Tommy wakes up first, he sits up and yawns before jumping a bit when he notices someone else sleeping next to him. He crawls over to the body and sees what he's pretty sure is his older brother's messy brown hair. Just to be sure however, he pushes his hair up and turns his head to look at his face.

He jumps a little when Wilbur wakes up from the sudden disturbance and sits up on the bed. Tommy thinks he should have a lot of questions about why Wilbur ended up here too, but he can't think of any right now. "Wilbur?"

The older boy blinks and pushes his hair out of his face. Wilbur never really was a morning person like Tommy and Techno, but Tommy was feeling pretty patient this morning so he just sits criss cross on top of the covers and waits for his brother to say something.

"We need to talk to Toms, I want to explain what's happening before we leave this room and see Philza."

"What do you mean 'what's happening' Wilbur? I feel like something's always happening." He mumbles and looks at his hands.

Wilbur goes on to explain about the shed and how he spoke with Philza last night and arranged for them to stay here. Tommy leans back a bit, trying to take the new information in.

"What about Techno? How will he know we're here?" Techno had just left that morning, Tommy didn't want him to think they left him out in the cold.

"We're gonna go back to the woods and collect everything we can. We'll leave him a note and if we see any of his friends we tell them too. He'll find us Tommy." Tommy watches as Wilbur gets out of bed. He stays sitting on the bed, unsure if Wilbur wants him to follow.

He squeaks when Wilbur locks his arms under Tommy's shoulders and lifts him up off the bed. "Come on now, let's go help with breakfast."

"We're cooking something?" He questions while trying to get his balance back from the sudden movement. Wilbur laughs before walking out the room. Neither of them had changed from their casual clothes, Tommy hoped Wilbur had been able to bring their outfits.

Their door opens to the living room where they see Phil already up and reading the paper. He quickly sets it down and stands up off the, in Tommy's opinion, ugly floral couch.

He worries that they had slept in late, but the living room clock says it's 7am. Phil must have to open the shop soon.

The boy climbs up on the unoccupied side of the couch and tucks himself in the corner tiredly. He closes his eyes as Wilbur and Phil talk about their plans to go back to the woods today.

He can't be bothered to listen to them, instead he just leans into Wilbur when he sits in-between him and Phil and starts running his hands through his hair.

Though he's worried about Techno, he doesn't quite mind the shed being destroyed. Phil's house was nicer. Not that he would tell Wilbur and Techno that.

He feels the couch shift as Wilbur stands up. He's taken by surprise when he's suddenly lifted off the couch and carried to the kitchen.

"Wilbur!" He shouted, surprised to be getting tossed around so early in the morning.

He's set down at the kitchen table, facing the kitchen where he sees Wilbur open the top cabinet and pull out some bread and jam.

Tommy considers going to help him but he's still waking up and the cold feeling of the kitchen table was way too nice on his face to leave.

So he just presses his cheek against the table and watches Wilbur put the bread in the oven and walk over to him and set the jam down on the table.

It was a fairly well kept kitchen, especially for a single person to have been keeping up with. It had red countertops and white cabinets. It definitely matched the living room.

Tommy thinks if he had a house it'd have more pastel colors. All the dark colors and patterns hurt his head a bit.

"You okay there Tommy?" Phil asks, coming into the kitchen and setting down the newspaper.

"I'm just sleepy still." he mumbles against the table tile.

"You're usually so energetic in the mornings." Wilbur says before coming over to him and putting a hand on his forehead.

Tommy guesses that with the way Wilbur seems more relaxed after checking his temperature, that he doesn't have a fever.

"So the one time I'm not yelling by seven I'm sick?" He laughs and Wilbur smiles too before pulling the toast out the oven.

Phil puts on his shoes and adjusts his outfit. "Alright, I'll be running the store. See you both soon."

"Okay, we'll be down in a moment." Wilbur says and Tommy just waves as Phil heads down the stairs.

A slice of bread cut in two triangles is placed in front of him and Wilbur starts putting jam on it.

"I took what was important already. We're just going to see what else is salvageable. And you can leave a letter for Techno okay?"

"Wilbur." He says very seriously as he picks up one of the jam covered triangles.

"What is it Tommy?"

"I can't write the letter. I'm ten how do you expect me to- to just-"

He struggles to explain. His face feels hot, upset that he can't do it himself. He wants to be the one to write the letter for his brother but Wilbur seems to have forgotten he can't.

To his surprise, Wilbur starts laughing. His shoulders shaking and his curls bouncing. Tommy tilts his head, not really sure what's so funny.

"Toms, I know you can't write yet. It's okay. I'm gonna write what you say to him plus the important stuff like the address. There's no need to be upset." The brunett pats his shoulder firmly.

"Oh, that's a good idea. I like that." With that resolved, Tommy finally starts eating his toast.

-------------

They're on the way to the shed, Tommy kicking the pebbles and gripping the coat Phil gave him tightly. It was November now, thanksgiving was a week away.

Tommy didn't miss much about the orphanage, but he really loved celebrating the holidays with such a big group of people. He regards last year's thanksgiving as his favorite since it was the first one since befriending the older two brothers.

He remembers getting upset and insisting he sat with the older kids to the point Wilbur and Techno just snuck away and sat outside with him instead.

The sky was gray, threatening to snow that day but Tommy didn't really care. He just sat against the trunk of a fir tree and laughed with his brothers. Techno and Tommy start fighting with the utensils before an exasperated Wilbur breaks them up.

For a moment, Tommy thinks he's actually upset. But Wilbur's laughing at how guilty they both look.

Wilbur hates the cold, so they're walking back inside before Tommy really wanted to. He and Techno stayed in the common area while Wilbur went to his room, mumbling some kind of poor excuse.

Tommy wished Wilbur knew that he didn't have to lie about wanting to be alone.

He hoped Phil celebrated Thanksgiving too. Maybe he'd ask when they were back to the bookstore.

"Wilbur? Is it rude to ask someone if they do thanksgiving?" He feels nervous to bring it up, but he might as well make sure he won't embarrass himself asking Phil. He doesn't want Wilbur to think he's asking to do thanksgiving.

"What- no Toms almost everyone does. Even if they don't have a lot of food to cook."

"Is that why there's so many signs about it everywhere?"

"Yeah, you'll be seeing headlines about it in those papers of yours before you know it with it being so soon."

Tommy nods, and they both stop walking when they see the half destroyed shed before them. The river is still rushing beside it, the firepit of rocks Tommy and Techno worked so hard on remained unharmed as well.

The world around the shed would make you think nothing ever happened at all. Tommy could see the remains of the shed, but he had a hard time feeling upset. Perhaps since he hadn't seen it fall.

However when he sees the troubled look on Wilbur's face, he realizes how bad this must've been for him. Having to decide what to take while the place itself is collapsing would be a hard choice for Tommy. He thinks he would've taken something replaceable like their coats.

To be fair, the documents and other things Wilbur was smart enough to take with him to Phil's were on a shelf Tommy couldn't reach. Even if he had thought of it, he wouldn't have been able to retrieve it intime. Especially with how little time his brother had to get out.

He's grateful Wilbur was home alone instead of him, he couldn't imagine how scared he would've felt if the shed had collapsed and he was the one who didn't know where Wilbur was or what to do.

Wilbur makes no move to start going through what's salvageable, still just staring at the place. Tommy takes his hands out of the oversized coat pockets and walks into the still standing side.

The blankets and Pillows are all still wet, and dirtied from the water rushing on the ground.

He takes a smaller blanket, a blue one with a silky trim. The others were too large or damaged beyond what Techno's sewing skills can repair.

He takes the baby blanket in his arms, making sure his hands are covered by it. Before walking over to see what Wilbur was doing.

"I think we can save this one." He holds out the blanket for Wilbur to inspect.

He feels a little hurt when Wilbur gives him no response but a nod before picking up a bucket and start walking away.

"Wha- where are you going Wil?" He wraps the blanket around his shoulders before hurrying after him. There wasn't much to get since there never was much to begin with, but Wilbur isn't headed home.

"I gotta reset the traps." Wilbur tells him, his voice didn't sound right. It sounded shaky like Tommy's when he was trying not to cry.

"Wilbur, are you sad?" He asks without thinking. He regrets it immediately when Wilbur stops in his tracks and takes a deep breath.

He takes a deep breath too, copying his brother while looking up at him. His brother wasn't looking back, his eyes were closed while he stood there,

"No... not sad. Just- I don't know. I feel a lot of things right now."

They keep walking. Tommy looks at the ground, trying to think of what to say. When he doesn't know how he feels he just starts shouting till someone figures it out for him. Wilbur isn't like that though. He doesn't think yelling is what Wilbur needs to do.

"Conflicted. I feel very conflicted right now. Maybe 'overwhelmed' is a better term but it feels all the same." Surprised by Wilbur's voice, Tommy looks up to see Wilbur sitting fiddling with a ground trap. His coat hood is pulled up and it makes him seem so much smaller as he faced away from Tommy.

He plants himself down next to Wilbur and tentatively hands him the blanket. "Does this help?" He hopes it does, he sees Techno looking at the blanket sometimes and when the rogue brother does he always looks troubled like Wilbur.

He watches as Wilbur covers his mouth with one hand while the other just holds the blanket. "Yeah, I think it does."

Tommy lets Wilbur have his strange moment with the blanket before Wilbur's draping it back over his shoulders as it had previously been and pulled Tommy into a hug. He hears Wilbur sniffle and tries to recall what his brothers do when he cries.

"It'll be okay. I'd feel overwhelmed too if I was the one alone in that storm."

Wilbur pulls away. "I'm glad you weren't the one alone. I'm glad you have so many people- good people at that, looking out for you." Tommy can tell he's about to cry again by the way his lip trembles when he looks at him.

"You have people looking out for you too. Techno and I are the greatest people! Plus Phil but I still think we're better." This earns a laugh from Wilbur. "Don't tell him I said that though okay?"

"Alright, your secret's safe with me Toms." Tommy smiles with relief to see Wilbur finally sound normal again. "Enough with these traps, let's go write a letter to one of the greatest people."

He accepts Wilburs outstretched hand and lets himself be pulled up off the grass. "So, here's how we start the letter...'