Worst Case Scenario

Mind Tricks (It's Not A Fun Game)

---A few days later---

Tubbo was pacing around in the very top of his outpost. His husband was far down below, planting wheat and cocoa beans like his life depended on it. But if it kept Ranboo busy, he wasn't complaining.

The stone brick room seemed tiny to Tubbo. Even if it was actually quite spacey, it was still cramped to him. The only saving grace was the clear windows. Hooves clicked against the floor. Click, click, click. The goat boy's arms were folded in front of his chest, brushing up against the white fur of his uniform. He was deep in thought, his eyes staring blankly past the chunks of brown hair.

For the past week, Tubbo had been experiencing hallucinations. Not the first time he had them, and certainly not the last. Before, he could feel the heat in his scars swelling. Sometimes, he could see Technoblade's blood thirsty eyes pinning him to the ground, and maybe even a colorful blast or the silver sheen of a sword would follow. All night terrors and hallucinations from stress and trauma, something he kept bottled up inside, something he didn't want to talk about. These hallucinations now were by far the most terrifying.

In his peripherals, in between trees and buildings, the boy would often see a tall, raggedy figure skittering around. His first thoughts were that Ranboo was just being weird again, but then it happened when the enderman hybrid was right next to him. His husband was confused when Tubbo pulled him close. Ranboo said that he saw nothing, telling Tubbo he was probably just tired and stressed. That might've been true, but he was sure he saw the glinting of sunlight on curled ebony horns.

Whenever the boy was alone, if he listened really closely, he could hear the sound of a bottle being popped open. Sometimes that bottle would clank against the ground, sometimes it would smash into a million little pieces. There were low grumbles of slurred speech in a voice he knew all too well. His father's, the former president of Manberg.

The noises and shadows followed him wherever he went. The mansion had way too many dark crevices, the prime path was lined by too many trees. If there was anymore sanity for Tubbo to lose, he was sure this was were it was ripped from his grasp.

Clouds had blocked out the sunlight that lit the stone brick room. Tubbo's hooves came to a slow stop as he glanced outside. It had only been sunny earlier, but now fluffy white clouds begun making their way south, away from Las Nevadas. They were moving at a leisurely pace, but there was sure to be rainfall in the next day.

"Rainfall...shit, Ranboo's still down there." Tubbo hissed to himself as he hurried over to the windows. Looking down over the field, Ranboo was nowhere to be seen. There were plenty of blind spots from where the goat boy stood, but even so, he would prefer to see his husband in plain sight.

Tubbo ran his hand back through his hair, holding it out of his eyes to see properly. His neon green eyes searched past the cobblestone walls. The nuclear radiation symbol was prominent in his reflection, momentarily catching the nasty scars and what formed around his one pupil.

His gaze dashed back to the front gate of Las Nevadas, catching two figures walking on the black road. Squinting, he could make out Quackity and the person next to him. "...Schlatt?" Tubbo felt his blood run cold as he narrowed his eyes more. Maybe the lighting was playing tricks on him or another hallucination. His vision wasn't a perfect 20/20 anymore after all.

The figures were already out of sight distance, enough to simply look like two small blobs. Tubbo let out a shaky sigh as he let his arm drop. His small hands gripped the window sill, hard enough to make them stop shaking. His mind raced, thoughts flooding out of his mouth.

"There's n-no way! That must've been Wilbur. O-o-or maybe Fundy dyed his hair! My eyes were just playing tricks on me. I would know if he was back. I would-" His mumbling was sharply cut off by the sound of breaking glass. Tubbo sucked in his breath harshly and spun around.

Ranboo stood in the doorway, staring up at Tubbo as he was knelt down on the ground. He had knocked a mason jar off the table as he tried to enter the room. It had kelp drying in it, but now it laid scattered beneath Ranboo's hands, shiny shards of broken glass littered between strips of dark green.

Tubbo let out a long, relieved sigh and leaned back against the window sill. His heart hammered in his chest, adrenaline still running high. "Holy fuck. You scared the shit out of me!"

Ranboo let out an apologetic chuckle and speedily scooped the glass shards into his hand, careful not to cut his paw pads. Pieces of kelp found their way into the trash can along with the glass. Tubbo had salvaged and cleaned what strips of kelp were left and put them in a new mason jar.

After they cleaned up the mess, they stood around inside the room. Tubbo had found himself back at the windows, watching Las Nevadas like a hawk looking for it's prey. He felt the opposite from where he stood though, as if all eyes in Las Nevadas were preying on him.

"Tubbo?" Ranboo called out, getting a quiet grunt in reply. "Something wrong?" They asked as he wandered over to Tubbo, putting an arm over his shoulders protectively.

The goat boy didn't look away from Las Nevadas, paranoid that if he did, he would miss the strong beak coming down on him. "What do you think?"

Ranboo sighed and rubbed his husband's shoulder, careful of the scars that lay underneath. "I think you're stressing yourself out. You were muttering something fierce before I knocked the jar over...sorry about that by the way."

Tubbo shook his head. "Don't be. Most of it was saved anyways." Ranboo couldn't see it past the brown hair, but the boy did spare his husband a glance.

The enderman hybrid figured out how he was going to phrase this next question after a few minutes of silence. "Are you getting hallucinations again? You know I'm here for you to talk to."

Tubbo let out another sigh, this time exhausted and heavy. He lied. "I'm not. I'm perfectly fine." Tubbo could see that green slime rolling around on the road again.

His gaze drifted sky-ward, seeing more clouds start rolling in on the horizon. "We should head home." Not that Tubbo cared about himself getting wet. He was more concerned about his husband. And he didn't want to be asked anymore questions.

Ranboo nodded quietly and had started already walking out as Tubbo paused and stared back at Las Nevadas. 'You've been conspiring! With the idiots, the tyrants that we kicked out of this great country!' All that he could remember next was the ear-shattering bang!

The goat boy felt himself frown before Ranboo called his name. Tubbo's hooves clicked down the stone stairs to his husband. 'I'm not letting that happen to anyone, ever again. I promise'