Chapter Text
Ranboo was no stranger to the cruelty of the world. Yet somehow the sheer brutality of an English paper due the next day (that he hasn’t even started) still wounds his soul.
It’s like the world chooses to hurt him.
Currently at a solid 1/3% of an introduction paragraph after four hours of screwing around, his future was not looking solid. Considering he has villain stuff to do later this night, he needed this done, like, yesterday. It was about 8pm and he couldn’t even finish one paper.
The hustle and bustle of the coffee shop filled the absence of noises that usually filled his apartment. Something about a bunch of sleep deprived people on a Wednesday night all trying to scramble on their various tasks made him feel a little bit better about his procrastination.
Ranboo decided to call it a night and closed his laptop, the basically blank doc closing itself and ready to sit another day empty. Ranboo let out a heavy sigh and stood up from his bar stool seat, grabbed his empty drink cup, and headed out the door, prepared to get home and reek some havoc as Monochrome.
—-----
Ranboo sat atop the rooftop of a random sewing shop, the name always forgotten to his brain. He swung his legs back and forth as the breeze brushed cooly against him.
His villain costume was nothing special. Just a simply cropped (yet relatively baggy) black sweater over a plain black tank top, thick black cargo pants with lines of dark purple down the sides. Simple combat boots with incredible thick bottoms (as they should, in Ranboo’s opinion) and way too many pockets all around.
The sleeves of the sweater came down to his middle finger, stopping at a V-shape. The boots were about knee high, lacing all the way up but obviously had zippers. He of course wore a black gas mask, but his eyes were uncovered so he could use his powers. He already had a tail (perks of being a hybrid) and claws, so prebuilt weapons pog.
He also always wore a utility belt around his waist with various chains, guns, knives (it was mostly knives), and other weapons that he found. Lots of ammo, of course. As a back up, he also carried a pair of knives in his boots which had secret straps on the inside to keep them in place.
Very handy in kidnappings and close quarters combat.
The wind picked up quite a bit, almost knocking his hood off. He holds it steady and continues to stare out into the city.
Ranboo heard the footsteps before he heard the voice.
“Never thought I’d see you out here.”
“Siren.”
“You saw me? I thought I was stealthy.”
“Heard.” Ranboo corrected.
“Ah. Makes sense.” Siren tsk’d under his breath and moved to sit beside him on the roof.
“What do you want?” Ranboo glanced at Siren as he adjusted his trench coat but his mask betrayed none of his thoughts. Siren’s boots hit against the wall as he swung his legs, a dull thought resounding each time.
“...I don’t know. Just wanted to see what you were up to, I guess?” Siren shrugged.
“Thought about burning that old warehouse on 96th street. You want in?” Ranboo turned to fully look at him. He saw Siren’s eyes light up the moment he said ‘burn’.
“Oh, you know I’m in. You don’t even need to ask.” Siren jumped up and stretched his wings for a moment and Ranboo couldn't help but gawk. The black really blended into the night, ebony feathers fanned out to hide the stars.
“Pretty, right? Got em’ from my mom’s side of the family.” Siren chuckled as Ranboo quickly averted his gaze.
“Sorry.” Ranboo mumbled as he looked down, blushing from embarrassment. He stood up quickly and his tail swooshed lightly for balance.
“No need. Sometimes I find myself looking at them, although that’s probably in a more wistful way than admiration of their beauty.” Siren looked lost in thought for a moment but quickly snapped out of it and shot a look to Ranboo.
“What do you mean?” Ranboo tilted his head in a cat-like gesture, a trait from being a panther hybrid.
“My mother is dead. I never knew her nor her side of my family.” Siren deadpanned as if that wasn’t a huge bombshell.
“Oh…” The floor suddenly looked very interesting.
“Don’t bother. It’s not like I can really miss someone I never met.” Siren shrugged again and looked out towards the city lights.
“You can still miss the absence of something there never was. You can miss a presence, not just a person.” Ranboo thought aloud, not really thinking about what he said. He turned towards the city lights as well, but he was looking towards the building he planned on burning.
Siren stayed silent for a while before quietly uttering, “Never thought of it like that.”
“Something tells me you never dug deep enough to try.”
They sat in silence for a long moment, both trapped in their own thoughts until Siren broke the peace, “Alright, enough philosophical shit. Time for crime.”
“Bet.”
With that behind them, they both ran across the rooftops, hopping from building to building with inhuman agility, Siren used his wings to soar across the gaps while Ranboo used his cat agility to leap over them. The gaps were small and far apart so there wasn't any struggle for either of them.
Ranboo liked to think there was a secret race between them of who could get there faster, but Siren usually won. Once he started using wings the rest of the way Ranboo was usually toast.
That’s not to say he’s never won these invisible competitions, it just wasn't often enough for his liking.
“96th street, right?” Siren called out.
“Yep! Should be on it soon.” Ranboo glanced over.
They ran a few more buildings and came to a gradual stop atop a large white square. It was an old abandoned warehouse that large companies used from time to time. Some say it was haunted, but that was just old stories.
Ranboo tapped the claws on his hands anxiously. He always got a bit riled up for some freelance arson.
“This the place or are you having a main character moment?” Siren landed next to him.
Ranboo shot a glare in his direction, “This is it.”
“I’ll set the fluid if you check the perimeter for people. Don’t want any casualties!” Siren dashed off, jumping off of the building and disappearing from sight.
“WE’RE VILLAINS. CASUALTIES ARE TO BE EXPECTED.” Ranboo shouted after him.
“TOMOTA, TOMATA,”
“YOU BRITISH FUCK,”
“LOVE YOU!” Siren practically screeched.
“HATE YOU!” Ranboo shot back.
Ranboo sighed heavily and walked along the edge of the roof, using binoculars to survey the ground. Passerby's were a bit harder to see in the dead of night with no light and usually heroes were pretty stealthy, but he had built in night vision from birth (cat hybrid abilities go brrr).
A passing couple walked by quickly and no one else was nearby, so he gave the all clear call to Siren. They decided a while ago on mocking a crane call as the all clear signal something.
Naturally, being a bird, Siren was always better at it.
At the signal, Siren flew up to the roof and plopped himself back next to Ranboo.
“We clear?” Ranboo asked, still looking one last time into the sky.
Siren held up a lighter, “You bet we are.”
Ranboo gave a devilish grin (not that Siren could really see it too well), given away by his eyes, Siren matching it with his own.
“The fluid set up?” He knew it bugged Siren when he stalled.
“Fucking hell- just light it up!” Siren threw his hands up, about to light it himself, with or without Ranboo on top.
“I swear to god if it doesn’t light, it’s your fault-” He gave a smug smirk as he talked.
“MONOCHROME, I SWEAR ON ALL THE THINGS YOU LOVE.”
“God, fine! Prick.” Siren sent him a raged look and Ranboo only stared back with a grin.
He jumped from the warehouse, Siren quick to follow, and hit the sidewalk on light feet with a quiet thud.
Ranboo gave his wrist a flick and an emblem of fire appeared in his palm. Siren looked at it with pure joy and eagerness, a glint of something dangerous in his eyes.
He threw the small ball of mass destruction where he could spot a bit of lighter fluid and the flames were quick to spread, taking less than five minutes to smother more than half the building.
“How much lighter fluid did you use?”
“Enough.”
He sighed quietly, his tail swishing in wide swoops; he could see Siren’s wings flicking and quivering slightly with adrenaline.
They stayed like that for a while, standing side by side in admiration of what they had done.
Until the sirens started.
Siren (ironic, huh?) whipped his head around to where they were coming from up the street, coming closer and closer with each second. There had to be at least three different police cars and a fire truck. Overall very reasonable but incredibly inconvenient.
“What do we do? Face them or run while we still can?” Siren gave a look, although half covered by the black face mask he wore, that said he was open for an adventure.
“I do have a gun.” He deadpanned.
“YOU’RE LIKE TWELVE?!” Siren practically screeched.
“Sixteen.” Ranboo corrected, crossing his arms in a nonchalant gesture.
“WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A GUN?” Siren threw his hands up, screaming in disbelief.
“This.”
“WHY-...You know what, fair point.” He stunned himself into silence.
“I know.”
“You have a second one?”
“I have four.”
“...Gim'me two.” Siren held his hand out.
“Magic words?” Ranboo quirked an eyebrow up.
“Now.”
“Good job.” He unclipped two guns from his belt, handing them over to Sirens eager hands. He grabbed the ones held by holsters on his hips and shot Siren the hardest stare he could.
“You lose those and I will cut off both of your hands, then cut off the doctor's hands who patches up your arm nubs.”
Siren looked fairly taken aback, “If we get separated I’ll bring them next time we meet, if not then I swear to return them.”
“You will.”
With that lovely warning out of the way, villains Monochrome and Siren headed off to do their rightful duty as resident villains.
Commit acts of villainy.
They ran in opposite directions, Ranboo headed away from the Sirens and into the nearby woods and Siren heading towards the police, but diving into a bush at the last second.
"POLICE! IF THERE ARE TWO YOUNG MEN HERE SHOW YOURSELVES IMMEDIATELY!" Ranboo had to stifle a laugh.
Usually him and Siren were long gone before anyone showed up. A thundering shot resounded from where Siren had hidden and Ranboo's head shot over, a flurry of feathers the only thing left from, assumedly, a quick escape.
"THAT WAS SIREN!" A police officer near the bush yelled out. Ranboo cringed inwardly, really hoping that bullet was from Siren, not for him.
"You think Monochrome is here too? They always burn shit together despite not being an official duo," Ranboo giggled at that comment.
"It's likely. Best to assume he's nearby and keep looking for the culprits."
"Roger captain."
Ugh, police are so idiotic. They don't even stop to think that he was right in front of them, hidden in plain sight, a gun in hand.
Ranboo heard footsteps retreating.
"Alright, Monochrome, come out and face me..." The police captain whispered.
Now, Ranboo is a very classy villain. He does not half-ass things, nor does he run in without some semblance of a plan. Yet, you have to consider that this captain has been on Ranboo's ass for ages. So, logically, Ranboo being Ranboo, shot the gun directly at his thigh from within the bush, minimal thought behind it.
The police captain shouted out in pain and collapsed on the grass, screaming bloody murder for his team.
You would think a police officer can handle being shot. Jesus, even Ranboo can handle it fairly well and he was shot in the stomach!
He usually knew when he should leave a situation, and right now seemed fairly logical, so he dashed out of the bush in a blur of black, shooting into the woods. Putting the guns he wielded previously away, Ranboo clipped them back onto their place on his thigh garters. He reached over for a pair of twin blades from his belt and picked up his speed through the woods.
A large shadow amassed above him and a smile creeped onto his face, a quiet 'yippie' knowing his partner was ok. The large winged mass dived down to him, cutting off the light from above. Ranboo held both of his blades in one hand and raised his free hand up into the air.
"Monochrome! I shot that bitch right in the arm!" Siren whisper yelled above him, clasping his hand and raising the pair into the air, enveloped into night sky.
"Hell yeah! I shot the captain in the leg, and the fucker was screaming!" Ranboo laughed lightheartedly. Was about time that captain got his justice served.
They flew through the sky for a long while. The stars shone brightly among the night sky. Wind whipped past Ranboo's face, pushing his hair every which way and blowing the strands around.
"Where do you want me to drop you off?" Siren asked, swooping down and landing atop a random apartment building. He placed Ranboo down and landed a few feet away himself.
"Right here is fine, I can walk the rest of the way," Ranboo shrugged and let out a small sigh, "Will you be ok getting home?" Ranboo looked over and saw Siren sifting through his feathers with light hands.
"Huh? Oh, yeah I'll be fine." Siren mumbled his response, glancing over but quickly focusing back to his wings.
"Do you...want help?"
Siren froze, looking back at him with wide eyes, "Uh...If you want to. I have a hard time, uhm, getting the feathers in the back." His eyes softened and he walked a few steps closer to Ranboo, turning his back to face him.
"I've, uh, never...done this...before..." Ranboo hesitantly started raking his hands through some of the crooked feathers, feather-light (AN - PUN HAHA) movements and barely using any pressure.
"You just straighten out the crooked feathers and take out the broken ones. It doesn't hurt, so don't worry about hurting me, unless you were trying to, then boohoo." Siren laughed nervously, ringing his hands together and fidgeting.
Ranboo swallowed fearfully and continued his movements, shuffling his hands through Siren's wings. He heard small chirps and panicked for a minute, thinking Crow (#2 ranked hero of L'manberg) had come to fight them, only to realize that Siren was making those sounds.
"Is this ok?" Ranboo smiled, knowing damn well what he was doing.
"Mhm..." Siren whispered, pupils huge and bird brain happy.
Ranboo stepped back and walked around to face Siren, seeing him blink a few dozen times before refocusing on the villain in front of him. Ranboo giggled quietly and saw the blush of embarrassment arising on his face. Siren cleared his throat and turned away, "I, uh, I better get going. See you another time?"
"Sure. Who else is going to burn buildings with me?" Ranboo's eyes squinted when he smiled, revealing his expression through the gas mask.
Siren gave a small nod and flew off the building, soaring into the sky and leaving Ranboo atop the building, a huge smile on his face and a partner to count on.