Chapter Text
That wasn’t supposed to happen.
As soon as their skin so much as brushes together, he pulls back.
The tingly shock that ran up his hand wasn’t supposed to be there. He felt it, yet he shouldn’t have. Not with the man standing before him; not with the only man who could actually defeat him; not with the man who may very well be lying to his face right now.
Not with Technoblade.
He looks down and his skin has turned a lighter color where Techno’s hand had just been, the imprint still tingling as it slowly quietnes. There’s no mistaking such a sign. A soulmate’s mark.
Dream shuts his eyes and turns his back to Techno. It’s ok. It’s ok, this means nothing. It means absolutely nothing when he feels nothing but rivalry for Techno; when Techno’s still in debt with him because of how he brought his horse, Carl, back to him and paved his way to escape execution. It means nothing when he can still control him.
He looks over his shoulder and composes himself. For the first time he sees confusion flash over Techno’s eyes, he’s shifting his weight uncomfortably. He definitely felt the shock too.
“If you catch wind of Tommy, let me know” he clenches his still buzzy hand, “y’know, you owe me, a little bit.”
“It’s true” Techno stares at him intently but doesn’t miss a beat “You don’t gotta worry, Dream, I’m a person that believes in absolute reciprocity.”
“That’s good,” Dream looks around the room one last time, wonders how much he believes that and knows he can’t trust anyone “Alright, well, nice to see you.”
He opens the door for himself and dives in the stingy embrace of the snow.
“Techno?” right, Tommy, “is he-is he gone?”
Techno moves to the windows, “No,” he sighs, knowing Tommy will be safe for a little longer, “he’s still outside”.
He lets his eyes wander in the dark. Dream’s figure sticks out in the snow, a stark contrast against the pure white, but he too quickly fades into the darkness of the conifers.
Another sigh leaves his lips. His hand stays clenched against his chest, the pale blotch of skin securely hidden away.
Tommy definitely can’t see it.
-
Letting himself fall into bed at last, he allows his muscles to relax and feels how they softly melt into the mattress. From the floors below he can overhear Tommy’s hushed motions of getting ready to sleep too and his eyelids gently flutter shut.
A few times, he shuffles around, tries to find a comfortable position. He shifts and pulls the covers up to his face before kicking them off and bristling in the cold. With a groan, he brings himself to sit up and lights a candle on his bedside table. He watches as it flickers, shudders and trembles in the dark. The warmth isn't much but as it radiates from the flame it calms his jumbled mind.
For the first time, he raises his hand and lets himself look at it. Really look at it.
It can’t be.
The skin of his palm is somewhat paler than what surrounds it and Techno still can’t wrap his head around how something like this could happen.
Dream. Of all people. Dream.
Surprisingly, he doesn’t hate it as much as he thought he would. Actually, he finds himself quite neutral to it all. Memories from his early teenage years resurface weakly and he almost laughs at himself. At the thought that he once believed the idea of having a soulmate wasn’t entirely stupid and useless. He used to think that the concept alone was quite magical. To have a person who’s just perfect for you and you alone. Someone who you’ll definitely click with and who feels just right. The promise of having someone truly accept you for who you are. To never be left behind, alone. To really belong.
He scoffs. How foolish.
He isn’t even completely sure when exactly he stopped being so dumb and naive but he’s glad he did. He’s glad and the fact that he’s supposedly linked to someone like Dream, someone so power-hungry and despicable. So dictatorial. So manipulative. It’s just yet another reconfirmation.
He has Carl, he has Phil, and now he has Tommy. He doesn’t need anyone else.
Actually. Everyone could leave and he wouldn’t need anyone else. Wilbur has left him and here he is, still alive, still surviving, still coming up on top of every fight. Victorious.
He doesn’t need anyone.
Everyone will betray you.
With these soothing thoughts in mind, he blows the candle out, curls back up in bed and lets himself ease down and drift off. He needs to rest.
-
It had been a long day. He’d gone gather some resources and checked up on his dogs. Sneaking into L’Manberg isn’t necessarily hard. Considering how much trouble they’d gone through just to make themselves a nation, they really should put more effort into protecting their territory. Not that Techno complains. Quite the opposite actually. Most of the time, it isn’t hard.
But this time he’d actually been spotted. He hadn’t been as careful as usual. He’d let himself get so used to traveling there and back unbothered that when they started chasing him down he almost remembered that yeah, he isn’t really supposed to be able to go to L’Manberg that easily.
It hadn’t mattered in the end. He’s back home now and all of his chores are done. Moreover, Tommy has scurried off somewhere so he won’t be around to give him a headache. Techno isn’t really sure if he can trust Tommy enough to venture out by himself without getting into trouble but he guesses he’ll find out.
After disregarding his robe, he walks up to the last floor and skims the books on the shelves. The library isn’t that big but it fits just right in his bedroom and a good book is really what he needs right now to relax. At the very least, he deserves it after the tiring day.
With inquisitive eyes, he reads the titles on the spines until one catches his eye.
‘The Argonautica’ by Apollonios Rhodios. And just next to it ‘Medea’ by Euripide.
He hasn’t read them in a good while and wonders which one to pick. He’s always been fascinated by Greek mythology. Does he want to read about a young Medea falling head over heels for a man just to defy her own father, leave her homeland and kill her brother? Or does he want to read about her, grown up, betrayed by the husband she gave everything up for? See her turn into a revenge-seeking woman wounded so much by love that she turns to murdering her own children and feeding them to their unfaithful father?
Both are a good representation of how love can’t bring but pain, but Techno grips the spine of the second book with decision and pulls it out of its tightly fitted space.
As he walks back down the stairs he thinks about how interesting the ancient’s view of love was. And he agrees. Love isn’t but a destructive force. It makes you sick and can drive people crazy.
From the window he sees his bee farm and is reminded of how bees were considered superior beings because of how they were thought to reproduce without sex. A silly thought, he considers, but still an intriguing one. He sometimes wonders how they’d come up with such things.
Well, of course they didn’t really have the means to know better, but the hypotheses they substituted reality with were what really surprised him. Some really took a great deal of imagination.
Walking away from the window, he plops himself into the chair he keeps by the fireplace and flips the book open. Some dust swifts up but he easily swats it away and gets comfortable. Then, he easily lets himself slip into Euripide’s words, lets the story gain his whole attention as he imagines the nurse narrating Medea’s misfortunes and sorrows.
Just as the minutes tick by and the sun, already low in the sky, dips even farther down, dragging a veil of purplish pink across the horizon, Techno’s ears perk up. He reaches for his sword just as knuckles against wood resonate through the room. Armed, he makes his way to the door and pulls it open.
There, in his dark armor, stands Dream. Techno rolls his eyes dismissively and goes back to sit in his chair, book leisurely sited in his hands once again.
“Hello!” Dream strides in with that characteristic arrogance of acting as if he owns the place. Techno should stop letting such behavior slide.
“How’re you on this lovely evening?” He says instead, already going back to reading where he was forced to leave off.
“Good, good,” Dream’s words are calculated as he looks around, drags his eyes across the furniture and studies the details. “Well…” he trails off for a moment, “I know Tommy has been here.”
Techno blinks.
“Oh Zeus! And Earth and Light, do you hear the chanted prayer of a wife in her anguish!” He reads off the book, loud and obnoxious, after a moment of awkward silence. Dream bursts out laughing as Techno dramatically impersonates his character. “Go on, go on Dream, sorry.”
“Ok,” he composes himself, “listen—“
“Mighty Themis! Dread Artemis!”
“I don’t—“
“Oh, what an evil power love has in people’s lives!”
“What is wrong with you!” Dream shouts, amusedly bewildered. There’s a moment of silence before he continues “You ready?”
Techno nods, Dream inhales and seems to be about to start again.
“Then why resist!” Techno emphasizes “Why will you not get out!”
“Oh my god,” Drea brings a hand to his mask and suppresses a laugh as he speaks through it, “You are so annoying.”
Techno snickers and sits back in his chair, “So this was a nice conversation,” he stands up, closes the book while keeping a finger between the pages and pushes Dream towards the door with a hand against the back of his armor. “Yeah, I’m gonna go back to my book now so if you could just leave that’d be fantastic,” he opens the door “Oh, and tell me when you think of a wish, I’m magical.”
Dream grabs onto the door on his way out and looks back from over his shoulder, voice serious again “You don’t want to have a conversation, Techno?”
Techno shrugs and starts closing the door “Well, I mean… if you want to cash out on the wish we can have a conversation.”
“No, no, I don’t wanna cash in the wish,” he pushes a hand against the door closing in on him “Here’s something that will catch your attention,” Techno goes to open his book again “May I remind you of the story of Theseus! Do you know—do you know how he dies?”
“He gets yeeted off of a cliff by a guy.”
Dream stifles a chuckle, “By what guy?”
“Dude, what is this, class?”
“Ok, ok,” He lets a few amused breaths past his lips, “He gets yeeted off by the guy who is the king of the island he took refuge on after he got exiled. And I’m not saying this for no reason, y’know, I may come here at some point, as I know where Tommy is—“
“Oh where is he, now?”
“Com’on Techno, you really think that you can fool me?” He steps closer and Techno doesn’t step back. “Look at this!” He steps in, once again uninvited, and rushes down the stairs, where Tommy’s to-do list is scribbled in a notebook with messy letters and poor grammar “‘Sell foot’? ‘Build tower’? ‘Therapy’? Spelled wrong!”
“It’s a hard word, it’s a hard word.”
“You love literature!” He pauses in disbelief, “Listen, the other day I didn’t say anything because I just need to know where he is and that he won’t be in L’Manberg. That’s all I want.”
And then he opens the door to finally leave but a stray chicken comes barging in. Techno drags a hand across his face where an exasperated smile starts to stretch, what’d he say on having to stop Dream from navigating his home as he pleases?
“Oh, do you wanna keep him as a pet?” Dream crouches down, studying the animal as it uselessly flaps around the room, “Seems a rare breed, it’s kinda cool.”
Techno shrugs and shakes his head so Dream tries to catch the chicken to probably get rid of it but it ends up running away just before he can secure his grasp. It shoogles and warples around before squeezing itself between a chest and the wall. Pitifully, it flails its legs in an attempt at fleeing but fails furiously.
Dream snorts a laugh and shakes his head “Now you have no choice, it’s perfect!”
Techno huffs a laugh of his own and extends a hand to help the other up, “Well, it’s there forever now.” Dream laughs through a ‘yeah’ but the carefree sound dies down when he looks up just to be met by Techno’s hand.
Techno’s eyes move to his own hand too and he realizes where Dream’s got caught.
His palm.
The one with the mark.
He could pull it back, but it’d just make it more awkward, showing that he is affected by it, so he just shakes it a bit as if to say ‘you gonna take it or nah?’ And Dream does end up taking it. He slides his own marked hand into Techno’s and hoists himself up. He clears his throat and pats his pants to get rid of the folds. Techno just stands there, blinks and wonders what’s going on behind Dream’s mask.
“Well,” he turns towards the door, “I’m sure that I’ll probably see you… tomorrow? Or... I guess another day.”
“Sure.” Techno just says, tone void of any particular intention of either seeing him again or not but knowing it’ll inevitably happen.
He follows Dream to the door and closes it behind him when he leaves. Then, he walks back up the stairs to the ground floor. As he does, he sighs for no particular reason, tries not to think about the awkwardness clinging to his skin.
The sky is darkening fast. Tommy will be back soon. He better start getting something ready for dinner.
-
The next couple of days go by unnoticed. They roll by and out of sight before anything relevant really gets the chance to happen but Techno knows how to treasure days like this.
Still, he goes hunting; sneaks into L’Manberg every once in a while to check on his hounds and make sure they are safe and well fed; refines his brewing skills. One day as he goes back home from L’Manberg, noticing the few posters hung around, he thinks about adding some of his own. Propaganda. He sketches down a few ideas once he gets home. He doesn’t see Dream again and he isn’t sure why he’s consciously aware of it.
The rest of the time he reads and talks with Tommy about their plans.
In this short time he’s finished Medea and has thrown himself into a reread of the Iliad, a classic. Even there though, a poem about war, wrath, glory… love had found its way into making a mess. Helen of Sparta. He wonders whether he’d have fallen for her too.
Gradually, he’s also getting accustomed to Tommy’s presence. The kid doesn’t seem to despise him as much as he’d had before but Techno knows Tommy needed someone to blame at the time. He also knows that in Tommy’s eyes he hasn’t been the best of allies in the past, but he’s aware of his actions and of their reasons so he doesn’t feel like he’s betrayed anyone. And even if he did, Pogtopia did just the same to him. Used him as a weapon and then walked all over his very clearly stated values. But that’s the past. Wilbur is gone and Tommy needs a place to stay. The butcher army tried to have its way with him and failed and that’s all that matters.
Sometimes he misses Phil.
More than sometimes, actually. He tries to pay him a visit on every trip to L’Manberg he takes but getting to the middle of the country unnoticed is harder and way more dangerous than lurking around the sewers and outskirts. He’ll get him out of there. He has to.
With Tommy’s help, maybe. Yes, maybe just maybe Tommy could be more than an annoying kid he’s showing mercy to. Maybe, an actual friend. Maybe. Maybe not. His reckless impulsivity and uncontrollable passion could easily get him killed. Those aren’t qualities Techno usually would look for in a friend but never say never, he supposes.
Regardless, the plan is going well and his first priority at the moment is getting all of his weapons back.
And so he goes back to L’Manberg with Tommy once again. They find a guy and neither of them hesitates in using him to get what they want in exchange of letting him go unharmed. The guy is innocent and clearly shitting himself the whole time. Do actions like these make Techno a bad person? Perhaps. He doesn’t care. He needs his weapons back. And he gets them. Most of them at least. He’s only missing his sword and axe now. At the very minimum, he did say sorry.
“Hey,” Tommy starts on their way back, “Tubbo really went ‘I left you’ and didn’t even bat an eye, man.” Techno acknowledges him with a hum but doesn’t know how to bring healing to such a wound. “He was my best friend and he didn’t even—he didn’t even—“
“It is lame,” he says, lamely, “but, y’know maybe with the whole exile thing, not visiting you, not doing anything, leaving you to possibly die in some far away land,” he places a hand to Tommy’s shoulder hoping he can understand, “maybe he doesn’t see you as a friend, Tommy.” Sometimes you have to know how to let go.
Tommy looks up at him, eyes glazed with sadness and a resignation so unlike his free spirited nature.
“And, y’know,” Techno tries tentatively, “he’s a government official. This is what I’ve been trying to say this whole time. Power, Tommy, power. It corrupts people. Why make a government that will only bring division and inequality, that will only ruin perfectly fine people and create all this conflict we are trying to put an end to?”
Tommy weights his words and seems to really reflect on them. Considering their widely different ideals, for now it’s enough and Tommy himself eventually prompts them to keep on walking.
“I’m sorry—it’s just—y’know…“
“It’s ok, Tommy” he tries to reassure, “it’s ok to take a bit to process, I too,” he wonders how much of himself he should reveal, how vulnerable he wants to allow himself to seem in Tommy’s eyes, “was betrayed and used by pretty much everyone that I thought was my friend so I can relate.” He shrugs, nonchalant.
“I get it…” is Tommy’s weak response.
They keep walking silently when suddenly Tommy jumps. Techno draws his sword and Tommy’s shield is raised.
Dream.
Right in their way.
“If I remember correctly.” Dream starts, venom dripping from his tongue, “You are not supposed to be here, Tommy.”
“You—you screwed me over!” Tommy says, Techno makes sure to keep close. “You manipulated me.”
“I was the only one who visited you. The only person that was your friend. And look what you did,” he gestures with painfully plastic sadnesses “You are not supposed to be here and you are causing problems.”
“I think—I think you are scared of me. Because I’m the only one who goes against you. That’s what it was about, containing me.”
“Listen,” Dream meanders dangerously close, “You are gonna come with me or I’m gonna burn your disc.” Tommy steps back, gasping for a comeback.
“Oh, well, that’s gonna be a problem, Dream,” Techno speaks up, taking a protective step in front of Tommy, “because this guy’s with me.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, we are business partners, working for our mutual benefit.” Briefly, he looks to the side “Unless you wanna call in that favor, that is.”
Dream looks at him for a long moment before declining, “As long as you are sure.” He says and slowly walks away. Techno’s eyes follow his trail before he disappears into the vegetation and Techno is left with a weirdly weird feeling of uncertainty and a hyped Tommy bragging about Dream’s retreat.
Techno wonders why Dream didn’t fight.
-
“‘Therapy’ is a hard word to spell, isn’t it?”
Techno’s axe comes crashing down onto the wood and is left there, firmly wedged into the log. A smirk tugs at his lips and he looks back, where Dream’s unsatisfied voice is coming from.
“Bothers you?”
Dream tsks pushing himself off the tree he was leaning against with a kick. “Couldn’t care less,” he mumbles, “You are just making things harder for yourself. First of all by lying to me.”
“And why would that be?” Techno grips his axe again and resumes cutting wood. He’s running low and his fire won’t burn by itself. Tommy and him had come back from L’Manberg, after their confrontation with Dream, not so long ago and here he is again, being a pain in the ass.
“You don’t want to be against me, Techno.” Dream clenches his fists, irritated, “Especially not when I could ask you to do anything and you’d have to do it.”
“Ask away.”
“Not now. I have something planned for you.”
“Then until you do decide to go through with it stop acting as if you have any power over me.”
“I’ve never been unkind to you.” Dream steps close to him and pulls at his arm to get his attention.
“Then why show up here for no good reason.”
“I wanted to…” Techno raises his eyebrows, expectedly, “to tell you I knew, Technoblade, I knew you were lying to me and Tommy was with you.”
“Aw, you need some kind of validation from me, Dream?”
“Fuck off.” He draws his sword. Why’d he come here. Techno wonders. “Fight me, Techno.”
“You really want to lose that badly today, don’t you?”
The sword is swung his way but he’s quick to pick his own up and block the blow. A loud clang shakes the air. Metal vibrating and clicking in the midst of the quiet forest. He pushes forward and notices Dream isn’t as stable as usual. His usual light steps and calculated, well angled hits are slower and harder. Strength over precision, not his usual style. Techno can see it. He isn’t thinking with a cool mind.
He intends to fully exploit it.
Dream brings his sword high again with a groan. Techno blocks another strike with his horizontal blade and forces Dream’s to the side. Then, he lunges forwards. He may have cut, he may have not. Part of him cares when it shouldn’t and so he makes sure his next strike does cut.
Dream steps back, a pained gasp falling from his lips. He’s unbalanced. Clearly unsteady. This isn’t how he fights. Techno knows. He knows so he stops Dream’s next swing with relative ease. His own sword buzzes in his hand, but by rotating his wrist a bit he manages to push Dream’s away from his face enough to land a kick to Dream’s legs. Unceremoniously Dream falls back, hands latching onto Techno’s cloak so he comes following him down to the ground too.
Blood from Dream’s wound and the wet earthy scent of the ground pierce his heightened senses. He goes to push himself up but Dream gets a good grasp on him and rolls them both, switching their positions. He holds his fist up and goes for Techno’s face. Painfully, it manages to land. Copper, metallic. In the haze Techno remembers the sword he’s still gripping and uses it to force Dream off of him and switch them around once more. Dream’s arm stretches across the ground. It trashes around through the fallen, dead needle leaves and remains of snow. His sword, somewhere around there. Techno catches him. He pins his wrist, pushes it into the dirt, sword grazing bear millimeters shy of Dream’s jugular.
His breathing is ragged, lungs burning, “I win, Dream.” Below him, he feels Dream’s muscles struggle and contract, his legs kick out and his chest rises and falls too fast for it to be comfortable “Careful.” He warns, blade ever so closer to slice through the skin.
“Get off me.” Comes, raspy and low.
“No.” Techno makes sure to let Dream feel his weight, “Now tell me what you came here for.”
Dream stays quiet for a moment, breathing gradually slowing down. “Impulsive decisions.”
“Being so reckless,” Techno says, hair falling over his face from where it escaped the ties, “it’s not like you.”
“How would you know, huh?”
Annoyed, Techno lets go of Dream’s wrist to grip onto the lower edge of his insufferable mask. Dream jolts and tries to move his head out of Techno’s grasp.
“What are you—don’t—!”
And it comes flying off. Just like that. With one smooth motion it’s thrown in the air. Techno doesn’t care where it lands.
Emerald. For an instant, wide and clear. Before Dream harshly turns his head to the side, a trickle of blood down his neck making him hiss.
Techno stares in awe. Finally. Finally he can see what’s behind that stupid mask of his and—Techno is—he’s surprised. His eyes rake all over Dream’s face. The straight line of his nose, the sharp cut of his jaw, the sprinkle of freckles crossing over his bridge. Full, furrowed eyebrows and eyes of a shiny, shaky green.
“Happy now?” It’s throaty and as unharmful as Techno’s ever heard from Dream’s voice. Maybe at this moment he doesn’t entirely hate his words.
He pulls himself together and doesn’t answer, just gets off of Dream and lays next to him in the chill night. It had been evening when he’d gone out. By now the sun has fully set, only the stars, bright and pretty, shine their faint light on top of the treetops. Dream doesn’t move to pick his mask back up.
“Why are you making impulsive decisions?” His voice is softer than intended and his eyes wander across the dark mantle of the sky. There, the moon shines with its stolen beams.
“I was…” Dream closes his eyes and exhales deeply, “I was—I thought you were supposed to be the one to go to, y’know, that whole…” soulmates thing, “I was lonely.” Barely a whisper.
Techno breathes out a breath of his own and turns his face to look at Dream’s profile. “Don’t you have those friends of yours or something?”
“Attachments,” Dream’s eyes close shut. “Can’t have any.”
Techno hums and looks back up. He could poke more and point out how the logic is flawed, but decides against it, it’s none of his business.
“Hungry?”
Dream nods and Techno drags himself up into a sitting position. He brings a hand to swipe across his lip and looks at the blood that smears over it. The pain blossoms from a cut there and radiates all the way to his teeth. With a sideways glance he notices Dream, clutching his arm.
“Start a fire?” Techno gestures to the wood he was cutting before and makes his way to his axe where his sack is too. He fishes out a bottle of water and gauze. He drinks from the first, making sure to clean the cut, and throws the second in Dream’s direction “Catch.”
He does and then Techno passes him the water too.
“Thank you.” Comes softly as Dream washes the wound and bandages it as best as he can.
Techno knows Dream knows how to treat a wound even with so little, he doesn’t need to check. Also, it’s Dream’s fault for wanting to get his ass kicked, he doesn’t need to feel responsible for it.
When he’s done, Dream picks the wood up and starts to get the fire burning, helping himself with his flint and steel. In the meantime, Techno searches his sack for the strips of dried meat he always keeps on himself. They are supposed to be for emergencies, but he guesses it’s fine to waste a few on Dream.
Tommy has plenty of food at home, he’ll figure something out. Techno doesn’t need to entirely babysit him, he thinks, as he picks up the berries and nuts he likes to gather whenever he travels the forest before going to sit by the little flourishing flame. Dream adds some more wood, fetches his mask and sits down too, not too far away but not too close either.
Getting comfortable by the bonfire, Techno bathes in the warmth and lets it seep into his cold hands and face. It’s a nice relief from the biting weather and seeing finally becomes easier. He passes half of what he picked out to Dream and lets his eyes linger a bit as he can see his face more clearly in the light. The fire draws a gentle line of tangerine highlights across the outlines of his features and the light twinkles in his eyes, now tinged by amber speckles.
Dream thanks him again, takes what he’s offered and looks into the flickering flames. His face is calmly blank, a jarring contrast to the uneasy feeling brought on by the smirk his mask always makes him wear.
Tearing his eyes away, Techno reaches a hand to his hair ties and undoes them, lets everything fall down as he figures loose hair is better than the messy half up-half down style he’d accidentally ended up with.
“I’ve never seen you with your hair down.” Dream comments, tone flat and unreadable.
Techno smirks, “You like it?”
Rolling his eyes, Dream hides his mouth on a choked chuckle “What is wrong with you?”
Techno’s lips soften into a smile and he pops a berry into his mouth. It’s tart. Sharp. With a sweet, mitigated aftertaste. It lingers almost long enough before elusively fleeing as he bites into the jerky.
“Well, I guess we’re even now,” he shrugs, “I’d never seen you without your mask either.”
Dream frowns. His fingers twist in the grass, plucking some of it, and he throws the yellowish blades Techno’s way “Yes and you weren’t supposed to!”
Techno chuckles “Com’on I won’t tell anyone,” he taps the grass away and picks at it where it gets caught in the fur of his cloak, “It can be our little secret.” Dream snorts with an intentful tilt of his head, “Besides,” I like you better like this, “you do look better like this.”
“Oh, do I, now?” His eyebrows shoot up, a sly curve to his lips. Techno stands and goes to gather the wood he’d cut.
“Like less of a cockalorum.”
“Aw, that’s a big word Techno.” He cooes annoyingly.
Techno just shakes his head and throws the wood into the sack, “Do you even know what it means?”
“Of course I do!” He almost sounds offended, voice higher, “Boastful, arrogant—“
Techno pulls out a torch, “You really are self-aware, Dream, wow! I’m impressed!” He soaks the bundle of rags in oil and lets it lit up in the bonfire, Dream jumps to his feet, mask in hand.
“You fucking—“ he clenches his fists and seems just about ready to leap, Techno shoots a sneer his way and doesn’t budge, “Actually, think whatever, I don’t care.”
“Of course not, of course, Dream.”
The mask is clasped back in place and they put out the fire, Techno’s torch being the only efficient source of light left.
The walk back home doesn’t take long. Somewhere along the way they bicker again but the farther they stray from the cover of the forest, the more the lightheartedness slips behind and fails to catch up.
There’s no light coming from the windows. Tommy must either be asleep or in his room, windowless. It doesn’t really make a difference as Techno stops at the bottom of the stairs to the main entrance.
He thinks for a moment, “Where even is your house?”
“Somewhere.” Dream shrugs, brings his arms up to hug himself in the cold. It’s starting to snow. Techno’s eyebrow arches doubtfully. “I do have a house, Techno” Dream deadpans, “if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Techno shakes his head, a hint of a snicker. “Keep this,” he pushes his torch forward, “it’s dark.”
Dream’s unresponsive for a moment, seemingly fixating his stare on Techno’s outstretched torch. He doesn’t retreat and eventually Dream does accept it. Dragging his feet up the steps, Techno is frustratingly aware of Dream’s burning eyes on his back. Briefly, he is stopped in his tracks by Dream’s voice, no more than a surprisingly warm breath against cold glass.
“Goodnight, Technoblade.”
“Goodnight, Dream.”