Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I’m pretty sure I nailed that English test.” Dream says, shoving his books into his back and grabbing his backpack from his locker, “Thank god for spark notes.”

“Why do you even put that much effort into English Dream?” Sapnap inquires as he pushes himself up from the lockers next to Dream’s. The two, alongside George who is more than willing to play on his phone and ignore their conversation. The ravenette glances up at his friend before focusing his gaze in front of him once again so he doesn’t die down the weirdly steep stairs of their school, “You don’t even like English that much. You were fine with doing bad last year.”

Dream shrugs, “I don’t care for English. It’s because Techno’s in that class and I don’t want him to think that I’m bad at any of the classes we have together.”

Sapnap scoffs, “Please, why are you playing into his holier than thou shit?”

“What do you mean?” Dream raises an eyebrow, shooting his childhood friend a look.

George sighs, “What? You’re telling me that you haven’t noticed the weird thing that Sap has against Technoblade.” The brunette finally looks up from his phone at Dream, sending him a look that says ‘really?’.

Dream shakes his head, “I haven’t noticed anything. Is that true Pandas?”

Said man nods, “Yeah. Techno’s just too fuckin’ perfect. All high and mighty, always looks nice. Thinks he’s special because he’s got a nice body and because he dresses nicely.”

“That’s a little far dude.” Dream exhales, “He’s just a normal guy like you and me.”

“There’s no fucking way he’s ‘just a normal guy’ dude.” The ravenette starts, pausing his thought to say goodbye to George as the shorter splits from them to go to his own car while Sapnap and Dream keep on path towards Dream’s car, “He always looks so nice and doesn’t look like he’s had a bad day in his life. I’m not sure he knows the definition of struggling.”

“That’s a little much.” The blonde shrugs, reaching to grab his keys and unlock his car. The two slide in and Dream starts up his car, “I’m sure he has off days, he’s just better at hiding it than most people. I mean, I have more classes with him than you do so I’m sure I know more about him.” The blonde sends his friend a look before he focuses on getting them out of the school parking lot without crashing into someone else trying to get out as well, “I’ve at least talked to him.”

“Yeah sure whatever.”

“So closed minded sometimes.” Dream chides, reaching to turn up his car radio and taking off down the road in the direction of their houses.

~~~~~~~~~~

“I seriously don’t see your problem with him, Sapnap.” Karl says as he, Dream, and Sapnap walk out of the library together. They were in there so Karl could grab a book that he had been wanting to read for a while when they ran into Techno.

Well, they didn’t actually talk to the man.

More like they walked into the same section as him as the pinkette was peacefully looking through some of the books that they had to offer, picking up a couple things that looked interesting before putting them back down on the shelf. The man had Wilbur, a popular theater and music kid, practically hanging off of him and rambling about whatever the taller had on his mind. Their group had interacted with the man a couple times, with George having been partnered in a couple of projects with the other brit, but they haven’t interacted with him too much. Sapnap, not wanting to be in the same vicinity as someone that prestigious, had pushed Karl to find his book faster and check it out so they could leave.

“He’s just too much.” Sapnap grumbles, readjusting his bandana slightly, “He’s got so many people that want to be around him, girls want to date him, guys want to be him, people want to be friends with him, and he just pushes them away because he thinks he’s better than people.”

“I feel like you’re jumping to conclusions, Pandas.” Dream says, tilting his head to look down at his friend, “I think he’s mentioned that he has social anxiety.”

The ravenette scoffs, “Yeah I doubt that. I don’t get how someone like Wilbur Soot would want to be around him all the time.

“Excuse me for thinking this, but are you sure you aren’t jealous of him Sapnap?” Karl asks, almost sounding reproachful, “You talk a lot about how you think he’s everything. Maybe you are just jealous of him and don’t see the bad side of him.”

Sapanp huffs out a laugh, as if Karl said something funny--he did, Sapnap being jealous of Technoblade of all people? Crazy--and turns when the bell lets out, “You’re funny Karl. I’m gonna head to my class.”

“Whatever Sap.” Dream says, turning to walk in the opposite direction towards his class with Karl. The last thing that Sapnap hears is the two of his friends laughing at something--probably him but he doesn’t want to admit that--as they split off.

~~~~~~~~~

Sapnap watches with a sneer as Technoblade throws his braid back over his shoulder and helps Dream from his position on the floor with a charming grin. The pinkette grabs his water bottle as soon as the blonde is on his feet, tongue peeking out between his canines and winking as he grabs a drink. The two finish up their small conversation and Techno heads his own direction, going to sit by his things and grabbing his book, while Dream heads over to Sapnap who greets his friend with a smile.

“Good fight Dream.” Sapnap pats the other man on his back as he approaches, partially preventing the other to drink from his own water bottle, “You totally could’ve beat his ass if he didn’t use cheap tactics.”

Dream rolls his eyes, now far used to the way that Sapnap talks about the pinkette, “He didn’t use cheap tactics, Sap. He just caught me unaware. ‘S been getting faster since our last fight and I wasn’t ready for it, it let him overpower me.”

“Whatever you say man.”

“I wonder how Punz would fare against him.” Dream muses, “They’re pretty matched in skills.”

“I’m sure Punz could beat his ass.” Sapnap smirks, “Never met a better fighter than you and Punz and if he can only beat you using tricks then there’s no way that he can beat Punz.”

Dream rolls his eyes, “He’s beat me more times than I’ve beat him.” The blonde bumps his body into his friend’s shoulder and guides them both over to the bleachers so Dream can sit down for a bit, “How have your classes been going?”

Sapnap shrugs, happy with the distraction from Technoblade, “Not bad, not bad. There’s not much happening while we’re waiting for Spring Break, thank god for that.”

“How’s Mr. Brown been?”

The ravenette sighs dramatically, collapsing into Dream’s lap, “He fuckin’ sucks man. Thinks he’s so much better than us because he was in every sport that existed in the 1800s with him and still got his homework done like the whole fucking school curriculum hasn’t changed.”

Dream smiles, “I’m so glad that I never had to have him.”

“Yeah, and I’ve started working with this kid named Eret in his class and they’re pretty funny.”

“Eret? Do I know them?”

“Uhm,” Sapnap shrugs, trying to come up with their last name, “Tall, brown hair, super deep voice.”

“That’s helpful, Sap.” Dream rolls his eyes, “We go to school with a bunch of people who are a combination of those three. What do they wear?”

“They were wearing platforms and a black sweater with red ripped jeans today.” The ravenette says, racking his brain for more description that Dream may know his science partner by, “I think they usually wear a red jacket like the one that Techno wears. Similar styles the two.”

“Oh but you actually like Eret?” His friend raises an eyebrow.

“Shove off, they are completely different.” The man scoffs, “Just because they dress similarly doesn’t mean they’re the same person.” Sapnap hums, “I think they’re a theater kid, has the dramatics to be at least. It sounded like they were friends with Wilbur though.”

Dream hums, thinking for a moment before shrugging, “Can’t say I know them. It’s nice that you were partnered with someone that you like, though.”

“I wish I was partnered with Karl, but you win some, you lose some.” Sapnap smiles, “Karl just fits in with me so much better.”

“Do you still have that crush on him?”

“Nah. We talked about it and I realized that it wasn’t like feelings, right?”

“That’s good, if only I could do that with George.”

“I mean you could,” Sapnap starts, grabbing out his phone to play around on it, planning to do that for the rest of the block considering he knows that Dream wanted to work on some of his homework today, “It’d just be like talking to a rock about emotions.”

Dream nods, pushing Sapnap off his lap and reaching for his bag, “Like teaching a wall how to walk.” Sapnap chuckles and easily gets off Dream’s lap, more than willing to sit on his phone while Dream grabs out his homework. The two sit in relative silence for the rest of the period before the bell rings, causing the two to have to split into their own paths.

And unfortunately, the class that Sapnap happens to have after gym class also happens to have Technoblade in it. Surprisingly enough, he’s never seen the man walking from their gym to the classroom while Sapnap has, but the man is always there.

Though Sapnap’s not inclined to care, considering he just wants to finish this class and go to lunch.

But god is today hard on the Technoblade being a dick front.

It’s his fucking laugh.

They also have this class with this kid named Ranboo (it’s an elective so it’s mixed between grades) and he can hear the older talking to the kid. They’re quietly joking where they sit in the back of the class and they have the tendency to make each other laugh--as friends do--and Techno’s laugh is so pretentious.

It’s just a singular chuckle. Something that makes his shoulders bounce just slightly and makes his lip tilt up for only a second before he’s back to normal.

And god does it annoy Sapnap.

The man thinks he’s so much better than everyone else. Probably only laughs like that because he doesn’t believe that other people should be blessed with his amazing laugh.

God he’s such an ass.

…

Sapnap just wants food.

<><><><><>

dream
you free?

pandas
ya
why?

dream
wanna go out?
like to the park or smth

pandas
sure

dream
be there in a minute

Sapnap doesn’t respond to the text, he doesn’t see the need to. Instead he throws on one of his jackets and ties up his hair again. Then he heads out of his room and to his front door, calling to his dad that he’s heading to the park and slipping on his shoes, reaching down to pull them properly over his ankles.

“This late?” His dad calls back, pausing his show.

“Yeah, Dream invited me out.” Sapnap shrugs. It’s not too late, being eight o’ clock. He’s eaten, done some of his homework (he was attempting to work on it but more phasing out when Dream texted him) and had his chores done. Plus his dad trusts Dream.

Overall, he doesn’t see a problem with it.

Bad sighs and is silent for a moment, “Alright I guess, don’t be out too late.”

“I won’t.” Sapnap calls with a smile, “Thank dad! I’m going out now.”

“Be safe.” Bad finishes and presses play on his show again. Sapnap, not feeling the need to respond, grabs his keys and walks out of the house to sit on his porch and wait for Dream. Eventually, the blonde shows up wearing his normal green hoodie with a pair of pajama pants and his regular dirty ass Converse.

“Why did you want to go out?” Sapnap asks, standing up and joining Dream on the sidewalk so they can start walking towards the park.

Dream shrugs, kicking a pebble, “I wanted to get out of the house, my brothers are fighting again and it was getting annoying.”

“Makes sense.” Sapnap nods. The two enjoy talking about their days and how their Spring Break has been since they last saw each other--which was like three days ago, but that doesn’t matter.

When they get to the park, instead of being greeted by the silence that would normally be settled over the park at this time of night, there’s a guitar and some talking. The two, very confused but curious, begin to fully walk into the park, taking a shortcut instead of walking to the entrance of the area.

Only to stop when they come up on quite the scene.

Wilbur and Techno are sitting on top of the monkey bars, Wilbur with a guitar and Techno with a cigarette resting between his lips. Two of their other friends, one who is recognized as Ranboo and the other who Sapnap identifies as Eret, are sitting on the swings, listening and laughing as Wilbur strums on his guitar. Maybe a song? But one that they can’t recognize.

The four are talking amongst each other, making jokes and laughing. What shocks Sapnap is the fact that Techno looks calm. He’s got his hair out of its usual ponytail or braid; the pink locks escaping out of a messily-done bun and he wearing a red hoodie and a pair of sweats (something very different from what he usually wears) and the same Vans he wears all the time.

The pinkette is smiling and laughing, not being held back by people being around them, and is easily chatting with his friends. He’s got an arm thrown around Wilbur’s shoulders as the man plays.

Though they aren’t standing there for long before Wil notices them and calls for them to come over. Sapnap, after being unstuck to the ground by his best friend, decides that he doesn’t mind being around most of those people--other than Techno, but maybe he can come to like this Technoblade--and doesn’t have much of a problem with hanging out with them.

“What are you guys doing here?” Wil asks, not stopping his strumming. From closer, it sounds like he’s just pressing on cords and fucking around with tunes.

Dream shrugs, “Wanted to get out. What are you guys doing here?”

Wilbur shrugs back at him, “Hanging out.” He takes his hands off his guitar and grabs the cigarette that was sitting in Techno’s mouth just a couple seconds ago. He takes a puff from the cancer stick and blows out the smoke; getting one more puff in before Techno takes it back. The brunette goes back to his guitar, “Any song requests.”

Eret perks up, “You and Techno should sing 30/90.”

Wilbur seems to like the idea, snapping his head to his best friend--at least Sapnap thinks that they’re best friends--with so much force that the ravenette is worried about the taller getting whiplash, “Would you be okay with that Tech?”

Techno rolls his eyes but shrugs nonetheless, “I don’t care.” In response, the brunette gives him a toothy grin and takes a moment to find the cords that he needs. Eventually, he starts playing and singing, going through plenty of the lyrics while Techno bops his head along, blowing out smoke occasionally until he places the cigarette in Wil’s lips so he can sing.

And Sapnap would never think that the man could sing. But apparently he can.

And it’s kind of hot.

A nice deep, gravelly voice much like his talking voice, a good curl to his words and a good flow.

Though Sapnap’s not one that’s critical of singing, he’s not sure he could sing that well if he tried.

Dream whoops and cheers when the pinkette starts singing, joining in the other two people on the swings who were previously cheering for them both.

Eventually the song finishes up and Wil, with the cigarette shared between himself and Techno finished, stubs out the stick into the metal of the monkey bars. He pockets the trash (so he doesn’t litter) and goes back to playing on the guitar. The two previously singing now join back in on the conversation and someone says something funny and…

Maybe Techno’s laugh isn’t so bad after all.

At least not this laugh.

This laugh, unlike his singular chuckle that he lets out in school, is a full on cackle. It’s broken and sounds a little funny, but that just makes it so much better. He bends himself forward and his shoulders shake as he lets out his weird laughter. When he leans back and rights himself once again, nearing the end of his laughter, he lets out a snort and that just makes everyone laugh.

Including Techno who only starts to snort more, making the group--including himself--laugh harder.

Maybe Techno isn’t so bad after all.

Not as pretentious and perfect as Sapnap had previously thought.

Techno’s still got a charming grin, something where one side of his lips stretch up more than the other side and it makes his smile wonky and uneven; uneven but oddly pretty. His hair falls out of the hair tie holding it, much like the hair that falls in Sapnap’s face as it comes loose from his quickly thrown on bandana. His hoodie still shows off his broad shoulders, even if the sleeves come down to only show his fingers against the cold metal underneath him, and he still sits with one leg crossed over the other, but it feels more natural.

More normal.

Like he’s a normal teenager just trying to live his life and not a pretentious king pretending to be a teen.

The group spends a couple more hours out there, laughing and listening to Wilbur’s strumming. It’s a comforting night of people who don’t alway interact getting to know each other and talking about their lives. Sapnap learns that, at least from what he was able to gather--it’s not like this was the kind of hangout where they all shared their trauma--Wil and Techno moved together from the UK and got adopted, Wil by Phil and Techno by one of Phil’s friends; his parents apparently adopted Ranboo alongside Techno so they’re closer than Sapnap thought.

He also learns that Techno’s a huge nerd, talking about a couple of constellations when prompted and apparently quoting a book called The Art of War, and that they all have an interest in Minecraft in common with each other. Techno talks about books with them at some point when the conversation went to the group’s latest reads, and apparently the pinkette really likes reading.

He likes some pretentious books--at least in Sapnap’s opinion, he likes classic literature--but it makes sense with the new knowledge that Techno wants to be an English Major and an author in the future.

Overall, as the night comes to a close and the guys all head their separate directions--Eret turned away while Wil, Ranboo, and Techno all walked the same way; both different directions than Dream and Sapnap--Sapnap feels happy with the turnout. Got to talk to some new people, laugh a bit more than he would’ve regularly had Dream not asked him to go to the park, and have an overall nice time. He got some new information on Techno, too, which has been nice to iron out the opinion he had previously held of the man.

And Dream seems to be able to pick up on that, elbowing him with a smile, “I told you that you were thinking too harshly of Techno. Though, I wouldn’t think of him as a smoker or a singer.”

Sapnap shrugs, “I guess you told me. He is friends with Wilbur and Wilbur is the type of person to hang around Schlatt, so that makes sense.”

Dream hums, “I guess so.”

~~~~~~~~~~

And, unfortunately for Sapnap, the new knowledge about Sapnap just led him to a much worse situation that he was previously in.

He would so much rather hate the man than have to fight feelings as he picks up on every small imperfect thing that the man does since that night. Actually, he now picks up on just every detail about the man.

The way he scrunches his nose when he’s struggling with something in their classes together. The way he flicks small pieces of hair that have fallen loose behind his ear. The way he has to hold back a snort when he chuckles. The bruises that will cover his pretty pale skin after a fight with Dream. The slight uneven lilt of his lips when he smiles slightly at Ranboo while they’re in class. The books that he reads while sitting in the corner of the gym, waiting for the class to end when they have free time or a free day. The times that he pulls his sleeves over his palms.

But he’s also begun to notice why Techno doesn’t talk to people.

It’s not because he doesn’t like people; because he thinks he’s better than people.

It’s the fact that he clearly doesn’t know how.

He learned from Wilbur’s teasing that night that both him and Ranboo are socially awkward and stick to the same friends because they can’t make new ones. And looking at Techno, that’s most definitely true. He makes himself smaller, almost like he’s trying to get away, when someone he doesn’t know or doesn’t talk to often is talking to him. He keeps to himself in his own little world, usually with at least one earbud in when he’s not around his friends.

It’s almost endearing.

…

Fuck it. It’s quite endearing.

And Sapnap kinda wants to talk to Techno more. Get to know him, you know?

And luckily he gets to.

The teacher stops talking and sits down at her desk, letting her students move to work with their partners for the rest of the year as they work on their final project. Sapnap stands up and easily moves to sit next to Techno, his partner for the next three weeks.

“Good mornin’ Sapnap.” Techno greets, grabbing his laptop and opening it up to a new google doc, beginning to write out what they need to do and leaving a blank space for their project, “What do we want to do this on?”

Sapnap takes a moment to think, what’s something that they both have interest in that’s been covered this semester, “What about the human conception of equality throughout the decades?” The man suggests, “You could use some of the books that you have, I’m sure they’ve got something about prejudice and stuff like that. I like looking into old people.”

Techno seems to consider for a moment before shrugging, “Sure. Want me to share this with you and we can divide the work.” The ravenette nods and Techno shares the document, the two beginning to talk about how they want to distribute work and working out the kinks in their idea, beginning research.

The rest of the class hour goes off without a hitch, with the two of them talking and working on their project easily. They get to know each other a little more and exchange numbers with a promise to meet up at the park that they first talked at during Spring Break over the weekend.

The bell rings at the end of class and Sapnap leaves quite happily.

~~~~~~~~~~

“What’s your least favourite holiday?” Sapnap asks, throwing a chip in his mouth just after.

“Bruh,” Techno says, reaching forward to grab a chip from the bag sitting randomly between them, thrown somewhere they could both reach from where Techno sits on his bean bag chair that Wil bought and where Sapnap sits against the bed frame. They were originally working on their psychology project but decided to take a bit of a break considering they got a good part of their work done and somehow their conversation got into holidays. The pinkette sighs, “I finally have someone else to rant to.” He lets his hand fall limp and points at Sapnap with the chip being held between his pointer finger’s nail and the pad of his middle finger, “I’ve driven everyone crazy about this.”

“Okay, drive me crazy then.” Sapnap smiles, refusing to pay attention to the underlying meaning that his statement might have.

Techno grins, “Okay. My least favourite holiday, by far, is Valentine’s Day.”

“Oh really?” Sapnap starts, a teasing lilt to his voice, “How long have you been single to make you say that.”

“It’s not even that.” The pinkette throws his head back until it’s disappeared past the edge of his beanbag chair and his chin points to the ceiling, “It’s the fact that it makes no sense. Okay, first of all many are sure that it’s the Christianized version of Lupercalia, a pagan sabbat which had animal sacrifice and random pairings to promote fertility and warding off evil beings that may be preventing that, so like not a good start and not even close to what we think Valentine’s Day is. Second, you don’t need a holiday to tell you to fucking love your partner! There is no need for that! Because you should be loving your partner regardless, surprising them with flowers and sweets or whatever they like and are comfortable with.”

Techno sighs and throws his arms, “And if you really need a day to love and worship your partner then anniversaries exist! I swear to god people you shouldn’t need a religious holiday to tell you when to love and pamper your partner. Do it spontaneously and with actual love, more than just the same box of chocolates that you get every year and a thing of roses that you don’t even know the meaning of, like get them something that means something to your partner. Like I would absolutely adore my partner more if they just decided on August 27th to get me a bouquet of amaryllis, jersey lilies, anemones, and camellias. Like they’re pretty flowers and they have good meanings. Also! It’s absolutely crowded everywhere you could possibly go and that disgusts me.”

The pinkette brings his head up to look at Sapnap, making dead eye contact with the man, “The only thing good about that dumpster fire of a holiday is the chocolates that you can get for sale afterwards.” He smirks, “Wil and I have a tradition where, on the 15th, we go around to all the stores within a convenient distance and buy their leftover chocolates and candies and binge eat them while we binge shows or make fun of shitty 2000s thrillers. And don’t even get me started on Christmas…” Maybe Sapnap does want to get him started on Christmas. He can’t deny that absolute attractiveness that just emanated from the ranting man. The way that he wildly gesticulates and shows some dramatics that he has to appreciate. Sapnap, even if it makes him sound like a simp, quite enjoyed watching him rant. Quite enjoyed being ‘driven crazy’ by Techno’s passionate beliefs about the holiday.

It also may or may not have given him a glance at the way Technoblade would love someone.

Sapnap hums, watching as Techno takes a deep breath as though he’s finished ranting, “I’ve never thought of it like that…” He thinks for a bit before he shrugs, “I do enjoy the holiday though.”

Techno shrugs, “What’s your least favourite holiday then?”

The ravenette hums, “I’m not exactly sure. I don’t think I hate any of them.”

“I said least favourite. You don’t have to hate it, just…” The man thinks for a moment, “What holiday are you the least excited for when it comes around?”

“That’s a good way to look at it.” He takes a moment to wrack his brain for what he could possibly say is his least favourite, “Thanksgiving.”

“Oh my god yeah!” Techno smiles, throwing his arms out, “Why is it your least favourite?”

Sapnap shrugs, not feeling the need to be as dramatic as Techno was while talking about Valentine’s Day, “It’s just an annoying holiday. I mean, the history of it isn’t even what it’s made out to be, really it was just American’s being sucky towards Indigenous tribes and that’s shitty. Also, it’s just a lot of family that we have to see back to back with Christmas and a lot of excessive food that just goes to waste.”

Techno nods, “I’ve struggled with eating a lot of food for a long time and I’m never able to eat that much and I always feel bad about it.”

Sapnap nods, feeling very seen, “Exactly, my family always judges me about it and I feel like I have to push myself to eat a lot more than I need to and it just makes me feel miserable.”

The pinkette smiles at him, something wide and genuine, so much so it shows his teeth, “Not to mention, I came from a shit family, the one before my current family, and for the longest time after that I didn’t have much of a family and so it was just a holiday that felt like people were shoving something I couldn’t have in my face. Granted I did surround myself with less than great people before I met Wil and we moved.”

“It’s just not great.” Sapnap sighs, leaning back, “I’m glad that they gave us a week off for Thanksgiving break this year.”

“That was nice. I hope they do that again next year.” Techno nods, “I also don’t like Fourth of July but that’s because I don’t like loud noises like fireworks and my neighbors are annoying and let off fireworks for the entire week before and after the 4th. It’s overstimulating, not great, and I usually spend my Fourth of July on my phone looking at funny dog videos.”

“I’ll keep that in mind to not invite you to our fireworks letting off that my friends and I do.”

“That would be preferable.”

“So is there a holiday that you like?”

Techno shrugs, “My favourite is Halloween. I like the build up to Christmas, just I don’t care for the actual holiday itself… I don’t mind Easter, purely for the egg decorating actually.”

“Makes sense.” Sapanp rolls his neck, “So why did you choose those flowers for the bouquet?”

“Because they look nice.” Techno shrugs, “Amaryllis mean pride and strength, jersey lilies are a different type of amaryllis I think, some believe anemones to mean forsaken love which… works because I like men, and camellia means love and adoration.” The pinkette sends a look to Sapnap, “And they’re pretty together in a bouquet. No roses in a bouquet that has a good meaning and is pretty. But don’t get me wrong, I like roses but I don’t like how much they’re used without knowing the meaning and I think they’re overused. There’s so many good flowers out there that we could use and we choose roses?”

“That… actually makes a lot of sense.” The ravenette smiles at Techno, mentally noting down the flowers for… future research.

Yeah. Research.

Either way, Sapnap has to say that he enjoys seeing this side of Techno. More relaxed and passionate, with more genuine interest than he’s ever seen from the man in the years that they’ve gone to school together.

Far from what Sapnap was assuming previously.

The man talks so passionately and has such a genuine opinion that it almost catches Sapnap off guard and he feels a flutter in his stomach at the thought that Techno can just talk about things. A flutter at the fact that Sapnap is clearly close enough to the other teen that he opens up to talk about what he thinks about certain things.

Open enough to show a side that’s not shown to that many around them.

Sapnap can’t help but wonder if Dream is close enough with him to hear about these rants.

Either way, it’s kinda hot.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sapnap sighs, he’s been looking around their seemingly never-ending library for hours and still has absolutely no clue where the books he’s looking for are. Somehow, even though he’s taken different turns each time, he’s walked past the same display of banned books four times now; that or the library has a lot of the same display, maybe the books are different on each display he just hasn’t noticed.

Either way, Sapnap’s beginning to get frustrated.

Until he runs into, what he swears, is god in human form.

Technoblade.

The man is sitting at the couch chair in one of the secluded chairs of the library, hidden by a shelf that Sapnap’s not sure he’s ever seen before. He’s sitting calmly leaning back in the chair, his ankle over his knee and a book settled nicely in his lap. His braid is tossed against his back and the stray hairs that he tends to leave out tucked behind his ears and his pretty golden glasses low on his nose as he focuses on whatever he’s reading currently.

“Techno?” Sapnap asks, beginning to stalk towards the pinkette. Techno looks up to him with a raised eyebrow and Sapnap continues on, “Sorry to bother you but… you know the library pretty well right?”

Techno nods. He bookmarks his book and closes it gently, “I’d say so, what’s up?”

“I’ve been looking for a couple books for what feels like hours.” Sapnap sighs, “I feel like I’m running circles and was wondering if you could help me find them?”

Techno sends him a smile, both charming and teasing, “Of course, what books do you need?”

“I have a list here.” Sapnap says, handing the list that he’s been fiddling with this entire adventure to the other teen.

Techno stands up and looks over the list before shrugging, “I think I can do this.” And with that, they head off with Techno leading and Sapnap following him. They grab the first few books that Sapnap needs and continue on through the library.

Once they’re at a shelf and deciding as to whether the next book on the list is currently checked out or not, Techno turns to look at him, “So why do you need these books? They feel very random.”

Sapnap shrugs, “A couple of them are for the last projects in my classes and some of them are book recs that people have given me that I plan to try and read over the Summer.”

“Quite the array.” Techno says over his shoulder. He turns to another shelf nearby and grabs a book that’s on the list, handing it to him with a quick, “This one’s good.” It’s George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Sapnap nods, “I’ve read it before in Ms. Blakely’s class and decided that I wanted to read it again.”

“It’s worth it. Ranboo recently had to read it and we just decided it would be easy if our parents bought it so I got to read it again.”

“That’s nice,” Sapnap chuckles. He stands up and they go to move on, deciding that this book isn’t that important to him, “Is it nice having a younger sibling?”

Techno shrugs, “I like Ranboo so I don’t have much of a problem but Wil sometimes gets fed up by having Tommy as his younger sibling.”

“I’ve heard the same thing from Dream with Tubbo.” Sapnap adds, “I’m sure it’s nice that you got Ranboo. He’s a tame kid.”

“Exactly. I don’t think I could put up with Tommy for longer than a night or two.” Techno jokes, “It’s one of the only things I have a lot of respect for Wilbur with.”

“It’s quite honorable of him.” Sapnap smiles, “Though I’m sure Ranboo gets dragged into his fair share of mess with Tommy and Tubbo.”

“He’s very susceptible to peer pressure.” Techno shrugs, “Just like me.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t even want to talk about how much I’ve gotten dragged into because I can’t say no.” The pinkette gives him one of his charming smirks and rubs the back of his neck before looking down at the list and guiding Sapnap to another part of the library so they can grab the last couple of books that he came in here to look for.

And he’s so nice. So much different from what Sapnap originally thought of the man. He had assumed that Techno was so mean, thinking he’s so much better than everyone.

But he’s quite charitable. Quiet and closed off, put together, but not in a pretentious way.

It’s… sweet

<><><><><>

Summer’s been great for Sapnap so far. He’s been spending time with his friends, with Techno--he’s special, not just one of Sapnap’s friends--he hasn’t had to worry about schoolwork. The days haven’t been too hot and the nights not too cold. Dream invited him out to a vacation that he was going on with his family and that was quite enjoyable.

Oh, and he’s got a date with Techno tonight.

…

Fuck, he’s got a date with Technoblade. And it’s tonight.

What is he gonna do? What is he gonna wear?

“You good pandas?” Dream asks from across the table. Sapnap shakes off the thoughts and sends a smile to his friend, taking a bite from his sandwich.

“Yeah I’m good, just figuring out how I’m gonna enjoy the rest of summer.”

Dream raises an eyebrow, like he doesn’t believe him, “Right, okay. Anyways, do you guys want to walk around a bit more before we leave?” George shrugs and Sapnap takes a moment to look around at the stores around them. Is there any other store that he would like to go to? His eyes lock on a pretty lavender sign, practically speaking to him.

He looks back at his friends sitting around the food court table with him, “I’ve got one other place I want to hit but other than that, I’m satisfied with today’s trip.”

Dream nods, “I’m the same way, you wanna head into that store while George and I finish our food, since you’re done?”

Sapnap nods and begins to stand up, grabbing his bags, “I’m heading into Sweet Stems if you want to join me when you’re done.”

“We’ll probably just head back to the car to wait for you.” The ravenette nods and walks away, heading into the pretty-looking store front.

“Hi, welcome to Sweet Stems,” The lady at the desk smiles, “Can I do anything for you?”

“Yeah, uhm. I have some very specific flowers I’m looking for and was wondering if you have any of them?” Sapnap says, beginning the short trek to the counter. The lady stands up from where she was stocking the pastries (it’s a flower shop that also sells pastries and sweets).

“Of course. I can check the system to see if we have them for you.” She smiles, heading towards the counter with their computer so she can check what they have, “List ‘em when you’re ready.”

Sapnap nods and pulls up the notes on his phone where he has the flowers written down, “Uhm, I’m looking for amaryllis, jersey lilies, anemones, and camellias.”

The girl hums and begins typing in the catalog for the flowers and after a moment she looks at him, “You’re in luck, we do have most of those with us. We’re a bit low on camellias, but we’ve got a couple. Do you want those in a bouquet or?”

“Yeah, a bouquet please.” The girl smiles and asks for a moment, going into the back to grab what she needs. A couple minutes later, she comes back out and sets a bouquet on the counter between them, going to ring him up.

“Anything else for you?”

Sapnap shakes his head, grabbing his card out, “No I don’t think so.”

“Alright, that'll be 26.70.”

The man pays and grabs the bouquet off the counter, “Thank you so much.”

The girl nods, “Have a good day, I hope your partner enjoys it.”

“I hope he will too, thank you.” And with that, the man leaves the store and heads out and into Dream’s car. He throws his bags into the back of Dream’s car and hops into the passenger seat, not paying much attention as Dream panickedly opens up the driver’s side and throws George off his lap. Instead, as George moves to settle in the back seat, he stares at the bouquet that he’s just gotten. Techno was right, beautiful flowers, and the girl did an amazing job at arranging it with what little flowers they had.

He really hopes Techno likes it.

Dream kicks the car in gear and begins leaving the mall parking lot, sending a glance to his friend--face still red from either being caught with George or what he was doing with George--with a smirk, “Who’s that for?”

“Hmm?” Sapnap hums, bringing his focus off the bouquet.

“Who’s the flowers for?”

“My uh- my date tonight…” he mutters lowly, almost embarrassed for his friends to hear that he has a date.

“What!?” Dream shouts, turning to look at his friend the minute he pulls up to a red light, “You have a date? With who?”

“With someone,” Sapnap smirks.

“Can you give us any more information?” Dream presses, trying to get as much out of his friend as possible. It’s not often that Sapnap is secretive, especially not about his relations to other people.

“You know him.” The ravenette smiles, “And the flowers probably are a give away.”

“What are they?”

“Flowers he’s mentioned before. I don’t know if to you, but to me.”

Dream gives him a disappointed look, “Is that all you can give me?”

“That’s all I can give you until after the date. If he’s even okay with me telling.”

“Is he possessive?”

“Nervous, I’d assume.” Sapnap shrugs, “At least he seemed that way when he asked me out and was talking about it.”

“He asked you out?” George says, “Now I really don’t know who it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Usually,” Dream starts, focusing on the road as he speaks passively, “If you have a date, then you’re the one to ask them out.”

“Yeah well, I was a little less confident around him and…” Sapnap says, leaning his head back, “But you can help me get ready, Dream. He’s meeting me at six.”

“Oh, for dinner?” Dream asks before looking to George, “Are we sure that this is the first date?”

George shrugs, “Could be a bold man.”

“Or a busy man.” Sapnap adds, “This is the first, I don’t know why he invited me for dinner but…”

“Do you know if you need to dress nice?” Dream asks, clearly mentally going through Sapnap’s closet in order to get him an outfit, “Is it a nice place?”

Sapnap shrugs, “I don’t know. He’s told me to do something more casual.”

“Then why the flowers?”

Sapnap shrugs, “Because he’s mentioned them before and I saw the flower shop and decided to get them.”

“That’s sweet.” Dream teases with a smile, “I didn’t know my best friend was a simp.”

“He’s just nervous and I figured it would make up for…” Sapnap says before stopping himself, knowing that Dream and George will definitely know who he’s going on a date with if his sentence gets finished.

“Make up for?” Dream pushes, pulling over so George can get out of the car safely. Dream and George send each other looks that makes Sapnap want to vomit and the brit gets out, grabs his things, and heads inside.

“For something that we had… differing opinions on and I was a bit more aggressive than I should’ve been.”

“And he still asked you out?” Dream asks, “He must be a keeper.”

“It was… more complicated than that.”

“Whatever you say. Let’s go get you an outfit.” Sapnap nods and they’re at his house within a couple of minutes. Both get out of the car and head up to Sapnap’s room, shouting to Sapnap’s dad that he’s home and that Dream is with him. They throw their shopping bags down by Sapnap’s desk and Dream goes over to his wardrobe, looking through it for an outfit for Sapnap’s date.

“Something casual?” Dream mutters, almost to himself as he looks through Sapnap’s clothes before he speaks up, “What type of person is he?”

“Uhm,” Sapnap hums, figuring that he needed to be unspecific lest Dream picks up who he’s talking about, “he’s pretty nerdy and shy. Likes fancier but also comfortable clothes I guess.”

Dream snorts, “Very specific, Sap.”

“I’m trying, Dream.”

“I know.” Dream laughs, emerging from the wardrobe shortly after as he hands Sapnap a couple articles of clothing, moving over to the bags of things that Sapnap got so he can find something fitting from there.

Meanwhile, Sapnap goes to change, stripping himself of his clothes that he was wearing earlier and throwing them into the laundry basket by his wardrobe. He throws on what Dream picked out for him, a black, long-sleeve turtleneck under a white button up that he leaves open and a pair of black cargo joggers that he and Dream had painted a while back. Dream moves to him once he’s finished changing and starts putting necklaces on his while Sapnap fixes the bandana in his hair. Eventually, Dream finishes with the necklaces and goes to grab a couple of rings for Sapnap to put on, not wanting to grab too many but still wanting to compliment the outfit. He grabs a chain for Sapnap to throw on his pants then comes over to help him while Sapnap moves to put on his rings.

After they’re done, the ravenette walks over to his mirror and sighs, “I don’t think this is very casual, Dream.”

Dream smiles and comes up to mess with Sapnap’s wolf cut, “I always take casual as your usual outfits but, since it’s a date, with a bit more jazz, y’know.”

“I guess.”

“Besides, you said he liked fancier clothes, then I think this works.” Dream shrugs, “If you want to take off some of the jewelry, you can. I won’t be offended if you do.”

Sapnap does a scan over himself in the mirror once more before shrugging, “Nah, I like it.” He goes to grab the last pair of pants he was wearing and fishes out his keys, wallet, and his phone. Slipping the first two items into his pockets, he opens his phone.

4:57
1 New Message:
Technoblade
I’m picking you up at 15 to 6

Of course Techno would tell time like that. It’s a small detail but something so strongly Technoblade that it makes Sapnap’s heart soar. He looks up at Dream, “He’s coming ‘round 5:45. You can hang ‘till then but I don’t want you here when he comes.”

Dream’s face softens from where it was previously a teasing smirk, “You really are serious about keeping him a secret.”

Sapnap sighs and moves to sit next to Dream on his bed, “I just- he and I have had… issues… in the past and. Since we’ve gotten close, he’s something special to me but I still feel like there’s a sense of fragility.” The ravenette falls backwards onto his bed, “I want to make sure he trusts me and I’m not doing it as like… a publicity stunt or something--because that’s something that he’d convince himself--and I want to make sure that there is really something before I parade it around.”

Dream smiles fondly, “That’s sweet, Pandas.” The blonde lays down next to his best friend and wraps an arm around him, “You’re a good guy and if he doesn’t see that, he isn’t worth it. You’re going out of your way to make sure he’s comfortable.” He chuckles, “If this guy fucks with you, he’ll be six feet underground before you can finish your sentence.”

“He wouldn’t do that.” Sapnap huffs a laugh, “If, or when, we come out with it you’ll know that.”

“Well nonetheless, I’ll help keep people off your back.”

“Thank you.” The ravenette smile turns into a grin and he nudges Dream with his body, “And you and George, huh? When did that happen?”

Dream sighs, “It… hasn’t really. I’ve known that I like George for a long time but it’s still a recent realization for him.”

“Surprisingly enough, the flirting truly was just a joke.”

“Well- for him it was. For me, less so.” Dream sighs, and it’s a mix between dreamy and exasperated, “We talked about it like two weeks ago and decided that we wanted to try but he wasn’t ready for a true relationship, because his knowledge of these feelings were still new to him.”

“I don’t know man, what I saw earlier today seemed a lot like something more than ‘just trying’.”

“I don’t know.” Dream shrugs, “I’m just trying to go with what George wants.” Sapnap gets a notification and, when he looks, it’s a text from Techno saying that he’s on his way.

The ravenette sits up, Dream following him, “Hey man, just remember to do what makes you happy. Don’t push yourself to appease him but not to appease yourself.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” Dream smiles, something genuine. He stands up and gathers his things, “I should head out now. Don’t forget to grab the flowers and hey, text me about it later?”

Sapnap nods and Dream heads out of his room, shouting a goodbye. He hears his friend say something to his dad and the front door shut. Sapnap stands up himself and walks to grab the bouquet. He gives himself one last look over before leaving his room, phone now in pocket and flowers in hand. He heads out to the living room where his dad is playing Pummel Party with Skeppy watching. The teen moves to sit on the couch chair and Bad takes a moment to look at him.

Taking his headset off, Bad tilts his head, “Going somewhere? With flowers?”

“I’ve uh, got a date.” Sapnap says, “Sorry I didn’t tell you about it earlier.”

Bad’s face lights up, “Oh! That’s lovely! Are they on their way?”

“Yeah, he’ll be here in like five minutes or so.”

“That’s amazing for you! Is he a good person? Does he treat you well?”

“To be honest,” Sapnap starts, looking at the flowers in his lap and suddenly embarrassed, “he’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met.”

“That’s amazing. I hope all goes well then.” Bad smiles and puts his headset back on, telling the group he’s playing with that he’s back and is taking his turn.

Within minutes, Sapnap gets a text that Techno is at his house and stands up. He tells his dad and Skeppy that he’s going now and he’ll text when he’s on his way back. The two say goodbye to them and Sapnap exits their house, hopping into Techno’s old, beat-up truck. The ravenette closes the door behind him and buckles, taking a moment to look over his date while Techno puts his truck into gear--he drives a manual which also may or may not be hot--and pulls away from his house.

The man is wearing some sort of body suit that rides up enough that it shows the pale skin of his hips--also incredibly hot to Sapnap--and it’s sleeveless with a slight turtleneck. Overtop is a red, mesh crop-top with sleeves that come to rest about halfway through his upper arm. He’s wearing what looks to be low-riding cargo joggers with pinstripes. On top of that are layers of gold jewelry and rings. His hair is done in a half ponytail with small braids loosely lining the crown of his head. On top of that, the lighting of the orangey street lights illuminate him in such a way that it makes Sapnap breathless.

“You look amazing, Tech.” Sapnap finds himself muttering, looking the man up and down a couple times.

The ravenette watches as Techno’s cheeks flush, “Thank you. I’d compliment you back but I’ve yet to get a proper look at you in the light.” He smirks and pulls off of the neighborhood road and onto the one that leads them to the central part of town.

“You don’t have to, I know I look good. Dream picked this outfit for me.” Sapnap laughs, “Though the reassurance would be nice.”

“Oh, then your outfit may be questionable.” Techno jokes, “That man wouldn’t know how to dress himself if it were to save his life.”

“At least it wasn’t George.”

“You raise a good point, Sapnap.”

“And my closet has taste, unlike Dream’s. It’s hard to fuck up when the wardrobe has style in the first place.”

“I don’t know man, Tommy sure has messed up some looks for Wil and I when we gave him the opportunity.”

“You, Wil, and Tommy are close.”

“Wil and I grew up together, we moved together when we were young. Phil took us in and that’s where we met Tommy, his bio son.” Techno shrugs and takes a one-handed turn that is also oddly attractive, “He wanted to adopt both of us but did have room in his current house so he introduced us to his friend, who I’m sure he’s actually datin’ but refuses to admit it, and she was willing to take me in.”

“So you’re all family, but circumstances made it so it’s not legally as much.”

“Exactly that.” Techno nods and pulls up to a red light. He takes that moment to look Sapnap up and down, reaching up to turn on the truck’s inside light. A lopsided smirk stretches onto his face, “I’ll have to give Dream more credit next time. You look nice.” His eyes scan over Sapnap again and land on the bouquet of flowers in the ravenette’s hands, “What are those?”

Sapnap opens and closes his mouth, then again. He luckily is saved by the light turning green, quickly going to turn off the truck’s light, “Light’s green.” Techno huffs light-heartedly and presses on.

“That’s not gonna save you, Sap.”

“I uh- They’re flowers. For you.”

Techno clears his throat like he’s caught off-guard and doesn’t know what to say, “You didn’t.” He clears his throat again, “You didn’t have to.”

“But I wanted to.” Sapnap shrugs, knowing that Techno can’t see it (he can, Techno has an oddly large peripheral view), “And I saw Sweet Stems while I was at the mall with Dream and George and figured I’d… stop by. I made sure there were no roses.”

“Well, thank you. I’ll have to look at it closer when we get there.”

“Where-” Sapnap clears his throat, “Where are we going anyways?”

“Oh, right. I guess that would be nice information for you to know.” Techno chuckles, “My uncle co-owns a local Filipino restaurant in the town and Dream mentioned that you like Filipino food so…”

“Oh! I- that’s…” Sapnap smiled bashfully and looked to his lap, “that’s really sweet. Thank you Tech.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Techno shrugs, clearly trying to push nonchalance, “Thank me only if you think it’s a good date.”

“Sure. Maybe if it’s good enough I’ll treat you to one myself.”

“That would be nice.” The pinkette says, voice terse with what seems to be embarrassment. He turns down a side road and pulls into a parking lot, “We’re here.” He parks the truck and takes a moment to turn the overhead light back on, turning his body a bit to see Sapnap better. Sapnap awkwardly holds up the bouquet of flowers while Techno drags his eyes along his body once more.

Red eyes land on the flowers and widen, “You…”

“It’s uh, amaryllis, jersey lilies, anemones, and camellias.”

Techno swallows, “You remembered.”

“I did. I was lucky enough that Sweet Stems had enough of each in stock to make a bouquet.”

“I’ll have to go to Sweet Stems more often then if they’ve got flowers like these.” Techno leans over the console, grabs Sapnap’s jaw with a well-manicured hand--Techno has long nails and wears nail polish--and presses a kiss to Sapnap’s cheek. He pulls away, grabs the flowers and places them into the back seat with impossibly gentle motions, then smiles at Sapnap, “Ready to go inside? My uncle got us a more private booth.” Sapnap, still blushing and a bit frozen from the kiss, nods. Techno’s smile widens enough to show a bit of his teeth and turns the light off, pushing himself out of his truck. Sapnap follows him and meets with Techno by the bed of his truck.

The taller leads the two of them into the restaurant where a tall man greets them at the register. He’s tall, taller than Techno miraculously, and has a kind smile on his face. Black hair is pulled into a low ponytail and small pieces of hair that've been pulled free frame his face. His smile widens when he sees the two of them, “Hey Blade. This your date?”

Techno nods, “Yeah.”

The man nods and grabs two menus, “Follow me.” He guides the two of them to a booth in the corner of the relatively small restaurant. It’s pretty secluded and far away from other people. Techno slides into the side of the booth that faces the rest of the room and Sapnap moves in across from him. The man, presumably Techno’s uncle, sets down the menus in front of them, “I know what you want to drink Techno, but should I give you guys a couple minutes?”

Techno nods, “Yeah, give us a minute or two. Thank you Uncle Leo.” Uncle Leo nods and walks away, heading back to the register.

“He seemed nice.”

“Uncle Leo’s great.” Techno nods, “What do you want to drink? They’ve got most sodas, water, a couple fun options, and tea.”

“What do you usually get?” Sapnap asks, locating the drink section of the menu, “Oh! They’ve got mango milk.”

“Mum says it’s good, but I’ve never had it. I usually get salabat.”

“So,” Sapnap starts, placing his menu down, “You come from the UK, right? You don’t have too much of an accent but Wil’s got one?”

“It’s because I hide mine. The tone of my voice makes it so I sound weird or indiscernible to a lot of people so I’ve taught myself how to hide it.” Techno shrugs, “My accent’s quite thick actually.”

“You’ll have to show it to me sometime, I’m curious.”

“I’ll think about it.” Techno says, looking over and seeing Uncle Leo coming over with some waters in hand.

He places the water glasses down, “Have you decided?”

“I think so.” The pinkette says, casting a glance to Sapnap, “I just want salabat.” The man’s uncle nods and writes it down, giving Sapnap a curious look.

Sapnap clears his throat, “I’ll have the mango milk.”

Leo smiles, “Good choice. I’ll have those out to you in a minute. Do you want any starters?”

“I always enjoy the lumpia, Sap?” Sapnap hums and scans over the sides section of the menu and shrugs when he doesn’t see anything that jumps out at him.

“So just the lumpia?” Leo confirms and smiles when he gets nods from the two of them, “I’ll be back in a little with your drinks and sides.”

“Thanks Leo.” Techno nods with a small smile. Leo nods back and trails away, taking a moment to talk to some of the other patrons.

“It’s cool that your uncle owns this place. Do you eat here often?”

“Not too often but enough that my uncle knows where I like to be seated. I like isolation so…”

“It’s a nice booth.”

“It’s my family’s favorite.” Techno shrugs, “I know what I want, you wanna look at the menu?” Sapnap nods and looks over the menu, humming at some of his favorite dishes. The two spend some time talking while the ravenette looks over the menu and fights to decide on what he wants to eat. They talk about their plans for summer break, their friends, their family.

After a couple of minutes Techno tilts his head, “Know what you want? I can call my uncle over.”

“I can’t decide, I’ve got a couple options.”

“What are they?”

“I’m debating between the pancit palabok, the chicken arroz caldo, and the taba ng talangka.”

Techno hums, “I mean, I’ve heard that they’re all good but my uncle’s recommendation is usually the pancit palabok.”

Sapnap hums and nods, “I’ll go for that then. What are you getting?”

“The Kare-kare. It’s my favorite here. Do you want me to call over my uncle or?”

“Yeah, if you’d be willing to.” Techno nods with a gentle smile and waves for his uncle. Leo comes over after a couple of seconds and takes the two’s orders, saying that he’ll be back in a minute with drinks and their lumpia.

When Sapnap is sure that Leo is out of earshot he begins, “So, I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while…”

Techno raises a brow, though more in a way that feels supportive than feels burdened or upset, “What’s up?”

“When Dream and I found you, Wilbur, Eret, and Ranboo at the park you were smoking?”

“Ah, that.” The pinkette shrugs, taking a sip of his water, “It’s a habit that Wil got into because his dad was a smoker and he got me into it. I don’t smoke a lot, like Wil has a tendency to, but every once in a while I’ll share a cigarette with Wil. Is that… a problem with you?”

Sapnap is quick to shake his head, “No! No, not at all. I smoke too, well- it’s weed but…” he trails off, embarrassed at his beginnings of ramblings.

“I’m glad that’s not a problem with you.” Techno leans forward and grabs Sapnap’s hand, bringing it to his lips. Carnelian meets burnt umber as the pinkette presses a gentle kiss to the shorter’s ring finger. Sapnap’s face flushes and the man looks to his lap, letting his hair fall partially to cover his face.

“Ah young love.” Leo’s voice fills the air and Techno drops Sapnap’s hand in favor of watching his uncle put their drinks down, plate of lumpia already placed on the table, “I’ll be back with your food in a bit.” Techno nods and the man walks away. Not long after he comes back with their food in tow.

The two enjoy their dinner, talking about whatever they can come up with. When they finish, the two of them split the bill (Sapnap refused to let Techno pay for him) and head out to Techno’s truck, saying goodbye to Leo on their way out. When they get into the truck, Techno begins the fight of turning it on and starts making his way out of the parking lot while Sapnap fishes his phone from his pocket.

“What’cha doin?” Techno asks, glancing at Sapnap as he looks to make sure he can pull onto the road.

“Letting my dad know I’m on the way back.”

“Actually-” Techno starts. He turns onto the road and clears his throat, “I was actually wondering if you’d be uh. If you’d be willing to come back to my house.”

Sapnap looks up from his phone, Bad’s contact pulled up, and smirks, “Just what are you suggesting Technoblade? You know that isn’t normally first-date behavior.”

Techno sputters and Sapnap is sure that his face is turning red, though he can’t really see due to the orange glow of the street lights, “That's- uhm, that’s not… that’s not what I meant. I wasn’t thinki- I have a tendency to not filter my words and… I meant more that we could watch the latest episo- I’m sorry, you don’t have to-”

“Hey,” Sapnap says, dropping his teasing tone. He places a hand on Techno’s forearm where it’s resting on the console, “Calm down Tech, I was just teasing. I got what you meant.”

“Sorry, I- I don’t do super well with teasing.” Techno says, his voice quiet. He sounds reserved and looks as though he’s trying to make himself smaller.

“No, don’t apologize Tech. I’ll keep that in mind for future reference. You’re alright.”

“Are you sure?” And Sapnap is sure that he can feel his heart shatter into a million pieces at the sound of the taller man’s voice. He’s never heard Techno sound this small before.

“Of course I’m sure.” Sapnap rubs his thumb over Techno’s arm, drawing small hearts with his arm, “Let me make sure it’s good with my dad.” Techno swallows and nods, and Sapnap unlocks his phone again, using one hand to ask Bad if he’d be able to stay with his date. After getting permission from his date, the ravenette tells his dad who he’s going with and gets permission. With the confirmation, Techno turns to start towards his own house.

Once they arrive, Techno grabs the flowers from the backseat and he and Sapnap hop out of the truck. The pinkette leads his date inside his house and quickly grabs one of his mom’s vase, taking some time to get the flowers set up in the vase and bringing them to his room with Sapnap on his ankles. Sapnap closes the door to his room while Techno moves to put the vase on his desk. They both take their shoes off and Techno wanders over to his bed, throwing the mesh crop-top into his laundry basket during the journey.

Once Techno’s on top of his bed he pats the space next to him as an invitation for Sapnap, who wanders to lay next to him. Once they’re settled, the pinkette wraps his arm around the other and pulls him closer to his body. Grabbing the remote to the TV, Techno turns on Netflix and heads to one of the latest episodes of The Great British Bake Off.

“Thank you for taking me out, Tech.” Sapnap mutters about halfway into the episode. It’s quiet and private and sweet.

“Of course, thank you for going with me.” Techno responds, just as quiet as Sapnap’s tone.
“Can I kiss you?” It’s an abrupt question, one that catches Techno off guard, but the pinkette nods nonetheless. Sapnap shifts himself so he’s more on his side than he is on his back. A calloused hand finds Techno’s jaw and pulls him to face Sapnap and presses his lips to Techno’s.

Techno’s lips are slightly cracked and warm but he kisses with both a hesitance and a passion that he seems to navigate his life with. And Sapnap very quickly becomes addicted to the feeling. He presses himself more into Techno’s body, smiling into the kiss when he feels the arm around his shoulders tightening. Sapnap never wants it to end.

And it doesn’t end. The rest of their night is spent with the two of them softly kissing in a gentle embrace as The Great British Bake Off plays in the background.

And maybe--just maybe--Techno isn’t as bad as Sapnap once thought he was.

Chapter Text

“Would you want to go to the arcade with me tomorrow?” Sapnap asks. It’s a random question that startles Techno out of the silence that he had immersed himself into. He uses his thumb as a bookmark and looks down to where Sapnap has his head resting in the pinkette’s lap.

“Where did that come from, Sap?” Techno asks quietly, minding their surroundings. Even with them hiding in the back of the library, Techno still is consciously quiet .

Sapnap shrugs, “Because George, Dream, and I were planning to go but then Dream and George had this thing and they decided that they wanted to ditch me but I still want to go and my dad already made plans to bring Skeppy over but I don’t want to go alone…”

“So you asked me?” Techno asks, tilting his head just a bit. Sapnap nods with a bit of a bashful smile and he watches as a strand of pretty pink hair falls from where it’s tucked behind Techno’s shoulder and falls near his face. Techno’s smile grows into a smirk and he raises an eyebrow, “You asked me to be your backup man?”

Sapnap sputters and shakes his head quickly, “No!” He then realizes his tone of voice and looks around, guilty at his noise. He looks back at Techno, “No, I just… I’ve been wanting to ask you on a date for a while but I haven’t been quite sure on what to do because I like more… people oriented things and you don’t. So, since I was already going to the arcade and I know that you like going…”

Techno rolls his eyes fondly and runs his free hand through Sapnap’s hair, making the other close his eyes with a content sigh, “Calm down, I’m joking. I’ll go with you, what time do you want to go?”

“We can meet there at like…” Sapnap trails off, getting lost in the feeling of Techno’s nails scratching against his scalp. He takes a breath and gathers his thoughts, suddenly very tired, “meet there at like 4:30-ish and then we can get pizza at the arcade.”

Techno nods, “I’m good with that. I like their pizza.” Sapnap nods and takes a deep breath, allowing himself to further relax into his boyfriend’s touch. Meanwhile, Techno re-opens his book and begins to read again.

The two of them continue to go about their means in silence for about another hour before Sapnap gets a text from his dad asking when he’s going to be home. Techno wraps up his chapter and they head out of the library and get into Techno’s truck, where Techno drives Sapnap home then drives to his own with a gentle goodbye.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sapnap checks over his outfit one more time, a cream-coloured burnout long sleeve under a pinstripe button up half-way buttoned and tucked into a pair of black and white patchwork pants held by a ringed chain belt. He slips his phone into the pocket and his bandana on, not wanting to go to an arcade with that much jewelry--though he does throw on a couple rings.

He heads out of his room after looking at the time, grabbing his skateboard on the way out. Saying goodbye to Bad and Skeppy, he heads out of the house and starts towards the arcade. It’s not a long journey, especially not with his skateboard, only about ten minutes. Once he’s there, he sees Techno leaning against the door on his phone and his breath catches.

There, standing against the glass next to the doors, is the hottest man that Sapnap has ever had the pleasure of coming in contact with.

Because Techno is wearing a denim-looking skirt that comes down to just above his knee with a zipper going down the front of his right thigh, there are multiple chains and zippers attached to the skirt. Accompanying that, he’s wearing a one-sleeve shirt that’s tucked into the skirt and a pair of thigh highs that about meet the skirt, showing just a bit of his pretty pale skin. He’s also wearing a pair of leather, fingerless gloves and his hair is tied up in a high ponytail held by a piece of white and black plaid fabric tied into a bow. He’s wearing his glasses, golden rimmed and sitting low on his nose, which comes as a shock to Sapnap considering his boyfriend almost never wears them unless he’s at the library or at home.

Techno looks up and gives Sapnap a soft smile, pushing off of the wall and starting to walk towards the ravenette, meeting him halfway. The shorter smiles and exaggeratedly drags his eyes over Techno’s body, “You look… wow.”

Techno smiles and looks down a bit, bashful, “Thanks… I figured I’d try something new. I don’t usually wear this kind of stuff- at least not in public or around people I don’t know well…”

Sapnap reaches to wrap his arms around Techno’s waist, looking up into Techno’s entrancing red eyes, “You look amazing, Tech.”

Techno lets out a gentle laugh and looks over Sapnap, “You do too. It’s weird seeing you without all your jewelry.”

“Yeah, well I figure the arcade is a place where jewelry is more trouble than it's worth, so.”

Techno shrugs, “Understandable. You wanna go in and get the pizza ordered before we start playing?” Sapnap nods and the two of them walk into the arcade hand in hand. Sapnap hands off his skateboard to the girl behind the desk--a girl named Hannah that knows Sapnap and his friend well--and gets some money on his and Techno’s cards while Techno moves to order them a pizza.

Afterwards, they meet up and Techno immediately challenges Sapnap to a game of air hockey the minute that the ravenette hands him his card. And that’s how the two of them navigate, usually sticking together and either working together to win a game mutually or going against each other; in basketball, in racing games, in connect four, at one point they got into a little cove and played a shooter game. At some point Techno broke from Sapnap and went to the back of the arcade and came back with a small bag full of every single thing available from all of the claw machines the arcade has to offer.

At one point the motorcycles from one of the racing games opens up and Sapnap asks Techno to go against him, only to proceed to lose horribly because he got distracted about the way that Techno’s thighs peek out from under his skirt with the way that he leans over the motorcycle--maybe he should convince Techno to wear skirts more often.

And by the time that their pizza is done, they’ve played most of what they want to and decide to just eat then head back to one of their houses to watch the Great British Bake Off again (Techno really likes the show but for a reason that he couldn’t explain when Sapnap asked).

The two of them finish eating, box up the pizza, and Techno goes out to get his truck started while Sapnap grabs his board from Hannah. He heads to Techno’s truck and hops in and soon they’re heading out of the parking lot and towards Sapnap’s house, apparently Phil was over at Techno’s and he brought over Wil and Tommy and it probably wouldn’t be a smart idea for the two of them to go back to Techno’s house. Especially considering that the only people that really know about their relationship is Techno’s mom, Kristin, and Bad and Skeppy.

Techno pulls up to his boyfriend's house and quickly parks. The two of them get out, Sapnap with the pizza in hand, and head inside. They invade the kitchen for snacks, like candy and whatever chips that Techno can scrounge from the pantry while Sapnap puts the box in the fridge. After that, the two of them make their way to Sapnap’s room where they cuddle on Sapnap’s bed and shit-talk the competitors.

Sapnap may or may not learn that he likes resting his hand on Techno’s upper-thigh, feeling the other’s cold skin against his always hot hands.

<><><><><>

“So,” Dream starts, taking Sapnap’s attention away from his phone. The man looks towards his friend, who’s looking at him intently, his chin resting on the top of his hand and a smirk on his face.

“Yes, Dream?” Sapnap says, keeping his voice flat and letting his head drop to the side in a mocking way.

“You’ve been going on a lot of dates with this mystery guy.” Dream’s smirk grows and now George looks up. The Brit has known about the mystery man that Sapnap is dating but hasn’t been paying too much attention to the ravenette’s love life.

Sapnap finds himself smiling, a bit bashful though he’d never admit it, and looking down at his lap just a bit, “Yeah, I have…”

“And?” Dream asks, “Are you finally comfortable with telling us who this mystery man is?” Sapnap hums and takes a moment to think. He knows that Techno is fine with people finding out about their relationship, all that Techno asks is to wait to tell his family because Techno wants them to have to come to that realization themselves--because Techno’s a dick to his family /aff. That leaves the decision up to Sapnap and his own comfort with his friends knowing.

He knows that Dream would be fine with it, he likes Techno, but he’d no doubt tease Sapnap to the moon and back and George probably wouldn’t care. And they’d probably not tell anyone that he doesn’t want to know yet…

Sapnap sighs and nods, “It’s uhm… I’m dating- I’m dating Techno.”

George nearly spits out his water, his eyes practically bulging out of his head while Dream lets out a wheezing laugh, slamming his hand on the table. The brunette swallows and coughs a bit to clear his throat, “Techno? Like Technoblade?”

Sapnap nods, “Yeah, Technoblade.”

Dream cackles, his wheezing dying down just a bit, “Oh my god! That’s so fucking funny!” Sapnap blushes, tilting his head down more and letting his hair fall over his face like a curtain. The ravenette hears the other man stop laughing, taking a moment to collect himself. “But seriously, that’s amazing. Techno’s a great guy.”

Sapnap nods, and when he speaks his voice is much quieter than he would like, “Yeah… he’s awesome.”

Sapnap feels a hand on his shoulder and he glances up, meeting Dream’s eyes, “You were right when you told me that I’d know he’d never hurt you. To be entirely honest, if I wasn’t head-over-heel for George I’d probably be trying to date Techno too.”

Sapnap smiles, “He’s just so… charming and so kind and so passionate.”

“He’s a good man.” Dream’s smile widens, and he pulls Sapnap in so the blonde’s arm is wrapped tightly around his shoulders, pulling the two of them tight together. “I’m glad you were able to come around to him and get to know him. Though, I do want to hear how that happened?”

“That’s… it’s a bit of a long story.”

Dream nods, “Later then.”

George, who had been mostly quiet other than his laughter, finally speaks up, “Thinking back on it, all the times that you were talking about Techno… it makes sense.”

Sapnap shrugs with one shoulder and lets out a small laugh, “Yeah… I tried to keep it as on the downlow as possible but I didn’t do a great job.”

“How many dates have you guys gone on?” Dream asks, tilting himself so he can see Sapnap better, the arm around Sapnap’s shoulders untightening just a bit, “What do you guys do on dates? What was your first kiss with him like, is he a good kisser?”

Sapnap laughs a bit and pushes Dream’s arm off his shoulders, “You sound like a kid gossiping, Dream.”

George snorts, “That’s because he absolutely still has the mindset of a kid.”

Dream turns and sticks his tongue out at George, making the shorter shout that he’s proving his point, then the blonde turns back to Sapnap, “Are you gonna answer my questions?”

Sapnap rolls his eyes, “We don’t really go on a lot of dates, it’s just a lot of us hanging out together because he doesn’t like going out as much as I do. Most of it is just cuddling on one of our beds watching a shitty horror movie or a baking show. Or him reading. Our first kiss was watching the Great British Bake Off after he took me out to his uncle’s Filipino restaurant. Yes, I would say he’s a good kisser.”

Dream barks a laugh and pushes Sapnap’s shoulder, “My fuckin’ man!”

<><><><><>

Sapnap has noticed that Techno likes giving him things. He isn’t super big on affection, rarely does he initiate it himself. And really, Sapnap has no problem with that, but he’s also begun to notice that Techno gives him things. Paintings, crystals, pretty rocks that he finds on his walks, knick-knacks that he comes across when he gets dragged out with Wilbur or Ranboo or Tommy, or all of them.

But this is new.

Techno had just randomly prompted Sapnap to sit up from where he was laying down on his bed while Techno was leaning against his bed frame, hunched over doing his homework. When Sapnap does sit up and moves to sit cross-legged, he looks down at Techno. The pinkette then stands up and grabs something from the pocket of his hoodie that he threw over the back of Sapnap’s chair and holds it behind his back.

And when Techno sits next to Sapnap on the bed, he slowly pulls a wooden box from behind his back and hands it to Sapnap. And for a moment, even knowing that he’s supposed to open it, the ravenette takes the box between his fingers and looks over the box. It looks hand-carved with vines decorating the top of it and paintings of roses along the edges of it.

Finally the ravenette pushes the lid of the wooden box back on his hinges with his thumb and freezes when he sees something sitting on a plush velvet pad. The first thing that he sees is a pretty, fragile-looking rose with a curvy golden stem and petals that are brushed with red but look as though they have glass-like transparent effect. With gentle fingers, Sapnap pulls the rose from where it is sitting against the red velvet and with the rose comes a small golden chain.

Sapnap looks at Techno, feeling his eyes well with tears. Techno is blushing and is looking down, embarrassed. After a couple seconds of looking between the necklace and his boyfriend, Sapnap finally manages the words to speak up, “Oh my god, Tech. This is beautiful. Put it on for me?” Techno looks up and nods and he looks so flushed and nervous and it makes Sapnap’s heart soar at the knowledge that he’s dating this man. The pinkette reaches up and gently takes the chain from Sapnap’s hand and helps clasp it behind his neck, taking a second to look him over after he pulls back from Sapnap’s neck.

Sapnap watch as those pretty red eyes gleam with pride at the sight of Sapnap wearing a necklace that Techno made for him. Sapnap pulls up his phone and looks at himself in the camera, and he finds himself staring at the pretty object around his neck, bringing a hand up to finger at the beautifully painted petals.

“You made this?” Sapnap asks, looking back at Techno and letting his phone fall into his lap.

Techno nods bashfully, “Ranboo helped me paint the rose but…”

“I fucking love it, Techno.” Sapnap says, quickly cutting away any doubts that his boyfriend may be feeling, “I swear to god I’m never taking this off.” He then pulls Techno close to himself and pulls him into a kiss, putting as much of his love for the other man as he can into it. Techno wraps his arms around Sapnap’s shoulders after a moment of shock, allowing himself to lean into Sapnap.

“I’m glad you like it, love.” Techno says when they pull away for breath and Sapnap smiles and presses their foreheads together.

“I love it so much, Tech. Thank you.” Sapnap says, quiet and whispered between the two of them. It’s a private moment, one that Sapnap wouldn’t give away for a million dollars and god is he glad that this man actually agreed to date him.

<><><><><>

Love
hey Tech
my really religious aunt and uncle are coming over and dad doesn’t want my weed in the house
wanna go finish what i have at the park?

Tech<3
I find it flattering that the only thing you capitalize is my name
But sure
I’ll meet you at the park in an hour?

Love
works for me
see you then <3

Tech<3
<3

Sapnap smiles and looks up at his dad, “I’m gonna go finish off my stash at the park in like an hour? Is that okay?”

Bad looks up at him and tilts his head, “Who’re you going with?”

“Techno.”

Bad hums and takes a second to consider before shrugging, “Sure. Just make sure that it’s gone by the time that my brother gets here.” Sapnap nods, Bad may not be super fond of the idea of his son doing drugs but he trusts Sapnap to not make stupid decisions and has come to terms with it, knowing that it’s the least dangerous to him--even if it’s still not good for him.

“I don’t have much left so…” Bad nods and Sapnap continues, “Are you going to invite Skeppy over while uncle Stewart is here?

Bad sighs, “I- Skeppy wants to meet him because I told him that I want him to meet my family before we get engaged… but.”

“Stewart and his family are pretty homophobic, right?”

Bad tilts his head back and forth a couple times with a noise high in the back of his throat, “Not quite homophobic but…They don’t really know how to hold their judgement or their tongue when they see something that isn’t…”

“Straight?” Sapnap supplies with a tilted head and a raised eyebrow, not caring to sugar coat his uncle’s bigotry.

“Or white, or able-bodied, or… not them.” Bad nods, “I don’t want to be mean about my brother but…”

“He’s a dick?”

“Don’t say that about him!” Bad scolds but the facade falls quickly, “But… he’s already not very fond of the idea that I’m a single dad and then him knowing about me dating another man. And not to mention the way that Skeppy is.”

“I get it.” Sapnap says, “I’ll make sure not to bring Techno over.”

Bad snorts, “I actually think it’d be pretty funny to bring your boyfriend over.”

Sapnap laughs with his dad at the thought, “Oh Stewart and Jenni would hate him.” He takes a couple deep breaths, trying to distract himself from the scandalized faces of his aunt and uncle if he were to bring over Techno. Eventually he’s able to calm himself down enough to talk again, “How long are they staying again?”

“About a week, maybe a bit longer while their house is getting fumigated, I think.” Bad says, ending his statement with a bit of a questioning tone, “I kinda started drowning out his talking after an hour of him not letting me get my word in.”

Sapnap groans and collapses back against the couch, “Oh this week is gonna be hell.”

Bad smiles and stands up, putting his hand on his son’s shoulder as he starts to walk past, “You’re gonna be fine. You don’t even have to talk to them that much, you have my full permission to go out with Dream or George or Karl or Techno all that you want. Just try to be around enough to make it look like you’re not avoiding them and try not to make them think that you’re a rebellious child that I raised wrong because I’m a single dad?”

Sapnap nods, “I’ll try my best.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry that you have to do this.” Bad smiles gratefully at his son and walks away, “You should get ready to go to the park. Don’t forget to bring a jacket or something, it’s getting cold at night now.”

“Alright dad.” Sapnap nods, and he pushes himself to a stand. He maneuvers himself to his room and gets everything that he needs, tucking the baggie of the last of his stash in his pocket. Then he checks his phone, makes sure that it’s charged, and heads back to the main part of his house. As he walks towards the door, he calls to his dad that he’s leaving and tells him that he’ll text him when the ravenette is on his way back.

Bad tells him to stay safe and be responsible and Sapnap nods and heads out of the house, beginning the walk towards the park where he’s meeting Techno.

When he gets there, Techno is already waiting at the park, stretched over the poles of the monkey bars in a way that absolutely cannot be comfortable, his hair hanging loose between the bars and falling into the air under him. The pinkette turns his head when he hears his boyfriend approaching and starts pushing himself to sit up properly when Sapnap is about halfway between the entrance to the park and where he is.

“Hello love.” Techno says, swinging his legs over the edge of the monkey bars, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, “How are you?”

Sapnap shrugs, “I’m doing good. Dreading the arrival of my aunt and uncle but…”

Techno nods, “I could see that. We all have family we dread seeing.” The pinkette hops from the monkey bars and lands flawlessly on his feet, quickly recovering and walking towards where Sapnap has settled himself on the swings. The ravenette nods and reaches into his baggie for a half-finished joint, putting it between his lips and moving to fish his lighter from his pocket. And when he can’t find the damn thing, he looks up to see Techno holding his own lighter in Sapnap’s direction.

The ravenette gratefully takes it and watches as Techno swiftly moves to sit on the swing next to him, twisting the chains so he’s turned to look at his boyfriend. The pinkette watches as Sapnap moves to light the end of the joint, handing back the lighter as he takes a long drag.

And the two of them sit there for a while, just passing the joint between them talking quietly about whatever they feel like talking about. At one point Techno turns music on his phone and sets it on the grass next to them. The two of them have moved so Sapnap is sitting on Techno’s lap on one of the swings, Techno swinging the two of them lightly.

Sapnap takes a drag of his joint, a second one that he had yet to start going through, and holds it away from his face as he pulls Techno into a kiss, pushing the smoke from his lips to Techno’s. The pinkette pulls away to get a breath of actual air then pulls Sapnap in again, tightening the arms around Sapnap’s waist as Sapnap moves to wrap his arms around the pinkette’s, minding the burning object in his hand.

And that’s when the two of them hear two familiar voices in the distance, accompanied by the sound of a wolf whistle, “Woah! Techno’s gettin’ frisky at the park!” The two of them pull away and Techno turns his head to see Wilbur and Tommy walking towards them, feeling Sapnap tuck his head into his shoulder. Wilbur continues, “This is a kid’s park y’know? Where you should be keepin’ it PG.”

Techno rolls his eyes, “Like you have room to talk.” The pinkette takes the joint from his boyfriend’s fingers and pulls it to his lips, taking a drag, “I know the weird shit you’ve gotten up to at this park.”

Tommy groans, “I don’t need to know about my brother’s weird sex habits!” He whines before his attention very quickly get turns to the shadowed man currently cuddling into Techno’s shoulder and sitting very comfortably on his lap, “Who the fuck is this?”

Wilbur smirks and tucks his arms behind his back, speeding up his pace and leaning down a bit as he makes it to the swings, “I thought you said you didn’t want to know about your brothers’ sex life?”

Tommy grumbles and crosses his arms, “Yeah but when Techno, the most antisocial person on Earth, is making out with someone on his lap, forgive me for being curious.”

Wil nods and walks closer, “Yeah, I have to say. Who is this shy beauty sitting in your lap, Techie?”

Techno rolls his eyes, takes another drag, and moves his arm still around Sapnap’s waist to the ravenette’s hair, pulling his head up to meet their eyes for a moment whispering, “Are you okay with showing yourself to them?”

Sapnap nods after a couple seconds, “I don’t mind.” Techno nods and Sapnap tucks his head in Techno’s shoulder again, reaching blindly for the joint so he can take a drag before he tucks himself away fully.

The pinkette looks to his brothers, “It’s… Sapnap.” Tommy shouts and Wil lets out a barked laugh, folding over himself.

“You’re dating Sapnap?!” Wil shouts between barked laughter, “Oh my god! How long has this been going on?”

“A couple months.” Techno says calmly, beginning to run his hands through his boyfriend’s hair. He hears Sapnap hum and feel the other’s arm around Techno’s waist tighten.

“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Tommy almost shouts, though he tries to lower his noise when Wil shushes him and taps two fingers to his elbow in warning.

Techno shrugged, “I wanted to see how long it took for the two of you to figure it out. Ranboo, mom, probably Phil, and pretty much all of Sapnap’s close friends and family know.”

“And you leave us to figure it out through seeing you and Sapnap making out in the park at like nine at night?” Wil asks, and Techno thinks he raises an eyebrow but it’s hard to tell in the darkness.

Techno shrugs, Sapnap pulls a bit away from his shoulder to take another drag, and the pinkette scratches at his boyfriend’s scalp, “It wasn’t the original plan when it came to you two finding out but…” Techno chuckles and Sapnap finally pulls himself away from Techno and turns himself around in the pinkette’s lap, moving to look at Wilbur and Tommy. Techno rests his chin on his boyfriend’s shoulder, “it just happened how it happened, y’know?”

Sapnap leans back against Techno’s body, “We weren’t expecting you guys to show up at the park so…” he smiles and hands the joint off to Techno, who takes it gratefully.

“Oh my god,” Wil starts, a teasing tone to his voice, “Sapnap speaks. It actually is him.”

Sapnap rolls his eyes, “What? Did you think I was some sex doll that Techno was using to fake having a significant other.” Techno bats his hand in Sapnap’s hair at the shorter’s head and he laughs.

Wil rolls his eyes back, “Not what I was thinking. Last I checked sex dolls don’t smoke and cuddle into their boyfriends’ shoulders.”

Sapnap smiles, “I don’t know, technology is advancing.”

Tommy sighs, “Can we stop talking about sex dolls in the context of my brothers?”

Sapnap lets out a laugh, “Good thing Techno doesn’t have one.” He smiles, “Why’re you guys here?”

Wil shrugs, “Phil and Techno’s mom are having dinner and we didn’t want to be there in case they want to get… close.”

“Gross, Wil.” Techno grumbles, the vibrations rumbling through Sapnap.

“And Ranboo was out and Techno wasn’t responding so we decided to walk over here…” Wil says, his voice giving away the obviously growing smirk, “And I think we found out why Techno wasn’t responding to us.”

Techno groans into Sapnap’s ear--fuck that was hot--and grumbles, “Get your mind outta the gutter, Wil.”

Sapnap chuckles at his boyfriend and tilts his head in the direction of Wil, who has moved to sit in the swing that Sapnap was sitting in before, “We were out here smoking. I have religious as shit people staying for a while at my house and dad doesn’t want traces of drugs.”

Wil nods and makes what Sapnap thinks is an ‘o’ shape with his mouth, “I see. Can I hit it?” Sapnap shrugs and Techno passes the joint over to the brunette.

And the four of them spend their time at the park, Tommy sitting in the grass and just adding in on the conversation on occasion while he plays on his Switch while Wil, Techno, and Sapnap talk and pass the joint amongst themselves. They end up staying for much longer than the stash lasts before Sapnap finally decides that it’s time to go home. He says goodbye to his boyfriend and the brothers and starts walking home, texting his dad as he leaves the park. He knows, by the laughter that he hears walking in the other direction, that Techno, Wil, and Tommy have started heading home too.

And if Sapnap spends more time at Techno’s house than he would normally, Wilbur and Tommy only have to know the half of it--Sapnap really does not want to be around his family.

Chapter Text

Love
Tech
im already dying here

Tech<3
Is it that bad?
Didn’t your family just arrive today?

Love
they did
but theyre like
BAD

Tech<3
Why do you say that?

Love
because theyre so judgemental
its my aunt, uncle, and their two kids

Tech<3
Do you want to call to complain?
I could use some company while I re-dye my hair

Love
yes please

Sapnap instantly finds his phone screen taken over by a call request from his boyfriend. His thumb instantly pushes the accept call button and he changes it so his phone is on speaker and he’s doing a video call. Techno soon turns on his camera, showing him sitting on the bathroom counter in front of his mirror, gloves on his hand and holding a brush covered with a large glob of pink dye.

“Tell me about your family.” Techno says, pressing the brush to a strand and beginning to stroke the dye against the hairs.

“So there’s my Uncle Stewart. He’s dad’s brother and is really uptight and strict with his life. Doesn’t like his children having anything less than perfect manners, doesn’t like anyone that isn’t conventional like him and his family, doesn’t like the idea that my dad is a single father. He’s convinced that I need a woman in my life to know what to expect from one in my future when I get married.”

“Yikes,” Techno hisses, “I’m assuming he’s homophobic.”

“Not outright. But he’s the kinda guy to talk about how God designed us to love women and a happy life is a woman in the kitchen making him a sandwich while he relaxes from work.”

“Oh I hate those bastards.” Techno sighs and he pauses his motions to send Sapnap a charming smile, “Should I drop by there one day, give you a quick kiss on the cheek.”

Sapnap finds himself laughing, “I think that dad would be entertained. Maybe not talk for a long while so they have to debate whether you’re a girl or a guy.”

Techno laughs and continues with his hair dying, “Tell me about your aunt.”

“Aunt Jenni is a moderate woman. Met my uncle at church and is uber religious but more just goes along with my uncle’s ideals and listens to his demands. She’s also inherently homophobic but not as outright as my uncle is. She’s nice enough.”

“Tolerable?”

“Enough.” Sapnap shrugs, “Then there’s their oldest kid, James. He’s a major dick. 25 and still living with his parents still and a huge incel. Thinks that he’s entitled to women and he’s better than me because he’s older than me. Treats my dad like shit, and is a huge mess. I refuse to have him in my room because he trashes it and leaves an odour in his wake.”

The ravenette watches as his boyfriend’s nose scrunches and he grimaces, “That sounds like literal hell.”

“And that's just his resume, don’t even get me started on how he actually acts after you’ve been around him for a couple days.” Sapnap sighs, “There’s a reason that we never actually have them over.”

“Nasty.”

“Truly a disgusting human being.” Sapnap sighs again, “Then there’s my other cousin, Finnley. He’s like 14 and a genuinely sweet person. Quiet and he likes reading and I have a feeling that he’s going to cut contact with his parents and brother the minute that he’s financially stable enough.”

“Yes, milk his family for all their money then leave them.” Techno drawls, a smile on his face, “I like his style.”

“I’ll let him know that you’ve encouraged him.” The ravenette smiles back and watches as Techno pulls another strand of hair in front of him so he can dye it.

The two of them continue to talk for a while, with Techno methodically dying his hair and Sapnap moving to just lay in his bed, dreading facing his extended family. At some point, Bad came in and asked who he was talking to, then called a small ‘hello’ to Techno upon learning who it was and then told Sapnap not to stay up too late.

“Well I’m gonna need to wash this out soon and you should try to get some sleep, see if it’ll help deal with your family. Maybe you can come over at some point tomorrow, stay the night over here.” Techno says, gesturing to his hair. Sapnap nods and Techno smiles at him with his head slightly tilted--and it’s so very endearing to the ravenette.

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan. I’ll ask my dad about it tomorrow.”

Techno nods back, “Try to get some sleep, love.”

“I will. Goodnight Techno.”

“G’night Sap.” And with that, the call ends and Sapnap plugs his phone in, laying down and allowing himself to fall asleep.

~~~~~

The next morning, Sapnap found himself sitting at the table silently with his family. He knew that it was coming, he had to help Bad with cleaning off the table--it had very much so become their crap catcher--and helping him find places to put what had been piled on top of it. The two of them had long-forgone the use of the table during mealtimes since it’s usually just the two of them, occasionally joined by Skeppy or Dream and George. But with his family’s values of being a traditional household, they’re eating at the table for the week.

“So, Sapnap.” Jenni starts, scratching at her plate with her fork in a way that make’s Sapnap’s fingers twitch against his pant leg. Her voice is quiet, soft--obedient as Sapnap heard his Uncle describe it once, much to his disgust--and it’s clear that she’s hesitant to break up the tense silence that has befallen them. She tilts her head and takes a quick bite of food, “How’s school going? Are your grades doing better than they were last year?”

The ravenette chooses to ignore the underhanded slight and shrugs, “It’s going better this year. I’ve found a couple people that have been helping me focus and do better on tests.”

She nods, “That’s good. How are your friends, what are their names?” She snaps a couple times and tilts her head further, looking far off for a second, “Dan and…”

“Dream and George.” Sapnap supplies for her, “They’re doing good. Dream’s been really good for the school’s sports team and George is taking care of things in student government. We're trying to get him to be school president for next year.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” She nods and although her voice sounds kind, just as it always does, there’s something in her eyes. Disappointment, in Sapnap--perhaps for not being as accomplished or ‘perfect’ as his friends, is what flits through pretty blue and green eyes.

Though he appreciates that she is quiet about her resentment towards the choices that Sapnap has made in his life, considering Stewart is more than willing to be vocal about it.

“Why can’t you be more like them?” his uncle groans, “Why do you have to let us down when your friends are doing so great. A flunkie compared to two top dogs of their school? You’re nothing compared to them and your cousins.”

“Though,” James, who is only slightly less vocal than his father, “I can’t say that I like the two of ‘em that much. Dream’s a bit… cocky for my taste and George feels too flamboyant to get himself anywhere but under another man.”

Stewart nods, considering for a moment, “Right. They’re popular now, but in the future no one’s gonna want to work with people like them.” He then turns his gaze, that was recently turned to his eldest son, back to Sapnap, “Can’t say that you’re gonna get far if you don’t fix your appearance. You look shaggy, like you're homeless instead of living inside a nice house like this.”

“Kids his age are so wild in their clothing.” Jenni sighs, defeated and disappointed within that release of breath, “And with their new music and everything…”

Sapnap just takes a breath and tries not to let his annoyance out in his words, “I’ve got a couple of nice colleges lined up that I have reason to believe will accept me, or even consider my letter. And I have time to make my style more… professional…” he sends a look of plea towards his dad and Bad gives him a pitying smile and mouths ‘sorry’.

His dad turns to Stewart, “So what are you doing now, remind me? I’ve been so busy that I’m afraid it’s slipped my mind.” And Stewart begrudgingly engages in conversion with Bad and Sapnap catches the way that Finnley watches him for a couple seconds, snapping his eyes away the minute that they make eye contact.

When they finish breakfast, Stewart goes to the guest room to get ready for work while the rest of the family move to the living room. Bad sits down and grabs his laptop in an attempt to start getting some work done while he’s at home for the week, James spreading himself over the entirety of the couch and going onto his phone, Finnley sitting on the floor by the coffee table with his switch, Jenni sitting next to Bad doing nothing but looking between her sons and her nephew, and Sapnap flopping into his beanbag chair and fishing his phone from his pocket.

Tech<3
How’s it going with your family this morning?
Assuming you’re awake and have interacted with them

Love
just wonderful
ive already been compared to Dream and George
and James

Tech<3
There are good qualities in James for you to be compared to?
I underestimated him

Love
There arent
But stewart and jenni think there are

Tech<3
Ah
I stand corrected
Anything else, besides the comparisons?

Love
disappointment in my grades, even with them improving
thannk you for that <3
underhanded compliments

Tech<3
You’re welcome darling
And what do you mean by underhanded compliments?

Love
called dream cocky
which he is ik
but like
then called George ‘flamboyant’
then insulted my style and the way that ‘this generation’ dresses and what we listen to

Tech<3
Sounds rough, I’m sorry love
But Kristin is willing to have you over for as long as you want to stay
Just let us know

Love
i think ill stick it out for a while then maybe come over tonight

Tech<3
Alright
Ily

Love
lyt <3

Tech<3
<3

When Sapnap looks up from his phone, Bad has his eyebrow raised as if asking who he was texting, nodding when the ravenette mouths his boyfriend’s name. Meanwhile, Jenni is trying to coral James and Finnley into doing something that Sapnap can’t find it in himself to care about. Stewart has come back in and is standing by the door, getting ready to go to work.

Shortly after Stewart leaves and Jenni has given up on convincing her sons to listen to what she wanted them to do, Bad stands up, “I'm going to the store to pick up a couple of things for dinner and the rest of the week. Sapnap, how about you take Finnley out to the park or something, get some fresh air?” Finnley looks up, looks between where his mom and Bad are, then to Sapnap and back. After a couple of seconds, he nods.

But Jenni puts her finger up, “But since I’m going with Uncle Bad, James needs to go with the two of you, you know what your father said about…” she pauses and lowers her voice, leaning in a bit, “He doesn’t want you alone with either of them.” At that her younger son nods and sighs in defeat. James groans but nods nonetheless. Sapnap takes a moment to look over his aunt, she’s already got makeup on, apparently it’s one of the first things that she does and Sapnap has a feeling that it too, alongside the modest outfit that she’s wearing, has influence from Stewarts presence. Her face is warm and her hair falls around her face in a nice way. She is a genuinely beautiful woman with a lot of potential.

Too bad she married Stewart and is forced to be a stay at home mom…

“Is that alright with you Sapnap?” Bad asks, tilting his head a bit as he looks towards his son.

Sapnap shrugs, “I don’t mind. Just give me a couple minutes to change and grab my keys.” And with that, he stands up and walks to his room. He quickly throws on a hoodie and slips his feet into his shoes, grabbing his keys and his wallet and heading back downstairs. Bad and Jenni are standing by the door and Sapnap leans into the living room where his cousins are still sitting, “Are you two ready to go?” Finnley nods, not looking fully up from the Switch in his hands and James just sighs and forces himself to stand up.

As they exit the house alongside their parents, Jenni turns to her sons, “Keep watch of your phones. Don’t be out for too long. Have fun, stay safe.” Then she leans forward to kiss their foreheads, James grumbling and Finnley just nodding. The two adults get into Bad’s car with a wave from the two of them and Sapnap guides his cousins along the sidewalk towards the park.

It’s a quiet walk with Finnley still playing, glancing up to look at their surroundings occasionally, James just walking a couple feet behind them with his arms crossed, and Sapnap texting his group chat with Dream, George, Quackity, and Karl, looking up every once in a while when they cross roads and to make sure that they take the right turns.

When they arrive, there are a couple familiar figures already at the playsets. And as they approach Sapnap loses a breath at the fact that there are people that he knows here but feels his shoulders tense as he realizes just who is at the park.

Because across the park, sitting where they’re approaching, are Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, Wilbur, and a red-haired woman that Sapnap has seen around the school--specifically around Wilbur--a lot but has never gotten to know much about.

And as they are nearly at the playset, Tommy looks up and reaches to energetically wave, “Sapnap! Hey loser, what are you doing here?” The blonde’s eyes fall on his cousins and his expression twists, “Who are these two?” This catches the attention of the other four as Sapnap and his cousins are nearly at the playset. James breaks off and goes to sit on the bench nearby and Finnley just stands a bit behind Sapnap.

“Ah, this is Finnley.” Sapnap says, leaning just a bit to show his younger cousin, then he gestures to the bench where James is sitting, “And that’s James. They’re my cousins, staying at my house for the week.”

Wilbur nods, and kicks his legs a couple times from where he’s sitting next to the red-haired girl on the monkey bars. Understanding fills his eyes as he seems to remember the conversation that had two days previous at this same park, “I’m Wilbur, one of Sapnap’s friends. This is my girlfriend, Sally.” The girl, Sally, nods with a gentle smile though she doesn’t say much. She’s pretty, her shiny hair falling in pretty ringlets and her gentle facial features accentuated with makeup. She’s wearing a dark green halter top under a flannel and a pair of ripped jeans.

Sapnap nods and gestures to the three younger teens sitting on the grass nearby, “Those are Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo. They’re about your age, I think you’d like them, Finn.” Finn nods and, after a couple seconds of deliberation, moves to hesitantly sit in the space that the other teens have made for him within their little circle.

Sapnap moves to stand next to where Wil and Sally sit and Wil leans down a bit more, “This the family you were talking about?”

The ravenette casts a long glance to James, arms crossed and staring between this group and the one that Finn has joined, “Yeah. Finn’s not bad and James… he’s interesting for lack of better words.”

Wil nods and shrugs, “Nothing you can do about it. Are you able to go over to Kristin’s?”

“Techno invited me over. I’ll ask my dad if I can stay the night when we get back from the park.”

The brunette nods and smiles, “That’s good.”

And Sally looks between them with curious eyes, “How do you know Techno?”

“Oh!” Her boyfriend smiles, sitting up properly again, “That’s right, you two haven’t formally met. Sally, this is Sapnap. He’s friends with Dream and George and is dating Techno. I’m sure you guys have seen each other around.”

The ravenette shrugs, “We’ve never talked but I think we’ve had a class or two together.”

Sally smiles kindly to him, “Well either way, it’s nice to properly meet you.”

“The same goes for you.” Sapnap responds, he glances back at Finn--he seems content, if not a bit nervous, which is nice--then looks back at Wil, “I didn’t know that you had a girlfriend?”

“I mean we don’t hang around each other a lot so I don’t blame you for not knowing.” Wil shrugs, “How long are you gonna be here with your cousins?”

Sapnap shrugs, “My aunt and uncle don’t want Finn to be alone with me or dad for too long, as ridiculous as that sounds, so whenever my aunt texts Finn or James to come back home we’ll leave.”

“Sounds tiring having to put up with them.” Will grimaces, tapping his fingers against the monkey bars a couple times. Tommy shouts something at Ranboo, or so Sapnap can assume, and it makes the ravenette jump which in turn makes Wil bark out a laugh.

The shorter recovers from his startle quickly and he shrugs in response to Wil’s previous statement, “It’s not horrible so far but they only got here yesterday. Though I’ve already been compared to my friends and insulted but...” The ravenette shrugs.

Sally hums from beside Wil, “My family does the same thing whenever they’re over, I wish you luck.” The two boys laugh and continue with their conversation until James gets a text asking for them to head back to Sapnap’s house. Sapnap says his farewells to the couple and heads towards the sidewalk leading to his house, Finn waves goodbye to the younger teens and picks up stride next to Sapnap, James trailing a couple feet behind them again.

“Did you like the boys?” Sapnap asks, inclining his head towards Finn, who’s gone back to look at his Switch.

His younger cousin shrugs, “They were nice. Tommy was a bit loud but they were funny.”

The ravenette gives his cousin a grin, “You get used to it after spending so much time around people like Tommy.”

“He swore too much for my liking.” James grumbles, barely audible, from behind them but doesn’t say much else. Finn shrugs, as though he’s not bothered by the foul language, and goes back to playing his game, not caring to say much else for the rest of the walk back to the house.

When they get back, Sapnap pushes the front door open and toes his shoes off, walking the rest of the way into the house after that, “We’re home!”

Bad’s answering call comes from the living room, “Aunt Jenni and I are in the living room! If you boys want snacks, there’s a couple bags of treats on the counter.” The ravenette swings into the kitchen to grab a back of trail mix for himself then moves to lay back down on the beanbag chair in the living room again. Shortly behind him are Finn and James, sitting down on their previous respective places.

Jenni offers them a gentle smile, “How was the park, boys?”

“It was good.” Finn says, looking up to his mom with a smile for the first time during this visit, “There were a couple of Sapnap’s friends there that I got to talk to.”

“Oh?” Bad starts, looking towards his son, “Who was there?”

“Wil, his girlfriend Sally, Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo.”

Something flashes in his dad’s eyes, something that Sapnap can also track down to a bit of panic, but it goes away quickly, “Oh how are they doing?”

“I didn’t talk to the boys much but Wil and his girlfriend are well.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” His dad mouths to him were they? to which Sapnap shuts down with a quick shake of his head, watching as Bad releases a sigh of relief.

“Oh,” Jenni starts, “Did you get to meet them, Finn? James?”

Finn nods, a bit of excitement in his eyes, “Yeah I got to talk to Ranboo, Tommy, and Tubbo. We played games together and talked, they were really funny.”

“Are they around your age?”

“They’re fifteen and sixteen.”

“That’s good, you need some more friends your age.” Jenni smiles and claps her hands together, true joy sparkling in her eyes.

“I don’t agree with that.” James grumbles.

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t like them. I don’t want them around Finn again.”

“Why’s that?” Jenni asks, tilting her head innocently. Bad sends a bit of a panicked look towards his son and Sapnap shrugs, he didn’t notice anything that would be off about the three of them but then again he can’t read James’ mind.

“Because the blonde one swore too much and was incredibly aggressive. The short one was brash and made weird jokes, seemed a bit… feminine. And the tall one had dyed hair, which was gross, and also seemed a bit flamboyant.” Sapnap takes a deep breath, trying to keep it subtle and raises an annoyed eyebrow towards his dad.

“What colour was his hair dyed, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Black and white.” James scoffs, “Looked absolutely ridiculous.”

“Be nice,” Finn scolds quietly, “They were really nice, you can’t judge something that you didn’t even try talking to.”

“I’m just looking out for you, and that’s coming in the form of protecting you from… sinners.”

“Don’t use such negative language, James!” Jenni scolds, looking scandalized.

“What?” The oldest kid asks, throwing up his arms, “I’m just saying. And I didn’t like the other two at the park.”

“Why not?”

“Because they were sitting on the playset like heathens and were way too touchy for my liking-”

“They were sitting next to each other on the monkey bars.” Sapnap says, incredulous, “The most that they did was Wil wrapping his arm around Sally’s waist.”

“Not to mention that the man looked like trouble, like a drug dealer or a murderer or something and the girl was dressed like a harlot.”

“James!” Jenni screeches, finally batting at her son’s leg, “We will not talk about Sapnap’s friends in that manner!”

“I’m just worried about the people that Finn is being brought around while we’re staying here.” James says, throwing his hands up once again, “Just relaying what I saw.”

Sapnap groans, “Sally was almost entirely covered up, the only thing was her top but it was hidden with a flannel and Wil was wearing a fu- sweater and a pair of sweats? And how would you know anything about them, you didn’t even take the time to talk to them or even learn their names. If you did you’d actually learn that they’re great people.”

“Why are you defending them so much, huh? Are you one of them? In their gang or whatever you’d call it?” James accuses, sitting up properly and leaning like he’s trying to get into Sapnap’s face. Like he’s trying to be intimidating.

“I barely talk to them most of the time, but I don’t appreciate you talking like that about people in my life, that mean something and have helped me get through things. I see them all the time at school and have gotten to know them as wonderful people and I really don’t appreciate you talking like that about anyone that I know.”

“Oh I bet you’re one of those- one of those homos and that’s why you’re so uptight about it. Of course you would stick with your own disgust-” James doesn’t get to finish his statement because Sapnap cuts him off with a pillow thrown as harshly as possible towards his cousin, standing up and storming away.

The last thing that he hears is Jenni whispering, “That was too far, James.” In a dark, scolding tone, “I don’t want to hear a word from you about these people again.”

The ravenette pushes his door open, closes it while making his best effort for him to not slam it in his anger. He throws his wallet and keys onto his bedside table and falls onto the bed, grabbing for his phone from his hoodie pocket.

Love
oh i cant stand this

Tech<3
What’s wrong darling?

Love
went to the park with my cousins today and found wil, sally, tommy, ranboo, and tubbo
Finn liked the boys but James had problems with them
talked shit about them
then got after me and accused me of being a part of their ‘homo gang’ for defending them against him

Tech<3
I’m sorry love
Have you talked to your dad about staying the night?

Love
ill text him soon and ask him
probably won't leave until after dinner

Tech<3
Alright
Take a couple deep breaths and clear your head, love
I love you

Love
i will
Love you too

And Sapnap turns off his phone and throws it onto his bed next to his head, turning so his face is mostly buried in his pillow and takes a couple deep breaths.

And that’s where he stays, watching Youtube on his phone with his face mostly buried into the pillow until his dad calls him down for dinner. And when the ravenette finally pushes himself up from his bed, he takes another deep breath, stretches out his arms, and begrudgingly makes his way out of his room.

And, to his luck and great relief, only Bad is waiting for him when he gets out of his room and down the stairs, “Where’s the others?”

Bad shrugs, “Stewart hasn’t gotten home yet, Finn and James are in their rooms, and I think Jenni is washing up for dinner.” His dad crosses the kitchen and goes to grab a plate for Sapnap, handing it to his son, “Are you alright after earlier? I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”

Sapnap just shakes his head, “No, there’s not much that you could say. I’m… fine. Would I be able to go over to Techno’s after dinner? Possibly stay the night?”

After a couple seconds of deliberation, Bad nods, his eyes locking onto something over Sapnap’s shoulder, “Of course you can stay the night at Kristin’s house.” And, even though it’s technically confirmation, Sapnap finds himself looking at his dad in confusion. That is, until he turns around and sees Jenni standing in the entrance to the kitchen.

She’s got a smile on her face as Sapnap turns to get himself some food, “Kristin? I’ve never heard that name, is that your girlfriend or something?”

“Yeah,” Sapnap laughs halfheartedly, “or something.”

“Oh, and speaking of girlfriends, are you ever going to find a girl to settle down with, Bad?” Jenni asks, beginning to stalk forward to grab herself a plate and begin serving herself, “You know it must be so hard raising Sapnap all alone, I was so lucky to have Stewart while we were raising James, it was his hardest years. I’m sure that a woman could do some good in your life.”

Bad laughs awkwardly and rubs the back of his neck, “I uh- I haven’t found anyone that I was… interested in. Thank you for your concern, Jenni, but I’m actually doing pretty okay. Sapnap is a good kid.” His dad sends the ravenette an appreciative smile, not for the topic of conversation at hand, but for the way that he has been relatively easy to raise. Sapnap just smiles back and nods, walking towards the table and putting his plate down, returning to the kitchen just after to grab himself a glass of water.

“Are you sure? I mean Sapnap seems well-mannered enough but I can’t imagine that it’s easy taking care of the house and keeping a stable income and raising your son at the same time. I think that a woman would do you good. Maybe I could take you out and we could look for some women for you.”

Bad lets out an awkward laugh again, “Really, Jenni, I’m alright without one. I’m sure I’ll settle down eventually but I’ve enjoyed living the way that I am.”

Jenni reads his face for a while, then turns to look at where Sapnap is now pulling his glass away from the water dispenser attached to the fridge, then back to Bad and finally sighs, “I guess, if you really think that. I just worry about you, you know. Living here all alone, especially after Sapnap leaves for college.”

“Oh I’m sure I’ll be fine, really. But thank you for worrying Jenni.” Bad shoots a look towards his son as Jenni moves to plate herself with a small defeated smile. Shortly after, Bad plates himself and James and Finn come out of their rooms as he’s sitting down. They get themselves food and the family all sits around, eating in relative silence once they’re settled.

“So Sapnap.” Jenni starts, looking towards her nephew, “Tell me about your girlfriend?”

Sapnap nods and sends a quick look to his dad, taking a moment to decide on whether he wants to describe his boyfriend or give some vague details on his boyfriend’s mom, y’know considering her description might be more believable. Eventually he settles on his option, “She uh, she’s relatively quiet. Super smart and she’s always reading or writing. She’s got three brothers.”

“Is she the one that’s been helping you with your studies?”

Sapnap nods, “Yeah, she’s been helping me with that.”

Jenni’s lips stretch into a subdued yet excited smile, “That’s so nice! How long have you two been dating?”

“We’ve been dating for a couple months now.” Sapnap nods, his own small smile growing onto his face at the thought of his boyfriend.

“That’s lovely! Would you be willing to have her over for a family dinner eventually?”

Sapnap lets out a small chuckle and rubs the back of his neck, “Uh, yeah… possibly. It would depend more on what she’s comfortable with.”

“Oh does she not like crowds or?”

“Not fond of them,” Sapnap nods, “I mentioned that she’s pretty quiet, she likes keeping to herself.”

Jenni claps with a small gasp, “Oh I’ve always loved the whole opposites attract thing! I think it’s just the sweetest thing. You know me and your uncle were complete opposites when we met. I was a wild child girl, and then Stewart came, serious yet amazing, and he showed me the right path and here we are, years later with two kids and still happily married.”

The ravenette nods, and his smile grows increasingly more fake, “Sounds lovely.”

“Isn’t it?” She gets this dreamy look on her face, looking off into the distance. There’s a shine in her eyes that almost looks like sadness and she looks towards Bad, “This family did so much for me, you don’t even know it and I am forever grateful that you all let me in all those years ago.”

Bad grows his own smile, a genuine one, “Of course, you are the best thing that happened to Stewart, Jenni. I would so much prefer you joining our family over anyone else.” Over Stewart himself is left unspoken, though both Bad and Sapnap understood it. The ravenette’s dad turns to look at his son, “Are you just planning to leave after dinner? How long do you plan to stay in the morning?”

Sapnap shrugs, “I’m probably gonna leave shortly after dinner, I’ll have to grab a few things but it won’t take too long. In the morning, I’m not sure how long I’ll stay, but I’ll let you know when I’m on my way back.”

“Are you two going to meet up at the park and then walk the rest of the way?”

“Probably.”

“Alright, just stay safe.”

“You let him stay the night at his girlfriend’s house?” James asks, a judgemental eyebrow raised, arms crossed, “And her parents are okay with it?”

Sapnap lets out a fake chuckle, “Yeah, they usually don’t mind-” because they’re boyfriends but James doesn’t need to know that… yet, “-her parents trust us enough that they don’t really… have much of a problem with it.”

Bad nods, “And I trust Sapnap a lot. He usually spends most of the time there watching shows with his bo- girlfriend and her brothers.”

“How do you know that’s true?” James challenges, pushing his head forward a bit.

Bad doesn't seem at all affected by his attempts at intimidation, “Because I have faith in my kid? Also, I know his, girlfriend’s, parents and brothers and know that they wouldn’t let Sapnap and his girlfriend do anything inappropriate while they’re around. I’d also hope that they have tact.”

“Don’t get so defensive, Bad.” Jenni hums, an un-markable tone in her words, “He’s just watching out for you and Sapnap.”

“And I understand that, but I’d prefer that he doesn’t try to co-parent my son.'' Even though he’s speaking to his sister-in-law, his gaze and words are aimed directly at James, “Considering that you guys don’t know Sapnap the way that you do, I thank you for your worry, but there I think I know when to trust my son more than you. With all due respect.”

Jenni gives him a placating look and folds in her hands into her lap, “Of course…” Sapnap finishes his food and excuses himself, standing up and gathering his dishes. He rinses them off and puts them into the dishwasher, moving towards his room after that.

One in his room, he throws on the hoodie that he took off earlier before coming down for dinner and his charger, then tucking his wallet and his keys into his pants pocket. He shoots a quick text to Techno to meet him in the park, that Sapnap is going to be leaving his house within a couple of minutes. He doesn’t bother grabbing a change of clothes, knowing that he has plenty of clothes left over at Techno’s house.

After he’s grabbed everything that he thinks he’ll need, he walks out of his room, locking the door behind him--he absolutely doesn’t trust Stewart or James to leave his room alone while he’s not there--and heads downstairs. “I’m leaving now! I’ll text you when I get there and when I’m on my way back!”

“Alright,” Bad calls back, “Stay safe.”

And this time he hears Aunt Jenni’s voice, “Have fun with your girlfriend!” Sapnap doesn’t care to respond verbally, instead he just steps out of the house and shuts the door behind him.

The sun is just starting to set as he walks, and Sapnap takes the time to take in the view, the way that the sunset paints the world in beautiful shades of orange and pink--in shades of his own and Techno’s favourite colours--and the way that the sun laying to rest provides the world with a nice chill that is just starting to get cold enough to nip at his nose as fall gets closer and closer.

Eventually he gets to the park for the second time of the day and sees his boyfriend sitting on the swings, his hair falling loosely around his shoulders and draping over his face as he looks down at, presumably, the phone in his hand. The ravenette makes an effort to quiet his steps as he stalks closer, fully ready to scare his boyfriend.

Until Techno goes, “You know you can’t scare me, love.”

Sapnap lets out a sigh and throws his hands down, “You can’t blame me for trying.”

The pinkette stands up and helps close the gap between the two of them, “I suppose I can’t.” He smiles so very charmingly and Sapnap feels his breath being stolen from his lungs by the teen standing in front of him. The coloured lights of the evening sky casting onto Techno in the most beautiful way. His pink hair looks even more pink and vibrant with the light and his skin is painted golden, his eyes reflecting the lying sun within pools of red as the taller looks over Sapnap with utmost love in his eyes.

Sapnap decided that this time was made for his lover, the beauty of the colours and the slow fading of daylight.

Techno offers Sapnap a gentle smile, “Are you ready to go to my house? Since we’ve finished the Great British Bake Off, I’ve got Cupcake Wars loaded up. I don’t know if you’ll like it, if you haven’t watched it, but I’ve always thought it was fun.”

Sapnap nods with a smile of his own, “Yeah, let’s go.” The pinkette pulls away from his boyfriend’s body and extends a hand. Sapnap gratefully takes it and the two of them walk away, their hands interlocked as they go along the sidewalk for the short walk to Techno’s house. Once they arrive, the pinkette pushes the front door open and guides Sapnap inside.

Kristin is sitting in the living room reading when they walk past and she tilts his head up just slightly when she hears them walk in, “Hey Sapnap, how are you doing?”

“I’m doing well, thank you for letting me stay, Kristin.” Sapnap smiles, nodding his head.

The woman smiles back in her worn and comforting, motherly way, “Of course kiddo. Now, you two run off, I’m assuming you’ve eaten Sapnap?”

The younger ravenette nods, “Yeah, I have.”

“Good, you two run along.” She waves a hand as though it’s a dismissal and Techno takes it as an excuse to grab his boyfriend’s hand and pull him into his room. Sapnap throws his things onto the desk in the pinkette’s room and moves to settle on the bed next to where Techno has settled himself. They maneuver so Sapnap is leaning partially against Techno’s chest and the laptop is resting on their legs, Cupcake Wars playing.

“Wil told me about the whole thing at the park, I’m guessing that your cousin saw it worse than it was.”

Sapnap scoffs at the thought of his cousin, “Yeah, because he makes problems with fucking everything that’s not conventionally…” he waves his hands around in a couple of odd, vague gestures, “him.”

“What did your family think of coming to stay here?”

“When I asked dad, my aunt walked into the room so he told me that I could stay at Kristin’s house and my aunt assumed that she was my girlfriend, which was… weird after she told me to describe you to her.”

Techno’s nose scrunches up, “That’s awkward. What did you say?”

The ravenette snorts, “I described you in the vaguest way possible. But my cousin did have a problem with our parents letting you, my ‘girlfriend’ and me stay the night together.”

“Of course they would.” Techno rolls his eyes and tightens the arm around the shorter’s waist just a bit, “Well your cousin can go gag on a dick for all we care.”

Sapnap laughs, “You always shock me when you say something so crude.”

“Oh?” Techno starts, looking at his boyfriend and raising an eyebrow, “Do you not like it?”

“No, not that. It’s just that it’s so unusual coming from you and so when you say things like that out of the blue it’s always a bit jarring.”

Techno gives him a wide grin, “Well, you’ll have to get used to it eventually. Eitherway, I’m sick of talking about your cousin, and I’m sure you are too.”

Sapnap yawns and nods a bit, “I’m sick of thinking about anything that has to do with back home. Let’s just… cuddle and watch the show?”

“I’m more than okay with that.” And he really is because that’s how the two of them end up spending their next couple of hours, cuddling against one another as they comment on the bakers, Techno squeezing the ravenette’s side with every joke that he makes and Sapnap running his fingers through pink locks.

Chapter Text

Sapnap’s not sure when he fell asleep, but he does know that he wakes up the next morning facing a sleeping Technoblade, cuddled against him chest to chest under the covers, laptop nowhere to be seen.

And Sapnap allows himself to just take a moment to look over his boyfriend. The stray strands of freshly-dyed pink hair that have broken free from the braid that he threw it in last night before they started watching Cupcake Wars that brush over his pretty pale skin. Long eyelashes that press against his cheeks and pretty pink lips that are just slightly separated in gentle breaths that glide along Sapnap’s skin in such a comforting way. The strong arms that are wrapped around his body, holding him to the pinkette’s chest. The way that the barely-noticeable nose stud glitters in the slight sun that is being let through the small crack in Techno’s curtains.

It’s all so domestic and Sapnap is all too in love with the man before him.

“Y’know,” Techno starts, his voice low and rough with sleep. It’s enough to shock Sapnap out of the thought process that he had gotten himself in with a slight jump and a quiet huff of surprise. Techno smiles a bit, droopy and tired but so lovely, “it’s kinda creepy to stare at someone in their sleep.”

“You’re just so pretty, Tech.” Sapnap says, keeping his voice in a low whisper so as to not break the calm atmosphere between the two of them, “I can’t help it.”

“You’re lucky that I love you.”

Sapnap grins, also a bit hindered with sleep, and brings his hand to the other’s hair, running through the pretty pink locks at the base of Techno’s skull, “I know, I try to abuse that power as much as possible.”

Pretty red eyes roll but settle once again on Sapnap’s face fondly, “Of course you do.”

“What can I say? I doubt that you let very many people into your bed, or even touch your hair, and here I am…” Sapnap’s grin grows, “who wouldn’t use that to their advantage?”

“Whatever,” Techno grumbles with no real heat, “Just shut up and go back to sleep. ‘S too early.”

“The sun’s up already.”

“It’s not burning my retinas even looking away from the window.” Techno informs him, “That means it’s too early.” Sapnap rolls his eyes fondly but gives in, settling back into the pillow and allowing himself to fall partially back to sleep.

Until Kristin knocks quietly on the door, pushing it open after a couple seconds and peeking her head in, “Boys? Are you hungry? I made quiche, would you like any?”

Sapnap turns himself in his boyfriend’s arms, “I’ll take some but I don’t know if Techno is going to let me.”

The woman smiles kindly and tilts her head a bit, “Tech? Would you like some quiche?”

Techno grumbles against Sapnap’s chest, a feeling that sends a wave of calm over the ravenette in his arms, “Mm, in a minute.”

“Alright, come down when you’re ready. I just pulled it out of the oven so it’s gonna be hot for a minute.”

“Got it.” With that, the woman slips back out of the room and closes the door behind her. Techno doesn't say anything until a couple minutes later when he reaches down and squeezes Sapnap’s hip, “Alright, I suppose that we should get up. I’m sure you’re hungry.” The arms around Sapnap’s waist pull away and the ravenette sits himself up and watches as Techno groans and pushes himself up after a couple seconds, reaching up in a large stretch that pops his bones and makes him groan again.

Eventually the two are out of bed and making their way back upstairs and heading into the kitchen where they grab a plate of quiche individually and sit down with Kristin and Ranboo. The family eats happily and in relative silence until Kristin looks at Sapnap, “How long are you staying today?”

“However long I want to stay.” Sapnap shrugs, “My dad might ask me to head back home but until then I don’t really see the need to leave.”

“Well I don’t think that we’ve got much to do today, so how ‘bout a big game day or something? It’s going to be raining all day so I don’t think we’d want to do something outside. But for now, you boys can do something while I finish up some things with work.” The woman stands up, grabs her dishes and heads into the kitchen, “If one of you would put away the leftovers when you can, that would be lovely.” With that, she places her dishes in the dishwasher and heads into her office, leaving the three teens to their own devices at the table.

“What do you want to do today, Boo?” Techno asks, turning his head to look at his younger brother, “Do you have any plans or anything?”

Ranboo shrugs, “Tubbo and I were going to head to help out with the bees at the flower gardens but since it’s raining I’m not sure that’s happening so… I’ll have to text Tubbo and ask him about plans.” The younger shrugs again and he looks at Sapnap, “Your cousin--Finn was it?--was nice yesterday. I know you said that he was staying with you and I’ve never seen him around, is he from out of town or?”

Sapnap shrugs in return, “No, my family lives in town but they live in the West Bench so they don’t really interact with us down here at the bottom of the hill and they’re within their own private world. My family’s just staying with me while they get their house fumigated.”

“Ah, I see, I see. Well I liked him, I know that Tubbo did too…” the boy looks down into his lap, “Maybe we could see him more often?” It’s posed as both a question and a statement and it makes Sapnap sigh.

“Eh,” the ravenette drags on with the release of breath, “My family is a bit…”

“They’re a bunch of bigoted pricks that have no concept of the world around them and when they see things that aren’t them, they have issues.” Techno says, a bit grumbly and sarcastic.

Sapnap nods in the direction of his boyfriend and offers Ranboo an awkward smile, “Finn himself isn’t bad but my aunt and uncle don’t want him alone with me and my older cousin gave you a less than savoury reputation with my aunt.”

Ranboo tilts his head, “What did your cousin say about us? He didn’t talk to us.”

“Said that Tommy swears too much, said that Tubbo is weird and is a bit feminine, in a negative way, and talked bad about your hair and called you flamboyant, in the way that homophobes do while trying to not be too open about their… issues.” Sapnap sighs, “They’re not the most open minded people.”

Ranboo’s lip curls up a bit with a tinge of what could be disgust or what could be anger, Sapnap can’t quite tell, “Who do they think they are to begin saying things like that?”

“Entitled rich pricks.” Techno says, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head a bit, arms crossed, “When do you plan to text Tubbo?”

“I’ll text him later when he’s probably awake. I’ll let you know what the plans change to.”

Techno nods, “Yeah.” He focuses his gaze on his boyfriend, “What do you want to do?”

“Do you still have that new puzzle?” Sapnap asks, tilting his head, “The 800 piece one that you got a couple weeks ago?”

The pinkette thinks for a moment before nodding, “I think so… let me check the games closet. Would you mind putting my dishes away?” Sapnap shakes his head and grabs his and Techno’s dishes, taking them into the kitchen to clean them. Then the ravenette heads downstairs into the gaming area and waits for his boyfriend to come down. When the pink-haired man finally does make his appearance, he sets the puzzle box down on the table and takes the seat across from the ravenette.

They open the box and start gathering the pieces that they need, working their way through assembling the puzzle until they finally are getting more of the picture.

About two-thirds of the way through it, probably an hour since they started, Ranboo comes downstairs, “Tubbo is probably gonna be coming over. We can play like Mario Kart or Mario Party until mom’s done with work after he gets here.”

“Yeah that works.” Sapnap nods, “Do you want to help us finish the puzzle?”

The younger shakes his head, “Nah, you guys finish up while we’re waiting for Tubbo. It might take him a minute.” Techno nods and places another piece into its place, Sapnap placing the piece that he had been trying to find its location just next to it, finishing off the section that they were working on. Ranboo leans over, picks up a piece, a top of a letter, and places it into its spot then walks away.

The two of them are able to finish up their puzzle before Tubbo gets there and have enough time to migrate to the couch, Techno leaning forward to turn on the Switch and grab the controllers that they’ll need. Once Tubbo gets there, the four of them settle and start playing Mario Party 4v4 until Kristin comes down. But even when she does, they don’t stop playing; instead they switch to teams and have Kristin narrate and try to be an agent of chaos. The first go through in teams is Techno and Sapnap against Ranboo and Tubbo and after Techno and Sapnap smoke the younger two, they switch to the brothers against the ‘boyfriends’--in quotations because while Sapnap is actually Techno’s boyfriend, what Ranboo and Tubbo have is purely platonic--which ends up in Techno and Ranboo winning, causing an uproar for a rematch considering they won just by a couple coins.

And they go through playing a couple more rounds before Sapnap is finally texted by his dad.

Dadboyhalo
Your aunt and uncle are wondering where you are and James is starting to annoy them about how you’ve run off to get girls pregnant.
You don’t have to but it’d be nice if you came home.

’Son’nap
i can come back home
let me finish the game im in

Dadboyhalo
Alright, take you time.
Be prepared to answer questions from Stewart and James, mostly.

’Son’nap
oh boy

“Dad’s asking me to head back home.” Sapnap informs the family that he’s with, “I’ll finish this game then head home.”

“Do you want me to walk you back to the park?” Techno asks, laughing at his little brother’s face when he lands on a Bowser Space; they moved back to 4v4 a couple rounds ago.

Sapnap shrugs, “Sure.” He tosses his controller to Kristin as he stands up, “Do me good and win for me?” The woman nods with a soft smile on her face, saying goodbye as she grabs it where he threw it. Ranboo pauses the game and the two younger teens say goodbye to Sapnap, the ravenette then walking out with his boyfriend.

“Text me tonight and let me know how it goes?” Techno asks, leaning his head back as the two of them walk along the sidewalk. The dreariness and the rain definitely creates a different vibe for this walk, and it dims Techno’s colour in such a way that is nearly charming; it makes him stand out against the grayness but not in a way that strains the eye.

Sapnap nods, “Yeah, I’ll let you know.” The play structures that are so familiar to them, to their relationship, have come into view and the ravenette sighs at the knowledge that he’s going to have to leave what is similar to a safe-haven to him--especially with the situation that’s happening back at home.

“You’re always welcome into my home if you need to get away again.” Techno informs him as they step onto the grass of the park, starting to walk towards the playset.

“I know, it’s just a matter of not making my dad look shitty to my aunt and uncle who have kids that are too scared of them to ask to be out of the house all the time.” The shorter informs him, sighing once again. They finally reach where the swings and the monkey bars face each other and Techno turns to his boyfriend.

The pinkette reaches forward, one arm going around his waist, pulling their bodies together, and the other rests on Sapnap’s cheek, bringing their foreheads together. Sapnap slips his arms around Techno’s neck, more than willing to breathe in the scent of the taller man. Neither say anything for a moment before Techno finally breaks the silence, “I love you, so much.”

The corners of Sapnap’s lips quirk into a smile, “I love you too, Techno. I’m so fucking glad that Dream convinced to bring me out the park the day that he did; that was the day that I realized that there was so much more to you that I could learn to care about.”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this…” Techno starts, his voice private between the two of them, soft, “but I’ve been in love with you since Freshman year of highschool.”

“Wait, what?” The shorter asks, fighting the urge to pull away from their embrace to look Techno in the face.

The taller gives him a nearly self-deprecating chuckle, “I know that we had encountered each other in middle school, or we went to the same one, but I was… I was in a really bad place those years. Wil and I had just moved and he had just been adopted and I was still fighting to find a family that would take me, then I was adjusting to a new life with mom and Boo.” Techno sighs and closes his eyes and Sapnap moves one of his hands so it’s running through the strands of Techno’s hair, occasionally pausing to stroke at his jawline and cheekbone. “I was so in my own head that it was hard for me to acknowledge anyone but Wil and if I did it was with a lot of anger…

“But then we got to highschool and Dream and I had started getting along more than we were and I started seeing you around and I… I was infatuated. You were so pretty and so confident and absolutely everything that I wanted to be. You were comfortable with yourself and you let yourself have fun, let yourself live and I wanted that. I was… more okay with the way that my life had gone but I was still having a lot of issues and you were so perfect.” Techno gives another chuckle and pulls at Sapnap’s waist, bringing them almost impossibly closer.

Sapanp can feel the breath that Techno releases over his face as he takes a deep breath before continuing, “But then Dream’s and my relationship was something that a lot of people couldn’t really understand and you started to look at me with… contempt I guess. But I couldn’t help but love you…” Techno smiles, something both bashful and mischievous, “I actually told Dream that I was going to be at this park when we went. I invited him and he- he knew that I liked you and invited you…”

“Did he really?” Sapnap asks, pulling their faces away a bit. Techno nods, his face is flushed and he’s got a bit of pink on his ears and the ravenette has to take a moment to admire the breathtaking beauty of his boyfriend, especially in the dim environment--rainy days are some of Sapnap and Techno’s favourites, so it’s not like he has a problem with it. “I’ll have to thank him some day.”

“Don’t inflate his ego more than it already is.” Techno jokes with a chuckle. He pulls Sapnap’s face towards his own, bringing him into a gentle kiss that takes the breath from Sapnap. It’s sweet and slow and nothing but loving and it makes Sapnap never want to leave his boyfriend in favour of those bastards waiting at his home for him.

Eventually Techno pulls away with a fond smile on his face, “You should probably start heading home before your dad gets too concerned. And I’d like to get out of the rain before either of us get sick.”

Sapnap sighs, “I know but… I don’t want to leave you, especially after such a sweet confession. I want to shower you in my love and affection.”

“You’ll be able to do that later when you don’t have a family to explain that you didn’t impregnate your non-existent girlfriend to.” The man teases, the sharpened words softened by the pure fondness in his voice.

A sigh once again leaves the ravenette’s lips and he groans a bit with the release, “I suppose. I’m going to die without you.”

“Well, you can text me and we can call tonight.” Techno smirks, “You do own a phone.”

“I’m aware but it’s not the same as you being there with me.”

“I know, but you should leave.” And yet the taller man has still yet to pull away from the embrace with his boyfriend. He smiles and tilts his head, “You should head back now.”

Sapnap sighs and pulls the other in for another kiss, only pulling back with a sigh when he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket--probably his dad wanting to know where he was--and he presses one last kiss to the taller’s lips, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Techno offers, “Now go back to your house. It’s cold and rainy out here.”

The ravenette nods, “Yeah, get home safe.”

“You too.” And with that, the two of them split paths, Sapnap heading back to the doom that awaits him at his house.

Upon walking into his house, he sees his dad and his aunt sitting around in the living room with Finn in his beanbag, James and Stewart nowhere to be seen. He toes off his shoes and takes his jacket off, folding it over his arm, “I’m home.”

“Welcome home!” Bad calls back to him from where he’s sitting, “How was Kristin’s?”

“It was good.” Sapnap informs him, walking into the living room and sitting down next to the beanbag chair that Finn has occupied.

“What did you guys do?”

“We watched Cupcake Wars until we fell asleep then ate breakfast, solved a puzzle, and played Mario Party with Ranboo and Tubbo before you texted me.”

“Sounds fun.” Bad gives him a soft smile, like he’s happy that Sapnap was able to take a break and spend some relaxation time with his family.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Sapnap shrugs, leaning over to watch what Finn is playing on his Switch.

But Finn looks up, “Why were you with Ranboo and Tubbo?”

“Oh,” Sapnap perks up, “Ranboo is hi-” he clears his throat and casts a gaze towards his aunt then back to his cousin, “Ranboo is her little brother.”

Jenni suddenly gasps, “You should invite her over for dinner one day before we leave!” There is a look of unbridled joy on her face and she claps a couple times, “I’d love to meet the girl that has finally gotten into your heart. You know, you’ve never seemed to have any interest in women and so hearing that you have a girlfriend is such wonderful news to me!”

Sapnap gives his dad a look before, he turns back to his aunt and offers her a smile, both genuine and a bit cunning, “I’d have to agree. I think it’d be interesting if we all had dinner together.”

Bad hums from where he’s sitting and Sapnap turns his head to look at him, “I think that’d be interesting.”

Sapnap nods, “I’ll send an invite out.” He continues to talk with his family for a bit before heading up to his room to take a shower.

He spends most of the rest of the day in his room, texting his friends and his boyfriend and interacting with his family just longer than being forced to.

When it’s late enough, he sits on the phone with Techno, laying down and allowing himself to fall into a half-sleep state and listening to Techno typing away as he talks about what he’s writing down. It’s a calm atmosphere and Sapnap finds himself fighting the sleep.

Which Techno seems to notice when he looks over to where his phone is set up against his desk. The pinkette chuckles, “If you want to sleep, you can sleep my love.”

“Mm.”

The man smiles a bit, “Do you want me to tell you a story to help you fall asleep?”

“I don’ think ‘as need’d.” Sapnap slurs, “‘m tired.”

“I can tell, love.” Techno humors him with a fond tone, “But would you like me to tell you a story?”

“Mm, sure.”

The pinkette blinks at the screen a couple times, nothing but love in his eyes, before he launches into his story, “I’ll tell you the story of Halcyon.” And Sapnap only remembers part of the story and he absolutely doesn’t remember falling asleep last night.

The next morning he’s woken up by a knock and a call for breakfast from his dad and he heads down to the dinning room where his family is waiting for him. Breakfast goes by relatively smoothly, with Uncle Stewart having left early this morning for a morning shift that he was called on. James, mercifully, shuts the fuck up while they’re eating, and Bad and Sapnap talk only a bit amongst themselves for a while.

Then, when they all move into the living room they all spend a bit of time talking before there’s a knock. Bad stands up to get it asking if the others are aware of any potential visitors.

And Sapnap wasn’t expecting anyone, but when his dad opens the door he hears the voice of his friends near-shouting their hellos. Bad says something and, seconds later, he walks back into the living room with Dream and George in tow.

“Dream! George!” Sapnap calls, standing up to embrace his friends, not giving a shit about the way that James sneered at them. He pulls away from his friends and makes his way back over to his beanbag chair, Dream coming to collapse onto it next to him and George electing to just sit on the floor by their feet.

Jenni smiles at them when they sit down, “You boys look so grown up! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you, Sapnap was telling me about some of your newer accomplishments and I’m so proud of you.” And yet again, despite her kind smile, her voice is terse and there’s a bit of a hard-glare to her eyes.

“Thank you Mr. Jenni.” George says with a small smile, not kind but something that doesn’t look quite forced.

And just wishing to take away from the conversation before it progresses further, Sapnap cuts in with a look towards his friends, “What are you guys doing here?”

Dream shrugs and throws his arms around the ravenette, “We wanted to see if you’d be willing to go out with us today?”

“What would we do?” Sapnap asks with a look towards his dad as if asking for permission. Bad nods and Sapnap smiles in his direction.

“I need to go to the mall to pick up something for the campaign things going on.” George informs him, “We thought of stopping by Cherry Bomb while we’re there for some shakes and some food possibly.”

Dream nods, “And I wanted to get my mom flowers while we’re at the mall at the one place that you got flowers for Te-” The blonde hisses as Sapnap nudges his friend and slaps at his arms.

“Yeah, the flowers that Kristin really enjoyed.” He hisses, sending Dream a look then flitting his eyes between his friend and his family, “Why did you want to get your mom flowers?”

Dream makes a small ‘o’ with his mouth at the realization that hits him a second later and shrugs, “She’s just been really busy and she used to like having flowers to be able to make our house more lively. I thought it’d be a nice thought for her.”

“That’s sweet.” Sapnap smiles, “Yeah, I’d be down. Let me get changed into something more presentable?” Dream and George nod and Sapnap stands up, heading up to his room to change into more society-suited clothing. He grabs his phone, his wallet, and his keys and slips his shoes on. Then he heads back down into his living room where James is glaring--very obviously--at Dream and George who are now nearly cuddling on the beanbag chair.

Sapnap has only just stepped by the couch that his cousin is sitting on next to his aunt when James sneers, “So are you two… involved or something?”

“No, they’re not.” Sapnap growls, hitting his cousin’s shoulder with a lot more force than just a friendly shoulder-batting, “Shove off it, James.”

“What? I was just asking a question!” His older cousin defends, throwing his arms up yet making a disgusting face at the ravenette.

“Yeah and your question was invasive and going to cause you to be more of a dick to my friends than you already are.” The ravenette near growls again, walking towards his friends and reaching out his hands to help them up, “You guys ready to go?”

Dream nods and accepts Sapnap’s hand, pulling himself to a standing position and brushing himself off once he’s righted. George then accepts Sapnap’s other hand and allows them to pull up most of his weight. The blonde sends a terse look towards James and Jenni, “Bye you two.” Then he glances between Finn and Bad, “Bye Finn, see you later Bad!”

Bad nods with a genuine smile on his face, “Bye boys! Stay safe. Sapnap, come home by dinner?”

The ravenette nods, “I’ll likely be home before that.” He starts walking out of the living room and Dream and George follow just behind him, Dream sending a challenging smile in the direction of the couch that James and Jenni are occupying as he grabs George’s hand on their way out, just rolling his eyes towards Sapnap at James’ scoff.

The three of them leave the house and start towards Dream’s car, Dream and George getting in the front while Sapnap hops into the backseat and Dream puts the car into drive, easing back onto the neighborhood’s street and taking off in the direction of the mall.

“How’ve they been?” Dream asks, glancing back at the ravenette in the rearview mirror.

Sapnap shrugs, “Definitely not as bad as they have been before, luckily Uncle Stewart’s been busy with work. Though James has already found a way to insult all of my friends, including you guys, Wil, Sally, Tubbo, Ranboo, and Tommy.”

Dream scoffs, “Fuck I hate them. How much longer are they staying?”

“I think they’re leaving on Sunday morning so I just have to put up with two more full days with them.”

“You said that they insulted everyone?” George asks, twisting in his seat a bit, “When did he meet the teens and Sally and Wil? And why not Techno?”

“And speaking of Techno,” Dream butts in before Sapnap has the time to answer, “Why did you call him by his mom’s name?”

Sapnap sighs, “Long story short, I took Finn to the park and James was forced to go with him because Stewart and Jenni have issues and Wil, Sally, and the teens were there and James didn’t approve of them. And not Techno because they don’t know he exists because when I asked dad if I could stay at his house, dad saw Jenni and told me that I could stay at Kristin’s and Jenni assumed that that was my girlfriend and so she asked me more about it.”

“Gross.”

“Indeed.” Sapnap nods, “But dad has said that I can invite my ‘girlfriend’ over for dinner and so I want to ask Techno if he’d be willing to come around and have dinner or something with them.”

“Oh they’d have a fucking aneurysm.” Dream grins, something that could rival the Cheshire Cat.

Sapnap nods, “I can’t help but wonder what they’d say about him, if they’d even be brave enough to say something about him while he’s around. Then the next morning they leave, so they don’t have the time to complain about it.”

“That’d be entertaining. You should keep us updated if that ends up happening.”

“I’d be more than willing to.” Sapnap smiles. The three of them continue talking for a while and Dream finally pulls up to the parking lot and finds them a parking spot relatively close to the doors. They all get out and head into the mall.

“So I know that you guys said what you needed but is there anywhere else that you want to go by?” Sapnap asks as they walk towards the mall’s atrium.

“I’m only here for campaign things.” George informs him.

Dream hums, “I mean there’s nothing on my mind but…” he shrugs, “I have no issues with going shopping. Did you want to go anywhere in particular?”

“I want to stop by Hot Topic for some new pants then maybe Antiques, Pianos, and Paperbacks.” Sapnap informs them.

“Well Antiques, Pianos, and Paperbacks is by Torres’ Touch.” George says in response, “You can head in there while Dream and I take care of what I need in there.” Sapnap nods and the three of them set off towards the shops that they’re wanting to go to. It’s not a far walk, the two storefronts being not far from the entrance that they walked through. George and Dream split to head into Torres’ Touch while Sapnap goes into APP.

The ravenette quickly heads towards the wall that holds vinyls and DVDs and starts looking through the buckets of records that they have slotted around the area. About halfway through the third box, a couple records already in his hands, he hears his name being called.

He looks up and smiles as he spots Techno walking towards him, a couple of books in his arms, “Hey Tech. What are you doing here?”

The pinkette raises his arms in order to show off the books, “I wanted to look for some original leather-bound copies of the older books that I have. I assume you’re looking for more records?”

Sapnap nods and straightens his posture, “Yeah, Dream and George are in Torres’ Touch to get things for George’s campaign things or whatever he’s doing.”

Techno hums with a nod and gestures to the vinyls in his boyfriend’s hands, “You just lookin’ or have you found some that are interesting?”

“I found an original Buddy Holly vinyl and I’m hoping that it’s in good condition.” The ravenette hums, moving to grab the record to show it to his boyfriend, “Then there’s also this Michael Buble record, it’s the Christmas one with the cool red and green streaks.” The pinkette nods and a fond smile stretches across his face.

He tilts his head, “Find anything else you like or are you ready to check out?”

“I haven’t found anything cool yet but I’ve probably got some time before Dream and George are done.” The shorter bites his cheek as if in contemplation, “Actually, I don’t know what all they were getting so… I should probably be done soon.”

“Well, you could finish looking through the box you were looking through then checkout. We could wait outside for them to be done if they’re not already.” Sapnap nods and Techno offers to hold the vinyls while he sorts through, something that he gratefully takes.

Once he’s looked through the vinyls, pulling some out and showing them to Techno at certain points, he grabs the records from Techno and the one that he pulled from the box and they make their way to the register. The two talk while they’re waiting in line and checkout quickly when it comes to their time then leave the store, their bags of interesting finds in one hand and the other holding hands.

They head over to sit on a bench not far from the entrance to Torres’ Touch and sit down, bags by their legs. The two share casual conversation until Sapnap remembers his earlier conversation and perks up, “Oh! Would you like to come over for dinner tomorrow night?”

The pinkette furrows his eyebrows, “Isn’t your family gonna be there?”

“Yeah but my aunt suggested that you come over for dinner and dad and I think it’d be funny if my family came across you.”

“Why so?”

“Because my cousin isn’t dumb enough to outright say anything, my uncle doesn’t give a shit about keeping his opinions to himself, and my aunt would be confused and pretend like she’s okay with what’s going on.” Sapnap smiles and tilts his head, “Bonus points if you wear a skirt or something and don’t talk for a while, really let them think you’re a girl then boom turns out you’re my boyfriend.”

A smirk tugs itself onto Techno’s face and he tilts his head, “Would I still be going by my mother’s name or?”

“I think it’d be funny to drop it on them that your name is Techno and not Kristin?” Sapnap shrugs, “But it’s entirely up to you. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

The pinkette seems to consider for a moment before he shrugs, “I don’t mind.” He looks away from the ravenette and hums, “There’s Dream and George.” Sapnap looks back to see his friends walking towards him with bags in hands. Dream smiles and waves.

And the blonde nears the bench they’re sitting on he smiles, “Hey Techno! What’re you doing here?”

“I was looking for books and ran into Sapnap.” Techno informs him, allowing his facial expression to drop into something more neutral.

“Of course you were looking for books.” Dream grumbles, though his smile doesn’t falter. He turns to look at Sapnap, “Are you ready to go? You said you wanted to go by Hot Topic right?”

Sapnap nods and pushes himself up from the bench, grabbing his bag as he goes up, “Yeah, Tech and I can go there, you can get the flowers if you want?” Dream and George nod and the four exchange their goodbyes and promises to meet up in the atrium when they’re done and Sapnap extends a hand for his boyfriend to take. Techno takes it with a small smile and the two of them start walking towards Hot Topic, talking about whatever is on their mind.

Finally, as they near the entrance to the store, Techno asks, “What did you want to get here?”

“I wanted to look for some more pants. Why?”

A mischievous grin stretches across the man’s face, “Did you want to help me find a skirt to wear to your family’s dinner?” Sapnap nods furiously enough that it gives him a headache with a near twin grin on his face. They walk into the store hand in hand and head to find Techno’s skirt almost immediately.

The two are looking for a couple minutes before Techno holds up a skirt and it’s an instant yes. The skirt is half black, half buffalo plaid. On the black side there's a ring attached to the waistline of the skirt that holds onto two chains that wrap around the side and end in a lobster claw attached to the waistline on the back. Upon Sapnap’s nod, the pinkette finds his size and throws it over his arm, following the ravenette to look for pants.

Just as they get there, Sapnap’s phone goes off and the ravenette takes a moment to look at it.

dream
Hey, George needs to go home.
I’m gonna take him, can you get a ride from Techno?

The ravenette sighs and looks at his boyfriend, “Dream and George are ditching me, would you be able to give me a ride?”

Techno shrugs, “If you come over to Phil’s for a while.”

“As long as my dad’s good with it, I don’t mind.” Sapnap shrugs back and Techno nods, making Sapnap look back at his phone.

pandas
yeah he can give me a ride

dream
Cool
See you later

The ravenette sighs again and the two of them start looking through the pants. That is, until they find the pair of pants. Almost a twin to Techno’s skirt, with one side being entirely black and the other side being buffalo plaid. The two of them exchange Cheshire smiles and Sapnap grabs his size. The two of them checkout and head out into the atrium of the mall, walking towards the doors and talking about the dinner.

Techno guides Sapnap towards his Truck and they get in, putting their bags in his trunk. They hop into the vehicle and Sapnap sends Bad a text explaining what happened and asking him if he’d be able to head over Phil’s house for a while. Bad gives him the permission and seems delighted at the idea of Techno coming over for dinner the next day. When Sapnap finally slips his phone back into his pocket, Techno goes to rest his hand on top of Sapnap’s where it’s sitting on his thigh.

“So why are you with Phil anyways?”

“Phil and Kristin are going on a vacation tomorrow and because Phil can’t trust Wil or Tommy, Boo and I are staying over there to make sure they don’t burn down the house or destroy the neighborhood or some weird shit like that.” Techno informs him, “We’re there today so Boo and I could bring our stuff and get them into our rooms. That, and mom wants us to have a big family dinner before they leave.”

“How long are they gonna be gone?”

“I think like a week and a half.” Techno shrugs, “If I remember correctly, it was a business trip for mom but Phil wanted to go with her ‘cause they want a romantic getaway or something like that.”

“They just want to fuck without having to worry about you kids?” Sapnap asks with a smile.

“You said it, not me.” Techno finally turns onto the street that has Phil’s house and parks on the side of the road in front of it. They get out of the truck and Techno goes to grab his bags, “I don’t know if you want to bring your stuff in or not?” Sapnap shrugs and grabs his bags as well and the two of them walk into the house with Techno calling out that he’s home.

Almost instantly, Wil comes scampering in and runs to grab the bags from his brother’s hands, “What’d you get?” Then the brunette looks up and his face brightens, “Oh hi Sapnap! What’re you doing here?”

Techno rolls his eyes and reaches towards the bags but Wil pulls them away and walks off into the living room, “I ran into him at the mall while he was with Dream and George.” The pinkette then follows after him, having kicked off his shoes. Sapnap toes off his own and steps further into the house, following his boyfriend into the living room. When he gets there, Wil and Tommy are sitting over the bags and Wil is looking through the books that Techno got while Tommy is pawing at the other bag.

“So how did Sapnap end up here with you?” Wil asks, a cunning smile on his face as he’s halfway through looking over the book titles.

“I got ditched by my friends so Techno said he’d give me a ride if I came over here for a while.” Sapnap shrugs and throws himself onto the couch that the brother’s haven occupied, setting his bags down next to him.

Finally Tommy pulls out the article of clothing purchased and his eyes widen, “What’s this for?” He looks up at Techno then turns it to properly show it to Wil, who has since put the books back into the bag that he got them from.

“I’m goin’ to dinner with Sapnap’s family tomorrow and Sapnap an’ I figured that I’d wear a skirt to really confuse his family.”

“It’s cute.” Wil says with a smile, taking the skirt from his younger brother and turning it around in his hands.

“I thought so too,” Sapnap shoots back with a smile of his own, “Where’s Kristin and Phil? Ranboo?”

“Ranboo’s getting Tubbo.” Tommy says, “We’re gonna play Minecraft together.”

“And Phil and Kristin are getting groceries. They realized that they didn't have everything they wanted for dinner tonight.” Wil fills in for Tommy, considering the younger clearly isn’t going to do it, “They should be home soon.” And almost as if Wil had spoken that into existence, Kristin and Phil walk through the door, Phil calling that he’s home to his kids. The adults walk into the hallway past the living room and head into the kitchen. Behind them come Ranboo and Tubbo talking between themselves. Tommy stands up without a word and walks towards them, the three disappearing into the hallway shortly after.

“Oh, hello Sapnap.” Kristin says when she looks up through the window in the kitchen and sees who all is in the living room, “I didn’t know you’d be here.” Phil looks up at the mention and waves but then goes back to putting away groceries.

“It was a last minute decision.” Sapnap says with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck.

Phil closes the fridge and leans over the counter under the opening, “Will you be staying for dinner?”

“No, probably just a couple hours.”

“Alright, Make yourself at home then kiddo. You want something to drink?”

“I’m good, thank you.” Sapnap smiles and tilts his head just a bit--a movement that makes his hair fall in a way that sends Techno’s heart fluttering, not that he would admit it.

“If you boys want to go to where Techno’s staying, you can.” Kristin informs them with a bright smile, though she only turns to see them for a couple seconds before turning back to putting her groceries away, “Just let us know when you’re leaving Sap.”

“Of course.” The boyfriends grab their bags and head to the room that Techno’s staying in. Sapnap throws his bags on the desk in the room and Sapnap puts his by the door. They move to lay down on the bed, the ravenette laying on his back with his hand under his head and Techno moving to rest his head on Sapnap’s arms, wrapping his arms around the shorter’s body.

“What all are you planning for tomorrow?” Techno asks, squeezing at his side a couple of times.

“Nothing necessarily. You show up wearing your matching skirt to me, maybe keep quiet for a while to let them wonder why my girlfriend with pink hair has such a strong jawline and broad shoulders. Then boom, your pretty voice. Really amp things up and let my family have an absolute aneurysm when it finally fully clicks.”

The pinkette smiles and nuzzles his nose just above the edge of Sapnap’s collar bone, “They’re expecting a nice, pretty conventional girl and boom, their greatest nightmare.” He chuckles and after a couple seconds starts laughing to himself.

“What’re you laughing at?”

“I’m gonna go outta my way to be as nice as possible, ‘specially to James an’ your uncle.”

“Oh they won’t know how to react.” Sapnap laughs himself, “You could match my Aunt’s passive aggressive comments too.”

“But make it really subtle.”

Sapnap laughs, the laughter still in his eyes, “You’ve got a good poker face. She always has a tell of some sort.”

The hand of Techno’s on top of Sapnap moves up so it’s wrapping around just above the ravenette’s shoulder but the one under him remains, “What should I wear with the skirt? What’re you gonna wear with yours?”

“Probably my one dragon button up on my black turtle neck or something.”

Techno hums and considers for a couple of seconds, “I could wear my fishnet shirt thing and…”

“Your one skull shirt with the roses.” Sapnap supplies for him during his hesitation.

“Mmm, that might work. I’ll have to try it tomorrow and see how it looks.” Techno hums then goes silent, instead just cuddling impossibly further into Sapnap’s side.

The ravenette chuckles at the action, “Are you tired babe?”

“Mm.”

“No?”

Techno shakes his head, making Sapnap laugh at the odd sensation, and finally lifts his face just a bit, “Yer warm an’ comfortable.”

“You can take a nap if you want to.” Sapnap says, loving mirth filling his voice.

“Can’t fall asleep.” Techno grumbles, “Jus’ cuddle me.” The ravenette chuckles again and finally wraps his arms around the taller’s body, pulling them fully flush instead of Techno laying against his side and the two lay like that for a while in relative silence--broken up occasionally by the odd end of conversation that pops into either of their minds.

At some point, Wil comes knocking on the door and asks if they want to listen to the new song that Wil’s working on and they push themselves up from the bed, making their way into Wil’s room where they sit on the brunette’s bed. Techno leans against the corner in the headboard and the wall and Sapnap leans just slightly against him, also against the headboard while Wil sits on the edge of his bed.

He spends some time re-tuning his guitar--it’s an old guitar, he explains, can’t stay in tune for more than an hour even if he’s playing it--then strums the first couple of chords. They’re softer in the beginning but eventually they begin to amp up and his voice, which had begun in a low hum of some basically-worked out lyrics, gains some more volume and passion to it.

Eventually his voice fades out but he continues on with the guitar strumming and when he strums the final notes, he lets it ring out then turns to him, putting the guitar on the bed next to him he turns to them, “It’s still in the works, I haven’t figured out that many lyrics past the first chorus and I need to get a good intro taken care of but what did you guys think?”

“It sounded really good!” Sapnap smiles, and it’s genuine. He means it and he believes that, “I’m not good with words so figuring out lyricism isn’t something that I can help you out with.”

Wil gives him a smile nonetheless, “That’s alright, I’m glad that you like it, you guys are the first people to hear it.”

“‘S good.” Techno mutters, “I don’t like one of your lyrics though, it sounds out of the place with the rest of them. Doesn’t blend in well.”

“Oh really?” The brunette raises an eyebrow, “Which lyric is it?”

“It’s uh…” the pinkette snaps a couple times and Sapnap rolls his eyes, “It’s like the second to last line?”

“What’s weird about it?”

“It doesn’t fit with the story and the sound of it doesn’t mesh well.” Techno spends a couple seconds to think then waves his hand like he’s waving him off, “I’ll help you figure it out later. I doubt Sapnap wants to be here for our writing.”

“Alright, I’ll keep it in mind.” The brunette nods and stands to put his guitar away, turning towards them with a pointed look once it’s in its stand, “You know, now that I know about your relationship, you’re not that subtle.”

“Subtly was never our intention, Wil.” Techno rolls his eyes, “We just wanted to see how long until you figured it out.”

The tallest of them looks over the couple and smiles a bit, smiles at the way that Techno squeezes Sapnap’s shoulders, “You guys are cute.”

Sapnap blushes and gives him a bashful smile, “I- uhm, thank you.”

Wil looks from Sapnap to Techno and points to the ravenette with a raised eyebrow, “I see why you’re datin’ him. Sapnap’s cute when he isn’t trying to be tough an’ shit.”

“Oh shut it. Shoot for Quackity.” Techno rolls his eyes once again.

It makes Wil laugh and raise his hands, “Calm down man, I’m not trying to steal your man. I was just saying he’s cute. Wouldn’t you agree with me.” The look that he sends his brother is one of a challenge, it’s a daring to try and deny it--he knows that he’s caught Techno in a corner.

Techno smiles a bit and leans his head against Sapnap’s shoulder, “I mean, he is cute.” The arm around the ravenette’s shoulder dips so it's around his waist and he squeezes again.

The boys talk for a while longer before Wil decides that he wants to move into the living room, Techno and Sapnap following him. Phil and Kristin are in there when they get in, just talking and smiling. Wil throws himself next to his dad on the couch and Techno and Sapnap move to sit in the couch chair, Sapnap actually sitting in the chair and Techno sitting on the armrest of it.

“So when’s your family leaving, Sapnap?” Kirstin asks, her temple pressed against Phil’s.

“They’re leaving, not tomorrow morning, but the morning after that.” Sapnap says, letting out a sigh of relief at the knowledge, “Then dad and I can go back to normal.”

“That’s good,” She smiles and reaches for Phil’s hands, “I haven’t heard much about them but from what Techno has told me, they don’t sound very fun.”

“No, they’re not.”

“Speaking of which,” Techno says, “I know that you guys are leaving tomorrow but I figured I’d tell you that I’m going over to Sap’s house to have dinner with his family.”

“While his family’s there?” She asks gently.

“Yeah, we think it’ll be a funny parting gift for them to see us together. Plus, my aunt invited him over for dinner and I figured that I’d take the chance to fuck with them.” Sapnap informs for him, “We’ve got matching clothes and everything.”

Phil laughs and smiles, “Well you have fun boys, make sure that you don’t get into any fights with your future in-laws, Tech.”

Techno rolls his eyes and waves off his, not quite legally, dad, “I’m not gonna get into a fight with them. If anything, I’ll make an effort to be the poster child of prim and proper the entire time that I’m there.” The statement makes Phil laugh and roll his eyes while Kristin moves to stand up so she can head into the kitchen in order to check on dinner.

The woman unfolds her legs and pulls herself so she’s standing, having to fight the arms that are wrapped around her from Phil. As she takes a step to walk away from the couch, Phil catches her hand and presses a kiss to the back of her hand, making the woman roll her eyes fondly and have to pull her hand away from the blonde man.

And as cute as Sapnap thinks it is, he doesn’t have more of a chance to witness the sweetness of their relationship as his dad texts him, telling him that he should start heading home soon. Techno sighs at the words but pushes himself up nonetheless, reaching out a hand for Sapnap to take from him. Sapnap drops into Techno’s temporary room and grabs his bags while Techno puts on his shoes and grabs his keys. The ravenette slips on his own shoes and they walk out to Techno’s truck and they hop in. The pinkette starts the old thing and, a couple seconds later, they’re taking off towards Sapnap’s house.

“Phil and Kristin are cute together.” Sapnap says, not moving his head from where he’s looking at the town through Techno’s window.

Techno groans, though its fond, “I know. It’s nearly sickening at this point.”

“Do you know why they haven’t gotten married yet?”

“At first it was because they weren’t ready, then it was because it became complicated to get married with the way that Wil, Boo, and I were adopted so now they want to wait until Wil and I are 18 in order to not have to deal with some of the annoying paperwork.”

Sapnap snorts, “You and Wil are two of few that get to say they cock-blocked your parent’s marriage because of your existence.”

“I’m sure there are quite a few people that get to say that.”

“Yeah, but you both did it. This was a team effort. Ranboo can’t say the same thing because it’s the two of you together that fucked with their marriage.”

“I guess so.” Techno shrugs with one shoulder, “What time did you want me to come over for dinner?”

“I’ll ask my dad what he thinks the best time is, what would work for you?”

“Any point after like three, I’m driving mom and dad to the airport at two-thirty so…”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Sapnap nods, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For deciding to come to dinner.” The ravenette shrugs, “For giving me a ride. For deciding to give me a chance, for agreeing to date me.”

“Love…” Techno mutters, something both chastising and fond. He reaches his hand out for Sapnap to grab onto, “I’ve told you just how much I love you. I would choose you anyday, because you are such a lovely and kind person. And your little plans of chaos, as long as they’re not the most wild ones I’ve seen you and your friends get into, add something fun to my life--not to mention I like doing them sometimes.” He pulls up to a stop sign and takes the opportunity to look at Sapnap between looking for other drivers, nothing but love in his eyes. Then he moves his gaze back onto the road in order to continue driving, turning onto Sapnap’s street shortly after.

He pulls in front of the ravenette’s house and presses a kiss to Sapnap’s lips before he jumps out of the truck, grabbing the bags from where they sit at his feet. They wave goodbye and Sapnap heads into his house, pushing the door closed behind him and calling out to his family. He finds Finn, Bad, and James sitting in the living room, Bad on his phone, Finn playing his Switch like usual, and James grumbling about something.

“Did you talk to Te-” Bad begins but cuts himself off with a cough, “Kristin. Did you talk to her, ask her if she would be able to come over?”

“Yeah I did.” Sapnap says, coming into the living room and falling onto the beanbag chair next to his cousin, Finn moving just a bit in order to compensate for the older’s added weight, “H- She said that she was going to come over.”

“What time?”

“It was a matter of what worked for you.” The ravenette shrugs, “Said that anytime after three was good.”

“Alright then,” Bad nods then hums, “Around four or five-ish would be best. That way there’s more time for conversation and I can get dinner started.”

“That works. I’ll stop by the house tomorrow and grab… her.” He drags out the ‘her’, taking a second to fix the direction of the words. Bad nods and Sapnap finally turns to look around the room, “Where’s Aunt Jenni?”

“Stewart needed her to run him something so she said that she would go do it.” Bad shrugs, pushing himself to a stand, “Insisted that she would walk.”

“Interesting.”

<><><><><>

The next day, as the time that Sapnap and Techno agreed on Sapnap heading over approaches Sapnap finds himself in his room getting ready. He puts on the outfit that he had talked about with Techno the day previous. He grabs his keys and his wallet then slips out of his room and heads into the living room where Aunt Jenni looks up at him, “Are you heading to go get your girlfriend?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably be back in like ten, fifteen minutes.” The ravenette informs her and gives her a smile that's much more genuine than the one that can be commonly seen plastered on his aunt’s face.

“Well hurry back, I’m excited to meet her! You’ve never really had an interest in the girls in your classes before.” She claps and the smile that pulls at her lips is something more genuine than the one that Sapnap has come to know. “Uncle Stewart is going to be here soon, he was just called into work and said that he wouldn’t take much longer.”

“Alright, I’ll be sure to prepare her for meeting you guys.”

“Oh I’m sure that you don’t have to prepare her for a lot.”

“You’d be… uh- you’d be surprised.” Sapnap nods, his smile having gone more tense and drawn-on, “I should head out now. She’ll probably be waiting for me.”

“Alright, you run off. Don’t be too long now, I’ll be expecting you two!”

“Of course Jenni, I’ll be back.” Sapnap waves to her and walks out of the door, turning towards the park. He walks quickly, nearly turning his pace into a jog when he gets to the grassy stretch between the road to Phil’s and the road to Sapnap’s house. The ravenette slows down just a bit when he gets to the other end of the park but allows himself to make quick work of the rest of the walk to his boyfriend’s pseudo dad’s house.

Once he’s at the front door he knocks and Wil comes to the door, greeting him with a sly smile, “Hey Sap. Techno’s just finishing up. I think you’ll be excited to see what he’s put together.”

“Oh really?”

Wil nods and his smile grows mischievous, “Really. He says it’s gonna knock your family off their feet.”

“Well that’s nice to hear. Is he coming down soon?”

“Yeah, come on in if you want. I’ve got Sal over. Hope that isn’t a problem with you.”

“Not at all, I liked Sally.” Sapnap says with a kind smile and Wil smiles back, moving out of the way so Sapnap can come in. The ravenette does so and Wil closes the door, walking in behind him. They walk to the living room together where Sally is waiting on the couch. She’s curled up a bit where she’s sitting next to the arm and she’s doing something on her phone.

“Hi Sap. I’ve been helping Techno with his outfit and I’m sure that you’ll enjoy it.”

Sapnap nods, “Hey Sally.”

“Please just call me Sal.” She gives him a big grin, “You’re basically family with all this relationship stuff, so Sal’s just fine.”

“Alright.” The ravenette nods and turns towards the stairs heading to the basement when he hears the steps creaking under steps, supposedly his boyfriend’s.

Techno comes up wearing the skirt. The front strands of his hair are braided and crawl around the crown of his head to meet up and be joined with a large section of hair making it look like a half-up-half-down situation. He’s wearing some basic jewelry but nothing special, more lowkey.

When the pinkette is fully up the stairs, he makes his way towards the ravenette, “Hello love.”

Sally looks up and looks between the two of them, “Oh hey, I didn’t even realize you guys were matching. That’s cute.”

“It’s an idea they came up with yesterday when Sap invited Techno over for dinner.” Wil informs her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

“Well, we should get going. I told my aunt I wouldn’t be long.” Sapnap gestures towards the door and Techno nods, the two of them walking off towards the door. They leave the house with little more than shouting a goodbye and starting walking towards the park. Once they’re a bit away from the house Sapnap reaches for Techno’s hand, “I know you know quite a bit about what my family is like but I want to give you another warning. They’re going to be pricks, making comments and James or Stewart might make something straight to your face; just ignore them, and try not to make comments on their behavior.”

“I know, love.” Techno smiles with a loving chuckle, “You’ve told me a couple different times now.”

“I know I just…” Sapnap sighs, “I know that we’re doing this in part to mess with my family but I don’t like the idea of James and Stewart saying anything negative about you. It’s hard enough to hear them talking bad about my friends but you…”

Techno’s smile grows fond, “I’ll be alright, Sap. We’ll be fine.”

Sapnap looks down a bit, smiling, “And I’m sure that it will but…” He stops and Techno stops as well, turning to face him and grabbing his other hand with a comforting smile.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just…” The ravenette takes a deep breath, “I love you so much and I can’t bear to have them judge you and tear you down.”

“I’m stronger than that, my love.” Techno smiles, squeezing his hands.

“And I know that but… I feel like I’ve loved you for much longer than I realized and only hid it behind a form of hatred because I- it’s not that I thought my feelings were wrong, it was more just that I was scared of liking someone that seemed so well-guarded and… high and mighty. I didn’t feel like I deserved your love or that I should even be allowed to have friends that knew you like Dream did.”

“Sap… you know I’d never think like that.”

“And I know that now.” Sapnap sighs and leans to rest his forehead on Techno’s shoulder, “But I didn’t know that before. And I mean, this isn’t even something that I’m sure about. My thoughts and emotions were always so jumbled about you that I’m really not sure about how I felt about you or what I thought about you in the entire time I knew you- or even knew about you.”

“It appears I wasn’t the only one that had issues with my emotions before we started talking.” Techno teases, his smile not faltering despite what Sapnap was saying to him.

“Oh shove off it.” The ravenette grumbles. He lets go of one of Techno’s hands and shoves at the pinkette’s shoulder, “Let’s just go. Like I said, I told my aunt that I wouldn’t be gone for long. She’s expecting you.”

“If that’s what you want.” His tone is mirth-filled and yet he continues walking along with the shorter, “So are we doing the whole I’m not talking for the first while thing or?”

Sapnap hums, “I think so. I’ll tell them that you’re shy around new people and you can just whisper things that I can say. Please, don’t make me say anything too odd or out of pocket to my family.”

“No promises, but I’ll try for you.”

“Thank you. I’m just hoping this doesn’t mess up my dad’s relationship with Stewart.”

Techno shrugs, “I can’t see how that would be bad if it did? You and your dad wouldn’t have to put up with them and their bullshit anymore.”

“But what if they start talking to the rest of my family.”

“Then let them talk.” Techno throws up his free hand, “You and your dad shouldn’t give a shit, or even associate, with people who don’t care to interact with you guys because of your sexuality. Because of who you love.”

“I guess you’re right…”

“Of course I am.” The pinkette gives him a cheeky grin. They’re getting closer to approaching the house and Techno pulls his hand from Sapnap’s to straighten out his skirt and turns around, “Does it look alright?”

The ravenette straightens a weird fold in the skirt and wraps his arms around the taller’s waist, “You look lovely.” He turns the man around and pulls him into a quick kiss.

“Lovely enough to rock your family’s bullshit ideas?”

“Always.” Sapnap smiles and moves so he’s holding Techno’s waist with only one arm and he guides the two of them up the driveway and towards Sapnap’s front door. He quickly unlocks it and the two head inside. “I’m home with Te- my girlfriend!” There are a couple voices coming from the living room, one of them being the older, gentle voice of Jenni calling for them to come into the living room and that she’s excited to meet ‘Kristin’.

Bad, however, comes to meet them in the entrance hallway, “Hi Techno. I’m just starting dinner right now. If at any point you guys need it, you are fully allowed to leave or head into Sapnap’s room.”

“Thank you Bad.” Techno nods with a small smile on his face.

“Of course. They’re all in the living room. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything. Did you boys want something to drink?”

“Do you have tea?” Techno asks, tilting his head a bit.

“Of course. Sap you just want a Dr. Pepper?”

“Sure.” The ravenette shrugs and the couple heads into the living room while Bad moves back into the kitchen, Sapnap’s arm still around Techno’s waist--who is in fact much taller than him. When they walk in, four pairs of eyes snap to the two walking in.

Jenni’s previously very excited face falters and it’s clear that the smile plastered onto it is something much more fake than before, “Oh, so this is your girlfriend? Kristin, right?”

Techno nods but Sapnap is the one to speak for him, “Yeah, but we call… her Tech.”

“Oh?” James says, leaning forward so his elbows are resting on his knees, “Why so?”

“She uh…” Sapnap looks around for a couple seconds, trying his hardest to come up with something quickly. Techno leans over and whispers something to him and he nods, “Oh, that’s right. She won a tournament against Dream and he started jokingly calling her Tech. It was something that just stuck.”

“Interesting.” The older cousin hums, looking Techno up and down a couple times before leaning back, not moving his gaze off the pinkette.

“She’s so much taller than you.” Stewart comments, raising an eyebrow.

Sapnap shrugs, “She’s taller than most people. Had… tall parents.” The ravenette guides his boyfriend towards the beanbag chair that Finn moved out of at some point and the two of them sit down.

“Why?” Finn starts, “Why isn’t she talking?”

“Oh, she’s just a bit shy about meeting new people and she’s nervous.”

“I understand that.” Jenni says, she smiles towards Techno--though it does seem to still have a lot of force behind it--and nods, “I used to be so scared to talk around anyone for the longest time. You see, Stewart helped me get over that. He’d take me to a bunch of different parties and leave me alone so people would come up to me and talk to me and, eventually, I just got more and more comfortable with it.”

Techno shrugs and whispers something--’I swear to god if you ever even think of trying that--and Sapnap nods as though it wasn’t a threat whispered to him, “Tech can get claustrophobic and doesn’t like big parties like that.”

“Oh hey me too!” Finn smiles, perking up a bit, “Mom and dad are always throwing parties and I try to hide in my room as much as possible because I don’t like being around all those people.” Techno nods with a gentle smile and reaches over to give the kid a fist bump, which Finn returns the gestures almost immediately.

“That’s too bad.” Jenni sighs, “I always liked parties but I didn’t really have anyone to invite me, and even then I was a bit nervous about them for the first couple that Stewart brought me to.”

“Why does ‘Tech’ have pink hair?” Stewart asks, his once raised eyebrow now furrowed, “I didn’t think you’d go for someone so… delinquent like ‘her’?”

“I don’t know. Tech, why do you have pink hair?” Sapnap asks, tilting his head towards the pinkette to hear what Techno whispers, a basic rundown of his hair’s history--something that Sapnap already knew the basics of. However, before Sapnap is ready to respond, Bad comes in with a thing of tea and a can of Dr. Pepper, handing each thing to the teens respectively. Sapnap takes a long drink of his soda then turns to his family sitting around him, “She dyes her hair mostly for her little sister. She had such long hair and her sister liked pink so she dyed it for her sister to play with.” It’s not entirely the truth, but it’s also not entirely a lie, just giving basic details while changing a couple parts of the story.

“How sweet.” Jenni says, and it sounds like the emotion in her voice is genuine, though it’s hard to tell sometimes.

“She’s incredibly sweet.” Sapnap gushes, and he means it; he only wishes that he could mean it while not pretending that his boyfriend was a girl to fuck with his family. The ravenette can feel Techno smile against where he’s still resting his face against the other’s jaw, letting him know that he still understood and appreciated the sentiment. The family continue to ask questions about the couple, specifically about Techno, before Bad calls them all into the dining room for dinner.

Everyone gathers around and Techno sits between Sapnap and Bad once they’re all served up and ready to eat. The family eats in relative silence for a while before Jenni scratches at her plate with her fork in a way that makes a noise that grates against Techno’s ears and looks to him, “So, how did you two meet?”

“We technically knew each other in middle school but didn’t really talk until h- until she became friends with Dream. We had a couple classes together for years but didn’t actually talk to each other until just this last school year when our groups started hanging out more.”

“And you two got to know each other more from there?” Finn asks, “What got you guys talking?”

Sapnap shrugs, “We’d talk occasionally when our groups got together but it wasn’t all that often then we had a project together where I got to learn more about her and we just clicked from there.”

“When did the two of you start dating?” Stewart asks, skepticism still dripping in his voice like it had been earlier.

Techno gives him a challenging smile and speaks before Sapnap has the chance to, “I like him, so I asked him out. He said yes.” He rests his elbows on the table and places his chin on the back of his connected fingers, “That tends to be how teens get into relationships nowadays, though I’m not sure you knew that considering all that you’ve been questioning today.” Stewart sputters and James coughs. Sapanp reaches a hand over to squeeze at Techno’s knee as if to tell him to stop, to reign it in, but he hides his laugh behind his other hand and makes eye contact with his dad who seems to be suppressing his laughter in a similar matter.

It seems Techno has decided that now is the time for dinner to become much more interesting.

“You- your voice.” Jenni says with a faltering voice.

Techno smiles even wider and nods, “What about it?”

“It’s a very… masculine voice.”

“That’s because I’m a man.” The pinkette tilts his head but doesn’t remove his chin from its perch, “I guess I should properly introduce myself. My name is Technoblade, preferably Techno for short, and I’m Sapnap’s boyfriend of nearly six months. I’ve heard a lot about you. Also, Kristin is my mom so please don’t try calling me that again.” Sapnap takes a moment to look around; Bad is still trying not to laugh, Jenni is looking quite scandalized-her hand is even pressed to her chest as if she’s grabbing at non-existent pearls--with nothing but pure shock gracing her now-pale face, both Stewart and James have grown near-twin looks of furrowed brows and lips drawn up into sneers that expose unhealthy smoker’s teeth, and Finn looks like Sapnap and Techno have hung the stars.

“I thought there was something off about the two of you.” James drawls, disgust filling his tone, “Turns out its because you’re a bunch of fuckin’ queers.”

“James,” Jenni scolds, even with her current appearance, “Watch your language.”

“I’m not wrong, am I mom?” James throws back at her.

“But that doesn’t mean you get to swear in front of your little brother.”

Stewart brings his disgusted gaze from between Sapnap and Techno towards Bad and his face contorts, skin turning red with anger and is that- is that a vein on his forehead that Sapnap sees? “You endorse these sinners in your household?”

Bad has to take a deep breath, likely to conceal his laughter, and he shrugs, “The gender of the person my son loves doesn’t matter to me as long as he’s being treated well and he really loves them.” Bad gives his son and his son’s boyfriend a smile, “It’s not some sort of shallow love and I know they’ll last a long time so why should it matter to me what gender he is.”

“But…” Jenni says, quiet at first, “But he has a… they can’t have kids, they can’t continue on your family line. And it’s just not right.” Techno doesn’t respond, and neither does Sapnap technically, but he does throw an arm around the back of his boyfriend’s chair.

“That’s not how we were designed. Man and woman are supposed to be together, it is unconstitutional for them to be together.” James sneers, throwing his arm around wildly.

“There are other ways for people to be able to have kids, Jenni.” Techno says, sarcastic smile still on his face, “Many women aren’t able to have children even if they are married to men. Adoption is always an option and I can guarantee you that if Sapnap and I ever decided to have children, we would be much better parents who would raise much better humans to society than you have, considering that we’d actually want and be prepared for the child.”

“Tech, please.” Sapnap whispers and he almost laughs at the guilt that seems to grow in Techno’s eyes before he continues, “They won’t understand your logic.”

Stewart’s gaze snaps back to them, “You’re fucking disgusting. Both of you. I can’t believe that someone of my own blood would be a homosexual.”

“It’s more likely than you’d think.” Sapnap shrugs. He places his fork on his plate and stands up, reaching over to grab Techno’s dishes as well. He slips away from the table and goes to put them in the sink then walks back into the dining room, “Dad, can Tech and I head into my room?”

“Of course. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks dad.” Sapnap smiles and reaches out his hand for Techno to take. The pinkette does so and pulls himself to his feet.

The two are just starting to walk away when James scoffs, “I thought the skirt was a little weird. Too short for a woman who valued herself. But now it makes sense. Not only are you a queer, you’re also a fucking man whore.”

Techno stops in his tracks and turns on his heel. He tilts his head once again and, with an easy smile on his face, throws some stray hair over his shoulder, “At least I have someone to love me for who I am. At least I have things to do in my life instead of hating on everyone around me instead of getting to know them for once.”

“Don’t give him the time of day anymore Tech,” Sapnap sighs, putting his hand on the taller’s lower back and begins to guide him away, “Let’s just go up to my room. I want to finish this season of Cupcake Wars.”

“Of course, my love.” And Sapnap can’t help but grin when he hears the way Techno raises his voice just a bit to ensure that Jenni, Stewart, and their kids could hear the pet name. They disappear into Sapnap’s room and they can hear the family shouting and getting upset on the floor below but eventually, as the night slowly draws itself to a close, the sounds grow quieter and quieter until they’ve faded away entirely.

The couple eventually, around ten-thirty, hears a knock on their door and Bd is the one to come in, a bright smile on his face, “That was amazing you two. Thank you so much for standing up against Techno, I hope you weren’t hurt by what they said.”

Techno shakes his head and waves it off, “Nah, I’m fine. It was funny, Wil and I used to do that all the time back home.” And Techno never really mentioned where ‘back home’ was other than that it was the UK but Sapnap had heard enough to know that it wasn’t a very accepting and comfortable place for the two, which is why they left.

“I’m glad they didn’t hurt you.” Bad smiles, “I’m assuming you’re staying the night.” Techno nods and Bad nods back. He bids the two teens goodnight and turns around, walking out of the room and heading into his own to retire for the night.

The next morning, Sapnap’s family is gone before either of them wake up and decide to get up and out of the room but Bad does give Sapnap a note that he found while he was going in to grab the sheets in the guest rooms. The teens settle on the couch with some toaster waffles and go to read it together.

Thank you guys for last night.

I’ve been thinking about my sexuality a lot recently and there’s a guy that I think I like but I’m too scared to talk about it to my family. My neighborhood doesn’t like gay people so I haven’t felt comfortable with calling this guy anything other than my friend, even at school and to my actual friends.

Last night was nice because I finally got to see people who could be themselves and be happy and confident about it. I hope that one day I’ll be able to get away from mom and dad and get with someone that I actually love instead of pretending to be with the girl that they’ve set me up with from down the street.

Your friends were super sweet and fun and I wish I could spend more time with them, they were so open with who they were and they felt so accepting and comfortable and I wish my parents weren’t so uptight about the people that I talk to. Techno seemed super nice and fun too, seemed smart and at one point he talked to me about video games when I don’t think anyone else noticed.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have the confidence to come out to my family but I hope that if I do, then I’ll be able to come to you guys as a fall back.

I want to talk to you more but mom and dad check my phone every Friday and Monday so I wouldn’t be able to text you. I texted my friend and he said that you could send letters to his house and vice versa. So if you actually want to talk to me more then please send a letter to XXX Xxxxxx Dr.

Thank you so much for showing me that what I’m feeling is okay,
Finn

“Oh the poor thing.” Techno hums, reading over the letter a second time. “Do you think he’d mind if I wrote him a letter?”

“I think he’d welcome it.” Sapnap shrugs, “You could tell him about you being Ranboo and Tommy’s brother.”

Bad shakes his head, though not at what they’re saying, “Poor kid shouldn’t have to go through that.”

“No one should.” Techno sighs, “But we’ll always be there for him if something goes wrong.”

“You’re such a sweet soul, Techno.” The adult says with a kind smile on his face.

Sapnap nods and reaches around Techno’s shoulders with his arm, “All the more reason to love him, man.”