Chapter Text
Two years passed, and Dream vaguely wondered why he was so against befriending the pink-haired teen in the first place.
Throughout their time together, after the first few months of Dream being beaten back so embarrassingly bad, the two of them had a somewhat negative relationship at first.
Since they lived in a small village, they were bound to see each other often, even despite the fact that he lived in a small cabin outside the village—he had to come out at some point, and his dad seemed pretty keen on going on shopping trips often for groceries or even just simple window shopping.
With Techno came Tommy, the younger brother that stuck to his older brother’s side like glue, and Dream could tell each of them had a weird… strange, almost, sort of relationship with each other.
Phil, the father, seemed kind enough, with a calm exposition, and a small smile usually seen on his face, but it was eerily blank at times, feeling almost forced or just out of habit than any sort of genuine happiness for it to be there, like he was hiding something. His aura also gave Dream a weird feeling—nothing quite malicious, but an icky sort of feeling that made Dream feel like he was sinking in tar, slowly yet ever-encompassing, and he tended to avoid the blonde man whenever he could.
Tommy, on the other hand, was the complete opposite—his emotions and thoughts were like an open book, and he wasn’t afraid to let anyone and every one know it. Loud and boisterous, the young blonde was like a firecracker, bright and loud, with nearly endless energy. However, he seemed to dislike Phil to some degree, almost with visceral disgust in his eyes when the older man wasn’t looking, and never once did he refer to him as his father, which Dream wasn’t too sure how to feel about.
Not only that, but he was strangely protective of his older brother. It was pretty obvious early on that the older teen wasn’t too fond of talking, but he only seemed to withdraw more and more into himself as time went on, treating every word or noise he made like gold. Tommy took up the mantle with social interaction, making sure that, if anyone tried to drag Techno into conversation, he’d deflect or redirect the conversation, or just answer on his brother’s behalf.
It was strange, but Dream just assumed that was just how their relationship was.
Last, but certainly not least, was Techno himself.
He was growing into his height, shooting up like a tree and towering over his father, bright pink hair growing out so that it was right at his hips, and his infamous boar mask that he wore every time he went out.
Techno didn’t show his face to anyone other than family, Tommy had said to curious passersby when they asked, and he seemed snappy with his answer so Dream assumed there was something more to that answer than the boy was letting on, but he never questioned it.
The older teen was clearly socially awkward, seemingly uncomfortable with any social interaction outside of Tommy, and even then Dream rarely heard him talk, probably just happy to listen to his younger brother prattle on and on by himself—Tommy certainly never seemed to mind, anyway.
Quiet and reserved, those were the two things that came to mind first when Dream saw Techno outside of their “training sessions”.
The first time Dream saw Techno out and about in town, it was probably only a few weeks after Techno agreed to fight with him and he was getting some things for his parents, holding a small list in his hands of everything they needed.
Muttering to himself about why in the world they would ever need three stacks of dried kelp, of all things, he looked up just in time to see the family trio exit a nearby store.
Phil came out first, a bag filled to the brim with whatever items they’d gotten during their shopping trip, looking quite pleased with himself, and Techno followed shortly after, his expression as blank as usual, Tommy following up the rear, glancing between his brother and father with a strangely worried look on his face.
Dream paused, simply watching them as Phil stopped and turned around, addressing Techno as he said, “it’s a good thing they had some extra bandages and potions to spare. Should be easier to patch you up after training now.”
Those words left a strange taste in Dream’s mouth, feeling as if there was something hidden under them that left a bitter aftertaste on his tongue, but Techno didn’t seem bothered, simply nodding and Phil smiled at him, looking through the bag once more.
“Well, should we be heading back? We’ve still got some exercises to go through today.” Phil said, and Techno nodded once more, and the three of them left, leaving Dream staring at them as they disappeared into the crowd.
Dream huffed, rolling his eyes at Phil’s last words. Of course the prick would be training all the time. He ignored the hypocrisy of those words, especially considering he’d be doing the exact same thing if it weren’t for George and Sapnap constantly bugging him about “the importance of taking breaks”. They weren’t wrong, necessarily, but he’d never tell them that out loud.
He turned around, going back to the shopping of his own, and pushed down the wide-eyed look of Tommy at Phil’s last sentence, and the growing horror in his expression at the implication it had.
Dream couldn’t assume, but the bitter taste in his mouth lingered in his mouth for hours later.
-
After that first encounter, Dream found himself running into Techno and his family fairly often—the pink-haired teen was never seen without at least Tommy, as if the boy had severe separation anxiety or something, and it was inevitable that Dream would be dragged into conversation with them sooner or later.
At least the first time it happened was only with Tommy and Techno, the three of them actually met when Dream was returning home from George’s house and the two of them just so happened to be walking down the same street at the same time.
Tommy noticed him first, blinking in surprise at him, but gave him a wide grin and waved at him, shouting out a loud, “hey!”
Techno turned to look at who his brother was talking to, eerie skull mask staring directly at the teen, and Dream suppressed a shiver.
He considered ignoring them, simply walking straight past them like he never saw them, but decided against it, especially since Tommy actively called out to him. “Hey.”
They met halfway, but kept a decent enough distance between them, especially since Dream was still fairly salty he still hadn't beaten the older teen, even if it had only been a few months into their “training sessions”.
“What’s up, big man?” Tommy asked, pulling Dream’s attention from his older brother, a strange look on his face when he noticed Dream staring at the other teen.
Dream blinked slowly before shaking his head, shrugging. “Just coming back from a friend’s house.”
Tommy eyed him for a moment before relaxing, giving him a slight nod. “Yeah? Just a ‘friend’, huh?”
Dream spluttered and Tommy cackled, though the older blonde was quick to shut him down. “No, what? Of course just a friend! Besides, he’s aromantic asexual—he doesn’t want anything like that, anyways.”
The boy looked confused, and Techno’s posture changed, but Dream could feel the small amount of curiosity emanating from him so he assumed it wasn’t anything bad.
“A-ro-man-tic a-sex-u-al?” Tommy sounded out, tasting the words on his tongue. “What does that even mean?”
Dream felt his lips twitch as they formed a smile, understanding the boy’s confusion completely. “It means he doesn’t feel romantic or sexual attraction to anyone.”
Techno tilted his head slightly, taking his words in silently, and Tommy frowned, trying to figure out what that meant. “... So, he doesn’t want a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? Or, like, a lover in general?”
Dream shook his head. “Nope.”
He remembered the first time George had told them about it, and it felt like just yesterday but also years ago, despite only being last month—his brown-haired friend had called him and Sap to his house, clearly nervous as he brought them to his room and sat them down before explaining how he was feeling.
It was no secret that Sapnap enjoyed being a flirt fairly often, and seemed to be interested in not only getting a lover himself, but also when his friends would get one, too.
George had told them that, while he always felt fairly uncomfortable with the question, he didn’t necessarily understand why until just the week prior.
“Remember when Sapnap asked us what our types were? For, like, lovers and stuff?” George asked, getting a nod from the both of them. “And remember when I said I didn’t have any?” Another nod. “Well, I mean, I guess it just got me thinking. Like, I know people can be aesthetically pleasing—like, you guys are nice to look at, but I don’t feel anything towards you like… like that. And the daughter of the local market owners is very pretty and visually appealing, but I don’t really feel anything about her, either. So, I decided to look into it, and…”
He walked over to his desk, picking up a fairly thick book, sitting back down on the floor as he set it in front of him. Dream and Sap looked down at it: “Beginner’s Guide on Sexuality”.
“What’s that?” Sapnap had asked, looking at it curiously.
“A book I rented from the library.” George told him. “I wanted to know what I was feeling, and it seemed like it could be helpful, and, well… I think I found out what’s wrong with me.” He paused, frowning slightly. “Well, not wrong, exactly, but, like, it helped me figure out why I feel the way I do and stuff.”
“Really?” Dream questioned, genuinely surprised.
George nodded, flipping the book open to a page indicated with a ruler sticking out of it. “Yeah. I think… I think I’m aromantic asexual.”
Both of them were silent, taking in what the brunette said, and George squirmed under their inquisitive gazes.
“That… That’s cool and all, but what does that mean?” Sapnap asked, Dream giving a nod.
“It means I don’t feel, like, romantic or sexual attraction. To anyone basically.” George said, showing them the definition and such that the book had laid out.
Dream felt like his mind was buffering, not even knowing that was a thing until now, and Sapnap seemed just as confused. “So, like, you don’t want a lover? Like, at all?”
George shook his head, and he looked hesitant as he said, “I know it sounds weird, and I’ll understand if you don’t believe me—”
“No, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope— None of that.” Dream quickly shut him off, surprising both George and Sapnap, the two of them giving him a wide-eyed look. “We don’t care about that. And we believe you. You would never lie to us.”
George made a weird expression and Sapnap brightened with understanding, giving the brunette a bright smile. “Yeah! It’s totally cool, man. We support you no matter what.”
At the glistening sheen in the brown eyes of one of his closest friends, Dream knew they said the right thing.
George blinked rapidly, refusing to cry, and lifted the book once more. “Want to take a look through it?”
Both of them grinned and nodded, spending the rest of the afternoon learning so many new things Dream had never even heard of before.
It ended productively, with Sapnap even finding a new label for himself, and Dream went home feeling happier than he had in a while.
“...ream? Hey, Dream? Oi, prick!” A loud voice snapped him from his thoughts and Dream blinked, returning to reality.
Looking down he could see Tommy giving him a worried look, eyebrow pinched and lips pursed. “You good, man? You kind of weirded out on us.”
Dream felt his mind race and, suddenly remembering where he was and who he was with, he felt a flush of shame at being so vulnerable with two people he hardly even knew, especially with someone he considered a rival, and quickly excused himself.
“Yeah, well, I gotta get going now—See you later!” He shouted, running off as Tommy squeaked at him, cursing up a storm as Dream feld, and he could feel the silent gaze of Techno on the back of his head.
Fuck, fuck, fuck ! Dream repeated to himself and he practically flew up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door closed behind him and throwing himself onto his bed. Fuck! What was I thinking ?
Clearly, he wasn’t, and now both Tommy and Techno had something to hold over his head. Fuck!
He felt his embarrassment bubble under his skin and vowed never to allow himself to be so vulnerable around them ever again.
-
Honestly, it was ironic that Dream constantly told himself he would never allow either of the brothers into his life only for the world to decide differently.
Multiple times after the first embarrassing encounter, Dream had run into the brothers on multiple other occasions and was even forced to talk to them multiple times whenever his friends or parents noticed them and decided it was a good idea to go up to them and chat.
It was thanks to that that Dream had slowly but surely opened up to them, and in return, they opened up to him back.
Tommy was harsh at first, with snappy remarks and stinging comments, and Techno barely bothered giving him the light of day, but once they decided to ignite Dream’s competitiveness, it was basically set in stone they’d become friends.
Of course it was Tommy who said it, those damning words: “You know, you’re kind of lame, man. I doubt you could ever become friends with either of us even if you tried.”
It was around the fourth time Dream had been dragged over by George and Sapnap to interact with the brothers, and was mostly hanging back because he simply refused to talk to them, so Tommy’s sudden comment caught him off guard, as, for him, it came out of literally nowhere.
Dream blinked at him, shocked and somewhat defensive. “What?”
Tommy shrugged, shoving his thumb at Sapnap’s direction. “Sapnap said that if we kept hanging out we’d become friends. And, like… Have you seen yourself? Like, no offense, but we only hang out with cool people.”
Dream told himself to ignore it, to ignore the boy’s frankly pathetic attempt to rile him up, but, unfortunately, the competitive side of him roared with a vengeance as he frowned. “Yeah? You think so?”
Tommy grinned at him, and Dream missed the smug look his friends had, knowing full well that Dream was already caught, hook, line, and sinker. “I don’t think, I know.”
And, well. Dream couldn’t let that slide.
So, he was now overly determined to befriend them, if it was the last fucking thing he did.
He sought them out every time he went out, he initiated conversation when he saw them, he insisted on hanging out with them and inviting them around when it was clear they didn’t go out too often unless it was for shopping or training.
Days passed, then weeks, months, and, eventually, two years passed and he had successfully befriended the two people he was determined to never talk to outside of being Techno.
Of course, during that time, he learned a fair bit about them.
Tommy was the talker of the two; he enjoyed playing pranks, but kept them fairly simple as he didn’t really want to risk anything too big, and refused to elaborate so Dream didn’t ask. He was eager to play almost any and all the games Dream showed him, from something as simple to hopscotch and tag to Uno, which he complained loudly about any time he lost and boasted just as loudly every time he won.
His favorite color was red; he preferred dogs to cats; he was claustrophobic; he hated spicy foods; he adored sweets, especially chocolate; he was born in the Summer; he liked sunny days and hated rainy ones; he claimed his spirit animal was either a moth or a cow; and he adored Techno with such blatant reverence it left Dream speechless more often than not.
Techno obviously didn’t talk too often, but Dream was able to figure out a thing or two from both Tommy, himself, and Techno’s actions.
Techno was silent to the point it was fairly concerning, but Dream knew he could talk, as he’s heard him speak before—in fact, the first time he’d heard the older teen talk, a few months after incessantly trying to get to know and befriend him, he had been too shocked to speak or even move, certain he’d simply made it up, but judging but Tommy’s equally shocked, but also hopeful, expression, he knew he didn’t.
The pink-haired teen’s voice was hoarse from disuse, but it held a certain charm to it, a higher pitch than he thought but not an unwelcome one in any way.
From all that Dream could gather, Techno enjoyed to read; preferred yellows and blues despite owning mostly whites and reds and blacks; took a liking to cats more than dogs but seemed to like both; ate whatever was given to him; his birthday was in the middle of Winter; and he spent most of time either training or studying, which Dream noted that Tommy had a weird expression when that was brought up.
It wasn’t much but Dream considered it a huge step forwards, especially considering how closed off Techno had been at the start of their relationship.
Neither of them spoke or mentioned too much about Phil, and Dream could tell it was a sore subject for both of them, so he never pressed it.
During his time with them, Phil was hardly ever around long enough for Dream to get a good enough impression of the man, but every time he did see him, the man would take Techno back home, claiming he should be “training”, or “studying”, or both.
Honestly, it painted a picture that left Dream feeling nauseous if true, but, unfortunately, he didn’t have enough evidence to go off of and he didn’t want to bring up bad memories if his feeling was true so he kept quiet about it, though he did tell George and Sapnap, and both agreed to just be there for them as much as he could.
All in all, Dream had grown to like their presence in his life, and he was grateful they ended up becoming friends, even if it was rough at the start.
It all ended up being turned on its head one day in Spring, a few weeks after Techno’s birthday and the trio were hanging out for the first time since, as Phil had occupied most of their time during that.
Dream brought them out to do some window shopping, as he didn’t really have any gift ideas for Techno and, honestly, from how weary the two had looked when they first arrived, he assumed the time out and away from their father would do them some good anyways.
Or, well. It did them some good—Dream was lowkey starting to regret it as he tried to stop Tommy from eating mud for the seventh time in five minutes.
“Tommy, stop—you can’t just eat mud. Do you even know where that’s been?”
“You can’t tell me what to do, bitch! You’re not my dad!”
“And thank fuck I’m not—I’d have grey hairs by twenty if I was—Tommy, no!”
“Tommy yes—”
Tommy ran from Dream as he charged at him, squealing and laughing loudly, Dream unable to keep the smile from his face as well, when all of a sudden Tommy stopped, and Dream quickly stumbled to a halt as to not barrel into him.
“Tommy, what—” He looked over to see what Tommy was looking at when he paused, all words dying in his throat at the sight.
There Techno stood, leaning against a nearby building, watching the two of them, and that was to be expected—he never joined in on their antics, after all.
No, what caught Dream off guard was the smile.
It was faint, practically invisible if you weren’t looking hard enough, but Dream saw, because there were a few things you had to know about Techno:
One: unless it was for family, Techno never, ever took off his boar mask.
Two: he always wore clothes that made him look like stereotypical royalty.
And three: Techno never, ever, ever smiled.
In all honesty, Dream thought the teen had some sort of facial paralysis with how stony his expression constantly was, but clearly, he didn’t, and Dream was just left there, stunned, face flushing as an emotion he couldn’t quite place burning at his chest.
Tommy snapped out of his stupor, babbling incoherently as he barreled into his brother, Techno grunting in surprise as he caught the boy, a small frown pulling at his lips in worry, removing his smile but the image was burned into Dream’s mind forever.
The rest of the day moved by in a sort of haze, and Dream wasn’t quite aware of what he was doing most of the time, but apparently he was acting enough like himself that neither Tommy nor Techno noticed anything off with him.
When the sun began to set and Dream was at the edge of town, seeing the brothers off, he finally gathered himself to shake the haze off, just in time for another, even bigger, shock to hit him.
Techno turned to him, holding a bag with whatever gift out-of-it-Dream had gotten him, which he hoped was good, and, after a moment’s hesitation and confusion from Dream, raised his hand to his mask.
Having just gotten back from his dream-like state, Dream didn’t quite understand what was happening, but Tommy did, his expression falling into one of utter and complete shock, mouth opening wide as Techno slowly took off his mask.
Dream’s mind froze, and his breath caught in his throat as soft, brown eyes stared into his electric green.
“Thank you. For today.” Techno whispered, his soft voice floating with the wind and reaching Dream’s ears, caressing them gently, making him shiver slightly.
With that, he turned around and walked off, putting the mask back on as Tommy hurried after him, shaking off his shock, shouting words at his brother that Dream couldn’t catch, not with his mind unable to produce a single thought other than soft, round features, chocolate brown eyes, and another hint of a small smile on a face that was now permanently burned into his thoughts, taking over his mind as his entire body flushed as his heart roared like thunder in his ears.
Oh.
Oh fuck.
Hurriedly, clumsily pulling out his communicator, breaths coming in quick and short as his lungs begged for air, he desperately dialed his friends’ group call, impatiently waiting for them to answer.
A beep, and then a sleepy, “... Dream? What the fuck, man—”
“I have a crush on Techno!” Dream rushed out, all in one breath, cutting Sapnap off and panted as he waited for them to answer.
“... I’m too tired for this.” George said.