"Where beauty stands, and waits."

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No TWS other than yelling/familial arguments!


It had been gradual. Being the youngest, Tommy was used to being the center of attention; always one for easy affection and causing a bit of havoc, his family had practically been forced to dote on him. His father spent more time shepherding him out of harms way than sleeping, and he cajoled his brothers into indulging every impulse he had. If he was being honest, his early childhood had been a happy one, of lawns flush with dandelions and rough-housing with his brothers, late nights spent whispering ghost stories under covers and all the things that made growing up bittersweet.

But things changed, they always did, and his family was no different.

It had started off simple; his brothers were suddenly spending less time with him, occupied with high school and the separate hobbies that kept them out of Tommy's orbit. Tommy would knock on Wilbur's door to find the teen with headphones on his head and a notebook in hand, hunching over the pages as he scribbled down whatever song lyrics or fragments of a poem must thunder in his head, shouting at Tommy to get the fuck out of his room. Tommy didn't even bother with Techno, he was never home anyways. Always practicing fencing or studying at the library.

It was times like that where Tommy saw how his two brothers, so different than the other, were twins. They were like parallel streetcars, always rushing along the trolley-lines of their own lives that kept them separated, never crossing but always brushing past one another. Tommy rarely saw the two in the same room, but sometimes, late at night, he would hear them chatting quietly in the living room in tones softer than he'd heard in a while. No matter how much they pretended to hate each other, how many hours of 'silent-treatment' they condemned each other to or how much they bickered, they were twins. They understood their other half in the way no one else could—and they mutually agreed to ice their youngest brother out.

Tommy used to joke to his dad that the twins only got along when they ganged up on him, but as the years passed and Tommy grew from five to six to seven to ten, it seemed like his brothers had turned humor into reality. The days of light hearted teasing and kicked shins under kitchen tables were gone, now it was just rolled eyes and too-rough shoves and huffs of would you shut up and leave me alone for five minutes?

Dad was no help. The man was either driving Techno to a tournament or at work, rarely giving so much as a quick 'see ya later mate' to Tommy as he hurried out the door. The few hours that he spent in the house was split between knocking out on the couch or braving Wilbur's constant need to pick a fight. The two were constantly arguing now, over dinner plates and morning pots of coffee, and Lord help anyone caught in the crossfire. Tommy did his best to avoid the two when they got into it, and Techno was always gone anyways, but it was like they were two black holes trying to drag him into their chaos; every shouting match either had his name crop up or ended with both of them telling him off.

And today was just the same: Wilbur and Dad were getting into another pissing contest, and Techno was out of the house. At first Tommy had tried to block out the harsh whispers of his family in the kitchen, trying to focus on the DS in his hands, but the whispers soon bloomed into shouts as Wilbur's venomous snarl floated from the other room.

"—no, it's because you keep leaving to take Techno to tournaments! It's the middle of the semester year! Why can't he take a break for a month?"

He's not wrong, he thought even as he feigned indifference, watching Mario jump over a koopa shell on his screen.

"Will, mate, you know that this is important to your brother—"

"As important as our family? As me? Oh, and don't get me started on Tommy—"

A Bullet-Bill rushed towards him, and he scrambled to press the up button, barely making it to safety.

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