Chapter Text
“Diamonds!” Ranboo felt a small smile overtake his sweat drenched face. Techno’s face popped out from the adjacent tunnel, “How many?” Ranboo mined the stone around the vein, becoming excited when he saw the numbers of diamonds he had found. “It looks like ten!”
“Eh?” Techno’s voice rose a little in surprise at the rare find, but quickly returned to it’s normal monotone rhythm. “Nice find.” A warm feeling blossomed in Ranboo, despite the words only holding small praise.
He checked his inventory, finding a satisfactory amount of diamonds. “We should probably head back now, it’ll be dark soon, and mobs will spawn.” Techno grunted in response, turning around to follow their torch path. Ranboo trailed behind, placing his pickaxe on his shoulder.
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It took a little while to get to the surface, but their heads finally popped out of the ground. Ranboo took a second to observe where they were. They had reappeared near Snowchester, it was only about a 10 minute walk away. He should go see Tubbo soon, he thought, it had been ages since he had gone to see his husband and son. He pulled himself out of that thought, he could think about his family later, but now was not the time. It was later than he had originally thought, the moon was rising over a nearby hill. Ranboo could see that many mobs had already spawned, their sihlouettes illuminated by the full moon that was climbing the sky. Ranboo grabbed his sword, preparing for the waves of mobs approaching. “Um, Techno?” His mentor looked up from sorting the stone in his inventory, only to see their predictment. “Oh, we should probably move.” His voice remained monotone, but there was a rare nervous edge, and he summoned his sword.
They slowly moved backwards, hoping that the mobs hadn’t seen them yet. The spell was broken when an arrow landed right in between them, narrowly missing Ranboo’s hand. Instantly, they started running. Ranboo was not looking where they were going, simply following his mentor. At some point while running, they entered a snow biome, Ranboo didn’t think much of it, focusing instead on trying not to die.
Skeleton’s rained arrows down on them, none of them hitting the target. The sound of skittering legs and growls filled the night air, and mobs were closing in on them. One spider jumped on Ranboo, smashing his sword arm into the ground so that he couldn’t use it. It’s fangs opened wide as it prepared to bite its prey. Ranboo squeezed his eyes shut, instinctually looking away from his death. His biggest regrets ran through his mind, Michael would grow up with only one father, and Tubbo would be devastated. How would he even know? Techno wouldn’t tell him, he knew nothing about their family. Ranboo’s heart sank as he realized that Tubbo would think that he had abandoned them, just how he promised he never would.
There was a squelch, and something splattered all over Ranboo. When he didn’t feel the pain of a bite, he hesitantly opened his eyes. Technoblade was standing over him, sword drenched in purple spider’s blood. He offered Ranboo a hand, “Come on, we don’t have all day.” His tone remained gruff, but underneath layers of carefully placed indifference, there was a glimmer of worry resting in his eyes. Ranboo took his mentor’s hand and pulled himself up, ignoring the pain from the scratches.
They began to run again, the mobs hadn’t stopped progressing and were even closer than before. “Techno, we’re not going to be able to get back.” Ranboo gasped out between breaths. He had never been the most athletic, but he doubted that Technoblade would be able to keep ahead of the mobs for that long either. “C’mon Ranboo, don’t give up that easily.” Ranboo looked around as they ran, and found that they were passing Snowchester. “Techno! We can go to Snowchester, Tubbo will let us stay there.”
“He’s government Ranboo, he’ll probably leave us to die.” Despite his cold words, Techno had a look that Ranboo had never seen on his mentor’s face. If he didn’t know better, Ranboo would say that Techno looked tempted… but that would be absurd. Techno hated Tubbo, if there was anything Ranboo knew about his mentor it was that fact. But it was not the time for trying to solve his mentor’s many secrets, they had to get somewhere safe. “He’ll let us in.”
“Bu-”
“Techno, trust me.” It was the first time Ranboo had cut off the older man, but it seemed to get to his mentor. “Fine, but if he kills us on sight that’s on you.” Ranboo gave a nod, still gasping for breath as they ran. He knew that his husband would never hurt him, and he wouldn’t hurt Techno either, if only because he knew Ranboo would be hurt by his mentor’s death.
They reached the door of the mansion, and Ranboo frantically knocked on the door, hoping that his husband wasn’t already asleep. Thankfully, he wasn’t, because Ranboo heard a faint voice softly saying, “Go up to your room Michael, I’ll be up in a second.” They heard the skittering of small feet, and Techno shifted uncomfortably, “Maybe we shou-” The door opened, revealing Ranboo’s husband, who’s eyes widened. “Ranboo what are you-” He saw the mobs approaching and practically pulled his husband in the doorway, cutting himself off. “Come in, you idiot, you’ll kill yourself.” He froze when he saw Techno behind Ranboo, stepping in front of the doorway, hand going to a non-existent sword at his waist. “Tubbo can he-” The words seemed to snap Tubbo out of his state, though his next words were said with feigned indifference. “Of course, come in.” He stepped out of the door frame, body tensed up, eyes trailing over the scratches on Ranboos arms. “You can go to the living room, I’ll be out in a second.” Ranboo grabbed his mentor’s arm and dragged him into the living room, sitting him on the couch. Techno’s body was tense, observant eyes taking in every detail. “Tech- '' Ranboo stopped when Tubbo came in, pointedly ignoring Techno. He had a first aid kit in his hand and kneeled down next to Ranboo, who held out his arm. “Boo, I told you not to go out this late.” Tubbo’s voice sounded exasperated, but there was a hint of relief as well. “I know, but we were mining and we lost track of time.” Tubbo’s hands gently wrapped the wounds in bandages, “You need to be more aware of that, what would have happened if you weren’t near Snowchester?”
“I know Tubbo.” A short silence ensued, in which Tubbo continued to take care of his husband's wounds. It was interrupted by Techno, who had come to a realization. “Boo? Is that a nickname? Does he come over often?” Tubbo froze, hands shaking slightly while holding a bandage. A short non verbal conversation ensued between Tubbo and Ranboo.
What do we do?
I trust him
I don’t
Ranboo wanted to ask why that was, why his husband was so distrustful of the man that was his mentor. He knew that Techno had blown up L’Manburg, but Ranboo had also played a part in that, and Tubbo had easily forgiven him. He would ask later, he decided, though he suspected his husband would not tell him.
Do you trust me?
Of course
Then trust me on this
Tubbo still looked hesitant, but he gave a small nod. Ranboo took a second to appreciate the trust that Tubbo had in him, despite not knowing everything about the enderman hybrid he placed his life in his hands time and time again. “Um... So are you going to tell me?” Ranboo took a deep breath, grabbing his husband’s hand to provide support. He could feel it shaking, whether with distrust or fear he didn’t know. “Tubbo is my platonic husband.” An array of emotions flew across Techno’s face, settling on confusion. “Eh?” Tubbo tensed up even further at the reaction, though it wasn’t a particularly bad one. “Ok… Well. That was not what I was expecting, congrats I guess?”
“Thanks, I’m glad you’re ok with it, it means a lot.” At this point Tubbo was practically hiding behind Ranboo, using his husband’s height to his advantage.
“Ok, so I don’t know why you guys hate each other,” at that sentence Techno flinched slightly, only noticed by his mentee, and Ranboo felt his husband tense up behind him, but he continued to talk. “But you two need to figure it out, I’m going to make you tea.” Tubbo grabbed his arm, trying to keep his husband between them, but Ranboo pulled away, sighing at their reluctance to talk. “Just figure it out,” he spit out the words dejectedly, only feeling remorse when he saw Tubbo jump away from him. He never knew why, but Tubbo had always reacted badly to cold words. It was one among many of the things that Ranboo tried to avoid around him, right after alcohol and yelling. He reached out to comfort his husband, feeling like someone had stabbed him when he shied away. “I- I Tu- Listen, I’m sorry,” he really was sorry, but he needed them to talk. “Just figure it out.”