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It's hard to remember much from before Tommy was born, but Wilbur knows some ground rules.
He knows that he learned to play the guitar, which was one of the only guilt gifts he was ever given. He knew he met Schlatt somewhere along the way. He knew that he never got anything from Phil outside of the bare necessities - food, but only the leftovers; a mattress on the floor, one that was a gift given to Phil by a stranger and he didn't have the heart to refuse; water when the house's well pump worked. He knew to never talk back. And he knew that Techno always came first.
He didn't know how or when he picked up on these things, but the weight of the last fact would be the summary of his existence.
Even before Tommy was born, Wilbur would be left behind to fend for himself while his twin brother and his father would go off to do... whatever it was they did. Training, vacations, meditation retreat; it was always something or another that would keep them away from home for months on end.
Once, when Wilbur was 7, he asked why he didn't ever come with. Dad gave him a surface-level explanation of it being "too hard of a journey for him," and when Wilbur rebuked that Techno is the same age and he's fine for the trip, he would never forget the cold expression he was given. He doesn't remember what happened after, but he does remember waking up the next day in the pouring rain and finding the doors locked.
Things got worse when Tommy was born. Wilbur wasn't even in the double digits yet, and he had been made the primary caretaker of the house. Dad was too busy with Techno to care for either of them, so it was up to Wilbur to do his best.
Tommy got sick when he was a year old. Wilbur wrote letters to Dad urging him to come home, saying that his fever was getting worse. Letter after letter was sent off every day, and finally, Dad and Techno came home after a week.
Dad dragged him off to the town to help pay for the medicine. He was dragged by the arm day after day to dark alleys, second floors of taverns, wherever people wouldn't hear him plead for help or cry out for his dad. He doesn't remember much of that, either, other than looking to his dad for help and seeing him turn and walk away until everything was over. He remembers the disgusting men who smelled of alcohol, who would jeer their friends into "having a turn," who would call him things like their "little bird," who would pluck a feather out of his wings afterward to keep as a trophy.
He learned that Phil had some slimy connections and that Phil cared more about Tommy's well-being than his own. He learned that things were easier if he disconnected himself from what was happening, and focus on a stain on the wall or a crack in some bricks nearby.
After he was home again he would be haunted by flashes of what had happened each time he closed his eyes for months on end, or suddenly smell the alcohol and be left silently panicking in bed.
Wilbur didn't write to Phil while he was away after that.
Phil and Techno never stayed for more than a week or two - maybe a month at best. Techno would shut himself away during that time, or ignore everything if Phil was yelling at his brothers or beating them. Wilbur and Tommy were both relieved when Phil and Techno would leave.
As Tommy got older, Wilbur found himself standing up to Phil more. If Tommy would say something without thinking it through, he'd be by Tommy's side in a second. If Tommy accidentally dropped a plate, made a mess, or god forbid did any typical kid thing, Phil would seem to see red. Wilbur would step in every time he could because he was older and used to it. He may have gotten punished more for that, may have been taken to some fucked up corners of town in response, but he didn't care - him getting the punishment meant Phil's focus was on him instead.
He would sneak out at night and run over to Schlatt's house on bad days. Schlatt's parents weren't the best, but he found that he could scale a nearby tree and get into Schlatt's bedroom window to avoid them. The two of them would stay up all night talking, venting, crying - whatever the both of them needed that day. Wilbur knew that Schlatt was always nearby if he needed him, and it was a blessing on his worst days. The days where the punishments became too much, or the days where Wilbur would get so frustrated with himself that he couldn't think clearly, biting his nails down to the bed or scratching up his arms, digging his fingers into flesh and leaving more bruises. Those days he'd sneak off when everyone was asleep and go to Schlatt's house and just sit with him. They didn't have to talk. Some days the two of them didn't need words to understand.
If Schlatt needed to get out of his house, he'd come over when Phil was gone, or the two of them would sneak onto the roof when he'd be home and whisper-talk for hours. But Schlatt's visits when Phil wasn't home were always the best.
Tommy *loved* Schlatt. Schlatt was like the cool brother that he didn't have (and he'd say it to Wilbur's face, too). He would cook them meals and take Tommy out with him to the city, letting him help with the few odds-and ends jobs that he'd pick up for shopkeepers or friends. He was best with carpentry, so when he would go out shopping he'd try and spot things that could use a bit of fixing - a warped plank in the floor, a leak in the roof, even the simplest wobbly chair - and smooth talk the owner into paying him to fix it for them. He always was a bit of a businessman, but he put his money where his mouth was, and ended up earning a bit of a reputation for his skills.
Wilbur would tag along sometimes when Tommy and Schlatt would go into town, but only if he knew where they were going.
On the days that Wilbur stayed home, he would tidy up the house, fill up the oil lamps, and busy himself with whatever he could do.
Phil and Techno would always come back, though. And it would be back to uneasy silence for the next week or so. No guitar chords being played, no laughing or joking around, no Tommy accidentally slamming the door and laughing when he'd come back inside from playing with Schlatt. Just silence and awkward dinners and a chorus of "Yes, sir"s or "No, sir"s when Phil would ask them a question.
The worst of the punishments always came if Phil decided to come home early, though.
Thinking that they had time to relax, Wilbur and Tommy would leave the house... admittedly, a bit of a mess. Schlatt would be there, and they were too preoccupied with *living* to monotonously clean the house like they typically would. And after Phil walked through the door and saw Wilbur, Tommy, and Schlatt at the dinner table, just laughing and talking, Wilbur didn't sleep for 3 days.
He would shrug off the punishments in front of Tommy or Schlatt, but when the lights went out and Wilbur was left alone in his room, all he could do was replay the situation over and over in his head. He'd close his eyes to try to force himself to sleep and be met with the scene all over again. He'd hear Phil call him every name in the book, every slur he could think of, call him a slut or a whore for just having another guy over, and say that he should be grateful that all he got was bruised and stiff knees from kneeling on rice and bleeding back from his fucking talons instead of being dragged by his arm into the city again. Saying that Phil was feeling gracious this time since Techno was making so much progress lately, so he figured he would take it easy on Wilbur, but Wil left him no choice in the end.
He'd spend the next two weeks like a shell of himself, even after Phil and Techno had left.
Things slowly got better when Schlatt came over, holding a tiny newborn in his arms, panicked. A bad situation with a girlfriend that ended up with her leaving him with his kid, and his parents kicking him out. That night was hell, yes, with Wilbur immediately offering for Schlatt to stay in his room and arguing with Phil over it, putting his foot down once and for all that Yes, this was happening, or else he'd make sure everyone knew how shit of a person Phil was - that he'd tell everyone not only that Phil turned away a new father and his newborn son, but also all of the horrendous things Phil had done to him and Tommy.
Wilbur didn't hear any argument after that.
Phil and Techno left again the next day, and then a week later came back for the final time to pick up a few left-behind things, neither of them saying a word to Wilbur, Tommy, and Schlatt. That night, the three of them held a bonfire at Schlatt's suggestion and burned all of their leftover things. Fuck them, anyways. It was the best celebration they could have had.
Things changed with a newborn in the house - Wilbur moved out of his old, cramped room into Techno's old room and slept there with Schlatt to help him when Tubbo would wake up in the middle of the night. They talked about boundaries and triggers, even though Schlatt had already picked up on a few of them from his previous stays - he would always announce when he came home, he'd never slam the door, things of that nature.
The two of them would bicker occasionally, not used to living together, but if it ever escalated into an actual argument (though there was never shouting), they would take it outside so that Tommy wouldn't have to hear.
Living without Phil was refreshing, lively, and healthy.
The biggest stressor for the first month was trying to find a crib for Tubbo. Wilbur stayed home often while Schlatt would go off and do jobs, sometimes bringing Tommy along to see if the kid could make a bit of extra money by helping him, since then it would be a "two-person job." Any money Tommy made was usually done through stealing, though - a trick Wilbur had taught him when they have left alone for months and had to fend for themselves.
Wilbur and Tommy were both at home, with Tommy looking out one of the front windows into the pouring rain, and Wilbur sitting in a chair on the front porch, holding a sleeping Tubbo. Schlatt had left a note saying that he'd be home late that day, but the sun was beginning to set, and it was much later than either of them had anticipated.
After some time, both of them saw Schlatt heading toward the house, hauling a crib with him. Wilbur's laugh echoed as Schlatt got closer, and Schlatt's "oh, loverboy!" followed soon behind, close enough to the house now that the brothers could both see his huge grin, proud of their new very much so needed possession.
They were weird, fucked up little family, that's for sure. But it was more of a family than any of them had previously had - and it was theirs, through and through.