Brothers? - SBI Orphanage AU

Chapter 24 - The Youngest

A/N: For this chapter, I've had the basic idea for it since soon after I came up with this au idea, but I'm not sure how much I like the actual chapter. Either way, I hope you enjoy!

-Phil's POV-

I'm in the spare room studying, and Tommy's also in the room finishing his homework. I'm sure when he's done he'll run over to Techno and beg him to teach him Minecraft. I glance away from my work and look over at my calendar and see that Will's birthday is coming up (1).

"Huh, Wilbur's turning 15 in a few weeks" I say out loud to myself.

Tommy sighs and puts down his work. "I know." He sounds kind of sad. I stop studying and turn toward him.

"Hmm? Do you not want it to be Will's birthday?" Maybe Tommy's just worried that he doesn't have a present for Wilbur or something?

Ignoring the question, he asks, "Phil, why do I have to be the youngest?"

I don't see how that's related to what we were talking about, but okay. I reply, "Uh, because you were born after us?" I mean, what else can you really say to that question?

"Well yeah, but... I don't want to be the youngest! It sucks!" Tommy complains.

"Why? Are you tired of Will teasing you about it? (2)"

"No, it's– it's not that. It's just, I'm (3) a full 2 and a half years younger than anyone else in the family."

I wait for him to explain the problem. Like, he could be complaining about how since we're older we're more busy or are less likely to like the same things that he does, but in this family we all have very different interests either way.

He sighs again. "It's just, Phil, in a bit over a year, you're leaving. And you're probably going to go to some big fancy psychology college that's a million miles away. Then, a year and a half later, Techno is leaving, then Wilbur soon after, and I'm still left here for another 2 and a half years, alone."

"Tommy... About the college thing, I've already decided that I'm going to go to a community college for at least my undergraduate years, and I'll get an apartment nearby so I can still see you guys fairly often. I kind of have to do the community college thing anyway because I don't have enough money saved up to pay for a full 4 year college, plus the apartment, plus anything else that you guys need help with."

"Really?"

"Mm hmm!"

Tommy processes this out loud. "Okay. So, that means that you'll end up leaving for college just after Wilbur leaves the orphanage."

I think about that. He's not wrong, and the worst part of his problem, which is after everyone leaves, is still there.

"Tommy, I'm not completely sure how yet, but I'll find a way to help you. I promise" After I said that, I felt kind of bad because I don't like promising things unless I'm completely sure I can fulfill them. And there might not be a way to fix the problem. "Well, I promise I'll try my very best, at least."

"You will?"

I stand up, walk over to him, and give him a hug. "I promise."

I go down to the library to come up with ideas. And by the next day I had some ideas. Don't worry, I didn't stay up all night, but sometimes when you go to sleep with a problem you wake up with an answer, and that was the case here.

So, the problem is that Tommy will still be in the orphanage and everyone else will be gone. The 2 ways to solve this are either to take Tommy out of the orphanage or to make everyone else stay. If we make everyone else stay, not just will that inconvenience everyone else, but they can't stay in the actual orphanage so at best it will be family visits every week or so. The much better solution would be to have Tommy not need to stay at the orphanage.

After doing some searches on the internet (4), I realized that once I'm over the age of 18, I can legally adopt people. The plan I have is that once Wilbur turns 18, I'll adopt Tommy so he doesn't need to be in the orphanage alone. But I won't be his dad, instead I'll just be his guardian/older brother. Then, I can either find a way to go to an online college or I could go to another college and live off campus with Tommy. Of course, I should still tell Tommy about it so I can get his approval or he can point out any problems with it.

I pull him aside before school today and tell him what I've come up with. At the end, I asked, "So, how does that sound? Do you see any problems with it? Do you have any problems with it?"

"I don't think so. Wow, that's— You'd do that? Adopt me I mean? You'd have to share your apartment with me after 2 years of living alone, and pay for things that right now the orphanage pays for."

"I know. I don't care."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep!" I could tell he wasn't completely convinced, but I moved on anyway. "You do realize that if I don't find an online college that has the major I want and is in my price range and all of that, we'll have to move to wherever my college is and you'll have to go to a different school. Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, I don't care."

Wait... I smirk slightly and say "Are you sure?" in the same voice Tommy did earlier.

He looked at me, annoyed, before responding "Yep!" in the same voice I used earlier.

"Great! And fortunately none of this will actually happen for another 3 years, and who knows what will happen before then?"

A/Ns:

1. I'm making this chapter that starts with Will's birthday being in a few weeks, but I'm not actually going to make a chapter for his birthday. You're welcome.

2. Yes I'm aware that Wilbur hasn't actually teased him about it in any chapters that I've written, but let's pretend that he has because that's a very Wilbur thing to do and because I don't want to have to add it to other chapters.

3. When I got here I had a problem because I realized that up until now, I didn't give Tommy an actual age yet.

4. I didn't actually do any searches so I'm just assuming this idea works. If it wouldn't irl, it does in this au, okay? Okay.

If this chapter was too technical and you're confused, basically what happened is Tommy was sad that everyone is going to turn 18 and leave the orphanage before him, so Phil promised that when Techno and Wilbur leave, he'll adopt Tommy so Tommy can live with him instead of alone in the orphanage.

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And that's a wrap! Brothers 2 is complete. You can find it by going to my account, it's under books I've written. Check it out!

Chapter word count: 965

Total word count: 1175