Another Tumblr requests. I promise I'll go back to longer chapters after this but it's a drabble collection after all!

Ranboo wasn't scared of Technoblade, exactly.

Well, not in any real sense. Not more than he was scared of all people - people in general. The concept of people, if you will, scared Ranboo sometimes. But not Technoblade in particular.

Which was strange since there was a lot of evidence pointing towards being scared of Technoblade as a logical thing for him to be. Ranboo had been there for the execution, had been there for Doomsday. He had smelled the acrid fragrance of sulfur in the air, rising with billows of smoke out of the crater of a ruined city.

But he had been in the hushed silence that existed after destruction too, an expanse of white filled with snow and sky, blurring the edge between the two. And he had been offered safety there, an opportunity to carve a hollow for himself that might one day return to being a home if he wanted it to. Ranboo had been told with nothing but kindness that, if he chose it so, he could stay.

So Ranboo wasn't scared of Technoblade, but that didn't make it any less nerve-wracking when Phil had said that for the time being, while he was still getting his bearings and trying to settle in, Ranboo could just nick any extra supplies he needed from the chests in Techno's basement.

"Trust me, mate, he doesn't mind." Phil's grin had slipped ever wider while he said it, loose steps as he led Ranboo towards their base. "In fact, with all the crap he's hoarded, I would be surprised if he even notices."

Still, the anxiety was impossible to push down as Ranboo's hands hovered over the items. It wasn't anything valuable he needed, just spare wood and cobblestone to continue building. Maybe some steak so he didn't starve before he could get the cow farm up and running. And Phil hadn't been lying when he said Techno was a hoarder. Every chest was loaded to the brim with stuff, mundane yet kept like the most precious treasures. It only made Ranboo more nervous.

What if Techno did mind? What if he minded very much and told Ranboo to leave and never come back and he had to return to the ruins of his panic room, alone and-

By the time he was done working himself up into a small frenzy and deciding on what was probably safe to take, Ranboo had spent entirely too long in the basement. Long enough for the door upstairs to open and close again, heavy footsteps dragging towards the other side. He hadn't noticed, but he certainly noticed when he came up the ladder and Technoblade was there. In the middle of his house. Where he had every right to be, of course, which made it that much more stupid for Ranboo to startle and act like a kid caught sneaking out of his bedroom in the middle of the night.

Technoblade just looked at him for a moment, eyes not even moving to assess the items he had taken - which meant Phil was probably right about him not minding. Then he went back to undoing the clasps on his armor, giving the netherite a cursory glance to check for damages before putting it on its stand. "Hullo."

"Hi," Ranboo answered, all off-pitch. He really wanted to smack his face into the doorframe but that would just be silly, right? Yeah, definitely. "Sorry, I'm just taking these... If that's alright?"

Techno didn't glance over his shoulder. "Yeah, sure." He was removing his cloak, the soaked fabric falling off his shoulders with a heavy weight. He hung it on a peg in the wall instead. Loosening the tie that held it together, Technoblade pulled his hair from its braid and left it to flow freely around his shoulders.

And all at once, Ranboo couldn't help but think how much smaller he looked without all that. Not in a literal sense, Technoblade was still composed of sharp edges and solid shapes. The memory of a thousand battles that shone in every little habit Ranboo picked up on, not to mention reflected in the scars of old wounds.

But without the armor and the defenses, he could see what lay beneath as well. Something soft and real and open. So strange it made Ranboo's heart ache for why he had never considered to stop and see it before.

With a world-weary sigh, Technoblade sat down at his brewing stand and tapped one finger against the glass, checking on the bubbling liquid inside. He stared at it intently for a moment, before seemingly noticing Ranboo was still there, standing awkwardly in his living room.

"Did you need something, Ranboo?"

"Oh, uh, no, I-" he fumbled over his words and shook his head to get them in the right order again. "Not at all, I'll just take these and go. Thank you, by the way. I'll be sure to give them back sometime."

Technoblade grunted in acknowledgment. "Don't worry about it."

With another nod and a quick goodbye Ranboo left, an unmistakable warmth in his chest and the starting ideas of reciprocity on his mind.