Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Minecraft championship posters and announcements were all over the place. No matter where you went, if there wasn’t a poster there were people talking about it. Ranboo didn’t mind though, he was hyped himself for the monthly game. He wasn’t much of a big fan - his fan merch would say otherwise - so it was just at the back of his head. Something more important he had going on.

BedWars, a game for the weak to fall and for the legends to hold their titles. He was on the leaderboards and so he had games to win. Ranboo made his way around his dingy apartment in search of his crown. Given him a while ago for a record he seemed to break and surpass. He doesn’t remember what it was for, having forgotten to write it down in his memory book.

A loud meow catches his attention and he turns to look in the corner of his living room. In the cat bed there sat Enderchest, with her sister Enderpearl sitting in the middle of his crown. He stared for a few seconds, grinning. “Enderpearl, really?” He speaks up as he walks over. The lazy little cat just looks up, meowing at him. “I think you have something of mine.” He says squatting down to pet her.

Enderpearl was a newer companion and was a collector of everything he needed. Taking it without care just to sleep or chew on it. Enderchest took the role of older sister, ratting her out every time she stole something. Ranboo reaches over with his other hand and scratches behind his oldests ear. He was mindful of his claws on both cats.

They purred at the pets and he found himself doing the same. Vibrations coming from his chest as he copied them. Albeit a little quieter than the two black cats, but much more deeper and low toned in sound. A ringing sound spooked him as his hands went still and his ears pushed up in alarm. After a few seconds he realized that it was his alarm. “Crap!” He said, grabbing his crown.

“Sorry Enderpearl!” Ranboo said, scrambling to his feet. The cat just closed her eyes and went back to just laying there, unaffected by the crown being gone. He hurried to grab his communicator and shut his alarm off. The annoying noise stopped and he quickly got everything else ready before heading for the door. He paused for a second, turning to stare at his cats.

Did he feed them? He quickly crossed the living room to his kitchen and looked at his list he hung up on the wall. He scanned it until he got to what he was looking for. Right there was the words morning feeding . It had a checkmark next to it. Ranboo let his shoulders relax as he headed once more towards the door.

He doesn’t need to think of their afternoon feeding as his nabour had that covered for him. Sweet old lady, nicest in the complex. Known as the apartment cat lady even if she has none of her own. Ranboo unlocks his door and turns one last time to his animals. “I’ll see you tonight!” He yells before existing.

~*^*~

The weird feeling of feeling nothing at all never got old. The moment he stepped into the portal to reach the center of Hypixel all he felt was the tiny tingles of numbness. Which he always felt was odd, you being able to feel numb. He held his breath as he stepped out of the portal, hand over stomach as his vision turned from white to normal. He hated portals.

Ranboo shook his arms and his head as he went on. People were walking every which way, speakers crackling with announcements and contracts were being signed. This is Hypixel after all, one of the most dangerous servers to live on. Well, other then hardcore servers. Ranboo made his way to a line up, letting routine take hold as he went on autopilot.

It was hard to think over the many different voices, it was even harder to keep still in the line as people passed by, staring. He ignored it all as he waited in line for the next BedWars tournament. He needed a win after last time. Last time he was unlucky, people rushed for him on both sides of the void. Even in numbness it was hard to ignore the feeling of a sword in your stomach and the calling of the void.

A shiver goes down his spine at the memory. He’s glad for the numbness effect now more than ever. As Ranboo waits he starts to play with his suit sleeve, fiddling with his cuffs. After a couple minutes he moves forward, a couple players going off into the back to get ready for today’s game. After making sure his cuffs were good for the fifth time he went to his pockets. One side he found some mint’s he had left, so it’s always good to check.

Instead of a mint pack his hands touch the familiar form of a pacifier. Ranboo’s heart stops as he looks down at his pocket. A royal blue pacifier sits innocently in his pocket. His breath speeds up at seeing it. How did it get there? He’s sure he put everything away last night! Ranboo’s forced to take a step forward, then another step as the organizers kept the line going.

He can’t be seen with his pacifier, not in a server as brutal as Hypixel. Ranboo looks around, trying to see if there was a place he could sneak off to. Without knowing he makes it to the front of the line. He just needed to leave, to hide, he could wait until the next tournament! Wait no- He has rent due in two day. “Crap…” he whispers.

“Excuse me?” A woman says from her stall chair in front of him. Ranboo jerks in surprise as he turns to her. She was staring at him, frowning as she held a pen in her hands.

“Sorry, not you!” He tries to quickly apologize. Mind still racing with ideas to just leave . His almost empty apartment rings through his head like lightning, reminding him of why he’s here to begin with. He’s good at the completions, and being good at something means you can make money off of it.

“-you going to sign up or not?” The woman cuts in, sounding pissed with him. Ranboo hunches in on himself as he nods. He looks at the stall instead of the woman, tail curling around his leg. Did they change the colour of it? “Name and pronouns?”

Ranboo takes his hand out of his pockets as he holds the front of his suit in tight hands. “Ranboo.” He supplied. “And it’s he and him.”

“Ranboo…”

“Just Ranboo.” He says. The woman eyes him for a second before starting to fill out his forms. “Okay Ranboo, do you have any dietary restrictions or allergies?” She clicks her pen, waiting for him to answer.

His brows furrow in thought however. He was never asked that before. BedWars just asks about size for armour and makes you sign saying you understand the risks of going to a tournament. “No?” He answers. He doesn’t think he has any restrictions or allergies. “No wait, uh, does water count?” He asks her.

She looks up at him, seemingly unimpressed. Ranboo does his best to look everywhere but at her eyes. Finding that her polished nails were his best best. If asked about it he could always say he just thinks they look pretty. “Yes, that counts.” She writes something down on a piece of paper. “Out of ten, one being the least and ten being the most, how much does water affect you? And are there ways you deal with this allergie, like with meds or enchantments?”

“Uh, I guess eight? For the- for the meds and enchantments, uh, yes? I take painkillers when it gets bad and normal armour helps a lot.” Ranboo doesn’t have time to ask about the questioning as she keeps on going. He answers question after question, getting more and more confused the longer they went. He should have been done by now. Did they update the games and he just never heard yet?

The woman folds his paper up and turns around placing it on a stand. Ranboo watched as it levitated, shining a gold colour before disappearing. He stands there with wide eyes, where did it go? “We’ll send a letter to you if you’ve been accepted into mcc, have a nice day.” Ranboo’s train of thought pauses at her words. Wait…mcc?

Ranboo moves to the side as someone else takes his place at the front of the live. He stammers back as he looks at the stalls. Eyes shooting to where the sign is supposed to say BedWars tournament sign up but instead says Minecraft Championship sign up . He then looks at the stall, the change in colour from yellow to red, the new questions, then finally to the sign at the entrance saying that the stalls have changed around a bit that he’s completely ignored.

His mouth goes dry and his heart starts to beat faster. He just signed up for the minecraft championship. The biggest event in the whole world, across every server link. Ranboo’s the biggest idiot, that’s it, no one can top him. He has half the mind to go over there and say everything was a misunderstanding, that he thought the stall was for BedWars. Then he remembers it’s only forty players aloud per month and he’s a nobody.

They're not going to pick him to be in the event. Why would they? He’s just a teen living on deadly wages in one of the most black market servers. He’s a no one compared to the regular player’s like Punz, TapL or even Dream for that matter. A newer player that made his way up through manhunt’s with his friends. An admin no less. They're not going to pick him.

Ranboo calms at the thought and reaches into his pocket. Hands clasping over his pacifier. He scans the surrounding area to try and locate the actual BedWars stalls. He still has bills to pay and cats to feed.

~*^*~

Ranboo’s laying on his couch, coffee half done and now cold on the table. His arms felt like they were on fire with the numbness in his chest still there. He’d lost and to make it all worse he got an arrow through the chest. Why couldn’t they have just knocked him out or pushed him off the edge and into the safety net?

Enderchest sat perched on the armrest, cleaning herself off. Ranboo just watched her, pacifier in his mouth as he tried to calm his nerves. He wasn’t regressed, body being too sore and numb for him to want to. But his pacifier was a comforting thing. Plus it was that or chewing on the inside of his cheek. So pacifier it was.

Ranboo put everything into that tournament, even playing toxic at times. He needed the money, there was no fair game in that. Yet he still lost to a try hard gang up on him in the last moments. He couldn’t help but remember the grin they both shared. “Cross teaming.” He hissed out angrily. He hopes those two get written up.

The show that was playing cuts out as an announcement goes on. His eyes flick to the screen as Scott Smajor comes up. “Hello people of the server link!” He greets. Ranboo smiles behind his pacifier. The mcc stadium was behind the man, it looked to be mid-day. “After today’s final day of join requests we’ve made our teams for the sixteenth minecraft championship! We welcome you to sit tight as I announce the players!”

Ranboo watched as the players were introduced, sitting up despite his aching arms and legs to pay attention. He’s watched almost every game, even gambled on some of the teams for a lucky break. His own closet had plenty of merch hoodies. Heck even the mug he was using was a print of the champion’s logo! So he really wanted to see who was in this months game.

“Joining us are the pink parrots Dream, Finn Star, BadBoyHalo and Seapeekay!” Scott announced. The pink parrots pictures show up with what they were known for on the side of the screen. “Dream a man who has the love of the chase and has clawed his way up in the backseats of manhunt competitions joins us this month to try his luck at grabbing a coin!” Scatt goes on to talk a bit more about Dream before moving onto his teammates.

The whole time Ranboo’s on the edge of his seat, tail swishing happily. Enderpearl joins him after a few teams and tackles his tail. He pays her no mind as she plays with his switching tail on the couch. He’s too occupied with what Scott's saying to really notice her. The second to last team fades from the screen as red borders the screen instead of orange.

“And lastly we have the red rabbits! Which are TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot, Philza and one of the new faces here on minecraft championship, Ranboo!” The whole world seems to freeze around him as he stares at the TV. Scott going off to introduce the members of the team- no, his team. Ranboo’s is mcc, he’s a red rabbit in one of the most watched competitions ever made…

“What!?” He yells, pacifier dropping to the floor. “No no no no this has to be a mistake!” He yells at his TV, Scott obviously not responding. He couldn’t have gotten into mcc, he’s nobody, he’s not skilled, he's just a normal BedWars player! He watches in disbelief as the picture he uses for leaderboards shows up on screen. Not a pretty picture either.

Ranboo’s looking at the ground, ears tilted down with his pupils so thin you’d think they were nonexistent. Or he was high or something, it was one of the two. He hated getting his picture taking and this was the evidence he gave when people asked him why. “Ranboo’s a new face along with some others in this month's games! He’s known around Hypixel as a pacifist in BedWars, evidenced by the crown he wears signifying the most void toss outs!”

He has half the mind to think about how he finally knows what the crown was for while the other half was just screaming. He wasn’t going to last, not with the people in the games. “I can’t do this.” He whispers, standing up to fetch his communicator. He needs to be taken out, some else can take his spot.

Enderpearl meows loudly as he walks to find his communicator. Saddened by the loss of her toy, his tail. Enderchest stares at him, eyes following him as he moved around the living room. He wasn’t paying attention to the TV anymore. Heart beating too fast and mind racing with thoughts. If his sweat hurt him like water did then his hands would feel like he dipped them in lava. Or the sun, the sun worked to.

He found what he was looking for and grabbed his communicator. Ranboo clicked it on and looked for the Hypixel admin’s username, trying to see if they could help him get in contact with Scott or someone from the Nox crew. “This month we’re mixing some things up! Along with the coin, if your team wins you get a big cash prize!” His fingers stop typing.

Ranboo turns his head to look at the TV, hands shaking around his communicator. Cash prize? A number pops up on screen and he feels his hands go numb, dropping his device to the ground. His mouth goes dry and his eyes widen. “This cash prize will be split between the players of the team equally. As now we have more funding we’re also announcing team housing on the practice server for those who don’t have the money to go between servers so many times.”

Ranboo’s brain lags as the amount of the money floats through his head. Just half of what he would get is enough to pay for the next three months of rent, buy better cat food and overall make his life a lot easier. No more holes in his clothes, no more worrying about having to pay for treated water just so he could bathe and brush his teeth. No more having to feel numbness in his chest from cheap arrow shots for at least two months.

His knees buckle underneath him as he falls to the floor. His cats walk over, Enderpearl going to play with his tail as Enderchest licks at his hand. It’s hard to realize that they're there as his mind’s full with thoughts. To make that kind of money he’d have to play for half a year, six times a week and win every single match. There’s no way of doing that, no way.

Not with the limit of games being three a week to stop health problems. Not when his body feels like it’s burning and like it’s nothing at the same time. Ranboo looks over at his device, seeing one of Hypixel’s admins username right there. He could click it, get out of the game and move on like nothing happened. A meow makes him look down at his clawed hand, Enderchest rubbing her cheek against it.

He lifts his hand and scratches behind her ear. It wouldn’t be fair to them, would it? Forcing them to live in such a place with food running low. Having to always leave them behind to try and make money any way he could. Ranboo takes a shuddered breath in. He can’t back out now, not when winning can mean so much. Not only for him but for his cats, who he cares deeply for.

Not when winning can change his whole life.

Chapter Text

Ranboo raises his hand, cats at his feet with an almost empty bag of cat food on the ground. He knocks on the door in front of him. He takes a step back and waits. After a couple minutes he can hear some shuffling as the door is opened. Revealing the apartment's cat lady. “Ranboo!” Marge says, a cream and brown cat sitting on her head. He stared at it, questioning why it was just sitting there.

“Hello.” He greets back, remembering what he’s here for. “I texted yesterday.” He says, gesturing to his cats. “I said I needed-“

“Oh I know darling.” She stepped to the side and opened the door wider. “I heard all about you getting into this mcc game. Why don’t you come in? I can make you some hot coco.” She suggested with a smile that could kill even god. Ranboo smiles back and clicks his tongue. Enderchest taking the command and walking inside.

Enderpearl stared at him for a second - he was still training her - but she got the hint and followed her sister. Ranboo then picks up their cat food and walks inside, Marge locking the door behind them. “I’m sorry for the short notice Marge, I just didn’t know who else I trusted with them…” He looks around to see no other cats here. “Slow day?”

It was common for street cats to be picked up by people who live in Hypixel. So to see that she was watching only one right now was a bit odd. “Well it happens, but I got Sugar Cube here to keep me company.” She says walking over to her kitchen. The wall was open in the middle making it look like some kind of window. “And don’t worry about the cats, I love them two. Better than Firecracker down on floor three. That bugger has a vendetta against my tea sets!”

He chuckles as he sets the cat food down, leaning in the kitchen window as she goes about. Marge pits on the kettle as she gets out ingredients to hot chocolate. The smell of chocolate was already making his mouth water. “So I hear you young folk are all moving out of Hypixel, you going to follow the trend?” She asks, starting to melt the chocolate.

Ranboo shakes his head no, eyes moving about the room. “Nowhere to go.” He says, eyes landing on a bowl of chicken put out to season. He hopes he didn’t interrupt her making dinner.

“There’s always somewhere to go!” She says turning to look at him. “I say the first chance you get, leave. Hypixel isn’t a place to grow old in, take it from an enderly.” She points her spoon at him.

He tilts his head to the side. “You're an elder? You barely look over thirty-“

“Oh don’t flatter me.” Marge interrupts with a chuckle. He just huffs as she goes to her cuburts, opening them to get two mugs. “Young men like you get trapped in places like these.” She starts, mixing the chocolate and milk together on her stove. “Rent goes up, winnings go low. Soon enough you’ll be on the streets like the cats.”

Marge sets up the mugs and poors the hot chocolate in. She turns to him and sets his on the ledge he’s leaning on. “Don’t get me started on the glitches you could get caught in.” She finishes off. Ranboo looks at her, frowning a bit. Marge wasn’t always locked up in her house with the curtains drawn and cane in hand. She was a tournament player, just like he’s in now.

The only difference being that she was hurt by a patched glitch and he still hasn’t run into one yet. Her name was everywhere when he was younger, one of the only names he remembers from that time in the group home. Her story is a sad one, one where the numbness of Hypixel glitched and where her injuries lasted. “What’s with that face?” She says pinching his cheek. “You look like I didn’t just make you hot coco.”

“Sorry…” He said, taking his mug in both hands. She lets go of him with a firm nod, taking her own drink and starting to sip at it. The cat on her head just jumped off and ran off somewhere. “Can I ask you a question?” He asked, putting the mug down. Marge hummed as she too put her drink down. “Can you…”

He looked over at the love seat in the corner of her living room. Cats laying around lazily. The memories of bleeding knees and knuckles at the age of - well he didn’t remember - flash through his head. “Can you tie up my hair? Like you used to when I was younger.” He’s been here for a while, known her for longer than that.

“Of course.” She says. “Gotta look good on your first day on the mcc practice server, right? Win all that money.” He nodded as he took another sip of his drink. They fell into knowing silence as they went about the rest of their day.

~*^*~

Ranboo stands waiting for the server train to arrive. Suitcases packed at his side. It was the last train to the mcc practice server, and no matter how many times he’s stood here just to give up and go home he finds himself here again. Marge had dragged him out of his apartment that morning, saying to get off his but and to get to the station. She was nice, but at times she scared the crap out of him.

He runs his claws over the small braid she did in his hair, finding it soothing in a way. His neck however hated him with how many times she had to move his head because he kept swaying. But either way he loved it. What he didn’t love is standing here and waiting for a train he’s pretty sure he’s going to chicken out on.

Ranboo runs his hands over the fur on his tail, taking out knots and dust that has gotten into it. It’s been getting tangled more and more often with the new kitten always wanting to play with it. He’s never been out of Hypixel before, or from what he can remember. The first memory he has is being found on the street by a caseworker. He sure made her life harder with his flight or fight attitude.

He runs through all his stuff back in his head. Nothing much was left behind at his apartment other than some clothes and the many stuffed animals he had in his bedroom. All but one, which was safe in one of his suitcases. The sound of wheels on rails make themselves known and he finds himself hunching over, tail being squeezed in his hands.

If he’s going to run, now was the time to do it. Ranboo looked behind himself at the stairs leading back up to the streets. It would be so easy to just get his stuff and go, like he did time and time again this week. His exit ticket seemed to burn in his pocket, keeping his legs from moving. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that he thinks of throwing away because he’s scared. How stupid was that?

The front of the train zooms past, wind pushing his hair every which way. “Last train to mcc, repeating last train to the practice server of mcc.” A man’s voice says from the speakers. The doors open in front of him, welcoming him.

The memory of Marge makes its way into his head. Her telling him that if he had a chance to leave, to take it and not look back. Hypixel is known as a black server for a reason. Ranboo pushes down his anxiety and grabs his two suitcases, bag already on his back and takes a step into the train. The doors instantly shut behind him, sealing his fate.

“I guess this is it.” He says in the empty train cart as he makes his way to a seat. Ranboo sits down silently. “I can do this.” He says, eyes darting to the map on the other side of him. There’s multiple railways but they all end at a square, at a portal. He sits back as he tries to relax. This isn’t that bad right? Being in the biggest competition that could change his life forever wasn’t anything to stress about!

Ranboo ran his hands through his hair. Okay so he was stressed, but who wouldn’t be? He reached down into his pocket, fingers curling around a small hand made doll. He pulled it out cradling it to his chest. He remembers an older kid gave it to him - he can’t remember their name for the life of him - and said that I’d keep him safe.

It was just an old doll, yet it held so many emotional memories behind it. He sighed as he sat there alone in the cart. After a couple minutes the speakers clicked on and rang through the train. “Server portal up ahead. Keep all your belongings near you and stay in your seats. In case of nausea there’s bags dispensers underneath each seat.” Ranboo kept his bags near him as he laid back.

He took a deep breath as he saw purple particles fly past the windows. Like they were pulling at the train. Ranboo closed his eyes, squeezing the doll in his hands. He’s never travelled through a server portal before, there said to be sickening. He’s forcefully moved a couple centimeters as his stomach tightened and his head started to pound.

He regrets eating cereal that morning as he held back a gag. He’s not going to throw up here. He quickly wonders if he has a choice as nausea crashes into him like a rocket. He clutches onto his doll even hard. He doesn’t dare take another breath, too scared to really. It felt like hours as he sat there but soon enough the nausea ceased and he could hear a ding sound.

He warily opened his eyes, scanning the train cart he was in. It looked completely fine. He looked up at the time to see it had only been three minutes. A frown made itself known on his face as he curled in on himself. “We have reached server MCC, hope you like your stay.” The doors open revealing a dark underground.

Ranboo quickly gets to his feet, instantly regretting it as his knees buckle and his vision circles. He grabs the pole that’s next to the seat before he could land face first on the ground. “Crap…” he says as his vision returns back to normal a few seconds later. He slowly lifts himself up as he shoves his doll back in his pocket. “Last time I’m server traveling.” He commented as he makes sure he has everything before leaving.

The doors shut behind him after he made his way off. He turns just in time to see the train rush off down the track. He feels dread in his chest as he realizes he’s now stuck here for the next couple of weeks. No way he can afford more than one more ticket to get back home. Ranboo takes a few seconds to try and calm himself. He can do this, he just needs to remember to breathe.

Ranboo turns to face the stairs of the underground station only to freeze. It was an elevator, not stairs. “Oh thank god.” He whispered. He didn’t know how he was going to get his stuff up a bunch of stairs. He doesn’t take anymore time as he walks forward. The elevator was clean but dimmed. He was thankful for that too, the headache that was coming on wasn’t at all welcomed.

He pressed the button for the ground floor. Without too long of a wait the elevator doors opened. He hesitantly walked out, no one was here. It was a station, seats lining the walls and in the middle of the floor. He looked around for a bit before spotting the exit sign. The glass windows made him realize the reason for the lack of people. He pushed the doors open and walked through, eyes on the night sky.

What time was it? Where does he go? “Hey!” A voice makes him jolt. He turns to the side, breathing hitching in his throat at who it was. “Are you lost?” The person from Noxcrew says. The red and white hat and name tag making it clear to him they work here.

“Uh, um…” Ranboo stutters over his words as he feels himself hunch in on himself. “…yes.” He struggles out, looking over at the women.

“Figures.” She said with a smile. “I said to put signs for people who arrive at night and or late but no one listens!” She chuckles, putting out her hand. “I could help with your bags if you’d like.” Ranboo stared at her for a couple seconds before hesitantly passing over one of his bags. Making sure the one with his stuffie was with him.

“So, Ranboo right?” She said, looking up at him. The shock he feels must translate to his face because she quietly explains herself. “It’s on your file, also a picture was put up with your announcement of getting in.” She says as she looks down the street. “We’re told who's in the games, so no one sneaks in.”

“Has that happened before?” He dares to question.

She just shakes her head. “Not yet, it’s more of a precaution than anything.” He nods along as they cross the street. It was weird to have no one around, it was quiet. “It’s late so I’ll show you where you're going to be staying, but you’ll need to sign in tomorrow morning.” She explains as they take a right.

“I don’t have a key…” He says as he looks over at the line of huge houses. His jaw almost drops at the sight, almost. He holds it steady as they head over to the one that has a red banner with a bunny hanging from a pole.

“It’s okay, all Noxcrew people have keys to the houses. Plus I doubt your teammates will be sleeping.” She gets out a red key from her pocket and walks up to the door.

“…teammates?” He mutters to himself, hardly above a whisper. He’s completely forgotten that this was a team competition. He feels even worse as the door opens, no creaking heard as she steps in. He doesn’t have any time to ground himself at how fast everything is moving as noise fills his ears.

“Oh fuck off!” He could hear someone yell from the inside of the house. Ranboo stands in the doorway frozen. In the living room sat three people. Each of which he could have only hoped to meet in his lifetime. “Wilbur, you're cheating! Phil tell him he’s cheating!” TommyInnit says from his seat at a table.

The TommyInnit, he couldn’t believe it. But in all honesty, he should have predicted it. They are teammates, which has somehow slipped his mind. “Hello?” The Noxcrew woman says as she steps in, silencing the small group. All of them turn their way, eyes widening as they see Ranboo. He shrinks down even more at all the new eyes on him. But no matter how hard he tries, he can’t pull his gaze away from them.

“Is this lost and found?” She jokes as she puts his suitcase by the wall. “What, no laughing? Tough crowd.” TommyInnit stares between him and the woman for a few seconds. Ranboo caught the exact moment he registered what she said, when he understood who he was. His black and red wings puffed up as he scrambled to his feet, a smile plastered on his face like this wasn’t the most nerve racking thing Ranboo has ever done.

“You're our fourth!” He points excitedly. Almost knocking the uno cards that were on the table over in his haste to walk over. Thankfully, at least for Ranboo, the boy was held back by Wilbur Soot. The Wilbur Soot, he’s going to pass out at this rate. “Ey bitch!” He yells trying to get out of the others grip. “I was just trying to be friendly!”

“Uh huh, don’t you ever think you're too friendly Toms?” The hybrid man says. “One day you're going to scare a man half to death.” I’m already scared to death he finds himself thinking.

“Well I guess I’ll leave him with you three. Remember to check in tomorrow morning Ranboo.” She looks back at him, a soft smile on her face. He nods stiffly to her as she makes her way around him. Disappearing as she went into the night. Ranboo stands there shocked as he stares off at the road behind him. He was really here, no going back. Maybe he should have stayed home-

“Are you going to come in mate?” He hears someone say from behind him. He flinches from the sudden question, whirling around to face whoever was talking. Who to his demise was the one and only Philza.

“I uh, n-no, sorry.” He blabbers out as he shuffles inside, closing the door behind himself.

“It’s fine.” Philza says quickly, walking over with his hand outstretched. “Welcome to the Red Rabbits.” Ranboo stares at his outstretched hand, hands shaky from just being in the same room with the man. How can he not be? He’s survived in a hardcore server for five years . Only getting out by a glitch in the world that without it would have been a death sentence. The admin was a legend back in Hypixel.

Ranboo thinks Philza’s known all over the servers for that matter. He’s literally bought Philza MCC merch before. “Sorry, do you not shake hands?” Phil said suddenly, breaking him out of his fanboying thoughts. At Ranboo’s confused stare he lowers his hand with a chuckle. “Should have asked, my bad.” The man apologizes.

“I-I do!” He says back quietly, holding out his hand. “Sorry I was, uh-jet lag. Or is it portal lag?…” he says to himself, however Philza catches it and chuckles.

“No problems mate.” He takes his hand, shaking it with a firm grip. “I take it you’ve never server traveled before?” Ranboo shakes his head no. To his knowledge he’s never left Hypixel a day in his life. Phil let’s go and takes a step back. He goes to say something when a loud yell catches their attention.

“Did you really fucking step on my toe!?” Wilbur Soot shouts as he lets go of the other boy.

“Yes!” He yells as he runs over, putting out his own hand. “The names TommyInnit, the biggest man ever and lover of all women, but you can just call me Tommy. How old are you?” He says quickly, maybe too quickly as Ranboo tries to comprehend what he’s trying to say.

“Seventeen?” He says taking his hand. Tommy shakes his hand, to his surprise it wasn’t roughly. Firm, but not rough.

“What month and date?” He says next, to which Wilbur Soot stepped in once more.

“Don't mind him.” The older man says as he drags the boy away. He gets immediate shouting for his troubles. “I’m Wilbur Soot, but call me Wilbur, or Will if you’d like. No need to be formal here.” He puts out his hand and Ranboo shakes it. It’s the quickest shake he has had out of the three, partly due to the fact Tommy’s trying to bite Wilbur’s arm off.

“And you are?” Phil says, taking Tommy from Wilbur. To which the avian teen starts yelling at him instead. Ranboo has no doubt that they know who he is. They saw his announcement on the tv. But then again, how much did it say about him? He doesn’t have much on records. Hypixel wasn’t known for needing any papers on their citizens. They take cash up front with stores and medical treatment was far and few between.

Ranboo shuffles from foot to foot as he looks at the three. “Ranboo.” He says, to which they all seem to smile at.

“That’s a weird name-“ Tommy gets a hand over his mouth for that one.

“Well hello Ranboo.” Wilbur says as he looks down to his bags. Something flashes through the phantom hybrids eyes as he stares at them. Did he bring too much stuff? “Do you need help with your bags? I can show you to your room.” He suggests, not moving to pick them up until he responds.

Ranboo thinks about how his limbs are heavy and they all probably have to wake up early tomorrow morning. About how he still needs to get registered. “Yes please.” He finds himself saying. He’s tired and he wants a bed .

The other smiles and grabs the suitcase that wasn’t next to him. “Come on.” Wilbur guides him out of the main area and to some stairs. Ranboo stares wide eyed at them. Wilbur sees this and chuckles. “Haven’t seen stairs before?” He asked, already lugging the bag he was carrying up to them.

Ranboo hurry’s to follow the older man. “Of course I have!” He says. “I just didn’t think we’d be going to the second floor…”

Wilbur tilts his head as they make it up the stairs. “Well the first floor is used for cooking, or just hanging out. The second floor is the rooms, bathrooms and such like.” Ranboo nods. He guesses that makes sense. They make it to the second floor and Wilbur instantly starts off towards one of the rooms. On the way over he starts pointing at a couple. “That’s Tommy’s room, that's Phil’s, here’s mine, that’s the bathroom and here….is yours!”

Wilbur stoops in front of a dark wood door. A silver plate was put on it, the name ‘Ranboo’ written in Common then Ender underneath. He blinks a couple times at the language. He knew his name was written differently in his mother language, he just never thought they’d use it. Or even put his name on the door .

“Welp I’ll leave you to get settled down. Have you eaten dinner yet?” He asks, already turning to leave. Ranboo’s empty stomach curses at him to say anything other than what he’s planning on telling the other.

“Yea.” He lies. He doesn’t even think he’ll keep whatever he eats down after travelling.

Wilbur takes the lie easily as he nods down the hall. “It’s late, so you’ll probably hear us coming up to bed. Sorry in advance!” He says cheerfully. Ranboo goes to thank him for his help but suddenly Wilbur’s brown eyes shine a lime green and he fazes down to the lower level of the house. He’s left there in shock for a second, mouth agape.

After a beat of silence he shakes his head. Wilbur was a phantom hybrid , of course he’d faze through things. Ranboo sighs, looks at his bags and then up to his door. He takes the doorknob in his hand and twisted it, hearing a soft click in response. If there was no going back before, there’s definitely no going back now.

Ranboo opens the door and walks in.

Chapter Text

The moment Ranboo opens the door to where he’d be staying his breath gets caught in his throat. The room looked like a royal themselves lived in here. He paused in the doorway, eyes darting across the space. It wasn’t just spacious, it was beautiful. He couldn’t help but feel a tug at his chest when looking around.

The room was kept dimmed, the ceiling being covered in stars like it itself was the night sky. The floorboards were the colour of endstone and the curtains were a nice purple. It felt safe here. Ranboo doesn’t remember a time where he was in the End, doesn’t even think he was born there. But it was the birthplace of Enderian’s and in turn gave him a sense of familiarity.

Ranboo hurried inside, dragging his bags behind him as he closed the door. He looked up, finding that the ceiling was taller than most. His tail moved side to side happily as he looked around the room. It was bigger than his room back home. A desk was pushed underneath the window, dresser pushed up against the wall left of him. The bed itself was huge, no doubt being able to fit his height.

It came with black covers and fluffy pillows. He didn’t know why pillows needed to be fluffy, but he couldn’t wait to lay his head on one of them. The walls were mostly bare, an MCC poster being the only thing on it. Ranboo walked over to it, eyes landing on his team at the top. There were no photos, but under each team there were names of the players.

He spotted his quickly as his name was at the top with the Red Rabbits. Ranboo turned around to face the dresser, then looked at his suitcases. With a huff he went on to unpack all of his belongings and sort them into the dresser. He kept his pyjamas out and changed into them the moment he was done. His suit found its way into the dresser before his head met the very fluffy pillow on his bed.

It was like laying on a cloud. With sleep tugging at him and soreness all over his body from server travel he let his eyes close and his thoughts drift. He however wasn’t alone, as the doll he had in his pocket before was held between tired hands. He smiled, held it to his chest and fell asleep.

~*^*~

The next morning he woke up to yelling. At first he thought that his neighbours were having a falling out once again. But when he opened his eyes they landed on a MCC poster he didn’t own. The memory’s of the day before filtered into his brain as he sat up. “Oh ya…mcc.” He says with a rough voice filled with sleep. “First day.” He says after a beat.

It was his first day on the mcc practice server. He was really here and it wasn’t some kind of dream. Ranboo eyed the curtains, knowing full well he was definitely not going to touch those anytime soon. He doesn’t know if his room faces the sun and he doesn’t want to go blind his first day here. Ranboo goes to get to his feet but to his dismay they get caught in the covers.

He trips, hands flying out to catch him as his tail wraps around both his legs on accident. He goes tumbling to the floor, face hitting his outstretched arms. “….Crap.” He whispers to himself. In the back of his mind he realises that the yelling from downstairs has stopped. He quickly gets to his feet, brushes the nonexistent dust off his legs and turns towards his door.

Now is the time of any to head down right? With his mind made up Ranboo sets his doll that was safely down on his bed. Finding that it came down with him when he fell. With the doll safe and sound he heads to his door and opens it. The yelling from before had started up again a few seconds after his fall and he can faintly distinguish two different voices.

From watching way too many mcc recaps in his free time he can tell there the voices of Tommy and Wilbur, his now teammates. Wow that was still so weird. He wasn’t just a watcher, a fan anymore. He was playing in the games to get a chance at winning a coin, at winning money . He needs to get his mind in the game.

It seems like he took too long in his own head as the door a little further up the hall opens. The sound startles him as he whips towards who was there. There was only one logical person still up here, but still seeing that it was Phil made him clam up. Phil walked out of the bathroom, a towel around his shoulders as damp wings trailed behind him on the ground. They weren’t soaking, but definitely were in some form waterlogged.

Phil noticed him faster than he would have liked and turned to face him, a smile already forming on his face. “Good morning mate.” The older man waved.

Ranboo stares for a few seconds before shaking his head. “Y-yea, good morning to you too…Phil.” He says, hands going right to playing with his tail.

The other doesn’t seem to notice his awkward behaviour and even if he did, he’s not showing it. “Were you heading down for breakfast? Or a quick shower before the morning?” He asks as he walks more out of the bathroom doorway.

“I guess breakfast since uh, I don’t know if the waters safe.” He says gesturing towards the bathroom.

Phil seems to be taken aback by his words, eyes narrowing like he was looking at the very hard math problem. “…safe?” He asks, confused. Phil then catches onto what he means and his eyes widen. “Oh, well I guess that’s a problem.” He says, gesturing towards Ranboo. “Have you had any time to talk with Scot yet? He probably knows if the water here is Enderian friendly.”

Ranboo shakes his head no. Other than the woman yesterday he hadn’t even seen another Nox crew personnel. “Oh, well I can take you over to registration later today. He’s probably hanging around somewhere helping set up the late comers.” Phil waves his hand in the air as he thinks. He turns towards one of the doors. “See you down in a bit, have to blow dry these.” He says as his black wings shift to hover in the air like normal.

He nods as Phil walks into the room with his name on it, closing the door behind him softly. Only as Ranboo goes to walk down the hall does he realise what Phil had said. Did…did Phil just say he’s going to take him to registration!?

His tail flicked nervously as he patters down the stairs. Phil was going to take him to get registered, and he’s doing it willingly . That kind of hospitality isn’t shown back home, not unless you're on a team in a BedWars match. Maybe Phil has something to do, something to ask Scott himself. It would make sense, more scenes than him coming along just for the heck of it.

Ranboo quickly reaches the bottom of the stairs, half thinking about what just happened, half focusing on actual walking and going to get breakfast. It seemed like his body didn’t get the memo as he paused at the bottom of the stairs. What was he supposed to do after getting registered? The actual championship isn’t until another couple of weeks. He absolutely hated the timing, hated leaving his cats with Marge for so long.

The smell of burning eggs made him snap out of his thoughts. “You're going to set the house on fire Will, put it out! Put the thing out!” Tommy shrieked.

“I'm trying! The oven is broken!” Ranboo hurry’s forward, turning around the corner to see Wilbur pouring water over a pan of what he thinks is burnt eggs. Honestly it looks more like black stone from the Neither then eggs. Tommy is at the kitchen island, screaming orders at the other.

Ranboo watched as the water only made the small fire that was in the pan grow bigger, as it does with normal grease fires. He thinks that Tommy wasn’t overreacting when he said Wilbur was going to set the whole place on fire. Rushing forward Ranboo whipped open a couple cuburts, finding a box of salt in one. He took it out, opened it and also on the way to the stove grabbed a pot lid.

He didn’t bother to say anything as he came right up to a distressed Wilbur and poured the salt all over the fire. It did the trick as it snuffed it out. But to make sure it didn’t magically come alive Ranboo stuck the lid on top, stopping any oxygen from getting to the now even more ruined breakfast.

The room went silent after a while, only the heavy breathing of the three boys could be heard. “That was awesome!” Tommy pipes up from the kitchen island.

Wilbur nodded along with the youngest of them, a smile cracking onto his face. “Thanks Ranboo.” He says tapping his shoulder. “I didn’t know salt would put it out.”

He hummed as he turned off the stove and picked up the pan. “You don’t exactly want to put water on an oil or grease fire.” He said as he took the lid off, throwing all of what’s inside in the garbage.

“…makes sense.” Wilbur says sheepishly as he goes over to the fridge, opening it and taking out the almost empty carton of eggs. Ranboo puts the pan in the sink, turns around and claps his hands around the carton the other has. “Ranboo, I kinda need to make breakfast.” Wilbur says looking over at him.

A small purple blush creeps up his neck as he shakes his head. “I’m not exactly comfortable with you cooking in the same place I’m going to be living in.” He says, earning a laugh from Tommy.

“Oh he has you Will! Get out of the man’s way!” Wilbur’s pointed ears swivel up and down a few seconds, like he’s thinking of something. Then he smiles and lets Ranboo take the rest of the eggs.

“I guess you're right.” Wilbur walks over to the kitchen island, smacking Tommy’s arm on the way. To which the other yells and they start to wrestle at the island. Ranboo sighs, he guesses he’s making breakfast. Ranboo sets up a new pan, not wanting to wash the one in the sink and risk getting burned. He turns the oven on, puts oil in it and gets out a bowl. 

He looks up in the cuburts and smiles once he sees the seasonings he’s looking for. Marge always said that nothing should be left un-seasoned. She was the only reason Ranboo ate so good and got better at cooking. He still remembers her yelling about how he’s part of her family now and no one in her family is going to cook ‘white person food’. Which he thought was hilarious.

Ranboo goes about making breakfast easily. Milk, garlic powder, pepper, salt, onion powder and a bit of paprika powder to give it some spice. All the while the two in the background bickered amongst each other. “Are any of you lactose intolerant?” He says as he turns to the two, still mixing the soon to be scrambled eggs.

Tommy and Wilbur stop their bickering as they look at him. “Nope.” Tommy says as he shuffles to the side.

Wilbur just shakes his head no. “Phil isn’t either, you're good.” He nods as he turns back to his workspace. Ranboo grabs a bag of shredded cheese and puts some with the eggs before putting the bag right back into the fridge. It felt like routine, like he was in his own kitchen cooking breakfast. Unlike home though this kitchen was much cleaner, and instead of his furry daughters kicking up a ruckus it’s his two teammates in the back doing all the noise.

He goes through cooking the eggs with practised ease and soon enough he’s plating them for four. “Smells good.” Phil says as he walks into the room. Ranboo looks over as he passes the plates out. Noticing his clothing change and fluffy wings. It wasn’t the getup he wore for the competition but it was still fancy compared to what he was wearing last night.

“Wilbur almost burned down the kitchen, again . Ranboo had to fix it so we would actually have something to eat this morning.” Tommy says as he takes his plate, looking at it with wide eyes. Phil nods to him as he too takes his place at the island.

It’s weirdly calm, Ranboo thinks as he eats with the other three. Tommy and Wilbur are going back and forth as they eat as Phil rolls his eyes and stays mostly silently. Only popping into the conversation to tell them to hurry it up and not to start a food fight. The way he says it gives him the inclination that it’s happened before. Tommy was…an unexpected change to what he perceived him as while watching the loud blonde.

It wasn’t uncommon to overhear his past BedWars teammates or people just passing by talking about how Tommy was annoying and really only cared for his teammates when it would put him higher in the games. Tommy had been with plenty of people over the months of mcc, and he got along with everyone so far. It wasn’t a stretch to think it was just a front. But Ranboo can’t help but disagree with everyone.

Tommy generally cares and isn’t ‘overbearing’ all the time. Yes he’s loud, but by the fourth time Tommy’s talked to him directly Ranboo knows the other wants to make him feel included. Even if it’s really awkward. “So I hear you're a big shot in BedWars.” Tommy points out as they get to the end of their meal.

“Oh…” Ranboo blinks as he looks over at the other. “Well I wouldn’t describe myself like that, I just play regularly.” He shrugs.

Tommy scoffs as he stands, his plate now empty. “Yea and I’m just a mcc player, come on, I’ve seen your scores man.” Ranboo couldn’t help the purple blush that rose to his cheeks by the admission that the other looked up his scores. He knows it’s publicly accessible, but the TommyInnit looked up his scores. Why!?

“Tommy’s right mate, it’s not common to see the type of your scores in those types of games.” Phil says as he takes Wilbur’s plate, a smile on his face. Ranboo takes the complement for what it is as he stands from the kitchen island.

“Well I guess thank you.” He gives the other a smile, putting his plate away right after the others. Now that breakfast was done he guessed it was time to head out. How long did registration even take? Was it going to take the whole day? What does he do after the fact? Just come back and wait until the competition?

“Ranboo.” Phil speaks up from a few steps away from him. Ranboo looks over, a hum sound coming from him to show he was listening. “How about you get ready and then we can head out? I don’t think Scott’s going to hang around the registration building all day.”

“O-oh yea, sure. I’ll be back in a bit.” He addressed back, turning and heading for the stairs. He could hear Tommy and Wilbur thundering up them. With what he’s gathered today, they're racing to get the bathroom first. Ranboo makes it to his room with ease, taking out his familiar suit and changing into it.

He turns to a mirror and makes sure he’s ready to go. He knows he doesn’t need to wear a suit everywhere he goes, but for some reason it’s the most comfortable outfit he owns. He doesn’t know how to sew good enough to edit any clothes he buys, so suits it is. They seem to fit with his body type more than others do.

Right before he turns to leave his doll on his bed catches his eyes. It’s staring at him, pleadingly. Ranboo feels a soft tug in his mind and he finds himself reaching for it. He holds it up in front of his face. “I can’t take you with me.” He mutters underneath his breath. The doll’s head rolls a bit to the side. He frowns, tail wrapping around his leg. “It’s dangerous here, you can get lost.”

The doll’s button eyes stare back blankly. Ranboo bites his lip, thinking. On one hand the doll’s small enough that he can keep it in his pocket, and it’s easier to hide than a pacifier. But on the complete other side he could lose one of his most favourite comfort items. “Promise to stay on your best behaviour?” He asks, to which the doll says nothing.

But it’s early in the morning and his cats are gone, unable to bug him with responsibilities, and tv unable to distract him from an encroaching headspace. He’s not the most smartest teen when it comes to his headspace, he doesn’t have anyone to tell him off for doing stupid things. Like that one time he bought some ice cream and ate it in one go or like that one time where he thought it would be good to bathe Enderchest while in little space.

Both situations ended him up in different degrees of trouble. “Okay, we can do this.” He says, putting the doll in his pocket. With that settled he left his room and headed downstairs. Ranboo hesitated once he got to the bottom. He just had a full conversation with a toy…

“Oh no.” Ranboo groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. He could feel his little space moving in, like autumn fog. He had to hold it together, he can’t regress in front of his idols, his teammates. Not now, not ever.

“You coming?” Phil peaks from the front hallway, a smile on his face.

“Ye-yea!” He calls back, hurrying forward before the man changes his mind. He has no idea where he’s going, he’s glad that he can stick to Phil for this part of the day. “Aren’t Tommy and Wilbur going to come out?” He asks once he makes it over, reaching for his shoes.

Phil nods, keys jingling in his hands. “Yea, but they're going right to the training grounds. So they kinda have to wait for more people to show up first.” He nodded along, following behind the older man as they made their way outside. Training grounds made sense, this was a widely known and popular competition. Not some cheap games meant to entertain you for a few minutes.

He slightly wonders what training would be like, is it mandatory? “We're heading this way.” Phil says, pointing back towards the train station. Ranboo hums, already going off where he had pointed. It’s only then that he realised the few eyes on him. Looking off to the right he spots a woman with a cup of coffee, leaning against the wall to the Blue Bats house.

He pauses in his steps, eyes widening. That’s Vixella, one of the original mcc players. Not many people were out on this street, most keeping to themselves, but she was staring right at him. Vixella smiles, raising a hand and waving to him. Ranboo’s eyes tilt up in interest, a small and hesitant smile coming to his face. He does a little wave back before facing forward.

He promptly sprints after Phil as it seems the older one didn't notice him stop following.

Chapter Text

Ranboo didn’t notice it before since it was night but the server was pretty beautiful. As he walked next to Phil down the streets his eyes wandered all over the place. The houses for the players were nice and fit their colours but everything else was bathed in whites and light greys. Dark reds too, the colour of the Noxcrew.

Without looking at the colours and how clean everything was, plants grew. Vines covered in flowers lined houses and buildings. He even noticed a small park with a pond on his way. Why did they need a pond anyways? He had no idea, but with the one glance he had he knew it was filled with life.

It was a very nice contrast to the bland and smog looking city he’s used to. “So what made you sign up?” Phil asks, snapping his attention away from the flower patch that was across the street.

He was startled somewhat, not expecting the other to talk to him. It wasn’t like many players talked to him outside of the actual competitions. “Uh…” he hesitated. Could he get kicked out for saying he never even wanted to be here? That it was all a lucky mistake that he somehow got in with no knowledge of doing so? “Everyone signs up, so I guess I was just following the trend.” He quickly lies.

Ranboo wasn’t much of a liar. Back when he was smaller—actually small and not just regressed—he was told off for lying. The caretakers that he found himself with were quick to shut down anything that sounded dishonest. A slap on the wrist was always waiting for him back then.

Phil accepts the lie with a hum, wings shifting on his back as they walk. “I hope it wasn’t a split second thing, mcc isn’t the type of competition you can sign up on a whim.” The other states, pausing at a crossroads.

Ranboo’s mouth goes dry at the words. Now you tell him, when he’s already here and too deep in to back out. “Of course not.” He says, pitch off kilter as they walk across the street. A building with large windows comes up, people inside chatting and or working. Phil opens the door for him, letting him go first. It would have been appreciated if Ranboo wanted to go first, but the thought still counts. “Thank you.” He whispers as Phil closes the door behind himself. A soft click sounding out as the door closes.

“No problem mate.” The older man says with a smile, turning to face the inside of the building. No one stopped to look at them, carrying on with what they were doing. Ranboo is very much thankful for that fact. “Scott!” Phil calls to a teal haired man, one that Ranboo recognizes. How can he not? He’s the one who sealed Ranboo’s fate all those days ago.

Scott looks over, a kind smile on his face as they head over towards him. Purple and magenta particles scatter in the air around him. “Phil, hello. What can I do for you? You're usually one of the first ones to register.” Phil chuckles at that as he gestures towards him. Ranboo ducks his head down, the floor looking very intriguing right now.

“Just came to run some things by you. Showing Ranboo around as well, so he can get himself registered.” Scott nods, turning towards him.

He puts his hand out to shake. “Nice to meet you Ranboo. I hope the train wasn’t too harsh on you.” Ranboo once again found himself staring at the others’ hand. Ink-like patterns crossed his skin in rays of cool colours. It looked like the galaxy itself painted the man’s arm. There’s not much else you can expect from a pure blooded starborne he guesses.

Ranboo’s left hand inches up, intent on sucking his thumb or doing something . Because the fog around his head was getting thicker, laging his mind behind. Luckily he catches the eyes of two people waiting before it’s too late. He redirects his hand, putting it out for the other. Scott smiles, none the wiser, and shakes his hand.

“N-nice to meet you too.” He says with more caution he’s ever put into talking in his entire life. He’s regretting ever leaving his room now, maybe he could have faked sickness.

Scott let’s go and points off to a counter near the front of the building. “You can head over there to get registered Ranboo. A Nox crew personnel should be free to help you with anything you need.” He nods quickly to the man, shuffling over. The thought of running and hiding is in the forefront of his mind as he makes it to the counter, the personnel coming up in front of him.

He glances over at them, hands fidgeting with his tail. “What can I help with?” The person says, a smile on their face. Ranboo grimaces, tongue feeling heavy in his mouth.

“Registrations?” He questions his own words, thankful that his little voice has decided not to show yet. He’s pretty good at keeping it at bay, hidden. This shouldn’t be too bad, right? The Nox member nods as they grab a few papers and a pen. They hand them over. Ranboo takes them, sadly having to let go of his tail.

“Just fill those out to the best of your ability. Anything you don’t understand you can come back over and I can explain. There’s tables and chairs over there—“ They point off towards a sitting area, someone already sitting over there. “—for you to sit in. Good luck!” Ranboo nods silently, moving forwards towards an empty space.

He quickly sits once he finds a seat, clicking the pen as his eyes turn downwards towards the paper. It looked sort of like the papers he would have to fill out before a BedWars match. He sighs as he starts the paper. Ranboo pauses however at the name section, where there’s to lines instead of one.

There was a place to put it in your mother language, not just Common. Does he write his name in Ender too? He racks his brain for the spelling for a couple seconds before nodding to himself and jotting it down. And it goes on like that for a few more questions. It's easy enough, it’s what’s expected in a questionnaire.

He clears a whole page, happy with himself. But his luck runs out when he turns it over and is met with crap . Now Ranboo was fluent in Common, but actually reading and writing in it was a whole other department. He could handle easy words, things that he uses often enough to remember and commit the words and strang letters to memory. Then again Hypixle didn’t need you to read much.

That and his little space brain was distracting, lingering just close enough to throw him off but far enough that he was in the clear. Ranboo felt his hands stiffen on his pen, hands starting to shake. “What are some things that are mmm…mande-man…”

Ranboo felt his throat close up as he tried to sound out the word. He sighs as he moves onto the next question, hoping he knows all the words. And of course he didn’t, tongue getting twisted on yet another word. “Any diss..a-disa.” He huffs out a breath, shaking his head. “…or body res-ree, rester…” Ranboo let’s out a long groan, head hanging low.

He’s going to be here all day if this keeps up. He’s only on the second page! “Disabilities or body restrictions.” A new voice says from a little ways away. Ranboo whip’s his head to the side, eyes growing wide as he meets brown ones.

“Wa-what?” He squeaks out. And it’s warranted because sitting just a few seats away from him was Tubbo Underscore. The Tubbo Underscore, one of the only minors to ever get into mcc and his favourite perspective to watch ever .

Tubbo just smiles and gestures to the papers they both seem to have in their hands. “The words you're having trouble with are disabilities and restrictions, I’m on the part too.” He then holds up his own paper, showing the half done page.

“Oh…” he looks back down at the page, pen hovering over it. “Do you-uh, know what the ‘m’ word in the question above that one is?” He asks hesitantly. Tubbo looks back at the page with a hum.

“Mandatory.” He says simply, looking back over to make sure he read the right word. Ranboo nods to himself looking the questions back over. “Hey how about we work together!” Tubbo suddenly says, pointing over at him.

Ranboo jolts at the noise. “Work together?” He repeats, to which the other nods happily. He’s starting to realize he’s found himself in a social interaction and he’s frickin terrified. How do you talk to someone you literally look up to? Someone you’ve watched for months because there funny and nice and are good at what they do-

“Ya! Two brains are better than one, right? And there always changing the question formats so I can never memorize it.” Without saying yes—even though he fully extended to—Tubbo gets up from his seat and walks over, plopping himself down beside him.

Ranboo’s left spiraling at the sudden closeness of the other, wondering why on earth would Tubbo want to help him. “Th-thanks.” He gets out, to which the other just waves his hand around.

“No problem. I get how words can be fucking menaces. Oh and before I forget, my name is Tubbo.” The other says, smiling up at him. He was slightly confused at the words, wondering why the other was being so nice to him.

“Ranboo.” He says after a few seconds, eyes going back to look down at his page. “Common is so weird.” He mumble’s, to which makes the other chuckle.

“I take it that Common isn’t your mother tongue.” Tubbo says, not at all agitated by the fact. It’s weird how much the other just goes along with this. Ranboo nods, ears tilting downwards. He knows it’s not his fault but it’s embarrassing that he can’t read at times, or even write. His Common is scattered most of the time with misspellings he doesn’t even catch.

Marge had helped him in the beginning when no one else would, and after getting the basics down he stopped really trying. He had to focus on BedWars and he can’t do that if he’s trying to learn how to read and write better. “That’s okay.” Tubbo says suddenly, eyes looking over his face. “Common is mine and I still get confused sometimes. Nothing to be upset about.”

Ranboo looks over at the other teen, wondering where all the nice words have come from. “I guess.” At the short answer Tubbo bumps his head against his shoulder, surprisingly softly for the other literally having horns.

“Yep! Now let’s get on with this crap before we’re here all day.” And with that Ranboo finds himself working alongside Tubbo in completing the registration papers. Any time he found himself stuck on a word Tubbo would tell him what it was and anytime the other found a word he couldn’t say properly Ranboo helped the best he could.

There were a couple times neither one of them knew what a word was and helped sound it out until they thought they got it right. Soon enough they got to the end, handing both their pens and papers over to the Nox crew personnel. “Thank you Tubbo, uh-“

“It’s Ranboo.” He said to the Nox crew member. The personnel nods, quickly writing something down next to him. After a few seconds he looks back over to the two.

“And Ranboo. I’ll get these in straight away.” The two nod at the other before walking away. Ranboo looks across the room to Phil and Scott, who were still chatting between each other. Does he go over and say he’s done? Will that interrupt the two?

He doesn’t get a choice in the matter before Tubbo’s talking, his cheery voice pulling him away. “Would you like a tour? I know being new can be jarring.” Tubbo says, making him look down at the boy.

“Oh, you don’t have to.” He mumbles, blinking owlishly at the other. “I came here with Phil, I don’t know if he’ll approve of me just walking off…” Tubbo snorts at the answer, grabbing his hand and tugging him forward. Ranboo struggles not to trip over his legs as he’s tugged along.

“Nonsense! Plus it’ll be fun and Phil is hardly a hard ass.” Tubbo says, starting to ramble. “Phil! I’m taking Ranboo off your hands!” He then yells, to which the elytain and the starborne look over at the two. At seeing Ranboo’s confused and rattled expression Phil chuckles.

“It seems like you’ve met Tubbo.” He notes to him. Ranboo hums, looking down as the hybrid grips at his clawed hands. “Well don’t let me stop you two, I’ll be at the training grounds later today if you need me.” And with that Tubbo took off, Ranboo slightly tripping over himself as he had to hunch down.

~*^*~

He doesn’t know how but in the small amount of time he’s been with Tubbo he thinks he’s been kidnapped. The younger male after telling Phil he was being taken , had dragged Ranboo off towards the parks he had gotten a vague glance at.

He guesses this was the others idea of a ‘tour’, which was showing him around one of the bigger parks. He couldn’t actually tell if this was a big park as he hadn’t seen the others, but he does know he’s fallen in love. “And this is my favourite trail!” Tubbo yells, pointing down a dirt path.

There were trees littered around the sides, flowers blooming up from any patch of grass they could. It was like a rainbow had sprouted up from the ground itself. “It’s…nice.” He hums in thought, hand still clasped in Tubbo’s. He doesn’t think the other was going to let him go.

“I know, it’s the most colourful area’s I’ve seen! I come here after training sometimes, to relax.” Tubbo points out as they start to head down it. He understands why to, it really is beautiful. 

“Is that why you brought me over?” He asks, looking around at all the foliage in awe. He heard about the training from Phil, he’s still wondering if it’s mandatory. He would like to know. If he regresses he’ll like to just be able to leave, like, at any time he needs.

Tubbo shrugs, fluff covered ears flicking at the side of his head. “That and another thing…” Ranboo looks back over to him, head tilting in confusion. Tubbo is a very confusing person, he has to say.

Tubbo’s ear flicks again, eyes craning over the trail. “And that other thing is?” He asks, looking over the other.

“I wanted to be your friend!” Tubbo shouts, face tinting a light pink. “When I saw you got into mcc I was kinda happy…I’ve watched some of your BedWars games from the spectre cam. They don’t focus on you much, but I’ve seen you play and your good so I thought I’d see if I could talk to you…”

Okay so that’s a lot . Ranboo knew of spectre cams, cameras that roam around the area to film the players. He has to sign off on being filmed but he never thought he’d have fans, as sparse as it must have been. “You…watch my games?” He couldn’t help the swell of happiness and fear that went through his chest.

Tubbo watches his games, Tubbo . His favourite mcc player, oh god- “ya.” Tubbo says, looking up at him. “Sorry if that’s weird.” Ranboo shakes his head, eyes growing wide.

“No-It’s not weird! I’m kinda a big fan of your mcc games so…” He covers his face with his free hand, ears flicking in embarrassment. 

He can hear the other let out a shocked laugh. “So we’re both fans of each other!” Tubbo yells, swinging their arms. The childish action makes the fog Ranboo had been dealing with this whole time grow thicker. “Oh now we’re definitely friends!”

“Friends huh?” He says, peeking out from between his fingers. Ranboo doesn’t really do friends, except for Marge. But she’s more of a parental figure who’s trying to save him from getting himself killed more than anything. He still remembers this one time that Marge made him do a spa day with her, stating that ‘no boy of hers is going to go around with dirt underneath his nails’.

So with that in mind, he doesn’t know why Tubbo would want to be his friend. He gets being a fan, he doesn't get actually wanting to hang out. He isn’t complaining but like, why? Tubbo pauses, looking up at him. “I mean if you want to be?” He says slowly, hesitation lingering on him.

And-Tubbo had just asked to be friends with him, after only just meeting each other. Ranboo would question the others' strangely fast attitude towards wanting to be friends if his mind was clear. But he doesn’t , because it wasn’t . His little brain was getting harder and harder to push away and it practically purred at the thought of friendship with his favourite mcc player.

He spent too many hours curled up under a blanket, pacifier in his mouth as he cheered on Tubbo in his games and practice runs that were televised. “I would like to be friends.” He says, head lowing to hide his hopeful look.

“Awesome!” Tubbo cheers, hurrying forward and once again dragging him behind. “We’re friends now, and as friends I have to show you the axolotl pond!” He’s starting to think Tubbo’s less interested in actually showing him around the server and is more interested in showing him cute things instead.

His little brain wasn’t complaining, and he was slightly scared of that fact.

Chapter Text

The axolotl pond was the best thing Ranboo’s ever seen in his whole life, even above some very good floating islands in Hypixel. Because unlike Hypixel the pond was filled with cute little creatures . It was adorable, it was amazing, it was—

“And this is Bib.” Tubbo says, cutting Ranboo’s train of thought. He looks over at the grazing axolotl the boy was pointing to. It was a deep blue, bordering purple with orange side bits he didn’t know the name of. It was also very slow compared to the others, its colour was also not as vibrant. But it seemed to not care one bit as it searched for worms in the pond's water.

He suppressed a childish whine as he replied back. “Is he sick?” He couldn’t help but question the look of the animal, shuffling closer to get a better look.

Tubbo shook his head, not seeming to pick up on the tinge of his voice, now a bit changed. “He’s just old.” He said, dipping his hand into the water. Some of the axolotl’s in the area swam away but Bib just floated closer. Head bumping in with Tubbo’s hand. Ranboo let out a low and breathy ‘awww’ at it. “He was here the first game I came to.”

Ranboo hummed, eyes staring down at the cute animal as it swam away over to a more green and shaded part of the pond. “W-really?” He stuttered as they got up off the ground.

Tubbo just nodded, taking his hand in his once more as they started to walk down the path again. “Yep! He was the biggest, I was a bit hesitant at first to stick my hand in the water. But he was a little blue charmer!” The other rattled on as they seemed to be turning back towards the housing part of the server.

Ranboo’s other hand found itself up to his mouth without his knowledge, finger just brushing his lower lip as he talked with the other. Tubbo would look up at him, eyes darting all over him without saying so much as a comment. “I think the training grounds should be next.” He declares, speeding up in their strides.

He just hummed as he was pulled along the path. Soon enough the greenery faded to man made areas and the path became concrete, their shoes clicking along it as they walked. Tubbo through the whole thing just chatted about the games and how they were so different when you were actually playing them and not just watching.

He would have paid more attention if it wasn’t for the fact his headspace was dangerously close and he didn’t have a bone in his body that told him it was probably time to leave and head back to where he’s staying. He wanted to stay with Tubbo, he was nice and helped him with things he was too scared to ask help about.

A hand squeeze from the other brings him back from his thoughts, causing his hand to drop from his lip and back to his side. He looked down at the shorter boy, raising a brow in confusion. “Where here.” He announced, waving at the gates to the training grounds. Ranboo looks over at the arches, Noxcrew memories weaving in and out of them.

His eyes widened at the bit he could see of the grounds, colourful and so very much scratching his little brain. This isn’t good at all. “It’s really big.” He notes as they walk forward. He eyed the huge board at the front, cautions and rules laid out before him. Most were explanatory like ‘No running with swords in the non commanded parts of the training grounds’ and ‘Be aware of your surroundings’.

One caught his eye however, and not because some of the words were harder to read. The words ‘If you are unable to take care of yourself, i.e; injured, sick and or regressed, report to either a teammate or a Noxcrew member’ were written like all the rest, not sticking out but not hidden either. It was just there , one of the rules and safety regulations.

He has to be dreaming. “-boo? Ranboo, you okay?” Tubbo chuckled, hands waving in front of his face. He blinked a couple times, turning his head away from the board and over to Tubbo.

“Ye-yea. Just a little spaced out, sorry.” He mumbled. He really needed to leave now, he can’t be caught regressed here. Obviously the sign was some kind of rude and crazy trick, it wouldn’t be the first time he thought a space was little positive only to prove him wrong at the worst moment. “I don’t actually think I’m up to go into the training grounds today.” He admits, pushing his ‘big boy voice’ out and trying to smother any attempts his brain tries to get him to be little.

It’s involuntary most of the time if not every time, but he can at least stay at an older age until he’s in the safety of his room. Tubbo’s frown made him want to take everything back the moment he saw it. However the other covered it up quickly with a smile. “Oh, okay! That’s fine, I wasn’t really liking the whole training grounds thing either when I first came here. A bit overwhelming. Do you want me to walk you back to the Red Rabbits house?” And-

Well, he really shouldn’t take the other up on the offer. He’s teetering on the edge of a cliff in his mind, each way he turns only serving to unsteady him. But Ranboo doesn’t know the way back, not by the sidewalks. And he doesn’t think he’ll make the long walk through the park again. “Yes please.” He accepts the offer, Tubbo nodding as they turn around.

Only to be met with Dream and the captain’s, Puffy and Sparklez. Ranboo’s blood drops, his skin turning paler than any ghost on tv. It wasn’t because he was face to face with mcc’s last victor, Dream. He knew the man was here and was going to walk around like he owned the very ground they walked on. It wasn’t Dream that stopped him in his tracks, it was Captain Sparklez.

You see Ranboo had a problem with not going to bed on time, blame it on his childish excitement not letting him sleep. Near bedtime was the only time he could really regress, but he knew he had to get to bed. So what did he do? He watched Captain Sparklez until he fell asleep, dozing off to the sound of the man’s voice.

Like most people here he had his own show centred around server hopping and playing games. A ‘gaming channel’ if you think about it. He was also very child friendly and very much talking to him oh god what is he saying—

“-ight?” He caught the end of whatever Sparklez was saying, a smile on his face that was looking for a reply. A reply he didn’t know how to give because he wasn’t paying attention. If he was balancing on a cliff, then the older man climbed up there with him and kicked him right off, sending him plummeting downwards into his headspace. His brain was mush, overwhelmed as the sounds of the contestants behind him raged on in the training grounds.

His stomach twisted uncomfortably in anxiety, sending his tail whipping back and forth as he looked from the Sparklez to the two others standing with him. They stood with pinched expressions, worried. Why were they worried? And most importantly, can they stop staring! Something burned in his head, primal in the way any instincts presented himself,

And oh god please tell him he’s not about to fall into his instincts, not now, not when he practically feels like crying and throwing up at the same time. “Ranboo you okay?” Tubbo spoke up from beside him, hand resting on his arm. It soothed just as much as it burned.

“⌿⌰⟒⏃⌇⟒ ⌇⏁⍜⌿ ⌇⏁⏃⍀⟟⋏☌ ⏃⏁ ⋔⟒.” He pleaded, voice layering over itself as he froze up. He was sure his eyes turned into even thinner slits, if the three adults tensing up was anything to go by. Tubbo looked lost, honestly they all did.

Before he could completely fall into his instincts along with his headspace Dream turned his head to the side, eyes moving off of his own. “⌇⍜⍀⍀⊬! ⍙⟒ ⎅⟟⎅⋏’⏁ ⋔⟒⏃⋏ ⏁⍜ ⌇⏁⏃⍀⟒, ⌇⊑⍜⎍⌰⎅ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⏃⌇☍⟒⎅.” He apologized quickly, Ranboo’s mother language broken and butchered on the human's tongue. The familiarity was enough to push his instincts down a bit, his heart fluttering with the words.

It’s been so long since he’s heard someone else speak his language. “Don’t look at his eyes.” Dream then says to the others, back to Common. Puffy and Sparklez seem quick to understand as they look away from his face, Tubbo just looking even more confused. After all, he’s been looking at him all day. But it’s too much now, everything’s too much .

“S-sowy.” He blushes, taking a step back. His ears flatten against his head, his tail winding itself between his legs.

“It’s okay, we’re the ones that should be apologizing.” Puffy says, a soft smile on her face. Yep, that was definitely dangerous.

Thankfully Tubbo came to the rescue, taking his hand on his own. “Yell I’m sure we can train together another day, Captain's! But we were actually heading back now, probably for the rest of the day. You know, read up on the games before we head to the ground and all that.”

“Oh of course! Sorry to stop you two.” Sparklez says, waving. His hands in front of himself. He turned his body towards him, keeping his gaze to the left. “I hope to see you around Ranboo, preferably not in sky battle. I’ve seen what you can do above a void.” He jokes, Puffy ushering them away.

With a small wave and a very confusing conversation done Ranboo turns to face the front as Tubbo leads him away. He wanted to say something, to thank him maybe? He had no idea what that was, but he really didn’t trust his voice at the moment. “I’m sorry I overwhelmed you.” Tubbo speaks up, eyes forward.

Ranboo tilts his head in confusion, making a questioning noise in the back of his throat. It sounded more enderman than he would have liked. Tubbo kept his head forward though, not seeming to care about the inhuman sound. “I’ve seen people get overwhelmed a lot, sensory overload and all that jazz. I know I can be a lot, just say next time if you're getting overwhelmed and I’ll calm it, okay?”

He can only nod as they walk side by side. He wants to say it wasn’t the others fault, that it was entirely his own. But he can’t trust it, can’t trust himself. He was practically a tall child being dragged along by a stranger bordering on a friend. There is too much at stake if he gets found out and kicked out of the competition.

He hasn’t paid his rent this month, if he doesn’t win this competition he’s homeless. And being homeless in Hypixel is a death sentence.

~*^*~

Tubbo left him at the house, saying they’ll meet back up at the training grounds tomorrow. It was still pretty early in the day, the sun almost at its peak but Ranboo felt weak . He was practically a tall toddler by the time he closed the door, locking it behind himself. He didn’t have a key but it was unlocked, which is a bit concerning. But that’s for older him, not seven year old him.

Ranboo navigates the house as well as you would suspect, like a baby deer on stilts. It takes an embarrassingly long time to get up to his room but when he does he dives for his bed. He’s very thankful for the softness of everything now, his head falling into the pillow with ease. He wanted to fall asleep right then and there, but his clothes were restricting and itchy.

He whined to himself, rolling over and his back as he unbuckles his belt and throws it off the bed. Next to go was his suit top, the black fabric joining his belt on the floor. After that he reaches into his pocket, taking out his small doll. He gazes up at it as he holds it above his head.

It stares back with its blank black button eyes. “I can’t do this.” He whispers, voice sluggish with childish hints. “I-I can’t do this.” He’s whining now, but he can’t help it. “There’s so many people, I have a team . Th-they support regression…” His chest restricts then, his voice getting caught in his throat. He feels himself dropping further into his headspace, heat burning behind his eyes.

He’s overwhelmed and he’s not in his bed, he’s here , where nothing makes sense. Ranboo holds his doll closer to his chest, turns on his side and curls up into a little ball. It just…soothes him. He pushes the doll to rest against his chin, ears flattening against his head as he just lays there.

He wants his pacifiers, his own bed, to be back in Hypixel. He wants but he can’t have . It isn’t fair! He looks down at his doll, it’s head tilting to the side. “…Don’t do that.” He says, pushing the head back up. It falls back to the side. “…nu.” He pushes himself up, moving his doll around so it’s head was up again.

It fell to the side once more.

“Come on…” He whines to himself, frowning. “Don’t be sad.” Ranboo looks around the room, spotting his suitcase in the corner. He shuffles to the edge of the bed and gets up, walking over to it. He opens his case and gets out his pacifier, stuffing it into his mouth. He quickly climbs back into his bed.

“See I’m not sad so you can’t be sad.” He holds the doll up to his face, mumbling around the object in his mouth. The head doesn’t roll to the side. Ranboo smiles, sucking periodically on his pacifier. After that he lifts the blankets over himself and curls up into a ball.

He hugs the doll and wraps his tail around his leg. Closing his eyes braught a sort of calm he didn’t expect and soon enough so did sleep.

~*^*~

Ranboo woke up to a soft knock on his door, a voice following right after it. “Ranboo? Are you okay? You’ve been in your room for awhile now.” It was Wilbur, who sounded very worried. Of course Ranboo couldn’t pick up on it with his hazy mind as he mumbled out a tierd reply. “Sorry I didn’t get that.”

He sighs, pushing himself up onto on elbows. Ranboo looks over at the door, scorning it with his eyes. It’s a hassle to get out of the mess of blankets he was under but he manages, walking over to the door. He opens the door with his left hand, something being clutched with the right.

The second he opens the door he gets the feeling that something is wrong. Wilbur’s once concerned face switches to one of confusion, quickly turning to one of surprisie a second after. “Oh, we’re you uh…” Wilbur stops, voice ever so soft. He looks down to what was in the hand.

Ranboo goes to question it, but when he opens his mouth something falls out, landing on the floor with a thud. He looks down, wondering what on earth it was. He swears if he lost a tooth in front of Wilbur Soot he was going to-

His eyes land on his pacifier, the one that was just in his mouth. He looks back up to Wilbur. Now if he was fully out of his headspace he would have probably stuttered out an excuse or slammed the door and hit for the rest of mcc, but he wasn’t, and he didn’t. So instead of doing the sane thing, Ranboo got upset.

Which is another way of saying he started to cry, cuz his life couldn’t possibly get worse.

Wilbur immediately started to panic, hands reaching out and hovering over him as he tries to calm him down. Possibly? “Shit, don’t cry! I’m sorry for whatever I did to upset you. I uh- I didn’t know you were regressing.” He couldn’t help the high pitched and very inhuman whine that came from him, tail squeezing his leg in an attempt to calm himself down.

The other bent down and picked up his fallen pacifier, handing it out to him. Ranboo didn’t take it, instead backing up into his room. “I-I-.” He sniffles, hand reaching up to rub at his eyes. No one was supposed to know about this, know about him. But of course he had to mess everything up, open the door with a fricken pacifier in his mouth .

“You-you weren’t supposed to know .” He whines, biting the inside of his cheek.

Wilbur frowns, a questioning look overcoming him. The look just made him take another step back. “I won’t tell anyone if that’s what you want.” He quickly says, moving the pacifier in his hand closer to him. “It’s not my place to say anything, uh, I’m sorry again. Do… Do you want me to leave?” The awkwardness of the other for some reason soothed Ranboo’s own panic.

He expected anger, not confusion. “Your…not mad.” He states, taking his pacifier hesitantly.

Wilbur’s brows furrowed at that, his back straightening a bit. “Why would I be mad?”

“C-cuz everyone is.” He sniffles, pocketing both items. He can’t explain the look he gets from the other at that, only that Wilbur didn’t seem very happy. “You should go.” He urges, itching to close the door. His headspace was moving away, like clouds after a storm.

The more he stood here the more clearer everything became. That also meant the more it dawned on him that he doesn’t want to be standing here. Wilbur seems to take the hint as he steps back, looking away from him. “Ya, I’ll go. The others should be back soon, if you're wondering. Should I tell them you won’t be down for dinner?”

“…Yes.” With that Ranboo closed the door and immediately crumbled to the ground.

Chapter Text

Maybe locking himself in his room wasn’t such a good idea, but Ranboo didn’t know what else to do. He could hear his teammates laughing and shouting, utensils clicking against plates and overall having fun. All when he’s up here, his back pushed up against the door wanting nothing then to be back in his own bed at Hypixel.

It wasn’t because he didn’t like it here either. The server was so pretty and welcoming. There were so many people he watched on television walking the streets, like this wasn’t a one in the lifetime opportunity for him. He even made friends, Tubbo and Bib.

But someone here now knew his secret and he didn’t know how to feel about it. Wilbur, his teammate, someone he’s supposed to rely on in the games now knows he regresses. It’s a game changer, surely. Ranboo wasn’t embarrassed by it, but that didn’t stop the pain it would inadvertently inflict onto him.

When he was little he wasn’t as sharp, as good as he could be. He’s regressed before in BedWars, never on purpose. Each time it lost him the game, each time people would look at his skill and call him nothing. It was worse when someone found out, when they looked at him weirdly or as an inconvenience.

It’s worse, he thinks, when they understand yet don’t to the point they treat him like a child when he isn’t regressed. Wilbur knows and he doesn’t think which pile he’ll fall under. Ranboo’s alone and he’s regretting ever coming to this server.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

~*^*~

The second he hears everyone in the house leave for the day is when Ranboo actually gets up from his blanket cocoon. His limbs are sore from curling in so tightly but he ignores it, moving on with his morning routine. Ranboo undresses, shoves his pyjamas away before changing into something more free. Meaning his suits are left in the closet, untouched for the day.

He wasn’t going to train and possibly stain or wreak his suits on the first day of actually going into the training grounds. He’ll wait for the actual championship to wear them. For now it was grey joggers and a dark blue long sleeved shirt. With a hair band to keep his hair back and away from his face.

Next was deciding what he needed to bring. The days following coming here were filled with talking to Marge about what he needed and shyly asking the booth person he sighed at about what he should expect. Turns out the server lets you borrow everything and even makes fitting armour and clothing for you to play in if your measurements are different.

Which is a polite way of saying hybrids and origins don’t always fit human’s clothing. It was easier to think of what he would need keeping that in mind. There were really only two things he needed. His water medication and his doll, which he refuses to say he debated on bringing for a long period of time.

After he was all set Ranboo left his room, creeping down the stairs. Everyone was gone, but he really couldn’t be too careful. After making it to the bottom floor he walked over to the pantry, opening it to see what was there. He quickly spotted a loaf of bread and went to grab it, but before he could he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Ranboo stiffend, tail whipping to the side as his ears perked up, ready to listen in on whoever was there. He let his hand drift away from the bread as he looked over at the hallway. The door wasn’t in full view from his spot at the counter. After a few seconds a second knock came in.

“Ranboo it’s me! Tubbo!” At the familiar voice his instincts died down almost immediately, something warm flooding into his chest instead. Ranboo closed the pantry as he made his way over to the door.

He opened it, greetings already on his tongue. “Hey Tubbo!” He greeted, eyes adjusting to the morning shine outside. And when they did, his heart almost leaped out of his throat. Because on the sidewalk behind his friend stood Tommy, who he had thought left already.

“Hey Boo!” Tubbo waved, a huge smile on his face. Ranboo had no time to take in the nickname as the shorter boy grabbed his hand, tugging him out of the house. He stumbled a bit until he was fully out of the Red Rabbit’s house, eyes wide as he stared between the two other teenagers.

Tommy smiled when he set his eyes on him, walking over. “So you're finally awake.” The blonde commented, patting his shoulder. He couldn’t help but notice the set of keys in his hands as he walked past him, locking up the house behind himself. “Here I thought I’d be waiting here forever to lock up the house after you. Then Tubs comes along saying you two are going to be training together.”

The words smack him like a brick wall, leaving his mind reeling in thoughts. “You were… waiting for me?” He questioned, trying to stand up to his full height despite Tubbo now having ownership over his right hand.

The avian boy just nodded, turning around with a smug grin on his face. Like he knew something he didn’t and liked that fact. “Of course, you don’t have a key to lock up behind yourself, idiot.” Ranboo frowned slightly, eyes turning downwards. Well that’s one way to be called by the other.

Suddenly there was another hand grabbing at him, this time being hsi left hand. He looks up only to meet bright blue eyes. “Since you're an idiot I guess I’ll have to help Tubbo show you around the training area. Come on, there’s no time to waste!” With both sides of his limbs being captured Ranboo’s pulled forward, literally being dragged by the two.

“Y-you don’t have to!” He called, Tommy just shrugging right after.

Tubbo turns to him, eyes seeming to shine in the early morning light. “It’ll be so much fun Boo! Tommy and I will show you all the fun shit, we might even run into Phil and Wilbur!” Tubbo yells all happily, bouncing on the tips of his toes as they make their way across the sidewalk.

Ranboo blinks at the two, his lips quivering a bit upwards. Maybe being called an idiot isn’t that bad if Tommy’s the one doing it. And maybe hanging out with the others will be fun, he trusts Tubbo’s judgment.

~*^*~

The rules sign was taunting him, masking as safety when in reality it was sending stabbing shivers down his spine. He wondered if anyone else payed so much mind to it, or if it was only him. Ranboo didn’t have much time to agonize over the rules board as Tommy and Tubbo tugged him over the the arch leading to the grounds.

Noxcrew personnel were buzzing around, two members standing beside the arches. The two others slowed down in front of them. “We’re here!” Tommy announced, throwing his arms up at the arches. Ranboo looked up at them, the air around them a bit blurry. Camands, he notes. The words were unreadable to him, but it wasn’t because he wasn’t well versed in Comman.

The words were in a different language then the two he knows of. Tubbo must have noticed him looking at them as he nudged Tommy, drawing the blonde’s attention back to the group. “There just slightly numbing commands.” Tommy speaks up, pointing upwards. “There are others around specific training areas that are stronger, these are just to make sure you don’t get badly hurt if you're just walking around.”

Ranboo nodded, turning away from them. “Makes sense.” He says, facing forward. People are wielding swords and other equipment in there, it would be a surprise if no one got into an accident at all. With that he turns his attention forward and takes a calming breath in. You can do this, it’s just training. “Let’s go.” Tommy and Tubbo nod, walking forward underneath the arches.

Ranboo follows closely behind, his skin tingling as he reaches right underneath the arches. It wasn’t as suffocating as they were in Hypixel. But they still put him on edge nonetheless. The second they cross the arches he looks up to examine his surroundings. What he comes to see is a giant street, the edges littered with small arenas and obstacle courses. It looks like a giant play place and not like the heavy and hot training rooms he’s known for ignoring at home.

Tommy brings them to a small building, just two stories tall. Banners lined the outside with the words ‘Equipment And Outfitting’ virtually. Tubbo and Tommy open the doors for him, Ranboo having to duck down to not hit his head off the top. It was smaller and less vibrant than the other colourful buildings he’s seen so far. It looked older too, probably hasn't been remodeled for taller hybrids yet.

He turns to his friends - are they actually friends now? He knows he’s friends with Tubbo at least - with a questioning look. Tubbo sees this, answering his silence. “It’s for our equipment!” He says gleefully, ignoring the looks he gets from the people here. At least they don’t seem to be rude, everyone here acts like this is an everyday thing, yelling at the top of your lungs. “It’s dangerous to be walking around with no armour on, so everyone gets leather until the actual competition where we get our uniforms.”

They got uniforms? Back home you went into the competition with what’s on your back, nothing fancy even for the camera. Ranboo takes that as his cue to look around more, eyes roaming the place. It was an open concept, armour lining the walls with a height chart in the corner. Measuring-tapes left scattered on the floor haphazardly. There was one desk however, a huge book on top of it.

He’s stopped from looking around more as Tommy takes his wrist and drags him over to the desk, a Nox member moving things around on the other side. “Hello!” Tommy greets, causing the poor member to jolt. They look up to them, a smile forming on their face quietly.

“Hello Tommy, Tubbo.” They pause, looking up at him. They squint their eyes like doing so would give them an answer to their silent question. “Ranboo?” Ranboo’s eyes widened, shocked that the other got it right. They just chuckle, already flipping the huge book in front of them open. “Not used to getting new people in here!” They say, stopping on a page. “So I tend to memorise the names of the new ones who show up.”

They scan the page, frowning a few seconds after. “Tommy, how many times do I have to remind you that your not six three-“

“I so am!” Tommy yells, cutting them off. Tubbo giggles from beside him, his fuzzy tail wagging quickly. “It says so right on the paper, see.” He points to the page with an aggressive tap. Ranboo leans closer, reading the page over. It was information on Tommy’s height, physical limitations and strengths. He quickly looked away from it, someone bad curling in his gut. That’s private information, he doesn’t need to be looking at it.

It was weird however, he didn’t need to fill out his own limitations and strengths. Maybe it was something that was collected over the competition for each month's games to come? “We get you to fill out your height each month, Tommy. Need I remind you of what could happen if your gear doesn’t fit you? You can have loose pants and they could fall while we’re live. Do you want thousands of people to see you pantsless?”

At that Tommy reels back, a scowl on his face. “Of course not! That’s only for my many future wives-“

“What’s your height Tommy.” The Nox member interrupts him, a deadpan look on their face.

Tommy deflates, shoulders slumping as he leans in to whisper it in the others’ ear. He looks down at Tubbo, wondering if this happens all the time. At the nod he gets back, it does. After the two were done and his height was fixed the worker takes out a notepad and writes down a few things before flipping the pages once more. They end at Tubbo’s page, Ranboo catching the words ‘Have stretchier and alternative pant wear for better movements’ before he has the thought to look away.

He couldn’t help but think about it though. An unanswered question that has bugged him for a long time answered. Tubbo was a goat hybrid, his legs being a bit different then a humans. It wasn’t that hard to notice when the other was seen wearing shorts in interviews after the competitions. Ranboo always wondered how he walked around with normal pants that weren’t made for him, especially running and jumping while playing the games. Turns out he doesn’t need to question it anymore, they make them special for him.

Do they do that for everyone? He’s seen wing holes for both Phil and Tommy before from other people's cameras and the big viewer cam. So they had to of, right? “How the hell are you that tall!?” Ranboo’s shaken back to the present by both Tubbo and Tommy screaming. He looks over to the two. They were leaning over the desk, looking at what he assumes is his page. Well, there goes privacy. Chivalry is dead.

“I’m an endarian?” He replies, watching as they turn to him with wide eyes. Even the Noxcrew worker’s eyes were wide. They all look him up and down. Ranboo hunches his shoulder further down. “…I’m usually slouching, so it isn’t that noticeable.” He adds on, tail beginning to thrash from side to side anxiously. “I’m not even that tall for my race-“

“What!?” He flinches back, Tommy walking closer to look at him from all corners. “That’s not possible.” He whispers to himself, like people being taller than him was a crazy idea.

Thankfully the worker saves him then, closing the book as she takes her notebook with her as she rounds the desk. “Alright, let’s go get you guys your armour.” Tommy grumbles something underneath his breath as Tubbo takes his hand, leading him over to one of the walls. Red and white coloured leather armour sat hanging on the walls, some even in armour stands dotted around the place. They all had the Noxcrew logo on them.

“This is yours Tommy.” They say, pointing to one. Almost the whole back was exposed as the boy grabbed it off of its hook. His wings puff up as he grins at it. No one mentions the fact the armour was not made for a six three person. “And over here…” The worker takes a few steps to the side, looking at a few smaller fits. They look at their notepad for a few seconds before grabbing one off of the hook. “Should be Tubbo’s.”

Tubbo takes his, looking it over. Ranboo looks down at the pants, seeing them shaped differently from most of the others. “Thanks!” Tubbo grins, feeling the stretcher pants.

The worker just nods, turning to walk to a different wall. They all follow closely behind until they stop at the longest armour pieces here. “Since this is our first time fitting you we made a couple different fits.” They mention as they pull one off of the hook. There were still a few fits around the same height as his, but we’re clearly made for other people. Since his looked to have a hole for his tail to go through and the others didn’t. “You boys can go over there on the benches to try them on.”

And with that the worker headed back to their desk, seeming to go back to what they were doing before they walked in. “Come on Boo.” Tubbo urged them forward over to the benches, setting down his armour pieces. The three started to put them on then, a quiet silence falling between them. Well, as quiet as you can get with Tommy silently cursing out his wing holes.

Ranboo looked over the armour he got hesitantly. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to put armour on, he’s done it lots of times before in a hurry in Hypixel. You couldn’t be slow while changing out armour while in a BedWars game. That just spelled disaster. He was hesitant about how it would fit and feel. Ranboo always had to wear smaller sizes that didn’t accommodate his tail. It hurt, frankly. 

He’s surprised he hasn’t gotten any lasting damage on his tailbone yet because of it. It also looked so new and high quality. He shakes out his hands quickly, grabbing his leggings and slipping them on over his pants. It was easy, too easy. Ranboo stands to tie the front, tail moving from side to side to test the back of it. It was really loose at the tail hole, not as snug as he thought it would be.

He thinks he must have been frowning because before he could even go to grab his chest plate Tubbo was looking over at him. “You okay big man?” He asks, concerned. At the question Tommy turns from tightening his chest plate.

Ranboo nods, trying to play off the fact the wide tail hole was kinda bothering him. This was already ten times better than what he normally wears. He can actually fit in his armour now. “Oh, y-yea I’m fine. The tail hole is a little loose, that’s all-“

He’s cut off by Tubbo standing, mouth snapping shut. He watches silently as Tubbo goes behind his back, grabs something on his leggings and pulls. All of the sudden the hole closes around his tail almost perfectly. “You could have just asked for some help adjusting it.” The shorter boy chuckles, looking over at him. Ranboo doesn’t say that he didn’t know that was a thing, keeping his mouth shut. “Is this good or do you want it tighter?”

“Umm…” He moves his tail a bit more, the two watching him as he tests out the comfortability. “A bit tighter, please?” He asks, Tubbo just nodding as he tightens it a bit. The other then ties it off for him, stepping away from behind him. “Thank you.” He says sincerely.

Tubbo waves him off, pointing to himself and Tommy. “Don’t mention it, Tommy and I have to adjust our stuff all the time. They make it so they can fit tails and wings in easily but make it hard for them to slip out.” Well, that makes a lot of sense.

“Good to know.” He murmurs as Tubbo and Tommy go back to suiting up. He quickly finishes with his own chest plate, tightening it around the waist. The other two finish shortly after him, leading him back to the desk at the front.

“You boy’s done?” The worker asks, looking them over. “Everything fits okay?” They all give their varying yes’s, being shooed off a second later. Ranboo opens the door for them this time, closing it bending him. The sun hits his face, warming up his skin. He looks out across the giant street, wondering what they were going to do first.

“𝙹⍑, ⍑ᒷ|| Ranboo!” He hears someone shout, turning his head to the right to see who it was. Of course, it was Dream. At his name being yelled Tommy and Tubbo looked over also, eyes widening when they catch who it is. Or more importantly, who’s also there. While his two friends see familiar faces, Ranboo sees a threat. Walking over was Dream, the two captain’s, Phil, Nihachu and the worst of them all, Wilbur. Wilbur was walking towards him. The very same man he didn’t want to run into after last night.

…Crap.

Chapter Text

Ranboo couldn’t help but feel he’s been caught doing something bad as the group of people walk over. Dream, Captain Puffy and Sparklez, Phil, Nihachu and Wilbur. Every single one caused something unwanted to stab into him. Either from familiarity, awe or complete and utter fear. Wilbur’s was easy to make out as they got closer. Immediately he’s thinking over an excuse that wouldn’t make him out to be some lame teen in front of his idols.

“I didn’t think we’d see you three together.” Puffy says, startling him out of his plan making. He looks back over towards the group, mouth falling open as he stares at them. Dream stopped a few steps in front of him, the others following suit. They all wore some type of workout outfit. With jogging pants, sweat shirts and their hair somehow out up. They all looked brand new. 

His clothes were old, ripped, stained. He didn’t care about them, that's why he brought them with him. They’re workout clothes, meant to be disastrous. To sweat in and move as much as he pleased without the restrictions of sewed together fit clothes. Ranboo suddenly feels out of place standing next to Tommy and Tubbo. He looked like they'd found him on the side of the street.

Tommy and Tubbo begin a conversation with the captains and Phil. Their chatter almost drew him in. But the feeling of eyes on him draws his attention to three others. He flinches when a set of warm brown eyes meets him. Wilbur was staring at him. “You must be Ranboo.” A female voice drags him out of his future panic. He looks over, then downwards.

Standing beside Wilbur was Niki Nihachu. He’d seen her in the player list. A competitor, an obstacle. She’s played in the past. He hasn’t seen much of her but he knows she’s a strong team player. A wet hand is placed in front of him and he has to force himself not to immediately shake it. He stares at it for a few seconds then up to the merling. “You're wet.” He states, unsure if he should have said anything at all.

Nihachu’s ear fins flicker as they rise, a blush coming up to her face. “Sorry!” He takes her hand back like he’s burned her. “Forgot that you are an endarian.” She chuckles, wiping her hand on her soaked shirt. Like that would help clean her hand of the water.

“Wow Niki. Already trying to get rid of the competition?” Dream laughs, resting his elbow on her. She pushes him off, looking embarrassed. “The admins work fast but Niki works faster, hospitalising hundreds—“

“Don’t mind him.” Niki steps to the side, her gills flaring. “He’s just sad George went to train with Sapnap and not him.” Dream jolts. Eyes widening. Then before he knows if the two of them are passive aggressively arguing with each other. He would be more worried if it wasn’t for the fact they were both smiling. But then again, Dream always seemed to be smiling.

“Hey, Ranboo.” Wilbur says, somehow ending up standing beside him. He yells, jumping to the side. The phantom hybrid holds up his hands. “Sorry.” He says quickly, taking a step back. “Didn’t mean to scare you. Just wanted to check in. You weren’t at breakfast this morning.” Was this an interrogation? After last night he wouldn’t be surprised if the other hand changed his whole mind about him.

Finding someone sucking on a pacifier had to have been weird, awful. Humiliating on his part, definitely. Wilbur probably thought he was some freak they let in and was gathering information to make a case and get him kicked out. Or he was genuinely asking, which was a whole other unbelievable can of worms. Ranboo decided to run with it until he could run away from the situation all together.

It wasn’t the end of the world. If it was, then the world would be flooding over. He’s had people find out his secret in the past. He just needs to be careful from now on, give Wilbur nothing to work off of. That would be a one time slip up. “I wasn’t hungry.” He shrugs, hoping his lie goes unnoticed. The thought of food has him regretting ever leaving the team house before having breakfast.

Wilbur nods, a smile forming on his face. “Good, I thought you’d hide away in your room all day. Think you could get by without training like Tommy thought on his first day. That was a disaster.” Ranboo saw a conversation switch when he knew one.

“I train multiple times a week back in Hypixel.” He replies, hoping the other takes it and goes. Leave what has happened yesterday in a ditch or something. “I’m used to training.”

“Maybe Bed Wars training.” Wilbur’s eyes flash a lime green for a split second, his smile turning sharp. He looks over at the group of people. At Tommy and Tubbo chatting to the captains and Phil. At Niki and Dream arguing about the ethics of how water is used in the games. Why? He had no idea. “But you’ve never gone through mcc training and let me tell you, it's a whole different arena.”

Something flickers to life in his gut at the thought. He was used to thinking on the fly. The maps he played on changed all the time. New ones being added, old ones being taken out for fixes. Having to change your strategy the second your coms light up with your bed being destroyed. Ranboo was used to change. “I’m sure I can handle it.”

“And if you can’t.” Wilbur turns back to him, his sharp features turning softer. The lime colour in his eyes bleeds out to the warm browns he’s used to. “You can ask any one of us for help.” He finds himself nodding, feeling much like a bobble head. Okay then, he guesses he’s actually doing this then. Training in the mcc practice server. He never thought he’d see the day.

It’s then that Tommy turns towards them, hsi feathers puffed up and a determined look on his face. “Let’s all head to the training grounds!” And before he could properly process what was about to happen, Tubbo grabbed his arm and tugged him after the group.

He’s dragged across the main street. His eyes run over all the different training areas. “What—what are we going to do first?” He asks. There were a lot of options. None of them look familiar. But the flicker in him burns for more fuel. More fire to let it burn in his veins. He found himself feeling excited to find out what they were going to do.

Phil turns toward them at this. “Just the basics for today.”

“What!? Why!” Tommy yells, throwing himself into the conversation. “It’s not the first day. Look at all the things we could do.” He waves around for emphasis.

“Well.” Phil starts, looking much like a tired parent with two babies under two. “Ranboo hasn’t even been to the courses yet, this is his first time.” He says it like it was obvious, leaving him confused

Why did it matter that he hasn’t been here before? “You guys don’t have to slow down for me.” He pipes in. “I can handle whatever you guys want to do.” And to be completely honest, he really wanted to see what was offered. It looked fun, to put it simply.

Tubbo squeezes his hand. “Are you sure? We can take it slow and just do normal training exercises.” Looking over at the other, he’s met with the same look of concern. But there was something underneath it. Hope. It’s then that he remembers Tubbo was practically his only fan.

He smiles, nodding. “I’m not new to competitions.” He’s here for a reason and that’s because he believes he actually has a chance of winning. If he didn’t have a little confidence in himself, then he wouldn’t have gone all together. He would have stuck playing Bed Wars and cuddling with his cats back home. “Show me the courses you guys go on.”

They lead him to a parkour course. There was another command gate leading into the training course that sent shivers down his body. Everything was filled with colour, the walls, obstacles, rails. It looked like a playground. There were stretching areas near the front, some easy equipment next to it. And in the back was the start to a practice course. There wasn’t anyone here yet, probably having gone off towards the other things in the training ground.

“Everyone stretch.” Phil is quick to say, dragging Tommy over towards the mats. The avain whines as he’s forced to stretch with the other winged hybrid. Dream, Puffy and Nihachu follow. Tubbo brings him over towards a different mat before letting go of his hand. He starts to stretch, doing squats and mostly warming up his legs. Ranboo starts doing his own thing, twisting and popping the joints in his back to loosen up.

“Young people don’t need to stretch!” Tommy complains, his voice floating over towards them. “It’s just you, Puffy and Sparklez.”

Sparklez looks up from where he’s doing his own stretching, eyes narrowing. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He stiffens, gaze moving between the two. Confrontation was never his thing. He shuffles closer towards Tubbo, causing the other teen to look up.

Tommy grins, mischief gleaming in his blue eyes. “I mean, you three need to stretch because your joints will give out on the course if you don’t.” He states matter of factly. He made it sound so cocky, so true. “And I can prove it.” Tommy’s eyes lock with his one and he knows he’s done for. Doomed. Left to die because whatever the blonde had just came up with isn’t something he’s going  to want to do.

“How are you going to prove it?” Puffy asks, crossing her arms. She looks endeared to his antics. Ranboo’s terrified.

Tommy rise’s to his feet, using both of his hands to point at the three adults. “Me, Tubbo and Ranboo against you three. Whoever gets most of their team across the course in one lap is the victor.”

“More like the victim.” He mutters, tail slowly curling around his leg. In a rare occurrence of bravery, he opens his mouth to say no. To decline the very much ‘nice’ offer to him competing against his idols to prove a point. One that he doesn’t even believe in, might he add. Everyone needs to stretch or else you're going to pull something.

“I’m in!” Tubbo yells, interrupting him. He whips his head over towards the brunette, eyes wide.

“Oh you're going down, Tommy.” Phil chuckles, a determined look in his eyes. Sparklez and Puffy give their own excited replies, all getting up to move towards the actual course. He sighs, tail curling tighter around his leg. He guesses he’s doing this then…

A hand on his shoulder drops him from following the others. Looking up he’s met with Wilbur. “You don’t have to join them if you don’t want to, you can stay back with me, Niki and Dream if you just want to go over the hurdles and climbers.” He whispers. It’s considerate, which leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Why? Why give him the option? It was nice of him, truly, but why? Wilbur hardly knew him. “I’ll be fine.” He doesn’t say that he wants to, because he doesn’t want to do this silly competition. But it gets him on the course, so why not. He didn’t want to be a party pooper. Not when everyone else looked like they were so excited for this little game. “Don’t worry.” He has the feeling to add.

Wilbur lets him go then and he hurries after the others. He gets in pace with them and they stop at the beginning of the course. “So…” He looks over towards Tubbo, who’s practically jumping up and down. “Does Tommy get you into things like this often?”

“Oh definitely.” Tubbo laughs. “If he’s not scheming in his head then he’s bending down as he lets me in on whatever he has on his mind. This is just another Tommy moment.” The look Tubbo wears tells him this wasn’t and won’t be the first time he’s going to be dragged into things. Ranboo has the feeling this is his own first of many more ‘Tommy moments’. “Head up boss man, looks like we're starting.”

The light above the beginning arch went from red to yellow, everyone tensing and getting into a ready stance. Ranboo followed suit, willing his legs not to give out from underneath him from the nerves alone. He watches, eyes set in the light. The yellow flickers before snapping to green. With it people are immediately bursting forward. He’s stunned for a second, feet not moving. A literal cloud of dust was left in their tracks.

The only thing that went through his mind at that moment was how cool it was to be here in person, watching his idols race. “Green means go, Ranboo!” Dream yells over, chuckling.

He jolts, swearing. “Crap!” Ranboo takes off running after the others. He uses his legs for an advantage, already feeling a difference in the new armour. The leather didn’t restrict his movements as he was able to fully extend his legs. Just one lap, he reminded himself. He just needed to be better than three others for one lap. The first few sections of the course were just a long stretch, everyone in his sights.

With his long legs that he’s actually now able to use to their fullest potential, he rockets forwards. He catches up with Puffy first. She looks over at him, shocked for a few seconds before a warm smile comes up onto her face. He doesn’t know why she’s smiling when he’s about to overtake her. Maybe she has something up her sleeve, or is saving her energy for the other courses?

He doesn’t care to ask as he passes her. His heart is already beating rapidly in his ears, reminding him of back home. If competition. And that familiarity burns in his veins as he passes Sparklez. He looks back, because he can’t help himself, and spots Sparklez grinning from ear to ear. Again, he doesn’t know why. He just passes the man. A small hidden smile forms on his own face at the gesture however.

He shakes the feeling away quickly as he faces back to the front. The others are further away. Faster than the others here. Tommy was the closest to him, wings held tight to his back as he practically zoomed past Tubbo. Avian’s and elytrian’s were built for speed, but there was a difference. While elytrian’s were amazing in the air, avain’s were amazing on the ground. They matched each other when they were in their own domains, but when not they drew a line at who’s better. 

Tommy races past Phil, jumping over a hurdle. “Take second place!” He screams as he turns a sharp left, disappearing from sight. Ranboo could hear Phil laugh as he raced after the younger blonde. A hurdle comes up on him and Ranboo prepares, willing his limbs to follow instructions ingrained into him from his competitions. He makes the jump, launching himself over the hurdle before taking the path once more.

He comes up to suspend platforms. A foam pit underneath them. He groans, breathing heavily through his nose as he comes up to the first jump. He stills for a few seconds, looking over the path. Then he shoots forward and jumps. He could immediately feel the impact on his knees. They burn with stress and him not having enough time to stretch them. He ignores it as he jumps to the next platform, then the next.

Soon enough he’s on the other side feeling like he’s run through fire. “This isn’t like Bed Wars.” He huffs out, carrying on. His limbs burn and so do his lungs. He wasn’t used to long stretches of running. Nor was he used to jumping all over the place like a bunny. Something about it has his small smile growing on his face. He ignores the hurt, because it was just so fun. He’s never done this kind of thing before and it was amazing.

He couldn’t see Phil, Tommy or Tubbo anymore but he didn’t care. He was in the middle and if he kept the captains from passing him, then he’d win. Excitement blooms in his chest, making him feel lighter as he gets up to a rock climbing segment. He climbed all the way to the top with an unsteady balance and glee. He gets over it in good enough time, racing off once more. This was maybe better than Bed Wars. Ranboo sees a dip coming up, a sort of cliff. 

His excitement dies when he sees more of what was right in front of him. Ranboo stops running, tripping over his feet in the process as he crashes onto the ground. He slides a few feet towards the end of the drop. Finally stopping Ranboo scurry’s back, a loud endarian staticky yelp leaving him as he gets away from it. He hears footsteps coming from behind him slowing down to a stop.

He doesn’t bother to look up at who’s caught up as a tries not to die from his sudden panic. The person squats down. “Are you okay!? I saw you suddenly fall, it looked bad.” It was Captain Sparklez, of course it was him. He doesn’t reply right away as he tries to catch his breath. His eyes set on the small cliff leading into a pool. A pool filled with water. Which he can’t touch. Oh god, he almost jumped into water without any of his enchantments or medication in his system.

That would have taken him fully out of the competition. “What’s going on?” A new voice comes over, the sound of hooves hitting concrete telling him it was Puffy. “What happened?“

“Ranboo crashed.” Sparklez replies. He places his hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly. Puffy moves in front of him, squatting down. She keeps her eyes on Sparklez, thankfully. “I don’t know what caused it, maybe a sprained ankle?” At that Puffy looks down at saod ankles.

He should say something, make them get back into the race. They were still competing after all. They needed to win. You always needed to win. If you don’t that means no dinner, no canned food for your cats, no paying your rent. Which leads to being homeless on the streets. With him practically out, they could win. “I ᔑᒲ ⎓╎リᒷ” He stutters out. Hoping they could get the hint and go.

Puffy and Sparklez share a glance. “Sorry, we didn’t catch that.” Puffy says, setting her hand softly on his knee. “Can you repeat that for us?” 

“I ᓭᔑ╎↸ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣  i ᔑᒲ ⎓╎リᒷ” He repeats, pointing at the cliff. “I ᓵᔑリ リ𝙹ℸ ̣  ⊣𝙹 ╎リ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∴ᔑℸ ̣ ᒷ∷, ||𝙹⚍ ᓭ⍑𝙹⚍ꖎ↸ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣  ᓵᔑ∷∷|| 𝙹リ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∷ᔑᓵᒷ” He adds on, looking between the two adults. They look towards the cliff in confusion.

A couple of seconds later Puffy is gasping, hand moving up to cover her mouth. “The water secession.” She ushers out, realising what he means. “He’s an endarian, Sparklez.”

“Oh shoot.” Sparklez gets up from the ground, stretching his arm out towards him. Hesitantly he grabs it, being hefted up by the other. “You have to be a fast reactor to not have fallen into it.” He chuckles dryly, looking unnerved. “Let’s go back the way we came, see if the others have finished yet.”

“∴⍑|| ᔑ∷ᒷ ||𝙹⚍ リ𝙹ℸ ̣  ꖎᒷᔑ⍊ᒷ ᒲᒷ ʖᒷ⍑╎リ↸?” These two were confusing. They could carry on without him. They were doing too much.

Sparklez blinked owlishly at him before turning his gaze to the side. “You're not speaking Common.” He states. “I don’t know if you noticed—“

“Sorry!” He cuts the other off, reaching his hand away as he claps his hand over his mouth. How long did he switch to Ender for? Was it the whole time? “I sometimes—I didn’t notice. Sorry.”

Puffy waves him off, starting to walk the way they came from. “No worries! You were spooked, I get that.” She looks over one last time at the water segment like it personally offended her before turning and walking the way back. Ranboo could only follow, not daring to take that segment on as all hope leaves his body. If they were going to be water segments in the actual game, then he’s practically doomed his whole team.

~*^*~

Ranboo had his head held down when they got back to the start. He could hear chatting, everyone else's voice filling his ears. So the three got back to the beginning, then. He frowns, hands balling up into fists at his side. Why didn’t he remember Ace Race had water section’s!? The decision dome had water at the bottom of it. How did any of this slip his mind!?

“Did you guys get turned around?” Nihachu asks and he looks up. The merlings voice causes everyone to look over at them. Ranboo hunches in on himself.

Sparklez steps forward. “Ranboo couldn’t continue because there was a water section and tripped over himself. Puffy and I decided that it was best to just come back with him.” Nihachu’s eyes widened, looking over him. She reaches out like she was going to grab his hands before drawing her own back to her chest.

“Shit, I forgot about that.” Phil speaks up. He had a towel over his shoulders. Tubbo and Tommy did too, drying themselves off of water. “That’s going to be a problem.”

“You didn’t get any on you though, right?” Tubbo asks, a small bleep leaving him. Ranboo mutely shakes his head no, eyes downcasted. He felt terrible. How many games was he going to mess up for his team? How was he going to win? “That’s good. We don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I’ll speak to Scott about it.” Dream pipes in. He was sitting on a bench to the side, a water bottle in his hand. “He should have already been adjusting the real course on the mcc server the moment Ranboo got accepted. I’ll go tell him the practice server needs updating too.” 

“You don’t have to do that.” Ranboo cuts in, looking over towards the past winner. He shouldn’t be helping him. One last player means he had a better chance of winning. It made no sense. In Hypixel you’d do anything to win. He’s run into multiple cheaters before. They don’t often get caught. “I’ll just deal with it. I have medication to help suppress the water response. And water breathing enchantments on armour helps.”

The look he gets around the room makes him think he was the stupidest person alive. “Ranboo.” Wilbur starts, stepping closer towards him. His brown eyes flash green for a second. “Water can literally kill you in big amounts. We’re not leaving you to just ‘deal with it’.”

“Why not?” He couldn’t help but ask. He could get through this, if he plans and thinks of ways to negate the water. How many seconds can he be fully submerged before it becomes debilitating?

Tommy scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Because that’s a dick move.” His wet wings puff up. “And you are our friend, so that would just make it an even bigger dick move. Scott won’t care about the water complaint.” Friend, not teammate. Friend. Just like that. The Tommy Innit called him a friend. Wow. Okay. He could totally handle that.

Ranboo nods, something fluttering in his chest. Probably nerves, not anything else. Nope. Not hope at all. “Thank you.” He whispers, looking over everyone. “So…” He bounces on his heel, just so he could do something. “What do we do now?”

Chapter Text

Hello everyone!

You probably didn’t think I’d be saying anything on this fic again. Me neither, honestly. But I couldn’t for the life of me get this fic out of my mind recently and so I’ve decided to come back to it. I’m currently in the process of rewriting this fic and reworking the plot a bit. It’ll still be the same premise, just with some character roles being moved about.

Regarding this specific fic, I’m going to keep it up. It’ll have a “(Legacy)” thing next to the title but it’ll stay unfinished. I thought of deleting it but some helpful people on one of my discord suggested I keep it up for those of you who want to keep it bookmarked or like the original.

So I’m currently re-writing the first seven chapters of this fic. Regarding the update schedule, I don’t have one. Once I finish fixing up the next six chapters in total I’ll be releasing them weekly until all six are out. The chapters following that will be released whenever I finish them. 

Now as a reminder, I’m in college! :D. I also have a lot of other writing projects on ao3, in my personal life, and actual irl things that take up my time. This means I don’t update regularly! Like at all! So when the new fixed version of this fic comes out please don’t ask me when another chapter will come out. It only disheartens me. This is a hobby and will forever be a hobby!

Anyways, you may be wondering. “Fawn, there are seven chapters, not six. Why did you say you’ll start publishing them after you've done six of them?” That is because the first reworked chapter is currently out! I wanted a way to easily send you guys over to the new version of the fic without making another update on this one.

That is to say it’ll be a while until the next six are said to be out. But at least now you can bookmark the new fic and be ready for when I start updating again.

You can find it here: Don’t Cry My Little Champion

See y’all over there. 🫡