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Ranboo was worried about Tubbo.
Alright, that wasn’t really anything new, Ranboo worried all the time. Of course he’d worry about Tubbo, his husband, who he had multiple reasons to be worried about.
But this time Ranboo wasn’t worried about Tubbo for the normal reasons.
Tubbo had never, for as long as Ranboo had known him, gotten enough sleep. He often went to bed late and woke up early in the morning - practically still in the middle of the night. Sometimes he managed to fall back asleep and wake up at a more reasonable hour, but that was only sometimes.
For the last few days, however, Tubbo hadn’t even gone to bed. And Ranboo was worried.
He laid in the bed they usually shared, staring up at the canopy above him, and he was all too aware of his husband’s absence. He sighed.
It had been hours by now, and Tubbo was still not in bed, and as far as Ranboo had known, he hadn’t gotten sleep within the last two days either. Even if he’d taken naps in between, it wasn’t healthy.
Ranboo wondered if he’d be able to just force Tubbo to come to bed. The other boy was just as strong as he was - maybe even stronger - so if it became a physical scuffle he would probably win. Ranboo would hold back anyway. He was always afraid of hurting Tubbo, his sharp claws wary of the other’s soft features.
But Tubbo wasn’t the type to do that. He wasn’t that dramatic - Tommy was. He would either try to argue his way out of it or accept defeat.
The idea of getting Tubbo seemed more appealing now.
Ranboo rolled onto his side, pulling the blankets over his shoulder where they’d fallen. He went from staring at the canopy to staring at his husband’s cold pillow. It was almost worse.
With a sigh, Ranboo knew what he had to do. He sat up.
Messaging Tubbo was unlikely to be successful when it was so late. Their communicators were only so bright, and considering how sleep deprived Tubbo was, he’d probably struggle to make out whatever message Ranboo sent. Ranboo struggled to read things correctly when he was sleep deprived, and Tubbo already struggled to read things on normal days.
He left his communicator by his bedside table as he stood from the bed, footsteps muffled by fuzzy socks that Tommy had made him. Tubbo owned a matching pair, as did Michael. As much as he didn’t like wearing socks in bed, Ranboo had to admit they kept him warmer, and in the freezing nights of Snowchester, more warmth was always better.
He walked out of the bedroom, not bothering to close the door behind him, and continued at a quick pace down the hall. He wasn’t running - he was too sleepy for that - but he wanted to get his husband to bed as soon as possible. He was exhausted.
There were only so many places that Tubbo could be. After checking the kitchen, the living room, the war room, the other living room, the storage room, the second and third storage rooms (which were barely used, they had way too much space), Ranboo was able to figure out where Tubbo was.
Sometimes he hated how big the mansion was.
He made his way to Michael’s room, and his suspicions were confirmed when he spotted his husband, barely holding himself up on a stool beside Michael’s door, staring out of a window on the wall perpendicular to him. Ranboo frowned as he saw that Tubbo was still in his usual outfit he wore outside. He even still had his boots on.
Ranboo cleared his throat, not wanting to scare Tubbo too much. He jumped anyway, quickly turning to Ranboo with wide eyes.
As soon as he realized who he was, Tubbo relaxed with a sigh, his shoulders slumping.
“Oh my gods. Don’t scare me like that, bossman.” He said, his voice quiet and so obviously exhausted.
“Sorry.” Ranboo said as he stepped closer, “I was looking for you.”
Tubbo cocked his head to the side, “For me? Why?”
“I was hoping that you’d come to bed.” Ranboo replied, fidgeting with his hands, “I’ve missed you these last few nights.”
Tubbo stared at him for a few moments.
“Oh.” He said, before turning back to look out the window, “I probably won’t. Sorry.”
Ranboo blinked, “Why not?”
Tubbo pursed his lips, basically glaring at the window. Ranboo waited for him to answer.
“I ran into Technoblade the other day.” Tubbo eventually said, “He doesn’t like Snowchester. I can tell.”
Ranboo furrowed his eyebrows as he thought about that. At previous Syndicate - ahem, "book club" - meetings, Techno barely ever mentioned Snowchester, save for the time they had paid it a visit.
(Ranboo still felt bad for that. He could read Tubbo pretty well, and despite his calm appearance, the boy had really been anything but.)
But Ranboo also knew that Tubbo and Techno had a history. Techno had literally been one of the people to destroy L’manburg, and beforehand he had done something that provoked the Butcher Army - Ranboo didn’t remember what that something was, but it was certainly enough to have Tubbo wary of the piglin before Ranboo had even joined the server.
“How does that involve you not sleeping?” Ranboo asked slowly. He had a feeling he already knew the answer.
“‘M keeping watch.” Tubbo replied, confirming Ranboo’s suspicions, “Not just for Technoblade. There’s a lot of dangerous people on this server.”
Ranboo nodded, despite Tubbo not being able to see. His eyes were practically glued to the window.
The more that Ranboo thought about it, it was likely that this had been what Tubbo was doing the last two days.
And what Ranboo hated the most about it was that Tubbo had a point. The SMP didn’t exactly have the best history when it came to safety. And Ranboo had only seen some of it, Tubbo had been through even more, he’d seen even worse. It made sense that Tubbo would be on guard.
But Ranboo was really tired, and he really wanted to cuddle with his husband right now.
He reached for Tubbo’s hand. Tubbo didn’t take it, but he didn’t drop it either, instead letting his own hang limply in Ranboo’s grip. He didn’t mind.
“Can you please come to bed?” Ranboo asked, lowering his voice to avoid waking Michael up, “I get that you’re trying to guard us, but it’s been days. The mansion is secure - we made sure of that. You need sleep.”
“I can’t.” Tubbo's voice also dropped to a whisper, “Somebody could still break in. The mansion isn’t perfect. One of us should be on watch just in case.”
While there were times that Ranboo admired Tubbo’s stubbornness, this was not one of them. His particles were right when they’d said he put the Tubbo in stubborn. Ranboo had half the nerve to just grab him and carry him to bed, any attempts of fighting back be damned. Ranboo wanted to sleep.
He sighed. “But you’ve been on watch for days. Aren’t you tired?”
“Yep. Still can’t sleep.” Tubbo replied, shaking his head.
Ranboo dropped his hand, instead placing it on his shoulder. He turned Tubbo's body to face him, and they made eye contact. Ranboo noticed the dark circles under Tubbo’s eyes, much more prominent than normal.
“You’d be a better guard if you had energy.” He tried.
Tubbo shook his head, “Who’ll keep watch while I’m not here? What if something happens?”
Ranboo almost wanted to suggest that he could keep watch, if only so his husband would sleep. But he was really tired - he'd been busy today - so he held his tongue.
In another situation, he would almost find this funny. Normally he was the one catastrophizing, worrying about everything and anything and what-ifs and made up scenarios.
“What if something doesn’t happen?” Ranboo rebutted, “Before you started doing this, every night we were safe. Nobody’s broken into the mansion.”
“Yet.” Tubbo interrupted.
“Yet.” Ranboo echoed back, “But the chances of somebody breaking in tonight, or tomorrow, or for the next month, are as high as the chances of somebody not breaking in. Maybe they’re even lower. Who can we think of that has a reason to try to break in?”
“Dream.” Tubbo immediately replied.
“He’s in prison.” Ranboo said.
Tubbo huffed, “Well, Technoblade has a reason to attack Snowchester.”
“You remember his visit better than I do, and even I know that he ended up deciding to leave it alone.” Ranboo replied.
“Well, there’s- I don’t know, there’s Wilbur, he could try something.”
“What would he try? He likes us, even if he’s dangerous. He’d never hurt us.”
“Not on purpose, but he still could.”
“Yeah, that’s true, but breaking into our home and attacking us sounds pretty 'on purpose' to me.”
Tubbo didn’t reply, his expression faltering. He looked away from Ranboo, his eyes flitting back to the window, and for a moment Ranboo worried that he still hadn’t convinced him.
With a sigh, Tubbo slouched in his seat, leaning his head against Ranboo’s chest and practically putting all of his weight onto the other.
“Fine.” He grumbled, “I’ll come to bed.”
Ranboo smiled. “Thank you.”
Tubbo got up on visibly shaky legs, still leaning heavily on Ranboo. “Don’t thank me. I’m fucking tired.”
“So am I.” Ranboo chucked as they both began to make their way back to their bedroom.
As they entered the room, Ranboo noticed Tubbo’s gaze going to the various windows, and he sighed.
After depositing his husband on their bed to change into some pajamas, Ranboo made his way to each window, closing the blinds or curtains or whatever coverings they had over them - they hadn’t really stuck to a theme, mostly using what they had.
Tubbo whined at the inability to look outside.
“If I don’t do this, you’ll spend the whole night staring out the window and not get any sleep.” Ranboo replied as he sat on his side of the bed, easing himself under the covers.
“Would not.” Tubbo pouted, laying down and pulling the covers up over himself.
“Would too.” Ranboo said as his husband turned to face him.
Tubbo didn’t take the bait, instead just frowning and shuffling closer to Ranboo, wrapping an arm around his side and tucking his head near the crook of his neck. In return, Ranboo placed an arm around Tubbo’s side as well, the other easing under his head. His hand found its way to Tubbo’s hair, and he began to card his fingers through it, feeling Tubbo go boneless under him.
“If you wake up before me, can you take watch?” Tubbo asked, yawning at the end of his sentence, “I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Of course.” Ranboo replied, pressing a kiss to Tubbo’s forehead.
Ranboo heard Tubbo’s breathing even out just a few minutes later, and he smiled to himself, relieved. He fell asleep not too much later.
He and Tubbo didn’t wake up until after noon, and when they went to check on Michael, he was fine. Just as importantly, Tubbo was well-rested.