Chapter Text
Wilbur couldn’t believe it. It really was them.
For so many years, he had been alone on this island, reliving the memories he shared here. He visited the pebble beaches everyday just so he could remember their voices.
And there they were.
Oh, the things he would do to sing with them again.
But before he found Joe, Ash, and Mark, first he found Tommy.
—----
It’s been ten years since Wilbur Soot died.
Yet it still feels like it was yesterday when Tommy knocked on the door.
He was just going to visit his closest friend. He walked a couple blocks down the street, opened the door, and there was Wilbur on the floor. Dead.
The doctors couldn’t figure out how he died. He just did.
It was quite hard for Tommy, barely seventeen, seeing someone he loved dead in front of him. Wilbur was a brother figure for him. How could he live without him? Everyone told Tommy he would get over the shock as he grew older; that he would understand when he’s older.
He still freshly remembers the pain.
But every happy memory was lost.
The worst part? He forgot the sound of Wilbur’s laugh.
—----
“You need to lighten up!” Tommy’s friend, Tubbo, raised the curtains in Tommy’s dusty, old room. Tommy stayed sitting on his bed, turning his face away from the light. “Get some fresh air. Go outside! Especially with this dusty flat of yours,” he added, wiping the dust off his hands.
Tommy still hasn’t moved out since Wilbur died. New neighbors already moved into Wilbur’s flat, but Tommy refused to accept that it belonged to them. He still wanted to believe he was still close to Wilbur, even if it meant staying in the same old broken flat with the cranky landlord for ten years.
“Just leave me alone, Tubbo,” he murmured.
“Come on,” Tubbo shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe we can do a vlog or something! We haven’t done one of those in a while.”
The dim room fell quiet.
“Tommy. Everyone misses you. They said you haven’t left Brighton since-” Tubbo’s eyes fell to the carpet.
“Can you just leave me alone? Every. single. flying. day. you enter my flat and tell me to move on!” Tommy shouted at his friend. His voice fell to a defeated whimper. “What if I don’t want to move on, Tubbo?”
Tubbo’s feet shifted together as he stood silent. Tommy realized raising his voice might have hurt him.
“I’m sorry, Tubbo,” he sighed. “It’s just been so hard lately. Working all day, coming home tired. I don’t have a degree, I don’t have a good job, and I quit streaming after he died. Good thing this rent is so cheap.”
Tubbo looked back at his friend with compassion. “Well, why don’t y-”
“Just stop.”
“No wait, hear me on this one.” Tubbo came closer to Tommy and bent down. “Take a break. Go somewhere far away, where you can just forget everything for a while.”
“Forget? I don’t want to forget.. You know.”
“I didn’t say forget him . I mean your responsibilities. Doesn’t your work come with vacation days?”
“Well, yes,” Tommy ruffled his dusty blonde hair. “But I’ve never taken them. I just can’t leave him..”
“Maybe he would want you to move on, Tommy. I bet if he saw you like this, that would make him sad. Life happens, death happens. We can’t control that, so stop acting like it’s your fault.”
Tommy reflected on Tubbo’s words. Maybe he could use a vacation. But where would he go?
Suddenly, there was a quacking sound coming from Tubbo’s pocket. It was his ringtone. He picked up his phone, revealing a contact photo of a teacher and young boy wearing piglet ears.
“Sorry. I totally forgot to pick Michael up from school. They’ll start charging me if I don’t come.” Tubbo rolled his eyes.
Tommy smiled. “Sure, go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
Tubbo nodded to his friend and began to make his way out. Standing at the door, he took one more glance at his grieving friend. He quickly walked back so he could give a hug, but his phone rang again, forcing him to leave before he even reached Tommy.
Going on vacation? Tommy yawned. He definitely needed to rest, but he didn’t know where. He stared at the low ceiling for a moment while laying on his bed. After a failed attempt to empty his mind, he got up to get a drink of water. He gazed up at his wall of posters and picture frames. All the things he used to do. Now he was just a hermit in his room.
Tommy’s eyes drifted to the Lovejoy poster Wilbur commissioned for him years ago. He chuckled at the cat squished with the anvil. Wilbur had an odd sense of humor.
Then he realized he never bothered Wilbur for a poster with the seagull. Too late now. He thought solemnly. He would have liked to see PeeBee on his wall everyday.
That’s when Tommy had an idea. He pulled out his phone to call Tubbo. It took a second for Tubbo to answer.
“Hellow?” Tubbo answered in his usual manner.
“Tubbo, I’m going to the Isle of Wight.”
—----
“What? Why do you want to go there?” Tubbo fiddled with his jacket zipper as he listened to Tommy on the bus.
“Don’t you remember?”
Tubbo’s eyebrows knitted together as he scratched his head in confusion. “Um, no?”
“Pebble Brain!”
Tubbo was still confused. Was Tommy calling him a pebble brain?
“The EP Wilbur wrote! He wrote it on the Isle!”
“Ohhhh that one.” Then Tubbo realized what Tommy was thinking. “Tommy, if you want to make yourself feel better, why are you going somewhere that reminds you of him?”
“I need to be reminded of him, Tubbo. I almost forgot what his voice sounds like.” Tubbo listened to his friend as his voice drifted into sadness once again.
“Just re-watch one of his old VODs.”
“No, no it’s more complicated than that.”
Tubbo then understood Tommy’s grief. He realized that even though he himself already moved on, Tommy was still in the past, wanting to remember Wilbur as if he were still right by his side today.
He opened the search engine on his phone and typed, “Tickets to the Isle of Wight.”
“Well, Tommy,” he spoke as he scrolled through. “If that’s what will make you happy again, I will do everything I can to help you.”
—----
Tommy couldn’t get a boat ticket on his own. He had to split it between him and Tubbo. Ever since he quit making videos, his monetization declined drastically. He was grateful to have a supportive friend like Tubbo.
Before boarding onto the boat a few days later, Tommy gave his farewells to Tubbo.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. It depends on when I feel better.”
Tubbo embraced his friend. “You take the time you need.” Then he seemed to have remembered something. “Oh, and don’t be surprised if I get some people to go check on you in a while. Who knows what can happen while you’re wandering there?” he added with a joke.
“‘Some people?’ Like who?”
“No one in particular,” Tubbo glanced away with a mischievous smile.
“I’ll be fine, Tubbo,” Tommy chuckled. “You’re always so clingy.”
“Hey, at least I didn’t give you a compass.”
Tommy gave a slight laugh. He was feeling better already with the fresh air.
Michael, who was holding Tubbo’s hand, began to get impatient.
“When are we gonna get ice cream??” he begged, tugging at Tubbo’s shirt.
“Very soon, my fellow,” Tommy answered as he bent down to rub the young child’s hair. After a quick salute to Tubbo, he stepped into the boat.
The boat started, marking the beginning of a new adventure.
—----
It wasn’t long until the boat arrived at the dock. Tommy’s breath was taken as he saw the rolling fields and the colorful pebbles. The beaches of the Isle sounded different from the beaches of Brighton. It sounded clearer, more free. Maybe it’s from the lack of tourism.
He stepped off the pier and hopped on the rocks. He was alone. He didn’t have to act twenty-seven. He could act like a teenager again, making up for the lost years of his youth. No one would see him. He closed his eyes while he continued to hop. And leap. Breathing in the fresh beach air and feeling the wind in his hair.
“Oof!” He fell. He forgot he was balancing on rocks.
Good thing he fell on a person. Otherwise, he would have cut himself with the pebbles.
Tommy took a second to blink his eyes. Meanwhile, the other person had already recovered and offered a hand.
“Are you alright?”