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Wilbur swims as fast as he can to the beach where his home resides. He feels the water push against his webbed hands and feet, feels the current pulling his body in various directions. He pushes onwards.
The water grows swallower, warmer the closer he gets. Soon his feet hit the sand and he crawls out onto the shoreline. Rough sand and pebbles are absolutely everywhere on him, and for first time in- in days? Weeks?- however long it’s been he’s felt more person than song. Within the waves he could hear everything but he could not make a sound.
Wilbur breathes in the air, warm and sweet.
Then he runs, digging his heels into the sand. The visions still haunt him, a betrayal will lead to the fall of his entire family.
“Phil! Phil, I’m back, I-” He slams the door open, tracking in saltwater just like his father hated. There was no time.
At the kitchen table sat Tubbo, alone, with his bees fluttering around him.
Uneasily, he steps further into the house, “... Where is Phil? Techno? Is Tommy okay?”
The bee monster looks his over, “Tommy is okay, for now. Techno is doing something to help him while Phil is away.”
“Away? No, no he can’t be away. He’s- I found out how to save us! I know how to fix everything.”
“I sent him to the monster maker to help Tommy. He’s a man who can-”
“Who can turn humans into monsters, I know. I know your secrets, Bee Boy.” Wilbur snarls.
A betrayal from their newest member. His father will not make it out okay. His brother will fall to the blood deity. His other brother will grow more ill. The sea will claim him.
Tubbo bites him lip, “I didn’t have a choice, do you know that? I was dying and he offered me a second chance. I didn’t want to die, I didn’t! I didn’t know there would be a debt.”
“That’s what happens when you give your name to a fae.”
The boy looks away, to one of his bees snug in his palm.
Wilbur sighs, “I meant it when I know how to fix everything. Even your debt.”
Tubbo’s eyes widen, “Me and- me and my friend, too?”
“Everything,” he says, “but let’s start with Techno.”
Wilbur continues further into their house. This house he’s called home, the first home he’s ever had that has felt warm. Never the forbidding ocean, nor that stupid fishtank, nor any places they stayed on their travels. He owes everything to Tommy, Techno, and Phil.
He’s not going to fail his family.
Wilbur pushes the door to Tommy’s room, where his littlest brother sleeps with a tense face, eyebrows scrunched and mouth downturned.
“Techno?” He speaks softly.
His other brother is kneeling at the foot of the bed, hands clasped together. The air is denser around him, as he whispers words in a language he cannot understand. He makes no sign that he heard Wilbur at all.
Techno has always… heard things. Been subject to the attention of greater powers. He’s successfully ignored them until now.
“Techno,” He sings, “you should stop now.”
His hands unclasp, body collapsing like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
He coughs, “Wil- no wait, Tommy-”
“Will be okay. You, on the other hand, need to stop before you destory yourself.” He rests a hand on the piglin’s shoulder.
It’s easier than it should be to move his brother onto the bed, so he lays next to Tommy. The two telax, breathing calming down.
“Where did you send my father?” He asks Tubbo.
The boy leans in through the doorframe, “It’s too late. My bees say he’s almost to the monster maker. None of us will catch him in time.”
“I have to try,” He moves through the house, pulling together a bag for travel- and some ne clothes. He needs to get out of his soaked outfit.
“I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt any of you- but it might fix things. I genuinely don’t want Tommy to be unwell. He’s… he’s become a very precious friend.”
Wilbur looks at the boy, drowning in a green button up shirt, hands clenched into fists and eyes begging for- for something. Forgiveness? Anger? Acceptance?
Oh, Wilbur is furious alright. They let this boy into their house, cared for him, and he turns around and uses them to fufil some debt. It’s disgusting, and Wilbur cares for his family much more than this newcomer.
“We’ll figure everything out when Tommy wakes up.”
But, he is a pawn in a bigger plan. The one he is truly angry with is far away- the masked fae. And Tommy might never forgive him if he does anything to the bee monster.
His brother has always had a softer heart than most.
“When Techno wakes up, tell him- no, let me write it down.” Wilbur grabs a pen and paper.
He writes the details he saw in his vision, the person they have to find. Techno has to appeal to the woman he saw in his visions and hopefully she will help them.
“Please,” he sets his hands onto Tubbo’s shoulders, “make sure Tommy is taken care of. I’m sorry to put this responsibility on you, but if everything goes right, we can laugh all of this off. Look back on it as a bad memory that passed.”
The boy nods, “Of course, boss man, I can do that. I can look after him.”
Wilbur nods back, slowly.
“Then it’s a race against the clock.”