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Wilbur rolls over, his phone ringing and his alarm clock telling him it's too early for him - or the person calling him - to be up.
It takes a minute for Wilbur's foggy brain to register that Tubbo's calling him, not from discord which means it's either something really important or Tubbo needs advice for an amazon thing.
Wilbur picks up but he will hang up if the words from Tubbo's mouth include amazon, he will hang up.
(He isn't going too, he's probably Tubbo's only impulse control right now and he enjoys talking to the younger even if he makes horrible financial chances.)
He leans back into his pillows, closing his eyes and waits for the call to connect.
And he hears sobbing.
The usually put together Tubbo is crying, sniffling and clearly trying to be quiet. Wilbur sits back up as he softly shushes him, words of comfort almost leaving his mouth but Tubbo was somehow quicker.
"I'm so scared," He whispers, "Wilbur - I - I can't -" He cuts himself off, panic surging through Wilbur as he sits up, brain on autopilot as he grabs his wallet and starts the walk to the nearest train station.
"Okay, Tubbo," He pushes out of his apartment door, cool night air sucking out any comfort from his bed, "I need you to breathe, okay? Deep breath -" Tubbo takes a shuddering breath, "Now hold it -" He counts to ten for Tubbo, "And let it out -" an audible breathe out, "Just do that, you've got this,"
And slowly with Wilbur's soft spoken words of reassurance, Tubbo calmed down. Wilbur explained that he was on his way over just to check in but really Tubbo knows Wilbur's old heart would never settle if he didnt make sure he was okay.
Wilbur plopped into a seat on the train car, only three other people on the train car with him but not paying any attention to them. He had more important priorities.
"So, What happened? If you don't want to talk about it, that's - that's fine by me, dude," Wilbur reassured, not wanting to make Tubbo cry again.
He hears Tubbo sniffle before shuffling around, "Bad, stupid dream," His voice is quiet as he speaks, he's moving on the other side and suddenly Wilbur can hear a soft meow, "Sorry, rocky, shouldve let you in sooner,"
Wilbur assumes the kid drops it by the silence that takes over but really, on the other side of the phone, Tubbo is thinking about how to explain his dream and his predicament without seeming well - crazy.
He felt like he was awake in the dream, a headache like he gets every time he wakes up. When he sat up, he heard it.
Someone was in the house with him and it wasn't anyone Tubbo knew, he felt the panic of the unknown swell in his chest.
No one really was, it was just a stupid dream but he could hear the daunting footsteps, the opening of his parents room where someone? Was it his parents? sisters? -then two loud bangs before the door closed again and the footsteps made their way to his room.
He couldn't move, he couldn't scream even if he wanted to because as the door opened up, Tubbo could do nothing as he faced down the barrel of a gun.
And when he actually woke up, his brain was convinced it was real, he could hear the footsteps so he dove into his closet, calling whoever his finger landed on in the mist of panic.
He kinda regrets staying home by himself but he couldn't help it. His sister's had friends and his parents wanted alone time, he had nothing to do but stream and lay with rocky in the sun.
Tubbo jumps when he realizes he left Wilbur hanging so he starts to describe his dream to him, hearing Wilbur follow along and comfort him whenever the panic re - floods his body.
It wasn't his worst or confusing dream, not even up there. It's the fact it was so real to Tubbo that scared him, the fact someone could do that was enough to overshadow any reasoning. His dreams were about falling in love with a scientist and breaking his best friend's legs so he would sing and being trapped in a haunted pizzeria.
Never anything realistic like that.
"God, that must've sucked, Tubbo," Wilbur says after Tubbo stops rambling, "I'm sorry, hey! I'll be there soon, yeah? Just got off the train,"
Tubbo hums, a warm feeling in his chest when he realizes he won't be alone anymore. Wilbur will be there with him and from very credible sources - Tommy - Wilbur is an amazing hugger.
At this moment, Tubbo doesn't hate the idea of getting a hug.
Time passes with conversation to distract Tubbo, mostly about streaming and minecraft, sometimes about school and what Tubbo would like to do after.
Tubbo doesn't mention he wants to do what Wil does and make a band, that's childish and Wilbur's ego is already so big.
Wilbur finally gets there, using the key Tubbo's parents gave him in case of emergencies.
Tubbo doesn't realize though, he just heard the footsteps.
Rocky meows softly in concern as Tubbo dropped his phone on the loose clothing in his closet.
hewasgoingtodiehewasgoingtodiehewasgoingto -
"Tubbo…?" Wilbur called out softly, hearing muffled laboured breathing from his closet. The kid wasn't responding to him on the phone and it clicks for Wilbur. His heavy footsteps must've brought up the dream again.
"Shit…'
Wilbur turns on the light and slowly slides Tubbo's closet open, crouching down to look less threatening.
"Tu -" Something was thrown at his face, a balled up shirt he assumes, "Ow, dickhead!" Tubbo curls into himself when Wilbur raises his voice, Wil quickly silencing himself.
"Okay, okay," Wilbur takes a deep breath, "Tubbo," He calls out softly, he softly picks up Rocky, the cat letting out a small sound as he's put closer to Tubbo, "Uh - put your hand on your cat,"
Tubbo reluctantly reaches out towards Rocky and places a hand on him, the cat falling over at the attention.
"You're okay, see?" Wilbur spoke softly, sitting down in front of Tubbo, "Rocky isn't freaking out, he's okay, I'm okay and you're okay," He reassured, hearing Tubbo make a noise before fully lifting his head up.
There's silence for a while while tubbo just breathes, swallowing thickly and giving his cat scratches.
Wilbur's fine, Rocky's fine and he'll be fine too.
"Yep," He was probably mumbling it, "You'll be fine too,"
The next few minutes were coaxing Tubbo out of the closet and onto his bed, Rocky stretching around the room and rolling on Tubbo's bed. Tubbo didn't lay down though, sat up with his eyes fixated like his life depended on it.
Wilbur guesses it did.
He also guesses Tubbo's thirsty, the poor boy never left his bedroom and they both needed to eat. Wilbur pushes himself up from the younger boy's bed, popping his back before heading towards the door.
Tubbo sprung up from the bed and latched onto Wilbur's side, Wilbur huffing lightheartedly and let the boy follow after him to the kitchen.
Once there, Tubbo seemed on edge, jumping whenever a car passed by, the sounds of the wind outside blew so hard that it made him get closer to Wibur.
Wilbur didn't mind, tucking the boy closer as he got stuff out to make them a very early breakfast at about 7am. Tubbo had turned on most of the lights and bounced on his feet, anxious as evur.
No, really, Wilbur has never seen that much anxiousness in Tubbo before, maybe the boy just knew how to hide it? or that dream and the unfortunate situation of being home alone really shook him up.
"Can I help?" Tubbo asked, breaking Wilbur out of his thoughts and hovering over Wilbur even though it was more of a lean to see the stove top, "It's gettin' boring watching you cook, big man,"
Wilbur hummed an agreement, slipping the fried eggs onto one plate to be dished out later between the two.
"You can make -" he handed Tubbo a loaf of bread, gesturing towards his fancy toaster, "Some toast please, can you -" Wilbur had grabbed a spoon, whipping around to face Tubbo and the spoon had flung out of his hand and clanged against the tile floor.
No big issue, accidents happen but he doesn't miss when Tubbo fully flinches into himself, almost dropping the bread, his eyes squeezed shut.
Wilbur cringed at himself and picked the spoon up gently, putting it on the counter and walking over to Tubbo.
"Sorry, Tubbo," Tubbo seemed to untense a lot, his shoulders slacking, "It was just a spoon," He said slowly so Tubbo could register it, hand on his shoulder and giving a reassuring squeeze.
Before he could direct Tubbo to his fancy toaster, Tubbo wrapped his arms around Wilbur.
Wilbur hugged back immediately, squeezing the boy who let out a small sound when he was lifted to his tippy toes so Wilbur could hug him more.
Then Tubbo pushed him away, now ready for his fight with the toaster.
And then he got this feeling that he's only really felt at select people - said people being Phil, Techno, every lovejoy member and Tommy - while smiling proudly when Tubbo didn't cut through the toast with the butter knife, patting his back and cheering with him.
Wilbur used to think SBI stopped accepting members since Tommy but now, while he looks at Tubbo who's munching away happily at his food, he thinks there's room for one more little brother.