Storge (DreamSMP insert)

18.

Chapter 18: Cookie Therapy

Tw/Cw: Mentions of arguing, short use of cursing.

"First, let's open the envelope. Okay?"

"Okay." The two took a quick breath.

Shaky hands slowly tore open the envelope. Eyes flew over the words. Ranboo stumbled over some words, used to reading the drawl of Tubbo's handwriting or his scribbles. Aurelia, however, flew through it, as she was used to reading Phil's handwriting.

As they finished, Aurelia scoffed at the letter. Quickly rushing to the window, she laid a couple of coins onto the windowsill, which a crow gladly took before flying off.

"You know, you could visit them." Ranboo offered.

"No." Aurelia threw the letter in the trash.

"Why n-"

"You wouldn't understand." Aurelia took a breath. "Sorry. My relationship with Phil is strained, and I haven't spoken to Techno in years. I don't think either of them wants to see me, not after the fights we had back then. Ooh, they were something."

"Do you want to tell me about them?" Ranboo carefully reached to the trash can and grabbed the letter, neatly folding it and leaving it on the table, just out of reach.

"Do you really want to know?" Ranboo nodded. "Fine. Our fights were mainly over Tommy and Tubbo. Also occasionally over Wilbur after he knocked Sally up."

"Sally-? Who's Sally?"

"Jesus, you're Tubbo's friend and you don't know about Sally? Where did you think Fundy came from?" She chuckled. "Anyways, the fights often happened when Phil came home from these 'great voyages' that he always seemed to go on. When they were younger, we were able to fight when the boys were asleep. As they got older, and everyone started drifting, we fought everywhere. Even at the dinner table."

"Is that the reason you left?"

"Not quite, no. Did you know, I was supposed to be a blond. As you can see, I'm not a blond. Funnily enough, I resembled both the women Phil had relationships with. Phil's wife, whom we never knew the name of, and Sami. Wilbur's mother. Presumably, Phil's elusive wife was my mother."

"Wait, Wilbur is Phil's son?" Aurelia nodded.

"Mhm. I'm younger, but I suppose the only reason I exist was to give Phil something else to look at rather than the product of his former 'mishap' as he called it. We fought about that, mostly. More often than not the boys somehow got involved."

Aurelia had a shadow of a grin on her face, as well as a subtle hint of longing in her eyes. Almost like a lovesick teen watching their crush kiss another. Reminiscing on a memory that never happened. Ranboo tentatively rested a hand on her shoulder, noticing the slight flinch she gave.

"Do you want to keep talking? You don't have to, I can always leave."

"That's alright. I do think I need to tell you about how I was with Techno. Do you want anything? Hot chocolate or-?"

"Uh, anything. Just don't use water- enderman stuff."

Enderman-? Oh right, isn't he some sort of hybrid? That's cool, I wonder if he can teleport and stuff. Grabbing some cookies she still had from a couple of days ago, she held them out. Ranboo took them. "I don't have anything I could make without water, so just take some cookies, m'kay?" Ranboo nodded. At least I've made a couple friends here.

"Okay so. As I've established, I look a lot like both Sami and Phil's wife. For some odd reason, I reminded him more of Sami than I did his wife. He yelled sometimes, sometimes about how I ruined his life. Of course, he always thought he was talking to Sami. Or sometimes even his wife. And said things no teenager should ever hear from a parent."

"Oh." Ranboo slowly pats Aurelia on the shoulder, as she continued.

"It only happened every so often. Sometimes we went years before he did it again. But the boys were older now, they were around and listened, even watched. I didn't want to put them through that. I left. I don't think Phil even remembers our fights. They only ever happened when he was super out of it. That wasn't the only reason, but it was one of the big ones."

"Do you want to share?" Ranboo asked. The duality of the question was enough to make Aurelia smirk.

"The cookie or my problems?"

"Both?" Tension in the room snapped, as the two marveled at how the mood heightened. Ranboo snapped one of their cookies in half, offering it to her. Gladly, she chomped down before continuing.

"Well, I think that's enough for today."

"We should do this more often."

"Yea what- just ranting about our problems?"

"Mhm."

"We should."

The duo sat comfortably on the floor of Aurelia's house. They talked for hours, well into the night. Lights from the windows of other homes shone into the windows.

"I still think you should visit him. I don't know how you're like with Techno, but you should try and confront Phil."

"Mmm. You're welcome for the cookies, Ranboo." Ranboo nodded, before ducking out of the house.

•Timeskip brought to you by Loss of Sleep•

Ranboo left a while ago, and Aurelia sat on the bed, watching as her neighbors drew the curtains and locked their doors for the night.

Decisions weighed on her mind, balancing whether she should take the plunge. Neither she nor Phil was good with emotions. Confronting him about this needed a good course of action. Charging back into his life isn't going to help, nor will avoiding him.

"I've decided. I'm going to make a plan. Then, maybe I'll meet up with Phil."

Nodding to herself, she quickly drew the curtains, double-locked the door, turned off the light, and went to bed.

Aw shit, I still have to apologize to Tubbo.

A/N:

Hello! It has been a long 2-3 months since I've updated Storge, and a lot has happened, hasn't it? If you scroll in my announcement page, you'll find most of what happened, but I have one main question:

How are you after the constant barrage of lore the past few days? I've been- fine.

I hope y'all are okay, I do apologize for being gone so long. Stay safe, eat, drink, take your meds, sleep, and go see the Sun/Moon <3

- Creme