Chapter Text
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” - How to kill a mockingbird.
“Hello! Welcome to the Dream SMP!”
The first thing that Ranboo came to was the cheerful greeting of the renowned admin. As the world unfolded itself before him, Ranboo was able to make out the vague figure of the admin. He was small, well small in comparison to Ranboo who towered over basically everyone else, yet he carried himself with a sense of calmness, only slightly betrayed by the shine behind the emerald orbs.
Ranboo took the time to scan the area, wondering if he should feel some resemblance of awe. So this was the great SMP that everyone had been talking about. It was fine, he guessed as his mind already worked to formulate a plan on where to set up his base camp, preferably far from spawn, away from the annoyance of other members.
Ranboo brushed past the admin who was still rambling and introducing the world around them. His steps were silent but insistent beside Ranboo and the enderhybrid scowled, finding it a bit irritating to have the admin shadowing him.
“Look, thanks for the welcome or whatever, but I can find my way aroun-” Ranboo halted his tongue when an arrow sailed past him, barely scratching his person but it was enough to make the admin flinch, holding the book closer to himself as green eyes roved past him to the newcomer.
“Hey, green bitch! You are late! Give us the resources!”
Ranboo frowned almost immediately at the loudness yet the admin merely smiled.
“Hello, Tommy, I am just showing Ranboo around.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Wilbur is being bitchy about getting more for L’Manburg so hurry up!”
Dream casted a look at Ranboo, hesitant but Tommy was impatient, storming his way closer and grasped Dream’s wrist to drag him forward.
“Sorry, Ranboo! Maybe next time?” An apologetic smile as the admin waved a small goodbye.
Ranboo shrugged. It was none of his business yet he couldn’t quite explain the frown that stubbornly etched onto his brows. And if his eyes lingered until the two disappeared from his line of sight, he would argue that it was to ensure that they didn’t turn back.
Well, time to explore.
It didn't take long for Ranboo to grind for the essentials. It did however take a while for Ranboo to upgrade the basic to full netherite. The hybrid sighed, watching as another bed exploded before him, exposing the endless red of the nether. At the very least, he was grateful that none seemed to have the chance to interrupt him yet. However, that didn’t mean that they didn’t try.
The feeling was there again. Ranboo noted. His eyes filtered rapidly through the space, trying to pinpoint the exact direction the glance was felt. Here, no, maybe there. Perhaps it was his ender side speaking when he felt the tiniest hint of aggression rising at the prick behind his neck. The familiar feeling of eyes on him.
Which was why he was quick to hiss and grab onto the tiny blob-like creature that was spying on him, leaving it to squirm in his grasp.
"Stop!" The panicked voice of the admin reached him just in time for him to loosen his grip. The blob bounced off the nether floor and scampered away, unharmed, back towards the admin who had appeared out of nowhere.
"Oh my gosh, Blob are you ok?" Dream? Was that his name? Ranboo shook his head, trying to clear the fog in his mind to remember as the admin reached forward and cradled the odd creature.
"What are you doing here?" Ranboo pressed his voice low, deeper than usual; the threatening edge not lost to the admin whose eyes widened, like that of a deer caught in the headlight, but curiously without any ounce of fear.
"I am sorry, Ranboo! I didn't mean to stalk you! I am just trying to make sure that you are settling in just fine!" Dream waved his hands before himself, keeping his glance on the floor so as to not aggravate him further. Huh, so Dream knew. A part of him was grateful for the consideration but another more stubborn part of him wanted to get back to blowing up the nether as soon as possible.
"Whatever." Ranboo stepped away, setting up another bed when Dream shuffled awkwardly behind him.
"What? What do you need?" Ranboo sneaked a glance back at the admin who said nothing. His eyes were hiding a curious spark before the smaller pointed at another direction.
"You might want to set the bed there."
That day, Ranboo came home with at least a dozen netherite.
Ranboo was getting used to the pacing of the server. The occasional conflicts when one side decided to rob another; or when one decided to start a pet war out of nowhere. The moment he stepped past the portal leading back to the main area of the server, it was almost always guaranteed for him to hear shouts of protests, sometimes explosions as they engaged in wars of their own making.
It bored Ranboo. The exasperation over the lack of meaning behind their standings had long since passed, now all that remained was the feeling of absolute boredom. He ducked past the canopy, just out of sight of the loud blonde child who was arguing with a black haired teen adorning a headband. Their combined voices were loud, enough to give him tinnitus and the hybrid frowned once more.
“Hey, weirdo! Back me up here!”
His frown deepened as he continued to saunter away. Maybe if he pretended for long enough, the loud shrieks would go away.
“Hey, don’t ignore me! I know you!” Unfortunately. The hybrid stopped abruptly, letting the blonde skid to a stop beside him. The child grinned; all teeth and full of bad intentions; intentions that could ruin his day if Ranboo wasn’t careful.
“Help me beat up Sapnap!”
“Why?” Great, Ranboo wanted to leave already.
“Cause he is a whiny bitch! He burned my house!”
“And?” Could this get more ridiculous? Like a childish war, well, Ranboo supposed that he couldn’t expect much from a literal child, even though a voice within him mocked that he was a minor too.
“And we are going to get him!” He was grasping onto Ranboo’s arms and the hybrid promptly decided that he didn’t like that. Ranboo shook off his grip, ignoring the momental shock that flashed across the youthful face while brushing away the anger that was directed at him.
“Hey! Get back here!” But Ranboo wasn’t listening. He sighed through the shouts when Sapnap decided to taunt the child with boisterous laughter. Ranboo really couldn’t care less.
“I will have you know that I am the great right hand man of L’Manberg!”
“Is that supposed to mean something?” Ranboo couldn’t help the scoff that escaped him when the child sputtered in disbelief. His eyes were blown up wide, as his frame trembled with unseen zeal.
“O-of course! Are you living under a rock or something?” How could one have not heard their wonderful nation that they pioneered. Blasphemy!
“Mayhaps.” Ranboo shrugged; his interest was dwindling with every second he had to spend within the vicinity of the blonde. “But I am not interested in your playhouse.”
“Hey! I will have you know that we earned it fair and square from Dream!”
“That sounds like a ‘you’ issue to me.”
“Y-you!”
His instinct flared, leaving him with just enough time to dodge the incoming punch. Short tempered much? Ranboo let loose a small sigh, in the most infuriating way possible too. He grasped the fist, using the momentum to throw the younger in a beautiful arch. Dust flew as the child crashed against the hard ground and Ranboo hoped that reality was smacked into him just as hard.
“I am leaving.” With an air of finality, he turned, regretting the decision to use the shortcut through the mainland. As the portal warped around him, he was relieved to find silence once more, even if it was in the form of burning flame and weeping of ghasts.
“You have a fight with Tommy?”
The next time he met the admin, it was a mere chance. He had seen a small blob creature pushing along a grass block and as embarrassing as it sounded, the ender side of him appealed to that and had been following after it until it finally caught the attention of the admin.
“Hm, maybe, can’t remember.” How could anyone afford to remember every conflict that had ever transpired? Yet, sparing a look at the admin before him, Ranboo had a gut feeling that he seemed to be one who had the capability to do just that.
“You seem to have a bad memory.” Ranboo didn’t know there could be a way to phrase it that made it sound not sarcastic. The admin crouched down, receiving the block from his helper before slotting it into his inventory.
Instead of denying, Ranboo shrugged. He wasn’t trying to keep it a secret from the beginning and he doubted that it mattered. Silence fell like a blanket upon them, not suffocating in an awkward manner, but comforting for once. Dream seemed content to spend his time rearranging his inventory space and it was calming, Ranboo supposed as he plopped himself down beside the admin.
“What are you doing?”
At that, Dream perked up from his menu; an easy smile on his face that made him seem softer than he was. Just as quickly though, the admin averted his eyes, focusing instead on Ranboo’s shoulder, subtle enough to make it seem like he was keeping eye contact, but just at the right angle that it didn’t spark any repulsion from his more aversive self.
Ranboo found himself breathing a bit easily at that.
“I am collecting blocks to fix the path.” As if to prove his point, Dream manifested the grass block and placed it a few steps behind him, where a crater, likely resulted from a creeper’s explosion or from the numerous conflicts across the server resided. Ranboo resigned himself to stare for a few seconds, happy to let the sound of blocks being placed willed him into tranquility.
As if beckoned by an unheard tune, Ranboo spent the day following closely behind the admin who appeared to be appreciative of his presence. The topic of his fight with Tommy was left forgotten as the two fell into a comfortable pace against one another.
This, Ranboo decided, was somewhat bearable.
"What happened to you?" Ranboo asked, masking the wavering tone under a calmness that he could barely muster. Dream was seated in his house, munching on a cake that he offered while Ranboo's cats cuddled closeby.
"Oh, this?" Dream touched his face, wincing slightly when he brushed against the newly formed bruises. "What can I say? I am clumsy."
Dream smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes and Ranboo's scowl deepened.
"Look, I am not dumb." Ranboo pressed himself forward, letting his form shadow over the admin. Kudos to the admin though, when Dream didn't flinch, but looked back with an undeniable shine.
"It's ok, Ranboo! I am ok!" Dream flashed a grin; the cream got stuck on his cheek, just beside the bruises and Ranboo brought his hand up, lightly dabbed the cream away with his sleeve.
"You are being too easy." Ranboo crossed his arms before his chest, ignoring how Dream huffed.
"I am not!"
"You are." Ranboo rolled his eyes. Why did he even let the admin in earlier? He ruffled the strands of dirty blonde, smilling fondly to himself when Dream ducked away to stick his tongue out at him.
"If you insist." Ranboo finally said and Dream let the tiniest smile grace his face.
"I see you have been settling well!" Dream clapped. "But you should mingle with others more! They are nice!"
For some reason, Ranboo doubted that. The hybrid shook a denial at the suggestion.
"Nah, I am more comfortable this way." And besides, things like friendship and attachment were never meant to last. Yet, a part of him questioned, why he was content to let the admin rant and talk in his own abode when his conscience would rather be left alone?
He supposed that it was another mystery to be left unsolved. A soft smile touched his lips as Dream chuckled, tickled by the graze of the cats’ tails against his skin. And the evening casted a lazy golden halo, silently blooming against the ocean waves.
The first time Ranboo saw Dream in action, he was caught in a state of constant awe. The admin's fingers worked magic through the webs of the server, fixing bugs and glitches as the world around him glowed in brilliance. Even the mobs lingered far away, their very codes quivered at the unmistakable authority over the place.
When the light died down, it was to the kind smile on Dream's face. His eyes shone as he waved at Ranboo who could do nothing but waved back.
"Hey." Ranboo found himself whispering lest that he disturbed the almost holy air around the admin.
"Ranboo! Nice to see you again!" Dream was jotting down notes in his admin logbook. Cursive handwritings that neatly lined against one another. Entries after entries of detailed server updates and fixes. Things that were beyond their knowledge.
"What have you been up to?" The admin asked, sending off blobs to the sideline as he closed the command.
"Hn." Ranboo shrugged. "Don't know, don't remember."
"That's not good!" Dream frowned. "I told you to invest in a memory book! Honestly, I have no idea how you survived that long with your memories."
Ranboo let the admin's lecture run through his mind. Mundane things and reminders that felt like a home that he never had. He didn't care and he didn't think he would ever get a memory book. Things like that were too risky. Too much of a liability.
"Don't worry, I don't think I will forget my favourite admin anytime soon."
With that, Ranboo successfully earned a gasp from Dream. The blonde blushed; a brilliant shade of pink as he stuttered.
"RANBOO! I am being serious!" Hmm, so not used to compliments. Ranboo shelved the information for himself as he smirked. A new way to tease the admin. Wonderful. By the time he tuned back in, Dream had already turned away, complaining about how kids these days had the audacity to tease an admin who could ban them in a heartbeat.
But Ranboo knew Dream would never. So he shoved his hands into his pockets and followed after the dirty blonde.
“So what’s up with L’Manburg?” Ranboo squinted at the list of countries on the paper; a sorta introduction for dummies that Dream had given him. It summarised all the different sides and countries that had even been founded on the server, though Ranboo was more amused by the doodles and remarks Dream added under each country.
“That’s Wilbur’s!” Dream sat before him. The admin had gotten quite used to popping in at random points of the week to check on Ranboo that the hybrid would have felt flattered if not for the fact that Dream was currently inhaling his freshly baked cake.
“I heard.” Ranboo dangled the map before him, frowning when he noticed how large the country spread across the server. “Are L’Manburg supposed to occupy such a large portion of the land?”
At that, Dream stiffened, looking away with an almost forlorn look on his face.
“It’s not always like that.” Dream swung his legs to and forth, falling into a rhythmic pattern. “But Wilbur asked.”
And that was all it took? Ranboo blinked, fearing that he might have heard wrong but Dream appeared to be dead serious, leading Ranboo to wonder, not for the first time, how could someone ever live with that mindset?
“Did you negotiate?”
“Wilbur asked nicely.”
“So you agreed.”
“Yes.”
Ranboo facepalmed, startling the admin with his abrupt movement. God saved him.
“Do you not think that it is inappropriate?”
Dream shifted his glance away from Ranboo’s piercing one. Good, at least Dream was not beyond salvation yet. But what else could he do? Threatening to fire cannon into their precious walls? That would be troublesome, not to mention meaningless at this point. So instead, Ranboo folded and threw the map unceremoniously into the chest, knowing that it would stay there, gathering dust until Ranboo deemed it as a thrash to be burned in the lava pit.
There was nothing to be done, for now. Ranboo perched his head on top of his hand while Dream had already gone back to his cake. The server still moved on, but at least here, they were safe.
Ranboo felt rage coursing through him. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with how Wilbur had coiled his arms around Dream who was attempting to squirm out of the grasp but to no avail.
"Wilbur, please, you have already been given your fair share and Badlands really needs it too."
"Aw, don't be such a party pooper, Dream. We are such good friends after all." Wilbur was smiling, leaning into Dream's space more even when the other was evidently disturbed.
"Wilbur, seriously I can't give you more." Dream's hands were shaking as he held onto his admin logbook. Maybe if he held onto it with enough force, it would mask the unease.
"Come o-"
Wilbur almost bit down onto his own tongue when the sword rested just underneath his chin. His lazy eyes took in the figure of the newcomer, Ranboo who had been quite a talk of the server with how he absolutely refused to choose sides, instead balancing on the thin line of being a neutral force; a party of his own.
"Oh, who do we have here?"
"If you value your hands, get them off him." Short and sweet. The sharp end of the blade dug into the skin of the leader's neck.
"And you care?" Wilbur stepped back nonetheless. A smile on his face as he touched his neck. Droplets of red oozed from the thin cut. Interesting...
Wilbur continued to smile; the mask perfectly in place as he waved at Dream.
"Bye, bye Dream. I will see you around."
Ranboo glared, boring his eyes into Wilbur until he disappeared into the tall walls of his precious symphony. It annoyed him.
"You alright there, buddy?" Ranboo glanced back, only to find Dream staring at him in what could be described as disbelief.
"What... Ranboo, you didn't need to." Dream whispered, casting his glance away; a habit that he had adapted to whenever Ranboo was present. "He will leave after he gets what he needs."
Too easy. Ranboo rubbed his eyes tiredly, storing the sword back into this inventory.
"Shut up, Dream." Ranboo sighed, staring up into the sky. "Do you want some cake?"
"...I think I would like that."
"Please give it back." Dream stared up at Tommy who held the admin log book just beyond his reach. Sometimes he wondered why they had to grow so fast. It was official, Tommy was a weed.
Dream pouted when Tommy merely barked out a laugh.
"No!" Tommy flipped through his notes carelessly, scoffing. "This is gibberish."
Dream frowned.
"No, it is not. Please give it back, Tommy."
"Or else?" Tommy laughed, holding the book further away.
"You will lose your knee caps."
That was the only warning Tommy got when he stumbled forward. His knees buckled when Ranboo struck them. Bracing himself for the fall, he didn't even notice that Ranboo had swiped the book out of his grasp.
"Ranboo!" Dream exclaimed; concern evident in his frown as the hybrid threw the book back at him.
"Now scam." Ranboo made a motion to kick Tommy and the blonde shrilled, picking himself up with promises of revenge.
"Ranboo, please." Dream pleaded; unshed tears pricking at his eyes. "I just want you guys to get along."
"Nuh uh, I am not getting along with an asshole that bullies someone smaller than them."
"Hey!" Dream protested, stomping his feet on the grass field but Ranboo didn't care. Instead, he crouched down, plucked the admin off his feet and onto his shoulder.
"Ranboo!" The hybrid didn't need to look to know that Dream was burning from all the embarrassment. The notion that he was being carried by someone younger than him in such a manner must have sent the other's brain into haywire.
Ranboo chuckled, slowly dissolving into full blown laughters when Dream struggled.
"Come on, little admin. We are going on a caving adventure. I have been waiting for so long." Ranboo declared, even when his inventory hardly lacked anything, nor was he equipped for a mining trip.
Anything, he thought, anything to keep the admin close for a while longer.
“You have been hanging around Dream a lot.” The devil was a man in a hood. His tone was light, gentle even but Ranboo couldn’t care less. He sank the pickaxe down into the uneven surface, wondering why the other had seen the need to approach him in the first place.
“I don’t see the issue with that.” Ranboo did what Ranboo wanted, always living on a whim. Even now, the decision to let the other talk was on a whim, nothing freely given.
“Woah, I am not saying that as if it’s a bad thing! Quite the contrary actually! It’s good!” The devil smiled, looking way too innocent to be one in the first place. Like Dream, but also very different from the admin.
“Are you always this friendly to a stranger?”
“Pfft, you are saying that after you have known Dream?” And it held the truth, to some degree. Ranboo begrudgingly admitted that the admin was the epitome of amiability.
“Let me rephrase my question then.” Ranboo clicked his tongue. The sound echoed in the underground tunnel, barely peeking through the pops of lava. “Is Dream always like that?”
The demon squinted his eyes; the glow in his eyes dimmed with the fold. As a long time friend of Dream, the leader of Badlands held a lot more secrets, knew a lot more about the admin, omnipotent but also very, very gullible.
“I think you know the answer to that.” The demon pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning against, ready to leave now that he had greeted Ranboo properly. It baffled the hybrid. Why? Was anything ever achieved with this visit?
“Wait.”
The other did but Ranboo didn’t quite know what else to say. The cave fell into silence, in which even the bats refused to squeak and after what felt like centuries, Ranboo retracted his outstretched hand.
“...Thank you, Ranboo.” For what? By the time Ranboo lifted his glance, the demon was already gone, leaving Ranboo with his pickaxe, stacks of ores and a whole lot more questions.
“Hello, Ranboo! I am Dream!” The admin giggled, shooting him a grin as he cradled one of the blob creatures close. Ranboo looked down from the branch that he was perched on; a smile automatically formed on his face.
“I thought I told you that you don’t need to introduce yourself every single time?” Ranboo leapt, not caring the slightest when fall damage sent shock through his being. “I may have a bad memory but I am not old.”
Dream stepped back instinctively. The air shifted and ruffled the blonde strands as Ranboo rose on steady feet. It was something that Dream still found hard to get over; the way Ranboo disregarded certain aspects of his wellbeing as if it was a trivial matter.
“I am just making sure.” Dream wheezed at the indignant look Ranboo threw him. Light chimes of laughter that brightened Ranboo’s mood. The blob chirped in his grasp, vibrating with energy as their admin continued to laugh.
“I have been meaning to ask, Dream.” Ranboo reached a finger towards the blob, pushing against its soft body. The blob retaliated by running up Dream’s arms, hiding inside Dream’s collar as beady eyes sneaked careful glances at Ranboo. “What’s this?”
“Oh, they? They are Blobs!” Dream pulled at his jacket, effectively dislodging some of the beings. They were like marshmellows. Ranboo watched in awe as they bounced and crowded Dream’s feet. “They are helpers! They help to check for glitches or bugs.”
“Can they spy too?” Ranboo blurted out, recalling the sensation of eyes against his back.
“Not intentionally!” Dream seemed horrified at the question. His wholesome self must have found the very notion unacceptable. Ranboo shook his head before a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
“So they can.”
“They would never!” Dream gasped, holding one up and stared into its eyes. “You won’t, right?”
The action was so pure that Ranboo had to avert his eyes and sniffle the laughs bubbling up within him.
“Relax, I am merely teasing.”
“Ranboo!” The reprimanding look on Dream’s face tickled Ranboo as he snickered. Knowing how Dream had the tendency to launch into a high speed lecture, Ranboo’s eyes quickly searched for a distraction.
“So, what are you doing? Mind a company?” Dream was holding onto his logbook, meaning that the other was likely doing maintenance, bug fixes or maybe even updates for the server, which from the time Ranboo had spent with Dream, took an extended amount of time to do.
Dream blinked and just like that, he had spun into a new rant, pulling Ranboo along as he talked about the super secret new update that he was testing.
A part of Ranboo did however wonder, why Dream seemed so ready to have him as a company. Was the admin all alone? Where were his friends? He did have friends, right? Laughing at how he sounded like a concerned parent in his own head, Ranboo snapped himself away from the thoughts, instead learned to be content with how Dream seemed to be bursting with excitement.
“No way.”
“Yes way.” Dream’s eyes reflected the blue of the lake, hidden away from the curious eyes of the server, underneath an enormous cave system. The creatures in question blew bubbles at them; small axolotls of different hues.
“Look! This one is like you!” Dream pointed at one with specks of black markings across its skin, giggling once more when Ranboo poked at his waist.
“They are prototypes! Still very sensitive to the change in the world so I have them here to keep an eye on them.” Dream sighed in content. “I hope the day will come when I get to introduce them to the rest of the server. I am sure they will enjoy it! Like Nikki, Fundy, oh maybe Wilbur would appreciate one!”
Ranboo had no idea who they were, except for maybe Wilbur; the man that always seemed to rub him the wrong way, with his smile and purposeful strides. Pushing the sour thoughts away, Ranboo raised his line of sight to the unnatural cave. The air felt cold against his skin but Dream seemed to be doing perfectly fine.
“...oh I am sorry I have been rambling for so long.” Dream’s voice filtered through the webs of his thoughts. “So what do you think, Ranboo? Do you like them?”
“Yeah.” Ranboo commented offhandedly, but it was enough for Dream as the admin beamed at him.
“So can I call it Ranboo?”
“...”
They settled for the name Ranbob because Dream’s naming sense sucked and Ranboo was in no mood to come up with a good name.
Dream was swaying to an unheard melody, splashing the water surface as he engaged the axolotls in a game of chase.
“This place felt different.” Ranboo mumbled, noting how the air didn’t feel the same as the outside. How everything seemed off; a step away from normalcy.
“Ah, you noticed!” Dream craned his neck to face him. A gentle smile on his face as blonde hair framed his wise eyes. “This place is a specialised containment zone that I set up for new updates and builds. It is safer to contain any potential danger before it can spread throughout the server and wreak havoc!”
“So anything here isn’t permanent?”
“If you are speaking in terms of codes then no.” Dream smiled; a thumb tracing line along the edge of his logbook. “This place is special.”
Ranboo could see that.
What he didn’t see though was the foreign footprints right outside of the cave, etched deep into the mud but just barely out of sight.
Dream was gone for a week. Ranboo realised after he had spent the said week in solitude. He wasn’t aware how accustomed he was to the admin’s presence, so much so that he found himself turning to speak, only to realise that Dream wasn’t there.
It was concerning, because Ranboo had yet to come across one of the blob-like helpers, nor had anyone heard of anything that had occurred, enough to garnish the admin’s prolonged attention. Ranboo didn’t deny the fact that he was worried. The prime path clicked underneath his every step as he roamed the mainland, hoping to catch a glimpse of the admin.
Before long, his legs had already taken him to the community house, where he could see childish doodles belonging to that of the admin on the wall, alongside messages that wished the passersby a nice day.
It was there where he met George. His eyes focused on tightening the string on his bow.
“Oh, it’s you.” George lifted his eyes to take in the newcomer, only to lower them once more in disinterest. Normally, Ranboo would just brush it off. The cold shoulder was a welcomed change from people constantly trying to convince him to join a side yet now that his mind was plagued with unspoken worry, perhaps he should reach out.
“Do you know where Dream is?”
The string snapped and for a moment, there was only silence.
“Why?” There was an edge in George’s voice. Did they get into a fight? Ranboo pushed some of his hair away from his face; an impassive look carefully plastered onto his face.
“No particular reason. Just wondering why he hasn’t been around.”
George’s frown deepened and given enough time, it would likely anchor on his face forever.
“I don’t know.” Venom laced his words. “Why don’t you ask the L’Manburgian.”
“What?” Ranboo’s heart ran cold faster than he thought was possible, yet George seemed to fume, wallowing in his own silent rage. There was nothing he could get out of the colourblind male, Ranboo realised, deciding instead to leave the community house, recalling how it was the one building that Dream seemed to be proud of, given his limited building skills.
What went wrong?
Reluctance, Ranboo acknowledged, was another feeling that he disliked. He stood before the tall walls of L’Manburg. The air was regal, stiff, puncturing how he disliked being within the vicinity of the ‘great nation’.
The gate gave way easily. Ranboo wondered if it was part of their arrogance in thinking that no one would dare to disturb. No matter, it was hardly a concern for Ranboo. In fact, it would lead him straight to where he needed to be.
The steps were muffled by the tall grass, but Ranboo was immediately aware of another presence behind him. Pulling up a sword, he angled the blade threateningly, just below the chin of the one who dared to sneak up on him.
“I have no intention to fight.” The other wore a pair of sunglasses, masking the glowing eyes underneath while the blue uniform was jarring, showing off the land they were standing upon. Their voice was deep, reverberating. “Though I couldn’t say the same about you.”
Ranboo hissed low, still trailing his sword after the other. The more rational part of his mind was telling him how he was the trespasser, but his inhibition was offline just like how the stress of Dream not being there had accumulated throughout the week.
“You are Ranboo, right? I am Eret.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Cut the chit-chat.” He pressed the blade closer, satisfied when Eret took a step back away from him. “Where is Dream?”
“Oh.” The way their voice hitched was enough of a giveaway for Ranboo.
“You know something.” A statement. “Talk.”
“Look, I don’t know the entire thing.” Eret brought their hand up, only to swiftly press it back to their side when Ranboo tensed. “I overheard that Tommy did something, maybe mess up some of the coding that he is trialling… but it isn’t intentional, at least I hope it isn’t.”
The blade ran dangerously close. Ranboo was however, able to muster enough self control to not murder the one informant he had. He stepped away from Eret, willing his mind to clear from the red fog. God, Dream had been so excited. Whatever happened, it must have devastated the admin.
With renewed determination, Ranboo turned to leave, anything but to remain in the dark walls when Eret called after him.
“Wait, um, please wait.” The other was able to catch up with ease, only slowing to a stop by the gate. Ranboo didn’t grace him with a response but it seemed like Eret didn’t need one. “I, um, I do not agree with what they have done.”
Ranboo paused.
“If you will require some inside help, I will be able to provide.”
“Even at the cost of your precious nation?”
“It may be what I am affiliated with, but it does not necessarily mean that it is what I believed in.” Eret’s voice dropped low, barely audible. “Besides, Dream has been nothing but kind. I just wish that the admin knows that I appreciate it.”
A dangerous game. But Ranboo nodded. Less words would be safer for now, be it for Ranboo’s mind or the traitorous dance they were partaking in.
“Dream?”
His own voice sounded loud in the cave. There were sounds of shuffling and Ranboo allowed his heart to grow hopeful.
“Hey.” Dream croaked out; a whisper in the air as his figure emerged from the corner. The light still hit Dream’s eyes but the shine seemed to dull under unseen stress.
“You...are you okay?” Ranboo hesitated, wondering if he should approach when the admin seemed to be barely held together as he was.
“Yeah.”
Ranboo didn’t believe that of course. It was evident from the stale air, from the lack of splashing of fins against the cobblestones. The quiet that Ranboo engulfed himself with sounded too much all of a sudden.
“I am sorry.”
Ranboo didn’t know when he had started to clench his fists. However, he was aware of himself pulling Dream in for a poor embrace, lacking in the warmth that he hoped he could provide. He let Dream bury himself inside his much taller frame, letting the silent tears soak through the front of his jacket.
“I tried to fix it.” Dream’s hands were small, curling tight around him and Ranboo could offer nothing but silence; the only thing he knew to give. Ranboo wondered if it could ever be enough.
