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Techno has never hated a roommate more than he hated Dream Taken.
He had had roommates before, mind you. He went to a boarding school for high school, and he had anywhere between two to four brothers depending on the day.
But every single roommate he had had so far had understood that, at some basic level, you have to live with each other. It’s smart to create a sort of truce when it comes to various things. In some cases, you could even agree on what went on within your space!
Wilbur and Ranboo had always been the easiest to work with. Wilbur was naturally organized. It wasn't a clean organization, everything was still messy, but there was a direct order to his mess. Techno didn’t like that it was messy, but he learned the patterns, and then he could live with it. Either way, he did the chores he said he’d do and put shit away when he took it out.
Ranboo was a wimp, no offense to the boy. He was extraordinarily easy to work with, and he listened when Techno told him to go clean the fuck up. He was neat enough already, kept most of his stuff clean, and did his own chores. His room - although technically up the stairs in the apartment building, but he was an honorary brother, and Techno hung out there often enough that he counted it - was about as clean as you could get a teenage boy to naturally keep it, which was to say, shockingly clean. If he was asked to do extra chores, he did them without thought.
Tubbo... Tubbo was a hit-or-miss situation when it came to being clean. Sometimes he was the most unironically messy person Techno had ever met. One time, Techno had found year-old ketchup packets in hoodies while walking into Tubbo’s room. Other times, Tubbo was cleaner than Techno himself. His bookshelf perfectly placed, everything in alphabetical order. All his clothes folded and sorted by color inside of his dresser. He picked up his plates and washed the dishes and helped when he was asked to set the table.
Tommy was hell on Earth. He managed to leave crumbs in every room he went through, whether he was eating in it or not. He didn’t do chores, whether his own or others he was asked to do. His room smelled like actual shit. But he would pick at least one day a month, and that day, he’d make sure everything was perfectly clean. He’d make his room into the neatest in the house, he’d do other people’s chores without being asked. Sometimes it was more than once a month, although that was rare.
His roommate in high school, a person named Eret, was amazing at keeping clean. They got exactly how it had to be, and shared Techno’s dislike for intense mess. He had similar systems to Wilbur, and Techno got used to her fast. They were great! Techno enjoyed hanging out with and rooming with him.
Overall, Techno could work with his family. They kinda sucked when he wanted to be lazy, but it worked! He got (most of) the cleanliness he wanted. He worked with his roommate even better, because Eret was good at organizing her shit and keeping it tidy.
But Dream Taken. Dream fucking Taken.
He’d never met someone messier who stayed messier. Never met someone who had such disregard for cleanliness before. It was fucking infuriating. Dream left his shit all over their dorm room and got mess everywhere. He didn’t put dishes away or wash them, he didn’t take out the trash.
And that was just the beginning of Techno’s issues with him.
The man was a dick who managed to overshare and talk too much while managing to stay locked down on nearly every detail of himself at that same time. Techno was, whenever near the man, constantly stuck in a state of in-between wanting Dream to shut the fuck up and talk about something real for once.
He didn’t understand boundaries, and he liked to sit on Techno’s bed or use Techno’s shit without asking first. Techno had found Dream dressed in one of his hoodies the other day, parading around the dorm like he had a right to wear it so casually. It took great strength not to strangle the man right then and there.
(He’d given it back when Techno had asked, but Techno hadn’t worn it since, even after washing it two times. He’d love to say it was just because he was worried about uncleanliness in general, but he didn’t get like this with anyone else. Just Dream the insufferably idiotic prick.)
And of course, there was a constant stream of people being brought into the dorm. They were nearly always friends, although sometimes Techno caught a few of them in a cuddle pile that was unidentifiable as romantic or platonic. He didn’t ask Techno before he brought people into their shared dorm, just let them in and spoke loudly with them for hours on end. Sometimes it was video calls instead, which Techno didn’t really have a problem with, but with his nerves already grated, the loud chatter that didn’t stop until 4 am didn’t do much to help Dream’s case.
Techno knew the names of a few of them - Sapnap, Karl, Sam - George was the one over call. He’d spoken to Sapnap, once, a quick few words after an accidental collision in the kitchen. Techno hadn’t known Dream had guests over, but he’d managed to keep his temper well enough. Sapnap had been polite, but when he’d returned to Dream’s room, Techno could hear some form of mockery. He wasn’t sure who it was directed at, but when he heard the shushing coming from Dream and the loud cackles from Sapnap, he could take an educated guess.
And throughout nearly the entire time they’d shared the dorm, they’d never had a real goddamn conversation. Dream went out of his way to avoid one-on-one conversations with Techno, to the point where he’d end up locking himself in his room at unnecessary points. Karl had once told him it wasn’t his fault, when Dream had bolted down the hall after Techno tapped him on the shoulder, but Techno didn’t really believe it.
When Techno had complained about the whole situation to his friends and brothers, they just gave each other this weird look before they offered their sympathies. He’d asked them about a hundred times what they thought was funny, or what the hell was going on, but it had taken so long before he’d gotten any of them to slip.
It had been Eret, in the end, who told him what she thought was really going on between the two roommates. They explained that Techno was constantly talking about Dream, to the point of an almost obsession, and that all of his friends had noticed how often it happened. The looks the group had been passing had, apparently, been ones of exasperation.
Nearly all of his friends, apparently, thought he was into Dream.
Techno’s immediate reaction was to refuse, to sputter and tell Eret how wrong he and the rest of their shared friends were. She had held up their hands in a placating manner, trying to let Techno know that he wasn’t trying to push anything onto him or anything.
Techno had gone back to his dorm that evening fuming, with the idea still whirling around in his head. Unfortunately, the more he went over it in his mind, the more he realized that not only was he kinda obsessed with Dream, he definitely thought that his stupid fucking roommate was attractive.
He didn’t have any plans to do anything about it. Dream was still infuriating, and a genuinely bad roommate with terrible communication skills. Whether or not he was attractive didn’t matter when he didn’t clean up after himself and didn’t talk to Techno.
And attraction or not, Techno had to get fed up at some point.
And fed up he got.
The last straw was smaller than most of the stuff had been, honestly. Techno should’ve been able to deal with it without too much anger. But it had been a long day, and he was so tired of Dream’s bullshit.
One of his classes on Tuesday ended extraordinarily late, so it was already dark when Techno got back to the dorm. The lights were off inside - barring a small strip of light peeking out from under Dream’s door - and Techno had to fumble for a moment before he found the little switch.
He went to his room first, shoving his shit onto the floor and grumbling at himself as he picked it back up again. He put his laptop and books on his desk, then dropped the considerably lighter bag full of papers on the ground.
The kitchen light was off too, so he had to find that as well. Techno knocked into a few cabinets on the way, worsening his scowl and making him spit a few curses at the walls. Techno grabbed a ramen packet from where they rested in their dwindling stash - he really needed to restock those - and poured water into a pot to boil it.
The process of ramen was easy. It was why packets of variously-flavored ramen were half of the food contained inside the kitchen he and Dream shared. It was also quick - so Techno went to grab himself a bowl about a minute later.
The section of their cabinet for bowls was empty.
Techno stared at the sink, where four bowls in various states of cleanliness sat. All of them were clearly used. Techno knew partly because he had used two of them himself - one for ramen yesterday night, and one for cereal that morning. And there were supposed to be bowls he could use tonight.
Because it was Dream’s turn to wash the fucking dishes.
It honestly didn’t matter that much. This was, unfortunately, a common thing for Dream to do - he’d forget about a chore or two, and Techno would have to add something extra to his list of things to do.
But Techno was tired, and annoyed, and he just really wanted to eat some stupid ramen.
He found himself at Dream’s door before he really realized what he was doing, knocking loudly on the frame. There was a sharp yelp and some shuffling behind the door before a sleepy looking Dream pushed the door open, something between sleepiness and confusion stuck on his face.
When he realized it was Techno, his face colored. Techno’s scowl deepened at the look. So he did know he hadn’t done the dishes. He probably knew that was why Techno was here, too - was probably embarrassed about it, or embarrassed about being caught. Either way, Techno was fucking pissed.
“I - Uh. Hey, Techno, what’s up?” Dream tried for a smile, but Techno shot it down with pursed lips and an angry cross of his arms.
“You forgot to wash the fuckin’ dishes,” Techno started.
“Oh - Sorry, I’ll get right on tha-”
“Again. You forgot to wash the fuckin’ dishes again.” Techno finished, cutting Dream off. The shorter man’s eyes widened in shock, and now Techno could really see the embarrassment in his expression. Good. He needed to know he couldn’t pull this shit again.
“You keep doin’ this! I’ve let it go on long enough without confrontin’ you, honestly, I should’ve done this much sooner.” Techno glared at Dream, anger seeping into his voice in waves. “Look, man, you’re a shitty fuckin’ roommate - you constantly forget to stick to what we agreed on before, I’m so goddamn done with it. If you need it changed, or you actually need help with some of it, you should’ve just talked to me! Now my brain’s just tryin’ to tell me that you’re fuckin’ lazy!”
Dream opened his mouth as if to speak, but Techno cut him off again. “And it’s not just chores! You stole my fuckin’ hoodie, man! Honestly, if you needed to borrow somethin’, I would’ve given it to you, but it’s weird and shitty to take it without askin’. You bring people in here without askin’ at all times of the goddamn day, and you make it sound like you’re laughin’ at me in there! Get your fuckin’ shit together!”
Techno probably should’ve known that yelling at someone like Dream wasn’t a way to communicate, but he deserved it at this point. He was furious, and it came all spilling out now that he got an actual chance to unload it on the root of his problems.
But Dream definitely wasn’t taking the yelling well. His face had gone red with anger, and he wore a scowl to match Techno’s. “Oh, I’m the one who needs to work on communication? If what I was doing bothered you so goddamn much, you should’ve tried to have a civil conversation. And y’know what, I’ll admit it - I was being shit. I suck at being a roommate, and I absolutely could’ve done better! But you could’ve told me that you were uncomfortable with it, instead of coming to me at ass o’clock at night and shouting!”
Now it was Techno’s turn to try to speak while Dream was on a roll. Dream didn’t let him, though, starting his streak again. “I’m sorry I took your hoodie! I realized like twenty minutes later it wasn’t mine, and I washed it and put it back on your bed! And I’ve never laughed at you! Maybe you heard Sapnap laughing at me, because he does that all the time? Or maybe you heard him laughing at a joke I made! Like friends fucking do! It’s your fault for jumping to conclusions about me. I’m not lazy, I’m just not used to people who don’t talk to me when they’re uncomfortable with my mess! So no, this is not all my fault. It’s not all yours either, but don’t go pinning it all on me!”
And with that, Dream slammed his door closed, effectively shutting Techno out and ending the conversation. Technically, Techno could just shove the door back open, but he wasn’t going to invade Dream’s space that badly. And either way... they probably both needed to cool off.
The next time they spoke was two days later.
Techno had had an uncomfortable time to sit on their conversation, and his friends had had an even more uncomfortable time listening to him rant about it. He went between stages of intense anger at Dream and reluctant agreement at some of what his roommate had said.
He still believed that Dream should take a lot more of the blame than he should, but he also knew that Dream wasn’t entirely wrong. He hadn’t tried communicating any of his issues with the way Dream acted - and Dream had acknowledged that he had been a shitty roommate, which made his chest fill with some mixture of avenged pride and annoyed awareness.
For the past day, he’d been working up the confidence to speak to Dream again. They did actually need to talk this out, because walking on eggshells around each other for the rest of the school year definitely wasn’t gonna work. There had been so many stilted avoidances and awkward eye contact, and Techno could only deal with it for so long.
He decided on that evening, and, in an annoying piece of fate, had found himself knocking on Dream’s closed door. It was once again late at night, and nearly entirely dark throughout the rest of their dorm, but gold light slipped out from under Dream’s door.
Techno knocked almost sheepishly, staring at the door. There was no yelp this time, only a long pause before the sound of quiet footsteps against the tiled floor. Dream opened the door slowly, a frown already twisting his features, and Techno fought the urge to wince. (The blush from a few days before rose again. Techno wondered if it was something to do with anger, or... something else)
“Hey, Dream,” he started, but Dream held up a hand.
“Are you here to yell at me, or have a civilized conversation? Because one of those is getting the door slammed again.”
Techno felt a familiar flare of anger popping up in his chest, but he shoved it down. It wasn’t the time to be mad, because he had in fact come here to be calm. “I’m here just to talk. We do actually need to have a conversation about our livin’ space.”
Dream nodded. “Yeah, we do. Come on in.”
Dream held the door open further, letting Techno step inside. It was a mirror of Techno’s room, of course, but Dream had added his own touches. A few posters lined the walls, some of them of singers and some of them video games. There were a few Techno did recognize - Alec Benjamin, Mitski, Minecraft - and a few he didn’t - The Crane Wives, Hollow Knight, Little Nightmares. There was a fuzzy green rug in front of Dream’s bed, and a few framed pictures of Dream and his friends on his desk.
It was just as messy as Techno had expected.
Dream sat down on his bed, staring up at Techno and wrinkling the unmade but pretty blue-green bedspread. Techno stood there awkwardly for a moment, trying to gather his words.
“So. Obviously we’ve been shit at communicatin’ so far - ” Dream gave a dry snort of agreement “ - and I think we should remedy that. You were right, you were bein’ a shitty roommate, but I also wasn’t tellin’ you any issues I had. Being roommates is supposed to be built on healthy communication and actually talkin’ to each other,” Techno said, trying not to sound like he was downright insulting Dream.
Dream nodded along. “I agree so far. What do you propose we do, then, big guy?”
Techno tried to ignore the nickname and continued. “I think we need to have a talk about boundaries and how we’re gonna get chores done, yeah?”
“Ugh, this sounds boring,” Dream gave a loud groan. “But yeah, it’s important. What, specifically, do you have an issue with me doing? Because it was a load of yelling and insults last time.”
“Right. Right, so. You don’t really do the chores you promise to do - for example, forgettin’ the dishes the other day. You’ve taken my clothes a few times now,” Techno paused, giving Dream a stink eye that edged between joking and serious. “And yes, whether you realized it or not, it has been a few times. That hoodie wasn’t the only time. And you invite people over all the time at all hours without askin’ me. Do you have any issues with anythin’ I was doin’?”
“Nah, I got nothing other than the lack of, y’know, talking to me.” Dream shrugged.
“Oh, yeah, actually,” Techno frowned. “That’s another thing. You always avoid talkin’ to me whenever I try to start a conversation, no matter what it’s about. It’s not high on my list, but what’s up with that?”
The flush that had been receding off of Dream’s face came back full force, turning his nose and cheekbones bright red and shoving his light freckles farther into view. “That’s - I. So. Can I maybe tell you when we’re... done with this talk? It’s a bit of an awkward thing to say, honestly.”
Techno shrugged. “Yeah? I guess so. Whatever. Anythin’ specific you want to do to fix any of the above issues?”
About half an hour later, he and Dream had a completed sample of a few tricks they were gonna try to make sure they kept up with each other’s preferences. Dream had a new sheet of paper taped to his door and new alarms on his phone, and their fridge had a new checklist stuck to its front.
There had been a few rocky moments, and one or two where Techno genuinely thought they might turn back to their yelling fest from the other day, but it had worked out smoothly enough in the end. Dream was a lot more agreeable than he seemed, he just didn’t enjoy being yelled at, which. Yeah, understandable, if Techno forced himself to consider. He had kinda gone from radio silence to yelling about how Dream kept fucking up things in their dorm and being a general nuisance, so.
They were standing in the kitchen, now, Dream nursing a hot cocoa and Techno drinking coffee. Dream was absentmindedly reading over the checklist again, and Techno was trying to figure out whether or not it was worth it to break the silence and bring up the question he’d wanted to ask earlier.
Eventually, he figured he’d just go for it. Dream said it was awkward, but it would be better to get it over with, right?
“Hey, Dream. You said earlier you’d answer when we were done - why did you go out of your way not to talk to me?”
Dream winced, the flush rising back to his cheeks. It was less this time, but it was still prominent. “Yeah, so. I kinda didn’t want to tell you, but I’m kinda into you? And I was super embarrassed about having a conversation because I thought you’d be able to tell and be weirded out by having a roommate who likes you or whatever.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and Techno almost laughed. Out of all of the reasons Techno could’ve imagined their final miscommunication would be, it definitely wasn’t this.
“Well, good thing I’m ‘kinda into you,’ too, Dream.”