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Ranboo… didn’t know what love meant. It wasn’t some kind of thing where they couldn’t fall in love, they just didn’t know the meaning of it. They knew the definition, but hardly knew the real meaning behind the word love. There were words in Ender for affection, but never as all-encompassing as the word ‘love’. It was such a big umbrella that is honestly overwhelmed the Enderman hybrid to even think about something like that, especially with everything that was going on.
From the first day, Ranboo’s life was everywhere all at once. They helped Tommy burn down a former king’s home, became a minutesman for L’Manburg, etc. They were almost consistently and constantly busy with something or another. Writing transcripts for meetings, keeping track of their memory book, making sure the country didn’t go to war. They didn’t have time to think about things like love, not when there were bigger fish to fry. Like Dream, or Tommy, or Techno. There was hardly time to sleep, much less time to think about the intricate aspects of life. Especially once Doomsday drew near.
After Doomsday, there was a sort of apathy that placed itself in the Ender hybrid. An empty feeling that nagged at their subconscious no matter what they were doing. After moving in with Phil and Techno in the antarctic, their day was mainly filled with chores. Wake up, get ready, eat, feed the pets, feed the cows, feed the dogs, harvest any wheat that grew, etc, etc. But it gave them time to think, since the tasks were entirely mindless. They could space out and stare into the distance without getting yelled at by someone. And of course, as it’s the subject, this got Ranboo thinking about love. They can’t remember feeling love before, especially since they remembered so little of their life. They only had a few months worth of memories and that’s not much to go off of.
They hummed to themself as they worked, tail swishing behind them gently. They were going on another one of their long mining trips, rambling to the particles about whatever crossed their mind. Suddenly, they startled due to their communicator buzzing repeatedly. Pulling it out, they raised an eyebrow, especially after seeing the name. They plugged in the earbuds attached and pressed the button to answer with a ‘click!’.
“Hey sexy,” Ranboo heard the voice from the other end and promptly turned a vibrant purple.
”Wh-what??” They replied dumbly.
The hybrid’s ears filled with the sound of laughter, sudden and loud. They smiled as well, chuckling a bit, “I’m just gonna ignore that.”
The conversation carried on for a while, and somewhere along the line Tubbo spit out, “Do you wanna be my valentine?”
Ranboo choked, “huh?”
“My valentine, boss man. It doesn’t have to be romantic. I just don’t want to have to say I don’t have one.”
Ranboo chuckled, calling back to the memory of Tubbo explaining human holidays to them. “Yeah, sure, why not?”
Tubbo cheered loudly on the other end, yelling and whooping. He stopped suddenly, “oh my god, do you remember Michael?”
“Oh my god- MICHAEL!” Ranboo gasped, recalling the baby zombie-piglin they had found on their first day during their tour with Tubbo.
“WE SHOULD GO BRING HIM HERE ON VALENTINES DAY!”
“YES!”
After Valentine’s Day, Ranboo remembered what made them fall in love with the zombie-piglin in the first place (to be honest, they remembered the second they saw him). They made sure to visit Michael every day, climbing the ladder to his room in the attic and spending hours playing with him. A warm feeling in their chest, a resting smile on their face, a settled form of content, it was one morning when they were groggily waking up in their son’s bed and felt all these feelings while watching sunlight dance across their son’s face that they realized, “this is love.” They smiled, kissing their son’s forehead and lying back down, humming softly. It didn’t take long for Tubbo to come check up on the two of them, smiling once he noticed Ranboo curled around the zombie-piglin like a cat.
Ranboo and Tubbo had been talking a lot more lately. They talked before, during Tubbo’s presidency, when they would sneak off and Tubbo would vent to the minutesman about… everything. They had a sort of trust built up, but not much. But after Doomsday, and especially after they adopted Michael, they talked a lot more. More casually too, just about anything that crossed their minds or doing some stupid scheme together. And while Tommy didn’t seem to like Ranboo much, the hybrid would hope that they were friends. But… everything went downhill after Tommy’s death. Tubbo and Ranboo still hung out, but it wasn’t the same . They tried to create some mock-imitation of Tommy’s hotel by making a motel across the street, but it wasn’t the same . Nothing was the same.
It was two days after Tommy’s death that Ranboo sat against a tree in Snowchester with Tubbo. The ram hybrid’s head on his shoulder, the sun had set, but there was still some color to the sky. Tubbo had been burying himself in work, and this was the second time Ranboo had literally pulled him away to get him to eat and take a break. “You know,” Tubbo started, “before Wilbur came here, me and Tommy were able to pull a lot of dumb shit. We’d always go around and mess with everyone’s stuff, burning stuff down and everything. But after Wilbur came, and started L’Manburg, everyone was a lot less welcoming to the idea of us messing around.”
Ranboo hummed, indicating they were listening.
“I never got to apologize for everything I said to him,” Tubbo’s voice cracked and sniffed, “I guess I never will.” Ranboo pulled him closer, letting the boy lean into their chest and cry. They shushed him gently, softly saying reassurances in the other’s ear. Tubbo went silent again after a bit, breath soft and slow. Ranboo knew he was asleep. They slowly drew the tips of their claws along Tubbo’s head, carefully petting him. The two of them sat there for a while, Tubbo gently sleeping and Ranboo keeping him safe. Ranboo kept their eyes closed as well, using their other hand to fiddle with the hem of their shirt. They carefully glanced up every now and then, but the area was well-lit enough that mobs were avoiding them.
During one of these times where they glanced up, they noticed something other than a mob. They gasped softly, searching the sky. Carefully shaking Tubbo’s shoulder, they woke him up, “Tubbo, Tubbo, wake up!”
The hybrid rose fairly quickly, startled, “Huh?”
Ranboo smiled widely, gently pulling Tubbo out to the edge of the tree as the ram-hybrid scrubbed his eyes.
They pointed to the sky, tail wagging hard, “Look!”
Filling the sky was an aurora, blue and green, splitting the stars with color. Tubbo gasped softly as well, and his grip on Ranboo’s hand tightened. The both of them stared at the sky, sitting in freezing weather, holding hands and looking in awe. Ranboo looked to the boy sitting next to them, hand grasped tightly, eyes (blind or not) full of color and stars, mouth agape, and realized for the second time in their life, “this is love” .
“Marry me,” Ranboo said, still staring at Tubbo’s eyes, currently not concealed by the curtain of bangs that usually hung over his face.
He looked to Ranboo quickly, avoiding eye contact, staring just below their eyes, “What?”
“Marry me,” Said Ranboo again, taking Tubbo’s face into their hands and making eye contact. “I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to promise you that I will never leave,” They ran their thumb along the scar on Tubbo’s face, “No matter what. I’ll always be here.”
Tubbo’s face scrunched up, a telltale sign he was trying really hard not to cry. “Yeah, okay bossman, let’s do it.” The tears still spilled, running down Ranboo’s hands and causing a slight sizzle as they wiped the tears from the other’s face. Even as Tubbo tried to force their hands away, they kept the tears from falling all the way. Because they would always be there for Tubbo. Because Tubbo, was their everything (and if Tommy later joined their marriage, despite all his grumbling, he would earn the same spot in the Ender-hybrid’s heart. After all, Ranboo was the one who asked).