Ranboo woke up in a sweat, breathing heavily. He'd had a dream. Or a vision. He wasn't sure, but it was of the exact same encounter he had with Dream yesterday.
He rubbed both his arms and shivered, feeling tears prick the corners of his eyes. Sometimes after hearing the voice, he'd end up crying. Usually because it insulted him, or told him of a many of horrors that he most definitely did not want to hear.
Ranboo sighed deeply, slowly rubbing his eyes. He wasn't in the mood for crying, he had something important to do today, and he didn't want to be late. The tall man blinked, and stared at his bed sheets for a moment.
He gasped silently, remembering that he actually had two important things to do; babysit Michael and Fundy, and give that note to Ponk.
Ranboo threw his blankets off of him, breathing heavily for a moment, then got out of bed. He did his same usual morning routine, but at a quicker pace. Once he was done, he left his apartment just as quick.
"Morning, Ranboo."
He stopped walking at the foot of the staircase, and turned to Techno, who was stood leaning against his door.
"...Good morning"
Techno stared at Ranboo for a while, "Are you okay? You sound exhausted."
"No, no, I'm alright.. just couldn't sleep well last night, that's all..." He glanced around nervously, obviously he had just lied.
"Hmm, I don't believe you, but I don't think I can convince you otherwise, so have a nice day." Techno then went back inside his apartment.
"Oh.. see you then." Ranboo watched Techno leave, staring at his door for a moment.
The tall man quickly left down the stairs, and made his way towards the hospital.
It was dark out; the sky was covered in gray clouds, the air was humid. Ranboo looked up at the sky as he walked, putting a hand in his pocket just to check for the note.
A harsh, cold wind blew past his face. He flinched, and shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened his eyes, a drop of water landed on his nose. He blinked, and looked up at the clouds. It was raining. Ranboo pulled up his hoodie and put his hands in their pockets, walking quickly to the hospital.
The hospital was just a few more minutes away, he'd been walking for thirty. He finally made it to the hospital, breathing a bit quick under the over hang. He threw off his hood and rubbed his shoes on the rug, then pushed open the door.
It was quiet in here, and empty. There was only a receptionist at a counter to his right and an elevator to his left along with some stairs. In front of him was a large window, and either side of it was two entrances to different areas he probably didn't need to go to.
He looked around awkwardly, then quietly walked up to the receptionist. He softly cleared his throat,
"Uhm.. excuse me, ma'am?"
The woman was typing something on the computer, they'd typed some more before looking up to notice Ranboo. She took out an earbud,
"Yes?"
He cleared his throat again, starting to get a bit anxious.
"How do I visit a patient..?"
She moved towards another computer and clasped her hands together.
"Well you're doing the first step right, coming to me. Tell me who you'd like to visit and I'll give you their room number."
"Ah- alright, uhm.. I'd like to visit someone named Ponk"
She started typing something, probably the name, and tapped her mouse. She then looked back to Ranboo,
"He's available for visits, and just a quick question, who are you to Ponk?"
"Oh, I'm- I'm just- I don't actually really know Ponk that well, I'm here for a friend of a friend.."
The receptionist hummed, "Alright, that checks out."
She looked back at the computer again,
"His rooms on the third floor, number 666"
Ranboo nodded, trying to put a genuine smile on "Thank you, ma'am"
"Ofcourse, have a nice day, sir."
The woman then went back to typing on the first computer.
He stayed there just for a split second, then turning around to the elevator. It opened right when he walked up to it, it was empty, which made him sigh in relief. He went inside and pressed a button that said three. Ranboo put his hands in his jacket pockets, fumbling with his keys.
A ringing noise started to manifest in his head, slowly getting louder. He flinched, it kind of hurt, but it quickly faded away. He put a hand to his right ear, the noise was gone but it still felt like it was there.
"Hello"
It was the voice. It was back, he was sure of it. He took his hand off of his ear and looked in front of him warily. Stood in front of him was an older man with green hair and brown eyes, they wore a brown jacket and under it a white button up similar to his.
"Hello? Sir, could you move, please? I need to press my floor.."
Ranboo blinked, bewildered. For a split second it looked as though he was wearing a mask with a smile on it, and they sounded like Dream.. but their voice was deeper, and less.. Dream.
"Oh- oh, sorry,"
Ranboo quickly moved to the side to let him reach. He doesn't remember the elevator moving up.. or moving at all, he supposed he had zoned out.
"Thank you," The green haired man reached his hand out to press a button, but stopped with raised eyebrows.
"Oh, it seems we're headed to the same floor. Nevermind, then."
He stood up straight again and stood beside Ranboo, glancing up at him. Ranboo was looking to the ground, feeling awfully bad for not seeing him at first, and seemingly ignoring him.
"What's your name?"
"Ah- uhm- I'm- I'm Ranboo, who are you?" He snapped at himself, why did you stutter? Now you're just embarrassing yourself even more, you idiot.
"I'm Sam. Are you going to visit someone, too?"
The taller man didn't like how he was trying to make small talk.. but he also couldn't ignore him, not again.
"Uh, yes, actually.. I'm going to visit someone named Ponk."
He smiled a bit, "Oh, what a coincidence, I'm going to visit him too."
"O-oh- yeah, what a coincidence.." He chuckled quietly.
Sam blinked at him. It went quiet for a moment. "Are you a friend of his?"
"No.. b-before you ask, I'm visiting him to hand him a note, it's- it's from a friend of a friend."
Sam nodded, then he frowned with a worried expression, "Are you okay, Ranboo? You sound upset about something."
"Oh, no no, I'm alright, I'm alright..."
The green haired man opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, the elevator doors opened. Ranboo felt a sudden wave of relief rush over him, this awkward conversation could end now. But then he stiffened, remembering they were headed to the same room.
Maybe they could start talking about something else? Like Ponk, yeah, that's what he'd do, he'd change the subject to the patient.
Ranboo exited the elevator with Sam, and they started walking towards the room.
"S-so, uhm.. Sam, are you a friend of Ponk's?"
Sam paused for a moment, "I guess you could say that.. he's my boyfriend."
His eyebrows raised, "Oh! That's neat, that's neat."
Finding the room didn't take long, Sam knocked on the door. A voice came from inside,
"Come in"
Sam opened the door, holding it for Ranboo to go in first. Sam followed close behind, stopping beside Ponk's bed. Ranboo stood kind of away from it. He felt like he shouldn't be here now.. Sam actually knew Ponk, and well. He felt like a burden here, they can't really talk with him around, it'd get awkward.
"Hi, Sam, who's that?"
Ponk was looking at Ranboo. His left arm was missing; what was left of it, covered in bandages. It was being held up slightly in the air by some kind of string, or wire, he couldn't tell. He was wearing the usual clothes patients had to wear, thin blue pajamas.
"This is Ranboo, he's told me he has something to give you, from a friend of a friend."
Ranboo nodded quickly, and started to to take the note out.
"Oh?"
Ponk leaned forward a bit, and grabbed the note when Ranboo handed it to him. He struggled to open it, but insisted he do it himself. Once he got it open he read the small piece of paper. While reading it, a smile started to form on his face.
Ponk closed the note, setting it on his blanket. He looked to Ranboo,
"Thank you for getting this to me, I hope Foolish didn't do you any trouble, asking you to give this to me."
Sam smiled aswell, looking to Ranboo. Ranboo on the other hand, was not smiling. He felt a bit uncomfortable.. and he also had no idea who Foolish was.
"Foolish..? No, Charlie gave this to me.. I don't know who Foolish is."
"Oh- ah.." Ponk paused for a moment, also looking dumbfounded. "Who's Charlie...?"
Sam laughed, and they both turned to him. "This is hilarious, I know who all of those people are"
Ranboo laughed a little as well, "Yeah, that's.. That's kind of funny."
It went silent from there. Ranboo started to fumble with his fingers, Sam had his hands in his pockets and Ponk was messing with the paper.
"Uhm.. I should probably go now..."
"Oh, alright, see you another time?" Ponk said with a smile,
"Yeah, see you some other time" he felt weird saying that. The sentence felt weird. Ranboo then quickly waved goodbye to them, and left the room.
He stopped beside it's door, leaning against the wall and sighed deeply. That was awful, he never wanted to talk to Ponk again, but it wasn't that he hated him or anything, he just.. now he felt like he sounded like a jerk, telling himself he never wanted to see Ponk again.
He wouldn't necessarily mind seeing him again, he'd just hope it wouldn't be as nerve racking as before. Ranboo sighed again, and rubbed his cheeks. He turned to the side of him and froze. It was that man again, the one from the cafe. He was here, in the hospital. He was wearing a green hoodie this time, and was holding a bouquet of flowers.
Ranboo kept his eyes on the man until he went inside a patient's room. He sighed, again. Today was going terribly.. karma really loves him, it seems.
The tall man pulled his hoodie on along with his sunglasses. He went over to the elevator, it opened once he was in front of it. He did the same thing, pressing the button to the floor he wanted to get to, and leave the elevator at that floor.
He kind of blocked everything out, all the sounds and people as he left. The receptionist probably said goodbye to him, but she got completely ignored.
Ranboo left the hospital, it was still raining, and made his way to the neighborhood. Hoping once more, he wouldn't come across that man again.
~