On the morning of Wilbur's birthday, Tommy wakes up before anybody else in the nest does.
Or maybe he didn't sleep much at all, but who's asking? He was too excited to sleep last night, just wanting the sun to rise so his day could start.
Because it's Wilbur's birthday and seeing as Tommy is the bestest, most amazing little brother in the whole wide world, he has a thrilling plan thought out on how to give Wilbur the coolest gift in the world too. And he's enlisted Ranboo and Tubbo to help.
They just need to get everything prepped before the time arrives.
Quietly, he tiptoes out of the nest and even uses the ladder to get down, making extra sure he doesn't wake anybody up. Techno is sleeping curled up against Phil, the bunny's back pressed against their father's chest, shivering a bit because it's been getting colder and he hasn't been dealing too well with that. The burrow is better for him to sleep in, but Techno is stubborn.
Phil says it's because Techno misses them when he has to sleep by himself and Tommy understands that. He'd feel lonely too if he couldn't sleep in the same nest as his family, it makes him much happier when Techno comes up to sleep with them. Or when they go down to sleep there. But it does happen that there are days when Techno can't handle being in the nest and they can't handle being in the burrow. It's sad, yet Tommy knows instincts can be whacky like that.
Wilbur is sleeping with his face smooshed into his pillow, drooling all over it. His hair is sticking up at odd angles. It's really fucking funny and Tommy wishes he had time to hang around and laugh at his older brother when he wakes up.
But he can't, because he has his gift to take care of!
Tubbo is waiting for him at the base of the hill, just like they'd agreed. Together they set out for Ranboo's place.
"I finished it last night," Tommy says, pushing the backpack he brought to the front so it's dangling from his shoulder and he can rummage inside it. "Look, I've even stitched in the ear flaps."
He pulls the cloth out and lets it unravel, fabric trailing in the wind. Tommy spent a whole week knitting it after telling Tubbo what he wanted to make and letting the bee hybrid help him with the design. It is a scarf, sort of. But a scarf that is also a hood. When pulled over Wilbur's head, it will keep his ears and the sides of his cheeks warm. And that's important because Wilbur has been learning how to fly, but he doesn't have the feather-patched skin their father does yet.
He'll grow into it someday, that's what Phil says. But in the meantime, he's been complaining about the chill when he's up too high and Tommy took that as the perfect gift idea it clearly was. With this, Wilbur will be nice and cozy!
The only problem is the color of the wool, which is currently still a boring drab greyish-white. A color that doesn't fit Wilbur at all, in Tommy's expert opinion. So he's also called in Ranboo's help and made them use their flower garden to get Tommy all the dye in the world. Or as much of it as possible.
If they get to dyeing it right now, it'll be dried and ready for tonight, when Tommy wants to give it to Wilbur during his party at the Pube.
"It looks very good!" Tubbo says - which is what Tommy expected because he really outdid himself. He puffs out his chest in pride. "And you said Wilbur didn't notice a thing?"
"Nah, I was super secretive and stuff," Tommy assures him. He knows for a fact that Wilbur doesn't know what he's getting for a present.
It's perfect.
Ranboo left her door open, showing they can walk in whenever they want. She does that sometimes when she's busy in the back. When they go inside, Tommy is immediately looking around trying to spot a certain piece of golden fruit, but it's nowhere in sight.
Ranboo walks out of her kitchen with a smirk. "I hid it."
"Then I'll find it," Tommy says. "Not today though, we have more important shit to do."
"Is that the scarf?" Ranboo asks. They hold out their hands, fingers feeling the wool. "It's very pretty. And I think the dyes I picked out should work."
Tommy smiles. "Pog!" He's excited to finish the gift, Wilbur will freak out in a totally cool way.
"What color did you want?" They follow Ranboo to the back door. Outside on the terrace, safely protected beneath a little porch roof, is a big tub of water and all these little jars of ground-up pigments on a table, made from Ranboo's flowers.
"Autumny colors, I think." Tommy had been thinking about it hard and long, but picking only one color doesn't sit right with him. Wilbur deserves more colors. And his birthday is now, in autumn, which would make it extra fitting. Also, it would look good with his hair.
"We can do kind of a combination of red, orange and yellow?" Ranboo suggests. He's picking out said colors, putting them aside for Tommy. "Make a sort of tie-dye effect."
"Won't it get all muddled and become ugly?" Tubbo asks.
"Not if you do it right."
Tommy rolls his eyes but doesn't complain. "We gotta make sure we get it right, then. Because I did not make a backup gift."
"Ranboo should give you their gapple if they fuck it up," Tubbo says. "And then that can be Wilbur's gift."
"Over my dead body," Ranboo and Tommy say at the same time - for completely different reasons. Tubbo just laughs at them.
Picking up the first jar, Tommy steps forward. "Let's do this!"
Everything is still going perfectly by the time they're heading for the orchard.
When they pulled it from the tub the scarf looked stunning, if Tommy should say so himself. They hung it out to dry at Ranboo's place. Tommy snuck back into the nest before anybody else woke up and they were none the wiser about his little surprise.
Now they are headed out - Wilbur, Techno, Phil, Jack, Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy. There's an apple orchard not too far out from the commune, not even outside the border but at the edge of it. Phil doesn't like them going there alone but it's the perfect place to pick apples. And apple pie is Wilbur's absolute favorite, so they have to make it for his birthday.
Jack says only the freshest apples make the greatest pie. If they all help with the apple picking, they won't even be out for very long.
The weather is nice, not too warm but not too cold. Tommy is walking a little behind Wilbur who is talking to Techno, and he's bursting with anticipation about the gift when he overhears their conversation.
"What do you mean you've never had a birthday?!" Wilbur sounds high-pitched in surprise and offense. As if Techno has done something wrong by never celebrating.
Honestly, Tommy kind of agrees. Not celebrating your birthday sucks.
But Techno simply shrugs, not all that bothered by it. "It wasn't a thing for us," he says.
Tommy knows that when he says 'us' he means his warren, his old family. Techno doesn't seem to think about them a lot on his own - or he doesn't seem sad about them anyway. But he mentions how different things were at that warren of his all the damn time when something the commune does is different.
Not that Tommy minds, but he draws the line at not celebrating birthdays.
"Well, we need to change that, don't we?" He ignores Techno's small interjection of 'do we?' because it's stupid and Tommy has already decided this is happening. No use fighting against fun. "When's your birthday? We'll throw the biggest party yet."
"I don't know," Techno says with another shrug, this one a bit more stiff. "When I say it wasn't a thing I meant it. We didn't keep track of when we were born."
"Huh?!" Wilbur is practically gaping by now. "That's not normal!"
"Wilbur," Phil cuts in sharply - not stern but getting there. "What did I tell you about respecting cultural differences."
Wilbur sighs, gesturing wildly. "Yeah, but- but it's a little weird, right?"
"It's only weird to us," Phil says.
"Do you want a birthday, though?" Tommy asks Techno, leaving the rest of the exchange happening between his brother and father aside. Techno considers his answer.
"I wouldn't hate having one," he decides eventually. "You get free stuff, right? I like free stuff." Phil snorts loudly and that makes Techno smirk.
"Free stuff is the best stuff," Tommy agrees. He still hasn't found that gapple, but when he does-
"I still don't know when my birthday is though," Techno says. "Do I pick a random date?"
"We could share mine!" Wilbur grabs his shoulders, spinning Techno around in a circle while they're still walking, which means they almost both end up falling on the ground. "We could be twins."
"Not how that works," Phil says but nobody pays him any mind.
"We could be twins," Techno repeats with a nod. "I like the sound of that."
"You're both ridiculous," Phil complains.
Wilbur shakes his head. "No, it's great! Because then today is also Techno's birthday and we can have a double party."
"Yeah!" Tommy whoops. Double the party sounds awesome. Except- "Wait, today is Techno's birthday?!"
"If we're twins, yeah." Wilbur's grin is infectious. Techno is smiling.
Tommy is in serious trouble.
Because he made a gift for Wilbur. He didn't prepare a gift for Techno. How could he have, Tommy didn't even know it was his birthday until three minutes ago. But now he does know and he can't go showing up to the party with only a gift for Wilbur. That'd be cruel and silly and also very not-cool and Tommy is well-established to be the coolest big man in the universe. He needs to fix up some sort of gift.
But what? And how could he ever get it ready in time?
Tommy spends the rest of the walk thinking it over and as soon as they arrive and Jack hands out the baskets they'll be using for the apple picking, the first thing Tommy does is drag Ranboo and Tubbo aside.
"Lads, this is an emergency meeting."
Tubbo sits down on the grass, cradling the basket in his lap. Somehow, there are already flowers inside (but no apples, which is what they actually came for). "Oh, I love emergencies!"
"It's Techno's birthday today," Tommy says.
Ranboo frowns in confusion. "Since when?"
"We kinda decided that impulsively while on the way over." Tommy doesn't let Ranboo interrupt him, even though the enderian clearly has a lot of concerns about this development. "So I need to come up with a gift for him, fast."
"You could always give him some carrots," Ranboo says. "He seems to like them."
"Yeah but that's not really special enough compared to what I'm giving Wilbur. Especially since it's his first birthday, it needs to be really fucking good." Tommy crosses his arms, determined. He will not settle for anything less than perfection. Or near perfection.
"There's not enough time to knit him something," Tubbo points out unhelpfully. But it does spark an idea.
"What about sewing?" Tommy says. "I can sew pretty fast."
Sewing is easier than knitting, and it takes less time. The materials are also quicker to grab in a pinch since everybody in the commune always has fabric to spare. Wool needs to be processed.
"It's only a few hours though, what can you put together that fast?" Ranboo poses it almost as a rhetorical question, all of them mulling over the possible answers. Anything with a lot of seams is out of the question. And Tommy doesn't think giving Techno a pillow will do the trick.
Maybe not a pillow, but-
"A blanket!" Tommy cries out in joy, then slaps his hands over his own mouth and looks around to make sure nobody else besides them three overheard. If he just spoiled the surprise by getting excited, he'll be so pissed.
But nobody seems close enough to have noticed.
"A blanket could be a pretty great idea, bossman!" Tubbo chimes in.
"I noticed he gets cold easily," Tommy says. "We have so many blankets but he still always forgets them in the burrow. Maybe if I make him a special one, he won't forget!"
"Sounds like a plan," Ranboo agrees. "What do you need?"
"I'd need fabric and some sort of filling."
"I got both of those at my house, you can use them." Ranboo holds out the key for him but pulls it away right as Tommy is about to snatch it. "And don't bother looking for my gapple because I hid it somewhere else."
"I wasn't!" Tommy grabs the key from them. "But also if it was, I would have totally found it immediately."
"What else?" Tubbo asks.
Tommy eyes the other people in the orchard with them. "A distraction. I don't want them to notice I'm gone."
At those words, Tubbo's smile becomes downright devilish. He's taking a lot of pleasure out of this. "A distraction? Can do, big T."
Tommy's poor wings have never had to work so hard as they did today. At an impressive speed, he's made it all the way back to the commune, speeding towards Ranboo's house. After giving the kitchen and the bedroom a courtesy gapple check (because despite what she said it's very possible Ranboo is a filthy liar. Tommy wouldn't put it past her) he sets to work.
Getting a single piece of fabric that's big enough for a blanket is hard since what Ranboo has lying around are mainly scraps from making clothes for themself. But Tommy picks out the biggest squares he can find and sews them together at lightning speed. He's had a lot of practice, thankfully. So he's super fast and good at it.
The color is a sort of purplish-pinkish-blueish mix. Tommy likes it and it will suit Techno great. He fills it up with a good amount of the heavy filling Ranboo has so it's nice and fluffy. Then he puts it next to Wilbur's scarf.
After that, he gets back to the orchard as quickly as he can.
As soon as he arrives, he basically collapses into a heap exhausted. Who knew flying around all day would be so much work? And yes if anybody asked, Tommy was totally flying and not just gliding two feet above the ground. Ranboo gives him his basket back, now filled to the brim with apples. Tommy doesn't know what Tubbo did to make sure nobody noticed he was gone, but he'll have to ask him later. All he cares about is that it worked.
Mission accomplished.
Later at the Pube, Tommy gives Wilbur his gift first. He's super happy with it (of course, as Tommy expected) and puts it on immediately despite the sweltering heat inside the bar. Then he ruffles Tommy's hair to tease him and Tommy bites his hand as payback and that's all normal for them too. It's a brother thing.
"I have something else," Tommy says then. It gets him some curious glances and Wilbur raising an eyebrow expectantly, which makes it even more fun when Tommy can shake his head with a smug smile. "No, this is for Techno. Since it's his birthday too."
"Oh?" Wilbur asks, amused. "So you got him a gift as well?"
"Of course I did," Tommy says seriously. "I don't play favorites."
There's a bit of a round of laughter at that, which Tommy decides to ignore because he can totally be the bigger man in this situation. He isn't salty or anything. He goes to the back where he'd brought Techno's blanket before, to surprise him with.
Dragging it out is a pain because it's so much heavier than a regular blanket. Tubbo has to come help him, wings beating desperately to drag the blanket along.
"Tada!" Tommy says proudly.
"That's-" Techno gets up, inspecting the blanket from all angles before even picking it up. "You made this for me?" he asks, and his voice is a little pinched. As if he can't breathe so well.
"Yeah, I said it was for you didn't I?" Tommy says.
"Why?"
Techno looks guilty as soon as the word comes out of his mouth, as if he didn't really mean to say it. But Tommy still answers.
"Because I would always get my sibling a present on their birthday, duh. That's what family does."
Lifting the blanket, Techno buries his face into it until only the top of his head is visible. Whatever he mumbles is muffled into the fabric.
"What?" Tommy asks loudly, poking at him.
Techno bats his hand away, not letting go of the blanket and barely raising his head. "I said thanks." And then upon seeing Tommy's expression go all starry-eyed, he adds, "I guess this isn't the absolute worst thing I've ever received."
"You're terrible," Tommy accuses. "I'm taking back my blanket and I'm never going to be nice to you again."
"Too late you already gave it to me," Techno says, raising it higher so Tommy can't snatch it from his arms. He wasn't planning to, but the way the bunny clings to it kind of makes his heart beat faster.
He knows Technoblade is really, really happy with it. His ears give it away.
He still rolls his eyes in fake annoyance. "Fine, you can keep it then. But you better get me something even greater for my birthday. To show me how it's done."
There's a glint of challenge in Techno's eyes. "Oh, you're on."
Tommy can't wait for spring.