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Language:
English
Series:
Part 3 of SBI coven
Collections:
Top Tier Supernatural SBI Fics, Finished Works Me Have Read
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Published:
2022-08-04
Completed:
2022-08-12
Words:
19,532
Chapters:
9/9
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42
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664
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57
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7,853

Things we do for our kids

Summary:

“Tommy!” Wilbur was helpless on the ground. He couldn’t reach his familiar as Tommy was being carried off by Quackity. The boy struggled but the older was too strong to get out on his own.

Techno was at Wilbur’s side, crossbow drawn with both familiars in his crosshairs. He was tracking them with the sights, eyes sharp.

“Wait, you might hit Tommy.” Wilbur blurted out.

“Wilbur, what day is it today?” Techno asked calmly.

Wilbur blinked, “uh, Tuesday?”

“Perfect.”

 

Or
Puffy's still captured, Schlatt's still after Tommy and Tommy's still new to this whole familiar bond...

Chapter Text

“Come now, Puffy, we’re all family here.” A sick smile pulled at the corner of the witch’s mouth. “Am I going to have to tell mum?”

Puffy lifted her head from where it hung down. She was exhausted. She’d lost all feeling in her body days ago, her hands and feet being tied down to the chair and haven’t moved since. It used to cause pins and needles to run up her limbs, now they were just numb.

It disgusted her to see such similarities between herself and the witch in front of her. They had the same brown, curly hair, same nose and chin. Their eyes differed. She was rather glad she didn’t get the dark gaze Schlatt gave her and she sent her own icy stare straight back.

“Now, sis, all I’m asking is that you return what’s mine.” Schlatt pouted, “did you really think you’d get away with stealing from me?”

“Tommy is not property,” Puffy said lowly. Even tied up, her tone was dark and threatening. If it was anyone other than Schlatt on the receiving end, they’d likely crumble under such pressure. Instead, the witch smirked.

“Sure he is, he’s an unpaired familiar. That means he’s fair game. I put a claim on him. He’s mine so tell me where he is and I’ll let you go.” Schlatt leaned down to be face to face with her.

Puffy breathed out a mist, chilling the air between their faces by a couple degrees, “make me.”

Schlatt chuckled at that. His smile became almost genuine and a wild look grew in his eye. He straightened up, “you think I won’t hurt you? Because you’re my sister? You think I’ll go easy on you?”

“No,” Puffy shook her head, leaning back against the chair and looking up at him, “but I will not let you treat that kid like a resource. You can hurt me, I have every reason to think you will, but I still won’t tell you where he is.”

“We’ll see about that.” Schlatt walked away, slamming a door behind Puffy’s back.

Puffy took a deep breath, “is he gone?” She looked at a spot in the corner where the teen had been watching from.

He had puffy hair just like her and Schlatt with burns down one side of his face. His hair hung down over his eyes and concealed the burn slightly. He was hugging a black and white cat to his body like it would be ripped from his grasp at any moment.

The teen nodded at Puffy, “he’s gone. For now anyway.”

“You shouldn’t be here, you know. If your father finds you-”

“Yeah, yeah. He’ll yell and ground me. Can’t be mad at me for long though,” Tubbo smirked, “I have a secret weapon.” The cat in Tubbo’s arms meowed and jumped up onto his shoulders, batting at his overgrown hair. “I can still do the face with my hair.” Tubbo huffed at the familiar. The cat just rolled his mismatched eyes, sitting on Tubbo’s shoulder as easy as if the young witch were a perch designed for him.

“I still think you should be careful, Tubbo. If not for your sake then for Ranboo’s. You’re both well aware of your father’s views on familiars.” The cat tensed at the mention of his name.

Tubbo nodded slowly. “How- how was Tommy when you last saw him?”

Puffy’s gaze softened, “he was starting to trust me. He regrets what happened to you, Tubbo.”

Tubbo scoffed, “hardly his fault. He didn’t even know about bonding, he was following my lead in the ritual.”

“It’s not your fault either. Neither of you were experienced enough for the backlash.”

Tubbo rubbed his side where he could feel the burn scars, “is he still hurt?”

Puffy shook her head, “he fully healed weeks ago.”

“Can I see him?”

“Probably not. He’s far from here and I don’t think your father would like you disappearing for weeks to visit Tommy, especially when he’s already looking for him.”

Tubbo nodded, “yeah, you’re right. I just… I miss him.” He looked at the cat on his shoulder, “you’d like him, Ranboo. He’s usually up for anything, we got into all kinds of things.” Ranboo meowed back at Tubbo and the teen laughed.

Puffy? Puffy, can you hear me? Please answer.

Puffy winced at how her familiar sounded in her head. She looked around her, “Tubbo? Since you’re not planning on keeping out of trouble, think you can check the warding for me?”

“Sure, what for?”

“Any tracking or eavesdropping. Dream’s been trying to reach me and I don’t want to risk answering back if Schlatt can use it to find them.”

“Ok,” Tubbo nodded then left the room, leaving Puffy on her own for the first time in a couple hours.

Puffy, I lost Tommy. We got separated by some hunters. I told him I’d find him later but I’m hurt. Please. I need your help!

A tear fell from Puffy’s eye, knowing she couldn’t do anything. She squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head, only able to listen. The messages Dream sent her were one way, they couldn’t be tracked but if she were to respond, they could follow the message straight to Dream and the familiar would be in more danger than he already was.


It’s been weeks. Tommy was out with Wilbur again, still restoring the forest after the fire. Dream’s noticed the pair were a lot closer than they had been a few days ago. His hopes were confirmed when he saw the pair of them talking despite Tommy perched on Wilbur’s shoulder in his familiar form.

Now though, Dream had to worry about his own witch. Tommy was safe and now that he had a witch, he’d be well protected if Schlatt found him but he needed to find Puffy.

He sat on the cliffs, thinking over his options. He could try a tracking spell but those could just lead Schlatt to him and if he was caught, there would be no hope for Puffy.

The waves lapped lightly at the bottom of the cliff until one particular wave hit harder than usual, sending sea foam shooting up the cliff right next to Dream. The sea spray dropped again to reveal a man sitting on the side right beside Dream.

“Hey, Dream.” He smiled.

Dream jumped. “Foolish?”

Foolish chuckled, “you’re a hard man to find when you want to be.” He ran a hand through golden hair, picking out a couple bits of seaweed. “How’s my favourite pirate duo? I haven’t seen either of you on my seas in a while. Where’ve you been?”

Dream looked down at his hands now, “Puffy’s missing.”

“Missing? How?” Foolish leaned forward now, all nonchalance he had replaced with concern.

“One of the docks we raided was uh, an auction. One for familiars. Most were paired, we got them back to their witches, some were even at the auction to try and buy their familiars back.”

Foolish grimaced, “I hate those auctions. The familiars are always half starved too.”

Dream nodded, “this particular one was Schlatt’s. We found an unpaired familiar, a phoenix, they were selling his feathers and ash. He was just a kid and pretty traumatised. We took him with us. Schlatt didn’t like that so he sent his men after us. Puffy told me to hide the phoenix while she led them away. I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

“Hmm, how long ago was this?”

“Maybe about a month?”

Foolish nodded, “well. I can tell you she hasn’t left the island. I’ve not seen her on any boats in my seas.” Foolish leaned forward, not worried about falling off the cliff. He tapped his chin thoughtfully, “my first thought was maybe talk to a fate witch, there’s one in the town near you. I’m not sure what they can give you though. There’s only so much they can actually say without messing with time.”

“I think Schlatt has her. She would have responded to me by now if she could.”

“Need any help?” Foolish tilted his head, “you two have probably garnered enough favours from me to be owed this one.”

Dream huffed but there was a smile on his face, “thanks Foolish but I don’t even know where to start.”

“You could try Badboyhalo. He’s usually pretty good at finding people and aren’t he and Puffy friends or something?”

Dream nodded, “he’s a hard guy to find though.”

“His son isn’t.” Foolish pointed out, “hell, you just need to say his name and he’ll probably show up.”

Dream wheezed at that, “yeah, I guess. I’ll uh, I’ll have to visit George later too.”

“Just let me know if I can help. Anything for my two favourite sailors.”

“I thought gods weren’t supposed to have favourites.”

“Tell that to mumza.” Foolish smirked before the sea lashed at the cliff again and the man disappeared in the spray.

Dream was left on his own for a while until he saw a speck of orange in the sky. The speck got closer until it swooped down and landed on the ground next to him. The phoenix familiar let out a greeting chirp.

“There you are,” Tommy changed to human while sat beside him. “I was looking all over for you.”

“Hey, Tommy,” Dream smiled, “sorry, I was just thinking.”

“About Puffy?” Tommy asked knowingly.

Dream sighed and nodded, “it’s been too long now. I should have heard from her.”

“So what do we do now?”

We ?”

Tommy scoffed, “yeah, Dream. We. If you think I’m staying out of this then you’re dumb. Puffy helped me, I want to help her now.”

“Tommy, you’ve got a witch now. You have a place here, you don’t need to-”

“Fuck off. I may have a witch now but that’s not gonna stop me from caring about you and Puffy!”

Dream smiled and leaned a little on Tommy. The teen let him. Tommy had been getting far better with physical touch than he ever did when it was just him and Puffy. Back then, Puffy was allowed a shoulder squeeze and on very rare occasions, Dream could hug Tommy.

Wilbur was a rather touchy feely witch, he liked slinging an arm over Tommy’s shoulders, ruffling his hair. Tommy had gotten used to it so that such a light touch from Dream never seemed to affect him.

“I appreciate it,” Dream said, “but chances are, Schlatt has her.” He warned carefully.

Tommy didn’t even blink, “I know.”

“He’ll have her to try and track you down.”

“I fucking know. I’m not dumb.”

“I’m not saying you’re dumb. I’m saying, you’ve been through a lot and you shouldn’t risk the peace you have now.”

Tommy took a big breath and shook his head. He turned fully to face Dream. “Dream? You and Puffy were the first people to be kind to me since Tubbo and you still were after you found out what I did.”

“Tommy, that wasn’t-”

“Just let me speak.” Tommy interrupted, “I’m saying that you and Puffy are really important to me, ok? You’re-” Tommy sighed, taking a breath, “you’re the first people I’d ever called a flock. I’m not letting you do this alone.”

Dream opened his mouth to argue but realised there were no arguments. What could he possibly say to sway the phoenix? Tommy was stubborn, Dream gave him that. He also really needed help. He couldn’t do this alone and if left to his own devices, he wasn’t sure how he could pull off a rescue. He’d done rescues before but never alone, always with Puffy. He needed someone.

“Tommy? Do you know about the Badlands coven?”

“I’ve heard of them. They’re further south, right?” Tommy pointed in a direction.

Dream nodded. “I need to find them. They can help.”

“How so?”

“Because they’re my coven. Me and Puffy are from there. If anyone can find her, it’s them.”

Tommy tilted his head, “I didn’t realise you were part of a coven.”

“Well, we haven’t seen others from our coven in a while. We chose to head off across the sea to handle the problem of the familiar trade.” Tommy shuddered a little at the name. “We keep in touch. I’m sure they’ll be worried though, we’ve definitely missed a check-in.”

“Can’t you communicate long distances with a coven bond?”

“Yes, but not that long. There’s a limit to how far you can be from your coven before the bond weakens. That’s why we have regular check-ins to make sure we’re ok and strengthen the bond again.”

Tommy nodded quietly, taking in the new information. Then he perked up like he heard something Dream didn’t. “Wilbur’s looking for us.” He informed, “do you think they can help us find Puffy?”

“Well, Wilbur won’t let you go without him. New bond and all. I’m sure they can help once we’ve located Puffy to get her back. Schlatt’s gonna put up a fight, especially if you’re involved.”

Tommy stood up and offered a hand, “let’s go then.” Dream took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.