Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Tommy’s just a dumb chicken boy! What does he know about flying?”

Normally, Ranboo would laugh at a comment like that, agree that anyone else on this tiny server was stupid, that they couldn’t possibly know something about anything. 

But this wasn’t about anyone else. This was about Tommy. This was about the boy who’d opened up his server and then allowed Ranboo to stay. The boy who had turned his exile from aimlessly wandering the end islands, searching for somewhere to stay, into days spent sitting in sun with the freedom to do as he likes, and nights spent in warm, comfortable companionship. 

This was about the boy who had shown Ranboo life.

Ranboo would not let Tommy be insulted, and certainly not by the boy who claimed to be Tommy’s best friend.

“He knows far more than you do.”

“I can literally fly!”

“Yes, yes, but you haven't put nearly as much time into the technicalities as he has,”

“Why do you even care?” By this point Tubbo was gaping at Ranboo, “I was talking to Jack, not you,”

“I just don’t think a good “best friend” would talk about him that way.”

“I was obviously joking! Besides, it's not like you don’t insult him either.”

“I do no such thing.”

“You called him an idiot two days ago.”

“And he knew that I,” Ranboo grimaced, hating talking about his emotions, “appreciate him. You on the other hand are slandering him when he isn’t around to defend himself, and have done nothing to indicate any remorse.” 

“IT WAS A JOKE. Calm. Down.”

“I will not allow you to speak of him this way.”

Their argument probably would have gone on for longer and escalated significantly more, but they could all hear the sounds of Tommy chattering to Techno slowly getting louder as the two climbed the ladder. 

Both Ranboo and Tubbo knew that if there was anything that upset Tommy most it was fighting, especially if it somehow involved him. With a glare, they both resolved to come back to this the next time they were alone.

Dinner had been strange. Usually, when Tommy arrived at dinner there would already be several conversations going on. But that night he and Techno had arrived to silence and an air of tension that not even his best conversation starters could break. 

For the first time since the pube’s construction, he’d eaten quickly, hating how stifling just sitting there felt. Not even two minutes after he’d sat down, Tubbo had left, citing some new addition to the house he’d proclaimed complete just the day before. 

He wondered if maybe he’d done something wrong, if he’d accidentally said something or stolen something important. But Phil had smiled at him when he walked in. And it wasn’t the “I’m not mad, just disappointed” smile, or the “You’ve been bad, but I still love you” smile, or even the “I’m both endeared and exhausted” smile. No, it was his regular “I’m happy to see you” smile. So Tommy couldn’t be at fault here.

It honestly freaked him out more.

If it were his fault then it would be easy to fix. He’d have to apologize or return whatever he’d stolen or help repair or replace what he’d broken. But here he’d have to be more delicate. He’d have to figure out what was wrong and hope that his interference would make things better, not worse.

The first step was relatively simple; most of the people who’d been on the server for a while had lowered their guards and were pretty easy for Tommy to read. So it only took a few days to realize that the tension was only present when both Tubbo and Ranboo were. 

He’d been working on stretching his wings out at the training course after having read that proper stretching could help his wings grow to a size that could properly support his weight, and had heard the two storming down the mountain above him.

They seemed to be arguing about who gave better hugs of all things. 

But, unlike the usual joking tone that Tubbo slipped into whenever he and Tommy would fight over who was clingier, or the fondness that laced all of Ranboo’s teasing, their voices sounded harsh. Subtle barbs underlying every sentence and no giggles interspersed throughout. As they blew by the front of the tunnel, Tommy could see the pointed distance between them, the glares and tense postures, the corners of their mouths turned down even as they spit aggression at each other. 

Tommy was honestly confused. Sure Ranboo had been a little weird around the others when he’d joined, and sure it had seemed particularly strong around Tubbo, but he thought that they’d moved past it. Just last week they’d been perfectly fine when they’d helped Tommy clean the mud from his wings after pranking Niki. Ranboo had even told him later that: “Tubbo wasn’t completely worthless to have around.” Which was high praise coming from him.

So Tommy didn’t know why they were suddenly at each other’s throats. Why one of them would suddenly find an excuse to leave anytime he tried to pull them together either to talk it out or just because he missed hanging out with them both. He didn’t know why everyone on the server would tense up and avoid his questions when he tried to ask them what they knew or why they would roll their eyes whenever he received a new present from one of the two. For that matter, he didn’t know why they had suddenly increased the number of favors they would do for him and gifts they would give him.

The whole situation was weird and stressful, and he just wanted things to go back to how they were. 

But as the weeks went on, it only got worse. 

His best friends didn’t treat him the same anymore. They were always a little too nice, a little too willing to let him have his way. There were no more playful fights or teasing banter, no gentle scolding when he stole something. Just compliments and acceptance that seemed less like genuine praise and more like proof of something that he hadn’t yet figured out.

Tommy knew, of course, that Phil’s advice to “let them sort it out on their own” and Wilbur’s advice to “just ignore them” was probably good. But he was the server’s admin. He had brought everyone here. There was a part of him that felt like resolving conflict was his responsibility.

It was that mix of feelings that had him sitting at the top of the mountain, near the foot of his little nest, when Ranboo and Tubbo appeared behind him clearly just about to ask him something.

“Hey, guys.”

“Tommy! Bossman!” Tubbo started, “We have a very important question for you,”

“Uh-huh.”

This time it was Ranboo who spoke.

“We need to know which of the two of us is the superior friend and which is unworthy of the title “best friend.” We have come to the conclusion that you are the only one who can properly decide.”

“What.”

“Ranboo doesn’t believe that I’m your best friend and I think he’s a dick, so we need you to pick who’s best,”

“Is this what you’ve spent the last few weeks fighting about?” Tommy rubbed his forehead. “Really?”

Ranboo looked indignant, as though it was Tommy who was being strange here. 

Tubbo turned to him and said, “See, I told you he’d think this was stupid.”

“You didn’t even tell him what you’d done!”

“Because I didn’t do anything”

Tubbo sounded like he’d said this many times before.

“You insulted him!” Ranboo turned to Tommy, “He insulted you when you weren’t even there to defend yourself,”

“I didn’t insult him,” Tubbo had lifted off the ground to get in Ranboo’s face, “It. Was. A. Joke.”

“Hey. Hey.” Tommy cut in before either of them could escalate things any further, “Why don’t you both calm down and you can each tell me what happened. Alright?”

Grumbling, Tubbo allowed Tommy to pull him back to the ground

“Now. Tubbo, why don’t you go ahead and tell me what happened.”

“Okay, okay, so we were all in the pube and I was joking around with Jack. He said that you’d told him that blazes could fly, so he was thinking he’d just go jumping off of things to see if he could as well. 

“I told him that he shouldn’t trust you, of all people, when it comes to flight, and then Ranboo suddenly starts acting like I’d threatened to kill you and accuses me of being a bad friend.”

“Ranboo?”

“Tubbo is completely misrepresenting what he said. He said you were, and I quote, “Just a dumb chicken boy who doesn’t know anything about flying.” I obviously wasn’t going to let some nobody insult the work you’ve done and insinuate that you don’t understand the concepts of flight.”

“I insinuated no such thing!”

As he held Tubbo back from jumping at Ranboo again, Tommy suddenly realized why Ranboo was so upset by what sounded like a relatively simple joke.

“Tubbo! Calm. Chill out, I know what happened.”

“But he’s trying to make me look bad!”

“No. No, he’s not. Calm down and I think we can work this out.”

Eventually, Tommy managed to get them both sitting down, far enough from each other that they couldn’t easily lunge.

“Ranboo. I appreciate that you’re so willing to defend me. I’m glad to know how much you care. But I need you to remember that you’re not in a castle anymore. Tubbo wasn’t trying to discredit me or make people think I’m dumb. He was just telling a joke. 

“Everyone on the server knows I can’t fly, it’s no secret. So I told Tubbo that he was fine to joke about it.”

“But-” Ranboo paused for a moment, seeming confused, “Why would you tell him he could insult you? And why would an insult be thought of as funny?”

“It’s funny because both he and I know he cares about me. So we know that when he calls me dumb he’s not saying that he actually thinks I’m stupid, he’s saying that I often act stupid. Which I do.”

“So when he says you don’t know anything about flying-”

“I mean that he obviously knows a great deal about flying technically, but has no practical experience, and so can’t be trusted on everything related to flying.”

“I see. I suppose he wasn’t insulting you then, Tommy.”

Tommy smiled “It was sweet that you were so defensive of me though.”

“Well, you are the only person on this server who has done anything worthy of respect.”

Tommy laughed. He wasn’t sure why Ranboo had decided he was so much better than the others, but he was glad to have him by his side.

He was slightly less glad a few hours later when both Ranboo and Tubbo had decided that his lap was a perfect pillow for their midday naps.