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Wilbur hadn’t seen his brothers in a while.
Between university, moving across the country and then back again, and loads of work, he’d missed out on all sorts of things all over the past year.
Including Tommy’s eighteenth birthday and Techno’s book launch.
The two most important things this year, and he missed them.
And he felt so fucking guilty.
So, he had planned a day for the three of them. The day after he got to their childhood home, they were going to go on a meticulously planned trip. He had poured his heart and soul into thinking about what the best places to go were, and absolutely nothing was allowed to go wrong.
Too bad Wilbur was never allowed his way.
━━･ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ･━━
“Why do we have to wear these stupid blindfolds?” Techno huffed.
“Because it’s a surprise!”
“How much longer?” Tommy groaned, dragging out the word ‘longer.’
“Actually, we’re her—“
Wilbur cut himself off abruptly.
“Wil?”
Instead of the familiar building of their favorite restaurant, an empty lot stood in its place.
A Bobcat excavator sat in the middle, with the man operating it digging a hole. Building materials sat in packages wrapped in plastic.
Wilbur re-traced his mental map, trying to remember if he took a wrong turn. Unfortunately, he hadn’t.
“Oh.”
He looked to see that his twin had taken off his blindfold. “The family sold it a while ago. The permit got approved last week, so now they're starting on the apartment complex,” Techno explained.
It was Wilbur’s turn to say “oh.” He bit his lip, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
That’s fine— he can adapt.
This was Techno’s favourite place to eat when they were younger. He used to trick Wilbur into agreeing with him when their parents would ask them where to go, and he fell for it every time.
But it was fine.
“Well, good thing that I have other things on our to-do list!” he smiled cheerfully.
It was just one thing. It's not like everything else would go wrong.
It was just this one thing.
━━･ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ･━━
Wilbur wished he could turn back time and make himself not think about how well everything else was going to go.
He had jinxed it, and he hated himself for it.
The carnival— they were told that it actually didn’t start until next week, which meant Wilbur had read the date wrong.
It had only been lightly discouraging, but he had shoved it to the side and continued on.
He wished they had just gone home instead.
They had gone to a fast food place because all the dinners were packed at ten. Not only had they been forgotten about, when they finally got their food, Techno’s had clearly not been cooked and it was cold.
He had apologized profusely to his brother, who only waved him off.
Then the mall. It had been the only successful trip until Wilbur had tried to pay for something and then found his wallet missing. They had rushed around, a panic attack on the horizon, until they had found it between the driver’s seat and the console.
Four things that went wrong in a row.
But Wilbur still hadn’t given up. He was desperate to make up what he had done, so he still brought them to the petting zoo.
“This is the last place,” Wilbur sighed. His grip on the steering wheel was tight, stress leaking into his frame.
He parked the car in front and just stopped for a moment.
The petting zoo looked the same. He stared at the ranch sign, which was still missing an ‘o’.
“Wilbur? You coming?” Techno placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah.” The brunette opened the door, but Techno made him stop.
“Hey.”
He looked back over at his twin.
“For what it’s worth, you trying is enough.”
Then, Techno was gone. The pinkette hopped out of the car and joined Tommy at the back. With crossed fingers, he did too.
“Okay, so where do we want to go first?” He clapped his hands together, leaking all his energy out so it was visible.
This one was mostly for Tommy, since this had been his favourite place as a kid.
“The cows!” the blonde shouted. Techno winced and moved away from the kid, who was practically jumping up and down from the excitement.
Together, the three went up to the gate and bought their tickets. They were offered a map, but from the sheer amounts of times he’d been there, Tommy could probably navigate the zoo blindfolded.
They walked past all sorts of animals. Peacocks, goats, horses, chickens, pigs, and finally, the cows.
Tommy pulled them over by their arms, and they soon found themselves by a gentle giant. His name was Henry— he had been at the zoo for as long as Wilbur could remember.
Tommy reached out slowly, dangling over the fence a bit, and held his hand out for the cow. Henry made his way over excitedly.
Slowly, Henry pushed his head into Tommy’s hand, and he began to scratch him. The brothers watched on from behind.
They were only stood there for about a minute when someone cleared their throat.
He turned around to find an unrecognizable man waiting impatiently behind them. There was a kid around ten hiding in his shadow, looking embarrassed.
“Oh um, do you want a turn,—“
“This is a petting zoo for children, not adults.”
Wilbur lowered his eyes. He could practically feel Techno tense behind him, and the way he turned around and clasped his hands together meant he was uncomfortable. They probably towered over the man by over half a foot, so at least they could maybe intimidate him?
All three of them were pretty shit at confrontations, but their height always gave them a little leeway.
“Don’t you have better things to do then annoy us then?” Techno started, forcing monotony into his voice.
“Well, my son wants to pet that cow, and you lot are in the way.”
“Well, my brother was here first, so if you really want to pet Henry, you can wait your turn,” Wilbur explained calmly. It only seemed to anger the man more.
“This is a petting zoo for children— “
“We heard you the first time. Is it really that hard to be patient?” Techno huffed.
“C’mon, Wil, let’s just go.”
He looked to the pen and found Tommy standing awkwardly off to the side. His arms were crossed, and he seemed to be trying to make himself smaller.
He stood still for a moment, mouth slightly agape. But Wilbur was always prone to caving, so he gave up without a fight.
“Fine.”
The three stepped off to the side as the man rolled his eyes. He muttered something under his breath, and the kid shot them a look screaming ‘I’m sorry.’
They didn’t even seem to care about the cow.
“So, where do we want to go next? The chickens, or maybe the goats?”
“Goats, I guess,” Tommy said apathetically.
Wilbur blinked at the mood change, confused. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“C’mon—“
“Can we just go see the stupid chickens now so we can go home? ” Stress lined his voice. It left Wilbur even more bewildered, and dejected.
He had been just dragging them around all day to make up something that one day couldn’t make up, and it had all gone wrong.
“Okay.”
But it wasn’t okay.
How could he fix this?
━━･ ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ ･━━
They got back to the house much earlier than planned. Kristin commented on it, which left him feeling even worse.
Now, it had been hours since he had ventured out of his room, blaming the nap he was trying to take on jet lag.
Too bad his excuse didn’t fool his father.
There was a knock on his door, following the exact jingle that Phil had used for years. He wanted to pretend that he was asleep, but at the same time, Phil was good at solving problems. His father could help him find a solution for all of this.
He may be a grown man, but he was always going to jump at the chance to talk with Phil. It was almost therapeutic, the way he yelled at him when he and his siblings got in over their heads.
“Come in,” he groaned.
The door opened slowly, with a bowl full of chips being the first thing he saw.
“Hey Wil.” His father set down the bowl on his desk and pulled out the chair. “I heard what happened today.”
Wilbur went back to looking at his ceiling.
“I was trying to make up for missing all that big stuff,” he explained. “And then the dinner had been torn down, and the carnival wasn’t open—“
“Wilbur, it’s okay. Your brother’s aren’t upset with you, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, but I still feel bad. I wanted to spend time with them and it all went wrong.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Phil stressed.
“I know, I know,” he sighed. “I just want it to be like we’re kids again. No seeing each other once a year, no missing big things, no just missing each other in general.”
His father didn’t respond for a moment, gaining a thoughtful look.
“Remember what we did when the power went out?”
Wilbur blinked, getting what his father was probing at. “Yeah. We’d sit on the deck and watch the sun go down.”
“Well, the sun’s starting to set…” he gestured at the window.
Wilbur sat up quickly, and with a ‘thanks dad!’, he grabbed his hoodie and pulled his door open.
He found both of his siblings in the living room. His socks allowed him to slide in dramatically, where he told them to follow. The two shared a look, but complied.
“Where are we goin’, Wil?”
“You’ll see.”
The deck wasn’t as nice as it used to be, with a few too many trees in the way of the sunset. The office window provided a much better view— and safe roof access.
He led them up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. If they weren’t fast, they would miss it.
He stepped inside the office and opened the blinds with a harsh yank. He pulled open the window, which was conveniently missing a screen.
“C’mon.” He gestured.
The two still looked skeptical, but they both crawled through the window one at a time. He followed from behind and glanced at the sunset. The sun was setting quickly, but it seemed that they had arrived just in time.
“Are we sneakin’ out to go to a party?” Techno snorted.
Wilbur sat down and patted the roof. “Nope.”
They still seemed skeptical, but they followed his instructions. Tommy sat in the middle of them and immediately leaned on his shoulder.
“Wow, this is such a cool view,” he whispered.
“Mhm.”
Together, the three watched as the sun sank to rest.
Tentatively, Wilbur spoke up.
“I’m sorry.”
Techno looked over to him and the blonde sat up straighter.
“It’s not your fault, Wil,” his twin reassured.
“Yeah, how were you supposed to know all this shit was going to happen? You’re only human, man,” Tommy backed up.
The words were reassuring, but that wasn’t what he was talking about.
“No, that’s not what I’m apologizing for. I missed all your important stuff, like your birthday and your book!”
“Wil…”
“I should’ve been there, and I wasn’t.”
“Wilbur, I understand. It’s just life, and we’re all getting busy,” Techno soothed. “I almost didn’t send you a present for our birthday because I forgot to mail it.”
“I’m not mad at you,” Tommy assured.
Even though the words weren’t much, it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of his chest.
“Thank you.”
The pretty pinks and oranges of the sky faded to blue slowly. They sat in silence until something hit the window behind them.
The three of them turned their heads owlishly, and found their parents staring at them from the open window.
“So this is how you snuck out.” Kristin crossed her arms.
Tommy snickered from beside him as his cheeks were dusted with pink.
“Is there enough room for two more?”
The three of them scooted over, and their parents climbed out. Phil held snacks, while their mother carried thick blankets. One was draped over his head, and by the way Tommy was shouting, it had been placed over his as well. Techno got his own blanket— lucky. Being the younger twin sucked.
They settled eventually. The stars began to light up the sky, stealing their attention away from Earth.
Just thinking about it was magical. Something was bright enough to be seen millions, maybe even billions, of miles away.
The sky was more than blue this far away from the city. He could see the slightest outline of purples and yellows, and every once and a while, a shooting star would wiz on past.
They were always gone so quickly that you could always blame them on your eyes being wonky, but there all the same.
Quietly, Wilbur made a wish.
After that, it was made into tradition.
When the three were back home, no matter what, they would climb out to the roof and gaze at the stars. And if the weather wasn’t favorable, they read books or watched videos together instead.
It didn’t matter if they had gotten into a fight. It didn’t matter if their parents told them to get off the slippery roof. Hell, it didn’t matter if they thought they had more pressing matters.
(They had forced Wilbur to turn off his phone one time when it started blowing up. He hadn’t looked at the messages all the way, and they hadn’t known what it was about until Phil had sped into the driveway and shouted at the three of them.
He almost missed the birth of his daughter because of that.)
Their group of five had turned into six when one day Wilbur had taken a totally-not-tired baby Tallulah out with them. Then it turned into seven when a new foster, Chyanne, had followed them out.
Stories were shared. Apologies were made, as well as life-long promises. Maybe a broken bone when someone enebitaly slipped.
And most importantly, memories that nobody would ever want to forget were forged under the watchful eyes of something too far away to reach, but close enough to see.
(“You know what?” a much older Wilbur started.
“Yeah?” his younger brother leaned into him, his head still fitting in the same slot against his shoulder as he had his entire life.
“I’m kind of glad I missed all that stuff that year.”
“Me too, man. Me too.”
The three brothers smiled.
The stars smiled back.)