This is technically set in the same AU as my other fic called En Garde!, but you don't really need to read that to read this and it's kind of a standalone spin off anyway.

Between everything else going on, Techno really didn't have time to get Tommy to a doctor.

Not unless there was something visibly wrong with him, at least. Techno wasn't a monster, if his little brother was bleeding out or whatever, he'd drive him to the hospital. Or call him an ambulance, maybe. But Tommy was nine, kids at that age were kind of notorious for having hyperactive imaginations. And it was a lot easier to chalk up all of Tommy's tall tales to make-believe rather than brain damage.

Or it could be stress. Tommy could be losing his mind due to stress like Techno had been the past couple of months.

Phil's work had piled him with three additional assignments on top of the usual responsibilities he'd be expected to meet for his job. Phil's boss might have given some fluffed-up justification about showing dedication and paving the way for future opportunities to come Phil's way, Techno knew the real reason their dad had taken the extra work was money. Bonus pay would go a long way considering how much they were struggling for cash these days.

With Phil working extra shifts and finishing those assignments that weren't technically part of his position, on top of doing the math and trying to make ends meet however he could, to say Phil was stressed out would be an understatement. To lessen the burden, Techno had found himself more or less singlehandedly trying to take on all the chores around the house. He cooked, did the laundry, cleaned up, and made sure Tommy wasn't taken away by CPS or something. Techno also had his own schoolwork to deal with.

He was about to graduate if nothing put a wrench in that plan. And that meant he needed to be thinking about his future. Paying for university would be out of the question, but Techno's teachers kept saying he was too smart to miss out on a higher education. They'd consider it wasted potential since Techno had already been taking college classes when he hit high school. Being a gifted kid was a full-time job in itself. Techno didn't want to mention it to Phil - and Phil was too busy to ask - so he was trying to get a scholarship instead. Whether it was thanks to his fencing or violin, he didn't care. He'd put up with any extracurricular if it meant taking the financial burden off Phil's back.

But yeah, suffice it to say Techno was also stressed out to the point of losing his mind a bit.

And with all of that going on, he wasn't exactly surprised if it started to rub off on Tommy too. Nine-year-olds weren't utterly oblivious to the world, Tommy had to have noticed how worn out both his father and older brother had been. Maybe he was bored since they couldn't give him as much attention as they used to. Maybe Tommy was just acting out.

Techno didn't know. All he did know, was that he didn't have time to entertain Tommy's silly stories about a person the size of a hamster living in their walls.

Come to think of it, Tommy might have picked that up from a book Techno read to him. Reading to Tommy every night before bed was one of the habits Techno was pretty meticulous about even if under the constant burden of stress and with Phil who didn't come home until long after Tommy's bedtime. He remembered being read to by their father in his own childhood pretty fondly, plus Techno enjoyed it almost as much as Tommy did. The slow, familiar rhythm of his own voice and the turning of each page was a short respite from everything else going on in his life.

But when he closed the book on their nightly chapter and stood up to put it back on its shelf where it belonged, there was a slight sound almost like something was scratching against the wall from the inside.

"It's him!" Tommy was trying to sit up and push away the blankets but stopped when Techno turned and gave him a stern look. It was hard enough to get Tommy in bed, without him jumping out of it. "I told you there was something living inside the walls."

"Yeah, mice probably." Techno put the book back, careful not to bend the spine. "Guess I'll have to go pick up some traps tomorrow."

Tommy had started talking about strange noises recently. Techno thought he was just having nightmares.

"What?!" Tommy looked wholly offended at the suggestion of Techno placing down traps. "What if he steps into one?!"

"That'd be the point," Techno said. "Don't worry, I'll get the ones that catch them alive. I'm not a monster."

"He's not a mouse," Tommy insisted. "He's like, a little guy. With clothes and stuff. I saw him."

Trying not to betray too much skepticism in his voice, Techno crossed his arms. "You've seen him?"

"Well, not really seen him…" Tommy pulled the blankets up to his chest, avoiding Techno's eyes. "But one time I woke up in the middle of the night and I saw something run across the floor. And it wasn't a fucking mouse, I swear."

Techno sighed. He couldn't remember if it was good to encourage a child's fantasy because it made them feel validated and promoted creativity later in life, or if nipping this in the bud as soon as possible was better. He didn't know anything about child development. He didn't even sign up to kind of not really be a parent.

But Phil wouldn't be back for hours yet. He'd be exhausted from work. So this was something Techno had to deal with.

"Well, even if it's a person we can still catch him. And evict him because he's not paying rent." He walked over and ruffled Tommy's blond curls. "No freeloaders under this roof."

Tommy laughed, pushing his hand off. "Maybe he will pay rent. Maybe he's super duper rich from all the buried treasure he's found under all the different houses in the neighborhood and then we'll be rich too. And then Dad won't have to work as much."

Uneasy, Techno dropped his arm to his side. Yeah, kids were more observant than most gave them credit for.

"If he signs a lease, he can stay," he said lightly, trying to change the subject. He didn't want Tommy to worry even more than he already did.

"If he can't pay the rent, he'll help out in other ways!" Tommy assured him as Techno tucked him in again. "He's like a little helper. He fixes broken stuff around the house."

"Will he help you get eight hours of sleep? Because that's kind of all I'm concerned with right now."

Tommy stuck his tongue out at him, showing he had practically run out of good retorts. Techno doubted his little brother was actually going to go to sleep in a timely manner but he could pretend. He left the room after saying goodnight and went to work on his English paper. Techno might be the world's biggest hypocrite, he rarely went to bed before midnight himself.

He wouldn't be able to sleep anyway until he heard Phil's car on the driveway, signaling he had come home.

The day after their conversation, Techno picked up a bunch of mouse traps from a hardware store on the way home from school. True to his promise, they were the kind that caught the animal alive. Techno had read online that you needed to go away from your home into a wooded area several miles off to set them free because the mice would find their way back otherwise. That sounded fake, but it was also less trouble than needing to clean little rodent guts up. And Tommy would probably enjoy the family outing.

"What are you doing?"

Phil had come home early for a change. He leaned against the wall, watching Techno who was currently on his knees trying to push a thin wire through the smallest hole possible. You'd think people would design these contraptions better.

"I'm setting up mouse traps," he said.

"We have mice?"

"I heard them scuttling around inside the wall yesterday. Tommy saw something running across the floor too." Techno glanced up at Phil. For a moment, it crossed his mind to say something more. To confess Tommy's weird bout of imagination and how Techno had no idea how to deal with it.

But then he saw the slight wrinkle between Phil's eyebrows. Techno noticed the dark bags beneath his father's eyes, a clear testament to how many hours Phil had been working. And so he turned back.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I'm taking care of it."

"If you're sure you got it handled, mate." Phil left a pause there, waiting for Techno to speak up perhaps. When Techno didn't, Phil chuckled and pushed off the wall. "That does explain the crumbs on the counter."

"What crumbs?" Techno asked.

"I thought Tommy might be sneaking downstairs for a midnight snack." Phil finally shrugged off his coat. He was still wearing it from the commute home. "Some of the bread was going missing and I noticed crumbs all over the counters in the morning." Phil woke up before either of them did for school. "So I figured it was Tommy. You always clean up after yourself. It could have been mice, though."

Techno shrugged. "Could have been."

Phil reached forward to squeeze his shoulder. "Don't stay up too late, okay?"

"I won't."

Techno was a hypocrite and a liar.

In the past ten years, Techno hadn't been late to class once. Then again, Techno didn't usually sleep through his alarm. All that staying up to keep the house clean and set up mice traps must be catching up to him.

He bolted upright as soon as he saw the time, blindly grabbing for a hair tie on his nightstand. There weren't any though, he had accidentally broken the one he was wearing yesterday while pulling out his braid. And Techno was notoriously bad at keeping track of his hair ties. There might be some hidden around the bathroom if he was lucky.

He had to get Tommy out of bed first.

But when he opened the door to his brother's room, Techno found it empty. Tommy was already downstairs, helping himself to a bowl of cereal in the kitchen.

"I checked the traps, they're still empty."

Techno gave him a look before heading over to the fridge. "You checked them?"

"If we catch the little guy, I want to be the first to know," Tommy said proudly. "And we also need to make sure he's not stuck for too long, you know. Or he might get pissed at us. If you locked me in a tiny cage and didn't check up on me until hours later, I'd be pretty fucking pissed."

"If there was a cage that could reliably contain you, I'd have bought it by now," Techno told him. When he turned around with his orange juice in hand, the offended expression on Tommy's face was more than worth it.

"I'd bite my way out of it," he said.

"I know." Techno smirked. "That's why Dad used to keep you on a leash."

"No he didn't!"

"You're just too young to remember." If teasing his little brother was wrong, why was it so much fun?

Tommy's nose was all scrunched up when he answered. "He probably still had the leash lying around from when you were a kid."

"Nah, we both know I spawned into this world as a perfectly behaved child."

A loud snort told him exactly what Tommy thought of that statement. Techno didn't pay it any mind, biting into the bagel he had found. It was a little dry and a chunk was missing. Probably Tommy. He really did tear into food like a damn animal sometimes.

"Put some clothes on, we're already running late," Techno said when he was done. Tommy saluted him before running out of the kitchen. All things considered, Tommy wasn't the hardest kid to deal with. Weird fascination with mice-people aside. Techno took the stairs two at a time and headed to his own room to also change.

When he was done, he instinctively reached towards his bedside table to look for a hair tie again.

At the exact moment that his brain reminded him he wouldn't find one, his fingers curled around the band. It wasn't the one he had broken last night.

But it also wasn't there before. Techno had been sure of it.

He stared at it for a moment in utter befuddlement. He must be going more crazy than he thought. Then he saw the numbers displayed on his alarm clock and decided, screw it, if his brain was playing tricks on him it might as well be the kind that worked to his advantage. Hurriedly, he tied his hair up into a bun and went downstairs again.

Techno was almost half an hour late to school after needing to drop Tommy off first. Seeing no reason to enter the class late, he skipped the entirety of the first period in favor of sitting in the library and catching up on homework for later in the week. The rest of his classes didn't go as terribly as he expected going on how sleep-deprived he was, though being late threw off his rhythm for the entire day.

And it got infinitely worse when the bell rang on his final period. Techno was still haphazardly shoving books into his bag and watching Skeppy shift on his feet near the door trying to gesture for him to hurry up when his teacher cleared his throat.

"Mister Craft, would you mind hanging around a minute?"

Techno's initial reaction of panic at the question - mind racing trying to think of why he needed him to stick around. Did he mess something up without noticing? Would he be in trouble? - was worsened by the people around him. He could feel the whispers and glances pass through his classmates like a wave, one girl hid a giggle behind her hand. They all thought he did something wrong.

Being in trouble was the last thing Techno needed on top of his stress.

But when he approached the desk, fingers fiddling nervously with a keychain on his backpack and chin tucked into his chest, his teacher met him with a patient smile. Kindly enough, he waited for everybody else to leave the room, including Skeppy who Techno waved at to signal everything was alright. Techno felt his phone vibrate in his pocket a moment later, probably his friend messaging him something at being dismissed. Techno wasn't too concerned.

Tommy walked home from school. Techno only brought him by car in the morning because Tommy would never be on time if he had to walk there. He would be fine.

Techno felt too nauseous to smile back.

"You forgot to fill out your questionnaire form," the teacher - Simon, he was one of those rare educators who insisted on being called by his first name because he preferred familiarity with his students - said. He was always very to the point. Something Techno appreciated about him, among other things it made Simon his favorite teacher.

The problem was that Techno genuinely had no clue what Simon was talking about. "What form?"

Simon leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking. But the corners of his mouth still tugged up fondly. "Two weeks ago, we handed out a piece of paper to every student that they're supposed to fill in regarding their intentions after graduating. Whether you have a university or degree in mind. How your applications are going."

Techno bit his tongue, then exhaled around the tension in his chest. "Oh, that form."

It was probably crumpled up at the bottom of his trash bin right now.

"It's not graded or anything, you won't get in trouble for not filling it in. It's really just a matter of statistics for the school district," Simon said - perhaps to ease Techno's stiff posture or him looking two seconds away from puking. "I just was wondering what happened. Last I heard, you were applying for scholarships?"

"I am," Techno answered. "It's… a work in progress."

Simon sat forward again, using one hand to pull a piece of paper in front of him. It was assignments from a different class for him to grade. The conversation was meant to be casual, but Techno felt too on edge to stop staring at them. "They haven't answered your inquiries yet?"

"There's not a lot of universities that give out scholarships for fencing," Techno said. "The ones that do, don't have a huge amount of spots to give out for it either, big surprise." Not to mention not every school that did offer those scholarships was also offering the dual major Techno was interested in. Everybody in Techno's fencing club was basically vying for those spots too. Techno was pretty much a top contender, evenly matched with his main rival. But he had to face the reality that he might not get lucky.

So that left…

"What about the violin? Almost every university has an orchestra, doesn't it? You used to be first chair, that should look good on your applications."

Simon wasn't looking up at him, pen scratching over paper. So he probably missed the wry expression Techno got at his words.

"Maybe." His phone vibrated in his pocket again, twice in rapid succession. Techno ignored it.

"But?" Simon prodded.

"But there's a reason I stopped playing in the first place."

The truth was, Techno didn't enjoy playing violin anymore. Not on the intense level expected from him as a first chair. If he got a scholarship based on his skill in music, he'd have to join the university's orchestra as a condition for receiving the money and Techno simply didn't want that. He was definitely getting desperate enough to consider stomaching it though. Would he be miserable? Yes.

But he'd be miserable and well-educated. That had to count for something.

"What about other types of scholarships?" Simon asked. He finally put his pen down to look up at Techno, noticing him being distracted by the continued buzzing from his pocket. Somebody was calling him.

"For a lot of them, the window of application has run out," Techno said. "I don't know if you noticed my extremely timely assignments, but I have a bit of a procrastination problem."

Simon laughed. "Perhaps I can help with that. Sometimes exceptions are made if-"

"Sorry," Techno said and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He didn't want to be rude but nobody ever called him, and definitely not twice in a row. "I have to take this."

"Yeah, of course." Simon nodded at him.

Techno felt his heart drop when he saw who was calling him.

"Tommy? Are you okay?"

He winced back when his ear was assaulted by static. The wind rushing against the receiver told Techno that Tommy must be outside or something.

"Tommy?"

"-A hole in the wall!" His brother's voice was barely understandable. Techno had to strain to make out what he was saying, let alone decipher what it actually meant.

"What?!"

"I told you, I saw him and I think he was digging in the yard. There's a hole in the wall for him to get inside?" Tommy sounded like a raving lunatic.

Simon was starting to look concerned too.

"I'll be there in a minute, don't- don't do anything stupid, Tommy." Techno hung up. "Do you mind if I…?"

Simon nodded. "We can talk about this some other time, yeah. Don't worry."

Techno would be worrying about it, actually. But he was more worried about what sounded like somebody climbing over their fence to bury a corpse and break into their house. That's what Techno managed to piece together from what Tommy said, at least. He'd have to estimate the damage when he got there.

Except that when he did get there, it turned out Tommy had called him over absolutely nothing.

Or not much, anyway. The hole was more of a gap or a crack between the plywood. Techno probably wouldn't have noticed if Tommy hadn't pointed it out to him, kneeling on the gravel.

He was even less impressed by the digging. It looked more like a mole had been to town in their garden. Definitely not as if somebody had tried to use it as an improvised graveyard.

"Tommy, is this why you called me?"

His little brother took a step back at the anger in his voice and for a split second, Techno felt a little guilty. Mostly, he still felt annoyed though. The conversation he was having with Simon was actually pretty important. Techno couldn't believe Tommy had called him just to show him a little gap in their wall.

"I needed to show you," Tommy said then, "so you'd believe me! This is the hole he uses to get inside the house. He's probably digging up the garden while looking for treasure."

"No," Techno said. "This is where the mice get into the house. And the garden was some other kind of animal. Don't you think that's a lot more likely than claiming it's a tiny person?"

Tommy frowned. "Not when I saw him? He was in my room, he stole my eraser yesterday. I left it on the desk and then when I got back it was gone."

"Not this again," Techno sighed as he rubbed his face. He really didn't get enough sleep for this.

"Why won't you believe me?" Tommy asked, frustrated. It was in moments like these that Techno was painfully reminded of how little he knew about interacting with kids. Even his own little brother who was almost a decade younger than him.

Techno shrugged, gesturing at the wall helplessly. "Because tiny people that live in the walls don't exist?"

"Fuck you! You just don't want to believe me because you don't care about me." Tommy spat the accusation at Techno's feet, eyes all scrunched up and full of hurt. "You and Dad both. You're too busy to care."

"That's not true," Techno said.

Tommy just turned around and ran up to his room. Techno didn't follow him because - well, again, he didn't know anything about taking care of kids or how to deal with something like this. More importantly, Tommy wasn't going to be calmed down by being around Techno right now. He just needed some time to blow off steam.

The whole altercation did mean Techno was not going to be able to concentrate on filling out the rest of his college applications tonight. But he was kind of starting to accept he was just never going to university at this rate anyway.

He sent a text to Phil to let him know about Tommy's foul mood, so he wouldn't be ambushed by it if he came home. Then Techno went into the kitchen to make dinner.

He had just finished and was thinking of how to call Tommy down to eat without it breaking out into a fresh argument when his little brother started to scream bloody murder from upstairs.

And sibling quarrels aside, Techno would rather not have Tommy's death on his conscious.

So he practically bolted up the stairs, prepared for whatever was going on up there. Going by Tommy's hollering it had to be something bad. Like a murderer breaking into the house or maybe a raccoon had come in through the window. Or more realistically, Tommy got a bit too overenthusastic with the craft knife and accidentally cut off his finger.

Techno was ready for any of those possibilities.

What he absolutely was not ready for was to see Tommy storm out of his room to meet him in the hallway. His arms were held close to his chest, cupping his hands together. And there, gently cradled between Tommy's fingers, was a small person. The relative size of a hamster.

Huh, maybe Techno really was losing his mind.

Tommy looked up at him as if Techno somehow had any idea what to do about this strange development. "I think he's sick. We have to help him."