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“hey toby, why don’t we use pet names?” ranboo asked one quiet morning. it was one of those mornings where they had just gotten back from filming a tom simons vlog, so they were exhausted and just wanted to lay in bed all day. toby was tucked under his boyfriends chin, their chests pressed together and his legs wrapped around his boyfriend’s. toby mumbled a bit and snuggled his cheek into ranboo’s neck. any words were softly whispered, as if afraid any louder of a voice would burst their little domestic bubble.
“we use boo and bo, right? i think that counts.”
ranboo groaned in fake annoyance. “yeah, but that’s on main and everything. i want the gross stuff, like the stuff that’ll make tommy gag and call us gay.”
toby laughed lightly. “we just need to look at each other the for more than a second for that.”
they both giggled and squeezed each other a little bit lightly. “can i try some on you?”
“only if i get to try you as well.”
ranboo began rubbing gentle circles on toby’s back and toby’s arms came up to gently run through ranboo’s fluffy hair. the taller boy hummed in appreciation. “how about babe and baby? how do you feel about those?”
“i feel small when you call me baby. nice sometimes. not all the time though. babe is overused.” toby mumbled into ranboo’s chest.
“am i allowed to say you’re my baby now?”
toby’s face immediately went bright red and he exhaled dramatically. “like being yours,” he whispered into ranboo’s shirt.
“you’re always mine, sunshine. oh, i liked that one. you suit sunshine.” ranboo smiled, kissing toby’s head between sentences. when all the other did was blush more and keep trying to hide his face, all he did was laugh. “your turn, try one on me.”
“mm, just wanna call you love. ‘cause you’re my love. you know how toddlers call their teddies lovies sometimes? you’re my lovie. a big teddy bear.” toby lifted his head enough to leave kisses on ranboo’s chin. “yeah, you’re my bear, i think.”
it was ranboo’s turn to blush and try to hide his face in toby’s hair. “yeah, ‘m okay with that,” he mumbled.
“can we go get breakfast now?” toby asked, rolling off of ranboo’s chest to stretch out a bit. ranboo whined at the loss of contact, but agreed and let his boyfriend take him downstairs to the kitchen.
••
toby stood at the counter, pouring cheerios into two bowls while his boyfriend hung his arms around his neck. said boyfriend was still hung up on their pet names conversation and kept on throwing new ones at him.
“how about sweetheart?”
“gross.”
“honey?”
“my parents use that.”
“bubba?”
“too american.”
“muffin?”
“badboyhalo.”
“you’re no fun.”
toby rolled his eyes and turned around in his arms, gesturing at the two bowls of cereal behind him. “put some cereal in your mouth and stop trying to make me blush or whatever you’re doing.”
ranboo pouted and sat down at a barstool. toby plopped down in the one next to him, scooting it close to him so he could put his legs over ranboo’s. once they were settled, ranboo started again.
“honeybee?”
“too canonical.”
“cutie pie?”
“my aunt calls me that. gross.”
“dearest?”
“sounds old.”
“sugar?”
“maroon 5 song.”
“snookums?”
“can i eat my breakfast in peace?”
“love bug?”
toby immediately blushed and shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
“i got one!” ranboo cheered jokingly. the embarrassed boy only hid his face in his hands.
“for sure, boo. you’re 1 for like 500.” toby groaned.
“yeah, but now i get to call you cute stuff and make your sisters uncomfortable and you blush.” ranboo teased, poking at toby’s cheeks and giggling.
“so what? i’ve made you get all flustered in front of hundreds of thousands of people before. you can’t defeat that.” toby protested, swatting his hand away.
“mhm, you wait until i kiss you with your mom in the room. we’ll see who makes who more flustered then.” he challenged.
the other boy squinted his eyes. “i’ll kiss you on facetime with your parents.”
ranboo gasped in mock astonishment, but quickly matching the stink eye he was given. “i’ll kiss you in front of tommy.”
toby easily smirked. “that’s nothing, i’d do that for fun just to make him uncomfortable. i’ll kiss you on stream.”
“no you wouldn’t.” ranboo deadpanned.
“maybe! one day!” toby tried to defend himself, but they quickly dissolved into laughter.
••
a couple days later, ranboo did press a kiss to the corner of his mouth while they were watching tv with his parents. and toby did get extremely flustered and red in the face. and he did get relentlessly teased by his sister for that fact.
and that same day, when toby sat down next to ranboo and planted a kiss on his cheek while he was on facetime with his parents, all he did was laugh when ranboo went bright pink and stopped talking for a few minutes. (they were both glad ranboo’s parents were laughing too.)
this little flustering each other competition became a staple in their relationship, always trying to embarrass the other more. toby would pull ranboo into kisses just to shoot him in laser tag for a tom simons vlog, and ranboo would be sure to have an arm around his shoulder or waist while they were just walking around toby’s hometown of bognor regis.
in fact, early on in the competition they had forgotten that tommy and wilbur didn’t know they were in an official relationship and completely ticked them off one day.
all 4 were sitting on the couch playing mario kart, and toby was refusing to give ranboo his remote. “give it here or i’m pulling out the big guns, tobes.”
all he received was a classic tubbo stink eye in return. “you wouldn’t.”
“yes, i would, baby.” ranboo teased. toby immediately blushed and held onto the remote tighter.
“no,” toby whined.
“hand me the remote, sunshine. please?” ranboo kept pushing, giving his best puppy eyes. toby’s face just kept getting redder and he stopped responding. ranboo leaned forward until their noses were barely touching.
“come on, love bug.” was all it took for toby to begrudging slap the remote into his outstretched palm. “thank you,” ranboo said, pecking toby’s lips with a wet kiss.
tommy and wilbur sat on the other side of the couch with their jaws on the floor. their presence had clearly been forgotten.
“did we not tell you?” toby wheezed, the boyfriends both laughing very hard.
“no, what the fuck, guys?” tommy yelled. very loudly.
“we’ve been dating for like, how long now, ranboo? 4 or 5 months?” toby said, leaning into ranboo’s chest and still laughing a bit.
wilbur just flopped backwards on the couch with his hands over his face. “i feel like i should’ve seen this coming.”
ranboo and toby just looked at each other, the shorter boy practically in his lap looking up at his boyfriend. they started giggling again, so ranboo leaned down and caught his lips in a slightly longer kiss, still not much since they had company.
tommy immediately groaned and started whining. “can we please just play mario kart?”
all 4 of them laughed and continued on with their chill hangout day, recording videos and streaming aside. now that wilbur and tommy were aware of their competition, it made everything just that little bit more embarrassing, but they loved to tease each other and they had fun doing it.