Tubbo's hair felt... fluffy.

"Did you just wash it?" Ranboo suddenly asked him, ruffling through the brown locks.

Tubbo looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Uh, yeah."

Ranboo stroked through Tubbo's hair again. "... It kinda reminds me of a chestnut."

"What?"

The two boys laughed and Ranboo struggled to correct himself. "Nevermind, nevermind!"

"Gotta admit though, chestnuts are the best nuts."

Both Ranboo and Tubbo struggled to contain their laughter. "Nuts."

"The best nut!"

"Second only to nuts!"

Ranboo snorted as Tubbo descended into a series of uncontrollable giggles that could have won the world record for... well, for what, Ranboo didn't know. Just some obscure world record. That was just how world-record-ly it was.

Their laughter died down in a few moments and they stood in silence, staring awkwardly at each other as Ranboo continued to mine a vein of Redstone. 

"... But really. Your hair is nice."

Tubbo held in another laugh. "Thanks."

Ranboo picked the Redstone up and stuffed it into his bag, yawning. "Let's get back. We have enough."

"I didn't even mine a single block!" Tubbo complained, following Ranboo up the steps they had made.

"You helped build this tunnel," Ranboo said. He helped Tubbo up a particularly high ledge and the sun suddenly broke into their eyes, shining so brilliantly that Ranboo almost slipped from the rock as he stepped back.

"It's still midday," Tubbo squinted, shielding his eyes from the sun. 

"That means half a day to build our elevator!" 

Tubbo groaned and Ranboo pulled him along, chuckling to himself as Tubbo followed him with steps that were less on the Olympic side and more on the... less-Olympic side.

Ranboo decided to make Tubbo less groan-y and more smile-y. "Race to the hotel?"

Tubbo glared at him. "Fine."

They ran.

That was it, really. Ranboo, with his long legs, seemed to almost teleport to the gleaming yellow hotel. Ranboo counted the seconds before Tubbo arrived, making weird faces at him.

"I won," said Tubbo.

"I did," said Ranboo.

"No, I did," said Tubbo.

They decided, almost immediately, that Tubbo won, though, in reality, that wasn't the case.

Ranboo got to work, watering the drooping alliums. It was quite sickening, how much he had to water them... He wished that Tubbo would, but he didn't have the best memory (which was ironic), so Ranboo had to be extra careful to not spill the water onto himself.

Or else he might hurt Tubbo, or-

There were so many people he could hurt -- Tubbo, Tommy, Sam... or worse... Michael. He could blow up the whole SMP for all he knew, in that state. He could free Dream, he could commit those little lessons...

He could feel the weight of it building up, the emotions in his own mind bubbling up his throat, threatening to spill over -- no, it wasn't threatening to spill out. It was threatening to fall back in and choke him, it was threatening to stay there forever, a secret that no one else would ever know, that no one else would ever-

"... Ranboo?"

Ranboo blinked and looked back down at a frustrated Tubbo, who was struggling to place a wooden block next to him.

"Uh... yeah?"

"Help me, aye?"

"Uh..." Ranboo blinked, his mind blank, replaying the same words Help me, aye? In his head. Help? Me? What did those words mean?

He stared blankly at Tubbo for another whole ten seconds before Tubbo groaned.

"What's going on?" he lamented. "Tommy did the same thing just this morning."

"I... uh..."

Tubbo stared at him.

Ranboo stared back.

Tubbo stared at him.

A ringing noise sounded in Ranboo's ears and Ranboo pulled away, gasping for breath.

Tubbo stared at him, then realized what he was doing, and quickly looked away.

"Sorry."

"No, no, no, it's alright..." Ranboo tried to blink away the throb in his head. "You're... you're right. I've been zoning out lately."

Tubbo gave him an unconvinced look before sighing, plastering on a clearly fake smile. "Let's get back to building our elevator, shall we?"

"Y-yeah..." Ranboo couldn't help but scratch his neck. "Let's-"

"Snooty... good-for-nothing..."

They turned to Tommy's -- er, Jack's hotel, where Jack was begrudgingly stomping up the wooden steps to the door of the red building.

Tubbo immediately recoiled back, taking a sharp breath. Ranboo gave him a confused glance, but Tubbo didn't return it.

Jack disappeared around the corner, walking into the hotel.

Tubbo waited a few more seconds before relaxing. He turned back to the yellow hotel and pulled a weed that just happened to be there for no reason -- wait, why was there a random weed there?

Ranboo knew Tubbo well enough to not pry, though he couldn't help but wonder.

Of course, they both had secrets. Ranboo wished they could be more honest with each other for a... healthy relationship, but that was-

A shrill scream erupted behind them, making Ranboo's hair stand up on his back. He whipped around at the red hotel again to hear a loud thump of a chair being thrown at a window and the window shattering, glass shards raining down on the prime path. He stared up at the third floor, where a red-faced Jack jumped out of the window and landed HARD on his butt.

Ranboo couldn't help but grimace. That couldn't have been comfortable.

Surprisingly, Jack got up quickly and grumbled something along the lines of "I hate this," and then promptly stepped on a shard of glass, and screamed again. Ranboo and Tubbo exchanged a glance.

Jack spotted them staring at him and cursed, running off in the direction of the community house with a bleeding foot, muttering "Niki-Niki-Niki-Niki-Niki-Niki-" Ranboo couldn't help but marvel at how fast he was running, considering that he had just fallen out of a building.

Then, in classic horror movie fashion, Tubbo turned to him, his mouth agape in bewilderment. The ends of his mouth lifted a bit and a disbelieving laugh bubbled from his lips.

"Did you... did you just see what I saw?"

Ranboo struggled to hold in the laughs that were now bubbling in his stomach, now that he'd registered what just happened. "Looks like someone's having a bad day today..."

Then they erupted into laughter again, the image of Jack falling out of the window looping over and over again in their heads. At that moment, every worry that Ranboo had disappeared, melting into the joy and elation that each other provided.

There's strength in numbers,

And as long as they were together,

It was going to be okay.

-

Revenge was a fickle thing.

It was usually made in anger, a brash moment of necessity, usually after one either blamed something on someone or if that person had directly caused harm to them. It's a human instinct... not only human, as most animals had this sense of revenge, too. You bother a bee, it stings you. You approach a cub, the mother bear attacks you. It's a defense, a natural barrier to protect oneself from the harsh world. 

But humans were different. Humans knew the consequences of their actions. They knew that revenge was wrong, that to blame everything on one person would be irrational. Yet this natural instinct inside of us still lives on, pushing us to demand payment from a person who had stolen from us, pushing us to plot revenge against a person who had wronged us.

An eye for an eye.

Paying it forward was related to this reward system of nature too. Receiving kindness would feed us some kind of warmth that can't be explained, a sense of gratitude and happiness filling our hearts and our souls. We'll then share that kindness, no matter how small. Someone may open the door for you, and you'll open it for them the next day. It was only fair.

Revenge and kindness were so similar, yet so different.

Niki took a deep breath, closing her eyes. 

It was better to pay it forward, she decided. It was better to take the kindness she had received from Technoblade and Philza and Ranboo, to take the warm feeling of home, of belonging, and give it to someone else. It simply felt right.

Because she had tried, she had tried to spread the pain that had been given to her so long ago, and it did nothing to dull the lingering sensation of desire, of a want that had haunted her. Through her seemingly endless quest for revenge, she had brought only more pain upon herself and others.

And so, through lessons learned, Niki concluded that she would no longer give in to that terrible feeling of revenge, of payback. She would fight against it, and she would do the right thing.

And right now, doing the right thing was to not kill the boy she once thought of as a little brother.

Jack emerged from the portal, almost threateningly, watching Niki as she opened her eyes, releasing herself from her meditation.

"What do you want?" she asked in a calm tone, standing up.

Jack looked... less than fine. His hair was disheveled, bits of blood and glass blotted all over his legs. He was clearly in pain, by the way he limped -- If Niki didn't know better, she'd say he'd been drinking. Yet his eyes, his eyes held a familiar fire of anger that threatened to spread to her if she wasn't careful.

She had been lit with that spark of revenge before. And Niki had no intention of igniting herself once more, not after she had just been extinguished. 

"Tommy-"

"What did he do this time?" Niki snapped. Her voice came out harsher than she intended, and Jack recoiled back. "Don't tell me to hurt him again. I'm not doing it."

Jack almost seemed upset, now, and Niki started to feel guilt in the pit of her stomach. He was her friend, after all, and hurting him like this made her feel bad. "But- I thought you said-"

"You have two minutes." Niki crossed her arms, looking straight at him. "Tell me why I should help you."

And so Jack started his rant, full of familiar words and phrases such as I hate him or He needs to pay. Niki knew these words well; she had repeated them over and over, the mantras stuck in her head even today.

He spoke of everything Tommy had done -- which, Niki knew of -- and how much it was unfair to him and the rest of the server. It was almost laughable, Niki thought. Now that she had the freedom to think for herself, she realized how childish her past ambitions were... killing a child simply for the sake of something that wasn't even his fault!

"And today," Jack concluded, walking up to her, his eyes narrowing in determination. "I walked up to the hotel he threatens to take away from me. I just wanted a relaxing nap -- but all I could think about was him, and his stupid ways and how much he's taken from me-"

Niki looked at her watch. "Ten seconds."

"So I finally snapped. I broke the window and found my way here," Jack got on his knees, pleading up at her. "Please, please Niki, you know how much this means to me-"

"All I got from that tedious rant," Niki said. "Was that you have anger issues."

"Niki, please-"

She sighed. He really was persistent, wasn't he? "Look. I just want to move on from that time, okay? You gave me time to think about it -- I finally made my decision. And now you're not going to respect it?"

Jack went quiet.

"I want to help you, I really do." Her voice softened as she let her sympathy spill through her words. "You're my friend. And that's not going to change. But I've changed." She took his hand and stroked it, letting bits and pieces of blood crumple off his skin. "And if I have to be frank," she said, taking a deep breath. "...I think you should too." Nemesis turned around and started walking back into the center of her city.

"Wait!" She heard a voice behind her and stopped. "Do you have anything that could help? I get that you won't actively participate... but maybe a piece of advice or-"

"I have advice for you," Niki said, turning her head back to him. She gave him a warm smile. 

Jack waited a beat. "What is it?"

She laughed. "There's strength in numbers."

Now, she knew that he was going to take it the wrong way. She knew that he was going to carve some other meaning out of her solemn advice to make real friends that could help him heal, as she did with the Syndicate. But there was no use pushing it, and Jack would learn in time.

At least, she hoped that he would learn.

And with that, she turned the corner, leaving Jack alone with the purple glow of the Nether Portal.

-

Okay, by now you know why this was so late: school.

Uh... school and also the lack of motivation LOLLLL

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!