Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ok listen, Wilbur might be living with a child, but it’s totally not what you think. Except if you think he has zero money and needed a cheap apartment, so he didn’t even meet his new roommate before signing the contract. Then it is what you think. 

Because yeah, that is what happened. 

Wilbur had moved out of his childhood home to study in Brighton, and just like most students he was pretty broke. So when he saw an add for a very cheap apartment with only one roommate instead of the usual three or so, he signed the contract so fast he barely even asked for the address. 

Which in hindsight could’ve gone way worse than it had. 

So now, Wilbur was living with an actual child, he was pretty sure of it. 

To be fair, the child had lived in the place first, and it hadn’t exactly told him how old it was. Or he, he guessed, the child was named Tommy, awkwardly tall in that teenage way and looked no older than maybe fifteen. 

So either his roommate had a serious case of baby face or his landlord hadn’t checked his ID, because Wilbur seriously doubted the legality of it. 

Admittedly the entire apartment seemed to toe on the line of illegality, since he was pretty sure he’d seen asbestos warnings in one of the rooms and the stairs definitely were a fire hazard but he would’ve complain if it meant the apartment was way cheaper than the rest and he could actually afford to eat in addition to a roof over his head. 

Anyway, back to the issue at hand.

The child.

At first he thought the add had been a lie and he had actually moved in with two people, since there was no way the child was living there alone, but pretty soon it had turned out that no, nobody else lived there, if you didn’t count the wasps that had made their home on the outside on one of his windows.

(He did count them, by the way. They should also be paying rent, he thought.) 

Tommy, as the child had introduced himself was despite his height still shorter Thanh Wilbur, but had a tail and markings under his eyes that kind of made up for this lack in intimidation. 

He was clearly a hybrid of some kind, maybe a raccoon, but Wilbur had never asked. 

Tommy was a horrendous roommate, as if to make up for the fact that not more people were living together. he was loud as hell, at all times of day (and night) his laughter was more like a cackle and he played video games on full volume in the room next to his at three in the morning Every. Single. Night. 

To say that Wilbur was slightly pissed would be an understatement, but the child was seemingly resistant to all criticism and just continued like before. 

It also lacked parents, or someone to look out for him, as evidenced by the fact that once Wilbur had to chip in and pay both parts of rent because the child had gambled all its money away at an arcade. 

Still, Wilbur was weak inside, and he felt kind of sorry for Tommy, so he didn’t even ask for repayment, just for the child to never gamble with its rent money again. 

Which, to his credit, Tommy never did again. 

But that wasn’t Wilburs only complaint, not by a long shot. For one, the child didn’t seem to go to any sort of school, which he found slightly concerning, instead working two separate jobs as a barista and a fast food employee. This exhausted the child, clearly, as on the nights where he had to work a double shift, Tommy fell asleep on the first horizontal surface he could find, (the kitchen island, once). 

That could certainly not be healthy for a child his age. 

Tommy also could not cook. 

Wilbur found this out the hard way, after the fire alarm rang to interrupt his well deserved after-class nap. 

Stumbling out of his room he found the kitchen filled with smoke and Tommy standing over a pot filled with something indescribable, the wasp-window wide open, trying to let the smoke escape. 

That had been a fun afternoon, and not even because of the hundred wasps that had come into the living room during the period. (Really they should pay rent) (the landlord disagreed).

From then on, Wilbur always cooked twice as much, leaving one portion for Tommy out, who needed some nutrients despite burgers and who would certainly starve without him. 

At least he got paid for that, as Tommy agreed to pay for half the groceries. Not that Wilbur actually let him do that, he wasn’t a monster, It was more like a quarter maybe. 

Another thing that Wilbur noted right from the start, was how lonely his roommate seemed to be. Wilbur occasionally got calls from his family in the Arctic Empire and his dad even came to visit on his birthday. 

He had friends that came over regularly and some he chatted online with. 

At some point he even had a girlfriend for a while, even if that hadn’t worked out. It was alright, Sally had wanted to move closer to the sea and start a family and Wilbur was clearly still a student not ready for any of that. 

They’d parted amicably and Wilbur had spent a good three evenings sitting on the couch crying his eyes out over a  bucket of ice cream he definitely hadn’t stolen. 

Tommy had joined him then, making fun of him and the romcoms he watched, stealing a bit of ice cream every once in a while. That had been nice, kind off, in a weird abrasive sort of way. 

In comparison to Wilbur, who actually thought he didn’t have all that many friends, Tommy was very lonely. 

The walls were paper thin, so Wilbur knew very well that Tommy never got a call from his family (if he even had any), and the only friends Wilbur knew of where two other children. 

One called either Ranboob or Boo (which, god, some parents shouldn’t be allowed to name children), who Tommy only ever spoke with over call, playing video games at frankly concerning times of day, and another called Tubbo, the only one Wilbur had ever actually seen. 

Tubbo was nice enough, he guessed, but still very obviously a child, and a chaotic one at that. 

And yeah, that was apparently the extent of Tommy's social interaction, if Wilbur didn’t count himself, and really he didn’t think he could, they barely talked to each other most days. 

After living with Tommy for a while, Wilbur started to realize how incredibly lucky he was, even if it sometimes didn’t feel like it. At least he wasn’t in Tommy’s position. 

At least he had people that cared. 

All these observation resulted in one very obvious conclusion, Tommy clearly needed an older brother figure, or a better friend or something, and if Wilbur had to be the one to fill that role, he would be. 

(Not that he told Tommy that) 

Chapter Text

The Plan to Brother-Adopt Tommy or short (P)BAT was going far better than expected. Ever since Wilbur had decided that his roommate was clearly in need of a sibling, the two of them had gotten on splendidly and were becoming closer by the minute. 

It seemed Tommy had only waited for someone to shower him in affection, as he took to it like a duck to water. Their personalities mixed well and Wilbur felt less like it was a chore to deal with Tommy and more like a treat. 

Sadly, he could not invest all of his time in his new pet-project since he was still an active student, like Niki (one of his friends he’d met at Uni) liked to reminded him. 

This was devastating, but Wilbur sadly had to agree, as he still kinda wanted to finish his degree, even if it meant spending less time around the gremlin child. 

Plus, he was actually sort of busy, as in he not only had school but he was also trying his luck as a musician, even if he had yet to find a band. (He was well aware that he was currently fulfilling the stereotype of a SoundCloud rapper (Even if he refused to rap)). 

Still, as the two of them sat together, munching on kebab after a rather grueling day at work for Tommy, Wilbur thought that he was indeed a master of plans — nothing could stop him.

-

-

So, something could stop him. Tommy seemed to have fallen into a bit of an episode over the last few days, as he spend more and more time in his rom, not even playing games, but actively sleeping! Sleeping, of all things. 

(Wilbur knew, definitely not because he checked or anything. That’d be kinda weird right? (Oh shut up, Techno))

Tommy didn’t say anything but Wilbur could sense that something was wrong. And with his massive brain he could even wager a very likely guess as to what. 

You see, as he’d mentioned before, the apartment they were sharing was cheap, very cheap. Well, as they’d quickly come to find out, one reason was the heating. They had to pay for it themselves, which wouldn’t have been that bad except all the windows were poorly insulated at best and most heat escaped to the outside before it could even built up inside. 

And since both of them were kind of in a pinch that meant they couldn’t afford to spent tons of money on a ginormous heating bill, well, they’d kind of stopped heating? 

Which yeah, looking back was really just looking for someone to become sick. The current temperature in the apartment would have to be around 15ºC or just under 60ºF if you’re a dirty American. So it wasn’t really freezing but it did gets very cold if one was sedentary, as in laying in bed or just sitting around playing video games.

It was no wonder that one of them had fallen sick, and hey, at least Wilbur was still taking some vitamins, whereas Tommy just consumed caffeine and sweets. 

His wager was only confirmed when the coughing started, echoing through their entire, kind of bare looking, apartment. (Remember the paper-thin walls? Yeah.)

At first Wilbur had had the naive hope that the poor kid actually did have some sort of family, that surely would at least call if their son was sick, but their was nobody. 

Tubbo came to visit on the third day of Tommy trying to hide in hibernation or some shit, but the only thing he brought were cookies and he left pretty soon after Tommy made it clear that he could, in fact, not play video games right 

now.

Wilbur, ever the opportunist, saw the potential in the shitty situation, as he could now further proceed in the (p)BAT, building trust whilst the other was weak. 

(Did this make Wilbur sound like a stalker? Maybe. (SHUT UP TECHNO) 

The steaming hot tea he brought Tommy went unappreciated, as did the ice cream he brought in case of an inflamed throat. At least the other didn’t have a fever. He still left some regen potions on the table beside Tommy’s bed, just in case. 

After a whopping eight days of Tommy barely moving, Wilburs concern grew dramatically. This wasn’t normal, even if the cough had stopped after day four. Tommy still looked tired all the time, a stark difference to the otherwise very energetic boy. 

And then Wilbur started to notice something weird. Most of his sweaters had seemingly disappeared over night, leaving with only the one he was wearing. Doubting the existence of spirits, Wilbur immediately came to blame Tommy. Maybe the little shit was actually faking all of it, just so he could acquire new clothes. 

(Let’s ignore how Tommy would never actually show weakness, especially not just to steal something.)

Still, when Wilbur snook into Tommy’s room to search for his sweaters, he actually didn’t have to search at all. All his sweaters and most of Tommy’s too, were accumulated on the bed, in the midst of which Tommy was sleeping, cuddled with one of Wilburs sweaters grabbed close like a security blanket. It was very cute. 

(No Tommy, Wilbur definitely did not take any photos, promise) 

Deciding to not wake his clearly exhausted roommate, Wilbur did the only thing he could think of: call his dad. 

Phil was a professor and a hybrid and Wilbur had not yet had a question the man could not answer. 

The communicator rang once, twice before finally his dad answered. 

“Wilbur, it’s so nice to hear from you! How are you doing? Is your roommate still giving you trouble?”

The smile could practically be seen trough the phone, even if it was only a VC. 

“Haha, yeah dad, about that… So, you know how he is an absolute child? Well, the last few days he’s been acting weird. We’ve been growing pretty close but suddenly he’s only in his room, sleeping. And now he’s stolen all of my sweaters and sleeping in them!”

“Mate, that does sound kinda weird. Is your roommate a hybrid?”

He nodded before remembering that Phil could hardly see it, “Yeah, a raccoon one. Do you think it has something to do with that?”

“You said you were growing pretty close, right? If so, have you thought that maybe he’s hibernating? You’ve mentioned before that it’s kind of cold in your apartment.”

Huh, no Wilbur hadn’t thought of that, except “Wait, but I thought raccoons don’t hibernate?”

“They don’t, really. Or at least not fully. Maybe you’ve noticed that he ate more than usual before this? It’s common for them to eat and then sort of doze through most of the winter. It’s why you can still wake him, he’s not really asleep, but he’s certainly not awake either.

You’re lucky though, I bet because of his hybrid nature he won’t actually do this all winter, he’ll likely return to normal in a bit”

This right there, was the reason Wilbur would always ask his dad first. 

“That does make sense, thank you dad. I’ll call you later”

Wilbur really kind of stupid, he could’ve thought of that himself too. For gods sake, his brother hibernated! 

But then, he truly didn’t know all that much about raccoons. 

Slightly calmed in his worries, Wilbur returned to his room, ready for a late night study session of all the things he had neglected to worry about the gremlin. 

Chapter Text

Phil was right, as he so often was. It took about two and a half week before Tommy returned back to his usual annoying state. 

Wilbur scolded him for not giving him a warning beforehand but he had a feeling that if Tommy could, he would’ve hidden the entire thing. 

(Like the incident with the cow. We don’t talk about Henry.)

Tommy truly was ridiculous and Wilbur wouldn’t have it any other way. They’d grown even closer since the hibernation incident and Wilbur already counted (p)BAT as a success. Of course neither of them had actually talked about the special connection between them, because Tommy seemed allergic to anything deeper than a lighthearted joke. 

Still, Wilbur had another ace up his sleeve. Because with winter, what time came? Christmas, that’s right. And Christmas was a time of family and giving, so the chances of them bonding even closer where rather high. 

In other news, Wilbur had finally found a bar he was allowed to play at and his finals were kicking his ass. Who knew that if you only focused on a child and not you’re classes, that maybe, possibly, you missed some stuff? It came as a surprise to Wilbur, that’s for sure! 

(What is he studying you might ask? What a good question, truly he doesn’t even know himself. He’d started out wanting to do a degree in music but somehow geography had appeared? And drama?? Don’t ask him, he doesn’t know either. — Anyway, yeah he’s pretty sure he’s doing something in connection to theater now but what exactly? No clue.

(Truthfully, maybe Wilbur did know why he was struggling so much))

Anyway, right now he was in the midst of trying to convince Tommy to come home with him. As in, back to his family, to Phil and Techno. Not that Tommy was aware of that, at least not yet. The boy was a abrasive at best, especially if the topic of family came up, so Wilbur would have to sweeten the entire deal and find exactly the right time to ask the munch younger boy. 

(No, Wilbur still didn’t know how old Tommy actually was, though the child had never actually disagreed when Wilbur called him out, so that was basically agreeing)

The plan, as of now, was to bake cookies with Tommy, then watch a Christmas movie, he was hoping for a Nightmare before Christmas, but would settle for the Grinch , and then would pop the question. Hopefully a Tommy high on Christmas spirits would agree to come with him. 

They end up burning the cookies (of course), but the movie marathon after makes it well worth it, but Wilbur is so tense with excitement he can barely concentrate on the green figure on the TV. 

The movie ends, like it was bound to, but Tommy makes no move to stand up from his position directly pressed against Wilburs ride side, nearly sitting on him, really. 

Wilbur patted the child’s hair, a nice golden color that felt as soft as it looked and finally asked the question: “Hey Tommy, how would you feel about returning home with me for Christmas?”

Tommy sat up so fast, his head knocked against Wilburs chin, making Wilbur jump up, cursing at the pulsating pain coursing trough his face. 

“WHAT??”

“FUCK TOMMY, OW”

Both of them were screaming and the nice mood from before was ruined. 

As Wilbur went to the kitchen to grab some frozen peas to use in lieu of an ice pack, Tommy slowly calmed down. 

“What did you say Wilbur? Sorry for that, by the way”

Wilbur smiled through his pain, not wanting to agitate the boy, “I asked if you maybe wanted to go visit my family with me over Christmas. You don’t have to, of course, but I think it’d be nice. Plus, my home is actually warm compared to this…”

As if on cue, Tommy shivered. Fuck, had it gotten even colder?

“Big man, why would you ask me something like that? Don’t you want me to return to all my wonderful wives, imagine how disappointed they’d be if they didn’t get to see me this season!”

For a second, Wilbur actually thought about the horror that would be this child actually having a wife, or dare he say multiple, before realizing that the child was in no way old enough to marry so he was clearly joking. 

“I’m sure they’d live. Plus, don’t you want to meet my Dad? I swear he’s very cool, and he actually has a wife!”

Tommy’s eyes grew impossibly bigger, “HE DOES?! Why would you not start within that, of course I want to meet the wifehaver!”

“So you’re actually coming with me? ”

“Seems so, Big Man”

Ok, so that had gone way better than he’d anticipated, though he didn’t actually know why he’d thought Tommy might actually not wanna go. 

As the nights turned colder and colder, both of the began to pack their belongings, readying themselves for the trip. 

It wasn’t actually gonna take very long, thanks to the wonders of public transport (obviously neither of them could actually drive themselves), but they still packed an abundance of snacks. 

It was snowing on the afternoon their trip began, and it snowed all throughout the drive, as the snow seemed to multiply by the thousands. Tommy was watching out the window, observing as the mountains first grew larger and then nearly disappeared, as more and more snow filled his view and the sky grew dark. 

When they finally arrived at their destination the sparkling snow crystals from before had transformed into a snowstorm, leaving them huddled together at the tiny train station as they waited for Philza to arrive. 

To Wilburs surprise the crowfather did not come alone, as next to him stood a much more imposing figure, Wilburs brother Techno. He’d assumed the piglin hybrid to be hibernating, but it seemed the boar had either pushed it until after Wilbur and the child would return, or had woken up in the middle of it, just to greet his sibling. 

The introduction was slightly awkward to say the least, but once they finally returned to Wilbur’s childhood home the mood had considerably lightened, especially after they’d all received hot chocolates from his Dad. 

Tommy had stopped shivering but was still sat approximately two inches from the fire place, needing the warmth after the rather cold journey. 

It was the day before Christmas, and Wilbur had brought gifts he could barely wait to hand out. He was a piglin hybrid as well, even if his genes were much weaker than those of his brother, so he quite enjoyed all of his family to be united once more. (Did Wilbur somehow start counting Tommy as family, as pack? When had that happened?)

Their evening was filled with much laughter, and come Christmas Day, the whole house smelled like spices and warmth and everything Wilbur had missed in their shorty flat. It almost made him regret moving out, until he realized he would’ve never met Tommy if he hadn’t. What a tragedy. 

Tommy was quite fascinated by the snow it seemed, understandably so, as Wilbur was pretty sure Tommy had never been outside the walls of L’manberg and there the snow was nothing in comparison to this. 

Tommy’s smaller raccoon body wearing all of Techno’s old, much too large snow stuff, as he’d hardly brought much adequate clothing, made Wilbur’s heart seemingly jump a beat, the other hybrid truly looked like his (their) little brother now,, and he even smelled like it. 

This time, when they made cookies, it actually worked, and they decorated them together, which must’ve looked oddly idyllic from the outside. (Never mind that most of their cookies were formed like dicks and their decorations were truly atrocious.). 

That evening, Phil made stew and they sat together watching silly Christmas movies whilst Wilbur braided Techno’s hair, every now and again looking over to Tommy who was half asleep, curled up on himself, purring. It was so cute, and Wilbur could barely belief that just a few months ago he’d thought Tommy was weird and annoying. 

Phil seemed to agree as he had a hand in Tommy’s golden curled, gently petting his head and ear every once in a while. They were a picture domesticity that made him want to go and grab a camera so they could hold onto the moment forever. 

They fell asleep like that, all on the couch, which made Wilburs neck groan the next morning when he was awoken by an excited chitter. Confused, he opened his eyes and stretched his neck, looking for the source of the noise. (It was Tommy, it would always be Tommy) 

The shorter figure stood in front of their Christmas tree, excited as ever, nearly vibrating with energy. 

“Tommy? What are you doing?” Wilburs voice sounded like someone had gotten a hold of his vocal cords and had gone to town with an axe, but neither of them paid it any mind. 

“Wilbur! Look! There are presents here!”, the half whisper half scream from Tommy nearly woke up Techno, who’s head rested on Wilburs shoulder, deep in slumber. 

“And?”

“And?? What do you mean and? There are presents”, Tommy stressed that last part, and Wilbur had the distinct feeling that he was missing something. 

“It’s Christmas morning, of course there are presents”

“What, like this happens every year?”

“Err, yeah? What do you think happens on Christmas?”

Tommy’s eyes got impossibly wider and Wilbur could just feel that the next few minutes would probably shatter his heart. No kid should be this surprised about presents on Christmas. (But when was the last time Tommy actually got to be a kid, a traitorous voice echoed in the back of his mind)

“But we already got the food! Wasn’t that present enough?”

Yup, there it was , heart shattered. 

“Oh Tommy, we get food everyday, of course that’s not the present. Come on, should i wake the other two, to see what we got?”

Tommy nodded shyly, looking away. 

A Wilbur shook his brothers shoulder, who opened his eyes almost immediately. 

“You heard all of that, huh?”, Wilbur whispered in his ear. Techno nodded slightly, but the sat up straight and stretched his back. 

“Morning runt.”

“Morning, Technoblade ”

Philza was stirring now, groaning, probably still half asleep. 

“What’s all this noise you’re making? Let’s go back to sleep, how about that?”, Philza asked, rubbing his eyes. 

“No chance, old man! It’s Christmas and we want to unpack the presents, don’t we, Tommy?”

Tommy nodded, far less enthusiastic than Wilbur but still, he counted it as a win. 

“Guess I can’t argue with that”

If possible, Tommy seemed to become even more excited, practically vibrating. 

Everyone stood up to search the tree for the presents labeled with their names, collecting them and going back to sit down.

Tommy, notably, had the most presents out of all of them something which he had checked multiple times, in disbelieve. 

Wilbur went to open his own gifts, which were nice but not to special. Some cookies, a sweater and some gold chains, to continue the tradition he’d started with Techno years ago. Tommy had given him a crudely drawn coupon for one time cleaning the kitchen, which was at least a nice thought. He hadn’t expected much from Tommy since he knew how desperately broke the other was. 

Once he was done with his own gifts, he looked over to Tommy who had already unraveled all of his won too. From what he could see, Phil had gotten him a notebook of sort, and Techno a small figurine of a cow, since Wilbur had told them how much Tommy liked them, even if he had never seen one before. His own present for Tommy had been a simple bracelet with a bit of gold spun in between leather. 

Nothing too outlandish for the untrained eye, but Techno shot him a knowing look. 

A piglin hybrid gifting gold to somebody, especially something that was intended to be worn was probably as good as simply claiming the person as family. It meant protection and kinship. 

Tommy had already slipped the bracelet on, making something deep down in Wilbur rumble in content. His runt, wearing his gold, that was how it was meant to be. 

Sire, Wilbur did feel slightly guilty since he hadn’t exactly told Tommy what exactly the gift meant, but he liked to imagine that Tommy knew anyway. Especially after he’d caught Tommy reading a book on piglins recently. 

“Thank you all so much for the gifts, it really wasn’t necessary but thank you anyway!”

Seeing Tommy so polite, when usually the boy was such a rascal nearly made him laugh, even if it wasn’t all that funny. If he thought more about why Tommy was so thankful for simple gifts, he’d probably get angrier, but for now, he was happy just watching his little brother-to-be sitting in the midst of their home, with gold on his arms and a shine in his eyes.