Spider-Boy

Tommy thought that he dodged the pipe, and in others' eyes, he did.  But the tube hit him somewhere that would hurt worse than any wound. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think. If the tube hadn’t hit… him, Tommy would think he was the one in shock. What can he do when he just killed his brother? 

“Wilbur!” Tommy shouted 

He ran so fast that his head began to spin, or maybe that was the adrenaline. He didn't care what was happening around him anymore, he didn't care about the building falling apart just to the left of him, or the fact that Dream was still there watching just 6 feet from Tommy. Furthermore, he just cared about his big brother. The one who taught Tommy to enjoy music, and to love who he was no matter what others thought, he made Tommy who he was even before Spider-boy was thought of. He made sure to remind Tommy on countless occasions to ignore everyone who called him and his voice annoying. He made sure that Tommy was confident not only for himself but for the people he loved. Wilbur can’t die, no Tommy won’t allow him to, he can’t lose Wilbur. 

The moment Tommy finally reached Wilbur he didn't hesitate to launch at him pulling Wilbur into his lap gently like he was a glass vase fragile and easily broken. At this moment that's exactly what Wil was. “I got you… I got you, just stay with me..” Tommy muttered, struggling to understand what to do. This is the worst fight Tommy had with Dream. This has never happened before he was just a kid with a mask on, holding his dying brother. Wil would know what to do, but Tommy couldn’t ask him when he was the one hurt. 

“M..my brother…he’s…he’s in the building…you..you have to get him out…please…he’s only 15..” Wilbur said, struggling to even keep his eyes open. 

“No, no, no, no” was all Tommy could think. He’s the reason Wilbur stayed even when Tommy told all the bystanders to leave. He stayed not knowing that Tommy was safe. Tommy knew he had no choice, he had to at least let Wilbur know that the person he just risked his life for was ok. So Tommy raises his shaking and bloody hands, 'that's Wilbur's blood' a voice screams, and he takes off his mask. 

Tommy wanted to tell Wilbur he was Spider-boy so badly. And he had planned to before Dream showed up. Tommy just wanted to protect Wilbur, but he failed. 

“T.. Toms..?” Wilbur said, wide-eyed. Tommy didn't care about Wilbur's reaction, he was too focused on stopping the bleeding, and trying to get help. 

“ANYONE! PLEASE, HELP!” Tommy was looking around frantically then looked back at Wilbur with tears in his eyes. “Please stay awake, please... I’ll.. I’ll never ask for anything ever again… Please, Wilbur!” Tommy said with desperation in his voice. Tommy had an idea of how to stop the bleeding. So with tears in his eyes blurring his vision and a new desperation in his heart, he ripped his suit's left sleeve off and wrapped it around the pipe on Wilbur's stomach. He grabbed Wilbur's phone out of his pocket with his left hand, keeping pressure on the wound with his right hand, and started to dial 911 on the phone. But before he could hit the green call button Wilbur stopped him. 

“Tommy… If you call, they'll know who you are… I… I can't let you put yourself… in danger… To save me…” Wilbur said weakly, struggling to even talk now, obviously the blood loss was getting to him. He lifted both his hands and grabbed Tommy's hands to stop him from putting pressure on his wound and from calling the cops. Wilbur tightly squeezed Tommy's hands for comfort and smiled up at Tommy the best he could, which wasn't a lot Tommy noted. “No… Wilby, I don't care… I… I just don't want to lose you, please… “ Tommy begged, staring at his big brother. Tommy felt like a little kid again, and he wished he was if he was maybe this all could have just been a game, but it wasn't this was real and there was nothing Tommy could do. “Don't blame yourself, sunshine… This isn't your fault..” Wilbur said as he moved his hand from his wound to Tommy's cheek, getting his own blood on Tommy (more than it already was) but Tommy doesn't care right now (he will later, he notes, he remembers how many showers it took to get the blood off of him). Wilbur pulled Tommy closer into their foreheads were touching. “I'm so proud of you baby brother..” His breathing was getting heavier. “I… I wish I could have known sooner… that you were Spider-boy… I could… I could have helped..” He couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. “I would… I wouldn't change anything… even this… If it meant we were brothers…” His hand was slipping from Tommy's face. Tommy grabbed his hand and kept it on his face as he let out a sob. “Wilbur keep your eyes open, please, we are brothers if you stay awake we… we can be brothers longer! Come on I'm… I'm so sorry please…!” Tommy begged.

 As Wilbur faded from life he could hear Tommy begging him to stay awake, but he was so tired… He wanted to rest. He trusted his brother to protect their family and friends, so with that, he fell asleep for eternity but not without letting Tommy know one more thing. 

“I love you in every universe, sunshine..” 

Tommy shot up, with a silent scream on his tongue, only being stopped by the bile Tommy feels rising in the back of his throat, Tommy threw off the blanket, jumped off the couch, and sprinted into the bathroom. He fell onto his knees once he reached the bathroom. In the process most likely bruised his knees on the tile. He barely felt the pain though, not when all he could feel on him was Wilbur's blood. At that thought the bile finally slipped past Tommy's throat causing Tommy to leap towards the bathroom toilet.  

Tommy puked a lot, which often happened when Tommy had nightmares about Wilbur, especially about that night. He sobbed the more he puked, the louder he got, he tried to keep quiet knowing that Ranboo was most likely still sleeping but it was so hard when all Tommy could feel and think about was Wilbur's blood. Once Tommy finally stopped puking (for now) he looked at his hands and started panicking even more. 

No, no no, no, not again. 

Tommy stood on shaking knees, grabbed onto the sink for support, and looked into the mirror. There was blood all over Tommy. His cheek, his hands, his shirt, his pants, and especially his gut. All he could see/smell was blood. He started hyperventilating, his eyes becoming blurry with tears as he turned on the sink faucet hurriedly trying to clean the blood on his hands. No matter how many times or how hard he tried to scrub off the blood, it only ever stayed the same. He scrubbed until his hand became beet red, and he felt burning pain in his hands. He didn’t care, he just wanted Wilbur's blood to go away. 

Tommy washed his hands so many times that he lost count after five. He didn’t know how long he did it for, but eventually, he gave up, with his panic subsiding. He bent his knees and laid his head on the sink (holding onto it for extra support) and let out silent sobs. He begged lady death to make the pain go away. He pleaded with her to make it stop and to give back his brother. He’d do anything for this to be a dream, a nightmare. But he could practically hear her cruel laughter from here (it sounds more like Dream, but Tommy’s sleep-deprived brain didn’t care at that moment) He prayed on his bathroom tiles for even a spec of sympathy from lady death for what felt like centuries, but Tommy knew it was mere moments. 

He slowly rose to his feet and looked in the mirror. The blood was gone, finally, and all Tommy could see was a shell of the person he used to be. The person Wilbur loved was gone, and he was replaced with him. Ignoring his depressing thoughts he left the bathroom and numbly walked towards Ranboos and his shared room. 

He opened the door quietly to try not to disturb Ranboo. Once he opened the door all the way, he looked around.  The room didn’t have much in it. One side of the room, Ranboos's side, had posters and other decorations surrounding his whole area. The walls were a pastel type of purple. When Tommy looked towards his side of the room, you could really see a difference. Tommy’s side was more simple. Yes, he had stuff but not as much as Ranboo. He has a couple of stuffed animals on his red-themed bed and tiny trinkets on his nightstand (which sat right beside his animal crossing lamp that Ranboo got Tommy for Christmas last year). Tommy looked at his bed wanting nothing but to go back to sleep, having not slept well for a couple of nights now. But he… he was scared. Unintentionally (or maybe it was) Tommy looked at Ranboo’s side of the room. He noticed that on Ranboos' nightstand laid his spider-boy mask, fixed. Tommy swallowed hard and slowly walked closer to Ranboo. He stopped beside their bed and looked at them for a moment. 

They lay there calmly, sleeping soundly. Ranboo has always been a sound sleeper (Tommy would be screwed if that wasn't the case). Tommy grabbed Ranboo’s blanket and pulled it closer to Ranboo, noticing them starting to shiver. He moved Ranboo’s bangs from out of their face and let his hand linger there, at the skin-to-skin contact Tommy instantly relaxed, even just a bit. He closed his eyes and swayed on his legs growing more tired by the second. Tommy, who was slowly failing to sleep, gently sat down beside Ranboo’s bed. He moved his hand down from Ranboos forehead to hold their hand and slowly laid his head onto their intertwined hands. Tommy fell asleep like that after mere moments silently thanking Ranboo for having this effect on Tommy, without them Tommy would be lost. 

'You can't save anyone like this' 

Wilbur is so fucking annoyed right, why the hell did Techno have to guilt-trip him into going. He stood outside his old childhood home trying to figure out if he would either knock or leave before they noticed him. The second option was very tempting if he said so themselves. But before he could simply run away and probably make up some shitty excuse on why he couldn't come, the door opened. There stood his twin brother, Techno, in all his glory with a slight grin on his face. “I didn't think you'd show” “I almost didn't” Wilbur deadpanned standing there with his hands in his pockets. He felt awkward, and out of place, he shouldn't have, he literally grew up here. 

Techno moved out of the way for Wilbur to walk in and walk in did Wilbur. As Wilbur looked around the Watson household he realized that it didn't change much from the last time he was here, 'about a year ago' his brain supplied. 

As he entered the living room, walking towards the kitchen, he noticed that the most that changed was how many new photos of Tommy there were. Wilbur's eyes jumped from one photo to the next, remembering where most of these photos came from. One from Tommy's 5th birthday, he was in the process of opening a gift from their aunt, Puffy. The gift was a crocheted stuffed cow named Henry (Tommy named him the moment he made eye contact with the cow). Another from when mom took all of them on vacation, Tommy was 10 at that point. They all went fishing and everyone else in the family caught a fish within a couple of hours (even Techno who claimed he didn't want any part in it, gave it a try and caught the second-biggest fish, the first being their mom’s). Tommy wasn't as lucky, he sat there for so long just trying to catch anything. Even after his family told Tommy to give up, Tommy was too stubborn to listen. Tommy sat there as the sun faded, when everyone finally went inside, he stayed there just waiting. At around 9:00 PM he finally caught a baby trout. He was so proud of himself, he “forced” Mom to take a picture of him with it. 

The more Wilbur looked, the bigger the lump in his chest got. He hates coming home for this reason, all the reminders of Tommy. It hurt. Before he fell too deep into the wave of emotions that always drowned him, he felt Techno lay his hand on his shoulder. He wiped his teary eyes silently looking away from the living room entirely and started walking towards the kitchen, towards his father. He sat in his usual seat at the kitchen table. As he waited for his father to notice him he stared, watching Phil cook like a housewife. It’s still weird to watch the most feared man in America cook and hum, although they're all retired villains, it still felt unreal seeing them act normal. To act human. 

Slam

Wilbur was knocked out of his thoughts by the sound of his father dropping a pan on the floor. “Lady Prime, you can’t sneak up on me like that Wil,” Phil said, laying his hand on his heart making it clear to Wilbur that he startled his father. “Sorry.. Forgot about your old age..” Wilbur joked as he picked the pan up for Phil with a soft smile. Phil huffed out a breath of air while rolling his eyes at Wilbur, he went back to making dinner seemingly almost done. Phil and Wilbur's relationship was… strained, to put it into better words. Wilbur believes that both his dad and twin blame him for Tommy’s death, ‘which it was his fault’, his brain reminds him. And although Techno also blames him, Phil hides his blame not well, but still hides it, and that infuriates Wilbur. He wishes his father would just yell at him, blame him, anything! But Phil won’t. So Wilbur will smile and pretend everything is fine at least until they have their traditional yelling match that ruins the night. 

“Thank you for coming Wil.. We’ve missed you, although Techno will never admit it” Phil chuckles at his own joke while he stirs his unknown soup. “Yeah uhm.. I've just been busy..” Wilbur says with a guilty voice, fiddling with his hands, a nervous tic he picked up from his mom. They stayed silent for a while, until dinner was finally done. Phil set the food on the table (after Wilbur set the plates). They all sat in their respective seats and started eating. No one spoke, probably too scared to ruin what little peace they had. Wilbur kept staring at the empty seat in front of him, ‘if it wasn’t for you the seat wouldn’t be empty’, a voice screamed in his head. The voice didn’t stop there the longer he sat in that chair the louder the voice got. The voice got so overbearingly loud that it got too much for Wilbur. He shot up quickly out of his chair, he just stared at that chair like his life depended on it. He wishes he could be like Techno and Phil, he wishes he could pretend, but he can’t. He could hear Phil and Techno calling out to him, but he couldn’t respond. All he could do was stare, stare at the empty seat that shouldn’t be empty. ‘It wouldn’t be empty if it wasn’t for you’. His mind screamed at him as he grabbed his hair tightly, trying to silence the voice even a little, just enough to pretend he didn’t kill his little brother. Before he could drown any further he felt someone, Phil, touch his shoulder. He shrugged off the hand and looked at Phil with a mix of self-pity and anger. 

“Wilbur, breathe, you need to breathe” Phil whispered softly trying to calm Wilbur down. “I can’t just calm down Phil. I can’t calm down when that seat wouldn’t be empty if it wasn’t for me!” Wilbur screamed, tightening his hands in his hair, he could feel blood on his fingertips, but he didn’t care. He just wanted his brother back. 

Suddenly, the house started shaking, making Phil grab Wilbur quietly, pulling him to his chest. He dived to the floor with Wilbur in his arms, making sure he didn’t get hurt. Techno dived under the table. When they looked around to see if it was safe they were shocked to see some of their things floating in the air. Books, food, water, and.. A photo of Tommy, who was playing the guitar. 

“Tommy, Tommy, you're not holding it correctly.” Wilbur laughed, going to correct how Tommy holds the guitar. Tommy had begged Wilbur to teach him how to play the guitar for years now and Wilbur finally caved. “Wilbur, I think I know how to hold a guitar” Tommy complained, actually correcting himself and holding the guitar right. That gremlin most likely held it wrong on purpose to annoy Wilbur. “Okay so once you find your grip you lay your fingers on the chords you want to play..” Wilbur trails off as he takes Tommy's fingers and puts them on the first chords. “There, now strum,” Wilbur said, taking a step back and watching Tommy attempt to play a note. Once Tommy strummed the guitar he got the brightest grin on his face that Wilbur's ever seen. “Wilbur I did it! It sounded just like you right?” Tommy asked very excitedly, looking at Wilbur with expecting eyes. Although Tommy’s first chord did sound a bit.. Rusty, it was good for the first try. “You did great, sunshine,” Wilbur said ruffling Tommy's hair. Suddenly they hear a click, they looked up and see their dad with the camera having taken a picture of this moment. 

Wilbur quickly grabbed the photo as everything fell down again. There were a lot of sounds of glass breaking but also a sound that nobody expected to hear. They all jumped up and ran to the living room as they heard the roof collapse in on itself. When they got to the doorway they couldn’t see beyond the smoke.. But they did hear.. Voices?

Someone groaned loudly. “Tommy, shit Tommy are you okay?” Another voice questioned, frantic. When the smoke cleared all three of Phil, Wilbur, and Techno froze staring at the two figures in their living room.

There stood Tommy fuckin Watson and… Ranboo?