A/N - This was a request from New_Pronouns_who_dis for mute Tommy, thank you for sending the prompt! I really like the idea of deaf Tommy too, so that might be coming out soon. This has Dadschlatt which I remembered was a request from simp2828, but I also have a sick Tommy oneshot coming for you soon!
TW: selective mutism, parental neglect, unhealthy home environment
"And this is my youngest, Theseus," Phil says with a smile, ruffling his son's hair. Schlatt notices the boy scowl and his hand twitch, but he makes no effort to move Phil's hand, which now rests possessively on his shoulder.
"How old is he?" He asks. "He's eleven right now," Phil responds. Schlatt just smiles a bit nervously, wondering why the dynamic is so off between the two. It was nothing like his relationship with his own son.
Speaking of his son, Tubbo comes bounding down the path. "Dad! Dad, I found a bee's nest in the forest!" He shouts. "Oh, that's awesome, buddy! You oughtta show it to me later, alright?" He spares a glance at the blond kid and takes into account how confused he looks. But Phil's grip tightens on his shoulder, and his grey eyes find the ground.
Schlatt had had enough. He didn't want to assume anything, but he wanted to get this kid alone at some point to make sure everything was okay. Phil was charming, but Schlatt was familiar with how some people hid behind charm, having done it in his younger years when he was in politics, although he was embarrassed about it now.
"Hey Tubbo, you wanna show Theseus the bee's nest?" He says as Tubbo gets closer. He goes to ruffle his son's hair but remembers how it looked when Phil did it - so controlling. He settles on patting him lightly on his shoulder, before moving his hands to his side.
"Sure! Theseus, come on, I promise they won't sting you!" Schlatt watches Tubbo grab the boy's hand, who just looks at their enlocked fingers in wonder. Some brightness comes to the kid's eyes, and Schlatt realizes with a start that they aren't grey, but a brilliant blue.
"As long as you ask your dad if it's okay!" Tubbo says, and suddenly the blue is gone. The boy slouches and shuffles over to his father, who only looks down on him with an appraising gaze. After a moment, he nods, that handsome smile returning to his face. It was looking less and less genuine.
"He may go," The blond man says authoritatively, and grabs the boy's neck as he turned to leave. "Have fun," He murmurs through gritted teeth with a smile.
As the kid walks away with Tubbo, Schlatt sees the fingermarks on the back of his neck.
-
"So Theseus doesn't talk that much, huh?" Schlatt asked Tubbo while they were cleaning off dishes from dinner. The Minecraft family had taken their leave, and Schlatt hadn't heard a peep out of the youngest all evening.
"He likes to be called Tommy more," Tubbo said casually, and Schlatt looked over at him in surprise. "He spoke to you?"
"Only to ask me to please call him Tommy. Then he started mumbling about how I didn't have to and I said sure I could, and he didn't say anything else. But he's so nice, Dad! He liked my bees, and they liked him too! One even landed on his nose," He giggled. All Schlatt could do was stare at him in amazement, wondering how he got so lucky with his son, and marveling at how pure and kind children were.
"Well, I guess we'll be calling him Tommy from now on," Schlatt said.
-
"Hey, Tommy!" Schlatt greeted, and the boy looked up at him in surprise, but with a bit of a gleam in his eyes. "It's Theseus," Phil corrected with confusion. "My bad." As Schlatt said it, he snuck a wink at Tommy. The boy's face went red and he looked down at the carpet, but Schlatt didn't miss how his eyes lit up as Tubbo bounded down the stairs in his only pair of nice overalls. "Tommy!" He shouted, engulfing the boy in a hug. "Come on, let's go play!" He dragged the younger upstairs to his room, and Schlatt heard soft giggling coming from Tommy as he rounded the corner and went out of sight, eyes widening at the sound before he turned back to Phil. The man was flashing him a smile, one that was supposed to make him feel at ease, so Schlatt decided he would play the man at his own game. People always got honest when they were drunk, and pretty soon, he had gotten Phil to down quite a bit of alcohol without drinking a single drop himself.
They discussed their children, and Schlatt noticed how Phil preferred to tell stories about the success of his older two sons, so he guided the conversation towards Tommy.
"Freak doesn't speak," Phil said gruffly. "Stopped speaking when he was five. Haven't heard a peep outta him since. I mean, his voice was pretty annoying when he was young and it was nice to get some quiet, but I wonder what it sounds like now." For a moment, something like remorse cast a shadow over the blond man's eyes, but it was gone with the clearing of his throat. "Eh, it's probably still annoying. For the better that he's mute, honestly."
When Schlatt saw Tommy peering through the banister rungs with an emotionless look on his face, he knew he had to do something.
"Can To- Theseus stay over tonight? He and Tubbo seem to really get along."
"You can have him for the weekend if you want!" Schlatt realized that Phil's genuine smile was a bit lopsided.
"Sure, Tubbo would love that. Tommy, too."
"What's this thing with Tommy? You and your kid both called Theseus that."
Schlatt quickly ran his tongue over his teeth as he thought of an excuse. "Figured he needed a nickname, and the only one we could think of was Tommy."
"Well, his name's not Tommy. It's Theseus; Technoblade picked the name out himself," Phil sniffed.
It wasn't long before Phil was ushered out, Schlatt trying to stay as calm and polite as possible through his tight smile.
"Alright boys, let's make some brownies!"
By the time the brownies were in the oven, both children were covered in various ingredients, but Schlatt couldn't stop staring at Tommy's adorable little smile. He had heard the ringing of Tommy's giggle many times throughout the evening, and although he was glad the boy was having so much fun, it only made him more curious as to what his voice sounds like.
-
As it turns out, he wouldn't hear Tommy's voice for many years. Tommy had whispered to him, once, and he had giggled and laughed more times than he could count while at his house, but it was when Tommy was sixteen that he first really spoke to Schlatt.
His voice sounded a bit like Phil's, but it was very low and scratchy from lack of use, which made it so much more genuine, and more Tommy.
The words he said were, "I can't stay there anymore."
He had said it while standing in the rain in front of Schlatt's house, a small bag on his back and hair soaked through with water. The goatman wondered if the tracks on Tommy's cheeks were from the rain, or crying, or both.
"Well then you can stay here," Schlatt said determinedly after a moment's hesitation to process what had just happened. He brought the boy inside and wrapped him in a blanket, calling for Tubbo, who arrived in the living room in a flash, engulfing Tommy on the couch despite getting himself soaked in the process.
A silent conversation passed between the two, and finally, Tubbo sighed, saying, "Well, at least you're out of there now."
"Can someone explain what's going on? I don't need details, I just need to know that everyone's safe," Schlatt interjected. Tubbo looked pointedly at Tommy, who cleared his throat before speaking. "Ehm, my family doesn't like me. I know you know that. They like to tell me that, and sometimes they get angry that I don't react, and they get physical. I only learned that wasn't normal when we started visiting you guys, and Tubbo finally convinced me to leave after years of trying." The boy rubbed his throat, which no doubt hurt after his small speech, so Tubbo rose to get some water.
"Well, it's good you're out of there. You're safer here than there, and that is all that matters to me."
Tommy nodded his head, smiling a little at Schlatt's paternal tone. The man caught on and a small smile of his own grew.
Tubbo came back with the water, and Tommy drank it before folding his hands in his lap. After a beat of silence, Tubbo spoke up. "This goes to both of you - Tommy, don't feel pressured to talk, and Dad, please don't pressure Tommy to talk. I just was... a bit concerned about that. So yeah, it's perfectly okay if you're mute. We still love you, alright?" As he said it, he took Tommy's hand, and Schlatt leaned forward and nodded.
"Well, we don't really need to get a bed set up since the guest room practically belongs to you anyway, but if you want to head upstairs to get anything set up or head to bed, go right ahead."
Both of the boys got up at that and went upstairs, Schlatt following a few minutes after. He checked Tubbo's room which was empty, so he went to Tommy's room, and peeked through the slightly open door to see the pair sitting on the bed, conversing in some kind of sign language. For the millionth time, Schlatt marveled at how cool his kids were and made a mental note to ask them if they would be willing to teach it to him tomorrow.
(A/N, skip if you're not interested)
I didn't have time to properly edit this, but I hope you enjoyed!
Thank you so much for 100K reads and almost 100 followers! That's crazy! My parents are getting takeout from my favorite restaurant in celebration. The restaurant is also called Tommy's, which is kinda neat.
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