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The door shut behind Ranboo with a quiet thud. It had been even more cold out than it normally was so he was very grateful to be inside the warm house. They'd finally figured out how to heat the entire mansion. Even still they hadn't completely finished doing it, so a few rooms were still freezing. They mostly just avoided those rooms. The important ones were heated after all.
“Tubbo?” Ranboo called out, his voice echoing. “Are you home?” There was no response. Maybe he was home and just didn't hear, or was still out. It was pretty late though, so him still being out would be a bit concerning.
With a small sigh Ranboo started towards Micheal's room. Might as well visit his son. Maybe Tubbo would be there, it wasn't exactly unlikely. He pushed open the door, only being greeted by a few happy snorts and a tight Micheal hug. So Tubbo wasn't there. Whatever, this was nice too.
“Hey buddy!” Ranboo crouched down to return the hug, tail wagging behind him. “How was your day?”
Micheal made some more snorts, stepping back to point over at his bed. There was a little messy blanket fort built on it. The sound of a chicken clucking slipped out from inside of it. The small zombie piglin seemed very proud of his creation.
“Woah that's so cool.” Ranboo said, walking over to it. Micheal followed and tugged at his dad's sleeve, trying to get him into the fort.
“I don't think I can fit,” Ranboo said, sitting down next to the bed. Micheal frowned, sitting next to his dad in disappointment. “I'll tell you what, tomorrow we make a fort we all can fit into, you me and Tubbo.”
Micheal perked up and climbed into his fort, talking in his own little way. Ranboo made a mental note to make a real note to get Techno to teach him basic piglin. It seemed like Micheal wouldn't be able to really speak anything else, though he had picked up some Ender.
“Hey Micheal,” Ranboo said once the snorts had stopped. “Have you seen Tubbo anywhere?” He asked. Micheal looked over at him, tapping his chin in an over dramatic way. Ranboo just barely stifled his laughter.
“Tbu?” Micheal asked, then shook his head an made a few snorts. Ranboo nodded, accepting the no. He stood up and ruffled Micheal's head fur.
“I'll go find him.” Ranboo said, quickly head bonking Micheal before slipping out of the room, being careful to close the door behind him.
The hallways were still pretty empty. They were fine during the day but once night fell they became pretty creepy. Ranboo hated going down them and much preferred to just stay in one room during the night. Still, he had to find Tubbo. Something could've happened. For all he knew Tubbo had been attacked, or taken or-
As Ranboo opened a door to one of the guest rooms he relaxed to find Tubbo's silhouette on the porch attached to it. He looked okay, why he was out here was still unclear though. Slowly Ranboo approached, trying to make enough noise to alert his husband before he reached him. It was unsuccessful, leaving him to try to figure how to do this.
Finally Ranboo just spoke. “Uh hey, you okay?”
Tubbo flinched and spun around, letting out a small breath when he saw it was just Ranboo. “Yeah, I'm fine.” He said, with a weirdly wide smile before turning around again.
Slowly Ranboo crept up next to him. Tubbo was just staring down at his hands, seeming very far away. “Are you sure?” He asked, growing worried again.
“It's nothing, big man. Don't worry about it.” Tubbo said after a few seconds of stiff silence. Ranboo nodded, gently curling his tail around Tubbo's leg. It was a habit he'd picked up recently. He'd do it to anyone he got worried about. It just made it all feel safer.
“You should come in. It's cold out.” Ranboo said quietly, looking back at the warm inside. Neither of the two was wearing a coat, and who knows how long Tubbo had been out here in the cold.
Tubbo finally looked up from his hands. “It's fine. You can go in without me.” He still seemed very far away, only making Ranboo more worried. Whatever was happening was bad. But he couldn't do anything about it. Was this how Tubbo felt about the Enderwalk? It was an awful feeling, no wonder Tubbo had gotten so protective lately.
“Tubbo please,” Ranboo pleaded. “Can't you do whatever your doing inside? It's not healthy to be out here for a long time.”
Tubbo half snorted. “You do it all the time.” He mumbled.
Ranboo sighed heavily. “That's different and you know it. I don't choose to go out during the night. You clearly are.”
Tubbo bit his lip, shifting uncomfortably. “Fine... As long as it's a not colorful room.” He mumbled.
“Wha- huh?” Ranboo questioned, confused by this. It was so specific. Colorful? Was Tubbo secretly afraid of color this entire time? Why hadn't this came up before?
“Don't ask about it. You keep your secrets I'll keep mine.” Tubbo snapped, crossing his arms tightly around himself. With a half sigh Ranboo relented, leading his husband inside.
It took a bit before they could find a room that was heated but not too colorful. All of the rooms they used a lot had a decent amount of color. And Ranboo didn't want to push it. Finally they just settled on one of the hallways, creepy as they were. It worked though.
Finally they settled down after some minor struggling, Tubbo leaning on Ranboo while still looking down at his hands. Ranboo didn't ask any questions and just sat there, occasionally shifting or moving to try to comfort Tubbo more. They sat there for a while in silence, the only sound being the cloak down the hall. Finally Tubbo spoke.
“It was supposed to be quick.” Tubbo said, voice heavy with emotion. He was shaking despite how warm the room was.
“What?” Ranboo asked, ears perking up at the sudden sound. He shifted so he could see Tubbo more clearly while still letting the goat hybrid practically lay on him. It was an awkward position.
It took a while for Tubbo to reply, long enough to the point where Ranboo assumed the conversation had stopped. “The execution,” Tubbo said, then elaborated. “MY execution. My second death...”
Ranboo stopped, processing this. Tubbo's second life loss was something that he never talked about. He seemed alright talking about the first one, it was just Eret after all. But Ranboo only had a base understanding of the second. And all of it he got from other people.
“I, I didn't know that's how you lost it.” Ranboo said, half lying. He'd picked up on how it happened through context, however he'd never been flat out told.
“Yeah well, surprise,” Tubbo mumbled, curling into himself and moving away from Ranboo. “I don't like to talk about it, it's not like I ever need to.”
Ranboo frowned. “Tubbo if it upsets you this much you should try talking about it. I know it's hypocritical of me to say but you can't keep bottling up your emotions.”
“I'm not upset!” Tubbo snapped. “It doesn't bother me, none of it matters anymore. It's over. Why do I have to keep being reminded of it?!” Tears pricked the corners of his eyes but he quickly wiped them away and turned his head.
Ranboo fell silent, leaving the space empty for Tubbo to fill. He didn't have anything to say. How were you supposed to help someone who refused to see the problem. They were both silent for a bit before much to Ranboo's relief Tubbo started to talk again.
“No one tried to stop it,” Tubbo mumbled, gripping his sleeves as though they were the ones who killed him. “Most people wanted it to happen.”
“Why would they want that?” Ranboo questioned, even though he almost already had an answer. The people of L'manburg were always thirsty to rid of any traitors, no matter how they did it. It almost seemed like the more violent it was the better.
“Being a traitor leads to some awful things Ranboo, you know that.” Tubbo said, glancing back at his husband. The completely lack of emotion on his face was terrifying, almost worse then if he had been sobbing. At least Ranboo knew how to help with sobbing. There was nothing he could do to help this.
Ranboo let it fall to silence again, gently running his hands along the scars on Tubbo's. It would be better to let Tubbo decide when he was going to talk, give him the space to choose how to go about this. Pressuring him would only make it more stressful. For both of them.
Another few minutes passed, and Tubbo choose to spoke again. “You'd think fireworks would kill on impact. But they don't. I probably should have died faster. I think it just missed the right spot.”
Ranboo made a small humming sound, encouraging Tubbo to continue. And luckily he did. “That was the worst few seconds of my life. It felt like hours. I couldn't even see anything. I'm surprised it didn't blind me for good..”
The silence once again returned, giving Ranboo time to process this. He'd always wondered how exactly Tubbo's scars happened. They were very distinct after all. A firework made a lot of sense. However this discovery just raised another question, and so this time Ranboo broke the silence.
“Tubbo,” Ranboo started, trying to find the best way to phrase this. “If you hated the execution so much, why did you try to execute Techno?”
Tubbo was silent for a few minutes, before he started to giggle coldly. He leaned forward a bit, tears returning to his eyes. “Who do you think did it Ranboo? Who else is at all that willing to get their hands dirty that early on?”
Ranboo froze, not sure how to take it. He hadn't really thought about who did it. And it'd never crossed his mind that it could be Techno. He was(almost had, he was almost done moving into the mansion), living on the land of the man who once killed his husband. It felt wrong, even if it had happened a while before that. This was going to complicate that relationship. A lot.
“But like I said, it doesn't fucking matter. I don't care anymore.” Tubbo hissed, burying his head into his knees. Ranboo started to reach out to comfort him but stopped himself. That wouldn't help here.
“You can't keep lying to yourself Tubbo. You're literally crying over this, it absolutely still matters.” Ranboo said, careful to keep his voice light.
“Whatever.” Tubbo mumbled. Silence followed this once again. After a few moments Tubbo glanced over at Ranboo, his face wet from tears Ranboo hadn't noticed falling before and mumbled something.
“What?” Ranboo asked, perking up his ears to hopefully hear better.
“I asked if you could hug m-” Before Tubbo could even finish Ranboo's arms were tightly around him. It was tight to the point where he couldn't really breath. That was alright though. He could sacrifice breath for comfort.
Ranboo's tail wrapped around the two, enclosing them in a little safe bubble. The particles started to make a soft hum, blocking out the cloak's ticking. It was a nice relief from the nerve recking sound. Tubbo felt his eyelids start to get heavy. Before sleep had seemed like a terrifying concept, but right now? It didn't see bad at all.
Before he really had time to register it Tubbo was scooped off the ground by Ranboo. Normally the reverse would happen, Tubbo was freakishly strong after all. But Ranboo could manage. They started towards their own room, and by the time they got there Tubbo was practically asleep.
The two flopped into bed, letting sleep slowly claim them. Tomorrow they'd have to figure out how to go forward from here. Ranboo would have to figure out how to more properly balance his relationships with Tubbo and Techno now that he knew more about the two. Tubbo would have to grapple with the fact he'd let one of his more major secrets spill to Ranboo. But right now, they really didn't mind nay of that. They were perfectly comfortable drifting to sleep together, lulled by the busy Ender of the particles.