"Don't know why he sent me out alone, he knows I can't hunt..." 

You grumbled to yourself, trekking slowly step by step through the deep snow of the pine forest.

Technoblade had given you a bow and some arrows, which were currently in the quiver slung across your back, as well as an iron sword, similar to the one you had been using to spar with. Phil had come over a couple of times in the last week to help you train, and he said you were improving greatly. Technoblade was also supposed to train you, but normally he just gave advice and corrections from a ways away. 

You didn't know how he expected you to hunt when the only information he had given you was "Try to hit the animal with the sword, and if it's a monster, hit it with range using the bow." He had shown you how to use the bow, although you were still a fairly lousy shot.

 You could hit the target, technically...

But now you were out in the wilderness, alone. Even though Technoblade said he would follow you at a distance to make sure you didn't get hurt, you were pretty sure he was still at his house. So far you had found two sheep, although one of them had gotten away. You felt bad killing them, but Technoblade insisted you needed to learn to hunt. 

You thought that if you were travelling alone you could just get food from villages and wandering traders. Technoblade said you would starve if you did that.

"Stupid Technoblade..." You muttered, the slow throbbing pain of your injury reminding you that it was still there. It had healed quite nicely over the past few days, although it still hurt. 

crunch

You whipped around, careful not to make any loud noises. 

crunch              crunch 

Footsteps.

The steps sounded far apart, so whatever was making them was either quite tall, or walking very slowly. Was it Technoblade? Had he heard you call him stupid? You suddenly felt bad. You hadn't actually meant it.

crunch               crunch           crunch

Whoever it was, they were getting closer.

crunch             crunch         crunch

"Technoblade...?" You trailed off as the person stepped out of the trees in front of you. You swore your heart skipped a beat. But now it was pounding in your ears, all instincts telling you to run.

The tall, lanky being slowly turned its shining eyes toward you.

"Y/N?"

You attacked, swinging your sword at the Enderman hybrid. He let out a cry and dodged to the side, pulling out a sword as well. Unlike yours, his was enchanted netherite. 

Maybe attacking him was a mistake.

Although he would have attacked you anyways, you reasoned.

Ranboo came at you and you blocked, quickly swinging your sword at him after avoiding his attack. He parried and backed off a little, you advanced, swinging again. Suddenly he ducked and then reared up again, surprising you, and hit your hand with the flat of his blade. The blow knocked the sword out of your hand, and it landed a few feet away in a snowdrift.

"What do you think you're doing??" Ranboo cried, panting slightly.

"I could ask you the same question." You hissed, backing towards Technoblade's cabin, trying to calculate if you would be able to beat him to it if you were to run. 

His legs were very long, thanks to his Enderman heritage. You were sure he would outrun you. Guess you had to stay and fight.

"Well... I... I don't know!" Ranboo said, shrugging his shoulders slightly. You were slightly curious, but too suspicious and on edge to ask about it. You edged slowly towards your sword, hoping Ranboo wouldn't notice. "But really," He continued, "You're supposed to be dead." 

You felt anger bubbling up inside of you. "Yeah, I was, wasn't I?" Your voice came out angrier than you expected, a hint of a growl in your words. You saw Ranboo shrink back slightly, which was hard to do for the 8'5 hybrid. He towered above you, a jumble of long limbs tucked neatly inside of a suit. Half of his face was white, and the other was black. He stared at you in confusion from behind his mismatched one green, one red eyes, but looked away quickly, avoiding eye contact.

You lunged for your sword and managed to grab it and bring it up in one smooth motion, blocking the attack from Ranboo you had foreseen. "Why did you attack me??" The crowned half Enderman queried, a very confused look on his face. "You already know why!" You retorted, not knowing exactly why yourself. Ranboo stepped back and lowered his sword. "I don't want to fight you, Y/N." He said, not making eye contact with you.

"Well, you sure seemed keen on me dying." You hissed, unable to control the rage building inside of you, "You were fine and dandy with me being executed for a crime I didn't commit!" 

Ranboo flinched and looked down at the ground in shame. "There was nothing I could do..." He trailed off. 

Suddenly Ranboo looked above you, fear in his eyes. He held up his sword and stepped backwards. You felt someone's sturdy build press against your back. You quickly looked up to see a familiar tusked face. "Is there a problem here?" Technoblade's deep, monotone voice filled the small clearing. "Uh.. uh..." Ranboo's eyes were very wide. Technoblade put one hand on your shoulder to move you out of the way as he stepped in front of you, a gleaming netherite sword in his hand. "No!" Ranboo said hurriedly, noticing Technoblade's advancements. "There's no problem! Just uh, well Y/N attacked me while I was walking through the forest!" He explained quickly, unable to keep the panic out of his voice. Technoblade chuckled, a deep menacing chuckle that sent shivers down your spine. "I see," He rumbled,  "So it's all a misunderstanding then. Y/N? Your side of the story?"

You looked into his gleaming red eyes. "Ranboo startled me... I well, I... I thought he was going to try and kill me..." You answered honestly. With Technoblade's piercing red gaze burning into you, you couldn't help but do anything but that. "Ah... well I mean we're all civil here, aren't we?" Technoblade looked Ranboo dead in the eyes, and the hybrid got clearly much more uncomfortable. "Y-yeah..." Ranboo nodded quickly and looked away. "I just uh, I came here to see you actually..." He gestured nervously at Technoblade. 

"Ah, well then... c'mon you two, and no killing each other." Technoblade looked from Ranboo to you, and then turned to lead Ranboo back to the cabin. "Normally I'd be into violence, but there's no real need this time." Normally I'd be into violence? What was that supposed to mean? 

He was probably just joking. 

Hopefully he was just joking.

Ranboo timidly followed Technoblade, sneaking nervous glaces towards you. He seemed more nervous than normal, and he was shivering slightly. Maybe he was cold. You couldn't understand why this extremely tall Enderman hybrid would be afraid of Technoblade, who was a foot shorter at least. Although he clearly was afraid of Technoblade. Ranboo was a normally nervous person, but here he was flat out terrified. He reached down to pick up a dirt block and carried it for a while before putting it back down. His "silk touch" hands made it so the dirt block still had grass when he put it down, even though he used his hands to pick it up. 

You remembered Ranboo telling you that when he was very nervous, picking up and putting down blocks helped him calm down. He seemed to be doing that now, every so often picking up a block, a few steps later, placing it back down. 

"Almost there," Technoblade called out, and you saw the pillar of smoke rising out of the trees from the cabin's chimney.

Ranboo seemed to get a little less nervous at Technoblade's news and straightened up a little. Technoblade and Ranboo headed into the house, and you stayed back for a few seconds to give Steve a pat on the head. He rumbled happily as you waved goodbye to him while heading into the house.

"-and I saw Philza flying sorta towards your house, so I decided to come to visit you as well..." Ranboo was saying, rubbing the back of his neck and ducking to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling. You eyed Ranboo warily, you still didn't trust him fully. Technoblade seemed to however.

Ranboo turned when he heard you come in the door, and he smiled at your nervously. "You know," He started, "I'm really glad you're alive..." Technoblade tiled his head curiously, and you glared at Ranboo. "I never wanted you to be executed, even though I was angry and sad because someone had killed Enderchest..." You looked at him in disbelief, he never wanted you to be executed? Then why didn't you do anything to stop it? You thought angrily, narrowing your eyes. "After Sapnap shot you, I was so afraid you wouldn't survive it..." Ranboo continued, "Did Technoblade save you?" Ranboo looked over at Technoblade for a second, and the Piglin hybrid nodded. 

"Right... well it's nice to see you too," You said, your voice dripping in malice. Ranboo flinched and looked incredibly guilty. Seeing him look like that made you feel bad as well, "and... I'm really sorry about Enderchest..." You pushed past him to get to the ladder heading upstairs. "Thanks..." He mumbled, as you mounted the ladder. You could feel the two hybrid's gazes on you as you climbed upstairs to go to the bathroom.

Once you had finished, you came back down stairs, to see Ranboo waving goodbye to Technoblade. He then looked up at you and smiled. You waved to him. He waved back. 

He then turned and hit his head on the top of the doorframe.

You choked back a laugh. Technoblade chuckled. Ranboo rubbed his head and laughed. "I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that I hit my head like that often." He winced a little.

He then ducked under the doorway and was gone.