❝ PRETTY FACE ❞
December 15th, 2020
REAL LIFE — THEO!
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE he and Techno had run away, Theo was completely, utterly alone.
(Okay, he had Floof, but still. There wasn't really much a dog could do for him in his current situation.)
Look, when Theo told Techno he'd be fine with Techno being out of the house for longer than ten minutes when his brother decided it was time to go grocery shopping like a real adult, he'd meant it — he sincerely thought he would be completely fine! He had no reason to think otherwise! He had been home alone plenty of times before! Techno being out of the house for a few hours — any normal teenager would have seen that as a reason to party!
And yet here Theo was, refreshing the Twitch tab over and over again, his breathing quick, eyesight blurred with stubbornly unshed tears.
Harriet's text message sat open and read on his phone, the source of all of his terror. Who was that boy you were with last night, Theo? Stop trying to get out of answering this. Before that, Theo had been calm — he'd already been watching Ranboo's stream, as glitchy as it was on his end due to Twitch having a shitty day, and Ranboo had noticed Theo in chat.
"Is Theo in chat? Hey, Theo! Do you wanna join VC?" Ranboo had asked excitedly, and Theo had hated to type in no, just listening :) — because he wasn't ready to put on his streaming persona when he was wearing Sapnap merch so big on him that it nearly reached his knees. He was comfortable, not in his content creator mode.
But now? Now he desperately wanted to be on the stream if only to distract him from the text message, the known fact that Harriet was stalking him making him tense up.
Ranboo's voice kept cutting in and out, Twitch being slow and reloading the stream every few seconds, which frustrated Theo to no end, because he couldn't breathe and why wasn't it working?
(Is it weird that his source of comfort since September has been Ranboo? Watching Ranboo's streams while he did his homework was one of the ways Theo managed to focus. Ranboo's voice always calmed him down no matter his mood, and that was a closely guarded secret that Theo would take to his grave.)
Theo sighed in frustration, a few of his tears spilling over, and quickly pulled up Discord. He directed himself to his private messages with Ranboo immediately, praying Ranboo was checking Discord as he streamed.
DISCORD — THEO
ᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛ ᴍᴇꜱꜱᴀɢᴇꜱ +
Ranboo [ online ]
Tubbo [ online]
TommyInnit [ offline ]
WilburSoot [ offline ]
Sapnap [ online ]
Ph1LzA [ online ]
Technoblade [ offline ]
Eret [ offline ]
Nihachu [ offline ]
BadBoyHalo [ offline ]
CapPuffy [ offline ]
Quackity [ offline ]
@ Ranboo 🟢 | [AKA] Ranboo, EnderBoy, RANBOO
Ranboo ʏᴇꜱᴛᴇʀᴅᴀʏ ᴀᴛ 2:31 ᴀᴍ
go to bed??
———————— ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ 15, 2020 ————————
Theden
hey so Twitch is glitching out for me and I really need something to distract me right now so can I just be in call with you to listen to you stream?? I won't say anything and you won't have to acknowledge me I just really need something right now and you're calming and I can't watch your stream please
Ranboo
yeah of course Theo, it's no problem
do you want me to end stream?? so we can talk??
Theden
no please don't just do what you normally do please
Ranboo
of course
deep breaths, okay?
Theden
okaythank you ranboo like seirously your the best thanm yoy
Ranboo
I'm really worried about you Theo
Theden
no
REAL LIFE — RANBOO!
RANBOO DID HIS BEST TO ACT NORMAL. He was concerned about Theo's wellbeing, he'd never seen the other boy text like that and part of him knew that Theo was texting him in a panic, but Theo had asked him to be normal and do the stream, and if that's what Theo needed him to do to calm down, then Ranboo would do his best.
He spoke to chat more calmly, sparing glances at his other monitor to see if Theo ever left the call. The other boy stuck true to his word, staying on mute the whole time and listening to Ranboo stream. Ranboo did his best not to be loud, and luckily he wasn't doing a lore stream today, or he would be afraid of making Theo's panic worse.
Ranboo ended the stream an hour later, when it felt like an appropriate time to end, saying goodbye to his chat, not commenting on the fact that he'd only streamed for about two hours instead of the usual four or five. The second he was sure his stream was ended, he hesitantly said, "Theo?"
After a moment, Theo came off mute. "Hi," he greeted, voice scratchy. He coughed. "Sorry."
"It's fine." There were a few seconds of silence. Ranboo sighed. "Everything okay?"
". . ." Theo made a noise that Ranboo couldn't place. "I— everything's fine now, yeah. I was just— stressed, maybe. Not feeling too great. I'm sorry for ruining the stream, I—"
"You didn't ruin the stream," Ranboo protested. "But you're . . . okay?"
A strangled noise left Theo, like that of someone trying to hold in their sobs so they weren't seen as a burden. But the thing was that Ranboo could never see Theo as a burden — and he could never turn away from the younger boy,
"Are you safe right now?" Ranboo asked gently. Theo didn't respond. "Theo. Is there anything around you that you can use to hurt yourself?"
After a moment, there was a gasp. "No— well yes, but I— I couldn't do that to Techno, to you or Tommy or Tubbo— there are so many people that would hurt, can't do that to them—" Theo rambled. Ranboo took that moment to start spamming Techno to get home now, as Theo seemed to be having a breakdown that Ranboo wasn't equipped to deal with.
Ranboo could feel himself panicking too, feel a lump form in his throat as he listened to Theo sob on the other end of the phone, knowing that there was nothing he could do to comfort him.
"Theo," Ranboo said gently, keeping his voice steady. "Breath, okay? It's— it's okay." His voice wavered and he knew that this wouldn't end well for either of them.
"'M sorry, I'm so sorry—" Theo whispered.
Ranboo pursed his lips, exiting his messages with Techno and heading over to someone else. "It's okay, Theo, just— just hold on for a moment, okay?"
"Okay, okay, I'm okay, everything's okay," Theo repeated in a broken voice, making Ranboo's heart crack. He listened for the telltale sign of someone else joining the call and was relieved when he saw the too-familiar icon appear under Theo's.
"Theo," Tommy said in a calm voice, "focus on my voice." Theo made a sound of confusion. Ranboo could almost imagine him looking up at the camera that wasn't on. "Your name is Theodore Patton. You were born on December 11th, 2003. Your older brother is Technoblade."
"Tech," Theo murmured, and Ranboo prayed that Techno was hurrying back home.
"That's right, Theo. Are you still focusing on me?" Theo made a noise of confirmation. "That's good. I need you to breathe in for me, big man. Breath in deep and hold it for ten seconds. Ranboo, why don't we do it too to help him?" Tommy suggested, but Ranboo knew deep down it was because Tommy knew Ranboo was on the verge of panicking himself.
They all breathed in deeply and held their breaths for ten seconds before releasing for ten seconds more. Ranboo felt his racing heart begin to slow and thanked Tommy silently for joining the call when he did. Any longer and Ranboo might have been having a panic attack alongside Theo, which only would have made Theo's worse.
By the end, Theo was still crying, but not the panicked crying that had been hurting him before — this time it was small sniffles that hurt Ranboo to listen to.
"Alright now, big man?" Tommy asked gently.
Theo sniffled. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just— a lot. Thank you."
"No problem," Tommy said sincerely. "Ranboo?"
"I'm good. Thank you, Tommy," Ranboo said genuinely. He could almost imagine Tommy smiling at the camera, but even as the only one who had done a face reveal, he didn't have his camera on.
"I should—" Theo took another deep breath. "I should call Techno."
"I already messaged him," Ranboo assured. Theo made a noise of appreciation.
"Do you want to talk about it, Theo?" Tommy asked.
". . . No," Theo decided, and both boys respected that choice.
It was a few minutes later that they heard Theo's bedroom door open and the sound of Techno's voice, and Ranboo took that moment to leave the call, deciding Theo was in better hands than his own.
He needed to calm down before he had a panic attack of his own, anyway.
REAL LIFE — TOMMY!
TOMMY HEARD THE SOUND someone leaving the call, and considering he could still hear Techno fretting over Theo being out of bed — had he been on the floor or at his desk the whole time? — he assumed it was Ranboo. He reminded himself to message Ranboo later to make sure that he was okay after all of this, but right now his focus was on Theo.
"Theo, it's never been this bad before," Techno murmured. Tommy frowned as he listened, turning up Theo's volume to hear better, forgetting for a moment that Theo likely didn't want anyone to hear him crying into his brother's arms. "You gotta tell me what happened, kid. Your therapist said you were getting better, that's why you stopped goin'."
And so Tommy listens as Theo spills his guts, the dirty little secret he kept like an oath finally coming out — the online messages from a woman older than him, coming out to an adult that he trusted like family, being outed by her because she was angry he wouldn't be easily manipulated into 'romance,' the text messages and the phone calls and the showing up to Theo's birthday dinner—
And Tommy clicked out of the call, his stomach turning with something fierce and red-hot like anger twisting his stomach into knots. Theo didn't deserve that, no one deserved that, and the fact that Theo was dealing with it alone, because he was scared everyone would blame him—
Tommy clutched his phone tightly, taking a deep breath.
Theo had Techno now. Techno would make sure he was okay. Techno would make sure that Theo knew he wasn't alone, that there were people who supported him, that no one would ever think that any of this was Theo's fault.
Tommy only hoped that Theo believed him.
REAL LIFE — TECHNO!
TECHNO WASN'T SURE THAT SORRY could describe how he was feeling toward Theo.
What could he even say sorry for? Sorry for not being there, for not realizing what Theo was going through? He knew that Theo started pulling away from them when he turned thirteen — their parents had written it off as a rebellious phase and their siblings hadn't cared, but Techno had. He had noticed Theo pulling away from the family, sneaking out too late at night, and he had brushed it off as teenage rebellion too.
And now he was paying the price — Theo sobbing in his arms, describing everything that this Harriet woman had put him through, and Techno felt his chest tightening at the thought of Theo trying to handle all of this alone. He had thought he'd shown Theo he could trust him.
This isn't about you, Techno scolded himself, stroking Theo's hair gently. This was about Theo, helping Theo, holding Theo, assuring him that he was safe. But it was also about the logical approach and making sure that Theo was safe emotionally and physically. And if Harriet was showing up to Theo's birthday dinners, if she knew their address as Theo claimed, then that meant that Theo wasn't safe at all.
"I'm not gonna do anythin' without your permission," Techno began softly, rubbing Theo's back, "but you should think about filing a police report. And I'm getting security cameras no matter what, by the way, I'm not riskin' that." Theo nodded along with what he was saying, though Techno wasn't sure that he was completely listening. He would still take it, though — he'd file the report and get the cameras and feel just a little bit better about what was happening to his brother.
It wasn't long until Theo went limp in his arms, falling asleep from exhaustion. Techno hated the tear tracks that marked his little brother's face but there wasn't much that he could do about it until Theo woke up again.
He kissed Theo's head as he tucked him in, making sure that he was comfortable and surrounded by stuffed animals to wake up to. Theo curled up closer to one of the pig ones, making Techno smile slightly.
"I'm gonna protect you," Techno murmured. "I promise."
He left the room, closing the door behind him softly.
He had a call to make.