10.27.21

Tubbo paced back and forth, his ram hooves scratching and tapping at the rugged spruce flooring. His right index finger was pressed against his lips worriedly and his hair was soaked from the snow that had melted prior. The door opened with a quiet shriek, the winds from outside flooding the once silent house. The enderman hybrid stepped in and shut the door behind him, immediately turning to go talk to his husband. Tubbo let out a sigh of relief," Good, you're here, you usually respond to my messages so it was a bit worrying. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, it's Micheal. Since he's recently been able to learn basic English with Techno, he's been saying some pretty concerning things... He's saying some things about... I-I'm not even sure myself." He places both his index and middle fingers on his temples, massaging them as he tries to decipher what he was going to attempt to explain.

"He said some things about people tied to being dangerous, like the people in the outside world. Maybe he's been outside recently when we weren't here and got himself into trouble? I don't know but I feel so bad for not being there-" Tubbo began to ramble on about his experiences, until Ranboo interrupted him with a soft spoken reassurance," Tubbo, it's going to be okay, I'm pretty sure Techno just told him some greek mythology stories again and he got a bit paranoid. I'll go check on him if that makes you feel better about this whole situation, alright?" Tubbo then responded with a hesitant nod, which was Ranboo's cue to leave into their child's room. Once Ranboo had gotten over to Micheal's room, he knocked, awaiting an answer. No response.

"Micheal? It's your father, Boo! Are you in there?"

...no response again.

"I'm coming in!" He creaked the door open. It was dark inside and the only thing that could be seen was the furniture that stood in the room itself. He flicked the light on, no figure or living thing could be in sight, not even Micheal's chicken could be seen.

"Micheal?!" Ranboo was panicking now, looking everywhere without trying to be aggressive about it. A cold breeze fluttered against his face and caught his attention, his eyes widening.

The window was open. It seemed to be open for a while indicated by how cold the room was. A small squeal from the zombie piglin hybrid emerged as Micheal jumped out from underneath his bed," Boo!" Ranboo jolted violently and whipped his head around to the sound," Oh my god, Micheal... You scared the living daylights out of me." His breathing from his recent panic was beginning to calm down as the zombie piglin giggled. " I scare good, papa?" Micheal asked in his usual broken english. "Yes, you really did, Micheal." Ranboo chuckled out and expressed his relief as he shut the window to his room, crouching down to the zombie piglin's level and ruffling his hair.

"But you really gotta stop scaring us so badly, we're getting super worried about you leaving and getting hurt. We don't want anything bad to happen to you." Ranboo spoke solemnly to the toddler. Micheal lowered his head slightly and sadly nodded, putting his arms behind his back. "But, that's just part of what I came in here to ask you about. Your father is worried because you're saying some things about the people outside? Can you tell me what you mean by that?' Ranboo asked, noticing Micheal look up at him at the mention of outsiders. "Mhm! They scary people outside... People in Mr.Techno's stories! They do lots violent stuff... it scary." Micheal fumbled around with his hooved fingers," Like Theseus! He die but he hero...! Makes no sense..." Ranboo breathed out another sigh, concluding he didn't go outside, or at least isn't telling him about it. "I know, the world can be scary. That's why we're so concerned about letting you go outside, there's lots of scary things that can happen to you while you're out there, especially if you're unsupervised." Micheal pouted, but then got an idea.

"I wanna meet Theseus! Mr.Techno said he was like Mr.Tommy! Who is Tommy? He must be cool and hero!" Micheal exclaimed, which brought Ranboo off guard. "Techno compared Theseus to Tommy?" Ranboo questioned which Micheal replied with a nod. "Well... We'll think about it, okay Micheal? We have to talk with your father about this to see if it's permitted." Ranboo hugged Micheal warmly, then letting go and telling the toddler to get ready for bed, which the piglin excitedly did so.
- - -

"What?! He wants to meet Tommy?! Where did he get this from, he's never even been near Tommy before!"

Tubbo yelled in confusion, clearly baffled by the news the enderman hybrid had brought back to him. Ranboo shushed him and reminded him that the piglin was still getting ready for bed. "He heard from Techno because he often compares Tommy to Theseus from his greek mythology stories. I thought it was because of that but I didn't think he'd want to meet Tommy so bad after hearing them." Tubbo sighed deeply and frustratedly pinched the bridge of his nose," Okay, to put it simply, no. I won't let him meet Tommy, who knows what he'd do to our child. He messes up lots of things, not to mention all the respect I had for him." Ranboo tried not to seem too defensive of the blonde teenager, but he couldn't help but input his own experience on the topic they jumped to," He might make lots of mistakes without thinking, but he's not a monster, Tubbo. I think he pretty much knows that he'd upset you and me a lot if he hurt Micheal."

Tubbo retaliated at this," Well, he definitely didn't think through the time he, and you unfortunately, wrecked George's house which led to his exile. Why are you doubting that he could be dangerous? After what we've seen him do, he committed theft and arson, not to mention he started a whole war due to stupid discs. He's not safe to put Micheal around and that's final." Ranboo frowned, seeing that the ram hybrid isn't budging on his opinion of the other. He sighed," Alright, I'll go tell him about this. By the way, do we need any food to stock up on a little more? I saw that we're all out of apples." Tubbo's aura calmed to a state of relaxation," Oh, uh, yeah. We're actually out of wheat and sugar cane as well, since I was thinking about making a cake for all of us to eat. No particular reason though, just for us to enjoy. Why?"

"I'm just going to get those things after I tuck in Micheal to bed, just to get it done", Ranboo brushed off, heading back over the Micheal's room. After stepping inside of the piglin's room, he was all set to go to bed, but he was too excited for an answer to sleep. "What dada say?" Micheal asked curiously, which Ranboo crouched down again to meet his level," He said no." The toddler looked at the ground sadly, his excited mood now destroyed. "But", the toddler looked back up at his father with hope-filled eyes," that won't stop us from going there for just a little bit." Micheal's eyes lit up and his excited mood was back. "We'll have to hide you in my basket, I told Tubbo we'd go fetch some food, which I will, but we can fetch the food together!" Micheal nodded and whispered 'sneaky sneaky'.

Ranboo went to get his basket from his room, coming back with it just seconds later while the toddler curled up inside of it. "Okay, Micheal, just be very silent, we can't have him find out you're going out of the house for the first time." Ranboo whispered, he had to admit, this felt super wrong to do, but he couldn't let Micheal's spirits be broken because Tubbo thinks the world is all just violence and death. He covered himself in his black hooded cape, which had fluff attached to the outer ends, and walked over to the main room where Tubbo was sitting. He was writing some things down, probably announcements for Snowchester. "See you later, Boo." Tubbo peered up with a half-hearted smile as Ranboo went over to the ram hybrid to peck him on the forehead. "See you, Tub. I'll probably be back around... maybe midnight-ish. Depends on how far everything is." The enderman hybrid said before opening the door and receiving a hum of acknowledgement from the other. Ranboo chuckled and closed the door behind him as he stepped into the packed snow outside. The sky was pitch black with glistening stars sparkling back at him, the snowstorm had calmed down from earlier and the wind had become a silent breeze.

He looked down at the basket once he started to walk out towards the prime path to come through the portal. "You alright, Micheal?" Ranboo questioned, opening the basket to readjust the blanket he had put in there prior to the plan so it would be fully covering the toddler. Micheal nodded and reassured him through a small 'yes'. And off they went with Ranboo closing the basket once again and heading over to Tommy's exile area.

- - -

Tommy jolted up as he heard what he swore sounded like Dream coming his way, which was just what he saw come into his view from his tent. Dream had his hand gripping the cloth of the tent above his head as he looked inside," Tommy. Time to get rid of your stuff, you know the drill. Sorry I'm late though, I got caught up hanging out with George." Tommy sighed and sat up from where he currently was, which was laying down in his bed trying to figure out what to do the next day. He didn't know what he'd be doing except for when Ranboo would come to visit him again. Hopefully Dream would be late again so he could tell Ranboo to come at an earlier time. He opened up his chests and grabbed most of his things that he would have to throw down into a hole to later be exploded. Since this routine kept happening, the only things he would get was food, water, and a couple tools and that would be it for him.

Dream opened the tent and stepped out of the way to let Tommy through, he did so very lazily since it was very late out. He shoveled out his clock from his bag again, having it read "23:12". He then pocketed it again and looked over to Dream, but in the corner of his eye he could see someone trying to come through the portal. He noticed that it was Ranboo again, his eyes widening at this and turning back to look at Dream. "Anything wrong, Tommy? Are you seeing something I'm not supposed to?" the green hooded male questioned curiously, attempting to turn around to look until Tommy stopped him. "Hey, uh..." he swallowed nervously, looking around frantically until he found a creeper semi-close to his tent.

"Dream, that creeper's going to blow us up, go kill it!" Tommy yelled, dragging the masked man over to the mob, having Dream sigh and kill it in one blow. While the other was distracted, Tommy signed at Ranboo to go back through the portal, which luckily he saw, immediately phasing back through the portal's glowy, transparent walls. Dream came back and crossed his arms," What were you looking at?" Tommy thought for a moment before responding," There were lots of creepers nearby so I was just surprised is all." The masked man, uncrossing his arms to pat the younger blonde on the head, spoke in an intimidating tone," I hope I can trust you on this one, Tommy. I wouldn't want a liar for a best friend now, would I?"

The blonde's breathing picked up anxiously, nodding frantically," Yeah! I... I wouldn't lie to you, Dream, why would I? There's no point in it!" Dream hummed and picked up the last conversation they were previously on. "Well, come on, Tommy,' he spoke as he walked a few blocks away from the tent to dig straight down into the dirt and stone to create a hole," drop 'em all down there."

Tommy proceeded to do so, hesitantly giving up the food after all the tools were thrown down. The items were later blown up by tnt, as goes the daily routine. Tommy sighed once again, he didn't find any more reasons to gather stuff anymore, it'll all be blown up anyways. "Why do we have this routine everyday, Dream? Can you please just tell me because I don't feel like this is something friends would do," he asked softly after the explosions had died down. Mask now peering into the teenager's soul, Dream laughed a little at this, "I can't have you getting stronger than me now. That's against the rules here. All of the progress you make everyday is what I only assume is working up to overthrow me and my rules of exile. Any tool above stone will be prohibited and will only lead to more punishments. Iron and above, and maybe even some of the things I've permitted you to have in you bag will have to be blown up along with your items."

The other listened carefully to the masked man, proceeding to fumble around with his fingers while looking down at the ground. He would occasionally nod, letting Dream know that he was listening to his every word that slipped from the other's covered mouth. "Anyways, besides that, would you like to do anything? Like hang out or maybe play some games?" Dream then skipped over to his usually friendly tone to change his inconsistent aura. "No, I'm good. I just want to go to sleep now. You can log off and stop wasting your time now," Tommy kicked at the dirt below his feet and still kept his head low.

"Alright. Bye, Tommy," was all Dream said before logging off, the message being displayed as "Dream left the game". The teenager's mood did a full 180, becoming more alert as he rushed over to the portal straight away. Going through the purple barrier separating the overworld and underworld, he found himself looking at no one. He turned his head side to side but no one was there. Then something grabbed his ankle.

The zombie piglin toddler looked up at the blonde teenager and pointed with it's stubby hooved hands," Gold! Human gold on head!"

Tommy found himself confused and frustrated," Who-". Before he could speak any further about the situation, a tall figure stood in front of his peripheral vision. He angled his head up and there was the enderman hybrid coming to visit for a second time that day, carrying an opened basket in both of his hands in front of his waist.

"Hi again, Tommy! I wanted to come visit you again! By the way, this is Micheal, my adopted son."

"Why did you come back, I thought you were going to come back tomorrow? And when did you get a kid? And why?"

Ranboo chuckled at all of the questions," Well, Micheal heard from Techno about you and wanted to meet you, so I took Micheal with me despite Tubbo saying no and-" Tommy interrupted him again," Wait wait wait, Tubbo had a say in this?" Ranboo hesitated," Yeah, because... well we're not exactly married yet but Tubbo and I..." he hesitated once more, afraid of what the other might think of him after he told the blonde. He inhaled and exhaled and spoke up yet again, making the teenager's expression go from confusion and frustration mixed with curiosity to surprise and disbelief.

"...we're basically husbands."

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