Archive of Our Own ^beta

Tallulah "met" them during a morning walk, when they were coming home. She turned her head and ran towards nothing, waving to no one, greeting nobody. She was talking to void, listening to no words nor sounds. She looked excited to meet someone new, but there was no person at the same time. It was a little weird, but Wilbur figured, that it was her first imaginary friend. Kids come up with them all the time. Maybe he should play along? Ask her to introduce him to her new "friend"? That should be fun!

As Wilbur walked towards Tallulah, she offered her "friend" to play hide and seek and after a few seconds of silence and quick "okay" ran toward a tree nearby and climbed on it, hiding in a tight crown. He shouldn't expose her hiding place, should he? He'd participate later

He did not participate later. Well, he helped her with hiding, showing some good places that fall to his eyes, when they were still playing hide and seek; he helped coming up with stories, to make them even more absurd, when they were telling them to each other; he tried to make sure she wouldn't get hurt when they were playing tag on these big, sharpy stones near their home, but nothing more. It still was fun, though. And she was happy. He still need to ask dad... Phil about this whole imaginary friends thing. He should have more experience with this.

"Tallulah, are you going to come home, or are you planning on staying outside until lunch" Wilbur asked with a sarcastic undertone, bright smile on his face

"Can Fundy stay at ours"* she asked back. Smile dropped from Wilbur's face, being replaced with unreadable expression. Was he surprised, lost, in disbelief, sorry or regretful, maybe something else? But expression felt dark, as if he was going through some terrible memories.

"... Fundy?" he said quietly.

"Yes! It is his name, I forgot to tell" she said. She noticed the sudden change in Wilbur's voice. "Have you met before?"

"... No, I don't think so." he answered after a rather long pause. "He have a nice name. And of course Fundy can stay, he's your friend after all" he said with a forced smile. It must be a coincidence. It was getting colder outside

Tallulah was in her room. She started reading a new book. Wilbur was worried that it was to hard to her and offered a different one, but she refused. She really wanted to read this one.

"Well.. If you wouldn't understand something, just come downstairs, I'll try to explain" Wilbur said, before leaving her room. He didn't go far from the door. He listened. Tallulah was reading out loud, asking the meaning of new words, commenting about rudeness of some characters, as if talking with someone. But there was no one. Ghosts are not invisible. He would see his face, hear his voice, but he didn't. It's just an imaginary friend. With that thought in mind, Wilbur sighed and left to cook lunch. Steaks would be good.

"Tallulah, lunch is ready!" Wilbur called. She didn't even finished the first chapter!
"Don't worry, we can continue later" Fundy said getting up from the floor. "You don't want hunger to distract you from political infighting of Subbin Empire, do you?"
"Yeah..." She looked at his smile. She knew he faked it ever since he saw her dad, but she didn't know how to ask him about it. She closed the book and laid it on bed near her.
"I'll wait h-" Tallulah's hand took Fundy's into a warm hold. Warm for him. She felt like she put hand into freezing water. He liked feeling warmth for the first time in years. She immidiatly removed her hand. It hurt. "I'm sorry! Are you alright"
"Mhm..." she tried to warm up her hand. "C'mon, I think dad made something for you too" and she walked downstairs. Fundy followed her shortly after to see three plates of hot, juicy steaks. One was already cutted into pieces. Fundy could only imagine how good it smelled. Wilbur for sure put some effort into it. Just how long would he keep pretending

"I thought that... Your friend was hungry so i made one for him too" Wilbur said, giving Tallulah her plate, keep smiling. She thanked him and put one of the slices on her fork with a quiet hiss, when more meat juice came out from the place of prick. She didn't use her dominant hand.

"Fundy, why don't-" She began the question, but was interrupted

"Yeah, sorry, I don't want to eat right now" He tried to make it as lighthearted as possible, but the shadow of anger was heard. Plus, he wasn't sure, if he can eat at all

"Oh... Okay."

They saved Fundy's portion. Tallulah brought it to her room, where he could begin to eat it when he's feel like it. She looked worried, but refused to explain why. So he was eavesdropping again. He knew it was wrong and Tallulah deserved privacy, but...

"Why do you hate my dad" she asked, much to Wilbur's(and Fundy's) surprise.

Seconds of silence

"You do! I can hear how angry you are when talk about him, I can see the frown on your face when you see him! I just want to know, what's wrong"

And silence again

"... Okay. Let's finish the chapter then. And do you want me to show you the garden after it?" she said still disappointed, but with a little of enthusiasm now. It really is him, isn't it? Do ghosts work differently here? He can't get answers yet. He walked away from the door

" Hey, this flower is pretty cute" Fundy said while looking at orange tulip. It for sure was pretty cute. All the flowers here were. And there was plenty of them. It was big, cozy place, full of many difirent colors. Fundy wanted to touch the one he liked, but stopped himself right in time. He doesn't want to freeze it to death. He must show this place to Yogurt. Maybe next time he'd come with him? "How do you take such a good care of so much flowers?" Fundy complimented Tallulah with a smile

"It's not that hard! But..." and so she began axplaining her gardening routine**, ranting about it passionately and it felt like she didn't even breath, just talking non-stop, explaining everything she could remember from top of her mind. Fundy couldn't put a single word between hers. He didn't want to either. Maybe he could turn all those wither roses around their house into nice garden...

It was a deep night already. Tallulah lay in her bed, peacefully with Fundy and Wilbur on different sides of her, one trying to ignore the other. Fundy would come back to Limbo when she'd fall asleep.

"Dad, can you sing a song?" Tallulah asked. She liked when he sung to her. He used to sing to Fundy too, before Mum left...

"Sure, sweetheart. What do you want me to sing?" he asked softly

"I don't know. I love everything you sing"

"Okay then..." deep breath in and warm, pleasant sound came out from his mouth

*why did he choose this one*

he just sings a lullaby to Tallulah he doesn't try to mock you

Fundy left. He stayed in the house, he needs to wait for Kristin to take him back. But he left the room. He couldn't listen to that reassuring song.

Six minutes passed. Tallulah was deep asleep***. Wilbur left her room. He had so much work to do. His night-time job, mining, studying... He can't remember when was the last time he had a proper sleep. But he still had a free hour. He stayed in his room. The very same room where Fundy was. Wilbur couldn't see his shaming stare, but could feel it. He looked through the room with no sign of someone else's presence.

"Fundy... Are you here?" Wilbur asked. "No, no, probably not. Even if you was a ghost WHY would you be here?" nervous chuckles. "You would leave this place as soon as you can and honestly I would understand." it was getting colder. "I guess I just want to believe that you're here because.." he tried to smile, but eyes were growing wet ".. Because I want to say sorry. Again. I was a terrible person, I KNOW That." his voice was trembling. "I knew that long before but I didn't know how to fix it" it seemed like he was panicking. "But then I saw an explosion and how world was shattering into pieces and SOMETHING was wrong and I fall into SOMEWHERE I don't know and there was that white angel-bear and he offered me to become part of the world he looks after and I accepted it and and..." steam was coming from Wilbur's mouth. "Everything was like a paradise there... Here. And Quackity is there too, just as many others and they don't remember a thing from a past life. And it hitted me! I can fix everything by not breaking anything! I was giving a second chance and I have to use it. I can make sure that nobody would suffer again and that this change would be my ammendments to you, all of you" he was crying, but tried to be as quite as he could not to wake Tallulah up. "I thought if I would be a good father it would mean that I learnt something because of you and it would make you more relevent, that by about Tallulah I would care about you and Tommy too!". His voice was broken. "But it was just a way to feel better, wasn't it. I can't make you feel loved by giving love to someone else. I wish I could bring you back. I wish we could live as a happy family, just the three of us. I'm sorry, for everything." and he went silent, trying his best to repress the tears, until the warm cold lied on his shoulders and he collapsed. 10 minutes later sleep deprivation and tranquil effect of tears made him black out.

Wilbur found himself in their old home. He used to live here with Sally and Fundy. There was so many photos of them. Didn't he burn them all down? Fundy was standing here, right next to him, with empty, completely white eyes. Wilbur ran over him, getting him into his strong, soft hug with tears on his face. He didn't realize just him much missed him. But Fundy didn't accept the hug. He pushed Wilbur away.

"DON'T TOUCH ME" he shouted. His face was full of rage, but quickly softened. He rubbed his elbow. "I didn't forgive you. Not yet, at least. But I appreciate that you're trying to be better"

"Fundy..."

"You know, as soon as Kristin mentioned**** that you adopted a new child I knew that it was only a matter of time before you abandon them and break their life too. You did so with me, you did so with Tommy. I wanted to make sure that they would still have someone when you leave." those words stabbed Wilbur's heart, but he didn't know. "It's hard to believe that you really changed. Please, proof me wrong and don't give up on her." Fundy sat down on the floor with a deep sigh. He's not angry anymore. There is no hate either. He's just tired. "By the way, you fall asleep on the floor, so be prepared for aching back"

"... Is it a dream?"

"Kind of"

And they went silent. Wilbur sat near Fundy, trying not to touch accidentally. He was looking at Fundy with sad smile. Fundy avoided eye contact.

"Where did your hat go? You always wear it" Wilbur finally said after minutes of awkward silence

"I gave it to Yogurt. He really liked it"

"Who's Yogurt?"

"Right, you don't know about him. He's my son" Wilbur giggled

"You gave him a cute name. Can you... Can you tell me more?"