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Today was a good day. The sky was clear, people were all up and about doing their tasks, and Phil, Wilbur, Ranboo, and Sneeg were leaving to go to town soon. The travel would take a couple of days both ways, and they would stay a couple of days in the city. All in all, it was a week-ish long trip. This obviously meant that Tommy needed to terrorize them as much as possible before they left.
While most were gathering their farm crops and handmade knick-knacks to sell, Tommy was sitting at the top of a tree, as he often was, looking over all the people. Simply thinking about what he should do today.
And today, he thought, would be a perfect day to start some shit.
Now, don’t get Tommy wrong, he loved his immediate family, but he annoyed Phil and Will every day. And while he did have the opportunity to mess with Ranboo often, it is not often he had a good reason. If he didn’t have a good reason, Ranboo just wouldn’t even bother with him, and it wouldn’t be satisfying for any of them. Now he finally did have a reason, he was going to use it.
Tommy gave a devilish grin from his perch. Sitting just near Scott’s house, overlooking the sanctuary, he could see Ranboo appear on the other side of the ravine. He was innocently chatting with Tubbo. That was good, Tubbo would help him on this mission.
Oh, the poor fool, he had no idea what was coming.
Now to start off this master plan, Tommy needed to be sneaky. To properly start annoying Ranboo, he would have to annoy him from the get-go. Start strong, as they say. So Tommy intended to fly down the cliff to the other side of the river. He would land behind Wilbur’s house and watch from afar. Then, when bee-boy and boob-boy were close enough, he could sneak close behind them and startle Ranboo! Staying as low to the ground as possible would be best. The fucker was so tall he’d never think to look down.
It was all planned out, and he quietly recited the plan to himself as such. Luckily Scott was down below with the others hoping to gather things. There was no one around to hear his master plan. Really, it was quite a shame no one would hear of his brilliance, but sacrifices must be made.
One of those things he’d need to sacrifice would NOT be humming the Castle Fortress theme from the record of one of the plays he saw. He owned that record now. He thought the play was called, ‘Super Mario World’? Weird name. But it was a weird play, who was he to judge. It had a damn good backing soundtrack, though.
And so Tommy made a jump from the branch and dived off the cliff to the water below. His red-orange wings spread wide. He could see the black flight feathers that Phil had given to him at the edges of his vision.
Avian wings these days were not made for flight. A long time ago, they were, but nowadays they are mostly for slowing a fall. No real flight could be done with them, thus they had no flight feathers. That's where Tommy came in as an exception.
Beau’s wings were more typical of avians. Built smaller and stronger, to flap furiously and prevent hard falls. If she was lucky and angled her body right, she would be able to glide for a while. But just that- gliding.
And maybe it’s because Tommy was raised by Phil, an elytrian, whose wings were made to fly, but he always wanted to touch the sky. He wanted to soar like his dad. Wilbur never got the chance, and so Phil gave him the best chance he could. Phil gave Tommy his own flight feathers in a feather transfer. After some practice, now Tommy could glide as far as Phil, and even with careful planning, dive down and glide up.
It was harder to flap his wings with the new flight feathers, but it was better than before, he was learning. He bet he could get better, learn to really fly. Phil said that maybe with enough feather transfers between them, Tommy’s biology could remember how to grow his own flight feathers. That would be amazing.
But for now, Tommy glided down. He dived for the water and angled himself back up with the momentum. He’d never get over the feeling of rising in the air. The height he got was just enough to make it back over the ridge of the ravine and right behind Wilbur’s house.
Tommy took a peek around the side of the house. There Tubbo and Ranboo were, facing away from him. Tubbo was floating just high enough to be eye-level with Ranboo. His wings gave a buzzing noise that Tommy could just barely hear over their conversation.
“Really, Tubbo, I’m ok. I don’t need your help to pack.”
Tommy snuck around the side of the house, keeping his wings pressed firmly to the wall.
“No, I think you do need my help. At least you have to let me get my honey for you to bring to sell. This is a selling trip, after all.”
Tommy was at the edge of the house, the pond in front of him now.
“Well, I’m not going with the cart this time, thankfully. Anything you wanna sell you have to go to Wilbur.”
He moved away from the shadow of the building, darting to hide behind the sugarcane around the pond. It wasn’t much cover, but it made him feel more stealthy.
“Wait, you're not going with Wilbur? Who is then?”
He was nearly there. They were just beyond the edge of the pond, walking away. All he had to do was silently make it behind them. He made it this far, he wasn’t giving up now at the hardest part.
“Oh you didn’t hear? Wilbur invited Casper for the trip!”
“What?!” Tommy shouted and instantly blew his cover.
Ranboo wasn’t nearly as startled as Tommy hoped he would be, it also doesn’t help that Tommy wasn’t nearly as close to Ranboo as he wanted to be to pull this off.
“Oh hey Tommy!” Tubbo greeted casually. He stopped their walking to turn around to face Tommy. As if he didn’t ruin the whole vibe of what Tommy was trying to do.
“Hello Tubbo,” Tommy said slowly, “Boob.”
Ranboo sputtered for a second, “Tommy I swear for the last time-”
“What's this about Casper anyway?” Tommy asked, his original plan all but abandoned at this point.
“Well, now I don’t particularly want to tell you.”
“Why. Not.”
“Hmm, well you insulted me for one.”
“I did not mean to insult you!” This was a blatant lie. Tommy knew exactly what he was doing when he called Ranboo by the nickname he so despised.
“Sure, sure,” Ranboo mused while Tubbo giggled.
“I didn’t!” Tommy insisted.
“Ok, if you didn’t, then apologize!” Ranboo countered.
“Why should I? I didn’t even do anything wrong.”
“Earlier you just said you did!”
Before the bickering could go on further, Tubbo butted in with, “Hey Ranboo, could you tell me what's up with Casper going on the trip?”
“Of course Tubbo ,” Ranboo sent a glare Tommys direction before he dramatically turned away to face Tubbo. Tommy just looked at Tubbo, very offended by this. Tubbo offered no sympathy.
“Since I am, and always have been, ” Ranboo glared briefly at Tommy, “able to keep up with Phil, I finally convinced Phil to let me follow him and Sneeg. So Wilbur needed someone with him to take the cart, so he wanted to invite Casper since he hasn’t gotten the chance to go into town yet.”
“I haven't gone in a long time,” Tubbo grumbled.
“You could literally go with the cart if you wanted.”
“Yeah but it's so much travel and we aren’t even there that long. It's boring,” Tubbo drew out the ‘or’ sound for extra effect.
“What he said,” Tommy agreed. Tommy used to go to the city a lot when he was a kid, only most of the time by choice! Phil couldn’t exactly leave his young kids home alone, so Wilbur and him would be dragged along. Tommy used to love the change in scenery the trip brought, now it was mostly a disruption to his schedule. He had big man shit to do! He couldn’t go to town for a week every time they needed something new, even if the city was still cool.
“You two are so hypocritical,” Ranboo complained with a heavy sigh. There was a hint of a smile on his face anyway. “You talk about how you hate when we leave, you don't want to join us, and then talk about how much you love the city.”
Tubbo and Tommy burst into laughter at that.
“I don’t think that's hypocritical,” Tubbo said quickly. “I think, I think that's just simply called having opinions.” Tommy redoubled in his laughter at that, and Ranboo chuckled as well.
“Hmm well then I have the opinion that you are being hypocritical,” Ranboo said as a matter of fact.
“Well I think your opinion is wrong.”
“That's just your opinion then! I’m not actually wrong, it's just your opinion that I am!”
“Well It’s not just my opinion, Tommy also thinks you are wrong, right Tommy?”
“Yeah! You're a wrongin’ Ranboo!” Tommy shouted back.
“See? Majority rules. You are simply wrong,” Tubbo said.
“That's just not how opinions work,” Ranboo tried to rationalize.
“Hmm, no I think it is,” Tommy countered. “That's how this dem-ah-crah-see works,” Tommy sounded out the word for emphasis.
“This has never been a democracy?”
“No, it is, right Tubbo?” Tommy smiled, Tubbo was always quick to pick up on whatever bit they were doing.
“Yes, yes. It is.”
“See now Ran boob ? Tubbo agrees so it's a majority so it's a democracy,” Tommy said confidently.
Ranboo simply stood there baffled. Tubbo and Tommy just laughed at his confusion, as good friends do.
Eventually Ranboo snapped out of his, and in an effort to stop this conversation, walked away.
“Where are you going?” Tommy continued to pester as he and Tubbo followed him.
“To pack and to get some last-minute minerals to trade. You guys wanna come mining with me?”
“Yeah!” Tubbo answered for him. They both knew that they weren’t going to be doing any mining. Tubbo and Tommy felt miserable most of the time underground. The lack of oxygen would quickly get to them, both being creatures of the outdoors. But it gave them an excuse to be clingy to Ranboo, and really, that's what today was all about.
And so they followed Ranboo around as he would go back and forth between his house and the Pube, getting everything he needed for his trip and to mine. While Tubbo could follow him to his house with his slow flying, Tommy had a harder time. So after the 3rd time of Ranboo going back to his home, Tubbo and Tommy were both so tired they decided to just wait in the flower patch across from the cliff.
Ranboo said that that was sad, but Tubbo and Tommy thought it was very nice of them to wait for Ranboo and told him as such. And then proceeded to hide the next time he went to his house. Successfully wasting a good 10 minutes of Ranboo’s time looking for the duo. It was a miracle they weren’t given away by their giggling sooner.
After much bickering and reminders that ‘Yes, they did want to join Ranboo on his mining trip’ they finally made it to Ranboo’s strip mine.
Tommy heard somewhere ages ago, probably from Phil, that avians used to live in cities in the sky. Floating islands with a bed of clouds. That once upon a time, avians would soar high in the air and never come down. Phil told him that their floating island (on which the Pube was located) might be a remnant of these old floating cities.
Since they would live so high, avians developed the ability to breathe easily in these very high altitudes. While that biology was good for avians thousands of years ago, right now it was doing Tommy no favors. Deep underground, the pressure from all the air above made the air thick, sticky, and tough to breathe.
Tommy was wheezing (and not the laughing kind), Tubbo hated being away from the grass and the sun, and so as expected, they were miserable.
Ranboo was the only one happy about this arrangement. Either because Tubbo and Tommy got their karma or because his friends finally joined him for a mining trip, he couldn’t tell.
Tubbo was the one more literally clinging to Ranboo. Hanging off his arm or piggybacking for most of the journey down into the mines. Tommy was hanging in the back, winded after just going down so many stairs. He pulled his arms behind his head and expanded his chest. It helped a bit.
Tommy needed to walk slowly, struggling to keep up with Ranboo and Tubbo in the winding, narrow corridors. Tommy could hear Ranboo cracking jokes vaguely ahead, he couldn’t tell if Tubbo was responding, if he did, it was quietly.
Apparently Ranboo said something that he expected Tommy to respond to. Tommy didn't hear it, too focused on steadying his breathing. Ranboo shot a look behind him and only then realized that Tommy was so far behind him. He stopped to let Tommy catch up.
“Why… must you walk… so fast?” Tommy huffed.
“Sorry man, didn’t realize you weren’t behind us anymore.”
“Thanks king,” Tommy smiled as he fully caught up to the pair. “Just don’t walk so fast. Your freakishly long legs make it so I can barely keep up with you guys!”
“Well lucky for you Tubbo here is acting as a personal weight to slow me down.”
“Yup!” Tubbo chirped from where he was latched onto Ranboo’s back in an almost piggyback. Tubbo was able to keep himself firmly attached without Ranboo’s arms for help. Which was good for Ranboo so he could hold a torch in one hand and a pickaxe in the other.
“We’re nearly there anyway. C'mon you two.” Ranboo said and took a heaving step forward.
Ranboo did actually slow down, and Tommy followed behind the two closely (the tunnels were only wide enough for one. Tommy would never admit it, but it did make him a bit claustrophobic). Tommy was still trying to catch his breath, but Ranboo filled the silence enough with pointless conversation and random stories, to where he didn’t feel so much of a need to respond.
They took a final right turn and came to a longer passage, longer than the previous ones they had traveled. Ranboo held the torch in front of him now, at this point it was the only light in the tunnels. Tommy tried to look around Ranboo to see the end, but all he saw was darkness. Stupid Ranboo and his darkvision and the fact he never places down torches anywhere.
Because Tommy was following behind them, he had much less light to see than the other two. The shadow of their bodies almost made it more difficult to see than if he had no light. And after tripping at one point, Tommy resolves to grab onto Ranboo’s backpack of Tubbo. He doesn’t seem to mind, and doesn’t mention it to Ranboo, of which Tommy is grateful for. He wouldn’t want them thinking he was scared, or anything.
When they talked the sound bounced around the surrounding tunnel walls. Sometimes they made a game of it, shouting words just to hear them echo. They made a point to talk louder to hear it. and maybe to ease Tommy’s fear of the darkness and the small tunnel as well.
The mood turned jovial again, despite Tubbo and Tommy’s lingering misery at being underground. And despite the repeated laughter making Tommy’s asthma worse, he found he was having a much better time than before.
After what seemed like ages of walking, to the point Tommy was getting jealous of Tubbo’s position on Ranboo’s back, the tunnel finally opened up. The cave before them had large pillars that held up the towering ceiling above them and giant hanging stalactites. Stalagmites rose up from the ground like a thick forest trying to impede their passage. The only thing that lit the cave were Ranboo’s sparsely placed torches from the last time he was here, the glow lichen that hung off the walls, and the lava flow that spilled down from platforms high above into lakes far below.
They paused to take it all in. Tommy dropped his hand off of Tubbo and stared in awe of the cave.
Before long, Ranboo turned around to grab his hand once more and led them deeper into the darkness. After some bothering from Ranboo, Tubbo finally let go of him. Ranboo argued that it would be harder to fight off any monsters with Tubbo hanging off him, Tubbo just argued that Tommy could fight them off for him. Tommy would rather not end up being Ranboo’s personal bodyguard. So they convinced Tubbo to fly next to them.
While Tommy ended up fighting most of the monsters anway, Ranboo was able to help while mining. Tommy mined around the area for what Ranboo didn’t get (mostly iron), but there wasn't much, Ranboo had the Fortune III pickaxe after all.
With enough nagging from Tubbo, he convinced Ranboo to give them some of the riches he collected. XD knows he doesn’t need all of it, he's already so rich.
Ranboo was an enderman, but not like the endermen that typically exist in the overworld, he is an enderman directly from the end. Well educated, polite, and very, very rich. In fact, he was the third Prince of the End. Before he was exiled to the overworld to grow up a bit and see the world, that is. Of course, none of that wealth came with him to the overworld, but he seemed to have a knack for seeking it out and acquiring it anyway.
All that to say, Ranboo did not need another stack of diamonds, let alone nearly three. So despite his fake protests, he gave a good amount to Tommy and Tubbo, along with most of the iron he found. What they were really looking for were crystals, things they could take to town and sell.
And find them they did.
Amethyst, jade, lapis, fluorite, and sapphires, were found in abundance down below. Collecting all the gems and minerals they found became Tubbo’s job, since he wasn’t doing any of the hard work.
Tubbo took great pride in saying that every gem that wasn’t in pristine condition looked exactly like Tommy or Ranboo. The few ones that did look nearly perfect he insisted looked like himself. He would steal one of Ranboos placed torches on the ground to examine each gem in detail. This would leave Tommy thoroughly annoyed as it left more monsters to spawn for him to fight off. The heavy exercise did nothing to help Tommy’s breathing.
After they felt like they had completely cleared this main part of the cave, and Tommy’s feet were complaining to high heaven, they took a moment to sit by a lava lake at the lowest level of the cave and count out their riches.
Laying everything out in neat rows in front of them, Tubbo counted, “Six and a half stacks of raw iron blocks, two stacks of raw copper blocks, two stacks of raw gold blocks, three stacks of diamonds, an assortment of amethyst-”
“Tubbo you’re supposed to count it!” Tommy playfully shouted at Tubbo.
“- Precisely 69 tiny amethyst crystals,” Tubbo was obviously guessing at the number, “exactly, like, uh, 37 green rocks,”
“Fluorite,” Ranboo butted in.
“Didn't ask, like 15 of these Tommy-rocks.”
“Those do not look like me, they are obviously rubies, and there are obviously 6 of them!” Tommy shouted.
“Didn’t ask!” Tubbo shouted back. “One! Fuck-off-ugly Ranboo rock that’s only sort of shiny!”
“That's labradorite!” Ranboo made a grab for the fairly large rock that Tubbo was holding. In the struggle however, Tubbo fell forward. Towards the lava. This caused one of the emeralds to roll directly into the lava with a resounding hiss.
They all paused for a moment.
“Maybe it's best to count the gems at home.” Tommy eventually spoke up.
“Yeah…” Ranboo agreed and began to pack up the gems into his own inventory and into the shulker box he had brought with him. (One of the only things he took back from the end. No one quite knew how it worked, but it acted as a whole extra inventory that Ranboo could carry around whenever he wished.)
“It's fine…” Tubbo started, “We didn't need that fairly large, very rare emerald anyway. We still have five more!”
Ranboo instantly grabbed all five of the remaining emeralds.
It took a moment, but eventually, they grabbed all of the materials they found and items they came with. They stood up on dead tired feet (and wings) and realized how much they missed sitting down already. Tubbo’s wings were tired which meant that he was dragging everyone behind even more by walking and clinging onto them. Which was great for Tommy who needed to go slow anyway.
Ranboo was less pleased about this. It was almost like the opposite of when they came in. Tubbo and Tommy were holding hands and slowly walking in the back, talking in low tones, while Ranboo was huffing ahead of them.
“I swear I thought I was supposed to be the ‘stuffy rich one’ who ‘couldn’t handle any exercise’,” Ranboo mused.
Tommy and Tubbo chuckled, but made no move to walk any faster. Tommy would’ve made a mean quip back at Ranboo, but he was too tired. And Tubbo was leaning heavily on his arm, weighing him down.
The slow steady walking helped to calm Tommy’s breathing more. His racing heart began to even out.
And after the day's long trip, they slowly made their way out of the cave.
~o0o~
Tommy was ready to pass out, and he was about ready to drag Ranboo down with him.
It was dark out by now, and they have been in the Pube for what feels like the past hour counting and organizing the last of the equipment to bring for the trip. Tubbo was unable to fall asleep so far away from his home, but that doesnt mean he wasn’t giving it his best shot. He was heavily leaning on Tommy’s right shoulder, and Tommy had wrapped his wing around Tubbo to pull him closer.
He was tired, alright? He was allowed to be a bit clingy.
Being a bit clingy of course meant that he was quite upset by the fact that Ranboo was still up- still counting out everything that was going on the cart to bring for the trip into town. Honestly, there couldn’t be that much stuff, and Ranboo wasn’t even going with the cart! That should be Wilbur's job! He was nocturnal anyway.
But Wilbur was nowhere to be seen. And Ranboo was running around from chest to chest, double-checking that they had everything.
“Ranboo…” Tommy slurred the ‘o’ in a whining voice. The most annoying possible to get his attention.
“Hmm?” Ranboo hummed, clearly distracted.
“Ranboo, me and Tubs are tired,” Tommy whined.
“Yeah Ranboo, we’re tired,” Tubbo sleepily said.
“So? You guys can leave to go to bed, it's ok,” Ranboo said and briefly looked up at the pair.
“Nooo,” Tommy whined. “You need to come back with us.”
“Why do I need to do that?” Ranboo asked, entertaining them. He was much more of a night owl than both of them. He was much more awake than them and found Tubbo and Tommy’s sleepiness very entertaining.
“It's the last night before you go we need to sleep in the treehouse all together,” Tommy said.
Tubbo instantly perked up at that, “The treehouse! C’mon Ranboo, Wilbur can finish all the packing, he's the one in the cart anyway!”
While Tommy most often hung out in his home in the cave wall, Tommy’s nest was really in his treehouse, but it was very personal. The treehouse was in the tallest and biggest tree on top of the cliff where Scott’s house lay.
Everyone knew where it was, but you had to be invited in. Phil made sure the ‘invite only’ rule was respected. Tommy was a little embarrassed by all the stolen clothes he had amassed from everyone in there. As well as the fact that having basically anyone else from the sanctuary in his nest made his bird brain go wild.
Because well, they were all his family.
But besides Wilbur and Phil (for obvious reasons) Tubbo and Ranboo were probably the people who had been in his nest the most. Even so, they always loved it when they got to hang out in the treehouse. And while it was a bit of a cheap play to get Ranboo to stop his work, Tommy had been planning on inviting them over.
Ranboo paused to mull over his choices for a moment. “But I’m still not done, Wilbur will have to finish this in the morning.”
“Screw Wilbur! He’s nocturnal anyway, he should be doing it now ,” Tubbo said.
“He should…” Ranboo agreed with a certain trepidation.
“C’mon Ranboob, please?” Tommy turned up his puppy-dog-eyes to ten.
He sighed, “You two are the worst.” Ranboo began to pack up everything.
“Yes!” Tubbo shouted right into Tommy’s ear. He flinched hard and Tubbo realized what he had done and was spewing apologies. Hushed voices saying ‘I’m sorry, I forgot’ turned into ‘It’s fine, really, It woke me up.’
Ranboo ignored their whisperings as they gathered their energy to stand up while he finished gathering all the gems into nice piles. Easy enough to sort in the morning, if Wilbur didn’t come in later tonight and do it. But he was supposed to be ‘fixing’ his sleep schedule so he could drive the cart during the day, so there was a decent chance he actually would be asleep.
Which meant Ranboo would need to sort them in the morning.
Luckily for Tommy, Ranboo looks about as dead tired on his feet as he and Tubbo are, so he figured taking him away from the work is probably a good move. Tubbo began to actually physically drag Ranboo away from the table, with way more success than Tommy expected.
When they finally got him away, they made a beeline for the launching area. Tommy splashed a bit of water on himself to wake himself up for the flight below. Ranboo and Tubbo wouldn’t have a problem, but if Tommy didn't do this right, he wouldn’t make it on top of the hill.
Tubbo and Ranboo saddled up next to him and Tubbo gave a short buzz before beginning to slowly make his way across the distance. Ranboo gave him a wink before disappearing in a swirl of purple particles and smoke.
He took a deep breath, he was much more awake now. Tommy could do this.
Tommy backed up a bit, before running forward, spreading his wings and jumping. As soon as he jumped it felt like the air lifted him up from below, like it was beckoning him to play in its skies. He gave as strong a flap as he was able to (which wasn’t as strong as he would’ve liked, he blamed it on being tired).
And began to glide down.
Similar to how he got up to the other side of the river earlier in the day, he carefully gained speed by barreling down (with less downwards movement than earlier. That was for fun, and he knew he was going to make it, this is more skillful). Then at about two-thirds of the way across he angled himself sharply up, carrying the momentum up the cliff, passing Tubbo and gliding over the top of the mountain. He kept going up, trying to get above the treeline, ideally he would fly all the way to his treehouse.
But realistically he knew that wasn’t going to happen, and instead he had to emergency land on a branch. He used his arms first to slow down the speed, without flapping so much and just smacking into other branches, and once he touched the branch he kicked his feet forward to absorb the real impact, while being able to hold onto the branch. The technique had been partially taught to him by Phil, partially constructed himself.
After steadying himself for a moment, he looked back to the cliff to look for signs of Tubbo and Ranboo. Tubbo could be easily seen bumbling over the tops of trees. He was unable to see Ranboo, but that wasn’t super surprising, he was either just covered up by the trees, or already waiting for them at the treehouse.
Wanting to waste no time, Tommy began to climb the tree as high as it would let him, and took off for the treehouse. Occasionally he would push off branches or the sides of trees to gain a little speed, and for fun.
But as fun as it was, he was still very tired, and once he got to the treehouse, he saw Ranboo waiting on the porch outside.
The treehouse was built into a giant taiga tree, one of the tallest in the region. It was built in a dome-like circular fashion, surrounding the center trunk. The top was an observatory with pie slices of glass, perfect for late-night stargazing. The walls had plenty of windows that had shutters, which let in lots of natural light in the day. A platform without a railing went around the whole thing. The door didn’t have a window, despite the open nature of the rest of the house but it did have a large ‘DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM TOMMY’ sign written in scratchy red ink.
Tommy beat his wings to slow his descent and landed on his feet next to Ranboo.
“Do you want to wait for Tubbo?” Ranboo questioned before motioning with his thumb towards the treehouse.
“Yeah, it won't take long anyway,” Tommy said with a yawn. “I think I see him over there anyway.”
Sure enough, flying slowly at the tops of the trees was Tubbo.
“There he is,” Ranboo mused.
“Bee boy,” Tommy said without really thinking, “Bumbling around like a bumblebee. He is like a bee when you think about it, Boo.”
“He is a bee hybrid, what else would he be like, a goat?” Ranboo teased.
“Tubbo as a goat,” Tommy softly laughed to himself. The mental image of Tubbo as a goat was very funny to him. “Yeah I could see him as a goat, he would just eat salt.”
“I bet he already does,”
“Yeah, you’ve seen how Tubbo ‘seasons’ his flowers. He just throws a mix of spices into the center, bet he puts a lot of salt. I don't blame him though, flowers are probably not very tasty.”
“Depends on the flower I guess. And he makes flower teas or soups sometimes, those would have the spices in them.”
“That's basically the same thing. You and Tubbo are all fancy though and I bet you think that flower tea and flower soup are two totally different things.”
“Yeah, I think they are,”
“What do you think is what?” Tubbo asked as he came into hearing range. He then swiftly landed on the balcony.
“Tubzo!” Tommy said, his cheer at having Tubbo arrive overriding his tiredness for a moment. He reached to give Tubbo a side hug, before quickly letting go. If he stayed in Tubbo’s arms long enough when he was this tired, he might never pull away.
“What were you on about?” Tubbo asked again.
“Oh nothing,” Tommy dismissed easily, “C’mon let's go inside.”
Tommy opened the door and the other two quickly followed him inside.
The inside of the treehouse was carefully decorated with love over the years, and was mostly dark. To the left of the door had an ender chest, and beyond that table with two chairs and one stool. Behind the table were cabinets that served as a pantry. Between the pantry and the center tree trunk hung a red curtain that was currently closed. There was a window above the table and another one above the chest. Both of the windows had shutters that were closed. And on the table was a jar of fireflies lighting the space around them.
To the right of the door was a simple coat hanger and chest with some basic essentials. He didn't keep any materials up here, only things he really needed. Beyond that was a tall cabinet on which a record player (currently closed) sat on top of. The cabinet housed all of the records he had collected over the years. It included a lot of instrumental background music that he would like to put on to fill the space with noise, but also had some songs that he liked to dance to.
Beyond the record player were some pillows and ottoman-type seating and a bookshelf with a curtain that mirrored the pantry from the other side. Another jar of fireflies rested on an ottoman. There were also two windows on this side, both of them closed.
It wasn’t quite cold enough yet to put in Tommy’s heating system, which was blaze rods put into candle-holder type constructs that were nailed to the center tree. There were three of these in total around the treehouse, Two in this main area, and one in the back room. The whole front area took up about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the space of the circle.
They all made a beeline for the backroom, Ranboo pulling open the curtain with ease to let the other two through.
This was Tommy’s real bedroom. His nest.
A small block of wood separated the hallway that ran through the curtains from the nest. The nest was covered in pillows, blankets, stolen clothing, and Tommy's old clothes from earlier in the week. It wasn’t the cleanest, but it wasn’t meant to be clean. It was his, and now he and his friends were going to have a sleepover in it because Ranboo was leaving soon. He was happy for any excuse for a sleepover in the treehouse.
Tubbo began to rifle around in the pile of clothes to pick out some clothes that would suffice as pajamas. Since Tommy’s clothes also had wing slits in the back, like what Tubbo needed, he ended up stealing one of Tommy’s shirts (and some random pants). It made Tommy happier than he would ever admit. Then Tubbo left out the bookshelf side, closing the curtain to get changed.
Ranboo picked out one of the shirts he had mistakenly left here last time, and Tommy pointedly looked the other way as he began to change.
The pantry cabinets that bordered the nest room were actually double-sided. There was a wall down the middle that prevented the items on each side from getting merged. The bottom cabinets were basically useless because of the pillows, but the upper ones housed the remnants of snacks from sleepovers past, board games, a set of cards, the key for the shutters on the window behind the nest, a couple of journals, a glass of water from last night, and special trinkets.
Some of these trinkets were given to him, others he stole. They were all precious to him, however. Rings he had stolen from Ranboo that he was sure Ranboo knew about, but never said anything about it. A fidget toy that Tubbo made to entertain himself, and now entertains Tommy. Several of Phil’s black feathers are carefully put in a jar, next to just a few of Wilbur’s old, small, brown feathers put in a different jar.
The third jar in the set had Beau’s golden-platinum feathers as well as a few beads. There was a collection of shells and rocks in a small bowl, bags of glittering dust, gems that glowed and shined in the light, and a funny, almost timer thing that was a jar with water and slime in it. The slime would sink to the bottom and hit a few steps on the way. The jar was sealed, so Tommy liked to flip it over and watch all the slime sink to the bottom.
Tommy wished he had something from Casper.
Tubbo came back into the room wearing his new pajamas, careful to leave his previous clothes outside. He knew that if he left them in this room, Tommy would absorb them into his nest and he’d never see his favorite pair of overalls again.
Ranboo had finished changing as well. Wordlessly the two of them clambered into the nest as Tommy fused with the blankets around them. He needed to make sure his nest was perfect for his flock.
Tubbo flopped onto the pillows and seemed to try to fall asleep immediately. This was a bed Tubbo could use, and he was ready to use it alright. Ranboo looked at Tommy with a soft fascination as he did his work. He began to tuck the blankets around Tubbo and made Ranboo move at one point to fix the blankets under him.
Tommy eventually leaned back to look at his work. He was worried that it wasn’t going to be good enough for his flock.
Apparently, his worry was clear on his face, because Ranboo spoke up with a smile, “It looks perfect, Tommy.”
“Really?” Tommy looked at him with a face all too pleading.
“Yeah, I mean, just look at Tubbo, I think he’s passed out already,” Ranboo chuckled.
“Okay,” Tommy breathed a sigh of relief. His flock thought he did good. He did good.
Ranboo then laid down in the bed, and pressed himself next to Tubbo. Tubbo instinctively curled into his side while Ranboo wrapped his right arm around him. With his free hand, Ranboo then motioned for Tommy to join him on his left side. Tommy had no hesitation, slipping next to Ranboo like it was the most natural thing.
He laid on his side facing the pair, one wing was pressed into the pillows, the other he draped across Ranboo and Tubbo. He wanted to pull his flock close. Ranboo held Tommy close. He was with his flock, in his nest, being held close to them. He felt so safe here. Like he could protect them and they would protect him and nothing bad could ever happen to him. He never wanted to leave.
He was a little aware that he wasn't in his right mind right now. Whether that be from the tiredness in his bones, his body grateful to be laying down, or from his instincts going wild, he wasn’t sure. It was probably both.
He just knew he wanted to stay in this moment forever.
Tommy actually had a harder time falling asleep when he was wrapped up in someone's arms like this, but the comfort it brought was so much, he didn't care whether he fell asleep fast or not. He enjoyed being in this present moment, being able to feel Ranboo and Tubbo’s chests rise and fall against his wing. To hear Ranboo’s heartbeat in his ears.
Having his flock so near was wonderful.
It was warm. And it was good. And eventually, long after Tubbo and Ranboo, Tommy fell asleep.