Work Text:
Tw: Crying, ear piercing with piercing gun (In case people are sensitive to that)
Ranboo always found earrings interesting. He couldn't help but notice those in the server who had them. Mentally he made a list of them, just for himself. He did that a lot, just made lists of things for himself.
His favorite list was probably the earring list though.
Karl had little diamond earrings, similar to ones Niki had. Hannah had flower earrings, and Puffy had anchor earrings. Eryn had a black stud in his right ear, but the left was not pierced. Phil had tiny black loop earrings and a small gold cuff at the top of his ear. Even Tommy had small silver studs in his ear, no bigger than a bead of a bracelet.
And Techno, oh gosh Techno. He had so many earrings, Ranboo often found himself staring at Techno during meetings, or meals just because of his earrings. He just hoped Techno, or anyone else for that matter, noticed. But Techno's earrings were beautiful.
He had gold cuffs at the top of his ears like Phil did, he had 3 gold studs on his right ear in the middle, 4 on the left, and he had 2 piercings at the bottom of his ear. 1 of the piercings at the bottom were gold wrapped diamonds, and the lower 1 was dangling earrings, a gold chain with emeralds at the bottom.
They were so beautiful, and they seemed so pretty. Ranboo couldn't imagine how much weight it put on Techno's ears. Techno seemed to hold them well, or at least well enough that his ears didn't seem effected by all the jewelry.
Ranboo wondered if they had meaning, like did each stand for something? Did someone make them for him, or did he make them himself? He wished he could ask Techno but didn't want to be questioned on it.
Not wanting to be questioned on it didn't change the fact that he constantly found himself staring and wishing he had his ears pierced.
He didn't know how to get his ears pierced, didn't know where any of them got their ears pierced. Plus he wasn't sure how well he would do with earrings if he did get them, he didn't know what it takes to have his ears pierced.
So he never asked, never said anything to anyone. He just watched from a distance and wrote in his book about how pretty he thought they were. He would revisit the list, smiling softly at the small doodles he sometimes did of how the earrings looked, just wishing he could say something.
That was until one night.
Ranboo had a ruff day to begin with. He had gone to the nether for some quartz, wanting to spruce up some of his home built into the mountain side. But while there he dropped his pickax straight into lava, and while he managed to get it out it was badly damaged.
It was so hot when he pulled it out, and Ranboo had to put it down before it burned his skin. The pain of it didn't hurt, but just the thought that it might be broken beyond repair made his wanna cry.
Then he got lost on his way back to the portal. And that wasn't his fault. He got stuck trying to get by some zombie piglins, they weren't doing anything but standing around but Ranboo didn't want to do anything to bother them. They weren't going to bother him at all but Ranboo just wanted to be careful.
So it took way longer to get back home then he thought it would, and coming home during the night was always more dangerous. It sucked having to be more careful yet again, just so he wouldn't get hurt trying to get home.
That made him miss his dinner with Phil and Techno, which he felt bad for. He could imagine Techno and Phil waiting for him, while he was stuck getting home well into the night. He didn't see any lights on in their homes when he arrived so he went back to his own, tired, hungry, and sad.
But of course nothing could ever go right and his night only continued to get worse. When he went inside his home and went to find a mending book he knew he had, he found that there was no book. In it's place was a little note, unsigned, but saying
'I owe you on'
It was in someone's handwriting that Ranboo didn't recognize, but if he had to guess maybe Eret or Tommy. Both of them knew were Ranboo's house was, and anyone else who did wouldn't have taken it without talking to Ranboo first. But this was just the last straw.
Since that did nothing to make Ranboo feel any better, and he was already feel so shitty, he truly just burst out into tears. This was an awful day and he hated it. He wished there was something to make him feel better, but the half enderman just sat on the ground near his chests crying. His face stung slightly from the tears, but his suit sleeves didn't really help absorb the tears.
He felt like shit, this day was shit, people stealing from him was shit, loosing and breaking his things was shit, letting Techno and Phil down was shit. It was all just so god damn bad and it hurt when things felt this bad.
He let himself cry, it didn't feel nice on his skin but it felt nice letting it all out.
He only stopped crying suddenly when he heard a knock at his door. He stood up quickly and made another attempt to wipe away his tears. He quickly ran over to his front door and opened it up, not wanting to make whoever on the other side mad with having to wait for him to answer. Getting yelled at would make things worse, so he opened up the door as fast as he could.
There stood Phil, smiling softly while wrapped in a robe, hair tucked up into a small bun so Ranboo could spot the loop earrings and gold cuffs. Ranboo could also clearly see pjs underneath his robe, meaning he was probably going to bed soon. Ranboo felt bad for Phil having to come over, but got slightly distracted at the container in Phil's hands.
"Hello Ranboo, how are you?" Phil said cheerfully and Ranboo did his best to muster a smile, though it hurt his soul to smile when he just spent half an hour sobbing.
"I'm alright, how are you Phil?" Ranboo replied but Phil frowned slightly, he looked Ranboo up and down like he was reading him as you would read a book or a sign.
"You seem like you've been crying. Are you sure you're alright?" Phil asks and Ranboo pauses, he doesn't want to inconvenient Phil by sharing his day so he just nodded. "Alright, well you missed dinner and I saw you just got home so I thought I would bring you some food." Phil said, sticking his hands out to give Ranboo the container. Ranboo took it in his hands, it was still slightly warm. He would have to reheat it again but this was so sweet.
Phil took time out of his night to come and bring Ranboo food when he noticed that Ranboo got home after missing dinner with them. He took the time to package it up and bring it over to him at 11pm at night. This was the best thing to happen all day.
"Oh." Ranboo mumbled, tears forming in his eyes again. "That's so nice." He said softly, before breaking out into sobs. Phil panicked for a moment at the fact that Ranboo was breaking down over a container of food. Granted there was probably more than that going on, but he was unaware of anything else in this moment.
"Ranboo, what's wrong?" Phil asked quickly, using his sleeves to wipe away the tears on Ranboo's face before they hurt him. It was too late, but Phil knew that in his mind some of these slight burns had to have come from an earlier time of crying. When he gets a chance he should give Ranboo a healing pot, but Phil knew it was not the time for that.
"It's just been such a long day and I nearly lost my ax and it's super damaged now, then I got lost and missed dinner with you guys, and then someone stole my mending books so now I can't even fix my ax and this is just so nice." Ranboo sobs and Phil gives him a soft look. Phil pulls him into a soft hug, ignoring the height difference between the two. Ranboo just let Phil hug him, container still in his hands as he half bent down to put his head on Phil's shoulder.
"You sound like you've had a tuff day mate. How about you change out of your suit, get into some pjs and you can come spend the night at my place with Techno and I? I can heat up your food and then make some fresh dessert too." Phil offers and Ranboo nodded pulling away from the hug, that sounded so lovely after this bad day.
"Yes please." Ranboo says while trying to breathe properly, breaking down and sobbing again after breaking down and sobbing once took a lot of oxygen, and the cold air pouring in from the still open door wasn't helping his lungs. Phil waited for him to start breathing fully before continuing.
"Sounds good mate, bring your ax too, I got a couple extra mending books and Techno can fix it up while you eat okay?" Phil says softly, taking back the container, Ranboo just letting him take the container. Ranboo nods and Phil smiles at him, a fatherly smile that made Ranboo feel better even more. "Okay, see you at my place." And he leaves, closing the door behind him.
Ranboo does as suggested and gets into some pjs, which were way more comfortable then his suit, which is ironic since he wore his suit more than anything claiming it was comfortable. Sure said pjs were just a pair of basketball shorts and an oversized tee-shirt but it's the thought that counts.
He also had bright blue fuzzy socks on, a gift that Tommy made for him by hand during his knitting phase, which he carefully slipped his boots on over them. It was cold and snowy enough that the boots would make all the difference. He also pulled on a coat, though it was a short walk to Phil's. He then grabbed his pickax and made his way over.
He didn't even need to knock when he got to Phil's place, the door opened showing Phil standing there, soft smile on his face, the same one he had earlier when Ranboo was crying. Ranboo smiled back at him and walked in, quickly spotting Techno reading in an armchair with a mug of tea beside him.
"Hey Ranboo." Techno greeted as Ranboo walked in, looking up at him but with no smile. Ranboo knew it wasn't because Techno was mad, Techno just didn't smile as much as Phil did. Ranboo nodded at him as a greeting. "Got your pickax?" Techno asked.
"Yeah it's right here." Ranboo said as he held it up in his hand. Techno put a book mark in his book and took off his reading glasses. He walked over to Ranboo and took the pickax from him, again Ranboo just letting him. During this time Ranboo looked at Techno fully, which he didn't do when he first walked into the house.
He was also wearing pjs, a pair of flannel pjs pants, an oversized t-shirt and his soft pink hair was tied up into a bun, similar to Phil's but a big bigger and messier, since his hair was longer. This made it easy to spot all of his earrings, all of them still in his ears. They shined slightly in the light that was coming from the fire place.
How sleeping with that many earrings in was a weird thought to Ranboo. Did Techno take them out every night? Did he take the time to do that? There was so many and how would he know which went where when he was putting them back?
"Fell in lava?" Techno says and Ranboo nodded, not taking his eyes off Techno's piercing's despite Techno trying to make eye contact with him. Techno didn't say anything about where the half enderman's eyes were staring. "Okay, I'll go fix it. I think Phil finished heating your food." He offers.
Sure enough Phil placed a bowl on the table, a couple of rolls and a mug of tea next to it. He waved Ranboo over and Ranboo was happy enough to walk over and sit down. Inside the bowl was potato soup, a staple in this household. Ranboo smiled when he spotted it, he loved the soup almost as much as Techno did.
"Thank you Phil." Ranboo said as he picked up a spoon and dug in. Phil nodded as he sat down across from Ranboo with his own mug of tea. Techno disappeared into another room quietly. Phil poured in some cream and sugar into his mug, pushing over the tray of things to Ranboo's side of the table in case he decided he wanted some of his own.
"Of course. Can I ask you something Ranboo?" Phil asked softly and Ranboo nodded, looking up from his bowl with a mouth full of soup. He swallowed quickly, ignoring the slight burn in his throat.
"Yeah of course." Ranboo answered and Phil nodded, not asking the question quite yet but taking a sip of his tea.
"Everytime Tech or I have our hair up to seem to stare at our earrings, how come?" Phil asked after a moment. Ranboo blushed a soft purple tone on his cheeks as he looked back down at his bowl of soup. "There's nothing wrong with it, I'm just curious." Phil says trying to ease the boy's anxiety.
"I think earrings are cool, they seem pretty." Ranboo admits and Phil nodded again. That was kinda sweet honestly.
"Why don't you get your ears pierced?" Phil asks genuinely. Ranboo takes a bite of a roll so he doesn't have to answer right away.
"I don't know how, and I've never wanted to ask." Ranboo admits again and Phil chuckles lightly. The blush didn't quite leave Ranboo's face as he continued to eat.
"Is that all? Tech and I could pierce your ears." Phil smiles and Ranboo looks up at him again.
"Really?" Ranboo asks and Phil hums while nodding his head. "That would be so cool! I think earrings are super awesome I've just never known how to." Ranboo smiles.
"Of course mate. We could do it tonight if you want, once you're done eating." Phil offers and Ranboo nods, digging back into his soup and eating it quickly. "Boo slow down, don't choke. We have plenty of time." Phil advises while chuckling. Ranboo blushed again but did slow down his eating. Soon Techno returned to the main room holding Ranboo's ax.
"All fixed. Sound be good to go now." Techno said as he leaned it against the wall behind Ranboo's seat.
"That's good. Hey Tech, Ranboo wants his ears pierced, can you go get the piercing gun?" Phil asks and Techno raises his eyebrows for a moment. "Just please? And can you pick out some nice ones from my box?"
"Nah old man, you're earrings aren't half as good as mine. I'll pick out some nice ones for Ranboo to start out with." Techno grinned and he left the room again. Phil chuckled while shaking his head lightly.
"What am I ever going to do with him?" Phil teases lightly. Ranboo just smiles as he continues to eat more of the good soup.
When Techno finally returned he was holding a small box and something held tightly in his other hand. He placed the items down on the table next to Phil and smiled at Ranboo like he was planning something, but knowing Phil was here nothing could go bad.
"Okay, Ranboo, I have here a piercing gun and some nice golden earrings. We're starting out with these because they're nice and on the smaller side. If you want to switch them out eventually that'll be fine, you'll just have to wait a few weeks for your ears to get used to them." Techno informs as he grabs a chair and turns it so it's next to Ranboo.
Ranboo nodded and finished the last bit of his food, taking a big swig of his tea before turning so he was facing Techno a bit more. Techno sat down and grabbed a few things out of the box, setting up the piercing gun.
"Tech how are you going to numb his ear, he can't have ice or anything on it." Phil points out as he grabs Ranboo's empty dishes and brings them to the sink. Techno shrugs and turns to look at Ranboo.
"Are you going to die if I pierce you with this and it stings a bit?" Techno asks, and Ranboo couldn't quite read his tone. If he was joking or not there was no indication. Ranboo just shrugged. "You'll be fine. Hold still so I can dot your ears." Techno said and Ranboo did his best to hold still.
Techno pulled out a small marker looking thing and brought it near Ranboo. He led Ranboo by the chin to adjust his head ever so slightly before dotting one ear. His eyes went back and forth between the two ears before he dotted the other one. He paused for a moment.
"Hey Phil come check to see if these are even." Techno said and Phil walked over from the sink and leaned over Techno's shoulder to look. He smiled and nodded.
"That's even." Phil said and Techno nodded. Ranboo had a feeling that they had done this before, and there was no harm in asking right?
"Have you guys done this before?" Ranboo questioned and Phil laughed as he went to return to the kitchen. He opened up the oven and Ranboo smelled cookies, when did Phil make cookies?
"I did Karl's, and Tommy's ears. Phil did Niki's." Techno says as he loads an earring into the gun. Ranboo tried not to think of how pointy it looked.
"I did Wilbur's when he was alive too." Phil smiles from the kitchen, placing the tray of cookies down. Ranboo looked at the tray. "I think Ghostbur ripped them out though." He mumbles and Ranboo tries not to react to that. He knew Ghostbur was a sensitive subject for Phil, especially since Revivebur came back.
"Okay Boo, you're gonna need to hold really still so I don't mess this up okay?" Techno says as he holds up the gun. Ranboo gives a little nod and Techno brings it over to Ranboo's left ear. "On 3, ready? 1"
Clink! Pop!
"I thought you said on 3!" Ranboo exclaims as he feels his ear sting. Techno smiles and chuckles a tiny bit. Ranboo wants to grab his ear and he waits till Techno brings the gun away. He raises his hands but Techno slaps them lightly.
"I need to put the back in. And I didn't want you to tense up, you move when you tense." Techno explains as he reaches up to Ranboo's ear and slides the earring back on. He takes a moment to reload the gun and looks at Ranboo. "Ready for round 2?"
"Are you gonna tell me that you'll do it on 3 then do it on 1?" Ranboo asks and Techno shrugs while smiling.
"Maybe, maybe not." Techno teases and Ranboo hears Phil chuckle from the kitchen. Phil comes out of the kitchen with two small plates, each with two cookies on them. He places them down next to the two.
"Wait for them to cool." Phil warns as he watches Techno reach for one. Techno frowns but turns back to Ranboo. "And don't tease Ranboo, if you're going to do it on 1 then say on 1"
"Fine" Techno groans while rolling his eyes, but there was no malice behind it. "Okay, round 2. Hold still." Techno advises as he brings the gun back up to Ranboo's ear. "On 1. 1."
Click! Pop!
"That hurts." Ranboo mumbles lightly and Techno smiles. Techno just grabs the back of the earring and puts it on Ranboo's earring. He then grabs a mirror and holds it up for Ranboo.
"Okay Boo, what do you think, like your earrings?" Techno asks as Ranboo looks at himself in the mirror. Two dots of gold stood out nicely against his black and white skin.
Ranboo loved them.
Word count: 3500