Chapter Text
I still don’t see why I have to go with you,” Dream pouted as his sister dragged him into the ballet theatre by the dance studio. He didn’t understand why his sister would want to watch a ballet. He didn’t remember her ever wanting to before.
“Tommy’s brothers are in it! I was told that they’re really good, and if you hadn’t come along, Mom wouldn’t have let me go,” Drista explained. Dream knew Tommy. A child that often hung around with his sister. He was almost always with a brunette, Dream thought his name was Tubbo. He also knew that he didn’t have a choice to go with his sister. His mom would’ve forced him to go with her if he hadn’t been already dragged along for the ride. “Besides, ballet is way cooler than hip-hop. I don’t know why you like it.”
“Hey! Hip-hop is way cooler!”
“Dream, be quiet! We’re in the theatre now.” Drista was using this against him, wasn’t she?
In the theatre, the lights were low and dim, but Drista seemed to know exactly where to go. Once Drista spotted Tommy and Tubbo sitting in the middle of a row, she instantly ran past everyone in the row. As they went past Dream tried to apologize for the both of them, but they yelled at them anyway.
By the time they stopped at the boys, Dream had grown tired of apologizing. Drista sat in between the two boys while Dream took a seat next to Tommy.
“Aye, Big Man! I didn’t think you’d actually come!” Tommy exclaimed as Dream sat down. Dream noticed that he, Tubbo, and Drista all seemed to be vibrating in excitement.
“Did you think I wanted to be here?” Dream asked.
Tommy made a sound of offense while Tubbo responded for him, “Oh, I think you’ll like it! They’re great at dancing!”
“Yeah, my bros are awesome!”
“I’m a huge fan of Technoblade’s,” Drista commented.
“Technoblade? What do you mean? He does ballroom dancing.”
Tommy laughed. “Yeah, but he also does ballet. I can’t believe you didn’t know that. How un-pog!”
Dream sat there for a minute, contemplating his life and only briefly hearing what Tubbo was saying.
“So Tommy, you still haven’t told me why Phil isn’t with us,” Tubbo said.
“Oh, yeah! Phil said he’d be here at the end of the show to pick us up.”
“That doesn’t answer the question?” Tommy ignored Tubbo.
Dream seemed to come out of his trance as the lights dimmed further until it was pitch black in the room, after a second, lights over the stage came on and a woman was underneath a spotlight.
“Good evening, thank you all for coming to MCYT Dance Studio’s ballet! I’m Niki and the ballet instructor at MCYT. I hope everyone has a good night. Lastly, please enjoy ballet!” Niki finished introducing the ballet and the stage went dark again. Dream thought that he had seen Niki around the dance studio before.
MCYT was the only dance studio in town, and there were classes for all types of dance and ages. It was where Dream and his friends took lessons. Apparently, it was also where Tommy’s older brothers took ballet.
The show began with a girl and boy, they appeared on the stage when the spotlight flickered on. It looked to be Wilbur, Tommy’s brother, and some other girl. Wilbur held the girl as she leaned into his arms, music began playing. After a few seconds, Wilbur lifted her and spun in a circle before releasing her. She let herself be flung out of his grasp with a series of spins, the spotlight stayed on Wilbur as she spun out of the light.
Wilbur did a little solo dance thing. Dream had no way to describe it. After half a minute or so of that, a dim light lit up the rest of the stage.
Around Wilbur were ballet dancers in pairs. As soon as this light came on, Wilbur melted into the dancers, eventually stopping at a girl who had no partner. The spotlight did not focus on this but two spots opposite each other on the stage.
The one on the right focused on a double male pair. Or at least, that’s what it looked like.
One boy wore a gauzy, silky, pale pink knee-length dress, while the other wore a pure white long-sleeved shirt that had bishop sleeves that closed with a cuff. A cravat was wrapped around his neck, once again, it was white.
On the left side, it was a male and female pair.
In fact, Dream recognized the man. It was Technoblade. He was absolutely dashing! He wore an outfit different from the other boys in the ballet. He wore a shirt like the other boy with the cravat, his cravat had gold detailing on it. He also had a short red cape on his back, connected by a simple gold clasp. As Techno’s hair was long (and pink) it was in a bun. That bun was something. If Dream thought the rest of the ballet was magical, the bun was making it ten times better. In the front of the bun was a comb, it was like what Mulan wore, but instead of a flower, Techno's had a golden crown on it.
Everything seemed to silence for Dream, the crowd was silent, and the music didn’t reach his ears. His world revolved around Techno.
He was startled back into reality when the pause in dancing was gone and everything started moving at once. Every pair was doing the same dance, but the two spotlighted pairs continuously moved closer to the middle. With one big lift from Techno and the other guy, the girl was lifted over Techno’s head and back down in a twirl. The twirl stopped for Techno but the lady continued with a big leap and jump. The lady herself then faded into the other dancers. The other man faded into the other dancers as well, leaving Techno and the guy in a dress left. Another danced into the spotlight, it was Wilbur.
They met in the middle, holding out their right hands with their left positioned behind their back. Their hands weren’t holding each other’s, but they were touching.
Releasing from the circle, their left hands met and physically held each other. First, Wilbur spun outwards before flying inwards and being caught by Techno and the dress boy. Next, the dress boy did the same thing as Wilbur, except he was caught by Wilbur and Techno. The same applied for Techno.
The dress boy faced away from the brothers while they held his arms, trying to pull him back towards them. He eventually broke away, his dress flying behind him, before whipping around in a whirlwind and pushing the brothers down.
Two people from the dancers around them pulled away and dragged up Techno and Wilbur. Techno pulled away from the one who helped him up who then disappeared into the dancers again. Wilbur stayed in the one’s arms, possibly crying?
Dream then remembered that this was ballet, it followed a storyline, it was dramatic.
Techno pivoted in a circle around them before trying to lightly pull Wilbur away. It didn’t work, he was simply pushed away by the girl holding Wilbur.
Techno ran off into the other dancers before returning with a girl dancing, already beginning to do the partner dance with her. While those two danced around, the dancing Wilbur and the girl slowed down until it paused. Wilbur looked distraught as two ladies from the other dancers jumped forward and began pulling on the girl dancer’s arms, she was limp.
As soon as she was ripped from Wilbur, Wilbur ran towards Techno, ripping him away from the other dancer, who fell and was helped up by the same people who took Wilbur’s girl away. All of them faded into the dancers except Wilbur and Techno.
Wilbur seemed to drag Techno through the dance as it grew faster and faster. Techno caught up and began following Wilbur in the dance. Everything was cheery and fine until Wilbur abruptly paused, the music going softer and quieter than ever.
Actually, all the dancers paused and in one big turn, they were all staring at Wilbur and Techno.
This continued for a moment before Techno lifted Wilbur’s right hand above their heads and pulled them into dancing again. The rest of the dancers resumed their dancing, except for a select few. They went forward and got in the brothers’ way. Wilbur and Techno danced around them, sometimes being pushed away by one of their hands. As each one was pushed, they were dragged back into the other dancers.
When there were no blockades left, the music went utterly silent, Wilbur and Techno separated in one big flourish, a second went by and the music returned with one big crash as Wilbur fell to the floor. Technoblade didn’t catch him, he stood standing afterward until he also fell to his knees.
Sliding forward towards Wilbur as the dress boy came back and began slowly dragging Wilbur into the other dancers. Techno’s sliding sped up and soon he was at the edge of the dancers with Wilbur before him.
Techno leaned down, burying his face in Wilbur’s chest. Soon, he rose to a stand, and Wilbur was pulled completely into the other dancers.
Thus commenced the intermission.
The curtains slid out and covered the stage as people in the audience began getting up and going to the bathroom and whatnot. Tubbo and Drista got up while Tommy and Dream stayed. Tommy because he didn’t need to go to the toilet. Dream because his mind was too full to realize what was going on. He finally came out of his thoughts as Tommy started speaking to him.
“Isn’t ballet cool!?” Tommy exclaimed loudly, luckily not getting any looks from the people around them.
“Yeah… it’s pretty cool…” Dream said faintly.
Tommy continued speaking, Dream giving faint, half-hearted answers before the intermission ended and everyone was in their seats again.
Dream had honestly not wanted for the intermission to happen, it disrupted the beauty of the ballet. Interrupting the storyline. But, he did understand the interruption, the dancers needed a break, the stage needed to be reset, the audience needed a break. But, come on ! Dream was just glad that it was beginning again.
When the curtains were pulled away again, everything was like it was at the start of the intermission. The music had not yet been started, Techno stood in the center of the stage with hands at his side, spread. All the other dancers surrounded him, stared at him with a hated look. He looked like an outcast.
The dancing began once again, but at every strong beat in the music, the dancers all stared at Techno still standing still in the middle, desperately still.
Someone came up behind Techno and plucked his crown off his head, replacing it with a bigger one. With the way Techno hung his head limply, it looked as if the crown weighed fifty pounds. The weight of the world sat upon his head. He lifted his head as the person sank back into the dancers, and began dancing.
Much of the rest of the ballet went similarly. At one point, dress boy came back, but ultimately, he also went away eventually. Techno, for the most part, danced alone, sometimes flitting between people to dance with. But it always came to an end with Techno growing less and less emotional every time someone has torn away from him.
In the end, Techno was the only one left on stage. Jumping and twirling about before finally running up in one large leap out of view of the audience.
The curtains shut once more, and the audience rose and began clapping, there were even a few hoots and hollers. As the clapping went on, the curtains parted once more to show the dancers in two lines, bowing and curtsying to the audience. Techno, Wilbur, and dress boy stood in the very front row in the middle.
As they bowed (dress boy curtsied), Tommy, Tubbo, and Drista cheered and clapped extra loud. Dream may have clapped a tiny bit louder as well.
After all the bows and clapping, Niki came back out.
“Thanks, for coming, and for all the support of the ballet program at MCYT Dance Studio! It’s very appreciated. See you next dance!”
And with that, the ballet was over and done with.
The show captivated Dream if it wasn’t already obvious. The way each dancer moved was fascinating, but the way Techno moved was on a whole different level. His jumps radiated confidence, and his turns glowed under the spotlight. He radiated grace and beauty and it was amazing and it was all gorgeous. Dream knew the ballet told a story, but he wasn’t sure what story this ballet was telling, all he knew was that Techno’s portrayal seemed above all, ethereal and in solitude. It was immaculately performed. Dream, if you couldn’t already tell, was impressed.
Did he forget to mention the hair? Techno’s pink hair sat on top of his head in a bun was beautiful. If that all the show was—Techno’s bun—Dream would be fine with it.
When it was all over, Drista had to snap her fingers in front of Dream’s eyes before he came out of his fantasy world. Tommy and she made fun of him for this.
“He finally sees how much better ballet is from hip-hop!” she cheered. She and Tommy high-fived.
“He simps for ballet now,” Tommy added.
Tubbo seemed to want to relieve Dream of his pain and butted in, “We’re seeing Phil now, right?”
“Yeah,” Tommy replied, he held up his phone. “He said he’d be waiting by the changing rooms for us and Techno and Wilbur.”
“Drista, can’t we go home now? The ballet is over, and I wanna get home so I can talk to George and Sapnap for a bit.”
“Aw, boohoo. No. I’m stickin’ around, and Mom isn’t going to like it if you leave me alone,” Drista replied.
Dream sighed and followed behind the fourteen and fifteen-year-olds silently. Why was he getting bossed around by people younger than him? Why was he listening to fourteen-year-olds?
He was his own independent man , and he was going to decide for himself what he was going to do! And his decision was to go to where Phil was…
It wasn’t his fault that the youngers were going to do the same thing!
The dressing rooms were out of the main theatre room, they took a right, the opposite way they entered. After going down that hall they made another right and after a short walk past a few doorways, they stopped in front of one.
In front of that one was a blonde man wearing a dark green jacket without any zippers or buttons with a lighter green shirt underneath. He had chin-length hair and had a little bit of scruff on his chin.
That appeared to be Phiza, if it wasn’t, Tommy ran up shouting at him. “PHIL!”
Phil turned to the noise. “Calm down, Tommy. There are others around,” Phil said. How does this man control him so well? “Hello, Tubbo and Drista! You’re- Dream? Right? Drista’s brother?”
“Yes,” Dream managed to say without squeaking. “I’m Dream, nice to meet you Philza.”
“Phil is fine.”
Everyone but Dream began speaking to Phil and Dream didn’t catch a whole lot of the conversation, but it seemed to be about the ballet.
“How much of it didja catch?” Tommy asked.
“I came in at the intermission, but couldn’t find you guys so I sat in the back.”
“Man, sometimes I wish I could dance.” That was Tubbo.
“You can still take lessons.”
At some point, the conversation drifted away from Phil, to which he responded by walking over to where Dream was.
“Hey,” Phil greeted. Dream looked up from his phone.
“Hello.” This seemed like it was going to get awkward.
“Did you enjoy the ballet?”
“Yeah!” Dream didn’t mean for his voice to get that loud. “Yeah, it was really cool. I didn’t know Techno and Wilbur did ballet.”
“Ah yes, you’re Techno’s ‘self-proclaimed rival’. I bet that was a surprise to see.”
“Uh, yeah… Are you related to them, then?”
Phil laughed. “Yes, I’m their eldest brother. I do ballroom dancing, but I’m in a different class from Wilbur and Techno.”
“I see, I do hip-hop. Until today, I didn’t know that Techno had any siblings. I knew Wilbur and I knew Tommy, but I’ve never realized they were all related.”
“Yeah, I can see that. We… don’t really look alike.”
Dream let out a wheezing laugh. It surprised Phil. “Yeah, not at all!”
After recovering, Phil began speaking again. “You go to the same school as them, aren’t you in a few of Techno’s classes?” Dream nodded. “You also have the same lunch as them, but you probably don’t see them together then because they go and hide out in the library most of the time. They also don’t have many of the same classes because Techno’s in higher Math and Language classes.”
Behind Phil, the others were making a ruckus. Tommy had said something dumb, presumably, and Dream’s sister had begun trying to hit him while he hid behind Tubbo. After a particularly loud scream from Tommy, Phil turned around.
“BOYS! Calm down! Especially you Tommy, and Tubbo, do you want me to call your mother?”
“Yes, Phil.” Tommy and Tubbo seemed to be in sync, both had their heads bowed in remorse? and were almost in sync with the timing of their apologies. Drista looked very smug, so Dream decided to pick on her.
“Aye, Drista, stop trying to hit people.”
Drista marched over to Dream and grabbed his arm. Then proceeding to use it to hit herself with it.
“OW DREAM! Why’d you hit me!” Drista exclaimed. Tommy was laughing with Tubbo while Drista continued. “I’m telling Mom!”
“I didn’t hit you!”
“CAN EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!” Phil shouted. He was fed up with everybody by now.
It was now Dream and Drista’s turn to say sorry.
A minute went by after their apology and all was quiet until the door to the dressing room opened and out walked Technoblade and Wilbur. This caused a commotion from the fourteen and sixteen-year-olds.
“IT’S THE BLADE!!” Tommy exclaimed. “Big T and Wilbur!” He ran at the two jumping at them, which they both sidestepped. Tubbo and Drista followed Tommy, running up to the two and bombarding them with praise and questions. Drista looked to be going on about being Techno’s biggest fan or something.
All the while, Dream stood next to Phil with wide eyes and a head full of thoughts, yet it seemed empty.
If Techno looked ethereal earlier, he was just as ethereal now, just in a different way. His long pink hair was pulled up into a ponytail which was pushed through the back of a black baseball cap with a crown embroidered on the front. He wore a fully red knee-length jacket with fur lining the collar and bottom. The rest of his outfit was simple, just some black skinny jeans and a collared white shirt.
To Dream, this outfit mixed with Techno was beautiful in literally every way—physically and mentally. It was only now that Dream realized that he’d begun to think Techno was gorgeous, he only knew what he was like from the way he looked and the minimal conversation they’d had. He hoped that they’d have more interactions with each other.
Techno didn’t ever notice Dream, he was obviously preoccupied with other matters. It didn’t really matter though, because Dream was zoned out until Phil called out that they were leaving. Drista had left the crowd and walked over to Dream while Techno, Tubbo, Wilbur, and Tommy followed Phil out the door.
Tommy and Tubbo waved and shouted goodbyes at the two as they followed slowly behind.
The silence that filled the space between the siblings after everyone left was immense. They’d begun walking out and were now outside making their way home. It was dark by now and growing chillier.
It felt like ages before anyone spoke.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” Dream asked.
“Yeah, thanks for bringing me… I know it wasn’t how you wanted to spend tonight,” Drista answered.
“It’s fine. I think I had more fun with you guys than I would have if I’d stayed home, so thank you.”
“Well, obviously! You were spending time with me!” Drista reverted back to herself before following up with, “You just seemed so spacey tonight, were you okay? Or were you just so impressed with the ballet that you were speechless?”
Dream flushed, he was going to tell Drista his feelings first. His stuck-up, no-good, stupid sister who constantly threatened and was mean to him. “The second one… sort of…”
Drista turned to her brother in surprise. “Huh?!”
Dream didn’t answer, instead choosing to begin running, their house was in sight by now. “HEY!” Drista screamed at him, following him in pursuit. Dream laughed, oh, how good it was to have a sister.
A sweet smile was on Dream’s face until he made it home and threw the door open. Drista had caught up by now and was about to tackle Dream to the ground when he put his index finger to his lips, pointing farther into the house. The siblings’ mom was sleeping on the couch while the TV played quietly. She most likely fell asleep while trying to wait for her children to get home, but having to work all day took a toll on her and she fell asleep before she could greet her children.
They took off their shoes after silently shutting the door. Afterward, Drista went into the cedar chest in the corner of the living room and pulled out an orange knit blanket. While Drista laid the blanket over their mother, Dream went into the kitchen and warmed up some water for hot chocolate. For Drista and him.
As he added the cocoa and sugar, Drista came into the kitchen. “Dream, go put on his PJs, I’ll finish up.” She was already clad in her PJs, they were the one pair of matching ones they had. Hers had a white t-shirt with green sleeves and green shorts with black smiley faces on them.
Dream decided to wear the matching set to hers as he walked up the stairs. Dream’s PJs had a black shirt with green sleeves with green pants with black smiley faces on them. All in all, the only differences between their sets were that Drista had shorts and a white t-shirt instead of a black one.
By the time he came downstairs again, Drista already had piping hot cocoa in two mugs. Dream took the leftover one off the counter and said a small thank you to Drista.
By now, they knew the routine. Get some cocoa, put on PJs, hang out in Dream’s room.
Dream sat on his bed, while Drista sat down at his desk. They stayed in silence for a few minutes the only sound being them sipping the cocoa and the sounds of night outside.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” Drista broke the silence first.
“Eh, I guess,” Dream started. “Y’know how I have that ‘rivalry’ with Technoblade, right?” Drista nodded. “Well, it was only today that I found out he did ballet. And that he was so good at it! I’m just- questioning why I formed the rivalry in the first place. We don’t even do the same type of dance, so I don't even know if he’d be better at hip-hop than me. I feel like that would be the only plausible reason to form a rivalry with him. Because I wanted to be as good as him.”
She nodded, Drista didn’t quite understand, but maybe her view on this could bring some solace to her brother. She took a sip of her cocoa in thought. “What if—just think about this—what if you formed your ‘rivalry’ with him because you wanted to be friends with him, but didn’t know how to properly approach him without competing.” Dream’s eyes widened. How could his sister think so much about one thing and give that kind of advice if it wasn’t about herself?
“It’s a possibility… I’ve never thought about that before.”
Drista smiled, downing the rest of her drink.
“I’m sleeping with you tonight.”
“Fine…” Dream groaned with a quirked smile. “Come ‘ere.”
Drista’s smile grew as she set her mug down on the desk and came over to Dream’s bed. Dream stood up and pulled the covers back, beckoning Drista to lie down. She did and Dream followed, pulling the covers up as he got comfortable.
When he was done adjusting himself, Drista snuggled closer. Dream’s smile grew even more as he wrapped his arms around her. He remembered when they were younger and would do this with their mom every Friday night after playing games and watching a movie. She would sing them a lullaby too. It never got old.
Tonight, Dream would do with his sister alone. It’d be the best sleep he’d had in a while. If his friends questioned why he wasn’t on their Discord call tonight, he wouldn’t answer. Tonight, he deserved some quality time with his sister because even though their usual dynamic was what he was used to and he loved it, it was nice to be close and snuggly with her as well.
He’d think about what Drista said tomorrow, putting off your problems is good, that’s what they say, right? For now, he was destined to simply be with his family and love them. Maybe, all the confusion he’s had tonight was to just make him realize how he missed spending time with his sis. Maybe it wasn’t, but for now, that’s what he’d believe, so he could sleep peacefully under the cover of stars and warmth and just be .
“Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister?”
- Alice Walker