Chapter Text
Wilbur is 25 years old and standing in the parking lot of the corn maze for the fourth time in his life, waiting for the same person he came with last.
When he first decided to contact him for the first time in 3 years, he hadn’t ever thought the other would respond. As far as he could tell, and from Niki’s connection to his friends, Quackity seemed happy in his life. And Wilbur was too.
And then he pressed send despite it.
Sent: 1:03pm from You
hey
I know it's kinda weird that im texting but i was just wondering how you were
thought we could catch up sometime?
He had no idea what would happen back then. It’s been 3 months since he sent the first text.
Quackity had responded a couple hours later, and Wilbur had suddenly realised their last text to each other had been when Wilbur was 22, when they had formally broken up. When he read Quackity’s message, he expected to feel fear or anxiety, to feel the attachment he used to have surge back, but it didn’t. Instead he felt a warmth he had forgotten about, or maybe not forgotten.. That’s the wrong word. It had gone dormant and had just then woken up.
Sent: 3:21pm from Quackity
Holy shit
It's so good to hear from you
I'd love to catch up sometime :)
How are you?
Wilbur smiled and typed, trying to conceal his own excitement. It wasn’t the type of excitement that said ‘please love me please love me’ or ‘I missed you please come back, please respond, just talk to me, one word would be enough’. It was the excitement you get when talking to an old friend. Because before he loved Quackity romantically, he loved him as a friend. Q was his best friend.
He told Quackity about his trilogy, about Niki and his apartment on the other side of town, and in return, Quackity told him about his life, his brief move to L.A a year ago and how he’d just moved back.
Sent: 3:30pm from You
So what made you move back?
Sent: 3:31 from Quackity
Ahhhh man I missed it too much
It was nice to be around my mom again though
She was willing to sell her soul so I wouldn't leave LMAO
But yk it's like this place is always gonna be my home
Hows your dad though?
It felt familiar, and he found himself being able to recall the words Quackity used to say and how he used to say them, his speech patterns that Wilbur had mapped out in his brain. But now, it sounds a little different. Older, maybe. Wilbur has found himself to be older too. It’s not a bad thing though, 25 is hardly old. Youth has its wonders and so does aging. Two sides of the same coin, really. You get to experience both in a lifetime.
Sent: 3:32pm from You
he’s actually really good
not like he was when you knew him really
thankfully a lot less possessive and shit
Its been really nice having the family back together
more like for the first time actually hah
Tommy had decided to move to a city upstate last August, but even then, they still see each other fairly often. And although Tommy is as much an adult as him, he still sees him as his little brother, for better and for worse. They call each other more than once a week usually, one if they’re exceptionally busy.
Sent: 3:34pm from Quackity
Thats so awesome, I’m really happy for you wil
And Tommy?
Sent: 3:35pm from You
oh lords where do i start
hes doing all sorts of stuff, somehow hes busier than me lmaoo
he and tubbo are roomates, they make videos and things
its good for him though, thats the kinda stuff hes good at
Sent: 3:37pm from Quackity
Oh he'd be good for that
I bet people love him
Is he still chaotic like he was
Sent: 3:38pm from You
ehhhh hes a little less than he was but what does 10% less matter from tommy, he was 110% percent chaos in the first place
Sent: 3:39pm from Quackity
LMFAO true
Wilbur smiled.
They wrapped it up after that, and Wilbur thought that was the last he’d hear from him. Because if it was, he could be okay with that. He wanted to check up on Q, see how he was, and he’d gotten his answer.
When he woke up the next morning however, there was a text. Not an email alert from his agent, or a long all-caps text from Tommy detailing the idea for his next video, but a text from Q.
And that was how he ended up here, in short. Standing in his favorite sweater as the sun sets around him, turning the sky orange.
It had originally been Quackity’s idea, just to see each other again. Generally, it had been implied that they were both single, and even then, this wasn’t a date. Of course, if Q said that it was, Wilbur would be right as rain with that, but either way, he was excited to see him, even if it’s platonic. He’d had an idea that Q might just want to be friends, and after 5 years of coming to terms with the end of their relationship and onward, he could be okay with that. But in the same way, he had loved Q. And he still does love Q, just not in the obsessive way that he had.
The question someone might be asking however, is, ‘Does Wilbur still feel that way for Q?’ and in short, yes. But if Quackity just wants to be friends, he’s alright with that.
He had gone around the arduous task of trying to figure out his feelings towards Quackity during the time they were apart. They had originally broken up because they had drifted, and at the time, Wilbur was still immature. He didn’t know love the way he does now. He had viewed love in the broken way, expecting Quackity to find him so he wouldn’t have to find himself. When they broke up, he was still young and inexperienced.
In truth, Wilbur doesn’t know what he and Quackity’s relationship is now. But that’s okay. He is okay with that. It’s been years, and maybe Q isn’t who he used to be. All he knows is that he loved Quackity as a human, as a beating heart. He loved the roots of who Q was, and he can only hope that those roots are still in the same place as they were when he last held him.
He’s not going to push for something to happen. That was his mistake, one of many. And honestly, one of many more he will absolutely make in his lifetime. But for now, he’s going to take it slow. Like a jellyfish, he reminds himself, remembering that day so many years ago.
He looks down at his phone and sees Quackity has texted.
Sent: 6:45pm from Q :]
here :D at the front pumpkin patch
His heart beats hard in his chest, and it is a pure feeling filtered of anxiety, only vivacity finding its way through the vines of his soul. He has the feeling this might be a day he will remember some day in the future. He laughs internally then when he remembers, what is the future? At the moment, now is the only thing there is. He had never understood the phrase ‘living in the moment’ until he realised that the past and future had nothing to offer him.
The dirt is soft under his shoes as he walks, using his height as an advantage to see above other people around them, scanning the area for a beanie of some sort, black hair peeking out from under it, like he always remembers it did.
“Wil!” He hears from behind him and he turns. He had somehow walked past the tree Q was standing next to.
Suddenly, they are hugging, and it is like fireworks in his brain. They pull apart quickly, but it is a sudden nostalgia that covers him like a weighted blanket.
Quackity looks similar in lots of ways, in the way he smiles and the sound of his laugh. But he moves with more energy, with more whimsy than he last remembers. He looks happy . And for once, Wilbur feels the same. It’s a clean kind of happiness, a breath of fresh air, and not weighed down with problems lingering in the back of his mind.
He gets panic attacks much less now, he should add. Of course, they’ll probably never go away fully, but it’s progress and that’s what matters.
They are talking about how long it’s been, and where did Wilbur get his new glasses from? And where did Q get his beanie? God, it’s been so long. The sun looks really nice right here, and hey, do you want to sit down somewhere?
And so they do, and Q is looking at him with the same look he used to, with interest and a knowingness Wilbur has never found himself able to grasp.
This is his friend, this is his best friend. And he had forgotten how nice it was to hear him talk, to do the things they used to but now with a new and revived sense of health and vitality.
Q laughs at something Wilbur says about Sapnap when they've gotten to the point of talking about him, folding forward in a wheeze and reaching over to grab the side of Wilbur’s arm in a casual way.
He unconsciously puts his hand on Quackity’s, and it is then that they stop for a split second and both seem to realise this might not just be a platonic friend meeting.
But Wilbur and Q do not acknowledge this, much preferring to do what they’ve always done. They forget their own age and laugh like children again, not truly knowing that this is the first day of the rest of their lives together.
And the trees sway around them, like a kind on-looker, wishing them well as their leaves dissolve into the wind. They will miss this story of Quackity and Wilbur, but really, it ended like they always knew it would.
They smile and wish the two lovers goodbye with a whisper that echoes in the autumn breeze.