A Better Rain

Rainy weather had always been Tommy’s favorite. The grey clouds tended to bring fond memories along with their cleansing downpour, and it was always a bit easier to sleep when gentle thunder rolled across the sky.

Now, though, rain reminded Tommy too much of Logstedshire and of exile, of long days spent at the mercy of a madman. Now, rain wasn’t comforting so much as it was threatening - especially since the blond had chosen to reside in a dirt shack.

He cursed to himself as another leak sprung in the ceiling. The weather lately had been wetter than usual, and Tommy’s hut, which was usually resilient enough to hold up under a bit of water, was slowly coming apart at the seams.

If the teen had wanted to, he probably could’ve compared that image with that of his relationships falling apart, but he had no particular desire to go down that rabbit hole today, thank you very much.

A scowl settled onto Tommy’s face and he dug through one of his chests to find a couple stacks of wood planks. They were birch wood, and not very aesthetically pleasing (in his opinion, anyway), but they’d do for now. He hurried outside, hissing in annoyance as he was instantly drenched by the cold rain, but within minutes the roof of his house was covered in birch and a bit sturdier than it had previously been.

Feeling a little more satisfied with himself, Tommy went back inside and plopped down in front of his fireplace in hopes of drying off. After a while, the crackling noise and the warmth of the flames lulled him to the grey area between sleeping and waking, and just as his eyelids drifted shut, there was a thump against the door.

Tommy’s eyes snapped open and he was on his feet in seconds, one hand summoning his axe from his inventory while the other reached for his shield. The teen crept to the door and peered out to see a dripping wet enderman huddled as close to the door as he could get.

Without skipping a beat, Tommy made his weapons vanish, opened the door, and yanked Ranboo inside the relative safety of the house. “Holy shit, man, are you trying to melt?”

Ranboo stared at him, teeth chattering, the skin on the white side of his face turning bright red from water burns, and uttered a barely comprehensible string of Enderspeak. It took approximately half a second of staring blankly at the glowing purple eyes of the hybrid for Tommy to realize what was going on, and then he cursed again.

“Of all the days for you to go full enderman,” the blond muttered, hastily stripping Ranboo of his waterlogged suit jacket and ushering him towards the fireplace. He sat the teen down on the floor where he himself had been only minutes ago and then hurried towards one of the chests pushed against the wall.

Ranboo cocked his head curiously at Tommy’s frantic movements as the latter dug through the chest, and another sentence or two spilled from his mouth.

Tommy grimaced at the sounds and wished to Prime he remembered more of his language studies from back when Phil tried his hand at homeschooling. The lessons had lasted about as long as the avian’s patience (which is to say, not long at all). “Don’t worry, big man. ‘M just trying to find you something to- oh, this’ll do.” He pulled a faded blue pullover and a pair of black joggers from the depths of the chest, a triumphant look on his face, and tossed them to the enderman. “They might not fit properly but they’re not soaking wet, either.”

A few minutes later, Ranboo was dressed in the casual outfit and seated back in front of the warm fire to finish drying off. Tommy carefully hung his suit near the fireplace where it would hopefully dry without shrinking too badly, then set about cleaning the burns that newly covered his friend’s skin.

As Tommy’s fingers brushed gently against one scarred cheek, Ranboo leaned into the touch, trilling a little. If he didn’t know that the idiot had a husband and son who hugged him quite often (he knew, he’d seen it for himself), Tommy would think that he was fairly touch-starved, and-

Oh.

Tommy’s heart skipped a beat as he realized that this was the first physical contact he himself had had in a while.

The thought hurt more than it should’ve, and the scowl returned to his face even as he finished applying magma cream and carefully taped bandages to the inflamed skin. When he was finished, he quickly shoved the supplies back into his first aid kit and scooted back until his back hit the wall a good fifteen feet away from his guest.

Ranboo glanced at him, head cocked, and spoke again. This one sounded like a question. Tommy’s scowl deepened. “I’m fine,” he snapped. Purple eyes calmly met his, and it occurred to the blond that maybe he shouldn’t keep eye contact with an enderman, but before he could look away, there were lanky arms wrapped around him and long, slender fingers carding through his hair.

Tommy stiffened, opened his mouth to protest, to yell, to try and preserve whatever remained of his charred, fragile dignity after exile and dying and being dragged back into the land of the living, but then Ranboo trilled again and carefully leaned his younger friend back until Tommy’s head lay against Ranboo’s chest, and as the monochromatic teen continued to run his fingers through tangled golden curls Tommy’s voice died in his throat.

Tears sprang to his eyes because this hurt, but not for any reasons that he could - or wanted to - name. He settled for burying his face in Ranboo’s chest instead, and as those arms held him just a little tighter, the hand in his hair grew a little more tender. When Ranboo’s chest started rumbling with the gentle purr that Tommy had only ever heard when the hybrid was truly content, his breath hitched and he squeezed his eyes shut. Outside, the rain still pounded the earth, and his best friend was miles and miles away, and there were still people plotting his death.

But maybe, maybe he could rest. Just this once.

When Ranboo opened his eyes, he realized three things. One, he was not at Snowchester. Two, he was sitting on the floor with a very stiff neck, in clothes that weren’t his own, with bandages covering his face and hands. And three, there was the smell of something burning permeating the air.

As if on cue, muffled cursing erupted from a nearby room, and approximately twenty seconds later, TommyInnit flew out the front door with something blazing held out in front of him. There was a splash and a sigh before Tommy returned, slamming the door shut again.

“Um, Tommy? What’s...ah...what’s going on?”

The younger teen tried to scowl but there was an unmistakable look of relief in his blue gaze. “Turned my back for two seconds and the toast went up in flames,” he said, shrugging, as if that explained everything.

“Mhm, mhm, and what does that have to do with my being here?” Ranboo pressed, knowing full well that his friend was an expert at evading uncomfortable discussions. Tommy swallowed and looked away, and dread pooled in Ranboo’s stomach. Had he done something? He didn’t remember getting here, and judging by the way his suit was hanging by the empty fireplace it must’ve been raining, but he didn’t think anything major had happened, unless- oh, aether above. “Was I- was I enderwalking again?” he asked, his voice growing quieter.

After a moment's hesitation, Tommy nodded. Yes.

“Did I hurt you?”

A shake of his head. No.

“Then- then you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Boob Boy,” Tommy replied hoarsely, swallowing again as he moved to pull the suit down from the fireplace red and orange reflecting in glassy blue. He wrinkled his nose at it appraisingly. “It smells disgusting. When was the last time you washed it?”

Ranboo frowned and reached for the rumpled black-and-white fabric in Tommy’s hands. “Last week, but-”

“Last week? Gods, surely Tubbo taught you to wash your clothes more than once a week..”

“Well-”

“Y’know what? I’m gonna wash this for you. You’ll get it back when it’s clean.”

“But what am I going to wear until then?”

The blond rolled his eyes and dumped the suit on his bed in favor of rooting through a chest worried blue eyes and a voice lecturing him while steady hands tugged a shirt over his head until he pulled out another few sets of clothes and flung them at Ranboo’s head.

“Hey!” the hybrid complained, but he wasn’t really irritated - not when a smile was finally, finally tugging at Tommy’s mouth.

“C’mon, then,” Tommy said as he hauled his friend off of the floor. “Niki’s bakery should be open, and she’s got some pretty good stuff for breakfast.”

As the pair walked through the streets towards their destination, Ranboo glanced down at the clothes he’d been given. They were all of some shade of blue, it seemed, almost new-looking, and if he looked close enough, he could see something embroidered on each of them in gold or silver. Questions bubbled up in his throat but he swallowed them back down, knowing that this was something he’d have to ask about another day.

For now, he was walking down the Prime Path with his friend who was unobtrusively steering him away from puddles as they went, and his face might’ve been stinging a little but there was sun in his hair and light gleaming in Tommy’s eyes, and just this once, Ranboo decided, maybe rain wasn’t such a bad thing.