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infinitethree · 3 years

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[[Timeframe: Not too long after Day and his kids permanently move to the place that will become Sanctuary. Jacobs and Styll (s!Karl and s!Sam) haven't appeared there yet, either. Summary: Day offers to help Tommy get better at fighting after Theo has to go take a break from it. Turns out, Tommy and Theo can both be motivated by spite.]]

Day knows his son well enough to know when he’s being too stubborn for his own good. He especially knows him well enough to know when he’s being too stubborn for anyone else’s good, too.

It’s why he hops down from his perch on the stands in the arena–a place he’s glad is getting more use now than it ever did previously–and calls out to him, “Theo. You’re not being productive any more, you’re just getting pissy. Go sit down and cool off.”

He turns to Tommy, the subject of his son’s ire. There was no doubt in Day’s mind that everything was still very weird for him. And yet, he was still willing to let Day keep an eye on Theo.

Okay, well. Theo and Tommy had tried it by themselves once, and it resulted in them refusing to be in the same room for a week.

Day did his damnedest to let Tommy dictate as much of their interactions as possible; he knew both from his own experience and from supporting Atlas that the line between acceptable and not could shift at the drop of a hat. Anything and everything could become a trigger.

It’s for this reason that he turns to Tommy and asks, "Do you want me to take over, or nah?" He sees the blond consider it, so he adds, "I could try something without me using weapons if you'd like. Your call, either way."

Tommy’s brow furrows. "The fuck can you even do without a fuckin’ weapon?" He sounds curious, if a bit doubtful--but that's not terribly surprising. Theo had doubted it too, at least at first.

Day smiles. "It's not complicated. It does require pissing you off, though, so I need to know how angry you're okay with getting."

Even if it really wasn't meant as one, Tommy clearly takes it as a challenge. "I can handle it." Day studies him for a moment. Trying to change his mind won’t work, not if he thinks he’s been challenged. Besides, the kid can handle far more than a lot of others give him credit for. He nods. "Alright, then."

He takes a step back and says, "Try to land an attack. Use anything and everything at your disposal to do any sort of damage whatsoever. Bonus points for blood."

Tommy looks down at his netherite sword--a gift from Dee--and then back at Day. He isn’t wearing any armor, not even his bracers. Day grins at the doubtful and slightly insulted look on his face. "Especially that one. Infinite lives, remember?"

He doesn't even need to move his feet to twist away from the somewhat hesitant swing. He just raises his eyebrows. "We both know you can do far better than that."

The faint reproach in his tone makes the teen’s eyes thin, and he takes several more, increasingly fast swings. None of them land, Day dodging easily out of the way. "Don't you want to get some payback? This is just about the only context where you're not just allowed to try and stab me, it's encouraged. C'mon; where's the Tommy spite? Where's the drive to get me to shut the fuck up via any method possible?"

The swings are getting more and more precise, a familiar mulish glower already forming. "I'll fuckin’ shut you up alright," he hisses.

Day scoffs a little. "Not at this rate you won't." That's the thing that makes real anger flash in his eyes. He's finally stopped holding back; Day’s grin gets bigger. "Good! Now we're getting somewhere. I might die of boredom before you actually hit me, but at least you're moving forward."

Tommy snarls, adding well-timed kicks to his swings. They’re definitely closer to hitting, but Day doesn’t seem to have much trouble ducking and weaving around them. “That all you have?! Where’s the guy I fought a war against?!”

The taunts are having their desired effect; making him tap into the spite that he and Theo both have instead of blood. This is the exact method he used to get his eldest motivated. Sure, Day wound up with a massive scar for his trouble, but it had worked. Day doesn’t doubt that Tommy will be even more driven to prove that he’s very capable while up against a version of his abuser that is both less of a threat and more.

But it’s not quite enough, not yet. So he grins at the teen and says, “I know I’ve got a few more years now, but surely you can land a single, measly hit on me! I don’t have armor, I don’t have a weapon, I don’t even have a fucking shield! Did you manage to forget everything you knew while I wasn’t looking?!”

He sees the exact thing he’s been waiting for–the shift from mere anger to calculated rage. It’s now that Day knows to get a whole fucking lot more careful with what he does and how he does it.

He’s now forced to start redirecting the flow of Tommy’s swings and really using the terrain to his advantage. Just because he’s trying to get Tommy to hit him doesn’t mean he’s not going to make it easy on him.

Naturally, Tommy isn’t making it easy on Day either. He’s picking up speed, and Day can’t help but be impressed at what he’s picked up just from the short time he’s gotten real teaching. Techno was a good friend, but holy fuck was he a bad teacher for Tommy’s best means of engagement. Techno didn’t explain enough and would shoot past tapping into the spite and land squarely in the unhelpful kind of frustration.

By contrast, he’s pretty sure that Vio is able to get him to pay attention and listen via having truly earned his respect and admiration. Plus he’s the not-dad to the teen and his best friends and honestly, there’s a decent chance that he would be able to effectively ground them if he felt the need to.

The training ends with an error in judgement on Day’s part. It’s surprisingly small one; he launches himself away from a rock at an angle that, coupled with Tommy having just bent down, lets the teen sweep his foot to kick up sand to impair his vision.

That distracts him just long enough that Tommy is able to drive his sword forward and into his chest. Day barely can be surprised before the respawn takes him, but he does see the momentary flash of panic overtake the triumph on Tommy’s face.

The immortal blinks his eyes open in the respawn room of the arena, and immediately hops down to go make sure neither Theo nor Tommy are freaking out about that hit. He takes a moment to send a quick reassurance to the rest of the server over the com system–and notes that Dee publicly laughed at him, the fucking menace–as he trots back out to grab his items. He’s pretty sure that his general disregard of any and all pain or discomfort isn’t really a good thing, but whatever. He’s got it now so he’s going to use it to make sure nobody gets stabbed without it at least being productive.

Theo is there, of course, because he and the Fates are still a little overprotective. Thankfully he’s cooled down enough that he isn’t swinging, but he still doesn’t look very happy. He sees his son about to get pissy again, and puts a hand on his shoulder to stop whatever tirade he was about to go on before it can really start. “Theseus, don’t get mad at him. It was my own fault for multiple reasons. I did what I did with you when you gave me that scar on my right side.”

The warrior immediately understands, and narrows his eyes at him. “Fuckin’ asshole. Be less of a bastard,” he mutters, though visibly relaxes. Day shifts his attention to Tommy and grins at him. “Good job. I probably should have expected you’d go for the kill, but I always seem to underestimate you. I keep saying I’m an idiot and people keep not believing me about that, but, well…they’ll learn.”

Tommy blinks a few times, his shoulders dropping from where they had hunched up slightly. Guilt settles under his skin like it always does. “...So you did that with Theo, too?” “Wha, the fuckin’--dodging n’ being a massive fuckin’ prick bullshit? Yeah, he did. I gave him one of his biggest scars for it, too–n’ after I stopped feeling guilty about that, I was real fuckin’ proud. Show him the–” Theo elbows his dad, who rolls his eyes and pulls up the right side of his shirt to show where his son had wounded him.

“Holy shit, that’s a lot of scars.” Day blinks at the surprised statement, and glances down at his skin. Countless scars crisscross just the visible area, though none are anywhere near as large as the one that goes from his third rib to his hip. “I guess? I don’t really have a good frame of what a normal amount is any more.” “Aren’t you a fuckin’--badass n’ shit? What, did some of them get fuckin’ carried over?”

Day snorts. “Nah. It turns out that it’s a lot harder to suddenly adjust to giant fucking wings than you really stop to think about when you hear ‘hey you can get free wings’. I was too stubborn to really hide them, either–” “You can fuckin’ hide them?! The fuck?!” Tommy stares at the dappled grey limbs, baffled at the idea.

The immortal’s brow furrows a little. He’s a little amused as he lowers his shirt again and explains, “They’re magic wings I got because the other universe decided that anyone who beats the ender dragon should just get those. It’s a pain in the ass to de-manifest them, though, and it was always too much of a risk–if I hide them, they’re just not there. That’s a very useful tool that I could use to escape a bad situation that I’ve taken out of the picture. It’s also just as weird to get used to not having wings on your back as it is to get used to them in the first place.” Tommy and Theo both give him identical looks and he can’t help but sigh.

“Yes, I have that mentality because of the Vault. Both of you stop being so worried–I’ve lived this long with all of that, I’ll keep living with it. Tommy, you have your own trauma to deal with, don’t add mine to your plate.” He sees the slight flinch that gets from the teen, and immediately softens his tone. “I do appreciate the concern, however unneeded it is. But, seriously–I’m fine.”

His attention shifts to his son, who he narrows his eyes at. “And Theo, stop looking like you expect me to shatter at everything you think might possibly come from there. I’ve fought fucking wars with you, you don’t need to mother hen me. That’s my job. Prime fucking knows you need that–I’m always so much more in danger of a fucking heart attack from the shit you and your brothers pull than anything else! Or, you know, just my brain exploding from the headaches you all cause. Nightmare gremlin children, all of you.”

Theo’s eyes narrow back at him, and he knows that his son is damn well aware of what he’s doing. However, he allows it to happen; he grins a little smugly back at him and says, “Yeah, well, you’re the one who kept doing shit like fuckin’ pissing me off–” Day rolls his eyes and cuts him off. “By trying to make sure you didn’t end up killing your brothers? Or the other way around? Theseus, you still manage to piss them off enough to get them to try and stab you during dinner–yes, I know you’re doing it on purpose, and I know you’re doing it out of spite at this point!”

The vibrant blue eyes of his eldest get just a little moreso as he grins at his dad. “Oh, good, you fuckin’ noticed. I was worried you were getting rusty, what with your age n’ all–” “Theseus Was-Taken I swear to Prime–” “I really do fuckin’ worry about dementia setting in n’ whatnot–” “You chaotic little shit–” “and you seem to already be fuckin’ getting weaker, if Tiny Tom can just take you out like that–”

Tommy goes from the usual fascinated and somewhat jealous expression he always gets when Day and Theo start bickering to offended when he gets dragged into things. “The fuck?!” “I mean, no offense–okay, full offense–but you’re not exactly the same fuckin’ level as he is! Or, well, what I thought he was.”

Day takes a deep breath, a careful calm overtaking him. He smiles, and is gratified to see his eldest visibly tense at the reaction.

Good. He should be scared.

“Hey Tommy,” Day says, casually as anything. “You want to team up for a few minutes to help me stab Theo?”

Tommy’s eyes light up in an actually vaguely disturbing way, grinning at his alternate self. “Oh bitch, you fucked up,” he says with a low chuckle, pulling his sword out of his inventory. Day follows suit with his sword. Theo laughs nervously, backing up a little. “Hey, uh–no hard feelings, right?”

He starts backing up faster as the two of them advance. “NO HARD FEELINGS, RIGHT?!”

Unfortunately for him, there were definitely some hard feelings.

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