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It was a cold winter night, it was going to snow soon which meant Techno was going to have to walk faster unless he wanted to risk walking through snow to get back home.
"Of course they would pick a snow day to have a family dinner" Techno cursed as he wrapped his mantle tighter around himself as another wave of shivering forced him to pause. "I'm going to freeze before I reach my house"
Technoblade moved to start walking again when a soft cry made him stop. He narrowed his eyes and looked around the area trying to find the source of the noise. Seeing nothing, Techno shook his head and started his walk again only to be stopped once more by a louder cry. He whipped around to where the noise was coming from, head tilted slightly up to sniff the air, and ears open to figure out what was crying.
This time, he could barely make out a small basket hidden behind a tree in the dark. Quietly, Techno grabbed his trident off the strap on his back and walked to the basket. Another cry from the wooden basket made him move faster as he realized what exactly was in the wooden basket.
"This better be a trap" he growled as he used the end of his trident to open the flap. Much to his anger and disappointment, instead of a trap, a baby wrapped in a thin blanket laid in the basket. It wasn't a human child though, which wasn't much of a surprise considering most of the people he knew had some sort of animal feature, but what was confusing, was the fact that the child didn't look like an animal he knew.
Techno cursed as the baby's face scrunched up and it let out another cry. "Some bastard abandoned their child" Techno hissed as he closed the basket lid, "let's get you inside before you freeze to death, who knows how long you've been out here." He grunted as he wrapped his mantel around the wooden basket and picked up his pace
The second he got to his house, Techno booked it to his living room and placed the wrapped up basket a safe distance away from the fireplace so he could turn it on. When the flames were strong enough to grow on their own, Technoblade turned to the quiet basket and dragged a hand down his face.
"Please be alive" he mumbled as he unwrapped his mantel to show the basket, "come on kid, we just made it to a warm place"
Cautiously, Techno lifted the basket lid open and peaked inside. He hadn't truly known relief before he opened his eyes to a sleeping child instead of a frozen one. Careful not to startle the kid, Techno lifted the boy out of the basket and laid him on his laid out mantel.
The boy stirred as he was moved, and mismatched red and green eyes met surprised pink ones as the two stared at each other. The two stared for a few seconds before the boy sneezed and..holy shit did he just disappear?
"Kid?" Techno stared at the now empty area in front of him in shock before looking around the living room. It didn't take much looking for Technoblade to spot the kid sitting on his couch with wide eyes.
"Come closer to the fire, it would suck if you died of hypothermia now." he tried coaxing the kid as best as he could while hiding his surprise.
The boy hesitantly walked closer the fire, but kept his distance from the pig man. The silence was awkward as Techno waited for the boy to warm up before bombarding him with questions.
"How old are you, three? Four?"
The kid scooted closer to the fire before holding up four fingers.
Taking that as a good sign, Techno continued questioning the kid, "what's your name? Where are your guardians? Why are you alone?"
The kid curled himself into a ball, his tail curled around his leg. "Ranboo" he whispered.
"Ranboo?" Techno repeated to make sure he got the name right. When the kid -Ranboo- nodded, Techno stood up and walked to sit on the couch. "And your family? Where are they?"
Ranboo shook his head and shrunk in on himself more, "gone. 'm weird." he patted back and white horns hidden under his hair.
"Oh I would know weird, I'm half pig, and my nephew is a fox" Techno gestured to the tusks sticking out of his mouth, and his pig like ears. "normal looking people are just picky."
Techno finally took the time to try to figure out what the kid was. Half of Ranboo's face was completely black besides his green eye, and the other half was white with a red eye. It was almost funny how evenly the boy's hair split to match the colors of his face. The kid's ears where pointed and almost looked goat like which made him consider the boy being some kind of goat or sheep until he had seen the spots of scales that littered under his eyes. Techno just couldn't figure out what kind of animal he was.
"what are you?"
Ranboo quickly diverted his gaze To the floor "a monster" he muttered.
"that's not what I mean, you're not a monster. Do you know what animal you are? Sheep, goat cow?"
Ranboo shook his head and nervously messed with his tail as he shrugged at the question.
Technoblade nodded away his disappointment, looks like he was going to wait to find out what he was. "Well," Technoblade stood up to stretch his legs, "I'm not going to leave a child out in the snow to die. How about you stay until winter is over, and we'll figure out what to do then."
The boy gave him a small nod and wrapped Technoblades mantel around himself as he slowly dozed
Soon, the snow slowly melted into flowers and grass as the days got warmer and longer. Technoblade had learned more about Ranboo as he stayed with him through the winter. He also figured out part of what the kid was through rough hints. One thing was that the boy didn't like eye contact, it made him uncomfortable -and not in a shy way, more of a violent lasting out way. The first time he had made eye contact with the kid, he had teleported out into one of the rooms out of view. He had taken that as a coincidence until the second time he looked at the boy on the same day during dinner. That had resulted in Ranboo letting out a distorted yelling and charged at him with a fork. Luckily, Technoblade was able to easily disarm the kid and jolt him back to reality. After that the kid had given him a hundred apologies and they both agreed to limit the eye contact. That was the first red flag that went off.
The second was that the kid hated water. It was an unwelcome surprise to the both of them when Technoblade set up a warm bath for Ranboo only to watch the kid speed run every emotion possible when he tested the water temperature before suddenly disappearing. It didn't take as long to find Ranboo since he only had to follow the sounds of soft crying to his fireplace. Techno was glad that he had made the kid test the water before having him get ready for the bath as he watched the boy attempt to hold back tears and he clutched his hand against his chest in pain.
When he saw the burns on the boy's black hand, Technoblade had just silently sat on his couch and put his head in his hands as everything fell together in his head. Enderman. Ranboo was half enderman. He knew that he would laugh at himself about this later on, but now he had to focus on the crying child in front of him first.
Then months turned into years, and Technoblade had decided to keep Ranboo. As much as he hated to admit it, he had grown somewhat attached to the kid, and Ranboo never mentioned their deal. Of course, being a part of the family meant learning how to fight. They had started with simple defenses and short sparring matches that ended with Ranboo being thrown to the floor. The boy was a fast learner don't get him wrong, but that doesn't mean Techno was going to purposely lose a fight, practice or not. It was nice to be teaching someone to spar, it almost reminded him of his family back in L'manburg.
Speaking of L'manburg, Tommy and Wilbur had planned another family get together and had invited him over which meant that they would have to find out about Ranboo. Said boy was imitating an enderman who had randomly appeared on their front lawn while Ranboo was outside.
Techno had doubts about letting a kid so close to a hostile mob but sometimes you have to learn through experiences, so he let him approach the enderman. Such to his surprise though, the enderman let Ranboo get close to him and they had stood a safe distance away as they stared at each other for who knows how long before Ranboo picked the closest flower to him and handed it to the mob.
Originally, he was going to wait until Ranboo turned ten to introduce him to mobs, but watching the interaction between the two left him debating if he should show him other overworked mobs to figure out what else he was. Ranboo was eight, and you can't be too young to learn new things. He ended up deciding against it when the enderman left and Ranboo came back inside carrying different colored flowers and smiling ear to ear. He could already imagine the amount of trouble Ranboo would get into on his own, now add two different hostile mobs to the mix and that seemed like a personal hell to Techno.
"We're going to meet my family tonight, they're a little overbearing and annoying especially around new people '' Techno brought up as he sharpened his sword.
Ranboo, who was imitating Techno with his own wooden sword in front of the fireplace, paused to look up at Techno, "family? There's more people?"
Techno nodded without looking away from his sword, "yep, I just prefer being alone, but they insisted I come to dinner today." Ranboo looked back down at the flimsy sword and nodded along with him. Technoblade knew that Ranboo was nervous about meeting new People but that was something he was going to have to deal with. Especially since he couldn't keep the kid isolated in his house his whole life.
A knock at the door broke the silence between the two. Ranboo and Technoblade looked at each other before turning to the door. They have never had a visitor before.
"They're coming here?" Ranboo whispered in surprise as he put his sword down so he could back away.
"No, go to your room and stay there until I say you can get out" Technoblade tightened his grip on his sword as he glared at the door. Once he heard Ranboo's footsteps fade down the hallway, he slowly crept to the door. He didn't know who was on the other side, but he could guess they weren't friendly. His guess was quickly confirmed by Ranboo's scream that echoed down the hall,
"they're inside, Techno they're inside the house!" Ranboo yelled as he ran back into the living room. Techno cursed as the door was kicked down and people rushed him with swords and axes.
"Take one of their swords and remember what I taught you!" Techno shouted to Ranboo as he was forced back to block an attack. He could only hope that Ranboo had heard him as the boy was forced out of his sight by two other attackers. He had to end this fight quickly.
Taking a person's weapon was a lot easier during training that in an actual fight was something Ranboo had the misfortune of finding out. His two attackers laughed at him as he backed away down the hall, trying to think of something to do. The best plan he could think of, was using his enderman side to gain an advantage. The only problem was that he never actually practiced controlling himself when he looked at people, it was a thing that he and Techno had purposely avoided. Before he could change his mind, Ranboo steeled himself and forced himself to look up at the two men and let the rage take over.
Techno faltered at the yelling from both Ranboo and the two guys who had gone after him. The men surrounding him also seemed to startle at the sudden noise from their comrades. Technoblade took the moment of distraction to Kill two of the men before they could focus back on him. Just as Technoblade was about to get rid of a third person, one of the two who had gone after Ranboo staggered out holding a bloody hand over his eye and deep scratches covering every inch of his body not covered by armor.
"A monster," the man gasped, "he has a monster with him!" without Explaining himself, the man ran out of the front door. The others looked at each other clearly lost yet wary before following their comrade out the door in a hurry.
"They're gone, you can come out now, Ranboo." Techno looked down the hallway where the man had come from and frowned when the kid didn't come out, "Ranboo?" he called again.
When he was met by more silence, Techno walked down the hallway. Said Hall was covered in blood, and now Techno knew what happened to the second guy. That man has definitely seen better days.
"Ranboo, where are you?" he tried to call out again to no avail. "Come on kid, don't be dead" Techno said I'd be this breath as he walked into the boy's room. Almost immediately, his gaze landed on the limp body surrounded by blood. dropped his sword and shield, and rushed to Ranboo's side to figure out where he was bleeding. He knew how to do stitches, he could save him and then go after the guy who attacked them. They were going to pay.
By the time Techno had finished making sure the kid wouldn't bleed out, the sun was already starting to rise. Techno sighed and walked over to his horse stable. He saddled his horse and made sure he was equipped with extra bandages. Once he was ready to leave, Techno walked back inside to carefully move Ranboo onto Carl before setting off to L'manburg at a painfully slow pace to make sure he wouldn't shake open any stitches.
"Techno is here!" Wilbur shouted when knocking startled him from his book.
"He's late" Tommy yawned from the couch across from him, "leave him outside!"
"It's cold outside," Philiza shook his head as he stood up to open the door "we can have a family breakfast instead." when he opened the door, he was met with an angry Techno. "Are you ok... Is that a child?!" Philiza gasped.
"A child?" Wilbur and Tommy repeated as they stood up to look over Phil's shoulder.
"He's not mine, I found him and ended up being attacked by thieves or something"
"Holy shit, you okay?" Tommy was the first over to look at the new kid.
"I need you to watch him for a second, and get Nikki, I trust her" Techno said as he handed the boy to Philiza.
"What? Where are you going?" Wilbur asked when Techno turned around to leave.
"I'm going to make sure they never come back again." Techno growled, "if he wakes up, let him know I'll be back and do not look at his eyes"
The three were left to stare at each other and Ranboo as Techno walked back out the door and to his horse.
Ranboo stayed in Nikki's care for the first few days he was unconscious. Coincidentally, Ranboo had woken up minutes after Technoblade returned to L'manburg more content with himself.
"Good morning" Nikki smiled as she walked over to him with a cup of water, "drink some before you start talking, you've been asleep for a while."
Ranboo accepted the cup and quickly downed the drink with a grimace.
“You still have a low tolerance for water, don't drink too much" Techno finally spoke to him from across the room.
Ranboo frowned and stared at the man in front of him, "I'm sorry, but... Who are you?"
"Oh dear" Nikki mumbled from next to him.
"It's fine, that just makes things easier for him" Techno slowly stood up and walked out the room door.
"Did I upset him?" Ranboo asked Nikki.
Nikki gave him a sad smile and shook her head, "no, he's just had a bad week." She assured him before walking out of the room.
"Techno, at least tell him who you are," Nikki said the second the door closed.
"There's no need to remind him when I'm giving him up." Techno huffed. "You have similar ears and a tail like him so he won't question much."
"At least let him know he was loved and taken care of instead of letting him think that he did something wrong!" Nikki scolded. "You're giving him to me, and as his guardian I request that you at least tell him what happened."
Technoblade stared at Nikki before turning around and walking back into the room. Ranboo watched him with curiosity as the pig man dragged a chair to the side of his bed and sat down.
"Ranboo, you were attacked and almost killed by a group of thieves," Techno explained, "You probably hit your head during the fight which is why you don't remember anything. I am Technoblade and I found you in the woods after you were attacked."
"Techno!" Nikki cried as he started making up a story on why Ranboo was here. The boy seemed to believe every word he said so Nikki quietly let the man continue.
"And no that I know you're alive and safe," Techno pushed the chair back and stood up, "Im going back home." before anyone could object, he walked out of the room once again and never returned.
Techno had purposely put as much distance between him and Ranboo, and even went as far as to make his family promise they wouldn't talk about the kid around him, or bring him uo to the kid. He really did try to make sure there was no way Ranboo could find his way back to Techno.
Which almost made it laughable as he watched his brother being followed by Ranboo hours after escaping L'Manburg. At first he had gotten defensive about it but he couldn't blame Wilbur since he couldn't remember much, and Ranboo seemed more confused and nervous about being there than happy. So he reluctantly allowed Ranboo to stay with him as long as he got his armor back. It wouldn't hurt to see how well he had gotten along with the others in L'manburg.