Chapter Text
“Let me get this straight, Tommy. I ask for ideas, and you hand me an entire sheet of paper that just says Breaking Bad?” Wilbur asks.
“Yeah. And, bitch?”
At age eighteen, Wilbur is beginning to question his life choices.
He looks around the empty spare classroom, save for Tommy and Tubbo. This is going to be harder than he thought.
“Tommy, putting together an original script, soundtrack, plot, sets, and funds is going to take a herculean effort beyond human imagining. Please tell me you have ideas,” Wilbur says.
“No no, I think this is pretty solid,” Tubbo says.
“Jesus Christ,” Wilbur says. He’s taken to rubbing his temples, not that it helps.
“Okay, big man. How are you planning on pulling this off? I’m only here because you’d tell dad on me, and Tubbo is only here because I am,” Tommy says.
“I whole-heartedly support you, Wilbur. ...But yeah, that’s accurate,” Tubbo says.
“Well, it’d be really helpful if you contributed some ideas!”
“You’re going about this all wrong- you need to work on your networking skills. Pool more people to do the thinking for you. Then, you can profit off of that and get tons of women,” Tommy says.
“Wait, that’s- that’s actually a good idea! I mean, minus whatever that last bit was,” Wilbur says.
“He’s right! They gave you permission to use the copier, right? We could put up fliers!” Tubbo says.
“Oh-ho, I can handle that! I’ll let you in on a little secret, lads. You know Clay?” Tommy asks.
“The quarterback? What about him?” Wilbur asks skeptically.
Tommy smirks and leans in like a spy movie protagonist.
“I have some secret intel that he plays Minecraft. Has a little realm with those dickheads he always hangs around. I reckon I could get in with their crew, recruit them to join your thing. Nothing to get people interested like jocks ‘n shit,” he says.
“Your plan is systematically using Minecraft to network popular people into joining musical?” Wilbur asks.
“You bet your ass it is.”
Wilbur groans, nearly face-planting on his desk. Why not? It’s absurd, but maybe Tommy will surprise him.
***
Tommy surprises him.
The next day, Tommy conveniently takes a different seat during video and film class, making sure he’s right next to the football player in question. Before the bell rings, everyone watches youtube or plays on cool math games for the first five minutes. Tommy makes sure to queue up a Minecraft video where he can see.
Clay doesn’t look, too invested in his Twitter feed. Tommy figures it’s time to pull what’s referred to as a pro gamer move. He pulls his earphones out and quickly jumbles them into a knot.
“Hey man, are you good at untying earphones?”
Clay looks up.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Let me see,” he says.
He undoes the mess of wires in a matter of seconds and hands it back completely untangled. Uh. Ok. Tommy takes pause, but is quickly back on the mission when he sees Clay glance at his monitor.
“Oh, you watch Illumina?” he asks. His eyes light up instantly.
“Yeah! You, uh, a big minecrafter?” Tommy asks.
“You could say that,” he laughs. “I’m Clay, by the way. Have we talked before? I feel like I’ve seen you around.”
“I’m Mr. Watson’s son. Thomas,” Tommy says.
“Oh, you’re Wilbur’s brother? I have AP physics with him,” Clay says.
“Surprised you noticed him. He’s a real fuckin’ loner,” Tommy says.
Clay looks at him, nonplussed, eventually wheezing out a ridiculous laugh.
“You’re definitely brothers. You play Minecraft yourself?” he asks.
“Yeah, and I’m pretty fuckin’ ace at bedwars. You wanna one v. one?” Tommy asks.
That earns him another wide-eyed look. He laughs incredulously.
“You’re an... interesting dude, Tom. I might take you up on that offer. Here,” Clay says, opening a new contact and passing his phone over.
Wow. That actually worked.
The bell rings and they both turn back to their computers. Tommy spends the rest of the period glued to his phone, looking in disbelief at the text conversation in front of him.
quarterbitch
< you’d better bring your a-game on hypixel
FUCKIN A MAN >
< ???
FUCKIN A, MAN* >
oh my god ignore that i did not mean that >
Next to him, Clay clamps a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. Their teacher walks to help a student nearby, and both of them quickly try to look busy. Once the teacher’s out of view, Tommy opens his note app and looks at his to-do list.
- recruit the dumbass jock
He thinks for a few moments and clears that line.
- befriend the dumbass jock
After video are his hardest classes, so Tommy doesn’t end up checking his phone until after school. On the walk home with Tubbo, he checks his notifications and sees a text from Clay- a text with a realm invitation link. The both of them share a silent look and race home immediately.
“No way. You actually did it,” Wilbur says, peering over Tommy’s shoulder
“Fuck yeah, I did,” he beams.
Tommy’s laptop is open on the realms tab, mouse hovering over the join button.
“You absolute madlad,” Tubbo says.
“To a long and fruitful adventure,” Tommy says, saluting.
Within the first ten minutes of joining Clay’s server, Tommy gets banned.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Goddamnit, let me call him,” he complains.
He hits dial as Wilbur and Tubbo laugh hysterically behind him.
“What is wrong with you?” Clay says, picking up immediately.
“What?! I’ve done nothing but be productive!” Tommy yells.
“You immediately killed George, stole shit, and broke out of prison," Clay says.
“To be fair, you did cheat,” Tommy says.
“No, I banished you for murder,” Clay says.
“With cheats.”
Clay goes quiet for a few seconds. Tommy refreshes his realms tab and sees he’s no longer banned. He turns to Wilbur and mouths “pog?!”
“I’m adding you to the discord. You get one more chance,” Clay says.
“You are making a good decision, big man! I will be the best thing that ever happened to this server,” Tommy says.
“I’m logging off for the night. We settle our differences on bedwars tomorrow after school,” Clay says before hanging up.
Tommy turns to them and steeples his hands, making a serious face.
“We’re in. I’m going to spend all night building and doing cool shit. Just you wait,” he says.
“All night? Man, I have to go to bed soon, Niki’s going to tell me off,” Tubbo says.
“Ey, you listen to your sister,” Wilbur scolds.
“Alright alright. I totally won’t sneak in with snacks after she falls asleep. Wink wink,” Tubbo says.
“Did you audibly say ‘wink wink?’” Wilbur asks.
“He don’t follow no rules,” Tommy laughs.
Tubbo laughs alongside him until he gets a hint of a sad look on his face.
“Man, it’s going to be bittersweet when we leave. I’m going to miss having sleepovers every weekend,” he says softly.
“Hey, when you and Niki get your own place, we’ll have sleepovers there every day,” Tommy says.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“You two are adorable,” Wilbur coos. Tommy shoves a foot in his face and Wilbur pulls his sock off and throws it back at him.
“I’m gonna go. Tell me everything tomorrow,” Tubbo says.
After he leaves, Tommy gets on the realm and gets to work making his house. Wilbur hangs out in his room for a while, teasing his building skills until he gets bored.
“I’m heading to bed, nerd. Stay up late and I’ll kick your arse,” he says.
“No promises, dickhead,” Tommy says. “By the way, do you know what we'll be doing the musical about?”
Wilbur smiles as he says “we.” He shrugs.
“I’ll make it up as I go.”
“You should do Hamilton. That would be poggers,” Tommy says.
Wilbur sighs, rubbing his temples again.
“Goodnight, Tommy.”