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Living on the first floor comes with its own perks and cons. It was very wasy to sneak out during the night, there was no reason to run towards the bathroom to throw up when you are intoxicated, just bending over the window instead. However it was also very easy to get in the room from the outside.
Tommy groans, shuffling in his bed when he hears knocking in the glass. He was ready to scold Tubbo for waking him up just to steal something from the corner store, but when he stands up and sees a tall dark silhouette behind the window all of his confidence fades out. He stares at the person behind the window for a few seconds, trying to make his eyes get used to the darkness, and sighs when he makes out the black and white mask and that stupid fluffy hair.
He drags his feet along the floor, opening the window reluctantly, and moves to the side to let Ranboo climb in. The tall bitch easily throws his leg over the windowsill and carefully jumps in, not making even a single noise. And this would be incredibly impressive if Tommy didn’t have this incredible urge to kill this asshole right here and then.
“What the fuck are you doing here.” Ranboo doesn’t get startled by the aggressiveness in the voice of his voice, calmly draggin his bag and backpack over the window and dropping all of that on the floor. For the first time Tommy notices that his friend had a lot of shit with him.
“My parents kicked me out.” Ranboo shruggs and clicks the switch on the table lamp, bright light making Tommy wince and hiss from his eyes hurting. “Tubbo is not at home, for some reason, and I had no other place to go. I know you probably won’t be happy with me staying for the night, but I really don’t want to be stabbed by some homeless guy.”
“Fair enough.” Tommy watches his friend open the backpack and rummage through his things, just to pull out a pack of malboros and a lighter. The annoyance with this sudden appearance goes away when Ranboo generously shares one of the cigarettes with the blonde. “So, why did you get kicked out again?”
Tommy sits on the windowsill, trying to get the lighter to work, and the room gets filled with silence. Not the awkward one, the warm and comfortable silence, that both of them are used to at this point. Ranboo hums, trying to come up with a good response, and takes a puff of his cigarette. Tommy freezes for a second and arches an eyebrow. If this American prick is genuinely smoking, then something is definetely wrong.
“It’s not for long, I think. Mom did that once, but asked me to return the same day.” It was slightly weird not to argue with each other, but Tommy genuinely felt comfortable listening to Ranboo talk like that. Calmly, without any mockery in his words. Just purely venting to the blonde. “Dad found a pack of cigarettes and vodka that Tubbo hid in my room, and they yelled at me. They made me take some weird nicotine test, that was definitely bullshit by the way, and when it turned out to be positive, mom made me leave.”
“Damn.” Tommy hits the lighter against the wood, still not able to make it work, and Ranboo giggles, passing his own. The younger boy nods and lights up his cigarette finally, taking a much needed puff, relaxing as smoke enters his lungs. “That’s fucked.”
They sit in silence, Ranboo unknowingly humming some tunes to himself. It was weird to think that they had this dumb feud going on for so long, when in reality Tommy really enjoyed the older boy’s company. There wasn’t even any hatred that he felt towards Ranboo, he was just scared. He was so scared that Tubbo would leave him and forget him just because of this prick. It was so normal to hang out with that short and energetic boy one on one, that when Ranboo was introduced, Tommy felt so useless.
He sighs, looking at his friend, and Ranboo turns his head towards the noise, eyes giving out how tired he actually is. They just look at each other, weak smiles on their faces, and it’s enough for them to silently agree on the truce between them. Of course they will bicker, of course Tommy will find any occasion to dare Ranboo to do some dumb stuff, but not as openly agressive as before.
Ranboo flicks the cigarette out the window, and Tommy mimics that movement, hopping back onto the floor.
“I don’t have a spare mattress for you though.” Tommy walks over to the wardrobe, pulling a pillow and a blanket out. Both were brought here from London and Tommy rolls his eyes when he sees Ranboo laugh silently at the print on the old blanket. “Fuck off, my dad bought me this.”
“Sorry, I just didn’t expect you to be a fan of muppets. Kinda doesn’t fit with your vibe, you know?” Ranboo laughs, taking the blanket and a pillow from his friends hands and throwing them on the floor. “I’ll sleep here, I love sleeping on my floor sometimes.”
“Big man, I don’t live in the house that you got used to, the floor here is genuinely cold.” Tommy arches his eyebrow and closes the wardrobe, wooden doors creaking. He should really ask Wilbur to help him fix those. “Not lying, you’ll fucking die if you sleep on the floor.”
“Well what else can you offer?” Ranboo sits down on the carpeted but, admittedly, truely cold floor, and looks up at Tommy as the blonde boy tries to thing of something. He never had anyone over, let alone staying the night, so this was the first time he ever had to think about this in his life.
“You can sleep on the couch in the living room. I’ll slip a note about you staying over under Wilbur’s door so he won’t try to fucking murder you in the morning.” Tommy rushes over to the table, grabbing a piece of paper and a red marker. “It won’t be the level of comfort you got used to in your fancy little posh house, but still better than freezing your balls off at night.”
“True.”
Ranboo picks up the blanket and the pillow, holding them both under his arm, and walks over to Tommy, watching over his shoulder as the uneven letters get scribbled on the paper. Tommy’s handwriting is hard to make out, but Wilbur is probably used to reading his brother’s notes, so that won’t be a problem. Bold red letters form a sentence of “don’t kill try to kill the dude on the couch in the morning, that’s my friend ranboo he is staying over.”, and Tommy proudly raises the paper in the air, smiling at Ranboo.
“I mean, that works.” Ranboo laughs, watching as Tommy wobbles towards the door and tries to open it silently.
The floor creaks when they walk through the corridor. Ranboo looks around, watching the photos hung around where Tommy is still a little child. Wilbur is standing proudly near his little brother, and a blonde man is seen behind them. Ranboo never heard his friend talk about his dad, but he is almost a thousand precent sure that he was a great man.
As they pass Wilbur’s room, Tommy stops and crouches, slipping the paper under the door. Ranboo smiles at Tommy’s happy face, and walks forward, finally seeing his bed for this night. He sits down on the old couch, trying not to complain about how fucking uncomfortable and hard it is, and covers himself in the blanket.
“Thank you, Tom.” Ranboo’s words are barely audible, and if it wasn’t for Wilbur sleeping just behind the wall, Tommy would definitely make the older boy repeat this over and over again. But instead he smiles, nodding, and turns around.
Falling asleep was a bit hard, but after fifteen minutes of listening in to Ranboo’s and Wilbur’s snoring behind the wall, Tommy finally drifts to sleep with a happy smile on his face.
Sun annoyingly hits Tommy’s face, making the boy groan and open his eyes just a bit. He stands up minutes later, letting himself have some time to actually wake up, and looks around the room. He freezes, when the realization of Ranboo’s bag and backpack being gone hits him. He springs up, suddenly worried about his friend, but calms down when a little note taped to the window catches his attention.
He shuffles towards it, cold wood against his feet making him shiver, and rips the paper off. And of course Ranboo’s handwriting is very curved and overly pretty. Tommy can’t help but scoff at how “Ranboo” this is, putting the note down and climbing back in bed.
“Hey Tom! Wilbur didn’t try to kill me, he actually shared his eggs and toast which was very nice of him. Mom asked to come back home and grounded me, so prepare to sneak me out with Tubbo today. Thank you for letting me spend the night again, I left you cigarettes in the wardrobe in the blanket. We should watch muppets together some time.
- Ranboo!”