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Techno did things out of love, he always had, that was almost exclusively reserved for Wilbur. Everything he did for Wilbur was out of love, making sure he didn’t do anything too reckless and that he at least finished his assignments and that.
Then they had been placed with Phil, so he started doing things for Phil. It started off with little things like doing more chores, to sometimes making Phil’s bed before he got home, to helping start on dinner and making sure his brothers were home safe.
Then came Tommy.
He didn’t really do anything new for Tommy, sure he helped him with his homework but he also did that for Wilbur. He really didn’t do a lot of stuff out of love for him, not that he didn’t love him, he just didn’t really have a way to express it.
At least he thought he didn’t.
“Can I have some?” Tommy asked, leaning over top of the old sagging couch, reaching for Techno’s small bag of chips. Techno pulled away, raising an eyebrow and the bag.
“Why would I share that with you?” He teased, Tommy rolled over onto the couch, back of his head on Techno’s lap, still reaching for the chips.
“Cause you love me,” Tommy drew out the last syllable, grinning at him, while still reaching for the bag.
Techno rolled his eyes and snorted, he let his arm back down and let Tommy grab a handful of chips, the bag crinkling loudly against the crackling TV in the background.
Tommy didn’t lift his head from his brother’s lap and Techno didn’t push him off.
Techno’s head was jerked to the side and he yelped,
“Hey! If you’re gonna mess with my hair then be gentle!”
“You’re such a pussy- I’m making it look better!” He felt Tommy pull on another section of his hair, messily wrapping it up in a hair tie.
“Yeah sure, ‘better’.” He deadpanned, Tommy frowned, sticking his tongue out. He shifted in the old folding chair Tommy had drug out of the garage, kicking at the cold metal legs.
“Yes better! You have no sense of style, Blade!”
“Oh yeah this coming from the guy that has 14 of the same red and white shirts.”
Tommy narrowed his eyes, “You’re a real dick, you know that?” he said with no real heat.
Techno snorted, they sat in a comfortable silence as Tommy continued to twist his hair around.
“There! It’s done!” Tommy handed him a mirror and Techno already knew before that it was going to be terrible but that still didn’t prepare him for what he saw in the mirror.
His hair was up in random ponytails and twisted together in a pink tornado, bobby pins sticking out at random angles, Techno could already feel the tangles.
“Alright this is bad,” He set the mirror down, pulling at one of the hair ties, Tommy slapped his hand away.
“What do you mean! It looks great-” He couldn’t finish the sentence with a straight face.
“To you maybe but I’m not walking around like this!” Techno took down one of the ponytails.
“Aw you bitch- you bitch! It took me so long to do that! You have no respect for the art of hair styling!”
Techno sighed, “Why do I let you do these things to me?”
“Cause you love me- or did since you’re destroying my hard work!”
Techno snorted, pinching the bridge of his nose, nodding lightly before going back to untangling the whirlwind of pink on his head.
“Did you preheat the oven?” Techno asked, checking over the list of ingredients.
“Did I what the what?” Tommy asked, twirling the ring of measuring spoons on his finger.
Techno stared at him for a moment then walked over and set the oven to 350 degrees, cooking with Tommy was always a new experience.
They were making cookies, mainly from boredom, Techno would’ve done it himself but Tommy insisted on ‘helping’.
They started to mix the ingredients together, Tommy handling the dry while Techno mixed the butter and sugar.
Tommy spilled half of the ingredients before quickly sweeping them back in the bowl.
“Good job there Innit,”
“Shut up Blade!”
They folded the ingredients together, Tommy added more chocolate chips then necessary, then rolled them into balls and set them on the trays.
Techno put the cookies in the oven then started cleaning up their dishes, putting them in the sink when a puff of flour hit him in the face.
Tommy grinned at him, Techno wiped some of the white powder off his face and shoved back onto Tommy’s, dragging his hand up the side of his head, ruffling his hair.
Tommy laughed, dipping his hand back into the flour container, throwing more at Techno, who did the same, aiming for the other side of Tommy’s face.
It escalated into both of them flinging flour at each other, getting all over their clothes and the kitchen.
Techno ducked behind the counter, flour sifting through his fingers, he jumped out only to slip on a flour dusted floor and fall.
Tommy cackled, trying to move forwards but slipped and fell himself, a wave of white dust flying up upon his impact.
Techno laughed, shoulders bouncing, as he scrambled to his feet and slid over to Tommy, helping him up.
“This is a mess,” He said as Tommy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “Why’d I let you do this?”
“Cause you love me!”
Techno snorted, brushing the flour off his hoodie, “Yeah, that’s the reason.”
Techno blinked awake in the middle of the night, throat and mouth dry as he blindly reached for his water bottle on the nightstand, sitting up and chugging it.
He paused for a minute to breathe and was about to lay back down when he noticed Tommy shaking in his bed, quiet, panicked, murmurs drifting through the room.
He debated it in his head, wasn’t it dangerous to wake up someone having a nightmare? Or was that just an old myth?
He decided it was better for Tommy to wake up in shock then suffer in dream hell and was about to get up when Tommy shot up with a sharp gasp, grabbing his chest, panting and frantically looking around the room.
Techno waited for a minute, noticing how Tommy wiped at his face, then whispered;
“Tommy,”
His little brother jumped, jerking to look at Techno with watery, wide blown, eyes.
Techno patted his bed and lifted up the blankets, an unspoken invitation that floated through the dark room.
Tommy shaky pulled himself up, wrapping one of his blankets around his shoulders, then shuffled over to Techno’s bed. He climbed over Techno and laid between him and the wall, Techno pulled the covers around them and laid to face Tommy, wrapping an arm around him, pulling him closer to his chest.
Tommy pressed closer, obviously trying not to shake, and Techno rested his chin on Tommy’s head, fingers running through his hair.
He didn’t know what happened to Tommy to make him have a nightmare like that but he wanted to make sure nothing bad every happened to him again.
After a moment Tommy whispered,
“Why are you letting me do this?” Almost like he was scared of Techno realizing how close they were and pushing him away.
Techno paused, squeezing Tommy tighter, after a moment of hesitation he whispered back;
“Cause I love you.”