It's Okay, It's a Strategy (to ensure I remain)

Chapter 14: To Find an Egg

TWs- Panic attack

Ranboo's not stupid. He knows he's not. He notices when things change. When people change.

Tubbo and Tommy seemed to have made up while Ranboo was gone. That was good. He was glad at least some of the tension lessened. And he was glad neither of his roommates were mad at him.

But they still acted differently around him. Lasting glances to each other when Ranboo was around, almost as if they were communicating telepathically. They were nearly always together, but they both were a bit withdrawn from Ranboo. Ranboo could see on their faces when they looked at him, some uncertainty, some acceptance-

And some- fear?

It was like an inside joke that Ranboo wasn't aware of. He felt out of the loop.

Ranboo wasn't stupid. He could tell he was being left out on something.

And that kinda hurt, because why were they keeping something from him when he just revealed his own secret to them?

He knew they weren't ecstatic about him being a sidekick, but at the end of the day he could tell they were happy about the extra money.

He didn't know their secrets. He didn't push, though. Not after Tommy's panic once Ranboo revealed his secret. He trusted they would tell him once they were ready.

In all honesty, he was just glad they weren't fighting anymore.

Ranboo remembered Tommy's panic attack after Ranboo told them about Wilbur's identity. He felt horrible when Tommy had started frantically backing away from them, swatting away their hands until he hit the wall and slid down it. Ranboo could tell that whenever they touched him the panic only got worse. He didn't want to, but it would've been better for them to just leave Tommy alone for a bit to let him calm down from his panic. Ranboo had to leave for his first day as a sidekick anyways. He felt extremely uneasy about leaving Tommy alone during a panic attack but Tubbo had assured him that he'd make sure Tommy wouldn't do anything to harm himself or others during his panic attack.

So Ranboo left, guilt and sadness pooling into his stomach as he took the familiar path the Hero HQ. Tommy went into a panic because he told him Insomnia's identity. Insomnia is Wilbur, and Wilbur was Tommy's friend. Ranboo couldn't help but think-

'Did I just ruin their friendship?'

Maybe Tommy was just shocked. That would explain the true terror on both of Tommy and Tubbo's faces when he told them.

He wasn't actually afraid of Insomnia, was he?

As far as Ranboo knows, Tommy has no reason to fear Insomnia. He knew of Tommy's dislike for heroes, but why would he be afraid of them?

When Ranboo got to Hero HQ, he was welcomed by the nice desk lady and got access to Techno, Wilbur, and Phil's offices. He was most familiar with Techno, so he went to his office first.

Basically, his first day as a sidekick consisted of grabbing coffee runs and helping Techno file papers. He didn't think being a sidekick would be so... boring. It was essentially a desktop job. Techno assured him that patrol would come later, they were just starting him out small.

Ranboo wasn't used to staying up in the night. He nearly fell asleep several times and had to chug three cups of coffee to keep going. Techno was very amused at this.

Once they finished most of the mission reports, Wilbur had come into Techno's office presumably to annoy him, but stopped once he saw Ranboo was with him. Wilbur then led Ranboo out of Techno's office and over to the costumes workshop, where Ranboo got to choose his official hero costume.