"Are we really going through with this?" questioned Ranboo, crossing his arms.
"I mean yeah, we are killing two birds with one stone by doing this" nodded Tommy, as he rummaged through his satchel.
"But were these ridiculous outfits necessary?" asked Ranboo, as he examined a hat in his hand.
"We are more professional this way. How else are detectives supposed to dress?" remarked Tommy, handing a notebook to the enderian to hold for a moment.
"I'd assume something a bit more classier" scoffed Ranboo.
"We gotta save classiness for other affairs, for now we are to investigate Scott's house" declared Tommy.
Ranboo sighs and shakes his head at how ridiculous this was. He had thought Tommy was bluffing when they said they were going to help clear Fundy's name in being the thief that broke into Scott's house. Oh he was so very wrong, since the avian boy was going all into this. He even pulled out tacky outfits he had found in the storage house. The only reason Ranboo was going along with him was because he remembered Scott has a bunch of earthly books for almost everything, which might include recipe books. It wasn't going to be difficult to snag one while Tommy distracted the starborne with detective shenanigans.
After what seemed like a good ten minutes of preparation, the two were finally set off to the Scott's house for the investigation. Tommy had called ahead of time to let him know they were coming to "investigate the scene of the crime". Ranboo was a little reluctant at first but didn't trust to leave his companion alone with the starborne if he wasn't around. As they walked up the hill, they started chatting about outfits for their wedding.
"Scott has a bunch of shiny materials for clothes that we could use, plus I rather we use more fresh looking attire for our wedding then using some kind of hand me down" suggested Ranboo, resting his hands into his pockets.
"I can agree with you on that one actually. Hand me downs have been all I've ever gotten. Which is why I started to learn tailoring since it used to take Phil forever to make Wilbur's old clothes fit me" nodded Tommy, as kicked a rock along the path.
"We could also ask Niki for jewelry since she always finds the good shit when she raids shipwreck sites," he added.
"Ah yes, salt water damaged jewels. Such a wonderful idea" scoffed Ranboo, dryly.
"Awe come on, you know that she can clean them up. She's really good at it. Actually, Niki is good at a lot of things" argued Tommy, his head feather twitching.
"Somewhat true but it would be easier to just steal some jewelry from Wilbur or Sneeg. Those two are the golden children of Philza'' shrugged Ranboo, rolling his eyes.
There was a pause in conversation as Tommy stopped and gave the ender prince a slightly saddened look. He panicked as his friend's head feather dropped. He waved his arms defensively as he moved towards the blonde.
"Not saying you're not! You are the literal golden child of the Crowfather. Wilbur & Sneeg take sixth place when it comes to you" stammered Ranboo, as he grabbed onto the avian boy's face in comfort.
"Sixth?" parroted Tommy, tilting his head to the side as he grabbed one of the enderian's hands.
"Yeah. First come you, Tubbo, Techno, Beau, Niki and finally Wilbur & Sneeg" replied Ranboo, resting his free hand on his hip.
"Oh, that makes sense," hummed Tommy, before continuing down the path.
Enderian sighed in relief before letting Tommy lead him by the hand. Soon, the two had finally arrived at Scott's house. The starborne had one of the more glamorized homes in the valley. Not only was it painted to fit the palette of Smajor himself but there was an extending tower that matched the Captain's crimson and golden shades that sprouted from the top of the house. It was very eye-catching during the day and sometimes known to blend into the night sky during the evening. Overall it was an extravagant home which meant there would equally extravagant treasures inside.
The duo walked past the surrounding gate and looked around. It seemed Scott had touched up his garden since the crime happened but left a bit of the crime scene alone for them to examine. Tommy waltzed over to the area where seemed the most messy and pulled out a magnifying glass. He squatted down and started following whatever markings were on the ground. Ranboo couldn't see them from where he was standing.
Instead though, the ender prince continued on the path towards the front door. He leaned down to knock on the door before stepping back to wait for an answer. There was a muffled voice from inside that seemed to have said "Coming". Ranboo quietly snorted to himself before regaining his composure. Finally, the front door opened and there stood Scott.
"Oh Ranboo!! What are you doing here?" questioned Scott, looking up at the enderian.
"Why yes, hello to you too peasant" grumbled Ranboo, as he blew hair out of his face.
"Ah sorry. Hello your highness" greeted Scott, sarcastically.
"I just didn't expect you to see you here. Is Tommy with you?" he remarked, looking around behind Ranboo.
"Yeah actually, he's investigating your garden right now. A very dreadfully looking place by the way" nodded Ranboo, pointing to where he could see the red feathers of the blonde avian.
"Thanks for that" grumbled Scott, his halo tipping downwards.
Ranboo nodded in approval before stepping aside as the starborne went off to supervise Tommy on his investigation. He watched as he walked over to him before sliding into the house. He left the door open so he could hear when they would be coming inside before beelining it straight to the kitchen. Stopping just in the entrance of it, he took in the surroundings. It was much bigger than Tommy's kitchen but less homely in his opinion. The starborne really leaned into his galactic origin in everything he does. A lantern hung from the ceiling that had a nether star inside of it that illuminated the room, even though it was the middle of the day. The surface of all the counters were dark blue with small white markers on it that mimicked the design of stars in the night sky. The cabinet door handles had amethyst crystals engraved into them. Lastly, the stools on the isolated table had diamond shaped carved into the seat of them. It was a bit marvelous but Ranboo had an ego to keep up so he started looking for the book almost immediately. Plus, the stray amounts of glitter in the air was affecting his lungs.
He walked around the kitchen, into the cabinets and drawers. Occasionally nabbing a few items that caught his eye such as a highly decorated spoon and specialized coins. Even through his searching and stealing, Ranboo couldn't find a hint or sign of a recipe book. He was frustrated but didn't give up. Leaving the kitchen, he headed into the living space. Much larger than expected but still shared a similar aesthetic of the kitchen with galactic design on most things. There were two large bookshelves that stood apart from each other with a big window in the middle. Little engraved signs on them that differentiated them.
"Sparklez & Smajor" read Ranboo, squinting his eyes.
From just a brief skim over the books on each shelf, there was an obvious difference. The captain's bookshelf had books of historical education, redstone machinery, and the ocean. A strange yet fitting line up for the star captain, though he wasn't quite familiar with him. Scott's shelf, on the other hand, was intensely fitting. Most of the books were fictional stories of characters going into intense life or death competitions, others were about tyranny & adventures which sounded like a lot of work, and a factual book on the stars. Through it all, there was no hint of a recipe book anywhere. Mind boggling but a bit annoying since he swore the starborne had gone rambling about getting into making his own sweets. As he placed a astrology books back on the shelf, the sound of footsteps came from behind him that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He looked over his shoulder to see Scott and Tommy entering the house.
"Oh there you are Ranboo, I was wondering where you went" spoke Tommy, his head feather perking up.
"Yeah, I was in here looking for clues" stated Ranboo, as he whipped around to face his partner.
"By my bookshelves?" said Scott, lifting a brow.
"No, by the window. It's very filthy so I assumed it had to do with the crime but it happens to be that you just have ugly windows' ' proclaimed Ranboo, crossing his arms.
"You don't have the right to say that because you don't have windows" claimed Scott, resting his hands on his hips.
"Please, Tommy has better windows than you do and he has chickens everywhere" scoffed Ranboo, blowing a stray hair aside.
"Yeah, bitch! Wait-Hey!!" retorted the blonde, his wings fluffing up.
"No offense, Tom, '' assured Ranboo.
The avian pouted before rolling eyes and changing the topic.
"Anyways, I have concrete evidence that it wasn't Fundy who committed this crime" he declared.
"You do?" remarked Ranboo, his ears perking up.
"Yup, look at this observation of mine" nodded Tommy, turning his notebook page to the enderian.
Ranboo leaned forward to look down at the surprisingly decent doodle of paw prints. One pair of prints had the words "fox" scribbled above it while the other two had three question marks above it. The fox paw prints were medium sized and had line tics to represent the claws. The other two were completely different. One was much larger and narrow with no claw tics while the other was much much smaller and had very small line tics of claws.
"So it wasn't Fundy but two other fiends who did this" uttered Ranboo, a little surprised.
"Meaning Fundy is innocent, for once" smirked Tommy, proudly.
"So you're saying someone else who has dirty paws wrecked my berry garden and stole gold clusters from my house that wasn't the fox thief?" questioned Scott.
"If the boot fits" shrugged Tommy, as he placed his notebook into his coat pocket.
The starborne furrowed his brows in confusion but just sighed in response.
"Then I must apologize to Fundy for my accusations. Till then, I do hope you two will find out who this furred thief is and bring them to justice for their crimes" he stated, as he pressed his face into his hand.
"We will try to," nodded Ranboo.
"Now off you two go, I need to finish sorting my books. I don't wish to cause Wilbur any more hassle with star particles getting into his library." claimed Scott, ushering two towards the door.
"Wait! I have a question!" exclaimed Tommy, extending his wings defensively.
"Yes?" replied Scott, furrowing his brows.
"Do you have any spare fabrics that I could use? Phil was talking about doing hobbies since snowfall should be coming soon and I thought of experimenting with different tailoring items" explained Tommy.
"And a baking book for me?" added Ranboo, tilting his head to the side.
Scott gave them a confused look and it seemed like he was going to say "no". Atleast that was until Tommy started to give him the puppy eyes, the avian's top manipulating tactic. Ranboo wasn't very good at it so he just starborne a pathetic look. Scott held a baited breath before exhaling.
"Fine, you can have some materials and a recipe book" he sighed, as he turned away.
Tommy and Ranboo silently cheered as they watched the starborne walk off to get the items from upstairs. While he was gone, the two shared a hushed conversation.
"I didn't expect that to work, I thought I was just going to have to steal it when we were finished here" muttered Ranboo, leaning to his companion's level.
"Same honestly but this is much easier to just ask, that's what Niki says" nodded Tommy.
"But is it true that Fundy isn't the culprit or did you make that up?" questioned Ranboo.
"Oh no, Fundy is actually innocent. It was shocking to me when I compared the paw tracks. I have a copy of all the crimes related or pinned on him and his paw prints don't match the ones in Scott's garden" nodded the blonde, as he flipped through the pages of his notebook.
"So we actually have actual criminals on our hands" remarked the enderian, rubbing his chin.
"Yup, but they have only stolen berries and gold. Not much worth of that but most of the charges will be for the damage to the garden" proclaimed Tommy.
"It's not like he can't fix his garden and get more gold" scoffed Ranboo, blowing some hair out of his face.
"Even so, he is very particular about things. Like you are but a bit more" shrugged Tommy.
"I think of myself as more particular than he is but we aren't going to get into that" huffed the ender prince.
"What i'm worried about now is getting this ridiculous outfit off and into something more tasteful" he stated, tugging on the collar of the tan jacket.
"I'm hungry so I want something tasteful too" claimed Tommy, mimicking Ranboo's speech.
The enderian just rolled his eyes at the mockery and turned his attention to Scott, who was returning from upstairs with a leather trunk dragging behind him. It made a loud thud as the starborne placed it in front of the duo.
"This is all the extra fabric I won't be using so you just take it Tommy" breathed Scott, as he whipped sweat from his forehead.
"Oh um, thanks Scott" stated Tommy, staring at the trunk.
"Also the recipe book is in it as well so it'll be easier to carry" added Scott, patting the top of the trunk.
"Appreciated peasant" thanked Ranboo, waving a non-chantant hand towards him.
Scott nodded and walked off somewhere in the house. Tommy sighed to himself before grabbing the side handle of the trunk. He began to drag it towards the door as Ranboo followed behind. Once finally out of the starborne's home and heading back down the hill, Ranboo spoke up out of concern.
"Do you need help?" asked the ender prince, worriedly.
"Nope, I'm good" assured the avian, having to use his wings to steady himself.
"Are you sure? We could take a few things out of it to make it lighter" offered Ranboo.
"Nah, we can make it without taking anything out right now. I'm a big man and this is a big man job" proclaimed Tommy, proudly though the struggle was obvious.
Ranboo sighed and shook his head. He watched his companion pull the trunk along before hooking his tail under the other handle on the trunk to provide support. The avian didn't say anything about it, though it was obvious. Probably to keep up his ego but there was silent appreciation for the help.