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There was a heavy weight that seemed to be lifted from Tubbo’s shoulders as he watched his son practically force himself into Tommy’s arms, and for Tommy to very skittishly hold Michael back. They sat there for a while, Tommy shaking like a leaf while Michael snorted contentedly, pressing his face into Tommy’s chest completely unaware of Tommy’s fear.
Even though Tommy was shaking, and practically all the color was drained from his face, Tubbo could see the way his wings drooped, feathers fluffing up with content. He figured that it was a good experience for both Tommy and Michael.
The interaction and meeting went so much better than Tubbo originally thought. And it really did make him happy.
Michael eventually crawled out of Tommy’s lap and went to find something else to do, content with the snuggles he had received for now. Tommy shifted, pulling his knees up to his chest. He ruffled his feathers.
“Tommy if you wanna go downstairs you can,” Tubbo offered, pushing himself up to his feet. Tommy nodded slipping through the trapdoor, struggling to fold his wings up enough that he’d be able to fit through. Tubbo found that amusing, it reminded him of when they were kids when Tommy didn’t know how to use his wings yet.
Before leaving the attic as well, Tubbo made sure that Michael was good and he’d be fine for now before he went to find Tommy and Ranboo.
After dinner and after sorting out a few things with Tommy and Ranboo (hoping that they wouldn’t fight while Tubbo was gone), Tubbo climbed up to the attic to put Michael to bed.
Michael squealed happily when he saw Tubbo, headbutting his father in the legs (he picked up that habit from Tubbo when he had seen Tubbo headbutt Ranboo in the arm).
“Hey Michael,” Tubbo smiled, patting Michael on the head, “are you ready for bed?”
Michael scrunched up his nose, looking around Tubbo at the trapdoor like he was expecting someone else to come up. He huffed, clinging onto Tubbo’s pants.
“Ranboo will be up in a bit to give you hugs goodnight,” Tubbo figured that was who the small piglin was waiting for. But Michael was still staring at the trapdoor expectantly. He looked up at Tubbo, his one eye wide.
“What’s up, what do you want?” Tubbo crouched down. Michael squeaked and tugged on Tubbo’s shirt, pointing to the trapdoor.
“Do you want to go down?” Tubbo asked slowly, his expression full of confusion. Michael shook his head and snorted.
“Ranboo?”
Michael seemed to be getting a little frustrated now. He huffed, letting go of Tubbo’s clothing to root around the room for something, his hooves clicking against the floor. Tubbo sat there confused while he watched his son move around the room.
Michael wasn’t able to talk, and Tubbo was pretty sure that he wasn’t going to be able to learn until way later. But Michael had a way of communicating that Tubbo was still trying his hardest to fully grasp. Ranboo was better at knowing what Michael wanted.
Following Michael towards the little pile of gold shiny things in the corner, Tubbo watched Michael sift through the items. He turned back to his father, gesturing with something too wildly for Tubbo to see what it was.
“Woah Woah, slow down, what is that?”
Huffing frustratedly, Michael pulled Tubbo’s hand out and pressed the item into it, stomping his hoof.
The item was a tanish feather flecked with white and gold. The edge was a bit burnt but even without that detail, Tubbo would know exactly where the feather came from. (where Michael had gotten it was a bit more of a mystery).
“Tommy?” Tubbo asked, noticing a few more of Tommy’s feathers in Michael’s treasure pile. He knew that Tommy was shedding feathers a lot recently, after the damage that had happened in the prison, his wings weren’t in the best condition. Though Tommy wouldn’t let anyone touch them (the one exception was Michael very briefly before Tubbo shooed him off).
Michael nodded with a squeak of confirmation, making grabby hands at the feather that Tubbo had. Tubbo gave it back.
“Do you… want me to go get Tommy?” Another nod.
Tubbo laughed to himself, “ok bud, I’ll go get Tommy.”
Michael clapped his hands together happily. Scooting near the trap door as Tubbo left, waiting patiently.
Tubbo found Ranboo and Tommy sitting on the couch next to each other which was a bit of a surprise. Ranboo was talking about something that Tubbo had about zero context for. Tommy was pressed against the armrest of the couch, sitting about as far away from Ranboo as possible.
“Hey big man,” Tubbo said, leaning on the back of the couch. Tommy jumped and looked up at Tubbo.
“What?”
“How’s Michael?” Ranboo asked, tilting his head to one side.
“Tommy is being requested actually,” Tubbo reported with a small laugh. Tommy’s eyes widened.
“Michael is?”
“Yeah, he wants you to come up,” Tubbo said, “Probably to say goodnight and stuff.”
“Is…” Tommy licked his lips, “are you sure that’s a good idea.”
“Tommy I’m pretty sure that this means he likes you quite a bit.” Ranboo rubbed at the back of his neck, “of course it’s a good idea.”
“Okay…”
Tubbo went up the ladder first, watching Tommy behind him out of the corner of his eye. Michael was still sitting where he had been when Tubbo left, right next to the trap door. He had one of Tommy’s feathers sitting on the floor next to him. He tilted his head to the side rocking back and forth while he watched Tubbo climb up.
Michael squeaked happily when he saw Tommy, stopping just before he went to headbutt him, remembering that Tubbo had told him to be nice. Tommy fluffed up his wings, flinching when Michael Pressed himself against Tommy’s legs.
“Somehow, you’ve got Michael all attached to you,” Tubbo laughed, shaking his head.
“What can I say? Everyone loves me.” Tommy said half-heartedly with a snort. He winced, curling his wings around Michael very timidly. Michael snuffled happily snuggling deeper into Tommy’s embrace.
“and you love Michael too.”
Tommy looked up like a deer in the headlights, spluttering for something to say. “Of course I don’t,” he huffed looking down at Michael.
“Sure,” Tubbo chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. His ears twitched.
Michael squeaked, and Tommy ruffled his feathers, a few of them dislodging and fluttering to the ground. Michael took Tommy’s hand wiggling out of the hug, the movement causing Tommy to flinch.
Tubbo watched as Michael dragged Tommy to his bed squeaking softly. Tommy was hesitant, wanting to pull away from Michael but at this same time, he didn’t want to accidentally make the child upset.
For a moment Michael seemed to contemplate his next move, looking back and forth between Tommy and his bed. Michael looked over at Tubbo, snorting.
“Here Tommy,” Tubbo grabbed a book from the pile of shiny things that Michael had. The cover was ringed in gold and the edges of the pages had been painted the same shiny color. It was a book of fables, Michael's favorite, “read it to him.”
Tommy’s eyes widened, “no I… he’s your son couldn’t you read it?”
“Well I think he’d enjoy it better if you did,” Tubbo stepped closer, extending the book to Tommy, “it's a bunch of stories, you can read one of them. I have to go check on something with Ranboo.”
“I’m not no baby sitter.” Tommy protested, taking the book anyway. There was no bite to his tone, and something about the way he set his shoulders made Tubbo think he didn’t really want to say no.
“Uncle Tommy is gonna read you a bedtime story,” Tubbo said to Michael, lifting the piglin child into his arms, nuzzling his nose against Michael’s, “Goodnight Michael.” Michael head-butted Tubbo in the leg when he was put down again, crawling under his covers.
“He’ll fall asleep after the first story but I’ll send Ranboo up in a bit,” Tubbo smiled, Tommy stared down at the book in his hands and said nothing. He nodded curtly.
Michael snorted impatiently, and Tommy sat down on the edge of the bed next to Michael. He tried to fold his wings in a way that wouldn’t take up very much space and would still be comfortable. Michael shifted so that he was snuggled up against Tommy, looking up expectantly.
Tommy shivered at the contact, opening the book and hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible.
The stories were short, and given no directions whatsoever from the child, Tommy started with one that seemed interesting enough. The ones he found the most interesting happened to be the ones about donkeys (of course not really called that) so he read those to Michael.
Either Tubbo had severely overestimated how long the stories were, or maybe he was just incredibly boring when he read, but it took almost 6 stories for Michael to finally start to doze off. His soft snorts and sniffling as Tommy continued to read a couple more stories were enough to make Tommy’s shoulders droop, his heart rate settling to normal.
The book was heavy in his hands now, and Michael was out cold. Tommy tried guiding him under the covers so he could make his way back downstairs and possibly even half sprint the entire way home. After this, he wouldn’t be able to stay the night embarrassment flooding his cheeks and the amount of contact today was almost too much. But even though Michael was asleep his tiny hands gripped Tommy’s shirt, snorting whenever Tommy tried to leave.
Panickingly looking towards the trapdoor Tommy froze, looking down at Michael. He was curled up against Tommy’s side and Tommy feared that if he tried to pry Michael off him, the piglin would wake up.
Hoping that eventually Michael would shift and Tommy would be able to sneak out, Tommy sunk a bit deeper on the bed, his wings were going to be even more achy and sore after this, as they were folded against his back when he leaned against the headboard. Tommy could wait a bit for Michael's grip to loosen.
Apparently, that was not the case. The weeks of not sleeping had finally caught up to him, and Michael just happened to be very warm, his contact a welcome thing even if it was a bit overwhelming. Tommy felt himself starting to drift off.
“You should probably go check up on Tommy and Michael,” Tubbo looked up at the trapdoor to the attic, his ear flicking, “Tommy hasn’t come down yet and I worry he’s had some issues.”
Ranboo looked up from what he was writing, his tail swishing side to side in a rhythmic pattern, “huh? Oh right. It has been a while.”
Ranboo cracked his shoulders as he stood up, “I’ll go see what’s going on.”
The ladder creaked as he climbed. Ranboo pushed the trapdoor open, peeking his head in, his ears twitching, searching for a sound. Tommy wasn’t reading anymore, and now that Ranboo thought about it, he did hear Tommy start to read a bit earlier. He must’ve stopped some time recently.
“All good up here?” Ranboo asked, pushing himself up into the room. His tail almost got caught in the trapdoor.
“Tommy?” Ranboo asked, turning to Michael's bed, “oh.”
Michael was pressed against Tommy’s side, halfway laying on his chest while Tommy was leaning against the headboard, sort of slipping down. The golden book had been placed gently on the floor. They were both asleep, and it was a shock to Ranboo to see Tommy so peaceful for the first time in a long time.
Ranboo cooed softly, he pulled the blanket out carefully and laid it over the two of them. He also returned Michael's book to his pile of things. A few of Tommy’s feathers in the pile caught his eye. There were a few more scattered on the bed. It was a bit concerning how much Tommy was shedding feathers recently but Ranboo didn’t know much about his wings.
Tubbo tilted his head to one side when he saw Ranboo slip through the trapdoor and down the ladder, almost tripping when he got to the bottom.
“I think that you should go see,” Ranboo said, chuckling fondly.
“Wh—why?”
Ranboo just tilted his head towards the trapdoor. Tubbo furrowed his eyebrows but went up to the attic nonetheless. Ranboo moved to continue writing his journal.
What Ranboo didn’t expect was for Tubbo to come back down the ladder, a small smile on his face but the remnants of tears in the corners of his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Ranboo asked. Tubbo shook his head.
“It’s nothing… I’m happy they’re getting along. Tommy deserves the sleep.”
There was a few seconds of silence then Tubbo laughed quietly, “a part of me wanted to wake him up, he’s sleeping on his wings, it’ll hurt when he wakes up. But I couldn’t bring myself to.”
Ranboo chuckled as well. Tubbo sniffled and wiped his eyes on the back of his hand.
“I’m ready for bed, it’s been a long day. I’m gonna go to bed.” Tubbo yawned, rubbing his head, his fingers tracing the edge of his broken horn.
“I’ll make sure to turn all the lights off and lock the doors,” Ranboo reassured him, waving his hand dismissively.
Tubbo wished Ranboo goodnight before disappearing down the hall. Ranboo returned to his book.