Tommy was very small, then.
Ghostbur had never seen a person so small. He was confused. He didn’t know what it meant. He was a little bit scared. Why did he have a brother?
He doesn't remember the exact moment when it changed; all he remembers is that, while sitting on the not-painful chair, in the room with the not-as-bright lights, holding a baby wrapped in a blanket, Ghostbur decided that he loved Tommy, and that he would love Tommy until the world ended and even after that, and that he wanted to kiss Tommy on the head. So he did.
He’d never held a person so small before.
“Hello,” He’d said, but quietly, so that Tommy’s small ears wouldn’t hurt. “I’m Ghostbur. You are Tommy, and you are loved.”
And then he’d said all those words again, because he liked them; he liked the way they sounded, and he liked what they meant. Hello, I’m Ghostbur. You are Tommy, and you are loved. Hello. You are loved.
He said the words so many times that the nurse asked if he was okay. Ghostbur looked up at her and said, “Tommy is loved!”.
It was a bit of a strange thing to say, especially to someone he’d never met before.
But the words were true, so why shouldn’t he say them? He wanted to say them a hundred times. Maybe he did.
That was the day Ghostbur first held Tommy. It was a bad day. It ended good. It was a happy ending.
Tommy was loved.
Ghostbur blinks, and he remembers that he’s not back then anymore; he’s not seven, and Tommy isn’t the smallest person. He’s not in a hospital, and his mother isn’t asleep on a bed.
He is twenty-four. Tommy is not small. He’s on the couch, and Tommy is asleep next to him, with his head resting on Ghostbur’s lap. Tommy’s face is painted black and red and white. He is still loved.
Ghostbur doesn't think that he was loved when his face was painted black and red. Those people didn’t love him.
That makes Ghostbur want to cry, but he doesn’t cry. Tommy is loved now, and he’s sleeping, and he was very brave.
~~~
“I’ll be fine, Ghostbur,” Sam assures, and Tommy risks a glance behind him, watching the warden stand faithfully near a lever. Sam always acts different, when he’s in the prison.
~~~
Ghostbur swallows, turning to Dream. "It's a pretty big storm. Is-isn't it, Dream?"
Dream's mask glistens with a constant run of raindrops. They slide off of the bottom and drip down to his boots. Drip, drip, drip.
"It is."
~~~
“I can’t see,” Ghostbur says, voice muffled by wool.
~~~
Ghostbur briefly squeezes his eyes shut, turning his head away. “That sounds bad.”
“It sounds bad because it is bad. You know that, right?”
Ghostbur bites his lip, grabbing a blanket between his hands and pulling it tight.
Wilbur’s eyes soften, and he reaches over to tap Ghostbur on the knee.
Ghostbur stares at the spot like it’s a monster. Or perhaps a miracle.
“It’s alright,” Wilbur says gently, even though it’s not. “It’s okay. You can… you can talk to me. It’s better than keeping everything up there.”
He points at Ghostbur’s head, and Ghostbur reaches up a hand to touch at his hair, eyes wide and frightened.
~~~
Ghostbur sniffles and chokes as Tommy presses the white towel around his arm, tears stuck in trails down his face.
Tommy glances up at him before quickly looking back down. “I’m so sorry. I’m so s- I know it hurts. I know it hurts, Ghostbur, I know.”
~~~
Tommy doesn’t think he’s ever hugged someone like this before. So… desperately, like he’s worried they’ll drift away like smoke.
~~~
Tommy looks over at Ghostbur; his face is constantly being lit up by the lights from commercials, and his eyes are still closed. He looks like he’s okay.
~~~
Tommy looks up and finds that he's made it out of the woods. He's walking along the same path as before, but this time beside a pasture. A quick look inside it tells him that it's a sheep pasture; the colorful animals graze or lay in the grass, quiet and peaceful. Tommy smiles. They look really happy.
Tommy keeps his eyes on them as he walks. Some of the sheep are snuggled together, a fluffy pile of rainbows. Others are off on their own, curled up or munching on grass. Not one of them looks upset or scared.
Tommy kinda wishes people were like that. Not munching on grass, obviously, but just... he's not quite sure. Peaceful, maybe? That's not quite it, though. No matter if you were by yourself or with a group, you never felt alone. That kinda thing. You always felt safe.
Tommy breaths out softly. Yeah. That.
~~~
But a ghost haunts you. A ghost didn't always exist; something happened to make it exist. Something terrible and tragic happened to make that ghost exist.
And the thing about ghosts is that once they show up, they don't ever quite leave.
Wilbur blinks, and when he opens his eyes he is surrounded by faded red lights and a dark, cold room. A single platform. A single figure huddled on the ground, shaking with quiet sobs.
Wilbur blinks again, and he's sitting behind the counter at his gas station, the office chair with peeling leather squeaking under his weight. Slushie machine to his right, unopened boxes of cigarettes to his left, along with packs of gum. Lottery tickets behind him on the wall.
Wilbur breathes out slowly. Perhaps he prefers the shadow to the ghost, actually.
~~~
"I thought about it a lot," Wilbur continues, blowing out a shaky breath that mists a little bit. "I would even take walks, trying to find bridges. It was like house hunting, but... not."
Wilbur's brow furrows, as if realizing that he'd said something offensive instead of funny. "It wasn't like that at all. I don't know why... anyway. I um... yeah. I thought about jumping off a bridge. It wasn't always the train station I had in mind."
Tommy shifts on his feet, leaning closer to the railing. "Why did..."
"Why didn't I go through with it?"
Tommy feels angry, suddenly. Angry at Wilbur, or- or at bridges, or trains or something.
His hand balls into a fist before he unfurls it. "Yeah."
Wilbur takes another deep breath. "I thought it would hurt. The more... the more I thought about it, the more I- yeah. I thought it would hurt."
Wilbur looks down at his hands. He's quiet for a bunch of seconds. "I mean, there was a chance that I'd black out as soon as I hit the water, if I jumped from a high enough place. That's what I wanted to happen. But there was also a chance that I wouldn't black out; I'd hit the water and I wouldn't be stunned senseless. I'd just- I'd have to lay there and feel everything. I'd have to feel myself die."
Tommy inhales sharply. "What?"
Wilbur lifts his head, looking away from his hands to glance at Tommy. His eyebrows are pushed together, raised up at the ends near his brow. Lips parted slightly.
Tommy doesn't know why he said “what”. He understood what Wilbur was saying; it wasn't like he was confused.
~~~
The sky is now a dark blue-purple, with the edges of the horizon tinted with orange. If it was any other night, and if Ghostbur wasn't in the middle of a forest, he'd stop and admire the beauty of it all.
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Is it possible to do ☾ with Curly but like romantic?? Like what it’d be like to have a sleepover with Curly if you were dating him??
SFW Sleeping Hc on the way!
- this is gonna be at the shepard house because come on. Your parents/parent/guardian would not trust him to be within 18 feet of you
- I hc Tim and Curly to be sharing a room so Tim’s kinda pissed he’s getting kicked out of his own room when he pays the bills
- also the beds are hella tiny so Curly and Tim.stripped both the beds and just made a nest on the floor for yall
- lots of snacks
- yes Curly asked all your friends to make sure he got the right ones
- you'd probably listen to the radio and read comics and lots of gossip about kids in your grade or just kids you know in general
- Curly left the window open so his room was cold and you'd have no choice but to snuggle the manipulative lil shit <3
- I forgot to mention this before but Curly wouldn't start seriously thinking about a future with you until roughly 4 months together so this was a big step for your relationship
- you guys probably wouldn't fall asleep until 3am and Curly would sleep on his back the whole time so your head could be on his shoulder/chest
- the morning was def a bit awkward bc you have to have a conversation with a groggy Tim after he slept on the couch and is trying to make himself a coffee while Curls tries making you and him pancakes or something for breakfast
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♡with Curly please 😍
Romantic headcanons comin’ up!
- tbh he'd try to play it cool at first
- kind of aloof and almost bored in a sense?
- but the second it comes to walking to the dx or the drive in or going to school
- curls is making sure people know you're not on the market if ykwim
- probably wouldn't plan the most creative dates, but he keeps it memorable with jokes and conversations <3
- I feel like he'd also be really interested in the person he’s dating. Like in every aspect.
- What's your family like? Dad/brother/uncle/cousin gonna try and kill me if we break up???
- any exes I need to take care of for you????
- but he'd also wanna know about your childhood pet and what colour your walls were and if you played with worms after it rained
- he remembers the little things :)
- not in a super analytical sense but more like “you wore red shoes on September 17th 1961 so I got you a bunch of red skittles yes I picked then out myself please tell me you like red skittles” kinda way
- he's whipped is what I'm tryna say <3
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