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Ranboo got his first car on his seventeenth birthday, and ever since he became the designated driver for the troublemakers trio. It was a usual thing for him to pick up Tubbo in the morning to drop him off at the college every wednesday, he got used to driving Tommy over to that one store that sells them cigarettes without asking for an ID, and he never complained.
He liked thinking that he had some responsibility and feeling useful, so he just agreed on any trip that his friends suggested. Like today, for example. Ranboo was sitting on his bed with his laptop, mindlessly scrolling through social media, when a loud thud interrupted the peaceful evening. When Ranboo shifts his eyes to the window, he sees Tubbo laying on the floor with that mischievous smile on his face and a huge backpack in his hands.
“Let’s go and watch the stars? There is this one place outside the town that has a great view.” Tubbo stumbles before getting up and jumping onto the bed with those damned puppy eyes, and Ranboo was more than happy to put his laptop down on the bedside table and get up to look for his car keys. “I have some drinks with me and I stole cigarettes from the corner shop on the way here. Just in case you would want them.”
And just a few minutes later they were jumping off the roof and running towards the car, almost drugging their backpacks on the lawn. Ranboo effortlessly jumps over the fence and hops in the driver's seat, waiting for Tubbo to climb over and join him. The car smells like weed from yesterday’s trip, has empty bottles of something alcoholic on the backseat, and Ranboo feels weirdly comfortable when he starts the engine and pulls out of the driveway.
The wind is ruffling with their hair when Tubbo puts the windows down, blasting songs from his playlists. The older boy’s voice is cracking when he screams the lyrics on top of his lungs, almost standing up from his seat, and Ranboo can’t help but to smile, lighting up the cigarette and taking a huff.
The place that Tubbo was talking about turns out to be some random hill just thirty minutes outside the town. Ranboo gets out of the car first, looking around the little forest where they parked, and walks over to the edge. Brighton seemed so small from this height, and the setting sun made it look almost dreamy. The piers shine with colourful lights, cars drive back and forth on the roads, and people look like tiny ants.
Tubbo opens the trunk, throwing his blankets over the hard floor of it, and hops inside, eyes locked on the sky. Sitting beside him made Ranboo feel so peaceful and calm in the same instant, this was the effect that hanging out with Tubbo had on him. Tubbo brought him the ability to actually enjoy his life, instead of wasting all his time on school and volleyball as he used to. It was fun, it was refreshing and moreover it made Ranboo feel alive for the first time in so long.
He fishes out a bottle of Tubbo’s favourite flavoured vodka from the backpack and a can of something alcoholic. The sky gets darker as they drink, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. Ranboo feels his body become lighter with every sip he makes, and the tingles on his skin get harsher, but he doesn’t get over the line of being tipsy.
Tubbo, on the other hand, was pretty drunk very fast. He picked up one of the blankets, throwing it over his shoulders, and sighed, watching as stars appear in the night sky above Brighton.
"I hope that we never die.” Ranboo looks over at his friend, watching as he takes one more swig from the overly colourful bottle, and sighs.
"Why? I think that would be very sad." He leans back, using the second row of the seats as the point of balance. It takes Tubbo a second to process the words, and he turns around with watery eyes.
"Don't say that." Tubbo is emotional when he is that drunk. It's very funny, but also it makes Ranboo's anxiety skyrocket, which is not the best combination with alcohol in his body. "I don't want to die."
"Yes, but if we dont ever die, then we will have to watch other people pass away and deal with that." Ranboo shrugs, picking up his can of something incredibly gross, and sips a bit before wincing and putting it back.
"Well, I don't care about that. My mom's a bitch that left us, I don't really talk to my dad. So as long as you and Tommy don't pass away, then I will be fine." They both look into the sky, stars flickering ever so slightly in the darkness. Ranboo feels Tubbo shuffle closer to him and place his head on his shoulder, sighing tiredly. "And also, we would have so much time to do so much crime. And try out so much."
"In this hypothetical scenario, are we immortal-immortal, or are we eventually going to die anyway?" Ranboo takes a sip of his drink again, trying to ignore the horrible taste, and moves a bit closer to his friend for warmth. Tubbo hums at that, moving the blanket so that it covers both of them.
"We are going to die eventually. But like together, at the same time." He pauses for a second, slurring his words even more, and takes a swig from the bottle in his hands before proceeding. "Hivem- Hime—" "Hivemind?" "Yeah! Hivemind bullshit, you know? Like when bees and they die."
"Yeah, sure, like when bees." Ranboo laughs faintly, looking down at lively Brighton beneath the hill where they were parked. Everything seems so meaningless, and it feels like everything just stopped, the main focus of the entire universe just on them. It feels nice, he thinks, finishing the drink and placing it down beside him.
“Why are you so much more sober than I am, that’s unfair.” Tubbo sounds sleepy and tired when he speaks, leaning even closer to Ranboo, hiding his face in the shoulder of the black and white hoodie. “Tall motherfucker.”
“If I were you, I would be happy that it’s that easy to get wasted.”
They sit like that for a few more moments, Ranboo enjoying the view and Tubbo quietly snoring into his friend’s shoulder, before the American finally decides that it’s time to leave. He carefully picks Tubbo up, smiling as his friend winces in his sleep and mumbles something in protest, and slowly moves him over to the backseats just to give him at least half an hour to sleep.
On the way back he smokes again, humming to the tune of the song that was faintly playing on the radio. His head hurts ever so slightly from the alcohol that he drank, but he ignores that, focusing as much as he can on the road. This wasn’t the first time he had to drive his friends to their houses while being slightly tipsy, and surely not the last.
He carefully parks near Tubbo’s house, checking the windows for any sign of Schlatt being home already, and sighs with relief when he sees that none of the rooms have light turned on. Tubbo shuffles in the backseat and whines something vaguely aggressive.
“Hey buddy, we are home, let’s get you to bed.” Ranboo smiles fondly, watching as his friend opens his eyes slowly, trying to focus his vision on the taller kid's face. It takes him a second to register what’s going on, but just moments later they were already walking towards the door, with Tubbo basically dangling on Ranboo.
As soon as the older teen’s head touches the pillow, he falls asleep again, snoring quietly into the fabric. Ranboo stays for a few more minutes, grabbing neurofen and a glass of water from the kitchen and carefully placing it on the bedside table, before silently closing the door behind him and hopping in his car.
The clock shows twelve foury am when he climbs in the window to his room and gets to bed. Ranboo sighs, picking the laptop back from the bedside table and before he can even unlock it, he hears the same thud he hears just a couple of hours prior. When he looks up, he locks eyes with Tommy, who was sitting on the carpeted floor of the room with a bag thrown over his shoulder.
“Hey big man. Wanna go steal some shit?”
And of course Ranboo says yes.