DreamSMP one-shots ||

// Pink tulips and apologies //

Here's some beeduo hurt/comfort/angst w a little bit of /p fluff :) enjoy Smile

TW/CW: Mentions of scars, burns/blisters

     Tubbo was not having a good day.
     Tubbo knew it, Ranboo suspected it by the way his usually bubbly husband was a little too quiet. He was serious, and gave short responses and kept to himself. Ranboo didn't know what was wrong or why, it was an unspoken rule between them that some things they just kept to themselves. Ranboo wondered if this was one of those things, one of those times.
     He decided he wouldn't pry (he never did anyway) but instead make small gestures to cheer Tubbo up and bring him out of his sour mood. It made Ranboo sad to see Tubbo like this, especially when he was in the mood to banter and joke around with his best friend. He was worried and just wanted to make everything okay, and try to snip away the suffocating tension.
     Tubbo was in the basement of his house, Ranboo just hanging around as he didn't have anything to do and enjoyed the cold weather of Snowchester.
     He could hear Tubbo hitting a hammer against something from below him, rough bangs that continued, then stopped and continued. This was usually what he did when he was stressed or down, he'd push it all away and focus on a task he could get his hands on. He didn't think, he didn't process. Tubbo did what was logical, and for him, coping meant finding a distraction. Ranboo grimaced and winced with every quick bang of the hammer slamming down.
     His first thought was to find something to calm Tubbo down, considering how hard he was slamming the tool and he didn't want Tubbo to accidentally hurt himself. Ranboo's mind instantly went to something that made him calm; small piles and mounds of dirt. His enderman side suggested it first, and it seemed like a good idea. He'd never tried it before with anyone else, but in his mind he thought it had to work, right?
     He'd went outside and pushed snow out of the way with his shoe, revealing a patch of earth below the thick white sheet. He used his slender hands to dig up the dirt, creating a little hill in his hands that made his lips pull at the corners. Surely it would cheer Tubbo up as well.
     He teleported back inside, his tail swaying happily behind him. Purple particles danced around his body, affirming to him it would lighten his husband's mood.
     "Tubbo!" Ranboo said. Tubbo was upstairs now, digging in a chest and looking for something.
     He didn't turn to Ranboo or even look at him as he replied a flat, "yeah, what is it?"
     "I uh, I have something for you.. look!" Ranboo stumbled slightly, waiting for Tubbo to look.
     Tubbo finally found what he needed— a handfull of nails, it seemed— and stood up to face ranboo looking slightly confused. Ranboo held out the pile of dirt for him, and Tubbo just looked at it with a quick expression of.. dread, almost.
     "What— dirt?" Tubbo asked.
     "Y- well, yeah. Don't you like it?" Ranboo asked, the hope in his chest flickering.
     Tubbo looked down to their feet, where some had fallen out of the hybrid's hands and through his fingers. "I— you're getting it on my floors." Tubbo sighed, his expression stern and uninterested. Ranboo's stomach did a flip as he suddenly felt really dumb.
     Dismissively, Tubbo walked around him to get to the ladder behind Ranboo, but in a quick flash he had teleported in front of the smaller brunette. "Wait— I was— I mean.." Ranboo didn't know what he was saying, or what he meant to say. He just stuck his cupped hands out in an attempt to get Tubbo to emit anything other than annoyance.
     "You're in my way." Tubbo mumbled, stepping around Ranboo again and heading down the ladder. Ranboo's shoulders dropped, but he didn't let the situation bring him down.
     He threw the dirt back outside, returning back in when he couldn't find any tulips. He knew Tubbo loved tulips, but couldn't seem to find any growing ones since the cold had killed most of the plants in the area. He remembered the time he left a handfull of the flowers in one of Tubbo's chests to find, and with it he recalled the way Tubbo's joyous reaction made his heart swell with affection. He missed Tubbo's smile more than he realized.
     But alas, it seemed he'd have to resort to other strategies. Ranboo never considered himself funny, and yet somehow he could almost always get a laugh out of Tubbo (and vice versa) when he tried. He figured maybe he could bother him with lame jokes until he finally let up.
     Ranboo climbed down the stairs— which was a tricky task for someone which such long limbs— and stepped up to Tubbo's workbench where he was crafting something Ranboo couldn't identify yet. Ranboo always enjoyed collecting resources and minerals over actually crafting and building things, it was an aspect of the duo's relationship where they were complete opposites. Nonetheless, Ranboo always enjoyed watching his husband do what he did best, and Tubbo would even join him on his mining trips occasionally.
     There was a silence as Tubbo focused on his work with such intent that Ranboo thought the boy's dark eyes of stone could break the wood he was chopping in front of him without needing the axe. Ranboo scratched at the back of his neck as his particles swam around him nervously. "So..... What'cha making?" Ranboo asked dryly.
     Tubbo glanced up for half a second as some pathetic effort to acknowledge him, returning to his work with haste. He shrugged.
     Ranboo teleported to the other side of Tubbo to get a better look. He never realized how much more he teleported when he was anxious.
     He snickered to himself. "If you turn it that way," Ranboo pointed, "it kinda looks like a penis. Remember when we made a bunch of those out of wood and put them all around the prison? We should do that again." Ranboo said in a futile attempt at conversation, at anything really. He cringed to himself when Tubbo didn't even smile, his only response the thickening silence.
     Ranboo continued when he realized Tubbo wasn't going to respond. "Sam's fun to mess with, I think. He's been different though— since what happened with Tommy, don't you think?" he asked.
     Tubbo put a nail against a piece of wood, getting ready to slam it down. He shrugged again, "I don't know. I guess."
     Ranboo must've been standing a little too close, as his particles began flying in front of Tubbo's face. "That looks cool so far, what is it anyway?" Ranboo asked innocently.
      "Ranboo—" Tubbo turned to him, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Your particles are getting in my way. Please— just move back a bit, yeah?" he asked. Ranboo's organs were twisting in his stomach again as he obeyed, stepping a few feet away as Tubbo turned back to his work. In his way.
     "Sorry. They're kinda hyper today, I'm not really sure why." Ranboo lied, he obviously knew the reason.
     He teleported to the other side of the workbench making sure to keep his space. There was another beat of silence as Tubbo scanned over some blue construction paper. "You never answered my question—" Ranboo was about to say, when he was suddenly cut off by an irritated groan.
     "Ranboo! Please, I'm trying to focus and I cant to that when you keep talking and teleporting all around me and— I can't think straight so, please. Just, go do something else. I need to be left alone, okay?" The words seemed to spill from Tubbo's mouth like water, slippery and wet and unstoppable. Ranboo flinched back, his tail wrapping around his leg as his cheeks heated up from embarrassment.
     Tubbo's scar that covered half his face seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in Ranboo's eyes now in the moment, reminding him of all the hurt Tubbo never told him about. This was just another side effect of it, strong petulance that lead to sharp and prickly words. It wasn't his fault, Ranboo knew he didn't mean it.
     But it till hurt nonetheless. I need to be left alone.
     Hurt flashed across Ranboo's face as a heavy weight fell onto his chest. He only blinked, when Tubbo looked up at him, slightly remorseful but mostly silent.
     His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides at the way Tubbo had raised his voice even slightly. "I.. I'ms— I'm sorry." Ranboo muttered, teleporting away and out of the house before Tubbo could say anything.
     The ram-hybrid only sighed, leaning onto the workbench and burying his face in his hands for a few moments. Then, he picked himself up, shoving down the guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach and getting back to work.