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On the list of things Technoblade had to do today, consisting mainly of small chores that he’s been putting off for weeks, waking up to a small child crawling on him was not on there.
Ruby eyes shot open at the feeling of small hoofed feet stepping into his stomach, letting out an audible huff as his hands groped around for the dagger he keeps under his pillow. Grasping the handle, he lashes out in the general direction of the offending body, but before he can strike anything, a hand grabs his wrist. Wheezing laughter fills the room as Techno finally takes in his surroundings, noticing Dream standing nearby, his hand on the pinkette’s wrist, and Michael sitting on his stomach, watching him with widened eyes.
The hand that’s not holding the dagger rubs at half-lidded eyes, desperately attempting to make his brain jumpstart. When he can sufficiently start processing what’s going on, he places the dagger back where it was, before unceremoniously dropping his head back onto the pillow. He attempts to close his eyes again, hoping for at least ten more minutes of sleep before he has to deal with his husband and the small gremlin on his stomach, before tiny hands are suddenly tapping against his face.
A long groan escapes Techno’s mouth, his eyes still closed, despite sleep being the furthest thing from possible at the current moment. “Dream, why is Michael sittin’ on me at the crack of dawn?” When he opened his eyes to peer at his husband, he vehemently ignored the beaming smile on the freckled face, focusing instead of trying to stop the smaller piglin from poking out his eyes.
“First off, Tech, it’s like nine am,” Dream ignored the grunt of disagreement from Techno, “and second off, Ranboo and Tubbo dropped him off this morning, said they had to go visit Tommy or something.” Techno gently removed a small hand from ripping out the various piercings covering his elongated ears. “Michael got bored of watching me make breakfast and kept mumbling your name- well, it sounded more like ‘Tekmo’ but I understood- so I brought him in here.”
Techno let out a sigh, ignoring how exasperatedly fond it sounded, staring at the ceiling as Michael started fiddling with strands of pink hair. “We’re stuck on babysittin’ duty, again?”
Dream let out an awkward laugh at Techno’s words, one hand coming up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. “Uh, more like you are stuck on babysitting duty.” When Techno shifted his gaze to Dream, ruby eyes narrowed in suspicion, the dirty blond started up again. “I might have forgotten to tell you yesterday that I have to go see Foolish today, he wants permission to build something new or something.”
Oh, how he hated being married to an admin sometimes. “Dream-”
Before he could say anything else, the dirty blond man flashed another sheepish smile before he was scooting around the room, gathering his cloak and slipping his boots on, yelling “breakfast is on the table!” with laughter in his voice before the front door closed with a click. Techno let out another sigh, his head shaking slightly as a hand raised up to drag down his face. He looked back down at the smaller boy, who was fiddling with the button on his overalls, completely oblivious to the conversation around him. “What’re we gonna do with you?”
A beady eye stared up at him, not offering any response to Techno’s question. Another sigh escaped the pinkette again before he grabbed Michael, holding him against his chest as he finally got out of the warm sheets.
They’ll find something to do.
-
Dream could say he felt guilty for leaving Techno alone to take care of Michael, but he’d be clearly lying. If he didn’t legitimately have to go confirm Foolish’s building plans, he might’ve made up some random excuse just to leave the two piglin hybrids alone anyway. Look, Techno can deny it all he wants, but it’s obvious that he cares about the small boy.
What Dream didn’t account for, however, was how long his visit would take. The coords Foolish had sent didn’t look that far on paper, so the masked man didn’t feel as though he needed to take Spirit with him, but he is avidly scolding his past self for his stupidity. He wasn’t expecting the entire journey to span over literal mountains, causing him to have to spend an extra hour each time finding a route around the large mounds.
At one point, he even legitimately considered taming a wild horse for the journey, excessive chafing on his thighs from the lack of saddle be damned.
When he had finally made it back to his house, the lights shining invitingly under the starry night, he could nearly cry with relief. The place seemed to ooze warmth and coziness, a sharp contrast to the frigid arctic around it. As he was opening the door, he nearly forgot about the zombie piglin child who was supposed to be picked up tomorrow morning, too focused on the thought of wasting the night away under warm covers with strong arms wrapped protectively around him.
Every thought about sleeping flew out the window when Dream opened the door to find his husband standing in the living room, a diamond sword pointed at Michael, who had his own iron swordーwhich he struggled to hold up in his tiny armsーpointed back at the taller, a red blanketーwhich he recognized as a gift from Phil a few months backーtied around his neck in a makeshift cape.
If Dream wasn’t having a mini heart attack at the sight in front of him, he’s sure he’d start cooing at Michael’s outfit. When the two finally catch sight of Dream standing in the open doorway, Techno didn’t even have the audacity to look sheepish. “Techno, what’s this?” Before the aforementioned could respond, Michael dropped his swordーwhich came dangerously close to his hoofed feetーbefore barreling into Dream’s legs, earning a “hey, little guy” from the dirty blond man before the smaller was picked up, his tiny arms wrapping around the now-unmasked man’s neck.
“Hey, we both learned how to use a sword when we were his age, I don’t see a problem.”
“You gave a child an iron sword!”
Techno only shrugged in response, picking up the aforementioned object and placing it back on a weapon stand nearby. Dream rolled his eyes, rubbing Michael’s back through the red blanket, pulling the child back slightly to rake his eyes over the smaller boy, searching for any injuries on the visible skin. When he found none, he walked towards his husband, handing the younger hybrid over to him with a small “hold him for one second” before he walked towards an ender chest in the corner of the room.
After rummaging around for a couple of moments, he let out a celebratory “aha!” before making his way back over to the two in the living room, hiding the new objects behind his back. When he reached Techno and Michael, the former watching him with a suspicious narrow of his eyes, he let a large smile cross his face. “Remember these?” With that, he pulled out two wooden swords from behind his back, a small sheen of dust covering the scratched wood.
“Are those…?” Techno trailed off, staring at the swords with wide eyes. Dream quickly handed one sword to Michael, the other being handed to the pinkette, who was barely conscious enough to grab the handle. Dream watched as Techno’s thumb glided across the small ‘T’ engraved in the handle, his eyes locked onto the oak blade. “You kept them?”
Techno finally glanced up at the dirty blond, his mouth open in shock as his ruby eyes flicked between two emerald, searching for any lie. “‘Course I did, Tech, they were our first swords, you’d think I’d throw those away just like that?” The two were caught in an impromptu staring contest, ruby eyes shining in wonder and fondness meeting emerald ones displaying nostalgia and love, before they were interrupted by a now-dull wooden blade whacking against Techno’s shoulder.
Dream let out a surprised laugh at the action, shifting his attention towards the small boy held in one of Techno’s arms, who was waving Dream’s old sword around in wonder. Techno also glanced over, a mockingly furious expression on his face as he grabbed the small sword handle in a firm grip, setting Michael on the ground before hitting the swords’ blades together. “I’ll get ya for that one.” A small squeak of glee left Michael before the two jumped into action, Techno’s sword swipes much softer than his usual ones, the smaller hybrid attemptingーsomewhat successfullyーto block the blade.
Dream only watched with a fond smile, resting his exhausted body on the nearby couch, his eyes locked on the two moving around the room. As he felt his eyes beginning to close, he completely missed the small smile on Techno’s face, before the pinkette brought Michael into the dining room to continue their battle, pulling the end of Michael’s cape over his eyes to block his vision momentarily before draping a blanket onto Dream on his way out of the room.