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Tomathy Tom Simons Innit is a big man, the Biggest Man if you will. This is crucial information that should not be taken lightly. Having said this, Big Man himself is definitely not having a crisis in the middle of the goddamned airport. Or rather, he is but is ignoring the crisis in favor of what is decidedly not staring at Ranboo’s eyebrow hair in an effort to save himself the embarrassment of staring at his mouth insead. Because, Tommy has discord that he does indeed like men, well, one man. Who happens to be walking next to him, talking to their mutual best friend, with two symetrically placed loops of metal through his bottom lip that are, in Tommy gay opinion, utterly ridiculous looking [read: HOT] and distracting.
Having your gay awakening in a airport is not what was Tommy had on his agenda for today, but here he is, walking to the car where Tubbo’s dad is waiting to take the three of them back to Tubbos house where they will be living for the next week. Mentally, Tommy wants to hit himself for thinking was a good idea.
Seeing Ranboo in person is… different for lack of a better word. Not in a bad way though. Like this, Tommy can see the way the taller laughs with his full body in response to a stupid joke, and the way the corners of his mouth pull up enevenly when he smiles. Tommy is content just watching right now, even if it is out of character.
It had occurred to him that he might like men approximately 2 hours ago when he stumbled across a picture of a man with lip piercings on his tiktok. Also maybe spending hours on call with your friends flirting off stream isn’t typical heterosexual male behavior according to Tubbo.
“So, who’s sitting up front,” Tubbo asks, “I say Ranboo.” The taller protests by shaking his head, pushing the shorter brunette towards the passenger door.
“No, it’s your dad’s car. I can take a little bit more of my legs being cramped.” Tubbo shoots the taller boy a skeptical look, opening the car door.
“...”
The two stare at each other for a second, having some sort of silent conversation Tommy couldn’t hope to even understand. He slides into the backseat, only a little bit bitter. He has better things to think about than his own jealousy, like how Tubbo (That traitor, he tells himself) clearly knew that Ranboo had fucking snakebites and kept that infromation to himself.
The door slams shut behind Ranboo as the tall boy squeezes into the back seat next to Tommy, pulling the blonde from his thoughts. Tommy smiles at the other when he looks over. Ranboo basically lights up like a christmas tree, smiling brightly in return. From the front seat, Tubbo pulls Ranboo into a conversation. The boy’s hand falls limply to rest on the seat, only a few inches from Tommy’s, and it takes everything in his willpower to keep his hand still when all he wants is to slide their palms together in the dim light of the car, to lock their fingers together, to pull the taller close enough that he can bury his own head into the tallers shoulder.
Instead of doing any of those, Tommy turns his head away from the older boy, staring at the buildings as they pass by outside the window. Slowly, Tommy’s eyes close letting him drift off into sleep, head pressed to the glass.
The course of the rest of the night goes as follows; the trio get home, set the air mattress for Tommy up, and eat dinner hastily cooked by Tubbo bcs Tommy can’t cook for shit without burning the food. Tubbo is honestly not that much better, but the shorter boy refused to let the jetlagged American cook, going so far as to ban both him and Tommy from the kitchen. Because of this exile, Tommy got to watch first hand, and subsequently die a little on the inside, as Ranboo replaced the little clear plastic hoops of his snakebites with actual metal hoops.
Tommy’s mind could only think of the word ‘hot’ as he watched the other boy replace the retainers with a practiced ease, hiding the way he was definitely not blushing by pretending to scroll through twitter.
“Ey, when’d you get those done,” He asks, not missing the surprise on the others face at the sudden question as the taller turns away from where he was putting his clothes away in the dresser and It’s like a switch has been flipped. The older lights up excitedly, forgoing the suitcase he was sitting by to sit next to Tommy on the couch, leaning closer to let the blonde see the shiny metal better.
God, Tommy thinks, this man is going to be the death of him. His poor heart is going to beat out of his chest and run away. It’s incredibly endearing to watch the man come closer to show off something he obviously likes.
“…eah, the snake bites help distract from my, uh, facial dysmorphia,” He dictates, leaning back out of Tommy’s space.
“That’s so cool,” Tommy blurts out, eyes darting anywhere but Ranboo’s face. Holy prime, he can feel his ears heating up at the admission. “uh..it’s great tha-that something like that can help people that way.” Tommy honestly wants to hit himself in the head right now for his stupid stuttering, but a soft sigh from his left draws him out of his head.
“Mhm,” Ranboo affirms with an expression Tommy might dare to call fond if he weren’t currently dying of self-mortification. “It really helps to have something I chose to have to focus on when it gets bad.” Tommy takes a quick breath, readying himself for his next words.
“I’m glad you have that, Boo.” Now, Tommy lets his eyes rake over the other’s expression, letting his heart beat loud in his ears at the way the other stares at him, and for just a moment, everything stills, room glowing with unspoken fondness.
Until, of course, there's a crash from the kitchen and the sound of incessant swearing that makes the tall duo share a laugh for a brief moment before they go to try and salvage whatever Tubbo dropped.