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Honestly, Ranboo was always “the quiet kid”. He tried to avoid any confrontation, he had perfect grades, was loved by all teachers at school and his parents took pride in the “amazing son” they raised. He wore fit suits and tried to act polite towards everyone, no matter how fucking annoying they were.
But that one evening, when he was walking down the street from the shop, this whole perfect kid act broke apart. He tried his best not to fall in love with the feeling of wind ruffling his hair when he was running away from the police with this one random kid, who had a funny british accent and long brown hair. Ranboo wasn’t sure why he was running or why he was hysterically laughing when he threw his can on coke at the cop, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t the last time he saw that boy.
Later Ranboo found out that this british kid’s name was Tubbo and he recently moved here with his family and his friend. They were sitting on a trashbin in a long and sketchy alleyway and Tubbo was eating his stolen sausageroll. He was very confused as to why cops got so pissed at him for stealing a sausageroll, and Ranboo laughed. He laughed for a while, so hard that his sides were hurting, and even though Tubbo had no idea why this tall teen was so happy - he joined in.
When Ranboo came home, he listened to a long tirad about how his parents were worried about his irresponsibility and then got grounded. His suit was ruined from dirt and weird stains, but he couldn’t care less. He fell asleep feeling more alive than he ever felt.
Next day, right after his parents’ car took off from the driveway, Ranboo snuck out, running down the street towards that same alleyway in his pajamas. His hair was falling down onto his forehead, poking his eyes a little bit, but Ranboo ignored this, just a thought about this weird british kid who changed his life spiraling in his brain.
He almost falls over, turning at a corner of the street, and smiles, noticing the familiar brown hair and that short boy at that same trashbin. Tubbo had another sausageroll in his hands and a can of coke beside him. Adrenaline was pumping through Ranboo’s veins the entire time they were hanging out. The fear of getting caught by his parents was there, like an annoying fly, buzzing in his head and hitting against the walls of his skull.
He ends up coming home just a few minutes before parents come back, barely managing to climb on top of the tree and hop into the window. He holds his breath, pretending to do his homework when his mother walks in, and as soon as the door closes he puffs, trying to catch his breath.
Ranboo noticed his grades slipping, his suits changing to ripped jeans and oversized hoodies, his parents getting upset and Tubbo becoming a very important part of his life. Running away from mall cops, stealing shopping carts and snacks was, apparently, way more fun than Ranboo thought.
At some point Tubbo showed up with two face masks; Ranboo can’t help but smile when he notices uneven stitches on his black and white mask and a very carefully embroidered crown on it. Tubbo explained the masks as their cover, since stealing without anything hiding their faces was pretty dangerous. And that’s, honestly, pretty reasonable.
Ranboo finds himself wearing the mask almost every day, no matter if he was with Tubbo, at school or at home.
One day something changes though. Ranboo runs his fingers through long hair of his, leaning on a dirty wall of that same alleyway. The cracked clock on his wrist shows five in the evening, but Tubbo was nowhere to be found.
Ranboo was already getting ready to leave and look for that menace of a person, but he stops himself when he hears running. One of those footsteps was definitely Tubbo, judging by the loud and joyful giggling, but the other one was unknown to Ranboo’s ears. A scary thought of Toby getting caught by the police makes his blood flow faster, and Ranboo takes off from his place, running towards the footsteps. He sees a familiar happy face and a shadow behind it, following a bit too close for comfort.
And so Ranboo does the only thing his brain can think of. He almost picks Tubbo up, pushing him behind himself, and straightens his back, hoping that his height could intimidate the potential danger. God forbid Ranboo had to actually fight. He was pretty shit at that.
“What the fuck, man” the strangers frowns his blonde brows, huffing and trying to catch his breath from running. He was dressed in a red and white shirt, a red bandana covering his face, and his blond fluffy hair was sticking to his forehead from sweat. Ranboo just stares at the boy with confusion in his eyes, not really registering what’s happening.
“It’s okay Big Man. That’s Tommy, he is my friend.” Tubbo finally says, peeking from behind Ranboo’s back.
Tommy started joining them and hanging out with them almost every day. And it’s not like Ranboo was jealous or anything, at the end he wasn’t Tubbo’s only friend and he knew that, but some sort of anger appeared in his tall and lanky body whenever that british prick walked towards them down the alleyway.
Tubbo tried his best to make the two of them get along. He started dragging them to places he thought they both would love, he tried to talk to both of them about the whole situation, but that tension didn’t go away. Although Tommy and Ranboo did try to act more lowkey, both hated to see Tubbo get upset with them. Whenever Tubbo looked away, Tommy would push Ranboo over into the trashbin. When they were stealing snacks, Ranboo would purposefully make Tommy go through the detectors.
It was very childlike, yes, but they just couldn’t co-exist for some reason.
At some point, Tommy brought cigarettes. Ranboo hated the smell of cigarette smoke on its own, but when it was in combination with that smug grin of Tommy’s, Ranboo just got a bit too angry. He watched as Tubbo tried to enhale the smoke and started coughing, and tried his best to keep himself from punching Tommy. What the fuck does this dumbass think he is doing making Tubbo smoke?
When Toby excused himself to go and get a drink, Ranboo sprang up from his place, walking up to Tommy so close that there was barely any space left between them. The brit grins again, braces shining in the sun, and arches his eyebrow in a silent dare. Ranboo feels his knuckles itching to hit this overly confident blonde asshole.
They stood like this for a few seconds, before Ranboo finally broke the silence.
“You are a bad influence on Tubbo” he understands perfectly fine that Tubbo doesn’t need bad influence. That boy steals, does graffiti and probably has committed some war crimes on his own, what does one cigarette mean? But Ranboo needed a reason to confront Tommy and this was a perfect one.
“Are you serious? I am pretty sure you are the one who he steals shit for at wallmart” Tommy laughs in his dumb manner and drops the pack on the dirty floor, not breaking the eye contact even for a single moment. “Come on, boob boy, I see you want to get in a fight. You might be taller, but I am still stronger.”
“Doubt that, stick boy.” Ranboo parries, accepting this dumb game of Tommy’s. “Let’s be honest now, I would kick your as-”
He doesn’t get to finish though. Tubbo’s joyful scream echoes off of the walls of the alleyway, followed by grunts and orders of the police officer. Both Tommy and Ranboo freeze, staring at their friend jumping over piles of trash with a bag in their hand, and start running only when the cop gets dangerously close.
The three of them are weirdly in sync, jumping over trash bags and bins. When they reach a crossroad, they wordlessly split, making the officer stop at the center, staring in their backs.
Ranboo wakes up from knocking on the window that day. He yawns, getting up from the bed and shoots a quick glance at the clock. Green LED lights glow at three fourty five am, and Ranboo groans, hoping that it wasn’t something urgent.
He opens a window, ready to hear Tubbo whispering something about a new cool thing he wanted to yoink from the mall, but instead all he hears is panicked footsteps and swears that sound weirdly like Tommy’s. He looks around, only now noticing a little package at the edge of the roof.
Ranboo frowns, but reaches for it, feeling a very nice and harsh texture of red paper under his fingers. With one click, the lamp on his table turns on, and a little note with scribbly writing on it becomes visible.
“Hey asshole. I am not really sorry if I make you upset, cause I don’t really care about you but Toby said he is sad so I had to do something nice. Don’t think that we are friends now though. I still really hate you.
- Big Man Tommy.
P.s i saw how you were looking at that one notebook in the bookstore and I kinda stole it for you.”
Ranboo laughs, unwrapping the present, and his face lights up at the sight of a black leather cover. Golden edges still have Tommy’s fingerprints on them, and on the back Ranboo notices a failed attempt to get the tag off of the notebook. This looks so Tommy, for some reason.
Maybe that prick wasn’t as bad as Ranboo thought.
Somewhere on the other side of the street in the bush, Tommy tightens his grip on the binoculars he snached from that same bookstore. He looks at that dumb smile on Ranboo’s face and feels his cheeks burn bright red from embarrassment.
At least Tubbo won’t be upset anymore, he thinks, trying to get out of the bush without breaking the flowers.