#dadboo

Michael did not speak for the longest time which made both Tubbo and Ranboo worried. He’d make a few pig noises here and there but that was it.

Happy squeals when he was very cheerful, grunts when he was angry, small whines when he was sad.

It was only when he had a big breakdown one day they brought the kid over to Uncle Techno, who began speaking in piglin to him to help him calm down, that they realized he didn’t know English. Technoblade gives him lessons every Tuesday from then on.

The first word he says is ‘Dad’ to both Tubbo and Ranboo at the same time when they were putting him to bed and he didn’t want them to leave yet, still a little scared of the dark. Both of them had that moment where they were both convinced they were the ones who got called ‘Dad’.

Cue little zombie piglin rushing in after a nightmare a few hours later, tears in his eyes as he looks at both of them, and they rush over to comfort him, the piglin hugging them both tearfully. “Dad!”

He has a stuffed animal chicken that he cannot get to sleep without, he calls it ‘mine’ so Tubbo and Ranboo just call the stuffie ‘Michael’s Chicken’.

Michael loves loves LOVES carrots, so much so that he’d find ways to climb on counters and reach high places to grab carrots to munch on, places often even he doesn’t even know how he got up there in the first place.

Tommy, first time babysitting, had no idea what he was in for, and nearly lost him for almost 40 minutes when he was just chilling on top of the fridge.

Speaking of Tommy, he’s Michael’s favorite babysitter by far. Often he’ll ask for more stories of his adventures, and of course Tommy may have twisted them a bit on how cool he really was in a few situations, but Michael loved hearing them. He even drew him and Tommy fighting against a slimy green monster labeled ‘Drem’. Tommy nearly cried when Michael showed him and keeps the drawing in his echest.

When Michael is misbehaving, often Ranboo will just pick him up with his tail and hover him off the ground in a timeout as he wriggles and squirms, crossing his arms angrily. This is the only way that piglin will ever sit still - Tubbo tried telling him to sit in a chair but found him with his hand in the cookie jar five minutes later.

Sometimes Tubbo will go out gathering honey for breakfast (Tubbo loves honey on toast) and bring Michael with him, who’ll sit there, looking up in absolute awe, pointing excitedly. “Bee!”

During something very urgent, Tubbo drops Michael off with Phil as he assures worried Ranboo and Tubbo over and over again that he’s in good hands, since the piglin is not used to being with anyone alone except for Tommy.

Phil spends the day with him playing out in the snow, and while cooking lunch for both of them Phil lets Michael wear his hat, and the piglin just lets out the happiest squeal - “Fil!”

When a snowstorm approaches later as night falls they make a campfire and Phil shows him how to make s’mores. The small piglin ends up passing out on the couch wearing Phil’s hat, and Phil just pulls the blanket up on him. “Night, little mate.”

When Michael gets a cold for the first time Tubbo and Ranboo go into full on PANIC MODE and then when they call up Phil he has to reassure them, no he’s not dying, he’s just sick.

As Techno’s English lessons improve he learns to read and of course Technoblade reads him all the Greek Mythology stories he has, and ends up calling Tommy “Fee-Fee” for Thesesus thanks to some encouragement from the Blade himself.

Bath Time used to always be a struggle until Ranboo found ‘Mr Duck’, an old rubber duckie from Phil’s older things - stuff that he kept from when Wilbur was a baby - that he washed and cleaned which entertained the piglin to no end.

Michael loves shiny things just about as much as he loves carrots, and that’s saying something. He became quite the little thief at taking anything shiny - gold ingots, iron ingots, diamonds, Ranboo’s crown - and making a little stash in his room. They eventually broke him of the habit, though his love of gold never really went away.

Tommy once, trying to be the cool uncle, went on a thieving trip for shiny things with Michael, and though many of the things they stole he had to return, he let him keep a gold nugget, which Michael treasured ever since, Tubbo even making the nugget into a necklace he could wear.

Ranboo, being the taller of the two, loves putting Michael up on his shoulders to go on walks, even introducing him to a few endermen after telling him the zombie piglin wasn’t a threat.

Michael was so scared at first, clinging behind Ranboo to his legs, holding out his small wooden play sword in fear. Ranboo knelt down next to him and gently pull away his sword to lay in the snow. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay, don’t be scared...” One of the enderman just comes up to Michael, looking to him in wonder before gently patting his head, letting out a glitched chirp before disappearing. “Where?!” Michael yelled, reaching to grab his sword again before the enderman appears again, making Michael scared and scrambling back into Ranboo’s arms. “It’s okay, it’s okay, look...” Ranboo reassured him as Michael looks over to see the creature offering up a dirt block, tilting its head in curiosity. Michael slowly approached, taking the block as the enderman picked up another and placed it beside the child, letting out another glitched chirp to encourage him. Looking over to his father for a moment, Michael moved to place the dirt next to the enderman’s, looking up to the creature, who leaned down to pat his head again as Michael hugged it tightly. Ranboo had never been more proud of him.

When a few people on the SMP started staring at the dark hole where his right eye should be, (not trying to be mean of course, they’re just a bit shocked when they finally meet him) Michael began to try to hide his face behind his parents more to avoid being seen. They told him that they knew a secret that he couldn’t tell anyone: people stared at him because he was special, so amazingly special that sometimes people were jealous of him and his amazing chicken herding and bravery. He brightened up after that, promising and crossing his heart never to tell, since it could make the others embarrassed. Michael grew more and more confident since then, and his parents could not be more prouder.

They were right. He was special. He was their special boy, and he always would be. <3

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