a vigilantes tale. | sbi

four. (tubbo's interlude.)

tubbo was getting more and more worried by the second, minute, god hours! why? it's been a couple of hours, and tommy hasn't come back home. all he had to do was just to get some money and come home. 

but no, instead he just had to go and involve himself in more crime. tubbo himself has been busy with the gear he's been developing the past years. all for the sake of his and tommy's safety. suddenly there was a knock at the window. "tommy! oh my god, bossman i've been so worried! why did it take you so long— wah!!"

tubbo was in shock when he saw and enderman, wait. that's not an enderman? what is that? "who are you, and what are you? why are you here? did you kill tommy!?" tubbo yelled out pointing a screwdriver towards the creature.

"woah man, calm down. i'm here to uhm... tell you something." the creature said going inside the apartment. "hmm, nope. get out."

 but the creature just teleported into the living room. "uh, come sit down? my name is ranboo, and you may think that i'm an enderman, but i'm not...? i don't know exactly what i am, but i do know that i'm half enderman...?"

 the creature, ranboo told the shorter shifting himself into his human form. "woah! how did you do that?" out of curiosity, tubbo sat beside him poking him in the face. "so why are you here again?" he asked while still poking him in the face.

 "i uh, first of all could you like... stop poking my face? and uh, how do i say this, your friend, tommy? yeah, he saved my life and uhm. he left this thing behind?" ranboo said, pulling out the earpiece out of his pocket.

"oh! but how did you track it back to here?" tubbo asked, snatching the earpiece from his hands. "well, i worked in a mechanical shop, downtown of l'manburg. you know the one that the green creeper owns!" ranboo explained while purple particles were floating around him. "so, i asked sam to track down your house, haha" 

awkwardly wafting the small particles in air, tubbo got up and went over to his computer. man, tommy really needed to use the remaining braincells in his head sometimes. the silence was loud and painful. 

tubbo was too fixed on his monitor that he didn't notice that ranboo had already left. small purple particles were slowly fading away, and tubbo turned around to thin air. ranboo had left a paper note on a table by the window. 

''[insert some number] here is my number if you ever need my help! i just remembered that i had left something important by the alleyway haha...'' signed, ranboo beloved...?

tubbo scratched his head in confusion. he then remembered to look for tommy, so he shook his head and went outside. and oh, how tubbo was pissed, but also really worried for tommy. because at the end, it's tubbo and tommy against the world... right?

~

after several hours tubbo was close to giving up. he ended up in the far south of the district that they lived in. his stomach had been growling, he was tired, when suddenly a pink haired woman walked out of her bakery. 

''hey kid, are you alright? you look distressed.'' she said softy as she approached him. ''i don't want to do this right now, woman.'' tubbo flipped her off harshly, yet the woman still approached him gently. 

''listen here, you look like you need some rest, i have a place at the back of my bakery that you could rest there.'' tubbo got this warm feeling bubbling inside him, and this was the same feeling he got from tommy the first time they meet. 

the woman greeted her with warm hands, even though he was rude. all he could do was collapse in the woman's embrace, sobbing. ''there, it's going to be alright. whatever you may be going through right now, i promise it's going to get better.'' she soothingly said, rubbing circles around tubbo's back.

this was the first time that someone apart from tommy was nice to him. back at the orphanage, the only thing tubbo got from interacting with people, and genuinely wanting to make friends, was disgust and negativity. 

so tubbos expectations of strangers were sat low. but there was also that ranboo guy, but he quickly waved that thought away. ''thank you.'' was all tubbo could say before passing out due to exhaustion and hunger.

 the woman got scared of him suddenly passing out, so she carried him over to her bakery. when she entered her bakery, a much taller boy came running over to her in worry. 

without exchanging a greeting or anything, the boy took tubbo up to the backroom of their bakery, where a small guestroom was. he gently placed the boy down and went back to the woman.

''niki, i have so many questions for you. where did you find him, why do you have him, how did he end up here, do you even know who he is--'' niki quickly shut him up by giving him a glass of water.

 ''calm yourself, ranboo. i was just baking some bread, when i saw this boy outside running back and forth in a hurry. so, i got worried, because this boy looks younger than you, with barely any warm clothes on, at the crack of dawn.'' she said, pulling out a basket with a cloth covered over it. 

there was a long silence between them, but it was comforting. niki also had a lot of questions for him. ranboo came back home without the things she asked him to get, after hours later he comes back in all bruised up. But she didn't question it, yet.

a couple of hours later, tubbo woke up due to the smell of freshly baked pastry and bread. confused of where he was, he jolted his body up giving him a light headache. 

to his surprise, the first thing he saw was purple particles floating at the door, so he of course went over and to check who it was, only to get jump scared by a tall figure. ''what the fuck man! oh, it's you.'' 

he looked up to see ranboo. ''are you alright? i'm sorry for scaring you like that! i was just worried because niki said she found you outside our bakery and everything.'' he explained carefully, fidgeting with his hands.

''you're that ranboo guy,right? what are you doing here? did you follow me or something?'' ranbooquickly shook his head, because in all means was, he not stalking him or anythinglike that. 

''no no, i live here alongside niki, again this is our bakery.'' ranboosaid empathizing the 'our'. ''come you must be hungry, niki have baked somebread for breakfast. well, it is past breakfast time so consider this brunch.''