Chapter Text
“Wilbur!”
Within three seconds flat, Wilbur had been completely flattened by the blond gremlin of a brother flying at him.
“Toms! You’re- my jumper, Tommy!” The older groans, as he picks himself off the mucky grass and scrapes his hands down the yellow wool like there was anything to pick off.
“C’mon, c’mon, can we play already?!” Tommy whines back, already bouncing up and down excitedly, waiting to run into the active game of tag ahead - but not without his big brother’s support, of course.
Now, the game being played couldn’t exactly be called ‘tag’; although it was similar. Everyone in this game was on, and if you were caught, you simply had to stand there until someone freed you. The older students didn’t exactly find it appealing - but the much younger Year 3 did enjoy it, so they ‘played’, making sure the game was fair and all that.
Tommy was flying around the astro turf, trying his best to avoid being caught. Wilbur was also trying his best, however, he was trying not to knock over an unaware seven year old. He did attempt to keep an eye on Tommy, he would swear by that, it wasn’t his fault that there were some pricks in his younger brother’s class.
“Ow!”
“Tommy?” Wilbur asks, frantically searching through the game to try and regain focus on the chaotic blond mess.
“Wil- Wilbur, he- he pushed me!”
Oh no; Wilbur thinks to himself. Please no, please don’t be crying.
But Tommy was already sniffling, struggling to hold in the tears welling in his eyes.
Wilbur knew the imbosele who’d pushed him in a second - that boy in Tommy’s class, Dream. He was always so confidently horrible, and though he, as a very mature Year 6, wasn’t supposed to be biased towards any of the students - he certainly was. That boy was always so mean to Tommy, and he had no right to be. That stupid, idiotic, bright green tracksuit wearing eejit.
“Toms, c’mon, it’s alright. Look - we… we’ll play our own game, okay? D’you wanna do that?”
Wilbur gently finds Tommy’s arm, and starts to pick him up off the floor - best to do so before the teachers heard.
“We’ll… we’ll make a really fun game, okay? And only the cool people can join, yeah? No one stupid like… no one stupid.”
“..’kay.” Tommy sniffles, as he rubs at his face.
Gotta hide the tears, you’re a big man, Tommy, gotta keep it in. Don’t let Dream see, he’ll only make fun of you.
“...What game do you wanna play?”
“I dunno.”
“..Al..right. Well.. we could play that we’re… we’re… um…”
“...Can we play science?”
“Science?” The brunet responds, in shock - had he hurt his head in the fall? Tommy had never once shown any interest in science before, although Wilbur didn’t mind.
“Yeah, but- but cool science! Like the… the science guy from that show Techno was tellin’ us about!”
“...Toms, which movie?”
“Y’know, the show! The one with that guy, an’ he’s a science teacher, an’ he an’ his friend-student guy-”
“Yeah, yeah- okay, yeah, we can- uh- play… that. Just… don’t tell dad about that, yeah?”
“Okay.” Tommy agrees easily, already skipping ahead like nothing had happened.
After a couple minutes of hard decision making, and Wilbur’s extended interest in the mysterious show that had made Tommy so interested in science, the pair decides to make their ‘lab’ in some trees near the edge of the yard - they had to walk over the grass instead of staying on the nice, clean astro, and they weren’t even on the path side! Tommy didn’t seem to mind, though.
“Wilbur.”
“Yes?” Wilbur enquires, knowing that moaning meant nothing good.
“‘M bored.”
“Ok, do science, or something.”
“But it’s boring, there’s no one to do science with.”
“Fine, we’ll- uhm, we’ll find some people to play science with.”
And so, the two set off to find their science friends. First, Wilbur tried Techno. Surely their own brother would want to play with them, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do, he always just sat around reading that stupid book of his at breaktimes, anyways.
“...So, you and Tommy are going to sell drugs in the back of the-”
“No! We- we’re playing science!” Wilbur hisses back, painfully aware of the rather young children surrounding them. Why did his brother have to be so dense? He was meant to be smart, he skipped a class, for Prime’s sake.
“Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. I don’t wanna get involved in all that nonsense.”
“Gee, thanks for helping me cheer up our younger brother after that bully of a kid was bein’ rude to him.”
“..Heh?”
“Y’know, that blond one, with the disgustingly green tracksuit?”
“...The one that looks like a tellytubby.” Techno deadpans.
“Yeah, sure, whatever, him. He keeps on being really rude to Tommy. He’s playing too rough with him, and Tommy said he stole out of his bag the other day!”
“What?”
“Yeah! He took those stupid CDs Tommy’s always carrying around.”
“What? Why? Tommy loves those things, and he never said anything to dad.”
“He told me he doesn’t wanna be a snitch or something stupid. I really don’t get it, I mean, he spent ages trying to work out how to even get the music he wanted onto those, do you remember how annoying it all was?” Wilbur grumbles, thinking back on how long it had taken them to find a guide online, the hours he’d spent trying to teach Tommy - who was determined to do it on his own, while also not being able to do it at all.
“Yeah. That kid’s a real piece of shit, if he thinks he can just hurt my brother and get away with it like that-” Oh, he was pissed off. Who did this kid think he was, hurting his little brother like that? What had Tommy ever done to deserve that?
“Techno, we’re not gonna hurt him back, that’s mean! We can… report him? To one of the teachers?”
“Wilbur.”
“Techno.”
“Why do you always want to be boring?”
“Boring?! I just don’t want to beat up a Year 3!” The brunet hisses.
“Come on, Wilbur, you know how it goes, violence is-”
“Never the answer. Sorry, Techno, but no way. Anyways, I have a game to return to.”
And with that, Wilbur strode off, nose high in the air. Right, fine, Techno was stupid anyways. He could find better people. Maybe Tommy had already.
When he made it back, Tommy had somehow found two other people to join.
“Wow, Tommy - who’re these?” Wilbur asks, as he cautiously makes his way around a spiky bush.
“Well, you know Tubbo, and this is Eret - they were playing together, so he had to come to.” The youngest responds gleefully, sticking his hand out to indicate who was who.
“..Right. Cool. So, you guys want to play.. Science.. As well?”
“..Not really.” Tubbo responds quietly, rubbing his messy hair - that kid needed a haircut.
“Yeah. Tommy said we could play whatever.” Eret adds, from where they were perched on a tree branch.
This was going to be a nightmare, wasn’t it? How was Wilbur meant to get three kids to want to play the same game, and be fair about it?
“Right, okay. Uh, you guys decide what to play, just.. Vote among yourselves. I’m going to make this place a little safer.”
Some of these branches could really do with coming down, and then they could make their little play place more secure, and-
“OW!” Wilbur screeches. What the fuck was on his leg?
At a quick glance down, Wilbur could see a fox. A fox. Latched onto his leg. He knew this was a bad idea. With much caution, the brunet manages to pry the fox off, holding it out in his hands, a slight grimace on his face. The fox was surprisingly docile, though, and Wilbur managed to carry it out towards the other children.
“Wilbur?” Tommy calls in, his blue eyes wide in curiosity.
“One sec, Toms!” It was really a struggle to get through these bushes with a fox in his arms, he kept on getting all scraped up.
“IS THAT A FOX?” The shortest boy shrieks, cowering behind his best friend.
“...Sort of?”
“Oh, cool, he likes you.”
“He doesn’t- he doesn’t like me, he’s a fox, he can’t like anything but food and- and killing chickens. The dirty thing bit me! I’m going to get rabies now!”
“No! Don’t be mean to it, Wilbur! He’s yours!”
“Mine?” Wilbur responds incredulously to his brother’s whining. “He’s not mine, he’s a dirty fox.”
“No! He’s your son!” The blond continues to whine, and then looks around for support from his young peers.
“My what?”
“Your son!” They all screech back in unison.
Wilbur didn’t seem to be particularly fond of this new revelation. He was certainly not going to father a fox. How would he even be a father? He was ten! And he couldn’t raise the fox alone.
“Well, how, exactly, am I this fox’s father? It has no mother then, and that’s not fair.” The oldest responds easily. Ha, surely he’d defeat these children with his brilliant, flawless logic.
Unfortunately, the younger kids had their own form of twisted logic.
“He came from your toe!”
“Sally is his mother!”
Two screeches came in unison - one from Tommy, and one from Eret. These kids were going to give him a headache. Actually - they already had. And a potentially infected bite in his leg, that could also super kill him with rabies.
“Woah- woah, what? Who’s Sally?” Wilbur asks, clearly confused.
“The class fish!” Tubbo chirps up usefully.
The. What?
“I can’t reproduce with a fish?! How would that even make a-”
The school bell sounded across the yard, echoing over the noises of playing children, and signalling the end of lunch time. That was it until tomorrow, then.
The group made their way out of their ‘science lab’, and Wilbur left the fox behind, despite insistence from Tommy. They had given it a name now - Fundy - how could this get any worse?
Well, Wilbur didn’t quite know yet, but he was going to find out rather quickly. Over the next few days, this simple game would evolve into something none of them saw coming. War. Destruction. Death. Battle. Those poor, prepubescent children wouldn’t know what had hit them.