Chapter Text
When the recording had finished, Tommy found himself in a call alone with Wilbur, as per their usual tradition. The younger boy couldn’t stop himself from pouting since Wilbur wouldn’t stop teasing him about losing the challenge and laughing because of dick jokes of all things.
“Alright, we get it asshole, you can chill out now,” Tommy grumbled as he pulled his legs up to his chest. His attempt at an intimidating expression was somewhat hindered by the fact that he was resting his cheeks on his knees, looking incredibly sullen.
“Aww, Tommy,” Wilbur immediately cooed, smiling when the teen started to turn bright red and protest vehemently at the babying.
“It’s very sweet that you couldn’t stop laughing at my jokes, Tommy, don’t worry about it. Charlie and I were joking about it on call during the recording actually. He said he spent so much time actually thinking of genuinely funny bits to make you laugh, only for none of them to work.”
Tommy hesitated at that, biting his lip nervously. The older male looked up from his laughter, his eyebrows furrowing in worry, when the teen didn’t respond after a few seconds.
“What’s wrong Toms?” Wilbur asked gently, his voice losing the teasing quality as he noticed how nervous the teen looked.
The younger boy simply curled up tighter on the chair, avoiding his brother’s gaze. He mumbled something into his crossed arms that Wilbur couldn’t hear.
“Speak up louder bub, come on. You know I can’t hear you like that,” Wilbur urged him, now getting a little worried something was actually wrong.
Tommy hesitated for only a few more seconds before caving. “It was so stupid that I laughed at that. Like, I’m seventeen years old now, I should know better. And Charlie was actually being really funny with his puns, same with Ranboo, and all I laughed at was school yard humour.”
The teen looked genuinely distressed at the situation, causing Wilbur to pause for a few seconds before answering. “Oh Toms, no no no. You’re allowed to laugh about whatever you find funny, no matter if it’s not ‘sophisticated’ humour or something like that.”
“Yeah, but everyone online already calls me a child. And it’s no wonder that they say that when I can’t act mature even for a recording. I’m the youngest everywhere I go and sometimes I wish I wouldn’t enforce that by acting so stupid.”
Wilbur frowned, getting a little more worried at the teen’s comments. He didn’t like where the conversation was leading.
“Believe me, bub, we all thought it was so cute when you kept laughing about those jokes. That’s all. You’re always so easy to make laugh and it was endearing to see how hard you were avoiding Charlie and Ranboo’s jokes, which would normally make you scream with laughter. I knew that you wouldn’t be able to keep up your defenses against that type of humour simply because you were preparing for something so much better.”
Wilbur could see that the younger boy wasn’t entirely convinced, so he pressed on.
“Toms, you’re always the most expressive person in a recording and I can’t think of a single one of our friends who doesn’t love that quality about you.”
Here, Tommy decided to interject, his eyes looking tragically unhappy as he stared into the lens to meet Wilbur’s eyes as best as he could. “But both Ranboo and Charlie kept complaining about how I only laughed at those jokes.”
“Oh bub, you know you can’t let them get away with that,” Wilbur responded, his tone taking on a more humorous note. “They laugh and make those types of jokes all the time, so they don’t have a leg to stand on. In fact, in this very recording, we were all laughing at the jokes, so it’s not like we were at a much higher maturity level than you were.”
“But they were also laughing at the more impressive jokes, like the ones with a story,” Tommy protested.
“And we all know you would have been the first to laugh at them if you were allowed to,” Wilbur responded firmly. “Your sense of humour isn’t childish, not anymore than anyone else’s. And even if it was, then that would be completely fine. You’re much younger than all of us, except Ranboo and Tubbo, and it’s normal that you would find different things funny. If you still enjoy dick jokes, then laugh at them as loudly as you want. Who cares what others think if that’s what makes you happy?”
“I don’t want to be seen as a child though, I can do the same things you can do!”
Wilbur sighed, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Of course you can bub, and you do, but you don’t have to. You’re brilliant and nothing is going to take that away from you, especially not a silly mod video.”
"Are you sure? They don't think I'm being a stupid child?" Tommy asked hesitantly, looking like Wilbur's answer was the most important thing to him.
"Of course not, bub. Well, they do think you're a child, but not just because of this, you've done worse before," Wilbur couldn't help but tease him.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Tommy whined.
"Aw bubs, you're not really convincing me when you're pouting like that."
Tommy still continued pouting at the screen, but it looked more playful than anything by this point so Wilbur wasn’t too worried. “I’m a big man.”
Wilbur burst out laughing, “Of course you are.”
The younger boy only pouted harder, his face flushing even more red for the longer Wilbur laughed. “Wil,” he whined again, dragging out the word.
“Toms,” Wilbur returned, pitching his voice higher than normal.
“Don’t do that dickhead, it’s weird,” Tommy said, voice disgruntled, pout finally melting from his face.
“Alright, alright,” Wilbur relented. “But just so you know bubs, we all thought it was very endearing. Your humour might be more childish, even though ours is really the same level, but it’s very cute.”
“Stop,” Tommy begged, now covering his flushed face with his hands.
Wilbur kept the teasing up for a little longer until he noticed how the teen had started to yawn more and more throughout the conversation. He decided it was getting too late to keep talking, deciding to be the responsible older brother.
“Hey bub,” Wilbur said, his voice getting softer as the boy blinked blearily. “It’s getting late. What do you say we switch to our phones and get ready for bed?”
Tommy looked ready to argue for a split second before a large yawn broke out, his face turning a little red when Wilbur chuckled. The teen knew he was defeated, and he was a little exhausted from the high tension recording and the ensuing distress, so he started to untangle himself from the chair with a larger pout than before and switched to a call on his phone, propping it up against the computer monitor.
Wilbur, who was already dressed in comfortable clothes for sleeping, simply watched with a warm smile as the younger boy shuffled around his room tiredly, finally collapsing onto the bed with a small thump. He almost immediately burrowed into the covers, struggling to keep his eyes focused on the phone in front of him.
When he noticed the younger was settled, Wilbur started up a story in a soft voice, just something mundane about his trip to the grocery store earlier that day. They may have been miles apart, but something about the situation, perhaps the normality of it, was a comfort for the two brothers.
And Tommy, wrapped up warm in his blankets and the sound of Wilbur’s voice, drifted off to sleep, feeling content.