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Tommy was bored.
He was at the library which his brother had dragged him into, forcing him up and out of the house, but Tommy wasn’t the reading type. Books to him were long and boring, you had to sit for hours just to read through the thick pages and the millions of swimming words.
But he got dragged here anyway, leaving him with the only choice of actually looking around, maybe to try to find something that at least looked interesting, not just a boring hardback book that’s a shade of blue.
He entered the murder mystery isle and ran his hand along the books until he felt something grab his hand. Looking back, he thought it would be a random Karen, or his brother, but instead, he was met with a decayed looking hand holding onto him with a death grip.
And before Tommy could scream, it pulled him towards itself. Squeezing his eyes shut, Tommy hoped that it was all just a bad dream.
The boy was awoken with something slapping his face, opening his eyes, he realised it was the very same decayed hand that had dragged him. In an instant, Tommy crawled backwards and hit the wall, or what he thought was the wall.
“Who are you?” The wall spoke, Tommy whipped his head around and stared at the giant man. He wore a white poet's shirt, and black trousers. He had pale skin, with long, silky pink hair and piercing red eyes.
Gasping, Tommy quickly scrambled up into a standing position, and even like that, the gigantic man was still towering over him. It was intimidating. The man's face morphed into a frown as he started tapping his foot on the ground.
“I’m T-tommy..” Tommy stuttered, remembering what the man asked him, nodding, the man asked another question, “What are you doing in my house?” but Tommy didn’t answer this question, because looking closer, he recognised the man's face.
And upon the recognition, he burst out laughing, “Good prank Techno.” He giggled, shoving his older brother in the side a little and looking around the room, “How did you even get this? Where on earth are we?”
The room was like an old, rich persons house, it was surrounded by millions of shelves filled to the brim with all sorts of books, the ceiling was taller than Tommy’s house stacked on itself, a chandelier still above them, dark brown wooden floors, and a fireplace, which was surround by comforters.
One second Tommy was admiring the room, and the next, he was pinned to the floor with a sword pressed to his chest. Techno stood over him, and Tommy took in a bit more recognition, his brother had longer hair and didn’t wear his glasses.
Breathing unsteady, Tommy kept switching between the tip of the sword and Techno’s face, “H-hey, I know you don’t like me that much but there’s no need for such actions!” He slightly raised his hands.
“Who. Are. You.” Techno’s words were rough, cold to the bottom of his voice, his red eyes pierced through his soul, cutting it up in little pieces.
Tommy got a little frustrated, “I’m your brother dumbo! Not that you see me that much, but I was literally with you five minutes ago!” He spat in the guy's face, scowling.
Techno frowned deeper, “I do not have a blonde brother.” He turned to the hand who was now slightly retreating into the bookshelves, “Oh you little rascal…” He cursed, and walked towards it, but not fast enough to catch it as it jumped and disappeared.
Tommy just awkwardly sat on the floor as he watched Techno curse at thin air as he flipped through random books but still carefully putting them back into their designated areas, then he watched as Techno turned himself around and made his way to the boy.
“Apologies, that probably wasn’t the best way to go about it..” He cleared his throat, bending slightly to offer Tommy his hand, and shook his head, “Yeah.. probably..”.
They started walking down the hallways, “I do not have a vision on how I can fix this, it may take some time, and I suppose I wouldn’t mind having some company for the time being, it does get quite lonely at times.” Techno remarked.
“You’re alone here?” Tommy questioned, tilting his head to the side and looking up at Techno, the man side eyed him, “Well do you see anyone else?” he turned away.
It was true. Looking around, Tommy hadn’t seen a single person, although it was quite late, it didn't diminish the thought that it looked empty, just like his apartment back in Logstedshire with his Techno, but this place was bigger, it was slightly more full and not as dusty.
There were paintings on the walls, carpets without ceases and chandeliers hanging off the tall ceilings. There were massive doorways and statues, which Tommy only started looking at slightly later.
He observed the paintings and the people in them. One had people fighting, like a war, with explosions and swords, another had a garden with a couple small figures leaning against a massive tree, but the next one stopped Tommy.
The next painting had multiple people sitting, posing for the painting. A woman, a man and two boys, both brunette.
His breath caught in his throat as he stared at it, Techno seemed to notice that Tommy had stopped and came up beside him, “That is my family.” He said, something deep buried in his voice, “Yeah.. same..” Tommy answered, choking back a sob, “Let’s just go-” He turned away and picked up his pace, no longer looking around the halls.
Techno easily caught up and kept leading them up and down the halls and stairs, he had decided to not question Tommy, or just to ignore him, which wouldn’t be a surprise to the boy, but it gave him time to recollect himself.
They had finally arrived into a grand dining hall, and took a sharp turn, entering the kitchen, which was surprisingly cosy, it was extremely similar to the kitchens he would see in movies, or on pictures in magazines and books.
Techno opened a fridge and looked back at Tommy, “What do you fancy to eat?” he asked, raising a brow, Tommy just shrugged, “I’m not sure what you have, so I’ll go with whatever.” He pushed out, hopping onto a counter, to which Techno picked him up under the armpits and placed him in a chair, “We’re having soup.”
Surprisingly the soup was good, it was more than good, it was the best meal Tommy had ever had the pleasure of eating, since he never had any homemade meals unless it was from Puffy, but those were usually only leftover baked goods, which were sweet.
Tommy had eaten at least 3 bowls before Techno had to stop him, telling him that he would throw up if he had to eat any more, to which Tommy loudly expressed his sadness, but was quickly shut up when he was told he could eat more the next day.
And after cleaning up, Techno took Tommy to one of the many rooms in his palace, or mansion, or castle, whatever he wanted to call it. And basically had to give a separate tour for the room itself, where the bathroom was, the closet etc.
Techno even decided to mention where his room was, which was conveniently a couple doors away from Tommy’s, cute.
After letting the man leave, Tommy decided to look around for more things, if he was going to stay for a couple of nights, he would need clothes. Interestingly enough, there were a couple in the closet, not too much, but enough to last him a couple of weeks if you wash it.
Taking the ones that looked closest to pajamas, Tommy went to take a shower, and threw on what looked like grey sweatpants, and a simple red shirt. He turned off all the lights and crawled into the plush, king sized bed, with comforters which Tommy would describe the feel of as if you are floating in heaven.
And with that, his mind floated off into void as he let his eyes rest and his body floated away into the pure state of bliss under the cozy warmth of the blankets and the softness of the pillows.
The next morning, Tommy woke up at what seemed to be 11am, that's what he guessed by looking at where the sun was up, obviously he didn’t know much about the sun cycle, but he didn’t care.
Forgetting that he wasn’t home, Tommy made his way down the abundance of stairs and into the kitchen, his unawake mind replaying the weird hallucinations from yesterday, he’s probably never going to go to the library again.
Looking in the pantry, Tommy couldn’t find any of his normal cereal, groaning, he reached for the oatmeal and placed it onto the counter, turning to the fridge, he was met with a chest. Screaming and falling onto his ass, Tommy crawled away only for his head to hit the top of the counter.
Techno kneeled in front of the boy, concern sparkling in his still eyes and expressionless face, “You good? You just came in and grabbed oatmeal?” He picked up Tommy and placed him on the counter, examining his head.
“Damn, I thought it was all a dream” Tommy groaned, leaning his head into Techno's palm, “Hey, I’m not that bad.” The man's lips quirked upwards as he scratched the blonde's scalp, to which the boy practically purred into.
“Well, I made pancakes, if you are willing to eat something other than oatmeal.” Techno grabbed the boy again and placed him onto the chair, “Oh my god, Techno, I might never want to leave!” Tommy exclaimed and shoved his face into the delicious pile of fluffy pancakes.
Soon after, Tommy decided Techno was going to teach him how to use a sword.
“Good thing you agreed! I saw a couple of those paintings and man- you look amazing! You're like the tale of the Blood God! Slashing his enemies left and right without breaking a sweat!” Tommy exclaimed, imitating the slashing of a sword.
“Your stance is already incorrect.” Techno pointed out, “And as for the Blood God? It took many years with a lot of practice, day and night. I wish no one would go through that, especially not a youngling like you.” He placed his hand on Tommy’s head.
Tommy snorted, “You don’t even know me, plus, you can’t be that much older, you're like what? 24?” Techno sighed, swatting the boy's shoulder, “I’m 23, actually, shouldn’t you know that?” Techno questioned Tommy, “I don't talk with him that much.” He shrugged.
They arrived at the training room before Techno had time to question any further, grabbing a sword, Tommy almost toppled over, with Techno being there to grab the sword out of his hands, “First step is to pick out the right one.” He sighed, knowing it was going to be a long day.
And long it was, Tommy wanted to instantly go sparring and he only caved into learning properly when Techno promised to give him a golden apple, which was a delicacy, so obviously Tommy was ecstatic to learn.
Though they began roughly, it wasn’t too bad, Tommy actually listened to Techno most of the time and it turned out that the boy was a quick learner.
“Whoa, by this rate, you’ll be able to be the next Blood God in half my time.” Techno said, and Tommy thought he could hear something like proudness in his voice, but it could’ve just been his imagination.
But nonetheless his face lit up, “REALLY?! That’s so awesome!” He crouched and pretended to stab someone, Techno just shook his head and turned, “Come on kid, let’s get dinner..”
Surprisingly, a couple days went by with a blink of an eye, Tommy had learned a lot about Techno, he never got to talk to his Techno, not that either of them wanted to, but at least he had learned a bit, even if they were completely different people.
Techno’s family were forced to exile Techno after the war, and he knew it wasn’t their fault. His twin, Wilbur, had been a musician, mostly played on a guitar, his father, Philza, had been the emperor, also known as the Angel of Death, and his mother, Kristin, had been the Goddess of Death.
Tommy thought it was insanely cool, but also sad, and went on a rant on how it was stupid to exile the Blood God! But Techno just waved him off with a slight smile, and told him that at least he didn’t have to live in a tent and got a palace all to himself in the arctic.
And that's when Tommy realised that he had never been outside in the few days- weeks that he had been spending!
“Yeah sure, you can go, I’ll keep researching what I can, just put on 3 coats and a couple of pants, you have to wear my boots, although they would be a bit too big for you, they will keep you warm, wear a scarf and hat-” Techno got interrupted by Tommy quickly thanking him and slamming the door to the study, the man just shook his head, chuckling.
Tommy just quickly put on the clothes and massive ass boots and skipped outside, making sure to close the door behind himself. The white snowflakes fell onto his face, giving him silvery freckles.
Giggling, the boy let his inside child out as he sprinted across the white blanket and flopped in the middle, laughing loudly as he made a snow angel, then getting up, he began making a fort from the snow, then abandoning it half way through and started building a snowman.
He never got to go out in the snow since it barely snowed and when it did, Techno would strictly not allow him outside, so finally being able to express his joy with being about to bask in the freezing cold was somehow extremely warming.
After a few hours, he made a whole army of snowmen, all facing outwards, with different stance positions and sticks as swords, then he went around slicing the heads clean off with the most perfect stick he could find, skillfully jumping on them, behind them, and just acrobatically kicking around.
Little did he know, Techno was watching the entire time from his window a couple stories higher, a smile clearly evident on his face ass he watched the boy run around in snow for hours, and really impressed when we saw the skill of the boy ruining his own creations.
What he didn’t neglect to notice were the multiple crows, sitting on the rock fence, also watching the blonde boy, which either meant Phil was soon going to get the news of Tommy, or the crows just wanted to watch the boy themselves, nothing entertaining happened anyways.
Looking at the time, Techno realised it was well past the time Tommy should’ve come back inside, so getting up from his chair, he stretched and made his way down stairs, through the halls, opening the front door and calling Tommy inside.
Both the crows and Tommy noticed him, jumping up, the boy ran to Techno, stomping on the porch and wiping all the snow off before coming inside, while the crows nodded to Techno, who nodded back and they flew away.
Closing the door, Tommy took off the layers of clothes and boots before shivering, “You should really get some kind of heating man.” He jumped up and down before running off to the kitchen, sighing, Techno followed.
While eating, Tommy suggested what if someone was after Techno, which made the man choke on his food, “What makes you say that?” He asked, slightly concerned if Tommy saw something while being outside.
“I don’t know, just a thought, like, who made you get exiled? Clearly you were helping in war and you won, so clearly it was someone with power, and what if the way they exiled wasn’t enough? What if they wanted to prove something and bring your head on a stick? Like I said, just a thought.” Tommy shrugged and kept eating his spaghetti.
Techno was frowning, “Tommy, this is important, did you see anything? Anything strange at all? Footsteps? Unnaturally coloured snow? Pieces of clothes or anything like that?” But Tommy just shook his head, “Nah man, like I said, it just doesn’t add up in my mind, plus, I’ve read some books while here, plots sometimes take that road.”
Sighing Techno put his head in his hands, “Why do you need to stress me out like that?” He groaned, Tommy snickered, “It’s my job as a younger sibling, but also because you wouldn’t yell at me for that.” He shrugged, grinning.
“Your Techno would yell at you for that?” Techno raised a brow, Tommy cringed, “Don’t call him my Techno, but yeah, and holy shit would he yell at me for hours, and then he locked me in my room, like, if you can’t take a joke just say that.” He rolled his eyes.
But Techno frowned deeper, “What else would he do?” He carefully questioned, “Not much, he was usually working from early morning to late evening, so I would never actually see him, and if I did I would quickly leave.” Tommy shrugged lightly, with a bored look on his face as he fiddled with his fork.
“Tommy, that’s neglect..” Techno set down his fork and leaned slightly forward, interlocking his fingers, but Tommy waved him off, “It’s not that bad, I got to eat whatever I wanted! Candy! Canned pineapple! Raw potatoes! OH! Did I tell you about the time I got stuck in a prison?” Tommy lit up.
“No, Tommy, you didn’t, but we weren’t done talking about your health back there-” He once again got interrupted. “Oh please Techno, it’s not that big of a deal, your making it seem like I was the one exiled.” Tommy rolled his eyes.
Techno gave him a look with a tint of sadness, “If your caregiver isn’t taking care of you, then they aren’t a suitable caregiver.” He stated, Tommy smirked, “What? Would you rather be my caregiver?” Tommy made mocking puppy eyes.
The man just looked unimpressed, “If this is the case, yes, both you and I could do with human interaction.” He scoffed, almost letting a smile through, but Tommy’s smile slightly faltered, “Damn, I was expecting you to deny.” He muttered.
They finished up and went to their separate rooms, getting ready for bed like he did any other day, crawling into his comfy bed with the luxurious bedding, much better than what he had back at the apartment.
He lay awake, thinking, which was bad already and worse when it's eleven at night, but eventually he was able to close his eyes and not open them, finally falling asleep, sadly, not for long.
He woke up a few hours later, silently screaming, hot tears pouring down his face from the nightmare he had received, which was strange, it was something he hadn’t even had or done, he hadn’t even read about it.
Unable to calm his breathing, Tommy gently got out of his bed and made his way over to the room a few doors over.
Knocking on Techno’s door, Tommy couldn’t stop moving his feet, wiggling them in his fuzzy sleeping socks, and when he finally decided to turn back because Techno wasn’t answering, that's when the door creaked open.
Techno looked down sluggishly at the boy at his door, confused, but when he saw the red eyes and nose, as well as the wet face, he quickly let the boy in and turned on the lamp for a bit of lighting.
He sat on the bed, with the boy wrapped up in his arms, “What’s wrong? What happened?” He asked, rocking them back and forth, Tommy could say anything, he just sobbed and pressed himself closer to the man.
That’s when Techno saw the little boy in his arms, that's when he recognized that Tommy was nothing more than a 15 year old boy, who had been severely neglected by his own brother, by himself from a different universe or timeline.
He pressed his nose into the golden locks of the boy's hair, still rocking back and forth, rubbing circles into his back. It could’ve been minutes or hours, but he didn’t care, he didn’t stop until Tommy had gone quiet and limp in his arms.
Techno recognised how vulnerable the boy was in his sleep, and held him tighter, bringing him under the covers and holding his head closer to his chest, protectiveness surged through him, something that he never had a strong feeling in.
He was the younger twin, so he wouldn’t have the older sibling's protectiveness, when he was fighting for his land, he was fighting for his father and deceased mother, it was never this kind of feeling.
Smiling gently, Techno closed his eyes and fell asleep knowing if anything happened, Tommy would come to him, he would trust Techno as his older brother, not the idiot dumbass person he had back in the other place.
No, Techno had decided that Tommy was going to stay.
After Tommy woke up, Techno had questioned him, asking about what was it about and for the boy to describe it in detail, to which he did, and then they went to get breakfast, Tommy evilly used Techno's mercy to get piggybacked to the kitchen, and though the man made it look annoying, the man weighed practically nothing.
They made a mess in the kitchen while trying to bake a cake, after Tommy slipped and spilt flour all over Techno, which the man got faux offended and threw an egg at the boy and then it escalated, but they eventually finished the cake and then cleaned up.
Then they practised some more with just basic hand to hand combat and went to play in the snow to cool off, creating another war between themselves with snowballs.
“Down with the revolution Tommy, you were never meant to be the hero! But.. If you want to be the hero.. THEN DIE LIKE ONE!” Techno yelled on an elevated block of snow, then started throwing a bunch of snowballs at Tommy's walls.
“AHHHH!” Tommy threw snow back but he was obviously losing, and suddenly Techno landed a snowball right in between his eyes, knocking him back onto the snow, with his eyes closed and tongue out, “You’ve got me..” He grinned and jumped back up.
Techno smiled gently and opened his arms for Tommy to hug him, “C’mon, it’s getting late.” He mentioned and watched as Tommy came running up to him, but as he was just a few feet away, suddenly stopped and his smile dropped.
Techno’s arms fell as well as he realised there had been an arrow, shot right through Tommy’s left arm.
Running up to the boy, Techno wasted no time to pick up the boy and run back into the palace, not even taking a moment to glance around for whoever dared to even come close to his designated area.
He quickly made his way through the halls and into the medical room, placing Tommy down onto the counter and rummaging through the cabinets, pulling out bandages and alcohol.
Looking back at the boy, he was completely still, except for the tears streaming down his face, the poor boy had probably never been shot in any way, obviously it would be hurting a lot, Techno himself had gone through that.
Quickly, he removed the arrow, to which Tommy inhaled sharply, but was doing much better than expected, if Techno wasn’t so stressed, he would’ve been proud.
After fixating the boy's arm, Techno let himself gently but firmly hold the boy. It had been a horrible day for him, and if Techno was going to protect him, he was going to protect him with his life.
After a few days of silence, Techno was still stiff, he wouldn’t let Tommy go outside, he wouldn’t let him train, but he would still eat with him, and read with him, telling him the stores of when he was younger, or just Greek myths.
Obviously, he wasn’t slacking, quite the opposite. He wouldn’t let Tommy sleep in his own room anymore, instead, making the boy be with sight at all times, and as much as Tommy would love to complain, he enjoyed the caring.
Two weeks go by with nothing, and that's when the major happened. At midday, Tommy and Techno were in the library as per usual, reading one of their books, when the sound of glass breaking spread through the room.
In the blink of an eye, Techno was up, holding his sword towards whatever had enough force to break through the tough windows.
Imagine his surprise when he noticed his long term rival standing in full armour, a sword and a stupid, cocky grin on his face as he strode closer, only stopping when Techno started doing the same, Tommy just hid behind the couch, peaking out just a bit.
“Well well, nice place you have here, don’t you, Techno?” The man cocked his head, looking around at the high ceiling and multi storied bookshelves, “What do you need Dream.” Techno fiddled with his sword, doing small tricks with it.
Dream raised a brow, “I thought it was obvious, with the little sign I gave you, what was it? Two weeks ago? Yeah, I think so.” He smirked, looking right at Techno, making direct eye contact.
“So that was you?” Techno growled, “And what was it for, do enlighten me..” He stood still, venom dripping out of his voice through every word, Dream didn’t seem to notice, or just didn’t care, “I wanted to see if the mighty Blood God still had his fierceness, but imagine my surprise when I saw a tiny little pest playing in his snow, so I thought, he really had become weaker!” He laughed.
Since Dream’s eyes were closed, he didn’t notice Techno approaching him, and knocking his head right with his knee, knocking the guy down onto his knees and kicking him in the side of the head, sprawling on the floor.
Kicking the weapon out of the man’s hand, and slamming his foot into his chest, “Look, I didn’t use my sword and you're already on the ground, my ‘pest’ did better than that on his first try, it seems like you got us mixed up..” Techno smiled with no kindness behind it, “Y-you psycho!” Dream’s eyes held terror.
Techno just grinned wider, “Maybe.” He brought his sword down into the man's heart, and standing back up, blood covered his white poet’s shirt, hands and even some of his face.
He looked at where Tommy was sitting behind the couch, shivering with tears in his eyes, Techno cooed and made his way over to him, “It’s okay, he won’t hurt you, I promise..” He said gently, but frowned when Tommy clumsily shuffled back.
“Are- are you scared of me?” Techno’s eyes widened, “Tommy, you know I would never hurt you! He was a bad person, and even though I don’t know how it’s like back at your place, this is normal-”
“I don’t want it to be normal! I’m scared!” Tommy cried out, stumbling up and against the wall, Techno just came closer, “I know you are scared, but that’s it, I promise..” He wrapped his arms around Tommy as the boy hiccupped and sobbed.
“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay, you're fine, everything's fine, you’ll forever be with me and you’ll forever be okay..” He rocked back and forth, Tommy looked up at him, “But what about home?” He sobbed, Techno smiled, “This is your home now darling, with me.”
Somewhere, in a different place, a boy hadn’t even noticed that his younger brother had gone missing for a couple months..