Chapter Text
Dream had no idea what he had expected when he knocked on Technoblade’s door. The Piglin hybrid had very clearly instructed Dream to bring back the enchanted bow he had lent Dream. Dream had not even needed it, but he had found himself unable to refuse as Technoblade thrust it into his hand. Not when the blood red eyes of the Blood Warrior had stared at his mask so intensely that Dream had almost believed the indomitable Blade had seen straight through it.
But then he had had trouble denying Technoblade throughout this whole Doomsday ordeal. Originally Dream had not seen the collaboration with two legends as anything near an ordeal. He had been eager to blast L’Manberg down to bedrock. And maybe some of his eagerness had stemmed from the fact he would be doing beside the Technoblade and Philza Minecraft, but he had been very careful not to let himself fawn over that reality too much. Dream was the server Admin. He could not let his emotions cloud his judgment. He could not indulge in fanboying.
He had a plan, and he was going to stick to it.
Days like today should have been easy to control himself. He was supposed to have adrenaline and satisfaction coursing through his veins and continue to act as the victorious villain. But instead, bedrock exposed and L’Manberg become L’Manhole, every muscle in Dream’s body sagged from exhaustion and…something else. Something he did not want to examine too closely.
He leapt from tree to tree as he headed back to Techno’s arctic base and considered the plan. The next step wasn’t fully ready yet, but it would be soon. The prison was nearly done. Tommy was stewing in his defeat and loss, and he would very soon force another confrontation. And Dream—Dream would bring peace to the server. Temporarily, but he had plans for what would happen after that peace was broken. Punz and Ran would keep him updated, and he would be ready.
Dream stopped on a particularly tall tree and stared up at the sky, his server’s sky, and briefly wondered where his sense of victory, of vindication had gone. Technoblade’s enchanted bow fell into his hand. He held it up to the white-dotted, dark purple sky, letting the bow’s glowing enchantments blot out several stars.
Once he gave Techno this back, Techno would cut ties with him. Or he would until Dream called in the favor. Briefly Dream allowed emotions to cloud his thoughts. What if he exchanged the favor for a room in Techno’s home? One he could come back to for safe–for quiet planning? Or access to the remainders of the pup—hound army? There were so many of them. No one could kill them all. Not with Techno protecting them. Or—Or a standing dinner invitation? One meal a week where Phil (because Phil would if Techno asked) would make that strangely good suspicious stew. That could work. Dream could learn how Phil got his suspicious stew to always have good status effects—
No. He could not have attachments. Especially if those attachments were the Technoblade and Philza Minecraft. The others on the server would not allow it. They would band together to eliminate all three of them. For no other reason than they were too powerful. He had to think logically.
The bow slipped back into Dream’s inventory, and Dream leapt off the tree and marched towards Technoblade’s cabin. Return the bow, remind Technoblade of the favor, and regret nothing. The remnants of the hound army did not need pats. Philza did not require a separate farewell. Dream had been careful not to leave any of his tools or supplies in their planning room (or none he expected returned).
A fist rapped on the wooden cabin door, and it swung open. Before Dream could take out the bow, he was dragged inside by large, burly arms. A large snout sniffed around his head as thick fingered hands patted his shoulders and neck. Dream’s fight-or-flight response had confusingly been replaced by a strange exasperation. Probably because Techno’s greetings had been getting more and more physical over the week of planning.
Phil had explained it had something to do with Piglin instincts and evaluating team members’ states when they returned from hunting. The two had called themselves Team Chaos and apparently that mattered? Maybe they were now Team Doomsday with Phil? Techno did do a similar check with Phil. Not so thoroughly, but Phil had mumbled something about new members? Or young ones? Phil was old as dirt so everyone was young to him. But apparently Techno was old too. A few centuries old if the stories were accurate.
“You didn’t get yourself hurt, did you, homeless teletubby?”
“I’m not—” Dream started to protest, but he let the protest fade into a sigh at the intense blood red gaze. “No. I am fine.”
“Good,” said Techno, patting Dream’s arm hard and stepping back. “Told you he’d be fine, Phil. Nothing to worry about.”
“Sure you did,” Phil said. He maneuvered around his large best friend and ruffled Dream’s hair. His ancient blue eyes scanned Dream up and down. Dream wondered if the Avian Admin had picked up habits from his best friend or if it was the other way around. “Glad to see you back in one piece, mate. Don’t take so long next time. Techno here neary wore a hole into his poor floor, and we both know who would be stuck fixing it.”
“I can take care of my own floor,” Techno protested. “And don’t go around spreading lies about me. It hurts my feelings.”
“You don’t want me to lie to our new teammate, do you?” Phil said with an eye roll, and Dream’s lungs momentarily seized. The three had already taken down L’Manberg. Why was Phil still calling him their new teammate?
“That’s exactly what I said, Phil.”
“Then you should start by being honest with yourself,” Phil snipped. He lead Dream away from the door. “Speaking of which, don’t you have something to show Dream?”
“I was getting to that,” Techno huffed. The two non-too-gently guided him down some stairs he had not seen in any of his previous visits. No, that was a lie. He had seen them but only once through the corner of his eye. Techno had snuck down the hidden staircase to do something the last two days before the battle, and Dream caught sight of the blackstone steps the moment the painting had been pulled back. Dream had figured the large warrior had been preparing a secret weapon for Doomsday. One that Dream could not know about because they might be forced to use it against him in the case he betrayed them. He had never planned to betray either legend. There was no benefit from such a dumb move.
Tommy has been a fool to choose a country over the Technoblade.
Phil and Techno prodded Dream down the stairs until he stood front of a jungle wood door. The intricate carvings decorating the door had more detail than he had ever seen on a door. His signature smiley face appeared in several creative ways in the swooping curves and complicated angles. Awe glowed in his chest, and he instantly recognized the work not as Techno’s but Phil’s. What Philza Minecraft could create with simple materials never failed to astound.
Halfway through Dream’s admiration of its carvings, the door swung open. On the other side lay a room glowing green. Vines snaked and twisted up the blackstone brick walls, and several glowberry vines dangled from the ceiling. A moss carpet stretched over much of the floor except for the section where several jungle vines fell from the ceiling to the floor obscuring what was behind them. Taking off his shoes to enjoy the soft bounce of the moss, Dream made his way over to the vine curtain. Behind the vines lay a large bed covered in more green. The plush softness of the covers and mattress enticed Dream to fall into it, but the rest of the room remained unexplored.
Indulging his curiosity, Dream searched behind a patch of tall grass and flowers in the corner. A chest hid behind the greenery. A patch of berry bushes hid another. He found an entire hidden compartment of them by sliding down a shadowed hole under a vine flush with glowberries. Every color of flower grew between the hidden compartment chests.
He mentally took notes of every detail of the room, every plant, flower, and vine. How glowstone lit parts of the room that the glow berries’ light did not reach. He had rarely spent any time thinking about what his ideal room would look like, but he never would again. This was it.
“Do you like it?”
The question yanked Dream away from digging further into the thorny branches of several berry bushes. How he had forgotten that Technoblade and Philza were in the room with him? (He had gotten too comfortable around them.)
“It’s amazing,” he answered honestly. He expected the Piglin hybrid to smirk at the admission, but the fiercest warrior on several servers only gave a blatantly relieved snort. “What is it for? Did you decide to flex how cool your base was? Because my base is still a hundred times better–”
“Really, mate?” Phil interrupted with a smirk. “I keep hearing about how smart you are, but I have yet to see it.”
“I told you the TNT grid was a great idea! It did the job and then some,” Dream defended. Philza Minecraft had been against the idea from the beginning. Something about how long it would take Dream to set up, leaving him exposed. But like Dream had expected and planned, the L’Manbergians had been too distracted by Phil and Techno to notice what Dream had been up to.
“Wasn’t talking about the L’Manberg doomsday plan,” Phil said. He sighed loudly and deeply. “I was right. You’re going to be more trouble than Techno was. Or maybe I’m getting too old for this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Dream,” said Techno, drawing the conversation back to himself. “You know how you’re homeless.”
“I’m not homeless!” Dream snapped.
“Right. Your home goes to the other school,” Techno drawled. He continued before Dream could correct him. Again. “But since you’ve rarely gone ‘home’ the whole week we’ve been planning, we thought it might be for the best to have a mini-base here in case you needed it.”
“A mini-base–?”
“Oh, for f*—Death’s sake,” Phil said, wings flapping open and fluttering violently. “This is your room. Techno built it so you can stay here whenever you want because you’re part of our Team now.”
“Phil! You were the one who said we should ease him into the concept.”
“That was not ‘easing him’ in. That was overcomplicating the concept,” Phil scoffed. “Mini-base, really?”
“That’s basically what it is,” Techno said. His black pointed fingers stretched wide as he flapped his hand in the direction of the whole room. “It’s a base within my base.”
“That’s what a room is, mate.”
Techno opened his mouth to say whatever he was going to say, but Dream finally snapped out of his confused daze.
“You want me to live here?”
Both powerful, incredible warriors turned to Dream, and even now, a chill crawled Dream’s spine at their focused attention on him .
“That’s the point. Yeah,” Phil answered. Dream struggled to figure out what–why they were offering… this .
“I think you broke him,” Techno stage-whispered. “Should have stuck to the ‘easing him in’ bit.”
“He was being stupidly stubborn. As I learned with you, this is ‘easing in’ for stubborn idiots.”
“That was uncalled for,” the greatest warrior in several servers huffed. “I haven’t been that stupidly stubborn in centuries.”
“Sure, mate. Whatever you say.”
Techno chuffed wordlessly but made no verbal answer. Silence fell, and Dream felt a bubble of heat clog his throat. He tried to center the growing feeling and push it back with the others. These two ancient warriors—they had to have a reason—something that outweighed the danger having him here would bring. What could possibly–oh.
They–they must want to keep an eye on him. He was the Admin of the server. The most dangerous warrior outside of them. The Technoblade had nearly been executed months ago by a rogue government agency. One that had also dared to take Philza Minecraft hostage. After those outrageous actions, they would want to keep tabs on any others who could place them into similar positions.
Pandora loomed dark and large in Dream’s mind. But that was never going to be for them. Not even if they did know of his plan. (They could not find out. They would ruin the plan. For some reason, he was sure of that one fact.)
“Thank you,” Dream said while his mind whirled over the possibilities. He should accept so as to give the most dangerous people in the server a small sense of security. He could come by from time to time and—and pretend to use the space. Repeated visits would also make replicating the room easier. Though maybe recreating the room in one of his many bases would become a bit too awkward, too reminiscent of being watched (of a false safety). He could try to use some of the decorations as inspiration. (Even if he did not have the skills to put them to use as nicely as they had been in this room.)
“You’re welcome,” said Phil. “But are you going to use it?”
“Seriously, why did you even suggest ‘easing him in’?”
“Because I had hope he wouldn’t be as stubborn as you. But I see now that that was the hope of an old fool. He’s going to be worse than you. I can already tell.”
“Dream’s better than that. Aren’t you, homeless teletubby?”
“If I have a room here, you can’t call me ‘homeless,’” Dream snapped. Oddly Techno grinned at the remark.
“That’s true. That’s true,” the large Piglin hybrid said as he bobbed his wide head up and down. “See, Phil? He’s going to use it!”
“I stand corrected,” Phil said, also smiling. “ For now . So you up to some stew, mate?”
Confused and done with the whole conversation, Dream moved to shake his head. His head bobbed up and down instead. The cool porcelain of his mask absorbed the heat rising to his cheeks at the strangely impulsive motion.
“I might have to take back my initial assessment if you keep being this amenable,” said Phil. The large wings that Dream only just noticed covered the doorway pressed themselves neatly into Phil’s back. He climbed back up the blackstone staircase. “Don’t take too long to come up.”
Techno and Dream stood on opposite ends of the room that now belonged to Dream.
“It’s been a long day,” Techno started awkwardly. “We should get up, eat from Phil’s stew and then get some rest. Who knows what tomorrow might bring.”
“Why?”
“Why? Isn’t it obvious? I don’t think Tommy or Tubbo or any of the government we just destroyed are going to take their defeat lightly. I expect a repeat of the Butcher Army in some capa—”
“Not that!” Dream snapped loudly. He dropped his voice’s volume quickly afterwards. “The room. Why did you make this room?”
Erratic breathing softly echoed through the room. Dream tried to subtly calm it while not taking his eyes off Techno, but he—he couldn’t. It was just a room. A room he knew the purpose for. The two powerful legends wanted to keep an eye on their biggest threat. He didn’t—he shouldn’t have asked but—but what? Did he want confirmation? Did he want a lie? Did he want to hear how Techno and Phil wanted him to—
“Dream.” His name came from much closer than he expected. He snapped his head up and caught worried(?) blood red eyes. A large hand settled on his shoulder, and a wide forehead bumped his. “We’re Team Chaos. You. Me. Phil. And Teams…well, where I come from, teammates take care of each other. You were homeless, so me and Phil had to correct that.”
“I’m not homeless,” Dream wobbly whispered.
“No,” Techno huffed pig breath straight into his masked face. “You’re not.”
Dream almost believed him.
A puff of blond hair stuck out from under the green sheets. So the scary number one threat on the server liked to sleep completely wrapped in blankets like a burrito. Techno had suspected given how the kid would burrow into his cape the few times Techno had thrown it on him. Made Techno want to pick him up and place him next to Steve to see what would happen. Steve might like a new cuddle buddy.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.”
“Bruh. It’s like you don’t trust me or something.”
“I trust you plenty,” Phil said. A wing as dark as midnight slipped over Techno’s back. “But I know how it is when you get fixated on something. He needs to be eased into this, or he’ll run awaythe first chance he gets.”
“Phil, I’m getting conflicting messages here,” Techno snorted. He leaned into his shorter friend’s side. “You weren’t easing him in earlier.”
“I did. It wasn’t as gentle as it could have been, but that was because the kid’s stubbornness wasn’t letting him even consider the option that the room that was tailor-made for him was for him ,” Phil said. The feathers behind Techno rustled and puffed up. “Didn’t he set this world up for him and his friends? Why is he acting like people wanting him around is not a normal thing?”
“I might be wrong. I might be. But I think he needs better friends.”
“We’ll help him find some,” Phil said firmly. “Until then, he’ll have us.”
“You’re making it sound like we’re not his friends.”
“You decided to adopt him. You do understand that you have to be his parent before being his friend? Give him a century or two, and then you can be his friend all you want. He needs someone to keep him from self-destructing first.”
“I didn’t adopt him, Phil,” Techno quickly clarified. He couldn’t allow Phil to keep slandering him like that. “I just assumed you would take one look at him and pull out the adoption papers and so prepared for the inevitable outcome.”
The feathers fluffed again, and dark blue eyes narrowed into Techno’s. Techno looked away first.
“Fine. Whatever you want to tell yourself,” Phil said entirely too fondly. “For now let’s focus on keeping this kid from running straight into his own demise.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Techno said, still not looking at Phil. “Plan: Keep Our Young, Idiot Teammate from Killing Himself with His Own Bright Ideas is a go.”
“The title needs work, but the execution seems to be going well enough,” said Phil. Techno caught the ancient immortal’s annoyingly smug smirk. “How about we make a special breakfast of eggs and bacon to entice him to stay longer tomorrow?”
Techno muttered and grumbled about vengeful ancient beings, and the two headed up to retire to their own beds. The single occupant continued to sleep, dead to the world and ignorant of the conversation spoken in the doorway. He would wake up the next day and be offered eggs and bacon. He would stay, eat the breakfast, and be tempted into a spar with the Technoblade. Lunch would be served, and the unsaid invitation to eat with the two legends accepted. The young Admin would leave quickly after the lunch, scared he had stayed too long.
The young man would return the next day to return the forgotten bow and be swept into the two immortal’s domestic plans again. Again and again. Until he realized he would continue to be part of their lives and that they would be part of his.
Pandora would stay empty. The server would only try once more to take out the terrifying trio. They would fail. And everyone would cease fighting because the consequences were not worth the growingly cataclysmic fights.
A hundred years later or so, Dream would finally realize that Phil and Techo had adopted him. He would go onto call them Gramps and Dad to annoy them. The names would stick.