Promised Land

[30] EPILOGUE

54 DAYS LATER...

Ranboo never thought he'd be a fan of parties, but having the entire community over for a winter holiday party was very nice.

Winter holiday, because Ranboo knows that there's more holidays in December than just Christmas, his religion doesn't rule the world, and it's fun to see the mixture of cultures. Though it's probably done in an incredibly brazen, hopefully not too-offensive way.

There's fresh challah bread mixed in with casseroles and baked honey ham and quite the impressive collection of yule logs. Chocolate and vanilla and strawberry, Ranboo knows that he's most definitely going to not eat anything for another few days, but it's worth every moment of it.

It was Christmas eve. The pine tree that Tubbo had carried down from the mountains (having someone who could pick up a car and not break a sweat came in very handy, especially because he just wanted to be paid in food and not anything else) was decorated with mostly handmade ornaments and decorations.

Both Tommy and Wilbur had made clay ornaments during their first Christmas with Phil. Techno apparently had a clay ornament somewhere, but he didn't want to bring it out (out of embarrassment, probably), and there was a new one decorating the tree.

Ranboo isn't good at art, but compared to the others, it looks better. It helps that he was older than when the other two were adopted by Phil, at least.

But the whole community being over was nice, if a little crowded.

"Ranboo, the green bean casserole is delicious!" Someone says, and it takes a crane of the neck to recognise it as Puffy, the lady whose cabin was most definitely still in one piece after the events of Halloween night.

Totally. He hopes that fixing up the kitchen went well, but it was fun to see Sapnap try and put out a fire when he, himself, is a human torch. And Quackity running to help and accidentally copying Sapnap's magic in the process and making even more fire?

Ah, he's so glad he remembered to write that in his journal, he would never want to forget that.

"Thank you." He replies. It was Phil's recipe that he followed as closely as he could, hearing that other people were enjoying it made his heart soar.

"No problem, kiddo!" She smiles. "I gotta go let Foolish know it exists before it disappears."

Right. Names and faces were hard to keep track of when you have memory problems and prosopagnosia, but he's trying his best. It helps that Puffy has incredibly curly hair that makes her silhouette stand out from everyone else.

He ducks through the kitchen to grab a glass of water, and almost runs into a conversation.

"Hey, Ranboo!" Dream greets him.

It's not too strange to see Dream again, but he definitely looks the nicest today than he has since... Well, the whole of November, when he was crashing in Techno's room in order to heal from his serious injuries from the King.

"H-hey!" It's weird, so many people know his name, but he has a hard time recognizing him.

Dream is hanging out with George and Sapnap (and he finally remembers George's name, because Gogy is a weird nickname based off the weird sunglasses he wears everywhere because of his magic), and they're just chatting in the corner.

"Dream, c'mon, can you please show us again!"

"Sapnap, you've known for, like, a month, and you've asked about it every single day since I've seen you." Dream turns back to the conversation and sighs, before pulling out a small bomb from nowhere. He hides them back when Sapnap tries to swipe it.

"The last thing we need right now is an explosion in Phil's house," George comments dryly. As the trio break into laughter, Ranboo takes it as his shot to duck away and head back to the living room, where the most intense Mario Kart tournament is going on.

Even Techno is involved.

As he makes his way back into the hallway, he hears a small gasp, and something runs into him. Not his chest, really, more like his legs, and they wrap around him.

"Ranboo!"

It's an unfamiliar voice. He glances down to see a little kid, with bright red hair. He... knows this kid.

He knows this kid.

He knows this kid because this kid is from the orphanage.

"C-Charlie...?"

It's weird to see her again. Her red hair is cut short-- much shorter than Ranboo's, which has grown enough to start getting in his face-- and she's in a little red button-up shirt and black pants with a pair of suspenders. She looks adorable.

But how...?

SHe must have been adopted by someone in the community, then, right? It makes sense. He feels the magic waft off her and it's the same feeling of home that he got when she gave him that last hug.

"No, not that name!" It's weird because she never talked, but that is definitely Charlie. Or. Wait.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I don't go by Charlie anymore 'cause I'm not a girl!"

Oh! Oh, okay.

"Well, what do you go by, then?"

"I'm Michael!" The little kid smiles. "Mom helped me pick it out!"

"I like it a lot, Michael." Ranboo returns the smile and the energy. Michael's probably ten by now, and whatever shyness, whatever reserving nature that he had back at the orphanage is gone now.

Both of them are in better places. And that couldn't make Ranboo feel any warmer.

He glances out the window as he leads Michael to the living room, where most of the kids and younger adults were, watching the Mario Kart tournament.

It's raining. It's not cold enough for snow, yet, but there's a decent slush growing on the ground. Maybe tomorrow they'll have enough to call it a white Christmas.

But looking out the window, Ranboo decides, he's not afraid of the rain anymore.