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Tommy's family had always been a little… odd, so to speak.
Ranboo had known the boy since practically forever, photo albums filled with gap-toothed grins and chubby cheeks, always at the same school, the same clubs, even the same holidays!
They were good friends, was his point, and he didn't mean anything bad by it, but… weird stuff happened around Tommy's family. Like the time Ranboo had fallen into one of their rose-beds and it had started to shriek at him about being clumsy, or that occasionally Wilbur walked around on fire, or when a teacher at school had given Tommy detention in class for late work, and then the next day had turned into a glass of milk during assembly.
No one around them ever seemed to question the chaos - the milk had been placed in the fridge until he turned back, Kristen said that the flowers were just grumpy since there had been no rain, and when he'd told his parents about Wilbur, they'd replied that he was adopted and so Ranboo had to be sensitive.
Eventually, he'd come to accept that bonkers things would happen around the Rosales-Craft family, and that it was better for his sanity to simply ignore them.
"Ranboo, you alright in the back there, lovely? You've been quiet."
Ranboo lifted his head from where it had been resting against the cool glass of the car window, "I'm fine, Kristen," he said with a smile, "Just tired. We're almost there, right?"
"RANBOO YOU BETTER NOT GO TO SLEEP WHEN WE GET THERE!" Tommy hollered into his ear, looking up from where he'd been turning his fingers into breadsticks, "WE'RE GONNA GO SWIMMING TONIGHT!"
Holidays with Tommy were always a little chaotic.
Usually, he'd go with his parents, arranging with the R-C's to go to the same place, so they could meet up during the day, but his Moms had had a business meeting they couldn't miss, and had been happy to let him go off on his own this time.
Ranboo had been ecstatic, partially because he had been distraught he was gonna miss the holiday, and partially because this was the day he'd promised himself that he was going to finally confess his crush to Tommy.
He thought it would go okay - Tommy was self-proclaimed straight, but Ranboo knew how to look under the loud shell to what lay beneath, and had a sneaking suspicion that Tommy wasn't buying bodybuilder magazines for the fitness tips. And more than that, they'd almost kissed a few months ago, leaving a party stumbling drunk, and if Phil hadn't pulled up with the car to take them home, Ranboo believed that Tommy would've finally let loose and given in.
The ride in the car lasted another half hour or so, and then there was forty minutes of rushed unpacking while Tommy yelled about how he wanted to get to the beach before it got dark.
Ranboo ignored the giant chickens wandering through the yard as he padded down the soft earth in his swim trunks, stepping through the sparse handful of trees that pretended it was a forest to the beach. The rest of the family were already down there, Kristen tending to a large bonfire while Phil prepared food, Tommy already waist deep in the water, and the twins sat a little way away from the edge, looking up at the setting sun.
"RANBOOOO!" Tommy shrieked at the top of his lungs, causing the giant chickens to startle, "GET DOWN HERE!"
In order to protect his eardrums, Ranboo did, running through the soft sand to the water. It was still warm with the heat of the day, and he plunged in without too much forethought.
"Dinner will be soon, boys!" Phil called out as they started to paddle further out, "Don't go too far!"
"We won't, Dad!" Tommy yelled back, before promptly turning around and heading out into the water. Ranboo followed, unsure of what else to do.
"Where are we going, Tommy?" he asked as they got further away from the bonfire, "Your dad said to-"
"Not too far!" Tommy cut off, "I have somewhere I want to show you! We found it last year when we did the day trip up, it's really cool!"
Ranboo laughed as they continued to swim, thankfully not too deep, but heading towards the edge of a nearby cliff.
As they got closer, however, Ranboo saw what Tommy was surely referencing - an open cave mouth, wide enough for three or four people to stand side by side.
The rocks leading up to it were staggered, almost like steps, and it was easy to clamber up to them, Tommy leading the way. Once they were in the cave properly, and only seconds after Ranboo realised neither of them had a flashlight, Tommy cracked his back loudly and lit up like a glowstick.
"It's cool, isn't it?" he said proudly, "I wanted to explore last time, but I was with Wil and he wanted to go back to sleep because he's lame."
Ranboo nodded along slowly, following Tommy absent-mindedly further into the tunnel. He could see vaguely by the glow the blonde was giving off, enough to keep his footing even when the tunnel started to slope downwards, taking them underground. He wasn't too worried about meeting anything weird down here - Tommy would probably turn them into an origami swan or something.
"I didn't know there were cave systems down here," he murmured, "I would've thought they'd be on the guide maps…"
"Well this one technically didn't exist until last year, so I doubt they'd had time to record it yet!" Tommy said cheerfully, cracking his elbow to increase the glow slightly, "I made it to hide from Phil because he was being evil and wanted to put sunscreen on me, but I didn't get to see how far it went! We can probably use it for that again this year, if we need time away from the rest of them. Would be cool to hang out in here while we're hiding from Mom's wicked schemes to make me eat salad."
A place for them to hide out alone… away from prying eyes…
Ranboo swallowed as they travelled further down, his ears popping with the pressure change. How far beneath the beach were they now? Surely further than Phil had wanted them to go.
"Tommy-" he blurted out, his palms starting to sweat despite the dry chill, "I- did you-"
On second thoughts, he probably should've thought through what he was going to say before he'd started saying it.
Should he just come out with 'I like you'? Should he go in for a kiss? Or should he try to smooth it over with something else, and-
And then lips were on his, and arms were winding around his neck, pulling him close. The glow outside his closed eyes was bright enough to make his eyelids glow, but Ranboo ignored both that and the tail he was sprouting in favour of kissing back.
He'd never understood why when people kissed in the movies, the camera spun round and round, but he understood it now.
"Woah…" he said when they finally broke apart, eyes wide, "That was-"
"Great, I know, I'm a fantastic kisser," beamed Tommy, "I've been waiting ages to do that!"
"You- you have?" Ranboo said, needing to confirm it with his own two… his own three ears.
"Of course I have! You're a handsome fella, Ranboo, and I need someone to match my own beauty, intelligence and wit."
Ranboo snorted, stepping back from Tommy and feeling the extra body parts disappear again, thankfully.
"We should probably get back, though," he said ruefully, "We've been gone a while and your parents will be mad if they have to call the coast guard."
Tommy nodded along, "Good idea, Boo. Right so the exit should be-" he spun in a circle, once and then twice, "Uh- it's this way. For sure."
Ranboo squinted, "You look like you just pointed at a random direction."
"Nuh uh! It's defintely this way!"
"Tommy. Are we lost."
The blonde glowed indignantly, folding his arms, "No, we're not! Don't be homophobic, Ranboo!"
"That's not how this- you know what, fine, lead the way."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-
As it turned out, it didn't take all that long to find the exit, and within half an hour they'd found the cave mouth again. They ran into a slight problem when they realised that the current was whisking them the wrong direction and further out to sea, but a host of mermaids had appeared to drag them back to shore, strong tails pulling them through the current and stronger arms keeping their head above the waves.
One day, Ranboo thought idly as they'd been deposited onto the beach and the pod had swum off, he was gonna learn exactly how they did it. But food had been their first priority, Phil having saved the roasted meat and potatoes and plenty of open cold foods still around, followed by sleep after a long journey.
Since the night was so nice, they'd ended up camping out on the beach, Techno and Wil heading back to the house to grab the tents and sleeping mats, while Tommy and Ranboo helped take the remnants of food back to the house and Phil and Kristen stacked the fire.
Ranboo nodded off swiftly under the stars, a light blanket thrown over his legs and the tent door left open for a faint breeze to travel through. Tommy lay next to him, legs thrown askew and snoring heavily before Ranboo had even settled in.
They'd wake with the dawn, hopefully, and head out for a morning swim.
As it turned out, however, Ranboo would be waking up a little before then.
There were three things he noticed when he woke up. Firstly, it was still dark outside. Secondly, he was inexplicably a lion. And thirdly, two other lions, who he somehow knew were Techno and Wilbur, were standing just outside the tent, staring down at him.
To his side, it would appear Tommy had also undergone the transformation, but was still fast asleep.
"Uh- can I help you with something?" he asked quietly, trying to stand up and failing to because he had twice the normal number of legs.
"Come out here. We want to talk to you." said Techno menacingly, tilting his head towards the beach.
Well this was certainly not a set up for a murder, he was sure!
"Oh uh- okay?"
Ranboo tried to stand again, and this time had more success, padding out across the sand and following the twins.
"Dad said that we shouldn't do this, but we've never listened to him and we're not intending to start," Wilbur continued, in a far deeper voice than usual. Ranboo winced listening to it- that must hurt his throat like hell.
"Do uh- what?" he said nervously, flicking his tail, "If it's about the cave earlier-"
Techno shook his head, "It's not the cave. Or not just the cave. You're dating our little brother, and therefore we have a right to murder you if you ever break his heart."
Ranboo blinked. And blinked again.
Oh! That was what this was about!
"Oh that's- very nice of you?" he said, "But we're not dating. Yet. I hope we're going to date, but we haven't made it official yet…"
Ranboo hadn't known lions could even look confused before now.
"But you- you've been dating for like three months?" Wilbur said, tilting his voice up like it was a question, "I swear you have-"
"Uh, well no. Or if we have, no one told me? Today was our first kiss, so-"
"Okay we don't have to get into details," Techno said hurriedly, one ear twitching, "I don't need to be haunted by whatever Tommy does in his free time. The point still stands, though - eye for a life, right?"
Ranboo squinted, "I don't think that's the phrase-"
"Are you gonna argue with the guy with a shovel?" Wilbur pulled out a large shovel for emphasis, clutching the handle in his teeth.
Techno turned slowly to his brother, "Wilbur, why do you have a shovel?"
"I- may have misunderstood what we were doing here today. But it can also double to make sand castles! I love sand, it crunches so good…"
In amidst the shouting match that followed on whether sand was edible, Ranboo slipped back to bed. Hopefully he wouldn't be a lion when he woke up.