Chapter Text
The plan was simple, sneak out of the house when everyone was asleep, so he could hang out with Niki. He had to show her what he's been working on now. If anything bad happened he doesn't know what he would do.
Sneaking out of the house was pretty easy. Phil was normally out like a light once his head hit the pillow and Tommy and Beau usually slept curled up in a little nest they made in the middle of their room.
He grabs some chorus fruit from the fruit bowl. It was his only way of getting up and down from the house.
“Wilbur…?"
Shit.
He spun around to see Beau standing at the end of the hall, rubbing her eye with one hand while the other clutched.
“You should go back to bed.”
"Are you leaving me?” She whispers, voice laced with fear and confusion.
It broke his heart.
“Beau, look at me.” He bent over to be on eye level with her. “I will never leave you.”
"Then why are you leaving so late at night?"
“I just want to show my friend something and I don't want the whole town to laugh at me if something goes wrong.” He says seriously.
"I'll laugh at you anyways."
“Wow, why am I not surprised?”
"You laugh at my mistakes, so it's only fair."
“Right. Well, why don't you wait for me in my room? I'll be right back I promise."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
He watched as Beau walked back down the hall and towards his room, carrfully slipping inside and clicking the door shut.
Wilbur lingures for a moment, hand on the doorhandle. Did he really want to do this?before finally leaving his house.
Looking over the edge, seeing all the houses with people peacefully sleeping made him feel…
Annoying?
Lonely?
Stupid?
He didn’t know what, but he took a deep breath and put all his worrying aside for now.
Sure he could glide down but his wings could only carry him down for so long. So he stared down at the ground while eating the fruit, and down he went teleporting to the even surface.
Once he got to the pond's center he started screaming, almost forgetting how late it was. "Niki!"
After a couple of minutes of waiting Niki comes to the surface just poking her head out of the water. "Wilbur, it's midnight. Is it really that urgent?"
"Do you want to go stargazing with me?"
She scoffed, "You know I need rain if I want to go out with you."
He lets his hand out in front of her. "Do you trust me?"
She takes his hand and as soon as she was out of the water they both started sprinting.
Amidst the running, he splashed a potion ahead of them which is where they eventually stopped. "You can open your eyes now"
"How did you know it was going to start…" She trailed off actually taking in what was happening.
Rain.
Above them was a little cloud, raining down on them.
"Do you like it..?"
"You gave me my own personal raincloud. I love it."
"I still need to make some modifications, so you'll have to sprint back but I worked on it enough, I think I know ho-"
"It's fine." She playfully punches his shoulder. "And hey I can pay you when I get home."
"Nope."
"No?"
"I don't want your money."
"Well, is there anything else I can get you…"
"Well, I guess I can never turn down a batch of Niki's special chocolate cookies."
There was nothing particularly special compared to an average batch of hers. She just always gave him extra chocolate chips. Wilbur tried to tell her she didn't have to but she always did it anyway.
“I don't actually want to bake for you, never mind. You're too needy."
"Nope, it's too late. I get cookies for those disgusting potions.”
“Why did you make them taste bad?”
“You aren't really supposed to drink them, especially healing potions." He thinks for a moment. "Well, unless you're bleeding internally. Then you might be fine… Maybe… I don't know. I might have to test that tomorrow."
"We should probably get me back to the lake before the potion wears off."
“Oh! We still have another, like 40 minutes, you'll be fine for now." Wilbur glanced over at her to see her yawning, "You're tired aren't you."
She shrugged. “Kind of, aren't you?”
"I guess now that I think about it I am a bit tired."
If Niki was worried, she never expressed it. Wilbur was thankful for that, she didn't need to worry for him.
He got back up the same way he got down, with the power of chorus fruit. He stared at the front door knowing he couldn't go to bed. He knew his little sister was waiting for him but he hoped by now she got to sleep on her own.
He didn't want to go to bed. Even as he watched the sun slowly rise above the mountains.
He looks down from the island that his house was on. He could see everyone's houses from here, from Scott's house on the mountain to his and Shelby's house.
Maybe seeing Shelby was what he needed.
He only had two chorus fruit left on him and he didn't want to go back inside so he decided it was finally time to let his wings stretch a bit.
So he jumped.
Phil always commented on how much his wings had grown. Always mentioning that Avians don't fully become Elytrians until they're around twenty-one and Wilbur hadn't even turned eighteen yet.
Him and Beau weren't like Phil and Tommy.
They were something different. He knew it. Beau knew it. Hell, Shelby and Niki could probably tell. But no one dared say anything.
And as he glided he had the strong temptation to flap his wings. To even try to fly.
Wilbur was flying and actually flying.
He turned around squawking in delight "Dad! Dad, I'm flying! I'm-"
And then he wasn't.