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The picture was cute.
A younger version of himself stared back at him. Fluffy brown hair, squared glasses and a light pink sweater. Young Technoblade was grinning, standing with his arm pressed against his twins. His twin, Wilbur, was also smiling brightly; with similar brown hair to his own, except a bit more curly, circular glasses and a pastel yellow sweater. Wilbur held a smaller child, their youngest brother Tommy, who had his little arms raised in the air and a small cow plushie clutched in his small fist.
The picture was years old. He remembered the day it was taken very clearly; they had all gone out to the town fair, and Wilbur and Techno had won a cow plushie that they gave to Tommy. Little Tommy was ecstatic, and he named the cow Henry. Now, seven years on, it’s still ten-year-old Tommy’s favourite thing.
Techno put the picture back on his desk. He looked back at that picture every now and again, but not just for the sweet memories. It was for how similar he and Wilbur looked in it. It makes sense, they are identical twins, but they’re currently fifteen years old and still look so similar that even their friends get them mixed up sometimes. Of course, they have their differences; Wilbur’s ears are very elf-like, while Techno’s are more floppy, Wilbur has freckles and Wilburs also a couple of inches taller. But at first glance, they’re basically the same person.
It’s not that he minded looking like his brother, it made for some pretty great pranks, but it got annoying sometimes. Look, just because he looks like Wilbur doesn’t mean he can play the guitar, or be great at geography games. It was why he started growing out his hair more, though it was barely even shoulder length. He needed to be his own person, not just an extension of his twin. And he was sure that Wilbur felt the same way too sometimes.
Flopping down on his bed, Techno pulled out his phone, hoping to find something to entertain him. Scrolling mindlessly through some random social media, a certain post caught his eye. It was a random person, he didn’t know who, but they had long, vibrant purple hair. They looked happy, and the caption talked about how they felt free from other people with their new hair.
Hair dye? Well, he did want some sort of separation from Wilbur. Maybe hair dye would work. He wasn’t too fond of the colour purple, so maybe another colour? Techno decided that he would go shopping tomorrow, just to see what he could find.
Wilbur ended up going with him.
Techno had originally planned on going himself, but Wilbur said that wanted to go and buy some things, so Phil gave them money and told them to go together. Tommy wanted to go with, but Phil made him stay, which Techno was thankful for because Jesus Christ was that kid a pain to take shopping.
“What were you going to buy again?”
“Uh, hair dye?”
Wilbur snorted. “Hair dye? Why are you getting hair dye? And why’d you say it like your asking me?”
“I don’t know,” Techno groaned, “I still don’t know if I want to get it.”
Wilbur hummed like he was contemplating something. He was silent for a few moments before speaking again, “I think you should. Try new things and all that. And if it looks terrible I’ll just bully you for the rest of your life.”
Techno smacked his arm playfully. “Hey! That doesn’t make me feel any better!”
“Oh come on just do it. It’ll be fun!”
“...I’ll get the dye and do it tonight.”
Turns out, buying hair dye is harder than either of them expected. There was an unnecessary amount of brands and different shades of different colours and it was way too confusing. They didn’t want to ask anyone for help though, the twins were way too stubborn for that. So they stood in the hair aisle for way too long, trying to figure out what to buy.
“Is brand important?”
“Do you think I know anything about hair brands? I think just get the cheapest.”
“Okay, uh, colour?”
That was something Techno hadn’t thought about yet. Colour. He didn’t think he would look nice with black or blond, and he didn’t like the purple the person had in that picture.
“Uhh, I didn’t think that far.”
Wilbur gave him a pointed look.
“Okay, I know, I should have thought about it before. You can’t blame me, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to do this.”
Wilbur looked through some of the boxes, looking at some of the colours.
“Green?”
Techno fake-gagged. “Absolutely not, it’ll look like my hair is grass. I don’t want any natural colours either, so I don’t know.”
His twin hummed in response and continued looking through different colours. Techno turned to do the same, trying to be somewhat useful here. Blue maybe? Or red? None of them really seemed to sand out to him.
“Pink?”
Wilbur held up a box of pink hair dye. The shade was nice, a light, pastel pink. Techno though it was pretty close in colour to the sweater he had in the picture. It wasn’t too expensive either, which was another plus. He took the box off his brother and read it. It said it comes with gloves, a bowl, bleach and a brush. The lady on the box looked happy, swishing her short pink hair around, shining white teeth on show. He liked it. He liked it a lot, actually.
“This is nice. I kinda like this one. The colour looks like that sweater I had when we were younger.” Techno looked back up at Wilbur.
“Oh, that little sweater! You loved that thing.”
“Mhm, are you gonna get the stuff you needed?”
“I didn’t actually need anything, I just wanted an excuse to leave the child.”
Techno shook his head. “Whatever, I’m gonna buy snacks as well.”
They came home to an almost empty house. Phil wasn’t home, which left the twins to come home to a bored child sitting on the couch watching some random cartoon. Tommy turned his head at the sound of the door opening and shouted their names.
“Techno! Wilby!” Tommy ran towards them and threw himself at Wilbur, who rushed to catch him.
“Jesus, don’t just jump at people like that!” Wilbur scolded. He took a quick look around the house, “where's dad? He doesn’t have work today, does he? It’s Saturday.”
“I dunno, I wasn’t listening. Think he went to see Puffy.”
“Why?”
Tommy shrugged and drew his attention to the bag Techno was holding. He made a dive for the bag to try and get to the snacks inside, but Techno held the bag above his own head away from his little gremlin of a brother.
“Not now Theseus, maybe later.”
Tommy pouted and scrambled back to the TV. Techno dumped the plastic bag on a table and took the box of hair dye out, and began walking up the stairs to the bathroom, gesturing to Wilbur to follow him. He refused to dye his hair by himself, he desperately didn’t want to mess this up. Techno refused to be publicly embarrassed at school because he didn’t know how to dye his hair.
In the bathroom, Wilbur snatched the box off Techno. He began reading the box and the various instructions printed onto it.
“We need to wash your hair first.”
Techno groaned. “I didn’t sign up for this. Bruh.”
Wilbur had Techno sit on the side of the bathtub with a towel around his neck. Wilbur was messing with the bleach and reading the instructions aloud.
“You ready to be blond Techno?”
“Bruh.”
His hair looked like strands of noodles. His once brown hair was now thin, pale and yellow. The hair had a weird texture, it was weirdly dry, despite the fact it had just been washed not that long ago. Wilbur sat by the sink while Techno was still sat on the edge of the bathtub.
“Your hair looks god awful. You should keep it.”
“There is no way I’m keeping it like this,” Techno played with one of the strands, disgusted. “I look like a taller version of Tommy.”
The twins laughed and fell into a conversation when they heard footsteps padding closer to the door.
“Wilbur! Techno! Are you in there? I’m bored!” Tommy yelled through the door, then stepped in, uninvited. His eyes went from Wilbur to Techno, and as soon as he saw Techno’s hair, he almost fell over laughing.
“Techno you look so dumb! Your hair looks like bits of spaghetti!”
Techno just grumbled and looked away.
“What are you doing anyway?” Tommy asked, making a grab for the hair dye box but Wilbur moved it from out of his reach.
“I’m dying Techno’s hair pink Toms,” Wilbur said.
“Pink? But his hair is yellow, it’s not pink.”
“Well you need to bleach it first since he has brown hair,” Wilbur explained, “then we can dye it pink.”
“Oh. Can I dye my hair pink?”
Techno snorted. “No, I am not matching hair with you.”
“Please Techno, please!”
Techno opted to ignore his youngest brother and turned to his twin. “So when we actually dye it?”
Wilbur checked his phone. “Uh, now, actually!”
Techno got up and stood in front of the mirror while his twin got behind him with a plastic bowl of pink sludge. Slipping on gloves, Wilbur picked up the brush and dipped it into the dye, while Techno started to part his hair into sections. Tommy sat on the tiled floor and watched his brothers, eyes on the pink dye.
Wilbur began to wipe the pink dye messily onto Techno’s hair. Clearly, he had no idea what he was doing, so just decided to wing it. The instructions were too confusing for him anyway.
“Do you even know what you’re doing Wil?” Techno asked.
“Uh, sure I do! Totally, yeah!”
“Mhm.”
The brunet decided that the brush was way too slow so threw the brush in the sink and stuck his gloved hands in the dye and ran his fingers through Techno’s hair. It worked, the blond hair was being completely covered in pink.
“Heh?! What the hell are you doin’?!”
“I’m putting the dye in your hair!”
“Why are you using your hands?! There’s a brush right there!”
“Oh suck it up Techno!”
Tommy was giggling on the floor as he watched Techno try to squirm away from Wilbur, while Wilbur pulled his hair closer and covering it n dye. Eventually, Techno gave up trying to get away and stood still while Wilbur did his job.
About twenty-five minutes later, the hair was finally done. Wilbur ended up also dying a little stand of Tommy’s hair pink after Tommy begged for the pink hair dye. The three brothers sat in the bathroom, waiting until Techno could wash out his hair. They almost ended up kicking Tommy out because he kept on asking if they could wash his hair yet.
Half an hour later, it came time to wash it out. Wilbur and Tommy left Techno to wash it out, while they went to the kitchen to wash out the little strand in Tommy’s hair. Techno wanted his hair to be surprised so he wanted them to leave.
Ten minutes pass and Wilbur and Tommy are huddled up on the couch, Tommy watching some cartoon and fiddling with the singular pink strand in his hair, and Wilbur mindlessly playing a game on his phone. The sound of a door opening caught their attention. There, standing in the doorway, was Technoblade.
His hair was down and reached just above his shoulders. His hair was now dry and baby pink. Techno stood in the doorway looking down at the floor.
Tommy gasped and ran up to Techno, attempting to grab his hair. Wilbur touched his hair, playing with it. You could still see a few streaks of blond, but it was soft. It was pretty.
“See? I did a good job didn’t I?”
“Techno! Techno! Look at my hair! I have pink!”
Techno smiled and ruffled his hair. “Yeah, you do. It looks cool.”
“Can we have those snacks you bought now? Please?”
“We can watch a movie as well. We haven’t watched Up in a while.” Wilbur said.
Tommy cheered and ran into the living room, Wilbur following behind. Techno smiled, his body filling with confidence. He went and grabbed the plastic bag and walked into the living room to his brothers.
A few hours later when Phil came home, he was greeted by three sleeping kids, one with new pink hair. Phil smiled at the sight of his kids cuddled together on the couch, wrapped in blankets and the end credits of a movie playing quietly n the background. He took a picture for the album, a new picture of all his kids together.