Work Text:
Techno had just finished the dishes when someone started pounding on their front door, he would have ignored it but he heard;
“Techno! Techno! Open the door!”
Techno dried off his hands and opened the door, Skeppy standing there panting, a hand on his chest.
“Techno- I got- I got a trampoline!” He wheezed.
“Really?”
“Yes! Come on, I wanna show you!” Skeppy grabbed his arm, Techno shook him off.
“Okay hang on,” Techno started pulling on his shoes while Skeppy bounced in the doorway.
“I’m going to Skeppy’s!” He yelled.
“Don’t care!” Tommy yelled back.
“Tell Wilbur, asshole!” He turned and followed Skeppy out of their apartment building and down the street while Skeppy babbled about how he got it.
“My neighbor had it for a few years so we got it second hand.” He explained.
“And it’s a birthday gift?”
“Yeah! An early one so I can still use it before it gets cold.”
They went around the side of Skeppy’s house and tugged the huge white plastic gate open and Techno saw the trampoline. It was huge with a sagging net and ripped foam around the edges but other
than that it looked brand new.
They pulled off their shoes and climbed through the opening in the net, Skeppy zipped it back up, and they started bouncing.
“Wait wait wait, I saw this on TV- I can do a flip, back up.” Skeppy nudged Techno away.
“Oh here we go-”
“Shut up and let me do this!” Skeppy shuffled from foot to foot, Techno snorted.
“Are you trying to rev up?”
“No! I’m just hyping myself up!” Skeppy took a deep breath then launched himself forwards, tucking his head close to his chest with an outstretched arm, and actually managed to do a flip.
And also punch a hole in the net.
He had flipped with his arm out and was too close to the edge. Skeppy pulled his arm out and shrieked while Techno cackled.
“Well, you did a flip.” Techno said, biting his tongue through a grin.
“Shut up!” Techno laughed harder.
“Okay, okay it’s fine, this is fine. I can patch that up later- probably.”
“Good job Skeppy.”
“You’re such a jerk!” Skeppy snapped back with no heat, he perked up a minute later. “I know a game we can play!”
“What is it?”
“It’s called popcorn, one person sits in the middle and curls up and the other people bounce around them and just to get the person in the middle to lose their grip and- like open their arms! Like a popcorn kernel!”
Techno nodded, “Sounds interesting enough, who’s going first?”
“I’ll go first,” Skeppy sat down in the middle of the trampoline and crossed his legs then wrapped his arms around them. “Now you jump around me.”
Techno started jumping, even acting like he was going to land on Skeppy a few times just to sike him out, but couldn’t get him to pop.
“You’re bad at this,” Skeppy commented as he flopped onto his side, arms still wrapped tightly around his knees.
“Shut up,” Techno jumped close to his head, Skeppy shrieked.
Techno was about to give up when the back gate cracked open.
“Techno!” Wilbur poked his head through the gate, “Phil says it’s time- what the fuck? Since when did Skeppy have a trampoline?”
“Trampoline?” Wilbur yelped in protest as Tommy squeezed past him to get a better look.
“Perfect timing- come help me pop this bitch.” Techno walked over and unzipped the opening. Tommy didn’t question it and ran over, pulling off his shoes, grabbing Techno’s outstretched hand and was hauled up.
“Tommy Techno wait, Phil sent us to come get you.” Wilbur pointed out, walking over and resting his hands on the metal rim.
“Just this one round?” Tommy asked, “Please Wil?”
Wilbur bit his lip then sighed, “Okay fine, one round.” He took off his shoes and climbed up. “How do we play?”
Techno explained the rules and they started bouncing again this time with much more success, bouncing Skeppy higher and higher until he lost this grip and flopped on the rubber.
“Can I go next?” Tommy asked, already sitting down in the middle.
“We really should be going,” Wilbur trailed off and looked between his siblings. Tommy stared up at him and Techno smiled weakly, in hopes to persuade him, “One more?”
Wilbur bit the inside of his cheek then finally nodded, “One more.” Tommy cheered and they started up again.
One more turned into several more, each person getting a turn to be the kernel. After they got bored of that they started on trying to outdo each other with tricks.
Skeppy did another front flip and managed not to punch a hole in the net and Tommy also tried to but was stopped by Wilbur who ‘didn’t want to see Tommy break his neck’. Techno did help hold up his
legs while Tommy tried to do a handstand.
“I bet I could do a backflip,” Skeppy said, Techno rolled his eyes.
“If you managed too you’d probably punch another hole in the net.”
“Shut up that was one time-”
“Like an hour ago!”
“Shut up!” Skeppy shoved his shoulder playfully.
“I’d like to see Skeppy try to do it.” Wilbur said, resting his chin in his palm. Techno laughed, trying to ignore the waxy feeling the trampoline left on his skin.
“Someone believe in me!” Skeppy said, standing up. He kept trying to figure out how he would do it. After multiple attempts of twisting around and bouncing around Tommy groaned.
“Do it already!”
“I was just about to but you messed up my concentration!”
“Yeah, ‘concentration’.” Techno air quoted.
“You’re a jerk!” Skeppy shot back while Techno laughed.
“What the hell is taking you guys so long?” Techno turned and saw Phil standing at the gate, looking annoyed.
“Uh- we got distracted,” Techno offered weakly, “We were trying to watch Skeppy do a backflip but he keeps chickening out.”
“Hey!”
“Uhuh,” Phil nodded, looking exasperated.
“Phil you should do one, you’ve talked about it before.” Wilbur said.
“I can but-” He started only to be interrupted.
“I bet you can’t!” Tommy said, pushing his face against the net.
“I bet he can,” Wilbur shot back.
“He can’t, he's too old!”
“Alright that’s it,” Phil climbed onto the trampoline, “I’m gonna prove you little shits wrong.” He pushed Tommy’s head, “Then we are going home.”
Techno backed up to the edge along with everyone else and watched as Phil jumped up, arms outstretched, then pulled his knees to his chest then landed the flip perfectly.
Tommy gasped while Wilbur clapped, elbowing Tommy.
“I told you he could do it!”
“That was so cool- can you teach me how to do that?” Skeppy asked, leaning forwards on his knees, Tommy jumped up.
“Teach me too!”
“Later, now let's get going, you guys were supposed to be back like an hour ago.”
Techno got off the trampoline and pulled on his shoes, waving bye to Skeppy.
-------
Techno had been hanging out at Skeppy’s house, laying on the basement floor watching random youtube videos with him because it was too damn hot to do anything else.
“I don’t know how those guys do it.” Skeppy commented, pressing his face into the floor.
“It’s ‘cause of the Environmental Johnson Equation.” Techno said simply, Skeppy nodded.
“Which is based off of the Equilibrium Maintenance Feature.”
“Exactly!”
The sun was setting when Skeppy dragged Techno outside since fiery light was no longer trying to melt the Earth. They bounced on his trampoline for a while, taking breaks to look at sunset as it shifted through dripping vibrant orange to soft pink and blue and an inky purple.
Skeppy laid down and Techno laid next to him. The air was humid but dry and there were more stars out then Techno had seen in a long time.
He pointed out different constellations and planets to Skeppy until Phil texted him to come home.
----
“I’m going to Skeppy’s!” Techno yelled, tying his shoe.
“Take Tommy with you!” Phil called back, Techno’s head snapped up.
“What? No!”
“Yes! I’m going to work soon and Wilbur is out!”
“Can’t he just stay home alone?”
“Not after last time!”
Techno groaned, dragging his hands down his face, “Tommy! Get your shoes!”
They were headed towards Skeppy’s house, kicking a rock between each other, when they were intercepted by Dream.
“Oh hey Techno, I was just coming to see if you wanted to hang out.”
“Big man Dream!” Tommy yelled, Techno slapped a hand on Tommy’s face and pushed him back.
“I gotta watch my little brother and I’m heading to Skeppy’s,” He explained.
“Oh,” Dream paused, “Mind if I come with?”
Techno shrugged, “I don’t mind, you can ask Skeppy when we get there.”
Tommy bugged Dream the rest of the way there.
“Why is your name Dream?”
“Uh-”
“Why are the tips of your hair green?”
“Well I di-”
“Why are you wearing a hoodie? Do you not have elbows?”
“Oh my god, Tommy, leave the poor guy alone,” Techno said as they reached Skeppy’s house. Techno pushed open the front door and took his shoes off.
“Hey Skeppy, I have two nerds with me.”
Skeppy was laying on the couch, “Great, who is it?”
“Tommy and Dream.”
“Oh that should be interesting.”
They argued about what to play before settling on Mario Kart. Techno took every opportunity to attack Skeppy which distracted both of them enough to the point where they were both lagging behind so
Dream and Tommy were constantly neck and neck to finish the race. Dream’s whooping cheer drowned out Tommy’s playful yells as he fell back onto the couch dramatically.
“Skeppy can we get on your trampoline?” Tommy asked, rolling over, cheek against the cushion.
“You just wanna do something else cause I beat you!” Dream teased.
“No! I’m just bored with Mario Kart!”
“I mean, we can but you have to be careful because the net is gone.” Skeppy said, standing up. He didn’t bother to put his shoes on as he walked towards the backdoor.
“What do you mean the net is gone? Did you punch too many holes in it?” Techno asked.
“Shut up shut up,” Skeppy bumped Techno, “The whole net was shredded and it was easier to just take it off.”
“Yeah, sure.” Techno teased, bumping Skeppy back.
They went outside and got on the trampoline, Dream grabbed onto one of the poles and started to climb on it, wrapping his legs around.
“Dream this is pretty old, I don’t think you should climb on that,” Techno pointed out.
“It’s fine,” Dream twisted around on the pole, “probably.” He continued to twist around, pulling off his hoodie and throwing it aside. Tommy gasped loudly.
“Oh my god Dream is stripping?”
Techno snorted and Skeppy burst out laughing. Dream wheezed, he would’ve fell off the trampoline if Techno didn’t grab him.
“Tommy- Tommy- you can’t just- you can’t just yell that,” Techno covered his eyes with his hands, “Where did you even learn that?”
Skeppy ignored them, “Dream is this your new career path?”
Dream twirled around again, “Yes, this is my new goal in life!”
“I wanna be there when you tell the career counselor!” Techno butted in.
----
Techno was laying on the couch reading when his phone started to buzz non stop. When he checked it he found multiple texts from Skeppy.
“HELPPPPPPP”
“HOW DO U BAKE?!??!”
“TECHNNNOOOOOOO”
“PLEASE THERE IS FLOUR EVERYWHERE”
“DUDE”
“ANSWER ME PLEASE I NEED HELP”
Techno sighed and texted back “What?”
“U KNOW HOW TO BAKE RIGHT?? I NEED UR HELP!!!”
Techno texted back, “Alright” and after telling Phil where he was going he headed towards Skeppy’s.
What he didn’t realize was that he was completely unprepared to see Skeppy standing in the middle of his kitchen with batter all over his shirt and oven, broken egg shells littering the floor along with the aforementioned flour.
He stood there, trying to take everything in. “What the fuck?”
Skeppy looked at him sheepishly, “I don’t know what I’m doing, I keep spilling and dropping everything!”
Techno sighed, taking off his glasses, “That’s it, I’m not wearing my glasses anymore, I’ve seen enough.”
“Techno!”
“Alright alright,” He put his glasses back on, “What are you trying to do?”
“I’m trying to make a cake for my sister's birthday and it’s not going too well,” He trailed off, Techno nodded.
“I see. Show me the recipe.”
Skeppy texted him the recipe, it looked pretty easy, just a two layer lemon cake. Techno rolled up his sleeves and preheated the oven then turned to the mess of a kitchen, sighing.
“You’ve lost cooking rights.”
Skeppy changed and they both started to clean up the kitchen, sweeping up flour and scrubbing down counters.
“How the hell did you get flour on top of the fridge?”
“I don’t know!”
After they finished cleaning up they started on the cake.
“Why do you have brown sugar out? We don’t need it.”
“We don’t?”
“Oh my god you’re so bad,”
Skeppy measured out most of the ingredients while Techno mixed them together. They divided the mix and put in different pans then put it in the oven.
“Okay so for the frosting we need a lot of butter,” Techno said, scrolling through the recipe.
“How much butter?” Skeppy asked, opening the fridge.
“Like three sticks.”
They creamed the butter together with sugar and milk while waiting for the cakes to bake.
Once Skeppy pulled them out and tested to make sure they were cooked all the way through they went set them out to cool then watched TV while they waited.
Frosting the cake was a whole new idea.
The frosting was good but kept ripping at the cake even though it was cool. They combated this by dumping the frosting in big globs on the cake, this had the side effect of getting it all over their hands.
“Oh Technoooo,” Techno looked over to see Skeppy holding a glob of frosting, a familiar glint in his eyes.
“Is this really a fight you wanna start?”
“Nope nope nope nevermind.”
They soon finished and examined their work.
“It’s not the prettiest cake but as long as it tastes good,” Techno shrugged, wiping frosting from his hands.
“Yeah, thanks for helping me out with it.”
“Of course nerd.”
Skeppy rocked back and forth on his feet.
“Do you wanna go out on the trampoline?”
“Eh, why not.”
So they went out and laid on the trampoline, talking about anything and everything. Techno talked about how he didn’t want to go back to school, how everything stressed him out. Skeppy talked about how he felt like the expectations were going to crush him.
They were in the middle of their conversation when a loud crackle pierced the air. Both boys jumped, looking around Techno spotted a gold streak against the deep blue sky then an explosion of orange
and yellow.
“What the-”
“What the hell is wrong with my neighbor? It isn’t even July yet!” Skeppy squinted through the trees and over the fence.
“They’re just trying to be festive!”
“Yeah- ‘festive’!”
----
Techno was two seconds away from ripping his hair out, he was going to lose his mind. Every teacher had decided to dump extra work on him and by third period he already had at least 2 hours worth of homework. Everything was too loud and the crowds and hallways were smearing together like paint.
He had a nervous twitch in his hand again and every noise grated against his skull. He was just trying to make it through the day and almost had when he noticed it was raining. He'd have to walk home by himself since Wilbur was taking the car to work and Tommy had practice.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like the rain he just didn’t like the rain while he was carrying all of his school supplies.
“Hey Techno,” He heard Skeppy bounce up behind him, “Wanna hang out after school today?”
“Can’t, I have too much work.”
“Do you wanna come over and work on it together?”
Techno sighed, “Sure, why not?” He let himself get dragged over to Skeppy’s house, hoping they’d actually be able to get some work done. He climbed into the front seat Skeppy’s rickety old car and
watched the raindrops slide down the window.
They made it to Skeppy’s house and sat in his basement, softly playing music in the background while they worked on history questions. They divided the work and actually managed to do it faster, giving each other answers and working together before splitting off to different assignments.
After a while Skeppy poked him with his pencil, “Do you wanna go on the trampoline?”
“Isn’t it still raining?” Techno didn’t look up from his math sheet.
“Probably, but that’s what’ll make it fun!”
“Can’t, still gotta finish-”
“Shut up, we have been working for like hours, just take a little break, calm down, and have fun in the rain!” Skeppy grabbed his hand before Techno could protest “The worksheets will still be there when
we get back,” Then he dragged him up the stairs.
The rain was chilly, not cold but enough to wake Techno up. They left their shoes in the kitchen then went out and on the trampoline, which looked to be skin and bones, the foam ring and net being completely gone and the metal springs rusting.
Jumping in the rain was exhilarating, the rain soaked his hair and clothes and splattered against his glasses. Skeppy would push him and Techno would grab him and drag them both down, landing on the
wet, waxy mat.
His chest felt looser, his body felt cold but his heart was alive and pounding. They had started trying to jump in sync, to see if it would bounce them higher.
“You know, even though I don’t use this as much as I used too, I’m glad I still have it.” Skeppy said, Techno nodded.
“Yeah this is pretty nice especially since it hasn’t broken yet.” Techno agreed.
“Yeah it-” Skeppy was cut off when the mat ripped under his feet and both he and Techno fell through. Techno slid on the dampened ground and landed on his back.
Techno looked up at the sky through the tear, Skeppy’s shouts seemed muffled as he watched the rain fall and dot the earth. Then he started chuckling which evolved into full laughter as he laid under a broken trampoline in the rain with his best friend.
“What are you laughing at?” Skeppy asked, sitting up, grinning faintly.
“I- it’s just that-” Techno broke off laughing, he couldn’t explain why because it really wasn’t that funny, it was just the fact that they were talking about how much they liked the trampoline and how long it held out only for it to break.
Skeppy laughed along with him, shaking his head, shifting to lay next to him.
They stayed there, looking up and watching the rain fall.