Note: Slight past AU (pre-Ranboo moving in with Tubbo) where Tubbo is still a Shulk and Ranboo prefers They/Them pronouns.

Tommy glared down at the array of potted plants on the wooden table. The bushy tops of the carrots just sat there without a care. "I hate you too." He grumbled under his breath. He gripped the edge of the table and leaned back, letting his head fall back with a frustrated sigh.

The odd face of Ranboo leaned over the shorter Avian, with their usual reserved smile. "Making progress?"

Tommy pulled himself back upright. "Slowly…" He grumbled.

Ranboo set a sack on the table beside the potted plants. "Tubbo dropped off some bones. I'll grab my mortar and pestle for you to use." They walked into their house and quickly returned with the two stone tools.

Tommy grabbed them, and pulled one of the bones out of the pouch. He snapped it in half easily and dropped both pieces into the mortar and began smashing the bone pieces smaller with the pestle. While the bone was brittle, it was still hard work to get it crushed fine enough.

While Tommy was venting his frustrations on the bone in the mortar, Ranboo slid a few bones out of the bag and began snapping them into smaller pieces. Tommy dumped the bone meal into the closest potted carrot plant when he was done and grabbed a handful of the bones Ranboo had snapped for him.

The two worked in silence for a few minutes. It didn't take long for Tommy to finish his grumpy work and move to a more neutral mood. "Hey Ranboo?"

"Hmm? What's up?" Ranboo asked, tilting their head.

"Why the skirt?" Tommy asked bluntly.

Ranboo blinked, a little surprised. "Um...do you want the long answer or the short answer?"

"Short answer, I guess?" Tommy started.

"Pretty skirt go shoosh." Ranboo replied, almost instantly.

Tommy blinked. "Really?"

"You said 'short answer'. The long answer is...more complicated." Ranboo shrugged.

Tommy's hands kept rhythmically crushing the bones into bone meal. "You know what? I've got the time."

Ranboo raised a brow skeptically. "Promise you will try not to interrupt?"

Tommy shrugged.

The Enderian shook their head slightly, a bit of a wry smile pulling at their mouth. "Well. The skirt thing starts way back when my race was first conceived."

"Really? An origin story?"

"Hush. It's important. When the first Enderians were spawned by the Ender Queen, they were completely sexless, at least outwardly. Couldn't tell egg carriers from fertilizers externally unless the egg carrier was carrying a child."

"Egg carrier? Fertilizers?"

"Enderian culture developed differently than the cultures in the Overworld. I bet that Tubbo used some weird words like that early on when he arrived in the Overworld. The word for Egg Carrier in the Enderfolk language has been translated as Female, and Fertilizer as Male, but we Enderians have different words that we translate as Female and Male."

"As Philza's old friend once said, "I don't want no linguistics lesson"."

"He also quotes a lot of books and you took that quote way out of context, so shut up and listen."

"Fine."

"We Enderians use Female and Male to refer to a complex mix of individual's style of dress and station of work. 'Female' is used to refer to those who prefer to not move around though the world much, so they are able to adorn themselves more extravagantly because they aren't afraid of getting their clothing dirty. 'Male' refers to those who prefer to go out and do stuff. And then, of course, there are those like me."

"Oh! That's right. When Tubbo introduced me to you, he said that you are most comfortable being referred to with 'they' and 'them'."

"Yeah. Those pronouns are roughly translated as 'one who does all' in the Enderfolk language. I suppose the Overworld expression is 'Jack of all Trades'. I sit and make stuff, but I also go out and do stuff." Ranboo sighed, a strange expression settled on their face.

"Okay. What's with the face." Tommy snapped.

"Back in my birthplace, I was frequently referred to as 'Male', as the Overworld would say, as I often went out mining and farming over sitting still and working on my little contraptions, but that felt wrong to me. While I enjoyed mining and farming, it wasn't what I wanted to do my whole life. I see mining and farming as support for my tinkering." Ranboo shrugged. "The elders of my birthplace are...more old fashioned than most, and stick to an old method of assigning individuals 'Male' or 'Female' based on what they do the most, rather than by their true passion. As a result, as soon as a kid from there is old enough, they leave, most rarely returning. It's...not a great place."

Tommy frowned, then shrugged. "Up here, we refer to those who don't have preferences in their dress as nonbinary."

"I know that, Tommy. And I really appreciate that you all accepted me with...minimal issues." Ranboo smiled slightly.

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Well, in any dimension, there are judgy arseholes. Usually among the older folks, but there are some younger people who are just as bad. Of course, the younger people usually get beat up if they get judgy in front of the wrong people."

Ranboo chuckled. "While I would love to see those old folks get beat up like you are talking about, there are those young people from my birthplace who agree with them, and it becomes messy and complex." They sighed. "Honestly Tommy? I don't mind if you and Tubbo slip up occasionally and use 'he' or 'him'. I...think of you two as some of my closest friends."

Tommy set the pestle in his hand down and fixed the Enderian with a serious look. "Are you sure about that?"

Ranboo sucked in a breath through their teeth. "Honestly, I would still be uncomfortable, but I know that you two know, so I wouldn't be mad."

Tommy frowned. "Look man. I know I give you a hard time sometimes." At Ranboo's raised eyebrow, he sighed and corrected himself. "Okay. I give you a hard time a lot of the time. But, I take this sort of shit seriously. I want you to call me out if I fuck up something as important to you as how I refer to you, okay?"

Ranboo chuckled. "You know, when I talked to Tubbo about this, he said basically the same exact thing."

Tommy smirked. "That's my boy!" He crowed happily. He picked up the pestle again, and returned to crushing the bones in near silence.

After a few seconds he paused. "Wait." He looked up at the Enderian who gave him a curious look. "Does that make you a 'Fertilizer', technically?"

Ranboo blinked then let out a sudden laugh. "I don't know. What do you think?"

Tommy frowned, thinking. "Uhh...You know what. Ignore that." He pounded on the bones for a bit, then something occurred to him. "Wait. That was way too smooth to be something you usually say. Whenever you talked about history and stuff, you always got stuff wrong or couldn't remember. I know you weren't lying about not remembering, because you are absolutely shit at lying."

Ranboo sighed. "Bruh. I retain information just fine. My older memories are foggy and my short term memory is not as good as it could be, admittedly, but…"

Tommy narrowed his eyes. "Ranboo…" He growled, dropping the pestle on the table. "I bet you are hiding a book somewhere. Give!"

Ranboo held up their hands, showing they weren't holding anything. "I don't have a book!" They insisted. Tommy leaned around them, looking for where they could have hidden the book. Seeing nothing, he turned to the Enderian, and a playful grin spread across his face.

"I bet you hit it...here!" He lunged for Ranboo.

"Bah!" Ranboo yelped, and teleported away. They appeared a few meters away, stumbling a little due to the hasty teleport.

Tommy turned and glared at them. He couldn't hold the expression for long and his grin returned. He shook his head, chuckling. "I'll give up for now, but I'll catch you someday."