Work Text:
Phil has three soulmates.
There’s a red splotch on his shoulder, a pink smear on his hand, and a yellow blob that spans the entirety of his torso and reaches out onto his back.
The yellow is very obviously a bear hug, the pink likely a handshake, but the red has always stumped him.
-
Wilbur has three soulmates.
He’s got a long red stripe running along his underarm, a pink trace of a fist on his other shoulder, and a large green splatter on most of his upper-half.
The green is a hug (and oh, how wonderful it is that the first physical contact he has with one of his soulmates is an embrace), the pink makes him believe it's a punch (playfully or harmfully, he can’t tell), but the red he has no clue.
-
Techno has three soulmates.
The marks consist of a bright red that covers his left palm, his knuckles are covered in yellow, and his right palm is entirely green.
The green looks like a handshake, the yellow looks like a punch, but the red is confusing, even to him.
-
Tommy has three soulmates.
The side of his head has a green spot, the yellow drapes around his shoulders, and the pink stains the top of his scalp.
He honestly has no clue what any of them mean.
Like, logically, he knows they’re the first places that he and his soulmate make contact, but exactly how is a mystery to him.
-
When streaming with facecam, a person has to cover their soulmarks. It’s easy for many, because the most common marks are from handshakes or shoulder bumps, and people usually only have one soulmate.
Well, Tommy has three, and two of his marks are on his head.
His mum, the lovely woman, teaches him how to color correct the green mark that covers his entire cheek, but the pink on his scalp is impossible to hide without wearing a hat or beanie.
So, he leaves that one visible.
Fans ask and speculate, and a few brave ones even approach him in public and try to touch his scalp to see if they’re soulmates, but Tommy always manages to dodge out of the way and politely ask them not to do that.
(He even addresses it on stream. Phil, Wilbur, and Techno swear to smite anyone that tries in the future.)
Surprisingly, the first soulmate he meets is not Pink.
It’s Yellow.
He’s vlogging with The Wilbur Soot when it happens.
Okay, well, they’ve switched off the cameras at this point, but he likes the idea of vlogging the entire meetup, no matter how unrealistic it is. The two have fallen behind the rest of their group, all having gotten annoyed with Tommy’s voice.
Rude, but he has been talking for fifteen minutes straight. He’s just gotten to the part where he, Ranboo, and Tubbo almost got kicked out of a restaurant when Wilbur casually slings his arm over Tommy’s shoulder.
Tommy’s shoulder, exactly where the yellow mark resides.
It’s like something clicks into place, an ache he didn’t know existed; finally smoothed.
His words peter out into a disbelieving chuckle as he looks up at his friend. Wilbur is staring at him, mouth hanging open in shock.
“You, uh, you’re gonna catch flies, Big Dubs..” Tommy jokes, as if he isn’t desperately searching Wilbur’s face for any sign of disgust.
“You..” Wilbur finally says, voice cracking, crumbling under the weight of shock. Finally, it seems to register fully in his mind, because he starts and shouts, “Oh my god!”
The brunet wraps his other arm around Tommy, bringing the half hug into a full hug, one quarter each – now a half.
From over Wilbur’s shoulder, Tommy can’t see the others up ahead. They’re likely around a turn in the road, which leaves the two soulmates wonderfully alone in their moment.
Wilbur laughs breathily, a quiet, soft thing, and mumbles, “I mean, first Phil, now you, I think I may be the luckiest man on earth.”
Tommy immediately pulls back but doesn’t let go entirely, hands gripping his soulmate’s shoulders. “What about Phil?”
“Phil’s one of my- our other soulmates! I went in for a hug at the cafe this morning and we just! Clicked! Like just now!” He gasps, then continues like he hasn’t flipped Tommy’s entire world upside down, “I forgot about it until now, but it makes so much sense that it’s you. I’m.. I’m overjoyed, Tom.”
Tommy is almost convinced he fell, hit his head, and has started hallucinating. Or he never actually woke up this morning and is still dreaming. Despite that, he smiles back just as brilliantly. “We’re like brothers, you and I.”
And Wilbur, true to the words he’s spoken so many times, cries.
-
Now that Tommy knows the yellow is Wilbur, and the green is probably Phil, he’s taken to seeking both out any chance he gets.
Demanding Wilbur play music for him, joining Phil’s hardcore streams just to annoy him, and sometimes popping into Techno’s VC to watch him farm potatoes, even though he’s already won the war.
(“The pink should be Techno.” Wilbur mutters over the phone one night, dangerously close to falling asleep.
And, yeah, it makes sense. “Pink like a pig.” Tommy shoots back, borderline delirious.)
Tommy will admit that he’s afraid of how Phil will react when he finds out the red is him. He’s listened to Phil gush about how happy he is that one of his soulmates is Wilbur, but that’s because Wilbur is Wilbur.
He doesn’t think he’d be able to handle it if Phil was disappointed.
He’d rather launch himself into space and become a block of ice until he stops thinking.
It does not help when Phil comes back from his trip to America, ecstatic, with the news that Technoblade is his soulmate.
On one hand, it confirms to both Tommy and Wilbur that the four, the SBI, are all soulmates, though neither Phil or Techno know.
(Tommy had begged Wilbur not to tell Phil that he’s the mysterious red mark.)
So, like, you can’t exactly blame him when he starts avoiding contact with Phil for a bit. Every time they do a vlog together, Tommy will either station them on different teams or busy himself with talking to literally anyone else.
Then, he fucks up.
Listen, he can’t help that he gets tired easily, okay?
They’re in Jack’s car after a long vlog. Jack is up front driving, Tubbo is keeping him company in the front passenger seat, and he, Wilbur, and Phil are smushed in the back seat.
Wilbur’s on the left, long legs curled up comedically in the small car, Tommy’s on the right with a much similar problem but on a slightly smaller scale, and Phil is in the middle because he has much less of a need for leg room.
It’s not ideal for any of them, but it’s especially distressing for Tommy.
He sets his backpack in between their sides just in case, but a singular harsh turn is all it takes for his secret to be exposed.
He stresses and stresses about it, so much so that it drains his energy rapidly. He’s scrolling on his phone, eyes drooping more and more every second, head feeling too heavy to keep up.
Tommy drifts to the side, exhaustion weighing him down until he feels a warm weight pillowing his cheek.
Vaguely, he hears a sharp inhale of air, then a hissed, “Oh my god, Wilbur, is he our soulmate?”
The boy makes a quiet noise of complaint as he’s jostled slightly, but his pillow makes a comforting shushing sound and adjusts slightly to be more comfortable to him.
His worries are all but forgotten as he rests his head on his soulmate’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe you didn’t want to tell me, you little shit!” Phil rants, long after they three have left the car and migrated to Phil’s living room. “And you,” he sighs, turning to Wilbur. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me either!”
Wilbur gasps. “I was just doing what our little brother wanted, Phil! How could I say no to that face?” On cue, Tommy gives his best puppy eyes.
Phil stares for a few moments, trying to resist the charm of Tommy’s unnecessarily blue eyes. He’s unsuccessful, obviously.
The man drags a hand down his face and heaves a long suffering sigh. “Fine. At least tell Techno.”
Tommy starts, pulling away from the two immediately. “No, hell no. Not until I meet that man face to face.”
“Tommy, you’ve known me for over a year and yet I only just found out.”
“Ok, well, the Blade is scary!”
“Mate, Tech loves you so much. I’m pretty sure out of all of us, you’re his favorite.”
Okay, that’s a lie, emerald duo exists for a reason. Not many people are bedrock bros fans these days.
-
Never mind. Plenty of people are bedrock bros fans, apparently.
As soon as he announced that he’d be at Vidcon in the LA area, there were thousands of people in his mentions begging him to meet Techno.
To be honest, though, he’s been itching to meet Techno, too. Earlier in the year, Wilbur had traveled to America and connected their bond. (Well actually, Techno had punched him in the arm.)
But California is so big. He can’t just catch a flight to LA and take a short drive to where Techno lives, especially because he lives in North California.
California is a big state, people!
He would need to either drive eight hours or book an entire new flight and extend his stay for a few days.
Which, now that he thinks about it, is entirely doable.
So, like the little shit he is, he buys a ticket and doesn’t tell anyone about it. Besides, he knows Techno’s address and he knows the man barely leaves his house.
After Vidcon, he leaves early to head to the airport, and everyone assumes he’s catching a flight back to Brighton. Perfect. He pays for in-flight wifi and uses it to text Techno, innocently claiming he’s bored and wants to know what his internet brother is up to.
As soon as the flight lands and he’s collected his luggage from baggage claim, he calls an Uber to Techno’s place. He’s nervous, because the man could so easily just turn him away.
The car slows to a stop as they arrive. Tommy pays and tips the driver, makes sure his mask is snug over his face, and brings his bags over to the door, ringing the doorbell.
Techno answers with a confused look on his face, which turns into pure shock when he sees the boy on his doorstep. He steps aside to let Tommy inside, still not saying anything as the blond struggles with his bags.
“So, how come you were textin’ me if you were just gonna come over? Also, weren’t you just in LA?”
Tommy sits on the floor, beaming up at him. “Had to make sure you were awake, big man! And I took a private plane, yup, with my large sums of money.”
Techno snorts like the pig he is, then reaches over to ruffle Tommy’s hair with his good hand.
The hand that has a red mark, on his scalp that has a pink mark.
Tommy laughs at the warm feeling spreading through his body, and Techno just.. stares. He has yet to remove his hand, though.
Finally, he seems to return to his body and he says, “Yeah, makes sense."
Later, Techno takes a pic of Tommy sleeping on his couch and posts it to Twitter with the caption, “I accidentally let a raccoon into my house.”
It blows up immediately, and ‘bedrock bros’ is trending within minutes.
Wilbur and Phil are predictably confused, because Tommy never mentioned meeting Techno.
Still, they’re ultimately glad that all of the bonds are finally connected.
Tommy doesn’t even know why he was ever worried.
