Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ranboo was bored. 

He wasn't bored in a 'i'm procrastinating my work' type of way, either. He genuinely ran out of tasks to do! He had already streamed, edited his video, and even posted a selfie to twitter. He also popped into multiple of his friend's streams, he was done with his work for the day. He had been quite productive, really. 

He was bored in a 'I have free time and nothing interesting to fill it with' kind of way. He sat defeated in front of his computer, soft blanket draped over his shoulders and his stuffed Minecraft piglin, Micheal, sitting in his lap. 

He glanced at the sippy cup that sat next to his keyboard, before scanning over the monitor in front of him again. Being little right now would probably make things a little more interesting, right? 

His parents knew about his coping mechanism, so it's not like he had anything to hide. He gave in, biting at his lip and leaning forward in his chair. He used his mouse to click onto the Youtube search bar, typing in 'agere', just to see what popped up. 

There wasn't much, as usual. It was mostly educational videos, and older videos from channels that have been left vacant for months. A few TikTok agere compilations, filled with videos he's already seen. 

He sighed, wishing there were more people willing to make content for the community. He knew it was scary, with how much people judged age regression and things related to it, but it'd still be cool to watch creators who were like him, somehow. It'd be cool if he had someone he could watch while small that wasn't just an annoying kids Youtuber. 

He lifted his hand from his mouse suddenly, a thought striking him as if it was a lightning bolt zapping its way through the tired fog in his brain. 

He could be that creator for someone else. 

He was already good at this, he knew that, but him telling his fans he was an age regressor? That was risky. He didn't even show his face due to anxiety, sharing something like that can be career ruining if people decided to be judgmental. 

But, he could still make content for the community if he really wanted. A smaller, just for fun channel, targeted towards other regressors and dreamers. It was both the craziest idea he's had and one of the most realistic. 

Making a second channel wouldn't be hard. And, as long as he didn't know his face here either, no one would make the connection that it was him. 

He sat up properly and opened a new tab. 

Ranboo wasn't bored anymore, to say the least. He had lots of work to do. 

--

The boy tapped his pen against the paper he was writing on, humming to the tune of one of his favorite songs- Cabinet Man by Lemon Demon- as he brainstormed. He wanted to do this, but he needed a new fake name to go by. He needed another online name, and he needed to design another internet persona. Doing all this, deciding how to present yourself to an online audience wasn't easy, and he wanted to get it right. 

He wrote down 'Rainbow', before scratching it out. That was to close to Ranboo. 

He thought for a bit, listening to the music as he brainstormed. He looked around his room, his eyes landing on the mostly empty bag of Laffy Taffy candy that sat on his bed. He wrote the word 'Taffy', but that one just didn't feel right. 

He tried again, and again. Gummi felt to girly, Astro didn't click well either. What did he want to be called? He needed something that he was comfortable with, something that was childish and cute without being to feminine. 

Another Lemon Demon song played as his playlist continued on. His eyes were drawn to the box of Lemonheads on his desk. He gasped, writing just one word on his paper. 

Lemon. Loosely inspired by a random candy brand he liked, and his favorite musician, it felt perfect. The fruit could be a part of his brand, and ongoing bit if he really got into this. It was clever, and adorable! He continued to hum to the song - now it was 'Touch-Tone Telephone'- until he completed the title of his new identity. 

Lemon Kid. 

The agere community deserved more youtubers, and they'd get one, through Lemon Kid. Lee, if you will. Just another online persona Ranboo created, just for fun. 

He didn't expect to blow up as much as he did, though. He didn't expect a double life where he was streaming, making videos, and posting enough for two separate people. 

--

"Hello and welcome to my channel! I'm Lemon Kid, but you can call me Lee!" Ranboo, going by his second online name, sounded cheery as he spoke into his microphone, smile across his face as he moved his character around in the Minecraft world displayed across his monitor. 

He's created a whole new set of accounts, all under some variation of the username of 'Lemon Kid'. The name was loosely inspired by his favorite band, Lemon Demon, but that didn't matter much. The accounts all had a simple profile picture, a cute crayon drawing he did of a little animated lemon, and they has sat empty until he built the courage to post something under his new persona. 

And he had spent a while gathering his bravery for this one. He was recording his first youtube video for this new channel, having said goodbye to Tubbo's stream a little less then an hour ago. He was logged into a new Minecraft account, making sure to cut any connection between 'Ranboo' and 'Lemon'. 

As far as the internet knew, they were two separate people that happened to have similar voices. 

"Today, I'm gonna be settling into this new world! It's peaceful, I just want to build a little cottage, honestly. Maybe find some animal friends?" he sounded excited, showing off his skin. "Look how cute my skin is! I designed it myself!" he announced, proudly, giggling a bit. 

The skin was simple, a character in a pastel yellow sweater and black overalls, with brown hair and little butterfly clips decorating it. The skin was a peachish color, a little to pink to be quite 'human'. What could he say, he liked playing nonhuman characters! He didn't quite know what he was, maybe a childish alien of some sort? All he knew is that he absolutely loved the design

He didn't plan on doing any irl things for this channel at the moment, so he's yet to design a real costume for that. For now, he'd just make cute, kid-friendly Minecraft videos for the agere community, and show a side of himself that his main fandom didn't get to see. 

He began to walk towards the first tree he saw in game, talking as confidently as me could as he went. "Anyways, I wanted to introduce myself a bit as we go, since this is my first video and all," he started, hitting the wood blocks and thinking over what he'd say. "As I said, I'm going by Lemon here, and I go by he/him pronouns. I'm an age regressor, but I age dream sometimes too!" 

It felt a little weird, talking about age regression in front of a camera so openly, but he reminded himself that he was doing it for the community. So that littles like him had someone they could watch and look up to. With this thought in mind, he kept going, talking about his favorite childish things and what he liked to do while small, all while navigating the world and gathering supplies for the home he wanted to build. 

"Look, guys!" he shouted after a while, looking at the cat he found in a village he had stumbled across. "I will name you Bubble Gum!" he decided, giggling like crazy. As he filmed, he drank out of a sippy cup and held a stuffed animal in his arms tightly. 

He knew he'd be editing it while big, so being slightly small during filming hurt no one. It was sort of nice, rambling to whoever would end up watching the video, as he got caught up in the game and all the distractions it provided. 

"I'm building us a home, Bub! Look, look, look!" he showed off the foundation for a mushroom cottage, planting flowers around it's base, "Is gonna be real nice n' cute." 

He didn't know when he completely dissolved into childishness, but he was sure it was entertaining. He kept going, building with the supplies he collected and creating a little home for him and his new friend. Even if the video didn't do well, he was having lots of fun. By the time the cottage was finished, he had almost two hours of footage. 

"Okay! Das all for now!" he said, holding himself back from doing his typical 'whelp' clap. He took a second, reeling himself at least partially out of the voluntary regression he had fallen into. He spoke in a clearer voice, trying to properly record an outro. 

"This was lots of fun," he admitted, "I'm just starting up this channel, so if you could subscribe and maybe consider following my other agere socials, that'd be great! They're all gonna be linked in the description, all under some variation of 'Lemon Kid'. So, yeah...this was my first video and I really hope you liked it!"

"Bye bye!" 

And just like that, the camera was off and he was leaning back in his seat, sighing out a breath of relief. He double checked that all the footage recorded fine, and then shut off his computer. He took his sippy cup and stuffie and went back to his bedroom. 

Video games were fun and all, but sleepy toddlers needed their rest. 

--

I loved this video!! you deserve more clout, for sure

this was such a fun video omg 

it's always nice to see more regression-based channels, thank you for making this!

His video had been up for a day, and he was getting comments already! There was a couple hundred views on the video, around five hundred, which was big for an agere creator, and a handful of comments. He was sure now, he wanted to keep going with this. 

Knowing that he made just a few other people in his community, other regressors and dreamers and caregivers, just a bit happier, was enough to encourage him and convince him that this was a good idea. Being able to channel the more kiddish part of himself for an audience that wanted that felt good. 

That's when he decided to post on that empty TikTok account (it only had a few followers), just a few clips from his Youtube video compiled together. A commenter mentioned finding his cat puns funny, so he cut out a few, compiling them into a short video and uploading it. He did a little voiceover at the start of the video, over a muted clip, 

"I decided to try and build a house in a new Minecraft world, with a new friend," he edited in a clip of Bubble Gum, pausing for a moment, "while in littlespace. The results were a lot of cat puns and giggling. You can watch the whole video over on my Youtube channel, but here's some of the best moments!" 

The video proceeded to show some of the funniest moments from the recording session, even a few that didn't make it into the Youtube video. 

And with that, he posted it, accompanied by another pun in the caption and a few agere tags, expecting nothing more then a few likes. 

Blowing up on TikTok and making a social-media based career due to that fame once is impressive, but twice? Well, it's weird it happened twice, right?

--

He was the only thing anyone talked about. 

Well, Lemon was the only thing anyone talked about. 

Being the main topic of conversation in the online Minecraft community is something he's already been through. When he first began as Ranboo, he was new and mysterious, of course everyone talked about him. He was a teenager that somehow, gained everyone's attention. 

And now, he was in that spot again. Except this time, everyone knew he was an age regressor. 

That TikTok blew up, and he embraced the support. At first, it seemed that he was just reaching the age regression community, so he kept going with the TikToks. He kept going with the Youtube videos, happy with his ever-growing audience of a couple thousand people. It'd been a few weeks since he posted that first video, and he was thriving. 

Having a smaller audience was fun, it was nice being known for something he usually kept a secret. But that 'slowly growing' small Youtuber feel didn't last long, because he blew up, quickly. 

It was when he made his joke speedrun video that he began building a bigger platform. He rushed through Minecraft, half regressed, trying to beat the ender dragon. Of course he made jokes about Dream, it'd be against the law or something if he didn't pull out the 'du du du du' tune at some point. He giggled and gasped dramatically when he died, he ate candy and laughed at the 'hyper child' energy he gave off throughout the footage, he had a good time. 

The video did amazingly. He targeted it towards the agere community, like always, but the idea of a toddler trying to beat Minecraft appealed to people, and not just to other littles. The TikToks from this video blew up, people joked around and compared him to Dream, he got the 'world record title' of 'cutest speedrun ever' from his newfound fans (which he was really proud of, by the way!), it was all good fun. And then he checked the numbers. 

That's when Ranboo realized that 'Lemon's' reach went farther then he expected. Farther then just the agere community. His TikTok account, along with his youtube channel, skyrocketed in views, subscribers, and followers, all because he was himself on camera and the TikTok algorithm liked it. Of course he'd trick the algorithm into making him famous twice. 

He wasn't sure he could do it again if he tried, honestly. 

The idea that the 'next big MCYT' was a little was something the community seemed to be split on. Communities, really. The age regression community vs the Minecraft community. 

On one hand, the agere community loved the representation. But they were also forced into the spotlight, where more people were aware of them, where more people judged them. More eyes meant more hate.  

Some outside people were supportive, some people just liked how chill Lemon's videos felt. They 'vibed' with him, while others were judgmental. It was a mess, a mixture of complicated opinions that felt like they were to much. 

He just wanted to make videos for others like him, and now everyone was talking about him again. It was hard to notice the kind curiosity and nice messages when there were so many mean insults being thrown around, all directed at him. 

But he did it, somehow. He found the light in the darkness and focused in on it completely, because that light is what would convince him to keep going. If he scrolled through his comment sections, ignoring the hate and scrolling past all the confused questions, he was reminded of why he started this in the first place. To make content for a community that deserved it. To give confidence to a group that didn't get a lot of validation. 

seeing an agere creator blow up is really cool honestly

as a little, your videos are really comforting!

you should start streaming, I think it'd be fun to see. idk you're really cool and watching you live would probably be awesome

I loved this!! tell Bubble Gum I said hi!!!

Next time he streamed as Ranboo, he had a plan, riding a wave of confidence he tricked himself into creating. His recent donations often came in with questions on his opinions on Lemon, and today, he was gonna answer them. Everyone was curious about him, everyone was curious about what others thought about him, and he was gonna feed that curiosity under a different name. 

He liked to think that it was clever, honestly. This whole thing was done on a carefully put together whim, so giving into intelligent impulses seemed to be the key here. 

"What are your thoughts on that new Minecraft Youtuber, Lemon Kid?" he read the question out loud, pretending to think. 

"I've watched a few of their videos, and I think they're really cool! Being open about something like that must be hard to a community that can be so judgy sometimes, it takes guts to do that." he began, choosing his words carefully as to not expose himself. "But yeah, he seems cool! Agere is valid, by the way. It's a healthy coping skill for mental health issues and stuff, no need to judge it. I think you guys should give him a chance." 

And with that, he moved on and continued the stream. Him publicly supporting this 'rising creator', as Ranboo, is all it took for his usual fans to check out Lemon Kid, and also educate themselves on age regression. Still, he didn't think shouting himself out would bring much more attention to him. 

He just thought it'd make people treat him a bit better, and it did! But it also brought more people to his channel and accounts. His speedrun video was still probably the most popular one, by far, but now the view count had tripled. He still considered the 'Lemon' persona a small content creator until he opened twitter on an early Wednesday morning about a week later. 

The biggest speedrunner ever had replied to his tweet thanking everyone for the support on his speedrun video, and now, his numbers were really sky rocketing. If people were talking about him before, they were definitely talking about him now. 

Because Dream himself replied to his tweet. 

Dream | @dreamwastaken replying to @lemon.kid

you should do a manhunt with me and my friends sometime

Chapter Text

"So, for my video, you'll be one of the hunters alongside Sapnap and George," Dream's voice came through the discord call. This still felt unreal, it was weird talking to people he knew as if he's never met them before. 

"And then we have to do something on your channel, for sure. You seem to do a lot of chill things, joke speedruns..." Sapnap spoke up next, trailing off as he scrolled through the 'Lemon Kid' channel on his own monitor, "We could do a speedrun with you! You think that'd be something your fans would like?" 

Speaking of fans, since Dream noticed him on Twitter, he's gotten a whole new wave of attention. Of course, a good amount of it was uneducated or rude people, but he did almost triple his previous subcount of 100 thousand subscribers. An age regression focused creator with 300 thousand subscribers was a pretty big deal, especially when you considered how quickly it happened. 

He was happy with his numbers slowly creeping up after getting a following on TikTok, jumping from ten thousand subs to almost fifty thousand and building up from there, then the joke speedrun video was uploaded and he was up to one hundred thousand in just a few nights. And now, Dream noticed him publicly, and he was getting batches of new followers every hour. 

It was pretty crazy, to say the least. He had that same feeling he did when he first began as Ranboo, all over again. 

"Uh, yeah, definitely! I think it'll be fun." he replied to Sapnap, smiling a bit. "Thank you for doing this, it's been helping a lot." He admitted. It was true. People were kinder to you when their favorite streamer was also kind to you. 

"If you ever need backup in this community, we're here for you, okay?" Dream spoke up again, voice genuine and kind, "You're videos are really cool and people shouldn't ignore your talent just because you're childish and they find that weird." 

"Oh," Ranboo was dumbfounded, listening to the words of agreement that Sapnap and George spoke up with. "That means a lot, actually. Thanks, guys." He didn't really know what to say, all he knew is that he was happy. 

His friends, who were also some of his favorite creators, validating him and his coping skill was something he really wanted to hear, apparently. The sweet moment came to a close when Dream announced that they were gonna start filming, sending him the IP for the new world. 

"We'll do the intro and get right into it," Dream told him, "Literally just try to chase me, make jokes, do whatever. If you need to step away from your computer at any point, just speak up and we'll pause the hunt for a bit." 

"Alright, sounds good." he agreed, taking a few deep breaths as he prepared for this. 

They talked for a bit longer, getting into the brand new world and preparing for the manhunt, and it wasn't long until they were starting. 

"Come and get me, Lemon Boy!" Dream teased, jumping around and crouching in front of his character. Sapnap's avatar appeared next to him, and he handed 'Lemon' a iron sword. 

"Get his ass, Lee!" George cheered, and suddenly, Dream took off. Ranboo giggled, running after him while George and Sapnap agreed to gather supplies, a little farther behind. 

"He's mining now, guys!" Ranboo announced, "He's to far away though, I can't get to him." 

This game reminded him a lot of tag, or cops and robbers, it'd be a very fun game to play in while little. He looked back to the reassurances the others gave him about regressing during the videos, saying it was fine if he was comfortable with it. He found himself sinking into a childish headspace as the recording went on. 

"So, Lem, why'd you start speedrunning?" Dream questioned casually as he ran through a cave, killing a skeleton as he went. 

"I thought it'd be fun!" he sounded cheery and joyful, like a happy child, earning a coo from Sapnap. "N' it was, lotsa fun!" he tried his best to make his words sound clear, but he knew that a lot of his fans found the baby voice endearing. Plus, talking in a childish voice meant that less people would connect Lemon to Ranboo. 

"You are cool and adorable, this isn't fair." Sapnap claimed, pretending to sound distraught. "I got you some better armor, by the way. Where are you?" 

"Running after Dweam, in a cave. T-think m' gonna die, actually." he pouted, running away from the zombie that decided to attack him. 

"I found the cave, I think!" George announced, "Sap, you see me, right?" 

"Yeah, yeah, stay there a sec. I got you stuff too." 

It was about a minute later that George and Sapnap's avatars walked through the cave. As promised, Sapnap gave him armor and food and new weapons, they were all geared up. Someone killed the zombie that was going after him at some point. 

"Hey, Lemon?" Dream spoke up, addressing the boy directly, temporarily snapping out of the persona he put on for the cameras.

"Hmm?" he hummed, placing a torch and looking around his screen. 

"I just wanted to check on you, are you good to keep filming?" he questioned gently, "I'm just asking because it seems like you're regressing, and I don't want you to feel like you have to be going. If you're fine with being small in the video, we can just get back to it, but if not, it's okay!" 

"Oh," he flushed, he didn't think he was acting to childish. "It's fine." he mumbled, running his hand through his hair as he spoke, leaning closer to his mic as he adjusted his position, "Jus' having fun." he added. 

"Do you regress when you're happy, then?" Sapnap asked curiously. 

"Mhm," Lemon nodded. He thought it'd be fine if he slipped into the half-regressed mindset he often did for videos, but maybe Dream changed his mind on the matter. He hope he hadn't messed up the video. "It just means I'm having a good time. Sorry, though." 

"No, no, no!" Dream now sounded panicked, "It's completely okay! I'm sure it'll make an entertaining video, I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable being on camera still." 

"Oh!" Ranboo sounded relieved, glad he hadn't upset anyone. "Okay, yeah, I'm alright!" 

And just like that, they kept going, the others ending off that interaction with the promise to cut it out of the video. 

"m' gonna get you, Dweam!" he let his childish tone continue to shine through as he chased after his friend, freshly crafted diamond sword in hand. 

"Get 'em, Lee! I'm cheering you on," George sounded very amused by this whole situation. 

"OH MY GOD," Dream shouted, trying to make his nether portal when Ranboo actually got to him, hitting him a few times. Sapnap and George had fallen behind, but the regressor was right on his tail. "Damn, you're fast. I'm supposed to be far ahead of you guys at all times." he gave up on the broken portal he found and just kept running, while 'Lemon' continued to trail after him. 

"Not anymore," Ranboo claimed, pride clear across his face and laced in his voice. 

"How does it feel to be losing to a- uh, Lem? How old are you right now?" Sapnap started his teasing, only to cut himself off with an inquiry that would allow him to finish his sentence. . 

"Seven." he decided after a moment, humming a bit as if to assure himself that this was right. Dream started climbing a hill, and he followed. 

"A seven year old! A seven year old is beating you in a Minecraft Manhunt!" George laughed, seemingly glad the hunters were winning for once. 

"Only because I'm letting him!" the man claimed in defense, sounding unsure and maybe even nervous. "He's only gaining on me because I'm going easy on him. It's his first time!" 

"I think you're just losing, man," Sapnap was laughing now, too, which brought a smile to the boy's face. Him being there made them happy, he realized. 

They were happy to have him there, they were okay with his regression and how kiddish he was sometimes. This was fun, just playing games and being openly small, he thought. Once again, he reassured himself that this whole 'second channel' thing was a good idea. 

"Lem, Lem, Lem, have mercy on me!" Dream begged, sounding panicked as they boy backed him off of the top of the hill, hitting him when he got to close. He could either let Lemon kill him, or jump off and risk dying when he hit the ground. 

"No! I wan' win!" the toddler-minded boy giggled like crazy as he went to hit him again, gasping when he jumped from the structure. He moved to watch him fall. "He had a water bucket!" he announced, "He's still runnin!" 

"Can you see where he's going, Lee?" George questioned gently, reaching the top of the hill along with Sapnap. 

"Lava pool," Ranboo replied seriously, "Tryin' to get to the nether." 

"We have to stop him, c'mon!" Sapnap pushed, and they were going on a wild chase once again. The game kept going on like that for a while, the hunters catching up here and there, and Dream escaping every time. Most 'close calls' were because of Ranboo's clever tricks.

And also maybe because of all the candy he was eating, but he didn't mention that. Sugar high children can either cause chaos or put that energy towards something good, and it's good for them that the boy chose the later. 

The video ended with Lemon charging into the stronghold, gasping because Dream was just about to go to the End, "I found him! M' gonna kill him!" he claimed, pulling out his bow and arrow and shooting a few times as the man rushed to get the ender eyes in their places. 

Just as he placed the last one, his screen switched to the 'You Died!' screen. All at once, Sapnap and George were cheering, Lemon was giggling, and Dream was screaming. All the noises weren't overwhelming though, the chaos felt exciting. 

"NO WAY! No, no, no, we have to rematch!" he said, "I let you win, I didn't lose." he tried, only to be shot down by Sapnap and George again. 

No matter if his win was genuine or not, Ranboo had a lot of fun recording it. The idea that even in littlespace, he beat Dream in a Manhunt, was funny to entertain, though. 

Once the playful arguing was over and the cameras were shut off, Dream spoke up again. 

"Y'know, if you did wanna do a rematch, you're always welcome on my channel," he told him. "This was lots of fun." 

"Oh yeah, definitely," Ranboo managed to pull himself mostly out of his headspace, "I think I'm gonna go, but I'll see you tomorrow to film for my channel, yeah? Thanks for this, again." 

With a few kind 'goodbye!'-s and 'of course!'-s, he exited the call and turned off his computer. He settled down for a nap with his stuffed animals, some cartoon playing on the tv as he thought over how fun his day had been. 

He was glad he did this. 

--

"Oh my god, have you heard about that new youtuber? Lemon Kid, I think?" Tubbo was rambling during one of his late night mining streams, as Ranboo, when he brought up his other identity. No one knew that he was also the face behind the second channel, not even his best friend. Tubbo didn't even know that he was an age regressor. 

"Yeah, Dream did a manhunt with them, right?" he acted more oblivious then he was, trying to avoid giving himself away. 

"Yep! I think you should collab with them, they're like a more childish version of you, apparently." he said, throwing him off. His eyes widened as he sat up in his chair, staring at his screen as if that was gonna change the words that came out of his friends mouth.  

"Who says that?" Ranboo sounded nervous, treading carefully. He tried not to spiral, hoping with everything he had that his fans weren't already putting things together. 

"Me and half your fans," the boy explained, only rising his anxiety, "You guys give off similar vibes. I think you'd get along well." 

"Oh," his panic subsided, "Uh, maybe? I'm pretty busy for a while, and I'd hate to overwhelm him with my massive fanbase." he played it off with a joke, not wanting to think to much about a possible situation where someone would want him to interact with himself. He doesn't even know what he'd do if Ranboo and Lemon were invited to be at the same place at the same time, he just know's it'd be a mess. 

A complicated, annoying mess, that he trapped himself into. He was sure he could avoid them though, as long as he set things up right and made sure he was organized. 

As the conversation continued and they changed topics, he relaxed and yet his thoughts fade from anxious ones to ones about how many diamonds he could find before he ended the stream. Lemon was clearly getting more popular, shown by the fact that more and more people with his social circle are talking about him. 

The more popular Lemon Kid got, the harder is was to keep 'Lemon' separate from Ranboo. 

--

Ranboo sat shocked, staring at his monitor as he looked at his subcount for his Lemon Kid channel. 500k. Five. Hundred. Thousand. Half a million, it was crazy. 

His collab with Dream brought him 200 thousand more subscribers in just a week. The videos had gone up a few days ago, and while the response was mixed, everyone was talking about it. Bad attention was still publicity that helped him reach his target audience. 

Ranboo had forgotten the rush that came with first gaining fame, the mix of anxiety and confidence having a platform to present content to brought. He liked to think that he was one of the only people who got to experience that two times over. 

"Buddy, we're trying to beat the ender dragon."

His thoughts were interrupted when he unlocked his phone to check it before he got distracted with anything else. He chucked a bit at Sapnap's voice when he replayed his TikTok, a clip from the video that went on his channel that he handpicked for his TikTok account. All of his videos on that app were just his favorite clips from his videos, or sections he cut out of the final product but was okay with showing online. 

"But there's flowers, Sap!" 

He shook his head at the protest he put up while little, the exact protesting that made their speedrun time so much longer then it should be. It was the famous speedrunner himself, Dream, that encouraged all the distractions, which enraged the other two. As they were trying to gather supplies and use portals to access other realms, him and Dream were taming animals and climbing hills just to do it.

'Caregiver Dream' was trending on Twitter for at least a day after both videos were uploaded. 

No matter what, the not-so-fast speedrun was doing well. That, along with the manhunt video, were on the trending pages just a few hours after being uploaded. Again, he had a boost in popularity and attention, just after conversation about him was finally starting to die out. 

It seemed that 'Lemon Kid' was going to be a persistent topic of discussion in the MCYT community, at least for a little while.

Things were good for Ranboo/Lemon. He recorded videos for the Lemon Kid channel, edited them, posted clips to TikTok, and tweeted sometimes. He streamed on his Ranboo channel, planned lore, and tweeted here and there. 

Having to make extra content for two online identities was a bit stressful, but he was handling it pretty well. Especially since for one of the channels, he was able to be regressed on camera, so it was usually nice to record as Lemon after streaming as Ranboo for the day.

He had gotten through his collaboration with Dream, George, and Sapnap without any slip ups or issues that gave him away, and though it was fun, it was stressful keeping that secret. Pretending he didn't know Dream well on a personal level, sitting back and listening to stories and facts he's already heard or knew about, was kinda of hard. 

Ranboo was sure he'd stray away from interacting with people he already knew under his new name, to avoid the secret getting out-

He gets a Twitter notification that cuts in over the audio of the short video, displaying itself at the top of his screen. This one isn't a reply, or a tweet tagging him, it's a DM directly to his 'Lemon Kid' account. He got them sometimes from fans, or other smaller creators, he liked replying to the kind messages. 

But this message wasn't just a random small streamer or another fan. This message was from someone a bit more notable. Someone he knew as Ranboo, because of course life had to be inconvenient and time things that way. 

He stared at his screen, this time in horror rather then amazement, as he realized who the message was from. 

This was a DM to Lemon from Wilbur Soot. 

Wilbur Soot

Hello, Lemon! I was wondering if you'd be interested in participating in a live Among Us lobby later this week? It'll be me, TommyInnit, Jack Manifold, Tubbo, Nihahchu, and Eret. We're trying to rope you and someone else into it as well to fill the extra spots, but if you're busy or something, we could find someone else. 

I just thought I'd invite you since you've been really big recently and I heard you don't know many other creators from Dream and them. Have a nice day! 

Before he could process any of this information, he gets another notification. This one is a private discord message from his friend, to his usual Ranboo account, but that made no difference in how inconvenient and annoying it was. The contents still complicated this situation even more. 

Tubbo 

yo do you wanna do an among us stream later this week? we have empty spots and wilbur is only reserving one for Lemon Kid

(please come- it'll be more fun if you're there) 

This seems like the right moment to spontaneously decide to go on a no-electronics camping trip and never come back, because he had absolutely no idea how he was going to deal with this, at all. Only one thought went through his mind as he tried to figure out what to do...

This was quite the situation, wasn't it? 

Chapter Text

As far as the internet, and all of Ranboo's friends, knew, Ranboo really did go on a spontaneous no electronics camping trip. He ended up telling his parents everything, glad that they were already aware of his coping skill, soon after his second channel began gaining popularity just a few weeks ago. 

He hadn't wanted to tell anyone, but he figured his parents would put together that he spent double the time he normally did 'working on content creator things' eventually, so he gave in because he didn't wanna get in trouble for keeping secrets if he held out for to long. His parents were glad he was opening up about his coping skills, the part of himself he usually hid, on some level. 

So, when he needed a way to push 'Ranboo' out of the picture, they were more then willing to rant to Phil and Wilbur about how he 'needed time away from technology' and needed to 'spend time in nature'. They really tried to talk them out of forcing him away from creating content for a week. 

Sadly, you can't escape something that wasn't real in the first place. 

Anyways, everyone thought Ranboo was gone and had no access to the internet for at least seven days, which meant that he got to focus on his 'Lemon' persona until he 'got back'. A week especially set aside for regression-related content. He was a genius, truly. 

It kind of sucked that he had to break his daily stream streak as Ranboo, but it seemed to be the only reasonable way out of the situation at the time. Plus, he was still streaming as Lemon, so he liked to think that it evened out. A lot of his fans followed both personas anyways.

Of course, he timed this 'trip' to start on the same day of the Among Us stream, which would be his first live event as Lemon. So, once he dramatically said goodbye to his friends and logged out of all his Ranboo accounts, he set up for a stream, hopping into a voice call with seven other creators. 

Everyone Wilbur had mentioned in his message inviting him to this stream was there, plus him and CrankGamePlays- he wasn't quite sure how they got Ethan Nestor to join in, but they did-, all prepping their own streams. He had a twitch account set up for the 'Lemon Kid' character since he started this whole thing, but this was the first time he actually put it to use. 

"Oh my god, I've heard about you!" Ethan addressed him directly first among the chaos. Wilbur had already started streaming, and so was Eret, but besides that, people were just arriving. "It's Citrus Child, right?" 

That got a giggle out of Ranboo. "Lemon Kid, actually." he corrected. 

"Address him with respect, Ethan." Jack Manifold sounded offended for him, "He's famous, didn't you know?"

"Aren't we all 'famous', though?" Tubbo piped up, sounding sort of tired. Sad, maybe? Apparently, he wasn't the only one who noticed, because Wilbur spoke up next. 

"Are you okay, Tubs?" he questioned gently.

"I'm just a bit down because I can't talk to Ranboo for a bit, he's like my favorite person." he admitted, "But I'm fine, yeah. Nice to meet you, Lee, by the way." 

"Nice to meet you too," Ranboo frowned, almost wanting to scream 'I'm right here!', but he held himself back. Before anyone else could say anything, Tommy undeafened. 

"HELLO EVERYONE!" 

"Hi, Tommy!" Eret piped up, unmuting themselves. "And welcome to the chaos, Lem." 

"Lemon Kid's here?" Tommy questioned, causing the boy to laugh nervously. 

"Yeah! Hello!" Ranboo wondered what he was gonna say next, patiently waiting for his next words. He was distracted from the fact that he made Tubbo sad, at least for now. 

"Everyone's been talking about you," the boy stated bluntly. This earned light scolding from Wilbur and some of the others, nervousness laced in their tones, as if they were afraid of offending him. 

"I know, I'm just so cool and famous." Ranboo eased the brief tension with a joke, prepping his 'starting soon' screen and playing a soft song as excited viewers filed in. "I'm gonna go start my stream, be right back!" 

He deafened himself, but not before a few 'okay'-s and 'see you in a bit!'-s snuck their way through his headphones, and prepared to start the stream. He reminded himself to not do the same intro he does as Ranboo. He even created new playlists for this new persona, filled with more childish and soft music. 

"Hi chat!" he couldn't help himself with that line as he transitioned into the screen that showed him in the Among Us lobby, the code blocked out by a stretched stock photo of lemons (he thought he was real creative and funny with that one). "As you guys are probably aware, this is my first stream. Donos are turned on, and I have a set of mods filtering the chat, so please don't say anything mean or weird." 

Most of his mods were people Dream recommended, some of them were even people who modded for Ranboo. 

"I'm doing an Among Us stream with lots of people tonight, I'm really excited, honestly." he watched chat fly by, his face lighting up when he saw all the positive messages, "I haven't met a lot of these people yet, but I'm so thankful that Wilbur invited me to hang out with everyone!" 

It wasn't long before he undeafened and everyone's voices were flooding through his headphones again, "Hello, guys! I'm streaming now." 

"Hello, Lemon's chat," Tubbo replied first, earning a quick reaction from his ever growing group of viewers. 

"Are your fans called Lemons?" Wilbur questions suddenly, "I think that'd be clever and cute."

"They can be." Ranboo replied, shrugging even though no one could see it. Based off of the positive response from chat, it seemed it was settled. "You guys are the Lemons, now, I guess." 

"Oh my god, hi Lemon!" a new voice came through the call, it belonged to Niki. "I'm so glad you're here, I've been watching your stuff for a while." 

She moved her avatar over to where Lemon's was, moving around in front of him. He moved around too, laughing gently, "I love your stuff too! I'm happy to be here." 

He kept going like that, interacting with everyone until Wilbur decided that it was finally time to start the game. He was a crewmate for the first round, and he immediately found himself trailing behind Tubbo. 

He realized that he wasn't the boy's best friend while he was on this account, but they were pretty far into the round at this point, so he stuck with him. "Tubbo seems nice," he told chat, stopping to do a task, "His whole thing is bees, right? Bees are so cool!" 

He rambled about random things as they ran around the map, and he began to trust that Tubbo wasn't an imposter. He surely would've killed him when they were in electrical together, or while they were-

The killing animation plays across his monitor, and his avatar drops dead in the middle of the empty cafeteria. He gasps, "I trusted him, chat!" 

He upped the dramatics for the viewers, especially any regressed viewers, before following it up with a giggle, to remind everyone that this was all light hearted. 

"Lemon's dead?" Niki spoke up, devastation in her tone once the meeting was called, "I liked him! We have to find whoever killed Citrus."

"Citrus?" Eret asked, sounding confused

"That's my thing! I came up with that!" Ethan interrupted defensively before Niki could reply, and all of this playful arguing made Ranboo laugh again. 

"These people are so sweet, aren't they? I'm glad I was invited." he spoke to chat, sitting back and watching the others try to piece together who killed him. 

"I was with Lemon for most of that game, he moved ahead because I had a task he didn't, I don't know what happened after that," Tubbo told his story (read: lies), and the others bought it. 

"That absolute liar! We're gonna haunt him, guys." he promised. 

"I did see Tubbo and Lemon go off together at the start of the game," Ethan vouched for Tubbo, and they moved on. Skipping the vote, the game resumes. 

Lemon played up his bit of following Tubbo around and 'haunting' him, finishing off any tasks he had along the way. He witnessed another murder- this time, Tubbo killed Niki-, and Ethan walked in. 

"Is he gonna report the body, or...?" he trailed off, "OH MY GOD! Ethan is the other impostor!" he realized, gasping when they left the body like it was nothing. Ranboo then decided to camp the body to see who reported it, curious to see how long it'd take for someone to discover it. 

Jack didn't come around until a minute or so later, but he reported the body. The meeting begins and it's automatic chaos. Apparently, Wilbur died too. 

"I SAW ETHAN KILL WILBUR!" Tommy's voice overlapped everyone else's, definitely the loudest in the call. Lemon flinched a bit at the volume, but he still laughed. Ethan doesn't get to defend himself much because he gets voted out in seconds. 

This leaves Tubbo as the lone impostor, Tommy, Jack, and Eret. They couldn't find anyone to fill those final two spots, so they settled for an eight person game. 

The ghosts follow Tubbo, who goes after Eret and successfully kills him, and then takes a stab at Jack, who goes to the emergency button. "IT'S TUBBO, IT'S TUBBO, IT'S TUBBO!" Jack shouted once the meeting started, "Tommy vote for Tubbo!" 

There's a lot of back and forth between the three, until finally, Tubbo tricks Tommy and wins the game. The stream goes on like that, the group filtering through each round and making jokes with one another as they played. 'Lemon' got along well with Niki and Eret specifically, and he gets caught up in a argument about how most stuffed animals are inaccurate to an animals real anatomy with Wilbur when they should've been trying to figure out who killed Tommy. 

The game, the playful arguments, it was all a lot of fun. 

Ranboo finds that playing Lemon is easier then he thought it'd be, even live. He was getting a lot of subscriptions and donations, too. 

Maybe he'd make himself an actual play area with the extra money. His parent's never really used the attic anyways, setting up a playroom there would be fun. 

His thoughts drifted away from toys and playtime and back to his stream as he read a donation. 

"What ages do you usually regress too?" he read aloud, humming in thought, "Well, I age dream as well, don't forget. But probably anywhere from like, baby ages, to around ten. Big range, I know." 

He had already died again, so he was just chilling and talking to chat while he waited for the people still playing to put everything together. He enjoyed talking about his favorite things to do, or what snacks he liked the best while small. 

It was nice to open up about this stuff after keeping it a secret for so long. 

This mini QnA didn't last long, though, because they were thrown into the next round once they realized that the killers were Eret and Wilbur. This round, though, the pairing was a bit more relevant to him...

TommyInnit and Lemon were the impostors.

Ranboo sat up in his seat, leaning forward. This was gonna be a fun round. 

They pull off a double kill in electrical immediately, Jack and Niki's avatars fall to the ground and Tommy runs off. Lemon, though, camps the bodies for a bit. By the time Eret walks in, he's timer is ready and he could kill them, too. 

Chat freaks out, an odd mixture of impressed and confused, as they marvel at this brave  and risky play. 

Lemon reports the new body, pretending to sound shocked when the meeting started. Wilbur, Tubbo, Ethan, and TommyInnit listened to him as he spoke. 

"There were three bodies in electrical, I think. I just barely saw the vent shut when I entered, someone went on a killing spree." he explained. "Where was everyone?" he asked next, taking charge of the situation so that no one could turn this back around on him. 

"Two of those were probably a double kill, unless the killer camped the bodies and killed anyone who tried to report it." Ethan deduced immediately, "I was everywhere but electrical, but I was in the cafeteria before the bodies were reported." 

"I was in electrical at the start of the round, but there were no bodies then," Only Ranboo could hear the impressed tone in Tommy's voice. If Ranboo and Tommy avoided getting caught, they only needed one more kill to win the game. If they could pin the blame on someone else, they could get a quick and easy win. 

"How did you know it was a double kill, Ethan?" Tubbo addressed the other creator curiously, and Wilbur doubles down on it, 

"You might be right, but you had very little information to go off of." 

Ethan sounded panicked as he replied, "Logic! I don't know how one killer could pull off three back-to-back kills in one place without getting caught." 

No one was having any of it. Ethan, once again, is voted out. Except this time, he was wrongly accused. 

"WOOOOOOO!" Ranboo cheered, clapping his hands as the Impostor Victory screen displays itself across his monitor and everyone unmutes to scream about that round. "Tommy, that was so cool!" 

"It was!" the boy in question laughed, agreeing with him. "By the way, Ethan, you were right about the double kill thing." Ethan's protests and complaining could be heard as Niki spoke up. 

"How did you guys even pull that off? That was incredible," the girl sounded shocked, betrayed, and impressed all at once. 

"We're just good at the game," Ranboo replied, overjoyed and laughing along with everyone else. 

They only go on for another round or two before they're ending their streams and some of then were leaving the call. He lingered for a while afterwards, wanting to thank Wilbur for inviting him. Most people have left the call, heading out one by one while anyone left just kept going with their off stream conversations. 

"Thanks for letting me do this with you guys, it was a ton of fun," he said once Niki left the call, realizing that he hadn't eaten lunch yet and should probably go make something soon. 

"Of course! Maybe next time, Ranboo won't go on a camping trip and you'll be able to meet him," Wilbur joked, "I think you guys would get along well." 

Ranboo laughed nervously, "Yeah, maybe! Uh, I gotta go, but this was nice!" 

Suddenly, he was starving and lunch seemed a lot more important. 

"You're always welcome back, I'll definitely invite you to more stuff in the future if you're interested." the brunette offered politely, "You're really funny, and my viewers seemed to like seeing me interact with you." 

"That sounds good," he hummed, trying not to be rude but also trying to escape as soon as possible, "Thanks. Okay, bye!" 

He left the call, leaning back in his seat and taking a deep breath. It seemed that for every fun thing he did as Lemon, people compared him to Ranboo. 

How long did he have until people realized that there was more in common between the two besides 'similar vibes'?

--

That Among Us stream was received wonderfully among viewers. Like he did with his Lemon Kid videos, he uploaded clips to TikTok, which brought more attention to the whole thing. 

A new influx of Wilbur's fans were now following him, along with people from the audiences of the others involved in the stream, people were excited for this collab. And it seemed that there were smaller agere creators stepping up within the MCYT community, willing to educate people on what age regression was. 

So while this whole thing was kinda crazy and hard to manage, it seemed that he was helping to normalize age regression, just a bit, in one corner of the internet. It was kinda cool to think that he had to power to make others like him just a bit more accepted. 

He had a lot of plans for the next week, mostly video recordings and streams on the peaceful Minecraft world he first got attention for. The people deserved to see Bubble Gum the Minecraft Cat live. 

It was just two days into this 'week long trip' that Ranboo decided to check in on his usual accounts, and he saw a message from his friend on Discord.

Tubbo

ik you won't see this until you get back but I miss you!! 

the among us stream was fun

lemon's really cool, he reminds me of you, like a lot 

anyways, i just wanted to say that I miss you and we have to stream together or something when you get back

Ranboo stared at the message on his screen and immediately felt bad. If he had found a better way out of this, maybe his friends wouldn't be so lonely. Against his better judgement, he started typing back. He couldn't just let his friend miss him when he could do something about it. 

Ranboo

Hey

There's a library near our camping site, it has internet and computers! my parents let me bike up here as long as I promised to be back before dark

I watched some of the stream! it seemed really cool- your win that first round was amazing

and I miss you too! 

He hoped his excuse for suddenly having internet would hold up, but he didn't worry about it to much. He hated the idea that Tubbo felt lonely because of him, and he needed to fix it. His face lit up when Tubbo started typing. 

Lying to Tubbo, his best friend, like this kind of sucks, he realized as they talked back and forth. 

He shouldn't do that anymore. 

Chapter Text

"So, I need an outfit that's similar to the design of my Minecraft skin for Lemon..." Ranboo explained as he opened an Amazon tab, "As far as anyone but you and my parents knows, I'm still camping in the woods somewhere for about four more days. So, I get to make more videos as Lemon, and I wanna do some non-gaming things." 

"Like littlespace vlogs?" Tubbo questioned, resting his elbow on his desk and his chin in his palm as he looked at his camera. 

"Exactly," Ranboo confirmed. "I need new sunglasses and a mask, cute enough to fit the aesthetic I've created for this persona, but something that hides my face well, and something I'm comfortable wearing, y'know? Also, I need a hat, people will definitely recognize my hairstyle. Maybe butterfly clips too?" 

He spoke as he typed on a Google Doc, making a list of things he had to buy so that he could make an in person video, as Lemon, with the help of Tubbo. 

Oh yeah! 

He told Tubbo everything. Keeping a secret as big as having two separate identities from the entire internet is hard, but keeping a secret like a second identity from your best friend?

Impossible. 

[Discord Message Interlude] - Messages between Tubbo and Ranboo, Approximately One Day Ago

Tubbo

Don't you have to get back to the camping site soon? 

It's pretty late in America, isn't it?

Ranboo

about that 

hjsiakjsa hold on 

Tubbo

you good big man?

Ranboo

i'm fine

mostly 

I have something to tell you 

Tubbo

oh??

Ranboo

I'm not on a camping trip 

Tubbo

did you convince your parents to let you come home early? 

Ranboo 

there was never a camping trip to begin with? 

i'm at home, me and my parents made the whole thing up

you can't tell anyone

Tubbo

if you needed a break from content creation that badly you could've just said something 

and does that mean you've just been ignoring me? and everyone?

Ranboo

I didn't need a break

Tubbo

THEN WHY DID YOU FABRICATE AN ENTIRE CAMPING TRIP?!?

AND IGNORE ME FOR A DAY??? I MISSED YOU, YOU DICKHEAD

Ranboo

...

you know Lemon Kid?

Tubbo

why? 

Ranboo

you wanna see his face?

Tubbo 

what? can you please explian 

*explain 

Ranboo 

[insert a selfie of himself]

Tubbo

Huh? 

OH

wait 

call me 

End of Chat Message History

Present Day

The call following those messages was full of questions and confusion. Some questions hurt more then others, like "Why didn't you tell me?", but most of it was just curiosity about how he pulled it all off. 

Any anger he held disappeared pretty quickly once Ranboo explained himself a bit, and promised never to keep secrets this big from him anymore. And to not go extended periods of time without speaking to him ever again. 

So, Tubbo knew now. Which was fun at first, but now he had a friend who knew about his regression and cared about his well-being. Of course having someone that cares about you is a good thing, but when you were a little who thrived on not having rules and often did things that probably weren't the best for you? 

It sucked having someone to try and tell you 'no'. But he didn't have to listen to his friend, since he wasn't his caregiver, but even hearing 'you shouldn't eat that much candy' or 'it's getting kind of late, isn't it?' wasn't the funnest thing in the world.

None of that mattered at the moment, though. Because Ranboo was going undercover. He wanted to record an IRL video as Lemon. Not only did he have to hide his face, but he had to make sure he didn't look similar to...well, himself, either. It was a hard thing to accomplish, but with Tubbo aiding him, he got there. 

He looked at himself in the mirror on the back of his bedroom door, set up so that he could see his entire body, even with his height. Like his Minecraft skin, he wore a pastel yellow sweater, and black overalls (finding overalls fit for his height was a real hassle). He had on basic converse shoes, but it wasn't like the viewers were gonna be looking at his feet anyways. 

Like he did as Ranboo, he wore a mask and a pair of sunglasses. These ones were different, though. 

He had bedazzled sunglasses. 

They were white with black lenses, but the frames had silver gems that were flat on one side, and tiny plastic fruit decals, glued to them. The boy had a little experience decorating his own adult pacifiers, so the glasses were no issue at all. He designed them specifically to match his new brand. 

The temples of them were even decorated, the word 'Lemon' spelled out on one in letter beads, and the other one had more fruit decals glued to it. 

The mask was made of fabric that you could doodle on with marker over and over again, the kind where the ink just washes out every time (given that you didn't use permanent marker). He had drawn on little designs with colorful markers, lines and shapes all over the mask, a pop of color against his outfit. 

On his head sat a black bucket hat with lemons embroidered in, his hair was pulled a bit more to the front to cover his forehead. In the hair that stuck out of the hat, he scattered butterfly clips.

He truly looked like a crazily tall toddler, but that was kind of the point. He hoped that with his hair styled differently and in a hat, no one would connect the dots. With hope that the internet was dumb enough to overlook two youtubers that had 'similar vibes', were the same height, and had the same voice, he turned on his microphone and hit record on the camera.

"Hello and welcome to my channel!" he began his now usual youtube intro. As Ranboo, he streamed more, while as Lemon, he created more videos. It was a weird little difference between the two personas that had no real reason to it.  "I'm Lemon Kid, but you can call me Lee. Today, we are doing something a bit different." 

"I'm sure you can tell that by the fact that you can see me! Hiii!" he waved at the camera with a gloved hand, smiling even though they couldn't see past the mask. He spins around in a circle to show off his bedroom around him, all the boxes of toys and little gear. 

"My parents have given me permission to turn our unused attic into a playroom for little me." he spoke to the device in his hands, "Sooooo, I went and bought shelves and decorations and lots of fun things to put in the room, and we're gonna decorate the place together!" 

Once explaining his plan for the video, he went up to the empty attic and set up a tripod there, next to the staircase that leads back down to the main part of the house. He left the camera recording while he made his way back downstairs to grab a basket of cleaning supplies and a broom.

"Before we get to decorating, we have to clean up! We've always used our basement for storage and such, so we really only have to sweep and pick up any trash there is," he explained once he got back, "Then we'll get to the fun part!" 

The attic of his house was set up so that it could be used as another bedroom, with wooden stairs with white banisters that crept up from the end of the second floor hallway, into the empty room with a bathroom extension. The room was about the side of a large bedroom, and the ceiling was slanted but tall, showing that they were directly under the roof. 

If he went all the way to the right wall of the room, he had to crouch a bit in order to not hit his head on the ceiling, but that was only a minor inconvenience for such a cool, private place. On this right wall, closer to the staircase that led to the room, was the door to the small bathroom. And against the wall opposite to the stairs, there were large windows that looked into his backyard and let sunlight into the room. 

This place had a lot of potential to be a nice hangout area. He had been to young to live in a room that was basically separate from the rest of the house when they first moved in when he really was a kid, and he didn't feel like moving everything up here after so many years of staying in the same room, so he'd settle for it being his littlespace area. At the bottom of the stairs that led up to the attic, there was a door that shut and locked in case they needed to hide the place from guests, it was perfect!

He decided to quickly hand up curtains to fix any lighting issues before he actually got to work cleaning, joking around as he talked to the camera. 

"I think I'm gonna put my stuffed animals and babyspace gear over here." he motioned to the far right corner of the room, where he had to duck to not hit his head, "I have this little mattress that I'm just gonna drown in soft blankets and stuffies, it'll go good here, I think." 

He brainstormed as he went, before he finally started dragging things up. With some edited out help from his dad, he gets everything up the stairs and is able to slide it to where it needs to go. 

He did end up putting the mattress in the corner he mentioned earlier, pulling sheets with a fruit pattern onto it and throwing pillows and fluffy blankets and a few stuffed animals onto it. The mattress didn't have a frame, it just sat on the floor, but Ranboo didn't mind. "Look, I made the bed! It's so cute!" he showed off his work before moving onto the next thing. 

He puts a fluffy rug next to the bed, and lines the far left corner with different forms of storage. His dark blue bookshelf (which he plans to cover in stickers) is stocked with children's books and coloring books, his toy box is filled with action figures and other things he usually used when he felt like an older toddler or kid, and the bins are filled with arts and craft supplies. 

As promised, there's a dresser up against the right wall that he puts his onesies, pacifier box, bottles and sippy cups, and diapers and pull ups in. The rest of his stuffed animals are stored in a little yellow laundry basket, and a trashcan is place next to the bathroom door. 

Once the furniture is organized, and his little gear is displayed and put away, he decorated the room. He put up childish wall decals, cute signs that were probably meant for actual children's bedrooms, little trinkets and even certain toys on top of the dresser and bookshelf. 

Everything had a specific place, organized rather then hectically thrown where it would fit like it was in his bedroom. He even had a little snack cart, complete with toddler cutlery like plastic kids plates and baby spoons, along with a small table he could sit at to color! He found an old tablet to plug up and fill with childish games and kid-appropriate apps, which sat at the table charging. 

He strung up fairy lights that covered the wall around the bed, and hung a calendar by the arts and crafts bins. 

By the time he was done, the room was perfect. He was also half-regressed by the time he was filming the outro, but that didn't matter. Once the camera's were off and put away, he called Tubbo on the tablet, excitement in his tone as he greeted the boy. 

"Tubbo!" he cheered, "Hiiii!" 

"Hello, buddy," Tubbo has interacted with Little Ranboo a handful of times at this point. It was the second to last day of the week, meaning his friend has known about this whole thing for about four days. 

"I did my room, look, look, look!" Ranboo was giggling as he unplugged the tablet, flipping the camera and panning around the room. Once Tubbo's initial shock was over when he first found out, he had asked a lot of questions about the whole regression thing. Like why he didn't tell anyone, why he couldn't just make agere content as Ranboo. 

"It looks so cute!" Tubbo entertained his antics, encouraging him to show him around. Ranboo had told him all about his anxiety surrounding regression- how he knew it was okay, but it was scary to talk about. He knew that people were judgmental, and he didn't wanna lose the fanbase he had been building up for months because of the coping skill he used. 

"All my toys are in here!" he toddled over to the toy box and lifted the lid, giving Tubbo a glance of all the bright colored plastic inside, before promptly moving onto the next thing. "I gots da pretty curtains!" he showed off the light yellow floral patterned fabric that covered the windows. 

Tubbo dramatically gasped, making him giggle, "Those are so pretty!" 

Ranboo found himself slipping further and further fast, a lot deeper in littlespace then he'd probably be comfortable with on camera, maybe lingering around 3 or 4. 

"This is the baby stuff," once showing off the bed and fairy lights, he briefly showed the simple baby blue dresser, mostly focusing on the decorations on top. 

"What's inside the drawers, Boo?" Tubbo asked, smiling a bit. He was obviously shy about the fact that he regressed to such young ages sometimes, and harmlessly teasing him was fun. 

"The baby stuff!" the boy practically squeaked, his face going red behind the mask he had yet to remove. "Not showin' you." he decided, pulling off the mask but leaving everything else, setting it on top of the dresser for now. 

"I think you should show me," the brunette pushed, watching as he flipped his camera to show himself again and made his way over to the mattress. 

"Uh-uh." Ranboo shook his head with a sure look on his face and he plopped down and adjusted the pillows around him so that he was comfortable. 

"Yeah-huh." Tubbo protested as the regressor pulled blankets over himself, grabbing Micheal from where he sat propped-up against the wall. He briefly thought about the fact that he had shown the stuffed animal in the video, but pushed the thought out of his head. He hadn't stated what his name was, people shouldn't speculate him owning a common Minecraft plush. 

"Maybe another day." the toddler settled, "Not now, though. Comfy." 

The other boy hummed, pretending to think before agreeing, "Alright, another day is fine. What do you wanna do now, though?" 

"m' sleepy," Ranboo leaned back into the pillows around him. "T-think m' gonna take a nap, jus' wanted to call n' say hi first." 

"Aww, that's sweet," Tubbo cooed for a bit before moving on, "Make sure you take of your glasses and get all those butterfly clips out of your hair, okay?" 

"I gotta get back uuuup?" he whined, huffing a bit. 

"You don't have to listen to me, it was just a suggestion. We wouldn't want you rolling over and breaking your cool glasses in your sleep, now would we?"

That was enough to get Ranboo out of bed. He kept talking to Tubbo as he removed the glasses and clips from his hair, running his fingers through it so that it was styled how it normally was once he removed his hat. "Think m' gonna go take that nap now," he rubbed at his eyes. Organizing and decorating an entire playroom took a lot of energy out of him, apparently. 

He'd play later, but for now, he just wanted to sleep. "M' gonna stream as Lemon when I wake up, i-if m' big enough-" he cut himself off with a yawn, "is gonna be my first stream since the Among Us one, it'll be lotsa fun I think. Just gonna play on my Minecraft world." 

"That does sound fun," Tubbo agreed, "I think people will be excited to see Lemon stream without the chaos of a big game. Maybe I could hop on a voice chat with you, maybe bring more viewers?"

"Maybe," Ranboo sleepily hummed, shrugging a bit. He stumbled over to the table and plugged the tablet back up. "Gonna go, bye bye!" 

"Bye, Ranboo! Sleep well!" were the last words he heard before he hung up and practically threw himself at the bed. Needless to say, he was out in seconds. 

--

When he finally woke up, mostly big and still kind of out of it, he found his phone to check the time. He had started recording pretty early in the day, so the recording time combined with his nap led him here, at about 8 pm. He posted some pictures he took when he first got in his whole outfit, double checking that there was nothing that revealed connections to Ranboo, or his face, in them before posting them to twitter.

For a brief moment he panicked, realizing that he forgot to double check what account he was on, before remembering that he completely logged out of his Ranboo account at the start of the week. He reminded himself that he always had to check that, because he might not get so lucky next time. 

His phone blew up with notifications, people reacting and replying to the tweet, but one stood out more then all the rest. He typed out a reply and started a back and forth conversation with his friend.

tommy | @tommyaltinnit

you look tall. please don't be taller then me, little man 

lemon | @lemon.kid replying to @tommyaltinnit 

I may be small mentally most of the time but I am physically so big

i am 6'6 

you are the little man here, tommy

tommy | @tommyaltinnit replying to @lemon.kid, @tommyaltinnit

you are as tall as ranboo 

you can both go fucking shrink or some shit

The replies to Tommy's last tweets were full of people realizing something. Ranboo and Lemon were the same height. They had the same voice, and their vibes were just a bit too similar. 

There were no serious accusations yet, but his fans were starting to put things together. 

Tubbo 

why did you reveal your height on twitter 

you fucking dumbass

Chapter Text

"Guys, me and Ranboo being the same height is just a coincidence, okay?" he tried, "Just. A. Coincidence." he emphasized each word, trying his best to sound convincing to the viewers. 

He sighed as his chat continued to make their jokes, shaking his head lightly, even letting himself laugh a bit. Since his slip up earlier that day, just a few hours ago, twitter's been buzzing with joke theories about him and Ranboo being way to similar. That's all it was, though, a big joke. 

A simple observation that they were alike in many ways, but no serious accusations that it was the same person behind the masks. He knew the joke would die out in a few days for the most part, especially one he 'came back' from the camping trip the following day, but he was still trying to avoid entertaining it. 

So, he explained everything as a coincidence and tried to leave it at that. The fact that they were the same height, their voices sounding identical, that they had the same Minecraft plush. It just so happened that these two tall, white, faceless youtubers were really similar. But they were definitely different people! He'd do everything he could to convince his fans of that. 

"Will you guys shut up if I show you Bubble Gum?" he questioned, already heading towards his 'mushroom cottage' base in this world. The game was set on peaceful, as always, so there weren't any obstacles along the way. He smiled when he saw chat agreeing to this compromise, "Alright, here they are!" 

His fans decided that Bubble Gum was nonbinary before he even had five thousand subscribers, he didn't have a choice in the matter. He showed off the in-game animal and spoke to it as if it'd say something back, going through his chests and organizing things as he went. He settled into a headspace that wasn't quite regression. 

On a mental level, he was his usual age, but he was acting childish. And it was a lot of fun. He was age dreaming, rather then partially regressing and struggling to stay somewhat big. 

"Chat, look!" he showed off the chest stocked with diamonds, "I went mining for a video to see how many diamonds I could get in an hour, it went well. That'll come out in the next few days alongside the vlog I filmed earlier, I just gotta edit them." 

His viewers seemed excited to hear the news that they were gonna get new videos soon. This week had been filled with filming solo ideas, mostly stuff in Minecraft, but he began to dip into other games. Games he knew and loved, except now, he was trying to beat them while little. It was an add-on to the joke speedrun thing, it'd probably become it's own separate series. 

His thoughts were interrupted when the tell tale sound of someone calling him on Discord rang out. "Guys, Tubbo's calling me. Do we let him in the stream? Is he cool enough to hang out with us?" he inquired, even though his mouse was already hovering over the 'answer call' button and he was gonna let him in no matter what. 

It was nice that chat welcomed him, though. 

"Tubbo!" he cheered immediately once his voice came through, clapping his hands with excitement before letting them return to the keyboard and mouse. 

"Lemon!" the other boy chuckled fondly in response, meeting him with the same energetic playfulness. 

"Hello!" he greeted him properly now, "How are you?" 

"Pretty good! You?" he spoke in a way that encouraged him to talk and engage, like he wouldn't allow for a single quiet, boring moment. 

"M' havin' fun," Ranboo giggled, "Um- organizing n' talkin' with chat n Bub! An' now you!" 

"Hmm," Tubbo hummed, before asking, "Are there any bees? You should get a pet bee."

"Are you givin' me a quest?" the boy's eyes went wide and he sounded excited, leaning in closer to his microphone as he awaited a response.

"Yes! It's a quest! Go fetch me a bee, young knight." the other teenager fell into the dramatic antics the little was quickly coming to love, chat was also eating it up. The stream went on, Ranboo doing small tasks in his world while Tubbo cheered him on and chat asked questions. 

"Star! We can name the bee Star!" Ranboo's eyes lit up as he came up with an idea, giggling a bit as he looked at the virtual animal on his screen. Tubbo gasped, eternally perfecting the talent of matching the little's energy,

"We can! Star da bee," he spoke in an excited but gentle enough tone, "You're so creative, Lee." 

"T'ank you, Tubs," he said politely. He was vaguely aware of the fact that Tubbo replied, but was distracted by a donation that appeared on his screen. 

have you ever thought about doing a collaboration with ranboo? you guys are my comfort creators and seeing you stream together would be a literal dream come true 

"Sorry, I don't wanna stream with him," he rejected in what was probably a not so polite tone, shocked and a bit annoyed at the fact that his viewers, on both ends, insisted on comparing them or pushing them together. He snapped out of his age dream state and stood up straighter, a bit more on-edge then before. 

"Stream with who?" Tubbo questioned with curiosity clear in his tone, even sounding a bit concerned. 

"Ranboo," Lemon replied, glancing at the chat, where messages were zooming by like crazy. 

what did ranboo do to you? 

damn you hate him or sum hjsiakjsa 

you sound like you're annoyed

His eyes widened as he realized what he just did. He spoke up again, hoping that he wouldn't sound rude this time, "I'm just not super interested in it! His fanbase is huge and I don't know if I'm ready for such a huge audience. You know how judgy the main minecraft community can be." he chuckled nervously, wishing with every bit of him that he played that off well. 

He heard Tubbo stifle a laugh from the other end of the call. He 'covered' it with a cough. 

His chat didn't seem convinced, and he was busy hoping that twitter wouldn't blow this out of proportion, so he ended stream a few minutes after that. 

Of course, twitter is twitter. So, naturally, the tags 'Lemon' and 'Ranboo' were trending for hours following that stream. Somehow, in the span of just one day, he's sparked conflicting two theories: 

Lemon and Ranboo were the same person, or Ranboo and Lemon had problems with one another. And the later one was the one more people believed. 

--

Okay, so maybe the internet was freaking out about Ranboo possibly having a feud with himself, but hey!

At least his Lemon Kid channel reached 800k subscribers, and he was pretty sure he could get to one million soon. At least his new video was doing amazing, and people were complimenting his playroom left and right. At least he was still having fun with this whole thing. 

He was really quick to get that video edited once he saw how excited people were for it, he spent the entirety of his time trying to ignore twitter getting that together and ready to post by that morning. He was pretty proud of himself for the fast work, honestly, and was really happy to see that it was doing well. 

He was doing well, mostly. 

The whole 'Lemon vs Ranboo' debate was just a minor setback, it wasn't that big of a deal. Definitely. He wasn't that worried about it, not at all. 

What the boy didn't know is that there'd be another setback soon. Well, whether or not it was a 'setback' or a good thing was debatable, but it was going to complicate things either way. 

People thought that Lemon and Ranboo were either the same person or that they hated each other, but he tried not to think about that to much.  

"Yes, chat, I am back!" Ranboo clapped his hands as he read over the excited messages going through the chat. This was his big 'returning stream', Ranboo's grand return to the internet. Of course, he was never really gone, but his viewers didn't need to know that. He read over the messages in the chatbox, smile clear on his face as he scanned through the welcoming words. 

I missed you

my streamer has returned!! 

HJSIAKJSA YOU'RE BACK

"I will try not to leave you guys for that long again, I promise. Camping's boring, anyways." he smiled, genuinely glad to be back. He liked being Ranboo just as much as he did Lemon, he liked the content he got to create here and was happy to get back to it. Now he just had to really convince everyone that he had really been on a camping trip. 

He thought back to the call be had stayed on with Tubbo for hours a few days prior, fabricating fake stories about his long device-free trip, trying to make up things that sounded crazy but believable. He took a deep breath, clicking through his monitor and checking that the Minecraft home page was displayed properly for his fanbase to see, "Is everyone here? Can we begin?" 

He checked his viewer count and hummed a bit, "Today I'll be mining on the Dream SMP and catching up with you guys!" he spawned into the server in question, before jumping into his first carefully thought out lie, "You know, there's a lot of stories to tell about my trip, I think I'd like to start with this lake me and my parents went too..." 

He went on and on with fake stories, mining and replying to donations. Of course, he was gonna get one about Lemon eventually, it was only natural at this point. 

does Lemon Kid not like you, or something? he seemed pretty upset when someone asked about you two doing a collab yesterday

"I don't know why he'd have a problem with me, but I'm not really interested in collaborating with him either." he tried to sound nonchalant and casual. "Everyone insists that we'd click well but I don't think so." 

He really thought that his words would make things better, but it only convinced more people that there was something going on between the boy's two personas. Ranboo was willing to work with anyone, even people he didn't know well. He never straight up refused to stream with someone, that's just not how he did things. 

So, it lead people to believe that Lemon did something to make Ranboo not like him. And vise versa, because Lemon was nice to everyone. 

Of course, the boy ignored all the theories and questions as much as he could, on both ends, and focused on streaming and making videos. 

"Tubbo, the entirety of Twitter and then some is convinced that I hate myself, which isn't untrue but it's not in the way they think-" he ran his fingers through his hair, complaining to his friend once his stream as returning stream was over. He was cut off though, by a gentle but stern voice. 

"First of all, cut the self deprecating jokes, and take a few deep breaths, yeah?" Tubbo ordered, successfully getting him to stop. Just like he requested, he took in a few big breaths, feeling just a bit less panicked and stressed by the time he was done. 

"Now, I think your best bet is to just ignore all of this until is blows over as best as you can. Pretend you don't see donos asking you about Ranboo or Lemon in streams, don't bother defending yourself when people accuse you of being to much like yourself, it just makes you look more guilty." 

He nodded softly, finding Tubbo's voice comforting as he leaned back into his gaming chair.

 "There's gonna be tons of things like this and you're gonna have to find ways to cover it up, that's what having two famous personas is, but I'll help you through it, okay? I'll say something about how I'd know if Lemon and Ranboo had problems, or if they were the same person if anyone asks, maybe that'll help clear things up?"

"Yeah, maybe," Ranboo bit on his lip, "I should probably go edit that diamond mining video." he sighed. 

"You literally just got a Lemon video out this morning, you can wait for that other one. How about you go hang out in your new playroom for a while?" Tubbo suggested, "You can call me on your tablet, if you'd like." 

"I don't need to be little, though," he whined, his face a bit red, sitting up straight, "I'm fine." he decided, shaking his head, "I'll edit the video." 

"Ranboo," he saw Tubbo give him a disappointed look, knowing he was ready to jump into a rant about overworking himself and not using his coping skills enough. His parents did the same thing all the time. Even though he regressed a lot, he still managed to balance work and play. 

"Just go play, okay? You set up the room yesterday and you've barely used it! You could show me all your toys, or the stuff in your baby dresser." he spoke in a teasing tone as he reached the end of his statement, smirking a bit. 

If Ranboo's face was red before, it definitely was now. "Tubbo!" he groaned, covering his face with his hands, "I don't like you." he claimed, sounding even more whiny as he dragged his palms down his face dramatically. 

"Sure you don't, bud." he only laughed, "You don't even have to regress, just go take a break and I'll stop teasing you, yeah?" 

"Whatever," Ranboo rolled his eyes, but didn't protest, "I'll go watch the Office without you, just to spite you." he huffed, sticking out his tongue at his camera childishly. He barely registered Tubbo's dramatic gasp before he hung up, giggling. He powered off his PC and headed exactly where his friend told him to go, his new playroom. 

The place was still organized and clean, save for the bed that was no longer made properly. He went over to his snack cart and poured himself a bowl of goldfish, setting it on the table as he went back downstairs to fill a sippy cup he got from the baby drawer with apple juice. He passed his mom but didn't really talk to her, holding up the kiddish container wordlessly and earning a knowing hum from her. 

He didn't really talk to his parents much when he was small, a mix of not wanting to bother them and being shy about his regression getting in the way of him doing so, and they respected that. They left him alone and didn't question it if he used a baby spoon to eat his dinner, or if he carried a stuffed animal with him when he ran errands with them. They weren't even thrown off anymore when they woke him up and he had an adult pacifier in his mouth. 

After his short interaction with his mom, he went back upstairs and turned on his tablet, turning on a cartoon rather then the show he tormented his friend with. Sometimes, he just liked regressing alone, being independent was nice when he was old enough to take care of himself. He was still getting used to the idea of being open with anyone but his therapist or his parents about his coping skill anyway, going straight from always regressing alone to having a friend to talk to was weird.  

He changed into one of the onesies in his dresser as some point, feeling much more comfortable and generally softer by the time he was all dressed and comfy, only struggling a bit to pull the piece of clothing on. He didn't quite remember when he located a pacifier and slipped it into his mouth, or when his mom came to check on him and swapped his sippy cup for a bottle, or when he moved from the table to the mattress, but he knew that he was sleeping like a baby after a few episodes of his toddler show. 

By the time he woke up, when he heard his dad's voice shouting up at him for dinner, he was mostly big again. He shouted a 'hold on!' down the stars and put away his little gear, changing into his clothes from earlier before making sure his tablet was charging in case he slipped again later. 

He yawned, rubbing at his eyes as he pulled out his phone, planning to check it briefly when he noticed a new set of messages from Tubbo. They weren't just ones teasing or joking around with him either, they were worried and concerned. 

Tubbo

have you seen this? 

[screenshot of a twitter thread:

amelia <3 | @boobat

dream just talked about adding lemon to the smp on Sapnap's stream???

that kid is so fucking weird why would he even consider that 

jackie !! | @lemon_girl replying to @boobat

fuck off, lemon is cool and would probably do well on the smp ]

The screenshots went on and on, people gossiping and talking about a specific section of a stream the Dream Team participated in, where Dream himself brought up the idea of inviting his second online persona to one of the most popular SMP's out there right now. He ignored the mean comments in favor of hoping that the owner of the server was just considering the idea, and that he wouldn't go through with it. 

His eyes widened when he checked twitter himself, his jaw hanging open when he saw another tag relating to him trending in the US and the UK, '#getlemononthesmp'. He didn't get the chance to really process this, or even type out a response to Tubbo, because he got a notification that would change his life forever, and make this 'double life' thing so much harder. 

dreamwastaken sent you a message 

Ranboo may have prided himself on not cursing much, however, 

"Shit."

Chapter Text

"Are you okay, honey?" A soft voice cut through the boy's complicated and confused thoughts. 

Ranboo snapped out of his daze when he actually registered his mother's sentence, looking up at her gentle, concerned face and staring blankly at her. After a second, he blinked a few times, nodding, not bothering with actual words just yet. 

He had read through his message from Dream just a few minutes ago, and he was still processing everything, if he was honest. 

"You seem stressed out. I know you don't like regressing around us but I know you were small earlier, did you pull yourself out of that headspace for dinner? You know that's not good for you," he groaned slightly at his mother's usual protective rambling, earning a chuckle from his dad. His parents usually left him alone when it came to his regression, understanding of the fact that he was embarrassed about it, but they, especially his slightly over-bearing mother, hated the idea of him repressing it because of said shyness. 

They hated the idea that they were killing his kiddish fun when calling him for dinner or announcing that they had to go run errands, they hated the idea that they were stressing him out and effectively stopping him from using his coping skills. 

"It's not that," he assured, picking up his spoon, "Mostly." he added hesitantly. He selectively ignored his mom's 'I told you so' disappointed look. "I was invited to the Dream SMP." he announced solemnly, running his hand through his hair and scooping up a bite of macaroni. His mom made the best Mac N' Cheese, it was one of his favorite meals when he was actually a kid. 

The thought that his mom specifically made this meal because she knew he had been regressed hit his mind, and he held back his smile. That brief happiness was replaced by frustration when his dad replied to his last words. 

"You're already on the SMP, aren't you?" Dad questioned innocently, but the question annoyed him like crazy. 

"Yeah, as Ranboo!" he snapped suddenly, ready to scream. Maybe pulling himself from his mostly-big-but-still-sort-of-small headspace to a "completely big" one was making the situation a bit more stressful, but he didn't want to outright admit that to his mom. He felt the increasingly concerned looks from his parents on his face, and he took a breath before apologizing sincerely, "I'm sorry for snapping, this is just a lot. I was invited as Lemon. There's already two conflicting theories that Lemon and Ranboo hate each other or that we're the same person. And I don't wanna fuel either one." 

"Then say no?" the man suggested, and the teenager rolled his eyes and took his bite of food, quickly chewing and swallowing before jumping into his next statement. If the boy wasn't so stressed out and distracted from thinking straight, he would've gotten much more caught up on the fact that he just yelled at his father for something that had nothing to do with him, he'd undergo his usual process of overthinking himself into anxiety, but today, he just moved on. 

All of his anxiety was going towards figuring out whether or not he should re-join a Minecraft server he was already in under another name, or not. You'd think that the answer would be obvious, but there was really a lot to consider. It's a good thing his parents were good at helping him lay out situations logically. 

"Dream specifically asked in the message that I was 'civil when Ranboo was online', it'll look terrible for Lemon if I decline!" he explained, "He could tell my other friends and the idea of my two online identities having some sort of feud will only be taken more seriously." 

"Plus, the whole reason you started the age regression channel was to normalize it more, right? Being on the SMP under this second persona will only help you in that sense." his Mom pointed out, using her fork to gather a mouthful of food as she hummed in thought, "It'd be hard to pull off, but maybe joining with your new account isn't a terrible idea?" 

"That's what I thought!" Ranboo agreed, "It'll probably be a big deal in the Minecraft Community that the newest Dream SMP member is an agere youtuber and lead to more people educating themselves and accepting it, but one server, two accounts? I don't know, it feels risky." 

"Starting a secret channel when you were already famous was 'risky'," his father stated bluntly, seasoning his food with salt and pepper before taking a bite himself, "Why not take more risks? What's the fun in having two identities if you aren't constantly working to keep them separate, really?" 

"So you think I should join, then?" he scrunched up his eyebrows curiously, looking between his parents. Their advice was often confusing at worst, and vague at best. They were all about letting him 'make his own decisions' and pushed him to be independent. They'd help him conflict the pros and cons of different solutions and choices, but they wouldn't input their opinions on what they think he should do clearly. 

"We think that you shouldn't rule out options just because it's risky or scary, and that you're very smart and could pull this off if you wanted to." Mom spoke carefully, and he just grumbled, 

"That's not a real answer! You guys are unhelpful." he claimed, pouting like the teenager he definitely was. "You should just tell me what to do." 

"You know we aren't gonna do that, son. We gave you our advice, now you can use it to make your decision." Dad said, sounding a bit amused with his annoyed attitude. His parent's knew he'd never genuinely disrespect them, so his 'attitudes' or grumpy moods were usually lightly corrected or ignored, the most he'd get was an 'are you okay?'. Which was a lot more helpful then being yelled at for feeling annoyed. 

"You've been working all day until just a few hours ago, why don't you put off replying to this message and just continue this break, hmm? We can watch a movie after dinner, if you want? You can get some of your toys out of your playroom, too..." his mom suggested in a knowing tone, and his dad nodded a bit. The regressor's face went a bit pink as he shrugged, now staring down at his plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. 

"You've been doing this for a long time, kiddo, you don't have to be all shy about it." the male parent spoke in a comforting voice. He was right, Ranboo's probably been regressing and dreaming here and there since he was around fourteen, and his parents caught onto it soon after that. He didn't start doing it as regularly as he does now until he was sixteen or so, and he began to realize how close the end of his childhood actually was. 

And then, of course, COVID happened and everything was a million times more stressful then it was before, and his parents and therapist encouraged him to indulge in his headspace as often as he felt was needed. It took a lot of pushing for him to get to the point where he didn't involuntarily drop from everything after pushing it off for to long, or having to be constantly told to take breaks. 

Sometimes, his parents still had to step in to help out. And they were glad to do so. 

He didn't reply, even though their points made sense. He moved to take a bite of the macaroni he liked so much, only for the metal utensil to be pulled out of his mouth a second later. He pouted, swallowing the bite and looking across the table to where his mom stood behind her chair. She leaned forward and used another spoon to scoop up a bite and held it up to his mouth with a gentle smile clear on her face. 

He whined when he saw that it was a baby spoon, one of the same ones he had in his snack cart upstairs, this one was red and white. He held back a giggle at the thoughts relating to Tommy that filled his mind in favor of being grumpy. He didn't even notice his mom get up to go to the kitchen to get this for him, it was like she summoned it or something!

He tried to ignore how childish the thought that his mom had some sort of magical ability was. He just focused on the fact that his parents ganging up on him like this wasn't fair. 

He shook his head, rejecting the bite and trying to reach for the metal spoon that had been stolen from him ever so rudely. She had much shorter arms then he did, as she was much smaller physically overall, but she still managed to keep it from him, tsking lightly. 

"Come on, baby." the women began in the most convincing tone she could muster, "Can you at least take the spoon and feed yourself?"

He supposed that was better then being spoon fed by your mother at seventeen years old, so he took the baby spoon into his hand hesitantly despite himself, figuring she'd cut him some slack if he did. Using a baby spoon didn't mean he was small, it just meant he was using a baby spoon! The rounded plastic felt better in his mouth then the metal anyways. 

His mom had also grabbed a sippy cup and a bib (he didn't think he needed a bib but his parents thought it was so funny), both of which she slid across the table to sit in front of his plate before returning to her seat. She set his metal spoon on a napkin next to her plate before picking up her own. 

"I still have to figure this out," he announced after a silent moment of him eating, noting his mother's proud look, "I need to find a solution to all this before I slip." 

"I think you should keep eating dinner and worry about your decision later, Dream's message can wait until tomorrow morning." his mom argued his persistence. He went to protest, but she quickly added, "I'll turn off the wifi if you keep complaining, you won't even be able to watch your cartoons." 

He knew her threat was half hearted and that she wouldn't really cut off his connection from his friends like that, but he still went quiet, frowning. If he was gonna be small again, he wanted access to his favorite shows and movies. For good measure, he mumbled, "Sorry, mom." 

"It's alright, sweetheart." she was quick to reassure him, perfectly aware of how his anxiety, especially when regressed or nearing it, could make him overthink small things. "Just eat up, okay?" 

He hummed and nodded softly, moving to do just as he was told as his dad asked a question, 

"How is the new playroom? Is it nice to hang out in?" Ranboo knew what he was really asking, 'is it a comfortable space for regression?', but he didn't comment on it. He only thought for a moment before replying,

"Mhm, very comfy," he confirmed, "Like it." 

They kept talking about simple things as they ate, topics that Little Ranboo could handle. He was only asked questions he could reply to easily or in just a few words if he wanted to. He cleared the macaroni off on his plate and set down his spoon, selectively ignoring the vegetables he was given as he moved to drink out of his glass cup. 

He noticed his dad's amused smile as he struggled not to spill water on himself, curse littlespace clumsiness. He pouted the whole time, but he reluctantly snatched up the sippy cup his mom picked out for him and carefully transferred his water into it. His mom also noticed this, but neither parent commented on it, continuing the conversation as they normally would. 

"Are you gonna eat your veggies, sweetie?" his mom questioned after a bit, glancing down at his plate and up at his face. The boy was quick to shake his head, 

"Not hungry anymore!" he claimed, taking a drink from his cup and setting it down. 

"Is that right? Because it seems to me that you're just being picky." Mom kept going, and the boy blushed a bit. 

"Nooo," he whined, still shaking his head. He knew his parents wouldn't make him eat it if he didn't want to, they'd just 'heavily encourage' it and probably avoid any sort of dessert for the night. As if on cue, his dad sighed dramatically, 

"That's to bad, I was thinking about making us all ice cream sundaes, but if you're to full..." he doesn't even have to finish his sentence, because suddenly, Ranboo's shoving the veggies in his mouth without a complaint. His parents let out a laugh at that one. 

"And suddenly, he's hungry again," his mom chuckled, shaking her head gently as she picked up her now-empty plate along with his dad's, going off into the kitchen. He pouted when he realized he was the last one not to finish, 

"Sorry, m' almost done!" he apologized compulsively when the thought that he was taking to long hit him, but his father waved him off. 

"Take your time, kiddo. It's alright." he comforted, smiling kindly. His parents were good about that, making sure he didn't silently worry about things and doing whatever they could to help him. Even if that meant reassuring him for very small things. 

This process kept going for a while, him eating as fast as he could (he was promised ice cream, of course he was moving at the fastest pace he could! He was a simple boy, really, offer him sweets and suddenly he's the Flash) while his parents came in and out of the room. His mom moved dirty, done-with dishes into the kitchen and his dad worked to store away any extra food, and they talked as they went.  

"Can I have whipped cream on my sundae, please?" the boy spoke politely as he could, giving his dad the best puppy-dog eyes he could muster as he took the last bite of vegetables on his plate. He proudly dropped his spoon and pushed his plate away from him. 

"Hmm," his father pretended to think, squinting dramatically at the plate. 

"What are ya' doin?" Ranboo questioned eventually, giggling a bit at the funny look on the older man's face. 

"He's probably checking to see if you really finished it all. The small boy we know always complains about the veggies, asking if you 'ate enough' and such." His mother teased, swiping up his plate and examining it for a moment too. "I don't know, I think he left a single piece of corn-" 

"Mom!" Ranboo whined, cutting her off. His parents burst into laughter and his mom planted a kiss on his head as she passed, him pulling his head back and pushing her face away. He liked the action of affection, really, but he pretended to hate it because it was embarrassing. 

"You know it's all good fun, we love you," she disappeared into the kitchen again and his dad stood up as well, 

"I'll see what I can do about that whipped cream, Kiddo." he winked at him, and Ranboo smiled. 

"I wan' sprinkles and chocolate syrup too!" he called out behind him, and to that he got a typical-

"We'll see!" 

He giggled around the mouth piece of his sippy cup as his mom appeared in the doorway to the dining room. "Why don't you go get in some comfy pajamas? You can worry about brushing your teeth and everything later, but I know how you get with 'big clothes'." 

As if triggered when he was reminded, he squirmed in his seat, his outfit suddenly feeling uncomfortable. The fabric of his jeans felt wrong and his shirt felt gross, he needed to fix it. He nodded, setting his sippy cup down and standing up, navigating his way through the house. Once he was back in the attic, he avoided his phone and tablet, getting into the dresser and grabbing a few things. 

He wasn't quite sure how small he was at the moment, but the few times he's regressed with his parents willingly, he always ended up very tiny by the end of everything. So, he picked out a pull up fit for him (it had spaceships on it!) and zipped up a fun dinosaur onesie over it. You couldn't see the padding on his butt unless you looked really close due to the footed-pajamas being just a bit over-sized, which was the perfect solution to any embarrassment he held relating to that. 

He slipped a simply decorated white pacifier, set aside specifically for when he was really small, into the pocket of this onesie, ignoring any thoughts relating to his parents finding him weird for all this to the best of his ability. He knew they didn't, if they did, they wouldn't of let him get all this stuff. They wouldn't actively be offering to take care of him when he felt small (or accept the reasons as to why he doesn't usually let them), they wouldn't of pushed him to accept this with open arms just a few years ago, despite what anyone else might've said. 

Of course, he used this as a way to deal with anxiety and stress, which would never completely go away. So there'd always be a voice in the back of his head that told him that his parents secretly hated him, a voice that told him that his friends would judge him for this. But, he was able to teach himself how to trust that his parents loved him, even when it was hard. 

And maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to do the same with his friends soon. Maybe, one day, he'd be able to believe that his friends would be supportive of this as well. Maybe, at some point in the future, he wouldn't have to go undercover in order to regress with his friends. 

Only the future could tell if and when these 'maybe's' will become realities, but until then, he had his family. And his family was pretty great. 

For good measure, he grabbed cute glass bottle he had from where his mom filled it up for him earlier, covered with designs of animals, on his way out. He was starting to feel a lot smaller anyways. Making sure his Micheal plush was secure in his arms, he carefully tip-toed down the stairs and found his way back to the dining room, where a bowl of chocolate and vanilla ice cream was already waiting for him. 

He gasped, practically jumping into his seat and plopping down, grabbing his spoon (Yes- it was another baby one). His dad had put in all the extra things he asked for, too! He was vaguely aware of the fact that his parents were chuckling about his surprised and amazed face, and that his mom had swiped up his bottle and disappeared into the kitchen once more to refill it, but he was mostly distracted by the perfectly sugary concoction in his bowl. 

"Do you like it, baby?" his dad quizzed him, sounding amused, just as he did earlier. 

"Uh-huh, mhm," the boy's words are reduced to sounds as he nodded enthusiastically and even bounced in his seat. There was no denying it now, he was definitely tiny. "Nom, nom, nom." he shoved another bite, containing mostly whipped cream and sprinkles, into his mouth. Somehow, a good amount of it ended up on his upper lip. He was in a playful mood, too, it seemed. 

"You're such a silly boy," his mom seemed to appear suddenly behind him (seriously, she had super powers or something), setting his refilled bottle of what seemed to be angel milk in front of him next to his bowl, before picking up the bib he had neglected to put on earlier. He wasn't really paying much attention as the women fastened the flower-patterned protective fabric over him using the Velcro, just keeping his arms out of the way when he was asked. 

The bibs had started as jokes, teasing him for his clumsiness while small in a harmless but still embarrassing way (He knew if he really told them to stop- if he were truly uncomfortable with it- they'd be gone in minutes, but he was still gonna complain about the situation anyways), that's why most of them were overly childish or girly. Then it was discovered that they were actually useful, and that the boy had a babyspace. 

So, they were kept around, used as a playful threat when he was being messy to 'protect his clothes', and genuinely pulled out when he was regressed or regressing to younger ages. 

His mom really did have some sort of super power, or instinct at least, it was like she knew he was gonna be tiny as ever by the time dinner was done. 

"Flowers!" he looked down at the bib and giggled softly, cheering about the design. 

"Oh, he's far gone, honey." His dad told his mom, but Ranboo didn't really understand what he meant, so he ignored him in favor of eating more chocolate ice cream. It sounded like he was talking about him, but he didn't sound mean or angry, so he didn't worry about it. 

"He needed this. I wish he trusted us more, he regresses a lot deeper when he does let us in." His mom started to play with his hair, and she sounded concerned but he didn't know what about. He leaned into the touch because he knew she loved messing with his hair, hoping he was helping somehow. 

"I just hope he gets a caregiver of some sort, someone he's more comfortable around. It's good news that he told his friend, Toby, right? Maybe if he keeps opening up, he'll find someone that can take care of him like we do, someone he feels safe with." The regressor didn't understand most of his dad's words, but he sounded hopeful, which he thought was good. 

Ranboo knew he was the one being talked about, but no one was talking to him! He wanted to be part of the conversation too, he wanted attention! So, he dropped his spoon in his bowl and clapped his hands, giggling when his parents dropped whatever they were talking about to look at him fondly. 

They smiled, and his mom cooed, "Were you feeling left out, sweetie?" 

He pouted pitfully and nodded a bit, but didn't say anything. He knew what 'left out' meant! He had definitely been feeling that way. "Alright, alright, we can all sit and talk together, okay?" she pulled out a chair, next to him instead of across from him with his dad, said man pushing her bowl across the table as she settled into the chair. 

It was this moment that began the rest of a night the teenager associated with softness, comfort, and affection. They watched movies, he got distracted with rattle toys and soft fluffy blankets, he cuddled up with his parents and was oblivious to half of their full-blown conversations, either because his brain was to fuzzy to process it or because he wasn't paying attention anyways. 

He was just small, which is exactly what he needed. He'd deal with Dream's message in the morning, just as his mom said he could. She was usually right about things like this, the boy just hated admitting it.

He was pretty sure he knew what choice he was making anyways. He thought he knew his decision from the moment he got that notification, really. His parents, and a night to clear his head, only convinced him that he could really do this all the more. 

The next morning, he woke up in his playroom, well rested and prepared to send a direct message that would change his life forever. He changed his clothes, brushed his teeth, and settled into his gaming chair, powering on his computer and opening his Twitter DMS between Dream and Lemon. 

He clicked on the text box and settled his hands on his keyboard, 

And he began typing. 

Chapter Text

"I can't believe I'm doing this. What's the likelihood that I'll actually pull this off for more then a few days? What if people figure it out?" the teenager's breathing was much to fast for his liking as he overthought himself into anxiety and doubt once again, staring at the message he sent back to Dream the day prior. 

'Lemon' was officially a member of the Dream SMP. And he was going to be streaming on the server later today. 

And Ranboo was absolutely terrified. 

"Take a breath, bud. I promise you, you'll be fine. Just be careful and I'll help you cover up any evidence pointing to Lemon and Ranboo both being you, okay?" Tubbo's comforting voice cut through Ranboo's anxious rambling through the boy's headphones. "You can do this." 

"You're the best, y'know," Ranboo exhaled, leaning back in his unicorn chair, "You're very good at calming me down and everything." 

"Of course, that's what friends are for, right?" Tubbo sounded sure of his words, as if he was slightly offended that Ranboo would even bother thanking him for something so simple. 

"Right," Ranboo agreed, nodding a bit even though his camera wasn't on and his friend couldn't see him. "I should go shower before I prep the stream." He admitted, running his hands through his hair.

"Alright, man. I'll watch out for your stream and log into your Ranboo account- hopefully this stunt will dis-spell some of the rumors." He could hear the clicking of Tubbo's mouse faintly through the call as he continued to talk in his comforting and gentle voice. 

"I think it'll work. Thanks for coming up with that, by the way," He closed a few of his tabs and hovered his mouse over the 'hang up' button. 

"You're welcome. Now, go take your shower and gather your courage for this." Tubbo's voice was now playfully authoritative, but Ranboo was still inclined to listen to him.

"I'll try my best! I love you!" 

"Love you too, Boo!" 

And with that, he hung up, smile clear on his face as he tried his best to be excited rather then nervous about this. 

This was a good thing, right? It'd be hard, but all he could do was hope nothing would go wrong. 

But sometimes, hoping isn't enough. 

--

Twitter Search: Lemon Dream SMP

tyler <3 | @flower_boy replying to @lemon.kid

YOU'RE ON THE SMP OMG OMG OMG

bee baby | @beesandlemons

LEMON WAS ADDED TO THE SMP 

Lemon | @lemon.kid

stream on the Dream SMP in one hour! wish me luck <3

Ranboo chuckled as he scrolled through Twitter, comfortable in his gaming chair as he 'gathered his courage' to stream. Everything was prepared, he just had to click that 'start stream' button, and this is how he hyped himself up. He looked over and read every positive message before he finally shut his phone off and hit that button, tweeting out and waiting for the viewers to roll in while his agere streaming playlist tuned out any negative thoughts. 

The plan was simple, log on and let someone walk him around- Dream had mentioned Tommy or Wilbur doing it, he'd just have to wait and see. He'd probably pick a place to build his house, and at some point, Tubbo would log onto his 'Ranboo' account and they'd crouch and wave at each other, a wordless but friendly interaction to throw off both of the growing theories within both of his fandoms. 

It couldn't be that hard, could it? 

"Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a great day." he could hear both the nervousness and the smile in his own voice as he spoke in the most confident tone he could muster, lowering the volume of his music as he transitioned from his 'starting soon' screen to the Minecraft home page. "Today, we're joining the Dream SMP." 

He took a second to let his eyes scan over chat before chuckling, "Yes, you heard me right. The Dream SMP, crazy, right?" 

He kept talking about how excited, and slightly nervous, he was as he procrastinated actually clicking the button that'd let him on the server. The moment he did, though, he spawned in and heard the sound of a certain blonde friend of his joining the voice call. 

"Lemoooon, my man! Welcome!" his tone was kind and excited, but not to loud- as if the boy has softened his usual internet persona tone just for him.  

Lemon found himself laughing, "Hi, Tommy!" 

"Where the fuck are you? I was told to give you a tour by the green man." he demanded information from him immediately, sounding jokingly impatient but now rude. 

"At spawn! Also, Tommy?" he spoke carefully and hesitantly as he began moving his avatar on the screen. 

"Yeah?" his friend sounded distracted, completely focused on tracking him down to give him the traditional 'server tour'. 

"There's probably little lemons watching, can we dial down the cursing and inappropriate jokes?" he tried to sound polite, expecting the other teenager to be outraged at the request. Instead, he heard Tommy's now-quieter and sheepish tone, 

"Sorry! Of course, I'll try my best." he sounded promising and sure, so Ranboo was inclined to believe that he would really try hard. 

"Thank you. And, we can meet at the prime path, yeah?" 

"Sounds good, man!" 

The stream went well for a while, really. Ranboo pretended to be oblivious to server norms and acted like he didn't already know where everything was, or most of the server's lore, for about an hour as he was lead around by his friend. Tommy really did avoid cursing and limited the amount of not-so-little-friendly jokes he made, which was appreciated by the teenager who requested as such. 

It wasn't the blonde's usual inappropriateness that caused problems, nor the 'stunt' Ranboo and Tubbo planned together, it was his lack of a filter that managed to confused people. The tour was done for the most part, and their little trick did get some 'oh??'-s from chat and some second guessing on twitter, problems arose when Tommy was talking about building him a house somewhere. 

"So Lemon- I don't do this often, but you could build a little house by mine? This section of the server is a bit crazy though.. Maybe we could get you set up in Snowchester, I don't think Tubbo and Boo would mind much. Or you could start your own nation, 'The Lemon Village' or some sh-thing?" The blonde was rambling as he lead the boy to a mine of his to gather supplies.

Ranboo was excited and half-distracted reading a dono, so his next words and actions were just out of habit. "Let's just get some stuff from my base, we don't need to mine." he immediately turned in the direction he'd go to get to his- Ranboo's- base. Lemon, however,  didn't have a base yet, and he failed to remember that. 

"You don't have a base though?" his eyes widened just a bit at his friends words, and he immediately thought about a way to back-track this. 

He paused for a second and quickly corrected himself, figuring his slip up wasn't much of a problem, "Oh, sorry, I was distracted. I meant steal from Ranboo's base- I think I could find it pretty easily." 

"Ohhh," Tommy sounded hesitant and unsure, but he agreed silently to move on, "I can help you there. Lets rob the enderman! He logged off a bit ago so he won't know for a few hours, probably." 

Ranboo could almost laugh at that comment. 

The two boys were quick to move on from the incident, joking about 'robbing Ranboo' and getting into his supplies, gathering basic stuff to build a house before setting up a foundation vaguely near Snowchester on some empty land. Ranboo decided to go with that whole village idea, declaring himself king while Tommy came up with the genius name of the 'Fruit-Kids Cottages' for his land. 

Chat, and twitter, however, didn't just let that slip up slide. Now the little stunt with Tubbo and that clip of him mis-speaking were being used as opposing evidence for the 'Lemon and Ranboo are the same person' thing, while the fact that Lemon 'stole from' Ranboo fueled the fire that claimed there was some drama between them. 

The stream was amazing, iconic, even, but as the boy predicted, he didn't last a day on the server as Lemon before he did something to out himself. 

He really was a genius, huh?

--

"I told you this was gonna happen," Ranboo sounded frustrated, sitting in front of his computer with a voice chat with Tubbo displayed in one monitor, and twitter spread out across the other. "I told you!"

"You're making this out to be a bigger deal then it is, buddy." Tubbo was starting to develop a caregivery-tone that was endearing, but annoying in moments like this. When he was annoyed and wanted to not actually cope with whatever he was feeling. Why couldn't he just be grumpy or upset sometimes? 

"Tubboooo," he held out his words, leaning back in his chair with a whine. 

"Ranboooo," he mimicked, before promptly continuing. "No matter what you do, people are gonna theorize. All you can do is ignore it and avoid leaking things. It's not shocking that you're having trouble with it, but you're trying your best, aren't you?"

He slowly crossed his arms, begrudging pout on his face. "I mean, yeah." 

"Okay then. Next time you stream as Lemon, make a joke or address it quickly somehow. A quick 'hey, I was tired' will probably do the trick, and move on. No need to panic about it, baby." the boy spoke gently but Ranboo felt the need to follow his instructions. 

"Okayy," he wanted to keep moping around and being annoyed with himself but Tubbo wasn't the type of friend to just let that happen. He insisted on cheering him up or comforting him when he could, it was sweet but infuriating sometimes. 

"Now close twitter and go watch tv or something, take a break. And next time you talk to me, I want it to be about how fun starting your own village in the smp was, not what went wrong, alright?" 

"Mkay, gonna go." he knew his voice was sounding more childish now, and he had a second-long thought relating to how much he really regresses before pushing it away. "Love you!"

As always, Tubbo replied, 

"Love you too, Boo."

--

The age dreamer couldn't get himself to fully regress, but he was quick to distract himself with some toy cars and let his Dad help him put together his racing tracks, settling into a safe and familiar half seven year old, half seventeen year old mindset. He play some cartoon while he played, setting up these elaborate courses and having the cars race each other. 

He even put on his Lemon-specific mask and glasses and took some pictures and videos. He liked showing him in his accepting environment, happily coping with whatever, he liked to think it helped others, not only regressors and dreamers, to see people coping healthily and just having fun. 

And if he got more compliments on his cool toys and playroom, who was he to complain? 

When dinner came, he didn't even try to be big! He knew his parents didn't like it when he did that anyways, so he asked for the plastic Toy Story plate instead of a glass one, but he insisted he drank out of a 'normal cup' and not a sippy cup. Because he was small, but not that little! 

It was near the end of dinner when he naturally faded out of that headspace, heading back to his computer room, more ready to face whatever could be waiting for him within the depths of his fandoms. Like his best friend claimed, people were still theorizing, but there was also a message waiting for 'Lemon' on discord. 

TommyInnit

hey man

we should collab again soon

you're chill. maybe something with the bench trio boys?

Ik there was a thing with Ranboo but honestly he's cool

don't tell him I said that 

Ranboo's first reaction was to smile at the compliment, and then he realized he'd have to deny the request. Lemon couldn't collab with Bench Trio, he couldn't be in two places at once. He thought for a bit before typing out his response. 

LemonKid

hey!!

I'd love to collab again but maybe just us? idk doing the manhunt thing with so many people was fun but a lot and I'd like to keep my projects smaller for now 

Is that chill?

He knew his claim didn't make a ton of sense but he hoped Tommy would buy it anyways. Almost immediately, the other boy started typing back. 

TommyInnit

uh yeah ig

can we vc in a bit to plan? I've gotta edit and I can figure out when the next open spot in my video uploading schedule is so that we can plan around it

we can do a mod video or something, just us if that's more comfy for you 

He sighed of relief and leaned back in his chair, sending back a quick 'thank you' before opening his own editing program and the google doc he used to keep track of everything for his 'Lemon' persona. He started cutting down some footage he recorded the other day, not bothering with captions just yet. He did add in a few voice overs and funny pictures, though. 

He should probably get an editor for Ranboo, because he didn't know if he could keep up with regular uploads as Lemon and his once-in-a-while videos under his usual persona. 

His next few videos were already planned but he found some ideas he wanted to use for himself that he could do with Tommy instead, and he even brainstormed some more. When he got bored of computer stuff, he decided to keep his phone with Discord open on standby and did some chores, focusing on his bedroom and playroom at first. 

He somehow ended up getting dragged into helping his mom clean the kitchen (seriously, it was like she had a sort of convincing magic that made him to do things), talking to her about his day as he did the dishes and she organized the cabinets. 

"I keep slipping up and it's confusing people, it's a little funny, honestly. But also, I don't want people to actually figure it out, y'know?" he tended to ramble on a bit when talking to his parents, but they never seemed to mind. 

"Why don't you turn it into a joke then?" his mom questioned simply, and he paused. 

"What do you mean?" Ranboo picked up another dish and rinsed it under the hot water, listening closely to his mother's next words.

"Like, play into it, sarcastically. On both ends, of course. Avoid sounding annoyed and it'll probably push against both theories. Having a joint joke will make people think you don't completely hate each other. Plus, what person with a secret identity would be confident enough to joke about it live? It won't solve all your problems, but it would be convenient to say that every piece of evidence and every slip up is just 'part of the joke'." 

She sounded so sure of herself, going over her thoughts and stating them like they were nothing. His mom was definitely the genius in their family, no doubt about it. 

Before he could reply and really consider her idea, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He shut off the water and set down the plate he was scrubbing and the sponge he was using before drying his hands off. Like he expected, it was Tommy asking to voice chat. Without a word, he looked to his mom and earned an understanding nod. 

Back in his computer room, he accepted the voice call and greeted the boy. "Hey- sorry it took a second, I was taking care of some cleaning stuff. What's up?" 

"That's cool, I got most of my editing done. So, I checked my schedule and talked to Big Russ, if we film by the end of the week and I edit quickly- or send the video to one of my editors, we can have a video out on my channel within the next two weeks. What about you?" the teenager seemed eager to jump into planning, not even leading in with casual conversation. 

He almost sounded like he had something to say as he spoke, a question to ask, but he held it back. The teenager say anything, figuring he'd check on him as Ranboo later. 

"I can work with that. I edit my own videos and film way ahead of time, I don't have to release them in order. If we film soon and nothing goes wrong, I can get a video ready to upload in just a few days." he went with his 'straight-to-business' attitude without question, figuring that it was good they didn't get off track- he was more likely to slip up and accidentally reveal that he knew Tommy better then the boy thought if they started casually gabbing. 

"George and I were messing around with some code for a like, adventure mod? Think Minecraft story edition but much better, the game gives us randomized and sometimes conflicting adjectives that when completed, gives us items that are hard to get. The quests get harder and more rewarding as you go and blah blah blah, and the idea is that whoever gets higher in the weird level system within a certain time will win." 

"That sounds fun!" he replied, but he frowned. That mod would be so much funner with more people. "Y'know, if you wanna invite Tubbo or whatever to do the video too, that'd be okay..." 

"Did you just not wanna do a video with Ranboo, then?" Tommy sounded a bit suspicious, he could practically hear his eyebrow quirking up, a slight hint of annoyance layering over his features as he tilted his head ever so slightly. The teenager was more expressive then he realized sometimes. 

"Uh-" he stuttered, "I don't know, he's just intimidating." he spat out a lie quickly, feeling bad for not just telling his friend the truth. He knew he'd probably be supportive, but the idea of fessing up his whole secret identity and coping mechanism to another person was scary. 

"Uh huh, sure thing. What's the real reason?" the boy pushed further. Ranboo began to wonder if this was his plan all along, if he was sent to 'investigate' by some of his other friends. If the collaboration offer was just a way to interrogate him about the possible drama between him and himself.

"I'm not lying!" his voice went a bit high pitched as he attempted to defend himself. Tommy was getting protective quick, he knew this would cause problems if he didn't do something quick. His friend's next words completely threw him off, though. 

"I bet I could guess what the problem here is." Ranboo knew that familiar tone of pride when he heard it. Tommy had come to a conclusion of some sort, and he was confident in his interpretation. 

"There isn't a problem." He really didn't want the boy to make incorrect assumptions and end up starting new rumors, not among the fans, but among the people he cared about. It'd end up bad for one of his personas or both. 

"Yes there is, Ranboo. It's obvious, really." Tommy sounded relieved once he said that, pausing for a moment to take a breath before reaching his final accusation. 

"What-" Ranboo didn't even process what was wrong with that statement until Tommy cut him off to speak again. 

"You can't be in two places at once." 

Chapter Text

Ranboo could've sworn that his heart stopped for just a moment following his friend's words.  

Tommy knew. How did he know?

Did Tubbo betray him? He knew his friend wouldn't do that, so he pushed that thought away. He didn't get the chance to come up with a better explanation, though, because the blond on the other end of the call spoke up again. 

"Lemon? Ranboo? Was I actually right?" The boy sounded both shocked and impressed with himself. "Can you say something, please?" he then seemed disappointed, noting Ranboo's silence and lack of response. 

"I-um, I'm just shocked, I don't know why you'd think that." he tried lying, only feeling a bit bad about his actions as the words left his mouth. He knew he didn't pull it off because of his friend's next words, 

"If you're not Ranboo, give me a real explanation for the slip up during the stream. Why you called Ranboo's base yours." he started, sounding accusatory and demanding. The way he said it, Ranboo knew that this was just the start of a list of evidence against him. Tommy was more observant then people gave him credit for, really. 

"I was distracted, it was just a slip up!" he knew his anxiety and worry was reaching his voice at this point, but he didn't know if he could do anything about it but hope the other boy didn't notice. He also knew that once Tommy was stuck on something, he was stubborn and would fight his position for ages. He didn't stand a chance against him and his crazy, but somehow correct, conclusions. 

"You were distracted and forgot you were streaming under your second persona, actually." Tommy corrected in a matter-of-fact, 'I know what's right and that's wrong' type of way. Ranboo didn't even know what to say, he was starting to panic in all honestly, focusing on getting the other teenager to drop this for the time being. He didn't get the chance to bite back, though, because Tommy kept going. 

"I know that Ranboo's mentioned wanting to use his attic for something cool but not knowing what- I believe that attic is now your playroom, am I correct?" the boy was going full investigator mode, it'd almost be funny if the person he was interrogating wasn't Ranboo. 

"Me and Ranboo don't live together." he tried weakly, almost ready to give in. 

"You do, though. Because you're the same person." He sounded definitive, as if his words were fact. Somehow, he knew that they were. "We can always test this, too. Give me a second." 

Not knowing what he meant, the boy just sat there, trying to listen to what Tommy was doing. They were voice calling so he couldn't actually see anything. He heard the blond pick up something, then the dial tone of a phone ringing. By the time he realized what was happening, it was to late- his phone rung out with the Animal Crossing tune he used as his ringtone for Tommy. 

Why didn't he put his phone on silent?

He hung up as fast as he could and just sighed. "Okay, you caught me." he focused on his breathing now, giving up on the lies and just hoping he wouldn't be judged. He didn't get to long to wonder about what the other teenager could say next, because as usual, the hyperactive blond was quick to reply.

"I knew it!" was the first thing Tommy said. Then, "How did you manage to get famous through tiktok twice, huh? Both times for minecraft? Tell me your secrets, Boo." 

Tommy was only worried about figuring out how he's pulled this off, not the age regression and the fact he's never told him. He wasn't upset, just curious. 

Despite himself, the boy laughed. Hesitantly, he asked, "You don't care about the age regression thing?" 

"No? I know someone else who regresses- It's not weird or anything. Kinda sucks you didn't tell me though, I could've been in on this secret operation from the start!" Ranboo could almost hear his shrug and the motion he did when he was thinking and ran his hand through his hair, "But I get it, I guess. People are judgmental, just know that I'm not one of those judgy people, okay? I would never think you're weird for a coping skill." 

Like Tubbo, Tommy seemed to know exactly what to say to comfort him. For a moment, Ranboo thought to question who the other regressor Tommy knew was, wondering if it was someone he also knew, but he didn't push it. 

He'd find out eventually, surely. 

"Tubbo's the only other person that knows about this, you can't tell anyone, okay?" he felt a lot better knowing that the other youtuber didn't think he was weird, now more worried about making sure no one else found out. 

"Of course he knows. Was he who logged into your Ranboo minecraft account on stream, then?" Tommy sounded playfully annoyed, scoffing a bit. He laughed again, 

"Yeah." he confirmed with a slightly prideful chuckle, nodding a bit even though the other couldn't see him. 

"No one else seems to genuinely believe the theory that Ranboo and Lemon are the same, like none of our friends do. I wasn't even a hundred percent sure when I accused you- a bunch of things just didn't make sense, including the weird energy between Ranboo and Lemon. I say, you find more ways to interact with yourself or come up with some fake drama between you guys." 

"That makes me look bad, though! On both ends!" he knew he sounded exasperated and overly annoyed, but what Tommy was suggesting was a bad idea on all fronts. 

"Nothing cancel worthy, just something, let everyone believe you guys dislike each other. Then later, we can script a video or stream with prerecorded lines saying that the feud was just to get Lemon to grow and that it was actually a complicated plot to normalize agere. And you can say you purposefully played into the 'you guys are the same person' thing as a bit since you knew you were similar. You're smart, Ranboo, people would buy this all being a pre-planned thing, rather then you just slipping up and not being able to keep a secret." 

Ranboo processed the other boy's words, "So I purposefully add onto the evidence of both theories? Let people think we're fighting and point out our similarities?" 

"Focus more on the first one and don't go to far, but yeah. Then you come out saying it was all planned and on purpose, that you guys are really just friends who are really similar- I think it'd work. It buys us time to figure out how to have you interact with yourself. Maybe start small, like a fake twitter fight, comment on a Lemon video with your Ranboo account and vise versa, and we could move up from there. Just an idea, though." 

Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all. 

The teenager sat there, completely stunned. As long as he was careful and didn't go to far, this could actually work. He let's any smaller slip up happen, maybe even fake a few, and not bother putting much effort into covering them up, only to take everything back in a few months once they find a way to make Ranboo and Lemon interact in a friendlier matter. It'd make things easier, and eventually make Ranboo look good for plotting to make a smaller, age-regression based creator more popular. 

They had to figure out the details, but it was a solid plan, a bit similar to the 'turn it into a bit' one his mother suggested. The boy thought for a moment before talking again. 

"Thank you, Tommy." he spoke sincerely, his panic and worry finally fading as he smiled. He found a notebook and a pen somewhere on his desk and opened to a blank page as his friend responded.  

"For what?" he sounded confused, and maybe a little disappointed that his mission planning was interrupted.  

"Supporting me, you find out this big secret I've kept from you and instead of getting upset, you're helping me to keep this secret for longer because you know why I'm hiding this. You're a good friend." Ranboo explained simply.

"Of course, big man. Or, should I say 'little man'?" he teased playfully, and Ranboo groaned, hiding hid face in his hands. 

"You suck. I take back what I said about you being a good friend." he claimed, sounding annoyed as he sunk into his seat, uncapping his pen and beginning to write a header to this new page. 

"Okay, sure. Stop pouting like you probably are and let's keep planning, alright? You wanna add Tubbo to the call?" 

The third of their trio was added and they talked for hours, plotting ways to keep this a secret. Tubbo thought Tommy's plan was risky, but also genius. Ranboo could mess up and almost reveal his secret as much as he wanted, to a certain extent, and then just claim it was an elaborate plan only him and his closest friends were in on. 

Of course, more would go wrong then they could predict, but in the meantime, they thought they had it all figured out. 

Tommy also asked Ranboo about his headspace, and Tubbo told him all about the cutest little things he did while small, causing the little in question to leave the call for a minute before coming back to 'yell' at Tubbo. They did actually get around to planning the Lemon and Tommy collab, roping in Tubbo to the video ideas too.

It wasn't until Ranboo's parents called for dinner that he finally hung up, and he was genuinely happy when he left the call. 

Maybe Tommy knowing about this wasn't so bad. Actually, it seemed that their little trio put together could help him pull off the double identity thing much better then he ever could on his own. 

He'd just have to wait and see how things played out. 

--

Everything was going great. 

Or, as great as things could be going, really. It's been two weeks since that Discord call where Ranboo was forced to out himself to Tommy, and the big 'Clingy Duo and Lemon Kid' collab was the only thing anyone seemed to be talking about at the moment. The quest mod video for Tommy's channel, and the speed run one for Lemon's, were both trending and doing extremely well, considering the fact that they were posted back-to-back barely a day ago.

The whole fake feud thing was slowly being built up, too. Ranboo decided to make it seem like sarcastic, harmless fun even when he 'fought' with himself, while also refusing to outright dis-spell any rumors that Lemon and Ranboo didn't like each other. He stayed in that confusing gray zone where no one could tell if this was a bit or a genuine rivalry. 

He let the question stay in the air, because what's the fun in fan theories if their questions are seemingly answered? 

A few twitter threads, a couple Youtube comments, and a handful of backhanded and indirect references to the other in each of the persona's streams, and suddenly, everyone was gossiping over the 'drama' between the two boys. It was like the theory that they were one in the same was nothing but a joke the streamers themselves were making and referencing here and there. 

On top of Ranboo successfully keeping his secret, there was something big happening over in the 'Lemon Kid' realm. Something he never thought an agere-focused creator would reach. 

1 million subscribers. 

He wasn't there yet, but he wasn't to far off. It seemed that the video collaboration with Tommy and Tubbo was pushing him to the milestone. Right now, he was streaming, his current subcount at around 950k, promising himself he'd keep streaming as Lemon until he got those last 50 thousand subscribers. 

He had a plan as to what his big milestone marker would be, how he was celebrating and how he'd be rewarding the community that's supported him along the way. He's been running this channel, the Lemon Kid one, for less then two months. He was gonna hit 1 million in one third the amount of time he did as Ranboo, which was in about six months. 

How did he even manage that? Maybe it was because he focused more on youtube as Lemon, as opposed to his Ranboo accounts, where he preferred streaming. Making content under a second identity was a little less sary when you could edit whatever you wanted out of the final product.

"I won't reveal what the one million celebration thing is until we hit it- it's not a face reveal, though. I'll tell you that much." he laughed a bit at chat's speculations, popping a few more sour gummies into his mouth before washing it down with soda. He's been sugar high this entire stream so far, if his mom knew about this, she'd probably be so upset. 

Hell, Tubbo would be upset if he knew about all the unhealthy sugar he was consuming. Very quickly, the shorter british boy seemed to become more and more caregiver-like, it was weird. 

"Oh my god that's a lot of money," Ranboo's eyes widened at the dono amount he read on screen, quickly thanking the person before inhaling more candy. He wasn't small anyways, so he could have as much as he wanted, right? 

"CHAT! That's 960 thousand right there! Only 40 thousand more to go!" he clapped his hands, smile clear on his face in excitement. Reluctantly, he pulled on his Lemon Kid mask and glasses and double checked that the curtain behind him hid the room he was streaming in. He was trying to do something cool at each milestone in between one million, in order to encourage the viewers (speaking of, the view count was climbing by the second, it was crazy) to subscribe to his channel. 

The donos and Twitch subscriptions were rolling in too, and he knew that the money would go towards his big plan for the one million milestone. 

His hair was done up in his bucket hat and butterfly clips, and he set his gummies down switched on the camera, waving at it. The viewers having been staring at a paused game of Minecraft for the past twenty minutes while he just talked and hinted towards upcoming things he was doing. Now they saw him! 

Or, they saw the disguised and secretive character of Lemon Kid. 

He let chat freak out as he reached for a craft box he set to the side. "Guys, guess what we're doinggg?" he held out his words, talking a bit like you would when you wanted to get a child excited about something. He shook the box, letting the different plastics and objects clash against each other inside. The viewers made their guesses before he started pulling stuff from the decorative art supplies.

First, sheets of bedazzling gems and boxes of plastic symbols were sat in display of the second camera he hooked up, pointed at the part of the table he'd he working on, just in front of his keyboard. Then the super glue and different types of letter beads, once those were out he actually turned on the second camera. And then finally, the most important piece of this creative little puzzle were flashed to the webcams, still sitting in the box for organization reasons.

The adult pacifiers. 

Little did they know, they were getting a big hint as to what his milestone celebration would be. Sitting right in front of them, obvious and somehow still unclear and mysterious. 

"Pacifier decorating!" he announced clearly, just for anyone who didn't put it together yet. "What color should we start with?" he picked through the different color pacifiers, adjusting his mask and glasses here and there carefully. He ran through the process of decorating one, getting help from chat and letting the lemon's primarily decide how it'd look. 

He eventually turned off the camera that showed his covered up face to 'focus on the craft', mostly not wanting to many clips or pictures of him to be compared to Ranboo. He eventually went back to stuffing his face with candy as he worked, ending up with a fruit themed pacifier that kinda looked like his bedazzled sunglasses just before they got to 970k. 

Things were moving and the number was growing, and it was all happening so quickly. He was overwhelmed in the best way possible.  

For his next 'cool thing', he called Tubbo and Tommy so that they could have him design a pacifier. Their trio dynamic was one everyone was freaking out about, the fans, and even fellow streamers, loved the way they interacted as if they've known each other forever. Of course, 'Lemon's' known the other two longer then everyone knew, but at least people enjoyed their interactions. 

They were being called the 'Protagonist Trio' due to a bit during the quest mod video where they compared themselves to the heroic figure of a typical fantasy adventure tale, everyone, including them, loved the name. 

"I think you should do yellow! Make a bee themed one!" 

"No! Go with my brand, white and red!" 

Within seconds, his two friends were arguing about what they should do. Ranboo found himself laughing. The stream went on for a bit, Lemon forced to choose between and pick everything because the other two couldn't agree on anything. 

"Stop fightin! M' jus putting 'baby' on da handle," Ranboo huffed and interrupted their bickering over what'd they'd spell out on the handle of the paci, ignoring how babyish he sounded all the sudden as he found the needed beads. 

"We aren't really fighting, baby." Tubbo was quick to lower his playful insulting and argumentative tone into a gentle and comforting one, a bit worried for his seemingly no longer big friend. 

"I knoww, you're jus loud," the boy wasn't upset, just annoyed. This stream was supposed to be his big thing, and he just wanted to make a cute pacifier. He coughed, snapping back into a regular voice suddenly, "We're almost done with this one, anyways." 

Tubbo, Tommy, and chat still got thrown off by how easily Ranboo could snap between headspaces when he wasn't deeply regressed or dreaming. It was funny to watch, but shocking in the moment. Once the second pacifier of the stream was designed and decorated, and he's gone through a full bag of gummies and a second soda, the subcount number finally hits 980k. 

Then, he puts away the craft stuff and leaves the pacis out to dry, before adjusting his glasses and mask and switching back to the main camera. He waved to the viewers before adding another person to the call- someone chat wanted him to interact with more. 

"Wilbur!" 

"Lemon!" 

The four in the call burst into laughter at their simple but amusing way of greeting each other. 

After a while of talking and answering questions that came through the donos, he turns off the camera to go back to eating. "What have you been eating this entire time anyways?" Tubbo questioned once the camera went off, 

"Uh- candy. Gummies, actually," he thought about lying, before telling himself that he was big and Tubbo couldn't do anything anyways. 

"THIS WHOLE TIME? How much?" Tubbo sounded shocked and a bit upset, causing him to laugh sheepishly. 

"Like a full bag, I'm partially into the second. Don't worry, I've been hydrating with soda!" he was immediately met with the other three in the call, and chat, telling him how unhealthy that was. He just shrugged and pointed out that they could do anything, only for Tubbo to threaten to call his mom. 

His mom was probably watching the stream and would talk to him the second she got home and he was off camera, but he pretended that the threat scared him. He did stop eating candy though, and switched to sipping water from a sippy cup he kept on his desk, as to not dig himself a deeper hole. He was already sugar high, though. 

Eventually 990k was reached, and they were all just waiting. Tommy and Wilbur had to drop out of the stream for something at some point, to eat or get to sleep or something, so it was just him and his best friend anxiously watching and waiting as the numbers on the screen slowly ticked up. The number getting bigger and bigger until they were at 995k. 

Five thousand people to go. 

"You're almost there, how do you feel?" Tubbo asked. 

"Excited!" Ranboo flapped his hands and stimmed wildly, the anticipation and energy from the sugar kicking in all at once, crashing in like a tide wave as he watched the numbers tick up again. 

996k. Four thousand people just needed to hit a button, they were right there... 

Chat started freaking out, and he got a twitter notification. 

Dream | @dreamwastaken 

go sub to lemon kid rn 

[insert youtube channel link]

Before he could process this, a few more notifications displayed themselves across the top of his screen. 

tommy | @tommyaltinnit replying to @dreamwastaken

please do.

George | @GeorgeNootFound replying to @dreamwastaken, @tommyaltinnit

double vouch

And then a whole lot more tweets came through, from a whole bunch of content creators within their circle. Corpse, Sapnap, Techno, it seemed like he was getting everyone's support. 

And like magic, the numbers on his monitor rushed up quicker then he ever could've imagined. He peeled his eyes away from his phone screen just in time to see the magic number, vaguely registering chat and Tubbo's celebration, and the later's claim to have gotten a screenshot just at the very second it changed. 

None of that mattered, though. That was just background noise. Even though he's been building up to it throughout this whole stream, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. 

Lemon Kid officially had one million subscribers. 

Chapter Text

"Hello everyone and welcome to my Youtube channel! It's Lemon here, as always, but today I have an exciting announcement!" 

A clip of Ranboo, all decked out as 'Lemon', sitting at his playroom coloring table, played across the screen. There were some boxes stacked next to him on the table surface, pastel packaging blurred by editing effects to be revealed later in the video, and a lavender table cloth was thrown over the table.

"So, as some of you guys know, I hit 1 million subscribers just yesterday! Or, a few days ago, depending on how fast I get this edited and published- Anyways, I recently hit a huge milestone! And during the stream in which I hit said milestone, I told you-" the boy points at the camera with a gloved hand, voice clear and full of excitement as he spoke, "that I was going to open an agere shop!"  

"That's right! An online business run by the agere community for the agere community. For littles by littles, you get the gist. I am the main man, so I advertise and approve everything and even produce certain products, but I have a hugeee team of agere-based creators ALL OVER The United States helping with this!" 

A pastel map animation popped up, little dots appearing all over the different American States, before zooming out to include Britain and Canada in the picture to. Dots appear in these places too, but a bit less the amount of people in the states. 

"And even a few helpers over in the UK and Canada! When you place an order, one of the producers close to you will be assigned the job of hand creating and designing your product before sending it out specifically for you! And I will randomly select orders from any and all locations all over the globe to fill instead, and you'll get a little note or sticker that'll tell you that I made it!" 

A video clip showing a little letter and signature from 'Lemon' played under the audio, this section of the video also showcasing the little animated lemon stickers he had printed for this huge project. The announcement vlog cuts back to Lemon at his playroom table, but this time, the packaging boxes are unblurred and you can see the pastel fruit themed boxes the products will come in if you order them. 

"The artists that helped to design the boxes and stickers will be linked in the description and shouted out on my Twitter! We will be selling pacifiers, bottles, sippy cups, and stuffed animals! We have pre-picked designs for now as that makes it easier for the people making these to pull off making a whole bunch at once, but there's plenty of variation anyways!" 

There's a few dinging sound affects that line up with pictures of different pacifier and bottle designs that appear on the screen, showing off a small portion of the products they wanted to sell. 

"I'm calling this business of mine 'FruitKid Co.', the fruitkid.com website will officially launch at Midnight this Friday- June 4th, 2021, and will remain open for any orders until two days later on Saturday, June 6th, 2021, again, until Midnight. I will be posting the prices of different items over on Twitter leading up to the launch day, so look out for those!" 

Dates and times appeared on the screen in big text, laying out the plan for how this was all going to work. 

"After the ordering period, orders will be assigned to all the amazing creators from everywhere helping me with this, done over the course of a month or so, and shipped out as they're completed. So, if you order when the website launches, you'll probably get your stuff near the end of June-" 

The audio cuts off as Ranboo pauses the final cut of the video, sighing and leaning back in his gaming chair. The video was uploading to his channel in another tab, and he was still sitting here rewatching it, wondering what people would think of his crazy little project. He thought the whole idea was genius, he had gotten in contact with a plethora of different small businesses and companies and creators to make this all work, it was a lot to put together and plan.

Online friends and smaller youtubers were hired, and he was able to buy the domain of 'fruitkid.com' before anyone else, and suddenly, he owned a soon-to-launch not-so-small business. He put a lot of work into this, and he was excited. Maybe starting a business the same week as your high school graduation and just a few weeks before a planned trip another country was a bit of a mess, but at least he'd never get bored. 

Oh yeah, Ranboo was graduating. In just a few days, the hell of online high school would be over and done with and take one aspect away from his complicated existence as a multi-identitied faceless streamer. He'd already done all the final tests and projects, so it was mostly about wrapping things up and waiting for his diploma at this point. 

But it was still an accomplishment, getting through school with the high grades and such he did. He was glad it was almost over though, now he'd be able to make as much content as he did with a little less stress and constant worry about an upcoming quiz or presentation due date. Now it was all just editing schedules and streaming plans, which was still a lot of word but more preferable. 

Then, he could throw himself into planning the details of the UK trip. And figuring out how the hell that whole thing was gonna work with the existence of his other online persona. He already knew he was only gonna take orders he could fill in twenty days time, that way he could ship the orders before he caught his flight across the sea, that aspect was taken care of. It was more about how he was going to keep the location change of Lemon a secret, or how to present the agere youtuber's trip in a way that didn't scream 'I'm here because Ranboo is!' 

He snapped out of his thoughts and clicked to his other tab, gasping. The video was officially live. 

Now, it was a waiting game to see how his fans were gonna react. For now, he opened the new 'FruitKid Co.' Discord Server and started typing in the general chat.

--

"This is huge, Lem! I can't believe that this is actually happening- a full business run and employed by people within the community it's for? Like, what a great concept. You're so talented." 

Ranboo laughed a bit, a small blush on his face from the praise. Tubbo was rambling in their Discord call during a livestream that was counting down the last hour and a half before the website launch. Of course, his friend has already told him all these things off camera, but the compliments were suddenly overwhelming when they were live, in front of an audience. 

"M' so excited, Tubs! Everyone's got da supplies and are pre-making stuff, is gonna be soooo cool!" he giggled, very much small. He was on the blurry line between regressed and dreaming, but Tubbo was here and he wasn't so small so he was okay with the circumstance. He'd be big once the timer ticking down the seconds to midnight was a bit closer, he had decided. 

"It really is, bud!" his friend replied with a tone that matched his excitement, the boy could practically hear the amused smile in his voice. The silent and held back cooing, the 'you're so cute!'-s and the awwing. 

Tubbo babysitting Lemon on stream and in videos was starting to become a reoccurring thing at this point, cg!Tubbo and little!Lemon fanart and content was the only thing the agere creator's fandom seemed interested in producing in the moment. Of course, the boy cared for him a lot off camera as well, keeping him entertained and guiding him to safe choices even if he had no real authority. 

The playful threats of calling the little's mom was the only card he could play with the kid decided to be stubborn about something. 

It seemed that now, this new aspect of their relationship was something they were okay with the internet observing. They were just normalizing platonic regressor and babysitter dynamics, so they were actively aiding the agere community as well as entertaining many and making people happy. 

So, Tubbo and Ranboo were okay with this arrangement. 

The stream kept going for a while, Lemon eventually mentally aging himself up to show off and 'leak' pictures of new designs, products, and prices leading up to the site launching between answering questions from chat and talking to his friends. Time ticked on and Tommy dropped in for about twenty minutes of the stream to act out a long bit where he begged Lemon to sell a plain red and white pacifier in honor of him, and to give him all the profit from it. 

It was funny, he 'kicked him out' of the stream, and they moved on. Wilbur dropped in to ramble about how cool the idea was too do all this, saying that he 'had to go' just a few minutes before midnight. So, when midnight approached, and chat freaked out, the person Lemon assigned the job of launching the website did so and suddenly, the new business was up and running. 

Ranboo purposely made the prices as low as he could, just enough to pay back the supply and shipping funds he set aside and give all the workers a decent profit for each order they filled. Since he bought the supplies in bulk, the prices were actually pretty decent. 

Customers who could afford it began choosing between the fruit-themed line up- the pacifiers and bottles designed to mimic the sunglasses the boy wore, the royal-aesthetic products (he couldn't start an agere business without a basic selection of little prince, princess, and royal pacifiers, could he?), the small stuffed animals they collabed with another business to sell, and a few other things. 

He tried not to think about how weird it was that Lemon was getting merch before his main online persona, Ranboo, to hard. 

He eventually ended the stream after hours of just talking about different designs and thanking everyone for the initial batch of orders, sending a few more messages in the Discord sever before powering off his PC and heading to bed for the night. 

--

By Sunday night, everything was still going smoothly and Lemon was working with a team to divide up the orders that had built up so far accordingly, by location and amount of supplies each creator involved had currently. While that was what Ranboo was mostly thinking about, there was some other cool things going on as well. 

First off, he's continued doing streams as Ranboo among this delightful chaos, planning some cool lore for his SMP character. He's also streamed as Lemon on the SMP a couple more times, the next handful of streams going much better then his first one. Somehow, he had avoided all the questions relating to whether or not Lemon was gonna be tied into any big lore soon. 

He didn't even know if he was doing lore once he got to the UK yet, he especially hadn't made that decision for his second persona yet. 

He's worked out some more solid planning for the UK trip. Well, his flight and some things he'd do as Ranboo once he got there. He was still making some decisions on the whole secret second identity thing was gonna work out. At least he knew he was getting there the morning of the 26th, exactly twenty days away. 

He was having a lot of fun hinting toward the trip and driving his fan base crazy with everything. He had accidentally lined things up so that he was causing chaos in the Minecraft community in two directions, in different ways. 

After midnight that night, he'd pick his orders for FruitKid Co., getting those out of the way and shipped out early. He had a full line up of video ideas to pre-record and post during his first few weeks in the UK to buy him some time, at the very least. Lemon not streaming for a week or two wasn't unusual since he advertised the agere persona as a Youtuber, not a streamer. 

He'd worry about all that later, though. 

For now, he had business to attend to. Literally. 

Currently, that 'business' was messaging with one of the many UK agere creators participating, a faceless babyspace regressor he found through a small instagram account while hunting for people to 'hire' for this project: ghostbaby. Ghost wouldn't specify their age exactly, but admitted they were over 20, and they've been dabbling in pacifier decorating forever. They also offered to collect orders, package them, and send them out, removing a step from some other creator's jobs. 

lemon_kid

I'm gonna send you a document with a list of all the information for pacifier orders in your area, okay? 

ghostbaby

sounds good

i'm so excited for this, thanks for reaching out to me

lemon_kid

of course! <3

I have to reach out to some other people but I'll get that doc to you within the next thirty minutes 

As Ranboo complied that list and worked and worked, a weird feeling that Ghost was more important then he originally realized built up in his chest, looming there suspiciously without reason or explanation. The address the other regressor gave him seemed a bit familiar, like he's seen that exact location title before. It was probably just because some members of the Dream SMP live in that same general area, but it was definitely still odd that his mind was screaming at him that something was just... off. 

He pushed this weird and seemingly random instinct away and finished up his work, sending out a few tweets from both of his accounts and wrapping up his work for the night. He let Tubbo and Tommy know he was heading to bed before doing so. 

After he got some orders done tomorrow, he'd have some regression time, he decided. He deserved it after such a busy weekend, he told himself. He had been working really hard since he hit his big milestone and he needed a small break before jumping back into everything. 

Of course, he still had a lot to do as soon as that break was over, but that could be pushed aside for a bit, couldn't it?

--

"Tubs!" Ranboo was already mostly regressed when he clumsily voice called a group chat with him, Tubbo, and Tommy in it from his tablet in his playroom. He decided to fill his orders at his coloring table, so he was having a hard time not slipping while working on his very important stuff, but he was able to knock a chunk out and even completely package a few orders to ship out later. 

"Boo!" Tubbo joined the call first, picking up on the fact that he was small immediately. The brunette turned his camera on a waved a bit so that the regressor could see him. 

"Toms!" Tommy joined before anything else happened, his camera also turned on. He tuned in from his PC, smiling at his webcam. 

"Boo!" Just like Tubbo, the blonde greeted him with playful excitement. 

"M' playin, wi- with blos! Blocks! Baba blocks!" he knew he was a bit babbly and hard to understand, but he tried his best to talk. 

"Baby blocks? That sounds fun! Can we see this building block action or is that sight just for you?" the shortest of the three questioned carefully, and the little vaguely understood his silent question. Can you turn on your camera so we can watch you whole you play, or is your mental health not going to allow you to show your face to us today?

He blushed a bit but turned it on. He very quickly propped the device up so that the camera got a view of him sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor and all the toys in front of and around him, but it cut off at some point on his torso. 

"Is that a Winnie the Pooh onesie? You're literally so cool, little man." Tommy complimented him immediately, and the young toddler giggled. 

"T'ank yoooou!" he semi-whispered, a bit shy. He immediately jumped to move on before either boy could tease him for his shyness. "Lo- look! I'ma spell! Um, huh..." 

He moved to demonstrate a word he could spell with the blocks and hesitated, seemingly deeply regressed enough to struggle with the task a bit. He ended up spelling the word 'boo', "is my name! m' boo!" 

"Yes, you are! You're just a bitty baby boo, aren't you?" Tubbo felt the need to baby him, causing the boy to blush harsher and shift in his spot, whining a little

"Mmm, no. So big I can spell! See!" He demonstrated the word 'cat' but with a k, quickly switching it out for a c as he recognized his mistake. "Bitty babies can't do that, I don' think. Hmph!" 

There was some playful bickering between the three for a bit, over how big or small the boy actually was. More baby block games followed as Tubbo and Tommy tried to ask him what words he could spell, sometimes not correcting him when he was just a letter or two off. In fact, Tommy had joked about creating a petition for 'care' to be spelled 'kare' just because Ranboo struggled with the letter difference. 

Tommy sort of worked on editing but mostly interacted and played with the boy in the call with him, and Tubbo kinda typed up some ideas for the UK trip but also couldn't focus on it, also due to how adorable the little boy was being. Eventually the almost baby-aged regressor drank a bottle of milk his mom brought him after briefly checking on him and hung up in order to go take a nap. 

When he woke up a few hours later to a package placed on his coloring table, he was quite confused. His mom probably saw that it was addressed to Lemon and knew it was for him, but there was something very wrong with that. 

He hasn't given out his address to anyone as Lemon, Tubbo and Tommy would tell him if they were sending something to him and they would've probably addressed it to 'Ranboo' or his real name. So, there was only two possible explanations here, and both were scary and didn't make sense. 

He somehow got doxxed, or someone who knew Ranboo's address had figured things out and decided to send him a gift. 

That weird instinct feeling from the day prior told him it was the second option. And his mom had taught him to always trust his gut. 

Chapter Text

Ranboo's confusion didn't fade when he opened the mystery package. He didn't know what he expected to find, maybe some all-answering object to explain whatever the hell was happening. Whatever that object was, it wasn't in there. 

He did get a cute bear, though. With baby pink fur that felt oh-so-soft. It even wore a little outfit, a pastel yellow shirt and black overalls, the adorable little thing looked like Lemon's minecraft skin. By some hunch, Ranboo felt the need to check the foot of the bear- it was a build-a-bear! Someone bought him a build-a-bear! 

Someone bought him a build-a-bear made specifically to look like his Minecraft skin, and figured out how to send it to him. He dug through the box, finding some cute sticker sheets and a pack of pastel crayons he's only mentioned wanting for art purposes in a Discord call with Wilbur, Tommy, Phil, and Techno months ago- but that could easily be a coincidence. 

There was a small slip of paper at the very bottom of the box, folded in half and labeled with his name. 

Not Lemon. 

Not Ranboo. 

But his actual, real name. 

Most of his friends called him Ranboo, using it as his name on camera and a sort of common nickname off camera, even though most streamers in his social circle knew his name, not many used it often. Sometimes Phil would use it while talking in this joking stern tone when he decided to be a menace, and Wilbur and Techno would pull it out when he was being 'serious', but those were the only common examples he could think of. 

He opened the note, reading over the messy and vaguely familiar handwriting. 

You have something to tell me, boo?

What does that even mean? All the package and it's contents told him was that someone that knew him figured it out, and he didn't know who it was. Oh, and they probably thought this whole thing was hilarious. 

He set the bear with his other stuff animals and organized the stickers and crayons into his art bins and moved on with his day.

After how crazy his life had been recently, he decided he could deal with whatever that box was later time.

--

June 8th was the date, and though the day started normal, it'd be more important then the young content creator would ever think. Normal for him was a loose concept, of course, but this day began as normal as life as a double identitied streamer could possibly allow.

The purchasing period for his shop closed a few days ago and the beginning of the creation period had arrived, regressors and dreamers across three different countries were working to make sure everything ran smoothly.

He'd been recording lots of videos for the Lemon Kid channel, and even streaming pretty often, so that he had stuff to post during his first few weeks in the UK. He was still figuring out how he was gonna pull that off.

As for the box, and the mystery of why he felt like he recognized Ghost's address, he hadn't made any progress. Actually, he hadn't even told his parents or friends about those situations yet. When his parents asked what the package was, he compulsively lied and mentioned ordering something for a video even though that wasn't the slightest bit true.

He didn't wanna worry anyone when he was pretty sure the first one was someone who wasn't going to expose him, just someone looking to tease him and have fun until he came clean, and that the second one was just his brain tricking him into thinking something was wrong when there wasn't anything suspicious happening.

As mentioned before, this day began as normal as his days ever did, but something was going to change. A few conversations that'd make him finally draw the line between many dots and solve a few mysteries he's been ignoring would take place. 

The boy was sat on a call with Wilbur and Techno, as Ranboo, of course, while they all did their own thing and just talked. It was nice to do that, to just catch up with his friends while they completed simple tasks. It was kind of like a study session, they could talk and laugh and have fun while still being productive.

"So, Ranboo, I wanted to ask you something and I don't want it to seem weird, okay?" Techno's voice cut through the silence they allowed to settle (with the exception of Wilbur's humming and the teenagers muttering ), deep as usual but oddly unsure.

"Okay?" The kid was a little worried, but he didn't question it, curious as to what the older content creator could possibly have to say. 

"I've been hearing a lot about that Lemon Kid- and you, of course, and I wanted to ask- is there actually any issues there? There's talk of possible drama, and I don't know- I'm just a bit worried because you don't get into stuff like th-" 

Just hearing the name of his alternative persona made the streamer freeze up a bit, before he actually processed what he was being asked. 

"There's nothing going on." the teenager felt a bit bad for the sharpness in his tone as he cut his friend off. "I mean-" he sighed, trying to fix his response and offer an explanation. After a moment of gathering his thoughts, he had an idea, so he continued speaking,

"It's a planned thing, I know Lemon and have since before he became a content creator-" this time, he was the one cut off, by Wilbur, who had remained silent for this the entirety of interaction until now. He sounded worried, like he had a secret of his own relating to Lemon, somehow. 

It'd take Ranboo a minute to connect those dots, but he'd get there eventually. 

"Do the two of you live in the same area?" the brunette's camera was on, so Ranboo could see him suspiciously eye the camera. 

"Something like that." Lemon nervously chuckled as he set his pen down, pushing away the notebook designated for video ideas as he went to keep lying to the people he cared about. All this lying was starting to get to him, but he'd deal with any guilt later. 

"Point is, we know we're similar and we know we're making content for an overlapping crowd. Since I was already big as a creator, and he was getting popular- we orchestrated this whole 'feud' and 'haha we're totally not the same person, or are we?' thing." 

"You're using your fame to draw attention to a smaller creator, in a backwards way that peaks curiosity, then?" Techno questioned, sounding just a little skeptical. 

"Yeah, basically." the boy tried to sound casual, leaning back in his chair. 

"And why didn't you tell us this before?" Wilbur cut back into the conversation, still sounding all to concerned. 

"Just to avoid it getting leaked, I want Lemon to get a solid platform before we either reveal the trick or uh- make it seem like the feud ended?" he sounded a bit unsure in his own words, another option for how this all could end popping into his head. 

He could reveal himself, eventually. 

He shook that thought from his head and made sure not to say that out loud, focusing back on the conversation just as Techno started speaking, sounding all to knowing. Wilbur went quiet once more, seemingly deep in thought. 

"Sounds a little complicated, if you ask me." 

If only he knew.

"It is, honestly, but it seems to be working well. I mean, he hit one million." Ranboo was finally started to calm down a little, maybe he had gotten off without suspicion this time. Of course Techno had to just go and say something that threw him right back down a spiral of overthinking. 

"It also sounds creative. How'd you come up with that, boo?" 

The teenager held back a gasp and let his eyes jump over to a note set to the side on his computer desk, the one from the package he had received the other day. With the handwriting that was a bit too familiar. 

You have something to tell me, boo?

Based off of the way Techno said the nickname, he seemed to know that he was tipping him off in a way. He was all but asking, 'You got any suspicious packages recently? Because I may have sent you one!'. 

"I-uh, I don't know," he mustered a response eventually. "Just came to me one day when I was helping Lemon edit his first video. Sorry, I think I gotta go, my mom's calling me down for dinner! Bye!" 

He panicked, hanging up the call before either of the other creators got the chance to say another word. While they were probably wondering what the hell just happened, Ranboo set to work calling his group chat with Tommy and Tubbo. He spammed the chat with one message, over and over again. 

techno knows 

--

"So Techno specifically emphasized his voice when calling you the same nickname on the note from the package? Are you sure it's really him? That's very little evidence to go off of, big man." Tubbo sounded reasonable and curious when he finally spoke up after Ranboo's panicked rambling. 

"It's not just that! He was like, interrogating me about Lemon Kid, breaking down our explanation of me and Lemon planning this whole thing. Also, the note had my real name on it too, which Techno knows! And there was these crayons in there that I mentioned wanting in a call with him once!" he quickly shot out all the other dots he connected to get to this conclusion. 

"I'm kinda convinced. He is smart, and anyone who knows you personally and is observant, like me and him, could possibly figure things out. Maybe he just put things together like I did. " Tommy spoke up. "Is him knowing such a terrible concept, though?" 

"If he knows, then he's the second person that figured things out on his own! Which means that I'm completely obvious!" 

"You kinda are, but we're working on that!" Tubbo told him. "Let's just think this through, okay?"

Ranboo nodded, before audibly agreeing once he realized his camera was off. Tommy also confirmed before Tubbo continued, sounding all wise and oddly parent-like. 

"We know from the contents of the package that the sender isn't judgmental about age regression, so I don't see the harm in them knowing. And mostly likely, they just looked at the evidence and went out on a limb to see if they were right. I think we should do some investigating to figure out who it is, confirm if it's Techno or whoever else, and make sure they aren't gonna spread this further." 

"That's a good idea," the kid felt a little relieved again, having a plan on how to deal with things always helped him calm down a bit. "How are we supposed to investigate? We obviously should start with Tech because all evidence points to him, but how to we get more information?" 

"I'll talk to him." Tommy immediately volunteered after just listening for a minute, kinda like his older brother figure did in the previous call. "I'll know by tomorrow afternoon if it's him, and I'll update you guys as I find out stuff. Try to be on standby throughout tomorrow in case I need to add you to any calls." 

Immediately, with that all-to-serious closing statement filled with words that made him sound like some government spy, the blond left the call. Ranboo presumed it was to get to work. 

He was just a little worried about giving the most reckless of the trio such an important task, but he pushed that aside to remind himself that Tommy would be careful with this quest for his sake. He trusted his friends. 

"You gotta admit, the thrill of this is kinda fun." Tubbo said after a moment, chuckling. The taller of the two laughed along with him, 

"Maybe. Once I get past the terrifying anxiety, the sneaking around to figure out things and have our secret little meetings is a bit adrenaline inducing." Ranboo was so glad Tommy and Tubbo knew, they always seemed to know just what to do and what to say to make him feel better. 

The two of them kept talking for a bit before his mom actually did call him down for dinner. 

By the time he hung up, he was confident that everything would be just fine. 

--

While Ranboo wanted to just sit around and wait for his friend to confirm that it was just Techno behind the package and he had nothing scarier to worry about, he knew he shouldn't. So, he worked on editing videos once dinner was over. He explained the current situation to his parents as well, and they told him that it seemed that the trio had already solved the mystery. 

He saved his file and figured he could be done for the time being, opening his Lemon accounts in a few tabs to check them. He liked some fan art on Twitter, used his phone to leave some comments on some TikToks about Lemon, and interacted with some smaller agere creators on youtube. None of that was to interesting though, things didn't get spicy until he opened his discord messages.

Dream 

hey! me and the boys were wondering if you ever wanted to do that manhunt rematch? 

I know it's been a while, I've just been caught up in other things 

I wanna get a video out soon and I thought this could be it, no pressure if you're to busy tho

Ranboo was quick to type out a reply. There couldn't be any harm in making another video with The Dream Team, right? Once sending a confirmation and chatting with him confirming a recording time a few days from then, and saying that he was fine with the idea of some other creators being invited if they wanted to do that, he logged back into his Ranboo accounts. 

And of course, there was another invite to the same manhunt video. 

Dream 

yo

wanna do a manhunt with me, george, sapnap, and lemon kid? 

The teenager closed the tab and opened Netflix as if nothing happened, he could not deal with that right now. 

--

Tommy didn't even need until the following day, he called the group chat late that night with his verdict. By then, Ranboo had decided to deal with the manhunt situation until after the package thing was all sorted out. 

"So, it's definitely Techno. He didn't plan on telling anyone anyways, the package was just his way of messing with you before confronting you. You should definitely talk to him and explain why you didn't tell him, I tried my best to explain it wasn't a personal thing, though." 

Ranboo found himself very thankful for some reason. It only took a few hours for him to think it through- even though he wished he was able to tell the man himself once he was more prepared and ready, Techno knowing (under the circumstance that he wouldn't tell anyone else, which he trusted he wouldn't) wasn't to scary of an idea. That was just one more person to invite to their secret little 'Let's Talk About Lemon' meetings, one more person to talk to when he was small. 

And plus, he'd prefer Techno figuring it out to someone he didn't really know super well. "Okay, I'll call him after this to help clear things up." Ranboo agreed. 

"Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming?" Tubbo asked, questioning the blond's somewhat suspicious tone. The boy got a little worried again at the sound of the youngest of the three sighing. 

"I did some casual interrogating on Wilbur while waiting on a reply from Tech- and he seemed a bit suspicious." 

"We agreed to investigate Techno! Why'd you even talk to Wilbur?" Tubbo sounded upset, but Tommy immediately jumped into an explanation. 

"I know Wilbur also calls Ranboo 'boo'! I thought maybe Wilbur and Techno were in on the package together- it seems like something they'd do. Anyways, the moment I mentioned Lemon he got all fidgety, like maybe he knows something? Or is hiding something related to him? I can't figure out what it is, but something's off."  

"He was like that in our call earlier too! He got all worried when I claimed that me and Lemon lived in the same area, like he was afraid that Lemon would tell me something? It didn't make any sense." 

Right when one mystery was solved, another one popped up. That's what a 'normal day' looks like when you have two online identities. 

"Did Wilbur tell you anything significant, like through Lemon?" Tubbo asked him. 

"No, I don't think so. Unless he has some secret account I don't know about..." 

Right when the words left his mouth, Ranboo's eyes widened, and he sat up in his seat. 

"Wait, what's Wilbur's address?" he questioned, sounding urgent as he opened Instagram on his phone, setting to work logging into his Lemon Kid account. Tommy immediately replied with the exact address he found a few seconds of scrolling later in his earlier messages with Ghost. 

"What's going on, Ranboo?" Tubbo's voice was the one that cut through all his thoughts however many moments later. If Ghost was Wilbur, then Wilbur was a regressor! He was scared that this information would get back to him if Lemon and Ranboo talked about the workers for the Kid Co. business to much, which was reasonable. 

Of course, he didn't realize Ranboo and Lemon were one in the same. 

Wilbur hadn't figured his secret out, he was scared that Ranboo figure out his. As the boy came to another realization, that Tommy probably knew Wilbur was a little, he spat out his next words. 

"Just curious- Tommy, is that 'other regressor' you know good with pacifier decorating?" For once, Ranboo felt like the smart one.

"Sort of? Why do they matter?" the other boy sounded a little nervous, as if he was trying to predict his friend's next words. It seemed that maybe Ranboo's bold claim was right, and Tommy knew it.

"Because they're Wilbur, aren't they?" 

Chapter Text

"So, let me get this entire situation straight." 

Ranboo sighed, sinking back in his chair as he prepared for whatever Techno was gonna say. 

"You create an entire second online persona, you blow up- again! You do terribly at keeping the whole thing a secret, and you somehow get away with it for two months?" the man on the other end of the call sounded so disbelieving and shocked, as if the idea that the boy setting out to do something and somewhat succeeding at it was such a crazy idea. If they weren't such good friends, it'd be a bit offensive. 

"With the exceptions of you and Tommy, yeah. I told Tubbo myself," the tall teenager explained, once again. He understood that there were so many questions to ask about the situation, it was just that Techno asking the same few over and over again was getting tiring. 

"I mean, I knew most of that already, but it's really only me and Tommy that put it together?" he question.

"Yes!" the boy sounded annoyed at this point, laughing a bit. "How did you figure it out, anyways?" 

The teenager called Technoblade after talking to Tommy and getting it out of him that Wilbur was indeed, the other regressor, sending his friends off to explain everything to the brunette while he sorted things out with the man behind the mystery package. He explained why he didn't tell him sooner, telling him all about how Lemon came to be and exactly why he created the persona. 

After doing this twice with Tubbo and Tommy, it was almost becoming routine. He'd eventually have to figure out a faster way to do this, definitely. 

"I don't know, it just kinda clicked that something was off when I was talking to Tubbo on a call a bit ago. You were supposedly on a camping trip with 'no internet' and he casually mentioned being on call with you, which didn't make any sense. Why would you lie about a camping trip? Then I saw the Lemon vlog and his height on twitter, and I came to my conclusion after that. I sat back and watched for a while, and then I sent the package once I definitely sure." 

Ranboo didn't get to reply to Tech's explanation because now Tommy was inviting him to a call with Tubbo and Wilbur. "Hold on, we're gonna do a big call with everybody." he told Techno, before adding everyone to the one he was on instead, so that the other man didn't get left out. Before anyone could say anything, Wilbur's voice came through the call, shocked and very, very confused. 

"When did you plan on telling me everything, Ranboo? Seems like literally everyone else figured it out or was informed in one way or another! Why was I left out of the loop?" He didn't sound angry, just extremely confused, like he was processing all of this. 

"Well, first of all, I didn't mean for anyone to find out in anyway. I revealed to Tubbo on a limb and the rest of you just-" Ranboo paused, switching his tone to a more playful one, "I don't know, I'm just not good at keeping secrets. And neither are you, apparently. Using the same address under two identities is such a rookie mistake." 

"It's not like I could've known that someone who knew my address would see it!" the brunette defended, looking into his webcam wildly. "I wanna be shocked, or like, mad I wasn't informed- but honestly, I'm more impressed than anything." 

"I second that statement." Techno spoke up. "I mean, you've slipped up a lot, but you are somehow pulling this off. Do you have a long-term plan? What happens when you go to the UK?" 

"We're figuring out the UK part still, but we're building the whole 'feud theory' into this bit." Tubbo replied for him. 

"Yeah, we're gonna try to make people think that the whole thing was an elaborate pre-planned bit to get Lemon attention eventually. For now though, we're just trying to paint the picture that it's a big joke," Tommy added. 

"So like you told us earlier, then?" Wilbur asked, "Do you eventually plan to reveal, y'know- the truth to everyone? No pressure, obviously, but those theories will eventually become accusations, right?" 

Ranboo tried not to think to much about the reality that one day, he's gonna slip up and he won't be able to lie his way out of the situation. One day, he's gonna have to explain everything to the entire world, whether it was by choice or broadcasted mistakes. That idea was so scary, because he knew the reality and truth behind it. 

All he could do was hope that he could pull this off until he was ready to make that choice himself. 

"One day, yeah. But I think it'll be a while before I get there." he admitted after a moment. "We need something that'll hold up, at least for a while. So running with the whole 'we planned this!' story is what we're gonna do. Can you guys play along with that?" 

"Only if we're in on the operation from here on out," Techno suggested. It was just a second of silence later that the three teenagers in the call said, all at once and in perfect unison, 

"Deal." 

--

True to their word, Technoblade and Wilbur were now officially included in most of their little meetings and were informed about any developments regarding Lemon. It seemed that keeping the secret of a second identity involved not keeping it a secret. It was so much easier to cover things up and keep things running smoothly with more help. 

Turns out, Technoblade knew about Wilbur's regression, but had no idea about the whole 'Ghost' account. Phil apparently knew about the brunette's regression as well, but everyone agreed not to pull him into this messy, unsolved equation until they had to or Ranboo was ready to talk to him himself. 

Part of building up the idea that all the suspicion on Lemon and Ranboo was pre-planned was telling the Dream Team the whole story. Well, the fake 'explanation' they made up. 

"So that's why you guys never do content with each other? You want people to think you don't like each other? Or are the same person?" Sapnap was the first to talk after the teenager went on and on with his lies. 

"Yeah, it brings more attention to him and we're hoping that in the long run, it'll help the age regression community as a whole. I trust you guys won't be spreading this information further?"

"No, we won't. What you're doing sounds very complicated and risky and I'm sure breaking it all down for us was a risk within itself." Dream assured, sounding a little confused.

"It kinda is." Ranboo nodded a bit even though they couldn't see him. "I'm assuming you want Lemon in the video over me, right?" 

As he has been for the past few months, Lemon Kid was still a hot topic within the Minecraft Youtube community. He was blowing up very quickly, there was the rumored scandal between him and Ranboo, the theory that they were the same person, and now he had lore on the Dream SMP. It benefited everyone more if the second manhunt was done with Lemon instead, really. 

"Sort of, no offense though! We can do another one with you some other time," George confirmed, causing him to chuckle. 

"It's totally cool, I get it! I'll let him know and he'll message you to schedule a filming date."

They didn't talk for much longer before he hung up and logged onto his other Discord account, messaging Dream from there. They agreed on a time a week from then, which worked fine with the schedule planned for the FruitKid Company and the UK trip plan, so he ran with it. 

Speaking of that trip, they still didn't really know what they were doing with that. They kept pushing off figuring it out, because there was one big dilemma they had to get around 

How could they explain Ranboo and Lemon changing locations at the same time? 

That was the main issue, there were a lot of smaller things to deal with. Lemon would have to go back to no-cam videos due to the environment around him, probably. There was also the issue of finding time to film where there wouldn't be revealing background noise. Ranboo going to the UK could possibly cause quite a bit of issues, and thinking about it to much was pretty stressful. 

It was during a Discord call a day or so before he was supposed to film with The Dream Team that they finally figured it out, just over a week and a half until he was due to get on the plane there. Everyone had been so caught up preparing for the trip and hyping it up, even creating these 'false alarm' scenarios to confuse the fans, it was so easy to push off figuring out the big problems.

"Well, you can buy us time! You have a whole list of video ideas for Lemon, right?" Tommy suggested. He was right, Ranboo could pre-film and let people think he was still in the same place for a while. 

"Yeah! And a few mostly edited videos I can space out the uploading dates of," Ranboo nodded a bit.

"Lemon is mostly a Youtuber, so coming up with a reason for him not to stream would probably work, right?" Techno added. 

"Mhm," he hummed, "But what happens once I run out of videos to post?" 

"Holy shit! I know what you can do!" Tubbo shouted suddenly, causing Ranboo to flinch in his seat, before immediately apologizing. The teenager had his face cam on for his friends today, so Tubbo realized his mistake quickly, "Soooorry, Boo. I think I have a good idea." 

"Well, don't leave us waiting!" Wilbur pushed. 

"Okay, so we were gonna need a place to store your regression stuff while you were here anyways. My parents know but you wanted somewhere to tuck everything away in case of guests, correct?" he questioned. 

"Yes, where are you going with this?" Ranboo tilted his head a bit, sort of hoping his friend would just get to the point.

"Well, there's a guest bedroom in the main house that's not used, it was where you were gonna stay if we couldn't get the new section of the house built in time. It's never been shown on stream before and my family literally doesn't use it. You could use that as a playroom and a recording room for Lemon." 

"Ooh, that's good! You could say you got a office, or small studio!" Tommy sounded excited as the pieces finally started to click in place for them. 

"But my computer set-up will be in your part of the house? What will I use to make my videos?" he was happy that they were starting to figure it out, but they didn't have the answer yet. 

"I have old monitors and stuff you can use until we can get a full second set up put together, I'll give it to one of my sisters once you leave. I also think I have sound proofing material stuff to block out noise, but no one goes in that part of the house anyways." Tubbo explained away his problems as if they were nothing. 

"Is that it, then? Did we finally figure this out?" Ranboo sounded so relieved, he had been stressing about how they were gonna make this work for weeks on end at this point. 

"I mean, it'll still be hard, and you have to have videos ready to upload on hand while we move you in, but I think so." Tommy replied, "Oh, my mom said I can come stay for a bit after you settle in, is that cool?" 

"I'll ask my parents," Tubbo nodded a bit. 

"I should probably go organize those videos then, huh? I have a recording for the Manhunt tomorrow, I'll cram in a couple videos after that. Oh, and I'll draft up a tweet about why I'm not gonna stream for a few weeks," Ranboo told them. "Talk to you all later, though, okay?" 

With a handful of 'okay, bye!'-s, he left the call and melted back into his unicorn seat. 

He had so much filming and packing to do over the next ten days, it sounded so tiring. He wasn't looking forward to packing up a good amount of his little gear, either. He tried not to worry about all that for now, though. 

He had a Manhunt recording to get through before any of that. 

--

Going back to pretending not to know his friends was weird. Now that he had four other creators in on the whole ordeal, ones he could create content with without pretending he didn't already know them, it felt so off to return to his old patterns. 

It was so odd to go back to the thing that arguably brought him his big second wave of fame, another manhunt. 

"So it's the same rules as before. If you want to regress, feel free, and if you need to stop or take a break- just tell us." Sapnap explained. "There's no special mods or anything, so it's just like last time but with a different map, okay?" 

Ranboo didn't notice it so much last time, but he really felt how protective the trio of older youtubers were over him now. It was different then how they interacted with him as Ranboo, instead they were like these big brother-type figures that made it their personal job to make ensure he was as comfortable as he could be and having as much fun as possible while they were filming. 

Also, the way they 'jokingly' bashed on people that made fun of him online gave a lot away about how much they cared. 

"Yeah, sounds good." he smiled a bit, leaning back in his seat and taking a sip from a sippy cup he had on his desk. 

"Now we just have to wait for George to join the call and we can get started. Do you already have your recording going?" Dream questioned gently. They were so soft with him, that in itself made him wanna get caught up in the game and slip into littlespace. 

He hadn't in a few days, he suddenly realized. It was probably closer to a week, honestly. Everyone was so caught up in, well, everything. The upcoming trip, FruitKid Co., figuring out how Lemon was just gonna exist in the UK, it was easy for something like that to slip past their minds. No doubt that Tubbo would realize he hadn't mentioned regressing or dreaming in a hot second sometime soon and question him about it. 

"No, but I'll get it running now!" the boy replied, clicking through his computer monitor to get the program up and running. His recording started just as George entered the call, apologizing and greeting him before Dream did the intro for the video and they jumped right into it. It wasn't that different from last time, except Ranboo didn't regress as far back. 

He was probably at about eleven years old mentally by the time they were chasing Dream up a mountain in a desert biome. "WAIT NO! WHAT THE HELL?" the man sounded frustrated as he was running out of escapes. "AHA! YOU LOSERS!" he shouted, a moment later, completely disappearing from their view after a few seconds. 

"He had an invisibility potion!" George realized, "It should run out soon, we just need to keep a look out." 

Newsflash, they lost him completely by the time the potion ran out. Lemon found him after a whole fifteen minutes. "He's mining, he's mining!" he shouted, shooting arrows as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough, apparently. The man's avatar disappeared into a cave that was just there before he could die. 

"You shouldn't come after me, the drop almost killed me." Dream warned with a laugh, right as Ranboo was jumping into the cave, nearly killing himself as he did so. 

"You could've said that, like, two seconds faster," he sounded annoyed, like an angsty pre-emo tween, which did add up. 

"I'm sorry, let me give you manhunt-winning advice just a little quicker," he mocked him playfully. 

"Please do!" Sapnap cut into their banter, dropping into the cave from above with a water bucket trick to not experience the near-death incidents the other two did. George dropped down next, except he did die. 

Everyone broke out into laughter from that. Ranboo was sure it'd be a funny clip, too. 

The manhunt went on longer then the last one did, with a lot of close calls and "OH MY GOD! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME, LEM!"-s. The boy's favorite one was in the nether, where he knocked Dream into the lava pool from a high-up place and he landed on a block they placed earlier, surviving with just one heart. 

The man did kill all three of them after that, giving himself a huge head start, but it was pretty funny. 

Eventually, Dream won the manhunt with just two hearts left, another close-call win that'd surely be entertaining and suspenseful for all the viewers. They wrapped up the recording with an agreement to eventually do a tie breaker game to really 'prove who's the best'. 

But Ranboo had a feeling they'd be doing rematches for quite a while. The competition was just to fun to pass up. 

-- 

"Y'know, I keep thinking about revealing my regression, like on Twitch and stuff." 

It was during a Discord call between Wilbur and Ranboo that the former admitted a crazy little idea he had. Ranboo looked away from his monitor with the Google Doc organizing his pre-recorded videos and to the one with Discord running on it, thrown off by the sudden energy shift of the previously calm call. 

"Oh, please don't act like you haven't even thought about it! I mean, it must be harder for you to keep your regression a secret, considering you have an entire online identity based around it." the brunette defended. 

"I have thought about it, but it's so risky- terrifying, even." the teenager spoke as if the man was crazy for even considering. 

"But imagine how it'd feel not to keep the secret anymore!" Wilbur pushed, "I don't know, since you made Lemon and he got popular-" 

"It's so weird that you guys think of Lemon as a different person. He's me, you know that." Ranboo felt a little bad for cutting him off, but he felt the need to point it out. 

"He's the version of you that isn't terrified of being open about regression, I find that hard to associate with you," he admitted. "I was just saying, our community, the online one made up of minecraft-obsessed teenagers, they're more accepting of age regression and such now. I think revealing now that you've set the groundwork for it wouldn't be so terrible or terrifying." 

Ranboo took a second to process his words, realizing that he wasn't wrong. It wouldn't go over perfectly, sure, and there'd be some negative effects- but he, they, could do it. In just two and a half months, his impression on their community, maybe even the internet as a whole, was obvious. Age regression wasn't completely normalized, but progress had definitely been made. 

The idea of two well known twitch streamers openly talking about the topic wasn't as crazy as it once was. 

"I don't know, it's just an idea." Wilbur spoke up again. "With the chaos of the trip and trying to keep the secret of Lemon through all that, it'd be another big thing to add to the pile. I just thought I'd tell you I was thinking about doing it before I make a decision, I guess." 

"Yeah, thanks." the boy hummed, "I'll eventually have to figure out how and when I'll reveal all this, so keep me in the loop if you have any big ideas, okay?"

"Of course," he smiled. His words made Ranboo think, a lot, but he pushed those thoughts away as much as possible. The brunette was right, there was to much going on to even consider making a plan that crazy. The whole lie they built to explain the change of Lemon's location hadn't even been attempted yet, it felt like they could only handle one crazy idea in progress at a time. 

Plus, this whole double identity thing was a bit fun, and he'd only been going at it for two and a half months. If (and that was a big if) he did this, he needed more time. A lot more time. So the idea was off the table, at least for now. 

However, the concept wasn't erased from the world of 'eventually'. 

--

"Are you excited for tomorrow, kiddo?" Ranboo's dad was the first to bring up the following day at the dinner table. "I mean, you're going to another country and meeting all your friends, that's exciting, isn't it?" 

"Yes, I'm very excited." the boy laughed a bit as he took a sip of his water. His mom sat a plate of spaghetti in front of him before taking her usual seat next to his dead. "I just have one early morning and a ten hour flight and then I'll be with my best friend in the world, of course I'm excited." 

"Do you have all you regression stuff packed up? Is Micheal in your bag? And what about your favorite pacifier-" His mom began to ask, sounding a bit worried, only to be cut of by the boy. 

"Mom!" he whined, his face a bit pink as he took in a deep breath before explaining, "I have everything that really matters in a bag. You'll ship the rest over whenever." 

"Well, if you left something important here, I don't wanna hear five-year-old you crying about it over the phone." she joked, making her son smile a bit. 

"Okay, okay, whatever." he rolled his eyes a bit. "I'll be fine."

"Will you, though? Are you sure you're gonna be comfortable being small with them?" his dad asked gently, 

"I think so." the teenager replied, picking at his food, "It'll really just be Tubbo at first, and some of my other friends if I want. I trust them, though. I think I'll be okay." 

"Alright, we're just checking." his dad shot a comforting smile at him, "I think it'll be good for you to open up with some other friends, you seem to be doing so well just online with everyone." 

Ranboo wanted to be annoyed by their 'you need to open up, it's unhealthy to keep this all to to yourself' mental health lectures, but honestly, he appreciated it. He was gonna be leaving for a few months and he was happy that he was being sent off with care, concern, and love from his parents. 

It made him feel safe, knowing that they were looking out for him even when he'd be halfway across the world for a while. 

After dinner, he double and triple checked that his alarms where set before taking a shower and going to his computer room. He finished up editing one of his pre-recorded videos and made sure he had all the footage for the others saved to his account, then checking that his tweet as to "why he wouldn't be streaming" (some lame story about 'needing a break as he prepared for his next big thing') was queued up to be posted to his lemon.kid twitter account the next morning. 

Once all that was done, he headed to bed and hope for the best, holding his build-a-bear from Techno in his arms for good luck. This all felt insane, and it was happening the next day. He was struggling to wrap his head around it and right now, he just needed to sleep. He tried his best to drift off into a comfortable dream land as all the thoughts as to what was to come faded into the background. 

Tomorrow morning, he'd get on a plane to go meet his friends. 

Tomorrow morning, his life would be set on a complicated path that'd change everything. 

There was a lot of questions to be asked about his life, about the fate of Lemon and how everything would work out in the end. And even though nobody knew it yet, all those questions would be answered while he was with the people he cared about. 

His double identity would be questioned and tested even more so once he got to England. Everything would change. Questions would be asked and answered. Challenges would present themselves. Friendships would strengthen. 

Secrets would be revealed. 

Ranboo was one early morning and a ten hour flight away from the trip that would change his life forever. 

Chapter Text

The plan was going smoothly, somehow. 

Everything was going great so far and none of them really knew how they were doing so good with their crazy little idea. Seriously, most of Ranboo's stuff was moved into their newly built part of the house, and most of the regression stuff was being organized into the guest room turned playroom/recording room for his super-secret-second-identity as it was shipped over. 

They were able to stretch the pre-recorded videos for a solid few weeks while he focused on settling in, getting his temporary playroom set up, and creating content as Ranboo. Oh, and having a lot of fun. He even took his first actual break in a while, where he stopped basically everything for a minute to just have fun with his friends. 

When he announced that Lemon 'moved into a recording office', the reactions to the new set up were nice. It was spaced out just enough from his arrival to the UK as Ranboo, and people genuinely seemed to think he was still in America for now, which actually helped to slow down the rumors a little. There was a small, mostly joke-based theory going around that they were siblings, but everyone decided to ignore that for now because they had to much to deal with already. 

He liked the new playroom set up, as well. He missed his big windows and his craft table from home, but he didn't mind switching them out for the colorful decorations Lani tracked down for him as a welcome present. The room wasn't to cramped, either. 

He had an actual bed, not just a mattress on the floor, pushed into the corner of the room, covered in soft animated duck-covered bedsheets that definitely belonged to Tubbo when he was a kid sleeping in a bed way to big for him. Next to the bed, he had a little nightstand where he could sit a sippy cup and a nightlight Tubbo insisted he could have, with a drawer that held his favorite pacifiers and pacifier clips. 

He had a closet for all his littlespace clothes, that also held some of his lesser used gear, like his pull ups and the baby toys. Under the bed, there were tubs for his sippy cups and bottles, the rest of his pacifiers, and his favorite toys and craft supplies from home. Then, he had a second computer set up, specifically to record videos as Lemon, in another corner of the room. And finally, a toybox to hold everything else. The rest of the floor space was for him to play, Tubbo had told him. 

Having carpeted floors in his playroom was a little scary, it'd be harder to clean up if he made a mess. Oh, and he didn't have a bathroom connected to the room, which he hoped wouldn't cause any issues. Sometimes he'd struggle to realize when he had to go to the bathroom when he was small until he had like, two seconds to get to one. He didn't tell his friend about this though, there was one right across the hall!

He was sure he'd be okay, it was just a scary adjustment to make. 

It was a different environment, definitely, but he liked it. Mostly because he had Tubbo there to play with him, but still. 

They had done a stream earlier that day, and Ranboo had yet to regress since he got off that plane a few weeks beforehand, so the caregiver-type figure he made of Tubbo pushed him to be small, but only if he was okay with it. The boy figured he should voluntarily do it soon before he slipped when he didn't want to, he hadn't really done anything littlespace related since the manhunt video recording a bit before his flight. 

By the way, that video was uploaded a few days ago, it was trending everywhere and their fans loved it. Ranboo figured they would, but it was still nice to see the adoration play out. Right now, though, he wasn't supposed to be worrying about any of that. 

Tubbo wanted him to take a break. 

"Wilbur and Tommy are on their way, they'll be here any minute!" he announced as he entered the boy's playroom. The tall brunette was dressed in a simple outfit- one Tubbo helped him pick earlier that morning- a t-shirt and overalls. Ranboo had spent the day, thus far, in an odd headspace between big and small. As if he was almost there, as if he wanted to be little- but something was holding him back. 

It was probably just nervousness, which made plenty of sense. He's never regressed in person with anyone besides his parents. It was exciting, of course, he'd get to play with three of his friends! But it was terrifying too, and he was scared. 

"I know," the boy smiled, hugging his Micheal plush in his arms as his friend came to sit on the bed next to him. "I'm excited." he added.

Wilbur and Ranboo were meant to have a playdate today. Tommy was coming to help supervise and to just hangout for a few days, acting as a temporary caregiver as Wilbur's actual caregiver, Phil, didn't know about this. Ranboo tried not to get caught up on the fact that him not just telling Phil about his regression made this whole thing a bit harder. 

Apparently, Wilbur was revealing his own regression to more of their friends. Ranboo didn't understand how he could be so comfortable doing that, not caring what people think and everything. He was literally famous for being a little and the idea of telling the people closest to him straight up, without the protection the Lemon persona came with, was terrifying. 

"I'm glad you're looking forward to it, baby. Do you know what you wanna do once Wilbur gets here?" Tubbo was trying to encourage him to talk about childish things, regression activities he wanted to take part in. He could tell that his friend was genuinely excited, but he also felt the nervous energy coming off of him, something that was holding him back a little. 

The little shrugged a bit, bouncing his leg on the floor below him as he thought. "I don't know," he replied after a bit, his voice sounding like it did when he was big. Tubbo hesitated before speaking, 

"Is something stopping you from regressing, boo?" he asked, rather carefully. Ranboo sighed, biting at his lip before nodding a bit. "Can you tell me what's up?" 

"What if-" he cut himself off, trying to form his words in his mouth. 

"What if...?" Tubbo repeated his words back to him in a questioning tone, looking at him with nothing but care and concern in his eyes. 

"I don't know," Ranboo stumbled over his words a little, before trying again. "What if I'm too much? Like, online there's a bunch of stuff you don't see- things you don't have to deal with because it's the internet and you can only do so much. What if I'm more annoying or loud or something?" 

He spat out his words quickly, as if this would be his only chance to utter them, sounding nervous as he did so. The shorter frowned, a look of worried realization hitting his face as he looked at his friend. 

"Ranboo, you'll never be too much for me. I promise." he began, "I care about you so much, and I'm perfectly prepared to deal with whatever you throw at me while you're small. Kids are loud and annoying sometimes but I know that," this got Ranboo to giggle before Tubbo kept going in his comforting and reassuring tone, 

"The point of regression is to let you be those things in a safe place. Neither me or anyone worth your time will get fed up or upset with you for just being a kid, I swear." 

"Really?" based off of the way his voice got just a little smaller, just a bit more childlike, Tubbo had a feeling his words made an impact. 

"Of course, sweet thing." Tubbo smiled at him, "I wouldn't lie to you, right?" 

"No," he seemed a little hesitant to believe him, but he gave in. "Can I hug you?" he asked after a moment. 

"Sure thing," the caregiver-esque figure smiled, pulling him into a gentle embrace. Ranboo felt quite...soft, or something in this moment.

Small? Well, yes, but that's not what he was trying to describe.

Safe.

That's the word he was looking for.

After a few moments, Ranboo pulled away from the hug and looked up at his friend. He looked like he wanted to say something, but what he wanted to say was something he didn't know how to put into words. Instead, he reached up and poked him in the face, laughing after he did so. 

"You're a weird kid, boo," Tubbo said. Before either of them could say anything else, they heard the doorbell ring. Ranboo gasped, 

"Is it them?" he sounded very excited, bouncing in place on the bed, huge smile on his face. He was still a little nervous, a bit shy, but now he was more excited than anything. 

"Probably. Wait here and pick out some toys you wanna show Wilbs, okay?" Tubbo ordered gently, 

"I wanna come answer the door with you, though," Ranboo pouted. 

"I'm gonna bring Wilbur straight here unless he needs something, you'll be fine," the short brunette ruffled his hair and stood up going to the door. Ranboo dramatically sighed but didn't fight it any further, going towards the toybox to pull a few things out. 

He had a feeling that'd this be a fun day. 

--

It was very fun. 

Somehow, they ended up moving from the playroom to the living room in their part of the house, pulling toys and craft supplies out. Tommy and Tubbo watched form the couch unless the boys actively tied them into whatever they were doing. 

Ranboo ended up a bit smaller than Wilbur, a little less than 2, maybe. The later boy was around five, while was apparently his regular regression age, according to Tommy. The other was younger than usual, and no one really knew why. Tubbo could only conclude that it was due to the unusual circumstances, the way he felt more protected because he had people there who promised they'd watch over him, and the way that that feeling was terrifying because he wasn't quite used to it. 

Wilbur and Ranboo had been playing on their own for a while after having a snack when the younger of the two cried out, more whiny than anything. Immediately, Tubbo cut Tommy off to jump off of the couch and go over to where he was. "What's wrong, boo?" he crouched down next to where he was sitting, criss-cross applesauce. 

The little pouted, looking to the toy he was trying to figure out, a cube with differently shaped holes in it and pegs for each shape. "He cant find the star hole," Wilbur explained, sounding amused but also a bit worried because his friend was upset. "I tried to help him but he got all whiny when I touched the toy!" 

Tubbo chuckled, "Baby, if you want help you gotta let us try. That's how helping each other works." 

Ranboo pouted a bit more, looking more confused now. "'is mine," he shook his head, sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth as he tried to, once again, shove the star into the circle hole. Tubbo sighed,

"You really are just a baby, huh?" he teased, kissing the side of his head gently. He didn't even react to the affection, or his words, focused on getting this right. 

"Is he gonna be okay?" the other little asked, "I don't want him to be sad." 

"Yeah, he will be. He's just very small and is gonna get a bit frustrated over little things, you didn't do anything wrong." Tubbo assured. He looked back to Ranboo, "How about we try a shape on another side?" he tried, speaking gently. 

The smaller regressor looked up at him for a moment before deciding to try it, clumsily flipping the cube to another side. He gasped, dropping the peg through the now-visible star hole. He clapped his hands and laughed. "I did it!" he cheered childishly.

"You did do it, sweetheart." Tubbo stood up all the way, ruffling his hair gently. "Thanks for trying to help him, Wilbur." he added, addressing the other boy. The brunette smiled and nodded, happy to receive the praise. 

After that, they went back to playing, the older of the two leading the games. Patty cake, peek-a-boo, anything and everything else a two year old would find amusement in. Wilbur liked making him laugh and smile, naturally acting as a fun older brother figure, just like when he was big. 

Wilbur got bored when Ranboo got caught up in some cartoon 'for babies' on his tablet and tried to get Just Dance running on the tv, when the smaller of the two came toddling over, pulling on his shirt and asking (in an ever-so-small voice, primarily consisting of near-babbles) if he could play too. It was such a cute sight to watch, the two boys dancing, Ranboo all clumsy but trying his absolute best. 

Of course, it ended in Ranboo somehow winning and Wilbur pushing him. Ranboo wasn't hurt or anything, simply falling onto his butt on the carpet, giggling a moment after he got over the shock of landing, but that wasn't really the point. 

While Tommy talked to Wilbur for that whole incident, Tubbo figured it was time to get 'the baby' ready for bed, helping him pick out pajamas and making him angel milk while he got dressed. 

"Bee!" the boy came running out into the kitchen, all dressed up in his dinosaur onesie, pacifier in his mouth and everything. "Hello!" his voice was still babyish, but he was talking a little more, so Tubbo figured he was just a little older. Tubbo chuckled at his antics, leaning into the hug-from-behind the regressor trapped him into. 

"Boo!" he replied, shaking up his mostly cooled off angel milk. "We're all gonna sleep in our part of the house because your playroom is to small for everyone. If you want your nightlight or anything, you should grab it now, okay?" 

"Mkay," he replied, letting go of him to go back to the playroom. 

"Wait, your milk is done! Do you want it now or when you're comfy in bed?" he called after him before he could exit the room. 

"Mm," he hummed, "In bed!" he decided. 

It wasn't until half an hour later that both boys were calmed down and where they were supposed to be, both of them buried under blankets and sipping from their own cups as they drifted off to sleep. Wilbur was a little teary-eyed when he was done talking to Tommy and as he apologized to the younger boy, but he was fine after Ranboo (who was in a very affectionate mood today) offered him a 'big hug!'. 

The two non-littles were able to drift to sleep as well once they knew the boys were safe and in bed for the night, wrapping up Ranboo's first ever playdate. 

He could definitely say that he had a good time. 

--

By the time everyone was up in the morning, it was nearly noon. It seemed that the playdate tired out everyone. Ranboo had a cup of coffee and excused himself to take a shower and get into real clothes, while everyone else ate breakfast around the kitchen counter. 

"I'm sorry I was a bit of a brat yesterday," Wilbur apologized sheepishly, stirring his cereal before taking a bite. 

"Shh, you were fine. You were trying to be helpful most of the day, and Ranboo had a lot of fun." Tubbo assured. The brunette smiled, appreciating the fact that no one was upset with him.He didn't get to reply, though, because this group has a habit of interrupting each other. 

"How are you so good at taking care of Ranboo?" Tommy blurted out, earning a confused look from the other two. "I mean, you always know exactly what to do and say in response to basically anything he does. You know exactly what he needs when he whines or pouts, you make sure he's as comfortable as he can be at any given point and you rarely mess that up. I don't know, you're almost at the same level as Phil is and he's a lot older and more experienced." 

"He's not wrong," the oldest of them cut in before Tubbo could reply. "You make him very happy, I think. He's very comfortable with you and you can tell, anytime he didn't know how to communicate something to me, he called you over for help. Has he asked you to be his caregiver, or something? Because you're very good at it." 

"Uh, no, he hasn't. I just like making sure he's doing okay, I guess, it's been that way even before I knew about his regression. We've never like, talked about it, or anything." the teenager shrugged, biting at his lip. They never actually addressed the way the shorter of the two took care of the other and functionally acted as a caregiver without the label.

Maybe it was because they didn't feel like they had to.

It was just a basic, unspoken thing that was sort of just there. Whenever Ranboo needed it, and Tubbo could always tell when he did, he stepped in to help. Whether that was listening to him, giving him advice, or guiding him through self care because sometimes it was hard to push through, he was there for it. 

And when he was small, he did that and so much more. He played with him, he guided him to certain choices and gave him small tasks to do that'd be beneficial to him in the long run, he praised him and made sure he was doing okay. 

He acted like a caregiver. 

Tubbo liked to think that he knew that, somewhere in the back of his head, that he wasn't just realizing it because his friends were pointing it out. That part didn't really matter though, what mattered was that he was thinking about it now. Questioning this unspoken thing and realizing how much he liked the idea of playing that role for his friend. 

Maybe, just maybe, he'd think about actually talking to him about this. 

He just hoped Ranboo wanted the same thing. 

--

Wilbur left a bit later that day, and Tommy found his way home a couple days later. Between all the streams and video recordings and coloring sessions, Tubbo had somehow managed to find enough spare time to think things through. He didn't think it'd change much of anything, but he wanted to Ranboo's caregiver- like, officially. 

He wanted the title if his friend would give it to him, because that title meant something to him. It meant that Ranboo trusted him to protect him and make him feel safe, whenever he needed it. It meant that he could help decide what was best for the boy when he made decisions that made no logical sense and would only lead to problems for himself in the future. It meant that he was willing to open such a vulnerable part of himself to him. 

It meant more than he realized, but now he was sure of it. 

Tubbo wanted to be Ranboo's caregiver, if he'd have him. 

"Ranboo, do you want the rest of my sandwich?" he called out through his part of the house from their little kitchen, a bit confused when he didn't get a response. "Oh..." he realized out loud, trailing off as he stood up from the stool and went through the door that'd lead him to the main part of the house. He made a bee-line for the playroom and knocked on the door. 

"Yes?" he heard his friend's voice on the other side, clearly not little. 

He opened the door, "You plan on regressing soon?" he asked as he came in, sandwich still in hand. The brunette shrugged, wordlessly taking the half meal his friend held out to him. 

"I finished everything I wanted to get done today a bit ago, I edited a bunch of stuff for Lemon and just kinda collapsed on the bed when I was done." he laughed a bit, patting the space next to him because he liked being physically close to the people he cared about. Tubbo found himself climbing onto the bed to sit next to his friend. 

"This bed is quite comfy," he sighed, settling onto the mattress, looking at his friend as he took a bite out of the sandwich he supplied. "If you regress, is today a 'play together' sorta day, or would you rather be by yourself?" 

Ranboo cared about Tubbo a lot, but just like with his parents and anyone else, there were some days where he just wanted to be completely on his own. However, Tubbo was starting to be an exception to that rule. 

"Hmm," the teenager hummed, "Is 'cuddle together' an option? I'm a bit sleepy for playtime." he admitted. 

"Of course it is, sweetheart." 

"'Sweetheart'." Ranboo repeated, laughing a bit. "When did you start using all these pet names for me? I swear it just kinda, faded into existence at some point and I never questioned it." 

Tubbo shrugged, "That's basically what happened, I guess. Do you not like the nicknames?" 

"No, no, they're fine." he assured, "I like them a lot when I'm little, actually, it feels nice." 

"Okay, good," he sounded relieved. He thought for a moment as Ranboo took another bite from the sandwich, the two of them basking in comfortable silence. "I've been thinking about something recently." he announced, biting at his lip. He felt nervous, he didn't wanna make the boy uncomfortable or anything else- all he could do was hope that he wanted this too. 

"Yeah?" Ranboo shifted to face him a bit, smiling at him softly. 

"You've got peanut butter on your face, silly," Tubbo got distracted from what he was gonna say, fussing over him like a parent would to their child. He pointed on his own face to demonstrate where it was, watching as his friend made a fool of himself attempting to get it off. They laughed together once he finally got it. 

"Okay, okay, what have you been thinking about?" Ranboo questioned as they calmed down a bit. 

"Oh, um.." Tubbo snapped out of his laughter, taking a deep breath. "Okay, so you know how since you've told me about all this," he motioned to the room around them, and the boy seemed to realize that this was more serious, at least to his friend. "I've been like, taking care of you, and stuff? Checking on you, helping with things?" 

"Of course, it means a lot." Ranboo seemed a bit anxious now, worried something was wrong- that he was gonna say that he didn't wanna do all that anymore. "Have I done something to make you uncomfortable?" 

"No, you haven't done anything wrong. I was just thinking-" Tubbo paused, "I'm basically doing what a caregiver does for a little, right?" 

He spoke ever so carefully, so hesitant and cautious, as if he was afraid that a single word could make this go wrong. "Yeah..." Ranboo still seemed confused, wondering where he was going with this, though it should've been obvious to him. 

"You can obviously say no, and we can forget about this, but I was wondering..." One last dramatic pause, a final deep breath before he just spat it out already. It shouldn't be so hard to ask about this unspoken, basic thing that honestly already existed between them. This thing that was there, but left unlabeled. 

But it was. They trusted each other, though, so Tubbo pushed through with his simple question. 

"I was wondering if you'd want me to be your caregiver?" 

Chapter Text

"Tubbo!" 

Ranboo shouted unnecessarily loud despite the fact that Tubbo was just a room away, his voice childish and frustrated. Tubbo sighed, sounding a bit amused as he stood up and stretched before making his way into their little kitchen. 

It's been a few weeks since Ranboo agreed to have Tubbo be his caregiver, and as they predicted, not much really changed. Instead, it just sort of shifted into something more solidified. It was like Ranboo trusted Tubbo wouldn't judge him or leave just a little more, since there was a title on it now. He was more open and vulnerable, and it was nice and sometimes presented new things to deal with, but it wasn't that different. 

It was like this is how they were always meant to be in the first place. 

Plus, they were discovering a lot of little things now. For example, the short brunette now knew that his friend could be a little dramatic at points, acting as if it was the end of the world if something didn't work out after just a try or two. 

"You do know that I'm like, ten feet away when I'm on my computer and you're in here, right?" he started talking before he really took in the sight of what was happening. The regressor had slightly teary eyes, his shirt streaked and soaked with juice and a puddle of said drink on the counter caught the caregiver's eye. Immediately, Tubbo snapped into his signature 'poor baby' mode. 

"Oh no! What happened here?" he came around the counter to get a better look. He knew babying him so much over tiny things was probably annoying sometimes, but it seemed to help validate his emotions. If Ranboo was upset about spilt juice, Tubbo would act upset too, before comforting him and helping him clean it up. 

The boy sniffled, "I tried to drink out of a normal cup n' got juice everywhere!" he admitted, pointing to the plastic cup in the sink. 

"Awe, I think you gotta be just a bit bigger for that, darling." the brunette told him, going to grab a paper towel. 

"Then, I tried filling up a sippy cup instead and I spilt it on the counter." he admitted. He was talking in a slightly childlike voice, but he was pronouncing everything correctly, he was probably around 7 and just having a really hard time. "I'm sorry." 

"Don't be sorry, it was just an accident. Let's wipe up all the juice, then I'll fill your sippy cup, and then we can find you a hoodie or something. Does that sound like a plan?" 

Ranboo nodded, thankful for the help. Tubbo handed him the paper towels and let him do it himself, only helping if he had trouble. They've been through this before, so the little knew cleaning up his own messes wasn't a punishment, just something he was supposed to do because leaving messes for others wasn't nice. Once he was done, Tubbo filled up the cup, handed it to him, and put the juice away. 

"Next time, try asking for help, okay? I promise that no matter what I'm doing, I won't get mad at you for needing something. And I'll usually be able to jump up and help." he told him gently, giving him a gentle smile. Tubbo had a feeling that he was probably in a more sensitive mood today, he had probably been dealing with things like this all morning and he didn't notice because Ranboo had a habit of sticking to his playroom unless he really wanted to play or really needed attention for whatever reason. 

The taller boy nodded in response to his heartfelt words, not verbally replying. "Let's find you a clean shirt, sweetheart." Tubbo held out his hand, and the mentally younger of the two took it, toddling after him just a little bit clumsily. They got him a still-warm hoodie, straight from the dryer, after searching for a little while. 

"Are you ready for the stream? It's in an hour or so," Tubbo pointed out once they settled down in the living room. Ranboo nodded, seemingly doing a bit better than before. 

They had a Lemon stream in a bit, where the little would play some kid's game and talk to his caregiver while hopefully not revealing that he was such. They were worried that it would cause confusion and suspicion if they did so, but the internet loved the dynamic between Lemon and Tubbo so they were taking the risk anyways. 

Maybe it wasn't the smartest of plans, but it'd be riskier if they just stopped talking publicly, right? 

"Mhm! I'm gonna try and not be too small during the stream," he admitted, fiddling with a fidget he picked up somewhere between the laundry room and here. 

"Don't force yourself to be bigger than you need to, though." Tubbo told him. 

"Yeahhh," he held out his words, a bit of a whine to his tone. "I'm gonna go double check that the game works, I think." he dropped the toy and climbed up, sounding like a bored preteen (which was possible, he fluctuated ages a lot).  

"Okay, darling. Just message me when you want me to join the Discord call, yeah?" 

"I will!" 

--

Right on time, the stream got up and running. By the time it began, and the starting soon screen ended, Ranboo was half-ten half-seventeen, but he figured he'd regress more deeply once the stream got up and running and he got more comfortable as he settled in. 

Of course, he was right, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing here. 

Anyways, as they settled in, her interacted with chat. He talked about how happy he was seeing everyone receive their FruitKid.Co orders, he rambled about his slowly forming lore on the SMP, he fed the chat lies about how 'comfy his recording office was', as if it wasn't a spare bedroom inside his best friend's house in the U.K. 

He was starting to think more about how he wasn't gonna be able to lie his way around the secret identity thing forever, or about how he's either gonna have to choose to reveal himself or wait until the day that someday, something clicks and everyone just knows. He'd deal with that when it came to it, or when he was ready to do something about it himself. 

He just hoped he'd feel ready before the world put it together. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt like he'd have to reveal himself soon with how quickly things were changing, with how much he accidentally revealed pieces of information or slipped up publicly. 

Only time could tell who'd win the game between mistakes and decisions. 

Eventually, he got the game booted up and Tubbo in the call. The game involved a child running through this fantasy land and solving puzzles to unlock magical doors, gates, locks, boxes, whatever, in order to gather objects that when put together will save the world. It was a simple story, but it was fun, and perfect for a kid-regressor looking for fun. 

It when well for a while, honestly, but problems arose about halfway through the game. This is when Ranboo started to get frustrated with one of the harder puzzles, nearly cursing as he claimed that he was gonna give up. 

"Baby, just take a breath, okay?" Tubbo knew he sounded too much like a caring and gentle father, but he didn't really care in the moment. In fact, if he wasn't doing everything to stop himself, he would've made the short trip across the house to give him a hug and help him through it. 

He was a kid, and kids were bound to get frustrated over little things. A dumb game that was a little too hard could made him feel stupid, just like that, and the brunette really wanted to help. He did it in the way he could without absolutely throwing off the lie they've crafted since Ranboo got there, offering words of comfort in a voice that was distinctly caregivery. 

"It's hard," the little whined, "I don't know how to do it. Chat, help me cheat, tell me the answer!" 

"No," Tubbo corrected, making the little snap his eyes away from the chat. He wasn't too harsh, but the tone was new to the little's ears. "You can do it yourself, sweetheart, I'm sure of it. We don't just throw our hands up and cheat when we can't figure something out right away." 

Even chat picked up on his slightly stern, 'there's a lesson to learn from this' energy, watching from thousands of screens as Ranboo processed these words and sat up a bit before throwing himself back into the game. Now the boy wanted to solve it just to prove him right, just to earn his approval and show that he wasn't gonna give up like he had planned too. 

And so, the boy tried again, and again, and- he got it! 

He cheered, smiling at whatever compliment and praise Tubbo gave him, chat spamming positive messages in response to the whole thing. In the moment, to the two boys, this situation felt a little off and different, Tubbo's never really corrected him like that before, but it wasn't anything revolutionary.

It was actually nice for Ranboo to see that Tubbo could be stern with him without him completely breaking down because he was anxious. He just self corrected his behavior and it was done and fixed. He didn't even need to apologize. It was nice, but it wasn't a big deal. 

But to all the people watching, to twitter and everyone else? This was huge. 

Twitter Search: #cgtubboconspiracy

kandi | @cottoncandytoddles

the way lemon just,,,listened? just like that? #cgtubboconspiracy

justin! | @kidinspace replying to @cottoncandytoddles

literally! 

big cg vibes ngl, it's sweet

bee baby | @beesandlemons

wait so how close are tubbo and lemon? like ik they were friends but!? #cgtubboconspiracy

tyson | @teainmysugar 

does ranboo know about any of this?? #cgtubboconspiracy (and also sorta #lemonisranbootheory)

After that stream ended and they realized what was going on, Ranboo ended up big and kind of panicky. Just like any other time there was a slip up like that, they got the entire crew on a discord call, Tommy, Techno, and Wilbur on the other ends.

"You could just ignore it, and claim that Tubbo was being a good friend." Tommy suggested.

"They know how Tubbo usually is though, he'd usually advocate for cheating in literally any other situation." Techno reminded. "You either ignore it until you can't or just come out and say he's your caregiver." 

"But people will ask why we kept it a secret in the first place." Ranboo pointed out, sounding distraught as he doomscrolled through his phone for live updates on what people were saying. 

For a while, the theory that his two identities were one in the same was barely talked about, most people asking about the 'feud' between them because of all the stunt they had been pulling semi-consistently...before the U.K, Ranboo realized. They all sort of forgot to keep that distraction act up, so the fans got bored and started over analyzing the non-bait again. 

Once again, both theories were being talked about, the situation being stretched to fit either one depending on what people wanted. 

"They are now asking how close me and Lemon are, some people are using this as proof for the Lemon is Ranboo theory with the logic that I'm really close to Ranboo and that somehow means that me being Lemon's caregiver when we're 'not close' means he's Boo? It's really weird but people are talking about it," Tubbo backed him up, rubbing his shoulder gently. He felt the urge to tell him to get off twitter and social media in general, because most of his anxieties surrounding this whole situation sprouted from what people said there. 

"Make up some story about how you just clicked with Lemon and just didn't tell everyone because it's new and special to you. Which isn't completely a lie?" Wilbur tried next, earning a nod from Tubbo. 

"And then we have to work on a way to reinforce the idea that you guys are two different people who quote-unquote, 'don't like each other', more then the rivalry bait." Tommy cut in again, "Something like your first Dream SMP stream, where both of your accounts were on at the same time, visible evidence to prove coexistence backed up by the fake rivalry thing." 

"You're right, Tommy. I think I have an idea," Techno said. Everyone listened in as he explained his concept. 

It was simple in theory, but it'd be complicated to create. It'd do it's job, though, if they pulled it off right. 

The idea was a heavily, edited and scripted youtube video, for Lemon's channel. Someone would log into the Ranboo account and the boy himself would play as Lemon, neither of the players talking as they went through Lemon's usual minecraft world, following a simple script that'd include a basic 'mining and building a house' concept. 

Then, they'd script dialogue that would make sense, have the boy record voice clips for both of them, including insults and such, and it'd hopefully blend together well enough for them to publish a video of them 'playing minecraft together'. If they went about it right, it'd disprove the theory even though it was correct, and it'd paint the rivalry in a bit more of a playful light. 

It could solve everything! 

If they pulled it off, that is. 

--

Tubbo went to twitter and confirmed the caregiver conspiracy, and they all set to work on making the 'Ranboo and Lemon' collab video. Of course, everything was still chaos, but at least they had a plan on how to deal with it. 

The theories and conspiracy situation wildfire spread to tiktok and tumblr, and more people were criticizing the idea that Ranboo could be Lemon, that he could be like him at all. That Ranboo could be a little. And of course, the boy scrolling through posts upon retweets upon replies and reblogs saying these negative things didn't help his self esteem. 

Whenever he wasn't actively streaming or working on a video, he was scrolling through his phone or computer or even tablet, biting on his lip and sulking a bit, taking what everyone said much too seriously as if their opinion mattered. Tubbo was genuinely really worried.

"Okay, baby, I think that maybe you should get off of your phone." He knew the boy wasn't little, but he used his cg-voice anyways, sitting next to him and holding out his hand. 

"You can't take away my phone. I'm not little and you don't have the power anyways," Ranboo brushed him off, continuing to scroll, switching to another tag used to talk about him. 

"Ranboo," Tubbo insisted. "You're stressing yourself out, there's no point in reading every single thing anyone posts about you, it's unhealthy." 

"I'm just trying to stay caught up, so that we know how to deal with what they're-" 

"We already came up with coming that'll cut the problem at it's root, every detail past that doesn't matter. And if it does, me or someone else in the group will make sure you know about it," he told him. "Just take a break, okay?" 

Ranboo finally looked up, frowning. He hit the power button and hesitantly handed it over. Logically, he knew that the other boy wouldn't put it anywhere he couldn't find it, and that he could just take it back at any given point, but it was more about being willing to step away from it. 

He fidgeted with his hands, "I'm sorry." he said after a moment. 

"You don't have to be, I know you're just curious but if you care that much, you're only gonna get hurt. Until the video goes up, can we try to avoid what people are saying?" Tubbo asked, earning a nod. "Go get your tablet, it doesn't have any social media on it. Play a game, or what a cartoon, yeah?" 

"Mkay," Ranboo agreed, taking the silent permission to either just relax or regress. "Can we watch something together, actually?" he asked, before getting up. 

"Of course," the other boy confirmed with a smile, ruffling his hair before he could get away to get the tablet. Ranboo giggled as he left the room, whining about him messing up his head even though he had perpetual bedhead anyways. The two friends were so perfectly domestic when they got to live together, it was honestly kind of funny to see how quickly they settled into the new situation when the boy had gotten there from America. 

They just wanted to be happy, and have their online content creation careers without all these extra problems and drama that made things so messy. Of course, they kind of trapped themselves in this mess, but it was still annoying nonetheless. 

Tubbo really hoped that this video really would solve everything, that it would make every complication that existed because of Ranboo's secondary online identity disappear, just like that. He knew it didn't quite work that way, but he wanted to hope. 

He wanted to believe that this would just stop everything, because he cared about Ranboo and he hated seeing him so stressed out.

Editing wasn't magic, though, was it?

--

"So the general reaction seems to be what we wanted!" Tommy announced in their next little meeting. "People are viewing the rivalry as a more intentional, playful thing, and the scripting for the video and line delivery convinced people it was really recorded in real time, and that Lemon and Ranboo actually played minecraft together." 

"But there are a few issues," Technoblade added, "First of all, there were a few audio clips that sounded too much like voiceovers and weird audio cuts some people picked up on. We did pretty good, but there was bound to be some things we didn't notice. Secondly, now that you've interacted, people like the rivalry dynamic and not only wanna know more about how that happened, but they want more content together."  

"Oh," Ranboo replied. "Well we can't pull off a stream-" 

"Technically-" Tubbo started, only to be cut off. 

"That would be so complicated, let's not." Techno jumped back in. 

"More videos are possible, I guess, but there's only gonna be more weird cuts and stuff if we try to do those regularly." Ranboo explained. 

"We don't have to do them regularly," Wilbur finally decided to speak up. "We can make it a special thing, we can throw in videos or little interaction stunts whenever people get suspicious, and just do the twitter rivalry thing otherwise." 

Checking twitter for the first time in a few days, Ranboo confirmed that what they were saying was true. It was like earlier in his existence as Lemon, when he was first getting popular and there was a small community who sounded ridiculous  trying to prove their theories now that the video existed, and everyone else was joking. 

It actually worked. And besides that, the news of Tubbo being a caregiver was taken fairly well. A lot of people liked to see them being open about it, it encouraged others to talk about their caregivers and babysitters and littles and whatever dynamics they had. People thought they were sweet and Tubbo being able to act like a caregiver and tease him a little was fun. 

It also brought up the question of who else in that social circle might be part of the community as well, which mostly brought suspicion around people like Karl and Wilbur, who twitter deemed 'possible regressors', and others like Dream or Phil, who were easy to interpret as caregivers. So, one secret getting revealed put a lot of others under question, but they couldn't do much about that. 

Once again, there was a huge slip up and moment of panic, and then some on-the-spot genius plan thrown together by Ranboo and Friends (tm) got them out of it and everything was fine in the end. Ranboo was starting to worry about how many more times they could pull that off, honestly. 

Either way, everything was fine, and mostly back to normal. Now, in addition to everything they've been doing to keep the secret, they had to throw together heavily edited and scripted videos every once in a while. Which was a lot of work, but if it kept the secret-

Well, Ranboo was willing to put in the extra work to keep this under wraps, at least for a while longer. 

They ended the call eventually, Ranboo doing a stream under his original persona and joking about the video and everyone feeling like everything would be just fine for a while. Or, it did, until Tubbo came running into his playroom late that night. 

"Wilbur just called me because you weren't answering, Phil and Kristin might've figured it out." He sounded both panicked and apologetic for the boy, who's eyes widened. He was nearly asleep, drifting off to some Markiplier video in his gaming chair, a comfy blanket over his shoulders and a stuffed bunny in his arms. 

"What do you mean?" he quickly clicked over to a discord tab, calling Wilbur for an explanation. After finally getting to feel like he didn't have to constantly be worried about the possibility of his second secret identity being discovered, he was right back to being defensive and nervous. 

He knew exactly what Tubbo, and Wilbur meant, when they made that vague statement. Phil could know. He didn't know if he basically did, or if there was a small chance, and he wanted to find out exactly how risky this situation was. 

Wilbur answered and started explaining before Tubbo could, jumping into his breakdown of a call he was on few minutes earlier. "Basically, they were talking about Lemon and how great it was that someone decided to be open about regression and actually succeed as a creator, right? Then Kristin made a joke about how people thought you guys were the same and Phil said that was dumb, so I thought it was fine." 

"And then?" Ranboo pushed, waiting to hear the bad part. 

"Then he rethought it and pointed out how weird some audio clips sounded in the video, because of course, he's good with technology and editing and he'd obviously notice that. Anyways, they started to debate the possibility, I think as a joke at first, and I tried to say that it was impossible but by the time they had to hang up they seemed to be genuinely considering it as something that was possible."

Ranboo groaned once he finished, burying his head in his arms on his desk. Tubbo ignored that and asked, "So it's unsure? They're basically just thinking about it right now?" 

"I guess so, but they seemed like, a little confused when they pointed out some things. Even if they don't believe that you guys are the same, they know that something is up, and they might investigate or ask you about it." 

"I hope not, they might just dismiss it themselves because it sounds crazy, right?" Tubbo said, glancing at his friend, who finally lifted his head up and ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh. 

"Maybe." Wilbur replied, but he sounded hesitant The other two kept talking, but the tallest of the three zoned out a bit in thought. 

It seemed that Ranboo now had a few choices. He could hope they didn't figure it out, he could lie his way out and try to convince them that anything they noticed was somehow tied into the fake rivalry/playing into the bit thing, or..

He could just tell them. 

The thing that brought him back to reality as he debated these options in his head was the ringing of a discord call. When he looked at the screen, he realized that he may have to make this choice right now. 

Incoming call from Philza

Chapter Text

After so many close calls and situations where you're forced to reveal your slowly-becoming-less-of-a-secret-identity, it stops being shocking and nearly panic-attack inducing when you managed to trap yourself into another one. Maybe it was less scary because it was Phil and Kristin, the parents of the group. 

Maybe it was because Ranboo knew they were Wilbur's caregivers anyways, he knew they wouldn't care. He couldn't list every reason why, but the way he felt when he thought over his options, all as he stared at the discord incoming call icon, was so different than every similar predicament that came prior. 

It wasn't hard to decide that if they put it together, he wasn't going to deny it. If they asked, he'd be honest. And that's what he expected, as he told Wilbur he needed to go and Tubbo tried to act normal. He thought they were gonna bring it up, that they were gonna question him and accidentally make him feel bad for not being more honest in the first place. 

But when he answered, that's not what happened. Instead, they started a normal and casual conversation. They had no idea what was going on, they just wanted to talk about some upcoming lore on the SMP or something. If Ranboo was honest, he had a hard time focusing the moment he realized it wasn't about his second persona. 

If Ranboo continued being honest, he found himself sort of wishing they did ask. He wanted them to know, which has never happened with anyone besides Tubbo. While Phil blabbed on about something he heard from Wilbur, Tubbo standing behind his chair and nodding along, Ranboo looked back at his caregiver. 

He gave a look that could only be described as simultaneously terrified and curious, as if begging for help on a mental debate Tubbo couldn't know anything about yet. The shorter boy just shot back a concerned look in response, which the boy deemed very unhelpful. Ranboo gave up on getting help from him pretty quickly, simply looking back to his computer screen. He focused back in on the conversation as best as he could, trying to settle into it and just not worry, but now the thought was in his head. 

What was the harm in them knowing at this point? They wouldn't judge him, and Phil could help with their complicated video schemes. Ranboo kind of wanted to get it over with, because he knew they'd likely be the next to figure it out anyways. They were surrounded by people who knew, they'd put it together soon enough. 

"Ran? Are you doing alright?" his thoughts were cut off by two things at once, Phil's gentle voice and Tubbo's hand on his shoulder. He practically squeaked, refocusing again before nodding a bit. The other teenager looked even more worried than before. 

"Yeah- yeah, mhm. Just thinking, I guess." he confirmed. 

"'Bout what, mate?" Phil questioned. 

"Just- um, things?" Ranboo chuckled awkwardly immediately after speaking, wanting to crawl in a hole somewhere and hide forever. "Actually, pretty important things." he shot one last questioning look to Tubbo, who suddenly seemed to understand what was happening- what could happen if he gave encouragement. He nodded, just a little, enough for him to notice. 

The boy felt a lot better, finally breaking the eye contact and facing his webcam wit an insane amount of fake confidence. 

Screw it. Better sooner than later, right?

--

"So- You're Lemon Kid? Like, actually?" Kristin's voice made it sound like the concept was absolutely absurd, even thought he had explained it a million times over in the last hour or so. 

"Yes!" Ranboo told her, once again. "I started the channel because I thought the agere community deserved more content, but I was too scared to reveal that information as- as me."

"Why are you telling us now?" Phil questioned. 

"Because you guys were on track to figure it out on your own, I thought it was about time." he tried to sound casual, as if that decision wasn't one of the scariest ones he's ever had to make. 

"Wait- who all knows?" the man asked next. 

"Oh- uh, Tubbo was the first to find out. I told him myself, and now he's my caregiver-" he was cut off by both of the adults on the other end. 

"Aww." 

"Anyways, Tommy, Techno, and Wilbur know too. I think that's it? Dream Team thinks Lemon and Ranboo just know each other behind the scenes- so you're part of the inner circle, I guess."

"I knew something was up- but I wouldn't of guessed that those twitter theorists were right. This is wild." Phil was clearly still processing, "How are you managing to pull this off? Like, it must be nearly impossible, right?" 

"It is, really. But the 'inner-circle' people help me a lot. We do a lot of scheming to get through it, y'know, things like the video and the fake twitter/youtube video comment section feuds. And we all get through it, somehow." 

Ranboo didn't want to get into just how much scheming went into all of this. He tried not to think about how hard it really was. It helped knowing that he had so many people there for him, which was a lot different than when he started this. He didn't know if he would've been able to get through it without his super-secret fbi-level team that's been helping him along the way, the one just kept growing with every passing slip up. 

"You know- you've helped Wilbur a lot. Like with being comfortable with his regression, I remember how excited he was when you first got popular and how he loved seeing another little get so much positive attention in his own community." Kristin cut in, "He'd kill me if he knew I told you all that, but it's true." 

"Aww, he's never told me all that. I'm glad I could help," Ranboo smiled, he'd definitely tease Wilbur about this later. Tubbo was off talking to everyone else now, updating them on the fact that 'the parents' were officially in on everything. 

"So- uh, how long are you planning to keep this going? Are you gonna tell other streamers- make it an open secret eventually?" Kristin asked the next question, which caused the kid to falter. 

"An open secret?" 

"Like, a secret that everyone kinda knows about but doesn't speak about directly." 

"Oh- I think that once I reveal the operation to our other friends, I'll probably talk about it quite a bit. So no open secrets, I don't think." he bit his lip in thought. 

"Does that mean you are gonna tell everyone else?" 

"I'll have to eventually, don't you think? Hiding it from the internet and hiding it from people I casually talk to are two different things." he knew he sounded stressed at this point, and this was proven when Phil cut in. 

"He just told us, which was probably a lot on it's own. Let's give him a second." 

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just curious!" Kristin apologized

"It's alright," he chuckled a bit. "I get it, sometimes I question how I manage this. I mean, I'm running two channels, two merch businesses- one of which is completely managed by me! There's also the double-streaming schedule, and all of the plans we have to put in place to keep Lemon separate from Ranboo. It's fun, incredibly stressful, and both my favorite and least favorite thing ever." 

They kept talking for a while, Ranboo answering every little question they had, just like he did with the others. He was starting to get tired of the top ones he always got, but he also understood why they existed and where they came from. His situation was crazy, and the fact that people were on to him somehow made it seem less likely. 

Like, who would genuinely assume that a bunch of twitter stans were hitting the bullseye of the target labeled 'Ranboo's bad at keeping secrets!'?

--

"I'm so proud of you, baby!" 

"You've said that like, sixty-million times." Ranboo groaned, but there was a smile clear across his face, so he couldn't of been that annoyed. 

"It's true, though."  Tubbo reached across the counter to fix his hair. "You didn't have to tell them, and you were really brave by choosing to do so. So, I'm telling you that I'm proud, and you can't complain about that." 

"I think I can, though." he argued. 

"I don't think you will once you see what I got you." he left him there, walking around the counter and out of the kitchen. 

"What? Where are you going?" Ranboo abandoned his sandwich right there and followed him into their bedroom area, looming by the door and watching his friend retrieve a box from under his computer desk. 

"I ordered a thing for you online right after that call a few days ago- it got here pretty quickly, considering it's from America." he came to stand in front of him, smile across his face and he held out the flat rectangle-shaped box. 

"What is it?" his curiosity immediately got the best of him as he took it and shook it around a little. 

"It's just a thing for you to play with when you're little- a fancy toy I thought you'd like." 

Without another word, Ranboo sat on the floor and opened the box. His caregiver chuckled and followed him down, sitting in front of him as he lifted the lid off of the box. The little tilted his head. 

It was a laptop, of sorts, smaller than a real one and decorated with pastel streaks and fruit emblems. It'd fit in alongside all of the fruit-themed little gear he'd gathered since he became Lemon (and the few he had 'as a joke' because of his sexuality). He opened it, looking at the keyboard and screen. 

It had a actual screen, and the keyboard had most of the stuff a real one would. A menu popped up, with a bunch of app icons and games he could play. It was similarly formatted to his tablet. "It's really just a tablet with a built in keyboard, so it's not too fancy. I just thought you could use an upgrade because you've the other one forever." 

"This is so cool!" He immediately said, already scrolling through the play store. "Is there a mouse?" 

"Yeah!" Tubbo chuckled at his excitement. "I can transfer your game progress on your tablet to this. And I can show you how to detach the keyboard if you just want it to be a tablet." 

The brunette went to say something else, but suddenly, Ranboo set the new device and it's box to the side and attacked him in a hug. "I love it, so much! Thank you!" 

He wrapped his arms around his waist and tried to keep them balanced, chuckling a bit as he squeezed his gently. "Of course. It's just a prize for telling Phil and Kristin." 

Ranboo pulled away at those words, settling back into his previous sitting position on the floor and returning to the tablet-laptop thing as he awkwardly spoke. "I've actually been thinking, about the whole Lemon thing." he announced. 

"Yeah?" Tubbo could tell that this was at least a bit serious. 

"I was wondering if maybe I should tell more people; Just other streamers! At this point everyone is more educated, and the chances of someone we know- someone we actually care about- reacting badly is so much lower than before." 

"You mean- like, everyone?" he moved to sit next to him, wrapping his arm around his shoulder as a form of reassurance, of encouragement to do whatever felt most comfortable. 

"The Dream SMP, probably. I'd start there." 

"Wow. Are you- are you sure?" 

"I don't know," Ranboo shrugged. "I was just thinking. It's getting harder and harder to hide it and I think it might be easier if all our friends know." 

"But that makes it more risky, too. The more people that more, the more people that can slip up." Tubbo didn't mean to shoot the idea now, he just wanted him to know what the possible consequences of his actions were. 

"I don't have to do it soon, or anything. And not all at once- I'll just find the right time to tell people, one by one. Except for the Dream Team, I'll get them all together." 

"Whoa. Yeah, okay, if you want to. I just didn't expect you to suggest that now. I figured it'd be at least a couple more months before you even thought of willingly revealing to someone else." 

"I know, and I get it. I thought so too, but I've been feeling more...confident, since I told Phil and Kristin. So I've been thinking, that's all." He looked back to the device in his lap, kind of wanting to push this conversation off a bit. "You think I could be little for a while, and figure out what this is capable of?" 

"Sure thing, baby. Here." he stood up and held out his hand to help him up too. "We can get you comfy on the couch, instead of the floor." 

Ranboo giggled, setting his prize to the side once more and taking his hand. 

The boy was glad he had someone like him. 

--

Ranboo didn't think having Wilbur on a Lemon stream would lead to so much, but he was clearly wrong in that assumption. It started a few days after he got his new laptop, Ranboo was going on a 'Lemon content grind', recording little vlogs and streaming and setting up future projects for his second online identity. He was still doing stuff as Ranboo, but he was more excited about the Lemon projects. 

That included a few collaborations, specifically with people in the inner circle. Or, as Tommy liked to dub them, the 'Spy Lemon Support Squad'. This meant more videos with Tommy as Lemon, a handful of streams with Phil, a recording session with Techno- and now, a stream with Wilbur. They were trying to speedrun Minecraft together, and Ranboo was age dreaming, but not quite regressed. 

This wasn't abnormal, and neither was Wilbur's slight childish vibe on stream, but when you put those two together, the viewers started to question the nature and context of the older man's energy. 

"Lemon! Watch this!" he got his attention as he lit a nether portal, practically cheering when he got it. "C'mon, c'mon!" 

"Let's go!" Lemon agreed, his eyes flickering over to chat for a moment, who was making bets on how long their time would be once they managed to beat the game. He laughed at one that was really long (which wasn't too off, they were already at 20 minutes) before refocusing on the game. 

They spent a couple hours and multiple playthroughs (and many half playthroughs where they gave up and started over) stumbling through the stream childishly, getting distracted and talking about anything and everything as they played. Wilbur didn't necessarily do anything too suspicious, he was just meeting Lemon's energy- the childlike, but not quite regressed vibe that they were both comfortable with- but it made people question even more whether he could be like Lemon. 

It seemed that Twitter had a new theory. No matter how much they fought against every new one that popped up, they had something to say. They always had a new accusation to make, and it was crazy how much they were right on the target. 

"Look, it's a flower." Wilbur gasped into his microphone. Lemon laughed, 

"We can't see," he reminded, turning around to go find him. After a moment, he was there, looking for the flowers the man spoke of. 

"Here! It's a gift!" Wil threw a few to him. "Okay, let's go to the End now." 

Chat was filled with 'aww's' as they moved on with the stream. 

Eventually, they closed out the stream, and in the moment, it seemed fine. They kept talking in the Discord call for a while before going their own ways and eventually, going to sleep. It wasn't until the middle of the next day when they checked Twitter that they realized they might've messed up. 

Twitter Trending: #regressorwilbur

justin! | @kidinspace

[insert clip link here]

he has literal baby voice??

#regressorwilbur

tyler <3 | @flower_boy replying to @kidinspace

!!! 

bee baby | @beesandlemons

besides all the theories tho, it would be really cool if someone like wil was a little /gen 

#regressorwilbur 

jackie !! | @lemon_girl

why is the tl saying wilbur's a little? #regressorwilbur 

amelia <3 | @boobat replying to @lemon_girl 

[insert clip link here]

"Can anybody get ahold of Wilbur? I'm worried, he's probably panicking- poor thing." Phil sounded so worried, Ranboo felt bad for him. Everyone else was on a joint Discord call, except Kristin, who was tasked with trying to contact the brunette. 

"That, or he's still sleeping." Tommy pointed out. 

"Or he needs a minute to process." Techno added. 

"How are we supposed to discuss what to do when he isn't even here?" Ranboo groaned. For once, one of their meetings wasn't dedicated to keeping one of his secrets, but rather Wilbur's. 

"I don't know. We probably can't do anything, right?" Tubbo cut in next. "We don't even know what he wants." 

"We don't. Even if he is awake, he might not know what's going on- he doesn't get on twitter, like ever." Tommy pointed out.

"If he is awake, why else would be not be answering anything?" Phil questioned. Ranboo sunk into his seat, a little overwhelmed by all of this. Maybe it was different because he was worried about a friend's fate, rather than his own. It was somehow more stressful think about Wilbur's secrets being revealed against his will than his own. 

Amidst their panicking on their friends behalf, Ranboo got a Twitch notification. "Guys- check Twitch." he announced immediately as he clicked it, just to double check that he was really seeing what he thought he was. 

Phil was the first to react. "Is he really-" 

"I think so." Techno replied to his half-asked question. 

"Oh my god." Tommy and Tubbo said in unison, but it wasn't necessarily a bad reaction. They were just shocked. 

"Yeah." 

Live Channels:

Wilbur Soot 

little announcement! :)

Chapter Text

Ranboo didn't remember the last time he was so genuinely shocked. 

It felt like after everything that had happened over the past few months, nothing really surprised him anymore. Sure, things scared and terrified him, things confused him. But nothing truly surprised him, it all felt like stuff that was always coming because that's how his life was at the moment. Chaotic, everything happening at once all the time. He had come to expect the unexpected.

Because what else came with two identities, a secret that'd change everything, and a career on the internet?

But the moment he saw Wilbur's stream title, it felt like there was no part of him, not even deep down, that truly could've predicted that.

"Okay, so um- chat," Wilbur was stumbling over his words to the camera, filled with an aura of false confidence and clear signs of being unprepared. He tapped his knuckles on the desk in front of him, watching chat fly by, freak out, and everything else a fan does when they felt like something big was going on. 

"Oh my god," Ranboo muttered, his eyes glued to the screen. All of his friends were still sat in that discord call, watching the stream together once Phil quickly got it running in shared screen mode. Tubbo wrapped his arm about him as they watched. 

"I have something I've been considering telling you guys for a minute, and it's not that big of a deal- I just thought I'd get it off my chest," the brunette continued on to explain. "And I don't want you guys to treat me super differently, or judge me, because it's normal and fine and I'm perfectly justified in using a coping skill and wanting to be able to talk about it on the internet..." 

"He's actually doing it!" Tommy cheered through the call, "This is real, isn't it?" 

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up so we can watch!" Techno laughed, shushing his brother figure. 

"I'm beating around the bush a bit, aren't I? I'm an age regressor. That's it, and since meeting Lemon I've been thinking about telling you guys- then you figured it out and on a whim I thought 'why not'?" he finally admitted, with a sigh of relief that almost made Ranboo feel calm by proxy. "And now that you know, this is a just chatting stream with an agere theme! Ask me questions and stuff! Don't be weird, though." 

Ranboo was quick to jump up and go to his playroom to join the call as Lemon. 

"I'm so proud of you, Wilbur!" he squealed, "You did it!" 

"Thank you, thank you! I don't think I could've done it without you." 

That meant more than the brunette could ever know. Lemon stayed there, full of support and excitement, talking to the man as he stumbled his way through a stream where he attempted to be open as he could about his regression. Well, as open as he was comfortable with. 

No fake second identity. 

No second name. 

He was just open. He answered questions, he talked about his experiences, all without shame and with excitement for what was to come. 

Eventually, the stream ended, and everyone got into a call all together again. They told him how proud they were, they joked about how he should've told them what was going on, they were there for him. Just like everyone had been there for Ranboo all this time, they were there for Wilbur. 

It kinda felt good to not be the center of attention for once. 

Twitter reacted surprisingly well, for the most part. The initial excitement, the regressors in the community talking about how cool this was, smaller creators talking about it, it was all a lot, but it was all good. Wilbur's reveal added onto the foundation Ranboo had created as Lemon, and it made the kid wonder... 

How far could this sudden acceptance get if Ranboo revealed everything?

The boy didn't get the chance to talk to Wilbur privately until the next day, when Tubbo was still asleep and presumably, so were their other friends. "You said you'd keep me in the loop when you planned your reveal!" he playfully scolded as soon as he picked up, "What happened to that?" 

"I didn't plan it, though," the sound of Wilbur's laugh came through his speaker, "I saw twitter and I don't know, I got impulsive!" 

"I mean, fair enough, but still! A quick text before you go live and give me a heart attack would've been lovely," Ranboo told him. 

"I was being impulsive. I didn't have time to text," the brunette claimed, earning a chuckle from the other. "I still can't believe I did that." he admitted after a moment.

"Me neither." he replied, biting his nail a bit, "Everyone is being so nice, which is good, it's just-" he was cut off.

"Not what you were expecting?" Wilbur asked, earning a hum. "Yeah, me too. There are obviously some people being rude, of course, but it's mostly good. I have a feeling a lot's gonna change, like even more." 

"What do you mean?" he tilted his head. 

"Well, you were the first super popular agere-based streamer, but you started there as Lemon. There's like, a disconnect, I guess? An already-popular streamer revealing seems to be different," he explained. "I don't even know if I wanna make agere content yet, but the people definitely want it." 

"The regression videos and streams are pretty fun," Ranboo assured. "You could always start by playing games with me, as Lemon, of course." 

"Yeah, definitely." Wilbur nodded. There was a pause, and then, "Have you thought about revealing any more?"

His eyes widened, and he stuttered, "I don't- I'm not-" 

"Don't panic, please! I was just asking," he told him, "I was just wondering, because last time we talked about this you said you knew you'd eventually have to figure out how to reveal." 

"My only other choice is to wait until something happens and so many dots connect that I can't deny it," Ranboo sighed in confirmation, "I don't wanna reveal any time soon, not publicly, at least. The idea of telling more friends isn't...terrible, I guess. I mentioned it to Tubbo the other day." 

"That's a good place to start," his friend was trying to sound reassuring. "I'm here, for whatever whenever." 

"Yeah, thanks man." he tried not to sound lost in his thoughts as he considered the idea of revealing. 

One day, he told himself. 

Not now, but eventually. 

--

Eventually didn't come for a while. 

There was a lot that happened between Wilbur's reveal and the last few weeks of Ranboo's time in the UK, and the boy was thinking about it all as he drafted up a bullet point list for what would eventually be a stream. Mostly because the stream topic sort of forced him to think about the past few months, a lot, in fact. 

He wasn't sure exactly when he'd do it, but he felt like it should be ready. It needed to be ready for whenever he was. 

It was nearly Halloween now, and just like the beginning of the existence of the Lemon persona, it had been chaotic, amazing, and difficult. He was a bit sad about going home soon, but he tried to focus on the positives. He'd get his old playroom back, and he'd see his parents again, which would be nice. He missed them, more than he wanted to admit. 

He didn't like the idea of being separated from him friends and caregiver, though. He'd miss them just as much as he currently missed his parents. 

Just like there always had been with the whole Lemon/Ranboo situation, there were slip ups. Lucky for everyone, those secret operations and fbi-level cover-ups became easier with every person that was added to the inner circle. It seemed that with every day that passed, it became easier and easier to talk to new people about it. 

As his support system grew, it became less scary to add new people to it. 

"Your new video is doing well," Tubbo's voice interrupted his thoughts. He spun his chair slightly to face the door, watching the other boy enter his playroom. It was halfway packed up now, since he'd be leaving soon. 

"Yeah, I know. The collabs with Dream always do," he replied. It wasn't just the collaboration videos that did well, either. The Lemon Kid channel had over 2.5 million subscribers, which was entirely insane to him. FruitKid Co. was a constantly growing business he managed to upkeep, with the help and endorsement of one Wilbur Soot. Even people that didn't watch him a ton appreciated the existence of a major age regression-focused brand. 

It seemed that things were constantly getting better, and that he was constantly hitting major milestones through Lemon. He had a lot of new series running on the channel now, all of which people seemed to love. 

After he told the Dream Team about everything, they continued their Manhunt and 'speedrun' video series going. There were a whole playlists of Manhunts that put Dream against Lemon, and they managed to always talk each other into rematches. They were tied at the moment, as a result of the most recent video. 

"What're you working on?" the caregiver came to stand next to his chair, glancing at the screen. Ranboo basically held his breath as he waited for him to say something. The brunette looked at him, "Are you sure?" he asked, completely nonjudgmental. 

Tubbo was good at that, stopping to figure out what he wanted instead of giving his opinion on what he thought he should do. He had gotten pretty good at the whole caregiver thing in general. Even at the harder stuff, like dealing with Ranboo when he decided that throwing a tantrum was the best way to deal with not getting his way, or figuring out how to reply when the boy burst into tears over something small. 

That had happened during a Lemon stream once, and it was probably the most panicked Tubbo had ever been while live. 

No matter what Ranboo threw his way, they got through it, and they got closer. And Tubbo never minded helping him through all that stuff, he liked being a caregiver just as much as Ranboo liked regressing. They worked well together. 

"Not entirely. But I don't know if I'll ever be entirely ready for something that big," he shook his head, sighing a bit. 

"Well, do you want people to know?" the shorter boy questioned genuinely, causing the other to pause. 

"Yes." he answered, sounding somewhat confident as he said it. 

"Then what's stopping you?" Tubbo asked this as if it was the most confusing thing ever, even though he knew the answer. 

"The same thing that kept me from revealing everything to my friends for so long," Ranboo shrugged. "It's just a scary thing to do. I've been lying to the internet for over half a year, what if they're mad when I tell them?" 

"I think they'll be happy they were right," he pointed out, causing the little to smile. "But also, you only created the secret identity 'cause you thought people would judge you if you did it any other way. I'm sure everyone will be understanding, a lot has changed since you created Lemon." 

Tubbo was right, and the teenager knew that. The online gaming community was more accepting and open minded, now. Especially since someone like Wilbur started casually talking about age regression. He was someone a lot of people adored, and him making vlogs with Lemon where they unboxed toys seemed to make a lot of people reconsider their previous thoughts on the matter.

It was crazy to think that the only reason Wilbur was open about everything was because of him. 

"I guess so," Ranboo nodded. "I want to do it before I leave, I think." he glanced up at his friend a bit nervously.

"You leave in less than two weeks," Tubbo pointed out, his eyes a bit wide. "Are you sure you want to do this that soon? Don't you need more time than that?"

"I don't think so," he shook his head. "Planning and stuff won't take long, I just needed a boost of confidence. I've been pushing off the final decision for a long time, but I want to do it. They will be understanding, a lot has changed." 

"I'm here for whatever you wanna do," he smiled at him, shaking his head. "I think I influenced you into being impulsive. Just remember that you can always back out and do it later, okay?" 

"I know," Ranboo agreed, even though he was set on not changing his mind. 

He wanted to do this. With the help of his friends, with as much confidence as he could muster, he wanted to end this. 

Eventually was now. 

And now was when everything changed. 

--

Ranboo knew he said that he wasn't gonna back out (and he really wasn't!), but it was a much more tempting idea when he was getting ready for the stream. He looked in the bathroom mirror, running his fingers through his hair and fixing his mask. 

"Are you almost ready? You have five minutes before we're supposed to start," Tommy appeared in the doorway. The teenager nodded a bit. "Twitter's freaking out in the best way possible, if that helps. Everyone's hyped." 

"I'm trying to be excited and not nervous right now," Ranboo admitted, pushing his sunglasses against his face so that they sat properly. He wore his black and white mask, not his colorful one. He was dressed up in black overalls with animated fruit painted over the pocket in white paint (turns out, Techno was pretty good at painting), with a white onesie underneath. The onesie had a pattern that blended ghosts and the word 'boo' all over it. 

It was a design that'd be released through FruitKid Co. and titled 'Ranboo Merch' after the stream. 

"I get it," the blonde nodded, "But I'm sure everything will turn out fine in the end. All of our friends know, so you have a lot of people to back you up if there's any not-good reactions. Just like before, we'll all help you through it, even if there's no secret to keep anymore." 

"It's crazy to think about that," he let out a shaky sigh, "People will know after this, and I can't take it back or cover it up." 

"You can join Wilbur in the 'open about agere' club," Tommy agreed. "C'mon, Tubbo's waiting at your computer." 

Ranboo flipped the light switch on their way out and followed the blonde to the main area of Tubbo's section of the house, smiling when he saw his caregiver. Three chairs had been pulled around one computer, and multiple sets of headphones were set up as well. 

The regressor took the middle one, and his closest friends sat on either side of him. The moment his headphones were settled over his ears, the voices of Phil and Techno came through. Wilbur was running late, per usual. Tubbo had basically everything ready to go, and his bullet point list of everything he knew he wanted to talk about was pulled up in the corner of his second monitor. 

"Glad to see you finally made it to the pre-stream party," Tubbo greeted him, giving him a playful but comforting smile. "How are you holding up?" 

"Okay, mostly," Ranboo assured, wiping the palms of his hands against his thighs. "Just nervous."

"I'm here!" Wilbur's voice joined the call. "Sorry, I got distracted looking through Twitter trying to figure out what people think is going on." 

Ranboo's been cryptically hinting towards some 'big stream' for the past couple days, through both accounts. He had also been a bit careless about slip ups, not really bothering to cover his tracks as they got closer and closer to the big reveal stream. 

His fans didn't really know what was happening, but they knew it was gonna be a big deal. He usually wasn't so secretive about streams, and when Wilbur and Tubbo and everyone else who knew started to publicly hint that 'something big' was going down, the upcoming stream suddenly became something you had to be there for. 

"Everything is working, I think it's time to start," Ranboo said. He took in a few deep breaths as he listened to everyone's comforting words. Wilbur wished him luck, Techno threatened to fight anyone that was rude, Phil said he could come over after he ended stream, and they all muted. 

With one last check that his microphone and camera were working just fine (even though he had just confirmed that they were), he got the starting soon screen and song running. He titled the stream as cryptically as he could, 'all good things come to an end'. He pulled out his phone and opened Twitter, ignoring everything that everyone was saying as he posted the link. 

lemon | @lemon.kid 

everything's about to change 

[Insert stream link here] 

He switched to his other account, retweeting the stream link before typing something else. 

ranboo | @ranboosaysstuff

two names, one person 

it's time

[Insert mirror selfie of Ranboo in his onesie and overalls]

jackie !! | @lemon_girl replying to @ranboosaysstuff 

what's happening what's happening what's happening what's-

bee baby <3 | @beesandlemons repling to @lemon.kid

wait why did ranboo retweet this 

He shut off his phone before reading too many of the replies, setting it on the desk in front of him face down. Instead, he focused on chat, which was flying by incredibly fast. Despite how terrified he was, he found himself laughing at this. Tubbo smiled at him, also scanning over the messages as they came across the screen. 

Ranboo thought it was funny to pick the longest starting soon song possible. 

i am so confused  

were we right  

ranboo = lemon maybe? 

<3 <3 <3 <3

what the fuck is going on 

The view count climbed, but Tubbo was quick to click it so it disappeared from view. They'd marvel at the record-breaking numbers later, but for now, Ranboo didn't want to know how many people were there to watch this live. He caught glimpses of Tubbo's phone screen, so he knew that multiple creators were replying to his stream link cryptically, which got more people watching. 

Before Ranboo could overthink himself into a mental corner, the final notes of the song ended. Time seemed to be passing quickly, before he could process anything that was happening even though he planned it specifically. He turned on his microphone before his camera, leaning into it and simply saying, 

"Hi, chat. Welcome to the stream." he laughed a bit, looking at chat again. He paused. Tommy and Tubbo were staying quiet, letting him lead the opening of this whole ordeal. They were there to support him while he lead the show, because this was his moment. "I'm sure that you know that today is a big day. There's a lot of stuff to go over." 

He paused, reading more messages. "There's some new merch coming, and just- a lot of stuff." he was stalling, he knew this, but it was fun seeing the viewers get annoyed with waiting. Tubbo took the hand that wasn't on the mouse and intertwined their fingers, squeezing his hand gently. Ranboo squeezed back but didn't say anything. "I guess it's time to just get this over with, what do you guys think?" 

Chat was enthusiastic and curious. 

His friends were there to support him. 

He was ready. Eventually was now. 

He turned on his camera and immediately leaned back in his seat, letting the video focus on him and letting chat process what was happening. He laughed after a moment, "Hello, hello!" he waved. "I'm, uh- Lemon. Ranboo. Both at the same time. Welcome to the reveal stream." 

"He's been doing nothing but planning this for the past few days, even though he should be packing," Tubbo commented. 

"This is pretty important, though, innit?" Tommy argued for him. "I think he's justified." 

The boy in the middle shook his head at the fact that they were already bickering, trying to focus on what was going on. "So, yeah, I created the Lemon Kid accounts a few months ago and in less than a year I got 2.5 million subscribers. I blew up, again, and it's still insane to me. I just wanted to make regression content and doing it as Ranboo was incredibly terrifying at the time., and somehow it led to all this." 

His friends quieted down as he explained the story. 

"It was meant to be a secret side project, I thought that maybe a couple hundred people in the community would see it and no one had to know. Then I started posting on tiktok, and I got a lot of attention there. That created a lot of problems for me, but it allowed me to educate people from a much bigger platform.

"Originally, none of my friends knew. I told Tubbo first, and then Tommy was the next to figure it out. Actually, behind the scenes, there were a lot of suspicions, especially when I joined the Dream SMP. Yeah, that's right, I cheated the system and have two characters in the lore, DreamXD has nothing on me."

He laughed. Lemon had a decently detailed storyline going on by now, he tried his best to craft it and make it interesting without getting in the way of Ranboo lore. He wondered how he was gonna go about that now. 

Chat had a lot of questions, and so did Twitter, probably, but he just spoke for a while. He went through his bullet points, telling stories and explaining himself while his friends jumped in to help him out. 

He talked about the Manhunts and how much that projected him, he talked about how hard it was to keep it a secret from most of his friends for so long, he talked about how shocking it was when Wilbur revealed before he could even seriously consider the idea. He explained how Tommy and Techno just figured it out. He talked about all their secret plans and how much work went into covering his tracks because it was surprisingly easy to mess up when you had two popular personas in the same community. 

He explained how they somehow pulled off the UK trip, and how his playroom was just an extra room in the other part of the house. He rambled about how big of a deal starting FruitKid Co. was. He talked about how he had to explain to his parents that he started another set of accounts. He opened up about making up that camping trip to deal with the fact that he was invited to the same Among Us Lobby twice. 

Even as he reached the bottom of his predetermined list, as he explained that he felt like the internet changed a lot since Lemon came onto the scene and that made him comfortable enough to merge his two identities, it felt like he had so much energy. 

"I did this to create representation for the age regression community, and I think I did that. There's more agere content on the internet now because more people are comfortable talking about it and more people are educated on what it really is. I think there's more to be done, but a lot has changed and I'm glad I could help with that. I hope that I can keep helping with it, really." 

"I'm pretty sure you started that," Tubbo pointed out, "Like, if it wasn't for you posting as Lemon, I probably wouldn't of looked up what age regression was and I would've been so confused whenever you decided to tell me." 

"I already knew about age regression because of Wilbur, but you did still do a lot. You did more than 'help', definitely." Tommy added. 

Ranboo flushed, smiling sheepishly behind his mask. "Okay, okay, whatever. I think it's time to finally take questions, let me turn dono alerts back on. Tubbo and Tommy will be looking on Twitter, you can tag it as 'conspiracy theory confirmed' because getting that trending would be funny." 

Somehow, even though everything had changed and he effectively merged his two online identities, the stream felt normal. Exciting and a bit different, but normal. This would be the new normal, he supposed, being able to talk about regression related stuff without the fake name and without that degree of separation.  

"What was the craziest thing you had to do to keep it a secret?" Tommy read a question off of his phone screen, glancing up at Ranboo curiously. 

"Probably start a fake feud with myself. Or the scripted videos that we somehow pulled off," Ranboo decided, earning nods of agreement from his friends. He read the next question off from a dono, "How did this happen twice? You blew up because of the tiktok algorithm under two different names, that's extremely lucky." 

He nodded in agreement, "It really is just luck, I think. I didn't plan any of this, I didn't expect it, it just happened and somehow I kept it going for over half a year. I hope you guys are happy you got to be here for it." 

Ranboo was happy he did all this. Even though it was hard, even though he had to execute a million cover-up plans and schemes whenever he wasn't ready to reveal just yet, he was glad he did it. Lemon gave him the courage to tell his friends about something he didn't really want to be hiding in the first place. Lemon let him tell stories, he let him educate people, he let him start an entire business practically from scratch. 

Lemon gave him a lot, even though Lemon was just him with a different name. 

Even if he had to make the choice a million times, in a million different universes, he didn't think there was a single one where he wouldn't give into that bored impulsive and create those accounts. Lemon Kid was born from boredom, but he meant everything. 

Even when the far off concept of 'eventually' became 'now', and everyone knew the truth. 

Everyone knew that Lemon Kid and Ranboo were one in the same, and that was weird, but he was okay with it. A few months ago, that would've been terrifying to him, but right now, he didn't mind. He was happy, and excited for whatever was to come now that it was all over. 

Well, not over, exactly, but different. He didn't have to hide anymore. 

Everything was changing, and Lemon/Ranboo was more content than ever. 

-- 

Bonus Scene - A Few Months Later

"So, a lot of your toys are still getting mailed over, but I think this is pretty nice." 

Tubbo stood in the middle of the room, his hands on his hip as he looked around. He had finally moved all the boxes out to the trash, so he could see the new playroom in all of it's pastel glory. Ranboo immediately settled himself onto the mattress in the corner, sitting on the floor because that's a detail of his old playroom he liked a lot. 

"Yes, it's perfect. Little me will spend hours in here," Ranboo was recording on his phone, showing off the room. "Like, look at this. I got the toy box, the shelf, the baby dresser, the closet! I could practically live in here." 

He panned around the room. The wall was covered in simple decals, of stars and cute shapes, and most of the furniture was against the walls, which left a lot of floor room for him to play. There was a coloring table, where his tablet-laptop thing was already plugged in and waiting for him. He had a new and fully-stocked snack cart parked next to the door, and a sign that read 'Ranboo!' in painted wooden letters hanging from the back of the door. 

"You probably will, whenever you decide to regress for an entire weekend." Tubbo teased, "Remember, I want you to call me when you're little, I don't care if you have everything you need to take care of yourself, I want to be able to check on you." 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he waved him off. "I can't shut myself off." 

"I mean it," Tubbo told him with a look that was probably meant to be stern but didn't effect him the way he wanted it to. "You gotta stock up the baby dresser, and then we're all done. Do you wanna record that?" 

Ranboo shrugged. He didn't really care much anymore. He stood up and handed Tubbo his phone, running off to get the boxes of baby gear. 

"Hello viewers, Ranboo's caregiver here to report that he's insane and crazy and not well behaved at all." Tubbo started rambling nonsense to the camera because he knew the boy would find the footage funny later, whenever he was editing. He shut up the moment he heard Ranboo coming down the hall, entering with a couple boxes stacked up in his arms. 

"Are you gonna help me, or just record my struggling?" Ranboo questioned as if he was insane, causing Tubbo to laugh as he propped the phone up on the dresser and went to take a few of the boxes from him. Then, they got to work unpacking them and organizing the dresser. The regressor barely fussed as his caregiver helped him put away pull ups and baby bottles, only blushing a bit when Tubbo asked what pattern was his favorite. 

They talked to the camera as they did so, about upcoming videos and agere based projects. Ranboo cryptically hinted towards a new merch drop once he got settled into his new house. He remembered how emotional his parents got when he left to move to the UK long term, and it was sad saying bye to them, but he liked the idea of living there. 

All of his friends would live a lot closer, and he was glad to not be in a different country than his caregiver anymore. His parents saw that as a positive too, they thought that Tubbo was good for him.  

"We're all done!" Ranboo cheered, "All done, all done!" he clapped his hands, "All done!" he repeated again, giggling as he did so.

"Seems like you're done being big, as soon as the work's done." Tubbo dramatically sighed, ruffling his hair. "C'mon, lets get you into comfier clothes and go watch a movie. How does that sound?" 

As always, Ranboo enthusiastically agreed, and they said 'bye-bye!' to the camera. It'd be edited into a vlog eventually, but the teenager didn't feel like thinking about the work of putting the video together at the moment. Tubbo helped him find comfortable clothes to change into and picked a movie to play across his computer monitor (because his tv wasn't set up just yet), giving him a sippy cup of angel milk and holding him close as he got caught up in the simple plot of the cartoon movie. 

Tubbo planted a gentle kiss of his forehead as he started to fall asleep, tucking a fluffy blanket around him and readjusting Micheal in his arms so that he didn't fall to the floor. 

Even with everything that's changed over the past few months, even with the ongoing chaos that Lemon brought even after the big reveal, there was one thing they'd never let go of. One thing they'd never move on from as life moved from one stage to the next, and then the one after that. 

Each other. 

Everything was changing, eventually was now, and they were content with one another. 

--

Twitter Search: Ranboo

ranboo | @lemon.kid

thank you all for everything

Ranboo | @ranboosaysstuff replying to @lemon.kid

L + Ratio + You're just me but not as cool