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Techno groaned as he trudged through the snow to pick up his younger brother. Tommy had been suspended for getting into yet another fight, and since Techno was the only one home, he had been assigned to pick up the youngest kid.
But then his car had gotten stuck exactly three blocks away.
It was all going to work out in the end, there was already a nice guy with a winch on his truck working on getting the car unstuck. Techno had figured he needed to just walk the rest of the way, so that Tommy wasn’t stuck in the school’s office for twenty minutes.
So that was how Technoblade found himself trudging through a not very well shoveled sidewalk on a flipping freezing Thursday afternoon. He was wearing a heavy coat, and his winter boots, so it wasn’t like he was going to die of hypothermia, but he was still cold and mentally cursing everything. He really didn’t like the winter.
“Hey, Tech.” Tommy said quietly, clearly sheepish and worried about getting in trouble.
“Hi.” Techno responded, his voice short. He wasn’t necessarily upset at Tommy for getting in a fight, as long as he was defending himself. But he was upset at the fact that his fingers were cold and his cheeks were cold and his ears were cold and-
“I’m really sorry for upsetting you.” Tommy said, looking down to his scuffed shoes.
“It’s alright, Tommy. Stay here for a minute so I can sign you out. Then we’ll talk as we walk to the car.”
“Okay.” The whisper was barely audible and Techno felt his heart twist as he walked inside the office to make sure Tommy could leave.
A few minutes later, both brothers were standing outside in the snow.
“Where’s the car?” Tommy asked.
Techno groaned, “it’s a couple blocks away. The snow was deeper than I thought it would be, and I ended up getting stuck. It should be good to go when we get there though.”
“Oh. Okay.” There was a pause. “Are you mad at me?” Tommy asked hesitantly.
Techno looked over at his worried brother, and rested his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “You know how I feel about fighting, Toms. If you started it with no reason, I’m gonna be upset. But if you were defending yourself or others, then I’m just gonna be proud of you. Don’t tell Phil though.” Both brothers smiled at each other before Techno continued.
“I’m not too mad at you, just mad at myself for getting stuck and making it so I had to walk in this blasted snow.”
This made Tommy chuckle and out of the corner of Techno’s eye, he saw the blond boy lean down to scoop up a handful of snow.
“I swear, Tommyinnit, if you throw that at me you will not live to see another day.” Techno whipped his head to the side just in time to see the snow head towards his face. It landed hard on his already frozen cheeks.
Tommy immediately realized his mistake, and ran away screaming. His backpack bouncing heavily against his back.
“I’m sorry, Techno! I’m sorry! Big T don’t kill me please!” He shouted.
Techno’s only response was a large snowball thrown at the back of Tommy’s head. Causing the younger boy to stumble and crash into a snow berm.
Techno wasn’t done there, though. He quickly caught up with the fallen boy and reached out a hand to help Tommy up.
Tommy was nearly pulled to his feet when Techno let go of his hand, dropping him back into the snow.
“That was horribly mean,” Tommy said, landing back down with an ‘oof’
Techno shrugged and continued walking, a smile plastered on his face.
Then another snowball hit his back.
He spun on his heel, practically fuming, and scooped up another ball of perfect packing snow. This time Tommy stood his ground, standing a couple of feet away.
“Do it, Tech. You won’t get me.”
Two snowballs landed on their target, and Tommy’s face broke out into a smile as he ran to grab more snow, despite the clear imprint of two round circles on his clothing.
Before they knew it, they had started a full on snowball fight. Both boys running enough to warm their cold bodies. They traded insults and taunts as white snowballs rained through the sky. Some of them would hit their mark, landing on someone’s back or chest, but others flew off target, hitting a tree or a fence. At one point, a snowball hit someone else’s car, but that doesn’t really need to be mentioned, now does it?
They had been fighting for almost forty minutes before Techno felt his phone vibrate in his chest pocket.
“Wait! Hold on. Someone texted me.” He shouted as Tommy readied himself to throw another freezing ball.
Tommy’s arm lowered as his face fell. “Do you think we’re in trouble?”
Techno shrugged. “Possibly. Let me check before you get worried though.”
He dropped the snowball and wiped his hands on his pants before unzipping his coat and checking the text.
Wilbur: Where are you guys? I thought you were picking up Tommy ?
“Don’t worry, Tommy,” Techno said, “It’s just Wilbur.”
“Oh thank goodness.” Tommy visibly relaxed as Techno typed his response.
Techo: Yeah, I’ve got him. We’re on our way
“Come on, Tommy! We have to get home before Wil goes all mother bird on us and freaks out about us being late.”
Tommy laughed as he gathered his stuff and raced over to his older brother. Together the two boys walked back to the car, getting inside and quickly turning on the heater as the cold winter air crept into their veins.
Techno hated the snow, and all things winter, but he found himself smiling that afternoon as he threw his damp clothes in the dryer. Maybe winter wasn’t all bad.