Chapter Text
Tommy had never been one to really show his emotions, there was too much vulnerability in that. Sure, the character he portrayed on the SMP was emotional and Tommy took to that character a little too well, but Tommy never portrayed anything when he wasn't online. If anyone were to stalk the teenager they'd be extremely confused. The normally obnoxious teenager was absurdly quiet in real life, rarely speaking unless he was addressed. Sure, he acted normal when he met up with his online friends but there was much more to Tommy's story. Wilbur accidentally stumbled across this realization one night during a chill stream. Tommy had been sitting in a vc by himself doing homework. He wanted to talk to someone but didn't want to intrude. By the time he finished his homework and still no one had joined, Tommy decided it wouldn't hurt to break out his guitar and play some songs. So there he now was, sitting at his desk, headphones off, and playing songs on his guitar. Wilbur was wrapping up his stream when he noticed that Tommy was alone in a vc. He watched for a minute before mentioning it to chat, asking if he should go bother the gremlin child. When the chat overwhelmingly said he should join he did. He was greeted by a soft melody he knew all too well. He could barely hear Tommy humming along to it. Wilbur stayed quiet for a minute. The melody of Jubilee Line faded out.
Wilbur smiled, masking his worry as to why the teenager was playing one of Wilbur's saddest pieces. "Tommy, that was impressive! I didn't know you could play." After a few seconds of not getting a response Wilbur's smile slipped. "Tommy?"
On the other end Tommy started to play Saline Solution. However, instead of humming along, Tommy started singing. Wilbur sat in shock before swiftly exiting the vc. Tommy obviously didn't know he was there. Wilbur went back to ending his stream, simply saying that Tommy must've taken his headphones off or something and didn't know that he was there. He saw that the chat was filled with "CLIP IT!" or "SINGINNIT!". Twitter would be hell tomorrow. After ending his stream he entered back into the vc to hear La Jolla now being played.
"You know I've tried hard to love me too. It always seems to fall in through. Maybe one day I'll live in La Jolla. Drinking cocktails out over the water. My own personal sunset. To give each day its own diploma. And you know it's funny amid my backseat taxi jaunts. I'm trying to ignore the skyline, so I don't figure out where you..." Tommy sung with such emotion that Wilbur had never heard from the teen before.
So when Tommy finally noticed that someone else was in the vc with him, Wilbur's first question was obvious. "Are you okay?"
Tommy stopped. "I- of course big man! Why wouldn't I be?"
Wilbur could hear past that, "Tommy, you were playing Jubilee Line and Saline Solution earlier. I came back and you were playing La Jolla. Not only playing it but singing it with more emotion than I put into that song." Wilbur paused. "More emotion than you've ever shown when you weren't acting."
Tommy fell silent. Both unluckily and fortunately, he didn't need to say anything else. His mother stormed in at that moment, thinking that he had left whatever call he was in. Wilbur heard furious yelling and decided that whatever was happening, he needed to record it. He, luckily, pressed record not even a moment before he heard the slap. He stayed silent, not wanting to give any indication that he could be hearing what was happening. Making sure that no one else could drop in and mess this up Wilbur swiftly locked the vc.
"You're an ungrateful bitch! I gave you everything you needed to pursue your bullshit career and you repay me by keeping us up all night! You deserve every minute of this!" Wilbur heard a woman, most likely Tommy's mother, yell.
The next few minutes were excruciating to listen to. First, he heard the noise of what sounded like headphones being taken off and thrown. Then he had to listen in horror as the sound of physical abuse filled his ears. Wilbur muted his mic as to not alert them with his gasp. He heard what sounded like Tommy crying as more yelling filled his headphones. Wilbur could hear a door slam and assumed Tommy's mother left. Wilbur took a minute to make sure the teenager's mother wasn't still in the room before typing something out in private messages, hoping to get the boy's attention.
He heard shuffling and what sounded like sniffling before a quiet, "Hello?"
"Tommy?" Wilbur asked, unmuting his mic. "Are you okay? Are you safe?"
Another sniffle could be heard. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Wilbur was in protective big brother mode at this point. "Tommy, I'm gonna get in the car and drive over there, okay?"
Tommy seemed to panic at this point but he never once raised his voice from the soft tone it was. "What, Wilbur, no. It's midnight!"
Wilbur deadpanned. "And my younger brother just got beat up in his own home."
Tommy cursed silently. "You heard all that?"
Wilbur hummed. "Tommy, that's not at all good. Or even remotely legal."
Tommy sighed, "I know."
"I'm going to get the authorities involved." Wilbur simply stated.
Tommy went into full on panic mode. "Wilbur you can't! I- what'll happen to me? I'll go into the system and I might not be able to talk to you guys again."
Tommy kept rambling on and on about how it was a terrible idea until Wilbur spoke over him. "I'm not going to let any of that happen to you Tommy."
The younger of the two still seemed skeptical but went silent. Wilbur couldn't tell if that worried him more or less. Wilbur ended up staying home that night and reporting the incident. He sent the recording he had and that was enough to launch a full investigation. Wilbur pressed them to keep him in the loop about what was happening. Tommy was taken out of his parent's house one week after that night. He was temporarily placed in a foster home that Wilbur approved of. The older brother making sure that Tommy had everything he needed to maintain somewhat of a social media presence. Tommy had expressed that he was uncomfortable with the internet knowing what had been going on. Sure, people were confused as to why Tommy was taking a break from streaming but most people showed their support and moved on with their days. About a month after Tommy was removed from his home, he was called to the living room of his foster home. Bounding down the stairs he could hear two people talking. Tommy skeptically took a breath before stepping into the room where he could here his caretakers talking about adoption.
"So, you keeping your last name?" Wilbur smiled brightly at the teenager.
Tommy furrowed his brows before his foster mother spoke up. "Wilbur here is adopting you Tommy."
"Hello boys!" Tommy cracked open a coke. "Bit of a different stream today. Everyone's been asking me to do a music stream since Wilbur stumbled into my vc that one night."
Tommy broke out his guitar and played different songs, taking suggestions from chat occasionally. At some point Wilbur texted Tommy, making the boy's phone ping but Tommy ignored it. A few minutes later there was a knock at Tommy's door then it opened to reveal Wilbur with his guitar and another coke. Chat freaked out when Wil came into view, handing Tommy the coke before sitting down in a spare chair.
Tommy simply laughed at chat. "Oh, yeah, may have forgotten to mention. Got adopted the other day!"
Wilbur and Tommy ended up playing songs together, Wil flexing his ability to play hayloft. Tommy flexed his ability to perfectly play jubilee line, which he did with his usual shit-eating grin. All-in-all, it was a great livestream, both boys had fun even if they had to explain that Wilbur had only recently adopted Tommy and they hadn't told anyone yet. Tommy asked chat to respect his privacy and not try to dig into why he needed to get adopted. The child did end up explaining the situation to friends but left it there. Tommy actually ended up putting out covers of a good portion of Wilbur's Your City Gave Me Asthma, Jubilee Line and La Jolla being the most popular.
He was finally safe.