Work Text:
It started, like all good ideas do, with an innocuous conversation.
Tommy had mentioned offhandedly some activity or another that he and Tubbo had done during a sleepover together, then gotten distracted and run off, leaving Techno to a somewhat startling realization.
He hadn't ever had a sleepover.
In the grand scheme of things, that didn't really matter; Techno had camped with his friends and his family plenty of times, and on the very rare occasions Phil had been forced to leave them alone in the house overnight, he and his brothers had all curled up in Phil's bed together, seeking comfort from company. So it wasn't like he had never slept around people. But something about a sleepover seemed... special. Like he couldn't classify those occurrences as true sleepovers.
The idea, unimportant as it was (or should have been), stuck around, resurfacing every so often. So, eventually, Techno had quietly asked Dream if he had ever had a sleepover.
"... No," Dream had said, sounding as surprised as Techno had felt. "I don't think I have. Not a real one, anyway."
The next words out of Techno's mouth had been poorly thought out and impulsive, but the look on Dream's face made it difficult to care.
Which led to Techno standing in front of Dream's base, inventory full, trying to force himself to knock. This was so stupid. This was such a stupid idea. Dream had probably forgotten about it, he probably didn't care.
But if he did, and Techno never showed up? He'd be devastated and Techno would never forgive himself. So, taking a deep breath, Techno reached up and knocked.
He only managed to knock three times before the door was yanked open.
Dream had his mask off already, and he was beaming. "Tech, you made it!"
"Of course I made it," Techno huffed, pretending he hadn't spent at least a minute agonizing over whether or not to knock.
"C'mon in, c'mon in!"
Techno hadn't been inside Dream's base before, he realized as he stepped through the doorway; it was fairly small and cozy, with a living room/dining room next to the front door, a small kitchen area, and a bedroom off to one side. There was also a trapdoor in the corner that he was willing to bet led down into a storage area.
Dream was sort of hovering next to the dining room table, excitement shifting into a touch of anxiety. "So um. I don't... really know what to do at a sleepover, I talked to George and Sapnap and I have a few ideas? But um. Yeah."
"If we're gonna have a sleepover," Techno said calmly, taking a notebook out of his inventory and handing it to Dream, "we're gonna do it right."
Dream opened the notebook to the first page. "What's... 'Tommy: lots of snacks, games (cards, sparring, truth or dare), forts'... That's a lot of bullet points." He flipped to another page. "'Wilbur: music, jokes'... Techno, did you interview people?"
Techno shrugged self-consciously. "Yeah, people who have done this before. I thought a list of activities people have actually done at sleepovers would give us some good ideas."
"Who all did you talk to?" Dream asked, flipping through the notebook. "Tommy, Wilbur, Tubbo, Niki? And... Hang on, you talked to Phil about this?"
"Phil knows everythin'! He had some cool ideas!"
Dream turned to Phil's list of suggestions. "'Reading'?"
Techno nodded. "I like readin'."
"Huh." Dream handed the notebook back to Techno. "Well, I'm sure we can find enough fun stuff in here to keep us occupied! Have you had dinner?"
"A small one. I wasn't sure if I should eat beforehand," Techno admitted.
"Same. Tommy's first idea was snacks, we can make that work."
Techno chuckled. "Dream, I am so overprepared for this, you have no idea. I have so many snacks."
Dream grinned. "So does that mean you have cards, too?"
"Of course."
They settled at the table with a big bowl of snacks off to the side, Techno got out the cards, and they started playing. Dream taught Techno how to play War (they both enjoyed and were irritated by the lack of strategy involved), they played a few rounds of Go Fish, and Techno taught Dream how to play Slapjack (Techno won twice and was very smug).
"Yeah, yeah," Dream grumbled, though he was smiling. "You already knew the rules, I still say we shouldn't count that first game."
Techno laughed. "You're just sayin' that because you lost!"
"Well yeah, your point?"
"Whatever, nerd. Want to go again? I'm happy to keep winnin'."
Dream shook his head. "Nah, let's do something else. Any ideas?"
Techno picked up his notebook and flipped to the back. "I went through all the suggestions and put together a list of things that were mentioned multiple times, and I marked how many times each thing came up."
"Smart."
"Thanks. Let's see..." Techno scanned the list. "Do you want to make a fort?"
Dream frowned. "A fort?"
Techno nodded. "Yeah, apparently makin' blanket forts are common at sleepovers, since basically everyone mentioned them."
"How do you do that?"
Techno glanced around the available space. He had asked that same question to everyone who had mentioned forts, and he had gotten a different answer every time. But how hard could this be, really? "Go grab some blankets and pillows, I'll rearrange furniture to give us a base."
"Don't make a mess of my house!" Dream warned him, jumping down into the space below the trapdoor.
Okay. Base for a fort. Simple.
Techno decided that using the couch as one wall would be a good idea. Maybe the table for another? Or maybe just chairs. He moved Dream's chairs over near the couch in a semicircle, then stared at them for a second, frowning, trying to visualize what this thing would look like.
Dream laughed from the ladder in the corner. "You know, Techno, there are faster ways to set my chairs on fire than glaring at them."
"Does this look okay?" Techno asked, choosing to ignore the light jab. "If we drape blankets over the back of the couch and over the chairs, do you think that will work?"
"Well, only one way to find out." Dream took a big stack of blankets out of his inventory and handed some to Techno.
Constructing the fort was... interesting. It was lopsided (there were a few times where Techno was tempted to bring out a ruler to make sure things were symmetrical), and the middle sagged, and they didn't really have a door, but eventually they had an enclosed structure made of blankets. Dream piled pillows and extra blankets on the floor, Techno found a lantern and grabbed the snack bowl, and they crawled inside.
"It looks a little bit less scuffed on the inside," Techno noted with surprise, setting his lantern on a couch cushion.
Dream laughed. "Hey, we've never done this before! I'd say it's pretty good for a first try."
"That's fair. It's still ugly."
"Hey, remember our sand castle?" Dream asked, laying down on his back, head toward Techno and feet sticking out of the fort (it wasn't all that big).
Techno snorted. "Of course I remember the sand castle. Who lets us build anythin'? We shouldn't be allowed to do that."
"We allow us!"
"A terrible decision," Techno reminded him.
Dream chuckled. "Maybe. Hey, I've got an idea for our next activity!"
Techno raised an eyebrow expectantly.
Carefully, so he didn't get tangled in the wall of the fort, Dream rolled onto his stomach and rested his chin on his folded arms, grinning. "Truth or dare?"
"No."
"Oh, come on!" Dream leaned over to poke Techno's leg. "George and Sapnap said this is a staple sleepover game."
Techno's ear flicked, which he desperately tried to play off as irritation. "Yeah, sure, it's also stupid."
"You can't tell me it didn't come up in your interviews."
He crossed his arms and didn't meet Dream's gaze. "... Maybe."
Dream's grin widened. "Truth or dare, Technoblade? Unless you're scared."
Okay, that was cheating. That had to be cheating. Unfortunately, though, there was only one possible way to respond to that that didn't feel like losing. "... I hate you. Dare."
"Love you too, Tech!" Dream chirped, smug as the cat that caught the canary. "I dare you to message Tommy, tell him he's hilarious and you only pretend to be annoyed by him, all that good stuff."
Techno sighed, took out his communicator, and read the message aloud as he typed. "Tommy, I pretend to be irritated by you a lot, but I actually think you're hilarious. And also a big man."
There was a moment of anticipation before Techno's communicator buzzed with a response.
Techno burst out laughing.
"What? What did he say?" Dream demanded, already halfway to laughing himself.
"He said - oh my God - he said," Techno gasped, taking deep breaths to try and calm down, "'Who the hell is this and what did you do with Techno?' All caps, I think that's - that's seven question marks -"
Dream wheezed like a dying tea kettle, which set Techno off again, and he typed out a reply with his hands shaking a little from how hard he was laughing.
Tommy sent back a reply and Techno leaned back against the couch, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
Dream lightly smacked Techno's leg to get his attention. "What did he say? What did you say??"
Techno held up a hand, took three deep breaths, then replied. "I just sent him a smiley face, and he sent back a lot of curse words. The general idea is that he knows it was you and wants you to give me my communicator back."
"Tell him no, it's mine forever!"
"Tell him yourself!" Techno tossed him the communicator. "Also, truth or dare?"
Dream hummed thoughtfully as he typed out a response to Tommy. "Um... Let's go with truth."
"What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?"
"I decided to be your friend," Dream teased, grinning at Techno's mock-offended expression. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Um... I've done some pretty stupid stuff during manhunts. Probably the time I jumped down into a desert temple with no armor and set off the TNT."
Techno snorted. "Seriously? That one must have been short."
"No, I lived, but only because I had a god apple," Dream corrected him. "It was really close, though, because they jumped down after me once the TNT went off. I was so close to dying."
"Wow."
Dream started typing again. "Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Wimp."
Techno sputtered indignantly. "You literally just chose truth -"
Dream chuckled. "I know, I'm just giving you a hard time. How about... You tell me something you've never told anyone else."
Now that was a hard one; Techno told Phil basically everything, and what he didn't tell Phil he told Wilbur. Or at least he used to. So... Maybe something recent? Or maybe... "I used to be terrified of thunderstorms."
"No way," Dream breathed, his grin widening as Techno nodded confirmation. "You? Scared of thunderstorms?"
"The first time I saw one I thought I was gonna die," Techno admitted, staring up at the sagging ceiling of the fort. "It sounded like the end of the world. I think the only reason I managed to calm down was because Phil was there."
Dream chuckled. "Aw, that's sweet."
"Yeah. He just sat there and hugged me and counted seconds between the lightnin' until I felt better." That was, all things considered, a really good memory for him.
"Dude. Every time you tell me anything about your childhood I get the warm fuzzies, that's so cute."
Techno stuck out his tongue at him. "Yeah, yeah. Truth or dare?"
Dream grinned. "Let's do dare this time!"
"I dare you to do your best George impression for the next ten minutes."
Dream paused for a moment, thinking, then said in the worst fake accent Techno had ever heard, "Hello, my name is George and I like to take naps! I also work with code and I love my best friend Dream, he's so cool."
Techno burst out laughing again.
"Now there's no need to laugh," Dream said primly, still using his awful accent. "I was being serious."
"Dream that's awful, how can you not do a better impression of him?? You spend so much time together!"
"Just because I - because Dream knows how I talk doesn't mean he can replicate it," Dream huffed, and he was obviously starting to put more effort into this, because the inflection and speech patterns were definitely reminiscent of George. He was just butchering the accent.
Techno chuckled and replied in his best attempt at Phil's accent. "Tommy, Phil, and Wilbur all have a similar accent, and I can copy them. Get on my level, nerd."
"Yours is bad too!" Dream protested, almost dropping the accent but recovering quickly.
"Better than yours!"
"I'll have you know Dream's impressions are fantastic -"
They kept bickering light-heartedly off and on as they kept playing, Techno stubbornly staying in Phil's accent for the duration of the dare to prove a point. Eventually, though, the game became more and more truths, and Techno laid down as well, and it was just the two of them softly asking for and revealing secrets, staring up at the roof of their little fort.
"Hey, Techno," Dream said quietly when it was his turn. "Ask for a dare."
"Fine. Dare me."
"Let me braid your hair."
Techno blinked in surprise, then chuckled. "You could've just asked, you know."
Dream grinned at him. "This is more fun."
"Whatever," Techno sighed, rolling his eyes fondly. He took a hairbrush out of his inventory and dropped it on Dream's face (not from very high up, so it wouldn't hurt him), earning him an offended yelp.
They carefully resituated, trying not to pull down a wall or the ceiling, and ended up sitting cross-legged in the middle of the fort, Dream carefully running his fingers through Techno's hair.
"Dude," he breathed, "your hair's so soft, what the hell?"
"Thank you, I take care of it only when I remember."
"And how often is that?"
Techno laughed quietly. "I think you know me well enough to know the answer to that question."
Dream laughed too. "Never, gotcha."
"More often than never!" Techno protested as Dream started to brush his hair. "I brush it fairly often, at least."
"I can tell, there aren't many knots in it."
They sat in silence for a moment, Techno fiddling absently with the hem of his shirt as Dream brushed. He took his time, working section by section, taking care not to tug on it.
"Hey, you said you like reading, right?" Dream asked softly.
"Mm-hmm."
"What are you reading right now?"
"The Iliad," Techno told him, feeling his ears perk up slightly. They did that whenever he got to talk about things he liked. "Have you read it?"
Dream hummed thoughtfully. "I don't think so. What's it about?"
"It's a Greek epic poem about the war on Troy, more specifically Achilles and Agamemnon's fallin' out and how that affected the conflict as a whole, so it kinda glosses over the beginnin' of the war. There's - It's a really good story," Techno assured him. "It's long, though, so it's hard to summarize."
"You could read it out loud, if you want," Dream offered.
Techno blinked. "... Really?"
"Really."
"... Okay, yeah, that's... Yeah." Techno took the book out of his inventory (well-worn from the many times he'd read through it, and the many times Phil had read through it before him) and opened it to the first page.
Dream's hands stilled for a moment as he waited expectantly.
Techno took a deep breath and began. "Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing! That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign the souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; whose limbs unburied on the naked shore, devourin' dogs and hungry vultures tore. Since great Achilles and Atrides strove, such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!" The words of the poem took on their own natural rhythm as he read, and as he spoke the familiar words he found himself sinking into the story, creating a tiny bubble of words and blankets and his friend's hands in his hair.
Dream set the brush to one side and slowly started to braid.
Techno kept reading. "Declare, O Muse! in what ill-fated hour sprung the fierce strife, from what offended power Latona's son a dire contagion spread, and heaped the camp with mountains of the dead; the king of men his reverent priest defied, and for the king's offense the people died."
It felt like they were suspended in time. Techno had no idea how long he read, only vaguely registering when Dream tied off the braid and leaned against his shoulder to read along with him. The rhythm and the story drew him in and held him there, as they always did. He did notice, however, when Dream dozed off and jerked awake when he almost fell over.
"I think that's enough readin' for tonight," Techno told him, slipping a bookmark in between the pages and closing the book.
"Nooo, I wanna hear more!" Dream whined.
Techno raised an eyebrow and gently pushed Dream's shoulder, nearly pushing him over. "Mm-hmm. You're too tired, I don't want you passin' out sittin' up and knockin' the fort over."
Dream pouted. "Spoilsport."
"I'm tired too, Dream. I'll read more tomorrow."
"I'm holding you to that," Dream mumbled, grabbing a blanket off the floor and curling up on a cushion.
Techno grabbed a blanket too and crawled up onto the couch so he could stretch out. "Good night."
"'Night. We should do this more often."
"We should."
Sleepovers really were special, Techno decided as he drifted off. He was really lucky to have a friend like Dream to experience them with.