They Rely On Hope. What Do I Rely On? - Tommyinnit Adoption AU

Chapter 178

Ranboo POV:

Niki had called Eret for some help with cooking earlier, and once both he and Ranboo had official parent permission- something Eret now insisted on before going anywhere- they had come over.

Now, it was chaos. Most of the group had shown up at Niki's house with a random assortment of cooking stuff so that more things could happen at once, and many many things were indeed happening all at once.

Ranboo had been put on the job of making the gingerbread as well as a few other random things, while Eret was in charge of the Christmas cake. Quackity and Conner- the two refused to leave each others side at this point- were both rolling fruit mince balls so that they could be dunked in chocolate later. Purpled and Karl were mixing some kind of batter from a recipe Niki had given them, and Jack was in the process of cutting pastery for fruit mince pies. Foolish and Sally were also tag teaming, one working on a recipe while the other helped Niki with whatever she needed extra hands for, and then swapping back and forth. Somehow even with all their help, Niki still seemed to be juggling about 20 different things.

"You ok kid?" Eret asked, stopping next to Ranboo on his way to get whatever he was going to get from the cupboard.

"Hmm? Yeah," Ranboo replied noncommittally. The gingerbread was his focus. Sure, he was a little tired, and needed some sleep, but he was fine everyone else was... where had half of them gone? He looked around and saw different friends collapsed on the couches or beanbags or the floor. Niki was still moving like a hurricane, never still, and both Sally and Foolish were moving around doing whatever it was they were doing at the time.

"Do you need some sleep? It's getting late..." Eret pointed out, and she was right. It was well past midnight.

"I'm ok, I wanna help," Ranboo replied, hating the lie, but still. Eret didn't need to know he couldn't stand the thought of sleeping knowing it would just be another nightmare filled night. If he worked himself to the brink and them slept maybe then he could sleep without the nightmares. It was a stupid theory but he wasn't going to give up on it just yet.

"If you're sure," Eret agreed, moving back to whatever she was doing. Ranboo just let himself zone out again, focusing purely on the work in front of him and not the rest of the world.

Eret POV:

By the third time Eret had checked  on Ranboo, she knew something was wrong. She'd been suspicious, but let it slide, thinking Ranboo would confide in her sooner or later, but he was insisting he was ok despite the fact that he really wasn't and Eret didn't think she could stand it anymore. So, this time she sat down next to Ranboo.

"What's going on?" She asked, carefully soft, desperately hoping he would talk about it.

"I just... I'm fine, just want to help Niki is all," Ranboo explained, clear fatigue in his voice.

"Ran you sound exhausted, and I've done most of what I wanted, you can sleep, it's fine," Niki called, her voice quiet so as not to wake the others, but loud enough to carry across the room.

Eret sighed inwardly as she watched Ranboo recoil at the words, wwatched the way he quickly 'fixed' his expression and smiled, shaking his head and insisting he was fine.

"Ranboo, hey, look at me," Eret instructed, taking hold of Ranboo's hands and forcing them to still. He waited until Ranboo met his eyes before he continued, "I can tell something's wrong, can you tell me what's going on?"

"The nightmares won't stop," Ranboo admitted, his voice broken and quiet and Eret wanted to sob as he pulled his friend into a hug. No one deserved this, especially not Ranboo. Such a sweet kid, plagued by pained memories. One night he may never recover from.