Chapter Text
Tommy hated Christmas.
Well, that isn’t true actually. He simply hated sitting around a tree surrounded by presents and knowing that his are shit in comparison to what his brothers came up with. Tommy hated feeling himself nearly cry every year because of the heartfelt love the gifts his brothers gave him, while he sat in a guilty disappointment with the wonder of why he couldn’t do that to them.
So this year he was going to win Christmas gift-giving. He knows it isn’t a challenge, but the sharp bitterness that climbed up his throat begged to differ.
He started brainstorming at the beginning of the year, once he had finished raking in all of his Christmas money he started to browse and plot it out. He had gotten a part-time job in February so he knew he would have some to spend.
Getting Phil’s gift was easy, it always was. Every year the pair got each other gag gifts and clique mugs, as the gifts were touched by inside jokes and softly shared secrets. The warm smiles and hugs his dad would give Tommy was already a gift enough as the feeling of appreciation crept up his spine. Tommy already had purchased the gift in June, now simply waiting for a Hallmark Christmas card to go with it.
The next gift Tommy was able to find was for one of his best friends, Ranboo. Ranboo had a knack for finding really nice presents that made Tommy feel upsettingly soft inside, warmth begrudgingly curling around his heart and leaving him oddly choked up. The year before, Ranboo had gifted Tommy a Build-A-Bear cow plushie, which Tommy named Henry. The present had been one that Ranboo had caught Tommy eyeing for a while. When Tommy would press the paw of the plush, the sound of Ranboo and Tubbo’s voices came crackling out of the speaker saying, “Merry Christmas, Tommy!”
Tommy decided to return this love and had custom-ordered sunglasses. Ranboo had a brand, of sorts, that revolved around his Minecraft character he had designed when he first met Tommy and Tubbo. The glasses resembled the character, the lenses themselves had one as green and the other as red, unintentionally fitting for the holiday season. The frames were gold and one side had a crown and his name engraved. They were exactly as Tommy wanted and anticipation filled him as he waited for the holiday to come around.
The next person Tommy was able to get a present for was his other best friend, Tubbo. The boy got Tommy gifts that made him laugh quite a bit, and it was usually made of code as his primary passion was computer science. After searching deep into the web for what he wanted, he found a person to commission for a computer keyboard. Green and yellow laced the edges and some of the keys resemble different parts of Tubbo. A bee flew in the upper corner, a boat sailed across the middle, musical notes trailed down the side, along with other personal attributes that were sure to make the boy choked up. Tommy was nervously excited.
After getting the easier gifts out of the way, Tommy was left with his very complicated brothers.
He knew that the presents had to be of the utmost poggness because this was their last year home for Christmas before moving out. Now as seniors, Techno had applied for some pretentious music university in England, while Wilbur was planning on traveling around for a while. The knowledge of them being away only made the desire to give them the best presents grow.
He voiced his concerns at lunch two weeks before Christmas Day, the last week of school brought on exhaustion from finals along with the frantic worry of not having found something for his brothers yet.
“Tubbo,” Tommy whined, slumping into the chair as he arrived at their usual table under a tree.
Tubbo didn’t bother looking up, seemingly engrossed in math homework. The voice of Ranboo appeared beside Tommy as he sat down, his lunch tray clattering on the table, “What’s wrong?”
“I still haven’t found a gift for Techno or Wilbur.”
“It’s two weeks before Christmas.” Tubbo piped up unhelpfully.
“Yes Tubbo, that is the issue.”
“Oh,” Tubbo responded softly, still distracted with his work.
“How about you get Wilbur some music thing and Techno a book like usual?” Ranboo suggested, pulling apart his roll.
“That's what I do every year though, I don’t want to give boring presents this year.”
The trio fell into a thoughtful silence, the scratching of Tubbo’s pencil stopping after a few minutes as the boy packed up his bag to leave.
“Where are you going?” Tommy asked, words muffled with a mouth full of food.
“Project for science club I’ve got to work on.” Tubbo responded, pausing for a moment to think, “When it comes to presents, maybe get them something that will remind them of you. I mean, they’re gonna miss you while away, so why not provide some comfort? Homesickness is a real bitch.”
The idea was so upsettingly smart that Tommy could barely choke out a, “thanks,” before his mind was tripping over itself, running wild with ideas.
“You good dude?” Ranboo questioned since Tommy had said absolutely nothing and seemed frozen. Snapping out of it, he nodded quickly.
“Okay…” Ranboo trailed off, concern evident in his voice, “Do you want to play Animal Crossing?”
“Sure, Ranboob,” Tommy responded, still minutely out of it, but wanting the comfort in game format.
All Ranboo returned with was a slight sigh at the nickname and handed Tommy the Nintendo.
-
By the time school was over and the trio was walking to a pizza place they often frequented, Tommy had a semi-clear idea of what he was going to get.
He asked Ranboo to drive him to the craft store after explaining his genius idea of presents. Being the only one of the three to have his license had its annoyances, and being the chauffeur of the group was one of them.
The world of Hobby Lobby was an expansive one and Tommy had to resist marveling at all of the colors and patterns and things. Ranboo was forced to drag him along when Tommy or Tubbo stayed in one aisle for more than ten minutes, looking at everything and nothing.
And once they went past the fake flowers? Oh boy...
Needless to say, they were in the store for well over an hour and a half.
Once Tommy got home, he ran up the stairs to his room, saying only a rushed hello to Wilbur who resided in the kitchen. He dumped the bags on the floor as a few skeins of yarn fell out, trying to quickly shove them under his bed as the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs ran through his mind.
A knock on the door sounded out followed by Wilbur’s voice, “Tommy, are you okay?”
As a few skeins still were out and obvious, Tommy opened the door just enough to show himself but still block anything that didn’t need to be seen.
“Yeah of course big man,” He gasped out, slightly out of breath, “how’re you?”
Wilbur couldn’t help but give him a strange look as he spoke slowly, “I’m alright. Phil is going to be done with dinner stuff in a few minutes, so get food if you get hungry.”
“Alright thanks, I have to study but I’ll grab something if I get hungry” The younger hurriedly replied, closing the door once again and going back to shoving everything under his bed.
“Okay?” Wilbur replied through the door and Tommy waited to breathe until he heard the footsteps return back downstairs.
Going back over to the bed, he pulled out the bags and sorted them by color. Putting the yellow, blue, and light grey skeins in one pile and the red, black, and dark grey skeins in another.
Tommy got up and moved over to his closet, going through a few boxes until he found what he was looking for; his crochet hooks.
Tommy was going to be making two sweaters with a deadline of thirteen days.
Oh fuck.