They are getting closer; he can sense it.

The wind of the busy city ruffles his hair and chills his ears, making little whooshing noises that dance around his head.

"You've been standing on the edge of that building dramatically for, like, three minutes." An unimpressed voice says from behind him.

Right. His allies.

One of them is just happily humming away, rocking back and forth, while the other is brooding ominously like a storm. Teenagers... That's why he's never having kids. That, and one other reason.

Huffing, he turns back and shoves the first hybrid off the roof. A splatting sound comes from the pavement below, followed by a still-enthusiastic, "I'm okaaaaaaaay!"

A smirk pulls at his lips. As... patchwork as his allies are, they're also quite funny. Besides, he's wanted to shove someone off a roof for a long time and it never gets old, especially when no one gets hurt.

"Listen, I know we're getting closer," He insisted to the tall teenager. The guy isn't even that tall, but alas, he still reaches far above him.

"Closer to what?" His ally shoots back. "I'm losing morale here, glorious leader." The sarcasm is quite cutting.

"Fine." He sighed. "I suppose it's time we had a little talk on who exactly I'm looking for... and why."

Ranboo stumbled into the apartment, hitting his head on the doorframe in his haste and cursing in the garbled language he grew up with.

Seeing more and more vigilantes was so surreal. There was the Dice trio, consisting of Gambit, Slimeball, and Plasma, and there was the Jade trio, Hollywood and Inferno and Waterfall...

And there was the Chaos duo; Dream and Sapnap. Then some of the more stand-alone heroes and villains like Capricorn; a hallucinogenic-themed villain. Tubbo always seemed to get twitchy when he was brought up. Maybe they had a feud or something like that.

And then there were all the legions of vigilantes and minor heroes that still weren't enough to keep high-ranking villains under control.

And the fourth parties like Grapnel; mercenaries and assassins and runaways.

It hurt his head to think about it, but it also made him feel better for multiple reasons. One, he was sorting through all the information; getting it all nice and filed and neat in his brain. And two... Two, it reminded him that he and Tommy and Tubbo weren't alone. They didn't have to take on the entire world by themselves.

But it was hard to remember.

Ranboo had severe memory problems that could go from forgetting as little as a conversation to as much as an entire year. He didn't remember most of his life until he met Tubbo in the rain that day.  

Maybe it was a brain condition, or maybe he just had too much on his mind. Ranboo slid the hypothesis into a file he had mentally labeled 'Mysteries about myself I need to solve but probably never will'.

But where was he...? Memory problems, hurting his head, assassins, vigilantes, ah, right, Tommy. Oh shit.

Tommy had been out all night... This had been happening much more frequently, and Tubbo had said it had started around the time some random guy burst into their apartment and started interrogating him.

Ranboo hadn't been there, but it sounded a bit scary. Apparently, Tommy and the random guy were friends?

Oh, right, before he'd been thinking about Tommy, he had a job he needed to get to. Odd jobs were very... odd. This one, he'd been asked to change lightbulbs. Quite easy for him; towering over others at 7'1.

Short for an Enderman hybrid. Pure-blooded Endermen could get up to ten feet tall and the hybrids could usually stretch to eight, so seven feet was pretty short in his community. He couldn't count the number of times people had said '⊬⍜⎍'⌰⌰ ☌⍀⍜⍙ ⟟⋏⏁⍜ ⟟⏁ ⟒⎐⟒⋏⏁⎍⏃⌰⌰⊬' to him, it was almost annoying.

That was one of the only things he remembered from the End. Most of his memories were from the past five years with Tubbo and Tommy. Not remembering pretty much anything from when he was twelve years old or younger was probably bad, but wait, didn't he already think about that?

He scraped his subtly serrated horns on the top of the doorframe, inflicting a screeching noise, and flinched as he ducked out of the door again, stumbling down the too-small stairs of the apartment building.

As he reached outside, he smacked himself in the head, accidentally hitting right where he'd bumped into the doorframe the first time. His left ear twitched in displeasure at the tingling pain.

"I could have just teleported..." He muttered before taking a deep breath and thinking of the address. He disappeared into purple particles and reappeared outside a well-kept lawn, stumbling as his vision spun.

Leafy bushes were leading up to the front door that looked sort of like... potatoes? Weird ornament for a front lawn, spuds; but who was he to judge, he didn't even have a lawn himself.

He went up to the door and double-checked the address before knocking. There was some shuffling from inside and the door was opened to reveal a Piglin hybrid with pink hair cascading down past his shoulder blades. He was tall, about 6'3, but the top of his head barely reached Ranboo's chest.

His pointed ears had several piercings and most of them were filled with golden ornaments, with the exceptions of a blood-red one and a green emerald dangling from a thin chain.

The hybrid looked up in surprise. "Hey." He said, red eyes studying Ranboo who managed an awkward wave. 

"I'm, uh, here for the job?" Ranboo stammered. He was tall, but the Piglin was intimidating. Red eyes, muscles, and a cautious yet capable look in his eyes.

The hybrid in question nodded acceptingly and turned, going back inside. Ranboo took this as an invitation to follow and did so, closing the door and managing to not bang his head on the doorframe this time.

"The hallway lights are all out." The piglin said monotonously. Too tall for me."

Ranboo noticed the sheer height of the ceilings and deduced that this Piglin must be rich-rich. 

Upon entering the hallway he gazed slightly up. The lights reached about an inch above his head(Not counting his horns) and he ducked slightly, not wanting to break anything on accident.

The Piglin motioned to a box set on the small decorative table. "There's lightbulbs in there, should be enough. I'll be down the hall — In the room with the blood-red door. Just knock when you're done." And then he strode down the hall, cloven feet making a sharp sound on the mahogany floorboards.

Ranboo just stood there for a moment before reaching for the lightbulbs, picking one up in his long fingers, He looked up before beginning to unscrew one of the burned-out bulbs. He put it to the side gingerly before screwing the replacement in.

He repeated this process several times, feeling odd like he was being watched. When he had almost finished, he was interrupted by a 'meow' sound. He looked down in surprise, flinching automatically when he saw a snowy white cat trotting down the hall like it owned the place.

Ranboo knelt down to look at the cat, setting another burnt bulb to the side and holding out his hand hesitantly. He'd always liked cats, but they'd never gotten one for multiple reasons. Too expensive to care for and feed for one, and also, Tommy had complained relentlessly he was 'more of a dog person'.

The cat bumped its velvety nose against Ranboo's hand and purred slightly, slow-blinking up at him. Ranboo realized with a start that it had heterochromia, just like him. An amber eye and a blue one. A warm feeling bloomed in his chest but he pushed it down.

Stupid, He thought to himself. It's just a cat. It's normal for cats to have heterochromia. But it felt nice for some reason. 

The cat in question rolled over before bumping Ranboo's knee with its body, purring gently. Ranboo just about folded, reaching out to scratch it behind its ears.

He heard floorboards creak behind him andnd whipped his head up, seeing the Piglin. Wait, wasn't he in his room? And his room was... the opposite direction? Whatever. Maybe the Piglin had just passed by and he's forgotten about it. Very possible.

"I see you found Steve," The Piglin hummed a hint of intrigue in his monotone voice. "Or, rather, Steve found you."

"Th- Steve is the cat?" Ranboo clarified, watching as the hybrid nodded. 

"I named her before I knew she was a girl," He rumbled with a slight huff, looking fondly down at the cat. "It sort of stuck. Dad loves her."

Then he became more guarded and huffed. "Thanks for doing the job." He assessed Ranboo's appearance who suddenly felt very self-conscious in his threadbare attire while the Piglin was all decked-out in his royal garb.

Ranboo stood gently and Steve trotted away, having lost interest. He watched her scutter away, slightly disappointed. He felt some money stuffed into his hand and blinked, looking back at the Piglin who was turning away, his face stone.

"Run along now," He muttered gruffly, a hint of awkwardness in his tone. Ranboo nodded and moved to the foyer without even checking the amount of money he'd been paid. The rate was twenty bucks a job, although he got up to thirty depending on his performance.

He exited the front door and disappeared into particles, reappearing at the front door of the apartment building. He glanced down at the bills in his hand lazily and-

"Holy SHIT- A hundred BUCKS???"

Hah Ranboo chapter hah

Hah peerpressure duo hah

I'll probably make a Tubbo chapter at some point to balance it out lol

Words: 1591(Sort of a lot :D)

 Hope you enjoyed, and have a great day!

-ITCFWI