Chapter Text
Tubbo wasn’t dumb. Dense, maybe, to a degree, but he was not dumb. He knew to think things through before he assumed things, especially as he was gaining fame. It’s why he was pretty sure he wasn’t jumping to conclusions with this.
Pretty sure at least.
He really hoped he was sure.
Look, Tubbo had proof- hell, he shared the proof to his parents to make sure he wasn't going crazy, because when you come to an epiphany at midnight you aren’t always sane.
Tommy’s yelling on stream matched sounded exactly like the yelling muffled but audible on Philza’s. Tubbo had spent at least an hour comparing the two clips he had stumbled across on Twitter. It was almost an exact match.
And Tubbo was going to confront Tommy about it. He was.
“Heyyy Tubs! What’s up!?” Tommy beamed at the screen when he joined the call. He had a soda, and biscuits and Tubbo could
not
do this.
“Not- not a lot.” Tubbo drummed his fingers on his desk. “Just- school.”
Tommy, thankfully, didn’t seem to notice Tubbo’s horrible fumble, since he just grinned. “Yeah same- I’m already hoping for spring break mate.”
Tubbo snorted softly in agreement. “We aren’t even done with January Toms…”
“Yeah well I want it to end already.” Tommy took a bite from his food, eating quickly to resume talking without food in his mouth. “Maybe it’ll get hit by a meteor and then I wouldn’t have to go.”
“Wouldn’t like, your entire town be destroyed if your school got hit with a meteor?”
“A small meteor, Tubbo. A small, but very destructive meteor.” The blonde on the screen crossed his arms, providing a solution that was most obvious. Tubbo wasn’t sure that there
could
be a meteor the exact right size to only damage Tommy’s school, but he wasn’t going to bicker about it (mostly because it was a really stupid argument to have).
“May your wish get granted I guess.” Tubbo said, “But- but like in monkey paw style.”
“I think it's a monkey's hand?”
“WHa- no, it’s paw. Monkeys doesn’t have hands.”
“They don’t have paws either! I’m looking this up…”
Tommy’s gaze shited away from the call and onto probably google. Tubbo just sat there, watching him look up a not very pressing question, and there was a lump in his throat that he swallowed down. He’d confront Tommy on it later he decided then and there. He could just do it later, instead of on this call. Who his father was wasn’t really something life-ending. It could wait.
Tommy blinked, “Huh. It is monkey’s paw…”
“Hah!”
—-
He was shit at confronting people. Tubbo stared blankly at Tommy’s stream, processing the fact he still hadn’t said anything. It had been two days now.
He inhaled, held it, and then finally exhaled. It’s fine. No, it really was fine! It was fine. Tubbo could do this, eventually. Maybe. Probably.
Obviously, he couldn’t do it now anyways! Tommy was streaming, and doing a confrontation in front of…. 610 viewers would be impolite, to say the least. Very, very impolite. Tommy suddenly took his headphones off, creating a jarring noise.
“Let me go ask my parents if I’m good for an extra ten-” His headphones made a loud thud as they were placed on the desk, and Tommy’s voice faded as he walked the short distance from his desktop to his bedroom door. “MUUUMMMMM!”
Tommy’s voice faded out as Tommy shut his door, probably no longer yelling, or at least yelling as loudly towards his own mother. Which, now that Tubbo thought about it, threw a wrench in Tubbo’s theory.
Philza Minecraft was not married, or at least not yet. And his soon-to-be wife was not in the UK, as far as Tubbo was aware. So who did Tommy call mum, and ask for permission to steam for another ten minutes or so?
Was it an act? Was Tubbo completely off base, which could be a real and very embarrassing possibility? That would be horrible. Or maybe Tommy had a biological mom already that just… happened to still live there? Or a mother figure?
This really wasn’t any of Tubbo’s business now that he was already thinking about it. But curiosity killed the cat, or however that phrase went.
“Boys! The plan is a go-” Tommy announced as he re-entered his room, sitting back in his chair, picking up his headphones, and beaming at the screen like he always did.
Tubbo sighed, muting the stream so he couldn’t be dragged in ignoring this for longer, which he knew he would be if he continued to watch Tommy be happy and unconcerned. He pulled by discord, covering Tommy’s face up with it and navigating to his messages, and to the chat he had running with Tommy. The most recent message was a gif of a cat playing bongos, meant to represent Tommy’s mental state regarding homework.
Tubbo: Hey, cna we call tmrw i 3wanna talk about smthn
There was no response, which Tubo expected. Tommy was live, and that meant he couldn’t reply, or even read the message immediately. It just meant that it had been done.
It had been done and Tubbo would confront Tom with his suspicions tomorrow and Tubbo could not chicken out at all .
—-
Tubbo desperately wanted to chicken out. He knew he couldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, but staring down the ringing call was making that lump form in his throat again. Tommy picked up though, at the time they had agreed to, and Tubbo had no choice in the matter.
“What’s up Tubs?” Tommy spun a pencil in his hand. When Tubbo didn’t immediately respond, Tommy added on. “You said you wanted to talk to me about something? Again?” The attempt to lighten the mood didn’t really work all that well.
Tubbo just needs to talk around the lump in his throat. He just need to spit out the question gently and kindly and-
“Is your father Philza Minecraft!?”
-and not like that. Smooth Toby, smooth…. Yelling into the mic was totally the way to go there.
Tommy looked like he had genuinely swallowed a lemon. His eyebrows went up. “What?” His voice came out surprisingly not squeaky. Well, Tubbo had dug this grave, might as well lay in it.
“I said: Is your dad Philza Minecraft?” Tubbo repeated, “As in Phillip Waston?”
“What makes you ask?” That wasn’t a no.
“I found a clip. Two clips, actually.” Tubbo shifted in his seat. He suddenly felt so uncomfortable, the faint numbness in his ass becoming hard to ignore suddenly. He should really get a new, and better chair.
Tommy just hummed in acknowledgement. He looked like he was thinking, but somehow already knew how it would go. But none of this was any form of answer, so Tubbo pressed.
“So is he?”
“Is who what?”
“Is Phillip Watson your dad Tom?” Tommy paused, and swallowed, and that was answer enough just there. Tubbo’s eyes widened. “Holy shit he is!”
“No, no! I never said that!”
“He is though, isn’t he? Holy fuck, why didn’t you say anything?!”
“It’s not-” Tommy started, then stopped. He sighed, leaning back in his chair like he had been extremely inconvenienced by Toby finding out. “...it’s not that simple.”
“How has this never come up! Why did you never tell me!” Tubbo’s anxiety was now overpowered by an excitement he didn’t expect to feel. Because holy fucking balls it was Philza Minecraft!
Tommy just groaned into his hands, having brought them up to his face. He then slid them up, pressing his palms into his eyes. “You weren’t meant to knowwwww…!”
“What? Why?” Tubbo leaned forward in his chair (maybe he should be mad about it, but his nerves were far too frazzled and excited for that). Tommy just groaned again.
“I don’t wanna be connected to my dad!” Tommy leaned back in his chair even more, to its leaning limit, before sitting up again and removing his hands from his face. “I wanna build this stuff on my own…”
“Okay well, fair enough- but why wouldn’t you tell me still!?”
“I just didn’t want to…” Tommy grumbled. “I wanna be me- not my dad.”
Tubbo couldn’t fault him for that. He frowned, but nodded. “I guess that’s reasonable mate- but I would have found out eventually. You know that right?” He raised an eye brow.
“Yeahhhh….”There was a beat of silence, letting it all settle. Tubbo drummed his fingers on his desk.
“Who do you call Mum?” Tommy's head snapped over to the screen at Tubbo’s ask. “I mean- Kristin’s in America right? Is there someone else who-”
“No, no-” Tommy shook his head hurriedly. “No, it’s- it’s a joke. It’s just a joke I have with Dad. I don’t even have a mum.”
“A joke?”
“Yeah- I call him mum on stream because it makes him all huffy.” Tommy grinned like an absolute bastard. Tubbo snorted at that, and Tommy’s smile grew. “What? He does! He puts his hands on his hips and kinda pouts!”
“He pouts?” Tubbo was definitely amused by this information.
“He used to at least. I think he’s gotten used to it.” Tommy shrugged. His smile was smaller, but less cruel and more just fond.
“You realize I am definitely blackmailing you with this mate?”
“...Yeahhh, I know.”