and also like the only one that's really read this at the time this chapter is posted. Also she's writing a great Origins SMP/Modded SMP story, it's really good (much better than this story), and you should check it out if you have time! The link to GFrisk's user should work, click on that and then click on the "Together we can, Alone we will" story.

2. !!!Just a note, if you actually do live with abusive or neglectful parents and you tell someone who reports it to the child services thing, you will only be removed from your family if they've decided that there is absolutely no way that you could possibly keep living there without continuation of the abuse or neglect. Most of the time, the abusive parent(s) will be sent to therapy and that kind of thing and your family will be regulated for a bit, but you won't be taken from your home or put into a foster home or anything like that. But for plot reasons, we'll say that Wilbur absolutely had to be taken from his home

Chapter word count: 935

Total word count: 1143