Work Text:
Ranboo had never been one for a consistent sleep schedule, and the hope that a trip to the UK would solve all of his issues had been a naive one.
The air in the lounge around him felt stale, dry, and so bitterly cold. He knew Winters in Europe wouldn’t be the greatest, but shivering under a duvet in the middle of October was a very big ‘Why is this happening’ in Ranboo’s books.
He tries pulling the blanket closer to him, but any heat he hopes to gain had already aired itself out from the covers pulling past his feet. Curse puberty and the burden of long legs.
He had actually fallen asleep earlier; when it was warmer and the heat was still around 70 degrees. Or, as Tubbo has so kindly supplied earlier, “It’s 21, dickhead”. Ranboo thinks of the hoodie he had taken off earlier in the day. He mourns the loss of not knowing where the hell he put it. Ranboo shoves the duvet off and onto the floor. The couch he had been lying on had no sense of warmth, and after a glance around the room, every other surface looked no better at retaining what residual heat his body could provide. All except that little loft Tubbo had kept himself in. Before standing, Ranboo takes a moment to stare at the bundle of blankets on the mattress there. How Tubbo can sleep in this cold is beyond him, but Ranboo supposes that anyone with an actual fuzzy blanket could sleep just about anywhere.
Ranboo needs a plan, and fast. Forcing himself into Tubbo’s bed? Probably weird, and he’d be sent back to America before sunrise.
Asking Ms. Smith for extra blankets? After a glance at his phone, there is no way he’s waking her up at 2AM, that is just cruel.
Call his parents and ask them to mail some blankets over? Not a bad plan, but he might as well just order a heater. It would probably arrive faster anyway.
Wait.. a heater. Does Tubbo even have one of those? The in-house heating has been a bit broken, only turning on at the exact time it’s not needed. But maybe a space heater would work? To at least warm Ranboo up enough to sleep. Oh, what is he kidding. Tubbo wouldn’t have anything convenient, ever. Guy has enough camera cords to fill a warehouse, but hell if he’ll have a space heater to keep him warm at night. Ovens work as space heaters, right?
You know what? That works.
Ranboo brings himself to stand, the natural air of the room giving him chills. And as he begins his shuffle toward the kitchen, with arms brought up to hug himself and cover the goosebumps, his foot nudges a familiar soft fabric.
God praise all that is holy-
Ranboo scrambles to pick up the hoodie, slipping it on. His body is racked with another chill as the material touches his arms, but he ignores it. He continues his shuffle to the kitchen. While the kitchen overhead light had been off, Ranboo wasn’t surprised to see the stove-light on. Tubbo had a thing about having some sort of soft light on when he went to sleep, and while Ranboo certainly wasn’t complaining, you couldn’t even see the light from where Tubbo slept. Ranboo couldn’t bother worrying about that now, however. Less brain cells for complaining, more for getting the oven on.
He shuffles his way around the island and reached the oven. Sacrificing a bit of body heat to reach an arm forward to start jammin’ buttons, aaaand- Beep
Voila! Heat has been secured. All he had to do was wait. Ranboo opens the oven slightly and stands close. Bringing his hands up to hug himself and hold what heat he could; while rubbing his arms got him nowhere, it was the feeling that mattered. And just as Ranboo forces out a tight sigh from his lips, a door opens behind him.
Snapping his head around, a light shone in the hall just after the kitchen. The light is flicked off with an audible flick of the switch, and right into the kitchen waltzes an exhausted looking Tubbo. Stretching his arms above his head, he yawns, but snaps his jaw shut once he notices Ranboo sitting there,
“Jesus, man! Fuckin’ scared me.”
Ranboo just shrugs and looks back to the digital screen on the oven top. Still not warm enough.
“Did you need the bathroom too?”
“I needed the oven, which I have now acquired.” Ranboo turns his head back to Tubbo, gesturing with a drab hand to the appliance.
Tubbo’s brows furrow, but a smile graces his lips.
“Why?”
“Cold.”
The two share a moment of silence as Ranboo goes back to eying the innards of the oven. The coils within have heated to an ombre orange. He feels warmer just looking at it. Another chill runs down his spine and his arms grip tighter to his hoodie. A figure promptly shuffles its way closer, and Ranboo chuckles as Tubbo is hugging his own arms. “You too?”
“At first I had to piss, but now that you bring it up, yes. It’s cold, and I am now upset.”
Ranboo stifles a laugh, but keeps his gaze down. “I gave you the biggest blanket we have, man. How are you cold? I have been sleeping with bath towels for the last week, what the hell.”
“It literally holds no heat. And you have fuzzy bath towels. You’re welcome to take back the comforter.”
“If I took it back then Mother would make me feel bad.”
“As she should.”
A silence graces them.
“I’m getting a lot of two-faced-ness out of you right now, boss man.”
“‘Two-Faced-Ness’ isn’t a real term.”
“It is now.”
“It’s really not.”
“It is because I said so.”
The silence comes back. The oven isn’t warming up.
Tubbo sighs, reaching forward to turn off the oven.
“Hey! Why? I needed that.”
“Let’s go watch a movie or something. Standing here is boring.”
Tubbo turns and begins walking. Ranboo follows.
“How are we going to get warm from a movie?”
“We probably won’t, honestly. But it’ll at least be less boring.”
“I hate that you have a point.”
The duo enter the lounge again, and Tubbo grabs the TV remote from the stand. Turning it on (Ranboo is thankful for the Smart TV’s in the house), he scrolls through the menu options before landing on Netflix. As it loads, Ranboo goes to grab the blankets from Tubbo’s loft. To the surprise of no one, they were very soft and fuzzy, and still war-..
Why are they still warm, are you kidding me,
“Hey, I still have Toms’ Netflix account.”
Ranboo sighs, “Doesn’t your family have one?”
“Yes, but exploiting my friends out of convenience is far more appealing.”
Ranboo gathers the blankets in his arms and shoves them all to the couch. If Tubbo can have all of the heat, then he can at least share with Ranboo. Tubbo drops himself right on top of them, and Ranboo holds back a groan of protest.
“I was going to make an epic blanket fort, and you have foiled every plan I have ever had in my life. Ever.”
“Oh, that reminds me! Here,” Tubbo tosses Ranboo the TV remote, “You pick a movie while I find the space heater.”
“Wait- You have a heater? And you didn’t think to bring it out sooner?”
Tubbo only chuckles and stops before he leaves the room,
“I dunno, you seemed to like freezing your ass off.”
Ranboo stares aghast, “I’m staying with Tommy for the rest of my trip.”
“Understandable. Do we wanna watch Up and spam Tommy’s messages to let him know we’re bonding without him?”
“Yes.”
Tubbo returns with a small space heater and plugs it into the closest outlet to the “sofa”, as he puts it. It takes a while, but after putting the mouth of the heater under the blankets, Ranboo’s feet are absolutely sweating. And while the movie was probably great, he finds himself having a much better time tormenting Tommy on Twitter.