Wilbur's POV:
Techno was doing his DNA kit. I could hear every word, sat in my room, as tense as he probably was. What if he didn't want me anymore? What if I wasn't allowed to be his little brother? What if he hated me for keeping him to myself? My leg was shaking slightly; I reached out a hand to stop it. Tubbo was 'asleep', listening to music like he always does. Tommy was asleep, as was Kelly, but they'd both been in a bed about an hour now. Mum was in her bedroom, probably trying to get to sleep and I was painstakingly sat there waiting. It was Techno's life and I was being affected by it in a way I wasn't comfortable with but didn't know what to do about.
There was a knock on my door which made me jump. "Hey bud, just wondering if you needed anything?"
"No, I'm okay."
"You done your puffer?"
"No," I replied sheepishly.
"Okay, well why don't you go it now?" I nodded and reached for my puffer that was in the first drawer of my bedside cabinet.
"Do you think Techno will-" I paused, "actually stupid question, don't worry about it."
"If you think Techno is going to push you away because Tor is his brother, I want you to remember how he's always reacted to each new foster kid."
"But they are foster kids, they come and go and they aren't related by blood."
"Wilbur, the only two people in this household related by blood is Tubbo and Tommy, and they are half-brothers. You know more than most, that blood is not what makes us family."
"Yea, but that only works when you've not got any family left."
She closed the door, "look, Techno might have a biological brother, but he is also just learning that he lost a mum, dad and sister."
"But I lost my parents too!"
"Wilbur, think about what you've just said."
"I am thinking! My parents aren't around anymore either, they don't love me, they didn't want me. His didn't either, I don't get why he misses them!"
"Wilbur, please," she begged.
"NO!" There was another knock at the door. Techno opened it. He hugged me, not saying a word. "I'm- I'm sorry."
"I miss them Wilbur because they did love me and they did want me, they just couldn't look after me."
"But your family was supposed to be just like mine."
"My first foster family was, and all those other places were too. But this family, right here, and my biological family, loved me and want me."
"But you're going to forget about me now."
"No I'm not." He sighed, "I knew this is what you wanted to talk about the other day but I just couldn't handle it. I was scared you'd feel like this, but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget you. I'm not going to pretend you suddenly don't exist. In fact, I want you here more than ever. I want you to vet Tor for me, and see if he's okay. I want you to spend time with us. I want Tor to be a part of this family, as much as I want to be a part of my biological one."
"Really?"
"He lost his mum, dad and sister and for a while he lost his brother too. He's like us Will, he's older and everything but deep down he's a kid without his family. You know what christmas first felt like when we lived here. The presents and the tree, the dinner and Grandma coming over. Feeling a proper part of it all? Tor wants it too, I just know it."
"Mhm."
"And if that DNA test comes back negative, we can turn our back on all of it and act like it never happened. Deal?"
"Deal." We shook on it and then fell back into another hug.
Time skip:
"That's James," Dad said, in answer to the doorbell ringing. "Wilbur can you open the door for me?"
I walked down the hallway and looked at the family whiteboard, Tubbo had physio this morning, so Techno and I were coming along because Dad had promised we could go do mini golf just the four of us afterwards. Dad mentioned that having some time for us older ones to do stuff together was important too. James was taking Tommy to the park in the morning anyway, and then was going to do some school work with him in the afternoon, so it was all working out.
"Morning Wilbur!"
"Morning James," I let him in and we walked back into the kitchen together. Tommy ran over and jumped at James for a hug.
"Morning Tommy! How are you big man?"
"Yea!"
"You good yea?"
"Yea."
"Good, you excited about going to the park?" Tommy nodded and went back to the grapes that he'd been eating.
"Morning James," Dad said. Techno and Tubbo were upstairs in Techno's room playing some video game on his laptop. Kristin and Kelly were already on their way to the hospital, so it was just the three of us with James.
"Morning Phil. Just before I forget, is there a certain time you want us back by?"
"Umm, you're on shift until five, but I don't know when we'll be back. So I guess whenever he gets fed up with the park just come back and do some school stuff. He's really enjoying it at the moment, especially his reading and maths but it's not important so if he's loving the park just stay there."
"Great. And I forgot to email you, but that week with the drama camp is all good with me. Did you want me to drop him off and bring him home?"
"That's is amazing, thank you so much and no, we'll drop him off and pick him up. We're bringing his friend, Beau home too so it'll be fine. Should be a good gauge for how September goes?"
"Yea it should be. Are they going to contact me with some more info?"
"Now I know you can make it, I'll forward them your email and they can start sending stuff on to you. I don't think you're the only one on one support they've got this year, so should be nice?"
"Yep. Well, I'll get out of your hair, Tommy where's your backpack?"
"Okay, my bad, I've not packed it yet, I'm half through making the snack bags." Dad said.
"That's alright, I can pack it, is it upstairs?"
"Yes, do you know where his bedroom is?"
"I do, Tommy, do you want to come help?" My little brother nodded and ran up the stairs; James followed calmly.
I looked back to Dad who was chopping up some cucumber and placing it in a small food bag. "We'll have to get school stuff soon, Tommy needs a lunchbox."
"Can't you use Techno's for today?"
"Your brother uses a food bag and just throws everything in. I'm not doing that for Tommy. Plus he'll need one for the drama camp. Do you need anything for September?"
"You already had to get me the new school uniform in like January, it still fits."
"Stationary stuff?"
"Oh yea, I need like more pens and stuff oh and more lined paper. I think I've got enough folders for everything though."
"Good. And have you started your summer work yet?"
"Yea." I said, evidently not having even looked at what I had to do. Dad laughed lightly.
"If you need help starting or processing, just ask and we can do it."
"I know, I know, I'll have a look at it tomorrow."
"Your friends are over tomorrow for band practice."
"Oh yea, I've literally just seen that on the whiteboard."
"I'm sure you'll get round to it at some point."
"Yea, I will, probably." He gave me a stern look and then laughed. "I've just thought, we have to go to the sports/ uniform shop don't we?"
"Yea, Tubbo needs the blazer from there, and I need the patch for Tommy's jumpers. But then we need to get all the sports uniform stuff. I don't think all of that have to come from that shop though. It's been a long time since we did the sport stuff."
"Only because Techno barely used his sports kit, so when I grew into it, it was actually still wearable."
"Yep. Well I need to order some other stuff online, so let's get it all sorted this weekend?"
"Sounds good."
"You excited about the mini golf?"
"Yea, I love Tommy and Kelly, but it's nice to have a bit of time as like the 'older ones'?"
"That's the plan. We also were hoping to you and Techno spending a bit of time just you two as well, would you like that?"
"Yea, that would be nice."
"Good. We'll make sure it happens then. What's the time?" I checked my phone and told him.
"Okay, let me do a water bottle for Tommy, make sure James has the spare house key and then head off, do you want to get your brothers for me?"
"Sure." I said with a smile, rushing up the stairs.
James' POV:
Once we'd finished packing his backpack and had talked to Phil, Tommy got into the back seat of my car and rocked back and forth repeatedly until I put our music playlist on. With the music playing, he was quite happy and hummed his way to the park.
"You ready for the park?"
"Yea."
"Good." I grabbed his backpack from the front seat and went to get him out the car. He almost immediately went to run off. My fingers slipped into the hood of his jumper in time and he was jolted backwards. "Sorry mate, I didn't mean to make you jump." It had been a split second reaction and completely unintentional, but I was still glad it had stopped him from running off.
He whined and pulled away. "I know, I'm sorry. But we have to stay safe."
I got moving, knowing Tommy wasn't going to wait around much longer. Throwing his backpack over one of my shoulders, I took his hand and walked into the park together. The swings were first. I went to go and push him. He shook his head, whining and kicked his legs. "What's up?"
"Stop." He signed.
"Well done communicating, and can you push yourself?" He nodded. "Right, well I swing next to you then." I sat in the swing and watched Tommy launch himself up as high as he could. It took him a while but he soon found his rhythm and was getting higher and higher.
He was happy and safe and as far as I was concerned that was all that mattered.
Time skip:
"Okay and what about the area of that one. What's there?"
"Circle, square, triangle."
"Yep, so let's do each step at a time. How do you work out the area of the circle?" He stared at the calculator, back to the question at the top of his exercise book page and then pressed a few buttons. "Pi times 4 squared? Yep, well done. So let's write this down." I grabbed the pen and began to lay out the steps to the question, Tommy studied me as I did it.
Once I'd finished writing what we'd done so far, I looked back to him. "So what's the answer for that part?" He pressed the equals button and pushed the calculator over to me. "16 pi. Nice job, now next step."
We continued with this process of back and forth with the calculator and the piece of paper and so on. Working through a number of questions until Tommy got restless. "Okay mate, let's take a break. Shall we have a snack?" He nodded and got up to run around the living room a bit.
"So you've got dried apple, crackers or whatever this chocolate bar thing is; what do you want?" He tapped the chocolate bar thing (I really couldn't work out what it was) and took it from the table. I placed the rest of the snacks on the kitchen counter and grabbed a cup of water for myself. Tommy came over and looked at me. "You want a drink too?" He looked at me like I was stupid. "You're water bottle is in the side of your backpack, can you get it yourself?"
"Yea."
"Good. Shall we put some Doctor Who on?"
"Yea." I grabbed the tv remote and opened the chocolate bar for him as he paced around the coffee table, happily humming to himself.
After getting myself a biscuit from the cupboard, I sat down with him on the sofa and we remained there until Kristin and Kelly came back. It was my first time meeting Kelly and then I took Tommy down to the music room and we played piano together. If I was being paid to be there, I felt a responsibility to actually do stuff with Tommy. Not just sitting around, eating biscuits.
A/n Hey! I know some people prefer these chapters, but the oneshots was where I started and I sometimes like writing them here or there for a bit of a break. Thanks for being supportive No matter what I really appreciate everyone reading the rubbish I put out. Okay, cool, see you on Friday!