Wilbur watched as his brother swayed from side to side, a foolish grin on his face. Wilbur didn't even know what was going on. First he was on the ground, chatting with Tommy and the next he was upside down. And so were the trees?
Then Wilbur came to realise he was the one upside down. He looked up slightly and saw the rope that knotted around his foot and then back down to the suspect.
"Tommy! Get me down!" He yelled, wriggling around to try and free himself.
"Nah i enjoy you hanging out with me." he joked, giving his brother a joyful grin.
"Ha ha very funny."
"Thank you. I find myself to be such a good joker. A manly joker."
As Wilbur heard what Tommy said, a small smile came onto his face.
"Yes. Very manly. But you would be even manlier if you were strong enough to break this rope."
"Break the rope?"
"Yep"
"The rope that i had set up to trap you?"
"You set th-. You know what. Yep. You'll be so manly. The manliest man ever."
Tommy took a long second to think and then nodded with a smile.
"Bet!" He said as he jumped onto Wilbur, clinging onto him and climbing up to untie the rope on his foot.
"Hey! Be careful " Wilbur grumbles as Tommy's foot goes right into his side. And after a few seconds, they both fall to the ground with a thud, Tommy landing on top.
"You're smothering me!" Wilbur pushed Tommy off, standing up and dusting the dirt and leaves off of him.
"Manliest man." Tommy mumbled with a small laugh.
"Yeah sure." Wilbur looked up at the sky. The sun seemed to be just past midday, the time most likely being around 1. And with that, he turned to Tommy, tilting his head as he began walking from the forrest to the small hill.
"I bet Technoblade's going to laugh so hard when he hears what happened to you." Tommy laughed
"And i'm sure Philza is going to yell at you for hanging me from a tree."
"I'm too manly to get yelled at." Tommy snapped "And what proof do you have that i did it?"
"You literally said you did it!"
"I have no idea what your talking about."
"Stop gaslighting me."
"Gaslighting isn't a thing."
Wilbur looked at Tommy and then let out a sigh. "Shut up."
The two princes walked up the hill and went into the small house on top, walking into the main room. Wilbur smiled at Phil as he sat at the table drinking a cup of tea reading what seemed to be a newspaper.
"Did you get anything?" Phil asked, putting down the paper.
"No." Wilbur replied with a sigh. "All the berries were rotten and something trampled through the mushroom patch, destroying them all."
"Any reason your shirt is all dirty then?"
"Tommy." Was all Wilbur had to say to get the understanding nod from Phil.
"What did he do this time?" Phil asked, sipping from his tea.
"Lured me into a rope trap. Grabbed me by the foot and next thing i knew i was hanging from a tree."
Phil laughed with a snort. "That boy's always coming up with new tricks."
Wilbur let out a small laugh. "Yeah."
Tommy was always pulling some sort of prank or trick when they went out foraging together. He was the type of boy who could lighten up a room with his smile or could change the mood by cracking a ridiculous joke.
Wilbur had to admit, those silly little stunts of his made him agitated and annoyed, but he could never hate Tommy. And Tommy probably knew that. That was most likely the reason to why he pulled all those pranks even if it ended with a ton of yelling. Cause neither Philza or Techno could stay mad too.
It made Wilbur think back to the time just after the attack on their kingdom. He had been so distraught after the take over and the death of their parents. The only thing that could make him smile and forget about it was Tommy's horrible jokes.
He was like the sun around his little world. The only bright thing in his dark times.
Wilbur was pulled back to the sound of a small curse. He looked over at Phil who was dabbing the spilt tea off of the newspaper with a random piece of cloth.
"Was that important?" Will asked
"Yeah. I got it when i went into town this morning. It tells us about the recent events and stuff like that."
"So like. Whats happening in the capital?"
"Yeah normally. But nothing has happened for a while. It's just the same old message about finding you and your brother."
Will let out a small sigh.
"They're still hunting us down?"
"They'll probably keep looking until they find a body or bones."
"It's been seven years without sightings though!" Tommy suddenly spoke up, standing in the doorway to his room. "For all they know, we're dead. So why can't we go out! Even if its just to the small town a few miles away."
"It's not safe. As long as they're putting out these messages, we risk it."
"But they don't know what we look like. We've grown and changed. Like look at Will! He wears glasses now. And me, i'm more manly." Tommy whined. "They wont notice us."
"Tommy. Once they see us, it's game over. They'll know we're alive and then we'll get caught." Wilbur got up and walked to his brother, putting his arms on his shoulders.
"Trust me. They'll forget about us soon and then we can go out. But we can't do it now while they're still putting messages about us in the news paper."
"Listen to your brother Tommy. We're just keeping you safe."
Tommy looked at his brother and then over to Phil.
"Wilbur. You said the exact same thing to me three years ago. Im sick with being in this house. On this hill. I want to be out again! I want to make friends. Friends like Tubbo."
Wilbur was pulled back to remembering Tubbo. Tommy's best friend. He was almost a year older than Tommy and the two of them would do everything together. Wilbur wasn't sure if he survived that night.
His parents were castle guards. Wilbur thought back to the guards fighting the attackers, the dead bodies in the halls. He wouldn't be surprised if he or his parents were dead.
Wilbur hadn't even thought about Tubbo until he was just bought up. But for Tommy to remember, he must've thought about him a bit.
"Tommy. It just needs a little time." Phil said.
"I don't want a little time. I want to get out of this prison. I want to do more things than just foraging for berries and mushrooms too! It's boring here!" Tommy pushed Wilbur away from him and walked back to his room, slamming the door behind him.
Will sighed as he sat back down next to Phil.
"What will we do about him?"
"I don't know Phil. But it's a matter of time before he does something he'll regret."
------
Techno came home later that day, dragging a deer behind him. Techno was always on hunting duty as he was the only one who could handle a sword. But Will knew that he'd be forced into being taught soon.
He was going to be 16 soon and Techno had been talking about it for quite some time. But Wilbur wasn't quite keen on the idea of hunting innocent animals and slaughtering them.
He knew Tommy would be more interested in learning but Techno said it was the oldest's responsibility to learn how to protect the younger one. But Will also knew it was code for 'Tommy's only going to mess around and injure himself.' Which Wilbur agreed was a valid point.
But as Wilburs sat outside the door of him and his brothers bedroom, he thought it would've been smart to actually teach Tommy stuff and to let him help out with hunting instead of leaving him to do house chores and making him do dumb tricks because he got too bored with foraging.
But Will also knew that if he proposed the idea to Techno, he'd say the same thing as he said before. He would also worry about the boy running away with his sword tricks and trying to fight random people. Which, Wilbur wouldn't put past Tommy.
Tommy always used to do that to kids that would question his princeliness back when they were at the capitol. Wilbur knew that that younger brother of his had an aggressive fire in him, which made him wonder wether or not Tommy should've been the older prince.
Will let out a sigh as he knocked on the door.
"Tommy. Come on out. It's almost time for dinner. We can talk about this whole thing face to face too." He called as he knocked on the door.
He waited for a response but it never came. Wilbur was begining to get fidgety. He knocked again. No response came.
"Tommy? I'm going to come in. You cant get mad cause it's my room too."
He opened the door, the room being empty with clothes thrown everywhere. But the most disturbing thing was that the window was wide open. Then realisation hit him.
"Phil! Techno!" He yelled, running into the lounge. "Tommy's gone!"
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I literally had no idea what to write this chapter for days until i just started randomly typing and here we are lmao.
I hope you guys dont mind my writing skills as they are absolutely horrible.