i have so much c!beeduo angst in my heart right now and i’m making it everyone else’s problem. so! tubbo knows that the only way to get ranboo back is through dream, the one with the revival book. and he hates the idea of having to crawl back to the person who he once thought was friend, the person who manipulated him and abused his best friend and spread a plague throughout their home that rotted away anything it touched. but what other choice does he have? so tubbo goes to ranboo’s vault and gathers a ton of the valuables his husband has collected in the chests. he sends a note to the masked man, requesting that they meet for a trade: dreams revives ranboo and in return tubbo will give him a bunch of totems, golden apples, diamonds, etc. tubbo hates having to beg, but he needs ranboo. he can’t go through life without him. and besides, dream just go out of prison. wouldn’t the extra resources help?
and who knows, maybe dream says yes. maybe he agrees to meet tubbo and they go through with the deal. tubbo gets ranboo back and for awhile things are good again. but then tommy, ranboo, and tubbo fight dream and they get the upper hand, but just before they can take dream’s final life, a totem appears in his hand and he’s back again. and dream laughs, a cold and maniacal sound, and looks at tubbo with a grin and says “that was one of yours”. ranboo and tommy are confused but tubbo just aches because maybe that could have been their chance to end this and dream explains all too cheerfully what he meant and suddenly tubbo’s husband and best friend are looking at him in rage, likes they don’t know who he is, and there’s yelling and screaming. dream sneaks away and tubbo can’t breathe, can’t find it in him to try and defend himself, not with the way ranboo looks so disappointed, but he doesn’t understand, how could he, he wasn’t the one to be left behind, why is it always tubbo that’s left behind-
or maybe dream says no and tubbo is left surrounded by riches so great they seem infinite. riches that some people only ever dream of achieving. riches that he’d joked about stealing time and time again with ranboo and teased that they were reason why tubbo had agreed to get married. riches that, in the end, ended up being worth absolutely nothing