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“Alright, I told your parents where we are,” Eret says, smiling down at Michael as they hook their communicator back to their belt. “They’re on their way right now.”
Michael doesn’t answer, eyes focusing on the torch’s flame dancing softly against the harsh stone walls. The poor boy still looks the same as he did when Eret found him in that big room with zombies banging at the doors and the wind blowing harshly at his windows, shivering and alone in his bright coloured pajamas, gaze far away and one working eye unfocused.
Eret sighs and sinks down to one knee, unclasping their cape from their shoulder and gently placing them around the piglin’s shoulders. It seems to snap Michael out of the dazed state he’s in and he blinks up at the king, looking confused. A part of them wonders if the poor kid even remembers the trek over, or where he is.
“Why don’t you cozy up for now?” They ask, trying to keep their voice as gentle as possible. “It’s pretty late, you could take a little nap until your parents are here.”
Michael frowns and shakes his head, but he does wrap the cape closer around himself and rubs the fleshy side of his face against the soft fur atop of it.
“Well, what do you wanna do then?” Eret tries again, starting to panic slightly as they realize they have yet to hear a single sound from the child’s mouth besides the crying from before that alerted them to the child home alone on the other side of the server. “Because it might take a while for them to get here.”
The boy shrugs and looks away again and Eret sags a bit.
They didn’t have much experience with kids, not really. They had gotten close to Fundy at the birth of L’manbur of course, helped Wilbur babysit through meetings and treaty writings; of course Fundy grew up much faster than other kids, an outcome due to both his hybrid genes and from having been enlisted in a war from birth. Either way it’s not like Eret was any help, or even present as he grew up, their betrayal made sure that he wouldn’t even see Fundy again until the boy was tearing down the walls from his own home, burning the flag his father raised in front of everyone and basking in the ashes.
Not exactly the best track record a babysitter can have. Especially when the babysitter was also directly responsible for the kid’s first death, and indirectly responsible for all of his dad’s deaths.
But Fundy and Wilbur hadn’t been the only citizens of L’manbur, Tubbo was there too, Tubbo suffered because of Eret and they refused to let any more hurt come the boy’s way because of them so this time they were going to do it right. They were going to stay with Michael and not let anything bad happen to him; even if they had no actual clue of how to actually take care of al kid.
But, Eret realizes, a small smile growing on their face, a long time ago they knew Tubbo.
“Y’know, me and your dad were friends once,” They say, standing up with a groan from their crouched position on the floor. Michael turns to them, suddenly looking interested and follows the monarch with his gaze as they place a jukebox on the ground. “And if there is one thing I know about him, it is that he does like his tunes, doesn’t he?”
Wilbur playing his guitar as they all sat around the fire, Fundy on Eret’s lap babbling baby talk while Tommy and Tubbo made up song lyrics and cracked themselves up in the process. In the first nights, in the early nights before Eret ruined everything, it was almost impossible for any of them to go to bed without the soft hum of music and laughter lulling them to sleep.
Michael has the same glint in his eyes as his dad did back then, it makes nostalgia swell in Eret’s gut. They chuckle.
“You have one of these, then?” They ask and Michael nods his head vigorously.
“ Yeah! Bee loves music,” Michael signs, slowly gathering confidence and oh, yeah that certainly explains why the boy was so quiet, and it does make sense that an undead piglin can’t quite communicate verbally, at least not in any human tongue. Eret is just glad they, and the majority of the SMP, know how to sign. “ We have a dance party whenever Uncle Tommy visits!”
So Tommy knows about Michael, that isn’t that surprising considering he and Tubbo are best friends and he seems to like Ranboo, though that’s always hard to tell with Tommy. Eret only knows about Michael from Foolish, who cannot keep a secret to save either of his remaining lives and made the promise not to tell anyone so they’ve certainly never visited; it makes them glad to know that the child wasn’t without company.
“Oh, is that so?” Eret grins, grabbing a bright red disc from their bag and showing it to the boy. “Have you ever danced to this one before?”
Michael shakes his head, looking excited as he eagerly gets to his feets (hooves?) and Eret can’t help but match his excitement as they plop the video down on the jukebox, smiling brightly as the first few notes of PIGSTEP begin playing. The boy starts quickly bouncing up and down, his previous trepidation gone as the king’s cape swishes around him, Eret can do little but follow suit, smiling as the kid giggles.
They don’t have much room, they are in a cave after all and Eret half regrets not taking the boy to their castle ( their big, empty castle with too big walls and too high ceilings and no one around to dance with and no music to dance to ) but it’s still nice in the cave, cozy almost.
It’s been so long since they’ve felt cozy.
“Eret?” Calls a voice somewhere beyond the stone. “Michael?!”
Eret yawns and gets up, stretching their long limbs as they do so before moving towards the wall where the cries from. They don’t bother adjusting their crown, it had fallen far too many times as they danced for them to continue to care, but they do fix their glasses down on their face before grabbing his pickaxe and starting to mine. He spots the _Beloved parents the second the first block disappears.
“Hey!” He half whispers, half greets as both the teenagers turn their eyes to them. “We’re right here.”
The two don’t waste any time to help destroy the wall, the two young parents looked beyond frazzled and stressed, eyes wide and filled with worry as they grip their pickaxes with desperation and determination. Eret can’t blame them, they can’t imagine how horrible it must be to hear that one of the least trustworthy people on the server is currently guarding your kid.
The second the wall is down they rush in, both looking around desperately before Ranboo finally seems to spot the red blob on the floor. The enderman hybrid let’s out a small, relieved thrill on the back of his throat before sinking to one knee and wrapping his arms around a soundly asleep Michael, head resting on Eret’s folded coat and tiny body wrapped on their cape.
“He was really stressed so I kept him entertained for as long as I could,” They whisper fondly, as Tubbo moves to stand next to his husband, standing on his toes so he can see the face of their son. He must be satisfied with what he finds because he sighs in relief and rests his head against Ranboo’s side just as Michael buries his face in his chest. “Guess I tired the poor thing out, so, sorry if I ruined his bedtime or something.”
Ranboo looks at him with an incredulous look in his eyes. “Are you kidding me? Eret, you-” He stops, looking down at Michael and pressing a small kiss to the boy’s head. There are red, irritated lines running down his cheeks. “Thank you, thank you so much for saving him.”
His sincerity takes them back. “I just did what anyone-”
“No,” Tubbo says, shaking his head. “Not anyone would, not anyone would care about him like this, not anyone would have risked their lives to save a kid they don’t even know exists.” He shoots Eret a shaky smile. “If you need anything, please tell us. I-We wouldn’t have been able to bear losing him.”
Eret goes quiet and nods gently, there is such grief in Tubbo’s eyes that don’t match someone as young as him and it makes them not want to argue. “Of course, Tubbo,” They say but it’s merely a formality, not like they would ever want the duo to pay them back for such a small action. “And don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone about him and I won’t if that’s what you guys want.”
“Please,” Ranboo pleads softly. “I know it sounds bad, but this server-”
“I know,” They say, looking at Tubbo and still seeing that boy in blue and red uniform, blood seeping out of his stomach from a stab wound in a room with dark stone walls, blood that still stains their hands. “You guys are protecting him. Honestly if I had a kid as special as yours I would probably do the same.”
Ranboo and Tubbo smile at him and the older boy starts to unwrap Michael from the king’s cape when they raise a hand.
“I-It’s fine really,” They reassure them, smiling at the boy still fast asleep. “It’s cold in Snowchester and I don’t really need it. Plus it will give the little guy something to remember me by.”
Tubbo and Ranboo share a confused look, before turning to Eret with twin frowns on their faces. “Eret,” Tubbo starts, looking at them like they’ve grown a second head. “Neither of you are like, dying, dude. You can visit if you like.”
Something hopeful and sweet grows in Eret’s chest as he looks at the two boys in complete disbelief. But...They can’t really mean that, right? Not to them. Tubbo seems to somehow realize what he’s thinking because he let’s out a soft ‘oh’. They give Ranboo a small wave of their head and the older teen seems to understand the signal and begins to walk away, leaving just the two behind
“It was a long time ago, bossman,” He says softly, softer than they think they ever heard Tubbo before. He chuckles. “I mean, I’m married to a traitor of L’manbur now in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“It’s different,” Eret insists because it is, Ranboo’s treason and theirs was nowhere near comparable. “You know it’s different.”
“Yeah, and you payed for it,” Tubbo shrugs, his tone casual as if he wasn’t talking about his own murder, about the coup that almost took him everything before he had anything to be taken. “And you apologized, and I forgave you a long time ago. So did Tommy and Fundy.”
Wilbur didn’t , they think, Can you really forgive me if he hasn’t? Can I forgive myself?
“You should visit tomorrow,” Tubbo continues, “Me and Ranboo will be there and we’ve cleared the house on the way over. I’m sure Michael will be happy to see the guy who saved him.”
“Tubbo-”
“Eret” He cuts in, now sounding serious. “Please.”
And it’s then that Eret realizes that Tubbo’s hands are shaking, his eyes are puffy and watery and though the fear in him is gone he still looks awfully jumpy. He looks jumpy towards Eret.
Tubbo was really afraid of Michael being hurt in Eret’s care.
And yet...he’s not anymore, that much is clear. He’s not afraid for Michael, he’s not afraid of Eret, Eret saved his kid and danced with him, tucked him in and proved him wrong.
And Tubbo is so clearly glad for it, so happy that Ereet can’t help but share his joy. They proved someone wrong, they proved that they can still do good, they can still be good.
And isn’t that just the most wonderful realization?
“I’ll be there,” Eret promises “I’ll make it right”
Tubbo smiles at him, wide and watery and happy, like someone who is seeing their friend for the first time in years.
“You already have.”