Chapter Text
shifting in his chair, he shivers in annoyance as he hears the wheels creak quietly. his headphones clamped over his ears, filtering in the soft voices of his teammates. well, he thinks. they were, but he's on deafen right now. his room’s lights are fading from a soft blue to pastel purple, ending at maroon.
the colors are shifting back and forth, back and forth. his eyes flick up, watching the lights as they change from tone to tone, shade to shade of every color till they reach their destination. his room smells of cinnamon, a crisp, honey-sweet scent swirling throughout his room.
(probably because of the sweater that was shipped to him a couple days ago. it was right after his sensory overload, and a package arrived at his house. his mother called him down and said the delivery had his name on it. when he pulled the item out of the box, it was a soft blue sweater. It smelled heavily of cinnamon so much he’s pretty sure that wilbur just dumped a thing of the spice onto the sweater. he's not complaining though, because it smelt good.)
he's been having a bad day, honestly. he had a few screw ups and had multiple jumps in his heart rate for no reason, also getting a few opinionated stares at college. he's really longing for a hug, if anything. but, alas, it was never given and he was forced to sit down for mcc. trust tommy, he loves mcc, he's been so excited for the new installment that he's been having dreams of the event. he's excited about his teammates, having gotten niki, tubbo, and vik. vikkstar123. big v. his idol.
and now, he sits, moping in his own presence when he should be having the time of his life. he feels like there's something missing. he's got his water bottle directly next to him, the ice cubes clinking together whenever he takes a sip. his led lights are on, tuned to always shift back to the color his team is -- red. his character sits, idle, in the lobby in mcc as more and more of his friends and acquaintances come into the server. tubbo crouches in front of him, clicking at him, possibly symboling for tommy to undeafen. tommy sighs, cheek hitting his clenched fist from where it rests upright as his elbow hits the table.
he didn't get much sleep last night, hence -- he's tired. it's eight pm, he got no sleep, and he wouldn't be surprised if he fell flat asleep on his keyboard in the middle of his stream. shit -- he hasn't even started his stream yet. maybe that's what tubbo was trying to say. he clicks on twitch, booting up his stream, but doesn't click start stream just yet. he gets up, takes a quick piss, before he stops in the mirror to check he doesn't look like an absolute heathen. his eyes are slightly baggy, but he can blame it on being too excited for mcc. he's a little worried about trying to play off his persona’s character when he is in no mood for any of the sort.
his toes tap impatiently against his carpeted floor, and there's a lump in tommy’s throat he can't quite get rid of. he took his meds -- he’ll be fine, for the most part -- his adhd shouldn't be kicking in just yet. it can stay under the covers for a good two hours or so, and maybe when he can end his stream before it's even started, his adhd can come through. tommy runs a hand through curly blonde hair -- it's slightly greasy, he didn't take a shower -- and he strolls back to his chair uneasily.
hesitantly clicking start stream, he plasters a smile on his face and undeafens, shouting a hello! into his mic. his friends greet him, tubbo saying hello in return enthusiastically, niki’s hello along with an audible smile, and vik sighs out a hey, tommy. it's fond.
his character in game runs and bounces around the lobby, occasionally clicking at philza or dream for the jokes, tapping at george and calling out a gogy! for giggles. he runs into others -- eret, quackity, sapnap, dantdm, punz, tapl, scott -- all of them giving a similar click of their fist at him in welcome. quackity walks up to him and dances a small circle around him, crouching up and down rapidly; tommy replying in kind, and quackity runs away. he sees vik in the lobby, and due to his stream character, he follows him around like a duckling for a bit. vik plays into it, hearing the man’s small giggles as tommy follows him around silently.
in the main lobby, there are some others tommy hadn't seen. he'd been running around in the outskirts of mcc, never walking through the middle, but he sees someone and feels his eyes droop tiredly. the man himself just makes tommy keel over with sleep whenever he's tired if he just sees him in game. probably because if wilbur knew he was tired he'd shove him to sleep immediately. wilbur’s character, clad in a pink sweater for his team, sits utterly still in front of the big timer. tommy’s lips curve into a small smile -- hopefully small enough chat can't see -- mouse buzzing quietly as he clicks himself to prance up to the man, and he crouches in front of wilbur.
it doesn't take that long for wilbur’s character to glance up from where it was staring at the ground, gazing at tommy straight in the eyes. tommy, this time, does smile outside of a curved mouth and he slowly walks towards his pseudo-brother, head still facing his feet. wilbur’s eyes watch him carefully, unmoving as tommy’s person moves forward and slots himself up against one of wilbur’s sides. if you tried to look carefully, wilbur’s player stands straight up looking down at tommy, while tommy’s crouched against him, and the whole moment feels utterly soft. even through a video game. he clicks f5 to change perspectives, completely amused even as he sits back with a blasé expression when chat is spammed with awww s and <3333.
the position that he's placed his character in is similar to the way sapnap sat next to dream in mcc ten, the man’s cyan-clad character cuddled next to dream’s. he heard sapnap did so because he was lonely and jokingly upset that george and dream had been placed on a team together without him. so, obviously, he had cuddled with them in the lobby of the mcc.
tommy really feels that sentiment right about now, slightly jealous he wasn't put with wilbur instead of phil or fundy or jack. he wishes he were on that team simply because his big brother is on it, and wilbur would know what to do. tommy’s panicking. he's tired, sleep-deprived, lonely, and he's seconds away from his nerves shooting through the roof. he wants wilbur, and if the only way to get wilbur is platonically cuddling with him in a fictional game server on a computer, he will do that. fuck his pride, he's about to cry while he's streaming.
wilbur’s character doesn't move, but he sees it shift slightly, and it's probably in confusion. it's very uncharacteristic of tommy to show such blatant affection on stream and to wilbur , of all people. who the hell cares. tommy wants affection, and he knows wilbur. if tommy wants some sort of touch from him then he knows to shut up and give him a damn hug. wilbur’s all soft and sappy like that.
he sees other people’s in-game characters begin to circle around the two, and he knows chat is snitching to other streamers. he doesn't respond when tubbo gasps in delight when he hears, and when tubbo begins to be so utterly confused tommy provides absolutely no explanation. niki cooes when she sees in game, but seems to sense somethings up, so she doesn't pester tommy. thank lord for niki, the saint that she is. vik doesn't say a word, probably confused as hell at the moment. he probably doesn't even know where they are.
he can imagine that chat is spamming other streamers, filling the chat with GO FIND TOMMY! TOMMY’S CUDDLING WITH WILBUR. HAVE U SEEN TOMMY yoooo tommy and wil are being soft. it is a little unnerving, because then his reputation will be ruined, but he doesn't really care.
dream bounds up to them, loping towards them quickly and crouches next to them, looking them up and down. tommy rolls his eyes as he shows his obvious contempt for wilbur and tommy. speaking of that, he can feel a bit of warmth inside his heart and the thought that wilbur didn't move one bit when tommy sidled up next to him. wilbur just stood still and let it happen. he still is. different people like quackity or eret are spamming aww s in the chat when referring to wilbur and tommy. captain puffy clicks at them, punching in soft crimeboys moment into chat. tommy’s cheeks begin to flush red, but he shoves it down. he has half a mind to go open wil’s stream.
tommy nudges his mouse a bit, tilting his character so his face is in wilbur’s sweater. he can practically smell the amount of ginger and hazelnut the in-game tommyinnit is currently smelling.
sighing, eyes fluttering closed, he grins at chat knowingly. “i’m gonna open wil’s stream.”
the chat is still filled with awww s and he watches at they all begin to beg to go check it. some people in chat -- he’s not really sure if he can trust them -- are saying that wilbur’s smiling and staying silent in his call as all of his teammates yell questions at him. tommy shrugs, pulling up wilbur’s twitch and plays the live. there's an itch at his nape, a small tingle in him, tugging on him. it's annoying.
and. there he is. big dubs, big man wilbur, sitting laid back in his chair, fingers in that very wilbur-ish position where they sit fingertip to fingertip, staring at his screen with a completely blank face. at least, at first glance. tommy can see a small, thoroughly fond gleam in his eyes that only the most observant of people would see. there's also a small perk at one of the corners of his lips, tell-tale sign of a smile. on his screen, from wilbur’s perspective, you can see the blonde of tommy’s character from where he sits against him. he doesn't realize his own mouth has formed a miniature smile before his chat is calling him ‘ softinnit, brotherinnit,’ and it disappears. he glares at his camera good-naturedly.
it's time for mcc, now. the giant bell rings, clanging in tommy’s ears and everyone begins to run to the lobby, leaving the small circle around them. he pulls away from wilbur, still crouched, and wilbur’s character’s head tilts down at him. tommy clicks at him, nodding, and wilbur nods in return. they go through all of the mini games, tommy’s team racking up a considerable amount of points to where tommy thinks they may have a chance. he's been saying he has a winnable team all week, but now it may actually come true.
wilbur’s team is around sixth to seventh place, changing erratically throughout the tournament. tommy’s team sits at third. during battle box, tommy and wilbur crouched at each other before they fought. (of course, tommy won. he's just extremely poggers like that). tommy’s team makes it to dodgebolt, up against a much, much stronger team than theirs, but he's excited. really excited. it would be his second mcc win, first time since he won with wil, techno, and phil.
it gets to two-to-two in dodgebolt, and tommy’s nervous. they begin to play, characters dodging arrows, and they pick the other team off one-by-one. then, niki’s killed. another enemy killed. tubbo’s snagged by an arrow. another one. vik’s killed. another one. well, fuck. it's him against someone else, and he's not even going to bother to realize who it is. he has the arrows, they don't have any. he leans back in his chair, sweaty palms pressing against his eyes. i’ve gotta win this, i've gotta do it.
he calms his beating heart, fingers beginning to get impatient, and there's a buzzing sensation under his skin. no, no, not now. his chat is swamped in support and emoticons and hearts for him, his teammates are shouting encouragement as tommy waits there with the arrows. tommy looks around at the crowd around him, head swiveling for a certain someone. tommy swallows, breathing out, and he bounds across the dodgebolt arena to where wilbur is standing from above, watching. he clicks his mouse, hand hitting the air in the direction of wilbur, and he crouches at him. wilbur jumps once or twice, before crouching back at him.
a message in the game chat, he sees:
wilbursoot you've got this mate
philza yess tommy
tubbo_ TOMMY CARRY
the_eret LETS GOOOO
more messages fill in with support for tommy, but his eyes home in on wilbur’s small comment of encouragement. he huffs, shouting a let's do this and he turns towards the person he's playing against. he aims rapidly, shooting without thinking and it hits spot on.
red rabbits win mcc!
aw, man, tommy thinks, grinning brightly at his camera, listening to his teammates celebrate, i did it.
when he and vik and tubbo and niki are standing up on the podium with their crowns, he watches all of their friends bounce around and click at them. his chat’s going crazy, viewer counting boosting immensely, and tommy cocks his head to side with a nostalgic smile. they take their screenies, all of them high off of a win. jumping off the podium, he sits in the middle of everyone as many of them surround him. wilbur stands in front of him, and he nods at him, their friends watching from his peripheral vision. tommy sighs, eyes soft and humming with excitement as he nods back at him.
his nervousness from earlier is gone, he's okay, now. he won. wilbur joins their vc after the streams have ended. well -- he doesn't know that, he's already fallen asleep in call -- but he does hear as wilbur says, “i’m so proud of him, man.” to philza who had joined before him.
tommy shifts from where he sits with his arms crossed on his desk, his faces shoved in his limbs. he's grinning in his sleep.
yeah, i’m proud of me too.