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Chapter Text

Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god, Ranboo thought frantically. His eyes darted around, skimming the area for any sign of exit. The pounding in his head made him feel like his head was going to split apart, hurting to the point of blurring his vision. 

What was happening? Something, something very not good, he knew. Something itched at his mind. Something about things inhuman. He couldn’t remember but he could just tell. Like the ghosts of memories were breathing over his shoulder, making him feel it in his soul.

Pulse pounding in his ears, he blinked hurriedly, trying to focus his vision. He was in some sort of castle, he was pretty sure. Great ornate pillars towered up towards the curved ceiling, placed in pairs across the triangular walls. Despite the familiar aspects, he’d never heard of a castle like this.

White light poured in from large windows high up on the walls, brightening the place almost to the point where he had to squint. A sense of urgency plagued his mind and he knew he had to go. He kept looking over his shoulder and could swear he heard something shouting from the way he’d come.

But, outside the big, wide open doors of the castle, was some sort of festival. It was colorful, from what he could see. Vibrant, lively, loud, and crowded. That should be a good thing! People! They’d help him, surely! But something was stopping him still.

A shriek-like sound echoed from the hall behind him and he abandoned his hesitancies, taking off towards the exit. He stumbled to a stop on top of the castle steps, eyes widening in terror at what laid below.

Everything here was inhuman. Monsters, beasts, creatures he couldn’t name. He had no idea what any of them were. But they were distinctly not people.

The sound of his pursuers — no doubt inhuman themselves — startled him back to the world, and he quickly bolted to the left and tumbled off the raised white stone and into the bushes. He panted, and stared wide eyed up through the leaves as three or four other monsters rushed out of the castle and looked around hurriedly. His breath caught in his throat, body frozen, as they squawked and shrieked, speaking aggressively in some language of sounds he couldn’t begin to understand.

They seemed to settle on something, and took off down the stairs.

After a minute, Ranboo exhaled and took a deep breath. He struggled to turn over, arms littered with scraps and scratches from the bushes he’d fallen into. It hurt so much. His body ached, and the scratches felt like knives piercing his frigid skin.

Trying not to make any sounds despite his pain, he crawled out of the bushes. He was fairly out of sight here, tucked away in the shadows of the castle. He could hear music and shouting and what might have been laughter but it all felt wrong. Where was he? He was fairly certain he’d come out of the castle, and there were monsters.

How did he get here? Where was here? Was he in like, Atlantis or something? Some hidden civilization of beasts and creatures? Did that mean all fairy tales and scary stories were true? He didn’t really see anything out there that looked like a werewolf or centaur or anything. They all looked really alien.

Maybe this was a dream? No, he brushed that off pretty quickly. It felt real enough, aside from the haze from his headache and pain. Maybe he was in a land of dreams? Or nightmares? He’d fallen into the boogieman-land under his bed or something.

Either way, he didn’t want to stick around. Clearly somebody was after him, or more than one somebody actually. 

Using the cold castle wall as support, he pushed himself up on shaking legs, and shakily made his way down the hill. He tried to head away from the town and ongoing festival, but found the land cut off into harsh cliffs if he kept heading away from the castle. So he tried to sneak around behind the buildings.

They got taller and denser as he went on, and soon he was trying to find his way between them rather than shuffling along behind them. He was beginning to feel lost, so he crept out of an alley between buildings nearing three story height now. 

The festival or whatever was happening only seemed to get more lively as he went on. There were people — or monsters, whatever they were — everywhere. The streets were crowded to the point that Ranboo was glad he wasn’t out there. Well, aside from the fact that he didn’t really want to be out there for many other reasons.

‘What should I do, what should I do?’ He thought frantically, eyes darting around the town. Or maybe this was a city. It was beginning to seem pretty big. 

The sun was beginning to go down, but the party was still going hard. He used the new cover of dark to slip out into the crowd, speedwalking and trying to keep his face covered as he crossed the street. He managed to almost make it completely across before he bumped into something, and knocked over a small, short monster.

He froze, staring down at it in horror. It stared up in return, all too many eyes wide as it trembled. Then, it screamed, a horrible, ear piercing scream that made his gut clench.

Ranboo gasped and stumbled backwards, hands clapped over his ears. The crowded street tripped him up again, making him fall on his rear. The entire crowd erupted into screams now, varying pitch and volume and mind-meltability. 

He scrambled to his feet and took off in a random direction. His legs led him into a nearby building with no door and up the small stairs to the roof. He crouched down, trying to avoid being seen, and looked out at the panic in the streets. “Oh god I caused that,” He mumbled in shock. Why were they all so afraid of him? He figured humans were typically the ones afraid of monsters.

PSSHHM.

Ranboo shrieked, ducking down when a massive searchlight blinked on with a loud sound. It shone up on the buildings near him, and he barely managed to get out of view before it skimmed over the one he was hiding on.

He sighed in relief. His eyes roamed over to a round tent looking thing that lit up after the light had passed. It was big, for something resembling a tent. There were smaller rooms attached to it, and it took up at least half the roof.

With not many other options, and the spotlight coming back his way, Ranboo hurried inside the giant tent thing. Hopefully there wasn’t anything too bad inside.

Chapter Text

Tubbo wasn’t sure what exactly had happened at that festival, but he was getting the fuck out. The spotlight had definitely startled him a bit. Assumably, they were looking for a criminal or something. But Tubbo was too close to a criminal himself that he wasn’t risking anything. He powered up his ship, and got the heck out of dodge.

He gave things a second to finish settling, letting the outer rooms extract from the base of the ship, then set a course and left it on autopilot.

“Alright,” He sighed, clapping his hands together. Now he had to make sure nothing got too jostled in the take off. It was pretty sudden, so he didn’t really take the time to lock everything down. He checked his cell first, then the recreational rooms, then the utility rooms. Everything seemed to be fine, aside from some cushions scattered in the dwelling space.

“Well,” He hummed, hands on his sides. “Seems everything’s in order.”

“AAAHHHHHHH!”

Tubbo whirled around, hands held up defensively as he looked wide eyed over his shoulder. What, was that?

He pulled out the daggers sheathed in the sides of his pants and hurried out into the hall. His wings buzzed, itching to take him off the ground and away from any danger. But walking would be much quieter, so he continued to creep quickly onwards around his ship.

He double-checked every room passed, even if he’d just been through most of them. But he found nothing. Which was just, not right. He wasn’t crazy. Something had screamed. He heard it. He was sure. But where did it come from?

Sighing, he doubled back around to the cockpit, brushing it off for now. He’d figure it out later. For all he knew it was his thrusters or something. Maybe.

___

Space?! OUTER SPACE?! He was in OUTER SPACE?!

Ranboo panted, staring out the angular window in horror. Those weren’t monsters, those were aliens. He was in space. With aliens. Aliens in space. How did he get here?!

This wasn’t a giant tent, it was a spaceship. And they were in space now. Which meant there was someone flying it. Oh god. Oh god. He was trapped in space, on a spaceship, with aliens.

His lungs felt fearfully empty despite all the breathing he was doing. He slid down against the wall as his vision began to blur, and grabbed his head with his hands. “This can’t be happening,” He muttered. “This can NOT be happening!”

Stretching his arms out and trying to settle his breathing, he scanned over the scrapes and scratches and scars littering his arms. “Where did these come from?!” He questioned frantically. When had he gotten so thin? When did his skin start being this cold all the time? Why does this terrible headache never go away? Why was he here?!

He held a hand up to his face, his other arm wrapped tightly around his middle. Tears streamed down his face and he bit back sobs. Who knew what could hear him; what might be lurking around this ship.

What was he supposed to do now? Hide out until they inevitably found him? He could hardly walk without shaking, he was definitely malnourished. If he tried to sneak food, how would he know what was safe to eat? What if these things didn’t even eat? He’d starve before he even got a chance to escape.

He sighed tearfully, wrapping his arms around his legs and burying his face in his knees. Really, what was he supposed to do? What even could he do…?

After a while, he jerked his head up, panting and tense like he’d been about to fall. He sighed, and looked around. At some point, he’d drifted off, and the ship was dark now. But his stomach was killing him. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate, and the hunger pains were literally nauseating.

He clamped a hand over his mouth and pushed onto his feet. Reluctantly, he decided to go out and look for food. 

The ship had one hallway, as far as he could tell. It curved in either direction, and he assumed it went all the way around and came back in a circle. He turned off into what looked like a living room, and found some sort of kitchen attached to it. The cabinets were hexagons in the wall, the cupboards were hexagons in the wall, the sink was a hexagon in the wall, and what he assumed to be the fridge was also a hexagon in the wall.

It was weird, and all too angular for his liking.

He carefully approached the presumed fridge, squinting as he peered through the transparent material that made the door. There were a whole bunch of plastic bags inside with orangish liquid in them, and some potted plants. The only thing he saw that might not poison him was a purpley-blue, bumpy fruit. He felt his hand along the seams of the hexagon, trying to find a handle, but ended up with nothing. He sighed, reaching out to place his hand on the glass, but his hand went straight through.

He inhaled sharply, quickly yanking his hand back. ‘Oh what the fuck.’ He thought. Hesitantly, he reached his hand out again, letting it pass through the material to grab the fruit. It was cold inside, like he’d expected, and nothing zapped or burned or stabbed him by the time he brought his hand back out, so he called it a win.

Bringing the fruit close to his chest, he examined it closely before walking out of the room. Then back to the room he’d been in before, which seemed to be some sort of supply storage. Really, he should find a better place to hide, because this seemed like the kind of room that would get checked regularly.

But for now, he just settled down in a corner, knees brought up to his chest, and struggled his way through eating the tough fruit.

Chapter Text

Tubbo laid on the lounge in his dwelling space, staring up at the video show displayed on his screen. The spoken language was in aepiden, but he had IG-UL captions on screen.

”Deban, you can’t! Think of what the Mother would say!”

"I don’t care! I love her, Jesc!”

Tubbo gasped lightly. “No, Deban. She’s just using you,” He huffed, antenna twitching in disapproval. He watched the aepid on screen fly out of the room, out into the storm. He shielded his face with his upper hands and buzzed upwards towards the higher up dwellings, in search of his so-called love.

Tubbo made a sound of distaste, getting up from the lounge to grab a drink. He paused halfway, ears twitching as he stood across from the door. It might have been the show on screen, but he could have sworn he heard something fall somewhere in the ship. He blinked, antenna curling around as he thought. It couldn’t hurt to check on it.

He abandoned his video show and buzzed out into the hall, heading towards his general storage where he thought the sound had come from. He flew through the archway and looked around, eyes catching on a toppled water barrel. 

“The fuck?” He muttered, flying over to it. Those things were heavy as shit and Tubbo himself normally needed a heavy duty magnet to move them anywhere. How in the universe did it fall over?

His antenna twitched again worriedly, and rubbed his head, trying to calm his nerves.

Scrreee!

Tubbo spun around, ears pricked at the sound of something skidding across hardfloor. Nothing had changed since he came in. He was greeted with the same boxes and crates as before.

He swallowed. “I do not like this,” He muttered, slowly buzzing out of the storage room. Once out, he shut the door just in case, and headed down the hall to investigate. He could distantly hear his show still playing, thunder and wind droning alongside the desperate love confession Deban was shouting to his beloved.

Tubbo blinked, eyes wide as he looked around. Nothing in the washroom, the closet, his cell, greenhouse, any of the spare rooms, or the cockpit. His lower hands twitched anxiously. There was nothing here.

Hesitantly, he flew back to the dwelling space. The show had reached its end, leaving credits and suggestions for other viewings on the screen. Tubbo sighed, dropping down onto the lounge and grabbing the remote. He clicked on some video film about avyann hero who was chosen to save his planet and let it run on the screen while he turned to grab himself a drink.

He snatched a nectar pouch out of the cooler and made his way back over to the lounge, only to stop dead in his tracks, fur standing on edge. He completely froze, mind racing with terror as he tried to figure out what could have triggered this.

’What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck,” Tubbo chattered frantically in his mind, eyes darting around the room for any sign of threat. There was nothing. Nothing. He couldn’t see anything. The panic coursing through him was near sickening and he couldn’t see it! What was it?!

He exhaled roughly, spinning around, wings flicking between folded tight to keep out of harm's way and spread out to fly and flee. ‘Where where where where where where where!?’ he chanted desperately in his head, praying it was nothing but every part of him knowing it was something and something bad.

If it was so close that he was panicking like this why couldn’t he see it!? Was it invisible?! Was it hidden somewhere?! Was it too small to see, like a microscopic parasite?! He wasn’t breathing now, stumbling around fearfully in search of what had turned him into prey; what had snuck onto his home without him knowing.

Something moved around the edge of his sight and he spun around, eyes locking on something tall, something disproportionate and fleshy, small ears small eyes small nose, no fur except on top of its head, blunt teeth and nails, but danger danger DANGER —

A human. Human, human, human human human HUMAN!

Tubbo gasped desperately, lungs filling with air moments before expelling it all again and the cycle continued. A human. An actual human. It was even taller than he thought that could be. It looked like it was undead; gaunt and pale and hunched over. Its eyes bore into Tubbo’s making his veins run with ice. He was going to die. He was going to die on his own ship, in his own home, killed by the most dangerous species in the known universe.

His breathing sped up until it was faster than his panicky heartbeat, sharp, miniscule breaths doing nothing for him, until his vision skewed drastically and he fainted, falling to the floor with a tiny squeak. 

—

“Oh god I killed it,” Ranboo whispered, horrified. He was a murderer now. He carefully walked over to the limp little alien, hands held close as he awkwardly leaned over to inspect it. It was hard to tell if it was breathing, but it was frightfully still either way.

He didn’t really know how it hadn’t seen him sooner. He’d been hiding pretty poorly actually. He’d just been standing against the corner of the wall, barely shaded, and trying not to move. The alien only saw him when he tried to quickly leave the room.

With a sigh, he crouched down beside the bee-like alien, hesitantly reaching out to tap it and see if it would wake up. It flinched, and its nose twitched, before its big blue eyes shot open once again.

Ranboo yelped and stumbled backwards, landing against the weird sofa in the middle of the room. It flew upwards like a rocket, buzzing around near the ceiling and watching him warily. Ranboo stared at it. Its antenna seemed to be sparking, and he now noticed it had knives in all six of its hands. He shuddered, hiding his face in his arms. It was going to kill him wasn’t it?

Its wings buzzed, and his ears fixated on the sound, trying to judge if it was coming closer; which he was pretty sure it was. He tensed, one hand clasped around the back of his neck and the other gripping his hair. Knives weren’t quick, he didn’t think. It was going to stab him in the gut or something and let him bleed out, and he’d die slow and painfully.

“Brmmmm?”

Ranboo jumped, parting his arms enough to glance out at the alien. It was directly in front of him now, big blue eyes up in his face. He startled, flinching back uselessly. “Don’t kill me, please!” He pleaded. “I’m so young! And– And you don’t wanna eat me or anything! I’m skin and bones– Really! There’s no meat on me at all, I swear! You don’t want a Ranboo steak, pleeeease!”

The alien blinked again, bobbing its head and twitching its antenna. Ranboo watched it, confused. “Aren’t you going to like, crack open my skull and make human soup or something?” He questioned. It didn’t respond, only narrowing its eyes slightly.

Maybe it was trying to melt his insides by staring at him. He had no idea what powers this thing might have. It’s big buggy blue eyes might be able to kill him for all he knew!

Slowly, he reached his hand up. It flinched, watching him do so, until he was right in front of its face and he just… shoved it away, before scrambling up and running out of the room. He heard its buzzy squawk before he left, but kept running.

The room he’d been in before was locked now, he noticed as he hurried down the hall. That left minimal options.

“Ohhhh,” He mumbled, looking around hurriedly. He could hear the alien’s wings buzzing somewhere else in the ship, and it was probably following him. He fidgeted anxiously as he glanced around, bouncing in place and shaking his hands. “Where to hide, where to hiiiiide?”

The buzzing got closer, so he scrambled to hide inside the nearest room.

Chapter Text

There was a human in Tubbo’s cell. Every fiber of his being buzzed with fear and terror, urged him to get away, but after seeing the human cowering before him, he wasn’t sure what to think.

He still wholeheartedly believed it was a dangerous, freakishly powerful creature that could and still probably would kill him. But was that it? There were scars all over its arms, and it was really thin. Though he thought that was normal in humans. How old was it? It couldn’t be a baby could it? There was no way. Humans didn’t get that big.

He tapped his feet quickly against the floor, thinking. It was still in his cell, doing who knew what. He really hoped it wasn’t messing with his stuff, or breaking anything. Or laying in his sleep pod… His face scrunched up in distaste, antenna flicking at the thought.

Was it worth it, to face something so dangerous for the sake of his autonomy? For his home that he worked so hard to build? He wasn’t sure. One one hand, he could just lock it in there and everything would be fine. He could land somewhere and have someone trained for things like this get it out. On another hand, he could storm in there and demand it get out of his personal cell. On another hand… Well, he could just, wait it out? Ugh, he wasn’t sure. Too many hands, too many options.

“Screw it! I’m going in!” He huffed, pushing up the door and flying inside. His cell was fairly dark, as he’d left it. All of his items and pictures were still left standing on his shelves and dresser. His paper ship model still hung from the ceiling, along with the bugs and stars and drapes. The curtains were untouched. His sleep pod was still lit up a dim orange, blissfully empty in one wall. Nothing was out of place, except for the lanky, curled up shape hidden in one corner.

The human was notably hard to notice. It was only thanks to the relatively clean state his cell was in that he spotted it at all, as it was the only odd shape in the room at the moment.

His antenna twitched, and he slowly buzzed across the room. The human just sat there, spindly arms wrapped around its knobby knees, pulled close to its chest. It was obviously protecting its vitals. Was it scared?

Tubbo landed soundlessly on his fuzzy carpet, and padded over to the human. He hesitated a little before reaching out to poke it, and quickly brought all of his hands back close to him just in case.

The human looked up, dark pupils wide in the dim lighting. It inched back into the corner, shoulders hunching up around its neck. It was definitely scared. Tubbo hummed, poking its leg with his foot. “Are you a person, or an animal?” He questioned quietly. “Like, no one has ever really said if you guys are sentient.” He admitted.

The human reached out a shaky hand and pushed his foot away, before bringing it back again.

“Hm. Well you’re definitely not attacking me. Is that a sign of understanding and general morals or just plain fear?” He continued, buzzing up into the air again and tilting his head. The human looked away, raising its shoulders in a small motion and letting out a series of mumbly sounds. Was it talking, or were those just animal sounds?

“Well now you’ve got me thinking, human,” He said, noticing the way it reacted subtly when he said ‘human’, “Considering the fact that I’m still alive, I have a pretty cool opportunity here. I don’t think anyone has ever known a human this… peacefully. But I don’t think anyone has ever known a human like you either.” He noted, taking in the human’s general timid posture and sickly appearance.

It did nothing, just continuing to sit there, trembling slightly. Tubbo didn’t know if it was cold, or if it was from malnourishment, or pain, or just fear. He sighed. “Okay, uhm, I want to try something. Can you come with me?” He asked, offering one of his lower hands.

The human eyed it for a moment, before reaching its hand out and taking his. Tubbo tugged it up, nearly zooming backwards into the wall as he was shocked by how light it was. “Oh Mother,” He muttered, giving the human a worried look. “You’re so light. Come. I’ll feed you,” He assured, giving it a tug and buzzing out of the room with it stumbling after him like a newborn foal.

___

Welp. It didn’t kill him. That was a plus. Ranboo was munching on little pieces of a fruit that fell apart into tiny pieces, kinda like a pomegranate, while the bee-alien was practically up to its knees in the fridge. He hadn’t even realized it went that far back. Maybe his headache had skewed his perception.

When it managed to wiggle back out of the fridge it came over to him with what looked kind of like bread. It buzzed something that almost sounded apologetic and handed it to him. Ranboo took it, and set it on his leg while he continued to eat the fruit bits.

Who the hell was this guy? He was feeding him, and so far he didn’t think he’d been poisoned, so he had to be friendly right? He couldn’t remember much in all honesty. Just the fact that he was in space, on a spaceship, with an alien. He had general bad vibes about it so far, but this guy seemed nice, even if he was confused.

Ranboo pulled apart his bread into two uneven chunks and shoved the rest of his fruit pieces between them and took a bite. It was a pretty lame combination, but the bread was dry, and the fruit made it bearable. “So, uh, you can’t understand me right?” He asked. The bee-alien tilted its head. “And I can’t understand you. That’s not good.” He muttered, chewing his food.

He frowned. This alien obviously lived in a spaceship, which it drove, with fancy cabinets and weird fridges and a designated bedroom. It was a person, in some sense of the word. It felt kind of wrong to keep calling it an ‘it’. “Are you a girl alien or a boy alien?” He asked awkwardly with a grimace. “Or… something else? I guess aliens might be able to be other things. Maybe you’re like snails or something. I think clownfish are all male at the start of their life,” He explained pointlessly, then stopped, face flushing. “I’m rambling, sorry. You can’t even understand me. They should call me Ramble instead of Ranboo,” He joked tensely.

The alien buzzed, flying over to a cubby-shelf on one side of the living room. They hovered around, shifting between the hexagon cubbies in search of something, until their hands found what they were looking for and they flew back over to Ranboo.

He took another bite of his sad sandwich and watched it slap down some round cards with pictures on them. The one on top showed some sort of plant he had no idea how to categorize, with a bunch of angular writing underneath. It was probably writing, at least.

He frowned, looking back up at the alien. “I have no idea what that is, sorry.” He mumbled, offering a shrug.

They made some sort of chirpy huff sound and sifted through the cards, antenna flicking to the left. After a moment, they slapped down another card. It said something in its sharp, buzzy accented language, and gave him a scrunched up expression that might have been a smile.

Ranboo glanced down at the card. It looked like the bread he was eating, along with various other things like fruit and what was probably meat. “Food?” He tried, looking back up at the alien.

It hummed out its own version of the word, finger tracing the angular writing. Ranboo sighed. “Oh, you’re teaching me to read…”

Chapter Text

The human was pretty smart. They — because he wasn’t calling them and it anymore, it was probably demeaning — were picking up the easy words really fast, which was hard to do when you already had a preestablished language set as your default! He was impressed. Tubbo himself learned the InterGalaxy Universal Language, or IGUL, when he was about ten orbits old, and even he struggled.

But this human could already say basic needs like Sleep, or Food, or Water. It was enough to get the point across, and more than enough to prove they were sapient. Probably. 

And call Tubbo a nurture ant but this human was skinny, and he was constantly offering him food. Much to his dismay, the human denied it every time after the first three. Probably because they hadn’t eaten in so long that they weren’t used to it. It was saddening. But Tubbo would prevail.

“Okay, so I’m gonna let you watch some video shows and see if you can pick up any of the words okay? I know, realistically, this is gonna take a long ass time for you to figure out, but the sooner we can communicate the better. Okay?” He said, turning back to the human after turning on the screen.

They blinked at him, before their lips pulled into a frown. He was pretty sure that meant sadness or not-understanding in humans. “Whatever,” He said, waving his hands and shaking his head. “We’ll figure it out. Here,”

He flicked through the options before settling on a viewing of a children’s film. This one had fairly simple speech in it, and was interesting enough despite being aimed at kids. The main character was a patterned quadruped of some made up race, and they had to learn how to cook super well in order to impress a king or something. He wasn’t sure. It wasn’t exactly his kind of film.

“Now,” He began, clapping his hands together. “You watch that, and I’ll go see if I can find any information about humans? Okay? Great.” He hummed, buzzing up into the air and flying out of the room without waiting for a reply. 

He made his way around to his study, if you could call it that. It was more so a room dedicated to most of his books, scrolls, and information tablets. Annnnd anything else he could shove in there. He hovered over the mess, moving over to the tablet secured to the wall. “Alright, let’s see…” 

He typed in Humans to the search bubble, and sorted his results for the Information category.

What to do in the event of a Human Attack.

Top Theories on Why Humans are So Extreme.

Are Human Children Really Born With Killer Instinct?

Tubbo scowled. What the fuck was all this? Seriously. He sighed and kept looking, eventually ending up with a fairly plain looking;

Humans: Everything We Know About Them.

There was a lot of the basic stuff. Humans’ aggressive tendencies, insane durability, adrenaline, ability to eat highly acidic and poisonous foods, and so. But there were a few things in there that were actually helpful. 

If humans get too hot they die. If humans get too cold they die. If humans get too overwhelmed they die. If humans get too underwhelmed they die. If humans get too much sunlight they get sick. If humans don’t get enough sunlight they get sick. Don’t do this, don’t do that, blah blah blah. 

It was ridiculous. How could such dangerous creatures be so vulnerable? Maybe some of these were exaggerated though… He did read one part that said humans can reach ten feet in height, and this one was around a solid six or so. Unless they were a baby like he thought before. Hmmm. Or maybe they were just sexually dimorphic? Maybe he had a girl human, and that’s why they were short.

He decided to look into it, and asked the archive if there were any differences between male and female humans, and if they even were just male and female or something else.

He got very limited answers. Unless he was planning on seeing them freaking naked (which he definitely was not) he just had to guess based on semi-typical traits that varied wildly.

“Hmmmm,” He huffed, turning off the screen and leaving the room again. 

Females tended to be thinner than males on average, supposedly. But he was calling bullshit on that one, because this human was underweight either way, so it would be hard to tell. Male humans tended to be taller on average, but if those posts were anything to go by then this one was probably a child, and he doubted that. Broader shoulders, softer features, this, that, whatever. All of it was variable, and very unhelpful.

Tubbo sighed, flying back into the dwelling. The human looked up when he entered, halfway through the film. “I’m back,” He greeted.

“Hello,”

“WOah!” Tubbo shouted, eyes wide and arms thrown out in surprise. “Holy– Did you just say hello?!”

The human narrowed their eyes. “... Yes?” They said slowly.

“Holy Mother! How did you pick that up so fast?! You must be a fucking genius!” He exclaimed.

They bared their teeth at him in some strained looking form of a smile. After hesitating a moment, they blinked and looked back at the screen.

“Let’s go, Teea! We can win!” The main character declared, stirring a pot of something over a stove. 

Tubbo chuckled, buzzing up in the air and settling down beside the human. “This is so cool. I wonder if I can teach you my name.”

The human glanced down at him. “Name?” They repeated questioningly. They narrowed their eyes, then pointed up at the character on the screen, the one beside the main character. “Teea?”

Tubbo’s mouth fell open in shock. “You can learn names! Okay, okay, hold on,” He muttered, antenna flicking. “My name is Tubbo.” He said carefully, putting his hands on his chest. “Tubbo.”

“Tubbo,” The human repeated with ease, though a little accented. 

The aepid laughed. “That’s amazing! Now you. What’s your name?” He asked, pointing to them.

They glanced down at their hands, rubbing their thumb over their knuckles. “Ranboo.”

Tubbo grinned.

Chapter Text

Tubbo probably wasn’t going to kill him, Ranboo decided. They seemed a little too excited for that. They’d devoted themself to teaching him their language ever since he managed to pick up the few words he did from that alien movie. Which, was actually pretty interesting, even if he couldn’t understand it. It was about cooking, and some of the food actually looked pretty good.

He’d managed to somewhat figure out the alien remote, despite the fact that it didn’t have any symbols he recognized. Instead of arrows, the movement buttons had weird squiggles with circles around them, but he figured out which way was which. After that, he’d taken to watching what he could only assume were alien cooking shows. They really caught his interest somehow, even if he was pretty sure he wasn’t big on cooking any time before.

So far, he’d been sleeping in the living room. Tubbo gave him an official tour of the ship, including some spare rooms, but they were either completely empty or filled with random items. Notably; no bed. And with Tubbo’s room, they were really personal about it. They allowed Ranboo to look in, once, but hurried him on quickly and wouldn’t let him go in. Which, if they were so personal about their room, that kind of explained why they wanted him out of it before.

Really, he kind of just felt like he was living abroad in another country. He was watching movies in some language he didn’t know, and had to use puzzled together speech and hand movements to get across his needs and thoughts. The main difference was the fact that Tubbo was obviously not human, and they were obviously not even on a planet, let alone a country.

Which, actually, how did he get here?

“Ranboo!” Tubbo chirped, flying into the room. They made a sound similar to a ‘boom’ and slapped some cards down on the sofa. “See!” They declared, hands on their hips.

Ranboo glanced down at the cards, some more complex ideas than the ones he’d had before. “Oh,” he hummed, giving a slight nod. “Cool. What are they?”

Tubbo pointed to several of the cards, reading out the words despite him not understanding them yet. It was kind of cute. They looked kind of like a babbling toddler, explaining their things in elaborate baby talk.

“Yeah?” They said, looking up at him.

Ranboo shrugged. “Uhm, let's start with, uh, these ones.” He muttered, grabbing two cards that matched somewhat. One had a sharp, linear, orangish-red symbol on it that he didn’t recognize. The other had more soft shapes, and was yellow.

Tubbo made a flutey sound and grabbed four other cards along with the two, holding one in each of their hands.

“This,” They began, holding out the card with the orange symbol, “Is ᒲᔑꖎᒷ. Me. And this…” They narrowed their eyes. “You? Maybe.” Then they continued, holding the yellow one in their opposite hand, “Is ⎓ᒷᒲᔑꖎᒷ. Maybe, you? Hmmm.”

Well. Ranboo wasn’t sure what that meant. So he let Tubbo continue. The next cards they held up had a big strong alien, and a shorter, gentler looking counterpart with an apron. Then, the last two, a small alien with wings, and a matching one without, respectively.

“Okay, so what I’ve gathered is, I’m guessing, male, female, man, woman, boy, girl?” He tried, as if Tubbo would understand. Tubbo gave him a look with narrowed eyes, which probably meant he was listening.

Ranboo pointed to all the male associated cards in Tubbo’s right hands. “That's you, right?” He tried. “You’re a guy? I’m doing a lot of assuming here. Everything is based on guesses. You? Guy? Er, uh, you male? Man? Or… boy?”

Tubbo grinned, antenna pricking up. “Yes! You?” He asked, switching between holding either side of cards out. Ranboo pointed to the male one. “Ah! I was — think you — female!” Tubbo laughed, and Ranboo struggled to pick out the words. 

He just shrugged. “No. I’m male,” He confirmed with a nod.

Ranboo watched Tubbo set the finished cards aside, swinging his legs off the sofa. He seemed quite pleased to know Ranboo was a guy for some reason. He hummed. “Why happy?”

Tubbo scrunched up his face. “Don’t like women.” He huffed.

Ranboo snorted, ducking his head and holding a hand over his mouth. “What?!” He wheezed, trying to quell his laughter. “Tubbo, are you sexist?” Tubbo just smiled.

___

This was cool! Ranboo, which was a cool name by the way, has a guy! He’d never had real guy friends before! And even if Ranboo was kind of a weakling despite being of a killer monster species, he was still cool! Though, he did hope Ranboo didn’t take his comment about women the wrong way. The limited vocabulary didn’t give him many other ways to say it. 

He just, didn’t like girls very much. They were either mean to him, or too much like his culture’s idea of how he should be. He wasn’t sexist, at least he didn’t think he was, he just often felt uncomfortable around him. 

But that didn’t matter because Ranboo wasn’t a girl and now he had someone to hang out with! It was great!

“Alright listen up boss man,” Tubbo announced, hovering above the human with four of his hands on his hips. “It’s time I show you around a bit more.”

Ranboo blinked up at him. “Don’t know what you said.”

“Right. We’ll work on that. Anyway! Follow meeee!” He yelled, grabbing Ranboo by the wrist and tugging him into the hall. He took a right, and went all the way around until he was on the opposite end of the ship. “This, my friend, is the greenhouse! Alternatively, planthouse, growth dome, greenroom, and other names across the universe.” He explained, before opening the door.

Ranboo followed him inside, and his eyes went wide at the sight of all the plants. Tubbo snickered, letting go of him and flying around the room. He stopped and landed on a giant flower, laying down on top of it with a sigh. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

The human bobbed his head. “Very cool,” he breathed.

Tubbo trilled happily, sliding off the flower and flying over to a small tree bearing purple fruit. He plucked one off, and hurried back over to Ranboo. “You stole this from me the first night you were here right? I saw it went missing,” He said with a grin. Ranboo had some sort of guilty look on his face, but Tubbo just pushed the fruit into his hand. “For you.”

Ranboo took it, and bit a big chunk out of it, skin and all. Tubbo balked. “Ranboo you’re not supposed to eat the skin–” He began, but stopped after the human spit it out, and used the missing chunk as a start for peeling off the thick rind. Tubbo stared in amazement. “Wow you’re so smart,” He muttered.

The human smiled, teeth coated in purple juice. Tubbo blinked, focussed on his eyes, which were looking down at his own. One of Ranboo’s eyes was paler, and just slightly squinted. Tubbo blinked, buzzing his wings and hovering up to face level. “Ranboo,” He muttered, eyes narrowed in thought. 

The human’s eyes flicked to his hand as he raised it up, but one slower than the other. Tubbo’s antenna twitched in concern. He moved his hand side to side, watching Ranboo’s eyes follow it. His left eye was reacting less.

“Ranboo, is your eye okay?” He asked, hesitantly reaching forward and covering his right eye.

Ranboo blinked, and squinted. “You’re dark,” he muttered.

Tubbo gasped, flying up and putting four hands on the sides of Ranboo’s head. “Is your vision messed up?!” He exclaimed, leaning close to examine his eyes. 

The human just blinked once again, leaning backwards slightly. “I like your eyes.”

Tubbo balked, blinking stupidly. “Huh–?” His mane fluffed up and he floated back down to the floor, hurriedly taking his hair out of its clip and letting it fall over his eyes. He hadn’t been thinking about it very much before now. 

Ranboo frowned. “I’m sorry. Uh, did… Did I make you sad?”

“No, no no you’re fine,” Tubbo assured awkwardly, shaking his hands. He patted down his mane and stared at the ground in thought. Ranboo probably thought he was a weirdo, staring at him all the time. Not to mention his eyes were discolored, so it was probably even worse. But Ranboo said he liked them. That was nice, even if he was probably just being polite.

“Uhm, moving on!” He announced, buzzing back across the room. “So uh this is an antflower,” He began, and Ranboo watched from the other side of the room, munching on his fruit.

Neither said anything about the eye thing.

Chapter Text

Ranboo frowned, removing his hand from his face before placing it over his eye again. “What the hell…” He muttered, noticing the way his vision changed. His right eye was pretty decent. And both eyes gave him a pretty okay view of things, if a little blurry or shaded to the left. But covering his right eye made everything darker, and hard to focus on.

He’d looked in the washroom mirror earlier and noticed that his left eye was a bit lighter than the right, and he was almost always squinting just slightly. It was weird. And he had no idea what had caused it or when.

Now he just sighed, leaning back on Tubbo’s alien sofa. He was kind of worried he’d insulted him or something when he commented on his eyes. Tubbo seemed to get really concerned about it immediately after and even went as far as to cover his eyes with his hair. Maybe he was self conscious or something. But that wouldn’t explain why a compliment would make him hide them. Which kind of sucked too. Ranboo really liked Tubbo’s eyes. They were a bright, tealish blue, which made them really appealing despite looking kind of like a bug’s.

“RANBOO!”

Ranboo choked on saliva, jerking up and whirling around to the doorway. “What–?!” He wheezed, eyes wide.

Tubbo was grinning, eyes still covered by a curtain of brown hair. “Come see come seeeeee!” The alien demanded, bouncing up and down on his feet.

He sighed, relieved Tubbo wasn’t like, about to explode or some alien thing like that. He followed him out into the hall, a good ten paces behind as the bee-like alien zoomed ahead, presumably towards the cockpit.

“SEE SEE SEEEEE!”

“I’m coming!” Ranboo shouted, hurrying the rest of the way. He ducked under the cockpit archway and his eyes went wide at what lay beyond the windshield (it probably wasn’t called that on a spaceship, he knew). 

Outside the ship, they were approaching a massive, swirling blue and green planet, somewhat akin to earth. But instead of clunky pieces of landmass, everything swirled out in curls and coils. It looked like an art piece. 

“Wow,” He breathed.

Tubbo giggled musically plopping down in his chair. “Cool, right?! Come, sit,” He instructed, leaning off the side of his chair to pat a dusty copilot’s. 

Ranboo hesitantly walked up and took the seat, fumbling with the seatbelt until Tubbo showed him how it worked. “Is this safe?” He muttered, not even bothering to try and mime the word safe for Tubbo to understand.

The alien messed around with various buttons and screens, and Ranboo startled when the entire ship jolted and started whirring. “What is that?!” He asked, looking around.

Tubbo chuckled. “Just the ship. It’s, uhhh…” He paused, mouth open as he tried to find the words. “ᓵ𝙹リℸ ̣ ∷ᔑᓵℸ ̣ ╎リ⊣? Hmmm.” He held up two hands, and slowly moved them closer together, then looked back at Ranboo.

“Oh.” He blinked. “It’s like, bringing pieces of itself in. Like a camper. I get it, I think.” He nodded. Tubbo mimicked him, bobbing his head animately. He chuckled.

“Okay!” Tubbo exclaimed, grabbing the steering wheel thing. He pulled it back, and the ship surged forward. He let out an highpitched, flute-like sound that Ranboo would assume was his equivalent of a “Weeee!”.

Ranboo himself quickly felt motion sick. He groaned, putting his hands over his eyes so he didn’t have to look at the rapidly approaching planet and stayed that way until they jerked to a stop. The movement greatly disturbed his gut, and he fumbled out of the seat and rushed back down the hall to the washroom.

He doubled over the sink, stomach clenching as he emptied his stomach down the drain. He trembled, panting with a cold sweat across his brow. 

Tubbo’s wings buzzed as he flew down the hall and hovered in front of the door. He wrung his hands, holding them close to his chest. “Are you… okay?” He asked quietly.

Ranboo shuddered, feeling grossly weakened now that he’d lost his lunch. He shakily reached out and turned on the weird sink. His cupped hands gathered enough water for him to rinse his mouth and he spat it out, turned off the water, and looked over to Tubbo. “M’fine…”

Tubbo didn’t look convinced.

___

There was something… wrong with Ranboo. Either that, or humans were much weirder than he thought. Did they really get sick by moving? Considering that that could survive things as extreme as losing a limb, they sure were sensitive to random shit.

He sighed, sitting in the hallway outside the dwelling space. Ranboo was asleep on the lounge, and as tired as he was, Tubbo couldn’t fall asleep. His mind was too busy. Why was Ranboo so thin? Why was he covered in scars? What happened to his eye? Why was he sickened so easily? Was this just… normal, for humans?

It couldn’t be. But whatever the case, he did not like it.

If he could, he’d be in the room watching Ranboo, making sure he was breathing alright and sleeping well. Not in a weird or creepy way though. In like, a totally caring, friendly way. But he learned that wouldn’t work pretty early on, as the first night Ranboo was here he jolted awake before Tubbo even entered the room for a midnight snack.

 He exhaled and got up from where he sat, carefully walking down the hall to try not and wake Ranboo. He made it to his cell and slipped inside, buzzing over and crawling into his sleep pod. Once he’d turned the lights down he curled up in his blankets, and stared out at the wall.

A part of him was still sickeningly afraid that Ranboo was going to kill him. Maybe he’d sneak into his cell in the middle of the night and rip off his wings, or crush his skull in. No matter how many times he replayed the human’s awkward and weird smiles, or memories of him struggling with the silliest things, he could still find a way to tilt it at a threatening angle. His smiles turned dangerous, and his struggles turned angered. He could turn on Tubbo at any time.

But that was just his mind registering Ranboo as a predator. It had to be. He always had a hard time around predator species. It was probably some instinct ingrained in the mind of all aepids. But it took a ridiculous amount of time to adjust. Once, he’d been partnered up with an elytrian for a scavenger hunt at a festival. And the entire time, he’d been tense and jumpy around them. He felt kind of bad, because he’d almost gotten used to them by the end of it all.

He groaned in frustration, rolling over and brushing hair out of his face. This was stupid. And probably like, really racist. He was assuming violent things about Ranboo because of what he was and where he came from. It was totally racist. Gosh, Tubbo was just terrible all around, wasn’t he? First sexist, now racist, what was next? Would he become a politician? Oh Mother, he couldn’t imagine.

No. He was going to get past this. He was determined to be friends with Ranboo. Good friends. Real friends. BEST friends even! He’d teach him IGUL, and maybe learn some human language in return! He’d take Ranboo around the galaxy and teach him all kinds of cool shit, and let him see things that no human has probably ever seen! 

And… he’d help him put on a little more weight. And get him some more clothes. Maybe he’d take him to a doctor or something to look at his eye. Things would be good. 

They’d be just fine.

Chapter Text

“RANBOO!”

Ranboo jumped, arms flinching up into a humorous defensive position. “I– What?” He questioned, glancing down at Tubbo and lowering his arms once the surprise had passed.

Tubbo walked strangely up to him, arms held out at his sides with a determined expression, before he dramatically flipped up a card, holding it up to Ranboo’s face. Or, near Ranboo’s chest more so.

He narrowed his eyes, leaning down somewhat to look at it. There was a new image and word paired along with it. It seemed to be three different aliens, laughing and hanging out together. He skimmed over the word below, doing his best to sound out the alien letters in his head.

“That’s gotta be friends, right?” He tried, having no idea what else it could be. Maybe conversation? Laughter? “Friends?”

Tubbo buzzed, pulling the card back. “That’s right, !¡ᔑꖎ, you and me! Let's go! Friend time! Us two! ʖ⚍↸ᓭ! ʖᒷᓭℸ ̣ ╎ᒷᓭ! That’s us! MHM!” He rambled, jumping around, holding his hands up, kind of looking like he was getting ready to fist fight someone.

Ranboo was sure what to make of it. “Okay, uh. Yeah. We’re friends,” he agreed. That was fine with him. Just so long as aliens’ idea of friends didn’t involve probing needles or medical knives. He frowned, glancing away and scratching his head. He wondered where that thought came from.

“NOW!” Tubbo shouted, buzzing up in front of Ranboo’s face and grinning widely. “We go see the !¡ꖎᔑリᒷℸ ̣!” He announced, grabbing Ranboo by the wrist and leading him down the hall, until he stopped. He slowly looked back at Ranboo, no longer smiling. “But, only if you feel okay?” He said questioningly.

Ranboo nodded. “I’m fine now,” He assured, cringing at the memory of his episode yesterday. “Just, did not like the–” He paused, holding his hands out and making them shake. “Yeah.”

Tubbo copied his nod slowly. “Okay. Lets go then,”

He followed the small alien all the way around to the ship’s exit, before he stopped again. “Wait, wait,” He muttered, making a thoughtful expression. “You need to hide your face.” He informed, turning back to look at him.

Ranboo nodded, eyes narrowed. He was pretty sure aliens didn’t like humans for some reason. “Alright. How do we do that?”

Tubbo let go of his wrist and took off down the hall on his own. He came back about two minutes later with a bundle of cloth in his arms. “Here!” He said, dropping it all on the floor.

Ranboo crouched down, inspecting a pair of gloves, a baggy black jumpsuit, a mask, black sunhat, and a weird pair of socks with hard soles. He looked back up at Tubbo. “Am I cosplaying a vampire?” He joked awkwardly. 

Tubbo probably just stared at him through his hair, before speaking again thirty seconds later. “Most of this stuff is from ᓭ𝙹ᒲᒷ𝙹リᒷ I ⚍ᓭᒷ↸ to ∴𝙹∷ꖌ with.” He informed.

And even though Ranboo didn’t know a good chunk of the words he said, he could piece together that these had come from someone Tubbo used to know. Which made sense, because they obviously were not made for whatever small, insectoid species he was.

He sighed. “Okay. I’ll put them on.”

Tubbo gave him a bobby nod, and pointedly did not leave. Ranboo blinked at him. “Are you gonna… leave?” He tried.

Tubbo’s antenna twitched. “Why?”

Ranboo sputtered awkwardly, gesturing to the jumpsuit. “So I can– I can put it on?”

The alien tilted his head. “I have to leave for that?”

“Do you change in front of strangers?” Ranboo prompted, confused.

Tubbo shook his head wobbly. “No.”

“Ah– Then why do I have to?!”

Again, Tubbo said nothing, just standing there, no doubt watching him from behind his bangs. Then, his antenna flicked again, and his mouth fell open with an “Ohhhhh. I get it. I see I see,” He hummed, and then turned around. Didn’t leave. Just turned around.

Ranboo sighed, and quickly slipped out of his old torn up shirt and pants and into the jumpsuit. Tubbo turned around immediately once he was done, without even being told. “Cool.” He chirped, before grabbing the hat and flying up to deposit it on Ranboo’s head.

He pulled the gloves over his hands, tugged on the socks, and fastened the mask. Then turned to Tubbo for a look over. “How is it?” He asked, only slightly muffled through the mask.

Tubbo hummed, flying circles around him judgingly. “You look like an enderian.”

Ranboo didn’t know what an enderian was, but as long as he didn’t look human, it worked for him. “Okay, let's go.”

___

Tubbo was surprised by how anxious Ranboo was. The town wasn’t even that crowded, but he was incredibly conscious of keeping his disguise on. He looked around worriedly every time they passed someone, flinched at every sound, and nearly dove under a bench when a kid ran by waving around a flashlight.

The aepid frowned. Maybe Ranboo had snuck onto his ship back at the festival. It would explain his behaviour, and just generally make a lot of sense. But when he asked, even with the limited vocab, Ranboo said he didn’t remember. In fact, he didn’t remember getting onto Tubbo’s ship at all. 

It was weird. Ranboo was weird. But still, he didn’t know enough about humans to know if it was species–weird, personality–weird, or like, concerning–weird.

“You’re fine,” He assured for the seventh time, leading Ranboo down a curling streetway. “We just need to get some things is all. And fresh air is good for us. And I read that you need sunlight or you’ll die.” He said with a hum.

Ranboo let out a worried sound, glancing around the street again. “What?” He muttered, because he didn’t know half the words Tubbo had said.

The aepid sighed and patted him on the arm. “Don’t worry about it big man, c’mon.” He soothed. He led them down the rounding street until they reached the market. The road curled around into a spiral, making for a busy plaza.

“Here we go.” He grinned. 

His first stop was a clothing store to their right. Ranboo had to duck under the doorway, and Tubbo buzzed quickly over to the employee at the front. “Hello!” He greeted eagerly, eyes darting around beneath his hair. The place wasn’t incredibly diverse, but he could probably find some things that would fit Ranboo.

The employee, some sort of feline race, glanced up at him and gave him a look over. They narrowed their eyes, and leaned to the side, regarding Ranboo for a moment before looking back at him. “S’that your escort?”

Tubbo’s smile faltered and he floated downward, only hovering high enough to see reasonably over the counter. “Uh, yeah.” He muttered, antenna twitching. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“Alright then. What can I do for you?” They asked, setting down the tablet in their hands and leaning over the counter to look down at him.

He looked away, waving Ranboo over. “Uhm, my– They need some clothes,” He settled on stiltedly. He looked up at Ranboo, who stared at him for a moment before nodding hurriedly and agreeing.

“Uh, yes. Clothes. For me,” He stuttered.

The employee’s ears twitched, and they gave him a mildly annoyed expression. “Wha’s with the accent?” They questioned, glancing down at Tubbo before making their way around to show them to the racks.

Tubbo buzzed after them, pulling Ranboo along. “Endarian,” He replied quickly. “They uhm, aren’t very good with IGUL yet.”

“That checks,” The employee huffed, eyes skimming over Ranboo again. “Most of ‘em don’t ever want to leave their planet anyway. Here, these should be to your liking,” They curred, gesturing fluidly to the racks of longer clothing items.

Tubbo nodded absently, a habit he was beginning to pick up from Ranboo. He watched them walk away and settle at the counter again, propping their legs up and pulling out the tablet. He turned to Ranboo. “See anything you like?” He asked quietly, giving a small smile.

Ranboo frowned, shuffling over to sift through the shirts. “Will this be…” He paused, face scrunching up in search of the word. He waved his hand around. “Uh, much?” He tried.

“Expenssive?” Tubbo provided. “Don’t worry about it. Just pick what you like.”

The human sighed, but continued searching. Throughout the process, he managed to pull out a few basic black shirts, an oversized sweatshirt with pockets and a hood, two pairs of black pants, and one pair of patterned sleep shorts. “Is this good?” He asked, holding it all out to see.

Tubbo nodded. “That’s fine. You don’t want more?”

Ranboo shook his head.

“Alright then,” Tubbo hummed, leading him back over to the front. He hovered back a ways, and slipped some of his coin into Ranboo’s pocket while he wasn’t looking, before flying back up to the counter with him.

“These, uh, please.” Ranboo muttered, awkwardly setting the clothes down on the counter.

The employee sighed, setting their tablet aside again and sitting up to look through the items. “Alright. Twenty kTen.” They droned.

Ranboo stood there, and Tubbo elbowed him in the side after a long moment. The human flinched, letting out a small sound and looking down in confusion. Tubbo nodded towards Ranboo’s pocket, and he awkwardly reached in and found the cash Tubbo had slipped in.

“Oh,” He said, before handing the coins to the employee.

They pushed them around in their palm for a minute, counting and judging authenticity before handing him back the change. “Alright, here ya go. Will that be all then?”

Ranboo gave a nod. “Yes. Thank you.”

The employee exhaled and swept all the clothes into a reinforced paper basket. They held it out over the counter for Ranboo with a wide, fake smile. “Have a nice day,” They recited, before dropping it in his arms and falling back into their chair, tablet in their hands a second later.

“C’mon,” Tubbo said quietly, reaching up and grabbing Ranboo’s spare hand. Not his wrist. It felt weird to be leading him along when Ranboo was the one masquerading as the head of the whole situation.

The two walked back out into the street and across the plaza to a small cafe. Tubbo frowned, standing outside the door.

“You okay?” Ranboo asked, giving him a nudge.

The aepid drooped, antenna hanging in his face. “Yeah. I’m fine. Here,” He said, pulling out more money and passing it to him. “You pay.”

“Uh– Why?” Ranboo stuttered, looking down at the coins in his hand. Tubbo did nothing but gesture to himself in reply before pushing the door open and flying inside.

The atmosphere was cozy. There were floating lights near the arched ceiling and shelves with decorative plants. The tables placed around the place were round with cushioned seats, but they were all relatively the same size with unmovable backrests. Not very inclusive. 

He skimmed around the tables and up to the counter, hovering in place to see the workers. A few other felids in the back, and one or two more smooth skinned folk with double arms he didn’t know the names of.

“Hello, how can I help you?” One of them greeted, coming over to them and looking right at Ranboo. The human stalled. “Uhhh.” He looked down at Tubbo for help. 

“What do you want?” Tubbo whispered, pointing over at the menu on display.

Ranboo blinked behind his mask and looked over at it, eyes scanning over the option. He pointed unsurely at a photo of a greyish sandwich with purple toppings. “Is this okay?”

Tubbo nodded. “You can get what you want,” He assured, flying over to pick something for him. “And I’ll get this,” He decided, pointing to the fruity cake of some sort baked in a mug. “So those are one bell sandwich, and one fruit mug cake. And two waters. You got that?” He listed.

Ranboo swallowed, processing the information. “I think so.” He whispered, before looking back up at the worker who was still waiting. He relayed his and Tubbo’s order anxiously, but managed to get through without messing up.

“Okay then! Will you take your order inside or outside?” The worker questioned.

“Uhhhh,” Ranboo faltered. 

“Outside,” Tubbo chirped, tugging on his arm to get his attention.

The human blinked. “Oh uh, outside. Uh, please.”

“Alrighty! You two can just wait out there then,” She purred, before turning to take their order into the back. This time, Ranboo let them out of the building, shambling out on long awkward legs. He didn’t seem used to leading.

“So uh,” He began after they settled down at one of the outside tables. “Why am I the one doing all the stuff now?” He asked unsurely, fidgeting with his fingers.

Tubbo sighed, tugging his legs up and looking away. He could barely see Ranboo over the table. And the human in turn was hunched over with his knees bunched up underneath.

“People won’t listen to me much,” He replied, having no way to get the specifics of his point across because Ranboo didn’t know the words ‘take’ or ‘seriously’ yet. “It’s because of what I am.” He shrugged, something else he was picking up from the human. Their nonverbal gestures were very useful.

“Oh,” The human muttered. “Are they…” He paused, clearly not having a word. “Hmm…”

Tubbo was pretty sure the word he was looking for was ‘racist’, but it was too broad of a question for him to supply the word. So that left Ranboo unable to finish his question, and the two sat there until their food was brought out.

A small mug was set in front of Tubbo, along with a small glass of water, and Ranboo got his sandwich and his own water. The waiter flicked their tail and said, “Enjoy!” Before slipping back inside.

Tubbo glared at their cups. “This is stupid,” He grumbled, bottom arms crossed as he took a bite out of his cake. “Aepid’s need more water than a lot of races when we’re not getting nectar with our food. And enderians, which you look like, don’t even drink water so why would they give you more?!”

Ranboo looked at him over the top of his sandwich, mask set aside. Tubbo sighed. He probably didn’t even understand any of what he said given how quick he was talking and the words he’d used. It sucked not being able to understand what was going on around you.

“Sorry,” He apologized, taking a drink from his glass. “Just talking about things.”

“Okay,” Ranboo murmured, taking a bite of his sandwich. Tubbo watched his eyes widen as he chewed. “This is really good!” He exclaimed around his mouthful. “It’s–” He paused, squinting in thought. “Sweet! I think.” 

Tubbo smiled. “Yeah. All the ingredients are pretty sweet ones. That kind of bread is known for that, and I think it’s flavoured cream cheese in between. Plus the fruit syrup on top,” He explained factually, pointing out each thing.

Ranboo took another bite and stared at him with wide eyes, looking mezmerized as he chewed. “I dunno wha’ you said, bu’ i’s good!”

The aepid chuckled. “I bet.”

Tubbo finished his food about the same time as Ranboo, only due to how quickly the human was eating. Then he turned to his untouched water and took a drink, and his face screwed up in disgust. “Eugh,” He mumbled, swallowing hard.

“What’s the matter?” Tubbo asked, setting his dishes aside.

“Tastes… bad.” Ranboo settled on, once again lacking the words he clearly was searching for. “I don’t know. Is it bad for you?” He questioned, offering the glass.

Tubbo stared at it for a moment in surprise, before pulling it forward with two hands and taking a hesitant sip. He swallowed, and pushed it back over. “Uh, no.” He answered, shaking his head.

“Hm,” Ranboo hummed, looking displeased. “It’s like… like…” He looked around, gaze landing on the metal flower boxes outside the window. “That,” He finished, pointing over at them.

“Metal?” Tubbo offered, thinking it probably wasn’t dirt.

Ranboo nodded. “Yeah, that’s the word, maybe. It’s bad, I don’t like it.”

“That’s weird, boss man, but alright. You don’t have to drink it.” He informed, leaning over the table and moving the glass aside, over by the other dishes.

“Thank you,” Ranboo mumbled, wiping his mouth. “So, uh, are we done?” He asked, grabbing his basket of clothes.

“I think so.” Tubbo replied. “You ready to go back?”

“Mhm. Yes.” The human nodded, getting up from his seat. “Oh wait, I have to pay, don’t I?”

“Sure do, boss man. Here,” He said, flying around and standing on the seat to be level with him. “Give me the money.”

Ranboo pulled the coins out of his pocket and offered them to Tubbo. He sorted through them, and dropped the right amount to pay plus gratuity back into his hand. “Just go in and give this to them.”

“I– Alone?” Ranboo questioned worriedly. “I don’t know if I can.” 

“You’ll be fine,” Tubbo assured. “Go on.”

He sighed, looking down at the money anxiously, before stumbling off into the cafe. Tubbo sat on the table waiting for him, until he came back less than a minute later. “See? You did fine.”

Ranboo smiled awkwardly. “Okay. Can we go now?”

Tubbo chuckled, pushing off the table and fluttered over to him. “Yes,” He chirped, giving the human a smile. “We can go now.”

Chapter Text

So. Aliens were racist, Ranboo was pretty sure he’d discovered. The reason Tubbo had him pay for things and stuff was because they thought less of him or something. He even noticed it on the way back to the ship, when another cat alien stopped them and tried talking to him, alien language accented and using words he couldn’t understand yet. They seemed to be offering fliers or something, and Tubbo had to explain that Ranboo couldn’t understand.

The look the alien gave him wasn’t a very nice one, so Ranboo grabbed Tubbo’s fuzzy hand and pulled him onward into the ship.

As soon as Tubbo got the ship out of the planet and got all the rooms extracted again (he still wasn’t sure how that worked), he was quick to find a distraction for the small bee-alien.

“So, what do we do with these?” He asked, holding out his clothes.

Tubbo looked up at them, antennae pricking up in surprise(?). “Oh. Uh, you need a room.” He said. Probably. Ranboo was pretty sure he said room. Although, he seemed to have two words for ‘room’. The one he used when addressing most rooms in the ship, and the one he used for his private bedroom. So maybe this one was more along the lines of ‘bedroom’.

“Okay. But uh, I didn’t see any others before.” He pointed out, making Tubbo look away in thought. 

“Hmm.” The alien thrummed. “Maybe… Follow me.” He instructed, buzzing upward and flying down the hall. Ranboo followed until he was led to a room partially across from Tubbo’s. It was empty inside, almost completely so. There was only a barren cubby dresser covered in dust, sitting alone in the fairly spacious room.

Tubbo flew off again, and came back with a box in his arms. Ranboo watched as he set it down inside the room, and pulled out something that looked like a giant, deflated, fabric balloon. Alongside it was a little box with a few buttons on it. Tubbo spread the fabric balloon out against the wall, hit the button, and the entire thing puffed up in a second.

“Woah!” Ranboo startled. “That was quick.”

Tubbo grinned, and kicked the box aside. He unplugged the box from the now inflated mattress and set it aside. “Here you go,” He said, dusting it off a little. “Now you just need some ʖꖎᔑリꖌᒷℸ ̣ ᓭ and things.”

“Right,” Ranboo muttered, walking in and setting down his clothes. With how little there was, it was quick to sort through them and place them in the dresser. After that, Tubbo got up and left the room, only to come back a moment later, peering around the doorway. 

“You coming?”

“Oh.” Ranboo realized. “Okay,” He nodded, pushing himself to his feet and walking out after him. “What’re we going to do now?”

Tubbo shrugged. He seemed to be picking that up from him. “Don’t know.”

They ended up in the living room, and settled down on the alien sofa. Ranboo sat on the part with an actual backrest to lean on, and after grabbing the remote Tubbo sprawled out on the part that lacked one. “What do you want to watch?” The small alien asked, skimming through the options on screen.

Ranboo pointed up at one with a pot of what looked like alien spaghetti on it. Tubbo glanced over at him, definitely giving him a side eye of some sort. “∷ᒷᔑꖎꖎ||?  !¡ᔑᓭℸ ̣ ᔑ  ∴ᔑ∷ᓭ?”

He smiled sheepishly, fidgeting with his fingers. “Yes?”

“Okay then,” Tubbo shrugged, selecting the movie and thumping his head down against the sofa.

Ranboo chuckled, settling back to watch. Alien cooking was so interesting.

___

Well. Tubbo fell asleep. All the lights had dimmed or gone out completely for the night, and Ranboo had gone through all three sequels for his cooking movie and he still hadn’t woken up. It wouldn’t be a very big deal if he knew whether or not Tubbo was okay with being carried. And, if he’d allow Ranboo into his bedroom in order to put him in his bed.

But he wasn’t sure. He didn’t seem to like Ranboo looking at his eyes of all things, so he didn’t really want to test his luck with anything else. So he just… sat there. With Tubbo leaned against him. Antennae drooped, and letting out flutey sounding snores.

He’d moved around the start of the first sequel in order to prop his head up against something. Leaning against the backrest slowly turned to sleeping against the backrest, which turned to leaning against Ranboo’s shoulder, which turned to leaning against Ranboo’s chest.

Was Tubbo a light sleeper? He didn’t want to wake him up if he tried to move him. But this sucked. He had hardly moved an inch in the past four hours or so. He was tired, his neck hurt from laying against the sofa, and he was actually kind of cold. 

Hesitantly, he reached out and brushed his hand over Tubbo’s shoulder, barely grazing the mane of fur around his neck. “Tubbo–?”

The alien let out a quiet “eep” sound and just snuggled closer to him. Ranboo sighed, hanging his head back and staring at the ceiling. He was trapped. 

There were no other movies he was interested in watching, at least not tonight, so after being left idle long enough the screen turned off, cloaking the room in darkness. Ranboo shifted awkwardly, half his leg asleep underneath him. He was careful not to wake Tubbo, but not as worried about it as before. Truthfully, he wasn’t a very big fan of the dark. He couldn’t place why, his brain was too fuzzy, but he figured it was probably due to something from his childhood.

Most kids were scared of the dark at some point, right? Parents or scary stories planted the ideas of boogiemen and monsters without knowing the kind of impact that kind of thing could have. A simple white lie about a creature in your closet was enough to make you stay in bed until morning, instead of parents having to stay awake and manage an overenergetic child. It made him wonder how many people chose the easy options instead of the wondrous ones.

Hmm.

“Ranboo?”

He tensed, and looked down at Tubbo. The bee-alien was looking up at him, fur puffed up, hair pushed out of his eyes and an awkward expression on his face. “What’s going on?” He mumbled, eyes darting away.

“You fell asleep,” Ranboo answered. “And then kind of… moved, onto me. I don’t have a lot of words for it,” He admitted, gaping out at Tubbo’s eyes. He really did like them. The color was very alluring.

The alien let his hair fall back down over his eyes and Ranboo’s expression fell. “Why do you hide them?” He asked hesitantly, hoping he wasn’t prying into something personal.

Tubbo looked down at his hands, wings twitching on his back. “Eyes are !¡∷╎⍊ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ, リ𝙹∷ᒲᔑꖎꖎ||. And mine look ∴ᒷ╎∷↸ anyway. They’re not right.” He mumbled in response.

Ranboo frowned. “I like them though. I think the color is cool.” He said, reaching out but pausing halfway.

Tubbo looked up at him, and after hesitating for a moment he reached the rest of the way forward and pushed Tubbo’s hair up away from his eyes. “I like them,” He repeated, voice soft with awe.

His mane puffed up, and he made a face. Hurriedly, he spun around and crossed his arms, still sitting in Ranboo’s lap and fur still fluffed up. “Whatever. You like them. Okay. Fine.” He chirped, antenna twitching animately. 

Ranboo smiled, resting his arms at his sides. “Can we go to sleep now?”

“Oh!” Tubbo exclaimed, flying up over the sofa. “I didn’t–! Yes. Yeah, c’mon. Sorry,” He apologized, top hands over his hair and eyes and bottom four waving worriedly.

“It’s fine,” He assured, getting up and nearly toppling over when his knees buckled. “Just,” He chuckled, looking up at Tubbo sheepishly as he tried to adjust his legs to standing. “Give me a second,”

Tubbo watched him as he shifted his weight, stumbling over to the wall to use as a support. He followed it until he was sure his legs wouldn’t give out again, then stepped back to walk unsupported. 

“You okay?” Tubbo questioned, hovering close.

Ranboo nodded. “It’s fine. That’s totally normal, don’t worry. So, uh, goodnight?”

He was sure he caught a bare glimpse of Tubbo blinking behind his bangs. “Yeah. Uh. Goodnight.”

Ranboo stood there, giving him a little wave as he slipped into his bedroom, before turning to his own. For second, he could have sworn he heard heavily muffled screaming from Tubbo’s room, but he ignored it. Aliens will do alien things, he supposed. And Tubbo didn’t like him in his room so he wouldn’t go in just to see what happened.

He walked into his own room and sat down on the inflated mattress. It was still fairly cold in the room, and Tubbo hadn’t gotten him a blanket or pillow yet. With a sigh, he laid down, using his arm as a makeshift pillow, and slowly, tried to drift off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Tubbo’s eyes twitched as he stared at the ceiling of his sleep pod. It was nearly 6.Sd in standard time, and he didn’t have to wake for another four hours. But he could not fall asleep.

He groaned, tightening his arms around the pillow on his chest. This was ridiculous. He was genuinely really tired by now. No doubt Ranboo was even more so — he’d been up for who knows how long waiting for Tubbo to get off him. It was good he was getting some sleep now, no thanks to him. 

Wait. He didn’t give him a blanket!

Tubbo chucked his pillow to the side and hopped out of his bed, flying out and down the hall and pulling a stack of blankets and pillows out of the closet. Balancing the pile carefully in his arms, he ran back around to Ranboo’s room and carefully pushed the door open, as quiet as he could. 

For a split second, he got a glimpse of Ranboo, curled up on the too small mattress with his arms around himself. Before his eyes blinked open tiredly and he pushed himself up on an arm. “T’bbo?”

Tubbo gawked. How the fuck did he hear him? That door hardly made a sound! It didn’t really matter though, because soon Ranboo’s head was drooping and he was laying down again. Tubbo sighed guiltily, padding inside and carefully setting down the blankets. He pulled one off the top and threw it over the human. Then another, because he seemed cold. Then one more for good measure. He wasn’t sure what level of cold was too cold for humans.

After that, Ranboo seemed to un-tense a bit, relaxing and burying his face in the blankets.

The aepid exhaled, leaving the rest of the bedding there for now and exiting the room. He crawled back up into his pod and grabbed his pillow again, looking at the wall. He rubbed a hand over his face, closing his eyes. What was he supposed to do? This situation was admittedly kind of complicated. 

Ranboo was a human. Not only were they generally hated and feared by the majority of the universe, but they didn’t get out here on their own. Almost always, they were taken from their planet. But Ranboo had not once expressed a desire to go back. It was weird. Tubbo himself had a love-hate relationship with his own mother planet, but he couldn’t imagine that being out here was better than being in his birth place for Ranboo.

And… Okay well the human didn’t really get aepid social norms. That much was OBVIOUS. Mother, it was so weird to have him looking at his eyes and holding his hand and being close to him. Did humans not have personal boundaries? And on that topic, did that mean humans were closer than aepids, physically? He knew there were a few races out there that would literally get sick if they didn’t have enough physical contact. Something about the energy and stuff sent from person to person.

Was he killing Ranboo? Was he starving him slowly of weird personal energy?! If that was the case, this was a terrible pairing. Tubbo’s race was anything but physical.

“RAAHHH!” He screamed, face shoved against his pillow. “What am I supposed to do here?!”

He laid there in thought for another hour or so, eventually nodding off for a few restful hours of sleep. When he woke up, it was due to the automatic lights turning on at 1.Md . He blinked slowly, staring out into his cell.

He let out a buzzy yawn and stretched his arms all around, save for his two hands still clutching a pillow to his chest. He set it aside and slid out of his bed. Ranboo was still asleep when he went to check, which was a first. Normally the human was up before him. But, Tubbo keeping him up last night was probably the reason.

He flicked out his wings and padded down to the dwelling space and kitchen. He collapsed on the lounge with a nectar pouch in hand, squeezing it and tiredly slurping it from his straw. He planned to wait around for Ranboo to wake up, but after an hour he figured it might be best to go check on him.

“Ranboo?” He asked quietly, pushing open the door after receiving no response. 

Ranboo turned to him, sat up on the mattress with the blankets gathered over his legs. His hair was a mess, and there were creases in his cheek from sleep. The human blinked, brows furrowing in what Tubbo had come to recognize as confusion.

“Who are you?” He asked.

Tubbo froze. “What?”

___

‘That’s. That’s an alien’ Ranboo realized. He held his hands together, eyeing it worriedly. Right? It was an alien, probably. He couldn’t think of anything else it could be. Plus the fact that there were stars whizzing past the window outside. If he hadn’t seen that, he might assume it was some sort of fairy or bee monster.

“I– Ranboo? What?” It questioned, and somehow he understood. He wasn’t sure why. He was pretty sure he was speaking the same language as it too, though he didn’t know what it was. And the fact that it knew his name was kind of worrying.

“How do you know my name?” He asked, tensing when it took a step forward.

It stopped, antennas on its head twitching around. “You told me,” It answered, looking confused. “I– Are you okay?”

Ranboo wasn’t sure. He pushed the blankets off that were layered on his lap and stood up. His legs were tired, and his head was spinning with the movement. He groaned, stumbling to lean against the wall, one hand pressed to his head.

“Woah, careful!” The bee alien exclaimed, buzzing over in front of him. Ranboo leaned back against the windowsill when it came close, watching it warily. “Don’t hurt me–” He pleaded, tensing up in fear.

It stared at him, seeming surprised, before it sputtered out a response. “No! What? I’m not gonna hurt you! Why would you think that?” It nearly shouted, voice turning high pitched and musical near the end with its anger.

Ranboo shrunk back, set off by its yelling. He held a hand over his chest, panic speeding up his heartrate. It pounded against his palm as he stared at the alien, antennas fizzing with weird energy, wings buzzing loudly, stingers hidden in its knuckles. He didn’t know what this thing could do to him. It might be venomous. It might kill him–

“Ranboo…?” It said quietly, flying forward slowly and looking up at him. He inhaled sharply, but his breath caught in his throat when it brushed its hair away and blinked big, teal-blue eyes at him.

He exhaled, posture slowly relaxing as he stared down at it. “... I like your eyes,” He breathed.

The alien stared at him, with a concerned expression forming on its face.