Wilbur's POV:
On Wednesday, Dad took us out to pick up some of the stuff for school we hadn't been able to get before. Oh and food, because he suddenly realised we had barely any food in the house.
It was alright, nothing special. Techno was at his judo camp. We dropped him off on our way into town and Dad promised we'd get lunch at Wagamama's as payment for having to get up so early in the holidays. But with Techno not there and Tubbo still suffering with the last bits of his mostly cleared-up migraine, helping Tommy had become my job, sort of.
I held his hand as we went around the shops and helped him choose his meal at Wagamama's. And it wasn't my job, I knew it wasn't my job, but there is a difference between helping out every now and again and it being your job. Older siblings always help out with younger siblings. And with no Mum or Techno or James: Dad would have never taken us out if he knew I was going to be unhelpful.
When I lay in bed that evening, watching some youtube on my phone and staying up later than I should have been, I realised how tired I felt. Maybe it was just the whole day of shopping and being helpful. But there was more of a tickle in my throat now too. I used my puffer and tried to keep myself calm. Everything was going to be fine. It wasn't a chest infection, not another chest infection.
I reached for the glass of water on my bedside table and drank all of it. Once I'd convinced myself everything was fine, I nodded off to sleep and tried not to think about it any more.
Time skip:
Because Tubbo still not feeling well and my health being worse than it was even on Sunday, we had a lazy day on Thursday.
Dad was taking Tommy out for a walk and keeping him busy, whilst I lay on the sofa, pretending to watch minecraft videos on the TV but really just lying there, trying not to look as sick as I felt. And Tubbo was holed up in his room again, sleeping or laying quietly.
"Mate, if you're breathing gets bad, you call me and then call an ambulance yea?" I nodded in reply to Dad's instructions and heard the front door close. Suddenly the house was quiet and peaceful: much nicer. I love my little brother but he's not particularly good at keeping quiet. I knew how nervous Dad was to leave me alone, but as I saw it, he didn't really have another option.
Phil's POV:
I did my best to keep Tommy busy with quieter activities outside in the afternoon, not wanting to disturb my older sons sleep. But it was difficult when my youngest was so high on energy. To be truthful, I didn't help myself. I'd let himself have some orange starbursts at lunch as a reward for being quiet all morning but the extra sugar had kicked him into overdrive.
He was currently bouncing on the trampoline, giving me a moment to catch up on emails and order some stuff online for the boys going back to school. He launched himself through the open part of the net on the trampoline (which we should close, but don't because it can make Tommy feel trapped) somehow landing on his feet, totally uninjured.
"Hey mate." I said, as he ran over bare foot, hugging me immediately. "What do you want to do now?" I gave him his iPad, open on his page of the communication app with different activities.
So far this morning, we'd already played with dinosaurs, read his book, done some colouring, done some school work, read his book again and gone for a walk. I had forgotten how much Tommy enjoyed doing and we were rediscovering things we hadn't done for weeks, or months even.
"Go on a walk." The iPad said.
"We've already been on a walk today Tommy." He looked at me, facial expression unchanged and pressed the button again, letting it play out. "Okay, here's the deal. I'm too tired to take you on another walk today. I'm sorry but it's just not going to happen. When Techno gets home later, you can ask him if he'd like to take you on a walk. If he says no, you aren't going on a walk. Do you understand?"
"Walk." He signed.
"No, mate, listen to me for a minute please. If Techno says yes, then yes walk. If Techno says no, then no walk. Okay?" I signed some of it, trying to make it easier for him understand.
"Yea." He didn't look like he really meant to say yes.
"You sure?"
"Yea."
"Okay, now what else might you like to do?" He shrugged his shoulders and gave me another hug. "How about we go into the garage and see what else we've got stored away in there from last summer." He nodded and took my hand, leading me through the house. He had to wait for me to find the right key to open the garage door and was very impatient. But after I reminded him politely, he settled down.
We found some plastic skittles and bowling balls, a paddling pool, a massive bag of ball pit balls and a bubble gun. Tommy was estatic. I sent him into the garden, carrying a few of the bags and boxes and then took the rest through myself, after I'd locked the garage door again.
"Dad?" Wilbur asked. I placed the stuff on the floor carefully and leaned over the back of the sofa. "Can you get me another glass of water?"
"Of course I can mate." I said, already picking up his glass from the coffee table and moving towards the kitchen. "Did you want that second lot of pain killers?"
"Yea," his voice continued to croak and he wheezed slightly as he sat himself up.
"Do you need to take your inhaler again?" He nodded and grabbed it from the coffee table. I put the water and the meds on the coffee table and went to check on Tubbo quickly. Tommy would be fine by himself for a couple minutes and I wanted to give Tubbo the next set of meds too.
"Hey mate?" The light came through the now open door and I could see him cover his eyes. "Sorry about the light. Did you want the pain killers?"
He shook his head and lay his head back down. "Okay are you feeling better?" He nodded a little, "okay, well I'll leave you to it. Text me if you need anything." He nodded again and I slowly closed his bedroom door behind me, rushing out to the garden. From my quick check on Wilbur, he seemed more settled too and was watching something new on the tv now.
Meanwhile, in the garden, Tommy had managed to open the big bag of ball pit balls and had splayed them all over the patio and first bit of the garden. "Right." I sighed. Tommy looked at me and smiled, at least he knew I wasn't mad. "Here's the deal, we can play with them but they've got to go in this paddling pool." I held up the box that contained the deflated pool.
"Yea."
"Alright then, why don't you collect those balls and put them back in the bag. And I'll blow up the paddling pool." He nodded and went running off around the garden. At least he'd sleep well tonight.
About 10 minutes later, Tommy was lying in his paddling pool of plastic balls and loving life. We'd had no arguments about not throwing them (so far at least) and he was loving the sensory aspect. I couldn't wait for a slightly warmer day. Getting some water in that paddling pool and putting a couple of the balls in and just watching him enjoy himself. It was such a joy to see my kids enjoying themselves. And it was such a heartbreak when they weren't. Like the two of them laying inside the house now.
Techno's POV:
When I got home after judo, I took Tommy out on a walk. He was very excited about it and I didn't want to disappoint him.
Tubbo and Wilbur were both on the sofa, trying to find a movie to watch. Tubbo looked better and well, he wasn't sitting with a sit bucket so he must have been feeling better too. But Wilbur looked worse. His face was pale and he was bundled up in a duvet and a blanket. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't cold enough for all those layers either. Dad gave me a sympathetic smile and tried to encourage me with it, but it did nothing.
When we got back from the walk, Dad let us eat dinner on the sofa, watching the first Tom Holland spider man movie. I think it's called Spiderman Homecoming, or something like that. We'd wanted to watch it for ages but we get busy very easily.
Tommy loved it. And I mean loved it. It was like watching a new special interest form before my very eyes. He spent all evening running round the house, jumping on bits of furniture and doing the spiderman hands.
It took Dad and I to get him changed, showered and ready for bed that evening. I read his book with him for a little bit, but I was tired and so he went to bed pretty much dead on his bedtime. That, of course, didn't mean he went to sleep.
I was downstairs, getting myself a snack and setting myself up to play minecraft all evening when I heard a massive thud through my noise cancelling headphones. Dad got up from his seat on the sofa and took a deep breath. "We really shouldn't have watched Spiderman should we?" Wilbur said, getting a laugh out of Tubbo. I tried to laugh too but was too caught between the anxiety of Wilbur's wheeze after he'd said it and whether Tommy had hurt himself.
Scurrying upstairs with my snack, I poked my head about my younger brother's bedroom door, just to check. He was sat on the bed, Dad next to him, smiling and half-listening to what Dad was telling him.
"He's fine Tech. He just thought it would be fun to try and use his bed as a trampoline and launch himself into his tent." Tommy laughed and I nodded as I held back my own laughter. The mental image of my brother doing a flying squirrel-like motion mid-air was absolutely hilarious. "Tommy, it's not funny. You will hurt yourself."
Tommy looked at me, still smiling. "He won't listen to you Dad," I said.
"He's not really listened to anything I've said today." Dad sighed, putting his head in his hands.
"Tommy, would you like to come and watch me play minecraft?" My little brother jumped up and nodded, flapping his hands. "Okay, but you've got to lay nicely in the bed and no jumping off it." He nodded, walking over to me. "Is that alright Dad?"
"Yes, just for tonight. And only if you're sure mate? He'll wake up early and that will wake you up."
"Yea, it's fine. If it means he sleeps and doesn't injure himself. I've got to be up early for judo anyway."
"Good point. Thanks mate. I'm sorry. It should be my job."
"I don't think we expected Tubbo and Wilbur to be as indisposed as they are. I remember how difficult it was for you and Mum to keep me entertained when I was younger."
"Yea unlike you, he isn't satisfied by just an iPad or xBox. We used to feel guilty for letting you play on devices all day. But honestly, bouncing on trampolines, going on walks and playing bowling is a lot more difficult than I remember it being."
"You're just getting old," I joked.
"Maybe mate. Right, Tommy, you take Zog and your pillow, there you go. I'll come tuck you in whilst Techno gets his pajamas on."
I grabbed my pajamas and went to the bathroom to put them on. Dad was still tucking Tommy in when I got back so I just turned on my PC (which Dad had helped me a build a little, but Mum actually ended up having more time). It was a lot cooler than just a laptop and doing school work on it made me feel really cool.
Tommy fidgeted in excitement as I opened up minecraft and got a world started. He was happy and calm and not throwing himself around. Dad gave me a hug over the back of the chair, said goodnight and closed the bedroom door behind him.
"Te?"
"Yes Tommy."
"Love 'ou."
"I love you too." He smiled at me in return and waited for me to start doing something actually interesting.
A/n I was trying to get this out on time and failed by about 15 minutes, which is slightly disappointing but okay. Hope you enjoy this and thank you so much for reading it.