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It was times like this when Wilbur really wished that he had listened to his Dad. Of course, the man always had logical advice in situations like these.
Why did he have to ignore him the one time where things went wrong?
“Tech! Get Wilbur to leave me aloneee. ” The 7-year-old groaned, running around the couch once again, trying to move as quick as he could on his little baby legs. The kid threw another one of the couch pillows at his older brother. Which missed and hit one of the picture frames hung-up on the wall.
“Boys! Quit it, You’re destroying the whole house.” Phil stated, sighing as he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop the chaos that was going on. He frowned as he looked to which picture had fell, before returning to a neutral expression.
He wasn’t exactly fond of that photo anyway.
Techno was pointedly ignoring the brothers as they wrecked the house. Wilbur had decided to pay back the little gremlin for something stupid he did the other day.
He was unsure of what it was, but all he knew is that Wilbur wasn’t angry. And they were chasing each other in a more playful way. So he didn’t think of bothering to get involved.
Techno got involved.
He’d gotten involved the fourth time Wilbur crashed into him in the past ten minutes. Even the tiny gremlin had more coordination than the teenager.
Phil was quick to move out of their way, not too keen on the thought of being slammed into by a bunch of energetic children.
He could barely handle the two of them, and with Techno joining in… That’s when the man knew that the play-fighting was about to turn into a play- war .
He moved out perfectly in time for Techno to almost knock his burning coffee into the carpet.
“That’s it, boys. Somebody’s 100% going to end up getting hurt, with the way you lot are rough-housing like this. Could you stop tackling each other and go calmly play in your bedrooms? I don’t want to hear you lot crying in the next hour because one of you got hurt.”
He had made far too many hospital trips in the last month for his liking, thank God for free healthcare…
His boys obeyed his wishes and calmly… Ran up the stairs, Wilbur and Techno trying to grab each other's legs from behind to effectively knock them down.
Luckily, for Phil. None of them had managed to get a grip on each other, but he knew damn well that his boys were on their way to destroy the upstairs too.
Oh well, as long as they weren’t in his room…
As Techno jumped off of Philza’s bed again, he unsuccessfully missed the moving target. The target was Wilbur, who was not a fan of becoming a human pancake, thank you very much.
They were currently trying to test who was the strongest, Techno had insisted that it was him, of course. But Tommy, being Himself… Wanted to prove him wrong.
“I’m telling you, even if you were stronger than me… Which you’re not, it would be impossible since I’m bigger than you.” Techno stated.
It was true, the 15-year-old was of course going to be taller than the tiny 7-year-old. No matter how much the little kid trained. Of course, the blonde-haired boy would likely overtake him in height when he got older.
(The kids' parents had both been beanstalks.) But for now, Techno was proud of claiming his title as strongest.
“See! By that logic, I’m stronger than you. ” Wilbur victoriously booped his Twin’s nose, right. The teenager had forgotten about his brother. The currently-tallest in the family.
“I meant me compared to Tommy. He’s tiny.” The child pouted at that, crossing his arms. He didn’t find that fair, not at all.
“You’re tiny compared to me. ” Wilbur challenged, feeling in the mood for a ridiculous argument, in true sibling fashion.
“I am literally only a tiny bit shorter than you.” The response came, sounding a little pissed off.
“Yeah, and I’m not done growing.”
“Neither am I!?”
Their squabbles continued as Tommy sneaked over to the edge of Philza’s bed, grabbing one of the red-heart-shaped pillows he had gotten as a gift.
While his older brothers were distracted, the boy silently positioned his arms just right to slam the pillow as hard as he could onto Wilbur, shocking him intensely.
Techno bent over laughing as he watched Tommy sprint out in true-brotherly fashion. The same way they had all ran when they smashed one of the windows playing baseball. The classic brother-scatter.
Wilbur was quick to recover from the attack, spinning on his heel and booking after the Gremlin, oh he was not going to let Tommy get away with this! Not a chance in Hell!
Slamming open Tommy’s bedroom door, he grinned at the regretful face that his little brother had displayed, oh he knew that he was in for a chaotic time.
Wilbur jumped onto the bed where the kid was hiding and began attempting to tackle him onto the carpeted floor. The task seemed successful as the kid pretty effortlessly fell.
Wilbur yanked him by his collar, getting him to sit upright as he leaned over to the top of the bed, all while still holding the rim of the shirt. Once Will had gotten a decently sized pillow, he let the boy have it and smacked him back. As hard as he could, just like Tommy did to him.
The kid began giggling as he tried to pull his own pillow back. Not having a weapon, Wilbur pondered for a minute before effortlessly letting go of the grip he had on his brother.
That, being the only support the boy had, fell back hard onto the carpet. Taking a second to catch his breath before yanking the pillow out of his older brothers fingers.
It was like an intense game of tug-of-war until once again, Wilbur was viciously hit in the back of the head with another one of Philza’s pillows. He was quick to turn his head around, sending the deadliest playful glare he could to TechnoBlade, who returned it scarier.
The oldest and youngest were in a loop of hitting Wilbur. Wilbur had no way of hitting them back, as whenever he attempted to, he got smacked. So he has an idea, of kneeling onto his little brother to keep him pinned so that he was able to get Techno back.
Tommy shriek-laughed as he tried to push his big brother off of him, Wilbur had put all of his weight onto Tommy’s knees, so that he couldn’t hit and run like before.
Techno got a few good hits on his twin, who returned it just as vigorously.
When Tommy had finally wiggled his legs out of Wilburs grasps, he didn’t have time to prepare as an extra hard whack from Techno sent Wilbur falling backward on top of the boy.
Crrk’ik
The sound of the crack was horrifying.
Wilbur immediately got off of his little brother, quicker than he had ever before.
Tommy only looked stunned for a few moments, not knowing what the fuck had just happened until he looked down to his right arm.
It was poking out of its socket.
The angle immediately made Techno spin around and gag. Fuck no, no. no. That looked so fucking bad.
Wilbur screamed.
Phil could care less about the vase he knew he had just smashed, as he sprinted up the stairs. This wasn’t a ‘playful scream’ or the kind of scream when you got spooked. No, this was the, ‘terrified for your life ’ scream.
Phil bolted into the room that he’d heard the noise from, his eyes widening as far as they could as he immediately spotted the arm.
Techno was still so very much not looking at his little brother. He’d seen tons of messed-up stuff, and yet he still couldn’t deal with that.
Wilbur on the other hand was just frozen. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the horrific scene.
Phil quickly went past them to go and console Tommy, who… Hadn’t reacted yet, despite looking scared shitless. He hadn’t moved his arm, or anything. Only breathing in and out, clearly terrified.
“It’s alright Mate, don’t move your arm yeah? You’ll be okay. It’ll be just fine. ” To anyone else, it sounded as if Phil was trying to convince himself more than his kid. It was when Tommy stood up, planning on leaving the bedroom. That the shocked adrenaline finally wore off as he gasped.
Wanting to grasp his arm so tight that it stopped feeling things, but knowing he couldn’t.
WHAT THE HELL. WHAT THE HELL. WHAT THE HELL. WHAT THE HELL.
He took in a sharp-painful breath with each movement. Well, he had a pretty good idea as to where he’d be going. Sorry, Phil for breaking that promise.
Techno had decided that he could probably support his brother without throwing up on him, standing by his side. Not knowing what he could do to help, but still wanting to be there for support.
One of the things he quickly realized that he should not do, if put his arm around Tommy’s shoulder. The small shriek from the boy letting him know that, yeah no. Not the right thing to do right now.
The oldest twin quickly muttered out an apology as his brother and father trail behind.
All Wilbur can think is what the fuck.
The ride to the Hospital is extremely painful, the tears beginning before they were even halfway there. Wilbur and Techno were miserably failing to soothe the pain of their little brother.
Wilbur felt oh so fucking guilty.
He made sure to hold Tommy’s non-broken hand ever so tight after every painful bump in the road. Letting him known that he was right there for him.
The car was filled only with the sound of silence and sniffles.
They were quick to exit the car after their arrival, Techno getting out of his side and opening the door wide open so that there would be no possible way for Tommy to graze his injured arm upon anything.
He didn’t want to cause any more pain than he already had.
The twins grew more anxious at how quickly they were admitted and looked at, they’d been here enough times to know that being treated quickly, although being nice… Typically meant whatever it was, had to be serious.
The boys were nervous as they were told to wait inside while Phil went in, they were nervous at the pained noises from the opposite side of the wall.
Everything about being here again scared them.
Tommy was sent to the X-Ray center, which had taken a while . While Tommy was having his scan done, Phil had kept reassuring them that their little brother would be just fine.
Just like he had been saying earlier.
Techno and Wilbur weren’t so sure that they believed him.
They were right not to believe him, as they were in the room when the Doctor told them.
Tommy’s arm, despite being broken, would also needed to be popped back into place. And the detail that the woman went into too, nobody could blame the boys for covering their ears and blocking the sound out.
They were thankful their little brother couldn’t hear any of this.
Phil still kept trying to reassure them.
Wilbur thought that every single person in that hallway heard the scream that came from that very room.
At least that meant they’d done it, right? There wasn’t any more screaming. So it had to be over, obviously. They didn’t mess it up, he was sure. Otherwise, he would’ve heard more screams.
But… The silence was horrifying.
Of course, Wilbur couldn’t hear every noise on the opposite side of the thick wall, but right now he wishes he could. He wishes he was allowed to be in the room with his brother, even if he was sure that none of them could stomach it.
They’d been in the hospital for so long. When the twins were finally allowed into the room. They were quick to do so, wanting to cuddle their brother carefully to death after all the pain they heard.
Tommy was sitting on the patient bed, grinning widely as soon as he saw his brothers. Around his eyes were bright red, he’d obviously been sobbing, no doubt in mind… Techno and Wilbur were a little cautious to get near him. Knowing what had happened the last time.
But when they saw how disappointed their brother looked, they couldn’t resist and quickly speed-walked over.
Tommy was quick to give them a gentle hug, which was mainly him wrapping his left arm around them with the other still in place.
The twins noticed how it was wrapped now, their little brother's arm was castless, only laying in a splint.
The youngest paused to think, “In a bit though.” Not agreeing to do it right away, but not instantly declining either. So TechnoBlade saw it as a win.
They patiently listened as the Doctor gave the Do’s and Don'ts that came with an injury like this.
The boy's arm was put into a splint, where they were told that it was going to remain for the next three weeks. And with the severity of the break, luckily Tommy wouldn’t need surgery.
But that meant the boy would have to get a cast which he would wear for a lot longer than usual.
Wilbur questioned why their little brother hadn’t been put into a cast yet because the brothers vividly remembered how it looked. And how the injury definitely looked like it needed one.
The Doctor was very patient with all of their questions, as she explained that they would need to wait for the swelling to go down before they were able to cast it. And that would take up to a week.
Which meant they would need to come back…
For now, Phil was given a shit ton of medicine and painkillers to give to his son ever so often, and some that the boy could take whenever the pain got a little too bad.
The only thing the Doctor could not stress enough was for Tommy to be extremely careful. Which the boy agreed to, not wanting to experience all that Hell again.
They were free to go.
The car ride back wasn’t as tense as it was on the way there, the youngest was still in a lot of discomfort with the feeling of his bones being so… Shifty and wobbly inside of him, but the nice Doctors had given him some strong painkillers, so it was less pain and more… Weird feelings.
Techno joked about how he wanted to be the first person to sign Tommy’s cast, to which the boy paused in thought and simply responded.
“We’ll see about that.”
Techno grinned, tilting his head slightly in confusion, “What, are you going to sign your own cast?” the eldest (Twin) responded.
Tommy just shrugged with his non-hurt shoulder. “Who knows, maybe I will, Blade.”
To be fair, that was pretty believable. They could see him doing that.
They made small chatter the whole way home, while Wilbur sat in silence.
Phil, surprisingly, hadn't said, “Told you so” Once throughout this whole ordeal. Which they were thankful for, especially Wilbur. He didn’t want to be reminded of his mistake.
His mistake got his little brother hurt.
Wilbur was feeling so damn guilty. He thought that the best way to avoid hurting his brother was to avoid him.
He didn’t know that Tommy noticed everything.
After only 5 days of fleeing and ignoring conversations, Tommy was taken back to the Hospital to get casted. Techno and Wilbur stayed at home, barely. Philza told them that this would take multiple hours, and their little brother told them to just stay at the house.
He was right, the casting and being in the waiting room would likely take several hours... but they still wanted to be with him.
Wilbur sighed as he glanced at Tommy’s empty room, wanting nothing more than to apologize profusely. Yet he hadn’t made any attempt too, in fact.. He’d actually been doing everything not to do that.
Wait, that sounded bad. Rewind.
He meant he was doing everything to not see his brother. That… Also sounded bad, but he had good reasons! He didn't want to hurt his little brother any more than he already had, it was his stupid fault.
Wilbur's thoughts were disrupted with a loud knocking on his un-locked room, footsteps soon getting louder as Techno walked in, not bothering to ask for permission.
“You gonna actually speak to Tommy, or keep ignoring him? Dad says they’ll be back in an hour.”
Wilbur sat up, he’d noticed?
“Everyone can tell, especially Tommy. Kid’s out here thinking that he upset you or that you’re mad at him or something.”
“That’s stupid, why would he think that?”
“Why would you think that? He isn’t mad at you or anything. He asked where you were again, twice this morning. Don’t go thinking the Gremlin hasn’t been wanting to speak to you.”
Wilbur paused, Tommy wanted to see him? “Why…?” He asked, not being able to find the answer on his own.
TechnoBlade sighed. “What? Do you think the kid doesn’t want to see his big brother after they suddenly start avoiding them without a word? Wilbur, he isn’t going to be mad that you hurt him. Hell, I heard him blabbering to Phil about how cool his cast’s going to be.” He paused to make sure Wilbur was actually paying attention and not moping.
“Besides, he’s gonna need us. It’s not like it was his left arm, who do you think had to hold his toothbrush for him?”
Techno had felt sympathetic for his little brother after seeing the failed attempt to try and squeeze toothpaste onto his brush with one hand. And felt even more sympathy when he missed three times. (Also because they ran out of toothpaste far too quickly in his house.)
Techno had literally brushed the kid's teeth for him, despite having a fully working arm.
Wilbur hadn’t known about any of this. “That’s silly.” He stated, after hearing Techno’s story.
“Yeah, silly sure. But he needed help, still does really. That’s why I’m asking you to stop being upset at him and stop avoiding him, please? I don’t mind helping him, especially while he’s hurt. Just… You can help too, you know?”
Wilbur really didn't know, he felt like more of an idiot than before. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to do stuff normally after breaking the hand you use the most.
Wilbur wondered how many things’s he hadn’t been able to help with all because of his selfishness.
“I just… I don’t want to hurt him again, Techno.” he sighed, un-locking eyes with his brother, focusing on the photo on his desk. The one with a 3-year-old Tommy, riding on his shoulders.
Techno hadn’t thought that was the reason.
“I promise you Wilbur, you’re not going to hurt him again, okay? Besides, It’s not like you could break his other arm.” He joked, trying to lighten the mood. “And hey, even if you did somehow manage that, we’re here to take care of him, alright?”
Wilbur nodded, yeah.
He was going to see his little brother.
Techno and Wilbur has already disappeared downstairs once they heard the front door open.
They could hear Phil’s laughter as he continued a joke with Tommy, after a few seconds, the sound of the man yelling could be heard, telling his Twins that he had returned.
Tommy looked a little bit stunned to see the brother who had been going out of his way to leave him, right there in front of him. The blonde kid looked like a deer in the headlights.
Wilbur decided to break the tension by speaking first.
“Your cast looks really cool!” It was a simple, unsigned red-cast. Just like another ordinary one. But hey, might as well compliment the thing that the kid would be wearing for the next few months.
That had been the right choice of words as Tommy’s grin lit up the mood of the room. He glanced back down at his arm, it was still splinted. But at the sides, you could see the bright red shining through.
Techno and Wilbur soon noticed that Philza was carrying a shopping bag, and they were a little curious since Phil usually went out on a Saturday.
Phil seemed to notice their eyes stuck on the bag, as he gave a slight huff. “No, It’s not food for you lot, if you were wondering.”
As Phil stated that, he began to take the belongings out of the bag as he headed to the kitchen. Inside were multiple tubs of all the boys favorite ice creams. Ah, so Phil was lying. Of course, if he wasn’t… That would be eaten regardless.
Techno decided to break the attention away from the mouth-watering tasty ice cream by asking Tommy about how was it.
The youngest brother explained how cool it was, but mentioned how it hurt a little but now felt like heaven. He went into a little detail about how it hurt every time he moved but how it also didn’t hurt? It was confusing, but his brothers were keen to listen.
Wilbur could hear Phil yelling just in time to get whacked in the face with a pack of sharpies.
“OW- PHILZA?!” He yelled in betrayal. Rubbing at the red mark that had quickly formed on his forehead.
“Whoops, sorry Mate. Thought you’d catch it.”
“Phil, I get you’re old , but you’re meant to yell before you throw the object. Not after. Unless you’re attacking someone, let them know after it’s already too late.”
“Oh hush.”
Wilbur had realized how idiotic he’d been being, Tommy wasn’t mad at all. Well, he didn’t look too upset at least. But he shouldn’t assume things… Maybe Tommy was angry, or really sad? Or maybe he never wanted to speak to him again-
The feeling of something being placed into his hands stopped his train of thought, as he looked down he saw a pure black, fine-tipped Sharpie pen.
He then looked over to the person who gave him said pen.
Tommy.
He could hear Techno in the background, mumbling betrayed. “I thought I’d get to sign it first, such betrayal. I no longer trust any of you”. He wasn’t being serious, kinda.
His little brother looked up at him expectantly. “Uh, do you wanna sign it? I mean…” He started getting off track after not seeing Wilbur move. “It’s totally fine if you don’t wanna- Plus Techno’ll be happy I guess and-”
“I’ll sign it, idiot.”
Tommy grinned.
He gently peeled back the sling, so the whole arm was exposed. He still couldn’t move it too much. The arm was in full sight of Wilbur.
Phil headed up the stairs and called Techno to come with him, likely to help with laundry or some other simple chore.
Tommy and Wilbur were alone together.
Wilbur, this time… Was the first to speak.
“Tommy, you’re not mad at me, right…?”
The kid looked shocked as shit. “What? Wait, hold on. I thought it was you who was mad. I’m not mad!”
Wilbur tried to put the pieces together why he thought Tommy could possibly be mad, until he realized what he’d been doing to his baby brother all week.
“I promise you Tom’s, I’m not mad at all. I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you, I just… I didn’t want to hurt you again, I didn’t know if you were upset at me for… Hurting you like that.”
Tommy gave him a funny look. “I’m a little pissed your fat butt crushed me, but I’m not upset at you or anything. I would’ve broken it anyway, even without your help. Besides, now I have a cool cast that you still haven't signed. You’ve just been holding the open pen over my arm for the last five minutes.”
“Ah- right, right. Sorry.”
“Quit apologizing or I’ll bite you. Write on my arm, Fish-Fucker.”
Wilbur decided to be a smart prick and bring the sharpie to Tommy’s un-casted arm, which got him to let out a laughing shriek as he saw the permanent marker get closer to his skin.
“WILBUR- NO-” The boy tried to use his non-broken arm to push himself up to escape his older brother's hold, not expecting Wilbur to grab the back of his shirt to keep him from escaping.
“Wilbur, please… You don’t have to do this.”
“Don’t I?” The older brother cackled manically. Already apparently making up his mind on what he was going to do. Seemingly forgetting of the tension a few minutes prior.
So, the fight ended. With Wilbur having a shitty-quickly drawn permanent mustache across his face.
And Tommy, the smudged mess of what seemed to be the words, ‘CHILD’
There was honestly more marker on the rest of their body, compared to the cast. Which Wilbur still hadn’t decided on what to write.
“Do I still get to write something?”
Tommy paused in thinking. “Okay, only because I know you’re gonna whine when everyone else takes up all the cool spots and you get stuck with either no space or at the very back where nobody will see ever. ”
“Alright, fine. I see your point. Put your arm out again, Gremlin.” The boy complied, without running away this time.
This time, the sharpie touched the cast, all was going well. And Wilbur had made no attempt to instantly scribble the marker onto the blinding-red cast. What he did do, however. Was move his hand in the way of Tommy’s sight, so his little brother was unable to see what was being written.
“You better not be insulting me, Wilbur. I know you’re better than this.” The youngest brother paused to rethink. “Actually, no. You’re not, but still don’t. ”
“We’ll see, Gremlin.”
Phil put a hand over his face as he tried to hide the exasperated expression he was making.
Wilbur had decided that the best words to write in large-permanent letters was.
‘You deserved it
Don't piss me off next time‘
-Wilby
Phil did find it funny, but… Literally, everyone who looked at his son's cast would see that, so he hoped Wilbur was ready to be judged.
Techno was silently hollering in the corner as Tommy wondered if covering the message with plaster tape would work.
He wanted to be fair, so he let Techno sign it. As long as he promised not to write something that was also extremely large. He did also want his friends to have space to sign it too.
Techno decided to write…
‘Time heals all wounds,
Too bad my watch is broken’
-Techno
Tommy thought that Techno fully deserved the light flick on the head that Philza gave him.
The winged man was the last in the house to sign it, Tommy had the most faith in him out of all of them to not write something dumb.
In neat writing, the man carefully wrote on his son's arm,
‘Give me a break!’
-Philza
Tommy at that moment had decided to not let his family anywhere near his arm after the second casting.
Tommy loved having a cast.
After Ranboo and Tubbo got over the panic they first had when seeing their best friend in one, they were quickly excited and hyped about being able to sign someone's cast!
Though he was getting a little overwhelmed with the protectiveness when he did anything involving his arms… That, he could do without.
Though he and his best friends had a really good laugh when one of the mean girls from their school, coincidentally ‘hurt her arm’ the day after he returned to school. People couldn’t sign her cast because it was one of those cheap pharmacy slings.
Of course, she had exclaimed that she needed a cast but then sprouted some bullshit that the Hospital had no supplies to cast it.
That would’ve worked if they were in pre-school. So the trio laughed as the older kids pointed out her bullshit.
Ahh, the sweet smell of karma.
Time had passed a lot quicker than the gremlins thought it had. Somehow it had already been a few weeks, which meant he could remove this stupid arm cast.
Philza treated them all to some smoothies. Tommy picked his favorite. The strawberry-skittle ice drink. Techno had picked the chocolate Malteser and Wilbur had gotten both and combined them. All while Phil had normal plain vanilla.
Enjoying their odd drinks together, they relaxed.
With his arm finally healed, he realized. Time goes quickly when you're with the people you love.