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Valentine’s Day was coming up, that much was evident with all the hearts and chocolates in every store window. Phil was the only one with romantic plans for the occasion, as he and Kristin were going out. Which meant that Wilbur, Techno, and Tommy would be on their own. It was going to be a night for the brothers, they would order pizza and watch a movie, much to Tommy’s excitement.
But then his two brothers had been invited to a “Platonic Valentine’s Day Dance” with a bunch of their friends, and they had accepted the invitation, meaning their previous plans were all shattered, and Tommy would be spending the night alone. But he would be okay. Sure, he was a little disheartened at first, but he urged for his brothers to go, after all, they’d have more fun with their friends than with their little brother.
As he laid in bed the night before Valentine’s day, nearly asleep, he had an idea. A brilliant idea that promptly woke him up and sent him across his room to his desk so he could throw together some plans.
He fell asleep at his desk that night, but it was worth it.
Tommy spent the next morning with Phil, making heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and chatting about random things while they waited for the others to get up and out of bed.
The kitchen settled into a gentle silence for a minute as neither of them said anything, instead focusing on their tasks. But Phil broke that silence with a question that Tommy hesitated to answer.
“Are you really okay with your brothers going out tonight?”
“I mean, yeah, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“It hurt a little at first, knowing that they’re gonna have so much fun without me. But it’s okay, I have plans.”
“Oh?” Phil inquired, raising an eyebrow.
“Yup, and I’m not telling you what they are. Don’t worry though, I’m being a good child.”
Phil chuckled and checked a batch of pancakes before flipping them. “Alright then, Tommy. As long as you stay out of trouble.”
Wilbur took this moment to stumble into the kitchen, running his hand through his messy hair. “Tommy? Staying out of trouble? Never.” He gave a cheeky smile while Tommy promptly started to splutter and defend himself. Rambling about “poisoning your food” and other nonsense while Phil and Wilbur only laughed.
“What’s going on out here?” Techno muttered, walking into the kitchen and blinking as his eyes adjusted to the brightly lit room.
“Tommy’s being trouble.” Wilbur supplied
“Sounds about right.”
Tommy threw his hands in the air in mock exasperation, before smiling and shaking his head. On any other day he might have gotten a little annoyed at his family’s comments, but not today. Today he was in a good mood and was ready to put his plan into action.
“I’m going out!” He announced, roughly shoving his shoes on his feet and zipping up his coat, quickly checking his back pockets for his phone and wallet.
Phil came into the front room, a questioning look on his face.
“Where are you headed off to?”
“Oh, nowhere. Just out and about so that I can gather supplies.”
There was a pause as Phil’s facial expression wavered between confusion and amusement.
“Gather supplies?”
Tommy gave a small grin that promptly informed Phil that the boy was up to something
“For my plan,” he stated.
Raising his eyebrows and giving a slow nod, Phil gave a long “ooh” as he suddenly understood.
“Are you gonna be gone for long?” He asked.
Tommy shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not sure. I have my phone though, so you can tell me to come home if you want me.”
“Alright then, mate. Make sure you stay safe, okay? Be smart.” Phil gave his son a smile as Tommy returned the gestures and quickly slipped out the door, shutting it securely behind him.
Tommy returned to the house a couple hours later, he opened the door and quietly peered in, making sure nobody was in the front room. Satisfied that he was alone, he entered the house and closed the door behind him. He heard voices in the kitchen, and was able to decipher both Phil and Techno’s voice, but where was Wilbur?
That question was answered for him as he tried to make his way to his bedroom, his bags hidden behind his back. Wilbur exited the bathroom and nearly walked right into Tommy.
“Oh- Tommy, I didn’t know you were home! What’d you bring back?”
“Nothing, Wilbur.” He responded, trying to move past the annoying barrier that was blocking the hallway.
“No really, show me! I wanna see.” The barrier insisted
“None of your business.” Tommy glared. “Can I please get past you?”
“I dunno, can you?” Wilbur gave that cheeky grin of his and Tommy rolled his eyes in exasperation.
“Wilbur please, I can’t show you yet. It’s for the surprise.”
Wilbur didn’t say anything in response, going quiet and making Tommy hope that he would get out of the way.
Instead, however, Wilbur simply lunged for the bag behind Tommy’s back.
Tommy let out a loud yelp and slipped under his brother’s reaching arms. He tucked the bag to his chest and ran as fast as he could down the hall, narrowly missing Wilbur’s grasp.
“Ha! Too slow, Wilbur. Better luck next time, old man.” He shouted, scrambling into his room and locking the door behind him, listening with glee as Wilbur spluttered and laughed, smacking his palm against the door.
“Old man? What are you even talking about, child?”
Tommy cackled and moved away from the door, waiting for Wilbur to lose interest and leave him alone, which didn’t take long, as Phil had called for the eldest to come out to the kitchen.
Once his footsteps had faded away, and Tommy knew that there was no risk of Wilbur somehow picking the lock, or breaking down the door, he dumped out the bag’s contents onto his bed.
An assortment of balloons, streamers, and craft supplies tumbled out and Tommy grinned as he looked down at the mess. He glanced at the clock to see that it was nearly four in the afternoon, Phil and Kristin would be leaving at six, and Schlatt would be coming over to pick up Wilbur and Techno about half an hour later. That gave Tommy two and a half hours before he had the house to himself.
Two and a half hours until he could put his plan into action.
After Phil and Kristin left, wishing all three boys goodbye, Tommy rushed to his bedroom, planning on getting everything ready to go, knowing he only had a couple hours before everyone returned home.
But he was interrupted by a quiet knock on his door, which startled him and caused him to jump slightly. He shoved all of his supplies under his bed and opened the door, revealing both Wilbur and Techno.
“What’s up?” Tommy asked, confused as to why they were both standing there.
“Is it okay if we come in? We wanna talk to you.” Wilbur stated.
The confusion was clear on Tommy’s face now, as a flutter of worry appeared in his stomach.
“Sure?” He opened his door a little more in order to let them enter.
“We noticed that you haven’t been out of your room very much today.” Wilbur began, “Techno and I just wanted to make sure you’re not upset at us going out with our friends tonight. It’s not too late to cancel if you want us to stay home.”
“What? No! No you can’t stay home!” Tommy hurried to say, “I mean, I love hanging out with you guys, but I have something I want to do while you guys are gone.”
“So you’re not upset?” Techno questioned, “You’re okay if we go?”
Tommy nodded, “Yeah. You two can go have fun with your friends. I was a little sad at first, to be honest, but I’m alright now.”
Wilbur gave Tommy a look that clearly said “are you sure?” and Tommy returned that look with a smile and a nod.
Before anyone else could say anything, there was a loud knock from the front door. Wilbur glanced at his watch as he stood up.
“Huh, Schlatt’s early.” Techno noted.
Tommy shrugged in response before noticing Techno’s outfit.
“Are you going to the dance dressed like that?” He asked, making Techno glance down quickly at his nice jeans and button up shirt.
“Yes? I mean, I was planning on it. Why?”
“I dunno man, I thought you were supposed to get all dressed up for dances and stuff. Especially since there’ll be women there.”
Techno let out a snort as he smiled, “chill out, Toms. This is literally just an excuse for a bunch of us to get together and hang out. There’s nothing really special about it.”
“Sureeee.” Tommy held the e and rolled his eyes. “Just wait until you meet the love of your life and you’re only wearing jeans and a button up shirt.”
Techno laughed and moved to hit Tommy with a pillow, “Shut up Toms.”
Tommy opened his mouth to rebuttal, but Schlatt’s voice cut him off as it rang from somewhere else in the house.
“Tommy! Tomothy! TommyInnit! To-”
“Oh my gosh stop screaming, what is even going on?” Tommy followed the blaring noise until he landed in the kitchen, where Wilbur and Schlatt were standing.
“I felt bad that you’d be home by yourself for the evening, so I brought you pizza and an assortment of junk food.” Schlatt said with a grin, waving his hand towards the counter where said items were sitting.
“Thanks, Schlatt!” Tommy yelled, giving the man a high five as he moved past him in order to get to the counter.
“No problem, just make sure you don’t burn down the house while we’re gone.”
“Great, now that you told him not to, he’s totally gonna do it.” Wilbur teased, making everyone chuckle.
“Pfft,” Tommy waved his hand in a ‘don’t worry about it’ gesture, “like I told Phil, I’ll stay out of trouble.”
The small group laughed and began an idle conversation for a few minutes before the three oldest decided it was time to get going. They all said goodbye to Tommy and Wilbur double checked he was alright one more time before they left.
Tommy grinned as he shut the door behind them.
He immediately ran to his room and turned on some music, letting it ring out through the house as he started cutting colored paper into the shape hearts. Once he had a very, very large pile, and his hands were cramping, he grabbed a pen and wrote notes on a few of them. Ranging from kind, thoughtful notes, all the way to stuff like “you’re tolerable” which he knew would make his brothers laugh.
After he had finished decorating the pile of hearts, he glanced at the clock, shocked to see he only had an hour and a half to finish up. He quickly covered the house with his paper hearts, making sure to cover the bedroom doors, and sprinkle the hearts over the walls, but also sticking hearts in random places that would take forever to be found.
“That way I’ll be able to show my love for months” he thought to himself with a smile.
Next, he blew up the heart shaped balloons that he was sure were going to explode in his face as he filled them. As he filled them, he made sure to dump heart shaped glitter inside, knowing full well that when the balloons were popped later on, the house would be covered in the glitter.
Once he had blown them all up, he quite enjoyed flinging the balloons all over the house, and only screamed a little when one of them actually did explode.
Following the balloons, Tommy strung the streamers across the house. Weaving the brightly colored decorations from one wall to another, weaving their way from the front door to the bathroom at the end of the hall. He made sure to keep most of the streamers up high, that way nobody would have to duck to get under them, but once he got to Wilbur’s room, Tommy let the streamers drop a little. Just enough to make it obnoxious, ‘cause why not?
By the time he was done, it was nearly ten o’clock meaning his dad and brothers would be due home in a matter of minutes.
Tommy took a walk around the house, admiring his work while he waited for his family to come home. Wandering into the kitchen, he remembered the junk food that was left on the counter, and promptly opened a bag of Reese's.
As he was eating, he heard the door being opened, which sent him flying off the counter where he had been perched, so that he could greet his family.
“Welcome home!” He shouted, raising his hands in the air in order to show off the decorations.
Phil, who had been focusing on getting the key out of the lock, looked up with a shocked expression.
“What the-” He froze in place and looked around the house.
“What’s wrong?” Wilbur questioned, peering around Phil. “Oh my gosh.”
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Tommy asked, trying his best to keep the laughter from his voice.
“It- It’s something alright.” Phil said, beginning to chuckle.
“Did you spend all evening on this?” Wilbur was also starting to chuckle.
Tommy nodded, a grin on his face. “Do you love it?”
Both Phil and Wilbur were full on laughing by now, and were still blocking the door, which was starting to annoy Techno.
“If you could both move, that’d be great.” His monotone voice called from somewhere behind the two.
“Sorry, sorry,” Phil wheezed, walking inside. Wilbur close behind him.
Techno took one look around before asking a question that nobody else had thought to ask.
“Tommy.. Did you do this to my room?”
The only response he got was a wide grin, which was exactly the response Techno was fearing.
“Tommy, no.” Wilbur whispered in mock horror before he and Techno rushed to their rooms to see the damage. Shouts and laughter were heard as their doors were opened.
Phil, however, stood still as he continued to laugh, trying his best to calm down.
“What in the world prompted you to do this?” He asked.
“To be honest, I have no idea.” Tommy responded with a shrug, “I was laying in bed last night and just went ‘you know what, I should decorate the crap out of the place in order to surprise everyone’ and so then I did.”
Phil smiled and shook his head, “It’s gonna be a pain to clean up.”
“Meh, we can just leave it up. Just some nice all year decoration.”
“Of course, of course.” Phil nodded, laughing again, “Because who doesn’t want their house covered in various shades of pink and red all year round.”
“My point exactly!” Tommy joined in on the laughter. “Now come on, I wanna show you what I did with the streamers in Wilbur’s room.”