Work Text:
Official consensus: college is too fucking long.
Listen, Tommy doesn't mind school. In some cases, he even likes it. He likes having somewhere that he has to be once a week and he likes having things that he has to do that won't end up judged by the whole internet. He likes that fact that when he turns in a project late, he gets reprimanded just like everyone else in the class would. At college he isn't treated any better or worse for who he is and what he does and it's the kind of steady normalcy that he needs in his life.
But today Tommy would actually drop out if he was given the chance. Like, if Mrs. Montgomery came over and was susceptible to bribes, Tommy would give over his second channel to get the fuck out of class right now. Honestly, the longer he sits here, the more willing he is to give away his main channel, that's how serious he is.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Montgomery does not make a habit of taking bribes from teenagers, and also probably wouldn't know what to do with a gaming youtube channel with nearly ten million subscribers. So Tommy just sits there, in film, bouncing his knee nervously, not paying any attention to anything that she's trying to teach them.
"Of course," she's saying, "you can double the ISO, but this means more noise. The more noise in a shot, the less quality you're going to get. It all depends on your project. It all depends on your premise."
Tommy waits until she turns away to check his phone under the table. No texts except for the last one sent twenty minutes ago from their groupchat.
lone americ*n: should I tweet that I can hear the able sisters getting louder every second
lone americ*n: I feel like that would "bang"
bee boy: YOU SHOUCD
bee boy: TJATS FUNNY
big man: why do I feel like I'm the one getting made fun of rn
bee boy: mayhap bc u are HA
lone americ*n: oh tommy
lone americ*n: I'd never make fun of you
lone americ*n: except for when it's funny
bee boy: ranboo makes bullying tommyinnit 1000% funnier
big man: fuck u fuck u fuck u fuck u
He's reread the chat about three times, but he just can't help it. He's so excited he might actually explode into a bunch of tiny little Tommy pieces all over the classroom.
He's going to meet Ranboo in person. He's going to see someone who has become one of his closest friends in the past couple of months. He'll be able to hear Ranboo's voice without the barrier of technology, be able to see the way he moves in real life instead of just through his minecraft character, he'll be able to touch Ranboo- maybe even hug him.
And of course he's excited to see Tubbo. The last time they met up, neither one of them wanted to say goodbye and in fact, were desperately planning their next meet up before they had even left. Tommy had an insane amount of fun the last time he hung out with Tubbo, and he just knows that Ranboo being there will at least double it.
"Alright," Ms. Montgomery says, and something in Tommy's brain goes, pay attention. "We've got five minutes left- does anyone have any questions about assignments or film camera settings?"
Tommy winces, unable to help thinking that raising his hand and asking her what the assignment was because he hadn't been paying attention might be bad.
Oh well.
…
He's let out of class later, and doesn’t bother sticking around for even a second longer to talk to any of his classmates. He runs out to his dad’s car and practically throws himself in, urging his dad to go, go, go. His father laughs, but drives off to the train station, teasing Tommy lightheartedly the whole way.
When they get there, his dad helps him pull his bag out of the car and gives him his ticket. He squeezes Tommy’s shoulder and smiles.
“I’m proud of you Tom,” He says, and Tommy ducks his head. “I mean it. You’re doing so well. I hope you have fun with your friends. Text me when you get there and call me or your mom if you need us, alright?”
“Thanks dad,” Tommy says sheepishly, then he bounces on his toes impatiently. “Can I go now?”
His dad laughs heartily. “Of course, just try your best not to bowl them over when you see them, yeah?”
“I’ll try.”
…
The train ride is long enough that Tommy listens to the whole lovejoy ep three times, and a Chuckle Sandwich podcast episode, and still ends up scrolling through Twitter. He likes a lot of fanart, rolls his eyes when he sees Dream and Sapnap interacting on his timeline, and reads what people are saying about his latest vlog.
They seem to love it- either praising his editing, being grateful for the Georgenotfound content, or thanking Tommy for being their weekly serotonin intake. It’s so sweet that Tommy naively wishes the entire internet could be like this. Or at least full of positive constructive criticisms, like the couple of people who say some of Tommy’s camera work is shaky.
He makes a mental note to work on it and keeps scrolling.
There are a lot of people talking about the upcoming meet-up. They’re all super excited- obviously not as excited as Tommy, but it still counts for something. It’s a lot of benchtrio stream soon y’all remember to breathe , and can you imagine how excited they must be to finally all hang out in person , and they better not stream while I’m still at work . It’s fun- it’s so fun that for a moment, Tommy forgets why he doesn’t look at Twitter.
And then he remembers.
Okay, don’t get me wrong i love benchtrio, buttt, anyone kinda worried tommy will ruin the Vibes~
Yeah like they’ve got such a good little thing going tommy will come in and drown them out or whatever
I like clingyduo , and i like loyalduo, and u know i love beeduo but smth abt benchtrio streams always make me :/
It’s tommy, for sure i hope he leaves the coke at home for this stream lol
Ouch. Okay.
He wilts a little in his seat, his excitement from earlier flagging, but he catches himself before he can get down. No- he's not going to let just a couple of tweets ruin his whole day. He's been waiting for this ever since Ranboo texted that he was finally in the airport. He doesn't even have to stream, so quite honestly, all their complaints are unfounded. And besides, Tubbo and Ranboo like him. They do. They find his persona to be funny.
Tommy closes Twitter, opens Spotify and puts his earbuds back in. He can ignore a few comments.
…
Ranboo is huge.
Like, giant.
Tommy isn't short by any means. For his age, he's almost abnormally tall. But Ranboo- Ranboo just might be taller than Wil, who is twenty-four and basically done growing anyway. And his height is only accentuated by Tubbo's. When Tommy hops off the train, peeks down at his phone to check he's at the correct platform, and then looks back up to see Tubbo standing next to a huge masked fluffy haired American, Tommy just kind of stares in shock.
Tubbo catches sight of him and lights up, waving frantically and Tommy unpauses before rushing over.
"Tommy!" Tubbo cheers.
"Tubs!" He laughs, and he doesn't tackle Tubbo in a huge hug like he normally would, because Tubbo wouldn't like it, but he does bump their shoulders together gently. "And- wow. Ranboo. I can just about smell the American coming off of you in waves."
Ranboo laughs, and when he does, he throws his head back, making his hair go with him. Holy shit, holy shit- he's like, a real person. Tommy kind of wants to hug him, but holds himself back- if Ranboo wants to hug then he will.
Although he looks like he gives really good hugs.
"Tubbo," Tommy stage-whispers, still watching Ranboo, "that's Ranboo. He's not a thirty-seven year old man pretending to be seventeen!"
"I know," Tubbo whispers back, "isn't it crazy?"
"Tommy, all your other friends on the SMP are twenty years or older." Ranboo reminds him, and it's crazy because Tommy can hear him smiling under the mask. It sounds just like the way it does when he's on voice call at three am and they can't stop laughing about nothing.
"Yeah," Tommy replies, not missing a beat, "and you aren't one of them. Which is statistically an anomaly and worth being excited over."
"Oh yeah? Tell us some more about statistics, bossman." Tubbo says, taking Tommy's bag from him and leading them over to the parking lot.
"Well, statistically, people who are as tall as Ranboo just aren't likely."
Ranboo splutters. "Just aren't likely?"
"You didn't say any numbers in there," Tubbo accuses, "what the hell does that have to do with stats."
"You don't have to say any numbers for it to be statistical." Tommy says, hopping over a crack in the tiles.
"No, no, I'm- I'm pretty sure that's just wrong," Ranboo says. "Yeah, I think you're wrong about this one. And I think you've been wrong on every math test you've ever taken, actually."
"Ranboo, hush and stoop when you walk, you're scaring all the children with your statistically unlikely height."
…
They play some video games, talk, and annoy the crap out of each other. Tubbo tours Tommy around the new addition and explains the set up while Ranboo drafts tweets and spams messages in his sub discord about their meetup.
When they're done the tour, Tubbo goes off to set up for a charity stream and Ranboo and him sit outside on the swings. Ranboo takes off his mask, face revealing, and Tommy can sort of tell he's a bit nervous, so he just hums.
"So you're like, not Dream. Right?" He asks, squinting.
Ranboo, who's quite expressive without the mask, makes a face. "Uh, no. No I'm not."
"Okay but how would I know ."
"We- we sound nothing alike?"
"That's what you want me to think." Tommy tsks. "But I'm not so easily convinced."
"...I like the color purple more than green?" Ranboo offers. "If that helps?"
Tommy squints for a moment longer before grinning. "Yeah, okay, 'guess so. Nice face or whatever Ranboo."
Ranboo laughs again and Tommy is pleased to see the tension drain out of him.
They swing for a bit, take some photos, edit some posts and then go back inside to annoy Tubbo while he streams. The chat are so excited to see all three of them together in the same room, but after a while Tubbo shoos them away to the kitchen and they leave because that's good stream etiquette.
"What stream should we do later?" Tommy asks, turning round and round on the kitchen swivel stools while Ranboo leans on the counter and watches him like he's scared Tommy will fall. "Something not too exciting- cause I don't think I can focus and be all Tommyinnit when you two are in the room."
"You guys did a would you rather once," Ranboo says. "I remember because you texted me the whole time. Quite aggressively I might add."
Tommy stops spinning and leans over to kick Ranboo in the knee. "Ha- yeah. I mean, statistically speaking, you deserved that."
Ranboo squints. "I really am unsure you're using that right. Like, genuinely."
"How about a good-old you laugh, you lose?" Tommy interrupts. "That way Tubs won't have to try too hard after his stream and it'll have a built in ending, so it's not longer than an hour?"
"Yeah, that sounds good." Ranboo agrees. "We'll laugh and lose."
"Hopefully not," Tommy says. "I hope we at least make an hour."
…
They're doing terribly.
They're sharing five lives- bumped up from three because apparently Tubbo was in a giggly mood, happy that his friends were around. They've only got two more left and it's only been thirty minutes and Tommy is genuinely considering telling Tubbo to move to the very back of the room- at least until they hit the forty minute mark.
"We might want to turn his chair around," Ranboo whispers conspiratorially. Tommy nods seriously and Tubbo's cheeks puff the way they do when he's trying not to laugh.
"Okay!" Tommy says loudly, cutting off whatever he was going to say. Tommy knows the second Tubbo opens his mouth he'll make himself burst into laughter like a fucking loon. "Let me read the chat and ignore whatever is going on with Tubbo- Ranboo, entertain him."
"But not too much?" Ranboo asks jokingly.
"Yeah, not too much or he might lose his shit," Tommy grins, leaning over to squint at chat. It's going well- there are a lot of all caps pogs and emotes. No copypastas and no one claiming boredom. They seem to be encouraging each other to send in actually funny media shares, because the last three were just kind of meh.
Another media share plays and Tommy scoots backwards so they can see it. It's only three seconds long, but it must be intentional because the abrupt cut off is a million times funnier than anything that could have played.
Tubbo does that cheek-puff-laugh thing and Tommy panics, going, "We didn't even get the punchline- donate more money next time."
Ranboo coughs down a laugh. "You can't just say that, Tommy. You can't just-"
"Ah, ah!" Tommy blusters, "No talking. Only media sharing!"
"Oh my god," Tubbo turns around in his chair. "I might have to tap out of this one. I might genuinely pass away."
Tommy reaches over and spins him back around. "Nope, nope, spin over here. I was just slash jaying about the fucking sending you to the other side of the room thing."
"Were you? Were you really?" Tubbo asks. "You wouldn't really slash jay about that, would you?"
Tommy nods regretfully. "Oh I would- you know I would."
"What happened to no talking, only media sharing?" Ranboo moans.
"I changed my mind. No media sharing, only talking."
"Fuck man," Tubbo says, spinning around again. "These rules are just too much to keep track of. Hey, I'm doing the thing- you spin me right round baby right round -"
"I'm ending stream. I- I'm simply ending stream." Tommy says. "Shut up. Shut up about your Tiktok fame."
" -like a record baby, right round, right round- "
Ranboo leans in. "Thank you for the sub Trinitylive. Thanks. Tommy really appreciates it."
"I don't." Tommy huffs, kicking at Tubbo so he stops spinning in circles.
"You don't?" Ranboo blinks. "Are you sure you want that out there on the internet?"
Tommy flushes. "Actually, I do, thank you so much Trinitylive. What I don't appreciate is Tubbo Underscore spinning around singing on my You Laugh You Lose stream!"
Tubbo laughs.
Tommy and Ranboo both stop and exchange a glance. Tubbo abruptly stops laughing, and winces. They both look at him and then suddenly, without a single word exchanged between them, they're pushing Tubbo's rolling chair across the carpet so he's all the way on the other side of the room.
"The evil has been defeated," Ranboo remarks, as Tommy begrudgingly changes the life number on the screen.
"Hey!" Tubbo yells from behind them. "Stream can't see me!"
"Yeah, and hopefully they won't be able to hear you as well." Tommy grumbles. "Singing tiktok songs and losing all of the lives so far- you deserve to be back there."
The chat instantly dissolves into yells for Tubbo, begging him to be let out of stream jail, but Tommy rolls his eyes.
"Chat, chat, we've only just hit the forty minute mark and we've got one life left collectively." He says. "If we let Tubbo out of 'stream jail' then he will lose the life and then we'll be gone. Do you want us to be gone? Hm?"
"We'll be gone- that makes it sound like we blink out of existence when we stop streaming." Ranboo says.
"We do, we do." Tommy nods.
Another media share plays and Tubbo whines from behind them- "I can't see it, let me see it!"
"No!" Ranboo yells. "This is your punishment for laughing! There's nothing to laugh at now!"
"Fuck you!"
Tommy bites back a snort and his eyes swivel to the chat. They're still begging for Tubbo to be let out while some are talking about the 'bench trio dynamic'. Tommy grins, because yeah, they're doing great. Ranboo and Tubbo are still arguing while he reads and he's about to pull back and join them, but then he sees a comment.
omg one day in and Tommy's already ruined the beeduo friendship , bruh
Suddenly, Tommy is swallowing against a tightness in his throat.
"You know, Jack Manifold would let me out!" Tubbo is saying. "He wouldn't trap me in here like this!"
"Stop talking about British people that I haven't met yet," Ranboo yells back. "I'll break out in hives! And also, I'm pretty sure Jack Manifold would've pushed you all the way outside."
"You have no proof of that-"
"Come on Tubs, get over here," Tommy says, cutting him off. Ranboo looks at him, and Tommy can tell he's confused even under the mask and glasses, but he goes along. "We're laughing and losing- make up or else."
Tubbo cheers and scoots back over, nudging Ranboo to the side and taking his place next to Tommy.
"I'm back chat, did you miss me?"
"No," Ranboo sighs and Tubbo hits him.
"Alright boys!" Tommy says, trying to muster his previous energy. "Let's get the media shares rolling in!"
They start trickling in, and Tubbo actually tries not laugh now, so they're doing well. It's also due to the way Tommy quiets, not attempting to bounce off the videos, just letting Ranboo and Tubbo handle the funny bits. He's so quiet and focused on the chat, that at one point, Tubbo, out of the view of the camera, nudges his forgotten soda can to him, thinking he's just tired.
Tommy curls a hand around it, but doesn't drink. And, like a sixth sense, he knows that Tubbo knows something is wrong.
Thankfully, they end when Tubbo laughs at something that he would never find funny and Ranboo makes a big deal of teasing him for losing all their lives. Tommy joins in weakly, but quickly transitions to his ending and sends his chat over to Niki.
Once he's sure he's ended, he starts shutting down the pc and Ranboo pulls his mask and glasses off, running a hand through his hair. Tubbo, however doesn't move, and out of the corner of his eye, Tommy can see him watching.
Maybe he won't say anything, Tommy thinks optimistically.
"They don't know what they're talking about."
Fuck. Well. There goes optimism.
Ranboo looks over. "Uh oh. What happened?"
"Nothing," Tommy says quickly, still not looking up from where he's rolling wires. "Tubbo's just being over dramatic. Nothing happened."
"You went quiet." Tubbo says, voice low. "They made you quiet."
Tommy pauses, then rolls his eyes. "I'm sure that my volume is the least of our worries Tubs. People aren't exactly straining to hear me. I mean, I live at two hundred. You know that."
Tubbo glares. "Don't even joke like that. It's not fucking funny."
"One of these days chat is gonna sign me up for volume regulation lessons," Tommy muses, ignoring Tubbo, that twisted feeling curling through his chest. "That'll be pog."
Tubbo opens his mouth to keep arguing, but Ranboo just goes, "Nope," before stepping close and pulling Tommy into a hug.
Tommy blinks, stiffening in surprise. Ranboo is taller than him and has been wearing a hoodie through their stream, so he's warm and since Wilbur is just tall enough to lay his head on Tommy's, so can Ranboo. Tommy eases into the hug, curling into the firm, steady warmth.
"Look at this Tubbo," Ranboo says, his voice vibrating through Tommy, "I can hug him now."
Tubbo's mouth clicks shut. Then he tilts his head, a soft half smile forming on his face. "That you can bossman. Yeah."
"Uh, yeah, why are you hugging me?"
"I can stop if you didn't want-"
Tommy immediately hugs him back, tight, a bit embarrassed.
"Okay," Ranboo hums. "Those viewers, they're- uh- what's that thing that you say Tubbo?"
Tubbo's brows furrow. "They're fucking stupid?"
"Well, no. I was thinking something less aggressive."
"What, then? They're chatting shit?"
"Yeah. Yeah, that. They have no clue what they're talking about. We like you loud, cause that's who you are. So when I stream later, you better be at two hundred."
Tommy hesitates, then presses his face into Ranboo's shoulder. There's a light hand at his back- Tubbo.
"All right Tommy?" He asks.
"Mh," Tommy hums. That twisted, clogged up, ball of evil poky emotion is detangling, leaving him able to breathe easy. "There's a positive correlation between Ranboo's statistically unlikely height and his weirdly helpful hugs. I know it."
"He's doing research now," Ranboo says. "Collecting data."
"Mhm, I'm thinking about so much fucked up shit." Tommy says. "Numbers and sums and graphs. You don't even want to know."
Tubbo snorts. "Okay, well, let me know when you're done with your data collection and fucked up math, cause we're playing mario kart on the big tv before Ranboo streams."
Tommy nods, but doesn't move. He'll stay here just a little longer. He was right, after all. Ranboo does give good hugs.