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“Do you ever regret deciding to be a streamer?”
“...what?”
Ranboo looked up at Tubbo from where he laid on the couch, his feet in Tubbo’s lap as the brunet stared at his phone. He looked over at Ranboo for a moment before going back to his phone, though it was turned off.
“We’ve got, like, the entire world watching us. Do you regret it?”
Ranboo swallowed. The thought had certainly crossed his mind in the past. He’d given it more than a few minutes of thought. Still, he enjoyed being a content creator. He loved seeing how so many people’s lives had changed for the better because of what he did.
But…
It got overwhelming at times. Especially when people tried to pry into his personal info and then spread it around on the internet or when they tried to find other information he didn’t want them to know. Such as his relationship with Tubbo.
The two had stopped interacting in public nearly entirely because of certain people, and it sucked. A lot. He missed streaming with Tubbo. He missed simply going on walks with him. The only time they got to be together was in the safety and privacy of their own homes.
And he hated that he didn’t have the freedom to be with him in public. If they had never been streamers to begin with, maybe they could’ve been more open about their love for each other. Sure, he probably wouldn’t have gone to the UK when he did, but he’d have still made sure to get there as soon as possible. And maybe then they could’ve freely held hands or even done something as simple as go on a date without feeling like they were being watched.
“Ranboo?”
Ranboo blinked and looked over at Tubbo who was watching him with a frown.
“You good, bossman?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just…y’know, thinking.”
Tubbo hummed. Then, “so…do you?”
“...No. Not entirely. I like what I do, playing games and talking to people and just…entertaining others, I guess. But…”
“But?”
Ranboo reached over and took Tubbo’s hand. He stroked his thumb over it for a moment, collecting his thoughts. Tubbo let him, scooting a bit closer. Ranboo lifted his arm easily for him so Tubbo could tuck into his side.
“I…” Ranboo closed his mouth, lips pursing. After a moment, he sighed. “I do wish we could be more free. Able to just…walk around in public without feeling like we’re being watched. I’d give anything to be able to just go on a date with you without worrying if someone's going to see and say something.”
The two stay quiet for a moment, Ranboo still running his thumb over Tubbo’s hand and occasionally squeezing it, getting one in response.
“Yeah,” Tubbo finally says. “Me too. I’d love to be able to go on a regular date with you.” His voice is quiet, soft.
Ranboo closed his eyes. “It feels like we hardly get to be teenagers. We’re adults now, technically, but…”
“But we never got to be teenagers in love.”
Ranboo nodded. “Yeah. Sure, we’ve done some stuff that would be typical for that, but…everything was all in the privacy of home. Of anywhere that isn’t public. And I don’t want our relationship to go public. It really wouldn’t change anything, we still likely wouldn’t be able to go out and simply be ourselves in public.”
“Yeah, it sucks.” Tubbo detached himself from Ranboo’s side only to flop onto his lap instead, looking up at him with his hair in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something only to close it a moment later, looking deep in thought.
“...What? I don’t know if I trust that look,” Ranboo teased, smiling down at him and moving his hair out of his face.
Tubbo rolled his eyes. “I was just thinking…we can’t go on an actual date in public, but we can still do one here! We can order food and watch a movie or something.”
“Tubbo…we do that all the time already.”
“I knooooow, but we can officially call it a date! We can do, like, couple-y shit. We can even pretend we’re at the cinema and there’s other people there. I bet YouTube has background noise for that.” He shifted up slightly, now leaning against Ranboo’s chest and starting scrolling through YouTube. “Yeah, see? There’s a lot of videos of it.”
Ranboo chuckled, shaking his head. “God, I love you so much.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Tubbo’s head.
Tubbo huffed and moved his head so he could capture Ranboo’s lips in a kiss. Ranboo smiled down at him as they parted.
“So, are we doing this or what?” Tubbo asked, already opening up the food delivery app they normally used and starting to scroll through it.
Ranboo chuckled. “Sure, sure. What food are we getting?”
“Pizza.” Tubbo started working on ordering it and Ranboo hummed, wrapping his arms around Tubbo and laying his chin on his head, much to the chagrin of Tubbo.
“What movie do you want to watch?” Ranboo asked, tightening his hold on Tubbo so he couldn’t get away.
“We can watch the gay fish movie again.”
“...Luca?”
“Yeah.”
Ranboo hummed. A moment later, Tubbo tossed his phone to the side, the pizza successfully ordered. “You’re gonna have to let go of me so we can get it set up, y’know.”
“Hmmm. Nah.” He turned his head so his cheek was now laying on the top of Tubbo’s head.
“Ranbooooo.”
“Tubbooooo.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
“I do,” Tubbo insisted.
“Hmm…nah, I don’t buy it.”
“Dickhead.”
“Sure, sure.” Ranboo gave him one last squeeze before finally letting him go.
The two worked on getting the movie set up, paused so they could play it while they ate. They sat on the couch while waiting for the pizza to arrive, Tubbo back to laying on Ranboo’s lap until it got there.
Once it did, and everything was set up, Ranboo was about to start the movie when Tubbo told him to wait.
“What?”
“Hold on, we gotta get the cinema background noise.” He got out his phone, going back to YouTube and pulling up one of the videos. Ranboo snorted as he watched him. “I’m serious! This is the closest thing we can get to actually being able to do this in public.”
Ranboo hummed. “Kind of sad, but yeah.”
“Shut up. Okay, there. Now we can start.”
With the video playing, full of the sounds of people shuffling and occasionally talking quietly, Ranboo started the movie.
It wasn’t close to the real thing, Ranboo knew that. He’d even gone to the movies with Tubbo or some of their other friends before, but they’d never been able to properly go on a date to one. Though he also wasn’t even sure what exactly going to the movies as a date would be like, if it’d really be much different than the times they have gone.
Either way, for now it would do. Maybe one day they’d be able to be a bit more free about their relationship. But for now, he was perfectly content to chill on the couch with Tubbo leaning into his side, eating pizza and watching a movie with him.