❝ PRETTY FACE ❞
September 1st, 2021
REAL LIFE — THEO!
"WELCOME TO THE VLOG, CHAT!" Theo said, holding the camera higher so he could get Tubbo and Lani in the frame. Ranboo was a bit of a lost cause, given how tall he was, but the camera just managed to get footage of him walking behind Lani. "We're in Brighton today! Lani's gonna give us fashion advice, pick out outfits for us, and we're gonna wear them all day!"
Ranboo ducked his head into the frame, staring at the camera through his glasses. "We're going to look like clowns!"
Lani smacked his chest, nearly hitting him in the face. "Rude!"
"Can we not kill Ranboo?" Theo pleaded as Ranboo rubbed his chin where Lani's nails caught him.
"Aww," Tubbo complained.
"Dude," Ranboo deadpanned.
"What's that store up there?" Lani asked, pointing at an expensive-looking store.
Tubbo hummed. "Eh, too much money for outfits we'll probably wear once," he dismissed.
"I kinda wanna see what they have," Ranboo said. "We can laugh about how expensive the ugliest clothes are."
Theo clicked his fingers together. "You're based, Ranboo."
"Never say that again," Ranboo begged. Theo flipped him off.
They walked into the store, peaking at the clothes; there were clothes priced at $1000 with tears in the fabric that Theo could do a better job at with a razor and five minutes in a dark room. He scoffed at the terrible sayings printed on the clothes as well, Live Fast & Die Young, YOLO NOLO, and Rainbow Love. It was terrible.
They came to the front of the store. There was only one other customer, standing at the dry-cleaning pick-up counter. Theo glanced at the man for a moment before he stopped and turned to stare at the stranger openly, trying to figure something out.
"No fucking way," Theo said, stunned. "Is that—?"
"It literally can't be," Tubbo said, sounding borderline hysterical when he saw who Theo was staring at.
"What?" Ranboo asked.
"Wilbur fucking Soot!" Theo exclaimed, moving over to the man with faux confidence that he wasn't quite sure came from. The man turned and, wouldn't you know it, there was Wilbur Soot, looking extremely confused about why he was being cussed out by a short teenager he had never seen before.
"Uh, hi?" he said, glancing around. "Are you a fan?"
"Am I—? Okay, we spend so many days in VCs together and you don't recognize my voice?" Theo asked, offended. Wilbur looked stumped. "Jesus Christ." Theo took a deep breath and said, in his best impersonation of Techno, "Bruh."
Wilbur positively lit up. "Theo!" he greeted, sweeping the younger boy into a hug. Theo squeaked before he laughed, smiling brightly under his mask. "What are the fucking odds! How are you, man, how have you been?" he asked, setting Theo down again.
Tubbo burst out laughing from behind Theo, catching both of their attentions. "Sorry! I'm just— how the fuck did this happen? We just decided to go out this morning!"
Theo chuckled, nodding in agreement as he looked at Wilbur for answers. Wilbur looked just as stumped as Theo felt.
"No clue! I came in here to pick up some clothes for Joe, there was a problem with his guitar so I decided to help him with this so he didn't have to waste time worrying about it. What are you guys doing here?"
"Vlog stuff," Ranboo said, popping up behind Wilbur. Wilbur jumped nearly three feet into the air, almost screaming in surprise. Theo tried not to fall over from laughing so hard. Ranboo's mask moved as he grinned. "Hello, Wilbur."
"Jesus fuck, man! Don't do that!" Wilbur said, holding a hand over his heart.
Theo grinned. "Lani's meant to be picking out outfits for us. We were gonna try to find a cheaper store than this one but we wanted to check it out first, luckily we did! It's so great to meet you in person," he said excitedly. Wilbur smiled and reached out to ruffle his hair.
"Well, if you guys have time, it would be cool if you came to watch Lovejoy practice," Wilbur offered, smiling at the four teenagers. "Just, uh, don't release any of the new music before the EP comes out." Theo chuckled softly, nodding in agreement as he looked at his friends, who all nodded excitedly. Usually, Tommy was the only one allowed to see Lovejoy practice, so they were all excited to have their turn.
"We can postpone the video for later," Lani dismissed. "I'm meeting up with some friends in an hour so I can't stay long, but I'm free later," she said. Theo nodded in understanding, not wanting to keep Lani any longer than she could be there. This was going to be a bigger vlog anyway, not just a single video, so it wouldn't be a problem to reschedule.
"Let me get the clothes and then we'll get going," Wilbur said. The four kids nodded happily.
As it turned out, "We'll get going" was actually code for "We're going to be here for another hour because the store seems to have lost Joe's dry cleaning, only to find out that they accidentally put it with the sale clothes, meaning Joe has to come down and find his clothes before we can leave to practice."
You know, just Wilbur Soot things.
Lani said goodbye to them on her way out, not wanting to be late to meet her friends; Wilbur apologized to her and promised that they would find time for her to see a Lovejoy practice soon. Ten minutes later the rest of them headed out, down the street to a recording studio that Lovejoy practiced in.
"I come bearing children," Wilbur announced as he held the door open for the three boys.
"Tommy?" Mark asked.
"Better," Wilbur teased. Theo scoffed under his breath at the jeer.
". . . Did you kidnap three teenagers?" Mark asked, raising his eyebrows at Wilbur.
Wilbur rolled his eyes. "Guys, this is Ranboo, Theo, and Tubbo— or Toby, whichever he prefers. They're Tommy and I's friends. I ran into them earlier and asked if they'd like to hear us practice."
"Ooooh, the Tommy Treatment," Mark mocked, grinning at Wilbur, who rolled his eyes fondly. "Well, welcome to our practice room! We're playing songs from our EPs right now in case we ever get to go on tour, it's great practice."
"You guys can sit over there," Wilbur said, directing them to a corner of the room that wasn't covered in wires or instruments.
Tubbo nestled himself into the actual corner between the walls, pulling out his phone so he could scroll through Twitter while vibing to the music; Ranboo sat beside him, giving Tubbo a few inches of space so he didn't feel overwhelmed; in contrast, when Theo sat down, Ranboo pulled him closer, giving the excuse that he didn't want Theo to be sitting on any wires.
"Any requests?" Ash spoke up, voice quiet; he didn't look in their direction. Theo smiled at him slightly, understanding that there were certain anxieties he would never know the feeling of and respecting that.
"Sex Sells!" Tubbo and Theo said at the same time. Theo reached over to high-five him.
Wilbur shook his head. "You're both too similar to Tommy."
Theo shrugged. "You say that you like it's a bad thing."
As the band got set up to play, Theo put his camera back into his bag, wanting to live in the moment for this. Besides, if he wasn't allowed to record it, there was no point holding onto the device when he had somewhere else to put it. He wanted to respect the band's wishes as much as he could when it came to recording their music, and that included soothing their anxieties about him filming them.
"This is so cool," Ranboo whispered to him as Wilbur got to the microphone.
Theo grinned at him. "This is the best," he agreed. "I can't believe we get to see Lovejoy in person!"
Ranboo smiled back, though Theo could only see his eyes — but he'd started to memorize the way Ranboo's eyes scrunched up when he smiled, and it made Theo's heart flutter to know that the reason Ranboo was smiling so brightly was because of him.
"You think he'd realize / But he's infatuated with ideas / Of possessions and far-flung social policy."
The song faded out a few minutes later; Theo looked away from Ranboo as the band came to a stop, delving into a discussion about how they sounded and what they could improve on. Theo honestly thought they were already the best, but he kept his opinion to himself considering he didn't know what it was like to be in a band.
The next song played was one that they hadn't released yet, something called The Fall. It was loud — good, but loud and sudden, and Theo nearly clamped his hands over his ears to save himself from the wave of nausea that washed over him. He didn't, though, because that would be rude, and he really didn't want to make a bad impression on the band by making them think they sounded bad.
They sounded amazing. It was just so loud.
Ranboo poked his side, getting his attention. Wordlessly, he held out Theo's headphones, giving him an expectant look. Theo shot him a grateful look, shoving them into his ears to muffle the sound. His shoulders immediately relaxed, tension rolling off of him in a wave. Theo leaned against Ranboo as they listened to Lovejoy's music, Ranboo's arm coming up to wrap around his shoulders.
Theo leaned into the touch, eager to soak up whatever affection from Ranboo that he could.
"And the ramblers will say / 'It's still a marvelous view' / That treadmill still looms / Your hedonic misuse . . ."
[ PRETTY FACE ]
Mark had a doctor's appointment he needed to get to, so an hour later the practice came to an end, the Lovejoy members going their separate ways; Wilbur, though, stayed with Theo's group, stating that he would bring them all out to lunch. He and Ranboo got into an argument about who was going to pay for the food — Ranboo or Wilbur. Tubbo and Theo, however, were perfectly content to save their money and let the other two taller men fight it out.
Wilbur insisted that, being the oldest among them, he should be responsible for paying. Ranboo, however, threw Wilbur's own words back in his face — as the peoples' streamer, he surely didn't have the money to pay for four lunches.
"Ohh, burn," Theo said, smirking at Wilbur.
Wilbur scoffed, cheeks reddening. "Fine. Fine! You win!" he gave in, grumbling under his breath. Ranboo threw his hands in the air as a cheer, letting a whoop! as he led them to the nearest fast-food restaurant, some French-themed place that Theo couldn't be bothered to pronounce the name of.
Tubbo, Theo, and Wilbur found a place to sit down as Ranboo went up to the counter to order their food, taking their orders from the quick look at the menu they were able to get. Wilbur found them a corner that had a decently clean table that Theo wiped down with napkins just to be extra safe. Wilbur and Tubbo sat down together, leaving Theo to take the other booth, scooting closest to the wall so Ranboo would have a seat when he came back.
"So, Theo," Wilbur said, looking Theo over. Theo realized he was still wearing his mask and glasses and took them off, smiling at Wilbur. Wilbur's eyes widened briefly at how easily Theo was able to expose his face before a proud glint came into his eyes. "I knew you had blue eyes, Phil owes me ten bucks."
Theo groaned, throwing his head back. "You guys made bets on my eye color?"
Wilbur shrugged. "We were bored. It was a Friday. I was drunk." Tubbo snickered at him, shaking his head. Wilbur smiled at Theo knowingly, sparing a glance to where Ranboo was standing, still at the counter waiting for their food to be ready. "Do you still like Ranboo, Theo?"
Tubbo choked on air, looking between Theo and Ranboo and Wilbur with shock. "What?" he demanded, looking at Theo. "I mean— I knew that, obviously, you aren't subtle, but Wilbur got confirmation before I did? Not poggers, king," Tubbo deadpanned.
Theo's face was red, flamed with a blush so bright that he had to put his mask on in order to hide it before Ranboo got back. "Shut up," he said, pointing at Wilbur threateningly. "I'm, uh. I'm working it."
Tubbo snorted, sharing a look with Wilbur. "No way. I'm literally living with you two, you're both too awkward to talk about how you both like each other," he said. rolling his eyes. Theo's face felt warmer, turning his head away.
"Whatever," he muttered, knowing Tubbo was right. Well, about Theo being awkward. He didn't think Ranboo shared Theo's feelings, and it wasn't worth ruining their friendship to find out.
Ranboo was walking over with two trays of food, miraculously managing not to drop anything as he made his way over to them. The conversation between the other three immediately died — as much as Tubbo and Wilbur loved teasing Theo, they respected him enough to keep quiet about his crush around the guy Theo's feelings were toward.
Ranboo smiled at them all brightly as he approached, setting the trays down. Theo looked him over, smiling as he realized that Ranboo had pocketed his glasses, letting Wilbur see his eyes. He could sense the nervousness from the other boy and tried to reassure Ranboo by taking his hand when the other boy sat down next to him, squeezing slightly. Ranboo squeezed back immediately, not even giving Theo a weird look.
And, oh, Theo was so, so fucked if he thought his feelings would be going away any time soon.
"So," Wilbur said, glancing between Theo and Ranboo with a knowing look. Theo felt his heart jump into his throat. Wilbur smirked. "Who wants a danish?"
Fuck you, Wilbur Soot.
A/N
it's my birthday woo