Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Life was a horrible blur nowadays, compiled with the simple tasks of wake up, eat, get taken to the medbay, thrown back into his cell afterwards, given one more meal then sleep. Only for the day to repeat itself tomorrow over and over again like a clock.

Ranboo didn’t understand what was so fascinating about him. They poked and prodded like he was a space anomaly. Scars littering his body like he was the stars the aliens ship sailed across in.

Didn’t even have the decency to make sure he wasn’t starving.

The familiar sound of the food pipe whirled to life, a small little light turning on signalling that morning's food had just arrived. At the beginning the smell was nauseating but after a while of refusing to even get close to it Ranboo let up, eating was better then dying from starvation.

However some days he contemplated if that was really the case anymore.

Slowly Ranboo got up from his position huddled in the corner, crossing the cell in a few strides. He crouched as he opened up the little wall compartment. The food pipe was built into the wall, a little sliding door separating it from wherever the food came from.

Ranboo had tried seeing if he could squeeze through once, the aliens walked in on him with his head up the pipe and tased him.

“Grey cubes day.” Ranboo noted, taking the small container out of the wall compartment. He goes back to where he has dubbed his ‘sleeping corner’ and sat down. Ranboo popped the lid open, staring at the cubed rubbery food.

Picking one up he popped it into his mouth and without chewing swallowed the food whole. He would rather not have that stuck in his teeth, thank you very much. Ranboo finished his breakfast quickly before stacking the container underneath a blanket.

When he first arrived here Ranboo was given only one thing, which was a blanket. It was pretty long, so he was thankful for that, but the cell was warm and it was uncomfortable to sleep with the blanket around himself. So instead he had started using it to hide the things he gets his hands on, like containers.

The aliens must think he eats them or something because they’ve never once asked for them back.

Then again no one here speaks English or any Earth language Ranboo knows of, so it wasn’t like they could ask for them back. If they really wanted them back they would have taken them by now, so they're his. He had no clue what he was going to use them for, but at least he has them.

A lock on the door clicked, then another, then a third. Ranboo jolted at the sound, pushing himself into a standing position against the furthest wall. Was it time to go to the medbay already? Had he spaced out again? It usually wasn’t until a few more hours!

Ranboo braced himself for the lab coats to come charging in with their weird tasers, to force him out of the cell and down the hall to get poke and prodded. It was fine, he told himself. Just another day, another week, another month.

Except the lab coats weren’t the ones on the other side of the door, a large armoured alien stood with a long stick held in two of his six hands. It looked like those mediaeval weapons you see in museums, except this one was made out of white and black metal and looked twice as deadly, with a spiked blade top.

It regarded him with its one eye before saying something in a harsh language, Ranboo could guess what he meant pretty clearly, even if he had no clue what the thing actually said.

Stay where you are.

Ranboo nodded quickly, showing the other he wasn’t going to try running by trying to push himself further into the wall, like it could give way any second. The guard huffed, looking back over down the hallway, they said something before gesturing to his cell.

There was a commotion, the sound of something yelling and growling growing louder and louder until two more guards came into view, each holding an alien.

Ranboo’s seen the guards before, they were everywhere and wore the same armour, there were differences but they were always big and strong. In the early days when Ranboo would try to escape there were a lot of guards keeping their eyes, or eye, on him.

They hit harder than a frying pan to the face and didn’t care if you said you were sorry, they only cared that you stopped moving long enough for the lab coats to get to you and do with you what they will.

But these two aliens? Ranboo’s never seen anything like them, they weren’t scaley like the lab coats nor big like the guards. One of them was small, maybe around 5’5? The other was tall, around Ranboo’s own height, which scared him. He hadn’t seen any alien as tall as him yet.

The short one was making a high pitched buzzing sound, trying to hit the guard with the back of their head, the guard didn’t even seem fazed. The tall alien was thrown over one of the guards shoulder, he had goat like legs that kicked at the air, a loud growl coming from them.

The first guard pointed to Ranboo and the two aliens were thrown into the cell, the door slamming shut right after. The locks clicked into place before the two could rush the door, leaving them locked in with him.

Two aliens were locked in with him.

Ranboo took a breath in, eyes wide as he stared at the two who were now relentlessly trying to get the door open.

He took a step to the side and immediately kicked one of his containers. It scraped against the ground and the two aliens stopped mid door attack. Slowly and in very creepy unison the two aliens' heads turned to look back at him. They both stared at him for what felt like hours, neither of them saying a word.

Then slowly, the shorter alien raised one of its four hands and waved at him.

Ranboo screamed.

~<0>~

If you asked Phil if he thought today was going to be the worst day of his life when he woke up that morning, he would have laughed and said that it was impossible. He has already had the worst day of his life, a few runner ups closely behind and a handful of third to fifth place contenders.

But here he was staring at the last known location of two of his now missing crew members, with nothing but a recorded distress signal and a worried crew to keep him company.

Today just sent every ‘bad day’ down his rankings.

“I just don’t understand.” Kristin growled, her feathers standing on end as she bit the end of her marker. “How can their comms and tracker just cut off like that!? We have the best in the market!” She chirped, beginning to stalk back and forth as she stared at the drawing board.

Phil swivelled around in his chair, feathers ruffled uncomfortably as he stood and walked over to his wife. He set his hand on Kristin’s forearm, the other elytrian leaning against his palm as her feathers calmed down slightly.

“It’s going to be okay Kristin, we’re going to get our crew back. Take a breath, getting worked up won’t help us solve this.” Phil said, sighing.

Kristin took a breath in, her feathers finally flatten across her wings as she stopped chewing on the marker nervously. She looked up at him, trilling a quick thank you. Phil leaned in and rubbed his cheek against hers, trilling back.

“I’m worried about them.” Kristin whispered, looking back at her drawing board. “This isn’t good.”

“Kristin’s right.” Techno huffs, clicking through every camera feed they could get access to. “Comms sure, interference can break those things easily. But our trackers? Tubbo and Tommy designed those things themselves.”

Tommy was the crew's hacker, if you wanted access to anything on the web the ramble could get his way in somehow. It was actually very impressive how easy he made it look, the young man had a gift and he made sure everyone knew about it.

Tubbo was his partner in crime, a scientist and ship engineer in training, a tinkerer. Tubbo made the gadgets and Tommy coded them, together they had outfitted this whole ship with technology they would have had to have paid a fortune to get.

Phil may not give them enough credit for their work, but the two were good at what they did, more so then seasoned professionals. They made their trackers able to withstand both cyber attacks and varying types of damage. They couldn’t have just broken.

“How much damage can our trackers withstand?” Phil asked, looking over at Techno.

He looked up from the cameras, eyes narrowing on him. “A lot, I tried breaking one myself. Took me a whole day to make a dent in it. Why? It doesn’t even matter, we can’t connect to them.”

“That’s why I’m asking, we can’t connect to them, that doesn’t mean they're broken. Something has to be interfering with the connection.” Phil explained, walking back over to the front console.

The door to the cockpit opened up, Niki walking in with her arms wrapped tightly around her tail. “Doesn’t help us much, Phil.” Kristin replied, throwing Niki a quick glance. “If we can’t connect, which is very suspicious might I add, they're practically useless.” Kristin sighed.

Phil tilted his head in thought, thinking about it. It wasn’t a damage issue, that was for sure. It was a connection problem. But they all knew there were multiple ways to connect to things. “Niki,” Phil called, gesturing to the merling. “How does the heart monitor work on the trackers?”

When he said his two youngest crew members were good at what they did, he meant it. Tubbo and Tommy had worked over a year on their trackers to get them where they were now, calling them trackers was actually a disservice. They not only tracked your location but also your vitals, linked to their communicators so they could read whoever they were assigned to.

Niki seemed to understand where he was going with this as her fins flash forward, the woman immediately grabbing for her medical pad on the counter. “They work on the same frequency as communicators, the only way to shut them down is to null communication with it!”

“…Which no multi-alien vessels would willingly do.” Techno spun around in his chair, Kristin turning to face the rest of them. “So that means—“

“Got it!” Niki turned her pad around to face the room, both Tubbo’s and Tommy’s heart monitors on screen, fully active. “The more in range we are, the more vitals and information my medical pad will receive. We can use it like a compass!” Niki jumped in place, her find shivering with excitement.

Kristin chirped as she uncapped her marker and started scribing on the art bouard. “First is the heart monitor.” Kristin wrote down. Next to it she wrote down the radius in which they got the information in, which was very wide. It was the only information they cared about while being separated for so long.

Nothing else mattered compared to this, so Tommy and Tubbo had made it so they could hold onto it as long and far as they could. Yet it wasn’t endless. They were in range of it, which meant they actually had a chance to track it down.

“Then the oxygen.” Niki spoke up, looking down at her medical pad. “We are not in range for that, but I can see it trying to connect. We can use the low connection to see if we are heading in the right direction!” 

Kristin wrote that down next, again adding its connection radius. “Then nutrition, right?” Kristin asked, marker hovering in her hand.

“It is.” Niki nodded, tapping away on her pad. “Which means the moment we get access to the two's nutrition status, they are going to be close enough that we can locate them by radar.”

Phil nodded, head bobbing slightly as he turned in his captain chair. “Niki, tell me if we are gaining or losing connection on the oxygen.” He said, starting up the ship's engines. “We’re going to find out boys.”

“And punish those who took them.” Techno added, growling underneath his breath. The other had a point, one that Phil didn’t want to think about. Tommy and Tubbo had gone to the market for some scrap they could tinker with, they were supposed to be back within the week.

It’s been two since they were able to pick up on their dual riders distress signal. When they went to investigate the small two person shuttle was in pieces, unrecognisable. They hadn’t even made it to the market before they were taken by what Phil could only assume were pirates.

Phil couldn’t help the odd feeling crawling up his spine at the thought of it being pirates. Pirates don’t destroy ships, even small shuttles, they steal and resell them. They also don’t kidnap. He couldn’t help but think something else was happening.

“Everyone strap in.” Phil called, the other two crew members hurrying into their seats. “We’re going light speed for this one.” And with that, Phil pressed down on the star power as they raced across the galaxy to find their lost crewmates.

Chapter Text

Ranboo took a step back as he screamed, tripping over the container he had kicked over. He landed on his back with a thud, still screaming, before he scrambled to one of the corners of his room.

The hoofed alien screamed back, launching itself at the other alien to cover them. The four armed alien slapped two of their hands over pointed ears, using the other two to grip back at the taller hoofed alien. The two pushed themselves into the opposite corner, staring wide eyed at him.

Ranboo doesn’t know how long he screamed for, terrified. He’s never seen these two before, he didn’t know what they wanted and if they worked for the lab coats. All he knew was his safe space was now no longer safe. Did the guards send them in here to kill him?

When he finally stopped screaming, clutching his chest with his hand with his eyes closed shut, he expected pain and agony. To feel the bee-looking alien’s pincers around him to draw blood, to feel the goat-like alien stomping and kicking him. He didn’t feel any of that, which was enough to get him to slowly open his eyes.

The two aliens were still huddled in the corner, staring at him. His heart beated faster than it has ever beat since he got here, thundering in his chest. The three of them just stared at each other, none of them daring to make the first move. Ranboo didn’t know what the other two were thinking about, if they were planning anything, but he knew that if it came down to it he was screwed.

The bee-like alien chittered, Ranboo flinching at the sound. It turned to the goat-like alien, continuing to make weird sounds that had to be some kind of language, though he had no clue how the other could understand it.

Ranboo took deep breaths to try and calm himself. They weren’t killing him, at least not yet. He could deal with this, maybe, possibly not, he was less than hopeful. The goat-like alien said something back - with totally different sounds, he should add - to the bee-like alien. The two of them were talking, sparing glances at him. They even pointed at him a couple of times.

After a few minutes of this Ranboo had had enough. He was right here and they were talking about him, like he couldn’t hear them. He may not understand but he’s pretty sure they were saying let’s eat him.

Okay so maybe he was being paranoid, but he was literally in space caged up. What else was he supposed to think? “I can hear you.” Ranboo said, voice rough and scratchy. The two aliens jolt, whipping around to fully face him. Ranboo bit his bottom lip, curling slightly in on himself. “It’s rude to talk about people while they're still in the room.” Ranboo adds on, knowing neither could understand him.

He didn't know what he expected them to do, but his first thought was that they'd attack him for daring to raise his voice. What they did was in fact not attack him, instead the bee alien slowly lifted one of its hands as it waved at him again. It bopped its head, then waved again. It did this a few more times, the goat alien watching with a smile on its face.

After a while of Ranboo just staring he got the impression that the alien wanted him to copy it. Which was a stupid thought, but hey, what else was there for him to go on? So Ranboo raised his hand and did a sharp short wave.

The reaction was immediate.

The bee alien buzzed loudly as it stood, hopping from foot to foot as it buzzed its little tune. The goat alien’s eyes widened, leaning forward as it began to wave wildly at him. Ranboo waved back. The goat alien squealed as it thumped its hoof on the ground. The actions didn’t seem… aggressive. If anything they seemed excited.

Ranboo couldn’t help but let out a breathy laugh, shoulders relaxing. The two only got more excited as the three began to just wave at each other. Every few minutes the two would begin to talk to each other, Ranboo would feel left out and voice said thoughts. Which led them to another round waving at each other.

Time flies by, Ranboo feeling more and more comfortable with his two new roommates. Soon enough the lights began to dim, the two aliens freezing in their spot across from him. The night cycle began, leaving Ranboo reeling slightly. He didn’t know he was so bored that just waving at someone else made time pass by. The lab coats hadn’t even come by today.

“It’s night time.” Ranboo said, the two aliens looking at him. Bee waved at him and Ranboo shook his head, he didn’t want that. “The lights.” Ranboo pointed out as he gestured to the ceiling. The two aliens follow his gaze upwards, squinting at the now dimmed lights. “It means it’s time to sleep.” Ranboo told them, moving so he was laying on his side.

Goat said something in their and Bee’s language before coping him, laying down on the hard ground. Bee got the idea pretty quickly and laid down next to Goat.

“So… uh, goodnight?” Ranboo yawned, the two stilling at the action. But Ranboo was too tired to worry about the reaction as he closed his eyes. He couldn’t stay awake forever and so if they were dangroud and bloodthirsty, Ranboo would rather at least feel well rested before he was torn apart.

Even though he’s starting to think that maybe Bee and Goat weren’t that bad anyhow.

Ranboo woke up when the bright lights of the cell turned on, the eye drying lights blinding him for a second as he waited for them to adjust. As his eyes adjusted to the bright room, so did his hearing. Picking up on sounds in the room. Ranboo turns his head, looking over at his two new roommates. Goat and Bee were talking quietly in the opposite corner, their gaze lingering on the door.

It reminded him of his first couple days here, looking at the door and trying to figure a way out. A way to escape and go home. They looked determined, their spirits not yet crushed. Ranboo yawns, catching the others' attention as he slowly sits up. The two watch as he lifts up his arms and stenches. His back pops and he sighs, letting his eyes close tiredly with satisfaction.

They’ll learn soon enough that anything they do will end in failure. He only hopes he can stop them from doing something foolish before they get themselves hurt. Opening his eyes he’s met with the two aliens staring at him. “Good morning.” Ranboo says.

Bee says something back but he couldn’t hope to understand it. Taking it as a ‘good morning’ back instead of trying to decode whatever the other had said. The two talk facing him for a while, every few minutes repeating a certain word. It wasn’t that they were talking to him, there was no hope for that. But Ranboo couldn’t help but think they were somewhat excluding him in their chat.

Ranboo tries to listen to the words, trying to find any familiar sounds to them. It was very difficult when the two seemed to be talking two completely different languages. Bee made a lot of buzzing sounds with the letters k, z, u, t and b. There were definitely more sounds, but they all followed the kind of buzz words he used.

Goat was different, using a lot of hush sounding letters. It sounded like Goat was shushing Bee over and over again. He tries his best to try and find the patterns, the repetition. Ranboo wasn’t planning on going to computer science without knowing how to pick up on languages. Coding was just the language of computers and he knew them well. This was just…harder.

Bee says something and then Goat responds, harsh with his words as he looks over at the door once more. Goat replies, using another harsh word. He says it a lot, more than any other word. Ranboo watches, thinking about the pronunciation. Then he opens his mouth, Bee and Goat pausing in their conversation. “Sharthy.” Ranboo says, tongue unfamiliar with the ward.

Goat bangs his hoof against the ground, his short tail beginning to wag as a bubbly booming laugh erupts from him. Bee’s pincers widen. Ranboo could only guess it was his way of his mouth falling open. Then Bee was making a laughing like sound too, his two lower arms holding his stomach as he tumbles to the side.

Ranboo looks between the two, wondering what he could have said to get that reaction. “Sharthy.” Goat says, waving to get Ranboo’s attention. He says few things, but ends it in “Sharthy” once more.

Did he want him to repeat himself? “Sharthy.” Ranboo repeats. The two burst out laughing again. It takes a while for the two to reel themselves in and when they do Bee ends up scooting closer to him.

“Btpatz.” Bee says, pointing at him. “Btpatz.”

“B-Bitpat.” Ranboo tries, the buzzing language harder than Goat’s was.

Bee smiles nonetheless. “Bt, pa, tz.” Bee sounds out, gesturing for him to try again.

“Bt, pa, tz.” Ranboo sounds out. “Btpatz.” He says, closer this time around. Bee laughs, the little antennas on the top of his head swaying from side to side as he does so.

Then the door unlocks, ceasing any more laughing. The two aliens freeze at the sound, a second following suit quickly after. Ranboo stiffens as his head whips towards the door. The final lock clicks, Goat already on his feet - hooves? - with his claws raised. Ranboo stands not knowing what to do.

Goat will get himself killed fighting the Lab Coats, worse yet if the guards were on the other side of the door. It wasn’t his problem though and he was taught to always stand at the furthest wall. If he stood at the wall they’d hurt him less. Bee was beside Goat, looking like they were going to fight. It wouldn’t be their fault, they didn’t know the rules, not yet.

The door opened, revealing one of the scaled Lab Coats with a taser in their hands. It was the red and orange one he’s named ‘Meanie’ for obvious reasons. Before Ranboo can think of what he was doing he rushes forward, grabbing Bee and Goat by the collar of their shirts. He drags them backwards, the two making a lot of noise as he forces them into his sleeping corner.

“Stay!” Ranboo yells, the two freezing. They look up at him, Goat moving to cover Bee. Ranboo ignores him as he pushes them down onto his blanket, not caring that it dislodges some of the containers he’s collected. He turns, Meanie tilting their head to the side. “Please, leave them.”

Meanie says something, gesturing for Ranboo to follow them out. He can barely make out the guard standing off to the side of the door, out of direct view. It was time to go to the Medbay. Taking a deep breath he takes a step forward. Bee and Goat yell for him but he’s out the door before they could get to him. Ranboo turns and watches as they rush the door. The guard slams it in their face before they could reach it, separating them.

Meanie pushes him forward and towards the Medbay, a wicked look in their eyes. “I’m going.” Ranboo grumbles. He tries not to think about what awaits him. It’s only then does he realise they never gave him breakfast, his stomach growling with hunger. He didn’t really care at the moment, mind racing. He never got poked and prodded yesterday. Were they going to make up for it today? Was it going to be worse?

Or for once did Ranboo get a break? A friend? Would Bee and Goat be waiting for him when he comes back or was that all for nothing?

~<0>~

“We have access to their oxygen!” Niki reports, eyes glued to the screen.

Phil hums, his talons tight in the steering wheel. “Are they okay?” He asks, turning his head slightly.

“Their heart rate is a bit elevated but other than that they seem fine.” Niki replies.

“Good. How long until we get their nutrition stats?” Phil questions as he sets the ship on auto pilot, turning to face his crew. Techno was sharpening his axe, tail flicking anxiously. Kristin was prepping medical supplies as Niki kept her attention on the heart monitors built into the boy's trackers while he kept them on course.

Niki looks up for a moment, a sharp toothed frown forming across her face. “Two days and that’s only if the people who took them don’t out speed us.” She says, looking back down at the trackers.

“They won’t.” Kristin says, stretching her wings. “We’ll catch up.” She promises.

Phil nods, knowing his wife knew what she was talking about. Kristin was the ship’s only engineer before Tubbo came on board. While she worked on ships and machines, Tubbo worked on the smaller things. Learning all he can about Kristine’s field of work so he could work it into his own science projects. When Kristin says they’ll catch up then they're going to catch up.

“Keep me posted.” Phil says as he stands to stretch his legs. “I’m going to start loading the blasters.” Niki hums as he walks out of the cockpit. They have two days to prepare to bring their missing crew members back. Two days was all Phil was willing to give the people who took them.

Chapter Text

No matter how many times Ranboo told himself he won’t remember it he couldn’t convince himself of it. The Medbay was clean, with white blinding walls and equipment carefully set out for easy access. Medical beds were carefully placed against one wall with privacy curtains between them.

He could remember when he was young his mother taking him for checkups. He could see himself sat atop one of the beds, feet kicking lazily in the air as he stared at the lollipop held in the nurse's hand. “I’ll give this to you after you're all ready to go, all you have to do is be a good boy okay?” The nurse would say, her voice sweet like the candy she held. 

It was an easy deal. Now the reward for being good was that Meanie was gentler with the seductive as they stabbed it into his neck. Good boys hurt less, good boys didn’t have any extra bruises, good boys got food. 

Looking over towards the last bed in the all white room he was met with the sickening sight of burgundy. Dried blood stuck to the bed, staining the sheets ugly. Chains with cuffs hung off the sides and bottom with dried blood on it too, rusting the metal. Ranboo walked towards it on auto pilot.

He tried not to watch Meanie as they prepared the sedative, a guard waiting by the door. It was an ugly yellow colour, thick and smelt like rotten fish. He learned it was the only good thing in this forsaken lab. 

Sitting down on the bed Ranboo tried to think about the after instead of the now. He’ll wake up and get to see Goat and Bee, hopefully learn more words in their native language. Maybe he can teach them some words in English? After a while they could be talking to each other. That’d be nice.

A hand landed on his chest and shoved him hard down onto the bed. Meanie looked at him for a few seconds before going about putting the cuffs around his wrists and ankles. It took them a while to figure out that they needed to cuff all of his limbs down. Ranboo had kicked a previous Lab Coat in the face once while they tried to sedate him. Green blood had splattered all over his foot as the Lab Coat screamed, scrambling away.

He never saw that alien again. He did however now have his ankles cuffed alone with his wrists. He wouldn’t do it again anyways, not after the beating he got.

Ranboo watched as more Lab Coats joined Meanie in the lab, talking among each other like he wasn’t about to get tortured. It felt like forever of them prepping before Meanie finally grabbed his chin and forced him to look away. The needle was more than a pinch as Meanie pushed it into his neck. He screamed, fire shooting across his neck as the sedative was emptied.

Then Meanie pulled it out, leaving the burning sensation in his neck as it slowly spread. He didn’t dare turn his head to see what was about to happen to him. Instead he closed his eyes. His throat closed up, dry and scratchy with not enough air going through. Meanie lifted up his shirt and another needle came, this time in his stomach. He knew from memory that this one was drawing blood, for what, he had no clue.

More needles came back to back and Ranboo began to pray that the sedative started working. It never does right away, unlike the Lab Coats. They liked to start right away. When his throat loosened up Ranboo felt relief. He still couldn’t breathe right, his chest moving a bit too fast to be normal but he didn’t care. He let his mind fog up and his eyes grew heavy.

The last thing he remembered is another scalpel stabbing into his side.

~<0>~

“It’s been too long.” Tommy said as he kept his eyes on the door. The bastards in coats took the human away and the worst part was that he went willingly. He didn’t even try to put up a fight. He would have gone kicking and screaming, ramming his horns into their eyes until they let him go. Not just walk out the fucking door.

Tubbo fretted around the room, wings hugging his back anxiously as he kept his hands busy with the few containers that were in the room. Passing them between his hands as he walked back and forth. “He’s fine.” Tubbo promised as he also kept his gaze on the door.

“How can you know that? You can’t know that.” Tommy huffed, thumping his hoof on the ground.

Tubbo looked over at him, an angry look in his eyes. His eyes were like hot coals, burning past Tommy like he wasn’t even here. Tommy didn’t like the look. It reminds him too much of when they were in flight training before they were able to join the SBI. When people passed them in the halls talking about how Bezels could never be part of a crew. How Tubbo would fail eventually, being so far away from his planet. Like he was something fragile.

“His scars.” Tubbo stated, finally taking a seat down on the blanket beside him. Tommy shifted in his spot, his heart beating slightly faster than it was before. The human looked different from all the ones he’s seen before. To be fair, Tommy’s only ever seen humans in the photos and blurry images Techno finds online.

This one didn’t look like those ones. Humans came in all sorts of shades, peaches, browns and darker browns. Their hair can be blonde, brown, black and even sometimes a reddish orange from what they’ve seen so far. Techno’s told him once that old humans can even have grey and white hair.

This human had black and white hair, split right down the middle. Which was the first thing Tommy realised was different from all the photos he’s seen. Humans don’t have dual coloured hair, at least from what he knew of them. This human had dual coloured skin too, one half of his body paller then the rest. Almost paper white.

Then there were the scars. Tommy’s seen plenty of them in his lifetime. Phil had a scar on his hand from an accident while prepping dinner once. Niki had a scar on one of her ear fins from her youth because of roughhousing too much with her friends near unsafe waters. Techno had the most scars, having come from the hostile planet Nethera.

He himself had scars! But the ones on this human were too perfect and clean, methodical. They were done deliberately. Tommy’s stomach turns uneasily at the thought. The human's scars didn’t have a happy or embarrassing memory connected to them, or one that he’d learn from to better himself. No, the scars on him were a reminder that there’d be more.

“He’s being experimented on.” Tubbo said. It nailed his thoughts on the head, confirming everything Tommy was already thinking away. “Information can be more expensive than bodies and poachers know that more than anything.” Tubbo continued, looking grim.

Humans were off limits after the Galactic Council tried to make contact with one of their space shuttles. Tommy didn’t know the details but it was pretty obvious that they were dangerous and not ready to be part of the rest of the universe. Which made them valuable in the eyes of thoughs who wanted to exploit them. Many saw planets not part of the peace treaty as things to play with instead.

“So? The fuckers can still kill him.” Tommy huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. He hated waiting around but his head was already pounding. These bastards had to be rich to buy Ramble resistant metal to build their ships holding cells out of. Or they stole it off of some poor captain and their crew. His head was pounding from slamming his horns against it. It wasn’t even worth the effort, he didn’t even make a dent.

“They’re testing things on him Tommy. From how many needle marks he has it’s been a while. Most people would probably have died by now but humans are resistant. They won’t want to kill him, not when he counts as ten subjects all in one.” Tubbo explained, two of his hands bending the plastic container in his hands.

Tommy wanted to throw up. Instead he looked around the small cell, eyes landing on the scratch marks around the food shoot. The human must have thought it could have been a way out besides the door. “They’ll probably move onto me next.” Tommy said. Rambles are hardy, not as much as humans but still enough for the poachers to not want to kill him.

He didn’t need to say what they’ll do to Tubbo. He doesn’t want to say it, doesn’t want to speak it into the universe. Bezel venom was highly sought after, stored in a gland in their stomachs. It was easier to take it out forcefully then to ask a Bezel nicely if they’d share it.

“I won’t let them.” Tubbo spat, grabbing him by the arm with two of his hands. The sentiment was nice, even if he knew the other couldn’t stop it from happening. Tubbo was a juvenile Bezel, his venom couldn’t do much but cause irritation. Tommy knew from experience.

He went to say something, anything to change the subject when he heard one of the cell locks click. Tommy raised to his feet and so did Tubbo, both of them facing the door. The second lock clicks. They’ll rush the entrance together and Tommy will try and over power whoever was there. He tried not to think about how he couldn’t even bruise one of the poachers when they were first nabbed.

The third lock clicked and the doors opened. Tommy and Tubbo sprinted towards it. He had his claws out, ready to attack, only to have to switch to catching as their human friend was unceremoniously shoved into the cell.

Tommy yelped as the human fell on top of him, hooves slipping on the smooth ground as he tried to catch him. Tubbo’s face slammed into the door as it shut before he could even get out, the three locks clicked shut quickly after. His hands were underneath the human’s armpits, gripping tightly on the other.

“Fuck!” Tubbo shouted, rubbing his nose as he turned around. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Tommy huffed as he lowered the human onto the ground. He whined and Tommy froze, looking down to meet half lidded greyish blue eyes. “Oh shit ball’s he’s awake.” Tommy rushed out, Tubbo hurrying over. Escape attempt forgotten.

The human wasn’t looking at him so much as through him, like Tommy wasn’t even there. It isn’t the same as when Tubbo looks past him. Tubbo does that on purpose to help himself think, pretending that he was looking at something or someone else. This human was looking right at him and he’s pretty sure it wasn’t on purpose. 

The stench of fresh blood drew his attention downwards. He wished he didn’t look. The human’s shirt was partly up, revealing darkening bruises all along his stomach. His side was patched up, red staining the bandage and making Tommy’s nose winkle. He felt something poke it and he looked back to meet the human’s gaze.

The human’s finger was on his nose, his mouth spread wide to show off his teeth. Techno said it was called a smile and that it was friendly. Tommy still couldn’t help but flinch at his bared teeth. “He’s poking me.” Tommy complained hastily, trying to move his face away. The human’s finger followed him.

“He’s out of it, is what he is. Move him to the blanket.” Tubbo walked around them to spread out the blankets, moving the containers out of the way. Picking the human up Tommy laid him down on the spot Tubbo made for him. All the while the human winced and whined in pain. Once settled on the blanket Tommy took a few steps back.

It was hard to look at the human when he was like that. Tommy wanted him to go back to copying them. When he looked happier. “Is he going to be okay?” He asked after a few minutes of listening to the human whine as he moved around trying to find a comfortable spot to stay in.

“He will when the sedatives wear off.” Tubbo answered. He sat down next to the human, who reached over for one of the other's hands. Tubbo lets him take it, the human playing with his fingers. “He probably won’t feel much afterwards either, if he’s lucky. Hopefully whatever they tested on him isn’t poisonous to humans.”

“Yeah hopefully…” Tommy whispered. He looked away then, instincts urging him to slam his horns into the door and break them out. His pounding head reminded him he already tried that.

Chapter Text

Waking up to his head being cradled by Bee isn’t how Ranboo thought he was going to come to. Yet here he was, blinking up at Bee with heavy eyes. Bee doesn’t seem to notice his lucidity as they talk with Goat, who’s pacing around the room. Ranboo can’t get a good look at Goat but from the tone they were taking he can tell they weren’t happy.

If he understood their tones correctly that is. They could be having a lovely conversation about cake and puppies for all he knows. Do aliens even have cake? Or puppies? What would a space puppy even look like? Would it have extra limbs like Bee? Or horns like Goat?

Bee seems to be in the middle of saying something when he looks down at him. He stares for a second, like he was picking apart Ranboo’s face. He tilts his head then.

“Hi.” Ranboo rasps. His voice was dry and achy, like he’s been yelling for hours. It’s always like that after he comes back from his time in the Med Bay. He doesn’t know why. He passes out before he really strains it.

Bee jolts slightly, the movement shaking his head slightly. His head protests with a headache and he groans, reaching up to his forehead. Bee stills immediately, their four hands raising off of where they were placed gently around him. They chitter something, antennas dropping loosely beside their head. 

Goat is beside them in an instant, hands roughly cupping Ranboo’s face as they stare down at him with wide eyes. The quick movement causes his headache to worsen. Along with it parts of his body begin to gain sensation. Goat starts to talk to him but it goes in through one ear and out the other.

Ranboo tries to keep the pained expression off of his face. Instead of a pinched expression Ranboo nose scrunches up, his eyes shutting closed and he locks his jaw. His abdomen starts to burn, along with smell areas running up his arm. The heat around his abdomen was quickly turning worse as he went from feeling nothing at all to feeling too much.

This shouldn’t be happening. He’s not supposed to feel anything. He’s supposed to wake up and not remember what happened in the Med Bay, both mentally and physically. It’s only after a few minutes of laying there, baring the pain, does Ranboo realise no one was cupping his face anymore. Squinting open his eyes he sees Goat staring down at him, hands close to his body.

Guilt creeps in, sinking low in his stomach. It’s stupid to feel guilty about being in pain but he couldn’t help it. Goat looks down at their hands then over at Bee. Ranboo frowns. This pain wasn’t normal but that didn’t mean it was Goat’s fault. Reaching over Ranboo grabs one of Goat’s hands, ignoring the surprise that seems to spread across the other's face. This pain wasn’t because of Goat it was because of the Lab Coats.

Goat seems to understand that they weren’t the one to hurt Ranboo, their eyes sharpening as they let out a low growl. Goat scoots forward, not touching him but also letting Ranboo hold onto them. “This isn’t your fault.” Ranboo says, smiling up at the two.

They sit in silence for a long time, neither one of them wanting to move. Ranboo knew why he didn’t want to move, knowing the pain wouldn’t be worth getting in a more comfortable position. Maybe it was selfish but he likes to think the others didn’t move because they didn’t want to hurt him. It’s been a while since no one’s wanted to hurt him.

After a while Ranboo got bored, which really shouldn’t be the reason for him getting up. But sue him, if pain was going to stop him from doing things he would have never made it this far. Ignoring the looks on his two friends' faces, Ranboo pushes himself up.

The pain almost knocks him back down, his stomach and sides alighting with pain that has him gritting his teeth. It was clear the numbing the Lab Coats usually put on wasn’t working as much as it usually was. He only pauses to catch his breath, scooting slightly away from the two. Leaning against the wall, Ranboo looks back at his alien friends. They didn’t look particularly happy.

“See, I’m fine.” Ranboo grins, wincing in pain slightly after. Bee makes a choking sound as they look down at his abdomen. Following the others stare Ranboo looks down to find a darkening red patch on his shirt. “…That’s not good.” Ranboo hisses. He was used to the Lab Coats poking at him like he was some toy. This? This was different. Lifting up his shirt Ranboo was met with a bandage crudely wrapped around his body, his blood seeping through. 

…They had cut into him.

“Oh my god.” Ranboo breathes, eyes widening. What did they do? Did they take anything? Because he’s pretty sure he can only survive without one of his organs and it’s not on his right side. He felt himself start to go light headed and he isn’t at all sire if that’s do to seeing how much blood he was losing, or because the amount of blood he was losing was actually a dangerous amount.

Was this anxiety or death? Something touches his shoulder and he flinches, whipping his head around to see Bee holding up a piece of his blanket. Bee waits a few seconds before moving it towards Ranboo’s side, pressing into it. The pain was excruciating. Ranboo howls in pain, hands gripping his shirt as Bee works quickly to wrap the blanket piece around his stomach and side.

Goat gets another piece, Bee securing it in place along with the first one. Ranboo can’t keep his voice to himself as he groans and whines, trying to bear the pain. All the while he can’t help but mourn the fact this wasn’t some forgotten memory. He isn’t supposed to remember the pain, or the aftermath until everything feels partly normal. This was far from normal, it was cruel. Ranboo was ready to live a life with black holes in his mind. He wasn’t ready to be torn apart by one and remember every second of it. 

Once Bee is done wrapping his injuries Ranboo takes a shaky breath, the two watching him. His whole body feels like he’s run a mile. “I think I’m going to lay back down.” Ranboo mutters, moving so he can slide down the wall. Once on the floor he just looks up at the ceiling. Goat joins him, laying next to him on his right, while Bee lays down on his left. They begin the talk in hushed tones, Ranboo using their soft voices to lull him into a restless sleep.

His friends were anxious. Maybe it was Ranboo’s imagination but he likes to think he’s gotten pretty good at reading the two of them. Goat was pacing, which was normal for the alien. They could never sit still from the moment they got here. Today was different. Goat kept looking over at Bee, to Ranboo and then to the door. Like he was waiting for it to open.

Ranboo wishes It didn’t open. It’s been two days since they cut him open and did something to him while he was unconscious. The Lab Coats seem to understand that they needed to let him heal before doing anything else to him. At least he had some time to lay around in pain without being out through more. Meanie wasn’t one to be patient, so he fears what he’s going to go through the next time he’s brought to the medbay.

Bee was practically glued to Ranboo’s side the moment he woke up to the second he fell asleep. Usually Bee stretches their legs a bit to pace the room, wings buzzing on their back all the while. Now the only time Bee moves is to pound on the door or to kick over some of the containers scattered about.

It was starting to get difficult to tell time here. After Goat and Bee showed up Ranboo got no more food. At this point he doesn’t know if the pain in his stomach was from him getting cut open or because he was starving. The other two didn’t seem to be faring much better, looking more wilted and less energetic. They were all starving to death.

He thinks of the rule of three and how much that was actually applying to him. He’s had around three days of nothing, no food, no water. Ranboo wouldn’t be surprised if he died in his sleep due to dehydration. Three days without water, three weeks without food, three minutes without air.

His stomach growls painfully, causing Goat and Bee to snap their gaze towards him. His cheeks flush with embarrassment and he looks down to his lap. “Sorry.” He says. Goat huffs and looks off towards the food pipe like it insulted them. “I’ll give you two whatever comes down.” He promises, the two aliens looking like they understand none of what he said.

It was fine though, they didn’t need to understand him. He just needs to make sure they listen to him when it’s time for him to go back to the med bay. Maybe he can plead with the kidnappers, play charades until they understand that they need to start feeding him again. And if not him, his friends.

His thoughts are interrupted when the door clicks, the first lock coming undone. Ranboo stills as Bee gets up from beside him, joining Goat near the door. He tries to follow them, to drag them back into the furthest corner he could shove them in, only for his arms to give up. He was too weak to even get up off the floor.

“You guys need to come back.” Ranboo whispers, not wanting to tip off the probably very big guard outside. He didn’t know if they weren’t listening to him because of the language barrier or if they were ignoring him for the hell of it. Either way his heart starts to speed up, images flashing through his mind of the guard teaching them to wait by the wall. Was there blood red like his? Or will the wall be covered in colours not even known to Ranboo’s eyes? 

The second lock clicks. “Please.” Ranboo pleads, trying again to push himself onto his feet. Using the wall as support Ranboo gets to his knees, jaw locks in pain as he tries to reach for one of the other’s pant legs. His fingers grace Bee’s pant leg, the third lock clicking. He didn’t get enough time to even tug at the bee-like alien before the door opened.

Ranboo can’t see much from his position near the floor, watching as the two rush forward. Goat’s horns angled down as Bee’s pincers around their mouth spread out. Ranboo yelps, knowing how painful being thrown against a wall was. He couldn’t remove his eyes, not when this was his fault. He should have been teaching them the rules, not laying around all day complaining about his pain.

Whoever is at the door moves out of the way, Goat hitting the wall opposite of the cell. A loud sound ricochets from the hit and Ranboo winces. Bee stutters to a stop, head snapping over to where the figure moved too. His pincers close and his antennas rise, not so droopy anymore. He waits with bated breath for the sounds of pain to start, but they don’t. Bee moves out of the way of the door, talking to whoever was there.

Ranboo was losing it. He had to be. There’s no way the two just suddenly befriended a guard after trying to attack them. Maybe he died on that medical table and this was his after life. Forever in this stupid cell.

A voice joins along with Bee’s, more rushed. Instead of the buzzing and chittering words Bee uses or the gravely words Goat uses, this person chirped. Like actually chirped. Like a bird. Bee grabs onto whoever this person was, dragging them towards the cell and finally into view. He’s seen a lot of aliens, okay? They were mostly scaly creatures, like the Lab Coats. Then there were some bigger ones, the guards. And then there was Goat and Bee, who were unique against the normally abusive aliens he’s met so far.

He didn’t think he’d be adding ‘bird-thing’ to the long list of alien species he’s been keeping in his head. The alien was taller than Bee but shorter than Goat, though mostly everything was shorter than Goat. The only thing Ranboo found was taller than the other was himself. This alien is far different from what he is used to.

For one, they are a bird, plain and simple. A big humanoid bird. Black feathers ran up the person's armour clad arms, switching to blonde fluffier looking feathers near their head. They had what Ranboo could only relate to as hawk eyes, but instead of the yellow you’d expect their eyes were blue. Their face was made up of sharp features, cheeks peppered with smaller black feathers.

They were wearing a robe underneath the dark purple armour they wore, dark green and flowing. The bottom part looked like a longer version of a loincloth. The aliens' feet weren’t human one bit, talons in place of toes. They were sharp and covered in the same purple armour plating. In their hand was a gun plucked out of a sci-fi movie.

…A gun.

“Oh crap!” Ranboo yelps, falling onto his butt and trying to scramble away. The alien jolts, hand tightening around the handle of the gun.

Goat runs in, having recovered from hitting the wall so hard, and puts up their hands in front of the bird person. They start talking, quick and short as they gesture over to him. They clearly know each other and Ranboo was still deciding if that was a good thing. Bird - because Ranboo is so very unique with names - narrows their eyes on him.

Ranboo withers underneath the others stare, feeling like he was being tested with just the others eyes alone. After a few seconds Bird chirps something back, peering out the room before gesturing at him. Whatever Goat was saying must have convinced the other not to blast a hole into his chest because they stomped their hoof on the ground. It didn’t seem like an angry gesture, more like a happy one.

Bee rushes to Ranboo’s side, putting his arm underneath his. Goat runs over and does the same on his other side. Before Ranboo could ask what they were doing he was being pulled to his feet. He yelps in surprise and pain, gritting his teeth as he steadies himself between the two. Bird spares them a glance before leaving the room. Bee and Goat drag him along, Ranboo clearly slowing them down as they follow Bird.

It’s then that Ranboo finally realises what was happening. This wasn’t some dream, this was an escape attempt.

~<0>~

“I can’t believe that you two befriended a human.” Phil whisper-shouts, his feathers standing on end as he leads the two - he guesses now three - people down the hallway. Phil and the rest of the crew were under the assumption Tubbo and Tommy were still with the pirates that took them. It was too soon for them to have been sold off to the highest bidder. Turns out pirates are getting faster at unloading their merchandise.

Phil thought this was going to be easy, it wasn’t the first time he’s had to deal with traffickers. But when his ship got close enough to scan the vessel they were tracking, well, he had quickly realised this wasn’t some gutt and run situation. The ship was huge, too big to have been stolen from some poor captain and his crew. This meant they had money to wave around any black market for hiers.

Phil had to take the last dual rider with Techno and come in with stealth. He had split up with the man a while ago, knowing the risk of getting caught would only go up the longer they were here. After incapacitating a few people on his way, he found them. His crew, his chicks.  Breaking in was never the hard part though, it was getting out before the bastards released their ship had been compromised.

“In our defence, it was either us befriending the human, or be his food.” Tommy says, frowning.

Phil tries to not think about the implications of that as he stays close to one wall, finger on his blasters trigger as he looks around the corner. “Clear.” He whispers, quickly turning the corner as he continues down the hall. He left the dual rider in the furthest docking bay, knowing no one would go down there. A shuttle this big with a crew so small wouldn’t ever need to explore the whole ship, meaning there were plenty of places with blind shots. Of course this meant it was going to be harder to get out, especially with an injured person.

“Is it just you?” Tubbo whispers, her eyes jumping from place to place. The bevel sounds hoarse and dry. Phil tries to ignore the memory of their declining nutrition on their monitors. He has them now, all he needs to do is get Techno and get them out. 

“Techno’s somewhere around here.” Phil replies quickly, feathers rustling anxiously. The sound of footsteps and voices causes Phil to still, wings aching tightly against his back. Quickly scanning the hallway he spots an unlocked room. “Get in.” Phil hisses, opening the door. Tubbo and Tommy do their best to quickly drag the stumbling human chick with them into the room.

Phil follows after, shutting the door as quietly as he could. Tubbo goes to speak but he cuts the other off by holding up his hand. He listens as the voices and footsteps pass them by. After making sure they were out of earshot Phil turns to them. The room was lit up, files scattered around the place with photos attached to the walls. Phil doesn’t mean to look at them but he can’t help but notice a familiar figure.

He squints at one of the photos on the wall. It was of the human, blood staining his skin and needles being pushed into his arms and legs. The three follow his look, all of them freezing once they catch sight of the photos. The human’s eyes widen, mouth falling wide to reveal his teeth. This wasn’t just a black market shuttle, this was experimentation. 

Phil clicks at the three, gaining Tubbo’s and Tommy’s attention back on him. “We need to hurry and get out of here before an alarm gets tripped or they release you three are gone—“ The room erupts in red, alarm bells blaring. Phil curses underneath his breath.

“You mean those alarms?” Tommy asks, pointing up at the ceiling.

“….Yes.” Phil huffs, looking over at the human. The human who can hardly stand up without help, who is currently crying as he looks at the photos of himself getting experimented on…

Maybe he will blow up this shuttle after this is all over. 

Chapter Text

Ranboo isn’t supposed to remember the pain the alien scientists gave him. The scars were to be ignored, the ache in his bones forgotten and the primal fear any time he walked into the med bay pushed into the furthest parts of his subconscious. He wasn’t supposed to stare at his forgotten memories hung up on the wall like some hunting prize.

Yet here he was, his weight being supported by two aliens as he stares at everything he’s forgotten about. The wall is covered in photos of him dripping with red. Needles stabbing into every inch of his unconscious body. “I think I’m going to be sick.” Ranboo says to no one in particular, tears running down his cheeks.

Bird opens the door to the hallway and peaks out, gun in their hands as they look from side to side. They make a quick chirp as they walk out, pointing the gun down the hall. Ranboo’s dragged out of the room, his feet fumbling to find friction on the ground as he, Goat and Bee follow Bird.

Blinking the tears out of his eyes he takes a shaky breath, focusing himself and walking. It was getting harder to do, his knees having almost buckled over three times now. The red blaring alarm didn’t help his concentration. Neither was the pounding of boots currently coming towards them.

Looking up he spots two guards rounding the corner, long spear-like sticks in their hands. Upon noticing the group they start running. Bird raises their gun and plants their feet, trilling lowly in their throat.  Before they could shoot one of the guards throws a spear, electricity surging through the metal end as Bird squawks, dodging the spear. It embeds itself into the ground where he once was.

Goat and Bee were yelling beside him, looking unsure of what to do. They keep looking from him to Bird. Ranboo’s starting to feel like dead weight.

As the first guard rushes Bird, they lift up their gun once more. Instead of shooting at the other they drive the back end into the guards head, the attacker quickly losing balance and toppling over. Bird pulls out a dagger from underneath there clothed and flicks it out towards the last guard, who had their spear ready to throw. It flies out and lands right into the left eye, the guard roaring with pain.

Bird makes quick work decking the now bleeding guard with the back of their gun, knocking them out before turning back to the first one. Bird picks up the spear the knocked out guard was holding and throws it, electricity flowing around it as it stabs right through the first guard's head before embedding itself into the ground. Dark green blood oozes out onto the ground.

Ranboo has to hold in a gag as Bird fixes their hold on their gun, gesturing for them to keep up as they continue down the hall. It goes like this for a while, the group coming across some guards with Bird taking them out with surprising ease. All the while Rnboo has to tell himself not to throw up onto the floor. Bird starts to breathe heavier, clearly becoming exhausted the more they go on.

They come across a set of wide double doors, Bird shoving them open and walking inside. Goat and Bee are quick to tug him along. It was a hanger, space crafts dotted around with large shipping like containers strewn about. Bird looks around, spotting a small two person ship in the corner of the large room.

They say something in bird speech - leave him be, he’s exhausted too - and Goat and Bee start dragging Ranboo over to it. Before they could get halfway through the hanger a guard jumps out from behind one of the containers, weilding a electrical rod. Before any of them can act they drive it into Bee’s shoulder, electricity shooting out. It doesn’t stop at Bee, as it travels through their hands, shocking all of them.

Bee’s buzzing turns pained and Goat’s voice screeches as the three of them fall to the ground. He can a second guard jumps out and grabs Goat by the foot, dragging them away before flinging out a net over top of the alien. The ends shoot themselves into the ground, bolting Goat in place.

Ranboo didn’t have time to worry about the other two as the guard smashes their foot into Ranboo’s chest, sending him flying across the room. He hits the floor hard, head throbbing. The world goes dizzy for a second, an even bigger guard coming into the room from where they just entered from. Bird is caught off guard and before they could try and aim their weapon, the guard grabs their arm and twists.

Bird screams in pain, the gun dropping out of their hand. The guard picks it up and throws it to the side, sending it out of reach. Bee’s cry’s of pain don’t stop as the guard who launched Ranboo across the room pins them down, hand gripping the smaller aliens wing. Bird doesn’t give up as they swipe the talons on their feet, cutting open the side of the guard's leg with one swing. 

The guard yells, slamming Bird into the ground below them. Ranboo takes in a shaky breath, eyes roaming from one alien to the other. Crap, there killing them. They're killing his friends and Bird, his rescuer. Looking around Ranboo tries to follow the path the gun was tossed in, finding it between two containers. 

Pulling himself to his knees, Ranboo forces his legs to push him forward, the edges of his vision turning black as he crawls towards the weapon. He ignores the screams and fighting of the other three. He needs to focus on this. One hand in front of the other, using his knees to carry him on. He forms a blood trail as he gets closer and closer towards the gun. Once he’s in arms reach Ranboo flings himself onto it, gripping the gun with shaky hands.

Taking a deep breath, Ranboo uses the containers behind himself to get to his feet. Careful not to press down on the trigger. It was a two handed gun, large, like it could do some real heavy damage if fired.

Ranboo steadys himself as he lifts the gun. He has a tight grip on it, positioning himself for the shock back. His father was obsessed with guns. Like your average American, his father was all for owning guns. Ranboo isn’t as enthusiastic about them, but thank God his father taught him how to shoot. Of course this wasn’t some hunting rifle like he’s used to and the bullseye wasn’t empty cans, instead being a living creature.

He also has no clue if the thing would even work. There is no place he can see for ammunition, only a trigger and what he really hopes was the barrel. It’s the end of the gun or else he’s shooting himself, a truly risky fifty fifty.

The guard won the grapple between Bird, its hands gripping the alien's throat. It squeezes, Bird thrashing against the hold as they gasp for air. Bee was still being pinned to the ground, their wings being gripped on by another smaller guard. Goat’s still thrashing on the ground, trying to escape the net that practically bolted them to the ground. Ranboo turns the end of the gun towards the guard choking Bird.

Bang

The gun smacks into Ranboo’s shoulder with the force of the gun. The force has his back hitting the container behind him as his knees give out underneath him. Instead of a bullet making its mark, a beam of purple light shoots out from the barrel. The beam hits the guard in the side, sending them falling to the ground.

Bird coughs, gasping for air as they flap their wings, sending them out of reach from the guard. After recuperating, Bird snaps their head to him, eyes narrowed. They reach for something underneath their robe and pull out another strange looking dagger. With a flick of their wrist the dagger is sent right into the neck of the guard pinning Bee. Green blood gushes out onto Bee‘s face as they scramble away from the aggressor.

Ranboo holds back a gag as Bee runs over to Goat, starting to untangle the other. The tapping of talons has Ranboo turning his attention to Bird. Bird walks over to him and reaches down, taking the gun out of Ranboo’s hands. He lets the other as he relaxes his muscles. Bird once again armed calls over Bee and Goat, the latter now free.

The two run over, both breathing heavily. The door to the loading bay opens, gears turning in its system. All four of them snap to attention, Ranboo more groggily than the others as they look to see who’s walking in. Moving to stand, Ranboo has half the mind to just flop over and play dead. He feels like he is, maybe it’ll be convincing enough.

Instead of a heavily armoured alien, he’s met with dangerously human looking eyes. The person runs in, two small guns held in their human hands, attached to human arms and a human chest. He was wearing the same armour as Bird. The armour glowly slightly in some places, scratches littering it. Long pink hair flowed down the man’s shoulders. Goat and Bee relax but Ranboo couldn’t get himself to as the person turns towards him.

His eyes were blue and utterly human. They widened like anyone would back home, shoulders squaring up as the man took a step towards them. “Hello.” The man says, his voice accented in a way Ranboo couldn’t decipher. Like English was a foreign language. Ranboo ignores the tug in his chest, the blaring alarms and the way Bird was ushering the other two towards a ship. All he could do was stare at the other human in the room.

It’s then Ranboo sees the man’s tail, leaving every ounce of hope he had writhing on the floor, dead.

He feels his body finally give up on him, head lulling back to rest against the container as the human - no, not human, humans don’t have tails - runs further into the room. He says something to Bird in a language he didn’t understand, Bird quick with a chirpy reply. The man changes his course as he runs over towards Ranboo.

He couldn’t even scramble away from the other as the man grabs him from underneath his arms, throwing Ranboo roughly over his shoulder. Ranboo hisses in pain as the faker runs towards the ship the other three got inside of.

The inside of the ship was cramped, clearly only meant for travel between places and not a living space. Or a lab, or a cell. Honestly this might be better than what he was on before. Faker places Ranboo, more carefully this time, on one of the chairs facing the front of the ship. Bird takes place at the front, Goat and Bee quick to take the seats next to him. There weren't any more chairs available.

Faker buckles Ranboo in, sparing him one last look before turning and shutting the ship's doors closed. Ranboo can only watch as Faker grabs hold of the edge of his chair as Bird starts clicking buttons, the ship’s lights turning on. “Hold on.” Faker says. Ranboo’s too tired to even be surprised by the familiar words. Only humming as the ship takes off.

Faker has to adjust their hold on the side of his chair so he wouldn’t be knocked off his feet. Bee was lifting his shirt, buzzing anxiously. It draws the attention of Faker, who looks down at the spot Bee was fiddling with. Faker sucks his teeth, looking up at him. “Hurt?” Faker asks, Eyes running over his face.

When Ranboo doesn’t reply he looks over to Goat, no longer speaking English. Goat looks agitated as they answer. Bee presses their sleeve down on the now reopening wound in Ranboo’s side. He sucks in a pained breath, head going fuzzy as the world won’t stop spinning around them.

The last thing Ranboo hears is a panicked squeal from Faker before his head luls to the side and he passes out.

~<0>~

Techno didn’t know where they got a human child but what he does know is that this much amount of blood wasn’t supposed to be on the outside of them. “Keep putting pressure on that wound. Phil, how much further?” Techno speaks up, eyes stuck on the red staining Tubbo’s sleeve.

He can ask questions about his crew’s kidnapping practices later, right now they need to get to the medbay. “An hour.” Phil calls back uneasily.

“I don’t think he has an hour.” Tubbo says, looking up at him. “Didn’t you see that blood trail he left in the hanger?” Tubbo asks quickly, wings fluttering anxiously on his back. He couldn’t help but notice one of his wings isn’t moving as much as the other.

“Phil, step on it.” Techno orders their captain, gripping harder onto the chair.

“It could stall the engines!” Phil yells. He does start up the override program for the speed, doubling it.

“Either way if we don’t hurry he’s going to bleed out!” Tommy yells, growling. “He saved us, Phil! Kept us safe.” He adds, eyes pleading. Phil doesn’t reply as the red warning lights start blinking. Techno locks his knees, looking over at the human. The ship starts to speed up well past the safety limits.

“He looks like you.” Tubbo speaks up after they’ve all adjusted to the new speed. “Well, of course without the tail. And hair colour.” He quips.

“Of fucking course he looks like Techno!” Tommy replies. Techno could tell the two were trying to not think about the life threatening situation going on in front of them.

“He has skin patterns.” Techno notes, giving his two youngest crewmates what they wanted. There isn’t much more he can do besides that. The human was a peachy colour, parts of his skin pale. Techno didn’t know human’s had patterns. Though he did learn that humans came in a variety of shades of brown. There was nothing on skin patterns in the books his father gave him when he was younger. Maybe it was an age thing? Humans lose their patterns as they age.

“Is that normal?” Tommy asks, hands moving the human’s hair out of his face.

“I don’t think so.” Techno replies, frowning. He’s seen plenty of photos of humans, none had skin patterns. Maybe it wasn’t an age thing.

“We’ll need to do surgery.” Phil pipes up, head facing forward. “Stitch the wound. Maybe a blood transfer.” He adds.

“I’ll get Niki to test if I’m close enough of a match.” Techno replies to his captain, frowning. “Let’s hope I’m human enough that we can use my blood.”

“And if we can’t?” Tommy asks, looking between the human and Techno.

“Then we hope the human can stay alive long enough to make his own.” Techno answers. Looking down at his own hands he prays that he’ll be a match. That his piglin blood wasn’t poison to the young human’s veins.

That maybe they could save him.

Chapter Text

“He has multiple fractures in his left arm.” Niki starts as she examines the humans X-rays on screen.

Techno was sitting beside the kid on a chair, eating slices of golden apples. His arm was bandaged from where they took some of his blood and gave it to the human. Turns out his own human dnd was strong enough to be a non toxic match. The kid was still missing a lot of blood, as Niki didn’t want to push their luck giving him too much.

Tubbo and Tommy were outside the room - probably trying to break in - as he, Niki and Phil were dealing with the human’s injuries.

Phil makes a wounded sound, sparing the kid a glance. Techno couldn’t help but notice the dark bruises littering his captain's neck. Phil had said he was fine but he can’t help but want to go back to that trafficking ship and blow it up.

“He also has a concussion and traces of the drug wither in his blood. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be breathing.” Niki continues as she turns to face them.

“Wither!?” Techno yells, eyes going wide. Forget about his captain's healing bruises. Did he hear her right!?

“You have to be joking.” Phil adds for him, feathers ruffling.

“Like I said, he shouldn’t be alive.” Niki says as she pulls up something on her medical pad. “Good news is he’s not in danger of needing an invasive surgery with any important organs.”

The screen switches to a bunch of medical information Techno couldn’t hope to decipher without Niki. “Bad news?” Techno dares to ask.

“His body has been through so much, there’s so much unknown about his condition. I can’t do much more than patch him up and aid in the healing process. And that’s only physically.” Niki explains, gesturing to the screen. “Along with wither, there’s a large amount of adrenaline in his system.”

“Humans naturally produce adrenaline.” Techno speaks up, looking down at his own hands. His crewmates already knew that however. They’ve seen him on adrenaline before during tough situations. It isn’t…pretty.

Even now Techno felt like he was going to pass out from the crash. “Adrenaline very well may be the only reason he’s alive right now.” Niki says, looking over at the human in question. “It could have suppressed the effects of wither on his heart.”

“What do you need me to do?” Phil asks as he starts to walk around the room. His fingers were in his feathers, trying his best to smooth them out.

“Figure out what humans can eat, drink and how often they need to sleep. Anything you can about adolescent human’s needs. We need to make him comfortable. He won’t be going anywhere for a while.” Niki says as she taps away at her medical pad. 

“I can call my father.” Techno says, looking over at his captain. His father knows the most about humans, having come from ‘Earth’ himself. He was an American, Techno believes. 

“That’ll be appreciated. Thank you, Tech.” Phil sighs, shaking his hands out. 

“My father did say once that human ‘teenagers’ are moody and emotional things, and prefer to roam during the night hours. So he might not wake up until much later.” Techno notes, tapping his fingers on his thigh.

There was only one more thing on his mind. Taking his last bite of his golden apple Techno stands. “What do we do about pain management?” Techno asks, looking between Phil and Niki. Humans were known for their endurance and resistance, which made it very hard to medicate one. Any pain reliefs that would work on them were highly monitored and or very illegal. Techno knew personally how hard it was to find any good medicine that would work on him.

Niki seems to understand his concern as her finned ears spread out wide, a look of horror on her face. “Nothing we have will work on humans. We were barely able to get golden apples for you, Techno.”

“So he’s going to be in agony when he wakes and the adrenaline wears off.” Phil concludes, looking like he’s going to start pulling feathers. Techno doesn’t blame him.

“We have a job to do.” Techno speaks up as he stands, shaking out his arms.

Phil chirps, turning away from the human. “I’ll go look in the database.” He states, making his way out of the room. Techno is right behind him.

“Hey dad.” Techno greets, eyes squinting at the video in front of him. It was a glitchy mess, leaving his dads face askew.

“I didn’t expect you to call. It’s nice to hear from you, Techno.” His dad replies, smiling. When he was younger his dad would be the most terrifying man to the other children. Always smiling at them. They didn’t know any better, not knowing that it was a friendly gesture. Techno would always laugh at his dads expression when the kids ran away from him screaming.

Techno hums, leaning back in his seat. “I have a question to ask you. It’s important.” He says, huffing.

His dad leans closer to the camera, his smile falling. “What is it?” He asks, his voice turning serious. “Are you okay?”

“It's not me I’m worried about.” Techno says, looking away from the screen. He glances around his room, wondering how much of it was influenced by his piglin heritage and how much was influenced by his human one. “We recently rescued a human from traffickers. He seems to be an adolescent. We can’t return him to Earth, dad. And I, we, don’t know how to care for a human child.” Techno explains.

His dad looks thoughtful for a moment, leaning back in his own chair. “That’s a tough question. No kid is the same. Depending on the person the parenting style changes. You were easier that way, piglin children are raised basically the same. I wasn’t even expected to help raise you, your mother was surprised when I wanted to simply put you to bed.” His dad says, tapping his fingers on his desk.

Techno could understand that. There’s two jobs when it comes to traditionally raising a piglin child. The caretaker and the protector. His mother took up the role as caretaker, so when his dad tried to do the same it threw her off. At least that’s what he was told about his own upbringing. Human parents were expected to do both jobs at the same time. How they did it without burning out, he has no clue.

“For a teen, giving him space is a good start. But also the option to come to you if he needs to talk. You should go at it with a softer approach. Piglin’s are…much more blunt than humans are. If your mother was a human, she’d definitely be looked at weirdly for how harshly she talked to you when you were little.” His dad ends with.

“To be fair I was always running off into hoglin territory, she needed to be strict with me.” Techno laughs, remembering that time. It wasn’t that he didn’t listen, it’s just that he got distracted easily when he was little. If it wasn’t for his mothers regular reprimands he wouldn’t be here today. Nethera isn’t a kind place for children. 

“Wait,” Techno narrows his eyes at his dad. “Why would I need to know parenting styles?” He asks. The human wasn’t his, he was just some orphan they found.

His dad shrugs, lip curving up into a grin. “You said ‘I’ when you were asking how to care for a teen. And your mother keeps reminding me your getting to that brooding age—“

“I told her to stop mentioning that!” Techno squeals, face turning red. Stupid human features. “And I’m not broody.” He states, crossing his arms. His dad raises an eyebrow. “…Stop looking at me like that. Dad, no.”

“All I’m saying is if you are thinking of taking in the kid as your own, make sure to tell him that. Piglin’s are notorious for kidnapping.” His dad points out.

“It’s not kidnapping if the parents aren’t paying attention to their children.” Techno says, looking away from his dad. It was a culture shook the first time someone tried to take Techno when he was thirteen. His dad was panicking, Techno was panicking, his mother was furious. A fight later and he was being carried back home, his dad rambling about how piglin kidnapping culture is screwed.

Techno never really understood his dad. If you're not strong enough to protect your kid from other broody piglins, nevermind hoglins, ghasts, or wither skeletons, then you don’t deserve to have children. Get good, or lose your child. Don’t even get him started on blazes. It’s like they're aiming only for small helpless teenagers. It’s crazy.

“I can’t help it,” Techno sighs, ignoring the knowing look his dad gives him. “No one wants to court a man who can’t give them children. I’ve tried I-I give up. It’s also not like I can adopt. Hybrids aren’t allowed, legally that is. I went through all the channels.” Techno frowns, takes a breath and looks back to his dad. “He looks so much like me, like you. It has my instincts twisted.”

“That’s alright. I understand, son, I really do. But he’s human, he doesn’t understand piglin culture when it comes to, well, acquiring a child that’s not yours. You don’t even know him.” His dad says slowly and Techno nods.

He doesn’t know him, he doesn’t share anything substantial with the kid. And yet he’s already getting broody over him. It’s terrible. “I’ll keep my instincts in check.” Techno promises.

“I’m not saying to ignore them. Just get to know him first. When he’s well he might not even want to stay with you guys. I don't want you to get your hopes crushed. I love you.” His dad says before hanging up.

Techno chuffs to himself, shutting his eyes. “Yes sir.” He huffs as he gets up from his chair and leaves his room.

~<0>~

Ranboo doesn’t really know when he wakes up. It’s slow, like trudging through miles of thick mud. He’ll slip, falling back into unconsciousness. These episodes of barely being awake were small. He can’t even open his eyes. Everything felt wrong.

Then it felt agonizing.

His eyes snap open once the pain sets in. He can’t even pinpoint where it was. Maybe it was everywhere. It sure felt like it. Something, or multiple somethings were broken.

Groaning Ranboo tries to look around. Even that caused pain to dance across his arm, making him let out a pained yelp. Moving is bad, very bad. Crap. Okay, where was he? Where’s Bee and Goat? He’d even take Bird at this point.

Footsteps quickly make their way over to him. Someone looks down at him, eyes round with scales covering her cheeks…

Oh god she look like a siren. Is he dead? If he was then the afterlife was very painful. The siren woman says something, her words slurred together. He can’t tell the difference between words as she talks.

Ranboo shifts away from her and immediately regrets it, pain flaring up his whole body. “Crap!” He hisses. The siren woman’s ear fins fan out as she raises her hand, her six fingers hovering over him. Why did anyone even have six fingers?  in the first place!?

He does still however, the alien’s hands still hovering over him. She holds it up, her fingers spread as if to say “Stop moving”. He didn’t need much convincing as he eyes her.

It’s only then that he sees her white coat. He takes a deep breath, eyes widening as he stares at her. Did he not escape? Did Bird leave him behind and just take their friends? Was he back in the medbay!? He has to be, the more he looks around the more ‘doctor’s office’ the room looks. Though this one was much cleaner. There wasn’t any blood staining the bed he was laying in.

Did Goat and Bee abandon him? Was there untold friendship a lie? Were they just using him? Like the lab people were? Was he just a means to an end?

Before Ranboo could stop himself tears were sliding down his face, his breath speeding up as he let out a sob. He couldn’t help it, not when his only friends out here seemingly left him for dead. He thought they were different…

The siren woman warbles something as she takes a step back, eyes wide as he looks down at him. He doesn't care how pathetic he looks as he lets himself cry out. Fat tears roll down his face and he hiccups, more wales leaving him. He shuts his eyes, trying to ignore the look the lab alien was giving him. He can’t take this anymore. The pain, the mind bending injections, the homesickness.

He wishes they would just throw him away.

Ranboo doesn’t fully register the door opening, nor the quick footsteps in his direction. He only notices when a familiar hand is carded through his hair. His eyes snap open as he looks up, eyes connecting with Bee’s.

“B-Bee?” Ranboo sobs, his cries shaking his body. It didn’t help with the pain. Bee chitters, Goat walking up on the other side of his bed. The lab alien backs up, looking between the three of them before quickly leaving the room.

Goat huffs, wiping harshly at the tears on Ranboo’s face. As if his crying was a personal attack. Goat says something, Bee nodding along. “I thought…” Rnboo hiccups again.

Pushing down the pain it causes him, Ranboo reaches over to grab Goat’s hand. He can’t move his left arm, so he doesn’t even try to push past the pain. He doesn’t finish his sentence, keeping the unsaid lie hanging in the air. They didn’t leave him, they were here. Right here.

It takes a few minutes before Ranboo can get his breathing under control and even more time for his tears to stop falling. He sniffles, looking at his friends' faces. Goat has burn marks on their cheek, looking like the webbing of the net they were trapped under. One of Bee’s wings was bandaged in thin bandages, hanging loosely on their back. They didn’t get out unscathed either it seems. 

Looking around the room, dried blood wasn’t the only thing missing from this medical bay. The cuffs and straps were missing, Ranbo able to leave the bed anytime he wanted to. Even if he mentally couldn’t get himself to get up. There were a few other beds, all of varying sizes. As if to acopitate different sized individuals. It also smells like honey. As if someone was trying to cover up the scent of cleaning supplies.

Bee settles beside him on the bed, Goat seemingly arguing over it as Goat tries to nudge Bee off of said bed. Ranboo just smiles as the two bicker. If he closes his eyes he could try and pretend he was in some messed up car accident and his friends were visiting him in the hospital. Not in space who-knows-where with a bunch aliens who he has no clue the intentions of.

Before a winner can be decided between Bee and Goat the door opens again. Ranboo looks over, freezing under the familiar gaze of Faker. The human looking, yet clearly not human, man. alien? He didn’t know anymore.

The lab alien - doctor? - was beside him, saying something in her string of shushes and warbles. Faker walks over, Bee immediately getting off the bed. Goat looks at Bee as if he wanted to jump across the bed to get to him. Bee just moves to continue playing with Ranboo’s hair.

Faker isn’t wearing the heavy fantasy armour Ranboo saw him in last. Instead he’s wearing a sleeveless black tank top. Though it was thick, as if made out of leather. Coupled with that he’s wearing some kind of thigh length shorts, made out of the same tough black leather material. A large gold belt holding the two pieces together. Faker was actually covered in gold, with rings, earrings and a necklace. He went from scary battlefield worrier to scary rich king. Either way he was intimidating.

Faker clears his throat, Ranboo trying his best not to jolt at the noise. “Hello.” The man greets, sounding more confident in his words. Ranboo takes a sharp breath in. That’s right, Faker could speak English. Or at least a little bit of it. It was clear the other wasn’t fluent.

“Hi.” Ranboo says back, voice rough. It wasn’t as rough as when he was alone in the cell. He’s gotten used to talking again since Goat and Bee joined him.

The edges of Fakers mouth twists up. Not so much a smile, more like a smirk. It kind of looks like the other didn’t even know how to smile. It was awkward on his face, like Faker didn’t smile that much. Faker then points to himself. “Techno. Male.” He states, then goes on to point to Bee. “Tubbo. Male.” He moves on to Goat. “Tommy. Male.” Finally the man points at the doctor's women. “Niki. Female.”

Ranboo blinks at them, then it registers what the other was trying to say. “That’s your names?” He asks, looking over at Bee and Goat. Or he guesses, Tubbo and Tommy. Tommy’s name actually sounded scarily human, despite the very weird sounds between the two ‘m’s in the name. Ranboo couldn’t hope to pronounce them, so just ‘Tommy’ would have to do. It’s better than naming his friends after animals.

Faker - Techno, he corrects - hums. “Yours?” He ask, pointing at Ranboo himself. “Name?” 

“…Ranboo.” Ranboo says slowly. Something in his chest lightens up. Like the simple fact of his name being known was reason for celebration. “My name is Ranboo. I uh, I’m a guy.”

“Ranboo.” Tubbo repeats, looking down at him. His unhurt wing flutters.

Tommy scoffs the ground with his hoof, looking pleased to know his name as well.

“You’re hurt.” Techno speaks up, bringing the attention back to him. “Broken. Niki will help you.” Techno gestures towards Niki, who walks around hin. Her ear fin fans out. “I’ll translate you and her.” Techno adds on.

“Okay, uh, thanks?” Ranboo says, grimacing as his arm aches again. Reminding him that he is currently ‘broken’, in Techno’s words.

Techno makes a weird sound in his throat, sounding like a chuffing sound. Was it disrespectful to say it sounded like a pig? Either way Ranboo wasn’t about to voice the comparison. “Bad pain?” Techno guesses, then turns his attention to Niki. He says something in a language Ranboo couldn’t understand, Niki’s ear fins dropping down at the words.

She replies to him, turning to walk back out the room. “She’ll get something to help.” Techno voices, turning back to him. “Won’t be perfect. But it will help.”

“Thanks.” Ranboo says, laying his head down on the pillow. “Where…am I?” He asks.

“Our ship. You're safe now.” Techno replies, his smiling turning less forced. “Hungry?” Techno questions. Ranboo hums. “I’ll ask Niki about food for you.” He says, turning around. “Rest for now. Tubbo and Tommy will watch you.” He adds before leaving, the door closing behind him.

Ranboo looks between Tubbo and Tommy, who go back to talking to one another. Instead this time he hears his name flung into the conversation, like it was always there. Like they were talking about him, with him, all along and finally just got a name to place him with. Shutting his eyes he waits for the doctor, Niki, to come back with whatever pain medicine Techno was talking about. This was either a dream come true or he was dead. Either way, he didn’t mind it. Anywhere but the cell.

He was free.

Chapter Text

Tommy’s an iPad kid. Ranboo didn’t know why he came to this conclusion but he couldn’t help it. Not when Tommy’s spent most of the day tapping away at his space iPad. It’s hard not to be distracted by it when Tommy sat on his bed, legs swinging back and forth off the side. He’s gotten a few glances at what the other was doing, being met with a bunch of symbols. 

Tubbo himself was tinkering with a small gadget in the chair provided for him by Niki. Ranboo spent most of the day either watching them or asleep, trying to ignore the pain he was in. The medicine Niki gave him hardly took the edge off, which was very disappointing. Ranboo was expecting some miracle space drug and was handed an expired Advil. Niki at least looked apologetic when an hour passed and Ranboo was still grimacing.

Sleep evaded him at the moment, leaving Ranboo to stare as his three aliens in the room did their own thing. He’s pretty sure Tubbo and Tommy weren’t supposed to be here, by the look Techno gives them any time he walks into the medbay to ask if he needed anything. Niki’s at the other side of the room, preparing a meal plan. At least that’s the gist he got the last time Techno checked up on him. Something about Ranboo being deficient in multiple vitamins and minerals from the days - or months, at this point - of eating the disgusting food he was provided while captured. 

He just hopes it tastes good. Ranboo’s sick and tired of eating something that he has to force not to throw up later on. The doors slide open, Techno walking in. Ranboo perks up, looking over at the alien. He’s holding a plate of the yellow apple slices he likes to give him.

It’s been a few days since he’s been here and having Techno to talk to has been a lifesaver. Being able to ask for water and be not only understood but given it was the best feeling in the world. Tubbo and Tommy perk up too, immediately trying to get Techno to translate for them as the man makes his way over. Ignoring the other two, Techno turns to him. “Here.” Techno says, setting the plate on his lap.

Tommy tries to steal an apple slice, Techno slapping his hand away. “Thanks.” Ranboo smiles, popping it in his mouth with his good hand. He doesn’t know how an apple could make you feel better, but somehow they did. If the normal medicine was an expired Advil, then these yellow apple slices are an ice pack for a bruise. It didn’t fully work, as Ranboo still felt like he was hit by a bus, but he could move without flaming pain shooting up his body.  It made things bearable. That’s all he needed.

Tommy starts yelling, gesturing towards the apples. Ranboo looks towards Techno for help, the alien huffing. “He wants to eat the gapples.” Techno summarizes, rounding the bed. He then pushes Tommy off the bed. Tommy rumbles forward, grabbing onto Tubbo’s chair as he whirls back. Techno rolls his eyes as he adjusts the bed, bringing the backup so Ranboo isn’t fully laying down.

Techno is an interesting character. Ranboo couldn’t really place it, not when Techno was coming in and out of the room all the time. He quickly understood Niki. She’s caring and patient. Always having Techno ask him if he’s comfortable, if he wants anything, if he needs to be helped to the bathroom. It kind of reminds him of his mother, in a sad way. Reminisce of a life Ranboo won’t see again.

Techno was harder to understand, even if he was the only one Ranboo could actually talk to. Besides helping Ranboo talk to the others and getting him the drug apples, he didn’t really stick around. Ranboo didn’t expect Techno to wait on him for the whole day, but he did expect the guy to…Talk more?

He says the bare minimum and it’s always just what Niki, Tubbo or Tommy want to ask him. It’s never anything Techno wants to know personally. It’s like he was a translator and nothing else. Maybe Ranboo was being greedy, he already got two friends here. Maybe. He still hasn’t really asked them how they felt about him yet.

Techno moves on to fluffing the pillow behind his back. Sometimes though, Techno acts more like a nurse than a translator. “How’s your day been?” Ranboo asks, leaning back once Techno was done with the pillow.

Techno looks over at him, then over at Tommy and Tubbo, who are watching them intently. “Fine.” Techno replies, going to move away from the bed.

“Fine? Well that’s good! My day’s been…ah well, not bad.” Ranboo tries again, hoping Techno takes the hint.

Techno pauses, picking at the necklace around his neck. “Okay.” He replies stiffly. Ranboo bites the inside of his cheek. He guesses Techno had better things to do then to talk to him.

Techno asks over to Niki, the woman looking up and showing him something on her screen. Ranboo turns his attention back to Tommy and Tubbo. Who are now fighting over the space iPad. Great, now he can’t even spy on what the other was doing with it. Sighing he looks up at the ceiling and closes his eyes. Hoping that sleep wouldn’t avoid him like it’s been doing.

“Help!” Ranboo yells as he pounds his fists against the metal door. “Please! Help us!” His throat was getting sore, horse. He didn’t know how long he could keep screaming like this for.

“Ranboo…” His mom’s voice cuts through his yelling. He whips around, catching sight of his mother in the corner of the room. She’s shivering, teeth clattering as she waves him over. Ranboo crawls over to her, tears running down his face as she quickly goes to wipe them away. “No one is coming to save us.” She says, voice breaking with emotion.

Ranboo frowns, looking away. “But Dad said—“ 

“Your father isn’t coming to help us, Ranboo. He…we saw what it did to him.” His mother whispers, her own tears falling.

“He’s coming back!” Ranboo yells, shoving his moms hands off him. She only stares back at him weakly as he stands, going back to banging on the door.

“Ranboo.” She calls. He doesn’t answer. His dad is out there somewhere, looking for them. He has to be, he wouldn’t just leave them here. “Ranboo!” His dad had a gun, for fucks sake! A gun! He could save them! He has to be coming. “Ranboo!”

…

“Ranboo?” Ranboo’s eyes shoot open as he screams, thrashing against the hands on him as he pushes himself up. Pain shoots up through his arm and he goes tumbling off the side of the bed. Scrambling away from the bed on his knees Ranboo whirls around, eyes locking on the Lab Coat who was shaking him seconds prior.

Her ear fins were wide, sharp nails outstretched towards him as she made a choking sound in her throat. Ranboo pushes himself with his legs towards the wall, his hand cradling his broken arm. She was here to hurt him, like all the other Lab Coats do. Why was he back here? Where’s his mom? His dad?

Dad was supposed to have gotten him by now. He’s never late. Mom says he always hated not being early to things. So where was he? The Lab Coat takes a step around the bed, walking towards him.

“Leave me alone!” Ranboo yells, kicking his leg out towards her. She takes a quick back step away from his outstretched foot. The pain in his arm is getting worse and he has to bare his teeth, hand clutching It helplessly. Everything hurts. The Lab Coat turns and runs out of the room. 

Taking a deep breath Ranboo pushes himself onto his knees, looking around. She went out the only exit. She’ll be back though. They never leave him alone, not for too long. She’ll be back and then she’ll hurt him again. Is that why his arm was in so much pain? He must have forgotten getting set up in the Med Bay. Something must have happened with the drugs they give him. He isn’t supposed to remember the pain.

Everything is foggy, he can't concentrate. His stomach squeezes uncomfortably. Using his good hand Ranboo slowly makes his way to the furthest part of the room, sliding down the wall. He curls up in the corner. Maybe if he behaves they’ll drug him again, make him forget. If he forgets then it never really happened. He’ll be fine.

He can take a needle or two, just not the memories. “Please.” He pleads, body shaking. “I don’t want to feel things anymore. Please.”

The door slides open, the Lab Coat walking back in. Someone walks in behind her, side stepping her. He first looks at the bed Ranboo was just in and then looks at him. “Ranboo?” He asks, voice low. Eyes widening Ranboo sucks in a shaky breath. He looks just like…

“Dad!” Ranboo cries, reaching out towards the man. He’s taller than he remembers but he doesn’t care. His dad finally came back. He was here, he came to save him.

His dad’s eyes do something weird then. His pupils get bigger, like little dark moons. “I’m not—“

“I told Mom you’d come back! She didn’t believe me! But I told her! Because you promised and you always keep your promises!” Ranboo yells. He tries to stand but his knees are too weak and he ends up falling to the side.

His dad makes a weird grunting sound as he rushes over, arms moving to pick him up off the floor. Ranboo’s face is shoved underneath his dads chin as the man chuffs at him. “I’m sorry.” Dad says, standing up. 

Ranboo makes a surprised sound as he’s easily picked up, as if he weighs nothing to the man. His dad brings him back over to the bed he woke up in, setting him down and fixing up the covers. “Where’s Mom?” Ranboo asks, looking up at his dad.

Dad pauses, looking down at him with a pained expression on his face. “She’s…” Dad bites his lip, looking over at the Lab Coat. The woman was standing off to the side, holding her hands in front of her. Ranboo curls more into his dads chest, frowning at her. She shouldn’t be here.

“She’s sleeping.” Dad ends up saying. He slowly unsticks Ranboo from him. “You should sleep too. You need rest.” Dad goes to walk away but Ranboo leans forward to grab his hand. Dad turns, shoulders held tight.

“Please don’t leave me again.” Ranboo whispers, sniffing.

Dad looks down at his hand then up at him. He makes another grunt sound, this one sounding even sadder than the last one. He walks back to his side, nudging Ranboo so he’s laying back down. “I won’t.” He promises, running his index finger up and down Ranboo’s cheek. It’s a weird gesture but he doesn’t question it. It’s been so long since he’s seen his dad. “Sleep, child.” Dad says, continuing his weird finger thing. “Nothing will hurt you here.” 

Ranboo yawns, Dad flinching slightly at the acting as Ranboo moves a bit to get more comfortable. Closing his eyes, his grip lessons on his dads hand. Sleep comes easily after that.

Techno’s been acting weird since this morning and Ranboo didn’t know why. He woke up to Techno sitting beside him on a chair, eyes staring off towards the door. At first Ranboo thought it was a hallucination or the trick of the light but no, the man was just here. He’s used to Niki being in the room when he wakes up but not Techno. Techno only came around with Tubbo and Tommy. Never by himself.

When Ranboo asked him why he was here, Techno looked at him as if he asked him to solve the square root of infinity. Then he got up, said he’ll tell Niki he was up and left. Leaving Ranboo confused.

It only got worse when Tommy and Tubbo came to visit him, the former dragging his iPad with him. Techno wasn’t with them and he couldn’t really ask where the other was, given the language barrier. It’s only when Niki brought him breakfast, which was a mix of these weird sweet red berries and orange leaf looking things, that Techno finally showed back up.

It’s then that Techno’s weirdness really started to show. Ranboo didn’t want to make assumptions, especially when everyone around him were aliens, but by the looks the others were giving the man Ranboo was pretty sure this wasn’t normal.

‘This’ being Techno leaning against the wall, eyes staring off into space - not literally - in what looks to be his pyjamas. His hair was a mess, no jewelry in sight with black bags underneath his eyes. Tommy and Tubbo keep glancing over at the man. Niki looks less worried, though she does keep looking in his direction. Just less so than the other two.

It’s now more than ever when Ranboo wishes he could speak to the others. Tommy climbs onto the bed, ignoring Tubbo’s glare. He settles himself in front of him, Ranboo having to pull his legs up so as to not get sat on. Tommy looks up at him then down at his iPad. Looking over his knees Ranboo hopes that Tommy will finally let him play whatever game he’s been obsessed with.

Tommy raises his finger and presses something on the iPad. “Hi.” A robotic voice speaks up from the iPad. Ranboo jolts, looking down at the iPad. It even gets Techno’s attention, the man looking over. Tommy thumbs his foot on the bed as he presses the iPad again. “Hi. Hi. Hi.”

“Hi.” Ranboo says back, grinning. He leans forward. “Is that..Can you talk to me?” He asks, butterflies blooming in his chest.

Tommy turned the iPad around so the screen was facing him. A keyboard took up most of the screen, a line across the top with the same word symbols he’s seen Tommy tapping on for the past few days. It clicks then. “Is that your language?” Ranboo asks, looking at the keyboard. The symbols on the keyboard were nothing like he’s seen on earth. More pictures than actual letters.

Tommy taps a blue symbol on the side of the screen. The pictures on the keyboard disappear and are replaced with English letters. Reaching over Ranboo types out the only thing running through his mind. “How?” He asks, a robotic voice saying something in the same sounding language he’s heard Tommy speak. Presumably what Ranboo’s typed out.

Tubbo buzzes loudly as he stands, Tommy’s foot stomping on the bed harder as he rocks back and forth. Tommy clicks the blue symbol again, the keyboard turning back to his language and he turns the iPad back towards him. Tommy begins to type once again. “Written language is easier to convert than spoken language. Stole a bunch of Techno’s human books for the language.” Tommy types out.

Ranboo couldn’t help the bubbling laugh that escapes him as he makes grabby hands for the iPad. Tommy hands it off easily. “So we can talk now?” Ranboo asks, both Tommy and Tubbo nodding. Then, because he needed to say it. After everything, there’s only one thing he really ever wanted to say. “Thank you.”

Tubbo grabs the iPad from him, wings buzzing. “No. Thank you. You saved us. I owe you my wing.” Tubbo says, then hands the iPad back to him.

“I didn’t do anything special.” Ranboo types out, getting blank looks from the two of them. “What?” He then quickly types, looking between the two.

Tommy takes the iPad back from him. “Are you untranslatable kidding me? You saved our untranslatable lives! You didn’t have to. We’re both thankful. You're our friend.” Tommy fishes, setting the iPad down.

Ranboo’s mouth falls open slightly as he leans back on the bed, staring at the two. He scoops up the iPad, slowly tapping out the words. “We’re friends?”

Tubbo immediately starts angrily buzzing at him, grabbing the iPad as he starts to tap harshly on the screen. “Of course we’re friends! Why wouldn’t we be!?” He asks, looking up from the screen. All Ranboo could do was shrug.

Tubbo looks at Tommy, who slowly reaches for the iPad. “We’re friends. You can’t get rid of us now.” Tommy states, pointing at him. “I won’t let you.” Ranboo smiles. He can’t help it. It’s been a while since he’s been told such things.

Niki walks over, reaching out towards the iPad. Tommy hands it over. “Hello Ranboo.” Niki greets using the iPad. “I’m Niki. I’m the doctor upon this space vessel and here to help you in your recovery. I’m happy to be of any help to you, physically or mentally.” Niki says. “If Tommy will let me, I’d like to use this device to have better communication with you.” She then hands it over for him.

“That’s okay with me.” Ranboo types out. Tommy looks way too proud of himself, holding his head up high. They talk like this for hours, passing the iPad back and forth. Any time Niki gets a hold of it she asks him something about his diet, or his well being, going back to work on being his doctor. All the while Techno watches from his position by the wall. He doesn’t say anything, just watches. Ranboo doesn’t expect him to talk. He didn’t seem like much of a talker anyways.

Once exhaustion starts to creep in, Ranboo's eyes begin to grow heavy. “Tired?” Tubbo asks, noticing this. Ranboo shakes his head. “Liar.”

“I’m fine.” Ranboo slurs, making grabby hands towards the iPad. Tubbo passes it, Ranboo slowly typing out his message. “Aren’t you guys tired?” He types out.

Handing it back to Tommy, he types “No. We still have a few hours before the night cycle.” Ranboo frowns, crossing his arm over his chest. It looks weird with his injured one laying beside him. “You're hurt. It makes sense that you're tired.”

Ranboo takes the iPad back, tapping at the screen. “I’ve been awake for eighteen hours.” Ranboo states, looking around the room. He stayed up all night a lot before getting kidnapped. Pulling all nighters with friends for assignments, or generally being a night owl and wandering the house at three in the morning. After coming to space it got worse. Then it got better, then it just got confusing.

Niki turns her attention back towards him, looking interested in the conversation. Tommy and Tubbo don’t seem to understand what he means. He even looks over to Techno, who’s rubbing at his eyes. “Healing takes time.” Is all Techno says, shrugging. He looks like he’s about to pass out. Did he even go to sleep last night?

“How long do you usually stay awake for?” Ranboo types, passing the iPad to Tubbo.

“Twenty two hours or so.” Tubbo types out quickly. “Tommy can stay awake for twenty five hours before needing to sleep. Niki, Phil and Kristin thirty hours. Techno sleeps the most, staying awake for twenty hours at a time usually.” Tubbo types before passing the iPad back to him. Ignoring the fact Ranboo didn’t know who Kristin was, that was a long time to be awake for.

Aliens are weird. “That’s a whole day.” Ranboo types, yawning. “People are supposed to sleep after sixteen to eighteen hours usually.” He explains. He then remembers something his dads said in the past. “Though my dad once said that I need to sleep more because I’m growing.” He adds. His dad was always on him about sleep. Though since he alway worked early mornings he couldn’t keep tabs on Ranboo when he’d inevitably stay up past his bed times.

Tubbo takes the iPad from him once more. “You’ve been up for eighteen hours.” Tubbo slowly types. “You said you were supposed to sleep after sixteen.”

“I said sixteen to eighteen.” Ranboo says, looking between the two. “Don’t look at me like that.” He huffs, rubbing his eyes. He goes to grab the iPad but Tubbo dodges him, backing up.

“No more translators. You need to sleep. I didn’t know humans couldn’t stay up this long.” Tubbo types out. Tommy jumps to his feet, making a quiet ‘baa’ like sound.

“You two are teaming up on me.” Ranboo groans, looking over to the only person who can still understand him. “Techno?’ He calls.  “They're teaming up on me!”

“There right.” Techno just shrugs, pushing himself off the wall. “Go to sleep.” 

“This isn’t fair.” Ranboo groans, sliding down his bed. Techno huffs as he walks over, setting the back of the bed back so it was laying flat. Looking up, Ranboo pouts at the other.

“Niki will be here.” Techno says, turning towards the other two. Who were hanging by the door. “Goodnight.” With that Tommy leaves Niki with the iPad, leaving Ranboo alone. Niki stands and dims the lights, going back to her work. Ranboo shifts to lay on his side, staring at the wall. He yawns again, tugging his eyes before he finally lets sleep win.

He guesses he’s finished with all nighters.

Chapter Text

“Phil’s has a room set up for you.” Niki says through the iPad.

Ranboo blinks at the other, mouth falling slightly open. A room? “Why?” Ranboo voices, looking between her and Techno. The latter is cutting a slice out of the yellow apples he gives him from time to time.

Niki, not understanding him, continues to type with the iPad. “It’s been set up for a while now but I wanted to keep you under close supervision in case you showed any signs of getting worse. You're healing steadily, so I’m clearing you of having to stay here all day.” Niki types out before setting the iPad on her lap.

That didn’t answer any of his questions. If anything it gave him even more. He’s been here long enough to get the names of the full crew in passing. Phil - who he had previously known as Bird - was the captain. He’s never come in to see Ranboo and he never asked about it. If he was a captain he had other things to worry about then the freeloader who was taking up their medical supplies.

He shouldn’t have been getting a room set up for him. Ignoring that though, Ranboo shouldn’t really be here long enough to need a full room to himself. Unless Niki just wanted to stop checking up on him in the middle of the night. He was probably taking up too much of her attention.

Ranboo will have to ask Techno about what happens next. For some reason they’ve made him their responsibility. Tubbo and Tommy were easy to understand, they were his friends. It’s as if they were having a long extended sleepover. Techno, Niki, Phil and Kristin? They didn’t need to keep taking care of him. Maybe they felt like they owed him for helping Tubbo and Tommy? He really didn’t do much, if anything they’ve already paid him back.

“Ranboo, here.” Techno breaks him out of his thoughts, offering him a slice of apple. 

Ranboo takes it, holding it in his hands for a second. “Why am I still here?” He asks, looking up at the pink haired man. He couldn’t help but wonder. There wasn’t much else to do besides that.

Techno makes a weird sound in his chest. It sounds kind of like a vacuum, or a purr. A very deep and rumble purr. Niki scoots away, standing up from her chair across from him as she returns to her desk. He pops the apple slice in his mouth, waiting.

Techno doesn’t respond right away, instead his tail flicks and he squares his shoulders. Was he not supposed to ask that? Did he accidentally step on some weird alien law about asking when he’s allowed to leave? He doesn’t get a chance to think much about his potential mess up, as Techno speaks up.

“You're hurt.” Techno answers, looking away from him. “And a child.” He adds after.

“I can take care of myself, if you're worried about that.” Ranboo speaks up quickly, standing up from his bed. His legs don’t give out, standing strong. He really was healing. If only his arm would follow along instead of aching painfully most of the day. “There’s systems put in place for kids back on Earth who don’t have anyone looking after them. I’ll just ask for help from them—“

“We’re looking after you.” Techno cuts him off, voice harsh. Niki jolts from her desk, looking over at them. Ranboo takes a step back, shock blooming across his face as he stares at Techno.

The other looks as shocked as he feels, eyes wide. Techno takes a deep breath through his nose, rolling his shoulders. “We’re looking after you, now.” Techno repeats, softer this time.

Ranboo goes to reply, confused, when the lab door slides open. Tubbo and Tommy come bounding in. Techno chuffs once before quickly leaving the room. “Okay…” Ranboo says, sitting back down on the medical bed. That was quite the reaction. Maybe Techno still feels responsible for him? It’s the only thing that would make sense.

The ship’s larger than Ranboo first thought. It takes a bit before they get to the guest room he’ll be staying in. Tommy typing away on the iPad, talking about how much he helped by snooping through Techno’s books on humans. He doesn’t know if he should feel honoured or sorry for Techno’s privacy.

The first thing Ranboo notices when they turn the corner and stop in front of his door is the hand scanner beside it. “It’s registered to Phil, Techno and Niki.” Tommy explains, bouncing on his hooves as Niki places her palm on the scanner. “Phil said he’ll add yours when he has time.”

It’s a waste of time, he wants to tell them. But with Techno adamant that he’ll be staying until he’s fully healed, he doesn’t have much room to say anything about it. The door clicks open, sliding into the wall.

Tubbo takes the iPad from Tommy. “You can go in and look around, we tried to make it as human-like as possible.” Tubbo says, wings buzzing. His injured wing was looking healthier by the day, buzzing alongside his good one.

Taking a step into the room Ranboo looks around, eyes scanning every inch he could. There’s a bed at the back wall, curved instead of rectangular. Two pillows were at the top, a thick blanket thrown over the bed. He could see a lighter one underneath it. There's another door at one end of the wall, the other side being taken up by a dresser. The walls were a light almost greyish blue, an ugly green carpet rolled out across the floor. Looking up, Ranboo's met with white blobs painted on the ceiling. Is this supposed to mimic earth? 

He couldn’t help the small smile that made its way across his face, heart fluttering in his chest. It’s a small room but he could see how much effort was put into it. “Thank you.” Ranboo says, looking back down to the others. They hadn’t walked in, basically all piled near the door. Techno translates his words for him easily.

“No problem.” Tubbo types out. His bottom hands flap themselves out a little. He hopes it was a happy movement.

Niki taps Tubbo’s shoulders, hands out for the iPad. He passes it over. “There’s a chat box on your dresser. Phil, mine and Techno’s numbers are already added as quick contacts.” Niki says, pointing to his dresser. Turning around, Ranboo sees a small oval device on top of the dresser. Walking over he picks it up, looking it over.

“…You got me a phone?” He questions, eyes widening. It looks nothing like an actual phone but whatever this ‘chat box’ was, it sounded a lot like the space equivalent of a phone. Turning it over in his hands he quickly realizes that there weren't any buttons visible on the sides. “How does it work?” He asks, walking over to the group.

Techno taps the screen three times in quick succession. It turns on, a little logo showing up in the middle before going to what he assumes is the Home Screen. There’s circles with other logos and alien letters covering half the screen. They were probably apps or something. Techno then clicks on the circle that has a three dot symbol on it, bringing him to what he assumes is the calling app. Three sets of names were already added like Niki said, small pictures beside each one. 

“You can text me at any time, for any reason.” Niki speaks up, pointing to her contact. “Tommy already set up a translator for it.” She explains.

Techno swipe down, the app closing. He then presses the app with the mouth picture on it. It opens up to a smaller and less complex version of the translator on the iPad. “So you don’t need me.” Techno says, taking a step back.

“Oh.” Ranboo blinks. Well he guesses it wasn’t a surprise they were starting to give everyone their own translator to talk to him with. Techno couldn’t be with him every hour of the day to help him out. He probably had more important things to be doing then following him around. Looking down at the familiar English letters, Ranboo starts typing. “Thank you guys so much. You really didn’t need to give me all of this.” He types out, the chat box translating his words.

“Of course we did.” Niki replies, her find flaring out.

Before she could type out anything else, Tommy is taking the iPad from her. “Everyone deserves a room of their own and a way to communicate freely.” He types out. He stomps his hoof, huffing.

“I guess.” Ranboo types back, looking back into his room. It’s a simple statement but he couldn’t help but let it sink into his soul. Everyone deserves a room of their own. He could hardly call the cage he was once stuck in a room, but even then he had a place he called ‘his own’. From earth to a cage to a bedroom on a ship flying in space. It’s a weird butterfly effect that’s for sure.

“We will leave you, settle in.” Techno voices, drawing his attention back. He says something to the others, both Tubbo and Tommy starting to complain. Techno gives them a look and the two basically start pouting.

“Vacation is over for us.” Tommy types, glaring up at Techno. Who looks seconds away from dragging him off with him.

“Vacation?” Ranboo asks. It’s harder to hold the chat box than a phone, with its smoother edges but he makes it work.

“Projects to do, documents to forge.” Tommy says, Tubbo looking over his shoulder at the iPad. After reading what Tommy wrote the other alien slaps Tommy upside the head. Tommy laughs, dodging the next one.

Tubbo gets a hold of the iPad, using his extra set of hands to hold Tommy away from it. “We do odd jobs here and there, mostly delivering things from planet to planet. A lot of orders have been backed up since we were taken.” Tubbo explains.

It’s then that Ranboo realizes that this wasn’t just a crew of people flying through space. These people most likely have actual jobs they do. A life outside of wandering the halls and talking to him. He knew they had things more important than hanging around him but he never thought about what exactly they did. It sounds like they were alien mail men.

“So we’ll see you for dinner.” Tubbo ends off with, waving goodbye. Tommy doesn’t immediately leave, causing Techno to grab the goat-like alien and throw him over his shoulder. Niki waves goodbye too, heading back towards the medical bay.

“Dinner?” He whispers, watching as the group leaves him. Gripping harder onto the chat box, Ranboo backs up out of the doorway. The door slides closed. He’s never had dinner with them, he’s always eaten in the medical bay. Ranboo walks over to the bed and climbs in, collapsing on his side.

“My own room huh…” He murmurs, eyeing the chat box in his hand. He guesses he has time to kill now that he’s alone. Tapping into one of the apps Ranboo starts exploring what else this chat box had to offer.

The shiny excitement of being able to play with alien technology slowly dissipates when Ranboo realizes the apps downloaded onto the chat box were all boring things you usually delete an hour after getting a new phone. There's literally a calculator app. One he can’t understand either, as the only English app on the chat box was the translator.

He does end up finding an app downloader of some kind, so he spends a half hour downloading as many games as he could. After getting a message he thinks means he’s out of space, he starts trying the games out one by one. After realizing that trial and error wouldn’t really work here a few hours in, he gives up.

“Now what?” He groans, rolling out of bed. There wasn’t anything to do in here. How is he supposed to settle in when he has nothing to his name? Ranboo walks over to the dresser, opening the first drawer. Nothing. He goes to the second, then the third, still nothing. Great.

Ranboo walks over to the other door in the room, pocketing his chat box. Opening the door he’s met with a walk-in closet, also completely empty. He’s going to need to get some clothes if he’s going to be staying here longer. He doesn’t know the last time he’s changed his clothes and it was really starting to disgust him. He knows he smells like a walking dumpster fire.

“I guess I could leave?” He says to himself, turning towards the door to the hall. No one said he had to stay here the whole time. Plus if everyone is working then he wouldn’t run into anyone. They’ll be too busy to worry about him walking around the shop. That and he really wants to see what the rest of the ship looks like.

With his plan set, Ranboo heads towards the door. It had a panel beside the door but it wasn’t like the hand scanner on the outside. It looked more like a control panel. Ranboo taps the screen three times. Hopefully this works just like the chat box. Thankfully it does, the screen lighting up. Large circles were on the screen that he’s able to swipe to the side. Yep, definitely some kind of control panel.

Clicking one he’s brought to what looks like settings for something. There’s two rows, each set at different heights, like a slider. The left slider had colours across it while the right had shades. Pressing on the right slider and pulling down, the lights begin to dim. “It’s the settings for the lights.” He notes, sliding it up and down. The lights dance in the room, going from light to dark back to light.

He leaves it where it was before, moving onto the slider with the colours. If that one was for light levels, could this one change the colours? It does what he predicts it’ll do when he slides the slider bar to the colour red. The lights change from white to red, bathing the room in a red glow. He puts the slider back to white and swipes downwards. The app leaves the screen, returning him back to the homepage.

Swiping across the different apps Ranboo clicks on the one with a door symbol on it. The door slides open. “Got it.” He smiles to himself, leaving the room. He picks the direction he saw Techno drags Tommy off to, away from the medical bay.

The hallways all look the same. He passes by multiple doors with hand scanners next to them. He ignored those, already knowing they’ll be locked to him. He turns a few corners and after a while even contemplates giving up and returning back to his room. Before he can give up on this little adventure however, he turns one last corner. The space opens up to what looks like a filing room.

Papers were spread across every surface, shelves filled with folders and books. Walking in Ranboo eyes a certain folder on one of the tables. Grabbing it he flips it open, revealing pictures of aliens he doesn’t recognize. Scars run along their faces, hands cuffed. Something about them causes his stomach to churn. 

He goes to turn the page, eyes narrowed. A chirp has Ranboo jolting, whipping around to see Phil in the corner of the room holding a basket full of folders and papers. His feathers were fluffed up, large hawk-like eyes staring right into his soul. Ranboo takes a step back, Phil tracking his movements.

“I uh-I’m sorry!” Ranboo yells, closing the folder and setting it back down on the table. He steps further away from it, holding his hands up. “I didn’t mean to be snooping.” He hurries out, drawing shoulders up.

Phil sets the basket he’s holding on the ground, head tilting to the side further then what’s ever humanly possible. A shiver runs up his spine at the sight. His head returns upwards after a few seconds as he walks forward. Ranboo stills as Phil makes his way over. Great, he’s able to move around freely and the first thing he does is piss off the literal captain.

He couldn’t help but look at Phil's flowy clothes, wondering how many daggers he had hidden underneath them. He wasn’t wearing the purple armour he once was back on the other ship. Phil chirps at him, drawing his attention up. He grabs Ranboo’s hand, leading him out of the room. He doesn’t let go of his hand when they're back into the hall, instead he continues to drag Ranboo after him.

“I really didn’t mean to overstep.” Ranboo tries to explain. He wishes he could grab his chat box but with his good hand occupied he couldn’t hope to get it out of his pocket. Phil’s wings shuffle in his back, the man talking back in chirps and trills. It doesn’t sound like a reply, more like Phil’s talking to himself.

Before long Ranboo finds himself being dragged to a door. Phil presses his hand against it, the door sliding open. He brings Ranboo inside, the door closing behind them. “A bathroom?” He questions as he looks around. The floor was tiled, a huge bathtub taking up one side of the room. On the other were shower heads with dividers, indents in the wall. It looks like those public bath houses back on Earth.

Phil lets go of his hand, pushing him towards one of the shower sections. “What are we doing here?” He asks, though of course Phil doesn’t understand. Phil just pushes him until he’s sitting in one of the indents, shower head over top of him. “Thank you for showing me where this was but I don’t want to shower right now.” He continues.

Peering out from the small divided shower stall, Ranboo watches as Phil grabs a cloth, a small bowl and bottle from a cupboard. He wets the cloth and fills the bowl with water before turning around to walk back to him. Phil pushes softly on his chest until he’s sitting back in the indent. Then before Ranboo could convince Phil that he really didn’t need to be here right now, Phil shoves the wet cloth onto his face.

“Hey wait—“ Phil cuts him off with a sharp whistle, rubbing his face with the wet cloth. He wasn’t rough, scrubbing circles onto his face. After deeming it enough Phil moves the cloth away. Only to then squirt whatever was in the bottle onto his face. Ranboo splutters as Phil rubs what he could only hope was soap all over his face. It smelt weird, like some kind of sour flower. Honestly he couldn’t really pinpoint the scent.

Phil hovers over his eyes, his own narrowing. Ranboo understands what he wants and closes his eyes, sighing as Phil smothers the soap onto his upper face. After a minute or so the cloth is back. It’s damp again, water dripping into his shirt and pants as Phil washes the soap off his face. After Phil deems his work done, he puts the cloth into the bowl and walks over towards the bath, dumping the water down the drain.

Ranboo goes to wipe his face with his sleeve, Phil making another sharp whistle. He stops half way, looking over to spot Phil glaring at him. Slowly Ranboo puts his hand into his lap. Phil breathes harshly through his nose as he returns to the cupboard, and gets out a towel. Walking over Phil starts drying his face off.

“You know I really didn’t think I smelt bad enough that you felt the need to wash my face.” Ranboo sighs. Phil chirps happily - hopefully - at his work. He sets the towel to the side before grabbing his hand once again, leading him out of the bathroom. Phil drags him down multiple halls before stopping at his open bedroom door. He finally lets him go, looks him up and down, then leaves back down the hall.

Ranboo waits a second before entering his room, the door sliding closed behind him. “Did I really look that dirty?” He asks himself. Hesitantly raising his arm, Ranboo sniffs at his armpit. He immediately recoils. “Jesus!” He hisses, scrunching up his nose. Maybe he does need to go back to that bathroom for an actual shower.

Chapter Text

Ranboo’s never been out to dinner with many people outside his immediate family. Even when he and his family did go out to eat, it was always to some local restaurant with the same burger and fries combo every place has. Even on holidays they didn’t go anywhere fancy. 

So really, this shouldn’t be a problem. Eating on a spaceship shouldn’t really count as classy, right? So why does it feel like he’s going into some high tech fancy restaurant?

“Here.” Techno says, hands stretched out towards him. A bundle of what Ranboo is pretty sure is clothes being offered to him. Even from here they looked a bit baggy, the style matching what Techno usually wore. A sleeveless top with shorts made out of thick material. Instead of them being black these were brown. The shorts would fall much longer on Ranboo then they would Techno, who’s wearing a matching set. Instead black, of course.

Taking the clothes offered to him Ranboo looks them over, sighing with relief when he spots a pair of boxers. It wasn’t like they weren’t giving him clean ones but it also wasn’t a constant thing. Niki kind of just gave him a small pile of them and called it a day. And with no access to a washing machine Ranboo had no clue how to clean them. He’s literally wearing the last clean pair.

This was a gift from Heaven. 

“Thanks.” Ranboo says, holding the clothes to his chest.

Techno nods and takes a step back from his doorway. “I’ll take you to dinner once ready.” Techno says, sounding more and more fluent in English by the day. Ranboo doesn’t know how but it’s like Techno’s taking lessons or something, with how much better he’s gotten with speaking. Were there even English lessons in space? Didn’t seem that likely.

Closing the door behind him he quickly gets ready. Not because he’s excited, he doesn’t think he could be excited over something so fear-inducing like human interaction. Well not human, alien interaction. A social event. An alien social event on a ship somewhere far off into space. Surely nothing could go wrong.

It’s hard to get his arm in, pain erupting after very few movements. The bone was still broken, held together by a few bandages. He wonders if he could ask for a cast. But if they had some wouldn’t they have plastered it on him by now? Either way, dressing went a bit slower when it came to getting his top on. 

Ranboo leaves his room brandishing his new clothes. It’s a bit more drafty then what he’s used to, with the sleeveless top and shorts. But he’s thankful for them anyway. “I’m ready.” He says.

Techno looks over from where he was gazing down the hall. He breathes out heavily through his nose, nodding. “Let’s go.” He states, gesturing for him to follow. He tries to keep track of the hallways as Techno leads him around the ship. He’s allowed to move about on his own, hopefully. So knowing the layout might help him from going into places he’s clearly not allowed. 

Soon enough Techno stops in front of two big double doors. He presses his hand to a small panel on the side. The second the doors slide open Ranboo’s punched in the face with scents. It was like someone solidified the smell of cooked food and used it as a weapon.

Blinking his eyes a bit, he tries to refocus himself. The kitchen - or dining room? - looks nothing like the ones on Earth. There’s no table, no cupboards, no ovens or chairs. It’s a sleek room with another hand locked door one the left. Before Ranboo could ask about any of it, the left side door slid open. The smell in the room grows stronger as Phil walks out with a tray of various…things on it.

It smells good enough to be food, so Ranboo will settle with it being totally edible. Phil glances over at the two of them, then chirps a couple of times. Before his very eyes, the middle part of the floor starts to rise up. Like the metal of the ground turned itself into a liquid. It quickly takes the form of a table, chairs popping up the same way around it. All with no backs, for some reason. Aliens confuse him.

Phil sets down the tray of food before turning around and returning to the other room. “Take a seat.” Techno says, ushering him forward. Nodding, Ranboo shuffles forward and picks a random seat. Hopefully the arrangement didn’t matter. Techno takes the seat on his right.

The door to the dining room opens, Tubbo and Tommy walking in. There mid-conversation as they enter, stopping once they spot him. “Ranboo!” Tommy yells. Well, kinda yells, his vocalizations are a bit off. But Ranboo recognizes his name enough to know that’s what the other was trying to say. Tommy and Tubbo sit across from him.

Phil returns a few more times, going in and out of the kitchen to place things down on the table. He sets the plates down at the same time as the door opens once more. This time Niki and another woman stepped through. Another bird. Or, whatever species Phil is. She has to be Kristin, he thinks. That’s the only person he hasn’t seen yet.

She sits down beside Tubbo and across from Niki, the latter taking the seat between Tommy and Techno. Ranboo can’t help but stare, because well, she’s kinda tall. Like right under his height, sort of tall. And her wings weren’t a void like Phil’s, her wings were dusted over with purple and white speckles. Like the galaxy painted on them, made them an art piece.

He’s taken from his thoughts by Kristin trilling and chirping in his direction. She fluffs her wings out, the fluffier ones showing deep navy blue hues. “She says hi.” Techno translates.

“Oh.” Ranboo looks between the two. Then he remembers his phone. Quickly pulling it out and tapping three times, he pulls out the translator. He types out his words, then turns back to Kristin. “Nice to meet you.” It speaks for him.

Phil walks over to him, sitting down in the final seat. The one right in his left. The man tucks his wings closely before reaching over to the trays of food and removing the foil from the top. He says what Ranboo could only assume is “dig in” or “time to eat”. People start using their utensils to take portions of food and setting it down on the plate in front of them.

Picking up the two forks he was given - because Phil had given him two different sizes - he goes to grab something from one of the trays. Only to pause. He has no idea what to take. He doesn’t even know what tastes good! What if he doesn’t like it and then has to finish it to not look like he’s not thankful? Or what if something here makes him sick? Can he even eat any of this stuff?

Looking around the table, Ranboo tries to gage what he should do. There’s three different trays with all sorts of wildly different food. Tommy was only taking food from two of them, Tubbo and Niki were only taking from one, but they were on completely opposite sides of each other. Phil, Kristin and Techno were taking from all three, but they were varying different things.

Maybe he should take a little bit of everything? Like a spoonful, so if he doesn’t like it he won’t have to eat much. With his plan set, Ranboo looks for something to grab first. “Here.” Techno huffs, stabbing something that looks like a tiny roast beef and setting it on his plate. Phil makes a few twittering sounds, picking up something lattice looking and also setting it down in Ranboo’s plate. The two go like this until Ranboo’s plate is full of varying foods. 

“Thank you.” Ranboo says quickly, not wanting to seem unthankful.

Techno side eyes him, then looks down at his plate. “Eat.” He orders, shoving the plate closer.

“Oh uh, okay.” Ranboo quickly replies. Picking the small roast beef looking dish first, he stabs into it and takes a bite. It tastes more like pork than beef, moist and packed full of flavours he can’t name. It’s a bit tuff, but he’s able to chew it without much complaint.

Then the heat sets in. Spice takes over his mouth and Ranboo quickly sets the thing back down on his plate. His tongue burns and if he hadn’t just taken a bite out of a slab of meat, he would think he ate a pepper. A very hot and spicy - yet delicious -  pepper. Swallowing the spit welling up in his mouth, Ranboo looks around for any type of juice or water.

The only water looking thing he sees is in a cup beside Niki. Taking out his phone, Ranboo quickly begins to type. “Is there any more water?” He voices. Everyone looks up at this. 

“You want water?” Tubbo asks. He had the main iPad in his lower hands.

“If you have any more.” Ranboo replies. His lips were now burning. Niki lets out a squeaky sound, reminiscent of a dolphin, as she stands.

“Humans drink water?” Tommy asks, now holding the iPad. Do they not have there own phones? Or did they just leave them behind.

“You don’t?” Ranboo questions. Isn’t water like, one of the main things that support life!?

“Well most species do, but some don’t. Tubbo doesn’t need to drink water, he gets his through fruit.” Tommy explains. “I’ve never seen Techno drink any water, which makes sense since he’s from Nethera.”

“…You don’t need water?” Ranboo asks in English. Techno looks over, then rolls his shoulders and flicks a pointed ear. Then goes back to eating.

Niki returns with a glass of water in her hands, setting it down in front of him. “Thanks.” Ranboo types out. He takes no time grabbing the cup and taking a sip. And then he finishes the cup, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Finally, the burning is gone. 

The rest of dinner goes by with a lot of revelations. A lot of new flavours and weird looking foods. Ranboo learns that a lot of the things Techno gave him were spicy meats or hard vine - sticks? - that he’s apparently not supposed to actually eat. Just chew on, like sugarcane. The things Phil offered up were fruits and vegetables, a few of which the other had to peel open with his claws.

The only things left on his plate by the end were unbeatable chewed on flavour sticks, seeds and bones. Ranboo has also went through two more glasses of water in the time it took him to finish. He readies himself to just sit there until the others are done, maybe try and join the not so understandable conversation going on in front of him. 

Techno, it seems like, doesn’t accept that he’s done eating. Techno takes the bones left over on his plate and promptly snaps them in two before putting them back. Ranboo stares at the now broken bones, confused. Why did he…

“Eat.” Techno says, pointing at the broken bones.

Again, why? “I can’t eat bones.” Ranboo states, looking over at the man.

Techno scrunches his nose. “The marrow.” He says, pointing at the bones. Ranboo just blinks at him. He sighs before picking up the bones and pointing at the centre of it. Where a brown centre of marrow is. Which he really doesn’t want to actually try.

He’s eaten a lot of strange things, okay? From sand as a child, to grey squishy cubes, to spicy alien space pork. But he’s never actually liked bone marrow, believe it or not. His grandmother gave it to him when he was younger and he just never liked it. Strange alien meat bone marrow doesn’t give him the impression that it tastes any better.

“I’m okay.” Ranboo declines. Hopefully it’s not somehow disrespectful? He doesn’t see Phil, Kristin or Niki eating any of the bone marrow. This should be fine, right?

“I didn’t ask.” Techno states. Before Ranboo could comprehend that reply, Techno’s chest rumbles. The conversation floating around the table stills and he feels Phil stiffen up beside him. It doesn’t take a genius to realize he’s most likely pissed Techno off somehow. The thought alone has Ranboo flinching, eyes growing wide.

No one moves, nevertheless him. Techno shifts in his seat slightly before setting the bone back down on his plate. The other chuffs, reaching over. Ranboo stays completely still - they always liked him still - as Techno’s hand get closer to his face. He doesn’t know what he expects. Pain? A reprimand? 

To wake up back in that cell, all of this having been a dream? 

He doesn’t expect Techno to run his finger down from his forehead to his nose. “You're not in trouble.” He says, voice softer than Ranboo’s ever heard. “So lose that face.” Relaxing slightly, Ranboo tries to not look as if he’s about to be thrown around by a man that looks like he eats bricks everyday. The atmosphere changes from stiff to relaxed within seconds of Techno’s chuffing. Though he catches Phil side eyeing the two of them. 

Techno doesn’t give in on the bone marrow thing. Instead he scoops it out and sets it on Ranboo’s plate himself. Then hands over that same spoon with a look he’s seen his own mother throw at him before when he doesn’t want to eat his vegetables. Sighing, Ranboo nibbles on the bone marrow. Which, shocker, doesn’t taste any better than Earth animals and their cooked bone marrow. 

Once everyone is done eating and Ranboo has gotten through half of the bone marrow mush, Techno takes his plate. Finally, mercy. He tries his best to help clean up. Most of this involves him coping whatever Phil’s doing. This leads him into the kitchen with a bunch of utensils in his hands. Phil’s tossing the trays into what looks like a dish washer and he’s behind him.

He offers up the utensils when Phil turns around. It earns him a quick head scratch in return, for some reason. “Ranboo.” Techno calls from the door. “Come.”

“See you tomorrow.” Ranboo types out on his phone, Phil whistles in response. Following Techno out of the door, the man starts leading him back down to his room.mTechno opens the door for him, nodding towards the inside. Ranboo walks inside, then stops before the door could close behind himself. “Goodnight, Techno.” Ranboo smiles, waving. Techno looks at his hand, then huffs, walking away.

…He still can’t tell if that man actually likes him or not.

~<0>~

“What was that about?” Phil asks. His feathers were puffed out and spiked up, brows furrowed.

“What?” Techno replies, slowing to a stop beside his captain. They were between resting quarters. He had just dropped Ranboo off at his own room and so he was heading to his. Which wasn’t very far, really. But his instincts still didn’t like the idea of being a full hallway away. Ranboo’s not his, he has to remind himself. Techno’s care is temporary…

“Rumbling at Ranboo like that.” Phil states. His talon taps on the floor, claws scraping against the metal slightly. 

Techno squares his shoulders. “He was being difficult when it came to finishing his dinner. So I reprimanded him.“ He explains. It wasn’t something he was ready for. Piglin adolescents love hoglin bone marrow, he thought Ranboo would be the same. But the human was acting more like a Piglin suckling than anything. If the kid wants to heal and get better, finishing his dinner is step one.

Phil looks at him a few more seconds before he erupts into a fit of chirping chuckles. “Your acting’s very broody, Techno.” He points out.

He feels his face burn red at the words. Swallowing down the shriek he wants to let out, Techno clears his throat. “I’m just acting as…a worried third party.” He slowly says.

Phil continues to laugh at him. “A worried third party that makes a plate for the ship's ward and places himself right next to him while eating dinner. A ward who’s also dressed in traditional Nethera clothes.” He says.

Narrowing his eyes on the other, Techno tries his best not to give in to the older Elytrian. Then he realizes something. “You also made his plate and sat next to him.” Techno points out, cracking a smile. “You approached me when you thought I was being overly mean to him during dinner. If either of us is broody, that’s you.”

Phil stops laughing, wings fanning out in embarrassment. His captain looks away, hiding his feather face from him. “As the captain it’s my job to make sure everyone is being treated fairly.”

“Keep telling yourself that, feather brian.” Techno jokes, walking past the other. He expects that to be all. Even if Phil wanted to poke fun at his - not at all there - broodiness, Techno knows he wouldn’t take it much further. Piglin’s tend to keep those things to themselves and to sounder mates. Phil’s family, yes, but even he isn’t privy to Techno’s shortcomings when it comes to creating a litter.

So when he feels Phil’s wing brush against him, he thinks nothing of it. “You do know we can’t return him back to Earth, right?” He says quietly. Like maybe Ranboo found a way to understand Phil’s native tongue. He hums in understanding. The Milky Way is off limits. Even if they ignore all of the legal challenges, there’s the actual pain of getting there. Of getting through the black system protocols.

It’s a lot easier to break out of a locked solar system than breaking in. Even for them. There’s a reason his own dad isn’t back on Earth.

“I don’t want to rush you or anything, mate, but I need to know if we’re keeping him by a week's time. If he’s not staying with us I’ll need to make a few calls to some child care agencies about finding a place for him.” Phil continues slowly. Hesitantly. “Of course I’ll keep tabs on him. He’s my ward after all and I’ve taken the responsibility, but if he’s going to be off ship then I’ll need to find a caretaker for him while we’re between jobs—“

“I’m keeping him.” Techno cuts the other off. His voice is stern, his words final. Ranboo isn’t a suckling or a piglet, he’s an adolescent. A young human teenager who’s far too young to be on his own but too old to have forgotten his birth parents. His home world.

Too young to have gone through what he has but too old for it to have killed him. Young enough that Techno can see himself being the boys forever caretaker, old enough that he has a say in it. The choice to deny this whole situation. “Okay.” Phil says. Techno continues walking. Instincts too new to him rearing its ugly parental head his way.

He feels like he’s flying, but it’s in the way only a falling man would fantasize about.