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Wilbur woke up to the sound of his alarm clock going off. He groaned and tried to put his pillow over his ears. When his alarm didn’t snooze itself like it usually did, he turned over and smacked it until it stopped beeping.
He thought about going back to sleep but it was much too early for him to even try. Besides, he could already feel the soreness of his throat setting in. He checked his phone with a sigh and frowned when he saw the date.
Sunday, December 24 - Christmas Eve
He tossed his phone to the other side of the bed. Tomorrow marked yet another Christmas he would be spending alone. But this time, he could only be mad at himself. He finally had plans for a fun holiday and he ruined it by deciding not to stay inside.
At the beginning of the year he had gotten a job working at a local coffee shop. It wasn’t for a big franchise like most coffee shops in the country were. This was one of London's best kept secrets.
Las Nevadas was one of the best coffee shops in the area. It had a great community and it was a surprisingly quiet area for being located in such a loud city. Once they started getting more and more popular, the owner had ended up needing to hire more staff.
Wilbur was one of the lucky four to get hired for the morning and early evening shift. He hadn’t expected anything to come of this job. He thought that his coworkers would be closed off and stuck up like most of his previous coworkers were. He was pleasantly surprised to find out he was wrong.
There were only 3 other employees that worked his shift. He worked as the main cashier and the three other teens that worked there, Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo, worked in the back. During rush hour, Tommy would work the other cash register with him so that he didn’t get overwhelmed but he mainly stayed in the back with the other two.
Since they were a coffee shop, their main customers were people who were trying to wake themselves up for school or work, or teenagers and young adults coming to get coffee so they could stay awake long enough to finish their homework. This meant that they always had an hour or two where they got very few customers.
During those two hours, Wilbur thought he would be sitting boredly at the cash register while they all did their own things and for a while, he did. Then one day, Tubbo brought in Uno for the four of them to play and that was the start of a beautiful friendship (and a mutual agreement to ban uno while they’re clocked in).
They spent more and more time together during their quiet hours and eventually it led to them all hanging out when they were off the clock.
One day, they went to the mall during one of their big ‘Christmas in June’ events. They tried to participate but all of them admitted that they had never actually had a real Christmas so it would’ve been impossible for them to win. None of them minded losing much. They still had fun anyway.
Afterwards, Wilbur had the idea for all of them to come over to his house and they could have their first proper Christmas together. They had all excitedly agreed and spent the next six months planning everything out.
Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy were going to come over the night before and bring some ornaments, tinsel, and lights and they would all decorate the tree then put whatever presents they had for each other under the tree and in the stockings.
Then they would have a sleepover and get up ridiculously early to open presents, have a snowball fight if it snowed and watch hallmark movies if it didn’t, then attempt to cook Christmas dinner (and end up ordering takeout anyway).
It was going to be the perfect day and one all of them had been looking forward to.
Sadly, Wilbur was a dumbass. He had gone stargazing about a week ago on a night after it snowed. His power had gone out due to the snow storm and decided now was as good a time as ever to cross it off his bucket list. However, he fell asleep outside and woke up the next day with a nasty cold.
He thought he would get better by Christmas, but he only got worse. Now it was the day before christmas and he was stuck in his house with an undecorated tree and a nasty cold. He considered going back to bed and sleeping away his misery but before he could finish that thought, his phone rang.
Gremlin - Mobile
He rolled his eyes fondly and picked up the phone. “What do you want from me, child?” he asked once the call connected.
“I’m not a child, bitch.” Wilbur could hear the scowl Tommy had on his face and had to stop himself from laughing. “Ranboo and Tubbo told me to ask you if you’re less contagious so that we can come over la–”
Tommys question was cut off by Wilbur being sent into a fit of coughs. Once Wilbur was done, Tommy sighed. “I take that as a no then.”
Wilbur frowned solemnly. “Sorry Toms. No amount of Mucinex has helped me thus far. Christmas is officially canceled.”
Tommy made a sound of disappointment. “I guess there's always next year. Get well soon, king.” And with that, he hung up the phone.
Wilbur sighed and face planted on the bed. He felt miserable. First, he caught a cold right before the holidays and then he had to cancel what would’ve been his first proper Christmas. Tommy was right, there is always next year but he doesn’t want to wait that long.
He looked over at the discarded cold medicine and glared at it. If that was the medicine that doctors most recommended, then London needed better doctors.
Since he couldn’t sleep anymore he decided to make him some breakfast. He dragged himself out of bed and shrugged on the robe that was tossed carelessly on his desk chair and vaguely thought that he should do laundry at some point.
Once he was comfortable, he trudged down the stairs and turned on the radio. Nat King Cole started blasting through his kitchen and he scowled. “The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot. Really?” he mumbled to himself, annoyed with the radio station's choice in music. It was like they were taunting him.
He decided he was too lazy to change the station and looked in his cabinet to see what he could eat while singing the song under his breath. “ He's the little boy that Santa Claus forgot. And goodness knows, he didn't want a lot.”
He didn’t have a lot. Thanks to Tommy and Ranboo, he had an endless supply of soup and tea because they insisted it would help with his stomach and throat. His stomach didn’t even hurt, but it was the thought that counted.
Not having hardly anything else to eat, he made himself some soup. Once it was done, he sat at the table and ate by himself while the radio station went through more and more holiday songs. He couldn’t help but think about the others. If anything, he hopes they spent Christmas together at one of their apartments.
When he finished his soup, he pushed the bowl aside and laid his head down on the table. His blinks started to get longer and he noticed how tired he actually was. It was around noon by now and he was tired enough to sleep through the rest of the day. Once he was comfortable, he drifted off thinking about how awesome Christmas should have been.
He was awoken a few hours later to a loud knock on his door. He sat up quickly, startled by the noise. “Who the fuck is at my door?” he asked himself. It was 9 pm on Christmas eve. Even carolers should be with their families by now.
When whoever was knocking still didn’t go away, he sighed and dragged himself to his door. “Merry Christmas, what do you wa– Tubbo?” He was surprised to see the 18 year old at his house with a tote full of wrapped presents and some lysol.
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” Tubbo smiled.
Usually, Wilbur would make some joke to clap back with but Tubbo wasn’t supposed to be here. “What are you doing here?”
Tubbo raised his eyebrows at him. “What does it look like I’m doing here?”
Wilbur rolled his eyes at him. “Shouldn’t you be with Tommy and Ranboo?” he tried again.
As if on queue, Ranboo and Tommy both came up behind Tubbo with disinfectants and their own totes full of gifts. “We’re here big man,” Tommy grinned. “Now let us in before we catch colds too.”
Wilbur stepped aside and let them in then closed the door behind them. He watched on in shock as they opened their totes and pulled out tinsel, lights, bells, and ornaments. “Why are you three here?” He finally asked right before they started decorating the tree.
Tommy rolled his eyes and turned to face Wilbur. “It’s Christmas and we had plans.”
“Yeah, plans that I canceled because I’m sick,” Wilbur retorted.
Tubbo scoffed. “Since when have we ever listened to you?”
Wilbur gasped offendedly. “It’s my house. Get out before you get sick.” He tried turning to Ranboo to help him out since Ranboo was the more sensible of the three but even he looked unapologetic. “Ranboo, please,” he tried.
Ranboo just shrugged nonchalantly. “Nobody should be alone on Christmas.”
Wilbur sighed realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this argument. “Let me go blow my nose and then we can decorate the tree,” he relented. Tommy and Tubbo cheered while Ranboo just nodded contentedly.
While Wilbur was gone, they laid out the decorations and sprayed lysol in the living room– just in case– then plugged in all the lights and started sorting them by color. When Wilbur came back, he was surprised that they weren’t causing chaos.
“Has the ghost of Christmas Past come and mellowed you three?” Wilbur wondered.
Tubbo barely looked over at Will as he responded. “This is our first real Christmas. We need everything to be perfect .”
Wilbur chuckled and shook his head fondly. “What do you need me to do?”
Without looking, Tommy tossed a bundle of lights in his general direction. “Untangle those and remind us to never get lights from my neighbors ever again.”
Wilbur picked up lights off the floor and turned on the album ‘An Oscar Peterson Christmas’ then got right to work. In the end, it took them 3 hours, 5 christmas albums, and 10 arguments to finally get the tree decorated. When they were done, Wilbur looked ready to pass out.
“I say we call it a night,” Ranboo suggested, noticing Wilburs blinks get longer and longer.
Tubbo looked over at Wilbur and nodded. “I agree.”
Wilbur sat down on the couch, being too tired to stand up anymore. “But we haven’t stacked the gifts.”
Tommy moved all three of their totes under the tree next to Wilburs that was already there. “See, now they’re under the tree.”
Wilbur frowned and pushed himself off the couch, ignoring how dizzy he was feeling. “We’ve gotta stack them,” he insisted.
“Wilbur,” Ranboo tried, “you can barely stand. We can stack them in the morning before we open them.”
Wilbur stopped walking and for a moment, Ranboo thought he had finally convinced the man to go to sleep. Instead Wilbur frowned and faced the tree. “It won't be the same. We’ve gotta–”
Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo all glanced at each other when Wilbur cut himself off. “We have to what?” Tommy asked cautiously.
“We…we have to…” Wilbur couldn’t finish his sentence no matter how hard he tried. His head was too foggy.
The teenagers watched him wobble over to the tree and try to get his point across but before he could even talk, he fell and the tree went down with him.
Thankfully all the ornaments were plastic so they didn’t have to worry about glass being everywhere but Wilbur was on the floor out cold. Ranboo was at Wilbur's side in a second, Tubbo and Tommy being close behind him. He put a hand to his forehead and frowned. “He’s burning up.”
Tommy immediately pulled out his phone and started looking up what to do. “Google says to get him water, a cold bath, something cool for his head, and some medicine,” he said.
“Alright, uh, Tommy you’ve been here more than Ranboo and I have so while we move him to the couch, go put some water in the freezer, get a cold cloth, and find where he keeps his medicine,” Tubbo instructed.
Tommy nodded and ran off to go get the stuff they needed. Once he was gone, Ranboo and Tubbo carefully lifted him off the tree and onto the couch. “He isn’t as heavy as I thought he would be,” Tubbo remarked.
“Moving coffee machines around when they break everyday will do that for you,” Ranboo chuckled.
“Do you think I’ll be able to properly throw you out of the window whenever you piss me off now?” Tubbo asked, giving Ranboo an innocent smile.
Ranboo carefully took a step away from Tubbo. Before Tubbo had the chance to mess with him further, Tommy came back in with all the stuff Tubbo told him to grab. “He already had water in his freezer,” Tommy explained, handing Tubbo the frozen water bottle and medicine.
Tommy put the cold cloth on Wilburs head and Tubbo put medicine on the table beside the couch as well as the water bottle. “It should have melted some by the time he wakes up,” Tubbo explained, stepping back.
“What do we do now?” Ranboo wondered.
“I think we go to sleep but I’ll set an alarm to get up and check his temperature every hour,” Tommy suggested.
Ranboo frowned. He knows Tommy cared about Wilbur but he didn’t want Tommy to be the only one getting up to make sure he’s okay. “How about we all take turns getting up. You set an alarm for one hour and check on him and if his temperature has started going down, you set an alarm on one of our phones for the next hour and we continue that cycle until his temperature is normal.”
Tubbo nodded along to what Ranboo was saying and Tommy had no choice but to agree. “Fine. What are we going to do tomorrow though? He’s a little too sick to open presents and attempt to cook dinner tomorrow,” Tommy pointed out.
Tubbo shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Tommy thought about it for a second but dropped it knowing that they should go to sleep instead of brainstorming ideas on what to do on Christmas. They could do that when they had properly slept off all of the recent events. “Do you remember where the guest rooms are?” he decided to ask instead.
Tubbo and Ranboo nodded and Tommy smiled. “Good,” he cut himself off to yawn, “I’m tired so I’m going to go to bed.”
“See you in the morning, then,” Tubbo called to Tommy as he walked down the hallway. He turned to Ranboo and gave him a small wave before following suit.
They only had to check on Wilbur three times through the night before his temperature was normal. When Wilbur woke up, it was to his phone blasting Maria Carey. He groaned and sat up muttering to Siri to turn off his alarm. He didn’t remember much of what happened last night past detangling the lights but he did know whatever happened caused him to have a massive headache.
He looked around the room but couldn’t see much, which was weird. He knew he was on the couch given that he wasn’t lying down but he should be able to see the lights from the tree. He turned on his flashlight and looked around. He noticed a half melted water bottle on the desk along with some advil. He silently thanked whichever one of his friends put it out and took the medicine.
He waited a few minutes for it to kick in and once it did, he decided to investigate. He got up and walked around, going straight to the light switch. He flipped on the lights, looked around the room, and gasped when he saw the state of the tree.
It was knocked over with the ornaments scattered everywhere and the lights, while still on the tree, were understandably unplugged. “What happened here?” he wondered out loud.
“You passed out.”
Wilbur screamed, startled by the response to his question. He looked over to see Ranboo standing in the entryway. “Sorry,” Ranboo said, clearly amused and unapologetic, “I, uh, came to check on you. Tubbo and Tommy are arguing over who’s going to shower first right now. We were gonna turn on a movie because we thought you wouldn’t be up for a while.”
“What do you mean I passed out?” Wilbur asked, glossing over Ranboo’s recap of his morning.
“You had a really high temperature,” he shrugged. “Our guess is that you overworked yourself and so you just….kinda collapsed.”
Wilbur frowned realizing that he most likely fell onto the Christmas tree. “I guess this is Christmas is officially canceled, part two. And both times it was my fault.”
“I wouldn’t say Christmas is canceled. More like…postponed.”
Wilbur jumped again as a third voice joined the conversation. He turned back to Ranboo and saw Tommy and Tubbo standing behind him.
“Yeah! We can always open gifts on boxing day instead,” Tubbo agreed.
Wilbur smiled to himself wondering what he did to deserve these three as friends. As much as he picked with them, they were all great friends and he couldn’t be more glad to know them. “What are we going to do today then?” he asked.
Tommy smiled and snatched the remote from off the couch. “Well, I’m glad you asked.”
Wilbur raised his eyebrow in confusion as Tommy pushed them all to the couches and forced them to get comfortable. They directed their attention to the TV where he turned on the hallmark channel.
“Cheesy hallmark Christmas romance movies? Really?” Wilbur deadpanned.
Tommy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms defensively. “This is the first time I’ve caught them playing Crown for Christmas before it was already halfway through. Let me have this.”
Wilbur cackled and sent himself into a coughing fit. Tubbo grabbed lysol and sprayed it at him, making him cough more. “You really aren’t helping Tubbo,” he coughed out.
“I don’t care,” Tubbo shrugged with a grimace on his face. “I’m killing 99.99 percent of the shit you're coughing out.”
Wilbur flipped him off and the others laughed at him. When he finally calmed down he sat back and rolled his eyes. “Play the damn movie,” he mumbled.
Tommy smiled and complied, getting comfortable as he did. “Merry Christmas, bitches.”
“Merry Christmas, Tommy,” they all chorused dryly.
Wilbur smiled despite how he was acting. They were absolute gremlins but they were some pretty good friends.