Midnight Arson (Platonic! Ranboo x Tubbo)

Chapter 22: The Nukes (Part 2)

(!) Trigger Warning: puke (!)

Ranboo sprinted down the boardwalk and across the many piers of Snowchester. If his hunch was anything to go by, the world was in grave danger; he had to stop his husband before it was too late. The humanoid rushed up the steps to his family's home, and burst into the front entry way. All was quiet in the house, but there was no peace as Ranboo made his rounds.

He checked every room, every closet, and every floorboard for clues, but there were none to be found. It had to be here somewhere. In a final, last-ditch effort, the sentient walked to the back of his closet. He pushed against the back wall to open a secret door: his panic room.

Dust drizzled down from the top of the doorway, lingering in the air as he entered the chamber. Memories of a crisis or two flooded his mind as he stepped into the dust-covered room.

Once upon a time, Ranboo had visited the room regularly. In times of great distress, he would sit in the corner of the great, metal box as he breathed through his panic. It was a refuge he'd outgrown when he'd platonically tied the knot with Tubbo. Soon after, the enderman didn't need the safe space to calm his anxious mind. And so, the room had been abandoned...until now.

Ranboo ran about the space, rapping his knuckles across every inch of metal. "Come on, come on," he goaded the walls. "It has to be here..." The being was just about to lose his cool, when suddenly, he heard it: the far-right corner. It was hollow. 

Palms flat against the wall, Ranboo pushed with all his might, desperate to unveil a secret door- it didn't budge. The sentient groaned in frustration. "Okay," he breathed. "One last time before I get the TNT."

The hybrid placed his hands against the cool metal once again, and pushed. The strength of the act combined with the unmoving wall forced Ranboo's feet to slide back. The movement threw the being off balance and caused him to stumble, skewing his push off to the left. The sound of metal grinding against metal echoed throughout the chamber. Ranboo froze. Had he finally unearthed what he'd been looking for?

Upon further inspection of the wall, a huge grin found its way onto Ranboo's face: with only an inch-wide doorway, the secret room had been breached. The enderman hybrid dug his fingers into the crack and threw his body weight into one, mighty push. Slowly, ever so slowly, the metal wall slid open. The second the opening was wide enough for him to slip through, the being ceased his actions and stared into the room.

It was just as he'd imagined it. Before him stood an exact replica of Tubbo's bunker in The Syndicate. Every detail was identical, from the filing cabinets lining the room's perimeter to the enderman writing on the back wall's white board.

Ranboo narrowed his eyes in suspicion. So, Tubbo had two planning bunkers. The humanoid had thought as much after his meeting with Jack. He just needed evidence for the rest of his theory to be proven correct.

The sentient rushed over to the center table, and slid the scattered papers off the server map. Surely, the map would reveal what Tubbo was up to. But as the being scanned over the piece of cartography, Ranboo realized his worst nightmare had come true: he was right.