Promised Land

[14] Guess This Is My Home Now. As Tommy Would Say, "Pog".

Home.

It's a strange, four-letter word to Ranboo. For all that he could remember, after all, he had no home that he could speak of. He was abandoned at four years old and his family before that, his home before that, long forgotten, as if they were wiped away by the rain he stood in on the front porch of the orphanage.

And maybe, for a little bit, the orphanage was his home. The church was his home, too-- both will always be a part of him. He might forget the little details, but he has some of his journals left, some of his memories kept intact. It never really felt like home , but it was food, it was shelter, it was warm blankets and sunny summer afternoons playing outside and December nights leaving out his shoes for Saint Nicholas day and counting down the days of Lent and Fridays without meat before Easter. The orphanage was a lot of things-- but never, permanently, his home.

It was meant to be temporary. Ranboo was only meant to be there for a little while, until a family adopted him-- or, the worst-case scenario, he hit eighteen and became an adult.

The orphanage was also the place where he would be locked in his room every night to prevent sleepwalking himself into danger. It was the place that kept him sheltered for most of his life. It was the place-- it was not a place of all happy memories.

Unfortunate, that his memory loss would affect those happier memories more than the sadder ones.

But home is something Ranboo would never expect to feel in a place. Maybe, one day, long down the road, when he settles into a house and has his own family, or whatever God has planned for him, he would finally feel at home. At home, at peace, somewhere, one day. Never anytime soon.

Not now.

He'd given up hope of ever being adopted. He'd given up hope of having a family, of having a home, until he built it all up for himself in the future.

But life has a funny way of turning out okay, sometimes, Ranboo thinks, as Techno pulls the small, yellow car into the driveway of Tommy's-- of Phil's-- of Ranboo's home.

It was an instant feeling-- not one that he could describe very well. But it was his home, his new home, he had a home, a home.

He'd been to this house a few times over the summer after the attack by the dreamon, but his memory always left out the details. It was a lot bigger than it seemed, stretching back further and into an orchard sprawling through a good acre or so. Tommy's room was one of the windows on the second floor that could see the orchard very well. The furniture is all odd, mis-matched, colorful and tacky but in the best way possible.

He takes a deep breath as Techno opens the front door.

"AYY, RANBOO!" Tommy's loud-- as he usually is-- and is quite a force to be reckoned with, even with his magic, and he slams immediately into Ranboo and hugs him.

It nearly knocks Ranboo over. If he didn't have a good bit of height over Tommy, maybe it would have, but Ranboo catches himself and awkwardly returns the hug.

Phil's nearby, and so is Tommy's other brother-- well, it would be Ranboo's brother now, right?

Well. He hadn't had a chance to think that new fact over. He has-- Ranboo has three brothers, now. Not just a mom and a dad, not just a single parent, but a bigger family then he could have ever dreamed.

Other-brother-- Wilbur, Ranboo put two-and-two together quickly when Techno mentioned something about Wilbur and it rang a bell in Ranboo's head, he can't believe how awful he is with names and memories-- smirks, leaning against the stair railing, and Phil lets out a light chuckle.