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oh-snapperss · 1 day

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hello all! i come bearing a short, sweet oneshot for a mostly-lighthearted painting au with @hitheeprithee!

Pairing: Renthubs

Words: 1988

Warnings: None!

Read on AO3

The couch was a mess. So was the coffee table, floor, and even the other table a few feet away. Right in the middle of all the textbooks and scattered papers and notebooks sat Etho, cross legged in the middle of the couch with his laptop balanced across his knees. If Ren hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought this was the result of several days of frantic studying and no cleanup time.

But no–all of it had come from Etho’s backpack, which was lying on the floor in the middle of the room. Close to it, Bdubs was sitting on a kitchen stool, painting what Ren assumed was going to be the backdrop of whatever project Bdubs had been tasked with painting.

Bdubs straightened the moment he saw Ren, a smile gracing over his features. Over on the couch, Etho didn’t look up, but Ren knew his presence had been noted by the way Etho’s typing had slowed.

“Ren! You’re here!” Bdubs hopped off his stool completely, stretching up. “Thank goodness.”

“I know, it took me forever. The traffic was ridiculous,” Ren grumbled, before crossing over to Etho. It felt a bit like some sort of floor-is-lava game, trying not to step on any of Etho’s mess. “Etho.”

“Mm?” Etho glanced up, before typing a few more seconds. Then he pulled down his headphones, giving Ren his full attention. “What’s up?”

Ren would be lying if he said his heart didn’t squeeze a bit at the dark, stressed circles under Etho’s eyes. Etho’s major was a complicated one–multiple majors, actually, and all of them involving math and numbers and lines of code that Ren personally thought looked like some sort of nuclear war code. Or maybe just some sort of alien language from Mars. “I brought you something.”

He held out the plastic bag, hoping he’d remembered right. “You skip lunch too much. Brought you some pasta from that spot down the road. You like that stuff, right?”

If Ren was being honest, he was pretty sure he knew Etho’s order by heart, since Etho tended to get the same four things anytime the three of them went to get food. But admitting that felt weird, all things considered. Ren had Bdubs’ preferences memorized too–but Bdubs actually remembered to eat, so it wasn’t as much of a thing he could do for Bdubs.

Etho blinked, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the gesture. Inwardly, Ren tried not to cringe–if he’d gotten it wrong, this was going to be so awkwa-

Etho’s eyes crinkled in the exact way Ren recognized meant Etho was happy. Ren had seen Etho without his mask a few times, but Etho usually took bites when neither Ren nor Bdubs was watching, and the two of them tried to be careful about not looking over while he ate for that. Still, Ren had come to memorize the different ways Etho’s eyes expressed his feelings–and with Etho’s apparent pleasedness, Ren felt his shoulders fall in relief and his own grin spreading across his face.

“Thanks, Ren,” Etho set his laptop on the coffee table, before reaching up for the bag. “You didn’t have to bring me anything.”

“I know,” Ren said quietly. He couldn’t help but let his smile grow softer, into something meant to stand in for a confession since he didn’t have the guts to ask Etho out–and he wasn’t sure if Etho would say yes. “I wanted to make sure you had something even though this project is taking up so much time.”

Etho nodded, his eyes crinkling further. Ren cleared his throat after a moment, before gesturing back behind him. “I’m gonna… check on Bdubs. If you wanna eat before that’s cold.”

Ren turned his back to Etho, just catching a blur of Etho pulling his mask down as he turned. Bdubs had gone back to his backdrop, but Ren caught the smirk on his face that told him Bdubs was not oblivious to how smitten Ren’s expression probably was. Ren tried his best to wipe it–not super successfully, considering the yearning wasn’t just for Etho. Bdubs thought it was, but Ren just hadn’t found the place to tell Bdubs otherwise yet.

“What are you painting, baby?” Ren peered at the painting, frowning. “I don’t see a–what’s the word–central point?” Ren didn’t know much about the artistic terms for what Bdubs did, but he’d learned pieces here and there from Bdubs’ rambling and just watching him paint. This piece was as beautiful as anything else Bdubs painted, but whatever was meant to be in the center seemed to be missing.

“Ah, yeah, about that-” Bdubs grimaced. “They want me to paint someone. Like, a real life human being!”

“Ah,” Ren shook his head–Bdubs was a scene painter at heart, known for his skylines, nature, and sunrise paintings. “Not what you usually paint, but I’m sure it’ll be gorgeous. You’re always blowing me away with how great your stuff looks.”

“Yeah but–this is different!” Bdubs waved his arms in the air, sending paint droplets flying. “People are–they’re alive!”

“Wonderful observation,” Etho deadpanned from the couch.

“Shut up!”

“Who are you gonna paint?” asked Ren hurriedly, valiantly withholding a laugh.

“You,” Bdubs said immediately. “I’ve practiced with you, and I don’t have anyone else-” his eyes glanced towards the couch, “-to paint right now.”

“Right, yeah,” Ren shook his head minutely. They couldn’t ask Etho now, while he was so stressed out. “Do you want me to sit now, or later?”

“Later,” Bdubs waved Ren off. “I need to finish the background.”

“Hold on-” Ren stayed right where he was. “Tell me about your vision here.” Etho wasn’t done eating, and Ren didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by going back too soon.

“Well, I was thinking–” Bdubs launched into a discussion about his backdrop, pointing at various points and gesturing with his paintbrush. Ren nodded along, mostly zoned out. Nothing Bdubs did ever quite made sense to Ren, but it was nice to see Bdubs so excited about his art. It was the same with Etho–computers were far beyond Ren’s comprehension, an issue that had caused many a woe for Ren and equally many problems for Etho, who typically fixed whatever Ren had done wrong in the first place. Ren focused back on Bdubs, noting the speck of paint that Bdubs had somehow gotten on his eyebrow. It was cute, even if Ren knew Bdubs would curse it later.

A few minutes later, Bdubs waved Ren off again, and Ren returned to the couch where Etho had replaced his mask and sunk back into his haze of coding. Glancing around, Ren frowned at all the papers surrounding Etho.

“Hey, Etho-” Ren nudged Etho’s knee with his own, giving a warm smile when Etho’s head snapped up from his laptop, posture straightening in an instant. He lifted a headphone off his ear with a question in his eyes, and Ren shrugged helplessly at the mess. “Is it okay if I move a few things to sit?”

“Hm?” Etho blinked, then seemed to process a moment later before he was placing his laptop down and scrambling to gather the papers. “Sorry, this is a mess–course you can sit, didn’t mean to get this bad-”

“Etho, baby, you’re fine,” Ren knelt down and picked up a couple notebooks, offering them to Etho. “I don’t mean to interrupt your work-” (a lie. Ren always wanted to interrupt Etho’s work if it meant Etho would smile at him) “-just want to sit down while Bdubs works.”

Etho shoved his notebooks haphazardly into his backpack, organized in a way Ren knew wasn’t organized at all and would give Bdubs a heart attack. As they settled back in, Ren found himself sitting closer to the middle than he’d originally meant, but Etho didn’t seem to mind, settling back into his original spot. Thanks to the couch being as old as it was, it sank right down with both of them on it.

Ren sucked in a quiet, barely measured breath when Etho’s leg landed against his, pressed up closer than he’d had Etho possibly ever. Ren braved enough to look over at Etho, who seemed stiff. “Sorry, I can move-”

“It’s fine,” Etho’s voice cracked. “‘S just the couch. You can keep sitting.”

He could keep sitting. If Ren was being truthful, it was all he wanted in the moment, to sit next to Etho and feel the warmth of one of the persons he dreamed about holding. He couldn’t exactly say that out loud, though, he had to play it cool. So he nodded, holding back his ecstatic feelings at Etho allowing this.

The thing was–Etho wasn’t exactly a touchy person. And Ren was. And that was fine! It was completely fine that Etho didn’t want to touch anyone (as far as Ren knew). In the months since Ren had first taken his dying laptop to Etho as a cry for help, before winding up friends and eventually bringing him along to Bdubs’ work area, Etho had never once initiated anything, preferring to keep his distance. Every so often, Ren had thought that maybe Etho wanted that after all–when he caught that indescribable look in Etho’s eyes when Ren embraced Bdubs.

Ren knew better, but he couldn’t help the quiet dream sometimes.

So for now, Ren sat where he was, before leaning forward and plucking one of Etho’s papers off the coffee table that hadn’t been cleaned up in the flurry of Etho’s frantic efforts. Noting Etho had angled his headphones to leave the ear closest to Ren uncovered, Ren made a show of examining the notes on the paper, which of course, was utter gibberish.

“Aye, that be a demon’s scrawl,” Ren spoke in his dramatic voice that he typically saved for the most dramatic of scenarios, and wrinkled his face at the equations “There's numbers in there, so it has to be math, but that be evil math, laddie.”

He caught the familiar wrinkling of Etho’s eyes, and grinned himself, bringing the papers up to his nose. “Yee seems to be trapped by the evil demon of the math building. I recommend we dispose of the thing posthaste.”

Etho burst into giggles, and Ren couldn’t help the flood of joy that ran through him at the sound. Over by the canvas, Bdubs’ hand stopped painting, which Ren knew meant Bdubs was just as enamored at the noise.

“The paper or the math demon?” Etho tried to match Ren’s accent, but it didn’t work, and Ren found himself giggling at Etho’s own antics. “I’m not sure about murdering my professor…”

“We must free yee from them! Otherwise I fear you’ll be lost,” Ren composed himself, peering at Etho with a solemn expression. “We’d hate to lose you to the evil maths.”

Etho’s eyes kept dancing with merriment, but he shook his head. “It’s too late for me, I think.”

“Nooooo!” Ren tossed his head back dramatically, throwing the paper into the air in mock despair. “We lost our Etho! Bdubs, can yee believe the tragedy?”

“Unbelievable,” Bdubs muttered.

The second giggle from Etho made it so, so worth it, even if Ren had to retrieve the paper and return it to the coffee table. Catching Bdubs’ eye, Ren raised his eyebrows. You think?

Bdubs shrugged.

Ren left Etho to study after that, but he pondered his own question even once Bdubs called him over to pose for his painting. Ren knew that he liked Bdubs and Etho–and Bdubs knew Ren liked Etho. Etho, however, was a mystery to them both. Ren wasn’t even sure if Etho was interested in any form of relationship, with anything.

He’d ask Bdubs out soon, probably. Etho was just… a mystery.

That didn’t keep Ren from daydreaming about holding both their hands.

#hermitshipping #renthubs #rentho #ethubs #rendubs #rendog #ethoslab #bdoubleo100 #my fics #YIPPEEEEE an actual fun au:DDD #i got to have a classic ao3 author's note in the ao3 version btw what a time to be alive #i love this silly little au #:D

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