Work Text:
~1~
When Tommy was four and Wilbur was eleven, the blond wouldn’t stop following Wilbur around.
“Tommy,” Wilbur whined after the toddler followed him around the playground for the third day in a row. “Leave me alone.”
Tommy just looked at him with a pout before shaking his head.
Wilbur sighed in frustration before walking around the park once again, a little blond child following his heels.
The only children in the park that were Wilbur’s age looked on and laughed, while the others who also had little siblings, Schlatt, Dream, and Niki, just looked on in sympathy.
That night, as Tommy followed Wilbur to his room after dinner, Wilbur had had enough. He looked around his room, desperate to find something, anything, when he spotted a pair of scissors on his desk used for a school project.
With an evil smirk, as evil as it can look on a child, he picked up the scissors and grabbed his small trash can.
“Oh, Tommy~”
Tommy perked up at the call of his name and put down the picture book about bugs, before walking over to his big brother.
“Wha?”
Wilbur held up the scissors before grabbing at Tommy’s blond hair.
“Hold still.”
An hour later, their father Phil walked in to tell his sons good night before screeching at the sight of his ten-year-old cutting off his toddler’s hair.
Neither were allowed near scissors without supervision for years.
~2~
When Tommy is five and Wilbur is twelve, they’re in the same school for the first and last time.
Tommy is in kindergarten, and Wilbur is in fifth grade. Their school does this program where the kids can stay after every Thursday to do activities.
Wilbur has always done the music-related one, while Tommy chose to do the art one.
Since Phil works late on Thursdays, Wilbur and Tommy usually have to walk home after since the busses don’t run when the activities end.
It’s usually not a problem, except on a particular Thursday, Tommy was annoying Wilbur too much during recess, and Wilbur had been left irritated for the rest of the day.
So, when those afternoon’s activities ended, and the two met at the front lobby to go home, Wilbur told Tommy to wait on a bench, “Right over there, Tommy. I’ll be right back, promise!”
And Tommy, being the naive little five-year-old he was, just did as his big brother told him.
Wilbur watched, smiling to himself smugly, before walking out the side entrance and walking home.
Four hours later, when Phil walked through the door looking furious, carrying a hiccuping Tommy on his hip, Wilbur wasn’t even surprised.
And despite being grounded for months, he still thought it was worth it.
~3~
A year later, when Wilbur was about to turn 13 and Tommy six, Wilbur wanted to have a party truck for his birthday.
“I’m gonna be a teenager, Dad! I need to have something that shows how cool I am!”
Phil just sighed before shaking his head with a fond smile as he saw Tommy looking on curiously in the corner of his eye.
A couple of months later, all of Wilbur’s friends were over, grew starry-eyed at the sight of the party truck pulling up to the house.
Tommy let out a gasp from the window up in his room as he saw it. He raced down the stairs and through the front door, barely getting his shoes on, as he ran to the truck.
When he went inside, the blond child couldn’t hold in his gasp as he looked around.
“Tommy!”
Wilbur’s voice caused him to shriek as he spun around to face his brother. The brunette looked down on the child with an air of displeasure.
“Wilby!” The six-year-old cheered.
Wilbur melted a little, yet he held firm as he crossed his arms.
“This truck is for the big kids. Go back inside!”
Tommy frowned as he stomped his foot with a pout.
Wilbur just glared harder as he pointed to the truck’s exit.
“Out! Now!”
Tommy’s eyes watered, and he started sniffling, yet he complied as he got out of the truck and shuffled his way back home.
Luckily, Phil took pity on his youngest and gave him an ice-pop, so all was well.
~4~
At ages nine and 16, respectively, Tommy and Wilbur went to the same camp, as Phil didn’t want to deal with them all summer.
It was a sleep-away camp that went from ages 7-17. They’d been going together since Tommy was old enough, and Wilbur had gone for years before then.
During this particular summer, the two of them had a period together at the pool every Monday and Thursday.
On a specific Monday, Tommy was relaxing by the side of the pool talking to two kids from his cabin when he felt arms circle around his waist and lift him into the air.
He shrieked loudly and started flailing, hitting his mysterious captor in the face with his hand. Though, the captor wasn’t so mysterious anymore as Tommy heard Wilbur grumble as tiny hands slapped him in the face.
It wasn’t long until Wilbur threw Tommy into the pool, where he accidentally swallowed some water.
The blond quickly burst to the surface before clinging to the wall to cough his lungs out.
One of the lifeguards ran over to him to pull him out of the pool to rub his back.
Tears fell down his cheeks as he finally could breathe, his face all red and his hair stuck to his face as he lay there panting and shaking.
As his hearing came back to him in increments, as the blood had rushed to his ears and it was just now going back down, he heard Wilbur laughing amongst his friends.
The blond’s vision returned, and he finally saw his older brother, standing off to the side in a group of people he recognized as his bunkmates.
Tommy vowed to get his revenge.
~5~
When Tommy was 11, Wilbur was heading off to college.
Now, Tommy wouldn’t admit this to anyone, but he was a little sad to see him go. While he was a massive dick and annoyed him to no end, he was still his older brother.
The day came when Wilbur had to move on campus, and Tommy felt a wave of melancholy hit him at the sight of all the boxes.
Phil and Wilbur were packing the car, and Tommy just sat on the couch, watching it happen with a sense of pain in his chest.
The two older men came back into the house, and Tommy stood from his spot.
“Well, that seems to be everything,” Phil cracked his back, causing Wilbur to make fun of him for being old.
“You good, mate?” The blond man asked as he saw Tommy’s expression, similar to what his younger brother wore when he went off to college.
Tommy schooled his features into a nonchalant expression that fooled no one, especially not himself.
“Fine.”
Wilbur looked at him and huffed in amusement.
“Glad to see me leaving?”
Tommy nodded, knowing that a sob would escape if he opened his mouth.
Wilbur ruffled his hair, causing Tommy to call him a prick wetly.
“Don’t mess up my room when I’m gone; I’ll need it for the holidays.”
Tommy rolled his eyes, the urge to cry taking a backseat at the familiar banter.
“Yeah, right. I’m gonna turn it into my Man Cave, and then you’ll have to sleep outside.”
It was Wilbur’s turn to roll his eyes as he flicked the kid on the forehead, causing the boy to whine and Phil to laugh as he imagined younger children in their place.
“Alright, alright. Wilbur needs to get going now, so hurry it up,” he spoke kindly.
The two brothers looked at each other for a moment before Wilbur spoke.
“Stay in school, you need it,” he emphasized the ‘you,’ causing Tommy to sputter and shoot curses at him while the brunette laughed.
Phil joined in on the laughter as he shook his head.
“Alright, time to go.”
Wilbur gave one last flick to Tommy’s head before he and Phil went out the door.
If Tommy went up to his room and cried, no one was in the house to know.
~ +1 ~
At 16 and 23, Tommy and Wilbur walked around their local mall with no goal in mind. It was a Saturday where both of their schedules were free.
They had just walked around one of the shops when Wilbur said he had to use the bathroom, telling Tommy to sit at one of the countertops next to the food stands.
Tommy, without much thought, took a seat next to some guy and went on his phone.
“Hey, kid.”
Tommy didn’t realize the guy was talking to him until he felt a tap on his shoulder.
It was the guy next to him, some 30-something looking man with short brown hair, brown eyes, and round features. His eyes gleamed with something Tommy couldn’t name yet set him on edge, as the guys’ lips pulled into an ugly-looking, yet trying to be friendly, smile.
“Uh-Can I help you?”
Every ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’ lesson Phil drilled into his head rang up as alarm bells started blaring in his ears the moment the guy started scooching closer.
“Yeah, I just couldn’t help but notice you were here alone?”
Red flags were popping up faster and faster as Tommy started sweating, discreetly looking around to see if anyone would come to his aid. But, to his anguish, no one even spared the two a glance.
“Uh-Uhm, my-my brother is, u-uh, i-in the bathroom,” he pointed his thumb vaguely in the direction of the bathroom, trying to move away as the guy leered closer.
“Now, who would leave such a pretty thing like you alone for even a moment?”
Tommy felt himself stop breathing.
“Step away from my brother.”
A familiar voice growled, and Tommy felt like he could cry in relief.
The two of them looked up to see a murderous-looking Wilbur, clutching a shopping bag in one hand while his other clenched in such a tight fist that blood started dripping onto the floor.
The man paled and started sweating as he laughed awkwardly, standing up from the chair and quickly rushing towards the nearest exit.
Tommy felt tears prick his eyes as he gazed in such palpable relief.
“Wi-Wilby,” Tommy keened, Wilbur’s face softening as he put down the bag and drew his little brother into a hug.
“Shh, shh. It’s okay now. Big brother’s here. He’ll never bother you again,” the brunette consoled, rocking the two back and forth and shooting glares at any weird looks they got.
Tommy sobbed into the man’s sweater, pulling the hug tightly. “I-I was so-so scared!”
Wilbur just shushed him some more as he remembered doing a similar thing when Tommy was a baby.
“I know, Toms, I know. It’s okay; it’s okay. I’m here now. Wilby’s here.”
It took a few minutes for Tommy to calm down, but Wilbur just handed him some napkins to blow his nose once he did. Then, once he was snot-free, Wilbur had him sit back on the stool as he grabbed the bag he dropped.
“Wha-what’s that?” Tommy sniffled, pointing to the bag.
Wilbur smiled sheepishly as he pulled out an adorable pink cow stuffed animal . Tommy felt his heart melt at the sight of it.
“When I said I had to go to the bathroom, I lied. I actually wanted to get you this,” Wilbur rubbed the back of his neck bashfully as he handed the cow to Tommy.
Tommy held it like it was the most precious thing in the world.
“I love her…” He uttered so softly, so awed that Wilbur couldn’t stop himself from melting with a fond smile on his face.
“What’ll you name her, Toms?”
Tommy gazed deep into the cow’s beady eyes before looking back up at his brother.
“Clara.”
Wilbur smiled as he ruffled the blond’s hair.
“Lovely name, Toms.”
Tommy yawned, stretching his back before rubbing his eyes tiredly.
“Let’s go home, Toms. We’ve had enough action for one day.”
Wilbur helped Tommy up before wrapping his arm around his neck, pulling the boy into him and smiling as he felt Tommy nuzzle into his side.
“Love you, Little Brother.”
Tommy smiled with his eyes closed; Clara pulled deep into his chest as he leaned into Wilbur’s.
“I love you too, Big Brother.”