Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Three deaths on the same day. It’s rumored that three boys were murdered in their home. Still young and full of life.” The kid started, a grin on his face as he told his tale in a spooky voice.

“Some say it was brutal. Blood and screams echoing through thin walls.

Others say it was peaceful. A poisoning of gas taking them in the night.

There are only three deaths known on this property, but so far, 48 families have lived and moved from here. No one ever stays for more than a month before practically sprinting from the home and leaving most, if not all their possessions behind.” The kid found energy in the way his four friends seemed to hug each other closer, their eyes shifting around the room nervously.

“Twenty years have passed since the deaths of the three, and now, for the past 10 years, no one has bought the place. Reducing the estate value exponentially.” A sudden and loud crash had the boy speaking his tale flinch, the flashlight in his hand dropping to the floor.

“What was that!?”

“Who’s there?”

The group of five unimportant characters (aside from the fact that they broke into the exact place they were speaking this haunted tale of) stood back to back, fear overtaking their expressions as their flashlight blinked out, plunging them into darkness.

Footsteps shuffled loudly upstairs, something being dragged behind them. Something that sounded like… a body.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” One of the intruders screamed, making the five madly rush for the door.

They attempted to twist the handle, but it was stuck. The door refused to move an inch, the group strained against it, their whimpers and cries growing louder and louder as time ticked by.

“It’s stuck!” A girl cried as she attempted to open it. Her friend moved her to the side and attempted to shoulder the thing open, but there was no luck.

The steps from upstairs suddenly got closer, and instead of being above them… the steps were slowly thudding down the stairs only a small bit away.

“Someone break the window!” A friend shouted, fear shaking their voice.

As if being summoned, a shadow suddenly raced across the painted panes from outside. They had no way to see through, unless they wanted to peak out through the scratched paint holes that littered the window. And with how half of them were most likely pissing their pants right now, that didn’t seem likely.

Suddenly, every door in the house slammed open one by one; an invisible force flinging doors with all their might.

"G E T  O U T"

A disembodied voice screeched, invisible wind twisting around the group, their clothes and hair blowing about in the unexplainable breeze.

The front door was suddenly opened, the group of five stumbling out into the night, their screams piercing the darkness outside as neighbors porch lights clicked on to investigate the commotion.

The front door to the abandoned home gently closed shut. And if you listened carefully, you could just make out three separate giggles bubbling within.

----

“It’s perfect!” Philza exclaimed, shaking their realtor's hand, “we’ll take it!”

“Sir, you didn’t even let me finish explaining-”

Wilbur placed a hand on their shoulder, a gentle smile beaming, “it’s alright, we’ve read all the history on this place, it’ll do just fine. Besides, the house is only $15,000! That’s a steal!”

The realtor looked lost, and maybe a little frightened, “alright, if it’s what you want… I’ll get the paperwork started right away.”

To put it short, the realtor booked it away from the mad family, because who in their right mind purchases a house that’s haunted?!

----

“Ranboo!” Tommy screeched atop his lungs. From the sound, Ranboo could guess that he was on the other side of the house.

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Ranboo stood, well- more like he floats up, leaving his book on the windowsill he was sitting in before trudging off towards the hall, “I swear there better be a demon in the living room! You know I was reading!”

Tubbo’s head appeared, phasing through a wall as he asked Ranboo what was going on with just a raise of his eyebrow. 

Ranboo simply shrugged and gestured for Tubbo to follow, the boys phasing through the floor and onto the first floor of the little house, landing in the center of the living room where Tommy was excitedly pressing his face against the window pane, his eyes peeping out of the scratched holes that littered its surface.

Catching sight of them, Tommy grinned, a mad gleam in his eye as he pointed outside, “we have company!”

On the lawn, the ‘for sale’ sign had the word ‘sold’ pasted over it. The three ghosts practically beamed at one another.

After all these years, it was about time they had some more roommates to join them!

----

“Phil…” Techno sighed heavily as he parked the moving van in front of the house they were all supposedly moving into. “What is this?”

Phil beamed at Techno, not even having the decency to look confused, “what do you mean? This is our new home of course! It just needs some TLC is all!”

TLC was an understatement. The home didn’t fit in with its neighbors in the slightest, it’s old white paint dull and peeling, the porch looking a little worse for wear. The only hopeful thing about the place was the size, price, and the fact that the lawn still had a little bit of hope going for it. There were patches of green shining through dull yellows, and if you squinted, you could imagine some nicely trimmed bushes and flowers lining the property, which would make the home much more inviting.

The windows were all painted over, small holes scratched out in some of them for unexplainable reasons.

Even the door was boarded up!  

Alright. That’s it. His family is insane. Techno’s family is actually just losing it. They’re crazy. Who in their right mind buys a house with its front door barricaded?!

Philza claps his hands joyfully and opens the car door, “alright! Let’s get our things inside and unpacked!”

With an exasperated sigh, Techno unbuckles his seatbelt and follows along. 

They’re all going to die. Probably. Maybe. This place is sketchy.

----

Ranboo was absolutely ecstatic for the new family moving in with them. Being ghosts as they were, they couldn’t move very far from their spiritual tie. In this case, the house they all died in was their spiritual tie. If you asked what was keeping them here however, none of them could tell you.

It’s been twenty years, sure, they weren’t as old as some of the other ghosts they’ve heard about, but they’ve gotten bored of the whole, “appeasing their souls” thing and now they’re kinda just vibing. Ghosting around. They’ve got an entire house to themselves! And the first ten years were so fun!
They threw some things off of shelves, tickled some toes in the night, turned on and off lights. 

In the attic, Tommy carved a little tic into the wood with every family they scared off. The tally so far was a very proud 48 in total! That’s a lot of people in ten years!

But then people stopped coming. They had too good of a reputation and they were just… stuck. Stuck within the confines of their abandoned home with only each other as company.

Maybe for a year or two they tried to appease their own spirits. Find what was making them stay. They tried everything they could, from meditation, to attempting to summon demons (Sapnap was pretty chill, he liked to visit from time to time!) Nothing worked. They were simply here to stay.

But they made it work! Over the years they got some pretty nice furniture that stayed with them, a lot of families tended to move the old things to the attic for them, so they called that their main hang out zone.

It took some time to build up the energy, but slowly, they shifted furniture around until it was fashioned in a way that made them all happy.

There were some beanbags sitting under the lone attic window, they had some heavy furniture sitting atop the attic door to keep out intruders, and the newest addition was a string of fairy lights that hung from the ceiling (they were unplugged but they still lit up!).

They decorated their little space with abandoned posters and paintings, they even had a couple photos of the random families that had passed through!

It was nice. Their little table in the centre with an abandoned puzzle sitting in the middle, half unfinished. Ranboo had an entire bookshelf to fill with all the books that were left here over the years, Tubbo had an odd collection of technology, and Tommy had quite the pile of stuffed animals, money, and… ID cards? Yeah… he stole a lot of ID cards from the people that lived here.

By this point, they even had a really nice tv mounted to the slanted walls! Complete with a playstation console, an xbox, and even a nintendo switch!

The attic was their safe space. The only place in the house that they didn’t allow humans to enter, either ghosting the door shut or piling everything onto it and making it impossible to open.

They may be pranksters and troublemakers, but there was no chance in any afterlife that they’d let someone enter their attic.

“Ranboo!” Tubbo shouted from downstairs, “Ranboo they’re here! Get down here!”

With a grin, Ranboo phased through the attic floor and continued down onto the base floor, happily peeking out the window with his two best friends and watching the family of three approach the home.

“Alright, game plan!” Ranboo clapped his hands, gaining both Tommy and Tubbo’s attention, “we’ll just watch at first, get a good grip on what they’re like, what they fear, get to know them and such.” Ranboo began to explain, still taking little peaks outside and watching as the family attempted to take down the barricade on the front door. “Once we get a good handle on that, then we’ll start the haunting. Slow at first, then gradually make it worse until they rush out of here just like family #17 did!”

Tommy snorted, “#17 was hilarious! We had those fuckers running out of here in nothing but their boxer shorts! It was great!”

The door handle rattled, the sound of keys clinking together as it was unlocked. The door opened and the family entered inside.

The first was an older blond man, an odd white and green bucket hat atop his head as he surveyed the new home, a shine of excitement shimmering in his eyes as he stepped forward, allowing the other two to follow him. He wore an odd robe get up, he looked as if he came straight out of an anime actually.

The second to come inside was a brown haired guy, round golden glasses framed his brown eyes and a charming smile plastered on his cheeks as he eyed his surroundings. Strapped to his back was a guitar, his fingers fiddling with the strap that crossed his chest. He wore a soft yellow sweater, the collar of a white button up poking out from underneath. Some black skinny jeans covered his legs, and an odd maroon beanie sat atop his head, his brown curls poofing out of it.

As he stepped further inside, the last one of the family came in, his eyes shifting around the room uncomfortably. In fact, he looked mildly disgusted by the state of the place, which was kinda rude. The man was slightly taller than the second, a long pink braid thrown over his shoulder, and a matching pair of round golden glasses were perched on his nose as well. He wore a white button up shirt and some slacks, like he was going to some job interview or something like that.

“Well boys!” The blond one clapped his hands together, beaming at his two companions, “we made it! Our new home!”

“Dad. I’m just gonna say it.” The pink one said, eyes ever shifting around the dusty home, “this place is disgusting. Why would you buy it?”

The blond one shrugged, “it was cheap and it’s really close to all our places of work! We’re close to the school for you, Wilbur’s closer to the theatre here, and I’m closer to my office! It’s a win for us all around.”

Pink raised an eyebrow and gestured around the room, “Phil, I don’t think this quite counts as a win when the entire place is covered in filth and dust. I mean,” He pointed up above their heads, causing the other two to crane their necks towards the ceiling, “there’s footprints on the ceiling, Phil! How in the world did that occur!”

Tommy held back a giggle, hiding his face in Ranboo’s shoulder as he attempted to not make a sound.

Wilbur also laughed, elbowing his companion in the side, “I dunno Techno, maybe it’s haunted .” He teased, his voice making the typical singsong tone people did whenever they spoke about the supernatural.

Techno scoffed, shoving his brother's arm away, “there’s no such thing as ghosts Wilbur, we all know that.”

“You never know!” Wilbur teased back once more, but by now, Ranboo had enough experience with people; and none of these people believed ghosts were real.

Well. This was going to be fun then.

Chapter Text

“Wilbur!” Techno screamed, storming out of his half put together room and towards his brothers, “did you take one of my books again?!”

He found Wilbur cross legged on his bed, eyeing a splay of photos he had laying across his sheets. At Techno’s call he glanced up, “no? You know I don’t like your tastes in reading. I’m much more of a sci-fi fantasy type of guy.”

Wilbur chuckled, going back to the assortment of photos and picking through them, “I’m sure you’ve just misplaced it. Maybe it got organized with some of Phil’s books instead.”

Techno sighed in frustration, running a hand through his tangled hair. He took it out of the braid earlier to redo it, but never came around to braiding it once more, leaving it loose around his shoulders.

He was tired, all he wanted to do was read his books and lie down for a couple hours. Moving was a lot of work, they’ve only unpacked a part of their own rooms, it took way too long to sort boxes to where they needed to be.

But now his favorite book was missing and he had no idea where it was!

-----

“Ranboo…” Tubbo sighed, holding a book in his hand, “I thought we were supposed to be keeping on the down low until we got more intel on the family.”

It was surprising how alive Tubbo still looked, even as a ghost. He was pretty popular for being the spectre in the hallway. The whispers in your ear. An image from the past. He looked bright even as a ghost, and his eyes still shined with mischief and wonder. Tubbo was still very much alive, if it weren’t for the fact his body was gone and dead.

Unlike popular belief, ghosts weren’t cursed to live in the clothes they died in. They could change into whatever they pleased as long as it was something they used to own or have worn before. The downside was, if you were injured when you died, for example, maybe you got hit in the head a little too hard, the blood and the wound follows you to the afterlife!

The pale green of his sweater was just as bright as the night they died. A night they didn’t really talk about anymore. His hair was a mess, completely fluffed up as if he just awoke from a bad night's rest, and of course, as always, was the blood ever present on his sweatshirt, slowly dripping from the temple of his forehead.

Ranboo shrugged, snatching the book from Tubbo’s hands and lifting it above his head and out of the shorters reach. “I found it, therefore it is mine.”

Tubbo rolled his eyes before simply floating up and grabbing the book back from Ranboo with surprising speed. “No stealing. You can read the book when the humans are out of the house or some shit.”

Ranboo pouted, forcing his lip to wobble and his eyes to go wide, “please Tubbo, I haven’t had any new books to read in ten years!”

Tubbo glared, a small bit of his resolve starting to crumble around him before Tommy spoke up, appearing through the floor before Tubbo could give in completely. “Ranboo. You were the one who stated the rules, so why are you the one breaking them? I thought Tubbo and I were supposed to be the rule breakers.”

Tommy was also an interesting soul, he was the culprit for all the bumps in the night, the doors that wouldn’t fully shut, items falling off of shelves without reason. His eyes were still just as full of life as Tubbo’s, even if he was dead, the pale blue seemed to be the brightest color on him, even brighter than his dumb red baseball shirt that he never changed.

Unlike Tubbo however, Tommy didn’t sport any blood on his person. Not on the outside at least. But don’t worry, his blood stayed inside where it was supposed to be in the first place!

Ranboo slowly sank to the floor, laying dramatically on the old wood as he moaned a ghostly howl that echoed throughout the house. He could practically feel Tommy and Tubbo’s identically eye roll, before Tubbo slipped away downstairs to put the book in some obscure place to weird out Techno.

Ranboo hoped he placed it in the bathtub.

Tommy knelt down, giving him a consoling but joking pat on the head, “C’mon Boo boy, surely you can wait a couple more hours till the living goes away? You can probably read it tonight!” Tommy brightened, an idea forming in his head, “in fact, why don’t you read it in Techno’s room tonight so that he feels like he’s being watched! I’m sure that’d freak him out and still be subtle enough to not spoil anything.”

The kid definitely had a point there. He sighed as dramatically as he possibly could, making his body phase halfway through the floor to make it look like he was melting, “alright, I guess I can do that.”

Tommy scoffed, “you’re such a dramatic bitch.”

“Guys!” Tubbo suddenly appeared again, looking absolutely ecstatic as he flew towards them, “guys! I just came up with the best idea!”

Ranboo sat up, pulling himself from the floor and sitting cross legged, his full attention on Tubbo, “what’s your idea?”

“Alright, so you know Annabelle?”

There was absolutely no hesitation from Ranboo as he simply stated “no.” before Tubbo could continue.

--- That Night---

“Yeah yeah, goodnight dad, goodnight Wil.” Techno yawned out, trudging into his bedroom and shutting the door.

Who knew that moving was so exhausting? They only had their bedrooms and the kitchen unpacked so far, and there was still so much to do. The days he took off were starting to run out as well, he’d have to go back to work soon, and then he’d be too tired to unpack… they all would be.

Luckily, he found the book he was searching for. Oddly enough, he found it on top of the showerhead? Which was really odd, considering he definitely hadn’t moved it from his room. Probably Wilbur playing a prank on him.

Techno stifled another yawn as he changed into pajamas and crawled into bed, shutting off the lights as he did so.

His room was probably the darkest in the house, with only one window and his black out curtains. He could only sleep when it was pitch dark, light distracted him, then made him stay awake. But here, the darkness encompassed him like a blanket. There was an odd sense of him being watched, just barely there in the back of his mind.

But it didn’t keep him awake. In fact, he slept as though he was a kid again, his father reading him to sleep and keeping an ever watchful eye on his sons.

It was… comforting. In a sense.

Perhaps this new place wasn’t so bad after all.

“Are you kidding me?!” Tommy practically screeched, “nothing? No reaction?”

Ranboo was tugging at his hair now, absolutely lost, “not even a glance around the room! The guy just- he just fell asleep like everything was perfectly fine!”

“But everyone gets unnerved when you do your shadowman thing!” Tubbo insisted, nose scrunched in thought.

“Well, if you’d like to tell him that, be my guest!” Ranboo responded, he wasn’t really mad, more confused if anything. It wasn’t… normal for people to fall asleep that fast while he was being the shadow in the corner of the room.

Usually paranoia was his best friend in these situations, and the darkness of the room didn’t seem to matter either. 

Nightlights are the best, but usually it’s the feeling of being watched that keeps people awake and uneasy. He thrives off of that.

But Techno wasn’t affected by it in the slightest. It didn’t make sense!

“Do we call in backup? I mean, my idea earlier was pretty poggers.” Tubbo asked, a mischievous grin growing on his face.

That got Ranboo up and moving, pointing a finger to Tubbo firmly, “absolutely not. I refuse to share our home with a haunted doll of all things!”

Tubbo groaned dramatically, shoving away the creepy doll he was starting to pull out of its drawer. The thing was disgusting, a little girl accidentally left it here ages ago, and Ranboo really wishes that she took it.

It was slightly too old, her once blinking eyes now half closed and a nasty hole bitten through her cheek.

Yeah. That’s right. Fucking bitten.

The child that owned her last was an absolute nightmare, she probably scared the ghosts more than they scared her. Little demon child.

But she would often chew on the doll's cheek, her teeth slowly gnawing through the plastic material.

Inside the hollow of the doll's head now lived Shroud, Tommy’s pet spider. Why the creepy little spider decided to live in a fucking baby doll head was beyond them, Tommy just insisted that he liked it.

The doll was creepy in more than just it’s mottled face. Her dress was full of chew holes and wrinkles, hell, there were a couple mysterious stains splattered on it. One of them looked like ketchup, others looked like dirt and maybe blood. Oh, not to mention a couple burnt parts as well!

Like he said, demon child.

The doll's hair was the worst of it all. The girl had apparently decided that she was a hairstylist and chopped it all away. It looked absolutely atrocious. Chunks of hair were randomly missing from her scalp, there was an odd rat rail in the back, as well as some fucking weird ass bangs that looked like a drunkard tried to cut them. And yes, some of her hair was burnt off, resulting in blackened edges and a putrid smell of burnt plastic.

Overall, the doll was a fucking terror. And Ranboo refused to get near the thing.

None of them could haunt it anyway, being a ghost only gave you certain abilities after all; and possession was not one of them.

“C’mon Ranboo!” Tubbo whined as he shut the drawer with the nasty little creature inside, but still keeping it cracked open for Shroud, “we call in Sapnap or one of his friends, get a creepy doll haunting up in here, and bam, these fuckers believe in ghosts and we can spook them until they run for the hills!”

“No.” Ranboo answered firmly, crossing his arms as he stared at Tubbo, “possession is one of the ways we get this house turned into a museum of some kind. I don’t want our death stories to be publically shared with the world!” Ranboo pouted a little more, “besides, ghost hunters are no fun at all! They’ve got all that stupid equipment that doesn’t work all too well and half the time, their stupid spirit box mixes up our words!”

“We did get it to say ‘fart’ one time though, that was pretty funny.” Tommy butted in, clapping his hands excitedly as he recounted the memory.

“I thought they were going to shit their pants when we got the damn thing to say that,” Tubbo mused, chuckling lightly. “Ghost hunters never seem to learn that ghosts don’t like to be on camera. Number one invasion of privacy.” He added on, shaking his head in disapproval.

Tommy nodded seriously.

Ranboo only rolled his eyes, “alright, change in plans.” He clapped his hands together, gaining his friends attention, “we’ll start the haunting early.”

Both Tubbo and Tommy whooped at that, pumping their fists and practically buzzing with excitement.

“Tommy, you keep to your thing of slamming doors, throwing things off counters, maybe smash a couple plates or glasses. Just try not to hurt anyone.”

“ Obviously .” Tommy supplied, rolling his eyes in amusement.

“Tubbo, start whispering shit to them, run down hallways, make footsteps upstairs, appear in the mirror, that sort of thing. Do what you normally do.”

Tubbo nodded excitedly, his ghostly form fading and unfading from existence, making him look almost human everytime.

“Of course, I’ll stick to my usual,” Ranboo started, “make darker corners a little darker, shadow manipulation into night terrors, walk by windows to form shadows-”
“We get it boob boy,” Tommy interrupted, a grin on his face, “you’re an edgy bitch.”

Ranboo glared half-heartedly, “and you’re a…”

“Dick!” Tubbo supplied.

“Yes. That. Thank you Tubbo.”

“You can’t have Tubbo curse for you!” Tommy complained, “besides, that wasn’t even a curse! You say dick all the time!”

“I do not!”

“To be fair,” Tubbo added, “he doesn’t really say the word dick, he just makes dick jokes.”

Tommy threw out some exasperated arm motions, “that is close enough! In fact, that’s worse if you think about it! He makes way too many dick jokes for someone who supposedly doesn’t curse!”

Ranboo grinned, perfectly content to listen to the argument between the two.

“The male genitalia isn’t really a curse, nor are dick jokes.” Tubbo pointed out calmly.

“Tubbo! Are you on my side or his side?!”

Tubbo shrugged, “I’m on the side of chaos, as I usually am my friend.”

“Alright, you two are fucking bastards, I’m leaving.” Tommy pouted, sinking through the floor and leaving the two alone in the attic to laugh.

----

“Quackity!” Wilbur greeted excitedly, hugging his friend at the front door, “what are you doing here?”

“I heard you moved so I came by to see the new place!” Quackity explained, unease settling on his features as he glanced around, “Techno gave me the address.”

Wilbur noticed his unease immediately, backing up and holding him by the shoulders, “you alright man? You look all… spooked.”

“Not here Wil. Let’s talk somewhere else, where others can’t eavesdrop. ”

Wilbur dropped his excited facade, his face fading into something more serious as he shouted into the house, “I’m going out for a minute! I’ll be back soon!”

He didn’t wait for any confirmations before stepping outside, following Quackity away from the house.

They walked for a couple blocks, complete silence between them before Quackity suddenly whirled around, “what are you thinking?! Buying a fucking haunted house?!” He shook Wilbur by the shoulders, “are you insane?!”

Wilbur laughed, “calm down Quacks, I’ve thought it all over before moving in. Techno and Phil have some sort of event that they’re going to this weekend, they don’t believe in ghosts, no matter how many times people have tried to convince them. But now? We can prove that ghosts are real . I can stop pretending that the bumps in the night are nothing at all, and then we can laugh as Techno and dad freak the fuck out about the existence of the supernatural!”

Quackity sighed, walking away and face planting into someone's lawn in exasperation. “So you went and convinced your dad to buy the most haunted house in existence? There’s literal ghost hunters who’ve been wanting to investigate that place! Professional ones I might add!”

Wilbur shrugged, glancing back towards the odd house, “I’ve never seen such strong evidence in all my life, Quacks. And I’ve only lived in that house for a couple days. ”

“Alright Wil, I’ll gather the guys, you try to keep the ghosts from fucking you guys over.” Quackity said, scrambling to sit up in the grass, “you’re gonna pull out the ouija board and all that shit right?”

“Yup!” Wilbur said, popping the p, “I’ve got all my ghost hunting gadgets hidden under my bed. I had to disguise the box as personal shit to keep my brother from snooping around. I hid the ouija board in the monopoly game since no one touches that damn thing.”

Quackity nodded his approval, “alright, if we die though, it’s not my fault.”

------
SOCIALS >:D

Twitter- AJ_is_Anxious
Instagram- averyanxiousmuffin

YOU LIKE BREAD??? I LIKE BREAD!!! THEY LIKE BREAD!!!! (And if you're gluten free, no worries, you're still absolutely invited)
JOIN BREADCORD TODAY (this sounds like a cult or a clickbait ad but hey I'm running purely on coffee right now lol)

Breadcord!

and a link in case the hyperlink doesn't work!

https://discord.gg/eejTxx4eAv

(and yes! You can join!!! Anyone can!!! <3)

Chapter Text

The week dragged by so slowly .

Ranboo sighed as he floated back up to the attic, yet again failing another haunting.

He tried going after Wilbur today, made a shadow in the shower curtains while Wilbur was doing some sort of face routine.

The guy didn’t even pause in his pattern, simply finishing, drying his face, and leaving Ranboo alone in the dark.

“No response again?” Tubbo asked, immediately noticing Ranboo float into the attic and flop into a bean bag face down.

Ranboo muffled a no in response, Tubbo’s hand gently patting him on the back in reassurance.

Primes. What happens if they don’t scare the new owners of the house? Would they simply cease to exist? Would they be dragged into some sort of afterlife? Or would they simply be stuck here, haunting their old home while slowly fading away?

“Ranboo?” Tubbo asked, “are you having an existential crisis or something? You’re kinda just like- lying there, and you haven’t moved for the past two minutes.”

“Let me mope in peace.” Ranboo whined, burying his head further into the bean bag.

“Tubbo! Ranboob!” Tommy suddenly flew in, almost going straight through the ceiling if not for the earthy bind that kept them within the house. Tommy was stopped immediately, like he crashed into an invisible forcefield before he whirled around, completely unbothered as he faced his two best friends.

Ranboo slowly lifted his head, just catching the end of seeing Tommy smash his face into the force field, which made him and Tubbo laugh.

Tommy ignored the two, “guys! Phil and Techno just left the house!”

“Okay, and?” Tubbo questioned, an uninterested brow raised as he flopped back into his beanbag, bored of the conversation, “they do that all the time, what’s so special about it?”

“It’s special because Wilbur is still here, and I just saw him calling someone and pulling ghost hunting gadgets out from under his bed !”

Both Ranboo and Tubbo sat up for that one.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! ” Tubbo shouted, “no way has he believed in ghosts this entire time! He hasn’t flinched or taken a second look ever !”

“I know but even if he doesn’t believe it, he has friends coming over! Surely we can get one of them to freak out!”

Ranboo could feel adrenaline pumping through his non-existent veins, excitement thrumming at the back of his head as he sat upwards.

“Let’s go then!” He spoke, energy flying through him. “Let’s scare them so badly that they turn tail and get out of here!”

------

“Wilbur… how in the hell do you live here?” Quackity asked, his eyes fluttering around the room at a nervous pace. Not the only one who was unsure of their decision within their little group.

Wilbur rolled his eyes, “c’mon Quacks, you can’t tell me that you’re actually scared now? When you just got here?”

None of them would say it, but in all honesty, the entire group was scared. It was a small sized group, only consisting of Quackity, Sapnap, Karl, and Wilbur. 

The four of them thought it’d be a great idea to keep the lights on at first, then later go around and shut everything off, but they had to test some things first.

“Alright!” Sapnap suddenly exclaimed, he was the only one in the group who didn’t seem unnerved like the rest of them did. The vibes of the house not making him falter in the slightest. “Let’s just start! Should we walk around the house first? Let the ghosts get to know us a little better? Ask some questions? Ouija board? What do you wanna do?”

“How are you not freaking out right now Sap?” Wilbur asked incredulously, “do you not feel like you’re being watched right now?”

Sapnap almost smiled at that one, but kept his face more on the neutral side before shrugging, “curious ghosts are infinitely better than ones with murderous intent.”

Something upstairs made a loud falling sound. The muffled boom seeming to echo around downstairs as the group froze. Sapnap, not wanting to be suspicious, turned up his spooked act a little more, making it more fun for the chaotic three that lived within these walls.

Only the three spirits who resided within the home knew of Sapnap’s actual origins. That he was a demon from hell who’s just kinda- here now? It’s a long story, and quite boring if you ask anyone in the trio. But the cool part is that he’s here now and he’s a powerful demon/human that is fully capable of possession and all that fun stuff. Usually though, he likes to stay on the quiet side of it all, but he’ll still do favors every now and again.

“Quackity,” Wilbur started, voice shaking slightly as his eyes stayed trained on the ceiling, “you, Karl, and Sapnap are more ghost hunters than I am, tell us how to start.”

Karl was the one who spoke up, seemingly calming down a bit at the opportunity to speak about something he knows. “Let’s start with some basic communication.” He pulled a spirit box from his hoodie pocket, causing Sapnap to groan loudly.

“Karl,” Sapnap whined, “no one likes that thing! I’m pretty sure that even ghosts despise it!”

Karl rolled his eyes fondly, a smile beginning to form on his cheeks as he fidgeted with the device, “alright, this is gonna be loud for a minute.” He warned as he clicked it on.

A very loud static filled the room, causing everyone to wince at the sheer volume before Karl was able to quiet it to a more bearable level.

The shifting of channels was a constant background noise, filling the suffocating silence from before.

“Hello spirits!” Karl started, a slight excitement to his tone, “my name is Karl, and here I have Wilbur, Quackity, and Sapnap.” Karl introduced everyone, pointing in turn to show who was who, “we just want to talk to you! Can you say any of our names back to us?”

Everyone was quiet, anxiety prickling at their skin as they listened to the constant changing channels of static and muffled radio casters speech.

“ I-” the buzz of static shifted. Whatever was speaking drowned out.

“ Fucking bitch! ” The spirit box seemed to scream clearly, Karl fumbling and almost dropping the box in surprise.

The group froze, their eyes shifting about the room in a nervous panic, unease across their faces.

A manic cackle echoed through the room and the spirit box. Creepy ass static causing the laughter to fade in and out, cutting off awkwardly before starting up once more.

“ Make it- ”

There was an awkward pause in the device, the sudden silence overwhelmingly creepy before the static started once more, as if nothing happened.

“Make it what?” Karl asked, his voice trembling slightly.

There was a long moment of silence, only the spirit box making it’s annoying fucking sounds as it sped through channels.

Finally, it crackled to life once more, words stuttering and half formed before it uttered the clearest word of the night. “ Penis. ” The box said before shutting off completely, laughter howling through the house from disembodied voices that had the group completely frozen in fear.

No one else could see it, but Sapnap was the most amused, watching as three boys no one else could see surrounded the spirit box and chanted into it, amused grins on their faces before they stumbled back in laughter.

He tried not to laugh at their antics, seeing as everyone else was freaking the fuck out over the spirit box and the disembodied laughter that echoed through the home.

“What the fuck!” Wilbur screamed out, over the howling laughter of the ghosts, “what the fuck! Out of all things to say, the ghost decides on the word, ‘penis’?!”

A laugh bubbled out of Karl, who frowned at the fact that his spirit box was out of commission but put it away in his pocket once more. “Maybe they’re a younger ghost?”

“You know what this calls for?” Quackity suddenly called out, a mischievous smile on his face as he brought out a ouija board. Both Karl and Sapnap groaned in response, but still obliged to help Quackity set things up for communicating with the fucking alphabet board.

-----

The three were an absolute mess with laughter.

After Tommy had successfully gotten the spirit box to say ‘penis’, they knew it was going to be a good night.

Their energy was high, and the fear within the household made them feel absolutely invincible.

And then the beanie guy, Quackity, as they learned his name was, brought out a ouija board. Tubbo was practically vibrating with excitement, this was always his favorite part about ghost hunters.

The group started the boring process of setting up the board, getting out candles, sitting around it in a circle, holding hands around the board and mumbling some sort of… prayer? Incantation? Whatever, it wasn’t really needed anyway, but most humans didn’t really realize how easy it was to communicate with a spirit.

Sure, there were some language barriers, but as long as you’re not asking for something dumb or impossible (or unreasonable questions), spirits will gladly communicate with you. It’s just that each spirit has their preference.

Tommy will communicate by throwing things or slamming doors in response to questions, Tubbo likes to fuck with the temperature and ouija boards, and Ranboo prefers to flicker the lights on and off.

The group of ghost hunters (and Wilbur), each laid a finger on the ouija board piece, and Tubbo eagerly floated above them, resting his finger on an empty space that he found before focusing his energy to move the piece.

“Are there any spirits with us tonight?” Quackity started, looking upwards towards the ceiling as if he’d see a ghost there.

If he could, he would’ve been met with the sight of Tubbo’s evil grin.

Tubbo slowly moved the triangular piece over to the word ‘yes’, cackling to himself as unease started to settle over the group.

Well, unease settled on everyone aside from Sapnap, who looked completely content to be watching his friends freak the fuck out, and every once and a while, would catch Ranboo’s eye with a knowing smile.

Yeah, don’t ask Ranboo how that happened. Apparently demons walk the earth sometimes? And some of them are good? It’s a whole thing, but definitely not worth getting into. Unimportant details and all that. Sapnap was here, and that was fine by them. He was a pretty cool guy after all.

“One of you moved that.” Wilbur whined, the fear was practically pooling off of him, which was extremely satisfying now that they knew the man actually believed in ghosts! “One of you had to move that! Stop fucking with me, I hate this, why did I agree to this?!”

Quackity was positively beaming with excitement, and if Ranboo had to guess, this wasn’t the guy’s first haunted house experience, but it was definitely the most activity he’s seen in a single place.

But it made sense.

Ranboo, Tommy, and Tubbo were completely willing to freak these guys out. None of the gang were shoving cameras in their faces, or stomping around the house for electrical outlets to set up their stupid equipment. They were just some dudes hanging out and trying to see if ghosts were real for themselves.

That’s another fact about ghosts for you! Ghosts hate cameras. Ranboo personally hides away in the attic whenever a camera group comes along, phones at the ready as if they’re gonna catch some major evidence and shit.

Tommy usually tries to do ‘ghostly activities’ just out of sight of the cameras, and then watch as the ghost hunters try to explain what they saw without any evidence. He finds it immensely amusing.

It annoys all of them when the fucking taunting starts. Stupid jabs about how a ghost died is a surefire way to get a ghost pissed.

Then it's fifty fifty. Either you’ll get scared shitless because the ghost gets so mad that they use all their energy to scare you away, or the ghost simply leaves the room to let you talk to yourself like a loser.

In short, don’t be a dick.

“Hello spirit, may we ask your name?” Karl spoke up, brushing off Wilbur’s suspicions with a new question.

Ranboo watched as Tubbo giggled to himself before moving the triangle as slow as possible, making the small group watch in absolute wonder. They sounded out each letter the piece circled, and Tommy had to stifle his laughter as he guessed what was being said midway through Tubbo’s spelling.

“Y o u r…” Karl spoke each letter with a clear voice, “m u m.”

With that, Tubbo cackled, a cool breeze blowing into the room from nowhere at his burst of excitement and laughter.

Wilbur pulled his hand from the piece, crossing his arms with a frown, “now I know you guys are fucking with me.”

Sapnap raised an eyebrow, an amused smile on his face, “nah, we just have a jokester with us.” He looked to Karl and Quackity, seeming to have a silent conversation with them before lifting his hand from the piece. Everyone else followed suit, the ouija board sitting alone between them. “Sometimes this works as well.”

Sapnap grinned before calling out, directly eyeing Tubbo, “are there spirits with us tonight?”

Tubbo calmed his laughter and huffed, but moved the piece anyway, sliding it quickly over to ‘yes’.

Wilbur stood, arms in the air like he just didn’t care as he stalked away, “nope, fuck that, fuck this. Fuck this house, fucking- hell no.”

Tommy took the opportunity to have fun with the already freaked out Wilbur, standing in front of him and allowing Wilbur to pass through his form.

Wilbur froze, his entire body overwhelmed with goosebumps as he stood in the cold spot that Tommy created.

Tommy, on the other hand, poked his head out of Wilbur’s back and started making dumb faces, which resulted in stifled giggles from Tubbo and Ranboo.

“Wilbur? Are you alright?” Karl asked, noticing Wilbur’s frozen form.

Wilbur suddenly sprang back to life, backing up multiple steps from where Tommy still stood, a look of shock on his face.

“Fuckin… cold spot. Right there.” Wilbur muttered.

Quackity stood, a grin on his face as he approached the area Wilbur was just standing in before dipping a hand in and out of the space.

Tommy remained in place like a good spirit, willing to do anything to make people more and more uneasy.

Ranboo never understood how Tommy could handle being walked through or touched by people. Always standing in the perfect spot to graze someone's hand as they gestured, or perfectly touch his shoulder to theirs.

It was too overwhelming for Ranboo personally. If a person touched him, even on accident, it was like an electric shock flowing through his body. The sudden rushing feeling of blood and a heartbeat, blood flow, lungs moving, guts churning, it was just… too much.

Some spirits got addicted to the feeling, the feeling of being in a body again; so much so that they would attach themselves to a human and follow them until they died. It’s how the idea of guardian angels happened to form. Not to say that such beings didn’t exist, it’s just that most of the time, it’s just a chill spirit who likes you enough to stick around, and lives vicariously through you if they can.

Tommy squawked as Quackity unknowingly shoved his hand right through Tommy’s face. “Oi watch it dickhead!”

Quackity was practically beaming as he felt around the area, looking like a right idiot as he patted at the air.

Tommy moved away, giggling as they watched Quackity’s look of awe fade into disappointment. 

“It was cold here, I think the spirit moved away though.”

Sapnap snorted from his spot on the floor, still sitting by the ouija board, his hand casually sitting on Karl’s knee, “you probably shoved a hand through the spirits face, you dork.”

Quackity pouted, before looking back at the spot where Tommy stood prior to this moment, “if I shoved my hand through your face, I sincerely apologize. Honestly, I shouldn’t have tried to feel where you were anyway. That was very rude of me. I’m sorry.”

Ranboo, Tommy, and Tubbo completely froze .

People normally didn’t apologize for such things. Usually, they would laugh and then stick their hand in the same spot again, or punch at the air while laughter fell past their lips. Ghost hunters rarely ever apologized for things unless they were trying to get a response from a spirit. 

They’ve heard countless, meaningless apologies towards their deaths, but none of them really meant a lot. It was simply to farm some awes from the ghosts to maybe make them react more to the humans that invaded their homes.

Tommy took a curious step forward, coming face to face with Quackity before a grin grew on his face and he blew a puff of air at Quackity’s face.

His response was immediate, Quackity gasped and stepped backwards, rubbing at his eyes and yelling, “what the fuck was that?! You little shit!” A laugh bubbled up from his throat, betraying his false anger, “I think they just poked me in the eye!”

Karl fell into a mess of giggles, Sapnap hid his amused grin behind his palm, and Wilbur… Well, Wilbur looked like he’d seen a fucking ghost.

“How are you guys so calm?!” Wilbur screeched, a hand tugging at his hair. “This is absolutely insane! Quacks just got stabbed in the eye, I’m pretty sure a ghost ran through me, we had the fucking ouija board move on its own , what in the everloving fuck is going on?!”

And now… It was Ranboo’s turn.

With a nod from Tommy and Tubbo, Ranboo grinned, and proceeded to turn off every light in the house with a single snap of his fingers, encasing the group in pure darkness. Every candle blew out simultaneously (with help from Tommy and Tubbo), and the group held a baited breath as their world darkened around them.

Sapnap calmly brought out a flashlight (or a torch , as Tubbo and Tommy would insist), and swept the beam around the room.

Now this is where the trio really shined.

In the darkness, your imagination gets the best of you.

The shadows stretch a little further, every sound gets a little louder, your mind fills in the blanks for you and makes everything a little worse than it may seem.

Now it was time for the trio to actually get to work. The ghost hunters had their fun, and now, it was their turn.

----

As per usual,
SOCIALS!!!

Twitter- Breadking_AJ

Instagram- AJ_the_BreadKing

Bread.

Join breadcord.

yes. (only if you want to of course! Lots of updates, and other fun stuff to be had!)

Breadcord

And here's a link in case the hyperlink doesn't work!
https://discord.gg/dCbYmVXjH5

Chapter Text

If you asked Wilbur how he thought his night would go, he would tell you that creeping through his own house, alone and in the dark, was not on the agenda.

His hand shook slightly as he clutched his flashlight with a vice grip, he was currently in the darkened hallway, each doorway pitch black and uninviting as he slowly crept down the hall.

They all decided to split up in order to, ‘amplify the spooks’, as Karl put it.

Wilbur couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder every other step, there were still boxes against the wall in the halls, the items inside them not yet put away in their rightful places. Which meant that the boxes would cast ominous shadows that seemed to stretch for fucking miles.

Why was he given the hallway and bedrooms? Why couldn’t they pair up? Why did Wilbur ever ask Quackity to come over in the first place?!

Wilbur asked these questions to the primes above, hoping that maybe he would just fall to the floor and fall asleep for the rest of this experience and never have to do this again. He wasn’t the biggest believer in ghosts anyway, he just liked to join Quackity on his little ghost hunts and see what all the hype was about. 

Look, he believed in having fun with his friends and he’s done so much ghost shit now that he might as well continue being a semi-believer. But he was honestly there for moral support, he didn’t like ghost talk as much as he used to; not anymore at least.

Splitting up was bullshit though, and Wilbur wanted an out.

Sapnap was asked to investigate upstairs, where a few offices would soon be, one for Wilbur, Techno, and Phil; as well as an upstairs living area and an extra bathroom. Karl took the kitchen, dining room, and main room spaces, leaving Wilbur to investigate the hallway and the three bedrooms it connected to, as well as the downstairs bathroom. Sapnap happily offered to take the basement, which was more of a nice family space since it’d obviously been redone a couple of times.

They were efficiently split up, and Wilbur absolutely despised it.

He could hear Karl’s fucking spirit box so well he might as well have been pressing his ear to the damn thing. Every creak from upstairs had his hair on end, and Wilbur could’ve sworn that there was something moving within the shadows, but whenever he flashed his light over, nothing showed up.

“Alright, Sapnap told me to try… talking to you.” Wilbur asked nothing, his voice coming out slightly shaky to his displeasure. He scoffed, “This is ridiculous. As if a fucking dead thing is gonna speak back.”

Karl’s spirit box shut off, and Wilbur was suddenly plunged into an eerie silence, nothing to drag him from his wandering thoughts except the soft mumblings of his friends in the other rooms.

Wilbur froze in the middle of the hallway, directly in front of Phil’s bedroom door. Phil’s room was the master bedroom, making it the biggest bedroom within the house. He stared inside, the moonlight that creeped in through the windows barely lighting up the room at all.

Within the deepest shadows, right next to the windows, was a figure.

The shadowed figure was definitely humanoid, and they were as still as death.

Wilbur didn’t dare to breathe; slowly, he started to bring his flashlight up, trying to douse the shadow in light, but his beam suddenly flickered off, leaving him in darkness.

His heartbeat raced in his chest, and faintly, just barely audible, was the sound of… music?

Against his better judgement, Wilbur took a step forward into the room, his eyes never leaving the spot that he saw the shadow.

The second his foot passed the threshold of the door, the music grew louder, allowing him to make out the notes.

Wait… was that…?

Wilbur stilled, unconsciously holding his breath in order to strain his ears, his heartbeat pounding quietly in the back of his mind.

“Is that animal crossing music?” Wilbur asked the air, feeling only slightly ridiculous at the idea that he was talking to nothing.

The music faded away, and distantly, he could swear he could hear someone laughing. But it was like their laughter was underwater and miles away. Just barely on the edge of his hearing.

His eyes were starting to go all fuzzy from staring at the same spot in the darkness of the room, so he had no choice but to rub at them.

When he looked back, the figure was gone.

But not for long.

Movement in the corner of the room caught his eye and he whirled around to face it, his focus dead set on the darkest area of his fathers room. Just out of sight of the natural moonlight that drifted through the window.

As he stared at the shadow, his eyes slowly started to adjust; revealing the same figure from before. Shadowy, tall, and… really fucking skinny. Bean-pole looking asshat right there.

His body locked into place as he made what he assumed to be eye contact with the thing.

Then it lunged .

Black shadow sped towards Wilbur’s face, so Wilbur did the only thing he could do.

Wilbur screamed.

------

“Guys… no. ” Sapnap sighed, rubbing his eyes with his fingers as if he was tired of the chaotic trio that lived in the house. “I’m not about to give Wilbur ‘the sight’ just because you want to fuck with him.”

“But Sapnaaaap…” Tubbo whined, draping himself dramatically over Sapnap’s shoulder, “imagine how funny it’ll be!”

“Absolutely not.” Sapnap rolled his eyes, trying to play it off like he was annoyed at them, when in fact, he was actually very amused by their antics. “What if Wilbur calls for an exorcism? What will you do then?”

Now it was Ranboo’s turn to butt into the conversation, “if you’re worried about your summoning circle, no one is getting to that. We’ve kept the attic locked away for years now. And you already know that exorcisms don’t actually do anything to us, they just make us weaker than normal, and they make human brains less fidgety to the things that go bump in the night.”

“Yes, but you rely on that. Without people's ability to overthink, your powers would be practically nonexistent until the family moves out, or until someone does something to provoke one of you.” The demon glanced nervously over his shoulder, his voice lowered as he tried not to raise suspicion in any of his friends who were currently exploring the house. “Also, where in the hell is Tommy? I thought for sure that all three of you would come to bother me first!”

Tubbo shrugged at the last question, then attempted to wiggle his eyebrows in a teasing manner, “awe! Sapnap cares about us Boo!”

Sapnap scoffed, trying his damndest not to smile, “stop farming awes and go find Tommy for me, I don’t want anyone to have a heart attack just because our little raccoon child decided to go feral on them.”

Ranboo and Tubbo shared a glance; they absolutely knew that Tommy was trying to haunt Wilbur at the moment. For some reason, Tommy already formed an attachment to the man, his determination to scare him becoming stronger by the day.

He practically begged Tubbo and Ranboo to keep Sapnap distracted while he went to scare Wilbur, knowing that Sapnap would try to stop him. Sapnap said that he didn’t want anyone in the group to be traumatized, but come on! They’re just three little ghosts! What’s the harm in a little spooking?

Sapnap’s eyes widened comically as he caught the glance between the two troublemakers, “you little shits!”

But just as he turned to try and find Tommy, a scream broke out from downstairs, a hum of energy rushing through all their forms in a refreshing wave. Fear did that to ghosts and demons alike, it’s why they aimed to scare people so often.

Tubbo and Ranboo immediately fell to the floor in a fit of cackling, the house bursting to life as concerned calls for Wilbur were shouted down the halls. Footsteps rushed to where Wilbur was from all corners of the place.

Sapnap paused at the door to halfheartedly glare at them, “I’m going to banish you to the attic after this, I swear to hell below.” 

It was a light threat, one that he most likely wouldn’t pull through on since he didn’t want to actually take away the only fun these ghosts have had in years.

Ranboo and Tubbo were still in fits of laughter, not being able to respond to the threat, causing Sapnap to roll his eyes as he ran for the stairs.

The pair drifted through the floor and towards where the old man of the house slept, finding Tommy hunched over himself in tears of laughter as Wilbur sat whimpering on the floor, arms over his head.

The rest of the group rushed into the room, immediately crowding over Wilbur and asking various questions of “what happened?” and “what’s wrong?”

Karl knelt by Wilbur’s side, gently rubbing the man's back as he tried to calm the guy down, a concerned look on his face. His vibrantly colored hoodie was definitely not what most people would go ghost hunting in, but who were they to judge?

Sapnap rushed into the room last, stepping forward to kneel in front of Wilbur, brows furrowed in concern. His white headband fluttered behind him, he never took the thing off, in fact, he was actually summoned with it.

“Hey Wil, you’re alright man.” Sapnap whispered reassuringly, “you’re safe, no one’s hurt. It was just a shadow.”

Seeing how genuinely scared Wilbur was, the trio’s laughter melted away, a curious type of concern crossing their faces as they watched the events unfold.

Wilbur slowly took a chance to look up, seeing Sapnap in the dim lighting, combined with the white light of three separate flashlights, and dived into Sapnap’s chest, his body shaking in a concerning way.

Sapnap only wrapped his arms around the man, softly consoling him and reassuring him that he was safe.

Quackity knelt by Wilbur next, taking a moment to adjust the blue beanie on his head before he spoke. “Hey Wil… should we stop for the night? I can make some hot chocolate and we can put on a movie instead?”

Wilbur paused, turning his head from being buried in Sapnap’s chest to make eye contact with Quackity, “can we watch Hamilton?”

Quackity snorted, “sure man, whatever brings you the most comfort.”

The four helped Wilbur to his feet, and they stumbled into the living room. The ghost trio did not miss the way Sapnap glared at them on his way out of the bedroom. Mouthing quietly at them, “attic. Now.”

The three flinched, and quickly ascended to their attic, knowing that Sapnap would no doubt follow them just as soon as he took care of Wilbur.

They could vaguely hear the television being turned on, the volume up louder than normal, and eventually, the reassuring murmurs melted into laughter as the fear ebbed away.

The energy change was draining on the three ghosts, causing the three to curl up into their little beanbags and shut their eyes in a mock impression of rest.

Sapnap suddenly rose from the floor, his form slightly see through as he left his physical body behind in order to speak to them. He probably made an excuse to run to the bathroom, or he was faking sleep in order to project his spirit from his body.

“I told you three, keep the scares on low tonight!” Sapnap immediately whisper-shouted, crossing his arms in the ‘I’m disappointed in you stance’.

Tommy stood from his slumped position, pointing a finger to Sapnap in argument, “you didn’t tell us that he’d freak out so badly!”

“I didn’t think I had to!” Sapnap said, throwing his arms out in exasperation. “Wilbur scares super easily! The man doesn’t believe in ghosts as much as Karl and Quackity do, but he’s the most jumpy when it comes to the supernatural! I swear ghosts attach themselves to him like moths to a flame.”

Tommy took a step back, his cheeks erupting in a red blush.

Sapnap sighed at the movement, a hand going to rub his eyes tiredly. “You went and got attached… didn’t you.”

It wasn’t a question.

Tommy nodded meekly in response.

The demon sighed heavily, taking a moment to sit on the floor, his hands still rubbing at his eyes. “No wonder he reacted so badly…”

Tommy flopped down into his own beanbag, guilt shining in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to…”

He really didn’t! All Tommy wanted was to spook the guy, but something about Wilbur was… fascinating. Sapnap was right, Wilbur was like a flame, and ghosts were like moths drawn to him. Something about Wilbur was captivating in the sense that he was so energetic and fearful. It was like an exposed electrical wire filled with energy for Tommy. 

Besides, Tommy has gotten to know Wilbur silently in the time he’s lived here. There was some sort of… connection, between the two. Unspoken but there all the same.

There was something there, a calling that made Tommy want to tease Wilbur for the soft colored clothing he wore, and the dumb beanie on his head. He wanted to talk to the guy, and get to know him more than what he knew from shadowing him.

He wanted… to be his friend.

Don’t get him wrong! Ranboo and Tubbo are great, they really are! But when you’ve been stuck with the same people for literal years, things can tend to get dull at times.

Wilbur was so different from Tommy’s normal, that Tommy couldn’t help but latch onto that energy.

When a spirit likes a living person, they have the ability to basically latch onto the living person's energy. It entirely depends on if the spirit and the living have energies that either match, or compliment one another. 

If a spirit chooses to attach itself to you, most of the time, you can just ask them to leave. A lot of ghosts don’t like pissing people off, the last thing they want to do is to get the house exorcized or some shit. 

There are other instances where a person can give a spirit permission to latch onto them. This will not end well, and it is highly not recommended. (Been there, done that, please don’t invite spirits to latch onto you).

In short, Tommy liked Wilbur’s energy, and now he has free range to… basically steal some of that energy for himself. It also amplifies Wilbur’s awareness of him, hence the reason why Tommy was able to scare the man so well.

“Sapnap, just give Wilbur fucking vision and let me talk to him!” Tommy whined, sinking into his beanbag with all the dramatics he could muster.

“Absolutely not,” Sapnap shut him down immediately, crossing his arms over his chest, “he’s already fucking terrified. For all his talk of being a believer or not, if he saw one of you, or talked with one of you, I don’t think he’d take it all too well.”

“What about Techno, or Phil?” Tubbo asked, sprawled upside down on his own beanbag, “surely one of them can see us? I mean, not everyone will freak out at the sight of ghosts.”

Sapnap sighed, rubbing his eyes with his fingers at Tubbo’s question. 

“Tubbo. They don’t believe in ghosts.” Sapnap deadpanned, “how do you think they’ll react to seeing three bloody kids inside their house all of a sudden?”

“Correction,” Tommy piped up, “ our house. Not theirs. Also, my clothes are clean , bossman.”

“Apologies.” Sapnap said easily, all too used to the trio’s odd love for their home, how they always insisted that it was theirs, no matter who owned the contract in the mortal realm. “The point is, I can’t just give people the vision left and right. I haven’t even given it to Karl or Quackity! And they’re my-” He cleared his throat, a sudden blush crossing his cheeks as he hastily corrected, “and they’re ghost hunters!”

Ranboo floated up from his beanbag, immediately getting into Sapnap’s face with the cheekiest smile he could muster, “what were you going to say there Sap? Were you going to say… boyfriends? ”

Tubbo and Tommy snorted from their own seats, quick to slap a hand over their mouths as Sapnap sent them a deadly glare.

He leveled his glare back at Ranboo, pushing the taller one away by the forehead, “I was not going to say that.” He insisted, his cheeks as red as a fucking sunset.

“It’s okay Sapnap,” Tubbo joined in, a shit-eating grin on his own face, “we know you love them.”

Tommy pretended to gag in the corner, an amused giggle sneaking out his chest as Sapnap sputtered in embarrassment.

“I cannot believe-” Sapnap suddenly froze, his eyes focused on something distant.

The playful atmosphere they had all created suddenly dropped into one of genuine worry.

Sapnap focused back on them, his face covered in worry, “no more haunting tonight, but get down to the living room. Now .”

There was no time for debate as Sapnap simply vanished, leaving the trio to eye one another with a worried curiosity before drifting through the floor and towards the living room.

It must’ve been amusing to watch Sapnap suddenly snap awake at the conversation the living were having.

The way the small group of four were situated made the event all the more amusing.

Wilbur was curled up against the arm of the couch, a steaming mug of hot chocolate in his hands and a fluffy blanket over his lap. On the opposite side of the couch with Wilbur was Karl, who was stretching his legs across most of the surface in order to have Sapnap sitting on his lap, his head against Karl’s chest. Karl was brushing through Sapnaps hair with his fingers, taking extra care to not accidentally tug on his headband.

Quackity however, was sitting on the armchair next to the couch, closest to Wilbur. A slight pout sat on his lips at the sight of Karl and Sapnap snuggling and him not having the room to join.

“Absolutely not.” Sapnap interjected in the middle of their conversation. They all believed he was sleeping, so most jumped at him suddenly speaking up. “I don’t care if you say he’s a good guy Quacks, he’s not about to come into this home and ‘cleanse’ it.”

Quackity startled in surprise at Sapnap’s sudden jump into the conversation. He placed a hand over his heart as a shocked smile crossed his lips, “primes Sapnap, don’t scare me like that!” He barked out a small laugh before leveling a calmer look at his friend, “but Sap, it’s fine. Ant is a good guy! He has some of the best results when it comes to communicating with spirits!”

“Yeah but he’s also the best in the business when it comes to exorcisms.” Sapnap insisted, pointing a finger Quackity’s way. “You know I don’t like exorcists.” 

Karl wrapped his arms around Sapnap from behind, “we know Sap, but Ant wouldn’t be coming here to perform an exorcism unless the spirits are harmful .” Karl soothed easily, “we’re just giving Wilbur options of communication. Ouija boards only do so much.”

Wilbur snorted, “so you want me to invite some lunatic into my home who claims to talk to ghosts?”

Sapnap gestured towards Wilbur in agreement, “exactly my point!”

Quackity shook his head, falling back onto his armchair with a huff, “Wilbur, I know that you’re in your strict ‘I don’t believe in spirits and shit’ mood right now, but you told us that a fucking shadow demon lunged at you tonight. How in the fuck does that not completely prove all your disbeliefs?”

“Trick of the eyes.” Wilbur shrugged off easily, though to anyone it was obvious that he was still shaken up by the whole event.

Phil and Techno were definitely rubbing off on him by this point, always firm in their disbelief of ghosts existing.

Tommy however, didn’t notice that Wilbur was lying through his teeth, and glared at the man, something cold and deadly striking through the air.

His haunting was being insulted! He had to do something about that!

Sapnap sent a subtle warning glance towards the trio, but Tommy was already on a mission, marching across the room and right through Wilbur, causing the man to shiver; before stopping right in front of a half put together bookshelf. Even though it wasn’t fully built, it still had a couple books on it.

Tommy grabbed the biggest pile of books that he could, and shoved them to the ground, causing the room to go silent as the heavy items thumped onto the floor.

Sapnap immediately facepalmed as the others looked on, their mouths open in shock.

Quackity was the one to break the silence with a nervous laugh, “maybe don’t insult the ghosts, Wilbur.”

“Insult?! How was that an insult?!” Wilbur practically screeched, his hands holding onto his mug in a death grip. “I’m merely stating a fact! Besides, they’re fucking dead Quackity! Death means that it’s gone for good! If anyone knows that it’s me!”

The room froze, silence consuming them like vines, creeping and choking any words away from being said.

Wilbur glared at the floor, breaking the heavy silence with more earth shattering words. “If ghosts exist, then why didn’t her ghost stick around?”

Tommy’s anger from before suddenly vanished as he creeped forward curiously, eyeing the heartbroken man clinging to a hot chocolate mug as if his life depended on it.

Ranboo and Tubbo appeared at Tommy’s side, tugging the boy off to sit on the side of the room in silence and watch the scene lay itself out before them. As they always did. Watching, listening, waiting. They were shadows of the past, sticking around to watch the present.

Wilbur’s hands shook, Sapnap leaning forward and taking the mug from his white-knuckled grasp and placing it on the coffee table before taking Wilbur’s hands in his own.

“I know I’ve said this before, but some people…” Sapnap trailed off, uncertainty on his face before he finally muttered, “sometimes people stick around because they feel as though they’re not allowed to leave. Spirits become trapped, forced to live a life where they don’t get to be alive anymore.” His tone gained more confidence, squeezing Wilbur’s hands in reassurance. Sapnap tried to avoid glancing at the three ghosts currently occupying the room. “Wilbur, we know how much Sally meant to you, but trust us when we say that… if spirits stick around, it usually means they weren't very… happy, when it came to living.”

Wilbur bit his lip, preventing it from wobbling dangerously as tears threatened to spill from his eyes.

“Wilbur, you made her the happiest woman in the entire world.” Sapnap said gently, only pure sincerity in his voice, “the fact that her spirit was able to move on, means that you did the best you could. Three years you’ve been holding onto this… it’s time to heal my friend.”

“She’s the reason I got into ghost hunting in the first place.” Wilbur confessed quietly, his eyes foggy and distant as he lost himself to memories. He's only ever gone into minuscule detail about all of this ghost belief and non belief. “Sally believed in spirits with her whole heart, she owned charms and stones, pendulums and ouija boards.” Wilbur suddenly snorted, a heartbroken laughter tumbling from his lips, “ so many ouija boards.”

He trailed off, silence consuming them before he spoke up once more, his reminiscent smile fading. “After the… when she was gone, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I believed in ghosts only because she did, but there was still this… nagging hope that maybe… just maybe, she’d come back to haunt me.” Wilbur gripped Sapnap’s hands a little tighter, Quackity appearing from his other side and perching on the arm of the couch, scooching Wilbur over just a bit so that he could squeeze into the tiny space, wrapping his arms around Wilbur and holding him close. 

Wilbur leaned into Quackity’s touch, looking so small in such a vulnerable moment. “I stole her favorite pendulum from her apartment after the accident… I knew that she never got around to writing a will, and the likelihood of me trying to talk to her family was unlikely. They didn’t like me all too much.” He sighed, shutting his eyes and leaning even further into Quackity’s embrace. “So when I went to return her apartment key, I just… I saw it and took him with me without a second thought. She said its name was Friend. That he goes by he/him pronouns and when I asked her how she knew, she told me that she just asked.” Wilbur chuckled to himself, a sad, hollow sound. “I’ve kept Friend with me ever since. But I’ve never had the courage to try my hand with pendulums. Not with Friend at least.”

Now it was Karl’s turn to get closer; there wasn’t much room on the couch anymore, not unless he wanted to crawl over Sapnap. So instead he got off the plush cushions and sat at the foot of the couch where Wilbur was. Sapnap let one of Wilbur’s hands go, the hand wandering to mindlessly play with Karl’s hair. 

“I poured myself into studying the supernatural. I watched debunking videos, thousands of rituals for using ouija boards and communication with the undead. I tried to communicate with her. I went to every place she spent most of her time, I was even able to ask the landlord of her apartment if I could be there for a couple hours. The landlord was sweet and recognized me, so she allowed it because Sally’s family already came by and took everything.” Wilbur sighed, his fingers in Karl’s hair slowing to a stop. “I found nothing, no trace of any ghost and more importantly, Sally. My next step was seeing fortune tellers. Palm readings, psychics, mediums, that entire scene.” He scoffed, his nose twitching in frustration, “most of them told me the same basic bullshit that they knew I wanted to hear. She loves you, she wants you to move on, she wishes for your happiness, she misses you so much. ”

A tear slipped down Wilbur’s cheek, but he didn’t move to wipe it away, instead choosing to glare at a single spot on his blanket. “I could tell they were fakes because they didn’t give a shit about anything other than how I would pay them. But… there was one medium…” he paused, brow furrowing in concentration over anger, “they told me, ‘you won’t find what you’re looking for through people like me. Instead, it will come to you.’ And when I asked them when, they just shook their head.”

Wilbur sighed, curling into Quackity just enough to hide a part of his face in Quackity’s blue jacket, “that’s when I searched for ghost hunters, and ran into you three. I’ve never had anyone tell me so simply that spirits move on like Sapnap did when we first met.”

Sapnap chuckled quietly, “I remember that; both Quackity and Karl whacked me upside the head because you burst into tears and I was too blunt.”

Wilbur laughed, a soft, broken sound that barely did anything to lift the mood Sapnap tried to raise. “In a way, I think it was what I needed to hear.” Wilbur whispered, gently starting to play with Karl’s hair and Sapnaps fingers again, “I firmly refused to believe in ghosts after that, not as much as I used to at least; never quite telling you guys the whole story other than the fact I was searching for my lost lover. Until now, I guess.”

Which was true, once Wilbur met the three, he never really went into detail on how much he searched for Sally, only really giving them the basics of her name, and their story. Skipping over the hours of work he put into searching for her spirit.

They all got along like a house on fire though, and Wilbur started to hang out with them more often than not. The four became very good friends over the last year or so.

“Thanks for talking to us about that Wilbur…” Quackity whispered, hugging Wilbur closer to himself, “I know it’s hard to talk about.”

Both Sapnap and Karl squeezed into the group for a hug as well, Karl awkwardly crawling halfway into Wilbur’s lap and giving him the warmest hug they could.

“Welp.” Ranboo stood, clapping his hands together as the friends comforted one another, “you know what distracts someone from being sad?”

Tommy and Tubbo sat up a little straighter, waiting through Ranboo’s little dramatic effect pause.

“What is it boob boy?” Tommy asked, ignoring the glare Ranboo sent his way.

“A good ol’ scare.” Ranboo smiled, before vanishing completely.

Tommy and Tubbo glanced at one another, matching smiles on their own faces and following Ranboo’s lead.

All at once, the living room lights shut off, and the tv hissed into static before turning off with a click. Plunging the group into darkness once more.

Whispers tickled past their ears, nonsensical words that were uttered along with an inexplicable breeze that gently blew through the living room.

The group of four held one another just a little tighter.

The porch light flickered on, and there, standing in the window (which was still painted over btw, they haven’t gotten around to scraping it just yet). Was a shadow figure.

It wasn’t the same one that Wilbur had seen earlier in Phil’s room, he could tell with just a single look.

This one was slightly taller, with poofier hair and a somewhat straighter posture. Their hand rose towards the window as they slowly walked by, each footstep making a heavy thump. Thump. Thump.

Wilbur’s heart was absolutely pounding by this point, the same with Karl and Quackity. Unbeknownst to them, they were absolutely feeding the three spirits and the demon beside them with their fear. It practically radiated off of them in waves.

The shadows hand turned into claws , a horrendous sound screeching as they slowly clawed at the glass as they passed.

Then they walked away, their footsteps fading as they continued to cross the porch. The porch light shut off, plunging the four into darkness once more.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then the television flickered back to life, casting an eerie glow over the room.

Static filled the screen, and upon closer inspection, the static formed a single word.

Loser boy.

Wilbur doesn’t know exactly what possessed him in the moment, but a sudden wave of absolute confidence radiated through him as he shouted, “oi! Fuck you, we were having a moment!”

Just like that, the fear dissolved into hysterical giggles, the four unable to hold themselves back as they succumbed into laughter.

They continued to hold onto one another, and the three ghosts considered their job complete for the night. They made the sad vibes go away for the moment, and the group found something to laugh about, that was more than enough to be proud of.

Besides, it had been a long fucking night.

The ghosts decided to head off to their attic, leaving the four to chat and laugh away the rest of the night.

A couple hours later, just after Phil and Techno came home and went to bed, Quackity, Karl, and Sapnap were heading out the door.

Karl stopped, “here.” He handed Wilbur a business card, “you don’t have to use it, or even call the guy, but maybe he can give you a little peace of mind.” Karl leaned in, a cheeky smile on his face as he whispered into Wilbur’s ear, “I know Sapnap’s super against it, but Ant might be able to give you the spirits names, that way you can officially call them out when they’re being especially rambunctious.”

“I can hear you, Karl.” Sapnap said from behind him, an amused smile on his cheeks as he half-heartedly glared at his friend.

Karl only grinned and stuck out his tongue, stepping away from Wilbur and pinching Sapnap’s cheek as he passed.

The three said their goodbyes and left, leaving Wilbur to stare at a simple blue business card with the name Ant scrawled on top in cursive.

The back of the card revealed a number, an email, and a small description of what he did, which was basically spirit communication and exorcisms.

Wilbur pulled out his phone and shut the door, adding the number into his contacts and taking a deep breath before sending a simple text.

-----

SOCIALS

Twitter- Breadking_AJ
Instagram- AJ_the_Breadking
Discord- Breadcord!

GET THAT BREAD GAMERS, WE ALL BRAINROT OVER ALL OUR BELOVED FIC WRITERS AND ARTISTS AND CC'S IN THE DISCORD SO COME AND JOIN US IF YOU'D LIKE :D

Chapter Text

Techno was sipping at his coffee, his brain groggy and slow even as he tried to read through his book at the table that morning.

Phil had already gone to work, and Wilbur was still fast asleep since he didn’t have work until next week. As for Techno, it was the midweek, meaning that he finally had a day off.

Well, he didn’t have a day off today, it was more like he was too tired, so he sent an email for his students to know they didn’t have class today.

He was an english professor for the college nearby, which meant that his schedule was normally a little erratic and complete nonsense, but at least he was able to have the weekends off. Moving was so much more exhausting than he thought it would be.

Wilbur has been acting strange though.

Just about three days ago, Wilbur had his friends over while Phil and Techno went out for separate stupid meetings. Honestly, screw being an adult, who decides that meetings are the best form of communication anyway?

But ever since, Wilbur’s been all… weird.

He’s been more fidgety, every time his phone pinged with a notification, he would leap three feet in the air before hastily replying to it. His eyes would be practically glued to the screen, nervous energy radiating off of him.

His eyes are always glancing towards the darker corners of the room, fear emitting off of him in waves. When Techno tried asking him about it, Wilbur simply shrugged him off and firmly avoided any other prying questions.

These last few days had been exhausting, every moment they spent at home, they were desperately cleaning and getting the house into a much more livable condition.

Wilbur seemed to breathe a little easier now that the paint was scratched off the windows, replaced with a nice set of blinds and some curtains. The living room was finally complete, the bookshelf finally finished and set up, knickknacks finding new homes on shelves and anywhere else they could fit.

Their bedrooms were also done, window paint gone and squeaky hinges oiled, floors scrubbed and swept, and everything set in place however the occupant desired. All that was left was some of the kitchen (namely fixing a couple cupboard doors that have fallen off their hinges over the years), and their little office space upstairs. It was actually a pretty decent house, all things considered. Especially since Techno had finally gotten around to scrubbing those odd footprints off of the ceiling.

For as old and abandoned as the house was, it was still in decent condition. The last paint job was still in decent shape, the flooring was really nice, if only a bit dusty, and now that the windows were cleaned up, the natural lighting of the house was really nice. There was no need to turn on any lights during the day.

Techno also noticed that Wilbur had a new habit of closing Phil’s door whenever the man was out for the day.

Techno knew his brother quite well. He recognized these odd habits because they were very similar to the ones before. Just three years prior, Wilbur was basically in the same habits. Phone watching, corner staring, odd flinchy behavior.

Obviously, Wilbur was getting back into his ghost hunting again.

Techno wasn’t blind. He knew that Quackity, Karl, and Sapnap were ghost hunters (Sapnap always gave him odd vibes though), and that Wilbur befriended them just a little over a year ago while he was on his desperate search for Sally’s ghost.

It was heartbreaking, to see his own brother so desperately searching for something long gone. But neither Phil nor Techno had the heart to try and stop him.

They both thought that he had stopped, after he met the three ghosthunting friends. For a while, he even seemed to be getting better. Less watchful, more relaxed, hell, he even started to agree with some of Phil and Techno’s non-beliefs in ghosts. He even went as far to tell them one night, in a moment of vulnerability, that Sally was long gone, and that he had stopped searching for her.

Primes. That was a dark night. They held Wilbur as close as they could for as long as he needed, Wilbur crying his heart out on Phil’s shoulder as they all curled up in Phil’s bed in a giant cuddle pile.

So why now?

If this wasn’t about Sally, what was Wilbur searching for?

There was something about this house. That much was for certain. 

Wilbur seemed almost desperate to move into the older place, bringing up all sorts of pros that outweighed the cons of living here. The location was too good to be true, perfectly placed between all their places of work. The house was in relatively good condition on the inside, but the outside still needed a lot of work if they wanted to spruce things up and make the place look half decent. And the price .

The price was honest to prime, really freaking good. 

For an entire house, it’d be considered dirt cheap.

Of course, they all poured through the history on the place, finding out that three murders twenty years ago happened here, and ever since the place had been deemed as haunted. People never stayed for more than a month.

If you asked Techno, that was a major red flag. It could’ve been like- mold issues! Or maybe there was a gas leak! Of course, the building was actually in tip-top shape. All the way from the insulation to the lighting.

But Phil seemed fine with it, in fact, it seemed like he took it as a highscore to beat. Let’s see how long the family survives in a building that literally repels the families that used to live here!

So far, Techno didn’t see what all the fuss was about.

Sure, his books sometimes vanished, and there were quite a few bumps in the night, but Techno didn’t believe in ghosts . All of what he heard and saw could be explained by factual evidence.

He misplaces books all the time, old houses creak and pop all the time, there was really nothing to fear.

Sometimes there were footsteps down the hall when Techno knew for certain that everyone was asleep, but honestly, Techno could just be imagining things. He used to read a lot of horror books; he wouldn’t be surprised if his brain was just looking for something to pump his adrenaline like horror used to.

Techno came back to the present, realizing that his eyes were still scanning over the pages in his book while his mind was elsewhere.

He grumbled under his breath, flipping back about three pages and finding the spot where he left off, right before his mind decided to go on a tangent.

Just as he was about to continue reading, a knock sounded at the door.

Techno glanced up, the open floor plan of the kitchen, dining room, and living room making it easy to see the front door from where he was sitting.

Someone stood outside the warped stained glass of the door, a tan brown hoodie being the only defining feature of the blob of a human that stood outside.

Techno sighed and stood up, grumbling once more as he placed his bookmark before shutting his book, leaving it and his coffee mug behind on the table before trudging over to the door.

He glanced through the peephole before opening it, seeing someone he’s never met before standing on their front porch.

With one last sigh, and a soft curse to the heavens above for making him have to socialize so early in the morning, Techno opened the door.

“Who are you?” He asked bluntly, not in the mood for any small talk.

The guy was a bit shorter than Techno, wearing a simple tan hoodie and some black sweatpants. A light blue backpack was slung over his shoulder as well.

His eyes were alight with something akin to excitement, his irises a deep ocean blue with streaks of black within. His pupils were a little odd, seeming to be vaguely cat-like, but that could’ve just been Techno’s imagination.. His hair was mostly covered with a dark blue beanie, two odd lumps poking through the thick fabric. What was seen of his hair looked to be mostly brown, with streaks of blond faded all throughout. 

Behind him, was surprisingly another figure that Techno didn’t notice before.

Another man, his hair was black and also super fluffy, but lacking in any colored highlights. He wore a black hoodie, highlighted with red, the hood up and partially shadowing his face. On top of the hood were two little red devil horns, oddly enough, they looked highly realistic for clothing, but Techno didn’t really have time to ponder that. He wore matching black sweatpants as the blue guy did. And his eyes… they were oddly pale in color, almost white instead of blue. But Techno could already see that the guy wasn’t blind, his eyes sharp and watching everything around him with accuracy.

There was something… off , about the pair. They gave him the same feeling that Sapnap normally gave him. Something… unexplainable.

“Hi!” The beanie guy beamed, holding a hand out to shake, “my name is Ant, and this is my friend, Bad.”

Techno shook his extended hand. They had odd names, but then again, so did he. “Techno.”

Ant frowned, casting a glance at Bad, “did we get the wrong house?”

“No, this is it.” Bad replied, his voice a bit higher than what Techno would have guessed. Not in a bad way, it was actually very pleasant. “This is the address he gave us.”

Ant turned back to Techno, his smile coming back as if it never left. “Would a Wilbur Soot Craft happen to live here?”

“May I ask why you’re looking for him?”

Ant nodded, “we have a scheduled meeting today. I had a bit of free time in my schedule and decided, why not? So here we are.”

Techno grunted, stepping aside and gesturing for the pair to come in, “he’s still asleep, but I’ll go wake him up.” He shut the door as Ant and Bad walked inside, gesturing towards the couch, “feel free to make yourself at home, or whatever. I’ll be back.”

Ant nodded, and Techno kept half an eye on them as he went towards Wilbur’s bedroom, watching the pair take a seat on the couch and talk amongst themselves.

Techno rounded the corner and couldn’t see them anymore, walking past the staircase and into the hall where their bedrooms resided.

He easily walked to Wilbur’s, knocking and waiting for any response.

When there was none, he opened the door and walked in, spotting Wilbur splayed across his bed like an absolute madman. He was snoring without a care in the world, his phone softly vibrating in an alarm which was too quiet to actually wake him up.

Techno rolled his eyes fondly, clicking off the phone alarm and getting right into Wilbur’s face.

“Wilbur,” He whispered, blowing a puff of air at Wilbur’s bangs, which were currently in the most messy form of a bedhead. “Wilbur, you missed your alarm. Wake up.”

Wilbur snored in response, so Techno rolled his eyes and poked at Wilbur’s shoulder. “Wilbur, you invited people over and left me alone for social interaction, wake up.”

Techno straightened when the gentle waking was getting him nowhere.

He picked up Wilbur’s pillow from the floor, having fallen there from Wilbur’s mad scrambling in the night. Techno lifted it above his head and slammed it into his brother's face.

Wilbur gasped, spitting out a mouthful of pillow and scrambling to sit up in his bed.

Techno allowed him to get his bearings, still ready to launch the pillow at Wilbur’s face if he had to.

“Bruh, you have guests over.” Techno said easily, “wake up and interact with them so I don’t have to.”

Wilbur’s brow furrowed, glancing around at his closed blinds and seeing the morning light peaking in. His hand flew for his phone picking it up and seeing the time on the screen. His eyes widened comically as he rushed to stand up, almost stumbling out of bed as his blankets tangled around his feet, meaning Techno had to catch him and steady him.

“Wil, chill out, they just got here.” Techno soothed, “get dressed, I’ll make you some coffee or something okay?”

“What are you doing here?” Wilbur asked, his voice still scratchy and tired sounding, “I thought you had work today?”

There was something in Wilbur’s tone… desperation perhaps? A sort of disappointment or confusion over Techno staying home?

Interesting. He wasn’t planning on Techno being able to see whatever he had planned for today. Probably ghost stuff.

Techno shrugged, “called a day off, I was too tired to go in today. Besides, my students could use an extra day on their assignments anyway.”

“You’re such a softie.” Wilbur smiled. It was a half-hearted attempt to break the tension, a nervous energy still trickling though, but Techno appreciated the effort.

“Maybe I am, now get dressed and fix your hair. It looks like a cow chewed it.”

With that, Techno left the room, shutting the door behind him and heading to the kitchen. He avoided looking towards Bad and Ant, not in the mood to socialize with strangers so early in the morning.

“He’ll be out shortly, he’s just getting dressed.” Techno said, keeping his anxiety at bay with the familiar motions of making coffee. He needs to be nice, uh- what do good hosts do? “Would you like anything to drink? Coffee, tea, water?”

“No thank you.” Ant replied kindly, Bad echoing the same response only a little behind.

There was silence, one that was stifling and awkward, even as the coffee maker sputtered out its own noises into the air. Techno didn’t like talking to new people, not when he was so unprepared that is.

Primes, he’s still in his pajamas. Which, he’s not really embarrassed by, he just feels a little unprepared and a tad bit vulnerable in his pig covered soft pants and simple white t-shirt.

“Tell me Techno,” Ant started, his voice calm and curious, “how many people live here?”

Techno couldn’t muster the strength to look at the two, simply focusing on the mug filling with hot bean water and pulling Wilbur’s favorite creamer from the fridge. It had no flavoring, nor any sugar. Wilbur was a fiend like that. Techno personally enjoyed at least a spoonful of sugar, he didn’t like the taste of it being all bitter.

“Just me, Wilbur, and our dad, Phil.” Techno replied.

Ant hummed, and if Techno was looking, he would’ve noticed Ant’s gaze being at the empty table placement, where Techno’s book was sitting open instead of shut like he left it before.

But he wasn’t, so he only heard Ant’s little hum and continued to pour some creamer into a steaming mug.

He heard Wilbur’s footsteps sound down the hall, quick and light footed but surely making their way for the living room.

“Good morning Ant,” Wilbur greeted, “sorry I’m late, I slept in and missed my alarm.”

Techno turned, quickly walking over to Wilbur as Ant stood, shaking Wilbur’s hand with an easy smile on his face, “nice to meet you Wilbur. This is Bad, he’s my partner. I hope you don’t mind him coming along this morning.”

Wilbur smiled, his hair was fixed now and his glasses were secured on his nose, he looked a lot more put together now than he did when Techno woke him up. Wilbur shook Bad’s extended hand as well, “it’s lovely to meet you Bad, thank you so much for coming, both of you.”

Techno silently handed Wilbur his coffee, stepping away to go and clean up the kitchen. There wasn’t really much of a mess, but he didn’t want to leave Wilbur with complete strangers. He heard Wilbur’s quiet thanks as he walked off.

“Well, now that you’re here, I guess we should get started.” Ant said, rustling with his bag for a moment.

“Hey Tech?” Wilbur called, causing Techno to turn, “do you mind sticking in your room for a bit? I didn’t plan on you being here when I asked Ant to come over. This is… ghost related stuff, and I know you’re not really a believer in all that.”

Techno sighed, feeling a little guilty over staying home and partially ruining Wilbur’s plans. He didn’t know Wilbur was going full swing into supernatural stuff again, but he wasn’t about to lay all of his disbeliefs in front of the three ghost believers in front of him. He’d never want to hurt Wilbur like that anyway. As long as his brother was happy, he was really okay with all the supernatural stuff.

“Actually,” Ant started before Techno could answer, “I would love for you to stick around Techno. The more energy in one area, the better chance we have of communication.”

Tech furrowed his brow, “communication?”

Wilbur looked a little embarrassed, but nodded nonetheless. “Karl recommended that I contact Ant here. He’s very qualified when it comes to supernatural communication, and in worst case scenarios, exorcisms.”

“Is this about…” Techno trailed off, not wanting to expose Wilbur’s past without explicit permission.

Wilbur shook his head, “no, it’s not that. I promise. But you know how my friends were over the other day?”

Techno nodded, recalling how the four of them were snuggled together on the couch and watching Hamilton when he came home. He was really glad that Wilbur had found such a good group of friends he could be himself around.

“We were doing a little… hunting that night and to make a long story short,” Wilbur sighed, probably hoping that Techno wouldn’t judge him over this (which he wouldn’t). “I’m absolutely certain that there’s some ghosts who live here. I’d like to know their names, maybe stop them from hiding your books around the place and maybe get to know them a little better.”

Techno shrugged, he didn’t have much to do anyway, he might as well go through with this. Besides, he’s always been a little curious on what Wilbur’s ghost hunting gang did whenever they went out. “I guess I could stick around.”

The smile Wilbur gave him made everything absolutely worth it. Techno would suffer through a million ghost hunts if it meant Wilbur would smile like that again.

He wandered over, taking a seat on an armchair, while Ant and Bad took the couch and Wilbur made himself comfortable in the other armchair.

“So, Ant,” Wilbur started, leaning forward in his chair with interest sparking in his eyes, “how do we begin?”

“Well, for starters,” Ant glanced at Bad, then gestured towards the dining room table, “you’re definitely haunted. There’s a ghost reading that book over there.”

Techno turned, and as if on cue, the book page turned.

No way. This is a set up. 

He left a window open or something.

Definitely not a ghost.

Techno held his tongue, trying not to call out that everything was already bullshit.

------

Wilbur had not planned on Techno being here for this.

He also hadn’t planned on waking up late, so maybe Techno being here was a good thing. He doubts a call or a ring of the doorbell would’ve done much to get him up and moving.

But Techno was here , at the same time as Ant and Bad, which was not good. Thankfully, Techno hadn’t said anything rude just yet, but there could be a slip up at any moment, and Wilbur wasn’t ready to face that.

He heard Techno stifle a groan as Ant pointed out the book reading ghost, but thankfully, he didn’t say anything past that.

Also; he fucking knew that ghosts were in his fucking house! Hell yeah! Wilbur: 1, Ghosts: probably multiple points but who’s counting?

Right after the page turned, there was a small squeak from the chair scraping the floor, and then nothing happened.

Ant hummed, “they weren’t expecting for me to see them… interesting.”

“You’re able to see them?” Wilbur asked in awe, “how is that possible?”

Ant smiled, shooting a playful wink their way, “I’m afraid that’s a secret I’m not allowed to tell.”

“Bruh.” Techno said, but Ant continued as if he didn’t hear him.

“So, tell me where you believe activity is the strongest.” Ant said, a smile on his face. His eyes were always flitting around the place, an odd vigilant gaze that seemed like it could catch anything.

Wilbur hummed, thinking it over.

The entire house was pretty strong in activity. Phil’s room the other night was the worst of all, but ever since, it’s been relatively calm in the downstairs areas.

There was the attic… none of them have been able to open it, but they have heard odd footsteps in the night, as well as music and sounds of video games.

Phil is only freaked out by it because he believes they have a fucking creep living with them. One that hides in the day and only comes out in the night to steal their food and use their things.

But Wilbur hasn’t noticed any missing food or stolen valuables. Hell, he hasn’t heard anything downstairs during the night. The ghosts normally stick close to either the bedrooms, or the attic at all times.

“I’d say the attic. But we haven’t been able to get up there, no matter how hard we try.” Wilbur said, snapping his fingers for an extra effect as he thought of it.

Ant stood, “I’d love to see the entrance to it, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course!” Wilbur was quick to stand, Techno right behind him, and they led the pair upstairs and to the little closet with the attic hatch above.

A metal ladder was already set up within, one they set up in the early stages of living here because of their curiosity of the unused space. The attic door seemed to be fucking glued shut, and they couldn’t open it no matter how hard they tried.

As soon as Wilbur flicked on the light to the little closet, the ladder started to lean towards them. He was yanked to the side and tucked into a chest of warmth just in time as the ladder fell right where he was standing before.

Thankfully, both Ant and Bad were standing off to the side as well, so the ladder missed hitting them.

Techno still gripped Wilbur’s arm where he pulled him out of the way, his stare intense and practically glued to the ladder on the floor. His breathing was harsh, and from where Wilbur was pressed against his chest, he could hear Techno’s heart beating erratically.

“Tech, you wanna… let me go?” Wilbur asked, bringing his brother back to the present, “I’m kinda being squished here.”

“Oh, right.” Techno released him, allowing Wilbur to stumble upright, brushing himself off as he straightened. “Sorry about that.”

“All good, thanks for the save though. That would’ve been a nasty bruise if that landed on me.” Wilbur chuckled, eyeing the ladder that lay innocently on the floor.

“This is very interesting.” Ant spoke up, kneeling at the side of the ladder as if it would hold all the answers. “Bad, could you hold the ladder up for me? I wanna try the door.”

Bad nodded, helping Ant stand the ladder back up and lean it against the lip of the attic entrance.

He climbed the ladder rungs with no hesitation, not a single ounce of fear to be found, pressing up on the attic door with his palms.

The door didn’t budge in the slightest.

“Dad thinks we have a squatter living with us.” Techno snorted, now putting his more calm facade back on to pretend he wasn’t still worried over the fact that Wilbur almost got hit with a ladder. “Says that they probably put furniture on top of the door so that we can’t get in and find them.”

Ant hummed, pressing against the door at different points as if testing the weight, “that could definitely be possible, but I’m really hoping that’s not the case because that would be another can of beans to fry. I mean, you brought me here, and I’m really not a confrontational kind of person, and if there was a squatter, that’d mean all of your evidence for a ghost would be trashed, which would be pretty sad considering how strong your evidence is.”

“There’s definitely something here.” Bad interrupted, keeping a firm hold on the ladder as Ant investigated the door, “Ant and I already saw a spirit and it’s not uncommon for ghosts to move furniture and seal doors shut. I’m betting that the attic could be one of their safe places where humans haven’t gone as often, making it a spot clean of energy.”

“Energy?” Wilbur asked. He loved knowledge like this, even when he wasn’t as much of an avid believer as he used to be. Ghosts and demons were just so interesting to learn about!

Bad nodded, his face practically lighting up at Wilbur’s inquiry. “Yes! Ghosts, demons, and… other forms in the category normally feed off of energies people emit! Spirits and demons feed off of fear, anger, and sometimes even sadness! They tend to soak up negative emotions from people; that’s the main reason they resort to haunting, it’s the best way they can get energy.”

“What happens if a spirit runs out of energy?” Techno asked, eyes slightly narrowed in question. 

“Good question!” Bad complimented, seeming to get even happier that people were paying attention. It was quite sweet. “From what I’ve seen, and my limited knowledge, when a spirit is deprived of energy from humans, they can either feed off one another, feed off the energy the house possesses, use summoning circles, or simply get weaker. I’m guessing that the ghosts that live here have been feeding off of one anothers energies, as well as the house.”

“Is that why the house feels so creepy all the time?” Wilbur couldn’t help but ask, head tilting slightly to the side.

Ant hummed from his place on the ladder, starting to climb down the rungs, “the house has absorbed a lot of negative energy from past families that have lived here. It’s also had three people killed inside; it’s going to keep that energy no matter how many times it’s cleansed. No amount of herbs can erase facts and history.”

“I see you’ve done your research.” Wilbur said.

“We have.” Ant dusted off his hands, leaving the ladder behind and heading back to the living room, “your house sparked an interest in us, seeing as it’s gone through so many people within the last twenty years but hasn’t been turned into a museum. It means that the spirits residing here must be pretty powerful if they can ward off so many people.”

Bad and Ant shared a look, seeming to have a silent conversation with just their eyes as they made it back to the living room. It seemed Bad lost whatever argument they were having as he sighed and nodded subtly.

Ant practically beamed and turned towards the brothers. “Would you two be alright with me doing something… I believe you call it astral projection?”

Techno raised an eyebrow, “are you asking us if you can take a nap?”

Ant and Bad laughed at the question, Ant quickly quieting back down but keeping an easy smile on his face, “no of course not! I know most people experience this by sleeping, but I have a certain method that keeps me awake. It’s more of a meditation than me sleeping.”

Wilbur and Techno looked at one another at the same time. Wilbur raised an eyebrow in question, to which Techno simply shrugged, which was basically his version of giving his permission to something.

Wilbur grinned as he looked back to Ant, “what do you need for astral projection?”

Chapter Text

The living room was darkened, curtains drawn over every window, leaving only a candle in the center of the room that Ant was currently staring at, falling into a deep state of meditation.

It only took around five minutes until Bad broke the silence cheerfully, “alright, he’s achieved astral projection. We’re able to speak now.”

“How can you tell?” Techno asked from his lazed position on a nearby armchair, simply content to watch Ant and Bad go to work.

Bad hummed, standing up and walking towards Ant, “if you come over here, his eyes have completely glazed over, as if he’s spaced out. He also hasn’t moved in the last two minutes, meaning that he’s achieved separating his spirit and body.”

“Wouldn’t that… kill him?” Wilbur asked unsurely, his eyes flitting from Bad and Ant.

“Oh no, there’s no need to worry! He won’t die from separating his spirit and body because his soul is still intact.”

“I thought souls and spirits were the same thing?” Techno asked this time, perking up into a more attentive sitting position.

“That’s the case more often than not, but here we have three things that keep us… living.” Bad explained happily, busying himself by opening the curtains and blowing out the candle. Ant didn’t respond to any of the new lighting. “Everyone here owns a body, a soul, and a spirit. Your body keeps you tethered to the living earth, your soul is, in the simplest terms, life itself, and finally, you have the spirit, which is what remains after your soul leaves and your body dies off. Your soul will wander off and regain its strength before inhabiting a new life, whether it be a plant, animal, person, or whatever else is living. While your spirit will wander to… well, that part is unknown to most, but some spirits remain in the mortal realm, unable to achieve afterlife.” Bad smiled, quickly adding, “if you believe in the afterlife that is.”

“Bad, would you mind if I ask you a… personal question?” Techno asked, leaning forward in his chair, chin in hand. He was obviously completely engulfed in learning all that Bad had to say, but he was curious about something, which, in Wilbur’s eyes, was normally dangerous, seeing as Techno had a habit of asking something that had the potential to make everything awkward.

“It depends on the question.” Bad responded carefully, and a subtle fidgeting of his fingers told them that he was nervous.

“You have a lot of information about souls and spirits that I’ve never heard anywhere else. Plus, there is a really odd sense of truth that rings with your words, so I can’t really find a reason to disbelieve in any of it.” Techno said, laying out the facts with a terrifying ease, “but what really caught my attention, was the way you speak.”

“What… What do you mean?” Bad asked, taking a seat on the couch and having a staredown with Techno. The entire atmosphere of the room changed, like waiting for a lighting bolt to crash, and for thunder to boom out. A nervous tension crackled through the room.

“When I asked if spirits and souls were the same thing, you said that, that was the case more often than not.” Techno said, his gaze calm as he watched Bad under a calculating eye. “What did you mean by that?”

“Techno!” Wilbur hissed, but both people in the room ignored him.

Bad seemed to freeze, his nervous energy suddenly halting as if being frozen in time along with him. 

Then unexpectedly, he smiled. “Good catch. You have a sharp ear.”

“Thank you,” Techno said genuinely, nodding at the compliment, “you seem more calm now that I’ve asked this, how come?”

Bad sighed, leaning back on the couch casually, “I suppose I can’t just ask you to let this go? Let us both move on our merry way so you can remain none the wiser?”

Techno shook his head in a short response. He's always been stubborn when it came to learning new things.

“Then I suppose it can’t be helped. But I should tell you now.” Bad grinned, and even though he was sitting so casually, there was a sense of unease that grew in Wilbur’s gut. “All information comes with a price. And most prices are not pleasing to the likes of mortals. Are you willing to pay it?”

Techno paused at the odd wording of the sentence, but continued on, not even sparing Wilbur a glance. “Depends, what’s your price?”

“Now hold on for one fucking second .” Wilbur interjected, what the fuck? Techno was really about to make a fucking deal without even consulting him beforehand!

“Language.” Bad scolded lightly, but quieted nonetheless.

Techno looked over, seemingly snapping out of his intense concentration of learning new shit.

“Techno, you can’t just make deals for the both of us without consulting me about it! You fuck!” Wilbur glared at his brother, “what if the price was all our valuables and social security cards Tech? Did you even think about that?!”

“He makes a good point!” Bad chimed in, “others would’ve taken full advantage of the way you're so bent on learning. You really should be more careful.”

Techno seemed to hunch in on himself, guilt melting across his features as he avoided eye contact with everyone except the floor. “Sorry Wil… I got… distracted.”

Wilbur scoffed, “yeah, distracted covers it pretty well.” He sighed, leaning closer to Techno from his armchair and nudging his brother's foot with his own, “just… talk to me next time? So that we don’t accidentally sign all our mortal possessions away to the devil?”

“Excuse you, I am not a devil.” Bad muttered under his breath, but hey, they were having a brotherly bonding moment! They can worry about Bad in a minute!

Techno brushed off Bad’s comment, although Wilbur could see interest sparking back to life in his eyes, “I won’t get carried away anymore, I swear it. But I’m definitely down for some information gain, how about you?”

Wilbur shrugged, feeling much more calm now that Techno wasn’t on a rampage for knowledge anymore, “I’d be down,” he turned to Bad, who was still slightly mumbling to himself under his breath, “but it really depends on what your price is.”

Bad snapped out of whatever grouchy mood he was in, his easy smile coming back to life on his cheeks as though it had never left in the first place. He hummed, eyeing each of the brothers in turn, “well… I like both of you. You’ve made a good first impression on both me and Ant, and you’ve run into the one guy who doesn’t like cursing humans.”

Techno and Wilbur remained quiet while Bad thought aloud, questions burning at their lips at how Bad was speaking. But they refrained from blurting out an onslaught of questions, waiting for Bad to think it over.

Bad snapped his fingers, a wide smile growing on his cheeks as he leaned forward to face the brothers better, “I’ve got just the trade! I’ve been looking for someone for a very long time, someone very dear to me. If you happen to know him, I’d be willing to toss in a cursed blessing to sweeten the deal. And if you don’t know him, that’s fine, I’d be good to settle with a simple information trade. You tell me about your house and experiences in it, in return for me telling you what I know.”

“A cursed blessing?” Wilbur asked, scrutinizing every single cryptic word Bad spoke.

“Yes. It’s a type of… darker blessing. I’ll tell you more about it once we agree on our deal. But I promise it’ll benefit you pretty greatly, should you want it.”

Wilbur looked to Techno, who responded thoughtfully, “I don’t like the fact that the word cursed is used with the word blessing.”

Bad shrugged, “if you want information, then you’ll have to agree to all the terms.”

The brothers huddled together, quickly talking over their options in hushed voices, but their curiosity was strong, not one to be quelled.

They came to a decision together, carefully sitting back in their seats and eyeing the odd man in their home. “Will this cursed blessing hurt us or anyone around us?” Techno asked.

Bad immediately shook his head, “never. In fact, if I had to describe it, it would… open your eyes.”

It was a cryptic warning, but the brothers were willing to take a chance.

“We agree to your deal.” Wilbur said, standing and shaking hands with Bad shortly before returning to his seat.

“Excellent.” Bad grinned.

------

“Why are they trying to break in?!” Tommy asked quietly, pressing down on their attic hatch with all his might even though the curious humans had already gone.

“I don’t know!” Ranboo replied unhelpfully, pacing back and forth on the attic floor. They just wanted to read over Techno’s shoulder! Was that too much to ask?

“Technically,” Tubbo piped up from his sprawled out position on his beanbag, though anyone could see through his relaxed posture that he was freaking out just as much as his friends were, “they can’t break in if it’s already their house.”

“It’s our attic!” Tommy insisted, his voice hushed despite his wanting to scream, “they have no right to be up here! And who in the fuck are the bitches with them?”

“I don’t know but they could see me!” Ranboo supplied.

“We know Boo, you flew up here freaking the fuck out.” Tubbo said, he got up and hovered over to Ranboo, placing a comforting hand on their shoulder, “it’s going to be alright. As long as we keep the door sealed, no one is getting in here.”

As fate would have it, Tubbo couldn’t be more wrong.

Because suddenly, an entire fucking spirit drifted up out of the floor, a very impossible but real pair of cat ears and a tail that flicked to and fro naturally as he flashed the three ghosts a wide grin. 

“Hello there!”

“You jinxed it!” Ranboo glared at Tubbo, but held a white knuckled grip on Tubbo’s arm, taking the fact that their friends were close by as a comfort. Ranboo and Tubbo stepped away from the stranger and closer to Tommy, who grabbed at them until the three were holding onto one another.

“Get out of our attic bitch!” Tommy shouted, glaring at the cat-like stranger.

The man held his hands up in a placating gesture, “everything is okay. I come here in peace!” They smiled, “my name is Ant, I’m here on behalf of Wilbur and Techno, the residents of the home you currently haunt.”

“If you’re here to try and exorcize us, I’m afraid it won’t work.” Tubbo snapped, stepping forward ever so slightly as he raised his voice. A vicious anger that screamed danger lined his tone. “We’ve had a friend prevent such things from working on this house. You will not kick us from our home.”

“I swear I’m not here to do any such thing.” Ant said calmly, “I just wanna chat. Get to know you three a bit.”

“Do you swear it?” Tommy hissed.

“I swear it to the heavens above, and across every plane.” Ant said with a quirk of his lips.

Ranboo gasped. 

There was something odd about the way he phrased that. Odd and… familiar, in a sense since it was the same promise that Sapnap made to them long ago. “So you’re not a demon! What are you then?”

“You’re a smart kid if you’ve already figured I’m not mortal.” Ant smiled, calmly taking a seat on the creaky wooden floor, crossing his legs and relaxing to show he wasn’t a threat. His tail brushed across the floor before curling around his body, like it was tucking itself in.

“Well yeah.” Tubbo jumped in, rolling his eyes, “most mortals can’t fucking- astral project themselves into an attic to talk to some fucking ghosts.” He gestured widely at the cat ears that twitched in greeting, “and most people don’t have fucking cat features!”

Ant chuckled, “you’re lucky Bad isn’t up here, he’d scold you for your language.”

“Bad is a bitch then.” Tommy said simply, starting to relax at Ant’s calm posture. “Now answer the question. What are you?”

“Well, my name is Ant, as I’ve already said; and I am an angel.” He tilted his head slightly to the side, his smile bright, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

------

“So…” Techno started now that their deal was made. “What do you want to know? And will you actually tell us what a cursed blessing is now?”

Bad winced ever so slightly, “well, maybe the name is due for a change, since a curse is normally designed to… harm? But what I intend to give you would be more of a… jinx. If anything.”

“That doesn’t explain anything.” Wilbur pointed out.

Bad brushed off Wilbur’s observation with a shrug, pulling his backpack closer to himself and starting to rifle through its contents. “You see boys, I’m looking for someone. Someone who means a lot to me.” He pulled out a small book. A window in the front cover revealing the cutest little baby in a bath that Wilbur has ever seen. Thick black hair fashioned into a mohawk with bubbles and the chubbiest lil baby cheeks pulled back in the cutest little mid laugh possible. “I’ve been looking for him for… a very long time now. But I suppose I need to explain what I am for you to understand how long.”

He clutched the book to his chest, his voice trailing off as he appeared to loose himself in memories.

Wilbur glanced to Techno, who seemed just as lost over the situation as he did. Wilbur cleared his throat, his voice coming out softer than he intended, “Bad, you know… if it’s too much you don’t have to explain anything to us.”

Techno huffed, making wild gestures with his arms that got across the point that ‘they made a deal’ but Wilbur didn’t really care in the moment. Bad was obviously someone who was hurting. You don’t push people who are going through stuff like that unless you’re a dickhead. At least in Wilbur’s opinion that is.

Bad shook his head, his eyes clearing and becoming focused in the present. “We made a deal. I’m obligated to carry through all the terms and conditions that we’ve set.” He smiled softly, “though I appreciate your concern. Nonetheless, telling you about myself was part of the deal anyhow, so if I were to break that part of our contract, I would merely cease to exist.”

Wilbur blinked. That was… not the answer he was expecting.

Bad continued on as if he didn’t just render both Techno and Wilbur speechless. “You see, in the simplest terms of your mortal tongue, I would be considered a demon.”

Bad paused, allowing them a moment to take in the news.

“Excuse me?” Wilbur blurted out, completely taken aback by the revelation.

Bad laughed softly, then reached up to pull his hoodie off of his head. What the twins thought were fake horns, were actually real. Poked through the fabric in order to look as though they were sewn into the hoodie itself. It was a smart idea to keep the demonic features hidden.

Bad then stood up, twisting slightly to pull a long tail out from underneath his sweatshirt, the thing curled around his torso in order to keep hidden. Both features were as red as blood, and the tip of his tail looked sharp enough to actually cause harm if he so wished. But instead of attacking them, Bad sat down once more, the tail flicking around of its own accord.

Techno was completely silent, his jaw dropped open. Wilbur was in the same state at first, but was able to shake himself out of it relatively quickly.

“So demons… actually exist?!”

Bad nodded. “We do. In fact, most mortals unknowingly befriend a demon or even an angel at least once in their lives.”

“So that’s why you’re asking if we know this person you’re searching for.” Techno nodded, as if he miraculously accepted everything about this situation.

“Exactly!” Bad agreed, he pulled up the book with the baby on the cover, waving his hand over the front. In the blink of an eye, the normal looking baby suddenly had tiny horns and a tail that matched Bad’s own. Bad explained the new reveal before either of the twins could speak up, “simple illusion magic. Tricking the mind to not see things it doesn’t want to see.”

Bad turned the book back to himself, carefully tracing his finger above the picture with a somber look on his face. “This is my son. I’ve been searching for him for the last decade and a half.” The demons voice cracked ever so slightly, his tail tucking itself closer to his body. “He was only 19 or 20 decades old when he vanished.”

“Wouldn’t that make him… 200 something years old?” Wilbur asked carefully, keeping his voice low so as to not startle the grieving man.

Bad chuckled bitterly, wiping away the wetness of his eyes with his palms, “right. You humans age so quickly compared to us. If we were to compare a demons age span to that of a humans, he’d probably be in the mental and physical state to that of a twenty year old.”

“He was a baby for multiple decades?” Techno started, barely repressing a snort of amusement, “cringe.”

Surprisingly, Bad didn’t take offense to this, instead laughing along with Techno. “It was a long couple of years. He was always crawling into magma puddles and splashing around; we had to douse him lakes and such multiple times because he was just a glowing red baby mass.” Bad chuckled fondly at the memory, “he’d be stuck in a rock cocoon for days afterwards, and he’d be super grumpy when we would finally manage to get him chiseled out.”

Wilbur found himself struggling to find the appropriate words for a moment, leaving Bad to reminisce over memories for an awkward couple seconds too long. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about demon babies, but he kinda sounds like a handful.” Wilbur said lightly.

Bad scoffed, the ever fond smile never once leaving his face as he talked about his son.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Techno spoke up, leaning forward in his chair, his elbows propped up on his knees. “Are you sure that he’s here? Like, on earth?”

The demon nodded, running a hand through the fluffy black hair atop his head, avoiding his horns expertly. “I’m absolutely positive. This is the only universe I found that had the exact same life signature I remember him having.” Bad shook his head, “it was one of the few places where he was of demon blood as well.”

Techno perked up at that, his eyes practically shining with curiosity. “Are you talking about alternate universes?”

Bad smiled, his head slightly tilting to the side in amusement, “I’m afraid that information comes at quite the cost.” The demon waved his hand as if brushing the topic to the side, “we’re getting off track. Let’s focus on our deal shall we? I’ve told you about my son and my origins, now you tell me something.”

“One last question for you Bad,” Wilbur spoke up, brow furrowed in concentration. “So far you haven’t told us much aside from the fact that you’re looking for your son. I don’t know about you, but I can’t really identify someone with only a baby photo and a gender.”

Bad perked up a bit, “right of course! My mistake. His name is-”

Ant suddenly gasped from his position on the floor, immediately springing to his feet and grabbing Bad by the shoulders. He leaned on the demon heavily, panting as if he just ran a marathon, his eyes wide with a sort of panic that had Wilbur’s hair standing on end.

The mans beanie slid off his head in the fast movement, revealing two fucking cat ears hidden within the fluff of hair on his head.

Great. Wonderful. Cool.

A demon and a cat boy were in his house. Honestly, Wilbur shouldn’t be surprised at these things anymore.

“He’s here Bad!” Ant exclaimed after catching his breath, “I saw it! His summoning circle, his energy traces! It’s him.”  

All of a sudden, Wilbur recognized that Ant wasn’t panicked like he thought he was before. The man was excited.  

“Your son is here! We found Sapnap.” Ant’s voice dropped into a whisper at the last line, the room pausing along with him.

Techno and Wilbur were overwhelmed with shock.

Sapnap was a demon?!

------

The three ghosts' jaws dropped open.

“Careful, you’ll catch flies.” Ant commented, chuckling lightly at their reactions.

Ranboo snapped their jaw shut, “we’ve heard of demons before, but never angels…”

“Is God real?” Tommy interjected. Always quick to ask the most outrageous questions possible.

“Tommy!”

“Tommy!?”

Both Ranboo and Tubbo scolded, each slapping Tommy’s arm in turn to chide him for such a brash question.

Ant only laughed nervously, “Primes kid, that’s a deep question. There’s a lot of beliefs out there, and in a way, they’re all right just as they are wrong. Everything you come to know is based on whatever belief you might have. Yada yada afterlife shit and all that.” Ant waved a dismissive hand, “in short, you’re still on this plane so it doesn’t matter anyway. Besides, it’s much too complicated to explain in your tongue. Most angels and demons have a whole other language that we use, but I can’t even begin to describe it because there are no mortal words that would surmount to how my true tongue is spoken.”

“If you compare the english alphabet to yours, which one’s longer?” Tubbo asked, suddenly forgetting Tommy’s intrusiveness in his interest for new knowledge.

Ranboo couldn’t deny their own growing curiosity, carefully drifting over to their beanbag to take a seat, Tubbo and Tommy following shortly afterwards.

“Definitely mine.”

“What about the Japanese alphabet?” Tubbo asked.

“Again, definitely mine.” Ant answered easily, “honestly, if you add up every alphabet in the world together, my alphabet would still be longer.”

“How do you even learn that? It must take years to understand all the new letters and words that your tongue has to offer.” Ranboo thought aloud.

Ant shrugged, “demons and angels are kinda just… born with the knowledge. Anyway,” He waved his hands around, as if he was dismissing the previous train of thought, “we’re getting off topic. We’re here to talk about you , not me!”

“No.” Tommy replied simply, crossing his arms determinedly. He looked a bit like a child throwing a tantrum, which was an amusing thought. “You invaded our attic. Therefore, we decide the topic. Not you.”

Ant chuckled, his head tilting to the side just like a cats would. “Alright, what would you like to know?” He leveled a light glare at Tommy and added, “no, I won’t answer any of your questions about the afterlife unless it’s relevant to your situation.”

Tommy huffed, pouting even more as he slumped further into his beanbag. 

Ranboo patted the boy’s head gently, keeping their gaze on Ant as they did so. “We’ve been watching this house for the last two decades. We know everything that goes on within. If you’re an angel, why are you offering spirit communication services of all things?”

Ant scratched the back of his ear, taking a moment to think over the question. “Well Bad, the man downstairs, is looking for someone. Bad and I have been friends for a very long time and I offered to help him search for the person in question.”

“I’m sorry about the person your looking for or whatever,” Tubbo spoke up, his bitter mood back and ready to fight if need be. “But we haven’t left this house in twenty years. We know nothing but these fucking walls and these empty rooms and the families that have lived here. We’ve been stuck here for so fucking long I doubt we know anything about whoever you’re looking for.”

“How about your demon friend?” Ant asked, causing the three boys to freeze.

“How… how did you-“ Tommy started, trailing off before he could finish his sentence.

Ant picked up on what Tommy was asking almost immediately. “You told me you had a ‘friend’ do something to keep exorcisms from working. That’s a demonic level spell. I don’t know of any mortals that can perform such drastic things.” Ant replied simply. “I don’t mind of course. I suspect you formed a deal with them, and your business is not my own so I won’t ask. But surely this demon of yours has been around for some time? I just want to ask them what they know of this person I’m looking for.”

Ranboo pressed their lips together, purposely trying not to look down at the summoning circle that Ant was currently sitting on.

But of course, Tommy had to open his big dumb mouth.

“Ant, and I say this with full offense; you’re an idiot.” Tommy spoke up, causing both Ranboo and Tubbo to whip their heads towards him, zeroing glares on the younger. “You are quite literally sitting on-”

The rest of what he had to say was muffled as Tubbo launched forward, his palms slapping over Tommy’s mouth in an attempt to shut the boy up.

But the damage was already done.

Ant immediately looked down, floating up into a standing position to examine the summoning circle below him.

It wasn’t much, a crude circle of chalk with some demonic symbols written along the outside of it, perfectly reserved and never smudged so that Sapnap wouldn’t be sent back.

His eyes widened comically as he took in the symbols, and within the blink of an eye, he was gone.

“Tommy what the fuck!” Tubbo screeched, slapping the boy on the arm, “what if they try to take Sapnap back?!”

“Then we use the pitiful ghost children act to guilt them into letting him stay!” Tommy argued, wrestling himself away from Tubbo in order to speak without a hand muffling his words.

“We can argue about this later!” Ranboo snapped, grabbing both Tubbo and Tommy by their wrists and dragging them along with them downstairs to the living room.

It seemed they were too late to stop Ant, with how the room had their jaws dropped in shock, the news must’ve already been dropped.

“My son… is here?” Bad whispered.

Now it was their turn to drop their mouths open in shock. 

This dude was Sapnap’s dad?!

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry, but you’re Sapnap’s dad?” Wilbur spoke up, being the first to break the shocked silence.

Bad immediately turned to face Wilbur, taking a step forward in desperation, but stopped when Techno took his own protective step in front of his brother.

Bad paused, biting his lip before asking, “you know him? You know my son?”

Wilbur paused, unsure of what to say. 

Of course he knew Sapnap! He was one of his dearest friends! One of the only people who stuck around with him when he started to obsess over ghosts! But that all made sense now didn’t it? Sapnap stuck around not because he simply believed, but because he himself knew everything there was to know about the afterlife! If Sapnap was a demon… did Karl and Quackity already know this? Was everyone aside from Wilbur tuned in on this little secret?

“Wilbur… please. ” Bad begged quietly, his voice just barely above a whisper as he clasped his hands together in front of his mouth, almost like a prayer. “I just want to see him again. To make sure that he’s okay.”

Wilbur furrowed his brow, silently making up his mind as he fought through his own series of questions. “Only if you answer one thing first.”

Bad nodded silently, a desperate kind of hope in his eyes as the room stayed completely silent (and maybe Wilbur let that silence build for a moment, allowing the tension to rise to the perfect point before breaking it).

“Did you do something, anything, that would make him want to… for the lack of a better word, run away?”

Bad’s eyes widened, “Oh heavens below, no! At least I don’t think so.” 

“If I may cut in here,” Ant spoke up, “he was summoned, it’s not like he chose to come here on his own. He’s still young, he wouldn’t be able to leave our realm without a summoning circle anyway.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.” Techno spoke up, “if he’s so young, how would he even have a summoning circle all the way out here? If there’s so many different planets and universes like Bad has lead me to believe, how would a demon even get to one? Especially if they can’t even leave your realm without having some sort of summoning circle?”

Ant sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “normally, angels and demons have a very lengthy process to start… we’ll call it traveling for now. When you’re made into a being like Bad and myself, you’re born with a certain set of symbols on your wrists, ankles, and forehead. These make up for each point of the star required for your summons.” Ant pulled back his sleeve, revealing a tattooed dark symbol that almost looked like a cat if you squinted at it.

Wilbur gasped, “that’s why he’s always wearing long sleeves! And socks! And that fucking headband!”

Ant nodded, “usually the process to allow a being to travel is basically giving you free roaming in and out of our realm. But if you’ve been denied from the process for whatever reason; though the main reason is being a shitty person; you can only ever leave our realm if a human happens to put each of your correct symbols within a summoning circle.”

“So how is it possible for anyone to guess his symbols exactly?” Techno asked next. “There are millions of combinations and probably millions of symbols, the chances for getting it exactly right are miniscule! Probably almost impossible!”

Ant looked to Bad, who seemed just as lost as Techno. Ant sighed, “well, there is another way to get your summoning requirements out there. Though I’ve never thought Sapnap would be one to…” Ant stopped midsentence, shaking his head and waving the rest of the thought away. “The only other way I know of is to have another demon leave your summons in another world for you. A summons can be left in the form of a book page, fog on a mirror, blood splatterings, basically anything. Knowing Sapnap, if he took this path of leaving his summons somewhere, he probably would’ve had someone slip it into a book.”

“And you’re telling me.” Techno took a deep and slow breath, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “That three ghosts happened to just… summon him?”

Bad shrugged, “I assume they stumbled across his summonings somehow. How they even found the things in the first place I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you just… ask them?” Wilbur asked, gesturing around himself to the house. “I mean, you’ve already confirmed that you can see them. Wouldn’t it be easier to ask the three that performed a demon summoning over questioning everything?”

Ant pointed a finger at Wilbur, side-eyeing bad as he muttered, “he does have a point.”

Bad batted Ant’s finger down, glaring at him as a huff of air left his nose. “I would, if the three ghosts in question would come out of hiding. But most ghosts are silent observers, I doubt these three would do anything more than watch.”

The lights suddenly popped, everything in the house going completely dark and silent. All the appliances shut off simultaneously, leaving the four in the living room to stand in complete eerie silence.

“You just had to go and provoke them, didn’t you?” Ant hissed, his cat tail flicking back and forth in an annoyed manner. He sighed loudly before speaking up nervously, “boys, I’m sorry about that, Bad is just…”

A shivering cold chill ran down Wilbur and Techno’s spines simultaneously as Ant tilted his head, cat ears twitching as he heard something they couldn’t. Bad’s jaw dropped in shock as Ant snorted, “exactly. He is kinda being a dick isn’t he?”

Techno caught Wilbur’s eye in a look of confusion, but Wilbur could only shrug.

“No, no. I get where you’re coming from.” Ant said, nodding at the empty air and replying to something that the two humans in the room couldn’t see.

Bad seemed to notice their complete loss. He snapped his fingers, suddenly brightening despite being insulted moments prior. “Oh right! A deal is a deal.” He stepped forward in the dim lighting of the house, holding out his palms towards the two twins. “You’ve held up your side of the bargain, now it’s my turn. I’d bet you’d like to know what’s going on around here, right?”

“Bad… you didn’t.” Ant sighed, running a stressed hand through his hair.

Bad shrugged sheepishly, “sorry Ant, you know I can’t resist a good deal or two. It’s demon nature after all.”

“What did you promise the two?”

The demon paused in his steps, slowly turning around to face Ant, but avoiding the mans gaze as best he could. “I may have promised-” Bad said something, but neither human nor ghost could understand what in the hell he said. The oddest sound any mortal had ever heard left the demons lips. It was indescribable, in the oddest way. Because if you searched desperately for some sort of comparison, maybe it was possible for someone to imagine it, or even recreate it through soundmixers.

Like- fire crackling, and angels singing, combined with the sounds of windchimes and glass pinging against glass. It was almost defeningly loud, but somehow intensly quiet, all at once. It was the wind and the waves, a forest fire and the rain. Clashing but somehow fitting all together.

Wilbur was sent into an intense wave of nausea upon hearing it, his eyes shutting tight as he took a shaky step back.

“Holy Primes! Bad! Be careful with what you say around them!” Ant fussed, stepping forward and touching a finger to Techno and Wilbur’s foreheads. “You’re gonna kill them! They’re mortals you idiot!”

Ant’s touch sent an odd coolness around Wilbur’s entire body. Like he was suddenly plunged into cool water on a hot summer day. He felt more awake than he had in days, and honestly, his body has never felt better in all his life.

It was like all his bones clicked into their perfect places, any faint pain from sitting wrong in his chair over the years suddenly vanishing in an instant. The lights clicked back on throughout the house as well, the humming of appliances once more filling the air.

“I hate when you do that.” Bad said, even though he looked quite a bit embarrassed from the situation in the first place. He was glancing up at the lights as well, both him and Ant seemed confused about them coming back on without anyone visiting the breaker. “Do they always have to crack like they’re human glowsticks?”

Ant huffed, sending a harsh glare towards Bad, “it’s a blessing Bad. Of course it’s gonna realign their bones and shit. It’s heal all or nothing after all.”

“Language.” He chided softly, “plus, you’re going to get in trouble if you keep blessing people all willy nilly.”

“First of all, no one says willy nilly anymore.” Ant said simply, “second of all, I was technically undoing a demon’s damage. Therefore, it is completely valid to heal them according to the seventh law, fifth paragraph, and fourteenth sentence.”

Bad hummed in thought for a minute before shaking his head and raising his arms in surrender. “Alright, alright. Fine. I’m sorry.”

“You better be. You could’ve seriously hurt these two.” Ant huffed.

Techno cleared his throat, scrunching up his nose as he squinted through his glasses. He was blinking like an absolute madman, shutting his eyes tight before opening them again in even more confusion.

“Techno? Are you okay?” Wilbur asked carefully. Taking a careful step towards his brother.

“Yeah I just-” Suddenly, he ripped off his glasses, his eyes widening in surprise as he looked around him in sheer loss. “Ant did you… did you just heal my eyes? ”

Ant gasped, a hand flying to his mouth in shock, his shoulders hiking up in a wince.

Wilbur focused on his own vision then, realizing that his own glasses had the slightest fuzz to them. He wasn’t as blind as Techno was, in fact, he barely needed his glasses to function normally. He could get away without wearing them if he forgot them for a day. But Techno? He was absolutely fucking blind. The world was like a fuzzy ball of colors to him. As a kid, the guy didn’t realize leaves were individual things on trees until he got prescribed a pair of glasses.

Wilbur carefully took off his own glasses, quickly noticing that distant things were so much sharper than usual. He blinked, glancing down at his round frames before trying them on again. Maybe he just had some gunk in his eye while he was wearing them before?

Again, his vision went weird and oddly overcorrected when he placed the glasses onto his nose once more.

How in the world would they explain this to Phil?!

“Uhhh- so…” Ant cleared his throat nervously, pulling at his collar of his shirt and avoiding any eye contact as the twins compared their vision to their glasses. “I may have forgotten just how strong my blessings could be when I don’t focus them. But to be fair, I think you both deserve to have some decent vision in your lives.”

“Bruh-” Techno sighed heavily. “We have a optomitrist appointment next week . How in the world do we explain that our eyes magically healed themselves?”

Techno pinched the bridge of his nose, folding his glasses and hanging them on his shirt. “Oh my primes. You are so so lucky that my doctor owes me a favor.”

Wilbur stared at his brother, completely lost for words. “Why does our eye doctor owe you a favor?!”

Techno shrugged, avoiding eye contact as he muttered, “they wanted to impress someone at their work, so I pretended to hit on the person they were interested in so that they could swoop in and stop me.”

Wilbur hasn’t seen his brothers face this red in absolute ages. His ears were tinted pink as he burned holes into the carpet with his eyes.

“That must’ve been the most awkward flirting attempt in the world.” Wilbur shook his head fondly, “did it work at all?”

Techno shrugged, “I dunno, but that idiot owes me a favor. That’s for sure.”

“So.. what? We’ll just bullshit our prescriptions?” Wilbur asked.

Techno nodded, “most likely. They’ll probably keep mine at the same level they are currently and up yours by the tiniest bit.” He chuckled to himself, “and maybe if we take in a box of doughnuts when we go, they’ll let us have some decent fake lenses to pop into our glasses for now so that Phil doesn’t notice.”

Ant suddenly flinched, whirling around and staring at something that wasn’t there. “You absolute little shithead! Don’t do that!” He shouted, his tail puffed up behind him. He didn’t seem particularly angry, but he was definitely startled.

“You don’t just go around and touch someone’s tail! ” He shook his head, his tail currently curling around his body like it was attempting to hide itself away. “I get that you wanted to get my attention, but there are better ways to do that.”

“Ant?” Wilbur asked, glancing between Ant and the spot he assumed he was staring at. “Who are you- who are you talking to?”

“Oh! Right, introductions.” Ant clapped his hands, “Wilbur, Techno, this is Tommy. Tommy, this is Wilbur and Techno.” He sighed heavily. “Yes Tommy, I know that you already know their names. I’m just trying to do some proper introductions for you all.”

Now it was Techno’s turn to sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as he slowly said, “I don’t know if you know this, but we, ” He used wide gestures to point to Wilbur and himself, speaking as though he was talking to a first grader. A strained smile was even on his face as he slowly went through the motions. Wilbur had to hold back a giggle at the sight. “Can’t see. These ghosts. That you keep on talking about.”

“Oh! Right!” Bad suddenly exclaimed, clambering over the coffee table towards the twins.

“Bruh- don’t climb over someones coffee table! That’s literal glass!” Techno scolded, but he was ignored as Bad raised his palms in front of each of their faces.

“Alright boys, this is going to sting a little bit, and for a minute or so you’re going to get one heck of a headache.” Bad warned, making sure to make eye contact with each of them. “I’m going to essentially open your eyes to the things you’ve never been able to see before. From here on out, you will be seeing demons without their human glamours, ghosts, dead animals and pets that haven’t moved on from your world yet, and if you’re really lucky-”

“Or cursed.” Ant added from the back, his ears pinned to his head in a pouty sort of way.

Bad continued as though he wasn’t interrupted, “you may even see a god or something!”

“Is this the cursed blessing you were telling us about earlier?” Wilbur asked, unsure as he stared at the demon’s palm that hovered in front of his face.

Bad nodded, practically beaming at the fact. “Once you receive your sight, it can’t be taken back. So I’ll ask once and only once. Are you sure that you want this?”

Techno looked to Wilbur, and the two had a silent conversation between themselves with only looks.

Both of them nodded, and Techno looked back with a deep breath, “a deal’s a deal, isn’t it?”

Bad hummed, his tail flicking and curling around his leg before he pressed his palms to the twins eyes. 

For a moment, nothing happened. Bad muttering something incomprehensible beneath his breath. Wilbur blindly reached for Techno’s hand, finding it after two attempts and intertwining their fingers, squeezing twice for assurance. He received two squeezes in return from Techno, a reminder that they were with one another. They could get through whatever came their way, as long as they were together.

A sharp pain suddenly stabbed between Wilbur’s eyes. He cried out, able to hear Techno do the same as they both backed up and fell into their armchairs, their hands still clasped tight.

Wilbur felt as though he’d been plunged into the middle of the ocean. He couldn’t swim, he couldn’t gasp for air. His brain felt like it was melting, and his body felt like ice.

It was as though he was given a migraine, but almost ten times worse. The pain was over exaggerated, especially around his eyes.

The weirdest part of it though, had to be when something squeezed at the front of his eyeballs. His vision going weird and blurry before something physically popped, and suddenly he could feel as though the world was perceived differently.

For starters, there were definitely three extra people in his living room.

Then the pain increased, causing him to shut his eyes as he slumped off of his chair and onto the floor, Techno shortly following after him since Wilbur all but pulled him along with his hand still entwined with his brothers.

It was agony. He would rather stab out his own eyes with butter knives than do whatever this was again. Honestly, he was starting to think that the pain would be a permanent part of this deal until it started to fade.

Ebbing away slowly to a point where it didn’t feel like it ever happened in the first place.

Wilbur slowly blinked his eyes open, rubbing at them with his free hand before looking up.

Sure enough, he wasn’t in a state of delirium when he thought he saw three extra figures in his room.

Three young children stood to the side, staring at him and Techno with varying degrees of concern on their faces.

Two of them happened to be bleeding, which was horrifying in itself.

“What the fuck?” Wilbur whispered, staring at the children.

“Language.” Bad said quietly before speaking up, “how do you feel?”

“My brain feels like a pile of putty in my head.” Techno spoke up, tilting his head from side to side. “I’m pretty sure I can hear it sloshing around in there.”

“That’s disgusting.” One of the kids commented, causing the other two to giggle.

Wilbur couldn’t stop staring. He hadn’t spoken a word aside from cursing, but he couldn’t find anything else to say.

Ghosts were fucking real.

Ghost were real and he knew it this whole time! Which meant that Sally- no. He shouldn’t think like that. Sapnap told him that it was better for a spirit to move on. Honestly, Wilbur was inclined to believe him, seeing as Sapnap was a demon and all. He probably had much more insight on spirits and such than he let on.

Oh my god. That explained why Sapnap was so calm during the fucking ghost hunt earlier! What the fuck! He knew they were real this entire time?!  

No wait. Now is not the time to think about that. There are three bleeding children standing in his living room. Focus Wilbur. Focus.

“Yo fuckface,” the blond one spoke up, blue eyes fierce and bright, a cocky grin practically glued to his lips. “Staring is rude innit?”

He earned himself a light whack on the shoulder for that comment by the taller ghost, the one with caramel brown hair that could be a dark dirty blond. They were bleeding somewhere underneath their shirt, blood seeping into the material endlessly but never expanding or shrinking. Just dripping onto the floor like a never ending leak. 

The tallest wore a nice looking half black, half white sweater, which was oddly momochrome next to their colorful companions, the shorter sporting a wrongly buttoned green shirt, and the blond with a red and white shirt. They were an odd bunch for sure, and judging by the wounds on two of them (the blond didn’t have any blood on him, which was relieving and worrying at the same time), they probably didn’t have the best life.

Ant suddenly spoke up, “ now I can properly introduce all of you.”

Wilbur snapped out of his thoughts, finally tearing his gaze away from the three ghosts in his living room.

“Wilbur, Techno, this is Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo. They’re the ghosts that have been haunting you.” Ant spoke, smiling as he finally got to introduce everyone properly.

The ghosts waved as their names were mentioned, looking oddly shy given they’ve been living with them from day one. Then again, they probably weren’t used to people perceiving them.

Techno suddenly pointed to the shorter one, the one with the extremely fluffy brown hair. “You! You’re the one who’s been staring at me in the bathroom mirror!”

Tubbo looked shock, his mouth dropping open as he pointed back. “You saw me this whole time?!”

“Of course I did! I thought I was going nuts!” Techno exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. He whispered, more to himself than anyone else, “I’m not going crazy, thank the primes.”

“You never even reacted to me being there?! I thought I was losing my abilities!” Tubbo exclaimed, taking a step forward as threateningly as he could.

But now that the ghosts were visible , it was honestly hard to be scared of them.

For starters, they were kids. Which absolutely broke Wilbur’s heart. They didn’t deserve to die so young.

“Oi!” Tommy suddenly shouted, ignoring Tubbo and Techno’s little argument they were trying to have. Tommy appeared directly in front of Wilbur’s face (he bit back the urge to scream). “I know that fucking look. None of that pity shit alright? We’re dead. Oh boo hoo, look at us, three little kids who were killed oh no!” Tommy said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he mimicked being sad in a weird high pitched tone before speaking normally once more. “Shut the fuck up. We may be dead, but we’ve been dead for twenty fucking years. We’re older than you by now.”

Wilbur furrowed his brow, “I wasn’t pitying you, it’s just- it’s sad isn’t it? Like when you see a cemetery, or a burnt section of forest, you just feel a little heartbroken for the fact that someone or something is gone in the first place.”

Tommy stared at him, casting a glance to Techno that basically said, “you seeing this shit?”

“What?” Wilbur asked, albeit nervously.

“You just described what pity is you fucking idiot.” Tommy deadpanned.

Wilbur huffed, glaring at the blond ghost, “don’t be a fucking prick!”

“Don’t be a fucking dumbass then!” Tommy screamed back.

Techno wrapped his arm around Wilbur’s shoulder, pulling him into his chest like he was a kid. “Wilbur, stop arguing with the child. You literally just defined the word pity and said it wasn’t pity.”

Tommy shouted something about not being a child, but Wilbur wasn’t quite paying attention to him.

Wilbur gasped, sending a shocked look to his brother as Tommy devolved from shouting into a giggling fit in the background. “My own brother! Betraying me! Techno what the fuck!”

Techno shrugged, smiling despite his obvious discomfort to having so many strangers together in a room.

Wilbur suddenly grinned, shrugging off the betrayal and leaning towards his brother to poke at his nose, “guess what Tech?”

Techno closed his eyes and groaned dramatically. He already knew what was coming.

“C’mon. I want to hear you say it.”

“I’m not gonna say it Wilbur.”

“I was right.” Wilbur whispered joyously, his smile growing wider. “I was right and ghosts are fucking real Techno. Just like I told you and dad!”

Wilbur wrapped his own arm around Techno’s shoulder, bringing the two even closer to one another as Wilbur leaned right into Techno’s face.

“I. Told. You. So.” He said, emphasising each word with a poke to Techno’s nose.

“I will throw you out the window if you keep rubbing that fact in my face.” Techno said, leveling a glare towards his twin.

Wilbur backed off almost immediately, raising his hands in the air and taking a step back before Techno could hoist him over his shoulder and yeet him out the living room window.

“Boooooo!” Tubbo complained, causing his companions to laugh, “toss him out! It’d be funny!”

“He has a point Wil.”

Wilbur took turns to glare at Techno and Tubbo, taking another step away from the former. “You’re all assholes.”

Bad suddenly stepped forward, biting his lip nervously but keeping his gaze solely on Wilbur. “I hate to interrupt a sweet moment, but can you please tell me about my son now?” He scratched the back of his neck, his tail lashing back and forth behind him. “It was a part of our deal, and demon deals are dangerous if they aren’t fulfilled.”

“Oh. Right.” Wilbur said dumbly. He turned to find his armchair and sit in it, Techno following his example and sitting back down as well. Wilbur opened his phone, finding the folder of automatically sorted photos that were labelled ‘Sapnap’ and sliding it towards Bad.

Bad gasped, picking up the phone as if it was some sort of fragile holy object, his clawed fingers carefully swiping at the screen to see the next photo of his son.

“Sapnap is doing pretty well.” Wilbur started with a smile, “he’s one of my closest friends, and he means the world to me.” Suddenly his brow furrowed as he remembered something. “It’s weird though. You two were recommended to me by one of Sapnap’s…” Wilbur paused, a blush finding its way onto his cheeks as he recalled that there were some things that he shouldn’t reveal to this demon guy. Things that would be better heard from Sapnap himself. “By one of our friends. And now that I think about it… Sapnap was oddly panicked when you two were brought up. He was mainly concerned about excorsisms.”

Ant nodded, “that makes sense. Excorsisms that are performed in places with summoning circles have the potential to burn away a demons mortal body. It can essentially force them to become a spirit and reside near their summoning circle until it’s wiped away.” Ant frowned, crossing his arms as his voice pitched into something more melancholy. “And if the circle isn’t wiped away properly and in the correct way, there’s a chance that the demon could be stuck in spirit form on the planet for the rest of their days. That’s why there’s so many demon dolls and hauntings in your world. Demons who got stuck here have gotten bored and need some sort of entertainment.”

Techno hummed in thought, “so why do you offer excorsisms in the first place?”

This time it was Bad who spoke up, his tail flicking back and forth as he visibly brightened. “We offer excorsisms because we can actually perform them properly. We’re not just blessing the air with a few words from your bible and hoping for the best.” Bad tilted his head in a curious manner, “though I guess that some mortals are quite good at their forms of excorsisms, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t rid of the summoning circle. Instead, they just bless the house itself, causing this invisible forcefield to appear around it that prevents demon activity. It doesn’t banish the demon as they think it does, instead, it will tend to lower activity and it will kind of burn for the demon to be inside the house. Of course, demons aren’t typically bound to certain places like spirits tend to be, so they can just leave and come back when the blessing eventually fades over time.”

Bad wandered off to their bookshelf, handing back Wilbur’s phone as he made his way across the room. He stood, casually browsing their reading choices as he debunked years of human beliefs with only a few sentences. “If we offer exsorcisms, we can normally find and speak to the owner of the summoning circle, and either talk to them about lowering their activity in certain places to avoid actual blessings on the house, or we can rid of the summoning circle properly, so that the demon doesn’t get hurt or stuck here.”

Techno sighed heavily, shutting his eyes tight and leaning back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “There is way too much ghost lore that is being explained right now.”

“You’re the one who asked.” Wilbur pointed out with a grin, poking gently at Techno’s elbow.

“And I regret ever allowing myself to speak on this subject.” Techno mumbled. He sighed again, sitting up properly and focusing his gaze on Wilbur, “please continue telling Bad everything about your best friend so that you don’t accidentally get yourself and your entire familial bloodline cursed please.”

“Oh. Right.” Wilbur said dumbly.

Bad came back to the couches again, interested in the conversation instead of their mortal possessions.

So Wilbur explained as much as he knew, as part of their deal. Though he made sure to keep any private details private.

He told them about how he met Sapnap, Quackity, and Karl. And how they formed a fast bond between them as friends.

Wilbur explained a couple ghost experiences, reliving them with the knowledge that Sapnap was a demon the entire time. Which revealed quite a few interesting details that he would’ve never noticed before.

Like how Sapnap was never that scared in their haunting explorations, never afraid to be alone in a particularly creepy hall. How he would sometimes glare at a corner of a room, as if trying to silently tell someone to back off. The way he would always have some sort of lighter on him, clicking it on and off when he needed to fidget with something.

The three ghosts got bored during his explaination, and decided to mess with Techno’s hair to pass the time. This resulted in a very pouty Techno getting his hair flicked around and his braid undone in the smallest micro movements at a time.

The ghosts couldn’t move things very well it seemed, especially on someone living. Then again, Wilbur has witnessed them slamming doors, shutting off breaker lights, and even shoving a pile of books onto the floor.

Though it was very cute that Techno refused to tell them to back off, silently sitting and watching the boys entertain themselves as they drifted around him and poked at his head.

At one point, Techno leaned forward and dug through the coffee table drawers, pulling out a little pad of paper and a pen to play hangman with the three ghosts.

They were completely enraptured by the game, and by the time Wilbur was done retelling as many stories of Sapnap as he could, the little stickman was complete with sunglasses, hair, jewlery, a beard and mustache, and even a top hat. The word was only half guessed by this point, the ghosts pouting and whining to convince Techno to add another feature to the stickman so that they could continue guessing letters.

And from the tiny fond smile on Techno’s face, it was safe to assume that he was already forming some sort of attachment to the three ghosts. (Techno never liked loosing hangman either. He would never add extra features whenever he and Wilbur played this game as kids, so he was already going soft for the three new additions to their home).

Techno seemed to notice that Wilbur was done with his story telling, a small grin making its way onto his lips as he quietly revealed, “the word was marquis.”

Tommy sputtered in anger, “that’s not even a word!”

“Marquis; a nobleman ranking above a count, and below a duke.” Techno defined easily, filling in the empty spaces of their game to show them how it was spelt.

“I told you guys that there would be a Q! But you didn’t believe me!” Ranboo whined, laying dramatically across the top of the chair like a cat. Which by all means would be impossible for anyone who wasn’t a fucking ghost.

Wilbur couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his twin being so comfortable around new people. He turned back to Bad, his smile fading slightly as he remembered the entire situation at hand. “Please don’t take Sapnap away from us. He’s- he’s really important to our friends and I, and we would hate to see him go.” Wilbur sighed, brushing a hand through his curls, “though I suppose if he decides he wants to go back to… the demon realm or whatever, then that’s his choice. And we’d have to let him go.

Bad smiled softly, “I would never take my son away from a life that makes him happy. I’m just upset that he up and vanished one day without ever trying to contact me.” Bad pinched his nose, a soft whine escaping his throat as his tail curled around his waist, “for all I knew, my son was dead. Which is a horrifying thing to think of as a father.” He gestured to Ant, who perked up at the little motion. “That’s why I met up with Ant here, since he’s an angel, he can sense who’s passed onto the afterlife, demon or not. And ever since he confirmed that Sapnap was still alive, we’ve kind of just been friends ever since.”

Wilbur sighed in relief, grateful that one of his best friends wasn’t about to be forcibly taken away from him.

Then, out of the blue, the doorbell sounded. Singing its short little tune at the arrival of a visitor.

Wilbur took a glance over to Techno, who was frozen, staring at the front door. The three ghosts were also in a similar state, which meant it most likely wasn’t them messing with the doorbell.

“I’ll get it.” Wilbur announced, pushing himself up and out of the chair. “Dad said something about a inspector visiting either today or tomorrow, so I’m sure it’s probably them.”

He walked over to the door, noting the shadow through the glass looked a bit… familiar.

Wilbur took a breath, and swung the door open to reveal that Sapnap was on the other side. 

Speak of the devil and they’ll appear.

Sapnap grinned as he caught sight of Wilbur, “oh my primes dude, you’re never gonna believe this. I think I dropped my fucking wallet last night. Have you seen it anywhere?”

Wilbur was stuck opening and closing his mouth, unable to speak.

“Sapnap?!” Bad suddenly screeched from behind him.

Now it was Sapnap’s turn to drop his mouth open in shock. He could only stand frozen, his face pale as the door swung open a bit more by Bad appearing at Wilbur’s side.

“Dad…” Sapnap whispered in shock, staring at the demon. “You’re not- we haven’t…”

Bad suddenly pushed past Wilbur, tears already forming in his eyes as he cupped Sapnap’s cheeks in his palms. Sapnap only stared, wide-eyed as Bad fussed over him quietly. Checking his face for injuries or changes that had happened in the years they had been apart.

“My son… my son… my darling boy.” Bad whispered to himself, a teary smile breaking through, “I missed you… so much.”

With that, Bad pulled Sapnap into his arms, squeezing the boy in a desperate hug. 

Wilbur caught Sapnap’s eyes over Bad’s shoulder, still partly in shock at the surprise of his demon dad being here on earth.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Sapnap returned the hug. Carefully burying his face in Bad’s shoulder as tears threatened to spill from his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Sapnap asked quietly, “how did you even find me?”

“I never stopped looking for you Sap.” Bad admitted, still holding Sapnap in a tight hug, “I wouldn’t have stopped looking for you even if it took a million years.”

Sapnap let out a silent sob, his shoulders shuddering as he buried his face even deeper into Bad’s neck. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeated again and again, ignoring the gentle shushing from his father. “I never should have left you without saying anything, I should have told you. I’m so sorry. I missed you.”

“It’s okay. You needed to get out and be your own person for a bit anyway. You’re young Sapnap. Besides, I’m pretty sure I did the exact same thing when I was your age. I scared my parent have to death.” Bad chuckled, letting Sapnap out of the hug but still holding him by the shoulders. “I’m just glad I found you again.”

Sapnap’s eyes suddenly flickered over to Wilbur, as if he just realized that he had an audience. He blushed, avoiding eye contact with his friend.

“I’ll uh- I’ll look around for your wallet.” Wilbur said awkwardly, taking a step back from the door. But instead he felt a cold chill suddenly run through him. He turned, seeing Tommy standing there with a cheeky grin on his face. He pulled a very familiar wallet out from behind his back before it vanished into his hands. “Finders keepers bitch.”

Wilbur huffed, “Tommy. Give me the wallet please.”

“You can see them?!” Sapnap suddenly screeched.

Wilbur ignored him in favor of glaring at the young ghost. “That’s not yours Tommy. Give it back.”

Tommy stuck out his tongue, shrugging his shoulders and revealing that his hands were empty. “Give what back? I don’t have anything.”

Wilbur huffed, “Ant? Can you kill a someone twice?”

Tommy screeched, “you can’t threaten to kill me!? What the fuck!”

“Everyone shut up!” Sapnap suddenly snapped, silencing the chaos that was sure to unfold if it had continued. “I just found my fucking dad after not seeing him for the past fifteen years! Can I get a tiny bit of silence so I can actually process what’s going on?!”

“Language.” Bad chided under his breath, but no one batted an eye to it.

Sapnap sighed heavily, burying his face in his palms for a moment before holding out his palm to Tommy expectantly. His voice softed to a gentler tone, “Tommy, can I please get my wallet back? I’d like to talk to my dad for a couple hours before coming back here and processing all of…” he gestured to the house, “this.”

Tommy grumbled to himself as he floated over and slid his hand over Sapnap’s. When he pulled his hand away, the wallet had appeared in Sapnap’s palm, who immediately tucked it away into his pocket.

“Alright. You all stay here, don’t go anywhere. I’m going to go and have a private conversation with Bad and his…” Sapnap tilted his head at Ant, who waved happily, “angel friend over here. Please don’t excorsise yourselves while I’m gone.”

With that, Sapnap gestured for Ant to follow him, and the three left the house to go talk about whatever stuff they needed to talk over.

Leaving three ghosts and two mortals to awkwardly stand in the living room together without any buffers to keep their conversations from going south.

“So uh-” Techno started, clearing his throat awkwardly, “what are we gonna tell dad?”

Ranboo was still stood at Techno’s side, shrugging lightly as they spoke up, “I’m sure you guys can pretend that nothing happened?” 

Techno leveled the younger a look, “my entire view on the world was completely shattered today. An hour ago, I didn’t believe in ghosts, demons, or angels for that matter. I feel like my head is going to explode.”

“Surely you getting a bit of a headache doesn’t mean that you can’t keep a secret?” Tubbo asked, tilting his head curiously as he hovered up to be eye level with the older.

Thankfully, Wilbur finally spoke up, starting over towards his brother since Sapnap was sure to be gone for quite a bit. “Guys, Techno talks to dad about everything. You’ve been watching us, surely you’ve noticed their late night chats where they go over every detail of their separate days.”

“Oh my prime yes. ” Tommy whined out, “it’s the most boring part of the day!”

“I actually quite like when they do that.” Ranboo said quietly, causing Techno to glance over to see a softer look on their face. “You guys talking about your day reminds me that… there’s a whole world out there that we haven’t seen evolve because we’ve been stuck here for so long. It makes me feel human.”

And if Techno wasn’t attached to these random ghosts before, he was absolutely willing to fight gods and demons alike if it meant keeping these kids around.

Tubbo brightened, a mischievous grin suddenly appearing as he happily announced, “Ranboo will always sit right next to you Techno! They once threatened to throw Tommy’s beanbag out of the house because Tommy tried to sit next to you one night.”

“I’ve never feared for my non existent life more.” Tommy shuddered.

The space around Ranboo suddenly plunged into freezing temperatures as they seemed to blush. They weren’t really capable of blood rushing to their cheeks, but their ghostly form seemed to flicker into a more solid looking form for a bit as their emotions rised.  “Tubbo!”

Ranboo dove towards the brown haired kid with the means of tackling him to the floor, to which Tubbo dodged easily. But Ranboo was whirling back on him within seconds, resulting in the two chasing one another around the house and through the walls, screeching one anothers names all the while.

Techno however, wanted to melt into a pile of goo on the floor in the best of ways.

He always wondered why the space next to him always felt so cold during the late night talks with his dad. But at least now he had explanations for a lot of the weirder happenings of their home.

Feeling watched, cold spots, weird bumps in the night, shadows moving, all of it suddenly made sense.

Techno groaned, a sharp headache starting to form as his brain struggled to comprehend the changes.

“That’s it. I’m going back to bed. Tell dad that I’m unwell if I’m not up by the time he gets home.” Techno said, already making his way to his bedroom.

“Tech! You can’t just leave me here with three ghost kids!” Wilbur exclaimed, attempting to follow his twin back to his room.

“I can and will.” Techno said simply. “Goodnight.”

And with that, he shut his bedroom door in Wil’s face, the lock clicking seconds after.

Wilbur stood gobsmacked for a moment, staring at the plank of wood that separated him and his brother.

Then he heard a loud thud coming from the living room, he started his march back, angrily shouting, “Tommy I swear to prime if you break more shit I’m going to find a way to physically fight you!”

The house would definitely grow to be more and more chaotic within the upcoming days, but finally, pieces of the puzzle were starting to click into place.

Chapter Text

Getting to know three ghosts wasn’t as hard as one might think.

Because ghosts are around literally 24/7 if you’re at home.

The hardest part had to be hiding the fact that Wilbur and Techno could suddenly see these three specters from their father.

Holding back laughter as three ghosts made jokes and messed with Phil was surprisingly difficult for both Wilbur and Techno. But the company was very enjoyable.

The troublemaking spirits made the home energetic and exciting, and as the days passed, the family found that they were surprisingly enjoying the place.

They got a few concerned visits from surrounding neighbors, who were always glancing around the place like it was going to blow up at any second while they asked how they liked the neighborhood and if their place was as freaky as the rumors said.

Techno found it terribly amusing to say that absolutely nothing supernatural exists while one of the kids would fling something across the room or make the lights flicker in an usual way.

It made for some horrified faces as the neighbor would stumble away, most likely thinking that Techno was a little insane for denying such obvious evidence.

The boys were endlessly sweet as well, though they’d never admit it.

Every time Phil would announce that they needed to clean after work, they’d come home to a house that didn’t need dusting or sweeping, not a speck of dirt to be found anywhere. The windows were even spotless, aside from a few choice handprints on the inside to unnerve Phil if he were to see them.

Of course the ghosts weren’t perfect angels all the time. They’d constantly steal pencils and pens and books to place them in ridiculous spots around the house.

Techno once found a book of his in the cold fireplace, to which he almost cried at the idea of it accidentally being burnt to ash if he didn’t find it before the colder weather settled in. Tommy personally apologized for that one, and vowed to never hide things in there again.

Aside from that incident, there were random things placed in the fridge or freezer (Wilbur once found his pillow in the freezer), pens hidden with the silverware, singular socks stolen from pairs and hidden throughout the house, blankets half taken off of beds.

Then of course, since their haunting was done by teenagers, there was always an endless amount of… phallic art.

They were often drawn on the windows or mirrors of the house, always the same simple design. If Phil was the one that happened to find one of them, he’d lightly scold either Techno or Wilbur, but only if he found it on the front window, not wanting the neighbors to see something like that displayed. But the twins and the ghosts all knew that Phil found it very amusing, always having to smother a snort of laughter when he’d find a particularly unexpected one.

Phil was none the wiser to the ghosts that haunted them, always blaming the odd happenings to the twins pulling pranks or just a coincidence that he didn’t notice before.

Day by day, the weird little house that was cursed to shoo out family after family, seemed to slowly feel like home.

Thanks to the three little shitheads who resided within for the past twenty years.

--------

That’s it.

Phil is going to commit a murder against his own two sons.

The man groaned, rubbing a hand down his face as he pushed himself away from his desk due to the loud clattering happening downstairs.

“I swear to Prime…” Phil muttered, slipping out of the office and into the inky darkness of the hallway. 

He kept his hand on the wall for balance and to keep himself from tripping down the staircase. He eventually fumbled his way towards the railing, gripping it tightly as he carefully crept downstairs. 

Maybe Phil should get some nightlights for the halls so that he could avoid dying, but then again, what’s life without a little risk?

He paused at the bottom of the stairwell, listening for where the clattering was coming from. Though now it sounded more like something being shoved across a floor, metal screeching against the hardwood floors in protest. 

It was muffled due to the fact that it was apparently coming from Wilbur’s door, as Phil found out quickly once he followed the sounds.

He pressed his ear against the hardwood, trying to make out what in the hell his son was up to.

There was only a muffled voice within, hushed and panicked as the heavy item was shoved across the floor once more.

Phil knocked three times, not entering without explicit permission from Wilbur. “Wil? What the hell are you doing in there? It’s one in the morning.”

An odd chill seemed to suddenly overtake the doorway, and Phil flinched away from the sudden cold before adjusting his robe and wrapping it tighter around himself.

He should probably turn up the heating, the house has been getting odd chills as of late. Or maybe he needs to get the place inspected. There was probably a draft coming in from somewhere.

There was a small scuffle, a whisper, then Wilbur seemed to shuffle to the doorway, opening it with a smothered grin. “Heeeey dad! Wow, what are you doing awake at this hour? How interesting of you!”

“Wil. I live here.” Phil pointed out tiredly.

“What a coincidence! I do too!”

Phil sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exhaustion as he leveled a flat look at his son.

Wilbur’s room was completely empty behind him, aside from his desk, which was currently in the center of the fucking room.

“Why are you rearranging furniture in the middle of the fucking night?” Phil asked, his tone almost reaching the point of irritation.

“I uh-” Wilbur glanced behind him, glaring at a point on the wall as though it personally offended him before turning back to Phil, all smiles on his cheeks. “I had too much caffeine before bed and now I can’t fall asleep. So I thought I could clean my room a bit, y’know?”

“No. I don’t know .” Phil sighed, exhaustion creeping into his limbs. But he couldn’t go to bed, he still had so much work to do. “Just- try to keep it down at least? I have to finish up entering these data points and turn in a couple excel worksheets.” Phil took a step back from the door, planning on grabbing another coffee before heading off to bed, “also, if you’re going to have friends over, please just tell me beforehand.”

Wilbur raised an eyebrow, a confused look on his face as he opened his door a little wider so Phil could see inside, “Dad I’m not- I don’t have any friends over at the moment. I was on the phone with… Quackity. You know him, he always seems to bring out my energy.”

Phil squinted, he was sure that someone was in the room with Wilbur. Wilbur didn’t even have his phone in his hand to prove anything!

Then again, technology was getting weird and more advanced as the years went on. Maybe Phil really was getting old.

Phil rubbed at his eyes, “primes, I’m too tired for this.” He was a father above all else, so he quickly added, “do you want some melatonin?”

Wilbur snorted, “Dad, I’m not so exhausted that I need to take a melatonin each night to get to sleep. I’m perfectly fine.”

“You know that we keep them in the house for that exact reason Wil. Sometimes getting to sleep is difficult and you need an extra push.”

“I think you need to take that dad.” Wilbur replied with a roll of his eyes before a more concerned look fell over his face. “Seriously. You should try to take a day off, or at least lighten your workload. I think an important rule to live by is; work to live, don’t live to work.”

“I don’t really have a choice Wil.” Phil sighed, turning to walk down the hall, “my work already is my life. Something we need to keep us afloat. Though at least we don’t have to make many house payments, seeing as this entire beast was given to us suspiciously cheap. We’ll have to renovate soon though.”

“I just think it’d be nice to see you more often.” Wilbur muttered, his hand already going to close his door. “You’re never really home anymore. And whenever you are, you’re working. I just mis-” Phil glanced at his son, a guilt worming into his gut as he saw Wilbur’s sullen look to the floor. “Goodnight, dad.”

With that, the door quietly clicked shut, a moment of silence ringing loudly between the uncomfortably dark and quiet hall before the muffled speaking started up again within Wilbur’s room.

This time it sounded dejected, which stung in a way.

Phil bit his lip and slipped towards the kitchen.

He really was gone too often.

Every day he was working, and when he was home he was also working.

It didn’t used to be like this. He used to make so much time to stay with his boys, to make sure they grew up with some sort of father figure in their life.

When did he start picking up hours at work? When did his sons feel like he was gone too often, never home to be home?

Phil’s eyes seemed to water, he didn’t know if it was from exhaustion or guilt, but he hissed as he wiped them away, frustrated at the odd wetness as cold air seemed to sting more harshly on his eyelids.

He turned the corner and flicked on the light to step in the kitchen when he froze.

Techno stood front and center in the kitchen, tired eyes staring daggers into the coffee machine as it quietly sputtered the last few drops of precious caffeine into a pig mug Wilbur bought Techno just last christmas.

Techno didn’t even flinch at the sudden light that enveloped the kitchen, only stepping forward and dumping way too much sugar and a splash of milk into his mug and stirring it before turning to stare at Phil as he took a long sip.

“Techno? You should seriously be sleeping right now…” Phil said, though he was still shocked (and a little frightened) at finding Techno residing in the middle of the kitchen in the fucking dark.

“Coffee.” Techno stated easily at first, “but as a real answer; I have a couple more extra credit assignments I need to finish grading before I can go to bed.”

Phil nodded, stepping forward and preparing a coffee of his own.

He could feel Techno’s stare on his back the entire time.

“Techno. Would you like to tell me something, or are you just watching?” Phil asked gently, not turning around. 

It was something he would do when the boys were little. A small way to not pressure them into speaking, but give them an easy out if they so chose.

He supposed it was a habit now.

“Wilbur’s right dad. You really do need to take some time off work.” Techno muttered, gaining a more serious tone from his previous gremlin-like state. “I don’t think I’ve seen you relax in years. Even your sleep is stressed.”

“Not you too…”

“Neither Wilbur nor myself like seeing you exhausted and stressed all the time. It’s… upsetting. To say the least.” Techno said, avoiding eye contact at this point. “I know we’re all adults by now, but I still can’t help but miss my dad when he’s not home as much as he used to be.”

“I don’t-” Phil stopped himself. Not even sure what he was about to say.

Primes. Did he really fuck up that badly?

“Goodnight, dad.” Techno sighed, a more disappointed note hidden within his tone. One that would be looked over if you didn’t know him well enough. He paused at the edge of the kitchen, not glancing back as he simply added, “just… think about it.”

With that, he snuck back down the darkened hall, coffee in hand. His footsteps were completely soundless, which meant that Phil only knew he actually went back to his room by the ever quiet click of his door shutting.

Phil made his coffee, then went back upstairs to his office.

His mind was suspiciously blank. Like it had an overload and sputtered out.

When he sat back down in his chair, he took a sip of coffee, filing away his conversations with Techno and Wilbur tucked away in the back of his mind to stew over later.

For now he had to finish the work he promised that he would.

Then maybe he’d start to deny working unless he was at the office.

Keep his home life and work life separate.

He sighed, finding that his computer fell asleep in his small break and clicked it back on, entering his password as the ever familiar click of a keyboard beneath his fingertips filled the room once again.

For some reason, a chill ran down his spine.

Again, he felt as though he was being watched.

“Wilbur? Techno? Which one of you are staring at me right now? Do you need something?” He asked, the sensation all too familiar to him to be properly freaked out.

But when he glanced behind him towards the door, nothing was there.

No one was lurking within the darkened hall that he could see.

In fact, now that he thought about it, he didn’t hear the stairs creak from weight. And he had just reached his office, there was no way that he wouldn’t have heard Techno or Wilbur’s doors open if they followed him up.

So why did he feel like someone was watching him?

Phil shrugged, his lip pouted in thought before he turned back to his computer and opened up his excel tab. There was nothing in the hall. It was probably just his imagination.

Weirdly enough, his computer definitely wasn’t on the page he left it on. And it wasn’t really normal for his tabs to just close on him like that. But maybe his computer was just being dumb. Glitches happened all the time. He’d probably have to ask the IT department about it if it kept happening.

But something that really baffled him, was the fact that when he opened his excel sheet, there were a few data points on there that he definitely did not write.

It was a short message, one that simply read, “go to bed.” Then in a second cell, only a few rows down was the word, “fucker.”

“What the shit?” Phil asked quietly, squinting at his screen as though it was just a trick of his eyes.

There was no way Wilbur snuck up here in the short time Techno and Phil were speaking. There wasn’t enough time for him to write this on here and get back down the steps without being seen or heard.

And Techno couldn’t have done it either, seeing as he was making a coffee when Phil and Wilbur were talking.

Phil huffed, deleting the strange message and deciding that it was one of his co-workers. Technology was so advanced nowadays, he wouldn’t put it past someone to somehow prank him by coding a random message to show up on his screen.

He couldn’t go to bed yet, why was everyone trying to get him to? He had to finish the work he started!

Phil started working once more, brushing the odd acts to the back of his mind and forcing himself to focus on his work, the familiarity of his task almost soothing in a weird way.

He only had maybe thirty minutes of quiet work when things started to get all fucky on him again.

It started with his hands getting cold, then his keys starting to stick and type the same letter in quick succession. Filling a single cell with letters that stretched across eight columns before it stopped. Then his screen brightness would suddenly jump to max, forcing him to shut his eyes tightly as they watered against the sudden light. When he’d open them again, his vision would be reflecting the bright screen back at him, but his computer returned back to normal with the brightness all the way back down.

Each little act he had to shrug off, a sense of unease building within his gut that he purposely ignored.

Of course, right once he was getting back into the swing of things, his browser suddenly opened, revealing a youtube page already prepped with Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

His audio suddenly jumped to 100% and clicked play at the same time, blasting the music at him as he panicked to mute it once more.

Then another music video in a separate tab started up too, making a horrible clash of sound as a song called Megalovania started to scream at him.

Phil was panting with adrenaline by the time he finally shut it off. His hands shaking slightly from the sudden rush of energy and fear that he’d wake the entire neighborhood. More importantly, he was worried that he’d wake up his sons if they were not awake already.

“What the fuck?” Phil whispered, closing out of the two tabs quickly, “I just want to finish this fucking project, is that too much to ask?”

Apparently it was, as a second browser was suddenly opened to reveal his prime-damned online work time-card staring back at him.

It was filled with hours and hours of overtime.

Too much in fact.

The color coordinated screen showed him everything in just one page. His limited breaks, his weekly regular hours far less than his overtime hours.

He saw it every time he clocked in and out. Why did this seem so hard to look at now? Why did it take him so long to realize that he worked too much, and lived too little?

The longer he stared at the page, the more convinced he became.

With a new determination of actually sleeping when he was supposed to, and for seeing his boys in the morning instead of heading out to work when the sun still hadn’t started to peak its way over the skyline, he clicked back to his project.

He could finish it tomorrow. During his real work hours.

Phil pressed save, closed out of his applications, and clocked out for the day. Shutting his computer with an almost relieved sigh.

The unsettling feeling of being watched by something seemed to vanish simultaneously as he stood, coffee cup in hand as he left the office to go to bed early for the night.

--------

“Tubbo, I can’t believe that you Rick Rolled an old man into going to bed.” Tommy cackled from the middle of the attic, cradling Shroud in his palm (though he couldn’t physically hold the spider, it was more like Tommy was holding his hand through the floor and under Shroud to mock the action).

After the living had gone to sleep, it left the three ghosts to do whatever they felt like until the sun rose.

“It was making Techno and Wilbur sad.” Tubbo argued, laying on the ceiling like he was sunbathing, “besides, Phil is kinda cool. I like him.”

“He can’t even see us properly.” Ranboo pointed out, sitting on their beanbag and reading over a new book that looked like it was one of Techno’s. “What makes you feel more drawn to him than the twins?”

Tubbo shrugged, looking over his friends before gazing into space. “I just feel like we’d get along, y’know?”

“Ooooooo! Someone is getting attached!” Tommy teased, floating up to poke at Tubbo’s nose and leaving Shroud to go about his spider business.

Tubbo batted the offending hand away with a light glare, “at least I didn’t get attached to the ghost obsessor before we could speak to them.”

“You can’t even speak to Phil! I think you’re just jealous!”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

Ranboo only rolled their eyes fondly at the pair's antics, going back to their book with a smile as they teased, “I think you’re the one who’s jealous, Tommy.”

“Me?!” Tommy practically screeched, a hand to his unbeating heart in disbelief. “Jealous?! I am not jealous!”

“Then explain why Tubbo can’t enjoy hanging around Phil.” Ranboo said, much to Tubbo’s amusement, who only looked on with a mischievous grin.

“I never said he can’t! Let a man tease his friends in peace!” Tommy crossed his arms, pouting as he purposely turned his head away from the two.

Ranboo and Tubbo caught one another's eyes, giggling quietly between themselves as Tommy tried his best to ignore them.

“Phil is old. An old man with a boring job and no wife. I mean, seriously. Who’s wifeless in this day and age? Women are poggers and men suck. It’s common knowledge”

“Agreed.” Ranboo and Tubbo nodded simultaneously.

“I’m gay and men suck. It’s a harsh world.” Ranboo added on solemnly.

“Though I still think that you like this family quite a lot, and that you’re jealous that you can’t speak to Phil and are upset that I’m trying to bond with him before you’ve gotten a chance since you’re hanging out with Wilbur all the time.” Tubbo pointed out, painfully honest and straight to the point. 

Tommy physically winced, “primes dude, you seriously need to stop doing that. I don’t like that you can read me so well.”

“We’ve been dead 20 years and stuck in a house with nowhere else to go, Tommy. I think I know both of you more than anyone really should know about someone…”

“We will forever be bonded by indefinite trauma and death.” Tommy added with a nod of his head.

“Die together, thrive together.” Ranboo cheerfully piped in.

They both looked to Tubbo expectantly, who clearly started trying to come up with something to say.

“Till death do we… part?” Tubbo weakly said, before realizing, “oh wait we’re already… damn it.”

Ranboo giggled, “how about; In death we don’t part.”

“Unfair!” Tommy whined, lightly punching Ranboo in the shoulder even though none of them really felt pain anymore. “You’re not supposed to give him answers! You need to let him come up with one!”

“Yeah, geeze Ranboo. I can’t believe you wouldn’t let me come up with something on my own.” Tubbo said sarcastically, sending Ranboo a wink so that they would know that he wasn’t being serious.

“The worst part about all of this is that we can’t even tease Ranboo for getting attached to Techno!” Tommy complained quickly, tangling his fingers in his hair and tugging slightly as he floated on his back in the air as though he was swimming in water.

“Why not?” Tubbo asked.

Tommy turned to look at Tubbo as though he had grown a second head, sending him a look that said, “seriously?!”

“He’s Technoblade.” Tommy said first, as though that cleared up everything. But Tubbo only raised an eyebrow at him, so Tommy rolled his eyes and added, “he’s literally the coolest person in this house. His name is Techno. Blade. That’s the best name of all time! I bet he could… I dunno, be a number one hero or something!”

“You’ve been reading too many of those weird, cracked, Raccoon-themed villain comics again.” Ranboo said fondly, “though I must agree that Technoblade is clearly superior over Wilbur and Phil. He gives me new books to read, and he’s really fun to talk to.”

“Oh primes… don’t tell me he’s a-” Tommy glanced around, making sure no one would overhear him before he whispered, “nerd.”

Ranboo only grinned, watching in amusement as Tommy whined and floated up to the ceiling to bury his head in his arms to mourn the fact that their home had gained yet another nerd.

That’s what? Three nerds out of six?

If Phil turned out to be a nerd as well, Tommy would be devastated.

Well… not really. He would be jokingly upset, but he didn’t actually care. It was just a running joke that he came up with fucking eons ago. Even before their lives were taken.

Ranboo’s mood became more somber as they looked upon the past. A time where they could breathe and bleed a normal amount of blood, where shadows were scary and when fear was a feeling they could experience.

Sure, they could feel their emotions, and they practically lived off of fear, but… did they really feel? Ranboo for sure didn’t experience sentiments as strongly as they used to.

The world felt… dull nowadays.

Wilbur, Techno, and Phil brought a newfound feeling of life to all three of them. But it felt almost bittersweet in a way.

Living vicariously through someone wasn’t really a life anyone truly wanted.

“Ranboo?” Tubbo asked, pulling them from their thoughts to find that Tommy had already drifted down from the ceiling to check on them with a concerned look on his face while Tubbo carefully touched a hand to Ranboo’s shoulder. “You’re flickering again, bossman. You alright?”

“Oh.” Ranboo said dumbly, taking a glimpse at his hands to see that, sure enough, they were flickering between an almost solid-like form to being vanished completely like a prime-damned lightswitch turning off and on in rapid succession. They clenched their hands into fists, shoving them into their hoodie pocket and avoiding eye-contact with his friends. “I’m fine.”

“Shut the fuck up Ranboo.” Tommy frowned, “you’re upset. Tell us what’s wrong.”

“If you want to.” Tubbo added, sending Tommy a soft glare for being so demanding.

“No, no. It’s fine. Really.” Ranboo started quietly, “I just… I don't know how to say it. It’s…”

They huffed in frustration, pressing their lips together in a thin line as they thought.

“I want to… die? Again? If that makes sense?” Ranboo said, though it was clear that they were unsure on how to say it.

Tubbo only looked on sadly, a pained  smile finding its way onto his cheeks. “Ah. You want to move on… I get that.”

“Wait, what?” Tommy asked, seemingly surprised. “But we just got the coolest family to ever live in our home! And they can actually talk to us!”

“Look me in the eye Tommy.” Ranboo said, waiting until Tommy made direct eye contact with them. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not tired of seeing our deaths play over and over again in your head. That you’re not tired of being stuck in the same prime-forsaken house for twenty years.”

“Of course I am!” Tommy insisted, “you think I’m happy to spend day after day inside? To not be able to run in the open or go out further than the porch?! I would do anything to climb a tree again, or splash around in a fucking creek, or even just go outside and touch the fucking grass.” He sniffled, though he didn’t shed any tears. “But we finally have people to talk to. For the first time in twenty fucking years. No offense to Sapnap, but he makes for terrible company. The guy practically left us behind to go be in love or some shit like that.”

“But how much longer do you think it’ll be until it’s more painful to be around the living?” Ranboo countered, “where you’re stuck being upset that you’re not alive and desperately clinging onto a lifeline that isn’t yours?”

“Probably not very long.” Tommy admitted quietly, hugging himself. “The truth is… I’m scared.”

“Why?” Tubbo asked.

“Moving on is… what even is it? I don’t like the unknown. You both saw me when we died. I was in a horrible state of thought for weeks because I didn’t think ghosts were real and to find out I was one was fucking earth shattering.” Tommy shivered, fingernails digging into his arms. “We don’t know what comes after this. What if it’s nothing? What if we move on and… that’s it? We don’t have one another anymore, there’s no Wilbur or Techno or Phil. No heaven or hell or even an after life. What comes next?”

“We could always ask Bad or Ant, I’m sure they know.” Tubbo supplied, though all three of them knew that it wouldn’t go anywhere. Ant didn’t tell them much anyway, and what he did tell them was honestly just confusing.

For a moment, there was silence. Three spirits stewing in their thoughts as melancholy filled their attic like a rising ocean.

“I’m not saying that I want to move on right now.” Ranboo finally said, tearing down some of the tension. “I’ve just been thinking about it a lot. About things we could do to finally appease our spirits or whatever is necessary for the next step. You asked what was on my mind… that’s it.”

“Primes. That’s some fucking heavy shit for a weekday.” Tommy muttered, running his hands through his hair.

Ranboo couldn’t help but laugh. Tommy was always good at breaking up negative moods between people. He always seemed to force himself into the role of a mediator, no matter how many times Ranboo has tried to get him to stop and think of the emotional toll it must’ve had on him.

But Tommy is stubborn. In life and death.

“I want to go with you guys.” Tommy suddenly whispered, apparently making up his mind in the short silence. “I don’t want to be a ghost alone. As much as I… like this family, I think it’d be incredibly lonely to haunt a home all by myself.”

“You don’t have to make up your mind right now-” Ranboo started, but Tommy cut them off.

“No. I know I have to go with you. Believe it or not, I’ve actually gotten pretty bored of haunting the same place over and over again. It loses its charm after every family leaves the house to be abandoned and breaking apart.” Tommy sighed, hugging himself once more as he purposely turned away his head to avoid eye contact, staring at Shroud who was currently weaving a web over the TV. “I only want to do one thing before we start trying to appease our spirits again or whatever it is.”

“What is it Tommy? We’ll do whatever you need us to do.” Tubbo said softly, floating up and placing a reassuring hand on Tommy’s shoulder. Catching the younger’s eye and getting a small, relieved smile in return. “We’re best friends until the end and beyond. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you guys.”

Tommy took a deep breath, his eyes flickering between Ranboo and Tubbo nervously before he admitted, “I want to tell them. I want to tell all three of them about… that night.”

The attic went still. Shroud stopped weaving his web, Tubbo and Ranboo stopped their mock breathing, the fairy lights flickered before shutting off completely. Though the sudden darkness didn’t affect them at all.

It’s almost taboo for a ghost to talk about their death.

Death is a very personal thing. Admitting quite possibly the most vulnerable and terrifying state of your life could be very emotionally taxing and terribly horrifying.

Especially on ones who died young.

If they even remembered dying in the first place.

“I mean…” Ranboo trailed off as they thought over their words. “It’s not like our deaths were all too private. The case file was basically posted on the internet along with the ranking of how allegedly haunted our house is.”

“But they don’t know how or why. That fucking case file was bullshit and we all know it. They don’t know our side of the story.” Tommy whispered, sinking down to the floor to sit cross-legged, Tubbo following. “I want them to know the truth.”

“If that’s what you want Tommy… then so be it.” Ranboo said, holding out his pinky in a promise.

Tommy smiled, linking their pinkies together and shaking their hands once before breaking apart.

For a minute they were quiet, a more contented energy surrounding them. One that screamed of warmth and understanding. But there was a hidden feeling of melancholy within each of them. Worry and fear gnawing holes in their stomachs as they remembered that whatever would come next is completely unknown. An answer they wouldn’t receive until it was too late.

Tubbo clapped his hands together, “alright! I guess that the first thing we need to do is to get Phil to see us!”

It was enough to break them from their thoughts for the moment, though the knot of worry would never really fade.

“Sapnap might be willing to give Phil the vision if we convince him.” Tommy thought aloud, “the best way to do that is to probably say that we want to try to move on again. He’s been trying to get us to do that for ages now.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” Ranboo asked, trying to come up with some sort of backup plan.

Tommy shrugged, “then we threaten him or something. Tell him that we’ll stick around forever unless he does this.”

“I like your thinking bossman.” Tubbo said with a grin.

Ranboo took a deep breath and let it out in a loud sigh, falling backwards to stare at the ceiling as they meticulously sorted through their thoughts as Tommy and Tubbo continued to chatter with one another.

Twenty years they’ve stuck around.

They really were ready to move on.

Chapter Text

Techno isn’t an idiot, he could tell that something has been up with the three spirits that were haunting his home.

For starters, they were quieter than usual. Staying close to one another and refraining from joining in the twins' conversations.

Don’t think for a second that Techno didn’t see Tommy’s longing glances out the windows and how the kid would stand on the porch when the sun would hit the planks just right, sitting in the sun like a cat.

Or how Ranboo would stare at Techno’s bookshelf again and again with a pout, already having gone through almost the entirety of Techno’s collection within a week. Catching the way the kid would softly touch the spines as though they were feeling out the texture.

Techno even left them a highlighter and pen with a sticky note saying they should feel free to mark out phrases that stood out to them. Stuff for Techno to think over when he eventually got around to reading them.

Even Tubbo was acting funny, and he was always filled with some sort of hyper energy.

The smaller ghost was constantly fidgeting and moving, poking at devices within the house that he hadn’t seen before. Once, Techno had even caught him with his face halfway inside the TV, and when Techno made his presence known, Tubbo was able to tell him a rough theory on how he believed the newer series of flat screen TVs in the world worked. Though Techno really didn’t understand any of it. He wasn’t really a technical guy. 

He also saw the way Tubbo was always following Phil like a lost puppy, endlessly curious on what the man was up to even though Phil couldn’t see him.

Today, Techno decided enough was enough.

“Wilbur!” He shouted, barging into his brother's room as soon as the weekend hit. Saturday his beloved. “Wake up! We’re going out!”

He grabbed Wilbur’s pillow and smacked the guy with it, forcing his brother into consciousness before practically dragging him out of bed. “Get dressed! Hurry up before I drag you out of here in your pajamas!”

With that he left Wilbur in his room, ignoring his brother's questions as he determinedly marched into the kitchen to make them both some coffees to go.

Wilbur came out shortly after Techno had the second cup ready, still adjusting his sweater over a white collared shirt and fixing the beanie on his head.

Techno shoved the coffee cup in Wilbur’s hand and headed towards the front door.

“Where are you guys going?” Tommy’s voice suddenly asked, pulling the twins to a stop as he appeared from beneath the floor.

“Yeah Techno, where are we going?”

Techno sighed, “I’ll tell you when we get back Tommy. I promise. Wilbur, I’ll tell you in the car.”

“You will come back, right?” Tommy asked, painfully quiet. An almost desperate tone hidden within his voice.

Techno eyed the kid, seeing the way Tommy held himself in a stiff manner while trying to keep a brave face.

“Of course Tommy.” Wilbur assured him. “We just unpacked all of our things, there’s no way we’ll leave you guys behind now. I’d find a way to take you all with us if we did happen to leave.”

Tommy nodded, uncharacteristically quiet. 

Wilbur tsked, “What's the matter, Toms? You seem upset.”

Tommy only shook his head, “have a good day. We’ll be… well- you know where we are. We’re always here.”

With that, he drifted up and through the ceiling, back towards the shared attic of his ghostly roommates.

Techno pressed his lips together, keeping the heartbreak off his face from seeing Tommy so sad. “Come on Wil. We’ll talk in the car.”

Albeit reluctantly, Wilbur followed, constantly glancing back at the house with a worried look.

Once they both buckled themselves into the car, Techno backed them out of the driveway and onto the road. And before they were even a mile from the house Wilbur finally spoke up. “Did you see that?”

Techno nodded, “of course I did. Haven’t you noticed that our ghostly pals aren’t their usual bright selves?”

“Ranboo and Tubbo have certainly been bleeding a lot more lately. It’s unsettling, but the blood merely drips and vanishes once it soaks into the floorboards. They’ve also been… quiet. Sad even. Tommy is less animated than usual.”

“Exactly! There’s something going on… I just don't know what.”

“Then shouldn’t we spend time with them? Make sure they’re not alone?”

“Absolutely.” Techno agreed, ignoring Wilbur’s questioning expression at his reply. “But I… want to get them something first. A gift of some kind.”

Wilbur smirked, a little knowing expression that annoyed Techno to no end. “Aww, Techno! You’re going all soft for our three little ghosts!”

“I will throw you out the window of this car right here and now.” Techno threatened weakly.

Wilbur went quiet, smiling the entire time as he turned his attention to the road ahead, watching the buildings and cars they passed with half interest.

It was easy enough to find themselves a small mall of some sort, filled with funky sort of shops that normally weren’t seen next to one another.

Seeing a plant shop next to a hot topic was definitely something Techno never expected to see in his life.

Aside from that odd sighting, it wasn’t too difficult to find gifts for the kids.

Techno decided to get Tommy a small assortment of plants to care for since he always found the boy staring outside longingly. Just a small batch of biodegradable plant starters so Tommy could plant seeds and try to make them grow before transferring them to a bigger pot. Maybe it’d do the kid some good to have something living to take care of while the family was at work.

Wilbur found an old gameboy for Tubbo, knowing the kid had a fascination with technology, and to add to that, the twins were actually able to get it pretty cheap from a place that resold them, so they were able to get some funny games that they thought he would enjoy.

Ranboo was a bit more difficult to shop for, but eventually the twins settled on getting them a kindle. It was one of the nicer, higher end types, but not the overpriced brand-new ones either.

They settled down to eat in a small lunch court, and with their waiting time, Techno completely set up the kindle and attached it to his debit card, wanting Ranboo to be able to purchase whatever books they wanted. Of course Techno had already gone through a massive selection of books, purchasing and downloading quite a few of them so that Ranboo had a decent start on things to read.

If his wallet had to suffer a bit, so be it. This was worth it.

It was then that Wilbur happened to catch Sapnap walking by and called him over, the guy was probably wandering the small mall area to do some shopping of his own.

Sapnap approached them with a wide grin, “hey guys! What are you doing here?”

Techno raised his eyebrow and made sure to obviously glance over at their various shopping bags.

Wilbur scoffed as he caught Techno’s look, and rested his arm across Sapnap’s shoulders, “ignore him, he’s hangry.”

“I hate that that’s a word.” Techno muttered under his breath.

“Why don’t you join us for lunch, Sapnap? We’re just deciding what food we’d like to grab, and we could use the company. I’ll buy you something if you want?” Wilbur asked, sitting back down in his seat and patting the space next to him in invitation.

“I’m not really hungry, I just had lunch with my dad and that Ant guy a little while ago, but I’ll sit with you guys. I’ve been wanting to catch up since the whole-” Sapnap waved his hand dismissively, “wallet incident.”

“Is that new slang for reuniting with your father after several years?” Techno asked, trying his absolute best to make sure he said it in a teasing manner.

It was honestly kind of easy to talk to Sapnap, which was surprising seeing as Techno usually only greeted the guy before busying himself with other tasks to give Wilbur some sort of semblance of privacy while he hung out with his friends.

Sure, he hasn’t said much in the conversation so far, but it still felt familiar and almost relaxing just to hear his brother happily chat away with his friend.

Sapnap stuck out his tongue at Techno for the teasing remark, but anyone could see that he was highly amused by it. “What are you guys up to anyway? I see you have quite the odd assortment of purchases with you.”

“We’re shopping for some gifts for our…” Wilbur glanced around, making sure no one was within earshot before adding, “ghostly friends.”

Sapnap’s eyebrows raised in surprise, “really? What for?”

The lighthearted energy dipped into one of concern as Wilbur glanced at Techno for a second before turning his gaze back to Sapnap. “They’ve been… upset lately.”

“What did you do?” Sapnap asked immediately, a snappish tone accompanying the question.

Techno spoke up before his brother could, seeing the panic on Wilbur’s face at the sudden accusation. “We didn’t do or say anything. At least not from what we can glean. I think they want to tell us something, but it’s like they’re waiting for the right moment.”

Sapnap’s brow furrowed, “you haven’t been asking them questions about their deaths or anything about their living lives, right? Because those kids get unusually upset when they have to think about their past.”

“Trust me,” Wilbur said, “I learned that lesson within the first couple days Tommy and I started speaking. He ignored me for an entire day and I haven’t asked anything related since.”

“I haven’t done anything like that. I don’t ask anyone about their past unless they’re the one who brought it up.” Techno added on.

Sapnap nodded, going silent for a minute before he finally sighed. He sat forward, resting his arms on the table as their conversation shifted tones once more. A heavier, solemn cloud seemed to settle over the three, bated breath held in lungs as they waited for Sapnap to speak.

“I don’t know if what they want to talk to you guys about is going to be this, but I think I need to tell you anyway. Because eventually, there will be a time when they have to do this. Maybe you guys will be the final push that they need.”

“I don’t like how you’re dancing around the topic.” Techno admitted, though he earned himself a soft whack to the shoulder from Wilbur for breaking into the conversation.

Sapnap seemed to ignore them as he pondered over his next words for a moment, “one of these days- and I don’t know if it will be during your stay in their home- these kids need to move on.”

Sapnap glanced between them, and when he realized that neither of the twins were going to speak up, he continued. “In fact, I need you guys to be the ones to convince them to move on. They’ve been living like this for 20 years. And that kind of thing is bound to take quite a toll on them. Aging but never really seeing any change is a harsh thing for humans to suddenly wake up to. Especially children. They’re not demons like me, they don’t age slowly. They’re technically in their thirties right now, but stuck in teenage bodies and the same house they’ve always been in. I’m worried that they’re just going to vanish one day without being given the chance to move on.”

“What do you mean by vanish?” Wilbur asked quietly, anxiously picking at his sweater.

“Spirits are… odd things.” Sapnap said, “if they don’t get enough energy, or if they get to a point where depression starts to settle in, there’s a chance they could just… vanish. They don’t move on, they don’t pop up somewhere else, they’re just… gone.”

Techno couldn’t help as he sucked in a gasp, holding it and worrying at his lip as he waited for Sapnap to continue.

“Don’t get me wrong, those three are fucking powerful. But there’s only so much time a spirit can stand living in a mortal world without being mortal themselves. These kids need to finally move on. I’ve been trying to convince them of it for ages now. Ever since they summoned me.”

“Then how do we convince them? We can’t bring up their past or they get upset, and I don’t want them to fuckin vanish on us!” Wilbur said, running a hand through his hair.

“I’m hoping that they’ll be the ones to bring it up. You can’t force them. Acceptance is a very important part of a ghosts cycle to move on.” Sapnap said, “They’ve accepted their death, but they haven’t accepted that this world isn’t made for them anymore. Or maybe they have, but they’re just unwilling to leave it behind for an afterlife that’s unknown.”

“Let’s say that they do happen to want to move on,” Techno started, “how can we help them in that process?”

Sapnap smiled, “I was hoping you’d ask that. Let’s make a deal.”

Wilbur groaned, “please no, the last time we made a deal with a demon it hurt a lot. I don’t want to have a piercing headache in the middle of a mall.”

Sapnap snorted, shaking his head fondly, “I promise that this one won’t hurt. Demon deals are just… useful for getting certain objects without hunting for them in the physical world.”

“What?” Techno puzzled.

“Just trust me.” Sapnap said, ignoring Techno’s question as he held out his hand, “I will give you something that’ll aid your mission to get our ghost friends to move on into the afterlife when they’re ready. In return, you must… uh- buy me… a dozen doughnuts.” He snuck a glance around them before sneakily whispering, “I’m making your side of the deal super easy so that we both get what we want and your half is easily achievable, meaning none of us die from an unfulfilled deal.”

Wilbur raised an eyebrow quizzically, but he still hesitantly reached out to shake Sapnap’s hand. Sapnap let go as Wilbur marveled over his hand at something that Techno didn’t see, and turned to Techno expectantly, waiting for him to do the same.

Techno did so, trying to look like he wasn’t even a bit afraid as he clasped their hands together.

Immediately, a sensation similar to fire engulfed where Sapnap’s and his hand met, but it didn’t burn. It was just… hot. Tingly, even.

Sapnap seemed satisfied, giving the twins a smile before closing his hand into a fist and opening it again to reveal three gold and emerald earrings that were definitely not present before. They were pretty things, the deep green of the shimmering, tear-drop shaped emerald matched well with the gold chains that would make them dangle from someone's ear. One earrings chain was slightly longer than the other two that matched one another.

Sapnap hummed at the objects, finding an interest in them as though he didn’t know how they would look. He dangled them from his fingers, lifting them into the light to appraise their beauty.

Both Wilbur and Techno were completely encaptured by the things. Struck with this odd sense of familiarity even though neither of them had ever seen such pieces before in their lives.

Techno was the one to snap out of his stupor first, “What are those? And why are there three of them?”

Sapnap smiled, pulling the jewels away from the light and placing them onto the table instead. “These are special pieces of… demonic power, to put it simply. They have the ability to allow a spirit to bind itself to them. Making a more portable way for spirits to actually leave the place they’re originally bound to. It’s much safer than the traditional spirit binding itself to a living person. They can become addicted to the feeling of being alive, living vicariously through the one they follow. It’s a harsh life for a ghost. One that I desperately don’t want the kids to go through.” He shook his head like he was clearing his thoughts similar to an etch-a-sketch. “There’s three of them because only one spirit can bind itself to an object or living person at a time.” 

“Bruh. You are so lucky we all have ear piercings in this family.” Techno said.

Wilbur snickered, “you haven’t worn earrings in ages, you’re gonna have to let me poke them open again.”

Techno groaned as dramatically as he could, crossing his arms and placing them on the table to cushion his forehead as he fell forward. “It’s gonna clash with my hair.” He whined half-heartedly, the words muffled.

“You’re such a drama queen.” Wilbur teased, gently nudging at Techno’s side with his shoulder. “We already know it’ll look perfectly fine and that you don’t care what you look like when it comes to our ghostly friends.”

“Stop exposing me. This is bullying.” Techno jokingly whined, “I thought we were brothers.”

“Is he always like this?” Sapnap asked with bubbling laughter.

“Not usually,” Wilbur replied, but Techno could hear his smile, “Techno is feeling dramatic today and most likely awkward since this is one of his first times actually having a conversation with you.

“Shut up Wilbur!” Techno panicked slightly, getting up from his moping position to slap a hand over Wilbur’s mouth as a furious wave of heat settled over his cheeks.

Sapnap cooed, “aww Techno, I didn’t think you’d worry about my opinion on you. Don’t worry man, I think you’re way cooler than Wilbur.”

Wilbur fought his way out of Techno’s hold with an offended gasp, “what the fuck Sapnap?! I thought we were friends!”

Sapnap only laughed, both him and Techno watching in amusement as Wilbur sputtered and spat all sorts of profanities towards his friend.

“Okay, okay, back to the topic at hand.” Sapnap eventually giggled, pulling everyone back into the original focus of their conversation, the mood considerably lighter between all of them. “To get the trio to bind themselves to these gems, you’re going to need some help from me. Do you mind if I hitch a ride back to your place?”

“Can we eat some lunch first?” Wilbur asked, “I’m kind of starving after walking through all the shops. I’m running purely on a cup of coffee right now and if I don’t get some food in me soon I swear I will collapse and die.”

“ Now who’s the drama queen?” Techno teased with a roll of his eyes, but pushed himself away from the table anyway, already heading towards one of the fast food joints he had his eye on.

They ate their lunch and soon were headed on their way back home, Sapnap coming along for the ride.

They stopped at a Krispy Kreme to get Sapnap some doughnuts to fulfill their end of the deal, then continued back towards home, arriving only a few short minutes later.

The friends entered an abnormally quiet house, not a single bump or whisper to greet them.

This never happened.

Ever since Techno and Wilbur received the sight, there would always be at least one kid from the trio coming down to greet them when they arrived home. The fact that they weren’t here trying to spook them or say hello made a chill run down Techno’s spine.

Whatever was happening with the three, it was all the more concerning.

“Ranboo? Tommy? Tubbo?” Techno called into the house, closing the front door behind him as Wilbur and Sapnap wandered deeper within, looking for the kids as well. “Where are you? We need to talk to you.”

When there was no reply, Techno sighed, bringing his bags to the dining table and depositing them there before making his way upstairs and straight to the end of the hall. He opened the door to the water heater, where the ladder leading into the attic was hidden.

Hesitantly, he climbed up, stopping just below the door and knocking quietly, “I know you’re up here. I promise I’m not going to try to enter, I know that the attic is yours alone. But I just want to ask if everything’s okay? You’ve all been… quiet lately.”

No voice rose from within the attic. If the kids were actually in there, then they were choosing not to speak to him.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Techno continued, ignoring the two pairs of footsteps that approached behind him. He didn’t need to look, he knew it was Wilbur and Sapnap. “But I- we just want to make sure you’re alright. Sapnap is here as well, and we’d like to talk to you about something important.”

Another long silence was his only reply.

With a sigh, Techno added, “I brought you some gifts?”

Now that got a reaction. A muffled bump sounded past the door, voices whispering indiscernible words Techno couldn’t make out if he tried.

Tommy’s familiar face suddenly appeared through the attic door, startling Techno a bit but he still was able to remain on the ladder, finding himself nose to nose with the youngest of the three.

His expression was unusually confused and… awestruck maybe. Techno couldn’t fully tell from how close they were.

“You what?” Tommy asked softly.

“I- or we brought some gifts for you guys. If you want to come down to the dining room I’ll give them to you.” Techno reiterated, “or if you don’t want to speak to us right now, and today is just a bad day, I can just slip them past the attic door. I won’t peek inside or anything. I’d just lift the door, place the bags inside, and leave you guys alone until you feel up to talking or hanging out.”

Tommy’s brow furrowed, completely bewildered at what Techno offered before he vanished back into the attic.

Techno sighed, taking it as a refusal and stepped down the ladder, turning to find Wilbur looking concerned and Sapnap staring at him like he grew a second head.

“What?” Techno asked.

Sapnap sighed, “We were supposed to try and get them down from the attic. Not let them hide away for days at a time.”

Techno crossed his arms, a protective surge rising within his chest as he subconsciously put himself between Sapnap and the ladder leading to the attic, purposely shutting the door behind him with a solid thud. “If they don’t want to talk right now, then they don’t want to talk.” Techno said firmly, “I’m not going to force them to speak to us if they don’t feel like it. That’s how you get them to shut down and hide away for even longer.”

“Trust Techno on this Sapnap,” Wilbur spoke up, keeping his tone softer than Techno’s, “he used to do the same thing, and there was one time that dad forced him to talk to him about something and because of it Tech hid in his room and gave Phil the silent treatment for an entire week. If they don’t want to talk to us right now, then when they’re ready, we’ll call you over again.”

The three started to head down the hall, Wilbur and Sapnap talking quietly between themselves. Techno would have listened in, but he was too lost in thought, his gaze constantly turning over his shoulder to glance at the attic door.

He was just about to give up hope before a sudden and quiet, “wait.”

Techno has never turned around so fast in his life, seeing Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo slowly drifting down from the ceiling at the end of the hall, avoiding eye contact. 

Techno didn’t say a word, allowing the ghosts to speak first.

“We’re only here for the gifts.” Tommy muttered, though it was unconvincing.

Techno smiled, “alright then. Let’s go downstairs.”

They all made their way to the dining room, the ghosts trailing silently behind them. Wilbur gestured for Techno to take the lead when they reached the table, an invitation for him to present the gifts since it was his idea in the first place.

Techno took out the first gift from its bags, clearing his throat and turning to see Tommy with his eyes already blown wide in awe as he caught sight of what Techno was holding.

“Tommy, this is for you.” Techno started, gesturing to the plants and seeds and planters, “I know that you’re absolutely fascinated by the outdoors, and I don’t know if it’s the plants or just the general outside that you’re staring at, but I thought that you’d like to take care of something. That maybe you’ll like some plants to tend to and grow since we’re all often out at work and leaving you three to your own devices for hours at a time.”

To his complete surprise, Tommy’s eyes were completely glistening by the time Techno got himself to stop rambling. He didn’t even know ghosts could cry.

“Are you serious?” Tommy asked softly, his voice cracking, “you really got this for me?”

Techno nodded, “of course. We’ll move it wherever you’d like, the place with the best lighting for them. I’ll tell Phil that it’s mine and Wilbur’s, and that he’s not allowed to touch it if you want.”

Tommy nodded, struck silent.

“I’ll place them over here for you for now.” Techno said gently, putting down the supplies carefully next to them on the floor, just a little bit out of the way so he could present the next gifts.

The second they touched the floor, Tommy gasped, a determined expression on his face as he suddenly demanded, “open the soil.” Then, after a small pause, “please.”

Techno shrugged, opening the small bag of soil he bought for the plants and watching as Tommy hesitantly but immediately plunged his hand inside the dirt, his face crumpling in an almost disbelief. “Holy shit. Holy shit. It’s fucking- I haven’t touched dirt in twenty fucking years.” Tommy whispered, tears shining in his eyes as he glanced up to Techno, a pitiful huff of laughter following. “Sad innit? That I’m so excited to touch some damn dirt of all things.”

Techno only smiled, “I don’t think it’s sad. I think it’s perfectly reasonable. I’d honestly feel the same if I were in your shoes. Dirt is pog.”

Tommy snorted, allowing Techno to set the open bag of dirt onto the floor, his hand still inside as he continued to mess with the earthy texture between his fingers.

Techno glanced up to Tubbo now, pulling out the old gameboy and its assortment of games.

Tubbo’s reaction was immediate, he gasped and drifted over quickly, his fingers reverently brushing the case of the device. Excitement was practically buzzing off of him, a glimmer in his eyes as he quietly went over each of the games before pointing at one silently.

Techno didn’t need the kid to say a word, only inserting the requested game cartridge and wandering to the nearest outlet to plug the device in before turning it on and leaving it on the floor for Tubbo to mess with.

Then he glanced up at Ranboo, seeing that the kid was obviously trying not to stare at their friends but failing miserably as a terribly fond smile stretched across their cheeks. 

They caught Techno’s eye, their fondness turning into one of pure gratitude.

Techno smiled back, reaching into the last bag and pulling out the box that held the kindle within.

Ranboo’s smile immediately melted away into confusion, their head tilting curiously as they carefully hovered over, staring at the merchandising art that revealed what was within without the need to open the box.

“I- uh…” Ranboo cleared their throat nervously, “excuse me, but what in the world is that?”

It was almost curious that the kid had never seen a kindle before, but then again, the things were released in 2007, and it was entirely possible that none of the previous families have ever had one with them, meaning Ranboo most likely never came across one before.

Techno didn’t even consider the idea that Ranboo wouldn’t know what a kindle was, and found that he was almost flustered by this fact for some reason. Embarrassed that he simply assumed it’d be recognized upon sight.

“It’s basically a tablet, I assume you’ve at least seen those.” Techno started, waiting for Ranboo to nod in confirmation before continuing. “This one is specially made to be an e-reader. An electronic book.”

Now Ranboo gasped. Their hands hovering over the box lid before pulling away to hide in their hoodie pockets, obviously holding themselves back from ripping the thing from Techno’s hands to examine it.

Techno snorted in amusement, opening the box for the ghost and turning on the device for them.

He cleared a spot on the table to set it down, already having bought a case and covered the fragile device while he was at the mall.

Techno swiped to the library, scrolling through the small assortments of books he already bought. “I already bought a few books to start you off, but there’s an entire world of free ones and you can always buy more. Look at me,” Techno said, causing Ranboo to break out of their small state of stupor for a moment to make direct eye-contact with Techno. “You can always buy more books. My card is already connected, and I want you to be able to read whatever you like. I only ask that you simply inform me when you make a purchase so I’m not surprised when I find the charge in my bank account.”

Ranboo nodded, “are you- are you sure I can have this? I- I don’t want to be a burden or anything, and I’m willing to bet that this was so expensive-”

Techno stopped their rambling worries with a raise of his hand, watching as Ranboo clamped their mouth shut immediately. “I bought this for you. I want you to have it. To read all the books you’d like past the small collection on my shelf. Don’t worry about the price. That’s always a secret when it comes to gifts. But I promise you that whatever the cost was, was completely worth it. Anything is worth it for the people that matter to me.”

Ranboo’s eyes glimmered and they nodded shakily, turning their attention to the screen and hesitantly scrolling for a second.

Techno found himself filled with an indescribable warmth in his chest as he looked around to the three ghosts completely encaptured with their new things. He even caught Sapnap with a tearful eye before the man wiped it away hastily.

Wilbur was positively beaming with joy, catching Techno’s eye as his smile split wider and he sent a thumbs up Techno’s way.

Techno busied himself for a moment by gathering the trash to toss away before settling into a chair at the table next to Ranboo, finding that the kid was already lost in another world as his eyes quickly scanned over sentence after sentence within a new book.

Even Sapnap and Wilbur joined in on the contented silence, simply following Techno’s lead to sit down and bask in the curious teens fidgeting with things they hadn’t gotten the chance to mess with in a long time. Things they missed out on while being stuck in a house and having their space invaded by strangers.

It was only about 15 minutes later when Tommy became fidgety. He had slowly stopped messing with the soil and the plants as the minutes ticked by, biting his lip and clearly thinking deeply over something.

“Ranboo? Tubbo?” He asked, almost immediately gaining the attention of his friends, as well as the rest of the room. “I think we… it’s time to tell them.”

There was a long pause, the sound of whatever game Tubbo was playing being the only destroyer of silence.

Finally, the other two ghosts seemed to break out of whatever shock they were in, quietly clicking off their devices and moving towards Tommy to whisper to one another. The three adults in the room politely tried to keep their stares to themselves, casting curious glances at one another in silent question on what the ghosts wanted to say.

The three seemed to come to a conclusion with a nod of their heads, turning back to face the adults in the room with nervous expressions. 

Tommy spoke for the three of them, “thank you, for the gifts. We uh- we haven’t had people care for us before, excluding the very few that cared when we were alive. We especially haven't had anyone who didn’t mind keeping us company and had the ability to see and talk to us aside from Sapnap. But gifts are definitely a new thing we haven’t experienced after our deaths.” He chuckled to himself, “it’s hard to be a ghost and try to get a gift for another ghost when you’re stuck in the same house together all the time. You both already know all of the contents within so any surprises are incredibly hard to find.”

Tubbo nudged him gently, a pointed look on his face as he muttered in a kind way, “get to the point, Tommy.”

Tommy took a deep breath, nerves obviously getting the best of him as he constantly ran a hand through his hair or rubbed at his arms. “I guess, in the most blunt way, we are…” another pause, the living holding baited breath as they waited for the world to implode on itself if the news was all too great. “As grateful as we are for these gifts and for your kindness towards us, I’m afraid that… well. We probably won’t put them to use for too long. Or as long as we should. I think we’re… ready. Ready to move on that is.”

The world imploded around Techno.

It was heart-stopping to hear, but at the same time it was relieving.

He didn’t want the spirits that he felt so attached to to go, but he also didn’t want them to hurt. He didn’t want them to be forced into a life they were clearly done with. They desperately needed peace, and there was no way Techno was about to let them fade away into non-existence unless they were moving onto a plane that was more welcoming to them.

Sapnap spoke up before either he or Wilbur could. “I’m glad you three are finally ready. You’ve spent far too much time here.”

“Trust us Sapnap. We know.” Tubbo said in a blunt tone, surprisingly snappish as he glared. “Forgive us for not wanting to go into a fucking afterlife where we have no clue what will happen to us. Sorry about the fact that when we tried to move on the first time it failed to a point where we just didn’t want to try again.”

Sapnap held up his hands in a placating gesture, “woah, primes. Touchy subject.”

“No fucking shit.” Tommy now joined in on the verbal fighting. “Of course it’s a touchy subject when you’ve been fucking telling us over and over again to leave the only world we know! Do you realize how annoying it is to be told to leave your home?! To be nagged at every time you just want to hang out with a friend outside of the two people you’ve spent your whole life with?”

Techno was confused, he didn’t know that the spirits had such anger towards Sapnap. How long has Sapnap been pushing them to leave?

“We summoned you to help us move on, and instead we gained a friend that we desperately needed.” Ranboo added, their tone much more calm than the other two. “But when we failed the first time and needed some extra time, you’ve been needlessly pushy with us. Now it almost feels like we’re letting you win, which is obviously a little upsetting to Tommy and Tubbo. To make matters worse, it… well, it felt like you ditched us to go hang out with living people. We were left on our own again until you’d visit us every week or so. At least until every week turned into every month. Appeasing our souls just… didn’t feel important anymore.”

Techno sent a glare towards Sapnap, who obviously didn’t see as he stared wide-eyed at the three spectres.

“Why didn’t you guys tell me before? I- I didn’t mean-”

“We didn’t want to ruin your fun.” Ranboo admitted quietly, “you seemed happy to be out of the demon realm, and your want to explore the world was apparent. So we just… let you go. At least you could tell us about the outside when you came back.”

“Fuck.” Sapnap said, running a hand through his hair before rubbing harshly at his eyes.

A long silence rang from within the house. Not even Wilbur- who cared deeply for the people he loved- went to comfort the demon. The twins both knew that they needed to stay silent. To let this play out on its own.

Finally, Sapnap looked up to make eye-contact with each of the dead. “I fucked up. I will admit that first.” He started slowly, “I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for me to treat you or ditch you to go explore a world I would’ve had all the time to see later. I will only say that I was young and stupid and selfish. But that doesn’t excuse my actions. I hope that one day you can forgive me. But you have no obligation to do so.”

Tommy groaned, “stop speaking all fancy-like! You sound weird! Besides, we forgave you fucking ages ago.”

“Then why are you bringing this up now?!” Sapnap gestured wildly before taking a breath to calm himself. 

Tubbo spoke up at this point, “to let you know that you messed up so that you’re aware. But we’ve had a lot of time to process. It was just something we needed to get off our chests before the whole moving on business.”

Sapnap nodded quietly, a fonder smile sneaking its way on his face as he sighed, “you know what? That’s completely fair. Though I’m still sorry.”

“Thank you for your apology.” Ranboo said with a small smile of their own. Then they clapped their hands loudly, the lights flickering ever so slightly with the ghost’s sudden spike of energy. “Moving on to our next topic, we have a favor to ask of you Sapnap!”

“Primes. Your energy is all over the place today.” Sapnap muttered, though there was a chuckle that escaped him in a huff. “What do you need?”

The air in the room felt more breathable now, the tension clearing away like a storm lightening up to allow sunbeams to break through the thick clouds.

Tommy clasped his hands together, jutting out his bottom and somehow making his eyes impossibly sad. “Please please please give Phil the sight to see us? Please?”

Sapnap startled at the sudden request. In fact, none of the three expected such an answer. Techno supposed it made sense, especially seeing as Tubbo was absolutely fascinated with Phil. It must’ve been torturous to watch but not be able to converse with someone.

Sapnap opened his mouth to speak, but Tubbo cut him off before he could.

“I know you don’t normally do that, we’ve been begging you for years and you haven’t given anyone sight the entire time! I need to talk to Phil!” Tubbo pleaded, “messing with him has been fun and all, but I want to be able to talk to him! Tommy has Wilbur, Ranboo has Techno, but I don’t have someone! And yes Wilbur and Techno talk to me but I don’t have the same… I dunno, connection with them! I want to talk to Phil. Please. I won’t move on unless you let me have this.”

A moment of pause sat between them, Sapnap obviously going over the idea in his mind before he caved and sighed. “Alright, fine.”

The boys immediately whooped and hollered, celebrating their victory with high-fives and beaming smiles.

Sapnap held up a hand, stopping them immediately. “I have one condition.”

The celebrations were halted, and the boys promptly groaned as one, the house creaking and causing chills to run up the twins spines without meaning to.

“I will give Phil the sight to see you, but only if you guys can convince him that ghosts are real.”

“What?!” Wilbur protested. “Dude. You’ve met my dad. Literally nothing has convinced him of ghosts thus far! In fact, he doesn’t even believe it when things happen in front of his very eyes!”

Techno nodded, “I once watched Tommy open and slam the refrigerator door shut with Phil watching. He only looked at the door, rolled his eyes, then proceeded to ask me to stop all the silly pranks lately.” Techno sighed with frustration, “when I told him it wasn’t me, he had the audacity to blame the wind. The wind! When there were no open doors or windows! There wasn’t even a breeze in the house! He just- chalked it up to nothing!”

“I think I died a little that day.” Tommy added with a nod, which resulted in Tubbo telling him that he was already dead with a laugh and a light shove.

Sapnap sighed, “I know it’ll be… difficult-”

“Try impossible.” Wilbur cut in.

Sapnap continued, “but I can’t just… slam it on him like that. It could have major consequences. He could be driven mad, especially if he absolutely refuses to admit that anything could be supernatural in the first place.”

“But it was thrown on me!” Techno insisted, “I wasn’t a believer either before Bad completely took the carpet from under my feet and warped my world view without a single moment of hesitation!”

“He gave you a debriefing, and you were starting to believe him. It was obvious in the way your demeanor changed and your questions became more accepting of the fact.” Sapnap pointed out, “you may have not noticed, but Bad certainly did. He has a knack for that sort of thing.”

Wilbur crossed his arms with an exasperated huff. “Then how do we convince Phil of all people? Techno is bound to believe anything if you give him enough factual evidence that supports your theory, it’s damn fucking difficult, but it’s possible. As for Phil, he’s fucking impossible to convince of anything he doesn’t already believe. Most of the time he has to come to his own conclusion on the facts before coming back to the topic and randomly bringing it up again.”

Sapnap shrugged, “it’s up to you. Call me when you get him to roughly believe you and I’ll help cement it in his head before he can deny it. I’ll bring Bad and Ant over with me tomorrow, and we’ll see if they can talk to him like those-” He waved his hand dismissively, “missionaries of churches or whatever they are. If anyone can lay down casual evidence and answer odd questions, it’s Bad.”

Wilbur pouted for a moment before seemingly coming to a conclusion in his head. His brows furrowed and a look of a resolute decision appeared on his face. A sort of… mischievous smirk followed, “Alright spirit bitches. Who’s up for a little haunting?”

Chapter Text

Sapnap had left hours ago, leaving the twins and the three spirits to try to come up with some sort of game plan.

This left the twins sitting on their favorite chairs in the living room, both of them pointed towards the door like they were expecting a child who snuck out at night to come back through the door. 

Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo entertained themselves with their new items. Wilbur and Techno had already helped to set up Tommy’s assortment of plants at the front window. The porch would help to shade them from getting too much sunlight, but it’d also give them a great amount of direct light in the mornings and evenings.

He was currently quietly talking to them, occasionally humming a small tune and stroking at the leaves or poking the soil.

Tubbo was lying on his stomach on the floor, his new DS in front of him so he could press the buttons and not waste energy trying to hold it. Wilbur had to use a bit of tape to get it to stay in place on the occasions that Tubbo pressed a button a little too hard and accidentally shoved it away to slide across the wooden floor, which was obviously frustrating him.

Ranboo was perfectly content to read, their new kindle laying on the coffee table as they sat criss-cross in front of it, their head craned over to stare at the screen and scan over the page before swiping to the next one.

Wilbur and Techno talked amongst themselves, trying to come up with more ideas to convince Phil about the reality of ghosts. They turned on a show in the background, just to have something to watch whenever they needed a second to gather their thoughts.

Imagine their surprise when Phil came back home an hour before he normally would. There was a strange look on his face as well. A big dopey smile and unusually soft eyes as he was obviously completely lost in thought as he opened and shut the door, leaning against it with a happy sigh.

“Dad?” Wilbur asked, startling the man to snap out of his odd state, sending a sober but beaming smile towards his sons.

If he noticed the odd movements of the new plants at the window, or the two new devices clicking and swiping on their own, he didn’t acknowledge it. “Boys! I took your advice to heart, and I actually got off earlier today! I worked my actual hours and just left.”  

Techno was almost certain that his eyebrows raised so high they came off his head like a cartoon character. “Shouldn’t you be getting off at four then? It’s almost 7pm and you go in at eight in the morning?”

Phil moved to sit on the couch, sighing happily and walking through Ranboo without knowing.

Techno winced for the kid, he already knew how much Ranboo hated going through or touching living people. Something about suddenly feeling blood flow and living body things when they hadn’t felt them in years. It was extremely overwhelming for them, and Techno had a long chat with them about it, letting Ranboo rant about the odd feeling for as long as they wished.

Ranboo almost immediately flew away, shuddering as they moved to hide behind Techno’s chair, their arms crossed over their chest uncomfortably.

Techno leaned forward to snatch the tablet off the coffee table and placed it on the smaller side table that sat between his and Wilbur’s armchairs. Making sure that the display was faced so Ranboo could still access it from behind Techno’s chair.

The kid attempted to pat Techno’s arm in thanks, but it came off as a weird little wave since they were obviously trying not to actually touch him.

“I got off at four, but I wanted to take an hour for myself before coming home because I remembered you guys told me that I needed some self-care a while back.” Phil sighed, an odd goofy smile stretching across his cheeks as he ran a hand through his hair and collapsed completely on the couch. “I got some coffee and I went to the park. That’s where I saw… her.”

Techno and Wilbur side-eyed one another, an equal look of confusion on both of their faces. “Who is her, dad?” Wilbur asked.

“She’s-” Phil suddenly laughed in surprise, “well, I suppose in my flustered state I forgot to ask her name.”

“How in the world do you forget to ask someone for their name?” Techno questioned. “It’s literally one of the first things you do after saying hello.”

“Well, to be fair-” Phil waved his hand and shook his head. “Let me start at the beginning.”

Wilbur and Techno sighed, adjusting themselves to be more comfortable in their chairs. Techno hung his legs off the arm, barely avoiding the side table and let his neck rest on the other arm of the chair. Almost immediately, he could feel his braid loosen, glancing up to see that Tommy was already by his head, his eyes wide as he messed with Techno’s pink hair.

Meanwhile, Wilbur simply brought his knees to his chest and leaned against the arm of his own chair, watching their father intently.

Once the twins were settled, Phil spoke up again. “I was in the park, right? Taking a stroll and watching others go about their business. I pet some dogs, explored the entirety of the park, I even just sat by the lake for a bit, soaking in the sun.” That dopey smile crossed his face again. “Then, while I was walking back home, I saw her. Somehow she was able to claim a spot in a gazebo, left alone surrounded by roses that climbed up the wooden frames. She had a book in her hands, but I never caught the name of it either. She’s absolutely gorgeous though. Raven black hair that shined in the sunlight, almost giving her a halo around her head. She’s taller than me, but I don’t really mind. She had this really pretty dark purple sundress on, one with golden accents that spiraled throughout and made her shine brighter than most of the other people in the park. It matched her sun hat too, which had a little bouquet of black and purple flowers decorating the band of it as well.”

“You are describing her like a character from a book.” Wilbur pointed out. “Am I listening to an audio book right now? Because it certainly feels like it.”

Techno snorted at the comment, but Phil just seemed to ignore them both.

“I remember how my heart completely fluttered in my chest when I caught sight of her for the first time. But of course, I got so terribly distracted by her beauty that when she happened to lock eyes with me, I got so flustered I somehow found myself off the path and crashing face-first into a tree.”

Both Wilbur and Techno had to fight to hold back their laughter. It was just like Phil to embarrass himself like that sometimes, though most of the time he was actually pretty level headed, always taking the lead in most of his conversations.

“I could see that she was trying her best not to laugh at me, but when I started laughing, she started laughing too. We shared the funny moment even though we were far apart from one another, and I could distantly hear her laugh. It’s prettier than anything I’ve ever heard.” Phil sighed, his cheeks flushed. “Somehow I had the confidence to make my way over to her, asking if she saw how that tree randomly appeared in front of me and if I could take a seat across from her at the picnic table. She allowed it, and before I knew it, we were deep in conversation. We never asked one anothers names or any of the beginning niceties of meeting someone new. It was just- primes, it felt so normal. We chatted about coffee we liked, and what birds in the park were our favorites, about the roses that climbed the sides of the gazebo. Primes, we even people-watched for a little bit, trying to come up with stories for strangers.”

This was the point that Phil threw an arm over his flushed face, as though he was trying to hide away his reddened cheeks.

“Okay, so dad’s got a massive crush.” Wilbur said first, a light chuckle paired along with it. He looked to Techno, giving his twin a look that said, are you seeing this?

“Indeed he does Wilbur,” Techno said, amusing over the fact that they sounded as though they were commenting over a sport. “The important question now is; did he ask her on a date?”

“I raise you one,” Wilbur said, adding a weird little tone to his voice to make himself sound like he really was commenting on sports. Techno loved how easily Wilbur picked up on his subtle jokes and his thoughts. Twin telepathy or whatever. “Did he happen to get any details about her in the slightest? Or her number?

Phil paused suddenly, holding his breath for a moment before he groaned loudly, moving his arm from his face to replace it with both his hands.

“Based on that reaction Wilbur, I’d say he completely forgot that, when you like someone, you typically ask for their contact information.” Techno commented, shaking his head in mock disappointment, “he shoots, and he misses.”

Wilbur broke first from the joke, a slight snort escaping his nose as he found amusement in their father’s despair. Techno couldn’t keep from joining in too, it was pretty funny for Phil to fumble so badly. But it was also a little sad, and the twins could clearly see that their father was a bit upset by it.

“Let me mope in peace.” Phil muttered into his hands.

Wilbur stood suddenly from his chair, going to plop down on the couch beside Phil and lightly pat his shoulder. “There there dad. I’m sure you’ll stumble across her again.”

“Yeah.” Techno added, following Wilbur’s lead and taking a seat on the other side of Phil. Tommy still continued to work on his hair, only complaining slightly at the sudden movement before settling down again. “Maybe if you go back tomorrow around the same time, she’ll be there again. Perhaps she’s hoping that you’ll come back as well.”

Phil peeked through his fingers, side-eyeing the twins one by one before hiding away again. “I’m such an idiot…”

Techno nodded solemnly, “only a little bit, dad.”

Phil snorted at that, finding Techno’s blunt humor amusing as he always did. “I thought I raised you boys to be kind.” He teased, his voice still muffled by his hands.

“Only to strangers, dad.” Wilbur said with a smile, “we need to keep you humble.”

Phil finally uncovered his face with a tired sigh, “I guess I’m going back to the park after work tomorrow. Do you two want to come with me?”

This came as a surprise to both of the twins, seeing as they haven’t really spent too much time with Phil in the recent years.

But before they could provide an answer, Tubbo cleared his throat, having left his gameboy to gain the attention of the twins. He made some sort of pleading face, and the twins both seemed to remember what they needed to do at the same time.

“I’d love to go with you and find this mystery lady,” Wilbur started nervously. “But uh- I- or we need to tell you something.”

At Wilbur’s sudden shift in tone, Phil sat up, looking at his son with concern. “What is it? Are you alright?”

Wilbur let out a small huff of laughter, “yeah yeah, I’m fine I just- primes, I need you to promise that you’ll listen to me first. Let me explain before you start denying things.”

“Deny-” Phil’s face suddenly crumpled into exhaustion, “oh Wil, please don’t tell me that you’re falling back into your ghost obsession phase.”

Primes, Phil really hit the nail on the head for that one.

At seeing Wilbur’s nerves suddenly spike, Techno spoke up, taking the attention off of his brother, “dad. We both need you to listen. Just let us explain.”

“Not you too Tech, I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff either?” Phil sighed, pinching at the bridge of his nose.

“I didn’t. But things change when your entire view on the world is suddenly flipped upside-down.” Techo said, “you know I wasn’t a believer in the supernatural, you said it yourself. Doesn’t that say something if I suddenly am one now? Think about it dad, what could’ve possibly changed my mind unless it was a cold, hard fact?”

“With all the pranks you two have been pulling lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re just trying to mess with me.” Phil sighed.

“That’s not us, dad!” Wilbur finally broke, his voice slightly raising. “I can prove that ghosts are real, and for once in your life I beg you to just listen to me on this! We haven’t been pranking you, and we’re still not!”

“Wil, calm down-” Phil tried to speak, but Wilbur cut him off.

“For once I just- I need-” Wilbur’s voice suddenly died down to a barely audible tone, “I just want you to not think I’m crazy. To stop trying to book psychiatrist appointments for me or flat out ignore me when I try to talk about it. I know that when everything with Sally went down it was bad. It was a desperate wish. But even then, I found things that simply… don’t make sense with the world. There are things out there dad. Things that the human mind can’t comprehend. I… I just want you to listen to me.”

Silence rang out between them.

Techno still felt horrible for never listening to his brother about this stuff. They had a long chat about it, only a day or so after their eyes were opened to reveal the three secret residents of their home. They both cried. A lot. But Techno definitely cried the most out of the two of them, apologizing over and over for not giving Wilbur a chance to explain.

Wilbur forgave him, but it still stings to hear how torn up he was over Techno and their dad never giving him a chance.

“I want to make one thing clear first, I tried to book psychiatrist appointments for you because of your anxiety and depression to see if your mental health was okay. Yes, it was around the ghost hunting days, but I can promise you that I wasn’t doing that because of the ghost stuff.” Phil said softly, “I’m so sorry if I didn’t make that clear earlier on.”

Wilbur sighs, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes and resting his elbows on his knees. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to go off like that. You tried to tell me your real intentions at one point, but I still convinced myself that it was because you thought I was deranged.”

Techno kept quiet. Allowing the two to have their moment. He turned his attention to the ghost kids instead, watching Tubbo and Ranboo play a silent round of tag through the house while Tommy was still completely engrossed in braiding Techno’s hair. His tongue was even slightly poking past his lips in concentration.

“I’m sorry Wil, I truly am.” Phil apologized again, opening his arms to encase Wilbur in a hug, which the man readily accepted.

They held one another for a long minute, and once they finally let go, Phil sighed. “Alright. I’ll listen to you about your,” He waved his hand as though he was shooing a fly, “theories.”

“Yes!” Wilbur celebrated, shattering the tender atmosphere almost instantly. He stood before turning to stare at Phil intently, “please let me explain in full before talking, okay?”

Phil nodded, albeit reluctantly.

With that, Wilbur dived into everything that he knew about ghosts. It was the entirety that he used to say before Techno was a believer, but now there was even more to it seeing as Wilbur wasn’t getting interrupted.

He went through the entire recount of him and his friends searching the house for ghosts, including the part where he was spooked so badly they had to stop and watch Hamilton.

Techno earned himself a nasty glare for laughing at that one, though it wasn’t filled with any real malice.

He explained the part about Bad coming over (though he pretended Bad was a friend of his to avoid Phil being concerned about him inviting a stranger into their home).

“And now we’re caught up to the present. So… yeah.” Wilbur ended uncertainly.

Phil waited for a small bit, just to see if Wilbur was done explaining things before speaking. “Wilbur, I’d really love to believe you. I would. But I don’t… I can’t just believe something out of the blue. I need some sort of evidence to prove it to my mind, y’know?”

Techno caught the small, disappointed pout on Wilbur’s face, and decided that now would be the best time to step in.

“Dad, I want you to look at my hair.” Techno said, earning himself an odd look from his father.

“You want me to-”

Techno cut him off, holding up his hand before adjusting himself to be more turned towards Phil, his braid in view.

Tommy was still dutifully attempting to braid, though now he seemed a bit more nervous with all the sudden attention on him. His movements became a bit more shaky and slow.

Techno kept his hands in his lap, turning to watch Phil’s face instead.

Phil stared, clearly confused and doubtful at first, but seeing Techno’s hair move on its own accord, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips parted slightly open. “What- how is this-”

“Dad, this is Tommy. He has a fascination with plants and Techno’s hair.” Wilbur explained gently, “he’s a super sweet kid, and he’s the reason we have an assortment of plants in the house now.”

Tommy, now gaining some sort of confidence, turned to Phil, holding out his hand. “Give me your hand, pussy boy.”

Wilbur snorted, but translated for Phil what Tommy wanted him to do. Though he left out the insult.

Phil stiffly did as he was instructed, holding his hand palm up towards where he assumed Tommy wanted him to.

Tommy didn’t even hesitate as he plunged his hand into Phil’s, aiming for fully encasing the sensitive nerves that sat on the very end of fingertips.

Phil shivered, his eyes wide in disbelief as his hand was thrust into an odd area of significantly colder space. He cautiously dipped his hand in and out of the place Tommy diligently held his hand. Patiently allowing Phil to marvel for a moment before slowly moving his hand to trace up Phil’s arm to his shoulder.

Phil sat shock still, watching where the cold sensation was as it steadily trailed up his arm.

Then Tommy got that little grin that meant trouble.

He pulled back his hand suddenly, then moved into a horribly stanced boxing position. With that mischievous smile, he proceeded to punch Phil in the face, making sure each of his “punches” landed with a surprising precision as his fist sunk into Phil’s nose all the way up to Tommy’s wrist before he pulled back again. He continued to do that maybe about five or six times before Phil finally said something.

“Is… Am I being punched in the face right now?”

Wilbur burst into a wave of laughter, unable to speak so Techno spoke up for him, chuckling softly. “Yes. Yes you are.”

Tommy beamed with pride, pulling back from his punching and glancing at Techno, “tell him that he has passed the vibe check, but he’s still a pussy boy.”

“I’m not saying that Tommy.”

Tommy groaned dramatically, lifting into the air and onto his back as he did so, “you’re so mean to me Techno! This is bullying! I’m only a minor!”

Techno scoffed, “you’re fine Tommy, you big baby.” Tommy tried to shout in denial, but Techno spoke over him, “Ranboo, why don’t you try proving something to Phil here?”

Ranboo perked up at hearing their name get called, and slowly hovered over towards Phil. They stood silent for a long moment, clearly thinking over what they should do before they seemed to get an idea.

They made their way over towards the bookshelf, and Wilbur, seeing what was about to happen, pointed out where Phil should look.

Ranboo placed their hand on a book, staring back to make sure Phil was watching before they flung it to the floor, the hardcover landing with a loud thud.

Phil, even though he watched the book move and fall to the floor, still jumped slightly at the sound, holding his hand to his heart like the old man he was. “What the fuck?”

Ranboo, gaining a little grin, proceeded to shove three more books down, one after the other, making sure Phil saw each one.

“Dad,” Wilbur spoke up, “this is Ranboo. You can’t see them right now, but they’re our resident reader. I’m pretty sure they love books even more than Techno does. They also enjoy putting books in obscure places after they finish reading them.”

“Actually, Tommy and Tubbo are the ones to normally do that.” Ranboo corrected.

Wilbur snorted, “my mistake, Tommy and Tubbo are the ones to blame for that.”

Phil seemed more accepting as time went on, not refusing the evidence in front of his very eyes as he asked Techno, “is that why I found your Sun Tzu book in the freezer the other night?”

“HEH?!” Techno exclaimed, looking back and forth between his father and one of the three ghosts, “you put my copy of ‘Art of War’ in the freezer?!”

Tubbo burst into a fit of giggles, “his name is literally Sun, I thought it’d be ironic.”

“I’ve been looking for that book for days! I asked each of you where it was personally!”

Ranboo bit their lip, a mix of nervousness and amusement on their face as they spoke up, “I was held under threat to keep quiet.”

“What could Tubbo possibly do that would be threatening?!”

Tommy gave Techno a dead-pan look, “you do not wanna see Tubbo cry. Trust me. Everyone cries when that fucker cries.”

Tubbo gave Techno the most innocent grin he could manage.

Techno could only manage another, “HEH?!”

Wilbur broke the light argument with a clearing of his throat, “Tubbo? Why don’t you try showing Phil something other than arguing with Techno?”

Still laughing as he approached, Tubbo only stopped when he was face to face with the man. Then he reached up, and flicked Phil’s signature green and white hat straight off his head.

Phil tried to catch it, but it had already fallen to the floor by the time his hand reached his straw-blond hair.

Tubbo mocked holding Phil by the shoulders, staring at him intently. “We are going to be best friends, you and I. Forever.”

“O-kay then… Tubbo, let’s calm down, alright?” Tommy said, floating over to gently drag his friend away, “your clinginess is showing.”

Neither of the twins wanted to relay that message, even as Phil asked, “is he saying something?”

Wilbur shook his head, “you don’t-” he was cut off by the sound of knocking at the door.

“Who’s here?” Phil asked, craning his head to look through the textured glass of the front door. A familiar blob stood behind it, instantly familiar to the family of three… or is it six now? Phil’s expression immediately morphed into surprise and joy, “is that Sapnap? I feel like I haven’t seen him in ages!”

“Yeah, I just texted him a minute ago to come back on over.” Wilbur said as he walked over to the door to let his friend inside, “there’s much more we need to tell you dad.”

With that, Wilbur pulled the door open, greeting Sapnap with a short hug before seeing the two guests that hid behind him. “Bad? Ant?”

Sapnap sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, “I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted my dad and Ant to be here for this just in case. You already know that I haven’t done this before, so I don’t want anything to go wrong.”

“Completely fair, the more the merrier.” Wilbur said, inviting the three in before closing the door behind them. “Dad, this is Sapnap’s father, Bad, and his friend, Ant.”

“More like my godfather.” Sapnap corrected.

“Oh!” Phil exclaimed, moving to stand up and greet the new guests, “I don’t think we’ve met! It’s lovely to meet you then!”

“The pleasure is all mine.” Bad said politely, shaking Phil’s hand. “I’m glad that I get to meet all of the people my son has gotten to know in his time away from home.”

“I see, where are you from?”

Bad chuckled as he ominously replied, “it’s very, very far from here. I don’t think it’s a place you’ll ever be able to visit.”

Phil blinked, not able to find a response to that.

“So, Phil.” Sapnap spoke up, “Wilbur and Techno have been talking to you about the three ghost kids that live here, and I know that you’re a firm non-believer in that sort of thing. How do you feel about it now?”

“Well, considering my hand became impossibly cold, books flew off my shelf on their own, and my hat was thrown off my head, I can’t…” Phil sighed, “I still can’t wrap my head around the possibility. But I can’t explain how any of that was possible either. There were no strings pulled, no one else is here aside from my boys and I, and maybe… ghosts but I just-”

“It’s hard to change your mind about something you’ve always been so certain of.” Bad explained easily, “many others struggle with the same thing. Even Techno did at first, but I must say that he handled it better than most.”

Ant raised his hand half-way, just to gain people’s attention. “It’s hard to explain in “logical terms” that the things happening around you are ghosts when you don’t believe in them.” Ant added, “the human mind is odd that way. It blocks out what it doesn’t want to see or hear, and replaces it with logic. Even if that logic is flawed.”

Phil nodded slowly, “I suppose that makes sense. I… I think I’m starting to believe. In ghosts that is.”

The three teens cheered at that, making everyone who could hear and see them smile softly at their joy.

Wilbur looked at Sapnap hopefully, who just shrugged, “that’s good enough for me.” He sat down across from Phil in one of the armchairs, Bad taking the seat next to him while Ant perched on the arm of the chair.

Sapnap leaned forward, clasping his hands together and rested his chin atop them. “Alright Phil. Let’s discuss the process of letting you actually see these ghosts.”

--------

To cut it short, explaining everything Wilbur and Techno already learned took… much longer than anyone anticipated.

Phil asked all sorts of questions, ones that would make Sapnap stumble over his words until Bad would pitch in, answering each one with ease.

The ghosts went back to their gifts eventually, already bored of the explanations they’ve heard time and time again.

Bad and Ant had even revealed their true forms to aid their proof of angels and demons existing as well. Phil blinked in shock as he watched their tails and Ant’s ears flick on their own accord.

Everyone in the room thanked the ever-living primes when Phil finally ran out of questions and agreed for Sapnap to give him the vision to see the specters in his house.

The twins held hands and watched with bated breaths as their father closed his eyes, and Sapnap gently touched his fingertips to his eyelids, then to his forehead, pressing down as sparks of flame sputtered from his hand. Phil’s face scrunched in pain and he flinched away, breathing heavily as whatever magic Sapnap used invaded his system.

Seeing this, Ant rushed over, an odd aura of pale, golden light engulfing him as he gently touched his own finger to Phil’s forehead, easing the pain immediately.

After a long minute, Phil blinked his eyes open, a hand to his head as he slowly gained his bearings once more before going completely shock still at the sight of three extra people in his living room.

There was a pause before Phil finally croaked out, “I- uh… hello?”

Tommy fucking screamed with joy, circling above everyones heads as he celebrated the fact that they could finally speak to all three family members in the household. Ranboo and Tubbo followed shortly, shouting their own enthusiastic remarks.

Techno’s smile was unstoppable as the kids he was already so attached to circled and danced around the room. Tommy flew through his chest at one point, just to make Techno laugh in surprise as an overwhelming wave of cold flashed through him for a moment.

The house felt… whole.

--------

Needless to say, it took a solid while for the ghosts to finally settle down, chattering to Phil all the while at a speed too fast for him to properly answer their questions or even react to their sudden declarations and facts they spewed at him.

Phil started to relax as the minutes passed, and Techno could just tell that the man was reminded of Wilbur and Techno when they were younger. His expression stuck in a state of nostalgia and fondness.

It turns out, everyone has a weakness for these three spirits. No one can escape the fondness. Perhaps it’s a curse. Or a spell.

Of course, the happy moment eventually had to end, and Sapnap was the one to reveal the heartbreaking news that the boys wished for Phil to have the sight in order for them to start the process of moving on.

Phil already seemed devastated by this revelation, probably because he wished to get to know these boys for a while longer.

That’s when Sapnap asked Wilbur to hand him the jewels he gave them earlier. Techno and Wilbur agreed for Wilbur to be the one to hold onto them until the time was right, which seemed to happen much sooner than expected.

Bad and Ant looked proud as Sapnap explained what they were and how they worked yet again. Ranboo, Tubbo, Tommy, and Phil listening to his every word.

Techno and Wilbur received the two matching emeralds with the shorter gold chains, while Phil was given the one with the longer chain, the earring dangling halfway at his neck. They each put them on immediately, Techno putting his on his right ear to match Phil, and Wilbur deciding to put his on his left, just to “mix it up a bit,” as he said it.

Sapnap was sure to assist each ghost in the process of safely rebinding their spirit from the house and into the crystal instead, something about following their instincts and who they felt more drawn to aiding them in the process. Techno didn’t fully understand it, but frankly he didn’t care once Ranboo hovered nervously over to him and followed Sapnap’s instructions to a T to bind themselves to the emerald Techno wore.

He was so honored to be Ranboo’s choice that he would have cried right there. But he definitely didn’t want Ranboo to take his blubbering sobs as a bad thing. So he kept it in, sharing a smile with the kid instead. 

It was certainly… odd, when Ranboo successfully attached themselves to the emerald. It was like a pop in your body when you stretch, your bones realigning themselves noisily. The gem radiated cold the second it happened as well, and it felt like Techno was wearing an ice cube instead of an emerald.

But he’d never complain. Not when Ranboo was beaming with excitement and pride, looking at Techno with a shine in their eye that practically screamed, “did you see that?!”

Techno honestly couldn’t be more excited to help these spirits in their process of moving on to a place more accepting of them.

He hoped it would be warm, and embrace them with love and acceptance and safety.

That it’d be a place they felt they belonged in.

Of course, just because Techno wanted for these spirits to find their peace, there was still that tiny, bitter, part of him that selfishly wished they could stay. They successfully wormed their way into his heart, and he didn’t want to let them go.

He’d never say any of that out loud though, and it’d remain drifting in his thoughts for a long time. For now, he’d just have to keep his focus on the present. On helping these kids see the things they desperately wished they could see in their horribly long ghost existence on the earth. Stuck in a house with nowhere to go.

He was going to enjoy every moment. No matter how bitter the future may seem.

Chapter Text

Tommy convinced Sapnap, Bad, and Ant to go home after they finished connecting to the emeralds. Telling them that he didn’t want the three of them hovering over the household residents like helicopter parents as they went outside for the first time in twenty years.

Sapnap agreed reluctantly, leaving the six alone within their home, basking in their newfound knowledge and all the possibilities the outdoors provided.

They gave Phil a bit of time to adjust to his new reality as well, letting him acquaint himself with their ghostly pals while sipping some tea he made.

Honestly, it was a bit surprising how well Phil was accepting everything. After the initial shock, he kinda just went back to patient smiles and that endlessly kind heart.

“So you’re the reason my computer was acting fucked up!” Phil exclaimed with a laugh, “I thought I was going crazy! So did the tech department when I explained the situation to them, they told me upfront that what I was explaining wasn’t possible with computers unless someone else was controlling the monitor and hacking me. But when they checked it out, they found absolutely nothing. My laptop was perfectly healthy.”

Tubbo chuckled sheepishly, fidgeting with his fingers and avoiding eye contact, “it was upsetting everyone that you were overworking yourself so hard… and besides, I figured that an early night wouldn't hurt.

Phil chuckled, a tired sigh escaping him, “I’m glad you did. I needed an extra push anyway.” He pushed himself to stand up, clapping his hands together once and gaining everyone’s full attention. “Alright. I think I’m all set to go wherever our little buddies want to. Just give me a minute to finally get out of my work clothes.”

By the time Phil was ready, everyone else was ready as well, all of them standing patiently at the door. Well, Techno shouldn’t really say patient. Tommy and Tubbo were the definition of impatient, and anyone could tell that Ranboo was trying their absolute best to contain themselves and appear more relaxed than they were.

Techno stood at the door, his hand on the doorknob as he looked at the people he cared for, “are you one hundred percent certain that you’re ready for this today? Or do you still need time to process?”

Tommy floated over to him, emulating the action of placing his freezing cold hands onto Techno’s cheeks. “Techno. We’ve been waiting for this moment for twenty years. Ever since we died and found out we couldn’t leave the house. I think we’re more than ready.” He went back to Wilbur’s side, and he seemed to be thinking over what he wanted to say. “Thank you though. For checking.”

Techno smiled, then proceeded to open the door.

The weather today was absolutely perfect. The temperature isn’t too cold or too warm, and there is a nice cool breeze. To add to that, it’s the perfect mix of sunny and cloudy. It’s as though the universe itself was expecting this day to come and wanted to provide the best it possibly could.

Techno stepped out first, pausing at the first step of the porch where the sunlight peeked over the edge of the roof. The sun was still nice and high enough in the sky to provide a decent amount of sunbeams, and Techno was grateful that they hadn’t slept in this morning, giving them enough time for everything that already happened. Meaning they had more time to make this a beautiful occasion.

He peaks open his eye as he feels that familiar wave of cold cautiously move next to him, finding Ranboo staring wide-eyed at the scene in front of them. Techno only wished he could offer his hand in some form of reassurance, but a smile would just have to do. Though it didn’t stop him from stepping off the porch entirely, looking back to hold a hand out and invite Ranboo to step forward with him.

Ranboo reached forward, then paused, a dorky little smile crossing their face, “if I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”

Techno blinked.

Once.

Twice.

A shocked laugh bubbles from him, “did you just quote The Lord of the Rings at me?”

Ranboo only snorted, their laugh louder than the groan of protest from Tommy and the giggles from Tubbo.

“How do you even know that movie?” Phil asked, still at the front door as he quietly shut it behind himself.

Tubbo rolled his eyes, “Phil, we may live under a rock nowadays since we have limited access to the outside world, but we were still alive when that movie came out.”

Ranboo nodded in confirmation, “Tubbo and I went to see it together since Tommy didn’t want to come with us as it was too “nerdy” for him.”

“You both quoted it for fuckin’ weeks afterwards.” Tommy grumbled. 

Phil tilted his head curiously, “that movie came out in 2001, and you’ve been dead 20 years, right? So you must’ve died in… 2003?”

“Obviously.” Tommy sassed, “congrats on doing math, old man.”

Phil stared at the kid, a heavy sigh pushing past his lips as he said, “you are literally older than me.”

“Nope. No way. No how.” Tubbo insisted with a shake of his head, “you are clearly ancient, Phil. I assume you’re at least in your eighties.”

“I hereby disown all of you.”

The rest of the group cackled at that, causing a little smile to appear on Phil’s face as he rolled his eyes fondly.

“If you disown us,” Ranboo spoke up after the laughter started to die down, their finger raised in the air, “that indicates that we’re your family. Last I checked, I wasn’t adopted by anyone.”

“Oh my primes,” Wilbur gasped, placing his hands to his cheeks in shock, “is this a surprise adoption?”

Tommy gave him a deadpan look, “I’m pretty sure that a “surprise adoption” falls under the same category as kidnapping.”

Wilbur laughed, “Well, Phil is the type of guy to ask, ‘is anyone taking care of this kid?’ And not wait for an answer.”

Phil lightly whacked Wilbur upside the head with a laugh, “I’ll have you know I adopted both you and Techno perfectly legally, and with your own consent!”

“Okay, okay!” Techno interrupted, rolling his eyes with fondness, “let’s get back to the topic at hand. We’re focusing on our spirits here, not old movies, or Phil’s age, or surprise adoptions.”

The mood dropped almost immediately into something more serious. Nervous even. As though they were all standing on a cliff’s edge, all of them were terrified to peek over the ledge and see if the ground was visible below. Would the platform beneath their feet crumble to dust and drop them before they were ready to jump into the unknown? Or would they jump themselves? Hand in hand and holding on with white knuckle grips lest someone slip through their fingers and drop without the reassurance they weren’t alone in the fall.

“I’m uh-” Ranboo stuttered, still standing on the very edge of the porch, nerves clear in the way they held themselves. They stared at Techno, making him feel as though he was on a stage, a spotlight shining directly in his eyes. “What if this doesn’t work? What if we just hit the barrier that keeps us here?”

“You won’t know unless you try.” Techno said. “If that barrier stops you again, then we can drag Sapnap back here and threaten him until he makes something work. I will personally go out and kidnap him if I have to.”

It was relieving to watch a small bit of tension wash away in Ranboo’s shoulders as they chuckled softly. “Yeah. Yeah okay. Here we go then.”

They stood there, unmoving.

“Yup. Just.” Ranboo muttered to themselves, “stepping off the porch. Right now. Putting a foot forward. Stepping. Right there. In the grass. Here we go. Right now.”

They still didn’t move, their feet glued to the porch’s floorboards.

“GO, BITCHBOY!” Tommy suddenly shouted, shoving Ranboo off the porch entirely.

Techno watched the shock that crossed Ranboo’s face as they stumbled down the few stairs and to a stop on the path, not being blocked by an invisible wall. For a long moment, they simply stood, staring at their feet in complete surprise. 

Their eyes slowly traced up to lock their eyes with Techno’s, an astounded laugh bubbling up their throat as they made the realization that they weren’t stopped by a barrier they’ve never been able to pass before.

“Oh my primes.” They whispered, then their eyes completely lit up as they rushed forward and grabbed Techno’s hands in theirs, interlocking their fingers with such excitement that Techno couldn’t help but smile. “It worked! Oh my primes, I’m- I’m outside! We did it!”

Wait just one fucking second.

The two of them seemed to come to the same realization at the same time, looking to their interlocked fingers in stunned silence.

Techno couldn’t say anything if he tried, his throat locked up as his thoughts raced with the new information that just smacked him in the face.

Ranboo felt almost solid. They practically felt fully human instead of ghost-like.

Sure, their hands were frigid, and where their fingers touched felt… fuzzy. Like when you put your hand to one of those older, bulky TV’s. Static clinging to your fingers and shocking you lightly as electric particles buzzed behind the glass.

But it shouldn’t be possible. Techno knew this. Everyone knew this.

Ghosts couldn’t actually touch a living person. They should just go right through you, as though nothing is there.

Techno glanced up as Ranboo experimentally squeezed their hands, surprise and elation growing on their face as they didn’t just phase through. They could feel. They could touch. For someone that hated being run through by a human, or even being brushed past, to be able to touch someone and not feel the blood and heartbeat and spasms of muscles and guts was revolutionary. It was improbable.

Techno was so focused on Ranboo that he didn’t even realize that Phil and Wilbur had their own moments of bringing their bound ghosts off the porch as well, delight gleaming within ghostly eyes. Then it seemed as though everyone's attention suddenly focused on Techno and Ranboo, still stuck in their frozen states of shock.

“Ranboob?” Tommy asked, cautiously hovering closer. “Are you alright big man?”

Ranboo nodded silently, but their gaze remained glued on their hands. Slowly, they released Techno’s fingers before muttering, “Tommy, watch this.” Then they glanced up to Techno, asking in the same quiet tone, “Techno, palm up please.”

Techno did as he was asked without a moment of hesitation, and simply watched in silence as Ranboo slowly pressed their finger to Techno’s palm, pushing down to make Techno’s arm move with it.

“What the fuck.” Tommy whispered, “you’re messing with me.”

“I’m not!” Ranboo insisted, “I can- I can feel Techno.”

“Bullshit.” Tommy huffed, clearly jealous about Ranboo’s newfound ability. Then he went to slap his own hand against Techno’s palm, only for it to rush right on through, sending a shiver down Techno’s spine at the sensation. “See?! Bullshit!”

“It’s not! Watch!”

By this point, they had gained everyone's attention, and that meant they all saw as Ranboo slapped their hand to Techno’s like a high-five, a satisfying smack sounding out as their palms collided. 

Ranboo momentarily seemed shocked at proving themselves right before saying, “do you really think I could fake that?!”

“What did you just do?!” Tubbo asked now, rushing over to inspect Ranboo’s palm before inspecting Techno’s, but his hands phased through Techno’s as well. “How is this even possible? Techno is alive. ” Then Tubbo gave him an odd look, his eyes squinting at Techno. “You are alive, right?”

Techno patted himself down, checking his pulse at his neck and his wrist, just to be 100% sure. “I’m alive. At least to my knowledge I am.”

“Maybe it’s the emerald?” Ranboo wondered aloud, scratching at their chin in thought, “Sapnap did say a bunch of things about it, like the connection was strengthened and that it’s essentially us attaching our spirits to a soul, which means that we’re sharing one in an odd sense. Though I’m using it more for energy instead of life.”

“I don’t think he ever mentioned it giving you the ability to high-five me though.” Techno added, “though Sapnap leaves out a lot of information when it comes to these things.”

Wilbur snorted at that, “yeah. Sapnap’s is typically bad at explaining stuff. He tends to leave out a lot of the more important details.”

“Wilbur, I’m going to slap you.” Tommy suddenly started, flying over to stand directly in front of Wilbur, almost nose to nose.

“Excuse me?” Wilbur sputtered, “why?! you can’t just-”

Any protest was cut off as Tommy swung his hand, then slowed it at the very last second, his palm gently colliding with Wilbur’s cheek as the man flinched.

“Holy fucking shit.” Tommy whispered, his hand still on Wilbur’s cheek.

There was a long pause.

Tommy’s face suddenly scrunched up as though he was about to sob, and unexpectedly, he dove forward, burying his face in Wilbur’s shoulder and embracing the older in a hug.

Wilbur froze, but quickly relaxed and hugged the boy back, equally surprised at the fact that Tommy felt like a cold but solid human being.

Phil actually teared up at the sight, pulling up his phone to try and catch a photo, but quickly realized that ghosts can’t really be photographed. He groaned, “oh come on! I just want to catch a sweet moment between my boys!”

“ Your boys?” Techno asked, raising an eyebrow at his father, “Dad, you literally just met these kids, and you’re already calling them yours?”

“I am a father of two, what’s three more?” Phil shrugged.

“We’re not your kids, old man!” Tubbo laughed, shoving lightly at Phil’s shoulder. His eyes widening at how his hand actually pushed against Phil, but he was quick to pretend like it was completely normal. “I’m older than you!”

“Shush small one.” Phil said, patting Tubbo on the head, “let me care for you.”

He was obviously teasing, but it didn’t mean that Techno missed the soft smile that flashed from Tubbo before he hid it away with a fake scowl.

Tubbo started spouting insults, trying to make himself taller by hovering up to be eye to eye with Phil, but he kept breaking his act of anger every couple seconds.

“Last of fucking all,” Tubbo shouted, pointing his finger in Phil’s face, “I am not small! I am a perfectly average height for a male my age!”

The last comment made Ranboo and Tommy look at one another, both of them suppressing smiles before they burst into laughter.

“Oi! Fuck you guys!” Tubbo screeched, and if ghosts could blush, Techno was certain that Tubbo’s face would be the brightest shade of pink right about now.

Ranboo and Tommy were now rolling around on the floor as they laughed, their knees to their chests as they rocked side to side.

Eventually, the laughter died out and Tommy decided he was done talking, pulling Ranboo and Tubbo into a game of tag that forced the twins to join and they even got Phil to run around with them for a minute.

Though Techno will point out that no one should ever play tag with a ghost. Nor should they play hide-and-seek. Ghosts are cheaters, hands down. During tag they hover just out of reach, and when hiding they choose impossible spots to get to, for example; inside a fucking tree.

It was still nice though. Seeing the boys run circles around everyone and tackle one another into the grass for an impromptu wrestling match, or even just stand in a patch of sunlight for a minute, a look of content on their face as their body flickered between looking solid and being partly translucent.

Techno collapsed in the grass at one point, breathing heavily after being defeated in a short race Tommy randomly forced him in.

Tommy only won because he didn’t need to breathe and because he can literally fly and make himself faster than Techno. Therefore, Techno wins by default, even if the little troublemaker didn’t agree.

“And you call me old.” Phil teased above him, leaning over him to appear in Techno’s view.

“Shut up old man,” Techno wheezed, “you’re not the one who just sprinted a half mile.”

“It was 100 meters at most!” Wilbur cut in, “I think you are getting old.”

“If I’m old, then you are too Wilbur.” Techno said, taking a minute to attempt to regulate his breathing. “Any insult you spout at me will get mirrored at you. It’s twin logic.”

“Bullshit!” Wilbur laughed. “That’s not how it works at all!”

“Is too.”

“Is not!”

“Is too.”

“Is not!”

“Is-”

“I swear to Prime that if you two don’t stop right now, I will send you to your rooms.” Phil groaned, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. “And no, I don’t care that you’re adults.”

Wilbur, who was definitely about to say something, clamped his mouth shut, half-heartedly glaring at Phil as he pouted.

“Oi, Wilbur!” Tommy interrupted, capturing everyone’s attention, “catch me!”

Watching Tommy run full speed and leap into the air towards Wilbur was something Techno would pay to see again.

The panic on Wil’s face, the absolute glee on Tommy’s, then the two of them basically sonic rolling in the grass as Tommy tackled the man to the ground.

Wilbur groaned in pain as Tommy fell into a state of hysterical laughter.

Techno watched them interact for a bit, their voices more hushed now but Techno could just tell that his brother was currently trying to threaten the kid to no avail.

------

They hung out around the front and back yard of the house for the rest of the day, and eventually decided they would go to the park tomorrow since the sun was already setting low in the sky and dusk started to sprinkle in stars to shimmer above.

The night passed quickly enough, and before they knew it, they were on their way out the door and into the sunshine of a new day. The park was within walking distance if you took a small trail that pathed through a small patch of woodland.

------

“I can’t believe it.” Tommy whispered, admiring the park. “I haven’t seen this place in so long… the trees are so big now. And the playground is actually nice .”

“There’s so many more flowers too.” Tubbo added, smiling as he poked at a daisy that stood at the base of a tree. “The bees must be fucking elated at that.”

“Oh my primes, I totally forgot that you had an obsession with bees while we were alive!” Tommy said, slapping his hand on Tubbo’s shoulder and shaking it lightly, “now I can call you bee boy again!”

Tubbo chuckled, turning slightly to hide the action of rubbing his eye as though he was tearing up. “It’s been forever since you called me that.”

One fun fact about being bound to a ghost is that it’s funnily similar to what Techno imagined having a kid on a leash was like.

They couldn’t really pull you in any direction, but there was a weird little tug that followed whenever they tried to stray too far, and they would also smack into an invisible barrier that followed whomever they were bound to.

It was like Ranboo was stuck in Techno’s personal bubble of space. If that bubble stretched thirty feet around him at all times that is.

Though Techno did his best to follow Ranboo’s pulls of curiosity, trying to walk briskly in the same direction the kid was trying to go.

They zig-zagged around the park like that, going from trees to the playground equipment, towards flower beds and to walk new paths they did not recognize.

The family did their best to remain together, only briefly having to split off before coming back towards one another as they each followed their curious ghostly buddies. They even got the chance to sit at the lake for a bit, watching the water in silent contentment before Tommy got bored and loudly declared it for all to hear.

Eventually, as they were up and walking once more, Phil spotted the gazebo he mentioned to his boys earlier, and when he pointed it out, they all realized that a figure was sitting within the shade.

She looked, even from their distance, just like the mystery woman Phil explained.

Phil’s face morphed into one of flustered shock as he just stared at her for a long moment, his mouth opening and shutting quietly as he struggled to think of what to say.

Wilbur, the ever social one, was already marching his way over, a mischievous grin on his cheeks as Phil followed, sputtering for his son to stop. Tommy was loudly teasing him already, pretending to poke at Phil’s nose as he floated behind Wilbur and encouraged the man to continue onward. Tubbo was no help to Phil either, simply cheering Tommy and Wilbur on while gently nudging Phil forward.

Techno and Ranboo merely shrugged at one another and followed as well, though they were both highly entertained.

The mystery woman glanced up as they approached, and her confused expression morphed into joy as she caught sight of Phil.

She was prettier than words could possibly describe, but Phil did pretty well when he was dreamily recalling her looks. Today she was wearing a pastel pink sundress with solid lace that had flowers sewn all throughout. It seemed she had multiple sunhats as well, seeing as this one was solid white and had a simple pink ribbon as a band around it. Her hair was done in big curls that fell down her shoulders and halfway down her back, the same raven black as Phil described.

“It’s you!” She called, standing from her seat to greet them. “I was hoping you’d come back. I realized after I had gone home that I never asked your name.”

Phil laughed, his face beet red as he visibly tried not to collapse from the fact that his crush was talking to him. “I uh- yeah! I realized the same thing! The name’s Phil.”

She smiled, holding out a hand for Phil to shake, “I’m Kristin. It’s lovely to meet you, Phil.”

Phil sighed dreamily, a dopey smile on his face as he simply shook Kristin’s hand. “It’s lovely to meet you as well.”

She let go, turning to face the twins with that same smile Phil was so weak over. “Hello, I don’t think we’ve met. I’ve already said my name, but might I ask who you are?”

“Kristin, these are my boys.” Phil cut in before either of the twins could speak, “Techno and Wilbur. They’re twins, and they’re my pride and joys.”

Techno pursed his lips at that.

How were they supposed to make fun of Phil when he was being genuinely sweet?

Based on Phil’s stern expression he hid from Kristin, he was silently communicating for the two to behave themselves, like he already knew that they were planning on being troublemakers.

For the record, they were absolutely ready to embarrass Phil like their lives depended on it. Unfortunately for Phil, one kind phrase wasn’t going to stop them completely.

“Dad has told us alllll about you.” Wilbur started easily, a winning smile on his cheeks as he shook her hand. “Honestly, his description of you doesn’t do you justice. You’re a beautiful lady, might I just say.”

Techno lightly whacked his twin on the shoulder with a laugh, “you’re not a noble, Wil. Chill out.” Then he also shook Kristin’s hand, “though he is right about how Phil described you to us. We were actually able to recognize you from the path even though we’ve never met you before.”

Kristin raised an eyebrow at Phil in question, though there was a smile that told them all that she was quite amused by what she was hearing. “Is that so?” Then she looked back to the twins, “I’m glad to meet you. You’re both very charming to talk to. I’d love to hear more about how Phil described me. Please, embarrass him further. I find it very cute.”

They ignored Tommy’s sounds of disgust at the sight of adults flirting.

Kristin gestured to the table, “please, why don’t you all sit with me? I’m not due back home for a little while more, we can chat for a bit if you’d all like?”

They obliged, though Phil was very obviously trying to regain even a small bit of his composure.

For a second, they sat in silence, and Kristin looked at Phil expectantly.

“I- uh-” Phil cleared his throat, desperately trying to stop himself from stammering, “why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’ve introduced the twins, aren’t you going to introduce me to the other kids you have with you?” Kristin asked, her head tilting slightly as she gestured at the spirits.

The ghosts immediately paused in their game of phasing just their heads through the gazebo roof, trying to make their living friends laugh by making stupid faces before vanishing once more and returning with an even dumber expression.

It almost made Techno laugh just seeing their heads poking through the roof, shocked expressions on their faces as they were acknowledged.

Of course, that’s the second he realized that Kristin shouldn’t be seeing them.

He had to do a double take from looking fondly at the kids to staring at Kristin with his jaw dropped ever so slightly.

Phil nervously chuckled, looking around them to see if some actual living children had followed them to the gazebo. Of course, there were none, so Phil cleared his throat, “what uh- what do you mean?.”

Kristin gave Phil a small frown, tilting her head to the side before a sort of worry seemed to emerge within her eyes. She leaned forward, her hands clasped together and her elbows supporting her weight. Her worry melted away to look intently at Phil. “Phil. I’m going to ask you something and you need to swear that you will at least try to take me seriously.”

Phil’s brow furrowed in confusion, but he replied quick enough, “alright uh- yeah. I promise.”

 “I’m going to try and put this as simply as I can,” Kristin nervously cleared her throat, her fingers fidgeting with one another. “You currently have three spirits attached to each of you. I can see them. And I assume- or I suppose that I hope you can see them too. After all, there’s really only one way for a spirit to attach themselves to someone in a safe manner, and seeing that these three still look quite lively, I’d guess that you’ve found that way.” She pressed her lips together like she was forcing herself to stop and be silent, her eyes flickering over the families faces to gauge their reactions.

Phil blinked a numerous amount of times, completely struck at the new revelation. Techno was shocked as well, and found that his mouth had dropped open comically while she spoke. He snapped his jaw shut, his teeth clicking loudly.

“I uhm- yeah we can… we can see them too.” Phil stammered out. He reached up to tuck his hair behind the ear that held his dangling emerald earring. “As you can see, we each have a matching earring. These were given to us by a friend who can also see and communicate with spirits. He helped us with the process of connecting their spirits to the gems.”

 She tilted her head, examining Phil closely before looking at the twins. Her eyes locked onto each of their emeralds respectively, and a small smile formed at her lips. “Thank the primes. I was a little worried that your boys had attached themselves to you in a harmful way. Where they feed off your soul’s energy while trying to vicariously live through you.” She chuckled, her cheeks turning a sweet shade of pink, “I’m extremely grateful that you’re not going to think I’m completely mad.”

“For your information, lady. ” Tommy suddenly spoke up, drifting down from the ceiling to land on the tabletop, crouching down to look Kristin in the eye. “We belong to no one first of all, and second, how in the fuck are you able to see us?”

Kristin simply smiled, “I don’t know exactly… but I’ve always been able to see spirits, ever since I was a little girl.”

Now Tubbo lowered himself from the roof, politely standing next to the table instead of on it like the fiend Tommy was. “Really? That shouldn’t- are you a demon? Some sort of angel maybe?” He asked with a scrutinizing squint of his eyes.

Kristin laughed, the sound making Phil melt in his lovey dovey state of crushing. “Not that I know of. I haven’t stopped aging, and I don’t have any supernatural abilities that I’m aware of other than seeing spirits. Though I have met plenty of demons and angels before, they never seem to realize that I know what they are.”

“Have you met others like us?” Ranboo asked, their voice quiet, “are there ghosts that have been stuck as long as we have?”

Kristin nodded, “absolutely. You’re not alone in your experience. I’ve met some ghosts who have been stuck from just a couple years to a couple hundred years.”

“Do they want to move on as well?” Tommy asked nervously, fidgeting with his fingers, “are they afraid of whatever comes after?”

Kristin tsked sympathetically, “oh darling, it’s only natural to fear the unknown. I’ve met plenty of others who felt the same. I’ve helped as many as I could of course, but there are some who just aren’t ready to go, and that’s perfectly fine.”

“Help them? You’ve helped other spirits move on?” Ranboo questioned.

Kristin nodded, a fond smile appearing as she looked back on the past, “I have. Only if I was able to of course, and if it was safe to do so. Most spirits simply have unfinished business, but some just don’t know what they want or need to move on. Yet, they’ll find it within their own time.”

“Are you-” Tubbo started, waving his hand as he searched for the right words to say, “are you sure you’re not some sort of powerful being or something like that?” Humans aren’t really known for helping ghosts with their problems all too often. Besides, you get nothing out of it.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Kristin said, tapping a finger to her chin, “I think that a spirit achieving peace is the best reward I could receive.” 

“You are way too nice.” Tommy mutters, sending Kristin a half-hearted glare, “no human is this kind to random strangers and three weird-ass spirits.”

Techno grasps his heart, a hurtful look on his face, “Tommy! We’re literally right here! Are we- am I not good enough for you?”

Tommy snorted, rolling his eyes fondly, “you guys obviously don’t count. Honestly, I should be asking the same question to you as well. I’m still in disbelief that you not only treat us kindly, but you also did everything in your power to communicate with us and befriend us. It just-” Tommy clutched his head in his hands, a small pout on his lip before he looked back up at them. He shook his head and waved his hand dismissively, “nevermind. We’ll talk about it later.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Phil cleared his throat, pulling everyone's attention towards him instead of Tommy (though he did send Tommy a look that said that they would absolutely talk about it later). “That’s amazing, Kristin. What you do for spirits. What else do you do in your day? I’d love to hear more about you.”

Both Wilbur and Techno groaned in pain, simultaneously letting their heads drop to the table. The three spirits saw this and joined in as well, making it extra dramatic by circling the group in the air.

“This flirting physically pains me!” Tubbo whined, “and I’m dead!”

Phil rolled his eyes, his cheeks a vibrant pink as he rubbed at the temple of his head for a moment. “These boys are going to drive me nuts.”

Kristin giggled and pulled out her phone, placing it into Phil’s hand with a wink. “Why don’t we talk later then?”

She stood once he took it, brushing off whatever dirt had found its way onto her dress before patiently folding her hands in front of her to wait for Phil.

Phil’s blush turned about eight shades darker as he processed Kristin’s question, staring at the phone in his hand like it was some sort of holy object before shakily entering his contact information and handing it back to her in disbelief.

She smiled, clicking a couple things on the screen until Phil’s phone sounded out a notification. Then she tucked her phone away in the pocket of her dress. “It was great meeting you all. I’m afraid I need to head out now, but keep me updated about these friends of yours. We can sort something out to talk more in the future. It seems like your boys want to spend time with you, and I’d hate to intrude.”

Kristin looked to the rest of them, “be sure to bother him about contacting me. I wouldn’t want to miss out on another opportunity to chat with you. I’m sure you have plenty of stories to embarrass him with.”

With that, she left. Waving goodbye towards the spirits and following the path out of the park to avoid trampling the grass like the family of six had done just earlier. Well, the ghosts couldn’t actually harm the stuff, so the blame really fell to the twins and their father.

Phil clutched at his heart like the old man he is, practically swooning on the spot as he watched her walk away. “Did you see that, boys? She gave me her number.” Phil sighed, still in shock at everything that just unfolded before them.

“That’s the detail you focus on?” Wilbur deadpanned, elbowing his father in the side. “Not the fact that she’s been able to see ghosts since she was a child? Or how she asked us to embarrass you with all sorts of stories in the future?”

“He’s in deep.” Techno said and nodded, definitely adding to the conversation.

“Too deep if you ask me Tech.” Wilbur agreed, “c’mon dad, let's get you home before your knees give out beneath you.”

“Shut.” Phil scolded, though the effect was ruined by the fact that his cheeks were still stupidly red. “I’m not so old that my body is gonna fail me!”

Techno laughed, “for once, he’s not calling you old, dad. What Wil is really saying, is that you’re so in love that we’re worried your knees are weak from it.”

“You know what they say.” Wilbur cut in, nodding as he said, “Palms sweaty, knees weak, arms spaghetti.”

Techno hummed in agreement.

“What?” Phil asked, clearly lost at the reference.

The boys didn’t elaborate, and Phil was left to his confusion as the three were led around a bit longer by their spirit friends.

It wasn’t as though Wil would actually cut their day short, he was perfectly fine with any detours they took.

They wandered back home eventually, and once they reached the porch Phil spoke up, “before I forget,” he gained everyone’s attention, “since I have to go to work tomorrow, I’m going to leave my earring here so that Tubbo doesn’t get dragged there with me. Of course, that’s completely up to you Tubbo, if you want to come with me or not. I doubt you want to watch me do office work all day.”

“You’re correct boss man, I absolutely don’t want to go to a stuffy office for a day.” Tubbo agreed, a dorky smile on his face as he said so.

“Wilbur, if you could contact Sapnap and ask him about taking off the earring or handing it off to someone else temporarily, that’d be great. The last thing I want is for anyone to get harmed.”

Wilbur nodded, immediately getting out his phone and typing away.

“I promise I won’t do any overtime,” Phil said with a smile, a relieved sort of sigh mixing with it, “but I am curious if you have any plans for tomorrow?”

Techno shrugged in response, “I have an early morning class to teach, but then I’m free after that.” He didn’t have any other ideas for what they could do. Honestly, their decisions were mostly guided by the ghosts.

After all, their goal is for the spirits to achieve their peace.

Right.

Eventually, they’d have to leave.

The house would be clear of mysterious thumps and thuds, the attic would be available for storage space, it’d all be so quiet.

Too quiet.

Techno didn’t want them to leave. He’s grown far too attached to their goofy smiles and laughs and dumb pranks.

“Techno?” Ranboo’s voice suddenly intruded in his thoughts, breaking him out of whatever spiral he was about to fall into. “Are you alright? You seem sad.”

Techno forced himself to smile despite the pang of loss that already plagued him. He ruffled Ranboo’s hair with his palm, causing the kid to laugh and duck away. No one else seemed to be privy to their conversation, too distracted with chattering to notice Ranboo’s aside comment.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Just got lost in thought for a second there.” Techno said. Ranboo didn’t need to know that he was prematurely grieving the loss of his friends. His… family. In their own way.

Techno tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear Wilbur say in a mischievous tone, “I’ve got a late night rehearsal, but before that I know exactly what we’re going to do tomorrow. All we need is a camera, some acting, and three troublemaking spirits.”

If Wilbur had a plan, it’d definitely be fun. Though the acting part definitely worried Techno quite a bit. But with how the ghosts were grinning ear to ear, excitement already buzzing within them, Techno decided that he wouldn’t object to any of it. Not if it meant keeping the boys happy.

Techno would do anything for these kids.

Chapter Text

The screen flickers to life, revealing a man wearing a maroon beanie to hide messy curls, though they still manage to poke out the sides. The only part of his hair that’s actually managed are the bangs that fluff out in the front.

Only his torso and up is visible, so his soft yellow jumper is seen as well, a little black cat with x’s in its eyes and an anvil atop its back is stitched on the upper chest to the left side. A white collared shirt is visible at the neck, giving him a neater look.

He’s breathing a little shakily, his arms adjusting the camera to be at a proper angle before he pulls away, his eyes flickering between the lens and the preview screen to the side until he seems satisfied with the setup and fully stares into the lens.

“I think I’ve got it working.” He mutters to himself, still poking at a couple more unseen buttons on the camera before finally sitting back. “Uhm- hello. My name is Wilbur Soot Craft, and I’m recording this to prove that ghosts are real.”

He takes a deep breath, his eyes nervously looking around the room as he speaks once more, “I have reason to believe that my house is one of the most haunted places in the world, with undeniable evidence to support that fact. I have tons of experiences here that I can recount, but of course, I know people won’t believe me unless I can provide cold, hard, proof. So here I am.”

Wilbur sighs and picks up the camera, staring into the lens and muttering, “let’s hope this works.” 

He turns the camera around to capture the rest of the room.

It’s a bedroom. And it’s honestly pretty boring to describe.

Obviously its occupant is still in the process of unpacking, but most of the boxes have been folded up and stored to the side of the room for later disposal. The lights are off, but the camera still captures all of the little details thanks to whatever lens adjustments it has and the fact that there is clear daylight peeking in through a crack in the curtains, lighting up the room as the sunbeams bounced off of white walls.

“I know it’s daytime, which takes away a bit of that “spooky” vibe most ghost videos have. But I honestly believe that there’s so much more activity from these spirits in the day compared to the night.” Wilbur begins. He kicks an empty box to the side and out of his walking path. “Sorry about the mess, we’ve only recently moved in, so things aren’t quite sorted just yet.” Wilbur says, embarrassment weirdly obvious in his tone. “This is my bedroom, but it’s not really too much of a hot-spot for the spirits here. We’ll be heading towards-”

Wilbur is cut off when the door suddenly slams open, a lightswitch flickering on and blinding the screen for a moment as the camera automatically adjusted to account for the extra light it was provided.

It’s another man. His brow is furrowed, but he doesn’t seem mad, just confused. His soft pink hair is tucked into a neat braid that settles over his shoulder, but there’s a loose strand that’s shorter than the others, and has escaped to fall neatly in front of his forehead. It’s charming in a way.

The guy is dressed in a similar outfit to Wilbur, but his sweater is a baby blue with a funny little polygon seagull stitched over the front left chest where a pocket would normally be.

The intruder pauses as they assess the situation.

“Wilbur, what the fuck are you doing in the dark? It’s three in the afternoon.” The man says, before blinking at the camera, “are you recording this?!”

“Duh! Could I be more obvious?” Wilbur deadpans, “I’m going to prove to the world that ghosts are real!”

“Bruh.” The pink-haired man said, his face falling to a more neutral look, “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, but ghosts are scientifically impossible, Wilbur.”

With the perfect timing of that sentence, a book suddenly flew off the shelf, passing right in front of the man's face. But he stood unblinkingly, as though it didn’t even happen.

Not even Wilbur acknowledges the strange incident.

Instead he mutters into the built-in microphone of the camera, “this, my dear audience, is my unbelieving brother, Techno. He’s never believed in ghosts, no matter how hard I try to prove their existence to him.”

Techno rolls his eyes, overhearing every word Wilbur whispers. It wasn’t as though Wilbur was even remotely trying to hide his muttering anyway.

“What’s your plan anyway?” Techno asks, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe, “are you just going to wander around the house with a camera in your hand for the next hour? You know you’re not the only one who’s home today. I’d like to grade papers without you talking to empty air.”

The camera droops significantly, the view now aims at the wooden floor between the two men.

“C’mon Techno, just let me have this.” Wilbur’s voice says, something more genuine and pleading within his tone. “Why don’t you join me on this one? You can talk to the so-called “empty air” with me. It’ll be fun!”

“I seriously doubt it’ll be fun.” Techno deadpans.

There’s a long silence between them, and one can only assume they’re having some sort of stare down or silent conversation.

A long sigh comes from Techno, “fine. I’ll join you.”

The camera flips back up suddenly, turning to face Wilbur who looks completely ecstatic. “Yes! We got him, boys!”

“But!” Techno interrupts, and the camera points back at him, “if we find no evidence proving the existence of ghosts- and we won’t- you have to… uh- wash my car.”

“That is the dumbest deal I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“I’m being put on the spot, Wil. You can’t blame me for not having the perfect deal ready to go.”

“You’re my twin! We’re supposed to always be ready for this kind of thing!” Wilbur argues, though it’s obvious that he’s holding back a laugh. “How about this instead; I will make you coffee for the next week if I can’t prove the existence of ghosts today.”

Techno pauses at this, his attention solely on Wilbur, “the one with the whipped cream? And the perfect amount of sugar and creamer?”

“Frappecchino style. Chocolate and caramel sauce on the sides and a drizzle on top.” Wilbur adds.

Techno groans dramatically, purposefully hitting his forehead into the doorframe, a dull thud following as he repeats the action again and again.

He stops after five or so hits, keeping his head against the frame but turning his face towards the camera and Wilbur once more. “You drive a hard bargain. I hate you.”

“Nah, you love me.” Wilbur states, skipping forward. “You love me so much, you’re now my perfectly willing cameraman who has no complaints about his new job whatsoever.”

The camera is practically shoved into Techno’s chest, but he seems to take it. Apparently, Techno has an extremely steady hand. It’s as though the camera is being held on a stabilizer with how still the frame becomes as it switches holders.

The frame points to Wilbur, who looks even more energetic than he was before. “Alright dear viewers! It’s time to prove that ghosts are real, and that people have been ignoring their existence this whole time.” He waved for Techno to follow him down the hall, stopping at the mouth of it to point out a small device on the wall that had a screen displaying a red zero. “Just to prove that we’re not hallucinating, this is our carbon monoxide detector, and as you can see, there’s nothing. We at least know we have good ventilation despite this house being older.”

“Is that why you were breathing on it earlier today?” Techno asks from behind the camera, snickering lightly into the microphone.

Wilbur blushed, “shut up! I was testing it to make sure it works!”

“You were testing it wrong! I had to come in and show you how to actually test it!” 

“You are only saying any of this to expose me to the audience! You bastard!”

Wilbur tries to look angry, but he breaks quickly, descending into a state of laughter. Techno isn’t far behind, the camera shaking slightly with his laugh.

The laughter tapers off, and Wilbur directs for Techno to point the camera at the living room.

“Okay, okay. So I’m not too sure on how to prove that we live with ghosts, but we’ll try out the classic ways first. I’ve got a spirit box, temperature readers, salt- which I really don’t know if salt is an effective ghost hunting tool but we’ll try it anyway- flashlights, a digital audio recorder, and an EMF gauge. My dad and Techno have strongly prevented me from buying a fancy thermal reader.”

“It was $500 Wil! When would you ever use that thing more than a couple times?”

“I could- or it- I-” Wilbur stutters for a couple seconds, scrambling for a good excuse on why he’d need to buy a hunk of junk. “It’d be cool…” He eventually mutters.

There’s a short silence between them, and based on how Wilbur is simply staring right above the camera lens, one could assume the twins are having some sort of stare-off. Again.

Techno eventually breaks the silence with a sigh, “doesn’t Quackity already own one of those?”

Wilbur’s mouth drops open, realization dawning on him as he scrambles to pull his phone from his pocket.

He reaches his hand up to the lens, “cut the camera, we have to get that thermal reader.”

The screen cuts to black.

--------

Barely a millisecond goes by before the camera cuts to the view of the living room. Wilbur stands in the frame, excitedly examining the new piece of tech in his hands. 

However, there is a new person standing beside him. He’s shorter than Wilbur, and dresses much more casually than him as well. With only a black pair of sweatpants, sneakers, and a dark blue windbreaker. Both his jacket and pants had two white stripes that ran down the legs and the arms, and to top it all off, he had a black beanie with the letters, LAFD on the band.

Beanie man’s hand is reaching for the thermal device in Wilbur’s hand, before he very obviously forces his hand back to his side. This happens at least three times before people actually start speaking.

“Okay. I think we’re rolling again.” Techno’s voice says from behind the camera. “The red light is on, so that’s a pretty good indication.”

Wilbur finally looks back up to the camera, positively beaming as he shows off the thermal device in his hands. “Everyone, welcome back! This here is my friend Quackity,” Wilbur started, patting Quackity’s shoulder to make sure the viewers could tell that the one other person in this video was correctly indicated to. “He said he’d lend me his thermal camera, but only if he could be here to make sure I don’t break it. So now he is joining me in the hunt!”

“Who are you even talking to Wil?” Quackity asks, “you don’t even have a fucking youtube channel. I doubt anyone is going to see this.”

Wilbur glares half-heartedly at the man, “don’t you shatter my dreams like that Quackity. What if I’ve had a secret youtube channel for all these years and you just never knew?”

Quackity pursed his lips together, “there are so many things I could say right now. But since most of them are insulting, I’m going to hold back.”

“That’s very appreciated. I’m going to pretend that you full-heartedly believe in me and just told me that you’re incredibly proud of me and all my accomplishments.”

“Sure Wil. Whatever you want to believe.” Quackity suddenly turns to the camera, a bright smile replacing whatever acting he was trying before. “Hello viewers! I’m Quackity, one of Wilbur’s best friends and also the coolest person he knows! Aside from Techno that is.”

A soft snort of amusement is made behind the camera, making Quackity smile with pride.

Quackity turns to Wilbur, “alright Wil, you have told me absolutely nothing about what we’re doing aside from telling me to be on my best behavior before the camera turned on.”

“I’m glad you asked, Quackity. We’re hunting for ghosts today!”

Quackity’s face fell into an unimpressed look, “fucking duh, captain obvious. But we’ve literally already searched your house before. It wasn’t even that long ago.”

“And if you recall, it was the most spiritual activity either of us have ever seen.” Wilbur points out, “I don’t want to bring too many people here, so I only invited you.”

“You only invited me because I own the thermal camera and I was the only one available to hang out today.”

“Actually,” an out of view Techno pipes up, “even if anyone else was available, Wilbur would’ve only invited you anyway. You’re his favorite.”

“Techno! Shut up!” Wilbur snaps, his face roasting with embarrassment.

Quackity is completely caught off guard at this comment, his mouth dropping to form a small o, his eyes focusing on Techno before he looks back at Wilbur. He touches a hand to his heart, “aww, get exposed fucker.”

Wilbur snorts, trying to mask the shocked expression on his face, “stop cursing on my channel, Quacks. You’re going to get me demonetized.”

“You’re blushingggg!” Quackity sing-songs,  reaching up to squish Wilbur’s cheeks together and make his face look ridiculous. He turns Wilbur’s head to look at the camera, “look how red in the face he is Techno!”

Wilbur has obviously given up fighting Quackity at this point, his arms dangling loosely at his sides as he allows Quackity to mess with him.

Techno laughs, zooming the camera closer onto Wilbur and Quackity’s faces, making sure to catch Wilbur’s blank expression.

Quackity starts moving Wilbur’s jaw up and down at this point, struggling to keep from bursting into laughter as he pitches his voice deeper and adds the worst British accent that he possibly could. “My name is Wilbuh, and you’re watching What the Ghost!”

It was at this point Wilbur shoved Quackity’s hands off his cheeks, laughing as he did so, “you did not just make a tma reference.”

“I absolutely-”

All of a sudden, the lights flicker off.

The camera instantly adjusts to account for the change. It wasn’t too dark with the curtains being open and allowing the sun to shine through, but it did make everyone pause in their antics.

“Power outage?” Quackity asks, breaking the shocked silence first. He doesn’t seem too put off by the change, simply looking at the light fixture on the ceiling before examining the room around them, his eyes sharp as they dart around looking for any anomalies.

“No,” Techno says, “the air conditioning is still running.”

Quackity’s joking demeanor changes into seriousness as he moves to grab his thermal reader from Wilbur’s hands. With expert fingers he switches it on and adjusts the settings, facing it out into the room and watching it closely.

The camera view moves towards the two, peeking over Quackity’s shoulder to catch sight of the small screen reading the room temperatures. But something seems off. The entire screen is a blueish-black color, but all of the furniture is still visible. According to the little thermal bar at the side, the bluish-black meant it was near 60 degrees fahrenheit (15 C). 

“What the fuck?” Quackity mutters, messing with more of the settings.

“What’s wrong, Quacks?” Wilbur asks, trying to stay out of the camera's way while also peeking over Quackity’s shoulder.

Techno moves the camera to point at their faces, catching a decent view of the screen and the two men.

“There’s just no way that your house is a flat 60 degrees all the time. Even the light bulbs aren’t showing up as heat, and they literally just turned off.”

“Has this ever happened before?” Techno asks.

“No. Not even once.” Quackity answers, moving the reader around the room. His brow furrows as he points the camera at Wilbur. “What the fuck?”

“What is it?” Wilbur asks.

“Stay right there. Techno, come over to the hall with me, you have to catch this.”

The camera moves to follow Quackity, then turns to look at the screen of the reader once more, which is aimed at Wilbur.

There’s a dark blue and black blob right next to Wilbur’s colorful reading. The screen looks normal again as well. 

“Heh?” Techno says simply.

“I think that the camera was right in front of a fucking ghost. That there,” Quackity points to the cold spot, “look at the shape of it. That has to be something.”

The camera shifts, and one can assume that Techno is shrugging. “It just looks like a cold spot to me. It could be a spot where the ac spits out air.”

Wilbur snorts, “yeah, that’s probably it. Can I come see?”

Quackity nods, and Wilbur makes his way over, taking a look at the screen.

The dark blob still remains in place. 

“It’s too still to be anything.” Wilbur says, “I mean, just look at how weird it is. There’s no way that it’s even human shaped.

He’s right, the blob is literally like an elongated cartoon mouse face. Or maybe an elongated heart. (Little does the viewer or Quackity know, but three spirits were currently snickering to themselves as they posed to appear in that odd shape).

“Wait wait wait-” Quackity said, excitement in his tone, “it’s moving! Look!”

The blob shifts, the fps is shit, but one frame at a time, the weird blob does indeed move.

It…

Well. Now it looks like when a person draws a penis. Y’know, two circles and an oval. The simplest form.

“Now that’s just you messing with us Quackity,” Wilbur says, “I can’t believe that you got my hopes up like that.”

“I didn’t do that! I swear!”

“Sure, and I’m not adopted.” Wilbur says sarcastically, but it’s obvious that he’s amused. “C’mon, there’s no way a fucking ghost can form a giant penis shape in the middle of a room. You’re obviously messing with us.”

“I’m not!” Quackity looks at the camera lens, but his eyes are focused above it, “Techno, I know you’re a non-believer, but surely you believe that I’m not lying!”

“I’m just here to hold the camera.”

Quackity scoffs, though there’s a small smile on his face, “you fucking asshole! You just don’t want to get involved!”

“Correct.”

“Alright Quackity,” Wilbur chuckles, “stop insulting my brother. Here, let’s try out the spirit box.”

Quackity groans, “fine. I hope everyone is ready to have their ears stabbed by some loud ass static.”

“Oh hush, it’s not even that bad.” Wilbur says as he messes with the device.

It clicks on with a grating scream of static, making all of them wince before Wilbur is able to turn the sound down.

“It’s not even that bad.” Quackity mocks in that same, terrible british accent.

Wilbur ignores him, messing with the controls until he is satisfied. “Is anybody here in the room with us?” He asks the empty air, holding the box out in front of him.

Shifting static is his only response.

Occasionally there’d be some sort of random word, but it either isn’t clear enough or it’s just pure nonsense.

“I swear to prime,” Quackity mutters, “this better not be a repeat of our first ghost hunt here.”

Wilbur and Quackity ask questions to the box for a solid five minutes before they give up in their attempt.

Though Quackity says one last thing before they switch off the spirit box. “This is your last chance spirits! If anyone wants to say something, this is your final chance before we turn it off for good!”

More shuffling static.

But then, “ I know you. ”

Both Quackity and Wilbur practically scream as Wilbur fumbles to turn off the box before chucking it across the room to land on the couch.

They stare as it lands, the silence in the room almost louder than the ear-ringing static was.

“What the fuck! That was the freakiest thing it’s done by far!” Quackity says, “and we had it scream the word “penis” at us last time!”

“Okay well, the penis thing was more funny than it was freaky.” Wilbur says, but even he seems slightly shaken.

“I’m sorry, you guys had that box say what ?” Techno asks, sounding fully confused and maybe even slightly concerned.

“I thought I told you the story?” Wilbur wonders aloud, looking over towards the camera.

The camera shrugs along with Techno, “you might’ve, but I probably tried too hard to focus on what you were saying to a point where nothing was getting through to my brain.”

Wilbur rolls his eyes, “alright, fine. I’ll tell you the story later. Right now we’re on the trail of something!”

“But those radio wave things are so fake.” Techno says, “it’s really not hard to pick out words that you want to hear while it flicks through different radio stations. Especially when those radio stations are completely out of context to us.”

“You’re just a nonbeliever Techno.” Quackity says with a teasing smile.

“Actually,” Wilbur starts, “he has a point. We could’ve stumbled through some sort of conversation and just happened to land on the creepiest words.”

“The whole point of the box is for it to do that!” Quackity argues, “that’s literally its purpose! The thing about it is that the ghosts can manipulate the airwaves so that they can communicate with us with specific things!”

Wilbur raises an eyebrow, “tell me how that sounds logical.”

“Wilbur. I can’t believe you’re really saying this to me right now. You’ve been a believer for fucking ages, even when you have your moments where you’re adamantly against the existence of ghosts.” Quackity says, and for the first time, his tone actually sounds sort of frustrated. “Look, I know that the spirit box has the stupidest fucking belief around it, but ghosts are weird as shit dude. We know jackshit about them, so how can we know what they’re fully capable of without trial and error? Even if it’s fake, it’s still part of the hunt. Don’t even try to tell me that hearing “I know you” isn’t freaky as fuck. You literally threw the box across the room.”

“Fair point.” Wilbur replies simply, “I dunno, I’ve been talking to Techno a lot lately. His logic really gets to you at times.”

“Bruh. Don’t put this on me.”

Quackity gestures towards Techno with that statement, as though pointing out Techno’s response. “Neither Techno nor Phil’s opinions have ever stopped you before!”

“Alright, calm down for a second, let me just-” Wilbur picks up a small device he had on the coffee table, walking towards the camera and handing it to Techno. “Tech, can you go set this up in dad’s room? Last time we did this, his room had the most activity by far.”

The camera view drops down to look at the floor, both Wilbur and Techno’s socked feet clearly within frame. Wilbur has on boring white socks, but Techno has little pigs dancing all over his.

“O-kay? How do I-”

“Set it down on either a chair or the bed, make sure that the microphone is propped up nicely to catch sound, and hit record on it. The light will turn green when it’s recording.” Wilbur explains quickly, “I need a minute to have a private chat with Quackity.”

“I could just cut the camera.”

“No. Go set this up for me, ask a couple questions, then come back when I shout for you. That’ll be plenty enough time.” Wilbur says.

There’s a short pause before Techno sighs, and the camera view remains pointed towards the floor, but Techno is following Wilbur’s directions.

“Okay, probably non-existent audience,” Techno mutters as he enters a new room and clicks on a light, revealing even more floor. “It’s just you and me for a minute.”

The view finally lifts up, revealing a surprisingly sorted room. There isn’t a single box in sight, and everything appears to be put away and organized properly. Unlike Wilbur’s room earlier.

“Welcome to my dad’s room. He’s an old man, and he’s currently off at work. Which is probably why Wilbur thought today would be the perfect time to film the existence of ghosts.” Techno walks towards a dresser that’s just about chest height and places the camera on it. He turns the lens to face him, checking the viewfinder to center the camera towards the middle of the room.

He takes a couple steps back, keeping an eye on the camera and making sure the shot was good enough before grabbing an old-looking wooden chair that was leaning against the wall next to a shoe rack. Techno places the chair in the middle of the room, crouching next to it to set the odd recording device he was handed atop the wooden seat.

When he’s satisfied with the setup, he clicks on the device, a little green light popping into existence and indicating that the recording had begun.

Techno glances towards the camera, then back at the device. “So uh- I guess I need to… talk. To the recorder. With no one in the room.” He runs a hand through his hair with a dragged out sigh, “I don’t even know what the purpose of this is. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just a prank and Wilbur is trying to embarrass me.”

He leans closer to the mic, a little devious grin appearing as he half-whispers into the mic, “hi future Wilbur, if this is a prank; fuck you. If this isn’t a prank; fuck you.” He chuckles to himself, then seems to remember that there’s a camera watching him. 

He turns towards it, lightly clapping his palms together and awkwardly saying, “o-kay. We’re going to start this now. I uh- well, I really hope I’m doing this correctly. Wilbur forced me to watch enough ghost videos that I think I kinda know what to do. Though I wasn’t fully paying attention to what the audio recorder is for.”

Techno takes a deep breath, then turns to look at the recording device again, his fist clenching and unclenching with either nerves or annoyance at his brother for putting him in this situation. It could be both really.

“Is anyone here?” Techno begins unsure, “in the room with me?”

Silence.

“Could you please speak to me?”

Silence.

“Would you like to speak with me? I promise I’m much cooler than Wilbur is.”

Silence.

“Look, I don’t really believe in you, but I’m humoring Wilbur today for the sake of free coffee. I’d honestly appreciate it if you don’t prove your existence.” Techno says next. He presses his lips together, clearly fighting himself on what he’s saying. “But I know that Wilbur will be upset if nothing happens here, and I suppose I care more for him than coffee. So maybe you should try proving your existence to me so that he’s not disappointed.”

Silence.

“What’s your name?”

Silence.

“How long have you been here?”

Silence.

“Is there more than one spirit currently residing in this home?”

Silence.

“Do you want us to leave?”

Silence.

“Are you aware that you’re not alive? Because- and I’m sorry to be the one to blatantly tell you this- I’m pretty sure that you’re not a living being, at least according to Wilbur.”

An even longer silence.

“Look, how about we make a deal?” Techno asks the air, starting to slowly pace around the chair, unaware of how intimidating it looked. “You whisper some spooky things into the mic, and in return I will… I dunno, tell me what you want out of this.”

From the other room, Wilbur’s muffled voice shouts, “alright Techno! You can come back now!”

“Thank primes.” Techno mutters with relief.

He starts to crouch down to turn off the audio recorder when Wilbur and Quackity suddenly appear at the door. “Oh! Don’t stop the recording!” Wilbur says quickly.

Techno pauses and blinks at him, unimpressed. Then he raises an eyebrow in question, “whyyy?”

Wilbur rolls his eyes, “you’re supposed to leave it running during your investigation, preferably in the most haunted spot at your location. Later on, I’ll dig through the audio and see if anything interesting happened while we were off exploring the house.” Wilbur explains, huffing slightly before he asks, “did you even pay attention to the entire buzzfeed series I showed you? The one with Shane and Ryan?”

Techno winces, “maybe? They talked a lot, and Shane normally just talked shit, I remember that much. I think I spaced out for most of the ghost tech stuff. I was more interested in hearing the history than anything else.”

Quackity snorts at this, “you are the biggest nerd in the world, Techno.”

“And that nerd can easily get a pickaxe and put it through your teeth with barely any effort.” Techno said, smiling as he threatened the other.

Quackity’s own smile slips off his face within seconds as he processes the threat, “that is terrifyingly specific.” He says, trying to force a laugh. It fails, of course. “Wait- why a pickaxe ?! The fact that you would get an outdated tool to basically mutilate someone is honestly freaky. Where would you even get one of those?!”

Techno shrugs, “they’re around. I bet I could get one easily enough. It’s all about asking the right people or looking in the right places. Some farms or older fashioned houses use them as wall decorations.”

“Techno, that’s enough.” Wilbur says, pinching at the bridge of his nose, “you are quite literally the least violent person in the world. As a kid he cried after killing a gnat once.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop. Just please stop exposing me.” Techno sighs, “Quackity, I promise that I’d never do that. Not even in another life unless you hurt someone very dear to me. I’m sorry that it sounded particularly violent, but I swear it was a joke.”

Quackity chuckles, “I think I could guess that it was a joke, but thank you for the clarification.” He smirks, “though I bet I could fight you and your pickaxe with a motherfucking axe though.”

Techno grins, “I do love a good challenge.”

“Oh my primes. I’m going to ban you two from being within twenty feet of one another.” Wilbur says, “you’re both hereby not allowed to even touch any farm tools.”

“Is an axe a farm t-” Quackity starts to ask, trying to keep them off topic. 

But he was cut off by a loud bang and clattering from the direction of the living room.

All three of them jumped at the sudden noise, staring at the bedroom door and visibly deciding if they should step beyond it.

“What the fuck was that?” Quackity whispers.

“Quackity.” Wilbur says, giving him a look that only the two of them understood. “I’m sure it wasn’t anything too special. Let’s go check it out though. Techno, could you grab the camera please?”

Techno nods, walking over to the requested camera and awkwardly trying to avoid eye-contact with the lens before picking it up and aiming it towards Wilbur and Quackity, who are quietly whispering to one another.

They stop before the camera gets too close, avoiding any eavesdropping from the weirdly good microphone that came with the thing.

“Come on, let’s go check out the noise.” Wilbur said, almost sounding bored.

They walk to the living room, and seeing nothing out of place, they move to the kitchen to find that their coffee pod display had been smacked to the floor, littering the tile with loose pods and the weird metal spinner they were supposed to be in.

“False alarm people,” Wilbur says, disappointment in his tone, “Techno, I thought I told you not to leave the rack on the edge of the counter.”

It took an awkwardly long second for Techno to respond. “I didn’t- wait, uhm… yeah you did. I left that on the edge this morning because I was… adding. Pods to it. Yup.”

Wilbur presses his lips together and reaches his hand to the camera lens.

The screen cuts to black.

--------

Same as before, the cut doesn’t even last that long before a new scene flashes to life.

It seems that whatever Wilbur stopped the camera for has been resolved, seeing as he’s back to being the bright persona he had on before. “Sorry for the odd jumpcut, my dear audience. I had to remind Techno that he actually did leave the coffee pod carousel on the edge of the counter, and that he needs to just ask for clarification instead of trying to play things off. They tend to sound like lies when he does so.”

“Yeah yeah, okay Wilbur.” Techno huffs, a light chuckle following, “I forgot that I dragged it forward while refilling it earlier today. I’m betting that I pulled it just a little too far where a leg was over the edge, and the ac probably stirred the air around it and finally caused it to topple over.”

To his credit, Techno’s claim sounds much more genuine this time around. Sure, the change in tone is a little suspicious, especially after a jumpcut, but who can really try to argue that it’s a lie? There’s no proof for it.

“Alright! Let’s move on people!” Wilbur says, a newfound excitement in his tone. He pulls out yet another device, this one having a little holster that is attached to his belt. It’s just a little black box with a weird little LED array of lights. “This is my EMF reader! It detects electromagnetic fields of energy, and as many know ghosts… have… those?”

“Can I just point out that EMF readers really shouldn’t be a part of ghost hunting technology?” Techno asks, not waiting for approval before launching into his explanation, “they’re used to detect faulty wiring and such. Plus, we’re all holding our own devices; phones, a camera, even some other ghost tech. To add to that, we also live in an older house, so the chances of it just detecting actual electric fields of energy here are pretty high.”

Wilbur blinks at Techno, “I’m electing to ignore everything you just said. You’re bringing down my… spirits .”

A smug little smile pulls at Wilbur’s lips.

“I hate you.” Quackity says with a groan. “That was the weakest ghost pun I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Wilbur ignores him, “look, can you two just play along with me here? You’re making everything about filming a ghost hunting vlog much more difficult than it needs to be.”

“Alright, we’ll stop.” Quackity giggles, “back to ghost hunting! Who wants to hold the EMF reader?”

“Bruh.” Techno says shortly, “I’m literally in charge of holding the camera. Why would you phrase your sentence to ask everyone and not just Wilbur?”

Quackity blinks at him. “You do know that someone else can hold the camera, right?”

There’s a pause. A long one.

“I’m not gonna lie, I actually didn’t think of that.” Techno says, “I was told to be a cameraman and now my mind is set.”

Wilbur snorts, “he wouldn’t want to hold it anyway, he believes it’s pointless and most likely thinks it’s a waste of time.”

“That’s true. I do believe that.”

“Why don’t you take it, Quacks?” Wilbur asks, holding out the small device for Quackity to take. “You’ve done this a lot longer than I have, I’m sure you know much more about operating this thing than me.”

Quackity laughs, but takes it anyway, flicking it on. “This is literally the easiest device to use, Wil. I think that you just don’t want to hold things right now.”

Wilbur shrugs, but there’s a little smile on his lips that tells that Quackity’s guess is right.

For a couple minutes, they walk around the house. Quackity inspects the kitchen, then the living room, and even checks some of the bedrooms. Though Techno doesn’t allow them to enter his room.

The EMF reader actually went off a couple times, screaming at them in that silly little tone that it had. Each time, Techno would point out something that it was probably reacting to, which is a little disheartening, but that's just something that comes with ghost hunting.

They become bored of the device quickly, and at some point they just stop using it, taking a minute to walk around and talk for a couple minutes in each room, trying to beckon the ghosts to come out with either insults or patient words.

Techno is the one insulting them, earning himself quite a few glares from Quackity and Wilbur, but it’s easy to see that they’re secretly amused by it.

There’s many times that “ghostly activity” occurs, but each one is written off or ignored, which would be extremely frustrating to any viewer.

A pillow is flung across the room, right in front of the camera. But no one ever acknowledges it.

A pile of books slams to the floor, but Wilbur blames it on chance.

There’s a shadow in the corner, one that’s freakily shaped like a human. Quackity says it’s just the weird lighting.

There’s someone in the mirror. Barely visible, just barely seen in the corner of where the camera captures the three ghost hunters reflections. A young face with lifeless eyes, staring blankly at them before vanishing. If the hunters saw it, they didn’t make any mention of it.

Loud footsteps on the stairs are blamed on the old house being creaky.

A handprint appearing on the window with frost outlining the edges is said to be the result of someone getting their oily fingerprints on the glass earlier in the day.

The remaining lights left on in the house flickering off suddenly and plunging everyone into darkness is faulty wiring.

A shadow running past the window is a neighbor playing a prank.

Another humanoid shadow hiding behind the shower curtain is just their eyes.

The sink suddenly turning on is bad plumbing.

Every single activity that would normally be screamed about in a ghost hunting video is completely written off or ignored. It’s honestly almost impressive seeing so much evidence denied so blatantly.

Quackity is the only one who seems jumpy at everything, but he’s always quick to agree to each excuse that’s made.

The deniers even witness a chair being flung from one side of the room to the other, and laugh it off as though it were some sort of prank. But without any jump cuts on the camera, they’re able to point out that there’s no string attached to the chair. Still, they say it’s unlikely to be a ghost, but it’s obvious they can’t find a fitting excuse on how it could’ve happened.

Maybe an hour or so of this adamant refusal to unexplained phenomena goes by before Wilbur finally sighs as he stops in the living room, collapsing to the couch with a frustrated exhaustion.

“I can’t believe this.” Wilbur groans, “so much time has been poured into this, and we have absolutely no evidence.”

Quackity plops down next to him, equally exhausted, but also clearly nervous in some way, his eyes constantly glancing around the room like something was going to pop out at him any minute now. “Primes. This is probably the worst result of a ghost hunt I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’ve been on tons of these things.”

“I just don’t understand!” Wilbur exclaims, gesturing at nothing with his hands. “I fully believed that all of the bumps in the night were ghosts, but everything has been flipped in my mind. The logic just outweighs all of my theories.”

“I’m sorry Wil…” Techno says from behind the camera, “I didn’t mean to ruin all of your fun.”

Wilbur immediately shakes his head, “you’re alright Tech, I know you can’t resist pointing out how supposedly undeniable evidence for spirits is easily explained by logic. You did that the entire time on the ghost hunting videos I showed you before.”

“Maybe your house just isn’t haunted.” Quackity says with a shrug, “there’s so little evidence to go off here that I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.”

“Quacks, I love you but you need to think about this,” Wilbur says with a raise of his eyebrow, “you’ve been practically everywhere for your hunts. Have you ever caught a significant piece of evidence?”

Quackity’s cheeks darken ever so slightly, “not really, but maybe you two need to consider that ghost hunting isn’t just to find evidence for the existence of ghosts. It’s genuinely fun to run around a darkened house with your friends and scream at every bump and flicker of lights.”

“It was pretty fun…” Techno says, “though there wasn’t a lot of screaming.”

Wilbur snorts, “alright yeah, I see your point, Quacks.” He stands and walks to Techno, “cut the camera, there’s one last thing-”

The camera cuts to black before he can finish his sentence.

--------

After a small jumpcut, the lens is greeted by a view of someone’s elbow.

“Aaaaand, we’re rolling.” Techno says, and it’s now obvious that he’s the one covering the camera view of the rest of the room.

“Oh my primes Tech,” Wilbur laughs from behind him, “get your elbow out of the frame!”

“Hey, I’ll let you know that I have hot elbows.” Techno counters, but moves his arms anyway, allowing the view to reveal that the camera is sat right in front of the couch but closer to the floor. Wilbur and Quackity sitting at the foot of the couch instead of on it. Techno scoots back to sit by Wilbur, who was sitting in the very middle of the screen.

“Do you mean hot as in warm or hot as in attractive?” Quackity asks with a raise of his brow.

“You tell me.” Techno says simply, fighting to keep a smile off of his face.

“I’m good.” Quackity replies, then looks to Wilbur. “So, Wil. You have something to say to the camera?”

Wilbur sighs dramatically, “I guess…” he clears his throat, “with all the evidence we didn’t capture, I don’t think that I can prove the existence of ghosts. At least not here and now. I guess… Technowinsourstupidbet.”

“You want to repeat that last part?” Techno asks smugly.

Wilbur glares and purses his lips. “I guess that Techno wins our stupid bet.” He says slowly, but it’s pretty obvious that he’s not being fully truthful.

“HAHA! YES!” Techno cheers, “FREE COFFEES FOR A WEEK!”

“YOU GUYS MADE A BET?!” Quackity screeches before clearing his throat and lowering his voice to a normal volume, “oh my primes, you’re kidding me. This is all so scuffed!”

“It doesn’t really make a difference,” Wilbur shrugs, “Techno would’ve still logically explained each phenomena with or without the promise of homemade coffee.”

“True.” Techno affirms.

“Anyway!” Wilbur claps his hands in an attempt to get back on topic. “With that out of the way, I suppose it’s time to call this complete!”

“Don’t you still need to listen back to the audio recorder and see if it caught anything?” Quackity asks.

“I’ll do it later,” Wilbur waves him off, still looking at the camera. “I don’t want to force you two into sticking around with me as I comb over it. It’s probably about an hour or two of audio. Besides, I doubt it has much on it anyway.”

“Then it’s official. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR WATCHING THIS VIDEO!” Quackity suddenly starts to scream, causing Wilbur and Techno to wince at the sudden increase of volume. “IF YOU LIKED IT, PUNCH THAT LIKE BUTTON IN THE FACE, LIKE A BOSS! AND… HIGH FIVES ALL AROUND.” He then makes two sounds that are best described sounding like ‘wa-poosh’ to imitate high-fiving someone. Quackity didn’t even try to high-five Wilbur or Techno either, he just gestured at the air instead. “BUT, THANK YOU GUYS AND I WILL SEE ALL YOU DUDES…” He pitches his voice much higher, “ IN THE NEXT VIDEOOOOO!!!! ”

Quackity sings a little tune after the screaming. He does so very badly.

Wilbur and Techno stare blankly at him for a moment.

“Quackity,” Wilbur starts, pouting his lip, “you should’ve told me you were going to do the old Jacksepticeye outro! We could’ve screamed it together!”

“You could’ve joined in at any time!” Quackity argues, “do you realize how long that outro is?”

“I wasn’t ready!” Wilbur remarks weakly.

“Okay okay, fine. Let’s do it again.”

“The moment is ruined, the outro is done. Techno, cut the camera.” Wilbur says with a dramatic tone.

Techno starts to crawl over to the camera.

“Don’t you dare turn off that fucking camera.” Quackity bites out, “we’re doing the outro again.”

“No we’re not!”

“Yes we are! You’re going to be all pouty if we don’t!”

“I would not! That’s bullshit!”

“I don’t think it is! You’re the most dramatic fucker I know!”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“Am not!”

“ARE-”

Wilbur is quickly cut off by Techno, who suddenly whirls around and manages to wrestle both Quackity and Wilbur simultaneously, holding them both down in a headlock. They scream and struggle to escape, but Techno doesn’t budge even the tiniest bit. Even when Wilbur tries biting at his sides and his arm in a desperate attempt to gain freedom.

Techno only smiles at the camera, “on the count of three, we’re going to do the fucking outro together, and you two are not going to be babies about this whole thing. If you don’t, I’m shutting off the camera and deleting all of the footage that’s on there.”

“You wouldn’t.” Wilbur gasps, sending his brother a withering glare as he still struggles, though it doesn’t look all that intimidating.

Techno only sends him the fakest smile of all time, muttering through gritted teeth, “do you want to test me?”

Wilbur froze, trying to gauge the expression on Techno’s face from the odd angle he was at. “Okay, on the count of three then.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Wait!” Quackity protests, “can we be freed? I can’t do the most energetic outro of all time while being choked to death by Techno! And we all have to agree to high five one another!”

For a long couple minutes, the three bicker with one another.

Eventually, Wilbur and Quackity make a good enough point that Techno releases them with a heavy sigh and muttered threats for them to behave themselves.

They count to three, stop to decide if they start on three or after three, make up their minds to start after three, then proceed to scream the outro at the top of their lungs, their voices overlapping completely out of sync. They performed the worst high-fives anyone has ever seen, their voices breaking as they tried to hold in laughter as they completely missed one another’s hands or just failed to successfully high-five.

During this, if one would look very, very closely at the background, they would notice that a shadow dashes or flickers randomly behind them. The three don’t notice as a pillow topples off of the couch, or how the picture frames on the wall ever so slightly tilt one at a time so that they’re no longer even.

The three scream out the rest of the outro before they fall into a mess of giggles from their utter failure.

The moment is ruined as the doorknob jiggles, the sound of keys unlocking the door. The three freeze, staring at the door like it would jump and bite them.

It opens, and a man walks inside, a bright smile on his face as he walks in. He’s a little shorter than Wilbur and Techno are, and he doesn’t really look related to them. His blond hair and blue eyes completely contrast any of the three already in the room. He catches sight of the three, his smile brightening even further than before, “hello boys, I’m home!”

Wilbur suddenly launches forward towards the camera, shutting it off.

-------

Yet another jumpcut.

Though this one is much different than any of the other ones.

Wilbur is staring at the viewfinder, slight bags under his eyes, his hair unkempt and messy. He looks like he’s been up all night.

“Hello again,” he whispers, adjusting the camera to a proper angle before leaving it on whatever set up he made for it to sit on. “I have to keep quiet. It’s the middle of the night but I have an important update for you all.”

He grins and pulls the audio recorder into view. “I’ve been scrubbing through this thing, and I’ve found something extremely interesting. Something that we all need to consider before concluding this video completely.” His smile brightens, a sort of excitement sparking to life in his eyes, “I think that this is the most damning evidence of this entire video. Here, just- take a listen. I’m going to cut the camera feed and record my screen instead for some better audio, so just leave a comment saying what you think. My final thoughts are…” He bites his lip in thought, his eyes tracing the ceiling for a moment before he finally gets an idea of what to say. “I definitely still believe in ghosts, despite what I said earlier. I just like letting Techno win, those coffees make him very very happy.”

With that, he winks then stops the camera once more.

-------

The video opens to a computer screen with an audio file open on it. Silently, the mouse hovers towards the play button and clicks it, buzzing audio beginning to sound.

(You will understand what’s happening in full. The audio listed below will not be heard as clearly by someone only watching the video. Most of what’s said will not make it through the static).

“Is anyone here?” Techno’s voice begins, “in the room with me?”

A deathly quiet, “your mum” is whispered into the mic. The voice sounds younger than any of the men that recorded the video. Of course, it could just be hopeful thinking that someone is speaking, or mishearing something that was never said in the first place.

“Could you please speak to me?”

A crackle breaks apart the static, “hell no fucker.” The voice is a little stronger this time, but so much of the audio can be excused if someone tries hard enough to keep their disbelief.

“Would you like to speak with me? I promise I’m much cooler than Wilbur is.”

“Amen, bestie.”

“Look, I don’t really believe in you, but I’m humoring Wilbur today for the sake of free coffee. I’d honestly appreciate it if you don’t prove your existence.” Techno says next. “But I know that Wilbur will be upset if nothing happens here, and I suppose I care more for him than coffee. So maybe you should try proving your existence to me so that he’s not disappointed.”

This time, a weird little laugh distorts through the white noise.

“What’s your name?”

“Mimimimimi, my name is Techno and I’m a scared little bitchboy.” The voice mocks, it’s pitch higher. But with how quietly the voice trickled through the static, it could’ve also been understood as a variety of different phrases, each one with a different meaning. Such as; “mimimi” “Techno” “I’m scared” “Bitchboy” “My name” “Scared” “Little”

Techno asks, “How long have you been here?”

“Since the dawn of time.” The static is too overwhelming to hear.

“Is there more than one spirit currently residing in this home?”

“Perhaps,” a giggle peaks through the static, “I’ll never tell.”

“Do you want us to leave?”

“No.” This time, the voice goes more serious than it had been the entire recording. In fact, it was the clearest word of all. A strong and definite no.

“Are you aware that you’re not alive? Because- and I’m sorry to be the one to blatantly tell you this- I’m pretty sure that you’re not a living being, at least according to Wilbur.”

“Whaaaat?” The voice says sarcastically, somehow getting this change in tone to be heard. “I’m dead? That’s so crazy? I never would’ve guessed with how I fuckin float and can’t ever leave the house.” But the only phrases that’s actually decipherable are just “what?” and “I’m dead?”

“Look, how about we make a deal?” Techno asks the air, his voice would quiet then raise, as though he were pacing. “You whisper some spooky things into the mic, and in return I will… I dunno, tell me what you want out of this.”

“Please bring me women. Countless women. So many women. I love women. They are so so poggers.” As usual, most of this isn’t audible over the static, so there are just many mentions of “women” and that’s about it.

Wilbur’s voice filters through next, and the questions are stopped.

After that, most of the audio is just quiet. It’s thankfully cut up so that there’s not just an hour of empty audio.

However, there are a couple instances where a whisper could be heard.

One of these words is “penis.”

Another is, “balls.”

The last one, whispered at the very end of the audio, is the word, “kill.” Which is so vastly different from any of the responses that it’s jarring. 

There’s also various bumps to the mic, a distant scream, footsteps, and… something that sounds like a fart sound but is probably just the chair that the audio recorder is sitting on.

After that, the video ends.

Chapter Text

It’s been a week since the boys did their little ghost hunt.

Surprisingly, Wilbur actually uploaded the thing to youtube; with permission from Quackity, Techno, and the three ghosts that haunted them of course.

The entire purpose of the video was to deny absolutely any and all evidence of supernatural happenings. And Wilbur feels like they accomplished that perfectly! Even though they ran into a few bumps along the way. Such as not telling Quackity that the video wasn’t supposed to be taken seriously.

And maybe… he should’ve told Quackity beforehand that ghosts are real, their house is haunted by three of them, and their names are Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo. That they’re super sweet kids that absolutely everyone loves, and yes, Techno believes in ghosts now too, keep up dude.

It was a lot to spring on him within the span of five minutes while sending off Techno to do the audio recorder. Tommy went with him, if that wasn’t obvious by the audio results. Quackity took it surprisingly well, at least while the camera was rolling. The second it was turned off, and once Phil was home, Quackity immediately exploded into question after question towards all of them.

The shock on his face when Phil said that ghosts are real was unbelievably funny.

Anyway, when Wilbur uploaded the video to the eyes of the internet, he didn’t expect it to go anywhere. He just thought it’d get lost in the millions upon millions of videos uploaded to that site.

But surprisingly, it’s doing scarily well.

One million views and rising. The entire ghost hunting community is screaming about it too, analyzing each piece of evidence and clamoring to scream their opinions for people to hear. There are reactions to the video, video essays, there’s fights over if it’s real or fake, and Wilbur has been contacted through comments, and somehow through the email that’s connected to his account. Which is terrifying. Actual business people are trying to ask him for follow ups or if he wants to join their team under contract.

He left absolutely no information on that post, and his youtube profile is literally named, “GhostBoi11”. No one should have found the video in the first place. He doesn’t even have a profile picture.

But now it’s the talk of the entire ghost hunting community, and Wilbur could care less right now.

His focus is on the boys alone. There’s no time or need to respond to the world immediately, he can do so when… well, when their boys move on.

The past five days have been chalk full of activities. They’ve gone to a movie together, to a musical (Tommy jumped on stage and tried his best to participate in the performance. It made the entire thing even more enjoyable than it already was. He even got Ranboo and Tubbo to join in eventually), parks, museums, an aquarium, and plenty of time outside. Phil was somehow able to get approved for a last minute vacation request too, meaning he was spending all of his time with his family.

Wilbur and Techno also tried to casually drop the fact that their eyesight was healed now, but Phil made them explain exactly how it happened and the entire interaction with Bad and Ant from their first meeting to where Ant magically healed them.

Tommy (of course it was him), was the one to blurt out that Techno made some dark, evil deal with his eye doctor to get them fake lenses. To which Phil pointed out that they could’ve just bought fake glasses online instead of spending money to go to the optometrist, which felt very obvious to do in hindsight.

Today, they had just gotten back from the park, and were relaxing at home, chatting quietly to one another as they reflected on the day.

But oddly, at one point the ghosts started whispering amongst themselves, hushed conversation just out of hearing range as they glanced over their shoulders. They moved just a little bit away from the living, but it was obvious that they were discussing something important.

It took an entire fifteen minutes for them to come to a sort of conclusion or agreement.

Nervously, they wandered back towards the family, standing awkwardly at the side of the room while anxiously waiting to gain the full attention of Techno, Wilbur, and Phil.

Tommy and Tubbo nudged Ranboo forward to speak for them.

Ranboo breathed a soft laugh from their nose, but spoke up anyway, “we’re ready to tell you our story. If you… if you still want to know it.”

Techno spoke before Wilbur or Phil could, immediately sitting up from his previous couch potato ways and turning his body to face them, “of course we want to know it. If you’re ready to tell us, then by all means we will listen.”

Ranboo sighed in relief, a fondness replacing their nerves. “Thank you.”

Tommy cut in quickly, “if I could make a small request, could we do this in the backyard? Maybe lay out some blankets and pillows for comfort? I’d like to stargaze for a bit if you don’t mind. It’s uh- it’s comforting.”

Tubbo laid a supportive hand on Tommy’s shoulder, smiling despite his own nerves.

“Of course.” Phil said, “we want to do all we can for your comfort and curiosities. Anything we can to help you three with whatever you need.”

They set to work quickly enough, gathering some blankets and pillows to make a decently comfortable spread to lay down on to have the perfect view of the stars above them.

They all settle down with their heads at the center of the blanket, making a circle that’d be satisfying to look at if a camera or something alike was angled over them. The order alternated between living and spirit, which made it; Ranboo, Techno, Tommy, Wilbur, Tubbo, then Phil.

For a moment, they allowed themselves to relax after the long day they had, their eyes focused on the ever bright maze of stars as they all silently thanked the primes that they lived in a smaller town with only a miniscule amount of light pollution.

Tommy suddenly reaches over the circle to pat Ranboo on the head, gaining their attention. “Boobus? I think you should tell the story, seeing as you were the last one alive after all.”

Ranboo scoffs at the nickname, their fingers already starting to fidget anxiously. “I suppose…” They took a deep breath, steeling themselves for what’s to come, “well, first of all, you should all know that we lied about not knowing who our killers were. We knew him, and he was a horrible excuse for a human being. It all happened a long time ago, obviously. And ironically enough, it was a dark and stormy night.”

----Twenty years ago----

“Ranboo?” Tubbo asked, poking Ranboo in the shoulder and dragging them out of their daydream.

They’re back in reality, sitting at a picnic bench in the park with their two best friends. Kids are screaming and laughing nearby, and the three are currently doing their best to not look like three homeless kids.

“Hm?”

“We were trying to ask if you have any ideas on where we could shelter tonight.” Tubbo says, “apparently we’re getting one hell of a thunderstorm tonight, and I don’t want to be caught in it.”

Ranboo turns their gaze to the sky, seeing the dark clouds in the distance slowly rolling towards them, continuing to grow. “We could hide in the playground equipment? We’ve slept in the little plastic tube before. We can do it again.”

“Actually,” Tommy spoke up, a wince on his face. “I’d really like to avoid that, if possible. It sucks having to sleep sitting up. Plus, we’re too tall for that thing, which means we have to crane our necks, and they hurt like a bitch in the morning.”

“We might not have a choice.” Tubbo says, painfully honest. “I’d like to avoid it as well if we can, because if the wind blows too strongly, we’re fucked. Getting rained on might actually kill us.”

“No way!” Tommy laughs, “we’re too poggers to let a little rain stop us.”

“We could always try that one abandoned house in the nicer neighborhood?” Ranboo asks, “I know it’s a popular hang out spot for teens, but we might not really have a choice. Besides, with the storm, they might leave the place alone for the night.”

“Well well well.” A new voice interrupts, immediately making the three freeze. “If it isn’t my little helpers.”

The three flinch, whipping their heads towards the source of the voice.

“Smith.” Tommy greets with a hiss, glowering at the guy.

Smith is tall, and absolutely fucking evil. (This is the character Smith from the Unlikely series, he’s just a teenager and more modern here. It’s not the real Tubbo or his dad or anything, just a made up character lol). The trio got grouped in with him once, and now they were stuck in his web. He seemed nice at first, all smiles and confidence in their abilities. He taught them to pickpocket and had them carry out all sorts of errands in return for a bite to eat or maybe some clothes.

He’s a rich motherfucker too, which makes him extra evil. He’s always dressed in a freshly pressed white button up shirt and black slacks, maybe a vest if he’s feeling particularly fancy. His hair is always done perfectly with an insane amount of gel to keep it all slicked back without a single strand popping up. It’s all black as well, most likely dyed. He never told them his first name, and if he ever did, then they’ve all forgotten by now.

Smith has two lackeys with him, as usual. The trio never bothered to learn their names because the teen lackeys didn’t stick around long enough to find out. They’d just… vanish one day, replaced with someone else.

“What do you want?” Tubbo bit out, acid on his tongue.

“Aw,” Smith cooed, “did you miss me that much?”

“No.” Tommy spits. He stands, taking a threatening step forward as though he’s preparing to lunge. “We already told you to kindly fuck off and never speak to us again. So get out of our sight or I will not hesitate to fuckin’ strangle you.”

“Tommy.” Tubbo scolds, his voice ever so slightly quivering. He grabs Tommy’s sleeve, trying to pull him back towards the safety of the picnic table. Though they all knew that there was no safety to be seen. Not with Smith around. “Stop, we don’t need to get into any more trouble.”

“Yeah Tommy, why don’t you listen to your little bitch of a friend for once.” Smith sneered, “maybe that way, you wouldn’t have failed such a simple job for me.”

“You literally tried to get us to kidnap a fuckin’ child, dickwad!” Tommy shouted this time, his fists shaking in anger. Tubbo had to get a good hold on his arm, pulling him back from trying to fight the entitled rich bitch that they all had the misfortune of knowing. “To make things worse, they were homeless too!”

Smith shrugged at the accusation, “I simply told you to retrieve a very important thing to me. It’s not my fault that you never asked for more details.”

“We did ask!”

“The kid tried to steal from me. After all the kindness I showed to them, after all the guidance I gave them. Everything I did for them was out of the kindness of my own heart!” Smith mocks, “all you had to do was grab them and bring them to me so my buddies here could teach that little squit what they did wrong. And now I can’t find them anywhere. Do you know how frustrating that is?!”

There’s an internal sigh of relief from the three. When they had caught onto what Smith was trying to do (they were offered actual money this time around. A lot of it too), they told that kid to get out of the territory as fast as they could. Smith really only bullied a certain part of town after all. If you left his area, you’re as good as gone in his eyes.

The only reason the trio stayed in the territory was for the simple fact that they desperately needed whatever Smith would supply them with. If that meant doing some odd jobs, then they were willing. Most of the time.

The jobs were usually dumb and simple. Pickpocket a very specific person because they bothered Smith that day, cause a ruckus in some sort of store so Smith could grab something he wanted or something he wanted to destroy for fun. Breaking into cars for no reason other than to release the parking break and see if the car would roll. Everything he wanted them to do was for his own fucked up amusement.

They’d even been arrested once.

At first they were almost relieved, and they tried to tell the cops that they were sent here to cause trouble for Smith. But at the mention of his name, they were almost immediately released, and sent back out into the darkened night.

Tubbo was the one Smith chose to horribly beat up in front of Ranboo and Tommy, forcing them to watch as his lackeys brutally harmed their best friend. All because they got caught trying to steal a cop car while some other poor soul under Smith’s control was sent out to distract the owners.

But when Smith sent them on the kidnapping job, and once they realized that the kid had nothing on them and that they were also associated with the bastard, they decided that this was one job they would fail.

Ranboo gave them their jacket and some spare food they happened to have in their bag, Tubbo kept watch to make sure neither Smith nor his spies were watching them, and Tommy gave the kid a quick rundown on where to go that would be safe and how to get there. He even told them about a great little secret spot the trio used to camp in before they found a better one, which happened to land them in Smith’s territory.

They hadn’t been punished for that yet. They’ve been good at avoiding Smith so far, but they knew that eventually he’d find them again.

Today seemed to be the day.

“Did you really think we’d actually kidnap a fucking child for you?!” Tommy screeched, “are you stupid?!”

Smith raised an eyebrow, “I think you’re the stupid one here. If you knew what was good for you, you’d keep from spouting insults left and right.”

He snapped his fingers, and his lackeys immediately launched into action, each of them grabbing one of Tommy’s arms and forcing him to stop struggling by holding his arm in a painful way. A hold that would completely dislocate or break Tommy’s arms if they felt like it.

“Tommy!” Tubbo panics, almost going to step forward to offer help, but when Smith raises his hand, Tubbo froze.

“You know how this works.” Smith says in a low voice, his eyes cold and unforgiving. “You failed one of the biggest missions I’ve offered you. And to make things worse, I can’t find that kid anywhere . So either you tell me where the hell you’re hiding them, or you watch your best friend get his arm snapped in two. Maybe I’ll add on a black eye or two. Just for good measure.”

“You can’t! We don’t know where the kid is!” Tubbo argues, raising his hands in a placating gesture, “if you harm Tommy that badly, we’ll never be able to help him heal properly! We’re fucking homeless for primes sake!”

“You should have thought of that before you caused the loss of one of my little runners.” Smith hisses.

Ranboo, still holding everything back, finally takes a deep, shaking breath. “That’s IT.”

They launch themselves over the table, directly into the unsuspecting Smith, who almost screams, but he can’t get it out before his back slams into the grass, knocking the air out of his lungs.

Ranboo swings their arms wildly, knowing that they only have a small frame of time to get in as much damage as they could. Their fist collides with Smith’s cheek, then his eye, and they get one more good hit with his ear. It’s a rapid fire of just throwing their fists around, but those are the three good ones that they managed before they got physically torn off of the guy and tossed away like a wad of paper.

They slam into the grass, groaning quietly from the force of their shoulder taking the brunt of the landing.

But there’s no time to nurse their wounds as Tommy and Tubbo bolt forward to yank Ranboo to a standing position and start a dead sprint out of the park.

Smith shouts threats for them to stop, but they ignore him, even as their lungs burn from the lack of air as they make it to the street and don’t even look before running across the black pavement.

They almost get hit by a car for this, but thankfully the driver has good reaction time, squealing to a stop right before colliding into them.

The three ignore the screams of insults and terror, starting to weave through alleys that were almost too small to squeeze through. So small that they had to do an awkward sideways shuffle.

Thankfully, they got out of there before Tommy’s claustrophobia overwhelmed him, taking a moment to pant for air and strain their ears for signs of anyone following them.

When they heard nothing, they collectively breathed a sigh of relief, sinking to the floor in exhaustion as they grappled their own fears of being caught.

Hitting Smith is… well, it’s never been done before.

No one ever hurts Smith. They’re too scared of him. Plus, his lackeys can normally beat the shit out of you before you even get a chance to swing your arm back. 

“Holy fucking shit.” Tommy gasps out, still trying to get air back in his lungs. “I can’t believe you did that.”

Ranboo stared at their shaking fists, they could still feel the collision of skin and bone against their knuckles. They laugh in disbelief, “I can’t believe it either. Holy- I’m so sorry.”

“What?!” Tubbo says incredulously.

“I’m sorry.” Ranboo mutters, not even hearing Tubbo at this point, panic is starting to overwhelm them. “We’re going… we’re in so much- oh my primes. I shouldn’t have-”

“Ranboo.” Tommy says, clasping his hands on their shoulders and forcing eye contact, “deep breath bossman.”

Ranboo obeys the command, taking a shuddering breath in and out.

“There we go.” Tommy nods, “it’s all good boob boy. In fact, what you did was absolutely insane!”

“I know. But I shouldn’t have done that, we could-”

Could what? Is the real question. No one’s ever hit Smith before. No one knows what would happen if he ever got harmed.

He always threatens whoever raises their fist at him that “they’ll regret it.” No one knows what it could possibly imply.

“Dude.” Tommy chided, “you literally just did the coolest shit of all time. You saved me. You saved us.”

“What if he finds us?” Ranboo asks, their breathing losing any sense of control. “What will he do to us? To you guys?”

“Shut up.” Tubbo chimes in, pointing an irritated finger at them. “You just did the impossible. No matter what Smith comes at us with, this time around, we’ll be the ones to beat his ass.”

“Fuck yeah.” Tommy agrees, “tomorrow morning, we should head out and try to get ourselves a group of some sort. If we have enough people, we can fight back against Smith! We can outnumber him and get him to fuck off from our territory. This could be a revolution boys! We can take down the man!”

Tubbo scoffs, “you’re almost too optimistic Tommy. We could try, but I highly doubt anyone will join us. It’s hard to ask people if they’re willing to get beat up just so they could punch Smith in the face.”

“I think that’s plenty reason.” Tommy argues, “who doesn’t want to break that fuckers nose?”

“You do have a point.” Tubbo hums.

A loud thunder rolls across the sky above them, causing them all to look up to the darkened clouds overhead.

When did those get here? How did they not notice the sun being covered up?

“Shit.” Tubbo hisses, “let’s get out of here before the downpour. The rain can start any second now.”

The three carefully sneak out of the alley through a wider exit, making sure to fully listen and look around for any sign of Smith before dashing towards the neighborhood that the abandoned house stood on.

It wasn’t as though the place was old and uninhabitable, there was still a “For Sale” sign out front with a much too high price, and the house was in good condition.

The reason it wasn’t selling was because some curious teens broke in one night, and ever since the place has been littered with cans and bottles of soda and beer, junk food snack bags, a disgusting amount of cigarette butts, and a sad amount of dog shit that owners never bothered to pick up.

The seller of the place must’ve given up on trying to keep it clean. Either that or they’d forgotten it.

The trio arrived pretty quickly. Thankfully, it wasn’t too far from the park, and by the time they reached the neighborhood the dry skies had started to sprinkle, causing the three to hurry ever faster onto the safety of the porch.

It’s out of pure luck that they just barely reached shelter by the time the rain started to pour down in sheets, rain and thunder drowning out all sounds.

Tommy ushers them inside, shutting the door behind them and slightly muffling the sound of the pouring rain.

It didn’t do much, seeing as most of the windows were broken, causing a cold breeze to be constantly rushing through the home.

The temperature dropped considerably with all of the rain outside, so the three wandered deeper into the house, trying to find a spot that would be the most safe and warm.

It was by a second amazing stroke of luck that they actually found a room upstairs with two beds and a pull out couch, each of them bare of anything except for a sheet that’s littered with some… “mysterious” stains. But hey, at least the window isn’t broken.

Each of them wrinkle their noses at this, but set to work taking off the sheets as carefully as they could and dumping them into a corner of the room.

Apparently, their luck is on a roll tonight. They searched through the house for anything to cover the mattresses and actually found some musty blankets, pillows, and even sheets tucked away in the far back corner of a closet.

Tommy bravely shook off any spiders that nestled in the fabric, placing them back in the closet and taking the bedding back towards the room they chose to shelter in.

Ranboo gave Tommy and Tubbo the beds, and took the pull-out couch for themself, which wasn’t that bad surprisingly.

They set up, and for once, they found themselves in almost comfortable beds, with warm and worn blankets and musty pillows but they didn’t care. They were safe from the storm, and had semi-decent fabric to keep them from getting too cold.

Rain pounded on the roof, leaking droplets somewhere in the corner of the room, but the trio kept dry, so they ignored it.

They said their goodnights, then tucked in for the night, sleep coming fast with the comforting sound of rain and wind outside.

Little did they know, the world was being kind to them because she knew their fate.

They never realized they’d been followed from a distance.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess who tailed them either.

Smith and his lackeys followed the trio until they found their temporary shelter, then he left to entertain himself for a couple hours, wanting to wait until he knew for certain that the three were fast asleep.

When he returned later in the night, he and his lackeys were now equipped with gloves and a single metal bat, which was really the only thing they needed.

If any evidence was found against him, Smith could just put it all on one of his lackeys, or he could just get a really good lawyer.

But the trio is homeless, which means that the authorities would do jack-shit to find their killers anyway. Smith almost pitied this fact, but he cared more for his reputation and pride. The second these boys think that they have power over him, they rebel.

The last thing Smith needs is for his little workers to try and reject his ruling over them. It already took far too long and far too much bribing to convince his stupid servants to carry out this murder with him, he can’t imagine how much of his precious time it would take to convince his workers to stand down if he didn’t nip the problem in the bud.

It is a shame that he has to do this. Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo are his best workers after all. Always doing their jobs with the least amount of resistance and the most accuracy they could manage.

Until they failed a simple kidnapping of course.

Smith sighed, shaking his head in pity before quietly opening the front door, gesturing his servants inside with a lazy wave of his hand.

As silently as they could, they searched the house for where the trio took shelter, not having to pause whey they crept onto especially creaky floorboards as the rain and thunder outside drowned out almost all sound.

Smith opened a door, and as he lay his eyes on the darkened room, a strike of lightning flashed through the still intact window, momentarily allowing him to see two peacefully sleeping figures, one in each bed.

He didn’t see the third one just yet, but he’d find them.

Smith smiled, stepping forward into the room. He doesn’t know which boy is which, at least not yet, but he’d make sure that Ranboo would suffer the most.

His lackeys knew this already, and he sent one of them to stand over the other bed to see who was there. They stood in the darkness over each of the beds, simply watching as they waited for lightning to strike once more and reveal the sleeping figures.

The moment the light flashed through the room, it’s revealed that he’s found Tommy and Tubbo.

Smith stands by Tommy’s bed. 

(WARNING: this is literally a brutal murder scene, please be cautious! I’ll try to have a summary at the end that just briefly explains what happened, but most of the chapter from here on out is just murder. Search for the next all caps warning if you need to skip).

He raises his metal bat, a wicked smile on his face as he aims for the boy's ribs, knowing that if he cracked them enough, it was possible to shatter one and cause the bone to tear through all sorts of fun and important anatomy. So many functions were held just within the stomach and chest! Lungs, liver, kidneys, digestive tracts, the stomach, the heart!

He wondered what would get Tommy first.

Smith nods to his servant, who rips the pillow from beneath Tommy’s head and quickly presses it over his face, muffling most of the sound as Tommy snapped awake.

He struggles wildly, his arms and legs flailing as he tries his best to maneuver his way out from beneath the pillow, already struggling for air.

Tommy’s actually able to get a few hits on both the servant and Smith, but they didn’t stop. They didn’t even pause as Tommy’s fingernails clawed down their arms with full force, peeling back layers of skin and causing both the guard and Smith to bleed.

Smith grimaces at this. He’d have to get rid of the evidence after all of this was done.

In annoyance, Smith swings the bat downwards, the metal ringing beneath his palms as he strikes bone. He could even hear the faintest crack as he did so.

Tommy screamed.

The sound was muffled, sure, but it was satisfying all the same.

Again, Smith raised his bat, swinging down once, twice, three times more, each hit causing Tommy to cry out and jolt in pain as bones cracked and splintered, his struggling starting to turn sluggish and slow.

With one last swing, Tommy became almost still, his hands falling to his sides with only the slightest twitches. He was still trying to survive.

Smith motioned for his servant, who looked increasingly scared and horrified at his actions, to press even harder over Tommy’s face, to which he complied.

Smith then turned towards Tubbo’s bed, who was now wide awake, tears trailing down his cheeks as he tried to scream against the palm that roughly clamped over his face.

He must have woken up to Tommy’s muffled screaming.

Not even the rain could drown out the panic and fearful sound that brought Smith such pure delight.

Tubbo’s eyes widened as a flash of lightning revealed Smith’s horribly cheerful face.

He tried to scream again, but the servant plugged his nose as well, partly suffocating the boy.

“Turn his head.” Smith said lowly.

Staying quiet was useless now. They’d find Ranboo eventually. They had to be in the house somewhere. Even if they weren’t, Smith would find them. He always got what he wanted after all.

Tubbo’s head was forcibly turned against his will. He strains against this. He knew something happened to Tommy, he just didn’t fully know what.

Maybe he thought Smith was simply here to beat the shit out of them and head on his way. He probably didn’t realize that Tommy would be dead in however long it took for him to fully suffocate.

He couldn’t see what they’d done.

Smith felt pleased at this. He can practically feel the fear and dread that fills the room. Ah. But there’s no time to bathe in the horror now. He can do that properly once the job is done.

With that thought, and an uncontrollable smile curling on his cheeks, he lifts the bat once more, only partially hoping he doesn’t hit his servant. Only because it’d be difficult to find a new one that was so strong and loyal. Though he’d beat loyalty into the new one if necessary.

Smith swings the bat as soon as another flash of lightning flashes, ensuring his aim before slamming the metal down with all his might.

The bat strikes true, its motion forced to a stop as it cracks against Tubbo’s skull.

The boy stops struggling. 

Smith pouts his lip. It’s a pity he died so quickly. He was hoping he’d be able to watch the boy struggle for a little longer. Tommy’s death was much more satisfying.

Then again, Tubbo was always the most obedient of the three. Perhaps he deserved a quicker death than the other two.

His servant immediately releases Tubbo the second he stops moving, taking a step back in realization of his actions.

“Don’t get all moral on me now.” Smith hisses. “Or you’ll be next.”

The guard hesitantly nods, which is only seen because the other guard has produced a dim light by now, checking Tommy’s pulse.

With the newfound light, Smith can admire his work on Tubbo. Blood spills from Tubbo’s temple, dripping quickly down his head, rivers of blood dripping down his forehead and spilling into his eyes before leaking down into the mattress off his nose. Another river dripped down to pool in his ear and down his neck, and the rest simply soaked into his hair.

Smith grins at the sight, then turns to his other guard who’s trying to check Tommy’s pulse.

He rolls his eyes. “You idiot, if he’s to die by suffocation and internal bleeding, you need to cut off his oxygen for several minutes.”

Smith moves forward, shoving the guard away and moving the pillow to look at Tommy’s terror-stricken face. 

He’s not breathing, that’s for certain. But it would be possible for him to be resuscitated if someone was to do so.

Oh but what a pity, his ribs were completely broken! If they were to try, the boy still wouldn’t make it!

Smith smiled, and curiously, he placed his gloved hand on the lower part of Tommy’s rib cage, which was the area he bludgeoned again and again.

His fingers weren’t stopped by the cage of bone.

Smith could feel the shattered remains, and just for fun, he pressed down on the skin, delighting in the feeling of bone scattering further into vital organs. Hopefully cutting and stabbing as they were forced down. He stared at the skin that nearly pierced itself on the bone, but he didn’t press further. He didn’t want Tommy to bleed. It’d be such a mess for whoever had to clean this place up, and he really only meant to make Ranboo bleed after all.

Plus, he already knew he’d have to be the one to clean off any evidence of his skin from Tommy’s nails. The last thing he needed was a whole court case over his head. Sure, he’d pay them off easily, but it would be such a nuisance.

Smith removes his hand, humming happily to himself at the sight of the much too energetic blond (in his personal opinion) finally being forced to complete silence.

Tommy is certainly dead now.

Smith takes a moment to appreciate Tommy’s empty eyes in the dim light of the room.

With a sigh, he moves on. It’s finally time to find the main event of the night.

Smith turns to the door, and by some stroke of dumb luck, there’s the kid himself.

Ranboo is frozen in fear, his eyes wide in shock and horror after witnessing his friend's murders.

He’s halfway out of the pullout bed, like he was right about to get up before he was stopped. He probably stopped when Smith’s lackey turned on some actual light in the room that wasn’t just lightning.

“Well. There they are boys.” Smith greeted cheerfully, “I’ve been looking for you, Ranboo.”

Ranboo quite literally jumps back into the present, their eyes focusing on Smith. “What- what have you done?” They whisper, their voice shaking.

“What I had to.” Smith growls. “What you did couldn’t go unpunished. I don’t need all my little workers rebelling against me just because some useless kid almost broke my nose.”

“You- you killed them!” Ranboo shouted, grief taking over their expression as tears welled in their eyes. “You killed my best friends!”

“I did, didn’t I?” Smith smiled, “it’s a shame I can’t leave you alive to live with the guilt, but I have a feeling that the streets would get to you before I could. I’d prefer to be the one to end your pathetic little life. The only ones who would’ve mourned you are dead, but I’ll give you the mercy of joining them.”

Smith takes one step towards them, and Ranboo immediately bolts.

Being closest to the door gave them the advantage. They stumble slightly as they run down the hall, the urge to break down and sob almost overwhelming their adrenaline. But Ranboo pushes the feeling aside, their friends aren’t dead. They can’t be. The world would end if that was the case.

There is no world without Tommy and Tubbo.

Their best friends are alive. They have to be. They’re just… hurt. Ranboo can help them. All they have to do is get help. It doesn’t matter the cost in the end, Ranboo would give everything if it meant keeping his friends by their side.

They love Tommy and Tubbo.

So they have to still be alive, just barely clinging to life.

The picture of Tommy and Tubbo’s still forms in the dim light flashed through Ranboo’s mind. Smith standing over each of them, a proud smirk on his face.

The urge to sob again hit them like a truck, their mind flashing back to the muffled screams of Tommy, of the terrible, dull pang of a metal hitting bone again and again. Tommy’s screams stopped almost as fast as they started.

Then Tubbo’s muffled screaming, quiet murmurs across the room, and a single crack of metal before… nothing.

No.

They’re fine.

They’re fine.

Ranboo forced themself to believe that they were alive, and continued to run. For Tommy and Tubbo’s sake.

They reached the stairs, their steps pounding down against the creaking wood. When Ranboo reached the halfway point, they skipped the rest of the steps with a jump, their legs protesting as they slammed into the floor.

Ranboo could already hear the stupid guards behind them, their steps even heavier on the steps.

They pushed themselves towards the door, forced to pause and shakily unlock it before finally flinging it open.

But it took too long.

If only Ranboo was quicker.

If only they had just a few extra seconds.

They saw freedom. 

They saw their escape within the cold rain that poured only a few feet away after the porch.

They saw a last chance of life, ripped away from them because of a single second.

A hand clamped down on Ranboo’s shoulder and yanked them away, throwing them to the dusty floor before the second guard approached and grabbed Ranboo’s hands.

“No! Let me go!” Ranboo shouted, forcefully attempting to twist and pull out of the vice grip. “I can still save them! Please! I’ll stay quiet! Just let me save them!”

They kick and struggle and scream as violently as they can, using all of the strength that they could muster.

“Please! I’m not- I don’t want them to die!” Ranboo begged. They don’t know when they started crying, but tears were practically streaming down their face at this point, their cheeks hot and their vision blurred. “I can- please- I’ll do anything you want, just let me go! Please!” Ranboo chokes, their voice dying down to a volume that was right above a whisper. “Please. Please. Please. Let me go… let me go… my best friends…”

Ranboo’s begs are ignored, and they’re forcibly dragged across the creaky floorboards instead, stopping right by the railing.

The guard who trapped Ranboo’s hands gestured for the other to help him, and together they tied Ranboo’s wrists together around the last spindle of the stairs, the old wood pressing uncomfortably into Ranboo’s skin. Ranboo lay on their back, their arms tied above their head and leaving them completely defenseless.

Ranboo pulls uselessly against the binds as the guards step away. 

The stairs creak behind them, and they awkwardly crane their neck to watch Smith slowly approach, an evil, gut-wrenching smirk on his face. 

Behind Ranboo’s terror, they are just a teeny bit smug at seeing the nasty bruise that swelled Smith’s right eye, and the clearly sore bruise on his cheek. At least Ranboo did some damage to a person the world believed was untouchable.

Then their situation hits them again, knocking Ranboo out of whatever small win they felt as though they might’ve had.

Ranboo struggles harder, another wave of panic overtaking their mind at the sight of Smith.

“Ranboo, Ranboo, Ranboo.” Smith tsks, “you could’ve made this easier on all of us if you only stayed asleep. Though I must admit, having you awake is going to make this so much more fun.”

Ranboo’s breath hitches in their throat, “what- what do you mean? What do you want, Smith?” They gasp as one of the guards kicks them harshly in the side in response to a nod from Smith. “Please- we’ve learned our lesson, now let me go! Let me save them!”

“You just refuse to learn, don’t you?” Smith coos, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs and crouching at Ranboo’s side, “I warned you all from the very start, and what did you do? You disobeyed me.” He sighs heavily, “I was being so kind too, helping the pitiful homeless kids out of the kindness of my own heart.”

“You were bullying us! You’re bullying everyone! That’s not kindness!” Ranboo protested.

Smith’s face hardened, and he pulled out a knife from a sheath at his side. A dagger.

Ranboo froze at the sight of it, their heart skipping multiple beats as they dreaded what would come.

Smith lightly trailed the razor-sharp blade from Ranboo’s temple, down the side of their face, and continued down their neck, following an invisible path until the tip reached their sternum.

Ranboo heaved a shuddering sob, their eyes glued to the shine of the blade that threatened their existence.

“Be careful with what you say to me, kid.” Smith growls, “you’ve always been at my mercy, and today is no different. The stakes are just a tad bit higher right now.”

Ranboo whimpers softly, “please… I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll be your personal butler, your main errand runner, anything. Just let me save Tommy and Tubbo. Please. They’re my best friends. They’re everything to me. If you let me do that, I’ll be quiet and compliant and I’ll never fight against you. Whatever you want, just let me-” The rest of Ranboo’s sentence is drowned with a muffled sob.

“It’s far too late for that now.” Smith growls, then suddenly shoves the blade down and into Ranboo’s stomach.

They gasp at the sudden pain.

But even seeing that a blade was stabbed into them, they found themselves surprised on how it felt almost similar to a punch.

It hurt like hell, yes, but they could’ve partly shrugged it off if it wasn’t for the fact that they could see it, and that they could feel the warmth of blood seeping into their sweater, quickly growing cold and making the material sticky and wet.

They felt hot and cold at the same time, their head starting to spin at the sight. They wanted to throw up. They wanted it to be over.

Smith sneers, “what’s wrong, Ranboo? Can’t handle a little pain?”

Ranboo can’t breathe, can’t speak past the fear welling within them.

They can’t look away from the dagger.

The blood is just a slow trickle, nothing too big or worrying. If Ranboo escaped, they might survive half the walk to a hospital. Or they could at least knock on a neighbor's door. As long as they didn’t move the knife, there was a chance of survival.

Smith seemed to sense whatever small hope Ranboo was cradling, and gripped the handle of the blade.

Ranboo’s eyes widened, then they shut them tight, not wanting to witness whatever Smith would do to them.

All Smith did was slowly wiggle the knife back and forth, cutting further into whatever inner organs the dagger had already injured.

Whatever blood cells were being plugged, were suddenly released, causing more blood to enter Ranboo’s body in a place it shouldn’t enter in the first place. It didn’t help that Smith’s blade opened Ranboo’s skin just a little further, giving it more room to spill and soak into their sweater.

Ranboo could feel themself getting weaker. Sweating and shivering all at once.

Ranboo swallowed and choked out in a deathly quiet voice, “why- why are you-”

Smith cut Ranboo off by pressing a finger to their lips, shushing them almost gently, “no questions, Ranboo. Don’t waste your breath. If you have any prayers, you better say them now. I’m afraid this will be your last chance to do so.”

“You won’t get away with this.” Ranboo hissed now, heavily breathing through the dizziness and the pain, “you’ll be found out one day Smith. Mark my words.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.” Smith scoffed. “Now, I’ll be upstairs cleaning a little bit of evidence. I’ll leave you here so you can die alone. No one is around to save you, or love you. No one to speak any last words to. No one to remember you. To cradle you as your life fades. You have no one that loves you. Not anymore.”

With that, Smith whistled a short high then low note, which spurred one of the guards to move and grab a black duffel bag that sat by the door, one that Ranboo didn’t notice before now.

The three stalked up the stairs, leaving Ranboo alone to the quiet. 

It was almost peaceful, with how the rain still pattered on the roof, thunder rumbling gently outside.

Even with no one by their side, Ranboo didn’t feel alone for some unknown reason. Not because of the quiet and sharp whispers of Smith upstairs, but there was something else that they just couldn’t discern.

Ranboo sighed, their eyelids fluttering shut as they forced themselves to relax. 

There’s no point struggling anymore.

This is it.

They could feel death approaching.

Ranboo hoped that if there is anything after death, it would be painless, and they would have a chance to be happy.

Maybe they could see Tommy and Tubbo again.

Anger towards Smith spiked through them at the thought, but they quickly let the anger go. It would just waste whatever energy they had left.

For whatever reason, they still held out hope that they’d all live through this night, even though logic told them that it just wasn’t possible.

Not much time passed before Smith came stomping down the stairs with his two cronies. He purposely stepped on Ranboo’s shoulder and leg as he made his way to the door and opened it, ignoring Ranboo on the floor and shooing his buddies through.

He paused before he closed the door behind himself. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson Ranboo. May it be your last.” He smirked one last time, a dark joy in his eye as he drank in the sight of Ranboo slowly dying on a dusty floor of an unloved home. “Have fun dying alone.”

With that, the door shut, and Ranboo was left to silence and raindrops.

Now that there’s nothing else to distract them, the tears welled.

Ranboo cried.

They sobbed, trying so hard not to allow their body to shudder and shake with every breath. Forcing themself to keep their eyes open, trying to desperately hold out any hope of rescue.

They didn’t feel like they were alone, but they knew that no one was around.

Smith was right.

There’s no one around to comfort them, to quietly and gently shush them and rock them back and forth. To talk to Ranboo and tell them that they’ll be okay. No one holds out hope for their survival.

Tommy and Tubbo were dead.

Their best friends were dead.

And it’s all Ranboo’s fault.

If only Ranboo didn’t punch Smith. If only they kept their anger controlled as they usually do, if they choked down their emotions and just… what? Watch Tommy get hurt? Watch as his arm gets snapped in two before getting punched in the eye?

Maybe it was partly worth it.

But Ranboo only wished that they were the only one to suffer.

That Tommy and Tubbo got spared, left to mourn Ranboo but not die because of actions that were not their own.

Ranboo chuckled to themself. It was humorless and wet, but it was a chuckle nonetheless.

They took a deep breath, and to fight against the dizziness and the odd clash of hot and cold that their body was, they began to talk.

It helped to soothe that awful pang of loneliness.

“I’m so sorry, Tommy. I’m so sorry, Tubbo. You didn’t deserve this. We… primes. I’m so sorry. I watched you die… I watched you-” A sob choked out of them before they could stop it. “I could’ve jumped in. I could’ve tried to stop them. But I just… froze. I only watched as you were killed in front of me. I’m so sorry. I could’ve saved you. It should’ve just been me. Neither of you deserve this just because I punched Smith. It’s all my fault.”

Rambo took a minute to breathe slowly, trying to keep their voice even. “If you can hear me somehow, I understand if you hate me. It’s my fault you were… I hope that- if there’s something after death, and if we don’t see one another again, either because we’re separated or because you hate me, that you two will be happy. You both deserve to be happy. To be free of pain and guilt and suffering. You’re my best friends. And I love you guys so much.” They smiled at this, a small comfort within the pain, “you made life worth living.”

Their words died away, and Ranboo sank deeper into the floor, wishing they could melt away into death already. To try and stop the pain. The suffering.

They didn’t want to feel anymore.

Neither the physical nor mental pain.

Another heaving sob shuddered through them, tears trickling uncomfortably off the side of their face, soaking into their hair before eventually trickling into their ear or dropping to the floor.

Over and over they whispered their apologies into the air, and when their strength for speaking suddenly dried up, they mouthed it.

They should’ve passed out by now, right?

It would’ve been more peaceful. That’s for sure.

Then an odd thing occurred.

A cool touch, just to Ranboo’s forehead. Like someone’s hand was held there, fingers gently brushing the hair from where it clung to their sweat-soaked skin.

They sighed at the feeling, and in their delirious and fading state, they could almost pretend someone was with them.

Another cold spot appeared on their tied up hands, like someone was trying to hold them, and they smiled.

It felt right.

They could tell themself that they weren’t alone.

Hoarsely, they whispered, “I’m so scared…”

The wave of cold slowly drifted down their face, gently stroking their cheek, and they pretended that Tommy and Tubbo were with them, trying to hold their hands and cup Ranboo’s cheek, telling them that they’ll be okay.

Ranboo’s world spun violently, a headache starting to pound angrily behind their eyes as a piercing ring started to fill the air.

It’s almost peaceful, hearing the rain get drowned out by the tinnitus instead.

The pain was even starting to fade away to a small sting, which made things all the more peaceful.

Their eyelids fluttered shut, heavy with sleep.

Maybe it’s time to fully accept it. To go quietly. There’s no use fighting the inevitable.

They cracked open their eyes, just a tiny bit, one last fight against death just because they were too stubborn to give up without one more bout of resistance.

Ranboo could see Tommy and Tubbo, looking ever so gently at them. Barely there, a mirage if anything, but it was immensely comforting all the same. Tommy’s hand was the one on their cheek, and Tubbo was the one who was awkwardly trying to hold Ranboo’s tied up hands. They should’ve known really.

Ranboo smiled, and allowed their eyes to close completely, no longer planning to try and open them again.

To their surprise, their life really did flash before their eyes.

Sure, most of it was painful, but there were so many happy memories hidden between those moments. And every happy memory contained Tubbo and Tommy.

They took one more shallow breath. The ringing swelling to a crescendo.

With one last exhale, their grip on life slipped away from them, and they fell into a void of painless sleep, one like they had never experienced before. The void was nothing and everything all at once, and they could almost feel the way their mortality drained away from them.

Ranboo was officially dead.

(WARNING is over. Quick summary: Smith murders Tommy and Tubbo with the help of his goons. Tommy dies of a mix of suffocation from a pillow and blunt force trauma from multiple strikes of a metal baseball bat, and Tubbo dies from blunt force trauma to the head. Tubbo dies the fastest of all of them. Ranboo tries to run, but only makes it as far as the front door before being caught and tied to the bottom stair banister. They’re stabbed and left so Smith can clean up some evidence, then Smith leaves and they’re left to die alone. They get one last small comfort of cool touches to their face and hands, and believe it to be Tommy and Tubbo comforting them in their final moments. Then Ranboo dies.)

Ranboo woke up with a gasp, but no air entered their lungs. They didn’t… they didn’t really feel their lungs. They didn’t feel much of anything aside from a constant sting to their stomach.

Wide-eyed, they looked around them, finding themself to be in the same house that they all went to sleep in that night, but now, an almost transparent Tommy and Tubbo were at Ranboo’s sides.

“What… what happened?” Ranboo asked, but they already knew the answer.

They looked down, and tried not to scream, clutching their palm to their mouth to try and stop it.

Ranboo was still partly in their body and quickly went to stand, but found themselves floating instead, uncontrollably drifting away as a panic flashed through them.

Tommy grabbed their ankle, stopping Ranboo from flipping away and pulling Ranboo back to the ground, which was no longer solid under their feet.

Tommy looked painfully heartbroken, and instead of saying anything, lunged forward, pulling Ranboo into a tight hug instead.

Ranboo said nothing, melting into the hug quietly.

Tubbo joined them as well, burying his face into Ranboo’s free shoulder.

“I’m so sorry…” Ranboo whispered, a sob cracking from their throat, and they were surprised to have the ability to cry. It just didn’t feel like something they would be able to do, being dead and all.

Tommy shushed Ranboo, and the three of them sank to their knees, still clutching one another tightly. “Shut the fuck up, boobus. It’s not your fault. We kept trying to tell you that the whole time you were… on the floor. But you couldn’t hear us.”

“But it is my fault!” Ranboo insisted, pulling away from the two and hugging themself instead, digging their nails into their arms to try and ground themselves, but they felt… no pain. Somehow, they could still feel their body, but everything was faint, touch wasn’t as strong as they were used to. They tried to ignore this, continuing their explanation of fault, “if I didn’t punch Smith, we wouldn’t be here!”

“If you didn’t punch Smith, Tommy would’ve been dangerously hurt, and it might’ve just been you and me if he couldn’t heal.” Tubbo snapped, surprisingly angry. “Stop with your self-blame shit and put it in your fucking head that we would’ve ended up this way either way. We all knew that we probably wouldn’t make it to adult-hood.”

“We could’ve made it…” Ranboo muttered, though it was clear they didn’t believe it either.

Tommy spoke up, “Ranboo, I’m glad you punched Smith. You saved me a hell of a lot of pain, at least… pain that would’ve stayed for days to months. Tonight it was just insufferable pain and then… nothing. I just feel this odd stinging in my chest. Like my ribs are still shattered into a million pieces.”

“That does not make me feel better, Tommy.” Ranboo said, “you died. We fucking died.”

Tommy scoffed, “maybe we did, but I will just say that I’m glad we’re here together. I’m glad that we don’t have to live without one another. As dark as that is.”

Tubbo laughed, “that’s one way to look at it.”

Tommy suddenly stood up, offering his hands to Tubbo and Ranboo to pull them up with him, “I don’t know about you two, but I want to see the world now that we don’t have a physical body to limit us.”

Tommy’s grin was contagious. Always able to look at the bright side of things.

Ranboo took his hand, getting pulled up, but they still weren’t used to this… ghost thing. They immediately hovered too high, gripping Tommy’s hand as tightly as they could as their body just kept flying upward. “HELP ME. HOW DO I WORK THIS STUPID HOVERING?”

Tommy and Tubbo just laughed at them, watching as Ranboo kicked and tried swimming through the air, but none of it was working. They simply drifted upwards, their body slowly spinning like a wheel.

Ranboo crossed their arms and pouted as they continued to spin, waiting for Tommy and Tubbo to finally step in and help them.

“Tubbo and I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Though we were desperate to get to you so we didn’t think too hard on it.” Tommy said, “maybe just… don’t think about it?”

“Oh yeah, sure. Let me just not think about the fact that I’m stuck spinning in the air like I’m on some wheel of death!” Ranboo said sarcastically.

Tubbo swallowed down as much of his laughter as he could, “Tommy’s right though, you are overthinking it. It’s still just like having your body, you’re just… weightless. Try focusing on stopping your spin, then force your feet to touch the ground. After that, it’ll kinda just… kick in.”

Ranboo sighed, but did as they were told.

It took a couple minutes, but they actually did get the hang of it and found it to be surprisingly easy.

Tommy clapped his hands the moment Ranboo had been able to walk the entirety of the room and back. “Let’s go! I want to see the park, and run around in the rain, and go inside buildings we weren’t allowed to go into before! Imagine all of the secrets we’ll find!”

Ranboo and Tubbo laughed, and followed.

It’s an odd experience to not be able to open a door, but just go through it instead, but they found themselves on the porch, staring out at the rain that still poured down.

Tommy’s excitement (despite the nightmare of a situation they found themselves in) was boundless, and he quickly went to jump off the porch and into the rain, but… he was stopped.

He slammed into… something. An invisible barrier.

Tommy fell to the floor, clutching his nose in instinct before realizing he couldn’t feel pain.

Tubbo’s face dropped at this, and he stepped forward cautiously, holding a hand out in front of him until it pressed into whatever trapped them here.

He slowly hovered up, tracing the wall with his hand until he phased through the porch roof and out of sight.

“No…” Tommy whispered, getting up and pressing both of his hands to the barrier. “No no no. This can’t be happening. This is-” He’s hyperventilating now, even though he doesn’t need to breathe.

“Tommy, Tommy. Hey, look at me.” Ranboo eased, gently touching one of Tommy’s hands to see if he would allow Ranboo to hold it. Tommy didn’t move against it, so Ranboo grabbed both of Tommy’s hands and alternated squeezing them, trying to ground him.

Even though they’re dead, they still have so much humanity left in them. It’s comforting to fall back into the traits they used to have. To use the functions their body used to provide.

“I won’t say that we’re going to be okay, because this whole situation is just…” Ranboo tried to find a nicer word, but seeing as this was an insanely bad day, they decided cursing was necessary. “Fucked. But we’ll figure this out. Together.”

“I don’t know if you noticed,” Tommy hissed, even as tears glistened in his eyes, “but there’s a fucking wall keeping us here, and we all know that I hate being trapped.”

“I know, Tommy. I really do.” Ranboo said, keeping calm. “But there’s always a chance that we can fix this, or find some sort of solution.”

“But what if we don’t?” Tommy whispered now, his anger suddenly draining from him. “What if we’re stuck here for the next thousand years, watching the world move on without us? Will we fade into nothing? Is this what the afterlife has to offer? Is this all there is? You just get stuck in a single place for all eternity? Are we in hell?”

“I- I don’t know, Tommy.” Ranboo said quietly, “I’m afraid I know nothing about dying and the afterlife. I didn’t even know there would be an afterlife. I thought we would just… vanish.”

Tommy sank to the floor, and Ranboo followed, still clutching his hands and trying to comfort him the best they could.

Tubbo came back then, a blank look on his face as he hollowly sat next to them. “It’s a complete bubble around us. There’s no… windows, or openings, the highest we can go is the roof. We’re… stuck.”

Tommy wailed at this, pulling his hands from Ranboo and clutching his head instead, falling back into a fetal position.

Ranboo wanted to fall into despair as well, but seeing as Tubbo and Tommy were currently there already, they decided that they’d have to be the level one.

They stood up, and wandered into the house, looking for something that could distract or help them all.

There wasn’t much to be seen.

The house was basically empty of most furniture and littered with trash. Any sort of electronics were either destroyed or stolen, and having to see your dead body on the floor was quite the shock to bear.

Against their better judgment, Ranboo enters the room they were in before, and slowly floats towards the two beds.

They can see perfectly fine, even with the darkness.

They almost wished they couldn’t, especially since this meant that they could fully see the crime Smith had committed.

Ranboo’s best friends were lifeless in their beds, but only Tubbo’s was stained with blood.

It’s only now that Ranboo finally falls into a despondent state, sinking to their knees with their hand clutched over their mouth to cover the loud sob that overtook them.

Suddenly, they couldn’t help Tommy or Tubbo, and they knew that they could all use a couple hours to be alone. To process the hell they just went through.

So Ranboo remained in that room, the scene playing over and over again in their head as they wept.

They couldn’t feel the tears, but they knew that they were there, dripping down their cheeks like a leaky faucet.

Distantly, they could hear Tommy screaming in distraught, bottles shattering as they hit the walls, furniture crashing as it was shoved. Lightbulbs imploded, doors slammed, windows splintered.

Eventually, the anger died down, and the house fell silent apart from three separate and muffled sobs from different corners of the house.

For a rest of the night, and half of the next day, they sat motionless in their chosen spots, processing… everything. 

Maybe it wasn’t good for Ranboo’s thought process, but they stayed in the room Tommy and Tubbo died in. Unable to look away from their unmoving and lifeless bodies as a reminder on what they failed to act upon. 

Tommy and Tubbo could tell them over and over again to stop blaming themself for their deaths, but that’s not something that’ll easily come. So instead, Ranboo wallows in it.

Ranboo only leaves when their bodies start to look different and weird, decomposing just within the short hours of their deaths. It makes them incredibly sick to look at, but not in the way they were used to. It’s just knowing they would’ve been sick at the sight. They didn’t have anything to throw up, nor did they have any of their human body functions, so it was more of an emotional feeling than a physical occurrence.

Instead they sit in the hall for a long time, at least until they hear the front door handle rattling, boisterous voices giggling and chatting just outside.

Ranboo immediately gets up and hovers towards the stairs, peaking carefully through the banister as though they could be seen.

From here they could see Tommy, frozen in the middle of the torn apart living room.

Tubbo appeared behind Ranboo only a few seconds later, crouching next to them and scaring the primes out of Ranboo in the process.

“Primes, Tubbo! Don’t do that!” Ranboo hissed.

Tubbo only shushed them, pressing a finger to his lips as he stared at the door with intense focus.

The door clicked open, a triumphant laugh heard as a teen sauntered inside with a grocery bag of goodies and a gang of friends behind him.

Then he caught sight of Ranboo’s bleeding body on the floor, dropped his bag, and screamed.

His friends were quick to join in the panic, covering their mouths and breathing heavily and staring in disbelief of what they found. Their happy mood was crushed to pieces within seconds.

It didn’t take them long to report it to the police, and soon enough they were ushered away by authorities after a short amount of questions.

Ranboo, Tommy, and Tubbo only watched as swarms of EMTs and firemen and policemen came in and out the door. They marched through the house, found the two other bodies, did some inspections to see if they were really dead, then packed the bodies up and sent them away.

The trio breathed a sigh of relief when they found that they weren’t doomed to be trapped staying with their bodies their whole lives.

At least here they could pretend they had a home. They’d be near people.

A professional cleaning team came by to clean up the blood and whatever else the bodies left behind, then it seemed someone hired a renovator for the house.

The trio only watched. They had nothing else to do after all.

It was during this time that they started to accept what they were stuck with. Believing that one day soon, they’d be able to get away from here.

They started discovering their ghostly abilities by poking and prodding at things, and scaring the renovator half to death at times.

For the most part, they left the worker alone, seeing as they were trying to make the house look and feel nicer. 

It took maybe a year for some brave soul to finally move in. But by this point, the trio were so used to having the place to themselves that it felt weird to have another person in the house.

It became a game to see what the breaking point for most people would be. To haunt them until their heart was pounding so hard it could be heard across the room.

But the best part of having someone living there, was the fact that newspaper deliveries would start up again.

Every morning, the boys would crowd together around the paper and scan through it for news related to their deaths or anything else that piqued their interest.

Surprisingly, about a month into the investigation, they made it onto the front page (apparently the renovator bought a newspaper subscription for the house as they were still working on it. It seemed that they liked being able to read the news on their break. Though they could’ve just brought one from their own house, but then they’d have to pay for it out of their own pocket instead of whatever funding they received from the city).

‘MYSTERIOUS TRIPLE MURDER OF THE OLD ABANDONED HOUSE SOLVED?’

“What kind of headline is that?” Tommy scoffed with a roll of his eyes, “what? They can’t call us the homeless boys, or orphans? Where’s my pity headline?”

“Tommy, you hate pity.” Tubbo pointed out with a snort.

“Guys, holy crap you have to listen to this!” Ranboo cut them off, having already scanned through half of the page. “Police found evidence underneath the fingernails of one of the victims despite the fact that the victims hands were clearly scrubbed raw. There was also a strand of hair that had fallen onto one of the victims bodies. The DNA tests revealed that the suspect is our resident millionaire, Mayor Richard Smith’s son, Dick Bartholomew Smith. Dick B. Smith has denied all accusations, even when he was found with, according to police, “suspicious” scratches on his arms, which he denied were from the incident and instead claimed it was from an altercation earlier in the day.

Dick B. Smith is currently talking to a team of lawyers, but Mayor Smith, his father, has made a surprising statement declaring that he will get to the bottom of this, especially since it involves his son. So far, it seems that Mayor Smith is determined to find the truth of this incident. His statement is as follows, “three kids were murdered here in our little town. If this involves my son, he will not be immune to the consequences. I will personally see to that.” Mayor Smith has allowed this case to remain mostly public, and would like to let the town know that he will not be satisfied until this case is solved as he is, quote, “unforgiving of such a repulsing act of violence.”

The three victims in question have finally been identified thanks to a couple who asked to only be referred to as Niki and Puffy. Niki stated between tears, “I knew those boys. Not too well, but I bought them lunch a couple times and had long chats with them. They were real sweethearts, and I hope whoever did this regrets it.”

Her girlfriend, Puffy, added, “I’ve also talked to them. We actually offered to take them in a couple times, but they refused. I think that they were so used to being on their own that they simply didn’t trust us.”

Here at SMP Morning News, our hearts go out to the victims, Tubbo Underscore, Tommy Innes, and Ranboo Beloved. May they rest in peace, and may their case finally be solved.” Ranboo paused here, even as the paragraph dragged on and on and on. They had a full page to fill out after all.

The paper went on with more details on people identifying them and how Dick Bartholomew Smith was under investigation and questioning.

“HIS NAME IS DICK BARTHOLOMEW?!?!” Tommy blurts out with a loud laugh.

Tubbo also fell into laughter, tears already welling in his eyes as he wheezed from amusement. “No wonder he never used his first name! It’s fucking horrendous!”

“No wonder he’s such a piece of shit,” Tommy wheezed, “his name is literally penis. He is a penis boy.”

The two fell into a fit of giggles, but Ranboo didn’t join them. Despite the fact that Smith’s real name was incredibly funny.

They expected Mayor Smith to protect his son with vast amounts of money. He was a businessman after all, head of a company that Ranboo never cared to remember. The only reason he was mayor in the first place was because he thought he could handle it and fix some things about the town. He did surprisingly well, which no one expected of a rich fucker. But he actually used his own money to fix quite a few things up.

But the fact that the Mayor didn’t even bother hiding in denial about his son… he must’ve heard something. Or maybe he just dislikes his own kid. Or he’s just really into justice. Who knows?

Ranboo scanned through the article again, this time making sure to stare at the photographs as well.

The photo that accompanied the headline was only a picture of the house itself, and a small and extremely blurry photo of Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo talking together. It must’ve been a photo that they were just in the background of, as it was probably one of the only photos of them, so it was the only way for the news to show what they looked like for the public.

It was nice that they didn’t try to show a picture of their dead bodies.

After that, there was an image of Mayor Smith addressing the public at a podium, and another photo of Dick Smith with a deep scowl holding up a hand to the camera, trying to block their view of him.

“So…” Ranboo trailed off, “I guess we’ll see where this goes?”

Tommy put a reassuring hand on their shoulder, “yeah man. I have a good feeling about it surprisingly. Hopefully Smith gets adequately punished for this shit. Maybe that’ll put our souls to rest or whatever.”

Tubbo snorted, “I dunno about you two, but I’d rather not be stuck in a house for a thousand years with you guys.”

“Oi!” Tommy protested with a laugh, then tackled Tubbo into an impromptu wrestling match. “That’s fucking rude! Take it back!”

Ranboo watched on fondly for a moment before continuing reading the paper, specifically looking for the comic page. They could use a pick-me-up right about now, maybe there’s a Garfield comic strip today! They love those ones.

It took two years for all the court cases and evidence and DNA tests to come through. But eventually, Dick Bartholomew Smith was declared guilty of first degree murder, as well as his two accomplices, who both actually confessed to the crime and brought incriminating proof to use against Smith in exchange for the promise of a slightly shorter sentence.

Though Smith’s father created a new flurry of news and shock when he tearfully and publicly disowned his son, taking the time to recall the time when Smith wasn’t such a bad kid. But at the end, he was majorly disappointed in Smith, and actively worked to decrease the damage Smith had done to the townspeople.

Many came forward to explain what Smith had done to them during the court cases, which shoved Smith ever deeper into the pit of trouble he created for himself. His team of lawyers and attorneys tried everything they could think of, but it wasn’t enough.

During the case, and right before the sentencing, Smith had turned 18, meaning he wouldn’t just be sent to juvie. He was going to actual prison.

When the newspaper came and revealed the sentencing to them, the trio thought it’d be the final thing they would need to move on.

But it didn’t work.

Nothing worked.

--------

“After that… we didn’t know what else to do.” Ranboo said softly, their eyes glued to the stars even though they could feel everyone’s stares practically burning holes through their skull. “You know the rest. We summoned Sapnap, got left behind, spooked some more families, all that jazz.”

Ranboo trailed off, biting their lip as the old memories still stung more than they thought they would.

Techno squeezed their hand in comfort. He had taken it earlier, when Ranboo was explaining their murders. The gentle circling of his thumb was much more comforting that Ranboo expected it to be, and it made telling the story ever so slightly easier.

Everyone had also sat up to face one another in the middle of the story, though the ghosts would constantly glance up to the stars to avoid the heartbreaking looks on the families faces.

“I’m-” Phil started, his voice shaking, “I’m so sorry boys. I’m sure you already know this, but you didn’t deserve to go through such cruelty.”

Tommy shrugged, “it wasn’t too bad for Tubbo or I. Tubbo experienced barely any pain, and my death was pretty quick. Not painless, but it was nothing compared to what that fucker did to Ranboo.”

Wilbur was practically seething with rage, “if I ever meet that man I swear to prime I will-”

Tommy stopped him with only taking his hand, sad eyes focused on Wilbur’s face.

Wilbur’s anger practically melts away at this.

“Wil, it already happened. We’ve had a lot of time to think things over. Too much time if you ask me.” Tommy said quietly, “it was horrible. But it’s over. It’s done. Revenge is what caused this, so what more could it do? It feels nice in the moment, but what’s left would just be guilt. Smith… didn’t last long in prison. And getting the news of that didn’t make us feel any better. Justice doesn’t exist without harm to another. It’s just… we needed healing.”

Phil hummed, “I’ve never heard a single word of this in town… why?”

“People forget.” Tubbo spoke up, “there’s so many murders and crimes in the world, what’s one more? Besides, we weren’t all that important to people. Just another batch of street kids.”

“You’re important to us.” Wilbur said.

Tommy smiled, “yeah, you’re important to us too, dickhead.”

“Hey! What the fuck, man?” Wilbur protested with a laugh.

“How-” Techno started, gaining everyone’s attention, “how could people not adore you three? There should be thousands who mourned you.”

Ranboo shrugged this time, “well, there were a few. That kid that we saved, we later learned his name’s Michael, and he’d come by the house from time to time in the middle of the night and lay out a small bouquet of flowers he picked at the park.” Ranboo smiled, reflecting back on the kid with the shy but ever so bright eye, their other one permanently closed shut for reasons never explained. “He was the sweetest kid. Sometimes he’d stick around and chat for a minute, telling us about what he’s been up to and that he’s grateful we were there for him. The best thing happened for him as well, because one night when he was visiting, between the time when the house was once again for sale, Puffy and Niki had stopped by to pay respects, and found him here. I don’t know when it happened, but eventually the three would stop by together. Apparently they adopted him.”

“Does he still come by?” Wilbur asked, “I’d love to meet them some day.”

Tubbo tilted his head, “their visits had slowly trickled down to an annual date. Time moves on after all, and life is endlessly busy. But when they do come by, we make sure to listen. Maybe you’ll see them the next time they come. They tend to try and knock on the door if someone lives here, just to give them a heads up on what they’re doing.” Tubbo laughed, “they don’t really take no for an answer.”

“Then I can’t wait to meet them,” Phil said with a smile. “I’m sure they’re lovely people, and probably around my age too.”

“And Michael is Wilbur and Techno’s age!” Tubbo scoffed, “that’s crazy. We’ve been stuck in this age for so long, it’s easy to forget that people get older.”

Ranboo chuckled dryly, hugging their knees to their chest. “We would’ve been in our late thirties right now. I wonder what the world had in store for us, had our lives not been cut short.”

“Ranboo…” Tommy said, “you know that we shouldn’t think about that kind of thing. It’ll make us all… sad.”

“I know, I know.” Ranboo sighed, “telling the story just makes it harder to ignore. We could’ve done something with our lives, right?”

Tubbo frowned, “I dunno about that boss man. We were three homeless kids, we didn’t have much going for us.”

Phil cut in, “you three are incredibly smart. I’m completely confident that if you were given the chance, you would’ve been whatever you wanted to be in life.”

“Aw,” Tommy cooed, “thanks Philza. You old softie!”

“I am not old!” Phil protested, earning a chuckle from the group. “You three are technically around my age!”

“You’re right.” Tommy said, a mischievous smile finding its way upon his cheeks, “As I am older I have more command. I am the head of the household and I say, go to bed young man! Right this second!”

Phil scoffed, “you don’t tell me what to do, you little shit!”

“You’re literally the youngest, Tommy.” Ranboo said, “if we’re going by who’s oldest here, then I’d be the head of the house.”

“Then congrats, you are officially the old man!” Tommy cheered, “I’ve always said you were an ancient bitch.”

“I will literally throw you out a window.” Ranboo deadpanned.

“I’d like to see you try, pussy ass bitch.”

Ranboo stood up, making unblinking eye contact with Tommy, who immediately screamed and ran, Ranboo flying close behind.

The two flew circles around the rest of the group, Techno and Phil cheering for Ranboo, while Tubbo and Wilbur encouraged Tommy to move faster.

Of course, it ended with Ranboo tackling Tommy into the grass, both of them rolling a decent five or so feet in their play fighting.

Philza laughed, always the breaker of conflict, “alright kids, that’s enough. Come back to the blanket and calm down.”

Tommy scoffed, lightly slapping Ranboo one last time before coming back over to the blanket and flopping back down in his spot. Ranboo followed, hovering over Tommy’s face and flicking his nose before taking their own spot on the blanket and lying down.

The group settled, their eyes to the stars.

Wilbur spoke up after a long minute of staring into space. “How lucky are we to have met you three. You idiots changed our lives for the better.”

“If only we didn’t have to die.” Tubbo said dryly.

“Yeah…” Wilbur hummed, “I wish you didn’t. You three deserve everything the world ever had to offer.”

“You’re just saying that.” Tommy said.

“I’m not!” Wilbur insisted, “I genuinely think that you three are the best people I’ve ever met, and who knows? Maybe we’ve met in another life. Another time.”

“Pft, as if!” Tommy laughed, “we’re here and now. Timelines don’t change.”

“Look up.” Wilbur lightly commanded, “look up at the infinite stars and tell me that there’s nothing else out in the far reaches of space. If there’s a million stars, a million planets, then surely there’s life on them. Maybe alternate universes. Thousands of them.”

“You watch too much Doctor Who.” Techno chidded, “though you do have a point.”

Wilbur awkwardly shifted his arm across the circle to pat Techno’s head, but his hand just hit Techno’s face instead. “Aw, thanks Tech. I knew you’d be supportive of me.”

“Yeah yeah,” Techno huffed, shoving Wilbur’s arm out of his face and trying to keep in a laugh, “get your nasty hands out of my face.”

“My hands are not nasty!” Wilbur gasped in mock offense. 

Techno shrugged, “I dunno Wilbur, you like munching on sand, you’re probably covered in the stuff.”

“I face planted in it one time!” Wilbur screeched.

“You ate it for a dare!” Techno argued back.

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“D-”

“Boys.” Phil chidded, immediately making the two snap their jaws shut.

“He started it…” Wilbur muttered with a pout.

“I did not!”

“Yes you did!”

“Did not!”

The night continued, the twins keeping up their fake argument until the ghostly teens threw pillows at them to try and shut them up.

Eventually, Phil ran into the house during the chaos and locked the door behind him, watching the twins struggle and beg for the door to be opened when they eventually decided to come back inside.

He made them swear to stop arguing for the rest of the night before finally letting them back inside. After that, they made some hot cocoa, and watched a movie that the ghost trio picked out. One that they hadn’t seen before since it was more recent.

Of course it was Moana, which Tommy had an absolute field day with. He managed to watch it probably eight more times after everyone else went to bed. It wasn’t too hard to press a button or two on a remote after all. Or manipulate a tv for that matter.

Things were good.

Of course, like all things, good or bad, they must come to an end.

Chapter Text

Ranboo woke up in their beanbag with a gasp.

Well, they couldn’t actually wake up since they didn’t really sleep, it was more like they closed their eyes and spaced out for a long while. Drifting up and away and imagining themselves to be floating in the stars.

It’s been two days since they told their story to their little makeshift family, and something felt… different.

There’s been some sort of internal click, something almost indiscernible finally settling into the right place.

Now, in this weird dream-like state, someone was calling to Ranboo.

They didn’t know who or what it was, but it felt… right. It felt like home.

A song drifted up from somewhere within the house, and Ranboo stood, following the sound like they were in a simple dream.

Tommy and Tubbo were both “sleeping” in their respective beanbags, which meant that Tommy wasn’t watching Moana for the thousandth time, which also meant that the song wasn’t coming from the TV.

Carefully, Ranboo drifted down into the hallway, pausing in the center to listen at the doors nearby.

No music came from them.

Ranboo furrowed their brow, and continued on.

They hovered past the room where Tommy and Tubbo were murdered, which was now the office. They didn’t dare to even look at the door, only slowing outside of it and straining their ears for a moment before moving on when they didn’t hear anything.

When Ranboo reached the top of the stairs, there was… something, at the bottom.

Cautiously, Ranboo stepped down the steps, and as they neared they found that the something was actually this weird, warped space. Kind of like when you see heat waves wiggling off of the road or hot surfaces.

Ranboo didn’t pause, finding themselves to be mesmerized by the odd air, realizing that the space was right above the spot where they found their own demise.

When Ranboo reached the bottom of the steps, they slowly reached a hand out to touch it and found that it felt… warm. All of a sudden, their senses were overwhelmed with… life.

They could hear birds singing, wind brushing over hills, the fluttering of wings. They could see a perfect blue sky, fluffy white clouds lazily drifting along with the perfect breeze. Thousands upon thousands of flowers colored the neverending field with rainbows and gradients that Ranboo had never seen or could’ve imagined. 

They could feel the cool grass beneath their feet, fresh earth pressing between their toes as they deeply inhaled the crisp air.

A brook babbled somewhere nearby, hidden amongst the blades of grass and flowers.

The pain in their chest had vanished, and if they weren’t so fascinated by their new surroundings, they would’ve sobbed in relief. They forgot about how it felt to not have that constant stinging in their sternum.

Ranboo laughed, a sudden burst of joy blossoming inside them as they twirled in the sunlight, the rays warm on their cheeks.

Primes, it’s been so long since they could actually feel so much. It’s almost overwhelming, but at the same time, Ranboo can’t get enough. They’ve been deprived of strong senses for so long.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” A kind voice spoke up.

Ranboo cried out in shock, stumbling in their twirl and falling into a particularly fluffy patch of purple flowers, petals launching from their holds and fluttering down around Ranboo like confetti.

They were still sitting up, and found that they were only barely able to peek over the grass, but they could see a woman who was definitely not there before.

Ranboo stared at her. She wore a huge sun hat that didn’t droop despite its size, a blackened veil draped over and shrouded her from head to toe. The mesh material was still slightly see through, so Ranboo could still see the shadow of her figure.

She looked to be wearing a long dress, her hair wavy and falling all the way to her knees. Ranboo could barely make out the profile of her face behind the mesh.

“Who are you?” Ranboo asked hesitantly, “where are we?”

The woman waved her hand, and her veil vanished, revealing a familiar face.

“Kristin?!” Ranboo practically screeched, stumbling to stand back on their feet. The movement dislodged a couple petals that still sat in their hair, the purple drifting lazily to the ground. One in particular landed on Ranboo’s nose, and they quickly blew it away with a small puff of air.

She chuckled, either at Ranboo’s attempt to free themselves from the absurd amount of purple petals, or at their screech of shock. “Yes and no, Ranboo.”

“What do you mean yes and no?! That doesn’t even make sense! Are you dead?” Ranboo blurted, then suddenly gasped, their hands flying up to brush through their hair. “Phil’s going to be so upset.”

Again, Kristin laughed. She seemed to walk in the night despite the daylight surrounding them, like the mother from Ponyo (the Ponyo woman technically had a jellyfish thing shielding her, but y’know, same difference). She stepped forward towards Ranboo, her sunhat shading them both from the sun and pitching them into a shadow that was much darker than it should’ve been. Her hand, soft and cool to the touch, cupped Ranboo’s cheek, patting it twice before it fell once more at her side.

“I am and am not the woman you know as Kristin.” She started, her gentle smile never fading, “I am the goddess of death. And she is… a mortal version of me. She doesn’t know that she’s technically a goddess, but I know about her.”

“You just… split yourself in two?” Ranboo asked.

Kristin tilted her head, “I guess you could say that. Honestly, that’s a great way to explain it.”

“Okay, sure… it doesn’t quite make sense to me, but… whatever.”

Kristin smiled, “that’s alright. It’s a hard thing to understand and explain. I don’t think it makes much sense either, and I’m the one who did it.”

Ranboo stifled a laugh, then looked back out towards the field, surprised to find that it was shrouded in night when they stood beneath Kristin’s sunhat.

They could see the most stars they’ve ever seen in their entire life. Millions of them, perfectly speckled in the limitless sky. Brighter than ever before.

They could see the clouds of a galaxy in perfect view, impossibly closer than it should’ve been. Stars created constellations new and old, ones that you could never see with just the naked eye. The milky way was more visible than it should’ve been, and for an entire different galaxy to be seen from here was supposed to be impossible. Ranboo could even see distant planets of odd colors, much too close to the earth.

“Where are we…?” Ranboo asked in awe, taken aback by the sheer amount of a new sky they’d never even dreamed of seeing.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Ranboo could only nod, unable to tear their eyes away from the night sky.

“Welcome to Serenity, or as you know it, the afterlife.” Kristin said warmly, “I’ve been waiting for you for quite a long time now.”

Ranboo had to do a double take, staring at Kristin as their jaw dropped. “This is… we’ve been missing out on this for the past twenty years?”

Kristin hummed, “you were scared. There’s no shame in that. Besides, it was good that you didn’t move on so quickly. I think that there were some certain people that you needed to cross paths with before you came here.”

At that Ranboo came to a sudden realization, “wait wait wait. No, I can’t be here. Not yet.” Ranboo said, stepping back out of the reach of Kristin’s veil and finding themselves momentarily blinded by the sudden sunlight. “We didn’t even say goodbye. Where’s Tommy? And Tubbo? I can’t leave them, not after all this time.”

“I know, don’t worry.” Kristin assured them, “this is only a dream for now, but this world is promised to you once you’re truly ready to leave the mortal world behind.”

“How do we get back here then? Do we try to sleep or…?”

“Not quite.” Kristin said, “it’s simple really, for you three. Since you’ve been living in that house for so long, the house has become attuned to your spirits. You’ve made the house your own. Therefore, when you want to finally leave the mortal world behind, all you have to do is open the front door, and walk through.”

Ranboo blinked, “we just… leave the house? But we’ve done that so many times already.”

“You weren’t ready then, so the door to get here wasn’t open. Now that you are, the doorway will properly open for you.”

Ranboo stewed in their thoughts for a moment, their fingers finding a stray petal on their sleeve. They held it between their fingers and thumb, rubbing it gently and delighting in the softness of it. “What about the times when we were ready?” Ranboo asked, carefully stepping back into her shaded night and dropping their petal to instinctively reach for her hand. They were always the one to take Tommy’s or Tubbo’s hands during more serious conversations. It was a comfort to Ranboo’s anxieties, and they were lucky that their friends almost always allowed it. Surprisingly, Kristin didn’t pull her hands away either. She simply smiled, and squeezed Ranboo’s hands in return. “We’ve been ready before in the past. Desperate, in fact. All we wanted was to move on. So why now?”

Kristin tsked, her gaze turning slightly pitiful, “oh moonbeam, the afterlife doesn’t come to us just because we want it to. You might’ve believed you were ready to move on, but deep down, you had your doubts, did you not? You still felt no real attachments to earth herself, and only feared what the otherside had to offer.”

Ranboo almost asked why she called them moonbeam, but shook their head, forcing themself to focus on the current conversation. “No attachments? That’s not true, we had Puffy, and Niki, and even Michael! We liked them enough.”

“Which is nice to have some people that you enjoy being around, but you didn’t allow yourselves to become attached to them, right?”

“Why does that matter? Plenty of people die without any attachment to earth. Or anything for that matter.”

Kristin shrugged, “for a time they believe they have nothing, when in fact they have so much more than they could’ve believed. You see, in order to move on, you have to have some sort of attachment to where you came from. If you don’t, you could get lost on your way to the afterlife, or you could just be stuck on the mortal plane for much longer than you should until you’re able to find one.”

“That’s unfair though, what if you don’t have any connection at all?”

“Then you’ll find it.” Kristin said simply, “most, almost all people, have a connection without even realizing it. Your connection can be literally anything, a person, a pet, a device, nature. As long as it has some sort of positive effect on you, it can be your link. It doesn’t even have to be a physical or living thing, some people are able to come to Serenity with only a memory. It’s quite easy to get here, but there’s a separate factor of being ready to let go at the same time. Worst case scenario, I will find the lost soul myself, and guide them here. But there are still some that refuse to leave the mortal world behind, and fade away. It breaks my heart when it happens, but when it does, I turn whatever is left of them into a new star to be remembered.” She explained, her expression pained. 

“But we had each other. Surely that’s enough to get us here.”

“You did have one another, yes. But in your case it’s complicated. You three died at the same time, and since you were already so emotionally close to each other, it just… it’s different in ways even I’ve yet to understand.” She pressed her lips together, a frustration weaving through her expression before it melted away as quick as it came. “My theory is that the universe either declared you as one, or that it was simply an act of fate.”

“Fate? We were on earth for twenty years. Why didn’t you come to get us?” Ranboo asked, their voice cracking ever so slightly, “do you know how horrible it is? To be stuck in a single place for years and years on end? To never be able to leave the house you were murdered in? To watch your own murder investigation? And now I learn that we would’ve just faded away into non-existence?!”

Kristin winced ever so slightly, “I understand that it was painful for all of you. But I couldn’t interfere, you simply weren’t ready. You had no links, and none of you were willing to let the living world go. Something, or someone, was calling to you without any of you realizing it. You had new faces to meet, and deep down you knew that. I’m sorry it took twenty years for your paths to cross.”

Ranboo’s sank to the ground, burying their fingers into the cool earth where the roots of the grass flourished. “I was losing hope that there would be something, anything that existed once we “moved on”. Sapnap told us that there was something to look forward to, but I really started thinking that it didn’t exist. That it was all just some random stuff he made up to keep us from being depressed.”

Kristin gracefully sat down next to them, tucking her dress beneath her and tilting her face to see the stars without her hat falling off her head. “Though he’s very much capable of doing that, he’s thankfully one of the kinder demons. That’s why I sent him your way.”

Ranboo snapped their head to look at her, shock causing their mouth to drop open.

Kristin smiled at them, a knowing smirk settling on her lips, “you don’t really believe that a random book left behind by an owner with a summoning circle on a page appeared there by chance, did you? I might’ve not been able to show myself to you three, but I did try to help in the ways I could. So I sent Sapnap. It was a little cruel of me to do so without any warning, and Bad certainly had a rough time of it, but it was at least something to help you three. In hindsight, Sapnap turned out to be not the best of choices, seeing as he left you three on your own for so long.”

Ranboo chuckled, though it contained no real humor. They held their knees to their chest, half-heartedly twirling a pink foreign flower that they plucked between their fingers. “Yeah. He was helpful at first, and gave us something to look forward to. Sadly he turned out to be a bit selfish. Though I guess that’s expected of a demon.”

“They do tend to be a little selfish at times. But honestly, angels are almost worse, so sending a demon was the better choice.”

Ranboo perked up at this, “if demons and angels are real, does that make this heaven or something?”

“No.” Kristin stated bluntly, “this is the afterlife as a whole. Heaven and hell are more like… workspaces, and anyone who gets into Serenity can become an angel if they so wish, as long as they want to do some work. Truly evil people will be immediately thrown into hell, but if they truly regret their wrongdoings, they can undergo a series of trials to make up for them. Of course, it entirely depends on what they did in their mortal life. There are some evil deeds that can’t be forgiven. For example, Smith. He will not find redemption once he reaches the end of his lifespan. However, his little henchmen might be able to work towards redeeming themselves as they were mostly dragged into your murder. Only as long as they don’t do anything else unforgivable while they’re still alive.”

“It’s almost comforting to know that I won’t ever have to see Smith again.” Ranboo admitted quietly, “but I… I feel bad for him somehow. I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. I hate the guy, and so do Tommy and Tubbo.”

“You’re empathetic. It’s natural for humans to feel empathy, sympathy, and remorse for others. Even when they’re bad people. You want to believe that there’s some sort of good in them.”

“That’s stupid…” Ranboo mumbled with a pout.

Kristin laid a hand on Ranboo’s shoulder and squeezed it gently, sending Ranboo a warm smile, “I think it’s beautifully human, Ranboo. And you, dear child, are beautifully kind.”

Ranboo’s cheeks burned, a small and joyful flutter bubbling in their chest at the compliment.

They sat quietly, peering up at the stars and listening to the whispers of wind across the field, small creatures hidden within the grass going about their day as loudly as they pleased. They weren’t hunted here, they were perfectly safe.

Ranboo took a deep breath of the fresh air, savoring the smell and taste of it for a minute before asking, “where is Tommy? And Tubbo? Are you going to show this to them too?”

“Of course. Tommy is in the garden, and Tubbo is in the bee sanctuary. I’m talking to them right now, actually.”

Ranboo blinked, completely lost on what to say.

Kristin noticed this, laughing before clarifying, “I’m the goddess of death, moonbeam. I am everywhere and nowhere all at once.”

“Why do you call me that?” Ranboo asked, changing the topic before they could forget their curiosity on the nickname. “It feels… personal, but I don’t think we’ve ever met before.”

“Oh, sorry you just…” Kristin huffed, “it’s hard to explain, but there are alternate universes out there, and you- or well, most of the Ranboo’s, I’ve gotten to know personally. There’s a certain world that I especially love, where you are my child, and that’s my nickname for you.”

Ranboo could feel their cheeks flare up once more with a new wave of heat, a happy spark of energy lighting up in their chest. It’s nice to know that they have a parent in a distant universe. “Could I meet the alternate me? It’d be so freakin’ cool to talk to them about their life experience.”

Kristin winced, “unfortunately you can’t. All universal afterlives are separated. Timey-wimey stuff and all. As I’m death, my existence stretches over all walks of life in the millions upon millions of worlds and universes out there.” Kristin explained, her eyes shining with sheer love as she stared at the stars. It’s obvious that she’s proud of the work that she does.

Ranboo smiled. It felt good to know that death wasn’t some dark omen that reaped souls heartlessly. That death was kind and loving, and that she cared for the countless spirits that came to her.

Suddenly, Ranboo was yanked away from their thoughts as an ever familiar sharp pain of an old stab wound came back to life in their sternum. It felt worse than it did before, now that they had a taste of what a painless existence felt like. They gingerly touched their chest, their fingers brushing against blood-stained fabric. The blood wouldn’t stick to their fingers, ghost logic was odd like that, but Ranboo could still feel the sticky warmth that blossomed through their sweater.

Kristin’s brows pitched in pity, “you’re waking up. I’m sorry I can’t ease your pain while you still walk the earth. But it’ll be over soon. Once you’re ready, the pain will finally end.” She leaned forward, pressing her lips to Ranboo’s forehead, “I’ll see you soon.”

Before Ranboo knew it, the paradise faded away, and they woke up in their beanbag with a gasp.

Tommy and Tubbo woke at the same time, their eyes wide in panic and simultaneous wonder. They all made eye contact with one another, silently asking if they had all experienced the same thing.

Tommy was the first to break the silence, and shakily said, “I… I want to go back.”

Tubbo and Ranboo nodded in agreement. Tubbo spoke up before Ranboo could, “it was so peaceful. I can’t believe I’ve been living with a migraine all these years. I didn’t even feel it in that place. The pain was just gone .”

Ranboo said, “my pain too. It almost feels worse than before, but I think that’s just because we got to experience a moment without it. Did you guys see all the colors?”

“Yeah!” Tommy nodded excitedly, “I never could’ve imagined those bitches before! It was gorgeous. I got to watch the prettiest sunset I’ve ever seen in my life, a perfect view of it on this little hill in the middle of the garden, one that had a bench and a single tree atop it. Kristin and I watched the sun together, and I most definitely cried.”

“Interesting,” Tubbo hummed, “where I was, the sun was barely waking up, and the bees had all emerged from their hives to start their work for the day. But it was lazy and calm, they didn’t really have to rush for food. I think that they just built hives because they liked it. Some of them were so curious about me that they landed on me and crawled along.”

“For me it was midday.” Ranboo said, their eyes instinctually glancing towards the tiny attic window that they had. “But under Kristin’s hat, I could see stars like I’ve never seen before.”

They sat quietly for a moment, still awe-struck by the world that they saw.

“I’m ready…” Tommy whispered, “to move on I mean. I didn’t know that a place beyond here existed. That an afterlife was real and so…”

“Beautiful?” Tubbo completed. 

Tommy nodded, his brows pitching into a painful look before he buried his face into his hands. “What do we tell them?”

The other two immediately understood who Tommy was referring to, and both Tubbo and Ranboo glanced at one another in concern before looking back at Tommy once more.

Ranboo pulled themselves up from their beanbag, walking towards Tommy with their silent footsteps.

Huh. They had footsteps in Serenity. They had a full sense of touch. It was weird to not feel the floorboards beneath their feet as well as they felt the plush grass. They missed it.

Ranboo sat next to Tommy, slowly stretching their arm around his shoulders to give him a chance to shrug their touch away. But Tommy melted into it, wrapping his arms around Ranboo’s torso and squeezing tightly, like he was trying to ground himself. They’re all good at ignoring the bloodstains on one another, it’s not like it spreads or anything.

Tubbo appeared next to them, scratching gentle fingers up and down Tommy’s back in a soothing motion for both of them.

“They knew we’d want to go.” Ranboo began, “that’s why they’re helping us, remember? They want us to move on. To be happy. But not because they want to get rid of us or anything. All of this is to help us find peace. Funnily enough, it turns out that we just wanted to be loved.”

“Primes, that’s so sappy of us.” Tommy laughed wetly, though it’s clear that he’s bitter about it. He takes a long second to scrub at his eye with his palm, sniffling as he did so. Primes. Ghost logic makes no damn sense at all. “Why do we have to be so attached to them? It feels cruel.”

“At least we know that we can see them again.” Tubbo reminded him, a hopeful note in his tone, “we don’t have to be apart forever. As long as none of them turn truly evil.”

“Can we tell them today?” Tommy whispered, “I’m afraid that if we don’t say something now, then we’ll never say it.”

“Of course, Tommy.” Ranboo said, “is there any special way or place we’d like to explain all of this to them?”

“Just the living room.” Tommy murmured. “I want them to be able to watch us go through the door. I want them to be comfortable, and not afraid to cry if they need to.”

“Alright, what time is it?” Ranboo asked, looking at Tubbo as he would normally have a decent tracking of time.

Tubbo hummed, getting up and poking his head through the floor like an ostrich. He popped back up with a wide grin and he answered, “just about six in the morning! I could hear some movement from the kitchen, so I think that Phil might be awake.”

“Right, it’s the weekend, isn’t it?” Ranboo muttered, “so this will be the perfect time since everyone will be home.”

“Let’s not spring it on them,” Tommy said, finally lifting his face out of his hands, “we can wait until the moment comes.”

“That sounds perfect, Tommy.” Ranboo smiled, standing up and holding out a hand to pull Tommy out of the beanbag if he were to take it. Tommy did, and took Tubbo’s hand with his free one.  “I think we should wait a little longer though, at least until they’re awake?”

Tommy hums, his eyes focused on the attic door as though it’d pop open at any second. “Yeah, okay.”

With that, Tommy let go of their hands and sank through the floor, muttering something about scaring Wilbur.

Tubbo settled down on his stomach on the floor, his gameboy propped up so he could effectively play on it.

And Ranboo? Well, they didn’t want to bother anyone, not this early in the morning.

So they thought.

About everything.

Mainly about what they’d say to Techno.

Of course, they had plenty of time. Wilbur didn’t usually wake up until ten on weekends, so Ranboo had a solid four hours to themselves.

Their eyes caught onto the reflection of their kindle screen in the dim morning sunlight, and were struck with a brilliant idea.

------

Four hours later, Ranboo put their kindle to the side. Placing it carefully by the TV that sat just out of reach of sunlight whenever it filtered through their small attic window.

Tommy had drifted back to them maybe thirty or so minutes into trying to spook Wilbur. He was clearly upset, and probably just lost the nerve to scare his favorite person. So he sulked in his beanbag for a while before getting up to sneak downstairs and check on his plants.

When it was time, they all took a deep breath to steal their nerves, grabbing one another's hands for an extra ounce of courage. They all sank through the attic floor and down to the first, the sounds of people bustling in the kitchen were much clearer from here.

Ranboo took a deep and nervous breath, then pulled their best friends forward with a confident stride that countered their jittery energy.

They reached the end of the hall, and passed the final wall that separated the kitchen from the living room, finding Phil making pancakes, Wilbur making a frozen coffee with a pout on his lips, and Techno simply resting his chin in his hands at the table, smiling at the fact that he was done with his breakfast chores, whatever they were.

Techno’s eyes lit up at the sight of the three, sending them a big smile and gesturing for them to come and sit at the table.

It’s funny. They were a family of three, but they had a table that would seat six. It was perfect.

The boys chose the chairs that would let them watch Phil and Wilbur work, watching quietly for a bit, their thoughts racing.

“Are you three alright?” Techno asked, concern in his tone. “You haven’t said a word since you got here, and Tommy hasn’t tried to scare Wilbur yet.”

“We- we’re fine.” Ranboo said, failing at trying to put any sort of positive energy in their tone. “We can talk about it later.”

On hearing Ranboo’s voice, Phil turned his focus away from the stove, sending the spirits a warm grin. “Good morning, kiddo’s!” He said cheerily, causing Wilbur to turn towards them as well.

“What’s up, motherfucking bitches?” Wilbur greeted teasingly.

This was the moment that really pulled Tommy from whatever anticipatory anxiety he had as he finally laughed, standing on his chair to gain more height that he definitely didn’t need. “Oi! You can’t call me a bitch! You’re the biggest bitch boy there is!”

“Are you sure about that?” Wilbur asked, a mischievous grin sparking to life on his lips, “because if there was a competition on being a bitch, I’m sure you’d win first place. If I recall,” Wilbur tapped a finger to his chin, “you’re the one who told me ages ago that you’d win any competition thrown your way. So if this is a competition, then you have to win. Unless… you accept defeat and ruin such a perfect score.”

Tommy fell silent, his lips pursed in annoyance, “how dare you use my winning streak against me. This is unfair!”

“So you concede?” Wilbur asked with a raise of his brow.

“This is just bullying.” Tommy pouted, crossing his arms in a childish way and sinking down to sit in his chair, purposefully forcing his gaze away from Wilbur.

“Aw, Tommy.” Wilbur cooed, “I’m just teasing. But you’ll always be a bitch boy in my heart.”

“I hate you. I’ll never talk to you again.”

“Harsh.” Ranboo commented, watching their antics with a smile.

Wilbur tsked, finishing up the drink he was making and walking to the table, sliding the glass to Techno before taking the seat closest to Tommy. “There there, small child.”

Tommy suddenly growled, and launched himself at Wilbur like an animal. Anyone could see that he was purposefully holding back, keeping himself slower to avoid actually hurting Wilbur as they wrestled on the floor.

Wilbur was shrieking, a smile plastered on his cheeks as he fought back, a laugh bubbling between screams.

“What is it with you boys and wrestling one another?” Phil asked, bringing a plate of pancakes to the table. “Why don’t you play tag, or fake punch one another?”

“We literally scream and run around all the time, dad.” Techno said, already grabbing a couple pancakes and buttering them. “Are your memories failing you? You are pretty old after all.”

Phil sighed, already knowing he’d lose whatever argument that referenced his age. “My own family, turning against me. It breaks my heart.”

Wilbur gave up his fight against Tommy, panting as he got up on his feet, lightly shoving Tommy away with a laugh. “It’s okay dad, we still love you.”

Phil rolled his eyes. “You just want home cooked meals. Now, sit down. We should discuss the plan for today! There’s so much to see and do, and I want the boys to experience as much as they want.”

“Oh, uhm…” Tubbo started nervously, scratching at his head. Everyone sat down in their chairs during his pause, watching Tubbo with their full attention. “There’s actually something we need to tell you guys. But it can wait until after breakfast.”

“It sounds serious, are you three alright?” Wilbur asked as he picked some pancakes from the pile and loaded them onto his plate, slathering way too much butter on each of them before drowning the poor things in syrup.

“Yeah,” Ranboo piped up, sending Tubbo a look to keep quiet. Tubbo is probably the worst liar and secret keeper of the three of them. He tends to just chat without thinking, and ends up blabbering anything that pops into his head. So Ranboo had to stop him from ruining breakfast with heartbreaking news. Ranboo smiled at the rest of the family, “we’re alright.”

Something about Phil’s demeanor changed, but Ranboo couldn’t quite put their finger on it. His eyes became softer somehow, and more tender. Practically spilling kindness and love and acceptance. But over what? They hadn’t said anything.

Techno, even though he sensed the serious tone, switched to a light-hearted topic to ease the tension in the room. “I’m so glad I’m getting free frappuccinos for two weeks because of a silly youtube video.”

“It was the only way to convince you to participate!” Wilbur protested, pointing his fork at Techno before stabbing at his pancakes and shoving a bite in his mouth.

Techno shrugged, “I would’ve participated either way, I just really wanted more frappe’s. Besides, you’re the one who offered them to me to try and bribe me into it. It was just a bonus at that point.”

“What the fuck!” Wilbur cried out, “you were just going to agree to it?! My pleading was all for nothing?!”

Techno snorted, “yeah, kinda. Have you seen Tommy’s puppy eyes? Because I assure you they’re hard to say no to.”

“I knew it!” Tommy cheered quietly, pumping his fist in celebration. “But I think having Tubbo on the verge of tears helped convince you too.”

Techno winced at this, “it felt like my heart was breaking. I was being threatened. Tubbo started tearing up, then Tommy and Ranboo started tearing up, I wasn’t ready.”

“You evil little shits!” Wilbur laughed, “I love it!”

“But,” Techno started again, “I would’ve done it anyway. They’re family after all.”

“I’m going to cry again.” Tubbo said simply, “genuine tears this time.”

“Please don’t,” Techno said, clutching a hand to his heart, “I don’t think I could handle it.”

Phil interrupted then, “I saw the video once it was released, sadly, I wasn’t able to be here when it was uploaded, but I did watch it at work during my lunch break. It’s a very fun watch, though I do wish I could’ve seen you three through the camera. I bet you were being little shits the entire time the camera was rolling.”

Tommy grinned, “we are the poggest men in the world. Well, Ranboo is the poggest person, technically, but still to the same standard as Tubbo and I.”

Ranboo beamed at this, there was something about their pronouns and gender being acknowledged that just warmed them from their head to their toes. It never got old..

Breakfast continued like that. Light topics and stupid jokes that made everyone laugh. It would be something of a bittersweet memory when the boys said their piece of news, but it’d still be good despite the melancholy.

They made fun of Phil for practically inhaling his food, finishing his meal before Techno and Wilbur were halfway through. Tommy threatened to shove Techno’s coffee off the table for making a joke, and Techno became hilariously serious about it, clutching his drink protectively to his chest before chugging it down, shouting dramatically at the brainfreeze that came immediately after.

Wilbur made a stupid bet with Tubbo on the other hand, resulting in him having to drown his pancakes with even more syrup at his loss (for some reason, he thought having a staring contest with a ghost would be a good idea. As if a ghost couldn’t keep their eyes open indefinitely if they wanted to).

For twenty or so minutes after finishing eating, they simply chatted. Joking with one another and telling all sorts of dumb life-experiences they had from childhood to now if they could relate them to the topic at hand.

Eventually, the living cleaned up their dishes, put away the food and condiments, and finally sat back down at a clean dining table, still chatting the entire time about everything and nothing.

“So,” Wilbur said after a small lull in conversation, “not to be a debbie downer, but are you three ready to tell us what you wanted to talk about?”

“Oh, uhm…” Tommy stumbled over his words, completely unprepared for the change in topic. He looked to Ranboo and Tubbo, and the three of them came to a mutual agreement. “Yeah. I guess we are.”

There’s an immediate damper to the mood, the spirits struggling to find the right words to say. A way to break the awful news to the only other people they considered family.

“I think I know what’s going on.” Phil said, resting his elbows on the table and folding his hands together, keeping a gentle smile on his cheeks. “You’re ready to go, aren’t you?”

The boys could only watch as the twins’ faces melted into concern, then into something far more bittersweet. Sad smiles growing on their own faces as they stared the trio down.

Ranboo stared at Phil, eyes wide in shock, “how did you know? Were we that obvious?”

“Call it fatherly instinct.” Phil said, “I felt something was wrong, and came to my own conclusion.”

“Damn, you’re good.” Tommy said with an approving nod.

Phil chuckled, “thank you, I try.”

“If you don’t mind,” Techno chimed in, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms like he was the chillest guy around. Anyone could see that he wasn’t chill at all, he kept fidgeting and adjusting his position on his chair, but they wouldn’t call him out on it. “Can I ask what made you guys feel ready? It just feels so sudden.”

The trio glanced at one another again, asking silent questions to one another on whether they should talk about their dreams last night or not. Of course it was a resounding yes.

Tommy gestured for Ranboo to talk about it, and they obliged. “We had a dream last night.” Ranboo started, and for once they found that they felt no fear thinking about an afterlife. It wasn’t unknown anymore. It’s warm and kind, safe and loved. It was home. “I woke up in a meadow of long grass and flowers I’ve never seen before, a million different colors you could never even imagine made the world feel foreign and strange, but at the same time it felt so safe . I could fully feel the dirt and grass on my feet, the breeze in my hair, and the sun on my face. There was no pain, no blood, and for the first time I didn’t feel like I was tied to a single spot. I was free to roam wherever I liked. And then I met…” Ranboo paused, realizing that they probably shouldn’t say that Kristin is basically the goddess of death. It’d be too big of a shock, and besides, it’s not Ranboo’s news to tell. “I met the goddess of death, and we talked for a bit. She told me about the afterlife, and why we were stuck on earth for so long. I even learned that there are real alternate universes out there because she kept calling me Moonbeam.”

“No way!” Tommy interrupted, “she kept calling me Sunbeam! I of course simply inquired what in the fuck she was doing, and she told me about alternate universes and how I was her son in a couple worlds.”

Tubbo crossed his arms, a pout on his lips as he slid down in his chair, “she didn’t have a fun nickname for me.”

“Get fucked, pussy boy.” Tommy teased, sticking out his tongue.

“We’ll talk about that nickname thing later with Kr- with the Goddess of Death, Tommy. Anyway…” Ranboo continued, sending Tommy a look to keep quiet, “after my chat with Death, my stupid chest wound started hurting and bleeding again, and then I woke up. Tommy and Tubbo woke up at the same time as me, and we agreed that we wanted to go back there. But we wanted to tell you first. It wouldn’t feel right to leave without a goodbye.”

“I know it’s a little selfish of me,” Philza started, his eyes watering, “but I’m really glad that you stayed just a little longer. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I found that you all vanished overnight.”

“I don’t think it’s that selfish,” Tommy said, surprisingly gentle, “it’s nice to know that you care. I know I’d be upset if you guys moved away without any warning.”

“As if we’d ever leave you fuckers behind.” Wilbur said cheerfully, ruffling Tommy’s hair despite Tommy’s shouts of protest. “If there are alternate universes out there, then I’m sure that we’ve met in all of them.”

“You’re delusional,” Tommy laughed, shoving Wilbur’s hands away from his head, “I’m probably a sick ass villain in another world and you have to fight me daily but I always win!”

“Or,” Techno spoke up with a small smile, “maybe we’re all brothers in another world.”

“Holy Primes,” Phil groaned, “why am I a father of so many children?”

“Oi!” Tommy shouted, “how many times do I have to tell you, old man?! We’re not children!”

“You look like kids and act like kids, let me have this.” Phil said, then dramatically wiped a fake tear from his eye, “my little babies are all grown up.”

“Phil.” Tommy cautioned, “do me a favor and never, ever, call us babies ever again.” Tommy’s serious expression cracked much too quickly to be taken seriously, and the entire table laughed over the interaction.

When the laughter faded, the reality of the situation started to settle in. The air grew somber, the family keeping quiet as they contemplated on what to say.

Techno cleared his throat, “so… I guess this is it then. You finally get to have your peace.”

“I suppose…” Ranboo said, “I wish we didn’t have to leave you behind, especially after you went through all this work to help us.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Techno chuckled, “this was the result we all wanted in the end, even though it meant that you’d have to leave eventually. You’re not leaving us behind though, I don’t want you guys to be feeling bad right now, not when you’re literally going to heaven.”

“It’s not really heaven,” Ranboo said, shaking their hand in a maybe motion, “it seemed more like a haven . And its real name is Serenity.”

“I don’t care what its name is.” Tubbo spoke up, crossing his arms, “I just know that being there means no more pain, and no more being stuck in a house for the rest of time. I want to explore every inch of it, to never stop moving freely, to talk to whoever whenever I want, and to maybe get some space from these two.”

“Ouch.” Ranboo jokingly whimpered, “that one hurt.”

“Sorry,” Tubbo grumbled, “as much as I love you guys, I think we should be on our own for a bit. We’ve been stuck together for our entire lives. Living and ghostly.”

“That’s fair, but you could have worded it nicer.” Tommy teased, leaning forward to lightly flick Tubbo’s nose.

“Meh, I didn't feel like it.”

“Primes.” Phil interrupted their argument, propping his head on his hand, “I’m going to miss your stupid arguments, and your chaos.”

“It’s okay Phil,” Tommy reassured with a mischievous smile, “we’ll see you again, and you’ll never have to live a day without it!”

Phil’s eyes widened in fear, and he moved his hand to wipe down his face, “what have I done.”

“You love me.” Tommy cooed, fluttering his eyelashes.

“Yeah. I do.” Phil breathed without a moment of hesitation, a soft smile on his lips.

Abruptly, a new sound caught Ranboo’s ears, pulling their attention away from the conversation to try and hone in on it.

It’s the sound of birds singing.

Which seems ridiculous, there’s birds everywhere outside, but these whistles and songs aren’t indigenous to the area. 

It’s the birds from Serenity. That’s why they’re familiar.

In a sort of trance, Ranboo drifts up from the table, no longer pretending that furniture was some sort of obstacle to them as they simply float through it and straight to the front door, pausing just in front of it to listen.

The song was clearer here, still muffled by the wooden door, but they could hear it. They could smell the meadow, the crisp air, they could almost feel the grass beneath their feet.

“Ranboo?” A muffled voice called.

Someone gently grabbed their shoulders, turning them around. Ranboo was faced with Techno’s concerned face, and quickly stumbled back into the present, the world tuning back into hearing range.

Tommy and Tubbo are currently halfway across the room, terrified and panicked. Only held back by Wilbur and Phil.

“Sorry- sorry I just…” Ranboo stuttered, taking another glance at the door behind them. “Primes… can’t you hear it? Don’t you feel it?”

“Hear what, Ranboo?” Techno asked, keeping a firm but gentle grip on Ranboo’s shoulders.

“The birds, the flowers, the bumblebees, the breeze twisting through grass.” Ranboo whispered, turning back to look Techno in the eyes. “It’s really real. Serenity. It’s calling.”

“Do you… want to go to the front yard then? Would that help the call to quiet down?” Techno asked quietly, a question for Ranboo and Ranboo alone. Techno didn’t know the directions the trio were told to take when they were ready, so it made sense why he’d think going outside would help.

Ranboo shook their head furiously, but before they could explain, Tommy interrupted.

“You can’t go through that door, Ranboo!” Tommy cried out, “we have to go together! We haven’t even said goodbye!”

“I wasn’t going to open it,” Ranboo muttered, though there’s an unmistakable melancholy in their tone. “I just wanted to see where the sound was coming from.”

“How were we supposed to know?!” Tommy blurted, “you literally ignored us!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Ranboo repeated, “I wouldn’t leave without a goodbye, don’t worry.”

“Bitch.” Tommy huffed, “don’t do that again.”

“I won’t.” Ranboo sighed, “I’m sorry. It’s like it's… calling me.”

“I hear it too, but you don’t see me spacing out and walking towards the door.” Tommy muttered.

“Tommy,” Phil interrupted, “deep breaths, focus on what’s happening and not what could’ve happened. Don’t be upset with Ranboo, not now.”

“Uh-oh,” Wilbur teased, trying to lighten the mood, “you activated dad mode.”

“I’m always in dad mode, Wilbur.” Phil chuckled.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you, Ranboo.” Tommy said after taking a deep breath like Phil instructed, “I panicked.”

“You’re fine,” Ranboo replied, taking a step away from the door, “I would’ve done the same thing.”

Techno nudged Ranboo past him, leading them back to the center of the living room. Ranboo drifted towards Tommy, gave him a quick but reassuring hug, then looked back at the family.

“So I guess this is it.” Tubbo spoke up, “we’re finally free from this fucking house.” Tubbo sighed, crossing his arms and slowly taking in the room for the final time. A softer nostalgia hid within the shine of his eyes, the ever slight upturn of his brows. He spoke bitterly of it, but they would miss the place. It was their home after all. “I uhm… I’ll miss you guys. Thank you for helping us.”

“Tubbo,” Tommy said with a roll of his eyes, “you are complete shit at goodbyes.”

“I don’t know what else to say!” Tubbo whined, “I said everything within a few words! That’s all I need!”

“You just don’t want to get emotional.” Tommy blatantly pointed out, lightly punching Tubbo’s arm.

“That’s not true!” Tubbo lied. Anyone could tell that he was lying. His cheeks were going against ghost logic and darkening with embarrassment.

Ranboo chuckled and shook their head as the two quietly bickered back and forth, starting a small pushing contest. “I’ll start then.” They turned their focus onto the rest of the family, taking their time to scan each and every detail of their faces. Trying to permanently engrain them into their mind. “Thank you. Really. You all took the time to make us feel alive again. I’m certain that otherwise, we would’ve been lost. Faded away. We had nothing here to keep us going aside from each other. But then you three came into our lives and everything felt right again. I- I could never thank you enough for what you did. For what you’re doing. I hope that you guys have the best lives ever. And that your lives won’t be cut short like ours did. But no matter what, we’ll be waiting for you. Just don’t go around and murder anyone, okay?”

Phil chuckled, “I don’t think we have it in our hearts to do that. I look forward to the day we’ll get to see you again. I’m excited for you. I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time in… Serenity, right? You’ll love it there.”

“What if we get bored?” Tommy asked, finally stopping his little spat with Tubbo. He hugged himself, aiming for comfort more than a display of emotion. “I don’t want to be somewhere without you guys.”

“Oh Tommy,” Wilbur whispered, stepping forward with his arms spread wide. Tommy needed no invitation, practically diving into Wilbur’s arms to embrace him for a hug. Wilbur buried his face in Tommy’s hair, giving him a gentle kiss on the head before simply resting his chin on top, tears already starting to well in his eyes. “You’ll be alright. In fact, I’m confident that you won’t even notice the years ticking by before we get there. You’ll be so, so happy. You’re gonna love it.”

“How do you know?” Tommy asked, his voice muffled by Wilbur’s shirt. “How do you know that we’ll love it if you’ve never seen it?”

“I know because there’s no place in the entire universe that could be boring with Tommy in it.” Wilbur laughed, though it broke halfway through, “you can keep one another company again. I might not know everything that’s there, but I have a feeling that it’s wonderful. And that you three will bring the place a new life that’s been missing. Everyone will want to befriend you, and I’d be jealous of that if I weren’t so excited for you to be finally getting that peace you’ve been wanting.”

Tommy tightened his hold on Wilbur, his voice almost a whisper, “it won’t be home without you.”

“Oh…” Wilbur gasped, unsure of what to say. So he simply hugged Tommy tighter, his welling tears finally starting to fall.

“He’s right, you know.” Tubbo said, shyly avoiding eye contact. “It just won’t be the same if we can’t mess with you guys.”

Phil chuckles, stepping forward to cup Tubbo’s cheek in his palm, giving him a short kiss on the forehead before embracing him in a hug.

Tubbo pretended (badly) that he was perfectly collected, but anyone could read him and see that he could potentially break down into sobs at any minute. He buried his head into Phil’s chest, hiding his face from the rest of them as he hugged Phil back.

“Wilbur’s completely right. You’ll love being in Serenity. Being in a place where you can talk to people whenever you want, and see whatever sights you’ve ever wanted. We’ll meet you there one day, then you can show us everything you’ve discovered.” Phil said warmly, giving Tubbo another kiss on the head as he spoke, silent tears starting to slip down his cheeks. “I’ll miss you though. Life is never going to be the same without you. But it’s comforting to know that this won’t be the last time we see one another.”

His voice dropped to a quieter tone after that, into a volume that Ranboo couldn’t quite hear unless they snuck closer. But they stayed in place, watching their best friends receive the love they’ve always deserved.

“You nervous?” Techno asked awkwardly, shuffling from foot to foot as he watched the others.

Ranboo snorted at Techno’s unusual behavior. He could be awkward at times, but it wasn’t as often as most would think. Ranboo crossed their arms, their ever constant worries starting to kick back in. “Who wouldn’t be nervous? I mean, it’s a whole new place that I’ve never even thought existed before now. I’m still kind of unsure if it was all a dream, even with the confirmation that the front door is the gateway.”

“It’s perfectly normal to be nervous about going to a new place. I’d honestly be worried if you weren’t.” 

They fall into a peaceful quiet, watching the other pairs whisper comforts to one another. 

“All these years…” Ranboo started, “I thought that there’d be this big moment of moving on. A white light that blinds everyone who can see it, freaking- angel trumpets playing, maybe a heavenly choir.” They’re joking at this point, but it’s nice to lighten the mood. It makes the fear more palatable.

Techno let out a soft snort of amusement, reaching over to ruffle Ranboo’s hair affectionately. “Not enough fanfare, I’d reckon that you’d need a whole parade of angels that lead you three to the pearly gates of heaven.”

“It’s not heaven,” Ranboo laughed, “it’s just an afterlife. It feels weird to call it heaven. I never really believed in all the religious stuff... I guess it could be considered heaven. At least that’s what believers would call it. Primes, Tommy’s going to have a field day when he realizes he can ask if god is real and finally get an answer. He’s been joking about it for a long time, and bothering Sapnap with all sorts of questions about it, but he’s never actually gotten any answer for it.”

“Good for him. But what about you, Ranboo?” Techno asked, turning to face them, “you’ve spent so much time worrying for your friends well-beings. But have you stopped to consider your own wants and needs? To worry about yourself?”

“Of course I have.” Ranboo said unsurely.

“As much as you need to?” Techno asked, seeing right through Ranboo’s half-hearted attempt to lie. “Or only as much as you believed you deserved? Do you still blame yourself for what happened that night?”

Ranboo’s ghostly mimic of a heart thumped loudly in their chest, skipping a beat as it went. They whisper, making sure to be as quiet as possible to keep the others from hearing. “Of course I do. Everything that happened that night, all boiled down to me making a brash decision.”

“You were protecting the people you loved.” Techno said, “your heart is so big for everyone but yourself. It’s really not your fault that some little rich bastard had some sort of insane power trip. I would’ve done the exact same thing in your shoes. We’re alike in that way.”

“If we’re alike, then you’d blame yourself for it too.” Ranboo muttered, anxiously messing with their fingers.

Surprisingly, Techno simply said, “I would.”

Ranboo blinked, then finally turned to look at Techno’s serious expression, a sincerity making itself obvious in his face and tone. “Then you’re being hypocritical.”

“A little,” Techno shrugs, “but I’d eventually learn that it wasn’t my fault. Either by my family’s reassurance, or by thinking over it for oh, I dunno… twenty years? That’s enough time to solidify that blaming myself for something completely out of my control was no fault of anyone but Smith himself.”

Ranboo sighed, tiredly scrubbing at their eyes. “Then maybe we’re not as alike as you thought.”

“Ranboo…” Techno breathed, ready to try some other way of reassurance, but Ranboo spoke before he could.

“Techno. I’m mentally the age of a teenager, even though I should be the age of an adult. Teenagers don’t just stop blaming themselves for things, not without complete proof. And even then they’re so stubborn that they’ll still find a way to put themselves at blame.” Ranboo said, a bitterness in their tone. They took a deep breath to calm themselves, their shoulders drooping as they forced themself to relax. “I’m so tired, Techno. I’m so tired of the blame and the pity and the stupid teenager brain. Even though I don’t actually have a freakin’ brain anymore!”

Techno let Ranboo ramble for a minute, unsure of what to say. “Can I-” He hummed, his fists clenching and unclenching in uncertainty at what he wanted to ask. He huffed at himself, and forced his question into the simplest form possible, “hug?”

Ranboo looked over at him, and now Techno could fully see that their eyes were watering, glossy and wet despite being dead. They didn’t say another word, and instead slowly and awkwardly stepped forward to hug Techno.

The second Techno wrapped his arms around Ranboo, the dam broke, and the kid let out a stuttering sob, burying their face and wiping away their tears in Techno’s shirt. Ranboo’s looser hold suddenly tightened, holding onto Techno like he was their only lifeline.

Techno held them just as tight, a bittersweet smile finding its way on his cheeks. Bitter at the idea of Smith causing Ranboo all this pain, and sweet at the fact that Ranboo found some comfort in Techno.

“I know you don’t believe me just yet, and that’s okay.” Techno mumbled into Ranboo’s hair, his body automatically starting to rock back and forth in a comforting motion. “One day you will. So I’ll just have to say it a million times until it finally rings true in your head. It’s not your fault, and never was your fault in the first place. I’m so proud of you, Ranboo. So, so proud. I know the whole “Violence isn’t the answer” bit is a thing, but sometimes, we don’t have another choice. There wasn’t a way to talk Smith out of what he was doing. Besides, it wasn’t even all that violent. I think a punch or two is deserved to certain people from time to time. Though that’s probably why I’m not in charge of things like that.” He chuckled, though it was mostly to himself, “I think you did the right thing. Even though Smith made you believe that that was why he did what he did, I’ve done research. Smith is guilty of premeditated murder.”

Ranboo froze in Techno’s arms before pulling away suddenly, eyes widened in shock. They still stayed at arms length, as though they still wanted to remain close to Techno. “What?”

Techno nodded, “I was going to tell you this morning, but y’know.” He gestured to the room around them, referencing the situation they all found themselves in.

“When?”

“The news went out this morning.” Techno said, “I’ve been up since five, pouring over article after article. His father stumbled across a hidden room in their house and discovered an entire board with pins and photos that were connected by string. They were photos of you three, and there were files of detailed plans of different ways he wanted to murder you. He had unregistered guns, and there was even a laptop that had details of where major arteries and organs were, what injuries were immediately fatal and ones that were fatal over time. He had even worked out getting onto the dark web and asking for advice from several people. It was… not pleasant to read about.” Techno shook his head in disapproval, “I still can’t believe that it took twenty years for all of this to come to light. Smith denied all of it, claiming that his father was the one to set the room up, but Smith’s fingerprints are all over the room, and the ex-mayor’s prints are very few, and only on the laptop to turn it on and read through its contents. Smith is an absolute idiot really, I’m in disbelief at the fact that he thinks he can still lie about it as a 38 year old man. He still claims he’s innocent too, but he has no chance at a retrial.”

Techno, realizing he’s been rambling, shut his mouth with a click of his teeth, pressing his lips together to force himself to stop spouting the dozens of speculations and questions he had over the matter.

Ranboo seemed to be in their own head about it, their eyes drifting off to the side as they contemplated. They tried to speak, but their mouth only opened and shut quietly.

“Sorry for suddenly dropping that on you. I know it’s a lot.” Techno said, lifting his hand to brush some of Ranboo’s hair out of their eye, gently bringing their attention back to the present. “I just thought you should know about it before you leave. Maybe it can help to confirm it in your head that it’s never been your fault. Smith was the one guilty before, and this only proves that he has more than one screw loose.”

“I can’t-” Ranboo laughed in disbelief, “holy smokes. All these years and- this whole time? Our murders were always going to happen… one day or another… holy shit. ”

Techno nodded gravely, “I hate to say it, but it seems that this had been planned months in advance. All the research on the laptop was dated months before your murders. He even had time to display the bat he used before he was arrested. It was still… dirty.”

“Primes…” Ranboo whispered in shock, “it really wasn’t… I guess that me punching him just spurred him into acting sooner.”

“It appears so.”

“What-” Ranboo started, but they were quickly cut off by Tommy, who flung his arms around Ranboo with a cheerful grin.

“Oi! Boobus!” Tommy teased, leaning his chin against Ranboo’s shoulder and wiggling his eyebrows at them. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost! What’s going on?”

Ranboo groaned at the joke, “really Tommy? I’m having a private conversation over here.”

“Not anymore!” Tommy cheered, rocking back and forth with Ranboo, a wild grin on his face. “So, tell me all of Techno’s juicy secrets that he is for sure telling you right now!”

“I’m not revealing any secrets.” Techno scoffed, crossing his arms and musing over the fact that Tommy never failed to amuse the people around him. “You interrupted that part. I was just about to tell Ranboo here everything about my mysterious past and that I obliterate orphans daily. I also drop-kick children, but only in self defense.”

Tommy frowned, though it was terribly fake and obvious that he was only barely holding back a laugh. “Techno, we’re orphans.”

Techno gave him a grave nod, “I know. I’ll have to add you to my list of obliterated kids after you move on. I think it’ll technically count.”

“I can’t believe you! What the fuck!” Tommy screeched with a laugh, “mark your days Techno, one day I’ll see you again and you’ll have to be ready to be full-body tackled.”

Techno smiled softly, “I look forward to it.”

“You’re not supposed to make it sweet!” Tommy squawked, his hands gesturing wildly, “you’re supposed to be scared of me, you bastard!”

“There there, Tommy.” Wilbur interrupted, patting Tommy on the shoulder and failing to hold back a grin. “Techno will most likely tackle you before you even have a chance to attack.”

Tommy squinted his eyes, “we’ll see about that.”

“Can we have a minute here?” Techno asked with a roll of his eyes, gesturing to himself and Ranboo, “we’re still saying goodbye.”

Tommy groaned dramatically, “it’s been ages man! I need to leave before I cry again!”

“Just…” Ranboo begun, “one more minute? Please?”

Tommy and Ranboo stared at one another for a long moment, something pleading in Ranboo’s eyes.

Tommy gave in quickly, “Fiiiine. We’ll go bother Tubbo I guess.” He grabbed Wilbur’s arm and started to drag him away, “c’mon Wil.”

When they were across the short distance of the living room and bothering Phil and Tubbo, Ranboo immediately pulled Techno into a hug. “Thank you.” They whispered, their arms tightening around Techno’s frame.

Techno hugged them back just as tightly, “for what? Having a sense of humanity?”

Ranboo let out a wet chuckle, “I guess. But also for being my friend. For believing in us. For being open-minded to the fact that ghosts exist. Just… everything.”

“You’re family now, Ranboo.” Techno mumbled, his eyes starting to burn again, “I’d like to think that we’re more like siblings. If you’re okay with that.”

“Yeah.” Ranboo’s voice cracked at this, “I’m definitely okay with that. I kind of keep forgetting that you’ve said all this before. It’s weird to suddenly have more family.”

“A good weird?”

“The perfect weird.”

Techno stayed in the hug until Ranboo pulled away, but kept the ghost close by keeping a light hold on their shoulders. “You have fun up in paradise, alright? Eat a million potatoes in my honor.”

Ranboo raised his arm in a teary-eyed salute. “Only for you, Technoblade.”

Techno scoffed lightly, reaching over to ruffle Ranboo’s hair and mess it up as much as he could, ignoring the fact that he was crying now. “Now, get out of here before Tommy loses his mind.”

“Good idea, he might explode with energy if we don’t.” Ranboo laughed. They started to turn to walk towards the rest of the group who were chatting away with one another, before Ranboo paused. Keeping their eyes aimed away, their cheeks darkened against ghost logic, they simply said, “I love you, Techno.”

A warm smile blossomed on Techno’s face, “I love you too.”

Ranboo beamed, still avoiding eye-contact with Techno and walking towards the family instead.

Phil saw them near first, a bittersweet smile appearing on his lips, “I guess we’ve all said our goodbyes?”

The ghost trio stayed quiet for a minute, looking at one another in silent question. Ranboo spoke for the rest of them, “Yeah. I think we have.”

“Group hug?” Tommy asked.

There was no question about it, for a moment, the family forgot that they weren’t supposed to be able to make physical contact with their other ghosts.

But to their joyful surprise, they could actually do a group hug. Maybe it had something to do with the earring wearers holding one another, and basically stretching its effects to the others. It didn’t matter, because whatever it was, it was just nice to be able to hug everyone at once.

The ghosts led the rest of the family towards the door, their eyes fixed upon the wooden frame and golden handle. Nerves obvious in their eyes.

“Ready?” Tommy asked.

Tubbo took his hand with a nod, “ready.”

Ranboo took Tommy’s other hand, “ready.

The trio looked back at the rest of their family one last time.

“We love you,” Phil said, tears streaming down his face. “We’ll see you again one day.”

“Promise?” Tommy asked.

“I swear it.” Wilbur cut in before anyone else could promise the same.