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“hey ranboo?”
it was late. so very late. so late, in fact, that tubbo could practically hear the silence that hung around his house. the only noise being the air-con, and ranboo’s mumbling.
he reckons it was maybe 4 am for him, only 8 pm for ranboo.
tubbo was still trying to get used to their synced sleep schedules. although, it might all be in vain since it felt like he would fall asleep any second now.
ranboo was currently doing homework. what kind of homework? tubbo wouldn’t be able to answer. he’s pretty sure that ranboo told him, but he was way too disoriented to store that information in his sleep-riddled brain.
he heard ranboo’s mumbling stop for a second, surprised to hear something from the smaller. he was 99% sure that tubbo was sleeping, but apparently not.
tubbo heard a noise of recognition, letting him know that ranboo was listening, and his head wasn’t buried too far into his school work.
tubbo’s voice was slurred and quiet, “how many jumpers do you own?”
tubbo could see the flash of confusion in ranboo’s face. they both had their face cams on, and the former was so glad that they did. he got to see ranboo’s beautiful eyes wracked in concentration and a slight blue hue ghosting on his face.
“uhmm… quite a few,” he answered, “why do you ask?”
tubbo hummed, his head (which was lying on the backsides of his hands, he was hunched over his desk) lolled from one side to another, “can you show me your favourite one, bossman?”
he could see the confusion on ranboo’s face only getting worse, “right now?”
“yeah!” tubbo had mustered up all the enthusiasm he still had left in him at this early hour. it wasn’t much, but the effort was still there.
“…ok?” the american had gotten up from his desk, making tubbo want to whine in disapproval since his pretty face had gone out of frame (he didn’t actually whine, but damn, did he want to).
as quickly as the taller left, he came back, but this time with a bundle of fabric in his hands.
ranboo moved his chair out of the frame and unfolded the sweater from where it was neatly sleeping.
it was a plain red hoodie, though the texture looked too ridged to be completely smooth. no design, very simple.
it was huge.
tubbo bet if ranboo put it on it would even pool at his waist. and that was saying a lot, the boy was around 6’6, and still growing.
tubbo so desperately wanted to tug that hoodie on. wanted to steal it from ranboo. maybe have ranboo notice he was wearing it the next day, but say nothing. maybe have him only coo and look at him fondly. but that couldn’t happen, since they were very much kilometres and kilometres apart.
he wanted that hoodie, and he was going to get it one way or another.
after a couple of seconds of showing the hoodie to tubbo, he bunched it up again and placed it on his desk.
tubbo smiled to himself, slightly evilly, “it looks comfortable. soft.”
ranboo sat back down in his chair, confusion so, so clear on his gorgeous face. what tubbo would do to finally see it in person.
“it is comfortable,” ranboo said skeptically, “what are you trying to get at—“
“how attached are you to said jumper?” tubbo cut him off, trying not to smirk too widely.
ranboo scrunched his eyebrows together, “not very? i don’t know, tubs. it’s just got fleece on the inside so i like it better than my other ones—“
“how would you feel about mailing it across the ocean?”
“…”
“tubbo, what are you talking about?”
tubbo suddenly got nervous, looking back at his previous self (from about 10 seconds ago), he can see how blunt he put that. but he’ll be damned if he lets that show.
“maybe you should get an impartial judge to see which jumper is better, huh?”
that did nothing to soothe ranboo’s constant confusion from this conversation.
“what do you mean?” he sounded hesitant. i mean, you would be too if your best friend suddenly showed an interest in your vast hoodie collection.
“you should mail a couple to me, and i’ll judge whether or not they’re worthy enough to be put on that stunning body of yours.”
ranboo ignored the flirty compliment, if he indulged in it, then he was sure he would turn beet red.
“you want me to mail some of my hoodies to you…” tubbo nodded his head, “…so you can ‘judge’ their quality?”
“yeah! it makes sense, you just have to go with it.” he replied, yawning.
“mhm… which ones do you want?” ranboo asked, going back to his closet to sift through the large collection.
tubbo made a noise of surprise, “wait, that worked?”
ranboo laughed, it sounded further away, since he was nowhere near his microphone, but it was a beautiful sound nonetheless.
“yes. now pick,” tubbo could hear the hangers sliding on the bar of the closet, “i’ll give you a few to choose from.”
tubbo mumbled a small ‘awesome’ and waited for the taller to bring the hoodies back to the frame.
honestly, tubbo was not expecting it to go as well as it did. he expected ranboo to awkwardly laugh it off, or just ignore the statement completely, but having ranboo immediately get a couple for tubbo to choose from is something he came about in a dream.
ranboo walked back into the frame, moving his chair again, “ok so we have this one.”
hoodie after hoodie was shown, and honestly, tubbo was probably slowly dying from all the excitement in his body. the fact that ranboo wasn’t deterred from tubbo’s blunt question, and happily went to find a few of his most comfortable hoodies made the smaller’s heart pound in his chest.
after about 6 hoodies were shown, ranboo sat back down in his chair, “so, what’dya think?”
there were a couple that tubbo would love to have, but the red one was still in his brain.
ranboo did show that one again as one of the options, but tubbo didn’t want to just take one of ranboo’s favourite hoodies.
tubbo hummed in thought, “would you be mad at me for wanting the red one?”
ranboo furrowed his brows, “this one?” he grabbed the same, huge red hoodie that tubbo so desperately wanted with him in the uk.
“yeah.”
“well, it was one of the options, wasn’t it?” he replied, soothing tubbo’s inner dilemma more than he probably thought he was.
tubbo nodded, “it was,”
“mhm,” ranboo hummed.
it was silent for a couple of seconds. tubbo trying to pick only a few, even if he wanted ranboo’s entire closet full.
ranboo sucked in a deep breath, “how about this?”
“i pick for you, and i’ll mail you them. it’ll be a surprise to see which ones you’ll get, and it’ll stop me from literally hearing the cogs turn in your brain for another hundred hours trying to choose.”
that did seem like the best option if tubbo were to admit.
“alright, we’ll go with that.” tubbo decided, yawning once more.
he heard ranboo mutter an ‘okay’, and he saw him rustling around with the hoodies on his desk.
“you better give me some good ones,” tubbo sassed, “after all, i will be judging them on comfort-ality,”
ranboo huffed out a laugh, “i don’t think that’s a word, tubs, but i’ll send you only the best of my collection.”
“awesome!” tubbo exclaimed, the last yawn of the night falling out of his lips.
with a fond look in his eyes, ranboo spoke up, “i think it’s time for you to go to bed, bee.”
tubbo groaned, running his hands down his face, “but we’re supposed to be syncing up our sleep… shit,” a wave of his hands, “whatever it’s called.”
ranboo smiled that perfect smile of his, “we can try again another day.”
“okay,” he nodded, “but you’ll have to promise to go to bed at a respectable time since i’m not gonna be there to yell at you to sleep.”
ranboo chuckled, “of course, just go to bed, bee.”
“alright,” tubbo started, “but can i stay on call?”
god, tubbo was going to be the death of him, “yeah, sure. just move the call to your phone.”
when tubbo had successfully moved the call from his pc to his phone and climbed into bed, good nights were shared, declarations of love were given (platonic, of course. both were too chicken to tell the other about their true feelings), and soft snores filled the call.
ranboo begrudgingly went back to his school work. this time, he kept getting distracted, wanting to brainstorm which hoodies he was going to send across the ocean. which hoodies he so desperately wanted to see engulfing his friend. he’ll figure it out later.
but that red one was not staying in america, that’s for sure.
||
“toby, there’s a package for you!” tubbo heard his mom call from downstairs. he was on a call with ranboo, as usual, and that package could only mean one thing.
“i gotta go, bossman, be right back.” tubbo said, taking off his bulky headphones, and calmly (speed) walked out his door to where his mom resided.
he snatched the parcel from his mom's hands, yelling out a quick ‘thanks, mum!’, and running back up the stairs.
the way he rushed to grab the package out of his mom's hands was probably concerning for her, but tubbo wasn’t too worried about that.
the hoodies were here.
the threw open his door, and sat back on his chair, placing the package on his desk.
“looks like you got a package, huh, tubs?” he heard ranboo tease, and if he looked up from where he was opening the box with a knife, he probably would’ve seen a smirk to go with it.
“indeed i do,” tubbo replied, ripping open the box, “i wonder who got me it?”
ranboo laughed, “truly a mystery,”
when he fully opened the box, what he saw was lots and lots of fabric. lots of different colours, some with designs, some with texture. none were the same.
“oh my god ranboo,” tubbo breathed out, “i said a few, not your whole fucking closet!”
sure, it was a lot of hoodies, but god, tubbo is not complaining.
“yeah, yeah,” ranboo responded, “i still got thousands of them here.”
as tubbo was pulling hoodie, after hoodie out of the box, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at the lack of a red sweater in the package.
don’t get him wrong, he loves all the hoodies he’s been sent and plans on wearing them all, but man, he wanted that red one.
but as he pulled out the second last hoodie, he was met with a vibrant maroon hoodie.
tubbo couldn’t stop the huge toothy smile from taking over his face.
he immediately pulled the hoodie he was wearing off and slipped the red on. and it was just as comfortable as ranboo described.
maybe tubbo just liked it a little better because he knew who it belonged to.
the material was so, so soft. he couldn’t put a finger on what it was, though.
as tubbo was smoothing down the fabric on his stomach, he spoke up, “what material is this made up of?”
ranboo didn’t reply for a couple of seconds, so when tubbo looked up to see what was wrong, he was met with the beautiful face he fell in love with wracked in fondness and adoration.
his mouth was open a bit in amazement, and he had lost his words.
tubbo smiled, “hey big man,” ranboo was knocked out of his little dreamland, “what material is this made up off?”
“oh! uhh—“ ranboo stumbled on his words a bit, but once he finally did piece together what he was going to say, a wide grin fell onto his pretty face,
“boyfriend material.”
tubbo sputtered out a laugh, a tiny ‘you’re so dumb’, and a huge smile took place.
affectionate looks and a couple of small, breathy laughs were shared after that.
tubbo sat back in his seat, “i’ll be sure to figure out which one is the best, and i’ll get back to you.”
ranboo smirked, “oh yeah? can’t wait.”
a silence overtakes them, but it was only a couple of seconds before ranboo broke it, “you look really cute.”
tubbo felt a flush growing on his cheeks and shoved his sweater-pawed hands into his face.
he groaned a bit in embarrassment, ranboo laughed his dazzling laugh, and suddenly, all was right with the world.
they’ll decipher what ranboo meant with the ‘boyfriend material’ comment later. for now, they’ll enjoy the peace that being together brings. tubbo will enjoy the safety the hoodies bring him, and ranboo will enjoy the happiness tubbo gives him while in the taller’s hoodies. all is good, at this moment.
all is good.