Flightless

Therapy

After breakfast, Phil walked with Y/N down to Puffy's office. It was about a one-mile walk, so it didn't take long for them to arrive. As the two walked, Y/N broke the silence, "Do I have to go?" Their pleading eyes begged for Phil to say no.

"Yes, I've walked you here. I'll pick you up later, okay?" Phil looked down at Y/N, waiting for their response.

Their eyes continued to plead, but it was useless. "Okay," they said nervously. Y/N knocked on Puffy's door as Phil left.

"Hi Y/N, come on it," Puffy moved aside to let them in. Y/N walked inside, their voice shaky with nervousness. Puffy walked back to her chair. "Take a seat," she gestured towards the couch in front of her. Y/N sat down. Their leg began to bounce, and their hands sat on top, slowly gathering sweat. Puffy grabbed her notepad and pen, "So Y/N, how are you?"

Y/N slightly smiled, "I'm good. How are you?"

"I'm doing alright. So, Phil said you've had some dreams that wake you up?"

As Puffy spoke about dreams, Y/N became agitated by the word. They began to look away from Puffy. Their eyes wandered the room instead. "Uh...Yeah, I have been waking up from them."

"You seemed bothered," Puffy tilted her head, confused, "Did I say something wrong?"

Y/N looked back at Puffy, embarrassed that they weren't looking at her when they were speaking, "I just-" they took a deep breath, "I don't like that- that word you used."

Puffy's expression changed from concern to worried, "Oh, I didn't know that. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Puffy shook her head, "If it bothers you, then it's not okay."

"Right, sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for something out of your control, Y/N," Puffy reasoned.

"Okay, sorry," Y/N apologized again.

Puffy frowned and opened her notepad to write. The silence was deafening, nothing but the sound of a pen dancing across the paper. Y/N and Puffy continued to talk about everything that happened with Dream. What was supposed to be a therapy session felt more like an interrogation for information. "What happened when you were under his control?" Puffy avoided saying Dream's name.

Y/N's jaw dropped with shock. They didn't expect Puffy to ask such a question during their first session, but it seemed more like Puffy wanted to know what happened rather than understand. They felt their eyes begin to water but closed them before they morphed into tears. Again they took a deep breath, For Dadza. I'm doing this for Dadza. They thought to themselves. "What he did was- I'm sorry, can we not talk about this?"

Puffy nodded and realized that this was a lot to go through. "Okay, how about we talk about your wings and the axe that cut them. It was the same one that you used on Phil. The same one Ranboo used on you."

Y/N was again bothered by a word Puffy used, only this time it wasn't dream. Instead, it was the word axe. "Yeah- it was the same one. What's so important about it?"

Puffy wrote down more in her notepad before answering, "Well, you tried to hurt people in your family. You know it wasn't you in control. It was the potion."

For the next hour, Puffy and Y/N talked about every little detail as long as Y/N didn't ask to stop. When the time was up, Y/N left more agitated than they started. Puffy walked them to the door and found Phil and Technobalde waiting for Y/N. Technoblade smiled, "Hi, Y/N."

Y/N let out a relieved sigh "Techno!" they ran up to him and hugged him as tight as they could.

Phil smiled at the two siblings and turned to Puffy. "Phil, can I speak with you?" Puffy asked. He nodded, and they walked to the side to have a private conversation away from Technoblade and Y/N.

While Puffy and Phil talked, Technoblade had some questions. "So, how was therapy?"

Y/N shook their head and grimaced, "I don't want to go back. Please don't make me go back, Tech."

"That bad? What did you talk about?"

Y/N began to fill with anxiety, "Can we leave now?"

"We'll have to wait for Dadza-"

"Please, Techno? I don't wanna be over here."

He tried to reason with them, "Let's wait for Dadza, and then we can go to the caves if you want. How does that sound?"

There was no reasoning with Technoblade, and Y/N knew it and gave in, "Okay."

____________________________________________________________

Puffy and Phil moved to the side, away from Y/N and Technoblade, to have their own private conversation. "Did everything go okay? You look worried," Phil said.

"Y/N's been through a lot, but I've never seen anyone like this. Not even Ranboo has been this- I want to say broken."

"What do you mean broken, Puffy?"

"What Dream did to them- They'll never fully recover from that. The way he controlled them." Puffy gestured toward Phil, "Look at your arm. Y/N was forced to do that. Not to mention all the things they said to Technobalde."

Phil wanted to help but knew this was something he couldn't fix. "What can I do, Puffy?"

She pulled out her notepad and flipped through it. "Well, I learned one thing that's crucial to know. Y/N has a few trigger words. You and the boys need to know not to say them around Y/N. I know they're just words, but they can cause more harm than good."

"What are they?" Phil answered quickly.

"Dream, axe, potion, and this one's strange. I don't know why this was triggering to them, but the word family didn't go over too well."

"Family?" Phil was also confused by why this would be triggering to them.

Puffy nodded, "Also, you didn't tell me how bad Y/N's anxiety is. It would have been a good heads-up. I could have set out fidgets for them had I known beforehand."

Guilt flowed through Phil's veins, "I didn't know it was bad." I didn't know they had anxiety. He thought to himself.

"Bring them back same time tomorrow. There's still a lot to do," Puffy closed her notepad and put it in her back pocket.

Phil nodded and thanked Puffy. She waved goodbye and headed back inside her office. Phil walked over to Technoblade and Y/N. He smiled, "Ready to go, Y/N?"

"Yes," Y/N started to speedwalk away. Technobalde tried to catch up but Y/N didn't slow down. As they left Phil behind, the two started walking to the caves as Techno promised. Techno turned to Phil who was further back and he waved goodbye to make sure Phil knew that he had Y/N covered and that they would be fine by themselves. Phil waved back and started to head home.