Your Shitty Apartment Has Nothing on Us

by Anonymous

Summary:

Now that Ranboo's back in the UK and signed with Misfits, he's meeting all sorts of new people.

Officially an adult and trying to get his life in order, a chance encounter with one of his coworkers old school friends changes both their lives in ways they couldn't have imagined in their wildest dreams.

or

cc!ranboo meets nonfamous!tommy and we learn that sometimes small happenings can change everything

Chapter 1: Running into Old Friends

Being in the UK again is…strange…to say the least.

It’s different from last time Ranboo was here. Now he’s signed with Misfits and has priorities outside of just creating content he has to take care of, like paying his rent, paying his bills, as well as fulfilling said Misfits contract. Don’t get him wrong, he is incredibly happy to be back here, and so soon with the help of his new contract, but it’s not the same as living in Tubbo’s extension with him; streaming, filming various videos with their friends, and just living.

But even with all the change, it’s honestly pretty good. It’s good to be back with Tubbo, and in his previous time here, the UK became a sort of safe place, filled with friends and good memories. And now he gets to meet new people through Misfits, like Freddie.

Freddie is really chill, being another twitch streamer signed by Misfits. He’s from Nottingham—which Ranboo knows embarrassingly little about—and even though Ranboo is chronically unable to make conversation, Freddie is perfectly happy to talk enough for the both of them, seeming to not have shame or care for the fact that Ranboo is extremely awkward around people he’s never met before.

They’ve been sent on a supply run to Curry’s PC World, because even though he and Tubbo have only been signed for a few months, Tubbo’s already wreaking havoc and lost far too many cameras and mics.

“I’m honestly impressed man,” Freddie says, interrupting Ranboo’s thoughts. “Like, I’ve seen Tubbo on twitch, but I had no idea that he was this destructive in real life!”

The words make Ranboo break out laughing, stooping over a bit and holding his stomach.

“Yeah,” he leans over to Freddie, raising his eyebrows, “now imagine living with him.”

The teasing (and blatant slander) of Tubbo continues all the way to the shop, where they stop for a second for Freddie to put on his mask before continuing inside.

Curry’s is not a store Ranboo had ever seen in the US, and he’s pretty sure they don’t have it there, but it’s closest equivalent would probably be BestBuy, just rows and rows of various electronics, with the occasional employee walking up to you if you’ve been stationary for too long to ask if you need help.

Ranboo doesn’t dislike coming here, but the uncomfortable energy of people trying to talk to you and ask what you want is never something comfortable. Luckily, Freddie has no such qualms, walking in and looking around at all the computer parts without even a glance towards the cameras and audio sections, those being the whole point of the trip.

While Freddie explores the PC’s, Ranboo loiters around behind him, awkwardly hovering over his shoulder, too scared to tell this person he’s barely met that they should probably just stay on task and get out.

After 20 minutes of hovering behind Freddie in the PC section and not making any progress towards what their original goal of coming here was, it seems Ranboo’s bad luck with people has struck again.

An employee is walking towards him.

Admittedly, being 6’6 doesn’t help him with looking inconspicuous, even when he hunches down, curling in a vain attempt to hide himself from them.

“Hello, are you two together? Because if not, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” They ask, fluffy blond hair falling into their eyes even as they push it back.

Cringing, Ranboo covers his face with his hands in embarrassment, letting out a sigh and tapping Freddie on the shoulder, who somehow hasn’t noticed the person talking to them.

“Yeah Ran-Oh! Sorry, I didn’t notice you there…” Freddie trails off, looking down at the employee’s nametag before his eyes widen, quickly flicking between the nametag clipped to their purple shirt and their face.

“Tommy?”

Freddie seems to trigger something in “Tommy’s” memory as well, a surprised look crossing his face after a second of processing.

Tommy brightens, realizing who he’s talking to. “Holy shit! Freddie! I haven’t seen you in forever man!” He exclaims, reaching out and pulling the other boy into a hug.

“Yeah, it’s been, what…four years?”

“Five, actually.” Tommy provides. “Holy shit dude, how’ve you been? Still into gaming, I see.” He jokes, gesturing to the aisle they’re all currently stood in.

“Heh…you could definitely say that. I’m signed to an organization, and I make content online for my job now!” Freddie excitedly shares.

Tommy’s eyes can’t seem to get any brighter, the smile that’s surely under his mask must be miles wide, completely in awe of how far Freddie has come. “Dude that’s great!”

“What about you? You just disappeared, how’s life been?” Freddie queries back.

“Ah you know me..” Tommy rubs the back of his neck, keeping the smile on his face. “I get by…but that’s besides the point. You’re doing real shit now!”

Nodding enthusiastically, Freddie seems to realize that Ranboo’s still there and completely out of the loop, jumping quickly to introduce him.

“Shit, hey, this here is Ranboo. We’re signed to the same org and were sent out pick up some audio equipment and cameras. Ranboo,” he gestures to the employee, “meet Tommy, my best friend from school.”

Ranboo raises a hand in a shy greeting, a bit unsure how to deal with all the energy this guy has.

“Hi, I’m Ranboo.” He lamely says, unsure of what else he could possibly say.

Tommy looks him up and down, nodding in approval. “So you must be a pre-tty big deal then, huh?” He says, raising his eyebrows at Freddie for confirmation.

“Ah, I’m not that-“

“He is, being number 16 and all.” Freddie smirks, always looking for another opportunity to joke about their ‘ranks’ from the twitch leaks.

Tommy—whether luckily or unfortunately—doesn’t seem to get the joke, furrowing his brow and tilting his head in confusion. “Number sixteen?”

“The-the twitch leaks? You know, from October?” Freddie questions, confused why Tommy doesn’t seem to know this.

Letting out a huffed laugh Tommy shakes his head. “Ah, sorry boss man, I guess I’m just a bit out of the loop on this shit.” There’s a bit of an awkward silence before Tommy breaks it again. “Anyways, you said you were here for audio equipment and cameras? Right, let’s go and I can help you find what you need.”

 

---

 

“So you’re telling me that this Tubbo has managed to break and lose at least fifteen mics? And he’s only been with you for a few months?” Laughter spills out of Tommy as he helps them pick out mics and cameras, carefully counting out the number they need and placing them in their baskets. “You’re lucky to have me here,” Tommy puffs out his chest in faux arrogance. “I happen to be highly knowledgeable on all things film related. I was going to go to college for film and editing, after all.”

Freddie laughs, clearly missing the fun of being with his old friend.

“Yeah, and he can’t stop leaking things either!” Freddie lightheartedly jokes. “He’s leaked at least half of his projects on accident.” He shakes his head, laughing. “It’s a miracle he didn’t leak when he was joining Misfits.”

“Misfits?”

“Oh yeah! That’s the organization Ranboo and I are part of.” Freddie tells Tommy, pulling out his phone to show some pictures of the Misfits crew.

Tommy nods his head, chuckling a bit seeing the promotional pictures of a confident, cocky Ranboo—so very different from the shy, withdrawn Ranboo he’s met today.

“This you big guy?” He jokes, pointing at the picture of Ranboo crossing his arms in front of big, bold red text proclaiming ‘Misfits Ranboo’.

Ranboo nods, self-consciously rubbing the back of his head. “Ah, yep that’s me.”

Turning between the photo and Ranboo, Tommy giggles and laughs approvingly. “Well anyways, I’ve probably kept you for far too long, and I have a job to do as well.” His eyes drop to where his hands fiddle with the edge of his purple shirt, it being apparent that he wishes he could continue catching up with his old friend as much as Freddie wants to catch up with him.

Freddie’s smile drops a bit, but he quickly grabs Tommy’s arm as he turns to get back to his job. “Wait, we should exchange phone numbers!”

Tommy smiles a bit strained. “Sure, but I’m not supposed to have my phone out while I’m on the clock, so make it quick.” He pulls out an old, beat-up phone. There are cracks all along the screen, a couple of dead pixels visible as Tommy hands it over to Freddie, already open to contacts for him to put in his information.

Freddie hands over his phone as well, the stark difference in how new and unbroken his phone looks compared to Tommy’s beat up one does not go unnoticed by anyone in the group, but no one makes a comment on it as they each hand their respective phones back.

Just as Tommy’s waving and making a move to go again, Freddie calls out. “One more thing!”  Tommy visibly flinches this time, clearly trying to leave the situation. “Just one more thing, and then I swear we will let you get back to work.”

Pinching in between his brows and sighing, Tommy waves his hand at Freddie to continue. "Go on."

“You should come to one of our shoots sometime!” He excitedly states, bouncing up and down a bit. “For Misfits! You can just come when we do some IRL content or something, plus, I know how much you love watching filming in action.”

Tommy grimaces, glancing unsurely between Ranboo and Freddie. “You sure? Wouldn’t I just get in the way considering I wouldn’t be doing anything?” Despite how doubtful he looks, the yearning he feels to actually go and be able to see filming and content creation in action can’t completely stay out of his voice, tentative excitement creeping in and making Ranboo smile softly under his mask.

“Of course you wouldn’t get in the way!” Freddie reassures him.

“Plus,” Ranboo adds, “Tubbo almost always brings his dad along, and his dad doesn’t even drive him anymore, he’s just there for Tubbo.”

Their reassurances seem to help Tommy a bit. “Okay, sure, but I’m pretty busy with work, so it’d have to be on a day off.” He flushes, embarrassed at being unable to just pick up his life and go to a shoot like they’re usually able to.

Freddie thinks for a minute, pulling up his calendar and checking filming dates. “Does the 28^th work for you?”

Scrunching his nose up Tommy shakes his head no. “No, but I should be free the next Sunday; the fourth?” His disappointment can’t be hidden, clearly expecting for the scheduling conflicts to not work out, looking down again to fiddle with his nametag.

“Actually,” Freddie starts, Tommy perking up “we are filming then! I can send you the details as soon as I get them, and then you can come!”

Tommy brightens again, shocked that he could actually get everything to work out. “Oh my god, yeah. I’ll be there.” The smile shining from his eyes can’t be disguised as he turns and waves. “Bye! Don’t break anymore mics and cameras!” He playfully shouts back to them.

“Or do!”

They all laugh, excited for what’s to come.

Notes:

Hey! It's me again, with a new fic, multichapter this time and I actually outlined this time, even though I literally never outline. But in the long run it should help me, since I actually have an endpoint in sight (although I'm not actually sure how many chapters it will, be, the number right now is just a guess).
It's gonna be a bit slow, so sorry about that (I know, this chapter was like, zero tomboo), but I do have plans for this, and I'm seriously super excited about where this is gonna go, so I hope you all enjoyed and are ready for the rest of this fic!
I am on twitter but I'm new, ask in the comments if you want it (although I will require proof) and that's probably where I'll have fic updates first.
-arbin

Chapter 2: Maybe Don’t Leak the Fact That You’re a Millionaire When Trying to Make Friends?

Ranboo has all but forgotten his and Freddie’s run in with Tommy by the time the fourth rolls around, showing up to the Misfits building a couple of hours before the shoot to get ready, only to be surprised by the sight of a confused, fluffy blond standing apprehensively in the entryway to the building.

“Uh, hello?” Ranboo calls out, causing the person in front of him to jump, whipping around to look at who spooked him.

“Oh, hey Ranboo.” He says, wringing his hands nervously. “Oh- shit- uh, it’s me, Tommy, from PC World? Freddie told me to show up here today?” Tommy glances up at the building as if to say, ‘is this the right place’? He meets Ranboo’s eyes before looking away quickly.

Ah, that would make sense, he realizes, remembering their run in at Curry’s.

“Freddie said I should get here a couple hours early if I want to see everything but uh…he’s not here yet, so I’ve just been standing outside like a bit of a creep.” His laugh is strained, clearly nervous and a bit upset that Freddie isn’t here yet to guide him through everything and introduce him.

“I can let you in.” The words escape Ranboo’s mouth without any thought, rushing past his lips at the sight of the scared, disappointed boy.

Tommy perks up a bit at the words though, and it’s worth it to see the shy smile he couldn’t see before when it was covered by a mask.

“Really? You sure that’s fine?” Tommy asks, still unsure about everything. “You barely know me, after all. I could be a wrongun’ for all you know.”

Ranboo can’t help but laugh at Tommy’s words, smiling widely under his mask. “Of course.” He takes out the keycard he has and scans it, waiting for the click of the door unlocking before pulling it open and waving Tommy in. “Besides,” he adds, “you clearly though I was a ‘wrongun’ when we first met, and I turned out to be fine.” He jokes, calling back to when Tommy clearly thought he was creeping on Freddie.

“I mean, I never really proved that you weren’t, did I?” Tommy jokes back, nudging at Ranboo with his elbow as he grabs his mask and puts it on, walking in together.

They only have to wait for a few minutes once they make it to the studio for Freddie to enter, surprised to see Tommy already there.

“Oh shit, Tommy! I didn’t think you’d beat me here. I would’ve come sooner if I’d known.”

Tommy waves off the concern. “Nah, it was fine, Ranboo here let me in.” He nods to Ranboo, walking over to Freddie so that he can be introduced properly and shown around.

It’s easy to see how excited Tommy is about everything here once he’s sure he’s allowed to be here. There’s an ever-present sparkle when he gazes at all the equipment, head swiveling back and forth across the studio to take in all the lights, cameras, staff, and crew getting ready to film. It’s not anything as intense as a movie or TV show production, but any type of budgeted production looks impressive to someone who hasn’t been on a set before. Ranboo can remember how crazy it was for him when he was first invited to be on one; very out of his depth and overwhelmed.

It’s not long before everyone who will appear on screen is called for makeup or styling, leaving Tommy hesitantly moving to sit on a bench on the side of the set.

Eventually everyone is ready, and Tubbo and Aimsey are called up to do the intro to the video. The video is set up so that everyone has a group they film with and Tubbo and Aimsey MCing for the whole video; this way they don’t need to fit everyone on the relatively small set at the same time. Whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate, Ranboo’s group is scheduled to be the last shoot for the day, so he steps to the side, looking around for a place to sit before noticing Tommy still sitting on his own on a bench.

Tommy jumps a bit when he sits down, but quickly settles, leaning over to whisper to Ranboo. “So is it always like this when you guys film?”

“No, at least not for me.” Ranboo answers. “Usually I’m just streaming in my room. Most of the time I don’t even have a facecam on. I’m actually a faceless streamer.” He confesses. It feels odd to talk so candidly to someone about Twitch without them really knowing who he is.

Tommy furrows his brow. “Mhm. So that’s why you didn’t you go in for makeup? You just don’t show your face?” He asks, adjusting how he sits to better face Ranboo and scratching at his arm.

“That’s what the point of the mask is.” Ranboo jokes, gesturing to the mask he’s always wearing and chuckling a bit. He’s grateful he has it on to hide how his smile drops when Tommy returns the comment with a blank stare, clearly not getting the reference.

Coughing a bit, he looks away awkwardly, glad Tommy doesn’t seem to notice that he’s missed a reference, not wanting him to feel even more out of the loop than he surely feels already.

“So what d’you do on Twitch anyways? I mean,” Tommy makes a ‘duh’ face, “not what do you do, what games and shit do you play?”

“I’m trying to be a variety streamer, but a lot of people know me as a Minecraft streamer.” Ranboo flushes, a bit embarrassed to tell this to someone who’s clearly into games, Minecraft often being seen as just a children’s game.

“Really? No way! I used to love playing Minecraft!” Tommy whisper-shouts, easing Ranboo’s nerves when he lights up. “If you ask Freddie, he can tell you we used play it all the time together. Of course, I don’t have much time to play it anymore.” He adds, a slight dip in his voice.

Ranboo nods. “Yeah, a lot of us here either got our start on Minecraft or still mainly play it. Me, Tubbo, Aimsey…Freddie too, you know.”

“That’s sick, it’s so cool that you guys can do what you love like that.” Tommy smiles at him, the genuine happiness he has for them practically radiating off of him. “I’m glad he got to do that. He used go on about making videos for ages when we were younger, not that I was any different.” He chuckles softly. “So…what exactly did Freddie mean the other day when he said you were ‘number 16’?” He asks a bit hesitantly, unsure if it’s a sensitive topic or not.

The flush returns to Ranboo’s cheeks as he rubs the back of his neck. “Ah that, it’s not actually anything bad.” He quickly says, not wanting any misunderstandings. “Just, uh, last year in October, there was this leak with Twitch that showed how much the top streamers had been paid ranked in order of most to least and I…well I was ranked number sixteen.”

Tommy sort of just bluescreens at the information, eyes wide and jaw hanging. “What- you- what the fuck?!” He seems to lose control of his volume for a second, cringing back as soon as he realizes how loud he’s been and raising his hand in apology towards a couple of staff who have looked over. “You’re fucking rich!” He whispers, eyes still wide somehow.

Ranboo can’t help but hide his face in his hands, laughing a bit. It’s not something he’s really ashamed of or anything, but talking about the fact that you’re one of the highest paid people on a major platform in front of someone who clearly doesn’t make anywhere near as much as he does much isn’t really something he likes to do.

“Yeah, Aimsey ranked 40^th and Tubbo ranked 81^st.” Ranboo mumbles.

Tommy’s head is whipping back and forth quickly between Ranboo and the two others he’s mentioned, still up there and MCing the video like Tommy didn’t just learn he is casually in the presence of multiple millionaires.

“Oh,” Tommy swallows, “wow.”

Only slightly regretting all of his life choices, Ranboo quickly diverts the topic to something more manageable for him. “So you said you played Minecraft?”

“Oh, uh yeah.” The callback to a safe, familiar topic seems to help calm Tommy down. “I’m not really able to play it anymore with…y’know…work ‘n shit.” He mutters, trailing off.

“So…have you played the new update?”

Tommy scoffs. “God no. I haven’t had time while my internet’s on to update it. I was planning on doing that today, but I figured this was much more interesting. More of a once in a lifetime chance, y’know?”

Ranboo does not in fact know. Ranboo can’t even remember the last time he had to worry about internet, much less if he had enough time to update Minecraft before it would be shut off. He tries not to let it show on his face or in his voice how caught off guard he is. “Ah, yeah I get that. You should update the game when you can though, it’s really good. Very…new. Mhm.” God, he can’t get any more awkward, can he.

Luckily enough, his stilted speech seems to do better than he thought it would, making Tommy laugh quietly, shoving his face into his hands to muffle it further and making Ranboo giggle as well.

“I do in fact plan to update pretty much the only game I play as soon as I can, Ranboo.” Their laughter peters off, leaving them in comfortable silence as they watch the Misfits make fools of themselves.

“You know uh…” Tommy starts, hesitant. “I used to want to be a Youtuber as well. Well, a Twitch streamer and Youtuber, but when I was a kid I really only…yeah.” He sighs.

Nodding, Ranboo tries his best to show Tommy he has his full attention, not wanting him to feel bad. “Of course. I mean, it’s not for everyone, so I can’t blame you for deciding not to do it in the end.” Ranboo jokes, self-deprecating humor peeking through a bit. He certainly wishes he hadn't started streaming sometimes.

The joke does not have the intended effect, only causing Tommy to hide himself further, drawing in and looking away from Ranboo. Suddenly, he’s so very interested in watching the way the boom mic is moved, angling back and forth to accommodate everyone.

Ranboo scrambles at Tommy’s mood, trying to fix this second mistake. “So!” He says quickly and far too loudly for their situation. “Wanna play Minecraft together sometime?” He internally cringes at himself, having jumped to the first thing that popped into his head.

Tommy is doing no better than him, clearly caught off guard at the sudden shift Ranboo’s taken. “Uh, you sure? You already have a lot of people you must be close to that you love playing with.”

He shakes his head. “No- I mean yes!” Ranboo scrunches up his face in frustration. “I mean, yeah, I do have friends to play Minecraft with, but I would love to play with you.” He fiddles softly with the bottom of his jacket; it’s the leather one Misfits always love to put him in. “Even with them there, you seem really cool, and I would like to chat with you more.” Sure, it feels a bit awkward and forced considering he’s doing this to get away from how he had made Tommy uncomfortable, but he does genuinely like the guy! He seems really chill, and Ranboo honestly wants to hang out with him again.

The grimace on Tommy’s face makes his heart drop, worried he’s overstepped yet again. Luckily, Tommy only lets out a defeated sigh before pulling out his phone and handing it over. “You better not break it.” He jokes about the state of his phone, laughing lightly; his grimace from before now clearly a joke to Ranboo.

Putting in his information is quick, leaving the contact photo blank and putting his name down simply as ‘Ranboo’. He’s barely handed his phone over to Tommy for him to put in his information when someone’s suddenly ushering him to get up and move onto set.

Surprised at how quickly time passed while he was talking with Tommy, he fumbles with his phone, barely able to tell Tommy to keep it and just give it back once filming is done before he’s pushed in front of the camera, mic checked and ready to go.

Filming is fairly easy. Ranboo talks louder than usual, putting on a more entertaining persona. Every once in a while he looks over to where Tommy is sitting, Freddie having taken Ranboo’s place next to him. They’re usually whispering when he looks over, probably just catching up with each other. Despite how great it is to see the two old friends reconnect, it makes Ranboo feel even more awful about his earlier interactions with Tommy, clearly having made him uncomfortable when comparing how Tommy’s acting now to how he was acting with Ranboo earlier.

He gets caught up in the filming soon enough though, too busy to notice anything else when before he knows it they call cut and everyone can head home.

Walking to the bench where Tommy sat he stops, surprised to see the boy no longer there. Ranboo looks around, glancing at all the people in the room but unable to find him. Looking down at the bench he spots his phone—oddly enough something he completely forgot about—sitting where Tommy was, a sticky note stuck on top.

‘Hey, sorry to leave before I could give this back, but I need to catch the bus and Freddie said you’d understand.’

It’s not ideal, but Ranboo understands, carefully peeling off the sticky note and folding it, putting it in his pocket before grabbing his bag and shouting to Tubbo that he’s heading home.

 

---

 

By the time Ranboo’s home he’s too tired to think about doing much other than tossing his keys to the side and throwing himself on his bed to nap for a couple of hours. He’s been up since five this morning, having woken up at the sound of the wind against his windows and been unable to fall asleep after.

Even with how tired he is, he can’t seem to fall asleep, mind replaying the events from the day over and over again.

He hadn’t thought he was doing anything wrong when he was talking to Tommy, but he’d still somehow messed it up, because the smaller boy had shrunk and run away from him. He doesn’t even know what he did! Ranboo was just talking, trying to make jokes and help Tommy get more comfortable when Tommy had retreated for some reason.

Groaning into his elbow he rolls over onto his stomach, pushing his hair out of his face and stuffing his face into the pillow. He can’t stop overanalyzing this.

Maybe telling Tommy the whole “number sixteen” this was a bad idea. Maybe that’s what did it. He normally wouldn’t tell just anyone, but for some reason he did today, and it clearly was the wrong choice. He also probably shouldn’t have told him about Tubbo and Aimsey as well, there’s no saying if the two of them would be comfortable with it, and he just said it without thought. Logically, they probably don’t care, but was still inconsiderate of him.

And then Tommy had, quite literally, left! Logically, Ranboo knows that Tommy probably has a really good reason for leaving, but he can’t help but think that it was him who pushed Tommy away, that Tommy wanted to get away from him but didn’t want to say it to hurt his feelings. He almost wishes that Tommy had just told him he was uncomfortable, at least then Ranboo would know for sure how he felt about everything.

Despite his mess ups, he still wants to talk more with Tommy, hopefully get the chance to clear up everything with him.

UGH. Why did he have to act like that? If he could just figure out what he did then he could fix everything and wouldn’t be so caught up in his head like this.

Ranboo gets up from bed, ready to stream and take his mind off of everything; there’s no way he’s going to be able to fall asleep when he’s so distracted by this. Grabbing a drink from the fridge he heads to his PC.

Notes:

Another chapter! I'm iffy about this one, but hey, gotta move the story forwards somehow?
Did I give Aimsey Tommy's twitch leaks rank? Yes, yes I did. He's not a streamer here, and I will give Aimesy all the love they deserve.
Am I also forcing everyone to wear masks? Yes. We are still in the middle of a pandemic, and if IRL Tommy and CC's won't wear masks, then I will make them (yes, I'm a bit salty about it).
I know that people don't really care, but I'm sorry if you were looking for some quick get together, but I am a slow burn writer at heart (arospec myself lol) so all of my fics, if they aren't already together, take forever for them to kiss or do anything.
Anyways, if you want my twitter, just ask, it's where I update first, and I can't wait to see you guys next update!
-arbin

Chapter 3: Late Night Mental Breakdowns Definitely Have Their Benefits

Notes:

!!Very important please read!!
I normally wouldn't post notes at the beginning of the chapter, but most of you reading this don't know anything about me other than that I made this so, here.
I am in a very bad mental state right now because of everything going on (Russia/Ukraine conflict). Writing is very helpful to me, so I likely will not stop writing, but I can't promise any concrete dates anymore because of this. This was supposed to be updated weekly on Saturday/Sunday, but if that doesn't happen, please understand.
I'm doing my best to keep working and keep on schedule, but if I'm unable to do that, you'll know why now.
Thank you, and enjoy this next chapter
-arbin

It’s cold outside.

To be fair, it’s also close to 3 a.m. in the UK, so it’s not like it was ever going to be warm, but Ranboo really should’ve grabbed a jacket, or literally anything to keep him warm before going out.

He’d been unable to sleep, no real reason other than some insomnia Ranboo’s been dealing with lately, but tossing and turning in bed just wasn’t doing it. So he’d gotten up, grabbed his wallet, and headed out towards the nearest 24 hours convenience store for some snacks.

Now, his local Tesco doesn’t usually feel so far, what with it only being a fifteen minute walk; but having forgotten the vital addition of a jacket like a complete idiot, the cold is really starting get to him.

The fluorescing of the shop sign finally appears in the distance, like water in a desert. He lets out a sigh knowing that he can warm up a bit inside before he has to make the journey back home.

Ranboo walks through the door and a bell dings; completely useless when no one else is shopping this late at night. Grabbing a basket he heads to the crisps and biscuits, grabbing a couple of sodas on the way as well. Sue him! It’s his late-night mental breakdown, he can buy whatever junk food he wants!

Double checking he has everything he wants, he heads to the check out.

Sliding up to the self-serve registers—the best shopping innovation by far—he puts down his basket, slowly going through the motions of scanning each item and putting them into the plastic grocery bags the store provides.

Beep…Beep…Beep…Be—shit.

Just his luck. Of course the only time he heads out on his own for late-night mental breakdown food, the register decides to freak out on him and deny his scan.

Footsteps echo in the empty store, coming up behind where he’s taken to groaning into his hands out of embarrassment and mortification.

He can’t even raise his head from where he’s hidden it in his hands while the employee buzzes their tag, fixing the machine so he can get on his way again, go back home and wallow in humiliation from this interac-

“Ranboo?”

What the fuck?

Ranboo quickly pulls his face from his hands, looking up to meet the eyes of an oh-so-familiar blond; Tommy.

“You work here?” It’s out there before he can stop it.

Tommy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, dickhead. And if you want to keep talking like that then you’d better finish with your fucking shopping already and leave.”

“No no no!” Ranboo quickly shakes his head, waving his hands in panic. “I swear I didn’t mean it like that. I just didn’t expect to run into you. I was caught off guard.”

Eyeing him wearily Tommy sighs, rubbing at his face tiredly. “Whatever. It’s late. I’m tired, you’re probably tired. What even are you doing up this late, or at a store buying…” he glances over the groceries already in Ranboo’s bag, “buying shit tons of junk food?”

A blush heats up Ranboo’s cheeks. “Couldn’t sleep.” He mumbles.

Clearing his throat, Tommy snatches the bag of crisps Ranboo’s still holding from his hands, pushing it up to the scanner…Beep. He plops it into the bag. “Well, there you go. Now you can pay and leave.”

“Wait!” Ranboo grabs Tommy’s wrist, grimacing at how loudly his voice echoes in the empty store. “You never texted me.” He mumbles, realizing how ridiculous he must seem, grabbing Tommy and shouting only to complain to him.

Snorting, Tommy shakes his head. “I’ve been busy, haven’t I? Plus, I didn’t see you jumping to text me or anything.” He grumbles.

Ranboo sits there, floundering for an explanation. “I—I didn’t want to bother you?” He says, not quite sure. It’s not false, so to speak, Ranboo just hadn’t been able to find a good excuse to text Tommy. He’s notoriously bad at texting, the anxiety of someone misinterpreting his tone or meaning is too much a lot of the time. It’s even worse with someone who he doesn’t know, who doesn’t understand how he talks all the time.

“Does it look like I have anything particularly intense going on?” Tommy jokes, gesturing around the empty store. “I work, that’s about it. You couldn’t possibly bother me unless you somehow made me lose either of my jobs.”

“Hey, you said you weren’t supposed to have your phone out at work when I first met you!” Ranboo defends himself.

Tommy seems surprised that Ranboo remembers this, eyes widening and eyebrows shooting up. “I—yeah. I guess that’s true. Still, don’t put this all on me, it’s not my sole responsibility to reach out, especially when it was your idea to talk in the first place.”

Scratching the back of his head Ranboo nods. “Okay yeah, I’m sorry about that. I really shouldn’t be blaming you or anything.” He concedes. “But I really did want to talk with you more. I had fun when we talked at the shoot, and…I don’t know man, you just seem pretty cool.”

Tommy lets out a sigh, slowly nodding his head and accepting the apology. “Fine, I guess. I do have to get back to work now though. Even if no one comes here this late, I can’t just be chatting with customers all shift.”

Ranboo nods in understanding. Tommy walks back to the little desk in the corner of the store he was sat at, looking bored and playing with the dead skin around his fingernails.

Swiping his card, Ranboo finally pays for all of his stuff, grabbing the bag and pulling out his phone to check the time. It’s quarter past three, and looking back at Tommy, he can’t help but feel bad. Tommy said he takes the bus, or at least he did when Ranboo saw him at the shoot, but it can’t be the safest or the nicest to do so, especially after a night shift. Quickly changing his direction, he walks to where Tommy’s sitting.

“Hey, when do you get off?”

Tommy raises an eyebrow. “It’s a bit early for you to take me out for a drink, don’t you think?”

Sputtering, Ranboo flounders, shaking his head. “No—you know that’s not what I meant!” A blush rises to his cheeks, thankfully hidden by the mask he’s wearing. Tommy bursts out laughing, clearly just messing with him.

“You should’ve seen the look on your face! Priceless, I’ll tell you.”

“What I meant,” Ranboo stresses, “is that it’s pretty cold and dark and I could, y’know, drive you home.” He mumbles. “Only if you wanted, of course.” He quickly adds on, not wanting Tommy to feel obligated to agree just to appease him.

“Trying to find my address now, are we?” Tommy jokes, Ranboo laughing with him when he recognizes the joke. “I mean, I guess if it’s not too much of a problem I wouldn’t mind it.” Tommy carefully says, not wanting to seem like he’s asking for help or anything.

“Of course, I’m offering after all.” Ranboo grins at him.

“Fine.” Tommy sighs. “I get off at five, so if you want to wait around here, or come back in a bit to pick me up, you can do that. But don’t feel like you need to or anything, I’m perfectly fine taking the bus.” He clarified.

Nodding Ranboo heads towards the door. “I’m gonna go home and grab my car, then I’ll be back to take you home, alright?”

“Alright.” Tommy shouts, waving at Ranboo as he exits the store.

Even though the walk home is just as cold as the walk to the store was, Ranboo doesn’t notice it as much, too caught up in his thoughts. He can’t deny that offering to take Tommy home was a bit spur of the moment, but he also couldn’t possibly justify if he’d just let Tommy take the bus home right now. It just wouldn’t feel right.

Unlocking the door, the warmth of the house compared to outside is immediately evident, and Ranboo has to remind himself that he can’t just grab some blankets and lay on the couch, he has to go back for Tommy. He puts away some of the snacks he bought, keeping out some crisps and a drink for the car, slipping an extra Sprite out to bring Tommy for when he’s done with work.

Making sure to grab a coat this time, Ranboo gathers up all his snacks and snatches his keys from the little bowl he has them in by the front door.

His car is pretty nice. It’s not a super crazy car or anything—he’s never been one for needless luxury like that—but it’s a new car of recent make, not an old, used one he could get for cheaper, showing that he does have money.  It’s pretty personalized on the inside, with a Minecraft creeper dangling off the rear-view mirror, and some random stickers Tubbo had insisted he needs slapped onto the dashboard.

It’s a pretty short drive to the Tesco’s, what with it already being a short walk away. He parks outside, pulling out his phone.

He definitely didn’t need to come as immediately as he has, being that there’s still a bit more than an hour before Tommy get’s off, but it’s fine. Ranboo simply turns off his car, turning on the ceiling light and opening the bag of crisps. He’s sure there’s a video or stream he can watch to pass the time

 

---

 

Only a bit after five Ranboo see’s Tommy walk out, wearing a puffy blue jacket which has definitely seen better days, patched up with duct tape and some rough sewing, and carrying an equally ratty backpack. Ranboo watches as he checks his phone, looking around before spotting Ranboo and heading over to the car.

“So you didn’t abandon me.” He jokes, pulling open the door and throwing his bag onto the floor.

Ranboo laughs. “Really, that little faith in me huh?”

Tommy shrugs, smirking at him. After telling Ranboo where he lives, they get on their way. It’s a bit awkward; Tommy’s just sitting silently, fidgeting with his fingers and occasionally glancing around the car, Ranboo feeling too nervous to break the ice and start a conversation.

God this is terrible. Trying to help the atmosphere, Ranboo quickly reaches over and turns on his Bluetooth, the car automatically connecting to his phone.

A funky tune starts up, slowly getting louder as though approaching them. Ranboo realizes a bit too late what song is playing. “Oh crap wait—!"

“TWO TRUCKS, HAVING SEX. TWO TRUCKS HAVING—” He desperately reaches over, fumbling to change the song to a, luckily much calmer, decidedly not Lemon Demon song.

Tommy bursts out laughing, bent in half and rolling around as much as he can in the passenger seat of a car. He takes a couple of deep breaths, wiping the tears that have gathered in the corners of his eyes. “Oh my god, that is…that’s truly a treasure. What the fuck was that?” He asks breathlessly.

“Just…you know…a bit of a jokey song.” Ranboo replies, face bright red.

The drive to Tommy’s isn’t a particularly short one, about half an hour. But after the tension is broken, they’re able to settle down into nice, easy conversation about everything and nothing. Ranboo offers Tommy the sprite, Tommy accepts, although he says he prefers Coke.

Ranboo’s fingers tap on the steering wheel in time with the music as he pulls up to an old looking apartment building. It’s nothing spectacular, quite the opposite in fact. A brick of a building, if anything.

After switching the blinker off and putting the car into park, Tommy unbuckles, grabbing his bag off the floor and getting out of the car.

“Promise to actually text me this time?” Tommy asks sarcastically, leaning down to poke his head through the door before he closes it.

“Yes, I promise.” Ranboo pulls his hands from the steering wheel, putting them up in defense, laughing as Tommy points two fingers towards his own eyes, then jabbing them at Ranboo in an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture.

Snorting, Tommy shuts the door, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and walking up to the building, waving back at Ranboo as he disappears inside.

Ranboo’s head thunks down against his wheel as he lets out a sigh. It’s definitely not the best way to start talking to someone, but he’s certainly making progress.

 

---

 

Ever since Ranboo took Tommy home, they’ve been texting. It was sporadic at first. Tommy sending a picture of some ridiculously tall, skinny thing he’d seen and accompanying the picture with the caption of ‘its you’, or ‘i met your cousin today’. Ranboo laughs at those, always showing the pictures to Tubbo without any context, showing a few on stream when Tommy sends them while he’s live and chat asks why he’s started giggling.

He doesn’t ever say they’re from Tommy, simply saying he found them online or that a friend sent them. It’s not an unlikely cover story, so many fans make it harder to find the origin of things, and eventually the fans do start posting stuff like that on their own, making it even easier to lie and say that’s where he found them. And his chat knows not to push when he talks about friends that aren’t content creators, quickly backing down when he says it isn’t anyone they know.

Ranboo reply to the texts with jokes calling Tommy short, which he vehemently denies, saying he’s six three and calling Ranboo an 'American bitch' and 'traitor'.

After a bit, they start texting more frequently. Ranboo will share about his day, Tommy will complain about random customers he’d dealt with while on his shift.

They go beyond simply sending the other things that remind them of each other occasionally, now engaging about mundane things, things that friends talk to each other about. Which leads Ranboo to where he is now.

He can’t stop pacing around his room.

His phone is lying in front of him mockingly, opened to Tommy’s contact in iMessage. They’ve gotten so much closer these past few weeks, but are they really friends? Can he actually say they’re that close? They’re definitely acting more comfortable around each other, but he’s still anxious.

The whole text is sitting there, completely written out and mocking him. It wouldn’t be hard to just…press send. But it’s not that simple, is it?

What if Tommy’s at work right now? Sure, it’s late, and normally would be after working hours, but Ranboo knows that, at least sometimes, Tommy works a night shift, and if he’s on that now then it’s just gonna be awkward for the both of them.

On the flipside, if Tommy’s not on the clock right now, then he’s probably not gonna say no. They’ve gotten on so well, and logically, Tommy wouldn’t mind talking with him more, getting closer than simply people who text each other.

UGH. Why does social interaction have to be so complicated?

In a fit of protest against his dumb, anxious brain, Ranboo clicks send and promptly throws his phone onto his bed, facedown where he can’t see.

He groans into his hands, laying down on his pillow. He’s acting like he was when he first started blowing up on the internet; when famous people were only just starting to talk to him and recognize him, and he wasn’t so desensitized to it.

But this is literally Tommy. A normal dude who works too jobs and comes off as an odd mix of aggressive and worried. Tommy, who didn’t even know about the Twitch leaks, much less the fact that Ranboo even existed up until Freddie and Tommy ran into each other and Ranboo just happened to be there.

There’s the sound of a soft ding and a light buzz he can feel on his leg where he threw his phone interrupting his, admittedly embarrassing, mental breakdown.

Hesitantly picking up his phone, Ranboo turns it over in his hands, the notification from ‘tommy innit’ lighting it up. And god, Ranboo had almost forgotten the random name Tommy had given himself. What was this man on?

Swiping to unlock his phone, the notification opens. Ranboo can only stare for a few seconds before a sigh of relief escapes his chest.

‘sure id be up for some minecraft, hypixel okay?’

Quickly typing out his reply, Ranboo sends over a confirmation and his gamer tag, Tommy responding with his own while Ranboo turns on his computer and signs into Minecraft.

Hypixel is a server he hasn’t played on in a while, but it’s nice to get onto it again. He quickly nicks himself before anyone can realize that he’s joined and adds Tommy to his party.

After a couple of seconds fumbling to communicate through the in-game chat, Ranboo quickly comes up with a better solution.

‘Discord?’

It’s so obvious, but something they’ve accidentally neglected. Tommy sends over his discord and soon enough they’re actually on call, finally.

“Why is your name in Minecraft…not your name?” Tommy immediately asks, fumbling with how to phrase the question. “It’s not the tag you told me it was when I look at you in-game.”

Ranboo facepalms. Of course Tommy doesn’t know what nicking is, he’s barely able to update Minecraft as it is. “It’s called being nicked. I’m pretty well known on here, so in order to stop people from mobbing me or anything, there’s a feature for people like me to artificially change our usernames, kind of go incognito.”

Tommy hums in affirmation, and Ranboo can imagine him nodding in understanding.

“Anyways, up for some bedwars?”

“You know I am boss man!”

They play a few games, falling into a rhythm with each other fairly quickly. It doesn’t take Ranboo long to realize that Tommy is funny, like, stupidly funny. He didn’t have much of a chance to see it when they’ve talked in person, but through all their texting he should’ve realized. There’s no reason for Tommy to be able to crack such good jokes, but for some reason he always has the perfect response to make Ranboo laugh every time. By the time they’ve finished their tenth game of bedwars, Ranboo’s lightheaded from laughing so much.

“Dude, you have to stop, my liver is gonna eject out of me if you keep this up.” Ranboo says breathlessly, lifting his hands from his keyboard and placing them on his head, taking a couple of deep breaths.

Tommy snickers across the line, clearly enjoying Ranboo’s pain. “Hey, it’s not my fault. I’m just naturally the funniest man ever.”

There’s a lull in the call as they both calm down, Ranboo grabbing his water bottle to take a sip.

“Hey, would you want to play on a private server together now, just to like, calm down a bit?” He asks hesitantly.

Tommy’s reply is surprisingly quick. “Of course! You wanna send me the IP and I can join?”

Ranboo nods, realizing after a second that Tommy can’t see him and replying in affirmation.

Logging onto the private world feels a lot more significant. It’s a simple world, not one he uses on stream at all. There’s a little cottage he’d built after watching (copying) far too many Grian videos, and a small waterfall surrounded by flowers that Tubbo had built the last time he was on. If anyone were to go underground, they’d see the endless mining network Ranboo’s created over the years, going on and mining any time he needed to just think through something hard.

The intimacy of it isn’t lost on Ranboo, and normally he doesn’t invite people on it, especially not people who he doesn’t know well. But he wants Tommy to understand that he really trusts him, wants to get closer, and he hopes that Tommy can pick up on that.

It takes a minute for Tommy to get on, and Ranboo nervously sweats the entire time. Finally, the chat message comes through that ‘Tommyinnit has joined the game’.

Tommy’s small gasp is audible through the call. “Wow, boob man, quite the place you’ve got here.”

Ranboo sputters at the nickname, temporarily thrown off before he gains his footing again. “Y-yeah. Feel free to do whatever you want, just don’t mess with the stuff that’s already here, y’know.”

“Aw damn it, how am I supposed to do anything if I can’t destroy what everyone worked hard on?” He jokes, heading towards a little hill off to the side, clearly no actual intentions to mess up anyone’s stuff. Ranboo follows him, just standing around him a bit awkwardly.

Tommy starts mining into the hill, carving out a little room, and starting to make, what Ranboo can assume is his own house. They continue talking while Tommy does this, after a while Ranboo leaves him to continue on his own, heading down to his mines and starting off in a new direction.

Now that they’re a lot calmer and doing their own things, Tommy doesn’t try so much to make jokes, talking candidly about his day. Apparently, a customer came in asking for a high-quality pc, but when Tommy had directed him to the PC’s with all the specs and features he’d wanted, the man had gotten annoyed at the prices, saying they cost too much and that Tommy was trying to scam him out of his money despite Tommy literally just being a worker with no influence on the price whatsoever. Even after Tommy had explained this to the man, and that a PC with everything he wanted would cost, at minimum, more than a thousand pounds, the man still had felt entitled to cheaper prices and asked him to get his manager.

“What a Karen, man.” Ranboo supplies.

“Yeah! And then when I got my manager and she explained that what the man was asking for wasn’t possible at less than a thousand pounds—which is exactly what I’d told him, mind you—he’d demanded we lower the price for him and give him a discount! Like, what the fuck? When she told him that, no, that’s actually insane, he’d started being all sexist towards her, saying she didn’t know anything because she was a girl talking about technology, and that she must’ve used her body to get her job! Can you believe the audacity of men?!” Tommy huffs, and Ranboo can imagine Tommy puffing up, bristling like a cat when it’s annoyed at something. The image makes him smile, chuckling a bit.

“People can be dumb.”

“Ugh,” Tommy groans, “at least at Tesco’s my shift is pretty chill, only the occasional late-night dumbass shows up.” Ranboo can hear the smirk in Tommy’s voice, clearly referring to him.

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I’ve been much better about my sleep schedule that I used to be.” He replies defensively.

“Mhm…” Tommy replies, clearly skeptical of it. “And so that’s why you’d be up at—” Ranboo can hear a shuffling as Tommy checks the time. “Shit.”

“What is it?” Ranboo asks, concerned.

“It’s almost two, and my landlord is definitely gonna kill me for being on the internet this late.” He groans. “Usually the internet is shut off by now, so I didn’t realize how late it was.”

Ranboo turns his Minecraft character around where he is, heading back up to the middle of the server where Tommy is. “Hey, it’s fine if you need to go now. I’ve had a lot of fun with you.” He means it, genuinely glad that they’ve been able to hang out like this for so long. “We can hang out again some other time, and we can always text.”

Tommy mumbles in agreement, still seeming disappointed despite everything. Ranboo finally makes it back to spawn, heading to where Tommy’s made a lot of progress on his house, reminiscent of a hobbit hole but with a much more…homey feel. “Yeah, sure. I’ll get off now. Make sure to text me. I’ll update you about how it goes with the landlord.” He chuckles, although it’s not nearly as happy as his laughs usually are.

“Okay man, I’ll talk to you later, bye.”

“Bye.”

The sound of Tommy logging off the discord call leaves Ranboo in silence, sitting at his desk all alone.

Despite how he would usually feel a bit down after getting off a call with a friend—and yes, he feels he can definitely call Tommy a friend after this—he doesn’t have the usual crash. Instead, Ranboo can feel his face lit up in a dumb, big smile. No one can see it, but he still brings his hand up to his mouth, covering the ever-widening grin in slight embarrassment, feeling a blush light up his cheeks for no apparent reason.

God, he can’t wait to play with Tommy more.

Notes:

Tommy RN:
"A single mom, who works two jobs, who loves her kids, and never stops" /ly /hj

First off, I'm so sorry for not getting this chapter out last week. I was dealing with some serious writers block, and it only went away after it was too late to update for the week. I hope that this is fine though.
Besides that though, can I just say, while I added Ranboo scanning the groceries and the scanner not working for plot reasons, I felt this way too much. I love self checkout, but would literally rather die than anything else when the scanner malfunctions and you need an employee to come over.
Also, a bit worried that Ranboo and Tommy seemed a bit too unfriendly at the store, but I would like to say it's late and they were both very tired. Ranboo said things that he didn't think about, and Tommy acted brashly in response, they weren't actually hating each other or anything.
Yes, the base Tommy builds on Ranboo's server is meant to be his dsmp house, but like, less griefed obviously.
My twitter is where I update about fics first and tell you where they're at. If you want it, comment and ask and I'll give you my @, but I will require proof to let you in.
Thank you so much for reading, can't wait to see you next chapter!
*edit: for those of you wondering, these were written before shit hit the fan with Russia/Ukraine, that's why this not has a very different tone than the beginning note*
-arbin

Chapter 4: You’re Telling Me You Text Everyday and You AREN’T Boyfriends?

Being friends with Tommy is…it’s everything Ranboo never knew he needed.

It’s been great, honestly. Ranboo can’t remember the last time he had so much fun with a friend without having to be…Ranboo. Without having to fill the role of ‘beloved content creator, followed by millions’.

His streamer friends are great, don’t get him wrong, but content is always inevitably discussed when you’re in a room of streamers. “What’s the next video you’re doing?”, or “Have you heard about this new thing? I’ve been thinking about making a mini-series with it.”

With Tommy, all of that goes away. They laugh and play games together and not a single thought of streaming or content creation passes through his mind. Tommy rants about annoying customers—working two customer service jobs, he always has new and insane Karen stories to tell—and Ranboo listens and laughs along. Ranboo keeps Tommy up to date on games other than Minecraft, talking about cool, quirky games he’s played. From horror, with “Resident Evil 2”, to the insanity that was “Dialtown: Phone Dating Simulator” (Tommy had proceeded to spend the entire week after Ranboo had told him about that one teasing him about his crush on Oliver).

They usually start on Hypixel or some other public server, but always inevitably end up on Ranboo’s private server at some point just to talk, catch up, and calm down. Some days they’ll go straight to Ranboo’s server. It’s not even something either one needs to feel guilty about asking for, just wanting the peace and quiet of the private server. Tommy or Ranboo will be too tired for the high energy usually required for an actual server, and Ranboo will mine, and Tommy will build. They don’t even need to be talking the entire time, just sitting on call and doing their own things, happy to be in the presence of another without any other expectations except to be there.

They can’t call every day, which is to be expected. Tommy still has two jobs, and even when he’s not at work, he has a life outside of that which he needs to take care of; bills, taxes, and groceries are all things Tommy has to keep up with. Ranboo feels embarrassingly incompetent when Tommy starts talking about stuff like that. Despite being younger than Ranboo, he’s a lot more independent, taking care of everything in his life himself, seemingly without any of the outside help Ranboo receives from various friends and family members.

In addition to everyday stuff though, Tommy has to leave their calls and get off the internet fairly early. After the first time they’d stayed up late playing together, Tommy’s landlord had apparently come to talk to him the next day about the internet usage, threatening that if he didn’t follow the rules like he had been before that night, then his internet would just be shut off altogether. 

That’s the other thing. Ranboo can’t ever even think of a time where he’d had to worry about something like using up too much internet. He doesn’t want to, but he feels guilty that he’d put Tommy in that situation, and that he continued to make Tommy risk something as vital as the internet.

He wants to call and talk and text constantly, but he holds himself back with the knowledge that he could be getting Tommy in trouble.

Despite all that though, Tommy constantly reassures him that it’s no big deal. That it doesn’t even matter, and Tommy likes talking to Ranboo whenever he can, that he’ll just have to monitoring his internet usage more.

Learning his way around Tommy as a friend now has turned out to be just as hard as he expected it to be…yet it’s simultaneously the easiest thing he’s ever had to do.

Other than the calls though, Ranboo doesn’t feel like much has changed. He’s still RanbooLive, Twitch streamer and (barely) Youtuber. He has a new friend who he’s just trying his best to hang out with, despite said friend’s intense schedule. That’s it.

So he can’t help but be confused when Tubbo gives him a questioning look at his offer to go to Curry’s to pick up some equipment for a new IRL streaming backpack (we don’t talk about what happened to the last one). Surely it’s not that odd for him to want to be helpful, right?

“Alrighty!” Aimsey says, clapping his hands together loudly. “Ranboo and Tubbo will go and grab the new equipment, and Freddie, Bill, and I will work on planning out a more…cohesive outline for the stream.” She uses that soft, jokingly slightly mocking tone as he ushers the two out, slamming the door on them once they’re out with nothing more than a quick “Bye!” and a shit-eating grin.

An awkward air hangs between them, Ranboo getting increasingly confused by it. Why is Tubbo not saying anything? Why does it feel so weird? Normally, the two of them get on like the best friends that they are, but right now Tubbo’s just avoiding his eyes, looking anywhere else while they walk to the car.

The feeling doesn’t dissipate when they get in the car either, Ranboo starting up the ignition and backing out. The roads are unusually busy, but checking the time confirms Ranboo’s suspicion that it’s rush hour and the two of them are just unlucky with their timing.

It’s only after five minutes of this uncomfortable silence that Tubbo finally speaks.

“Are you dating someone?” It’s so blunt and sudden after so much silence, it startles Ranboo, jumping a bit.

“What?! No! Why would you even think that?” Ranboo wracks his brain, trying to figure out what he’s been doing that would make Tubbo this.

Tubbo shrugs. “You’re always on your phone now, and you don’t text or talk to me nearly as often as you used to.” He sits up a bit more. “Not to mention, you go out more often, and are always offering to be the one to go on errands for us now!”

“Hey! I have always been willing to go on errands with you guys!” Ranboo replies, slightly more than jokingly offended.

“Not to this extent.” Tubbo snorts, turning away from Ranboo and looking out the window, crossing his arms.

Why would Tubbo think he’s dating someone? Much less that he’d hide that he’s dating someone. Ranboo’s always been a romantic, and though he values his privacy, Tubbo’s his best friend! He would tell Tubbo if he were dating someone!

The rest of the ride is quiet. Tubbo mad, seeming to think that Ranboo is lying to him, and Ranboo desperately trying to figure out what he’s been doing to make Tubbo think he’s dating someone.

Finally, they pull into the carpark, Ranboo shutting off the car and removing his keys. There’s the shuffling of the two of them grabbing various items around the car and unbuckling—Tubbo still refusing to talk to Ranboo—before the bzzt of Ranboo’s phone lighting up with a notification pulls Ranboo’s attention away.

Face lighting up a bit, he swipes on the notification. It’s from Tommy, telling him that he is on shift at Curry’s at the moment, but that he’s stuck in the back doing inventory until further notice. Ranboo replies, telling him it’s alright and that he’ll seem him later. He’s already planned on picking Tommy up today, since he knows Tommy’s working double shift today, both his dayshift at Curry’s and nightshift at Tesco.

“See, this is what I’m talking about!” Tubbo gestures between Ranboo and his phone frantically. “You’re always smiling and texting someone on your phone.”

Ranboo’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Tommy?”

Tubbo crosses his arms sassily. “Is that the name of your boyfriend?”

“No!” Ranboo exclaims, waving his hands back and forth. “Tommy’s my friend! You know, you met him when he came to watch us film the Misfits video a while ago.”

Tubbo takes a moment to think, trying to recall anyone new he’d met during filming with Misfits. “You mean Freddie’s friend? From when we filmed a video two months ago?”

He thinks for a second. Surely it wasn’t that long ago? But, then again, before they’d run into each other again at Tescos he had spent at least a week not contacting Tommy because he was too nervous to. So there was some lost time. Ranboo shakes himself out of his thoughts, they’re irrelevant to the situation. “Yes, that Tommy. We’ve been speaking and hanging out on Minecraft recently.” Ranboo conveniently leaves out the part where he’s been driving Tommy home at 5 a.m. when he has to take double shifts, like today. That’s not important to this conversation. Yup. Totally unimportant.

Raising his eyebrow Tubbo looks Ranboo up and down. “Mhm...”

He doesn’t offer any other reaction, grabbing the handle to the car and swinging himself out of the car before Ranboo can even react. Ranboo just sits there for a moment, shocked.

After a minute he jumps out, banging his head on the ceiling in his haste to get out, sprinting after Tubbo’s retreating form.

“Wait Tubbo! It’s seriously not what you think!”

 

---

 

Ranboo pulls his car up to the Tescos, shutting off his engine and getting out, sure to lock the door behind him.

Yawning, he heads through the store, grabbing the usual coke and sprite before heading to the cash register. He’d taken a nap for a couple of hours when he got home from Tubbo’s and had gotten up about half an hour ago to go pick up Tommy, so he’s still a bit groggy. But he’s gotten some sleep, so it’s not that bad.

Scanning the drinks and making sure to click that he’s not bagging his items, Ranboo glances around, smiling a bit seeing Tommy sitting in the corner. He waves, smiling when Tommy waves back, grabbing the drinks and then heading out to wait in the car.

The clock hit’s five, and after a few minutes a very tired Tommy comes out. He has his backpack and jacket as usual, but his eyes keep on fluttering closed, even while he walks. Getting to the car, Tommy reaches out slowly, grabbing the door handle he stops for a second, swaying a bit before jerking and blinking rapidly.

Ranboo gets out of the car and moves over to Tommy’s side, opening the door for him and taking his bag, placing it in the backseat and heading back to the drivers-side.

“Long day?” He says softly, grabbing the coke can from the cupholder in between their seats and cracking it open. He hands it to Tommy, who gratefully accepts it, nodding and taking a sip.

“Yeah jus’…” Trailing off, Tommy’s head starts to lull, Ranboo quickly reaching over and taking the coke from Tommy’s hand before he drops it all over himself. He sets it back in the cupholder.

Reaching over the dashboard he grabs at Tommy’s buckle, careful not to jostle him awake as he clips it into place and slides back quietly. Doing his own buckle, Ranboo turns the key and ignites the ignition, flinching a bit as the loud noise of the car starting up, and the lights from the car all start at once, startling Tommy awake. Luckily he seems to drift off again after a couple seconds.

He doesn’t turn on any music like he usually would, not wanting to risk Tommy waking up from the sleep he clearly needs. Instead, the white noise of the car accompanies them on the drive to Tommy’s apartment. Even the occasional click of the blinkers doesn’t seem to break the mood, only adding to the music of the wind as it rushes past the windows outside, dancing as it grazes lightly against the doors. Every once in a while Ranboo will slow down for a speedbump, careful not to wake Tommy with the car’s unsteady motion.

The drive doesn’t take any longer than normal, but it feels like it passed in a flash. All too soon Ranboo has to reach over and lightly grasp Tommy’s shoulder, carefully rubbing it and trying to wake Tommy.

“Tom. Tom, we’re here.” He whispers, not wanting to break the mood.

Tommy groans, batting at the hand on his shoulder and scrunching his eyes even tighter closed. “Fuck ‘ff.” He mumbles, turning away from where Ranboo’s lightly laughing at his antics.

“Come on Toms, we need to get you inside to your bed, alright?”

It takes a second, but finally Tommy nods from where he’s rolled into a little ball, taking time and extending each of his long limbs into a stretch, yawning as he does so.

Satisfied that Tommy’s properly awake now, Ranboo gets up out of his seat, opening the back door and grabbing Tommy’s backpack to sling over his shoulder. Tommy has successfully found the door handle and pushed it open, standing up on unsteady feet and using the car to brace himself as he tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

Smiling, Ranboo reaches past Tommy and into the car once again, grabbing the opened, almost untouched coke and finally straightening up.

“Let’s get you inside, shall we.”

Golden curls bouncing as he nods, Tommy leans himself up against Ranboo, directing them towards the building while Ranboo supports him, nodding awkwardly at the security guard who seems to care about this job as much as someone can care for something they hate; that is to say, to the extent where he won’t get fired, but doesn’t actually do anything.

Ranboo sighs when he sees the elevator is out of order, turning the two of them as he locates where the stairs are.

“What floor are you?” He asks quietly, partly for Tom, partly because the building itself is so quiet, and Ranboo doesn’t want to wake anyone at near six in the morning.

“The te-” a yawn, “the tenth.”

Internally groaning, Ranboo nods, pulling them to the entrance of the stairs. Looking up from the base of the stairs certainly doesn’t improve his mood about this, but oh well. Gotta get Tommy to his room somehow.

It’s slow getting up the stairs, both because Ranboo has to remind himself how many floors they’ve passed constantly, and because they can’t move too quickly with Tommy being so lethargic right now.

When they finally get to the tenth floor, Ranboo lets out a sigh of relief, glad that at least the stairs are past now.

Opening the door to the hall, Ranboo lets Tommy direct them to his door, motioning for Ranboo to hand him his backpack, unzipping it and grabbing his keys from deep within. Ranboo watches while Tommy pulls the door towards them, sliding the key in and turning it as hard as he can to get it to move, shoving the door inwards for it to open.

“There.” He says, holding the door open and waving Ranboo in unthinking, slightly out of breath.

The inside of the apartment is a yellow-y off-white, old cupboards on rusty hinges line the walls of the kitchen. It’s more of one big room, honestly, with the kitchen connecting the living room and dining room by default since there’s no wall. A small sofa (more of a chair) sits in front of a decent TV, and by the kitchen area is a little table and two chairs, a bowl of various fruits atop it. Ranboo can see two doors on the opposite wall, one hung open and leading to what he assumes it Tommy’s bedroom, the other closed, most likely the bathroom.

“Home shitty home.” Tommy mumbles, closing and locking the door behind him, plucking the coke can out of Ranboo’s hand and placing it in the fridge before leaning back against the counter. Even in the dim lighting of the apartment, Ranboo can’t help but notice the blush that’s working it’s way up Tommy’s neck to his face. “Want anything to eat?…drink?” He asks, scratching the back of his neck and ruffling up his hair, his shirt riding up a bit as he does so.

Ranboo shakes his head, still standing awkwardly in the doorway.

Tommy just shrugs, clearly still too tired to properly formulate any coherent response. Ranboo watches Tommy head to the open door, walking inside and opening a closet, grabbing some loose pants, then looking closer and groaning in annoyance when he can’t seem to find what he wants.

“Everything good in there?”

Huffing, Tommy shakes his head, cheeks puffing up in irritation, but offering no other answer than that.

Unsure if he’s being too intrusive, Ranboo slowly walks across the house, entering Tommy’s room and making sure Tommy knows that he can tell Ranboo to get out at any time.

Tommy’s room is very…Tommy. His PC—the only thing in the apartment which seems to be very high quality and clearly expensive—is on a desk against the wall, various little bits and bobs surrounding it on the desk. A Lego figure here, a picture of two cute dogs there…even a small ribbon award, the writing too faded for Ranboo to actually make out what it says.

Opposite the desk is the bed—or beds—both fairly small, full size beds. The lower bed is right next to a window, filled with various stuffed animals and cute pillows. Above it is another bed, a small staircase leading up to it.

Ranboo’s eyes continue to wander around the room, taking in everything before his eyes land on Tommy—arms crossed and hip popped while he continues to look through his closet.

“What are you looking for?”

“My fucking jumper isn’t here. I could’ve sworn I’d only worn it once, but I must’ve worn it too much or something and put it in the laundry, ‘cause now it’s not here.” He grumbles unhappily.

Looking over Tommy’s shoulder into the closet, Ranboo sees various t-shirts and pants, as well as a couple sweaters and jackets hung up. “Couldn’t you wear a different sweater? Or a t-shirt?”

Tommy shakes his head again. “None of the other jumpers are soft enough to sleep in, and the heating isn’t turned on unless it’s below freezing outside, so I can’t wear a t-shirt.”

Nodding thoughtfully Ranboo continues to look around, trying to figure out something that will work.

“Oh, I know!” He snaps his fingers together. “You can take my sweater!” Not waiting for an answer, Ranboo starts removing said sweater. It’s an unreleased merch sample he’d been sent about a week ago, a fairly incognito tie-dye sweater of alternating green, red, black, and white. The only thing that gives it away as merch is the small embroidered ‘R’ over the breast, which most of his merch has.

“Woah woah woah!” Tommy quickly grabs at the hem halfway off Ranboo, pulling it back down. “You need clothes too! I can’t just send you home shirtless!”

Grinning, Ranboo gently removes Tommy’s hands from his clothes, pulling up the sweater again to show the black t-shirt he’s worn underneath. “Not shirtless, see? I’ll be fine. Plus, I’m going to be in a car and then home, I’ll only be outside in the cold for like, two seconds. That’s much better than you spending the whole night freezing your butt off just because you didn’t take this.”

He waits for a moment as Tommy grumbles his begrudging agreement, going back to taking off the sweater when Tommy eventually nods slowly.

Handing the sweater over to Tommy, he can’t help but feel warmth flood his chest when Tommy takes off his shirt, pulling the sweater over his head, the sleeves ending past Tommy’s fingers due to their difference in size. It looks good on Tommy, and it’s nice to finally see him in something that isn’t a work uniform.

Tommy briefly ushers Ranboo out of the room so he can change into pajama pants, opening the door again and allowing Ranboo back in once he’s finished.

There’s a certain air about them as Tommy goes about the apartment, brushing his teeth, getting himself a cup of tea, and making one for Ranboo as well after asking if he’d like one. By the time Tommy’s finished getting ready for bed, it’s almost 7 a.m. and the sun is starting to rise, peeking into the window in Tommy’s room.

“I should probably get going…let you sleep, y’know.” Ranboo laughs awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

Tommy nods, a yawn forcing its way out of him. “Yeah, I’ll text you when I wake up, yeah?”

“Mhm.” Ranboo manages to choke out. Something about the situation making it hard for him to form words.

Reaching over on the bed, Tommy grabs his curtain and pulls it over the window, making the light from the main room of the apartment the only thing left to illuminate everything.

Ranboo grabs both of their tea mugs, reassuring Tommy that he should just get to sleep, that Ranboo will put them in the sink and turn off the lights when he leaves.

Satisfied with his answer, Tommy nods, waving Ranboo goodbye and starting to crawl under the covers.

Before he can intrude any more than he already has, Ranboo leaves the room, closing the door and hearing it latch softly behind him. After making sure everything is put away or in the sink to be cleaned later, Ranboo heads out, attempting to close the front door softly only to find that it doesn’t close that way, and resigning himself to practically slamming the door into place, locking it with the key Tommy told him he keeps on top of the doorframe (one of the benefits of him being fairly tall, he guesses).

He finds himself smiling on the car ride back, the sunrise reflecting off the water and lighting it up in grays, purples, and blues.

He’s still smiling when he finally gets home, collapsing onto his bed and burying his face into his pillow, ready to sleep with only one thing on his mind.

Tommy.

Notes:

Ahaha, sorry for being away for so long. I had a lot going on personally, and then the few times that I could write I was brainrotting little things (go checkout my newer oneshots if you haven't btw).
Anyways, how we feel about this one? There are a couple of little easter eggs in this one, but idk if I'll actually explain them. The Ranboo merch I described doesn't actually exist, I just came up with it on the fly, but I think it sounds pretty chill, I would wear it. I never realized how much I wrote about Ranboo driving around, and then this chapter there are three times where he's driving and wow. I have a problem /j.
Honestly though, I loved this chapter, so soft. Things are finally starting to happen, Tubbo thinks Ranboo has a bf, but Ranboo doesn't even realize his feelings yet lmao.
Also, Tubbo isn't actually mad at Ranboo, I just feel like he would be hurt if there was something super big in Ranboo's life happening (like getting a s/o) and Ranboo didn't tell him about it.
I realized that this book is going to be longer than I previously thought so I upped the chapter count. I don't know if 12 is the actual number of chapters it will end up being, but a tentative guess at what it will turn out as.
I have a twitter! It's where I update first about all my fics, post little sneak peaks, as well as sometimes run polls that decide things about my stories (usually little things, but who knows). If you want it, just ask in the comments, I WILL require proof if you're priv or a fairly small/new account, and if you're priv I will also require proof that you either don't follow cc's or have them blocked, and make sure to read the link in my bio.
I think that's all, if you have anything you want to say, comment and feel free to share! I loved this chapter, and I hope you did too, and that you're excited for the future of this story!
-arbin

Chapter 5: I Wanted to Help You but I Can't Understand

Something had finally broken between the two of them after that night.

Some unspoken line crossed, rule broken, when Tommy had invited Ranboo into his apartment, when Ranboo had given Tommy his sweater.

It’s nothing bad, no, definitely not. If anything, Ranboo’s happier than before now that this boundary no longer exists. It’s just been…odd, adjusting to this new dynamic. At first it felt like when they’d only started talking. Fumbling around, unsure of if what he was saying was okay to say or if it was pushing too far. But pretty soon they’d fallen into new routine.

Part of that new routine includes what Ranboo is doing now, picking Tommy up from his shift at Tescos and going to grab them food. It’s become almost tradition now. When Tommy has a double shift, Ranboo will go to sleep a bit early, wake up before five, go to the store and grab their drinks (a coke and a sprite), and then wait for Tommy to get off shift. When he’s finally off shift, they’ll sit in the car for anywhere from one to fifteen minutes (Tommy had been very indecisive one day, switching between options like it was the Olympics before they just decided to drive around and stop at whatever was open), and decide where to go pickup food. It’ll be Tommy’s dinner, and Ranboo’s breakfast.

So that’s what they’re doing. Tommy has just sat down, throwing his bag in the back while Ranboo pulls up various restaurants and fast-food chains that they can pick up food from on the way to Tommy’s apartment.

“What about that that little food truck we went to last time? I really liked their tacos.” Tommy offers, yawning a bit as he unties his shoes, kicking them off to get more comfortable in the heated car. “And they had good breakfast tacos for you.”

Looking up their Instagram, Ranboo sighs in disappointment seeing that they’re located too far out of the way at the moment to justify getting them. “Maybe not today, but we’ll check next time.” He explains, showing Tommy the phone. “We could always go with the good ol’ trusty McDonalds?” Ranboo offers, tilting his head to shoot Tommy an inquiring look.

Too tired to care all that much, Tommy nods, taking the phone from Ranboo to look over their menu.

While Tommy figures out what he wants to eat, Ranboo starts up the car, backing up and getting on their way. After Tommy finishes choosing, he proceeds to direct Ranboo to the McDonalds near his apartment, telling Ranboo his order to give the drive-thru worker.

“Really? A kid’s meal?” Ranboo smirks at Tommy as they pull forward to the pay window.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that kid’s meals are the superior option for when you want to have a fine dining experience at the one and only,” Tommy scrunches up his face, making a snooty expression and putting on a over the top fake French accent, “Mac-of-ze-Donalds!”

Putting his hands up in surrender, Ranboo nods and laughs along. Calming down a bit, he places his hands back on the wheel and pulls up to the window, Tommy reaching over to turn down the volume on the music.

“That’ll be £8.00”

Wordlessly handing over his card (Ranboo always insists he pay), Ranboo does his best to stifle his giggles when he looks over and notices Tommy’s continuous ridiculous antics. His current task seems to be trying to balance everything he could quickly pull out of Ranboo’s glove compartment on top of the dashboard, his face a collage of overexaggerated feelings and expressions every time it wobbles or falls, and he has to restart.

Affectionately shaking his head, Ranboo turns back to the window. Accepting back his card, as well as their bags of food, he starts up the car again. The McDonalds is only about a minute away from Tommy’s, so it’s not long till they get there.

Pulling up to the building and putting the car in park, Ranboo grabs their food while Tommy grabs his stuff, entering the building and waving at the security guard as they make their way to the stairs.

The walk up ten flights, embarrassingly, hasn’t gotten much easier on Ranboo, still struggling with his breath a bit as he gets further along. But it’s definitely not as bad when he doesn’t have to support Tommy up the stairs.

Once they get to the apartment, Tommy pulls out the two chairs around his small table, grabbing some placemats from a cupboard and placing down their drinks from Tescos.

After setting up the table, Tommy goes to his room to change into something more comfortable. Ranboo sets down their food while he does that, pulling open the greasy McDonalds bag and placing their food in their respective places, Tommy’s happy meal on his placemat, and Ranboo’s pancakes and latte on his mat.

When Tommy finally comes back wearing Ranboo’s sweater and some sweatpants, they get to sit down to eat.

Ranboo pours some syrup overtop his pancakes, cutting into them and taking a bite. They aren’t the best, being that they’re fast food, but something about McDonald’s food is always nostalgic, bringing him back to when he was really little, going on a road trip to visit relatives and picking up fast food breakfast because they’re in too much of a rush for anything else.

He’s brought out of his reminiscing when Tommy reaches over, grabbing a small triangle of pancake Ranboo had cut out, and dipping it straight into the syrup, drenching it and throwing it into his mouth before Ranboo can stop him.

“Hey! You have a whole meal; you don’t need to take any of my food.” He jokingly grumbles, reaching over to steal a fry from Tommy’s pile of food.

“Agh!” Tommy screeches, leaning over to wrestle the fry back from Ranboo. It’s a struggle of loud laughter and giggles as the two fight over the single fry. There’s no real prize here, only the honor of being the one to get the last laugh.

Somehow managing to overpower Ranboo, Tommy grabs Ranboo’s hand and wrenches him forward, overestimating how much Ranboo’s resisting and pulling him over the table, smearing syrup from his pancakes all over his jacket.

“Oh shit!”

Eyes widening, Tommy quickly gets up, grabbing napkins from a drawer and coming back to the table. Carefully, he does his best to absorb any syrup that hasn’t already seeped into the jacket, helping Ranboo out of it so they syrup doesn’t get on any of his other clothes.

“I’m so sorry dude. I seriously thought you would pull back more and then you didn’t and I ruined yo-”

“Tom, don’t worry. It’s fine.” Ranboo soothes.

Tommy nods, taking a few deep breaths. “Guess I’ve just dealt with one too many Karens getting mad at nothing, eh?” He laughs. “I’ll wash this for you, yeah? And then when you come over next you can have it back.”

Ranboo jerkily nods in agreement, already knowing that he’s going to do his best to make sure Tommy never gives that jacket back. It’s the bomber from his first merch release, and he already has more than enough extras. Tommy could just use more clothes. Definitely.

It’s quiet for a moment while Tommy goes to put the jacket in his laundry bin, Ranboo sipping his latte while he waits. The quiet doesn’t last for long though, interrupted by a loud-

BRRRRIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGG!

“Shit!” He hears Tommy mutter under his breath, still confused as to what exactly is going on, and why there is a rotary phone ringing in Tommy’s apartment at 6 a.m.

Rushing over to the phone, Tommy picks it up. “Hello?” Ranboo can’t tell what’s being said, but it doesn’t look good based on the way Tommy grimaces. “Yeah, I’m super sorry…Yeah no I totally understand. Me and my friend were just—no yeah I’ll make sure to keep it down…Of course, have a good day.” Slamming the phone shut, Tommy leans back against the door to his bedroom, running a hand through his hair and sighing.

“Uhhh, can I ask?” Ranboo questions.

Letting out a resigned sigh, Tommy shakes his head, walking back to the table and sitting down again. He gestures for Ranboo to continue eating before starting to explain. “It’s just my landlord calling. He’s complaining about the noise which, yeah, fair. It’s pretty early, and I’d be annoyed if someone woke me up like that too.”

Ranboo takes a sip of his latte, the mood awkward as they sit in silence for a moment. “I’m sorry if I caused that.”

“No, don’t worry about it. It’s usually fine in the day, and I’m usually not so loud.” He mumbles out the last bit. “But I guess I just forgot my volume. I promise though, it’s fun hanging out with you, I’m not mad that this happened.” Tommy smiles wearily, reaching back to his chicken nuggets and taking a bite.

“Yeah but still, if I got you in trouble or anything, I want to apologize.” He says, taking another bite of his pancakes while Tommy wipes his mouth to speak, shrugging.

“Eh, it’s not the first time he’s threatened to kick me out, won’t be the last. As long as I pay my rent and stay better about the rules I’ll be fine.”

Eyes widening Ranboo chokes a bit on his bite of pancake, reaching over to clear his throat with the sprite he hasn’t touched yet. “He’s threatening to kick you out?!”

“Shhh!” Tommy reaches over and slaps his hand onto Ranboo’s mouth. Not realizing how loud he’d been, Ranboo felt a blush rise to his cheeks. “Didn’t I just tell you about how noise needs to be kept down? Trust me, it was so much worse when I first moved in. I’m practically an angel to my landlord now.” It’s clearly partially a joke meant to lighten up the mood, but it doesn’t stop the guilt from creeping up Ranboo’s throat.

Once again, he’s reminded of how different his and Tommy’s lives are. He wasn’t always this…rich, for sure, but he’s never been in a position like Tommy. As a child, he’d fallen somewhere between lower and middle class, but even then, he’d never felt the true weight of it. Always able to sufficiently do as he pleased.

Doing his best to get himself out of his thought spiral, he laughs a bit forced at Tommy’s joke.

They get through the dip in the conversation, Tommy able to bring the mood back up and keep the rest of the morning enjoyable. They throw away their greasy McDonalds trash and hug goodbye, but Ranboo can’t keep the thoughts out of his mind forever, coming right back as soon as Tommy waves him goodbye and closes the door.

What can he do?

 

---

 

Ranboo nervously looks back and forth from his backpack on the floor and the bathroom where Tommy’s brushing his teeth. It’s been just over a week since he was last over, they’ve just finished eating, and anticipation sits heavy in his gut.

Once he’s sure that Tommy’s not going to come out for a minute, he heads over to the bag, unzipping it and pulling out a small, rectangular package. Tommy had been confused as to why Ranboo had brought it, Ranboo of course floundering for an explanation and saying that it was a dare from Tubbo, who said he couldn’t carry a bag around with him for the whole week. Obviously, that’s not true. Ranboo, ever the mom-friend, always carries a bag with him when he goes out, and he can count on his fingers the number of times he hasn’t. But the point is that Tommy doesn’t know that, so it works as an excuse.

Hearing the tap shut off in the bathroom, he sits up a bit straighter, avoiding eye contact and fidgeting with the box when Tommy comes out, a confused look on his face.

“You good?” Tommy asks, walking closer, stopping when he notices the box in Ranboo’s hands. “What’s that?”

Ranboo clears his throat. “I—uh…I got you a little…a little gift?” He sounds unsure of himself as he says it, holding out the box for Tommy to look at.

An unreadable expression crosses Tommy’s face, causing the anxiety in Ranboo’s stomach to grow.

“It’s—it’s a phone. ‘Cause I know that yours is pretty…pretty beat up and I—uh, I figured you could use a new one.” He tries his best to smile a bit, maybe get anything out of Tommy, but Tommy’s face doesn’t change. Pushing it forward a bit, he reaches out and places it into Tommy’s hands.

They sit for a second, and then Tommy moves. “What the fuck?” His brows furrow, anger seeping into his voice. “What the fuck man. I really thought…I really thought-” Tommy cuts himself off, laughing dryly while he turns the box around in his hands. “So much for actually finding a good friend.” He scoffs.

Confused and frantic, Ranboo jumps up. “What? Of course we’re friends! That’s why—why I got you this!”

Tommy looks up at Ranboo, anger clear on his face now. “Nah, you’re just here for fucking pity.” He shoves the phone back into Ranboo’s hands, venom seeping through every crack of his being. “Just because you have money. Just because I’m doing so badly and you just had to do something for the poor boy who lives alone at 18 and works two jobs and lives in a shitty apartment that isn’t up to code and can’t afford to get a fucking phone upgrade!” He pants, catching his breath. “You had better get the fuck out of my apartment. Right. Now.” Tommy threatens.

Ranboo fumbles, desperate. “No, Tommy I swear it’s not-”

“I said get the FUCK OUT!” Tommy shouts. Ranboo sits, stunned for a few seconds.

From Tommy’s room, the sound of the red phone ringing loudly startles Ranboo, Tommy turning around sharply to go pick it up. He glares and Ranboo while he answers the phone, jerkily gesturing at the door of the apartment, nostrils flaring.

Grabbing his bag, Ranboo stumbles out of the apartment to his car, dazed and unsure of what exactly has just happened. He sits for a moment, numb, before starting up his car and driving back home.

Before he’s realizes it he’s back in his house, the phone still clutched in his left hand, his bag slipped out off his other and lying limp on the floor.

Not completely registering what he’s doing, he throws the phone across the room, his chest rumbling with frustration. It’s not enough. He walks around his house, clenching and unclenching his hands in any attempt to regulate himself, looking up at the ceiling and trying to even out his breathing, blinking back tears he doesn’t want to fall.

How could he have been so fucking stupid!? A low whine works it’s way out of his throat. Unsure of what exactly to do he crouches down, hyperventilating into his knees and desperately clutching at his hair, pulling it as hard as he can to do something.

Going to his room he grabs one of his plushies from his bed, throwing it as hard as he can across the room, promptly breaking down again once he realizes what he’s done, collapsing onto his bed and feeling bad for throwing the plush when it’s done nothing.

Without any idea of what else to do, he screams. He screams into his pillow, and when that’s not enough he screams into the air, the volume of it making his ears hurt and not helping the headache that’s developed from how much water he’s lost through crying.

Oh. He’s crying.

Curling in on himself he cries harder, clutching at his chest where his heart hurts and he just wants everything to stop.

 

---

 

He spends two days trying to be productive with his life, trying to distract himself, before he gives up.

It’s not the same when he’s not texting Tommy at every chance he gets. He’d tried to stream, but he kept on thinking Oh, Tommy would love this, or I can’t wait to tell Tommy about this game. Every time having to remind himself that no, that’s not going to be something he’s sharing with Tommy anymore. It got too hard to deal with. Even his viewers had noticed something was off, noticing how quiet he was, so he postponed the rest of the streams he had planned.

Now he just sits on his bed, staring at the ceiling and questioning everything, too pitiful to get up for anything.

His phone buzzes from across the room every once in a while, but after waiting for days to see if Tommy would text with no results, he’d thrown it as far as he could and couldn’t muster up the will to look at it again.

What had he done? He thought he was doing something nice, getting Tommy something that would be helpful. Tommy’s phone is pretty messed up. He’s seen the cracks on the screen, the way some of the pixels have died, leaving black spots where Tommy can’t click. But Tommy had gotten mad at him.

Ranboo just wanted to be nice. And it’s not like buying the phone had been hard on Ranboo. Tommy knew that.

Groaning, he rolls over on his bed, curling up into a ball again. His eyes are too dry to cry, having cried so much he can’t anymore. He can’t even feel mad at Tommy. Clearly Tommy had a reason for being mad at him. Ranboo is just too stupid to figure out what it is.

He clutches Fernando, his Build-A-Bear rabbit he’d gotten with Aimsey, closer to him. Burying his face in Fernando’s fur, a few tears slip out, wetting it. Well, I guess the tears aren’t completely gone. He laughs bitterly.

He feels pathetic when he finds himself gasping for breath again, panic and shame rolling through him in waves. He should have a better handle on this, not be stuck in this spiral he finds himself in. It’s been five days. Tommy hasn’t texted or called him at all. Clearly this is the end of their friendship. He needs to get over it.

But he can’t. Sitting in bed like this, he can’t force himself to get up, to do anything knowing he ruined his relationship with Tommy, without even knowing what he did.

He doesn’t hear the knock on his door, the jangling of someone getting out their own key to his house and opening the front door, searching through his mess of a house trying to find him.

The door to his room opens and he can’t even flinch at the unexpected stimulus, can’t force his pathetic form to move from where he is to see who has come to observe his breakdown even as he hears their heartbroken tone.

“Oh Ran…”

Notes:

*Laughs nervously*
Well well well, I certainly have started the angst :)
Never expect an update this quickly from me ever again lmao, I was very lucky to have enough free time and motivation to get this done in a few days, but I doubt it will happen again.
I may have accidentally made Ranboo's breakdown more of an autistic meltdown because I'm autistic and that's what I know, but oh well. It's autism awareness month so, whatever.
Only other thing to mention is that the breakfast/dinner thing from the start was based off a tiktok I saw of a couple where the woman worked as an emergency dispatch officer and got off in the morning, so she ate dinner while her husband ate breakfast so they'd eat together.
You know the drill, if you want my twitter comment and ask, I will require you to dm me proof and check you aren't following cc's.
I hope you enjoyed and I can't wait to continue this story, I hope you stick through it :)
-arbin

Chapter 6: Friends CAN Help to Get Things Rolling…

Notes:

Thank you so much for 10,000 hits!!!

“Oh Ran…”

There’s a dip in his bed as a much smaller body slides behind him, wrapping their arms around Ranboo, spooning him despite the size difference.

He takes a shuddering breath, curling in on himself tighter in an attempt to reject their affection. He doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t want to ruin another friendship by messing up so intensely that he can’t function.

They don’t let go, only shuffling closer to him, stuck like a barnacle on a ship.

“Do you want to talk about it?” A Welsh accented voice asks carefully, their hand rubbing comfortingly up and down Ranboo’s arm.

Ranboo shakes his head, too tired to actually speak.

“You know, me and Toby have been worried about you.” Aimsey says softly. “The others have as well, obviously. You haven’t answered our texts in a few days, and usually you’re really quick about it, so we thought we’d come check on you.” Her breath tickles his hair, greasy from days of not showering.

We?

He makes a questioning noise, trying to convey what he’s asking as best he can, unable to force the actual words out.

“Toby wanted to pick up some food. He said when you lived together and got in a rut you’d forget to eat, so he thought he’d grab some Dominos.” They giggle a bit. “Don’t tell him I told you though, he’d probably kill me if he knew I told you he notices shit about you.”

Ranboo can’t help but let out a slight, almost airy giggle at that, a bit rough from the alternating screaming and then not speaking for hours or days that he’s put his vocal cords through. Perhaps he’s still a bit delirious, unable to take care of himself when he’s too focused on not crying and hiding from himself.

He lets Aimsey guide him up, walking him into the bathroom where he leaves Ranboo a towel and some clothes he must’ve grabbed from Ranboo’s closet. Once Ranboo emerges from the bathroom, hair wet and limbs shaky, she guides him into the living room, settling them both on the beanbag next to the coffee table.

Ranboo feels a lot of things, but mostly it’s just embarrassment. It feels like he just blew up at a small thing, and he’s too far deep into his little breakdown to justify going back to any sense of normality. But at the same time, it feels like he’s got no reason to be this upset. It’s like when you get into an argument, and halfway through realize you’re wrong, but you’ve already spent so much energy arguing your point you can’t just stop, so you continue to argue the point you know is wrong and it’s all just so embarrassing…

It's a toxic cycle, and one he feels like he can’t escape with this at this point. Can’t message Tommy, can’t reach out to his friends, can’t-

“Ran…” Aimsey runs her hand through his hair, letting him melt back a little, leaning into her touch and sitting there. Ranboo knows it’s clean, but he can’t help but cringe despite the nice feeling of fingers in his still wet hair. Knows just a couple of minutes ago it was greasy from days in bed without shower, but he can’t linger on that too much with the sound of a key turning and Tubbo finally arriving with the pizza’s breaking the silence.

Anticipation hangs heavy in the air as they all eat, everyone knowing that after they’re done Ranboo will have to finally explain what’s been going on with him. He eats slowly, savouring each piece for entirely selfish reasons. (They can’t make him speak if they’re all still eating, can they?) But Aimsey and Tubbo finish up eating anyways, wiping their mouths and throwing away the empty pizza boxes while Ranboo has a couple slices left on his plate, joining him back on the beanbag.

The two shuffle around for a couple of seconds, getting comfortable and seeming to look for where to start with their questioning more gently. Or perhaps that’s only Aimsey.

“…Not to be rude, but what the fuck’s happening with you man? OW!” Aimsey immediately smacks Tubbo on the shoulder, leaning in and whispering something to him.

“What we meant,” they stress, shooting a glare to Tubbo, “was that we’ve been worried about you, and we wanted to make sure you’re alright and clearly…” She gestures at the state of the house.

Chewing and swallowing the small bite of pizza in his mouth Ranboo nods, exhaling shakily. “Um, I really don’t know where to start with this guys. It’s kind of a big mess, and even I don’t really know where I went wrong with everything.”

Aimsey’s hand comes to comfortingly rub up and down Ranboo’s back, urging him to continue.

“So, you guys remember Tommy? Freddie’s friend, Tommy. Who came to that one Misfits shoot a while ago to kind of see what was going on?” He overexplains, continuing at the two nodding their understanding. “So like, when he was there we were sitting next to each other, right, and since I was last up to actually film, we were talking for a bit. Just about life and stuff…but then I got called up and he left before I got back to him, but he left his number since he thought I was nice and stuff I guess, so we could like, keep contact, you know? But then I was an anxious mess and never really contacted him, and then I ended up kind of forgetting altogether.”

He takes a break from speaking; sucking in breaths slowly to try and calm himself a bit, already getting worked up. “Anyways, I ended up having some insomnia and heading down to the Tescos nearby, you know the one? But I headed there, and it turns out Tommy works the night shift there, so I offered to drive him home, since he lives pretty far away and normally would’ve taken the bus…” He’s barely into the story and he’s already gasping around his words, tears welling up in his eyes.

Lightly rubbing circles into his back, they encourage him to continue, talking about his and Tommy’s talks on discord, games of Minecraft together, Ranboo starting to get food for them, and their time playing on his private server (those stories get a look shared between Aimsey and Tubbo that he’s too tired to try and decipher right now).

Their routines together.

“And then I just, messed it all up.” Ranboo’s voice wavers. He tries to cover it up by grabbing a slice of his pizza and shoving it into his mouth, fighting back the tears trying oh so desperately to escape his eyes. “I don’t even know where I went wrong!” He breaks, crying. “I’d given him stuff before! I mean, the-the food we ate all the time, and I’ve given him some sweaters and stuff—although he kind of thinks of those more as me lending them to him—but then I just…I fucked it all up!” He folds, burying his face into his legs, finally giving in, fat tears absorbing into the new, clean sweatpants he’d put on earlier.

Shuffling and muffled whispers behind him are too difficult to decipher. Instead, the weight of two bodies on top of Ranboo comforts him, the pressure something reliable and grounding. They all sit there for a minute, Aimsey and Tubbo just laying on Ranboo to comfort him, Ranboo pulling himself out of the little hole he’s retreated back to.

Hesitantly, Aimsey starts. “I’m sorry Ran. It really seems like you really like Tommy, and you want to stay good friends with him.” Ranboo nods silent confirmation. “I was just wondering then so we could get a better idea of what might’ve happened, what was it you gave him that made him so angry at you?”

“It was just a phone.” Ranboo sniffles, wiping his nose. “His phone is super cracked and old, like, the model must be at least five years old or something. So I figured it would be nice to get him a new one, especially since I can afford it, you know?”  He looks up questioningly, pleadingly hoping they understand his intentions and confusion.

“Mhm…” Aimsey mutters, nodding their head. “That definitely sounds like you’ve got yourself in a pretty complicated situation bud.”

Ranboo shakes his head, dropping it into his hands and laughing self-deprecatingly. “I’ll say” He utters wetly.

Tubbo sits quietly, absorbing the information. “I’m sorry, I really don’t know where you went wrong man. Sounds like he was just mad for no reason honestly. Maybe he’s just a dick and you were unlucky.”

“No!” Ranboo shouts, surprising Aimsey and Tubbo. “Tommy wouldn’t just do that. And even—and even then, he clearly had a reason for being so angry at this. He was seriously messed up about it—it wasn’t just him taking something out on me, I promise.” He quiets as he breathes deeply, defending Tommy vehemently.

Hands raised in surrender Tubbo backs off, leaning back a bit onto the beanbag.

“I mean,” Aimsey cuts in, “Didn’t you say he works two jobs and like, has to support himself and all that? And he lives on his own, so he has to pay for all his stuff himself, right?”

“Yeah…?”

“So,” Aimsey stresses, “he’s probably, you know, not well off or like…poor.”

Startling, Ranboo whips his head to Aimsey. “Well—yeah he’s—he’s like not well off I mean clearly—he works two jobs and all that—”

“Ranboo.” Aimsey says firmly, bringing Ranboo out of his rambling. “You can say he doesn’t have money. We don’t need to beat around the bush with this.”

They push themself up, resting a hand on his knee. “I myself have never been super poor or anything, but I do know people who have been, and I think I get where Tommy might be coming from in his anger.”

Immediately perking up, Ranboo scoots closer.

“Please Aimsey, I just want to understand where I went wrong.”

“Well, I definitely can’t speak for Tommy, you’ll need to speak to him about this yourself, in person, okay?” They look at him pointedly, waiting for his affirmation to continue. “To my understanding, Tommy never asked for you to ‘help him out’, or anything, right? So giving him something, especially something as expensive as a phone completely unprompted could seem like pity or something.”

Confusion paints Ranboo’s face, scrunching up and twisting around. “But I—his phone is really old and beat up, and I have the extra money so I thought—” He cuts himself off, mind muddled and upset seeping into his voice.

“That’s why I’m saying,” Aimsey stresses gently, “you need to speak to Tommy about this. I only can understand so much about this situation, even with the friends I’ve had in the past.”

She sighs, moving up and pulling Ranboo into a hug, Tubbo joining in from where he’s silently been observing. “At the end of the day, Ranboo, we’re all teens with more money than we know what to do with, and who’ve never really experience the lack of money it seems Tommy does. He’s the only one who can tell you what’s going on and where you went wrong.” Aimsey pulls back, wiping a silent tear falling down Ranboo’s cheek, “Alright?”

Ranboo nods, tears spilling over from emotional exhaustion, still not having the answer he wants, but one step closer to getting it. “Okay.” His voice trembles, diving back into the arms of his friends.

Notes:

Hiiii...
So I'm seriously so sorry for the gap between this chapter and the last. And I know this chapter isn't anything super amazing or special to return, it's not even extra long to make up for my absence, but I would really like to say I'm sorry.
School and life really got in the way, and then I got some serious writers block, which is why if you check my collection you'll see I uploaded a bit inbetween this upload and the last. BUT!!! My writers block for this story is gone, and I'm so excited to write for it again!
Anyways, I hope this chapter was good! While I was writing it, I wasn't feeling it too much, but when I went back to edit it, I started to like it a lot more. I also realize I've pretty much made Ranboo accidentally autistic since I made him reflect my meltdowns/breakdowns a lot so...oops? Eh, it's funny but it happens to a lot of my writing.
No Tommy in this chapter, but he'll be back next chapter and what's that? Ooooo, the confrontation about what went down with the phone and we finally really get to understand why Tommy got so angry!
Finally, I know most people look to the series this is in, but I encourage you to go look at my "Arbin's Fics" Collection, it includes all of my other "poppy" fics that aren't Tomboo, and some may pique your interest!
Thank you so much for reading, I'll do my best to never let a gap like this happen again, and I hope to see you all enjoying and reading next chapter!
-arbin

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of Arbin's Tomboo Fics