Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ranboo and Tommy’s friendship has always been… complicated to say the least. Ranboo never knew where he stood with the youngest member of the server. Tommy chewed him out for being older and taller at the first and then turned around and invited him to prank (grief) George’s house the next. He tossed away the flowers Ranboo gave him to feel better but still wrote letters back to him while Tommy was exiled. Don’t even bring up the weird issue Tommy had with Ranboo and Tubbo’s platonic marriage. That was a nasty and confusing can of worms in and of itself.

And then there were times like today where Tommy laid his heart out bare. Where Tommy- Tommy- admitted his weaknesses. Call a spade a spade: Tommy Innit was prideful. He was loud and charismatic. He laughed in the face of danger whether he was in the wrong or the right.

But now Tommy was broken. His words. His actions. Tommy was admitting that he had weaknesses. Tommy couldn’t take damage. His mind couldn't handle it in the wake of his trauma. Tommy fell headfirst into a panic attack when surrounded by obsidian.

Tommy was scared and the amount of courage it took for “Big Man Tommy Innit” to admit that he had issues and needed help sent Ranboo staggering.

What both destroyed and heartened Ranboo, even more, was that he was allowed to help. Invited by Tommy. Not just dragged along behind Tubbo… well maybe a little bit of that, but Ranboo was okay with his position in this relationship. When it came to Tubbo, it felt like Ranboo and Tommy routinely switched out as the third wheel. He hoped that would smooth out with time, but for now, it was fine. He was still touched and honored to be included in this; something so intimately open and vulnerable on behalf of the boy he hoped to call a friend even if he hadn’t been treated as much of one in the past.

When Tommy had hugged him- he hugged him- Ranboo immediately whipped out his memory book once he was out of sight and penned down the memory. Tommy had hugged him! And thanked him! He desperately held the memory tight in his grip, never wanting to let it go.

But as much as he was content to swim in this euphoria that came from the affection Tommy ever rarely showed, a pit in Ranboo’s stomach began to grow and gnaw at the good feelings. Things didn’t happen for no reason. They had worked on Tommy’s fears, but why now? The way he spoke, the way Tommy treated him and Tubbo… something was up. Something was coming. But what?

Once the happy memory had been written out, Ranboo flipped back through his memory book. Did he maybe write something that could give him a clue?

Before he had a chance to really look, Tubbo came up from the tower and joined Ranboo as Tommy went off in his own direction. Tubbo started dragging him off to the nether, saying something about invisibility potions and wither skulls. Why he needed those and immediately was Ranboo’s guess, but who was he to deny his best friend. Tubbo had something in those wide brown eyes that had Ranboo whipped and wrapped around the shorter boy’s finger.

When the day's events were passed, Ranboo sat in bed next to his sleeping husband and flipped back through his memory book. Coming across the entry for the day, the enderman hybrid smiled warmly.

‘Helped Tommy face his fears. Went to Logstedshire, then Eret’s replica control room, and finally a replica obsidian cell under the watchtower.

Tommy thanked me for helping him. He hugged me!

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Tommy did and went to face that problem head-on.

One day, I hope to be as brave as Tommy.’

Chapter Text

Tommy was not a fan of change. Or... at least change that he didn’t have a say in.

Picking up and moving to the Dream SMP? All him.

L’Manburg? Totally down for sticking one to the admin himself with Wilbur and his friends alongside.

The election? He wasn’t too big a fan but he could understand Wilbur’s reasoning, so he went along with it.

But then there were the bad changes. Losing two lives, exile, Tubbo getting shot and scarred, Technoblade’s betrayal, Tubbo being president, exile redux, Technoblade’s betrayal electric boogaloo, almost losing Tubbo AGAIN.

Imprisonment…

… death…

… … revival.

It was a lot for the teen to handle and at the moment he really didn’t need any more stress. So the server decided to add more stress.

Wilbur was back and, honestly, Tommy didn’t know how to feel about that. At first, he clung to dread and anger because he remembered Wilbur from Limbo. The Wilbur who had laughed giddily at Tommy joining him in death and was convinced that he and Tommy were a bane on the server. That they deserved to be there.  When Wilbur came back, Tommy tried to play on that line of thought; that Wilbur was bad for the server but his brother in all but blood actually seemed to want to be back. It didn’t help the elder still had a nut loose saying that Dream was his hero.

But then the two brothers got together again, Wilbur coercing Tommy into a tour of the SMP and what he missed while dead. The dread had lessened to a simmer while the anger still stayed hot, resulting in Tommy snapping at his brother when he started acting like an ass. Simmering and boiling was an interesting juxtaposition that began growing an ache behind Tommy’s eyes until Wilbur requested something that doused both feelings in ice. He wanted to meet Ranboo.

And for once in his life, Tommy reflected on one of the bigger changes that he had to endure: Ranboo.

Ranboo who was older and taller and friendlier than Tommy.

Ranboo who pitied him all the time.

Ranboo who stole Tommy’s best friend.

Ranboo who was probably the kindest person Tommy ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Tommy remembers when he hated Ranboo’s guts for all of the perfectly ‘valid’ reasons above. When had that changed? When had Ranboo gone from being a thorn in his side to one of his greatest supports? When had Ranboo gone from outshining Tommy to making Tommy feel brighter?

If Tommy thought really hard about it, Ranboo had always been good to him. Even though Tommy greeted him with a mugging, the enderman hybrid willingly went along with Tommy’s little prank on George. Tommy couldn’t drag Ranboo down with him. He was still new to the server. He didn’t deserve to be thrown into exile alongside Tommy, so Tommy took all the blame on himself. Yet Ranboo wrote him letters. Dream muddled up Tommy’s head for a bit- and for a while, Tommy couldn't really appreciate the effort- but eventually, he remembered the letters and Ranboo offering to help when he could.

Tommy of course wasn’t too happy upon finding out about Ranboo and Tubbo getting platonically married, but as long as he didn’t think about it the three of them got into all kinds of good mischief. Ranboo made Tubbo happy. How could Tommy argue against that? In a way, he made Tommy happy too.

Somehow along the way, slowly and quietly, Ranboo had squirmed his way into Tommy’s heart and list of friends; a list that was growing shorter by the day on the server. Ranboo was in Tommy’s corner. He walked alongside him when Tommy was confronting his fears and traumas. He greeted Tommy with alliums and mourned Tommy when he thought the younger was dead.

At Wilbur’s request, a sense of protectiveness came over Tommy. He didn’t trust Wil. Not after everything he pulled. He wasn’t going to let Wilbur ruin another good thing for Tommy. So he went on the defensive. Everything Wilbur said, every move he made around Ranboo, Tommy watched like a hawk and ran interference. He sang Ranboo’s praises and dug at the enderman all friend-like in his own Tommy way.

Ranboo was a good guy.

Wilbur was a wrong’un.

So when Wilbur said that Ranboo was the exact opposite of himself, Tommy internally thought ‘good.’ Because Ranboo was everything that Wilbur wasn’t: quiet, meek, selfless, and kind. If Tommy had a say in it, Ranboo would remain that way. Tommy would take whatever came at them if it meant that Ranboo could remain kind.