Chapter Text
Techno had made little soldiers out of pine cones and grass that he had found around the tree he sat under. Marking their factions with little bits of wrappers and trash that he found all over the place, which, currently, there were three. The good guys were the Antarctic Empire, of course, and he added in Wilbur’s faction as well which was L'Manburg. They played pretend often at his house, and those were always the countries that they stuck with, and it was kind of just easy to transfer them here. The bad guys were Manburg, which had created a disgrace to L’Manburg’s name, as Wilbur had announced when they played. He had almost burst out into tears when Techno created Manburg, not wanting to fight his brother in wars, so he had to make the Antarctic Empire fast to prevent that. And now L’Manburg and the Empire were allies, and they helped each other defeat the evil Manburg government.
It was a lot more fun when he had people to play with, but he had fun making the little soldiers out of things he found. When they were done he planned on bringing them home to show Wilbur. They already had little toys that they played with, but these were also fun.
A little project to keep his hands busy while he waited for recess to be very, and to retreat into the classroom before he could get into any more trouble. It had been a few days since he had told Phil, and things were more or less normal now. It was not a good normal, he still wanted to play with people, but it was one that he had kind of gotten used to, stashing away his little soldiers at the end of recess so they did not get broken by any of the kids that played here, finishing out the day, doing most of his homework during quiet time, and then run into his dad’s arms, where he was always waiting, and play with Wilbur and Tommy for the rest of the day before dinner and sleep. It was comfortable, of sorts, but not the best. Maybe he could make friends next year, hope for a different class, one where Dream was not in it, and not have to deal with him. Which, speaking of Dream, he was walking over.
Techno’s heart jumped in his chest, scrambling to put his little soldiers away, or at least hide them. He did not want them to get crushed as well. And sure he was bigger than Dream, but he did not feel bigger than him, his ears pinned back on his head, and dipping his head down low, trying to see if he could become invisible before he even came over.
A shadow stopped above him, and Techno slowly raised his head to look at the man above him.
“Hey, um,” it was odd to see the other kid without his group of friends around him, he looked so out of place all on his own, scratching a hand behind his neck, looking down at him. “Can I sit with you?”
Techno wanted to say no. He wanted to tell him to get lost and leave him alone before he broke more of his stuff. But he also really, really wanted to be around people. So he just scooched over and made room for him under the shade of the pine tree.
He settled down, getting comfortable in the little almost cave Techno had bent the branches into. Digging out holes and filling them with dead pine needles to make a sort of seating area. There were four seats so far, just because that seemed right since that was how many people were in his family, even if there was no one to sit in them. Techno rolled his fingers over each other, waiting for Dream to say anything. Awkwardness pricked at his skin, making him squirm. Maybe this had been a bad idea. He should have told Dream to leave, maybe-
“I’m sorry.”
His ears immediately perked up and looked to where Dream was sitting, hands on his lap, shoulders tense, and almost did not believe that he had heard what he did.
“Heh?”
“I’m sorry. I was a jerk to you. I crushed up your lead and called you names and that’s not a nice thing to do, and I’m sorry. I was just angry and really sad I guess, and I took that out on you and I’m sorry.”
Dream’s eyes were on the ground, but they were blown wide like he did not believe the things that were coming out of his mouth like they did not make sense to even him, but they were spilling out anyways. He looked sad. And even if Dream had been mean to him, Techno did not want him to be sad.
“I, um, I got you some more lead.”
Dream looked in the opposite direction while holding out a small tube of 0.05mm lead to the piglin. Techno almost felt like this was a trap. His instinct told him that it was, that he was going to get led into a bad situation, and his protector was not anywhere near to hear his cry if he got into trouble. That he would be stuck, and there was not going to be anyone to help him. But there was another instinct that felt new. A new sort of urge that he felt like he had to do.
Looking around the ground for a second, Techno found one of the little soldiers that he had not been able to fully put away, picked it up, and replaced the lead with it. There was a lot in here, when he got his pencil back, it was going to last for a long time, and then he would not have to use his allowance on getting more. He smiled, the gift feeling genuine and just nice to have in his hands, ready to thank Dream for the gift.
“Um,” Techno looked up, looking at the little pine cone soldier that he had placed in the other kid's hand, embarrassment immediately flooding his face, “what am I supposed to do with this?”
“Oh, it’s um, it’s nothing, really. Just a thing that I made for my brother, we have like, this game that we play sometimes, with soldiers, and I wasn’t allowed to play tag, so I guess I just started making them, so, um, yeah.”
“Alright, but why did you give it to me?”
He had no idea. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Phil always told him that sharing was good, when he wanted to share, that was, and it was not like he was going to get into trouble for not sharing with Dream. It did not even seem that he was interested in the little homemade soldier. And he screwed something else up again? It just felt like he should give something to Dream in exchange for the lead, that just seemed right in his brain.
The other kid looked at the other, hastily put away soldiers that were all around the base of the tree, picking out the different uniforms that they all head.
“What does this mean?” he pointed to the scarf that was around the soldier’s neck, made out of a discarded wrapper of some kind that he had just found around the playground. It was a red and blue soldier, and Techno was starting to feel a bit of regret, since that was a L’Manburg soldier, and he did not mean to give him away. That was Wilbur and Tommy’s place after all, but he also did not want to ask for it back either.
“It’s um, my brothers and I have this game where we have different countries. I have the Antarctic Empire, and that’s L’Manburg, Will’s country. And then the evil one is Manburg because they dis-dis-dis” he sighed. He knew there was a word, but he did not know how to pronounce it. “They made L’Manburg look bad, so they are the evil guys.” Dream turned the little figure around in his hands a bit, before looking around at the ground.
“Are there more?”
Techno nodded and started taking out his little soldiers. A part of him was a little worried that Dream was going to destroy them like he did to his lead, but then again, he really wanted to show someone what he had made. It was not like he could show his brothers until they were done, so this was the next best thing to do.
He pulled out the soldiers from where he had hidden them away, laying them out under their respective factions, and watching Dream’s reaction to them. He seemed curious, looking at how much care that they were displayed, and the little details that Techno had put into them, like using that wax that came with cheese to make hats, and sap to glue their limbs together. They were not the usual toys that people had, but he kind of liked them better.
Dream picked up one of the other soldiers, the one with a darker-colored scarf around their neck, and turned them over.
“So this is Manburg.”
He nodded.
“Mm-huh. And this is the Antarctic Empire, the one that I am in control of.”
He held the soldiers in his hand a bit, before placing them down in their respective piles.
“Can I make a country?”
Techno almost fell over he was so shocked, his mouth falling open, looking at the boy before him who had just asked if he could make a country in Techno’s little world. As if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Um, yeah, sure I guess. I have some leftover stuff if you need help. What do you want to name it?”
“Dream.”
Techno rolled his eyes.
“You can’t just name it after yourself, you have to name it something different and interesting.”
“My name is interesting?”
“Ok, how about,” he thought about it for a second, putting a hand to his chin. He had always liked word puzzles, but this was a tricky one. He had no idea what they really wanted to name it. But just naming a country ‘Dream’ was lame, even if he did not want to say that. And then he thought about how they had learned about acronyms a few days ago. Yeah, that could work. “Dream SMP?”
“What does SMP stand for?”
“Super Mega People. So everyone knows that you’re like super powerful and cool.”
A bright, big grin stretched out on Dream’s face, showing off the gaps in his teeth that still needed to be filled in by adult teeth. A shine in his eye, before looking down at the materials that Techno was pulled out for the project. This was going to be fun.
By the time the whistle was blown, and it was time for all of them to go back inside for class, they are started on Dream’s little soldiers, giving them green scarfs that were made out of weaved together pine needles, with a vow to get more wax so they could make them even cooler.
Holding the lead case close to his chest, Techno felt more light and happy than he had in a very long time, pulling out his pencil from where he had placed it on his desk, and filling it as much as he could. Maybe he could start making friends. Maybe this was the start of something wonderful. Maybe he could finally get his dream.
***
It had been a few weeks since Dream and he had started hanging out together. Sitting under their pine tree, which was officially theirs now, and playing with their little soldiers. At this point, the Antarctic Empire and Dream SMP had a long, rocky alliance but still found a way to come together to defeat whatever the bad of that month was. They had found everything from space goblins to mushroom people who were trying to hurt everyone into zombies, and sentient horses who had teamed up with the centaurs to get take over the world. There was no shortage of things that they could fight, and it was always so much fun when they were able to create the bad guys, before defeating them. Although, the mushroom people took a little bit longer than expected, mostly because the mushrooms that grew under the pine tree started to die, but that was alright. They had their little world and were happy with it.
But there were times when they played tag with the other kids. The first time, Dream had told Techno to stay back for a second, while he went to talk with the rest of everyone, to get him to stop in the game. Swinging his feet on the swing, not hard enough to get anywhere, he watched his new friend talk to the others. Every once in a while, one of them would shoot him a nasty glare, and Techno would quickly look away, his ears drooping with embarrassment. Maybe they still did not want to play with him, which was fine, he could go back to his soldiers, but he did want to run around and stretch his legs every once in a while too. It got a little cramped under the tree and sitting still in his chair all day was starting to get tiring.
After a bit of waiting and scuffing his hooves against the ground, Dream called his name, and he was motioned over. A beaming smile on his face that looked a little sour around the edges, even if Techno chose to ignore it.
“They are going to let you play.”
And Techno could not have been more ecstatic, practically bursting out of his skin, immediately grabbing Dream’s hand, and running over to the other. He was accepted. They liked him and were going to let him play.
Well, ‘liked’ seemed to be a stretch. Sliding to a stop in front of the ground, his ears drooped at the nasty looks that they all gave him. A lump formed in his throat, and he all of a sudden did not want to be there, at all, taking a few steps backward. Maybe this had been a mistake. It probably had been. Sure Dream said that they wanted him there, but that did not seem right. They looked at him with fire in their eyes, a look that seemed to tap into a hidden, gooey part of his brain. A part that did not seem to really make a whole lot of sense to him, but it had been activated a lot as of recently. The part of him that made a distress call well up in him, and make him look for his winged caregiver, that he should not have strayed so far from his father. It felt familiar in the worst ways. Like this was something that he had been through once before, that being abandoned, and left for dead was not a foreign concept. And that just made him hate it all the more.
There was a hand on his back, and a slight push forward.
“Techno is going to play with us,” Dream said. A rough, almost scary tone, one that Techno froze up at as well. Even if it was not directed at him, he did not like it at all. It made him scared. Everything about this was making him scared. “Alright?”
The kids before them looked down to their feet, and a few grumbled, but there was nothing about it beyond that.
And the game began.
Rock paper scissors was the way to decide on who was going to be ‘it’ which was unfortunate because Techno did not have as many fingers as the rest of them. He managed, but not without feeling the eyes of the other kids on his hands, and immediately hiding them behind his back when he won with scissors. That was odd. He never felt that way before. He had never noticed how much different his hand was from other people.
Well, sure he noticed, Phil would hold him in his lap, and place his little hands in his palms. Phil would talk about the few scars that were on his hands, and comment on how tiny and cute Techno’s hands were. He thought his hands were fine, not even really thinking about it, it was just normal. But, at this moment, he was sure he would give anything to have normal hands.
And so the game began after a runner was chosen, and his insecurities filed away in the back of his head to affect him later, a smile on his face, and his hooves against the fake grass, running in all directions of the other kids.
“Tag! You’re it!”
A hand was on his shoulder, and he sighed. Oh well, it was a part of the game, people got it all of the time, he just did not think that it would happen so soon in the game. But that was fine, as he looked around for someone to tag.
Everyone was so far away, almost across the playground kind of far. But that was alright, all a part of the game, he thought. He had played this so many times with his siblings, that it would be a piece of cake.
Finding a person that he thought would be good to tag, Techno took off, getting traction, thank god, and bolted off. The kid started to run, trying his best to get away, but he could already tell that he could catch up to him. That was no problem, there was no way that he was going fast enough.
Until there was a leg in his way. And there was no way that he could dodge fast enough, tumbling down to the ground, landing hard on his chest, and chin, scraping it hard against the rough fake grass.
A startled squeal escaped him, immediately sitting up, and holding his chin, tears brimming in his eyes, pain radiating from it in droves. He did not like this. He did not like this at all.
Stuttered sobs started to shake him, looking back to see the smug smile of John Smithson, who was trying his best to look innocent.
“Y-you tripped me!”
“No, I didn’t,” he retorted sharply, making Techno flinch back. Why were they being so mean? He didn't want to play this game anymore.
“Yes-”
“Maybe you’re just clumsy and wrong, ever considered that!”
“What’s going on?” Dream asked, running up to where Techno was sitting on the ground, still holding his face, and trying his best to not cry.
“H-he-” words started to get muddled in his mouth, trying to stop the shuttering of sobs that were pouring from him, hiccuping, trying to get any sort of a breath.
Dream kneeled next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, glaring at where John was still standing.
“Dude!”
“What? We trip each other all the time.”
“No, we do not! It’s mean, and unfair to the person who is it, you know that.”
“Yeah, well, do those rules really apply to him.”
Techno wanted to disappear. He felt the same distress call on his tongue. He didn’t want to be here anymore, the spot under the pine tree seemed to get better and more inviting by the second. They didn’t want him here, so he was just going to leave, and wished the school day was going to end faster so he could just go home and try to forget all of this happened.
“I can be ‘it’.” a voice perked up. Techno tried to swallow another sob while looking up to where Kailey Butterfly Wess-Open was standing, hands on her hips. She had shorts on, with a cloth belt, and freshly painted nails of all colors. A colorful shirt with a butterfly on it, and no less than a million clips in her hair. She looked cool, the way that she always did, but there was a new fire in her eyes that Techno had not seen before, making the sobbing slow for a bit. He was most confused when she had gotten over here.
“What?” John rolled his eyes but backed up just a bit.
“Come on, let’s keep playing.”
She lunged forward, and punched John on his shoulder, before retreating fast to not get a tag back. Spinning around that made her black hair flow in the air, the colored strands glistening in the sun, and grabbing Techno’s hand, and pulling him up.
“Come on Techno, run!”
And so they ran. They ran to the other side of the playground, Dream whopping and shouting behind them. A few exchanges of tag made Techno turn his head to look at what was going on behind him.
Dream was taking the tags for him, throwing himself in the way of people trying to reach him, and letting their hands lay on him, before bursting off into a run to try to go get someone else. They were protecting him. They were keeping him safe.
Kailey pulled him to a space that was slightly covered by the fence and a few bushes, before pulling her fanny pack to the front of her hip, riffling through it, and pulling out a tiger print bandaid.
“We only have a bit of time before they are going to come back, so move your hand.”
Techno did. Two hands reached up to his chin and placed the bandaid right on where he had scrapped it. She pulled the two pieces of adhesives to the side, and let it slip on. He was not sure how he was going to get it off, since he had fur, but Phil would help him with that, so it would not be too big of an issue. But it felt nice to be cared for, rubbing his hand against the smooth part of the bandaid, feeling a bit enamored that it had been put on. Phil never used bandaids.
“There you go, all better,” Kailey said, putting the trash into her bag, and moving it to her back. “Come on, we should keep running, so they don’t catch us.”
She held out a hand to Techno.
The sun shaded the back of her head like she was an angel sent from the heavens. Behind her, Dream came running up, out of breath.
“Tina’s it, we should get out of here, let’s go!”
Later, he would have tears brim in his eyes while Phil peeled off the bandaid from his chin, the stickiness getting stuck in his fur. Later he would have Kailey weave flowers into his and Dream’s hair, while they made flower crowns. Later Techno would walk across the stage in a silly costume for the school play, looking out to see Phil filming the entire thing while he played the pinkest tree #3, while Wilbur sat next to him, and a sleepy Tommy in his baby harness. Later, both Kailey and Dream would come over to his house, and they would play in the creak with Wilbur, rolling up their pants to their knees, splashing around, while Phil watched from the bank. Tommy plopped in his lap, occasionally dipping his tiny hand into the stream, and squealing at how cold it was. Later Dream would move schools, and they would hug as tightly as they could, Techno not waiting to lose his friend, Kailey right behind him, giving a folded paper fortune teller that she had made, filled with memories of their friendship. And even later, Techno would meet his friend again in a fighting ring, with a whole host of grown-up problems he would have, beyond people not liking him in his grade, and they would hug and catch up once again. Kailey and he would fall out of touch when they went to different high schools, but he would make new friends by that time. Later, he would be a full-grown piglin brute, bleeding out in his car, afraid for his life that this was the end of everything, while he fumbled with his phone to call his father to crave the care of his caregiver. Later he would grow up and become bigger, and stronger, and the instincts in his head would grow.
But now, at this very moment, he put his hand in Kailey and Dream’s, letting himself get pulled to his feet, as the three of them ran around the playground, his two new friends taking hits for him. The play soldiers were forgotten under the pine tree, but that was alright. Because he did not have to hide anymore.
~fin