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When Dream had escaped he supposedly immediately went after Tommy. Tommy had run to Phil and hadn’t left since.
It was seeming like Tommy’s presence in their Arctic commune would be permanent, or at least until Dream was dealt with.
Tommy had attachment issues, he would follow Phil around like a lost puppy, and when Phil left he refused to sleep for fear of being caught unguarded and vulnerable. Phil wasn’t all too happy about Tommy being unable to function when he wasn’t around so as a temporary solution to this problem they were trying something new.
Phil had to go away for reasons he wouldn’t tell, so while he was gone Tommy would stay with Techno.
The last time they had slept in the same house was after Tommy’s exile. It had been fun, Techno remembers the days when he had something to look forward to when he got home, when he had someone to look after, it made him feel like he had a purpose in life.
After Tommy had sided with L’Manberg Techno had felt betrayed, but more so he just felt lonely. He was thankful for Phil who was ever present but it just wasn’t the same. He missed his little brother.
He tried to fill the void by inviting Ranboo, and they did become a close friend. Techno would be lying if he said he didn’t feel their bond was at least slightly brotherly, but it would never be the same as his actual brothers.
So when Phil suggested the idea Techno didn’t think too hard before accepting.
Techno was now stood in his kitchen making himself a coffee while Tommy slept on the sofa in the adjacent living room.
Techno wasn’t going to sleep yet, his plan was to sit on the chair and do research while Tommy slept. It was something he was used to doing from when they lived together before, especially in the beginning when Tommy didn’t have a room yet and had a lot of nightmares, Techno would stay up late then drift off on the chair that way Tommy could wake him up if he needed him.
He basked in the familiarity of the lump of blankets in his living room, he felt warm, and not just because of the fire.
He set himself up on the chair and began his reading. He was looking into different types of demons and how they all survived in the overworld. After speaking briefly with Bad about it he had a few hypothesis about Dream being possessed; thus far it wasn’t checking out, there were too many inconsistencies between Dream’s behaviour and a demon’s.
The main problem was that Dream was a smart ass, demons are less about communication and superiority and more about murder and pain.
When the idea had first come to him about Dream being possessed it had filled him with a lot of hope, the idea that maybe the guy he used to be friends with still being there after all these years felt reassuring, and absolved him of a lot of guilt. If it is really just Dream, then Techno was somehow genuine friends with a person like that, he feels as though he can’t trust anyone, because Dream had seemed like a good person in the beginning, then he had flipped like a switch and techno doesn’t know if he could handle the confirmed knowledge that it was just Dream.
So he scoured through book after book, trying to find anything that might confirm what he was thinking.
As he read the book he could hear Tommy moving around in his sleep, the fire crackling away, and the wind howling outside, it felt too good to be true.
In a way it was.
Tommy was moving a lot more than he usually did. He started talking in his sleep, Techno couldn’t properly decipher what he was saying so he put the book down and listened closely.
He was mumbling incoherent sentences, he sounded vaguely distressed, alarm bells went off in Techno head. He put the book on the floor and braced himself to stand, listening intently in the hopes of making out any words to give him a reason to wake Tommy.
“Stop, please,” Tommy pleaded.
It was all Techno needed to kneel next to the sofa and start shaking Tommy awake.
“Tommy, wake up.” Techno didn’t whisper, he knew it was useless.
Tommy grew more distressed at the touch but Techno persisted, he couldn’t just leave his little brother like this.
“Tommy!” he shouted.
Tommy’s eyes flew open and he gasped.
Techno let go of him and watched as he sat up and curled in on himself, trying to make sense of his surrounding.
“Tommy, you’re safe,” he spoke softly, not wanting to scare him.
Tommy let out a strangled “Tech,” before the tears started streaming down his face.
Unexpectedly, he then climbed down onto the floor with Techno and fell onto his chest. Techno reacted by putting his arms around him, which appeared to be the right thing as Tommy curled up closer to him.
Before, when Tommy was scared like this, any and all touch would just worsen the situation, so the best thing to do was try to talk him down calmly and then leave him to breathe.
But as Techno ran his hand through Tommy’s hair he calmed down faster than he ever had before.
Techno murmured words of reassurance, Tommy didn’t answer but that was unsurprising, he never spoke at times like these.
They stayed on the floor for a while, Tommy didn’t move from Techno’s lap and Techno was quietly enjoying the feeling of holding his brother, it had been years.
But good moments don’t last. He heard the door open and his head whipped around to see who it was. The other brother whom he liked considerably less walked in like he owned the place. Upon seeing them on the floor he stopped in shock.
Tommy tried to get up but Techno held him in place, “who?” he asked simply.
Techno considered his words for a moment before answering, “Niki, go into the kitchen.”
Wilbur hesitated but obliged.
“I like Niki,” Tommy complained.
“She’s here for business, let’s get you back to bed,” Techno replied.
Tommy didn’t protest any further, clearly to destabilised and tired to have an argument. He also didn’t stand up, so Techno lifted him up onto the sofa.
When he put Tommy down he saw that he was sporting a cocky grin of “I just made you lift me onto the sofa when I could have done it myself” to which Techno rolled his eyes and threw the blanket onto his face.
He stood up and started going into the kitchen, he heard Tommy giggle quietly to himself and adjust himself to fall asleep, he smiled internally.
Techno looked at the clock and saw that it was 2AM, what was Wilbur doing here at this time?
Techno shut the door behind him and faced his twin brother, all the warmth was gone from his face.
Wilbur had taken the coffee Techno had forgotten in here earlier, it was probably cold but it was Techno’s so Wilbur was enjoying drinking it anyway.
“Tommy’s here,” Wilbur remarked.
“So are you,” Techno shot back.
Wilbur laughed but didn’t answer Techno’s implicit question and instead asked one of his own.
“Why did you lie about who I was?” He asked.
“Because Tommy wouldn’t feel safe with you here,” Techno answered.
Wilbur feigned being hurt by his statement, but both of them knew Tommy’s feelings about Wilbur and it came as no surprise that Techno wanted to protect his little brother from his twin.
“What are you doing here?” Techno asked.
“I was getting my stuff from Phil’s house while he was out, saw your lights on, figured I’d drop by.”
That roughly translated to “I was stealing shit from Phil and figured I’d try your house too but now I see that you’re awake and need to find an excuse.” Techno wasn’t having it.
“Well, I don’t wanna see you, get out,” he stated as he turned to leave the room.
“Why are you helping him?” Wilbur inquired, “he betrayed you, I thought you hated him? I didn’t think forgiveness was really your thing, is Technoblade going soft?” he probed.
Techno took his hand off the doorknob and turned back to Wilbur.
He knew what his reputation was like, he had curated it so that people would be afraid of him, so everyone would believe he was cold and heartless, then they might leave him alone. He hoped that even after all the years of rivalry, his brother would still know him better than that.
Evidentially not.
“He’s a kid, Wil.”
Wilbur seemed confused by Techno’s reaction. His voice sounded hurt, Wilbur had been trying to get him angry.
“What?” he blurted out.
“He’s a kid, who’s been through a lot, he doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Techno explained. Wilbur didn’t speak so he continued, “he wasn’t trying to hurt me, he just wanted his friends back. I’m not gonna hold it against him that he acted wrong when he was suffering with PTSD and craving affection, he was a kid.”
Wilbur was contemplative for a moment. He looked away from Techno’s eyes and stared intently at the table between them.
“So why haven’t you forgiven me?” he spat. His voice held a surprising amount of pain in it that Techno considered forgiving him right there in his kitchen.
“Because you wanted to hurt people, and you haven’t changed,” Techno asserted.
Wilbur didn’t answer. Almost every emotion possible flashed through his eyes before he looked up at Techno and simply said, “Okay.”
And he left.