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Tommy is a huge flirt.
Everyone and their mother knows it. It's way too obvious for people to not be aware.
Tommy has a large group of friends, most of them streamers, and he flirts with all of them.
He's clingy and touchy, even going as far as kissing his friends on the lips along with some over-the-clothes petting if they'll let him. And it doesn't matter to Tommy if the friends in question are adults, like Phil, although Phil is one of the few who's pretty consistent about setting boundaries between them.
"You're going to get yourself in trouble, mate," he says when Tommy tries to kiss him during their second meet-up at Alton towers. "And me. I know that's not what you want."
Phil's more like a father figure, anyway.
Tommy's never had a proper dad. The one he did have touched him in places no little kid should be touched, then tried to kill his mum when she went to the police when Tommy was seven. Tommy remembers it all vividly, though he wishes he could forget it.
He pretends he doesn't remember. Tommy's mum seems happy to play along with that lie.
So Tommy gets touchy with his friends. Phil's the only one who straight up tells him no, and Tubbo draws the line at kissing with their mouths closed, but nobody else really seems to have a problem with Tommy's behaviour. Most of them even seem to be into it.
Certainly nobody is telling Tommy to go to therapy.
Nobody except Wilbur.
Wilbur isn't Tommy's friend. He's a geography teacher, though he's technically only an intern.
He's twenty-four but could pass for twenty-one, with brown hair and brown eyes, and skin pale enough to make him look sick in the school's shitty lighting.
Tommy likes him a lot because whenever he teaches, he talks not just about where countries are but also shares fun facts that aren't in the books. Tommy always comes out of his classes feeling like he's learned something.
He mostly likes his private tutoring sessions, though.
Tommy's grades start slipping near the middle of his first year at college, when he starts focusing more on his vlogs and starts losing sleep over his memories again. Periods like that come and go. Mostly his mental health dwindles when he's already stressed and seasonal depression isn't helping.
Wilbur stops him before he can leave class at the end of the day.
"I've noticed your grade on the last test was... not great," he says. "What happened? I thought you liked this class."
"I do. Just having some trouble."
"Need some help?"
And so every Friday after Tommy's last class, Tommy and Wilbur will sit in the library, studying.
Sometimes Tommy just does his homework, only asking questions occasionally. Sometimes they're actually talking about a subject. But Tommy always, always flirts.
Not in the way he flirts with his friends. He doesn't dare get touchy with Wilbur, who might not be an official teacher but still kind of feels like one in a disconnected sort of way.
Instead, he uses his words.
Wilbur notices. At first, he simply doesn't respond. Then, he asks questions.
"Do you feel like you have to act this way for me to want to help you?"
"Nah," Tommy says. "Just like it. 'S fun, innit?"
"You think asking me suggestive questions about volcanoes is fun?"
"Yep."
It isn't until Tommy gets caught making out with Freddie in a broom closet that Wilbur starts pressing more about it and suggests therapy.
"You're very close with people. Closer than I think is strictly healthy."
Tommy wants to tell Wilbur to fuck off, that it's not a crime to kiss your friends. But even Phil's never questioned Tommy's behaviour before. Nobody ever seems to care about Tommy's mental health, but Wilbur does, and it makes Tommy feel some kind of way he can't identify.
"I'm not a slut, you know," he says.
"I… didn't even say that."
"I just like touching. It's my love language or whatever."
"But there's touching," Wilbur says, patting Tommy on the arm. "And touching." He reaches out, brushing his hand along Tommy's cheek, and then pulls back. "You see what I mean?"
"Not really."
"You don't see a difference?"
Tommy shrugs.
"Let me put it like this. Would you kiss your parents on the mouth, or on the cheek?"
"Which parent?" Tommy asks.
Wilbur falters.
"My mum? We don't kiss. We hug sometimes, but I don't like it very much. My dad, though? He'd kiss me all the time when I was young."
Tommy has no idea why he's oversharing like this. He feels a little embarrassed, but he can't stop.
"I think it's just how he showed love."
"Where's your dad, now?"
"Prison."
"God, Toms, you need therapy real bad," Wilbur repeats, shaking his head. "I mean it."
Which… okay. He might have a point. But Tommy doesn't want to admit that, which means he has to prove Wilbur wrong.
He has to prove that flirting and touching isn't bad.
He starts slow. He puts his hand on Wilbur's arm when he thanks him for helping Tommy study for a test and leaves it there a bit too long. He stands and sits a little closer to Wilbur than he did before.
If Wilbur suspects anything, he doesn't show it.
Then, one Friday, Tommy leans over to grab a sticky note and puts his hand on Wilbur's thigh.
Wilbur freezes.
"Tommy…" he warns.
"What?"
"That's inappropriate."
"Is it?" Tommy asks, shifting his hand so it's a little higher.
Wilbur's breath hitches.
"I think it's fine," Tommy says.
And there's want in Wilbur's eyes. Tommy knows how to recognise it. It's never there in Phil's eyes, and it's always there in Ranboo's, even when they're just joking around.
But Wilbur grabs Tommy's wrist and pulls his hand away anyway.
"Please don't do that again."
"But-"
"I mean it, Tommy."
It feels more like rejection than Phil or Tubbo telling him 'no' ever has, and Tommy has to look away and press his lips together.
He tries very hard not to cry.
Doesn't Wilbur like him? He thought they were kind of becoming friends. But maybe Wilbur secretly hates him and is only helping Tommy out because it looks good on his record.
"Hey, Toms…" Wilbur says. "C'mon. I didn't mean to upset you."
Tommy can't speak right now.
"Here," Wilbur says, and presses a quick peck to his cheek. "Is that better?"
Tommy nods slowly.
"Just because people say 'no', that doesn't mean they don't like you as a person, you know."
Can Wilbur read his fucking mind?
"I just feel like… I'm not worth much," Tommy says. "If I'm not… that. For people."
"Because of your dad?"
"How do you-"
"It's easy to read between the lines," Wilbur explains. "You act this way. Your dad's in prison. You two were physically close from what you've said. I connected the dots."
"My mum pretends like it didn't happen."
"That sucks, man."
"I don't know how to stop feeling like sex is all I'm good for."
"You're so bright and creative. You're going to do lots of great things. You already have," Wilbur says. "You just need a little help right now."
He reaches out and puts his hand over Tommy's. It's warm and big, and Tommy can't help but stare at it, then at Wilbur's face.
"You want me," he blurts out. "Even if you won't admit it. Please don't act like you're safe if you're not."
"I don't 'want' you. I maybe kind of like you," Wilbur says. "But I'm not doing anything if you're not in the frame of mind to consent to it. I just want to be your friend right now."
That makes Tommy feel impossibly warm.
"We could talk to your mum about therapy together," Wilbur suggests. "If you want."
"Yeah."
Wilbur squeezes Tommy's hand. Tommy glances down again.
"Won't being friends with me get you in trouble?"
"I'm an intern. In three more months I'm out of here and teaching somewhere else. I figure there's a bit of leeway here," Wilbur says.
Tommy's mum agrees to the therapy.
Wilbur and Tommy are friends for three more years before Wilbur ever kisses him and when he does, Tommy feels the safest he ever has.
He stops flirting with his friends, and starts flirting with his boyfriend instead.