Cold Love
masterpost
Wilbur is a dragon, his most wellkept secret. Tommy finds out so he brings him back to his hoard in the mountains.
CW: - vore
title taken from Cold Love by Rainbow Kitten Surprise
word count: 1.7k 🐉 read it on AO3
"Let me go," Tommy spits out. Despite his aggression, there's a fearful, panicky air about him that sends pangs into Wilbur's chest.
"Toms, come on. You know me - you know I'd never hurt you." He wrestles him into the ground, easily pinning him to the dirt without having to exert real effort.
Tommy's arms shake from the effort of trying to fight him off. Wilbur is almost relaxed above him, a slight frown on his face as he easily presses the boy down. The more he tries to fight and the more he sees how futile it is, the more his hostility slips into abject terror.
"Wilbur, please." His voice cracks and he starts to go limp. He blinks back tears. "I won't tell a soul. Your secret is safe, just let me go. I'll disappear, and you'll never hear from me again."
No. No, he doesn't want that at all -
And something must show on his face too, because Tommy's eyes widen at his reaction, and he starts to writhe again, sobs building in his chest.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I don't - I didn't - "
"Hush."
He falls dead silent, tears still streaming down the sides of his face.
"You're fine," Wilbur murmurs to him, trying to imbue his words with as much love as he can. "Everything's going to be fine, okay?"
He starts to stand, pulling Tommy up with him as he goes.
He's tense in his arms, but Wilbur remains gentle.
As soon as they're both standing up, Tommy lurches away from him, but he's not fast enough.
Wilbur pulls him close, his arms still loose around Tommy. "Were you trying to catch me off guard?"
Tommy is sobbing and yelling and hitting at his chest, but he doesn't react.
"I... what are you doing? You - you know I'm much stronger than humans, sweetheart, you've got to stop fighting me."
He breaks down in his arms and tries to fall to the ground, but Wilbur catches him and holds, staring at him in puzzlement.
"How do I make this better?" He asks, almost blankly.
Tommy is still crying. "You - you ate the mayor," he whimpers. "You burned half the village to the ground. You burned the orphanage to the ground. You killed Phil and Tech - "
Wilbur swallows a lump in his throat and shoves down rising feelings of guilt. "I did what I had to do. I ate the mayor, I destroyed your village, including the orphanage. But how else could I get you?" He brushes a strand of hair from Tommy's eyes. "All that paperwork... it's easier if they think you perished in the fire. And for the record - " he conspiratorially winks at Tommy, trying to get humor him, "Phil and Techno are just fine."
He doesn't wait for a response, closing his eyes and starting to shift. He pays extra mind to Tommy's position in his arms. The change is done in seconds, and when he opens his eyes again, Tommy's just a tiny little thing lying between his clawed paws.
"Treasure," he purrs irreverently. "My little human - let's get you taken care of, yeah?"
Tommy stares up at him with wide eyes, completely frozen on the ground.
Wilbur wastes no time in leaning down and swallowing Tommy. He screams and kicks as he goes down the throat, but Wilbur's body was designed to eat live prey. Functionally speaking at least, Tommy is no different from the deer or tigers or knights he regularly eats.
He hums contentedly as Tommy settles into his brood pouch. It's padded out so he can be rough as he wants in there and it won't hurt either of them (and let it be said that he is trying very hard to hurt Wilbur).
"You're safe now, Tommy. Let's get you back to the rest of my hoard." He purrs again, a burst of delight in his chest. "I've waited so long to get you with the rest of my collection. Bit of a shame that you found out this way, but I'm a little glad too. I was going to reveal myself in a few months, but now I don't have to wait."
He spreads his wings and takes flight towards the treacherous mountains. Only the royals' finest knights could traverse the landscape, and even then, they were so tired and cold from the trip that their hands could barely grip the hilts of their swords.
He lands in the entrance and strides in. Techno and Phil sit idly on a pile of gold coins, chatting away, but as soon as their eyes land on him, they avert their gazes and seem to wilt. He's learned not to take it to heart - they've gotten better about managing their fear of him in the past few months since he added them to his hoard, and he's sure that as the years progress, all three of his humans will come around again.
He leans over Techno and Phil and opens his mouth up, finding it just the teeniest bit funny when they flinch back and start to plead with him not eat them. He brings out Tommy, letting the boy gently fall onto the two men below.
He sits back and admires them, a happy sound growing in the back of his throat.
"Finally," he says dreamily, "I have all three of you."
He shifts back into his human form and saunters up to them, ignoring how Tommy flinches backwards into Techno and Phil.
Phil pulls Tommy into his arms and starts to soothingly rub circles into his shoulder. "Wilbur, you're scaring him."
He shrugs nonchalantly. "You were scared too, in the beginning. He'll get over it soon - you all will - and then you'll be a proper part of my hoard."
Phil and Technoblade share a glance that he doesn't bother to decipher.
"Your hoard... what does that mean?" Techno asks slowly.
Wilbur grins brightly at him. "My collection! My treasure - it means you're mine now."
Tommy stares at him slack-jawed.
"Why us?" It seems like it slips out of Phil's mouth, something he says before he has a chance to apply a filter. But Wilbur doesn't mind answering.
"Techno is my twin, Tommy is my little brother, and you're my father." Those are all the human words for the familial terms, so they should understand.
Phil bites his lip. "Wil... we love you, but you can't - "
"I can do whatever I want," he cuts in, his voice edged with aggression.
Phil falls silent.
Wilbur smiles at him again. "Do you have anymore questions?"
Techno awkwardly coughs. "I hate to be the bearer of the obvious, but humans don't live as long as dragons. We're a lot less hearty, and you've stationed us on Dead Man's Hill. Because that's the name of this mountain, Wilbur - Dead Man's Hill. Are you sure you don't want to take us somewhere else?"
He feels his expression darken. "That won't be an issue. You're my hoard now. Which means your life force is tied to mine, and all three of your aging processes have stopped. If I'm to die - if - then you'll begin to age again." He turns a steely eye to Techno's. "And we will leave this mountain. But only when I know you won't try to do something silly, like leave me."
Techno nods, avoiding his eyes. "Sounds good."
"It does, doesn't it?" He agrees happily. "Now that I've taken Tommy, my collection is complete."
"Sorry - sorry, what the fuck?" Tommy chimes in, finally having found his voice.
Techno lowers his voice and says into his ear, "Wilbur is a dragon and he's keeping us now."
Tommy stares at him. "I thought you were fucking dead."
"Mm, me too," he says dryly. "But I'm not. I'm just the adopted twin brother of a dragon."
"Did you know?!" Tommy asks, sitting up and stumbling away from them.
Wilbur watches him curiously, fondly noting as he tips backward into a stack of gold coins.
"Did they know what?"
"What do you - what do you fucking think, Wilbur?!" He screeches.
Wilbur smiles, and lets himself shift again. Tommy flinches away as he approaches but he doesn't mind, picking him up in his mouth and plopping him back down next to Phil and Techno.
"They didn't know," he says soothingly, gazing down at them. He curls his tail loosely around their little group, forming a protective barrier. Or a cage.
Techno slides an arm around Tommy's shoulders. "Trust me," he murmurs, "if we had known, we never would have let you - " he cuts himself off, seeming to stiffen as his eyes nervously dart up to Wilbur. "We didn't know," he concedes.
Wilbur laughs lightly. "Can you imagine if you had? You never would have been my friend! And Phil never would have taken both of us in. I had to lie."
There's a look on Phil's face that he can't decipher. "Wilbur... I would have. Of course I would have," he says gently. His words carry weight, but the meaning behind it is unidentifiable to Wilbur.
"No," he says simply. "So it's a good thing I lied. Because the years passed and you realized how much you loved me, and now that you know I'm a dragon, you won't leave."
A sharp wave of paranoid insecurity strikes through his chest. "I don't think you'll leave," he mutters in afterthought, his tail slightly tensing around them.
Technoblade looks conflicted. "We love you for you, your being a dragon doesn't change that."
Wilbur frowns down at him, puffing a plume of smoke out. "Why are you saying that?"
"What - what do you mean?"
"We aren't leaving this mountain, Techno. I'm not that stupid."
A look of surprise crosses his face. He's a good actor, Wilbur decides. "I wasn't saying that to trick you, we do love - "
"I know you do!" Wilbur sharply cuts in. "Because I spent years bonding with you as a human. And now that you know I'm a dragon, it doesn't matter!" He gives them a smile with his large, sharp teeth. He ignores how forced it feels. He ignores how it feels like he's trying to convince himself more than them.
Phil looks at him with a pained expression. "Mate - "
"You're a little scared right now, but that's fine," he purrs, cutting him off. "We have the rest of time for you to love me like you used to. You weren't supposed to find out, but you have, and that's fine. I'll just keep you here. I'll just keep you here, and we can be a proper family."
He nuzzles the three of them with his snout, ignoring how they flinch away from him. "I love you!" he exclaims. "And you love me. So everything is fine. It's fine."
~ ~ ~
🏷️: @i-am-beckyu @da3dm @flowers-of-plenty @gracideaviolet
hope you enjoyed :3
