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T'was the night before Christmas, and it was snowing. All over the server, big, fluffy snowflakes were steadily covering everything in a blanket of white, even in areas where it shouldn't have been cold enough to snow. It could only be the work of an admin, though only one person was awake to appreciate it.
That person, wrapped in a thick, warm cloak to keep out the chill of the storm, moved swiftly from building to building, territory to territory, home to home. They left cards and tiny boxes at mansions and bakeries and ravines alike.
Their last stop was a small pond, where they knew a tiny base was hidden. There was a soft flash of light, and they teleported down into the enchantment room, knowing the gentle light would be hidden from the person sleeping inside the little stone base.
Sure enough, when they poked their head into the main room, Technoblade was sound asleep, or at least he appeared to be. He was curled up on his side on the bed, back to the wall, and he looked peaceful. No bad dreams tonight. The figure adjusted their mask, smiling at the unintentional pun, and silently set a card and a small box down on the crafting table, where they knew it would be seen come morning. Then they stepped into the bubble elevator and were gone.
When Techno woke, it was to an uncomfortable chill. He shivered, curling into a ball under his blanket. Why was it so cold? Sure, it was usually chilly underground, but never this bad.
He cracked one eye open, searching for any immediate causes for the cold. What he saw made him sit bolt upright, reaching for the knife next to his bed.
There was a pristine white card and a white box, about the size of his palm, sitting on top of his crafting table. He hadn't been the one to put them there. And they definitely hadn't been there last night.
Which meant someone had been in his base. While he was sleeping.
Techno strained his ears, listening for any sign of the intruder. When he didn't hear anything after a few tense seconds, he cautiously stood and made his way over to the new items. They didn't look harmful, which was a good sign, but Techno knew better than to take something like that at face value. Luckily (or suspiciously), the card wasn't in an envelope, so he was able to knock it over and open it with the point of his knife.
Techno, it read, this probably startled you, sorry about that! I've got something planned for today, come to these coordinates as soon as you can! (Enjoy the gift, Merry Christmas!) And for later, when you worry, I took care of Carl and Floof.
The letter concluded with a set of coordinates and a simple :) as a signature.
He sighed. Of course it was Dream, who else would do something like this? Who else would be able to get into his base without him knowing? (How had he done it, anyway? Maybe there was a security flaw-)
Techno sheathed the knife and picked up the box. It was light, lighter than he was expecting, and when he carefully opened it, he wasn't sure what he was looking at at first. It looked fragile. Very, very carefully, he lifted the item out of its little wool cushion.
It was... an ornament, he was pretty sure. A snowflake, delicate and beautiful, hanging from a loop of thread.
The note said to go to the provided coordinates as soon as possible. But if in between putting on the warmest clothes he owned, Techno took a moment to drive a nail into the wall so he could hang up his gift, no one needed to know.
The source of the cold became obvious as Techno left his base; there was a thick layer of snow on the ground, and the pond he lived under had partially frozen over. Dream had evidently been tampering with the weather. Techno's ears absolutely did not perk up in excitement when he saw the snow, of course they didn't, don't be ridiculous. It was just in reaction to the cold. Shut up.
He trudged over to his stables, noting gratefully that Dream had, in fact, made sure Carl got safely into his stall rather than being tethered outside. He had also draped blankets over all of the horses' backs and set up a furnace in the corner to make sure they wouldn't get too cold. It was a small thing, and it had probably only taken Dream a minute or two, but Techno couldn't help but smile as he saddled Carl and rode out into the snow. His friend was like that; small, silent, constant acts of kindness.
Techno took a moment to just appreciate the stillness of the forest. The snow muffled the usual sounds of animals and rustling leaves, so it was just him and Carl, surrounded by the white and the cold and the quiet. This was one of the reasons he liked snow; it was peaceful, and made the world feel like it had slowed down.
As he neared the coordinates Dream had left him, the trees fell away, and Carl walked out into a plains biome. This biome was also covered in snow, and Techno realized that Dream had set it to snow across the entire server.
"Techno!"
Speak of the devil. Dream was standing on the front porch of a wooden cabin a ways down the treeline, waving excitedly. Techno waved back and steered Carl over to the house.
"Glad you could make it!" Dream was restless in a way that said he was extremely excited, fingers tapping, bouncing softly on his toes, no doubt grinning ear to ear behind his mask.
"'Course. Thanks for the snowflake." Techno hopped off of Carl and led him over to the small stable attached to the house (there was already coal in a furnace in one corner and a blanket warming on top of it). "And thanks for takin' care of the horses."
Dream waved off the thanks like it was unimportant, leaning against a post. "I made it snow without a lot of warning, of course I'd make sure they were okay. I did the same thing for Floof."
Techno quickly took off Carl's saddle and covered him with the warm blanket, trying to hide his smile. "So what's the plan?"
"Well, usually, we celebrate Christmas together. The whole server." Dream's voice was quiet, heavy with nostalgia, as he fiddled with a hoodie string. "We can't do that this year, what with all the conflict and everything. So... Eret and Bad and I have been talking. And we decided we would work with what we had."
Techno was about to reply - what did that mean? And why involve him? - when he was cut off by a snowball exploding against the side of his head.
There was a loud, triumphant laugh, easy to identify.
Techno turned slowly, in the way he knew unsettled people, to stare directly into Tommy's eyes. It was gratifying to watch the triumph drain from his face, replaced by a mix of excitement and terror, as Techno very deliberately stepped out of the stable and knelt to scoop up a handful of snow.
"Wilbur!" Tommy shrieked, sprinting around the corner of the cottage to get out of the line of fire. "Wilbur he's armed!!"
"How many people are comin'?" Techno asked Dream, beginning to pack snowballs quickly and efficiently.
Dream hummed thoughtfully. "Well, I invited Wilbur, Tommy, Tubbo, you, George, and Sapnap, and Bad should be showing up for a bit too. Sapnap's here already, but he's inside."
"Go get him. He's on the other team."
Dream paused, head tilted to one side. "The other team?"
Techno grinned at him. "You're with me, obviously, and us against Wilbur and Tommy just isn't fair."
"Give me sixty seconds."
Dream darted into the cottage, and Techno kept making snowballs. His brothers would be stocking up as well, maybe even constructing fortifications, and he needed enough ammunition to split with Dream.
Sure enough, less than a minute later, Dream and Sapnap raced out onto the porch. Sapnap ran for the opposite side of the house, and Dream hopped the railing to land next to Techno.
Techno handed him an armful of ammo. "If I know Tommy, he's makin' a snow fort against the wall of the house. Wilbur's probably helpin', so it'll have solid defenses. What will Sapnap be doin'?"
"Hard to say." Dream had fully shifted to combat mode now; his stance was tense, and his head shifted minutely from side to side as he scanned their surroundings. "He's going to take a minute to strategize, probably, since he's never fought with them before, then he'll either be a human shield or a stealth fighter."
"So our best chance to take them on is right now?"
Dream nodded. "I'd say so."
Perhaps the two of them on a team together wasn't fair regardless of how many people were on the other team, Techno mused as an idea occurred to him. "Hey, Dream, could you get up on the roof without bein' spotted?"
"Probably, why? ... Oh." Dream chuckled, an almost predatory sound, and Techno grinned. "You circle the house, draw their attention. Signal me when you're ready."
"Got it." Techno grabbed his own armful of snowballs, handed Dream a few more just in case, and circled around the left side of the cottage.
True to Dream's prediction, if he listened carefully, he could hear their opponents whispering to each other. Tubbo was here too, apparently.
Well, no use dragging it out. Techno sprinted into view, throwing snowballs with the accuracy of long practice.
Tommy and Tubbo screeched and dove behind a small wall of snow, Wilbur yelped and chucked a snowball back at him, and Sapnap immediately grabbed a handful of ammunition and started firing back.
Adaptable, Techno noted, slightly impressed by how quickly and efficiently Sapnap had reacted to the danger. That's what happened when you regularly faced off against Dream, though. He dodged as many of Sapnap's throws as he could, hitting all four of their opponents a few times when they peeked out of hiding.
"Watch out for Dream!" Sapnap called to his team.
"I AIN'T SCARED OF NO GREEN MAN!!" Tommy shouted, throwing a snowball that missed Techno by several feet before ducking back into cover.
Techno laughed, near-automatically shifting into the levity of younger days, when he hadn't been so accurate himself, and Tommy's forts had been made by childrens' hands. "Oh, come on, Tommy, give me a target!"
Just as he'd expected, Tommy peeked back around the wall to yell at him, just in time to catch a snowball in the face.
They all laughed, even Sapnap, as Tommy let out an inarticulate scream of rage. Wilbur almost fell over from laughing so hard.
"THAT'S IT!!!" Tommy lept out from behind his snow wall, hurling snowballs at Techno with Tommy-typical ferocity. Sapnap happily joined in.
"Dream!" Techno shouted between giggles, shielding his face with an arm. "Dream, I could use backup!"
A snowball collided with the back of Tommy's head, then Sapnap's, then Wilbur's, then Tubbo's, all in rapid succession.
Techno grinned and retaliated while they were distracted, nailing all of them.
Dream whooped in excitement from his perch on the roof. "Yeah, Techno!!"
"There he is!" Sapnap instantly switched targets, laying down covering fire to keep Dream on the far side of the roof. "Like we talked about!"
Tommy ran back into cover, and the Pogtopians began targeting Techno. A good strategy, Techno admitted, to make sure they knew their enemy, but not good enough. After all, it meant he and Dream knew their enemies as well.
The tide of battle turned, again and again, as often happens. Dream jumped off the roof at some point, Techno tackled Wilbur, Tommy dumped an armload of snow onto Tubbo's head (on accident, he said, but no one believed him). They finally called a truce when the snow wall got knocked over and Sapnap somehow lost a boot.
Once the battle was over, Tubbo and Tommy immediately split off from the main group to make a snowman, and Wilbur wandered over to supervise. George showed up (he had probably been waiting just out of sight for the combat to finish), and after exchanging a glance and a grin, Sapnap and Dream chased him around with handfuls of snow. Judging by the shrieking, they managed to shove some down the back of George's shirt.
And Techno hesitated. He loved the snow, he always had, and there was something he hadn't gotten to do for a long time. But it felt kind of embarrassing, especially in front of other people. He was an adult now, a warrior, a champion! He couldn't just behave like a child, no matter how much he wanted to. Maybe later, when everyone was inside...
In the distance, Tommy threw what was supposed to be the snowman's head at Wilbur.
... No, you know what, screw it. He was still the most mature one here. Techno unclasped his cloak and stored it in his inventory, and before he could overthink this and change his mind, he flopped down and started rolling around in the snow.
Phil used to say that Techno rolling in the snow looked like a cat rolling in catnip. Tommy's preferred comparison was a pig in a mud puddle. Techno honestly didn't care what animal they thought he most looked like, he just did it because it felt nice.
"Aw, sick, dude!"
There was a fwumph sound as Sapnap fell into a drift next to him and started flailing.
"Sapnap, what are you doing?" George asked as he and Dream walked up, amusement evident in his tone.
"Making snow angels!"
"You look like you're having a seizure."
Techno huffed in amusement, closing his eyes and stretching.
Dream chuckled, and Techno heard him walk over and sit down nearby. "You look comfy."
"Mm."
"You know, I didn't expect you to like snow so much, Techno," Sapnap piped up.
"I run warm," Techno replied without opening his eyes. "The cold feels nice."
Dream carefully brushed some snow off of his face. "Well, whenever you feel like getting up, we're gonna go inside and have lunch."
"Lunch?" Tommy's footsteps crunched unevenly on the snow as he and Tubbo stumbled over, pushing each other and giggling.
Wilbur walked behind them at a more sedate pace. "Enjoying the snow, Tech?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Well we're all hungry, big man, get up!!" Tommy and Tubbo both grabbed one of Techno's hands and pulled.
Techno grinned and went limp, knowing that even together, the two weren't strong enough to pull him upright if he didn't cooperate.
"Technoooo!" Tommy whined.
"Alright, alright." Techno sat up and shook the snow out of his hair. "Lead the way."
Lunch was, as expected, a loud, messy, cheerful affair. Skeppy and Bad showed up about halfway through and were instantly absorbed into the light-hearted chaos.
Eventually, though, when the food was gone and everyone was laughing, Dream stood up.
"Thank you guys for coming," he told them, and the sincerity in his voice was obvious. "This isn't how we normally do Christmas, but it's where we are, and I for one have had a great day so far. That wouldn't have been possible without you showing up, so... thank you. I really appreciate it."
Sapnap grinned and reached over to lightly shove his friend. "Of course we came, idiot. Now quit being all mushy and let's get to the fun part."
Dream chuckled and put on a monstrosity of a neon green Santa hat. "Fine, then. Time for presents!"
Tommy, Tubbo, and Sapnap whooped in excitement as Dream took a big bag out of his inventory and started distributing boxes.
Techno surreptitiously took three packages out of his own inventory and slid one to Tommy, one to Tubbo, and one to Wilbur.
"You knew he'd do something like this," Wilbur murmured, and he sounded a little bit impressed.
Techno shrugged. "It's Christmas. I had a feeling."
"Well, you can read him better than me, evidently. Your presents are back at the ravine."
"That's fine, I can open them later."
Tommy cackled in glee and held up his gifts - a crossbow and a dagger, both enchanted. It seemed both Dream and Techno had had the same idea. "POG!!"
Wilbur pressed his forehead against the table, groaning. "Of course it's weapons. Of course. You couldn't give the hellion something harmless."
"He likes knives, Wilbur," Techno pointed out.
"HELL YEAH I LIKE KNIVES!!"
"I got one too!" Tubbo gasped, holding up a near-identical dagger. The only difference was in the inlay in the hilt: Tommy's had music discs etched into it, and Tubbo's had bees and a honeycomb pattern.
Wilbur unwrapped his package from Techno to find a very similar knife, inlaid with music notes. "You got us matching knives?"
"I did." Techno held out his own new dagger, which had lines like the current of a river across the length of the hilt.
"Well I have an enchanted flint and steel, and I'm gonna go try it out!" Sapnap darted out the door, Bad right behind him, telling him to stop. Skeppy trailed after them, probably to aid in the arson Sapnap would no doubt be committing.
George rolled his eyes behind his new bedazzled clout goggles. "I'll help Bad with the idiot. We have a present for you too, Dream, but we'll give it to you later when all of us are here."
"I'M GONNA GO SHOOT SOMETHING!" Tommy declared, running for the door.
"STABBING!!" Tubbo agreed, holding up his new dagger and running after his friend.
"STABBING!!"
Wilbur and George followed them outside with varying degrees of exhausted resignation, leaving Techno and Dream alone in the cabin.
"So, um," Dream started, then stopped. He was fidgeting with a hoodie string again.
"... Thanks for invitin' me," Techno said quietly, recognizing the hesitation that came from having to start a conversation. "I probably wouldn't have done much today, otherwise."
"You're one of my best friends, of course I'm gonna invite you!" Dream hesitated, then took off his mask. He looked anxious, almost, like he was worried about something.
Techno frowned. "Are you okay, Dream?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, it's just, um. Speaking of you being one of my best friends." Dream took one more box out of his bag and slid it over to Techno. He hadn't noticed that Dream hadn't given him one yet.
The box was small, smaller even than the ornament box from that morning, but there was a green ribbon wrapped neatly around it. Techno carefully cut it away and opened the box.
It was a bracelet. Pink with threads of green and gold, and hand-woven, if Techno had to guess. The edges weren't quite straight, and there was variation in the tension of the strings, but it had obviously been crafted with care.
"I made it," Dream admitted almost shyly. "That's, um. My third try. I've never made one before."
"It's a friendship bracelet," Techno realized, picking it up and running a finger gently over the wobbly knots.
Dream laughed awkwardly. "Yeah. I was just thinking, you know, you made me that ring - and the ring is way higher quality and, like, more expensive than this, I know that, but it was really important to you, and I wanted to do something as a thank you, I guess? Like a reciprocal gesture or something?"
Techno stared at the bracelet, mind spinning. Something people often didn't realize about piglins was that giving people gold wasn't about the gold at all, not really; they were obsessed with the stuff, and therefore it was the material of choice for the gifts, but that's not why they gave the gifts. The gift itself was the point. It was a tangible way of staying with the other person, a way to remind them of you and you of them when you weren't physically together. And for Dream to understand that, and reciprocate? To actually think to give him something similar, something familiar to his species' culture but not Techno's, like Techno had for him?
What did he ever do to get so lucky in his friends?
Dream was still rambling nervously, and Techno cut him off by holding out the bracelet. "Put it on me."
Dream blinked. "... What?"
"I can't put it on with one hand, Dream," Techno said patiently.
"Oh. Oh! Right! Yeah, of course." Dream took the bracelet and carefully tied it around Techno's wrist. "Is that too tight?"
"It's perfect. Thank you." Techno ran a finger over the bracelet again. Pink for him, green for Dream, gold to mirror the ring.
It was official, Techno decided. He was never taking it off again.