Chapter Text
It's an artificially warm, sunny day on the island, and for once, Ash is outside touching grass. Through his shoes. He's touching grass in spirit. Ash is sat on a bench at the Pondering Palace with a stack of books at his side and a notebook sitting on the armrest. The book he's currently reading is about 5,000 years old judging by the language used in it and honestly he's about to call this one useless and set it off to the side so he doesn't waste anymore time on it.
Why is he doing all this? Great question.
It started a about a week ago. While he was making his rounds around the island, visiting Katie's new headquarters, it occurred to him that he has no idea where his Chief Engineer actually lives. He's heard old islanders make jabs at him about "living in your factory again Tubbo?", and he knows that Tubbo works around the clock on some new project, he's caught him practically falling asleep standing up while working a few times before and despite promises of going to bed soon, Ash will find him an hour later in the back corner of the factory passed out from overworking himself. Ash would give him a blanket or something but the one time he dared get close enough to feel Tubbo's skin, it was warm, nearing worrying levels even. He does tend to pass out next to the boilers. He always seemed at peace, so he just left a spare pillow in the corner he always finds him in. The twisting he felt in his stomach when he saw Tubbo using it the next night was just from.. concern over his engineer. Why is Ash up that late? None of your fucking business that's what. Not because he gets worried about Tubbo when pretty much anyone else awake at that hour is part of the North and while they haven't clashed in a while, anything could happen. No that's not it at all. He just can't sleep when he knows Tubbo is still up. For unrelated reasons.
That's all besides the point, the point is that Ash assumed that, like every member of the Regime except for him, Tubbo had a base elsewhere. It doesn't really occur to him to wonder when exactly Tubbo would have done this, but he knows how fast Tubbo can work, and he doesn't seem the type for an elaborate base. The problem is, Tubbo is a very private person. It may not seem like it, but he is. Ash barely knows a thing about him. Not even his daughters name. But he worries, to the point where even if he knows Tubbo is asleep (because he went to go check), Ash will find that he himself can't sleep. So he starts to work up the nerve to ask if he can see wherever Tubbo deemed safe enough to put his bed and personal artifacts, because Ash is Supreme Leader of the Regime and Tubbo is his Chief Engineer. His second in command. Even if no one (and something in him is a little too happy at the thought of being the only one to know something about him) knows about the existence of Tubbo's base, he has to make sure it's up to standard. Tubbo is a highly respected member of the Regime, his living quarters must reflect that. There's no other reason he wants to know. It's not like he cares or anything.
It's just that while Tubbo is strong, he doesn't like to fight when he doesn't have to, so with Ash around, that means he hasn't had to fight at all besides the occasional mob. His fighting skills are probably rusty. And that's fine, Ash would never ask him to fight, there's no need for him to concern his pretty head over anything else other than whatever project he's cooked up for the day. So the idea of Tubbo sleeping out in the open so often makes him anxious. Especially after the chill the Regime went through when Tubbo was gone. What if that happens again and the boilers break? He could freeze!
So yeah, he risked pushing too far to ask Tubbo if he can see his private quarters. It didn't go the way he thought.
"What do you mean boss? You've seen where I sleep." What? Ash didn't think his memory was so poor that he couldn't remember something so important.
"Wha- when would I have seen where you sleep."
"Uhhh every time you come check to see if I went to bed or not?"
"You-. Um. I don't do that."
"I'm a very light sleeper Ash. Thank you for the pillow by the way, I hadn't bothered to make one and I wasn't really planning on it." Okay. Well. Good to know. Wait, what does he mean he wasn't going to bother making a pillow? Also, he can't be serious about the corner of the factory "decorated" by 3 rocks and now a pillow being where he sleeps all the time.
"I'm going to move on from that, maybe I misspoke, I want to see where you keep all your things, even if you don't sleep there."
Another tiny issue that Ash neglected to think about when asking to see Tubbo's personal base is that Tubbo is a dragon. He doesn't hide it, but he never talks about it either. Ash may not have known a lot about dragon hybrids up until he started researching, in fact he knew 2 things exactly. One, they're just a little territorial over what they consider theirs. They value personal space, both physically and living space. If one was to join a faction like the North where everyone lives in the same house, they definitely have another space that's just for them and sometimes the ones they trust most. Two, most dragons don't consider diamonds, gold, etcetra, to be their greatest treasure, but they will appreciate it anyway. Look he hasn't exactly met or been around many dragons before.
The point is, asking to see a dragons personal space is pretty frowned upon by everyone you could possibly ask ever but. Look. Now. Hmm. Honestly Ash doesn't have a justification for this one, he knows he probably shouldn't have asked and that Tubbo is just deflecting so Ash can take the hint and stop asking.
Imagine his surprise when Tubbo jerks a thumb in the vague direction of the inventory system and says that all of his stuff is either in there or in his backpack.
What?
"You seriously don't have another place you keep stuff? That inventory system is unlocked, do you just keep personal possessions on you at all times?" Ash can understand the sentiment, he's the same way, but he is slowly leaving things in locked chests up in his room and not carrying everything he owns on him at all times. But Ash is paranoid. Why would Tubbo do the same thing? Does he not feel safe? Did Ash do something? Is he not doing enough?
"Uh no literally everything I own is in the system. All my diamonds, zinc, pretty much anything I don't need on me at all times like my wrench 'nd shit."
"So- wait we've just been taking your stuff this entire time? How do you differentiate between what's public and what's just yours?"
"What's mine is the Regime's, so no you haven't taken my stuff necessarily, lowkey I'm kinda used to everyone stealing my shit so I don't really have the energy to care anymore. They did it all the time last time, and I would've locked the system if that had been an option back then. It just annoys me because they could just ask and I would probably give it to them, or they think I don't notice because we have so much stuff, but I do notice and-. Look, I don't have anything important enough that I can't eventually replace. So it's not like they've taken something super personal to me, cause I don't have anything like that. Execpt my wrench actually, but that stays on me, and no one would steal a wrench."
What the fuck. He isn't really capable of eloquent thinking right now, not when he's just found out Tubbo essentially doesn't have any personal possessions, along with the fact that people stole from him so much that he's not even mad on his own behalf? Ash can understand stealing from the Regime, but with Tubbo's only reaction ever being a grumble or a deep sigh before telling Ash what got stolen, he assumed that surely Tubbo had his things elsewhere and that's why his dragon had such a non-reaction. No! It turns out that he was stolen from so many times and so repeatedly on (what he assumes is) the old island that it dulled this aspect of his draconic nature?
Ash should probably say something normal. "Well, if you ever get fed up with people stealing, you can just lock the system and if anyone gives you shit for it, tell me and I'll sort it out for you." Yeah close enough. Time to leave. Immediately.
It's once Ash is alone that he really thinks about how much he knows about Tubbo, and dragons in general. The answer to both is very little. Dragons are easier to research than Tubbo (unless there's a file somewhere with everything Tubbo has ever done, every piece of information about him, but he doubts it), and maybe researching dragons will help with learning more about Tubbo. He can't ever recall Tubbo doing anything draconic actually. His tail stays wrapped around his ankle most of the time, unlike any other islander with such an appendage. Is it because he thinks he'll be judged? Sure, there's not another dragon hybrid on the island, but there are a few such cases, that never stopped anyone from taking care of themselves. Is it because of Ash? Maybe Tubbo just doesn't show it around Ash. But why? Did he do or say something at some point to make him feel like he had to hide? Is it because he thought Ash would judge him, or that he wouldn't understand what was going on and get mad?
Ash would never. Not to Tubbo of all people.
So that brings us back to the Pondering Palace. Ash has read through all the books he could find, taken note of all that's relevant to hybrids and not full dragons, very important distinction by the way. Now he just needs to find a way to let Tubbo know he won't be judged for being a dragon and taking care of himself.
Simple right?