Chapter Text
The flight from the US to the UK was objectively beautiful. Ranboo pressed a hand to the thick glass of the window. It had been over ten hours and his legs were cramping up. Two kinds of desperation clawed at him: One to see his friends and the other to simply escape the claustrophobic cabin in the sky. He snapped a picture of the clouds outside his window and tweeted it with a smile for the caption. He slid his phone back into his pocket, unwilling to watch the chaos unfold.
It had happened one night, late for Ranboo and later for Tubbo. They were making that same joke where Ranboo offered to meet him upstairs, and once stream ended Tubbo just spammed him with links to flights. They'd nixed every meet-up idea thus far because work visas and pandemic and leases and all sorts of nonsense. But Tubbo convinced him that if he just came for two weeks, it would be fine. It would be better in fact. They could see how they worked in person before they were shut up in an apartment with Tommy for the foreseeable future. And maybe they could look at some places before he left. It had Ranboo's leg shaking just thinking about it.
He worried that if they met, when they met, it would making leaving so much harder. That once he had to board the plane again, he wouldn't want to. His sleeping schedule was already fucked, an obvious symptom of longing. Ranboo ran a hand through his hair, trying to focus on the movie playing in the background. The in-flight entertainment screen was tiny and blurry. It was animated. There was a musical montage happening.
He pulled out his phone instead and flicked through notifications. There were a lot of exclamation marks and reaction pics. At the top, however, was Tubbo's reply. A matching smile.
-
Tubbo looked so tiny at the bottom of the escalator. He was alone and staring and had clearly spotted Ranboo long before he had. If Ranboo were braver he would have run down the thing and tackled his friend like all those videos he'd seen. But they were in public and Ranboo never quite shook the nervousness that came with being friends with Tubbo. It was a sea-sick kind of feeling that he'd held onto since their first call. As he descended, infinitely slow, down the escalator, Tubbo trotted right up to the end. He was clearly buzzing with excitement, it came off in waves like static. Ranboo was reminded of a cat with twitching whiskers.
Tubbo crashed into him as he stepped off, and Ranboo backed him up to make room for the other passengers. He didn't have the choice to be embarrassed because Tubbo was rocking from toe to toe and talking into his sweatshirt. Ranboo couldn't hear him and realized belatedly that his headphones were still on. He pulled them down.
"—was it okay? Did they give you peanuts? I can't believe you're here."
"Hi Tubbo." Ranboo breathed into his dark hair.
“Hi." And Tubbo was peering up at him, grinning ear to ear. "Let’s go.” He said, cheek pressed into his shoulder. It was the awkward, warm feeling of meeting someone who you already knew entirely too well. Of feeling the person under your hands who you'd only seen through a screen. Tubbo finally released him and took Ranboo's suitcase where it was abandoned beside them.
“Someone's eager.” Ranboo huffed.
“I won’t deny it.”
Ranboo wished he had worn his mask. “Good, then I won’t either.” He knew he was blushing.
“C'mon we can stream as soon as we're home.”
Ranboo groaned.
“Or maybe not.” Tubbo amended.
-
Tubbo was bent over his new laptop, knees propped up as he typed. He was editing together footage from their meeting, shaky phone videos and clips that his family had cobbled together. The first moment was their own though, they hadn't filmed it. Ranboo was unwilling to wear a mask for the plane ride and part of him selfishly wanted it for himself. He loved his viewers, but there was a reason he kept so much of his life private.
Ranboo's suitcase was open on the floor, clothes already strewn across the carpet. He'd showered and changed out of his airport clothes, too tired to put them away. Tubbo's knee brushed his thigh every time he clicked his trackpad, and Ranboo wanted to pull his hood up and hide. Instead he studied the freckles across Tubbo's cheek.
"Alright?" Tubbo said, gaze drawn from the screen.
"Mhm."
"'M almost done. Then we can watch Grey's Anatomy."
"'Kay."
Tubbo fixed him with a look. "Practically non-verbal, man. You sure?"
"Jet-lag." Ranboo mumbled, proving his point.
"We could skip Grey's if you want, just sleep?" Tubbo closed the editing software and set the laptop to the side.
"No. No, I'm good for it. I'm good for it." Ranboo said, doing his best to perk up.
"Alright then." Tubbo said then reached across the bed for Ranboo's discarded airport hoodie. "You don't mind?" He said though he was already shrugging it on.
Ranboo made a noncommittal noise and stared at Tubbo's hands as he pressed buttons on the remote. The sleeves threatened to spill over his fingers and Ranboo knew he was staring. And then Grey's Anatomy was on and Tubbo was flicking off his bedside lamp.
"So, Meredith's just got this new resident and—" Ranboo let Tubbo explain what he had missed. Halfway between the second episode and the third, he was out. Tubbo's voice broke through a couple times as he commentated, startled by new drama or operations gone wrong.
"Oh," Tubbo's voice was soft. "You've gone to sleep."
"Yeah," Ranboo said, blinking up at him. He was very much asleep.
"Jet-lag." Tubbo said.
"Jet-lag."
And then the sheets were drawn up around him and the TV quieted.
"G'night Boo."