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It’s an hour before the duel is scheduled to start, and the arena is already packed. Even Dream’s position as king and the gleaming axe slung across his back aren’t enough to stop people from running into him or trodding on his shoes every dozen steps, although they do mean that most of the people who run into him go comically pale and stuttery when they see who he is. He’s not especially bothered by the jostling, though; the looks on their faces provide free entertainment that more than makes up for the amount of bruises he’s undoubtedly going to have before he even sets foot in the ring.
The crowd would probably be less of an issue if his bodyguards were at his side where they’re supposed to be, but Dream is happy to say he has no idea where either of them have gone. He managed to ditch them about five minutes after arriving, and is now making a game out of avoiding them as long as he possibly can. So far, it’s going very well (for him, at least), but there have been a couple of close calls.
Between the two guards, he’s much less worried about Punz; the man is good, but he’s more of a fighter than a hunter. Sapnap, on the other hand, regularly hunts Dream for sport across much larger and less hospitable spaces than this. He’s tenacious, more than familiar with Dream’s many tricks, and completely unafraid to tackle the king to the ground and yell at him without regard for petty things like respect and courtly decorum.
As if on cue, his eyes land on a familiar white headband through a gap in the crowd. Sapnap clearly notices him a moment later, and opens his mouth to shout something. Between the distance and the sound of the crowd, Dream has no idea what he’s saying, but he can guess that it isn’t complimentary.
Dream just grins behind his mask, raises two fingers to his temple in a mocking salute, and takes off down the stairs toward the center of the arena.
The seats around the central combat ring are arranged in tiered rows divided into multiple sections, with a short drop-off between each section guarded by waist-high railings to keep anyone from falling down. It’s one of these railings that Dream aims for now, ignoring the startled gasps around him as he throws himself over it without hesitation to land in a crouch on the next level down.
Luck is on his side today, apparently, because he ends up right in front of an open doorway. He’s not familiar enough with this arena to know where it leads, but that doesn’t matter; right now anywhere away from Sapnap is fine in his book.
There aren’t as many people inside, and he takes advantage of the open space to break into a sprint, moving almost silently despite his speed with the ease of long practice. Half a dozen random turns later, he has no idea where he is or how to get back, but that’s alright; hopefully that means Sapnap is equally confused, if he even saw Dream duck in here in the first place.
Even in here, he can hear the noise of the crowd in the stands, a muffled roar that reminds him vaguely of the ocean. It’s extremely impressive how many people are gathered here, although not entirely surprising; Technoblade doesn’t travel outside of the Antarctic Empire often, now that he’s been crowned emperor, and the fact that he’s done so to accept a friendly duel against Dream makes it a truly once-in-a-lifetime event for the kingdom.
Dream himself is just as excited as his subjects; it’s not often that he gets to face an opponent on the same skill level as him. He’s been looking forward to this duel for months, practicing for hours every day and demanding detailed accounts from everyone he could find who had caught even a glimpse of Technoblade’s fighting style.
Still, before he can actually get to the duel, he’s still got most of an hour to kill, preferably without getting found by Sapnap and Punz in the meantime. It’s unlikely that they’ll find him in here, but if his manhunts have taught him anything, it’s that no hiding spot is truly safe. Best to keep moving, just in case.
He’s just slowed down to a walk to conserve energy when the sound of running footsteps makes him tense up and whirl around, ready to bolt again. But the figure that comes skidding around the corner behind him is too blond to be Sapnap and too lanky to be Punz, and looks just as startled to see Dream as Dream is to see him.
A second passes while Dream processes who he’s looking at, and then he relaxes, certain he’s not in any danger. “Hey, Tommy.”
“Hi, Dream!” As usual, Tommy doesn’t bow, or make any indication that he even knows he’s addressing a king. In all the time Dream’s known the kid, he’s never seen him show the barest gesture of respect unless forced to by his older brother. Dream just takes it in stride at this point, because trying to argue with him about it is way more trouble than it’s worth.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you down here. What’s got you in such a rush?”
“I’m looking for Technoblade,” Tommy explains, bouncing on his toes like he’s about to take off again at any second.
Dream’s eyebrows fly up incredulously. “Are you sure you want to be doing that?” Everything he knows about Technoblade suggests that he wouldn’t be happy to be bothered by a random teenager, and even though Tommy’s a disrespectful brat at the best of times, Dream still likes him enough to not want to see him get arrested for bothering the emperor of the Antarctic Empire.
“Yeah, of course. Everybody will be trying to talk to him after the duel, so I’ve got to catch him now.”
“... Right. Where’s Wilbur?” Tommy listens to his brother sometimes - more than he listens to Dream, at least - so maybe Wilbur will be able to talk some sense into him.
Tommy shrugs. “Dunno. He was being slow, so I ditched him. He’ll catch up eventually.”
“Maybe you should wait for him then,” Dream suggests hopefully. “I’m sure he’d have something to say about you talking to Techno without him.”
“I don’t care. If he wanted me to wait, he should have tried not being such a slow bitch.”
“Fair enough,” Dream says, because trying to reason with Tommy obviously isn’t getting him anywhere fast. “How about I come with you, then? We’re headed the same way anyway.”
He’s got nothing to do for the next forty minutes other than avoid his guards, so he might as well make sure his favorite nuisance doesn’t do anything too stupid in front of Techno.
“Yeah, alright. If you really want to.” Tommy sounds a bit puzzled, as if he honestly doesn’t get what the issue is with just marching up to Technoblade and demanding a conversation. “Come on, I think the prep rooms are over this way.”
Tommy keeps up an excited stream of chatter as they walk, gesturing wildly with his arms as he describes some of Techno’s past battles. Most of it is stuff Dream has heard already during his research, but he listens anyway, tossing in an occasional “yeah?” or “wow, really?” whenever Tommy has to pause for breath.
They reach the rooms set aside for fighters to prepare before a match or rest in between rounds about halfway through an obviously exaggerated recounting of the time Technoblade single handedly defended a village against a pillager raiding party by stealing and taming their ravagers. All but one of the rooms are open and visibly unoccupied, so Tommy makes a beeline for the single closed door.
He knocks twice, then barges in without waiting for an answer. “Technoblade!” he shouts, and Dream reaches the doorway just in time to see Tommy throw himself at the man.
Oh shit. Forget arrested; Dream’s going to have to tell Wilbur that he watched Tommy get stabbed for being terminally stupid.
Techno shoots to his feet from where he was sitting on a bench, sharpening his sword. In one smooth motion, he catches Tommy, flips him over his shoulder and onto the floor, and pins him in place with a boot on his chest. Tommy shrieks, and Dream jerks forward, hand darting instinctively to his axe even though he knows it’s too late to stop Techno if he decides to use the sword he’s holding.
Except - no, the sword isn’t in his hand; it’s lying abandoned on the bench, and Techno is just grinning down at Tommy, who doesn’t look the slightest bit scared. That shriek wasn’t fear at all, Dream realizes belatedly; it was laughter.
“Get off me, you big lug,” Tommy says, pushing at the boot still resting on his chest. “Gods, why are you so heavy?”
Techno snorts and moves his boot away, then offers a hand to pull Tommy up and into an embrace. “Good to see you too, Toms. Nice to know you still haven’t learned anything I’ve tried to teach you about self defense.”
“Oh, fuck you,” Tommy says, smacking Techno’s shoulder like he hasn’t heard the stories about people getting gutted for less. “I’m great at fighting.”
“Remind me which one of us was just knocked to the ground in two seconds flat?” Techno retorts, and Tommy just grumbles unhappily instead of answering.
It’s at this point that Dream realizes he’s still holding his axe, apparently unnecessarily, and he tries to resheathe it as subtly as possible. The movement is still enough to draw Techno’s attention, and he lets go of Tommy, stepping forward slightly to put himself between Dream and the teenager.
“Dream,” he says, cool tone almost shocking in comparison to how fondly he’d addressed Tommy. “I think you might have taken a wrong turn somewhere.”
“I just wanted to keep an eye on Tommy,” Dream replies, holding up his now empty hands. “I’m not here to ... sabotage you, or whatever.”
“I think I can handle a single child without your help, thanks.”
“Hey! I’m not a child,” Tommy protests, and Techno turns around to level an unimpressed look at him over his shoulder.
“You stop being a child once I can’t lift you with one hand, Tommy.”
Tommy scoffs. “No way you can still do that, I’m too much of a big man now.”
“Wanna bet?” Techno makes a half-hearted grab at Tommy, who dodges out of the way, still looking more amused than scared.
Dream is starting to feel like he may have seriously misread the whole situation. “I wasn’t aware you two knew each other.”
“Unfortunately,” Techno sighs. “He just started hanging around my house, and then it took me years to get him to leave.”
“What the fuck are you on about, ‘took you years to get me to leave,’” Tommy repeats incredulously. “You moped for a week straight after Wil and I said we were heading north! You were all like, ‘Nooo, stay here, what am I going to do without my favorite brother? I’ll be so lonely without Tommy to keep me company!’”
“I have never uttered the words ‘favorite brother’ and ‘Tommy’ as part of the same sentence in my life.”
Not for the first time, Dream is glad that his expressions are hidden from view, because he’s certain he must look absolutely gobsmacked right now.
The thing is, he knew that Technoblade had brothers. It’s common knowledge, even if the princes are rarely in the public eye compared to their father or Techno himself, to the point where most people this far north - Dream included - have never heard their actual names.
But it’s one thing to know the princes exist and quite another to associate that title with Tommy, whose favorite hobby seems to be driving everyone he meets up the wall and who dresses like he’s never heard of the concept of formal attire. He’s not exactly the kind of person Dream would think of as royalty (not that he’s really one to talk; he spends multiple days every month getting tackled into the dirt by his own knights for fun, and has to be practically threatened at knifepoint before he’ll wear anything other than his favorite armor).
Although, now that he thinks about it, this does explain a few things about Tommy. His complete lack of respect for anyone in authority, for one - growing up second in rank only to the Blood God and the Angel of Death is unlikely to instill a strong sense of humility in a child, after all. There’s also the way he and Wilbur both treat the laws of Dream’s land like they’re minor nuisances, which is less amusing and more concerning now that he’s viewing it from this angle. He’s been treating their little show of rebellion as more of a game than anything else, under the impression that their little group of pacifists is completely harmless against an actual army. But if they potentially have Technoblade and the full might of the Antarctic Empire on their side - Dream is going to have to put his foot down about this, and soon.
That’s a worry for later, though. Today, Dream needs to focus on winning this duel, which means he should probably do something more useful than loitering around Techno’s room at some point.
Another benefit of wearing a mask: nobody can tell when he completely checks out of a conversation in favor of his own thoughts. Not that Tommy or Techno seem likely to notice either way; they’ve been bickering steadily the entire time Dream was lost in thought, in that casual way that comes naturally after knowing somebody for half a lifetime.
They both look completely wrapped up in their own conversation, but Dream can tell that Techno’s attention immediately locks back onto him as soon as he shifts his weight toward the door.
He doesn’t acknowledge it, just lifts one hand in a friendly wave. “You seem to have the Tommy situation handled, so I’m gonna get going, alright? Good luck out there later, Technoblade.”
Techno’s answering grin is a few ticks too close to feral to be comforting. “I don’t think luck will have anything to do with it, but thank you.”
Nice to know that he hasn’t gotten any less terrifying since the last time they met. Still, Dream’s not easily cowed, so he just puts on his cockiest grin and makes sure it’s audible when he says, “See you soon, then.”
“Looking forward to it,” Techno calls after him as he leaves.
A quick glance at one of the clocks prominently displayed in the hallway outside shows him that he still has a little over half an hour before he really needs to worry about getting ready. Maybe he can see about buying some snacks in the meantime; his little trick earlier seems to have well and truly confused his guards, so he needs something to do while he’s waiting.
Humming cheerfully to himself, Dream sets off in what he thinks is the direction of the nearest entrance back to the stands.